theDrahos

What are the most iconic cars ever to drive across the silver screen? Here are our top 5 films where the car became the star: (1) Lotus Esprit Series 1 – The Spy Who Loved Me The 1976 Lotus Esprit Series 1 was an instant on-screen classic in the chase sequence in Sardinia – and that was before it converted in to a submarine. Some will choose the 1964 Aston Martin DB5 driven by 007 in Goldfinger and Thunderball, but the Lotus Esprit from the Spy Who Loves Me gets our vote. (2) DeLorean DMC-12 – Back to the Future … Continue reading →

Over the past decade or so I have witnessed some disturbing trends at church. One would have thought that our Lord Jesus Christ had, himself, worn a government-issued uniform, given how much reverence, gratitude, and appreciation we are led to collectively express for these folks during Mass. At first, it was a weekly prayer “for the troops,” which is fine. There is no human being, alive or dead, who doesn’t need prayers. However, we never prayed for the innocent civilians in the countries Americans had invaded, who were killed, maimed, and tortured in far greater numbers than Americans. We never … Continue reading →

Africa’s most populous nation has just achieved something very important. This week Nigeria’s voters handed a landslide victory to former president, Muhammadu Buhari. Equally impressive, the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, became the first Nigerian leader in 55 years to democratically cede power to his rival. President-elect Buhari, a dour, ascetic, unsmiling former general, proclaimed his primary goal is to attack all-pervasive corruption and crush the Boko Haram uprising in the north. Interestingly, Buhari, a Muslim, received substantial support in the Christian south in this normally religiously-divided nation of 177 million. Nigeria is one of the world’s most corrupt nations. The … Continue reading →

The announcement of a “framework” for an agreement with Iran to limit its nuclear research and development had all the drama of a thriller – the extended negotiations, dragging out over several days and deadlines, the anticipation, the furor surrounding the process, and of course the naysayers carping from the sidelines, all focused the attention of the world like a laser. President Obama did a masterful job in presenting the basic parameters of the deal in his speech: unlike his critics, he sounded like a true statesman, one who is looking to history, and not the next election or the … Continue reading →

Sometimes I think that the next Revolutionary War will take place in vegetable garden battlefields, all across America. Instead of bullets, there will be seeds.  Instead of chemical warfare, there will be rainwater, carefully collected from the gutters of the house. Instead of soldiers in body armor and helmets, there will be backyard guerrillas, with bare feet, cut-off jean shorts, and wide-brimmed hats.  Instead of death, there will be life, sustained by a harvest of home-grown produce.  Children will be witness to these battles, but instead of being traumatized, they will be happy, grimy, and healthy, as they learn about the … Continue reading →

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer In 1939, Hitler and Stalin made and executed an agreement to divide Poland and other regions of Europe between them. Hitler and Stalin were also making plans to attack each other.  To Stalin’s surprise, Hitler went first. This is not a story of military battles or political intrigue. In Bloodlands, Timothy Snyder continues his examination of the catastrophe that was life in Central and Eastern Europe during the time of Hitler and Stalin, now focusing on this period first of cooperation, then battle. Friends German bombs started falling on September 1, 1939.  … Continue reading →

A voracious and eclectic reader, President Nixon instructed me to send him every few weeks 10 articles he would not normally see that were on interesting or important issues. In 1971, I sent him an essay from The Atlantic, with reviews by Time and Newsweek, by Dr. Richard Herrnstein. My summary read: “Basically, (Herrnstein) demonstrates that heredity, rather than environment, determines intelligence — and that the more we proceed to provide everyone with a ‘good environment’ the more heredity will become the dominant factor … in their success and social standing.” In a 1994 obituary, The New York Times wrote … Continue reading →

All of us know – or have heard about – the apparently healthy, successful person who one day just drops dead unexpectedly. In a way, this is the story of the Thunderbird. For decades, it was one of Ford’s most successful models and the name remains an automotive icon. But the car’s as dead as Rudolph Valentino. The last one rolled off the line a decade ago (2005) after a brief, not-quite-three-year resurrection following a prior ten-year absence from Ford’s model lineup. Unlike most four-wheeled flops, however, the last T-Bird was neither ugly nor  horribly built. Most people who saw it … Continue reading →

Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:15). The Ten Commandments have ten points. The nice thing about each of them is this: it gets right to the point.Christians disagree about which point this one is. Catholics and Lutherans believe that this is the seventh commandment. Most Protestants believe it is the eighth commandment. I am in this camp. I am in the Eighth Commandment camp, but not because this is what most Protestants have always taught. I am in this camp for a very specific reason: I believe that the five points in the biblical covenant model are sequential. I believe … Continue reading →

John W. Whitehead is a constitutional attorney. As head of the Rutherford Institute he is actively involved in defending our civil liberties. Being actively involved in legal cases, he experiences first hand the transformation of law from a shield of the American people into a weapon in the hands of the government. American civil liberty was seriously eroded prior to 9/11 and the rise of the police/warfare state, a story I tell in How America Was Lost. Lawrence Stratton and I documented the loss of law as a shield of the American people in our book, The Tyranny of Good … Continue reading →

Whenever I see liberals salivating over some black guy I’ve never heard of, my first instinct is always suspicion. Call it “Obama Trauma.” When they described Neil deGrasse Tyson like he was the second coming of Christ, I suspected he might be merely mortal. Turns out, I was right. So, when some obscure South African comedian became heir to the Daily Show throne, I was convinced it was not because he had comedy chops but because he symbolized some kind of Kumbaya version of the world. The woman who hired him basically said as much. She told The Hollywood Reporter, … Continue reading →