Laura's history teacher promised extra credit to anyone who visited Fort McHenry in Baltimore. So off she and I went on a little "field trip." Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland, is a coastal star-shaped fort best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in Chesapeake Bay September 13-14, 1814. It was during the bombardment of the fort that Francis Scott Key was inspired to write "The ... Read More

Ann Coulter has given Occupy Wall Street Protesters a new name, and from what I can tell, it fits. Today I listened to the Sean Hannity show on the radio while driving my daughter to WORK. There was a caller who described her business,  a Panini eatery, right in front of the protesters ever since they arrived. She is being harrassed, boycotted and basically shut down by the Operation Wall Street protesters. They want to use her bathrooms and have her ... Read More

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent usurpation." ~James Madison James Madison, our fourth president and one of the framers of our Constitution understood that when it comes to taking people's freedom's away, you must do it slowly. And where lately these changes don't seem so slow, compliments of President Hope and Change,  it definitely started out that way. Americans seem numb as ... Read More

History shows us that in the past children have been indoctrinated in the classrooms to sing praises to their leaders. They sang to Hitler, Stalin, they sing to the dictator of North Korea. You can argue if you like, if they were good leaders to sing praises to or not. But here in the United States our leaders are elected to serve US. We are not here to serve them! Or is that changing? The following video is confirmed to be ... Read More

John's last full day here in Maryland, and we decided to take a quick trip into Baltimore and visit the B&O Railroad Museum. It had been years since I had been there, and I sure hadn't seen it since the roof collapsed under the weight of a heavy snowstorm. I had forgotten all there was to see in one place. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum possesses the oldest, most historic and most comprehensive American railroad collections in the world. Dating from ... Read More

"Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude." ~Cicero Laura and I have resumed our regular schedule now that the holidays are truly over. Our history lesson today, to me, read something like our modern times.... "The transformation of Rome from an Italian city-state to the seat of a vast empire created a host of new problems...Before...Most people lived simply and modestly; a Roman "noble" might even do his own plowing. Patriotic citizen soldiers were ready to fight for the ... Read More

Not even a whole week after going to D.C., we decided to return. Having more of an understanding of how the metro works made a second visit easier. I took 500 photos this time! This time, we decided to visit the National Museum of Natural History. The main building on the National Mall contains 1.5 million square feet of space overall and 325,000 square feet of exhibition and public space; altogether the Museum is the size of 18 football fields, and houses ... Read More

More than just summer's gran finale! The History of Labor Day "Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country," said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. "All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is devoted to no ... Read More