Is Parler a Freer Alternative to Twitter? Well, for Now. Kalev Leetaru assesses the future of the social media app that’s attracting conservatives disgruntled with unevenly applied censorship policies elsewhere. Media Ignores Facts to Claim a Trump Gotcha. John Lott calls out the Washington Post for falsely claiming the president was wrong when he said U.S. cities with the most crime […]

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, July 1, 2020. On this date in 1898, Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt led the “Rough Riders,” a mounted amalgamation of Western cowboys and Eastern bluebloods, to victory over Spanish defenders at San Juan Hill. The charge was a decisive victory on the battlefield in the Spanish American War as well as a pivotal event in the […]

Good morning, it’s July 1, 2020. On this date in 1776, John Adams awoke early in anticipation of the momentous events unfolding in Philadelphia. “This morning,” he confided to a friend, “is assigned the greatest debate of all.” The debate was over independence, of course. The Second Continental Congress had recessed for three weeks while the Declaration of Independence was […]

Hello, it’s June 28, 2019, the day of the week I offer a quotation intended to be inspirational. Today’s comes from a young man who played in only one Major League Baseball game, never even getting a chance to hit. Or, rather, it comes from a fictional portrayal of that ballplayer as an old man looking back on his life […]

Good morning, it’s June 25, 2020. Sixty-seven years ago today, an engagement notice appeared in many of the nation’s newspapers: A charismatic U.S. senator had popped the question to a young Washington journalist. A September wedding date was set. The future bride and groom each came from a prominent and wealthy Catholic family. Sen. John F. Kennedy, freshman Democrat from […]

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, June 23, 2020, the third day of summer — the summer of national discontent. John Steinbeck, a native of Salinas, Calif., usually wrote about life on the West Coast. But the book published by Viking Press on this date in 1961, “The Winter of Our Discontent,” was set on the Eastern Seaboard. The novel featured a […]

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, June 9, 2020. If this year reminds you of 1968, you are not alone. Yesterday, a friend of mine who was just a little kid that year used social media to highlight the soothing and stirring words spoken by Robert F. Kennedy the night Martin Luther King Jr. was martyred. RFK was campaigning for the Democratic […]

Good morning, it’s Monday, June 8, 2020. Over the weekend five years ago, a vice president’s son was laid to rest in the cemetery of his home parish, St. Joseph on the Brandywine in Greenville, Del. Although Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III had achieved a great deal in his 46 years of life, his friends, admirers, and loved ones couldn’t […]

Good morning. It’s June 5, a frequently momentous date in the life of our country. On June 5, 1944, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the order of the day to paratroopers prepared to begin the invasion of Normandy, along with a dauntless exhortation: “Full victory — nothing else,” Ike said. It was also on a fifth of June that Robert […]

Good morning. It’s May 30, 2020, and on this date 212 years ago, a future U.S. president shot another man to death in a duel prompted by an insult published in a newspaper. So, no, the thin-skinned nature of U.S. politicians is not a new phenomenon. Politicians, as I noted here a few years ago when writing about this episode, […]

Good morning. It’s Friday, May 29, 2020, the day of the week when I reprise a quotation intended to be instructive or inspirational. Today’s comes from John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th U.S. president, born on this day in 1917. Actually, I’ll cite three Kennedy quotes, each one of them relevant in their own way to the national challenges we face […]

Yesterday I wrote about the lovely letters written 76 years ago this week by U.S. Army Cpl. Frank Elliott to his wife, Pauline, in the hours leading up to D-Day. While keeping watch over their toddler — a daughter named DeRonda — Pauline kept writing even after she stopped receiving replies from Frank after the invasion. Polly, as her family […]

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, May 27, 2020. Seventy-six years ago today, a 24-year-old U.S. soldier far from home wrote a letter to his wife, Pauline, who was back in New Castle, Pa. His name was Frank M. Elliott and he served with Company A of the U.S. Army’s 741st Tank Battalion. He was writing from England where his unit was […]

Good morning, it’s May 21st, 2020. On this date in 1935, the world lost a humanitarian, author, educator, philosopher, social worker, champion of children’s and women’s rights, and peace advocate extraordinaire. That list only begins to describe Jane Addams, whose dedication to bettering society prompted high praise from all corners. In its obituary that appeared 85 years ago tomorrow, the […]

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, May 20, 2020. On this date 158 years ago, a wartime U.S. president signed legislation that was of interest to the men under his command. The statute was the Homestead Act of 1862. Designed to open the American West to settlement, it was tailored specifically to help Union Army veterans get a new start in life […]

Good morning, it’s May 14, 2020. On this date 116 years ago, the Olympic Games opened in St. Louis. This was the third Olympiad of the modern era, the concept having been revived in Athens in 1896. The first time the United States hosted, however, was not a success. Few foreign athletes bothered to make the trek to the U.S. […]

Good morning, it’s May 16, 2020. As a girl growing up in Missouri, Harry and Bess Truman’s only child sang as a soloist at Trinity Episcopal Church in Independence. Impressed, although perhaps not unbiased, the choir director there encouraged the young lady, Margaret Truman, to get formal voice lessons. She followed this advice both before and after attending George Washington […]

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, May 14, 2019. On this date in 1987, the National Park Service formally announced its support for an idea that had been quietly incubating in the park service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bureaucracy for years — a plan to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone National Park. “Of all the species that were once here, it’s […]

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, May 13, 2020. Eighty years ago today, in her darkest hour, Great Britain turned to Winston Churchill as her leader. Hitler’s invasion of Poland eight months earlier had revealed the tragic futility of Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement. The stunning success of the Wehrmacht’s lightning-fast invasion of the Low Countries had trapped nearly 400,000 British and […]

One-on-One With Maria Bartiromo. Tom Bevan interviews the Fox Business host in this RCP Takeaway video. The Mother Who Raised the Father of Our Country. For Mother’s Day, I interviewed Craig Shirley about his biography of Mary Ball Washington. A Mother’s Day of Mourning in Black Communities. It was a grim holiday in many U.S. cities as African Americans learned the details […]