7/3/1941: Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone takes oath. The post Today in Supreme Court History: July 3, 1941 appeared first on Reason.com.
As Americans prepare to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday this holiday weekend, organizers of Freedom 250 events in Washington are scrambling to deal with the extreme heat. Some 200,000 people have attended the Great American State Fair and FIFA Fan Fest so far, according to a Freedom 250 spokesperson, and even more are expected to…
"This is not a war, per se. This is the denuking," Trump said of the ongoing US campaign against Iran.
Everyone knows the song.It’s a warm summer night, the top of the seventh inning has just concluded, and the organ begins to ring throughout the stadium. It’s time to whip out the singing voice for one of America’s most iconic tunes — "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." At a time when baseball fandom was overwhelmingly male-dominated, the character of Katie stands out as an unusual creation for the era.Yet few baseball fans, let alone Americans at large, know the true history behind the 118-year-old symbol of our country’s pastime.To get to the beginning, we must travel back to the time of President Theodore Roosevelt. The year is 1908: The Ford Model T makes its debut in the automobile market; New York City drops the very first New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square; and the Grand Canyon is declared a national monument.The story goes that Jack Norworth was riding a New York subway train when he was inspired by a sign he saw that read, “Baseball Today — Polo Grounds.” Norworth quickly developed the lyrics to the song, with Albert Von Tilzer composing the music.The irony? According to reports, neither of these men had ever been to a baseball game. Norworth did not attend a game until 32 years later in 1940.Norworth and his then-wife Nora Bayes would go on to debut the tune during a vaudeville act at the Amphion Theater in Brooklyn. The song was quickly recorded by multiple different groups, with both the Edward Meeker and the Haydn Quartet versions finding mass success. Although only the chorus is sung at baseball games today, the original song contains multiple verses that tell the story of Katie Casey (later changed to Nelly Kelly by Norworth) — a “baseball mad” fanatic who would rather have her boyfriend take her to the ballgame than to the theater. At a time when women did not even have the right to vote, let alone the fact that baseball fandom was overwhelmingly male-dominated, the character of Katie stands out as an unusual creation for the era.The earliest documented instance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" being played at a baseball game was during a Los Angeles high school game in 1934. The song made its Major League debut later that year during Game 4 of the 1934 World Series.Stadium bands began regularly performing the tune during games in the mid-20th century. However, the way baseball fans engage with the song today — singing it during the seventh-inning stretch — was popularized by Chicago White Sox announcer Harry Caray in the 1970s. Caray later brought the tradition to the Chicago Cubs when he became their announcer in 1982. In 2001, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was ranked #8 on the "Songs of the Century" list, and later in 2010, Edward Meeker's recording was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.So next time you find yourself indulging in America's pastime, remember to buy some "peanuts and Cracker Jack" so that you can "root, root, root for the home team" — but never forget: "For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, at the old ball game."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Ceremony for Ali Khamenei intended to be epic display of national power. Plus, the expected wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce pays dividend to good causesGood morning. Final preparations are under way for Ali Khamenei’s six-day funeral. The farewell to the former supreme leader is expected to draw millions in Iran. Khamenei was killed in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli attack on the country in February, and the funeral is intended to be an epic display of personal mourning, national power, resilience and social cohesion.Iran’s first vice-president, Mohammad Reza Aref, who is the lead funeral organiser, described the ceremony, which begins on Saturday in Tehran and will end with Khamenei’s burial on Thursday in Mashhad, as “the most important event of this century” and the most attended event since the 1979 revolution. The scale of the funeral has been conceived to relay political and religious messages of resistance to the rest of the world. At the request of Iraqi politicians, Khamenei’s body will also be carried through the Iraqi Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf.Will Ali Khamenei’s successor take part? Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, is not expected to make an appearance at his father’s funeral. He was severely injured in the same US-Israeli strike that killed his father and also killed Mojtaba’s wife and his 14-month-old daughter. The extent of Mojtaba’s injuries is unknown and he has so far issued only written statements, including one that distanced himself from the ceasefire negotiations but sanctioned their continuance. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, threatened to kill him this week, saying he was marked for death.Why is Trump so unhappy with Nato? Aside from the failure of countries such as the UK and France to join in with the US-Israeli war on Iran, Trump has long complained that Europe does not spend enough on defence. Under pressure from the US, Nato leaders agreed at a gathering last year to boost defence-related spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. Continue reading...
The Supreme Court is deciding more consequential rulings than ever before in secret
Donald Trump returns to Mount Rushmore for Fourth of July fireworks before heading to the Salute to America event on the National Mall Saturday.
Even as President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement gut civics in public schools by dismantling the Department of Education and pushing pro-MAGA interpretations of history and “God-centered education,” a new study suggests that Generation Z can ill afford this educational erosion, as they are shockingly ignorant of basic facts about American history.“Nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of Americans under 30 are unaware of what America’s 250th is commemorating this year, while just 39 percent know we are celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence,” reported Cato Institute’s Jonah Messinger and Emily Ekins on Thursday. The right-leaning think tank conducted a survey, the Cato Institute Fourth of July Survey, with the help of the polling firm Morning Consult.Messenger and Ekins added that “a majority (52 percent) of Gen Z Americans also don’t know what country from which the American colonies declared their independence, while 48 percent correctly answered that it was Great Britain.”Additionally, “More importantly, two-thirds (67 percent) of Gen Z do not know why the American colonies declared independence from Great Britain, while 33 percent correctly answered that it was to protest high taxes and a lack of representation in government.”There was a bright spot in the numbers, in that 66 percent of Generation Z knew America’s first president was George Washington. That number, however, is 11 points less than the number of Americans overall who know their nation’s first president.“Six in ten Americans (64 percent) under 30 likewise don’t know what the main purpose of the US Constitution is,” Messenger and Ekins wrote. “Instead, 14 percent thought the main purpose of the Constitution was to declare independence from Great Britain (which is what the Declaration of Independence did), 17 percent thought the main purpose was to create a presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court, 8 percent thought it was to list all federal laws, and 4 percent thought it was to create two major political parties. Another 21 percent admitted they didn’t know. Only 36 percent knew that the main purpose of the Constitution is to establish and limit the powers of government.”In a separate Thursday post about the poll, Ekins identified similarly ominous findings about the American public overall.“A new national survey from the Cato Institute, conducted in collaboration with Morning Consult of 2,253 Americans ahead of July 4th and America’s 250th anniversary, finds nearly half (46 percent) of Americans don’t know what America’s 250th anniversary commemorates,” Ekins wrote. “A little more than half (53 percent) correctly answered that it was the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.”The survey discovered that “while most Americans have at least an instinctive sense that the US Constitution protects their rights, a majority (58 percent) don’t actually know how it accomplishes this. Less than half (41 percent) correctly said that the Constitution’s purpose is to establish and limit the powers of government. The remaining said the purpose of the Constitution was to declare independence from Great Britain (17 percent), create the presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court (12 percent), list all federal laws (7 percent), or create two major political parties (4 percent), while 18 percent conceded they don’t know what the purpose of the Constitution is.”The survey also found majorities of Americans support ideas about how to change America’s Constitution that one or the other party staunchly oppose. These include conservative views such as requiring photo ID to vote (66 percent), requiring a balanced budget (69 percent), making English the nation's official language (64 percent), banning flag burning (60 percent) and banning transgender women from women’s sports (59 percent). It also includes liberal views such as guaranteeing health care (73 percent), providing free college (60 percent), limiting money in political campaigns (69 percent), guaranteeing a right to abortion (58 percent), banning hate speech (58 percent) and increasing taxes on the wealthy (58 percent).
The Iranian regime has cast the funeral procession as a symbolic rebuke to the U.S.-Israeli campaign that sought to decapitate its leadership.