congress
The Road to November and Beyond
It would not be too great a stretch to assert that the American public favors fair elections not predetermined by rigged devices such as gerrymandering. After all, fairness is a virtually genetic value pursued, if not perfectly practiced, in most… Read More ›
ICYMI……………..March 21, 1917
One hundred five years ago today, Loretta Perfectus Walsh, a 20-year-old Philadelphia woman, was sworn in as Chief Yeoman, becoming the first woman petty officer in the United States Navy. Walsh enlisted four days earlier under the US Naval Reserve… Read More ›
Around the Novahood
THE EAGLES HAVE LANDED Not quite the 1976 film plot but an exciting event nonetheless . . . in the Dulles Greenway wetlands in Leesburg. Mom Rosa and Dad Martin, who have resided in the Greenway’s wetlands since 2005,… Read More ›
ICYMI……………………..March 14, 1900
One hundred twenty-two years ago today, Congress passed the Gold Standard Act, confirming the United States commitment to the gold standard. Previously, under the Coinage Act of 1792, the nation’s currency was indexed to the Spanish silver dollar and produced… Read More ›
Not So Long Ago
Sometimes it is inexorably attractive to rely upon canards such as Rule #39 – “There are no coincidences” – from the TV show NCIS. A converse can be said to be “if the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit” –the… Read More ›
ICYMI……………February 21, 1848
One hundred seventy-four years ago today, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published Manifesto of the Communist Party in London, a pamphlet that guided political revolutions in Russia and China. Its main thesis holds that all means of production of goods,… Read More ›
The Limits of Freedom
The current debate in opposition to mask and vaccine mandates explicitly and implicitly resonates with a notion about freedom, or to be more precise, restrictions thereon. At its July 2018 convention, the nation’s Libertarian Party platform set forth in a… Read More ›
Ignoring Values
1 The Virginia Mercury (https://www.virginiamercury.com/2022/01/28/why-is-it-so-hard-to-build-tribal-housing/) posed a seemingly innocuous question: “Why is it so hard to build tribal housing in Virginia?” Considering this nation’s behavior toward indigenous Americans, the answer is naggingly elusive but the question prompts consideration about the… Read More ›
ICYMI…………………….January 31, 1865
One hundred fifty-six years ago today, following the end of the Civil War, Congress proposed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified by the states on December 5, 1865. Its text is brief and appears quite clear: Neither… Read More ›