Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Give Me Liberty by Naomi Wolf

While Wolf hooked me with The End of America, she loses me with Give Me Liberty.

She comes across as a left-wing conspiracy theory nut who, prior to the 2009 Inauguration, questions whether the Republican administration of George Bush will allow the newly elected president to be sworn in.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, there were so many legitimate accusations to level at the Bush administration that it really calls Wolf's credibility into question for her to move so far into the realm of panic.

Wolf's book does provide an interesting dissection of the obstacles to exercising one's First Amendment rights of speech, assembly and petition erected by our various local, state and federal governments.

The book is not totally without merit as it marches us through Wolf's often less than successful attempts to be politically active and then provides us with a roadmap for overcoming the difficulties she encountered but like most books of its genre, whether right or left, it must be taken with a grain of salt, culling out the reasonable from the inflammatory.

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