Happy Columbus Day

Yes today is Christopher Columbus's birthday. The Italian mariner who convinced the Spanish Crown to finance his expeditions to find a shorter route to India and China. Unfortunately, the America's got in the way so he never found the route to Asia. Of course now, many people say Columbus was a bad person because his finding of the America's extended slavery and lead to the downfall of earlier immigrants to the America's. These folks used to be called Indians and now called Native Americans but they only arrived earlier from Asia and were no more native to America then the Europeans are. So government workers and some school kids get the day off but the traffic was just as bad as always so guess not too many private sector people get it off.

Good news from Iraq? Will the Iraqi government be able to act on it? Time will tell.

Some interesting reasons on what makes a country and society rich, and its not just natural resources. The comments are also worth reading.

Jeff Flake is still leading his crusade against earmarks. Its a lonely battle but many good things start off as lonely crusades while the public is educated on why the change is needed. Keep fighting the good fight Congressman Flake.

Who was the richest man in British history? Well the nephew of William the Conqueror who was given land and villages to rule in the North of Britain. When he died, he was worth 11,000 British Pounds which today equals about 81 billion pounds, he was dealing with a devastated land. Because of the pacification policy of William, the land was abandoned so he would have to invest a lot of money to bring improvements and people to make the land productive.

Have a good day.