Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Archaic Forms.

- Good points on the Tesla Roadster.

- Superhuman hardware design is the easy part.

- Last Full Measure.

The Forgotten Man

"Hoover's wage idea sounded good to some. And they were indeed the opposite of federal policies in the last downturn. But they really did not make sense: to force businesses to go spending when it did not want to was to hurt business. And in some areas - wages, especially - the president's policy was dramatically counterproductive. As the crash continued, profits began to drop. Yet businesses could not adjust: if they wanted to be good citizens, they had to keep their pledge to Hoover and sustain employment and wages. The president was, essentially, requiring that companies take the hit in profits instead of employment.

...But there was also, of course, and effect on employers. Their wage costs forced down the value of the company shares, aggravating the downturn that Hoover had vowed to fight.... In the end, business had to choose between lowering wages and shutting down."

Many businesses simply shut down.

Chuck Yeager Broke the Sound Barrier on this Date in 1947

Sergeant York

On this day in 1918 - Sergeant Alvin York became a household name when he (along with others) killed 32 Germans and captured 132 others in the Argonne Forest in France. York was awarded the Medal of Honor for his deeds. Sergeant York's fame was spread by the 1941 movie Sergeant York, with Gary Cooper starring in the title role.

Some people may ask why we don't have heroes like this in today's military. The answer is that we do still have such men but the media today just doesn't celebrate them like they used to.

Columbus Day - A Modest Proposal

Said it before but Columbus Day continuing to be a federal holiday also continues to be a divisive issue. On one side you have people who say Columbus was a genocidal imperialist monster and on the other proud Italian-Americans and traditionalists. I have a modest proposal with a solution which I think would be acceptable to most Americans.

On October 19th in 1781 the British forces under Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown to end the Revolutionary War. America as a free nation really starts with this date. Why not celebrate the date as the new national holiday in replacement of Columbus Day? Yorktown Day could be celebrated on the third Monday in October. The unions would be satisfied since they wouldn't be losing a paid holiday. Italian-Americans couldn't complain since this in no way would be disrespecting Columbus and historically Yorktown is the more important date to America (beside Columbus really "discovered" the Caribbean not North America). French-Americans would be big supporters of the switch because the French fleet played a huge role in the victory. The only people who might complain are the people who are against glorifying anything that's even remotely militarily related but screw those people.

Have Yorktown Day replace Columbus Day. So let it be written so let it be done.

Be Like Silent Cal

Via

Did the Fed's Gold Policies cause the Great Depression?

"The result was that gold. seeking a haven. flowed into the United States - $175 million in 1929 and $280 million the next year. If the Federal Reserve had followed the old gold standard rules, this would have increased money available to banks and citizens. But George Harrison at the New York Fed and others believed in the inflation theory, and thought that more cash would exacerbate inflation. The Fed therefore veered from the old gold standard tradition. It sterilized the effect of all that new money by selling bonds - in effect, soaking up money from the economy to offset the money expansion."

So the Fed did not follow it's own traditions because some unelected experts thought they knew better. How did that work out?

The Forgotten Man

"But Roosevelt systemized interest group politics more generally to include many constituents - labor, senior citizens, farmers, union workers... It is no coincidence that the first peacetime year in American history in which federal spending out paced the total spending of the states and towns was that election year of 1936. It can even be argued that one year -1936 - created the modern entitlement challenge that so bedevils both parties.

Roosevelt's move was so profound that it changed the English language. Before the 1930's, the word "liberal" stood for the individual; afterward, the phrase increasingly stood for groups. Roosevelt also changed economics forever. Roosevelt happened on an economic theory that validated his politics and his moral sense: what we now call Keynesianism. Keynesianism, named after John Maynard Keynes, emphasized consumers, who were also voters. The theory gave license for perpetual experimentation - at least as Roosevelt and his administration applied it."

Thus free government stuff was born

On This Day in 1908

The Forgotten Man

"After 1932, New Zealand, Japan, Greece, Romania, Chile, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden began seeing industrial production levels rise again - but not the United States...

The big question about the American depression is not whether war with Germany  and Japan ended it. It is why the Depression lasted until that war. From 1929 to 1940, from Hoover to Roosevelt, government helped to make the Depression Great...

There remains a question. If so much of the New Deal hurt the economy, why did Roosevelt win reelection three times? Why, especially, the landslide of 1936? In the case of the third and fourth Roosevelt terms the answer is clear: the threat of war, and war itself."

Turns out the only thing we had to fear was war.

More Linky Links

More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I' share.

- Nice profile of Calvin Coolidge and the budget.

- Kevin Kelly: Predicting the Present.

- SpaceX Meets FedEx.

- Define "weapons," as in "weapons in space"... if you don't mind. Kinetic actions in space. An twice in one post the Boring Company in space gets mentioned.

Some Memes You May Enjoy

Many a truth is said in jest.

- This is actually true!

- Canada in a nutshell.

- Socialism in a nutshell.

- Funny because it's true!

Treaty of Paris

 
The Treaty of Paris signed on this day in 1783 that officially ended the American Revolutionary War and recognized the United States as an independent nation. This is like when the divorce from England became official.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Glenn Reynolds: Goodbye Dolly. There's the famous buoy marking the furthest point south in the US and the statue of Dolly may come to represent the furthest point on Earth closest to Heaven.

- Jonathan Turley: Clyburn calls for packing the court with "bakers dozen" to flip cases.

- Icelandic voters reject proposal to restart talks to join EU. Although think it should be pointed out there's roughly 48 US cities with greater populations than Iceland - just saying.

- How the strategic petroleum reserve works. With the news out of Venezuela thought this was a good refresher. 

The Election of 1824

"When the 261 electoral votes were counted, none of the candidates received a majority. [John Quincy] Adams carried New York and New England with 84, [Andrew] Jackson stood first with 99, [William] Crawford had 41, and [Henry] Clay had 37. That meant for the second time in twenty-five years, the election would be thrown into the House of Representatives...

John Quincy Adams was elected, thirteen states to eleven. Adams had picked up all six states that had not been initially committed and became the first minority president in the nation's history.

...When Adams did appoint Clay to the state department, Jackson's supporters were predictably furious. John Randolph called it a corrupt bargain: 'the combination of the puritan with the blackleg.' Clay challenged Randolph to a duel. Both fired at each other, and fortunately both missed. Such was the presidential transition of 1825." - John Marshall: Definer of a Nation

 And we think politics is divisive today!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Judge's order prohibits SEC from blocking athlete's return.

- Guns and ammo pricing - 1986 vs 2026.

- The cost of decoupling with China.

- Shamed to admit I did not know the story of the 400. I fully agree - this should be a major movie.

More Linky Links

More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- VDH: Hating Israel Fatigue. 

- The Whiskey Rebellion. Some somewhat forgotten US history.

- Will New Coyote v Acme film blow up? I wasn't aware of this film.

- I'm Opting Out of Modern Life. I already do many of the things on the list but honestly going to pass on some of the others.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The artful diplomat - John Quincy Adams.

- From the archives: Farnam Street on Habits vs Goals.

- Sources: Josh Kushner, Bob Iger to buy Lakers for $12.5 billion.

- How to survive the next stock market crash.

More Linky Links

 More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- How protectionism turns friends into rivals. For the record I support reciprocal tariffs. If a country has a zero tariff on our goods we should have reciprocal zero tariffs on theirs. Canada does not have reciprocal tariffs with us even though we are their largest trading partner.

- The complete insanity of the Democratic Socialist agenda.

- Quiet skies aren't free.

- Some mostly forgotten history - George Thomas the Rock of Chickamauga.

John Marshall: Definer of a Nation

"The Supreme Court had already convened for its February term; Marshall had presented his commission as chief justice and had taken his oath of office. He was forty-five years old. For the next thirty-five years he would preside as the Chief Justice of the United States. 'He hit the Constitution much as the Lord hit the chaos at a time when everything needed creating,' wrote one observer. President James A. Garfield said, 'Marshall found the Constitution paper and made it power. He found a skeleton and clothed it with flesh and blood.' The prickly John Randolph of Roanoke noted that Marshall's 'real worth was never known until he was appointed Chief Justice.'

To Marshall, more than any other person, belongs the credit for establishing the foundation of the constitutional interpretation." - Jean Edward Smith