One of my favorite rants, the debasement of educational currency: 5 Reasons Why Your New Bachelor’s Degree Is Worthless: With the increasing cost of college tuition, student loan debt, job scarcity, and opportunities for entrepreneurship online, is it any wonder that grads are wondering: “was getting my degree worthwhile?”Well, that’s up to you do to … Continue reading Is a degree worth it? Part II
Author: Jeremy B. Blevins
My connection to Clan Douglas
Some time back I became interested in my Scottish roots and discovered that my maternal ancestors, the Blackwoods, were historically associated with Clan Douglas. I understand that normally, Scottish clan association is paternal, but given that my paternal ancestry is Welsh, I was curious if I could actually claim clanship through my mother's line, so … Continue reading My connection to Clan Douglas
Henry Blethyn: apprentice on the Submission
Henry Blethyn is a bit of an enigma to many Blevins researchers. Little is known of his life, but his emigration to the American colonies is well documented. He was an apprentice on William Penn's ship the Submission, which departed from Liverpool on 5 July 1682. The Sailing of the Ship "Submission" in the Year … Continue reading Henry Blethyn: apprentice on the Submission
True Nobility
At the Art of Manliness, the McKays have published great post on the Stoic-Christian Code of Honor, which I encourage you to read, and the poem at the end by Robert Nicoll is particularly wonderful: True Nobility“I ask not for his lineage,I ask not for his name;If manliness be in his heart,He noble birth may claim.I care not though … Continue reading True Nobility
Keeping costs in perspective
When I see something like the ad below, the first thing I want to do is convert it to present dollars:The Duffer Coat, 1960: (click to enlarge)Source:Yale Daily News - 11/9/60Fortunately, this is really easy to do using a tool from MeasuringWorth.com. This coat costing $29.95 in 1960 would cost $227.00 today. Even more fun … Continue reading Keeping costs in perspective
The damage of a "Trail of Fears"
In previous posts I've made mention of my purported Cherokee ancestry, so I'll not revisit those claims, but I want to focus on misguided use of term "Trail of Fears" with a recent announcement from my town as an example:Trail of Fears Haunted Hay Ride: October 26, 2012Let me caveat this by stating that I do not … Continue reading The damage of a "Trail of Fears"
The moral right to lands lost in conquest
I'll not get into an academic discussion of the issue of whether or not various Native American tribes truly own the land their ancestors once occupied. The article below more than sufficiently deals with that, but I'd like to approach it from a layman's perspective.‘Do Indians Rightfully Own America?’:By Walter OlsonBryan Caplan at Econlog revisits … Continue reading The moral right to lands lost in conquest