“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... )

War is terrible; it is a sad to realize that sometimes it is necessary. Knowing which ones are necessary is a crucial art, a skill at which some national leaders have shown deficiency.

A long time ago, a strong feeling of patriotism and the honors and approbation heaped upon veterans caused many to join, thinking about their personal status ( Read more... )

Margaret Sanger has been in the news recently. And on Citizen Tom’s blog (which has a Virginia conservative focus) I commented to another Virginian who suggested that “her ideas on eugenics are ignored and disregarded because they are pure, racially motivated looniness.” I don’t think that’s true; the ideas are currently out of favor, and thus are ( Read more... )

I’m seeing a lot of leftists defending Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama by attacking Ronald Reagan. A typical parry goes “What about your boy Reagan who negotiated with terrorists?”

The first thing I’d observe about this is that…( Read the rest of this entry » )

It’s interesting to see the attacks on Carly Fiorina. Fiorina does indeed have some genuine weaknesses, but those are generally ignored by the attackers, who focus on two topics: Her speech that included remarks about Islam, two weeks after the 9/11 attacks, and her corporate leadership of Hewlett-Packard, where she was brought in just before the ( Read more... )

This article in Salon yesterday was one of several that I saw filled with disdain for America, its people, and its history. But the writer (Andrew O’Hehir) did seem to have some semi-affectionate humor for Fourth of July picnic foods.

Interestingly, the author describes a common error in looking at history, then proceeds to write an entire article ( Read more... )

I hope that each and every one of you is having a happy Fourth of July. The “happy” part of that is significant, and I sincerely hope that you have the skill and the circumstances to achieve it.

Skill? Yes. Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote one of the most oft-quoted lines in history describing ( 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 » )

I had written in a recent post:

Reagan recognized Islamic terrorism early on, and of course it remains a threat. Reagan’s moves against jihadists were always attacked in the media. For example, the jihadists who killed Klinghoffer (who are now being celebrated on Broadway) were nabbed in an astounding stunt that was later unraveled by leftist ( Read more... )

Do presidents really have an effect on the US economy? That question was put to me. Here’s my reply.
( Read more... )