They-hate-us-for-our-freedom Dep’t

Just in time for Christmas, Human Events and Regnery Publishing invite you to celebrate treason, dressed in gray and defending slavery.

Somehow I wound up on a mailing list for Human Events, which I suppose is the ultimate paleo-conservative outlet. As a result, I now have in my in-box a pitch from Regnery Publishing for a series of “Politically Incorrect Guides” [p.i.g.’s: get it? hahahahahahaha] to be given as Christmas presents. You can more or less guess the content, but here’s my favorite:

The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Civil War If you suspect that most of the conventional “wisdom” about the Civil War, slavery, and states’ rights has been hijacked by North East liberals, then you’re going to love The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Civil War. Charging through battlefields and bunkers, bestselling author H.W. Crocker III profiles eminent—and colorful—military generals and includes thought-provoking chapters such as, “What If the South Had Won?” Civil War buffs, Southern partisans, and everyone who is tired of liberal self-hatred that vilifies America’s greatest heroes—must have this book on their bookshelf.

Not the sheer Orwellian chutzpah that treats as “America’s greatest heroes” the only substantial body of Americans ever to commit “treason” in its Constitutionally defined sense: “making war on the United States.”

Footnote Crocker turns out to be a Catholic bigot on the Chesterton “Aren’t Protestants childishly funny?” model. Disgustingly, Random House publishes some of his garbage.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com