The Post-Partisan Emporium

  The Ice Man Cometh The long and sordid history of cold beer Radio Far Side By the time you finish this column, you will never see your local convenience store the same way again. In fact, you will come to appreciate your local Squat ‘n’ Gobble as an artifact of ancient history, albeit with some modern flourishes. The concept of the ice house dates back thousands of years, with origins in ancient civilizations that needed ways to preserve food and keep cool before the advent of modern refrigeration and air conditioning. China had the earliest know ice houses (Shang Dynasty, c. 1100 BC) . Ice storage pits and cellars were used to preserve food and serve chilled drinks. The emperor was known to send runners into the mountains to collect ice from the permanent snow pack, and serve it mixed with fresh fruit juices or flavored milk, thus creating sorbets and ice cream. In Persia (Iran), Yakhchāls (c. 400 BC)  were one of the earliest known ice houses. These structures were made of...

  The End of "Pax Americana"... ... and the Dawn of a New Era of Great Power Competition in a Multi-Polar World Julius Ruechel I shall open this essay with a deceptively simply question that has haunted humanity since the dawn of civilization… a question that is about to become extremely relevant again as we transition from the long relative stability of the American-led post-WWII global order to a much harsher, more volatile, high-stakes multi-polar world: Is it better to be a sovereign nation or a province within an empire? One of the central pillars of classical liberalism is that a  nation  — a group of people united by a shared ancestry, history, language, or geographic boundary —  should govern itself, free from outside interference (a.k.a. self-determination) . That core belief lies at the very heart of most of the intense geopolitical struggles that defined much of 20th-century history. This noble classical liberal ideal emerged as a reaction to living under ...