Thursday, March 28, 2019

The French Lady: A Most Agreeable Gentleman


“Fatti Maschii Parole Femine

In July of 1861, Union troops aboard the Chesapeake Bay steamer the Mary Washington found the “privateer” Colonel Richard Thomas Zarvona hiding in one of her cabins.  Aided by some sympathetic passengers, he had removed the bottom of each drawer of a dresser and had curled himself up inside of it.  Zarvona’s arrest brought to an end a brief but brilliant career in the Southern forces.  With a two-day expedition on the lower Chesapeake in June of that same year, he had stunned a complacent North and delivered to the South one of her earliest naval victories.         

Zarvona was born Richard Thomas in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. His boyhood home, the Patuxent River plantation Mattapany, had been the site of a late 17th century battle between loyalists to Lord Baltimore and Protestant rebels who wanted “to proclaim the new king and queen.” Because it was a tradition among the wealthy families of Southern Maryland, Thomas likely attended Charlotte Hall Military Academy, the alma mater of Raphael Semmes and Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney. At sixteen Thomas entered West Point, but at the end of his first year—during which he accumulated 189 demerits—he left, and, to the relief of the Academic Board, did not return. Traveling abroad for a few years—believed to have been a soldier of fortune in the Far East and Italy—he was back home at Mattapany when Lincoln’s troops began moving into Maryland in April of 1861.   

Desecrating Graves in Raleigh

Image result for Women of North Carolina, Confederate Veteran, May 1898,

The Ladies Association of Wake County, North Carolina was formed as the Northern commander in occupied Raleigh ordered Southern dead removed from their graves or he would have them dug up and the remains thrown into a nearby roadway. Gen. Lawrence ‘O’B. Branch’s wife, during the early occupation of Raleigh, overheard that all Southern officers above the rank of captain were to be hung, which included her husband.
Bernhard Thuersam, www.Circa1865.org  The Great American Political Divide

Desecrating Graves in Raleigh

“The following extracts were made from a paper by Mrs. M.L. Shipp, in the woman’s edition of the [Raleigh] News and Observer, May 20, 1895, in regard to the most prominent association of the State: “The Ladies Memorial Association of Wake County was formed in 1865, when it was necessary to remove from the grounds of the Pettigrew Hospital the remains of the Confederate soldiers buried there.

It was but a short while after the federals took possession of Raleigh before the Mayor was notified that they admired the spot where rested he Confederate dead, and ordered that they be moved at once, or they would be thrown out in the country road.

A town meeting was called, and the association formed, Mrs. L. O’B. Branch being made President . . . A resting place [at Oakwood] was selected for the reinterment of the beloved dead, and, with the help of the young men and boys of the town, the work was successfully accomplished. The graves were comparatively few at first, but none were safe from Sherman’s “bummers,” as there was scarcely a new-made grave anywhere but what was opened by these men, in search of treasures . . .

Many Confederate dead from the country were moved this spot, and the grounds were laid off and improved by [Sergeant] Hamilton, a soldier of the Confederate army who lost both eyes from a wound. To raise funds to care for the Confederate dead and erect a monument to their memory . . . it was reported that contraband articles such as Confederate flags, a strand of Gen. Lee’s hair, pictures of President Davis or any Confederate general . . . [the constant fear was] the sudden appearance of a bluecoat with orders to search the room for these contraband articles.”

(Women of North Carolina, Confederate Veteran, May 1898, excerpts pg. 227)

[Photos] The Small-Town Placidity of Hue in 1966


Little did they know that the Communist would massacre 8,000 of them two years later.


Neat perpendicular lines of trees that make up the Imperial Palace grounds, the meandering Perfume River hugging central Hue, clusters of red-roofed houses like tiny Lego pieces scattered across a bed of green: the aerial view of Hue in the 1960s evokes a sense of small-town placidity.

Of all metropolises in Vietnam, Hue is among the few that have managed to resist the lure of towering high-rises. In the span of decades since the photos in this collection were taken, the central city’s skyline hasn’t changed all that much. Every morning, throngs of students in áo dài and white shirts still cross Truong Tien Bridge to get to school while elsewhere at the city’s many historical landmarks, tourists amble along the many tree-filled pathways to marvel at past architectural genius.

Taken by American soldier Ted Dexter in 1966, these images show a serene and orderly Hue, a far cry from the hammajang neighborhoods of Saigon during the same era.

More @ Saigoneer

Nellie Ohr met Christopher Steele at Mayflower Hotel the day before FBI's Trump-Russia investigation began

Image result for Nellie Ohr met Christopher Steele at Mayflower Hotel the day before FBI's Trump-Russia investigation began

Nellie Ohr — Justice Department official Bruce Ohr’s wife — met with Trump dossier author and former British spy Christopher Steele the day before the FBI launched its Trump-Russia investigation.

The meeting took place at the Mayflower Hotel, which was described by President Harry Truman as "Washington's second-best address." President John F. Kennedy once kept an apartment — and a mistress — there. In 2008, Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York used an assumed name to book room 871 and meet a prostitute.

A newly released congressional transcript reveals her research on connections between Russia and President Trump, the Trump family, and Trump associates while she worked at Fusion GPS. She declined to answer most questions about her husband, who served as an unofficial back channel between Steele and the FBI.

HUD Charges Facebook With Violating Fair Housing Act

Via Billy

HUD Charges Facebook With Violating Fair Housing Act

The Department of Housing and Urban Development charged Facebook Thursday with violating the Fair Housing Act through its targeted advertising practices.

HUD alleges that Facebook’s advertising discriminated on the basis of color and race.

"Facebook is discriminating against people based upon who they are and where they live,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in a statement. “Using a computer to limit a person’s housing choices can be just as discriminatory as slamming a door in someone’s face.”

More @ Townhall

Trump Tells Hannity: I'm Going to Release the FISA Warrants Used to Spy on My Campaign

Trump Tells Hannity: I'm Going to Release the FISA Warrants Used to Spy on My Campaign

President Trump called in to Sean Hannity's Fox News program Wednesday night for a 45-minute chat that allowed 45 to sound off on the now-concluded Robert Mueller Russia probe. One of Trump's biggest announcements during the discussion was that he's going to release the FISA applications that were used to spy on his presidential campaign.

"I have plans to declassify and release," Trump said. "I have plans to absolutely release."

More @ Townhall