THIS IS A BOOK REVIEW OF SORTS, of two books that I've recently stumbled upon. " A FEW BLOODY NOSES" by Robert Harvey ( found mine in the half-price bin of one of those CD/DVD/Game/Coffeehouse-chic boos\stores) is a fascinating study of the American Revolution from a British perspective. His prose is lively and his research appears to be concrete. I was reading it during that last wild week-end of the mid-term elections and the comparison Mr. Harvey draws between The Revolution and Viet-Nam was a surrealistic deja'-vue.
There was no doubt in my mind that I was stuck in that horror of watching history repeat itself like some blood-crazed Golem run amok in Iraq.

The next was a novel discarded by the local high school library and snagged by my daughter. "Give Me Liberty" by Noel B Gerson is a splendid even-handed jewel-of-a-book. Written in 1966, the author notes " Only a few books have been written about Patrick Henry through the centuries." A true pity. I admit that prior to reading this book I thought I had a fair understanding of Patrick Henry. It seems my ignorance knows no bounds. I was reading this just at about the time that Newt & Co. began their brazen campaign to censure free speech.

As I read both these books, I noticed that usually I could be distracted by a new story from the radio or web cast except for certain passages of writing that riveted my eyes to the page. And as I pondered this Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair once again began their spins to the press , the 'New Way Forward'. A live news feed; but the utter genius that is the prose of George Washington captivated me instead.
It dawned on me the great juxtaposition of honest simple communication and greed-driven mass communication. These simple-minded men that can't even read their Orwellian-hack speeches have the audacity to dismantle the Constitution and Magna Carta in the name of security?

"Give me liberty, or give me death," -Patrick Henry, March 1775