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Comment by doone on May 6, 2013 at 10:50am

THE UNITED STATES: A PREMATURE POSTPARTUM IN FOUR PARTS

by Akim Reinhardt

The Ottoman Empire, which emerged during the beginning of the 14th century, reached its zenith some 250 years later under its 10th Sultan, Suleiman the Law Giver.  By that point, the empire held sway over more than 2 million square miles spread across parts of three continents, from Hungary in the west to Persia in the east, from the north shore of the Black Sea to the southern tip of the Red Sea. 

And then began the long, slow slog towards oblivion.  Osmanli imperial decline unfolded over the course of three and a half centuries.  There was no shortage of ups and downs along the way, but of course there were more of the latter than the former. The empire teetered into the 20th century, and by the start of World War I, had lost almost all of its holdings in Europe and north Africa.  As with the Hapsburgs and czarist Russia, the war itself proved to be the coup de grace, signaling an end to the era of classic empires.  Ottoman forces achieved mixed results during the actual fighting, but by the time the war was over, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was leading a successful revolt from within.  The sultanate was abolished in 1922, and the empire's Anatolian rump reformed as the modern nation of Turkey the following year.  After more than six centuries of rise and fall, the empire was done.

It had taken 350 years for the Ottoman empire to slip from apogee to dissolution; just its decline alone had lasted longer than many political entities exist in toto.  Indeed, the United States first gained first independence "only" 230 years ago, which means it needs well over four and a half more centuries to match the staying power of the Ottomans.

As a Historian, I know better than most how useless it is to predict the future.  I will not even hazzard a guess as to when the United States will finally dissolve or how it will occur: through bloody war, contentious rebellion, or quiet disintegration.

But it will happen eventually.  Nothing lasts forever.  Nothing.

And whenever it does happen, future historians might possibly look back to the mid-20th century as the U.S. imperial acme in much the same way they now look back to the mid-16th century as the peak of Ottoman glory.

Continue reading "The United States: A Premature Postpartum in Four...

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on May 1, 2013 at 7:43pm

What a shame! -- Dallas

Before Jason Collins, there was Justin Fashanu

Fifteen years before Jason Collins took his ground breaking steps out of the closet and into American sports history, a 37-year-old man named Justin Fashanu walked into a London storage unit and took his own life.
Fashanu, an English professional soccer player, was the Collins of his time, having revealed his homosexuality midway through a career that flirted with stardom and ended in tragedy.

But Fashanu's time wasn't ready for him. Neither England, nor the 1990s, nor soccer, were prepared to embrace an openly gay athlete, setting into motion a spiral of self-destruction that ended in a premature death.

While Collins has rightly been lauded for his bravery after his revelation earlier this week, Fashanu's sexuality made him a target in a sport that still does a shockingly poor job at tolerance. His own coaches spat homophobic epithets in his direction. His teammates made crude and insulting attempts at humor. Opposition fans concocted vile songs and chants. Even his own brother spoke out against him. [continue]

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 29, 2013 at 12:02am

Never mind. I don't think I want your support any more.

Unbelievable. 

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 25, 2013 at 11:06pm

Fourth Grader's Pro-Gay Marriage Essay Goes Viral

Comment by doone on April 25, 2013 at 2:54pm

Trees On Skyscrapers

APR 25 2013 @ 2:21PM

Tim De Chant shakes his head:

[T]rees atop buildings have become an architectural crutch, a way to make your building feel sustainable without necessarily being so. And that’s a charitable assessment. Here’s how I really feel—trees on skyscrapers are a distraction from rampant development and deforestation. They’re trees for the rich and no one else. They’re the soma in architecture’s brave new world of “sustainable” development.

In reality, trees on skyscrapers will likely be anything but sustainable. Structures built to support trees need to be over-engineered compared with their abiotic equivalents—trees are heavy, so is dirt (multiply so when wet), and so are watering systems required to keep them alive. If those trees are to have a chance on these windy precipices, their planters had better be deep, which further compounds problems raised in the previous sentence. A skyscraper that’s built to support trees will require more concrete, more steel, more of anything structural. That’s a lot of carbon, not to mention other resources, spent simply hoisting vegetation dozens of stories up, probably more than will ever be recouped in the trees’ lifetimes.

(Image: Boeri Studio‘s architectural rendering of Bosco Verticale, a pair of residential towers currently under construction in Milan, Italy.)

Comment by doone on April 23, 2013 at 11:49am

The front page of the website of France's newspaperLe Monde:

The title reads, "Marriage For All finally passed in the Assembly".

Source: lemonde.fr

Comment by doone on April 22, 2013 at 10:20pm

Population of Australia: 23 Million, 23 April, 2013 infographic

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 20, 2013 at 10:41pm

That was an interesting article, doone.

Comment by doone on April 20, 2013 at 12:04pm

Blinded By Isolation?

APR 20 2013 @ 9:19AM

Aaron David Miller argues that America’s unique geography “explain[s] the way Americans see the world”:

The United States is the only great power in the history of the world that has had the luxury of having nonpredatory neighbors to its north and south, and fish to its east and west. … Canadians, Mexicans, and fish. That trio of neighbors has given the United States an unprecedented degree of security, a huge margin for error in international affairs, and the luxury of largely unfettered development.

He views these circumstances as a major factor in determining US foreign policy:

U.S. nationalism was defined politically, not ethnically. Anyone can be an American, regardless of color, creed, or religion. America’s public square has become an inclusive one — and is becoming more so, not less. That’s all good news, but too often, it leads Americans to see the world on their terms and not the way it really is.

Just look at America’s recent foreign-policy misadventures. Americans’ mistaken belief that post-invasion Iraq would be a place where Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds would somehow look to the future to build a new nation reflected this tendency. It’s the same story with the Arab Spring: From the beginning, America seemed determined to impose its own upbeat Hollywood ending on a movie that was only just getting started and would become much darker than imagined. The notion that what was happening in Egypt was a transformative event that would turn the country over to the secular liberals powered by Facebook and Twitter was truly an American conceit.

Larison disagrees, placing more of the blame on political elites.

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 20, 2013 at 11:59am

That's great! 

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