Where Are We Going?
Abroad
I think the Europeans, who, remember, caught Obamania quite early, thought they were going to get more of the bipartisan American security shield, albeit with a charismatic multicultural veneer that would resonate with their citizens: no more Texas. No more Christianity. No more twang. No more nuclur. No more Iraq. But same old NATO. Same old bad cop to their good cop. Same old wide open Ami economy. Same old chance for triangulation. And?
As we are seeing in the Middle East, in the case of Israel, with Turkey, on the recent Iranian upheaval, and during the South America visit, Obama is clearly to the left of Europe. He sees himself more as multicultural prophet born out of the Third World, foe of colonialism, angry at past imperialism, skeptical of capitalism, eager to showcase his non-traditional ancestry and tripartite nomenclature. By coming from the West, but separating himself from the history of his own country, Obama has become a citizen of the world, who polls far higher, as intended, in the Middle East, than does his own country.
At no point does he suggest that the fact his father left Kenya for the U.S. and fathered at least one son who would grow up American rather than Kenyan was a great gift, as we see with the ordeal of many of the Obama half-siblings in Africa. Yes, he talks about change in America, but never tells the world exactly how an America of many races and faiths never descends into the hatred and violence we see most elsewhere in diverse societies. How, after all, does one apologize for success? (”I am sorry we are not killing as in the Balkans; so sad we do not follow the Rwandan model; schucks, no Kurd-Shiite-Sunni troubles here.”)
It used to be cute to talk about how “Bush turned off the Europeans.” Perhaps. But beneath all the public demonstrations and burning effigies, the old guard knew that Bush, like Clinton, Bush, and Reagan (but not Carter), would be there should the Russians, Koreans, Chinese, the lunatic regimes in the Middle East, the Al Qaedists and the rest threaten Western interests.
I don’t see how they can assume such a thing any more.
From the trivial like the treatment of the Churchill bust or the DVD gift to Gordon Brown, to the profound like the serial apologies, voting present on Iran, and deer-in-the-headlights stance on Korea, they must assume that the “European Rapid Deployment Force” is now their primary bulwark against the foes of civilization.
Bottom line: “Be careful what you wish for.”
It is neither caricature nor reductionism to suggest that the degree to which a country has expressed past hostility to the United States, the more it wins attention and apology from Barack Obama. In contrast, to the degree a country is constitutional and pro-American, the more likely it will be either ignored by Obama or its internal affairs “meddled” with. Cf. the case with Iran, Venezuela, the West Bankers, Russia, etc. In contrast, woe to Israel! (And Iraq too).
Weird Iranian Politics
There is a certain difficulty, unease really, that one sees among Leftist and liberal commentators on Iran. The demonstrations in Tehran are ideal topics of liberal anguish: hundreds of thousands in the streets, women, gays, students, all calling for freedom, human rights, and non-violent change — and opposed by religious fundamentalists, the gun-toting army, creepy police. It should be a no-brainer.
But there is often silence. Why and how?
1) Obama is President. US official policy is now liberal official policy, and there is a certain party line to embrace (we forget how right-wing radio went after Bush for the Dubai ports deal, the steel tariff, open borders, the deficits, No Child Left Behind. Prescription drug, etc.).
That means the President’s heretofore Kissingerian realism — wait until one side wins, and then deal with the winner in terms of our own interest — gets a pass. Suddenly liberals who called for the overthrow of everyone from the odious Pinochet to the even worse Somoza, are well, silent, offering Obama sound enough talking points that we must not play into the hands of this or that side, that both sides have anti-Americanism in common, that the bomb lurks large. Their realism may be clever and in the long run astute for the US, but it is realism nonetheless, and just the sort of realpolitik that they used to decry.
2) The Iranian fascistic government — theocratic, anti-gay, anti-religious tolerance, anti-feminist — has always disguised its venom with Che-like popular anti-Americanism. Its theocrats don’t wear ties. They mouth Hollywood-like anti-Americanism. They hate Bush as much as the Left does. In other words, the Iranians (cf. again Clinton’s lunatic 2005 Davos remarks praising to the skies Iranian “democracy”) have always been given a sort of exemption given their Third-world fides, and refrain “we are the perpetual victims of a CIA-inspired coup over six decades ago.” (Kermit Roosevelt did not prevent democracy in Iran from 1979 to 2009 any more than Pearl Harbor forced the United States to spend a lot on defense the next 60 plus years).
3) Iraq looms large. The Iraqi elections were far more open, far more inspected than anything in the long history of Iran. Maliki is a more legitimate leader than any in Iraq. And yet we shun Maliki as tainted, while suggesting that Iranian thugs are somehow more authentic (note the large number of essays suddenly appearing arguing Ahmadinejad really won the election and the result should be respected.)
Here at home
We know the boilerplate: The President outlines the problem, punctuated with those awful “them” and “they” and “some” and “others” who as extremists stand in the way of all good things and present “false choices”, but remain unnamed. (Sort of like the tropes in 1984).
Then the standard references come to “the mess we inherited”, the “prior administration”, and “what we found.” These are the prefaces to his reluctance to … (fill in the blanks: run the private sector, spend massive amounts of money, take over health care, raise taxes, etc.). Then he pauses, takes a deep breath, and in fact outlines ways to take over GM, regulate compensation, run up massive deficits, nationalize health care, and plan record tax hikes.
Then he finishes with variations on the old campaign formula “this is the moment”, “hope and change”, “yes, we can”, “we will not be deterred.”
No one can quite believe that one has just heard Obama deny that he’s going to do exactly what he then outlines he is going to do — but at least for the last six months this deception sounded good.
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147 Comments
1. Ron Kean:Gibbs wants to put his money on Obama’s speechwriters? I want to put a trillion dollars on the Professor. (Maybe I can borrow it)
The Obama/Europe situation reminds me of the stepmother who moves in, doesn’t care or is impatient with the husband’s older kids at home and the kids realize it’s not the same and they move out. And it was about time anyway.
Only the trouble with Europe is that they have a history of extreme violence when left to their own devices.
This is the best blog.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:35 am 2. Des FitzGerald:Thank you, Doctor, for responding to the trolls.
Jun 18, 2009 - 9:09 am 3. Mike:Dear Dr. Hanson:
It was Ronald Reagan who said (I paraphrase) that the problem wasn’t so much what liberals think they know, but that so much of what they think they know just isn’t so. May I propose three potential explanations for the President’s historical illiteracy? One need, not, by the way, choose just one. All three work quite well together.
(1) President Obama’s view of history is, in many ways, what he probably learned in college history courses taught by Marxists whose primary goal was not the imparting of knowledge, but indoctrination. His historical recitations certainly conform to many contemporary leftist ideals and philosophies, ideals which commonly turn actual history on its head. As a man of the hard, hard left, Obama would certainly accept and believe such tripe without question.
(2) Obama’s historical pronouncements are merely rhetorical props for whichever policies he is pursuing at the moment. These props are fed to him–as Mr. Gibbs noted–by his speechwriters, and as long as they prop up the proper liberal ideals, he will spout them without vetting, indeed, without thinking. In this, he is not specifically complicit, merely an enabler.
(3) It’s hard to know what Obama’s core philosophies are. How they translate into coherent policies, policies that will be consistently put into practice over years, is virtually impossible to know. There is one constant: Obama is great, infallible, the maximum leader, The One. With this in mind, any stretching of the truth, any misstatement, any outright lie is fair game in service of the aggrandizement of he who must be praised. One might argue here that Obama is so self-deluded as to lack complete responsibility for what he says. The alternative is the opposite. I’m afraid I can’t truly say which option is worse for the nation.
When we remember that “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and “They who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” we see our president blazing a path to destruction. He should remember–in considering the Iranian situation–that “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” But then, can one who shows such casual disregard for the truth be considered a good man?
Jun 18, 2009 - 9:29 am 4. ding:As far as I can tell, Jon Favreau, age 27, with Adam Frankel, a 26-year-old and Ben Rhodes, a 30-year-old, are BHO’s speechwriters. I’m not sure if this list is current or correct but I am struck by its youth and sorry, but in most cases youth = inexperience and ideological mush.
Gibbs recommended Favreau to the pres during the election so ya, he’s already put his money on their speech writers.
Favreau, by the way, was a community organizer type before he got into speechwriting. I can find no evidence of his Historical research abilities anywhere. Just a guess here but I’m thinking he’s a fan of Zinn’s “People’s History of the US”
Jun 18, 2009 - 9:58 am 5. TBranin:Dear Professor Hanson:
I very, very much appreciate your lucid writing and try at all times to glean what might be a peak at where this country is heading. At present, I am deeply worried and I gather you are too. One question which you may have answered, where in history has a leadership such as ours – ahistorical, disengeneous, fraudulent, immature, narcisstic – lead such a great empire and what happened?
I visit daily a cemetery for cardiovascular reasons for a 30 minute walk. Over there are 1000 Civil War veterans buried – 100 of whom died from wounds at Gettysburg and 5 unknown Confederates of that battle. I go by regularly the grave of Major General William Buell Franklin (I feel he was scapegoated for Fredericksburg.) and try to keep a flag on it. Many times I wonder what would they, the dead, say of the current issues. I do know that by being there I am a benefactor of a great tradition of values and beliefs and for this I feel a sense of gratitude to them. For me their acid rain erased marble markers (Almost all names inscribed in marble are illegible. Shame!) form a touch stone to a God-preserved reality.
Jun 18, 2009 - 11:36 am 6. Roderick Reilly:Chelsea Clinton has blossomed into a gorgeous young lady. Whenever I felt like going into paroxisms of vituperation regarding either of her parents, I’d remind myself that thy did a great job with Chelsea.
Jun 18, 2009 - 2:27 pm 7. 11B40:Greetings:
Kudos for your observation about the tie-less theocrats of Iran. It has galled me for a long time. When the recent nonsense about the soles of President Obama’s shoes during his telephone call to Israel circulated, all I could think of was how the Iranian Islamists have been showing their disrespect to Western civilization for the last several decades.
Jun 18, 2009 - 3:03 pm 8. Patricia McNaughton:Mr. Hanson,
I can only commiserate. On a much smaller scale. I’m only a middle-aged nobody living in the small-town midwest. In every attempt to talk to elected officials, letters-to-the-editor, contacting local media begging it, just once, to indulge in real investigative journalism and reporting, I am greeted with stultifying patronization each time.
I cannot remember a time when tears frequented my daily life. But my heart literally is breaking as I watch my country being destroyed from within and, now, I shed them everyday. This is killing me.
If it weren’t for people like you, I don’t know if I could survive this.
Jun 18, 2009 - 3:54 pm 9. jim hagerty:Having gone through just 3 of Professor Hanson’s books it becomes comically easy to stand by his statements. The internet is akin to the gentleman who flips you off in traffic only to become mum when caught next to you at the stop light.
Jun 18, 2009 - 3:57 pm 10. Dave the Kapampangan:I’m not sure “realpolitik or realism” is the right word to describe Obananarama philosophy, unless you mean the realism of one who tries to hug lions and tigers and polar bears, thinking nature to be harmless after being raised in Disneyland’s “it’s a small world” exhibit. Perhaps having been raised in this childlike academic exhibit where “intelligence” is easily available via teleprompter explains our President’s malleable “command” of convenient but untrue history.
But at least we can all feel blithely happy in our bubble-like imaginary group-politic, rather than smell the approaching dictatorial evil that is immediately comprehensible to anyone who dares speak its name.
A serial killer and torturer doesn’t legally represent all of his victims, nor does Ahma-da-nutjob “represent” the oppressed Iranian people in any valid way, but rather is their oppressor and the exact opposite of representation.
And historically, a ruthless wacko dictator who researches nuclear weapons and flatly proclaims his desire to exterminate all Jews is not a linchpin of stability you can easily make un-verifiable “peace” deals with. To dream that brutal oppressors can be papered over, appeased or sugarcoated is not “realism.”
It is wishful Obananarama philosophy.
Jun 18, 2009 - 5:13 pm 11. proreason:vdh: one of your better columns. I like it when you cover a lot of topics.
2.Mike: your post is probably the best I’ve seen by a commentor. My view is that your option 1 is the most likely and dominant explanation for the Moron’s ignorance. He’s been brainwashed by Marxists and he’s stickin with it.
Jun 18, 2009 - 7:19 pm 12. Insufficiently Sensitive:“I’m not familiar with the work of the esteemed historian. I haven’t seen it. I can assure you that not knowing who this historian is, I’ll put my money on our speechwriters.”
With Mr. Gibbs, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. For a guy whose job is dealing in information, this sort of tribalism is a fatal flaw – at least, when it comes to real history.
Of course when it comes to manipulating public opinion, he’s aiming for a seat in heaven alongside Joseph Goebbels.
Many thanks to Dr. Hanson for properly and regularly busting the Obama. Long may he continue.
Jun 18, 2009 - 7:52 pm 13. Marino:So now according to the Presidential spokesman historical facts are a matter of opinion? Is Gibbs going to follow up on this or is he sticking with his speachwriters facts be damned?
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:08 pm 14. Marino:I’ve been to Europe many,many times.
Americans, in general, are far more polite, more helpful to strangers, more generous and less likely to be scofflaws.
Europeans are impressed with themselves because first cousins living a couple hundred miles apart finally stopped killing each other and you no longer need a passport to go visit them. Just a subsidized Europass and 3 days.
Jun 18, 2009 - 8:15 pm 15. Charles Gordon:Our historic first Islamic apostate president is not blind to the color nor ignorant of the titles of Powell and Rice: we have already seen he is well accustomed to impunity for the outrageous gestures of a devious, determined interloper, as during the campaign, just in case we missed his studied insincerity, he fiddled with his middle finger while feigning respect.
His revisionist rendition of history, flattering to the mythologies of the third-world, insulting to the standards of truth, fit the narrow perspective of a zealot. He focuses on the remaking of America with the formulas only a sycophant could support, and the reordering of the world by our retreat into weakness.
Congruent with his twisted history of the world, he raises our fear of our own government here, and bows to brutal foreign powers abroad. He reminds us he is unlike any who preceded him, and acts in a way that we will no longer be what he thinks we once were; but he knows us not, and therein his failure will be our success.
Jun 18, 2009 - 11:33 pm 16. eme:Lol. it looks like your little reviews here have sort of … tickled some feathers…
Nice job! I hope they get tickled, so they look even pretty than before they were tickled. If you know what I mean, perhaps?
Flim flapper floppers.
Come edit my wiki.
Jun 18, 2009 - 11:45 pm 17. turfmann:@3 Mike
Re: your point #3, Obama is a dyed-in-the-wool Marxist. His associations from early childhood through his life in Chicago are proof positive of that. How many Marxist have you befriended? Like me, probably none. The problem for him arises in the difficulty of obfuscating his Marxism as something akin to centrism in order for any one of a number of policies can be held as palatable at any point in time.
Every now and then the political flatus is so voluminous coming from the White House that it billows the curtain such that we can see the Wizard pulling the levers. That is where the confusion arises for me – rhetorical assertions that lead to policy 180 degrees to the opposite because he inherited a mess from Bush so he has to double down upon the sin to absolve the nation. Problem is that compounding the sin is exactly the goal of the administration.
Dr. Hanson, take it as a complement that the White House Press Buffoon pretends not to know of you. His is an acquaintance I would not be proud of.
Jun 19, 2009 - 1:23 am 18. Jack Marcotte:essential vdh.
Nothing that happened in the past of America deserves the subversion of a Presidential leader like Barack Obama. His trumped up “facts” of history feed his indoctrinated uneducated affirmative action trained mind.
All his indoctrination allows rationalizing his serial positions in destroying a democratic Republic.
Destroying America by “Blame and Shame” for trumped up Marxist inspired Utopian perfumed subversion that is now succeeding–a parasite that has been living in the free air of America for the last 60 years.
To survive America needs to employ the strength of individuals that accept responsibility for their actions.
This keystone value has been slowly destroyed over the years. Primarily by the success of America and the loss of “insight” on what truly makes America great.
That process of destruction and the added burden of “Great Society” Utopian thinking by PC politicians is sinking America in the mud of history.
Can it be turned around. BHO could overplay his hand–by doing so sweep away the veils than now cover the end result of his actions. Tragic failure and no ability to correct it.
Nothing in the past of America deserves the infection of the Marxist inspired and led MSM idiots.
It seems to be historically proven than Journalists and Academics have the needed personalities that can be subverted and are useful idiots for subversion.
The MSM are truly a dumb moronic subset of Americans awash and steeped in the subversion of historical facts that has been going on in the Educational Institutions since the 1950’s. A fossilized residue of Marxist Global domination objectives. The infection in America was stronger than the USSR who started it.
All began after tremendous effort by the Communists to find people within the US to topple America from inside. We are looking at those generational people now in leadership positions.
Not knowing who vdh was and still betting on “presidential speech” writers is a dip stick comment that indicates “motor” failure from the get go. America does not deserve this type of “leadership”.
America does not deserve what is happening to it now.
However it is due to lack of vigilance and the lack of understanding by Americans since WWII of how fragile American values are.
Any value that places responsibility on individuals will be fragile. The spirit of America must be renewed in succeeding generations for America to survive against the human weaknesses—it has not been so and so we all will pay the price.
Jun 19, 2009 - 3:48 am 19. Bob Newton:Typical VDH writing: clear, plain, pure facts-and-logic explanations. A sure winner in any honest debate.
And yet over 50 million people voted for the Democrats, and many of them still support Obama despite his obvious ignorance and lying.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Jun 19, 2009 - 4:56 am 20. johnb:VDH sez: “I don’t care if “trolls” come to this site, or if they are directed to by political operatives. Free speech trumps all. Nothing they can post matches the daily venom that I get on my personal email.”
Dear Professor;
I sincerely hope that is an exaggeration, you are one of few political observers who can, and do, make total sense of what we are seeing these days. I can think of no one else who has contributed so much clear political analysis for so long. Frankly, I wonder how you have time to do anything else. I sometimes see glimmers of cogent thought from some others, but to my mind you stand head and shoulders above the crowd.
Re Iran; sir, do you really believe it will make any difference if the Persians rearrange their theocracy with yet another bloody revolution? They will, IMHO, still hate America, we will still be the ‘Great Satan’, and thus be blamed for all their combined, and eternally dwelt upon, social and economic misery, that we alone are responsible for the failure of their return to a 5th centurey Caliphate. Perhaps more importantly, the mullahs will still try to export terror and death to the non-believer. Rape, pillage, and plunder is will still be the order of the day for Islam. The west will learn the hard way to rue the day when the Iranian bomb becomes a reality.
To my untrained mind, a few salient points need to be made and remade for the leftard liberals; was it not the Ayatollah who taught the Iranians how to clear a minefield by marching a herd of school children in front of the troops? To assuage the grief for parents who lost children in this manner by assuring them their kids had died a martyr’s death for Allah seems cruel in the extreme to me.
These and other things we have witnessed from the Iranian brand of Islam lead me to believe that when people possess such a polar opposite ideology to our Western moral compass it will be impossible for a meeting of minds to ever happen. It seems they will acquire a nuclear device, no longer a matter of ‘if’, but simply, ‘when’. They will either use it themselves, or export it to some other equally lunatic group. Imagine such a device in the hands of Hezbollah or al Qaeda, both of whom possess a wealth of homocide bombers standing at the ready?
I fear Obama’s charm will not save us.
Jun 19, 2009 - 6:21 am 21. Allison Aller:I second #5 “TBranin”’s question….where in history has a leadership such as ours lead such and empire, and what happened?
Jun 19, 2009 - 6:28 am 22. Linguist:Of course we would like a view into inevitable future consequences of Obama’s 180s in all things.
…..but history has a way of dealing wild cards, doesn’t it?
To #4. ding: Remember the old saying, old age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill.
VDH, Robert Gibbs was just being his normal, subpar and trite self. He can’t help it, it’s just the way he is and exactly why Obama put him in that position. Anyone with a modium of sense knows that history books are written by the winners, and Obama having won means he gets to make up the story as he goes along. In the same way he’s written his two autobiographies.
But there are always 3 sides to any (hi-)story: the winner’s, the loser’s, and the truth, sandwiched somewhere in between. Thank you for staying the course of reason and objectivity and pointing this out. If there were more professors of your caliber in our colleges and universities, methinks the hole in which we find ourselves wouldn’t be half as deep.
Jun 19, 2009 - 7:46 am 23. 438miler:What is most bothersome about these flagrant historical accuracies is that they are bought by the majority of the adults in the US. “If Obama says it, it is so.”
Our educational system has fallen so far as to be borderline useless. The ‘Race Class Gender’ paradigm has taken over completely. The two best examples of this are in “Until Proven Innocent” – an expose’ of the radical left via the Duke lacrosse rape hoax, and “Indoctrinate U”, a great film showing how far the universities have fallen.
I am currently reading McCullough’s “John Adams”. The juxtaposition of today’s mindless, distracted society versus the laserlike focus of the Revolutionary era is so distinct it is almost depressing.
(How do I underline – ie. book titles….?)
Jun 19, 2009 - 9:28 am 24. Noam Sayin':Ooh, boy. Haven’t read through the whole thing, but you have a rather unfortunate typo in the 4th paragraph.
Jun 19, 2009 - 1:58 pm 25. A.W. Murphy:Gibb’s is the Peter Principal in action. Somehow, the notion of Obama having a vapid, shallow and pitiful little man in such an important job seems normal.
Liberals lack a fundamental curiosity about anything that doesn’t fit their particular world view. Indeed, for nearly half a century they have shaped modern academia into a clearing house to rewrite history to fit a particular narrative.
Modern journalism is overrun by graduates who learned history from one viewpoint, by professors marching in lockstep to the liberal drum. It’s no wonder that most major newspapers are failing – when a majority of your readers have a more complete knowledge of history than your reporters, you will lose customers.
Jun 19, 2009 - 6:29 pm 26. M.Walter:It is an honor to read your blog. We appreciate you!
Jun 19, 2009 - 9:45 pm 27. Pajamas Media » What Do These First Six Months Mean?:[...] Read the rest of the story here. [...]
Jun 20, 2009 - 1:37 am 28. conservativebabbleconftronted:You all need to join into the Republican circular firing squad. VDH is an apologist for failed and corrupt Republican policy that has left us with the mess that President Obama has to deal with. The fat Elephant has left a large mess on the road. And you blame the new Administration for this? Keep drinking the VDH Koolaid…………lucidity it is not. It is propaganda………….plain and simple.
Jun 20, 2009 - 2:03 am 29. Brian Richard Allen:Thank you, Doctor Hanson, for your life.
All you are and all you do, enriches us all.
Sincerely – Brian Richard Allen
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:17 am 30. RandyChandler:Los Angeles CA 90028
And the Far Abroad
“Keep drinking the VDH Koolaid…………lucidity it is not. It is propaganda………….plain and simple.” — conservativebabbleconftronted
This person hiding behind the stupid screen name obviously knows as little about history (and cares even less) as Obama’s speechwriters.
VDH has Obama’s number, and while it may not be the number of the beast, it isn’t a passing grade. Our postmodern president has already failed. What remains to be seen is whether he takes the rest of us down too.
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:26 am 31. Jack Marcotte:It seems NO 28 does not know how to spell either.
However when confronted with the truth–he she would say that is what she he ment to say.
Maybe there is something to being a liberal. You can’t be wrong. Affirmative action is just wonderful about this.
When cleaning up a mess the he she appear to have no concept of how much worse the initial mess can be made.
A left wing liberal (commune dweller) is like the he she who finds a man down in the street and proceeds to shot him to see if he is still alive.
It is unclear then how the man died and of course the he she can’t be tried for murder or be responsible because the man was down when the he she came to “assist”.
When a problem needs to be resolved, the kind of advice you get from a he she liberal is to “go join a circular firing squad”.
From a he she liberal anti individual standpoint that is very true.
This is because he she victim groups would never win an argument that needs common sense unless the “enemy” killed themselves.
If the “enemy” was dumb enough to do that the he she would not even need to exhibit their stupidity as No 28 has. No need.
That’s the trouble with being raised and indoctrinated as a “he she victim group” you need never know how to accomplish or do anything. Just whine like a dog wanting to be fed.
NO 28 is a perfect illustration. Keep up the good work No 28. Somehow NO 28 your NO 28 name fits you.
My free advice you NO 28— Hold that position my tax dollars are on the way if that is what it takes to keep you around to vote for BHO.
Their is nothing that can be done about it because after all you are a “victim” and its not your fault you were born. Your parent(s) and “handlers” were obviously pro choice. You won.
What do you think they drew straws.
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:29 am 32. Frank Hawkins:Slavery ended with out violence?
Do you think Obama or any of his historically illiterate minions have any sense that some 360,000 mostly white males (the Union Army) died to end slavery in the United States?
Poster 28 is typical of the liberals. When confronted with facts, when faced with the truth, they resort to name calling, thinking that somehow that makes their case.
They need to pay attention to Patrician McNaughton (posting number
and the polls that show that conservatives (aka those with regard to the truth) represent 40% of the American public. They are not falling for the Obama show and I suspect the number will continue to grow as the fallout from the Obama policies creates more and more problems for America.
Prof. Hanson is a national treasure.
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:30 am 33. Broadsword:Changing this “I can assure you that not knowing who this historian is, I’ll put my money on our speechwriters”, into a syllogism produces this: “I don’t know this guy. Therefore he must be wrong.” The syllogism translated into Greek…hubris.
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:43 am 34. MiamaMan:Mon cher professeur!
Always enjoy your writing so much, and never forget the anecdote in your vineyard and the water and the immigrant (more than likely a Mex). That was good.
As you mentioned the Che-like Anti-Americanism of the Iranian government, I recall what I read in Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer”, and how these mass-movements need a pivot of hate to survive. Exactly the same with Chavez and Castro. Alas, many people do not know that Castro never wanted the so-called embargo lifted, for then he would have to invent another “gringo” scapegoat. In the last Latin American meeting in Trinidad a few weeks ago, the only honest Latin American politician left, Nobel prize winner President Arias from Costa Rica, lambasted his peers for the ingrained dishonest practice of blaming any woe in Latin America to the “Yankee Imperialism”. Arias reminded them that many a city, country, and area in Latin America was much more developed that most of the US when the US gained independence from the British. Moreover, Arias stated, this practice of blaming the US had contributed to frustration and stagnation in Latin America, for America has nothing to do with their problems (and this is a fact).
The book that Chavez gave Obama recently, is a manifesto of precisely this belief, that all that goes wrong in Latin America, is the gringo’s fault.
So you see, that the hateful Ayatollah Kameini, Ahmadinejad, and others CAN’T AFFORD NOT TO HATE THE US. For if they do, they are doomed.
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:50 am 35. BillJ:Once again, The VDH 20/20 Lasar is focused on the Bampoo!
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:50 am 36. Broadsword:Mike and Proreason, does not this describe ‘The One’? “But the only measure that he knows is desire, desire for power; and so he judges all hearts. Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it.” In the second sentence, read “it” as power, and “the Ring” as absolute power. (Hence, also, his indifference to the Iranian people. He gains no power by commenting. Yes, I do believe he is that ruthless for power, although I do not think he would unleash violence on the American people. Note how in Iran only the legitimate authorities have firearms. This is good, “Jawohl?”)
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:56 am 37. dmgold, Israel:Obama and his band of merry men and women have adopted the well proven Goebels tactic of repeating lies over and over again and by doing so creating a new truth. This is and has been the tactic of every despotic regime in modern times. The tactics of Gibbs appear smarmy and dismissive not the transparency the US electorate was promised by the hope and change weany.
Jun 20, 2009 - 6:02 am 38. FCCS(SW/AW) RJW:28. conservativebabbleconftronted:
First, if you are going to “confront”, as your alias suggests, it would be wise to bring facts that support your argument, such as VDH does consistently. Otherwise, your words are just…babbling.
We’re looking for facts like which “failed” policy or policies that cause the mess the President has to deal with specifically, and what Obama policies are successfully addressing them?
Jun 20, 2009 - 6:32 am 39. homero:excellent artical. keep writing.
Jun 20, 2009 - 6:58 am 40. Aureliano:The fat Elephant has left a large mess on the road.
Let’s set aside the fact that two years prior to Obama’s election the Democrats controlled the U.S. Congress, and thus were well-positioned to do something about the impending crisis. Your political philosophy, is essentially …
… Bush did it. I guess it was Bush who forced Obama to let Nancy Pelosi craft behind closed doors a $787 billion stimulus that doesn’t stimulate, or it was Bush who forced Obama to stand for absolutely nothing on the foreign stage and to bow to Saudi kings, or Bush who forced the appointment of a tax cheat to oversee the IRS (and dozens of other cheats in other organizations), or Bush who forced the gutting of our missile-defense structure while North Korea sends missiles over Hawaii, or Bush who forced Obama to violate a law that The One himself co-sponsored and to seek to fire summarily an inspector general investigating an Obama supporter, or Bush who forced Obama to put the census in direct control of the White House, or Bush who forced Obama’s attorney general to drop the clearest case of voter intimidation in 40 years (intimidation that benefited Obama, naturally), or Bush who forced Obama to claim that unemployment would not exceed 8 percent, or Bush who forced Obama to sign legislation ’saving’ the UAW, only to have the UAW’s cash cow collapse anyway, or Bush who forced a sitting president for the first time in memory to go after INDIVIDUALS within the media who have the temerity to criticize him, or Bush who forced Obama to appoint an unintelligent racial tribalist to the Supreme Court, or Bush who forced Obama to claim the United States is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world ….
The list is long, and getting longer.
And re:corruption, you’re just plain ignorant. It’s not that the series of Democratic perfidy is a weekly occurrence.
It’s that it’s a near-daily occurrence.
For instance, just yesterday fraudsters Robert Allen Stanford and Bernie Madoff were again in the news, and both were big Democrat/Obama donors. Not that someone like you would know this, since you seem to have an MSNBC mentality.
That kind of knowledge would constitute factual knowledge. And facts are so passe in the Age of Obama.
Jun 20, 2009 - 7:00 am 41. Al:Most Americans take their freedom for granted, with Obama now in charge maybe they will finally wake up.
Jun 20, 2009 - 7:06 am 42. sheesh:What do these six months mean? Your time is up. Your days are over. America is entering a new age of elevated potential – when health care legislation is more important than flag burning amendments, when the rich aren’t the only ones who benefit from influence, when we can rightfully reclaim the moral high ground in our foreign policy, when a president actually takes action to evolve the American dream rather than dangle it just out of reach, when fish and humans can peacefully co-exist.
Jun 20, 2009 - 7:18 am 43. Michael:@438miler (#23):
“I am currently reading McCullough’s “John Adams”. The juxtaposition of today’s mindless, distracted society versus the laserlike focus of the Revolutionary era is so distinct it is almost depressing.”
The lessons I have learned from my recent readings in early American politics (McCullough, Joseph Ellis, Gordon Wood, a couple on the Constitutional Convention) are quite different from what you mention. I am struck by the (occasional) lack of focus and the clashes of personalities. Everything I have read suggests a messier version of the American Revolution. This has been disappointing in some ways and liberating in some ways. It is a mixed bag to realize that the Founding Fathers were not godsent but were fallible humans who individually delayed and quarreled but collectively had the fortune of creating some quite great things. In my opinion, reading about the early republic makes one more optimistic about modern day politics — the myth of the revolution as an epic, unanimous uprising are pretty quickly shattered, even in McCullough’s books, which aim for a synthetic grandeur. One realizes that the post hoc narrative of the revolution is all, and better understands how ideologues from both right and left pervert the reality of those years.
To be candid, reading about the Founding Fathers shoots me leftward, if anything — the astute reader recognizes that the revolution was not a “constant unfolding of far-resonant action” as the right often characterizes it. Rather, it was an extraordinary mix of personalities and competing philosophies that came together in a time of crisis.
Oh my, am I being postmodern? Egad.
Jun 20, 2009 - 7:46 am 44. Butterfly Mornings and Wildflower Afternoons:Dr. Hanson,
Let me start by saying that I love this piece, but I love every piece you write. I feel that you are the best of the best every time I read your work.
I feel sorry for not using my real name, but I am afraid of them. It is that simple I do not use it, because I do not want viruses sent to my computer. I do not have a higher education and I can tell most of you who write here do, but I feel that I can help in my mediocre way, by simply saying what I feel, and I always write exactly what I feel. I do not wish for the elites to call me names and make fun of me, because it hurts.
I feel you are doing a great service to our country and you are in a position to do it. I have turned off the news and only read a few web sites and I stick to pajamas media like glue lately. I have sent out other works of yours and others who work here on my email list. I feel it is something that my family and friends would want to read than I send it out to them. I know many of them must feel like I feel, they must feel that the media has turned into something evil, and so I send them things that may give them hope for their country.
Pajamas media gives me (a mediocre woman without a higher education) something real that I can identify with and feel like I am not alone, my husband, my friends, and family; we are not alone in our views, there are others. Other people feel as we feel, and there are writers and media that are not the same idiots on our televisions.
I have an old Aunt and Uncle who voted for Obama, and their reason stunned me, because they are not dumb, one is educated, and their reason was the black children need to have a black president, and he will do. My Aunt told me she would see a black man be president before she dies and that is why she did it. They are sorry now, but why did they do this to our country? My Aunt I love, my Uncle I love, why did they do this to our country that we love.
It is Saturday and I am going to go play now, and try not to worry about North Korea or Iran, but it is hard to do. On the days I read you, I have my hope.
Jun 20, 2009 - 8:29 am 45. Bohemond:“…when fish and humans can peacefully co-exist.”
No comment necessary.
Jun 20, 2009 - 8:34 am 46. Self-hating Boomer:The big name media hasn’t been concerned with getting facts right for a decade or more. Why should the POTUS’ speechwriters care? Factual accuracy is a 20th century white male thing. It’s for uncool neocon clingers. It shows a lack of imagination. And integrity. And all that other unhip white dude shiite.
Jun 20, 2009 - 8:36 am 47. fred:When I was a university student during my undergrad years (1978-1982)at the University of New Hampshire, for my last two years in the house I shared with three other guys one of them was an Iranian Shia from Tehran. He was a devout follower of Khomeini. Through him I got some exposure to a group of other Iranians he did not agree with: Communists and various socialists who had fled Iran because, after they had helped in the revolution, the Ayatollah had turned on them and began killing them and exiling the rest.
The Iranian Left knew which end was up, which is a lot more than I can say for the European or American Left.
I am quite familiar with their reading of history, so I know that at least some of their historical knowledge comes from Howard Zinn’s themes. ‘Nuff said.
I have a hard time, Mr. Hanson, understanding our November elections in any other terms except as a coup by a Usurper. If we can get him off the stage less than four years hence, it is hoped that both Europeans and many Americans who voted for this man will have learned a lesson from it.
What happens if after he leaves office we finally have access to his records and find out that he was not Constitutionally qualified to stand for the office he garnered? What a holy mess that will ensue. But a mess that we’ll have to clean up and just may impart another lesson on our historically-challenged Generations X and Y.
Jun 20, 2009 - 8:44 am 48. Self-hating Boomer:Not that I blame the kids, actually. It is not their fault that they were herded and indoctrinated by an ingenious plan by the followers of Antonio Gramsci.
There’s a subtle but essential prior step that’s required before you can do this. In Japan, there’s a business concept called “nemawashi”. It literally means “root pruning”. The concept is that before you transplant a tree, you have to prune the roots.
The essential first step before you hijack a rational society is that you first have to disabuse them of their logic and skepticism. This is the mission of postmodernism. Before you can redefine truth, you have to first deny it. Before you can spread a “big lie”, you have to knock down the culture’s defenses with the notion of relative truth.
Once nothing’s true, anything’s possible. Then we have a topsy-turvy world where science is done by consensus rather than logic and empiricism, and it gets even squishier as you get to other subjects. Once you’ve created those conditions, big lies can take root quite easily.
Where there are no facts except by “consensus”, anything is possible. This is the meaning of “yes we can”.
Jun 20, 2009 - 8:51 am 49. GB:What has become increasingly clear from the trolls is that they are clearly out of their league (theirs is the basement) when it comes to responding to VDH.
They can’t argue with him point by point, either because they’re too lazy or too uneducated to do so, so the readers here have to put up with their emotional flatulence in the form of immature, “rah, rah” posts for Obama, or childish attacks on the writer.
Dr. Hanson, I used to love reading the section of you site called “The Angry Reader.” You could take down the attacks so beautifully point by point with facts. The problem here is that it’s rare to get a thoughtful, point-based challenge from the trolls.
It’s time to stop feeding them. Their posts glare “garbage” in the midst of all the others.
Jun 20, 2009 - 8:51 am 50. RandyChandler:It appears Obamacrat sheesh has resorted to snorting Kool-Ade in powder form. An Obama overdose is a terrible thing to see.
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:07 am 51. ehunter:Meanwhile at Annapolis Naval Academy
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:07 am 52. tomllewis - What Do these First Six Months Mean? by Victor Davis Hanson:heavy preference is be given to black and latino plebes…’D’ and “C’ students are automatically gaining entrance on the basis of race Thus an officer corps of incomptents
is being created. A gutting out of our militarys efficiency in the name of the usual
Multicultural mantras of “tolerance” and “equality” is being effected. I am sure our nations enemies will show their appreciation for this on the battlefields of the future.
[...] Where Are We Going? [...]
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:09 am 53. Michael:Dr. Hanson,
I am a great admirer of your articles and their lucidity. The present one is another fine specimen.
More precisely, I’m a EUROPEAN — a German –admirer of your work. As such, your more or less habitual putting down of Europeans generally irks and irritates me.
I share most of your criticisms of political Europe, and I have no doubt that the unpleasant personal episodes with Europeans which you regularly relate and which serve to underpin your political criticisms are authentic experiences. Yes, there indeed is a lot of visceral anti-Americanism in large segments of the European population (stronger among the Western Europeans though than among the Easterners, it is my impression).
However, I still find it unfair to tar all Europeans with the same brush. Please note that there also still is a considerable segment of the population which is not anti-American — despite the decades-long brainwashing efforts of the liberal European media establishment –, and there even is a minority, perhaps a growing minority thanks to the internet, which is expressly and overtly pro-American (in the sense of appreciating and supporting what America has historically stood for and achieved). We may largely fly under the radar of the official media, but we are there and stirring.
By the way, not infrequently the MSM try to stigmatize us as right-wing extremists or the like when we stir to much.
I understand the hurt that many Americans continue to feel on account of the European reaction to the Iraq intervention. That was the occasion of for a great rift to surface, a rift which had been decades in the making. Shameful for (Western) Europe.
But please, as the perspicacious and superbly lucid analyst that you are, do not unnecessarily deepen or widen that rift among your American readers by presenting an overly non-nuanced picture of “the Europeans.”
However, the same could be said — surprise, surprise — about many Americans: basically the Left in your country, including your present government.
However, I still find it unfair to tar all Europeans with the same brush. There are
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:22 am 54. Michael:My comment #53 should be read to end with “the Europeans.” The additional three lines which appear are due to my editorial negligence. Apologies.
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:25 am 55. Delia:Gibbs is 0bama’s perfect mouth-piece and he even has the annoying pauses and “errr, uhhh, uhmmms’ down pat.
For Gibblets to take the word of ’speech writers’ over a HISTORIAN’s is pretty telling. Who needs to send in the clowns when they’re already heeeeeeeeerrrrrrreeeeeeeee.
WHACK!
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:38 am 56. M. D. Allen:God bless the author of #44, who is obviously far from “mediocre” and who seems to me to represent the goodness and decency of the USA far better than many who do have a “higher education.”
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:40 am 57. Delia:P.S. Prof. Hanson, do you ever get a chance to read the posts that don’t make it past moderation? I can’t even imagine the gnarly emails you must receive.
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:42 am 58. Self-hating Boomer:GB, I came to that conclusion a long time ago. Occasionally, when something extraordinarily stupid is said, a response my be in order, but for the ordinary banal gibberish that constitutes 90% of the troll dookey, it’s pointless to respond.
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:46 am 59. tanstaafl:It would seem that inside the mind of the narcissist in chief, history is what he says it is and how he wants to frame it as a function of personal slant & ideology.
This would be true, psychologically, if ALL (really) begins with you and nothing prior to you (”hey, I wasn’t born then”, “hey, I was just a kid when…”) has much relevance.
I doubt Obama is much fazed or embarrassed when discrepancies, even outright errors, are brought to his attention. Not to mention Gibbs (”I haven’t seen that” “I’m not familiar with that”) who yesterday stumbled around trying to name countries who have single payer/socialized medicine.
Surreal is the only word that comes to mind.
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:46 am 60. MiamaMan:55. Delia:
Delia! Dale (go for it), HITITWITHAWHIP girl.
Jun 20, 2009 - 10:24 am 61. Delia:Also that wacko Gibbs, ha, ha.
56. M. D. Allen:
“God bless the author of #44″
Thank you for pointing that post out and I agree, God bless her! I don’t know where she comes off thinking she’s not ‘educated enough’ sounding. Even Prof. Hanson makes a typo now and again and I’m the typo QUEEEEEEEEEN.
-Meh, I got to dab my tear and get back to making pizza fixings for tomorrows Father’s Day. I’m making homemade pizza and my husband says mine rivals ‘Chicago pizza’ but, it takes me two days of preparation… I like coming to PJM to post in between doing things but I have to wash my hands a lot so I don’t cross-contaminate my keyboard [nevermind that there are probably more crumbs in that thing than in my toaster].
Jun 20, 2009 - 10:30 am 62. Gloria:Mike, #3, is only partially right when he gives this explanation for Obama’s ignorance of history: “(1) President Obama’s view of history is, in many ways, what he probably learned in college history courses taught by Marxists whose primary goal was not the imparting of knowledge, but indoctrination.”
I suggest Obama didn’t get his history from courses. He got it from doing the reading his East German Communist handler gave him. I have a Ph.D and I discovered in the 1970s and 1980s that every time I went to a conference, either as a graduate student or as an academic, I always seemed to run into some person who tried to recruit me into the Communist party. I quickly realized after the first attempt that I was a target because I was the first person in my extended family to graduate from high school, and of course the first person to ever attend college. Given my experience regarding Communist attempts to recruit working class academics like myself, I am quite sure that Obama would have been actively sought after.
Jun 20, 2009 - 10:53 am 63. Moogie:Thank you for another excellent article, Dr. Hanson. I rely on you to keep the historical facts straight and to repair the damage done when those facts are presented through the liberal filter of disconnection with reality.
#36 Broadsword: You have quoted one of my favorite literature masterpieces, and have echoed my own sentiments. I have often compared Obama to Sauron. Indeed: he judges all hearts according to his own desire for power. Gibbs, amongst others, are simply the “mouth of Sauron.”
Additionally, it is the left’s disconnect with reality that makes their lies and distortions legitimate (to them). They are the successful realization of decades of brainwashing and indoctrination. Truth, reality, morality, and facts are all relative and subjective. With that pattern of thought in place, anything and everything is true when necessary, and false when not necessary. They mold their own reality as they go along.
#48 Self Hating Boomer: There was a terrific program on TV last night – Penn and Teller did a scathing and hilarious satirical expose about “sensitivity training.” They describe exactly what you have presented – destroy logic and the truth to such an extent that the recipient is rendered vulnerable to whatever new “logic” and “truth” one wants to interject. The History of Political Correctness is a terrific documentary that explains how all of this insanity was started.
Our revered leader is a textbook example of the fruition of this movement.
Jun 20, 2009 - 10:59 am 64. homero:to comment 42. sheesh
that is very funny. incorrect, stupid and un-informed. but then you get what you deserve.
of course health care is more important then flag burning.. the rich aren’t the only ones benefiting from influence.(is Obama rich ? and from where did his wealth come ? when you can truthfully answer those questions you will have learned a lot) …and there has been no moral high ground reclaimed in the last 6 month but a lot lost. I am not an American and I do not live in the USA. but I can see that you all have an egomanical president who will cheerfully take you’re last vestiges of freedom away from you.
critical thinking is the only thing that will allow a person to separate the fact from the fiction. (comment 42 you are not a critical thinker)
more then 50% of the voters chose not to do any thinking critical or otherwise. they voted to punish the people who built the USA for various reason. (not many of the reasons were sound) unfortunately one of those reasons is plain malice, another is thinking they will get something for nothing (usually the most expensive option)…a large block voted for purely racist reasons.
good luck with that.
Jun 20, 2009 - 11:02 am 65. Dean Kennedy:Dr. Hanson,
I always find your observations worth reading, even when I may disagree with some minor point. Your erudition allows the me the conceit of reflected wisdom when I find myself in agreement. However, I worry that too many people look at historical examples and see determinism rather then instruction. The example of past declines of great nations should tell us that we are in trouble but the difference between the 1930’s responce to the New Deal and the growing signs of current rejection to the Obama deal, should not be ignored. After six months, the Obama agenda shows signs of collapsing from its own incompetency and misunderstanding of the American people. Obama’s entourage may think him the new FDR but he seems more likely to end as the Democratic “Herbert Hoover”, reviled for his enablity to revive the economy and for diminishing our stature in the world.
Jun 20, 2009 - 11:19 am 66. Moogie:#64 Homero: “the rich aren’t the only ones benefiting from influence.(is Obama rich ? and from where did his wealth come ? when you can truthfully answer those questions you will have learned a lot) …”
Excellent point! Funny how liberals whine about the selfishness of the wealthy when they themselves are so very coveting and envious. Isn’t it the same thing? Wanting other people’s money that you haven’t earned is greed in its most vile form. But as I said, hypocrisy is the norm in the world of the liberal since they create their own reality.
Secondly, funny how they constantly talk about the wealthy as though our politicians are the middle income working class like us! Haha. I wish MY tax statement bragged of a $3m income like Obama’s.
Jun 20, 2009 - 11:40 am 67. R Wilhelm:Hello All –
Somebody help me out here. Everyone keeps calling Obama a Marxist, yet all his moves so far indicate fascism, i.e. the melding of corporate and political power. Where am I going wrong here?
Jun 20, 2009 - 12:50 pm 68. sheesh:66. Moogie: . .. ” . . . hypocrisy is the norm in the world of the liberal since they create their own reality.”
“Fox News created an alternate reality.” – Charles Krauthammer
Oopsie! you guys gotta pay more attention.
Jun 20, 2009 - 12:53 pm 69. Delia:66. Moogie:
“I wish MY tax statement bragged of a $3m income like Obama’s.”
Moogster, make that a ‘double ha!’ evennnnnnn! If I were that wealthy, I probably wouldn’t even understand what everyone is complaining about because I’d be living in my own little thought bubble of $upremacy.
60. MiamaMan,
Now, you behave yourself or Delia is gonna give you a spankin’.
Jun 20, 2009 - 12:56 pm 70. Dinocrat » Blog Archive » A busy and very strange six months:[...] VDH sums up the roller coaster ride that America has been on for the past six months: in the Middle East, in the case of Israel, with Turkey, on the recent Iranian upheaval, and during the South America visit, Obama is clearly to the left of Europe. He sees himself more as multicultural prophet born out of the Third World, foe of colonialism, angry at past imperialism, skeptical of capitalism, eager to showcase his non-traditional ancestry and tripartite nomenclature. By coming from the West, but separating himself from the history of his own country, Obama has become a citizen of the world, who polls far higher, as intended, in the Middle East, than does his own country… [...]
Jun 20, 2009 - 1:00 pm 71. myth buster:51. So what? Annapolis has always accepted a lot of legacy students, too, regardless of whether or not they should be there. However, unlike Harvard, influence can’t keep you at Annapolis, and having a chip on your shoulder makes you a target of the upperclassmen, who spend the entire summer and the better part of your first year trying to make you quit. Someone who isn’t qualified or doesn’t have the will to endure won’t graduate. BTW, the entire fleet hates the Naval Academy anyway because they’re snobs. Truth be told, the ones who get turned down unjustly are the better for it. They’ll join ROTC, wind up with the same commission, and avoid the trap of becoming an arrogant Academy graduate.
Jun 20, 2009 - 1:21 pm 72. misanthropicus:Re #42/sheesh: … When the moon is in the seventh house, and progess is averywhere’round, this is the age of Aquarius…
… ops sorry, the age of Soetoro, Soetero:[...] when we can rightfully reclaim the moral high ground in our foreign policy, when a president actually takes action to evolve the American dream rather than [...]”
Shishkebob, still, there is bit of truth in your rant: Soetoro might be a good handler of the Iranian crisis – but this only because a false president like him can understand the actions of a false president like Ahmadinejad.
Jun 20, 2009 - 1:44 pm 73. sheesh:64. homero:
Your critical thinking consists of “No it’s not!”
You say “There has been no moral high ground reclaimed in the last 6 month but a lot lost.” Well, this contradicts the common sentiment around this board that too many people outside the US believe in Obama and support his policies. You folks need to get your stories straight.
And you save the best for last . . . defining the motives of everyone who voted for Obama – revenge, greed and racism. Allow me to fill in the blanks as to why people voted for McCain and Palin – because they’re religious extremists, because they want to take away individual freedom, privacy and choice, because they want to invade sovereign countries without cause, because they want to give more tax breaks to the rich and ignore the middle class.
Where are you in there? Oh, that’s right, you don’t live here. Or work here. Or pay taxes here. Or contribute to communities here. But hey, bravo! Tell all of your friends that they too can qualify to join the vast right wing lunacy and wallow in quasi-Christian victimhood . . . tell me, where do yo stand on the War on Christmas?
Jun 20, 2009 - 1:48 pm 74. john hargrove:PJM and VDH are bright lights of wisdom and clarity in a very dim world
Jun 20, 2009 - 1:51 pm 75. Delia:I guess the moderators are preppin’ for Father’s Day too! Happy Father’s Day, Mods. Me love you longgggg time. Thank you for letting in most of my comments [even the silly ones]. *SMOOOOOOCH*!
-And, Happy Father’s Day to all the Fathers who actually care for their children and their welfare and hopes and dreams.
To, Prof. Hanson: Keep on doing what you’re doing because I think your reality checks are a healthy dose of ‘now & then in the here and now’ without sugar coated veneers and over explanations. You’ll probably be watched more closely now that you’re under the ‘radar’, but, as you’ve alluded to before, you suspected/expected as much. You are a true patriot in every sense of the word. God bless and protect you.
Jun 20, 2009 - 1:54 pm 76. FCCS(SW/AW) RJW:42. sheesh:
What do these six months mean? Your time is up. Your days are over. America is entering a new age of elevated potential – when health care legislation is more important than flag burning amendments, when the rich aren’t the only ones who benefit from influence, when we can rightfully reclaim the moral high ground in our foreign policy, when a president actually takes action to evolve the American dream rather than dangle it just out of reach, when fish and humans can peacefully co-exist.
Look, more babbling.
Sheesh, you have nothing there except the same old tropes, plus one new, truly odd one. Flag-burning is so 20 years ago. I haven’t seen much except the occasional offering that goes nowhere. Health care legislation is a boondoggle – or have you looked into the costs – $1 Trillion for a net 17 Million people; it’s cheaper to directly cut a check to those people to buy private health insurance.
Are you THAT naive to think the Rich don;t have influence in the Obama administration? Remember his oft repeated promise to not hire former lobbyists in his administration? He waived that rule THE NEXT DAY.
Moral high ground in foreign policy. Are you paying attention to his tacit support (by not supporting the dissidents) for the current, corrupt regime in Iran?
What, exactly do you mean by “evolve” the American dream? To what?
Humans and fish peacefully coexisting? Huh? I didn’t know we were in a state of hostilities with the Pisceans.
Jun 20, 2009 - 1:57 pm 77. Marc Malone:VDH – It has been only FIVE months, not six.
#43 Michael – I agree with you about the Founding Fathers. There was great enmity between Hamilton and Jefferson, if I remember correctly. Washington allowed himself to become President, because only he could hold the country together. He interceded at the Constitutional Convention. He locked them in a room until they sorted it all out. He was a big, powerful, charismatic man. He simply grabbed all the churls by the scruff. However, it doesn’t make me move left.
#53 Michael – VDH is not hating on Europeans. He is merely spending much time on countering the nonsense spewed by so many about the Eurotopia. His is the balancing view, because naught else is heard in America.
#42 sheesh – Your posts are becoming more deranged. This was the worst by far! It seems the more your views are rejected, the more you flail here.
Healthcare legislation is NOT more important than flag-burning amendments. They are both important discussions to be had. The first shouldn’t happen, because it is not the government’s money. The government should stay out of it. The second is a matter of freedom of speech issue. Where do we draw the line? Isn’t flag-burning… um, inflammatory?
When the poor get influence, it means they’re being pandered to, and USED.
Evolve the American Dream? The dream doesn’t change. You’re thinking of the means to attain it. Let’s not use hard work, and sacrifice, and grit. No, let’s guarantee it. The government will just give you everything, so you need not get off the couch. Equal outcomes means the lowest common denominator. All equally poor, except those in power.
Reclaim the moral high-ground? Like not speaking up for democracy in Iran? Like lying on a constant basis? Getting the facts all wrong in order to pander to Muslims? Abandoning our ally Israel?
When fish and humans can peacefully co-exist? WTF? OMG! Lashings at dawn for you. Go ask your Daddy to whip your butt for that one! Seriously. You just need an ass-whuppin’. If I had ever said anything that stupid, I’d commit myself, or commit seppuku to atone. I could never live with myself.
Jun 20, 2009 - 2:00 pm 78. RandyChandler:Sheesh, whatever they pay you to spread your goop on this board, they’re not getting a bit of bang for their buck. [If you're not getting paid for posting here, then you must be masochistic. Talk about victimhood.]
Maybe you can get on with Acorn as a census-taker. They will appreciate your ignorance there. Here, it just makes you look like a very dim bulb. Did your poodle eat your homework or did you run out of toilet paper?
Jun 20, 2009 - 2:17 pm 79. Oscar the Grump:sheesh
Jun 20, 2009 - 2:30 pm 80. sheesh:Coexist with fish? I swear the first fish I see walking down the street I’ll kill maybe even eat him. If you try to coexist with fish, the whole world will be water. America, please help keep fish where they belong, help fight this new insanity! Do you really want a fish as your neighbor? The next thing they’ll do is make their own schools and have their young be like themselves. They’ll reproduce by the millions and finally tip the scales!
77 Malvo . . . Post 42 was my most deranged? You haven’t been paying attention. That was pretty much straight down the middle. What was deranged about it?
Yoou ant deraneged? Here you go . . . “Health care legislationie NOT more important than flag burning. ” THAT is deranged.
As for fish and humans . . . “WTF? OMG! . . . If I had ever said anything that stupid, I’d commit myself, or commit seppuku to atone.”
Two things. First, you sound like a 13-year-old girl.
Second . . . the method to my madness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Jcrk6jGfo
Oopsie!
How can you live with yourself?
Jun 20, 2009 - 2:33 pm 81. Jeff:er…
” We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies. 11
We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. America’s belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty.” http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres67.html
Maybe someone should read W’s Second Inaugural Address of January 20, 2005 It was just 4 years ago and all. but you know, he’s ChimpyBushHitler so…but you know..whatev…
Jun 20, 2009 - 2:38 pm 82. Delia:People who have legit opinions other than our own deserve kudos for providing coherent arguments but, that being typed, that is far and few between. Most of the drivel responses ‘against’ many blogs here on PJM are rife with ‘emotion’ and little ’substance’. I *DO* think it’s important to provide a rebuttal to legit posts that are ‘on-topic’ because I think that’s imperative to a dialogue for the topic at hand.
Maybe we should give warm fuzzies to the ‘trolls’ rather than rail against them because it’s like bashing our heads against a wall. I always come away feeling more stupid for even engaging in verbal fisticuffs with certain trolls rather than just telling them ‘have a nice day’ rather than qualifying their stupid idiocy.
I am not any smarter than you…
Than you are smarter than me.
Don’t let your friend drink and post or…drive.
Jun 20, 2009 - 2:46 pm 83. Bridget:#20
“These and other things we have witnessed from the Iranian brand of Islam lead me to believe that when people possess such a polar opposite ideology to our Western moral compass it will be impossible for a meeting of minds to ever happen.”
I’ve come to the same conclusion – in order to start a dialogue with someone or some entity (nation-state in this case), one must first have agreement on some basic ideas. I look at it like the base of a pyramid or the axioms used to build theorems in science/math. One of the first things that needs to be agreed upon is that life has value. However, that is not true for the more extreme movements or countries or more to the point their leaders. They are willing to sacrifice a lot more life and do not value it as we do – witness their willingness to say they want whole races to be eliminated – read the Koran and see that it says all apostates must be eliminated/killed – see how the leader of North Korea is willing to allow his people to starve in order to stay in power. The logical conclusion to this is one or the other side will end up being destroyed – in this case culturally and/or a large percentage of their population.
What history teaches us is that we may be able to make changes to our environment and possibly learn a lot more about how we work and our environment works, however, the human emotions which at times dictate our behavior haven’t changed much over the years and can lead us to destruction if we don’t understand our history and use it to moderate our actions/behaviors.
Dr Hanson – as usual a succinct, clear post which is highly educational. Thanks so much for your efforts – by sharing you are enlightening many who might not have the opportunity to attend your classes.
Jun 20, 2009 - 2:51 pm 84. Oscar the Grump:The irony of the second class citizen.
Jun 20, 2009 - 2:58 pm 85. Oscar the Grump:Democrats/Liberals depend on a second class. As America started to prosper and its citizens were attaining the America dream, the ranks of second class citizens shrank and dramatically so. To keep second class of citizens, Liberals had to do things that would retain an economical second class of citizens. The answer came two fold. First, keep a large immigrant population which is economically deprived. Second, destroy the school system which creates a subclass of undereducated. The beauty of this is that you could couple the two things and really insure that position. How to keep a large immigrant population? Answer, keep the borders open and porous. How to destroy the school system? Keep introducing new and ‘dynamic’ ways to teach. Forget the basics. Dumb down education.
When I taught science, a new concept was introduced. It was integrated science. This subject is taught from middle school to high school. It was taught out of a dumbed down text with little actual subject matter and lots of group activities. I preferred to teach from a ten year old text that really taught the basics of science. Those that I taught with this text had a better grasp of science and were better educated. I had still another older text book or about twenty years old. It was so packed with subject matter that my students were totally unable to handle it. Instead we used that older text to reference specific material. The irony was that twenty years earlier this was the basic text. The students who studied out of it must have been really prepared for the world. In about a twentyfive year period we have managed to change our educational system from a really good one to absolute crap.
Jun 20, 2009 - 3:09 pm 86. Ms. Attitude:Doctor Hanson, Did Gibbs ever acknowledge the inaccuracies in Obama’s speeches?
Jun 20, 2009 - 3:24 pm 87. 888:GW Bush is vindicated. His pro-democracy policy in the Middle East proves that it is infectious, and that is why Mr. Obama has not been forceful in demanding the Iranian leadership to allow the protestors to demonstrate. If Reagan, Bush I, or Bush II was President today, any of them would be capitalizing on this incredible turn of events in the Middle East and would be pushing the Iranian leadership to work towards change for democracy, freedom and human rights. Obama is a coward who easily goes around apologizing for America, including in Cairo, then he sits back during these ground-breaking protests and does nothing to push American values like freedom, justice and democracy.
Obama will look like an idiot if he now encourages the pro-democracy movement in Iran because it will show that he was wrong after all, and that what Bush said, which was that EVERYONE longs for democracy, justice and freedom, is a true and accurate statement and plea. It proves once and for all that going into Iraq was the right move, and that Iranians want the same freedom and democracy that Iraqis now enjoy, albeit still in its infancy — still, Iraq is a democracy as opposed to Iran, which is an authoritarian, theocratic dictatorship.
Obama was wrong once again, and the conservatives were right.
Jun 20, 2009 - 3:26 pm 88. Jerry Robertson:Dr Hansen. I appreciate your daily dose of reality.
So much better than the drivel that pours from the lips of those in the White House.
In a quote from a very good movie;
Jun 20, 2009 - 3:27 pm 89. homero:“The time for honoring himself, will soon be at an end.”
America is waking up.
relax sheesh
I don’t intend to invade your utopia. and it was unkind to call your position idiotic even if that is how I feel.
64. homero:
Your critical thinking consists of “No it’s not!”
ACYUALLY I GAVE ARGUMENTS TO BACK MY WORDS …YOU GAVE “FEELINGS AND SENTIMENT” WHICH REALLY ARE NOT ARGUMENTS
You say “There has been no moral high ground reclaimed in the last 6 month but a lot lost.” Well, this contradicts the common sentiment around this board that too many people outside the US believe in Obama and support his policies. You folks need to get your stories straight.
BY BELIEVE IN HIM(OBAMA) WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY MEAN ? YES i AM WELL AWARE THAT MANY OUTSIDE OF THE USA WOULD VOTE FOR HIM.
AS FOR MACAIN/PALIN ..I THINK THEY LOST MORE VOTES THEN THEY GAIN FROM THE RELIGION SIDE OF THINGS.
PERSONALLY I FIND RELIGION TO BE A HUMAN DEFECT
BUT WHERE YOU GET THAT MACAIN IS A RELIGIOUS EXTREMIST AND ALTHOUGH PALIN HAS STRONG PERSONAL BELIEFS I NEVER HEARD HER PUSH TEHEM ON ANYONE ELSE.
AND WHERE YOU GET THAT THEY WANT TO TAKE FREEDOM FROM ANYONE ..WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE OF THIS. SETTLE DOWN AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE WRITING …THEY ARE EMOTIONS NOT ANY REALITY (I DON’T THINK YOU WILL CHANGE YOUR MIND ON ANYTHING BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT GET PAST THE EMOTION)
OBAMA HAS ALREADY DEMINISSED THE FREEDOM OF THE CITIZENS OF THE USA …AND IT WILL GET WORSE …I WILL WATCH FROM THE SIDELINES.
And you save the best for last . . . defining the motives of everyone who voted for Obama – revenge, greed and racism. Allow me to fill in the blanks as to why people voted for McCain and Palin – because they’re religious extremists, because they want to take away individual freedom, privacy and choice, because they want to invade sovereign countries without cause, because they want to give more tax breaks to the rich and ignore the middle class.
AS FOR TAXING THE RICH …THIS IS A LAUGHABLE DEBATE NSINCE THE RICH CAN PROTECT THEIR MONEY (OR IN THE CASE OF DEMOCRATS ..SIMPLY NOT PAY THEM) …TAXING CORPORATIONS (THOSE EVIL ENTITIES) IS THE BIGGEST RED HERRING YET
READ THIS TWICE OR 3 TIMES IF YOU NEED TO ..IF THE CORPORATION IS VIABLE/SUCCESSFUL THEN IT HAS SUCCESSFULLY PASTED THE TAXES ON TO THE END USER ..CONSUMER …YOU. SO IN REALITY THOSE HIGH CORPORTATE TAXES ARE PAID BY …YOU
IT JUST BECOMES ANOTHER TAX ON EVERYONE.
Where are you in there? Oh, that’s right, you don’t live here. Or work here. Or pay taxes here. Or contribute to communities here. But hey, bravo! Tell all of your friends that they too can qualify to join the vast right wing lunacy and wallow in quasi-Christian victimhood . . . tell me, where do yo stand on the War on Christmas?
i HAVE WORKED IN THE USA ..BOUGHT PRODUCTS IN THE USA AND PROBABLY EVEN PAID SOME TAX IN THE USA. BUT THAT IS NOT AN ARGUMENT SO I REALLY DON’T KNOW WHY YOU BRING IT UP.
I AM NOT A CONSERVATIVE OR LIBERAL …REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT. AS THERE ARE POSITIONS ON BOTH THOSE SIDES WHICH i DO NOT AGREE WITH. BUT THAT SAID THE LIBERALS/DEMOCRATS SEEM TO BE THE MORE UNFAIR PARTY. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST HAS MEANING …LIBERALS TRY TO FOSTER SURVIVAL OF THE WEAKEST ON THE REST OF SOCIETY ..AND EXPECT OTHERS TO PAY THE WAY.
Jun 20, 2009 - 3:53 pm 90. sheesh:70 Oscar the Grump . . . Listen to you now with your “theme” and your “puns” and such . . . all gettin’ down with the funny and whatnot . . . you go, big fella. Let your freak flag fly.
Jun 20, 2009 - 4:02 pm 91. Self-hating Boomer:This is how the pros coexist with fish:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGSTuH07lYk&feature=related
Jun 20, 2009 - 4:09 pm 92. Please Stop, You're Killing Me *BOING!*:Man, I used to read and really enjoy VDH’s Comments section. I don’t mind the trolls and obvious internet activists posting their screeds. But this section has become overrun with nuts and “wacky” emoticons. Who are these people who need to embellish their opinions with sound effects? (*SMOOOOOOCH!*) This is pure torture. Then a lot of these characters double-down by posting under different names with the same asinine motifs.
Please take hint from VDH’s spare, clean writing style. Can you imagine him typing, “In a recent column I suggested that almost all Obama’s historical references were wrong. Boing! Boing! HONK!” Please, please stop.
Jun 20, 2009 - 4:14 pm 93. seansarto:And they’ve the gall to decry “hate speech” when so many of them have been endowed by the subtle contempts of guile and graft…No greater hate has been expressed then by those who lie to, or steal,..or cheat their fellow man.
Jun 20, 2009 - 4:38 pm 94. Gladius:To all…I have been waiting for America to wake up to this insane adminstration.It seems like I’ve found some kindred spirits.It is very refreshing to read what you guys have to say.One more thing…sheesh, you confirm my theary that most of our social problems in this country would cease to exist if certain people did not reproduce.
Jun 20, 2009 - 4:54 pm 95. seansarto:Correction:
2nd draft…
People who choose to walk with their shoes tied together will find that all too many eager are to clear a path for them.
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:02 pm 96. seansarto:“The Quotable Sean Sarto”
Correction:
3rd draft…
“People who choose to walk with their shoes tied together will find all too many are eager to clear a path for them.”
Try that…
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:05 pm 97. Verinder Syal:I applaud you for your measured tone. I, for one, have concluded that Obama’s policy is more consistent with representing Kenya than the United States.
People keep saying he is intelligent but I don’t see any such signs. Being articulate is not the same as being intelligent. I am reasonably certain that he is in over his head, but he is not smart enough to know that.
The last two years have gone to his head. He has started to believe what people were saying about him; he now fancies himself as someone truly brilliant, suave, and a consummate problem solver. This from a fellow who has never even run a lemonade stand!
I generally worry about charismatic people. People colored their own picture on a blank slate when they decided that he was “the one.” There is no “there” there.
The press is in the tank and have no objectivity. The coastal intelligentsia anointed him; they cannot afford to admit their mistake. But in the people, the citizens, perhaps an awakening is afoot. I see glimpses. They are polite; they have just elected him President. It is too early to repudiate. But his speed of trying to remake America from within, may yet force them to action sooner than they wish.
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:07 pm 98. Will:Do you Obama supporters feel safer now ??
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:30 pm 99. johnmc:It becomes very clear that Obama mind operates like that of a charity organization. Do not take any position lest you endanger some current/future endowment giver.
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:40 pm 100. Snake eater:LOL! I’m looking forward to the Obama Ahmadinejad photo op after their “negotiation”. The campaign commercials are already writing themselves.
Jun 20, 2009 - 5:56 pm 101. sheesh:92. Please Stop, You’re Killing Me *BOING!*:
Funny stuff.
Jun 20, 2009 - 6:03 pm 102. Dan_P from AZ:I check in here quite often.
Jun 20, 2009 - 6:05 pm 103. Charles:I have no trouble telling which comments are by trolls.
That BS flag sticking out of their butthole is a dead giveaway. {:^)
Here is a pdf transcript of Kenyan National Assembly on Nov 5, 2008, the day after Obama was elected. Over and over again there are references
to Obama being a “son of the soil” of Kenya and a Kenyan. On page page 3275 there is this passage:
HOUSE SHOULD ADJOURN TO DISCUSS
Jun 20, 2009 - 7:53 pm 104. Oscar the Grump:ELECTION OF MR. BARRACK OBAMA
Ms. Odhiambo: On a point of order,
Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. It is not on this issue.
I stand on a point of order under Standing
Order No.20 to seek leave for adjournment of
the House to discuss the American presidential
election results.
(Applause)
Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the
President-elect, Mr. Obama, is a son of the soil
of this country. Every other country in this
continent is celebrating the Obama win. It is
only proper and fitting that the country which
he originates from should show the same
excitement, pomp and colour.
#28
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:22 pm 105. Oscar the Grump:A little history lesson for you. Our current economic state wasn’t caused by the Republicans. Jimmy Carter initiated legislation to help minorities with housing. Bill Clinton “enforced” said law. the problem was what he did was totally unregulated. Banks were forced to give subprime loans or lose the ability to use federal programs to fund loans. Groups such as ACORN were allowed to bring banks not into compliance before federal enforcers. ACORN and such was then allowed to solicite said, qualify said loans and finally recieved a commission for having written the loans. The result was three waves of foreclosures. First wave already hit and you saw the results. The second wave another trillion in loans (extended arm loans) are hitting now. And, in six months, the “ninja” loans will hit for another half trillion. Obama was the attorney for ACORN while this was going on. Not only was he complicit in this giant fraud, he defended it and the organiztions behind it. So buddy GFYS.
sheesh
Jun 20, 2009 - 9:27 pm 106. Beth:Don’t get upset. I like you too much to really get mean with you. Keep up your work, it keeps the folks stirred up and that’s more fun. You can’t really have a discussion on a topic if everyone has just one point of view. I might not agree with you but that’s Okay. Hope you like my jokes.
#80 Sheesh -
I’m really surprised you brought up the fish reference. And here I thought that you lefties didn’t appreciate G.W. Bush’s
Jun 20, 2009 - 10:55 pm 107. Realist:contributions to the environment. There’s hope for you yet!
The ridiculous comment by Gibbs that he ‘puts his money on Obama’s speech writers’ does little else but cofirm that he Gibbs is as ignorant of History as the speechwriters and their Teleprompter reader Obambi.
Jun 21, 2009 - 12:01 am 108. Beth:Oh, and I love you, #44! You remind me of my parents, neither of whom went to college. I did, though – to UC Berzerkley. My folks had to wait over 30 years for me to finally shake the cobwebs from my head and understand their good sense and wisdom. And their astute understanding of human behavior and history. I was the dumb one. I thank God that they are still alive. There are many out there like me – I hear from them all the time.
Maybe even Sheesh will have the scales fall from his/her eyes one day. You never know.
Jun 21, 2009 - 12:05 am 109. Jeffrey:VDH:
Nice work please keep doing what you do.
We have the first affirmative action president and first lady. They cannot be faulted for their education or the lack thereof. They are the result the social engineers were hoping for. This is the day of their glory where truth is no longer important and the end justifies the means. They have their messiah. The man who says he won’t do a thing while he is doing it. The man who will throw his own mother and pastor under the bus. The man who has instituted a program of pull politics. A man who employs thugs as his enforcers. A man who will only hire crooks and incompetents to work for him.
Jun 21, 2009 - 2:15 am 110. Confused in Virginia:A man born of nothing, standing up for nothing, learning nothing, earning nothing, giving nothing seeking to take everything from those that have it.
The social engineers (read the left) say they are for the poor yet they do everything in their power to destroy the poor by eliminating the foundation of real wealth.
They teach the young to believe in the state only to allow the state to control them and bleed them dry. They encourage the killing of the helpless and the innocent.
The left is always claiming to be for the middle class yet are doing their evil best to make life harder for the people they claim to serve.
Regulate control, lie all for what?
Just to rob, rape and destroy. Just for kicks really. That’s what we are dealing with. Punks, idiots, thugs, a simple street gang with a punk leader being controlled like a puppet on a string by the highest bidder.
Are we really afraid of him and his thugs?
Are we paralyzed with fear?
I think not.
Watch as they are destroyed. Watch as justice catches up with them all, watch as those hiding in the background are exposed and destroyed.
None will spared none will escape.
Just keep speaking and continue to shine the light in the darkness.
The Judge of the living and the dead is hard at work bringing the fruit of His labors to a righteous end.
Dr. Hansen,
Thank you once again for your wonderful writing. This time I only have two questions:
1) Should someone be allowed to serve as President of the United States if there is a question about his place of birth?
2) Should a person elected to the office of President of the United States, who allegedly has dual citizenship, be required to resign his citizenship from the other country, as that would be a conflict of interest?
I would appreciate an answer from you, although most of the people here are quite capable of responding with facts and not fiction. They also have wonderful perspectives and opinions.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to post and have concersations based on this topic.
Jun 21, 2009 - 3:30 am 111. Jane:VDH,
That piece was an incredibly read. I’m honored to have the opportunity.
Thank you.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:28 am 112. sheesh:98. Will: . . . “Do you Obama supporters feel safer now ??”
Yes, I do.
Jun 21, 2009 - 7:38 am 113. MiamaMan:69. Delia:
[Now, you behave yourself or Delia is gonna give you a spankin’]
I promise to behave…but, where is Meryl?
Meryl, please come to us, and give them Obama supporters one of those American tongue lashings that only you can compose.
Jun 21, 2009 - 7:53 am 114. sheesh:And Meryl, don’t be shy about pinchin off that special little reference you have such a favor for.
Jun 21, 2009 - 8:07 am 115. Instapundit » Blog Archive » VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: What do these first six months mean?…:[...] VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: What do these first six months mean? [...]
Jun 21, 2009 - 9:36 am 116. bolitha:I love you.
Jun 21, 2009 - 10:13 am 117. Jim:If you tell a lie often enough, to enough people, it becomes the truth.
Victor Davis Hanson?
Didn’t he write “The Phantom of the Opera”?
Jun 21, 2009 - 10:16 am 118. Allston:Doctor Hanson, another spot-on analysis.
#43, Sheesh:
“when health care legislation is more important than flag burning amendments”
As a Veteran, I can speak chapter and verse about what my experiences with Socialized Medicine – and that’s what the VA medical arm is – to make your hair stand up. You think this is a good thing, socialized medicine? You have NO CLUE what you’re desperately yearning for; I damned certain DO, and it ain’t pretty.
“when the rich aren’t the only ones who benefit from influence”
Tell that to the PORUS and all of his rich cronies. Oh, did you know there are statistically many more millionaire Democrat politicians than Republican?
“when we can rightfully reclaim the moral high ground in our foreign policy”
Assisting in the demise of our staunch ally, and the only true democracy in the ME, while toadying up to dictators? Going for ice cream or golf, while saying empty platitudes to the citizens of Iran, who are fighting for their freedom as we speak?
“when a president actually takes action to evolve the American dream rather than dangle it just out of reach”
He is destroying everything he places his incompetent hands to, right before our eyes.
“when fish and humans can peacefully co-exist.”
Yah, Kumbaya. Okee Dokee.
Jun 21, 2009 - 10:20 am 119. yyysguy:8. Patricia McNaughton:
The common citizen must fight back as a group. Cancel your newspapers (even local ones promote AP, Reuters, etc. views).
Cancel your cable and stop watching TV period, especially the networks.
Do this at least until the 2010 election is over. Attend TEA PARTIES. Attend your local government meetings and hold them accountable. No longer accept “Federal Matching Funds” – they belong to YOU and your neighbors, not the DC elite.
Fight Liberals, the Media and Government.
Help defeat the most dishonest and corrupt Liberal of all – BHO.
You are not alone.
Jun 21, 2009 - 10:20 am 120. Allston:Crud. “POTUS,” damnit!
Jun 21, 2009 - 10:21 am 121. Dave Surls:“I can assure you that not knowing who this historian is, I’ll put my money on our speechwriters.”
Translation: I haven’t a clue about history, neither does Obama, and neither do his speechwriters.
Jun 21, 2009 - 10:33 am 122. J Hendrick:I find it both shocking and a great joke that Gibbs would take the historical knowledge of a pair of 20 somethings with no historical training over that of an actual historian. While I don’t agree with many of Dr Hanson’s conclusions in his works (Disagreeing with one’s predecessors is part of being a young historian) it’s clear that his understanding of history stands in sharp contrast with the current occupants of the White House. History may lend itself to various interpretations of evidence, but one has to work very, very hard to make the core of absolute truth inside it disappear. It takes a lot of effort, ignorance, or both.
Jun 21, 2009 - 10:51 am 123. Blacque Jacques Shellacque:With any luck, Mr Gibbs’ wife is the one that makes all the financial decisions….
Jun 21, 2009 - 10:54 am 124. Douglas Oswell:To leftists, history is whatever advances the cause.
Jun 21, 2009 - 11:25 am 125. Peg C.:Thank you, Dr. Hanson, for yet another excellent, erudite and educational post. Obama’s speechwriters are young idiots with no knowledge or appreciation of history. Gibbs is a male flibbertygibbet (as my grandma would say) and on a par with Baghdad Bob, as many have noted elsewhere. The fact that they dis you is only a great thing. These people are at best malevolent.
As for Obama’s very obvious weakness and timidity (someone recently – James Taranto? – called this the Titmouse Presidency, I believe), I’m thinking of nuclear blackmail. Who would our enemies be more likely to use it on, George W. Bush or Barack Hussein Obama? Seriously.
God help us.
Jun 21, 2009 - 11:32 am 126. Letalis Maximus, Esq.:Gibbs is such a dipshit of a tool. Our very own Baghdad Bob, as it were.
Jun 21, 2009 - 11:34 am 127. Joe Deegan:The truth can only set the mind free, but it is worth it. It is painful to watch the truth reveal itself through tragedy and disaster.
Jun 21, 2009 - 11:54 am 128. Self-hating Boomer:Let’s keep speaking it at every opportunity even if there is a price to pay personally.
One truth is that there aren’t enough pictures of you smiling. Ronald Reagan smiled, Barry Goldwater didn’t. I know who I think was more effective.
Joe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7CclVneVpw
Jun 21, 2009 - 12:45 pm 129. Old Patriot:Dr. Hanson,
Another excellent article, sir. I commend you for not only posting your thoughts, but by providing background information that helps ME understand better what’s going on in our nation.
You’re not the first historian to help me discover truth. I attended classes at the University of Florida/Canal Zone, taught by Dr. Richard Chardkoff. One of the things his classes taught me was that a lot of what I’d learned elsewhere wasn’t necessarily “wrong”, but decidedly biased by either the presenter or the author of whatever book(s) we’d been assigned to read. One result of that was that I researched a little more in depth the history of our independence movement. There indeed was a great deal of vituperation and verbal warfare, both during the Continental Congress over the Declaration of Independence, and during the Constitutional convention in Philadelphia, 1787-89.
“President” Obama wants to remake this nation. He also wants to rewrite the Constitution. We the people need to ensure those attempts fail, because “President” Obama doesn’t have the intrinsic understanding of what our nation actually IS, nor how we got to the point where we are.
I served in the military under six presidents, from 1964 until I retired in 1991. It was difficult to do so under several presidents, and easier under others. The one thing that made survival easier was a true understanding of the powers AND restrictions under which a president serves. Our current “president” doesn’t understand or accept that his powers are limited, or that the government is not sworn to support him, but the Constitution. His arrogant over-reaching is already causing problems in Congress, and will probably be his downfall. The rebuilding of this nation following his downfall will be painful and expensive. I hope those who supported his election and currently support his actions learn something from the pain that will be inflicted upon them equally with those who do NOT support him.
Michael A. Weatherford
Jun 21, 2009 - 12:46 pm 130. CraigS:MSgt, USAF, Retired
Colorado Springs, CO
I am still standing on the side lines, like most American’s in fear of this man. I am awaiting the revelation of the birth certificate that Dear Leader has spent over 1 million dollars in lawyer’s fees to hide. Black Helicopter stuff? When asked, John McCain handed his out at a press conference. So just rim shot crazy talk? Don’t know, but follow the money works most of the time. Don’t see why it does not in this case. The real question is, what if, its true and he is not a natural born US citizen? It would take a civil war to get him out of the office and that is just what I am afraid of. The 3 AM knock at the door is no longer a milk man in the USA. I know, I know I will get flamed for this but it nags at me, Why hide it?
Jun 21, 2009 - 1:34 pm 131. Michael:@#129, “I served in the military under six presidents, from 1964 until I retired in 1991. It was difficult to do so under several presidents, and easier under others. The one thing that made survival easier was a true understanding of the powers AND restrictions under which a president serves. Our current “president” doesn’t understand or accept that his powers are limited, or that the government is not sworn to support him, but the Constitution. His arrogant over-reaching is already causing problems in Congress, and will probably be his downfall. The rebuilding of this nation following his downfall will be painful and expensive. I hope those who supported his election and currently support his actions learn something from the pain that will be inflicted upon them equally with those who do NOT support him.”
I have to assume this was written sometime between 2001 and 2009 and just got posted up today mistakenly. If not, I just got a pretty good guffaw.
Jun 21, 2009 - 2:03 pm 132. Paul M Hupf:It has been my privilege since I began to avail myself of the Internet blogs (about a year ago) to read the writings of Dr. Hanson published in Pajamas Media. I believe them to be perceptive, cogent commentaries upon our times, stated by a man whose educational and personal background more than qualifies him for his written expressions. They are a joy to read. I am indebted to him for his comments and I hope that my view is shared by many others. I also very much hope that he will continue to express himself as he has been doing.
Jun 21, 2009 - 2:20 pm 133. Fred2:Most of the lefty web sites I see are supporting the Iranian protesters. The Huffington Post has been very good.
The main difference is that they support Obama’s verbal diffidence.
A couple of righty blogs have come out in support of Ahmadinejad. Mainly Daniel Pipes. In a backward way, because he’s such a buffoon.
Jun 21, 2009 - 2:30 pm 134. FREE:To quote JFK:
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge–and more.
I think The big “0″ didn’t read this in his history books either
Jun 21, 2009 - 3:30 pm 135. HANSON: What Do these First Six Months Mean?:[...] A few interesting quotes: What Do these First Six Months Mean? [...]
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:47 pm 136. Ms. Attitude:On the wall in one of the entry points where I work! Thank you for bringing it to everyones attention.
Jun 21, 2009 - 5:52 pm 137. Al Reasin:Dr. Hanson, your experience in academia, tempered by your years in the real world, has made you a brutally honest but good and honorable man; regardless of what the ignorant say. This nation needs more citizens like you. I salute you!
Jun 21, 2009 - 6:15 pm 138. David W. Lincoln:Dr. Hanson, I think the record shows that I posted a column which appeared in the February 20, 2009 National Post, by Ross McKitrick. Would that more people have read it, rather than
run down capitalism. For, I lean towards the theory expressed in “Jews, God & History” by Max Dimont that Jews developed capitalism. For the best definition shows capitalism is generally regarded as a specific application of wealth to create, “surplus wealth”, which is used in the creation of further wealth along certain established principles. Such capitalism depends upon the existence of a free wage-earning class, mobility of labour and capital, free markets, international law,
sanctity of contracts, availability of credit,
negotiable securities, and liquid wealth.
Plus, there is the aspect which cannot have a blind eye cast towards it: rules mean what people want them to mean, rather that what the
Jun 21, 2009 - 7:58 pm 139. Oscar the Grump:conventional definition is. There are companies, and products, which are based, and produced, outside of the United States; yet they are part of the United States economy. As long as state governments and local governments think they can get away with shutting out “foreigners and their products”,
then why in heaven’s high name would people outside the US, buy American?
At least, this comment will be posted, which, I suppose, is better than nothing.
Three years, six more months to go.
Jun 21, 2009 - 8:15 pm 140. SukieTawdry:First of all, I don’t believe that Robert Gibbs doesn’t know who Victor Davis Hanson is (just like I didn’t believe that his boss didn’t know anything about the tea parties and just like I didn’t believe that no one in the administration knew about those bonuses and just like I didn’t believe…well, you get the picture).
Second, what do these first six months mean? They mean we’re blued, screwed and tattooed. That’s what they mean.
Jun 21, 2009 - 9:03 pm 141. wes george:Another ramble of penetrating insights by VDH! Always a great read.
The USA can not survive as the world economic leader the deficits that Obama wants to structurally build into our nation’s future.
Obama may be playing realpolitiks with the Iranian revolution of 2009, but he’s lost in a la-la land of long discredited economic theory from the 1930’s. His party and his advisors are so ignorant of history that they are blindly goose stepping us down the same road Argentina only just in the last decade proved, once again, is the well-trodden road to ruin.
Therefore, it is of the utmost national importance for the Republicans to regain control of Congress in 2010 and then go on to render Obamania a one-term Carter-like malaise upon the nation, leaving it to the historians to ponder just who really is the worst American President since the American revolution. We stand at one of those great cusps in history upon which the fate of our grand-children’s children hang…
It will be an uphill battle to unseat an incumbent emperor-God, especially with the acolyte MSM pulling out all the stops for him. But we need to start the process of rehabilitating the Republican party back toward the polity center now. This means repudiating all conspiracy theories and far right nonsense, such as Obama is an usurper or communist. Obama isn’t a force of nature, nor is he sinister, nor even particularly clever. After only six months he’s on the verge of undoing 200-plus years of America progress. Obama is simply a creation of our failing education and corupt media infrastructures.
Republicans must reclaim the political center that Obama has left cheated and lied to. If we on the Right can muster the civic responsibility not to indulge in the same sort of gross fantasies and irrational hate that the Left did with Bush, we can still save our nation from that most ignominious of fates–national self-immolation. As Arnold Toynee pointed out, all great nations defeat themselves internally long before their borders collapse.
It’s up to us to save America and we can only do it by strictly and cooly adhering to the principles of The Enlightenment and our sacred constitution, while calmly making our rational, evidence-based case to the majority of Americans who voted for Obama and may find it difficult to admit they misjudged his character.
Yes, we can.
Jun 21, 2009 - 10:14 pm 142. Cybergeezer:Dick Morris has a book out on Obama’s “Catastrophe”. Co-authored by Eileen McGann. One of many on his failed ideas and policies.
Jun 22, 2009 - 6:09 am 143. Delia:139. Oscar the Grump:
“Three years, six more months to go.”
Drip-Drip-Drip. It’s going to feel like an eternity.
Jun 22, 2009 - 8:14 am 144. ABI:My only suggestion is
Vote OUT ANYONE who signed the Stimulus Bill…remember the one that didn’t read….that will get a lot of the people who are walking on our rights …out.
Do you honestly think we make a difference to the people in Washington, yet we keep electing the same people time and time again…this time we got the whole crap shoot..GO..VOTE..VOTE THESE PEOPLE OUT…
That could at least start to make a difference, unless you’re Al Franken…
Jun 22, 2009 - 2:31 pm 145. sheesh:How does 15 years and six months feel?
Jun 22, 2009 - 6:43 pm 146. Mike Myers:Ah Gibbsy–the fellow who gives buffoonery a bad name. Professor Hanson I hold you and your work in high regard but even as a fan, I would never claim you were infallible.
Gibbsy, who is a BSumma Cum Loud of the Baghdad Bob University of Press Relations, doesn’t know you from diddly squat, but he’ll bet on “the home team” of poorly educated wordsmiths all of whom are apparently under 30.
There is truly something wrong with people who don’t know what they don’t know–but are unshakeably confident that they are correct. Ignorance can be cured, through the application of hard work and study–but stupid is forever–and Gibbsy will never change.
Jun 22, 2009 - 9:34 pm 147. Will:It means we’ve been screwd in record time.
Jun 23, 2009 - 3:23 pm