Opinion

On Gen. George Washington’s orders, the Declaration of Independence, signed in Philadelphia, was read aloud to his army. On hearing it, the troops marched to Bowling Green, decapitated and pulled down the statue of George III, and sent the remnants to be melted down into musket balls.

Dear Annie: My neighbor “Charlie” is a chatterbox. He only works part-time and is home for the day by 11 a.m. For most of the afternoon, he hangs out in his front yard, talking to passersby. Anytime I run into him, it turns into a 20-minute-plus rambling conversation about all sorts of topics and people I don’t know. I avoid taking out the trash some nights because I don’t want to get stuck outside talking to him. Sometimes, I peek outside, see he’s not there and think the coast is clear — but then he rushes outside once I do. His family has a motion-activated “smart” security camera on the front of their house that I set off going down my driveway.

ll lives actually do mat-A sports announcer Ater. last week lost his job for using the phrase “all lives matter” instead of “black lives matter.” Our cultural superiors insist on certain phraseology these days, or else. It is just another effort in the culture war to make you care and think in particular ways.

ASHINGTON — One Wof the most alarming aspects of the present fevers is the utterance of total untruths by notables in high places. Do they not know what the truth is? Or do they not care about the truth? Do they believe their notoriety will overcome a totally erroneous statement? For instance, consider Gen. James Mattis’ statement in The Atlantic, which is highly misleading. History is clear. Past presidents have used the military repeatedly in states with or without a governor’s invitation. To deny it is an example of what President Donald Trump has called “fake news.”

Dear Annie: Would you happen to know a dating site that isn’t crazy expensive and that would allow me to find someone who’s not fake? I’m looking to meet someone real, preferably someone who loves animals like I do. I’d appreciate any help you can offer. — Just Me in Germany

As more of our political elite joins the mobs in the streets to conflate the death of George Floyd with a general indictment of America as a racist and evil nation, black Americans, more than anyone, will suffer.

Two things — a war and a virus — almost stopped Americans from playing football in 1918. Both failed.The Brooklyn Daily Standard Union ran a piece at the top of its sports page on Sept. 13, 1918 that summed up the war situation.“With Gen. Pershing,” it said, “leading our brave American boys in a triumphant march to Berlin … while a second army of over 13,000,000 red-blooded Americans was being formed at home yesterday to back up the boys who have started what will be the final end of the Kaiser and Kaiserism for all time, who cares anything about football?”Influenza outbreaks, meanwhile, had first been noted in March of that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In the fall, they came back with a vengeance.

Dear Annie: I am a college student who has been dating a girl for about two months. She’s from out of town but lives in the same city as me.

The crisis of the coronavirus-induced economic lockdown and now the violent protests in the streets have unleashed a depression-level financial crisis and unprecedented human suffering — especially in our inner cities. These events have also exposed a Grand Canyon-sized chasm that now separates how the left and the right see America today. To wit:

Newly painted in huge yellow letters on 16th Street, just north of the White House, is the slogan: “Defund the Police.”