Maggie's Farm

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Tuesday, October 10. 2023

Tuesday morning links

 What Do You Know About 1491?


1491 is  a very cool book 


Summers: I've never been as disillusioned with Harvard as now


NYC Mayor: Maybe we should look at reparations too


 McCarthy: The US could be next, thanks to Biden's border crisis


 Victor Davis Hanson: Israel, Our White-House Absurdities, & The Left's Empire Of Lies


 Leftists Come Out in Support of Hamas Massacres, Send Money to Palestinians


 Israel Imposes Complete Siege on Gaza, Cuts Off Electricity, Fuel, Food, and Water Ahead of Ground Operation


 UAE Sides with Israel, Condemns Hamas for ‘Nihilistic Destruction’


Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 08:50 | Comments (19) | Trackbacks (0)

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Israel Imposes Complete Siege on Gaza, Cuts Off Electricity, Fuel, Food, and Water Ahead of Ground Operation

Know how Germany lost WWII? Because they couldn't get fuel and even food was a problem. Don't go to war with the country that supplies your basic needs.
#1 JK Brown on 2023-10-10 10:22 (Reply)
1491

The article regurgitates some of the false narrative that is popular with the crazies. Two examples:

Could the pre-16th-century population of the Americas have rivaled that of Europe?

Oh give me a break! Where is the evidence of that. No books, science, medicine, nothing. What the author is really trying to exploit is a favorite untruth that the population of the Americas was really large and thus the travesty of the event that killed many of them was even larger than we previously thought. Probably not true. Probably the entire population in the Americas was in the millions and "maybe" exceeding ten to twenty million. We don't know but the lifestyle and the evidence indicates as any tribe grew they ran out of food and then died off.

" the invading Europeans brought a disease that wiped out the few who did" live here.
Technically true. Just as the Europeans brought health care that saved lives. And the disease they brought wasn't by intent and in fact it killed far more European immigrants and their children than it killed natives to the Americas. I guess the Europeans should have worn masks. This is a silly and historically incorrect argument that serves no purpose. Diseases then and now ravage populations and it isn't "my" fault because I'm white. And the Indians aren't victims because they are people of color or indigenous or whatever buzzword you come up with. This particular clash of cultures was inevitable and would have occurred had the Indians taken a trip to Europe and back too. It simply was no one's fault. Literally hundreds of millions of Europeans died from smallpox before it was brought under control. Just understand that when anyone brings up this issue they are proudly displaying their bias and whatever follows in their diatribe is untrue and deliberately so.
#2 OneGuy on 2023-10-10 10:47 (Reply)
People lived, people died in the Americas before Columbus. Wars were fought, won and lost before Columbus. Same thing after Columbus. 1491? Read it if you want, Wang's take on Mann's book did nothing to incite me to do so.
#3 Jim on 2023-10-10 11:56 (Reply)
Convince me that Stone Age tribes who hadn’t invented the wheel or written language and were 5,000 years behind the rest of the world should be celebrated instead.
#4 Erasmus on 2023-10-10 12:06 (Reply)
Erasmus: Convince me that Stone Age tribes who hadn’t invented the wheel or written language and were 5,000 years behind the rest of the world should be celebrated instead.

Amerindians made substantial contributions to horticulture, including with the development of the common bean, maize, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, avocados, chili peppers, and cacao.
#4.1 Zachriel on 2023-10-10 13:55 (Reply)
Hum. They domesticated several plants. Not the accomplishment you seem to think it is. It occurred thousands of times all over the world. If that's the best you can do. maybe sit this one out.
You could mention that the Mayans did have hierographic writing.
You could mention that the parts of the New World that hosted large populations were in worse geographies than the successful old world civilizations. You could point out that the new world had been settled by hums much later than the old world.
#4.1.1 James on 2023-10-10 19:33 (Reply)
James: Not the accomplishment you seem to think it is.

Food is an important component of culture. Consider Italian cuisine without the tomato. Also, maize and potatoes have provided sustenance for millions.
#4.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2023-10-10 20:41 (Reply)
Just no. Collecting and planting seeds is not a big technological breakthrough. And the mere circumstance of inhabiting the same region as certain edible plants isn't something you get to take any credit for. Hybridizing them yes, but not just happening to live where the plants grow naturally. Really, sit this one, and most comment sections out. In the net, you contribution is largely negative.
#4.1.1.1.1 James on 2023-10-11 18:09 (Reply)
James: Collecting and planting seeds is not a big technological breakthrough.

That’s a really bizarre view of history. The development of food plants is one of the most important steps in the growth of civilization. Essentially, your argument is that YOU don’t think it’s important.
#4.1.1.1.2 Zachriel on 2023-10-11 20:39 (Reply)
The Forever War Richard Fernandez

QUOTE:
Israel has declared war for the first time in 50 years.

. . . That hammer arrived in the form of news the Israelis would besiege Gaza. No electricity, food or fuel would be allowed into the city of 2 million. Not since the 9 month siege of Mosul in which ISIS was destroyed have there been urban operations of this magnitude in the world. Concern was immediate.

. . . It is little wonder that China, Turkey, the UN and the left wing ‘Squad’ in Congress are all calling for ‘restraint’. They are afraid — with ample reason — that the s**t will hit the fan. . . . The question is which future action minimizes total expected destruction. What does Guterres propose as the alternative to a siege? Talks? The UN has failed, which is how we got here in the first place. There must be another way! OK, but what is it?

. . . The signal from inside the establishment is apparently to keep it local. Besiege Gaza if you like but don’t involve the ayatollahs.

However this means that even after Gaza is reduced to pulviscular ruin, all Netanyahu would have bought for all that death and destruction is a short reprieve until the next round begins, at a time of Tehran’s choosing. For any sort of lasting solution Washington must offer Israel more: a real solution to the Iran’s hostility.

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2023/10/10/the-forever-war-2-n1733704
#5 feeblemind on 2023-10-10 13:17 (Reply)
re 1491

I happen to be reading this book. I find it interesting and not a left wing tome.

The author describes a world where men were savages, war and slavery were common and the environment was altered to the best of their ability to increase their chances for survival. It is far from the leftist narrative of an Eden where men lived in harmony with each other and nature.
#6 feeblemind on 2023-10-10 13:23 (Reply)
They Kill, While Our Government Tweets and Deletes....
-- Victor Davis Hanson

https://t.co/NwaYPS6YiH

They just found dozens of babies, some with their heads cut off. Families completely gunned down in their beds.

Hamas beheaded babies.

There are no words for this.
#7 Zachinoff on 2023-10-10 13:39 (Reply)
Electric Bus in U.K. 'Clean Air Zone' Burns Uncontrollably, Sending Toxic Black Smoke Into the Air

One wonders how far a diesel bus would have to travel to emit this much smoke?

1:36 video.

https://rumble.com/v3o99kb-electric-bus-in-u.k.-clean-air-zone-burns-uncontrollably-sending-toxic-blac.html
#8 feeblemind on 2023-10-10 13:49 (Reply)
Electric bus fires are environmentally safe, no harmful fumes are emitted at all. Just fairy dust, unicorn farts, and pixie glitter.
#8.1 Jerryskids on 2023-10-10 14:05 (Reply)
Amerindians made substantial contributions to electric bus fires until these combined with the Arrhenius Effect to incinerate most of the Great Plains, which enabled further colonization of North America.
#8.1.1 Zachriel's more clever doppelganger on 2023-10-10 16:03 (Reply)
You are quite correct Jerryskids.

My error.
#8.1.2 feeblemind on 2023-10-11 09:50 (Reply)
The headlines frame the ongoing dis civilization of a once functioning US. The dysfunctional leadership stuffs its pockets with fiat while the rational maintain the garden and woodlot.
#9 indyjonesouthere on 2023-10-10 19:20 (Reply)
Leftists Come Out in Support of Hamas Massacres, Send Money to Palestinians

Or, you could send those brave young Israeli soldiers some nice pizza.
#10 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2023-10-10 22:39 (Reply)
A book that would be interesting to read with 1491 is Numbers from Nowhere, which specifically looks at the population debate and the types of evidence used.

https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Nowhere-Henige/dp/0806190361/

Although Amazon lists it as published in 2022, this must be a reprint or something as I believe it was first published in 1998. So, 1491 probably has more up-to-date research, but Numbers from Nowhere is dealing with methods and how historians have arrived at various population estimates. It will be interesting to see if 1491 falls into the traps Numbers pointed out.
#11 Thomas Doubting (Link) on 2023-10-12 09:51 (Reply)

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