U.S. Rep. Tim Scott, soon to be appointed a U.S. Senator from South Carolina, deserves to be categorized by far more than his race. He is a supremely accomplished man. Yet one can't avoid focusing on the amazing symbolism inherent in his ascent to the Senate as that body's sole black member, and indeed as its sole black member outside of Illinois in the past 34 years. It's also important to highlight the role faith and freedom played in his career.

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Benjamin Franklin, son of a candle-maker, arrived in Philadelphia in 1723 bedraggled and wet from a storm, with a single dollar in his pocket, knowing not a soul in the city, as a 17-year-old renegade from apprenticeship at his brother’s Boston printing shop. Within three months he was dining regularly with the provincial governor of Pennsylvania.

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    In several other forums I have written about a conference on foreign- and defense-policy I attended during Thanksgiving week, co-sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and the El Pomar Foundation. Still, so much good information was available that it seems a university-based audience would find it of interest. Herewith, then, some fairly random notes and quotes that did not make it into print anywhere else.

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