Shock And Awe
Twenty years ago, Iraq teetered on the edge of regime change. It was obvious what was going to happen, at least at first. America was going to storm in, kill a bunch of people, and take over.
In post 911 America, the military industrial complex saw an opportunity for plunder, unrivaled since the fall of the Soviet Union. The stories of WMD would infect the body politic with fear of a mesopotamian madman. Saddam Hussein wanted Iran to think he has wonder weapons, and did not think America was serious about regime change. We all make mistakes.
In the Twenty years since the time of shock and awe, trillions of dollars have gone down the drain, dragging the mighty American economy along into the sewers of bankruptcy. One of the oldest civilizations of mankind was reduced to hiding, from neighbors, behind concrete barricades. They fought the conquerors with bombs triggered by garage door openers. Thousands of women and children have been murdered. The WMD were never found. This is a repost.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Did Joseph Think It Was His Kid?
NOTE: This feature was originally published in March 26, 2013. This is the day after March 25, nine months before Christmas. IOW, a crucial day in the most famous unconsummated marriage in history. PG began to ponder the traditional marriage of Joseph and Mary. The question of the day is “when did Joseph and Mary get married?” Facilities such as Liberty Gospel Tracts and Fish Eaters Traditional Catholic Forum have answers.
LGT (the B got kicked out for some reason) contributes a bible passage, Matthew 1:18-19. 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
Put her away in the privy? That is some kinky business there. Maybe the Christians and Jews have it all wrong. The thirds Abrahamic religion, Islam, might have the answer. A site, TurnToIslam, has another point of view about the traditional definition of marriage.
What about Mary, Jesus’ Mother peace be upon both of them? How old was she when she got pregnant? Not only was it a custom in the Arab society to Engage/Marry a young girl it was also common in the Jewish society. The case of Mary the mother of Jesus comes to mind, in non biblical sources she was between 11-14 years old when she conceived Jesus. Mary had already been “BETROTHED” to Joseph before conceiving Jesus. Joseph was a much older man. therefore Mary was younger than 11-14 years of age when she was “BETHROED” to Joseph. We Muslims would never call Joseph a Child Molester, nor would we refer to the “Holy Ghost” of the Bible, that “Impregnated” Mary as a “Rapist” or “Adulterer”.
“….it is possible that Mary gave birth to her Son when she was about thirteen or fourteen years of age….”Mary was approximately 14 years old when she got pregnant with Jesus. Joseph, Mary’s Husband is believed to be around 36. Mary was only 13 when she married Joseph. When she first was arranged with Joseph she was between 7 to 9 years old.”
According to the “Oxford Dictionary Bible” commentary, Mary (peace be upon her) was was 12 years old when she became impregnated. So if I want to be as silly and ridiculous as many of the Christians, I would respond to them by saying that Mary was psychologically and emotionally devastated for getting pregnant at a very young age. And speaking of “child molesting”, since most Christians believe that Jesus is the Creator of this universe, then why did G-D allow himself to enter life through a 12-year old young girl’s vagina? Please note that we Muslims love and respect Allah Almighty, Mary, Jesus and Allah’s Message to the People of the Book (The Jews and Christians). In other words, we Muslims would never make fun of Christianity through such childish topic like this one as many ridiculous Christians do make fun of Islam through our Prophet’s (peace be upon him) marriage.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Was Mohandas Gandhi A Racist?
A meme appeared on facebook, “GHANDI’S 7 DANGERS TO HUMAN VIRTUE.” Below the misspelled name were seven concepts, written in all caps. This got PG thinking.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (M.K. Gandhi) “was born was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, a small town on the western coast of India.” At some point the title Mahatma was applied, and is often used as though it was his name. Exact transliterations between languages using different alphabets is tricky. What is the “correct” spelling of this man’s last name? Most sources today use Gandhi.
Another term, Gandhiji, turns up in the research. “‘Ji’ in Hindi or Urdu is a suffix used after the names of respectable persons and elders like father and mother. It is used every day by millions of Indians to address their elders. Hence Gandhiji is but Mahatma Gandhi, father of our nation, addressed reverently and respectfully. We call mother mataji. Mata means mother.”
The quote in the meme is real. It is found on page 135 of Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol. 33. It was in an article found in Young India on October 22, 1925.
“SEVEN SOCIAL SIN The same fair friend wants readers of Young India to know, if they do not already, the following seven social sins: Politics without principles, Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice. Naturally, the friend does not want the readers to know these things merely through the intellect but to know them through the heart so as to avoid them.”
The next entry in the collected works is interesting. “79. THAT ETERNAL QUESTION However much I may wish to avoid it, the Hindu-Muslim question will not avoid me. Muslim friends insist upon my intervention to solve it. The Hindu friends would have me discuss it with them and some of them say I have sown the wind and must reap the whirlwind.”
The meme had comments. Lloyd Lachow Gandhi was intensely racist. Joanne Gibson Gandhi was not intensely racist. Fighting racism was his first cause. John Janiga Gandhi racist??? John Taylor Lloyd, were you born an idiot, or did you have to work at it?
This looks like a job for Mr. Google. When you type the phrase “Is Gandhi,” suggested searches include “sill alive” and “on netflix.” This does not help if you want to know if someone is racist.
Mr. Gandhi lived in South Africa from 1893-1915. During this time he was offended at the treatment of Indian nationals, which led to a decision to fight for Indian rights. Unfortunately, these rights were not to be extended to the native South Africans.
… there’s no doubting that Gandhi had little time for black people. During his 21 years in South Africa, he repeatedly expressed contempt for the native population, claiming they were no better than the “untouchables” of Indian society. One speech in particular stands out. In 1896, he was quoted as referring to black South Africans as the “raw kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.” For those of you who aren’t up on your South African slang, “kaffir” is a direct equivalent of our N-word. Another time, he complained about finding himself in a “kaffir” prison, claiming Indians were “above” natives, who “are troublesome, very dirty and live like animals.”
There is the story of the Durban Post Office. “The first major accomplishment of the Natal Indian Congress was to further entrench racial segregation into South African society during a time of massive racial strife. At the time, the Durban, South Africa post office had two doors. One was for whites and the other for Indians and black natives. Gandhi was so disgusted at having to share a door with blacks that he initiated a campaign for the creation of a third door. … A year later, after the issue had already been resolved, Gandhi chose to expound upon his reasons for raising it in the first place. In his August 14, 1896 letter, “The Grievances of the British Indians in South Africa: An Appeal to the Indian Public,” he called being “put on the same level with the native” a “disability.”
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Question Authority Part One
“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” Benjamin Franklin This nugget appeared on facebook recently, and the bs detector was buzzing. I never heard the phrase “Question Authority” before 1981. QA sounds awfully modern for 18th Century America.
I quickly googled the phrase, and found indications that it was in not found in the Franklin Papers at Yale University. A search of the Mr. Franklin’s wikiquote did not turn up QA.
Unfortunately, I chose to include a link to Snopes in my facebook reply. The meme-poster saw Snopes, and said that was not a valid source. We went back and forth on the issue. I did say that Snopes was questionable, but had other sources that fueled my skepticism.
A google search credits Timothy Leary with saying “Think for yourself and question authority.” … “Timothy Leary’s track on Sound Bites from the Counter Culture (1989.)” 1989 is a few years after I saw my first QA bumper sticker. Maybe Mr. Leary heard someone else say QA, and claimed it for himself. Timmy Leary was an authority that required enhanced interrogation.
A Christian oriented forum says that Mr. Leary got QA from Ben Franklin. At any rate, QA is counter-culture phrasing, of the type that Ben Franklin probably did not use. According to Google n-gram, QA does not appear in print before 1885. 1976 and 1987 saw QA spiking, with QA usage peaking in 2005.
Let’s examine the concept of questioning authority. In this case, the authority was a facebook meme. When I presented Snopes as a dissenting authority, it was rejected. When I presented Wikiquotes as an authority/source, I was satisfied, and my facebook opponent dismissive. I should note that in my initial facebook reply, I said that it was unlikely that Mr. Franklin said QA. We cannot claim to have heard every conversation Ben Franklin had, or if he said something similar.
Did Mr. Franklin question authority? Lets take a look at a famous quote: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” “The words appear originally in a 1755 letter that Franklin is presumed to have written on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor during the French and Indian War. … the Assembly wished to tax the lands of the Penn family … to raise money for defense against French and Indian attacks. … In other words, the “essential liberty” to which Franklin referred was thus not what we would think of today as civil liberties but, rather, the right of self-governance of a legislature in the interests of collective security.” The “essential liberty” Mr. Franklin referred to was the ability of the government to tax citizens. It’s all about the Benjamins.
One type of questionable authority invoving Mr. Franklin was slavery. Benjamin Franklin owned slaves. Pennsylvania tax records of 1769 and 1774 show “1 Negro” as being in his possesion. “Franklin owned slaves from as early as 1735 until 1781. The Franklin household had six slaves; Peter, his wife Jemima and their son Othello, George, John and King.”
Mr. Franklin ran advertising for the slave trade in his publications. “To be SOLD A very likely breeding Negroe Woman, and a Boy about two years old. The woman is fit for any Business Either in Town or Country. Enquire of William Bafdon, over against the Coffee House in Front Street.” … “Advertisement for an enslaved woman and an enslaved child from Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette (December 9-16, 1736).”
Mr. Franklin later changed his tune. “In 1787 Franklin became the President of the Philadelphia Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, often referred as the Abolition Society. … The Abolition Society was the first in America and served as inspiration for the formation of abolitionist societies in other colonies. The group focused not only in abolishing slavery but also in education, moral instruction and employment. In a letter dated November 9th, 1789, Franklin wrote wholeheartedly against the institution of slavery. He argued that slaves have long been treated as brute animals beneath the standard of human species. Franklin asked for resources and donations to help freed slaves adjust to society by giving them education, moral instruction and suitable employment. … On February 3rd, 1790, less than three months before his death, Franklin petitioned Congress to provide the means to bring slavery to an end. When the petition was introduced to the House and the Senate it was immediately rejected by pro-slavery congressmen mostly from the southern states.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress
Hillary Vs. Bernie Again
Matthew Colin Taibbi talked to Joe Rogan for three hours the other day. At one point, MCT recalled the time when Bernie Sanders was gaining ground against Hillary Clinton. All of a sudden, Ta-Nehisi Coates published a story in The Atlantic, Why Precisely Is Bernie Sanders Against Reparations?
“Unfortunately, Sanders’s radicalism has failed in the ancient fight against white supremacy. What he proposes in lieu of reparations—job creation, investment in cities, and free higher education—is well within the Overton window, and his platform on race echoes Democratic orthodoxy. The calls for community policing, body cameras, and a voting-rights bill with pre-clearance restored— all are things that Hillary Clinton agrees with. And those positions with which she might not agree address black people not so much as a class specifically injured by white supremacy, but rather, as a group which magically suffers from disproportionate poverty.”
As we all know, the Bernie campaign ran out of steam, and HRC bulldozed her way to the nomination. Democrats saw how well crying racist worked against Bernie, and made a major issue out of Donald Trump’s racial attitudes. Soon, well meaning people were saying that if you vote for Donald, then you are a racist. Swing state voters were offended, and Donald won the electoral college. Did shouting racist lose the election for Hillary? We will never know for sure.
Woke and Unwoke – Robert Wright & Norman Finkelstein also turned up this week. Dr. Finkelstein is, to put it mildly, a piece of work. Dr. F has opinions about Mr. Coates: “then Along Came Ta-Nehisi Coates and he started to say Bernie has a problem with race Bernie has a problem with race because he won’t come out robustly for black reparations so as a political reality the black reparations was being used as a weapon to derail the Bernie campaign.”
Before long, Dr. F had to leave. “I have to run to the hospital because I have to have a colonoscopy.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Make The Trains Run On Time
This is a repost from February 2016. @ilduce2016 is still tweeting. … “Trump re-tweeted a Mussolini quote. … when its source was pointed out to him, he replied, “what difference does it make whether it’s Mussolini or somebody else?”
@ilduce2016 is a satiric twitter account. The picture shows Benito Mussolini with a Donald Trump wig. At 7:10 AM – 28 Feb 2016, this was posted: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain. At 7:13 AM – 28 Feb 2016 the comment was retweeted by @realDonaldTrump.
At 7:37 AM – 28 Feb 2016 noted twitterhead Glenn Greenwald was all over it. @ggreenwald Donald Trump just re-tweeted a parody account depicting him as Mussolini, with one of Il Duce’s best-known quotes. In the best internet tradition, no one seems to know exactly when Mr. Mussolini said this, and what this had to do with making the trains run on time. “Various websites attribute the quote to Mussolini, saying it appears in the article ‘Duce (1922-42)’ in TIME magazine (2 August 1943).However, it also resembles previous proverbs and remarks made by others including 18th century Sultan of Mysore Tipu Sultan who said ‘To live like a lion for a day is far better than to live for a hundred years like a jackal.’ “
PG has seen the quote before. A babytrump named Isaiah Hankel made a motivational video, with the salient quote at the start. It was liked by a facebook friend, which got PG’s attention. Here is what PG said about it.
There is a video out now, where the speaker says “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” This man must not like to wear wool.
A lion is a predator. It lurks in the jungle, and kills to eat. It does not produce anything except it’s own survival. A sheep lives in a community. Every once in a while, it gets the coat clipped, and grows another one. The fur goes to make woolen clothing, which keeps people warm in winter.
Maybe if you want to be an egophile, living on the destruction of your neighbor, then you might be better off as a lion. If you want to contribute something of value to others, it is better to be a sheep.
An egophile, living on the destruction of your neighbor. Which Presidential candidate does that sound like? Or better yet, which POTUS wannabe does that NOT sound like. Sorry Bernie, not everyone is fooled by your happy talk.
The chamblee54 post noted above was tough to find. For some reason, the google apparatus does not recognize it. PG found the link on a list of posts. If you google “The Value Of Sheep” on chamblee54, you are directed to Philosophy Of 2Girls1Cup.
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. These pictures were made at the Grant Park Zoo, in May 1937. There were no sheep in captivity.
Gloomy Sunday
Billie Holiday had a hit with Gloomy Sunday in 1941. The legend is that people would listen to the song, and kill themselves. As a result, the song was banned from the radio. Or was it?
Gloomy Sunday was written in 1933 by Rezső Seress. Additional lyrics were later written by László Jávor. It became known as the “Hungarian Suicide Song”, and was reportedly banned in Hungary. An english translation (which is said to not do justice to the original Hungarian) was rendered.
Gloomy Sunday has a melancholy sound, even as an instrumental. The story is about a person…it is not gender specific…who decides to join a loved one who has died. A third verse was added, to the english version, where the singer says it was all a dream.
Gloomy Sunday became popular in the United States. And the suicide stories started to spread, along with rumors that the song had been banned from the radio. (It was indeed banned by the BBC.) There are indications that these rumors were part of a publicity campaign.
The urban legend busters snopes. calls the story “undetermined”. Legends like this get a life of their own. A grieving person hearing this song on a dreary Sunday is not going to be uplifted. One thing is known for sure…the original composer did take his own life. Rezső Seress jumped off a tall building in Budapest in 1968. The legend is he had never had another hit song after writing “Gloomy Sunday”. This repost has pictures from The Library of Congress.
Saddam Hussein Becomes The Next Hitler
This is a repost from 2011. Juan Cole at Informed Comment posts today about a document release from Wikileaks. The document is a cable sent by April Glaspie, the ambassador to Iraq, about a meeting with Saddam Hussein on July 25, 1990. This was shortly before his invasion of Kuwait.
In 1990, Iraq was recovering from a horrendous war with Iran. That war started Sept. 22, 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran, possibly with encouragement from the United States. (At the time of this invasion, Iran was holding Americans hostage in the American embassy. The United States was not pleased with Iran.) Iraq failed to get a quick victory. The war became a bloody quagmire, with hundreds of thousands of casualties.
In 1990, Iraq was rebuilding, and Kuwait was flourishing. Oil was being over produced, driving down the price. Kuwait was accused of “slant drilling”, i.e. drilling under the border, and stealing oil from Iraq. At one point, a meeting was held between officials of Iraq and Kuwait. “Saddam…sent his foreign minister to Kuwait to meet with the Emir Al Sabah, the former leader of Kuwait, to try to resolve some of the… issues” between Kuwait and Iraq, Piro will recall. “And the Emir told the foreign minister of Iraq that he would not stop doing what he was doing until he turned every Iraqi woman into a $10 prostitute. And that really sealed it for him, to invade Kuwait.”
On July 25, 1990, Saddam Hussein summoned to American Ambassador, April Glaspie, to a meeting. The cable is Ms. Glaspie’s account of the meeting. The transcript is available on the website of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation. (Archive (Bush Library) Gulf War: USE Baghdad to Washington (Saddam’s message of friendship to George Bush) 1990 Jul 25, declassified 1998) It is worth noting that this transcript is not sworn testimony, and could contains lies and mistakes.
The invasion of Kuwait, eight days after the meeting, on August 2, 1990, set in motion events that affect us to this day. A coalition was formed to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. There was talk of going to Baghdad and deposing Mr. Hussein at the time. The military action stopped after driving Iraq out of Kuwait, reportedly at the request of Saudi Arabia. Twelve years later, the United States attacked Iraq, and drove out the Hussein government. We are still there.
The comments section for the post by Informed Comment is the source of several links in this story. The wikileaks links have been deactivated. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Racists Got Racist
The story below is a repost from 2015. Looking back from 2023, this piece feels quaint. It appeared on Gawker. The G-blog has been through tough times, but continues to hang in there. Today’s headline: Drake Brags About Exclusive Toilet Access
“#blacklivesmatter took a dairy inclusive turn this weekend. New York City was the scene when #BlackLivesMatter Protesters Hit Whites Where It Truly Hurts: Brunch.”
“… a group of about three dozen demonstrators … hitting such quiche-and-mimosa joints … When they arrived, they began reading the names of black Americans killed by police to diners. … As is to be expected when such a sacred institution is so callously attacked, the protests sparked lots of fervent tweeting.” @genophilia “Racists got racist” gigantic pussy having top heavy slag @sheixx_ “It’s fine for blacks to loot, rob, rape and kill whites, but if whites complain about it, now that’s racist.” Lol
The original post has more text, which is not necessary for today’s edition. The gawker original features the type of purple prose that is less fashionable today: “It’s hard to imagine a funnier needling tactic. People are reacting viscerally to the idea that diners were targeted as racists simply for enjoying a Sunday morning meal—and if they had been subject to any discomfort beyond five awkward minutes, they’d have a legitimate complaint. But it’s just brunch, and as soon as you complain about it, you get to the heart of the issue: while some people are out there wondering whether a trigger-happy cop might decide to gun them down today, you just want to finish your capers and lox in peace.” Pictures for this bit of social justice nostalgia are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.
David Crosby
David Crosby let his freak flag fly today. After 81 years on the planet, and numerous “people problems,” this should not surprise anyone. Considered by some to be the American Keith Richards,
David Van Cortlandt Crosby was the C in CSNY. He was a founding member of the Byrds, “The American Beatles.” (The British press gave the Byrds hell about that nickname.) Croz wrote/sang great songs, did a mountain of drugs, spent time in a Texas prison, had a liver transplant, and much more. DVCC is also considered a flaming asshole by many, many people. You have to take the bad with the good. … Chamblee54, aka PG, wrote about DVCC several times. This piece is borrowed from four posts. Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.
David Crosby Lives … “PG just finished part two of the David Crosby autobiography, “Since Then“. This book is evidence that truth is stranger than fiction.” … “At the start of the book, LA is hit by a major earthquake. This destroys a house Crosby has. If the earthquake doesn’t get the house, the IRS will. An accountant has not done his job, and Crosby owes major bucks to Uncle Sam. Moving along, a son given up for adoption finds Crosby, and winds up playing guitar in a band called CPR. Crosby wrecks his motorcycle and nearly croaks. Crosby’s liver goes haywire, and he almost croaks. Ditto heart attack, and arrest for felony gun possession.” …
“One of the last visitors before the liver transplant was Graham Nash. As he is leaving, Nash tells Crosby “If you die, and leave me alone with Stills, I’ll fucking kill you.” For all the pretty music in CSN, there are some strong personalities. Stephen Stills is renowned for his attitude. David Crosby is known to have an opinion or two.” … “Getting back to the David Crosby story…there is just too much to sum up here. At the end of the story, he is still going. He stopped at two artificially inseminated babies, to go with four (at least) kids produced the old fashioned way.”
Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life … “No story involving David Crosby is complete without a drug lecture. One story was so explosive, the legal department called Graham before the book was published, just to confirm the story. It is on page 263. David sold his Mercedes for crack. The man who bought it od’d. David broke into his house, stole the bill of sale and car keys, took the car, and sold it again.”
On April 22, 1960, The Everly Brothers were in Manchester. Graham (Nash) and Allan (Clarke) were determined to meet their heroes, and hung out on the steps of a hotel until late at night. Finally, the Everly Brothers arrived. They spent a half hour talking to the star struck young men. “and it changed my life.” This story is on Page 43 of Wild Tales.
Bing Crosby And David Crosby … chamblee54 Did you ever meet Bing Crosby? @thedavidcrosby Yes I did @FoxH2181 DC tells the late robin williams about it on youtube … PG eventually decided to listen to part one of Robin&David. Early in the show, David talks about being in the first class cabin of an airplane. David was in full hippie glory, in contrast to the general ambience. Soon, Bing Crosby came on board. A man went up to Bing, and asked for an autograph. All that was available to write on was a can of beans. Bing Crosby was very gracious to the fan, which impressed David Crosby immensely. … There was an empty seat beside David Crosby, and Bing Crosby sat in it. “These other guys don’t know who you are, but I do. I like your music.”
PG is easily amused, and decided to go for part two. David Crosby tells a story of going to see the symphony as a young boy. He is impressed by the sounds that are produced by all the elbows sawing on violins at the same time. David Crosby winds up as someone that likes to collaborate, to be a part of a team. “we do shit it together” … “David Crosby retweeted your tweet.” @chamblee54 @FoxH2181 @thedavidcrosby David Crosby on CSN at 24:01 “we douche it together”
Page 43 … Water Brothers was a benefit concert performed by David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Neil Young. After performing “Almost Cut My Hair”, Mr. Crosby starts to talk. “I’m going to sing the most positive song that I’ve written recently For a long time I didn’t write any positive songs, my friends used to puke when they saw me coming.” The song was Page 43.
Look around again, It’s the same old story,
You see, it’s got to be, It says right here on page 43,
That you should grab a hold of it, Else you’ll find, It’s passed you by
Rainbows all a round, Can you find the silver and gold? It’ll make you old,
The river can be hot or cold, And you should dive right into it,
Else you’ll find, It’s passed you by
Pass it round one more time, I think I’ll have a swallow of wine,
Life is fine, Even with the ups and downs,
And you should have a sip of it, Else you’ll find, It’s passed you by Lyrics007
There is one part that PG doubts. It is about drinking. Those gifted with moderation can swim in this river. Others need to get to the shore before they drown. There is a time to enjoy your life, and there is also a time to lay off the jug. Keep a portion of your harvest in reserve. Otherwise, life will run you over, while it is passing you by.
Millard Fillmore’s Birthday
On January 7, 1800, Millard Fillmore was born. He had no middle name, so his initials were MF. He was POTUS number thirteen, serving July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853. A member of the Whig party, Mr. Fillmore became President after the death of Zachary Taylor. This is the only death of a serving President not connected to the zero factor.
Whenever a President dies in office, there are conspiracty theries. In the case of Zachary Taylor, the body was exhumed in 1991. The investigation found that Mr. Taylor “had no more arsenic in him than you or I walking around in the environment today.”
“The details about how and why President Taylor died are still in dispute today. The president attended a ceremony at the site of the Washington Monument on July 4th on a reportedly hot summer day. He fell ill soon after with a stomach ailment after drinking iced drinks and eating a bowl of cherries. His doctors gave him relief medication that included opium and later bled the president. Taylor died five days later at the age of 65.
Officially, he died from cholera morbus, and today, the prevalent theory is that Taylor suffered from gastroenteritis, an illness exacerbated by poor sanitary conditions in Washington. There are other theories, including one where Taylor was poisoned by people who supported the South’s pro-slavery position. (In recent years, Taylor’s body was exhumed and a small, non-lethal amount of arsenic was found in samples taken from his corpse.) It was Taylor’s unexpected opposition to the expansion of slavery (he was from the South and was the last president to own slaves) that had caused an immediate crisis in 1850.”
Some naysayers claim that Millard Fillmore was the one to poison the President, but they are not taken seriously. Millard Fillmore served what was left of Mr. Taylor’s term. He is little known today, which makes one wonder why he was included in the history series American Douchebag. Which is not to say that Mr. Fillmore is completely forgotten.
@EdDarrell Happy Birthday Millard Fillmore! Born January 7, 1800. Fillmore as a young man? @fillmoremillard Thank you Ed! I was a handsome devil, wasn’t I? #Fillmore2016 @EdDarrell One story holds that when Fillmore toured England and Europe Queen Victoria said said was the handsomest man she ever met. @MonroeNumber5 Prince Albert must have loved that… Perhaps he wasn’t vain enough to let it bother him. @EdDarrell Or, more likely, Albert knew Victoria’s astounding love and devotion to him. Albert died 6 years later.
At one time, Johnny Carson thought jokes about Millard Fillmore were funny. A youtube search does not reveal any of these jokes. During a writers guild strike, Mr. Carson wrote his own monolog. “… astrology would no longer be used at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Employed instead, he said, would be “a channeler speaking through the spirit of Millard Fillmore.”
The rest of this holiday post is recycled. It was inspired by Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub, a fine blog. MFB is published today, six years after the original post. As you may have guessed, it is named for Millard Fillmore. MF was POTUS (and many POTUS are MF) between 1850 and 1853. The last whig to serve as POTUS (history does not record whether he wore one), Mr. Fillmore helped delay the War Between the States for ten years.
After he left office, Mr. Fillmore visited Atlanta GA in 1854, becoming the first POTUS to do so. A road in San Francisco was named Fillmore Street, and loaned the name to a famous concert hall. Johnny Carson made him a punch line to many jokes. And, there is the bathtub.
In 1917, with America mixed up in a European war, H.L. Mencken published a column in the New York Evening Mail. He claimed that the bathtub had been invented in 1842, and was a controversial device. (The first model was made of mahogany lined with lead.) President Millard Fillmore installed a bathtub in the White House in 1850, and greatly increased the acceptance of the invention. The story was a lie, but was believed without question by the (unwashed) public.
Recently someone found a letter, written by Alexander Stephens, the Vice President of the Confederate States of America. In 1860, the election of Abraham Lincoln was seen by many as a disaster. Mr. Stephens disagreed: “I know the man [Lincoln] well, he is not a bad man. He will make as good a President as Fillmore did and better too in my opinion.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. These details are from picture #06665, “Bathing Beauty Pageant, 1925, Huntington Beach CA.” This is a repost.
M.K. Gandhi And Truth
I identify as human 🌎 @pixfiber “Truth never damages a cause that is just.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi. This item appeared in my twitter feed on January 6. Being an unreconstructed pedant, I went to the Gandhi Wikiquote. “Truth” had too many search results, so I went to “just.” I found a doozy: “I have always held that social justice, even to the least and lowliest, is impossible of attainment by force.” Harijan (20 April 1940) p. 97
Harijan was another word for the untouchable caste in India. “… Gandhi conducted an intensive crusade against untouchability …” “Harijan was also a newspaper that started on 11 February 1933, brought out by Gandhi from Yerwada Jail during the British rule in India. Gandhi popularized the term Harijan across the states of India but he was not the first person to use it.”
Archive.org has much of Harijan available online, including the quote above. The quote is in a tsunami of text. Gandhiji was trained as a lawyer, and could crank out a word count. His positions are well thought out and complicated. This material is more complicated than the motivational Mahatma we are familiar with.
If don’t mind wading through a pile of results, a search for “truth” on the Gandhi Wikiquotes will yield some good thoughts. Bear in mind that these quotes are without context. If you are willing to do the work, and google the source, you might find that the meaning of these thoughts is different from what you might think. The first three quotes in this list are from An Autobiography Or The Story of My Experiments With Truth By: M. K. Gandhi.
“A man of truth must also be a man of care.” Part I, Chapter 5, At the High School
“But all my life though, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise. I saw in later life that this spirit was an essential part of Satyagraha. It has often meant endangering my life and incurring the displeasure of friends. But truth is hard as adamant and tender as a blossom.” Part II, Chapter 18, Colour Bar
“My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth.” p. 453
“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” Young India 1924-1926 (1927), p. 1285 (context below)
“A seeker after Truth cannot afford to indulge in generalisation.”
“Generalisation”, Harijan (6 July 1940).
“If you want to give a message again to the West, it must be a message of ‘Love’, it must be a message of ‘Truth’. There must be a conquest — [audience claps] — please, please, please. That will interfere with my speech, and that will interfere with your understanding also. I want to capture your hearts and don’t want to receive your claps. Let your hearts clap in unison with what I’m saying, and I think, I shall have finished my work.”
Speech in New Delhi to the Inter-Asian Relations Conference (2 April 1947)
“Impure means result in an impure end… One cannot reach truth by untruthfulness. Truthful conduct alone can reach Truth.” Harijan (13 July 1947) p. 232
“[Government] control gives rise to fraud, suppression of truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help…It makes them spoon-fed.” Delhi Diary (3 November 1947 entry)
“It is no use trying to fight these forces [of materialism] without giving up the idea of conversion, which I assure you is the deadliest poison which ever sapped the fountain of truth.”
Mahatma Gandhi The Collected Works Vol 46, p. 203
Wikiquotes has a lively section devoted to quotes that are Disputed and Misattributed. One Disputed entry is especially festive: “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” “The earliest attribution of this to Gandhi … is in a T-shirt advertisement in Mother Jones, Vol. 8, No. 5 (June 1983), p. 46”
Several much loved Gandhisms have a shaky history. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” “God has no religion.” “We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.”
Young India supplied one of the quotes above. Here is page 1285. “Some Posers: — ‘A well wisher’ sends these lines for my meditation: ‘The Bible can be read in 566 languages. In how many can the Upanishads and the Gita? How many leper asylums and institutions for the depressed and the distressed have the missionaries? How many have you?’ It is usual for me to receive such posers. ‘A well wisher’ deserves an answer, I have great regard for the missionaries for their zeal and self-sacrifice. But I have not hesitated to point out to them that both are often misplaced. What though the Bible were translated in every tongue in the world? Is a patent medicine better than the Upanishads for being advertised in more languages than the Upanishads? An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody will see it. The Bible was a greater power when the early fathers preached it than it is today. ‘A well wisher’ has little conception of the way truth works, if he thinks that the translation of the Bible in more languages than the Upanishads is any test of its superiority. Truth has to be lived if it is to fructify. But if it is any satisfaction to ‘A well wisher’ to have my answer I may gladly tell him that the Upanishads and the Gita have been translated into far fewer languages than the Bible. I have never been curious enough to know in how many languages they are translated.”
“As for the second question, too, I must own that the missionaries have founded many leper asylums and the like. I have founded none. But I stand unmoved. I am not competing with the missionaries or any body else in such matters. I am trying humbly to serve humanity as God leads me. The founding of leper asylums etc. is only one of the ways, and perhaps not the best, of serving humanity. But even such noble service loses much of its nobility when conversion is the motive behind it. That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake. But let me not be misunderstood. The missionaries that selflessly work away in such asylums command my respect. I am ashamed to have to confess that Hindus have become so callous as to care little for the waifs and strays of India, let alone the world.”
Chamblee54 has written about M.K. Gandhi. one two three Pictures are from Library of Congress.
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