Thursday, July 02, 2009
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Steyn, Romney and Botkin; Reynolds and White; Jaffa and Jude
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Posted by:
Hugh Hewitt at
9:12 AM
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My new Townhall.com column looks ahead to the weekend.
Transcripts of yesterday's conversations with Mark Steyn about Michael Jackson as well as the offensive in Afghanistan and the turmoil in Honduras, and with Mitt Romney about President Obama's push for the "government option/public plan" are posted.
Today's program begins with an interview with Richard Botkin about his new book, Ride the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Triumph and Honor.
Botkin's book is a history of Vietnam told through the stories of five Marines: three American and two Vietnamese. Though the heart of the book is the desperate days around the 1972 Easter Offensive, the book begins with the first deployments of American troops and ends with the reeducation camps and the long journey to America of some of our greatest allies in the long war we eventually gave up on. As the country watches the pull-out of our troops from Iraq's cities and the deployment of thousands of Marines into Helmland River Valley yesterday, the book could not be more timely or more riveting. The peril that our military faces in combat competes with a thousand silly stories every day, and Botkin's book helps civilians understand what it is like for the warrior, then and now, to fight for freedom --our own and that of our allies.
The third hour today continues the set-up for our Fourth of July celebrations by asking Biola University's John Mark Reynolds and David Allen White, just retired from three decades of teach at the United States Naval Academy, what it was the Framers thought they were borrowing from the ancients and why we even ought to care today.
Tomorrow's program is a long conversation with one of the country's greatest intellects, Professor Harry Jaffa on the central ideas surrounding the American founding.
I know that today and tomorrow aren't all Michael Jackson all the time, but the genius and courage of Philadelphia 1776 deserve some attention even as the LKMs (see below) pile up around Jackson.
If any of the conversations prompt you to appreciate the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines of today, please consider marking the holiday with a contribution to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.
Now a blogging note. I won't be totally missing from these pages over the next two weeks, but I am trying to get the tendonitis in my elbow to move on, which my doctor tells me won't happen until I move away from the keyboard. So that's what I'll be doing, which means less blogging and far fewer e-mail responses for a couple of weeks.
Duane will pick up his blogging pace, and to pitch in, my pal Jude will throw in as well. If you haven't yet become acquainted with this exceptional musician and very thoughtful commentator via his posts Big Hollywood, you will quickly come to agree with me that he is a much-needed voice of reason from within a portion of the entertainment industry that doesn't often provide center-right commentary. Thanks in advance to Jude and Duane and to you for your patience as I slack off for a couple of weeks.
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