Important Note:
Opinions are fun. My friends tell me I am someone with lots of opinions and that's fine since I don't get mad at others when they disagree with me. In this same spirit I am interested in hearing yours views as long as you are able to share your views without boiling over. I look forward to hearing from you. I tend to write in the form of short essays most of the time, but contributions do not need to be in this same format or size. Some of the content here will date itself pretty quickly, other content may be virtually timeless, this is for the reader to judge.
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Tactical lessons from Ukraine
Posted at: Mar/21/2022 : Posted by: Mel
Related Category: Historical Insights, Politics & Gov, World Watching,
For anyone not aware, the Russian army after spending months building up their forces along the Ukrainian border, ultimately invaded Ukraine on Feb 24 of 2022. This has devolved from a military action to genocide and humanitarian crisis. While I don’t wish to ignore the scale of human tragedy that is unfolding, there are some serious lessons to be learned about the Russian military and its tactic.....read more…
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25 Cents Worth of Democracy
Posted at: Sep/14/2020 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Historical Insights, Politics & Gov, Watching America,
Talking about sweet reminiscences from some bygone time is not something I often do. The past is seldom as rosy as we would like to remember. Additionally, selective memory is an interesting phenomena that helps us to forget the things we really don’t want to remember. Maybe I am also suffering from the deception of rose colored glasses. Nevertheless, here I am remembering our two political par.....read more…
Why the Battle of Dunkirk Matters
Posted at: Oct/22/2017 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Historical Insights,
Historians tend to document and teach about war and its campaigns in terms of its greatest battles and prizes. Not surprising therefore, when learning about World War II (WWII) history in the European theater we talk of the second Battle of El Alamein, the Battle for Sicily, the Battle of Stalingrad, the Normandy landing, the raid on Ploesti, the Battle of Arnhem (Operation Market Garden) and the.....read more…
Crazy Judah
Posted at: May/03/2017 : Posted by: mel
America’s first working steam locomotive was pioneered by a wealthy New Yorker named John Stevens. However, because Steven’s locomotive was never named, never carried passengers or cargo, and least of all never went anywhere except in a small circle in Hoboken New Jersey, it and his name have managed to fade from popular history. Nevertheless, Steven’s 1815 model inspired many imitators. In a s.....read more…
What was SCOTUS up to?
Posted at: Apr/30/2016 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Historical Insights, Politics & Gov, The Law, Watching America,
Listening to lawyers speak beyond the fictional versions of television can be extremely boring and confusing. The most prestigious place in the United States for a lawyer to argue a case is before the United States Supreme Court. Acting as presumed experts on the Constitution, the Supreme Court therefore is tasked to evaluate judicial appeals, new laws and other legal content with respect to ens.....read more…
100 years of Relativity
Posted at: Apr/28/2015 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Historical Insights, Science,
Way back when I was in high school I was introduced to physics for the first time. I loved the class, but in retrospect believe I must have tormented my teacher. While he was teaching about blocks sliding on an inclined plain, I was interrupting with questions about surface tension on air foil surfaces. When the lecture moved to centripetal force, I started asking about relativity. The teacher.....read more…
What if he wasn’t killed?
Posted at: Apr/03/2014 : Posted by: mel
In June of 1914 two shots were fired in Sarajevo killing Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his wife. Much like a series of dominos ready to fall in sequence, one thing led to another. In response to the assassinations, rulers in Vienna threatened Serbia; Russia came to the Serbia’s defense and Germany came to Austria’s defense. As the tiles continued to topp.....read more…
Is it Munich or Beijing all over again?
Posted at: Dec/05/2013 : Posted by: mel
The United States and many of its allies have had a very bitter relationship with the Iran for nearly 34 years. During the last 3 months Iran has been engaged in a series of negotiations to relax some of the myriad of international sanctions imposed on it to pressure a freezing any further development with respect to their nuclear development program. For President Obama this could be a crucial.....read more…
What would George say?
Posted at: Oct/22/2013 : Posted by: mel
Some say that modern politics are too far removed from historical examples to be realistically compared to anything in our school books. Others say that history is really about cause and effect, and the history books give us plenty of content to review when taking on the mess we call American politics. I am a strong believer in the latter and I feel that despite being dead for over 200 years, Geo.....read more…
My how cars have changed
Posted at: Jul/03/2013 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Historical Insights, Perspectives,
Cars are one of the hot beds for continuous change. Teams of designers are endlessly destroying brain cells in an attempt to find the right blend of new styling and innovative features to capture your purchasing dollar. The push button electric transmission on the 1957-58 Dodge, DeSoto and Plymouths never quite caught on. The outrageous tail fins of the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado have become iconi.....read more…
