Regarding the 'first world war' of the early 1600s centered in Germany, JC Roy writes, "The story is long, brutal, amoral, tragic, sordid, and ultimately fascinating," cf. Vanished Kingdom p. 108 referred to May 5.

David Brooks wrote it. Tom Maguire abstracted it and the NY Times readers hated it which is, to use Mr. Brooks phrase, an 'ungenerous' reaction to his hilarious piece.

To review further Vanished Kingdom, May 5 below, in his chapter Marienburg, J. Roy reflects on the movie Alexander Nevsky and 'what was the nature of the Teutonic Knights,' formally The Order of St. Mary's Hospital. 'Certainly the Knights were rough men and the dreadful circumstances of their trade would probably nauseate any.. The early knights were monks, lay brothers who followed the ancient monastic routine... Forbidden to them were the usual daily prerogatives of the knightly class - the pleasures of the hunt, the courtship of women. They ate sparingly, a diet of eggs and tough bread, very little meat. In battle they were bullied and cursed by their masters, ordered to act as a unit and not allowed the glory of individual combat... Their quest is not the Holy Grail but martyrdom. This was no false or vainglorious chivalry. God was simple then. He was either right or he was wrong. Medieval man had no difficulty ascertaining which. The ethos of Prussia was created single-handedly by the Teutonic Knights. Their standards became an inbred element of response and attitude.'

I had a go at Obama's Notre Dame speech on Althouse's blog, about 12:38 PM in comments. Someone pointed out that the answer to the question 'When does life begin?' is '4 million years ago.' That does put a rather transcendental spin on being alive and on death as being a departure from the string of life or Being.

Martin Wolf calls Obama 'conservative' in banking and Bainbrdige explodes. I comment (23).

The Financial Times has an article recently reporting that the high savings rate of Chinese is due to their anticipating having to pay, and often upfront, their health care bills with very limited government or other assistance. It looks like an important innovation in the Chinese market would be laws implementing the possibilities of health insurance. Catastrophic insurance would seem to be of obvious personal, social, and, even, economic benefit as it might free up capital.

Following discussion of the Pope's visit in Haaretz.

Following argument's at Megan's about the Chrysler bankruptcy.

Following Zywicki's nice post and the comments on 'Obama does Notre Dame.'