Reflections On an Age Now Fading…
Take the economy: the liberal attack on Bush as a reckless spender who increased the debt by $2 trillion is now replaced by ‘stimulus’ groupies, who are silent about a staggering $9 trillion of Obama debt to come. Cannot the country, the media-anyone!-see that the amounts of borrowing are so gargantuan that we are talking about massive changes in the US economy and lifestyle? The size and inefficiency of the government will grow. We will have soon some sort of national sales taxes on top on state, local, and federal higher rates, the point being threefold: more recipients and distributors of entitlements mean larger liberal permanent constituents-an institutionalization of the welfare state. The debts are so large that it will require a redistribution of income through higher taxes. When a Paul Krugman writes seriously that California’s financial meltdown (9% sales, 10% income taxes) is due to too low taxation (as hundreds of thousands of overtaxed skilled professionals flee the state), then one can see how the power of ideology in the present age so easily trumps empiricism. Three, the debts will end American exceptionalism abroad, and severely curtail our options. In other words, we are seeing the much waited for multilateralism-but by financial default! What depresses is the fact that debt is now being used as a political tool-to reconstitute American culture and society, both at home and abroad.
National security. We are seeing the erosion of the old Israel alliance that goes the way of others flattened beneath the Obama bus. In terms of attention, it is better to be a neutral or enemy of the US than a reliable friend-the Muslim world gets interviews and an upcoming address, the Brits get a bust back and some unwatchable DVDs. In their defense, they mostly favored Obama and so surely are happy that they get contextualized and so go the way of white colonialists with a Churchillian imperial past.
The wages of apology are now due, as nuts line up to fill the vacuum-America either too broke or too ambiguous to do much about it. This is a very dangerous time-somewhere there is a nutty cadre of Islamists who in their twisted minds collate the Obama apologies, the al Arabiya interview, the serial denunciation of Bush, the airing of the interrogation processes, the demonization of Guantanamo, the constant evocation of Abu Ghraib, and conclude that this particular government either cannot or will not unpredictably strike back at Islamic extremism, and therefore this is now a moment of opportunity not to be missed. I worry we are in for some very dangerous times, as we begin to get a glimpse of a world in which the U.S. allows natural forces to work their way to the surface.
On matter of race, one detects beneath the therapeutic calls for inclusiveness, an unfortunate renewal of identity politics with a new harder edge-we saw that in the campaign with the slips about reparations and oppression studies, the clingers speech, Rev. Wright, and the ‘typical white person’ put down. Then with Eric Holder’s blast about Americans as “cowards” and now with the Supreme Court nominee’s somewhat derogatory remarks about the proverbial white male judge. We are not hearing praise of the melting pot ideal of intermarriage, assimilation, or integration-even if such elites in their private lives do not predicate their daily regimens in terms of racialism. I spent 21 years in a university in which quite affluent elites sought any multicultural patina possible for an edge in professional advancement and general leverage–the hyphenated name, the addition of the accent mark on the name, the non-American accentuation, occasional ethnic dress, the relabeling of one as a designated minority who otherwise had not previously emphasized race, etc.—that would suggest they were not part of the popular capitalist culture-supposedly centered on the white male-around them. Yet I left sensing the industry of race was doomed, due to the power of popular culture, the unworkable labyrinth of racial identification due to intermarriage, the laughable contradictions (the jet-black immigrant from India got no favored treatment, the light-skinned Costa Rican name Jorge piggy-backed onto the Mexican-American experience), the son of the Mexican father who used his name Gomez was authentic, the son of the Mexican mother who carried his non-Mexican father’s name Wilson was not. And on and on with this ridiculous neo-Confederate practice of adjudicating percentages of race to the sixteenth, and drops of targeted minority blood—a racist enterprise to the core. The only constant? The white male was fair game. It mattered little that more women were graduating than men, that under the racial spoils system we were beginning to see white males in less percentages than those found in the general population at the university; instead, it was sort of OK to trash, as in the manner of Sotomayor’s comment, the proverbial white male, as if we are collectively ashamed of everyone from the Wright Brothers to Lincoln to John Wayne to JFK.
In a weird way, I don’t think we’ve seen officials of a government as racially conscious since the days of the 1930s. Surely in the last three decades one’s race has never been so emphasized as it is now-and large numbers of all races will begin to resent that once again we are not talking about the content of our characters, but our racial pedigrees and the degree to which we can all showcase the modern populist version of being born in a log cabin. There is a feeling I think that every Obama appointment for some reason either will fit some desirable race/class/gender rubric, or, if not, will soon have to be “offset” one-for-one, by another PC selection to come: sort of Obama’s racial version of Al Gore’s carbon offsets. This is very disturbing, and one is surprised that sensible people seem to be happy with seeing people in terms of racial profiles rather than simple human beings with a common humanity.
Here in the eastern Mediterranean, one should remember the story of the last 3,000 years is the escalation of such tribalism into mayhem, as those of different races and religions went at it ad mortem. Why emulate the former Yugoslavia, or Kurd/Shiite/Sunni, or Rwanda, when the US alone had created the basis for a multiracial culture under the aegis of a shared Western paradigm?
“…was far better here-less work, more benefits”
This sort of behavior is not sustainable over the long term. Such a society is doomed ultimately to become poverty stricken. These people are living off the efforts and achievements of those long dead. They are also unlikely paying for their own defense. In the back of their mind, the United States is expected to save them if the crap hits the fan.
I’m proud to be a white male professional born and formerly from California.
Hey, at least I can vote against Harry Reid now.
Regarding US Thoughts:
Doctor Hansen, there is a glimmer of hope here. Thanks to the blogosphere, thanks to people like you, thanks even to Fox News, some of this is coming to light. Slowly, people are waking up. A lot of people decided to vote for Obama in spite of the evidence; now they are seeing the outcome. A lot will be said about Sotomayor; Chuck Schumer has already put one foot in his mouth. Every time he dismisses Everyman in favor of the Ruling Elite, he hurts himself.
Please keep writing powerhouse analyses. Please keep putting the great issues in plain words so that your readers can forward them to people who are not so much undecided as kept ignorant by the MSM.
You are pulling your weight, and we’re grateful for your efforts.
Victor you may be right about Sotomayor, but I would try to include the rest of the quote,
“First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
That is the part most have heard, this is the part they leave out,”Each day on the bench I learn something new about the judicial process and about being a professional Latina woman in a world that sometimes looks at me with suspicion. I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate. ”
If you can stand to read the whole thing, she seems to suggest that the life experiences and prejudges we all have need to be checked and evaluated everyday.
Doesn’t sound so bad to me.
As for her reversal rate, she wrote 380 opinions of which the Supreme court heard 6 and reversed 3 with 1 pending. Sam Alito had 2 heard by the Supreme court and was reversed both times. So with most judges having a average reversal rate of 75%, Sotomayor’s 60% is ahead of the curve.
Professor, Does history offer some insight into an exit strategy for the racial-attuned body politic? Are we simply doomed to repeat the “mayhem?”
Hey Doc,
I’m really enjoying your observations about Europe.
One thing I’ve learned during my long sojourn in Europe is that America really is an exceptional place. Of course, that may no longer be true the way things are going back home.
I don’t know if I can agree with you about Euro weenies being as fat as Americans. The first thing that strikes me during my annual trip to the USA is how many obese people I see. Many walking around in rubber shower shoes in the winter because even their feet are too fat. Maybe, coming from California, it’s different from your perspective. But the Euros have a long way to go before they can catch up with the “corn fed” in the mid-west.
The “Easy Life” can be very seductive. The Euros are no better than slaves who are well cared for on an easy going plantation. I was shocked when I first came to Europe at how many upper middle class people are content living in an apartment that wasn’t much better than my “married students” abode during my university years.
I usually show up my office around 7:30 AM while the Euros don’t start drifting in until 10 AM. The work day begins with a 30 minute coffee break. Lunch runs from 1 PM to about 2:30/ 3:00 PM. Then there’s another 30 minute coffee break with a departure to home around 5:30 PM. How businesses stay afloat I’ll never understand. (probably because they have a few token Americans doing most of the work).
There’s an old joke around here:
Americans live to work and Europeans work to live.
Why indeed emulate past tragedies?
Because reason is such a tenuous force in the world…..
As always, your travel musings are of great interest…thanks for taking the time for us back home.
I guess the real bitch comes when one reads the classics, the histories of western civilization, etc.
Haven’t I seen this picture before? Yes…and so too the consequences!
Dr. Hanson,
I have read a lot of your books and commentary since 9/11. I enjoy your writings. Can you provide an area on your web site for pictures from your trip to Europe.
Thanks for the insightful summary Dr. Hanson, depressing though it is. One may, in a darker future, look back at your blog and wonder what we could have done and why we didn’t do it.
This racialist bent from the left really scares me too. Obama talks of empathy. Where was Sotomayor’s empathy for the New Haven firefighters who studied and passed the test to advance their careers only to be thwarted by an arbitrary racial quota? Wouldn’t the populist, indeed empathetic (not to mention constitutional) view have been to waive the quota and promote the firefighters who passed the test, regardless of race?
The left seems to me more and more schizophrenic in that every one of their causes comes through at the same shrill level even when they are contradictory.
Again your post summarizes so much and is a reminder of what many of us deep down know to be true.
I cant imagine discussing anything with a European whose goals are to inherit what his parents got from their parents, who wants to work as little as possible, and make up the difference through dishonesty.
I have always wondered how people could live in a society where the average person lives like sardines stacked on top of each other and can only do that because they share the sardine can with so many relatives and only get to stay in it because it was passed down to them. That alone should motivate them, but their sense of action and achievement has been destroyed by the post ww2 socialist mentality.
It seems to me that average adult Europeans work at jobs that pay next to nothing and the US equivalent job is typically manned by college aged kids going through school who dont look at the job as a way of life, but something for extra money while in school etc. These american kids live with their parents and have higher aspirations because they want stuff and dont want to live with mom and dad their whole life. Europeans just want to do as little as possible for as long as possible.
Its not that hard in America to get a house and a little bit of land. For Europeans its near impossible so they hate us and want us out of their affairs yet they all want to be us and will call us when a tyrant tries to take over their country and lazy way of life. They think their better because they have jeans with some fancy italian name while ours say Levis.
The more anti american they are the lazier they tend to be and the more accepting they are of their circumstances rather then trying to better themselves in an honest way. They want handouts and will work the system to get more. What wonderful peopls. Kind of reminds me of our USA welfare class.
Obama is bringing this mindset to the USA. The real producers of this country will have to work even more to pay for the people who feel they are entitled to everything and should not have to deal with the ups and downs of trying to achieve on merit.
Europe has great historical sites and any culture different then ours will be full of people who can give us new perspectives on life, but overall it is crap of a continent that is being overrun by Muslims forcing its people to be even more dependant on government and those with some sense of hard work are just giving up and wondering what happened to their country.
For all the messes we have here, there is so much open space and development yet to be completed. Obama can try all he wants to dumb down our country, but there are still plenty of people who see the opportunity and healthy way of life that this country provides.
If I want to see some good soccer and some history, I will go to Europe, but Ill take my house and land here any day over a sardine can, less work, and untaxed dishonest income.
Europe is so yesterday.
As I understand it, the GOP had been sequestered into a press gang, forced by well-intentioned forces with perhaps diabolical intent always kept well hidden within the margins of perception, a subterfuge as my old semantics professor used to wax on incessantly, shredding deadened and browned cast-off Repug talking points amongst the verdant green mire of yonder swamp, i.e., Washington D.C., struggling Sisyphus-like in absurd inanity to stem the tide of the inevitable slogging off of all that is created within this temporal and mundane media existence, as if trying to empty the ocean with the virtual kitchen serving spoon. Perhaps a heavenly fire will rain down and, in some state of temporary permanence, cleanse and remove the leafy lush compost that comprises the chronic stone on their respective backs and ache in yon buttocks, transitorily relieving them of this vexing burden, if only for an all too brief respite from this drudge making cudgel chained to what remains of their creative spark and flagging spirit. If it’s any consolation to ye, I was there in spirit, if only because I myself had a list both devilish in design and seemingly endless toward any recognizable rationale, know what I mean? It only predisposes to worsen before any indication of relief can be possible meaning lots of work and financial frustration for all of us. To what purpose says they, Ahab like before the credulous crew laboring mightly in their heads? Only a temporary moment of glee for the mistress of the estate, to be promptly replaced by yet another crisis/battle/truce yet to be foisted and realized, but not analyzed. Such is all our fates: The GOP, RNC, etc., shreds endless miles of facts and splits the floating logs of their discontent, and we all play the tragic hero in a play nobody has finished and has no apparent purpose except to augment our misery.
It’s been madness and ages since I’ve heard legible signals from their end (clever pun!) in this star be-speckled spiral arm, on an less active area of the nebulae. I’ve been eating tea leaves and rubbing my crystal balls to give me some sort of formant onto the exact audio motif that may be emanating from quasars and pulsars operating in their vicinity, as reported by snails and slugs working for the federal bureau of narcotics. To be honest, the report that sat prat-like on my desk and greeted me this dismal morn amounted to nix, but there’s hope yet of significant synapse-related conjunction and intercourse, given the proper modulation frequency, of course after careful filtering and elimination of all bunks, swishes, and those irritating pops whenever the odd zeppelin flies over, obviously not adapt at modern aviation protocols or Robert’s rules of order. We’re, meaning the pejorative “I”, am working “on it”. Of course, needless to articulate, we are not amused.
Yes the good non-diddled altar boys of yon Repug symphony of sillieness is at it again, not only delightfully occupied with their respective joy sticks, but sufficiently engaged to the point of having to retire prematurely as the sole musical adherent at the local silent movie theatre, err, RNC, a gig they’ve held rapier-like over the protestations of a more saner and well grounded dues paying musician’s union members. Yep, it was reported amidst the gasps and guffaws resultant of the scandal that the good ex-Catholics and various lap-dogs of the religious rite are at their organs again, much to their mother’s shame and the parish priest’s nodding acquiescence. Aye, young master Cheney, his zombie press corp, and his many volunteer imaginary privies are armed, and I’m afraid that at this point not only has the trail gone cold, baby, gone, gone, gone, but the story plot goes to nil as well as the resale value on the Studebaker, and Aunt Malkin is under-sexed and looking for action. All is as it should be. Dobbs has determined a new errant course towards the Poconos, hoping to lay low as a washed up, finger-sniffing, has been and holding, scepter-like the obligatory rubber chicken as everybody in attendance screams “Foul!” It is to the east, ‘mongst the piney wooded moss-covered former swamp of D.C., where the sun no longer shines that he hankers for. Please don’t ask me what it is they do due. I hope their course is a slap-happy smooth sail up languid rivers resplendent in verdant baby-bottle green and joyous as the rare endangered emerald toothy turtle.
It’s one thing to cite classical Greek thought as a precedent for western behavior.
Another classic source is obviously Judeo/Christian canon. The book of Judges repeats over and over how people followed the good path, but time went on and then, ‘…did what was right in their own eyes.’ They eventually broke the law, made up their own or copied their neighbor’s ways in opposition to staying on the previous path.
The analogy is the Greek deciever above (or many of the Left for that matter) and how unlawful behavor becomes as widespread as Temples and Churches become less attended.
While the professor points to nemisis as that which foils the lawbreaker, the western religious man (not that VDH isn’t) points to one involved deity who is hard to understand and at the same time may be predictible with wrath as punishment correcting we who stray.
It’s optimistic. It’s tough love. It’s hope we can believe in.
“If you can stand to read the whole thing, she seems to suggest that the life experiences and prejudges we all have need to be checked and evaluated everyday.
Doesn’t sound so bad to me.”
We don’t need to merely rely on her words. Those can often be mealy-mouthed and “nuanced.” It is better to look at an actual court case—and the Ricci decision is an excellent example. Judge Sonia Sotomayor put the screws to a white fireman. That’s enough to justify the rejection of her appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Frank Ricci is our poster boy. We need to make sure he becomes famous.
The current state of affairs is an outrage. So what do we do?
Geez, Professor, am I going to have to get all Kipling and “If” on your behind?
Keep your head, shipmate! Too many about you are losing theirs.
If the outcome of this disjunctive, Orwellian time is not in our hands, then whose is it in? And if it is in other hands than ours, by whose leave is it so?
I agree with njcommuter at #3 — you are making a difference by writing, by communicating your thoughts, by reminding us of our history and who we are, and what that means to our spirits and hearts. The info-age is a two-edged sword: Orwellian propaganda blasting from some media, the cacophonous sound of freedom — independent thought, free exchange of ideas, actual history and truth, honestly retailed — from others.
And RJ’s comment at #8 is well-taken too, because the fact that this has happened before — AND YET HERE WE ARE — is a more powerful one than all the rest. People in every age have been sure the world is about to end. It didn’t.
We have a difficult time ahead of us, but we will have a choice at every step. If evil triumphs, it will be because good men did nothing. Even today, I am far from convinced that Europe has no alternative to expiring in a whimper of shabby melancholy. There are still many Europeans with the character you celebrated a few weeks ago in “60 million Americans.” Their governments, entitled constituencies, and a bloated government-academic class, batten on them like barnacles on a great warship, but they are there.
As are we. None of us here today asked to be alive in this time. We have only about as much wisdom as our forebears to get through it with, if that. But we have a choice in how we deal with it. There is no fate dictating that we must submit to a creeping “Tyranny by DMV.” The one thing that can guarantee the sunset of Western liberalism is OUR acceptance of its demise.
Western liberalism having devolved into secular human self-reference, the disjunction of this time may well have its source in the inability of that liberalism, by itself alone, to justify itself to our spiritual aspirations. It’s worth considering that as perhaps the main limiting factor on optimism, for many classical liberals today.
CAN Western liberalism save itself, by itself? I don’t know. A time seems to be coming when the courage of men WILL fail, unless we are compelled from the depths of our souls to stand firm against collectivist tyranny, with our fundamental justification: “God helping us, we can do no other.”
Joseph, or anyone else,
Would you care to explain why being “Latina” or “Hispanic” matters at all? Am I supposed to believe that immigrants from a country that speaks Spanish are somehow special and superior to immigrants from countries that speak Russian or German or Chinese or Hindi? Or, am I supposed to be believe that immigrants from Central or South America are better than immigrants from Asia, Europe or Africa?
My only hope for the US at this point is that some states or collection of states acting in concert defy the federal government and the tyranny of ‘progressives’ and their idiotic policies. I’m imagining a haven for traditional individualist Americans. I don’t have much faith in that coming to pass either though. This country is probably ruined. We have arrived at that time De Tocqueville warned of:”America will last until the populace discovers that it can vote for itself largesse out of the public treasury.”
I’m making plans to emigrate.
Theodore Roosevelt strenuously opposed the concept of “the hyphenated American.” He was right. Cultic considerations and ancestry, regardless of merit, have become the critical factors. Chaos will be the ultimate result.
Because it’s politically profitable.
Victor: As an American whose father was born in Italy and whose mother was born in Denver Colorado, let me say this about Greece. They produce wonderful olive oil and wonderful olives, but the Greek people who I met in Greece tend to be very arrogant and very soft. If the Russians decided to invade Greece, I suspect that the war would be over in 48 hours, maybe 72 depending on how fast the Greeks could put up their white flags. I’m glad my father decided to come to America. We bailed Europe out of World War II and we will probably have to bail them out of World War III.
kudos Dr Hanson you state so well what I live with as an American in France. Thank you so much!
JE, to clear up the murky depths of Freudian psychoanalysis you so dearly want to swim in…. St. Dick says you done summpin’ bad. And that fishy smell? Well, squid’ll get ya ten, you’ve done summpin’ bad. Now as to the medication mix-up, Sigmund would say, “There are no arbitrary mistakes.” (Of course, he’d do it with a sticky, Austrian/Jewish accent) “Young man,” he’d cackle, “You has done summpin’ bad.” Then of course, he’d offer his knee for you to bend over. Then he deliver a good Sister Ann Daniels whack or two to your milk toast, mushy, putty butt. Feel better now?
But seriously, within the previous 8 years things threatened to spin out of control on almost a daily basis, which I try in vain to thwart at every circumnavigation of the lunar cycle, but the so-called positive results you and yours keep vaguely carping about are exasperating. I have a question for you, as that I assume you possess a thorough education and adjoining knowledge base adequate enough to perhaps retort in proper modalities. What does it mean when you have a full on disaster carefully fermented by the last 8 years of incompetence and greed, and you choose to worry about it now? I mean 8 years of hard nosed, humorless, monotone, and seemingly cluelessness, not happy go lucky, boisterous “Lets get America working again” cotton candy, but the crazy as a rat in a can decisions made on behalf of a few of Dick’s and Georgie’s well-off buddies. It seems the current white wash is to blame it on serial abuse of Cyclobenzeprine by the whole (or should I say “hole”) administration, as was widley rumored by certain WH staff. Okay, I guess people are inherently weak, so is that your excuse?
I think you just found John Galt.
15:David Thomson
You are right again in that Mr. Ricci is a very sympathetic poster child for reverse discrimination unfortunately the “per curiam” decision of the 2nd Circuit is very narrow and is better explained here.
“We affirm, for the reasons stated in the thorough, thoughtful, and well-reasoned opinion of the court below. Ricci v. DeStefano, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73277, 2006 WL 2828419 (D.Conn., Sept. 28, 2006). In this case, the Civil Service Board found itself in the unfortunate position of having no good alternatives. We are not unsympathetic to the plaintiffs’ expression of frustration. Mr. Ricci, for example, who is dyslexic, made intensive efforts that appear to have resulted in his scoring highly on one of the exams, only to have it invalidated. But it simply does not follow that he has a viable Title VII claim. To the contrary, because the Board, in refusing to validate the exams, was simply trying to fulfill its obligations under Title VII when confronted with test results that had a disproportionate racial impact, its actions were protected.”
David I think your argument is with title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
18:Paul from Hamburg
You are right that the experiences of a Latina isn’t better or worse than a speaker of Russian, Chinese or Hindi. My question is how many Russian, Chinese or Hindi justices do we have? Perhaps we should start with the second largest minority in this country and work our way to a Supreme Court that looks more like the rest of us.
The Modern Liberal views racial profiling and racism very differently than the Modern Conservative (or “Constitutionalist” – as I like to call myself now).
To the Modern Liberal, if a conservative engages in racial profiling, then he must also be engaging in racism. However, if a Modern Liberal engages in racial profiling, they believe they are engaging in “fairness.”
As I’ve said before: their concept of reality is skewed beyond repair.
#18 Paul from Hamburg: Sorry, fella – to the Modern Liberal, you might be an immigrant, but you are still white, from a predominantly white nation. The color of the skin and the more “exotic” the look and country of origin, the more the Liberal will view you as a politically correct choice – but only if you are a fellow Liberal. If you aren’t, then they believe you to have been a victim of Stockholm Syndrome.
P.S. Dr. Hanson: great observations! Thank you for keeping up with events and sharing your adventure with us.
I have a small house in Crete and live there for a couple of months every summer. It must be disappointing for a classicist to compare the modern Greeks to their illustrious forbears; I think that the Ottomans effectively transformed them into Orientals — they are far more like the Turks, Syrians and Lebanese than they are like the northern European states.
I’m amazed that while official wages are low and the tourism boom is a bust, my fellow villagers still employ illegal, mostly Albanian, workers in their fields, small factories and and for construction work. But they rail against them privately for being thieves and crooks. Unemployment is in the double digits, but they’re still buying cars (on loans) and expect their parents to give them a house when they marry, or to set them up with a small shop. Many live in multi-generational houses on separate floors, familiar to me from India, and also suffer from the vicious family/in-laws fighting that is the downside of such an arrangement.
The communists are popular because of their wartime role as partisans, not really the international Marxist thing that only exists in the universities. They tell me that they don’t like America because of its support for the hated military regime of the 70s. They’ve forgiven the Germans (who effectively bankrolled and guaranteed Greece’s entry into the EU), still hate the Turks and don’t like the Israelis (Jews). They see no shame in their lazy lifestyles (although Athens is chaotically ‘busy’) and being on the EU dole to get even the most basic of public infrastructure built.
VDH: a small comment , if you would , re: the latest eco-fashion statement from our “betters” in Euroland; during the mid-1700s Europeans generally believed that the North American continent was populated with smaller, indeed , inferior flora& fauna ( de Tocqueville noted this and appears to have tried to turn that absurd “pose” around – I do not believe he was successfull ) so, I amuse myself with images of our ursus horribilis playing with a small German black bear- the signet of Berlin- not seen in over 300 yrs in those precincts, ‘cept in a zoo.Perchance , they gambolled ‘neath a Sequoia? Generally speaking, Europe is lazy, smug(defensive) and weak,but, wonderful table manners.For my part , I do earnestly yearn for the land of my birth- England- to leave EU and get it’s mojo back.
Thanks Victor for your comparisons of European health habits with Americans.’ Honest life-style comparisons between “continentals” and Americans are anathema to the “Americans are FAT!” slander so prevalent in anti-American media corp’s products.
Carl Gordon @#24 redacted: “Bush did it. Obama inherited it.”
I’m not blaming you, Carl – there’s a lot of nonsense peddled in media these days, but this line is getting kinda old. Any executive office holder who takes over from another, no matter the scale of the committee he chairs, looks like a cad and an idiot if he dwells on his predecessor’s policy differences.
Now, to touch on administration appraisals of the American economy right now: funny thing is, the White House is saying that the economy’s “fundamentals” are still strong. I agree.
I’m one who can state this (I’m heavily invested in Obama’s market and I’ve done well in energy stocks of late), the “crisis” we are purportedly experiencing has been hyped for effect. There is no need to declare the desired effects: those are well-documented by now. But let’s not pretend that our 8-month old recession – which, incidentally, was predicted by the 8-10 year American business-cycle, is what politicized media say it is.
It is Obama’s ineptitude in disclosing his exploitive “crisis-gambit,” his relying on un-confirmed “czars” to implement policy (instead of confirmed cabinet officers), and his blundering grabs at financial and auto-manufacturing companies (ie. the sum of his reactions to his own media-hype about the “last eight years) that rankle.
I’ll wrap this up, Carl: all the world’s flaring conflicts, including our “soft” domestic ones” are about securing proveable energy reserves. So far, no amount of Al Gore-ian science has changed that fact. NoKo’s, Russia’s and Iran’s provocations ought to force this fact firmly into journalists’ faces.
Sites like VDH’s are busy sounding the alarm. They could use some sincere “mainstream” help on their side.
“In America, he argued, our police-state apparatus makes cheating far too hard…” Well, that’s one less a-hole in America. Hopefully, our police-state apparatus is chasing as many of those guys out as we can.
I suspect this whole “race-land über alles” thing will peak/collapse with Obama himself. Even comedian Wanda Sykes warned him, “the first black President–unless you screw up. Then it’s ‘What’s up with the half-white guy?’ ‘Who voted for the mulatto?’”
And I don’t think she was kidding.
Somehow picturing you over in the Mediterranean making these Orwellian observations “from the outside looking in” was particularly profound, as well as foreboding.
Great piece again. There’s so much to be learned from your knowledge and insights. Thanks.
I’ve gotta stop reading VDH. I’m just getting more and more depressed with every article of his that I read.
“the EU has more rules than does America. But those in any EU country that borders the Mediterranean, he insisted, simply ignore most of them-from the mundane like trash throwing to the important like paying taxes and reporting income”
True for Grece (and her islands), for Spain, for Italy, for Corsica, (Marseille, may-be) but I defy you to find this behaviour elsewhere in western Europe, impossible, we are controlled and self behavings.
Idem for the 4/5 hours /day job, not in our rules (even with the 35 h/week jobs, most of the time people make “heures supplémentaires” that are better paid !
for Nato, he is right, as soon the Americans leave, the Russians too :lol: in case of conflicts, difficult for these small counties, but you see what he said, EU will come and rescue them, in the name of the millenarium civilisation, for Greece, of course, we’ll make it !
You can’t compare what were the previous conflicts to what they’ll be nowadays, before it was because of nationalisms, today it’s about energy, Greece is quiet, who would want to invade her for “olives” ?
That’is why the oil countries are “hot” !
now, about the fat persons, again it’s in Greece, dunno about Italy, last time I went there it was in the northern part, and the women were quite elegant and slim, but the more you get into the south, the more these persons pay less attention to their look, and they likely enjoy sun and their food based on olive oil, feculents, cheezes, delicatessen with no restriction. Even the spanish women have become slim when in my youth they were “bien en chair”.
Also the habit of the children that live by their parents until they get married, that’s true, less in France and in the other northern EU countries
Now, if you find it better in the US, it’s because it’s your home, though I bet that this Greec man is more happy than you
Turn us over, we’re done.
“ For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste.”
–Hesiod: Works and Days
———————————–
Even the ancient Greeks recognized man’s penchant for idleness (and admonished against it, or so they said).
I don’t know about you, but if I could work for a day and accomplish a year’s work during that time (band get paid for it), I would jump at the opportunity in a second.
The Europeans Dr. Hansen describes, I recognize. But I draw very different conclusions about their behavior than he does.
Dr. Hansen talks like an American, writes like an American and thinks like an American. That means there is no way he can possibly understand European lifestyles, despite his world-wide fame as a classics scholar.
To harp on “cigarette smoking” is so……..I dunno…..declasse, I guess might be the word. It certainly is an American trait to make an issue of this wherever they might be. In fact, it’s embarrassing.
“Do you have non-smoking rooms?” How many times have I heard that? It’s like asking someone if they’ve used under-arm deodorant that morning. Low Class.
There was a book that came out in 1958 (!!) called The Ugly American. I’ve just re-read it. Things haven’t changed much. And now with Tupperware Clinton at the helm, they’re bound to get worse. I strong suggest this audience read it.
I would say a good 95% of the postings here so far show me one thing: 95% of this audience has no business – at all – ever, never visiting Europe other than perhaps for a whirlwind tour so you can say you’ve actually seen the Eiffel Tower. [Wow!]
But anything longer than that – stay away. You’re bound to get soiled.
Pathetic.
View from apar, I keep being astonished by your impressions, that I can’t find nowhere wherever I travel in France, and my family is also from the countryside of Brittany, that had the reputation to be one of the poorest in the previous centuries.
Popp in Vienna, our inhabitations are smaller becaus of the space we live in countries that have the proportion of one of your states, even mostly half of them, and I don’t speak of thetiniests. Now we had to consider the cost of energy, that we always paid at the higher price, when your rs was so lower, also, because in such “mini spaces” we are more numerous to live, in comparaison, see how the Japaneses and the Chineses are housed, they live in smaller inhabitations than ours
I think the essence of the Professors commentary is that Liberals, Liberalism, and Euroweenies suck. Hear, hear!
RE: #18 Carl Gordon-
Holy cow! What, are you taking a night course in creative writing at the local junior college and testing out your new “oeuvre” on us all? I wouldn’t bet too heavily on a career in constructing prose for cash if I were you. What happened to that good progressive ideal about conserving precious resources? You wasted over a thousand decent words to erect a nearly incoherent slab of meaningless goo. You post claptrap like that I suppose as some sort of a counterweight to Dr. Hanson’s posts, but there’s a big difference: even if you disagree with his thinking, he can express himself with faultless clarity and purpose- you are a smarmy doodler. The only thing missing from your post was a link back to your personal blog – an empty and lonely place for sure.
OBAMA AS “THE GODFATHER”
Watch you back America.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/05/chicago-mob-style-white-house.html
24. Carl Gordon: The year is 2009. The election is passed. The new presidents name is Obama. The economy is getting worse based on his policies. He is shall we say crazy as a rat in a can. He thinks he can pay off credit card debt with a credit card. Somehow the government is going to become efficient-they will decide where you work, how much you make, what color your roof is and precisely what “category” you will fit into. I hope you’re not a ‘white man’ cause if so you are screwed-judging by your posts though, that has already verily happened.
Socialism makes everybody equally POOR, not equally rich. Now the mantra is that all US citizens should own their own home, at the current pace of Obama’s government taking over, soon things will be like in Europe, where very few people own a home, and even if they do own a home, it is an apartment or townhouse, rarely a free-standing single building for a single family. My cousin is a nurse in Holland, and her husband is a cardiologist. They live in a nice townhouse, a building with 6 other units, with a yard, and they drive beat up old cars similar to college kids in the USA, and these are medical professionals in Europe! Most people in Europe don’t own their own car, either. Europe sucks, and it is crazy for Americans to think they will “have it all for free” from the Obama nanny state of welfare recipients of the USA.
“Why emulate the former Yugoslavia, or Kurd/Shiite/Sunni, or Rwanda, when the US alone had created the basis for a multiracial culture under the aegis of a shared Western paradigm?” Because the winners get to ride in Limos and wear expensive clothes and eat gourmet food, and………the losers get to pay for it.
# Carl Gordon
What a bunch of crap.
Following close on the heels of the Lacey Act and the Weeks-McLean Law of 1913, the framers of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 decreed that all migratory birds and their parts (including eggs, nests, and feathers) were fully protected.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act is the domestic law that affirms, or implements, the United States’ commitment to four international conventions (with Canada, Japan, Mexico, and Russia) for the protection of a shared migratory bird resource.
I believe that in the Mediterranean region, migratory passerines are still caught for the food market with mist nets. At least that practice still existed when I was there a few years ago.
I have a friend who works at the Department of Interior who at first refused to believe that Europe could be so backwards. I have since convinced him of the scale of European hypocrisy, if not of his own problematic idealism that misled him in the first place.
Carl Gordon:
Get some help buddy. Your stream of consciousness/Dick Cheney on the brain blather bespeaks of a need for serious medication. Cyclobenzeprine [sic] would not be a good choice. BTW, the abuse potential for that drug is almost nil, despite what you may have read in the blogosphere.
Joseph:
“I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.” (Judge Sotomayor)
So — We who judge must judge when “those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.” This leaves the door open for her to continue the latina-as-different-than-white-man rationale in judging. The Ricci case is a demonstration of this thinking
On the race and ethnicity issue:
I think many, many whites across the ideological spectrum were expecting a post-racial society with the election of Obama; the fact that they’re not going to get it may cause sociopolitical storm clouds to gather. Also, white teenagers are indoctrinated on racial/gender/ethnic/sexual preference issues throughout K-12, so by the time they get to college, they feel they are on the side of the angels. Imagine their dismay when they are told in freshman orientation that none of their previous “training” mattered. How long will this underground seething go on before it erupts?
“15:David Thomson
You are right again in that Mr. Ricci is a very sympathetic poster child for reverse discrimination unfortunately the “per curiam” decision of the 2nd Circuit is very narrow and is better explained here.”
There are legal scholars who strongly disagree. Judge Sonia Sotomayor is not obligated by precedent in deciding against Frank Ricci. Thus, he will remain our “poster child.” There is such a thing as knowing when to draw the line. Sotomayor has proven that she does not know how to do this. Her so-called empathy may hinder her ability to legally do the right thing.
I’ve never been to Europe to make any first hand observation, but I will always remember what my Hungarian-Swiss associate told me regarding Europeans versus Asians:
When you drive a Rolls Royce in Europe, the youth there will give you the finger.
When you drive a Rolls in Hong Kong, the youth there will have stars in their eyes dreaming of the day they get one for themselves.
He prefers doing business in Asia. He called the growth of Southeast Asia in the 1980′s, and made a fortune for his company (based in Austria).
Is it any wonder that Europe likes Obama and Asia liked Bush II.
Carl Gordon: “I’ve been eating tea leaves and rubbing my crystal balls to give me some sort of formant onto the exact audio motif that may be emanating from quasars and pulsars operating in their vicinity, as reported by snails and slugs working for the federal bureau of narcotics.”
I haven’t read writing like this since …
Okay, I’ve never read writing like this.
I would say the perpetrator of this polyverbal manifestation of gastrointestinal dyspepsia is suffering from hyperstatementism exacerbated by frequent ingestion of psychotropic flintstonian herbiage of a particular ocre vernacular.
It’s no surprise that Obama chose a racist leftist hack like Sotomayor for the US Supreme Court.-what IS disappointing is the free pass the GOP is giving her in the US Senate. Folks, the GOP is dead—-it’s the Libertarian Part,or bust.
“Dr. Hansen talks like an American…” blah blah blah. “That means there is no way he can possibly understand European lifestyles…”
But of course, our vastly more experienced and culturally nuanced “Viking” understands perfectly well the European lifestyle. Not a bit of the arrogant American abroad about him, is there? N.B. Viking: Elitist assholes like you are declasse whether found in Europe or America. And unfortunately, a dime a dozen in both places.
Re: # 18 Paul from Hamburg:
“Would you care to explain why being “Latina” or “Hispanic” matters at all? Am I supposed to believe that immigrants from a country that speaks Spanish are somehow special and superior to immigrants from countries that speak Russian or German or Chinese or Hindi?”
Paul, My Great Grandfather Ricardo Rodriguez as far as I have been told subscribed to Teddy Roosevelt’s view, given shortly before they both died, where Teddy said:
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.
The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country.”
I read Judge Sotomayor’s full Lecture entitled “A Latina Judge’s Voice” and at least she dropped the hyphen, specifically by dropping the word “American.” She refers to others as Mexican-American and African-American, but she refers to herself and her family only as Latino/as or Puerto Riquenos or NewYorkRicans. Here’s the money quote:
“America has a deeply confused image of itself that is in perpetual tension. We are a nation that takes pride in our ethnic diversity, recognizing its importance in shaping our society and in adding richness to its existence. Yet, we simultaneously insist that we can and must function and live in a race and color-blind way that ignore these very differences that in other contexts we laud. That tension between “the melting pot and the salad bowl” — a recently popular metaphor used to described New York’s diversity – is being hotly debated today in national discussions about affirmative action. Many of us struggle with this tension and attempt to maintain and promote our cultural and ethnic identities in a society that is often ambivalent about how to deal with its differences. In this time of great debate we must remember that it is not political struggles that create a Latino or Latina identity. I BECAME A LATINA by the way I love and the way I live my life. My family showed me by their example how wonderful and vibrant life is and how wonderful and magical it is to have a Latina soul. They taught me to love being a Puerto Riqueña and to love America and value its lesson that great things could be achieved if one works hard for it. But achieving success here is no easy accomplishment for Latinos or Latinas, and although that struggle did not and does not create a Latina identity, it does inspire how I live my life.”
My Family, after moving to this Great Country, never talked about “becoming Spanish” here, or “becoming Irish.” Maybe Sotomayor should read Teddy’s words a little more closely.
I recall someone warned us we would fall when someone like Buonaparte would come her from some off shore Island and see himself Like old “Boney” as more of a Corsican than a Frenchman. Those who do not learn from History are condemned to repeat it.
I have to put in a good word for one group (German) that I really like and respect: small entrepreneurs in the building trades. When we bought our house, I had 17 different companies involved in the remodelling. They were flexible, creative, hard working, and just plain nice. I basically told them what I wanted and chose fixtures, etc. so that they had time to order and plan. They worked out their own schedules and coordinated their work. When I came to the house (almost every day), they would tell me if any problems had been found under the plaster and present alternative solutions with an eye on my budget. These people won’t ever get rich, and you won’t hearing them moaning on talk shows. You might get an anecdote about one of their kids though. It is a shame they remain invisible to the outside world.
Since some here are trying to shake off depression, I won’t go into my views on intellectuals and TV talking heads except to say that a lot of those heads seem not to be filled to capcity.
The Democrats and the radical left would do well to remember what happens to tyrants and their allies.
In the end they will go the same way.
MisterH,
You actually READ that crap? I didn’t get past like the fifth word.
As usual, a lot of the difficulty – “hyphenated Americans” – is semantic. Hyphenated Americans are, historically and philosophically speaking, an oxymoron: the United States is not an ethnically-defined nation, as far as the Law. And the Law is our identity writ large, however dissatisfying that may be to Your Honor Sotomayor. The sincere immigrants – that is, nearly every single one of them – knows this both instinctually and consciously.
When I drive to work, I pass a Greek Orthodox Church, a Russian Orthodox Church, an Ukranian Catholic Church, and a Serbian Orthodox Church – remnants of an earlier age of immigration motivated by a badly misunderstood (except by its victims) historical dynamic. The proximity is probably 5 urban blocks. And this is only when I get near my law office – within 10 minutes of my leaving home, I also pass an Italian Catholic Church and several churchs of various vaguely ethnically-conscious Protestant denominations. Peace prevails. In fact, complete peace prevails. All of these congregants, all Americans, would regard inter-ethnic strife of the kind common in their homelands as abhorrently as the average Anglo-German WASP.
To the generation enduring post-World War 1 disorientation, this would be a miracle. Asian immigrants such as Richard must regard this ethnic-indifference, this ethnic-innocence, with a similar wonder and relief. At least I can imagine that that is so.
The point is that these immigrants apparnetly, and in practice, appear to have imagined America as a place where they could express their own individual lives, in the context which satisy its craving for romatnic meaning, in peace. And have found it, in reality and practice, to be so. The hyphenation, the ostentatious announcement of one’s origins – stripped of course of the crimes to which every national or ethnic identity (since they are human beings) – is counter-American. Even when you watch such a modest thing as Band of Brothers, you see Poles, Italians, Irish, American Mongrel – whoemever, Whomever, participating in total innocent natural human nonchalance in the great experiment of individuals in the collective experiment.
The enemey is ideology. Ideology includes the Continental misinterpretation of the significance of ethnicity/nationality. This is the error which Leninists and other left-leaning innocents exploit. Nevertheless, I still drive to work through my sleepy facsimile of Eastern/Central Europe and peace, nothing but true peace prevails… There is a lesson there which ideology will never touch…
moogie, you had me until “ocre vernacular.”
It’s painfully and embarrassingly obvious that the left is completely obsessed with race. It has become the first and most important consideration given by them. Conservatives are the ones who try to uphold Dr. King’s dream of content of character being held above skin color. Liberals are so busy making checklists they don’t even bother to look and see the damage they are causing to race relations in this country. All this color-coding is setting race relations back generations. We should be emphasizing what we have in common rather than pointing out and celebrating every last little difference. We are all individuals comprised of a lot more than our race, gender, sexual preference, ethnicity, class, and all the other boxes liberals like to put everyone in. We are all Americans, for starters!! And that is still a tremendous advantage in this world and something we can build on, despite what all the haters would have us believe.
#44 Rev316
“where very few people own a home, and even if they do own a home, it is an apartment or townhouse, rarely a free-standing single building for a single family.”
uh no, the majority own its home, wether a townhouse or a “pavillon”, villa, chalet, maison de campagne…, but in Holland, may-be not, cuz the country is small, where the land is too expensive to purchase
Moogie:
Would that psychotropic ocre vernacular perhaps be Amanita muscaria, a putative candidate for the famous Soma of Vedic lore, aka fly agaric which may be more pertinent to your spoof. Something has surely poisoned CG’s cognitive fly-cilities
#25 Self Hating Boomer – Wrong! You show that you’ve only “heard” about John Galt but have not read the book. I have. I know John Galt and he is the antithesis of what is described in your referenced paragraph.
Read the book. Maybe, just maybe you will learn something.
Dr. Hanson: Please don’t ever quit writing your opinions. We real Americans need you.
#18 Paul from Hamberg – I hope this provides a short and simple answer to your question:
1. Puerto Rico is a US Territory whose people are US Citizens, therefore Sotomayor is not an immigrant.
2. Obama needs to add a woman to the court to add more “female” representation and garner the woman vote
3. Obama wants to be the first US Pres. to appoint a Hispanic to the court. That is why the Dem’s derailed the nominations of Miguel Estrada and Alberto Gonzales who were Hispanic but were going to be appointed by a Republican, G. W. Bush. Bush would steal their thunder.
Why does a Hispanic matter? Because it means votes! They are a large, and the fastest growing, segment of US population. That is why the Dem’s fight tougher immigration policy which would limit illegals entering. They come to our country and, while some find jobs that Americans won’t do, many are recipients of welfare. They mean votes for the Dem’s.
4. Sotomayor is a racist, activist liberal who thinks like Barry does. She wants to use the courts to redress the past oppression and racism of this country (as they see it).
So, that is why Russian, German, Chinese and Hindi immigrants are not considered for the court. They either are not large and growing fast or they as a group do not have the leaning preferred by our Dear Leader. But the bottom line is, they just don’t deliver the “vote” potential. It’s all about votes. Hope that helps.
Carl Gordon, you could be Pajamamedia’s own Hunter S. Thompson.
I’d look into small “r” republicanism, too. It calls for practicing real democracy within an administrable nation-state. It’s the best way to hold politicians accountable in the modern, bustling and pluralistic nation state.
Recycling DeVillepin/Kerry/Schroeder-talking points about “squandered goodwill,” Bush’s wife’s hair or “Iraq” is old hat. But if you’ll toss some refrains about freedom, personal responsibility, financial success and love of country into your riffs, you’ll go places!
I think that one of the worst things that has happened to this country in recent years is the whole “celebrating diversity” issue. A lot of time and money has been spent on teaching people to “celebrate our differences,” and in teaching people what those differences are. In some cases, or maybe even most cases, our differences are rather obvious. I think that pointing out those differences, even in the context of having us “celebrate” them only serves to divide us.
In the last 8 years in particular, we seemed to have started looking at people in a whole different light. Colin Powell – the first African-American Secretary of State, Condi Rice – the first FEMALE African-American Secretary of State, Barack Obama – the first African-American candidate, and then President, Sarah Palin – one of the few female Vice-Presidential candidates on a major party ticket. We seem to want to split people into the smallest groups possible, and for what purpose? Are we not all Americans? Are we really that different?
I was not born in this country. English is my second language. But, when I am with my friends, I don’t see myself as being different. Yes, I grew up eating different food and speaking another language, but I want the best for my children as all parents do. I want the best for this country as all Americans do. I work hard to provide for my family as most people in this country do. There are more major similarities than there are major differences.
So, why do we focus on our differences rather than our similarities? Because someone thought it would be cool to have a month for one group, a month for another group, and so on. Unfortunately, they forgot to save a month for just plain Americans – or should I say, for white people. I know my heritage, and I can celebrate it without the rest of the country joining in.
I want to celebrate American holidays. I want to be with people who will see our commonality instead of our differences. Maybe it’s time for us to set diversity aside and just be Americans.
#60 dan: “moogie, you had me until “ocre vernacular.” I did? I didn’t even have MYSELF with that diatribe. I was just trying to glue together disparate and meaningless multisyballic compound modifiers in order to confound and create a perplexity of synaptic misfirings in the readers’ cerebral cortex.
#63 TLM: “Would that psychotropic ocre vernacular perhaps be Amanita muscaria?”
Nay, O tri-letter monikered respondent. The ocre vernacular in question (not to be confused with the grammatical vernacular) carries the non-specific label “marula” – which, when proper increments of temporal units have expired, causes episodes of vertigo to the hapless wildlife who partake and ingest its contents. Observe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9CYLqrhizU
My apologies to VDH and the serious folk here for my sidebar of silliness. Blame the marula.
Europe, there’s good and bad for all who experience it. I loved Romania, Austria – much of Eastern Europe. As well as Southern Spain. Though the snobbery was much more apparent in Western Europe.
France, you can have it. The restaurant prices are insane! I’d worked in Mali for nearly 6 months and wanted nothing more than good sushi and sake. I stopped in France/Belgium for a week to stay with U.N. friends from Brussels I’d made in Bamako. Suffice to say the ‘Sushi’ restaurant, which came recommended, in Paris charged PER PIECE, not roll! The tuna roll.. was CANNED TUNA! Unbelievable.
Southern France, which once boasted of beautiful cathedrals, possesses more Mosques than cathedrals today. Wow..
Regarding the Sotomayor discussion, Asians are the most successful persons, per capita in the U.S. today.
Even with the following in place to not make this so: affirmative action, EEO in college/ workplace, welfare, section 8 housing, food stamps, WiC, checkered credit/ housing loan approval, undocumented aliens possessing no insurance whatsoever, vehicle, health, etc.,
Head start programs, before and after school programs, ESL/ inclusive classrooms, a myriad of latino and black history degrees offered, all black colleges, racist groups receiving Gov’t funds: NAACP, La Raza, Hispanic and Black Caucus, respectively. The Hispanic and Black population is far below the successes of their Asian counterparts in the U.S., education-wise and financially. Even with these and many other advantages not mentioned!
I didn’t forget white people. Per capita, they too are far below their Asian counterpart.
Odd, considering Asians were put into camps and subjected to racial profiling in the 20th Century as well. Though we don’t hear the ‘reparations’, ‘Where’s our Asian representation’? nauseum were inundated with from the aforementioned groups.
The more America’s attempting transformation into our Atlantic neighbors, the, ‘The more you can’t succeed, go Socialist’ mantra is welcomed by the lethargic, lazy and incompetents of our society.
Suffice to say, the ever growing PC, EEO population vs. the protesters, who are dwindling/ giving up, the more likely this pathetic outcome will occur.
I am hoping the American company employing me will be digital whereas my wife and I will live on a boat, I’ll ‘work from home’ – a guy can dream!
. “Suffice to say the ‘Sushi’ restaurant, which came recommended, in Paris charged PER PIECE, not roll! The tuna roll.. was CANNED TUNA! Unbelievable.”
umm, you didn’t got the good addresses, there are many japanese restaurants, very cheap around fauxbourg St André, but at lunchtime, evenings it’s generally more expensive. I doubt it was tuna roll, then it wasn’t a real japanese restaurant, but a tourists “attrape-couillons”
“Southern France, which once boasted of beautiful cathedrals, possesses more Mosques than cathedrals today. Wow..”
I doubt so, so far they weren’t allowed to be risen, because of the drastic administration “les monuments historiques”, plus it’s well known that the meetings are made in buildings cellars, it’s your imagination !!!!
and cathedrals are mostly in the north, at a few exceptions in south west (at least those that are antic)
Another wonderful, penetratingly observant, stimulating report from the feet-on-the-ground scholar, VDH. Where does he find the time?
He makes brief reference to our “american exceptionalism” -we just don’t do things the way the Europeans do- and that is the source of much of their envy and criticism and allegations of “arrogance”. The arrogance is on their part.
Obama’s greatest wish is also his biggest mistake. He is determined to destroy not just the rest of the world’s perception of our excepionalism, but our own. He cozies up to Ero-Socilist leaders to show them that he wants us to be just like them – share their welfare sysems, share heir law. He warmly embraces Communist leaders to demonstrate his cmmon cause. He denigrates his nation’s past, attempts to cast America in the Socialist mold and uses “exceptionalism” as a term of condemnation of our history and our culture.
The rallying of resistance to this effort is in the Tea Party movement. It is a revulsion, not to taxes, not to abortion stances, not to “issues” – but the deliberate attack on the very things that still make this country great: as VDH puts it, an effort “to reconstitute american culture and society”.
This is a rising tide, a cross-party-line backlash against the increasing disaster that is being inflicted on our nation. It is a lot bigger than a GOP plan. That party shoud just stand back and let it happen. “UP WITH EXCEPTINALISM!’ is not a vey felicitous rallying cry but it is what every true American believer in our unique Constitution, our unique traditions of free speech and free markets, and our unique record of generosity in foreign affairs must stand up for. It is the movement that will bring him down.
PS: Has there ever been a more turgid, indigestible, incomprehensible, unreadable writer than Carl Gordon? He appears to be so infatuaated with his adjectival, aimless claptrap and tommyrot that he actually perceives himself as a clever writer. Or is it all a parody, a demonstration of how bad commentary in the blogosphere can be? It is so incredibly tortured that it would be hilarious if you could manage to get through more than three lines.
# 61 Jason
Amen.
good article mr hanson on the balkanizsation of society; now if we all got sensible we’d see our sinfulness and come running to the catholic church for the forgiveness of them. that’s the ark of salvation, and guess what else – its the ark of unity. if we were all devout catholics, ethnic and national cleavages would be tamed and rendered innoculous.
Very nice series from VDH. To say I am a fan of his excellent writing would be an understatement. In this series of articles we have more of the same: just good stuff and extremely well-written. VDH has been a large part of my own re-education program from many years back. Thanks to him and other writers (going back to Ancient Greece and not before), I now have a wealth of knowledge with which to impart my ideology to others. No teleprompter is necessary either, friendo!
On the downside, I find few folks willing to listen to the truth. It is nothing more than prudent to view the world as a dangerous place and yes there is evil. And ,no, the truly evil will remain so no matter how one bows and scrapes and tries to play nice and talk. I am an American living in Tokyo and I must say I am rather wary of my neighbor across the Sea of Japan. One can see Korea from some parts of Japan on a good day after all. Again, I truly appreciate your work VDH.
And take care! In this climate (not weather) I would imagine a VDH to be on some bad guy`s list.Mark Steyn as well. Enjoy his writing as well and you both take care! It ain`t safe out there for folks who tell the truth!
Sam,
I’m an expat and happy. Where will you emigrate to? Considering health care quality, standard of living, freedom, and price, your options are limited. What languages do you speak?
Sotomayor is so flawed and such an obvious idiot that this may be where we draw the line on trashing the white male and exalting the female “person of color.” She is awfully pale to be a person of color and I don’t know how she can be a member of La Raza, looking like a Spanish oppressor. My step kids find all this amusing, they are black when that is convenient and Jewish when that is convenient, same goes for being Canadian born with American parents. Maybe they are the evolving trend. A lousy judge is a lousy judge regardless.
Dr. Hanson,
I love to read you, it is wonderful, and I loved it. I was happy to read John Wayne in your piece. I loved it, and I learn something new every time I read you. Stay safe and keep writing.
Carl Gordon: When you fling the term “rethug” my brain automatically disconnects. Your post is a self-serving cesspool and not worth trying to decipher.
I’m sorry, but I simply CANNOT BELIEVE that Dr. Hanson and others here continue to refer to the Obama era as Orwellian. Where were you the last eight years? This administration has been downright transparent compared to the truly Orwellian murkiness and deceitfulness of the Bush years. Come on!
To those few Ron Paul-types here who have criticized Bush et al, thank you — this criticism does not apply to you.
Joseph,
You overlooked the fact that this lady is 1. A member of raza, and 2. made the statement that the court is where policy is made. As a judge she is supposed to uphold the law, not promote illegal immigration as does Raza, and as a judge her job is NOT to make policy, it is to judge cases on the basis of the constitutionality involved. It is not up to her to determine if she agrees with the Constitution or not, although if she thinks something should be changed, then she can put it in her opinion. It is up to the people via the states to determine if the change is worthy of consideration.
“I think we are in an Orwellian time, and it is not just explainable by identify politics.”
Indeed. Life if becoming increasingly surreal.
Texas is not going to beg,
Governor Perry is standing on both legs,
The mockingbirds are singing his favorite songs,
We all join in and sing along.
Texas groups are singing about revolutions,
They sing aloud to the college group crowd,
Nevertheless, California is begging for solutions.
The stars have fallen to the ground,
As we tune out the Hollywood traitors,
Looking like a bunch of space invaders.
John Wayne is gone as if a field of old grain,
He will never ride into the sunset again,
So much has gone the way of our Texas sugar cane,
Hollywood is full of lies and broken traditions,
As they lie and breathe our air in vain.
Those illegal’s swim the river waters,
Just to find some free living quarters,
They have free health care and no taxes to pay,
As we continue to sing the songs of our fathers,
God bless the USA and, Amber ways of grain,
As we sing our songs in dismay.
It is recorded in our history books that when he looked down at the ship full of smiling, victorious faces… faces of his flyers, just having returned from Pearl Harbor, Japanese fleet Admiral Yamamoto was quiet, pensive, even apprehensive. He later wrote in his private diary, “I fear all I have done is awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.”
Here’s the thing, Victor… ending American exceptionalism was always the goal of the progressives now in power. Understand this, if nothing else… world government doesn’t fly if there’s exceptionalism in the world, which holds one nation higher than the rest. The power of unilateralism must be eliminated for a world government to gain power.
Everything Obama has done thusfar plays directly into the end game of a one world government. Every single thing.
I happen to think that direction intentional, because I know of no condition where someone can hit the mark so exactly, and so consistantly, without aiming for it. But even absent intent, he could hardly have moved us more exactly into the wet dreams of the socialist one worlders, than he has done.
The question, of course, is how to counter this trend. I will suggest as I have in my own peices at PJM recently that the GOP returning to it’s fundimentals is the only hope to accomplishing that reversal.. if there is still hope for it… and given the three years in front of us, that remains an open question.
The Tea Parties here in the US, and the anger I’ve written about are formidable. The sleeping giant has awoken, certainly. I wonder, though, if it’s already too late to save orselves.Alas as I say, that’s an open question.
Whoops! I mean “Amber waves of grain”. I know it’s wrong when I read what I wrote.
#45 Glen:
Yep.
When I read something like this, I’m jolted out of my depression — only to be yanked back when I see that NBC (submerged in the tank for Obama) plans not only an “inside” look at the Obama White House but a 2-parter!
I take heart that they are speaking to an ever-shrinking audience that prefers “American Idol” to substantive information and education. Then I see another Obama “journalist” plant like John Harwood on CNBC wax rhapsodic over the latest Obama policy diktat, reading straight from the crib sheet that Comrade Gibbs helpfully mimeographed for him.
The only thing that keeps me going is my determination not to go silently. So when the town “code enforcement officer” stops my lawn guy and demands a $200 “licensing fee” plus proof of a $20,000 liability insurance policy, and I later answer the doorbell to find a door-to-door panhandler, equipped with a handy Village permit, asking for a personal donation (yes! and I should be glad to give it, too!), I say to myself, Nuh uh. I’m not standing for this nonsense! Come and get me, copper!
As long as the profoundly obtuse and myopic think that their exports will not be affected when they practise trade protectionism, they deserve what they get. Frankly fewer jobs attributed to international trade.
Plus, when you have a leader that agrees that words have meanings, but the meanings of those words coincide with
what he wants them to be (as opposed to what the conventional definition is); you can be assured that that country will be hauled onto the carpet whenever it practises, “All are equal, but some are more equal than others”.
This is coming from a Canadian who used to stick out his neck for the United States.
As always Dr. Hanson, I very much enjoy reading your insights and analysis. Thanks and have a great trip!!
fauxbourg St Honoré, too bad !
For those who are still mystified by Obama’s apparent disdain for the United States, I would like to provide the answers for you. Please take the time to watch these two videos – they really do explain everything that has been happening in America for decades.
#81 Michael: If what I am seeing in the current administration is “transparency” then I must be blind. Note to self: buy some x-ray glasses.
Watch and learn:
The History of Political Correctness
Yuri Bezemenov:Soviet Subversion of the World Free Press
81. Michael, A beautifully Orwellian statement.
Limbaugh ate a log,
He got it from my dog;
Coulter ate one too,
In fact she had more than a few;
If she were here now,
She’d obtain a few more from a cow;
But, alas, there aren’t any left,
So keep a look out for log theft.
#71
Right:
Asians are the most discriminated against in the common culture and by other minorities. Also, the Chinese were they only group to have an immigration control act explicitly named after them (1884′s Chinese Reduction Act).
Wrong, but right in terms of magnitude:
Several hundred Japanese-American persons (Niseis) did call for and receive a paltry monetary reparation for their time in the internment camps in the 1940s.
In a lot of U.S. locales, Asians are eligible and do/did partake of affirmative action programs. Several non-coastal states (example, Ohio State U.) had quotas for Asian admission. Also, here in Chicago Asians were considered a disadvantaged group eleigible for set-asides for construction contracts – AND they screamed holy high bloody murder when Mayor Daley thretened to take them away. What of the Filipino “domination” of the Post Office in California? The Hmong are a particularly troubled group with gangs and “wildlife management” issues in the northern Midwest.
There is probably a north-south divide (with Japan = England, Korea = Ireland with nukes, and China = France/Germany) in terms of intelligence, industriousness, and adaptability in the Far East (the little tigers to the southare far better prepared than their Mediterrean or Balkan counterparts, though) similar to the one in Europe.
Also, VDH should change this part to:
Both Gomez and Wilson would play the system if they could, especially if Wilson came out “dark”. It all depends on what values Mr. and Mrs. Wilson imparted to their son.
carl gorden.”But seriously, within the previous 8 years things threatened to spin out of control on almost a daily basis, which I try in vain to thwart at every circumnavigation of the lunar cycle, but the so-called positive results you and yours keep vaguely carping about are exasperating.”
you go howl at the moon once a month and that entitles you to be pissed off at us for discussing relevant topics of the day?
” I have a question for you, as that I assume you possess a thorough education and adjoining knowledge base adequate enough to perhaps retort in proper modalities.”
you assumed wrong….to my uneducated self you seem like an gibbering idiot.
“What does it mean when you have a full on disaster carefully fermented by the last 8 years of incompetence and greed, and you choose to worry about it now?”
where have you been the past eight years,i have been worrying about this…since forever.
“I mean 8 years of hard nosed, humorless, monotone, and seemingly cluelessness, not happy go lucky, boisterous “Lets get America working again” cotton candy, but the crazy as a rat in a can decisions made on behalf of a few of Dick’s and Georgie’s well-off buddies.”
you just seem to be way more intelligent and “on the ball” than everyone else…..why are wasting your time here….some type of a community service perhaps?
“It seems the current white wash is to blame it on serial abuse of Cyclobenzeprine by the whole (or should I say “hole”) administration, as was widley rumored by certain WH staff. Okay, I guess people are inherently weak, so is that your excuse?”
my excuse is that no presidental candidate has ever been a fiscal conservative since i have been of voting age.who am i supposed to back in the elections,ron paul?
VDH sure brings out the fruit loops……
37.WTF?
“To harp on “cigarette smoking” is so……..I dunno…..declasse, I guess might be the word. It certainly is an American trait to make an issue of this wherever they might be. In fact, it’s embarrassing.”
a little more..
“I would say a good 95% of the postings here so far show me one thing: 95% of this audience has no business – at all – ever, never visiting Europe other than perhaps for a whirlwind tour so you can say you’ve actually seen the Eiffel Tower. [Wow!]”
i do no recall in any historical records the vikings ever being such sissy whiners.
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/text/history.htm
what gives..some kind of revisionism going on?because it is kinda sad to witness…i come from that stock and i find it mildly offensive.how do you think Svein Ásleifarson would feel about your tearful weepings?
Republican senators need to announce a list of Hispanic names that they would heartily endorse, and point out that the DemocRats scuttled the Hispanics nominated by GWB. It’s not about race, it’s about ideology. Give the ‘Rats 20 – 30 Hispanic names, and tell them every one will get plenty of Republican votes.
Hispanics aren’t stupid. If lots of Hispanics are suggested as alternatives to Sotomayor, they’ll put two and two together.
Oh, and regarding the comment in the article:
“Greece can count on a rapid-response EU force.”
heh
urbanleftbehind:
“The Hmong are a particularly troubled group with gangs and “wildlife management” issues in the northern Midwest.”
I believe the Hmong who originally emigrated here were given permanent refugee status. Effectively they became wards of the federal government, indefinitely. That’s part of the reason they’re particularly troubled. You’d hope that’d be a lesson for the rest of us: The helping hand of government, more often than not, holds you down. Sometimes by the neck.
Carl Gordon wins Longest and Most Pretentious Sentence of the Year Award with this sleep-inducer:
As I understand it, the GOP had been sequestered into a press gang, forced by well-intentioned forces with perhaps diabolical intent always kept well hidden within the margins of perception, a subterfuge as my old semantics professor used to wax on incessantly, shredding deadened and browned cast-off Repug talking points amongst the verdant green mire of yonder swamp, i.e., Washington D.C., struggling Sisyphus-like in absurd inanity to stem the tide of the inevitable slogging off of all that is created within this temporal and mundane media existence, as if trying to empty the ocean with the virtual kitchen serving spoon.
Lord almighty, and I worry about my sentences being too long. Carl, I went to grad school, so I can recognize windy pomposity masquerading as deep wisdom 10 miles away. Most readers got old and died midway through that sentence.
Joseph # 4:
1. I dare Sotomayor to point out a single example of “hardship” she went through as a “Latina professional”. It seems to me she did pretty well, despite the “suspicion” she encountered. The qualifier “sometimes” tells me she has no valid examples.
2. Sure there’s no “universal definition” of “wise.” Taliban elders think it’s “wise” to blow up girls’ schools.
A U.S. judge/justice’s job is to render judgment according to U.S. Constitution/laws, irrespective of their particular “wisdom,” derived from physilogy (i.e. hormones and ovaries), capacity to give birth, number of sexual partners and abortions, skin color, tribal folklore, degree of squalor in which you lived growing up, and any universalist definition of “wisdom.”
3. You can spin and twist Sotomayor’s lecture all you want, but there’s no denying that Sotomayor identifies herself as a “Latina” first, and not as an American.
That, to me, says it all.
Marie-Claude, forgive me – but I believe I know what a ‘Tuna Roll’, ‘Spicy Tuna’ is and tastes like! You can’t be that obtuse.
As for Mosques in Southern France, here are some sites:
http://www.thevoicemagazine.com/blog/uncategorized/the-failure-of-pastoral-only-churches/ (There is an interesting YouTube video to watch as well)
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=7990
50:David Thomson
As usual I agree up to a point with your argument. Maybe she should have drawn a line in the Ricci case, but wouldn’t that make her an activist judge since that would go against the letter of title VII? I’m sorry I didn’t answer your point earlier but I work nights and weekends. It is always a pleasure responding to someone who doesn’t respond with an ad hominem attack something I’m afraid I find myself guilty of. I find you sometimes to be one of the most convincing of those who argue against the Obama’s agenda, ain’t the USA great?
82:Howiem
You may be right about La Raza promoting illegal immigration, but their website says (Unfortunately, NCLR has been called an “open-borders advocate” and the “illegal alien lobby” numerous times. NCLR has repeatedly recognized the right of the United States, as a sovereign nation, to control its borders.) Maybe they are lying I just don’t know enough about them to agree with you on that.
As to the statement by Sotomayor that the courts are where policy is made, according to Rachael Maddow Judge Scalia stated that courts are where policy is made. Perhaps they are both wrong.
104 Paul, I am afraid that your site is ment to impress and deliver an opinion, but in any case this isn’t a report, and as far as France is concerned his basis numbers are wrong ; in last january the birth rate for us was “2,2″, the highest in Europe, though not thanks to our muslim inhabitants, that only represent the part of ~5% of the births. I agree that the other european nation are far worst, especially for Italy, Germany, Russia. In another report it was said that the french population will over pass the german’s by 2050 by ~5 millions of inhabitants. (today Germany ~83 millions, France ~63 millions)
http://tinyurl.com/my2blr
about the mosquees, check, there is one or 2 pro departement, (while there still are churches in each villages) :
http://mosquee.free.fr/RegionsdeFrance.html
a few pics :
http://www.islamisation.fr/album/mosquees_francaises/
The problem that was evocated lately, if we let the muslims pray in cellars, we can’t control their numbers and what they say, while with a Mosquee, it’s open to public and investigations
BTW, I’m not a sushi eater, but rather french and italian traditionalist (umm not for pizza and spagetti)
here is a video that explains how to make your tuna roll :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qndZKzNHpwc
Donna V. # 102 — I know one blog Carl Gordon’s semantics professor is never going to show his face at.
There is a feeling I think that every Obama appointment for some reason either will fit some desirable race/class/gender rubric, or, if not, will soon have to be “offset” one-for-one, by another PC selection to come: sort of Obama’s racial version of Al Gore’s carbon offsets. This is very disturbing, and one is surprised that sensible people seem to be happy with seeing people in terms of racial profiles rather than simple human beings with a common humanity.
Corporations are also starting to hire according to this model.
Carl Gordon # 12 , many of us are wise to the multiple postings of your verbiage.
Carl Gordon # 12, many of us are wise to the multiple postings of your verbiage.
Please delete my previous comment, as the link was not god. Thank you.
Sometimes, I sit back and try to view these current days from the perspective of what it will be like in 2075.
2008/2009 will be the years cited as those with the most massive social and political changes in the history of the United States.
The systems, policies and laws put into place by the Government undermine the very foundations of what created our country we are told that the very same people who destroyed it have the answers to save it, and only they can save it. The 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act, out of control collective bargaining agreements, out of control federal, state, county and local tax burdens, out of control special interests and lobbying industries, law suits, corruption, greed, out of date and myopic business planning, dishonest-sensationalized media, and rampant political correctness are all combined into a toxic tonic that we must consume.
We consume it because, like the good worker bees and army ants that we are, we are too busy to do anything else. Two jobs are required to achieve even a lower middle class lifestyle. Schools are the new parents, our children are being taught less and less individuality and more and more socialist ideals. The only thing Americans have the energy to absorb are the sports scores, The View, and dancing and signing contests. My friends are more likely to know how many home runs someone hit in 1988, than who their local, county, state and federal politicians are – much less their respective platforms.
So, here we are today. We have a self imploded financial industry that is slowly being taken over by the government. We have a self imploded automotive industry that is slowly being taken over by the government. We have a self imploded health care system being slowly taken over by the government. We have state after state, led by California and New York, self imploding before our very eyes – by the same forces that are now influencing the Federal Government. Media, churches, and other organizations will be the next targets for take over.
Sorry if I am too negative. It’s just that, we have seen all of this before.
“…but wouldn’t that make her an activist judge since that would go against the letter of title VII?”
The irony is that your position on Title VII completely contradicts the views of those politicians who voted it into law! Ted Kennedy argued that it was “groundless” to believe that “Title VII can only make jobs for Negroes by taking them away from whites.” Democrats promised that someone like Frank Ricci would never be hurt by this piece of legislation. Hubert Humprhrey would be rolling around in his grave if he read your comments. There is a book you should obtain. It is Steven M. Gillon’s “That’s Not What We Meant To Do”: Reforms And ITs Unintended Consequences In Twentieth-Century America. He devotes a whole chapter to the Title VII fiasco. The title of the chapter is “The Strange Case of Affirmative Action: The Civil Rights Act of 1964.” It is a must read.
Carl Gordon,
You are a babbling brook of nothingness. The next time you are on the can, please skim the latest edition of Strunk & White. Seriously.
4. Joseph:
It sounds to me more like she’s trying to finesse the statement. It does nothing to change that first opinion. If she said that a wise Latina and a wise white man should come to the SAME decision, then I could accept the rest as more than window dressing.
The rest is true, such as it is. We should all try to overcome our baser natures! But she’s putting her (and her group’s) baser nature ahead of another in a group she herself (by her logic, reversed) wouldn’t understand.
Marie-Claude, thank you for your fun, ‘How to’ spicy tuna roll response. I got a good chuckle.
As for thewebsite I had recommended, as well as yours, I believe were ‘both’ right.
Each site has an agenda of either minimizing or maximizing the Muslim/ Mosque numbers.
As for ‘Mosques being in cellars’, I would never support such a beastly act. The youtube video I’d recommended is talking moreso, IMO, the decrease/ stagnation of Europeans and or Americans whereas the Middle Eastern population and its Muslim faith is exponentially growing in both locales.
The youtube video doesn’t attack Muslims, though exudes some strongly supported opinions of the decrease of Western faith and its family dynamic.
Again, it was fun discussing the issue with you.
Tchin!
Herr Paul asks:
“Would you care to explain why being “Latina” or “Hispanic” matters at all? Am I supposed to believe that immigrants from a country that speaks Spanish are somehow special and superior to immigrants from countries that speak Russian or German or Chinese or Hindi?”
Paul, Hispanics are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from the island of Hispaniola, or with names similar to those people. Latinos and Latinas are people with at least a reading and writing familiarity with the ancient language of Latin, such as Professor Hanson. A decade ago, or two or three or more, our government in its wisdom decided to grant special favors and rights to these good people.
I really don’t remember why. In fact I suspect there was really no good reason why, except there were more and more of these folks in the country. You know how politicians like to favor a growing population, votes in the bag, see? I hope this helps answer your excellent question.
Thank you, Professor Hanson, for your words of wisdom in these most uncertain times. Before the election, I told any and all who would listen that if one wanted to feel warm and fuzzy over the “race” issue, one should watch the movie “Hairspray,” as the Obama campaign and administration would set race relations back about 20 years.
Here’s a question to ponder regarding “how far we’ve come.” We can elect an African-American as President, but can anyone imagine Mel Brooks releasing “Blazing Saddles” today in the eara of hypersensitivity and political correctness? Can “Blazing Saddles” even be shown today on a college campus without the auditorium being set on fire?
Unlike most respondents here, I relate to the first section of your column more than the last. To me, Europe died sixty odd years ago when the enlightened Europeans sent their Jews off to be murdered and didn’t lose any sleep about it after the fact.
Of course, the fact that the USA has allowed them to freeload ever since has given them the chance to live like spoiled university children, angry with “dad” for being such a militant force and party pooper, but still totally dependent on dad for security and well being.
Europe died between the end of WWI and the early days of WW2, when every nation but Britain either became fascist or surrendered to and collaborated with fascists, crumpling like paper. The American led Allies first had to save the rest of Europe from Nazism (which they had accepted quite pliantly), and then American led NATO had to save them from the the USSR.
And American led NATO has been occupying them ever since.
I can understand why they have no confidence in themselves. Look at where their history got them. But now it’s time for the US to stop intervening and let history take its course. The mantle of Western Civilization has moved across the pond. Europe died decades ago. Now it’s time to pull the plug.
By my count there are over 30 Democratic Senators from states where gun rights could be an issue. Sotomayor is an unrepentant gun grabber. I think this a more productive angle than her race or gender views. Republicans need to make her answer questions about the second amendment. If she tells the truth, the line of attack is obvious. If she lies, confront her with her previous statements. Then let the Democrats know that we’ll make an issue of it when they face reelection. If half cave in, and I suspect they would, she cannot be confirmed. She should, most certainly, be defeated for her racism. But that’s tough to do when the lapdog media will turn the tables and call her critics racist. The second amendment situation is political and better controlled.
For anyone who thinks that Obama will just nominate somebody worse, I think we have to draw a line somewhere and Sotomayor is well over it. The next nomination will come and we’ll deal with it when it does.
“when the US alone had created the basis for a multiracial culture under the aegis of a shared Western paradigm”
No you didn’t. Marxists set about mass immigration and multiculturalism as a way of destroying America while convincing Americans they were improving it. The survival of wesern culture was never part of the plan. It was a con from the beginning.
They’ll either succeed and get their wish i.e a Marxist slave-state including gulags, or everything will collapse into never ending ethnic conflict. Europe is in the same boat.
McCarthy was right. There needed to be a Nuremberg for marxists and because there wasn’t we’re facing the potential destruction of western civilization because of the Marxist fifth column.
TO: Banned by Huffpo:
“I think we are in an Orwellian time, and it is not just explainable by identify politics.”
Indeed. Life if becoming increasingly surreal.
—-You were banned, too? Welcome to the club with honors. I got banned and just used my other pc to just go back for more. Yep, just hooked up my old pc and appear in another guise on HuffPo.Or I drop by the nearest Internet cafe.
Yes, agree with you agreeing with VDH. If things were but surreal and stopped at that point. But the scary thing is that all of this is really real. Banned by HuffPo, eh? I salute you!
Roger Godby:
Sam,
I’m an expat and happy. Where will you emigrate to? Considering health care quality, standard of living, freedom, and price, your options are limited. What languages do you speak?
Are you referring to Sandoval? One of Cortes` finest (warau)? Kidding. No, I am happy in Tokyo. Japan has been part of my life for many years. Got family here. No emigrating. As Tokyo goes so do I. Read write Nihongo. Speak it fluently.
And you are right about my choices being limited, even without the familial ties. And that is often the point VDH makes. Have you read any of his books? 私は日本語ができるね。What about you, Roger? Location?