Joe Duck

Have Blog. Will Travel.

The Civil War costs and benefits suggest Lincoln was wrong.

I’ve just finished watching Ken Burns “The Civil War” and (as usual) I think I’d argue a very unusual position in terms of what the North and South “should” have done given the massive cost in lives and prosperity and pride.    It seems to me that:
The South was reckless to secede.   They should have realized they had little or no chance of winning a war, and even if they’d won they would have been a weak and poor new country even if the North had agreed to engage in much trade with them – a questionable proposition at best.    Slavery was a morally bankrupt institution and the moral hypocrisy was particularly glaring given the South’s emphasis on the principles of Christianity.
Lincoln was irresponsible to prosecute the war so early.   After Fort Sumpter Lincoln should have pressured Virginia (or at least the West Point Graduates) to stay neutral rather than immediately calling for a massive army, an act that clearly pushed many Virginians toward secession.   Without Virginia’s wealth, military, and brilliant commanders like Jackson, Lee, Forest, Stuart, and more the war would have been over very quickly with far fewer dead and far less destruction.   Reconstruction would have worked well rather than ushered in a long era of exploitation and corruption.
Lincoln should have considered a “no war / no recognition” policy.   He would have allowed the deep south to go about their secessionist ways, courted Virginia to stay in the Union or stay neutral, and then enacted laws and policies to thwart secession non-violently such as no trade, no return of escaped slaves and active support of the underground railroad.   This would have undermined the secession efforts without the massive death and destruction of  infrastructure via Sherman’s march, and probably led to an eventual return of those states to the union when the economic challenges of secession started to bring greater and greater hardships to the people.
There seems to be a prevailing view in history circles that the war was justified because it preserved the union and ended slavery. I agree that slavery was so diabolical you can make a case that no cost was too high to bear to end it, but I think it could have been ended at a much lower cost both then and in terms of future fights for civil rights.  Innovation and industrialization combined with the growing moral outrage and demands of poor immigrants (who didn’t want to compete with slaves) would likely have eventually ended slavery soon even in the deep south.
In terms of preserving the union, I think the case for the Civil War is extremely weak – largely irrational in fact.    You simply cannot make a reasonable case that the cost of the Civil War – 625,000 dead, millions disabled, South destroyed and demoralized – justified simply keeping the deep South states in the union.   “A House Divided Against Itself” did not stand – one side crushed the other with consequences that last even today in terms of the lower living standards in the deep south.    A cost benefit analysis of the Civil War would show it was not worth fighting.
Comments very welcome as always!

August 7, 2011 Posted by | civil war, history, travel | , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Southern Oregon Tweetup at the Craterian Theater … rocked!

Here in lovely Southern Oregon we enjoy a very high standard of living but – at least in my experience – really cool parties are few and far between.    However last night at the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater in Medford a distinguished group of news, tech, and twitter folks and twitter-friendly sponsors came together to enjoy fine wine, great food, great coffee, sparkling conversation and music, and more.    I kept thinking I was at one of the neat tech blogger parties they throw at the Computer Electronics Show “CES” in Las Vegas every January.

In my opinion it’s very important to the social media environment to create online thanks to both the promoters and the sponsors of great events and I’m sure I’ll miss some of them, but here’s a shot:

Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater – home to fabulous performances all year long.

Brad Nelson is the Craterian’s Production Manager and most excellent social media mad man.

Jerilyn Hassell Pool is an amazing Twitter evangelist, webmaster, and has a knack for organizing parties, especially when they involve twitter.  Tweet Aunt Marvel

Fresco Food put out a fine spread of healthy finger foods.    Owner Alyssa Warner doesn’t just use mobile twitter technology, she’s created mobile edibles served all over the region from the Fresco Food Mobile.     Ricotta Gnochi delivered to your door?    Call Fresco!, or better yet, Tweet them.

Bad Ass Coffee of Medford was serving up several of their fine brews.    Follow them on Twitter for specials.

DJGemineye was picking and spinning some great songs.    Tweet him to make your party much cooler than it would otherwise be.

Wine Tasting was a highlight of the party, and here in Southern Oregon we’ve got some of the best appelations found in the USA.   If you’ve seen the movies “Bottle Shock” and “Sideways” you know how California Wines lept from relative obscurity in the 1960′s to become a dominant force in the global wine scene.   In my opinion Southern Oregon, with rich soil and excellent grape growing weather – is poised to become recognized very soon as one of the world’s great wine regions.

Valley View Winery  | Valley View on Twitter

Abacela Winery      |    Abacela on Twitter

Windridge Winery

Serra Vinyard       |      Serra Vineyard on Twitter

Del Rio Vineyards   |    Del Rio on Twitter

June 4, 2011 Posted by | technology, tourism, travel, twitter | , , , | Leave a Comment

Osama Bin Laden dead. Killed by US forces special attack at a compound in Abbottābad, Pakistan

President Obama is reporting that Osama Bin Laden is dead, killed by US forces in a special operation in Pakistan.   Not clear yet if this was with the permission of the Pakistan government, but probably it was a situation with “unofficial” permission that won’t be reported to keep things cooler for Pakistan, where many are in sympathy with Al Qaeda and/or don’t want the US in the country.

The compound in Pakistan was in the city of  Abbottābad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. I was surprised to find that this is actually a popular tourism location as a gateway to many attractions in Pakistan such as the Karakoram Mountain Range and Karakoram highway to China, the world’s highest major paved road (and certainly one of the highest roads in the world, period)

View Larger Map

May 1, 2011 Posted by | Politics, travel | , , | 2 Comments

Rulers of England

Rulers of England

In honor of the upcoming English Royal Wedding and the fact I’m watching “The Tudors” on Netflix right now, I thought it would be fun to post a list of the rulers of England.

This is a list of the generally recognized kings and queens of England from 1066 to the present day.

Norman Kings:

William I  (1066-1087)
William II  (1087-1100)
Henry I    (1100-1135)
Stephen   (1135-1154)

Plantagenets

Henry II (1154-1189)
Richard I (Richard the Lion-Hearted) (1189-1199)
John (1199-1216)
Henry III (1216-1272)
Edward I (1272-1307)
Edward II (1307-1327)
Edward III (1327-1377)
Richard II (1377-1399)

House of Lancaster

Henry IV (1399-1413)
Henry V (1413-1422)
Henry VI (1422-1461)

House of York

Edward IV (1461-1483)
Edward V (April-June 1483)
Richard III (1483-1485)

Tudors

Henry VII (1485-1509)
Henry VIII (1509-1547)
Edward VI (1547-1553)
Mary (1553-1558)
Elizabeth (1558-1603)

Stuarts

James I (1603-1625)
Charles I (1625-1649)

1649-1660 – Commonwelath Interregnum: England is briefly ruled by Parliament.  Oliver Cromwell and son Richard Cromwell  are the “Lord Protectors of the Commonwealth”.  This time is often referred to as “the Protectorate”

Stuarts Restored to the Crown in 1660

Charles II (1660-1685)
James II (1685-1688)

The Bloodless Revolution  1688.  Also known as “The Glorious Revolution”.

William (of Orange) and Mary (1689-1702)
Anne (1702-1714)

Hanovers

George I (1714-1727)
George II (1727-1760)
George III (1760-1820)
George IV (1820-1830)
William IV (1830-1837)
Victoria (1837-1901)

Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Edward VII (1901-1910)

Windsors (George V-Elizabeth II)
(George V changed family name Wettin to Windsor)

George V (1910-1936)
Edward VIII (1936)
George VI (1936-1952)
Elizabeth II (1952- )

Yes, of course there is a fancy website for the upcoming Royal Wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton.  It is the Royal Wedding website.

April 17, 2011 Posted by | Globalization, history, tourism, travel, US History | , , , | Comments Off

Oregon Coast – Brookings, Oregon

Lone Ranch Beach is four miles north of Brookings, Oregon on the fabulous Oregon Coast.   This is a pretty secluded beach a few miles north of Brookings’ very popular hiking and camping area and state park called “Harris Beach”.   Winter is my favorite time to visit the Oregon Coast because the wave action is almost always spectacular.     On this trip we also examined some of the tsunami damage to the docks and boats in Brookings Harbor, and heard from locals about the evacuation and somewhat anticlimactic tsunami –  a series of water surges in the harbor – from the Japan earthquake

Oregon Coast – Brookings, Oregon 067

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

March 21, 2011 Posted by | oregon, oregon coast, travel | , | Leave a Comment

Oregon Coast … Mobile

Good time to review a few projects I’m associated with or working on now, and thank folks (esp. FoolsGold) for the many excellent suggestions provided over the years to improve the websites.

Over at the Online Highways empire we’re working on a mobile application for travel along the Oregon Coast that will be located at OHWY.mobi  and will feature a very simple mobile optimized architecture that branches out to Coastal Cites, Coastal Lodging, Coastal Attractions, and more.     I’m still not convinced that .mobi websites will take off as much as many believe they will because I think smartphones will get better fast and we’ll see a lot more optimization on the fly for regular websites, but it’s a good base to cover.     I’ll be trying out the dot mobi “mobi translation” routine soon which will allow me to create some .mobi sites from my Airports and Airlines information at QuickAid.com Airport Directory and and the Airport City Codes site.

Meanwhile, after failing for a very long time to find a good and inexpensive Drupal developer to finish  Retire USA, a Retirement Information Database, website, blog, and  more including the most followed Retirement related account on Twitter. I’m taking it on myself as an HTML project.    I’ll be extracting the Drupal data to a regular database we can enhance over time, and then use HTML templates and a merge routine to get a site that will look a lot like the Drupal site we had planned.     I could be wrong but I think I’ll have a simpler and faster site with almost the same functionality as Drupal.

MedicalTraveling.net is another new blog that will have a database of high quality hospitals around the world that do procedures, operations, exams, etc for lower costs than here in the great old USA.      Medical Travel and Medical Tourism articles and news will also be featured.

But wait…… there’s MORE!

November 17, 2010 Posted by | medical tourism, medical travel, retirement, tourism, travel | , , | 6 Comments

Medical Traveling and other sites back up and on better server

Drama here at the mini web empire over the past few days.   I was critical of Godaddy for taking down several of my sites after an advertising traffic surge of about 9800 unique visits to the new medical tourism blog MedicalTraveling.net put a strain on the shared server.    After the blog post / tweet and intervention by CEO Bob Parsons my issues were very quickly resolved and now I’m on a much better server setup that should be able to better handle the high traffic I expect at that blog.

Still trying to figure out why it took Dr. Bob’s clout to resolve this.  The tech folks I talk with at Godaddy are usually very capable and attentive, yet two of them had insisted to me there was no way to expedite things after what they seemed to believe was a  ”network violation” caused by the traffic surge to the new blog.   Uptime was particularly important to me on my new Medical Tourism blog because it’s being reviewed by Thai tourism as my entry in their Medical Tourism blogging contest where finalists will be flown to Thailand for an introduction to the country and to their very advanced medical tourism infrastructure.

So … we’ll see if there is a happy ending to another installment in the great lifetime blogging adventure, and I do want to thank Godaddy for coming through with a fast fix after the initial frustrations of having sites taken down.

November 6, 2010 Posted by | blogs, medical tourism, medical travel, technology, tourism, travel, twitter | 10 Comments

Medical Tourism

Medical Tourism – where folks travel to other countries to obtain medical care  - has always intrigued me both as an economic and travel subject.    I’ve generally heard glowing reports about folks who have travelled to Thailand for procedures like lasik and colonoscopies which  are done there for a fraction of US costs in hospitals that are like resort hotels.    As US health costs continue to skyrocket and continue to be far more than the cost of comparable care in other countries, the idea of combining fun and health becomes more and more appealing.     I’m even considering this idea for my trip to Vietnam in January.

Surprising to me was this report about the Medical Travel Industry which suggested how common it is for folks to travel to the USA for care.    The report also suggested that currently there may be some exaggeration of the number of people travelling overseas for care since some statistics include emergency and expatriat care in foreign hospitals.

Thanks to a blogging contest sponsored by the good folks at the Tourism Authority of Thailand I’m going to put some time into this topic, hoping to get better informed and maybe even be chosen to participate in the “fam tour” where bloggers will travel to Thailand to see several cities and facilities that represent this new and rapidly growing approach to medical care.

I’m starting a new page called “Medical Tourism” and will be adding to that content over the next few months.

Update:   Who needs a page when you can start a NEW Medical Tourism blog?     I’ve done that here.

October 11, 2010 Posted by | medical tourism, travel | , , | 18 Comments

Vietnam’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Vietnam’s UNESCO World Heritage List

Cultural

Natural

I’m planning the 2011 trip to Vietnam, taking a look at all the great places which I’ll have to narrow down to the ten or so I’ll be able to visit in my trip of about 3 weeks which is also going to include Angor Wat in Cambodia.   Hanoi, nearby Ha Long Bay, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), and Historic Hoi An are already “must sees” for me.

August 15, 2010 Posted by | travel, vietnam | , | 2 Comments

Got Travel? Travel Blogs and Travel Bloggers, Unite!

For some time  (100,000 years  in internet dog years), I’ve wanted to collect *all* the travel blogs in one spot and organize them by destination.    That’s not happening … yet …  but I’m very happy to see so many great folks online blogging travel now as well as many  lists of bloggers popping up.

An interesting issue in finding the holy grail of travel information is whether people would rather hear from *travelers* or from *locals*.      I used to lean to the former – ie I wanted to hear from other folks who had visited a place to get the best information, but it’s become clear to me now that the best source for travel information are well informed local folks – ideally those who are in the travel industry and therefore familiar with a lot of attractions, hotels, restaurants, history, customs, etc.     An example for Oregon is … me.

I worked in the travel industry for many years and I know a *lot* about Oregon, especially Southern Oregon.    Unfortunately there are not very many people blogging “local travel” from a local perspective.  Ironically pretty much all the travel writing blog folks  (including me) are so busy talking about their own trips out and about, they are not writing much about their local places – the kind of information that would be simply wonderful if you were to visit a place.

So … my challenge to travel bloggers is to write a few posts about things to see and do in your own neck of the woods.   Let me know if you do and I’ll be happy to feature it prominently at our heavy traffic site  ”Travel and History”.  Please include a bit of history in the travelogue if you can.

Here are some from some cool traveling folks:

Blogs/ Travelers list from Traveling Teri:

  1. 1step2theleft
  2. 20sTravel
  3. 501 Places
  4. Abigail King
  5. Adventure Girl
  6. Adventure Living
  7. Agent Cikay
  8. Alex Berger
  9. Almost Fearless
  10. Andi Perullo
  11. Andrew G. Hayes
  12. Andy Murdock
  13. Around the World “L”
  14. As We Travel
  15. Aussie Nomad
  16. Bairds Travel
  17. Beth Arnold
  18. Bike Raft
  19. Boots n All
  20. Border Jumpers
  21. Brendan von Son
  22. Brian Swan
  23. Brooke Schoenman
  24. Budget Travel Sacramento
  25. Cailin O’Neil
  26. Cal Bosch
  27. Candice Walsh
  28. Cara Lopez Lee
  29. CC Burns
  30. CG Travels
  31. Christine Amorose
  32. Couch Surfing Ori
  33. Dave’s Travel Corner
  34. David Lytle (davitydave)
  35. Diana Ellefson
  36. Docudramaqueen
  37. Don Nadeau
  38. Donna L. Hull
  39. Drifting Focus
  40. Dustin Main
  41. Earth Explorer
  42. Eat Live Travel Write
  43. Elite Travel Gal
  44. ELoren
  45. Erica Kuschel
  46. Everywhere Trip
  47. Fodor’s Travel Guides
  48. Fox Nomad
  49. Gadling
  50. Gerard Ward
  51. Girls Getaway
  52. GloboTreks
  53. Got Passport
  54. Got Saga Latino
  55. Got Saga
  56. Grumpy Traveller
  57. Happy Go Lucky
  58. Harriett Baskas
  59. Holiday Greece
  60. I Live to Travel
  61. Isabelle’s Travel Guide
  62. Janelle Norman
  63. Jason’sTravels
  64. Jeff Titelius
  65. JoAnna Haugen
  66. Jason’sTravels
  67. Joe Hunkins
  68. Johnny Vagabond
  69. Journeywoman
  70. Kevin May
  71. Kim Mance
  72. LandLopers
  73. Larry Blanken
  74. Legal Nomads
  75. LJ Rose Expeditions
  76. Lonely Planet
  77. Malaysia-Asia
  78. Margaret Kinney
  79. Monica Wong
  80. My Journey of a Lifetime
  81. My Melange
  82. National Geographic
  83. Neverending Voyage
  84. New York Times Travel
  85. Nomadic Chick
  86. Nomadic Matt
  87. Ottsworld
  88. ParisBuff
  89. PatriciaVance, GotSaga
  90. Pauline Frommer’s Travel
  91. Perrin Post
  92. Peter Greenberg
  93. Richard Escobar
  94. Rick Steves
  95. RTWDave
  96. Runaway Juno
  97. Sam Daams
  98. SaraKateTravel
  99. Secured Traveler
  100. Serendipity Traveler
  101. Shawnosaurus
  102. Smart Women Travelers
  103. Solo Friendly
  104. Solo Traveler
  105. Sosauce
  106. Soultravelers3
  107. Spencer Spellman
  108. Spunky Girl Monologues
  109. Stay Adventurous
  110. Stay Bank
  111. Sumit Gupta
  112. Susan Farlow
  113. Suzy Guese
  114. Technomadia
  115. Thank God I Surf
  116. The Jungle Princess
  117. The Longest Way Home
  118. The Mad Traveler Online
  119. The Planetd
  120. The Roaming Boomers
  121. The Tashinga Initiative
  122. The Travel Tart
  123. The Travel Tweeter
  124. The Trip Chicks
  125. Tiffany Travels
  126. Timesonline Travel
  127. Travel Answerman
  128. Travel Blogger
  129. Travel Bully
  130. Trailer Campers
  131. Travel Cuts
  132. Travel Designed
  133. Travel Dudes
  134. Travel Girl (smultronställen)
  135. Travel Happy
  136. Traveling Anna
  137. Traveling Perly
  138. Traveling Savage
  139. Traveling Ted
  140. Traveling Teri
  141. Travels of Adam
  142. Travelocity
  143. Travel Off the Cuff
  144. Travel Optimist
  145. Travel Maus
  146. Travel Muse
  147. Travel Savvy Mom
  148. Travel Squire
  149. Travel Susan
  150. Travelwriticus
  151. Trey Ratcliff
  152. Tuscan Blog
  153. Unbrave Girl
  154. Uncornered Market
  155. Vagabond3Italian Notes
  156. Vagabondish
  157. Velvetescape
  158. Wandering-off
  159. Wanderings of a Travelbug
  160. Wandering Trader
  161. Want to Go Travel
  162. Welcome Tuscany
  163. Wend Magazine
  164. Where I’ve Been
  165. Wild Junket
  166. World Nomads

Blogroll from Travel Answer Man John Van Kirk:

From Elliot.org

Alaska TravelGram
Almost Fearless
Anders Meanders
Arthur Frommer
Brave New Traveler
Consumerist
Evan Sparks
Everett Potter
ExpertCruiser
Flight Wisdom
Gadling
Hidden Travel Gems
Hotel Blogs by Guillaume Thevenot
HotelChatter
Intelligent Travel
Jaunted
Jeanne Leblanc
LLWorldTour
Marriott on the Move
MaxaBlog
Online Travel Review
Peter Greenberg
PlaneBuzz
Rick Seaney
Roads Less Traveled
Safe Cruise
Ship Critic blog
Southwest Airlines
T2Impact
The BOOT
The Cruise Log
The Daily Traveler
The Practical Nomad
This Just In…..
Tim Leffel’s Cheapest Destinations
Towers and Tarmacs
Travel Babel
Travel Gear Blog
Travel Log
Travel Maven blog
Travel Post
Travel Rants
Traveler 2.0
Traveler’s Check
Tripinator – Travel 2.0
Tripso
Upgrade: travel better
USA Today’s Hotel Hotsheet
World Hum
WSJ.com: The Middle Seat Terminal

July 26, 2010 Posted by | blogging, blogs, tourism, travel | , , | 37 Comments

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