Who Killed the Humanities?

You know you're living in a time when everything has been politicized to such a degree as to make a mockery of even the most basic of notions, in this case what it means to be an outstanding Humanist, which once included being humane or promoting humane ideals. To wit, president Bush has just awarded one of the nation's highest honors in the Humanities to none other than Victor Davis Hanson. Undoubtedly he did so, because VDH is a neocon chicken-hawk who has written several pathetic books that glorify the ruthless Soul of Battle, or the all-glorious Western Way of War, or praise members of the western Family Farm who beat their ploughshares into swords, or answer the question Who Killed Homer? by blaming the decline of interest in reading classical literature on those sissy, elitist literary theorists, especially feminists, rather than on the real culprit -- television. What a Carnage of Culture.