Guess who spoke these words: I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Saviour have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses. … Whether we look to the first Charter of Virginia … or to the Charter of New
In 1824, a retired James Madison was corresponding with the writer Henry Lee IV, half-brother of Robert E. Lee and son of the Revolutionary War hero “Light Horse Harry” Lee. The former president is known to history as “the Father of the Constitution” and the man who helped shepherd the Bill of Rights through
When choreographer Agnes DeMille was interviewed for a documentary about her famous uncle Cecil B., she had a wonderful story to tell about the “Hays Office,” the body charged with enforcing Hollywood’s Motion Picture Production Code. She had been hired by her uncle to provide a bit of pagan titillation for DeMille’s production
A young woman buttonholes a musician with whom she’s recently had a one-night stand—“a stupid experiment,” as she later calls it. She has to remind the young man who she is, because he can’t even remember her name. Then she tells him: “I’m going to have a baby.” As she stares into his eyes,
I know an elderly gentleman in San Antonio who, though he has spent decades working in America as a surveyor and cartographer, has never lost his Russian accent. In 1941, his chances of living a long and happy life were very slim, but here he is, an American paterfamilias. His is a war
When the great Thomas Sowell retired from writing commentary in 2016, he wrapped up his farewell column this way: With all the advances of blacks over the years, nothing so brought home to me the social degeneration in black ghettoes like a visit to a Harlem high school some years ago. When I
In the 1955 crime drama “The Desperate Hours,” a businessman and his family are taken hostage by a gang of escaped convicts. A struggle of wills and of wits ensues, with the businessman (Fredric March) and the lead convict (Humphrey Bogart, in the last of his great gangster roles) each striving to secure
An old joke tells how various newspapers would report the end of the world. The New York Times says: "World ends: Story and analysis on page B11." The Wall Street Journal’s version: "World ends: Markets take a beating." USA Today runs with: “World ends: Full color pullout, state-by-state highlights inside.” And the Washington
Another day, another massacre, another argument. Seems like only yesterday we were arguing about the slaying of 26 people in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Before that, it was Las Vegas (58 dead). Before that, it was Orlando (49 dead). Before that, it was San Bernardino (14 dead). Before that, it was Sandy Hook (27
Juan Leonardo Quintero was a pretty good yard man. His employer, Camp Landscaping of Deer Park, Texas, valued his services so much that the boss bailed him out of jail when he was arrested on a morals charge, and after Quintero pleaded guilty and was deported to Mexico, Camp lent him the money
