A Brief History On June 14, 1954, Flag Day that year, President Eisenhower signed a joint resolution of Congress amending the 1942 Flag Code, adding the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.  The president had only recently been baptized a Presbyterian and was apparently in a religious feeling when he declared “the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.” Digging Deeper Not surprisingly, not everyone agreed.  The backdrop to this issue was the Cold War, the struggle of atheistic communism against “Christian” democracy and capitalism.  Eisenhower and Congress clearly wanted to differentiate us from them. Many people already were against the Pledge of Allegiance on…

A Brief History On June 13, 2016, we ask if calls for de-militarizing police should be put on hold?  After the anti-police hysteria following police related killings of black (in this article we will use this term to be in consonance with “Black Lives Matter?) in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland (as well as New York and Cleveland), many naïve people called for the “de-militarization of police.”  Led by no less than President Barack Obama, who declared his intention to keep military surplus equipment out of the hands of police, the reactionary response has been shown in graphic detail to…

A Brief History On June 13, 1966, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Miranda in Miranda v Arizona, creating the requirement for police to inform people of their rights before questioning.  On March 13, 2014, we ran an article about that, and on May 20, 2014, we wrote a list about things commonly misunderstood about the law.  Here we list another 10 of those commonly misunderstood legal things.  Remember, laws may vary from state to state and local laws might have differences as well, so we are talking what is generally the case, not always.  If you need actual…

A Brief History Today, June 13, 2014, the latest cinematic version of Godzilla is being released in China after having already been released throughout Europe and the Americas in May 2014.  In less than half of a month, the film grossed over $300 million around the world and its release in China is sure to add to this incredible profit.  In celebration of this film’s success, our sister site, Fact Fiend, has produced several intriguing articles concerning various fascinating facts about Godzilla’s long cinematic journey.  The outstanding author of these fun articles, Karl Smallwood, has also produced a couple similar entries for our parent…

A Brief History On June 12, 2016, in the worst domestic terrorist incident inside the United States since 9/11, Omar Mateen, a 29 year old Afghan man (born in the US), shot and killed at least 49 people and wounded over 50 more in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.  No question about his motives, the gunman called police from the scene and pledged allegiance to the Islamic terrorist group, ISIS,  while ISIS itself took credit for the attack via their news agency. Digging Deeper President Obama and others predictably called for “common sense” gun control measures to prevent such…