By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
March 15 is the 100-year anniversary of the presidential news conference. Woodrow Wilson had been in the White House less than two weeks when his private secretary, Joseph P. Tumulty, ushered 125 reporters into the Oval Office for what was the beginning of a love fest between traditionally adversarial parties.
President Obama and leaders of Congress dedicated a statue of civil-rights hero Rosa Parks on Wednesday in a moving ceremony at the U.S. Capitol, marking the first time a black woman has been honored with a place in National Statuary Hall.
Who is the only president buried in Washington, D.C.? How many presidents served in the military? Here's the answers and more about America's commander in chief.
Paul Dickson, a noted author, commentator and lexicographer, warms up the audience by opening this entertaining and informative book with a list of 44 presidential firsts, in no real way related to the subject of presidential neologisms or phrases, but guaranteed to grab our attention.
If Ulysses Grant was the prototypical Dwight Eisenhower, and if William T. Sherman foreshadowed Omar Bradley, then it is not too much of a stretch to call Philip Sheridan the George Patton of the Union armies of the Civil War -- minus the ego-driven tantrums.
President Obama's second inauguration likely will play out against better weather than his first one did, escaping some of the historically bad D.C. conditions that have plagued past presidential swearings-in.
"Iknew wherever I was that you thought of me and that if I got in a tight place, you would come -- if alive." This statement was contained in a letter dated March 10, 1864, written by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman to Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. It expresses an ageless ethos among warriors, especially those within the U.S. military.
The title of this book about the U.S-Mexican War (1846-47) gives away the author's bias. It is lifted from a statement Ulysses S. Grant made in 1867, 20 years after the war ended.
Who knew Abraham Lincoln could play the violin and accordion? In Paula Vogel's warm, non-saccharine vision, the Lincoln character pitches in to do that and more in her sprightly, intellectual musical play, "A Civil War Christmas."
Philip McFarland's book "Mark Twain and the Colonel" is a hybrid biography of two of the most colorful figures of their era and a fascinating look at America at the beginning of the 20th century.
In a fore-note to his vastly entertaining and readable book, Geoffrey Ward quotes an epigram from George Bernard Shaw: "If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance."
Robert Todd Lincoln was the oldest of President Abraham Lincoln's four sons and the only one to live to maturity. In contrast to his self-educated father, he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and then Harvard. After the Civil War, he became one of the most prominent lawyers in Chicago, and by virtue of his name became a factor in Republican politics.
Noting that "all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon," an opinion released Wednesday by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that only the Kentucky-made Maker's Mark bourbon can carry the distinctive red dripping wax seal bottle topper.
Some publishers promise readers through exaggerated book titles more than the authors intend. This can lead to cases of buyer's remorse. Happily, it is not the case with "Victors in Blue," which, despite its faintly misleading subtitle, is still a valuable addition to anyone's Civil War library and a treat to read.
The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery is opening two new exhibits that retrace the history of the Civil War, including a display of lesser known portraits by photographer Mathew Brady.
He also hinted that insider information gleaned from prominent Wall Street figures enabled him to earn high returns.
he famously replied that someone should have some of Grant's whiskey bottles delivered to his other generals.
