It ain’t worth a pitcher of warm piss!* – John Nance Garner, VP under FDR [* The media in the 1940's were unable to print this pithy quote verbatim and substituted “spit” for “piss”. The quote is repeated accurately but, frankly, I like “spit” better.] The nation waited with ‘bated breath to learn whom Barak [...]

Russian historian/novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn died in Moscow at the age of 89. A great man has passed on to what, if there is any justice in the universe, is a great reward. In his book The Case For Democracy, fellow Soviet dissident and refusnik Natan Sharansky listed Solzhenitsyn, along with Ronald Reagan and Washington Senator [...]

Stephen Ambrose, author of popular histories including Citizen Soldier, D-Day and Band of Brothers, specialized in telling the history of war by personalizing it at the grunt level – kind of an historian’s version of journalist Ernie Pyle. If, in the words of Von Clausewitz, generals must deal with “the fog of war”, then men [...]

THE LITTLE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER (AND HOW THEY EXPLAIN WHY THE DEMOCRATS ARE TAKING SO LONG) “As long as we count the votes, what are you going to do about it?” — Boss Tweed “Factions will always emerge in any organization whose members believe the organization’s goals are important.” Howard’s Law When you get [...]

On a torturous path from Eleanor Clift’s Newsweek article today (4-18-08), and an op-ed piece in the Washington Post by Democratic pollster Doug Shoen (4-16-08), we arrive at the long-expected point where nut-cutting takes place in the Democratic marathon for the nomination. None of the writers or periodicals may be counted as part of the [...]