National Stew

Our National Stew: Opinion Viktor Orban, leader of Hungary and a famous, and perhaps infamous conservative said in a presentation at the US National Conservatism Conference that he once walked to Margaret Thatcher's flat and knocked on the door. The Iron Lady came to the door, opened it and simply said: “I disagree with everything you say!” It is a great story and more telling than anyone listening to him speaking could even begin to understand. Orban is not one who comes immediately to mind when Margret Thatcher is brought up. Ronald Reagan is most often the name associated with the British Prime Minister of the day, but this is all a good illustration of a point that should be brought to the very front of our conscience: Nationalism means differing things to different people. To people in Europe in general, and these days, in Eastern Europe in specific, it is a matter of heritage. That is, people belonging to a particular ethnic group, and geographic location perh...

National Stew Can Help: Opinion Today's political news offers a lot of energy, unfortunately, it is mostly heat with very little light!  "News is what I say it is!"  Chet Huntley There is no absolute neutrality in the news. Every story has details and some details will be left out, and someone will choose which. Someone must determine which stories are covered and what news is news as our old friend Mr. Huntley reminded us so many years ago. News, like vehicles and other tools, rely on the user for safety. Determining the validity of a story and its details is the job of the individual. There are, however, a few things we can do to create better outcomes. We can choose documents and sources which are closest to primary sources such as the primary documents of our nation's founding. We can choose primary news sources such as those from which popular news sources draw their news. As an example of the latter, I would point to C-Span which has live feeds of the House, S...