My Beauty Best Teacher

G. Paschal Zachary revisits the issue of the continents borders in FP:

Silence about borders has become Africa's pathology, born in the era of strongman leaders that followed decolonialization. Loath to lose any of their newly independent land, the continent's leaders upheld a gentleman's agreement to favor "stability" over change. Today, the unfortunate result is visible in nearly every corner of Africa: from a divided Nigeria, to an ungovernable Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to the very real but unrecognized state in Somaliland. Borders created through some combination of ignorance and malice are today one of the continent's major barriers to building strong, competent states. No initiative would do more for happiness, stability, and economic growth in Africa today than an energetic and enlightened redrawing of these harmful lines.

More here

Following up on his recent calls for Israel to return to its 1967 border, Obama is now calling on France to return to its 1917 border and return the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine back to Germany. For the first time ever, here is President Barack Obama's upcoming speech on Peace in the Middle Europe:

A strong and secure France is in the national security interest of the United States not simply because of a long and boring list of reasons which I shall list and wait for you to clap after each one, but flows from a deeper and magical place that I will not name-- and that place is the values we share. As two people who struggled to win our freedom against overwhelming odds, America and France, we understand that preserving the security for which our forefathers -- and foremothers -- and rearbrothers-- and sidesisters-- and yoregrandfadders-- fought must be the work of every generation. As two vibrant democracies, we recognize that the liberties and freedoms we cherish must be constantly tortured. And as the nation that recognized the French Republic first after its independence, we have a profound commitment to its survival as a strong, secure homeland for the French people.

And so, in both word and deed, we have been unwavering in our support of France's security.  And it is precisely because of our commitment to France's long-term security that we have worked to advance peace between France and Germany. Now after all these words, just words, prepare to get a knife in your back. (Big Applause.)

The status quo between France and Germany is unsustainable. And so, in advance of a five-day trip to Europe in which I will go to parties and concerts and sight-see, I chose to ignore pressing topics like the collapse of the world economy and instead stick my nose into an issue which I have neither experience or training to speak on. There was nothing particularly original in my proposal earlier this week; this basic framework for negotiations has long been the basis for discussions among the parties, and is something with Germany has long requested. But, since others have deemed to question me, the One, let me simply lecture you all again and knock down a series of strawmen arguments to appear smart and sophisticated.

I said that the United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent borders for Germany and France based on the 1917 lines with mutually agreed swaps. In doing so, I give to Germany things which they do not own, and then demand that France trade for those things, as if I have the authority or ability to do any of this. (applause)

As for security, every state has the right to self-defense, and France must be able to defend itself –- by itself -– against any threat. (Applause.)  Meaningless guarantees must be issued to France that the Alsace and Lorraine regions will not become platforms for invasion. Now, that is what I said previously. And it was my reference to the 1917 lines -- with mutually agreed swaps -- that received the lion’s share of the attention, including just now. And since my position has been misrepresented several times, let me reaffirm what “1917 lines with mutually agreed swaps” means. If you look up the phrase "border lines with mutually agreed swaps" in any dictionary or online, you will see that it plainly means that the parties themselves -– France and Germany -– will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed in 1917.  If it is different, that is good, because I want it to start from the same framework that existed when things were different so that it reflects the same level of fairness present in the now different reality.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless Germany, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you. (Applause.)

Of course, this is satire. I took the speech that Obama gave at the AIPAC policy conference in May of 2011 and simply edited it a bit. This guy is a joke, and anyone who votes for him is a joke, and he is making a mockery of our nation and our foreign policy.

UPDATE: To be fair, I got the idea for this post after reading John Lillpop's post "Obama to Call for Return of U.S. –Mexico Borders to 1843?". In my case, I thought it was even more absurd for the President of the United States to be demanding that two non-US countries set a border to our liking than it was for Obama to call for the US to return to our own 1843 border, but I guess the other point is that the past is the past- whether it is 1843 or 1967, those borders are not as relevant as the real situation on the ground, and it is a joke to refer to them as any sort of starting point for negotiations.

My sense of humor is a bit off, just to warn you, but here are some of what I think are my funniest posts of 2011, filled with a sense of wit and sarcasm and fun. Enjoy.

BREAKING: Barack Obama Time Travels from January to Scold Barack Obama of February of his Lack of Civility in Wisconsin Budget Battle

BREAKING FAKE NEWS: In an unusual move for a sitting President of the United States, Democratic President Barack Obama time traveled from January of 2011 to February 2011 in order to to scold Democratic President Barack Obama for his political finger-pointing and lack of civility and honesty regarding the public discourse over the budget situation in Wisconsin.

January Obama reportedly said to February Obama "(We should all) strive to be better in our private lives – to be better friends and neighbors, co-workers and parents... more civility in our public discourse... only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation."

In reply, February Obama said to January Obama "Some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like more of an assault on unions..." and then DNC's Organizing for America arm -- the organization and people who were behind Obama's 2008 campaign -- began playing an active role in organizing protests...

(the rest of the post is a long hypothetical conversation between time-traveling Obama's which quotes from him at different times to reveal his shameless hypocrisy in an amusing way)

EXCLUSIVE: Obama Prepared to Demand France Return to 1917 Borders

Following up on his recent calls for Israel to return to its 1967 border, Obama is now calling on France to return to its 1917 border and return the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine back to Germany. For the first time ever, here is President Barack Obama's upcoming speech on Peace in the Middle Europe:...

(the fake speech is quite long- I took the speech that Obama gave at the AIPAC policy conference in May of 2011 and simply edited it a bit- but here is my favorite part of it)

...I said that the United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent borders for Germany and France based on the 1917 lines with mutually agreed swaps. In doing so, I give to Germany things which they do not own, and then demand that France trade for those things, as if I have the authority or ability to do any of this. (applause)...

(for similar fun, see John Lillpop's post "Obama to Call for Return of U.S. –Mexico Borders to 1843?")

Obama's Belief in 'Bad Luck' Part of What Religion Exactly?

"We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, gotten the economy moving again," Obama told a crowd in Decorah, Iowa. "But over the last six months we've had a run of bad luck."

If bad luck is the reason that our nation has struggled lately, I wondered to myself just what exactly our President and Commander-in-Chief was doing to combat this recent run of bad luck.

Never in my knowledge has any other President had to battle 'bad luck' before- a google search of past Presidents' speeches did not turn up any results of past Presidents, whether they were Republican like George W Bush or Ronald Reagan or Democrats like Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter, ever blaming 'bad luck' for the problems that the United States faced. Perhaps it was because these past Presidents were religious people, who did not believe in paganism and 'luck' so much as the divine will of God and his plan...

(the rest of the post is a serious attempt by me to investigate the role that karma and luck play in the President of the United States worldview and understand what sorts of policies he will put in place to battle bad karma and bad luck- it's a joke because he's a joke)

Scientists Filling Roles Priests Once Filled?

(I'll be honest, this post was simply an excuse to bring up an earlier funny post I wrote called Is Al Gore the Re-incarnation of the Xhosa Prophetess Nongqawuse?, but it remains relevant still)

...increasingly, scientists are filling a role in our society once reserved from priests- they tell fortunes based on reading omens in the weather, they tell the future (inaccurately) based on models they create, they punish unbelievers and reward those agree with them without questioning, they build themselves great temples on universities designed to add prestige to their profession, they advise people regarding the proper sacrifices to make in order to appease the angered science gods, they peddle myths and run secret societies, and they hold to a worldview that does not allow any other challengers.

It should be no surprise that scientists are filling this role- for thousands of years, humans have turned to priests, shamans, fortune-tellers, soothsayers, magicians, witch-doctors, and religious types of all sorts. These sorts prey on those who are looking for hope, looking for direction, looking for someone to tell them the right way to live their own lives, and these scientists fill that role- many have, after all, devoted their lives to killing the Christian God and subverting his people, and now they rush into that vacuum with their own creation myths, sacred beliefs, sacrifices, and class of keepers of the eternal flame of truth....

Hello John Holdren, Science Czar, believer in the Unified Theory of Left-Wing Causes, and Tyrant

As the United States of America continues its descent under President Obama and his New Democrat Party into a third-world dictatorship, I still find myself unfamiliar with the overlords who now control my behavior and distribute to me gifts and favors... So today let's get to know a little bit better our Science Czar, John Holdren...

...Holdren is a believer in the so-called Unified Theory of Left-Wing Causes. This theory is that all left wing causes- including global warming, global cooling, overpopulation, endangered species, poverty, diversity, and many others- can all be solved by a benevolent world dictatorship of the enlightened elite that will force others to live their lives differently and will redistribute their property as they see fit...

(Here I am simply amused by the phrase Unified Theory of Left-Wing Causes, as if this is some sort of pseudo-scientific system out there- check out Powerline's post on this for more)

Chimpanzee Hunting Driving Monkeys to Extinction? Those Damned Dirty Apes!

Scientific American reports that that red colobus monkeys in Uganda's Kibale National Park are being hunted to extinction—by chimpanzees. According to a study published May 9 in the American Journal of Primatology, this is the first documented case of a nonhuman primate significantly overhunting another primate species...

...Scientific American is wrong- this is not the first time that those damned dirty apes have tried to kill other primates. Several years ago I got my hands on an account of apes hunting man- I know it is sketchy at best and is not a complete account, but I am going to pass it on to you now to think about.... here is the other account that I have read of ape hunting man...

(you'll have to read the post to get the joke- you'll chuckle, I am positive)

Funny Rick Synder Story about Bureaucrats

Yesterday I got a chance to sit down and talk for a bit with Michigan Governor Rick Synder and he told me a pretty funny story. I'm going to try my best to rely it to you...

(it's a good story- I can't improve it in any way by summarizing it for you, so just read the post)

Hopefully these all brought you a chuckle to start off the year, and you all will be sure to regularly read A Conservative Teacher for insight, humor, and a dose of reality.

Steve Brenan of the Washington Monthly (which I found via memeorandum) begins his blog post 'None Dare Call it Sabotage' this way...

Consider a thought experiment. Imagine you actively disliked the United States, and wanted to deliberately undermine its economy. What kind of positions would you take to do the most damage?

Let's play the game! Close your eyes and take a minute to think about the policies you would put in place if you disliked America- the kind that would really do the most damage. What did you come up with?

In my mind, those positions that you would take to do the most damage to America would be those positions that damaged our long-term economic strength, eroded our historical values, weakened our security, opened up our borders to invasion, piled up debt, moved people from jobs to welfare, and granted other nations power over our domestic and foreign affairs. To be honest, the stimulus bill might have helped provide employment for people in favored union industries, but long-term, it is a policy designed to do considerable damage to America. Obamacare appears nice to some groups and rewards those who don't take care of themselves, but in the long term will be costly for the government to provide and will encourage structural irresponsibility, and includes death panels and money for abortions, both of which I also consider damaging positions for America. Letting pot be legalized, letting illegal immigrants flow into America, suing states that try to close the borders, encouraging gay marriage, doing little to stop the breakdown of the traditional family structure, funneling more money to killing unborn babies, working to remove firearms from law-abiding citizens, stealing money from my children and grandchildren to give higher salaries to government employees today, and letting Iran get nuclear weapons I would also consider positions taken to harm America by those who dislike our nation.

The funny thing is, after much thought (for a liberal), Steve arrived at a much different conclusion than I did. This is what he imagined:

You might start with rejecting the advice of economists and oppose any kind of stimulus investments. You'd also want to cut spending and take money out of the economy, while blocking funds to states and municipalities, forcing them to lay off more workers. You'd no doubt want to cut off stimulative unemployment benefits, and identify the single most effective jobs program of the last two years (the TANF Emergency Fund) so you could kill it.


You might then take steps to stop the Federal Reserve from trying to lower the unemployment rate. You'd also no doubt want to create massive economic uncertainty by vowing to gut the national health care system, promising to re-write the rules overseeing the financial industry, vowing re-write business regulations in general, considering a government shutdown, and even weighing the possibly of sending the United States into default.

You might want to cover your tracks a bit, and say you have an economic plan that would help -- a tax policy that's already been tried -- but you'd do so knowing that such a plan has already proven not to work.

It's almost as if there really is a bizzaro world out there, where up is down, left is right, and wrong is right. Every liberal program that I said was bad (because it was paid for by debt, encouraged unemployment, discouraged private initiative and hard work and responsibility, and was contrary to the historical values on which our nation was founded) he said was good. Every policy item that he pointed as something that would be good for America I saw as being bad for America.

I guess there is only one way to really test this stuff out. Let's let the Republicans run things for a couple years and then compare that to when Democrats ran things.... oh my word, we've done that (2000-2006 vs 2008 to 2010 is the only real comparison, although if you want to compare Michigan's growth from 1990 to 2002 vs 2002 to 2010, that'd be fair too) and based on that evidence, liberals like Steve are wrong and conservatives like me are right. See my posts Graph Comparing Unemployment Rate For GOP and Democrat Senators, Democrats=Higher Poverty, or my lengthy personal statistical analysis post Employment-Population Ratio Drops to 58.5%.

The data don't lie. Steve doesn't like America. I imagined it so.

UPDATE: For more of my thoughts about bizzaro world, please check out my earlier post 100 Years of Trying- Communism Wins in the End Though or my more indepth analysis of bizzaroness Bizarro World and the Israeli-Hamas Conflict.

UPDATE II: Some quick numbers... I'm bad with math so feel free to check them... between 1945 and 2008 (63 years), Democratic Presidents have been in charge for 28 years and added 2.05 trillon to the debt. From 2009 to 2011 (3 years), Democratic President Barack Obama added another 5.2 trillion in debt, bringing the total to 7.25. Projected debts for next year (2012) are over a trillion by quite a bit. Republican Presidents have been in charge 35 years, and from 1945 to 2009 added 7.75 trillion in debt. So, is the record clear on who adds more debt? Before Bush, it was Democrats. After Obama, it is going to be the Democrats again. And if Obama wins in 2012 and Democrats take back control of Congress, deficits will be several trillion a year for another 4 years, and not only will that be the end of our nation, but the record for which party is worse at adding debt will be conclusive. Foolish comments from liberals with no idea what they are talking about is always welcome though.

Revisiting the borders,Jeffery Gettleman writes in the NYTimes:

More than any other continent, Africa is wracked by separatists. There are rebels on the Atlantic and on the Red Sea. There are clearly defined liberation movements and rudderless, murderous groups known principally for their cruelty or greed. But these rebels share at least one thing: they direct their fire against weak states struggling to hold together disparate populations within boundaries drawn by 19th-century white colonialists...[continue reading]

G. Pascal Zachary writes :

The problem of course is that Congo, as a political entity, is an illusion. The country is too large, diverse and riven by durable differences to be managed from a single center. It is time to explore a truly federalized Congo that might over the next 10 to 20 years peacefully “devolve” into a several nation-states. Eastern Congo would be especially well-served by “devolution,” since the region – today the least stable in the current Congo – has natural economic, social and geographic links to neighboring Uganda and Rwanda. If Scotland can engage in a process of “devolution” from Britain, why cannot eastern Congo engage in the same process? Colonial maps cannot forever burden the serious and expensive efforts to develop regional integration, whether in East Africa or the sub-Saharan generally. The double-standard – whereby European countries can split themselves apart based on democratic processes but African countries are eternally bound by the borders of their former European masters — ought to end. That European governments often quickly oppose any talk of redrawing African are examples of both hypocrisy and stupidity. European governments spend billions of dollars holding together unwieldy African countries and in the end sustain only the fiction of real sovereignty. The Congo is perhaps the best example of this. Congolese elections, which cost European donors a hefty sum, accomplished the little more than to highlight the folly of holding this vast territory together under a single political rubric. Maintaining the fiction of the Congo, in short, is dangerous and ultimately futile.

Percy Jackson isn’t expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to worse. In this latest installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos’s army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth–a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn. Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this latest audiobook promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.

 

Click here to buy from Amazon

In 1648 the Peace of Westphalia was signed, and so began the age of the nation-state. A state is a political and sovereign entity, and a nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity. Thus the term "nation-state" implies that the two geographically coincide, and after 1648 our world was divided up into nation-states.

Before 1648, the world was divided up into multi-ethnic and multi-cultural empires (Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire, etc), smaller states at what would now be called sub-national level (Liechtenstein, Andorra, etc), and even smaller states (various German cities and states). After 1648, the world was divided into political, sovereign, ethnically and/or culturally unified nation-states.

Problems arise when these nation-states 'fail'- they are too ethnically diverse, too culturally diverse, unable to control their own borders, or one government is unable to control the area. In these 'failed states', problems arise. According to the Times Online article "The Gathering Storm", failed states are going to be on the rise over the next decade, and are going to present rising security and humanitarian issues.

Afghanistan and Somalia were (and probably still are) classic cases of failed states. On the edge of collapsing right now are Pakistan and Yemen.

These are the areas were are going to be focusing on the in the coming decade. If you want to see where our troops are going to be going in the next decade, here is the map.

The reasons why these states have failed and continue to fail are because they are destabilized by terrorism, communism, dictatorships, and socialism. Pan-Islamism and One World Government are the some of the bigger threats facing these states, and the United States is going to have to take a steady hand on events and focus on all of those things that make states successful in this world- democracy, rule of law, and conservative ideals.

Democrats, led by President Obama, frequently advance the argument that the deficits that the federal government has been running since 2001 (~$500 billion under Bush's 8 years, ~$1500 billion during Obama's 3 years) are the result of the Bush Tax Cuts (which Obama and the Democrats continued and extended), thus it is the Republicans and George W Bush's fault for the current nation-destroying federal debt. Let's look at the data:

Drawing on data provided by the White House's Government Printing Office, we can see here a history of the revenue or money collected by the national government since 1980. I went ahead and drew some lines in to indicate 4 of the arguably largest tax cuts that occurred during that time.

As we can see, the revenue that the federal government collected immediately grew by substantial amounts after the tax cuts in 1981, 1986, and 1997, giving us three solid data points from which to draw a conclusion that tax cuts, especially on the wealthy and on business, lead to the federal government getting more revenue to defend our borders and provide services for the truly needy. The Bush Tax cuts of 2001 though did not lead to immediate and substantial growth of revenue- but after another tax law in 2003 was passed which accelerated the tax cuts and added more of them, the result was an explosion of revenue for the government, jumping from $2 trillion to $2.6 trillion in only 7 years.

All other things being equal and the logic being consistent to what was seen in earlier tax cuts, the implementation of the Bush Tax cuts led to an additional $600 billion a year in revenue for our federal government, leading to better protection of life, liberty, and property for the citizens of the United States of America.

Who doesn't like that?

UPDATE: To take this a little further and show you how crazy I am, I suggest that there is a way to cure our current deficits, and the cure is more cowbell. If previous tax cuts led to increased federal revenue, then more tax cuts could also lead to more federal revenue- by my estimate, if taxes were cut by the same level as Bush+Clinton+Reagan, then we'd be able to raise enough revenue to balance the budget.

So there you go- Democrats and liberals and Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Stabenow, and Peters are all backwards again- rather than raising taxes to balance the budget, they should be massively cutting taxes. The prosecution rests.

Educate yourself- try Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain Its Economic Superpower Status by Arthur B. Laffer.

From Terry Talks Duncan McNicholl of Engineers without Borders discusses value chains:

Cassava is an excellent crop for conditions in Malawi and has the potential to vastly improve food security in famine-prone regions of the country. The difficulty is that the crop has little market value and many farmers are not interested in producing it because of this.
However, cassava has the potential to be processed into flour, which can be used as a substitute for wheat in baking products and also for the traditional Malawian meal, nsima. With rising wheat prices and crop failures limiting the production of maize flour, processed cassava is beginning to have promising market potential...[continue reading]

Click here to watch the video

"...The Listen to Africa expedition is a two year journey by bicycle to record some of the sounds of Africa – from oral histories and music to soundscapes and wildlife; recording and publishing sound seems an appropriate way to communicate from a continent that has so much to say and is so rarely heard outside of its own borders..."-website
HT Ory!

Mwalimu George Ngwane writes:

If Nzo lived to see an Africa whose poignant liberation theology broke the walls of apartheid in the Southern African sub-region, he will never see an emerging Africa, which even with the birth of the African Union, is still tottering on the borders of national self-destruction and a pathological Afrocentric allergy. He will never see an Africa whose political fortunes gained during Independence through a liberation revolution have been reversed with a false wind of democracy through a velvet revolution. With all the emancipatory movements of multipartism and labour unionism across half of the continent, conflicts from the bullet and the ballot are still rife..."

Sappor, Godsway Yaw, writes about the failure of African Leadership "...It is not so much the wicked effects of colonialism or neo-colonialism or a regime of artificial borders that keep Ghana and Africa in general, poor. It is true that colonialism did not bestow much to Africa but the African leadership could not retain, let alone increase, the little that it inherited. In fact, corrupt leaders destroyed it. The inherited infrastructure-(roads, brides, schools, universities, hospitals, telephones, and even the civil service machinery) - are now in shambles... Common sense dictates looking both ways before crossing a street, or risk being hit by a truck. For decades, African leaders looked only one way, at "external factors": colonial legacies, the lingering effects of the slave trade, an unjust international economic system, and predatory practices of multi-national corporations, among others, to explain the miserable economic performance of the continent. A lot of studies have already been done about the external factors and it is no secret to say that these factors are beyond the control or manipulation of most African countries on an individual basis. It is therefore a MUST to make an unerring examination of all causative factors, both external and internal, in order to arrive at a lasting solution. “A big obstacle to economic growth in Africa is the tendency to put all blame, failures and shortcomings on outside forces. Progress might have been achieved if we had always tried first to remove the mote in our eyes”... Although it is true that colonialism and Western imperialism did not leave Ghana, for this matter Africa in general, in good shape, the condition has been made immeasurably worse by internal factors such as misguided leadership, systemic corruption, capital flight, economic mismanagement, senseless civil wars, political tyranny, flagrant violations of human rights and military vandalism, among others...",GhanaWeb.

The last time our nation had such a progressive President was back when FDR ran the US through the Great Depression, and not surprisingly, that's the last time we had a recession last this long and this deep. It was during the 1930's that communism and fascism were popular around the world. And it was during this time when the Republicans were discredited by the trauma of the stock market collapse and the start of the Depression, and so Democrats under FDR could put in place all of their progressive policies.

At one time, I thought the 1930's were at the root of all that is wrong about America, and compiled a list of all of the laws and taxes and liberal decisions passed during that time. For history's sake, here is that list:

Unemployment Compensation Tax (MI), 1936
Oil and Gas Severance Tax (MI), 1929
Horse Race Wagering Tax, (MI), 1933
Sales Tax (MI), 1933
Use Tax (MI), 1937
Beer Tax (MI), 1933
Wine Tax (MI), 1933
Intangibles Tax (MI), 1939
Commercial Forest Tax (MI), 1925
Gasoline Tax (MI), 1925
Diesel Fuel Tax (MI), 1947
Motor Carriers Privilege Tax (MI), 1923
Aviation Gasoline Tax (MI), 1929
Aircraft Weight Tax (MI), 1923
Employment Security Act (MI), 1936
Social Security Act (USA), 1935
Wagner-Peyser Act (USA), 1933
Fair Labor Standards Act (USA), 1938
US v Miller (US Supreme Court), 1939
National Firearms Act (USA), 1934
Federal Reserve Act (USA), 1913
Motor Carrier Act (MI), 1933
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (USA), 1930
Crime Control Laws (USA), 1934
Hoover Tax Hike (USA), 1932
Amendment 16 (USA), 1913
Amendment 17 (USA), 1913
Baron-Davis Act (USA), 1931
National Labor Relations Act (USA), 1935
Walsh-Healy Act (USA), 1936
Copeland Act (USA), 1934
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (USA), 1938
Michigan Labor Unions, Act 176 of 1939 (MI), 1939
Private Schools, Act 302 of 1921 (MI), 1921
Insurance Regulation, Act 66 (MI), 1933
Regulation of Hospitals, Act 108/109 (MI), 1939
Roosevelt moves traditional Thanksgiving Day, 1939
Regulating Firearms, Act 373 (MI), 1927
Liquor Control Act, PA 8 (MI), 1933
Sidewalk Regulation, Act 246 (MI), 1931
Government ownership of sewers, Act 316 (MI), 1931
US moves off gold standard, 1933
Ownership of private gold now a crime, 1933
State Printing Act, Act 153 (MI), 1937

Look through that list and think of how much America was changed by one generation, by one President, by one party, by one decade (mostly). What the heck happened to allow that? The rise and influence of communism and fascism? Trauma from WWI? Some sort of generational cycle? Did something happen to the children in 1900 so they were fools when they came to power in the 1930's? Was it just Great Depression freak out? The lack of expansion of our borders? The rise and feminization of society? Some new invention? A religious movement? Something in the water? Email me if you have any theories.

UPDATE: Also add Reapportionment Act of 1929 to the list.

Parag Khana discusses borders on TED:

Many people think the lines on the map no longer matter, but Parag Khanna says they do. Using maps of the past and present, he explains the root causes of border conflicts worldwide and proposes simple yet cunning solutions for each.