April 08, 2010
A couple weeks ago I noticed a map that flies in the face of the narrative of the Democratic Party put forward by both the chattering class and a fair number of academics. I knew Jimmy Carter was strong in...
February 13, 2010
I just noticed something. It's often discussed that elections for Congress have gotten less competitive over the years. But it's rarely discussed just how competitive they actually were in days of yore. Since the US House went to 435 seats...
January 17, 2010
When Chris Dodd leaves office less than a year from now, there will be no more members in office who served on the US House Select Committee on Assassinations....
September 16, 2009
Given the Treaty of Tripolii, President Adams and the entire Senate of 1797 apparently believed it wasn't....
August 31, 2009
Erik Loomis is writing short pieces on the men he believes deserve to be so remembered, including Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, George Norris, and Robert Wagner.UPDATE: He's added Robert LaFollette....
July 15, 2009
I'm away at a full-on Geek-Fest Summer Camp for a few weeks. It's an academic retreat that teaches security studies, with a specific focus on military strategy and operations. We spent a couple hours today arguing about Lee at Gettysburg,...
May 18, 2009
This book is not about the modern financial crash, but is instead about the global depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s (though the author has a short final chapter that tries to tie the present financial crisis to...
April 21, 2009
Erik Loomis on Texas history and slavery. It's not a happy tale....
December 30, 2008
November 03, 2008
I'm no expert on Berlin's economy, but you'd have to think this isn't a positive for it. It opened as the first passenger airport in 1923 and became the largest and most modern airport in the world after the current...
October 24, 2008
That's what my dad always called the show when I was a kid, although I'd be hard pressed to tell you whether it was really "andy and mayberry" "andy in mayberry" or something else he was actually saying. See more...
September 03, 2008
748 years ago today, the Mamluks defeated the Mongols. One can play all out many interesting "what if" scenarios about other possible alternative histories that might have occurred if the Mongols hadn't been stopped....
April 21, 2008
Apparenly someone doesn't know anything about international sporting events in 1936....
April 09, 2008
Scott L. makes the case for Wilson. I'd say he's definitely in the running. Though given the fawning over John Adams lately I think he deserves a look in this category as well....
April 02, 2008
February 08, 2008
This will be somewhat obscure, 'cause I don't want this to be public (this will make sense; just read on).I've been invited to have dinner with a gentleman being inducted to this august University's Alumni Hall of Fame (or whatever...
February 06, 2008
Wikipedia notes that on this day in 1819: British official Stamford Raffles signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor, establishing Singapore as a new trading post for the British East India Company. Stamford Raffles - Stamford Bingley Raffles,...
October 04, 2007
If you like cars, F1 racing or Ferraris, you can't help but like this ad. As I said, the old ones sound much better than the new ones......
September 11, 2007
This one wins by a mile - funny, disturbing, unsettling.By the way, am I the only person today who can't get "where were you when they built the ladder to heaven ..." out of his head head? South Park can...
September 06, 2007
How about that Winston Churchill, eh? George W. Bush wouldn't have approved of him, and would have doubted his fitness for office, but he nonetheless seems to have accomplished a thing or two - even as a war prime minister....
August 22, 2007
Where does one start? Vietnam (and here, and yes the White House used to spend untold hours or maybe even weeks arguing that this war was nothing like Vietnam)? Cambodia? Korea? The president's comments today might mirror certain loathsome political...
July 04, 2007
These Rasmussen favorability ratings of all the US presidents are kind of interesting. First off, it's interesting the number of people who won't ever give an uninformed rating of some of the 19th century presidents. The "not sure" ratings of...
June 19, 2007
We have a different "enemy," but just about everything else is the same. Via DefenseTech, we find that the US and China are installing a "hot line" to facilitate communications during crises. Just like the Cold War (where we had...
May 14, 2007
At least you can if you are the Pope (emphasis mine): Pope Benedict XVI blamed Marxism and unbridled capitalism for Latin America's problems on Sunday, and urged bishops to mold a new generation of Roman Catholic leaders in politics to...
March 19, 2007
I tend to not care for the process by which we elect the president - to put it mildly. The electoral college is a trainwreck waiting to happen (again), and why peopole didn't push for reform of it after 2000...
March 12, 2007
The things you learn about where you've lived. I don't think I'd ever heard of this before today. For 39 hours in March 1977 -- before the word "terrorism" entered our daily vocabulary -- 12 gunmen paralyzed the District in...