From the works of Mark Twain to Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, there have always been people who didn’t get it—or worried about the damage that would ensue when other people didn’t get it. Today in America, despite the rising influence of “The Daily Show” and The Onion...

To fall into the clutches of the Soviet Union’s system of arrest, imprisonment and torture was infamously easy for Americans who entered the nation from the 1930s to the 1950s. To get out was well-nigh impossible—short of death—and little help was to be found from U.

Add “weak dollar” to the list of factors that drive up the cost of gasoline for Americans. War, political uncertainty, refinery shutdowns, speculation and rising demand are typically cited for causing our pain at the pump.