Americans sense that protection is the basic purpose of government-remember 9-11? Americans are also capitalists who seek private ownership and freedom. Culture wars have always been part of America. Remember the Civil War? Slogans and pamphlets helped cause our Revolutionary War. Words matter! Money is the plasma of politics, and each new freedom has cost us more in campaign costs. History is certainly humorous! Government's most important power is the power to tax-and boy, are politicians proficient at taxing! Since its early beginnings, public education in America has been decentralized...

In April of 1996 an array of mathematicians converged on Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the Rotafest and Umbral Calculus Workshop, two con ferences celebrating Gian-Carlo Rota's 64th birthday. It seemed appropriate when feting one of the world's great combinatorialists to have the anniversary be a power of 2 rather than the more mundane 65. The over seventy-five par ticipants included Rota's doctoral students, coauthors, and other colleagues from more than a dozen countries. As a further testament to the breadth and depth of his influence, the lectures ranged over a wide variety of topics from...