Then there is the matter of FDR’s almostrncriminal naivete regarding JosephrnStalin. Roosevelt exerted his influencernthroughout the normal channels of civilrnsociety, from the movies to the press, tornpromote a wholly fictional and laughablyrnpropagandistic view of the great Russianrnnationalist. (It was only the uncouth, yournunderstand, who persisted in regardingrnStalin as a communist.) “[U]nder the influencernof the propaganda he had promoted,”rnFlynn adds, “and reinforced byrnhis own eagerness to please Stalin, nornone in the country was more thoroughlyrndeceived by it than Roosevelt himself”rnWhat it all added up to, ultimately, wasrnthat the U.S. government “put into Stalin’srnhands the means of seizing a greatrnslab of the continent of Europe, thenrnstood aside while he took it and finally acquiescedrnin his conquests.”rnFranklin D. Roosevelt was, after Lincoln,rnthe consummate Great Presidentrnand the chief architect of the presentrnregime, so it should not be surprisingrnthat, despite his thorough debunking atrnthe hands of Flynn, FDR should continuernto elicit the adulation of professionalrnhistorians and the ruling elite. As Raicornputs it, “It seems that there is no degradingrninanit}’, no catastrophic blunder thatrnis not permitted a truly ‘great president.'”rnThomas E. Woods, /r., is an adjunctrnscholar of the Ludwig von Mises Instituternand a professor of history at SuffolkrnCommunity College on Long Island.rnOf Rights andrnRabbitsrnby Thomas FlemingrnThe House of Atreus: Abortion as arnHuman Rights Issuernby James F. BohanrnWestport, CT: Greenwood Press;rn256 pp., $39.95rnJ ames Bohan, a Pennsylvania attorney,rnbelieves he has elevated the abortionrndebate above the pedestrian levels ofrnboth medicine and religion. However,rnMr. Bohan rises above faith and sciencernonly to fall back on the well-worn clichesrnof human rights doctrines found inrnthe sacred texts of the Declaration ofrnIndependence, the writings of AlbertrnSchweitzer, and the various declarationsrnon human rights issued by internationalrnagencies. To finish off the argumentrnwith a literary veneer, he invokesrn”Aeschylus’s House of Atreus” as an historical-rnmythical model of a society addictedrnto irrational killing.rnAlong the way, the author manages tornlose himself in the usual maze of illogicrnand bad history that has characterizedrnboth sides of the abortion debate. Herncannot apparently conceive of an unbornrnchild as a human being without accordingrnit full legal personhood. He mustrnthink that, in societies where women andrnchildren are not legal persons, it is openrnseason on wives and minor sons. Becausernhe cannot understand citizenship,rnapart from the theory of rights, he falls intornthe usual trap of equating Roe v. Wadernwith Dred Scott. Worst of all, he thinksrnthat he can provide a non-religious ethicalrnbasis for respecting innocent life,rnwhen it is perfectly obvious that even therngreatest pre-Christian civilizations allowedrninfanticide.rnIt is a familiar trap, which even explicitlyrnChristian defenders of life fall into.rnAlthough they may have embraced thernfaith in their heart, their minds belong tornthe secular anti-Christian world of thernEnlightenment. Intellectually, they arernadherents to the religion of human rights:rna religion without a particle of historical,rnnatural, or logical foundation. It may berna stretch to ask people to worship the historicalrnJesus as “ver)’ God of very God,”rnbut what can we say of people who veneraternunexamined abstractions, like “Allrnmen are created equal”? It is better torncarry a rabbit’s foot: Rabbits, at least, arernreal creatures, but no one has ever seen arnright, much less eaten it or cut off its foot.rnHares and rabbits are attested all over thernworld; rights are the peculiar manufacturernof liberal intellectuals in modernrnEurope.rnBohan’s scholarship is on par with hisrntheology. Even lawyers can be expectedrnto know that Aeschylus did not writern”The House of Atreus” but the Oresteia.rnIf he had taken the trouble to read and digestrnAeschylus’s masterpiece, he mightrnhave realized how wrongheaded he was,rnboth about the ancient myth and aboutrnhis muddleheaded defense of unbornrnlife. It is very dangerous to equate thernkilling of Glytaemnestra—a woman whornneeded killing if anyone ever did—withrnthe death of unborn children, and evenrnAtreus —who killed Thyestes’ childrenrnand served them up to their father at arnbanquet—had a rational motive: revengernagainst a brother who had seduced hisrnwife and tried to steal his throne. Whatrncomparable defense can be made by arnwoman who kills her own child, simplyrnbecause it is inconvenient? But, then,rnwho in his right mind would equate slaveryrnwith murder?rnWhy be so hard on the poor fellow?rnHe meant well, after all, and worse booksrnare published ever)’ month, not only onrnabortion but on marriage, religious freedom,rnand “family values.” That is thernpoint. With ver’ few exceptions, conservativernand Christian books, however wellrnintentioned their authors, are almost entirelyrnwithout merit. Poorly written, badlyrnargued, unresearched, they succeedrnonly in convincing serious-minded people,rnboth on the left and in the center,rnthat the right has no case to make. Worstrnof all, in reformulating Christian argumentsrnin the anti-Christian language ofrnhuman rights, they continue to underminernthe rational and historic basis ofrnChristian thought and European civilization.rnThomas Fleming is the editor ofrnChronicles.rnR E A D Y F O R T H ErnNEXT W A R ?rnBOOKMARK THE AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE:rnWWW.AGAINSTBOMBING.COMrnConstitutional and internationalrnlaw analyses … history of Kosovornand Iraq wars … news updates …rncivil defense … terrorism moviernreviews … bio-chem terror news …rndiverse links … and such items as …rn• Clinton War Crimes Indictmentrn•^ Joe Sobran’s “How ManyrnEnemies Do We Want?”rn• Reed Irvine: “Jack Kemp’srnWake-Up Call”rn• Lew Rockwell’s “List ofrnConservatives Against War”rn• Justin Raimondo’s “Portrait ofrnthe War Party”rn• Jon Basil Utiey: “Talking Pointsrnfor Talk Radio”rnAMERICANS AGAINSTrnWORLD EMPIRErnP.O. Box 287 * MCLEAN, V A 22101rn”AMERICA – A BEACON NOT A POLICEMAN”rnJANUARY 2000/33rnrnrn