In absolute terms there has been no period like the past three years in Washington County history. It's a frenzy. That's all anyone talks about is housing prices and how much money they have made.

The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now. No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle.

Why should we look to the past in order to prepare for the future? Because there is nowhere else to look.

When I was a boy, we all learned the story of George Washington and the cherry tree and accepted it as gospel truth. The present, more enlightened younger generation, however, is well aware that this incident never happened, but that it was the invention of Washington's most famous biographer, the Rev. Mason Locke Weems.

He is the purest figure in history. [About George Washington]

From my experience in Washington, the quieter things are, that means progress is being made, or they are close to a resolution.