Dan from Madison

Book Review – The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy

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I have mentioned several times that the books that I have been reading about WW2 are no longer ones that, as Lex Green so aptly put it, have the usual arrows pointing toward the Volga, Normandy and Berlin. Most books that I have been reading are very narrowly focused and are about a single phase of the war, such as a person, place, weapon, or similar items. Reading books that specialize in certain aspects on a very minute level is helping me put together the larger events in a much more interesting way. Reading about Barbarossa is one thing, but reading about the partisan resistance, or the role of animals in that operation is quite another.

Along these lines, I have just finished up a book by Adam Tooze called The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy. This book is about WW2 from an economic point of view. The book doesn’t really talk about generalship, tank tactics, or anything else military except in economic terms.

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The Great Flood of ’08

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Water, water everywhere.

After smashing the record for snowfall due to Gorebal Warming, we have had record rains this Spring due to Gorebal Warming. Many of you may have seen the footage by now of a couple of houses floating down the Wisconsin River. I even saw that footage on Fox News last night; it is on an endless loop on our local media.

To create that footage, Lake Delton overflowed its banks, took out a road and incredibly created its own new river. The ENTIRE lake drained out into the Wisconsin River. It was a spectacular sight.

Six hundred million gallons of water came out of the lake and into the river forty feet below in TWO HOURS, claiming the homes. If you had plans on catching the famous Tommy Bartlett show in the near future, you may consider changing your itinerary as it is pretty difficult to water ski on a lake bottom.

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ChicagoBoyz Wildlife Series IV

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Jonathan has  shown his  courage in  capturing pictures of some of the wild and more vicious animals lurking around Southern Florida as of late,  so I thought I would do the same for the continuing education of our readers.   And what an opportunity I recently had!   On a bike ride last Sunday here in Southern Wisconsin,  I saw the fear inspiring and very rare in the wild miniature donkey!   These creatures are extremely dangerous and need to be photographed and observed with great care.   Here you can see them stalking me, using their camouflage almost perfectly.   Fortunately for me, I have experience dealing with these “kings of the woods”, and was able to make good my escape.   Be extremely cautious around them at all times and never turn your back on them or they will consider you prey, much like the cougars we have been reading about as of late.

Beware the mini donks!

Related posts:

ChicagoBoyz Wildlife Series Three, Two, and One.

Guns For Me, But Not For Thee

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Via Annie comes this gem from the Sun Times.   Here is the money:

Mell forgot to re-register the weapons as required every year by the ordinance that he helped to pass as one of the City Council’s most senior members.

So, what does an alderman do when he finds himself in violation of the law? He writes a new law. Mell has quietly introduced an ordinance that would reopen gun registration in Chicago and create a one-month amnesty for himself and other gun owners in the same predicament.

During the monthlong window, gun owners who attempted to re-register their guns between May 1, 2007, and April 1, 2008, only to be rejected on grounds the registrations had lapsed would be allowed to re-register without penalty.

Some things in Chicago change, some things stay the same.

I have a feeling that after the Heller decision, the  Honorable Richard  Daley and other municipal leaders  in the state of Illinois  will be the next in line with lawsuits to defend…and hopefully lose.