Here’s a succinct post that nearly says it all about Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and history!
Category Archives: History
Obituary For A “Rich Tyrant”
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Please read “Margaret Thatcher’s dead and I want to cry” by Katy Evans-Bush at “Baroque in Hackney.” It might be the most important blog post you’ll read this year.
MARGARET THATCHER. (Photo via Baroque in Hackney)
It’s a moving and honest essay on the death of a “rich tyrant.” It’s also a scathing indictment of a certain type of aristocratic leadership, and of the political and economic systems that empower and protect such leadership.
I believe Ms. Evans-Bush’s analysis is not limited to Margaret Thatcher. Didn’t Ronald Reagan represent the same harsh policies, but with a kinder, smiling face and a charming personality?
What If Debt Is Not The Problem?
(Photo credit: Images_of_Money)
“As we return once again to our regularly scheduled program of ‘Crisis And Impasse,’ let’s take a moment to consider the following heretical idea: We have no debt problem.”
That’s the take-your-breath-away lead to a commentary by Zachary Karabell on the business section front of today’s Washington Post. Karabell gives a concise overview of the American debt debate from the time of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson through William Jennings Bryan and the long-running confrontation over the gold standard, up to the present day. Continue reading
America Divided
U.S. 2012 ELECTION RESULTS, BLUE STATES FOR OBAMA, RED STATES FOR ROMNEY. FLORIDA, THE LAST STATE TO BE DECIDED, WENT BLUE. (Map via Wikipedia)
“This is the America that Obama will govern in his second term: A place divided not only by ideology, race and class but also by the very perception of reality. . . .
The president who spoke ambitiously at his first inauguration about uniting America instead arrives at his second with the country further divided.”
– Eli Saslow, The Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2013
I’ve been reading about the Civil War the past few weeks. Bad timing.
Divided by ideology, race and class.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
That sums up America in the decade leading up to the Civil War, as described in “Team Of Rivals,” Doris Kearns Goodwin’s history of Abraham Lincoln and the politicians, abolitionists, generals, and ordinary people of his era.
The similarities between the present time and the decade before the Civil War are striking and frightening.
Winter Without Frost
Windshield on a 1959 Edsel Corsair. (Photo via Wikipedia)
WINTER WITHOUT FROST – I’ve seen frost on the windshield only once so far this winter. When I was a kid, we had frost on the windshields nearly every winter morning. Folks had to scrape off the ice and let the engine warm up for five minutes before they could leave for work. (I can hear college students wondering, “Warm up the engine?”)
I live now in the warmest part of Maryland, a mid-Atlantic state with moderate temperatures. But truth is, we used to have ice skating around here. – John
Related articles
- Exceptional Photographs Of Frost (jshroot.wordpress.com)
- Frost (gonetraining.com)
Saint Dorothy Day
(Photo credit: ~jjjohn~)
“It’s a terrific idea: a home-town saint for the Occupy Wall Street era.” – The New Yorker
Liberals, progressives, radicals: Take heart!
DOROTHY DAY (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We knew it all along, but now Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan agrees. Dorothy Day is a candidate for sainthood!
NYC radical journalist Dorothy Day (1897-1980), co-founder of The Catholic Worker newspaper and a nationwide movement of “hospitality houses” serving the homeless, the hungry, and the poor, has been a candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church since 2000. Now she even has the support, appropriately enough, of the archbishop of New York.
Gen. David Petraeus & The Dragon Lady
Fox News is already comparing the Petraeus Affair to Watergate. White House paralysis is gleefully anticipated at Fox, just days after the election. What did the president know, and when did he know it?
To what can we compare the misadventures of Gen. David H. Petraeus, director of the CIA, no less, and Paula Broadwell, his esteemed biographer from Harvard (and herself a former Army officer)?
Vote Robin Hood
Hmmm . . . I was going to say, “No comment” . . . Seriously folks, Robin Hood’s not running this year . . . But, if the winner-take-all economy continues . . . and rich patriots continue to accumulate all the money . . . and stash their wealth in the Cayman Islands and Swiss bank accounts . . . Well, Robin Hood might begin to seem like a good idea.
ROBIN HOOD AND MAID MARIAN (poster, ca. 1880) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Robin Hood is the English folk hero who fascinates the creative imagination. His popularity never wanes. Let’s see, at least eight films, according to Wikipedia. Also, some television shows on BBC, at least one music album, and two computer games.
Robin Hood. Hold that thought. It’s something to stash away for some future election . . . if they still allow elections in the future.
– John Hayden
Related articles
- William Wallace: The Real Robin Hood? (history.com)
- Robin Hood attraction planned for Nottingham (telegraph.co.uk)
- Robin Hood film 2010 | Russell Crowe filmed at Freshwater West Pembrokeshire, Wales (visitwales.co.uk)
Hurricane Sandy: Worcester County, MD, Warns of “Historic Flooding”
No one here is taking Hurricane Sandy lightly. The town of Ocean City and Worcester County, which is Maryland’s only oceanfront county, have ordered limited partial evacuations. Good thing the summer tourist season is over, or there’d be a lot more people to evacuate. For specifics, see the Ocean City Blog, AKA Maryland On My Mind.
A prolonged siege of rain, high wind, and flooding is expected. It’s raining now (1:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon), with some very localized flooding already. But the worst is not expected until Monday afternoon and Monday night. Continue reading
Hurricane Sandy — Ready or Not, Here She Comes
Be advised that a hurricane named Sandy is swirling off the coast of Florida and heading north. Sandy will bypass Florida and probably the Carolinas as it follows a north-northeast curve.
Halfway up the coast, Sandy is expected to turn left and take aim straight into the densely populated East Coast of the U.S. Broadcasters and headline writers are trampling each other in their rush to label Sandy “the perfect storm.” Continue reading
Nations, City-States And Corporations In The New World Economy
Can Scotland separate from Great Britain?
The age of empires is long since over. The Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the British Empire are history.
Can it be possible that cohesive nations are on the brink of extinction, sort of slow-moving dinosaurs not well adapted to survive in the hyper-fast digital age and the internationalized economy?
NPR News reports today that Scotland will hold a referendum in two years, with the approval of Great Britain. Who knows what the voters will decide?
Large federations covering vast land masses are subject to powerful Centrifugal forces. Continue reading
Power In A Box: Cannon Power Shot SX160
CANNON POWER SHOT SX 160 — WHENEVER I’M BUYING NEW TECHNOLOGY, I ALWAYS WONDER: “DOES EVERYTHING I NEED COME IN THE BOX?” IN THIS CASE ‘YES,’ ALTHOUGH A PROTECTIVE CARRYING CASE WOULD BE A NICE ADDITION.
You want to know what an obsolete bachelor’s degree feels like? Long time ago, as part of my journalism major at University of Maryland, I took a class on news photography. Although 135 mm film and Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras were state of the art in the 1960s, the journalism class provided us with older Yashika Mat cameras.
Today, I unboxed the very latest Canon digital camera. It can make an amateur photographer like me feel like a pro! Photography has come a long, long, way since I took that class.
Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles — Maybe Next Year
Unbelievable!
Wouldn’t you know it, my Friday-afternoon post speculating on an I-95 World Series was the kiss of death for the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals. Before the night was over, BOTH teams were eliminated from the 2012 pennant chase, the O’s in the American League and the Nats in the National League.
A short post on my humble blog has the same power to jinx as a Sports Illustrated cover story? Who’d ‘a thunk it?
Baseball History Made In Washington (More Photos from Nationals Park)
Welcome to the latest chapter in the long history of baseball in the Nation’s Capital.
