I want to know if you responded to your friend. What do the rest of you do with the similar posts from friends that we all get? I responded at first but have started to ignore because of the odd blending of my personal and work life in Facebook. Not sure I'm ready to go whole hog with that. Maybe I'm a coward.

[Edited] Thomas, Why the hostility? Kipling is a fine thing to read to a 3 yo. The topic, by the way, is hers. She was in the process of constructing it when you say she strayed from it.

Mike Wallace ushered in the era of sensationalistic, agenda-driven, smug tele-"journalism". I'd like to line up the multitude of victims of his slanderous brand of muckraking for him to pass by on his walk to the judgment throne. Hopefully he gained some humility before he passed away or it won't go well for him. If you've ever talked with someone involved in a story covered by 60 Minutes, you know what I'm taking about.I heard him interviewed years after he retired. I have never heard a man so in love with his own voice before. I'm sorry for his family and hope my impression is wrong, but I see his body of work as a corrosive agent on our culture.

Good point. Even Bill O'Rielly (though not truly a conservative, none the less influential among conservatives and independents alike) swallows this hook, line and sinker. He blames Obama for not "making" the Big Bad Oil companies fix the problem.

That line of thinking will have a certain traction. But, still, our Omnipotent Overlord of Oceania won't be able to paper over his  opposition to drilling and keystone, boneheaded statements about inflating your tires and just switching to an algae-powered economy.

He is vulnerable on this stuff if we're smart enough to press it.

Nothing against iPhone. I just really love the experience on the new Windows phone. It just seems so fluid and beautiful to me. I kind of now see the whole grid of icons for every app (ala iPhone and mimicked by Android) as kind of clunky. It's just personal preference. I know people have an ingrained view of Windows, but the new phone is really a great platform.

Don't forget us Windows Phone users. Rapidly passing the sinking BlackBerry. It also happens to have a great interface and user experience. I'd never go back to iPhone personally (believe it or not, Macolytes) .

Do you realize that your statement sounds to those of us who oppose Romney as: "Shut up about Romney!"  "Resistance is Futile!"

You may not think of yourself as saying that but what else are we to get out of it? We have real problems with him. Peter R articulates those better than anyone that I read or hear. I don't want him to sit down and shut up.

BTW, I hear him carping about the wisdom of accepting Romney more than "how awful the entire Republican field is". I say preach it brother Robinson!

I heartily agree with that. If you want a readable and straightforward but engaging recounting of Hannibal's expedition to Italy, it's hard to beat the old G. A. Henty book The Young Carthaginian. I find his books to be a good introduction to the period he writes about. He was aiming his books for young boys of his era (Victorian) which means, of course, that he was targeting readers with a deeper historical education than the typical college grad of today. 

I didn't discover the Henty books until my 40s but I've been devouring as many as I could find. Great books for boys and girls (and adults) as they celebrate honor, valor, sacrifice and discern good from evil without the taint of our PC culture. 

 Most of the suggestions here focus on modern or near-modern wars. Here's a vote for the best writer of ancient war fiction, Steven Pressfield. He specializes in Greek warfare and Gates of Fire is the book that should have been our generation's Thermopylae movie rather than 300. My favortie, though, was Tides of War focusing on the fascinating figure of Alcibiades and the Pelopennesian War.

He did a WWII book called Killing Rommel that was wonderful too. His depiction of the honor and sacrifice of fighting men carries a lot of compassion.  But if you're looking for historical fiction on ancient warfare, start with Pressfield.

This is a crucial point. I wonder if the reason we do that is that we have been conditioned to buy into the reflexive cultural code that says the worst thing to do is to be "judgemental" or "intolerant". The Left has been very good at promulgating that notion lest we end up imposing our values on someone else. It's a kind of cowardice masquerading as humility. We shouldn't give in so easily to that.

It doesn't mean, of course, that we are the moral arbiters of all others simply because of who we are. That would be actual hubris. We must be prepared for and welcome dissent, being ready to argue in support of our moral certitude. But having moral certitude is no offense. Rather, abdicating all moral judgements in the interests of being tolerant is the offense.

The irony is that while we've acquiesced, the Left has no problem making moral arguments.

All you need do is listen to the Ricochet podcast where Peter Robinson takes her on. His humble and self-effacing manor may somewhat disguise the fact that he eviscerated her. By the end, he graciously acted as though she had almost worn him down but it was clear that he had nailed her to the wall and left her sputtering. And it was equally clear that she didn't much like it. 

No need for a match of the century. She's already been bested.

The comparison of referrals for adoption (841) to the number of abortions (329,445) in the article is staggering. It shouldn't be and yet it still is. The cynical black heart of that organization is revealed in those numbers. 

The idea that this is about "choice" as opposed to coercion and seduction for profit is a naked lie.