Congress often passes laws that have unintended consequences. The sociologist Robert K. Merton wrote a paper about the subject as early as 1936. Some of unintended consequences are serendipitous, but others are negative or perverse. It seems that Congress has a way of introducing negative or perverse consequences.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was designed [...]
It takes a lot of perseverance to write a book. I should know because I have finished ten of the things. It would have been easy, so easy to lay a half-written book aside and promise myself I would get back to it some day. And then wait for that day to come. It never [...]
Tagged Cold WarGenealogy Blog, Family History, murder, Space Race, writing books, WWIIAnybody can write a book. Producing a book is very hard. It is right up there with producing a new product for a large company such as General Electric. I have done both and I am not sure which is more difficult.
A new appliance starts with the drawings and specifications. From these you have tools [...]
Often I write about how we are pieces of a movement that enriches the world. It’s the ‘Merican way. If you do your genealogy, you know that. Many Americans have enriched the world through medical research, industrial research and computer research among other ways. What do I mean?
Well, ours is the country large enough and [...]
Writing is not all agony. I write things like this for fun and then send them to a friend, Leland Meitzler, so he can post them on his blog. Besides, they don’t require a lot of research. That work has already been done years ago when I compiled a genealogy. The thing for you readers [...]
Tagged Family History, genealogy, Great Earthquake, Jeff Davis Grover, Jefferson Davis, Ku Klux lan, Leland Meitzler, MO, saints, sinners, St. CharlesI am still writing for a friend’s blog. Here is a recent effort that is self explanatory:
Beyond the Grave
Filed in Thomas Fiske articles on Apr.05, 2010
Another amusing article by my friend, Tom Fiske:
I saw an Internet article titled “Texting from Beyond the Grave.” New technology allows a person to embed [...]
I hate being spied on . . .
Tagged California History, CIA, Cold Cases, Hamburgers and Spies, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Nathaniel Pryor, Plymouth Rock, SepulvedaWho was it that said, “Communism always works when you have enough cement blocks to build walls and guns to shoot people who climb over those walls”?
I noticed that the new US health bill provides for 16,000 additional IRS agents. I wonder how well they shoot?
God help us!
Maya Angelou, I am told, said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” I find her statement to be true. But I am running out of agony. That is, my recent book is about ready for the publisher and I have no desire to write anything else.
Once I wrote a [...]
Lately I have not been writing for my blogs. Instead I have been writing for another blog. It is Leland Meitzler’s Genealogy Blog. There I am a special category. It is called Thomas S. Fiske Posts” or some such thing. I asked Leland if I could put some of my Genealogy Posts on on my [...]