65 Comments

1. Allende:

Actually, Rush saved some money.

Oct 14, 2009 - 9:56 pm 2. White People Dance Like This:

It is interesting to watch Black celebrities like Chris Rock or the talented Jamie Foxx dirty their hands trying to help Michael Vick. Maybe some element of the Black Community is still influenced by their rural heritage.

Like their Scotch-Irish ancestors, American Blacks seem to be tolerant of a certain level of roughness or harsh behavior. For some cultures, violence and cruelty can cross over into entertainment (Thus connecting Topic 4 and Topic 1). Perhaps this is why football still exists as a sport, “an incredibly dangerous, nearly pre-civilized struggle in the arena.”

Oct 15, 2009 - 4:11 am 3. TLM:

“I know that “white person/white people” as a collective stereotype is being employed more than ever before, perhaps because of its initial presidential sanction.”

Obambi opened the racialist version of Pandora’s Box — looking for the Hope he promised us — and this is what we get. Of course, unlike the original myth, Pandora/Obambi knew what he would find.

To mix metaphors, it’s like letting children play with matches — burn, baby, burn. Just like SoCal in ‘64.

Oct 15, 2009 - 6:02 am 4. Scott:

Great essay professor. Always a pleasure to read your work.

On a somewhat related topic; Fake Limbaugh quotes (outside of the McNabe comment) have been bandied about with reckless abandon by the MSM and the Lefty blogosphere and no one can find an audio bite or a transcript to substantiate the charges, and all of this when Limbaugh has been under intense scrutiny for years from Soros minions just waiting to pounce on any supposed “indiscretion”.

So, the burden of proof for a conservative gaff is quite low – or non-existent. And yet on occasions that I correspond with far Leftists on the net they demand absolute proof of any quote/assertion contradicting their beliefs. And when it is provided they still insist that the obvious interpretation is somehow incorrect and can be explained away.

Examples:
- Ahmandinajad didn’t really mean what he stated when he stated that Israel should be wiped off the map.
- Sotomayor didn’t really mean what she stated when she stated that a “wise Latina” would be a superior judge to a white man.
- And just this week – John Kerry really didn’t mean what he stated back in 2006 on the Bill Maher show when he joked that he should have gone to Washington to kill Bush.

Maher: You could have went to New Hampshire and killed two birds with one stone.

Kerry: Or, I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania and killed the REAL BIRD with one stone.

http://thewavecrashes.blogspot.com/2009/08/john-kerry-threatened-gw-bush-what.html

With the Limbaugh episode behind us now I am going to take a different tack. No more links/citations will be provided for my quotes and when a Lefty demands proof I will simply reply that these are “Limbaugh quotes” and that means they MUST be accepted at face value!!

Oct 15, 2009 - 6:31 am 5. Robert Winkler Burke:

Dr. Hason,

Perhaps those dedicated to truth might wait out the uncorrectables, until they destroy themselves.

Reason’s Missing Requiem
By Robert Winkler Burke
Copyright June 12, 2009

Reason died without requiem,
That was the stratagem,
Let it die without news,
To give the innocent bruise.

To hurt the innocent who believe,
Truth and logic would give reprieve,
Against accusations wrong,
When what matters is who is strong.

Who then is strong, who is weak?
The strong will dominate the meek,
The strong will say who is wrong,
Who is wrong will not belong.

Reason died without requiem,
Creepy culture is now the gem,
Salute insanity, and bow down deep,
Hail insanity for heads to keep!

To keep heads on shoulders, not cut off,
Agree, agree: Mysticism is the best boss!
Mysticism and tyranny has all dominion,
Who, in their right mind, would keep reason?

Oct 15, 2009 - 7:24 am 6. anton:

Good points Doc.

1. The NFL is going the way of the NBA; becoming a work-program for famous criminals who get a pass for their crimes due to fame and tons of money. If you or I committed such crimes we would be in prison. I watch college footabll exclusively now.

2. As I have said in another post; I have longheard that in matters of foreign policy Russians are chess-players and Americans have traditionally been gamblers, our current administartion is stymied by the complexities of tic-tac-toe.

3. Bifurcated thinking on that matter; it is OK and heinous at the same time. Difficult to resolve the dichotomy; also is rape less repugnant if it doesn’t involve sodomy? Odd.

4. The problem has been long-standing and growing, any sort of mischief committed by a person of color is given a pass for fear of being declared racist. Now we are subjected to a barrage of self-righteous, in-your-face black bigotry toward whites with an ever angrier tone. The most stunning part is that it usually come from a person of color who is making millions of dollars a year in the system that is “oppressing” them. Again, odd.

5. I sit in the middle of the income brackets that pay with no hope of getting anything back (or even a break) I make too much money for my kids to get help with college but not enough to afford to send them to a good school. I have been paying into Social Security and Medicare/caid all my life and am quite certain that they will be bankrupt long before I retire. The only benefit that the Feds have provided that I consider applicable to me is Defense and the highway system, the first is currently being abandoned the second is a wreck and getting worse by the day.

Tax increases are coming or a complete collapse, maybe both.

Oct 15, 2009 - 8:05 am 7. TLM:

VDH:

“…someone is going to do the same with “black” or “brown” people, not covertly, but overtly in emulation. And then we have all but legitimized the descent into tribalism.”

I don’t think it will happen this way. Obama’s “typical white person” would just as soon be done with racialism/tribalism in America. It’s a Leftist ploy, a distraction from more important concerns.

Obama/Holder/Van Jones et. al. threw down the gauntlet, and now the “cowards” have picked it up. Their voice will be heard. Portraying America’s disagreement with Obama’s policies as racially motivated may prove to be the agonal gasp of race baiters who have already lost this duel.

Oct 15, 2009 - 8:17 am 8. Richard:

“Perhaps we need a federal ‘acquisition board?’”

Now wouldn’t that be a nice kick in the head? Goodell, ousted and the NFL “nationalized”! I’d love to see the looks on the faces of the owners, players et al, when they’re told they can only “earn” so much money for their services!

“My fear is that we are going to see an enormous backlash against this constant racial obsession.”

Doctor Hanson, I believe we are already seeing that happening. The fact is that much of the white community, is not only tired, but rather P.O.d about hearing how many of us, if not all, have white sheets and hoods hanging in our closets. That we speak in “codes”, as if to say, “this is what I REALLY mean” or as I am wont to say, ” I stand by what I MEANT to say!”

The fact that the black community, gets a pass, is deemed as not capable of being racist or acting it a racist manner has worn thin.

Oct 15, 2009 - 9:47 am 9. Tina Trent:

I have a larger problem with the word “molest” than acknowledgment of sodomy, for the former diminishes a serious act. Many state legislatures have moved towards ethical clarity, at least, through reforms employing language that neither diminishes nor resorts to euphemism nor is tarnished by association with previous bans on homosexual activity, such as “sexual assault.”

Sadly, I think in the Polanski case, the sodomy was noted because so many people defending Polanski were expressing the belief that what happened to the victim was not particularly serious because it “just sex with a sexually precocious child.”

Oct 15, 2009 - 10:34 am 10. Daniel:

This is truly is the era of the absurd. Isn’t the backlash against Limbaugh the most clear case of McCarthyism since McCarthy? He is opposed because of his beliefs, which are not even fringe or extremist. Yet, Limbaugh himself is a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose part-owner Dan Rooney gave robust support to candidate Obama and earned himself an Ambassador’s post. Did Limbaugh turn against his favorite team?

The whole topic of race is ridiculous, both in public discussion and in academia. Because of the color of my skin, I am less preferred as a job candidate than people of different shades. Mind you, this preferential treatment has nothing to do with a person’s actual life struggles or socio-economic standing. The rich and colored are preferred to the poor and white (oh, and Asians don’t count, unless they are competing with whites). This is how empires function, not republics.

I am thinking of starting a new grievance group- The Association for the Advancement of Short People. AASP will be based on the scientifically-proven fact that short people are given less preferential treatment than tall people. Henceforth, I will only associate with my fellow “shorties” and blame all of my failures on the oppressive “tall man.” At least the organization won’t discriminate on the basis of race, class, and gender. But seriously, no Hindus allowed.

Oct 15, 2009 - 12:52 pm 11. Ron Kean:

Is it November 2010 yet?

Oct 15, 2009 - 2:27 pm 12. Dr. T:

“It is as if Putin not only knew he would win on this one, but get the added bonus of showing the world how obsequious, naïve, and impotent the new U.S. was in the bargain.”

And why wouldn’t he know? Obama showed his stripes early in his presidency: they were not those of a tiger but of the hyena whose “…deferential gestures include giggling, head-bobbing and groveling. Males are the principal appeasers…”* Obama did a lot of head-bobbing, groveling, and appeasing. Why would Putin expect anything different this time? Clinton was sent on the most recent visit to Russia, but she just head-bobbed and groveled in Obama’s place. There was no way for Putin to lose, because there was no way we would even try for a win. Compared with these two, George W. Bush was a foreign policy genius.

*http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/hyena.html?c=y&page=2#ixzz0U2qpd7VB

Oct 15, 2009 - 3:14 pm 13. ~Paules:

Dear professor,

This editorial is the first by you that just irks me to the core. You start by analyzing the broken moral compass of celebrities. Reason is for the rational. A compass that spins this way and that is useless. Hit it with a 10-pound sledge and be done with it. Or take Marcus Aurelius to heart: “support in the games neither the greens nor the blues.”

Russian intentions are worthy of discussion as long as you remember that she is “an enigma wrapped in a riddle.” When I buy a whole chicken, I give the guts to my cat. He’s particularly fond of livers. But I don’t stir them in a pot and dump the entrails on the kitchen floor to divine Russian intentions. Hell no! When Russia invades Georgia, I put a U.S. carrier fleet in the Black Sea.

Sodomy? I didn’t really need your thoughts on the matter despite the erudition. Some things are better buried, pun intended, sort of.

To maters of race we go, heide, heide, heide ho! Forget it. Henceforth, the word “race” should be followed always by the word “scam.” I’m sick of it. I think America is too. I hope history records the “race issue” as the “pigment wars” and places them in context along side the religious wars of 16th century Europe.

And who didn’t think that Democrats would increase taxes on EVERYBODY? On the poor, too? Yup. Lotto, alcohol and cigarettes. Taxes on a pack in my state have jumped $2 since the last election. Go figure.

If not restrained by my deep affection for the good professor, I would let loose now with a stream of invective and profanity. Because that’s all this current debate deserves. Better yet, from a cartoon character, “it’s clobber’n time.” You betcha.

Oct 15, 2009 - 5:37 pm 14. porthuronpunk:

To Russia with Love: We Will Barry You. Nikki K said it 50 some years ago

Oct 15, 2009 - 7:53 pm 15. Pajamas Media » Confusions of the Age:

[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]

Oct 15, 2009 - 11:57 pm 16. bill:

“20-30K in income and payroll taxes won’t matter that much.”

How about property taxes in good old California Doc? 1 million dollars might find you a dump of a 1200 square foot 1950’s tract house in Palo Alto – if you are lucky. Something a little nicer with an extra room or two? 1.4 million. Buy one of those and you end up with an annual property tax bill bigger than the average Central Valley residents mortgage payment. Once you move in you might find your neighbor has a tax bill of a few hundred dollars rather than your many thousands. Mom and Pop have probably moved on by now but the son and daughter of the original owners who occupy said house not only inherited the house, they inherited mom and pops meager tax obligation as well. Even the owners who bought these homes 15 years ago are paying far less than the 2009 Greater Fool. I don’t know about the Roman’s but it doesn’t make much sense to me.

Oct 15, 2009 - 11:59 pm 17. ked5:

It is as if Putin not only knew he would win on this one, but get the added bonus of showing the world how obsequious, naïve, and impotent the new U.S. was in the bargain

~~~

I’ve been saying for a year “obeymugabe is a wannabe, but Putin is the *real* deal and will eat him for lunch. (blindfolded with both hands tied behind his back, and never break a sweat).

Oct 16, 2009 - 12:50 am 18. genghis:

At this moment in time it is a unclear as to what will happen first; the collapse of the dollar, hyper-inflation, race riots, a more severe second leg of a double-dip recession, nuclear Armageddon in the Middle East, or WTC II. But I sure as hell know that one of these disasters will occur long before the icecaps melt, the seas rise, or sanity returns to those governing us. Or to put it another way, the odds that we will survive the remaining three years of ObamaWorld are diminishing daily.

Oct 16, 2009 - 3:09 am 19. Numerian:

I’m surprised no one has noticed what seems to me to be the most salient feature of the Rush Limbaugh/NFL affair; the man was – in effect – blacklisted in a fashion reminiscent of the legends about McCarthyism.

Oct 16, 2009 - 3:17 am 20. ITF:

Bush tax cuts allowed to expire. Value Added Tax being pushed by Nancy Pelosi. Individual Mandate for Socialized Medicine. Taxes on foreign profits of US companies (in addition to the foreign taxes). More “sin” taxes – moving to sodas now. International Transaction Tax to fund the UN. Inevitable increase in Payroll and Medicare Tax. Keep – and inevitably increase the death tax. Cap and Trade to tax the heck out of energy use.

Then there are State taxes.

These parasites don’t want “more”. They want it ALL.

Oct 16, 2009 - 3:43 am 21. Prologue:

6.Anton notes – “Now we are subjected to a barrage of self-righteous, in-your-face black bigotry toward whites with an ever angrier tone.”
I have long observed that people openly hate what it is safe to hate, and not what really threatens them, and the intensity of that hate is in direct proportion to a real threat which they cannot bring themselves to face. In the case of groups, it becomes a groupthink form of hysteria. In WWII Germans succumbed to mass hysterical anti-semitism, crediting Jews (an entirely helpless and harmless segment of the population) with the power to destroy Germany. They even developed “scientific methodology” to lend such nonsense credibility. AGW, I suspect, is another form of group hysterical paranoia, also accompanied by a bogus scientific methodology and data. It seems mostly to afflict those who deny we are in any danger of attack from those who hate us (for their own hysterical reasons).
I wonder if the current escalating hatred toward whites isn’t a similar form of hysteria, allowing a safe outlet for a fear of another sort which is too uncomfortable to be addressed. I’m not sure.

Oct 16, 2009 - 5:25 am 22. Booker T. Gain:

Kerry: Or, I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania and killed the REAL BIRD with one stone.

If Kerry had done so and sustained his third self-inflicted, superficial flesh wound he be awarded a fourth purple heart?

Oct 16, 2009 - 5:26 am 23. newscaper:

The obvious racial element in the Kanye-Taylor embarrassment — and the media embargo on addressing it — chapped my ass.

There is zero doubt in my mind that he would not have done it, had it she been anything but a young, physically scrawny white girl (with non-hiphop influenced as a bonus).

There is no way in hell he would have dissed a ’sistah’.

Oct 16, 2009 - 5:46 am 24. Vietnam Vet- 67-70:

good profits for Russian companies, tensions in the Gulf always a help with high oil prices, everyone begs Russia to “leash” their new feral nuclear bulldog).

So he entraps the idiotic Americans by vague promises of Iranian sanctions

He has also entrapped Obama in the ‘good war’ that we can win with boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Reminds me of LBJ.

Is Obama so stupid not to realize that Russia is now supplying Iran and the Taliban with Russian oil money and weapons to blow up American men and women troops before they can win?

Hell,
they even have the blueprints for the roads they built in 1987 where the bombs are being planted to blow up our troops.

Is Obama so stupid to forget Russia lost 10,000+ men killed and 40,000+ wounded in Afghanistan because the CIA supplied these same mujaheddin troops with billions in money and weapons?

Is Obama so stupid to think Russian military leaders are not licking their lips over the idea of another Vietnam in Afghanistan,
which will also drain our tanked economy and humiliate our military thereby making Russia the Supreme country in the world Putin has always dreamed of?

Blowing up terrorists leaders from a distance with advanced technological drone weapons is one thing, but troops on the ground in Asia is another.

Sorry for the rant-

I forgot Obama is the new ‘Messiah of Peace’ and he can ‘walk on water’ and make miracles.

He has the medal to prove it!

Oct 16, 2009 - 5:53 am 25. Nobama 2012:

14. porthuronpunk:

To Russia with Love: We Will Barry You.
Nikki K said it 50 some years ago

I would ROFLOL if that comment was not so true.

Oct 16, 2009 - 6:19 am 26. pelaut:

What ever happened to American sports that started “ladders” from local community bleachers to county to state to interstate competitions, including youth groups like the deMolay and Cardinal Whosis, etc.?

Blast the commercial leauges using our tax money for giant bread and circus stadiums that soon will be RollerBall or whatever that was in a movie I heard of but never, gratefully, saw.

Tear it all down and start again.

Oct 16, 2009 - 6:28 am 27. misanthropicus:

“It depends on what do you mean by IS” – was Bill Clinton’s justification years ago that announced the coming of (a few):
* Eugene Robinson’s (of the moribond Episcopalian Church) “It doesn’n matter what the Bible says, it matters what YOU THINK THAT THE BIBLE SAYS”,
* Woopy Goldberg’s “it wasn’t rape-rape,”
* the Notre Dame U giving Obama an “anticipative” PhD,
* the Oslo-Five giving the same Obama an “anticipative” Nobel Peace Prize,
* etc. etc.

But how ’bout reverend Wright’s “The chickens are home to roost?”
Yes, the chickens are here, pressing their noses (heh-heh-heh!) on the windows’ glass – fuzzy mathematics, absurdist desconstructionism, neo-retro-post structuralism, non-judgmentalism, open-mindedness, cultural relativism and other staples of the modern American education, have returned as invoices that got to be paid in any domain of activity –

Industry, application of law process, education, art, etc. etc. – baby, I don’t think that we can pay all these, we got to file for bankrupcy.

Oct 16, 2009 - 6:35 am 28. Thomas_L.....:

Good article. Great comments. The trolls don’t seem to know how to respond to this one. Befouling themselves comes naturally though. Vapid S should be peacing on us soon.

Oct 16, 2009 - 6:45 am 29. Gail:

I don’t see any situations that you write about that would make a true believer socialist unhappy. You do not propose that any of this has occured intentionally. Did Putin know that the US would back off before the meeting? Perhaps Putin is serving Obama by giving him cover to allow Iran to finish its nuclear intentions. Maybe ambiguity in sexual activity aids socialism. Did in Europe. And perhaps like Bill Gates in the 1990s, the NFL owners, and other very wealthy Americans, have learned to sit down and shut up.

You, Mr. Hanson, on the other hand, do what Francis Schaeffer, who saw this coming in the ’70s, recommendeded – use the freedoms that have not yet been taken before those are removed, too. God strengthen you, because you wield the pen against this evil, dominating minority.
Gail

Oct 16, 2009 - 7:01 am 30. misanthropicus:

RE: To Russia With Love – A respectful Addition To Hanson’s Russian Matter -
—————-*—————
“The Manchurian Cadidate In Full –
Bloom – Handlers Excitedly Contemplate Return Of America To Pre-Pearl Harbor Haplessness.

Another laurel leaf to Obama’s Nobel crown – Russia has declared that they believe in, and maintain their right in nuclear pre-emptive strikes. How does this rhyme with the Oslo-Five theory on Obama’s transformational, benefic influence in world nuclear politics, I don’t know (maybe a Ionesco reading would help me to understand this) -
And the latest – did I hear right yesterday that the (politely said) current White House administration plans to review America’s policies in this pre-emptive nuclear policy matter, and probably drop this option of nuclear pre-emptive strike? Now this one sure does rhyme with the Oslo-Five views –
And this return to a pre-Pearl Harbour haplessness is certainly viewed with much pleasure in Moscow, Beijing and elsewhere -

Oct 16, 2009 - 7:06 am 31. jb:

Interesting essay, doc.

1.) Regards the NFL brush-off for Rush, everyone knows owning a NFL team is a license to print money. Only a select few are granted that privilege. Rush was measured and found wanting. Frankly I’d like to see that game abolished.

2.) Russians are notoriously hard headed, (I should know, I’m married to one.) The only persons remotely qualified to talk to Vladimir Putin would be another Russian and we know Obama hasn’t the guts to put someone like that on the White House staff.

3.) The words; “child” and “rape”, do not belong together in the same sentence, adding the word; “sodomy”, does not, IMHO, add or lessen the seriousness of the crime. Those Hollywood types who have defended Polanski have just lost another customer at the box office.

4.) Race relations have never been worse than they are today. The backlash is here and getting worse. “White people” are no longer taking offense at being called a racist. The word no longer has the poison it once did. In fact, many whites are starting to smile when they hear the black race mongers raving about the evil white oppressor. Being labeled a racist may soon become a badge of honor.

5.) I’ve always felt being rich was a state of mind. What was that old saying about death and taxes? Whoever said that didn’t know Obama.

Oct 16, 2009 - 7:41 am 32. weary_g:

Professor,

If I understand you correctly on the sodomy issue, I understand your point and it is an interesting perspective, but I think you are incorrect nonetheless. Or, perhaps are missing part of the issue.

The difference here is the consensual versus the non-consensual as to the attitude with sodomy.

Rape is a violation; a forcing of one to submit to another’s will using “sex”, which heightens the degradation. Treating someone as an object to be used, rather than a human being is what I imagine is one of the worst aspects.

It also causes pain and usually physical injury, even if there is not a struggle.

All this you know, of course.

The reason why I think sodomy warrants mention as a seperate catagory, at least in the Polanski case, is that I think it indicates an even greater attempt to cause pain, humiliation and physical suffering on the victim.

Without getting too graphic, a 13 year old violated vaginally against her will be suffering horrible pain and injury already. Forced anal penetration can only add to that, making it much worse.

Rape is about violence and domination, and sodomy, whether anal or oral, is a way to further humiliate and torture a victim.

In a case like Polanski’s, the sodomy did act to accentuate the crime as would say a rapist beating a victim even as they submitted, or forcing them to engage in other humiliating acts as part of the domination. It showed Polanski was completely indifferent to the suffering of his victim and in fact was perhaps interested in increasing it as part of the pleasure he derived.

I think in this case, and in some others, it is important to indicate the level of depravity; not for the act itself, but for intent to do even more harm, physically, mentally and emotionally.

WG

Oct 16, 2009 - 8:41 am 33. Nash:

Thomas – LOL and right on man! I thought once Misanthropicus posted, that ‘Now and Then’ and his sidekick ‘David S – peace’ would not be far behind. They love to dog pile Misanthropicus. I think Victor scares them off. I will read anything by Dr. Hanson. I have urged friends who are at Stanford to take any course offered where Dr. Hanson is lecturing. No matter what their major is just be sure and take any and all courses with VDH. We are even looking into Hillsdale simply because he lectures there as well.

Oct 16, 2009 - 8:49 am 34. biblio44:

“I get confused by the news quite often.”

That’s quite obvious.

Oct 16, 2009 - 8:57 am 35. EnemyoftheState:

The U.S. and the world are so far past the point of recovery now that I see no point in trying.

Somewhere in the world there’s a real decent man, like Noah in the Old Testament, who’s hearing the voice of God telling him how to build a big fallout shelter or something and provision it and gather animals in it. His neighbors think he’s crazy.

Or maybe there’s no Noah this time, God’s giving up on this experiment with the humans and earth. There are other populated planets that are working out so much better.

It looks a lot like He’s left us on our own, just to see how long it takes us to burn out.

Oct 16, 2009 - 9:31 am 36. Thomas_L....:

Nash – I agree, of course. All they can usually muster in response to another fine VDH essay is … na na na boo boo, we won! They also think that their man “won” the Nobel Peace Prize. The fact that the game is still in the first quarter and the score at the end may wipe the smiles of their self congratulatory smug faces hasn’t dawned on them yet. An Iranian nuke at 300 miles up will not only spoil their party, rain on their parade and complicate their little lives but unfortunately also prevent them from ever admitting their stupidity. At least, on line. Peace on us, eh?

Oct 16, 2009 - 10:53 am 37. arthur:

Rush’s race baiting and other lowly comments would have been bad for the league image, and hurt Pro football marketing and family appeal. There is no reason to bring someone like Rush on board, it’s all negative and risk for the league, they can get what he offers (money to buy a team) from other places. Rush is talented at his job, but he is not the talent of the NFL, the talent is the players. When players go wrong, you are talking about the talent, and usually people that are already well-liked by the fan base. Players are punished etc, but ownership and the league are in a business, and must balance the needs of justice etc along with consideration of working with TV networks , unions, etc. and the knowledge that the players are the talent. The league and Rush have never shown much in the way of ethical concerns or considerations. its a business and it was a smart business move to keep out Rush, he’s all risk with no upside for the league, one should think that the apologists for the Market should not be so weepy eyed over its mechanisms simply because it has worked against the interests of one of their own.

Oct 16, 2009 - 11:02 am 38. Michael:

And herrrrre’s biblio44 right on que with no rebutal of the facts and only ad hominem attacks.

BEWARE! It’s the attack of the liberal! Now there is a good horror picture title.

Oct 16, 2009 - 11:39 am 39. MarkD:

Ah, racist. The word is now an emoticon for dislike. It has no sting. Ten years ago, I’d have been horrified to be called a racist. Now, I’d just figure some verbally challenged person took exception to something I said or did.

They will need to come up with a new word to denote practitioner of virulent hatred based on skin color.

I’m not playing the guilt game, and I’m not associating with those that do. Al Sharpton or David Dukes or Eric Holder; it doesn’t matter. The TV is off, the reading is done, the speaker may be breathing, but they are dead to me. I’ve better things to do with my life. You’ll get as much as you take and not a bit more.

Oct 16, 2009 - 11:56 am 40. Scott:

Not the same Scott as #4. Interesting piece Dr.

It was mentioned that Russians “play chess” and Americans “play checkers” in foreign policy, and while I don’t necessarily disagree I think it is indicative of our different systems of government.

The Russians (or Soviets) are able to play foreign policy in that manner due to the same individuals holding power for many years. If they die it is usually their hand picked successor who takes power, even if it isn’t they are “Russian” and thus will often continue the plans that benefit Russia.

Americans however have a different CiC every 4 to 8 years with the outlook of the new President being radically different from the previous one. Take Bush and Obama for example, in foreign policy you could hardly find more polar opposites, one saunters on the world stage with a proud Texas strut and the other genuflects & apologizes to our enemies and dictators, insults our long standing friends, and generally couldn’t find his own behind in a dark room with both hands and a flashlight when it comes to foreign policy.

Its the luxury of time that an basically unelected government has over a generally elected one that changes regularly. If you expect to be around for 50 years you can implement plans that may take 30 years to bear fruit, if you got 4 maybe 8 there are no guarantees and you have to rush and either fail or succeed quickly.

Oct 16, 2009 - 12:08 pm 41. bill:

I do agree w/ all of Dr. Hanson’s points, but wonder if there is still a grander game with the US and Russian going on. What are the possibilities? Russian not aiding the Iranians against the Israelis or even providing accurate, helpful intelligence to the US and the Israeli’s? On the other hand with so many Marxists in the admin and the president the close friend of Marxists trained by the KBG (Ayers for one), could it be that Obama is serving up the US to Russia?

Oct 16, 2009 - 1:18 pm 42. Moogie:

The real backlash for the overuse of “racist” is the same as the boy who cried wolf. The more it’s used the less it means. Eventually, it will meaningless. Then, it will swing the other way: those who point their fingers and cry “Racist!” will be viewed as the racist. It reminds me of that crude saying: “He who smelt it, dealt it.”

Oct 16, 2009 - 1:25 pm 43. Hans Moleman:

Russia (and China) are not displeased with Iran’s challenge to the West, and will not impede it in any way. But, to avoid burning all bridges to the West, Russia and China will continue to play tag-team in threatening to veto any UN Security Council action, swapping the good-cop/bad-cop roles from time to time. They know that the present US administration will not consider military pressure on Iran without a UN mandate. Russia and China are Iran’s insurance policy against any possible UN action. With their backing, Iran fears no sanctions, and has zero incentive to negotiate in good faith.

As our president receives worldwide acclaim (or at least Norway-wide) for his policy of appeasing Iran’s “legitimate concerns” in endless “good-faith” negotiations, we should look back seventy-some years, to the last comparable exercise in appeasement of dictators. It didn’t work for Chamberlain, and it is not working now.

A very young John Kennedy wrote “Why England Slept”, analyzing England’s 1930’s appeasement policy and its roots in pacifism and isolationism. In discussing the British government’s wild under-estimation of the Nazi threat, he writes:

“Baldwin [Chamberlain’s predecessor as PM] should be condemned for his blindness and his unwillingness to face unpleasant facts, but I do not believe that he and his entire cabinet knowingly betrayed the country. They all made the mistake of misjudging Germany’s potentialities and the Nazi psychology.”

There is every reason to believe that the same mistakes are being made today by our president. “Unwillingness to face unpleasant facts” is a matter of pride with him.

[Flashback: Bullwinkle: “Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!” Rocky: “That trick never works.” Bullwinkle: “This time for sure.” Bullwinkle (after trick fails): “I gotta get a new hat.”]

Obama needs to put aside Mr. Chamberlain’s old hat.

Oct 16, 2009 - 3:57 pm 44. myth buster:

8. They already have that, it’s called a salary cap. There is a tight range in which the total salary of all the players on an NFL team must fall. Players can earn additional money by making the playoffs and advancing in the playoffs, with the highest prize going to Super Bowl winners, but that prize money falls outside the contractual payments.

Oct 16, 2009 - 4:19 pm 45. Cincinnatus:

I fear that we are past the point of no return. Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and others are in collusion to take the United States down economically. Their dream come true was the election of a clueless president who dislikes America to boot was an unexpected but much hoped for event. Putin, went to school during the economic destruction of Russian during the last days of the cold war and he knows he can achieve his goal of destroying the US and re-establishing Russia as a superpower if he keeps the unrest up in the mid-east. His assistance in Iran’s development of the bomb and his cover for Iran in the UN, all serve to weaken America. Couple that with his efforts to establish a new world reserve currency and indexing oil to something other than the dollar and you have effectively waged a two front war on the US. The collapse of the dollar is imminent. Start planning on how you are going to survive the hyperinflation and “new dollar” that is around the corner.

Oct 16, 2009 - 4:44 pm 46. deguello:

MR.HANSON:How about the most important question involving political confusion:”Are they liberals”? they sound an awful lot like Stalinists to me’! That’s because they ARE Stalinists( and Maoists).End of confusion;plan accordingly.

Oct 16, 2009 - 5:57 pm 47. RAP:

This is in reply to #45 Cincinnatus. Stop blaming Putin for America’s troubles. Put the blame where it belongs on Reagan, Bush, Greenspan etc. We have spent ourselves into near bankruptcy. The Russians or the Devil didn’t make us do it. We need to stop blaming other people for our problems and take some responsibility. As Pogo said “we have met the enemy and he are us.”

Oct 16, 2009 - 11:55 pm 48. Khiri:

Rush is not a racist or a race baiter. If you ever actually listened to him, rather than read/listen to the drivel in the Obama Propaganda Machine (MSM), then you would know the truth. He simply points out the racists – like Jackson, Sharpton, Obama, Holder, Wright, et al – asking why the color of someone’s skin makes them exempt from the scrutiny the rest of us have to deal with. Isn’t that what MLK was dreaming of?

Most conservatives are not racists. We couldn’t care less about the color of someone’s skin. Most liberals are racists. They insist people of color get preferential treatment. They are, in effect, saying “Don’t judge Obama by his policies; judge him by his skin color.” Aren’t you then saying his policies can’t stand on their own? That if he can’t do the job, it’s because the color of his skin? That, my friends, is the definition of racism.

You racists are being called out for what you are by people like Rush.

Deal with it. We’re done with you.

Oct 17, 2009 - 4:52 am 49. Khiri:

RAP, you forgot to include Carter, Clinton, Frank, Dodd…

Or are those included in your “etc.?”

Oct 17, 2009 - 6:10 am 50. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh

Has anyone ever been in a fight that they had to win or get hurt real bad? While fighting you realize that it you don’t win and quickly its all over. Animal like Fear and adrenalin kick in, was already there, training kicks in, hopefully yours is quicker, better, smarter than his. An instinct to win.

That’s the way America and Americans should feel about BHO and his shadow government. BHO is a domestic enemy of America. BHO and the subversive indoctrinated fools that made him and many more like him over the last 70 or more years of hidden subversion due to the dumbed down MSM. The perfumed communist/socialist Utopian language of subversion that most Americans in our grandfathers day laughed at. “A chicken in every pot” from somebody Else’s flock. The BHO’s are in reality simple chicken thieves overthrowing America.

They are the Utopian angry fools who believe that free lunches do exist and “other rich people” are keeping it away from them. The historical language of revolution and power grabs, mostly bloody civil wars, not this time, not yet anyway. Just ignorance creating the inability to see that Utopian thinking is a fools food for thought and action.

The BHOs now see America as within their grasp due to years of dumbed down education by the Teachers Union,Government run schools creating dependents with indolent justification and criminal ignorance, Dem run inner cities with 50% unemployment, but minimum wage fig leafs, political class war fare, AA and PC without firing a shoot, trying to disarm Americans, killing unborn Americans with abortion. What more could be done to destroy America?

Now private assets belonging to hard working Americans are the BHOs public till. They stand in line to wait for the handouts within the Dem run cities. A crying matter of human ignorance and anger fed by stupid and criminal politicians along with the extortion business of the race baiters. Not even knowing that water flows downhill.

The BHO fools will destroy private property value at home and also destroy American value to the world simply by printing American dollars. Protecting their own with no more intelligence than ants in a ant hill attacking the “intruders”. Common sense destroyed and sacrificed to looting and the communist ideology that has never ever worked other than to destroy and grab power.

Who is to stop the BHOs? Not the current crop of politicians. That includes the existing republicans who sound simply like mealy mouthed and reactionary fools across the line but still fools. Democrats sound like the stupid, ignorant indoctrinated shills they are.

The Dems are driving the destruction and demolition wagon to destroy American freedoms, and destroy the free market that allows the lowest with merit and hard work to become the highest.

To gain insight to their views, listen to Barney Frank for the justifications used to destroy America. He is good at spouting it off. His fat butt lack of intelligence that was fed and indoctrinated with PC, AA, Utopian language in Harvard. He loves to talk and pontificate, just listen to what he says and try to see the consequences in a real world to America.

America and Americans had better see the nature of this fight for the survival of America as it was founded. Knowledge is the answer to understanding of the nature of the fight. Once understood if you want America as you know it to survive, the same America that people laid down their lives to create, the same America that immigrants laid down their lives just to try and get here. That America is worth fighting for figure out how.

I am not equating the immigrants who came to America to build with the current illegal immigrants who are not and do not become “Americans” but come now just to milk the welfare system along with criminal thugs, and those piss-pot revolutionaries to help the BHOs share in the redistribution of American wealth created by private American individuals.

The current illegals are not here to really create wealth, or even learn English, but just support group nationalities, and other subversive groups like Acorn who provide the local leadership to create a divisive class warfare and to stuff ballot boxes with votes. A gun less revolution seen by the indoctrinated fools as their “victim” rights being established that should have been established a long time ago.

Some good news. There are those that provide a guiding light in this fight. VDH, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and many others. All would do well to listen to and read what is being said by those now current path finders to retrieve the now slipping away America.

Oct 17, 2009 - 6:17 am 51. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh

I believe that Sarah Palin may be the only politician in America today to watch, listen to and see if her character, integrity, intelligence, and family background would be acceptable to Americans as a leader that will get America back to America.

She would have eight years to undo what will and has been done to destroy America. If it is going to be put back together again it will be done by someone who knows how and leads simply because it is who they are. Someone like a Ronald Reagan who understood.

America is way beyond just needing the finger in the wind political hack. A John McCain need not apply, nor another Bush.

A woman, mother who knows how to track, hunt, shoot/kill, skin and butcher a moose to put food on the table to feed her family–maybe she can do it. I think so and it will be interesting to read and listen to what she has to say in the next few months.

Oct 17, 2009 - 6:42 am 52. TLM:

48. Khiri:

Well said. Racism/racialism on the part of Leftists is increasingly out in the open. It’s now a target of opportunity (and of necessity). In the long run, it will not win the battle. People just don’t care anymore about race based arguments. “We’re done with you” may be the lasting legacy of Obama’s presidency.

Oct 17, 2009 - 6:57 am 53. Samantha:

Re: 2. White People Dance Like This:
“Like their Scotch-Irish ancestors, American Blacks seem to be tolerant of a certain level of roughness or harsh behavior.”

What a stupid comment. All cultures and ethnicities have young males who enjoy rough games. The Scots-Irish were not the ancestors of American Blacks. They didn’t even own slaves! It was the English (Anglo-Saxon) planters who used forced labor (first poor whites and then Africans) and American football evolved from English rugby in the Anglo-Saxon universities–Harvard, Princeton, Yale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football

Oct 17, 2009 - 8:54 am 54. Anonymous:

bill #16 — no one can ever think through consequences. We as a species are just stupid that way. Prop 13 has had one set of consequences, some of which are regrettable. The worst, in my view, is that it has enabled California’s propensity to regulate and tax everything else. That creates a discouraging economic environment and makes businesses and middle-upper income individuals leave the state.

If property taxes could be raised more, and more often, however, it would be even harder than it is now to own property in California — AND the economic benefit to individuals, of increasing home value, would operate more slowly. There are a lot of people here who are low on discretionary income for decades, but put up with that because their principal investment is gaining tremendous value for them.

The ONLY way I would ever agree to repealing Prop 13 is if all other taxes were rolled back and the Republicans got control of the statehouse again.

Oct 17, 2009 - 10:59 am 55. B.H.O.:

OJ is still drawing his pension…

Oct 17, 2009 - 11:16 am 56. Carl Sesar:

re 43

Obama’s not appeasing Iran. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe Obama is making the same mistakes with Iran today that Chamberlain in Hitler’s day made of misjudging Germany’s potentialities and the Nazi psychology. Far from it. Obama’s fully cognizant of the unpleasant facts of Iran’s nuclear potential and genocidal intentions. Who in the world isn’t?

The unpleasant fact that almost everybody seems so blind to and unwilling to face, or more likely pretending simply not to notice, is that Obama is a collaborator, openly and actively aiding and abetting Iran in its sordid designs.

Oct 17, 2009 - 1:06 pm 57. Crusader:

Where is Vivo to tell us how wrong VDH is?

Oct 17, 2009 - 1:06 pm 58. d neal:

Re Anton # 6:

You only watch college football? How many OJ’s are you cheering?

College sports are the entry to the corruption of professional sports.

Oct 17, 2009 - 1:43 pm 59. Carj Sesar:

re 43

Obama’s not appeasing Iran. There’s no reason at all to believe Obama’s making the same mistakes with Iran today that Chamberlain made in Hitler’s day of misjudging Germany’s potential and the Nazi psychology. Obama’s well aware of the unpleasant facts of Iran’s nuclear potential and genocidal intentions. Who in the world isn’t?

The unpleasant fact almost everybody seems so blind to and unwilling to face, or more likely just pretending not to notice, is that Obama’s actively aiding and abetting Iran’s sordid designs.

Oct 18, 2009 - 3:13 am 60. Gerry C:

Oh, come on. Chris Rock is right, dogs really are a White man’s best friend. Listen to enough Rock material and you’ll realize that that is funny.

Oct 19, 2009 - 6:43 pm 61. Daily Edition 10/19/09 « The Quantum Conservative:

[...] *Confusions of the Age, by Victor Davis Hanson. [...]

Oct 21, 2009 - 11:08 am 62. Mike Giles:

I pretty much divide the animal kingdom into three parts; things that I can eat, things that would like to eat me, and everything else. How I interact with class three depends on their usefulness. Perhaps I simply lack their sentimentality, but unlike many people, I’ve never seen dogs as “four legged” humans. The fact that Vick fought dogs, doesn’t cause me to “recoil in horror”, I just don’t care. However we’ve had NFL players – of all sorts of ethnicity – involved, in various ways, with the murders, shootings and rapes. So in what way did Vick harm another human being? I heard once that the purpose of laws was society intervening to prevent personal justice, blood feuds and vendettas. How exactly, is society harmed, by dumb animals fighting each other?

Oct 23, 2009 - 12:09 pm 63. Anonymous:

“23. newscaper:
There is no way in hell he would have dissed a ’sistah’.”

Haven’t heard much Hip Hop, have you?

Oct 23, 2009 - 12:11 pm 64. Mike Giles:

“23. newscaper:
There is no way in hell he would have dissed a ’sistah’.”

Haven’t listened to much Hip Hop, have you?

Oct 23, 2009 - 12:12 pm 65. arthur:

1. Rush has made race-baiting and offensive comments (and yes i have listened to him) and carries a lot of baggage and there is really no reason why the league should have let him in unless you think the government should force the league to adopt a quota of bigoted (loud and public) ownership and hire rush.

2.although it is a serious matter, not worried, we know Putin is the real deal dictator running the show, but have seen nothing to get alarmed about regarding Russian-US relations. what do you want to do, to invade russia? Russia is a mess but so is a lot of the world we have to focus on the immediate.

3. interesting point!

4. to me race seems less an issue in this country than it has ever been before, i say we have made great progress.

5. no matter what party has been in power the middle class has been in a decline of earning power for 35 years and every boom helps the top 5% and the earnings of ceo’s has grown a gargantuan gap between the avg worker and a ceo of a corporation. the way to combat this might be to raise taxes to Reagan year levels and fund education and job training like never before. or not, either way both parties are probably tethered to wealth and lobbyist interests more than we would like until we get rid of the pervasive influence of private wealth in the election process.

Nov 15, 2009 - 1:03 pm

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