History
May 19, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Over a period of decades, Edison Electric Company documented the electrification of southern California in approximately 70,000 photographs. Recently Edison donated or loaned these images to the Huntington Museum, which has now put some of them online. They are historically interesting and, in many instances, aesthetically beautiful. They remind us of the romance of southern California in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Click to enlarge: I like the sign at
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May 19, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Our friends at RealClearPolitics have posted Steve Chapman’s Chicago Tribune column “The false Nixon equivalence.” It addresses the subject I took up in “Nixon’s IRS” and, more broadly, in “A Watergate footnote.” Chapman makes the case that comparisons of Obama with Nixon in the matter of the current IRS scandal are misguided. I think the comparison is useful. The outrages committed by the IRS under Obama in the past few
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May 18, 2013 — Scott Johnson
One of the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon included his alleged misuse of the IRS. Article 2 of the Articles of Impeachment was carefully framed to charge that Nixon “endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens,
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May 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
50 years ago, the nation witnessed seven dramatic days in May, as helmeted policemen used dogs and fire hoses against black children chanting freedom songs and hymns in Birmingham, Alabama. More than 3,000 peaceful demonstrators were arrested. The images from those days, including that of Birmingham police chief “Bull” Connor, are indelibly etched in the minds of those of us who saw them, and many of those who have seen
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May 12, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Two of my all-time favorite books on historical subjects unraveled the fraught controversies deriving from cases involving Communist spies. In Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case, first published in 1978, Allen Weinstein settled the case referred to in the subtitle. Random House published an updated edition in 1997 and the Hoover Institution has just issued a third edition (the one linked above) in honor of the thirty-fifth anniversary of the book’s publication.
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May 11, 2013 — Scott Johnson
John has undertaken a series comparing Benghazigate to Watergate. Benghazigate is still unraveling, so the comparison presents certain difficulties, but we are still in the dark concerning some of the most basic facts regarding the Watergate scandal as well. Nixon spokesman Ron Ziegler characterized Watergate as a “third-rate burglary.” The Democrats, by contrast, characterized Watergate as something vastly greater than the crime on the surface. According to Senator Ervin, this
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May 5, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Visiting the site of the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale to watch Professor Donald Kagan’s farewell lecture, I found the video below of George Will’s lecture to the group this past January. The lecture provides a short course in the Constitution and the revolt of the Progressives against it, from Wilson to TR and FDR, to LBJ and to Obama. It is learned and vivid, with some pungent
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April 27, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Yale history/classics professor Donald Kagan is a great old-fashioned scholar and teacher. The author of a classic four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War, he has written many other books of distinction including Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy and On the Origins of War: And the Preservation of Peace. Professor Kagan is retiring from his position at Yale. He gave his last lecture on Thursday afternoon to a
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April 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
“Miss me yet?” the billboards asked, early in Obama’s first term. It took a while, but more voters than ever are missing George W. Bush. His approval rating is now up to 47%, right around where President Obama has been in recent weeks. Expect it to keep rising, as Obama makes him look good by comparison. When President Bush left office, I gave his two terms a B-. I won’t
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April 18, 2013 — Scott Johnson
John Hinderaker posted a moving account of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral here yesterday, noting the reading by Baroness Thatcher’s 19-year-old granddaughter Amanda. I wanted to see Ms. Thatcher’s reading and I assume many of you do as well. Looking for an embeddable video without a preceding advertisement, I found ITN’s video posted on YouTube below. STEVE adds: It has been commonplace for years for conservatives to say, “I wish we had
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April 17, 2013 — John Hinderaker
After days of predictions of mass protests, etc., nothing of the sort happened, and Margaret Thatcher’s funeral was carried of with characteristic British pomp. Spectators estimated at over 100,000 paid their respects with spontaneous applause. The Telegraph describes the scene: It seemed to come out of nowhere. No one knew who’d started it – perhaps it was purely instinctual. But as the hearse came into view, the crowds found themselves
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April 10, 2013 — Steven Hayward
There can really only be one fitting subject for a mid-week photo/cartoon/meme roundup. Yup.
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April 8, 2013 — John Hinderaker
I yield to no one in my admiration for Margaret Thatcher; this photo of me with her, taken in 1997, is displayed proudly in my library: I agree with Paul that she saved Great Britain, at least for a generation. And Britain continues to benefit from her accomplishments: there is no Soviet threat, the unions have never regained their power, and Britain hasn’t adopted the Euro. But did she really
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April 8, 2013 — Steven Hayward
When Leo Strauss received the news that Winston Churchill had died in January 1965, he made the following spontaneous remarks in his classroom at the University of Chicago on the lessons of Churchill’s life—lessons that apply just as well to Margaret Thatcher. His conclusion: The death of Churchill reminds us . . . of our duty. We have no higher duty, and no more pressing duty, than to remind ourselves
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April 4, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Cassius Marcellus Clay was, of course, Muhammad Ali’s name. If I ever knew who the original C. M. Clay was, I’d forgotten, until I got a package in the mail today that included a t-shirt. The shirt was accompanied by a letter from a reader who was recently discharged from the Army. Along with other ventures, he is selling this t-shirt on Amazon; you can buy it here for a
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April 3, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In previewing the new issue of the Claremont Review of Books (subscribe here) yesterday we featured Bill Voegeli’s demolition of Michael Grunwald’s panegyric supporting the godawful stimulus bill of 2009, enacted right around the time that the recession was ending (according to the National Bureau of Economic Research). We continue our preview today with Hillsdale College Professor R.J. Pestritto’s review of Theodore Roosevelt and the American Political Tradition, by Bowdoin
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March 28, 2013 — Steven Hayward
This next installment from Herb Meyer’s YAF lecture on Bill Casey features a hilarious description of Casey explaining why being a member of the Soviet Politburo in the 1980s was “not a lot of fun.” Having read some translations of transcripts of Politburo meetings (not available to the CIA at the time), I can see what he meant. They came to resemble faculty meetings run by worn-out left-wingers. This segment
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