Obamacare-Speak

The Obama administration is altering its language like there’s no tomorrow.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online 

The Obama administration once gave us “man-caused disasters” for acts of terrorism and “workplace violence” for the Fort Hood shootings. Now it has trumped those past linguistic contortions by changing words to mask the Photo Credit: revbean via FlickrObamacare disaster.

The president and his advisers apparently knew long ago that millions of the insured would face cancellations or premium hikes once Obamacare was fully implemented. Yet to get the 906-page bill passed, they had to convince the public of the very opposite scenario. So they repeated ironclad guarantees that no one would lose their coverage or doctors — “period!”

Now the administration explains the deception by going after both the ethics of the insurers and the intelligence of the previously insured. That task required language to be altered. The newly canceled health plans are suddenly rebranded by the administration as “subpar.” Only in autumn 2013 is the supposedly unaware public told that, years ago, “bad apple” insurance companies sold them “substandard” plans. Continue reading “Obamacare-Speak”

Our Truest Lies

If the truth doesn’t deserve social justice — well, tell a noble lie.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online 

At the end of John Ford’s classic Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the editor of the local paper decides not to print the truth about who really killed the murderous Valance. “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”Aaron_Alexis-FBI_Image

Legends now become facts in America at almost lightning speed. Often when lies are asserted as truth, they become frozen in time. Even the most damning later exposure of their falsity never quite erases their currency. As Jonathan Swift sighed, “Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.”

After the recent shooting tragedy at the Washington Navy Yard, cable news shows, newspaper reports, and talking heads immediately blasted lax gun laws. The killer, Aaron Alexis, had mowed down 20 innocent people — twelve of them fatally — with yet again the satanic AR-15 semi-automatic “assault” rifle. The mass murdering was supposedly more proof of the lethal pathologies of the National Rifle Association and the evil shooter crowd Continue reading “Our Truest Lies”

Untruth at The New Yorker

A column on the Trayvon Martin case elicits an egregious attack.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

It is rare to read an essay in which almost every statement is wrong, but that is the case with “A Sermon on Race from National Review” by one Kelefa Sanneh, appearing on The New Yorker’s website — little more than McCarthyite character assassination in the form of a reply to my column this week on the president’s and the attorney general’s reactions to the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case.

Continue reading “Untruth at The New Yorker”

Facing Facts about Race

Young black males are at greater risk from their peers than from the police or white civilians.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

Last week President Obama weighed in again on the Trayvon Martin episode. Sadly, most of what he said was wrong, both literally and ethically. Continue reading “Facing Facts about Race”

Race-Industry Leeches

by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine

Courtesy: Werth Media via Flickr.com
Courtesy: Werth Media via Flickr.com

The trial of George Zimmerman is over, but the persecution of him by the race industry isn’t. The Department of Justice is currently combing through the case to find some pretext, no matter how specious, for charging Zimmerman with a violation of civil-rights laws. No matter that the FBI investigation has eliminated race as a factor in Zimmerman’s actions, or that the prosecutors in Florida studiously ignored race as a motive. Under Attorney General Eric Holder, the DOJ has become the Luca Brasi of the race industry, enforcing the self-serving, racialist narrative that in part propelled Holder’s boss into the White House. So don’t be surprised if the DOJ seizes the opportunity.

Continue reading “Race-Industry Leeches”

Revolutionary Tribunals

Our courts have too often become expressions of the popular will.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

In ancient Athens, popular courts of paid jurors helped institutionalize fairness. If a troublemaker like Socrates was thought to be a danger to the popular will, then he was put on trial for inane charges like “corrupting the youth” or “introducing new gods.” Continue reading “Revolutionary Tribunals”

The Tangled Web of Race

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

A number of commentators have openly sympathized with multi-murderer Christopher Dorner, who shot seven innocent people, killing four of them. Apparently, the late Dorner was a voice in the wilderness crying out against the racist injustice of the “system.” Continue reading “The Tangled Web of Race”

Race–on the Brain

by Victor Davis Hanson

NRO’s The Corner

Someone named Elspeth Reeve, in an Atlantic posting, is suggesting that the Derbyshire essay was no different from other commentary on National Reviewon the Trayvon Martin case, citing my observations, along with those of others at NR, as proof: Continue reading “Race–on the Brain”

The Trayvon Martin Case and the Growing Racial Divide

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

Two Racial Narratives — and the Current Hysteria

Polls show that the Trayvon Martin case has split the country apart over perceptions of race and justice, in ways that may dwarf the polarities of the O.J. Simpson trial days of 1994. Continue reading “The Trayvon Martin Case and the Growing Racial Divide”

Strangers in a Stranger Land

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

Trostky-ization

In ancient Rome, when the emperor or an especially distasteful elite died, his image on stone and in bronze was removed. And by decree there arose adamnatio memoriae, a holistic effort to erase away his entire prior existence. Continue reading “Strangers in a Stranger Land”