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 of … 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 announcement1 from my town as an example: Let me caveat this by stating that I do not believe that the term is used with … 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 Olson Bryan Caplan at … Continue reading The moral right to lands lost in conquest
Columbus might not have been a pirate, but..
Thinking about International Talk Like a Pirate Day reminded me of seeing the Niña and Pinta when they came through my area a couple years ago. They are faithful replicas of Columbus's originals. Below is a video of the ships when they visited Dubuque, Iowa:The diminutive stature of these two ships destroyed my perception of Columbus' crossing … Continue reading Columbus might not have been a pirate, but..
Remembering 9/11
Every generation has moments seared into their memories. For me, there are three: the Challenger explosion, the fall of the Berlin wall, and 11 September, 2001. The first two are just fuzzy recollections, but I still remember 9/11 well.On 11 September 2001, I was working for a company that rented trade show exhibit equipment, and … Continue reading Remembering 9/11
Napoleon’s Fax Machine
Being a geek and working with other like-minded individuals, sometimes we have some pretty great discussions on ancient history, technologies, and such. Today we were bouncing between the the lethality of Comanche and Mongolian bow skills and how ancient (and not so ancient) cultures had technology that was far more advanced than we often give … Continue reading Napoleon’s Fax Machine
