Category: Timeless Principles

‘Little Women’: Five Movies About Four Sisters

Commentary “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott is one of the most beloved novels of all time. To date, it has been adapted into seven major motion pictures. The first two were silent films, released in 1917 and 1918, which are both considered lost. The third film but first talkie was a 1933 Columbia picture,…


Inflation: State-Sponsored Terrorism

This talk was delivered on Sept. 3, 2022, at the Ron Paul Institute conference in northern Virginia. I. Introduction Remember the quaint old days of 2019? We were told the U.S. economy was in great shape. Inflation was low, jobs were plentiful, GDP was growing. And frankly, if COVID had not come along, there is…


Dapper Day at Farmers Market: A Historic Day in Downtown Los Angeles

Commentary People come from around the world to Los Angeles in search of one thing: Hollywood glamour. The modern film industry certainly doesn’t offer it, and most of the old Hollywood hotspots have been tarnished by encroaching technology. However, on Aug. 11, visitors to the Original Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax were transported to…


David McCullough: America’s Storyteller

Commentary Historian David McCullough, who passed away on Aug. 7, spent his life telling stories that his fellow citizens should know. He wrote well-known biographies of John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and the Wright Brothers. He got his start chronicling the Johnstown Flood before turning to the creation of the Brooklyn Bridge and the…


‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939): Why It’s the Most Watched Movie Ever

Commentary It’s hard to think of many old movies which are familiar to most younger people these days. However, one film from the Golden Era of Hollywood that almost anyone will recognize by name is “The Wizard of Oz.” Not every young person is well acquainted with it, and I daresay many people don’t know…


‘Cocktail Hour’ (1933): The Importance of Pre-Code Films

Commentary When I went to the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival (TCMFF) in late April, I had to be very particular when choosing which films to see. They screened dozens of films during the four-day weekend, many of which were played at the same time in different theaters. I ended up seeing fourteen feature films,…


‘On Gold Mountain:’ A New Opera in a Unique Performance

Commentary Opera is a very Western art form. Born in Italy in the 1500s, it would flourish in the royal courts and palatial theaters of Western Europe for the next few centuries. In the 20th century, some of the foremost opera companies in the world grew out of the United States, which continued European traditions…


The Wisdom of Fatherhood

Commentary Cultures vary in how they bring a boy or a girl to maturity as a man or a woman. But for all their variety, every culture until now has educated girls and boys, in the words of Margaret Harper McCarthy, “in how to behave, dress, and act in ways that foster their eventual union…


Marriage Really Is Best

Commentary Former President Ronald Reagan said in a 1986 radio address, “Some have suggested that in today’s world, the family has somehow become less important. Well, I can’t help thinking just the opposite, that when so much around is whispering the little lie that we should live only for the moment and for ourselves, it’s…


Hamilton: Statesmanship at the Service of a Natural Rights Republic

Commentary In recent years, American civic culture has suffered deep cleavages. Civil conversations have been poisoned by battles over the meaning of America’s past, and which figures we should revere—and condemn. Even America’s Founding Fathers have come under the microscope, but one—Alexander Hamilton—has been spared such judgments by the massive popularity of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s runaway…