The Lost Constitution by William Martin

Now starting, with some apprehension, William Martin's The Lost Constitution, adventure fiction about a misplaced copy of a draft of the Bill of Rights, the intent of the Founders, and the true meaning of the BoR, particularly RKBA.

Not pleased with The Lost Constitution. The way Martin paints it, New England is the only significant part of the United States and no one else had anything to do with the War of Independence or the Constitutional Convention (or even the Declaration of Independence, which after all had to be cleaned up by Franklin, a good Pennsylvania New Englander, after the hash that Virginian slaveowner, whatshisname, made of it); anyone not from New England is a hopeless illiterate redneck yokel with violent tendencies; and the pursuit-of-historical-treasure plot is just an excuse to brag about how aesthetically pleasing and historically significant New England is. The female lead is a more-enlightened-than-thou-and-don't-you-forget-it "liberal" whose position, that of course repealing the 2nd Amendment is a rational thing to do and anyone who thinks otherwise is a useless racist male chauvenist cretin deserving of physical assault, is rarely questioned and that halfheartedly; while the male protagonist, while technically disagreeing (which is about the only reason I haven't hurled the book at something by this point), seems to care less about the sanctity of the Bill of Rights and more about getting into her pants, and/or earning bragging rights in his elitist history-snob circle for finding the ancient parchment. The interspersed period plotline, following the document itself through the generations, lends little intrinsic value to the document and less to what it represents, striking me more as, to quote Homer (Simpson), "just a bunch of stuff that happened", flavored with a dash of "lawyers and politicians know best and you peasants shut up and pay your taxes or we'll sic our government troops (from New England!) on you". The founding documents and principles of this, the greatest nation in human history, are not to be trifled with in hopes of making a buck on the film rights. Grump. Oh, and he doesn't know much technically about firearms either - in the WBtS a Navy Colt revolver isn't "big" and Yankee regulars were not equipped with fifty-caliber longarms.

1540 - Sunday, 15 July 2007:

Martin's The Lost Constitution continues to offend with a simplistic, sterotypical, and condescending portrayal of the Gun Culture, and nitpicky technical gaffes like shooting clays with "buckshot". The dimbulb has probably never handled a real firearm in his life. Except perhaps a country-club snob piece. And besides, he's from New England, some of the most oppressive and unConstitutional territory in the union - naturally he'll have a twisted view of our unalienable pre-existing human rights, which our Constitution and Bill of Rights (incompletely!) describe and guarantee against government violation. -Put him in Wyoming and his head would explode I bet.

1541 - Monday, 16 July 2007:

Finished The Lost Constitution, an un-thrilling stack of sterotypical, moral-relativist, and occasionally-spineless elitist claptrap which might sell well in New England but will only tick off anyone who's really researched the intent of the Founders. Disrecommended.

-I can see William Martin's ignorant, bigoted, more-literate-than-thou sneer from here, the worthless cityfolk. Somehow he managed to write an entire book on the drafting of the Constitution, the wrangle over the Bill of Rights, and the meaning of RKBA, without including quotes like:

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