Peace Through Arbitration

As I mentioned, I've been reading Bernhardi's Germany and the Next War. It's filled with all manner of brilliant arguments. For example, not only is war great fun and evidence of non-decadentness but it's morally right because of the laws of nature. Indeed, the only way to tell if one nation has the right to take over the territory and, as by the way, markets and natural resources, he really does say that, is to fight to the death. The winner has the right to take all the loser's  stuff. Call it the Donald Trump theory of international a relations.

As one of the institutions/attempts to stop so necessary and great an event as a war between the great powers from breaking out, Bernhardi, like TR and for the same reasons, finds President Taft's attempt to set up some kind of an international arbitration council to resolve any and all conflicts between nations beneath contempt and slander on the greatness of humanity as mass murderer. As it turns out, August 4th was the hundredth year of the anniversary of the signing of these treaties between Britain, France, and the US. What always surprises me when this sort of thing comes up, is how easy it is to forget not only Norman Angell and  Ivan Bloch but also the whole peace movement and its successes and failures.

But the thing that is most forgotten is the extent to which, in the USA and elsewhere, the peace movement was populated by businessmen and supported by the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotarians. The business men were the pantywaists Bernhardi warned against. Odd, that.

Take Care

Going for a ride? Remember it's a zoo out there:



Name the narrator for fun.

Taco Thursday

I have on at least three occasions tried to make a tritip roast on the grill and, as at least one sibling can attest, produced an undercooked and tasteless meal. Last night, however, I think I got it right. So at Ish Kabbibile's Smoke Shack and Grill, Thursday will be taco night:

What I did was to season it and then poke a bunch of holes in it with a meat fork. I grilled two yellow peppers, a couple of whole onions and some portabellas with lemon until they were done. I made rice with garlic, jalepeno and cherry tomatoes. Then I grilled the tritip for ten mins a side and then put it off the heat for another 15 mins and then rested it for 5-10 mins. The meat eaters like the meaty tacos while the Vegitarian claimed that the rice etc, at least I think it was the etc as well, was very good.

Economics Explained

The task of economics
Is to propagate a bluff:
That the poor have too much money
And the rich have not enough.

source

Current State Policies Explained

As near as I can figure, things are getting worse instead of better and, it would seem, no one is willing t admit that the past 30 years of Neoliberal anti-humanism is to blame. Indeed, it's clearer every day that the response is to turn the pencil sharpener yet again, as it were: