The commentary is from a year ago, and the poem was written so long ago that we were still flying Space Shuttles. But the feeling is quite sincere, and I’ve had much reason to put the skill discussed below to use.( Read more... )

(More from the conversation with “THE RIPENING WANDERER” on the “only a few” defense of Islam. He wrote:)

… I am really personally suspicious of an ideology that preaches peace and practices something else and I do not know for sure that I accept the “It is only a few who cause the problems” rants because the very center of the ideological ( Read more... )

From here.

@silenceofmind, who wrote:

How do you propose to repair the moral fiber of a people who engage in or allow a genocide of 56,000,000?

I completely agree that late-term abortions are horrific things, and inhuman treatment of baby humans. But I don’t equate this with the mass slaughters carried out by the Nazis or the Soviets or the ( Read more... )

Thomas Jefferson is considered to be one of the leading Founding Fathers of the United States. Not one of the Framers, however - he was in France during the Philadelphia convention in which the Constitution was drafted, and other than some correspondence with James Madison had no role in its creation or ratification.

At the end of his life, 40 ( Read more... )

From a discussion on Citizen Tom’s blog on the forms of government, I wrote a bit on of how the US Constitution was inspired and framed:

There are conceptual hints in Scripture and remarks by Jesus on what forms of government are disfavored, but the Framers took inspiration from Aristotle. Many Enlightenment thinkers tended to downplay Aristotle, ( Read more... )

“Life in these United States,” an old Readers Digest humor feature, had many amusing stories. Like this one:

The teacher in one of our local grade schools was showing a copy of the Declaration of Independence to her pupils. It passed from desk to desk and finally to Luigi, a first-generation American. The boy studied the document reverently. Then, ( Read more... )

To all my friends here, old and new:
The best Thanksgiving Day to you!
Perhaps you’ll join the great repast
And then, recovering, will fast…

But some, less fortunate, can’t share
The bounty and the family fare
To all thus situated, know
That to you, too, my thoughts will go

More personally, my Lady’s loss
And walking’s gone - a lesser cost
But I ( Read more... )

A mention of John Adams on Citizen Tom’s forum got me thinking a bit about history.

( Read the rest of this entry » )

The word "flagging" has several meanings, including the calling out of something of particular interest or the identification of a problem or violation.

It can also mean growing tired. All of this applies to this story of the student government at a California college voting to ban the American flag from their space. In the interest of being "fair ( Read more... )

“Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach kids to learn. They know that parents have to parent, that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white.” - State Senator Barack ( Read more... )