Monday, October 12, 2009

Celebrating Columbus Day

Today is a holiday for celebrating the discovery of the New World by the Old World. Modern revisionists who make a hobby of denigrating the civilization created and still led by European white people like to say that New World wasn't discovered, it was there all along as a home for the "native" Americans. Why do they use that term ? Because they want to be under the panoply of implied "good" things created by America, yet differentiate themselves from the European white people. After all in their view, everything bad in the world is caused by them.

Turn back the clock to 1491. What was in the undiscovered New World ?

Aztecs dominated the center of the hemisphere with a culture focused on ritual murders of captive peoples. Writing and science of the Maya civilisation had been lost, probably due to conquest.

No metalworking skills - not even copper axes. Steel tomahawks came from Europe as trade goods. There were no horses or even oxen, hence no wheel for transportation. Ships ? Nope, just canoes.

Almost no people lived on the Great Plains - hunting buffalo was very difficult without horses. Native peoples used spears and arrows tipped with crafted flint arrowheads. The skills were about the same as existed in the Old World 10,000 years earlier. "Armor" was made from folded hides worn over the upper body.

The northern hemisphere was a mass of tribes in constant warfare. I've read histories that focus on the very earliest contacts of the European with the New World in North America - both in the Southwest and south with the Spanish and in the north with the French, English and Dutch. accounts. The cultures are rather reminiscent of Germanic tribes depicted in Caesar's commentaries. Tribes fought and massacred each other to get as much land as possible for hunting, leaving a huge swath of vacant land around them.

The European gets blamed for the plagues that surely killed large numbers of New World peoples after "first contact". One area that I do know much about, viz., the Ohio area, was NOT depopulated by the plagues. The Iroquois did it, via simple genocide. A combination of the two destruction forces probably happened in most areas. A tribe was weakened with loss of half its people from plague, then the stronger neighbors could move in and wipe them out. [Reference: "The Battle for North America" by Francis Parkham who uses original French accounts of the earliest explorers.]

Plagues existed in the Old World, too. The Black Death is well known, but one can read a history book titled, "Plagues and Peoples" by William H. McNeill to see that many, many plagues swept through the Old World for thousands of years. Those arose from east and south Asia and Africa, mainly. Do we condemn those cultures for destruction of human life. Nope. They aren't the dreaded "white European".

Heck, AIDS came from black Africa. Do pundits and revisionists write about that plague as being from black Africa ? Nope. They concoct phony ways to blame it on the white man and the CIA.

The New World in 1491 was an early neolithic society with culture levels around the level of perhaps at most 4500 BC in the Old World - about 6000 years behind technologically and culturally. The discovery of the New World by the Old World lead to huge advances in human civilization, including the most important one to date, namely the creation of the United States of America, the first democratic republic of free people with no aristocracy.

Where would the world be without that discovery ? Germany would have won World war I, Bolshevism would rule north central Asia, and east Asia would be ruled by either a Japanese military empire or a Maoist theocracy or both. No forces of freedom would exist anywhere: just endless genocides and massacres. And then one of those "wonderful" nations would "discover" the New World and spread the same plagues and even more deadly technology to a primitive people.

Obviously, the world is hugely better off from the discovery of Columbus. Let's celebrate his drive to look over the horizon and find out what's out there; it was a great achievement for humanity that led to many great and wonderful events.

Actions

Nothing planned. I will go over my positions today and evaluate them for risks and reward potential.

Word of the Day

"Adventitious" - adjective [$10]
Adventitious means 1. a. acquired by accident, not inherent; b. accidental, casual; 2. added from outside; 3. Biological appearing in an unusual place or in an irregular manner; 4. Law (of property) coming from a stranger or by collateral succession rather that directly.
Sentence: The adventitious position of the western hemisphere permitted to its unexpected discovery by Columbus in 1492. Had it been 1000 miles further west, discovery may have been delayed for a century or more as all attention would have focused on the route around southern Africa to the East and its profitable trade.

35 comments:

Bud said...

good morning Bman !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


back to more regular hours...................berry lite mocha in my hands

Bud said...

you see this Bman ???


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125512957855977163.html#articleTabs%3Darticle



that is a horrifically scary article............still think it's 'boob bait for bubba's' Bman ??

Bunkerman said...

so far, yes, still boob bait. "They" plant those stories to get publicity to raise money.

Bunkerman said...

hmmm ...

Guten Morgen is good morning in German, Bud.

Bunkerman said...

Polish uses a more general "dzieƄ dobry"

that 'dzi' is pronounced sort of like 'j' in "jim" ;)

Bunkerman said...

The Polish term for 'James' is actually "Jakub" - that 'j' is pronounced like a 'Y' in 'yes'.

The diminutive 'nickname' is "Kuba"

Interesting, no ?

;)

Spin-em said...

SUCK ON IT YANKEE and AROD HATERS


sorry ace


wont even mention one team and azzhead fan....cuz they dont matter in the big picture and theres a lonnng way to go....but I doubt the same if the shoe was on the other foot...Im bigger than that...I'll be a gentleman

Spin-em said...

Im up 100% on my muni and shiksa tips....this is EZPZJEWPANEZE!!!!

suuuure..I believe it..after all..he's posted NVAX...IF he was hot as his heater....he'd be postin picks like crazy to show how smart he is...wouldnt he??...I think so..just thinkin outloud..."sorry" if I hurt anyones feelings.....





Teller....you are sorely missed


ROFLMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

mfl59 said...

Good news Buddy boy....went out and played yesterday....put up a beautiful 86....as a 3 handicapper? oh man...I couldnt drive the ball within 20 yards of a fairway...left...right...you name it...what a mess...

mfl59 said...

ARod...are you kidding me? Mr. October all of the sudden....okay big fella....way to go...

Bunkerman said...

sold the GOOG calls - made over 100% - and the stock is in resistance now.

Keeping the stock in Fido ... LT, holding out for 900.

Bunkerman said...

sold FCX in Fido.

I didn't like that story in FT about the risk to the huge mine/investment in Congo. I figure Chian might bollix that by bribing the gov't.

Stock is approaching "normalcy" resistance, too.

got almost 60 pts. overall. Not bad.

mfl59 said...

900??? dollars??? or yen???

Bunkerman said...

$900 US per share.
:) gotta be an optimist.

Spin-em said...

arod..if he sucks..alll over him...has a great playoff series... 2 clutch homers?//pfttt bitter apples indeed ..whatever... LETS GO METS....cost buddee boyy a hundo fri..I can tellya that...betting a losers game...hot streak ya never bet enuff...cold streak..ya keep betting too much and too often...I know..I know up 1000 %..... he's loaded...220 a round ya know...pfffttt bfd....loool

Bud said...

atta boy Bman..................start doin some sellin.............ping-pong style.............book those profits




ich machte nichts my ass





PS...............looks like Bman you up a buck in VVUS..........time to sell ???

Bud said...

Financial transaction tax not under consideration by House Ways & Means Committee - Reuters, citing spokesman
Recall that the WSJ reported Friday night that Democrats were considering a tax on financial transactions.






BOOOOYYYAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

mfl59 said...

Spin comes back from vacation and starts throwing haymakers....holy cow!!!

mfl59 said...

Bud may I have a pick on the Angels/Yankees series? Also the Rutgers-Pitt game on Friday night....

Washington -2 1/2...cover by a field goal...are you serious??? your bookie must have been tossing things at the tv...

Bunkerman said...

St Louis Fed's Bullard saying lower unemployment is a precondition to rate raise

Guess he reads this blog.

Frosty said...

Bunky a seller I see...girls want health care now my bet...on strike perhaps, distracted...nononono happy finish.

mfl59 said...

Bunkerman under the Baucus plan you could go to jail for a year if you dont provide health care....hey, bookies need doctors too sir...

Bud said...

washington huskies were a a lock


"When will this damn kid lose a bet?"

Bud said...

i haven't seen a line yet.................but i'm going to bet the yankees quite aggressively and in SIZE


i might as well make some money on the child molesters(jeter) and fags( A-fraud /texeira)

Bud said...

Rutgers is playin Pitt ?? i thought they were playin the Lancashire grammar school for boys next



texas southern 'longhorns' pffffffffffffffft

Spin-em said...

in SIZE...

lmaooooooooooooooooooooooooo

ok big daddy

make up for those Sox losses

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP THE TRASH

ohh maan what a douche

Spin-em said...

Ohhhhhhhh..thats right..YOURE UP HUUUUUUGE!!!


LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sell it somewhere else sister....ol woman at nursing home ur boffin givin you football picks too???

ROFLMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

mfl59 said...

slow your roll, Mantis....

Bunkerman said...

no employees, mfl.

One would be nuts to have employees.

they work on their own time, equipment, places. I give no orders ...

except "pay me"

Frosty said...

do they also buy from the company store...bet the mark on french ticklers is crazy..."yes, I said I want a 50 gallon drum of douche....uugghhh....distractions"

Spin-em said...

Hey Penn!!!...where's Teller...no silent email reports today??

Bunkerman said...

nope, no company store.

Any "sales" of goods are made from back of truck

;)

Spin-em said...

Red Sox whine and cheez party in the tank...ya lost shut the f up already..IFF...IFFF

mfl59 said...

noone, and I mean noone, talk to Chief like that....don't you know how great he is? just ask him...

Spin-em said...

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO



"3 yankees make more than the entire braves roster"

sooooo what.....one brave makes more than the pirates

here comes the buy the pennant BS...lmaooooooo...no problem when Ted was running the show spending the $$$$$....pffftttttt