Not all history is found in books. The private correspondence of one Lizzie Pierce, formerly of New York, lately of Oxford Mississippi, provides a glimpse of that ugly period misnamed Reconstruction, and the anger and hostility it engendered.   Read the rest of this entry »

Letters from the past illuminate an event in maritime history. The stamp on the envelope is our excuse for sharing it with you.   Read the rest of this entry »

Seeking his 15 minutes of fame, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik categorizes Arizona as a "Mecca" for prejudice and bigotry.   Read the rest of this entry »

Do we have a government that still suits us as a people? Like it or not, our system was founded on a basic assumption that rights are given to us by a supreme God, to whom we are necessarily subordinate.   Read the rest of this entry »

Each of the Federalist Papers was an argument for ratification of the Constitution. Frequently the topic addressed was in rebuttal to something that those in opposition to ratification had already written about or in anticipation of an opposing argument yet to be heard. Federalist No. 10 addresses the issue of factions and whether a large republic is the best means of combating them.   Read the rest of this entry »

George Washington proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving. This was an obvious and correct thing to do for our new government, a government which derived its legitimacy from the belief that God gave man unalienable rights.   Read the rest of this entry »

" Those willing to give up liberty for security deserve neither and will lose both." Benjamin Franklin   Read the rest of this entry »

In anti-Federalist No. 1, Brutus argues against ratification of the new Constitution on the basis of his concerns about the amount of power to be vested in the new government. His concerns were not unjustified.   Read the rest of this entry »

Will Rogers once said, "if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." President Obama and his disciples would be wise to take that advice seriously.   Read the rest of this entry »

Kenneth Minogue’s The Servile Mind provides a variation on the theme of Thomas Sowell's classic Conflict of Visions. In The Servile Mind, Minogue engagingly lays out the fundamental differences of philosophy between radicalism and conservatism.   Read the rest of this entry »