This was one of the most enjoyable papers I ever wrote in College for a PoliSi/History class.

One day the Prof announced in her lecture that Republicans were always getting us into Wars. (Note: this class was taken in the mid 80’s so she was probably just showing her hatred for Reagan). I chuckled to myself and raised my hand.  I asked just in this century what Political party were Wilson, FDR, Truman and JFK members of when we got involved with WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam and what party was Eisenhower and Nixon members of when the wars ended in Korea and Vietnam?

Anyway…

The Prof was a flaming Leftist and she loved all things JFK.  So when it came time to pick papers to write I chose her hero JFK. As you can tell from the title of the paper it was not very flattering re: JFK.  I did get an A on the paper. Probably caused her some some heart burn the night she read it.

Criminal Negligent: Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs

I was looking back through some old papers I had written in College and was browsing over this one from 1984.

Almost all the  things I said that computers in the home would be doing in the future has arrived.

Got an A- on this paper. Maybe I should petition to have the grade upgraded to an A+

Future Applications of Computers In The Home

Back in 1987 during my Senior year at ASU as part of a Political Science class we did a mock negotiations of ASEAN Nations.

I had to position of being the President of Thailand.

With the current issue of the Obama Administration’s “pivot” to Asia I was reminded of this old paper.  What is old is new again with the issues on the table.
Yeah… I got an A on the paper…Thailand

With all the observations and criticism about Barack continuing to spike the ball over the anniversary of the OBL takedown and seeing this comment on a friends FB post

“leaders in the military are taught “I” if things go wrong, and “they” if things go right, only to have politicians say “I” if things go right, and “they” if things go wrong? That is TOO big of a fundamental difference between the two cultures!”

It reminded me of another old paper I had written back around 1984 that was entitled “Criminal Negligent – Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs”.  The Professor teaching this History class was a HUGE JFK fan and was constantly allowing her political slip to show. To tweak her a bit (ok, more than a bit) I wrote this paper for the class. It had to have irridated her no end to read it and in the end grade the paper and A

Criminal Negligent: Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs

This short paper was on Business Cycles. My analysis at the back of the paper seems pretty precient given what has happened over the past few years.

Depression – The Business Cycle

I love how I opened the paper with a quote from Keynesian economist Paul Samuelson since he unknowingly pointed out the reason we are in this current mess

“Nothing like the Depression should ever occur again. It it does, the fault will come from unwillingness to take action, from a fixed belief in the validity of certain theories, and from a hope that what worked in an earlier generation will also work well again.”

Yep, Keynesians believe that their theories dug us out of the Great Depression (while ignoring the fact the rest of the world was in shambles and therefore we had markets to sell to).  So who exactly has a “fixed belief in the validity of certain theories”?