Monday Meandering

First, I want to express my deepest condolences to all the people of Poland and all Polish people everywhere on Earth for the horrible tragedy of Saturday. To lose so many national leaders in so many fields at once is stunning and terrible. Considering relative sizes, we in the US must multiply the loss by 10 to get an idea what the impact of a similar loss would be. So far Poland is pulling together and mourning as one. And initial clues are that the tragedy might pull Russia and its people out of their old delusions. Putin's recognition of Stalin's guilt at Katyn started that thought a few days before; now the tragedy is forcing people in Russia to recognize Poland's loss both then and now. See this story for more commentary:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/11/poland-tragedy-katyn-russia

Markets

The Greece mess continues. Some in the EU seem to want to do something, but that Union's weak executive and weak powers are preventing acting with deliberation and speed. The markets want to see the money. Why not just let the IMF do it ?

Book of the Week

A new book just out - Braddock's March, by Thomas Crocker - is very good. This book covers that organization for and the actual march by a large army into the wilderness to attempt to drive the French from the area where Pittsburgh now is, to prevent the French from strangling the English colonies with a string of forts. Braddock's army is eventually crushed by the French and Indians. This battle started the French and Indian War which determined the future path of North America.

The book is very well researched, drawing mostly on letters and diaries and other first hand sources of the people involved. The crucial importance of this march and battle arise from several factors: its own significance in the start of the war, that many American leaders of the Revolutionary War got their initial military experience in it, including George Washington, and that this close contact between British officials and Americans started the tensions between Americans and British persons as American began to recognize their freedom would be lessened by more British control.

Word of the Day

"Vincible" - adjective [$10] literary
Vincible means that can be overcome or conquered.
Sentence: The weaknesses shown by the British in their defeat in Braddock's March might has simmered in George Washington's mind and helped him recognize that British military power was vincible in the American environment.