After this week's developments in the Boston Marathon bombing, it's easy to see why a Marxist sociopath would pretend to be a bipartisan moderate: *Tamerlan Tsarnaev stayed home collecting welfare benefits and plotting terror while his wife worked 80 hours a week *Russia warned the FBI repeatedly about Tsarnaev, but the FBI let Tsarnaev's listing on a terror watch list list expire while he was in Dagestan, where he may have gotten guidance on bomb-making. "Is the FBI focused enough on the real bad guys?" asked the editors of the Washington Post.  If it's the Washington Post asking that question, you can be pretty sure what the answer is. * * * * Zero's latest effort to make sequester budget cuts hurt backfired, big time. * * * * Democrats are nearing full fledged panic about Obamacare. * * * * President Obama chose dolts to be his secretary of state and his secretary of defense. I was certain SecDef Chuck Hagel would be the bigger dufus. I was wrong. * * * * There is an absolutely terrible reason for Republicans to support immigration reform, and an equally terrible reason for Republicans to oppose it.

Salon. columnist David Sirota hoped the guy who planted two IEDs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon Monday was a "white American" like Timothy McVeigh.  But the culprits are radicalized Muslims from Chechnya. Liberal journalists have begun to caution us against "overreacting" to the Boston Massacre.  The same liberals, mostly, who want us to overreact to the Newtown massacre. Liberals often have expressed fear the Great Unwashed, frightened and angered by a horrific act of terror, would string up Muslims from lampposts.  But ordinary Americans have responded to Boston in exemplary fashion, as they did after 9/11/2012.  Bad behavior has pretty much been restricted to Democrat politicians and bigfoot journalists. * * * * The defeat of gun control legislation is an "unmitigated disaster" for President Obama, which threatens to make him a lame duck far earlier than any president before him.  Neither he nor the news media took defeat well. What had to be especially galling for Zero and his media allies is that defeat came in the Senate, at the hands of Red State Democrats. * * * * The "Gang of Eight" introduced an 844-page immigration reform bill. Big majorities of Republicans as well as of Americans support what the bill's sponsors say it will do.  But will it?

When something terrible happens, people tune in to CNN, Fox News or MSNBC because they want to find out more about what happened.  But the hosts of cable "news" shows, and the reporters and "experts" they interview have precious few hard facts to tell them, because in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist incident, the authorities either don't know who is responsible, or aren't saying as they seek the culprit or culprits, and gather evidence. But if cable news show hosts told their suddenly swollen audiences the truth, it would be hard to hang on to their suddenly swollen audiences.  So they "report" rumor and gossip, and engage in wild speculation, based on little more than their abundant prejudices.

Lady Margaret Thatcher suffered a stroke Monday while reading a book in bed at the Ritz Carlton hotel in London. * * * * America is in "deep doo doo" in the North Korea "crisis," former Vice President Dick Cheney told GOP Congressional leaders this week. But people in South Korea aren't worried. * * * * The Senate voted 68-31 Thursday to start debate on gun control. But if you're gearing up to go on a RINO hunt, chill. The vote on whether to stop debate will come later.  * * * * My belief that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, is the smartest politician among Republicans in Washington was reinforced by the speech he made Wednesday. * * * * Testimony in the murder trial of Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell should "shock anyone with a heart," says Kirsten Powers, a liberal who still has one. But there's been not a word about the trial on the television news. * * * * The Washington punditocracy has turned pessimistic about the prospects for President Obama's second term.

North Korean threats to start a nuclear war are becoming more shrill. I explained in a column yesterday why I'm not losing sleep over them. * * * * Washington Post lib blogger Greg Sargent notes with alarm that "the percentage of Americans who don't believe the sequester cuts are hurting the economy has actually jumped 13 points over the last month, while the percentage who think they are damaging the economy is going down." * * * * Congratulations to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex.  He's only been in the Senate since January, but already he is the most hated man there. * * * * In his push for gun control, President Obama is "tilting at windmills, and he's going to lose," says Charles Krauthammer.  The monumental stupidity of Rep. Diana DiGette, D-Colo, is one reason why. * * * * Obamacare either will hurt them personally, or have no effect on their lives, say two thirds of Democrats * * * * Global warmists suffered major blows this week when The Economist magazine noticed that hey, the planet isn't getting hotter, and the latest warmist fraud was exposed. * * * * The Associated Press no longer will call illegal immigrants "illegal immigrants" because it doesn't want to hurt their feelings. So what should we call people from other countries who are here in violation of our laws?  "Undocumented Democrats," suggested Jay Leno.

They've been authorized to plan "merciless" nuclear strikes against the United States, the general staff of the North Korean Peoples Army announced Wednesday.  Last week North Korea published photos of dictator Kim Jong-Un conducting a meeting in a command bunker.  A map on the wall behind him showed missile strike trajectories against Honolulu, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Austin, Texas. North Korea has moved a missile "of considerable range" to its east coast, South Korea's defense minister said Thursday.

Congress wasn't in session this week, so news media attention focused mostly on oral arguments before the Supreme Court on lawsuits involving the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and California's Proposition 8.  Coverage by the MSM was even more shallow and biased than usual. Gay marriage has been supported in 7 of 8 opinion polls conducted this year, but by the relatively narrow margin of 51 percent to 43 percent. The "seismic" shift of public opinion has happened in large part because Jonathan Rauch and others "helped reposition the gay rights movement from libertine to conservative, from gays being a threat to our social order and institutions to wanting to be a respected part of them," said  Peter Wehner. * * * * There's been "evolution" on immigration reform, too. The "Gang of Eight" is putting the finishing touches on a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Immigration reform is a top priority for him, President Obama says.  But if that were true, he and labor unions wouldn't keep trying to insert "poison pill"  provisions. * * * * Liberals in the bigfoot media forced Dingy Harry Reid to schedule Sen. Dianne Feinstein's gun control bill for a vote after all.  President Obama wants to "shame" Congress into approving it. It hasn't worked with Sen. Marco Rubio, who will  join Sens. Mike Lee, R-UT, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz,R-Tex, in a filibuster. * * * * Rather than face the voters again, many Democrats in the Senate are retiring. * * * * The Shroud of Turin does in fact date from the time of Christ, according to tests performed at the University of Padua.  It's not a "medieval forgery."

The Iraq war began 10 years ago last Wednesday (3/20).  It cost 4,487 American lives, and about $1 trillion, and caused sharp divisions among Americans.  Was it worth it? "From today's vantage point, unfortunately, the answer looks increasingly to be ‘no,'" said Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was referring to the re-emergence of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia since Barack Hussein Obama withdrew (essentially all) U.S. troops in 2011, and to Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's drift toward Iran since then. He is "unrepentant" about supporting the war, but wouldn't have if he knew then that Saddam Hussein's regime did not in fact possess weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Boot said. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Boot about that.  But even if I'd known then Saddam was bluffing about WMD, I still would have supported going to war against him.  Here's why.

Captain Ahab's relentless, obsessive, reckless pursuit of the great white whale in Herman Melville's allegory-filled 1851 novel "Moby Dick" cost him his ship, his life, and the lives of his crew (save for Ishmael, who narrated the story). Their relentless, obsessive, reckless pursuit of a great white whale of their own could cost Democrats dear. When Adam Lanza, 20, killed 26 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut December 14, Democrats recalled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's advice to never let "a serious crisis go to waste." No one acted faster than New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.  He invoked a provision of the state constitution to rush a sweeping gun control bill through the legislature Jan. 15.  Lawmakers had mere minutes to read it before the vote. The expression: "act in haste, repent at leisure" is thought to have originated with English playwright William Congreve (1670-1729).  Let's count the ways this applies to Gov. Cuomo.

Any lingering doubt Republicans have a big time image problem was removed by a poll conducted for The Hill newspaper this week. By nearly a 2-1 margin (55 percent to 28 percent), respondents preferred the budget proposed by House Republicans over that proposed by Senate Democrats.  Even 40 percent of the Democrats among the 1,000 likely voters surveyed think deficits should be trimmed mostly by cutting spending rather than by raising taxes. But support for the Republican budget collapsed when respondents were told it was Republicans who proposed it.  A plurality (35 percent) said they trusted Democrats more on budget issues.  Only 30 percent said they trusted Republicans more. 

The farthest known galaxy is about 13.3 billion light years from here.  But MACS0647-JD may be closer to earth than Democrats and Republicans are to each other on taxes, spending and debt -- and either is to reality. Last week, House Republicans presented their proposed budget for the 2014 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.  Senate Democrats (for the first time in four years) offered a budget, too. The Congressional Budget Act requires the Congressional Budget Office to project federal spending and tax revenues ten years into the future.  This lets lawmakers and staff try their hand at writing fiction.  So who's writing more fiction here, the Pubs or the Dems?

There is a new pope.  To the surprise and dismay of most in the MSM, he's Catholic. * * * * Anti-American statements by Afghan President Hamid Karzai have put our troops at greater risk, said our commander there. * * * * Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis) has released his budget plan for FY 2014, which begins Oct. 1.  It would lead to a balanced budget in 10 years without raising taxes, because it would reduce currently projected spending over the decade by $5.7 trillion. The national debt as a proportion of GDP would decline to 62.3 percent. But if would actually reduce federal spending. Senate Democrats will offer a budget for the first time in four years.  Under it, federal spending would rise 62 percent over the decade. Deficits would be more than $400 billion every year.  Ryan assumes the economy will grow at a rate of a little more than 3 percent a year, which has been described as "rosy," since growth was much lower than that in Zero's first term. The GDP growth assumptions in the Democrat budget (an average of 4.9 percent a year) are positively surreal. * * * *  Cancelling White House tours has backfired big time.  A judge tossed out Nanny Bloomberg's "arbitrary and capricious" ban on large sodas.  The Inspector General for the Justice Department slapped around the Civil Rights division.

For the first time in more than half a century, "the average American is both earning less and worth less than four years earlier," the New York Times reported last June. Total household net worth is nearly 7 percent below what it had been in 2007, the Federal Reserve estimated then. Per capita income in the U.S. in 2008 was $40,947.  It rose to $41,560 in 2011, an increase of just 1.5 percent.  But because inflation rose more than that, purchasing power declined. What have been hard times for most Americans have been boom times for the federal government and for federal employees.  They, including the president, work for us.  Why do we stand for them, including the president, to live large at our expense, when tens of millions of us have no jobs?

"The foundation of every state is the education of its youth," said Diogenes Laertius, a third century biographer of the ancient Greek philosophers.  The foundation of our nation is in alarming disrepair. Ours is now the only major economy in the world where today's students will not be better educated than their parents were, said Andreas Schleicher, special adviser on education at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). What's important isn't the money wasted.  It's the lives being crippled.  Only one in five young adults in the U.S. reaches a higher level of education than their parents, OECD statistics indicate.  The ignorance of young people today is so prevalent and so pronounced that mocking it has become a staple of late night comedians.  But there is nothing funny about ignorance so massive it threatens the health of our economy and the viability of our democratic institutions.

If you'd like to get a glimpse of what America will look like if President Barack Hussein Obama gets his way on everything, take a good look at Detroit. In 1950, Detroit was America's 5th largest city, with a population of 1.84 million.  Median household income was higher than in any other city.  So was the percentage of people who owned their own homes.  Detroit was then arguably the best big city in which to live. Today, Detroit leads Forbes magazine's list of "most miserable cities."  It's the 4th worst run city, according to Money magazine.  It's 2nd in violent crime, 3rd in murders.  Nearly half of Detroiters of working age are unemployed.  It's Obama's goal to make all of America like Detroit.

Who'da thunk a spat so trivial would do what the murder of a U.S. ambassador and running guns to Mexican drug cartels could not? It began when the Washington Post's Bob Woodward noted in a column Feb. 22 the budget sequester President Barack Hussein Obama is denouncing was his idea. The White House was peeved. National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling "yelled at me for about a half hour," Mr. Woodward said.  He would "regret" publishing that story, Mr. Sperling said. That didn't intimidate Mr. Woodward.  It irritated him.  Mr. Obama is exhibiting "a kind of madness I haven't seen in a long time" for claiming the sequester will prevent the deployment of the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman to the Persian Gulf, he said last Wednesday (2/27). 

"Just got off the phone with my health care provider asking them to explain why my premium jumped up," Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile  tweeted.  "No good answers." The poor lady needs a clue.  "Health insurance companies are seeking and winning double digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration's health care law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for customers," wrote New York Times reporter Reed Abelson Jan. 5. Mr. Abelson needs a clue, too.  Premiums aren't soaring in spite of Obamacare.  They're rising because of Obamacare. Duh.

For the last two weeks, President Barack Obama and his aides have been warning about horrible calamities that will ensue when the dreaded sequester begins tonight.  But no one can outdo Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Cal, in fearmongering. The sequester could cost "over 170 million jobs," she said.  "This is very disturbing news," said Jonah Goldberg, because according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer than 113 million Americans have full time jobs.  This is the Washington Monument Gambit, on steroids. James Capretta and Tevi Troy detail the administration's scare tactics here. What Obama is saying about the sequester is so wildly at odds with the facts, he could be headed for a Mayan Calendar moment, said Investors Business Daily. "Normally, the media could be counted upon to sell Obama's version," Thomas Lifson thinks. "But even the wizards of persuasion can't overcome the reality that downsizing has been a prominent part of organizational life across America, particularly among the MSM."  So if Republicans play their cards right and don't lose their nerve, they can win the PR battle this time. The stock market agrees, says Ross Kaminski.

Sequestration "will jeopardize our military readiness; it will eviscerate job-creating investments in education and energy and medical research," President Barack Hussein Obama said at a news conference last week.  "FBI agents will be furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off." You wouldn't guess from his remarks that sequestration was Mr. Obama's idea.  It was a poison pill he proposed to resolve an impasse with Republicans on raising the ceiling on the national debt.  He wanted to raise taxes to reduce the deficit.  They wanted to trim spending.  Sequestration kicked the can down the road.  If no deal were made before March 1, 2013, then automatic spending "cuts" of up to $1.2 trillion would be made over 9 years.  Mr. Obama is frantically predicting the end of the world if these "cuts" kick in.  We should be glad he is.

The federal tax system should be replaced with a flat tax based on the Biblical obligation to tithe, says famed surgeon Benjamin Carson.  "You make $10 billion, you put in a billion. You make $10, you put in $1." His speech at the National Prayer Breakfast was a Youtube sensation, but even some conservatives are skeptical. Dr. Carson's argument for a flat tax is not persuasive, "given the complexities involved," said National Review Editor Rich Lowry. We can't afford so sweeping a reform as Dr. Carson proposes, because innocents would suffer if the enormous distortions the tax system makes in the economy were removed, Mr. Lowry seems to say. I hope I'm reading him wrong, because that's nuts. Politicians created complexity in the tax code to camouflage costs and evade accountability.  We shouldn't let them use the magnitude of the mess they've made as an excuse to block, delay, or water down reform.

What Defense Secretary Panetta told the Senate Intelligence Committee Feb 7 directly contradicted the claim President Obama made in October that he had issued "three very clear directives" as soon as he learned "what was going on" in Benghazi.  The president made no phone calls to the Pentagon, the CIA or the State Department requesting updates or giving orders, the White House confirmed in a letter to Congress.  Their claim the president called the Libyan government the night of Sept. 11 also was false, the White House later acknowledged. This would explain why the White House refused requests from the news media for photos of Mr. Obama meeting with senior officials in the Situation Room.  No such meeting took place. During the time the president wasn't communicating with the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA, Ambassador Chris Stevens was reported missing.  Where was Mr. Obama?  What was he doing?  The White House won't say.  The President lied, he just let his Ambassador and three other Americans die, and no one in the major media cares in the slightest.

Listening to Dr. Benjamin Carson's keynote address at the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 7 may have been the longest 27 minutes of Barack Obama's presidency, thinks John Giokaris of Policymic.com. Dr. Carson began by quoting Proverbs 11:9: "With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbors, but through knowledge the righteous escape," and Proverbs 11:12: "A man who lacks judgment derides his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his tongue," to open a discussion of the perniciousness of political correctness and class envy.  He spoke eloquently about individual responsibility, the consequences of moral decay and soaring debt.     He concluded with a ringing endorsement of America's founding principles, and by citing God's promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." Without saying a word critical of the president himself, Dr. Carson eviscerated the core assumptions of the Obama administration.  No wonder a lot of folks want him to run for President.

Remember how outraged liberals said they were when they learned three al Qaeda bigwigs were waterboarded? After they were waterboarded, the al Qaeda big shots disclosed information that prevented follow-on attacks on Los Angeles and London, according to intelligence officials.  A scene in the movie "Zero Dark Thirty" indicates Osama bin Laden's hideout was located in part by information obtained from waterboarding. No matter, said outraged liberals. Waterboarding is torture. When we use their techniques, the terrorists win. Our international reputation is besmirched; our civil liberties endangered. Why, then, have liberals said so little about the report Monday (2/04) on the vague criteria the Obama administration uses to justify killing American citizens suspected of terrorism with drone strikes?

"We have four dead Americans!" Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shouted at Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.  "Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?" Ms. Clinton had a point, of sorts, about "at this point."  More than four months have elapsed since 9/11/2012, when Chris Stevens, our ambassador to Libya; Foreign Service Office Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were killed during a seven hour assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and its annex.  Wednesday (1/23) was the first time the secretary of state appeared before Congress to answer questions about what happened. The State Department knew "in near real time" there had been no protest; knew within hours an al-Qaida affiliate claimed credit.  So why for more than a week afterward did she and other senior officials claim a video ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad was responsible, Sen. Johnson was asking when Ms. Clinton interrupted him. Other lawmakers wanted to know why the consulate was guarded by unarmed Libyan security guards rather than by U.S. Marines, as is customary for diplomatic installations.  Why were Ambassador Stevens' pleas for more security ignored? Ms. Clinton responded...

It would be fiscally irresponsible to raise the ceiling on the national debt from $8.1 trillion to $8.9 trillion, the junior senator from Illinois said when President George W. Bush wanted to do that in 2006. Raising the debt limit "is a sign of leadership failure," he said.  "Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren." The national debt has doubled since 2006, but Barack Obama says now it would be fiscally irresponsible NOT to raise it.  For hypocrisy, this can't be topped.  But the president isn't the only hypocrite.  Nothing has generated as much posturing and grandstanding as the all too frequent votes to raise the debt ceiling.

This was an exceptionally busy week of spinning, posturing, grandstanding, lying, smearing and demagoguery as President Barack Obama sought to thwart Republican efforts to restrain the growth of federal spending; to impose new curbs on guns, and to win confirmation of his "in your face" Cabinet. It began with a news conference Monday (1/14) so remarkable for mendacity, hypocrisy and churlishness even Dana Milbank of the Washington Post and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times noticed. "The next time Mr. Obama holds a press conference, somebody should ask him to identify by name those who want to repeal Social Security, steal food from orphans and cancel science funding," said the Wall Street Journal. Fat chance of that. "The deeply unethical relationship between the White House and the Washington press corps ensures that nary a statement of Obama's will be subjected to questioning or scrutiny, much less the mockery that attends just about anything a Republican says," said Michael Walsh. * * * The president used children as props for his news conference Wednesday (1/16) calling for new gun control measures. Here's more on the infantile spectacle. But, said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, it is "repugnant and cowardly" for the NRA to note his daughters have armed protection. * * * Nothing has generated as much posturing, grandstanding, and hypocrisy as Congress' now all too frequent votes to lift the ceiling on the national debt.  * * * Little illustrates Zero's "my way, or the highway" attitude better than his choices for his Cabinet. Jack Lew, slated to replace Turbo Tax Tim Geithner, may be the worst. * * * The French have intervened in Mali, where al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb" (AQIM) has established a larger base than al-Qaeda had in Afghanistan. With the French intervention, "the stage is set for another bitter, chaotic al-Qaida defeat," said my friend Austin Bay.  The harshness of Islamist rule will backfire, as it did in Iraq and Algeria, he thinks. But Walter Russell Mead wonders if another Dien Bien Phu looms.  Or another Afghanistan, frets the London Daily Mail. * * * "The shortest distance in modern politics is the one between a Republican willing to denounce his party for extremism and the set of a cable or Sunday morning talk show," says Artur Davis,

China has threatened Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam with war over islands in the South China Sea which under international law belong to Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam. China has built up its military forces opposite Taiwan, even though the new Taiwanese government  seeks closer ties to Beijing. China is building up military forces along its border with India, India's intelligence service reported in July. If that weren't saber rattling enough, "China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third world war," a Chinese general said last month. China bullies its neighbors because it can, most analysts think. "Beijing is deploying superior power in an effort to repeal basic geometry and clearly written treaty law," wrote James Holmes, a professor of strategy at the U.S. Naval War College.  "Learn to love Big Brother, Southeast Asia." There could be a very different reason for Chinese bellicosity.

Gun control is a moral issue, Vice President Joe Biden said at a news conference Wednesday. This was more nonsense from the premier dunce in American politics.  The evidence is massive gun control measures do not restrict gun violence.  They may contribute to it.  (All but one mass shooting in the last half century has taken place in "gun free" zones.) But liberals don't care much whether their nostrums work or not.  They judge programs on their declared intent, not results.  That's all it takes to massage their egos, and it spares them the trouble of having to learn a lot of pesky facts. The emotionally healthy can feel good about themselves without putting others down.  Liberal preening apparently requires feeling superior to those who disagree with them. If you don't agree with us about gun control, you can't be as horrified as liberals are by mass shootings, the vice president implied.  We're good.  You're bad. Making themselves feel good is more important to most liberals than solving problems, and they tend to be intellectually lazy. So this attitude pervades most of the positions they take.  Note the following:

The men whom President Barack Hussein Obama has chosen to head his national security team send more shivers down the spines of our allies than those of our enemies. So if Charles Emmerson is right in thinking the world in 2013 "eerily looks like the world of 1913, on the cusp of the Great War," that's not good. The United States, like Britain 100 years ago, is in relative economic and military decline, Mr. Emmerson, a researcher for Chatham House, a British think tank, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine Jan. 4.  Hostile powers are rising and "jostling for position in the four corners of the world."  The president wants someone whom many consider an outright traitor to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State; a straight out Anti-Semite to take over for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and a sympathizer of Jihad Islam as CIA Director.  You couldn't ask for a greater recipe for catastrophe than that.

Jack Wheeler has recommended some books he thinks we ought to read.  One, The Jade Steps, is by one of my favorite writers -- Jack Wheeler.  Jack has shilled for his book about as much as is seemly, so I thought I'd pick up the slack. The Jade Steps is a fictionalized account of a fascinating, and profoundly important historical event which has been grossly misrepresented. I love good historical fiction, because it brings to life events which would seem dry and dusty in a history book.  The best historical fiction entertains as much as it informs.  It is faithful to history, both by reporting events as they actually happened, and by putting them in context.  But it is history made more urgent, more gripping, more exciting through the interaction of fictional characters with the historical figures, or by imagined conversations and interactions between actual historical figures.  To my mind, no one was better at this than Kenneth Roberts.  I learned more about the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 from his novels than from any other source, and it was from Roberts that I developed my lifelong fascination with Benedict Arnold. I was reminded of Roberts as I read the The Jade Steps.  I started to read it because it was Jack's book, and I figured I ought to.  But after a few pages, I was hooked.  Like Roberts, Jack injects important historical fact and insight smoothly into his story.  It's a fast-paced, crackling good read, so entertaining you don't realize how much you're learning.   Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down.

Conservatives speak disparagingly of "Keynesian economics."  If he were alive today, I suspect John Maynard Keynes would be critical, too, of policies advocated in his name - even more than he was when alive. Lord Keynes (1883-1946) was the most celebrated economist of the 20th Century, chiefly because in his "General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money" (1936), he told politicians exactly what they wanted to hear. Despite that, Keynes deserved his fame.  He was a genius who made a fortune in the stock market (he made most of his picks while lying in bed in the morning, that day's edition of the London Times in hand).  He was fun at parties.  He had a quick wit.  He was fond of reminding investors, for example, that "the market can remain irrational far longer than you can remain solvent." And he had an important insight very relevant to today.