The California Corridor (Victor Davis Hanson Masterpice)

Victor Davis Hanson's Private Papers ^ | Sept. 18, 2011 | Victor Davis Hanso

[Travis McGee]

Lessons on Government Largesse From the New Frontier

This summer it has been a softer, modern version of living in a cabin on the Great Warpath circa 1740 near Albany or Montreal (in this regard, take a look at Eliot Cohen’s new book Conquered into Liberty on the origins of the American way of war), readying oneself for the next break-in — so our inland “California Corridor” has become from Bakersfield to Sacramento. More specifically, I have been on the lookout around my farm for a predatory, nearly new, grey/silver Toyota truck that drives in and then speeds out — always a day or so before the nocturnal theft. He’s clever, this caser — and audacious too, like a wily Sherman tank prowling through the hedgerows. (Why, if poor, is he not home growing a tomato garden or scouring the roadside for the ubiquitous tossed aluminum cans and plastic bottles?) On three separate occasions from June to August, I have had copper wire stripped out of pumps, the barn ransacked, and the two locks pried off the shop and various things stolen. (Why did they steal buckets of 1900 antique bolts and square nails and leave alone a drill press and grinder? Ease of recycling? Ignorance?) When Metal Grows Legs One of the stranger things in the California Corridor is to periodically walk around a barnyard and notice: “Hmm, that set of rusted furrowers is gone? Hmmm, what happened to those sections of 2-inch pipe? Hmmm, didn’t I have an old compressor next to the shed? Have I got dementia, or wasn’t there once upon a time three metal ladders leaning against the shop?” It is as if they became animate, grew legs, and quietly walked off in the sunset.

[Travis McGee]

Please go to the link and read it all.

The great historian and commentator ponders the collapse of civilizations, as he stares into the abyss.

[Travis McGee]

Please go to the link and read this masterpiece by Victor Davis Hanson, as he contemplates the collapse of our civilization while remaining at his post on the frontier of anarchy and barbarism.

[the invisib1e hand]

a Farm? He’s rich. He’s just paying his “tax.”

[gorush]

One of his best, IMHO.

[Travis McGee]

I agree. His writing will be studied long after the fall.

[ALPAPilot]

Money, Money Everywhere — and Not a Drop of Prosperity

The 2008 Presidential Election - Albatross.

[Repeal The 17th]

“...in 1935 poor people scraped and saved to cast a bronze plaque for their Depression-era new city hall, and in 2011 other people ripped it off to melt it down for a layaway payment on some chrome rims...”
-
Damn, just damn.

[APatientMan]

Does anyone really think that voting is going to solve this frickin’ mess?

[APatientMan]

Had the same effect on me. B@stards!

[Oatka]

[underlines mine] The modus operandi in the rural California hinterlands is to drive into a farm, check if anyone comes out, if so, either peel out or even stay put to “inquire” about a “rental” or “work.” If no one comes out, then break a window, grab a TV or computer and speed off. Also: Please do not suggest, “call the sheriff”; I have and even “filled out a report” over the phone, no less. Enough said.

Call this sheriff:

and

[NonValueAdded]

This summer it has been a softer, modern version of living in a cabin on the Great Warpath circa 1740 near Albany or Montreal (in this regard, take a look at Eliot Cohen’s new book Conquered into Liberty on the origins of the American way of war), readying oneself for the next break-in ...

Note the book recommendation.

[FreedomPoster]

Just WOW bump. Read all of this one by VDH, it is powerful stuff.

[CodeToad]

I still say this country is like the cartoon of Yosemite Sam running around a ship with a burning match while kegs of powder lay around. We’ll never know until the event which kegs goes off first taking the rest with it. It’s all just a guess, but we do know that varmit will ignite something and it will all just go Kaploey!

[decimon]

“The action is the juice!”

That gets into the blood of thieves big and small.

[Repeal The 17th]

I’m getting old...
and I have been doing a lot of family history and visiting in old graveyards.

I am trying to get markers placed in old graveyards on many of my ancestor’s unmarked graves.

The monument company has advised me against placing any kind of bronze or metallic markers.

A lot of their current business has to do with replacing stolen bronze grave markers with granite.

I have thus far had to replace two of my ancestor’s stolen bronze civil war grave markers with granite markers.

I, seriously, would kill them if I could catch them.

[B4Ranch]

>>Twice I ran into the barnyard to see the truck, with its two gangbanger youths, peel off in clouds of dust.<<

He forgot to bring his 12 gauge with him!

[seowulf]

His writing will be studied long after the fall.

I suppose he might be the Tacitus of the American empire.

It sounds like, just as at the end of the Roman empire, he and his neighbors are going to have to learn to dispense some farmboy justice with ax handles and 00 buckshot.

[Popman]

Bump

[B4Ranch]

>>Does anyone really think that voting is going to solve this frickin’ mess?<<

It will if you vote with a shotgun and a shovel.

[aruanan]

What’s the answer? Extremely well-armed homeowners making such predation so costly that it will be considered too dangerous to do. That doesn’t mean bigger dogs in an attempt to keep them away. It means something that, once they drive onto the property and start their theft, they won’t be driving away, either because their new truck is now a burning pile of junk or because law enforcement will have to cart away their remains following an attempted home invasion gone bad.