It’s always a little bit dangerous to compare ancient economics to modern ones. But if one takes what a typical blue-collar worker (say, a butcher) makes in a year as the index, the second-century Roman charioteer Gaius Appuleius Diocles earned… Continue Reading
I’m not all that impressed with Barack Obama, either. But has he really earned Ben Quayle’s attack as “the worst President in history”? My choice for that label is number fifteen: As bad as Obama is — the worst deficit… Continue Reading
I’ve heard and read a lot of arguments about why it’s in bad taste for a mosque to be built right on top of two blocks away from Ground Zero, and about how it would be hurtful to the survivors… Continue Reading
At the suggestion of Ordinary Gentleman Rufus F., I undertook to read Chris Hedges’ new book The Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. I found it a seductively-written polemic, lacking in scholarly research but… Continue Reading
There is a building near the corner of Broadway and Park Place in New York City, occupying a spot either two or three blocks north of the edge of the World Trade Center reconstruction site depending on how you count… Continue Reading
A simple link. Prof. Taylor hits it right on the head. If the fear is that “during troubled times, fearful and naive people will turn to dangerous radicals,” I suspect that a picture of any sufficiently polarizing Republican could pretty… Continue Reading
It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the Founding Fathers were not perfect people, that they made mistakes and even changed their minds about things over the course of their lives. But of course even a moment’s thought… Continue Reading
I was there way ahead you, Spiegel. I made the analogy on February 13, 2008, to be exact.
The Daily Show takes on history: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c An Energy-Independent Future www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party Contemporary talk of “green power” is no different than the… Continue Reading
An all-too-commonly heard claim is that this nation was founded on “Judeo-Christian principles,” that its laws are based on the Ten Commandments (hereinafter the “Decalogue”), and that the founding of this “Christian nation” was accomplished by Christian men who undertook… Continue Reading