America Alone

For Christmas I got Mark Steyn's new book, America Alone, and it was quite good, I didn't want to put it down. It was similar to David Frum and Richard Perle's book An End to Evil, paralleled Nial Ferguson's Colossus at times, but was by far more entertaining and overall more satisfying by focusing on fundamental problems facing Western civilization.

Steyn discusses the economic and demographic problems (to put it lightly) of Europe, mulitculturalist Liberalism, and the Islamification of the globe. He ruthlessly and rightfully tears apart Saudi and Iranian funded radical Islam, and is refreshingly so politically incorrect that it raised an eyebrow repeatedly even from a redneck like me.

If you're a libertarian, conservative, or patriot, you'll love this book. One of his substantiated proposals for winning the war on the fast growing radical Islam, is smaller government. Sound good, wait till you see why Steyn calls for it.

Some parts I enjoyed:

"...whether in turbans or gangsta threads, just as Communism was in its day, so Islam is today's identity of choice for the world's disaffected."

"If Rumsfeld were to say 'Free Tibet? Jiminy, what a swell idea! The Third Infantry Division goes in on Thursday,' the bumper-sticker crowed would be aghast. They'd have to bend down and peel off the 'FREE TIBET' stickers and replace them with 'WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER.'"

"...the only reason "a box cutter can bring down a tower" is because on September 11 our defenses against such a threat were exclusively the province of the state. If nineteen punks with box-cutters had tried to pull some stunt in the parking lot of a sports bar, they'd have been beaten to a pulp. ...anything that shifts power from the individual judgment of free citizens to government is a bad thing, not just for the war on terror but for the national character in a more general sense."