270 Comments

1. Scott:

Dear Professor,

This is one of your finest articles to date as it deftly sums up the incredible hubris of “The One” and illustrates that credible deterrence – not good intentions and empty blather – indeed keeps ones “neighbors” honest and leads to a tolerable existence.

I continue to remind my relations and aquantances who voted for BHO that they have their “change”, but not all change is for the better.

Jun 5, 2009 - 8:13 am 2. Thrasymachus:

The question is not will Obama come to his senses (he won’t) but will enough Americans come to their senses, and soon enough, to save our collective patrimony. Jimmy Carter never got it and never will.

I will probably be leaving the country shortly, and not paying any significant US taxes- I would rather stay here but there is no work. Most people don’t even have that option. The situation could turn out to be permanent.

Somebody should write a description of how bad people behave- the hurt legalism, the blaming, and the cultivation of the authorities are all features at least as significant as the threats and violence.

Jun 5, 2009 - 8:41 am 3. J.E. Dyer:

This is an absolutely wonderful moral tale, and I bet brings to mind as many similar tales from personal history for others as it does for me. “Thanks for sharing,” Professor. Beautifully done.

I’m not sure Obama himself is ever going to come to his senses. Remember, he has spent 48 years living in one way: propped up by the actual work of others, and without consequences. I’m not convinced he would know a consequence if he found it dead in his lunchbox.

But at some point the American people have to realize that what’s going on — the gathering threat — is actionable. Our only constitutional recourses, just to stop the bleeding for the moment, are (1) lawsuits over things like the finance industry and auto industry takeovers; (2) giving the GOP back the filibuster, at the very least, in the Senate with the 2010 election; and (3) finding a pretext on which to impeach the president.

That, of course, would put Joe Biden in the Oval Office. Who would ever have thought that might come to seem the less bad option?

Jun 5, 2009 - 9:49 am 4. Sibyl:

Obama has your “neighbor” would have killed you, Victor — or it would be more accurate to say HAVE you killed.

Jun 5, 2009 - 9:53 am 5. RWE:

Prof Hanson:

This was a superb allegory by even your lofty standards.

And in my mind, it shows another aspect of the problem you address. For you are a better man than I. After such extended attempts at reasoning with your neighbor I fear I would have simply drowned him in that ditch and been done with it.

As you have pointed out in your books, the US firebombing of Japanese cities came after years of Japanese atrocities that grew worse with every event. The reckoning was brutal indeed when it finally came.

The leader who comes after Obama will very likely not just lock the gate but drown the miscreant, whether out of simple necessity, public outrage, or just being tired of fooling around for so long.

Jun 5, 2009 - 10:01 am 6. Ron Kean:

‘Obama will come to his senses…’ …nice thought.

I wish I had learned earlier in life that it’s OK to fight back. Looking back, I wonder if I would have been fired, lost a tooth or actually won something for raising my voice back at someone at various times. Since, I’ve learned that those who raise their voice usually expect the same from you or see the obsequisness as a license to continue rude domination.

Fight or flight. Obama has a choice. Israel does not.

Jun 5, 2009 - 10:12 am 7. Allison Aller:

From when I first started reading your blog, it was your experience in agriculture that gave you baseline credibility to me. All your classical study was very important icing on the cake (and it sure enabled you to write well!)…but it is the dealing with the world as God made it–in nature and in human nature–that brings wisdom and perspective.

Great post!!

Jun 5, 2009 - 10:14 am 8. George Best:

I think we now must look to Netanyahu to take over the role of policy maker in the Middle East for the west. Obama is going to make every attempt to make it seem like Muslim countries are failures because of Israel and the USA so therefore we should not defend ourselves, show restraint when dealing with enemies all while giving up our money.

What I dont understand is how a jew can vote for Obama. He is clearly anti Israel and has a better Muslim accent then most of his Muslim brothers. Also, I havent met many black folk who were not anti semites so his speech content was not a surprise. He clearly hates Israel and his words and associations with black racists spell that out.

Obama is a traitor.

Jun 5, 2009 - 10:49 am 9. EOD:

I have my BA, but I served before going to the university, and have since returned to the military. Perhaps if Obama had taken time to do something similar he might not be such a naif. Of course, he probably calculated that sacrificing four years of his time to serving his country would damage rather than enhance his political chances in a febrile party hell-bent on besmirching the military.
I’m starting to think the “Starship Troopers” notion of citizenship requiring service is not such a horrible idea; it would surely prevent cowards like Obama from ever attaining power.

Jun 5, 2009 - 12:18 pm 10. TLM:

VDH:

I can’t remember if border/water disputes is in your books, but it adds to your theories on the origin of the Western Way of War. The Greek farmer-soldiers who opted for decisive battle as a way to quickly settle conflicts between cities needed to get home and take care of their crops. Who knows, maybe they were also afraid their neighbors who weren’t in the fight were stealing their water.

Jun 5, 2009 - 12:52 pm 11. Robert O. Lopez:

Hello Professor Davis,

I have come to love reading your work. As a classicist it is always a pleasure to see your blend of common sense and antique wisdom. You are truly an inspiration. And so right!

Sincerely,
Robert O. Lopez (a neighbor here at Cal State Northridge)

Jun 5, 2009 - 1:30 pm 12. Samuel Warren-Boyle:

I love any story where actions have consequences and humans behave like real humans. This post shows that the liberal model of the world is inaccurate. That was a great story.

Jun 5, 2009 - 2:57 pm 13. Dr. T:

“…we can’t quite sell off the US to capture our speculative profit.”

Well, not the entire nation, but we certainly can sell part of what the federal government owns. The western states might benefit from a vastly smaller federal presence.

“Obama will come to his senses with his ‘Bush did it’, reset button, moral equivalency, soaring hope and change…”

You are likening Obama to your former neighbor, but you have no basis for doing so. I believe Obama has such an inflated opinion of himself that he will never even consider reconsidering his beliefs and actions. In the case of your neighbor, you wised up and faced him down. No one will do that to the Obamessiah. I predict that Obama will continue to damage the United States for two (or more) terms and then will make himself dictator of whats left.

Jun 5, 2009 - 3:10 pm 14. Mike:

Ah yes. Obama, tabula rasa, The One, the blank slate upon which anything may be written to the satisfaction of all. In the campaign, he was absolutely post racial, and absolutely not Muslim. Now he’s quite Black, thank you, and so close to being Muslim there’s not a penny’s worth of difference between him and genuine Muslims, hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. You can trust me; I’m not really the President of the United States! I transcend such pedestrian titles!

I fear that Obama is the living embodiment of the consequences of those who will not learn from history. Combine that with a malignant narcissism the likes of which has never been seen in the White House, and things are not looking up for the nation or the world. Pre-Obama, everything about America was wrong, bad, immoral, evil. Iraq War? Mistake. Gitmo? Mistake. Fighting a war against a terrorist enemy? Mistake. Change the terminology and treat it like shoplifting. America? Imperalist! Colonialist! Hit the reset button. I will change everything. I have ordered no more torture. I have nationalized the auto industry and the banks. I, I, I. Iran and North Korea? Misunderstood. I will engage them, in smart diplomacy. I will solve all of the problems of the Middle East by forcing the Israelis to give land to the Palestinians. Because I AM, all is possible. The old realities were illusions. I will hit the reset button!

Even the most cursory review of history is not kind to any of Obama’s conceits, and I certainly don’t have the space to go into even a short of list of his historical malaprops. I fear, that as Thrasymachus observed, Obama will absolutely not get it. Like Jimmy Carter, whose ego was anything but small, and who was and remains absolutely certain of his moral and intellectual superiority, Obama will never get it. But Obama is doubly dangerous for two (among many) reasons: He has already shown a facility for the big lie, and he does it with no shame whatsoever. He has absolutely no intention of running a car company but fires the president of GM on the way to owning a controlling interest in the company. He will make GM profitable again while simultaneously imposing ruinous CAFE standards on the company. So boldly does he lie as he reads the left teleprompter screen, most don’t seem to see the 180° contradiction as he reads the right teleprompter screen. But he is most dangerous because unlike Jimmy Carter, the press no longer makes even a pretense at covering his deceptions. They abet them, hide them, justify them, and ignore any evidence to the contrary. And while more and more Americans are realizing that the press absolutely cannot be trusted, the press still shapes far too many American opinions, enough to allow Obama to do enormous, perhaps irreparable damage.

Unfortunately, the world is in a uniquely dangerous era, and our President is a man who has no practical life experience, who apparently slept through all of his history classes, knows nothing about economics or business, and cares about people only in the abstract, only as members of useful victim groups. If his smart diplomacy results in a treaty or two, one wonders if he’ll loudly proclaim “peace in our time?” As the ancient Chinese curse said, we do indeed live in interesting times. Why do I suspect Obama would have no idea what that means?

Jun 5, 2009 - 7:33 pm 15. RLord:

Only two comments on this wonderful piece? Indeed, he’ll grow up sooner or later. We hope. As much for his sake as the country’s. As noted, Carter still lives in some kind of peanut-brained fog that thinks a few speeches, some handshakes in the garden and a treaty or two will make everyone play nice. I don’t really believe all the hyperbole about Obama being some evil tyrant. He’s just an egghead who can give a good speech and has a chip on his immature shoulder the size of Gibraltar. I just hope it isn’t Iran or Al-qaeda that finally slaps some sense into his soft head.

Jun 5, 2009 - 7:53 pm 16. Jimmy J.:

A well-told story of a lesson learned in the college of hard knocks. It’s the kind of story common to those who have had to earn their spurs when challenged by competitors, weather, neighbors, or any force that can bring you to ruin. Thanks for sharing this very personal story.

We should be looking for candidates for higher office who have met a payroll, harvested crops, saved a failing business, and know how important productive work and standing up to adversaries is to this country. Instead we elect lawyers, career politicos, and academics who know nothing of those things.

Jun 5, 2009 - 8:28 pm 17. Jack Marcotte:

Essential vdh

Humor has its place. This is not the time nor the circumstances to be cute and touchy feely.

Americans will eventually need to chose sides. Obama is a fool and is a dangerous indoctrinated communist/socialist/fascist fool.

He BHO “knows” America was and is bad. He knows he can correct it. He got that information in the same way little kids are told about Santa Clause.

Indoctrination From his mother’s, diatribes then the Affirmative action academics and UofC incompetent bill Ayers. A self described Terrorist against America. An incompetent leech who could not find his aXX on a dark night.

Look at BHO’s “friends” and actions before he began running for president.

That is why he will destroy America along with the help of all of his cohorts with Ivy League affirmative action degrees.

There is not a lick of sense in all of them put together.

The MSM now needs to be seen for what it is, a propaganda machine that is in a trance that does not even allow them a minute or two of rationality during any 24 hr news cycle.

Obama’s idiot speeches sound like the sirens call to them, profound.

They, MSM are drunken idiots who think they are walking a straight line.

They, the MSM are like survivors in a boat who don’t seem to realize that the guy who is supposed to help is actually cutting holes in the bottom.

They somehow feel immune and unbiased onlookers reporting. Like Mr Dudd (Mudd) and his secretary.

MSM “persons” have been so well indoctrinated themselves believe that “bullets” would (should) not kill them.

They, the MSM are like the Muslims who as a religion believe that lying to do Allah’s will is not lying. They are cult rats who in a feeding frenzy eat themselves. They feel satisfaction but it is their own flesh. Unaware stupid and vicious.

America fought a Revolutionary War, a Civil war and two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, and other dust ups, all under the correct assumption that what America was and what the world aspired to be–to become like America was worth Americans fighting and dieing for.

What have we now to show for it? A fat corrupt Europe. An idiot for president who even in a speech to the “world” of Islam cannot accurately recite history that occurred only a few years ago.

Do we as Americans chose Socialists that are de facto communists who will need to turn more and more to fascism to make it all hold together and make the failure all the much greater?

The Banks, the Autos, the medical system, the very lives of Americans now will be controlled by these idiots.

For those who think they are standing on the sidelines observing this and finding humor in it. Guess again.

I would suggest they submit to deprogramming to allow themselves to see the world as it is. See what will happen to them if Obama’s and his stooges are allowed to continue this course of destruction for America and Western Culture.

Acorns, Ayers, Wright, and other ignorant and racist groups and idiots all now thinking finally we bring America down to size.

“We will destroy those who worked hard and succeeded. We will redistribute the fruit of their labor, the sweat of their brow, They are responsible for our personal failures.”

“We should have been able to succeed without working. America owes us for being so brutal.” All should believe in this psycho babel.”

In the end all legitimate Americans must chose what side they will be on. The destruction of America will continue is ongoing as we waste time here. It is happening now.

I would suggest those who think that being classified as needing Affirmative action think again about their choice.

A government that can give you everything must also take it away. A Ponzi scheme. Government’s create nothing but—breed tyrants.

Making a conscious decision to be a Jackal and not a lion. That is UnAmerican.

A simple lesson in the way of the world. If a victim,parasitic, scavenger life style is dependent on the lion killing and providing the left over food for the Jackal.

What happens when the Jackal thinks he is a lion and the jackal is stealing away most of the lions food for the pride?

The jackal will not be long for his life over-reaching style. If he will survive the lions he must learn to catch his own food. He is not worth eating for the lion but he is worth “chasing away”.

Jun 5, 2009 - 8:33 pm 18. Angry Dad:

Dr. Hanson’s story reminds of my experience in Army basic training. The first day of training the drill sergeants asked if any platoon members had had any college. I and a couple of other guys were naive, or in my case, dumb enough (my veteran father had warned me to make myself as inconspicuous as possible during my training) to raise our hands. We were made squad leaders on the spot.

Flattered as I was at having my schooling recognized, I didn’t know the first thing about leadership or training. I think I made it one day before I was unceremoniously replaced. By the end of training, the squad leaders leading us into graduation were the country boys who knew about guns and fieldcraft and the tough guys who could keep people in line, literally and figuratively.

I never found the Army anti-intellectual, but I learned quickly that it was very pro-results. Thinking and talking were fine, but the Army wanted doers who could complete the mission.

President Obama was elected as the thinker and talker, a man with all the ideas and the ability to sell them. I fear that in his mind, thinking and talking are the only actions required of him, and this delusion is dangerous and possibly fatal in national security crises.

Jun 5, 2009 - 9:17 pm 19. JohnB:

I let out a “My God!” at the end. Hanson expresses so well some of the issues that have been tugging on my mind throughout the 2008 campaign and the past few months of the Obama administration.

Jun 5, 2009 - 10:54 pm 20. JA Lineberry:

I enjoyed the story, but I think international politics is a little more complicated than that. Sorry.

I think this is the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives – conservatives believe the world is simple, liberals believe it is complicated. Maybe one day we will come to an understanding.

Jun 6, 2009 - 12:11 am 21. Pete:

Dr. Hanson:

A very interesting anecdote of the disconnect between life as it is, and life as the ivory tower says it should be. How significant that you tried all of the liberal approved methods of negotiation, persuation, argument, but in the end had to force the issue by a show of strength. A tough old hockey coach of mine put it quite succinctly, “In life, you either hit or get hit.” Certain people in the world will test you, they’ll push you to see if you push back, and if you do not, they keep on pushing to get what they want, or that which belongs to you. All those years in college isolate many of us from this fact, and other harsh but essential truths about reality.

I married into a small-town family from rural Kansas, people whose lives are intimately tied to the soil and nature, and quickly learned that they had all of the wisdom and more than anyone in the Ivory Tower had. Academia is very good at teaching knowledge, but not so much wisdom. The “school of hard knocks,” on the other hand, the kind my rural in-laws went through, teaches a very different, eminently practical set of rules by which to live. So, I second your remarks about coming from academia into farming.

In my case, I learned about reality up-close by working in a big-city hospital, and also by being an auto mechanic. I did try joining the military, another time-honored way in which to meet reality, but by then was too old – but that’s another story.

To sum up, it is my belief that certain kinds of knowledge can only be won by doing things, not by studying them. Other kinds are accessible traditional scholarship; reading, research, and the like. To be well-rounded, humans need both. This is the problem with Obama, he has only academic knowledge, obtained at far-remove from reality, and little/no experience on the front lines, down in the trenches of human experience. Writ large, the same problem affects Washington, D.C., and our political class as a whole.

Jun 6, 2009 - 12:32 am 22. Marino:

Simply brilliant. It reminds me of how things work at a construction site for a subcontractor. Getting in, getting out and getting paid are more a function ones toughness and willingness to fight (sometimes literally) than the quality and timeliness of your work.

I’m also reminded of a famous gym in Hoboken, NJ where top high school and college basketball players play pick up games in the summer. There is a large sign hanging in the old airless gym that reads “No weak sh** allowed”.

Jun 6, 2009 - 1:44 am 23. Marino:

I’m also reminded of a scene in the movie Sleepers. A young boy shows empathy to an opponent in a game of stick ball. An old man pulls the kid aside and admonishes him .. “don’t ever be weak like that, people will smell it on you and take advantage of you”.

Jun 6, 2009 - 1:49 am 24. Meryl:

Well, at least the United States is going to have an accumulation of the finest eulogies ever written and extensive documentation explaining why she died.

Thank for your capacity to observe, understand and reason–and taking the energy and time to do it. It may not change the outcome, of course.

Many years ago, I went through an 18 month period where suicide seemed like a reasonable option to me. One of the most helpful conversations I had during that time was the one in which my pastor clarified the following to me: “You know, if you really do want to kill yourself, no one will be able to stop you. Don’t assume that we can.”

In other words, if any part of this is gamesmanship, be warned. It could turn around and bite you.

The American people and Congress are quickly losing the time needed to deal with a parallel reality: “If someone really wants to destroy this nation, from a position of power, they will be able to if we don’t stop them. Don’t assume that somehow, magically, they won’t get by with it.”

Jun 6, 2009 - 2:51 am 25. JHM dba ''A. N. Ekdôsis":

This is kind of fun.

Other wingnutettes and wingnuts have been criticizin’ their President those little stories about himself he sticks into his orations. Neocomrade Rear-Colonel V. D. H. Blimp, however, is the first to actually retaliate in kind.

And now what, escalation?

Happy days.

Jun 6, 2009 - 3:07 am 26. john samford:

Not sure it matters. The Usurper doesn’t run America, his handlers do. Everybody with an IQ over room temperature understands that he was born in Kenya which means he isn’t qualified to be POTUS. He has so many chains on him because of that, he is nothing more then a public figurehead, doomed to being in campaign mode for the entire time he is office.
The misery index will be over 20 by the midterms. Voters will look into their empty wallets and note the climbing prices and vote against the in party. It won’t help, the Republicans being as bad or worse but it’s either that or take up arms.
That will leave the Usurper and his handlers 2 choices, lose congress in the election and wait for the impeachment to start or declare an emergency under the FEMA act. That will allow the Usurper to cancel the elections for 90 days. Congress can vote to extend that 90 days. Faced with extending martial law or getting tossed out of office, what do you suppose they will do?

Jun 6, 2009 - 3:48 am 27. Phil Byler:

It does not matter whether Obama gets it. Obama may or may not ever get it, but whether he does or not, what he does in office won’t change. He will continue with his appeasement-minded apologies and weakness no matter what his private thoughts are.

It only matters if enough of the American people get it to exert public pressure to restrain Obama while Obama is President and then vote Obama out of office in 2012.

Jun 6, 2009 - 3:59 am 28. Khiri:

Sorry, Victor, you give him way too much credit.

He’s not going to get it. We have to get it, the more the better, and fast!

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:32 am 29. Broadsword:

True, Obama will never come to his senses, never have an Alec Guiness-River Kwai “My God! What have I done?” moment. When the teleprompter fails, as if answering the question ‘How many____ does it take to change a light bulb?’, he’ll sit in the dark saying “Uh, er, uh…wait a minute. Let me be clear.” And his ant-mound horde sycophants and tenders and mouthers of ‘blame someone else’ will scurry and spit. What is frightening is the disaster it will take to bring this to pass. Personally I recommend going to one’s knees voluntarily. When forced by circumstances, prayer as a last resort is not good strategy.

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:35 am 30. jjkrn:

excellent….thank you

it’s too late however…i have advised my 3 children to leave the country…my 2 daughters live near DC..there is no safety margin there….it’s a prize waiting to be plucked in some horrible fashion….oh..there will be wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth…wailing from on high….swift decisive “action” of some weak sort…

these people in the WH have a plan….i’m not sure what the end game is…but i have a bad feeling it doesn’t involve the daily safety of regular Americans…only the elite…i know…i know…i sound like a nut job…i do know the world is upside down now…it’s only a matter of time…..this is going to end badly..

i don’t want my children here….girlfriend and i can manage due to our enrollment in the school of hard knocks in the past..our combined children have no such experiences…my 22 y/o daughter is traveling europe now post graduation from Penn State engineering….she has been there several times and always felt safe…she doesn’t feel safe now…she told me in a conversation via phone that there is a weird tension in the air…especially in Amsterdam and the nordic countries….even her beloved Italy was different, colder, slightly hostile towards Americans…a great friend of hers who is finishing up post grad at the Vatican told her that the feeling on the street is that where Americans congregate, it’s a potential target rich environment….

these are just asides from my world….limited, myopic, self serving…

i am lucky…i have a childhood friend who has done well in New Zealand…..it’s near the bottom of the target list….my kids, the ex wife and sundry others are going for a visit soon…my girlfriends kids won’t leave Chicago..yet

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:35 am 31. Terry:

I believe that Obama may or may not ‘come to his senses.’ I do not, however, believe he’ll ever admit doing so. His narcissism demands that he always hold a morally superior position and hence he will not ever admit to the error of his ways. The leftist thinkers and sheeple will continue to follow his narcissism because it matches up with their guilt.

If only the U.S. and its government could display the realization you displayed when you locked the water. Can they reach such an epiphany? It hardly seems likely.

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:53 am 32. Jack’s Newswatch » Blog Archive » Hanson: The Reckoning:

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Jun 6, 2009 - 4:58 am 33. Economist:

What Thrasymachus said. The lickspittle media and fawning sycophants who scrub the scuffs from His Air Jordans are as much a terrarium as the ignoramuses in academe (”elite” university or non). No, when Obama fails, which he will (let me repeat that: which he will), He, and the shrew Michelle, and their hagiographers among the “best and brightest” will blame us, the great unwashed, for being unready for the challenges He proposed and uniwlling to drag ourselves into the bright future of His visions.

This is going to be very ugly. But we can hope that Obama will represent end of the prgressive statist utopianism that has sought since the Counter-Reformation to render the west into serfs.

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:59 am 34. fear Obama:

The Obama Ad-ministration are nothing more than words.

Obama just gives speeches to his teleprompter and waits for someone to break the rhetoric.

The Black people know it.
The Jews know it.
The Muslims know it.
The Germans know it.
The terrorists know it.

Some white Americans are still being fooled by the ‘talk’.

Congress now does all the shucking and jiving.

Listen for the Chinese laughter at tax man Geitner.

“Your money is safe- give us another trillion.” …… LOL-
ROFLOL

Nancy Pelosi’s Chinese trip was to shut her up.

Ad-men hope the CIA won’t release some Harvard college entrance papers-
(Black Kenyan Muslim) or grades.

We knew when Bush spoke something would happen.

When Obama speaks I hear laughter.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:02 am 35. Harry:

Nice story. You mentioned you weren’t 1/8th the man your father was even at 86. Similarly I’m nowhere near the cunning and intestinal fortitude my father had. There are so many applications to the real world your story brings. Fighting for your rights regardless of the past. Dealing with liars and crooks. How far civility gets you (you were far too civil). You were too involved in books and education and not at all with real life events like cheating neighbors. On a national level we have perfessors (spelling mine) too enmeshed in books, not expert at handling real world events, lecturing us how to handle real world events. Modern Liberals are too kind and civil but even moreso too naive and simple to believe others can be crooked or even worse, muderers. But of course they aren’t too civil when it comes to their own countrymen (Republicans/Conservatives). On a global scale Iran is like your neighbor. The more you sucked up to your neighbor the more he continued his thieving ways. If you persisted in being “civil” your fields would have literally been sucked dry. You were fortunate this happened 29 years ago before the advent of modern liberal ideology. If this happened today your Berkeley “friends” would have picketed you, declaring you a fascist racist pig. Your neighbor long a sufferer of past wrongdoings will now take whatever he wants as compensation. Your congressman would proudly orate how he is “Changing” America offering “Hope” to all. David Gregory would be there as well as CNN MSNBC to reiterate how you were a racist fascist pig. Al Gore and his environmentlaist friends would make sure you instituted a dozen new restrictions due to going green and global warming. You being civil would totally comply while your neighbor being a crook would continue his same ways.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:06 am 36. river:

Professor,
Random thoughts:
The Latin phrase, that one about the dead – isn’t there a similar one about the fatherland?
One often laments that “land of my father” had to be replaced by “dreams from my father.”

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:06 am 37. glenn:

If I thought the president was the waif you describe I’d be a little bit worried. My fear is that he knows exactly what he’s doing.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:09 am 38. scooter:

Excellent lesson about idealism vs. the real world; therein lies a big clue about the liberal mindset and its inability/unwillingness to accept reality.

Thoroughly enjoyed your article and will share it with my college-age sons.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:11 am 39. hdgreene:

I noticed a trend on the left about twenty years ago: if human nature does not fit the plan than we will just have to change human nature. Thank whatever gods may be for Ritalin.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:18 am 40. MiamaMan:

Great article, thank you very much.

Obama apparently does not know history. He is, and will be taken for a ride, by the like of Amadinejad and Putin, then even Chavez. He is weakening the US.

On jobs and the economy, when the stimulus package was approved, unemployment was 8.1%, now is 9.4%. I think we are on uncharted territory here. Many jobs will simply not return. The GM debacle is opening markets for foreign cars even more, including the French for the first time.

There is no work. There isn’t, I, with a BS, an MS in engineering, and a prestigious international license, can’t find work for over a year and a half. Forget South Florida, the unemployment here is over 10%. 1 in 175 houses are in foreclosure (country average is 1/349). Employers are trying to find your age in subtle ways. Complaints about age discrimination for employment have soared 30%.

I may too will have to leave the country, and have already started applying outside the US.

In the meantime, the Destroyer-in-Chief, go around the globe making fancy speeches, turning his chin Mussolini-style, Messianically savoring his status as a mongrel, African-American whatever that he is not.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:38 am 41. m. tomlinson:

A fine article, as always. However, with the Philadelphia Black Panthers case dismissed by DOJ, ACORN rising, the Census moving from Commerce to the White House, half of the population paying no taxes, etc., etc., do you really think that the numinous Obama will relinquish power in 2012? How many Republicans have won elections in Chicago in the last 40 years?

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:41 am 42. tom:

Thrasymachus: Where ya headed to? As an American citizen, you owe taxes no matter where you live or work. You might want to do a little more research. It’s one of our greatest ‘perks’. Your taxed no matter where you are in the world.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:42 am 43. JL:

Haha. This would be a great storyline for a movie.

It’s also a great example of how to use the human psychic to your advantage. Mr. Hanson went along for a long while and was pleasant and respectful. Then all of a sudden, like a lightning strike, he makes a violent over the top outburst. In his opponents eyes that makes him seem unpredictable and dangerous and therefore worthy of respect.

The wrong way to handle this situation, would have been a gradual escalation. Thus taking the unpredictability out of the equation.

As an example of this on a larger scale would be Israel’s campaign in Gaza last year. That campaign will have much larger effect than the last 20 years of measured responses combined. It was sudden, short, over the top and unpredictable. A complete over reaction. Which is exactly what it should be.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:56 am 44. USMC Ken:

Now, that was good writing and a great story. Thanks

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:20 am 45. David P:

Obama is a colossal failure whose policies will set America back decades to a period from which we may never recover.

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:21 am 46. Gary Ogletree:

Great story. Would go viral if it was on You Tube.

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:24 am 47. Jeff Perren:

“Obama will come to his senses”

Doubtful. When you’ve invested your entire life in an evil philosophy – pragmatic Progressivism – and your overarching goal in life is to have everyone think you’re grand, the bubble bursting rarely results in discovering virtue later on.

More likely, severe depression or suicide. Except, since he’s succeeded in his goal of acquiring power, he’ll have an endless line of lackeys to pat him on the back for the rest of his life. He’ll be miserable, but never show it.

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:24 am 48. Barry 0351:

We assume he will be a good president and leads us to safety, and prosperity with the good will of the whole world behind us.
Assume lets break this word down in parts, ASS,U,ME.
OK I got it now!

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:33 am 49. Sebastian Shaw:

President Obama’s reckoning will come when his huge government programs implode, unemployment increases, & inflation increases; once Obama is no longer popular, Obama will take away his toys & pout like the spoiled brat he is. President Obama will be persona non grata just like Jimmy Carter was for 20 years. The Democrats will pull away from Obama given his deeply anti-American, radical nature. Obama is too radical even for most of the Democrats. The Democrats will attempt to save face in some form, but it will be too late for them.

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:37 am 50. Fred Beloit:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/06/023733.php

The internet was all abuzz last evening and is this morning. They are praising Obama for saying “There is no equivalency” in answer to Tom The-Bomb Brokaw’s question about what the Israelis could learn from Obama’s visit to a Nazi death camp concerning Israeli treatment of the so-called Palestinians.
Now I really hate to suggest this, but not so much that I won’t do it. Is it possible that Brokaw’s question was a White House setup to give B. Hussein a chance to quell the controversy created by his on-the-other-hand equivalency statement in the Germany speech? Are the WH handlers that sly?

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:43 am 51. Steve:

This man is not naive. Uneducated, yes but not naive.

He has a burning hatred along with his wife for Western Civilization, white people and free markets. He/they are Black Liberationists. Its an ideology that is Marxist and has a black god that hates and demonizes whites. Does Louis Farakahn ring a bell?

Black Liberationists are part communist and part Islamic with a black white hating Jesus thrown in to complete their orgy of hate.

This the president of the United States of America’s mindset.

This man didn’t even grow up in our country. I share value few values with the Left but with Barack and Michelle I share none.

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:51 am 52. iconoclast:

Obama’s recent unilateral sanction on N. Korea has given me grounds for some “hope”. After all, your experience was essentially different from Obama’s because you are a different man. The man you were was intellectually honest. Wrong, but at least you had integrity and actually believed the pap we were both fed in University.

Obama doesn’t. He is a classic leftist, which means that he is a cynical seek of pure power. Leftists have no intellectual integrity–like your ex-neighbor, it is all a shell game to them. Exclamations of moral superiority are just for the pliable masses. Pronouncements (we will close Gitmo, we will leave Iraq, we will lower your taxes) are just for the masses of marks.

So when Kim rattles his sabers to extort more moeny from the world he works to destabilize, Obama sees a kindred soul seeking more power. And, since any power gained by Kim is power lost to Obama (they likes their zero sum games), Obama will be relatively ruthless about taking actions against Kim.

Is this better? I don’t know. When you make a deal with the devil, you better watch out for the unintended consequences…

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:16 am 53. The Anchoress — A First Things Blog:

[...] Speaking of water, Victor Davis Hanson talks about water rights, relates them to Obama’s foreign policy, and makes a lot of sense, you’re want to read him. [...]

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:22 am 54. scott:

Lord have mercy! What a fantastic piece!

It will be way too late for us when and if Obammy wakes up to reality. Probably far too late for us as well.

(the other scott)

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:24 am 55. DanRampage:

Professor:

Great article and a very relevant example of the situation we face. Sadly, I have less hope that Obama at 48 will be as willing to recognize the err of his ways as you did at 26, or will have the humility to admit it and change his behavior. There’s a remarkable and surprising (and increasing) amount of ego and narcissism in everything he does and says, and certain smugness of always being right. I think we will lose the farm.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:26 am 56. sule:

I think that Barry is doing exactly what his political mega bucks backers wanted him to: finish off the U.S. economy, turn us into a huddled crowd of beggers holding out tin cups to China and the Middle East.

U.S. taxpayers are the slaves now, forced to subsidize any and all “engorged nonproducers” for the rest of our children’s lives.

Oh, and don’t forget, we must defend them too.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:27 am 57. scott:

Oops …. one to many ‘for us’ es in there.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:27 am 58. kevinS:

Dr. Hanson,

Obama will not come to his senses because he is doing what he set out to do, wreck the United States as it has been until his election. He didn’t spend 20 years, every Sunday, with a hate spewing preacher and not agree with the message; he did not pal around with a known American terrorist who hated America without agreeing with the idea. All of his friends have been associated with Hate America rhetoric. The first thing he did when he took office was go for the money. The next thing was to start wrecking the value of the money supply. He has seized effective control of banks and manufacturing companies. He has brought in mediocre hacks to run things. He left a 31 year old inexperienced doofus in charge of GM. He is encouraging our enemies abroad and snubbing our long time allies.
Obama knows exactly what he is doing.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:29 am 59. Jane:

I enjoyed this piece thoroughly. What a great story – right up there with Aesop … I hope you are right and Obama will come to his senses. God, I hope we don’t lose the farm before he comes around. I am not sure we really know what is inside his heart. He scares me.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:43 am 60. I drive down the dirt roads.:

Your neighbor reminds me more of Cable Hogue; in “The Ballad of Cable Hogue”, (I still love that old Jason Robarbs movie). We all ending up liking old Cable, but we knew he was as mean as the dessert he lived in.

You know his fights were always over his water out in the dessert, and I still get upset when the new automobile in the end hits old Cable. I guess I like Jason Robards as much as any actor just because of that movie.

I enjoyed what you wrote Dr. Hanson, and I could almost hear the cool music playing in the Robards movie while I read it.

I did not know you were a farmer, no wonder I always love what you write.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:44 am 61. Войска ПВО:

“Obama will come to his senses with his ‘Bush did it’, reset button, moral equivalency, soaring hope and change, with these apologies to Europeans, his Arab world Sermons on the Mount to Al Arabiya, in Turkey, in Cairo, etc., his touchy-feely videos to Iran, his “we are all victims of racism” sops to Ortega, Chavez, and Morales.”

..Victor, with the greatest of respect, no..he won’t.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:50 am 62. geokstr:

Victor:

You learned these valuable lessons about real life because it was your private property (a concept alien to Obama) and livelihood that was directly threatened by your neighbor’s theft. What if he had only been stealing water from someone far downstream that you didn’t even know, and your vineyard was thriving? Would you have gained a similar degree of wisdom?

What exactly are the direct costs to Obama personally if his policies and actions fail? His political legacy? That hasn’t stopped Carter from still believing in the righteousness of his actions when he was POTUS, has it?

Without ever having set foot in real life, Obama is already a multi-millionaire, and given his personal attractiveness and teleprompter reading skills, he will no doubt make the $100 million dollar fortunes amassed by both Clinton and Gore look like chump change when he leaves office. (We’ll assume for now that his policies won’t cause enough national destruction for him to declare martial law and pull a Chavez on us.)

To make matters worse, his adoring fans control all the opinion making machinery in the Western world: the media, the professoriat, the teaching professions, the entertainment industry. They will all be loudly proclaiming that any negative fallout from his policies and actions is all the fault of his evil political enemies, or that we just haven’t gone far enough to the left yet to make a difference.

So what’s it to Obama if it’s just the other guy whose water is being stolen? Even in the old USSR, while the vast majority of people were impoverished and had no rights or freedoms, did the nomenklatura gain any wisdom from that? No, they were quite happy in their own relative opulence, and thought the rest of the population to be nothing but whiners, or political enemies who deserved their lot in life.

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:07 am 63. Saltherring:

#2: I, too, am not convinced “Obama will come to his senses”. I might be convinced if I believed Obama to be a loyal American…but I am not certain he is. As of yet, with regards to foreign policy, he appears to be a composite re-creation of Neville Chamberlain, Jimmy Carter, the Three Stooges’ Curley and Timothy Leary. That is, Obama is conducting dimplomacy from astride the four horsemen of appeasment, naivete, slapstick comedy and psychedelic insanity. He offends our traditional allies (Britain, France, Germany, Israel) while attempting to parley with sworn enemies, leaving our allies dismayed and our enemies believing us weak. Is this due to inexperience and foolishness, as in Dr. Hanson’s initial experiences with his neighbor, or the calculated actions of a sworn, anti-American globalist? In either case, how long can we tolerate his actions?

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:09 am 64. hM:

As much as I’d like to attribute Obama’s economic and foreign policies to stupidity, I’ve come to the conclusion that he really just cares more about himself. He’s more concerned with centralizing power with himself than anything that could possibly go wrong with his many (provably flawed) policies, constant apologizing, and kowtowing to dictators who play the superior morality card all while killing their own populations in the name of “order” and “progress.”

It doesn’t take a genius to really look at history and pick out a few patterns: 1) people who leave themselves unprotected are asking to be attacked/invaded; 2) talking with people who want to wipe you off the map never works; and 3) any aggressive power who agrees to stop fighting as long as you don’t destroy them is really just buying time to recover and rearm to take another stab at it. This is not rocket science. It’s basic common sense and using a history trend to predict what will happen next. Not necessarily 100% correct but history has shown those who are prepared for the worst tend to fare the best in a crisis. Go figure.

Humanity – minus the United States (everybody knows we’re just a bunch of warmongering haters, doncha know) – has not somehow suddenly become the war-hating pantheon of good manners and give-and-take that those “enlightened” academics would like to believe. Humanity is still in possession of human nature and while some rail against the need for defense there are – gasp! – people who take advantage of that. Never has there been true peace and freedom in this world assured by paying the international equivalent of “protection money” to state leaders who are little more than glorified thugs. Oddly enough, the phrase “If you give an inch they’ll take a mile” seems a very prudent warning to follow against appeasing bullies.

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:23 am 65. Vinny Vidivici:

Absolutely beauiful. I followed a similar awakening journey working abroad in places where opportunity and wealth where controlled in feudal fashion and ‘getting by’ meant ‘getting over’ on someone else.

Like Obama, too many Americans live a largely consequence-free existance. They can avoid or opt out of almost any inconvenience or unpleasentness. They can blame others for mishaps or voids in their lives. They rarely pay a price for even their most irresponsible behavior.

Indeed, sacrifice and hardship (forget suffering) are no longer prerequisites to accomplishment or part of a life well lived. Rather, they are indices of failure to be avoided (or decreed unjust).

Worse, they’ve been convinced by educators and opinion-shapers that the wealthiest, healthiest, best educated generation of humans in all of history live in a time of darkness and misery from which it must be rescued.

Look around our so-called leadership classes and the intellectually-incestuous commentariat surrounding them, and you’ll see too many who confuse academic pedigree with wisdom, confuse words in a speech with concrete accomplishment, confuse legislating and lawmaking with governing, confuse simply holding political office with leadership.

We’ve become a terribly unserious people, rapidly squandering the margin which makes our frivolity possible, margin earned for us by the sweat and blood of previous generations.

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:27 am 66. Pops in Vienna:

Hi Doc,

Another great article. I have often wondered about when reality will catch up with Obama. I’m a bit surprised that it’s taking the evil forces of the world to make their move.

Why hasn’t Russia reclaimed the Ukraine and cut off our supply line to Afghanistan? Why doesn’t China make a move against Taiwan? Why aren’t the Iranians playing chicken with the US Navy? Why doesn’t North Korea blow something up?

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:27 am 67. Self-hating Boomer:

Of course, you’re assuming that he’s batting for our team. I don’t think you can count on that. A better analogy might be that you had already, in your college years or before, cut a deal with the neighbor to run the place into the ground in exchange for a fixed sum.

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:30 am 68. MaryB:

Your mistakes were the mistakes of youth. Obama’s are pathological. He is one angry, vindictive, small minded individual who is way too powerful. The man is scary.

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:31 am 69. no name:

there are none more blind than those who refuse to see. it’s time to look behind the curtain amerika. butt kissing, poopie lips “o” is definite danger to this once great republic! the days of reconing they is a coming.

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:34 am 70. Penny:

Just let affirmative action evil boy lose some of his popularity and Hillery will emasculate obama. Hillery is the man obama wishes he were. She will take him our as soon as she gets an opening. I can’t think I would ever root for Hillery, or Joe Biden, but at least they are Americans. Hillery will turn off his water — you just wait(not too long). Honeymoons last six months. August will change the game.

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:35 am 71. Old_Airman_2000:

Doc, what a wonderful article. Perhaps one of the best you have ever written. It was so real, so fundamental.

I recall a day when I was about 8 years old. It was a beautiful summer day and my father had just bought me a new bicycle. I was riding it around the neighborhood and one of the neighbor kids, who was older and bigger than me, asked if he could ride it. So being the naive little kid I was, I said sure. Well, it wasn’t long before the kid would not give the bike back and continued to ride it around the neighborhood. My requests to return the bike were ignored and I was becoming quite frustrated. I can’t remember how long the kid had the bike but it was quite awhile, and I thought I would not get it back. Finally, my father, who had been doing yard work in the backyard came out to the front of the house and saw how distressed I was. He went out and found the kid that took my bike and got it back for me. Then he asked me to come back to the patio at the back of our house and we sat down and had some ice tea. He then gave me a lecture about protecting my property. That nobody should take my property and if they did, I should have to fight to get it back. Even if it meant getting hurt. That was pretty frightening for a little 8 year old boy. Risking injury to get your property back. But the line that I will always remember to my dying day was this. He said to me, “Son, if some man was to walk up to me and say, ‘Mr. H, I am going to burn your house down!’, son, he would have to do it over my dead body. He would have to kill me before he could do it.” I never forgot those words. And they have followed me throughout my life.

Great article!

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:36 am 72. trangbang68:

JA Lineberry, #20- Obviously, the left and right have different nuances and Prescriptions for the world, but I think you miss the real difference.
The right does view the world in “simple” terms, as a fallen, dangerous place where as that great Leftist icon Chairman Mao said, “power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. As such, only vigilance and preparedness and a sober assessment of our enemies will keep us safe.
The left on the other hand views the world more in “simple-minded” terms. If America (or should I say AmeriKKKa)would only lay down its military posture then we would gain a new respect from the Barbarians at the Gates. That claptrap doesn’t work on the playground and surely doesn’t work in this maddog world in which we live. In the words of Donald Fagan and Walter Becker of Steely Dan:

“A world became one of salads and Sun
Only a fool would say that….

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:40 am 73. Ms. Attitude:

Great story…I see Obama as your old neighbor when dealing with US citizens and as you when dealing with other countries. While bullying and demonizing us he pacifies Islam.

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:56 am 74. john m e:

marvelous application of classic good and , pragmatism and idealism..
so I wonder if anything we do as a nation has an inevitable end…or do foolish pride and self righteous greed propel us forward without regard for lessons learned.

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:57 am 75. Delia:

*swipes tear*

We are in big trouble and the people who should be reporting it are NOT.

Thank you for laying it on the line, Prof. Hanson.

What a scary, sad, sorry state we are in and there is nobody minding the wheel.

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:00 am 76. no name:

#61:BONCKA IIBO hey man i like what you say and the way you say it,but i’m just a southern transplant, born en raised in the rectum of the world(phila. pa.)new to this typing en computer stuff,so please forgive me,but what thee hell is that funny looking script you got on your handle and what does it mean? i know it aint no commie pinko thing cause i’ve seen your comments about your return from across the pond. did a stint there too-65,66,67,68 uh1c gunship pilot.

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:15 am 77. ked5:

I do not share your optimism that his high and mightiness will take off his socialist blinders. I am not optimistic that a mushroom cloud going off over his party house will bring him to a more rational view of reality – I think he’d blame that on American’s too. I do believe that he won’t see reality until the fire’s of h*** burn it into him. (or should I say burn out of him, his narcisstic views of his place in the world.)

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:21 am 78. Sherab Zangpo:

TEST

Sorry, I posted something and when I clicked on SUBMIT it disappeared, just trying to see what’s happening.

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:31 am 79. Ian Thorpe:

From my years in business, ending as a management consultant, I came to the conclusion that a University Education is most beneficial if the student has practical experience first. There is a sequence in the Rodney Dangerfield film Back To School that illustrates this perfectly.

Obama however will never undersrand the difference between theory and reality. He was never intelligent enough to hold down a real job.

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:39 am 80. Terry Gain:

I.20. JA Lineberry:

I enjoyed the story, but I think international politics is a little more complicated than that. Sorry.

I think this is the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives – conservatives believe the world is simple, liberals believe it is complicated. Maybe one day we will come to an understanding.

Given the life of Mohammed, their founding documents, the history of the last 1400 years and the current war being waged against infidels only a simpleton who doesn’t understand the complexities (or a closet Muslim) would be ignorant enough to claim that Islam is peace.

So JA, is Obama a conservative or a closet Muslim.

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:46 am 81. Rachel Peepers:

A fitful, total disgrace. An abject failure. The polar opposite of the ideals upon which this nation was founded.

If that describes the American President, then what describes the American people?

Naive? Lazy? Gutless? Unintelligent? Dependent.

Maybe.

But not the ones I talk to; that I respect and care for.

Americans that I respect are concerned about many things but confident about the most important thing; the fact that this nation is the freeest on earth, thanks to brave, courageous men and women who have gone before; fought and sometimes died to keep us free, while liberating others enslaved by tyrants around the world.

If that doesn’t rise to the level of stuff that makes the first family proud; in fact ashamed to the point that Obama routinely bad mouths America on foreign shores, then what will?

What does not make me proud is the fact, in the Presidential election last, the majority of Americans voted for a well turned phrase over a real American hero.

Barack Obama was elected,a man whose personal friends, rather than being upstanding supporters of American ideals, turned out to include domestic terrorists who take pride in being pictured in “Chicago Magazine” stomping on the American flag.

What was America thinking?

Today, on June 6, my thoughts turn to the beaches. Not the ones for swimming, the ones for taking. Omaha, Utah, Sword, Juno, Gold. 73,000 brave American and allied boys jumped from the sky or onto the bullet zinging shores to free Europe from Nazi tyranny. No Obama supporter can tell you how many lives were lost because they don’t seem to care. When the Iraq war was in doubt all they cared about was spouting casualty figures to try to get America to cut and run from Iraq, to pull out in disgrace. Which didn’t happen because of the surge. Obama chided it. Letterman and Leno ridiculed it. But, guess what, it worked and won the war. If Obama was President, we’d have lost in Iraq. And hundreds of thousands more Iraqis would have lost their lives.

We fought on the beaches in June of 1944 We’re fighting now. For the life of our country. The Obamas don’t just want to kill 1.3 unborn a year, they want to kill all the goodness America stands for.

You may view things differtly, but openly and honestly that’s the way I see it. The heart and soul of America is in the balance. If we don’t take back America, the land of the free and the home of the brave may be taken from us forever.

Obama and Michelle are riding high as hogs, on this the anniversary of D-Day.

Where they end up is up to you and me. Where they belong, in my opinion is the trash heap of history.

rather than stepping up to the challenges this country faces; hate-driven people who want to kill everything from our children to our way of life.

Or is the first family simply reflective of many Americans intent on driving American into the ground with stimulus/spending/money grabbing schemes?

People with a bankrupt sense of morality are bankrupting this country while making speeching on foreign shores that chastise and castigate America. spending we can’t afford and are uninformed Uninformed. Afraid. Kind of like America in the late 1930’s. If 9/11 didn’t wake us up, and the Obama election didn’t throw some cold water on our collective faces and Obama’s wrongheaded, misguided, possibly intentional idiotic stances and decisions result in alarms going unheard, well, then I think we’re in for a very rude awakening. But it will come. And when it does, Obama will be exposed for what he is. An abject failure. If he’s out to kill America’s lifeblood. The free enterprise system. Individual accomplishment and reward. The willingness to stand up for human rights, and, if need be, fight for freedom, then he’s headed on a straight line for the trashheap of history. He’ll be joining a pitiable,perilouspeevish, pernicious pukes, bent on the acquiring of money and power, devoid of any sense of right and wrong.
The fact is, despite what the President and Mrs. Obama say as they castigate America both at home and on foreign shores, if it weren’t for America, the world be controlled by totalitarian tyrants, exercising centralized control over most aspects of life. strong in mind, body and spirit,proud of what this country stands for; freedom and liberty. But, I’m afraid, my friends are no longer the majority.

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:48 am 82. Terry Gain:

While bullying and demonizing us he pacifies Islam.

I think you mean attempts to appease . His words will have the opposite effect. Islam will not be pacified unless it is reformed. Obama has made it clear there is no need for reformation.

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:52 am 83. misanthropicus:

“I am shocked, shocked, I am simply shocked! How much I was betrayed by all those people whom I trusted so much! I am shocked, shocked, and you all can see this on my face!” at a certain point in the future Obama will confess, tearfully, metronome-like turning his head from teleprompter to teleprompter.

VDH, you’re generally right, but here you shouldn’t, even by default advance the notion of “Obama’s naivity – he isn’t naive, and we must not give him the opportunity of wailing: “I am shocked, shocked! Sincerely shocked!”

How can otherwise intelligent people speak sympathetically about Soetoro’s naivity in matter of foreign affairs? Soetoro (his big heart day-in-day-out projected over the world by an destructively sycophantic media), has proved himself more than a cunning and ruthless operator whose natural instincts – manipulative, suspicious, deliberate, cruel, envious, ambitious – simply cannot accommodate naivity amongst them.

He feigns naivity and under this guise he allows this country’s adversaries advance their agenda – and all the teary-eyed useful idiots (and we got aplenty of them around), assist him in earnest in his enterprise of ruining America.

So again, VDH, you’re generally right, but here you shouldn’t, even by default, accept the notion of “Obama’s naivity – he isn’t naive, and we MUST not give Obama the opportunity of wailing: “I am shocked, shocked! Sincerely shocked!”

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:57 am 84. ked5:

17. Jack Marcotte:

The jackal will not be long for his life over-reaching style. If he will survive the lions he must learn to catch his own food. He is not worth eating for the lion but he is worth “chasing away”.
~~~~

I recall a documentary, many times the Lion “only” chased away the jackal. Eventualy, the Lion lost patience – then he hunted it down and killed it. We must be lions.

Jun 6, 2009 - 10:06 am 85. ked5:

18. Angry Dad:

I never found the Army anti-intellectual, but I learned quickly that it was very pro-results.

~~~

My brother is retired AF, and an engineer. He was at a meeting with his last employer, and the discussion was on market share for their product. He finally stood up and commented the military perspective – there is no such thing as second place.

Jun 6, 2009 - 10:10 am 86. misanthropicus:

Correction/addition to #76:

[...] accept the notion of “Obama’s naivity – he isn’t naive, and we MUST not give Obama the opportunity to wiggle out, wailing, from what he deliberatedly caused: “I am shocked, shocked! Sincerely shocked!”

Jun 6, 2009 - 10:16 am 87. Butterfly Mornings and Wildflower Afternoons:

There is a movie character that the one is starting to remind me of, and his name was Nicolai Carpathia in “Left Behind”. I do not think he is, but he is paving the way is he not?

He scares me.

Jun 6, 2009 - 10:49 am 88. Terry Gain:

IS OBAMA NAIVE, WILFULLY IGNORANT OR SINISTER

From The Religion of Peace, here is a summary of this month’s attacks to date.

2009.06.05 Pakistan Upper Dir 38 50 A suicide bomber manages to infiltrate a rival mosque and massacre forty worshippers, including a dozen children.

2009.06.05 Dagestan Dagestan 2 0 Two government officials are machine-gunned at point-blank range.

2009.06.04 Afghanistan Kandahar 4 0 Four farmers are blown to bits when Talibanis attach a bomb to their vehicle.

2009.06.03 Afghanistan Wardak 1 0 A political candidate is kidnapped by Sunni fundamentalists and murdered.

2009.06.03 Ingushetia Nazran 1 1 Suspected Islamic militants kill a police officer and injure his wife with a car bomb.

2009.06.03 India Shopian 1 0 A teenaged girl is shot to death inside her home by Islamic terrorists.

2009.06.03 Iraq Baghdad 9 31 Nine patrons of a cafe are blown to bits by Mujahid bombers while watching a televised soccer match.

2009.06.03 Philippines Maguindanao 2 4 A woman is among two people killed in a Moro Islamist bomb blast.

2009.06.03 Somalia Mogadishu 2 7 Two African peacekeepers are murdered by Islamic radicals.

2009.06.03 Algeria Timezrit 10 0 Two teachers are among ten people butchered at point-blank range by armed fundamentalists.

2009.06.03 Afghanistan Spin Boldak 5 0 A Shahid martyr blows himself up next to a convoy, killing five Afghans.

2009.06.02 Pakistan Dera Ismail Khan 2 0 Two men are murdered by sectarian Jihadis in a drive-by attack.

2009.06.02 Somalia Mogadishu 3 20 Three civilians are shot to death by al-Shabaab militants.

2009.06.02 Pakistan Chaman 2 0 A raid by suspected Islamists on a NATO depot leaves two local guards dead.

2009.06.02 Afghanistan Paktia 8 0 Eight local security guards are murdered by roadside bombers.

2009.06.02 Afghanistan Bagram 6 0 Two children are among six members of a family are annihilated by a Shahid suicide bomber.

2009.06.02 Iran Zahedan 1 2 Sunni terrorists open fire on a passenger bus, killing one.

2009.06.01 USA Little Rock, AR 1 1 A Muslim with ‘religious motives’ guns down a local soldier in a drive-by attack.

2009.06.01 Pakistan Kohat 4 13 Four people are blown to bits by Jihadi bombers at a bus stand.

2009.06.01 Mali Anderamboukane 1 0 A British man attending an African music festival is kidnapped and beheaded by al-Qaeda.

2009.06.01 Iran Zahedan 5 0 Five people are killed in an arson attack aimed at stirring up sectarian tensions.

2009.06.01 Iraq Baghdad 4 15 Four innocents are blown apart by bombing at a marketplace.

2009.06.01 Iraq Mosul 1 12 A child is murdered when Sunni insurgents throw a grenade into the street.

2009.06.01 Somalia Mogadishu 7 20 Holy warriors take down seven Somalis in two attacks.

Jun 6, 2009 - 10:53 am 89. Fausta:

Did Jimmy Carter learn, back at his farm? Well, neither will Obama.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:02 am 90. fred:

Victor,

Obama does not “get it” and never will. By the way, beautifully written piece, and the lesson should merit the attention of many people who will never read it.

It isn’t Obama who worries me so much as it is the people who voted for him and are down with the socialism he is putting into place. I have my days when I think the kids will get the lesson as we got it in the Seventies with Carter. And then there are days when I think they will never “get it.”

Very dark days are ahead.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:05 am 91. stevo:

A classic read. Excellent example of the fact that one must talk language that people understand.

Today we live in a culture that lives by theory -What I think should be, is what I will live by. Actual facts mean little or nothing at all.

The old saying “nobody rapes a 38 [pistol] is the realty, discourse is deemed to be a sign of weakness.

A excellent article. Thanks, for a article that hopefully opens up some ones eyes, as to the realty of today.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:11 am 92. Войска ПВО:

76. no name writes:

“#61:BONCKA IIBO hey man i like what you say and the way you say it,but i’m just a southern transplant, born en raised in the rectum of the world(phila. pa.)new to this typing en computer stuff,so please forgive me,but what thee hell is that funny looking script you got on your handle and what does it mean? i know it aint no commie pinko thing cause i’ve seen your comments about your return from across the pond. did a stint there too-65,66,67,68 uh1c gunship pilot.”

Mr (er, Dr?) No,

I hope this response does not get lost in all of the commentary and din on Dr Hanson’s fine piece.

It is literally pronounced “Voyska PVO” and is the name of the former Soviet Air Defense Force (not the Soviet Air Force). It is the air arm dedicated to the defense of their motherland. I do NOT speak Russian but read far too much Tom Clancy. (cf. Sum of All Fears) I was in the USAF (Strategic Air Command) back during the Viet Nam war as well — although, not even close to the sierra-hotel-india-tango as you were. These folks — Voyska PVO were essentially my Cold War opponents and I took the sobriquet out of some perverse sense of nostalgia. I “screen scraped” the Cyrillic characters in an effort to minimize superfluous responses to my inane comments.

Thank you, by the way, for your noble service to our country, my brother and God bless you!

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:16 am 93. Sara123:

You paid with theft of your property in order to learn how to deal with thugs. What will America have to pay while our villiage idiot, the community organizer learns the same lesson?

Who says Obama is not a thug himself, perfectly aware of what he is doing to America. Obama sat in a church for 20 years with a man, who used to be a preacher for Islam, while he god damned America. Obama’s justice department just dropped a case of election intimidation against a Black Panther who was an election official for the Democrat Party. What about his massive funding of the thugish criminal enterprise known as ACORN? And what about his youth political organization who he forsees as just as large, trained and well armed as the US military? What about his actions to shut down his opposition voices on radio? What about his failure to strongly denounce the killing of a US soldier by one of his homies at that recruitment center in Arkansas? These are actions and plans of a man who is just like the people on the terrorist list (Hamas and the terrorist funding group, the Islamic Brotherhood) he invited into his his circle of power.

I think it is more over educated good will to make any assumptions that Obama is a man of good will underneath his carefully spun and hidden teleprompter words. Watch what he does; not what the teleprompter says. He is stealing our water; over and over again. And we continue to be nice about it.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:38 am 94. barefoot prince:

Your comments and stories always, always touch a nerve of truth and real life as I have known it to be until now. Thank you so much for caring for America. I do not fear any man, but I do fear God. And that fear is that we will all be punished collectively for the awlful, continuous lies, thefts, abortions, homosexuality and the major one: the abandonment of our faith, a/k/a idolotry.

One positive thing that this man “o” and his worshippers have done in my case is to drive me back into the Word of God and to my knees. It seems it took a loss of feeling that I have control and safety in my life and this country to remind me that I really didn’t have control anyway over the things that matter the most.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:39 am 95. ked5:

@88 Terry Gain,
I’m assuming the second number following location refers to number of injured? as the first seems to be the number murdered.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:41 am 96. zanne:

Enjoyed Mr. Hanson. I hope you are right.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:49 am 97. ricpic:

Great story Mr. Hanson tells. But the conclusion he comes to regarding Obama assumes Obama is deep-down decent. He’s not. He’s deep-down a thug who is, rest assured, taking care of “his” people, his fellow thugs foreign and domestic, at the expense of those decent traditional Americans he is sadistically screwing.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:52 am 98. Trainwreck:

You may think that Obozo and the elites are misguided fools in their appeasement of Islam. But there is a method to their “madness”. Think the Manson family and the Helter Skelter murders. Manson was attempting to start a race war; he believed that the blacks would defeat the whites, but would not be able to rule. THAT would be the role of Mnaosn and his elite followers. The liberals in this country hate America and want to bring down our capitalist and democratic society, and usher in a socialist multiculti utopia. A lot of Americans will go down fighting to prevent that from happening. To take down America, they need a fighting force which is fanatic, hateful and so far up the hierarchy of oppressed victims that they are beyond reproach- the ubervictim, if you will. Muslims fill this bill nicely. No matter how inimical to democracy are their demands and values, their whims trump all. Homophobia, sexism and racism are grave sins to the elites, but there is no more homophobic, xenphobic sexist and racist group than the Islamists. It doesnt even make sense that liberals ally themselves with this group. It only makes sense if you understand that the Islamists will be the force that will bring about the collapse of Western civilization. Its already happening in Europe. With Iran being allowed to keep its nukes, and Israel about to be wiped off the map, the Muslims will be more powerful than ever. They will subvert Western civilization from within as we gradually surrender our values to them. Once America is destroyed from within, and its people culled by a few nukes and terror attacks, the elites believe they can take over. Once our economy, goverment and civil society collapse, the elites will step in to rule, and since they have given so many goodies and special rights to the Islamists, and appeased them, the Islamists will aloow the elites to take over and usher in their new multiculti socialist utopia free of the vestiges of the oppressive, racist USA—-or so they think.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:55 am 99. George Sullivan:

Victor, I disagree. I used to think he was ignorant/naive. He is not. I am coming to a belief that, unless we do something, the US is in deeper trouble than we think. There are two options. Obama and his administration are either ignorant/naive or they have a plan. Ignorant/naive I reject. They people are smart and they are educated. What I believe is that Obama is fully commited to the philosophy of Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers. That philosophy is “out of chaos comes change”.

We wonder what he is doing with all of the intemperate spending. The administration basically has a blank checkbook to spend over a trillion dollars, legitimately endorsed by the liberal congress who never read what they signed. The congress and the president can spend it on whatever they want. Billions, as an example, have gone to ACORN. We cannot monetize our debt by running the printing presses non-stop without penalty. At some point countries will stop buying our bonds. Their interest rates will have to be inflated in an attempt to lure buyers while interest on our current debt is already extraordinarily burdensome.

Obama has surrounded himself with 21 czars. These people report to the White House, not to the assundry secretariats. He is positioning himself to rule, not to govern.

What can we do? I don’t know. I don’t even know that I am right but the trend isn’t good. We think such things could never happen here. But look back. Did we ever think the government would own our banks and our auto manufacturers? Did we ever think our president would refer to the US as a muslim nation. I am beginning to think that Obama is a closet muslim. The world is going crazy.

Things are not getting saner. Our economy is not being fixed. We are living in a dream. We are moving toward chaos.

George

Jun 6, 2009 - 12:41 pm 100. Terry Gain:

@ked5

Yes.

Jun 6, 2009 - 12:44 pm 101. I see my hands:

“I don’t really believe all the hyperbole about Obama being some evil tyrant. He’s just an egghead who can give a good speech and has a chip on his immature shoulder the size of Gibraltar”

Such are the stuff of evil tyrants

Jun 6, 2009 - 12:53 pm 102. bob:

Interesting article, but doesn’t compute with the farmers I’ve known around here–going back, through family stories too, for three generations–where everyone will always help the others out if things get tough. Must be something about California…

Jun 6, 2009 - 1:07 pm 103. Donna V.:

Thank you, Dr. Hanson. My father was raised on a farm, and hung onto it until 1962. The difficulty of trying to farm while holding another job and supporting a wife and 3 – soon to be 4 – children just became too much for him.

A man of limited education, he nonetheless rose into a management position at a factory by dint of hard work and common sense.

He was an old-fashioned, Scoop Jackson Democrat, now an extinct species. Your down-to-earth realism reminds me very much of him.

Jun 6, 2009 - 1:18 pm 104. Jon:

Dr. Hanson, great story. As a Fresno State graduate I regret not taking one of your classes in the classics. I would have learned a lot more a lot sooner. Great tie-ins with agriculture and academia and how human nature affects both.

26. john samford: That will leave the Usurper and his handlers 2 choices, lose congress in the election and wait for the impeachment to start or declare an emergency under the FEMA act. That will allow the Usurper to cancel the elections for 90 days. Congress can vote to extend that 90 days. Faced with extending martial law or getting tossed out of office, what do you suppose they will do?

The Usurper in Chief, I suspect, will declare martial law. The Cowardly Congress will go along. They will extend martial law as long as it takes for The Usurper in Chief to irreparably damage America. Remember, dictators and thugs don’t play by the rules. The Usurper is a Chicago street thug who holds the highest office in the land.

Jun 6, 2009 - 1:21 pm 105. Meryl:

88.TerryGain….thank you very much for putting together that list. Please feel free (as far as this reader is concerned) to do that regularly.

We must keep the focus on the FACTS of who keeps starting the fires around the world, even as we are yelling as loudly as we can about the fire that King Fraud is contributing to.

Jun 6, 2009 - 1:23 pm 106. TLM:

Great essay and great comments. I’m glad someone remembered to say this:

“Today, on June 6, my thoughts turn to the beaches…” (Rachel Peepers)

Re JA Lineberry: “conservatives believe the world is simple, liberals believe it is complicated” –

Conservatives believe the world is understandable, by anyone who approaches it rationally. Liberals believe they must (overly)complicate the world, in order undermine rationality itself. They understand that is their only chance at being taken seriously.

Jun 6, 2009 - 1:31 pm 107. Saltherring:

barefoot prince @ 94: You and many more (myself included) are seeing the hand of God in America’s socio-economic collapse. And as our society grows ever more violent, corrupt and perverse, look for God to remove his protective hand even further from America’s shores. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for what America is rapidly becoming. I urge all to seek Him while there is still time.

Jun 6, 2009 - 1:34 pm 108. WR Jonas:

It looks as though this provocative article has devolved into two comment camps regarding Obama.
Either he is naive and will be destroyed, or he is consciously destroying America and this is all a grand scheme.
I personally favor the second argument . Everyone around him seems aware of the intent and are convinced it will all work as Obama suggests and if it doesn’t , so what?

I also found comment #17 by Jack Marcotte to be very effective, especially the remark about those “standing on the sidelines ,amused and thinking they are not affected”.

Nice writing Dr.Hanson but you’ve missed the essential point; President Obamas actions are deliberately destructive.

Jun 6, 2009 - 1:54 pm 109. sheesh:

Huff Post . . . SALT LAKE CITY —
“The Secret Service said Daniel James Murray, 36, was arrested Friday outside a casino in Laughlin, Nev., a gambling town 100 miles from Las Vegas on the Nevada-Arizona line.

He was charged Thursday in Salt Lake City with a federal count of conveying threats while talking to tellers last month at Zions First National Bank while opening _ and then closing within two weeks _ an $85,000 savings account.

First, he demanded to know if Zions First National Bank was solvent, saying, “I’m sure if citizens happen to lose their money, they will rise up and we could see killing and deaths,” bank tellers told a Secret Service agent.

On May 27, as a teller counted out bills no larger than $50, Murray delivered a rambling discourse on the probability of economic and social disorder, ending with “We are on a mission to kill the president of the United States,” a bank employee told the Secret Service.”

Ah, yet ANOTHER lunatic (owner of 8 guns by the way) inspired by Tea Parties. Makes me proud of this great country. How about you?

Jun 6, 2009 - 2:02 pm 110. Butterfly Mornings and Wildflower Afternoons:

Reason why the one we speak of could not be the Antichrist.
1. Nobody is missing
2. I am still here, and the Rapture has not happen.
That is the only reasons I have.

The reasons why he is not on the righteous side.
1. How he treats Israel. (this should be first)
2. A person who follows the words of Jesus Christ would know we must side with Israel.
3. False prophets-the way they call him the Messiah or chosen one.
4. The Media and the way they manipulate things.
5. His actions do not match his words. (this is a big one)
6. They know when his name is typed.
7. George Sorros
8. The sinners in Hollywood love him.
9. Reverend Wright is a false prophet who does not teach the bible correctly.
10. A person who is not known rising to the top so fast.
11. The teleprompter
12. The beliefs of his party

I think he is paving the way for evil, but it is not in power yet, so I think it could be a person like George Sorros.
I must say that a naive person not saved could do it unintentionally, and they could pave the way not knowing what they were doing.
In addition, I could be wrong, but I believe it will be the one that calls for One Nation and One Currency.
I could be wrong.

Jun 6, 2009 - 2:21 pm 111. Meryl:

110…boy, I like your screen name! That paints a familiar picture….that I like very much.

I agree that we wait on some of the details, but the alarm bells are ringing loudly.

I’m so glad that Jehovah God (to completely distinguish who I mean in contrast to allah) is not dependent on us getting it all figured out, before we “look up”.

That’s one aspect that the scoffers completely miss. It seems like they think that God’s plans will be implemented only after He gets a majority in some poll or another (or at least

One of my favorite Scriptures is Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in the heavens; and He does whatever He pleases.”

Jun 6, 2009 - 2:42 pm 112. scott:

Like I said earlier. Good article. Obamma is a fool. We are all clear on that.

But what good is this resolve if the voting public figures this out but still is convinced that the pubbies are all crooks. After all … THEIR buddies drained the fiscal reserves of the entire western world. If a bunch of pubbies would stand up in congress and advocate getting some of our money back I might have a little faith.

Why is it not the case that every asset of every crooked bank in the West should have been seized for the treasuries of the western nations? They owned land, minerals, buildings, god knows … all this gets transfered to some other bank for pennies on the dollar? WTH?!

Put those trillions in the treasury and cut MY taxes.

Jun 6, 2009 - 2:43 pm 113. Ed Wallis:

POSTER CHILD: “sheesh, yet another lunatic inspired by Obama.” (see #109)

Such effective argumentation. /s

Have a great weekend everyone!

Jun 6, 2009 - 2:48 pm 114. scott:

Trainwreck,

Interesting analysis. Paragraphs would have made it even better.

Paragraphs people. This high res screen is killin me.

Jun 6, 2009 - 3:07 pm 115. Terry Gain:

@105 Meryl

Thanks but all I did was copy and paste the information from the website The Religion Of Peace.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

It provides a perspective – one based on facts, not hope and change – at odds with the one being promoted by the media and Obama.

Jun 6, 2009 - 3:28 pm 116. Tristan Yates:

Enjoyable read and excellent lesson, thank you VDH.

Jun 6, 2009 - 3:28 pm 117. Trisha2cents:

#9 Sheesh:

Get off this board you idiot. Nobody cares what you have to say. Take it over to the Kos kiddies where you can continue your little tribal chest pounding.

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:18 pm 118. Trisha2cents:

…sorry meant #109

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:25 pm 119. CAUTION:

obo will not learn, as he does not have to. he is going to destroy this country from within. weaken us to the point that anybody (better learn to speak chinese) could take us over.

what happened to the liberals and their respect for human rights? doesnt seem to matter anymore. to give that speech in egypt of all places was an insult to all freedom living people of the world.

we must keep up the pressure. two things in particular are working:

generational transfer of wealth,
and, over-reaching executive branch power grab.

these are working because adults can see and understand both concepts and dont like either.

one that is not working? single payer medical insurance. why? two words, “pre-existing condition”. as long as the asshole insurance companies can deny coverage because they just want to, people are willing to try a change.

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:56 pm 120. Alana:

“Is it possible that Brokaw’s question was a White House setup to give B. Hussein a chance to quell the controversy created by his on-the-other-hand equivalency statement in the Germany speech?”

Without a doubt. No question.

Jun 6, 2009 - 4:57 pm 121. Meryl:

115 Terry Gain

Thanks for the link….I saw the phrase, but missed the significance…

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:20 pm 122. JD:

To VDH –

A great story of life in the Central Valley. Thanks for the providing the note of hope that Obama may turn out to have the talent for humility that you posess, rather than turning out to be more like your former neighbor.
Hopefully, your continued writings will have much the same effect on society as the lock and chain on the “communal lateral” had on your neighbor, namely, eliciting a sense of respect and limits from those that lack them.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:24 pm 123. "progressive"watch:

Mike [14],The press as you call it is in on the kill. It is the former mainstream media,which now is part of Obama’s propaganda sector,Misinformation Central. It is one with the ONE.

I have asked and asked why someone who hates America want to be president.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:35 pm 124. misanthropicus:

RE #109/sheeshkebob: [...] Ah, yet ANOTHER lunatic (owner of 8 guns by the way) inspired by Tea Parties. Makes me proud of this great country. How about you? [...]”

Sheeshkebob, I’m very impressed – this month you were only four days absent from PJM (during which you laid in crack-induced prostration in a seedy motel, and I say four because you got your welfare payment on the 2nd.), and now, after finishing the money (including selling the foodstamps), somehow you managed to stumble to the ACORN office at your forty posts for a dime job.

Fortitude I do recognize – yes, you sure can. Go ahead, buddy, three days of trolling and you can load again your glass tube. After all, Soetero said it himself: “Of course I inhaled; after all this was the purpose of it, wasn’t?”

PS. Larry Sinclair also can serve as character wittness in this Soetero/ smoking glass tube matter.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:36 pm 125. Dick Turpin:

Excellent article. Very linear and logical.

I’m not real sure that the Chairman will ever get it. It seems that he is more prone to just keep giving and apologizing. I am afraid that we will have to do some ‘reclaiming’ in the end. To what extent remains to be seen…let’s just hope that it is not as bad as it looks right now.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:48 pm 126. tc:

Dr. Hanson:
Is this the modern day “Parable of the Vineyard?”

I believe employers across our fine land are locking their proverbial gates, shutting down the water and beginning to stand fast to our ‘neighbor’ in the White House.

You have done an excellent job in putting this in perspective, sir. Congratulations and thank you for sharing your insight and analysis into this.

The day of reckoning is coming. Pride goes before the fall.

Jun 6, 2009 - 5:58 pm 127. kenny komodo:

Excellent post Dr. Hason and I was with you every word, at least up until that last little part where you stated that Obambi will come to his senses. I disagree. He can’t or won’t whichever it is doesn’t matter and if he feels his mandate slipping away from him I have no doubt that he will declare martial law and try to take control of the country by force. Fortunately we have a second amendment that will keep things right.

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:09 pm 128. Libertyship46:

The problem with waiting for Obama to have his “epiphany” about the real world is that so very many people are going to die because of it, which is truly a shame. Will it be his mismanagement of the war in Afghanistan, which has all the potential of turning into yet another Vietnam, or will it be the loss of an Israeli city to a nuclear blast because Iran finally made good on its threat to erase Israel from the map of the Middle East? Obama’s inexperience reminds me so very much of Kennedy’s inexperience. Nikita Kruschev saw how naive and inexperienced Kennedy was when he met him for the first time in Vienna, and that impression led directly to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which almost ended the world. Kruschev never would have attempted putting missiles in Cuba if Eisenhower were president, because he knew full well how Eisenhower would have reacted to such a move. Eisenhower’s reputation as an experienced general intimidated the Russians, a power Kennedy never had when he was elected. Most people today just remember Kennedy as the man who got us out of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but they forget that he was the primary reason we were thrown into it to begin with. I fear something like the Cuban Missile Crisis is about to hit Obama right between the eyes. Will it be because of North Korea, or because of some demented move Iran is going to make? Who knows. What I do know is that it’s only going to be a matter of time before one of those countries, or some other enemy of the United States, makes a move. Will Obama be up to the challenge of winning a crisis he was primarily responsible for creating? I really don’t know. What I do know is that, if he’s not, a lot of innocent people are going to die because of his inexperience and lack of credibility as a strong leader. And that’s a historical fact.

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:15 pm 129. Torqued Marine (USMC):

Meryl

Thank you for telling me about Pajamas. I do believe I am going to enjoy this.

You are absolutely right, as God said to Job, Where were you when I hung the stars in the sky. He did not ask our opinion and I do not believe any of us have the wisdom to give it.

Jun 6, 2009 - 6:48 pm 130. Wolla Dalbo:

Wonderful story, wonderful writing and a great point but, in your commentary you assume, I believe, that Obama is acting in something like “good faith” i.e. he may be mislead and uninformed but is trying his flawed best, whereas I would say, rather, that Obama is acting in bad faith, a Marxist doing his Alinsky best to destroy Capitalism and our Democracy, a man who could not, in his resentment about being of mixed race and religion, and in his anti-white hatred—“White Greed rules a world in need”–and narcissism–care less about America.

While many laughed and sneered at all the charges that Obama was educated as a child as a Muslim and might, indeed, be a crypto-Muslim—his campaign website went so far as to deny his attendance at Qur’an classes and the mosque with his step-father in Indonesia, which Obama himself wrote about in his autobiographical “Dreams From My Father,” and said that Obama’s paternal grandmother was a Christian, when she is a Muslim who just recently made the Haj to Mecca–his Cairo speech advances the crypto-Muslim theory many steps down the road, as do reports that Khalid al-Mansour, a Black Nationalist convert to Islam and financial advisor to Saudi Billionaire Alwaleed bin Tilal, solicited letters of recommendation to Harvard Law for Obama and was collecting money for his tuition (http://tinyurl.com/qefbn3). Then, there are Obama’s friendships with Edward Said, author of “Orientalism,” his close friendship with Rashid Khalidi, an “ex-PLO agent,” and his 20 years attendance at the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s anti-white, anti-Jew, Black Liberation Theology driven church; none of them exactly friends to Jews.

Despite Obama’s supporters facile application of the derisive label “birthers” to those who ask for production and inspection of Obamas original, long form birth certificate—something, after all, one would think, easily done, settling all controversy–Obama and the DNC’s expenditure of a reported $800,000 dollars in courts so far—including the Supreme Court–all over the land, to prevent such production and inspection is the smoke that points to the fire. If things get very bad in Obamaland—-and I expect they will–I look for the question of whether Obama met the Constitution’s requirement that he be a “natural born citizen,” thus, Obama’s legitimacy to even be President, to assume major importance, and to be a way out of Obamaland.

The MSM has bet the farm on Obama, and will sink or swim with him, and is so invested in him as to have lost what little sanity they might have left. An example is yesterday’s “Hardball” on which Newsweek reporter Evan Thomas in all seriousness compared Obama to a “God,” (http://tinyurl.com/pubb69).

Searching the Internet for comparable over the top praise, I found the following little poem by another infatuated writer:

“Now has us the Godhead saviour sent,
Distress its end has passed.
To gladness and joy the land gives vent:
Springtime is here at last.”

[*Der deutsche Hitler-Frühling. Die Wiederaufrichtung Deutschlands durch den Volkskanzler des Deutschen Reiches Adolf Hitler, Frankfurt a.M, 1933.]( http://tinyurl.com/cubkjf).

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:01 pm 131. Roark:

Excellent post Dr. Hanson.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:11 pm 132. sheesh:

124. misanthropicus:

First, you spend way too much time tracking me. Kinda creepy, you know? Second, you seem to have quite a detailed and colorful understanding of what appears to be the drug culture. Your verisimilitude betrays you.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:42 pm 133. Torqued Marine (USMC):

It would be nice if it was just words. The problem is that Bam-Bams words are taking us at break neck speeds to Socialism and all the wonderful benefits of it. Don’s forget your papers, bread lines, one opinion the Government’s, the Sec. of Treasury on your paycheck from the job you work at, i.e. G.M.

No, it’s not just words it a slow death march for the U.S. to the new Rep. of S.S.U.S.(Soviet Socialist United States) Think about it before you suggest that any thing that man on Capital hill says is just words.

Words have meaning and when those words are made law, lives are affected, good and bad.

Semper Fi.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:47 pm 134. The Historian:

Very well put.

Jun 6, 2009 - 7:59 pm 135. dwall:

Great article but –

ayers, soros, sandlers, lewis, et.al. spent years creating ODuffus for this opportunity. It is working according to their plan – no midcourse corrections necessary.

If 2010 does not reverse the house or senate it may be too late by 2012. Say hello to my little friend – the Islamic UN.

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:12 pm 136. Penny:

dick turpin, i thought the chairman was frank sinatra. frank is dead. rip frank

Jun 6, 2009 - 8:42 pm 137. kitchener:

Previous poster…..some very wise comments about Kenedy been the cause of the Cuban Misile Crises….Krushev got the measure of JFK and thought he was a punk and a rich kid…it took themisile crises to prove him wrong!
The problem is ,our enemies think obama is a punk and rich kid…but this time ,they are correct…”By the pricking of my thumbs….something wicked this way comes”!!

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:11 pm 138. kitchener:

The unfolding Obama Presidency is a commedy of errors and a National disaster..the wolves of Radical Islam are watching this shakespearean Tragedy with disbelief at the foolishness of the Infidels…it seems to me, that sooner or later it’s going to end in Nuclear Terrorism….Islams greatest victory…martyrs Day …an inferno and I think that we’ll be fortunate if it’s only one city they destroy!!….although I intuit that it may be a European City as by grovelling to the moslems,gain only their contempt

Jun 6, 2009 - 9:30 pm 139. Butterfly Mornings and Wildflower Afternoons:

They think they can wipe Israel from the map, but it is not possible. My bible tells me that Israel is like a rock and that it is there through the Tribulations and it is still there through the Armageddon (He will return twice). It is there when Jesus returns the second time with a vengeance. At the very end of the bible prophecies throughout Revelations, it is there. It is the promise land, the holy land of God.

America is not there, it is not in end time prophecies and I have searched for a sign that it is there. I searched for days, because my Uncle told me it is in Revelations represented as the Eagle, but I hate to say I cannot find what he says to be true. We are not there in end time prophecies, but Israel is there.

When they attack Israel (when all turn on her) will be when end time prophecies start, and then all at once people will be missing from this earth (the Rapture) and Tribulations will start. For seven years, the Antichrist will rule the world and this is during the Tribulations. I think it says for seven years he will lie and say he is the Messiah, but he is a liar, and he will set on a throne in Israel. During this time, they will persecute all Christians and Jews, and there are passages that say decapitated for their beliefs. They will take the bibles away. The evil one will make people take the mark of the beast. The Armageddon (Jesus comes again) is last and Israel is there. Israel is his promised holy land.

When all turn on Israel is a sign of the end times. This is what has me thinking we are very close. Israel is God’s timepiece.

What people still decapitate their enemies? This is a sign.

When I pray I pray to Jesus so I can go during the Rapture, because I will not be here during the Tribulations. During the time of Tribulations will be the worst time the earth will ever see.

The prophecies will happen just as God has them planned. God plans everything that happens.

No man can change the prophecies.
I read, because the bible says to stay alert and ready.

I am scared for the ones I love who do not believe. There are good people who will be left behind and realize what has happen to them, and they can still be saved even though they are left behind.

I also read the bible to stay strong.

No man can change the prophecies of the bible.

Any person on this earth can be saved by accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior and asking for forgiveness for their sins.

No man can change the prophecies of the bible. God has a plan and it will happen.

a part of Left Behind the movie.

In my opinion the first scene with the Preacher that was left behind talking to God is one of the best scenes in any movie.

You can watch the Left Behind movies on Youtube, I watched two whole Left Behind movies there yesterday.

I never watched the movies, but read the series of books. The books are better, but the movies are good and this scene is so good at the first of this one.

The books helped me understand the prophecies of the bible years ago when I read them.
The characters are fictional, but the story is going to happen some day.

By watching the movie you can get an idea of what will happen during the tribulations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc4XwzQtFFA&feature=related

Jun 6, 2009 - 10:48 pm 140. jvon:

Great piece. I did not have a similar realization until my early 30s.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:05 pm 141. Instapundit » Blog Archive » VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Obama Versus the Way of the Universe. “In short, Obama reminds me a little of…:

[...] DAVIS HANSON: Obama Versus the Way of the Universe. “In short, Obama reminds me a little of myself–at [...]

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:26 pm 142. Teacher in Texas:

#29 Hey Broadsword, thank you for bringing up the end of “Bridge on the River Kwai.” I have been using the phrase “Colonel Nicholson Moment” (Oh my God, what have I done?) to describe some of the misgivings my independent friends have been expressing lately. The result has been mostly blank stares. Thank God someone else remembers that.

Jun 6, 2009 - 11:42 pm 143. The Wisdom of the Productive Class « The Rhetorican:

[...] by Jehuda in Uncategorized. Tags: Education, News, Politics trackback Victor Davis Hanson on all that Obama doesn’t know that he doesn’t know;

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:03 am 144. truepeers:

JA Lineberry: I think this is the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives – conservatives believe the world is simple, liberals believe it is complicated. Maybe one day we will come to an understanding.

-now that’s a rather simplistic idea. Serious conservatives are aware that the world is complicated, i.e. beyond anyone’s full grasp and control: that’s what makes one a conservative: Humility, and a respect for the irreducible mystery inherent to human life and understanding.

If the conservative seems simpleminded, however, maybe it’s because he believes that, notwithstanding their complexity, events and stories have morals that can be identified as “true”, howevermuch we cannot fully explain how exactly this transcendent truth emerges from lived experience; on the other hand, the liberal believes that any attempt to fix a meaning or moral to an event or story is only a conspiracy of someone or another’s will to power. In short, the liberal believes in “complexity” because he is a nihilist who can’t believe in anything. “Complexity” for the liberal is the attempt to deny his nihilism, and to come up with complicated ways of explaining why we can’t know anything other than the will to power. If there is no truth, life is complicated, sure. If there is truth, that doesn’t mean things are simple and controllable.

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:15 am 145. Ken Hahn:

I do not believe Obama will come to his senses.He is a fanatic. He would rather undermine the entire structure of the United States and see it come tumbling down than admit he was ever wrong. We will pay for him for decades to come and, like Jimmie Carter, he will never understand why he not worshipped. Like Carter, he will grow into a bitter old man hating the country that gave him so much.

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:23 am 146. Marc Malone:

#20 JA Lineberry – You stated that cons think the world is simple and libs think it’s complicated.

No. We know the world is complex, not simple, but we understand it. We understand it, because truths are simple. Truth is simple, but solutions must be complex, not simplistic.

You are right that libs think the world is complicated. That’s what people say when they don’t understand something. It’s complicated. It means it’s hard to understand, perplexing. You pride yourself on viewing the world as complicated, which is funny, because you’re actually confessing your own inability to understand it.

You, like most libs, don’t even know what the words mean, because the Leftist ideology accepts lying as justified, so they twist the meanings of words. So, you confuse complicated with complex. You confuse viewing of truths as simple with viewing the world simplistically. You’ve been fed the lies via the misuse of the words.

Libs reject the idea of simple truths, because they are taught that simple means simplistic. It does not. You are taught that complicated means complex. It does not. You were told that the world is complicated.

This is how they dumb you down. It’s complicated, thus you cannot understand it, so don’t even try. Your betters have the answers for you. Thus they teach you what to think, not how to think. You accept it, because you never look up the words in the dictionary and learn to distinguish.

English/American society dominates the world, because our language is vastly more complex. We are able to express subtle distinctions. To tear down our society, one must dumb down the citizens so that they may no longer use these distinctions. The concepts therefore fall into disuse and disrepair. They disappear from the lexicon, especially the nobler ones, so we become more crass and are made weak. The nobler concepts are what make us strong.

Our military is dominant, because they adhere to Pride, Duty, Honor, Country. Amongst civilians, Dignity is lost, as is Chivalry. Manners and Grace are nearly gone. We have merely the empty forms. Marriage is devalued, and so is on the wane. Fatherhood and Motherhood are no longer venerated. They are mere titles or job descriptions. The emotional content, the value, of these nobler ideas has been stripped from society’s consciousness.

This damage did not come from us. It was done to us… by the forces of the Political Left. This is the effect of the Gramscian Long March through our institutions. these are the works of the Socialists wearing the mask of Liberals, a title stolen so effectively and completely, that the true Liberals now call themselves Conservatives. You deem yourself a Liberal, and you don’t even know what that means, either, because you have been deceived. Indeed, how superior thou art.

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:45 am 147. Beverly:

Not to worry, folks. Brian Williams (NBC) and David Letterman have decided that Obama has “a gigantic brain.”

And Evan Thomas (Newsweek) has declared that Obama is “sort of God.”

Yep, those are quotes.

I agree with the commenters who’ve stated that Hussein will never twig to reality. Why should he? His personality type, the malignant narcissist, will never permit it, come what may. Any problems will always be laid at the feet of others, scapegoats. Narcissists can’t bear to accept blame or admit defeat.

In addition, I have to point out that he is an ENEMY of our nation. Read one of his autobiographies, if you can stomach it. Read the racist, America-hating tracts of his favorite preacher and “spiritual mentor,” Jeremiah Wright.

Why in hell would anyone think he’ll feel compunction at seeing his (loathed) honky country bite the dust? His every move on his brown-nosing tours abroad to despicable regimes has made this acidly clear.

He’ll revel in it.

Jun 7, 2009 - 1:04 am 148. bour3:

Excellent anecdote and impressive summation here, I congratulate you on points well made.

Jun 7, 2009 - 1:11 am 149. Beverly:

#51, Steve;
“This man is not naive. Uneducated, yes but not naive.

He has a burning hatred along with his wife for Western Civilization, white people and free markets. He/they are Black Liberationists. Its an ideology that is Marxist and has a black god that hates and demonizes whites. Does Louis Farakahn ring a bell?

Black Liberationists are part communist and part Islamic with a black white hating Jesus thrown in to complete their orgy of hate.

This the president of the United States of America’s mindset.

This man didn’t even grow up in our country. I share value few values with the Left but with Barack and Michelle I share none.”

WORD, brother. That’s it in a nutshell.

Jun 7, 2009 - 1:16 am 150. Peg C.:

What a beautifully written piece. It perfectly illustrates the illusory world in which the left lives and how at every turn they fight and seek to subvert and neutralize human nature. They worship utopia. Utopia and human nature are mutually exclusive. The left truly do hate humanity, not just people.

Many, many of us are witless idealists (educated or not) in our youth. Paraphrasing, “a young man who is not liberal has no heart; an old man who is not conservative has no brain” or something like that. Most of us were the naive platitude-spouters that this no-nothing in the WH is, but not into our 40s and beyond. Obama is beyond help and salvaging. Some will die with a core ideology of absurdities. He is one. But he’s so much more dangerous to us and the world than a farmer, academic, Hollywood natterer or media mouthpiece could ever be. Pray that we survive him and don’t find ourselves living in a Mad Max world soon. It never had to be this way, but our politicians are officially idiots now, and they have way, way, way too much power.

Jun 7, 2009 - 3:11 am 151. Jack:

I did not read all the comments. Sorry if this is a repeat.

It seems to me that Obama may well have avoided, at least in his mind, many of these experiences.

My guess is that he rationalizes his opposition either as racists or cynical, self interested fools. Any negative experiences in his life can be put down to racism and not a failure to acknowledge human nature.

His failure to actually accomplish anything and his lack of experience dealing with real opposition will be his undoing. He has been getting special treatment all of his life, and that won’t translate well into the real world. Eventually, the MSM will turn against him. He won’t be able to blame Bush when he experiences a major setback.

And I’ll ask again: Why have his grades not been released?

Jun 7, 2009 - 3:31 am 152. Ohio Granny:

VDH, Obama is nothing like you at 26. He is your neighbor, except he was given your property by emminent domain (legal election), and his plan is to make sure your crops die, your fiels turn to dust, and then, you starve but alas, don’t die, so you exist to know what has fallen on your head.

WE are like you at 26. WE are just at the pre-awaking of who he really is and what we really need to do to protect our property rights. He wants to steal our incomes incrementally, the same way your neighbor would siphon off your water by starting early and staying late. He wants to bankrupt us each individually by spending like a drunk and laughing in our faces while he does it, and the press contours his actions into joyful Oz imagery. Ignore the guy behind the curtain. Ignore the rising unemployment rates. Ignore the attacks on white business men. It just so happens they are the ones with the money. It isn’t personal. It isn’t racial. It’s just their bad luck.

Obama and the Progressives want us to continue to believe we still live in a country of laws, that we still live in a society whereby you work hard, you play by the rules, you can prosper in this land called America. No. A wise latina woman will see that you have too much and your water will be taken and better it be spilled than for you to use it to prosper.

Wake up Dr. Hanson. Obama learned his lessons early and he learned them well, but he learned them at the knee of Jeremiah Wright. America is you and Obama is your neighbor.

Jun 7, 2009 - 3:42 am 153. howiem:

Dr. Hanson,
The difference between you and Barack bama is that you learned from your experience that individual freedom is worth taking risks. Obama has learned nothing except the Socialist party line. You learned by trial and error. Obama only learned that if you lie long enough people will believe you. You have written a wonderful essay, but I fear your optimism that he will “chance is misplaced”. He will not change. He will change us against our wishes or he will have to be changed by one means or another.

Jun 7, 2009 - 3:53 am 154. Andrew:

As a farmer, and as one who came back from academia after many years, I had the same neighbor experience….This time over a property boundary.
My neighbor said essentially the same thing about my father, but my retort was that “you must not think much of me if you feel that you can say that about him to my face”. He backed off until the surveyor came and showed he was over on me more than 100 feet (which my father had said). He accused me of collusion with the surveyor and never spoke to me again…it has been a very pleasant 20 years since.
In short, real life instances make better teachers than academia and sheltered lifestyles. Why do people actually think that Ivyleague taught and a law degree gives one the insight to run our country. Give me a farmer any day.

Jun 7, 2009 - 4:15 am 155. Lars B:

Dr. Hanson,
Great post. However, your logic is tragically flawed. You fall prey to the “equivalency” gambit by equating Obama’s intellect, experience, maturity, and judgement to yours. You profess to believe that Obama will eventually come around and normalize, that he’ll eventually gain enough ballast to right his boat. Unfortunately, you are wrong.

Obama is a very bitter and hateful person underneath his carefully crafted mask. He is blinded by a hate that is only matched by his love of self. A very dangerous personality disorder when coupled with Obama’s inexperience lack of historical perspective.

The neighbor you describe was just a grownup version of the playground bully. Obama shows signs of megalomania. When megalomaniacs ascend to power of great states, nothing good ever happens. As a student of history, I’m sure you are keenly aware of the potential consequences, lest Americans wake up throw this crowd out before it is too late. It may already be too late.

Jun 7, 2009 - 4:23 am 156. egoist:

Very illustrative. But, I’m not quite convinced our president won’t – in the end – be more like the looting neighbor than VHD. What he is doing to our “investors” [debt buyers] and generations of debt-slaves to come makes him, and a willing congress, more evil; at least you could face your looter face-to-face.

Jun 7, 2009 - 4:38 am 157. RattlerGator:

It is personally disappointing that so many folks in the comments seem to have so little respect for the resiliency of the country or respect for the “practical” epiphanies Obama has already evidenced (wiretaps, eMail intercepts, Predator drone attacks, shutting down Guantanamo, etc.).

He clearly has a gameplan and reality will clearly overtake said gameplan (I tend to agree that Hillary will seek and find an opening by the end of Summer). As Victor indicates, the only true question is: what will BHO do in the face of a mugging by reality? Specifically, “The only mystery? How the choice of payment is rhetoricized in the hope and change mode.” Payment, foreign and domestic. For me, there is an acknowledgment in this question/statement from VDH that Obama is a *politician.*

No, he doesn’t understand the country. No, he doesn’t know how to properly respect military service *or* properly admire a corporation surviving the gauntlet of start-up and development. Hell, the fact of the matter is that he doesn’t even believe in the CIA or its mission.

But he does understand politics.

I’m going to hold onto that little nugget and believe (hope?), along with VDH, that our President is going to get it when the inevitable occurs. And I’m going to work to see that he’s a one-term wonder because (as someone said earlier) his was the most un-serious election of my lifetime. As a black man, I remain firmly convinced he NEVER should have been the first African American elected to the Presidency but . . . he was. And I have to respect that.

Additionally, I refuse to believe he is purposely trying to undermine the country any more than Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton were. We’re talking about political differences here (okay, and a malignant narcissism!) but we should avoid the craziness of the far left. Any “American” talking about running away from the problems of the country is worthy of the title.

Jun 7, 2009 - 4:59 am 158. RattlerGator:

Oops — Any “American” talking about running away from the problems of the country *isn’t* worthy of the title.

Jun 7, 2009 - 5:11 am 159. SAF:

2. Thrasymachus

I agree with you. Obama isn’t the cause but the symptom of a broken America.

Between the press, the politicians, lawyers, union and corporate malfeasance we have become broken. The porous borders will eventually lead to more socialism and terrorism. The good thing about Obama is he is accelerating the process and perhaps will make America, at all levels and walks of life come to its senses. But I think a cataclysmic event is a requirement for that to happen.

Jun 7, 2009 - 5:11 am 160. John Steele:

You assume that Obama’s actions bespeak immaturity and not just malice; that Obama is simply naive and doesn’t understand the real world, but he actually cares about the well being of America. Personally I have my doubts about that.

But using your argument we get to pay the price while he grows to manhood? How much damage, some irreparable, will he do to our people, our nation and the world while he figures out that the world is not rainbows and unicorns, that there are truly simply evil people with evil intent abroad on the planet?

Seems to me that there was a fairly large voice arguing about his lack of experience and knowledge prior to the election, a voice which went unheeded in the rapture of ‘electing the first black man president.’

Jun 7, 2009 - 5:30 am 161. Fragmentarian:

Doc – Brilliant, as usual. As a good friend always tells me, “Edjamacation is expensive”. We’ll soon find out how expensive Mr. Obama’s will be.

Jun 7, 2009 - 5:57 am 162. Sissy Willis:

Should be required reading for all Pauline-Kael-bubble residents, from President Obama on up or down. Somebody should make a movie of it. Get Roger L. on the phone at once!!! This could be box-office gold.

Jun 7, 2009 - 6:18 am 163. Frank Logan:

Obama is a 47 year old man-child. He reminds me of a kid cruising the Sonic on his new Harley, reving the pipes to draw attention, except Obama is cruising the world in Air Force One. His accomplishments? Zero!

Jun 7, 2009 - 6:21 am 164. Desiderius:

“we can’t quite sell off the US to capture our speculative profit”

Yes, unfortunately, we can.

Jun 7, 2009 - 6:43 am 165. LogicalUS:

I remember sitting in our communal dorm room in college and hearing a dozen Obama’s drone on and on after a night of boozing. Fortunately for me, I was raised by a wonderful Scotch-Irish mother who made me realize that they were delusional even at that age. They hated when I injected the real world on their fantasy, such as “why do you assume that the other people have the exact same motivations and objectives as YOU?”

Obama never grew up and you correctly point out that he failed miserably at his tenative ventures into the real world and quickly immersed himself back in the fantasy world of academia. I mean really who after witnessing the ugliness of the rise of Islamic terrorism during the 90s is still stuck in fighting the Nuclear Freeze battles of the early 80s? That is what struck me as strange beyond belief about this boob, he was stuck in 1979 campus agitation??? I am just surprised he didn’t build a cardboard “ghetto” outside the White House in protest and sit their at night banging on a drum shouting at people walking by on Penn. Ave.

Jun 7, 2009 - 6:55 am 166. TLM:

Speaking at D-Day ceremonies in Normandy yesterday UK PM Gordon Brown paid tribute to American soldiers who gave their lives at “Obama” Beach.

Jun 7, 2009 - 6:55 am 167. Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » Paving the road to hell with self-abasement and apologies:

[...] weakness, self-abasement and apologies are not making the Middle East any freer, or any of us any [...]

Jun 7, 2009 - 7:06 am 168. PD Quig:

#20 Lineberry

“I think this is the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives – conservatives believe the world is simple, liberals believe it is complicated. Maybe one day we will come to an understanding.”

We already understand you. Complexity, for you, is a guise for ignoring the basic truth that man has an equal propensity for evil and good. Societal and political arrangements that control man’s evil side must necessarily be imposed. Liberals believe, further, that it is corrupt societal and political arrangements that cause man to do evil…all the time ignoring the obvious fundamental flaw in their philosophy: it is man who is responsible for creating those arrangements.

In that sense, conservatives do view the world in simpler terms. Man’s evil is inherent and must be controlled. Only a liberal could ignore such an obvious truth by disguising it with obfuscating language and continually promulgating failed policy prescriptions. In that sense, liberals are truly simple-minded: let’s try the same failed policies and hope for a new outcome.

Jun 7, 2009 - 7:11 am 169. Cynthia Yockey, A Conservative Lesbian:

I enjoyed your essay, but I disagree with the idea that Obama is the naive and idealistic young man about to get rolled by the ferocious and greedy world. I think he intends to destroy this country and that he is more like your greedy neighbor who worked hard to weaken you so he could take over your farm when you failed. Think about his rogue’s gallery of friends and all the money that flooded illegally into his campaign coffers, especially the money from overseas. They reveal the true Obama. He is a practiced and accomplished villain. Only his poses are idealistic.

I’ve written at my blog about Obama’s sociopathy and highly recommend the book, “The Sociopath Next Door,” for undertanding him better.

I also recommend the works of Eric Hoffer, starting with “The True Believer.” No one has understood and explained the true believer and mass movements better.

One more thought about the foreign campaign donations that bought Obama his presidency — is it just me, or does anyone else think his tour of Muslim countries had a hidden agenda of thanking his principal donors? Or is that just what would happen in a movie? I dislike conspiracy theories, but with Obama’s track record it seems better to be overly suspicious rather than trusting.

Jun 7, 2009 - 7:29 am 170. Peter Isaacson:

What you say in your article is somewhat true. What you don’t seem to get nor do the majority of the people is that Obama is doing the job he was put into position to do. That is the total disolution of what we formerly called the USA

Jun 7, 2009 - 7:43 am 171. CRT:

You’ve got some seriously long sentences in the first part of this wonderful essay, Professor. You’ve got a big audience. I wouldn’t want any of them to quit reading before getting to the Farmer’s Tale. Some people might not have the patience to slog through the structure of a couple of sentences.

Jun 7, 2009 - 7:59 am 172. Dinocrat » Blog Archive » More on that Cairo speech:

[...] VDH reflects on the Cairo speech by President Obama: Most of you readers — in business, law, the professions — don’t continually praise your friends, competitors, and enemies (e.g., “Glad you got that job, Home Depot — we at Lowes didn’t really need it; what a wonderful bid you submitted, Hilton, much better than ours here at the Four Seasons; it was my fault here at Goldman Sachs that I didn’t match your better offer at Credit Suisse; I grew up working for the Royals, and can empathize why you Yankees don’t like us; it’s time we at Citibank apologized to Chase for our past cutthroat competition; we are just too arrogant over here at Delta and wanted to let you guys at United know that.”) [...]

Jun 7, 2009 - 8:33 am 173. Thalpy:

We crush bullies. We can then build a relationship–or not.

Jun 7, 2009 - 8:57 am 174. joseph:

The Great Denouement

In another forum I penned the view that for President Barrack Obama the Great Denouement is coming.
From domestic policy to foreign policy Obama has followed the path of a self centered, incompetent ignoramus who indeed is narcissistic and thinks that his lack of experience and empty suited resume somehow allows him to make judgments on huge moral issues (abortion) and about major financial, managerial and foreign policy matters that would stump even the most tried on those subjects.
He and his wife Michelle are driven by a deep resentment of the America that I as a biracial person from the Caribbean learnt about and have come to appreciate the more I see the reality of this world.
The Great Denouement is coming when this grand childish experiment will decidedly unravel to his detriment.
He may even be impeached for incompetence.
As I have already noted I am quite happy that Obama turned up on the scene as he with his disastrous liberal/socialist policies will stop the “one step forward , 2 step backwards” reality of conservative philosophy in which incrementally liberals has taken over your country.

Finally America will see that which is destroying the very character of what made you great. Hollywood, the state run main stream media, and the academic world are ALL on trial here and the Great Denouement will expose the rot for all to see.

Jun 7, 2009 - 8:59 am 175. Jerry:

Re #88: All the posts have been wonderful, pithy, ironic, sardonic, on point, but the one that impressed me the most was #88, Terry Gain. It removes the verbiage and cuts to the actions that have been taken in the world.

In this regard, may I suggest that those who can form committees to support the candidacy of Sheila Bair, current head of the FDIC, to oppose Mr. Obama in the upcoming election. She hails from Kansas and has Dr. Hanson’s sensibilities. She is smarter and more personable than he is. She has run on the Republican ticket for office before. Let us draft this very talented and grounded women. She can beat him at his own game

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:00 am 176. scott:

Butterfly Mornings,

I tried to send you some links but I guess they don’t like link embedding around here so I will give them to you in long hand. Just change the DOT to a .

I know you love and believe the Bible and so do I. I simply see much much more biblical evidence for Christians going THROUGH the Tribulation than for a rapture. I think we are to be witnesses and evangelists and examples by the way we die to the entire world during these last seven years.

I know you love The Truth. Please look into these things as teaching a pre-trib rapture makes weak Christians who may fall away when it does not happen. I ‘could’ be wrong. If I am I will be one happy boy to have escaped the Tribulation. If you and yours are wrong it could be disastrous.

In the name of Jesus I exhort you: There is at least twenty fold more scripture against the pre-trib position than the post-trib.

www DOT answersinrevelation DOT org

www DOT oasischristianchurch DOT org

www DOT pfrs DOT org

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:06 am 177. JFSanders:

Dr. Hanson, A wonderfully written piece. But as others have stated 0 doesn’t quite fit into the character of you. He would more rightly be your neighbor and his relationship would be to us. He sides with the world against the US. Fortunately the government is unwieldy and moves slowly. We may yet figure out how to steer without a rudder. And avoid the rocky shoals.

170. Peter Isaacson: Zero’s goal is not to dissolve the USA but to reduce it’s power and influence and to retard our economic power. To make a eunuch of us. He wants us under direct control and planning. It is his belief that humans can be perfected. He believes that he is almost perfect himself. His narcissism is on display 24/7.

20. JA Lineberry: “I enjoyed the story, but I think international politics is a little more complicated than that. Sorry.

I think this is the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives – conservatives believe the world is simple, liberals believe it is complicated. Maybe one day we will come to an understanding.”

WOW, you don’t read what you write, do you? Yes, young JA. The world is just that simple. Every layer is exactly like the one under it. Just like a onion. The thing that is confusing you is the scale of each layer. Just because the scale is larger doesn’t mean it works differently. Humans are humans.

109. sheesh: So you as a peace loving leebral see his spoken words as told to the SS (something funny about those initials…) by a bank employee. AS IN hearsay is an actionable offense? I am shocked you would convict a person BEFORE he committed a crime!? What would the ACLU say! OMG. And then you proceed to link his supposed desire to commit a felony against the president as being inspired by a TEA PARTY! OH the HORROR!

Are you just as outraged at the misunderstood religious adherent that gunned down two men standing on a sidewalk outside a recruiting office in Arkansas? Some how I don’t think so… As a wonderful man once said. “You my ignorant friend, are a putz.”

132. So, what he said at 124 is true, for you did not deny it. As for creepy, only in a non scientific sense. But then again YOU wouldn’t be able to discern that. Doctors and Cops have a very detailed understanding of the drug culture. Does not make them druggies though. You must be very blissful in your ignorance.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:08 am 178. John Higgins:

Bullies are the same the world over, and there is only one way to deal with a bully. Bush and Cheney understood this; hopefully Obama will figure it out.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:13 am 179. Reality Fail (But, Hell, At Least He’s Trying . . .) | Lean Left:

[...] Davis Hanson thinks he’s said something smart with his vague and broad-brush claim that everything Obama does (including speak politely to [...]

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:16 am 180. iamanamerican:

Where’s the Birth Certificate?!!

Can’t wait to find out what Obama is hiding by sealing all his records.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:18 am 181. Brian G.:

C’mon Professor. You need to find ways to blame Bush, Cheney, Rove, Haliburton, and Blackwater. How else can you expect the left wing in this country to understand or agree with your views? Plus, it is a shame you are not getting invited to as many cocktail parties as you should thanks to your intelligent analysis. Hopefully, in the future, you will realize that bashing Bush et al is the way in to the cool kids club and you’ll decide to stop writing such spot-on and thought-provoking material.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:23 am 182. scott:

Cynthia,

Since you have embraced the truth of conservatism why not go the whole way and embrace the Truth of Christ. Do not let your sexual proclivities get in the way of your relationship with the Living God. Desire is easily bested by the power of Christ.

We all have proclivities. You should know how difficult it is just to be a normal male. I could literally worship (and have) the lovely female body as it is exemplified by a well built 16 year old. Well I know this is wrong. I must allow Christ to bring into captivity ( Galations 5:16-26 etc) my fleshly desires. Otherwise a man would literally waste his life chasing women. And many have. (I’m not inveighing against monogamous love.)

Maybe its that tough for you. I don’t know of course. It has always seemed to me that monogamy was not built into a man but is with a woman. Anyway. You have settled on the truth. THE Truth awaits you with open arms.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:26 am 183. Dred Scott:

Obama said:

“I have a very tough schedule and I would love nothing more than to have a leisurely week in Paris, stroll down the Seine, take my wife out to a nice meal, have a picnic in Luxembourg Garden.”

The rest of us walk ALONG the Seine. Obama really does walk on water?

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:59 am 184. a:

Let’s see. Soviet Union had been going against human nature for 74 years. It would still be going unless a lucky confluence of blind but non-feral Gorby, Russians, en masse fed up by commies, plus Thatcher and Reagan worked in mysterious ways. North Korea is happily chugging along juche path as we talk. There is no such equilibrium of abasement that by dipping below it a society is certain to get back to an old glory. Carter is not a promise of Reagan to come.

It is awfully easy to corrupt a society to a point of no return.

Jun 7, 2009 - 10:07 am 185. monkeyfan:

It seems as if we have reset our clocks to relive the period of interesting time between the Great War to end all wars, and the Second more world encompassing War.

The west was so horrified at the toll defending against Hun aggression took on their blood and treasuries that they endeavored to abolish such aggression altogether. A league of nations was even formulated to this end but of course they couldn’t abolish national aggression without the credible threat of force any more than the current union of caudillos, tyrants, and democracies can, so they basically reframed consequences into un-realpolitic abstractions, or minimized and ignored the consequences of inaction altogether. They invented peace for their time out of whole cloth woven with false compromise, strongly-worded denial, outright betrayal, and abject fear.

Meanwhile social[ist] scientists of various statist spots busily exploited the widening cracks in the foundations of reality that their collective fear of defending themselves had created in the first place. The US of A quickly disarmed and hid behind two oceans, Britain disarmed its citizens and cowered behind an aging fleet, The French fought amongst themselves in the shadows of their incompleted Maginot border wall, and National Socialists consolidated their gains alongside their international socialist allies of the moment.

Interesting times indeed…

Jun 7, 2009 - 10:17 am 186. Torqued Marine (USMC):

#157 RattlelerGator,

It’s not that we don’t respect the resiliency of the the country, it’s that we have been watching our freedoms slowly taken from us for the last 100 years. They take away 10 and give back 5, and so on until there is nothing left. I know this great country is resilient, but just as a rubber band is resilient, if stretched to far it will break.

Yes even if it breaks it can be repaired, this country was built with blood, sweet, and tears, at great cost to our founders. I believe there are still men and women of that same category in our time to remake what was, and I think there is a very good example of those people right here.

Do not assume that we don’t know, we do. we just don’t like watching her being treated like this.

I’m mad as H#$l and i’m not going to take it any more.

Semper Fi.

Jun 7, 2009 - 10:29 am 187. Bob S:

Awesome writing Professor! The perfect analogy to the BHO show. Keep up the good work!

Jun 7, 2009 - 10:35 am 188. PowerLifter:

What a wonderful article. I don’t have anything pithy to say but just wanted to thank you for all you do. You more than anyone else (except maybe Mark Steyn) are fighting the hardest for the country we love and we appreciate it greatly.

Jun 7, 2009 - 10:35 am 189. Terrye:

I had the same kind of awakening, only it was a dairy farm instead of vineyard.

Jun 7, 2009 - 10:41 am 190. mudboss:

What can I say? Too many people much smarter than I have already said it. Great Article! Two thumbs up for VDH. Same for most of you posters!

I appreciate Sheesh’s posts because it brings some levity to the otherwise very serious posts.

Thanks for keeping the light of hope lit.

Jun 7, 2009 - 10:41 am 191. kay:

VDH. Best ever. This one, I’m printing and saving to share.

Jun 7, 2009 - 11:59 am 192. hawg-farmer:

>177. JFSanders:

Thank You! I could not have said it better.

SEMPER FI

Jun 7, 2009 - 11:59 am 193. hawg-farmer:

re:177. JFSanders:

Thank You! I could not have said it better!!!

SEMPER FI

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:00 pm 194. TLM:

Cynthia Yockey:

“I dislike conspiracy theories, but with Obama’s track record it seems better to be overly suspicious rather than trusting.”

The root cause for this sentiment — one that I agree with — is the complete failure of the MSM to do their job. For eight years liberal minded Americans were fed a load of crap about Bush, and wound up paranoid about his intentions. Now we have the media literally bowing and scraping to a man they promoted as the Second Coming. In their eyes he can do no wrong. Without the MSM holding accountable the political savior they created, I see no choice but to completely distrust him. And them.

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:04 pm 195. Lars:

It okay, Doc. No one is really going to miss New York City, anyway!

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:23 pm 196. john from cinncinatti:

how do we lock the gates until he(the big O) comes to his senses? when they have the legal system in their pocket. 40 hours in office and he spent the bank,with nary a whimper from congress. talk about jacking the system. we the people will survive with the help of our neighbors, i mean the ones on our street. triangulating with the system to get your neighbor to stop wasn’t as good as facing him eyeball to eyeball. you can say that you weren’t 1/8 the man your grandfather was, but it seems to me that 1/8 was enough. he would’ve been proud of you. it also seems that your neighbor gained respect for you also.

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:24 pm 197. river:

CRT @ 171:
“…seriously long sentences…”
Indeed, but they make you sit up and listen/read,
unlike the undulating teleprompted long sentences that put you to sleep.

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:42 pm 198. Bob:

There is another alternative to handling the deficit. The same way we always
have.

We can grow the total economy, so that the deficit is an acceptable fraction of
GDP, and the interest payments are an acceptable fraction of Federal income.

What worries me is not inflationary spending when the CPI is showing deflation,
like the data shows right now.

What does worry me is damaging business, so that long-growth will slow or stop.

The Skeptical Optimist (at optimist123.com) frequently shows data about this.

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:48 pm 199. Stephen Brady:

I’ve not only appreciated the article, but the comments (with only a couple of exceptions).

Some commentators have mentioned the possibility of a declaration of Martial Law. There’s another aspect of that … detention.

Just a couple of weeks ago, at the National Archives, standing in front of the actual Constitution, Obama stated that the United States would pursue a policy of “prolonged detention” against dangerous persons. Everyone seemed to assume that he was talking about terrorists.

However, I live only six miles from a detention facility that is empty, except for those who guard it. It is capable of containing 1400 “detainees”. It is only two miles from a National Guard base, where I have seen joint military exercises with other countries, and UN troops. Yes, I have seen blue helmets.

The facility is plainly visible from a boat on the Illinois River. It is estimated that there are some 600-800 such facilities in the United States.

In my opinion, when Obama has has his Sir Alec Guinness moment, he will go beserk and start interning his political enemies. Those who oppose him must be “dangerous”, by definition.

By the way, thank you Professor Hanson, for a wonderful article.

Jun 7, 2009 - 12:50 pm 200. ala1993:

Professor Hanson, are you really going to hang your entire argument on the rusty linchpin that is ‘human nature’? Would you be willing to flesh it out a little more, because I’ve always found it to be opaque at best (useless at worst). It is possible to argue in terms of likelihoods, but these likelihoods are not lore forged from the metals of eternity. We have seen great change come about through hard work, through patience and through pursuing ends which seem contrary to what is generally accepted. We must still criticise Obama, as we must with any figure of authority; we must also hold him to account for both what he and his administration are trying to do and the consequences of their actions. However, if we take such a pessimistic tone as yours (disguised, of course, as ‘realism’) then we will achieve very little, if anything.

Jun 7, 2009 - 1:01 pm 201. catholic mom:

Great article. I am going to read this to my daughter tonight. She has been telling me I have a very negative view of the world lately….She wants to believe that everyone is good and sweet like her. Maybe this will help her understand where I’m coming from when I say what I do….

Jun 7, 2009 - 1:07 pm 202. Saltherring:

Real Americans have a short period of time in which to display sufficient outrage to scare the daylights out of Obama and Congressional leaders. We must make it known there are millions who are outraged at the direction our government is heading and we will not sit back and allow them to destroy our country. Speak up to your neighbors and those you work with. Write your representatives and the newsmedia. Take to the streets. America is worth it.

Jun 7, 2009 - 1:12 pm 203. Christian:

I am a simple man who believes in a big powerful loving God. I am not reading much in these readers’ comments which talk of God’s role in all this [Obama, world politics]. (I am not talking about Bush & God & politics; I am just talking about God).

Let me point you all to an urgent message recently repeated by the Rev. David Wilkerson, a respected pastor who learned about life by ministering to street gangs in the 50s & 60s. It can be found at
http://davidwilkersontoday.blogspot.com/2009/03/urgent-message.html

He told this message right after 9/11 and again in March of this year. It is time to pray, people. It is time to pray. It is time to come back to God, the Scriptures, and church. God raises up and destroys nations. he protects and takes away the protection. He blesses but He also judges. As a nation we have slowly been losing respect for God and His call to clean (righteous) living. Please read Wilkerson’s warning and take it to heart.

– Christian

Jun 7, 2009 - 1:18 pm 204. D Foster:

VDH:

Great article and it reminds me of a number of individuals that have tested my fair play value. In personal and business. Found that in business, one needs to make sure your position is known right from the start. Took me little while to know this fact. One thing for sure, there are individuals that will not play by the rules of fair play. The only way to deal with this situation is by being firm. FIRM.

As for Obama, this guy is just the final result of numerous years of Elite Left media and Elite Left Political Class being the moral and political leaders of America. These vast majority of these people have inherited wealth, never served in the Military, never run a business, never assumed responsibility for defending the Constitution of the United States.

Obama, Biden, Kennedy, Lahey, Frank, Shumer, Boxer, Rangle, Pelosi, Levin, Snowe, Feinstein, Markey, Waxman, McCain,
Durbin, Kucinish, ect, ect,

When you see Congressmen Henry Waxman and Markery talking about their Bill on Cap and Trade of Energy, we should become afraid and mad, thet these two clowns are making decisions that will effect out future in Energy and Business. What a joke, and no one stands up and ask them what the hell are they thinking. No one.

What are the voters thinking when they reelect these politicians time after time.
What is America thinking . How can we not see what these people are, they will steal our water time after time, until we throw them out and take control of our future.

Jun 7, 2009 - 1:42 pm 205. SLJ:

Loved the article! It does get to the point.
However, as much as I would like to see a sudden realization by Mr. O of his misunderstanding of human nature, it won’t happen. I have come to believe that there is some fundamental difference in the way I (as a conservative) process information as opposed to the far left. As an example, I have had many dicussions with my cousin who sees the world as O and sheese does, and despite reasoned and proven discourse, he is wholly unable to see the truths presented. What is remarkable is that his life experience is not that far from mine, yet he sees the world from an entirely different perspective. The main difference is his early indoctrination from labor union teaching. His whole belief system is, “if it might benefit the union, then it must be good”. Hence his (and most union members) slavish loyalty to the left. By their very charter, unions must support socialism or fascism. Hence Mr. O’s creation of the bread and circus act tried by the caesars so many years ago.
I am afraid that too many of the american people are bought by the dems, and as long as the dems can provide the bread and the circuses, they will be able to control the country, at least for a good long while.
Yes it is ultimately unsunstainable, but what does it matter if your only goal is to consolidate your power?
I and my brother have talked at length about this situation, we have felt it coming for years, and feel that if there was any place to go, we would. But where are you going to go that is as free as we were up until recently, nowhere.
Sadly, from the buying up of the electorate to the reduction of the constitution to a superfluous and useless guide to be warped however the left sees fit, it is becoming increasingly clear that unless 49% of us intends to allow the other 51% to allow us to be enslaved, we just might have to begin to consider the unthinkable. I sincerely hope that I am wrong, and the electorate will come to its senses, but judging from my conversations with people that voted for our current president and congress, I do not have much hope.

Jun 7, 2009 - 2:01 pm 206. Torqued Marine (USMC):

Mr. Davis, I loved the article.

The idea that we as a nation of free people should put up with being slapped down and spit on, and then on top of that have a leader that go’s out and says he is sorry we got in the way of your spit turns my stomach.

We need to tell the world that we are not going to put up with this crap anymore, and start punching back. They didn’t call our hero’s in WWII the greatest generation for nothing. We got hit and we hit back, hard.

I’m tired of helping the stray dogs of the world just to get our collective hands bit for our trouble.

I did not serve this great country to have it given away by a would be Socialist Dictator who thinks he is the 2nd. coming.

The saying should be changed to read, ” the only thing we have to fear, is Obama himself.”
The people should not fear the Gov. The Gov. should fear the people.

Semper Fi.

Jun 7, 2009 - 2:03 pm 207. Cynic:

Professor Hanson:

Well said!

Jun 7, 2009 - 2:13 pm 208. Paul M Hupf:

Reality will be forced upon him but when? And at what cost to the citizens of the United States of America? We have a constitutional form of government, something the President does not seem to acknowledge nor seem to want to acknowledge. His choice for the vacancy on the United States Supreme Court was chosen for “empathy” not for her knowledge of constitutional law. The President says that he taught constitutional law. But his actions suggest that he is as woefully ignorant of constitutional law as his speech at Cairo betrays his ignorance of history.

Jun 7, 2009 - 2:26 pm 209. Cat Glass:

The man elected our President began his political life disenfranchising voters so he could run unopposed. That ruthlessness was his as a young man and that ruthlessness remains. I believe he has a plan. That plan is the reason for his ruinous domestic policy and his anti-American foreign policy. It is the plan of the elites who think we need them to run the world. Obama intends to become president/ generalissimo of the world.

Jun 7, 2009 - 2:45 pm 210. William Beard:

Unfortunately, as with most things done by liberals and those “correct” thinkers, it is we the PRODUCERS and TAX payers that will end up paying for Obama’s mistakes. He may come to some late night doubt. But in the end the men and women on the front line that will lay down their lives and the tax payers will have to pay for his rather steep learning curve.

Jun 7, 2009 - 3:13 pm 211. And just what the hell is that supposed to mean (part iv)? « The TrogloPundit:

[...] just what the hell is that supposed to mean (part iv)? From Victor Davis Hanson, of all people! Do I really want to lower myself to his troglodyte [...]

Jun 7, 2009 - 4:18 pm 212. The Shadow:

Typical drivel from a man who has not had an original thought in his head

Jun 7, 2009 - 4:22 pm 213. Meryl:

202 Christian

I appreciate and agree with your comments. I think that one thing going on in many commentary threads these days is that Christians are attempting to participate in dialogue, educate themselves on the issues and think about things seriously.

That does not preclude what you suggest. But to some extent, I think our mistake in the past has been that Christians only and always (1) talked to each other (2) about God.

The prophetic utterances of both the Old and New Testament are very heavy on “awareness of our surroundings”: (a) being aware of it, (b) understanding it, (c) interpreting it Biblically, and (d) responding appropriately.

I don’t think we have to choose between talking about issues and talking about God: it seems we should be doing both and be skilled at both as far as possible (as Jesus did).

Just a word of caution: Wilkerson is definitely “one of the good guys” but also has his limits and has made questionable statements–so I don’t take him (or anyone) inherently at 100% face value.

Jun 7, 2009 - 4:55 pm 214. TLM:

Marc Malone @146 contra JALineberry:

“Libs reject the idea of simple truths, because they are taught that simple means simplistic. It does not. You are taught that complicated means complex. It does not.”

This is a very good observation. The semantic distinction between simple/simplistic and especially complex/complicated does seem to be lost on the Leftists. Liberals routinely confound, conflate and genuinely abuse the meanings of common words, often as a tactic to deceive. In this case, however, I believe they are “simply” ignorant of the difference in meaning of these words. And this from people who made the word “nuance” so popular the past 8 years. Go figure.

Jun 7, 2009 - 5:54 pm 215. Life – how it really works « I Think ^(Link)……:

[...] – how it really works Published June 8, 2009 Obama 0 Comments Victor Davis Hanson gives us a little story that he learned on the way back to the farm from the university [...]

Jun 7, 2009 - 5:55 pm 216. JFSanders:

211. The Shadow:
Dude your cognitive abilities are as thin as your nom de plume… Check yourself.

Jun 7, 2009 - 5:58 pm 217. kathy:

Shadow watch out! The tangible substance of your envy is showing.

Jun 7, 2009 - 6:24 pm 218. truenorthnewsandcommentary.com » Blog Archive » End-of-Weekend Roundup: Three Worlds to Watch:

[...] a separate but closely related piece, Victor Davis Hanson tells A Farmer’s Tale.

Jun 7, 2009 - 6:59 pm 219. TLM:

“Typical drivel from a man who has not had an original thought in his head”

Typical drivel from a Leftist who never read the article.

Ad hominem attacks are now the mainstay of Liberal/Leftist political discourse. Do they not understand that for millennia this tactic has been perceived as a sign of weakness, in either the merits of a person’s argument or in a person’s ability to express said argument?

Perhaps Leftists no longer make a distinction between a writer’s argument and the writer himself. Perhaps, as is their wont, they conflate these two related but separate things, and willy-nilly attack one as if it is the other. Now, I know this distinction is a bit complex, or uh, complicated, or uh…whatever, for them to keep separate. So let’s just spell it out as clearly as possible, in a way they (hopefully) can understand: ad hominem attacks are a simplistic rhetorical device employed by simple minds.

Jun 7, 2009 - 7:44 pm 220. CFB:

Good fences make good neighbors.

Jun 7, 2009 - 7:53 pm 221. Alan Smithee:

137. kitchener:

“Krushev got the measure of JFK and thought he was a punk and a rich kid…it took themisile crises to prove him wrong!”

The difference was Kennedy surrounded himself with experienced, qualified advisers. Obama surrounds himself with sycophants. No good can possibly come of this.

Jun 7, 2009 - 8:14 pm 222. newscaper:

Meryl,

The place where too many Christians screw up in arguing about issues is that, regardless of how your personal faith informs your struggle, the only effective way to win an argument that is putatively about facts and logic (with non-believers or the lapsed) — is to use more and better facts and logic.

God knows, if you actually *are* right about an issue, that shouldn’t be too hard.

I get so frustrated when some well meaning believer starts simply citing scripture — which open them up to the ‘who are you to impose your religious views on me’ response — rather than using the brain God gave them to take advantage of the many totally fact-based (from biology and human nature as illustrated by both history and, yes, *evolution*) arguments on the ‘con’ side of issues such as civil same-sex marriage or abortion on demand.

Jun 7, 2009 - 8:19 pm 223. average_guy:

A virtuoso piece, indeed.

My prayer is that the USA gets no worse than a dustcloud in our faces from our enemies. My fear is that we could get a mushroom cloud instead.

Jun 7, 2009 - 8:52 pm 224. Torqued Marine (USMC):

221 newscaper
Meryl is right. Both faith based facts and logic based facts can be used together to make an argument. When we start shutting someone down the moment they bring scripture into a debate, then we are no better than those lefties who shout us down every time we open our mouths.

You keep on using the Bible to support your arguments Meryl.

Semper Fi.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:30 pm 225. Godot:

Wishful thinking professor,the kind you indulged in at first with your neighbor. How do we chain and lock the communal lateral from Obama? Notice what it did to your neighbor. No, people like Obama don’t ever learn due to their personal ambitions/weaknesses and the organizations that facilitate their sorry behavior. How you ever worked for a company? Do the idiots in said organizations “come to their senses?” I am thinking of certain Wall St. investment banks as an example. What some other posters have said is the only thing that’s going to work, that americans in alot larger numbers than present start coming to their senses.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:47 pm 226. Meryl:

221.newscaper…appreciate your comments, which do focus the point I was trying to make.

“regardless of how your personal faith informs your struggle, the only effective way to win an argument that is putatively about facts and logic (with non-believers or the lapsed) — is to use more and better facts and logic.” … that is indeed the core of it.

I have often seen “well meaning believers” plunge into conversations with a foregone conclusion in mind, and then proceed to demonstrate considerable ignorance as they make assertions (with no apparent ability to defend or explain them. Sometimes I’ve done it, and wished I hadn’t.

Serious debate, based on knowledge, is not simple business and is, most times, a learned skill. “Just being right” won’t cut it.

It’s also been my experience that many “serious Christians” think it is somehow “Godly” to avoid debate, avoid disageement and, whatever you do, avoid defending your position.

Part of my own motivation in participating in online discussions is simply to swim in the shallow end of the pool and watch the guys coming off the tall towers and learn something.

Basically, like you said….”facts and logic”…. and that is going to require some effort and making use of the brain God gave us. (And a little courage on the side, if we fear being shouted down.)

I suspect there are others like myself who are on a steep learning curve in these things. We are too concerned to stay silent but are, in fact, somewhat amateurish in our “public debating efforts” simply for lack of practice.

Thanks for your comments!

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:50 pm 227. efzub:

How can anyone think that Obama is anything but an idiot. While he runs around like a tribal chieftain, the rest of the liberals think that he is a great man. Anyone who makes disparaging remarks about his own country is either a fool or an enemy of his own country. Unfortunately, Obama is both.
We need to get ride of this moron. He is not a chief of some two bit tribal group, but the president of the US. Dang it anyway, the people who voted for this idiot must have forgotten a whole lot.

Jun 7, 2009 - 9:59 pm 228. Torqued Marine (USMC):

211 The Shadow

That thought must have really strained your brain.

Try making an argument supported by facts, instead of your weak little bumper sticker quips. I believe Mr. Davis deserves as much, seeing as he put a great deal of thought into his post, it would be the least you could do, or is that to much for you to wrap your brain around?

Semper Fi.

Jun 7, 2009 - 10:20 pm 229. John C LemonMD:

Dr, Hanson: I’m the Dr. on the NRO Mexico cruise who had a seat at the U.of Denver speech you made and could see you through a slight opening of the stage curtain before you began to talk. I noted a patient composure and no flicking thru notes at all. You spoke for 45 minutes and 15 minutes of questions without notes and I complimented you for your ease of delivery. You then told me that that was when you had not yet had your chronic appendicitis removed a while later (in Asia I think) and that you were quite discomforted before that speech! I was flabbergasted to hear that, so I am not surprised to read this grand writing about your bullying neighbor which is near the best you have set down yet. You delivered a corker in this one! America needs a few more of such if you will give us them and the powerful words in the rest of the piece. I am one who does not believe The Obamessiah is an enigma. He is a dedicated socialist who knows exactly where he wants to take this country. Best regards and good fortune to you, John C.(”Jerry”) Lemon M.D. (You have met my daughter Amy Olson with Mark Steyn at a nice time of talk while on a beach on the next NR cruise in the Caribbean I think it was)

Jun 8, 2009 - 12:21 am 230. Vinaigrette:

You have a very limited view of what constitutes human nature. Sure, you were naive about your water argument, and yes, that one guy had politicked you out of your water by sewing things up with his buddies, and you were the new guy on the block, despite your family’s previous occupancy. But clearly you didn’t have the knowledge, patience, or negotiation skills to address the problem differently.

As an academic, you should know better than to extrapolate beyond your data, and your anecdote says a great deal about you and very little about “human nature” in general.

With regard to the larger issues, as a US citizen living overseas, I feel much safer with Obama in office than during the Bush administration, and I have yet to see any serious alternative to patience and negotiation, on all fronts. We can’t continue to address our problems as if we were CGI heroes in a barfight.

Jun 8, 2009 - 2:47 am 231. davod:

“the only effective way to win an argument that is putatively about facts and logic (with non-believers or the lapsed) — is to use more and better facts and logic.”

Logical but leaves out one important element – communication.

The opposition own the bully pulpit, the Congress and the media is in the tank.

How do you the true facts past the noise to the old fashioned liberals, independents and turned conservatives, to make them active and vote.

Waiting for the next election is a sure way to defeat. The real message has to get out now.

Jun 8, 2009 - 3:19 am 232. Vinaigrette Girl:

@D Foster:

GW Bush and Dick Cheney never did military service in their lives: Cheney “had other things on his agenda”, according to him. George Bush’s family have been millionaires for at least four generations. In case you missed this late-appearing news, only two presidents in the last thirty years have had genuine military service: GHW Bush, and Jimmy Carter. Counting from Truman, there has been an even number of Democrat and Republican presidental terms of office.

When you rail about your fellow citizens as “the liberal elite who have run this country” you are insulting military men and women who voted for Obama, and you are bending the historical record totally out of shape. The demons you believe in don’t exist.

People like you who stereotype everyone who disagrees with you as fools or rogues are bad enough; but you don’t even open an encyclopedia or use an impartial source to check some basic facts.

I can’t imagine who you wanted to become President, but I am glad you and people who think like you lost this last election. Your fearfulness is sad, but it’s also misinformed, unproductive, and wrong-headed. Shame on you: now go do something useful for you community, like listening to little guys reading, and cheer yourself up.

Jun 8, 2009 - 5:34 am 233. scavenging for purpose « sioisa, humming softly, writes in sand, talks with hands:

[...] this post is not bad either, The Reckoning found while hunting for The Anchoress’ wayward geraniums and begonias… reminds me of my [...]

Jun 8, 2009 - 7:09 am 234. Jonathan Levy:

Dr. Hanson,

This article is an instant classic.

You must put a permanent link to it on your website, so it will be easy to find in a year, or two, or ten.

Jun 8, 2009 - 7:15 am 235. d.:

I had a desire to stand up and cheer when I finished reading this essay, Dr. Hanson. Bravo! Bravo!!

It is not possible for one to nail what Obama is doing any more than you just did. This was perfect. Perfect.

Thank you!

Jun 8, 2009 - 7:23 am 236. Saltherring:

newscaper (#221), I will cast my lot with Torqued Marine (#223) in his defense of Meryl. There is great power in scripture and the proper use of it in objective arguments. Scripture is not imposing “your religious views on me” but stating what God has stated in His word. If anyone takes issue, his/her argument is ultimately with God, not the person quoting scripture. Hopefully the one who has taken issue will seek God and find Him.

Jun 8, 2009 - 7:36 am 237. d.:

Vinaigrette –

So are you willing to look the two American families whose daughters have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korean death camps (where women are routinely brutally raped and then forced to have abortions) and tell them that they just need to sit tight and have patience that negotiations might eventually work? It is not as if really horrid things can’t happen while we are waiting for patience and negotiations to work.

We are showing a tremendous about of patience and willingness to negotiate in Darfur right now, which is helping the women and children there how, exactly?

I assume you think that the U.K. should have shown more restraint, patience and a willingness to negotiate with Hitler? Maybe you are right – we here in America should have just had more faith that talk, that “smart diplomacy” we keep hearing about, would have worked.

I guess under this reasoning, we should just tell the Palestinians to just chill out and have faith that patience and negotiations will give them what they want.

Under your reasoning, black Americans should have never helped fight the Confederacy in the Civil War. Rather, they should have just been patient and hoped that their masters, who were armed, had the law on their side, AND depended on the slaves for their economic security, would open their hearts to reason and eventually grant them the right to breathe free as a true American with all the rights, responsibilities, and privileges due an American. I guess they should have been more willing to overlook being worked to death, beaten, raped, abused, and taken from their families.

All of this makes me wonder: why didn’t the men who planned and carried out Sept. 11th not exercise patience, tolerance, and a willingness to negotiate? Why is America expected to exercise patience and tolerance but these other people (who are just like us, right??) don’t have to?

d.

Jun 8, 2009 - 7:57 am 238. Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Educating Obama:

[...] Victor Davis Hanson suggests that Obama might have a little more depth in his understanding of the world had he ever [...]

Jun 8, 2009 - 8:32 am 239. Paul -Indiana:

Are you still glad that you voted for Obama? I’ll ask again after inflation passes 10%.

Jun 8, 2009 - 8:42 am 240. Robert Belvedere:

Linked to at:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/wwuam.html

Jun 8, 2009 - 8:54 am 241. Meryl:

223. Torqued Marine (USMC):

Torqued Marine’s reply to 221:

“Meryl is right. Both faith based facts and logic based facts can be used together to make an argument. When we start shutting someone down the moment they bring scripture into a debate, then we are no better than those lefties who shout us down every time we open our mouths.”

Torqued Marine–thanks for the encouragement….it was my sense that Newscaper was agreeing with and tightening the focus on what I said in my comments at 212 to Christian:

“202 Christian

“I appreciate and agree with your comments. I think that one thing going on in many commentary threads these days is that Christians are attempting to participate in dialogue, educate themselves on the issues and think about things seriously.

“That does not preclude what you suggest. But to some extent, I think our mistake in the past has been that Christians only and always (1) talked to each other (2) about God.”

One of the things we always dealing with in any discussion/debate is what our source of information is and whether or not we consider it significant/important as debaters to agree on sources.

If believers in the God of the Bible make Scripture their only source (or if it seems like that’s what they’re doing), it may seriously limit both their ability to communicate and, over the long run, their credibility.

Be sure to read 230.Davod as well!

We agree on the need to communicate well and persuade effectively. (which is why we are fans of Dr. Hanson..I think I must consider myself his student)

Jun 8, 2009 - 9:07 am 242. VDH at SISU « DaTechguy’s Blog:

[...] article here concerning how talk is nice but it can’t compete with the reality of action: So it is with foreign policy as well. Obama’s make-over will have positive short-term effects, [...]

Jun 8, 2009 - 9:09 am 243. Brian:

Dr. Hanson,

I assume you loved your family farm …

Jun 8, 2009 - 9:52 am 244. TLM:

Vinaigrette @229:

“…your anecdote says a great deal about you and very little about “human nature” in general.”

I don’t think VDH’s anecdote was meant to say anything profound about human nature, merely to illustrate what a great many of us already understand and believe.

“…as a US citizen living overseas, I feel much safer with Obama in office than during the Bush administration…”

As a US citizen living in the US, I feel much less safe with Obama now in office.

Of course, neither your anecdotal feeling of relative security nor my anecdotal lack thereof constitutes anything meaningful, like say DATA.

Jun 8, 2009 - 10:59 am 245. Brian:

#229

You feel much safer with Obama in office than with Bush?

Since the inauguration:
1) The Russians have demanded that we leave strategic bases in Kyrgyzstan. Bases that assisted with supplying our troops in Afghanistan.
2) The Obama administration have abandoned our allies, Poland and the Czech Republic, with regards to missile defense. These countries put their necks out to support the U.S. during the Bush administration only to be left hanging with Obama.
3) The North Korea greeted Obama’s fantasy of a nuclear free world by restarting their reactor and firing missiles over our allies in Japan. China remains unconvinced by Obama’s smart power that sanctions should be in place. For good measure they are putting two American journalist on trial.
4) Iran took Obama’s “opening dialogue”, laughed, and called for more concessions from the United States, and maybe Iran will talked, but the nuclear program is not up for discussion. Russia is still unconvinced by Obama’s obvious brilliance (compared to that troglodyte, Bush) that sanctions against Iran is in Russia’s best interest.

That’s just off the top of my head. What about China and India telling the world that Global Warming is not their concern. What about the fact that Europe (!) is telling America to cool it with the stimulus spending. What about interests on treasury bills rising due to the projected quadrupling of the national debt down the road. Ignoring contract law in bankruptcy, spending tens of billions on zombie companies to keep the UAW in line. Etc, etc, etc.

If you feel safer, you haven’t been paying attention. Feelings mean nothing. Maybe if you provided some facts behind your feelings we all can feel safer.

Jun 8, 2009 - 11:44 am 246. Gringo:

Andrew # 154
Your tale of the farmer neighbor who encroached on your land reminds me of Fidel Castro’s father.Georgie Anne Geyer, in Guerrilla Prince, her biography of Fidel Castro, tells how Castro’s father, a former Spanish soldier, became wealthy. Like your neighbor, Fidel’s father would move the fences at night on the way to accumulating 10,000 acres. ( p 19-20)

229. Vinaigrette:But clearly you didn’t have the knowledge, patience, or negotiation skills to address the problem differently. With your superior wisdom, how would YOU have solved Dr. Hanson’s water rights problem?

Jun 8, 2009 - 12:45 pm 247. Anna Puma:

re: 231 Vinaigrette Girl

You should really buy a clue and a better encyclopedia. Many of the forces who are now serving and sometimes being killed overseas are members of the National Guard – those state militias the gun cotnrol people think the 2d Amendment is only meant for. George W. Bush was a member of the Texas Air National Guard flying a supersonic interceptor that could carry a nuclear rocket [the Genie] to obliterate a whole squadron of Tu-95 Bears. By saying he never served in the military, you are saying all current members of the National Guard have never served. Thank you for your concern, now frak off.

Vice President Joe Biden got as many deferrments from serving in Vietnam as Vice President Cheney, so again you are off base.

And I do not see you railing against the Kennedy clan for being the grandchildren of a millionaire. Or Al Gore and his family, the family owns stock in Shell after all and his father was a Senator. How about Jay Rockefeller, another child of privledge. Choose better arguments before opening mouth.

As for the good Doctor’s post, very apt analogy. I just hope you are right and President Obama does get it before its much too late. If not we may be measuring change in roentgens.

Jun 8, 2009 - 1:40 pm 248. Mike:

VDH:

In your article, there are 3 concepts that could be expanded upon; maturity, character, and courage.

Obama does not seem to be mature enough to realize that his rhetoric is inconsistent with lessons of history. Although the type of rhetoric he employs may appear to be without precedent in modern times, it is with precedent in contemporary times. He uses a wide brush to dismiss ‘failures of the past’ and ‘false choices’, and uses strawmen to create a perception of infallible arguments. Others recognize these devices and see personality traits that have previously, and consistently, led to failure.

Your article describes a process of maturation, where rhetoric finally gave way to action, but in acting your hopes for the future improved. One might say that you exchanged the ‘naive hope’ that someone would change as a matter of course or persuasion, for a more ‘practical hope’ that conflict was in your better interests. It took courage to change your approach, because above all your conscience wanted to believe that it was possible to avoid conflict.

As a self-described patron of ‘hope’, is Obama pursuing hope in vain? Can government ‘fix’ health care, while dealing with enormous deficits and unemployment? Does he have the courage to change unrealistic goals of his administration even when they conflict with reality (why is there 9.4% unemployment, when maximum 8% unemployment was predicted)?

I do not believe that Obama is as certain as he portrays himself to be. Recent events impugn his character, his ability to reconcile his hopes and rhetoric with reality.

Jun 8, 2009 - 2:26 pm 249. Derick Schilling:

@Vinaigrette Girl:

Unlike his father, President Bush (43) did not see combat, but he did fly jet fighters with the Texas Air National Guard, an activity that carries a certain level of risk.

Prof. Hanson,

A worthwhile story well told, but did you perhaps inadvertently write “Clement Atlee” instead of “Neville Chamberlain”? Atlee was a decorated infantry officer in the First World War, and as the Labour leader in Churchill’s wartime coalition government (1940-45) and as prime minister (1945-51) during the early years of the Cold War, he proved himself to be resolute in the face of foreign aggression. For example, he backed Churchill in 1940 during the Cabinet debate over whether to seek peace with Germany, committed the RAF to supplying Berlin during the 1948-49 blockade, and sent British troops to Korea in 1950.

Jun 8, 2009 - 3:21 pm 250. Trouble:

#229:
You have a very limited view of what constitutes human nature. Sure, you were naive about your water argument, and yes, that one guy had politicked you out of your water by sewing things up with his buddies, and you were the new guy on the block, despite your family’s previous occupancy. But clearly you didn’t have the knowledge, patience, or negotiation skills to address the problem differently.

What is this knowledge of which you speak?

For how long – how many hours or days – do you counsel patience, as Dr. H was watching his vineyards dry up and blow away?

What negotiation skills do you suggest when confronted with the moral hazard Dr. H described? What methods do you counsel to convince a person to negotiate in good faith who has no interest in doing so?

You write as if you have successful experience in resolving such disputes; I would very much like to learn your methods. I know that people and situations are different, but a few examples of methods which have worked well for you in the past would be most enlightening.

Jun 8, 2009 - 3:48 pm 251. John the Libertarian:

Thanks, Victor. A touching piece.

However, Obama is a narcissist. And narcissists rarely come to their senses, or accept blame, or repent.

Jun 8, 2009 - 6:06 pm 252. Torqued Marine (USMC):

236 Saltherring
Thank you for you support, I do believe how ever after reading Meryl’s followup comment I understand a little better What Newscaper was getting at.

I am relatively new to the this type of semi instant reaction commentary. I am beginning to see that one should see where the conversation is going before jumping in with both feet first.

I do still ascribe to my comment, I just believe it may have been a little side ways of Meryl’s and Newscaper’s discussion.
Semper Fi.

Jun 8, 2009 - 7:10 pm 253. JoeS:

Great lesson.

Obama will learn it as he watches Israel smolder. Then he will surrender when NKorea announces that they have a nuclear bomb in a container in LA Harbor.

We once had a great nation… like a year ago.

Jun 8, 2009 - 9:27 pm 254. magpie:

wonderful, and those of us who have made that sudden leap into adulthood the hard way know this story all too well. thank you for reminding us that being a grown up is not “uncool,” “old fashioned,” or something out of the stone age. common sense is always current, and this president will either grow up fast or learn the hard way (at our expense unfortunately, i might add).

Jun 8, 2009 - 9:42 pm 255. Torqued Marine (USMC):

230 Vinaigrette

If you feel safer as a U.S. Citizen living over seas, I challenge you to move over seas.

Let’s have a little history lesson here. Jimmy Carter, Iran takes hostages and scoffs at him, Ronald Reagan comes into office and all of a sudden the hostages are released. the world took Reagan seriously and feared him. O ya he did not serve, how ever I can say that Reagan had and has more respect than Carter ever did.

Cowboy up works every time to keep us safe.

Bowing to kings gets us killed.(ie: Bam-Bam in Saudi)

Give me the Cowboy, the hunter, and the man that has lived life with us, not the one that lived above us. I know the one that lived with us will truly understand what I am and where I stand.

So please go feel safe over seas. Good luck.

Semper Fi.

Jun 8, 2009 - 10:07 pm 256. I drive down the dirt roads.:

157 and 158
I tend to agree with you, because I have questioned people about this. I keep questioning Christians and the people who believe the words in the bible. The term Christian can become political and the bible says it, but the ones that do not shout I am a Christian, but they read the word.
I have questioned many and they seem to say around the same thing, “He scares me”, or “We must pray for him”, or “We cannot change what is happening”.
I too believe if we are living in end times we cannot change things, because just as God knows all even our hairs on our head, only he will know.
The bible tells me to live my life and go about my normal routines, and so this is what I intend to do. I cannot lie and say I am not scared for my country, because I have never been so terrified of a politician in my whole life.
I have started praying for him, and I say about the same prayer for him that I say for my 21 year old. I pray that he takes the right path. However, when I pray for him I pray that he is not naïve about what way he takes our country and to lead our country on the right path.
I pray for him.
In Mathew, I love all of Mathew, but there is a passage that where three prays, more will pray and it shall be done.
We must pray for him, and we must watch Israel and how all Nations treat Israel.

Jun 9, 2009 - 6:10 am 257. anonymous coward:

sorry, where were you guys from 2000-2008? the debt baloooooooned. baloooooooooooooooooooooooooned.
and republicans owned all three branches of government for several years of that time frame.

now i dont want to be one sided, voting democrat wont help either…

i hate to say it but this is one problem that is beyond current politics, we have to just have some kind of third party to make the other two parties wake up.

Jun 9, 2009 - 8:15 am 258. Rashputin:

Vinaigrette Girl (232)

“I can’t imagine who you wanted to become President, but I am glad you and people who think like you lost this last election. Your fearfulness is sad, but it’s also misinformed, unproductive, and wrong-headed. Shame on you: now go do something useful for you community, like listening to little guys reading, and cheer yourself up.”

I can’t imagine how you can be so dense as to still believe in this guy and his posse. Simply look at the facts, the supposed stimulus is being used to prop up or even take ownership of failed companies thereby expanding government but not stimulating the economy. Therefore it’s obvious that it is not in the best interest of the incumbent & Co. (Hussein, Inc.) to stimulate the economy or help people so that they can recover and get back to being productive. Creating and encouraging failure is the way to publicly justify and politically sell government takovers of industries and financial institutions. Stimulating the economy or helping those with a problem is diametrically opposed to justifying such takeovers.

Which, for example, of the legtimate owners of GM who have at least a century legal precendent on their side in bankruptcy situations was delt with in an honest and above board manner? None of them! Which of the illegtimate owners of GM gained a huge, unearned, unwarrented, and completely unrealsitc, ownership stake in the new Government Motors? The labor union. Those are obvious facts should you care to cease your knee-jerk reactions to anything and anyone who doesn’t agree with your pal Berry. He is now, and always has been, ashamed of the US and intent on destroying it, not reshaping or improving it, but destroying it.

You may recall a little incident called the, “October Revolution”, and should you care to read any history at all (something you apparently have never done) you should look into that little incedent. Buy the book one of the premeir US supporters of and cheerleader for the Revolution and you’ll find that even he was forced to rationalize such admitted crimes of the Revolutin as ethnic cleansing, genocide, murder, forced detention and labor, forced starvation. If like the author described you think such crimes are just dandy when they further some abstract goal of yours you should proudly say so here in order to help assure your own safety in the coming HusseinOcrat purge.

You better wake up and take a look around, because purges aren’t called purges because they’re ridding society of the opposition alone, they’re called purges because they start by purging the ambitious, vocal, or overly intelligent from the ranks of the purge leader’s supports.

have a very nice day

Jun 9, 2009 - 8:26 am 259. karl anglin:

George Bernard Shaw once stated that a
government that robs Peter to pay Paul
will always have the support of Paul.
Obama will play this game as well until
Peter, Paul and almost everyone else
see him for the wolf in sheeps clothing
that he is.

Jun 9, 2009 - 4:16 pm 260. Butting up against human nature « Benighted Comment:

[...] Victor Davis Hanson: Obama Versus the Way of the [...]

Jun 9, 2009 - 4:49 pm 261. James Pearson:

Man, you guys are bitter. But good on the prof, hope he sells (you) a book. Obamas doing okay (and you know it but you can’t admit it), and the sooner you get rid of that growing chip the better. GET OVER IT! GO AND DO SOMETHING REAL WITH YOUR WHINNY LITTLE SOULS.
He’s YOUR president for GOD sake, support him because you know what GOD says about those with a rebellious nature.

One last point that you ALL wont acknowledge. The President inherited this mess from your flee brain idol.

I wish him well.

Lets all get back to work and do our part to get our ship righted. Or would you rather sit on blogs like this and whine about what??? ah yes I thought as much.

Jun 9, 2009 - 5:52 pm 262. dck:

No, I disagree.

You give Obama too much credit. You were at your core a better man than he is when the lesson you describe was applied.

What sort of man sits through 20 years of Reverend Wright without comment? Could YOU have done that without a projectile-vomit epiphany? I think not.

Obama is damaged goods, a typical politician; when cornered he will spin, deny, get angry, and blame, but he won’t grow into manhood or into the office of President. He just doesn’t have it in him. He’s not an axe-murderer, but neither is he worth a warm pitcher of spit–and he never will be.

You’re still a Democrat at heart, aren’t you old boy: you’ve just GOT to think the best of everyone, despite a Toughlove world view. You’re just like my grandmother, another inveterate Democrat.

Jun 9, 2009 - 7:17 pm 263. Paul -Indiana:

#253. I can’t make a good argument against some of your points, but as Israel smolders, Tehran will become a cloud of rubble. As for Obambi – I agree.

Jun 10, 2009 - 10:51 am 264. Watcher of Weasels » The Benjamin Button Society:

[...] Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – Pajamas Media – The Reckoning [...]

Jun 10, 2009 - 11:01 am 265. DissentFromDayOneDOTcom:

Obama will come to his senses

Great column until this … no wonder you went bankrupt.

Jun 10, 2009 - 7:07 pm 266. Torqued Marine (USMC):

261. James Pearson:

Man, you guys are bitter. But good on the prof, hope he sells (you) a book. Obamas doing okay (and you know it but you can’t admit it), and the sooner you get rid of that growing chip the better. GET OVER IT! GO AND DO SOMETHING REAL WITH YOUR WHINNY LITTLE SOULS.
He’s YOUR president for GOD sake, support him because you know what GOD says about those with a rebellious nature.

One last point that you ALL wont acknowledge. The President inherited this mess from your flee brain idol.

I wish him well.

Lets all get back to work and do our part to get our ship righted. Or would you rather sit on blogs like this and whine about what??? ah yes I thought as much.

Excuse me the man thinks he is king. Have you had your head in the sand. Car dealerships are being closed at break neck speeds at his order. Please show me where in the constitution it says that he is empowered to take these actions. (ie: banks, auto manufactures, Bowing to kings)

I respect the office not the man. The only difference between Carter and Bam-Bam is Carter truly Loved this country even though he was a screw up Obam-Bam hates every thing we stand for. How dare he suggest that we overreacted after the towers fell.

I believe we did not do enough fast enough.
congress needs to wake up, get out of the private sector and let it take care of itself, and let our troops do their job with out fear of being charged criminally for doing that job.

Bam-Bam also needs to stop giving the terrorist prisoners rights under the Geneva convention. It clearly states a combatant will be identifiable by a recognized uniform and if he or she is not in said uniform they should be shot not held. This is a rule of war agreed to by the nations of the world.

Please do not ask me to stand behind anything this Communist is doing. Yes he is my pres., but that’s the nice thing about living in this great country, we get to disagree with each other and our Gov.

Semper Fi.

Jun 10, 2009 - 7:27 pm 267. Watcher of Weasels » From Cairo to Israel - Obama Making It Up As He Goes Along:

[...] Second place with 1 1/3 points – Pajamas Media – The Reckoning [...]

Jun 12, 2009 - 3:17 pm 268. Toni:

Common sense, just what we need. I’m just fearful things will go too far. Never the less I love your writing. Thank you.

Jun 13, 2009 - 8:30 pm 269. Joe Toboni:

wow, Dr, wow.

Jun 14, 2009 - 2:01 am 270. Larry:

VDH:
I guess you could argue that Jimmy Carter came to his senses somewhat after Breshnev and the Kremlin opted to invade Afghanistan. At least he beefed up military spending and boycotted the Olympics in Moscow… Yet there’s something even more messianic about Obama’s narcissism (heck, call it megalomania) than even Carter’s born-again beatitudes… Here’s how I foresee Obama would react to another major Al Qaeda attack on America (say, for example, a dozen simultaneous releases of massive amounts of anthrax in towns and cities across the country): 1) Declare martial law; 2) Send the National Guard to close off the southern border completely; 3) Shut down dissident and critical media outlets; 4) Arrest, if necessary, key figures in any protest movement; 5) Declare the need for an emergency federal police force and appoint a czar to recruit Acorn members and their ilk to make up that force… Etcetera… In short, seal off our own country and dis-empower those figures and forces that will be blamed in show trials for inciting the violence of our enemies against us in the first place! Extreme? No doubt. Unlikely? The way things have gone so far here in Obama-land, I’m not ruling anything out, especially if the economy is already in dire jeopardy when the sneak attack comes… Then he will need scapegoats, distractions, a new crisis ripe for exploitation, a crying need to suspend the constitution and play at being Lincoln for the sake of posterity… And as we are thus distracted, dispirited, and disorganized, our mortal enemies overseas will coordinate the nuclear missile attacks that will put paid to the American century, clearing the future for Islam and China to rule and reign supreme…

Jun 18, 2009 - 10:47 pm

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