The United States has begun withdrawing forces from the Pech Valley in Afghanistan, an area once considered to be critical in the campaign against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. But this is not a retreat, mind you. As Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell, U.S. commander for eastern Afghanistan, told...

When The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was originally published, people were not much disturbed by Mark Twain's use of n*gger, let alone injun, terms that have been replaced by slave and Indian in the latest bowdlerization of the Adventures, this one edited by an Auburn professor, Alan Gribbin, and released...

It's Christmas Eve, and the family has gathered for what turns out to be a distinctly non-traditional celebration. Instead of singing "Away in a Manger" or "Noel, Noel, born is the King of Israel," my daughter, knowing her father has a decent interest in indecent words, has downloaded on...

-- Is it dark meat or white meat you will be helped
to? - said the landlady, addressing the Master.
-- Dark meat for me, always -- he insisted.

This exchange is from The Poet at The Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.,...

Birds rank high in the lexicon of insult. For example, and this is just for openers, you can be dumb as a dodo, crazy as a coot, silly as a goose, a sitting duck, or simply a dupe (from de huppe, the hoopoe, an Old World bird, said to be...

"I've spent my whole life chasing the American dream." --John Boehner (R., Ohio), presumptive Speaker of the House, election night, Nov. 2.

What is the American Dream? A home entertainment center, a hot tub, a week-end cottage on the beach? Or as a Republican campaign slogan once put it,...