Depressing Times (Victor Davis Hanson, must read)

Work and Days ^ | Victor Davis Hanson

[RepoGirl]

I had to digest that statement for a while. I can't think of anyway more concise and powerful to describe her. We've really lost someone special, but we can take this as a call to arms of sorts to follow in her stead.

[stripes1776]

Most of us do not have these opportunities

Why don't you have those opportunities?

Liberals have one virtue that conservatives lack: the courage of their convictions.

I think it is a mistake to confuse boorishness with courage. None of those liberals have the courage to risk loosing their lives in Iraq. They are simply loudmouths.

"Evil triumphs when good men do nothing."

Yes, I agree. So what do you do to fight evil?

[tpaine]

Some observations on Hanson's message:

"-- Muslims who leave the Middle East to live under the free aegis of the West have a moral duty to support and protect the civilization that has welcomed them, rather than romanticize about what they have forsaken; --"

Everyone in the USA has an actual legal duty to support, protect, & defend the US Constitution, not just a 'moral' duty.

"-- Christianity is more than a religion, but also a powerful emblem of the force of reason, in that it seeks to spread belief by rational thought as well as faith; --"

And those who defy the rational thought inherent in our Constitution should be treated as our enemies, foreign or domestic..

"-- and that affluent and leisured Westerners, bargaining away their honor and traditions out of fear and for illusory security, have only emboldened radical Islam that seeks to liquidate them. --"

And thus they have earned themselves the label of domestic enemy, and should be treated accordingly.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. VDH is always excellent.

More smoke and mirrors: the Pope didn't really insult modern Islam, but the modern Islamists chose to take it that way, and he didn't really apologize for what he said, but the media has made it seem that he did.

[colorado tanker]

Tuesday, May 29, 1453

Extremely important date. The Fall of Constantinople just preceded Columbus' discovery of the New World in 1492. So, the Christian East fell at the same time that what would become the Christian Americas were opened to European settlement. And the Reformation that began in 1517 beget our modern Western civilization. The Muslim faith never underwent a reformation and many Muslims now seek to destroy Western civilization, which, unfortunately, is in such a state of decline at present relatively few wish to fight for its survival.

[donaldo]

I loved this woman. Such courage. Her photo should accompany the word indomitable in the dictionary. Alas, not many like her. Maybe Lady Thatcher and Camille Paglia, two more of my icons. I reread The Rage and the Pride the other night. It is comparable to Zola's "J'Accuse" that appeared in L'Aurore. In it she described the execution of three women who had been to a beauty parlor. Despicable savages. And Rosie has the nerve to compare modern day Christians to such venal filth.

[griswold3]

We are still here!

[John Lenin]

She reminds me of myself a lot so I just ordered the Rage and the Pride and will read it through even though I'm not much of a novel reader.

[dervish]

"We don't actually know that the Pope fail to understand that his speech would be twisted. He may have been counting on it to prove his point that islam is completely irrational."

From reading the speech the Pope was specifically making the point that Islam exalts irrationality in contrast to Christianity.

From the speech:

"The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: "For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality." Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practice idolatry.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1702938/posts

[Dark Skies]

Nor is the islamic allah bound up in truth or righteousness. He is a lying @sshole and so are his followers.

[okie01]

...a horde of other false grievances that so shook the West, traumatized in fear of having its skyscrapers, planes, trains, buses, nightclubs, and synagogues blown apart or its oil cut off.

The Western left has no fear of having "its skyscrapers, planes, trains, buses, nightclubs and synagogues blown apart or its oil cut off". No fear whatsoever.

Instead, they quake at simply being called "racists". They will appease the radical Islamists until they are separated from their heads -- all so that the dread word won't be used against them.

[John Lenin]

One last bit of info on Oriana

FALLACI: NENCINI, SHE DREAMED OF SEEING THE SEA ONE LAST TIME

(AGI) - Florence, Sept. 16 - Oriana Fallaci's last wish was to see the sea again "but she was already at a clinic in Florence and unfortunately we were not able to satisfy her wish," said the president of the regional council of Tuscany, Riccardo Nencini. Nencini, who was present in front of the Santa Chiara clinic to give his last goodbye to Oriana Fallaci, who died the day before yesterday, then mentioned his last meetings with the writer. "I spoke with her three time. The first time in New York in February, but she told me 'I am dying I want to return to Florence to die.' The second time in mid-June in Florence during a meeting that last all afternoon until late at night and she told me 'I won't make it to the end of summer, I want to go back to NY but I want to return to die here. I want to return to see the big Cupola, the river, and especially the tower of Manelli because that is where I brought the parachuted bombs from the allies in a salad basket. Find me a house here.' Then the last time I heard from her, a few days before she arrived in Florence, was a very brief telephone all. She told me, 'I have to hang up, I am about to die. I want to remember you like the last time we saw each other' and then she hung up. Nencini then underlined how Florence lost "an extraordinarily combative woman, firm in defending her ideas, very skinny and tormented but also very passionate. I still remember her with those two penetrating blue eyes." And finally the president of the regional council described Florence as "a unique city, it is religious and secular at the same time. Many Florentines prefer to remember her anonymously; even the institutions are doing it. All the international media remembers Oriana Fallaci as the most important war correspondent, journalist and writer of the second half of the 20th century. We will remember her in the regional Council on Tuesday and with other initiatives," Nencini concluded. (AGI) .

[Zack Nguyen]

And few Christians in positions of influence and respect have publicly defended their faith and the civilization that birthed it.

I love Victor Davis Hansen and he makes good points here, but it's worth pointing out that no civilization "birthed" Christianity.

[Zack Nguyen]

And few Christians in positions of influence and respect have publicly defended their faith and the civilization that birthed it.

I love Victor Davis Hansen and he makes good points here, but it's worth pointing out that no civilization "birthed" Christianity.

[ladyjane]

We don't actually know that the Pope fail to understand...

The Pope knew exactly what he was saying. And he knew exactly what the reaction would be.

He did is either to demonstrate the irrationality of the Islamics or to serve as a lightening rod to divert violence from another venue. If the latter I hope he doesn't end up a martyr.

[Cuttnhorse]

"In short, no modern ideology, no religious sect of the present age demands so much of others, so little of itself."

Hanson always manages to get right to the heart of every issue.

[Cuttnhorse]

BTTT

[litehaus]

Her incisive/sharp wit writing will be missed by many............