Last year I spent the weekend with two Christian men who corrected me when I made a statement that they were part of a socially acceptable, non-persecuted religion and cited for me examples of governments around the world, including the U.S., going after Christians for their beliefs. I suppose I should not have been surprised. The Hollywood media clearly goes after Christianity with a venom, with every priest a pervert, every protestant a murderous redneck, etc.

Stefan’s 180 degree about face on religion is both refreshing and suspicious.

Stefan’s narrative appreciation of current state sponsored terror in the U.S. is so off the mark it is childlike. He seems to have no idea that the black mob violence he otherwise has discussed is an instrument of State will.

Tom Woods is a breath of baleful air that I much appreciated, although he’s essentially a woman, down to his call for Ann Coulter to go into harm’s way for him while he sets at home in Florida.

If you want to skip the back slapping and affirmation that the Left is evil and get to the subject of Wood’s book, go to 24 minutes in and it is very interesting. What I have noticed over the course of my reading on the Early Modern Age is that a symptom of our more recent social devolution is that Western Thought went from being based on Aristotle’s observation-based approach and the Socratic Method, to the modern turn to Platonic Utopianism.

What many people do not realize is that Medieval Society was ordered along the scheme of plough, sword and book, with all of the literacy and large contemplative minds involved in the church at some level. Wood’s thesis is a no-brainer. There was no place in Christendom for a hungry intellect other than the Catholic Church.

At 45-48 minutes Stefan also paints a great word picture.

Woods’ best moment begins at 100:08, where he discusses collectivism and unwittingly damns libertarianism.

For Dark Age Islamic scholars I suggest Sina.

In fiction, for Science and Catholicism read Gene Wolfe, The Litany of the Long Sun or The Book of the New Sun.