St. Valentines Day Massacre

On this day (+1…..which would be Valentine’s Day, of course) in 1929, a group of executives gathered for a mid-morning get-together. Records do not indicate that coffee or buns were served. Nor do they appear to indicate that the seven men gathered around the water cooler (maybe because there was no water cooler).  Anyway, seven top guys in "Moran Enterprises" were gathered in a non-descript Chicago garage. Suddenly, the regulators appeared. In this case the regulators were dressed in the uniforms of the Chicago Police. So to comply with this surprise audit, these seven men, men who worked for George Moran Enterprises faced the wall and raised their hands (a standard audit procedure at that time).

Lawsuits waste tax payer money

I have to tell you, our local newspaper is horrible in terms of the volume of articles they produce each day. Our little real estate technology publishing company produces more original content with one person (shout out to my friend Emily Williams!). However, the San Luis Obispo Tribune has been doing a darn good job of following the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisor's efforts to rid our area of plastic bags. I have been following the story (online). Here is a previous post about the San Luis Obispo Plastic Bag Ban. What is killing me now is that the County faces tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills to defend the plastic bag ban against special interest groups - in this case - plastic bag manufacturers.

Hot off the Press

On this day in 1468, one of the most influential figures in the last 2000 years (and maybe all of history) died. To keep things in perspective try to remember a few things: Leonardo Da Vinci was seven years old, Michelangelo had not been born yet and a guy named Christopher Columbus was just a teenage apprentice on a Genovese Ferry.  If it had not been for this guy who died on this day, none of those guys would have become as famous as they are today. In fact, if it had not been for this guy who died, the Dark Ages might have remained dark and 90% of what we know today would be unknown. He had created a revolution that changed the way ideas were processed and began the knowledge revolution.

Monroe Doctrine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Should the rest of the world consider issuing a Monroe doctrine to America?

Has international trade made the concept of a nation's independence impossible?

For those of you who need a brief history lesson, The Monroe Doctrine was our young country's effort to declare that European involvement of the affairs of our country were unwelcome.

As you will recall at the time, Europeans were actively involved in America and very interested in protecting our valuable resources that Europeans had an interest in.