I take no issue with the Times on slavery or on segregation. The liberal conscience of America—for so the editors see themselves—had an honorable record on those twin evils. In the American Civil War, the Times staunchly defended Lincoln and his Emancipation Proclamation. Similarly, during the modern Civil Rights era, the Gray Lady thundered daily against Jim Crow. It was for many of us the great moral issue of the twentieth century.

In the 1960s and 70s, I was a daily reader of the Times. But recently? Not so much.

And the reason is simply that I cannot abide the Times regularly railing against the defenders of human life. The Times routinely excoriates the Roman Catholic Church. Don’t even ask them about Evangelicals and Lutherans who speak up for the unborn.

Since that grim gray day in 1973 when Roe v. Wade was handed down, the Times has not found a single abortion it could not defend. Of 53,000,000 innocent lives lost, there is not one that should have been welcomed in life and protected by law. At least according to the Gray Lady.

Now, the Times is again putting Thomas Jefferson under its moral microscope. The Gray Lady is perplexed by the paradox of this “Apostle of Liberty” keeping hundreds of black Americans in bondage. Jefferson himself was perplexed. So were virtually all those members of the Founding generation who found themselves “entangled” with the serpent, human bondage. Patrick Henry anguished in a letter to a friend: “Would any one believe that I am Master of Slaves of my own purchase!”

So if they were so anguished about it, why did so many of the Founders own slaves? Henry candidly confessed: “I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them. . . “ Well, how hypocritical of Henry. He can’t put up with the inconvenience of not owning slaves.

Isn’t it ironic, therefore, that the Times has nothing but praise for Supreme Court jurisprudence in the area of abortion? Consider Justice O’Connor’s opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992):

To eliminate the issue of reliance that easily, however, one would need to limit cognizable reliance to specific instances of sexual activity. But to do this would be simply to refuse to face the fact that for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail. The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives

In short, men and women have a “reliance” interest in abortion-on-demand. O’Connor thinks it’s necessary to keep legal lethal violence against the unborn so that people can order their lives as they wish.

What an insult to professional women like my wife, a high ranking military officer, and the millions of other professional women, including, presumably, Sandra Day O’Connor herself to say that without legal abortion they could not have achieved their honors and status.

We can point to many, many moves the Founders made in an attempt to arrest the expansion of slavery. Jefferson, in particular, sought as a Congressman to ban slavery west of the Appalachian Mountains. He lost in the Confederation Congress by one vote.

“Heaven itself was silent in that awful moment,” he mourned. But Jefferson applauded a partial victory when Congress approved the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which banned slavery north of the Ohio River.

The First Congress under the Constitution affirmed the Northwest Ordinance and President Washington willingly signed it. Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass would point again and again to Jefferson’s approval and Washington’s signature as indisputable proof that Congress could prevent slavery in the territories.

The Founders called slavery wrong and treated as a wrong. They tried in many ways to work for its elimination.

As President, Thomas Jefferson prodded the Congress to take action, early action, to stop the “execrable commerce” [his words] of the Atlantic Slave Trade. He asked Congress in 1806 to act, even though the Constitution prevented the bill from taking effect until January 1, 1808. Jefferson pleaded against this violation of the “human rights of unoffending Africans.” [Again, his stirring words.]

The Times rightly criticizes the author of the Declaration of Independence for failing to follow George Washington’s splendid example of freeing his own slaves. Fair enough.

But the Gray Lady makes no mention of his oceanic achievement in banning the Slave Trade. President Jefferson had no constitutional obligation to act as he did. He didn’t even want the slave ships to depart from Africa’s shores if they would arrive here after January 1, 1808.

Hillary Clinton has said “abortion is wrong” (Newsweek, 31 October 1994), and her husband said it should be “rare.” But their public lives have been dedicated to expanding abortion at home and abroad. The Times has applauded every pro-abortion move by Hillary Clinton, and by Presidents Clinton and Obama.

Never has the Times asked why it is wrong, if it is wrong, or why it should be rare. And the Gray Lady is even less curious about what Mr. Obama or the Clintons have ever done actually to make abortion rare. In fact, the only place President Obama has made abortion rare is on the Moon. He achieved that only by grounding NASA.

The Gray Lady has a positive genius for seeing motes in her neighbor’s eye. She is utterly blind to the beam in her own. And, frankly dear lady, your slip is showing.

I was disgusted by this display.   I turned around only to see a little girl pick up a copy of the magazine only to run back to her mother and say how pretty the model was.  The mother of the girl also looked disgusted by the magazine and told the little girl to put back the magazine.

Fox News has focused on this recently, and they were shocked by this recent image as well.  In fact, Rachelle Friberg, a media expert who was interviewed by Fox, said:

Cosmopolitan is going overboard by putting an underage girl on its cover surrounded by such article titles. It is one thing to educate young women about sex and their bodies, but putting a young, underage girl on the cover of a magazine that had long been known to push the limits is sending the wrong message.

Cosmopolitan, of course, defended its decision to have Fanning as the magazine’s cover model.  Of course, their decision generated controversy, and there is no doubt that teenagers, who are fans of Fanning are lining up to buy the issue and being exposed to Cosmopolitan’s agenda of promoting immodest behaviors and promiscuity.

Today, I was glad to read that a former model is calling out Cosmopolitan for its practices and is calling for the magazine to be marketed as an adult-only publication, which would require the magazine to be sold in packaging that would not show the cover.  Nicole Weider is leading this effort and has a petition urging the FTC to help protect our youth from vulgarity.  The petition has almost 21,000 signatures, and there is no doubt that will garner more signatures from those who agree the magazine has gone too far.

Does Cosmopolitan realize the impact that these behaviors have on young women?  In 2010, the American Psychological Association released, “Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls.”  This report highlighted how publications, like Cosmopolitan, have a negative impact on young women’s mental health.

One of the dominant themes about sexuality reported across these studies and across magazines is that presenting oneself as sexually desirable and thereby gaining the attention of men is and should be the focal goal for women.

The evidence from this research is not shocking.  It’s sad that publications, such as Cosmopolitan feel the need to consistently market women as sex symbols.  The editors of Cosmopolitan don’t even offer the perspectives of those who want to abstain from sex until marriage, which is even more depressing.

Family Research Council has released a report, “Why Wait: The Benefits of Abstinence Until Marriage,” that provided evidence that those who abstain from premarital sex tend to have happier and healthier marriages.  The report also highlighted the emotional impact that premarital sex has on young women.

A 2005 study of youth in grades 7-11 found that engaging in premarital sex often leads to depression. Compared to girls who abstain, girls who engage in premarital sex are two to three times more likely to be depressed one year later.eens who engage in premarital sex are also likely to experience regret, guilt, lowered self-respect, fear of commitment and fears about pregnancy and STDs.In addition, they are more likely to commit suicide.

With research like this, Ms. Weider’s petition is needed to protect young women from being exposed to Cosmopolitan’s agenda.  Yes, it has been said that sex sells, but the real selling point is what a woman offers in terms of grace and intelligence.

I had not seen Tom in ten years and had spoken to him only a few times since he returned to the sunny South. Tom joined our staff at the U.S. Department of Education in 1986. That’s when reporters, not so kindly, referred to that agency as “Fort Reagan.” I would joke we were all committed to disestablishing that department, as our brave president was. But if liberals in Congress would not let us do that, we should conduct ourselves so that they will wish they had never created it.

Shortly after meeting Tom, I started laughing. And never stopped. Like Shakespeare’s Falstaff, Tom was not only witty himself, but “the occasion of wit in others.” If you wanted to find him on the fourth floor of that dreary government building, you could just go down the hall, turn right, and follow the peals of laughter.

Very soon I learned that Tom was an American by birth and a Southerner by choice. He exemplified the best in the South. He told us endless stories of the Agrarians, an important literary school of the 1930s and 40s. But he sure could puncture the pieties. He’d tell you the whole story of Allan Tate’s writing of “Stonewall Jackson,” relating the almost worshipful feeling that Southerners have for that intrepid Presbyterian warrior. Then, he’d catch you up by saying: “It’s not a very good book.”

When Tom defended the flying of the rebel flag on the State House in South Carolina, I took issue with him. Tom argued passionately that it was Southern heritage that was being honored, not racism. I think Tom was entirely sincere. I remarked to Tom on the arrangement of flags atop the capitol in Columbia: U.S national ensign, then, bright blue and white flag of the Palmetto state, and, beneath them, the Confederate flag. “Reminds me,” I told Tom, “of what Jefferson Davis said about his frustration in dealing with fractious state leaders. Davis said if the South lost the Civil War, its epitaph would read: ‘Died of a theory.’”

With Tom you learned not to judge Southerners by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. He was the one who brought an aged Rev. Ralph David Abernathy around to meet all of us. Dr. Abernathy was Martin Luther King’s right-hand man in the civil rights movement. He was King’s successor in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Tom worked with Abernathy on his autobiography. Dr. Abernathy had been deeply wounded by all the vicious liberal attacks on him when he endorsed Ronald Reagan for president.

I will always remember Tom looking over my shoulder when the first word processors arrived in our offices. He watched disapprovingly as I labored to transfer my writing from the yellow legal pads I then used for drafting.

“Don’t do that,” he said sternly. “Write directly on the screen.” I can’t do that, I replied.

I think by writing, and I have to write it out longhand first.

“You must train yourself to think as you write on the word processor. The device lets you revise and change at will. Think as you write!” He said it with the air of command of a Stonewall Jackson. I was reminded that Jackson would shoot a shirker at the drop of a hat. And drop the hat himself.

I obeyed. And never went back. I will treasure the memory of this true Son of the South teaching a stubborn Yankee to use a devilish new machine in order to be more efficient. Jack Kennedy was right: Washington is a city of southern efficiency and northern charm.

My favorite Tom Landess story is of his Episcopal priest, Father Rogers. The preacher was talking about giving to the poor. It was a good sermon for his well-to-do parish. Afterward, over coffee, folks talked about how they would surely give to the deserving poor. “That’s fine,” said Father Rogers, “but I’ve found that the deserving poor don’t stay poor. So I always give to the undeserving poor.” Stunned, his parishioners asked the good father why. “I give to the undeserving poor because I am undeserving poor.”

Tom understood our need for grace and why it continues to amaze. I thank God for making Tom Landess my friend.

I picked up a copy from a stack at the Capitol Hill Club yesterday and instantly remembered why I loved this journal so when I was a young conservative coming up.

There is a bright blue banner above the Masthead of Human Events that proclaims a celebration of Ronald Reagan’s Centennial. Well should this grassroots conservative hold high that banner. Ronald Reagan was their most famous reader in the 1950s and 1960s.

He continued reading Human Events in the White House. There’s a famous story that White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III tried to keep Human Events out of the president’s pile of reading because this spirited journal fearlessly criticized any backsliding or and named the backsliders. (The powerful and efficient Mr. Baker was forever leading the backslider lobby.)

Picking up my copy of Human Events, I showed it to Attorney General and Mrs. Ed Meese. With a wink, I said: Sir, the statute of limitations has run out by now. Am I correct in thinking there may have been someone “with Reagan” who made sure the president got his weekly copy of Human Events? The ever-gracious Mr. Meese smiled as he signed a copy of his book, With Reagan.

How fully modest he is. Most Washington Bigs write their memoirs focusing on themselves and their own self-importance. Dean Acheson, the very important Secretary of State in Harry Truman’s administration, set the pattern with his memoirs, Present at the Creation. Well, Acheson was there when much of the shape of the modern world was formed in those tumultuous years after World War II. Still, many of us think of something even more awe-inspiring when we see “Creation” with a capital C.

Ed Meese was with Reagan throughout those years. And he continues to serve the conservative cause with distinction, warmth, and good humor.

Human Events has lost none of its brio. “STUPID COMES TO WALL STREET” reads one headline. You won’t doubt where they stand.

Editor Jason Mattera is taking Human Events into a new era. He confronted Vice President Biden last week on Capitol Hill. Jason wanted to question the outspoken v.p. about his claims that rapes and murders would increase if we didn’t pass President Obama’s phony jobs bill. The ever-ungracious veep rounded on Jason: “Don’t ____ with me!”

Of course, it’s not just plucky Human Events reporters who think the Vice President may have stepped in it again. The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler awarded Joe B*Den four “pinocchios” for his outlandish claims. Kessler’s “Fact Checker” column is a rare gem in fair and balanced journalism.

I confess I have missed most my friend John Gizzi’s stellar reporting. And what would we do without Gizzi’s weekly “How’s Your Political I.Q.?” John Gizzi has forgotten more about American politics than most of us will ever know. Who was the last president to carry Michigan? George H.W. Bush in 1988. Which three candidates lost the New Hampshire primary but went on to win the White House? They were Bill Clinton (1992),

George W. Bush (2000) and Barack Obama (2008). I knew those, but I missed two others. Will it be time to retire when I can get a 100 on the Gizzi political IQ test?

Does your public library carry Human Events? Chances are they carry a host of liberal publications. If they don’t subscribe to Human Events, maybe they should. Liberalism is parasitic. In government it moves and breathes and has its being. Deprived of government subsidies, would it survive at all? Human Events is one way to fight back against liberal Big Government dominance. But do not, I repeat, do not Occupy the Public Library. I wouldn’t want stupid to come to the stacks.

While it’s true there is no accounting for taste (polyester leisure suits for men and gigantic shoulder pads for women are among happily-jettisoned fashions), subjecting one’s fellows to the sight of one’s underpants is, quite literally, too much.  Thus, the town of Albany, Georgia has instituted a ban on “anyone from wearing pants or skirts more than three inches below the top of the hips, exposing the skin or undergarments. First-time offenders face a $25 fine. On further offenses, the fine can rise to $200.”

As a conservative, I dislike the idea of government taking upon itself the right to measure pant length or hip exposure.  Yet such intrusions are inevitable if people lack the common sense – and common decency – to dress with at least some semblance of normality and decorum.  People only stand for so much before they call for legal fences to protect them against bad neighbors.

That should serve as a broader warning for a society enmeshed in narcissism, immorality, and the general abandonment of truth.  Moral erosion leads to anarchy.  Anarchy threatens lives, which results in a popular call for the restoration of order.  And, thus, fascism emerges in the guise of strident leadership proclaiming “bread and peace” (Bolshevism) or “one people, one empire, one leader” (Nazism) or “socialism builds and capitalism destroys” (Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez).

In his book Twelve Types, G.K. Chesterton wrote that “politeness … is everywhere understood and nowhere defined.”  Such definition really is unnecessary, since the rites of courtesy are only the formalization of intuitive conscience, of the moral stirrings that cause us to help an elderly woman up a staircase or open a door for a mother with a stroller.  Or keep one’s pants pulled up over his briefs.

Our Founders argued that if we lack self-restraint and basic virtue, we were unfit for self-government.  “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt,” wrote Samuel Adams.  In the era of such diverse but somehow connected phenomena as Lady Gaga, eroticized childhood, abortion on demand, and bizarre cosmetic surgery, is such universal corruption far behind?  Only if Christians are willing to stand against it, and work to restore a society where honor, courage, kindness, and enterprise are fostered and not demeaned.

He recently opined that “voter intensity” does not matter because all the votes are equal on election day. He’s correct that you cannot pull the lever five times to indicate your impassioned support of your candidate (sorry Chicago).

But voter intensity is the key to winning elections. Voter intensity counts because the number of votes will depend on how motivated is the electorate. One radio talker this week mourned that GOP voters had “to hold their noses” last time and, “unfortunately, there weren’t enough of them.” Try to envision those nose-holders rushing to the polls. It would be funny if it were not so sad.

Voter intensity could be seen throughout the Northern states in the 1860 presidential election as tens of thousands of young “Wide Awakes” marched forLincoln. Soon, tragically, many of them would be marching to their deaths in places like Manassas and Fredericksburg. But that voter intensity was needed in the North because Lincoln was not even on the ballot in ten slaveholding states.

Voter intensity explains the landslide victories of Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 and Warren G. Harding in 1920. In that other era of economic distress, the 1930s, voter intensity produced Franklin D. Roosevelt’s stunning back-to-back victories.

One of FDR’s impassioned 1932 supporters was even so cheeky as to send a telegram to the White House to the embattled President Herbert Hoover: “Vote for Roosevelt; Make it Unanimous.” Now, that’s voter intensity.

I saw voter intensity in Virginia in 2008.  Barack Obama’s campaign had 82 headquarters staffed by volunteers statewide. John McCain had but one. Is it any wonder Mr. Obama became the first Democrat since Lyndon Johnson to carry the Old Dominion?

Next week, I plan to attend the Values Voter Summit. I’ll have a chance to work on the FRC booth and to meet the thousands of intense Values Voters who will be coming to Washington’s Omni Shoreham hotel. It’s always an interesting and worthwhile time. You get to meet leaders from throughout the nation, and even from some foreign countries here to see how the Yankees do it.

I’ve walked precincts in every election save one since I could vote. It’s an important way to learn what voters care about. A recent speech at the Reagan Library by a non-candidate created a stir when that important state governor promoted “earned American exceptionalism.” I think he was right about that—as the phrase was later explained.

The speech was said to be presidential.

Maybe. But the reason there is a Reagan Library is because President Reagan spoke of America as “a shining city on a hill.” You didn’t have to have a Ph.D. in comparative government to understand what he meant. You learn that when you work a precinct.

The great American presidents were great because they communicated great ideas. “Mr. Gorbachev: Tear down this wall.” Profound and readily understandable. “This government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Clear.

I’m always bemused when I read biographies of Lincoln. I get the feeling their authors have never walked a precinct. They invariably depict President Lincoln as hounded, beset, and burdened by the swarms of office-seekers and favor askers who descended on his White House. Lincoln himself noted the problem of trying to fill offices while some states were seceding: “I feel like a man trying to rent rooms at one end of the house while the other end is on fire!”

But he could easily have delegated the task of party manager and political boss to others. That’s what the Postmaster General was used for by many presidents. Lincoln kept all the reins in his own hands for a good reason. He wanted to build his political base and he wanted to take his daily “public opinion baths” by seeing scores of local political activists.  He knew that by seeing these folks, he could keep his finger on the pulse of what was happening in the country.

Next week, at the Omni, you won’t have to walk the precincts. The precincts will walk to you. That’s why I love the Values Voter Summit.

When the insiders acknowledge the role the marriage issue played in this race, it’s gratifying. It’s even nicer when they recognize FRC Action for the part it played.

The Democratic nominee had, as a State Assemblyman, voted to give legal recognition to same-sex couples. But that’s not usually how the media describes it. Instead, the winner of the special election will be described as “anti-gay marriage.”

How did we, the “I Do” people, become “I Don’ts?”

Marriage has been recognized as the union of one man and one woman in this country, and in most countries, for centuries. The U.S. Census has so recognized it since Thomas Jefferson directed the first census in 1790. The Republican Party wrote its first platform in 1856. We all know the Republicans took a strong stance against the extension of slavery. But how many of us know the Republicans also opposed polygamy? “Slavery and polygamy are the twin relics of barbarism,” the Republicans said forthrightly, from its beginning.

We’re also routinely described as the “anti-abortion rights” people. We don’t agree that so great a wrong could ever be a right. Hillary Clinton once agreed with us. She told Newsweek (October 31, 1994) that “abortion is wrong.” That was then. Before that time and since that time, she has gone into every nation, even unto the ends of the earth, pressing for abortion as a right.

Again, we ask this question: Doesn’t everyone deserve a birth day?

We say yes. They say no. But somehow we are the antis.

Public relations experts will tell you it is better to be pro- than anti-.  That’s why Ronald Reagan, described in the 1960s as a “former General Electric pitchman,” understood the power of pro-life, not anti-abortion. He was the first political candidate to describe himself as pro-life. Even today, the Washington Post—when they cannot avoid it—puts “pro-life” in scare quotes. As they never do with Hamas, al Qaeda, or Hezbollah.

When they call us the Taliban wing, they don’t even put Taliban in scare quotes. Pretty scary.

Several years ago, at a large Washington gathering I attended with the Prime Minister of Israel, a well-dressed gentleman stood to ask a question:

Mr. Prime Minister. I run a large public relations firm here. I give as much as I can to support Israel. But I have to say, it would be so much better if you could sometimes put Israel’s position in more positive terms. It’s an advantage in selling anything. The media is forever portraying you in negative terms. You’re always the NO man.

Menachem Begin looked thoughtfully at the questioner. He did not seem irritated, and answered with Old World courtliness.

Mr. Public Relations. I thank you for coming. I am grateful for your support of the Jewish state and for this question. I will ask my ministers what we can do about putting Israel’s case to the world in more positive terms, as you suggest.

But you will grant me this: In our part of the world, there are certain great precedents for

“Thou Shalt Not.”

Should marriage survive? YES! Does this child deserve a birth day? YES!

Next question.

Then, he gifted Her Majesty with, what else, recordings of all his speeches. He followed that up with the amazingly thoughtful gesture of bestowing on Prime Minister Gordon Brown a $29.95 collection of DVDs of Hollywood’s greatest films. Mr. Brown is doubtless enjoying them now, in his retirement, if he can get an adapter.

The “Special Relationship” fostered so carefully by the World War II alliance of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt is in tatters. The Obama State Department is happy to tell us that Britain is no more special to us than any of the other 192 countries in the UN. (Of course, President Obama is known to think the U.S. itself is no more exceptional than Britain, or even Greece.)

It was fairly easy to be the new broom sweeping clean – back in 2009. Now, however, as Rev. Wright might say, Obama’s chickens are coming home to roost. Along with his sagging approval numbers is coming increasing disrespect. Rep. Maxine Waters is asking permission from her constituents to take the president to the woodshed. Former backer Peggy Noonan briskly calls him a “loser” on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal and asks aloud if he might just be “snakebit.”

The worst example of dissing the commander-in-chief, doubtless came from leftist Bill Maher. He told a nationwide audience, in an obscenity-laced routine, that he had been hoping for a president who would shoot the BP executives after the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

A short review of our Special Relationship might be in order. When Churchill crossed the U-boat infested North Atlantic seventy summers ago in the HMS Prince of Wales, he forged an alliance that lasted through World War II, the Cold War, all the way into the hills of Tora Bora, in Afghanistan and the oilfields of Basra in Iraq. Churchill, it was said in that 1941 First Summit, felt as if he was “going to meet God Almighty.” FDR’s son told the British Prime Minister his father thought him “the greatest man in the world.”

Following Roosevelt’s death and V-E Day in 1945, Churchill nimbly befriended Harry Truman. In fact, it was President Truman who invited the defeated ex-Prime Minister to Fulton, Missouri, the next year. Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College on March 5, 1946, made headlines around the world.

Returning to Number 10 Downing Street, Churchill welcomed in 1952 the election of his old wartime comrade Dwight D. Eisenhower as president. True, Britain’s Prime Minister was less entranced with Ike’s Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles. “He’s the only bull I know who carries his china shop with him,” Winston said bitterly. But he took care not to break ranks with President Eisenhower, a man who was revered on five continents.

Ike’s successor, John F. Kennedy, might have had reason to shun Sir Winston, now in retirement. After all, his father, Joe Kennedy, bitterly attacked Churchill as the man responsible for World War II and blamed Winston personally for the death of his eldest son, Joe, Jr.

As president, John F. Kennedy rose above all that. In the last months of his life, in June, 1963, he named Churchill an honorary American citizen, the first such distinction granted since Lafayette. “He marshaled the English language,” said JFK at the Rose Garden ceremony, “and sent it into battle.” During the Berlin Crises and the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy had no stronger supporters than the British.

With Lyndon Johnson, we have the first tear in the fabric of friendship. When Sir Winston died in 1965, LBJ let it be known that he would decline to attend the state funeral in London. Instead, he sent Chief Justice Earl Warren. Johnson reacted with bitter sarcasm to press inquiries as to why, if he declined to go himself, he would not at least send Vice President Humphrey:

“I may have made a mistake by asking a Chief Justice to go and not asking the Vice President. I will bear in mind in connection with any future funerals your very strong feelings in the matter and try to act in accordance with our national interest.”

Of a previous death in London, that of King Charles I, it was said: “He nothing common did or mean upon that memorable scene.” Lyndon Johnson did nothing common or mean, either, but only because he stayed home. Queen Elizabeth saved our honor then by inviting former President Eisenhower to be her personal guest.

Ronald Reagan revived the Grand Alliance. He and Margaret Thatcher were fast friends.

When Ronald Reagan became the first U.S. President to address the British House of Commons in 1982, he took care to wear a Royal Air Force tie. It was a visual reminder of Churchill’s tribute to the brave young fliers of the RAF: “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”

As we look back on the years of our lives, it’s interesting to note that all of Churchill’s greatest American friends – FDR, Truman, Ike, JFK and Ronald Reagan – died honored and loved by the people of this Great Republic, as well.

Just four years after he was hailed as a Caesar at his 1964 nominating convention, LBJ found he dare not show his face at his party’s convention in Chicago. Even his chosen successor, the hapless Hubert Humphrey, was hit by human excrement thrown by protesters and tear-gassed in his hotel by responding police as he claimed the mantle of party leadership. And who remembers Lyndon Johnson’s funeral?

I do not predict and certainly do not hope for such a fate for President Obama, or even believe he is snakebitten. I don’t think he has had just a run of bad luck. Nor do I think in my soul that he’s being haunted by Sir Winston’s ghost. Just don’t tell Bill Maher who founded BP–British Petroleum: It was Winston Churchill.

I was on the sixth floor of my building when Earthquake Elvis started–a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on. “Out we go, by the stairs,” I yelled to co-workers as I made for the exits. Those twelve flights of stairs never seemed so long. The next day, I was mildly chided for doing the wrong thing. Earthquake Advisories from Janet Napolitano—Big Sis—say you’re supposed to stay inside your building in the event of earthquake. But the local news acknowledged that a decade after 9/11 there is no way to persuade folks to stay inside.

We had just recovered from after-shocks when Hurricane Irene, blew in over the weekend. Downgraded to a tropical storm, she hit the Metro area hard enough. My home in Annapolis was one of the 750,000 customers without power. Not just for a few hours, but for days. We had summoned our son home from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where the storm was forecast to be most intense. Salisbury might flood and lose power, we heard. So home he came.

As it happened, he was on hand to help us pitch a 12-foot limb that had fallen into our backyard. It was like Scottish games—tossing the caber. Others in our neighborhood would spend the week without power as crews chain-sawed huge uprooted trees. Now, just days later, the street is all spruced up, if not oaked or mapled.

Once the earthquake aftershocks were over and power had been restored, life could return to some semblance of normal, we thought. My wife and I sat down to watch a movie. The windows were open to receive cool breezes, the first time in days the night air was not being torn by the roaring of generators. Ah, peace and quiet returns.

Brrr-rrr-ring! The phone seemed more insistent than usual. A robo-call—from the Anne Arundel County Police and Emergency Services. We’d never received such a call before.
The call was to inform us that one Bonrick Lee Barksdale had escaped from the District Court Building while awaiting extradition to North Carolina. The caller said he was armed and dangerous.

Off went the TV; we closed and locked the doors and windows. The robo-call advised us if Mr. Barksdale should come rapping at our door to call 9ll.

As my friend, Sig Swantstrom, a former SWAT team member, likes to say: When seconds count, the police are only minutes away. We listened to helicopters and sirens wailing in the cool night air. Our house is pretty secure, especially since we had new deadbolts installed. But I had taken Sig’s advice. This soft-spoken, calm and deliberate law enforcement veteran and his friends at Texas Republic Firearms Academy hope to persuade all Americans to take seriously their Second Amendment rights—and responsibilities.

With the morning light, our neighbor told us her teenage son had already learned that Mr. Barksdale had been apprehended by police. The neighbor boy learned all of this on Facebook.

We also learned that Barksdale had been able to overpower a female security guard from a contract firm—not even a city or county police officer—who had been assigned to accompany him to his hearing. The Baltimore Sun’s website noted: “The authorities in North Carolina wanted Barksdale on numerous charges including kidnapping, attempted 1st degree rape, first degree sex offense and robbery among other charges.”

How was it that such an accused perpetrator, with a previous record of escape attempts, had been placed in a situation where he could easily overpower a hired security guard and take her weapon? Does this record convince us we should put our family members lives in the hands of the authorities?

I was prepared if Mr. Barksdale came rapping at our door. He was described as armed and dangerous. I wanted him to know: So was I.

Yes, if you’d been watching the Weather Channel, you’d probably figure that the Battle of Armageddon would be child’s play compared to the punch Nature had in store for us.

For nearly a week, the TV stations hyped the coming hurricane. By the time the storm actually hit, Irene had been downgraded to a Category One tropical storm. Still, she was bad enough.

Did I mention we had an earthquake last week, too? Say, how come they don’t name earthquakes the way they do storms of wind and rain? Let me suggest to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey that they name earthquakes for Al Gore, Prince Charles, and some of the planet’s more famous Greens.

When the earthquake came, I was at work in Washington. In the days approaching the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we may be a bit apprehensive in the nation’s capital. Remembering that Sec. Janet Napolitano was looking out for us was not necessarily reassuring.

Once we’d figured out we’d been hit by Nature and not terrorists, it was better. But cell phones soon proved useless. It was a good time to remember prayer. Praying for your loved ones comes naturally when you do it every day.

Days later, the storm knocked out power to some 750,000 people in our region. My neighborhood in Annapolis became truly neighborly with the power outage. The lights were out barely five minutes before Gordon, my next-door neighbor, was knocking on our door. He offered to let us plug in to his generator for the fridge and the sump pump that keeps our basement dry. And each morning before dawn, Gordon would be there, politely informing us he’d have to go “down” for a half hour to re-fuel the generator.

John lives several houses away. Before this, we’d only waved, but in a friendly way. We respected his privacy. Now, John swung his big SUV around the cul-de-sac, offering to get gas for each of us to power the generators. He refused all our attempts to reimburse him.

I wish I could say that storms and natural disasters always bring out the best in people. Our married daughter reported that her new neighborhood in Virginia was quite friendly, with most folks bringing their grills out onto front lawns and making a cookout of the food that wasn’t going to stay refrigerated once they lost power.

But as she ventured forth to find ice, it wasn’t too good to see the woman leaving the local Wal-Mart tightly grasping the last eighteen bags of ice in the store. Hunting for a Laundromat for two hours when you’re pregnant with twins cannot be much fun, either, but at least it gives you a chance to re-charge your cell phone.

People are supposed to understand that when you come to an intersection and all the traffic lights are out, you should take turns entering. When one heedless fellow in a truck just barreled through at 55 mph, our normally quiet and reserved daughter yelled out: “HEY, IT”S NOT YOUR TURN!” For the next hour, she was treated to her 2 ½ year old repeating “It’s not your turn!” at the top of his voice. It shows us how little ears are always listening.

Some merchants rose to the occasion. Our daughter reports that a young woman at Starbucks took pity on her when she arrived, somewhat bedraggled after hunting ice and a Laundromat. The coffee lady came to her table with a special cookie treat for our grandson. Their local Panera stayed open throughout the storm. Our loved ones joined the throngs that sought their only hot meals there. With long lines snaking out the door the morning after the storm, the Panera staff worked the line, taking orders and cheering harried diners.

Our Annapolis home suddenly became a strange place in the dark. Going to early bed by candlelight, my wife and I had to take care to avoid tripping over extension cords. We slept in back rooms. The neighborhood’s many generators made the place sound like the starting line at the Indianapolis Speedway.

When, after four days, the power was finally restored, we rejoiced. It was like finding that lost coin. Some 3,800 utility crews had descended on Anne Arundel County from all over the country. It reminds us that we are connected to each other “by more than just power lines.” It is also a reminder of how blessed we are to live in the United States, where access to electrical power is the norm, not the exception.

Historic Annapolis Foundation wants us all to be proud of our 320-year old city.

I am proud to live in a town where George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison shaved by candlelight. But I’d prefer shaving by the light of an historic incandescent light bulb. Thanks to BG&E, and may God bless the hard-working crews who labored through the storm and through the nights to bring back power to the people.