VDH's Blade of Perseus

Why California’s Drought Was Completely Preventable

April 30, 2015May 1, 2015 victorhanson

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

Almaden Reservoir in San Jose, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty)

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 of 1929–34, 1976–77, and 1987–92 — are more likely result from poorly understood but temporary changes in atmospheric pressures and ocean temperatures.

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The Strange Case of Modern Immigration

April 29, 2015 victorhanson

The West is too cowed by guilt to look honestly at immigration.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

JUCHITAN, MEXICO - AUGUST 06: Central American immigrants ride north on top of a freight train on August 6, 2013 near Juchitan, Mexico. Thousands of Central American migrants ride the trains, known as 'la bestia', or the beast, during their long and perilous journey through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. Some of the immigrants are robbed and assaulted by gangs who control the train tops, while others fall asleep and tumble down, losing limbs or perishing under the wheels of the trains. Only a fraction of the immigrants who start the journey in Central America will traverse Mexico completely unscathed - and all this before illegally entering the United States and facing the considerable U.S. border security apparatus designed to track, detain and deport them. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) — JUCHITAN, MEXICO – AUGUST 06: Central American immigrants ride north on top of a freight train on August 6, 2013 near Juchitan, Mexico. Thousands of Central American migrants ride the trains, known as ‘la bestia’, or the beast, during their long and perilous journey through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. Some of the immigrants are robbed and assaulted by gangs who control the train tops, while others fall asleep and tumble down, losing limbs or perishing under the wheels of the trains. Only a fraction of the immigrants who start the journey in Central America will traverse Mexico completely unscathed – and all this before illegally entering the United States and facing the considerable U.S. border security apparatus designed to track, detain and deport them. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

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 resentful of the country he has come to? Does the Westerner know why the other seeks him out or why he himself chooses not to emigrate to the non-West? These questions and dozens like them are not so much never answered as never even asked. The result is chaos.

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The Fall of the House of Clinton

April 28, 2015 victorhanson

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 — is back again to pronounce the Clinton Foundation scandal as “diddly-squat.” He may be right in the political sense. After all, we know the standard Clinton rescue plan from the past: her aging point-men like Carville, Lanny Davis, and Paul Begala flood the airways, yelling “prove it!” at their television hosts and declaring:

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Do Hillary’s Fair-Pay Talking Points Apply to Her Own Family?

April 23, 2015April 27, 2015 victorhanson

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

pic_giant_042215_SM_Hillary-Clinton-G 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 appreciate that fact from her own career and family.

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Don’t Worry, Be Happy

April 21, 2015April 27, 2015 victorhanson

by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media

download 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 the ditty confirmed the image of a callous and vacuous Bush who didn’t “worry” enough about the poor and minorities. The liberal McFerrin was outraged that Bush sought to play his own song at rallies. Shortly afterwards, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” was quietly dropped by the Bush team.

Perhaps no other slogan better characterizes the Obama tenure.

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Moral Schizophrenics

April 21, 2015April 21, 2015 victorhanson

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 than a student barista does in a year.

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A Foreign Policy Primer for Obama––and Rand Paul

April 20, 2015 victorhanson

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 indifferent years in the Senate, which were preceded by stints as a state legislator, a part-time teacher of law, and a community organizer. In the Senate his scanty foreign policy experience and knowledge manifested itself in his 2007 opposition to the “surge” of forces in Iraq, which he called a “mistake” and a “reckless escalation,” comments followed up by the introduction of legislation to remove all forces by the end of March 2008 no matter what.

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L. Ron Obama and the Church of Progressivism

April 17, 2015April 17, 2015 victorhanson

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 to contemporary Progressive belief and practice.

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Is Race Following Gender in Becoming a ‘Fluid’ Identity Construct?

April 16, 2015 victorhanson

Among many careerists and politicians, tweaking one’s ethnic identity is becoming increasingly widespread.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

images (8) 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 lived for a number of years in South America and speaks Spanish fluently.

Maybe he has consciously assumed a Hispanic identity. Or perhaps he did not think there was much of a difference between “white” and “Hispanic.” Or, as he said, he simply checked the wrong box by accident.

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Obama and Revolutionary Romance

April 14, 2015April 14, 2015 victorhanson

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 cause of American decline, and of growing global chaos from Libya to Ukraine.

Continue reading “Obama and Revolutionary Romance” →

VDH's Blade of Perseus

Why California’s Drought Was Completely Preventable

Like this:

The Strange Case of Modern Immigration

The West is too cowed by guilt to look honestly at immigration.

Like this:

The Fall of the House of Clinton

Boys and girls, Count Victor presents a berrry, berrry scarrrrrry tale of political corruption run amok.

Like this:

Do Hillary’s Fair-Pay Talking Points Apply to Her Own Family?

Like this:

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Like this:

Moral Schizophrenics

On campus, on the campaign trail.

Like this:

A Foreign Policy Primer for Obama––and Rand Paul

Like this:

L. Ron Obama and the Church of Progressivism

Like this:

Is Race Following Gender in Becoming a ‘Fluid’ Identity Construct?

Among many careerists and politicians, tweaking one’s ethnic identity is becoming increasingly widespread.

Like this:

Obama and Revolutionary Romance

His foreign-policy errors result not from incompetence but from a conscious agenda.

Like this:

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The West is too cowed by guilt to look honestly at immigration.

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Boys and girls, Count Victor presents a berrry, berrry scarrrrrry tale of political corruption run amok.

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Like this:

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On campus, on the campaign trail.

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Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Among many careerists and politicians, tweaking one’s ethnic identity is becoming increasingly widespread.

Share this:

Like this:

His foreign-policy errors result not from incompetence but from a conscious agenda.

Share this:

Like this: