Anytime a momentous event such as a major disaster, a notable assassination, or some other out-of-the-ordinary event occurs it provokes a visceral response in witnesses and in the general public. Most of us who were mature at that time can remember what we were doing when the Pearl Harbor attack was announced, when […]
On Sunday, June 16th, an opinion column written by Peter Funt appeared in certain papers across the country. In this column he extolled the virtues of a liberal/progressive approach to American government. In Funt’s own words: “Modern politics can be summed up this way: Republicans frequently refer to Ronald Reagan, while Democrats prefer to conjure […]
On June 17, 1972, four men were arrested at the National Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. It appeared to be a routine burglary, but subsequent investigations revealed that the men who broke into Democratic offices were actually agents hired by the Committee for the Re-election of President Richard Nixon. The Washington […]
Today marks the two-hundred fourth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. On June 18, 1815, on the fields near Waterloo in central Belgium, 72,000 French troops, led by Napoleon, suffered a crushing military defeat from a combined Allied army of 113,000 British, Dutch, Belgian, and Prussian troops. Thus ended 23 years of almost constant warfare […]
Some months ago I read the book entitled The Righteous Mind written by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. The book received a considerable amount of favorable press. Haight is a self-identified liberal/progressive. He hated Ronald Reagan and was thrilled with the emergence of Barack Obama on the American political scene. He could not understand the conservative […]
I am a member of a large and complex extended family. This post contains selective photographs of my parents, half-brothers and sisters, and other members of their several families. The information herein is primarily of interest to my sons, grandchildren, nephews, and nieces, but I hope that others may also find it informative. I am […]
Evil exists. Sometimes people say that all men are basically good, and that we do evil things only when there has been a bad environment, poverty, lack of education or some other unfortunate cause. That is not true. I tend to believe what Johannes Gossner, 19th century Lutheran pastor and philanthropist, once wrote, “The heart […]
