Tag Archives: politics

A Love Story for the Animas River

I remember the Orange Tang of the Animas River running through Durango, Colorado, and on down to Farmington, New Mexico, in August 2015. Where normally kayakers and fly fishermen joust with tubers, the river coursed with the mineral runoff of … Continue reading

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The Disease that Afflicts all Modern Institutions

Repatrimonialization Modern state institutions, which are supposed to be impersonal even if not necessarily democratic, are particularly vulnerable to insider-capture in a  process that I labeled “repatrimonialization.”  As we have seen, natural human sociability is built around the twin principles … Continue reading

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Declaring That a State of War Exists: 6 April 1917

On this date, 6 April 1917,  in response to a request by President Wilson on 2 April, the United States Congress approved America’s entry into the Great War, which came to be known as World War I. Joint Resolution Passed by … Continue reading

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Political Order and Political Decay in the Time of Trump

Political Order and Political Decay is the second part of Francis Fukuyama’s epic tome of political economy begun in 2011 with The Origins of Political Order.  The 2014 follow-up fills out the 2011 tome’s theory of politics as biology with consideration of … Continue reading

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Pancho Villa Crossed the Border…and got US into the Great War

Pancho Villa crossed the border in the year of ought sixteen The people of Columbus still hear him riding through their dreams He killed seventeen civilians you could hear the women scream Blackjack Pershing on a dancing horse was waiting … Continue reading

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2016 Blog Posts in Review—Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty

2016 was a year for the books.  I read a lot more this year, and listened to a lot of good music, so that’s a good thing.  On the other hand, as demographics and biology would decree, our Greatest Generation … Continue reading

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The Election of 1916: “America First” to First World War

100 years ago, in November of 1916, America was also recovering from a controversial Presidential election.  Progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson, PhD, had taken the U.S. presidency in 1912, when the Republican Party had split between incumbent President William Howard Taft … Continue reading

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The Holcroft Covenant

The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum My rating: 4 of 5 stars History repeats itself…unless it doesn’t. Unless we learn the lessons of history, and many times lessons are better learned in stories, mythology and tall tales. Robert Ludlum was … Continue reading

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Evan McMullin for President of the United States

I am supporting Evan McMullin for President of the United States. Who? Evan McMullin is the #NeverTrump alternative for Conservatives of conscience.  Evan stepped up in August, to provide a positive choice in the 2016 Presidential election.  He was born … Continue reading

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The Lesser Evil

The “Bad Emperor” Problem “An authoritarian system can move much more quickly and decisively than a democratic one, but its success is ultimately dependent on having a continuing supply of good leaders—good not just in a technocratic sense but in … Continue reading

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