Your RDA of Irony

Weren’t California, Arizona and Nevada Named for English Shires?

On this date the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican War rather decidedly in our favor. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in March. For some reason, the Mexican government was less enthusiastic about ceding half of the country and did not ratify the treaty until May.

Lou Dobbs of CNN has described (with a surprisingly straight face) the Mexican War as if it were a real estate transaction. Mexico apparently felt overstocked in land, and was willing to sell California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Utah at fire sale prices (especially since the fires were in Mexico City, Veracruz and Monterey).

To quote the scoundrel Portfirio Diaz, the best president of Mexico that Standard Oil ever had, “Poor Mexico. So far from God, so close to the United States.”

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