Lessons from the First Airplane →

July 1, 2003

Though most Americans know something of that fateful day in 1903, far fewer are aware of the rivalry between the Wright brothers and another inventor/entrepreneur—one Samuel Pierpont Langley.

Recent “Best of Web”

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Millions Gather to Express Total Ignorance

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“We're going to join our voices together and let the message ring loud and clear that we are uneducated rubes in desperate need of a middle-school social studies class,” said one man. Problem is, they DID have middle-school social studies, at great expense to the taxpayer, and still turned out to be rubes. Maybe there’s a connection??

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Sep 25, 2025

Argentina's Economy Didn't Collapse; It Roared Back to Life

Sep 25, 2025

Writes Dionysis Partsinevelos, “Experts warned that electing a chainsaw-wielding libertarian outsider as president would push the country over the edge. Instead, the unthinkable happened: Argentina’s economy started working again.”

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The Downfall of the Roman Empire and the Future of American Democracy

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Dr. George Maher asks, “For all the noise and the heat of today’s debates the important questions are: Do those who are running our system know what they are doing, and do they care?”

Sep 18, 2025

Recent Quotes

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Feb 11, 2025

Murphy on America

Feb 11, 2025

“The true meaning of America, you ask? It’s in a Texas rodeo, in a policeman’s badge, in the sound of laughing children, in a political rally, in a newspaper. ... In all these things, and many more, you’ll find America. In all these things, you’ll find freedom. And freedom is what America means to the world. And to me” — Actor, poet, and the most decorated American of World War II, Audie Murphy.

Feb 11, 2025

Feb 1, 2025

Mill on Freedom

Feb 1, 2025

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.”

Feb 1, 2025

Mar 20, 2023

Best-Selling Japanese Novelist Eiji Yoshikawa on Do-Gooders

Mar 20, 2023

“There’s nothing more frightening than a half-baked do-gooder who knows nothing of the world but takes it upon himself to tell the world what’s good for it — from his book, Musashi.

Mar 20, 2023

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Oct 30, 2025

I, Smartphone: Far Smarter Than You Ever Imagined

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You will be amazed at what goes into a handheld device that nearly everybody uses. Inspired by Leonard Read's famous piece, "I, Pencil," it will be a success if it becomes just a fraction of the classic Leonard's essay was.

Oct 30, 2025

Oct 26, 2025

How Taft Got Its Name

Oct 26, 2025

A stone’s throw from the Idaho line, the town was a large work camp without a name but with a notorious reputation. It was described by a Chicago Tribune reporter as “the wickedest city in America.” (Image credit to the great painter and sculptor, Charlie Russell.)

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The Velvet Glove and the Iron Fist

Oct 21, 2025

Power rots the soul. Rare is the individual who becomes a better person for having possessed it.

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