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Rockefeller Christmas tree lights go ON! Thousands turn out (and BOO) de Blasio as he hits the button after performances by Diana Ross, John Legend and Tony Bennett to kick off holiday season New York Mayor Bill de Blasio flipped the switch Wednesday to light the Rockefeller Center Christmas TreeThe lighting followed a televised extravaganza that featured performances by Diana Ross and Tony BennettThe 72-foot tree is decorated with 5 miles of multicolored LED lights and a 900-pound Swarovski crystal starThe festive spirit was momentarily interrupted when de Blasio was booed by some in the crowd when his name...

This Atlantic story reveals how Americans lived 100 years ago. (HT Warren Smith) By the standards of a middle-class American today, that lifestyle was poor, inconvenient, dreary, and dangerous. (Only a few years later – in 1924 – the 16-year-old son of a sitting U.S. president would die of an infected blister that the boy got on his toe while playing tennis on the White House grounds.)So here’s a question that I’ve asked in one form or another on earlier occasions, but that is so probing that I ask it again: What is the minimum amount of money that you...

When I mention that my family used kerosene lamps when I was a small child in the South during the 1930s, that is usually taken as a sign of our poverty, though I never thought of us as poor at the time. What is ironic is that kerosene lamps were a luxury of the rich in the 19th century, before John D. Rockefeller came along. With the high price of kerosene at that time, an ordinary working man could not afford to stay up at night, burning this expensive fuel for hours at a time. Rockefeller did not begin his...

Rockefeller’s Confession What was the West Virginia Democrat doing as a freelancing prewar diplomat? By William J. Bennett Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, the following exchange took place between Chris Wallace and U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller, vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: WALLACE: Now, the President never said that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat. As you saw, you did say that. If anyone hyped the intelligence, isn't it Jay Rockefeller? SEN. ROCKEFELLER: No. The — I mean, this question is asked a thousand times and I'll be happy to answer it a thousand times. I...

Karl Rove is under fire from Democrats who have demanded he apologize or resign for the his comments at a New York State Conservative Party dinner on Wednesday. Here is some of what Rove said: LET me now say a few words about the state of liberalism. Perhaps the place to begin is with this stinging indictment: "Liberalism is at greater risk now than at any time in recent American history. The risk is of political marginality, even irrelevance . . . [L]iberalism risks getting defined, as conservatism once was, entirely in negative terms." These are not the words of...

"The Nature Conservancy announced last night that it is permanently abandoning a range of practices, from drilling for oil to lending employees money to selling undeveloped land to its trustees as home sites. The board's actions followed a day-long, closed-door meeting at the charity's Arlington headquarters, during which it weighed issues and criticisms raised over the past month by two U.S. senators and by some of the nonprofit organization's 1 million members......... ......Finally, the board will hire independent outside advisers to help it review its governance and oversight policies. The Conservancy's actions came as its activities were coming under increasing...