Updated book list #8

 Completed:

• The 9/11 Commission Report
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• Caught in the Revolution: Witnesses to the Fall of Imperial Russia by Helen Rappaport
• World War I: The Definitive Visual History
• World War II: The Definitive Visual History
• The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
• The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History
• The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport
• The Race to Save the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport
• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport
• What If? and What If? 2 - A series of essays by historians on what might have been.
• Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
• America Before by Graham Hancock
• All the Gallant Men by Donald Stratton
• Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
• The Cay by Theodore Taylor
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
• When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt
• 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley
• Creature by John Saul
• The Civil War: A Visual History
• The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff

In progress:

• War and Peace (abridged) by Leo Tolstoy
• The American Revolution: A Visual History

On the docket:

• The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot (A book I bought between 8th and 9th grades in July 2003 but never actually read.)
• Dark History of Russia by Michael Kerrigan
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Photo of the Week: Maria's creep stare

 

Uncapping the House of Representatives versus term limits for members of Congress

Back on August 9th of last year I made a post talking about reforming the United States government. I'd like to narrow down the focus to Congress and more specifically the House of Representatives. A lot of ideas have been bandied about on how to "fix" congress, most often the idea of term limits to weaken the power of individual congressmen and the ability of lobbyists to buy votes. I used to be a supporter of term limits since someone sitting in Congress for 40 years seemed contrary to the idea of a representative democracy.

However a comment I once read somewhere long forgotten changed my opinion. Enacting term limits would result in politicians 'waiting out' a rival's term hoping for a more favorable congress. Then newly elected officials would 'wait out' those politicians and the cycle would continue indefinitely.

Now I believe the best way to rein in the power of individual congressmen in to increase the number of congressmen. The line of thinking is that by increasing the number it would require a greater consensus to achieve legislation while simultaneously making it prohibitively more expensive for corporate lobbyists to buy the necessary number of votes to pass favorable legislation.

I propose we start by increasing the number of representatives to 573 using first the Wyoming Rule and after the next census to 695 using the Cube root rule. Of course, this is not such a simple fix and would require Americans to vote for parties outside the Democrat-Republican dichotomy but it would be a start.

Photo(s) of the week: Shy and reserved

"With her, as with her mother, shyness and reserve were accounted as pride, but, once you knew her and had gained her affection, this reserve disappeared and the real Tatiana became apparent," (Lili) Dehn recalled.

Some cultures say that photography can steal your soul. While photos can't 'steal your soul' they can capture aspects of someone's personality and I think the following captured a glimpse of this reticent portion of Tatiana's character, at least I feel that way.

From the world of "Duh" : Vitamin D could be a piece of COVID-19's 'complex puzzle'

    In a study published Thursday, Israeli scientists discovered that people with adequate nutrition, specifically vitamin D, were less likely to develop serious illness from COVID-19 than those who were deficient.

"A study published on Thursday in the research journal PLOS One found that about half of people who were vitamin D deficient before getting COVID-19 developed severe illness, compared to less than 10% of people who had sufficient levels of the vitamin in their blood."

     This aligns with something that I've long begun to suspect: that "cold season" isn't triggered by people being in close proximity to each other (people work in close proximity year round so why wouldn't they get sick year round?) but rather a deficiency in vitamin D. My theory is that viruses that cause colds are usually benign passenger viruses that cause illness when vitamin D levels drop during winter.

"Dr. Amiel Dror, a study author and physician at the Galilee Medical Center, said of the findings, "We found it remarkable, and striking, to see the difference in the chances of becoming a severe patient when you are lacking in vitamin D compared to when you're not," The Times of Israel reported."

"The findings come from 253 people admitted to Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, Israel, between April 7, 2020, and February 4, 2021 — a period before the highly infectious Omicron variant emerged."

"Dror said the findings suggested that vitamin D helped bolster the immune system to deal with viruses that attack the respiratory system."

    Turns out that placing everyone under house arrest for a year while the media promotes obesity and drug use was the worst thing we could have done. It's something to consider.

Bonus Photo(s) of the Week: Mandates for thee, not for me.

    That seems to be the philosophy of California governor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco mayor London Breed, and Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti. All three have been more than happy to institute lockdowns and mask mandates and all three have been more than happy to routinely violate them. Newsom ignored his own orders in order to vacation in Mexico for Thanksgiving, a full year after ignoring his own orders in order to attend a party at the French Laundry restaurant. Meanwhile the day after Newsom's party, mayor London Breed attended her own party at that same restaurant. Like Newsom, a full year after attending a party at the French Laundry, she was caught clubbing mask-less in defiance of her own mandate. Garcetti does not seem to be as flippant as Newsom or Breed.

    Now our intrepid trio have all been caught, once again, violating their own masking orders while attending the NFC Championship game between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers. Will they be held accountable? Time will tell.

Photo of the Week: Isolation

Sometimes you just want to shut the world out.

Monarchy and elections Part 2: Portugal

    This will be a short post. I'm going to take this opportunity to promote the People's Monarchist Party for the Portuguese legislative elections that are coming up on January 30th.

    They currently hold no seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Republic but they do hold two seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Azores. It appears that they are the only (or at least the largest) organized monarchist political movement in Portugal. Restore the Kingdom of Portugal!

Photo of the Week: Grand duchesses Olga and Anastasia at Tsarskoye Selo, 1917

 

How much is a life (or three) worth?

On January 18th Spencer Bultman was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a drunk driving crash that killed three people and critically injured a fourth. On August 23, 2020 Bultman was driving eastbound in the westbound lanes of Highway 20 near Alden in Hardin County, Iowa when he struck a vehicle carrying Cristy Gutierres, her boyfriend Mario Zubia, and her 10-year-old son Jesse Gutierres. Her 6-year-old daughter was airlifted to Des Moines and survived.

The truly enraging part of the story is farther down the article:

Bultman had previously pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges that included driving while under the influence and in 2017 to public intoxication.

They always have priors. Instead of being locked up he was free to kill. Don't worry though, Bultman told the court he was "sorry" and that his actions were "selfish and stupid". I have little doubt that he'll be released early and I have no doubt that he'll drink and drive again, because that's the way these people are.