Snarker-in-Chief
No one — least of all the American people — is exempt from our president’s snark. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Snark is a popular word used for a particular sort of off-putting sarcasm. Snarkiness can manifest itself as adolescent cheap shots, snide condescension, or simple ad hominem patronizing — a sort […]
The Scorching of California
How Green extremists made a bad drought worse by Victor Davis Hanson // City Journal In mid-December, the first large storms in three years drenched California. No one knows whether the rain and snow will continue—only that it must last for weeks if a record three-year drought, both natural and man-made, is to end. In […]
Are We Smart Enough for Democracy?
By Bruce S. Thornton // Defining Ideas In December, MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber, one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act, had to explain to Congress several remarks he had made about the “stupidity of the American voter,” as he put it in one speech. Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh frequently uses the more […]
Still More of President Obama’s Moral Equivalence
by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO- The Corner President Obama, at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning, said: Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery […]
The Roots of Obama’s Appeasement
The president’s disastrous foreign policy is as much a product of his own vanity as anything else. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Members of the Obama administration have insisted that the Taliban are not terrorists. Those responsible for the recent Paris killings are not radical Islamists. The Muslim Brotherhood is largely secular. […]
Moore of Michael’s Nuttery
by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO- The Corner I know that it’s shooting whales in a barrel to point out Michael Moore’s — once a guest in the Carter presidential box at the 2004 Democratic Convention — continued displays of ignorance. Nonetheless, the latest example is Moore’s lingering hurt because years ago Clint Eastwood once […]
More Delusional Apologetics for Islam
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine It’s pretty embarrassing when the on-line comments about an article are more logical and knowledgeable than the article. Such is the case with a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week that argued Muslim violence does not reflect traditional Islamic doctrine, but is merely a case of arrested historical development. […]
Obama Does Have a Strategy
Once you see what he is trying to accomplish, it all makes sense. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The Wise People of American foreign policy — Madeleine Albright, General Jack Keane, Henry Kissinger, General James Mattis, George Shultz, and others — recently testified before Congress. Their candid and insightful collective message dovetailed […]
What Are the Metaphysics of Islamic Denial?
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media After six years, it is no surprise that the Obama administration does not see the Taliban as “terrorists” or that it will not associate “violent extremism” with radical Islam or just Islam. After all, when Maj. Hasan murdered U.S. soldiers it was nothing more than “workplace violence,” as […]
Can Israel Survive?
Traditional pillars of the tiny democracy’s security have begun to erode. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. Eight million Israelis are surrounded by some 400 million Muslims in more than 20 states. Almost all of Israel’s neighbors are anti-Israeli dictatorships, […]
Barack Obama, Empire Builder
Not since the 1930s and early 1940s have we seen so many malevolent empires on the rise. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Empires can rise and fall quickly. After World War I, the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian Empires abruptly collapsed amid military defeat, rising nationalism, and revolution. Yet on the eve […]
The Dangers of Obama’s Cognitive Dissonance
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine There are many moments from the past 6 years that demonstrate the criminal incompetence of this president and his administration. But for me, Obama’s interview with GloZell––whose claim to YouTube fame comes from eating Cheerios in a bathtub filled with milk––represents best the essential emptiness, triviality, and sheer […]
The Last Lion Remembered
Winston Churchill never once flinched in the face of the Third Reich. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Fifty years ago this Saturday, former British prime minister Winston Churchill died at age 90. Churchill is remembered for his multiple nonstop careers as a statesman, cabinet minister, politician, journalist, Nobel laureate historian, and combat […]
Snipers, Correct and Incorrect
by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO- The Corner Were a confused Michael Moore and others faulting American Sniper on the argument that Chris Kyle was a sniper per se, or that he was an American sniper? I don’t remember Michael Moore or any other Hollywood grandees objecting much to the 2001 war film Enemy at the Gates, which […]
Untrue Truisms in the War on Terror
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media In the current tensions with the Islamic World, pundits bandy about received wisdom that in fact is often ignorance. Here are a few examples. 1) The solution of radical Islam must come from within Islam. Perhaps it could. It would be nice to see the advice of General […]
Muslims and Islamists
How do extremists relate to the population in which they live? by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The terrorism in Paris is yet another bad chapter in an ongoing Western debate over a seeming paradox. Almost all recent global terrorism is attributable to Islamic-inspired violence — much of it directed against Muslims. And […]
Western Sleepwalkers and the Paris Massacre
After all the brave words and feel-good marches, what significant action will be taken? by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine The jihadist murderers are dead, after killing five more Parisians, but many Westerners, long drugged by bad ideas and received wisdom, continue to sleepwalk through the war against jihadism. This means that after all […]
Can the West Stand Up for Free Speech?
False moral equivalence and blatant cowardice threaten our tradition of free expression. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Western civilization’s creed is free thought and expression, the lubricant of everything from democracy to human rights. Even a simpleton in the West accepts that protecting free expression is not the easy task of ensuring […]
The Real Scandals of the Paris March
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine Commentators on both the left and the right are slamming President Obama for missing the march in Paris last Sunday. Even a stalwart courtier like CNN’s Jake Tapper sniffed that he was “ashamed” that the U.S. was represented by an ambassador––one, by the way, who got her appointment […]
Book Review: Prime Directive- Check Out Sci Phi Journal
Prime Directive: Check Out Sci Phi Journal by Craig Bernthal The shelves of drugstores and news stands used to be crowded with “pulp” science fiction magazines: Fantastic Stories, Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Fantasy and Science Fiction, all of which sold for very little and provided a lot of entertainment. Many of […]