Don't let people bog you down with their drama and negativity. See, that's precisely what they crave: For them to be the ones responsible for turning your good mood into a sour one. It empowers them to continue trying to push our buttons until we become disappointed, effectively ruining our day (or so they hope). And toxic people aren't always overtly toxic from the get-go. They may endear themselves to us in the beginning, forming the impression that they're one of the nicest people we have ever met. But once the opportunity strikes, they flip a switch and allow their true, manipulative colors to come out. As I've noted in prior posts, when people are unhappy with their lives, they attempt to make themselves feel better by trying to make miserable the lives of ostensibly happy individuals. Whether they're in the process of getting divorced, having problems with their boss, or in serious financial straits, they take everything out on the people a...

On this day in 1917, in a pivotal move toward U.S. entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson is apprised of the so-called Zimmermann Telegram, a message from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador to Mexico proposing a Mexican-German alliance in case of a war between the U.S. and Germany. British authorities handed Walter Hines Page, the U.S. ambassador to Britain, a copy of the Zimmermann Telegram, a coded message from Zimmermann to Count Johann von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to Mexico. In the telegram, intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence in late January, Zimmermann instructed his ambassador, in the event of a German war with the United States, to offer significant financial aid to Mexico if it agreed to enter the conflict on the Germans' side. Germany also pledged to restore to Mexico the lost territories of Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. The State Department quickly sent a copy of the Zimmermann Telegram to Preside...

ISIS has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Paris yesterday that left at least 128 people dead and roughly 200 wounded. As President Obama stated last night, the United States stands firmly with France just as the European country supported the U.S. after 9/11. The scale of the horror is just unfathomable. Several terrorists, eight of which are confirmed dead, unleashed a series of coordinated attacks in six sites throughout the city that included the Bataclan Concert Hall and the Stade de France. Per reports, the militants wore explosive belts and carried machine guns. It's hard to believe that people in the world could carry out such evil, despicable acts in the name of their religion. How can one claim that their God "tells" them to unleash so much carnage and bloodshed on humanity? ISIS doesn't know what's coming to them. France's retribution will be merciless, I'm sure, and the U.S.-led coalition waging war against ISIS (which inc...