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“O say can you see . . . ?” is the famous question Francis Scott Key asked 200 years ago when he wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner,” our national anthem. What comes to mind when you hear those lyrics? How do they stir your patriotic soul? Key wanted you to see what he saw, hear what he heard and feel what he felt. O say, can you? We can remember that the British military burned the White House and U.S. Capitol on Aug. 24, 1814. British Rear Admiral George Cockburn, who set Washington ablaze, believed there wasn’t a “place on the...

God created the universe in six days, but it took an act of Congress to get Him into the Pledge of Allegiance. The history of the Pledge is dotted with revisions, including the 1954 adoption of “under God.” And though Americans have said the Pledge the same way for the past 60 years, a survey from the American Humanist Association found that one-third would like “under God” removed, after being told those words were not part of the original text.

Michael Brown was a college-bound, black teenager who no longer has an opportunity to forge a future he could be proud of. He is dead, allegedly killed execution style after a confrontation with a policeman. Darren Wilson is a white police officer, who after six years of blemish-free service to his community, used deadly force to allegedly defend himself in an escalating confrontation with an unarmed teenager. Do you know which version is closer to the truth? The search for justice is always difficult. In the rush for judgment in Ferguson, Missouri, it has become all but impossible. As coverage...

10-year-old citizen of Lviv Taras Krotko passed in 1300 to help UAH Ukrainian army. Boy collecting money for a tablet, but decided to give them the purchase of bullet-proof vests. He brought the money to the studio a local radio station, which had launched a fundraising campaign to help soldiers ATO reports ZAHID.NET. The boy left a note in which he explained that in 1300 he was presented with UAH relatives birthday, and he decided to give them body armor for the Ukrainian military. "We were a little confused, because he came here with the money held in his piggy...

The Clinton-Obama Benghazi Rule is as follows: “1.) ALWAYS STAND DOWN WHEN MUSLIMS ATTACK, 2.) WAIT FOR THE MUSLIMS TO FINISH THEIR BLOOD SPORT KILLING, AND 3.) THEN DO NOTHING.” Since September 11, 2014, Obama has: * Invoked the field-tested, Clinton-Obama Benghazi Rule for the US in order to allow the ongoing genocide of Christians, and Yazidis in current US Ally Iraq; * Refused to keep his Word on his Redline in Syria; * Released the GITMO FIVE to supervise the rapid growth of ISIS; * Repeatedly proclaimed that HIS "American People" are war weary; * Ordered the dismissing of...

A Coral Gables billionaire wants to hoist a 500-pound American flag atop a massive, 40-story flagpole over downtown Miami.... Fernandez, a major donor to Republican candidates and the former chief fundraiser for Gov. Rick Scott, has been mulling a way to pay homage to the United States for years. He came to the U.S. from Cuba in 1964 as a penniless child and made his fortune in healthcare. He says the idea is “very preliminary,” but he began to consider flying a massive flag over downtown after watching a video of the Wisconsin-based insurer Acuity building a 400-foot tall flagpole...

Not content with imposing the highest corporate tax structure in the “free” world, Democrat hacks in the legislature are now asking the Imperial President to unilaterally take action. A group of tax happy corporate protectionists are hoping the President uses his "pen and his phone" to start punishing American businesses that have the audacity to lower their corporate tax burden. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Dick Durbin (D-Ill), and Jack Reed (D-RI), have crafted a letter (yeah… It took three of them) to President Obama requesting that action be taken toward businesses that have sheltered themselves from some US taxes. According to...

When he’s in trouble, President Obama changes the subject to the economy. And in speech after speech, he utters some version of this line: “We know from our history, our economy does not grow from the top down, it grows from the middle up.” This is a puzzling statement. I don’t know what it means, much less whether it’s true. I asked a number of economists and they were no help. “I have no idea what it means,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office, says. “I am unaware of any literature supporting the proposition,” Kevin Hassett,...

President Barack Obama, who in his political dotage is enthusiastically getting in touch with his inner Otto von Bismarck to such an extent that we half expect him to start sporting a walrus mustache and a pickelhaube, on Saturday treated the ailing republic to another lecture on the theme of “economic patriotism,” by which he means an arrangement under which companies adopt tax strategies that maximize the amount of money they send to President Obama and his colleagues to dispose of as they see fit. He demanded that companies “embrace an economic patriotism,” presumably one defined by Barack Obama, rather...

Have you ever looked at all the schlock we’re currently mired in thanks to BHO’s “fundamental transformation” of America and thought, or actually said, “Screw it. I’m done. I officially don’t give a crap anymore.” I have. And I prize myself as being somewhat of a scrappy-faith-filled dude. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I get sick and tired of being sick and tired. As a 51-year-old, I remember the good old days when we had at least quasi-legit leaders who gave a nominal flip about the continuation and betterment of this grand experiment called America. I recall how...

Growing up, I was – as I assume you were – inundated with lists of “the benefits of citizenship.” The list was long and capped, naturally, by the fact the United States was the best, strongest, freest nation on the planet. Being an American was a source of pride. But is it still? Do the benefits of citizenship still outweigh the alternative? As progressives cheer the dissolution of our southern border and, by extension, our sovereignty, it’s worth looking at the benefits of non-citizenship illegal aliens now enjoy and comparing them to the responsibilities of citizenship. Most people don’t like...

This story is about a gilded class of people and corporations enriched by the new American economy while the rest of its citizens pay the tab. The protagonists could be any number of institutional elites, but this column happens to be about a Democratic senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, and his daughter, Heather Bresch, the chief executive of Mylan, a giant maker of generic drugs based outside Pittsburgh. Her company's profits come largely from Medicaid and Medicare, which means her nest is feathered by U.S. taxpayers. On Monday, Bresch announced that Mylan will renounce its United States citizenship and...

These films across genres and decades show American exceptionalism on screen. When it comes to the “land I love,” the movies that move us most happen to be based on the stories of real Americans. They get to the core of what America really means and show why this nation is truly exceptional. America’s dedication to liberty makes it a nation like no other. That’s why, whether the setting is war, politics, courtrooms, sports, or science, when Hollywood makes movies about exceptional Americans they celebrate the true value and meaning of liberty. And that inspires us.

the Gallup numbers show that in 2006 the United States was one of the top countries in the world when it came to satisfaction with freedom. By 2013 it had dropped out of the top 25% of all countries. A country in which 4 out of 5 people believe their government is corrupt is a country teetering between a populist uprising and a collapse into cynicism, passivity, and fatalism. These results suggest we will either renew our commitment to the rule of law, the punishment of corruption and the insistence on honest self-government or we will cease to be America...

It's the very symbol of patriotism -- Old Glory, as William Driver, a 19th-century American sea captain, nicknamed it. But even as we close in on Independence Day, more and more people across the country are calling the American flag a threat and inappropriate home garnishing. A week ago, the landlord of a Texas man called the American flag "a threat to the Muslim community" and ordered him to remove it from his home, according to KHOU-TV. Duy Tran said the Stars and Stripes means a lot to him. Posting the flag was the least he could do, he said,...

"the importance of honesty, integrity, transparency, and reliability are still requirements for the job. Dad, I thank you for modeling those traits."

This "rap" music video captures the enthusiasm and energy of young children performing in honor of Constitution Day in Norway - 200th anniversary was May 17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iXoOqaeRXc8 Sorry - I don't have a translation... There was a sizable celebration in the Ballard district of Seattle where many Norwegians settled long ago. Maybe there are celebrations like this in the US... for the 4th of July? I wish. What I found fascinating - on Facebook pages of my many relatives in Norway were dozens and dozens of greetings from friends, often saying "Congratulations on the Day" or "Celebrate the Day"

The last line of our Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag speaks of "one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all." We, or at least my generation, learned the pledge early in our lives and repeated it in our schools, scout meetings and just about anywhere else there was anything resembling an official gathering.

When President Vladimir Putin of Russia talks about what is happening in Ukraine these days, it is as if he’s looking into a mirror. He says fascists and nationalists are running amok in Kiev, even as Crimea is annexed in the name of Great Russia; he says Russians are threatened in eastern Ukraine, even as Russia directs secessionists there to seize administrative buildings and arms; he calls on President Obama to use his influence to prevent the use of force in Ukraine, even as he puts a major military force on the Ukrainian border. This ploy was a fixture of...