A BLOCKBUSTER

Not since the Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns has there been a blockbuster like Michael Fumento's Science under Siege (hdbd., 448pp., $27.50, Morrow, New York 1993). Fumento is the man who was blackballed by the powerful homosexual lobby for his Myth of Heterosexual Aids, yet the high quality of his new book was recognized by a major publisher in spite of this. It is eminently readable (as you would expect from a reporter and science writer) and throws mercilessly penetrating light on (one chapter each) alar, the politics of cancer testing, the pitfalls of amateur epidemiology, dioxin, Agent Orange, food irradiation, electromagnetic fields, risk assessment, how to spot a smelly argument, VDTs, gasohol a look at the besiegers, and ending the reign of terror. All of it is riveting and fascinating but my favorite is the chapter on the besiegers, perhaps because I knew, and yet I never thought of it: when Hitler ordered the extermination of the mentally deficient in 1939, it was neither the scientist nor the physicians who stood up in protest; it was the Protestant and Catholic clergy. Most highly recommended!