Yawper

“Here, sir, the people govern,” bellowed Alexander Hamilton at the New York convention to ratify the Constitution.  It is ironic that I once attended a dinner to honor Hamilton where the keynote speaker was Michael Bloomberg.  The diminutive mayor seems not to know much about Hamilton, or the law, or the Constitution, or modesty, or […]

At the moment of conception the United State of America was an influential nation.  The Declaration of 1776 reverberated around the world, and the Constitution adopted in 1787 became a global model.  American liberty inspired the French and was the foundation for the Polish Constitution of 1791.  In Central Europe German, Dutch, Belgian, Austrian leaders, […]

The pen is mightier than the sword.  With the exception of that guy in the Dark Knight, people tend not to get killed by writing implements.  (Fans of the world’s greatest detective will note that the Joker also used a pen to stab a bad guy in the 1989 Batman movie).   Yet, the point is […]

Woody Hayes, the legendary coach of Ohio State football, is credited with saying that “three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad.”  For the uninitiated, throwing the ball can result in an incompletion, interception, or a catch.  Only the latter is desired. Today, the game of football has […]

It is a sad fact that something deeply embedded in the human psyche is inexorably drawn to utopian visions.  What begins with confidence and optimism invariably falls to a harsh reality.  The hopeful seduction of fixing the world has ever ended in heartbreak. In the United States the nineteenth century was a time that swelled […]