Author Archives: srose

“As the reader no doubt recalls, after the assassination, Austria presented Serbia with an ultimatum. Serbia appeared to accept most of it, though really did not, and proceeded to mobilize. Russia then mobilized in sympathy with Serbia. Austria declared war on Serbia. France mobilized in support of Russia. Germany mobilized in fear of Russia and [...]

“Thus, to avoid giving the Irish their rights, reactionary Britishers helped to foment a war that, together with a second war spawned by this first one, effectively ended the British empire of which these people were so inordinately proud.” Sanford Rose Dolors & Sense By Sanford Rose KISSIMMEE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—5/13/2013—And you thought, following Thomas Cahill’s 1996 book, that they saved [...]

“Fashions in historiography change. Today, books about WW I flood the market. Of special concern are the origins of what has always been appropriately dubbed ‘The Great War.’” Sanford Rose Dolors & Sense By Sanford Rose KISSIMMEE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—5/6/2013—When the late Barbara Tuchman published The Guns of August in 1962, the literati were perplexed. A [...]

“In 1908, the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary formally annexed the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it had administered for the previous 30 years. That maddened Serbia, because there were lots of Serbs living in these provinces, and Serbia felt, as it apparently still does, that Serbs everywhere should be part of a Greater Serbia, [...]

“As a result of Grey’s actions, France, confident of Britain’s backing, encouraged Russia to become more militaristic and uncompromising in its attitude to both Germany and its satellite, Austria-Hungary. The net result was to force Britain into a war she probably could have avoided—a war that, given Woodrow Wilson’s professed Anglophilism, eventually dragged in the [...]

“There is another type of medical-study fallacy that borders on residual confounding. Consider the recently released meta-analysis (analysis of other analyses) of the relationship between obesity and mortality. It allegedly found that being slightly overweight, or even modestly obese, was associated with lower mortality than being so-called normal (having a body-mass index of under 25). [...]

“Conservatives indeed feel happier than liberals. Why? Liberals, or at least some of them, characterize this contentment as ‘ignorance is bliss.’” Sanford Rose Dolors & Sense By Sanford Rose KISSIMMEE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—3/25/2013—Well, they say they are—or at least that’s what Pew Research Institute in the USA reported in November, based, to be sure, on interviews [...]

“Three years ago, a relative was ambling down Arthroplasty Ave. (Arthroplasty means bone replacement, in this case, a hip replacement.) Last year, however, she began loitering in Laminectomy Lane. (The lamina is a part of the bones of the back.) It’s the usual complaint of septuagenarians, especially those who are not overly fond of exercise [...]

“We live today in the shadow of one man. Start with today’s headlines: terrorism in Africa and the Mideast. Proximate cause: jihadism. Ultimate cause: the Arab-Israeli conflict. That conflict. Proximate cause: the mistreatment of displaced Palestinian Arabs. Ultimate cause: the existence of the state of Israel.” Sanford Rose Dolors & Sense By Sanford Rose KISSIMMEE [...]

“Sheila Bair, the ex-head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, has written the obligatory apologia pro vita sua (regulatory, that is). Only this book, ‘Bull by the Horns,’ is worth reading; it is actually revelatory.” Sanford Rose Dolors & Sense By Sanford Rose KISSIMMEE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—1/14/2013—Sheila Bair, the ex-head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, [...]