Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
As I age, my only regret is that I can’t celebrate my truly happy New Year with my long-gone parents — but I can share it with you. Happy New Year! Perhaps because I’m getting older, or perhaps because 2019 was a year of change and 2020 will be a
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A look at some of the history and holidays on December 5 Holidays & Observances on December 5 Feast of St. Crispina, an African noble woman and mother who adopted Christianity and was executed in 304 A.D. for refusing to make offerings to the Roman gods during the Diocletian Persecutions.
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The 82nd Airborne’s beautiful recording of Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, reminds us that reverence for liberty is at the heart of American patriotism. Irving Berlin’s family came to American in 1893, when he was five, leaving behind forever the ethnic, genocidal pogroms that destroyed his family home in Russia.
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It’s hard to imagine now, but once upon time Hollywood celebrated American values and American victory in overseas wars. Sing along with me. I meant to post these yesterday, but the only souvenir I brought home from my vacation was a bad cold, which has slowed me down a bit.
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In 1927, Irving Berlin wrote Puttin’ on the Ritz. In the 90 years since then, this song about style has never fallen out of fashion. In 2009, I first posted about the fact that Irving Berlin’s Puttin’ on the Ritz has had a dazzling run, not just in American popular
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Hurricanes are normal, but Trump Derangement Syndrome obscures that fact. Of course, those subject to TDS are deranged in other ways as well. Just look…. Before I get to the meat of this post — or, because it’s a round-up, the various meats of this post — I want to
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For 100 years, the Wilson Doctrine defined American foreign policy, whether applied affirmatively or, under Obama, negatively. Trump is changing all that. When the Great War (now known as World War I) erupted in 1914, dragging Europe from the pinnacle of civilization into an abyss of mindless killing, President Woodrow
Continue readingI’m doing something very wonderful and exciting today: I’m attending the commissioning ceremony for the USS America. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to convince my companion at the ceremony to stick around in the City to watch the Blue Angels fly. (My sister, who lives in a town where
Continue readingI started a long post a few days ago, because I thought I saw a common thread linking Ray Rice, women in combat, the Rotherham sex scandal, etc., but I just couldn’t control all that material. The short version of my theory is that women in the West have never
Continue readingAs the picture to my left shows, there is nothing new in the American military about men in what used to be an all-male, or predominantly-male, society still trying to resurrect a simulacrum of their civilian life. Two musicals that emerged during and immediately after World War II make heavy
Continue readingMy recent post about the best flash mob ever reminded me of a post I did in 2009 about Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” a song that lives on and on, around the world. Today seems like a good day to expand upon that post. Irving Berlin composed “Puttin’
Continue readingYou always read that something is the “best flash mob ever,” and many really do seem to live up to that billing. Orchestras play beautiful music, dancers swirl across the floor, and people break into song as if they’re living in a 1930s Hollywood musical. This particular flash mob, however,
Continue readingA friend sent me a link to an editorial bemoaning the fact that, by abruptly pulling out from Iraq and, soon, Afghanistan, the Obama administration is ensuring that we’re leaving a job undone — something that invariably means one has to do it again. If history is going to keep
Continue readingIn the days leading up to Fleet Week, it’s very usual to see military jets swoop across the sky. If I’m lucky, standing at the bus stop can be a perfect location to view some nice formation flying. It’s June, however, and we’re a long way from Fleet Week —
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