What the kids are reading

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I went to a children's book store with the wife and kids, and saw this:

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Nice, huh?

Here's the book on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0689848935/?v=glance&s=books&vi=reviews

Anyone read this?

By the way, the author also wrote "The Wave," a book based on a true story, where a teacher, trying to illustrate how the Holocaust could have happened without protest from ordinary Germans, starts giving privileges to blue-eyed students and taking them from brown-eyed ones. The results are scary.

That was a very worthwhile book. I'm guessing this one is not.
 

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The social atmosphere in high school is DEFINITELY worthy of serious concern, though the author's view on gun rights is probably without merit (can't say for sure, as I haven't read the thing). On the other hand, combining the comparatively feral high school environment/mindset with TV depictions of guns and shooting and a thorough lack of education about guns and responsibility is a recipe for big problems. 'Course, the solution doesn't lie in more school funding or more gun laws.

An author with a lot of important things to say about the government school system is John Taylor Gatto. I highly recommend his work (though I did discover that it's not good stuff to read during midterm exams).
 
Sounds like another self-contradicting liberal - the kind of person who says "never again" when the Holocaust is the subject, but will still strongly support the disarmament of civilians. Go figure...

I also never understood why most Jews support gun control - especially after seeing Schindler's List. JPFO's membership should be 100 times larger.
 
What would happen if we restricted our retricted our reviews to only people who have actually read the book?

I'd also watch the generalizations about Jews. I do not think I've actually met one who supported gun control. What someone might do in an elected capacity is a different issue.
 
Sendec:
I was "friends" with a Jewish anti during college. Talk about mental gymnastics to justify his position. ("No Jew needs to own a gun! Once the fighting starts, guns will be all over the streets so they could just run out and pick one up. I shot a few times at summer camp (with a .22) so I'm ready and know how to use a gun should the time come.") I eventually got tired of his liberal rantings and stopped being his friend.

Kharn
 
There are a LOT more serious Jewish gun-owners than many folks think.

And not only owners, but serious dedicated shooters.

I think the majority (percentage wise) tend to leave defense to the state and that is something the rest of us will never understand.

Regards,

Rabbi
 
Let see: we built gun racks in school for industrial arts. I had 3 guns in my room since I was 12. Ammo was readily available too. This was only 15 years ago and I was the norm, not an exception.

What's changed since then? That should be the question. Sounds like author goes there, but then demonizes the guns anyway.
 
I'd also watch the generalizations about Jews. I do not think I've actually met one who supported gun control.

There are some pretty prominent anti-gun Holocaust survivors, such as Elie Wiesel (Auschwitz survivor and author of "Night").

From what I've read, it seems that Jewish victims of the Holocaust could be roughly divided into two groups - those raised in the large cities and those from the rural shtetls. It wouldn't surprise me if the citified ones leaned towards appeasement and disarmament, while the rural folks were more willing to fight. And, of course, the citified survivors, who would have a much higher percentage of authors, politicians, artists, and such, would be more public figures. I can't prove it, but it makes sense. A topic for a research project, perhaps?
 
Sorry. As an armed Jew, I can say with a great deal of certainty that a majority -- a large majority -- of Jews are anti-gun.

I'm working on it, but it's an uphill battle. (Hey -- I convinced my commie brother that the guns were not the problem...)
 
I remember watching the Wave in high school Sociology. Of course, I fell asleep through most of it but what of the end I saw was pretty good. Probably couldn't say the same about that other book there.
 
Have not read the book, though my 16-year-old daughter has read novels by this author ... I'm puzzled as to how a book about "disaffected teens" seeking revenge on bullying classmates turns into a "passionate indictment of America's gun culture." Should it not be a passionate indictment of bad parenting, neglectful parents, abusive parents, single-parent households and school systems, school administrators and teachers that ignore bullying, harrassment and abuse of students by other students?

The gun culture does not turn teenage boys into killers. Growing up in the 60s, we brought our deer rifles to school during deer season ... gun racks in our trucks in the school parking lot ... 15 year old boys carrying their 22 rifles down city streets during the summer were not reason to call out SWAT teams and police helicopters. I submit we had a more permissive gun culture then, and school shootings were unheard of. What's changed?

Of course, the "passionate indictment" of the gun culture may just be something the liberal reviewers read into this novel. I'll have to read the book.
 
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