[NOTE: Bumped up from yesterday.] There’s still plenty of time left to order from Amazon via the handy neo-neocon widgets on the right sidebar. I’m a big procrastinator, so I know. And there’s even time to sign up for 2 … Continue reading →
I’m reading—slowly, slowly—Steven Pinker’s long but fascinating The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Don’t laugh at the title because it seems absurd. Pinker presents a strong case to defend his thesis (although so far I’m only … Continue reading →
I’ve been slowly reading Paul Johnson’s The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830. Don’t let the dry dull title or its length put you off; it’s wide-ranging and has something of interest (and something I didn’t previously know) on … Continue reading →
You should have seen it around 1815: To send a letter from the United States to Britain, you addressed it by domestic U.S. Mail to a shipping house on the coast, enclosing money to cover ocean travel and inland postage … Continue reading →
It’s been 73 years to the day that the Munich Pact was signed (on September 30, although it was post-dated September 29), ceding the Sudetenland to Hitler and giving appeasement a bad name. No, I don’t have the date memorized; … Continue reading →
Ten years ago today. That’s a long time. So long ago that there are now teenagers who were so young back then that they don’t remember it. To them, 9/11 is just a piece of history, not part of their … Continue reading →
Well, the 9/11 Memorial was a long time coming, but it will be opening tomorrow on the 10th anniversary of that fateful day. Take a look, and perhaps you’ll agree with me that it’s a fitting tribute, classic and moving … Continue reading →
Ronald Brownstein thinks that the recent ten-year stretch—the one that’s been going on since 9/11—is the worst America’s been through since the Civil War and then the Great Depression. I disagree. I think that the decade beginning some time in … Continue reading →
Ever hear of Propaganda by the Deed? At the beginning of the 20th Century, anarchists were in the middle of what was known as the ”˜Propaganda by the Deed’ period. The idea was that by killing members of the ruling … Continue reading →
There are two topics almost guaranteed to draw a lot of heated commentary and trolls. No, I’m not speaking of tits and ass (hey, I just threw that in to see if some traffic would come). I’m speaking of (a) … Continue reading →
I’ve been reading a book by Vincent Bugliosi entitled Reclaiming History, which purports to definitively prove that Oswald killed JFK by himself and was not part of any conspiracy. Bugliosi amasses a mountain of evidence (almost literally; the book is … Continue reading →
…and says she was essentially correct, I guess we can finally believe it. The stupidhead.
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