{"id":1493,"date":"2010-07-21T18:27:06","date_gmt":"2010-07-21T18:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2013-03-11T18:28:11","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T18:28:11","slug":"the-ministries-of-truth-weigh-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-ministries-of-truth-weigh-in\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ministries of Truth Weigh In"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n

PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n

The Hope and Change Edicts<\/strong><\/p>\n

What are we to make of our current NASA chief, the distinguished retired Marine Corps major general and astronaut, Charles Bolden, who, in an interview with\u00a0Al Jazeera<\/em>, listed a \u201cforemost\u201d NASA objective as finding \u201ca way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.\u201d?<\/p>\n

All of this, Bolden adds, expands the Obama \u201cCairo initiative,\u201d those lofty revisionisms that the president offered to the Muslim world last summer in Cairo.<\/p>\n

Surely, there is some mistake? Did a right-wing satirist hijack the transcript and insert \u201cto help them feel good\u201d?<\/p>\n

Parody?<\/strong><\/p>\n

OK \u2014 if it is a correct transcription, here are four or five off-the-top-of-the-head problems with this nonsense:<\/p>\n

1) NASA is supposed to launch rockets and other craft, study space, and travel above the atmosphere. Its duties, especially at a time of budget restraints, are not to make any one \u201cfeel good,\u201d much less \u201cthe Muslim world.\u201d (e.g., why not \u201cthe Latin American world\u201d or \u201cAfrican world\u201d?).<\/p>\n

The \u201cMuslim world,\u201d I think, feels pretty good about itself; in contrast, I fear we in the West apparently do not. (e.g., so far no Muslim leaders that I know are reaching out to the West to assure us that they both respect Western civilization and want to emphasize their admiration for our culture).<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t mention the \u201cCairo initiative.\u201d Bad idea. That was the most embarrassing speech given by an American president in a decade. Last June Obama misled his audience on nearly every \u201cfact\u201d presented, from the absurdity of Muslims in Cordoba supposedly serving as beacons of tolerance during the Inquisition (there were essentially no Muslims in Cordoba by that time), to the assertion that Muslims helped to jump start the Renaissance and Enlightenment (when in fact, flight from, or reaction against, Islam in the eastern Mediterranean had far more to do with both European intellectual awakenings). An early 15th-century Greek scribe fleeing the steady year-by-year Ottoman advance toward Constantinople, bringing with him a manuscript of a previously unknown Greek author, or Romantic Enlightenment thinkers like a Lord Byron writing of the need for a Greek revolution against the Turks, is not a sign of an Islamic pedigree for Da Vinci or Voltaire. Wait \u2014 maybe the president meant that attitudes toward Islam, as in fear of Islamic absolutism, helped to foster these two intellectual movements?)<\/p>\n

2) Worry not, Gen. Bolden, about Muslims and space. Relax \u2014 soon there will be an intercontinentally-delivered Iranian bomb. The Syrians like space \u2014 otherwise they would not be testing Scuds. And not long ago, Dr. Khan did his best to make Muslims acquainted with the potentials of nuclear energy released in the stratosphere. Where did this idea originate that Muslims are not interested in space? Was it an article from Rev. Wright\u2019s newsletter (e.g., \u201cPastor\u2019s Page\u201d) that suggested the Jews had new bombs that could detect Arabs \u2014 a sophisticated \u201cethnic bomb\u201d?<\/p>\n

3) It is beyond the power in 2010 of even Gen. Bolden to change the Islamic history about and attitudes toward science. To read of Ottoman scientific investigation between 1500 and 1900 is to learn of real trepidation among any Muslim scientists challenging the \u201cauthority\u201d of the Prophet, by claiming near divine knowledge about the way things work, whether at work on lighthouses or munitions. There is a reason Dr. Khan went to the West to learn bomb-making rather than to Libya or Yemen \u2014 and it had nothing to do with the failures of the West to remind Muslims of their glorious scientific past.<\/p>\n

4) Once more, no worry, Gen. Bolden: we know you support \u201cdiversity\u201d and wish to make the other feel good about himself. Otherwise you would not be at NASA. But\u00a0Al Jazeera<\/em>? These were the guys that broadcasted the snuff videos of beheadings and, in Iraq, always seemed, strangely, to be right on the scene with cameras just as American Humvees were at the opportune moment blown into the sky by massive IEDs.\u00a0Al Jazeera<\/em>, in other words, is antithetical to everything NASA used to be.<\/p>\n

5) There is no record that the 18-month long outreach has worked in any department. Again, 2009 saw more foiled terrorist attempts here at home than in any year since 2001. The Middle East is at the brink. Iran is more, not less, hostile for our outreach. All that has changed with Syria is that it now openly sells missiles to Hezbollah, oblivious to our courting. A Major Hasan or Abdul Mutallab does not care whether we send a video to Iran or NASA boasts of its caring to\u00a0Al Jazeera<\/em>. Turkey is growing more hostile, and cares not a bit that Obama apologized for slavery and the treatment of Native Americans. I could go on, but to the tiny degree that anyone in the Muslim world takes note of the NASA outreach, it will mostly be terrorists who equate our niceness with appeasement, and become encouraged that ex-American generals are now redirecting NASA to educate Muslims on their supposedly glorious scientific past, and not so interested in deterring them as was true after 9\/11.<\/p>\n

The Ministries of Truth<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is going on here? The president is setting the tone, and a host of truth departments are his choruses.<\/p>\n

Eric Holder\u2019s job description did not include calling us \u201ca nation of cowards.\u201d Nor does it include\u00a0dropping<\/a>\u00a0[1] a won case about voter fraud, especially when the perpetrator is a known racist who indulges in \u201chate speech.\u201d But perhaps Holder thinks he can score a brownie point or two from his boss for his radical rhetoric and symbolic \u201cresistance\u201d?<\/p>\n

Ditto Hilda Solis\u2019s silly video calling for workers to report bad employers \u2014 \u201cdocumented or not.\u201d She threw that fillip in about not enforcing the law, despite immigration being outside her purview, since she knew that it would remind her leader that she too is a revolutionary on the barricades.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think Janet Napolitano\u2019s job at Homeland Security is dealing with \u201cman-caused disasters\u201d like power outages, BP leaks, mine explosions, etc. But again, she wanted Obama to take notice of the fact that she is a true believer by using words that make Muslims feel \u201cgood\u201d about themselves.<\/p>\n

And then there is Energy Secretary Chu. Why blurt out predictions of \u201cno more agriculture in California\u201d? Instead of figuring out how we are to have enough power to turn on the lights, Chu interjects alarm about the end of farming in the richest agricultural state in the union, part of a green editorial at a time when hundreds of thousands of acres of productive farmland lie idle during one of the wettest years in California\u2019s recent history.<\/p>\n

What was \u201cboot on their neck\u201d about, Secretary Salazar? That brag assures Obama that his Interior secretary is on board, and can use the Chicago way to shake down $20 billion.<\/p>\n

Groupspeak<\/strong><\/p>\n

We could do this all day \u2014 Van Jones and his various lunacies, Anita Dunn and her Mao worship. The real point is, however, that Obama has set a revolutionary tone, and everyone beneath him is falling all over themselves to trump it \u2014 and thereby gain traction and approval from their leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the moment we\u2019ve been waiting for\u201d means that federal officials no longer worry about their tasks within their job description, but, in varying degrees and according to their station, must chant along in a holistic revolutionary process, one that sees traditional American strength as weakness, and sympathizes with those abroad who feel wronged by America. At home, the government is now on occasion one with those who break federal law for revolutionary purposes, against those who have capital and have found success. The law becomes malleable while the rhetoric reflects the higher calling of social justice.<\/p>\n

Notice to truth ministries: on race, we got the message from \u201cstupidly,\u201d \u201ctypical white person,\u201d \u201cclingers,\u201d \u201ccowards,\u201d and \u201cwise Latina.\u201d From now on it\u2019s all redundant.<\/p>\n

On capitalism and free enterprise, we got the message from the Chrysler broken contracts; the slurring of surgeons, Las Vegas, and insurance companies; \u201ckick ass\u201d and \u201cboot on the neck\u201d; \u201credistributive change\u201d; \u201cspread the wealth\u201d; \u201cthem\u201d; and \u201cthey,\u201d etc. No need for any more.<\/p>\n

Overseas, on day one it was the\u00a0Al Arabiya<\/em>\u00a0interview. After that, the Cairo speech and the NASA\u00a0Al Jazeera<\/em>\u00a0interview were just relish.<\/p>\n

A Most Unusual Person<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t get involved in the particulars of promoting political candidates. If I did, it would probably hurt more than help those I look kindly upon (e.g., I just walked into a Fresno Target and was accosted by an angry pastor who went off on my column about Obama as a tragic figure; these \u201cincidents\u201d are near weekly occurrences in the conservative Fresno area; but oddly nonexistent elsewhere in more liberal places).<\/p>\n

I know about a dozen congressmen, and have met some senators. But in New York\u2019s 20th Congressional District this year one of the rarest individuals I have ever met is now running for Congress, and as a first-time candidate. He is a conservative, but then so are hundreds of office seekers.<\/p>\n

Chris Gibson, however, is different from the rest of us. His past is almost mythical: PhD from Cornell, author of a good book on military\/civilian relations, 24 years in the military, retired at rank of colonel, West Point instructor, 7 overseas deployments (4 in Iraq), a medal winner for gallantry (4 bronze stars), wounded in battle (purple heart) \u2014 it goes on and on. I met him when he was a security fellow at Hoover, and again in Iraq when deployed in Anbar province during the surge in 2007. I don\u2019t think I have ever met anyone quite like him \u2014 fearless, soft-spoken, 19th century in belief and comportment, honest. I hope readers will learn about his candidacy. I lamented his retirement because I think he would shortly have been promoted to general, and would eventually follow in the Petraeus mold, in the best sense of that characterization.<\/p>\n

In addition, I am sure that the DNC strategy this fall will devolve into personally denigrating new candidates, given that liberal incumbents in purple districts won\u2019t be able to run on the presidential record of the last two years. But all that said, if we are going to save the country, we need leaders like Gibson, who has always lived the life he advocates. I wish him well. He reminds me of my neighbors now all gone, who used to show up on the farm around 1960, when at 7 I would hide behind the tractors and listen in on them talk with my grandfather \u2014 an old breed that is so sorely missed.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media The Hope and Change Edicts What are we to make of our current NASA chief, the distinguished retired Marine Corps major general and astronaut, Charles Bolden, who, in an interview with\u00a0Al Jazeera, listed a \u201cforemost\u201d NASA objective as finding \u201ca way to reach out to the Muslim world and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[586],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-o5","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1509,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/it-cannot-be-that-nasa-has-nothing-better-to-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":1493,"position":0},"title":"It Cannot Be That NASA Has Nothing Better To Do","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner NASA chief Charles Bolden, an impressive former Marine Corps major general and astronaut, recently waxed eloquent about his tripartite mission at the space agency he was entrusted with by President Obama. Strangely, his third \u201cand perhaps foremost\u201d objective is apparently \u201cto find a way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2010"","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6569,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/overseas-contingency-operations-and-such\/","url_meta":{"origin":1493,"position":1},"title":"Overseas Contingency Operations and Such","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media\u00a0 On the occasion of the outreach from Iran, and the embarrassment in Syria, it is wise to remember why and how our leaders became so inept at dealing with Islamists. The Tsarnaev brothers killed and maimed in service to their version of Islam. So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Terrorism"","block_context":{"text":"Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/war-on-terror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":461,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/storming-embassies-killing-ambassadors-and-smart-diplomacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1493,"position":2},"title":"Storming Embassies, Killing Ambassadors, and ‘Smart’ Diplomacy","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The attacks on the US embassy yesterday in Cairo and the storming of the American consulate in Libya, where the US ambassador was murdered along with three staff members \u2014 and the initial official American reaction to the mayhem \u2014 are all reprehensible,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Benghazi"","block_context":{"text":"Benghazi","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/benghazi\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7582,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/lots-of-recent-man-caused-disasters\/","url_meta":{"origin":1493,"position":3},"title":"Lots of Recent Man-Caused Disasters","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Even the administration is now considering some sort of overseas contingency operation to cope with an outbreak of workplace violence worldwide. Each morning it seems we read that Islamic killers of Boko Haram have kidnapped or slaughtered more children. Israel alleges Hamas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The World"","block_context":{"text":"The World","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2690,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-muslim-world-address\/","url_meta":{"origin":1493,"position":4},"title":"The Muslim World Address","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner President Obama has a much-publicized upcoming talk in Cairo that is rather pretentiously packaged as an address to the \u201cMuslim world.\u201d It is likely that, unlike the Bush speeches about the shared innate desire for freedom, and hope that the Arab autocracies would liberalize,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2009"","block_context":{"text":"June 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/june-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9702,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/fifteen-easy-ways-to-ruin-the-middle-east\/","url_meta":{"origin":1493,"position":5},"title":"Fifteen Easy Ways to Ruin the Middle East","author":"Megan Ring","date":"January 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review on \"The Corner\" President Obama had lots of choices in Middle East. Unfortunately he made all the wrong ones, guided by pop ideology rather than unwelcome facts on the ground. The result is chaos at best and millions dead or displaced at worst. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1494,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions\/1494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}