Bookworm – John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Tom Grace’s “The Liberty Intrigue”

Posted on February 12, 2012February 12, 2012 by Bookworm

One of the nicest perks about having a slightly well-known blog is the fact that authors and publishers occasionally ask me to review a book. In this way, I get the opportunity to read books that I otherwise wouldn’t even know exist. My approach to book reviews is simple: If I enjoy the book, I’m […]

Honoring our Sea Faring Services

Posted on October 5, 2011October 6, 2011 by Bookworm

In honor of Fleet Week (which starts Saturday in San Francisco), I have three Navy/Marine related stories to relate and I want to promote a few of my favorite Navy related blogs. Story 1: My daughter has started a new school and is making new friends. The other day, I met the Mom of one […]

Peculiarly enough, a hypothetical third party for independents would look like Progressives on steroids

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Bookworm

I do love the way my liberal Facebook friends make me aware of things I wouldn’t otherwise notice. One of those things is a Matt Miller op-ed in the Washington Post, which imagines the perfect speech a dream independent candidate would give. As Miller describes it: This is one columnist’s stab at what a candidate […]

The Nanny state makes it impossible to raise children — and then takes them away

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Bookworm

Sometimes the matched sets just write themselves. Both of the articles I’m quoting here are from England. The first in our set is an article saying that town councils across England are being told that they need to reinstate actual playgrounds. The current versions, which are the kid equivalent of a padded room, are creating […]

Reducing patriotism to a sleazy roll in the hay

Posted on August 31, 2011 by Bookworm

Mr. Bookworm is catching up with the Jon Stewart episodes he missed while we were away. One particular segment, which starts at the 2 minute mark, caught my eye. In it, Perry talks about love for country, clearly distinguishing himself from Obama, who hasn’t shown such love, either explicitly or implicitly. Take a look at […]

Learning curves, intelligence and Rick Perry

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Bookworm

Although Obama’s grades are still a state secret, we know that the MSM is going to make hay of the fact that Rick Perry had a 2.22 GPA at Texas A&M. There’s no escaping the fact that he wasn’t much of an academic. I have a few thoughts on that subject. They start with a […]

The narcissistic delusions of Leftists

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Bookworm

Can I say that an entire political ideology is narcissistic? Because I’d really like to say that about Leftism, a political movement that sometimes seems like the textbook definition of narcissism. Although the DSM is a highly political book, it’s still the starting point for any diagnosis of narcissism: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of […]

I love the environment; it’s the environmentalists I hate

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Bookworm

I’m a somewhat contrary person. (Right now, those who know me well are probably off laughing hysterically somewhere at my understatement.) Because the environmentalists are pushing so hard, from Al Gore on down, my instinct is to push right back. Pushing back makes me sound as if I don’t care about the environment, but that’s […]

Remembering Entebbe

Posted on July 5, 2011July 5, 2011 by Bookworm

Yid With Lid reminds us that July 4th marks more than just America’s independence day. (H/t: Sadie) It’s also the anniversary of Israel’s spectacular rescue at Entebbe in 1976. That was another place and time, when most in the world actually cared about Jewish lives. I wrote about the rescue back in 2007 and reprint […]

Patriotism when you don’t love your country

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Bookworm

As I do every year, I went with my family to our town’s Fourth of July Parade. It’s a great parade, with all sorts of community groups participating, including the various chambers of commerce; Little League baseball teams; bagpipers (Marin is home to a thriving bagpipe community); an impressive selection of WWII vehicles from from […]

A problem with medicine that ObamaCare won’t solve

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Bookworm

I spent four hours at my Mom’s yesterday trying to organize her medicines. I am more gray now than I was before. My son, who was with me, kept saying “This is insane. This is insane.” The insanity operated at a lot of levels. Some of the insanity comes about because my mother likes her […]

The psychology of war and warriors

Posted on June 23, 2011June 24, 2011 by Bookworm

Peter Wehner writes about Obama’s decision to draw down troops in Afghanistan, something that (just coincidentally, of course) will take place right before Obama’s reelection bid. Wehner is appalled, and he explains that this gross political calculation isn’t the way it needs to be: I have the advantage of having served a president during wartime. […]

It’s not what you believe; it’s what you do with those beliefs that counts

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Bookworm

The discussion on my recent climate change post has one side saying “expert consensus” and the other side saying “facts.” Let me state something very important here: An expert consensus is not a fact. Experts used to think the sun revolved around the earth (wrong), that bad air caused disease (wrong), that spicy food and […]

Weiner did a bad thing and being pro-abortion doesn’t give him a pass

Posted on June 9, 2011June 9, 2011 by Bookworm

A few months ago a movie came out based on a premise that was, for me, an entirely new concept: a Hall Pass or, license from ones spouse to have sex, once, outside of marriage. (I understand that the movie, which I didn’t see, ultimately made the point that having an affair isn’t as easy […]

A sentimental service in a cynical society — our Navy

Posted on June 7, 2011June 7, 2011 by Bookworm

Sentiment: “refined or tender emotion; manifestation of the higher or more refined feelings.” Ours is a cynical age. The traditional values that defined us as Americans (weirdly old-fashioned ideas such as the belief that we are a wholesome, good and honorable culture) seem to have been jettisoned. Even though I believe the majority of Americans […]

White House/Obama email information collection — it’s getting weird

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Bookworm

I received something peculiar in my email yesterday: A few things to note: 1. The email informs me that someone left a comment on “bookwormroom.wordpress.com,” a blog that has lain dormant for four years. 2. The Author’s name is an obvious nom de cyber — Trimegistus. 3. The Author leaves as his email address “flag@whitehouse.gov“. […]

Finally — an Amazon product that has something for everyone

Posted on June 6, 2011June 6, 2011 by Bookworm

Obscenely overpriced product? Check. Ridiculous discount?: Check. Product description riddled with grammatical errors and pretentious, unintelligible language? Check. Customer “reviews” that are worth their weight in gold? You betcha. I hereby present the Plodes RECH reDO Lawn Chair – Black Leather with White Stitching and Cherry Arms. This isn’t just any old lawn chair. This […]

The circumcision ban on the San Francisco ballot is driven by blatant antisemitism

Posted on June 3, 2011June 3, 2011 by Bookworm

I often say I’m shocked by something that crosses my computer screen, but that’s not really true. I mean, I probably sort of shocked insofar as I’m surprised that someone has behaved according to type, but in an extreme way, or that something I’ve long assumed would happen actually did happen (or, in a surprising […]

California’s raunchy politicians

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Bookworm

Do you remember the old Dean Martin comedy roasts? The zingers were mean, sometimes mildly risqué, and usually funny. Don Rickles was the acknowledged master of the genre. The California Assembly has taken the roast to a whole new level. At a benefit to raise money for programs involving young people and politics (“It’s for […]

Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin

Posted on May 29, 2011December 30, 2012 by Bookworm

I’ve often heard people use the expression “he saw the handwriting on the wall.” I wonder, though, how many know that it originates in the Book of Daniel, which is a part of the Old Testament. I’m reasonably sure that most of my readers are familiar with the story of Daniel, but for those who […]

The rhetorical clarity of moral clarity

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Bookworm

If you haven’t listened to Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, you must. And I mean listen. I’m usually a speech reader, because I read quickly, and seldom have the time or the patience to sit down and listen to someone give a 45 minute speech. In addition, some speakers have so many rhetorical tics and twitches […]

Andrew Breitbart: a true happy warrior who wants to inspire an Army of Davids

Posted on May 18, 2011May 18, 2011 by Bookworm

Last night, after Andrew Breitbart had already left to catch his plane, a few of us hung around to chat and to try to answer one question: what was the takeaway from Breitbart’s talk? Eat their eyeballs? Women’s dominance in the Tea Party means that men are eunuchs? The fact that the Tea Party needs […]

Is Herman Cain the “star personality” candidate Republicans have been waiting for? And which GOPer do you like? UPDATED

Posted on May 12, 2011May 12, 2011 by Bookworm

Since I’m in California, which has always been a late primary state, and since California is now switching to open primaries anyway, it’s always hard for me to get very excited about primaries. The fact is that I never feel I really have any say in them, since the front runners are already decided by […]

In the mad, mad, mad world of PC, silly little jokes about Islamist terrorists have only a one minute shelf life

Posted on May 10, 2011May 10, 2011 by Bookworm

This morning, my friend Kim Priestap sent a group of us an email telling about the Yemeni man arrested for trying to yank open the cockpit door while hollering the standard “Allahu Akbar!” Lee DeCovnik thinks we might have been seeing a dry run. The man apparently raced from one end of the plane (the […]

President Obama’s 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft

Posted on May 9, 2011May 9, 2011 by Bookworm

My husband insisted last night that we watch BHO’s 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft — and then promptly fell asleep because, as he later said, “that was really dull.” My husband was right. I managed to stay awake, but it was an effort. This was my takeaway from the great orator’s talk: We, uh, […]

Talking with Jesse Kornbluth again, this time about whether Harvard grads get a free pass

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Bookworm

Jesse Kornbluth was again good enough to visit my post commenting upon his article lauding Andrew Sullivan as a blogger amongst bloggers. If I was a guy, and he and I had met in person, I would have slapped up on the back with a cheery “Hey, Jesse man, great to see you again.” I’ve […]

Men’s auto-emasculation — or, is feminism really entirely to blame?

Posted on May 8, 2011May 10, 2011 by Bookworm

Several people, knowing my fondness for the Navy (think Navy League), sent me links to a Wall Street Journal article that Lt. Cmdr. Greitens, a Navy SEAL, wrote about what goes into making a Navy SEAL. Of course, it’s not just the training; it’s the man behind the training. No man who is afraid of […]

The Obama Administration’s cloud of confusion explained UPDATED

Posted on May 4, 2011December 30, 2012 by Bookworm

Usually when governments use misinformation, they use it to make themselves look good. The Obama Administration gets points for originality, insofar as it’s been using disinformation and misinformation to make itself look arbitrary, unlawful, helpless and stupid. Here’s jj’s great summary: Okay, what do we have here: 1) There was a firefight. 2) There was […]

Rebutting Jesse Kornbluth’s rebuttal re his original Andrew Sullivan article

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Bookworm

Jesse Kornbluth, whom I took to task for his Sullivan hagiography, has responded to my rebuttal to his defense of that same hagiography. True to my lawyer’s credo, I’m trying here to have the last word, although I certainly don’t mean to preempt Kornbluth from doing the same, if he is so inclined. As I […]

A rebuttal to Jesse Kornbluth on the subject of Andrew Sullivan

Posted on May 1, 2011May 1, 2011 by Bookworm

I wrote a post taking Harvard grad Jesse Kornbluth (class of ’68) to task for his carelessly flattering portrayal of “journalist” and blogger Andrew Sullivan. It’s fine to like Sullivan, although I would question a person’s judgment in doing so. What bothered me was that Kornbluth failed to discover that Sullivan has taken a fair […]