Ever hear of the Great Depression of 1920-21? Probably not. Most likely, that’s because it didn’t last very long; the method to get out of it involved less not more government; and the president who designed the policy was later buried by the Teapot Dome scandal. Writers Thomas E. Woods, Jr. and Jim Powell—among others—have
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The movie Valkyrie (2008) introduced many to the 20 July 1944 Hitler assassination plot, led by Col. Claus von Stauffenberg. To be sure, Stauffenberg was never a huge fan of the Nazis, and is said to have remarked that the November, 1938 Kristallnacht “brought shame on Germany.” While he had been involved with the resistance
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When the 111th Congress opens on Tuesday, we should be in for plenty of entertainment. Roland Burris, the senate pick from corrupt Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is supposed to be showing up, but will be barred from taking office. We also hear that Al Franken, not yet certified by Minnesota’s secretary of state, in an
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Technically, the term “unintended consequences” refers to never anticipated possible side effects, resulting from any purposeful action of mankind. For the most part, the term is applied to government actions, since the government tends to do big things, and, in general, exhibits the greatest amount of hubris. Many sources cite the example of a highway
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Conventional history of the Great Depression will paint Hoover as the do-nothing guy, and FDR as the bold experimenter. In fact, Engineer Hoover couldn’t stop tweaking with the economy, and even signed the Smoot-Hawley bill, that drastically increased tariffs in 1930. Of course, other countries retaliated, and America’s international trade went down by about 50%.
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Few American schoolkids can have avoided seeing the famous picture of the victorious Harry Truman holding up the Chicago Tribune, with the blaring headline “Dewey Defeats Truman.” The picture is usually accompanied with a paragraph or two mocking the primitive polling methods of 1948, whereby phone surveys were utilized. Phone surveys would tend to miss
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What’s worse: A pitiful crop of movies, going back to the beginning of the supposed blockbuster release portion of the year—last December—or a pitiful crop of presidential wannabees? No doubt, the anticipated “serious” reply would be the pitiful crop of presidential wannabees, but I would like to break with tradition. The last time a presidential
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The 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade brought with it an avalanche of op-ed pieces, which could mostly be put into one of two categories: Clarion calls from the pro-aborts intended to rally the troops to prevent erosion of their reproductive rights, and weak-kneed quasi-historical perspectives attempting to explain how we could fall into such
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Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne? For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. (From the Scottish ballad, as revised by Robert Burns, 1788) Literally translated
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I must admit that I was unaware just how deep the calumny against Senator Joseph McCarthy was until a friend of mine, supposedly an arch-conservative, invoked the infamous Joseph Welch line “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” to decry the unfair
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