Surreal and Suicidal: Modern Western Histories of Islam
by Raymond Ibrahim // RaymondIbrahim.com The full magnitude of the modern West’s ignorance of its own past recently struck me while rereading some early history books concerning the centuries-long jihad on Europe. The historical narrative being disseminated today simply bears very little resemblance to reality. Consider some facts for a moment: A mere decade after […]
Obama Will Cut a Deal Sooner Rather than Later
by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO’s The Corner At first glance, the Republicans seemed to be losing the so-called shut-down impasse, inasmuch as Obamacare, as the president termed it, was “settled law” and the Republicans did not have the congressional clout to overturn it. No one likes, after all, to be turned away from Yosemite on […]
Medieval Liberals
Unlike classical liberals, the liberals of today hew to doctrine in the face of the evidence. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online A classical liberal was characteristically guided by disinterested logic and reason. He was open to gradual changes in society that were frowned upon by traditionalists in lockstep adherence to custom and protocol. The […]
Prestige and Power in Statecraft
History teaches us that nations must always respond vigorously to an enemy’s challenge, a lesson the U.S. should remember in Syria. by Bruce S. Thornton // Defining Ideas President Obama, responding to widespread criticisms that his handling of the Syrian chemical weapons crisis was clumsy and ad hoc, said, “I’m less concerned about style points, I’m […]
Foreign Policy Magazine Covers Up Syrian Sex Jihad
by Raymond Ibrahim // RaymondIbrahim.com Foreign Policy magazine recently demonstrated why U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, is a disaster: because the establishment has a hard time factoring the foreign in their policies (more’s the irony). Put differently, whatever information doesn’t comport with modern Western epistemology—our subjective worldviews—must simply be false, unreal, to be discarded from […]
‘Game Changers’
by Victor Davis Hanson // Tribune Media Services When — not if — is the only mystery about an Iranian nuclear bomb. All the warning signs are there. ‘Game changers’ In 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama on two occasions went out of his way to warn the Iranians that the development of a nuclear weapon “would be a […]
Rich, Arrogant, and Stupid
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine The modern West demonstrates a phenomenon unknown in history––unprecedented wealth, technology, and access to information combined with abject stupidity. Wisdom once known by every village explainer and cracker-barrel crank has been discarded and replaced with phony “sciences” making claims about human nature and behavior that are based on nothing […]
Obama: Transforming America
From energy to foreign policy to the presidency itself, Obama’s agenda rolls along. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” — Barack Obama, October 30, 2008 “We are going to have to change our conversation; we’re going to have to change our traditions, our […]
What Iran Is Asking Us to Believe
by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO’s The Corner To believe in the current Iranian, post-Syrian peace initiative, we would have to believe that the Iranian theocracy concedes, in a stunning Qaddafi-like turn-around, that its decade-long effort to obtain nuclear weapons was a terrible strategic mistake that earned it only ostracism and crippling sanctions that have no […]
Overseas Contingency Operations and Such
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media On the occasion of the outreach from Iran, and the embarrassment in Syria, it is wise to remember why and how our leaders became so inept at dealing with Islamists.
A Man for the Times
by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO’s the Corner Al Gore is at it again, recently charging that “American democracy has been hacked” by special interests and accusing his political opponents of “political terrorism.” This comes from a big-government, high-tax advocate who raced to unload his share of a hyped, but failed cable station to avoid newly […]
Bloody Weekend: Trend of Muslim Rage Against ‘Infidels’ Continues
by Raymond Ibrahim // The Blaze Muslim slaughter of non-Muslim “infidels” saw an especially dramatic weekend in the nations of Pakistan and Kenya. Even so, these are simply the latest in a long list of jihadi attacks on the Christians of both nations.
Pregnant with AIDS: Tunisian Girl Recounts Her Sex Jihad in Syria
by Raymond Ibrahim // Jihad Watch The Arabic media has been full of interviews with some of the many Tunisian girls that went to the sex jihad in Syria. The other day Tunisian newspaper Al Sharaouk (“Sunrise) shed light on the horrific experiences of one of these girls. Her name is Lamia, and she’s 19-years-old. While in Syria, she had […]
The Late, Great Middle Class
It’s never been harder to find a decent job making something real. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The American middle class, like the American economy in general, is ailing. Labor-force participation has hit a 35-year low. Median household income is lower than it was five years ago. Only the top 5 percent of […]
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 […]
What Would the Founders Think of Defunding Obamacare?
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine A few days ago CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin, speaking about the Republican House bill defunding Obamacare, commented, “Certainly not the way the Founding Fathers maybe drew this thing up.” It’s certainly a surprise to hear an anchor on CNN, an organization biased in favor of progressives, appealing to the […]
Russian Patriarch to Obama: Syria’s Christians Nearing ‘Extermination’
The leader of Russia’s 150 million Orthodox Christians begs the president not to give aid to Syrian jihadis. by Raymond Ibrahim // PJ Media While many were fixated on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent letter to the American people, another letter from another Russian leader—this one directly addressed to the U.S. president—was missed. On September 10, […]
Goodbye Syria, On to Iran!
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, this is the way Syria ends: Not with a bang, but a whimper. We are back where we started — lots of people dying — as the crisis recedes with a high five and a sigh, rather than with America blowing some stuff up.