The Failed Tactic of Flattering Islam Won’t Go Away
Why admiring the Muslim world won’t stop the bloodshed. by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine The recent attack in Texas against a “draw Mohammed” event ended up with two dead jihadis and widespread criticism of event organizer Pamela Geller for “inciting” or “provoking” the assault on our First Amendment right to free speech. The […]
America’s Politicized Tax Enforcement Is a Harbinger of Decline
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Why did Rome and Byzantium fall apart after centuries of success? What causes civilizations to collapse, from a dysfunctional fourth-century-B.C. Athens to contemporary bankrupt Greece? The answer is usually not enemies at the gates, but the pathologies inside them. What ruins societies is well known: too much […]
Baltimore and the Betrayal of Black Dignity
The real losers in the Freddie Gray riots. by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine [1]Baltimore is the latest American city to become a stage for the farce that is our national racial discourse. The swift, politicized indictment of 6 police officers for the death of Freddie Gray––which brought down, for now, the curtain on […]
Remember When the Left Welcomed Exposés of the Clintons?
by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO- The Corner In July 2008 Todd Purdum wrote a devastating and controversial take-down of Bill Clinton for Vanity Fair, outlining the sort of ethical and personal lapses that are back in the news seven years later. The Left largely welcomed the exposé because it came at the expense of a […]
The Westernized Anti-Westerner
What accounts for hatred of the West by people who voluntarily spent years here? by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online One of the stranger things about East–West relations these days is the schizophrenic attraction to, and hatred of, Western culture that characterizes many foreign leaders and celebrities.
Decoding the Rules of Baltimore
For the left, rioting is an effective political tool. by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media No one knows what exactly happened to the deceased Freddie Gray, except that it should not have happened. Between what is outlined in the indictments and what will be proven in court is an unknown abyss. But the more […]
Republican Senators and the Battered Wife Syndrome
What the confirmation of Loretta Lynch really means. by Bruce S. Thornton // Front PageMagazine [1]For 6 years Barack Obama in word and deed has battered the Constitution and slapped around the Republicans. Abetted by his Luca Brasi, Harry Reid, he has run roughshod over the separation of powers and his own oath to the […]
Why California’s Drought Was Completely Preventable
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The present four-year California drought is not novel — even if President Barack Obama and California governor Jerry Brown have blamed it on man-made climate change. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, California droughts are both age-old and common. Predictable California dry spells — like those […]
The Strange Case of Modern Immigration
The West is too cowed by guilt to look honestly at immigration. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Is immigrating from less-developed countries to the West a good or a bad thing, for host and guest? Is the immigrant angry at, or nostalgic for, the country he left? Is he thankful to or […]
The Fall of the House of Clinton
Boys and girls, Count Victor presents a berrry, berrry scarrrrrry tale of political corruption run amok. by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media Hillary Clinton will probably survive her latest ethical disaster. James Carville — of “if you drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find” fame — […]
Do Hillary’s Fair-Pay Talking Points Apply to Her Own Family?
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Hillary Clinton apparently plans to base her presidential campaign on the noble goals of greater fairness and shared sacrifice. She has already lambasted vast differences in compensation. “The average CEO makes about 300 times what the average worker makes,” Clinton warned. She is right — but can best […]
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media In his 1988 presidential race, George H.W. Bush was trashed by the left for selecting the Bobby McFerrin hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” as his campaign song. Maybe Bush thought he needed a lighthearted optimistic echo of Reagan’s 1984 mantra, “It’s morning in America.” [1]But the Left thought […]
Moral Schizophrenics
On campus, on the campaign trail. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Hillary Clinton in recent months has done the following: She charged UCLA somewhere around $300,000 for reciting some platitudes. That works out to over $165 a second for her 30 minutes on stage — meaning that she made more in one minute […]
A Foreign Policy Primer for Obama––and Rand Paul
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine The president who thinks there’s such a thing as an “Austrian” language is advising Rand Paul to “bone up on foreign policy.” It’s now official: the Obama administration has become a recurring skit on Saturday Night Live. This is the same Barack Obama who became president after 2 […]
L. Ron Obama and the Church of Progressivism
by Bruce S.Thornton // FrontPage Magazine The HBO documentary about Scientology, “Going Clear,” is a must-see. Not so much because it exposes Scientology as a moneymaking, totalitarian cult, something most people already have known for 50 years. More useful is the film’s description of Scientology’s ideas, techniques, and tactics, for they bear an eerie resemblance […]
Is Race Following Gender in Becoming a ‘Fluid’ Identity Construct?
Among many careerists and politicians, tweaking one’s ethnic identity is becoming increasingly widespread. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Not long ago, the New York Times uncovered the artifact that Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush had once listed himself as “Hispanic” on a Florida voter-registration form. Bush is married to a Mexican American. He […]
Obama and Revolutionary Romance
His foreign-policy errors result not from incompetence but from a conscious agenda. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Lots of questions arise about the muddled foreign policy of the Obama administration. Critics suggest that America’s friends have now become enemies, and enemies friends. Others cite incompetence and naïveté rather than deliberate agendas as the […]
Why Is Hillary Clinton Even Running?
Hillary has no resume to run on. Is America ready for her to dial up the culture war to 11? by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media That is not as stupid a question as it first sounds. Ostensibly we know her four ready answers. I. Who Else? One, there is no other credible Democrat who […]
The Modern University Is Failing Students in Every Respect
From cost to employment prospects, the state of American higher education is dismal for students. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Modern American universities used to assume four goals. First, their general education core taught students how to reason inductively and imparted an aesthetic sense through acquiring knowledge of Michelangelo, the Battle of Gettysburg, […]
The Burdens of Thought Policing
From gay weddings to Iran’s muscle-flexing, PC enforcers have a big job. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online It is not easy being a contemporary thought policeman. No sooner had the radical gay Left demonized the owners of an Indiana pizza parlor, which does not cater weddings, for suggesting that in theory they might […]