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Miscellaneous thoughts and ramblings
Friday, December 16, 2005
 
VDH - Lancing the Boil
If I were smarter, better informed, more eloquent and less bald, I would be Victor Davis Hanson

Lancing the Boil

Excerpt:
But in the real adult world, the economy is red-hot, not mired in joblessness or relegating millions to poverty. Unemployment is low, so are interest rates. Growth is high, as is consumer spending and confidence. Our Katrina was hardly as lethal as the Tsunami or Pakistani earthquake. Thousands of Arabs are not rioting in Dearborn. American elderly don’t roast and die in the thousands in their apartments as was true in France. Nor do American cities, like some in China, lose their entire water supply to a toxic spill. Americans did not just vote to reject their own Constitution as in some European countries.

The military isn’t broken. Unlike after Vietnam when the Russians, Iranians, Cambodians, and Nicaraguans all soon tried to press their luck at our expense, most of our adversaries don’t believe the U.S. military is losing in Iraq, much less that it is wise now to take it on. Instead, the general impression is that our veteran and battle-hardened forces are even more lethal than was true of the 1990s — and engaging successfully in an almost impossible war.

Nor are we creating new hordes of terrorists in Iraq — as if a young male Middle Eastern fundamentalist first hates the United States only on news that it is in Iraq crafting a new Marshall Plan of $87 billion and offering a long-oppressed people democracy after taking out Saddam Hussein. Even al Jazeera cannot turn truth into untruth forever.

Instead, the apprentice jihadist is trying to win his certification as master terrorist by trying his luck against the U.S. Marines abroad rather than on another World Trade Center at home — and failing quite unlike September 11.
- served up by Nomad @ 1:32 PM
Comments:
FYI - VDH will be speaking in LA on Jan 31. Deatils here.
# quipped Blogger Ralphie : 2:38 PM, December 16, 2005
 
Thanks. If only I didn't have tickets to see Willie Nelson in Santa Cruz on the 30th...

Do you know if he's speaking in Santa Cruz any time soon? :)
# quipped Blogger Nomad : 8:12 PM, December 16, 2005
 
Great article, Nomad! Favorite part:

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Europe’s policy about Iran’s nuclear program can best be summed up as “Hurry up, sane and Western Israel, and take out this awful thing — so we can damn you Zionist aggressors for doing so in our morning papers.”
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Ralphie: Awesome! Ball-and-chain and I are all over it! We've got a new digital camera. It's gonna be so blogworthy! Are you and Mrs. Ralphie gonna go? Who else can we get?
# quipped Blogger Doctor Bean : 8:22 PM, December 18, 2005
 
Wow. What a terrific acticle. We are constantly being told how wonderful Europe is. And our govermnent is rushing pell mell to emulate the way they do things there. I have never understood why we want to copy a system that works much less well than ours.
# quipped Anonymous Anonymous : 7:22 AM, December 19, 2005
 
Bean - I have not signed up or anything yet, but I plan to attend. And I plan to drag the missus.

Lord E - I think the endgame here is nude beaches.
# quipped Blogger Ralphie : 12:45 PM, December 19, 2005
 
Ralphie: We had nude beaches here in the 70's. Venice beach was nude. They did not last.
# quipped Anonymous Anonymous : 10:50 PM, December 21, 2005
 
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