happy birthday, America!

234 today, and you don't look a day past 200. i think you may be getting into yet another midlife crisis, but overall you've aged remarkably well.

Quote of the Term

i have always been a fan of the following quote; and as our government prepares to blow roughly 57 zillion of our tax dollars, it once again proves the wisdom of our founding fathers:

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. -- I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

written by Benjamin Franklin, and appearing in the November 29, 1766 issue of The London Chronicle.

dale soden is the man

i enjoyed most of his classes (even dale couldn't do anything with "ideas about history"), and just got to play pool with him a few months ago.

whoops

when you're trying to make an analogy, make sure you proofread it before going public with it.

who knew?

it's things like this that make me really look forward to becoming a medieval historian: underwear spreads literacy.

random historical fact of the day

john locke died two centuries, two years, and two days ago. or at least he would have had i remembered to post this last night, and for some reason it's not letting me backdate it. oh well.