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POPS "Intellectuals" ~ by Thomas Sowell Similarly, no one ever thought of President Calvin Coolidge as an intellectual. Yet Coolidge also read the classics in the White House. He read both Latin and Greek, and read Dante in the original Italian, since he spoke several languages. It was said that the taciturn Coolidge could be silent in five different languages. During the 1930s, some of the leading intellectuals in America condemned our economic system and pointed to the centrally planned Soviet economy as a model — all this at a time when literally millions of people were starving to death in the Soviet Union, from a famine in a country with some of the richest farmland in Europe and historically a large exporter of food. More than half a century later, when the archives of the Soviet Union were finally opened up under Mikhail Gorbachev, it turned out that about six million people had died in that famine — about the same number as the people killed in Hitler’s Holocaust.
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POPSSix Black American Presidents? I'm gonna give you a choice of TWO clip songs, depending on whether you're black or white: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_c-Rrty9sA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_uOB3UVfTY Gotcha! .;) .:lol:
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POPSPresidential First Dogs The last dog is of course, little Barney. I personally liked the First Cat Socks best, but I'm a cat person. I wonder what the new First Dog will be named? "Bark Obama", I heard. .:) Harry S. Truman & Feller The 33rd President once famously said, "You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog." Evidently he didn't care much for friends, as he regifted a cocker spaniel, given to him as an unsolicited Christmas present in 1947, to the White House physician. Dog lovers around the country assailed the President for surrendering Feller, who came to be known as The Unwanted Dog.
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POPSHow Barack Knocked the Satire Out of Me Man, that son-of-a-gun can give a speech. I can hardly wait for the inaugural. BTW, or perhaps not btw, it was a speech that got him here in the first place: at the Democratic convention in 2004. I remember watching him, riveted (I was a speechwriter myself, in the Coolidge administration), thinking, “Wow. Where did this guy come from?” I wrote in the New York Times (I know, I know: the height of vanity, quoting yourself): “Barack Obama is the Tiger Woods of American politics.” Ahem. You read it there first.
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POPSCarousel Fun For additional information about visiting Chattanooga contact the Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau at 800-322-3344 or 423-756-8687 or visit www.ChattanoogaFun.com
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POPSWashy Ad Jeffy - Presidential mnemonic song Jonathan Coulton just put up another great song - aside from being a great mnemonic device, it's also a catchy little tune. I've never learned the Presidents, I'm going to use this to finally memorize them :)
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POPSHistory's greatest replies "All of them—along with many, many hundreds more—appear in my Viva la Repartee book." Pope John XXIII One of the few pontiffs in history with a rich sense of humor, Pope John XXIII once reported to an interviewer that important problems would frequently come to mind in the middle of the night, disturbing his sleep. Half awake, he'd make a mental note: "I must speak to the pope about that." "Then," he confessed, "I would be wide awake and remember—I am the pope!" Once asked by a journalist, "How many people work in the Vatican?" the pontiff pondered the question, giving the impression that he was trying to come up with an accurate estimate. Then, with a straight face, he answered: "About half." (more at the source)
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POPSThe 10 Weirdest Facts about American Presidents 7. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, was reported to be a very interesting character. When not having his head massaged with Vaseline during breakfasts in bed or riding his own mechanical bull, he was ringing the White House doorbell and then running off to hide. 8. So far, all American presidents have claimed ancestry limited to one or more of just seven nationalities: Dutch, English, German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, and Welsh. 9. Grover Cleveland was the only president to openly admit that he had fathered an illegitimate child. 10. There were four presidents who were not actual presidents of the United States: Sam Houston, Mirabeau Lamar, and Anson Jones were all presidents of the Republic of Texas. Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederate States of America.
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POPSWhen the Army Fought Against Veterans in Washington Hopefully, we can learn from our recent American History. As Americans we need veterans to be healthy and productive, and as veterans, they deserve whatever assistance we can give them. Yes, I am a Yankee Doodle Dandy! Thanks to my grandfather, WWI; uncle, died on USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor; two uncles in Korea; the rest of us were born in the few off times to be of assistance. So we are support troops.