History
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Quick roundup
- It’s depressing that two senators don’t realize how off they are. If you want to characterize the Republican majority in the House of Representatives negatively, then the proper term is fascism (taken literally, strength in numbers, and a dictatorship thereof) rather than a plantation, the relevant characteristic being oppression of the many by the few. All to work in a racial angle I suppose.
- Tom MacGuire has more interesting thoughts on the NSA wiretapping thing. Still, why not change the law though?
- An interesting post from the Belmont Club “A stone killer is never idle in a lawless Third World country”
- America’s possible action on Iran:. Evidently some lessons were learned from the lack of immediate American response to Afghanistan after 9-11.
- The Great War of 2007 – very scary possible history.
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This is interesting
Sacco and Vanzettis look even guiltier! And Sinclair Lewis knew!
Actually that isn’t that interesting, but notable none the less.
Actually I thought it was assumed by everyone that Sacco was guilty, and Vanzetti probably wasn’t. Now it would seem they both were guilty, according to their lawyer.
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Quick round up
- It’s now six nights of rioting in Paris.
- Secret CIA detention camps around the world. I’m reminded of Wretchard’s line one time that when Truman ordered Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombed, he had “the sand” to do it under his own name.
- I finally got the proper wireless adapter for my Tivo, which I got to work without incident. Sadly it uses Wep, but with 3-4 totally unprotected networks around me I would imagine I’m not worth pursuing.
- It’s amazing how much lists and visual sign of progress can affect one’s mood.
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Interesting post from Wretchard
In this post about violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt, for some reason I was reminded of the old Conan the Barbarian comics (from the 70s, when it was good).
For some reason the notion of diverse groups of civilizations and barbarians has always had great allure to me. I’m not sure why.
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Ideas to elaborate on later
Here are ideas and historical (no emotional connection to me) events that have fundamentally affected my outlook.
In no particular order
- Pareto Optimality
- Coase Theorem
- Hayek and Sowell on the limits and costs of knowledge
- Gresham’s law
- Napoleon’s invasion of Russia
- Dominant Strategies
- Schelling Points (as elaborated on by David Friedman)
- The seatbelts kill theory of Steven Landsburg (though the theory might actually originate with George Stigler)
- The diaries of Eric Hoffer (and his books, they’re fairly similar) as they deal with mass movements
- Network effects
- Robert Nozick’s notion of morality as a time saving device (morality is used very broadly) as explained in the Examined Life
- The defensive boxing style of Pernell Whitaker
I’ll have more detail on what they are and how they are all used later.
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Notable
This post from RJ Rummel, while not terribly timely is worth reading, it points out the little known fact that Hitler, while he was elected chancellor, was not elected dictator for life as many seem to think.
Also, he has an interesting historical bit at the very end, to wit:
Note that during his Beer Hall putsch of 1923 in Munich, Hitler launched an unrealistic attempt to rally the public and take over the government. As Hitler and his supporters “marched on Berlin” they were met by police lines blocking their path. Someone fired a shot, and the police then fired into the crowd of marchers, where Hitler and his bodyguard were in front. His bodyguard was hit, and wrenched Hitler to the ground, dislocating his shoulder. Goring was shot in the leg, and 14 marchers and 4 policemen were killed.
Think about how the world would have been changed if one of those many bullets had killed Hitler. And think of this, when commentators treat the present as though the inevitable outcome of irresistible forces. Because one man survives a hail of bullets, everything – everything — human in the world is changed.