Tag Archives: history

What Vladimir Putin Told Tucker About Hitler’s Invasion of Poland

Posted on March 6, 2024 by David Roman

I’ve noticed that the Ukrainian propaganda machine, surely the world’s best-funded, has been running with the story that Vladimir Putin told Tucker Carlson, during their long, recent interview, that Poland was to blame for WW2 because it rejected Adolf Hitler’s … Continue reading →

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Reddit on the oft-repeated assertion that Islam “preserved” classical knowledge and then graciously passed it on to Europe

Posted on August 18, 2023 by David Roman

It’s a great discussion that follows, very illuminating, which boils down to: yes, Arabic translators had a minimal effect on the transmission of Classical knowledge, which was mostly translated from Greek into Western languages via Constantinople; all scholars know this, … Continue reading →

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Many Albanians Were Killed in the Making of this Tale (In Memoriam, Ismail Kadare)

Posted on July 14, 2023 by David Roman

(All events depicted in this tale are fiction, and all the characters are fictitious, bearing no resemblance to any real people, alive or dead) Tirana, the capital city of Albania, emerged from World War II with a single touch of … Continue reading →

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How Constitutions Came to Rule the World

Posted on May 18, 2023 by David Roman

Let’s make a list of the coolest, greatest countries on Earth, by order of coolness points: Wait, what? You mean to say that the number of approved constitutions doesn’t equal coolness points? You must be kidding. I confess to having … Continue reading →

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How Democracy Grows in the Dirt

Posted on February 24, 2023 by David Roman

This review of a recent rags-to-riches-to-righteous-denunciation memoir by a wealthy, corrupt Chinese official who took refuge in the West reminds me a lot of the early history of Greek poleis. What you notice is how the same process that created … Continue reading →

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