Book Review: The Quotable Chesterton

G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton, a metaphorical and literal giant of his day (in addition to writing hundreds of books, poems, and essays, Chesterton stood at 6'4" and weighed 300 pounds) is still one of the most influential Christian writers of modern times. His book The Everlasting Man was key to the conversion of C. S. Lewis:

I read Chesterton's Everlasting Man and for the first time saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense. Somehow I contrived not to be too badly shaken. You will remember that I already thought Chesterton the most sensible man alive "apart from his Christianity." Now, I veritably believe, I thought - I didn't of course say; words would have revealed the nonsense - that Christianity itself was very sensible.

This book, The Quotable Chesterton, is a collection of Chesterton's quotes, organized by topic and complete with reference to the original source. This, of course, isn't meant to replace reading Chesterton's works, but rather, to provide the Chesterton fan with quotes and references to Chesterton's thoughts on a broad set of topics and themes. Some brief excerpts:

Atheism: Rossetti makes the remark somewhere, bitterly but with great truth, that the worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.

Beer: Let a man walk ten miles steadily on a hot summer's day along a dusty English road, and he will soon discover why beer was invented.

Bigotry: Bigotry is an incapacity to conceive seriously the alternative to a proposition.

Cheese: Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Cleverness: Cleverness kills wisdom: that is one of the few sad and certain things.

Education: Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

Politics: It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.

Political Theory: That is my political theory: that we should make England worthy copying instead of telling everybody to copy her.

Of course, I could go on and on, but that would defeat the purpose. This is a fun book for the Chesterton fan, and a terrific reference for when you just need that quote, or a reference, or a one-liner to bring the point home. If you're interested in this book, please purchase through my Amazon Associate's link.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

The Fairness Doctrine

bah. blanket ignorance, that's what it is.

here's what they say - that the conservatives have a corner on the market, and that they're indoctrinating the world through evil talk radio. in order to make things more fair, the opposing viewpoint should be given equal time to present their views, in order to create a better-informed electorate.

they say, and i quote, "The issue is liberal talkers haven't even been given a market opportunity in many markets across the country." okay, fundamentally, this guy's dumb. ever heard of NPR? it's a publicly funded liberally biased radio show. and don't forget air america, which was such a bad business model that they went bankrupt. so you can't say that the liberals haven't been given a chance - the government freaking pays for their station!! tavis smiley, diane rehm, terry gross, christopher o'reilly (not bill), michael krasny, maria hinojosa ... these are not unbiased commentators. they're liberal. so don't try and pretend to be victimized.

"but the american people deserve a voice." they have a voice. it's called a free market economy. if the conservative talk shows didn't reflect a significant view of the american public, the public wouldn't tune in, ratings would drop advertising dollars would vanish, and then the shows would quickly follow. why did air america fail? because the liberal ideology can't stand in a forum faced with logic and rational thought. consistently and constantly, the libs were getting their collective arses handed to them by conservative listeners itching for a fight (i only did it once; it's not all my fault), and the fan base got sick of hearing their viewpoints successfully discredited and bashed and ripped to shreds. so they stopped listening. then the ratings dropped. thent he advertising dollars vanished. and then the shows quickly followed (boy, ain't capitalism grand?).

the fairness doctrine is a fix-all for cry-baby libs. they lack the testicular fortitude to last in the beautiful forum of free speech, so they have to get the government to force those big bad conservatives to share and share alike. seriously, every american should be offended at the concept of the fairness doctrine. it's anything but fair.