Our Truest Lies

If the truth doesn’t deserve social justice — well, tell a noble lie.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online 

At the end of John Ford’s classic Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the editor of the local paper decides not to print the truth about who really killed the murderous Valance. “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”Aaron_Alexis-FBI_Image

Legends now become facts in America at almost lightning speed. Often when lies are asserted as truth, they become frozen in time. Even the most damning later exposure of their falsity never quite erases their currency. As Jonathan Swift sighed, “Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.”

After the recent shooting tragedy at the Washington Navy Yard, cable news shows, newspaper reports, and talking heads immediately blasted lax gun laws. The killer, Aaron Alexis, had mowed down 20 innocent people — twelve of them fatally — with yet again the satanic AR-15 semi-automatic “assault” rifle. The mass murdering was supposedly more proof of the lethal pathologies of the National Rifle Association and the evil shooter crowd Continue reading “Our Truest Lies”

It’s a Mad, Mad World

by Victor Davis Hanson

NRO’s The Corner

Dorner Debacle

It is hard to remember worse coverage of a catastrophe than what we are given about the ex-cop Christopher Dorner’s murdering rampage. Some reprehensible pundits, ever so easily, fall into blaming LAPD and its “history of racism,” in a sorta, kinda contextualizing of Dorner’s brutal killing of innocents by the specter of Rodney King. Continue reading “It’s a Mad, Mad World”

Second Term Reckonings

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

A rule of the modern age: all confident, reelected presidents trip up in the second term. LBJ was sunk by Vietnam. Reagan faced Iran-Contra. Bill Clinton had his comeuppance with Monica. George W. Bush was overwhelmed with the Iraqi insurgency and Katrina. And Obama will have his as well, obsequious media or not.
Continue reading “Second Term Reckonings”

The Great New Year Stampede

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

There is a new-year stampede developing that we have not seen for a long time.

Gun stores are swamped with panicking customers. They are looking for handguns, semi-automatic rifles and as much ammunition as they can afford. Continue reading “The Great New Year Stampede”

The Demons of the Modern Rampage Killer

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

As of now we know little about what conditions drove, or proved useful to, the Aurora suspect to murder and maim [1]. But given the worldwide incidences of so-called “rampage killings,” the culprit was not the particular gun laws of Colorado. Continue reading “The Demons of the Modern Rampage Killer”

Aurora & Fort Hood: A Tale of Two Massacres

by Bruce Thornton

Frontpage Magazine

The murder victims of James Holmes, who slaughtered 12 and wounded 50 at the Dark Knight Rises movie premier in Aurora Colorado, were still sprawled in the theater when ABC News chief investigator Brian Ross on-air tried to link the killer to the Tea Party — without even a modicum of vetting the information, as ABC’s apology later admitted. Continue reading “Aurora & Fort Hood: A Tale of Two Massacres”

A Vandalized Valley

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

I am starting to feel as if I am living in a Vandal state, perhaps on the frontier near Carthage around AD 530, or in a beleaguered Rome in 455. Here are some updates from the rural area surrounding my farm, taken from about a 30-mile radius. In this take, I am not so much interested in chronicling the flotsam and jetsam as in fathoming whether there is some ideology that drives it. Continue reading “A Vandalized Valley”

Obama’s Predictable Scandals

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The media finally conceded the Obama administration to be inexperienced and inept, reminiscent of the Carter administration — but, they maintained, not possibly involved in any corruption. Continue reading “Obama’s Predictable Scandals”

Political Vultures

The sick are of turning insanity into politics

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Very few Americans are fans of both The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf, as the Tucson killer, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, apparently was. Fewer still post on the Internet fears about “brainwashing,” “mind control,” and “conscience dreaming”; have a long record of public disruption and aberrant behavior; were expelled from community college; or were summarily rejected for military service. Continue reading “Political Vultures”