Category Archives: General

This is important if you are from the United States, and perhaps more so if you are from Lancaster, Ohio, my former stomping grounds.

An Ohio high school student designed the 50-star American flag for a class project. His teacher, Stanley Pratt, originally gave him a B–. That student was, of course, from Lancaster, and the grade, as part of a challenge, was changed to an A. The student was Bob Heft. Why Heft wasn’t invited and in this picture is beyond me.

Heft anticipated the possibility of the United States adding more states, so he designed a 51-star flag. This design features six rows of stars, with the rows alternating between nine and eight stars. This was created in case Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, or another territory might become a state.

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in December 1919, effective 1920, was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933, ending Prohibition.

It’s important to understand that the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution did not directly make it illegal to drink alcohol. Instead, it prohibited manufacturing, selling, or transporting intoxicating liquors within the United States and its territories.

Some states didn’t do it, and at least one stopped enforcement. It also allowed consumption for religious purposes. Without it, there would have been a conflict with the First Amendment.

There were other loopholes in Prohibition. While you couldn’t legally buy or produce new alcohol, you were allowed to drink alcohol that you already possessed before the 18th Amendment’s enforcement date OR legally obtained before Prohibition started. Medicinal prescriptions, like sacramental alcohol above, were also exempt.

So, possession for personal use was technically legal. Still, the avenues for legally obtaining new supplies were limited, making drinking alcohol criminal unless one had pre-existing stocks or used one of the few legal loopholes. How would anyone honestly know? A lot of people store whiskey and wine for years or claim to.

Trying to enforce these laws led to widespread non-compliance and the rise of speakeasies, bootlegging, and organized crime. My grandparents were in the bar business forever, and I remember stories about bathtub gin. Here’s a tidbit: it wasn’t produced in a bathtub but used its tap.

So, go out tonight to your favorite speakeasy and enjoy a glass of medicinal bathtub gin in celebration, but keep an eye out for Eliot Ness.

I’m 72, but apparently, I don’t look it. I don’t drink, but I keep some PBR around for a friend. I bought a 12-pack not long ago, and the young woman at the register asked me for my ID. I told her she had to be kidding, that I could be her grandfather. Being kind, she said no way. She really needed to ask; it was store policy. I started to get it, deciding it was flattering, not policy. She stopped me and remaining sweet; she said not necessary; I think you MIGHT be over 21.

Walter Williams died on December 1, 2020. Like so many others, I miss his intellect and wisdom.

It’s hard to describe Walter Williams. There were so many facets to his life. Call him a warrior because he was one. I knew him primarily from his writings. However, I watched him on YouTube in debates and discussions with other economists, such as another favorite, Thomas Sowell.

I never referred to him as Dr. Williams, though he did have a doctorate. He seemed like an ordinary guy who wouldn’t care about the title. It was his work, not his credentials, that was so very important. The important part is that he could communicate complex issues in a simplified way and do it with humor. So, he wasn’t pretentious, as others in his position would be.

I’m sure there are those on the left who would either not like him or disagree with him. But, while growing up under the ugliness of Jim Crow, which he fought against, I have no memory of him believing the use of the victim card was ever legitimate. In contrast to the left, he felt free markets were the road to economic justice and fairness.

He criticized public policies he believed were harmful to economic growth and the minority groups they were supposed to benefit. The policies democrats promoted over the last 60 years are the bane to those living a life indebted to those seeking to control the people; they were designed to help the cause of poverty and low educational opportunities but didn’t.

To that end, he would have no use for the WOKE culture, is my guess; he believed in freedom, both of the market and, even more, of people. To me, he was a true patriot who loved America and honestly thought it offered all of us hope.