DeMinted History

By JD Rhoades

The Pilot Newspaper: Opinion:

Look, I know it’s an article of faith among those on the American right that government is ineffective, useless, even downright evil — unless people who look and think like them are in control of said government. Then everything the government does is righteous, true and ordained by God.

But former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, now leader of the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation, recently took this tenet to an absurd and typically incoherent extreme. In an interview on the right-wing radio show Vocal Point, DeMint argued that the federal government didn’t free the slaves — the Constitution did:
“Well, the reason that the slaves were eventually freed,” he said, “was the Constitution, it was like the conscience of the American people. … The Constitution kept calling us back to ‘all men are created equal and we have inalienable rights’ in the minds of God.”
Stirring words. Problem is, the “all men are created equal” language is from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. And lest, we forget, this is the same Constitution that originally acknowledged and condoned slavery by counting slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of determining representation. Once again, Sen. DeMint proves that the right-wingers who talk the longest and loudest about the Constitution seem to know the least about it.
DeMint goes on, in typically DeMinted fashion:
“A lot of the move to free the slaves came from the people, it did not come from the federal government. … So no liberal is going to win a debate that big government freed the slaves. In fact, it was Abraham Lincoln, the very first Republican, who took this on as a cause. And a lot of it was based on a love in his heart that comes from God.”
Got that?
All those soldiers (government employees, let us remember) didn’t do squat. All those people working for the Union, funded by the first progressive income tax signed into law by Abraham Lincoln to finance not only the war effort but a vastly expanded federal government — none of them did a thing to free a single slave.
‘Twas the Constitution that did all the work. Which is why there was this conversation on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg:
Gen. Lee: “Gen. Pickett, are your men ready to assault the Union line?”
Gen Pickett: “My Virginians are ready, willing and able, sir!”
Lee: “Very well, commence the …”
Gen. Longstreet: “Look! There on the ridge! It’s the Constitution! They’re waving it at us!”
Pickett: “Blast! There’s no way we can attack now! Might as well go home!”
Lee: “Yep. War’s over, boys. They’ve got themselves copies of the Constitution. Back to your farms. And I guess we have to tell all the slaves they’re free.”
Longstreet: “Dang.”
And, of course, there was this great moment from the civil rights movement:
Aide: “President Kennedy! Gov. Wallace is standing in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama to defy a judge’s desegregation order! Should we federalize the National Guard?”
Kennedy: “Nah, just hahve those black fellahs carry a copy of the Constitution.”
Later:
Aide: “Mr. President! It worked! And now all the schools are desegregated and black people have equal rights without the federal government lifting a finger!”
Kennedy: “Wicked pissah! Let’s celebrate with some chowdah!”
Apparently, Mr. DeMint feels that the Constitution is like the Ark of the Covenant in the first Indiana Jones movie. Just carry it before you, and it lays waste the enemies of freedom, with no human intervention at all.
It is undeniably true that the Constitution is a mighty document, inspired by the best impulses of the 18th century enlightenment and informed by the memories of men who had seen what tyranny really was.
Even with its original flaws (see “three-fifths of a person” above) it remains the greatest monument to the ideals of freedom and democracy ever created by the hand of Man.
But without people to carry those ideas out, it’s just words on paper. Sometimes those people work for the federal government. Sometimes those people are there to remind that government of its responsibilities.
But to claim the government has no role at all to play — and especially to hold Abraham Lincoln, of all people, up as an icon of limited government — is to deny the lessons of history and warp it beyond all recognition in the service of ideology.

It’s pretty silly, too.

Via: J.D. Rhoades

    

Review: The Unburied Dead, Douglas Lindsay

By JD Rhoades

The Unburied Dead (Thomas Hutton, #1)

The Unburied Dead by Douglas Lindsay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A serial killer is brutally slaughtering young women in Glasgow. In pursuit of the maniac is the most dysfunctional police squad I think I’ve ever encountered in print. Drunks, has-beens, cuckolds, horndogs of both sexes and all orientations, every blessed one of them seriously morose and tormented…it’s astounding that they just don’t all join hands and jump into the River Clyde together, except they seem to loathe one another too much to get that organized.

In the center of it all is DS Thomas Hutton, who’s carrying around a head full of nightmares from his wartime service in Bosnia. As the investigation goes on, members of the team start dying, and Hutton begins to suspect that the murderer may actually be one of their own. And it wouldn’t be the first time…

I love discovering a great writer I’ve never read before, and I really loved this book. It’s dark, grimly humorous, with twists, reversals and surprises that made me go “holy sh*t!” out loud, more than once (if you’re wondering how to pronounce that, the “*” is silent). I’ve already got the second book in the series from Blasted Heath Publishing, and I’m looking forward to it, after a short break to recover. It’s got that kind of impact.

Highly recommended.

View all my reviews

Via: J.D. Rhoades

    

Happy Birthday, Will

By JT Ellison

But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

In honor of William Shakespeare’s birthday, thrillerkitten Jameson declaims for you.

But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief, That thou her maid art far more fair than she: Be not her maid, since she is envious; Her vestal livery is but sick and green And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.

    

The Big Blog Hop

By JD Rhoades

Okay, so there I am, minding my own business, when out of the blue fellow Polis Books author Casey Doran (writer of the Jericho Sands series) drops into my e-mail inbox to ask if I wanted to be part of the International Blog Hop. “The whut?” I answered in my best Gomer Pyle accent. It’s simple, he said: you just answer four questions about the way you write, add a pic of you, a cover pic of your latest book with a buying link; plus a link to your website and FB page. Your posting date would be Monday April 21st. You then need to invite three more authors, and tell them that if they agree, they will need their post scheduled for Monday April 28.

Sure, I said, and so, here I am.


What am I working on?

I recently turned in my fourth Jack Keller novel, DEVILS AND DUST, to Jason Pinter at



No, not the model. The fantastic, outrageously expensive jewel-encrusted bra that Victoria’s Secret uses every year as a promotional gimmick. There are redneck crooks, Jersey mobsters, and, of course beautiful women. Working title: BOOBS: A COMEDY OF APPEARANCES. It’s a lot of fun to write. I was in the middle of it when Jason and I struck up the conversation that led to me picking up Keller again, and now I’m back at it.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Other than the fact that, as noted above, I’m all over the map genre-wise, I think my work tends to deal more than most with the effect of violence, even so-called “good” or “justified” violence, on the people who commit it. Jack Keller kills people, often for excellent reasons, but the violence takes its toll. Mark Bishop, the leader of an elite and highly clandestine anti-terrorist team in GALLOWS POLE, is still dealing with a terrible choice he had to make to save one of his people on an op gone wrong, a choice that violated his own sense of morality to the point where he literally built his own prison and locked himself in it, because no one else will do it. Laura So, the genetically engineered vampire commando of MONSTER, is literally born (or more accurately created) to kill, but even as she quests across the cosmos taking revenge on the people who murdered her unit, she struggles not to become the monster she was designed to be.

Why do you write what you do?

Because these are the movies that are playing in my head. I tell you, I am not a well person.

How does my writing process work?

The flippant answer that comes to mind is “only sporadically,” but I know that’s not very helpful. I’ve gone in recent years from being a total seat of the pants writer (or “pantser” as I’ve heard it called) to being a bit more of an outliner, especially once I got the hang of the wonderful program called Scrivener. But I still tend to only plot out a few chapters ahead in advance, with the vaguest of ideas as to where I want to go from there. And then, as usual, my characters look at what I’ve planned out for them, laugh, and go “Yah. As if.” Then they do whatever the hell they want anyway.

So, anyway, there you are. My four questions. As for my latest, it’s BROKEN SHIELD, the sequel to my best-selling BREAKING COVER, featuring sheriff’s deputy Tim Buckthorn. Get it exclusively at Amazon (for now) in both e-book and trade paperback.



As for who I’m tagging to follow up next Monday…hm. Yes. Well. I seem to have let that skip my mind. Sorry. So let me get back to you on that, ASAP….anyone want to volunteer, drop me a line at jdustyrhoades@aol.com.

Via: J.D. Rhoades