Academic Rants

Amazon Strikes Back There is a lot of discussion about the recent Amazon news. The selection of two communities for the second headquarters was a bit of a shock. Rumors of a two city deal trickled out for a few days before the big announcement. And when the winners were announced, there was massive joy and a significant amount of cursing. How could this announcement create such an uproar? Foremost, the locations made sense from an economic perspective and a political standpoint but not from a national consensus. The Northeast corridor is the most populated section of the country. Washington, D.C. and New York City are two of the nation's most important and powerful cities and they compliment the location of the original Amazon headquarters in Seattle. Unfortunately, the selection of the east coast is a predictable location but one that ignores Middle America where the need for jobs is great. The selection of the east coast further promotes the view of a bias against the Hear

                        History often plays tricks on us. It never repeats itself, but there are lots of interesting twists and turns that remind us of things in the past. The mid-term elections are over and yet we are still speaking about the elections. In many cases we don’t even know who won. “The Big Blue Wave” that pollsters suggested might have occurred.   The uncertainty of the Georgia and Florida elections is clearly reminiscent of the presidential contests of 1876 and 2000.   Ironically, the state of Florida rather than the people of Florida is still determining the outcomes of America’s electoral politics.             This week is also the 100 th anniversary of the end of the first Great War. Armistice Day, usually referred to as Veterans Day, has brought world leaders to France to mark the event and pledge not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Yet, pre-event comments by the American and French Presidents reveal that little has been learned since