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Articles by Ron Maxwell
Letter: Remember 2024?
Letters to the Editor reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: editor@rappnews.com. Do you remember these rousing political rallies in 2024? The one in Marshall that attracted thousands of farmers clamoring for more beef imports from Argentina? The one that brought out nearly everyone in Hume, calling for the closing of the Kennedy Center? The one in Warrenton demanding the conquest and annexation of Greenland?
A better, local broadband solution? Hate to say, ‘I told you so’
Writer Ron Maxwell argues Rappahannock County’s broadband policies have unfairly harmed local provider Piedmont Broadband — and calls on supervisors to “undo the damage.” Piedmont Broadband technicians Evan Espinola and Daniel Clement install the line-of-sight service at a home off Battle Mountain Road in 2020.File photo by Luke Christopher Letters to the Editor reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: editor@rappnews.com.
Preserving the Roadless Rule Means Preserving Virginia – The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
My hometown of Flint Hill, Virginia, has been blessed with forests that make it ideal for a rustic lifestyle, which my wife and I enjoy. On walks with my dogs, I marvel at the poplar, red maple, oak, and pine trees — all second growth in this area that was once cleared farmland. The wild forests are slowly returning, and with them the animals and ecosystems they once supported. But it can take hundreds of years to restore what was lost.
10 Classic Epic War Movies That Are Still Impressive Today
The war movie genre has made for some of the best, most influential movies of all time. Ever since Georges Méliès made what is widely regarded as one of the first ever war films, Sea Fighting in Greece in 1897, the genre has evolved and produced a lot of iconic films. While cinema evolves, the quality of films from a certain era doesn’t change, and some are still regarded as hugely important works of art that have stood the test of time.
Commentary: Pennsylvania again at center of national, world events
Commentaries reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: editor@rappnews.com. On May 28, 1754, a company of Virginia provincial troops under the command of a young Lt. Col. George Washington surprised a force of French Canadian troops in Western Pennsylvania, near present day Farmington. The battle is named Jumonville Glen, after the commander of the French force, Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, who lost his life.
My dad fought in WWII to preserve European peace that Josh Hawley wants to dismantle Original
The Missouri senator and his fellow neo-isolationists haven't learned the lessons of history, writes the director of the movie "Gettysburg." Springfield News-Leader John F. Maxwell enlisted in early 1942, soon after Pearl Harbor. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Germany. On June 6, 1944, his unit had arrived in the newly liberated Rome, the eternal city.
How small businesses can tap into Australia's disability employment opportunity
While Australian employers are growing in their readiness to hire individuals with a disability, disability unemployment and workplace participation numbers remain stagnant despite critical industries struggling with severe employee shortages. Among these, small Aussie businesses have a highly capable, untapped talent pool waiting for forward-thinking organisations to find them.
Ron Maxwell: As elections approach, don't forget Bob Good voted to defund NATO
There are many reasons for Virginians to take pride in calling the 5th Congressional District their home. Although perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind, the district’s first representative to the U.S. Congress was James Madison, father of the Constitution. Except for the tragedy of the Civil War, from those early days, every generation of lawmakers has regarded their first responsibility the safety of the American republic and its people.
Contemporary America Must Learn From the Civil War
On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th president of the United States. He closed his inaugural speech with these memorable words: “Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.
Commentary: A Piedmont fairy tale
Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: editor@rappnews.com. Once upon a time there was a rural community nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. They got their drinking water from a hodge-podge of sources; from wells, gallon bottles delivered by vendors, glass or plastic bottles purchased in food markets or from city provided taps.
Commentary: The Noah Option
Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: editor@rappnews.com. An alarming study reveals that the population of North American birds has dropped nearly 30% since 1970. Each day, an estimated 6,000 acres of open space are converted to development of one form or another – seemingly endless seas of concrete and asphalt covering the living land. Nearby Clevengers’s Corner is a harbinger of the looming menace.
Commentary: Supervisors, let’s take a deep breath and rethink universal fiber
Country United States of AmericaUS Virgin IslandsUnited States Minor Outlying IslandsCanadaMexico, United Mexican StatesBahamas, Commonwealth of theCuba, Republic ofDominican RepublicHaiti, Republic ofJamaicaAfghanistanAlbania, People's Socialist Republic ofAlgeria, People's Democratic Republic ofAmerican SamoaAndorra, Principality ofAngola, Republic ofAnguillaAntarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S)Antigua and BarbudaArgentina, Argentine RepublicArmeniaArubaAustralia, Commonwealth...
Commentary: Akre’s Trojan Horse
Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: editor@rappnews.com. Some things never change. Humans, whether alive in 1250 B.C. or 2021 A.D. persist in delighting in things they think are free; even if they know in their heart of hearts there ain’t no such thing. The folks in ancient Troy were tickled pink when they first saw that grand wooden horse roll up to their gates, offered to them as a gift. What’s not to like?
Commentary: Protecting the county from development
Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: editor@rappnews.com. Can we accept a responsibility to protect this place, not just for us humans, but for our wild kin who were here first and whose habitat is increasingly diminished and threatened on all sides?
Commentary: Cancel Culture comes to Rappahannock
Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer, not the Rapp News. Reply below or by writing a letter to editor: editor@rappnews.com. In his letter to the Rappahannock News Mr. Mike Wenger asserts with solemn authority that Lord Thomas Fairfax, “never had to work … he was not a scholar or a great military leader … He left no significant contributions to the political development of colonial Virginia.” [“A name that doesn’t match LFCC’s mission, values or students,” Feb.
Commentary: Our Homeric hero
Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer, not the Rapp News. Reply below or by writing a letter to editor: editor@rappnews.com. The late Phil Irwin has been fondly remembered and eulogized by nearly everyone here. Though he can’t speak tonight, we do know what he did say over the years.
Commentary: Make love, not war
Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer, not the Rapp News. Reply below or by writing a letter to editor: editor@rappnews.com. One of the iconic phrases of the ‘60s was “Make Love, Not War.” But once in power, the 60s generation seemed to forget all that.
‘We are out of balance’
To borrow a phrase from Karl Marx: A spectre is haunting Rappahannock — the spectre of improvement. We hear it in the seductive speech of the priesthood of the improvers. Like incantations from an ancient sacred text, they invoke their charms over and over again — in words meant to soothe, to calm, to disarm, to quiet all dissent. By coupling two benign words into a mantra they seek to hypnotize the listener into acquiescence.
Commentary: Perils of presentism
Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer, not the Rapp News. Reply below or by writing a letter to editor: editor@rappnews.com. Sheila Gresinger and Ben Jones are to be commended for their constructive remarks in last week’s edition. Their message stands in contrast to the fashionable destructive impulse of the moment, which seems to have infected too many otherwise reasonable people from coast to coast.
Commentary: Focusing on the bright shiny object
Comment articles reflect the opinion of the writer, not the Rapp News. Reply below or by writing a letter to editor: editor@rappnews.com. In last week’s letter [“Nothing so frightening as a vote of the people,” June 4], Jed Duvall missed some facts and numbers: 70,000, 800,000 and 4. 70,000. The number of civilians killed in Yemen.
Yesterday I Died
Dear neighbor, Although we’ve never met I thought I’d write you this letter. I recently turned sixty. Voices in the cruel vortex of the internet were saying that people of my age had lived long enough. That we had already lived our lives. Why should others defer or suffer or sacrifice for us? So I wondered with Edmund Burke — are there still bonds of affection across the generations? Or are we cut off from the generations before and the generations to come — cast adrift, alone in the universe?
Staying the Course
My home library has a shelf of books on the history of plagues and epidemics. William H. McNeill’s Plagues and Peoples provides a fascinating epidemiological timeline, from the dawn of civilization through the 20th century. What this history shows is that microbes have had more effect on the course of human history than all the leaders, tyrants, invasions, political theories, and ‘isms’ combined. Pandemics have always been with us and will always be with us. We do not float above nature.
Keeping America great: preservation and conservation are the roots of American democracy
At 16.7 million acres, the Tongass National Forest sprawls across the misty southeast portion of the state of Alaska, a partial temperate rainforest that ranks as the largest national forest in the United States.
Ron Maxwell & Bruce Fein: The Constitution and the Endangered Species Act
Father of the Constitution James Madison and oracle of the separation of powers Baron Montesquieu agreed that combining legislative and executive power in a single branch would be tyranny.
Donald Trump is Samson, Blinded by Ring of Delilahs
Samson is blind, only in this case his eyesight has not been taken by a lone Delilah. He’s been blinded by a coterie of White House advisors and West Wing ideologues who tell him one story over and over again, keeping all other narratives far away and out of sight. Unlike her biblical predecessor, Nikki Haley didn’t trim the president’s coif, but she was a prominent Never Trumper right up to Election Day.
The Third Bush Presidency
The Never Trump cabal can now claim total victory. Unsuccessful at preventing Trump from winning the nomination or the general election, they have instead co-opted his presidency for their own policies and programs. With the nomination of John Bolton, Never Trump interventionists have installed one of the unrepentant architects of the catastrophic Iraq War to head the National Security Council.
Trump’s ‘Swamp Creature’ Chasing Americans Off Public Lands
The American people did not vote for Donald Trump because they wanted their forests logged, bounties placed on wolf packs, national monuments reduced in size, and a resumption of the universally outlawed ivory trade. These odious policies are the direct result of the appointment of a swamp creature positioned by the crony class to further its own narrow financial interests and agenda: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
Trump’s ‘Swamp Creature’ Forcing Americans Off Public Lands
The American people did not vote for Donald Trump because they wanted their forests logged, bounties placed on wolf packs, national monuments reduced in size, and a resumption of the universally outlawed ivory trade. These odious policies are the direct result of the appointment of a swamp creature positioned by the crony class to further its own narrow financial interests and agenda: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
Trump, Creative Rights, and Intellectual Property
As the director of several movies about American history, including Gettysburg, it has been a privilege to bring these stories — full of bravery, resilience, ingenuity, conflict and sacrifice — to the big screen for audiences around the world. The stories that creatives tell — some true, some pure imagination — are among the greatest of American exports. Not only do they inspire audiences in this country, they also tell America’s story to the rest of the world.
How Romney Loyalists Hijacked Trump’s Foreign Policy
In 2015, as Trump’s rise in the polls raised alarms among establishment Republicans, notable proponents of the neoconservative foreign policy began hedging their bets. Ready to back anyone but Trump, they laid plans for a fallback position in case their favored candidates, Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, failed to stop Trump’s populist insurgency. In public expressions and behind-the-scenes maneuvering, they supported Hillary Clinton over the rising Trump.
Trump Meets Putin
In a Realpolitik view of the world, the world is seen as it actually is — not viewed through a utopian lens. The Obama administration (including during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State) coordinated, abetted, and funded huge weapons flows into the conflict in Syria. Whatever the initial intentions, most of these arms and munitions ended up in the possession of anti-Assad jihadists.
Shakespeare for Dummies
On the eve of the summer theater festival season we can anticipate a revival of Shakespeare productions motivated by a heartfelt commitment to make theatergoers understand that when the bard had his various characters commit regicide, it was Donald Trump he had in mind.
Ron Maxwell: America Last? - Breitbart
Donald Trump campaigned on a promise of no more wars of choice: no military interventions to liberate other countries, to intervene in so-called “humanitarian” crusades, to force regime change, to coercively spread democracy, or to take sides in other people’s wars or civil wars. In summation, our military would be used only in the defense of our own country or our closest allies. This was the promise. This was the commitment to the American people made over and over again.
Why Donald Trump: The war candidate vs. the peace candidate
Hillary Clinton has a public record of words and actions dating back to the presidency of her husband, as senator from New York and as secretary of state. This record is clear and unequivocal.
Ron Maxwell: Hillary's Totalitarian Moment
The specific insults morph to fit the circumstances and the times, but each insult is designed to have the same effect — to dehumanize and to objectify a group of people in opposition to the dominant group that has seized power and the legal mechanisms of the State.
‘The Interview': Hollywood History Has Always Been Impacted By Foreign Censors
Sony’s decision to pull The Interview off its release schedule in order to meet North Korean cyber terrorists’ demands isn’t an isolated case of Hollywood caving into foreign censorship. In fact, the film industry has been plagued by foreign censors as early as 1914 when the U.S. seized prints of the epic movie 1776 over it’s offense to the British, going so far to imprison the film’s director.
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