Holidays
November 28, 2024 — Steven Hayward
On this Thanksgiving Day, spare a thankful thought for the irrepressible hatred of the left, as it ratifies the ancient Greek proverb (its exact origin is disputed), “Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.” While the left is suffering a case of shell shock and PTSD from Trump’s smashing victory, don’t be fooled. They will regroup, and return filled with more hatred and loathing than before for
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November 11, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
By the large scale nature of modern warfare, many veterans never get the recognition they deserve. Consider, for example, the First Special Service Force (FSSF), an elite American-Canadian unit created for dangerous missions behind enemy lines. At Fort Harrison in Montana, they trained in stealth combat, parachuting, night missions, and winter warfare. Their first major campaign proved a perfect match for the training. In early December, 1943, at Italy’s Monte
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November 11, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
November 11 could be the final Veterans Day for many of the World War II vets, now well into their 90s. Filmmaker Mel Brooks, 98, is one of them. Actor, comedian, composer and filmmaker Mel Brooks was born Melvin James Kaminsky in 1926. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. In 1944, he was drafted into the Army. Due to his high scores on his military entrance exam, Brooks was
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November 11, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Today is Veterans Day. I’m thinking about the late Leo Thorsness. Leo was the native Minnesotan who served in Vietnam and was awarded the Medal of Honor for one helluva mission he flew in 1967, a few days before he was shot down and captured. Every ounce of the courage he displayed on his Medal of Honor Mission was required to endure his six years of confinement in the Hanoi
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October 15, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Earlier today, Kamala Harris tweeted this: Black men deserve a president who cares about making their lives better. pic.twitter.com/cUCdsvvYZ6 — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 15, 2024 This agenda, intended to salvage Harris’s collapsing status with black men, would be outrageous even if it were not illegal. It is one of the topics that we discussed today on the American Experiment podcast. It was a fun installment, as it was hosted
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October 14, 2024 — John Hinderaker
These days, that seems to be a minority sentiment. Kamala Harris, for one, supports replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, an early harbinger of the DEI fiasco that later engulfed the U.S. Here is Kamala: FLASHBACK: Kamala Harris supported changing Columbus Day to "Indigenous Peoples’ Day" pic.twitter.com/bqXpH55ynY — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 14, 2024 Far from representing “honesty,” erasing Columbus’s discovery of America in favor of honoring unspecified
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October 2, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins tonight at sundown. More solemnly than usual, we will observe the arrival of the year 5785 and begin the ten days of reflection culminating in Yom Kippur a week from Friday evening. One of my most thoughtful non-Jewish friends wrote this afternoon to pass on wishes “not only for a good year, but a better one too.” I will be taking the day
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June 16, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I wrote this on Father’s Day in 2010. It is a post that struck a chord with at least a few readers. I amplified it in 2020 and am taking the liberty of reposting these reflections in honor of the day. My father was a thoughtful man in his own way. In the last years of his life he recited for me the things for which he was most grateful.
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May 27, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Month, “to reflect and celebrate the important role that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) have played in our shared history.” June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month, “to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement.” By contrast, “the men and women who sacrificed their lives while
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March 31, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Happy Easter to those among our readers who are celebrating the Resurrection rather than, say, Transgender Day of Visibility. Of course, it is not a time when one wants to be political, but these days that can be hard to avoid. So–just to spite Joe Biden–here are some Easter eggs with religious messages. All of that aside, I hope you and your family are enjoying the day.
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March 30, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Our supposedly devout “Catholic” president at work on this Easter holiday weekend: Can picking Easter Sunday for this proclamation be a mere coincidence? Meanwhile, for Monday’s traditional Easter egg hunt on the White House lawn, we have this: Pretty sure I know the thinking behind this, too, though to be sure around our household we refer to the preposterous Easter Bunny as the “Resurrection Rodent.”
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March 29, 2024 — Steven Hayward
I was looking through an old hard drive for an academic paper of mine from more than 20 years ago, and I happened to stumble across a long book review I wrote for the Acton Institute in 2000 on “Christian ‘leadership’ books,” and I thought it might be suitable on this Good Friday for a Holy Weekend reverie. I can’t believe I actually read all these books. Anyway: The church
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December 27, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley
Jill and I wish a very Happy Kwanzaa to all those celebrating across America and around the world. May your homes be filled with hope, peace, and light. And in 2024, may we carry with us the wisdom of the seven principles of Kwanzaa — especially those of unity and faith. That was a December 26 post from White House resident Joe Biden. The Delaware Democrat failed to mention anything
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December 24, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley
Christmas celebrations are in full swing but worth remembering that it wasn’t that way in the Communist dictatorships of Eastern Europe. Romania’s Nicolae Ceaucescu, for example, banned the holiday and bulldozed churches in Bucharest. Nicolae and wife Elena lived like royalty as the people lined up for the barest necessities. Midnight arrests, torture and assassination were common, and by the late 1980s the people weren’t going to take it anymore.
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December 14, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Jill Biden released this Christmas video, which is getting a lot of negative attention. See what you think of it: Jill Biden releases a new White House Christmas video What do you think of the performance? pic.twitter.com/y7pklOuL5M — TheBlaze (@theblaze) December 14, 2023 Admittedly, it is a long way from a stable in Bethlehem. On the other hand, in its defense, I think the video is not especially weird by
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June 18, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I wrote this on Father’s Day in 2010. It is a post that struck a chord with at least a few readers. I amplified it in 2020 and am taking the liberty of reposting these reflections in honor of the day. My father was a thoughtful man in his own way. In the last years of his life he recited for me the things for which he was most grateful.
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December 25, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Merry Christmas to all of our Christian readers and friends. We hope you are enjoying the holiday. Ours is highlighted by the presence of grandchildren, who motivated us to get our tree decorated: This Nativity scene has been put up every year since 1954 or 1955. Someday I suppose I will pass it on to one of our kids. When we were young, my older brother and I used to
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