Take Up Your Pen

Executive orders and proclamations afford presidents an independent means of controlling a wide range of activities in the federal government—yet they are not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. In fact, the controversial edicts known as universal presidential directives seem to violate the separation of powers by enabling the commander-in-chief to bypass Congress and enact his own policy preferences. As Clinton White House counsel Paul Begala remarked on the numerous executive orders signed by the president during his second term: "Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool." Although public awareness of unilateral presidential directives has been growing over the last decade—sparked in part by Barack Obama's use of executive orders and presidential memoranda to reverse many of his predecessor's policies as well as by the number of unilateral directives George W. Bush promulgated for the "War on Terror"—Graham G. Dodds reminds us that not only has every single president issued executive orders, such orders have figured in many of the most significant episodes in American political history. In Take Up Your Pen, Dodds offers one of the first historical treatments of this executive prerogative and explores the source of this authority; how executive orders were legitimized, accepted, and routinized; and what impact presidential directives have had on our understanding of the presidency, American politics, and political development. By tracing the rise of a more activist central government—first advanced in the Progressive Era by Theodore Roosevelt—Dodds illustrates the growing use of these directives throughout a succession of presidencies. More important, Take Up Your Pen questions how unilateral presidential directives fit the conception of democracy and the needs of American citizens.

At first a seemingly simple workbook to encourage children (or anyone!) to practice handwriting,Pick Up Your Pen is actually an invitation to envision handwriting as an art form. As less and less time is spent on handwriting in school, this book is a creative and appealing way to get kids practicing this skill without it feeling like homework. The book features contemporary italic script, rather than traditional cursive, and takes a modern approach to handwriting that will appeal to children who are used to seeing type on a screen. In fact, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, credits his lessons in italic script for the clean fonts showcased by Apple products. Author Monica Dengo encourages readers to see the rhythm and musicality of a line and to become artists with every stroke of the pen. And the high production values will make them feel like they are "writing" their own book. Each page also offers a lesson in letter forms and proportions and leaves ample room for children to doodle and experiment. It's a book that enables kids to explore a new (or maybe retro) form of self-expression.

This resource covers all the materials and techniques of drawing with ink.very type of pen, brush, ink, drawing surface and technique is described.

A lawyer for the Big Bad Wolf earnestly pleads his clients innocence in court. Mother Earth and Father Sky give birth to a rebellious child whose fiery temper threatens to destroy the world. A teenage boy discovers the complexities of fame after his bands first album skyrockets to the top of the charts. Tornado warnings turn a young girls routine babysitting job into a fight for survival. These are just a few of the imaginative, daring, and thought-provoking stories found in these pages. Also included are dozens of poems and personal essays exploring everything from travel to friendship, love to loss, fear to hope. What makes this book truly unique is it was written entirely by kids and teenagers. Dancing with the Pen features the work of more than sixty young writers in elementary school, middle school and high school. These authors come from all across the United States, from California to New York, from Kentucky to Michigan, as well as from abroad: Singapore, Canada, New Zealand. However, the themes and situations they explore transcend hometowns, backgrounds and cultures they are familiar to us all. Dancing with the Pen is a book for young writers and young readers and the young at heart. Even if you are not normally a voracious reader, this book is still for you. Every piece within these covers is written by someone who understands what it is like to be a young person today. Maybe you will recognize yourself in these pages. Perhaps you will even be inspired to pick up a pen, step out on the dance floor, and go for a whirl yourself.

Reflecting on Montaigne, Virginia Woolf remarked, "The most common actions-a walk, a talk, solitude in one's own orchard-can be enhanced and lit up by the association of the mind." In Quotidiana, Patrick Madden illuminates these common actions and seemingly commonplace moments, making connections that revise and reconfigure the overlooked and underappreciated.

An artist celebrates the many things he can do with a simple pen, and encourages the reader to do the same.

A full understanding of the institution of the American presidency requires us to examine how it developed from the founding to the present. This developmental lens, analyzing how historical turns have shaped the modern institution, allows for a richer, more nuanced understanding. The Development of the American Presidency pays great attention to that historical weight but is organized by the topics and concepts relevant to political science, with the constitutional origins and political development of the presidency its central focus. Through comprehensive and in-depth coverage, Richard Ellis looks at how the presidency has evolved in relation to the public, to Congress, to the executive branch, and to the law, showing at every step how different aspects of the presidency have followed distinct trajectories of change. Each chapter promotes active learning, beginning with a narrative account of some illustrative puzzle that brings to life a central concept. A wealth of photos, figures, and tables allow for the visual presentations of concepts. New to the Third Edition Analysis of the 2016 election, including the role of the Electoral College and implications of Trump’s nomination for the "party decides" thesis; Exploration of Trump’s Twitter presidency and the effectiveness of using social media to bypass the Washington press corps; In-depth coverage of the development of twentieth-century president–press relations, including a new section on broadcasting the presidency that explores the development of the presidential press conference and presidents’ use of radio and television; Study of national security policy in the Obama administration, with a special focus on the targeted killing of American citizens and Obama’s legacy for presidential war powers; Examination of the original understanding and contemporary relevance of impeachment as well as updated discussion of the president’s pardon power; Discussion of recent developments in the legislative and legal realms, including Trump’s first hundred days, the Garland–Gorsuch episode, and abolition of the filibuster for Supreme Court appointments; Preliminary assessment of Trump’s place in historical time.

A full understanding of the institution of the American presidency requires us to examine how it developed from the founding to the present. This developmental lens, analyzing how historical turns have shaped the modern institution, allows for a richer, more nuanced understanding. The Development of the American Presidency pays great attention to that historical weight but is organized by the topics and concepts relevant to political science, with the constitutional origins and political development of the presidency its central focus. Through comprehensive and in-depth coverage, Richard J. Ellis looks at how the presidency has evolved in relation to the public, to Congress, to the executive branch, and to the law, showing at every step how different aspects of the presidency have followed distinct trajectories of change. Each chapter promotes active learning, beginning with a narrative account of some illustrative puzzle that brings to life a central concept. A wealth of photos, figures, and tables allow for the visual presentations of concepts. New to the Fourth Edition Explicit and expanded attention to the role of norms in shaping and constraining presidential power, with special focus on Trump’s norm-breaking and Biden’s efforts to shore up norms; Enhanced focus on the prospects for institutional reform, including in the electoral college, presidential relations with Congress, war powers, and the selection of Supreme Court justices; A full reckoning with the Trump presidency and its significance for the future of American democracy, presidential rhetoric, the unilateral executive, and the administrative state; Coverage of the first year of Biden’s presidency, including presidential rhetoric, relations with Congress and the bureaucracy, use of the war powers, and unilateral directives; Comprehensive updating of debates about the removal power, including the Supreme Court cases of Seila Law v. CFPB and Collins v. Yellen; In-depth exploration of the impact of partisan polarization on the legislative presidency and effective governance; Analysis of the 2020 election and its aftermath; Expanded discussion of impeachment to incorporate Trump’s two impeachments; Examination of presidential emergency powers, with special attention to Trump’s border wall declaration; Review of Biden’s and Trump’s impact on the judiciary; Assessment of Biden’s and Trump’s place in political time.

From New York Times bestseller Mimi Jean Pamfiloff comes MY PEN IS HUGE, a Standalone Romantic Comedy. Dear Mr. Merrick, I quit. And since you’re obsessed with your stupid pen collection, I thought it appropriate to take the big one you love so much and write my resignation letter. Kiss your pen goodbye, big man! Because when I agreed to work for you—a hotshot journalist I’ve admired for years—no one told me that you had a secret life and that you’d bug my apartment, have someone killed, and make the moves on me just to test whether I’m serious about this job. I mean, come on! What kind of boss does that? Yes, you’re ten degrees hotter than the sun, and you melt panties everywhere you go, but this “little intern” is done with your games. From this day forward, consider me your mortal enemy, your biggest threat. Maybe your pen is huge, but my determination is bigger. See you on the battlefield, Mr. Big Pen. Your ex-admirer, Gisselle Walters

A work of extraordinary range and striking originality, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen traces the global history of written constitutions from the 1750s to the twentieth century, modifying accepted narratives and uncovering the close connections between the making of constitutions and the making of war. In the process, Linda Colley both reappraises famous constitutions and recovers those that have been marginalized but were central to the rise of a modern world. She brings to the fore neglected sites, such as Corsica, with its pioneering constitution of 1755, and tiny Pitcairn Island in the Pacific, the first place on the globe permanently to enfranchise women. She highlights the role of unexpected players, such as Catherine the Great of Russia, who was experimenting with constitutional techniques with her enlightened Nakaz decades before the Founding Fathers framed the American constitution. Written constitutions are usually examined in relation to individual states, but Colley focuses on how they crossed boundaries, spreading into six continents by 1918 and aiding the rise of empires as well as nations. She also illumines their place not simply in law and politics but also in wider cultural histories, and their intimate connections with print, literary creativity, and the rise of the novel. Colley shows how—while advancing epic revolutions and enfranchising white males—constitutions frequently served over the long nineteenth century to marginalize indigenous people, exclude women and people of color, and expropriate land. Simultaneously, though, she investigates how these devices were adapted by peoples and activists outside the West seeking to resist European and American power. She describes how Tunisia generated the first modern Islamic constitution in 1861, quickly suppressed, but an influence still on the Arab Spring; how Africanus Horton of Sierra Leone—inspired by the American Civil War—devised plans for self-governing nations in West Africa; and how Japan’s Meiji constitution of 1889 came to compete with Western constitutionalism as a model for Indian, Chinese, and Ottoman nationalists and reformers. Vividly written and handsomely illustrated, The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen is an absorbing work that—with its pageant of formative wars, powerful leaders, visionary lawmakers and committed rebels—retells the story of constitutional government and the evolution of ideas of what it means to be modern.