Two items amidst the many arriving at all of our homes today include historical lessons, and support for those who preach that we learn from the past.The New York Times Book Review discusses the so-called "court packing" which President Roosevelt...
When it was finally over, and the President and Speaker showed the country how it feels when it is able to at least begin to tackle a real problem, my 23 year old daughter said that this was the first...
His brother inspired many of us into lives of public service, but he was brutally taken from us before he could lead us in those endeavors. President Kennedy's two brothers did what they could, but only one survived the...
There is so much at stake this weekend and, surely, this will go into next week with Passover looming at the end as, perhaps, a real deadline. Be prepared, my friends: We will see the worst of our politics in...
This has been an historic week, and, of course, the history has not been made quite yet. A guy who likes to pontificate in this forum and wants to be part of this history, but needs also to do what...
This is the week it will happen. It is not a final step, anymore than social security was, or medicaid and medicare, but it is a big step. A huge step. It is impossible to post every day and do...
What if, in what could be the most important week for the United States Congress since the mid 1960s enactment of medicaid, and the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, a major network evening news program led its broadcast with the...
Yesterday, in the the three locations where these Barthogems appear, usually only on weekends, a portion of FDR's Four Freedoms speech was published, showing that less than a year from our entry into World War II, our greatest president was...
It simply is not possible to post all the things that need to be said, though others have said those things before and often better than your not so humble blogger can muster.So, again, in a week of great importance...
A person could blog while on short trip to Florida, certainly, but it is too hard to study Red Sox minor leaguers and observe whether Tim Wakefield can actually get off the mound, while considering world and national affairs. It...
Someone whose views I share writes:I admit to making jokes about Vice President Gore. They are all hereby withdrawn with sincere apologies to him and anyone I presented them to. This is from tmrw's NY Times and, while I have...
If Keith is renaming his segment "since some of the people did not get that the title was ironic" we can steal it and use it to announce that, nothwithstanding Gail Collins' well- meaning rankings, the State of New York...
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816 Let's see if we have this right. In a week when...
...by his pious shaking of the head while explaining that the stimulus didn't work and the President should have been doing more for jobs:See the pretty chart here.Data and facts just get in the way, because just making noise is...
Since, by the grace of as much fooling around with calendars as we can do, we are celebrating the birthday of President Lincoln (hitherto celebrated on February 12) and of President Washington (February 11 under the calendar "we"---Britain---were still using...
We have all come to learn than things incessantly reported on television, and its cable bastard, frequently become accepted fact, even if absurd. Recent examples of this include the idea that unusual, record setting snow storms in places that never...
It's really all one can do. Bizarre weather crops up all over the country. Washington, D.C. gets more snow than ever before while Vancouver, B.C., trying to host the winter Olympics has temperatures in the 40s and too little snow....
The pseudonym used in these posts is meant to protect the person who has appointed the author of this junk from having to account for the private ravings of a Public Servant. The utility of this device could be tested...
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is when did it change? Didn't the Republican Party just tear the President apart for a year, saying no to everything but yet making...
Yes. Frank Rich has it right, of course. Rachel Maddow has explained how to do it. Frankly, I thought I had something to add but not many people seemed to agree. Still, it is easier to come up with this...
