The first Summer Nights event of 2012 in Rapid City kicked off tonight. The Summer Nights event encompass the new Main Street Square as well as part of Main Street and Seventh Street. Tonight’s festivities included a fire breather, a live band, inflatable amusements and mini-train rides for the kids, as well as lots of other activities. There were plenty of food and snack vendors on hand, as well.

It may be too early to tell, but the Republican Party appears to be shedding its draw-no-blood, lose-gracefully approach to campaigns that has kept conservative voters either frustrated or stubbornly at home on election days. The freedom-loving American can only hope that the GOP’s backbone wasn’t found too late.

I was driving home from work one afternoon when a bumper sticker on a minivan caught my attention. It said “A drunk driver killed my daughter. I am MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving).” Then I realized that, somewhat like that mother, I had my own reason to be mad. This was because I had also seen the life of someone close to me get snuffed out prematurely and unnecessarily by reckless and irresponsible behavior — behavior which, like habitual drunkenness, was deep-seated and not easily ceased.

With the multiple fronts of assault on our nation by the current astoundingly corrupt administration in Washington, it is easy to be overwhelmed at the number of our battles. Focusing on a single area of attack at the exclusion of other important areas can be a challenge. One of the big areas of assault is on the social front, in the radical homosexual campaign, which is an area that has seen a manifold increase in aggression and expansion since Barack Obama (or whatever his name is) was installed in our presidency. This does not bode well for the future of our society.

Spain laid claim to the Island of Jamaica since Columbus was shipwrecked there in 1503. In 1655, Jamaica was captured by British Admiral William Penn, father of Pennsylvania’s founder, but it was too far from England to defend, so the inhabitants turned to privateers, pirates and buccaneers for protection. Because of the drinking, gaming houses, slave trading, brothels, taverns and grog shops, frequented by “pirates, cutthroats, whores and some of the vilest persons in the whole of the world,” Port Royal was called “the richest and wickedest city in the world” or “the Sodom of the New World.”