My aunt Maria Guy died today at age 78, far too young for a Viscariello. She’s with her mom and dad and granddaughter in a far better place.
The picture above was taken in 1944 at my great-grandparents’ house. I couldn’t find the best picture of us together, in which she was sitting on me when I was a little kid, so this’ll have to do for the time being.
…to Uncle Vanya Putin for liberating the Russian-speaking people of the Crimea just as we were studying the Anschluss and the invasion of the Sudetenland in my APUSH class;
…and to Kim Jong-Un for launching 500 shells in South Korea’s general direction (and maybe even prepping an underground nuclear test) just as we were studying the Korean War in my APUSH class.
Gentlemen, your actions helped me put history in a context somewhat more familiar and relatable to the 2014 high school student. I thank you.
…
We’re about to hit the 1960s, so here’s hoping that over the next week or so the government will be pushing some sort of unsustainable entitlement program that I can connect to the lesson.
An anonymous reader sent the following:
A friend of mine recently posted this link on SharePoint. I thought you may enjoy interacting with the ideas presented.
http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-need-to-pay-people-more-2014-3
In short, Blodget argues that employers don’t pay employees enough, thus the economy’s in trouble. To support his assertions he shows four charts, all of which depict data from 1940 to the present:
Because my brain hurts and I want to go to sleep, I won’t criticize the article, aside from asking a few questions and letting all y’all fill in the rest.
1. Where’s the chart that shows non-wage benefit compensation to workers, and how dramatically said compensation has grown over the last 30 years?
2. Where’s the chart that shows retirement funds, stock portfolios, bond portfolios, mutual funds, real estate holdings, etc., and how dramatically the value of such has grown over the last 30 years?
3. Where’s the chart that shows total compensation to workers?
4. If you are going to complain about the last 30 years (1984-2014), shouldn’t you at least mention that in the 30 years before that (1954-1984, when, apparently, everything was fine), there were more recessions and more time was spent in recession?
5. What are the ideal values of the ratios of corporate profits to GDP, wages to GDP, and civilian employment to population?
6. How do or can you know the answer to #5?
7. Can you think of any plausible explanation for the fact that the ratio of civilian employment to population has shown no real sign of recovery since bottoming out in mid-2009?
Have a look at the quote below. Without looking it up, without clicking the link, guess who said it?
“…Russia has pointed to America’s decision to go into Iraq as an example of Western hypocrisy. Now, it is true that the Iraq War was a subject of vigorous debate not just around the world, but in the United States as well. I participated in that debate and I opposed our military intervention there. But even in Iraq, America sought to work within the international system. We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory. We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people and a fully sovereign Iraqi state that could make decisions about its own future.”
Here’s the source. The quote’s about seven-twelfths of the way down the page.
An anonymous reader anonymously writes:
“I JUST TOURED WILLIAM HENRY HARRISONS HOUSE IN INDIANA AND NOBODY
APPRECIATES MY EXCITEMENT SO HERE IT IS THANK YOU”
I hereby appreciate your excitement, though I imagine the house consisted merely of a portico, a gift shop, and an egress.
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