Frank Woodruff Buckles, (February 1, 1901 – February 27, 2011) was one of the last three surviving World War I veterans in the world, and was the last living American veteran of World War I. At the time of his death, Buckles was also the oldest verified World War I veteran in the world,...
Read More »
Among other things, I am thankful for the accident of fate that means as an American citizen who is alive in 2010, of Irish-Scandinavian descent, who has a profession, a family and a home, this makes me one of the one percent of the most well-off, luckiest human beings to have ever walked the...
Read More »
Titus Andronicus hails from Glen Rock, NJ (note the Springteen shout-out early in the below clip). This is the lead track from their second album, The Monitor, a bit of a Civil War concept album. But, don’t let that dissuade you from the straight-up rock and roll on this record. In the lead in...
Read More »
Stuff I found out about some famous people this week that just tickled me: Dolph Lundgren (yes, him!) has a masters in chemical engineering and was a Fullbright scholar at MIT. Brian May, original member and lead guitar for Queen, was an astrophysics student in London before joining the band. His latest project is...
Read More »
Sorry ’bout that. My domain expired and the good folks at Christmas Island failed to notify me. So, first I knew about it was when everything went blank. All better now and for two more years.
Read More »
Although I now proudly call Clinton home, I lived in Chicago for almost 11 years. It was the longest time I ever spent in one town in my life. (We moved around a bit when I was a kid.) And so, when people ask me where “I’m from” I ususally say, “I grew up...
Read More »
Nichole Gelinas at The National Review makes a couple of good points about how markets can help price oil production externalities. But this is nowhere near a comprehensive solution, nor is it any argument against other policies designed to influence demand for oil. Full Post Gelinas makes a good point. But this is hardly...
Read More »
Ezra Klein, writing for Newsweek nails what’s wrong with Wall Street. The problem for Tourre—and for Wall Street more broadly—is that they’re so intent on proving that what they did was legal that they can’t see that what they did was wrong. These are men (and they usually are men) of the market, and...
Read More »
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has announced that it is disembarking the crazy train, at least for now and will not back any health care reform bills. President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue issued a statement Sunday night saying the bill “ignores the will of the American people” and isn’t real health care reform....
Read More »
Two amazing stories out of WW II I read today. Via David Brooks, a tale of scandinavian toughness and community courage: In 1943, Baalsrud was a young instrument maker who was asked to sneak back into Norway to help the anti-Nazi resistance. He was hunted by about 50 Germans and left a trail...
Read More »
