The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Music Cue: ‘Immigrant Song’

Genealogy is fun, although I’m not entirely sure that online sources are reliable. At any rate, my son Jefferson texted me today about some of the research I’d done. It seems his girlfriend’s family can trace their ancestry to William the Conqueror, and here I’d gotten no further back than the Revolutionary War. But I […]

Have The Dutch Torn Down All Their Statues and Renamed All Their Streets?

Obviously it’s just a matter of time: Dutch King Willem-Alexander has apologized for his country’s historic involvement in slavery and its ongoing repercussions, as the Netherlands on Saturday begins an official event to mark 150 years since the end of slavery in Dutch colonies. The king issued his apology during a speech marking the event. […]

Ironic Journalism

Reuters decided to go digging up the past, and perhaps didn’t calculate the possible consequences of what they would find: In researching the genealogies of America’s political elite, a Reuters examination found that a fifth of the nation’s congressmen, living presidents, Supreme Court justices and governors are direct descendants of ancestors who enslaved Black people… […]

No Heroes for You, Whitey: Albany, N.Y., Has ‘Cancelled’ Gen. Philip Schuyler

Decades have now passed since left-wing activists started a ruckus about the Confederate flag that had long flown over the South Carolina statehouse. It occurred to me at the time that, if the flag couldn’t be flown there — where the South Carolina convention had voted to secede from the Union, thus precipitating the war […]

D-Day: ‘The Blessing of Almighty God’

“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely. … I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty […]

From the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ to the Bulls–t Age of Wokeness: A Brief History

You may not recognize that long-legged young bathing beauty, but she was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars back in the day when the movie business was run by men who knew how to make money by producing movies that people actually wanted to watch. Strangely enough, while many today would scoff at the old-fashioned capitalist […]

The Romance of Radicalism

Because I am a history buff, the YouTube algorithm shows me all kinds of stuff — the history of Carthage, the Anglo-Saxon invasion of post-Roman Britain, the Stuart dynasty, etc. — about obscure topics that would be boring to most people, and which even most history buffs might not care much about. Usually I watch […]

News From Down Home

One of the best jobs I ever had was as sports editor of the Calhoun Times in Gordon County, Georgia. I arrived there in 1987, a few days before the start of football season, and a few weeks later met the beautiful woman who became my wife. For the next four years, I covered local […]

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