Random Learnings #69
Growing up in Iowa, all I knew of Kossuth County was its unusual size: essentially double the size of other counties in the state, it's the reason Iowa has 99…
Random Learnings #67
If we know anything about National Socialism, it's that for the first time in German politics human stupidity has been successfully and completely mobilized. -Kurt Schumacher, SPD member of Weimar…
Scary Times, Predicted
I'm still working my way through Fateful Hours: The Collapse of the Weimar Republic by Volker Ullrich, in which he gives a riveting account of Germany's inter-war history, from World…
Random Learnings #66
From an article in the Guardian: Seems perfectly reasonable that anyone booking a “Superior Room with Pitch View” at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium hotel, located inside the Bloomfield Road Stadium, would…
Book Review #3
In the translated book Planning in the USSR by I.A. Yevenko, the communist hyperbole and delusion begins immediately with the Author's Notes on page 5: The system of socialist planned…
Visiting the Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, the seat of British Government since the creation of the Model Parliament in 1295, is easily recognizable, if for no other reason than the Elizabeth Tower…
Constitutionality
Donald Trump's continual declaration of national emergencies that he uses to declare executive orders of dubious legitimacy harkens back to similar usage in Germany following World War I. This was…
Random Learnings #64
In 2016, the government of the Czech Republic declared that Czechia is the country's short name in English. Yes, Czech Republic remains the country's official name and yes, Czech Republic…
Unexpected Continuity
From the Brittanica Book of the Year 1968, p376: Another in a series of legislative measures designed to establish the separate statehood of East Germany was passed by the People's…
Oh What A Year: 1933
[Nothing like spending a Sunday reading undigitized, bound periodicals at your local university library...] Time Magazine began 1933 by declaring Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president-elect, as Man of the Year.…