Lying in the Age of Obama

By Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media

A Nation of Liars

The attorney general of the United States lied recently to Congress [1]. He said he knew of no citizen’s communications that his department had monitored. Lie!

In fact, Holder knew [2] that his subordinates were targeting reporters. He also did not tell the truth about the New Black Panthers case [3]. He had sworn that there was no political decision to drop the case. Not true; the decision came from the top. He again lied about the time frame in which he first learned of the Fast and Furious case [4]. Continue reading “Lying in the Age of Obama”

Obama’s Authoritarians

Mouthing Sixties-style anti-Western slogans is the way to win the president’s heart.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

There were many paradoxes left after the protests of the 1960s. One of the worst was American elites’ hypocrisy toward authoritarianism abroad.

Most Americans granted that anti-Communist strongmen like Ferdinand Marcos, Augusto Pinochet, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and Anastasio Somoza stifled liberty and freedom. Yet they further agreed that during a lose-lose Cold War, in which our enemies the Soviet Union and Red China had collectively murdered perhaps 80 million of their own people, there were no good choices. Thus they were willing to go along with the American government’s support for right-wing thugs who were enlisted in the war against Communism, although the elites, especially in the academy, regularly castigated them. Continue reading “Obama’s Authoritarians”

President Obama’s New American Vocabulary

by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media

CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

 

Of all the many changes that the Obama administration has enacted over the last five years, the least remarked upon are the strange changes in our vocabulary. To fathom the shifting meaning of words, here is a guide to the new Obama lexicon.

Affordable Care Act: Mostly unaffordable, uncaring, and inactive.

Assault Weapon: Paint your .22 black and add a plastic handle. Continue reading “President Obama’s New American Vocabulary”

Nemesis, After All

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

A Plodding Goddess

Like a broken record, for the last five years I have invoked the Greek concept of Nemesis, or divine retribution for unchecked hubris, to explain what was in store for the Obama administration. Continue reading “Nemesis, After All”

The Press and Dr. Faustus

Too late, American journalists realize their mistake.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

In the old Dr. Faustus story, a young scholar bargains away his soul to the devil for promises of obtaining almost anything he wants. Continue reading “The Press and Dr. Faustus”

Obama’s Bluster Pulpit

The president’s saber-rattling in the Middle East makes America look weak and puts the world in danger

by Victor Davis Hanson

Defining Ideas

At the turn of the century, Teddy Roosevelt famously advised statesmen to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Continue reading “Obama’s Bluster Pulpit”

Obama’s Proxy War on Mideast Christians

by Raymond Ibrahim

PJ Media

With the recent decision to arm the opposition fighting Syrian President Assad, the United States has effectively declared a proxy war on Syria’s indigenous Christians—a proxy war that was earlier waged on Christians in other Mideast nations, resulting in the abuse, death, and/or mass exodus of Christians. Continue reading “Obama’s Proxy War on Mideast Christians”

If Only Our Foreign Enemies Were Republicans

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

I cannot recall, in the last five years, Barack Obama ever identifying the Iranians, Hezbollah, or the late Hugo Chavez as among our “enemies,” in the fashion that he once urged Latino leaders to punish conservatives at the polls: Continue reading “If Only Our Foreign Enemies Were Republicans”

Immigration: If the Bill Passes

Both Obama’s record and the results of past immigration “reforms” paint a bleak picture.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

There are lots of reasons to believe that most of what is promised in the current so-called comprehensive immigration-reform bill won’t be honored if it is passed by the full Congress and signed by the president. Continue reading “Immigration: If the Bill Passes”

The President’s Boilerplate Address to Berliners

by Victor Davis Hanson

NRO’s The Corner

Aside from the usual Obama “hope and change/yes we can” boilerplate platitudes, there were also the same old disturbing and disingenuous statements in his Berlin speech. Continue reading “The President’s Boilerplate Address to Berliners”