Tag Archives: history

For Indigenous Persons Day: a review of “A Brave and Cunning Prince” by James Horn  – by New Deal democrat Recently I read the above entitled book, and found it fascinating. Below are excerpts from an online book review, to which I have added further detail in brackets. I highly recommend it: “In the mid-sixteenth century, Spanish explorers in the Chesapeake Bay kidnapped an Indian child [whose name they wrote as ‘Paquiquineo’] and took him...

Catch some good articles in The Atlantic. Usually take this on a long flight to read. He is all set for Halloween. The Atlantic came out for Kamala Harris. Guess they do not think much of the orange one. Scare the kids on Halloween and keep the candy. This is just a partial. If you like it, I can post the rest. It is a good read. The Atlantic, for the fifth time in its 167-year history, is endorsing a candidate for president: Kamala Harris....

Economist David Zetland at The one-handed economist blog offers up another interesting book review detailing life in Ukraine during the nineties. David Zetland, The One Arm Economist’s Book Review: “Death and the Penguin“ This 1996 novel by Andrei Kurkov tells the story of a failing writer who suddenly finds himself with a full-time job writing obituaries. He also has a penguin, Misha, who he “rescues” from Kyiv’s Zoo when they run out of...

From Prof. Timothy Snyder’s substack “Thinking about…” Shared with permission:“Think about the politicians Trump idolizes, Vladimir Putin in Russia and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. The first undid a democracy through fake emergencies, the second through persistent constitutional abuse. It is not hard to see why Trump likes them. “Now consider the Russian and Hungarian economies. Russia sits on hugely valuable natural resources, and yet is a poor country....

This was the only question and answer that mattered. The Times and various other news outlets are elsewhere on the topic of losing the 2020 Election. I remember William Saletan writing articles for Slate Magazine “The Fray” while I was in the comments section reading them and then doodahman;s comments picking Saletan’s commentary apart. William is picking up on an important topic which The Times and other news outlets are purposely ignoring....

I just finished reading “The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq” by Steve Coll. By the onset of the US invasion and military occupation, I was convinced that (a) Iraq had no WMDs or active WMD programs, and (b) there was no collusion between Saddam and al Qaeda. The idea that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were allies was facially absurd. Bin Laden was a religious zealot and Hussein was...

The existential threat to humanity in this century is climate change. It is estimated that upwards of half a billion people will be displaced by flooding, fires and desertification due to global warming. But such frightening predictions are based on climate modeling. How reliable are these models? It turns out, remarkably reliable:“Climate change doubters have a favorite target: climate models. They claim that computer simulations conducted...

I have a collection of sources I can pull from to use here at Angry Bear. Joyce @ Civil Discourse is one of them. Prof Heather Cox Richardson @ Letters from an American is another. Robert Reich, Merrill Goozner @ GoozNews, Lloyd Alter @ Carbon Upfront, etc. It allows me to present information I would have to hunt for and then edit it to fit. There are others too. I think they are pretty interesting. PS: I joined these sites to read and gather...

Good Old Days? A story . . . I was at Parker-Hannifin Fluid Power for a bit over 4-years. Due to the economic slowdown in 1982, they let me go. I was replaced by someone out of sales. The explanation? His wanting to learn about manufacturing hydraulic and air cylinders. It was obvious he was losing his job in Sales. My boss came out of Sales and knew little about production planning and control. Over 4 years I made him look good by cutting inventory...

Review: The World without Us by The one-handed economist one-handed-economist.com I just read this 2007 book by Alan Weisman, and it’s encouraging — not because it gives me any hope for humans but for the Earth. Weisman goes on a tour of human impact (and destruction), looking at one problem (plastics, pollution, biodiversity, etc.) or place (the oceans or cities) at a time. The book is packed with facts and useful context. Here are a...