by ProfDave, ©2023 (Jan. 23, 2023) — What does a Christian Conservative think about the immigration/border crisis? Still trying to figure out the “undocumented” crisis. So glad I am not responsible for it – but I vote for (or against) those who are. Soon the crisis will be coming to my town and yours. We […]
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Posted inEditorials
Christmas Meditation on a Windy Day
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Dec. 23, 2022) — Hanukkah/Chanukah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, 165 BC/BCE. Jewish people celebrate publicly with lights – the Menorah – in their windows as a witness to the world that God lives. (Christians also put lights in their windows this time of year – with similar […]
Posted inEditorials
My Gratitude List
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Nov. 23, 2022) — In recovery we are urged to keep a gratitude list. If you are depressed, and don’t really want to get out of bed in the morning, list three things you are thankful for – or even one. It is guaranteed to help. Hmmm. Start with a warm bed […]
Posted inEditorials
Who’s Afraid of Christian Nationalism?
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Nov. 12, 2022) — It has become politically incorrect to be Christian and the N-word is a synonym for Nazi. Putting the two together in one sentence, let alone one title makes me a member of the Taliban. Perhaps I am completely out of touch, but this makes no sense to me. […]
Posted inEditorials
Reunion Day
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Oct. 20, 2022) — October 3 was Reunion Day in Germany, commemorating the day in 1990 when East and West Germany were reunited. Do you remember the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall? You have to be at least middle aged. After World War II, Germany was broken up into Berlin and […]
Posted inPhilosophy & Religion
Can the People Recover?
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Aug. 24, 2022) — When I wrote on “Guns and People,” I concluded that gun violence was a people problem, not a gun problem. Unfortunately, “the people” are a lot harder to address than guns. Banning guns looks as if you are doing something, even though its effect on illegal gun usage […]
Posted inWorld
31 – Cultural Change, Part II
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jul. 14, 2022) — [See Part I of this title here.] Not the least of the cultural shifts of the 60’s, was the so-called sexual revolution. Once again, the change was far from unanimous and certainly not sudden, but over the decade there was a distinct shift in the constellation of sex, […]
Posted inWorld
31 – Cultural Change, Part I
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jul. 12, 2022) — These notes will venture where angels fear to tread, guessing at the broader picture. If you do not disagree with anything I say, you probably are not thinking at all. Remember that I warned you: I am a conservative, a Christian, and a cold war veteran. By reading […]
Posted inWorld
30 – The New Eastern Question
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jul. 7, 2022) — As you will recall, the “Eastern Question” is a geopolitical term for the consequences of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the last half of the 19th century. The definitive breakup of the Empire in 1918 led to the end of the Caliphate – the claim of […]
Posted inEditorials
Guns and People
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jul. 5, 2022) — The “mass shootings” are now a daily event – outrageous “gun violence” except when it is done with a knife or a car. Not to mention the gun battles in the streets such as we have not seen since prohibition. Violent “non-violent” demonstrations, too. It’s a jungle out […]
Posted inWorld
29 – The New West
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jun. 30, 2022) — Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! In this unit we are approaching things that are not history to us, but current events. That can be a little dangerous! The things that grip us today – emblazoned on every channel of our TV – may not even be mentioned in […]
Posted inWorld
28 – The Soviet Age
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jun. 28, 2022) — From 1917 to 1990 is most of the Twentieth Century. As the French Revolution set the agenda of the 19th century, so the Russian Revolution set the agenda for the 20th – perhaps. Over this period the name, at least, of Karl Marx casts a meta-ideological shadow. We […]
Posted inWorld
27 – The Cold War Era
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jun. 23, 2022) — Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Cold War – a war in which there was very little fighting, but truly global hostility and ghastly risk such as the human race had never experienced before. Planet earth was in jeopardy of self-destruction. Some have suggested that this […]
Posted inWorld
26 – Third Reich
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jun. 21, 2022) — Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! This week’s unit presents us with a lot of important topics. I could go on for hours. World War II alone is a full year’s course. Sorry to disappoint the military buffs. But one of the two or three top questions of the […]
Posted inWorld
25 -The Fascist Decades
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jun. 16, 2022) — [Editor’s Note: See previous world history articles from the author here.] “Fascist” is a word still used in the twenty-first century for people we don’t like – a weapon word. Fascism was the dominant political movement of the two decades following World War I, growing out of the […]
Posted inWorld
24 – War as Revolution
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jun. 14, 2022) — The story of “The Great War,” or World War I, as we have come to call it, is not one of military genius and strategic campaigns but of horror and human suffering. The big picture is one of revolution that touched all of Western civilization, putting to an […]
Posted inWorld
23 – The Long Fuse
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jun. 9, 2022) — Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Just as the French Revolution is a textbook case for revolutionaries, with an appendix from the Revolution of 1848, so “the Great War,” World War I, is the textbook case, for diplomats, of crisis mismanagement. But it did not look that way in […]
Posted inEditorials
Mothers’ Day Madness
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jun. 7, 2022) — [Editor’s Note: This article reflects its composition just after Mothers’ Day 2022.] What is going on? At least four mass shootings over this weekend plus Roe v Wade demonstrations last week (May 8, 2022), war in Europe and human smuggling on our southern border. Is someone or something […]
Posted inWorld
22 – The Muslim Empires and the Eastern Question
by ProfDave, ©2022 (Jun. 1, 2022) — Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We have been circling the globe to see the impact of Europe on the rest of the world around the end of the 19th century. We have skipped a couple chapters on early modern Asia. I would like to focus this lecture on […]
Posted inWorld
21 – The Emperial Mystique
by ProfDave, ©2022 (May 31, 2022) — Last term we examined in some detail the remarkable expansion of Western civilization across the globe in the 16th century. We concluded that it rested upon western technological advances, organizational advantages, and the distinctive will to go (a combination of religious and economic optimism) on the one hand […]
