For Americans, Failure is Not Inevitable

In a speech to the Heritage Foundation, Victor Davis Hanson said that “decline is a choice.” He’s right. As Americans, we can choose to do nothing and fade into a black hole or we can choose not to and come out even shinier and sharper.

We have been told for over 2 years, by this president that we are not exceptional, that we do not deserve the wealth (as a nation and as individuals) that we have earned. We see it in the movies and on television: we are not the good guys anymore. Americans are evil and greedy, we are gluttons, we are wasteful, fat and bloated.  This is the message we are hearing from our so-called leaders, from the celebrities that we (falsely) admire, and from the educators in academia whose salaries we pay.

This message is not new coming from teachers or celebrities – we’ve been hearing that for decades from those corners – but it is new coming from our nation’s leader.

It is new for Americans to see a president bow to monarchs. A president who not only feels submissive to the rest of the world but wants to make the nation so, as well. In his warped mind, he believes it. He’s not proud to be an American and as all Americans know, his wife has only once been proud to be one.

Obama bowing to the Saudi king/WND.com

I believe that he is preparing us for the fall that he is creating. I believe that he wants us to feel unworthy of our place in the world so that when he ushers us into 3rd world status, we will be not only prepared but, feel deserving of that place.

The man who said he was going to be a unifier has divided us further. We are more polarized as a nation now, than since the Civil War. From his first missteps (“the police acted stupidly”) to his latest (“I’m here. Congress should stay here too” as he prepares for a weekend at Camp David and a vacation in Martha’s Vineyard and another round of golf on Sunday) he has proven himself to be completely out of touch with the people who put him there – and the people who didn’t put him there but who he represents.

Obama’s uplifting message (Yes We Can!) has become one of misery and depression. He’s produced a national gloom that we must shake off before we become forever mired in this depression.

We do not have to accept his vision of America in decline. It’s a choice. We must stand up and celebrate being citizens of the greatest nation and society mankind has ever known.

The time is now.

Ben Stein on Bloomberg’s life saving endeavors or not

I am endlessly amazed at how backwards we humans get things in our lives. Just let me give you two very basic examples, one of which is a crime against humanity.

I keep reading in the New York Times that Mayor Bloomberg, a billionaire health nut, is on a campaign against having too much salt in foods in New York City restaurants. His belief is that New Yorkers and visitors shorten their life spans by eating too much salt and therefore raising their blood pressure in a dangerous way. If he took control over the salt content in New York restaurants, he could save a few dozen lives per year, he believes.

But, wait a moment. I also read in the New York Times that New York City is one of the abortion capitals of the nation, with a much higher rate of abortion than most other parts of the nation. And Mayor Bloomberg is a great fan of “…a woman’s right to choose…” to abort her baby.

As I calculate it in a rough way, New York City has about 8 million persons living there, or about (very roughly) 3 per cent of the nation’s population. And New York has a much higher abortion rate than the rest of the nation. So it is possible that New Yorkers have about 50,000 abortions per year, or maybe a lot more.

That is 50,000 killings of totally innocent children every year. Does Mayor Bloomberg think that his anti-salt campaign means much compared with that number? If he wants to save lives, why doesn’t he throw his tiny weight and his huge purse behind right to life? That’s a truly life-saving act.

From Ben Stein/The American Spectator

Isn’t there some noise out there that this idiot Bloomberg is thinking of a presidential run in ’12? He wouldn’t stand a chance so he needs to forget that idea. Lord knows that he has nothing of importance in New York to worry about so he’s down here in Arizona investigating us!

And some more good stuff I read this morning:

Daniel Halper writes in today’s Weekly Standard that Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is refusing to expand his investigative committee to include neo-Nazi and other extremist organizations in America because he believes that al Qaeda presents the clearest and most dangerous threat to national security.  According to King: “Pursuant to our mandate, the Committee will continue to examine the threat of Islamic radicalization, and I will not allow political correctness to obscure a real and dangerous threat to the safety and security of the citizens of the United States.”

samiam60 has a great blog including Robin of Berkeley (from American Thinker) on why so many liberals hate Sarah Palin.

Bob Mack has a touching blog from last night about the poor – no pathetic – medical care our vets are receiving.

Victor Davis Hanson at Pajamas Media writes on the consequences of the Egpytian chaos : “I think unfortunately we may go the 1940s “we can work with Mao”/1970s “no inordinate fear of communism”/2000s “jihad can mean a personal struggle” route, where liberals believe that totalitarian nationalists somehow admire the American Revolution and our lack of a colonial heritage, and, as closet moderates, wish to work with us. That translates into a backdoor courtship with the Muslim Brotherhood…”

You need to get “fired up and ready to go”?

You need a reason to vote? Read this by Victor Davis Hanson.

If Hanson’s post today doesn’t “fire you up – ready to go” vote, nothing will!

This regime has to be neutralized and the only way to do it is to vote in overwhelming numbers. I don’t care if nothing gets done in the next two years, in fact, I’m hoping nothing does get done!  The less this government can do, the better for all of us. And that includes defunding NPR, NEA, PBS, and the most horrible of all – HEALTH CARE! If they are defunded, nothing will be done at those entities that can offend or rob any of us.

This man and his agenda HAS TO BE STOPPED before we lose everything we’ve taken for granted. It’s time to stop taking for granted and start standing up and being counted.

Get out and vote and when you do, do so carefully!

A nation of peasants? – Victor Davis Hanson

Traditional peasant societies believe in only a limited good. The more your neighbor earns, the less someone else gets. Profits are seen as a sort of theft. They must be either hidden or redistributed. Envy rather than admiration of success reigns.

In contrast, Western civilization began with a very different ancient Greek idea of an autonomous citizen, not an indentured serf or subsistence peasant. The small, independent landowner — if left to his own talents and if his success was protected by, and from, government — would create new sources of wealth for everyone. The resulting greater bounty for the poor soon trumped their old jealousy of the better off.

Read entire article here.

Quote of the day – Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson gives us 10 reasons why we probably miss George Bush. Number 10 is great:

10. Bush was authentic. He mangled his words. A liberal industry grew up around both “nuclar” and its sometimes corrective “nucular.” He strutted and talked Nascarese-like “bring ‘em on.” Much of this was excessive, but we knew at least Bush meant it. We got worried when he extemporaneously expounded for long riffs about freedom at press conferences, as his eyes rolled and he drifted from topic to topic. He put his arm on Angela Merkel and cried out “Yo Blair.” The media told us he was a yokel; we might add: albeit an authentic one who could duck properly when under shoe attack.

But Obama? He cannot really speak off the teleprompter without pauses, repetitions, and constant self-referencing (as in “me,” “I,” “my,” etc.). He is stiff and not comfortable with himself off the court or golf course. Bush made decisions and stuck by them; Obama the professor offers a perennial “on the one hand”/”on the other hand” mish-mash and a sorta, kinda, almost answer. Americans would prefer to be in a foxhole with George Bush, who would swagger and announce as decider-in-chief at H-hour, “OK, pard, we’re going over the top together on this one.” They wouldn’t want to be with Obama, who would stutter and give a long-drawn out exegesis why race and class had condemned us to such an unfair predicament, whose only solution is to go into a fetal position and condemn “them” who did this awful thing to us.

Victor Davis Hanson – We’re all bigots?

from National Review Online.

Great column. And not too long.