by Bill O'Connell on September 14, 2011
Photo by boss tweed
Ah, 1922, the Yankees won their second American League pennant and finished up their final season at the Polo Grounds before moving across the river to their new stadium in the Bronx. In the summer, hyperinflation in Germany meant it took 493 marks to equal one dollar. Feature length film Nanook of the North is released. In the fall the conversion rate in Germany is 1,000 marks to the dollar. Stalin comes to power in Russia, and Mussolini in Italy. By November it takes 3,000 marks to equal one U.S. dollar in Germany. Alexander Graham Bell dies. By year-end it takes 7,000 German marks to equal one U.S. dollar. It was also the last time the 9th Congressional District in New York was held by a Republican.
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on June 8, 2011
The times were dark ones. In some parts of the world communism was taking hold and viewed by some as the future that works. In other regions fascism was gaining in Germany and Italy. In the U.S. President Roosevelt and his administration tried idea after idea to end the Great Depression without success. Despite Roosevelt’s admonition that we only have to fear is fear itself, fear was always at people’s elbows.
[click to continue…]
by Kevin Dixon on March 12, 2011
PERFIDIOUS PORTRAYAL OF HITLER AND UNIONS
The labor union was the chief tool of the early twentieth century demagogue. Modeled after the success of arousing the discontent of the French peasants of the late 18th century, it was the natural place to amalgamate the passions and tensions of workers and lead them into revolt. The basic tenet of both the Russian and German revolutions was labor based social/political revolt (“Workers of the world unite!”). The differences were in style not substance.
[click to continue…]
by Bill O'Connell on February 17, 2011
In the midst of the budget battles some pretty large numbers are being thrown about. Sometimes the size of the numbers starts to lose its meaning and what the long term consequences of what the government is doing gets blurred.
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on February 11, 2011
Congressman Ron Paul, a perennial favorite of CPAC, the annual convention of the American Conservative Union, packed the house and then lit it up with his speech of liberty and libertarianism.
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on October 28, 2010
There’s good news and bad news coming out of the Tim Bishop campaign. The good news is that he has a new ad out so we don’t have to keep watching the same ad he has been running incessantly for the past five weeks. The bad news it’s about the one subject that Tim Bishop wants to talk about, outsourcing. It’s the same old stuff, wrapped in a new package. Why can’t Tim Bishop talk about his record? Is he embarrassed by it or afraid of it.
Click here to read more
by Bill O'Connell on October 20, 2010
Tim Bishop continually bashes his opponent on the topic of outsourcing jobs. One of Mr. Bishop’s brilliant solutions, brilliant because it was conceived of in the halls of academia and Congress rather than at the helm of a company, is to raise taxes on companies foreign operations.
At the same time Mr. Bishop and his fellow travelers rail against businesses that are sitting on piles of cash rather than hiring and investing. Since he probably doesn’t know how to read a balance sheet, I will enlist the aid of John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems and Safra Catz, President of Oracle who spell it out in the Wall Street Journal.
[click to continue…]
by Bill O'Connell on October 2, 2009
The Obama international charm offensive seems to be wearing thin. As the first U.S. President to ever lobby to win an Olympic Games, President Obama failed in his effort as Chicago was eliminated in the first round. The Olympic ideal was to divorce sports and politics and by doing so, promote peace by having athletes from around the world meet on a one-to-one basis and see each other as individuals rather than as the countries they represented.
Although Hitler used the 1936 Olympic Games to showcase the revitalized Germany, it was Jimmy Carter who was the first to directly use the Games for political purposes when he pulled the U.S. team from competing in Moscow in 1980, to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. There’s nothing like punishing your own young athletes who perhaps worked a lifetime for the opportunity to compete in an Olympic Games and perhaps never get another chance. The Soviet’s returned the favor four years later by boycotting the Games in Los Angeles in 1984.
Let’s go back to the ideal of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who help found the modern Olympic Games:
May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this manner, may the Olympic Torch pursue its way through ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure.
So let’s leave the Olympic Games to the athletes and perhaps now, President Obama can get back to work.
