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.
Remembering Washington
The First President George Washington was born 22 February, albeit we’ll observe his Birthday on Monday the 20th this year. The day will serve to round out a nice long weekend for many folks, welcome time off during the hardest month of winter. Federal employees too will enjoy the day: time to enjoy with family and friends; time to rest or catch up on projects around the house. The average citizen will enjoy the day the same way, and only hope most Government employees pause long enough to remember the man whom the nation honors with its...
read moreFrom Your Valentine
At the start of spring from early Roman times people celebrated Lupercalia, honoring the pastoral god Lupercus and memorializing the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, who were nursed by a mother wolf (lupus) at the cave of Lupercal. The celebration involved a rite of fertility, whereby adolescent couples were paired for the year by lottery. The romantic matches would often end in marriage. During the third century A.D., Roman Emperor “Claudius the Cruel” ruled as a tyrant, waging incessant wars. The army needed men but there was a...
read moreTethered Citizens
The United States is one of the freest countries on the globe, but unless my sensibilities are entirely out of whack, I assert that this country—the country of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Randolph, Calhoun, et al—is not nearly free enough. It isn’t even as free as we think. Can a man or woman truly live here according to conscience? At one time, we could have answered “almost certainly.” Today one’s conscience must be conformed in so many ways to so many things. We are not free, except in the most abstract, academic—and...
read moreThe Cost of Regulation
Regulations exist to ensure that what people do is done a certain way. We don’t want people to erect fences, unless they are so high and made of such and such. We don’t want folks to be able to add on to their houses, unless the additions blend nicely and meet certain safety standards—for people and for wildlife. We sure don’t want someone to invent a craze or gadget that might catch on, unless we determine in advance how the paperwork should be filed, how much it ought to be taxed, who will inspect the item or activity. We don’t...
read moreConstitution and Civility
One of several important breakthroughs in political science our Founding Fathers achieved, is the establishment of an entirely new category of law; namely, the Constitution. The Constitution is the nation’s highest legal and moral authority—popularly accepted as such. Yet its ratification took place over 200 years ago, amongst a generation long since dead and gone. Charles Kesler, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, says “Thus for Americans, the oldest law is the highest law.” And he continues to point out how unique...
read moreThe School of Life
Seems like we spend a good portion of our lives in school. The first 18 years are largely consumed by it. Besides public or private school five days a week, there is also the possibility (too often neglected) of Sunday school. Then there’s college for an ever-increasing percentage of young folks—and that’ll take you to the age of 22. Only to discover, that the highest paying jobs are reserved for Masters and Ph.D.s! So then you go after those credentials if you’re a real high flyer, and you spend another three to five years (and lots...
read morePolitics of Character
It has always been a mystery to me how some folks could think character does not matter—or rather, that it doesn’t matter enough to demand particularly high standards of our elected officials. It was the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who instructed us that character was the defining qualification for a ruling class. A study by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia sheds light on America’s strange ambivalence. “The Politics of Character” survey was based on 1,200 telephone interviews drawn from...
read moreNew Year’s Auld Lang Syne
Old times and ‘the good old days’ of one’s youth, etc., is what is meant by the Scottish phrase auld lang syne. It has been a custom, probably as long as the years have changed, to run over in one’s mind the things of the past and to consider one’s hopes for the upcoming year. The custom of auld lang syne involves fond sharing of memories with friends, usually around a table with some convivial drinking—and as the New Year rings in at the stroke of midnight New Year’s Eve, to lift a toast to the future and wish each other well,...
read moreChristmas Joy
When I think of Christmas, I think of joy: joy at what the holidays bring; and also Joy for what the Christ Child means. Some of my fondest memories are of Christmastime when I was a child. There is the family Christmas tree and the ritual of picking it, setting it up and decorating; and hours and hours of enjoyment looking at the decorations and lights on the tree, squinting to produce still more effects. Listening to the beautiful carols you can’t play enough, because they only come out once each year; contemplating the bright,...
read moreThe Wisdom of Bastiat
Frederic Bastiat was Ronald Reagan’s favorite philosopher. Bastiat was born 200 years ago in France to a merchant father. Bastiat was orphaned, however, at age nine and brought up by his grandfather and his aunt. At seventeen, Bastiat went to work in his uncle’s accounting business and spent six years there. Then he inherited his grandfather’s farm and became a farmer. From the farm, Bastiat became active in local politics and started to write pamphlets on political and economic topics. Indeed, the last six years of his life witnessed...
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