A college professor was addressing his history class....

Vox:

The decision of American media organizations to publish or not publish the cartoons has typically been framed of one of bravery or cowardice, based on the assumption that publishing invites physical risk from some number of the 2.6 million Muslim-Americans who will take offense and perhaps action. Vox.com was praised on MSNBC for its bravery, even though this purported risk did not actually enter into our calculus, and other outlets have presented their decision to publish as a way to defy the Islamist radicals who threaten free speech.

Writers at Vox have indeed been bombarded with threats for our Charlie Hebdo coverage. But not one of those threats has come from a Muslim or in response to publishing anti-Islam cartoons. Revealingly, they have rather all come from non-Muslims furious at our articles criticizing Islamophobia.

...

Ironically, these threats are typically couched in arguments that Muslims are inherently irrational and violent. Further, threats made with the explicit intention of silencing journalists from discussing Islamophobia are positioned as necessary "defenses" of free speech against the threat of Islam. The people making the threats seem unaware that they are themselves seeking to curb the very free speech they pretend to uphold.

An anonymous advisor to Mitt Romney told the Boston Globe in an article published on Tuesday that if the former Republican nominee had been elected President, there would be no Islamic State terror group in Syria and Iraq, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine.

“There wouldn’t be an ISIS at all, and Putin would know his place in life," an anonymous longtime advisor told the Globe. "Domestically, things would be in better shape.”

ISIS originally formed in 1999 and has gone through many name changes since. It became ISI ("Islamic State in Iraq") as far back as 2006.

How about you go through your 90 second "preparation" on your own time and print when I tell you to print?

Looks like someone signed me up for a week's worth of seasonal influenza. The deluxe Extra Aches and Shivering package, too, it seems.

So far it isn't meshing well with my wife's Month Of Bronchitis.

If I can be persuaded to ever go out bar hopping again, I will not, under any circumstances shake anybody's hand.

Any of you ever see The Woodwright's Shop on PBS? It's a woodworking show, lots of hand tools, very old-timey feel ?

It turns out that the Woodwright himself runs a school on the ground floor of the same building as our favorite local bar (and wine shop).

And now I know.

So, it turns out that the fundamentals of human economic behavior are at least 35 million years old and almost certainly existed in the common ancestor of humans and capuchin monkeys.

Homo economicus is a ancient creature.

A snapper gets a free lunch. Duh.

Wiki tells us:

James Henry Salisbury, M.D. (12 January 1823 – 23 September 1905) was a 19th-century American physician, and the inventor of the Salisbury steak. Salisbury was born in Scott, New York, in 1823. He earned a Bachelor of Natural Sciences degree from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1844.

...

Salisbury served as a physician during the American Civil War, and became convinced that diarrhea suffered by the troops could be controlled with a diet of coffee and lean chopped beefsteak. Salisbury was one of the earliest health food faddists and taught that diet was the main determinant of health. He believed vegetables and starchy foods produced poisonous substances in the digestive system which were responsible for heart disease, tumors, mental illness and tuberculosis. He believed that human dentition demonstrated that humans were meant to eat meat, and sought to limit vegetables, fruit, starches, and fats to one-third of the diet. The Salisbury steak, his means of achieving this goal, is ground beef flavored with onion and seasoning and then deep-fried or boiled, and was introduced in 1888. Salisbury believed that beef was excellent defense against many different physical problems. He suggested that Salisbury steak should be eaten three times a day, with lots of water to cleanse the digestive system. He was an early American proponent of a low-carbohydrate diet for weight loss, and he promoted his diet for that purpose.Salisbury steak — essentially a hamburger — might have faded from the collective memory if World War I had not inspired a drive in English-speaking nations to rename German-sounding things. Salisbury steak became a popular substitute for the (bunless) hamburger.