Last year that stalwart bastion of fine literature, Regnery Press, published a little tract called 10 Books That Screwed Up The World: And 5 Others That Didn’t Help. Regnery Press, as you might know, publishes only the most erudite and informed of authors. Savvy scholars such as Jerome Corsi (Unfit For Command), Newt Gingrich and Ann Coulter. Continuing tradition, with 10 Books… Regnery has reached out to world reknowned Dr. (of theology) Benjamin Wiker who currently holds forth on many and varied subjects from the rarified air of his office at the Discovery Institute.

So when such a distinguished author, backed by one of the world’s most prestigious publishing companies, gives us such a clear, prescient and succinct glimpse of those ten tracts whose words threaten the very foundations of Western civilization, one should probably take notice. However, being broke and enthralled by the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica I ignored it.

Thankfully, onager over at the Democratic Underground’s Skeptics’ group had the presence of mind to flip through the tome while killing some time in a bookstore recently. Thus courtesy of one man’s idle curiosity and boredom, here are the books which everybody should avoid at all lengths. Perhaps burning the libraries is in order. Seriously, man! They’re dangerous!

• The Prince (Niccolò Machiavelli, 1513) (Reason–destroyed good government, as practiced up until then by all Popes and kings)
• Discourse on Method (René Descartes, 1637) (Reason–killed God. And he was French. Descartes, not the late God, that is.)
• Leviathan (Thomas Hobbes, 1651) (Reason–envisioned icky society, not enough God.)
• Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1755) (Reason–early version of Dr. Benjamin Spock. And French.)
• The Manifesto of the Communist Party (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1848) (Reason–BOO! Are you kidding? This is the Discovery Institute. They still check under their beds for Commies. And Darwinists.)
• Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill, 1863) (Reason–see Hobbes above)
• The Descent of Man (Charles Darwin, 1871) (Reason–see Marx & Engels above)
• Beyond Good and Evil (Friedrich Nietzsche, 1886) (Reason–re-killed God. Had dubious personal life, which of course invalidates everything he wrote.)
• The State and Revolution (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, 1917) (Reason–see Marx & Engels above)
• The Pivot of Civilization (Margaret Sanger, 1922) (Reason–too much sex, not enough God. Uppity proto-feminist, bad influence on the womenfolk with all her birth control talk.)

And the “5 more that didn’t help”?

• Mein Kampf (Adolf Hitler, 1925) (Reason–made far-right political ideas unpopular by taking them to their logical conclusions.)
• The Future of an Illusion (Sigmund Freud, 1927) (Reason–one of the Unholy Trinity to modern right-wingers, along with Marx and Darwin. Pseudo-intellectuals like the Irving Kristol family of Wingnut Welfare Queens have made a lucrative career out of attacking that trio.)
• Coming of Age in Samoa (Margaret Mead, 1928) (Reason–see Margaret Sanger above. Also uncritically reported stuff which later proved untrue. Oh, did I mention that Wiker is published by Regnery, the home of Ann Coulter?)
• Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (Alfred Kinsey, 1948) (Reason–godless pervert. Interviewed pedophiles, which of course invalidates everything else he did, etc.)
• The Feminine Mystique (Betty Friedan, 1963) (Reason–see Margaret Sanger above)

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve already read a number of them so I’m probably doomed to lead a friendless life of woe and misery. It’s not too late for you though! Go out and not read a book today. TV is your friend.

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Skepticality had a fantastic interview with Kate Holden and Tiana Dietz, the skeptic activists who conned their way into the Discovery Institute.  You can download the MP3 of the podcast here.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the visit was the fact that the two have engaged in a lengthy blog discourse with the Discovery Institute, which claims to welcome all people with open arms.

While lying is hardly ever called for, Holden and Dietz maintain that they only did what the producers of Expelled did when they conned their own ways into interviews with Michael Shermer and PZ Myers. They kind of have a point.

The question of morality aside, the chutzpah of Kate and Tiana is admirable. They also urge fellow skeptic activists to go to the Discovery Institute and take the tour… that is, if the Discovery people will let you in.