Tag: defensible times
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Constants and Variables, interstate edition
Constantly quoted by the usual quoters: Central planning always fails, THEREFORE we should trust freedom-loving Libertarian anti-centralizers like Larry Fink and Jeff Bezos and Elon. If you think Larry and Elon are the opposite of central, you’re too stupid to breathe. Variable truth: Central planning by government is VITALLY NECESSARY when it helps ordinary people.…
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Tiny example
Our conventional view of the past is 100% wrong in every way. Everything we learned in school and media is violently wrong, either by giant omissions or perfect falsehoods. This is true in tech and industry as well as politics and economics. Our conventional history of every invention and industry is wrong. One tiny but…
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Reprint on black upperclass
Linked in previous item about the black upperclass, worth a reprint. This shows that the current trend in business and politics and “journalism” isn’t brand new. = = = = = START 2017 REPRINT: As US businesses continue to INTENTIONALLY REJECT HALF OF THEIR CUSTOMERS, it’s worth remembering a time when the trend was reversed.…
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Black IOOF history
This is even more interesting than the white IOOF. Black lodges started in NYC in 1843, twenty years after the white lodges. From the Official History of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, published 1893. I’m including an unusually long quote because it’s powerful and important history. = = = = = START QUOTE:…
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It’s all about reciprocity
The key to success for a Mutual Benefit Society is a proper mix of real business and social enjoyment. Starting in the 1920s, the purely commercial insurance firms absorbed and destroyed the MBS movement, leaving only the social side. Without the BENEFIT part it’s just a drinking club. Odd Fellows preserved some of the real…
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More from IOOF in the 1920s
Continuing from previous item. The annual report of the Wisconsin state IOOF for 1921 proves that the organization was truly an insurance provider and a mutual company, along with its social functions. Note the payments of sickness benefits and life insurance. The income was well beyond the payouts, and the lodge maintained a large investment…
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Where Harding got his purpose
Eureka Lake started me reading about the Odd Fellows. They have maintained their original functions pretty well for 200 years. They work for peace, tolerance, mercy, and fellowship. A 1920 magazine from the Virginia state lodges shows how their steady purpose responded to Wilson’s brutality and unceasing propaganda. This attitude may have been widespread at…
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Mysterious Fairmont
While looking at old maps around Manhattan, I noticed another area that always seemed mysterious. It occasionally appeared in dreams. Next to the highly formal city there were a few highly informal rural areas with scattered houses and undefined streets. Just across the river to the southeast was an area called Fairmont on maps. It…
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Eureka Lake
In 1966 I was exploring the Manhattan area. Southwest of town I found a huge brick building with a nice porch, fronting a peaceful little lake. The building looked like a hotel. On a nearby corner was a little country general store. Checking maps, I found that the building was the Oddfellows nursing home, and…
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It’s just Keynes.
Thomas Hoenig, the only central banker who STEADILY called for a return to real business and honest economics, has given a speech where he describes the problem and prescribes the solution. PRECISELY CORRECT ON BOTH ENDS. = = = = = START HOENIG: The question is, can we reverse these trends? Of course we can.…
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Good diagnosis, bad fix
Seen at Reddit: = = = = = START QUOTE: I’m tired of boomers telling Gen Z and millennials to “suck it up” when we say that a salary of $60k or less shouldn’t trap us in a mediocre lifestyle, sharing apartments, skipping dining out, avoiding social outings, or never taking vacations. No, these things…
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HR from the past
This film was aimed at recruiting new postal employees. It starts by reading the inscription on the entrance of the main office in DC, with a couple of additions: = = = = = START QUOTE: The postal service. Messenger of sympathy and love. Servant of parted friends. Consoler of the lonely. Bond of a…
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It’s even older
Noticed an article in NewSuperstitionist, describing how causality can be re-introduced into the quantum world. Why bother? Causality exists in the REAL world. Nature doesn’t care if we set up an abstract spiritual world of angels on pinheads or live/dead cats in boxes. Quantum is a modern religion, not a description of reality. Quantum theologians…
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Better name
Dams are failing in Tennessee. This is a straightforward result of spending all our money on war and destruction and NONE AT ALL on repairing or building. Year after year congress passes trillion-dollar appropriations for “infrastructure” but NONE of that money actually goes toward building or repairing. Most of it ends up in the pockets…
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Blurs the line
I ordered stamps from the post office online, and sort of accidentally** turned on the USPS Informer, a daily email telling you what’s incoming today. It’s surprisingly detailed, with pictures and text descriptions of each envelope. Today it showed 4 pieces of spam from the Trump cult and one utility bill, pretty much the usual…
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