Víctor Davis Hanson Over 100,000 Americans are dying from opiate overdoses per year—mostly fentanyl coming across the southern border. China ships to the cartels the raw product. They refine it and stamp it into pills for export solely to the U.S., deliberately using shapes and sizes to make their export seem similar to other less …
Victor Davis Hanson Before the onset of American latifundia (i.e., around the rise of globalization, ca. 2000), the environs here were a patchwork of small farmers, of 40, 60, 120, or 200 acres. All were family owned and worked. Most were diverse—combining vines (raisins, table grapes, or wine) and trees (plums, nectarines, peaches, or almonds …
Victor Davis Hanson As a classics student at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens some 45 years ago, in the latter 1970s, I was assigned to excavate at ancient Corinth. There I learned a lot about strata and how to detect the rise and fall of Myceneans, the Greeks of the Dark Age, …
Víctor Davis Hanson As an academic, I remember the “Words Matter” controversies of the 1990s when euphemisms soon became Orwellian speech and ushered in the age of microaggressions and safe spaces, as “African American” became “black” that in turn became “Black.” Words, then, we were told affect realities. And they do. Certainly, the stereotypes of …
Victor Davis Hanson A February 3rd huge train derailment recently sent fire balls high into the sky over small East Palestine, Ohio (ca. 5,000 population), in the heartland of the rustbelt of post-industrial America. I guess the current administration would call this small-town clinger/deplorable/chums/dregs country, to paraphrase the past usage of Obama, Hillary, and Biden. …
Victor Davis Hanson The game itself was well-played and exciting. But the entire spectacle is heading into a strange and ultimately suicidal territory. Before the National Anthem, there was sung and observed the “Black” national anthem of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” It is a wonderful song, but no substitution for our common, shared National …
Victor Davis Hanson I consider myself an alien from outer space, as far as a lack of knowledge of the supposedly premier Super Bowl halftime entertainers. I usually skip the game and especially the half-time show. This year for some reason I didn’t. I have no real idea who “Rihanna” (Robyn Rihanna Fent) is, other …
Victor Davis Hanson The worst crime I witnessed was not necessarily a crime but was surely amoral. One of the best mechanics in the class (his father was a master mechanic as well) had dropped a Chevy 454 into his 1955 four-speed and had what was considered the fastest car among many. One night he …
Victor Davis Hanson The second occasion of witnessing a crime was more disturbing. A poor guy pulled into a 99 station about 1AM with transmission trouble. He asked if he could park the car there for a few hours, while he hitchhiked to Fresno to get a ride. Odd request? The locals assented because he …
Victor Davis Hanson Drinking “Coors” was standard, Olympia was considered “piss water.” (I preferred Olympia because it tasted like water.) Again, almost everyone knew something about cars. (None knew much about our Volvo 544 and looked baffled when they opened the hood.) Most on Saturday nights parked out on someone’s safe-space farm, drank, talked, fought, …