Heart Brain Gut
There is a bit of commodity wisdom. you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain.” Credit, or blame, for this morsel is usually given to Winston Churchill. Others say it was George Bernard Shaw, or Benjamin Disraeli.
A French politician, François Guizot has what may be the oldest attribution. “N’être pas républicain à vingt ans est preuve d’un manque de cœur ; l’être après trente ans est preuve d’un manque de tête.” “Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head.”
In the embedded graphic, the sixty year old’s possession is a gut. This would apply to the famously corpulent Winston Churchill, who was sixty in 1934. At the time he was a forgotten politician, disgraced by his blundering in the Great War. Other pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
There is a page at the Churchill Centre website for Quotes Falsely Attributed . It includes this gem. “”The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy and the lash.” Churchill’s assistant, Anthony Montague-Browne said that although Churchill had not uttered these words, he wished he had.”
The Day Lincoln Was Shot
PG has read The Day Lincoln Was Shot. It is written so that the casual reader can enjoy it. There is a powerful history lesson here, and worth the twenty five cents PG paid at Book Nook. The pictures for this book report are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
This book contradicts another book PG read. Genius and Heroin reports that Mary Todd Lincoln had a bad headache on April 14, 1864. Some opium was found for her, and she was able to go to Ford’s Theater that evening. TDLWS does not mention this.
The story begins in the weeks leading up to “Good Friday”. John Wilkes Booth was in the crowd at Mr. Lincoln’s second inauguration. Vice President Andrew Johnson was also there, and made a drunken fool of himself. Mr. Johnson did not meet with Mr. Lincoln until the afternoon of April 14.
John Wilkes Booth was a famous actor, He made $20,000 a year as a performer. Mr. Booth was also a fan of the Confederacy, and launched a plan to kidnap Mr. Lincoln. There was an attempt to kidnap the President, but Mr. Lincoln did not show up as planned. The conspiracy of Mr. Booth almost broke up, and was reduced to four men.
The four men…John Wilkes Booth, Lewis Paine, David Herrold, and George Atzerodt … met at a boarding house owned by Mary Sarratt. Ultimately, Booth went to Ford’s Theater to kill the President. Lewis Paine and David Herrold tried to kill Secretary of State William Seward. George Atzerodt took a room at Kirkland’s boarding house, and was supposed to take out Vice President Andrew Johnson. Mary Sarratt was not involved in the plot, but was executed by hanging anyway.
In the weeks before Good Friday, a few things happened. On March 7, the door to box seven at Ford’s Theater was broken down, and the lock broken. On April 5, Secretary of State William Seward was badly injured in a carriage accident. On April 9, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses Grant, ending the War Between the States.
Part of the celebration was a theater party on Friday, April 14. Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln were to join Gen. and Mrs. Grant at Ford’s Theater. The show was “Our American Cousin”, starring Laura Keene. The Grants did not really want to go, and decided to catch a train to New Jersey. They wanted to see their children. Mrs. Grant had also witnessed a temper tantrum by Mrs. Lincoln, and was possibly avoiding the hot headed first lady.
Mr. Booth decided that this was the night for action. He went by the Kirkwood house, and left a note for Andrew Johnson. The idea was for the police to see the note, and think that Mr. Johnson was part of the conspiracy. This was foiled when Mr. Johnson’s secretary stopped by Kirkwood house, and picked up the Vice President’s mail and messages.
Ford’s Theater was prepared for the visit by the President. A barrier was taken out from between two boxes. Flags were hung around the building. At 9:00 pm, the President’s bodyguard, a Washington policeman named John F. Parker, got bored with the play. Mr. Parker went to Taltavul’s saloon, along with with Francis Burns, the president’s driver and Forbes, the valet. They were in the saloon during the action at the theater.
John Wilkes Booth was an experienced actor, and he knew how to follow a cue. At 10:15 pm, the player onstage said “Wal I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, you sockdologizing old mantrap”. Booth placed a derringer between Mr. Lincoln’s left ear and spine, and pulled the trigger. He said “Sic Semper Tyrannis”, and cut Major Henry Rathbone. Booth leaned over the edge of the theater box, and lowered himself to the stage. The spur of his right foot catches on the Treasury regiment flag. This causes him to land on his left leg at an odd angle. The leg broke.
While this is going on, Lewis Paine and David Herrold went to visit Secretary of State William Seward. He is laying in bed, covered in bandages, recovering from the carriage accident. The bandages get in the way of the knife that cuts him, and save his life.
The wounds to Mr. Lincoln are considered mortal. The President was moved to Peterson’s boarding house nearby. At 7:22 am on April 15, he died. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who served as acting President during the night, said “Now he belongs to the ages.”
Sochi Olympic Boycott
The Russian Federation recently Putin put in some tasteless regulations about homosexuals. The knee jerk reaction of some is to boycott something Russian. The 2014 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in Russia. Some say there should be a rainbow hued boycott. A look at recent history makes one wonder if this is really a good idea.
In 1979, Russia was the dominant republic in the Soviet Union. On December 24, 1979, with possible provocation from the United States, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. A war ensued, with many women and children killed by the invading army.
The 1980 Olympics were held in Moscow, the Soviet Capitol. The United States decided to protest the invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the Moscow Olympics. To get even, the Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The American boycott had little impact on the war in Afghanistan. American arms shipments to the rebel forces did have an impact on the war. The Soviet army was defeated, and the Soviet Union collapsed soon afterwards.
After the Soviets left, the rebels had weapons left over. The rebels became the Taliban, and Al Queda. The result was 911, ruinous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and economic hardship. Is this what happens when you boycott Russia? Pictures from The Library of Congress.
Zealot
Most of you have heard about the Fox News interview with Reza Aslan. It is helpfully embedded above. Dr. Aslan is promoting a book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.
The interview created a fuss. It was a win/win situation. Fox News is seen as defenders of the Christian faith. Dr. Aslan sells books. The New York Times has a quote. ““I’ll be perfectly honest — I’m thrilled at the response that people have had to the interview. You can’t buy this kind of publicity.”
In the Fox/henhouse matchup, Dr. Aslan emphasizes his multiple degrees. It is true that he is well educated. It is also true that his day job, at the University of California, Riverside, is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing. (Appalling visual warning) Dr. Aslan has “a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, where he was named the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction.“
There is a more civilized interview with NPR. It turns out that Dr. Aslan left Iran as a child. This was during the Khomeini revolution.The departure was a hectic affair. When Dr. Aslan was fifteen, he was “born again”. He spent a few years as an aggressive Jesus worshiper. At some point the Christian thing faded away, and Dr. Aslan went back to Islam. Whatever.
Many say that the book has few original ideas about Jesus. In other words, the book is old ideas, with a new marketing twist. Since Christianity may be the most successful marketing effort in history, this is somehow fitting. It is also beside the point. Jesus worshipers are more interested in the death of Jesus, than in his life. Zealot should have little impact on marketing the scheme for life after death.
There is a certain synchronicity in the current conflict. PG has wondered lately, why was someone so mad at Jesus that an execution was necessary? In other words, instead of What Would Jesus Do, the question should be What Did Jesus Do? According to Dr. Aslan, Jesus made trouble for the Roman rulers of Palestine. When it came time to compile the Bible, it was convenient to blame the execution on the Jews. There is also the possibility Jesus committed a more devious crime, which was dutifully covered up by the Bible committee.
The myth vs. history angle gets worked over. Many feel that the nativity story is not completely accurate. However, for many years, people were concerned about the birth of the Messiah, not the details about where the delivery occurred. As stated on NPR, “the truth of that story was more important than the facts of it.” This kind of talk makes PG dizzy. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Spring Fever
When PG was a kid, his North Carolina neighbors always brought back Cheerwine with them. In those days, the top forty station in Atlanta was WQXI, 790 on the dial, Quixie in Dixie. The word dysfunctional had not been invented, even if the concept was everywhere.
Forty seven years later, 790 am is a sports talk station. The house with Cheerwine has been replaced by a McMansion. In a book by Mary Kay Andrews, Spring Fever, Cheerwine is called Quixie. It is made by in Pascoe NC. The company is owned by a dysfunctional family.
Spring Fever is another entertaining use of time from Mary Kay Andrews. The plot is catchy, and the characters are people you care about, even if you want to see them dead. Some of the plot turns are a bit tough to believe. When Annajane tells her fiancee that she cheated on him, it turns into a line in a country song. When Mason is about to get married to a horrible woman, his “daughter” saves the day twice. If you can stifle your cynicism, you will have a good time.
Most of the familiar details of a Kathy Trocheck book are here. The gay couple waits until page 254 to renovate the town’s only hotel. Annajane stays there for a while, and sees a few things she could have done without. The florist convention went on without anyone the wiser.
There was one MKA touch missing here. Most of her books have recipes at the end. In Spring Fever, the reader is left wondering how to cook Quixie marinated ham. As one lady said to another, “Tacky is in the eye of the beholder. It’s a word some people use for something they think is in poor taste.” Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
White Student Union
Some kids, with too much free time, have started a White Student Union at Georgia Straight State University. They sent a press release to Creative Loafing and the fishwrapper. Both responded, to the slow news day crisis, by reporting on the group. CL was in high octane liberal umbrage mode. “WSUs, on the other hand, are a reactionary movement born out of the festering sentiment that minorities have gained too much of an edge due to affirmative action, campus diversity, and … immigration reform.”
CL tosses a curious quote into the mix. It is from a discussion of the movie Fruitvale Station. “We don’t yet live in the world the Supreme Court thought we did when it struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act and weakened the case for affirmative action. More than ever, we live in a time of racism without racists, just racist laws, racist policies, and racist ideas.”
That same feature has a dandy quote from our half white POTUS. “Am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can? Am I judging people as much as I can based on not the color of their skin but the content of their character? That would be, I think, an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.”
At first glance, it seems like WUSS WSU does not have much of a chance. GSU is mostly a school of people who work their way through college, and don’t have time for flakey organizations. Most white people don’t spend much time contemplating their caucasianality. This may, or may not, be a function of white privilege. Others say that WSUs are bastions of white privilege. When you live in a time of racism without racists, it is easy to get confused. Pictures today are from Gwinnett County.
Lies Darn Lies Statistics
In a recent survey, 78.7% percent of the respondents agree with the statement “Statistics can be trusted to give an accurate description of the facts”.
Statistics are a part of modern life. Numbers tell us who is expected to win, who is expected to lose, and how many men wear a tie. Statistics are often misleading, or an outright lie. And yet, people believe statistics. (The middle three letters of believe are lie).
Talk about statistics is little better. Mark Twain gets the credit/blame for popularizing the phrase, “lies, damn lies, and statistics”. According to Wikipedia , Mr. Clemens may have been mistaken. “Twain popularized the saying in “Chapters from My Autobiography”, published in the North American Review in 1906. “Figures often beguile me,” he wrote, “particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'”…”The term was popularised in the United States by Mark Twain (among others), who attributed it to the 19th Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881): “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” However, the phrase is not found in any of Disraeli’s works and the earliest known appearances were years after his death.”
Mr. Twain was in the twilight of his career, and angry at aggressive militarism. Why would he would give credit/blame for a phrase to a conservative Prime Minister of England, dead twenty five years?
When PG took English101, the teacher was an inspiring lady named Ann Peets. Between stories of Faulkner and comma splices, she contributed this gem. ” The best way to win an argument is to use statistics. The best way to use statistics is to make them up. ”
In 1954, a bestselling book came out, “How to Lie with Statistics .” The premise was that the pros knew the tricks, and the public has a right to self defense. There are numerous examples of the ways that you can lie with numbers just like you lie with words. Calculator lips don’t move.
One word to watch out for is average . The three most popular types are mean, median, and mode. Mean is the one most people think of as average…you add all the figures up, and divide by the number of entries. In median, you line up the entries in numeric value, and choose the entry in the middle. In mode, the number that the most entries identify with is the average. Any one of these three can be called average, and yet none might describe the typical entry.
HT to Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub for attributing the LDL&S quote to Mr. Disraeli. MFB was talking about global warming denial, a cesspool of lies and statistics. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. These pictures were taken by Ansel Adams at a relocation camp for Japanese Amercans during World War II. Pictures of Mark Twain were recently posted. This is a repeat repost.
Chamblee54 
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