I recently located Ian Wishart's rather amusing online bookstore. Definitely downmarket, although there are no overtly antigay books on sale - yet. However, it does carry fare from a pro-choice lesbian conservative US talkback radio host... Ian Wishart is a sad character at the best of times. After his mainstream media career fell to bits, he became a fundamentalist Christian and lost any remaining credibility by turning into a conspiracy theorist and becoming a talkback host on Radio Pacific. And he's heavily into "intelligent design" creationist junk science, which is the subject of an entire bookbay in Eternity Books. Wishart doesn't like "elites." This is fundamentalist speak for any mainstream professional who has a postgraduate degree of any sort, which means that I probably fall into this category. "Elites" are supposed to advocate the restriction of "rights" for fundamentalist Christians who only just finished high school and who attribute every wrong in their lives to the connivance of better-educated Americans. This is called populism, and its favourite hero is the "average" American- oops, I mean, New Zealander. Well, no, I mean American, actually. Surely none of these turgid titles (a few are listed below) is at all relevant to New Zealand...? Fortunately, Wishart isn't distributing any of his own interminable Howling At the Moon conspiracy theory titles, now remaindered and/or on sale at less discriminating used bookshops around the nation. However, he has imported several irrelevant American titles. They also sound rather repetitious if one has a peek at the online table of content pages for these conservative media pundit potboilers. Tammy Bruce has it in for the "Gay Elite" who are after "the culture and the children," even if she's openly lesbian, pro-choice and obviously very confused, given her support for Republican conservative Christian Presidents like Reagan and Duhh-bya. But wait a minute- lesbian? Pro-choice on abortion? Gasp. Isn't Tammy herself part of the heinous Elite Conspiracy?! The "Gay Elite" favours paedophilia. Well, no. Some silly ephemeral marxoid radicals associated with early gay liberation did, and their views have been disavowed by most of the modern lesbian and gay communities, who know much better nowadays. As for Bruce herself, has Wishart actually read her website blurb? As for other tabloid conservative US media pundits, Laura Ingraham's script sounds suspiciously familiar to that of Tammy above. Pathetically, they blame academic institutions for free cultural and intellectual inquiry, otherwise known as the subversion of America. "Elites" dominate the US media and academia. Well, given the low educational attainment of most social conservatives and fundamentalists, is that terribly surprising? Again, does "elite" mean anyone who's had a higher education and learnt skills of critical inquiry, one wonders? Ann Coulter lambasts social liberals for sniggering about the fact that social conservatives are "dumb, racist, homophobic, power-hungry and downright scary." Nonsense. Duhhh-bya isn't overtly racist - I'm told he makes as little sense in Spanish as he does in English. As for the other named attributes... And as for the Christian Right, well, yes. I've often noticed that the Christian Right has intellectual dependency on its American parent organisations. However, it now appears that anti-intellectual dependency is also now their stock in trade. NOT recommended (except for amusement purposes): http://www.eternitybooks.com Ian Wishart's Eternity Books mailorder service. Tammy Bruce: Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left's Assault on Our Culture and Values: Crown Publishing Group: New York: 2003. Tammy Bruce: The New Thought Police: Inside the Left's Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds: Forum: Los Angeles: 2003. http://www.tammybruce.com [Ms Bruce's website. If she's pro-choice and supports same-sex marriage, then why is she a supporter of Duhh-bya?] Laura Ingraham: Shut Up and Sing: How Elites From Hollywood, Politics and the United Nations are Subverting America: Eagle: 2003 [In which Gard gets sacked, the "Ivory Tower" goes "Red" and there is a heinous "Elite Agenda" disclosed!] Ann Coulter: Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right: Crown: New York: 2003. ["...dumb, racist, homophobic, power-hungry and downright scary..." You might very well say that, Ann, but I couldn't possibly comment]. Craig Young - 2nd June 2004