3 Ring Binder

I’m discouraged to say the least about our choices for President this time around, but I don’t generally bother talking about either because I dislike both candidates. I have resolved to vote for neither, but am resigned to the fact that one of them is going to be our next President. When, on occasion, I hear or read the candidates own words, it is hard to ignore. Mr. Obama’s commencement speech to the graduates at Wesleyan University a few weekends ago is a must read. You can read it in its entirety here . There is a brief, but excellent dismantling of some of his inspirational collectivist buzz words here . The most telling is his phrase “the poverty of ambition.” Despite his references to our second President elsewhere, Mr. Obama does not appear to have read any biographies of John Adams. Mr. Adams was well known to have recognized and struggled mightily with the potential problem of ambition – his own – in wishing to govern this great nation. It would appear that Mr. Obama recogni...

The presence of red coats (brown coats). A struggle for independence. A confluence of events and characters making a peerless assemblage. Having had the pleasure of watching the first three episodes of John Adams (the miniseries on HBO) this weekend, I got to wondering about the similarities between it and Firefly . Okay, not really, but the end of the opening theme does bear a striking resemblance to the end of The Ballad of Serenity . The miniseries is every bit as good as I hoped it would be.

John Adams by David McCullough - In a testament to the extraordinary confluence of men of reason and events as well as to the writing style of Mr. McCullough, I read toward the American Revolution as if I couldn’t wait to find out if the good guys win! Spoiler: they do. McCullough then delves more deeply into John Adams’ psychology and his obsession with ambition after the war. Ben Franklin is portrayed in his later years as a saucy old hedonist, much to Adams' dismay. In the relationship between Adams and Jefferson, it is clear which is the more principled man, but again, I couldn’t wait to find out it they managed to mend their relationship. Spoiler: they do. The miniseries is based on the book by McCullough. I read it many years ago (hardcover), but I remember racing up to the Revolution, hardly being able to withstand the suspense! That's how exciting it all still is! There was an excellent review of the series in the Wall Street Journal this week. It starts tomorrow night...