On Monday evening, I joined Tucker Carlson to discuss the Honduran "caravan" of "refugees" marching relentlessly toward the Rio Grande, and express check-in to the United States - a scenario almost eerily identical to that in Jean Raspail's novel The Camp of the Saints. I see that, by even referencing that book, I've driven the totalitarian Tweeters of Media Matters bonkers. Oh, and the Media-ite know-nothings, too, who seem to think M Raspail's story is about "white genocide".
Which ties in to my subsequent point - about the left's determination to dictate the bounds of public discourse. I very much doubt whether Andrew Lawrence or Media-ite or the other would-be book-banners have read a word of Raspail - and yet they're behaving exactly as the French left do in his novel. Which suggests that, whether "racist" or not, Raspail had a shrewder grasp of them than they do of him. If you're going to get the vapors about literary fiction, it wouldn't hurt to crack open a book once in a while. Click below to watch:
We also discussed the decision of the town council in Arcata, California to tear down their statue of President McKinley - which I wrote about a few weeks ago:
President McKinley took a bullet for his country, but (as the poster at right suggests) that's no reason not to "re-assassinate" the "POS". He's apparently an "imperialist", though not a terribly ambitious one by the standards of his day. But enough to ensure that even former presidents cannot be honored in the public space of American towns...
The Year Zero crowd doesn't distinguish between Jeff Davis and Columbus, Stephen Foster, William McKinley, Gone With the Wind, Dr Seuss ...or George Washington. It's all gotta go. And right now. Or as members of the mob put it at the council meeting:
'F**k the United States.'
They mean it - in the sense of entirely f**king a settled polity rooted in an historical continuity based upon an agreed set of facts.
If you prefer me in non-visual form, on Friday we'll be launching the latest in our series of nightly audio adventures, Tales for Our Time.
Ahead of that, tomorrow, Tuesday, I'll be hosting another Clubland Q&A, taking questions live from Mark Steyn Club members around the planet at 4pm Eastern Time in North America - that's 9pm in London, 10pm in Paris, 11pm in Cairo, midnight in Moscow for Kenny Ball fans, 1.30am in Delhi, 4am on Wednesday in Honkers, 7am in Melbourne and a somewhat more civilized hour of the morn in New Zealand, Fiji, the Solomons et al.
Anyone around the world can listen to the show, but Club members get to shoot me a question. So, if you'd like to do so, there's still time to sign up. I always enjoys first-time questioners. You can find more details about The Mark Steyn Club here - and, if you're looking for the perfect birthday present for a Steyn fan, don't forget our Club Gift Membership.