{"id":152,"date":"2003-12-19T13:13:18","date_gmt":"2003-12-19T20:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/balafon.net\/?p=152"},"modified":"2003-12-19T13:13:18","modified_gmt":"2003-12-19T20:13:18","slug":"vdh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/?p=152","title":{"rendered":"VDH"},"content":{"rendered":"

… should be required weekly reading<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m sure that the Europeans are light-years ahead of us in the use of
\n public transportation. They probably are wiser in their per-capita
\n energy utilization, and their primary and secondary education may be
\n superior. But there is also something of Calypso’s island about them.
\n For all their professed enjoyment of food, shelter, and lovemaking,
\n the Europeans are bored silly with their listless routine and are
\n increasingly timid — this from a great people who should not, but
\n really do, live in terror of their own past. Like Odysseus in his
\n comfy subservience to Calypso, these mesmerized and complacent
\n sensualists sometimes contemplate leaving the comfort of their
\n fairyland atoll and in boredom weep nightly, gazing out at the
\n seashore. But as yet they lack the hero’s courage to finally build a
\n raft and sail rough seas to confront suitors who are trying to crash
\n their civilization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This war would be over far sooner if 350 million Europeans insisted on
\n a modicum of behavior from Middle Eastern rogue regimes, rounded up
\n and tried terrorists in their midst, deported islamofascists, cut off
\n funding to killers on the West Bank, ignored Yasser Arafat — and
\n warned the next SOB who blew up Europeans in Turkey, North Africa, or
\n Iraq that there was a deadly reckoning to come from the continent that
\n invented the Western military tradition. Indeed, European
\n sophistication and experience, combined with real power, could be a
\n great aid to the West in its effort to promote liberal and consensual
\n governments outside its shores. But if they do not even believe in the
\n unique legacy of their civilization, then why should we — much less
\n their enemies?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… should be required weekly reading. I’m sure that the Europeans are light-years ahead of us in the use of public transportation. They probably are wiser in their per-capita energy utilization, and their primary and secondary education may be superior. But there is also something of Calypso’s island about them. For all their professed enjoyment … Continue reading “VDH”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balafon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}