Americana

Fort Wilkins: Once again, US Army Sends a West Pointer to the End of the Earth

by

In 1844, the U.S. Army sent a West Point graduate and a couple companies of infantry to the very tip of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula to keep order during America’s first great copper rush. Captain Robert Emmet Clary and his soldiers arrived in the wilderness, built most of a fort in five months, and then watched history move somewhere else when war with Mexico began. But Clary’s story gets even better: his West Point classmate—and reportedly his wedding best man—was Jefferson Davis. Three decades later, Davis headed the Confederacy while Clary remained loyal to the Union and earned brevet promotion to brigadier general for his Civil War service. Fort Wilkins is a wonderfully obscure reminder that long before Gettysburg, some remarkably tough Americans were already busy building this amazing country.

Bambi Is an Insurance Company Actuarial Liability

by

My dad, Tom, always had a theory that automobile insurance companies would eventually destroy deer hunting. Not because they hated hunters or because a shadowy cabal of claims adjusters met beneath Lansing every full moon, but because Dad understood basic economics: deer hit cars, insurance companies pay for cars, and insurance companies don’t enjoy paying for cars. To a hunter, a big Michigan whitetail is November tradition. To an insurance actuary, he’s a hood, grille, radiator, two airbags and a rental vehicle standing beside the highway eating grass. Dad didn’t need a conspiracy theory. He understood something far more powerful—incentives. Eventually, somebody was going to put Bambi into MS Excel.

The Original Deer-Camp MRE: The Lost Art of Canning Venison

by

Before freezers and generators, Michigan hunters had another way to make November’s deer feed the family all winter: the Mason jar. Pressure-canned venison may be the original deer-camp MRE—simple, shelf-stable, already cooked, and requiring no refrigeration. It’s a nearly forgotten skill worth bringing back.

From Finland to the U.P.: SISU, Socialism, Saunas

by

From Finland’s rocky farms to the copper mines and forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Finnish immigrants brought more than strong backs and “SISU” to America. They brought faith, saunas, traditions—and fierce arguments over labor, capitalism and socialism that divided “Church Finns” and “Red Finns” more than a century ago. Their remarkable story of immigration, revolution, war and assimilation helped shape northern Michigan and reminds us that many of the political debates Americans wrestle with today are anything but new.

The Hunt for Ink and Paper

by

It was a small town. Somewhere in the Southeast. Big shopping complex, off the interstate. Best Buy, Red Lobster, Ulta, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Target, and all other franchises that transform American towns into carbon copies, from Oil Slick to Shining Oil Slick. 

Where Are the Watchdogs? The Media’s Deafening Silence on Government Fraud

by

Where are the watchdogs? I have been asking myself that question for months. It is a story every American needs to hear, yet legacy media outlets have decided you don’t need to know.

AR Tactical: Can Your Rifle Even Reach 600 Yards?

by

Think you’re a rifleman? There’s only one way to find out. AR Tactical is one of the fastest-growing rifle sports in America, challenging everyday shooters to stretch their skills to 600 yards with practical rifles and real-world marksmanship. Along the way, even experienced competitors discover that old habits don’t always translate—and that’s part of the fun. The question is simple: Will your rifle even reach 600 yards?

Before You Mock the 6.5 Creedmoor, Learn What “Creedmoor” Means

by

The 6.5 Creedmoor has been around for 19 years, and apparently that still hasn’t been enough time for some gun enthusiasts to learn what the word Creedmoor actually means.

Before you utter “6.5 Man Bun” again, try Google.

WHERE’S MY BEEF FROM?!

by

Remember the old Wendy’s commercial: “Where’s the beef?” In 2026, maybe the better question is: “Where’s my beef FROM?” America once required Country of Origin Labeling for beef—until Congress blinked in 2015. Now, while we export premium American beef and import foreign beef for our food supply, consumers deserve a simple answer about what they’re putting on the grill. Teddy Roosevelt took on the Beef Trust. Maybe it’s time to channel a little Bull Moose again.

Sure, You Can Keep the Rifle. We’ll Just Regulate Everything That Makes It Work.

by

“Shall not be infringed” apparently comes with an asterisk. Sure, you can keep the rifle—we’ll just regulate the powder, primers, ammunition, and everything else required to make it go bang. Maryland’s five-pound smokeless-powder limit raises a much bigger constitutional question: Can government regulate around the Second Amendment by controlling what makes an arm functional?

America’s Rifle: The 26 Million People You Didn’t See on the Evening News

by

The evening news shows you the criminal with an AR-15. It rarely shows you the millions of Americans who own one, go to work, raise families, shoot matches, hunt, protect their homes—and never hurt anybody. The 2026 National Firearms Survey estimates 26.4 million Americans own an AR-15 or similar semiautomatic rifle. At that point, perhaps we should stop pretending it’s some exotic fringe firearm and call it what it has become: America’s Rifle. Behind every blade of grass? Maybe not—but we’re certainly working on it. God bless America. Shall not be infringed.

25 Years Later, and We Still Don’t Know the Whole Truth About 9/11

by

Twenty-five years after 9/11, Americans still have questions—and apparently asking them remains more dangerous to polite society than leaving them unanswered. We know intelligence agencies had information about future hijackers, critical information wasn’t effectively shared, early accounts of the military response proved inaccurate, Saudi-connected individuals assisted two hijackers, and Building 7 became the first known tall building to completely collapse primarily from uncontrolled ordinary-content fires. None of that proves an inside job. It proves something much simpler: “trust us” isn’t an acceptable substitute for history. Open the remaining files, follow the evidence wherever it leads, destroy the stupid conspiracy theories with facts—and answer the legitimate questions. After 25 years, Americans have earned something better than a press release.

Dad’s Permanent Trailer Plate Has Entered the Surveillance State

by

Dad thought “permanent trailer plate” meant permanent. Government apparently meant, “until you buy another trailer, peasant.” For generations, recycling an old trailer plate was the kind of technically-wrong rural economics nobody noticed unless a cop had an actual reason to look. Today, cameras, databases, and algorithms potentially can notice—and remember—things no human officer ever would have bothered with.

That raises a bigger question than Dad’s Great Trailer Plate Crime Spree: **When technology makes it possible for government to notice nearly everything, should it?**

90 Days without Juice: Welcome Back to 1850 America

by

Electricity was once a luxury. Today, it is the invisible life-support system of modern civilization. Take the grid away for three months and the problem isn’t simply darkness—it’s water, sewage, refrigeration, medicine, fuel, communications, and millions of people discovering that civilization has outsourced most of their basic survival skills. America’s Achilles’ heel may not be that an enemy can defeat our military, but that someone could disrupt the enormous electrical extension cord connecting nearly everything that keeps us alive.

Bad Gramer

by

I get a lot of comments about grammar. And after having studied the subject for years—mainly by reading thousands of critically acclaimed cereal boxes—I’ve decided to answer questions from readers who inquire about various errors in my work.

When Uncle Sam Ordered a Sewing Machine Company to Make a .45

by

Before America entered World War II, Uncle Sam looked at the Singer Sewing Machine Company and essentially asked, “Nice factory. Can you make a .45?” The result was just 500 Singer M1911A1 pistols—one of today’s great military-firearms collectibles. Singer wasn’t forced into gunmaking by the Defense Production Act; that law wouldn’t exist until 1950. Instead, the Army paid civilian companies to learn military production before the shooting started. It was industrial mobilization with refreshingly little mystery: you cannot surge a factory you don’t have.