Thursday, June 11, 2015
Lincoln and a Few Gourds of Corn Aboard
H.L. Mencken famously held that it is hopeless to look for the real man in biographies as they tend toward distortion and sentimentalism. Regarding the authors he added: “Nearly all our professional historians are poor men holding college posts, and they are ten times more cruelly beset by the ruling politico-plutocratic-social oligarchy than ever the Prussian professors were by the Hohenzollerns. Let them diverge in the slightest form from what is the current official doctrine, and they are turned out of their chairs with a ceremony suitable for the expulsion of a drunken valet.
Bernhard Thuersam, www.Circa1865.com
Lincoln and a Few Gourds of Corn Aboard
“Even Lincoln is yet to be got vividly between the covers of a book. The Nicolay-Hay work is quite impossible; it is not a biography, but simply a huge storehouse of biographical raw materials; whoever can read it can also read the official Records of the Rebellion.
So far as I can make out, no genuinely scientific study of the man has ever been attempted. The amazing conflict of testimony about him remains a conflict; the most elemental facts are yet to be established; he grows vaguer and more fabulous as year follows year.
One would think that, by this time, the question of his religious views (to take one example) ought to be settled, but apparently it is not, for no longer than a year ago there came a reverend author, Dr. William E. Barton, with a whole volume on the subject, and I was as much in the dark after reading it as I had been before I opened it. All previous biographers, it appeared by this author’s evidence, had either dodged the problem or lied.
The official doctrine, in this as in other departments, is obviously quite as unsound. One hears in the Sunday-schools that Abe was an austere and pious fellow, constantly taking the name of God in whispers . . . [and] that he was a shining idealist, holding all his vast powers by the magic of an inner and ineffable virtue.
Imagine a man getting on in American politics, interesting and enchanting the boobery, sawing off the horns of other politicians, elbowing his way through the primaries and conventions, by the magic of virtue!
Abe, in fact, must have been a fellow highly skilled at the great democratic art of gum-shoeing. I like to think of him as one who defeated such politicians as Stanton, Douglas and Sumner with their own weapons – deftly leading them into ambuscades, boldly pulling their noses, magnificently ham-stringing and hornswoggling them – in brief, as a politician of extraordinary talents, who loved the game for its own sake, and had the measure of the crowd.
His official portraits, both in prose and daguerreotype, show him wearing the mien of a man about to be hanged; one never sees him smiling. Nevertheless, one hears that, until he emerged from Illinois, they always put the women, children and clergy to bed when he got a few gourds of corn aboard, and it is a matter of unescapable record that his career in the State legislature was indistinguishable from that of a Tammany [Hall] Nietzsche.
(Roosevelt: An Autopsy, Prejudices, A Selection, H.L. Mencken, Johns Hopkins Press, 1996, pp. 48-49)
Hand-colored, twice-signed CDV of notable Confederate hero, Cavalry Major Lamar Fontaine, one of the "Immortal Six Hundred."
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A wonderful relic Lot 47699 of Quantrill's Raiders and Bleeding Kansas... a
great presentation sword. The reverse of the scabbard is inscribed:
"Presented to Lt. Col. Porter S. Cox the officer who whipped
Thrailkill and killed Bill Anderson the bandit, by his friends in
St. Joseph, Mo. Nov. 25th 1864." Porter Samuel Cox, or Samuel
Porter Cox as he was also known, was a Mexican War veteran who came
out of retirement to lead a posse in the hunt for Bloody Bill
Anderson. They tracked him down near Albany, Missouri, on October
26, 1864, and lured him into a Federal ambush where Anderson was
shot through the head at the first volley. A member of Quantrill's
Raiders, Jesse James, made it a point of honor to avenge the death
of his comrade. On December 9, 1869, he strode into the Davies
County Bank in Gallatin, Missouri, killing a man he supposed was
Cox. It turned out to be an innocent employee, bank cashier Captain
John W. Sheets. Cox avoided Jesse's revenge and lived until
1913.
1776
For most of the war no more than 25% and sometimes less than 10% of the people supported independence & the revolutionary government, depending on it's fortunes. Then ask yourself, "How could someone like George Washington, who was literally risking a noose as well as loss of all his substantial property, keep on fighting?" How could someone love liberty that much? And what would Washington & the rest think of those corrupt, arrogant tyrants that rule us today, when they wouldn't even put up with a little tax on tea?
Lying Leftist “News” Media Trashes Anything Confederate or Southern
Via Carl
Recently a friend lent me an informative book called Death by Journalism? written by Jerry Bledsoe. This is not a new book. It was published back in 2002 but as we were in the process of getting ready to move to Louisiana at that time, I never got to see it.
Reading it now, even though I am familiar with some of what it dealt with is still a shock.
It displays the almost utter moral depravity of what we continue to call the news media.
We should long ago have dropped that euphemism and realized that real news is the last thing those people are all about. It was informative to watch how the “news” media people in this book operated, in that I have seen them do the exact same thing in other areas. To label them the “prostitute press” would either be a compliment to them or an insult to prostitutes.
Recently a friend lent me an informative book called Death by Journalism? written by Jerry Bledsoe. This is not a new book. It was published back in 2002 but as we were in the process of getting ready to move to Louisiana at that time, I never got to see it.
Reading it now, even though I am familiar with some of what it dealt with is still a shock.
It displays the almost utter moral depravity of what we continue to call the news media.
We should long ago have dropped that euphemism and realized that real news is the last thing those people are all about. It was informative to watch how the “news” media people in this book operated, in that I have seen them do the exact same thing in other areas. To label them the “prostitute press” would either be a compliment to them or an insult to prostitutes.
More @ Revised History
Black like me?
Via Bjorn
She's risen from North Idaho civil rights champion to positions of power in Spokane as a self-described black woman.
But what if Rachel Dolezal is really white?
Dolezal, chair of Spokane's Office of Police Ombudsman Commission and president of the city's chapter of the NAACP, has made claims in the media and elsewhere about her ethnicity, race and background that are contradicted by her biological parents.
"It is very disturbing that she has become so dishonest," said Dolezal's mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, in a phone interview from Northwest Montana, where Dolezal grew up.
Rachel Dolezal, 37, was highly visible in the media in North Idaho when she lived in Coeur d'Alene and was employed from 2008 to 2010 as education director of the Human Rights Education Institute.
Dolezal's application for appointment to Spokane's new police ombudsman commission was signed by Dolezal and submitted in May 2014. The application was acquired by The Press through a public record request.
According to Spokane City spokesman Brian Coddington, Dolezal was appointed to the Police Oversight Committee by the mayor himself. In April 2014, the city held two public workshops to consider how the oversight committee should be formed, Coddington said.
Another Churchill
She's risen from North Idaho civil rights champion to positions of power in Spokane as a self-described black woman.
But what if Rachel Dolezal is really white?
Dolezal, chair of Spokane's Office of Police Ombudsman Commission and president of the city's chapter of the NAACP, has made claims in the media and elsewhere about her ethnicity, race and background that are contradicted by her biological parents.
"It is very disturbing that she has become so dishonest," said Dolezal's mother, Ruthanne Dolezal, in a phone interview from Northwest Montana, where Dolezal grew up.
Rachel Dolezal, 37, was highly visible in the media in North Idaho when she lived in Coeur d'Alene and was employed from 2008 to 2010 as education director of the Human Rights Education Institute.
Dolezal's application for appointment to Spokane's new police ombudsman commission was signed by Dolezal and submitted in May 2014. The application was acquired by The Press through a public record request.
According to Spokane City spokesman Brian Coddington, Dolezal was appointed to the Police Oversight Committee by the mayor himself. In April 2014, the city held two public workshops to consider how the oversight committee should be formed, Coddington said.
Dan Simpson: The U.S. has few options in the Middle East
Via David "Talk with ISIS? Engage them in a discussion and treat them as genuine,
sincere, well-meaning people who are just misunderstood and want a hug
and to sing kum-ba-ya? What next, offer them jobs at Turtle Bay?
THESE ARE PEOPLE WHO WANT ONLY THREE THINGS: OUR CONVERSION TO THEIR 7TH CENTURY VERSION OF ISLAM, OUR SUBMISSION TO SHARIA LAW, OR OUR DEATH. They want to re-establish the Caliphate, first in its original territory, then in Europe, and eventually the world. WHAT PART OF THIS IS SO FUCKING UNCLEAR?
If this is the cognitive ability of our State Department, we are SO SCREWED.
Here's MY peace plan for ISIS:
1. Saturate the airspace above Syria and Iraq with drones; someone so much as shows an ISIS flag they get a missile up their ass.
2. No mercy in the manned-plane bombing campaign. Round the clock.
3. Send in massive ground troops after they're softened up.
4. Any ISIS corpse found is castrated. Air drop the "junk" over territory they still hold. The bodies get buried in pig entrails imported for the purpose.
5. Any ISIS captured alive gets interrogated, waterboarded, etc. Then kept in a prison camp with NO Korans, NO prayer rugs, and patrolled around the outside of the camp by guards with pigs on leashes, after having last rights and a conversion of their souls by compliant priests (could be people dressed up as such), and those videos broadcast on SM to ISIS addresses. "Make up" Imams who say that a soul so "converted" is no longer a Muslim."
In neither Iraq nor Syria is it a question now of whom we should back to win.
In Iraq, after 12 years of war, the choice is between the Shiites, including the Abadi government; the Sunnis, who ruled the place from independence in 1932 until we invaded in 2003; and the Kurds, digging in ever deeper in the north.
THESE ARE PEOPLE WHO WANT ONLY THREE THINGS: OUR CONVERSION TO THEIR 7TH CENTURY VERSION OF ISLAM, OUR SUBMISSION TO SHARIA LAW, OR OUR DEATH. They want to re-establish the Caliphate, first in its original territory, then in Europe, and eventually the world. WHAT PART OF THIS IS SO FUCKING UNCLEAR?
If this is the cognitive ability of our State Department, we are SO SCREWED.
Here's MY peace plan for ISIS:
1. Saturate the airspace above Syria and Iraq with drones; someone so much as shows an ISIS flag they get a missile up their ass.
2. No mercy in the manned-plane bombing campaign. Round the clock.
3. Send in massive ground troops after they're softened up.
4. Any ISIS corpse found is castrated. Air drop the "junk" over territory they still hold. The bodies get buried in pig entrails imported for the purpose.
5. Any ISIS captured alive gets interrogated, waterboarded, etc. Then kept in a prison camp with NO Korans, NO prayer rugs, and patrolled around the outside of the camp by guards with pigs on leashes, after having last rights and a conversion of their souls by compliant priests (could be people dressed up as such), and those videos broadcast on SM to ISIS addresses. "Make up" Imams who say that a soul so "converted" is no longer a Muslim."
*****************************************
It’s hard to find factions in Iraq or Syria worthy of support
In terms of U.S. Middle East policy, we are at the point where the question should be not “How do we make things come out our way?” but “How do we deal with the realities on the ground to our best advantage?”In neither Iraq nor Syria is it a question now of whom we should back to win.
In Iraq, after 12 years of war, the choice is between the Shiites, including the Abadi government; the Sunnis, who ruled the place from independence in 1932 until we invaded in 2003; and the Kurds, digging in ever deeper in the north.
More @ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The US Army: an institution corrupted to its very core
Via Terry
It is really a shame.
Under the regime of Barack Obama, the US Army has become a festering pustule of moral corruption and ethical blindness.
For a lot of budgetary and political reasons, the Army — my Army — has never been big on moral courage at the senior leadership levels. It doesn’t have bombers, fighters, submarines, or aircraft carriers so it is always vulnerable to the big ticket services. Heaven knows, there is no Army component vaguely comparable the awesome and voracious public relations machine the US Marine Corps unleashes at the slightest hint of danger.
Let’s start out with this story, via The Washington Post: The Army denied a Medal of Honor to this Green Beret war hero. What happened?
It is really a shame.
For a lot of budgetary and political reasons, the Army — my Army — has never been big on moral courage at the senior leadership levels. It doesn’t have bombers, fighters, submarines, or aircraft carriers so it is always vulnerable to the big ticket services. Heaven knows, there is no Army component vaguely comparable the awesome and voracious public relations machine the US Marine Corps unleashes at the slightest hint of danger.
Let’s start out with this story, via The Washington Post: The Army denied a Medal of Honor to this Green Beret war hero. What happened?
More @ Red State
Paul Ryan’s Pelosi-Esque Obamatrade Moment: ‘It’s Declassified And Made Public Once It’s Agreed To’
Via comment by Anonymous on Paul Ryan Cooks Up Elaborate Ruse To Save Immigrat...
Chief Obamatrade proponent House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) 60% admitted during Congressional testimony on Wednesday evening that despite tons of claims from him and other Obamatrade supporters to the contrary, the process is highly secretive.
He also made a gaffe in his House Rules Committee testimony on par with former Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)7%’s push to pass Obamacare, in which she said infamously said: “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
“It’s declassified and made public once it’s agreed to,” Ryan said of Obamatrade in Rules Committee testimony on Wednesday during questioning from Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX)
79%.
What Ryan is trying to convince House Republicans to do is vote for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) which would fast-track at least three highly secretive trade deals—specifically the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP)—and potentially more deals.
Chief Obamatrade proponent House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) 60% admitted during Congressional testimony on Wednesday evening that despite tons of claims from him and other Obamatrade supporters to the contrary, the process is highly secretive.
He also made a gaffe in his House Rules Committee testimony on par with former Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)7%’s push to pass Obamacare, in which she said infamously said: “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
“It’s declassified and made public once it’s agreed to,” Ryan said of Obamatrade in Rules Committee testimony on Wednesday during questioning from Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX)
79%.
What Ryan is trying to convince House Republicans to do is vote for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) which would fast-track at least three highly secretive trade deals—specifically the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP)—and potentially more deals.
More @ Breitbart
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