<?xml version="1.0"?>
<oembed><version>1.0</version><provider_name>VDH&#x2019;s Blade of Perseus</provider_name><provider_url>https://victorhanson.com</provider_url><author_name>VDH&#x2019;s Blade of Perseus</author_name><author_url>https://victorhanson.com/author/vhadmin/</author_url><title>The Plague of Success</title><type>rich</type><width>600</width><height>338</height><html>&lt;blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="c54qaxwTH9"&gt;&lt;a href="https://victorhanson.com/the-plague-of-success/"&gt;The Plague of Success&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://victorhanson.com/the-plague-of-success/embed/#?secret=c54qaxwTH9" width="600" height="338" title="&#x201C;The Plague of Success&#x201D; &#x2014; VDH&#x2019;s Blade of Perseus" data-secret="c54qaxwTH9" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;script&gt;
/*! This file is auto-generated */
!function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&amp;&amp;d.addEventListener&amp;&amp;"undefined"!=typeof URL&amp;&amp;(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&amp;&amp;!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i&lt;o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i&lt;a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&amp;&amp;(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3&lt;(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r&lt;200&amp;&amp;(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&amp;&amp;(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&amp;&amp;n.host===r.host&amp;&amp;l.activeElement===s&amp;&amp;(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r&lt;s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document);
&lt;/script&gt;
</html><thumbnail_url>https://victorhanson.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Hanson-Logo-1.png</thumbnail_url><thumbnail_width>595</thumbnail_width><thumbnail_height>200</thumbnail_height><description>The paradox of ever-increasing expectations. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online After September 11 national-security-minded Democratic politicians fell over each other, voting for all sorts of tough measures. They passed the Patriot Act, approved the war in Afghanistan, voted to authorize the removal of Saddam Hussein, and nodded when they were briefed about Guantanamo [&hellip;]</description></oembed>
