Yes. Loan words exist. Including from Arab sources within the past few centuries.
Not clear why they are being credited with cotton and sugar. Ancient Egyptians and Indians had cotton and traded it to ancient Romans. The middle East being between Europe and East Asia means they were the middle part of larger trading networks. So Indian numerals and far East trade such as sugar cane went through them. But I don't give them credit for being in the way of Chinese and Indian traders. Adopting Indian numerals was a good call on their part.
TIRM
1d ago
She lost the popular vote to Trump. The stink of failure is too great this time. I predict an early flame out in the primary for her.
TIRM
1d ago
He was never a professor. He was a lecturer at University of Chicago. This may seem like splitting hairs, but there is a gulf between lecturers and professors.
TIRM
1d ago
Thanks for the excerpt. This is amazing. JD Vance is so wicked, so vile as to sink to an even lower and more debased level as to be reasonable, agreeable and pleasant.
TIRM
1d ago
No one wants to start tit for tat bombings of oil infrastructure. We're in the interesting situation of both bombing the hell out of them and letting them export more oil than usual. Seizing their oil infrastructure and holding it hostage could be valid in a way just blowing it up is not.
TIRM
2d ago
Back in the day I hung lots of things in apartments with "no holes" policies. I mean 50+ holes at least. With a putty knife and spackle they never caught me. Their universal choice of flat white walls does them in every time.
TIRM
2d ago
Yes, but we could just build more prisons. As an example, almost all prisoners are in state prison, California spends something like 6 or 7% of its budget on the state Department of Corrections. That implies a few percent of the state budget could be used to double the prison population. Unless there is some massive dis-economy of scale.
TIRM
2d ago
My prediction is Marco Rubio will eat Vance alive in a primary. I know he previously said he wouldn't run against Vance. That's not some enforceable oath or promise.
TIRM
7d ago
“confirmed bachelor” Lindsey Graham in Tel Aviv in the Epstein era
We know he likes bottoming for fit male escorts. One of them blabbed to the media about how in D.C. all the male escorts know him and call him "Lady G". That actually makes him immune to blackmail since there are already first hand published accounts of what his asshole looks like when getting prepped for anal. He likes hot guys and the Israelis can't hold that over him.
TIRM
7d ago
both in the firm prosecutable sort
Treason is defined by the Constitution and does not include criticism of the President or his policies. I know this is trivially dismissing the premise, but thems the facts.
In a less formal sense: I recall the mood during the invasion of Iraq. A lot of support and also plenty of bitter criticism. This is normal in the post-Vietnam era.
TIRM
7d ago
Then I think you are missing an important point. You can't easily swap out the entirety of Iranian oil output for an equivalent amount of other oil. The "other oil" will need to go up price high enough to drive out the bottom portion of the market. Now we get a live experiment in finding a new equilibrium price which won't be $40 billion. Who is willing to divert oil away from existing customers to China and what sort of price will they be charging? This will be neither quick nor cheap.
TIRM
8d ago
This military analyst on the radio could be correct. It depends on the marginal impact of losing that portion of their oil. I get they still have most of their supply of oil. But is that enough? Can they simply replace the loss by purchasing from other sources or would it be too expensive? I naively doubt it is going to be easy to replace a significant minority of all of China's oil consumption. There will be a global price impact at least.
TIRM
8d ago
Trump is quite fortunate that Hillary Clinton was the second most disliked presidential candidate since the invention of opinion polling. Polls implied any other Democratic candidate would beat Trump. He ran against the only one reviled enough to lose to him.
TIRM
9d ago
There's an old joke about this. Something along the lines of two economists are talking. One mentions that a local wealthy man married his maid recently. The second laments how that will harm the GDP.
TIRM
9d ago
Clothes were way way more expensive
Indeed and clothes circa a hundred years ago were as expensive as cars today. Working professionals used to spend a significant portion of their yearly income on a meager set of clothing.
TIRM
9d ago
In many places
In very few places in which a miniscule portion of the US population lives. I have the misfortune of being one of the rare unlucky few to live in such a place. And even then that's by cutting your $2 million starter home figure to a more realistic ~$1 million. Even in San José a starter home is much closer to 1 than to 2 million. Almost every American has much cheaper housing than in San José.
TIRM
9d ago
I listened to the radio today and CBS military analyst Mike Lyons (former Army Major and Desert Storm combat vetran) had a point about how this war is harming Chinese energy security in a way that is very bad for hypothetical Chinese military incursions. China buys almost all of Iran's oil and needs it very much.
TIRM
9d ago
The Chinese chose housing as the store of value. But then you end up with a different set of incentives resulting in people putting their savings into multiple housing units that won't necessarily be used for any actual housing. Which I'm not even going to criticize since that's not any more silly than storing value in pieces of shiny metal. If they came to the conclusion that an apartment is worth a certain value, I don't second guess that despite the lack of obvious housing utility.
TIRM
10d ago
Same thing Richard Spencer. These guys (to the degree they are a meaningful type) endorse Democrats.
somehow you have no money (or negative money!) when it's time to contribute to the public good.
But this isn't true. They pay taxes and in great quantities. You can look up what portion of the population pays most federal taxes. It is hyper-progressive.
Rhetoric about them not paying their fair share is common, but I think rather wrong.
I'm jealous of china
China is run by billionaires. The billionaires are directly in charge of their government as high ranking party members. Non-party-member billionaires get humbled sometimes, but keep in mind who is in charge.
TIRM
15d ago
I don't think they can. Pretty much all major tech companies have been cozy with Trump. Giving him millions of dollars, awards, eating dinner with him. Democrats can't go against all tech simultaneously. They can seek vengeance on Musk. But not also Google and Meta and Amazon, etc.
TIRM
16d ago
Is this the liberal commentariat or the federal courts promoting this understanding of the 14th Ammendment? To the degree you can this a particular view, it is the officially correct one as explained by the Supreme Court.
About what I expect from a lecturer. Not an academic or a researcher. Only responsibilities are to teach a class.
The lecturers I'm familiar with are rather wretched. They couldn't get into a research position as a professor and this is a bad second option. They are paid little and lack stable employment. Maybe Obama was a very well off lecturer with student assistants and a decent wage. Or he wisely married another lawyer who stayed working at a law firm.
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