Wes Riddle’s Horse Sense
Wesley Allen Riddle is a retired military officer with degrees and honors from West Point and Oxford. Widely published in the academic and opinion press, he serves as State Director of the Republican Freedom Coalition (RFC). These articles are from his newly released book, Horse Sense for the New Millennium available on-line at www.WesRiddle.net and from fine bookstores everywhere. Email: Wes@WesRiddle.com.
Theory of America’s Founding, (Part I): Equality and Natural Rights
The principles of America’s founding amount to a remarkable and radical departure from government, as practiced for centuries prior to the American Revolution. To be sure, a tradition is tied to the theory and to the men responsible. We are, however, quite remarkable as a nation today, because the Founders were indeed radical in their definition of liberty and their uncompromising demand for freedom. The theory of America’s founding may be said to be embodied in the Declaration of Independence. If anyone reads it, he or she finds that it...
read moreMother’s Day after the Loss
On February 5th of 2007, my mama passed away. Mother’s Day is still her day, but it has a different feel. There are some things about it I want to tell you. As an historian, I’ve read accounts of men dying on battlefields during World War II. Frequently they cried out for their mothers. While I’m sure there are still those cases, it is clear intuitively as well as empirically, they are more infrequent today. While anecdotal, the reason speaks volumes to what has happened to families and to relations between mothers and children,...
read moreOne Nation Under God in Need of Prayer ‘For Such a Time as This’
The National Day of Prayer is an annual event passed by joint resolution of Congress in 1952 and signed into law by President Truman. Of course the tradition of calling for special days set aside for prayer goes back much further, indeed to the American Revolution and to the First Continental Congress in 1775. The National Day of Prayer is observed on the first Thursday of May each year. Because our nation continues to navigate through extremely challenging days, the National Day of Prayer Task Force chose “One Nation Under God” as this...
read moreMulti-What?
Multiculturalism is a word that refers to a fact, as well as to a fallacy. On the one hand, a demographic change has and is occurring in America. For the past 40 years, most immigrants have come from Asia, Africa and Latin America, instead of from Europe. Moreover, the birthrates for these and other non-white minorities are substantially higher than for whites. This has led to a “browning of America” and to multiculturalism in fact. The ideology of multiculturalism, however, is a horse of a different color. Unlike the fact of...
read moreOf Easter and Liberty
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem and palm branches were strewn before him as a sign of welcome and praise. The Friday after is Good Friday when Jesus was crucified nearly two thousand years ago. Of course, the Sunday following is Easter when Jesus arose from the dead in fulfillment of what he said; and in proof of fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture and prophecy. Holy Week thus commemorates the most signal and momentous series of events in all human history, the week moving as it were, from victory unto...
read moreThe Health of a Republic
The term republic had a significant meaning for all early Americans. The form of government secured by the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution, and the Constitution was unique, requiring strict limitation of government power. Powers that were permitted would be precisely defined and delegated by the people, with all public officials being bound by their oath of office to uphold the Constitution. The Constitution made it clear that the government was not to interfere with productive nonviolent human energy. ...
read moreMorality of the Market
In addition to the market’s “miracle” of efficiency, there is an important moral element in the functioning of the free-market economy that we sometimes overlook or undervalue. There are none who are only masters and others who are simply servants! In the market society we are all both servants and masters, but without either force or its threat. In our roles as producers—be it as men who hire out our labor for wages, resource owners who rent out or sell our property for a price, or entrepreneurs who direct production for anticipated...
read moreIrish on St. Patrick’s Day—No Matter Where You’re From!
St. Patrick is a real historical person, a holy man who accomplished great feats around which legends have sprung. Patrick is also the Christian or given name to a man born Maewyn Succat in 4th century (c. A.D. 385) Roman controlled Britain. Probably born in Wales, possibly England or southern Scotland, he was the son of Calpurnius a Roman-British officer. When pirates landed in south Wales they kidnapped Patrick at the age of 16 and sold him into slavery to an Irish king Niall. Niall’s son Laoghaire would later grant Patrick unmolested...
read moreMiracle of the Market
Day in and day out we give little thought to the vast and complex array of economic processes, which if they were to stop or severely malfunction would mean hardship or even disaster for many of us. The supermarkets are daily replenished with wide varieties of fruits, vegetables, meats, canned and packaged goods, dairy products, and many other items. We crowd the shopping malls and find them filled with practically every conceivable commodity we can imagine, with each of them offered in attractive and diverse varieties. Just think of the wide...
read moreGod Bless Texas
I’ll never forget the time I learned from my eighth grade teacher that not every student in the nation learned about Texas history the way we did in Houston. I remember thinking “they sure as hell oughta.” Then I was overwhelmed with a sense of great sadness, when I realized that not everyone in the nation was actually a Texan—or indeed could be. It still bothers me. There are just so many things to love about Texas, that I can’t imagine being from anywhere else. To start with, we definitely got the double helping of self-esteem. Man...
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