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  1. WI: American Auto Wank?

    I didn't have a choice. It was either learn or not drive. I'm quite biased against automatic transmission, so perhaps I shouldn't comment. Still, get a manual transmission beater as your next car (or find someone with a beater) and practice far away from rush hour. Have someone with you who...

  2. WI: American Auto Wank?

    Memories! My eccentric father loved old European clunkers. My first car was an ancient Jaguar that would stall out as soon as one raindrop hit the windshield.:rolleyes: The car also ate steering bushings. The car had the handling of an Atari arcade game. I beg to differ that many of the...

  3. No lewinski scandal

    Yeah. Also, Rush would have nothing to throw a kiloton temper tantrum over. What would the right wing radio jockeys talk about instead?

  4. WI E.M. Forster published Maurice in the 1920's?

    You should have no problem finding any one of the books in this thread in a well-stocked public library or a university library. Chain bookstores should have them as well (and probably in thrift editions). If you have the time, read them. Heck, read anything and everything that's controversial...

  5. WI: Reagan Tackled AIDS earlier?

    Interesting. No, I don't see Reagan compromising at all on drug policy. If anything, hanging tough on drugs was one of his greatest vote-getters. Yeah, he could've funded harm reduction quietly. Any media whistle-blowing would have severly impacted his administration, especially in the first...

  6. industialized nomads

    dried cow dung patties were (are?) often used in India as a heating and cooking fuel source. Dung patties have a major drawback: burning dung smokes heavily. I don't see dried dung making a huge impact in an industrialized nomadic culture. The industralized nomads of the Mideast and the...

  7. WI E.M. Forster published Maurice in the 1920's?

    No, I don't think Forster should have changed anything about himself. He would have been prosecuted for homosexuality (the acts were crimes, not the "orientation".) Perhaps there may have been an obscenity trial, though. An earlier obscenity trial about homosexual themes might have spurred...

  8. WI E.M. Forster published Maurice in the 1920's?

    There's been a "rehabilitation" of Brideshead in -- of all circles -- traditionalist/conservative Catholicism! Almost ASB, if you ask me. Yes, I know that there is a strong Catholic element to Evelyn Waugh's work. Nevertheless, Brideshead is a friggin' barely veiled gay romance novel! Still...

  9. WI E.M. Forster published Maurice in the 1920's?

    The English author E.M. Forster wrote a novella titled Maurice between 1912 to 1914. His novella concerns the gay love affairs of a young man (early to mid 20's-ish) named Maurice Hall. The novella is tame and almost prudish by modern standards. Sex is never mentioned but glossed over with...

  10. WI: Reagan Tackled AIDS earlier?

    I always thought that Nancy's Just Say No program was an early proxy fight for abstinence only education. I don't know if he would be impeached (he was rather popular across the electorate), but his reputation with the hard Right would have been irrevocably tarnished if he went liberal on...

  11. Don't taze John Kerry

    This is bizarro ASB, but let's go with it. 1) Maybe Hillary 2) Probably no effect. Obama's orations would have propelled him to the top with or without Hillary. 3) No way. Campus security is still a joke at most US universities. Most campus police forces I know don't carry.

  12. England, 1557: A son is born to Queen Mary

    I highly doubt that Protestantism would disappear in England. The Reformation had already taken root among many in the intellectual class. The Spanish were unable to stamp out the progress of the Reformed faith in the Netherlands. Likewise I doubt the Spanish would have been able to crush...

  13. WI: Reagan Tackled AIDS earlier?

    The marriage between the Religious Right [RR] and the GOP was in the making for at least fifteen years before the end of Reagan's first term. I personally date the begining of the RR and GOP relationship to Nixon's Southern Strategy. The Catholic Church merged with the RR/GOP in the mid 70's...

  14. WI: Reagan Tackled AIDS earlier?

    As with many epidemics, people were often ignorant of the transmission mode. I distinctly remember people freaking out over the possibility that HIV could be transmitted by mosquito bites. I always considered the struggle and death (1990) of Ryan White as the turning point of HIV/AIDS...

  15. Maximum Eastern Christiantiy?

    "Tax farming", or the use of specific tax middlemen to generate state income through a pyramid scheme, was endemic in antiquity. The Romans were fine practitioners of the art. Remember that tax agents depended on the state for legitimacy. In turn, that legitimacy permitted tax agents to take a...

  16. What if Britian Won the Revolutionary War?

    Interesting question. Well, since "WI no ARW?" is a commonly asked topic, I though I'd be a bit tongue-in-cheek and do the math for an exceedingly large sum of money in 1776. In fact, 344 guineas at that time would be about 500,000 pounds today. Lsd works fine for small amounts but is quite...

  17. What if Britian Won the Revolutionary War?

    Better get good at base-12 mathematics. Quick! What's 344 guineas in Lsd? L361/4/-. Had to use a calculator for that. Perhaps the various colonies would assert independence at different times. There might be a fractioning of what we now know as the US into regional countries. This development...

  18. Alternate Methods of Time

    Both Christianity and Islam continued this pattern. Sunday Vespers starts on Saturday, and Ramadan ends at dark and begins at sunlight the next day. This is Christianity's solution. The sacral day follows the lunar Abrahamic monotheistic tradition only up to a point. Sunday observances begin...

  19. Culture of the 1940s without WW2

    Less starvation and privation in Britain and Europe; less destruction of cathedrals, ancient cities and monuments; (maybe) less republicanism and democracy (I'm thinking of Italy in particular.) No rationed food and petrol cards. The US prospered from the war, but the British victory was...

  20. Spanish Protestants

    Didn't the Spanish impose the Tridentine liturgy on themselves after a while? It's true that during the promulgation of the new Missal Pope Pius V made an exception for liturgies that were two hundred or more years old. Nevertheless I'm almost certain that the liturgy of the Mozarabs was almost...
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