A little interlude to note that the most expensive bracelet ever sold is pretty beautiful, and what a provenance! This is from a recent auction of Wallis Simpson’s jewels: This flamingo pin is pretty fine, too. The Duchess must have … Continue reading →
Most of us know about the famous July 1944 Hitler assassination plot that failed, led by Claus von Stauffenberg and code-named Operation Valkyrie. The co-conspirators paid with their lives, and their families were punished as well. I became interested recently … Continue reading →
It’s the 30th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon, and for the occasion, Rolling Stone has released the full text of an interview he gave three days before he died. It contains these ironic words: These critics with the … Continue reading →
We all know what members of the Secret Service do: they protect the President and First Family from attack. But we don’t often think about the details of what that actually involves. Here’s a very matter-of-fact narrative from Clint Hill, … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a partial repeat of a previous post.] Here are some of writer John Updike’s reflection on the JFK assassination, originally published at the time in the “Notes and Comments” segment of The New Yorker, and featured again … Continue reading →
It’s the 47th anniversary of the JFK assassination. The death of Kennedy marked an abrupt and hugely traumatic transition for all of my generation from innocence to experience. It’s hard to convey to younger people how surprising and shocking it … Continue reading →
Commenter “expat” points us to this article about Obama’s constant references to and reverence for Gandhi, expressed during his Indian visit, and the fact that this isn’t exactly reassuring to the present-day Indian government and business leaders. Obama is many … Continue reading →
What would Reagan say about the dilemmas facing us today? Actually, we kinda know what Reagan would say, because he kinda said it already. I was listening for the first time to a well-known speech Reagan gave back in Goldwater … Continue reading →
Rush Limbaugh is talking about this photo of Obama from Drudge: Limbaugh says: An American president has never had facial expressions like this. At least we’ve never seen photos of an American president with facial expressions like this. I beg … Continue reading →
In 2002, Ingrid Betancourt was running for Colombia’s presidency when she was kidnapped by leftist FARC guerillas and held in difficult captivity for six years along with fourteen other hostages. The group was freed by Colombian soldiers in the summer … Continue reading →
As if the public’s anger at BP wasn’t already strong enough, the company’s chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, put his foot into another pile of steaming doo-doo when he said: [Obama’s] frustrated because he cares about the small people, and we care … Continue reading →
By now we all have probably noticed the strange phenomenon of people who are highly accomplished in their own fields but who fail to exercise even a modicum of common sense when opining outside them. I’ve been reading Thomas Sowell’s … Continue reading →