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Category Archives: History

All Hail, FDR

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

If I had to summarize my problems with Barack Obama, I think it would boil down to this: He had the chance to be an FDR and chose to be a Herbert Hoover. If I had to summarize my problem with the modern Democratic Party it would boil down to this: The Democratic Party takes […]

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Founding Fondlers

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Lately our historically challenged right-wing brethren have, against all the evidence, taken to ascribing their own beliefs (or beliefs they pretend to hold) to our sainted Founding Fathers. If we are to believe them, our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in religion, and dedicated to the proposition that all men […]

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Need he ask?

Friday, March 2, 2012

Paul Krugman ends this morning column with a question: Put it this way: Are you worried about a “Greek-style collapse”? Well, these plans would slash spending in the near term, emulating Europe’s catastrophic austerity, even while locking in budget-busting tax cuts for the future. The question now is whether someone offering this toxic combination of […]

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Book review

Sunday, August 21, 2011

We have returned from Vermont, and it is therefore incumbent upon me to return to this blog, though I’m sure there are many that would urge me to prolong my literary silence of the past two weeks. But, alas, it cannot be. I am still blissfully ignorant of recent events, except I’m aware that in […]

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In which I (sort of) defend Michelle Bachman

Monday, July 11, 2011

Michelle Bachmann is taking a little bit of heat for the rapidity with which she signed that Family Values oath, with its statement that black families were better off under slavery, and for her general propensity to compare everything she doesn’t like to the imposition of slavery: – Health Reform: In a 2009 speech in […]

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Now we know

Sunday, May 8, 2011

I’ve become a big Doctor Who fan, and as soon as Season 7 started, I subscribed on ITunes. Who would have thought that by doing so I would learn the answer to a true historical mystery. My younger readers may be surprised to learn that there was a time when those of us on the […]

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A silk purse out of a sow’s ear

Sunday, April 10, 2011

We were in Boston today, and the Greeks were having a parade. This float celebrates some overlooked achievements of Alexander the Great. I suppose the French might say the same things about Napoleon.

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Lincoln on Labor

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

More proof, in any be needed, that the Republican Party is no longer the party of Lincoln. Full disclosure: the brilliant post to which I’ve linked was authored by my second son.

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Same old song

Sunday, August 22, 2010

There’s nothing new under the sun. The year is 1834 A religious structure, erected by a despised religious minority, and built too close to “sacred ground”, is attacked by an angry mob. Full disclosure, the erudite historian (despite his use of the word “anyways”) is my son.

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George Bush is overrated

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Despite attempts by some die hards to salvage his faded glory, George Bush’s reputation, at least among historians, is not good. According to a poll of presidential historians, George W. Bush is the fifth worst president ever. I would like to demur. George is being deprived of his due, in my humble opinion. There’s no […]

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