But Death Penalty
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Innocent People Have Been Executed. But Death Penalty Is Also Slowly Being Phased Out.
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I read Buddy May’s copy of “The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon” before attending the 1993 conference. After the closing ceremony, Buddy asked Tom to autograph his book. I saw that my bookmark was still in the book, and I got Tom to autograph it. · The “Dear Friends” quote below the picture was written by Sage Ricci. He was married to Tom Spanbauer, who recently passed away. The post is an appreciation of Tom, along with a memory of the time that I met him. · Pro tip. Do not start a blog post, about a recently deceased author, with a quote from his husband. Facebook will post that first line, and people will think it is you that lost your husband. · “Israeli officials said their increasing attacks against Hezbollah are not intended to lead to war but are an attempt to reach “de-escalation through escalation.”” · Elizabeth Warren family cookbook ‘Pow Wow Chow’ surfaces as Native American criticism continues … Apparently, Elizabeth Warren once published a book called “Pow Wow Chow.” If you go to Amazon, they will tell you “author unknown” · “All men have an emotion to kill; when they strongly dislike some one they involuntarily wish he was dead. I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.” Clarence Darrow – The Story of My Life (1932) · @QuoteResearch You have good taste in quotations. Here is a link to the QI article · Seven Brilliant Quotes was a 2013 post, about a tacky meme. 7BQ serves today as inspiration for a haiku reduction. As could be expected, the post contains a citation from @QuoteResearch · jostler57 I’ve seen a LOT of trash quality posts, here, but this one takes the cake. Title is utter nonsense. Picture is impossible to read. There are SEVEN quotes instead of one, and you’ve OBSCURED the full quotes. The image accompanying the quote(s) are pixelated headshots to a rainbow background. This is, without equal, the worst post ever made to this community. u/Chamblee54 you’ve broken nearly every single rule this community has set forth. You deserve a permanent ban for this thoughtless trashpile of a post. · jostler57 · The altered meme is the quote. I took the seven quotes on the original, and reduced them to a haiku. risk suffer silence · myself weakest point must learn · forgive easy win Here is a link to the meme on X, where it is a bit clearer. Here is a blog post about the process. · jostler57 Is this place called MemePorn? No. This is QuotesPorn, and you’ve neither delivered a quote, nor have you provided a SFW-porn worthy image. You literally are posting to the wrong place. I recommend you delete this dual violation of both rules and our eyes. It doesn’t belong here. · Your post from QuotesPorn was removed because of: ‘Poor quality image or poor resolution’ Hi u/Chamblee54, Thank you for your contribution. Your post’s image quality or resolution appears to be far below SFWPorn worthy. If you have a better quality image, please use that if you choose to post this quote again. · u/Chamblee54 u/Chamblee54 is permanently banned from r/QuotesPorn [–]subreddit message via /r/QuotesPorn[M] sent 10 minutes ago – Hello, You have been permanently banned from participating in r/QuotesPorn because your post violates this community’s rules. You won’t be able to post or comment, but you can still view and subscribe to it. If you have a question regarding your ban, you can contact the moderator team by replying to this message. Reminder from the Reddit staff: If you use another account to circumvent this subreddit ban, that will be considered a violation of the Content Policy and can result in your account being suspended from the site as a whole. · I don’t think that deserves a permanent ban, but that’s your call. The Original is attached. If you click on the image, you can see the meme clearly. The problem might be in your upload process. This blog post explains what I am doing here. This is a commentary on meme quotes, which have a LOT of quality issues. · I am curious which rule this image violates. I looked at your rules carefully before posting, and did not see a problem. If you click on the image, you will see a full size, legible image. Maybe the problem is on your end. I uploaded a 720×720 image, that looks fine on facebook and X. This blog post is a commentary on the image. 7BQ is about the issues with quote memes, i.e. the many, many, quotes that are improperly sourced. The haiku reduction takes words from all seven “brilliant quotes” and combines them into a haiku. · Pictures are from The Library of Congress The photgrapher was Marjory Collins, in August 1942, New York NY. “O’Reilly’s bar on Third Avenue in the “Fifties”” · selah
Seven Brilliant Quotes Addendum
Seven Brilliant Quotes was in my September archives, waiting to be reposted. 7BQ was originally posted in 2013, a simpler time. It was a personal milestone in the nasty business of quote debunking.
Facebook was suffering the revenge of the BrainyQuote. Tasteful bits of commodity wisdom, illustrated by pictures of splendid sunsets, were the rage. So, so many of them were not worth the pixels they populated. While it is not anyone’s fault to be posthumously misquoted, all seven quotees are men. 7BQ, the post, was an opportunity to attack seven cookie monsters in one sitting.
No good deed goes unpunished. A paragraph in 2013 says: “This type of research can be frustrating. Being inspired by beautiful words can give you strength and purpose. It can also make you feel foolish, when the lovely words are revealed to be lies. Being a cynic gets lonely. Children of all ages don’t like to be told that there is no Santa Claus.”
The next quote in the 2013 post was from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is one of two quotes than can be verified. There is a record of most things Dr. King said in public. Letter from a Birmingham Jail is a google search away. There is no need to make anything up.
Dr. King gave a speech at Western Michigan University on December 18, 1963. The second section of the speech is “Call for action.” “The world in which we live is geographically one. Now we are challenged to make it one in terms of brotherhood. Now through our ethical and moral commitment, we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools. This is the great challenge of the hour. This is true of individuals. It is true of nations. No individual can live alone. No nation can live alone.”
7BQ was a meme. In the spirit of making lemonade out of lemons, one thing to do is reduce this graphic nuisance to a haiku. risk suffer silence · myself weakest point must learn · forgive easy win
In addition to Dr. King, the other verified quote was from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Certainly Dr. King knew about “must learn,” while MK Gandhi was familiar with forgiveness. As for the fakes …
Open Source Shakespeare shows that risk does not appear in anything “Shakespeare” wrote. Likewise, “Napoleon” did not suffer silence, or whatever the French version of that is. Clumsy translations are a another problem with quote mongering.
There is little doubt that “Einstein” thought about “myself.” Abraham Lincoln fought a war over the “weakest point.” As for Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam … “Indian scientist and engineer; 11th President of India” … who knows what he said? The quote used is not on his wikiquotes page.
Dispatches From The Wireless Front
05:30 The power went out about midnight. I only knew that the CPAP stopped. I did not hear any tree limbs crashing into the house … happened in 2016 … or big trees nearby taking down the phone lines, and loosening our power connection … happened in 2020. There was a big storm in 2017 or 18, that I nervously watched go through but did not cause any real problems here.
The phone just rang, with a stranger in Iowa. Since I got the galaxy device, the bot calls have been coming thick and fast. I ignore most of them. If it is someone I know, they can leave a message.
16:27 The was a text from Ga Power saying we would be up and running by 1730. This is not a guarantee, but it is a good sign. I have gone from wondering how I would fill the time to discovering all sorts of things to do. This is not always a positive development.
One unexpected bucket list item was mopping the front porch. I took a chair and table off the porch , in anticipation of high winds. This morning, after the storm went through, I decided to sweep off some leaves. It would be easier with all the stuff out of the way.
I noticed how much dirt was there, and decided to mop the front and back porch. It didn’t do much good. Pressure washing might help. Scrubbing might help, but that is way too much work.
I was anticipating a few more days of no juice, and thinking I would have to charge the laptop in the vehicle. When I got the notice of anticipated reprieve, the one thing I had to try was charging the device in the vehicle. It turns out this is a “Weak charging state, please check power charger.” OTOH, it went from 64% charge to 71% in just a few minutes. It could work if it had to. I am going to let the motor run for a minute, to juice up the car battery.
The pre-storm anticipation is one bad part of this. If there is one thing that turns ATLiens into pearl clutching drama queens, it is an upcoming weather event. You haven’t lived until you go to the grocery store the night before we get an inch of snow.
The pre-storm anticipation was bad this time. X/facebook peeps were saying we were going to be without power for several days, and that 70 mph winds would snap these dainty trees like matchsticks. Climate change and Donald Trump were held accountable.
It didn’t help to remember the 2020 storm. A huge tree four doors down fell on a telephone pole, and broke it is half. Since it was so close to us, it loosened up our lines. It took 3 days for power to be restored to most of the street, except us. GAPOW told us we could not be re-connected. The first electrician said we needed to re-wire. A second electrician connected us, and the power was back on.
The laptop is up to 75% charge. That is 4% in the time it took to write those paragraphs. While this is not ideal, it would get us by in an emergency. …
17:32 The new estimated restoration time is 1028/22:00. This is 29 hours later than the first estimate. I guess I am back to finding ways to spend my time. … 19:19 After spreading candles throughout the house, and putting vegetables in the steamer, the lights came back on. It is a magic moment. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress
Tom Spanbauer RIP
Facebook brought some sad news Wednesday morning. “Dear Friends. On Saturday September 21st 2024, my beloved husband and best friend, astonishing literary talent, adored friend and brother and uncle and teacher, Tom Spanbauer, left us all to continue his exquisite dance beyond what his body could maintain. After years of struggling with Parkinson’s Disease he passed from heart failure after enjoying one of the calmest and most peaceful days he had had in a long time. …”
Tom Spanbauer (no middle name) had a rough old age. In addition to eight years of Parkinson’s, Tom was “diagnosed with “full-blown” AIDS in 1996.” In 2014, Chuck Palahniuk took a journalist out to Tom’s house. “Palahniuk is a little concerned about our arrival time: we are forty-five minutes early. Spanbauer is sick—he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988—and has a strict schedule of when he must eat. We’ll be interrupting his lunch.”
Tom was a writer, who also taught “Dangerous Writing.” Working mostly out of his Portland house, Tom taught workshops for many years. His star student was Chuck Pahlaniuk, the author of “Fight Club,” and an all around piece of work. Chuck mentioned on Joe Rogan Experience that Tom was his teacher. This got me thinking. It turns out that Chuck Palahniuk … the man who invented the first rule of fight club … is gay.
Chuck wrote about Tom’s passing on Chuck Palahniuk’s Plot Spoiler, his substack. “He died two days ago of a heart attack, suddenly while eating, at home with family. As his students, we made buttons printed with the slogans of Minimalism, each a quote from Tom, and we wore the buttons for months. Mine read “Establish Your Authority, and You Can Do Anything” which was a Tom rule.” A year earlier, Chuck had some comments about Dangerous Writing.
“I wasn’t surprised. This is what it takes to write a good book. My best writing teacher, Tom Spanbauer, taught me as much. Tom called it “Dangerous Writing,” and by that he meant that a writer had to explore an unresolved personal issue that couldn’t be resolved. A death, for instance. Something that seemed personally dangerous to delve into. By doing so the writer could exaggerate and vent and eventually exhaust the pain or fear around the issue, and that gradual relief would keep the writer coming back to work on the project despite no promise of a book contract or money or a readership. … These people have no idea how unpleasant the act of writing can be. To go back to Tom Spanbauer, Tom calls writing a first draft “Shitting out the lump of coal.” Meaning it’s slow and painful. Even using the best metaphor in the world, Dangerous Writing requires long chunks of isolation. The isolation is the least of it. But at least when the draft is done you feel relief. It’s your shit. Since we’re on the subject, everyone’s shit smells good to them because it’s the smell of relief. Proof the pain is gone. On the other hand, someone else’s shit just smells bad.”
In 1993, Tom was the keynote speaker at the Gay Spirit Visions conference. Tom was riding high on the popularity of The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon. I decided that I wanted to read TMWFILWTM, but could not find a copy. Finally, Buddy May agreed to lend me his copy, and I spent a few late nights reading it final-exam style.
After the closing circle, Buddy got Tom to autograph his copy of TMWFILWTM. When I looked at it, I noticed that my bookmark was still in the book. I got Tom to autograph my bookmark.
Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. These images are from “… a collection of images of downtown Atlanta streets that were taken before the viaduct construction of 1927 – 1929. Later, some of the covered streets became part of Underground Atlanta.” The renovation at Underground never stops.
Jock Protest
This is a repost from 2016. … In 2014, the St. Louis Rams ran onto the field with their hands over their heads. For an official, it means touchdown. With the Rams, it meant “hands up don’t shoot.”
When Mike Brown was killed in Ferguson MO, witnesses said he had his hands up. Later investigations indicate that “Brown never surrendered with his hands up.” While controversy over Mr. Brown’s death continues, very few people maintain that he had his hands up when he died.
A little over a year later, the St. Louis Rams announced a move to Los Angeles. There are various reasons for the move. It basically comes down to money. The NFL wants a team in Los Angeles. The Rams want to make more money. The hands up gesture became a hands out.
Athletes have traditionally been role models. Their opinions are solicited on a wide range of subjects. Some people question whether the ability to play a game qualifies someone to render these judgements. While football players are entitled to have opinions, the question remains: why should we care? Social justice is not a product endorsement.
Recently Cam Newton gave an interview to GQ magazine. Mr. Newton modeled some clothes, with apparent enthusiasm. Mr. Newton said “I don’t want this to be about race, because it’s not. It’s not. Like, we’re beyond that. As a nation.” It was the social media sensation of the day.
As you may have guessed, this brings us to Colin Kaepernick. He is certainly entitled to his opinion. @Kaepernick7 is a second string quarterback, who has asked to be traded. With his nine figure salary, there is a chance he will be cut from the team. Why is Colin Kaepernick suddenly taken seriously as an authority on race relations?
Most reports on Mr. Kaepernick have a 59 word summary of the comments to NFL media. You have to do a bit of digging to see the full transcript. Google is not a perfect tool. Perhaps someone does not want people to see the complete interview.
Number seven makes a few interesting comments. There are few specific solutions offered. The problem of citizen on citizen killing is not mentioned. Mr. Kaepernick does not come across as a deep thinker. When he is asked how teammates feel about his protest, number seven replies “I hope they stand with me.” Is he sitting down, or standing up?
NFL Media “In your mind have you been pulled over unjustly or had bad experiences?” CK: “Yes, multiple times. I’ve had times where one of my roommates was moving out of the house in college and because we were the only black people in that neighborhood the cops got called and we had guns drawn on us. Came in the house, without knocking, guns drawn on my teammates and roommates. So I have experienced this. People close to me have experienced this. This isn’t something that’s a one-off case here or a one-off case there. This has become habitual. This has become a habit. So this is something that needs to be addressed.”…
NM: “Does the election year have anything to do with timing? CK: It wasn’t a timing thing, it wasn’t something that was planned. But I think the two presidential candidates that we currently have also represent the issues that we have in this country right now.
NM:Do you want to expand on that? CK: You have Hillary who has called black teens or black kids super predators, you have Donald Trump who’s openly racist. We have a presidential candidate who has deleted emails and done things illegally … That doesn’t make sense to me because if that was any other person you’d be in prison. So, what is this country really standing for?
NM: It is a country that has elected a black president twice CK: It has elected a black president but there are also a lot of things that haven’t changed. There are a lot of issues that still haven’t been addressed and that’s something over an eight-year term there’s a lot of those things are hard to change and there’s a lot of those things that he doesn’t necessarily have complete control over.
NM: What would be a success? CK: That’s a tough question because there’s a lot of things that need to change, a lot of different issues that need to be addressed. That’s something that it’s really hard to lock down one specific thing that needs to change currently.”
Didn’t Come Alive
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“I work to live, I don’t live to work” Does your heart stop beating when you clock in? · @SobSax Longtime Creative Loafing writer and editor Cliff Bostock has died after a long battle with cancer. Hs article for Creative Loafing’s 50th anniversary issue, its last in print, discussed attitudes toward journalism, · Attorney Ashleigh Merchant has filed a motion to try to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to comply with a subpoena ordering her to testify on Thursday at an evidentiary hearing against Willis’ office. In the filing, it said Willis’ social media accounts showed Willis was in Los Angeles attending a fundraising event for her reelection campaign. · Arthur Eugene Dunaway 1894–1930 Arthur Eugene Dunaway b. 3 March 1894, d. 8 May 1930 – Arthur Eugene Dunaway was born on 3 March 1894 at Obion County, Tennessee. He married Mattie Vance Quin, daughter of Hugh Pharr Quin and Bettie Lou DuBose, on 12 June 1920. Arthur Eugene Dunaway died on 8 May 1930 at Paragould, Greene County, Arkansas, at age 36. He was buried at Linwood Cemetery, Paragould, Greene County, Arkansas. – Child of Arthur Eugene Dunaway and Mattie Vance Quin – Jean Dunaway+ b. 23 Jul 1922, d. 18 Dec 1998 Jean Dunaway was born on 23 July 1922 at Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. She was the daughter of Arthur Eugene Dunaway and Mattie Vance Quin. Jean Dunaway married Luther Campbell McKinnon on 6 October 1951. Jean Dunaway died on 18 December 1998 at Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, at age 76. · Arthur Eugene Dunaway born March 3, 1894 died May 8, 1930 · 9-11 Part Two · For a long time, I posted my 9-11 story every year, on September 11.. This year, the Presidential debate was on September 10, and it dominated “the conversation” on September 11. Maybe we are moving on, and giving 9-11 its proper place in history. · 2001: A Space Odyssey came out in 1968. 2ASO presented a vision of the future. It turns out the reality of 2001 was “terrorists” using our space age technology against us, with devastating results. HAL, the murderous computer, may have been the one prophecy that did come true. · 9-11 was a watershed moment. 9-11 was caused by what came before, and affected what came after. We will never know the full story. 2001 was neck deep in the digital revolution, giving the conspiracy talkers a handy forum for their wonderful opinions. Unfortunately, not everyone has integrity, or good intentions. Whether 9-11 was an inside job, or a terrorist attack, the US government gained a great deal of power. Most of the things they did with it did not work out very well. This has also powered the conspiracy industrial complex. · In the last five years,Whe we have had four watershed events: COVID 19, George Floyd, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and October 7. Each component of this grand slam has similarities and differences to each other, and to 9-11. All five events have had a fruit basket turnover effect. Liberals have become conseratives, conservatives have become liberals, and many have wondered why we need those labels anyway. Hypocrisy has become the national pastime. · This is the first paragraph, faithfully pasted in every year: “This is my 911 story. I repeat it every year at this time. Every year I say this will be the last time. This year is a mess. We are destroying the village to save it. The action part of 091101 was over by 11 am. This quagmire drags on and on. Nobody knows how things will turn out.” · One more paragraph is worth repeating: “I became alienated from Jesus during these years. Once, I had once been tolerant of Christians and Jesus, as one would be with an eccentric relative. I began to loath the entire affair. I hear of others who found comfort in religion during this difficult time. That option simply was not available for me.” After September 11/October 7, this fear and loathing has extended to all popular versions of Yahweh worship. · Pictures from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. “This item is part of a collection of images of downtown Atlanta streets that were taken before the viaduct construction of 1927 – 1929. Some of the covered streets became part of Underground Atlanta.” · Notes on the State of Virginia · Notes on the State of Virginia is the only full length book written by Thomas Jefferson.. Written while the Revolutionary War was still being fought, NOTSIV was not intended for publication. The following passage is on page 147. · “It will probably be asked, Why not retain and incorporate the blacks into the state, and thus save the expence of supplying, by importation of white settlers, the vacancies they will leave? Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances, will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race.” · “… Besides those of colour, figure, and hair, there are other physical distinctions proving a difference of race. They have less hair on the face and body. They secrete less by the kidnies, and more by the glands of the skin, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odour. This greater degree of transpiration renders them more tolerant of heat, and less so of cold, than the whites. … They seem to require less sleep. A black after hard labour through the day, will be induced by the slightest amusemements to sit up till midnight, or later, though knowing he must be out with the first dawn of the morning.” · “They are at least as brave, and more adventuresome. But this may perhaps proceed from a want of fore-thought, which prevents their seeing a danger till it be present. When present, they do not go through it with more coolness or steadiness than the whites. They are more ardent after their female: but love seems with them to be more an eager desire, than a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation. Their griefs are transient. Those numberless afflictions, which render it doubtful whether heaven has given life to us in mercy or in wrath, are less felt, and sooner forgotten with them. …” · Pictures are from The Library of Congress · selah · Cliff Bostock · @SobSax Longtime Creative Loafing writer and editor Cliff Bostock has died after a long battle with cancer.. Hs article for Creative Loafing’s 50th anniversary issue, its last in print, discussed attitudes toward journalism … · I had not heard anything from Cliff in a while. In the early nineties, you could not avoid him. He wrote restaurant reviews for Creative Loafing, and intensely personal pieces for Etc. That article gives you a feel for the voice of Cliff Bostock. · Cliff had a story, and a point of view. Defiantly gay, scarred by the AIDS calamity, Cliff said plenty of things you are not supposed to say. For a while, he was pumping out 3,000 words a week, for anyone who cared to read. “Intensely personal” may not be adequate to describe his work. One person said he would rather walk naked down Peachtree Street, than publish things like that. · It turns out that Cliff has been writing for Georgia Voice. Fagrags are not what they used to be, and they are doing without me as a reader. Cliff has, as usual, vocal about his experience. (March 8 April 6 June 7) Glioblastoma multiforme is the vehicle for this one way journey. · AIDS is a constant presense here. I believe I once saw Cliff write something about getting tested, followed by a staunch refusal to give his own results. Whatever the outcome, Cliff managed to hang on to life until now, which is an achievement. ” I often feel like my mind is hosting a marathon séance, with dead friends constantly popping into my head.” · In the early oughts, Gay.com was an online hangout. Cliff adopted the name Bachelard, and made his presense known. I was PiersGavestonJr … two chatters named after Frenchmen. Cliff said that he met me at a meet-and-greet, but I am not sure. … If you type gay.com into a browser, you will go to Los Angeles LBGT Center. Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library · selah · die circus! alone make us terrorize flatten trivial eat up · @chamblee54 I enjoyed this. I heard your discussion about the “McCarthy-ization” of anti-semitism today. There are parallels between this, and the way anti-racism is used today in our culture. · gimp 2.10.38 · search · @chamblee54 @AcmeCastingAtl chamblee54 has too much spare time. 6’5″200 gray hair white male 8:46 PM · Sep 22, 2010 · @chamblee54 having to change your password the second time you use a service is not a good sign 12:38 AM · Sep 23, 2010 · · Waking up on Sunday morning, X greeted me: “It’s your X anniversary! Celebrate with a special post created just for you …” What was the first tweet? · @chamblee54 @AcmeCastingAtl chamblee54 has too much spare time. 6’5″200 gray hair white male 8:46 PM · Sep 22, 2010 · @chamblee54 having to change your password the second time you use a service is not a good sign 12:38 AM · Sep 23, 2010 · Five years and one day before the first tweet, the first blog post saw daylight. · The first post It had to happen sooner or later. This is my first post to this blog. Maybe I should start with a summary of my life . I am 51yo, 6’5″190# single white male residing just outside Chamblee GA. 50 hours ago, the owner of the company I was working for called me into the office, and said “I am gonna have to let you go, there is not enough work to keep you.” I had been there 13 days. I still don’t know which end is up. More later.. · I had gotten into the lamentable business of arguing with strangers online. To make a comment, I had to start an account with Blogspot, which created Chamblee54.blogspot.com. The account I trolled has been deleted. Pictures are from The Library of Congress · selah · · pictures today are from The Library of Congress · selah
X Anniversary
Waking up on Sunday morning, X greeted me: “It’s your X anniversary! Celebrate with a special post created just for you …” What was the first tweet?
@chamblee54 @AcmeCastingAtl chamblee54 has too much spare time. 6’5″200 gray hair white male 8:46 PM · Sep 22, 2010 · @chamblee54 having to change your password the second time you use a service is not a good sign 12:38 AM · Sep 23, 2010
Five years and one day before the first tweet, the first blog post saw daylight.
The first post It had to happen sooner or later. This is my first post to this blog. Maybe I should start with a summary of my life . I am 51yo, 6’5″190# single white male residing just outside Chamblee GA. 50 hours ago, the owner of the company I was working for called me into the office, and said “I am gonna have to let you go, there is not enough work to keep you.” I had been there 13 days. I still don’t know which end is up. More later..
I had gotten into the lamentable business of arguing with strangers online. To make a comment, an account with Blogspot was required. This created Chamblee54. The blog moved to WordPress in 2008, where it resides today. The account I trolled in 2005 has been deleted. Pictures are from The Library of Congress · selah
Race-Rot
America clearly has a problem of color. One way view to this racial dysfunction is as a unified quagmire, rather than competitive hating of wokeness and racism. This approach does not offer any easy solutions. We need to treat people with kindness and respect, no matter what adjective you put in front of people. As a man named King said, “can we all get along?” This is a repost.
I recently wrote about Flannery O’Connor. She was a gifted storyteller, who posthumously run afoul of “whiteness studies and critical race theory.” (This was in 2020, when CRT was respectable. Today, CRT is demonized by some, while others say “thats-not-what-it-means.”) The story cited an essay by Alice Walker, who grew up in Eatonton GA, a few miles up hwy 441 from Andalusia. “The magic, the wit, and the mystery of Flannery O’Connor I know I will always love. I also know the meaning of the expression “Take what you can use and let the rest rot.” If ever there was an expression designed to protect the health of the spirit, this is it.” We can call this dysfunction Race-Rot.
One of the nastier parts of Race-Rot is name calling. There are a pair of six-letter slurs. One starts with r, one ends in r. One I am forbidden to say, while the other I am forbidden to not say. The mentionable slur is racist. You know what the other one is. We would be better off not using either six-letter slur. People enjoy using six-letter slurs, so this is not going to happen anytime soon.
I am a certified white person, of Scottish and Irish descent. I am from Georgia. My great-grandfather fought for the Georgia State Troops, in the War Between the States. This affects the way in which I approach Race-Rot. I see that racism is a problem, and find the bungling efforts at fighting racism … aka wokeness … to be incredibly annoying.
The problems with racism affect millions of people every day. One could reasonably ask, what is wrong with being against racism? The problem is not that you are fighting racism, but the way you are doing it. The trouble with wokeness includes disrespect, fallacious logic, indifference to collateral damage, inflammatory rhetoric, hypocrisy, name calling, and a host of other micro/macro aggressions. The list could go on for a long time.
This is not a comprehensive look at Race-Rot. There are many layers to this onion. Racism and wokeness (RAW) are only part of the picture. The story of Black and White has many shades of gray. We could spend hours talking about Race-Rot, and only be more angry and confused when we are done. The best thing to do now is present some photographs, from The Library of Congress.
We are all God’s children, not a walking six-letter slur. Be kind to each one. Please don’t shout.
9-11 Part Two
For a long time, I posted my 9-11 story every year, on September 11. This year, the Presidential debate was on September 10, and it dominated “the conversation” on September 11. Maybe we are moving on, and giving 9-11 its proper place in history.
2001: A Space Odyssey came out in 1968. 2ASO presented a vision of the future. It turns out the reality of 2001 was “terrorists” using our space age technology against us, with devastating results. HAL, the murderous computer, may have been the one prophecy that did come true.
9-11 was a watershed moment. 9-11 was caused by what came before, and affected what came after. We will never know the full story. 2001 was neck deep in the digital revolution, giving the conspiracy talkers a handy forum for their wonderful opinions. Unfortunately, not everyone has integrity, or good intentions. Whether 9-11 was an inside job, or a terrorist attack, the US government gained a great deal of power. Most of the things they did with it did not work out very well. This has also powered the conspiracy industrial complex.
In the last five years,Whe we have had four watershed events: COVID 19, George Floyd, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and October 7. Each component of this grand slam has similarities and differences to each other, and to 9-11. All five events have had a fruit basket turnover effect. Liberals have become conseratives, conservatives have become liberals, and many have wondered why we need those labels anyway. Hypocrisy has become the national pastime.
This is the first paragraph, faithfully pasted in every year: “This is my 911 story. I repeat it every year at this time. Every year I say this will be the last time. This year is a mess. We are destroying the village to save it. The action part of 091101 was over by 11 am. This quagmire drags on and on. Nobody knows how things will turn out.”
One more paragraph is worth repeating: “I became alienated from Jesus during these years. Once, I had once been tolerant of Christians and Jesus, as one would be with an eccentric relative. I began to loath the entire affair. I hear of others who found comfort in religion during this difficult time. That option simply was not available for me.” After September 11/October 7, this fear and loathing has extended to most popular versions of Yahweh worship.
Pictures from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. “This item is part of a collection of images of downtown Atlanta streets that were taken before the viaduct construction of 1927 – 1929. Some of the covered streets became part of Underground Atlanta.”
William McKinley
One hundred years before nine eleven, President William McKinley was near death. He had been shot September 6, 1901. Medicine at this time was primitive compared to today. During surgery after the shooting, the bullet was not removed. The University of Buffalo makes this comment: “Dr. Mann and the others were neither trained trauma surgeons nor did they bother with disinfection, not even wearing gloves. The first bullet had done little harm; the second entered McKinley’s abdomen. The physicians used improperly sanitized probes and when Mann could not find the bullet, he closed the incision without draining the wound. It was a fateful decision.”
After surgery, the President was taken to the home of John Milburn. He seemed to be recovering, but took a turn for the worse and died September 14, 2001.
President McKinley had been shaking hands at a reception. The meet and greet was at the Academy of Music, as part of the Pan American Expostion in Buffalo, New York. A letter to “The Nation” has this viewpoint. “Whatever other results may flow from the assassination of President McKinley, let us hope that that object-lesson may be sufficient to put an end to our national habit of promiscuous handshaking in public. It is hard to conceive of a spectacle more fatuous and less edifying than that of a horde of country bumpkins, criminals, cranks, idlers, and curiosity-mongers standing in line waiting for a chance to grab and squeeze the hand of the unhappy Chief Executive of this country.”
There were anarchists in 1901, who had murdered several European leaders. Several of McKinley’s advisors did not think the reception was a good idea, and forced him to have extra security. A writer in the Buffalo Courier observed on September 5 “The surrounding of President McKinley by a body-guard of detectives when he appears in public, is probably as distasteful to himself as it is to abstract American sentiment, but as long as the earth is infested by malevolent cranks and unreasoning Anarchists, the precaution is entirely proper.”
A young man named Leon Czolgosz (pronounced CHOL gosh) managed to wait in line with a concealed weapon. He was seen to shoot President McKinley. He was immediately captured, and executed October 29, 1901.
Lew Rockwell speaks of a rivalry between John Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan. Rockefeller man McKinley was replaced by Morgan supporter Roosevelt, who promptly began to break up the trusts. Another historian, connected to Lyndon LaRouche , speaks of British interests, and the rise of Confederate power. McKinley was a target of media superstar William Randolph Hearst. An editorial printed in the April 10, 1901 Journal asserted that “If bad institutions and bad men can be got rid of only by killing, then the killing must be done.”
Some say that a murder one hundred twenty three years ago does not affect us today. However, an argument could be made that the death of McKinley set in motion events that led to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System, and American participation in World War I. Both of those events have had effects lasting until today.
It is curious how President McKinley is mostly forgotten today. Some say he was most popular President since Lincoln . McKinley had been a wartime President, who won. His successor, Teddy Roosevelt, is on Mount Rushmore, and is a superstar President. Mr. Roosevelt also ran as a third party candidate in 1912, and helped to elect Woodrow Wilson. (Mr. Wilson was alleged to be a member of the “Omega Group,”rumored to be behind a McKinley conspiracy.) Mr. Roosevelt’s popularity is very different from the other three Vice Presidents who were promoted by the murder of the President. He was good at dealing with the press.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Cliff Bostock
@SobSax “Longtime Creative Loafing writer and editor Cliff Bostock has died after a long battle with cancer. Hs article for Creative Loafing’s 50th anniversary issue, its last in print, discussed …”
I had not heard anything from Cliff in a while. In the early nineties, you could not avoid him. He wrote restaurant reviews for Creative Loafing, and intensely personal pieces for Etc. That article gives you a feel for the voice of Cliff Bostock.
Cliff had a story, and a point of view. Defiantly gay, scarred by the AIDS calamity, Cliff said plenty of things you are not supposed to say. For a while, he was pumping out 3,000 words a week, for anyone who cared to read. “Intensely personal” may not be adequate to describe his output. One person said he would rather walk naked down Peachtree Street, than publish things like that.
It turns out that Cliff had been writing for Georgia Voice. Fagrags are not what they used to be. Cliff was, as usual, vocal about his experience. (March 8 April 6 June 7) Glioblastoma multiforme was the vehicle for this one way journey.
AIDS is a constant presence here. I believe I once saw Cliff write something about getting tested, followed by a staunch refusal to give his own results. Whatever the outcome, Cliff managed to hang on to life until now, which is an achievement. “I often feel like my mind is hosting a marathon séance, with dead friends constantly popping into my head.”
In the early oughts, Gay.com was an online hangout. Cliff adopted the name Bachelard, and made his presence known. I was PiersGavestonJr … two chatters named after Frenchmen. Cliff said that he met me at a meet-and-greet, but I am not sure. … If you type gay.com into a browser, you will go to Los Angeles LBGT Center. Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library I do not know if Cliff ever reviewed Krystal.
Chamblee54 
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