1815 President Madison

“It is a settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute. The United States, while they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none.”

-- President James Madison

The United States will not pay for protection. No tribute.

During the early years of the republic, American shipping was subject to the Barbary pirates working the Mediterranean sea, and although America was shy about getting into military entanglements while in its infancy, they would come out strong and win where even the European powers had not. This was obviously a precursor of things to come.

(Source: Christopher Hitchens, “Arguably”)

The One-Percent

Meet Isabel dos Santos, who is 40 and is already a billionaire. Africa's first female billionaire. But there's no surprise in that - she's the daughter of the president of Angola, a country where a tiny elite keeps stockpiling fabulous wealth through oil trade, while the vast majority are stuck in utter misery. Sounds familiar?

-- Talk Politics

Where is Karl Marx when you need him, eh? I can hear him now, "I told you so!"

every maintennance person

"Would you like something to drink?" Pop asks every maintennance person who comes to the house. Maybe if more of them said yes, it would break him out of that annoying habit.

The Dish guy is here, and we also had his shoes guy. Remember, he has special shoes. It's a crimp in my day.

Happy Valentine's Day

“Have I shocked you by the dirty things I wrote to you? You think perhaps that my love is a filthy thing. It is, darling, at some moments. I dream of you in filthy poses sometimes. I imagine things so very dirty that I will not write them until I see how you write yourself.”

-- James Joyce in a letter to Nora Barnacle

Neil Gaiman on Political Correctness

Neil Gaiman has a sweet Valentine's message on the concept of political correctness.

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I was reading a book (about interjections, oddly enough) yesterday which included the phrase “In these days of political correctness…” talking about no longer making jokes that denigrated people for their culture or for the colour of their skin. And I thought, “That’s not actually anything to do with 'political correctness'. That’s just treating other people with respect.”

Which made me oddly happy. I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase “politically correct” wherever we could with “treating other people with respect”, and it made me smile.

You should try it. It’s peculiarly enlightening.

I know what you’re thinking now. You’re thinking “Oh my god, that’s treating other people with respect gone mad!”

Happy Valentine’s Day.

-- Neil Gaiman

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I appreciate the thought, but there is some real controversy about exactly how we draw the boundaries of what consititues 'respect' and 'denigration'. For instance, in regard to the ultra-sweet Valentine's video "Paper Man" that I posted earlier today, there is actually some criticism that the video perpetuates 'rape culture'. From my perspective, it seems appropriate to call that 'political correctness', that it is overzealous in drawing the boundaries between 'respect' and 'denigration'.

Now, I suppose people may reasonably differ on "Paper Man" and 'rape culture', but it is not like you have knuckle-dragging racists and wife-beaters on one side, and socially conscious humanitarians and good samaritans on the other side. Okay, this is perhaps to make too much of a Valentine's message, but it is an interesting discussion and I cannot be sure when and if I will have the opportunity to make this point again.

Daily Fun: The Valentine's Day Edition

Photographer Sergey Bezberdy

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