VDH on Chu

http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/our-brave-new-world/

Victor Davis Hanson is one of the bloggers at Pajamas Media who knows well how to imply what he would be pilloried for saying.

Here's sample with my commentary:

VDH: Is the Secretary convinced that we will run out of water and have no crops (grapes, remember, grow well in the desert if they are irrigated), or does he think hotter weather means things simply don’t grow?

DS: He probably means that ongoing changes in climate will make historical weather patterns change, making most agricultural activities unsustainable. You can’t just move your grape vines next year because the drought hasn’t improved. It takes decades of investment that will be lost in a changing climate. Water usage in California is already causing collateral damage throughout the Southwest.

VDH: So is rendition fascistic or necessary? Is FISA shredding the Constitution or problematic? Is the Patriot Act now necessary, and no longer dictatorial? Is Guantanamo a Gulag that must be shut down, or a complex issue requiring a task force and a year of study? Should we have been out of Iraq by March 2008, or are we to withdraw according to the General Betray US/”suspension of disbelief” Petraeus plan?

DS: Rendition has some legitimate uses - extraordinary rendition does not. Bypassing FISA is shredding the Constitution. The ‘PATRIOT Act’ never was necessary, nor patriotic. Guantanamo is a gulag, and will be shut down, but Obama is wise enough to take his time and do it right. We should never have gone to Iraq, and should get out as soon as we can reasonably do so.

VDH: We were already ‘stimulated’ and running a Keynesian economy, so why is more of what got us into this trouble the solution?

DS: Actually, a Keynesian would only run deficits when stimulus was needed, and would spend the money on improving the economy. Running a massive deficit for most of the past three decades has done more to get us into trouble than any economic ’stimulus’. Tax cuts by themselves are useless as a stimulus, and generally counter productive, as has been demonstrated conclusively by GWB.

VDH: Can’t we pause a month or three to see the effects of thousands of dollars in cheaper heating and transportation costs for the American household?

DS: Sure, we could wait, but we’ve been losing jobs for more than a year, and losses are accelerating. People without jobs don’t really care about the price of energy, they care more about finding gainful employment - something that has been more and more difficult as the crisis has deepened.

VDH: What sort of system subsidizes an unemployed single mother to have fertility treatments to deliver 8 more children to ensure a family of 14, after receiving tens of thousands of dollars in past state entitlements? Was the Dr. involved desirous of the assured business from a subsidized patient, were the parents oblivious to the ill-equipped daughter living in their home, would the mother have delivered the children had she not been assured of free medical services?

DS: Probably the same system that subsidizes an under-taxed oil industry to pursue record profits, at the expense of the American people. Really, pointing to one isolated incident says a lot about your priorities. Look at the big picture.