How did Iran become a theocratic Islamic republic, governed by their version of Sharia, and the world’s largest exporter of terrorism? Iran for most of the 20th century was a peaceful, yet backwards nation. Persia/Iran was a nation that was…
Way back in 1990 I clipped an article from Parade Magazine (the little magazine that was found in many editions of the Sunday paper a long time ago). The article was entitled “It’s Such a Pleasure to Learn” and it…
The New York Times has launched their “1619 Project”– an examination and re-evaluation of the legacy of slavery in America. It’s leading proponent is NY Times reporter Hannah Nikole-Jones. A wide variety of historians, journalists, and other writers will contribute…
Is there no character that Tom Hanks cannot portray in an amazing way? He was a very believable Walt Disney in “Saving Mr. Banks” (a movie I laughed and cried through). He was riveting as Captain Sully. I was scared…
Way back in 1976 I saw the “blockbuster” movie of Midway. It starred Charleton Heston, Henry Fonda, and all the greats. Great actors. Not a great movie. It was riddled with historical inaccuracy and all sorts of fiction. Typical for…
It had been percolating for years. The Soviet Union, with its repressive command and control government, simply could not keep pace with the Free World. In 1989 when communist governments fell in East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania, it…
The Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989, and the old Soviet bloc communist nations of eastern Europe soon became history. Most of them peacefully transitioned into western style free republics. Romania was an exception. On December 15 the…
It’s been 30 years since the Berlin Wall came down? Honestly, it seems like yesterday. My wife and I had been married for about a year and a half. We watched on television and were stunned as people smashed and…
I love old bookstores and the wonderful old used books I can find there. I just picked up Tolstoy’s “A Confession and Other Religious Writings.” So far, the reflections of this man on the world he lived in and his…
In reading about the bizarre life of Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, I came across the story of how in 1958 he ordered the Chinese people to kill off all the sparrows in the land. Exterminate all the sparrows? Why?…