Unemployment
Obama’s Newspeak
The meaning of works, and history itself, are malleable when it comes to our president and his record. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The nightmare societies portrayed in the George Orwell novels 1984 and Animal Farm gave us the word “Orwellian.” That adjective reflects a vast government’s efforts not just to deceive and control the people, but …
Fight the Next War, Not the Last One
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine Tuesday night President Obama will deliver another campaign speech, this one marketed as the State of the Union address. As such, we can expect to hear, through the usual white noise of “I,” “me,” and “my,” vacuous bromides like “moving America forward,” and empty promises “to grow the economy, strengthen the middle class, and empower all who …
The Last Generation of the West and the Thin Strand of Civilization
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media Had the Greeks lost at Salamis, Western civilization might easily have been strangled in its adolescence. Had Hitler not invaded the Soviet Union, the European democracies would have probably remained overwhelmed. And had the Japanese just sidestepped the Philippines and Pearl Harbor, as they gobbled up the orphaned Pacific …
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The War on Human Nature
For nations as for individuals, pretending self-interest doesn’t exist is perilous. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online At some critical point, everyone makes choices based on incentives and his own perception of self-interest. Somehow the Obama administration has forgotten that natural law. A therapeutic sense of self-sacrifice is fine in the abstract, but in …
America’s Wilderness Years
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media Most two-term presidents leave some sort of legacy. Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. George W. Bush prevented another 9/11, and constructed an anti-terrorism protocol that even his critical successor embraced and often expanded. Even our one-term presidents have achieved something. JFK got Soviet missiles out of Cuba. LBJ …
Reading Among the Ruins
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media I have been reading both new and classic books this week among the ruins (see photos below). Martin Anderson, now almost in his 90th year, has written a fascinating memoir about fashioning a cattle and big-game preservation ranch in Africa: Galana: Elephant, Game Domestication, and Cattle on a Kenya Ranch. At one …
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 …
The Myth of a California Renaissance
Sacramento’s strategy for recovery is more taxes, more regulation, and more government. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Are the recent raves about a new California renaissance true? Rolling Stone magazine just gushed that California governor Jerry Brown has brought the state back from the brink of “double-digit unemployment, a $26 billion deficit and an accumulated …
The Death of Populism
Plenty of pleaders for rich and poor, but no politician speaks for the common man. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Occupy Wall Streeters claimed that they were populists. Their ideological opposites, the Tea Partiers, said they were, too. Both became polarizing. And so far populism, whether on the right or left, does not …