http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/vdh/ en-us Sat, 4 Jul 2009 17:03:14 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2285496/posts Conventional wisdom suggests that short-term the Palin decision was unwise — e.g., "quitter," unpredictable, sulking, etc. But what else are her critics really going to say? It's not like a Letterman can trump laughing at her on late-night television as he puns that a Yankees star had sex in a dugout with her 14-year old daughter. Can Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic website go beyond his slurs that she did not deliver her own child? How much more cleverly can N.Y. feminist pundits tsk-tsk her that she's a Wasilla trailer-park retread? In other words, it doesn't matter that much what... National Review Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2285496/posts#comment Sat, 4 Jul 2009 17:03:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283978/posts Obama’s policy is a lose/lose proposition that will please neither side Last month, hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest a rigged presidential election. Our president was extremely cautious in his initial criticism of the Iranian government’s fierce crackdown against the protestors. At first, President Obama said that the United States — given our history in Iran — should not be “meddling” in the country’s internal affairs. Obama suggested that the leading opposition candidate, the reformer Mir-Hossein Mousavi, might not be that different from the entrenched theocracy’s choice, the incumbent (and declared winner of the... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283978/posts#comment Thu, 2 Jul 2009 12:01:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283173/posts The Usual ApologyI think the standard explanation of the trashing accorded the foolish Gov. Mark Sanford (who in embarrassing fashion confessed, and confessed, and confessed to an affair with an Argentinean girlfriend) and the tsk-tsk treatment of former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards -who fathered a child with his mistress, lied about it on serial occasion while he tried to gain political mileage from his ill wife, all as he concocted an alibi that his aide, not he, had really impregnated Rielle Hunter-is that Sanford suffered from the addition wage of hypocrisy. That is, self-proclaimed moralists like the late... pajamasmedia.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283173/posts#comment Wed, 1 Jul 2009 12:30:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281768/posts Such a Prudishly Crass SocietyI was watching cable television about 5 PM on a Friday night, channel surfing between commercials on the Western station. Sandwiched between regular cinema programming were about several channels with what could legitimately be called light porn motifs. I then surfed through a confessional about phallic enhancement and a couple talking about herbal remedies for impotence.Once I got out of that channel cluster, and went into the 200s, here and there came up infomercials on everything from how to buy foreclosures with no money down, how to get out of credit card debt, how to avoid... pajamasmedia.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281768/posts#comment Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:08:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281655/posts For much of the Bush administration, the media splashed stories of neoconservative conspiracies and cabals. Exposés about mostly Jewish liberals-turned-conservatives charged that they were adherents of the philosopher Leo Strauss and embraced the Platonic notion of the “noble lie.” In his Republic, Plato outlined an elaborate, ranked utopia, a good city (“Kallipolis”) run by a sort of benign natural selection. The philosopher-kings sat atop hierarchies in which occupations were assigned for the citizenry. To justify arbitrary selections, the rulers would make up “noble lies” about divine edicts, making clear that the occupations chosen for lesser folk were god-given. Once the... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2281655/posts#comment Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:21:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279349/posts From today's news: "Reacting to Obama's comment Tuesday that he is 'appalled and outraged' by crackdowns in Iran, Ahmadinejad said, 'Mr Obama made a mistake to say those things . . . our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously Bush used to say.'" This revelation of theocratic hurt, surprise, and hubris actually explains a lot: Iran — given the six months (or longer?) of Obama's both backdoor and overt efforts to normalize relations — believes (a) that it has an understanding now with the Obama administration that normal relations with the U.S. trump all... NRO Corner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279349/posts#comment Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:17:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279095/posts Pres. Barack Obama came into office apparently believing that his non-traditional background, charisma, and good intentions could placate dictators hostile to America and ease global tensions. In these first six months, the new administration has made clear to Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and other strongmen like them that Barack Obama is not a mean-talking George Bush. A kinder, gentler United States has promised to push the “reset” button. In the interest of peace, an American president will finally be listening rather than lecturing, and willing to talk to authoritarian bullies without preconditions.... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279095/posts#comment Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:12:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278208/posts Recollections On a New Age BegunThink of the hope and change of just the last six months that have changed all our lives. It was, I remember, around the beginning of February when the understandable liberal angst about the Bush deficit simply disappeared. Gone. Vanished. No more haranguing about red ink and shorting our grandchildren.For the last eight years, I had some admiration-albeit along with plenty of bewilderment-at the newly fiscally mature Congressional Democrats and their impassioned attacks on Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility.But then suddenly their principled opposition paid off. Deficits disappeared-at least the multibillion species. Yes, borrowing was replaced by... pajamasmedia.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278208/posts#comment Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:21:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276725/posts Let Me Count the Ways Why Obama Should at Last Speak Out ( — I write this at around noon on Saturday, and suspect the pressure of public outrage will soon get to Obama, and he soon will recant and start sounding Reaganesque) (As in something like this:“Hundreds of thousands of gallant Iranians are now engaged in a non-violent moral struggle against tyranny in Iran-one of the great examples of bravery in our times. All free peoples of the world watch their ordeal, and can only wish them success, while owing them a great deal of gratitude for risking their... pajamasmedia.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276725/posts#comment Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:16:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276411/posts Let Me Count the Ways Why Obama Should at Last Speak Out ( —I write this at around noon on Saturday, and suspect the pressure of public outrage will soon get to Obama, and he soon will recant and start sounding Reaganesque) (As in something like this: “Hundreds of thousands of gallant Iranians are now engaged in a non-violent moral struggle against tyranny in Iran-one of the great examples of bravery in our times. All free peoples of the world watch their ordeal, and can only wish them success, while owing them a great deal of gratitude for risking their... Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276411/posts#comment Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:40:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276350/posts Who’s Victor Davis Hanson and what does he know? President’s spokesman puts money on Obama speechwriters © 2009 WorldNetDaily Robert Gibbs, the spokesman for President Barack Obama, today questioned who is Victor Davis Hanson and what does he know, when WND correspondent Les Kinsolving asked Gibbs about “mistakes” Hanson has pointed out in Obama’s speeches. Hanson, a nationally syndicated columnist and historian, wrote just one day earlier about “Our Historically Challenged President.” He noted Obama’s reference during the presidential campaign to when his great-uncle “helped liberate Auschwitz, and that his grandfather knew fellow American troops that had entered Auschwitz and... Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2276350/posts#comment Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:16:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275071/posts <p>I think the Europeans, who, remember, caught Obamania quite early, thought they were going to get more of the bipartisan American security shield, albeit with a charismatic multicultural veneer that would resonate with their citizens: no more Texas. No more Christianity. No more twang. No more nuclur. No more Iraq. But same old NATO. Same old bad cop to their good cop. Same old wide open Ami economy. Same old chance for triangulation.  And?</p> pajamasmedia.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275071/posts#comment Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:59:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275053/posts We use Orwell, Orwellian, and Orwellianism loosely a lot these days, but what is going on in the Obama administration is beginning to get a little creepy and resembles a lot of things Orwell wrote about in 1984. When in, Soviet fashion, a critical overseer is dismissed as being "confused" and suffering mental problems in carrying out the law, as Gerald Walpin probably did in uncovering waste and possible fraud in connection with the mayor of Sacramento; or when the government begins to create new words like "overseas contingency operations" and "man-made catastrophes"; or when Justice Sotomayor says that a Latina is... NRO Corner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275053/posts#comment Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:37:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275041/posts President Obama has largely drawn praise for his tepid response to the mass uprisings in Iran challenging the reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In general, Obama has offered three justifications for his tentativeness — and they have strangely been accepted by his supporters, who almost immediately evolved in lockstep from liberal Wilsonians to hardcore realists. Here are Obama’s three justifications: 1. Given the historical record of U.S. intervention in Iran, we do not wish either to perpetuate that shameful record, or to hang on the necks of the dissidents the smelly albatross of U.S. support. 2. We don’t know which side... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2275041/posts#comment Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:26:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274857/posts Are you confused by all that has changed since President Barack Obama took office in January? If so, you're not alone. Perhaps, though, this handy guide to Age of Obama "logic" might be of some assistance. • 1.The budget. Wanting to cut $17 billion from the budget, as President Obama has promised, is proof of financial responsibility. Borrowing $1.84 trillion this year for new programs is "stimulus." The old phrase "out-of-control spending" is inoperative. • 2.Unemployment. The number of jobs theoretically saved, or created, by new government policies — not the actual percentage of Americans out of work, or the... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274857/posts#comment Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:03:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274521/posts Are you confused by all that has changed since President Barack Obama took office in January? If so, you're not alone. Perhaps, though, this handy guide to Age of Obama "logic" might be of some assistance. 1. The Budget. Wanting to cut $17 billion from the budget, as President Obama has promised, is proof of financial responsibility. Borrowing $1.84 trillion this year for new programs is "stimulus." The old phrase "out-of-control spending" is inoperative. 2. Unemployment. The number of jobs theoretically saved, or created, by new government policies - not the actual percentage of Americans out of work, or the... Real Clear Politics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274521/posts#comment Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:13:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274258/posts Are you confused by all that has changed since President Barack Obama took office in January? If so, you're not alone. Perhaps, though, this handy guide to Age of Obama "logic" might be of some assistance. 1. The Budget. Wanting to cut $17 billion from the budget, as President Obama has promised, is proof of financial responsibility. Borrowing $1.84 trillion this year for new programs is "stimulus." The old phrase "out-of-control spending" is inoperative. 2. Unemployment. The number of jobs theoretically saved, or created, by new government policies - not the actual percentage of Americans out of work, or the... RealClearPolitics.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274258/posts#comment Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:04:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2273551/posts Apparently the Obama administration is quietly watching the situation, serially voting present, and unwilling to say much until the final outcome is certain. Meanwhile, debate here centers around whether Bush’s past “Axis of Evil” approach to Iran’s theocracy, or Obama’s “We are sorry for what we did in the past” lamentation is the better course for dealing with a thug like Ahmadinejad. Some thoughts:1. Conventional wisdom insisted that we had “empowered” Iran by removing Saddam and allowing the Shiites to gain democratic majorities in Iraq. It is at least as possible that we are destabilizing the autocracy in Iran by... NRO Corner & Pajams Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2273551/posts#comment Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:45:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271989/posts Thoughts Tonight on Iran1)   Why did we reject the Bush policy of non-engagement with a monster like Ahmadinejad, who oppressed his own and threatened nuclear destruction to Israel? Is it all that moral, or all that wise, or all that much in US realpolitik interests to apologize to a thug? Does it show solidarity with the Iranian people to court a nut? What is so smart in making Iran the center of our attention rather than the Maliki democratic government in Iraq? Hamas rather than democratic Israel? Is what we are now seeing in the streets of Iran proof of... PajamasMedia & NRO Corner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2271989/posts#comment Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:17:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270578/posts NRO Corner: A Letterman apologist named Jason Zengerle at the TNR blog claims logic is not my strong suit since I defended Sarah Palin's family and thought Letterman's apology was, well, like most of what he does these days, infantile and cowardly: I know logic isn't VDH's strong suit, but is it really so hard to believe that the joke Letterman was making about a Palin daughter getting "knocked up" was about the Palin daughter who, you know, got knocked up? Is that supposed to be funny in a Lettermanesque way? Zengerle apparently cannot follow basic logic, so here... NRO Corner and PajamasMedia http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270578/posts#comment Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:52:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270214/posts In the first six months of the Obama administration, we have witnessed an assault on the truth of a magnitude not seen since the Nixon Watergate years. The prevarication is ironic given the Obama campaign’s accusations that the Bush years were not transparent and that Hillary Clinton, like her husband, was a chronic fabricator. Remember Obama’s own assertions that he was a “student of history” and that “words mean something. You can’t just make stuff up.” Yet Obama’s war against veracity is multifaceted. Trotskyization. Sometimes the past is simply airbrushed away. Barack Obama has a disturbing habit of contradicting his... National Review Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270214/posts#comment Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:44:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2269613/posts Smug, hip David Letterman offered a smirky non-apology about his ongoing class and sexist slurs against the Palins, his apparent social inferiors. "We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news and we made some jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter, the 18-year-old girl, who is — her name is Bristol, that's right, and so, then, now they're upset with me . . .""These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl. I mean, look at... NRO Corner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2269613/posts#comment Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:00:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2269404/posts Eloquence and good intentions exempt no one from the truth of the past — President Obama includedIn his speech last week in Cairo, President Obama proclaimed he was a “student of history.” But despite Barack Obama’s image as an Ivy League-educated intellectual, he lacks historical competency, in areas of both facts and interpretation. This first became apparent during the presidential campaign. Candidate Obama proclaimed then that during World War II his great-uncle had helped liberate Auschwitz, and that his grandfather knew fellow American troops that had entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. Both are impossible. The Americans didn’t free either Nazi death... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2269404/posts#comment Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:49:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2269085/posts I am afraid I no longer believe . . . …That we have an inquisitive American media as we once knew it. There has emerged something as bad as state-sanctioned coercion—which we could at least identify, and thus struggle against. Now comes a more insidious, brave new self-imposed censorship of the Orwellian mode. It is not just the perennial embarrassment Chris Matthews describing his Obama ecstasy on camera, or even Newsweek’s Evan Thomas comparing his President to God, or even CNN execs being exposed trashing the US abroad at Davos, or whitewashing Saddam, but rather a more incremental new groupspeak... Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2269085/posts#comment Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:54:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267940/posts I am afraid I no longer believe . . .…That we have an inquisitive American media as we once knew it. There has emerged something as bad as state-sanctioned coercion—which we could at least identify, and thus struggle against.Now comes a more insidious, brave new self-imposed censorship of the Orwellian mode. It is not just the perennial embarrassment Chris Matthews describing his Obama ecstasy on camera, or even Newsweek’s Evan Thomas comparing his President to God, or even CNN execs being exposed trashing the US abroad at Davos, or whitewashing Saddam, but rather a more incremental new groupspeak in which... pajamasmedia.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2267940/posts#comment Tue, 9 Jun 2009 13:26:59 GMT