Gizelnort (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} gizelnort) wrote,@ 2008-10-02 10:17:00 |
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Sometimes we all just float along...
You know the recent events of this past couple of weeks makes me think of Modest Mouse's song even more, especially with the semi-upbeat attitude of our government towards borrowing $700 billion in bad debt. On a side note I saw this lovely special online in which the former assistant secretary of the treasury under Clinton was asked "Could this be like 1929?" and he replied "I don't think that is possible because we have tools to prevent what happened in 1929, an effective central bank and the tools to pump money into the economy." He went on to explain that 1929 was due to a contraction in the money supply and when asked "So we are smarter then we were back then?" he just replied, with a laugh, "No just better protected." I was pleased at that comment and he is right, we are well girded against 1929 again if the tools are used right, however that does not mean we are depression proof. It just means that should it come it will be by another mechanism then the one that sank the economy in 1929.
Of course, the big news is the passage by the Senate of its version of the $700 billion dollar aid bill, now dominating the news, with the upcoming House vote on issue for Friday. Therefore I'd like to officially nominate today for future posterity as "Golden Thursday" because I would bet you serious dollars to doughnuts this is the day in which lobbyists are hiking to the Hill with sweetners like you would not believe for our representatives. This law offers a huge amount of aid and to win the votes needed to pass it some major fiscal houses and corporations are probably ready to make large donations and offer considerable favors to our elected representatives. Plus the timing is perfect, after all when you are only five weeks away from the vote that is the time that an infusion of cash can help push you over into winning numbers. Honestly, on some level, I wish I could be there as a fly on the wall to see just how much investment houses are willing to pour out to win the votes needed.
I enjoyed the quote in the article about how this was pushing us towards "the pit of Socialism", fear not my elected officials, this nation has only once come close to turning in a Red vote and it was a marginal threat at best.
Fun moment yesterday at the dental school, the dentist working on my teeth mused about the U of M fight song, specifically the line "Champions of the West", she was bothered by it, why did U of M mention the west. I provided her with a theory that the song might have been written early enough in the history of the University that it was prior to our successful war with Mexico in 1846 which gained the Southwest and California. (I also lumped Texas in, not accurate timeline wise but close enough for a presentation with dental picks poking at my gums.) I also added it might have been an allusion to the territories history back in the 1780s with the passage of the Northwest Ordinance. (For those at home I took the time to look it up and sadly the answer is no on both, the reality is the song was written in 1898 after the U of M victory over U of Chicago to gain the football championship, we were originally part of the Western Conference which later became the Big Ten Conference.)
But what struck me was her look of confusion when I mentioned our war with Mexico from 1846 - 1848 (think of the Scoby Doo noise when he is confused, text does not do it justice) and also that our government had changed in 1789 from its founding form to its current form. I'm no US history expert but I have a good working knowledge and I was shocked that she knew none of this information, apparently to her mind the US had started as thirteen original colonies LA LA founding fathers LA LA sort of grew to fill sea to shining sea LA LA modern times! Granted we are all not historians but come on people, it is even in the Marines anthem, you know, "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli", that is what the "Halls of Montezuma" is referring to. (Tripoli is our series of wars against the pirate nations of the North African coast but that one I'll grant is obscure.) She was really amazed that our current Constitution was changed in 1788, she thought we'd gained independence in 1776 and our government had started then and run without interruption. I did not have time to explain it and I saw eye-glaze setting in but it just shocked me. When I told Gabe she reminded me that what I thought was common knowledge was actually not but I still don't know, I remember Middle and High school history and we covered these items.
In any case though, leaving out the more esoteric wars of American History I figure everyone should know about these wars:
Revolutionary War (1776 - 1783)
War of 1812 (1812 - 1815)
Mexican-American War (1846 - 1848)
American Civil War (1861 - 1865)
Spanish-American War (1898)
World War I (1914 - 1918, US involvement 1917 - 1918)
World War II (1937 - 1945, US involvement 1941 - 1945)
Korean War (1950 - 1952)
Vietnam War (1959 - 1975, emphasis 1965 - 1975)
Gulf War (1990 - 1991)
Although the post-Vietnam Wars get a little hazy as to what should be tossed in and what shouldn't. But seriously, I thought most Americans at least had a passing nod of understanding to the list above, turns out, that might not be true.
You know the recent events of this past couple of weeks makes me think of Modest Mouse's song even more, especially with the semi-upbeat attitude of our government towards borrowing $700 billion in bad debt. On a side note I saw this lovely special online in which the former assistant secretary of the treasury under Clinton was asked "Could this be like 1929?" and he replied "I don't think that is possible because we have tools to prevent what happened in 1929, an effective central bank and the tools to pump money into the economy." He went on to explain that 1929 was due to a contraction in the money supply and when asked "So we are smarter then we were back then?" he just replied, with a laugh, "No just better protected." I was pleased at that comment and he is right, we are well girded against 1929 again if the tools are used right, however that does not mean we are depression proof. It just means that should it come it will be by another mechanism then the one that sank the economy in 1929.
Of course, the big news is the passage by the Senate of its version of the $700 billion dollar aid bill, now dominating the news, with the upcoming House vote on issue for Friday. Therefore I'd like to officially nominate today for future posterity as "Golden Thursday" because I would bet you serious dollars to doughnuts this is the day in which lobbyists are hiking to the Hill with sweetners like you would not believe for our representatives. This law offers a huge amount of aid and to win the votes needed to pass it some major fiscal houses and corporations are probably ready to make large donations and offer considerable favors to our elected representatives. Plus the timing is perfect, after all when you are only five weeks away from the vote that is the time that an infusion of cash can help push you over into winning numbers. Honestly, on some level, I wish I could be there as a fly on the wall to see just how much investment houses are willing to pour out to win the votes needed.
I enjoyed the quote in the article about how this was pushing us towards "the pit of Socialism", fear not my elected officials, this nation has only once come close to turning in a Red vote and it was a marginal threat at best.
Fun moment yesterday at the dental school, the dentist working on my teeth mused about the U of M fight song, specifically the line "Champions of the West", she was bothered by it, why did U of M mention the west. I provided her with a theory that the song might have been written early enough in the history of the University that it was prior to our successful war with Mexico in 1846 which gained the Southwest and California. (I also lumped Texas in, not accurate timeline wise but close enough for a presentation with dental picks poking at my gums.) I also added it might have been an allusion to the territories history back in the 1780s with the passage of the Northwest Ordinance. (For those at home I took the time to look it up and sadly the answer is no on both, the reality is the song was written in 1898 after the U of M victory over U of Chicago to gain the football championship, we were originally part of the Western Conference which later became the Big Ten Conference.)
But what struck me was her look of confusion when I mentioned our war with Mexico from 1846 - 1848 (think of the Scoby Doo noise when he is confused, text does not do it justice) and also that our government had changed in 1789 from its founding form to its current form. I'm no US history expert but I have a good working knowledge and I was shocked that she knew none of this information, apparently to her mind the US had started as thirteen original colonies LA LA founding fathers LA LA sort of grew to fill sea to shining sea LA LA modern times! Granted we are all not historians but come on people, it is even in the Marines anthem, you know, "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli", that is what the "Halls of Montezuma" is referring to. (Tripoli is our series of wars against the pirate nations of the North African coast but that one I'll grant is obscure.) She was really amazed that our current Constitution was changed in 1788, she thought we'd gained independence in 1776 and our government had started then and run without interruption. I did not have time to explain it and I saw eye-glaze setting in but it just shocked me. When I told Gabe she reminded me that what I thought was common knowledge was actually not but I still don't know, I remember Middle and High school history and we covered these items.
In any case though, leaving out the more esoteric wars of American History I figure everyone should know about these wars:
Revolutionary War (1776 - 1783)
War of 1812 (1812 - 1815)
Mexican-American War (1846 - 1848)
American Civil War (1861 - 1865)
Spanish-American War (1898)
World War I (1914 - 1918, US involvement 1917 - 1918)
World War II (1937 - 1945, US involvement 1941 - 1945)
Korean War (1950 - 1952)
Vietnam War (1959 - 1975, emphasis 1965 - 1975)
Gulf War (1990 - 1991)
Although the post-Vietnam Wars get a little hazy as to what should be tossed in and what shouldn't. But seriously, I thought most Americans at least had a passing nod of understanding to the list above, turns out, that might not be true.
