tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15797056268183541502025-10-21T02:47:42.674-04:00we're just rearranging 'em now...C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.comBlogger267120tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-72227682469477979112020-04-25T09:39:00.001-04:002020-04-25T09:41:13.629-04:00

(This is a repost of a review written in 2008) Neal Stephenson's trilogy, The Baroque Cycle, is a must read if you are interested in any of the following: history, The Enlightenment, science, philosophy, reason, how ideas shape world events, the birth of capitalism, pirates, battles, or love stories. Yes, this isn't so much a book review as a trilogy review, but the books can't really be

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-43270822785849352352011-08-08T08:59:00.001-04:002022-03-07T15:03:04.209-05:00

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a post called "The Great Depression Reenactor" about former White House Economic Adviser and noted Great Depression "expert," Christina Romer. The gist of the post was that, despite the evidence to the contrary, she was still clinging to her failed Keynesian policies, wishing that unemployment was lower but still happy that they were able to get some stimulus

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-2178039753763060902011-04-27T15:40:00.000-04:002020-06-25T11:29:50.645-04:00

Random happenstance led me to read two articles today that have connections in ways I wouldn't have otherwise noticed and both articles are worth sharing. The first is the Specific. In Chipotle Mexican Grill versus egalitarianism, Stephen Hicks examines the recent case against the restaurant chain for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To sum up, a man in a wheelchair sued

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-39335417794863288892011-04-20T13:57:00.002-04:002022-03-07T15:06:37.790-05:00

In 1936, the country was still in the stranglehold of the Great Depression, and despite billions of dollars of government largesse, (largely to swing states and politically important groups) unemployment was still hovering near 20% and more Americans were "on relief" (make work jobs and welfare) than was the case 3 years prior. This last despite FDR's solemn promise to reduce the number of

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-71406483754030912782011-03-03T12:02:00.000-05:002011-03-03T12:02:04.384-05:00

What follows comes from the private journal of a man close to the president who, when confronted with the reality of the man, looked on in fear and apprehension: I was impressed as never before by the utter lack of logic of the man, the scantiness of his precise knowledge of things that he was talking about, by the gross inaccuracies in his statements, by the almost pathological lack of sequence

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-45708532382952407122010-08-06T09:03:00.000-04:002010-08-06T09:03:01.026-04:00

Having done all she can to bring about a country-wide reenactment of the Great Depression, President Obama's chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Christina Romer, is stepping down. Following the standard doctrine of politicized, progressive economists, she believes that heavy government intervention saved the country from the Great Depression, and she relied on that "expertise" in her

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-29770557002312178452010-08-05T16:18:00.005-04:002010-08-06T08:16:29.499-04:00

In "Scalia Was Right" in today's WSJ, James Taranto discusses how Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia predicted the 9th Circuit's overturning of California's Prop. 8. Taranto uses that model to predict that when the SC hears the appeal, it will be upheld by a 5-4 vote with Justice Kennedy writing the opinion. He notes how in a 2003 dissenting opinion, Scalia described -- the bile flooding from

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-45382451564882762822010-07-27T09:32:00.000-04:002010-07-27T09:32:08.577-04:00

I've asked myself this question a number of times in the past year.When do you suppose the citizens of imperial Rome first realized that their way of life had tipped into inexorable decline? A few foresaw the impact of Caesar's usurpation of the rule of law, marking his ascension as the beginning of the end. . . .The plebeian masses, accustomed to bread and circuses, were probably oblivious

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-87248161576635895032010-06-14T08:42:00.005-04:002022-03-07T15:20:44.920-05:00

It seems that foreign observers often have keener insights about the fundamental American nature and sense-of-life than do Americans themselves.  The following was written in 1929 by British historian B. H. Liddell Hart, in the preface to his biography, “Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American.” In the years after the Great War, Hart was attempting to learn historical lessons to avoid the

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-46212600108290577442010-06-03T08:56:00.006-04:002010-06-03T09:54:30.591-04:00

When the Turks denied the use of their land when Bush invaded Iraq, many wondered why a supposed ally and the most secular nation in the Middle East would act in such a way. In hindsight, it's obvious that it was one of the first blatant indications of the Islamicization of the country.I have written before of the tragic conflict between the historically secular factions, including the

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-26308831419568641292010-05-25T09:20:00.004-04:002010-05-25T10:01:33.470-04:00

Ed Koch delivers a solid, withering attack on US foreign policy. He starts off clearly naming the enemy and the vital stakes of the battle:We are at war with radical Islam, and that war will go on for many years.For me, the question is this: will the secular Western civilization shared by America and Europe, which allows us to enjoy life and its creature comforts, still be standing at the

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-43895885011616917352010-05-11T09:49:00.003-04:002022-03-07T15:26:51.251-05:00

Obama recently cautioned a group of graduating college kids that some of the arguments flowing to them via their "iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations" don't "rank all that high on the truth meter" and are threatening our democracy. One would hope that someone with even a little bit of healthy skepticism about the words spouted by popular figures, elected or not, would at least scratch

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-74999410352453375472010-05-11T09:26:00.004-04:002010-05-11T09:42:23.509-04:00

Alinsky wrote the playbook for leftists to push their socialist agenda, and it's been put to great use by the current administration. But another thinker is also heavily favored by Obama: Cass Sunstein.Doug Reich probably had the same deja vu I had when he read the following quote from a recent Obama speech:"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-72411366082597966892010-04-22T09:27:00.004-04:002010-04-22T09:53:12.711-04:00

For all the glitzy, fun, and hip messages we see on TV (especially children's programming) about earth day, the true essence of the green movement is most emphatically NOT about making the earth a better place for humans.I've posted it a few times before, but it is so dead on, here it is again:Most of the doe-eyed and brainwashed zealots who mouth platitudes about "saving the earth" aren't honest

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-46390294629132658862010-04-21T11:01:00.005-04:002010-04-21T11:41:54.348-04:00

While reading Nothing Less than Victory: Decisive Wars and the Lessons of History by John David Lewis the other day, I came across something that I knew immediately I needed to post here. In the chapter about William Tecumseh Sherman, Lewis examines Sherman's goal-directed actions as he planned and executed his march through the South, and how he refused to make sacrifices or take any irrational

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-72580337589214143402010-03-25T16:39:00.004-04:002010-03-25T16:49:24.540-04:00

Well, to Hades, actually.Caritas Christi Health Care, a non-profit Catholic hospital chain in Massachusetts dedicated to Catholic morality and social justice, is being acquired by a private equity firm. The name of the firm? Cerberus.

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-52898626805107989712010-03-17T16:33:00.003-04:002010-03-17T16:57:58.523-04:00

Word to the wise: sharp things can hurt you. If you buy something that is sharp--say, a precision machine designed to cut wood by spinning a 10-inch blade at nearly 4,000 RPM--then it's reasonable to suggest that you know what you're getting into. Namely, that you know it could cut you if you happened to touch that spinning wheel of death.If simple common sense isn't enough, the liability-shy

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-69824438986300747832010-03-03T12:15:00.002-05:002010-03-03T12:32:26.665-05:00

"Google's algorithms learn less common search terms better than others because many more people are conducting searches on these terms on Google. These and other network effects make it hard for competing search engines to catch up. Microsoft's well-received Bing search engine is addressing this challenge by offering innovations in areas that are less dependent on volume. But Bing needs to

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-81097194179933650882010-02-22T09:18:00.006-05:002010-02-22T14:29:37.947-05:00

It's done. As I was afraid of, our oldest dog just couldn't handle the slippery stairs so installing a runner became a high priority. I went to Lowe's on Saturday, haggled with the manager to let me buy 30' from a roll that was to be discontinued and was wrapped up on a palette in the back, and went to work.The straight run of stairs was very easy, but the wedge-shaped stairs were not. To put

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1579705626818354150.post-70760584660067381652010-02-17T10:50:00.006-05:002010-02-17T11:33:41.163-05:00

The ongoing saga of my staircase is (almost) over. Just under a year ago, I posted a detailed account of the installation of a new custom-made newel post. Make sure to check it out for reference photos. Soon after that, I stained and varnished it, but made some mistakes in the finish that needed to be fixed. And there it sat until this weekend.My wife took the kids to visit her parents in PA

C. Augusthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05860759500684485756noreply@blogger.com6