My week started off with a measure of excitement for me. I was able to meet (in a virtual sort of way) an author whose works I’ve long admired. The meeting occurred during a Zoom meeting (a technology that I’ve come to appreciated during this time of enforced isolation) of the “scribes” for the Coolidge Foundation with its board chairman, historian Amity Shlaes. I logged in early to ensure that nothing went wrong with the new (to me) technology and in the hope that I might be

Someone (I conducted a brief online search to discover who, but I found no definitive answer) once said, “When God closes a door, He opens a window.” The current (and ongoing for only God knows how much longer) public health crisis has closed not just one but many doors for a lot of people, and I haven’t been immune to that plight. For just a few examples, I speak monthly in the chapel program of a local private Christian school. Now all schools are closed, quite conceivably

To fully appreciate what I’m saying, one must understand the backstory, realizing the change that took place in DMV over the years. Simply put, any dealings one had with DMV were once a nightmare. Such an experience today, however, is the exception rather than the rule. When my wife and I relocated to the state 15 years ago, helpful friends and coworkers offered valuable advice on a variety of things we would have to do, many of them in a limited amount of time. Two of those

Whew! It’s finally over. We’ve survived yet another election cycle with all the now-all-too-familiar and ubiquitous yard signs, robo calls, radio and TV ads, pollaganda, and even the post-election gloating, bloating, and spinning. But this post is not about the election, at least not this election per se. Rather, it’s about other elections and how this one compares historically. Perhaps the biggest news from the election was the Republicans’ loss of control of the U.S. House

At the heart of the study is the U.S. citizenship test of basic facts about our nation’s history. Among the findings of the study are these: Only 1 in 3 Americans can pass the citizenship test, which requires only a score of 60 percent. Most of those in the study didn’t score even that low grade. 72 percent couldn’t correctly identify the original 13 colonies. Less than one-quarter knew why the colonists had fought the British in the first place. Double-digit percent thought

On this date in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a secret project that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and ended World War II. But it also led, in the long term, to the birth of a city and numerous other projects that resulted in countless prolonged and enhanced lives. On October 9, 1941, President Roosevelt signed off on what became known as the Manhattan Project. It was a military operation the likes of which the United States and the worl

Here are some of his one-liners that are among my personal favorites. They are as true today as they were when he quipped them. “The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.” “There is nothing so stupid as the educated man if you get him off the thing he was educated in.” “A fool and his money are soon elected.” “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” “Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.”

BBC’s Nik Gowing hosts a live “Special World Debate” with panelists Economic Historian Niall Ferguson, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, Goldman Sachs Jim O’Neill, International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Chairmwoman of Sabanci Holding Guler Sabanci at the Istanbul Congress Center October 3, 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey. The Annual IMF/World Bank meetings are being held this year in Istanbul, Turkey. IMF Staff Photo/Stephen Jaffe I recen

I don’t think I’ve missed an election–primary, general, or run-off–since I’ve been voting. My first ballot I cast in a presidential election, and I did so by absentee ballot because I was out of state attending college. Not all of “my” candidates have won, of course. Too often, I’ve been on the losing side, it seems. But that’s okay. I’ve made my tiny, conscience-driven voice heard. My impact on the voting has declined over the years. I used to be able to deliver five votes:

At noon today, Donald Trump will be sworn in as our nation’s 45th president. Afterward, following the precedent set by our first president and followed by all others since him, President Trump will deliver a speech. Some people will be listening attentively to catch any statements that will give them hope for the future. Other people will be hoping to snag from his speech any statements that they might use as hindrances to his efforts to run the country. Most people will simp

Having lived during my professional life in four different states, I’ve been called for jury duty in three of the four, and each state’s procedures regarding juries is a little different than all the rest. North Carolina never summoned me. Tennessee called me for jury duty once in about 20-22 years, and I was given an exemption because I was out of state attending college at the time. Pennsylvania called me once. That state had a policy of one day-one trial. If you weren’t se

Of the eleven Confederate states, which two were never represented in the executive branch? Which cabinet member was born in Germany, reared in South Carolina, served in the government of Charleston, S.C., and yet is buried in North Carolina? Who was the oldest person to serve in the Confederate cabinet? Which cabinet members were not natural-born American citizens? (Hint: there were three of them.) Which two cabinet members gained distinction as generals in the Confederate A

April 8, 1913, marks the anniversary of the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution. That’s the amendment that took the power of choosing U.S. senators from the state legislatures and gave it to the voters in mandating the direct election of U.S. senators. The whole impetus for the drastic change was the alleged control of senators by dishonest state legislators and “trusts.” Proponents of the amendment portrayed senators as “bloated millionaires placed