Origins of Political Order

I recently read "Origins of Political Order" by Fukuyama and was very impressed - and a little upset too - many of hte themes he presents are themes I've been playing with for several years in an attempt to understand why political system succeed or fail. "Origins" is certainly more convincing and helpful that Diamond's "Collapse", which I found - frankly - to be simplistic and written with an agenda in mind. "Origins" on the other hand, does an excellent job of integrating politics, power, biology, religion, and ideas into a reasonable picture of how historic political systems came to be. It does not address the current global political structures, since the analysis ends at about 1800. But he has promised a sequal to address development since that time.

While I found it to be a comfortable read, it isn't an easy read, and one compliant I have is that Fukuyama tends to be a little to free with some technical jargon and historic allusions that could use more definition and support.

If you are interested in what makes a political system durable, and what factors historically weakened political systems, I strongly recommend this book.

Fishing again!

Another great day. A friend of mine has access to a private reach of the upper Arkansas River, near Leadville, and we spent the morning fishing it. 8 kept (a limit for both of us). They were caught a variety of flies, including copper johns, matuka streamers, tarantulas,and pheasant tails. Nice variety of fish, including browns, brookies, and one cuttthroat. Sizes were really nice, ranging from 9 inches to 14. This is the second fishing trip in one week - If I can keep this up, I might feel like I'm retired!

Fishing

I love to fish and had a great day on the south fork of the South Platte yesterday. I started with a #12 wooley bugger, then used a #10 elk hair caddis with a #16 brazzie dropped, and then switched to a #12 bead headed pheasant tail dropper. Got three good strikes on the wooley bugger and landed a nice 14 inch rainbow. The brazzie got me nothing, but the pheasant tail got me about 6 8 inch browns. And best of all, I was the only person fishing I saw all morning! It was a great day fishing!