OpinionJournal | John Fund on the Trail | On History: "What will slip further down a memory hole will be the major reason why it is important for students to study our history: America is an exceptional country in that we were born out of a shared set of ideas--human liberty and opportunity, accompanied by a common set of values. It is often said that while being a Frenchman or German is bound up in ethnicity and ties to the soil, it is possible to become an American by adopting this nation's creed and beliefs.
We are risking something very basic by failing to communicate the basic ideals of America and instead, as historian David McCullough told me, 'raising a generation of students who are historically illiterate.' But many of those students will eventually become curious, and without a solid grounding in the past, they could easily fall prey to revisionist history, whether it be of the Confederate or Oliver Stone variety.
Yale professor David Gelernter says that 'ignorance of history is destroying our judgment.' He points to Sen. Dick Durbin's ignorant comment comparing the actions of U.S. personnel at Guantanamo Bay to those of Nazis and Soviets. His remarks went largely unremarked upon by fellow senators until talk radio made them an issue. Future leaders may make even more horrific missteps: a 2003 survey of seniors at the top 55 liberal arts colleges found that over half thought Germany, Italy or Japan had been a U.S. ally in World War II. The concern about historical amnesia crosses the political spectrum. Bill Moyers, the liberal PBS pundit, has said 'we Americans seem to know everything about the last 24 hours but very little of the last 60 centuries or the last 60 years.'"

The American Enterprise | America's Manic Entrepreneurs: "A European who went bankrupt in Tocqueville's day was likely to end up in debtor's prison. But thousands of American entrepreneurs failed numerous times before achieving their big successes. Such "serial entrepreneurs" will tell you that they shake off failure like a dog shakes off water and are soon raring to go again with a new idea.

That America rewards and celebrates such people is culturally unique. When asked, �Do you think that starting a new business is a respected occupation in your community?� 91 percent of Americans said yes--compared to 28 percent of British respondents, and 8 percent of Japanese. The average American is four times more likely than a Frenchman to found a company."

It has taken me three years to understand and admit complety that North Korea and its insane dictaorship is just a proxy for the Boyes in Beijing. What to do, oh who knows what to do?
Victor Davis Hanson | National Review Online | The Global Shift: "If we have avoided the state socialism of Europe that stymies growth, we have also already passed through all the contradictions of a breakneck capitalist transition � the dislocation of rural people, industrial pollution, unionization, suburban blues, ubiquitous graft, and petty bribery � that will increasingly plague both India and China as they leave the 18th century and enter the 21st.

But the real question is how both China and India, nuclear and arming, will translate their newfound economic clout and cash into a geopolitical role. If internal politics and protocols are any barometer of foreign policy, it should be an interesting show. We mostly welcome the new India � nuclear, law-abiding, and English-speaking � onto the world stage. It deserves a permanent seat on the Security Council and a close alliance with the United States."

TCS: Tech Central Station - When 'the Future Was in Venezuela': "Politicians everywhere pretend to ignore that a tariff is a tax on their own people. Since key positions in the multilateral agencies are usually filled by recycling former politicians and bureaucrats, high tariffs, import quotas, exchange controls, and periodic devaluations of the currency had the blessing of those international institutions.

Latin American businessmen quickly learned that success had little to do with serving the consumer and a lot with pleasing the authorities in charge of setting tariffs and prices, distributing subsidies, and running the development banks. In Venezuela, the 12 wealthy businessmen closest to President Carlos Andr�s P�rez were nicknamed 'the 12 apostles.' And through the hemisphere, innovation and technology became of little importance compared to having access and friends in the right places."