How to distill the news? After watching it far too much the past nine months, I offer five random conclusions from what I think is going on in the age of Obama.
1. Disconnect. There is little semblance between how one lives and how one envisions others should live. We saw that with the cabinet nominees. Tom Daschle, cheating on the taxes on his free limousine service, was the obvious caricature of someone who likes the high life, has found a way through tribuneship to get it, and makes so much money that he easily has enough money to pay for the taxes he wants to raise on others—but would prefer, given his status, not to pay them at all. A Geithner, Dodd, or John Edwards typify a rather large influential class of such moralists who suffer on our behalf. The more influential the environmentalist, the more likely his house does not meet his own green requisites he wishes to impose on others, so that he might better think on our behalf. The more a Charles Rangel talks of affordable housing, the poor, and social justice, the more he suddenly finds hidden bank accounts, unreported income, and subsidized apartments in his name, so that he might better agitate on our behalf. Hypocrisy is a human, rather than a partisan sin (note the philandering evangelical or the capitalist who wants government money to rig the game), but the man on the barricades shouting about social equality is especially prone to it—since it pays so uniquely well both materially and psychologically.
2. Abroad. Foreign policy now starts with the assumption the world is not naturally chaotic, but tranquil—if not for the obtrusive presence of a largely ignorant and selfish United States. The past is selectively invoked—Native Americans, slavery, sexism, racism, imperialism—and always without consideration of the far greater sins of other comparable societies or the astounding achievements of American society that allow our present spokesmen their exalted status and influence. By reaching out to troublemakers, and airing our pathologies, we are supposed to calm the misunderstood and demonized, as we insidiously try to address their complaints. A Chavez or Ahmadinejad should be less hostile once they learn that we too are moving to socialized health care, income redistribution, high taxes, blanket entitlements and becoming more part of the statist solution rather than of the cowboy capitalist problem. To understand such a policy, shorn of its pretensions, as old-style appeasement is considered a smear. Or to think that a Syria, Venezuela, or Cuba hates individual freedom and exists for a professional cadre of elite autocrats is considered naïve and simplistic. The greatest defenders in America of a Castro or Chavez are precisely those whose lifestyles and income would be impossible under such regimes.
3. Top and bottom. Obama is the embodiment of the new Democratic Party that appeals to the very poor and the upscale, the one reliant on federal largess, the other making enough money not to care all that much about the taxes necessary to fund it. On almost every issue—environmentalism, social issues, larger government—there is a new alliance that simply downplays the ordeal of the larger middle class of all races and ethnicities, especially those who are self-employed and wedded to more traditional values. The hardware store owner, dentist, real estate salesperson, and farmer, are seen as the “boss” with capital to dispense to others, rather than the critical but harried entrepreneurs who get up each morning with no certainty of an income or benefits. The chief difference between the support for the new Obamism among those in the gated community (tastefully gated) and the barrio was the level of vehemence and near anger in which it was expressed—far greater the more upscale the neighborhood.
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106 Comments
1. GGA - Dublin, Ohio:Dr. Hanson -
Your last several posts hit the center of the target, as usual. It is always refreshing to read your comments and gain new insights.
You know the world is totally upside down when the French President is furious with the US President for failing to properly confront a rogue regime at the UN regarding its formerly secret nuclear facility. Imagine this taking place in 2002!
Naivete and narcissism does not even begin to capture the essence of failing to discharge a prime duty (by the US President and the UN SC) to keep pristine the optics of voting in harmony to rid the world of nukes. If it were not so nauseating, it would be hysterical…
The irrelevancy of the UN as a body built to prevent war is now firmly established. Surely its humanitarian efforts can and should continue, but there should no longer be any illusions about its utility in confronting rogue regimes and keeping the peace. The real heavy lifting must now be done by coalitions of not just the willing, but the realistic.
It is truly a sad day in American history when the leader of the free world cannot or will not lead. While the elite and their media obviously embrace this new reality fully, We the People are disgusted and increasingly recognize the difference between (choreographed) words and deeds.
Kind regards,
Sep 30, 2009 - 6:35 am 2. Robert Winkler Burke:GGA – Dublin, Ohio
A Republic, If You Can Keep It
By Robert Winkler Burke
Of inthatdayteachings.com
Copyright 9/22/09
What happens when a republic,
Becomes a corrupt democracy?
As a man thinks, and that nation,
So he is, and so that nation be!
At core, is a man at peace,
With himself, others and how the world is?
Or is he feeling inferior, done in,
Or the opposite, on top in guilty hubris?
The inferior-superiors,
Are the mother of troubles,
The at-peace-with-all,
Are the republic’s brothers.
So for two hundred years,
Republics have shown the way,
Only for over and under lords,
Of malaise to deceive the day.
The over and under despot cultures,
Breed vice and corruption,
Blaming republic rule-of-law governance,
As their grievance connection.
Always the cry is,
They did something unfair to us,
Always the cry is,
Beggar the neighbors to us bless!
The neighbors are any not,
Poor or lords of lunacy in charge,
The neighbors are made poor,
That only lords of lunacy loom large.
Amazing this idiocy happens now,
In modern republic nations,
Only great, horrific, unbearable pain,
Brings corrupt to foundations.
Our foundations are built,
Upon eternal hope, freedom and liberty,
Not one lord class perking lesser,
Who needs hell, when we can be free?
Only great pain,
Of epic proportions,
Shall stop evil lords,
Begetting more whore’s sons.
In That Day of pain,
When many will see the light,
Lords be gone again,
Republic freed, wrongs made right.
Hallelujah for God’s patience,
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:41 am 3. cfbleachers:And letting us by example see,
How close we are to heaven,
Or hell our nations by choice be.
VDH
It seems to me that we are witnessing a disease make its way through the body politic. Usually, bacteria are too tiny to witness with the naked eye, however, when a disease reaches critical mass such as it has within our boundaries it can achieve sepsis of the soul. Much of this land of ours is in that very state.
The host body took on this parasite decades ago. During the Cold War, our resistance to it was lowered, especially during the 60’s. Our immune system was overwhelmed during the Viet Nam war and Watergate gave the parasite a chance to thrive during a particularly trying time for the body politic.
Leftism invaded liberalism in those days and just as killer bees overtake and wipe out more calm and docile honeybees, it has nearly eradicated an entire species. The liberal is nearly dead and gone. The leftist with its angry stinger always at the ready, is here…in swarms.
Leftism does not like America. In fact, it despises her. It sneers at her rooting in faith, especially Judeo-Christian heritage. (while Eastern faiths are “kinda cool”, meditation, yoga and spiritual communing with nature…meet the requirements for accepted religions, as long as they take a back seat to “the message”)
For those seeped in raging leftism, America and being American is something for which one apologizes.
Growing up, especially in the Midwest, with certain value propositions as unwritten rules, prior to the invasion of this disease…one could talk about one’s family and vent, but nobody else could talk about one’s family…that was out of bounds.
After the disease set in, it was not only accepted, but expected…that one would denounce America, Americans, Americana. It was a right of passage into the diseased “one world” society…America was not exceptional…it was the object of scorn and ridicule.
From this myopic and astigmatic worldview, our enemies were always right and we were always wrong. Those with the strongest strains of the disease feel the need to blurt out invective against the country and their countrymen like Tourette’s sufferers, denying anything good about America and anything bad about her enemies.
The disease caught on in the poorest neighborhoods, where daily life made them susceptible because it was hard scrabble and made them easy prey.
But it also caught on with the easily misled. Weaker minds, more impressionable and risk-taking youth, every place where temptation bred like a Petri dish…you could find the parasites working overtime.
The hallmarks of hedonism…Hollywood and the college campus were the roiling breeding grounds.
It hit our information stream hard. Our entrenched media is festering with the disease. This caused a more virulent strain to take hold.
Leftism is a disease so rampant now…no antidote seems capable of restoring our national health. All that we witness today…the denial of American exceptionalism, the kneejerk need to blame America for the transgressions of her enemies, the whitewashing of all the sins of those enemies, the need to create class, creed, and racial warfare between its peoples, and the need to tear down its fabric with insults and ridicule.
The need to steal her riches, strip her defenses, deny her greatness and slander her motives. The need to pollute her information stream, cut off her communications, distort her news channels and replace that we fakery, forgery, and buried facts.
Leftism has created a sepsis on our national soul. It is a disease…and we have it. Unless we are willing to fight for our lives to get rid of it, we will continue to witness the ravages it takes on our body politic.
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:43 am 4. Ron Kean:It’s difficult not to feel anger at the upside down nature of life today where all of the above is true not to mention a new report that gives Hamas a pass and rails agains Israel.
Powerful voices castigate talk radio and Fox for the anger.
Then there’s the weapon of lawfare. Savage, Giles, Horowitz and more ask for money to fight the personal destruction of people excercizing first admendment rights.
The worst would be that all of the above becomes banal.
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:52 am 5. Cornhead:Recently looked at “The 48 Laws of Power” by Richard Greene.
Two apply here:
1. Create a cult around yourself.
2. Ask for change, but not too much.
McCain’s “Biggest Celebrity in the World” commercial was his most effective against Obana, IMO.
This radical change in all things healthcare is too much. That’s why the Dems wanted it over by July. It’s completed failed now.
Sep 30, 2009 - 9:25 am 6. Vandenberg:What for me as an European is hard to grasp is why (all of a sudden?) the US has swung left and now is Out-Europeanizing Europe. Despite an historical economic crisis for which Capitalism got widely blamed, the broad social democratic movement in Europe is dead. Germany has swung right, Labor in the UK is mortally wounded and French and Italy have their own kind of right wing government. Europe has historically been receptive to collectivism because of its class warfare, its structure of institutional powerful elites and the associated clientelism and corporatism. The US doesn’t have that history, so what happened? Is it the continuous rise of Big Government ( both under Republicans and Democrats) or is the manic obsession with stars and is it just because of Obama and his starpower? I do not get it and I would like to understand why, where is it coming from?
Sep 30, 2009 - 9:41 am 7. Pajamas Media » Drawing Conclusions From the Age of Obama:[...] Read the rest of the story here. [...]
Sep 30, 2009 - 10:27 am 8. Pedrosito:Parents should always be aware of their children playing in the sand box. Electing liberals is kinda like giving kids a free reign to what ever makes them feel happy at the moment.Liberalism is emotion. The days of liberal intellectual thought died in the 60’s.
Sep 30, 2009 - 10:53 am 9. jimpres:Vandenberg, it is coming from the progressives support by a liberal, congress, senate, and president. They have wanted it all along and now have the votes to do it. They have no concept of what it is like to live under socialism.
Sep 30, 2009 - 10:58 am 10. Sherab Zangpo:There is payback to the unions and others, by the way the Republicans did it as well. They will do all they can while they can to fundamentally change the USA. Led by money from many socialists i.e. Soros.
#6 Vandenberg
The radicals here have organized and planned, and then perfectly carried out, a classic “long march through the institutions”.
They actually represent a tiny minority of the Country, but they are 99% of the educational process and of the distribution (and production) of the news.
In this way they have bamboozled the People and have elected a communist presenting him as a quiet and new “Kennedy” (JFK).
The Country doesn’t know what communism is and has not developed the natural defenses against it: the fight for Freedom has always been ABROAD.
Technically speaking, what has happened is a (otherwise perfectly legal) coup d’etat.
The honest Democrats whom have been tricked into this regime building are SLOWLY understanding what has happened and we must hope that they will slow down the Obama machine.
And don’t forget that the whole process has been financed and helped by powerful forces behind the scenes (Soros and his brotherly friends all over the world).
I know the answer sounds too simplistic, but this is what has actually happened.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Sep 30, 2009 - 10:58 am 11. Rancher:The biggest Obama lie is that he was a centrist and that lie being exposed is what will guarantee the Democrats removal in 2010 and 2012. Hillary can’t change that as she most certainly won’t be allowed to be the Democratic candidate. How much of the damage they will cause until then remains to be seen, as will the question of how much will be irreversible.
Sep 30, 2009 - 10:59 am 12. biblio44:“It matters little that the public senses the emergency room, the DMV, the County Recorder’s office, and the district IRS center are all government-run bureaucracies that they seek to avoid….”
The emergency room? Why, Mr. Hanson, don’t you know that good GOPers hold up emergency rooms as the answer to liberal arguments about the poor and adequate medical care? And ERs as “government-run bureaucracies”? Not at any hospital in my community. And I know two physicians who OWN emergency rooms.
Sep 30, 2009 - 11:23 am 13. don:Philosophy? What philosophy? He’s beyond philosophy, he’s a Marxist. He’s doing Science, you know, like climate science and social science and political science and political economy too, The Man for all seasons, in the guise of renaissance man. Not only is he a pragmatist but he’s the Purpose, with a capital P. Never mind that none of it actually works as predicted; it’s the thought that counts.
Sep 30, 2009 - 11:28 am 14. AThinkingPerson:“How are we to define Obama’s philosophy and presidency?”
Insert any Yosemite Sam cartoon here and it will rival Obama’s philosophy and future legacy.
Sep 30, 2009 - 11:36 am 15. genghis:VDH is , of course, correct. Not withstanding the fact that Obama is really creepy, he is the antithesis of everything I was brought up to believe in. The wonder is that he was elected. The backbone of this country, the great middle class certainly has it within its power to throw the bum out. He cannot be sustained by the polar opposites VDH postulates. The number just aren’t there.
Sep 30, 2009 - 11:45 am 16. rvastar:This is as close to a true Manchurian Candidate as we will ever see. The irony is that in the original movie, it was the rightwing extremists who pulled the strings. The same in ‘Seven Days in May’.The worm has turned. Woe is us.
It’s coming from an orchestrated assault by the Left, which began with a strategy Italian communist Antonio Gramsci coined “the long march through the institutions”. An assault that has taken nearly a century to come to fruition.
The Left has created a society where one-half of the US populace parasitically feeds off of the other half. And the parasites can vote. Another way to look at it: one-half of Americans think that they are entitled to having their “needs” taken care of via govt-funded patronage via the taxation and disenfranchisement of the other half.
This arrangement will not stand.
These two disparate societies are barreling towards a cultural cross-roads…and the resulting crash is going to be cataclysmic.
Revolution is coming.
Sep 30, 2009 - 11:50 am 17. Ron Kean:6. Vandenberg
I have a humble reply to your question about why the US has swung so far to the left when the civilized world is swinging the other way.
Obama spoke like he was a centrist. All smiles to Israel, a new era of bi-partisanship…the usual. He lied. The media hid his record, writing and influences. Americans wanted to give a black man a break. Now he’s breaking the country.
Some former supporters are waking up to the fraud they promoted. Some are beginning to question, like you, what’s happenning. But he still has supporters because he’s throwing around big money. All eyes are on November 2010.
Hillary is another story. Many of us respected the fight in her. She went the distance but her opponent was more skilled in organizing, raising cash and planting charges of (surprise) racism.
We were beginning to like her a little and then she came up with the corkscrew landing story which seemed pathological. Her husband left office with a 60% approval rating. Like Krauthammer says, Bill has irrisistable charm. He can still make her big.
Sep 30, 2009 - 11:52 am 18. Now and Then:Let me get this straight. Bush spends 8 years destroying our economy and our standing, and you want to let history judge him. Obama’s 8 months in and you want to judge him a failure now. Go ahead. That kind of self-righteous haughtiness only pushes the people you need further away.
Sep 30, 2009 - 11:54 am 19. Ruebacca:Vandenberg
The modle the left is using is South American. Obama is a charismatic demagogue of the Chavez type. African Americans Congressmen love Cuba and government control. Blacks in the US are Marxists and statists to the core. Being Black Obama could not be criticized properly as a candidate. Also he lied through his teeth. Combined with huge amounts of corruption and China lending the Dems infinite amounts of money we have the Obama era. It’s a coalition of parasites and we are in fore a ride.
Sep 30, 2009 - 11:58 am 20. AThinkingPerson:Now and Then (re #13): History is ALREADY judging Bush to be a better leader than Obamination so that point is moot.(Google “Which President will go down in history as worse than Carter.” for further reading if needed.) As for your “the people you need” comment. The people we need? You mean voters who will soon see their health care choices taken away by this administration? You mean voters who will see their energy costs skyrocket if CapNTrade passes under this administration? You mean voters who will see their taxes raised to pay off the national debt THIS ADMINISTRATION has already TRIPLED in 9 months? Those voters???
I think you know the answer to that question already. We need do nothing. Obama is doing the work for us.
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:10 pm 21. David Thomson:“What for me as an European is hard to grasp is why (all of a sudden?) the US has swung left..”
That is a very easy question to answer. The majority of American voters were conned in 2008 to believe that Barack Obama was a relatively moderate fellow. They had no idea that he was a Saul Alinsky style radical. It really is that simple. There is no real reason to overly intellectualize the matter.
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:12 pm 22. Richard:He was elected in order to dismantle capitalism and the US Constitution.
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:31 pm 23. jack:Call the devil by its real name.
The sooner we recognize that the better
Great analysis as usual Doc but I would be interested in your thoughts on a way forward since it’s becoming increasingly apparent that The People are not buying what Obama and the socialists are selling.
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:31 pm 24. tanstaafl:How are we to define Obama’s philosophy and presidency?
mmmm, mmmm, mmmm…
…likes the showmanship, the grandiosity, the traveling (especially foreign, domestic is ok), spending a week pontificating at “The UN”, the adulation & attention…while not being so enthusiastic about actually knowing the content of the bills he and his cronies are trying to whoosh through or that tedious war stuff, like having to think about the very tenuous circumstances of the troops he allegedly commands ?
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:42 pm 25. carla:NOW AND THEN
Sure, sure, it’s Bush’s fault. Absolutely. Funny, I thought the Dems controlled Congress the previous four years. Asleep at the switch, you think? The likes of Barney Frank & Co. just doesn’t figure in, eh? I’ll skip Iraq since that seems to have worked itself out. No story there, eh? As for the current financial situation, it appears to me that your hero, Obama-san has quadrupled the debt he inherited? Not so? Forgive me, kemo sabe, but forget about eight months. A lot of us had The One pretty well figured about eight months before the election. It is indeed interesting to watch as buyers remorse starts setting in among the faithful. You know, Bush lied, blah, blah, blah. But Obama is one disaster unfolding in slow motion. And I am willing to bet, two years from now, you’ll be whining to criticize the Anointed One, afater only three years. If we still have a country. Considering Obama’s foreign policy brilliance, that is a tenuous assumption.
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:44 pm 26. Poor Citizen:Sorry, but I have to say it too. This type of article is much, much too soon. Its based upon a President and an administration that has just started. They haven’t even filled all of their positions yet. Give it another two years then get back to us “deeper thinkers.” You could shorten it up a few paragraphs though for the intro to the one in 2-3 years.
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:49 pm 27. jodetoad:To Vandenberg:
Also, we had a perfect storm of vilification of Bush, a unusually large contingent of youth voters, who are so poorly educated that many are incapable of critical thought, excellent marketing by the Democrats and poor marketing by the GOP, aided and abetted by a news media who performed the function of cheerleaders rather than journalists.
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:50 pm 28. bear:“That kind of self-righteous haughtiness only pushes the people you need further away.”
Who are they?
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:53 pm 29. Vandenberg:Thanks to those that replied to my question. It doesn’t make me completely optimistic though. The culture wars in the USA appears to be deepening. It is not just a clash of values but there is now a strong social economic dimension to it. The worrying lessons of Europe are that once large parts of populations get used to entitlements it is hard to turn that back. In matter of fact it will only happen if the social welfare system collapses (which will eventual happen) or somebody like a Margaret Thatcher comes along. It makes you long for a constitution where a population gets protected against governmental economic interference of ones individual liberty. For example no wage and price controls, a % cap on budget deficits and tax increases will only happen if 2/3 of Congress agrees. I understand that Reagan wanted to do that, but it never happened.
Anyway the US still has all the major elements going for it. Maybe a economic wake up call from abroad (especially China) will bring the message of a small but strong government with limited tasks home and thus pushing the social democrats to the fringe. There will be no more time for social engineering through welfare, affirmative action (we don’t even have that in Europe!) and a Goverment budget that is the majority of GDP.
The US will get back into its own. Don’t believe that ‘towards a Post American World’ crap. I’m long on the US.
Sep 30, 2009 - 12:54 pm 30. eme:no new taxes! blarg!.
Sep 30, 2009 - 1:14 pm 31. LAGirl:Top and bottom. Obama is the embodiment of the new Democratic Party that appeals to the very poor and the upscale, the one reliant on federal largess, the other making enough money not to care all that much about the taxes necessary to fund it. On almost every issue—environmentalism, social issues, larger government—there is a new alliance that simply downplays the ordeal of the larger middle class of all races and ethnicities, especially those who are self-employed and wedded to more traditional values. The hardware store owner, dentist, real estate salesperson, and farmer, are seen as the “boss” with capital to dispense to others, rather than the critical but harried entrepreneurs who get up each morning with no certainty of an income or benefits. The chief difference between the support for the new Obamism among those in the gated community (tastefully gated) and the barrio was the level of vehemence and near anger in which it was expressed—far greater the more upscale the neighborhood.
BINGO! THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM SEEING, ARROGANT RICH ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY LIMOUSINE LIBERAL SNOBS IN ALLIANCE WITH THE POOR AND THE SHLEPPERS OF SOCIETY, ALL AT THE EXPENSE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
Fortunately, many formerly wealthy entertainment industry types around my area, West LA, are finally starting to feel the pain of what they have wrought!
Sep 30, 2009 - 1:25 pm 32. Ruebacca:Vandenberg
Rent a copy of the Postman. Obama is the prequal to the Postman.
Sep 30, 2009 - 1:33 pm 33. Mike Jefferson:VDH hits another one out of the park. Although I think that you’ve characterized many of the manifestations of Obama’s pollicies, hidden within your analysis are many syllogisms. Obama is a miscreant whose arrogance, narcissim, and loathing will ultimately lead to his undoing. He is a modern day equivalent of Nero, though unlike his Roman counterpart Obama will not be successful militarily.
Sep 30, 2009 - 1:34 pm 34. Sebastian Shaw:The Age of Obama is a ship without a captain & it’s computer is completely fried while the ship just floats on the ocean; the unions make sure everyone else starves & dies. In the end, the Obama ship becomes a ghost ship, abandoned by the One since he never charted it anyway. He left on a liferaft with Michelle, Sasha, & Malia, & Michelle’s 19 assistants. The life raft was never found. Rumors are swirling about Obama never existed unless cameras were present. Another rumor has been said that Obama was a sophisticated hologram created by TelePrompter Pictures. Another rumor is Obama was once a genie in a bottle & got rubbed the wrong way (hence, Obama’s wishes turn into crap, literally). Yet another rumor is Obama is the wish fulfillment of George Soros’s dreams, but turned bad along time ago.
My point is Obama is an empty suit who says NOTHING when he talks; he’s the personification of every bad liberal idea made flesh. He will go down in flames. We’re in the middle of his meltdown now. Stay tuned.
Sep 30, 2009 - 2:06 pm 35. Ward Dorrity:Dr. Hanson, another well-reasoned and well-written column as usual. As an amateur student of history and the recipient of a classical education, I struggle to frame today’s events in the context of what has gone before us. titus Livius’ monumental history of Rome makes for fascinating reading in that wise.
Lately, I’ve run across an essay that has stunning implications for us all if I read it correctly. The work in question can be found here: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4095. The title, “The Catastrophe” – Parts 1 and 2 : What the End of Bronze-Age Civilization Means for Modern Times, is as provactive as its premise.
To cut to the chase, if the author (Thomas F. Bertonneau)is correct in assumptions, facts and interpretations, then is that sense of “Something wicked this way comes,” that’s been sending such a frisson of fear among some of us really the subconscious sense of the impending collapse of Western civilization?
There is nothing in our world or way of life that grants us special dispensation from the character and consequences of our human nature, nor do any of us possess a ‘get out of history free’ card.
Waht if Obama, his minders and all of the petty power grabs and corruption are but symptoms of a far greater malaise with correspondingly far greater consequences?
Titus Livus, in the introduction to his history of Rome remarked that his purpose in writing was “to trace the progress of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.”
The Roman people could do neither and a thousand years of darkness ensued. Could our own vaunted civilization face the same end? Do our flaws as human beings chain us to that cycle of rise and fall? The answers and their implications are terrible to contemplate. Is my lack of erudition causing me to misread all of this? God, I hope so.
Sep 30, 2009 - 2:33 pm 36. Michael:Why let Obama run wild for the next 3 1/2 years? Because the damage done to this country could well be to catastrophic to recover from. Civil war would not be to far fetched a possiblity.
Most of us, the people of the US, believe that the last 230 years have been the greatest for any country in the world, ever. We don’t want to change to a system that countries all over the world have proven to be poor to complete failures.
No massive change. Minor adjustments such as we have had for the last couple of centuries is sufficient and just fine.
No Massive Change!
Sep 30, 2009 - 2:34 pm 37. misanthropicus:Apres moi, le deluge, you bunch of suckers.
Sep 30, 2009 - 2:45 pm 38. genghis:Attn: POOR CITIZEN
In two years you’re going to be a lot poorer. You can bank on that.
Sep 30, 2009 - 2:46 pm 39. A&W:Vandenberg, thanks so much for being “long on the US”.
Sep 30, 2009 - 2:58 pm 40. Now and Then:It’s great to know you are out there!
Being in here, the USA that is I wonder if we are going to get out of this in the very near future. If and when we do, how much damage will be done? How many years will it take to undo all?
25. carla:
“Sure, sure, it’s Bush’s fault. Absolutely. Funny, I thought the Dems controlled Congress the previous four years. ”
I’ll be polite. Correct yourself and come back when you know what you’re talking about.
Sep 30, 2009 - 3:07 pm 41. Banned by Huffpo:“Many voted for Obama thinking they would either not be taxed but receive more largess, or that they would not be taxed too much; I think both groups will soon discover the truth.”
Well, not until 2013.
Mmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm
Barrack Hussein Obama
Mmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm
Barrack Hussein Obama
Mmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm
Barrack Hussein Obama
Stomp, stomp, stomp
Clap, clap, clap
Mmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm
Barrack Hussein Obama
Sep 30, 2009 - 3:18 pm 42. bill:Carla: “I’ll skip Iraq since that seems to have worked itself out. No story there, eh?”
You mean the “Surge” made necessary in an attempt undo the massive mistake we made going into Iraq? That is a mistake unless you are a “boots on the ground at any cost” proponent. We lost track of the myriad Bush Administration justifications made for invading Iraq. Last time we checked there were still many tens of thousands of American troops in Iraq hoping the status remains quo.
Anyone heard from Don Rumsfeld lately? What is his opinion of sending 40,000 more American troops into Afghanistan?
And what if Israel bombs Iran? If not will conservatives give Obama due credit if his reasoned, rational, calm approach to Iran pays off?
Sep 30, 2009 - 4:03 pm 43. D Foster:Obama and his cronies may just be to stay.
Let me know when there is a “Republican Party” worthy of following. A party they truly represents the American Worker.
There is no economic leadership in Washington and maybe in America.
Not the Union or Government Worker. The small business and corporation. Without the Small Business start up, and Family Business creating jobs, we won’t have much of a future. There is no one of the Political Class in Washington concerned about creating or retaining jobs. Look for America to have 10 to 12% unemployment in the future. We keep shipping our manufacturing and energy jobs overseas. STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES.
Don’t look for the “Green” movement to create quality jobs. This industry will be, at best, low technology service jobs. Like cleaning the Solar Panels every month or so.
Sep 30, 2009 - 4:22 pm 44. Kriska:“..there is a new alliance that simply downplays the ordeal of the larger middle class of all races and ethnicities, especially those who are self-employed and wedded to more traditional values. The hardware store owner, dentist, real estate salesperson, and farmer, are seen as the “boss” with capital to dispense to others, rather than the critical but harried entrepreneurs who get up each morning with no certainty of an income or benefits.”
And we are smarter and tougher than we are given credit. We actually might learn from others as to how to “hide” profits so we don’t have to “dispence to others” via tax, Tax, and more TAX!
Sep 30, 2009 - 4:41 pm 45. JL:18 Now and Then.
Please explain how a Republican president can destroy the economy, when there is a democratic majority in congress. As you are very well aware of, budgets are passed by Congress AND the President together. The budgets from 2003-2008 was passed with democrat votes in Congress. Complex equivalence generalizations might fly with your pals in the socialist media. But not here among thinking people.
Sep 30, 2009 - 4:54 pm 46. homero:EXCELLENT
a true picture. no benefit of the doubt for obama.
thank you VDH
Sep 30, 2009 - 5:16 pm 47. Mike, CO:VDH:
There is more to learn about Obama than meets the eye, and maybe enough time has passed to start making some more subjective observations:
Obama lacks personality. For months now, Obama’s public demeanor has been overly formal and scripted. By not showing his personal esprit or joie de vivre, he conveys that he is uncomfortable in his own skin. He is glib, but that does little to reveal character.
Is Obama unable to at least occasionally act the same way in person as he is in public? The repeated sarcasm that he has shown in ‘informal’ public appearances (Letterman, etc…) is not an endearing quality. Is it now a forgone conclusion that Bush had more personality than Obama?
A lack of personality may be a sign of immaturity. It may explain why Obama is unable to reconcile difficult issues with opponents. Ironically, he may lack the ‘empathy’ needed to handle interpersonal conflicts. A lack of personality puts one on unequal footing.
I wonder if Obama will eventually show more comfort in his Presidential and public demeanor. If not, history may have a very dim recollection of a President who had an indistinguishable character.
Sep 30, 2009 - 5:31 pm 48. Jeffrey:Soon Mr. Hanson we’ll just be calling Obama the son of the Devil or Satan incarnate. We are running out terms and descriptions for the lying deceptive words and arrogant behaviors. We see every negative behavior being manifest in the Obama circle of friends and admirers. We could have done better by going to a Supermax prison and selecting our president and his czars not to mention some of the congressmen and senators we now have in office.
Sep 30, 2009 - 5:46 pm 49. Bear:So we are dancing around the fire trying to describe what we see in the flames.
The office of the President is too small for Obama. He wants the whole world. Even though he never did anything to earn it except be a great deceiver. He thinks he’s so beautiful and great that all should bow before his majesty. Because he has a little knowledge he is puffed up, way up.
His only gift is the ability to deceive. He deceived himself a long time ago.
We the human, fallible and weak are taught to judge a person not just by what they say but by what they do and the company they keep. For us we must produce results everyday, we can’t afford to hang out with evil haters and the oppressors of the world. Our dear leader must only speak lies and deceptions and he likes the company of the malignant killers.
How spectacular will be his fall. How he will rage. He has marginalized himself. The nations will not mourn, no not really. He is not us, we are not like him. We do not hate mankind.
Buy canned goods. The idiot class has taken over.
Sep 30, 2009 - 5:49 pm 50. AtheistConservative:“This type of article is much, much too soon”
It will always be ‘too soon’, until he’s kicked out, at which point it will be ‘you never even gave him a chance’.
Just admit the man is a flop. The more you defend him, the dumber you look.
Sep 30, 2009 - 5:51 pm 51. ~Paules:I stand with Ward and Michael (comments 35 & 36) with the following modifications. I don’t think American values were lost, but rather subverted by the soviets as per former KGB operative and defector Yuri Bezmenov. Maybe someone can provide a link. In addition, the Franfurt School of Marxism, transplanted during World War II to U.S. soil, also played a significant role in shifting Marxism from a proletarian movement toward a new base consisting of blacks, homosexuals, women, and the so-called disenfranchised in general (aka the Democratic party).
Where I disagree with Michael is that I believe the civil war has already begun. The opening salvos of the war are about American culture rather than a genuine martial conflict. Great credit goes to the million-man patriot army that marched on Washington September 12th (and my very worst calumnies on the head of Bill O’Reilly for reporting 75,000). If I were a leftist, I would need a change of shorts.
My best guess for the end game is significant civil disorder before the situation resolves itself. Only this time it’s going to be a march of patriots, possibly even armed, against a deeply unpopular government that will not surrender power by constitutional means. If you think I’m suggesting that Mr. Obama is neither rational nor sane, you have it about right.
Sep 30, 2009 - 5:53 pm 52. jb:Doctor Hanson,
Can’t wait to add your latest works to my library collection.
I still love your thinking and your observations, however your posts have lately become prime leftie troll bait. The left hates you almost as much as they hate Glen Beck.
IMHO, that’s a big feather in your cap. Keep up the good work.
Sep 30, 2009 - 5:53 pm 53. bear:“And what if Israel bombs Iran? If not will conservatives give Obama due credit if his reasoned, rational, calm approach to Iran pays off?”
i was against the war before I was for it. People like you (Bill) should crawl back under the rock you came from. The reality is we are in Iraq. Deal with it. It may actually help in dealing with Iran.
Sep 30, 2009 - 5:56 pm 54. MikeD:….. Correct yourself and come back when you know what you’re talking about.
Outstanding advice, Now and Then. Unfortunately, you have been ignoring this concept for months on end. Carla seems to grasp the idea, you, not so much. On the other hand, you are fun to laugh at.
Sep 30, 2009 - 6:07 pm 55. Brenda G:“How are we to define Obama’s philosophy and presidency?”
philosophy – anti-America
presidency – impotent
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:02 pm 56. Jerry:To the next president of the United States – a solution:
1) To solve the debt issue require a 15% decrease in the salaries of every single Federal Government Employee – with no raises for four years – including the President. Those who were in the employ of the The City of New York when it was going broke took just such pay cuts without crabbing because they were glad to have jobs.
2) Raise inflation to 6% to devalue the dollar, thereby making foreign governments participate in saving the United States’ economy. When we can finally produce a garbage can or a pair of pants in this country profitably, then we can return the inflation rate to whatever the free market demands.
3) Educate our children to the values of the Constitution and teach them law so that know what is expected of them. Then apply to law to everyone equally.
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:10 pm 57. Phil Byler:Picking up on “jb:”’s thought (No. 52), I would greatly enjoy more collections of Professor Hanson’s columns in book form, such as what was done in “An Autumn of War.”
Sep 30, 2009 - 7:11 pm 58. Kevin S:now and then
2006 DOW at 14000, unemployment at 4.5%. Republican White house and both houses of congress.
Sep 30, 2009 - 8:05 pm 59. TLM:2009 Dow at 9500, unemployment at 10% and increasing…and the difference is…Dems took congress in 2006 and the White house in 2008…and it’s Bush’s fault?
bill:
“…his reasoned, rational, calm approach to Iran pays off?”
Pays off in what way? That the Iranians decide not to build nuclear warheads to put atop the ballistic missiles they’re testing?
I can think of no reasonable/rational/calm government or international entity that now thinks a nuclear weapons capability is NOT what the Iranians intend. They want the bomb, plain and simple, and they are going to get it thanks to the fool we elected President.
N.B.: When the balloon goes up, it’s a bit too late to pull your head out of the sand. The stuff gets mighty sticky at fission/fusion temps.
Sep 30, 2009 - 8:17 pm 60. Ron Kean:Now and Then
I’d bet money that everybody on this thread had good times under George W. Bush and wish that the next 8 would be just as good.
Call me a conspiracy theorist but I think that 500 billion dollar sell off just days after McCain took the lead last September was suspicious. It reminded me of a George Soros currency dump. Don’t blame Bush.
More people than you know are starting to miss him right now.
Sep 30, 2009 - 8:46 pm 61. Master Cranky Hucklebubble:To Mr. Vandenberg,
Very good question, my friend. I ask myself the same about the British Empire.
Sep 30, 2009 - 9:06 pm 62. tommyd:We can only hope and prey that the Israelis do what the current administration does not have the will to do.
Obama couldn’t carry Benjamin Netanyahu’s jock strap.
Sep 30, 2009 - 9:11 pm 63. Ritchie Emmons:“You mean the “Surge” made necessary in an attempt undo the massive mistake we made going into Iraq? That is a mistake unless you are a “boots on the ground at any cost” proponent. We lost track of the myriad Bush Administration justifications made for invading Iraq. Last time we checked there were still many tens of thousands of American troops in Iraq hoping the status remains quo.”
Bill #42 – Those of you on the left take it as self-evident that invading Iraq was “a massive mistake.” I never see reasons for it. I know it’s very convenient to make an assertion without explanation, but perhaps you could list some reasons why it was a “massive mistake.” While you think up some reasons, I’ll give you some of my own why I don’t think the Iraq war was a “massive mistake.”
Personally, I think history will judge GWB very kindly *because* of his Iraq war. He threw a rock into the (cess) pond that is the Middle East. In my opinion, the ripples from that rock are going to go a long way. It looks as though that a viable democracy is developing in Iraq (the heart of the ancient caliphate no less). This is a stunning and positive development. Iran’s citizens have had a major societal uprising protesting the rule of the mullahs and in support of their democratic desires. I personally doubt this would have happened if democracy was not imposed next door in Iraq. I think that democracy, and by extension, govts that fight rather than promote terrorism, is going to spread in the region over the next several decades. So the “status quo” that you object to thousands of US troops maintaining? I’m not sure what your objection is. I can tell you though, that I fully support US troops maintaining Iraq’s current “status quo.”
Is your objection to the Iraq was based on the cost? Yes, the war was expensive like virtually all wars. But it it’s been a much smaller percentage of GDP than, for example, WWII. And don’t forget that the bulk of the costs of war is a temporary expense. More over, it’s a small downpayment if the result is a democratized Middle East.
Is your objection to the war based on civilian casualties? The civilian casualties are estimated to be in the 100,000 range. That is fewer than what was likely had Saddam Hussein stayed in power. I’m going to say that again in case you missed it. The number of civilian deaths in Iraq since the invasion is LOWER than what it probably would have been if Saddam had remained in power. Saddam killed on average somewhere between 30-40 thousand Iraqi civilians per year (according to Kenneth Pollack – former Clinton admin official and current Brookings Institution member). Only counting the 5 full years of the war (2004-2008), and taking the low average of 30,000 civilian deaths, that makes 150,000 civilian deaths. Not only can you make the *argument* that invading Iraq saved tens of thousands of lived, if you’re intellectually honest you have to make the *assumption* that these lives were saved. And this doesn’t even take into consideration how many more civilians would have been killed with Uday and/or Qusay at the helm in the decades to come.
You mention losing count of “the myriad Bush Administration justifications made for invading Iraq.” I’ll assume that you don’t accept that there WERE myriad justifications for going to war with Iraq. The number was somewhere in the 20’s I think. 3/4 of the Senate voted to go to war based on those 20+ reasons. And if you bring up the WMD “Bush lied” issue, you’ve lost the argument right off the bat. Can you name one country – or even one prominent person – who thought that there were no WMD’s?
If you object to the war based on the 4,000+ US deaths and the 10’s of thousands injured, I’ll listen to such an argument. However, these straight numbers don’t take into account what a cheap price that is relative to other wars we’ve fought. Most other major wars have seen 10’s of thousands or 100’s of thousands killed. If, as I suspect, that democracy spreads throughout the Middle East thanks to the Iraq war, the number of heroes that have sacrificed to win this war will be seen as an awfully low total in historical terms.
So again, I’d be interested in your reasons as to why you think the Iraq war is a “massive mistake.”
Sep 30, 2009 - 9:21 pm 64. tommyd:What a disgrace Obama is proving to be. The MSM needs to pay a heavy price for what they did to facilitate this pathetically inadequate fool..
Obama couldn’t carry Benjamin Netanyahu’s jock strap..
Sep 30, 2009 - 9:58 pm 65. Now and Then:58. Kevin S:
OK, lets play that game . . . Bush entered the Oval Office with a surplus and an economy that wasn’t in recession. Yes, I know it’s hard to take, but Hannity is wrong. The economy didn’t go into recession until March of 2001. So, there was peace and prosperity upon the land. Then the Republican s got in the White House and both houses of Congress. The terrorists smelled weakness and we got attacked. Bush and the Republicans’ fault. Went into a war that cost $700B and 5,000 American lives. Bush and the Republicans fault. So, how pure do you want to be in this little game of idiot dodge ball? Let’s see, the current recession began in December of 2007. That means that evil old Barney Frank, who assumed his role on the Finance Committee in march of that year, brought down the vibrant Bush economy with its sound fundamentals in 9 months.
Don’t like that game, eh? Let’s do this one. Unemployment is at 10.7%, lower than it was in December of 1982, almost two years into the Reagan presidency.
What’s that? You want some more turkey at the kiddie table? Sure, here you go.
Sep 30, 2009 - 10:18 pm 66. Exactly!:I am trying to decide which Greek tragedy Obama is starring in. It must be one where huberis causes the downfall and the fallen hero was but a propped up shell, but I cannot remember the title. Anyone out there remember your Greek Classics?
Whatever he does to this fine country, he will be but dust in 60 years and not remembered fondly.
Sep 30, 2009 - 10:36 pm 67. fgmorley:Another interesting article that presents articulately many of my own ideas about the gang of complete frauds that have assumed power here.
I do not think this type of critical analysis is premature; especially given the political events of the past six months.
I do think that your statement:
Oct 1, 2009 - 3:13 am 68. Tomp:“We can only hope that the African-American community can develop an entrepreneurial class on the model of many first- generation immigrant communities, since such activity frees the individual from government reliance and instills a sense of optimism in self-reliance.” …
is more like the Hope and Change that was envisioned as the promise by many in the political middle who voted for these pols. I highly doubt we will ever see any entrepreneurial activity again in the U.S. that is modeled as you describe here. For me Hope and Change is becoming lotsa Hope and more Chains.
Obamas US will become a western version of Zimbabwe.
Oct 1, 2009 - 6:25 am 69. Tony:You ain’t seen nothin’ yet! Wait until this crowd of neo-socialists decide that the only way to make Social Security solvent is to confiscate 401(k)’s; IRA’s; and your employer’s private pension plan funds.
Oct 1, 2009 - 7:07 am 70. Paul of Alexandria:AThinkingPerson (20):
Just as a note, see The Patriot Act – in action by Ethel C. Fenig at American Thinker. It is due in great part to President Bush’s Patriot Act that we caught Najibullah Zazi and associates.
Oct 1, 2009 - 7:48 am 71. adnerb:51. ~Paules: I have two links to the Yuri Bezmenov interviews, although I understand that there are more. The two are at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlkPkJInUmU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIFcnctnHsE&feature=related
Oct 1, 2009 - 7:57 am 72. Anonymous:If you tried to write a script about someone, white or black who becomes commander and chief of the United States; someone that is utterly unfit for command, you couldn’t invent a character more incompetent, inadequate and unsuited for the job than President Barack Obama.
He is the proverbial slow motion train wreck coming down the train.
Maybe more amazing is that so many independents who voted for Obama didn’t see it coming. Didn’t hear the warning whistle being sounded by so many.
That it probably was his intent from day one to try to destroy the traditional ideals and values of America, from self reliance to property and personal rights to the rule of law, and the belief that no one is above the law, to the belief that every individual can strive to achieve the American Dream is probably undeniable. The addition of scienter makes this narrative even more damning.
For redistribution of wealth to be his foremost goal in governance is an appalling disgrace, a slap in the face to everyone who ever bled for the American way of life.
For this example of the worst sort of oval office inadequacy to be embodied in our first black President is nothing less short of a national tragedy.
President Barack Obama, in every way that matters most, is a total and unequivocal failure in the making. As bad as you can get.
Oct 1, 2009 - 8:34 am 73. Allison Aller:A breathtaking assessment!
Oct 1, 2009 - 8:41 am 74. Paul -Indiana:I’m still betting that Israel will act against Iran this Fall or Winter. Even if it only sets back their program a few years, that would be a big help. This goes double if they can eliminate the ruling Mullahs. Ahmedijad [whatever] is just a figurehead like Obama.
Oct 1, 2009 - 8:50 am 75. Ward Dorrity:To bill @post 42:
You said: “If not will conservatives give Obama due credit if his reasoned, rational, calm approach to Iran pays off?”
“Reasoned and rational”, eh? Let me phrase this question in terms I’m sure that you’ll understand: What if the other side doesn’t play by those rules?
Do you have an answer for this? If not, then I strongly suggest that you take a look at Lee Harris’ “The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam’s Threat to the West”. Harris’ work is important not just for its context of the threat posed by Islam, but for his analysis of the rational vs the tribal actor. This is where the starry-eyed utopianism that lies at the heart of most modern liberals utterly breaks down. To assume that all men want the sames things that you do; that they see the world in the same terms that you do is breathtakingly, suicidally stupid.
The best analogy that I can deliver to a die-hard liberal mindset (irony: lacking a sense of self-preservation, liberals will die easy, not hard): you don’t negotiate with cancer, you destroy it.
Oct 1, 2009 - 9:38 am 76. AQUA:D Foster
“A party that truly represents the American Worker.”
“There is no one of the Political Class in Washington concerned about creating or retaining jobs.”
“We keep shipping our manufacturing and energy jobs overseas.”
My grandparents brought their 6 teenage children to the U.S. just about in rags. They lived in a 6th floor walkup with the bathtub in the kitchen and the toilet down the hall shared by 3 families. They were so happy, grateful and full of joy to be in the “land of opportunity.” Their children thrived and within some years they were all home owners. The following two generations thrived further and are well-to-do doctors, lawyers, professors, artists and executives or business owners.
That was the American Dream to perfection. It may be — probably is — over.
This happened in an America that [largely -- as compared to now] had no “party that represented the American Worker,” and “no Political Class in Washington concerned about creating or retaining jobs.”
Government can only suck wealth out of the private sector and make everyone poorer.
Never mind what they tell you. The Government cannot “create” jobs — the private sector left alone without government interference does that. What the Government does is get in the way of job creation when they have “parties and political classes” that believe they are smarter than those who are the creators, but are not only “dumber,” but are dependent on the false appearance that they are helping the workers, enabling home ownership, etc., etc., and political contributions which make them easily prone to corruption.
Could it be that our great steel and auto industries went asunder and the jobs “got shipped overseas” because the unions got too greedy — or there was too much government interference?
Read “Atlas Shrugged.” It will help explain to you how wrong your thinking is — and you’ll enjoy it. Also try reading Henry Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson.” The Government is not the solution — the Government is the problem.
Oct 1, 2009 - 10:14 am 77. myth buster:I agree about the pay cut, except for the military. Make it 20% pay and benefits combined, but leave the military out of that. I concur about the pay freeze, though, especially since it isn’t that much compared to step and grade increases either (a military officer’s pay will increase by 50% or more within the first four years WITHOUT any across-the-board raises, simply by being promoted and gaining experience).
Oct 1, 2009 - 10:16 am 78. AtheistConservative:“OK, lets play that game . . . Bush entered the Oval Office with a surplus and an economy that wasn’t in recession”
There was never any surplus. This is a myth your type foment because of your BDS. Bush entered office at the beginning of a recession; there was another recession after 9/11.
These are documented facts. The fact that people like you refuse to accept them just to continue portraying your pet demon as ‘pure evil’ is ridiculous. That we’re even still discussing these facts when your Chosen One can’t get a single thing right is just pathetic.
Admit you screwed up. Obama is a failure.
Oct 1, 2009 - 10:27 am 79. Gaffe Prices:In today’s class warfare, the one (middle class) who foots the bill is now revealed to be the object of all this partisan bitterness.
the ruse is that the pretext was based on some monarchical or robber baron scenario of a wealthy class robbing the one single underclass blind. And we all know that this is the basis of Marx’s ideology; that a new middle class would develop out of industrialization meant that any prosperity there would have to be scuttled by the class envy he hoped would drive the (his) revolution.
the middle classes were far to smart for him, but the super wealthy could be manipulated into a system comparable to the sale of indulgences, that I call the Absolution Complex, but again, the wealthy in congress pay whole fleets of accountants to find loop[holes ion the very tax code they write and pass into law, so the responsibility of footing the bill for the Aboslution goes to the middle classes who cannot afford the accountants and offshore benefits the wealthy enjoy.
So It more resembles the scheme by which the wealthy avoided the draft in the Civil War, where surrogates (or mercenaries) were paid to serve in their (those with the geld) place.
I won’t even go into the “sacrifice” Michelle and her husband are making to pay back the Mayor of Chicago for the Olympics bid, or how she promised to “take the gloves off” to make such a “sacrifice”, when honor students are struck from behind in a lethal blow from a railroad tie. Its just too disgusting. And far to self evident of the Monarchical “let zem eat cake” lifestyle these people crave. She claims that the Olympics “saves people’s lives”, by getting “a vision into their heads” of the model that they too, can be an Olympic star athlete.
First the Kennedy’s who remain fixated on the British Royalty they can’t seem to let go of, and their underworld methods of catching up and now this. A sad reflection of the notion of identity (i.e ethnic group, clan, whatever) politics that serve’s as the crowbar for the avaricious. Enjoy it, while the wool is over the other’s eyes; the bloom is coming off that Rose.
Oct 1, 2009 - 10:59 am 80. Gaffe Prices:BTW, that “scheme by which the wealthy avoided the draft in the Civil War, where surrogates (or mercenaries) were paid to serve in their (those with the money) place.
That “scheme” happened in NYC.
Oct 1, 2009 - 12:07 pm 81. Carl Sesar:Ritchie Emmons @ 63
You said it!
Trouble is, Obama’s waiting for an opportune moment to undo all the still fledgling gains in self government over there in Iraq, just as he’s trying to undo our long-lasting, hard-won tradition of the same right here in the USA, and if we’re not real careful, he might get away with it . . .
Oct 1, 2009 - 12:10 pm 82. Ward Dorrity:Aqua – this time around, Atlas WILL shrug. Then he’s going to pick up a gun.
We might well be looking at a civilizational ‘crash’, but there’s nothing that says that we have to go down meekly.
I’m a three-percenter.
Oct 1, 2009 - 12:45 pm 83. BobNY:18. Now and Then
Bush spent 8 years destroying our economy.
I disagree with that assessment. One of the main contributors to the recent recession was the housing market and sub prime mortagages which Acorn and his supporter PRes Obama helped to promote. If the financial institutions didn’t give out these mortgages to those who’s ability to pay was questionable, they would be attacked by ACORN politically, financially, and legally until they gave in. Also during Bush’s term, he and later on John McCain urged congress to regulate Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which the congress deemed was in no trouble.
Oct 1, 2009 - 12:53 pm 84. Daily Right 10/1/09 « The Quantum Conservative:[...] ALSO by Hanson: Some Signs of the Times. [...]
Oct 1, 2009 - 4:24 pm 85. J.E Dyer:#66 — I’m not sure we’re still at the hubris stage. There is some value in analyzing Obama himself, but, as VDH’s first point implies, America as a polity may already have skipped to the threshold of “ate.” In Herodotus’ formulation, this would leave us without a lot of options other than waiting for Nemesis, the “ate” police, to show up.
Of course, that’s Herodotus. Herodotus hadn’t met the outlook of Christian optimism, OR the USA. Our American exceptionalness was inherent in our very conception, and it’s still with us. If the laws of history were inviolate, we wouldn’t even be here today. But they’re not, and we are.
One thing that’s interesting (if discouraging) to contemplate is how the patterns of public sentiment recounted by Thucydides (moving on now from Herodotus) played out, in the moment-by-moment reality of Athens. We don’t have detailed records of individual politicians and pundits incessantly harping on the invidious themes of the day (the analogs to our “racism!” and “Bush did it!” and so forth). Thucydides merely summarizes such patterns briefly, noting their influence on policy but not mistaking them for portentous developments in any realistic or practical sense.
We look at the Peloponnesian War through his eyes today, and see it as a narrative of political decisions, campaigns, and battles. It was a feat of analysis for Thucydides to put it in those terms, as close as he was to it. I’m betting that to most people of the day, everything that was going on looked to be more “about” a tedious, pounding rain of tendentious political invective — like how we carry on our public debate today — than about the pristinely-defined concepts Thucydides presents.
It’s always a wonder that mankind gets anything done.
Oct 1, 2009 - 4:45 pm 86. Dred:Expensive, global warming trip for nothing: Rio gets the Olympics.
Oct 1, 2009 - 6:13 pm 87. Now and Then:78. AtheistConservative:
“These are documented facts.”
Utter nonsense. Go ahead, document em.
Oct 1, 2009 - 6:46 pm 88. Kevin S:65 NAT
We’ll skip the ad hominem of your reply…there was a surplus because the Republicans, at least through 1999, were still acting with some measure of restraint (that they didn’t after just speaks to why they lost elections). We now have a Democrat congress and White House and they’ve gone warp drive in breaking previous spending (something you seemed to not mention).
Oct 1, 2009 - 6:51 pm 89. Kevin S:Your statement that the terrorists attacked because they sensed weakness in March of 2001 is just nonsense. They attacked in 1993 and the government did nothing; they attacked the embassies in Africa and the government did nothing; they attacked in Saudi Arabia and the government did nothing; they attacked the Cole and the government did nothing. Would it not make more sense that the terrorists sensed weakness from the lack of response rather than that there was now a Republican White house and Congress? In what possible sense can you make the statement that a Republican congress and the white house is a sign of weakness? (pause here for the inevitable strained insult)
And yes, unemployment was slightly higher 2 years into Reagan, and then it turned around, and with 26 years of either a Republican White House or Republican Congress we’ve enjoyed unprecedented economic growth. In 1979, my wife and I had no chance of buying our first house…6 months into Reagan’s horrible economy we bought our first house and raised our family.
Notice something NAT? I didn’t need to resort to insult. I just don’t care if I get insulted by someone I neither know nor wish to know.
Nat,
1976-1980 Democrats control White House and Congress, soviets advance everywhere, economy suffers, inflation roars and interest rates reach levels that people today could not possibly understand…DOW at 800 or so.
Oct 1, 2009 - 7:19 pm 90. Kevin S:1980-2006 Split government, or complete Republican control. Soviets fall. Eastern Europe freed after 50 years of tyranny, not a shot fired. Interest rates held in check, inflation under control, DOW advances to 14000…let me repeat that 14000. That’s an increase of 18X. Dow from 1940 (150) to 1980 = 5X. unemployment, 1990 to 2006, 6% to 4.5%. 4.5% is considered the noise floor.
2006 – 2009 Dow goes from 14000 to 7500, climbs back somewhat to mid 9000s, oscillates. Unemployment goes from 4.5% to >10% and climbing. Dems control both congress and the White house for the first time since 1979.
connect the dots.
oops…forgot the 2 years between Bush 1 and 1994 when it was both a Dem congress and WH. Unemployment was 6% in January of 1995 and went down to 4.7% in January of 2001.
Oct 1, 2009 - 7:28 pm 91. donttreadonme:Now & Then,
Oct 1, 2009 - 8:00 pm 92. Brian Richard Allen:Alright, let’s run down the blame scorecard(highest score is most to blame):
Economy: Chartering of Fannie Mae 1938(FDR/Dem congress) 1 pt Dems; CRA 1977(Carter/Dem Congress)1 pt Dems; Appointment of Greenspan 1987(?)(Reagan/Dem congress) .5 pt each; Repeal of Glass-Steagall 1998/9(Clinton/Repub Congress) .5 pt each. Appointment of Paulson As SecTreas (Bush/Repub congress) 1 pt Repubs; Re-appointment of Bernanke (Obama/Dem Congress) 1 pt dems Final score Dems 4 Repubs 2(DEMS win!!!)
Terrorism: 1982- not making Syria/Hezbollah a green glass parking lot after Beirut bombing (Reagan/Dem Congress) .5 pt each; 1991 – not going all the way up the Baghdad Hwy (Bush I/Dem Congress) .5 pt each; 1993-1999- treating repeated attacks on our interests as a police matter (Clinton/Dem Con/Repub Con) .66 pt Dem .34 pt Repubs; Building the info wall between police/FBI and CIA by Gorelick – 1 pt Dem; 2003-7 fighting a PR war in Iraq instead of going Dresden on the whole f-ing region with perhaps leaflets dropped with 24 hrs fair warning – W – 1 pt Repubs; Obama waffling worse than a squirrel crossing a busy road – 1pt Dems. Final Score Dems 3.66 Repubs 2.34 -DEMS win again!!!
“” … the “capitalist” who wants government money to rig the game … “”
Is not a Capitalist, at all.
He is, by definition, a fascist. As, by any other name, is the politician who accommodates him.
In America it is most likely every one of these will identify himself a “Democrat” and/or will prove to be a supporter and/or a member of the “Democratic” pottty. And the post-1913 “Democrats” version of Cronyism is to “modified” Fascism as fascism is to “modified” Marxism.
“” … The greatest defenders in America of a Castro or Chavez are precisely those whose lifestyles and income would be impossible under such regimes (as those they most-fanatically champion). “”
Further evidencing that (il)Liberalism is a Psychopathology.
Oct 1, 2009 - 8:02 pm 93. David H:When you look at Obama and the Democrats you get a view of a less competent version of Blair and the Labour government in the UK. Blair and Brown inherited a country that was in good shape so their incompetence took longer to hit home and they have managed to do so much damage, your lucky that Obama got into power at the worst possible moment for him, imagine what would be the situation if the USA was in the same position in 2009 as Britain in 1997.
Oct 2, 2009 - 4:46 am 94. carla:NOW & THEN
Ah, big faux pas. The Dems, Pelosi & Co only controlled Congress during the last two years of Bush’s presidency, 2007 – 2009. That lets them off the hook, huh? Good job, good job. So far, the only thing you guys haven’t bothered to pin on Bush is the size of Michelles butt.
Oct 2, 2009 - 5:13 am 95. digitalis:Brilliant articulation! I like the part about the very rich and the very poor with the middle class being squeezed. That’s the pincer theory and it is Marxism at work. The idea is to squeeze us out of existence. The midddle class has always been the target of the communist because the middle class stabilizes society. Marxism is on the march in America and how fast we may succumb is breathtaking to witness. Right now Americas are losing their jobs even faster than “predicted”. Where is the concern, the attempt to alleviate this, the anger? “Fixing” healthcare will do NOTHING to address this problem but will make it far worse. Face it-our President doesn’t really care about the unemployed. He is too busy trying to get the Olympics as payback to his Chicago bosses. And we have over three more years of this to go.
Oct 2, 2009 - 6:35 am 96. paul_unalaska:Another well written article. Obama’s actions has me recollect of a book I’d read in college. Author James Gunn’s ‘Kampus’
D Foster, regarding your comment of creating green jobs whereas it’ll be mundane type work. I wholeheartedly agree.
I’d worked with the National Weather Service, an arm of the Department of Commerce following my military/ college stint. Never again.
The NWS has a college program in place whereas many colleagues had received their online degrees from Mississippi State Univ. A mediocre, unrecognized institution in the public sector.
The NWS’s equipment is dated. When I say dated I mean 40 year old equipment supporting weather balloon operations. 80’s equipemtn, software being used still. MS-DOS programs the norm in many instances.
Mundane, pointless duties, assignments. Overmanned offices whereas confusion, lethargic attitudes, completion of tasks are rarely completed in a timely manner.
Like the military, raises were given due to an allotted time at that present pay grade; not efforts, concepts to improve upon technology, flow of data. In essence, people were showing up for a paycheck (much like union construction, teaching, law enforcement, FAA et al. type jobs).
In the private industry, I relish the cutting edge technology available and at most times implemented. Bonuses, raises and recognition of excellence is rewarded.
Antarctica has more updated meteorological technology, equipment due to private contracted companies present.
The open communication, flow of new ideas, concepts experienced is night and day to my federal experience.
In conclusion, our customers, airline pilots, aviation essential personnel, agricultural field clients, et al. are pleased with the final product. Can we say the same regarding the Government industry-run businesses?
Oct 2, 2009 - 7:17 am 97. Ron Kean:I see Mahatma Ghandi on Google this morning. He led millions. Martin Luther King Jr. led millions.
Now we have ‘…bring-a-gun, …punch ‘em hard’ Obama at the helm.
What a switch that is.
Oct 2, 2009 - 7:27 am 98. Paul -Indiana:#82. Meekly? Not hardly. There is a reason why the ammo makers can’t keep up.
Oct 2, 2009 - 7:55 am 99. joe:Thank you for your observations of the sort of person President Obama is and the world he envisions for the “rest of us.” I sometimes hear of a fear that Mr. Obama will be asassinated. I pray not. But, if there is an assination, I believe it will take place with Obama being the asassin. The victim will be our beloved America. The process of killing off those institutions that have made her “a light on a hilltop” to the world may take some time, but it seems that the deliberate intent is as present in Mr. Obama as it was in Lee Harvey Oswald or John Wilkes Booth.
Oct 2, 2009 - 10:47 am 100. Weirdone:8 November 2006, the day that the Dims took over in both houses of Congress.
4 Novemger 2008 Obama elected
Economy in Free Fall 2/12/09
Dow Jones Down Over 2,000 points since Election Day 2008, 3400 since Democrats took over both houses of Congress in November 2006.
These were the numbers on 8 November 2006 Compare them to today.
Dow 12176.56 all time high
NAS 2384.94
S @ P 1385.72 ALL UP
Gold spot $635.00
Wheat $3.78
Oil $59.83 Brent spot
Nat. Gas 7.823 Henery Hub spot
Gas $1.5636 wholesale
Unemployment 4.4%
Home interest rate as low as 5.375%
CD best rate bank 5.45%
Fed. T Bond rate 5 year 4.75%
CPI 201.8 up1.3%
Job creations; up 132,000 in Oct
Oct 2, 2009 - 12:52 pm 101. Michael:.
GDP est.3rd Q up 1.59%
Budget total deficit for 2006 $248.2
2006 budget 2.2 trillion
Inflation rate, latest figure 2.06%,
Yen 117
Euro 1.27
British # 1.87
Canadian $.76
The most telling part of Obama’s presidency is the “Stimulus” Bill. When crisis erupted the first reaction of Obama and the Democratic aristocracy in Congress was to spend money on all their pet projects that will buy them votes. That is without doubt the most reprehensible thing done by any party since the Civil War.
If stimulus was so necessary then the obvious and time tested solution was tax rebates to all tax payers. At a cost that could have been 1/2 to 1/3 of the current travesty that would have stimulated the hell out the private sector and been spent much more usefully than a bureaucrat could possible even imagine.
Bush is not without his mistakes but nothing compared to Obama/Pelosi/Reed’s. Bush’s mistake was bailing out the banks instead of buying up toxic assets. The government could have held on to those assets for a few years and then sold them back to the private sector for a small profit, say a few hundred billion dollars.
Oct 2, 2009 - 1:29 pm 102. Isaac:I fail to understand how a Liberal like Obama can not be angered by the actions of violence perpstrated by the Arabs primarily Muslims. He cannot see or does not to see who the aggressor is in the Middle East or for that matter one of the main agressors for power and control of their people and the free world. Let us not pusyfoot around going through the UN an outdated worthless organization that is Anti US Anti Israel Anti free world with the influence of spit.
Oct 2, 2009 - 1:45 pm 103. dck:ALL of this is interesting, but what moves me to comment is your description of the new Democrat Party “relationship” between the poorest and the richest, with the middle class left out.
I think there was some “deal” or “understanding” made between privileged white kids in the 60’s and the angry blacks they noticed in their teens.
Some sweeping, moral and political absolution was delivered to these upwardly-mobile white kids in unspoken exchange for something.
(Exactly what was extended in return? Unqualified political support for any pleading? Virtually unlimited access to tax money? Praise for Michelle Obama’s wardrobe?)
The effect of this on the character of many privileged white kids was not to develop a real, hard-won moral maturity, but to deliver a smug, comfortable moral vanity that innoculated them from any angst over their own material success.
The exact nature of this Class “deal” escapes me, but SOMETHING occurred between these two groups and it was not a lightning flash of moral enlightenment, as Liberals like to claim. That “something” exchanged is the key to understanding everything else about the Liberal political and social attitudes we see today.
What you are analysing in this piece, it seems to me, are the mature effects of this great sixties understanding, but, to me, it’s like seeing the residual grin of the Cheshire cat while the cat itself remains invisible and inscrutable.
Oct 2, 2009 - 6:41 pm 104. RagnarD:re: Abroad -
Ain’t that the truth. Us folks in flyover country use water heater blankets, storm doors, weather strip and the like because they will save us a buck or two in the long run, nothing else. No “higher” sense or altruism involved here.
I think too many miss this. Our overlords would preach to us what they would never do themselves, left to their own devices because they can afford to not do the right things. It is that simple.
Poor Citizen @ 26:
Ba-Da-Boomp! Hey, Folks! He’ll be here all week. I LOL’ed, I surely did! By saying that you are pretty much guarantees it ain’t true. “Deeper thinker” indeed. More like “steeper stinker”.
Ward Dorrity @ 75:
Emphasis mine. Ward! Few I know in these parts understand that we cannot understand the various “bad actors” in the world for just these reasons. They have their own world view that is completely foreign to the experience of most in the US because they have not traveled beyond the safe borders of the Western World.
A few points from this morning:
- IOC selected Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics. The pictures of 0bambi tell all. The narcissist has received his first major defeat and the world did not bow down to his exalted presence. Tantrum to follow in 3..2..1..
Oct 2, 2009 - 9:59 pm 105. Sapwolf:- 0bambi met with his AfPak General, McKrystal, as an afterthought to the trip to Copenhagen. ‘Present’ vote to follow.
- ACORN is catching heat from all the angles. If the Fed DoJ does not investigate look for the volume level to be turned UP ….. WAY UP!
- Unemployment is up to 9.8%. Cuing The 0bamanation claims that this is a success and things are ‘getting better and better’ in 3..2..1..
All the idiots on here like Now and Then and Vivo will eventually abandon the Messiah. Yep, they will jump off that ship and onto Hillary’s ship in the Dem primary in 2011.
And they will believe Hope and Change from her and project too.
Hmmmm.
Oct 3, 2009 - 4:02 pm 106. Richard Gregg:Another elitist right wing conservative rant, that can’t hide his hatred for Democrats/liberals, and (in-between the lines)the hope of total failure (that might plunge this country into something terrible), lingering hatred for Hillary (she’s been gone almost 9 years, get over her), and dislike of everything that does not agree with the conservative right wing elitist thinking. A closed mind is a terrible thing to waste…!
RSG
Oct 5, 2009 - 5:15 pm