Letters of Marque: Beating to Quarters in the War of Ideas

Publisher Marketing: This is the fifth anthology of commentaries and essays collected from Rule of Reason and other weblogs over the years. They focus on current politics, Islam, freedom of speech, various cultural issues, and miscellaneous subjects. The startling and unexpected reelection of Barack Obama in 2012 for another four years to continue what frankly should be deemed a nihilist campaign to "deconstruct" America should cause anyone who values his freedom and his life to enter into a state of permanent trepidation. Much has happened since the publication of the last volume: the Boston Marathon bombing; revelations of the extent of government spying on American citizens and even foreign leaders by the National Security Agency; a continuing assault on gun ownership and on freedom of speech, in violation of the Second and First Amendments; the ever-mounting multi-trillion dollar federal debt, which can never be paid; and the penchant of the reelected president to rule by "executive order," which obviates one check on federal power so carefully and conscientiously devised by the Founders as a check on tyranny; and finally, the official but disastrous "rollout" of ObamaCare and its website, a disaster excused by Obama and the administration with the usual bundle of lies, deceptions, and evasions. The title of this volume is taken from the term letter of marque, which originally meant the granting by a government of a license to a private individual to raid and capture the merchant vessels of an enemy nation. Beat to Quarters was a drum signal to a warship's crew to prepare for battle. In the context of contemporary politics, I employ the terms in the spirit of a private individual granting himself the "license" to critique government and cultural policies and trends. I am not the first to turn this notion on its head. Ayn Rand, in her prophetic novel Atlas Shrugged, featured among its heroes Ragnar Danneskjold, a "pirate" who seizes government relief ships. In one instance he sinks a ship loaded with copper ore, and in another reduces a steel mill of a crony "capitalist" to rubble. My purposes are no less destructive. One of them is to help reduce our looting welfare state to rubble. I am ably assisted in this campaign by reality. Contributor Bio:  Cline, Edward Edward Cline: His first detective novel, First Prize, was published in 1988 by Mysterious Press/Warner Books, and republished by Perfect Crime Books in 2009. His first suspense novel, Whisper the Guns, was published in 1992 by The Atlantean Press. His Roaring Twenties detective series is published by the Patrick Henry Press. The Pickwick Affair is the seventh in that series. The Sparrowhawk series of historical novels has garnered critical acclaim and universal appreciation from the reading public. He writes regularly for such political and cultural blog sites as Rule of Reason, Capitalism Magazine, Family Security Matters, and numerous other print and Internet publications. Rational Scrutiny is his seventh nonfiction book.