tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26650062470853873992024-03-04T23:37:54.279-08:00EBBP ReduxEvil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-90185272673975729042011-12-08T05:37:00.000-08:002011-12-09T06:50:42.921-08:0031<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZNWR9Q2EmWxqWGlQlrpj5Fv7Jd__vlTgER8nX5w0WBjnIBmVNxHDw6wwxdx2MwNL8q-j_NMbkEsU9YBQ9DjpStHMiEis_rFFyxDG7RX5C5bnpQEiUj61Ej_XRZRMYmstmvb0N7YbjCg/s1600/john-lennon_bloody-glasses.jpg"><font style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></font><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 292px; height: 341px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683752304465370018" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZNWR9Q2EmWxqWGlQlrpj5Fv7Jd__vlTgER8nX5w0WBjnIBmVNxHDw6wwxdx2MwNL8q-j_NMbkEsU9YBQ9DjpStHMiEis_rFFyxDG7RX5C5bnpQEiUj61Ej_XRZRMYmstmvb0N7YbjCg/s400/john-lennon_bloody-glasses.jpg" /></a><strong>John Lennon's bloodied glasses [above]. Unlike other evidence in the crime [John's bloodied clothes wouldn't be returned to Yoko Ono until after his assassin's trial was completed in August 1981. The clothes were returned in a paper bag. "It's like they were saying, 'Here's your husband in a bag'," Yoko remembered], the glasses were retrieved by Dakota doorman Jay Hastings, and returned to Yoko upon her return from the hospital after John was declared dead on arrival.</strong><br /><br />On this anniverary of John Lennon's murder (this being the 31st anniversary; to give you an idea of how long ago <em>that </em>was, consider that - in 1980, the year he died - someone celebrating their 31st anniversary would have been married in 1949) - tradition holds that the blog post is about John.<br /><br />Not that I've tapped that reservoir, but I'm not sure I can outdo these past blogs:<br /><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/day-in-life.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/day-in-life.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-i.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-i.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-ii.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-ii.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-iii.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-iii.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-iv.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-iv.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/final-interview-part-v.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/final-interview-part-v.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-vi.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-vi.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-vii.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-interview-part-vii.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/video-review.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/video-review.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/for-other-half-of-sky.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/for-other-half-of-sky.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/double-fantasy-stripped-down-part-i.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/double-fantasy-stripped-down-part-i.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/double-fantasy-stripped-down-part-ii.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/double-fantasy-stripped-down-part-ii.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/double-fantasy-stripped-down-part-iii.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/double-fantasy-stripped-down-part-iii.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/double-fantasy-stripped-down-part-iv.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/10/double-fantasy-stripped-down-part-iv.html</a><br /><a href="http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/12/30.html">http://boythewayglennmillerplayed.blogspot.com/2010/12/30.html</a><br /><br />RIP, John<br /><br />copyright 2009-2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-63698659797403957932011-12-07T11:23:00.000-08:002011-12-07T11:25:48.926-08:00HORSEHOCKEY, KLINGER!<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-h960z16wn6XPtI0cm7tkV2ib2oIEI73TO1dbWvtgY3_lUXWg4XOT7UcxdhNuLreJBWre40K3lIep90MzsvhUxczNmrm5Y5VraSPQL0-cc5DJw7Ez-nWPvB3Sm_jVaxTDTzW9L8PhEa8/s1600/g-ent-111207-harry-morgan-obit-10a_380%253B380%253B7%253B70.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 287px; height: 380px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683469749870116418" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-h960z16wn6XPtI0cm7tkV2ib2oIEI73TO1dbWvtgY3_lUXWg4XOT7UcxdhNuLreJBWre40K3lIep90MzsvhUxczNmrm5Y5VraSPQL0-cc5DJw7Ez-nWPvB3Sm_jVaxTDTzW9L8PhEa8/s400/g-ent-111207-harry-morgan-obit-10a_380%253B380%253B7%253B70.jpg" /></a><div align="center"><br /><strong><font size="4">Rest in Peace, Colonel<br /></font></strong><br /><strong>Harry Morgan<br />1915-2011</strong><br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div></div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-19658190141517510662011-11-29T05:51:00.000-08:002011-11-29T06:01:46.341-08:0010<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM3EKUDC5293faSUPctaMBvtzZRtWEDYgVN25MufpKwueKxZAKFQ89v7xjeTF15WxpfFqm3JLGcnwTFwDEBMqIxp_COXkhtv0epTz3OvUEhDxp0Ghl41g-j4gTLjlbk9XXXJ2qaV6jxs4/s1600/george.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 206px; height: 245px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680416849933594850" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM3EKUDC5293faSUPctaMBvtzZRtWEDYgVN25MufpKwueKxZAKFQ89v7xjeTF15WxpfFqm3JLGcnwTFwDEBMqIxp_COXkhtv0epTz3OvUEhDxp0Ghl41g-j4gTLjlbk9XXXJ2qaV6jxs4/s400/george.jpg" /></a><br /><br />George Harrison<br />February 25, 1943-November 29, 2001<br /><br /><br />See Yourself<br /><br /><br />It's easier to tell a lie than it is to tell the truth<br /> It's easier to kill a fly than it is to turn it loose<br /> It's easier to criticize somebody else<br /> Than to see yourself<br /><br />It's easier to give a sigh and be like all the rest<br /> Who stand around and crucify you while you do your best<br /> It's easier to see the books upon the shelf<br /> Than to see yourself<br /><br />It's easier to hurt someone and make them cry<br /> Than it is to dry their eyes<br /> I got tired of fooling 'round with other people's lies<br /> Rather I'd find someone that's true<br /><br />It's easier to say you won't than it is to feel you can<br /> It's easier to drag your feet than it is to be a man<br /> It's easier to look at someone else's wealth<br /> Than to see yourself<br /><br /><br />copyright 1976 George Harrison; 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-33588935464996402142011-05-30T10:56:00.000-07:002011-11-04T11:03:43.527-07:00True Son<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEE8hCgcES4PAsj8okU4kaCcsYJS3Mad1KiLFWSfpJnbukyrQIRDyAPgT927kpdJ3WlycgZ21wuIU3rUl8EMHaRIleJ9l1D70OkSzz6V4BLinNGJm5KKYc6Yx0_H6i_p0ViFAOfjqepiQ/s1600/memorial+day+2.jpg"><strong><font color="#000000"></font></strong><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 300px; height: 388px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671202435843657506" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEE8hCgcES4PAsj8okU4kaCcsYJS3Mad1KiLFWSfpJnbukyrQIRDyAPgT927kpdJ3WlycgZ21wuIU3rUl8EMHaRIleJ9l1D70OkSzz6V4BLinNGJm5KKYc6Yx0_H6i_p0ViFAOfjqepiQ/s400/memorial+day+2.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEQwpKWM8hsfq6OOxPKlJ5YwfeA34Gx3mv7lTyVhI4ShHOYrYSdwF1V5CnfvhPCvtz9wMSqef9Oe8KGeypYB0dvDshvFDf8EHxRSmZ5lbHnCW_H_zV_qcunToHWhFwn5hy3aI0TgBkXHA/s1600/memorial+day+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 278px; height: 400px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671202166840685890" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEQwpKWM8hsfq6OOxPKlJ5YwfeA34Gx3mv7lTyVhI4ShHOYrYSdwF1V5CnfvhPCvtz9wMSqef9Oe8KGeypYB0dvDshvFDf8EHxRSmZ5lbHnCW_H_zV_qcunToHWhFwn5hy3aI0TgBkXHA/s400/memorial+day+1.jpg" /></a><br /><strong><div>Harold Becker [bottom] holds the rifle that belonged to his father, Charles Conrad Becker [top], who fought in the Civil War.</div></strong><div><br />I remember in high school I had a teacher with whom I became friendly. In conversation one day, she mentioned that her father had been born in 1870. "1870!?!?" I said, with my sledgehammer tact. Indeed, 1870. It turned out that her father - a German immigrant - fathered her when he was 70 years old, dying shortly thereafter. Later, I'd learn about the founding of the German federation out of a series of city-states - Prussia being the largest - in 1871 and realize that my teacher's father had been older than the nation of Germany itself.<br /><br />Today, there are a few examples of such primogeniture that even outstrip that of my teacher. One such case is that of 93-year old Harold Becker, a retired chemist from Western Michigan. Becker is a rarity, what is called a "true son": a man whose father fought in the Civil War in the Union Army.<br /><br />The story is pretty amazing. Becker's father, Charles Conrad Becker, lied about his age in 1864 to enlist at 17. Like in the case of my teacher, Charles Becker was 70 when Harold, his youngest child, was born. Charles lived to be 87, thus leaving his son with plenty of stories and memories about the war.<br /><br />"I think my dad was always interested in keeping the country together," Becker told the Detroit Free-Press, explaining what motivated his father to fight for the Union. "He'd go to the porch overlooking White Lake and tell me stories about the Civil War."<br /><br />Today, of course, is Memorial Day. While there is much confusion in popular culture as to the origin of the day - it was a holiday created in 1868 to honor the Civil War dead - we all know it is a day to honor those who have died in our wars over the last 235 years.<br /><br />Today, Harold Becker remembers seeing his father's blue Union Army uniform hanging in an upstairs closet, the pockets always filled with chocolate for a curious little boy. He remembers the Civil War veterans pension checks -- about $100 a month -- that were used to pay bills. He remembers the short, mustachioed figure, dashing in Grand Army of the Republic regalia, heading off to a meeting at the G.A.R. post.<br /><br />Becker is among fewer than 50 men nationwide who can say their fathers fought in the Civil War, which began 150 years ago last month. His father died of a heart attack when Harold Becker was in his late teens. This left time for Charles to pass along to Harold numerous stories of the conflict that divided the nation.<br /><br />Charles Becker was just 17 in 1864, but claimed he was two years older to join Co. H, 128th Indiana Infantry. He saw action at the Battle of Franklin [Tennessee], telling his son of a supply line that stretched for a mile. After the war's end in April 1865, Charles was one of many given the morbid and solemn assignment to disinter the dead from mass graves and bury them individually.<br /><br />Harold Becker recently visited the historic Tennessee battle site. "The [guide] showed me where my father actually fought," Becker told the Free-Press. Becker also traveled to the storied Gettysburg battlefield, where he even met the son of a Confederate soldier.<br /><br />Becker said his father had four or five children - he was never clear on the exact number - with his first wife and then married Elizabeth Ofenloch, a woman 30 years his junior, with whom he had four more children. Harold was the youngest of all Becker's children. When he was still a boy, his father, who had owned a grocery store in Chicago, relocated the family to Montague, Michigan. There Charles Becker, who died in 1934, is buried.<br /><br />Occasionally, Harold Becker said, his father would regale him with stories of Civil War experiences he shared with other grizzled soldiers from the Grand Army of the Republic Lyon Post No. 9 in Chicago, where he was a member and former commander. "I don't think he enjoyed the fighting. I think it went against him," Becker said of his father. "I'm guessing on this. From all the things he told me, he wasn't proud of the fact he could kill someone. He ended up feeling that way. I know he didn't dislike the South or the people, necessarily."<br /><br />Today, 19 true sons and 21 true daughters of Union soldiers are still alive, according to Bruce Butgereit, a Grand Rapids-based Civil War historian, who has done extensive research on Harold Becker's father [although the Michigan Historical Center counts 16 sons and 23 daughters] . According to the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, about 30 men known as 'real sons' are still living.<br /><br />"One thing Mr. Becker loves to do is meet and greet the children, and he loves to be able to tell when they shake hands that you just shook the hand of a man who held the hand of a Civil War soldier," said Butgereit, the historian. He has created a card featuring photos and biographies of father and son that Becker autographs.<br /><br />The star of these appearances enjoys doing them.<br /><br />"It makes me think about my dad," Becker said. "It just amazes me. We go to Pontiac, and there's thousands of people there and hundreds of people who are redoing some of the work the Army did."<br /><br />Ironically, Becker the son never served in the U.S. military. A bad left eye kept him out of World War II, which angers him to this day -- after being taught to shoot by a man who learned as a soldier eight decades before.<br /><br />Instead, Becker studied chemistry in college and went on to work as a chemist and an engineer for a variety of companies throughout the Midwest. He and his wife of 69 years, the former Dorothy Reynolds (a distant relative of Benjamin Franklin), moved to Rockford, Michigan in 1963 and had five children. They now have seven grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.<br /><br />He's a member of the Grand Rapids-based John A. Logan Camp No. 1, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.<br /><br />Unfortunately, a fire years ago robbed Becker of almost all of the mementos of his father's Civil War service. Only a picture of the elder Becker -- a compact, clean-shaven 5-foot-6 man -- and his heavy, military-issue rifle survive.<br /><br />On this Memorial Day, as he has on so many other special days, Becker will hang out the American flag that his father adored, although with 16 more stars than the banner under which his father served.<br /><br />"I've always flown it at the right times," Becker said.<br /><br />Today is the right time.<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission. </div></div></div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-70443780359374547962011-05-21T11:04:00.000-07:002011-11-04T11:20:25.198-07:00FORGIVE ME, LORD! JEEZ, THE JEFFERSONS WAS RIGHT!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHqvlbxLe_6N4SsEUX8khBiFLoKE0V65VWUcpwdt23r_Pw325idoXVVNaQ7i71RioGlnOgPyt_d7VxbiBLGecnYccO4gyoSq2OJGz4rYtAO5Jx6XrJbda-4xI65aUK3ZBxU8z8bpdNSdQ/s1600/doomsday.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; height: 300px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671203885449548978" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHqvlbxLe_6N4SsEUX8khBiFLoKE0V65VWUcpwdt23r_Pw325idoXVVNaQ7i71RioGlnOgPyt_d7VxbiBLGecnYccO4gyoSq2OJGz4rYtAO5Jx6XrJbda-4xI65aUK3ZBxU8z8bpdNSdQ/s400/doomsday.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Billboards like this one [above] ended up predicting the truth, as the world ended on Saturday.</strong><br /><br />In a bit of a shock, the world ended Saturday, fulfilling the prophecy - but "shocking the shit" out - of 89-year old Harold Camping, the former civil-engineer-turned-multi-million-dollar-doomsdayer. "Frankly, I thought it was horseshit," admitted Camping. "You didn't really think I believed any of this?!"<br /><br />Alas, Camping's prophecy was true after all. The first clue was the sudden death of former wrestler Randy "Macho Man" Savage on Friday. This was foretold in the Bible, when - in the Gospel According to John - the Bible predicted, "And in the day before the coming of the great Apocalypse, a large, macho man with hair plugs will up and dyeth on the floor of his gym."<br /><br />That news was soon overshadowed by [and, in hindsight, was further confirmation of the end] the Middle East peace between Israel and, "every country that hates her", announced by visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Of course, soon an even bigger story took over the news cycle. "Well, tickle my ass with a feather!" said an irritated Netanyahu when he was informed that the world had ended. "I didn't even get laid [on this trip to Washington]," he said dejectedly.<br /><br />But Bibi was not the only political figure angered by the end of days. An irritated President Obama said disgustedly, "Naturally! First black man in office and the world ends mid-way through my first term. Typical."<br /><br />The end of the world also means a number of mysteries will be left unknown - at least unless the Lord comes to His senses and recreates the world. For one, the winner of American Idol will remain a mystery for the remainder of days. The NBA champion, Stanley Cup champion, winner of the Preakness, and the experiment of Ashton Kutcher replacing Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men will all remain unknown. Indeed, even the actual date on which Sheen fatally overdoses will forever remain a mystery.<br /><br />One person thrilled with the news was former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Thank you, Jesus!" said the smiling former body-builder. Smoking one of his trademark cigars, and with a co-ed on each knee, Arnold smiled as he said, "At least this knocks me off the front page of the paper."<br /><br />On the positive side, terrorism, pollution, nuclear holocaust and Oprah's new show on her stupid OWN network also got wiped out with the end of the world. Indeed, some theorized that God chose May 21, 2011 to end the world specifically to prevent Oprah from airing her last show. "The first clue to the end of the world, in fact, was the rise of Oprah Winfrey's career," theorized Professor Smedley Lump, who was the chair of the Religious Studies department at Harvard University before the end of the world. "That a large, hideous, ostentatious, self-centered, prima donna could become America's sweetheart should have been our first warning."<br /><br />While most of us - including the guy who promoted the idea - were shocked that the world really did end, some lunatics were prepared. Some shut themselves inside to pray for mercy. Others met for tearful last lunches with their children, and prepared to leave behind homes and pets as they were swept up to heaven. Naturally, it was heaven. None of these morons contemplated that they might be sent to hell.<br /><br />And so it was across the globe, as followers of the California preacher's long-publicized message that Judgment Day would arrive Saturday turned to the Bible, the book they believed - accurately, it turns out - predicted Earth's destruction on May 21, 2011. Camping had been promoting his doomsday message far and wide via broadcasts and web sites through his multi-million-dollar 'nonprofit ministry', which was based on his apocalyptic prediction.<br /><br />And Camping was successful in scaring the shit out of millions, albeit - it turns out - for good reason. After spending months traveling the country to put up Judgment Day billboards and hand out Bible tracts, Camping follower Michael Garcia spent Friday evening with his family at home in Alameda, California, near the Christian media empire's Oakland headquarters.<br /><br />Prior to the world ending, Garcia hit the nail on the head, saying he believed Camping's prediction that the end would start as it became 6 p.m. in the world's various time zones. "We know the end will begin in New Zealand and will follow the sun and roll on from there," said Garcia, a 39-year-old father of six before the end of days. "That's why God raised up all the technology and the satellites so everyone can see it happen at the same time." As for why it would begin in New Zealand, Garcia echoed Camping's frequent response to the same question, "God hates New Zealand."<br /><br />Of course, now that the world is over, Camping's radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website are irrelevant. Many thought the same thing about Camping himself when, in 1994, his prediction of the world ending did not occur. At the time, he told Larry King that he blamed it on a 'mathematical error,'. "I'm fucking horrible at math," said the then-72-year old lunatic. As for that episode, Camping last month dismissed the possibility of a repeat in 2011. Speaking of the 1994 misfire, Camping said, "I'm not embarrassed about it. It was just the fact that it was premature - like my ejaculations," he told the Associated Press last month. "But, when you're 89-years old, you take [ejaculations] anyway you can get them. Even if you're just sitting in a diner eating soup."<br /><br />Perhaps the most upset about the end of the world really happening were those who thought it was a joke and guaranteed themselves a one-way ticket to the fiery pits of Hell by mocking the event. They attended 'Rapture'-themed parties to celebrate what they mistakenly expected would be the failure of the world to come to an end. Bars and restaurants from Melbourne, Australia to the Florida Keys advertised bashes. While in Oakland, atheists gathering at a local Masonic temple dealt with the end even-handedly, saying "How much different can Hell be from Oakland, anyway?".<br /><br />Indeed.<br /><br />Camping was not entirely right, however, because Camping and his followers believed that 200 million people would survive. There were no survivors left on Earth, however, by the end of the day on May 21st. Still, since Camping preached that those left behind would end up dying in earthquakes, plagues, and other calamities until Earth was consumed by a fireball on October 21, 2011, anyway, the point is kind of moot.<br /><br />So, as we say goodbye, I'm reminded of that great episode of All in the Family, when Archie is locked in the basement, drunk off a bottle of Polish vodka he's downed. He talks to God and calls out asking Him to save him. Just then, a furnace repairman coming to the house to fix the furnace hears Archie's cries and tells him he's coming. Expecting that he is about to meet the Lord, Archie gets down on his knees and says, "Well, this is it Lord!" He looks up to see a six-foot-five tall black man in overalls. To which Archie - after recovering from the shock - says, "Forgive me Lord!" He then says, "Jeez. The Jeffersons was right."<br /><br />In this case, the ranting octogenarian was right. Forgive me Lord.<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-86383617301220962312011-05-17T11:21:00.000-07:002011-11-04T11:23:19.284-07:00Cut It Off<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAsMBKCstYcoeIlExIZXMzr62TONBdVdpWouKYjUt5Zfd85Ha5K5fbPDES4UpOwEVOX-UaVHwV801rBm08oOJpb8D88hyphenhyphen1QSXlDN1GAxbSf10QaVC7VOqdNLMx7yLHAo1YCecPkbKhXy4/s1600/ensign+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; height: 210px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671207706827634370" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAsMBKCstYcoeIlExIZXMzr62TONBdVdpWouKYjUt5Zfd85Ha5K5fbPDES4UpOwEVOX-UaVHwV801rBm08oOJpb8D88hyphenhyphen1QSXlDN1GAxbSf10QaVC7VOqdNLMx7yLHAo1YCecPkbKhXy4/s400/ensign+2.jpg" /></a><div><strong>John Ensign in June 2009 [above]. The Senate ethics committee said Thursday it found evidence that he had broken the law.</strong></div><div><strong></strong><br />I'm sorry, but I just can't get off John Ensign's case. Yes, I know he resigned from the Senate and it's hardly as much fun to kick a former senator as it is a current senator. Nonetheless, the word that the Senate Ethics Committee ignored Ensign's resignation and completed their investigation - releasing a public report on May 12th - makes it worth revisiting this seedy bastard.<br /><br />That's because the same bundle of information that led the Ethics Committee to condemn Ensign led the Justice Department to do absolutely nothing. Like the Ethics Committee, Justice Department officials investigating Ensign spent many hours last year in a Las Vegas office interviewing Ensign's ex-aide, Douglas Hampton, as they scrutinized e-mails, handwritten notes and the aide’s detailed recollections about payoffs, secret lobbying and hush money over a disastrous affair.<br /><br />Unlike the Justice Department, a unanimous Ethics Committee — in a rare public report that corroborated virtually all of Douglas Hampton’s central assertions — said it found compelling evidence that Ensign had not only broken the law, but that he could have been expelled from the Senate had he not made the decision last month to quit first.<br /><br />Yet the Justice Department has yet to take any action against Ensign nearly two years after allegations of impropriety first surfaced. In fact, they told Ensign's lawyers last December that they were not pursuing criminal charges against him at the time.<br /><br />In the meantime, Douglas Hampton - the main witness - is now awaiting trial. Not surprisingly, he has filed for bankruptcy, lost his Las Vegas home to foreclosure and is going through a divorce from the woman into whom Senator Ensign fell - Hampton's wife, Cynthia.<br /><br />The Senate’s harsh report — contrasted with the Justice Department doing absofuckinglutely nothing — provided further evidence for those who complain that the agency has lost its balls when it comes to taking on public officials, a result of the fiasco that resulted from the 2008 corruption case against the late Sen. Ted Stevens [R, Alaska], which was ultimately dropped amid charges of prosecutorial misconduct.<br /><br />The Senate also took a far tougher stance than the Federal Election Commission [FEC]. Against the recommendation of its lawyer, the FEC also declined to take action against Ensign after it said it could not disprove sworn statements from Ensign and his parents about a $96,000 payment to the Hamptons that they said was a gift. In contrast, the Ethics Committee said the money in fact appeared to be an “unlawful” severance payment and that Ensign made “false and misleading” statements about it to investigators. It also said Ensign appeared to have destroyed e-mails relevant to the investigation.<br /><br />An FEC official acknowledged to the New York Times that the commission took Ensign at his word, whereas the Senate dug deeper. This official - a complete moron - expressed anger to the Times after learning the true circumstances behind the $96,000 payment. “I hate it when people lie to us,” the official said, adding: “If somebody submits a sworn affidavit, we usually do not go back and question it, unless we have something else to go on. Maybe we should not be so trusting.”<br /><br />Gee, ya think?<br /><br />After being totally embarrassed Thursday, the Justice Department scrambled Friday and said it would look at the new allegations. “We take all referrals of potential crimes seriously,” said Laura Sweeney, a department spokeswoman. “We intend to examine thoroughly the information provided, and take any necessary and appropriate steps based on our review.”<br /><br />Better late than never, I guess.<br /><br />For our developmentally challenged Justice Department, the Senate Ethics Committee’s 68-page report should provide them with a road map. And who the hell ever thought the Senate Ethics Committee would be the benchmark for the truth?<br /><br />Their report offers a blistering day-by-day account of the lies and deception, and provides a wonderfully lurid description of the affair and its consequences. It describes efforts by Ensign to keep the affair going even after Cynthia Hampton pleaded to cut it off [presumably, she meant the affair and not the Senator's penis]. Ensign used multiple cellphone accounts and fired Douglas Hampton in part so that he could no longer track Ensign's schedule.<br /><br />The report also catalogs hysterical efforts by Ensign's friends to keep him away from Cynthia Hampton - much in the same way friends often stage an intervention to keep a friend from way from alcohol. When Ensign was caught in a Nevada hotel room with Cynthia Hampton after he had vowed multiple times to end the affair, he received an angry phone call there from Timothy Coe, a prominent 'Christian fundamentalist' and 'adviser' to Ensign. “I know exactly where you are,” Coe screamed at Ensign. “I know exactly what you are doing. Put your pants on and go home.”<br /><br />The Ethics Committee report includes repeated references to an investigation in the New York Times in October 2009 about the secret lobbying work that Ensign had obtained for Douglas Hampton — in violation of Senate restrictions — as a way to earn his silence.<br /><br />The ethics investigation did give us something new: efforts that Ensign made to find income for Douglas Hampton, and it said that the ex-senator on occasion threatened to “cut off” political supporters who refused him. As you can see, there was a fascination with 'cutting off' things.<br /><br />The Ethics Committee’s findings make it clear what we suspected all along: Ensign destroyed evidence, obstructed justice and misled investigators.<br /><br />Particularly stupid ones.<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div></div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-18092254831788921252011-04-22T11:26:00.000-07:002011-11-04T11:28:17.111-07:00The Gift That Keeps on Giving<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgco3g0l_OglO5sV0NlJKrcZ8uP_UtwLSOWpyBwpVdPB56tEzRoNSn-s4S-SHSTIgA-DKDEr7GRyJcndiyaJg4b1U5YFLNoH3TmZiPdzERv1hb35HDDn0TBtnLjOAuhJubm5OZ3wB2Cnos/s1600/ensign.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 396px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgco3g0l_OglO5sV0NlJKrcZ8uP_UtwLSOWpyBwpVdPB56tEzRoNSn-s4S-SHSTIgA-DKDEr7GRyJcndiyaJg4b1U5YFLNoH3TmZiPdzERv1hb35HDDn0TBtnLjOAuhJubm5OZ3wB2Cnos/s400/ensign.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671209027699425858" /></a><br /><br /><strong>SENATOR WONDERFUL, HIMSELF: Sen. John Ensign, [R, Nev.] (above) is shown with his wife, Darlene, announcing on March 7th in Las Vegas that he wouldn't seek re-election. Now the coward has robbed us of even his remaining 20 months in office, announcing yesterday he'll resign effective May 3rd.</strong><br />Robbing us of 20 more months of blog-fodder, Sen. John Ensign [R. Nev.] announced Thursday that not only is he not running for reelection in 2012, but the cowardly hypocrite is now going to resign his seat, effective May 3, 2011. While Ensign thought he'd solved his problems by announcing his plans earlier this year not to run for reelection - and, indeed, that announcement led to the end of one investigation - Ensign recently found out that now he is facing another ethics investigation over his affair with a former campaign aide, and his shenanigans in trying to cover it up.<br /><br />The 52-year-old Republican blowhard - a Jesus-freak who no doubt read the Bible while porking his aide - acknowledged in June 2009 that he had an extramarital affair with Cynthia Hampton, a former member of his campaign staff, and that he had helped her husband, Doug Hampton, a member of his congressional staff, obtain lobbying work with a Nevada company.<br /><br />This latest ethics investigation focuses in part on $96,000 that Ensign's parents gave to the Hamptons, which Ensign's attorney has hilariously characterized as a 'gift'.<br /><br />In his resignation notice Thursday, Ensign said the appointment of the latest special counsel shook him because he had hoped the investigation would end with his announcement not to run again. "While I stand behind my firm belief that I have not violated any law, rule, or standard of conduct of the Senate, and I have fought to prove this publicly, I will not continue to subject my family, my constituents, or the Senate to any further rounds of investigation, depositions, drawn out proceedings, or especially public hearings," Ensign's statement read. "For my family and me, this continued personal cost is simply too great." Indeed, defense lawyers are expensive.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Ensign at least gets rid of one ethics investigation, that of the Senate Ethics [oxymoron alert] Committee. With Ensign gone from the Senate, the Ethics Committee will have no jurisdiction in the matter.<br /><br />Chair of the Senate Ethics Committee, Sen. Barbara Boxer [D, Calif], wasted no time kicking the Nevada dead horse by publicly agreeing with Ensign's decision. It was a bit surprising, though, that Committee Vice Chair Sen. Johnny Isakson [R, Ga.] joined Boxer in issuing a statement Thursday that Ensign "made the appropriate decision" in stepping down. "The Senate Ethics Committee has worked diligently for 22 months on this matter and will complete its work in a timely fashion," the senators self-servingly said.<br /><br />Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval [Nev.] will now appoint someone to serve the remainder of Ensign's term. It is believed he will choose U.S. Rep. Dean Heller [R, Nev.] to give his Party the advantage of incumbency in what is expected to be a highly competitive seat that could - in fact - decide which party controls the Senate in 2013.<br /><br />Ensign's resignation actually improves Republicans' chances, as he had a better chance of being named Pope than he did of winning reelection. Thus, even though he was the third Senate Republican to decide not to seek re-election [joining Assistant Senate Republican Leader Jon Kyl (R, Ariz) Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R, Tx)], it is a welcome relief for the GOP - and most people who believe in an afterlife.<br /><br />In looking back at the case, the Hamptons were hired by Ensign in 2006 — Doug Hampton as a top aide in the Senate office and Cindy Hampton to work on the Ensign for Senate and his PAC campaign committees. Ensign and Cindy Hampton began their affair in December 2007. Doug Hampton discovered the affair because - in addition to being a philanderer - Ensign is also a moron, sending Cindy text messages found by Doug.<br /><br />The latest investigation surrounds what happened next: in April 2008, Ensign's parents, Mike and Sharon Ensign, gave the Hampton family $96,000. Ensign characterized the money as given "out of concern for the well-being of longtime family friends during a difficult time."<br /><br />The Hamptons left Ensign's staff that May, but Doug Hampton began consulting for a firm founded by Ensign's closest adviser and run by former Ensign aides.<br /><br />Presumably, Ensign figured the $96,000 permitted him to continue boinking Mrs. Hampton, as their affair didn't end until August 2008. That same month, Doug Hampton was hired as an executive of Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, an airline run by Ensign political contributor Maurice Gallagher.<br /><br />While Ensign was surprised at the timing of word of the investigation, he had to know he was in trouble when Doug Hampton was indicted March 24th by a federal grand jury in Washington on charges he violated federal criminal conflict of interest laws.<br /><br />While we won't have Ensign to kick around anymore after May 3rd, hopefully Doug Hampton's upcoming trial will make the whole affair - pun very much intended - the 'gift' that keeps on giving.<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-47626428318368643292011-04-11T11:29:00.000-07:002011-11-04T11:30:38.974-07:00Mail's Here<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnGvVz9HorcipYdlACYnu7zC_bjrZS7kkji08nJ2CS1j5E849uJ55pUHxCYtBBnivRTNrkiHBvy4ufXvmTc4OFvmytBZQr_Barv9HMxBpUsGwNjRHYT3J8VWi6TmJr5SEy9RqvikS9FQ/s1600/letter.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgnGvVz9HorcipYdlACYnu7zC_bjrZS7kkji08nJ2CS1j5E849uJ55pUHxCYtBBnivRTNrkiHBvy4ufXvmTc4OFvmytBZQr_Barv9HMxBpUsGwNjRHYT3J8VWi6TmJr5SEy9RqvikS9FQ/s400/letter.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671209681590663250" /></a><br /><br /><strong>This letter was mailed from Hyde Park, N.Y., to Gloucester in 1945, but it didn’t arrive for 66 years.</strong> <br /><br />It's a good thing it wasn't someone's military discharge papers. A letter mailed from Hyde Park, New York, 66 years ago finally turned up late last month, years after its' sender died. The episode adds new meaning to the term 'snail mail'. Even a snail, though, would have delivered the letter faster. A local scientist estimated that if someone had placed the letter addressed to a Mrs. S.E. Lawrence of Gloucester, Massachusetts - on the back of a common garden snail, it could have made the 173-mile journey in 6 1/2 years. <br /><br />While no one knows where in the hell its been since 1945, the letter appeared March 26th when carrier James Patrick picked from the day’s batch of mail and a slightly yellowed envelope with a hand-typed address and four ornate one-cent stamps immediately caught his eye. <br /><br />Dennis Tarmey, a spokesman for the Greater Boston Postal District, told the Boston Globe that it may have been lost in postal equipment or fallen into a sorting machine — which is often the case with letters that take decades to deliver — but he added that that his theory is pure speculation. Tansey said a postmark on the back of the envelope indicates that it appeared in Seattle this month. "It seems to me that somebody had it for a long time and put it in the mail," he said. "Maybe it ended up in an estate sale. Who knows?" <br /><br />The envelope is known as a 'First Day Cover' — when a new stamp is issued, collectors celebrate by gathering at the place it is issued and having it postmarked on the first day. In this case, it was a one-cent stamp to commemorate the recently-deceased President Franklin D. Roosevelt, issued from and featuring his Springwood estate. Often, the 'cover' becomes a collectors item years later. <br /><br />Nancy A. Pope, a historian and curator at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, told the Post that such first-day celebrations were popular at that time, particularly in this case because it honored Roosevelt, who was a stamp collector and inspired many young people to take up the hobby. "The point of the First Day Cover is the outside of the envelope, not the letter inside," Pope said. "The concept is that they are never going to be opened."’ <br /><br />Some theorize that Lawrence — who lived at 123 Leonard Street — was a stamp collector who had a friend mail her the letter, or mailed it to herself from the event. <br /><br />This particular cover featured a "cachet," an envelope with a design on the left side commemorating the event being celebrated. When the letter was opened, the only thing inside was a notecard featuring the name and address of the person who had done the engraving of Springwood on the outside of the envelope, 'H. Grimsland'. <br /><br />The final irony is that such cards as the one found in the envelope were enclosed at the time simply to give the letter enough heft so it would not fall through a sorting machine. Yet that may very well be what happened and why the letter - 66 years late - finally arrived. <br /><br />As for Mrs. Lawrence, she was a housekeeper who was married to a house painter named Sears. While town elders say she died many years ago, no one has yet been able to locate her in a local cemetery. <br /><br />If she was cremated and her remains were sent through the U.S. Mail, she should be turning up in about 20 years or so. <br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-59624801445279770482011-03-28T11:32:00.000-07:002011-11-04T11:33:33.860-07:00The Bustin' Babes vs. The Larrupin' Lou's<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU09LQgmCbIqNt8lPGUyd7RwJCtgFfkNsjCha3VFCNIJkj4QImEdW6BCfO71UgVxtONNl1FatwnVhhbCSyO62ZvV4JCmHmzigT0lPiHhWy7OOd12dqew-Wff8zolaw8ocD6oW5MdgBqM8/s1600/Babe.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU09LQgmCbIqNt8lPGUyd7RwJCtgFfkNsjCha3VFCNIJkj4QImEdW6BCfO71UgVxtONNl1FatwnVhhbCSyO62ZvV4JCmHmzigT0lPiHhWy7OOd12dqew-Wff8zolaw8ocD6oW5MdgBqM8/s400/Babe.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671210384522849682" /></a><br /><br /><strong>A recently discovered video of Babe Ruth [far left] and Lou Gehrig [far right] is the latest example of motion-film images from baseball's pre-digital history. </strong><br />One of the great thrills I get - that don't involve some form of sexual act - is watching old-time baseball players on film. Those short-films with Ty Cobb [asshole, though he was], Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig et al truly fascinate me. Those films of actual games are even better. About ten or fifteen years ago PBS raised a lot of money with a series called When it Was a Game - images culled together from personal collections of color film that players took of one another before games during the 1930s. It was fabulous. <br /><br />So, I was excited to hear about the latest discovery of a short film from 1927 capturing Ruth and Gehrig during a moment of rest on one of those baseball barnstorming tours that stars of the day used to do to make some real money. <br /><br />Something I was surprised to read was that - despite my memory - there really are very few moving images of Babe Ruth. Indeed, even Major League Baseball’s large archive contains less than an hour’s worth. The recent discovery points out that there may - in fact - be a bevy of Ruth footage still buried in basements or stashed in attics across the country. <br /><br />The discovery of which I write came from a cellar in Illinois. It shows Ruth in his prime and is shot from close range, sitting atop a pony while wearing a child’s cowboy hat and muttering into a home movie camera. It also captures an incredibly young-looking Lou Gehrig - known for his dignified demeanor - holding children and unabashedly smiling like a little boy. <br /><br />The images were part of eight reels of 16-millimeter film found in excellent condition. It included three-and-a-half minutes of Ruth and Gehrig wearing the uniforms of their barnstorming teams. The film is thought to have been shot with a high-end home movie camera in or around Sioux City, Iowa, on October 18, 1927 — 10 days after the Yankees completed a four-game World Series sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Part of the charm of finding the film is that it occurred immediately in the aftermath of what may be the greatest season a baseball team ever had. The 1927 Yankees finished 110-44. Ruth, 32-years old at the time, hit 60 home runs that year, a record that stood for 34 years. Gehrig, who was 24, hit 47 home runs — more than anyone to that point other than Ruth — and was the American League Most Valuable Player. <br /><br />Of course, the film finding also brings home the reality that much of baseball’s history predates the digital age. Because of that, some of the sport’s best players and moments were captured only through stories and still photographs. Recently, though, there have been some jewels discovered. In 2009, Major League Baseball received a few seconds of video of Ruth playing right field at Yankee Stadium, something archivists had not seen before. Just last week, the MLB Network unveiled newly received clips thought to be a sort of instructional film from 1924 with Ruth, Ty Cobb and Walter Johnson. And last year, the only known full copy of the television broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, featuring Bill Mazeroski’s game-winning home run that pushed the Pirates past the Yankees, was found in Bing Crosby’s wine cellar. <br /><br />Yet, even as thrilling as such discoveries are, most of them tend to be grainy and shot from a distance. On those films, Ruth is often identifiable only by uniform number or his unmistakable barrel shape or his famous swing. This most recent discovery is different. Standing outside a large brick home - or perhaps a public building - in the shade of large trees, Ruth and Gehrig posed and chatted among a dozen or two well-dressed men, women and children. There is a rare close-up of Ruth without his hat, talking to the camera. Behind him, Gehrig held a small boy and gave him a peck on the cheek. Christy Walsh, who managed the tour and was considered the first major sports agent, is seen in a few seconds close up, too. At one point, Ruth recoiled from a backpedaling pony and laughed. He pulled the cowboy hat off a young boy dressed in Tom Mix-era cowboy regalia and mugged for the camera. The portly Ruth climbed aboard the pony, which looked barely sturdy enough to support him. <br /><br />The film came to light thanks to R. C. Raycraft, who bought the films for an undisclosed amount from an antiques dealer who purchased them as part of an estate sale. Raycraft, whose family runs the 3rd Sunday Market, an antique show in Bloomington, Illinois, told the New York Times he had not decided if he would sell the film. He may donate a copy to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, if the Hall thinks it can be put to good use. Neither the Hall nor Major League Baseball have seen the film, but each is interested. <br /><br />It is uncertain just how rare or valuable the film is, but a photograph of Ruth’s and Gehrig’s barnstorming teams, the Bustin’ Babes and the Larrupin’ Lou’s, from a game in Des Moines and dated October 17, 1927, sold in December for $33,000. And that was just a photograph. <br /><br />The 1927 tour began two days after the World Series and consisted of 21 games strung from Providence, Rhode Island to Los Angeles. It was so big that local schools actually closed for the occasion so that the kids could see heroes that they could only otherwise read about or listen to on the radio. <br /><br />The tours were pure bedlam. <br /><br />Indeed, thirteen games had to be called early because the mobs disrupted the action. "Every time a fly or grounder went past the infield, there was a race between the outfielder and the spectators on the fringe of the crowd," the New York Times reported from one game. Ruth, who occasionally pitched, had a .616 batting average and hit 20 home runs. Gehrig hit .618 and had 13 homers. The tours were a way for big-name players to cash in on their popularity. While Ruth earned a $70,000 salary from the Yankees in 1927 [the equivalent of $857,388 in 2009 dollars], he matched it on the cross-country tour. Gehrig, too, reportedly doubled his $8,000 [$97,987 in 2009] salary, though he was about to get a new Yankees contract paying him $25,000 [$306,210 in 2009] a year. The men signed thousands of baseballs, tossing them to fans in the stands and occasionally from their train as it rolled through towns across the country. <br /><br />The Sioux City Journal of October 19, 1927, described a chaotic scene at the previous day’s game. About 5,000 people crammed into the minor league park, and “2,000 youngsters became so unmanageable in their desire to get a close-up that the game was called early in the ninth inning." Indeed, during a rush of fans in the seventh inning, "Lou probably saved the life of a little fellow who was trampled to the ground in the rush by carrying him across the diamond to safety," the Journal reported. <br /><br />In Nevada last week, Ruth’s grandson Tom Stevens, now 58, watched a portion of the film a few times. Stevens is the only child of 94-year-old Julia Ruth Stevens, one of Babe Ruth’s two daughters (one each from two marriages) and the only one still alive. "My mom is the best living authority on him from a personal standpoint, certainly," Stevens told the Times. <br /><br />But Stevens is a Ruth encyclopedia, too, and a close guardian of his grandfather’s reputation and myth, as passed from his mother. "That’s really pretty good video of him," Stevens said. "But it’s not remarkable that he’s out and about with people. He commonly did that. That’s part of the reason people felt as affectionately about him as they did." Stevens was born four years after Ruth died in 1948, but enjoyed the portion of the film showing Ruth playing with the children. "I think he was most comfortable and most at home with kids," Stevens said. "They say he was just a kid at heart. And I think that’s true." <br /><br />And, in this latest video clip, he still is. <br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-23694125888996331092011-03-15T11:35:00.000-07:002011-11-04T11:37:17.777-07:00One Score<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLX4FhOi2w6uWr3UD7O7wdeat4kfNZF6LEE3SAY24x0h3XNYbLd_q7pry0fX6s4n8CPU97r8Lj3OLO1i-1WMwG-QJAmBflKZQmPfLvVCagXy-Wlt1GKXytt5opJ1yZmZn7cCikGl-L5o/s1600/scud+victims.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 207px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLX4FhOi2w6uWr3UD7O7wdeat4kfNZF6LEE3SAY24x0h3XNYbLd_q7pry0fX6s4n8CPU97r8Lj3OLO1i-1WMwG-QJAmBflKZQmPfLvVCagXy-Wlt1GKXytt5opJ1yZmZn7cCikGl-L5o/s400/scud+victims.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671211415450780034" /></a><br /><br /><strong>The 316th ESC Rifle Team took part in the 21-gun salute at a memorial on February 25, 2011, held to remember those killed in a 1991 SCUD missile attack</strong><br />Recently, a 20th-anniversary passed that went largely unnoticed by mainstream media. It was a score of years after a seldom-remembered war, one largely overshadowed by the conflagration that followed it 12 years later. For those personally touched by that day 20-years ago, however, the date was noted solemnly and with reverence.<br /><br />It was February 25, 1991, when 29 soldiers of the Greensburg, Pennsylvania-based 14th Quartermaster Detachment - an Army Reserve water purification team on deployment in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, during the First Gulf War - were killed when an Iraqi Scud missile struck the barracks. In addition to the 29 fatalities, 99 other soldiers were wounded. The attack was the single-largest loss of American lives during the short war.<br /><br />On February 25, 2011, one of the father's of a fallen soldier - Frank Mayes - was part of a memorial honoring the victims. Mayes' daughter - Christine - enlisted directly from high school, where she spent a three-year tour of Germany. Shortly after her transitioning to the Army Reserves and beginning her college studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Mayes' Army Reserve unit was called to serve in Operation Desert Storm, the First Gulf War. According to her father, Mayes loved being a soldier.<br /><br />Twenty years later, Mayes - joined by his wife, Darlene, and their two surviving daughters - were among the more than 200 people gathered in a tent outside the Army Reserve Center in Greensburg for a memorial service and wreath-laying ceremony to mark the solemn anniversary.<br /><br />As typically happens at this event, there was a politician handy to say some self-serving words and pause for a photo-op for his campaign web site. "It's times like this that bring forth vivid memories as if this happened moments ago," said U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy [R, Pa.]. Not exactly the Gettysburg Address, huh?<br /><br />But the ceremony was not for Murphy's 2012 reelection run. It was for the families who live with the memory of lost loved ones. Paula Boliver Wukovich was a mother of two young children when her husband, vehicle mechanic Spc. John A. Boliver Jr., was killed in the Scud attack. The family had celebrated daughter Melissa's first birthday while visiting John at Fort Lee, Virginia, for deployment training the week before he left. Melissa is now 21. Paula Wukovich says son Matt, now 22, closely resembles John, except he's got red hair. "These were people. These weren't just names and a toll of a bell," Wukovich said after the memorial ceremony. "They had lives and families and people who loved them, and we don't want to forget that."<br /><br />Kevin Keough was 10 years old when his brother, Spc. Frank S. Keough, deployed with the 14th Quartermaster at age 23. The brothers' birthdays were 13 years and one day apart, and as Kevin Keough gathered with his mother and other siblings at the memorial two weeks ago, he thought of his own children -- a young son, plus twin girls due in late April. "It's a shame because [my children will] never know him, and that part I hate," Keough said. "The circumstances, the things that he did for our country, I love and respect. It just, it hurts because I'll never get him back, you know?"<br /><br />There was another man in attendance at the 20-year anniversary of the tragedy. Unlike those who were killed, however, he is not American. Cpl. James Newman, of the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force, was part of an infantry regiment on a routine perimeter patrol in Dhahran and happened to be driving toward the barracks when the Scud missile hit. Newman's four-man team arrived within minutes and began the difficult process of rescuing bodies, administering first aid and trying to clear remaining ammunition stores. "You're reflecting, [and] all of a sudden, all the pictures come back -- the smells, the sounds -- and it's like it happened yesterday," Newman recalled at the memorial. "You'll never forget that."<br /><br />Nor should we.<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-9403461185906026642011-03-12T11:38:00.000-08:002011-11-04T11:39:33.016-07:00Get Your Hands Off My Light Bulb<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYuVz3Ew5wjCG2bTMLKK0g5kOugXzXJob0sO14QUeDSt9pSjvuAHE5ZBMEDlU_8EsDXKoKVOhE2_0Q9pVpPyU-cW9ecqmq8_a_MifnTk50mTaHAlLQAaZD4-yh32JosQfah108hFO8UuI/s1600/light+bulb.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 75px; height: 75px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYuVz3Ew5wjCG2bTMLKK0g5kOugXzXJob0sO14QUeDSt9pSjvuAHE5ZBMEDlU_8EsDXKoKVOhE2_0Q9pVpPyU-cW9ecqmq8_a_MifnTk50mTaHAlLQAaZD4-yh32JosQfah108hFO8UuI/s400/light+bulb.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671212025582966642" /></a><br /><br /><strong>The only way you'll get this light bulb [above] from me is out of my cold, dead hands.</strong><br /><br />Just to be clear: I really don't give a damned about my carbon footprint. My forefathers didn't, so why should I? I mean, you're telling me that they got to take advantage of all the great inventions [coal, gasoline, being able to read at night] and I can't? Screw that. Let my kids figure it out - that's why I pay taxes to pay for their public education.<br /><br />Every time I see something that is 'green' - no trays in the cafeteria, silverware recycled from used toilet paper, etc - I want to vomit. Perhaps nothing sets me off more, though, than those ridiculous-looking so-called 'light bulbs' that look like something you get at Mr. Softy. I hate them. If there was a stronger word in the English language than 'hate', I'd use it. So, 'I fucking hate them' will have to do.<br /><br />For one thing...well, like I said: they look like ice cream [or whatever they put in Mr. Softy]. For another, you get more illumination from a Charlie Sheen sermon than you do from these monstrosities. At my previous office, they replaced all of my lighting with these things and I ended up lighting candles and setting furniture on fire just to see at night.<br /><br />Somehow, I missed something in Congress a few ago that may mean every light bulb I ever see is one of these 'green' bulbs. It'll be great for the eyeglass, contact-lens and lasik-surgery industries. Apparently, a 2007 bill - passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bush - will make the old, familiar and loveable [not to mention light-emanating] incandescent bulb subject to strict 'efficiency standards' next year. One of the causalities will be the 100-watt incandescent bulb.<br /><br />Gone.<br /><br />You better start hoarding them now - as, indeed, some are. If you have an Easy-Bake Oven from Hasbro, particularly, you better buy them up. Otherwise, Junior will be cooking in the dark - which is how fires get started, I think.<br /><br />While the law does not outlaw incandescent bulbs or dictate that consumers must use the ridiculous-looking spiral-shaped compact 'fluorescent' lights, it does intrude into my life by limiting the amount of light allowed to be emitted per watt of power used. Thus the currently effective 100-watt bulbs must become 25% more 'efficient', meaning that its makers are forced to design new bulbs.<br /><br />I never in a million years thought that I would be on the same side of an argument as one of Congress' preeminent assholes, Rep. Joe Barton [R, Tex.]. Barton is against just about everything except oil companies and making himself filthy rich. Plus, he had the audacity to oppose the 2006 Combating Autism Act and publicly apologized to British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward in 2010 for what he called President Obama's "shakedown" of the oil industry.<br /><br />So, it's clear the guy is a prick. Still, on this issue, the prick and I are on the same side. Who knew it would take a light bulb to put us there? Barton has sponsored a bill to reverse the new light bulb guidelines. "From the health insurance you’re allowed to have, to the car you can drive, to the light bulbs you can buy, Washington is making too many decisions that are better left to you and your family," Barton said when he introduced his bill in January.<br /><br />Plus, a convenient fact dismissed by environmentalists is that the supposedly 'green' bulbs are actually health hazards because they contain mercury. So, they're 'green' unless they break. While some tree-huggers try to discount the danger by saying the mercury in a single fluorescent bulb is less than what some power plants throw into the atmosphere while generating the electricity it takes to light one incandescent bulb, I'm reminded of the great Archie Bunker line: when Gloria tells him that 60% of those murdered in the U.S. in the previous year had died of gunshot wounds, Archie says, "Would it make you feel better if they was pushed outta windows?"<br /><br />I'm now not only on the same side of the issue as a bastard like Barton - I'm on the same side as the lunatic-fringe Tea Partiers! My head is spinning. One of their darlings - Rep. Michele Bachmann [R, Minn,.], introduced a bill to repeal the light bulb law in 2008, and did so again this year. I apparently missed learning about the light bulb law after the President's January State of the Union Adress...then again, I missed the Address, too. Anyway, Bachmann gave the Republican response to President Obama's Address. In her response, one of the things she blasted was the light bulb nonsense.<br /><br />Another Tea Bagger - Sen. Rand Paul [R, Ky.] - said not only did he resent the light bulb standards but he also blamed the government for poorly working toilets in his house because of the regulations on how much water they should use. Once again: whoever thought I'd be on the same side as a wacko like Paul? I hate those goddamned toilets. You may as well shit on the living room floor for all the good these new toilets do.<br /><br />Oh, and these light bulb regulations have already affected the American economy. Last fall, General Electric closed its last major United States plant producing the old-style incandescent bulbs, in Winchester, Virginia. I wonder if those out-of-work employees are worried about their carbon footprint. Indeed, nearly all of the compact 'green' fluorescent bulbs are made in Asia. While some United States manufacturers say they will retool former factories to make other energy-efficient bulbs, you'll forgive me if I'm a bit doubtful.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the clueless Energy Department says the energy savings from these curly-Q bulbs are 'significant'. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy Kathleen Hogan told a Senate committee this week that - by meeting the new lighting standards - consumers could save nearly $6 billion in 2015. I don't even know if I'm going to be alive in 2015, lady. Get your fucking hands off my light bulb.<br /><br />Hogan later made a statement that makes one wonder where she pulled that $6 billion figure from anyway. Hogan told the same committee that a household that upgrades 15 current incandescent bulbs could save about $50 a year. Wow! A whole $50?!?!? How much would we save if we just went back to lighting candles?<br /><br />Candles are cheaper than current halogen incandescent bulbs, which now cost about $1.50 each. Another 'green' wonder - the LED bulb - can cost $20 or more each. While it is true that the LED bulb has only recently been introduced [and, thus, one assumes they'll eventually go down in price], and that they supposedly can last ten years or more, the fact is: I like changing a light bulb. Why the hell should I have to wait ten years to do so?<br /><br />So, now, in addition to the bedroom and my pocket, I want the government's paws out of my light bulbs. Amy Ridenour has the right idea. She is the president of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative group, and has already hoarded about 100 old-style incandescent light bulbs in her basement. She hopes to have several hundred by the time the new standards go into effect on January 1, 2012. Her hoarding, she told the New York Times, is primarily driven by concerns about the mercury in the compact fluorescent bulbs. Her middle child, a 10-year-old son, is autistic. "He’s knocked over quite a few lamps," she said, and broken plenty of light bulbs in the process. Since I'm not convinced that mercury doesn't contribute to autism, I'm with her.<br /><br />That's especially true in that the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] actually issues detailed instructions on how to clean up a broken fluorescent bulb because of the potential for spilling mercury. In fact, because of the mercury, the EPA recommends recycling used fluorescent bulbs rather than disposing of them in household garbage.<br /><br />You know what? Recycling was cute when it was cans, glass and newspapers. It's just a real pain in the ass now, and the novelty - like the days of the effective light bulb - is over.<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-40709920770394275042011-03-11T11:41:00.000-08:002011-11-04T11:42:47.136-07:00My Kingdom For A Bed<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNIGyAnu3OUKeCaTbOT2KHHmGS-BWgLXGktz88trwd2b2A9cRWTyATDZDa9L_mSEcEO1Jiz70rQS0q2jc69FWfZEs9mRtRB9QyGI3AZ_RUaRct2ssVz-kl-KebIcSf3ac2fexd4H9qIM/s1600/stroum.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 100px; height: 139px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNIGyAnu3OUKeCaTbOT2KHHmGS-BWgLXGktz88trwd2b2A9cRWTyATDZDa9L_mSEcEO1Jiz70rQS0q2jc69FWfZEs9mRtRB9QyGI3AZ_RUaRct2ssVz-kl-KebIcSf3ac2fexd4H9qIM/s400/stroum.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671212807816415490" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Seattle socialite Cynthia Stroum [above] nearly led to diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Luxembourg War to request transfers.....to Afghanistan or Iraq.</strong><br /><br />A little-noted diplomatic disaster nearly led to a number of U.S. diplomats descending into the middle of a war zone rather than enjoy safe careers in a country the size of Rhode Island. The reason has to do with the age-old practice of rewarding large contributors to presidential campaigns with plum ambassadorships in countries that are irrelevant. The list of diplomatic incidents that can be traced to this practice is literally endless. It's the latest example that I write of today.<br /><br />The contributor was Cynthia Stroum, a Seattle-business executive who made significant financial contributions - directly and through fund-raisers - for President Obama and other Democrats during the 2008 campaign. Her reward was the position as U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg - a country as internationally significant as New Jersey.<br /><br />Her tenure was less than John Quincy Adams-like, however. It ended when she quit in early-February. A day later, the details of her time in Luxembourg came out, reading reads a How to Empty an Embassy manual. With a little The Devil Loves Prada thrown in.<br /><br />It turns out that Stroum managed through creating personality conflicts, hurling verbal abuse and making unbelievably funny expenditures of U.S. tax dollars that - for a wealthy woman - are a bit seemly. Her running of the embassy was so bad that embassy staff requested transfers to Iraq or Afghanistan. Think about that for a second.<br /><br />Lest you think that Stroum earned her personal fortune,it was her father's dough. Sam Stroum was a Seattle philanthropist who made a fortune in the auto-parts business and felt bad enough about it to donate money to get his name on buildings through two charitable foundations. He died in 2001.<br /><br />The latest move by people in trouble is to send e-mail responses to reporters rather than actually speaking with them. This is actually brilliant, as journalists aren't exactly known for getting quotes 100% accurate - unless they're also stenographers. So, in an e-mail response to the Seattle Times, Cynthia Stroum described the circumstances of her departure from Luxembourg as "unfortunate" and said she had filed a rebuttal to the negative report with the State Department. Her service in Luxembourg, she wrote, gave her new respect for the work done by the diplomatic corps and an admiration for the people of Luxembourg and the ruling family there. I don't doubt that: my guess is she'd never heard of either Luxembourg or the State Department before the appointment.<br /><br />Stroum also wrote, "The initiatives that I chose to focus on were what I believed to be in the best interest of the relationship between Luxembourg and the United States, and I'm proud of the links connected especially with businesses here in my home state of Washington."<br /><br />Stroum's appointment had been promoted by Sen. Maria Cantwell [D, Wash.], who said at Stroum's confirmation hearing, "I have known Cynthia for many years, and I know that I can say this with experience: She will be an outstanding representative for our country," Cantwell said. Needless to say, Cantwell's had no comment since Stroum's departure.<br /><br />Others, however, had much to say. In a report by the Inspector General's Office, investigators found that the Luxembourg embassy "has underperformed for the entirety of the current ambassador's tenure. At present, due to internal problems, it plays no significant role in policy advocacy or reporting, though developments in Luxembourg are certainly of interest to Washington clients and other U.S. missions in the NATO and EU communities." Well, that last part is horse shit, but they have to say that.<br /><br />The IG's report portrays a corrosive atmosphere at the small embassy, with Stroum running roughshod over staff, threatening to read their e-mails and largely spending her time taking advantage of job-related perks. "The bulk of the mission's internal problems are linked to her leadership deficiencies, the most damaging of which is an abusive management style," the report said. "Those who have questioned or challenged some of the ambassador's actions state that they have paid a heavy price in the form of verbal abuse and been threatened with dismissal," it said.<br /><br />To give you an idea as to how bad the situation was the Inspector General recommended the State Department dispatch medical personnel to Luxembourg to test the stress levels of embassy employees. It said at least four staffers quit or sought transfers to Iraq and Afghanistan - exchanging a posh diplomatic appointment in a country with plumbing to spend time in a barren war zone.<br /><br />President Obama nominated Stroum in 2009 to the post in Luxembourg - a nation of 500,000 people, about the size of Rhode Island. Aside from her experience as an investor, 'entertainment producer' and 'philanthropist' active in numerous charities, Stroum's only qualification for the post was her generous contributions to Democratic politicians and causes, particularly Obama. Financial reports say Stroum donated the maximum personal amount to Obama's campaign while after having also donated $2,300 to the failed presidential campaign of former then-Sen. John Edwards [D, N.C.]. More importantly, though, as a fundraiser she was responsible for raising at least $500,000 for Obama, putting her among his top money generators. It didn't hurt that Stroum also had been a generous supporter of local Democrats like Cantwell and her fellow Sen. Patty Murray [D, Wash.].<br /><br />The Inspector General said it had learned in interviews with embassy staffers that Stroum, shortly after her arrival in Luxembourg, discussed with them "the importance she attaches to the perquisites of" being an ambassador. She was particularly concerned about the state of the ambassador's residence, which was being renovated, it said. Renovation time!<br /><br />Because of that renovation, Stroum ordered an embassy official to spend time - it turned out to be six weeks - seeking out temporary housing for the ambassador. Over those six weeks, the official - using contacts in Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and France and two officials from the U.S. Embassy in Brussels - screened 200 properties and visited 30-40.<br /><br />They found only four that met the ambassador's requirements, and she rejected all of them all anyway, before an 'acceptable' residence was found.<br /><br />Other highlights from the report include the fact that Stroum spent $2,400 to fly with an aide to a Swiss "professional school," whose graduates have gone on to work for Buckingham Palace and similar places, to interview candidates to replace a caretaker and a fired chef. She had the embassy purchase $3,400 in wine and liquor a day before the 2010 budget year ended in an effort to spend the rest of its annual entertainment budget rather than turn it back over to to the government for FYE 2011. This despite the fact that the State Department - like just about every other business - has rules that say embassies are not allowed "to use excess year-end funds" to buy items unless they are used in that year.<br /><br />Stroum was reimbursed for the purchase of a new bed because she "preferred a queen bed to the king-size bed already provided." So, it wasn't that she needed a bigger bed - she wanted a smaller one. The embassy twice asked the State Department to reimburse the amount but was denied because it was a personal choice. Despite the refusals, the No. 2 official at the embassy signed off on a reimbursement "out of program funds."<br /><br />Presumably, now that she's back in Seattle, she's in a comfortable bed.<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-25554369717076950172011-03-08T11:43:00.000-08:002011-11-04T11:45:05.145-07:00A New Hero of the Stupid<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-tDO2zELeTfTH9PqL6LneQMMfZ6rEGU4gcL7hkSrG59ycjNJFTJWA1y5POjKvEt0po2nfgXusbtjVXvbe5FIPYpDjMNsZRGwMqjYL6lnLRfnbiO8kbldKUJNDZOGVo0CUrTmlFA-YWA/s1600/lee.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb-tDO2zELeTfTH9PqL6LneQMMfZ6rEGU4gcL7hkSrG59ycjNJFTJWA1y5POjKvEt0po2nfgXusbtjVXvbe5FIPYpDjMNsZRGwMqjYL6lnLRfnbiO8kbldKUJNDZOGVo0CUrTmlFA-YWA/s400/lee.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671213399765227266" /></a><br /><br /><strong>WARNING: This photo, on the right, of Rep. Christopher Lee [R, NY] will turn your creep-meter purple. The photo on the left shows Lee with his shirt on. The meter will be slightly less than purple.</strong><br /><br />Word came yesterday that our old, dear friend, Sen. John Ensign [R, Nev.] is going to rob us of six more years of fodder by not running for reelection in 2012. Ensign's announcement reminded me that I filed away a story I wanted to write about back in early February. Ensign's pending departure is the perfect time to bring out that file.<br /><br />On February 9th, Rep. Christopher Lee [R, NY] resigned from Congress but accepted the Hero of the Stupid 2011 Award from Evil B. Why did he feel the need to stop dining at the public trough? Well, like many middle-aged guys with blue balls, he went onto Craiglist to try to get laid. Oh, I neglected two things: he's married and he emailed shirtless photos of himself to a potential suitor.<br /><br />Lee's brilliance made his second term in Congress one of the briefest in the 221-year history of the institution. The scandal broke on Gawker.com. Rather than giving us days of brilliant blog fodder, however, the cowardly bastard submitted his letter of resignation to the House Clerk in just a few hours.<br /><br />At least he left us a statement of contrition to chuckle over: "It has been a tremendous honor to serve the people of Western New York. I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents. I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness. The challenges we face in Western New York and across the country are too serious for me to allow this distraction to continue, and so I am announcing that I have resigned my seat in Congress effective immediately."<br /><br />In what must have been a bit of a shock to his sensibilities, Lee was outed by the recipient of the emailed photos. Of course, looking at one of the photos [above], I can see why she felt the need to dime him out: it was probably the greatest service to her nation that she'll ever do. The woman - from Maryland - emailed the photos to Gawker. Lee was responding to a Craiglist ad the woman had placed that asked quaintly: "Will someone prove to me not all CL men look like toads?" No, I have no idea what CL means. I've been wracking my brain and the only thing I can come up with is Centenarian Loser.<br /><br />Lee responded to the ad with an email claiming to be a 40-year old divorced lobbyist. Lee is actually 46-years old but the good news is he probably will soon be a divorced lobbyist.<br /><br />The disturbing photos show Lee flexing what would apparently be his muscles. One of the emails described him as a "fit fun classy guy." He also sent them from his own personal Gmail account, making it about as easy to track him down as it would have been if he'd taken the photos from the Speaker's lectern of the House.<br /><br />It took the woman approximately 30 minutes to match the photos to Lee's official Congressional portrait [on Wikipedia]. It took her slightly less time to email the material to Gawker.<br /><br />Lee had a completely undistinguished career in two-plus years. He generated many press releases by taking advantage of a tragedy when a plane crashed into a house in Clarence, part of his Buffalo-area district, on February 12, 2009, killing 49 people aboard the plane and the home's owner. Ironically, the pilot of that plane was the winner of the Hero for the Stupid 2009 Award. Lee promised to launch an investigation to get to the bottom of the tragedy. His constituents are still waiting.<br /><br />Lee's exit triggers a special election, which prickly Gov. Andrew Cuomo [D, NY] must call. Lee was first elected in 2008 with 55% of the vote. Lee was then reelected in 2010 with 74% of the vote.<br /><br />New York is the state that keeps on giving: Lee's resignation comes almost a year after Rep. Eric Massa [D, NY] resigned his seat in western New York's 29th Congressional District amid an investigation into whether he sexually harassed male staffers.<br /><br />By the way, we're now accepting applications for the Hero of the Stupid 2012 Award. Tell a friend.<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-38805876946302517342011-03-02T11:45:00.000-08:002011-11-04T11:47:27.948-07:00For One Brief Shining Moment...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWOC6S8Hu2GZ7JumCHZEpb8iJUWghXhbkmJK1eOy9-cUMevg8HPwVlpQHfi8sx-YhZs_5HqOR7HlvcvAedy8mW1TIQ-O5IHNZrFEtqigyPI-yyot_QnfBZSTjpcbazmh2afLJY7trJymY/s1600/jfk+012311.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 227px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWOC6S8Hu2GZ7JumCHZEpb8iJUWghXhbkmJK1eOy9-cUMevg8HPwVlpQHfi8sx-YhZs_5HqOR7HlvcvAedy8mW1TIQ-O5IHNZrFEtqigyPI-yyot_QnfBZSTjpcbazmh2afLJY7trJymY/s400/jfk+012311.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671213941964190130" /></a><br /><br /><strong>No male was closer to President Kennedy [right] than his brother, Robert Kennedy [left]. JFK named RFK as his Attorney-General in December 1960 during the presidential transition, which led to much hue and cry about nepotism. RFK's persona as Attorney General was a far cry from the one he maintained during his 1968 presidential campaign.</strong><br /><br />Today comes news - shocking to no one - that in 1961 during a 'fact-finding' mission for his brother in Chile, Ted Kennedy rented a brothel for an evening for a finding of facts of another kind. While that certainly wouldn't have raised an eyebrow with President Kennedy, 50 years later the news about the then-29-year old younger Kennedy is about as welcome in Camelot as one of JFK's numerous battles with syphilis.<br /><br />It is a timely story, too, because it is just the latest - albeit unwanted - news item 'celebrating' the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's inauguration. The story also explains why the Kennedys have been reticent to allow access to 54 crates of records from the Kennedy presidency that sit stacked in a vault at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The crates are individually sealed and labeled, and are so closely guarded that even the library director - Thomas J. Putnam - is prohibited from taking a peek.<br /><br />God only knows what treasure troves await historians in those boxes. They include some of the most important records of Cold War history: diaries, notes, phone logs, messages, trip files, and other documents from Robert F. Kennedy’s service as U.S. Attorney General. They include details about RFK's roles in the Cuban missile crisis and as coordinator of covert efforts to assassinate Fidel Castro.<br /><br />In this anniversary year, the battle between the library and the Kennedy family has come out in the open. So far, the Kennedys have refused to grant permission for researchers to freely review the crates and their contents.<br /><br />Not surprisingly, historians - a prickly group of anti-social misfits to begin with - are miffed. "The RFK papers are among the most valuable, untapped archival resources of foreign policy and domestic history left to be excavated," Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at George Washington University’s National Security Archive, told the Boston Globe last month. Kornbluh has been told to sod off several times in his attempts to gain access to the papers. "This history is immediately relevant to the ongoing debate over U.S. policy toward Cuba," he added. "I look forward to the day — hopefully sooner than later — that access to the RFK papers contributes to advancing that debate."<br /><br />Don't hold your breath, Pete.<br /><br />Access to the papers is tightly controlled by Robert Kennedy’s ninth child, Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, a lawyer designated by his mother, Ethel, to take on the responsibility. In a written response to Globe questions via email, Max Kennedy denied that access to the papers is closed, saying he has "selectively granted full access" to prominent biographers, including Evan Thomas and Robert Dallek. While I'm a big fan of Thomas and have read every one of the works of Dallek, both of them have also been accused by other historians of being Kennedyphiles.]<br /><br />Max Kennedy also wrote, "There are many requests to see them, and frankly, many of those requests come from people with poorly-conceived projects. It is my responsibility, as custodian of the papers, to grant use responsibly." Of course, what the Kennedy family considers 'poorly-conceived projects' may be a bit biased. Kennedy, however, also wrote, "That does not mean that every book must be cloyingly positive; I do not think that for a moment, and I would be doing a disservice to my father if I acted that way. But I do believe that historians and journalists must do their homework, and observe the correct procedures for seeking permission to consult the papers, and explain their projects."<br /><br />The JFK Library itself would like to make the documents available, director Putnam said, but current law stipulates that it must first get a signed deed from RFK’s heirs before the documents can be made widely available. "We are still in long-term negotiations with [the Kennedy family] to get that deed," said Putnam, who is an employee of the National Archives and Records Administration, which would be responsible for reviewing the records to protect information that could harm national security. "We can’t fully process papers that we don’t own."<br /><br />Now, let me say here that I happen to revere both JFK and RFK - flaws and all. JFK had the good fortune - as morbid as that sounds - to die long before most of the secrets of his private life and medical maladies were known. And RFK had the good fortune to live long enough to overcome and rise above his image as an angry unscrupulous strong-armed enforcer for his older brother to become a champion of civil rights and social programs, and as a strong opponent of the Vietnam War.<br /><br />It is that 1968 image that RFK's family seeks to preserve. The RFK of 1968 is not in those boxes, however. Instead, it is the 1961-1963 RFK who abused power and broke laws in an effort to assassinate Castro and project what he deemed to be the interests of President Kennedy - at any cost.<br /><br />"Obviously this was not the sort of thing [Robert Kennedy] wanted to come out," Sheldon Stern, former director of the Kennedy library’s American History Project, told the Globe. "The Kennedys are especially sensitive about this stuff."<br /><br />The papers are so closely guarded that they were never fully shared with government investigators after JFK's assassination. They are part of a trove of documents that RFK ordered removed from the White House in the first few hours after his brother's death. Indeed, by the time President Johnson returned to Washington with the body of President Kennedy, the documents were gone. They were shielded from the Warren Commission and subsequent congressional inquiries into Cold War era intelligence activities for the last 50 years.<br /><br />For those unfamiliar with the history, after John Kennedy was elected President in 1960, he chose his younger brother Robert to be Attorney General. Robert Kennedy had ruthlessly - and successfully - run his brother's presidential campaign and was JFK's most trusted adviser and confidant. As Attorney General, RFK took on an especially prominent role in White House decision-making and foreign policy - not spheres for the nation’s top law enforcement officer...at least in the previous 180+ years of the government's history.<br /><br />The known details of RFK's most controversial activities begin after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 when JFK put him in charge of secret efforts to undermine the communist government in Cuba, including Operation Mongoose, the CIA-led effort to assassinate Castro or topple his government.<br /><br />"Operation Mongoose was a covert operation to destabilize the Cuban government and [RFK] was the person in charge,’’ Philip Brenner, a professor at American University, told the Globe. "It is very unusual for an Attorney General to be in charge of an international covert operation."<br /><br />Today, Robert Kennedy’s own Deputy Attorney General, Nicholas D. Katzenbach [who succeeded him as Attorney General in the Johnson Administration], said he believes the records should not be treated any differently than other government documents from the time. "I am with the historians on this. I think all the records should be made available," Katzenbach told the Globe. "People should understand. Historians can get new perspectives if that is what the records show. Bobby might have recorded his phone calls. There would be notes of conversations with the president. He was wrong on Cuba, I think, for the most part, but it seems to me this length of time after the events it is time to make them public."<br /><br />There are many reasons historian want access to the documents. "The main acts of the Kennedy presidency involved Cuba and we still don’t have the most important records," historian Lamar Waldron told the Globe. "We could flesh out many details about coup plans. We might also learn more about JFK and RFK’s desperate attempts in November 1963 to find a back-channel, peaceful solution to the Cuba issue."<br /><br />For 50 years historians have speculated as to why John Kennedy handed his Attorney General the anti-Cuba portfolio in the first place. It involved the violation of so many domestic laws you needed the top law enforcement officer to oversee it," American University's Brenner said. The covert operations relied on Cuban operatives in Miami who traveled back and forth for meetings or to ferry explosives and guns. "[The operatives] did not go through customs and that’s violation of the law. Robert Kennedy could make sure the FBI or Immigration and Naturalization Service didn’t interfere."<br /><br />Precedent regarding the treatment of past Attorneys General records supports making them public. According to the Justice Department, the official files of the nation’s top law enforcement officers are housed "in a variety of locations, including presidential libraries, the Library of Congress, and university libraries."<br /><br />The fact that the papers will no doubt show RFK in a light far different from his later life is what remains the sticking point. Still, the fact is that most of us are intelligent enough to discern that all humans are complex, even heroes. As Katzenbach said, "I think the things [RFK] said when he came to the Justice Department would be different" when he died. "I don’t see why historians shouldn’t know that."<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-61762893831592145672011-02-20T11:49:00.000-08:002011-11-04T11:50:47.651-07:00The Map<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPFuBe3ahQgHIT9ChT7Sl4FgrlxETZ_9K3iUJuA4360bey5Eio5TJlkZwafcIAtrMn2KuuPRzOVDMd3jS7zPJtcBJ5LMrXaFQ99qOaE8TihLnXtzRB2HAOxfhg2y_KXEUiAYhXPSaDzpE/s1600/map011811.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPFuBe3ahQgHIT9ChT7Sl4FgrlxETZ_9K3iUJuA4360bey5Eio5TJlkZwafcIAtrMn2KuuPRzOVDMd3jS7zPJtcBJ5LMrXaFQ99qOaE8TihLnXtzRB2HAOxfhg2y_KXEUiAYhXPSaDzpE/s400/map011811.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671214890177012306" /></a><br /><br /><strong>The 1770 map before (left) and after (right) its restoration.</strong><br /><br />I'm always fascinated when something old and shriveled and long-forgotten is found in some obscure corner of a dark and dusty room - like that time I found my penis in the drawer of a desk we were about to throw out. While it wasn't someone's manhood that was discovered this time, it was nonetheless noteworthy when a delivery truck stopped at the Brooklyn Historical Society's office in May 2010 to drop off some old and yellowed maps and prints to be catalogued.<br /><br />When Carolyn Hansen - the society's map cataloguer - began the process of unrolling the old documents, she quickly realized that something was different about this latest trove. As she started to unfurl the map - browned with age and dry and crisp as a potato chip - it began to rip. She immediately stopped. She'd unfurled enough, though, to see something that took her breath away. There was something written on the map: 'Ratzer 1770'.<br /><br />Now, to me [and probably you and the rest of the world], that name would have stirred nothing in our brains; except perhaps the realization that the poor bastard who created the map probably got teased like hell as a kid with such a shitty last name. For Hansen, though, the name was like Babe Ruth or Abraham Lincoln.<br /><br />She immediately went to find someone when she ran into James Rossman, the chairman of the society who just happened to be in the building at the time. "We have a Ratzer map!" she told Rossman excitedly. To others in the room who heard the reverential tone in Hansen's voice, the discovery registered the same recognition it would have in you or I. To Rossman, though, it was as magical as it sounded when Hansen said it.<br /><br />That's because the name Ratzer is invoked by scholars and cartographers the way 'John Lennon and Paul McCartney' is by scholars of music. While it is difficult to pick one song for which Lennon/McCartney is most famous, for Bernard Ratzer his masterpiece was Plan of the City of New York in 1770. In her hands, Hansen was holding an early, previously unknown edition Plan of the City of New York. Since at the time there were believed to be only three copies of the exact map still in existence, this discovery would be filed under 'Deal, Big'.<br /><br />One copy of the known maps belonged to King George III, and remains in the British Library in London, where it is displayed occasionally. The other two — one legible, the other tanned and dark with shellac — are at the New York Historical Society,and remain in storage but for two or three times a year, when they are pulled out for students.<br /><br />This fourth map - while a breathtaking discovery for Hansen and Rossman - presented a challenge. It was aged beyond its 240 years by its destructive shellac coating. In its current condition it was literally untouchable. The story of how it was transformed from that state to a clearly legible and mounted [behind glass, of course] legendary artifact unveiled at a private party at the society last month is equally amazing as its discovery.<br /><br />The folks at the Brooklyn Historical Society knew that map had been delivered from the society’s warehouse in Connecticut, but they had no catalog listing the map or when it had been acquired. It had been shellacked and mounted on linen, with a wooden pole attached at the bottom. It had been cut in long strips to allow it to be rolled up for storage. The ripping that Hansen had heard was one of the brittle strips breaking.<br /><br />As for its creator, Ratzer was a British Army officer in America as well as a surveyor and draftsman. After its publication his map was immediately praised as a step forward from those of his predecessors - although he was dismayed when his name was misspelled on initial versions of his maps and called the "Ratzen plan."<br /><br />The map included a detailed depiction of New York's slips and shores and streets in Lower Manhattan. To eyes in 2010, the map is a mix of the familiar and the long-forgotten. "Manhattan, at least the part shown here, was mapped as precisely as any spot on the Earth at the time," Robert T. Augustyn, co-author of Manhattan in Maps: 1527-1995, told the New York Times. "There was no more beautiful or revealing a map of New York City ever done."<br /><br />Ratzer included notable buildings like "The Powder House," "The City Hall," "The Prison," as well as a detailed topography including the hills and woodlands near Kips Bay and Turtle Bay that have long-since disappeared. The Ratzer map is "one of the ways we know about how this place looked before the grid really took hold," Matthew A. Knutzen, geospatial librarian in the New York Public Library’s map division, told the Times.<br /><br />The bottom of the map contains a striking illustration of the view of Manhattan as seen from Governors Island, with ships, soldiers, waves and smoke. Brooklyn - or "Brookland," as Ratzer called it - appears as a patchwork of farms of different shades, bisected by Flatbush Road. That probably is the first time "farms" and "Brooklyn" have been in the same sentence since the early 19th century.<br /><br />Ratzer issued another, far more common version of the map - in 1776 - that is nearly identical to the first except for a tiny line of text from the publisher. That is why Hansen became excited when she saw "1770" written on the map [even though, most likely, Ratzer actually completed it in 1769]. The 1770 version, however, is the one that was presented - almost immediately - to King George.<br /><br />The two 1770 maps at the New York Historical Society were gifts of its founder, John Pintard, on January 4, 1810, according to its catalog. That makes the map Hansen found the first Ratzer discovered in 200 years.<br /><br />Exactly where this fourth version originated is still unknown, although on the back of the linen that Hansen began unrolling last May she saw the name 'Pierrepont' clearly legible. While the Pierreponts were a prominent Brooklyn family, there is no indication as to how or when it ended up in the Connecticut warehouse.<br /><br />Fearful of causing more damage, the society called in Jonathan P. Derow, a paper conservationist. "It was in terrible condition," Derow told the Times. "I suggested it not be rerolled. Every time it was handled, more pieces were broken apart, and the damage was increased."<br /><br />It was too brittle to move to Derow's office, so he made a makeshift plastic tent in the society’s office and inserted a humidifier. The hard paper softened, and Derow carried it away. He washed the map for four days in an alkaline bath [don't try that at home, folks] that removed acid and grime, and he cut away the linen backing. Derow then aligned the pieces, using a strong magnifying glass and tweezers, and let the map dry, only to see tiny gaps appear between strips, the result of the paper’s shrinking. So, he rewet it and started over, but let the pieces overlap slightly. That worked: the map shrank perfectly in place.<br /><br />White lines were visible where the map had ripped, the brighter inner fabrics of the paper standing out from the stained surface. Derow came up with a simply brilliant idea. He went to a bookstore specializing in old, obscure books and bought a handful. To give you an idea of how obscure the books were, when was the last time you picked up your copy of The Select Dialogues of Lucian, to Which Is Added, a New Literal Translation in Latin, With Notes in English [1804]? The key ingredient was the cloth paper upon which such old books were printed, as opposed to the wood pulp that is used today.<br /><br />While book-lovers might chastise him, Derow took the books and baked them in his kitchen oven. He then boiled them in water to create a simply delightful stew. Although no doubt tempting, Derow didn't eat the mixture but instead painted the now-liquid cloth onto the white lines, matching them to the rest of the map. He then framed the finished product behind plexiglass.<br /><br />Derow charged the society $5,000 for the restoration - which apparently is a reduced rate. Still, the work is amazing. From an historical standpoint, the document is now protected for hundreds of years.<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-28572760058531508182011-02-06T11:51:00.000-08:002011-11-04T11:53:11.278-07:00Grade A<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0rLy6n_wKuJXDq4jYvh6-GmlIoe4ekoFKyeXVlF8l4DAOH6yIBuooOug3i6_caynx7tS-SZV-kgyDnEMrjjv4agfk-IAgixoKQSyOInNvcqSMOxjUJrQVLloi-65puZ4XXZ27RGi3Og/s1600/Reagan+1981.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0rLy6n_wKuJXDq4jYvh6-GmlIoe4ekoFKyeXVlF8l4DAOH6yIBuooOug3i6_caynx7tS-SZV-kgyDnEMrjjv4agfk-IAgixoKQSyOInNvcqSMOxjUJrQVLloi-65puZ4XXZ27RGi3Og/s400/Reagan+1981.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671215552064852978" /></a><br /><br /><strong><strong>President Ronald Reagan's official White House portrait [above], taken early in 1981. His physical appearance changed noticeably after the assassination attempt on March 30th of that year.</strong></strong><br /><br />When the nation celebrated the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, they put his visage on the penny. The story is interesting: President Theodore Roosevelt, in the final days of his Administration [remember, in 1909 the new President (William Howard Taft) wasn't inaugurated until March 4th], Roosevelt sought to suitably commemorate Lincoln before he turned over the White House to his bloated successor. So, Roosevelt instructed a well-known sculptor named Augustus Saint-Gaudens to redesign the penny [actually, while he was at it, Roosevelt told Saint-Gaudens to start to redesign all the United States coins]. Unfortunately for Saint-Gaudens, he up and died before completing the Lincoln project, leaving Roosevelt to find a new designer.<br /><br />Victor David Brenner - to my knowledge, no relation to the comedian - had previously sculpted a bronze plaque of Lincoln that Roosevelt admired. Running out of time, Roosevelt chose the Brenner bronze as the new face of the penny. Unfortunately, by the time the new penny design was complete, Roosevelt was off in Africa shooting things. Still, the Lincoln penny was minted and began circulating in August 1909 - still within a time frame to call it in honor of his 100th birthday.<br /><br />Not quite so with another American icon. Back in 1829, when I was a boy, the country prepared to celebrate the 100th birthday of George Washington three years hence. Seeking a suitable way to honor the 'Father of His Country', a group of citizens in Maine organized a commission to construct a 'Washington monument' somewhere in the nation's capital. The idea was to have the monument up and ready by February 22, 1832 - the actual 100th anniversary of his birth.<br /><br />Initially, private donations poured in and the effort was taken over by a national commission. While originally the Maine group wanted to have the monument financed entirely by private donations, had they stuck to that the odds are the Washington Monument would be about six feet tall. So, 1832 came and went. Somehow, the commission actually lost money. So, missing the desired date of the unveiling by a cool 22 years, the commission was distraught when the private funds dried up. For once, the Congress of the 1850s did something positive and made a $200,000 donation in 1854.<br /><br />It looked like the monument was just around the corner. Then Congress slipped back into its' more traditional bone-headed thinking and for some reason invited foreign governments to donate a marble block as part of what was now going to be the Washington Monument with a capital 'M'. They were invited to donate the marble block with their own message of congratulations on what was now being billed as a 125th anniversary celebration of Washington's birth. The reason I say it was bone-headed is that this was smack in the middle of the Nativist movement in the U.S., when anti-Catholicism was the national pastime [soon to be replaced by baseball]. So, when Pope Pius IX made a marble donation on behalf of The Papal States, the Nativist political party known as the Know Nothings [which, incidentally, could be the name of every political party] decided they'd seen enough.<br /><br />It had been decided that an election would be held to select members of a new Washington Monument Commission [for some reason, Congress didn't trust its $200,000 with the group who blew through the donated money]. So, the Know Nothings relied on that age-old American political tradition and rigged the elections. The result was a commission filled with Know Nothings who proceeded to - literally - remove the papal marble block and throw it into the Potomac River.<br /><br />Congress thought this was rude and immediately rescinded its appropriation and work on the Monument was halted. The country was too busy tearing itself apart, what with a civil war and all, so work didn't resume until after that conflagration. By the time the Washington Monument was finally dedicated, it was for the 150th anniversary of Washington's birth, in 1882. Oh, and the papal marble block was replaced with a new one in 1982, at the direction of President Ronald Reagan.<br /><br />A wonderful segue [if I do say so myself] into a post on the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Reagan today. First, in the interest of humanity and dignity, we should consider it a blessing that the poor man is not still with us. Indeed, at one time doctors were telling Nancy Reagan that her husband's physical make-up was such that he could well live past 100, even though he no longer opened his eyes - a period that lasted four years until his death in 2004. For a man as vibrant and sunny as Reagan, his long and drawn out decline into death was hard on the country but much harder - devastating - to his family.<br /><br />So, today we celebrate not the ill dying Reagan but the 40th President of the United States. There are many, many examples of men who became unlikely Presidents. Indeed, out of the 43 men who have occupied the office, probably a third were perhaps the least likely men to grow up and become President in their city, town or village. Our current President certainly fits that mold.<br /><br />Does Reagan fit into this category? Yes and no. Actually, it is probably more no than yes. Reagan's detractors would scoff at that and say that Ronald Reagan was the least likely - and least qualified - man to assume the Presidency - ever. Of course, these are folks who are too young to remember Warren Harding's stag parties in the White House, but that's another story.<br /><br />While it is true that Reagan did not turn to politics until he was well into his middle-age, too often his detractors belittle what he did during that first phase of his life. Those who did not appreciate that period of his life now lie by the political roadside alongside the carcasses of hundreds of others who underestimated Ronald Reagan.<br /><br />Those putting Reagan in the unlikely/unqualified category point to that early career - first as a radio announcer, and then a Hollywood actor - as proof-positive that he belongs there. His detractors love to call him a 'Grade B actor' - which is horseshit. His movies were 'B' movies, but Reagan's acting was not. Despite the fact that the scripts were dreadful and he was surrounded by true 'B' actors, Reagan's performances are actually quite good. Indeed, even setting aside the fact that you know the man is going to become President 40 years hence, watching these horrible films you find yourself focusing on Reagan's characters simply because they are the only ones who are interesting.<br /><br />Of course, his detractors also try to have it both ways. They say he was a horrible actor in the 1940s and 1950s but then the greatest 'actor' of all time while President of the United States. This defies logic - which, of course, has never deterred the Left on anything. In fact, I would say that Reagan's acting was not 'B' - ever.<br /><br />But his supporters also misread him when they try to underplay his acting abilities as President. That is just plain silly. The man played a role of a lifetime from 1981-1989. He used his knowledge of communication, voice inflection, projection and knowing his audience to simple perfection. That's not a slap at Reagan, by the way. In fact, another President I admire - a guy from Arkansas - might have beat out Reagan for an Oscar if they gave one to Presidents' for their acting ability.<br /><br />So, the whole 'acting' angle is more complicated than people think. Because it is so complicated, in fact, that tends to lead me to believe that it is at the crux of any study of Ronald Reagan. We should study it because one of the traits of the greatest actors - being a brilliant observer of people and taking those observations to project those qualities into a character - helped make Reagan a successful President. He was intelligent, but not brilliant. This led some to say that he had literally no intellectual curiosity. He had a limited attention span for most of his entire life, which often led those who were trying to get their point across to him in a meeting walk away thinking Reagan was a dolt. More likely, the dolt was the guy talking to Reagan. Reagan had gotten whatever he wanted or needed from the person and, with that done, the President had simply 'turned off the TV', so to speak. He listened, he learned, he studied, and then his mind was gone from the discussion.<br /><br />The one intrinsic part of Reagan's character, though, was understanding and knowing people. That is ironic because Reagan himself was perhaps the least 'known' person ever to occupy the White House. I don't mean he wasn't famous; I mean almost no one 'knew' Reagan. He had no best friend other than his wife, Nancy. Beyond her, of all the hundreds of men and women who would work closely with Reagan over his political career, not one could say they 'knew' Reagan. Perhaps because he could read people so well he refused to allow himself to be read by others. Perhaps it was his childhood experiences with an alcoholic father with a temper [never a good combination...unless you're Charlie Sheen] made him so introverted, so removed. We'll never know.<br /><br />But that's where Reagan's acting comes in. Because, although Reagan was an introvert with no confidants, he made every single person he encountered in his life feel as if they knew Reagan; that they were his confidant, buddy, pal. His acting skills allowed him to watch people, learn from people, entertain them, make them feel like they were a part of his life while - in reality - shutting them out his true self entirely. And that ability made him the President he became.<br /><br />So, in my view, rather than dismissing him as a 'B' actor, in fact we should recognize - and not in a derogatory way - the role that Reagan's acting talents played in his successful leadership of the country. His acting career was not something to be passed over in a few pages in a biography: it was a key component of his being.<br /><br />In the most positive sense - and not as a swipe at him - I say Ronald Reagan was no Grade 'B' actor. In fact, he was Grade 'A'. The only 'B' I'd give him is an academic mark. I believe he was a good [B] - not a great - President.<br /><br />So, Happy 100th birthday, Mr. President. In this equation, A + B = a man worth honoring on this day.<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-31446328335969936692011-01-30T11:54:00.000-08:002011-11-04T11:55:36.090-07:00A Witness to the Execution<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUILD7PKpVFA3D-WarI36awb_DvGj6I6uXmxAsR1FWzxplcssLWuXby1rVvVKW1JJzy__UefLBGXCCG0MHIaKuYfYIRHEHVHl6q4fmHkL_LJrxYAwVB_QaxkrfdtUxxBPYyfHRS80Y-zQ/s1600/slovik.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 284px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUILD7PKpVFA3D-WarI36awb_DvGj6I6uXmxAsR1FWzxplcssLWuXby1rVvVKW1JJzy__UefLBGXCCG0MHIaKuYfYIRHEHVHl6q4fmHkL_LJrxYAwVB_QaxkrfdtUxxBPYyfHRS80Y-zQ/s400/slovik.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671216057840474322" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Nick Gozik [above] turns 90-years old tomorrow. He spent the morning of his 25th birthday as a witness to the execution of Pvt. Eddie Slovik.</strong><br /><br />Tomorrow marks the 65th anniversary of the execution of Pvt. Eddie Slovik, who became the first U.S. service member executed for desertion since the Civil War. Although 48 other American soldiers were given similar varying sentences during World War II, Slovik's was the only one carried out.<br /><br />Also 65 years ago tomorrow, Nick Gozik celebrated his 25th birthday. Gozik, now a 90-year old man living in Western Pennsylvania, spent his birthday as a witness to Slovik's execution. When Gozik celebrates tomorrow with his family, he will be thinking of Slovik and remember a courtyard in a castle-like villa at the edge of the town of Sainte-Marie-Aux-Mines in the Vosges Mountains in France. It was there that Slovik was executed - a botched one at that - by a firing squad.<br /><br />Today, Gozik remembers Slovik not as a coward but as one of the bravest men he ever saw. "I've seen a lot of people in the service who didn't want to die, but he knew he was going to die," Gozik recently told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "He knew what to expect, and he was going to abide by it. He paid the price of several thousand people deserting during the war. Believe me when I tell you, to me, he was the bravest soldier I ever met."<br /><br />Gozik and Slovik had very different paths to that French courtyard. Gozik joined the Army National Guard shortly after his 19th birthday - two years prior to U.S. entry into the war. Slovik was drafted well-into the conflict. When the United States did enter World War II, Gozik and his fellow Guardsmen ended up on active duty.<br /><br />Gozik served with the Army's 28th Infantry Division in an artillery unit that made its way through Europe, ending up in eastern France, where he survived the Battle of the Bulge. On January 30, 1945, certainly, the war was still raging, but Gozik and his unit were taking a breather. Unexpectedly, however, he and a few others were told to report to battalion headquarters the next morning. They were not told why.<br /><br />After reporting the next morning, they were taken by Jeep to what Gozik described as a castle-like villa at the end of town with iron gates, a bridge and a stone wall surrounding it. Strangely, a Catholic priest was waiting for them. Without a word, after Gozik and the other got out of the Jeep, the priest began to say Mass. After the impromptu service, Gozik and the other men entered a courtyard. "They had put up a large pole in the center of this area close to the stone wall," Gozik recalled. The murmurs began: somebody was being executed today.<br /><br />Gozik recalled the shock that quickly ran through his mind as that reality sank in. While he and the others were supposed to stand at attention, Gozik recalled that nobody did. Instead, they watched as Pvt. Eddie Slovik - wearing his uniform stripped of its insignia, as mandated by the Army Code of Conduct for those to be executed for desertion - emerged from a small shed.<br /><br />Slovik was flanked by two soldiers. His head was bare and he had a blanket draped over his shoulders. Gozik recalled that Slovik was a, "little fellow. He was going to be 25 years old in February. And that day was my birthday — January 31st. I was 25 years old." It was 18 days before Slovik's 25th.<br /><br />Slovik was strapped to the post — his feet, legs, waist and under his arms — so that when he died, he wouldn't slump to the ground. Suddenly a Catholic priest — the same man who had celebrated Mass around the Jeep with Gozik and his comrades — went to Slovik's side. Gozik thought he made out the words of "Hail Mary." He is sure, though, that he accurately heard the end of their exchange: "'Eddie,'" the priest said, "'when you get up there, say a prayer for me.' Eddie said he would."<br /><br />A satiny black hood, made by a local woman who had no idea what it was to be used for, was pulled over Slovik's head.<br /><br />Twelve more soldiers marched in — the firing squad. They were supposed to be the best sharpshooters d from various units in the 28th. Either they weren't the best, or the 28th had a lot of poor shots.<br /><br />They stood at attention as a general read the charges against Slovik. The declaration lasted five minutes. Slovik then issued a final statement that Gozik would only understand years later. The soldiers then loaded their riffles. Eleven had live ammunition, one had blanks. The general then said — "Ready, aim, fire!"<br /><br />"When they fired, [although] you expected the bang to go off...it shook us — 12 rounds," Gozik remembered. "It just shattered the stillness of the day."<br /><br />While loud, it wasn't successful. Although Slovik slumped a bit as he was hit, the shooters had not accomplished their job. A physician checked Slovik's vital signs. He was still alive. "I heard the doctor say, 'What's the matter with you guys? Can't you shoot straight?' " Gozik remembered.<br /><br />So, the twelve shooters reloaded as Slovik began moaning and breathing heavily. The second fusillade finally ended Slovik's life.<br /><br />Gozik and the other witnesses were ordered to march out before Slovik's body was removed. Gozik went back to his unit and told his comrades what he had seen. He wrote home about it.<br /><br />But he never heard mention of it from his superiors. There was no article in Stars and Stripes.<br /><br />While the death stuck with him, and he didn't feel it was right, Gozik at the time didn't know the details of Slovik's crimes and wasn't terribly curious. He'd seen men get shot before - and he still had the task of trying to get out alive himself.<br /><br />In fact, even after the war, Gozik never knew the details of Slovik's crimes. It was only years later - when he came across William Bradford Huie's book The Execution of Private Slovik- that he learned the story.<br /><br />Gozik learned that Slovik - like himself - had been born into a Polish-American family; in Slovik's case it was in Detroit. At 12-years old, Slovik was arrested after he and some friends broke into a foundry to steal some brass. It was only the first arrest. In fact, between 1932 and 1937, Slovik was caught for several incidents of petty theft, breaking and entering, and disturbing the peace. In October 1937, he was sent to prison, only to be paroled in September 1938. He wasn't free long. After stealing and crashing a car with two friends while drunk, Slovik found himself back prison by January 1939 - the same month that Nick Gozik enlisted in the National Guard.<br /><br />While Gozik ended up in the middle of a war, Slovik sat in prison. In April 1942, Slovik was paroled once more, and obtained a job at Montella Plumbing and Heating in Dearborn, Michigan. There he met the woman who would become his wife, Antoinette Wisniewski, while she was working as a bookkeeper for James Montella.<br /><br />At the beginning of the war, once paroled, Slovik's criminal record made him classified as unfit for duty in the U.S. military [4-F]. As the war dragged on, however, that status changed. While he had been deemed unsuitable for the military at first, by late-1943 more soldiers were needed. "They were scraping the bottom of the barrel," Nick Gozik remembered. "They needed cannon fodder. He didn't belong there. He didn't belong there. It was sad."<br /><br />After Slovik was reclassified as fit for duty [1-A], he was subsequently drafted by the Army. He arrived at Camp Wolters in Texas for basic military training on January 24, 1944. By August, he was dispatched to join the fighting in France. Arriving on August 20th, he was one of 12 reinforcements assigned to Company G of the 109th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 28th Infantry Division - Gozik's division.<br /><br />While en route to his assigned unit, Slovik and a friend - Pvt. John Tankey - took cover during an artillery attack and became separated from their replacement detachment. The next morning, the two found a Canadian military police unit and remained with them for the next six weeks. Tankey wrote to their regiment to explain their absence before he and Slovik reported back for duty on October 7, 1944. The U.S. Army's rapid advance through France had caused many replacement soldiers to have trouble finding their assigned units, so no charges were filed against them.<br /><br />That was when Slovik made a fatal error. The following day, on October 8th, Slovik informed his company commander - Captain Ralph Grotte - that he was "too scared" to serve in a rifle company and asked to be reassigned to a rear area unit. He told Grotte that he would run away if he were assigned to a rifle unit, and asked his captain if that would constitute desertion. Grotte confirmed that it would and refused Slovik's request for reassignment, sending him to a rifle platoon.<br /><br />The fatal error Slovik made was thinking that - if he deserted - he would be sentenced to jail. Since he was quite familiar with being incarcerated, he figured that was preferable to ending up getting shot. Of course, at the time, he couldn't know that that would be his fate.<br /><br />So, the next day - October 9th - Slovik deserted from his infantry unit. His friend - Tankey - caught up with him. Tankey was not as convinced as Slovik that he would only be looking at jail time. Tankey vainly attempted to persuade him to stay, but Slovik's only comment was that his "mind was made up".<br /><br />With that, Slovik walked several miles to the rear and approached an enlisted cook at a head-quarters detachment, presenting him with a note in which he stated his intention to "run away" if he were sent into combat. The cook summoned his company commander and an MP, who read the note. The MP - who, like Tankey thought Slovik didn't realize the potential consequences of his actions - urged Slovik to destroy the note before he was taken into custody. Slovik refused.<br /><br />He was brought before Lieutenant Colonel Ross Henbest, who again offered him the opportunity to tear up the note, return to his unit and face no further charges. After Slovik again refused, Henbest ordered Slovik to write another note on the back of the first one stating that he fully understood the legal consequences of deliberately incriminating himself with the note, and that it would be used as evidence against him in a court martial.<br /><br />Slovik was taken into custody and confined to the division stockade. The divisional judge advocate, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Sommer, again offered Slovik an opportunity to rejoin his unit and have the charges against him suspended. Sommer even offered to transfer Slovik to a different infantry regiment where no one would know of his past and he could start with a "clean slate". Slovik, still convinced that he would face only jail time, declined these offers, saying, "I've made up my mind. I'll take my court martial."<br /><br />The 28th Division was scheduled to begin an attack in the Hurtgen Forest. The coming attack was common knowledge among soldiers like Gozik. Casualty rates were expected to be very high, as the prolonged combat in the area had been unusually grueling. While America continued to have serious advantages over the Germans in armor and air support, the terrain and weather reduced that advantage considerably.<br /><br />Here, it is important that we not operate under the facts as we now know them - namely, that the war would end in a few short months in Europe. In fact, in October 1944 it was thought that the war could in fact linger on indefinitely [although by that point there was no doubt that the Allies would win]. When considering the Slovik case, too, it is important to note that the rates of desertion and other crimes within the armed forces had begun to rise.<br /><br />So, it was in that context that Slovik was charged with 'desertion to avoid hazardous duty' and tried by court martial on November 11, 1944. The prosecutor, Captain John Green, presented witnesses to whom Slovik had stated his intention to "run away." The defense counsel, Captain Edward Woods, announced that Slovik had elected not to testify. The nine officers of the court found Slovik guilty and sentenced him to death. The sentence was reviewed and approved by the division commander, Major General Norman Cota.<br /><br />Perhaps realizing that he had made an incorrect assumption, on December 9th, Slovik wrote a letter to the Supreme Allied commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, pleading for clemency. However, desertion had become a systemic problem in France, and the surprise German offensive through the Ardennes had begun with severe U.S. casualties, pocketing several battalions and straining the morale of the infantry to the greatest extent yet seen during the war. It was in that context that Eisenhower confirmed the execution order on December 23rd, noting that it was necessary to discourage further desertions.<br /><br />Needless to say, the sentence came as a shock to Slovik. It is understandable why Slovik had expected a dishonorable discharge and a jail term, as he had seen that same punishment meted out to other deserters from his division while he was confined to the stockade. Indeed, almost 40,000 U.S. service members evaded combat during World War II. Most were tried by lesser courts-martial, but 2,864 cases were heard by general courts-martial and received sentences from 20-years to death.<br /><br />After reading about Slovik years later, Gozik finally made sense out of Slovik's last statement. Slovik's last words were "They're not shooting me for deserting the United States Army - thousands of guys have done that. They're shooting me for that brass I stole when I was 12 years old."<br /><br />Today, Gozik calls the execution a blatant injustice. "If he died as a deterrent to eliminate the possibility of further deserters, it really didn't make a difference," Gozik said. "It was just awful as far as I'm concerned."<br /><br />Slovik was buried in a section of a French cemetery reserved for 96 American soldiers executed in the European Theater. All but Slovik had been hanged for violent crimes — the murder or rape of civilians. For years, a Michigan politician named Bernard Calka - himself a World War II veteran - had tried to get Slovik's remains returned to the United States. In 1987 Calka finally succeeded, convincing President Ronald Reagan to order Slovik's remains be returned. Calka raised $8,000 to pay for their transfer from France to Detroit's Woodmere Cemetery, where Slovik was reburied next to his wife, Antoinette.<br /><br />For years, Gozik wanted to pay his respects to Slovik. Finally, in November 2010, Gozik decided it was time to go to Detroit.<br /><br />While there, he wanted to meet with Slovik's sister. "I just wanted to tell her what a brave man her brother was, and whatever happened to him, he did not deserve it," Gozik said. "I wanted to put her mind at ease that there was no justification." Slovik's sister declined to meet. The memories were still too painful.<br /><br />So, on the day after Veterans Day 2010, Gozik and many of his family members went to Slovik's grave. With the help of a daughter, he placed a small American flag at the grave.<br /><br />"It was the end of my journey for Eddie," Gozik said. "I did what I wanted to do, but I'm sorry it took that many years."<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.<br />Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-15137740880043665842011-01-28T06:24:00.000-08:002011-11-25T06:28:30.683-08:00The Surly Bonds of Earth - 25 Years Later<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYXitpCOKUonMV286F8_Dc-GJb1CT0s50EBsrMsaefJE_L3SmdVA9pXia1xa8KtR7hJoJbfQxFGGJPD2HcONHYIjcOWqmF-Gt7-84EsgcyyrEyZbLxIczxvM98wHv9Pv1ZRzGEStIWs8/s1600/CHALLENGER.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; height: 320px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678939317930776834" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYXitpCOKUonMV286F8_Dc-GJb1CT0s50EBsrMsaefJE_L3SmdVA9pXia1xa8KtR7hJoJbfQxFGGJPD2HcONHYIjcOWqmF-Gt7-84EsgcyyrEyZbLxIczxvM98wHv9Pv1ZRzGEStIWs8/s400/CHALLENGER.jpg" /></a><div><strong><font size="2">The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger, from their official November 15, 1985 photograph. In the back row from left to right: Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, and Judy Resnik. In the front row from left to right: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ron McNair.</font></strong><br /><br /><strong><font size="5"></font></strong></div><div><div><strong><font size="5">"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to 'touch the face of God.'"<br /><br /></font><font size="4">President Ronald Reagan<br />Address to the Nation after the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster<br />January 28, 1986<br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</font></strong></div><strong><br /></strong></div><strong></strong></div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-12932017956649183362011-01-22T10:14:00.000-08:002011-11-25T06:31:18.744-08:00With A Voice Like Ella's Ringing Out<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixZ6lYjGVb2ALDz3yT7WFiae3-xMU_BfCkQg7dEp4nEd91oKbTOQQXd0YoVQdmRk6x9qHaqkBenSh12L9qpN08uK2PNSsNxxHGXudm_2J7pNmJybzkSQ0tT1jKefTc0PH-jfiEyVsGBMg/s1600/ella.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 312px; height: 400px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678940738995701714" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixZ6lYjGVb2ALDz3yT7WFiae3-xMU_BfCkQg7dEp4nEd91oKbTOQQXd0YoVQdmRk6x9qHaqkBenSh12L9qpN08uK2PNSsNxxHGXudm_2J7pNmJybzkSQ0tT1jKefTc0PH-jfiEyVsGBMg/s400/ella.jpg" /></a><br /><div><font style="font-weight: bold;"></font> </div><div><font style="font-weight: bold;">Legendary performer Ella Fitzgerald and her personal assistant, Georgiana Henry, await their booking on gambling charges in a Houston police station [above], October 7, 1955.<br /><br /></font>I had intended this post for Monday's Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Unfortunately, I spent the week in deep negotiations with my publisher over the next book. Apparently, the tentative title - The Romanov's: No, I Don't Give A Shit, Either - was going to be a deal-breaker. So, with that out of the way, January 22nd will have to do.<br /><br />The story is one that seems anachronistic when you consider our President or the fact that we have a national holiday celebrating the life and legacy of King. Back in October 1955, though, King was unknown and President Obama was six years away from even being born. In Houston, Texas, in 1955, you can bet that the idea of an African American [of course, that term would not have been the one used] President of the United States would have so shocked the consciousness of the inhabitants that you would have had a better chance of convincing them that aliens from Mars had landed on Interstate 45.<br /><br />Try, then, to read this story in the context of the times and allow yourself to be amazed at how life in America has changed so much in 55 years that we might as well be talking about 550 years.<br /><br />Nowhere is that more evident than in the photo that leads off this post. It is the look of shame, devastation, humiliation and anger. It is a picture of two women - one of whom may have been the greatest female vocalist of the 20th [or any other, for that matter] century. A woman who, later in life, would be rightly celebrated for all of her greatness.<br /><br />None of that, of course, is apparent in the above photo. It was taken by news photographers who were tipped off by the Houston Police Department that there was going to be a bust at the Houston Music Hall. The night was October 7, 1955. The event at the Music Hall was part of jazz impresario Norman Granz' 'Jazz at the Philharmonic' tour, which included other jazz legends like Dizzie Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Oscar Peterson, Gene Krupa and Lester Young. Saxophonist Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet, a tenor saxophonist from Houston - also on the bill - was the prime mover in bringing the show to Houston and making sure the concert (which featured both black and white musicians) would be integrated.<br /><br />Two shows were scheduled that night. The raid that landed Fitzgerald and Henry in front of photographers took place before the end of the first concert. Fitzgerald, along with Illinois Jacquet, Granz and Fitzgerald's personal assistant Georgiana Henry were arrested. The charge? Shooting dice in Fitzgerald's dressing room at the Music Hall.<br /><br />As the Houston Chronicle quaintly recounted in its October 8, 1955 edition:<br /><br />Vice squad officers said three of the five -- Dizzie Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet and Georgiana Henry -- were actually crooning to the bones when police walked into Ella Fitzgerald's dressing room back-stage at the Music Hall.<br /><br />Miss Fitzgerald and show producer Norman Granz were "just present" in the back-stage dressing room while the jazz show was going on in the Music Hall, the officers said.<br /><br />However, all were taken to the police station and charged. They posted $10 bonds.<br /><br />If there was any doubt that the raid was planned as a warning against future attempts at integrated shows, the group didn't stay at the police station for long. In fact, they made it back in time for the second show, leaving audiences unaware of what had taken place. Making a statement against integration was one thing. Causing the owner of the Music Hall to lose the bookings from the second show was something else.<br /><br />That the concert happened at all was a small miracle. Granz wanted to run the show - which traveled throughout the North - in at least one Southern city. Illinois Jacquet insisted that his hometown be that city. He felt that this was a rare - perhaps once-in-a-lifetime - opportunity to demonstrate the possibilities of integration in his hometown.<br /><br />According to an article in Houston History Magazine, the story was detailed in Dizzy Gillespie’s now out-of-print autobiography, To Be, or not … to Bop. According to the jazz legend, Granz told him that when he rented the Music Hall, he added a non-segregation clause to the contract. Upon arriving at the venue, Granz removed the signs denoting the 'white' versus 'black' restrooms, and refused to pre-sell tickets in case patrons attempted to section off parts of the venue for whites only.<br /><br />In the build-up to the show, it was not as though Granz and Illinois Jacquet were interested in stealthily coming in and out of town with nary an attempt at publicity. Indeed, Illinois Jacquet took on the role of spokesman, visiting Texas Southern University, local high schools and Houston radio stations to promote the event. Both Granz and Illinois Jacquet had every intention for the show to become the first major concert in Houston with a desegregated audience.<br /><br />But how did these two men figure to generate an audience - at least of whites - to desegregate the concert? That was where Ella came in. Granz and Illinois Jacquet knew that - in addition to Gillespie and the others - a line-up featuring Ella Fitzgerald would bring out the white audience. "A lot of people never saw Ella, or they may have seen Ella but not a lot of the musicians," Granz recalled later. "I got to the concert hall early, and somebody came up and wanted to change tickets because they were sitting next to a black. And I said, ‘No, you can have your money back, but we’re not going to change your seat.’" Unfortunately [for him], the customer took his money back.<br /><br />Fearing problems because of the forced integration, Granz hired eight Houston Police Department officers as guards. Although no crowd disturbances or violence occurred that evening, for Ella Fitzgerald, her personal assistant Henry, Gillespie, and Illinois Jacquet, trouble was planned by Houston’s vice squad, headed by an asshole named Sergeant W.A. Scotton. It was Scotton who planned and operated the sting mission to arrest the performers.<br /><br />After the first concert, five plains-clothes officers and Scotton obtained backstage access and burst into Fitzgerald’s dressing room with guns drawn and pointed at the inhabitants. In one corner of the room, Jacquet and Gillespie played craps, while Fitzgerald and Henry drank coffee and had a piece of pie in between sets.<br /><br />Granz recalled the incident in Gillespie’s book stating that he heard the commotion, and when he came in, he saw Scotton headed to the bathroom, and immediately suspected the cop's intention was to plant drugs. With amazing boldness - not to mention bravery - Granz said to Scotton, "I’m watching you." With that, the cop turned around, walked toward Granz and jabbed his drawn revolver at the musician's stomach. With almost a trace of a smile, the Scotton said, "I oughta kill you, now." For a frightening second Fitzgerald, Henry and the others thought the officer was going to do it. Perhaps it was only an attempt to scare Granz and the others. Or, perhaps, Scotton caught himself before crossing a line he had not set out to venture beyond. Whatever the reason, Scotton withdrew the gun from Granz' stomach and joined the other members of the vice squad om making their arrests of Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Fitzgerald, Henry, and Granz for gambling.<br /><br />While cuffed and being led out, Granz called out to the manager of the Music Hall that the second set would have to be cancelled. With the thought of the lost revenue - not to mention the fact that a cancelled show would likely cause the crowd to react unfavorably in an already tense situation, the manager begged Scotton to stop. Instead, the vice squad commander said - out of earshot of the arrested performers - that he would bring the group to the police station, book them, and make them pay a fine. But he would return them before the second show.<br /><br />Of course, that had been the plan all along. As had been the notification to the Houston press of the pending arrests. For, when the group arrived at the station, they were greeted by reporters and photographers.<br /><br />To further their humiliation, the performers were forced to sit on benches awaiting processing while photographers shuttered away with their cameras. The look on Fitzgerald's face above says it all. The degradation, humiliation and sheer powerlessness. It was a reinforcement to her - and others - that no matter how famous, successful or wealthy someone like Ella became, she was still African American. While her treatment was certainly more humane than would have been the case had she not been a celebrity, nonetheless it was a reminder that her America had a place for her, and expected her to stay there.<br /><br />But she wouldn't stay there. That, in fact, is what we celebrate when we remember Martin Luther King, Jr. Although the most celebrated of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement, King was by no means a singular force. As powerful as his oratory and leadership skills were, without the tens of thousands of others - African American and white - forcibly integrating the country, it would never have happened. It is the legacy of those tens of thousands that we also celebrate.<br /><br />And it is a celebration for us all.<br /><br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div></div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-21480529526141639192011-01-01T06:33:00.000-08:002011-11-25T06:36:38.163-08:00Who The Hell is Ke$ha?<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9YonvcUymfFdQsd5wE7oI_8t7a0k2Ul-Nffi9kVQou7uaPpokZR5THtL9atttCfdlNShUjnmuppt2XyYCOO4PkohmCLhOdZCFWC5HH7Wk91kFhxraKKvRor6awfmWJpVuCuAa32ZUp9s/s1600/new+years.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 142px; height: 202px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678941782631683074" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9YonvcUymfFdQsd5wE7oI_8t7a0k2Ul-Nffi9kVQou7uaPpokZR5THtL9atttCfdlNShUjnmuppt2XyYCOO4PkohmCLhOdZCFWC5HH7Wk91kFhxraKKvRor6awfmWJpVuCuAa32ZUp9s/s400/new+years.jpg" /></a><br /><div> </div><div>Every year I stay up late to watch Dick Clark's ball drop. Maybe I was distracted by Ke$ha's declaration to Ryan Seacrest that her 2011 resolution was "not to be a douchebag", but I never saw the ball drop last night. I think that means she's a douchebag.<br /><br />Happy New Year. Being naturally morbid, every New Year's Day I think to myself - who has just celebrated their <em>last </em>New Year's Day? That is, which celebrities out there don't realize it yet but they will die sometime during this next year? Of course, it doesn't just have to be celebrities: often I'll wonder, 'Is this it? Is this the <em>last </em>year for me?' I told you: morbid.<br /><br />So, on this first day of another year that no doubt holds something bad in store, here's a look back on all of those who rung in the New Year 2010 - most not knowing it was their last New Year.<br /><br />While his public career died over 50 years ago, author J.D. Salinger died on January 27, 2010 at the age of 91. That's a pretty good run, 91 years. Since he hasn't had to work in 50 of those years, I'd say that's a <em>damned </em>good run, indeed.<br /><br />One of the oldest Klansmen in the country died, too. A United States Senator by hobby, racist Sen. Robert Byrd [D, W Va.] died on June 28, 2010 at the ancient age of 92. Yes, Salinger was also ancient - but no one's seen him since the 1950s. Byrd refused to go away. I'm not sure if he was buried in his Klan gear, although it would have been fitting [well, if not, I'm sure they could've taken it to a tailor to get it properly fitted].<br /><br />Also in politics, one convicted and one convicted-overturned politician no longer have to worry about raising campaign cash. Former Sen. <a href="http://704houser.blogspot.com/2010/08/we-knew-ye-too-well.html">Ted Stevens </a>[R, Alaska] died in a plane crash - the second of his life - on August 9, 2010 at the age of 86. Stevens - as I've written about before - was convicted in 2008 only to have it overturned the next year. Unfortunately for him, that was too late, because he'd already lost his 2008 reelection campaign. The old fashioned convicted pol - former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski [D, Ill.] - died two days later, on August 11, 2010 at the age of 82.<br /><br />From the history/government department, President Kennedy's speechwriter and great Camelot propagandist <a href="http://704houser.blogspot.com/2010/02/getting-rid-of-migraines.html">Theodore Sorensen </a>died on October 31, 2010 at the age of 82. Someone who declared himself 'in charge' - but who was <em>not </em>President - also died. <a href="http://704houser.blogspot.com/2010/02/alexander-m.html">Alexander Haig </a>- who served his country with distinction as a military officer, presidential aide, and [to a lesser extent than in the previous roles] Secretary of State - died on February 20, 2010 at the age of 85. Just recently, diplomat<a href="http://704houser.blogspot.com/2010/12/major-hit.html"> Richard Holbrooke </a>died, on December 13, 2010, at the age of 69. The woman who had the great misfortune to dedicate the best years of her life to a scoundrel like former Sen. John Edwards [D, N.C.] also lost her life; Elizabeth Edwards died on December 7, 2010 at the age of 61.<br /><br />Participants in America's Civil Rights movement continue to disappear as those tumultuous years fade further into the past. Former head of the NAACP, Benjamin Hooks, died April 15, 2010 at the age of 85. [<strong>EDITOR"S NOTE: I'm definitely noting the pattern of dying in the mid-80s. If our average span of life in this country reaches 85, then those of us working today have about as much chance of seeing money left for our Social Security as we do seeing any of the people in this post appearing on <em>Dancing with the Stars</em>...although I think I just hit on a new TV show: <em>Dancing with the Dead Stars!</em>].</strong> Another great Civil Rights leader, Dorothy Height - who led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years (1957-1997) - died on April 20, 2010 at the age of 98. One of the nine African American students who helped integrate Arkansas public schools in 1957, Jefferson Thomas, died September 5, 2010 at the age of 67. Finally, Ronald Walters - a pioneer in the Civil Rights movement who organized the sit-ins at drug store counters in Wichita, Kansas and Greensboro, North Carolina - died on September 10, 2010 at the age of 72.<br /><br />Hollywood - as usual - provided the most noted deaths. From behind the camera, director and screenwriter Blake Edwards - whose works ranged from <em>The Pink Panther </em>to <em>Days of Wine and Roses </em>- died on December 15, 2010 at the age of 88. Director Arthur Penn - whose films included <em>Bonnie and Clyde </em>and <em>The Miracle Worker </em>- died on September 28, 2010; ironically, also at the age of 88. Another noteworthy death was that of producer Dino De Laurentiis [<em>Serpico</em>, <em>Three Days of the Condor</em>], who died on November 10, 2010 at the age of 91.<br /><br />From in front of the camera, actor Tony Curtis [and his toupee], died on September 29, 2010 at the age of 85. Father of actress Jamie Lee Curtis, the <em>Some Like it Hot </em>star's real name was Bernard Schwartz. Good choice on the name-change, Tony. A sister of one of the great anti-Semites of our day died, when actress Lynn Redgrave died on May 2, 2010 at the age of 67. While her career took a hit when sister Vanessa rallied to the Palestinian Liberation Organization's cause in the 1970s and 1980s, Lynn still managed to maintain her career and her sanity. The movie <em>Airplane! </em>lost two of its central characters as Peter Graves died on March 14, 2010 at the age of 83; while Leslie Nielson died on November 28, 2010 at the age of 84.<br /><br />From the world of music came the death of a legend: the incomparable Lena Horne died on May 9, 2010 at the age of 92. Teddy Pendergrass - whose career was largely destroyed after a horrific car accident in 1982 that left him paralyzed - died early in the year on January 13, 2010 at the age of 58. The man who tried to turn Frank Sinatra into Fabian, producer Mitch Miller, died on July 31, 2010 at the age of 99. Since there is no category for Dead Food Producers, we'll slot Jimmy Dean here under music. The singer of "Big Bad John" died on June 13, 2010 at the age of 81.<br /><br />Television - a medium that was popular from roughly 1950-2000 - also lost some from its family. Art Linkletter, the long-time host of <em>Kids Say the Darndest Things</em>, died on May 26, 2010 at the age of 97. The second Trapper John M.D., Pernell Roberts, died on January 24, 2010 at the age of 81. The white half of the dynamic interracial television paring in <em>I Spy</em>, Robert Culp, died on March 24, 2010 at the age of 79. In addition to his role with Bill Cosby on that show, Culp was a genius as Ray Romano's father-in-law on <em>Everybody Loves Raymond</em>. Finally, nearly exactly 174 years after his death at The Alamo, Davy Crockett died <em>again </em>, this time with the passing of actor Fess Parker, who portrayed the legend in the miniseries <em>Davy Crockett </em>in 1955 [alongside co-star Buddy Ebsen for your trivia buffs]. Parker died on March 18, 2010 at the age of 85.<br /><br />In sports, a number of legends passed. The man almost universally considered the greatest coach in the history of basketball, John Wooden, died on June 4, 2010 at the age of 99. Two baseball Hall of Famers died: manager Sparky Anderson - who captured World Series titles in both the National [Cincinnati Reds] and American Leagues [Detroit Tigers] - died on November 4, 2010 at the age of 76; and pitcher Bob Feller died on December 15, 2010 at the age of 92. A man who <em>should </em>be in the Hall of Fame, iconic Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, died on July 13, 2010 at the age of 80. While from the world of football, Hall of Famer George Blanda - whose unbelievable career lasted from 1949 to 1975 - died on September 27, 2010 at the age of 83.<br /><br />Undoubtedly, I've missed folks. It was a long year, remember. And, as 2011 begins, we know that next year - assuming I'm not one of them - I'll be writing a blog post about those who are here today celebrating New Year's, unaware in most cases that it will be their last.<br /><br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div></div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-44532007738855517012010-12-29T06:38:00.000-08:002011-11-25T06:41:53.780-08:00Don't Know Much About History<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkBDy0Gzck3BlJTFS7wV0MSkSmRIYYHHBM0wxoa418K9Cs_4-vxQEXKgdIlGEuvhKp-5SKG7Hr7BAsa3XMDiBQzOFYQ4n-INu7Ti7iw7ngRmNraHOKz3Ovcmo8fMmQJ_cOrjlf8SQ3gM/s1600/history.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; height: 299px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678943413682072242" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTkBDy0Gzck3BlJTFS7wV0MSkSmRIYYHHBM0wxoa418K9Cs_4-vxQEXKgdIlGEuvhKp-5SKG7Hr7BAsa3XMDiBQzOFYQ4n-INu7Ti7iw7ngRmNraHOKz3Ovcmo8fMmQJ_cOrjlf8SQ3gM/s400/history.jpg" /></a><div><font size="2"><strong>The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry [above, as depicted in an 1890 lithograph by Louis Kurz and Alexander Allison showing the ill-fated attack on Fort Wagner in 1863], one of the first formal units of the United States Army to be made up entirely of African American men, fought on for the North and the Union - no matter what you read in a Virginia history text book.</strong><br /></font><br />File this one under 'Things I Couldn't Make Up'. Those of you who hear a Southern accent and automatically think "red-neck, racist moron", well shame on you. Shame on you, but I can also understand why the Southern drawl <em>does </em>conjure up 'slow' in your mind. There's the cliche about the 'South' and American History: namely that nothing has happened in this country - nothing worth remembering, anyway - since Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.<br /><br />There's a lot of truth in that, although it is still a cliche. Yet that cliche isn't helped by recent news out of Virginia that there's some history text books being used there with the following factual inaccuracies:<br /><br />1) New Orleans began the 1800s as a bustling U.S. harbor<br />2) The Confederacy included 12 states<br />3) The United States entered World War in 1916<br />4) Men in Colonial Virginia commonly wore full suits of armor<br />5) No Americans survived the Battle of the Alamo<br /><br />For those of you who <em>don't </em>recognize those as inaccuracies, the correct answers are:<br /><br />1) It began as a Spanish colonial harbor<br />2) It had 11 states<br />3) The U.S. entered the war in 1917<br />4) No they didn't<br />5) A few did survive<br /><br />And these are just some of the errors - there are literally dozens of them - that historians have found in Virginia's textbooks since state officials ordered a review of textbooks by Five Ponds Press in response to an article in the <em>Washington Post</em> back in October.<br /><br />The <em>Post </em>article in particular highlighted a very interesting claim in one textbook that said African American soldiers fought for the South in large numbers during the Civil War. Even your average moron - just on intuition - knows that's probably <em>not </em>true. That's the kind of 'history' one could find in Southern textbooks in the early 1900s; I'd thought we'd taken care of that. Apparently not.<br /><br /><em>Our Virginia: Past and Present</em>, the textbook including the African Americans fighting for the South claim, has many other inaccuracies. And similar problems were found in another book by Five Ponds Press, <em>Our America: To 1865</em>. Yes: I'm guessing to many Southern racists they do consider it 'our America' until 1865.<br /><br />"I absolutely could not believe the number of mistakes - wrong dates and wrong facts everywhere. How in the world did these books get approved?" Ronald Heinemann, a former history professor at Hampden-Sydney College, asked the <em>Post</em> rhetorically. He reviewed <em>Our Virginia: Past and Present</em>. In his recommendation to the state, Heinemann wrote, "This book should be withdrawn from the classroom immediately, or at least by the end of the year."<br /><br />As I say, it all started after the <em>Post </em>reported that <em>Our Virginia</em> included a sentence saying that <em>thousands </em>of black soldiers fought for the South. That claim is one often made by the lunatic fringe and other Confederate heritage groups but rejected by most people here on Earth. The funniest part was the response of the book's author, Joy Masoff. With a straight face she said at the time that she found references to this 'fact' while doing research on the <em>Internet</em>. And you're wondering why 67% of Americans think George Washington fought in the Civil War?!<br /><br />To deal with the embarrassment, Virginia officials commissioned a 'blue ribbon' panel of experts to review all history textbooks. The results are disturbing, to say the least. Some reviewers submitted lists of errors that ran several pages long. State officials plan to meet January 10, 2011 to review the historians' concerns. "The findings of these historians have certainly underscored and added urgency to the need to address the weaknesses in our system so we don't have glaring historical errors in our books," said Charles Pyle, a spokesman for Virginia's Department of Education. His brother, Gomer, was unavailable for comment.<br /><br />As for the publisher, Five Ponds Press [based in Weston, Connecticut of all places] doesn't even try to deny that its books have errors. "Most of the items you reference have been identified, and we sent a notice a week ago to the Virginia Department of Education with our intent to make these edits in the book's next printing," Lou Scolnik, owner of Five Ponds Press, wrote in an email response to questions from the <em>Post</em>.<br /><br />At least Scolnik is an honest crook. The Virginia Department of Education has been telling people for years that they have the strongest 'standards' required of textbooks in the entire country. Those 'standards' - brilliantly called the Standards of Learning - includes lists of themes that each textbook must cover. It turns out, those standards aren't so stringent after all.<br /><br />For one thing, the reviewers that the department uses are not scholars. No. They are often <em>elementary school teachers</em>. Now, no offense, but my experience has been that most elementary school teachers chose that speciality because their base of knowledge doesn't exceed the sixth grade. I'm not sure <em>they </em>should be the ones reviewing the textbooks. Gomer's brother pretty much proved that with his ridiculous statement that, "Teachers [reviewing the books for facts] are not reading textbooks front to back, and they're not in a position to identify the kinds of errors that historians could identify." Really. <em>That's </em>what he said.<br /><br />Five Ponds Press has cornered a growing portion of Virginia's $70 million-a-year textbook market. Many larger publishers employ professional historians, but all of the books by Five Ponds Press have been written by Masoff, who is not a trained historian. I'm doubtful she's a trained <em>anything</em>. If you'd like to read some other titles by Masoff, Google <em>Oh, Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty </em>and <em>Oh, Yikes! History's Grossest, Wackiest Moments</em>. No, really: those are the titles. Unfortunately, Masoff may be looking for work now: Scolnik said Five Ponds is in the process of hiring a professional historian from a Virginia university. Wow - <em>there's </em>a novel idea.<br /><br />Four of the five experts reviewed books published only by Five Ponds Press. The fifth reviewer, DePaul University sociology professor Christopher Einolf, has written a book on a Civil War general. He reviewed Civil War content in nine Virginia textbooks published by companies other than Five Ponds Press.<br /><br />Einolf's review found that one book - from publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - has particular problems. Einolf took issue with some characterizations, saying, for example, that Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman did not "destroy" Atlanta but instead burned portions of the city. While I realize that's little consolation to the people who went up in flames, but nonetheless there is a difference between destroying a city and beating the hell out of it.<br /><br />Einolf also found problems with the textbook's treatment of Pickett's Charge. While the suicidal thrusts involved 5,000 men, it actually involved more than 10,000. 5,000, 10,000 - what's the difference, right? In a shocker, Einolf said many of the other books neglect key elements, such as the role of African Americans in 19th-century Virginia. "Making a mistake is one thing. Ignoring the role that African Americans played in the state is almost as bad," Einolf told the <em>Post</em>. Actually, Professor, I think the latter is worse than the former, but this post isn't dedicated to the wonders of those in higher education.<br /><br />Perhaps the most succinct word on all of this came from historian Mary Miley Theobald, a former Virginia Commonwealth University professor. She reviewed <em>Our America </em>and concluded to the <em>Post </em>that it was, "just too shocking for words. Any literate person could have opened that book and immediately found a mistake," she said.<br /><br />The key words there, folks, are 'any literate person'. That disqualifies most elementary school teachers right there.<br /><br /><br />copyright 2011 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div></div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-37996612079161792002010-12-26T06:46:00.000-08:002011-11-25T06:47:59.483-08:00Remember the USFL<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQKtafaw-nvab7Civ3qHfzFTLcbhpHFRnawngADHopm-4GgzB_jKJb__wgYCjNfIhxsCeTDwlpUUpqx28psjnyh4WLmpKh-luvDpW2cMSZxCrmIf82J9d6C97W_qjmIi29XQfFpVBCooU/s1600/civil+war.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 254px; height: 354px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678945016198114034" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQKtafaw-nvab7Civ3qHfzFTLcbhpHFRnawngADHopm-4GgzB_jKJb__wgYCjNfIhxsCeTDwlpUUpqx28psjnyh4WLmpKh-luvDpW2cMSZxCrmIf82J9d6C97W_qjmIi29XQfFpVBCooU/s400/civil+war.jpg" /></a><strong><font size="2">Confederate Lt. General John C. Pemberton [above] surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant on July 4, 1863, ending the siege of Vicksburg.<br /><br /></font></strong>Normally, I view the Confederacy as something akin to the United States Football League [USFL]. Just like the USFL, when the Confederacy was declared in 1861, it was widely viewed - by most loyal to the Union [i.e. the NFL in our analogy] - as a lark that would quickly be squashed. Soon, however, a series of Confederate battle victories [i.e. Reggie White, Herschel Walker and Steve Young signing with the USFL instead of the NFL out of college], all of a sudden there was a problem. Soon, however, the insanity of the idea that the Confederacy could really exist as a separate nation was exposed as an impossibility [i.e. no one gives a shit about football in the spring] and then it was just a matter of [a lot of] time before the Union forced the Confederacy to surrender [i.e. the USFL folds, White, Walker and Young et al go to where they should have been in the first place: the NFL].<br /><br />Likewise, I normally view Confederate <em>history </em>like USFL history. Pointless. While many study and are consumed with Confederate history, to me it's akin to memorizing who won the Western Conference of the USFL in 1985 [the Oakland Invaders, by the way].<br /><br />Recently, though, a story came out that for some reason caught my eye. It involves the siege of Vicksburg by Ulysses S. Grant and the eventual surrender of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton - which occurred the day after the conclusion of the Battle of Gettysburg some 1,047 miles away - as a major turning point in the Civil War. An artifact from that Vicksburg siege was recently in the news and that is the story I tell on this Boxing Day 2010 [no, there is absolutely <em>no </em>tie-in between the Civil War and Boxing Day, as far as I know; I just wanted to show off to my readers in Great Britain and Canada that I know when Boxing Day is].<br /><br />The artifact is a glass vial that had been sitting in a Confederate history museum for 114 years - a long-ago forgotten item roughly 2-inches high and very easily overlooked. The vial was stopped up with a tiny cork, and inside was a folded piece of paper that - it turns out - contained a coded message to Pemberton, who was requesting reinforcements. The dispatch in the vial offered no hope to Pemberton: reinforcements were <em>not </em>on the way. In fact, the encrypted 6-line message was dated July 4, 1863, the date of Pemberton's surrender to Grant ending the siege of Vicksburg.<br /><br />The message was from a Confederate commander - Maj. Gen. John G. Walker, of the Texas Division, who had under his command William Smith, the donor of the bottle - located on the west side of the Mississippi River across from Pemberton.<br /><br />The vial was discovered by Museum of the Confederacy collections manager Catherine M. Wright. The bottle, less than 2 inches in length, had sat undisturbed at the museum in Richmond, Virginia since 1896. It was a gift from Smith.<br /><br />Wright decided to investigate the contents of the strange little bottle containing a tightly wrapped note, a .38-caliber bullet and a white thread. Wright asked a Richmond art conservator, Scott Nolley, to examine the clear vial before she attempted to open it. Nolley looked at the bottle under an electron microscope and discovered that salt had bonded the cork tightly to the bottle's mouth. He put the bottle on a hotplate to expand the glass, used a scalpel to loosen the cork, then gently plucked it out with tweezers. The sewing thread was looped around the 6 1/2-by-2 1/2-inch paper, which was folded to fit into the bottle. The rolled message was removed and taken to a paper conservator, who successfully unfurled the message.<br /><br />An initial problem was that the message was coded and appeared to be a random collection of letters. Eager to learn the meaning of the code, Wright took the message home for the weekend to decipher. She had no success. So, she contacted a retired CIA code breaker, David Gaddy, and he cracked the code in several weeks. Gaddy then asked a U.S. Navy cryptologist - Cmdr. John B. Hunter - to take a look at the message. Hunter independently confirmed Gaddy's interpretation. Hunter told the <em>Washington Post </em>that he deciphered the code over two weeks while on deployment aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. A computer could have unscrambled the words in a fraction of the time. "To me, it was not that difficult," he said. "I had fun with this and it took me longer than I should have."<br /><br />The code is called the "Vigenere cipher," a centuries-old encryption in which letters of the alphabet are shifted a set number of places. So, for example, the letter 'd' becomes the <em>first </em>letter of the alphabet, making the letter 'a' the 24th letter of the alphabet, and so on. The code was widely used by Southern forces during the Civil War. No, it doesn't sound too particularly bright to <em>me </em>either, but then again it took the Navy guy two weeks to decipher it, so what the hell do <em>we </em>know?<br /><br />The full text of the message to Pemberton reads:<br /><br /><em><strong>"Gen'l Pemberton:<br /><br />You can expect no help from this side of the river. Let Gen'l Johnston know, if possible, when you can attack the same point on the enemy's lines. Inform me also and I will endeavor to make a diversion. I have sent some caps (explosive devices). I subjoin a despatch [sic] from General Johnston."</strong></em><br /><br />That last line, museum collections officer Wright told the <em>Post</em>, seems to suggest a separate delivery to Pemberton would be the code to break the message. "The date of this message clearly indicates that Walker has no idea that the city is about to be surrendered [by Pemberton]," she said. The 'Johnston' mention in the dispatch is Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, whose 32,000 troops were encamped south of Vicksburg. They were prevented from assisting Pemberton by Grant's 35,000 Union troops. Pemberton had initially requested the reinforcements of Walker because he held out hope that Johnston would eventually come to his aid if he could just hang on a little longer.<br /><br />Walker's response - in the vial - would have been discouraging to Pemberton had he received it before he surrendered. By July 4th - the date the message from Walker was dispatched - was the end of a shitty situation for the inhabitants of Vicksburg. By the end of the six-week siege, many in the city resorted to eating cats, dogs and leather. Soup was made from wallpaper paste. After Pemberton surrendered, the town was so scarred by the experience they refused to celebrate July 4th until <em>1943</em>!<br /><br />By the way, the bullet in the bottle had to do with instructions given by Walker to the soldier-messenger to toss the bottle into the river if Union troops intercepted his passage. The weight of the bullet would have carried the corked bottle to the bottom. That never happened. Instead, the Confederate messenger arrived to the river's edge and saw a U.S. flag flying over the city of Vicksburg. The messenger then scurried back to Walker, who kept the bottle until turning it over to the museum 33 years later.<br /><br />Or, 86 years before the launch of the USFL.<br /><br /><br />copyright 2010 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-1953181843583570192010-12-23T06:49:00.000-08:002011-11-25T06:51:28.478-08:0036,525 Days Later<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLOUQly1J8grrs9vS7ukgoBJsklrMI7NQh8M1G0kJxHdHWD2i8nnKJ_IfhSm0ZgPDR9kAPq95ec-OTy27V74WGZhtsemrVcT1_5NRfV7u8wcBi3nNc4S9pP21CbHMUge1RZejht9YaKyI/s1600/chicago+fire+2010.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; height: 254px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678945889095986866" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLOUQly1J8grrs9vS7ukgoBJsklrMI7NQh8M1G0kJxHdHWD2i8nnKJ_IfhSm0ZgPDR9kAPq95ec-OTy27V74WGZhtsemrVcT1_5NRfV7u8wcBi3nNc4S9pP21CbHMUge1RZejht9YaKyI/s400/chicago+fire+2010.jpg" /></a><strong><font size="2">Chicago firefighters carry an injured comrade from the scene of a blaze Wednesday at an abandoned commercial building on the South Side. Two firefighters were killed and 17 hurt when a roof collapsed - exactly 100 years after the Chicago Union Stock Yard fire.<br /><br /></font></strong>Yesterday was one of those rare occasions when history repeats itself at exactly the same time of year as it did the first time. The scene was a fire in a long-abandoned Chicago laundry business. As the fire raged, across town firefighters elsewhere were commemorating the 100th anniversary of a similar fire at the Chicago Union Stock Yards. Like the fire in 1910, yesterday's conflagration resulted in the deaths of Chicago firemen. The irony of the two events - 100 years apart - was lost on no one.<br /><br />Yesterday, the Chicago Fire Department lost firefighters Edward Stringer and Corey Ankum. The fire in 1910 was even deadlier: 21 Chicago firefighters died during that blaze [in addition to 3 civilians]. Indeed, the 1910 fire was the largest single-event death toll of firefighters in America until September 11, 2001.<br /><br />As it was on the morning of December 22, 1910, the brutally cold temperatures of December 22, 2010 made firefighting even more of a challenge. In addition to the brutal cold suffered by the firefighters themselves, there was the matter of preventing freezing in the lines leading to and from the fire trucks as both blazes were battled. Of course, the technology in 1910 was more primitive and made firefighting -in any climate - more difficult.<br /><br />Yesterday's fire was in a long-abandoned South Shore laundry business where no one worked or lived. While - in contrast - the Chicago Union Stock Yards in 1910 were a central hub to the commerce of the entire Midwest, that fire occurred early enough n the morning that only a handful of employees were on site at the time of the blaze.<br /><br />Indeed, the parallels between the two situations in terms of low potential for loss of human life illustrates a point as true in 2010 as it was in 1910: be it one life or hundreds, a firefighter will not leave a situation if he or she believes there is the potential to save even <em>one </em>human life.<br /><br />Such was the case yesterday with firefighters Stringer and Ankum. Concerned that homeless people may have been taking refuge from the cold in the abandoned building, Stringer and Ankum were among the firefighters searching the burning building around daybreak when a roof came crashing down on them. Both men died of blunt force injuries, while 17 others were hurt. Firefighter Steven Ellerson was part of a group of firefighters on the roof when it collapsed. As Ellerson lay injured in the rubble, he heard Ankum, a former Chicago police officer who had joined the Fire Department just 18 months ago, calling for help. Minutes later, a rare "Mayday" call went out signalling that firefighters were buried under the debris. "Mayday. Mayday. Emergency. … Collapse in the rear of the building. Building came down. We've got guys trapped," a chief officer on the scene radioed to the fire dispatch office.<br /><br />Ellerson found a gasping Ankum trapped in the debris and struggling to breathe. Ellerson whipped off his mask and placed it near Ankum's mouth in an effort to get oxygen to him. He wanted to give him his coat to keep warm, but the veteran firefighter was pulled from the building before he had the chance.<br /><br />Dozens of firefighters who rushed to the scene tunneled through the debris to excavate four comrades — including Stringer and Ankum — trapped underneath the charred rubble. They also searched for squatters who might have been in the abandoned building.<br /><br />As it turned out, there were none.<br /><br />An ambulance rushed Stringer, 47, to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The 12-year department veteran was pronounced dead a short time later. Ankum, 34, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died. He had joined the department in 2009, fulfilling a desire to become a Chicago firefighter like one of his closest family members.<br /><br />By late morning, dozens of firefighters and members of Ankum's family were gathered in the swirling snow outside the Oak Lawn hospital to share their grief. The mourners stood at attention, saluting with their hats in their hands, as Ankum's body was shuttled by police escort to the Cook County medical examiner's office. That solemn tribute was repeated when Stringer's body was carried out of Northwestern Memorial.<br /><br />It's not definitive as to why the abandoned laundry's heavy roof caved, as the fire never did reach that area of the building. More than likely, it was not fire but instead the accumulating snow and ice coupled with the building's age that led to the roof collapse.<br /><br />The fire at the Union Stock Yards was fought in a similar weather conditions. By 4 am on December 22, 1910, the temperature in Chicago was 24 degrees. At that time, in an unlit basement of Warehouse 7 of the Nelson Morris Company at the Yards, wires suddenly began sparkling. Those first flames were soon fed by combustibles ranging from rags to raw meat.<br /><br />Within little more than an hour, that fire would grow to engulf all of Warehouse 7. Then, in a few horrendous seconds, it would turn the nearly windowless brick building from just another meat-packing operation into the graveyard of 24 men, 21 of them Chicago firemen.<br /><br />James Horan arrived on the scene 18 minutes after the alarm bell rang at his firehouse, jolting he and his wife. Horan was the 51-year old Chief of the Chicago Fire Department. "What's the matter, Jimmie?" said his second wife, Margaret, as he jumped into his firefighting gear. "Nothing, dear, there's another fire," he answered as he left the house.<br /><br />He would never return.<br /><br />At 5:08 am, almost exactly one hour after the first alarm had been sounded, a six-story brick wall, buckled by the expanding superheated air in the building, crashed through a wooden canopy onto a loading dock, killing Horan, 20 of his colleagues, and 3 employees. The tons of flaming debris buried them alive. Hours later, after firemen removed the debris brick by brick, Horan's body was found. He was on his knees, arms folded, facing the center of the fire.<br /><br />By the time the blaze was extinguished 25 1/2 hours later at 6:37 am on December 23rd, 50 engine companies and 7 hook and ladder companies had been called to the scene. Fire hydrants near the location had been shut off prior to the outbreak of the fire to prevent freezing. Following Horan's death, First Assistant Chief Charles Seyferlich took command of the operations, diverting men from fighting the fire to search and retrieve the dead firefighters and three civilians who had also been on the loading dock.<br /><br />Unlike the tributes that poured in yesterday for the two fallen firefighters, the reaction to Horan's death was quite the opposite. "It would take a dumb Irishman to get 20 guys killed," one firefighter told the <em>Chicago Tribune </em>the next day. Indeed, instead of being honored, Horan was held responsible for the deaths.<br /><br />Eventually, Horan's reputation was to be saved. John Rice had heard the "It would take a dumb Irishman..." comments while growing up - particularly from his father, who was Horan's grandson, descended from Horan's first wife.<br /><br />As an adult, Rice began researching his great-grandfather. "I decided to find out if he was a dumb guy," said Rice, a private investigator. Rice stumbled upon a cache of Horan's papers at the Chicago History Museum. Instead of a dolt, "I discovered he was an incredible hero, a visionary."<br /><br />In fact, in his four years as chief, Horan had campaigned before the city council for a high-pressure water system to cover the Loop and the stock yards, the two areas of a growing city where the most fires occurred. Indeed, in a somber irony, "Twelve hours before he died, he was arguing for high-pressure water," Rice said. "He said after one fire killed a family, 'We have a 22,000-square-mile lake outside our front door, but we don't have enough water to save a mother and child.' "<br /><br />Although such a system would eventually arrive, it is questionable whether it would have saved Horan and his men from near-instant death, given the close quarters in which they had to maneuver. The loading dock was the only place from where the fire could be attacked, and access was restricted by a rail line filled with box cars. Even if they had time to turn and run when Horan shouted, "Look out, men!" they wouldn't have gotten far. Those who survived were either blown sideways by the force of the collapse, which destroyed the box cars, or had enough distance to dash away.<br /><br />It would be 88 years before Horan's heroism would be recognized. It started in 1998 when Bill Cattorini returned from fighting a fire at the same location as the 1910 blaze. "I thought, 'There should be a plaque,' " Cattorini recalled. "There's nothing. I just couldn't believe it. This was a disaster people didn't want to remember."<br /><br />Cattornii and fellow firefighter Bill Cosgrove began to raise funds, scout out a location and find an artist who would carry out their vision of a proper memorial for not only those lost in the 1910 disaster, but all Chicago firefighters killed in the line of duty, a number that totals more than 500. They raised $170,000, with 70%coming from Chicago firefighters themselves.<br /><br />On December 22, 2004, 94 years after the Union Stock Yard disaster and 6 years before yesterday's deaths, the monument was dedicated directly west of the iconic Stock Yards arch. Incidentally, the temperature on the day of the dedication was a balmy 4 degrees <em>below </em>zero.<br /><br />The tragedy of the 1910 fire was compounded by questionable financial fallout in the years after the blaze. Nearly 20 years earlier, a Chicago businessman named Harlow Higinbothom had been in charge of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Due to circumstances never fully explained, a number of Fair workers got locked in a cold storage facility near the Fair and died. Higinbothom immediately set up a fund to benefit the survivors of the victims. Seventeen years later, however, thousands of dollars raised in the 1890s still hadn't been awarded to family members by 1910.<br /><br />After the 1910 fire, Higinbothom offered to take control of the $211,000 raised to benefit the widows and children of the dead firemen. Soon, firefighters learned of his plan to give the widows and children only <em>proceeds </em>from the donations, which Higinbothom said would be invested. The firemen went to court where a judge ruled against his plan to control the new fund, and all the money was distributed.<br /><br />There will no doubt be a similar fund created for the families of yesterday's victims. A century apart - to the day - Chicago firefighters would die in a tragic blaze. Unlike the aftermath of the 1910 blaze and the blame that fell on Horan, both Stringer and Ankum will be honored as heroes.<br /><br />Horan eventually got his honor, too -- a few years short of a century after his death, and - as it turns out -a few years before another tragedy.<br /><br /><br />copyright 2010 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-62825648257056262082010-12-16T06:52:00.000-08:002011-11-25T06:55:09.391-08:00Hooray for Hollywood<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUtjmNeO-_jUeOTO6uqh8eu30l5lR65sDcSnc8Daqx_cekLf4-TLBKIXAmyG6F4MuhkONR5tJw7cP2vdO4e0GdRVG80xc4olrUUNtX7uF5MRY23Ri0mPVYD0o5Ri-eeG8FB8-6qWK4k0/s1600/hollywood.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 300px; height: 400px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678946769075952354" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUtjmNeO-_jUeOTO6uqh8eu30l5lR65sDcSnc8Daqx_cekLf4-TLBKIXAmyG6F4MuhkONR5tJw7cP2vdO4e0GdRVG80xc4olrUUNtX7uF5MRY23Ri0mPVYD0o5Ri-eeG8FB8-6qWK4k0/s400/hollywood.jpg" /></a><div><strong><font size="2">Actress Thelma Todd, shown here with husband Pat DiCicco, was found dead in her Lincoln Phaeton convertible in Pacific Palisades in December 1935.<br /></font></strong><br />For the past month, like most of Hollywood [but hardly anyone else], I've been fascinated by the story of the murder of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen, who was found shot to death on November 16, 2010 in her Mercedes-Benz, apparently hit while driving through a posh Beverley Hills neighborhood.<br /><br />On December 1, 2010, a man police suspected in the killing, Harold Smith, shot himself to death when confronted by police. The most recent statement from the Beverly Hills Police Department on December 8th stated that Chasen's murder was a random act of violence by Smith - who shot Chasen while he was riding on a bicycle. They theorize that Smith's intention was only robbery and that he never intended to actually <em>hit </em>Chasen with his shots, but merely get her to stop so he could rob her.<br /><br />Police say they believe Smith acted alone and it was in no way connected with road rage -- one of many theories that have floated around for the last month. Smith was identified to police as a suspect through a tip to <em>America's Most Wanted </em>-- I didn't even know that was still on the air. Apparently, Smith had been bragging to neighbors that he shot Chasen and got $10,000 for it. Incidentally, that tipster stands to collect a $125,000 reward.<br /><br />But Chasen's family, friends and even residents of the neighborhood in which Chasen was killed doubt that story. As one resident said, "A black guy on a bike in <em>Beverly Hills?</em> I don't think so. For one thing, the guy isn't going to get too far before somebody calls the cops." Another hole in the robbery theory is that nothing was taken from Chasen's car after the shooting.<br /><br />Chances are, we'll <em>never </em>know exactly why Chasen was killed. It could, in fact, just have been - as the police said - a case where Smith was looking to rob someone; Chasen had the misfortune to drive by; Smith shot at the car, probably not meaning to hit her, but only to get her to stop; once he realized she was dead, he fled without taking anything.<br /><br />Yeah, I doubt it too. But it's possible.<br /><br />It may come out that Chasen - whose estate was valued at about $6.1 million - was killed by some beneficiary of her wealth. Perhaps Chasen - or one of Chasen's clients - was involved with the mob and she was 'hit' for one reason or another.<br /><br />Again, though, chances are that we'll never know. If so, Chasen's death will just be the latest in a long line of bizarre Hollywood deaths over the past 90 years.<br /><br />Back in 1921, noted comedian and silent film star Fatty Arbuckle had his career, reputation and life ruined as a result of the death of Virginia Rappe. On September 5, 1921 Arbuckle took a break from his hectic film schedule and - despite suffering from second degree burns literally to his ass from an accident on set - drove to San Francisco with two friends, Lowell Sherman (an actor/director) and cameraman Fred Fischbach. The three checked into three rooms at the St. Francis Hotel. They subsequently invited several women to the room.<br /><br />During the carousing, Rappe - a 30-year-old aspiring actress - was found seriously ill. She was examined by the hotel doctor, who concluded her symptoms were mostly caused by intoxication and gave her morphine to calm her. As big a fan of opiates as I am, and I'm no doctor, but I'm guessing that was <em>not </em>the proper treatment. Indeed, Rappe was not hospitalized until two days after the incident.<br /><br />As it turns out, Rappe had come to the party already an ill woman. She suffered from chronic cystitis, a condition that flared up dramatically whenever she drank. Her heavy drinking habits - not to mention the shitty quality of the era's bootleg alcohol - left her in severe physical distress whenever she drank. She had actually developed a reputation for getting loaded at parties, then drunkenly tearing at her clothes from the resulting physical pain.<br /><br />Worse, by the time of Arbuckle's St. Francis Hotel party, her reproductive health was an even greater concern. She had undergone several abortions in the space of a few years, and God-knows what - if any - quality of care she received for such procedures in 1921. In fact, as she came to Arbuckle's party, Rappe had recently had <em>another </em>abortion as a result of a pregnancy by her boyfriend, director Henry Lehrman.]<br /><br />No one is sure what exactly happened at the party. One theory was that Arbuckle may have inadvertently struck Rappe's midsection with his knee during some romping around. If she had undergone a botched abortion during the days immediately before, the blow might have been enough to badly damage her already compromised internal organs. This would also account for the statements that a delirious Rappe was alleged to have made later during the party, statements along the lines of, "Arbuckle did it," or "He hurt me," without implicating Arbuckle in any rape or violent attack on her.<br /><br />At the hospital, Rappe's companion at the party, Bambina Maude Delmont, told Rappe's doctor that Arbuckle had raped her friend. The doctor examined Rappe but found no evidence of rape. Rappe died one day after her hospitalization of peritonitis, caused by a ruptured bladder. Delmont then told police that Arbuckle raped Rappe. How would forced sexual intercourse lead to a ruptured bladder? The geniuses at the police department concluded that the impact Arbuckle's enormous body had on Rappe eventually caused her bladder to rupture.<br /><br />Then things got weird.<br /><br />Shortly after her death, Rappe's manager, Al Semnacker, accused Arbuckle of using a piece of ice to simulate sex with her, which led to the injuries. By the time the story was reported in newspapers, the object had evolved into being a Coca-Cola or champagne bottle, instead of a piece of ice. This is most likely nonsense. The 'ice' may have come from the fact that Arbuckle <em>did </em>rub ice on Rappe's stomach to ease her abdominal pain. Arbuckle denied any wrongdoing but was arrested and put on trial. Three times.<br /><br />Arbuckle's trials were major media events - think O.J. without television. Exaggerated and sensationalized stories in William Randolph Hearst's nationwide newspaper chain finished Arbuckle's career. The newspapers portrayed him as a gross sexually depraved lunatic who used his weight to overpower innocent girls. In reality Arbuckle was a good natured man who was so shy with women that he was regarded by those who knew him as, "the most chaste man in pictures".<br /><br />Being a completely evil prick, Hearst <em>loved </em>the Arbuckle scandal, and later said that it had "sold more newspapers than any event since the sinking of the RMS Lusitania." So-called 'morality groups' called for Arbuckle to be sentenced to death, and studio executives ordered Arbuckle's industry friends (whose careers they controlled) not to publicly speak up for him. Charlie Chaplin - whom Arbuckle had mentored - was in England at the time and said nothing. Others did, however. And it <em>didn't </em>help Arbuckle's case. Buster Keaton, and actor William S. Hart - who had never even worked with Arbuckle - both made public statements which presumed that Arbuckle was guilty.<br /><br />San Francisco District Attorney Matthew Brady, waas naturally one of those crazy bastards who was DA only because he planned to run for governor and then President of the United States. He made public pronouncements of Arbuckle’s guilt and pressured witnesses to make false statements. Ultimately, the judge found no evidence of rape. However, after hearing testimony from one of the party guests, Zey Prevon, that Rappe told her "Roscoe [Arbuckle's real first name] hurt me" on her deathbed, the judge decided that Arbuckle <em>could </em>be charged with first-degree murder. Brady had originally planned to seek the death penalty, but the charge was later reduced to manslaughter.<br /><br />Despite three trials that ultimately led to his full acquittal, Arbuckle's career was over. He attempted to make a comeback in the early 1930s. In fact, some of these short films were successful and miraculously, Arbuckle looked like he'd salvage something of his career. In June 1933, in fact, he was signed by Warner Brothers to make a feature-length film. Joyously, he told a friend, "This is the best day of my life."<br /><br />He suffered a heart attack later that night and died in his sleep. He was 46.<br /><br />Another Hollywood scandal occurred in 1922 when director William Desmond Taylor was found slain in his fashionable bachelor pad. Apparently, Taylor's valet found him and began crying uncontrollably, running out of the house and down the street throughout the neighborhood like some 20th century town crier. One of Taylor's neighbors - an actress - immediately went into action, quickly notifying Taylor's acquaintances, including those in the habit of writing sexually explicit love letters [remember, this was before texting, folks].<br /><br />So, by the time police officers arrived at Taylor's home, the place looked like a Hollywood party: Paramount actors, actresses and executives were rummaging through bedroom drawers and closets, a butler was in the kitchen calmly washing dishes and an unnamed extra walked right out the front door - past unknowing police - with a case of bootleg gin.<br /><br />The proverbial "persons of interest" abounded: an actress with a crush on Taylor; an actress' <em>mother </em>with a crush on Taylor; an actress' drug dealer [no word on whether <em>he </em>had a crush on Taylor]; a thieving valet (who may have secretly been Taylor's brother...and perhaps also had a crush on Taylor); a wife whom Taylor had deserted in the East; and a soldier from his wartime regiment whom Taylor had court-martialed for theft.<br /><br />88 years later, no one has ever been arrested.<br /><br />Other cases have titillated: in 1932 director Paul Bern was found shot to death. While a coroner ruled suicide, many believed that an ex-lover did in Bern, the husband of actress Jean Harlow.<br /><br />In 1935, the body of actress Thelma Todd was discovered in December 1935 in her Lincoln Phaeton convertible in a garage near her cafe in Pacific Palisades. The coroner - and wasn't <em>this </em>guy a fucking genius - ruled she died of carbon monoxide poisoning after turning on the ignition and striking her head on the steering wheel. Many theorized, instead, that she was killed by a film director or an abusive ex-husband or even minions of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, whom she had angered by refusing to allow casino gambling on the property. My money's on the latter.<br /><br />Then, of course, there was the infamous fascination with the 'Black Dahlia' case, which involved the gruesome and - ultimately - unsolved murder of Elizaberth Short on January 15, 1947. Although not an actress, the Hollywood resident's brutal death - her severely mutilated body had been severed at the waist and drained of blood, and her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears - became a national sensation.<br /><br />In death, Short acquired the nickname 'Black Dahlia' because of her black outfits and black hair and because a movie out at the time called <em>The Blue Dahlia</em>. On January 24, 1947, a person who identified themselves as the killer mailed a packet to a Los Angeles newspaper containing Short's birth certificate, business cards, photographs, names written on pieces of paper and an address book with the name 'Mark Hansen' embossed on the cover. Hansen, the last person known to have seen Short alive [on January 9th] became the prime suspect. On January 25th, Short's handbag and one shoe were found in a trash bin a short distance from where her body had been found.<br /><br />Probably due to the notoriety of the case, more than 50 lunatics - both men and women - have confessed to the murder over the past 63 years. To this day, police receive tips every time a newspaper mentions the case or a book or movie on the subject released. Although, granted, those tips have dwindled as those alive at the time have gradually begun to die off. Over the years, the suspects have been variously been identified as a pipe salesman, a doctor, a cop, a mobster, a cafe owner and an actor.<br /><br />The case was never solved.<br /><br />Then there was the famous case of George Reeves, TV's <em>Superman</em>, who died in 1959 - not by jumping out a window, as the urban myth goes — but by gunshot. Not sure if it was the same coroner, but once again it was ruled a suicide, the story being that Reeves' was distraught at his inability to land serious roles after his <em>Superman</em> role. As gay porn was at least 10 years away from being invented - and anyone who ever saw Reeves in those tights knows what I mean - there were very few options for him. Many, however, think that story is horseshit. They believe that Reeves instead was killed on orders of a studio executive whose wife was having an affair with Reeves.<br /><br />Most recently, the violent and bloody murder of Bob Crane from <em>Hogan's Heroes </em>in 1978 stirred Hollywood even though Crane was killed in Arizona. Amazingly - considering the trends in these Hollywood deaths - Crane's death was never thought to be a suicide - probably because it's very hard to beat yourself to death. Many believe that Crane's co-pornographer, John Henry Carpenter, bludgeoned Crane to death after the actor ended their business relationship.<br /><br />Amazingly, authorities were actually able to finally bring murder charges against Carpenter in 1994 only to see the O.J.-like jury acquit him. Carpenter died in 1998, still claiming innocence in Crane's death. While it is true that there were a number of suspects in Crane's murder - the guy fucked on film who knows how many guys' wives - Carpenter was the only one with a speck of fatty matter from Crane's skull found on the door of his rental car. Incredibly, the photograph of the speck was lost before the trial started and Carpenter walked.<br /><br />Officially, the case remains unsolved.<br /><br />So, while it is too soon to predict the outcome of the investigation into Ronni Chasen's murder, the above cases seem to point toward no final truthful conclusion.<br /><br />As the <em>Los Angeles Times </em>said recently, not every Hollywood story has a happy ending. And some have no ending at all.<br /><br /><br />copyright 2010 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div></div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2665006247085387399.post-30317770183287442802010-12-12T06:56:00.000-08:002011-11-25T06:58:10.665-08:00To Cap it All Off<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM7DGWSd4JgwJs2D1sg18cMn8saqJ6ER6DU4HnUiFOiYMEGg88UXvi0TTCu1CC-D03ArabYxjag0dsbVsvi0VO_lL4_dJ4cO_lHeoloT4Qhh4mdU-_wWW2_-rR_j9jkYU3xpJmT0p7QsA/s1600/mike+rowe+11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 296px; height: 400px; text-align: center; display: block; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678947588215576354" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM7DGWSd4JgwJs2D1sg18cMn8saqJ6ER6DU4HnUiFOiYMEGg88UXvi0TTCu1CC-D03ArabYxjag0dsbVsvi0VO_lL4_dJ4cO_lHeoloT4Qhh4mdU-_wWW2_-rR_j9jkYU3xpJmT0p7QsA/s400/mike+rowe+11.jpg" /></a><div><strong><font size="2">I'M TOO SEXY FOR MY PANTS: The guy in the shit-colored cap is Mike Rowe and I want him out of my life - NOW!<br /></font></strong><br />"I've been told they make my butt look good." This is the catchy line of a television commercial for a pair of Lee jeans. Who is the hunk serving as spokesman? Brad Pitt? George Clooney? Hell, Joe Jonas? Uh, no. It's a middle-aged guy in a baseball cap.<br /><br />Meet Mike Rowe. Of course, you don't need <em>me </em>to introduce you to this guy, he's been all over your life for the last year-and-a-half. Until the commercials - first for Ford and now for Lee jeans - I'd never heard of him, and that was mighty fine with me. Of course, I didn't know about him because I don't watch television. Well, not what passes for television in 2010, anyway. So, you probably already knew that this guy was the host of something called <em>Dirty Jobs </em>on cable.<br /><br />All I knew the first time I saw him on a commercial was there was some asshole in a baseball cap on my TV trying to sell me a Ford, and acting like I should <em>know </em>who he is. If there's one thing I hate [and, believe me, there's a <em>lot </em>more than 'one'], it's <em>fauxlebrities </em>who act as if I should know who they are. So that, in combination with the baseball cap that was making me angry, meant there was little chance I was going to like Mike Rowe from the beginning.<br /><br />Still, I figured it'd be a few commercials and then he'd be gone. I mean, whose brilliant idea was it to use this schmuck as a spokesman? What, was Ron Jeremy busy? I figured the poor bastard who suggested to the boys at Ford that they use Rowe would get shit-canned in a few weeks and I'd never see Mike Rowe again.<br /><br />Hardly. Instead, he's become a mainstay of Ford's commercials. And, may I say, Ford really sucks. I don't mean the cars - haven't driven one in 15 years. I'm talking about their commercials. Between Rowe and the incredibly obnoxiously annoying ones with voice-overs by Denis Leary, I wouldn't drive a Ford if it was the only escape for me from a Demi Lovato concert....well, ok, maybe I would - but that's the <em>only </em>reason.<br /><br />The "make my butt look good" line comes from his new line of products he wants me to buy, jeans. Yep, there he is again - with the fucking baseball cap on! It's not even a <em>cool </em>cap. If it was a Yankees cap, or a cap that said 'Go Fuck Yourself', then <em>maybe </em>it'd be cool. But it's this bland shit-colored hat that you generally see worn by the toothless, the drunk, and the shiftless.<br /><br />I tried to do some research on this asshole so that I could figure out just what the <em>fuck </em>the deal was with the hat.<br /><br />That was when I found out about <em>Dirty Jobs </em>on the Discovery Channel [I didn't even know <em>that </em>network was still on the air, by the way]. Initially, I thought, 'Well, maybe <em>that's </em>why he wears the cap: he's constantly filthy.' Turns out I might not be too far off: I guess on this 'show' he performs difficult, strange or disgusting [or a combination of all three] tasks alongside the poor bastards who have to do it for a <em>living</em>. This is supposed to, somehow, entertain us: to watch people getting paid shitty wages doing shitty jobs with this capped asshole making a mockery of their lives and very existence. Sounds like entertainment to me.<br /><br />He apparently came to Discovery's attention when he was doing local TV work in San Francisco and did a delightful piece on the artificial insemination of a cow. Personally, I'd have found it more entertaining if he'd actually inseminated the cow <em>himself</em>, but that's just me. He sent a tape of this brilliance to Discovery and, the next thing you know, there he is selling trucks and pants.<br /><br />I've searched and searched and simply can't find any explanation for the hat. Is he bald? Bald<em>ing</em>? Is there a hatchet protruding through the center of his skull? He never even <em>acknowledges </em>it - like it's perfectly natural for a 48-year-old to walk around with a shit-colored baseball cap, without having to explain himself.<br /><br />It reminds me of a great scene in a great film - <em>Uncle Buck </em>- where John Candy's character is driving while wearing this God-awful wool hunters cap with ear flaps. He turns to his passenger and says, "Do you like this hat? 'Cause some people get angry when they see this hat."<br /><br />Consider me angry when I see that hat.<br /><br /><br />copyright 2010 by EBBP Redux. If you are reading this on a blog or website other than EBBP Redux or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.</div></div>Evil B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02973975432287846356noreply@blogger.com0