Category Archives: History

Sunday Morning Links: The “Tooth Picks, Bug Eaters, Pukes and Suckers” Edition

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This is so cool. Via Strange Maps @ Big Think.

The map’s link to Sus domesticus [1] is via the company that produced it: H.W. Hill & Co. This Decatur, Illinois outfit were the sole manufacturers of Hill’s hog ringers, Hill’s triangular rings, calf and cow weaners, stock markers &c. On the map, we see one pig per state or territory, each with one of H.W. Hill’s trademarked triangles through its nose.

But that is as far as product placement goes. Even though it was printed in [H.W. Hill’s] own advertising department, the map is a deft example of oblique advertising – a clear-cut case of 19th-century viral marketing.

For its main attraction were not H.W. Hill’s markers, weaners and rings. It was mailed out – for five one-cent stamps – as a tableau entitled: “Nicknames of the States”. It’s always interesting, and perhaps a little titillating, to see what names you’re being called by others, and to know how to return the mockery [2]. And it helps that all involved are portrayed as that most unloved of domestic animals, the pig.

For us, the map holds one extra appeal: in the almost 130 years since its publication, the nickname landscape has shifted somewhat. A few have remained popular, but many have fallen into disuse. Curiously, next to the sobriquets that are insults or compliments, a few are merely descriptive, and some states and territories don’t even get one. Somehow, that feels like the worst option.

Included in this post, are close ups of the more interesting areas taken from a high res version of the map downloaded from the Library of Congress.

On to the links…

CH2.0: The reports of Mitt Romney’s “inevitability” have been greatly exaggerated.
The Eye: Rightward Ho an Electoral No? Edition
TBA (formally GTBTBA) has a new look and the same great content: What do they mean by ‘choice’?
LaS: Recess? Don’t Talk About Recess!
WyBlog: Pipeline Dreams Busted By Green Schemes

MTTM: Rep Walberg Responds To Administration’s Rejection Of Keystone Pipeline
Moonbattery: Gear Up for Maximal Mudslinging
LD Jackson: Democrats Want a Reasonable Profits Board for Gas and Oil Companies
FCBZ: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho… Obama Shuts Down Disney World to Talk to 150 Special Invitees about Tourism
RR: Newt Gingrich “The Establishment is Right to Be Worried About a Gingrich Nomination”

Pundette: Call off the coronation
Zilla: Quick Resister Update
SJ: Newt Gingrich- Once again the left is trying to manipulate the right
Spellchek: U.S. seeks to expand its role as global cop
TMGGB: Ron Paul’s concession speech sounded more like a clarion call to the American people than a concession speech
theCL: Ron Paul — The Spirit of 76!

Gator: *VIDEO* The Newtster Delivers Victory Speech Following South Carolina Primary Blowout
The Other: Why is Romney doing such a lousy job defending his record at Bain Capital?
Republican Mother: Not a Dime’s Worth of Difference 
Wade: The Defence of Fort McHenry
WWTFT: Michigan – A Canadian State

Hmmm….

So much for conventional wisdom: Do Stradivarius Violins really sound better?

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Hmmm….

it appears that concert violinists cannot tell from the sound alone whether they are playing a 300-year-old Stradivarius or an instrument made last week. And, for playing quality alone, the virtuoso will opt for the modern one when asked which fiddle they would like to take home.

These discordant findings emerge from experiments by Claudia Fritz, a researcher at the University of Paris, at an international violin competition in Indianapolis in 2010. She asked 21 musicians to play six different violins, three modern instruments and three by Italian maestros – one made by Guarneri del Gesu around 1740, and two made in Antonio Stradivari’s workshop around 1700.

The plot thickens further.

The researchers could find no link between the age and value of the violins and how they were rated by the violinists. The three old instruments had a combined value of $10m, a hundred times that of the modern violins. “They are beautiful instruments, but the prices are insane,” Fritz said. “The old versus new issue doesn’t make any sense.

“It doesn’t matter if the violin’s old or new, all that matters is whether it’s a good violin or a bad violin. Many modern violin makers are doing a great job.” One shortcoming of the study was that the violinists were asked to rate a particular instrument’s projection, how well its sound travels, themselves. Another was that only a few violins were tested.

But, as the researchers note, this latter was perhaps unavoidable. “Numbers of subjects and instruments were small because it is difficult to persuade the owners of fragile, enormously valuable old violins to release them for extended periods into the hands of blindfolded strangers.”

Kai-Thomas Roth, secretary of the British Violin Making Association, said that double blind tests, where neither experimenter nor musician knows which violin is played, had already shown people cannot distinguish a modern violin from a priceless work of art.

“There’s some myth-making that helps old instruments,” Thomas said. “If you give someone a Stradivari and it doesn’t work for them, they’ll blame themselves and work hard at it until it works.

So much for conventional wisdom.

Since this is a post about violins, a short violin solo by Anastasia Khitruck.

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Liberal America: Christmas is not the only Generic ‘Holiday’ on the calendar

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Liberals who have worked overtime trying to scrub the word “Christmas” from America’s vocabulary are turning their sights on the distinctly American holiday of Thanksgiving.

One recent example of assault on Thanksgiving appears today in Detroit’s more liberal newspaper The Detroit Free Press. The headline writer couldn’t bring himself to use the dreaded word “Thanksgiving” in a headline for an article discussing traveling on Thanksgiving :

Airfares soaring for the holiday travelers

To be a liberal one has to be an incredibly hollow person.

Some people think this is a small thing, but it is really important to maintain tradition. Sir Winston Churchill summed it up perfectly:

A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.

It’s like the Carter years all over again

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Shrinking incomes.

Bottom line: The average individual now has $1,315 less in disposable income than he or she did three years ago at the onset of the Great Recession – even though the recession ended, technically speaking, in mid-2009. That means less money to spend at the spa or the movies, less for vacations, new carpeting for the house, or dinner at a restaurant.

In short, it means a less vibrant economy, with more Americans spending primarily on necessities.

And misery index creeping into view again.

Per capita disposal personal income – a key indicator of the standard of living – peaked in the spring of 2008, at $33,794 (measured as after-tax income). As of the second quarter of 2011, it was $32,479 – almost a 4 percent drop. If per capita disposable income had continued to grow at its normal pace, it would have been more than $34,000 a year by now.

The so-called misery index, another measure of economic well-being of American households, echoes the finding on the slipping standard of living. The index, a combination of the unemployment rate and inflation, is now at its highest point since 1983, when the US economy was recovering from a short recession and from the energy price spikes after the Iranian revolution.

Let’s hope Obama continues the Carter tradition  and we can see a sketch like this on SNL in 2013…

Hope and change…

Interesting Graph: Are you really spending more hours working for the man?

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The Adam Smith Institute has this interesting graph illustrating the average working hours in various countries. The trend is unmistakable.

People are spending fewer hours working.

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Tim Worstall @ ASI points out:

I can’t see that increase in working hours either. So we’ve one parp in the face of those who keep telling us that we’re getting this work/life balance thing wrong. But we can go further too. Market or paid working hours are only part of the work that we do. We all also do unpaid working hours inside the home, so called household production. The cooking, the cleaning, general maintenance and so on. And hours spent on these activities have been falling even faster than those paid working hours.

The net result of all of this is that we are enjoying ever more leisure time: yes, including even commuting and everything, we’re getting more leisure than any of the previous generations.

Which is of course just as it should be. As we’re generally getting richer (OK, last couple of years apart) then we’re choosing to take some of that greater wealth in more leisure, not just chasing after ever more money for shiny gewgaws.

Data such as this flies in direct conflict with all the leftist / eco-warrior propaganda that tells us that if we stop growing the economy we can have more lesiure time and save the entire planet at the same time.

As pointed out here @ MCT months ago, as we have become richer as a society, we tend work fewer hours, not more.

Way to alter the transcript PBS…

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PBS altered its transcript from Obama’s lecture on jobs Thursday night to cover his gaff where he incorrectly claimed Abraham Lincoln was the founder of the Republican Party.

Via the American Thinker:

Actually, they did more than yawn; government-funded PBS has altered the transcript of the President’s speech, removing the offending comment.

The New York Times transcript has the following quote:

“We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. Founder of the Republican Party. But in the middle of a civil war, he was also a leader who looked to the future — a Republican President who mobilized government to build the Transcontinental Railroad — (applause) — launch the National Academy of Sciences, set up the first land grant colleges. (Applause.) And leaders of both parties have followed the example he set.”

But how does it appear in the PBS transcript?

“We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. But in the middle of a Civil War, he was also a leader who looked to the future – a Republican president who mobilized government to build the transcontinental railroad; launch the National Academy of Sciences; and set up the first land grant colleges. And leaders of both parties have followed the example he set.”

Oh, and President Lincoln didn’t mobilize ”government build the Transcontinental Railroad” either.

It seems that in Obama’s world view, only government can do things

History from the War of 1812: The Surrender of Detroit

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Martin, outstanding blogger at What Would he Founders Think? and good friend of MCT posted a great historical news article discussing the surrender / siege of Detroit that happened August 15th & 16th, 1812 .

Martin describes what happened during those dark days:

General Hull served bravely in the American Revolution but was a scared shell of a man in the War of 1812. He allowed himself to be bamboozled by General Brock and even more so by Tecumseh. He was terrified of the Indians.

Tecumseh paraded his warriors around the walls of Detroit 3 times to make it seem like there were more Indians than there were. Brock dressed Canadian militia in the spare uniforms of British regulars. They both played on Hull’s fears.

According to some accounts, Hull lost his nerve and collapsed in fear, drinking himself into a stupor.

Be sure to read the rest.

Wednesday Night Links: The Skull Nickel Edition

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Skull Nickels:

Although the history of carving miniature bas relief sculptures into coins stretches back to the 18th century if not earlier, it was greatly popularized in the early 20th century with the introduction of the Buffalo nickel. This particular coin was minted using soft metal and was imprinted with the portrait of an indian with bold features, making it easier to deface and transform into the portraits of other people, animals, or even scenery. Add to that the idle hands of unemployed artists during the depression (thus, “hobo”) and soon a flood of curious numismatic treasures were born.

Click here for more examples.

Now on to the links…

Cynical Synapse: Obama’s Jobs Plan? Just Stimulus 2.0
Bunker: Shooting spitwads called ‘violent criminal conduct’
CoF: Game Over! Time to Forgive and Forget
Sentry Journal: Another way: Social Security vs Private Retirement Accounts
TCOS: But What’s Puzzling You Is The Nature Of My Game

TMGGB: Young And Dumb And Full Of Piss And Vinegar
CP: “The Jobs Speech” Preview Trifecta
TheCL: Toward a New Fusionism
CH2.0: Great Moments in Civil Discourse
WWTFT: An Interesting Letter from Alexander Hamilton

Gator: ObamaCare Backers In Wisconsin Produce Report Showing That The Health Care Overhaul Will Make Health Insurance More Expensive
WyBlog: “The Obama 2012 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Bus Tour floated into Wayne, NJ today and at least one star-struck homeowner is high on Hopium”
TBA: Finally Home, Back to Normal…Hopefully
The Eye: It means you and Google need to get better acquainted.
Todays World News: Signs Of The Times – UN Vote In Sept Could Divide The World Over Israel

And now my favorite skull nickel:

The Long Shadow Of The Progressives: Richard Milhous Nixon

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Recently, I read this article discussing how Mitt Romney, according to GOP insiders, would fare better than someone like Rick Perry in the general election against Obama.

The obvious reaction to this is “yeah, that is what they said about McCain.”

GOP ‘insiders’ are recycling the idea that a candidate, such as Romney, will appeal to moderate voters (where the election is won) in the general election. In other words, the GOP ‘insiders’ are pushing the idea that a more liberal / progressive Republican candidate is the key to winning the 2012 election.

To understand how bad a liberal / progressive Republican occupant in the White House can be, you don’t have to look too far back in history. For one example, go back to the late 60′s through the early 70′s and take another look at Richard Milhous Nixon.

I realize most people don’t associate Richard Nixon with the Progressives. I mean he was a Republican after all. However, looking at many of Nixon’s domestic policies, he acted more like a liberal / progressive than a conservative:

Foreign policy initiatives represented only one aspect of Nixon’s presidency during his first term. In August 1969, Nixon proposed the Family Assistance Plan, a welfare reform that would have guaranteed an income to all Americans. The plan, however, did not receive congressional approval. In August 1971, spurred by high inflation rates, Nixon imposed wage and price controls in an effort to gain control of price levels in the U.S. economy; at the same time, prompted by worries over the soundness of U.S. currency, Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard and let it float against other countries’ currencies.

A president suggesting the federal government guaranteeing every American an income? Sounds very progressive. Sounds very FDR-like. The idea also sounds a lot like a state run health care initiative.

Aside from being the only president to resign, the lasting legacy of Richard Nixon is the one agency (besides the IRS) that liberals love. The EPA.

…because there are no local or State boundaries to the problems of our environment, the Federal Government must play an active, positive role. We can and will set standards. We can and will exercise leadership.

State of the Union Message on Natural Resources and the Environment, February 14th, 1973

Federalism? Nope. The 10th Amendment? Ignore it.

Nixon created a sprawling agency with broad and sweeping powers that, at their essence erode personal property rights. They have gone as far to classify, through the use of pseudoscience, CO2 (the gas all humans exhale) as a “threat to public health.” Even though any second grader will explain to you that CO2 is necessary for all plant life. to exist.

According to Mr. Nixon, the Federal government “will set standards, the Federal government will exercise leadership” because the states can’t do it themselves.

Looking back at Richard Nixon’s record and the many initiatives he supported during his time in office, you can see how important it is to get a conservative in office and not vote for a guy just because he has an R after his name.

For more on the Progressives @ MCT: