Below The Beltway

A re-post from last year, but still worth reading today:

Two Hundred Thirty Two Years Ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote the following:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate […]

Pardon the subtitles (or maybe not), but this is by far the best rendition of any patriotic song ever:

There just aren’t enough Republicans willing to say stuff like this anymore:
“There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs.There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, […]

A victory for personal freedom, 41 years ago today:
On this date in 1967, the US Supreme Court decided the case of Loving v. Virginia, striking down Virginia’s anti-misegenation statute. Mildred Loving passed away on May 2 of this year, promting a flurry of moving obituaries. As John Ridley noted on NPR’s morning edition, Barak Obama […]

It was 232 years ago today, June 7, 1776, that the Second Continental Congress began debating a resolution submitted by Virginia’s own Richard Henry Lee:
Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, […]

One of the most memorable speeches that Ronald Reagan gave was when he spoke at Normandy, France to mark the 40th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
Here’s Part One:

And, Part Two:

The fight to free a continent from tyranny and evil unlike anything ever seen before begins:

As a piece of literature, history, and autobiography, Scott McClellan’s media attention grabbing book What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception isn’t great or even good. As someone who loves reading books, I found myself skipping over entire chapters with ease to get to the part that mattered simply because […]

Larry Sabato has shown a penchant in recent years for completely re-writing the United States Constitution notwithstanding the fact that it’s more or less functioned quite well over the past 219 years, and his latest Richmond Times-Dispatch column is no exception.
In it, Sabato goes after a little known part of the Constitution that has been […]

Give someone a job where, by definition, they have nothing to do, and sometimes they’re gonna get in trouble.
A few examples:
3. William Rufus de Vane King: Franklin Pierce’s VP
William R. King was sworn into office in Cuba, becoming the only executive officer to take the oath on foreign soil. King had gone to Cuba to […]