Orcinus Sighting
Last night, two dozen-odd souls braved the summer heat to hear mighty Dave Neiwert read from his new book, Death on the Fourth of July, at the Elliot Bay Bookstore in Seattle. Dave, known to the blogosphere as Orcinus, has been documenting hate groups and hate crimes in the Northwest for many years.
Death on the Fourth is an account of an incident that took place several years ago at Ocean Shores, WA, where a group of Vietnamese-Americans were harassed, fought back, and ended up killing one of their assailants. Neiwert uses this incident as a springboard to discuss the broader subject of hate crimes laws and the actions that communities – especially rural communities – need to take to prevent the low-level terror and intimidation caused by violent racist thugs. I picked up a copy of the book and will have a more detailed review at some point. At the moment, I am entombed in Neal Stephenson’s cinderblock-scale opus, Quicksilver, and it may be a while before I see daylight.
Following the reading, I joined Dave and a few friends for drinks and conversation at a local watering hole. Kicked around several subjects, from the possibility of a Bush defeat to the recent nomination of a genuine racist ideologue, James Hart (R-Tenn) to run for Congress. We also discussed the newest hunk of literary sewage to make ripples in the cultural pond, Michelle Malkin’s In Defense of Internment, which speaks in glowing terms about one of 20th century America’s darkest moments for civil liberties, the imprisonment of thousands of innocent Japanese Americans during World War II. As it happens, Dave has already been researching this subject for another project and is spoiling to tear Malkin a new one (in an intellectual matchup that would make “Bambi vs. Godzilla” look like an even-money bout). However, on receiving his review copy, he is somewhat concerned about treating an obvious act of political exhibitionism with more scholarly seriousness than it deserves. For a taste of what the odious Ms. M is in for should Dave decide to let loose, check this.
9:43:42 AM 
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