History

The Last of the Chippewa Mail Runners

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Some time ago I stumbled upon this fascinating story about one Antoine Dennis. The article is from the Wisconsin Magazine of History, and is from the issue years of 1938-1939.

The correspondent, Arthur Tenney Holbrook, recounts a tale of a tale.

Mr. Holbrook laments the fact that his son had to trek nine miles on foot to get back to his residence one night. Mr. Dennis, now 84, says – is that it?

Next time you drive to work, take a look at your odometer and measure out 9 miles. No short distance, that.

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Failure, Part 2

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It was a vital national industry, employing many thousands. The plants, although state of the art when built, were outdated. Years of poor management and outright hostile labor relations had not helped. Foreign competitors were taking market share, and US companies were belatedly moving production facilities south or offshore. Would you like to contribute your tax dollars reviving this industry?

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“The State of Africa” by Martin Meredith

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I was recently in London walking through the exclusive Marylebone neighborhood when I came upon this building with a vaguely socialistic (hammer & sickle) flag. I walked up to the front door and noted that in fact this was the Embassy of Angola. I am not a real estate expert but my guess based on a cursory knowledge of rents in the area (the land underneath is usually owned by the Portman Estate) but I would guess that the rent for this location is probably somewhere around $75,000 USD / month. To put it in perspective it is very near to the Swiss embassy, but that is a country that can afford the rent.

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Don’t Be Preedy

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While linking to a Megan McArdle comment  on a childish Matthew Yglesias post on bankers, Instapundit asks a question  that reveals a void in our language and world-models:

“DOES GREED MAKE YOU A BAD PERSON? What about greed for power, a trait exhibited by many of those who denounce greed for money? Which is worse?”

Why does Instapundit have to use the cumbersome phrase “greed for power” to describe a very common human behavior? Why do we have to describe the lust for power in terms of the lust for money?

Language can tell you a great deal about the world models held by those who speak the language. Specifically, if a language lacks a specific, neat word for a particular concept, it tells you that the people who speak the language don’t use the concept very often.  

What does it tell us that English and every other Western language have a single word to describe the destructive lust for money but that they lack a single word to describe the destructive lust for political power?

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