For season 2 of the 13 Weeks Radical Reading Regimen each weekday I juxtapose book excerpts with a selection of recent headlines. The goal is to make fresh connections between the events of the day and the bigger picture of humanity’s place in the universe. Each day also starts with highlighting the contributions of an important writer.

Dear Michael,

I’d really like to thank you for the great writing you deliver week after week. Your PJ Media and National Review blog posts and articles, and your New York Post columns, are some of the most vigorous, engaging articulations of American values today. Your career journalist’s understanding of the real world and novelist’s gift for rich, electrifying prose have combined to articulate a vital argument which you’ve crystallized into a pamphlet that today I promote with enthusiasm: your amazing historical polemic The People v. the Democratic Party should serve as a foundational example in its ideas, style, and format for all activists striving to defend American freedom.

I’m not sure when I first saw you articulating the argument in your PJ Media columns — sometime last year probably — but it was a conclusion I too was beginning to tepidly consider: the Democratic Party is best understood as a criminal organization masquerading as a political party. And therefore attempting to defeat them at the ballot box is doomed to failure. Trying to win elections against criminal Democrats who have practiced gang-orchestrated voter fraud for centuries is like knowingly playing poker against a man with aces hidden in his sleeves. Who would be such a fool to do that, betting their own money against an opponent they knew was cheating? The Republican Party.

The People v. the Democratic Party should be taken very seriously and inspire activists and writers in these three ways, in a way, echoing and implementing the values I highlighted in my write-ups of Roger Kimball and Andrew Klavan. Together, the three of you – and the fourth writer I will name in this series’ next installment – form a new literary foundation for all aspiring cultural-political creative activists. (In other words, these are three of the lessons I have taken myself and that I pass along to my writing, editing, and activist friends…)

We need to re-balance the scales in our historical understanding of the Democratic Party’s criminal origins. It begins with looking at who Aaron Burr was, why he got away with murder, and how his legacy – not Thomas Jefferson’s – became the slippery soul of the Democratic Party. How does Tammany Hall foreshadow the Clintons and Obamas? The People v. The Democratic Party tells the story of history repeating itself.
Part of what makes your analysis of the criminal history of the Democrats so effective is your use of classical references – Paradise Lost in the polemic’s conclusion for example — and a high, traditional style when appropriate. This is the political polemic as art. You set a high standard for the rest of us to pursue.
This format of Encounter Broadside – Roger Kimball’s creation – is tremendously effective for articulating important ideas in an accessible fashion. Yours and Glenn Reynolds’ are the ones that I’ve read so far and they’re examples of a format that I hope you both do again and that other publishers and organizations imitate.

I hope to start writing more about the themes in The People v. The Democratic Party and also your inspiring manual of counter-attack, Rules for Radical Conservatives, in the coming months and look forward to seeing you continue to apply your erudite eye and precise pen as the crimes of the Obama administration become harder and harder for even his most devoted collaborators in the mainstream media to conceal…

Sincerely,

David Swindle

Wednesday Reading:

The opening of The People v. the Democratic Party…

Weekend News Round Up

Lead PJM Stories this Weekend

Tom Blumer: All Barack and No Populist Bite

Ron Radosh: The Nation’s Continuing Denial of Soviet Espionage

Kim Zigfeld: Russia’s Economy in Steep Decline, Yet U.S. Passes on Chance to Crush Putin

Helen Smith: BMW Owners Really Are Jerks, Study Finds

Rick Moran: Obama: Health Insurance a ‘Right’

PJ Lifestyle Stories on the Home Page This Weekend

David Forsmark: How the West Really Lost God — and How It Didn’t

Rhonda Robinson: How to Remove the Shame from Your Financial Struggles

P. David Hornik: Israel: Leper or Light Unto the Nations? Part 2: That Bird Could Be a Mossad Agent!

Becky Graebner: Pimp My Hybrid?

New at PJ Lifestyle last Weekend

Self Improvement Saturday:

Sarah Hoyt: 4 Tips So You Don’t Organize Yourself to Death

Paula Bolyard: Duggar Family Joins 24-year-old Ohio Lawmaker to Reintroduce Heartbeat Bill

Walter Hudson: Media Piracy Cannot Be Rationalized

Charlie Martin: 13 Weeks: What Do We Make of Times of Little Change?

Rhonda Robinson: Mind The Little Things… They Bite Hard if You Don’t

Spirituality Sunday:

Susan L.M. Goldberg: Girls: As Famous as their Daddies

P. David Hornik: Israel: Leper or Light Unto the Nations? Part 3: From Woodstock to the Promised Land

Walter Hudson: What Price Will American Christians Pay for Their Faith?

Rhonda Robinson: Who Was Pontius Pilate? Benevolent Pawn, Bloodthirsty Tyrant or Misunderstood Hunk?

Charlie Martin: Buddha and the Elephant

New at PJ Tatler this Weekend:

Saturday:

Rick Moran: Muslim Brotherhood Calls for Daily Protests Against Coup

Rick Moran: USOC Says Russian Anti-Gay Law is ‘Inconsistent with Olympic Principles’

Patrick Poole: Reuters: Wife of Muslim Brotherhood leader OKd gunmen to open fire from mosque

Rick Moran: State Attorneys General Express Concerns Over Obamacare Navigators

Patrick Poole: Pallywood: AlJazeera and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood edition — UPDATED

Rick Moran: ‘The Bible Belt is Collapsing’

Sunday:

Rick Moran: Snowden E-Mail Provider Under Threat of Arrest for Non-Cooperation

Rick Moran: The ‘Third Force’ in Egypt’s Meltdown

Rick Moran: Another Vote to Defund NSA Surveillance Programs?

Rick Moran: Rep. Schock: IRS Just Can’t Help Acting Illegally

Also Around the Web this Weekend:

Via Drudge:

ABC: Undocumented students push for change to tuition policy

The Hill: States raise privacy concerns over health law navigators (video)

At National Review:

Andrew C. McCarthy: Egypt’s Only Hope

More to the point, Egypt has never had a “democracy,” so the military cannot be said to have “restored” one. Yet there was a welcome bit of common sense in Kerry’s declaration, even if it eluded the declarant.

The defining mission of the Muslim Brotherhood is the implementation of sharia, as noted for several years by a hardy few of us Islamophobes. An “Islamophobe,” by the way, is someone who takes seriously the things Muslim Brotherhood operatives say and the scriptures on which they rely; the Muslims who say the things that Islamophobes have the temerity to mention are called “moderates” — see how this works?

Sharia is Islam’s societal framework and legal code. Particularly as construed by Islamic supremacists, whose ideology dominates the Middle East, sharia is authoritarian, anti-liberty, anti-equality, and intolerant of minority rights. Indeed, in 1990, Islamic supremacists felt the need to issue their own “Declaration of Human Rights in Islam,” precisely because they cannot abide the aspirations laid out in the purportedly “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” promulgated by the United Nations in 1948. Human rights, for the Islamist, must bow to the repressive injunctions of sharia.

Consequently, in a couple of books that are largely about the history, ideology, methodology, and goals of the Muslim Brotherhood — The Grand Jihad and, last year, Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy — I tried to establish two premises. The first is that Islamic supremacism is fundamentally anti-democratic. That proposition cannot be too Islamophobic since influential Islamic supremacists themselves freely concede that sharia cannot coexist with a secular civil society or with any system in which people are free to ignore sharia in enacting their own law.

The second is that elections do not equal democracy. To the contrary, democracy is a culture of governance committed to the protection of minority rights and equality of opportunity. Sharia abides neither of those principles.

Katrina Trinko: Santorum’s Storytelling

At Salon:

Email is killing us: Reclaim your mind from technology

For video games, a moral reckoning is coming

Science for stoners: Here’s how pot works

“Zealot” paints Jesus as a Nazarene Che Guevara

Via Memeorandum:

Associated Press: Egypt: Islamists hit Christian churches

Christians have long suffered from discrimination and violence in Muslim majority Egypt, where they make up 10 percent of the population of 90 million. Attacks increased after the Islamists rose to power in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that drove Hosni Mubarak from power, emboldening extremists. But Christians have come further under fire since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted on July 3, sparking a wave of Islamist anger led by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

Nearly 40 churches have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged since Wednesday, when chaos erupted after Egypt’s military-backed interim administration moved in to clear two camps packed with protesters calling for Morsi’s reinstatement, killing scores of protesters and sparking deadly clashes nationwide.

Mike Flynn at Breitbart: Exclusive Report: Egypt Sending Diplomatic Mission to Russia

At Deadline Hollywood:

Could A Viacom-Sony Deal Lead Cable Operators To Raise Prices For Streaming?

At the Daily Mail:

It’s a dog’s life: Pets depressed because they are left home alone all day by working owners

Cops take care of the munchies by giving Seattle marijuana festival goers Doritos with warning sign

‘I’ve smoked cannabis five nights a week for 44 years and my dealer’s on speed dial’: Shock confession by bestselling thriller writer Lee Child

He is one of the world’s biggest-selling thriller writers, with his Jack Reacher novels so successful one is bought every two seconds.

Now author Lee Child has admitted he keeps his writing razor-sharp by working while high on cannabis and even claims that it should be made compulsory.

‘I’ve been smoking weed for 44 years, five nights a week,’ the author confessed. ‘I’m the poster boy to prove it doesn’t do you much harm.

‘I have a guy on speed dial in New York who comes over with a huge range of marijuana. I smoke it in a pipe because I’ve never been any good at rolling my own joints.’

Child was brought up in Birmingham and moved to America in 1999 after he published the first of his Reacher novels, of which he has now sold 70 million.

Student sinks half court basketball shot to win FREE tuition on day one of college

At my alma mater, Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana! Good for him!

The downside: the $11,000-valued prize will only cover one semester’s worth of expenses….

This vacation’s pretty good! Obama hits the golf course with Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David

Saturday Morning Book Reading:

Page 222 from Jacob Slavenburg’s The Hermetic Link, on the potential of Hermetic mysticism to bridge the gaps between Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and secularism:

Monday News Round Up:

Lead PJM Stories on Monday:

Roger Kimball: Cairo Is Burning. Where Is President Obama?

Michael Ledeen: It’s War, You Idiots

Hans A. von Spakovsky: FACE Act Abuse: Justice Dept. Suit Against Pro-Life Advocate Thrown Out

Rick Moran: Breaking: Ted Cruz Birth Certificate a Forgery!

Victor Davis Hanson: Obama Bets Against Human Nature — and Usually Loses

Rodrigo Sermeno: Cardin Touts Obamacare Benefits to Maryland Healthcare Providers

PJ Lifestyle Articles Featured on the Main Page:

Dave Swindle: 6 Books Victor Davis Hanson Suggests You Read in 2013

Paula Bolyard: Duggar Family Joins 24-Year-Old Ohio Lawmaker to Reintroduce Heartbeat Bill

Becky Graebner: 4 Dumb TV Cliches I HopeOrange Is the New BlackAvoids

Sarah Hoyt: An Act of Radical Virginity

Chris Queen: Smearing the South: First Honey Boo-Boo, Now ‘The Angry Ginger’?

Walter Hudson: The Church Shouldn’t Promote Self-Esteem

New At PJ Lifestyle on Monday:

Sarah Hoyt: Online Courses’ Role in the Fight to Take Back Education

Paula Bolyard: The 5 Best American Historical Fiction Books to Read Aloud to Your Kids

Robert Spencer: What is the Difference Between ‘Extremist’ and ‘Moderate’ Muslim Brothers?

Ahmed Bedier, former chief of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), is widely regarded as a “moderate” Muslim leader – in this guise, he even appeared on Glenn Beck’s CNN show in March 2007 to speak out against “extremism.” On the show, he declared: “We condemn any nation, country or group that uses Islam or misuses and misinterprets Islam in violent ways.” Later, when he announced his departure from CAIR, he explained his future plans in terms to warm any multiculturalist’s heart: “I’m going to expand on and build upon my work as a civil rights and human rights leader into broader areas of peace building, interfaith dialogue and reconciliation.”

As is so often the case, things are not always as they seem. Unfortunately, like so many putative moderate Muslim groups and individuals in the United States, Bedier is not really all that moderate. He has said that before 1995, when the State Department declared Palestinian Islamic Jihad a terrorist group, there was “nothing immoral” about associating with the group. The anti-terror advocacy group Americans Against Hate notes that “Bedier’s answer is startling, given the fact that, prior to 1995, Palestinian Islamic Jihad took credit for five terrorist attacks, which resulted in the murders of eight innocent people. This includes a suicide bombing in the town of Netzarim Junction, in November of 1994.”

And when two Muslim college students, Youseff Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed, were found with pipe bombs (and one of whom admitted to making a video about how to use remote-controlled bombs against American soldiers), Bedier claimed that the pipe bomb material was just fireworks and said, “Both of them are really naïve kids.” On a Florida TV show, Bedier sidestepped numerous opportunities to condemn the barbaric practice of stoning.

Bonnie Ramthun: The Terrors of the Minivan! Why Popular Culture Wages War Against Large Families

Walter Hudson: Now the Family Can Watch Different Shows on the Same Television

Me: 6 Books Victor Davis Hanson Suggests You Read in 2013

Rhonda Robinson: Why Your New Diet is Doomed to Fail

New At PJ Tatler on Monday:

Bryan Preston: Egypt: While Chaos Rises, US Debates Suspending Aid

Bryan Preston: Congressional Research Service: Obamacare Has Already Missed Half Its Deadlines (Update: Chicago Trib Rips Obamacare)

Bryan Preston: Common Core Math: 3×4=11?

Bryan Preston: If You Work at Forever 21, Obamacare has Made You Forever Part-Time

Stephen Green: POLL: Americans Really Sour on Egypt

Bryan Preston: Dallas Morning News Reporter Christy Hoppe Editorializes for Wendy Davis in ‘News’ Story

Bryan Preston: Dying California GOP: Pass Amnesty, It’s Our Only Hope!

Huda N.: Cairo Correspondent: Muslim Brotherhood Spreading Terrorism in All of Egypt

Stephen Kruiser: Illinois Puts Useless Regulatory Band-Aid On Gun Violence Problem

Stephen Kruiser: Government ‘Help’: CA Bureaucracy Makes Food Stamps Hard To Get For Those Who Need Them

Bryan Preston: Head of Security Guard Union Gets Prison Time for Theft

Bryan Preston: Obama’s Twitter Feed Writer Needs Remedial English

Bryan Preston: Egypt: Islamists Capture, Parade Nuns Like ‘Prisoners of War’

Rick Moran: Judge in Fort Hood Terrorist Trial Rules Against Jihad as Motive

Bryan Preston: CNN Hires Al Gore Crockumentarian to Produce Hillary Flick

Stephen Green: BREAKING: Lamar to Get Primaried?

Stephen Kruiser: Can We Ever Lighten The Crushing Weight Of Federal Regulations?

Stephen Kruiser: Heh-10 Lies That TV And Movies Always Tell You

Stephen Kruiser: Open Thread: The Once, Maybe Twice A Week Political Palate Cleanser From The Onion

Also Around the Web Monday: