The rich tend to get richer not just because of higher returns to capital, as the French economist Thomas Piketty has argued, but because they have superior access to the political system and can use their connections to promote their interests.--Francis Fukuyama
Enunciated by President James Monroe in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine sent a clear message to any European powers with colonial ambitions in South America that the United States would not stand idly by and allow the oppression, control, or colonization of any country in its hemisphere. On the contrary, such an act would, by definition, be considered hostile to the United States. Theodore Roosevelt agreed with the concept and added his "corollary" which he defined to Congress on December 6, 1904: 'Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society ... may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.'
The St. Lucia's Day flood in 1287: The North Sea had been steadily rising. On St. Lucia's Day a storm caused a particularly rough and high tide. A dike broke. By some estimates, eighty thousand people died. What had been an inland lake, formed by low altitude and human fortifications, became part of the North Sea. From then on, the area was called the Zuiderzee, the "southern sea."
Enunciated by President James Monroe in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine sent a clear message to any European powers with colonial ambitions in South America that the United States would not stand idly by and allow the oppression, control, or colonization of any country in its hemisphere. On the contrary, such an act would, by definition, be considered hostile to the United States. Theodore Roosevelt agreed with the concept and added his "corollary" which he defined to Congress on December 6, 1904: 'Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society ... may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.'
The St. Lucia's Day flood in 1287: The North Sea had been steadily rising. On St. Lucia's Day a storm caused a particularly rough and high tide. A dike broke. By some estimates, eighty thousand people died. What had been an inland lake, formed by low altitude and human fortifications, became part of the North Sea. From then on, the area was called the Zuiderzee, the "southern sea."
In 1830 Victor Hugo's Hernani premiered in Paris. Though the play is rarely read or staged now, the opening night is regarded as one of the most momentous in French theater history as it was part of a larger and mostly theatrical conflict between the new-wave bohemians in Hugo's "Romantic Army" and the old-guard Classicists. Hugo had recently published what amounted to a Manifesto of Romanticism, calling for an end to the old rules and proprieties; the artists and bohemians saw the premiere of Hernani as an opportunity to rally behind this call, to provoke the bourgeoisie.
Horses, like camels, evolved in North America, but then became extinct there after spreading to Asia, across the Beringia land bridge. The Przewalski’s horse is the only truly wild horse species still in existence. The only wild population is in Mongolia. There are however numerous populations across the world of feral horses e.g. mustangs in North America. The fastest recorded sprinting speed of a horse was 88 kph (55 mph).
NASA's unmanned Dawn spacecraft will soon be visiting a "planet" rarely heard of: Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. When it arrives March 6, Dawn will become the first spacecraft to visit one of the five dwarf planets, whose ranks include the former planet Pluto. Ceres was likely becoming a full-sized planet before Jupiter stunted its growth 4.6 billion years ago. It is now the largest object between Mars and Jupiter, and the largest object between the Sun and Pluto that has not yet received a visit from Earth.
Golden oldie:
A question posed by the economist Mark Perry on the minimum hourly wage by $2.85 (from $7.25 to $10.10): Do you believe that imposing a tax on employers for every low-skilled worker that they hire would not reduce the number of low-skilled workers hired? Do you believe that requiring employers to pay a tax of $2.85 per hour for every low-skilled worker on their payrolls would not prompt employers over time to employ fewer such workers? Do you suppose that firms are so inattentive to their bottom lines or so unable to figure out how to operate profitably with fewer worker that such a tax - which would be about $5,700 annually for each and every low-skilled worker employed full-time - would not reduce low-skilled workers’ employment options?
(It is my contention that support for the minimum wage comes not from the belief in its economic virtue but rather from virtue itself.)
A wine expert was asked his opinion on drinking the sweet Moscato with entrees at dinner. He said he thought you should pick what you liked. Then he said this: "I would struggle to drink a sweet wine such as Moscato with a delicate fish dish in lemon butter, or with a richly flavored beef stew. Perhaps my personal tastes are more "conventional" in that they conform to fairly standard notions of combining tastes. History tells us, however, that such preferences change over time. At one point, and in certain cultures, it was more common to drink sweet wines with a meal than it is today, when the fashion is in favor of dry wines."
At the end of 1956, generally conceded to be the cultural birth year of rock 'n' roll, the best-selling album in America was not Elvis Presley or Elvis, it was Harry Belafonte's Calypso.
Per se: adverb: In or by itself; intrinsically. From Latin per se, translation of Greek kath auto. Earliest documented use: 1505. The term makes an appearance in the word ampersand, the "and" sign "&", which is a corruption of “and per se and”.
Earlier the "&" symbol was considered the 27th letter of the alphabet. (It was eventually dropped because it did not signify a sound.) It was “A to ampersand” instead of “A to Z”. It was awkward to recite the alphabet as “... X Y Z &” (and what?), so schoolchildren reciting the alphabet would end it with “& per se and”, meaning the symbol &, by itself, is the word “and”.
The symbol & is a corruption of “et”, the Latin word for “and,” where the Latin "e" and "t" are run together. That explains why sometimes “etc.” is written as “&c”.
The symbol & is a corruption of “et”, the Latin word for “and,” where the Latin "e" and "t" are run together. That explains why sometimes “etc.” is written as “&c”.
What is...The Laffer Curve?
The colonial expansion into the American west exploded in the middle Eighteenth Century. Some of it was demographic. Colonists had been confined to a several-hundred-mile-wide strip of territory along the Atlantic coast. Increasing population density began to be felt. Over-cultivated soil in the East was becoming depleted. Particularly in the Chesapeake areas the number of tenants was visibly growing. Older towns now seemed overcrowded, especially in New England, and young men coming of age could no longer count on obtaining pieces of land as their fathers had done. But some was a peculiar American emotion: Restlessness. One British official noted: [...the colonists were moving]... 'as their avidity and restlessness incite them. They acquire no attachment to place: but wandering about seems engrafted in their nature; and it is a weakness incident to it that they should forever imagine the lands further off are still better than those upon which they are already settled.'
A report released Monday from the Center for American Progress estimates a cost of about $50.3 billion -- about $10,070 per person -- to deport those eligible for President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, which are under fire from Republicans. It is interesting that an argument over the integrity of the nation would factor in the cost but, nonetheless, it looks like a bargain. Anyway, when the government spends money, isn't that a good thing?
Richard Wright's Native Son depicts a young black man trapped by his race and history. It is an unpleasant story. Bigger Thomas, the main character, is a rapist and a murderer motivated only by fear, hate and animal impulses. Other black characters in the novel don’t fare much better — they are petty criminals or mammies or have been so ground under the heel of oppression as to be without agency or even intelligence. Wright’s is a bleak and ungenerous depiction of black life. The defenders of the novel say that Bigger is the depiction of white's racially distorted imagination of black men. If that is true, it should have been better done.
James Baldwin wrote his main objection to Native Son was that it confirmed the damning judgment on African-Americans delivered by their longstanding tormentors. Damaged by hatred and fear, Bigger Thomas tries to redeem his manhood through murder and rape. But this vengeful cruelty only validates “those brutal criteria bequeathed him at his birth,” reinforcing old degrading notions about black men. (NYT Bookends)
Art requires some revelation, some definition. A scream is not enough.
Interesting Bloomberg opinion that the Fed policy has had the “unintended consequence” of boosting the stocks of companies with heavy debt and little or no earnings. Typically after a recession, such companies lose out to firms that generate more cash and have better balance sheets; this time, no “Darwinian” shakeout happened and low-quality stocks ruled. Managers say they haven’t changed, the market has.
Clifton of Gallup thinks the U.S. is confusing innovation with business: For the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births. This economy is never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth and death trends of American businesses. It is catastrophic to be dead wrong on the biggest issue of the last 50 years -- the issue of where jobs come from...when small and medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they're being born, so is free enterprise. And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.
Art requires some revelation, some definition. A scream is not enough.
Interesting Bloomberg opinion that the Fed policy has had the “unintended consequence” of boosting the stocks of companies with heavy debt and little or no earnings. Typically after a recession, such companies lose out to firms that generate more cash and have better balance sheets; this time, no “Darwinian” shakeout happened and low-quality stocks ruled. Managers say they haven’t changed, the market has.
Clifton of Gallup thinks the U.S. is confusing innovation with business: For the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births. This economy is never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth and death trends of American businesses. It is catastrophic to be dead wrong on the biggest issue of the last 50 years -- the issue of where jobs come from...when small and medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they're being born, so is free enterprise. And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.
It was routine in the 19th Century French theater for the playwright to hire claquers, or hired clappers organized as a chef de claque to direct things, commissaries to chat up the play at intermissions, rieurs to laugh, pleurers to cry, and so on.
Zorro is a fictional character created by Johnston McCulley. The masked swordsman made his first appearance in The Curse of Capistrano, serialized in a pulp magazine in 1919. Zorro's true identity is Don Diego de la Vega, a nobleman who lives in Spanish-era California and disguises himself in a mask to protect the common people from tyrannical officials. The word "Zorro" is Spanish for "fox."
The State Department has just announced that armed Predator and Reaper drones will be available for sale to carefully vetted and selected allies around the world. This is a market that, over the next decade, is expected to more than double in size from $5.2 billion to $11.6 billion. However, as the Washington Post reports, this new program will build “on the Obama administration’s update last year to rules on conventional weapons transfers, which emphasize human rights protections in decisions about arms sales.” Read that again.
The German Shepherd Dog is one of the few breeds who official name includes the word “dog.” Why? So people knew when you were talking about a German shepherd human, who tends the livestock, or the dog helping him.
Despite its popularity in America, The German Shepherd Dog, as a breed, has only won the coveted Best in Show title at Westminster Dog Show once, in 1987. The dog was Ch. Covy Tucker Hill’s Manhattan. He is also the only dog from the herding group to ever win.
There was a prohibition in the American Colonies in 1763 against settlement of Kentucky and points west. Nonetheless hundreds of colonists and their families drifted beyond the Appalachians. During the Revolution, in 1779, Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark, elder brother of explorer William Clark, believing the British were rewarding Indians for attacking local settlers, attacked Fort Sackville at Vincennes, Indiana and took it, bluffing the commander, Hamilton, that he had a much larger force.
AAAaaaaaannnnndddddd.......a picture of the Przewalski’s horse:
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