Today's Politicos vs The Words and Deeds of The Founders

Stephen Budiansky’s Perilous Fight is a detailed exposition of just what the subtitle proclaims: America’s Intrepid War With Britain on the High Seas, 1812-1815. Intrepid, while a bold and colorful adjective, is exactly the right word. In using it, Budiansky is not only describing the early 19th century American fledgling navy, but also the scores of privateers under letters of marque that set out to plunder the British merchant marine. To understand what kind of men these were, you don’t have to go too far into Budiansky’s book.

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Privacy has no place in the so-called Common Core Standards. The Gates Foundation has contributed $100 million to fund the creation of a database to track public school students‘ information and academic records from kindergarten through high school. This is called the Shared Learning Infrastructure (SLI) and it is now being run by an organization called InBloom, specifically created to operate the system. Best of all, InBloom has stated that it “cannot guarantee the security of the information stored … or that the information will not be intercepted when it is being transmitted.”

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The 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is intended to protect the privacy of student education records. Amendments by the U.S. Department of Education in 2008 and 2011 weakened that protection and diminished parents’ control over who has access to the records. By altering some definitions and inserting others, the Department increased the number of individuals with access to personally identifiable student information, while foreclosing parents’ ability to object.

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Common Core, much like Obama Care, is based on a lie, or more accurately, several lies. Not only are the standards not “world class,” they are not necessarily better than state standards and in many cases, they are not as good. Stay tuned, as this will be the first of three comprehensive posts this week on this topic.

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The third and final installment of a three part interview with Tim McGrath, author of John Barry, An American Hero In The Age Of Sail.

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The second installment of a three part interview with Tim McGrath, author of John Barry, An American Hero In The Age Of Sail.

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In late December of 2012, Tim McGrath, author of John Barry, An American Hero In The Age Of Sail,  reviewed here, was kind enough to give this blogger almost two hours of his valuable time (he’s busy …

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Once again, the National Association of Scholars provides enlightenment regarding the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In the Winter 2013 Issue of the NAS publication, Academic Questions, Michael Toscano addresses the question of whether the CCSS was a bottom up, as the public is urged to believe, or a top-down initiative.

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David Lefer's new book is about how a group of unsung heroes saved the American Revolution. The author’s thesis is that, contrary to popular perception, the American Revolution was wracked by bitter and often violent struggles between left and right. That is not an impression consistent with conventional histories of the nation’s founding.

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It’s a new year and that’s a good thing since the old one was getting a little stale. Even the snow and frigid temperatures in late December couldn't keep 2013 fresh. So, let’s look ahead. Here are some of my predictions for 2014. Will any of them come true? Well, time will tell.

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