Author: Bionic Mosquito

A History of Medieval Europe, RHC Davis Charlemagne and his descendants were not able to sustain empire.  There were many physical reasons for this – the difficulty of defending vast reaches, invasions by Vikings, Saracens, and Hungarians, etc. But the root of the demise was an idea – an idea so strongly held that it overcame the most powerful entity in Western Europe since the fall of Rome.  It was the idea of private law. The Carolingians tried to bury this idea; it was not conducive to empire.  In order to sustain empire, the emperor required the consent of his … Continue reading →

Onward, Christian solders, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before! Christ, the royal Master, leads again the foe; Forward into battle, see his banner go! . A History of Medieval Europe, RHC Davis A brief note regarding Charlemagne; but first, while doing a little digging for this post, I found the following: When Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met in August 1941 on the battleship HMS Prince of Wales to agree the Atlantic Charter, a church service was held for which Prime Minister Churchill chose the hymns. He chose “Onward, Christian Soldiers” and afterwards made … Continue reading →

A History of Medieval Europe, RHC Davis The fall of Rome as Rome was essentially complete in the wreckage of Justinian’s wake.  What remained of the Empire was based in Constantinople and the east.  Europe was left to the barbarians…and the church – a church in a relatively disorganized state. Perhaps the most important institution of the church in building and rebuilding Western Europe was the Order of Saint Benedict: The monastery at Subiaco in Italy, established by Saint Benedict of Nursia circa 529, was the first of the dozen monasteries he founded. He later founded the Abbey of Monte Cassino.  … Continue reading →

A History of Medieval Europe, RHC Davis As noted, the fall of Rome was not sudden, but long and slow – with change only somewhat noticeable to those living through the time: Because the barbarian invasions were not sudden but gradual, it was possible for many Roman citizens to ignore their significance.  Though they bewailed the fact that the times were not as good as they once had been, they tried to go on living as if nothing had changed. Davis offers three reactions to this reality – as noted by Salvian, the barbarians were no longer at the gates … Continue reading →

Baltimore burns, the current and most recent example of violent reaction to perceived injustice. It is not necessary that there is truth or guilt behind the perception in any one particular instance; it is sufficient that there is truth or guilt behind the perceived injustices often enough. This is sufficient to create the perception. There is nothing right, moral, or just about indiscriminant looting and violence – let nothing I write here suggest otherwise; yet, the fall into such violence is understandable.  It is a predictable reaction, blowback, to the policies of the right on the one hand and the left on … Continue reading →

A History of Medieval Europe, RHC Davis Look, I hope you aren’t expecting a six-volume masterpiece…. Davis summarizes the reasons for the fall (actually a slow, grinding, gradual decline) of Rome into four: …by the beginning of the fifth century the Roman Empire had been suffering from economic decline for at least two centuries. …the Romans were already being “barbarized.” …the barbarians were already becoming Romanized …the precise manner in which the barbarian settlements were made. I will expand on one of these: the economic decline.  Let’s just say it is expensive to run an empire. The primary cause of … Continue reading →

Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944: Genocide is the systematic destruction of all or a significant part of a racial, ethnic, religious or national group. The UN defines genocide as: …any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:  (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent … Continue reading →

I read John Mauldin’s weekly missives; he excels at providing information from many influential economists, analysts and policy makers.  I don’t often agree with much of what I read, but I have found it worth reading – it helps to know what the movers and shakers think, and it is always good to gather different views. This week, his Outside the Box is entitled “Germany’s Trade Surplus Is a Problem.” After his introduction, he offers a selection from Ben Bernanke’s new blog.  It is Bernanke who has written about Germany’s problematic trade surplus. As I always must when commenting on macro-economic … Continue reading →

Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Closer In 1939, Hitler and Stalin made and executed an agreement to divide Poland and other regions of Europe between them. Hitler and Stalin were also making plans to attack each other.  To Stalin’s surprise, Hitler went first. This is not a story of military battles or political intrigue. In Bloodlands, Timothy Snyder continues his examination of the catastrophe that was life in Central and Eastern Europe during the time of Hitler and Stalin, now focusing on this period first of cooperation, then battle. Friends German bombs started falling on September 1, 1939.  … Continue reading →

Perhaps more than any other post, my recent post on the forced famine in Ukraine has really remained with me.  When thinking about people living in impossible situations (picture Iraq or Syria), I try to put myself in the position of a father sending his children off to school, not knowing if they will return safely; of a husband seeing his wife off to market, carrying the same burden of possible finality; of the breadwinner living in a place in which the economy has been destroyed. The following – taken from the author of the book Bloodlands – has struck me and is what has … Continue reading →

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder Take your choice: Many Europeans, distressed by the nazification of Germany, looked hopefully to Moscow for an ally. Or: For some of the Germans and other Europeans who favored Hitler and his enterprise, the cruelty of Soviet policy seemed to be an argument for National Socialism. This was the world facing those in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1930s.  What a choice…as if anyone living there had much of a choice. Hitler significantly consolidated power in 1933.  The Reichstag fire, election victories (thanks to the support of the German communists, … Continue reading →

Why do they Hate Customers? One-hundred percent of the people on earth are customers.  Well, except for those who live totally and completely off the grid and grow or kill everything they eat and make everything they wear from materials they find in nature, etc.  In other words I doubt there are more than three exceptions on the entire planet.  So, just say 100% for rounding. I recently had some feedback, bashing Wal-Mart – the typical stuff: they aren’t fair to suppliers, they aren’t fair to employees, they are cut-throat with competitors. I will caveat my comment: Wal-Mart, like every … Continue reading →

I think the New York Times has made a mistake: 3 Shiite Militias Quit Iraqi Siege of ISIS Over U.S. Air Role. Why would Shiite militias, fighting against ISIS alongside the Americans, quit because the Americans are helping in the fight?  Either The New York Times is wrong (typical) or the editors at The New York Times accidently let some truth get out (implausible, but has occasionally been known to happen). Either way, it is a mistake. Anyway, I have rambled enough; here is a sampling (emphasis added): “We don’t trust the American-led coalition in combating ISIS,” said Naeem al-Uboudi, … Continue reading →

It is commonly understood that World War Two was an almost inevitable continuation of the Great War.  Many point to Versailles – that portion of the final treaties dictated in Paris by the Allies and dealing with Germany.  Hitler certainly used Versailles as a rallying cry.  But the seeds were sown not merely by this dictated, so-called “treaty.” Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, by Timothy Snyder Before getting to the unfathomable history of Central and Eastern Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, Snyder sets the stage with a brief examination of the birthing of both Hitler and Stalin – … Continue reading →

For those who value human life and value some version of the Golden (or Silver) Rule or the non-aggression principle, the continuous wars of the 21st century are rightly to be condemned.  Interventions, pre-emptive war, regime change, expansion of empire – none of these are justifiable under any moral code, yet for these reasons hundreds of thousands of non-combatants and otherwise innocent people have been murdered in the last fifteen years. I often remind myself that – relatively speaking and certainly not for those trapped in today’s violence – the world is relatively peaceful today…despite the worst efforts of the … Continue reading →