October 7, 2025
Today is the two year anniversary. I learned about the tragedy from a @JDVance1 tweet: “Praying for our friends in Israel this morning. Just an awful situation.”
As the scope of the tragedy became apparent, I knew two things. One, Israel would exponentially over-retaliate, killing thousands of Palestinians for every Israeli that died. (In my wildest conspiratorial imagination, I would not have thought that Israel would kill hundreds of its own citizens.) Two, there was going to be a tsunami of toxic rhetoric. Israel has known how to play to American public opinion for a long time. This second aspect of this calamity is what today’s post will focus on. Specifically, “Dave Smith vs. Coleman Hughes Debate: Israel and U.S. Foreign Policy.”
Coleman Cruz Hughes supports Israel. Dave No-Middle-Name Smith supports the Palestinians. CCH has been critiqued at chamblee54 before. 010224 030324 In case you have any doubts, I should state upfront that I am on team Dave here. There will be no attempt at being fair. If you want to see pro CCH commentary, look to any x discussion of this event.
The concept of these discussions being a smackdown sport is “part of the problem.” Gotcha mongering takes the place of thoughtful discussion. People make points that appeal to their buddies, and do not address the concerns of those on the “other side.” The rhetoric from CCH displays many of the bad faith tactics that Hasbara is known for. This post will focus on two examples.
I did not listen to very much of the CCH-DS smackdown. My phone was acting up, and switching to other shows without warning. When I returned to CCH-DS, I would skip over large parts of the show. Finally, after the second incident, I grew weary of the entire affair.
The first incident took place early in the show. CCH was discussing the reasons for the 9/11 attack, specifically the fact that Arabs were offended at American troops in the Islamic holy land of Saudi Arabia. CCH mentioned that South Korea was not offended at the presence of US troops in their country … an apples to oranges comparison. This is a tactic of bad faith argument: to make any possible argument you can, never mind that it usually is not relevant to the discussion.
Somehow, this led to a discussion of terrorism. ”DS – There were Irish terrorists. There were Jewish terrorists. Uh, of course, as you know, in the leadup to the creation of the state of Israel. … CCH – Those were local ethnic disputes between the Irish and the British, between the Jewish and the Palestinians. What justifies going abroad, flying planes into buildings thousands of miles away … “
There was Zionist terrorism after the end of World War II, and the creation of the State of Israel. The British governed Palestine at the time. The Zionist terrorism was directed at the British authorities governing Palestine, as well as the Arab population. This was the same time as the Nakba, which was a “local ethnic dispute”. Maybe that is what CCH meant.
This is a bad faith tactic. Flood the playing field with dozens of details. Some of them are going to be either misleading, or outright lies. It is impossible to respond to all the details being raised.
The other incident concerned the role of “the Israel lobby” in the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. CCH brought up a book by John J. Mearsheimer. CCH claims to have read the book, and was not persuaded. We have to take CCH’s word on having read the book.
CCH went into a monolog about how much money TIL had actually spent. “During the entire George W. Bush administration, the Israel lobby spent $17 million lobbying Congress. Now, that might sound like a lot to me or you. It is absolute chump change on the scale of uh domestic lobbying. To put it in perspective, the tobacco lobby spent $200 million, so more than 10 times that amount over the same time period. And they couldn’t even stop Congress from passing a federal tax hike on cigarettes in 2009. Now during the Obama era, the Israel lobby spent 30 million and they were outspent by the dentists. The dentist lobby spent 32 million. This is all according to OpenSecrets.org which is usually the standard source people go to for such figures.”
My gut sense is that this is a distraction. There may be other ways to measure the influence of TIL than the amount of money they spend on lobbying congress. Or maybe not. If you google “How much did the Israel lobby spend lobbying congress in 2003?”, you are directed to a chart from OpenSecrets. “$1,500,000 Total Spent on Pro-Israel, 2003” Is this the total, or there is more that we don’t know? I honestly don’t know, but don’t trust the way CCH is throwing this out.
When I heard CCH say that Dentists spent more on lobbyists than Israel, I decided I had heard enough. Technically, on some level CCH may be correct on some of his points. However, I just don’t trust him. I wonder how many minds are going to be changed by this discussion. The initial reaction on x was that CCH “won”. However, in the last day or so I am seeing more people who agree with DS. It will probably boil down to people agreeing with who they agreed with going into the debate.
There was a controversial discussion of the “clean break” strategy, which I missed entirely. DS has released an episode of his own show, Part Of The Problem, that deals with this. I have not listened to this episode of POTP.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in January 1941. “Steelworker at grievance committee meeting. Steelworkers organizing committee office. Aliquippa, Pennsylvania” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
West Bank Horror
This content was published September 29, 2010. … There is much hand wringing about Israel, Palestine, and the Peace Process. (That is a sentence you can use at any time. These things too shall pass away.) … A lot of this chatter misses the point. They talk about a threat to Israel, if this or that happens. There are several things wrong here. To begin with, Israel has the unquestioning support of the United States. The PR battle in the USA is the most important fight Israel has.
A “freeze” in building settlements ended recently. The word settlement is so antiseptic and painless. Settlements are not built on empty land. The people living on the land were evicted, and their homes destroyed. As Juan Cole tells the story: “The poor Palestinians of East Jerusalem have few assured human or civil rights. Anyone may do anything to them at any time, and they have little recourse. They can be thrown out of property they legally purchased after 1948, and made to live in tents in front of their former residences; and then the tents can be demolished by Israeli police. Aggressive, larcenous Jewish squatters continually attempt to effect a slow-motion ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, using fraud and sometimes force.
The 55,000 Palestinians of the Silwan area (formerly a village but now annexed to Jerusalem) are mad as hell and not going to take it any more. Three hundred militant settlers have been inserted in their midst on the basis of some fable that a legendary King David dwelled there in the 10th century BC (Archeology has found Jerusalem largely uninhabited in that period and has never found firm evidence of a Jewish kingdom during that era or even that a David or Solomon existed; they are not mentioned in contemporary Assyrian sources).
It is as though hundreds of armed men showed up in front of your house and demanded you take your family and leave and give it to them because their ancestor was a king and he is buried deep under its foundations. But you have the same ancestors that they do! (Jerusalem was founded some 5000 years ago by the common ancestors of most Jews and Palestinians).”
Apparently, this has gone on since 1948. An article about Israeli Author Gideon Levy tells the story of his father, who left Germany in 1939, and wound up in British Mandate Palestine. His father was traumatized by the experience of being a refugee. “Levy’s father never saw any parallels between the fact he was turned into a refugee, and the 800,000 Palestinians who were turned into refugees by the creation of the state of Israel. “Never! People didn’t think like that. We never discussed it, ever.”
Yet in the territories, Levy began to see flickers of his father everywhere – in the broken men and women never able to settle, dreaming forever of going home. Then, slowly, Levy began to realize their tragedy seeped deeper still into his own life – into the ground beneath his feet and the very bricks of the Israeli town where he lives, Sheikh Munis. It is built on the wreckage of “one of the 416 Palestinian villages Israel wiped off the face of the earth in 1948,” he says. “The swimming pool where I swim every morning was the irrigation grove they used to water the village’s groves. My house stands on one of the groves. The land was ‘redeemed’ by force, its 2,230 inhabitants were surrounded and threatened. They fled, never to return. Somewhere, perhaps in a refugee camp in terrible poverty, lives the family of the farmer who plowed the land where my house now stands.”
Many of those 800,000 wound up in the Gaza Strip. Their ancestors make up a large part of the population of Gaza. Mr. Levy tells another story. … “During Operation Cast Lead, the Israel bombing of blockaded Gaza in 2008-9, “a dog – an Israeli dog – was killed by a Qassam rocket and it on the front page of the most popular newspaper in Israel. On the very same day, there were tens of Palestinians killed, they were on page 16, in two lines.” … Sixteen years later, Gideon Levy is still at it. @gideonle “Israel has no place at Eurovision while committing atrocities in Gaza.”
But, morality aside, is this cruelty hurting Israel? Not on some esoteric level of the soul of the country, but on a practical level of survival. A blog called Unqualified Offerings makes a case that Israel has a long term plan to control the territories west of the Jordan River, and that they are winning. Israel is in a military position of strength, and might makes right. “Viewed institutionally and leaving moral questions aside, it counts as a triumph of grand strategy. Israel bought off Egypt with Egypt’s own territory. It convinced Jordan to bow out, and plain beat Syria like a rodeo clown. Lebanon could be broken any time and was, and the Lebanese were always falling all over themselves to help.
At this point, Israel has also destroyed the ability of the Palestinians to mount any consequential resistance of their own. Just as Hezbollah couldn’t occupy a single Israeli exurb in a trial of a thousand years, no Palestinian organization can stop Israel from planting its flag on any particular spot of the West Bank for so much as a week … Any large, political-military enterprise is going to have its ebb and flow. The Israeli conquest and consolidation of what we still quaintly call “the Occupied Territories” has involved tactical setbacks, occasional overreach and strategic withdrawals. The trick is not to get caught up in that. The long view is, Israel wanted control of all the territory west of the Jordan, Israel got control of all the territory west of the Jordan, Israel continues to cement its control over all the territory west of the Jordan. Everything else is details.
Turkey is not going to war for the Freedom Flotilla. It took all of a day for the United States to conclude a deal whereby Israel gets to investigate itself. The Iranians are either not trying to get nukes, or if they do get nukes will be very careful with them. The Iranians will fuck you up, but never at any substantial cost to themselves. Israel can levy a substantial cost on Iran any time it wants. The Palestinians can’t do more than annoy and neither can Hezbollah. On the other side, frequently foreigners make sad faces. I am thinking that Israel counts this among the acceptable costs.” … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken September 15, 1943. “Celebrations around the awarding of a 1943 Army Navy E Award to the Avondale Mills, Sylacauga, Alabama. This photograph is of a group of very young African-American children.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Famous Last Words
This content was published August 16, 2024. … The elephant in the room is a popular internet cliche. In this picture, the elephant looks like the ghastly wallpaper, both of which are best ignored. I wanted to make a comment. The only appropriate thing to do, in a situation involving wallpaper and an elephant, is to quote Oscar Wilde, on his deathbed. “This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do.”
When discussing Oscar Wilde, elephants, and wallpaper, it is important to get the correct quote. Mr. Google has a great deal to say, on the subject of last words. Peggy Lee sang about it. Unfortunately, the chanteuse was in very bad health at the end of her life. Peggy Lee probably did not say “Is that all there is?” on her deathbed.
On October 14, 1977, Bing Crosby “… finished 18 holes of golf carding an 85 … After his final putt Bing … remarked “It was a great game.” As he was walking to the clubhouse … he collapsed from a massive heart attack. … “We thought he had just slipped,” said one of his golfing companions.”
Adelaide Eugenia Bankhead “… first child, daughter Ada Eugenia, was born on January 24, 1901. The following year, Tallulah was born on their anniversary. Ada died tragically of blood poisoning just three weeks following Tallulah’s birth. On her deathbed, she told her sister-in-law to “take care of Eugenia, Tallulah will always be able to take care of herself”. This, like many other legendary last words, may too good to be true.
The Atlantic had a tasteful feature, “What Are the Best Last Words Ever?” Here are a few.
John Adams July 4, 1826 “Thomas Jefferson survives.”
Unbeknownst to Mr. Adams, Mr. Jefferson had died about five hours earlier.
Richard Feynman “I’d hate to die twice—it’s so boring”
O. Henry appeared to have stopped breathing, but was he really dead? Touch his feet, suggested one of the mourners clustered around his bed: Nobody ever died with warm feet. Whereupon, the short-story writer raised his head from the pillow, mumbled “Joan of Arc did,” and fell back dead.
Dylan Thomas “I’ve had 18 straight whiskeys. I think that’s the record.”
Union Major General John Sedgwick “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” Said while reprimanding his men for ducking for cover, just before he was killed at the Battle of Spotsylvania.
Ludwig Von Beethoven “I shall hear in heaven.”
An unverified tumblr contributes a few more zingers.
Edgar Allan Poe “Lord help my poor soul.”
Thomas Hobbes “I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap into the dark.”
Alfred Jarry “I am dying…please, bring me a toothpick.”
Washington Irving “I have to set my pillows one more night, when will this end already?”
Leo Tolstoy “But the peasants…how do the peasants die?”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “More light.”
Karl Marx “Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!”
Voltaire “Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.”
François-Marie Arouet was asked by a priest to renounce Satan.
James Joyce “Does nobody understand?”
A certain popup crazy website has a few more last words. Some of these were really said.
James Dean “That guy’s gotta stop… He’ll see us.”
Henry James “So here it is at last, the expected thing.”
Marie Antoinette “Pardon me, sir, I did not do it on purpose.”
George Appel “Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel.” Mr. Appel was executed by electric chair in 1928; these were his last words. Here’s two more: “Gents, this is an educational project. You are about to witness the damaging effect electricity has on Wood.” Said by Fredrick Charles Wood before he was electrocuted in 1951. “Hey, fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrow’s paper? ‘French Fries!’” James French, 1966.
The pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken December 5, 1949. Highland Avenue; #1033 Moe’s & Joe’s restaurant and bar; Siegel’s Kosher Delicatessen; Virginia – Highland Pharmacy; Reynolds Plumbing and Heating Company ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Coat Of Many Colors
I saw a story, and thought about the song, “Coat of many colors.” The b side was by Porter Wagoner, “Coat of many sequins”. COMC is about a woman who is too poor to buy her little girl a coat at the store, so she makes a quilt. The other kids make fun of her, but little Dolly knows that the coat is really made of love. The song talks about a story in the Bible. I had heard about the story, but didn’t remember the details. I must have been daydreaming in Sunday School when that story was taught. With the help of google, Genesis 37 appears, as if by magic. Pass the popcorn.
2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age:
and he made him a coat of many colours.
4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Ok, hold on for a minute. Israel had at least two wives. The Biblical definition of marriage must be between a man and two women.
The story gets a bit weird here. Joseph has this dream, where he becomes the boss hog brother. The other brothers decide something needs to be done, that Joseph needs to die. Reuben tries to help Joseph, and has a plan to save him. Joseph is stripped of the coat of many colors, and placed in a pit, with no water. Before Reuben can sneak Joseph out of the pit, a camel caravan comes by. Twenty pieces of silver change hands, and Joseph is sold into slavery. The brothers decide to pull a cover up, and make it look like Joseph was dead. Reuben made another sandwich.
31 And they took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;
32 And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said,
This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no.
33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him;
Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted;
and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
This feature was originally published August 22, 2012. The pictures are from The Library of Congress. Walker Evans took the social media picture in March 1936. Vicksburg, Mississippi. Negroes
Home Runs
This content was published July 29, 2021. … Barry Bonds was about to break the lifetime record for home runs. Folks said the record was tainted because of steroid use, and because Mr. Bonds was not a nice man. There were calls for an asterisk in the record book. This was odd to me. I was in Georgia when Hank Aaron broke the home run record in 1974. Back then, the line was that Babe Ruth had fewer at bats than Mr. Aaron. …
… A lot of hateful things were said about Mr. Aaron before home run 714. I decided to take a look at the metrics. This post is the result. As a bonus to the reader(s), Joe Torre and Hank Aaron gets a summer rerun. JTAHA is based on a column by Furman Bisher. …
This post was published June 30, 2007… There is a certain controversy these days about the eminent breaking of the lifetime home run record. Currently held by Hank Aaron, the record is threatened by Barry Bonds. Before Mr. Aaron held the title, Babe Ruth was the owner. Controversy about the lifetime home run record is nothing new. In 1974, when Hank Aaron was about to break the record, the admirers of Babe Ruth said that Mr. Ruth had fewer at bats than Mr. Aaron did. Many attributed these comments to racism, with a black man beating a white man’s record. …
… The current controversy is two fold. There are allegations that Mr. Bonds took steroids to make him stronger, and that he “cheated”. There are also concerns about the personality of Mr. Bonds. … I do not think steroid use is a big deal. Ballplayers are abusing their bodies to perform, and if they take the risk of using steroids, that is their business. Many people disagree. A better question might be, would Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron have used steroids if they had the chance? Mr. Ruth was a wildman, who drank during prohibition, and was known for undisciplined behavior. …
… Mr. Aaron played in an era where steroid use was not as common as it is today. The answer to the first question is (Mr. Ruth) probably, and (Mr. Aaron) who knows. … While you are keeping hypocrisy statistics, Mr. Aaron and Mr. Bonds played on television, where beer commercials were constant. While alcohol is *now* legal, it is a very damaging drug. Any ballplayer who plays on television promotes its use. This is both steroid users, and non users. As for personalities, there is the widely circulated story about the college team that Mr. Bonds played on voting 22-3 to kick him off the team. At the very least, he does not charm sportswriters. …
… In 1917, Babe Ruth was suspended for hitting an umpire. He was known for his outlandish behavior throughout his career. It should also be noted that he played in an era when the press did not scrutinize the behavior of players. How would today’s media treat Babe Ruth? … I once heard a radio show caller say that Hank Aaron was a mean racist, who would just as soon cut your throat as look at you. I had never heard this said out loud, but had heard hints about Mr. Aaron’s personality over the years. People who achieve great things are not always friendly. …
… Mr. Aaron is the only one of the three that I met, however briefly. In July of 1965, the Milwaukee Braves came to Atlanta to play an exhibition game in Atlanta Stadium. After the game, I was allowed to wait outside the clubhouse, to get autographs from the players as they left. Joe Torre saw the crowd, hid behind a truck, and made a quick getaway. Hank Aaron came out, patiently signing every autograph, while smoking a cigarette. … The fact is, all three men played in different eras. Babe Ruth never played at night, never flew to California, and only played against white players … many of the most talented players of his era were in the Negro Leagues. …
… Hank Aaron played before free agency, interleague play, the DH, and widespread use of steroids. The only way to determine who is the home run champion is to count how many homers are hit, and award the prize to the man who hits the most. … Which of the three made the most money? Barry Bonds, by a wide margin. He played in the free agent era. Babe Ruth had the best line about his salary. In 1930 Ruth was asked by a reporter what he thought of his yearly salary of $80,000 being more than President Hoover’s $75,000. He replied “yea, but I had a better year than he did.” …
… Who played on the most teams to win a World Series? Babe Ruth 7, Hank Aaron 1, Barry Bonds 0. … The career of Babe Ruth was a long time ago. He made a greater impact on America than the other two combined. He was one of the first sports superstars, as America emerged from the carnage of World War One. Mr. Ruth broke the single season home run record, he hit 29 homers. The next year, he hit 54. There is a possibility of a livelier baseball. …
… Babe Ruth captured the imagination of America like few personalities ever have. Playing in New York (which dominated the press) did not hurt. He was a man of his times…it is unlikely than anyone could have that kind of impact on today’s superstar saturated America. While his record has been broken, his place in the history of baseball is the same. UPDATE: As of August 23, 2025, the <a href=”” target=”_blank”>lifetime home run leaders were: Barry Bonds – 762, Hank Aaron – 755, Babe Ruth – 714, Albert Pujols – 703, Alex Rodriguez – 696. …
This post was published August 15, 2009. … Furman Bisher has a piece at the fishwrapper site about Joe Torre. The punch line is that Mr. Torre “grew up” when the Braves traded him to St. Louis. I was a kid when this was going on, and did not hear a lot of what went on. … In 1965, the Braves played a lame duck year in Milwaukee before moving to Atlanta. One night, there was an exhibition game at Atlanta Stadium, the Braves against the Yankees. I got his oh so patient dad to take me to the clubhouse after the game, to get autographs. …
… In 1965, you could go into the bowels of the stadium and wait outside the clubhouse. Hank Aaron signed many autographs while smoking a cigarette. Joe Torre came out, hid behind a truck, and took off running. … Mr. Torre was a raccoon eyed catcher for the Braves. In the first regular season game in 1966, he hit two home runs, in a thirteen inning loss. Soon, the novelty of big league baseball in a toilet shaped stadium wore off. Mr. Torre got at least one DUI, and a reputation as a barroom brawler. He was traded to St. Louis in 1968. Mr. Torre hit .373, and won the national league MVP in 1971. …
… The comments were interesting. Cecil 34 “The reason that Torre was traded is because on the team’s charter flight back to Atlanta back in 68, a drunken Torre got into a fistfight with Aaron. Aaron popped off to Torre, and thus the fight was on, broken up by the other players. Since Aaron was the face of the franchise at the time, Torre was traded. There had been bad blood between them for years before this incident anyway. Reasons vary. But the final nail in the coffin was this fistfight. I was told Torre could pack a punch and Aaron came out on the worse end of it.” …
… There has been whispering for years about Hank Aaron and his attitude. Furman Bisher made hints once or twice, but there was never anything of substance. It seems that Mr. Aaron does not lack for self confidence. Mr. Aaron was the subject of much racially based abuse while chasing the home run record in 1973, and some anger is justified. … Mr. Aaron was known to not get along with Rico Carty. Mr. Carty is a dark skinned man from the Dominican Republic, who was popular with fans. Mr. Carty was eventually traded. Rico Carty had a barbecue restaurant on Peachtree Road in Chamblee, next door to the Park and Shop. …
… Joe Torre was the manager of the Braves in the early eighties. The team won a divisional title in 1982, but lost the NLCS. This was after Ted Turner bought the team. Mr. Turner fired Mr. Torre in 1984. Getting back to the comment thread, Misterwax contributes “Turner cut Joe Torre loose because Ted was in love with Henry Aaron and Aaron thought Joe Torre was a white supremacist….A hangover from the clubhouse days when they were teammates…still does today. And THAT is the only reason he was cut…because Hank Aaron said so.” …
Hank Aaron passed away January 22, 2021. Joe Torre retired as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2010. He won four World Series as manager of the New York Yankees. Furman Bisher outlived Bear Bryant by 26 years, passing away March 18, 2012. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture was taken April 15, 1915. “Hans Lobert of the New York Giants (left) and Joe Schultz, Sr. of the Brooklyn Dodgers. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
The Funeral Of Elvis
This content was published August 1, 2024. The text was originally published September 2, 2011. … There is a saying, “if a story seems too bad to be true, it probably isn’t”. I tried to google that phrase, and got confused. Then I seemed to remember reading it in a column by Mary Tyler “Molly” Ivins. Another google adventure, and this video turned up.
Miss Ivins, who met her maker January 31, 2007, was promoting a book. On April 26, 1998, she sat down with Brian Lamb, on CSPAN’s Booknotes. I could only listen to 24:30 of this video before being seized with the urge to write a story. There is a transcript, which makes “borrowing” so much easier. This film has 34 minutes to go, which just might yield another story.
Molly Ivins was a Texas woman. These days there is a lot of talk about Texas, with Governor Big Hair aiming to be the next POTUS under indictment. Mr. Perry claims that his record as Texas Governor qualifies him to have his finger on the nuclear trigger. Miss Ivins repeats something that I had heard before… “in our state we have the weak governor system, so that really not a great deal is required of the governor, not necessarily to know much or do much. And we’ve had a lot of governors who did neither. “ It makes you wonder how much of that “economic miracle” is because of hair spray.
Texas politics makes about as much sense as Georgia politics. For a lady, with a way with words, it is a gold mine. “the need you have for descriptive terms for stupid when you write about Texas politics is practically infinite. Now I’m not claiming that our state Legislature is dumber than the average state Legislature, but it tends to be dumb in such an outstanding way. It’s, again, that Texas quality of exaggeration and being slightly larger than life. And there are a fair number of people in the Texas Legislature of whom it could fairly be said, `If dumb was dirt, they would cover about an acre.’ And I’m not necessarily opposed to that. I’m–agree with an old state senator who always said that, `If you took all the fools out of the Legislature, it would not be a representative body anymore.’”
We could go through this conversation for a long time, but you probably want to skip ahead and look at pictures. There is one story in this transcript that is too good not to borrow. For some reason, Molly Ivins went to work for The New York Times, aka the gray lady. In August of 1977, she was in the right place at the right time.
LAMB: And how long did you spend with The New York Times as a reporter? IVINS: Six years with The New York Times. Some of it in New York as a political reporter at City Hall in Albany and then later as bureau chief out in the Rocky Mountains. LAMB: Would you take a little time and tell us about reporting on the funeral of Elvis Presley? IVINS: Oh, now there is something that when I’ve been standing in the checkout line at the grocery store and if I really need to impress people, I just let fall that I covered Elvis’ funeral. And, boy, people just practically draw back with awe. It may yet turn out to be my greatest claim to fame. …
… I was sitting in The New York City Times one day when I noticed a whole knot of editors up around the desk having a–a great scrum of concern, you could tell. It looked sort of like an anthill that had just been stepped on. And it turns out–The New York Times has a large obituary desk, and they prepare obituaries for anybody of prominence who might croak. But it turns out–you may recall that Elvis Presley died untimely and they were completely unprepared. …
… Now this is an enormous news organization. They have rock music critics and classical music critics and opera critics, but they didn’t have anybody who knew about Elvis Presley’s kind of music. So they’re lookin’ across a whole acre of reporters, and you could see them decide, `Ah-ha, Ivins. She talks funny. She’ll know about Mr. Presley.’ … So I wound up writing Elvis’ obituary for The New York Times. I had to refer to him throughout as Mr. Presley. It was agonizing. That’s the style at The New York Times–Mr. Presley. Give me a break. …
… And the next day they sold more newspapers than they did after John Kennedy was assassinated, so that even the editors of The New York Times, who had not quite, you know, been culturally aton–tuned to Elvis, decided that we should send someone to report on the funeral. And I drew that assignment. What a scene it was. LAMB: You–you say in the book that you got in the cab and you said, `Take me to Graceland.’ The cabbie peels out of the airport doing 80 and then turns full around to the backseat and drawls, `Ain’t it a shame Elvis had to die while the Shriners are in town?’ …
… That’s your Shriners in convention, always something very edifying and enjoyable to watch. But they–every–every hotel room in Memphis was occupied with celebrating Shriners, and then Elvis dies and all these tens of thousands of grieving, hysterical Elvis Presley fans descend on the town. So you got a whole bunch of sobbing, hysterical Elvis fans, you got a whole bunch of cavorting Shriners. And on top of that they were holding a cheerleading camp. And the cheerleading camp–I don’t know if your memory–with the ethos of the cheerleading camp, but the deal is that every school sends its team–team of cheerleaders to cheerleading camp. …
… And your effort there at the camp is to win the spirit stick, which looks, to the uninitiated eye, a whole lot like a broom handle painted red, white and blue. But it is the spirit stick. And should your team win it for three days running, you get to keep it. But that has never happened. And the way you earn the spirit stick is you show most spirit. You cheer for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You cheer when the pizza man brings the pizza. …
… I tell you, those young people will throw–show an amount of spirit that would just astonish you in an effort to win that stick. … So here I was for an entire week, dealing with these three groups of people: the young cheerleaders trying to win the spirit stick, the cavorting Shriners and the grieving, hysterical Elvis fans. And I want to assure you that The New York Times is not the kind of newspaper that will let you write about that kind of rich human comedy. LAMB: Why? IVINS: Because The New York Times, at least in my day, was a very stuffy, pompous newspaper. …
… LAMB: What about today? IVINS: A little bit better, little bit better than it was. … Has–has–it has a tendency, recidivist tendencies, though. You–you will notice if you read The Times, it–it collapses into pomposity and stuffiness with some regularity. LAMB: Why did you leave it? IVINS: Well, I–I actually got into trouble at The New York City Times for describing a community chu–chicken killing out West as a gang pluck. Abe Rosenthal was then the editor of the Times and he was not amused. LAMB: Did–but did they let it go? Did they let it …
… IVINS: Oh, no. It never made it in the paper. Good heavens, no. Such a thing would never get in The Times in my day. … POSTSCRIPT I found some pictures, marked up the text, and was ready to post the story. I decided to listen to a bit more of the discussion between Molly Ivins and the bald headed man. When I got to this point, it became apparent that I could listen to Molly Ivins talk, or I could post the story, but I could not do both at the same time. …
… IVINS: Oh, well, of course, I’m gonna make fun of it. I mean, Berkeley, California, if you are from Texas, is just hilarious. LAMB: Why? IVINS: Well, of course, it is just the absolute center of liberalism and political correctness. And it is a veritable hotbed of people, of–bless their hearts, who all think alike, in a liberal way. And, of course, I’m sometimes called a liberal myself, and you would think I would have felt right at home there. But I just am so used to–I’m so used to Texas that I found the culture at Berkeley hysterical. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken April 10, 1963, at the “Krystal restaurant“, 428 Ponce De Leon Avenue NE.
Julian Carr And Silent Sam
This is a repost from 2018. … A Confederate monument was torn down last night in Chapel Hill NC. The statue, known as “Silent Sam,” was intended as a monument to students who left school to fight in the War Between the States. “In 1913, the Daughters of Confederacy, after four years of fundraising, paid sculptor John Wilson, a Canadian, $7500 for the statue. Wilson used a Boston-man, Harold Langlois, as the model. It’s unclear, however, if those attending Silent Sam’s dedication knew they were celebrating a Yankee’s profile. Silent Sam was among many “Silent Sentinels,” – statues of soldiers without cartridge box, soldiers who could no longer fire a shot – that were manufactured and bronzed in the North and then sent down south for public display. Many of these statues look remarkably similar. Like Silent Sam, they also face north, toward the Union.”
Many of the comments today quote a speech made at the 1913 unveiling. The speech was by Julian Carr, a prominent businessman and philanthropist. Mr. Carr is considered, with some justification, to have been a white supremacist. A Confederate veteran, Mr. Carr appears to have been a complex man, who did both good and harm.
This tweet is typical of today’s discourse. @jjones9 “From white supremacist Julian Carr’s speech at the dedication of Silent Sam in 1913.” The tweet features a screen shot, of a quote from the 1913 speech. “I trust I may be pardoned for one allusion, howbeit it is rather personal. One hundred yards from where we stand, less than ninety days perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady, and then rushed for protection to these University buildings where was stationed a garrison of 100 Federal soldiers. I performed the pleasing duty in the immediate presence of the entire garrison, and for thirty nights afterwards slept with a double-barrel shot gun under my head.”
What was the rest of the speech? A bit of research turned up a transcript, “Julian S. Carr, “Unveiling of Confederate Monument at University. June 2, 1913.” The rest of the speech has little in common with the “one allusion.” The speech sounded like the memorials to fallen soldiers in many other wars. “They served, they suffered, they endured, they fought, [and died – crossed out] for their childhood homes, their firesides, the honor of their ancestors, their loved ones, their own native land.”
Mr. Carr’s theme is defense of a the homeland. When the War broke out, the concept of a United States, ruled by a strong federal government, was less accepted than it is today. Many people in the South saw it as a failed experiment. Slavery was an important issue in the decision to secede, along with economic matters that do not get twenty first century people worked up. Slavery is not mentioned in the 1913 speech.
The speech went on and on, and sounded much like any other memorial. The speech ended with these words: “In the knowledge of subsequent developments, the progress, peace and prosperity of our united, common country, victor and vanquished now alike believe that in the Providence of God it was right and well that the issue was determined as it was. And the people of all sections of our great Republic, moved by the impulse of sincere and zealous loyalty, of fervent and exalted patriotism may say: “All is well that ends well.”
“Again, dear Daughters of the Confederacy, I thank you in the name of the eighteen hundred brave, loyal, patriotic, home-loving young student soldiers who went out from this grand old University to battle for our Southern rights and Southern liberties, five hundred of whom never came back. God bless every one of you, and every Daughter of the Confederacy in our dear Southland.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
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August 30, 2014. … As facebook memes remind us, Jon Stewart recently delivered a speech about racism. The closing line is “And that shit happens all the time. All the time. Race is there, and it is a constant. You’re tired of hearing about it? Imagine how fucking exhausting it is living it.” The crowd went into hysterics. … Our media culture is strange. On the “conservative” side, buffoons like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly present news as entertainment. On the “liberal” side, comedians like Jon Stewart and Bill Maher present comedy routines as political commentary. On the other side of the screen, America becomes more cynical every day. …
… In another video, the former Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz says something critical about Israel. He is gleefully shouted down. Eventually, he gives up. This video could have been made about race relations. If a white person says anything except the party line, he can expect to be called racist, and shouted down. Two wrongs become one right. So the choice becomes not wanting to be yelled at, or not wanting to live a black life. You can yell at white people as long as you like about racism. This yelling will accomplish little, except giving the dubious feeling of moral superiority.
August 25, 2009. … The news came out that the coroner ruled Michael Jackson’s death to be a homicide. The name of his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was mentioned. In these race obsessed times, the first question many ask is about skin color. In the case of The Entertainer, it changed over time. I found pictures from two times for Dr. Murray, and he looked the same. The older image was a booking photograph from 1994. Dr. Murray was in trouble after a domestic violence incident with his girlfriend. The Doctor was acquitted of the charges. …
… There was more trouble for Dr. Murray in the years to come. (The search warrant for his office is here). At the time of his Jackson employment, Dr. Murray was in deep financial trouble. “In the last three years, Murray has faced lawsuits for unpaid business bills totaling over $700,000, including rent on his medical offices. He also owes more than $13,000 in child support, $70,000 to a business partner with whom he launched an energy drink called Pitbull, and he failed to pay more than $71,000 worth of student loans from medical school.” …
… Ten days before Michael Jackson got high for the last time, Dr. Murray sent a letter out. “Because of a once in a lifetime opportunity, I had to make a most difficult decision to cease practice of medicine indefinitely”. He reportedly was paid $150k a month to serve as a private physician to Micheal Jackson. … Dr. Murray was not the only Doctor to work with Michael. “Best-selling author Deepak Chopra, a licensed medical doctor, said he first became concerned about the pop star’s prescription drug use in 2005, when Jackson visited him shortly after his trial on sex abuse allegations. …
… Chopra said Jackson asked him to prescribe painkillers and already had a bottle of OxyContin. “I was kind of a bit alarmed. I said, ‘Why are you taking that. You don’t need that,‘ and then I started to probe a little further, and after I grilled him a little bit, he admitted he was getting them from a bunch of doctors,” … On June 25, things went too far. Dr. Conrad Murray told cops he had been treating Jackson for 6 weeks for insomnia — giving him 50 milligrams of Propofol every night through an IV. Murray told cops he feared Jackson was getting addicted so he reduced the dosage to 25 mg. …
… The morning Jackson died, Dr. Murray gave Jackson valium at 1:30 AM. Murray said the valium didn’t work so he gave the singer an IV injection of lorazepam — an anti-anxiety drug. Murray told cops Jackson was still awake, so he then gave him midazolam — a sedative. Murray gave Jackson more drugs. He says at 10:40 AM, he administered 25 mg of Propofol. Dr. Murray told cops Jackson repeatedly demanded the drug. As we first reported, cops found 8 bottles of Propofol in Jackson’s house after he died, but they do not know where it was purchased. …
… Cops also found Valium, Tamsulosin, Lorazepam, Temazepam, Clonazepam, Trazodone and Tizanidine, along with the Propofol. The various drugs were prescribed by Dr. Murray, Dr. Arnold Klein and Dr. Allan Metzger. … Dr. Murray reportedly told cops 10 minutes after administering Propofol … he “left Jackson’s side to go to the restroom and relieve himself. Murray stated he was out of the room for about 2 minutes maximum. Upon his return, Murray noticed that Jackson was no longer breathing.” Dr. Murray says he began CPR and at some point ran downstairs and asked the chef to send up Prince Jackson, the eldest son, then Murray continued performing CPR. …
… Dr. Murray says he noticed that Jackson wasn’t breathing at around 11 AM. He was then on the cell phone for 47 minutes with 3 separate calls, from 11:18 to 12:05. The 911 call came in at 12:21 PM …. a much longer delay than originally reported… Interestingly, according to the warrant, Dr. Murray refused to sign the death certificate at the UCLA Medical Center. … Dr. Murray was released from prison October 28, 2013. In 2023, Dr. Murray opened a medical institute in El Socorro, San Juan.
August 25, 2009. … I have had internet service with BellSouth since I bought a computer. They add the charge to my phone bill. It worked very well. At some point, AT&T bought BellSouth. At some point after that, AT&T made a deal with Yahoo to “Power” AT&T. I got emails warning about the change. These messages did not mean much to me. I would take what action needed to be taken, at the proper time. This afternoon, I got to a stopping point on a picture project, and tried to check email. The outlook express did not work. It was the start of a nightmare. …
… I am over call centers. The other night, I called Tracfone, and talked to a young man over a horrible connection. The man did not understand english very well. This is how companies save money, and increase unemployment in the United States. I was still connected to the internet, and went to the site where I check email away from home. I was directed to a new “powered by yahoo” site. I was required to register for a new system, amidst popup screens asking me to take a tour of the new AT&T. …
… Finally, I got through to my email, and found a one word comment to a blog post. Somebody thought the BHO health care plan was cool. Meanwhile, the yahoo site…which I use to check my yahoo account …was now logged in under a new account. Instead of logging in and out all the time, I decide to use one browser for yahoo and one browser for AT&T. It has been a while since I used the secondary browser. The AT&T page has a place where you can troubleshoot your email. I go there. …
… It tells you to go to an options tab on outlook, and enter a lot of numbers and settings. It did not make the outlook express work. There is a phone number for AT&T. I have spent quality time on this, talking to people in India, The Philippines, and Dothan, Alabama. I never thought I would be happy to get Alabama, but I was. To be fair, the people in these call centers are polite and hard working. They just have big problems to deal with, especially with this AT&T “powered by Yahoo” fiasco. …
… The number is busy, busy, busy. On the one time in twenty that I get through, I get chased off due to heavy call volume. I tried yet another time, and got through to an agent, with a good sounding connection. I am going to try to reconfigure the connection to outlook express. The last try did work. It took over an hour, and the old accounts had to be destroyed and new accounts set up. By the time it was over, I was ready to start as a tech rep and talk someone else through the process. I might even move to Alabama. … The pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken November 9, 1949. “Ford Motor Company display of 1950 models, Atlanta City Auditorium” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Ted Kennedy
This content was published September 29, 2023. … One thing that I like to do is investigate “things I have always heard”. With google, you can often find the source, and a few things more. This is a repost. … The myth I was chasing was the notion that government officials said our army “will be greeted as liberators” in Iraq. On March 16, 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney was on Meet the Press. MR. RUSSERT: If your analysis is not correct, and we’re not treated as liberators, but as conquerors, and the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties? …
… VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, I don’t think it’s likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. I’ve talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House. The president and I have met with them, various groups and individuals, people who have devoted their lives from the outside to trying to change things inside Iraq. And like Kanan Makiya who’s a professor at Brandeis, but an Iraqi, he’s written great books about the subject, knows the country intimately. The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to the get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that.” …
… There are a few things to say 22 years later. Why did the Vice President have this much power? The VP is supposed to dedicate buildings and go to funerals. Dick Cheney was clearly a very powerful man, and he was not elected to that job. … Mr. Russert, rest his soul, seems to have gotten one detail wrong. The conquest of Baghdad went smoothly, with relatively few American casualties. It was the occupation that would be “long, costly, and bloody… with significant American casualties.” There probably were many Iraqis who welcomed the change, Clearly, Mr. Hussein had some enemies, and there were some who saw the invasion as liberation. There were others who did not. Players in other countries saw an opportunity to come to Iraq and make trouble. The regime that was changed had many employees, who were bumped out of jobs. “The people of Iraq” were no more a monolithic force, all acting the same way, as the people of America would be if they were invaded. …
… Even if the Americans were “greeted as liberators”, there would be many challenges. The country had no experience in dealing with democracy. The different ethnic groups did not like each other. Sunnis were seen as having been privileged, and many were looking to settle the score. It seems obvious that these problems were not anticipated. There is a debate in The United States about the use of torture. It seems apparent that “enhanced interrogation” was used extensively in Iraq and elsewhere. The use of torture would seem to be an admission that we were not greeted as liberators.
This content was published August 26, 2009. Ted Kennedy died August 25, 2009. … I was not going to talk about Ted Kennedy. The man served for many years in the Senate. There were some unfortunate incidents in his personal life. I am not a moral statistician, and shudder at the thought of judging someone with that many positives and negatives. Ted Kennedy has been in the public eye as long as I have been old enough to pay attention. For years, he was the boogey man of the right wing. If a strawman was ever needed, Ted Kennedy was trotted out. …
… I suspect that many people who were offended by John and Robert Kennedy (especially regarding their support of civil rights for African Americans) took out their anger on Ted Kennedy. The shortcomings in his personal life did not help. Peach Pundit was respectful today. There was a story about an act of kindness by Senator Kennedy to a young law student. The comments had the predictable nasty players, but most showed respect. In an interesting move, rude comments were hidden behind a link. This allows the reader to see what followup comments are talking about. …
… Another blog, JoemyGod, was admiring Senator Kennedy. In the comments, there was the anonymous “Guest” who felt the need to talk about Chappaquiddick. Numerous people took “Guest” to task for this. There were some who felt that negative comments should be deleted. I do not like having comments deleted. Of course, this is the right of a blog owner. Some have an itchy trigger finger, and will delete most of what they don’t like. When you do this, you take away the diversity needed for a lively discussion. The following is a dialog between chamblee54 and “Guest”. Thank you JoemyGod for hosting this discussion. …
… chamblee54- Joe, thank you for allowing the troll comments to remain up. You have the right to delete comments. However, your readers are capable of putting the trolls in their place. Deleting comments is like war and abortion. We should keep the option open, but only use it when absolutely necessary. As for Senator Kennedy, he has been raked over the coals for Chappaquiddick. The right wing has used that incident to great advantage. At the time of the Senators passing, we should speak well of the man.Today, 12:03:55 PM …
… “Guest”- can you speak well of someone like OJ Simpson? Right wing – left wing doesn’t matter. Ted Kennedy killed a young lady with the rest of her life a head of her so he didn’t have to take responsility for his actions. Drinking and Driving is a crime, leaving the scene of an accident is a crime, killing someone while behind the wheel of a vehicle is a crime. How much time did Ted Kennedy spend in jail for his crimes? How much time would a regular American spend in prison for these crimes? Today, 12:31:40 PM …
… chamblee54- If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. This is especially true when a person dies, and his fingernails are still growing. When OJ goes to the Hertz office in the sky, I will have nothing to say. · Today, 12:51:43 PM “Guest”- chamblee54 kennedy has been rightfully raked of the coals for his actions at chapppaquidick, it has nothing to do with right wing or your socialist attitude it has to do with what he did, how he let her die and who was bribed. We should never speak well of any of the kennedy family; bootlegger and other RICO enterprises that allowed the money to flow. Today, 12:56:21 PM … The pictures today are from Georgia State University Library. The social media picture: “Paramount Pictures War Bond Appeal” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Hiroshima 80 Years Later
This content was published August 9, 2024. … At 8:15 am, August 6, 1945, Hiroshima got nuked. It was the start of a new era. Since Japan is 13 hours ahead of Georgia, and standard time was used, the literal anniversary is 8:15 pm, August 5.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was working in Hiroshima when the bomb hit. He survived, and found a train to take hime to his home town, Nagasaki.
The device dropped on Hiroshima, the Little Boy, had an estimated force of 13 kilotons of Trinitrotoluene, or TNT. A kiloton of TNT is roughly a cube whose sides are ten meters. This device is fairly tiny compared to many of the warheads developed since. Many of the modern appliances are measured in megatons, or millions of tons of TNT. The Soviet Union had a bomb with a capacity of 50 megatons, or 4,000 times the size of the Little Boy.
The largest weapon tested by The United States is the Castle Bravo. This device destroyed Bikini Atollin the Pacific. The two piece swimsuit was named for this island. The Castle Bravo device had a yield of 15 megatons of TNT. This is roughly 1,000 times the power of the Little Boy.
The decision to drop the bomb has long been controversial. There are a lot of factors and gray areas, and the issue does not lend itself to sound bite solutions. The conventional wisdom is that Japan surrendered because of the nuclear attack. This meant the war was shortened by at least a year, there was no invasion of Japan, and many lives were saved. I am scared by the moral calculus involved in a decision like this … do 100,000 civilian deaths prevent the deaths of 500,000 soldiers? I suspect that even God herself would lose sleep over that one.
There is also evidence that the bomb was not needed. Japan was whipped in August 1945. The air raids were conducted in daylight with little resistance. A debate was going on in the Japanese government on whether to continue the fight.
An event happened the day between Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, which influenced the Japanese decision to surrender. The Soviet Union had agreed to help the United States with the war against Japan. On August 8, The Soviet Union invaded Japanese occupied Manchuria. There are indications that Japan knew the fight was hopeless at this point, and would rather surrender to The United States than The Soviet Union. This is one of the gray areas that never seems to be mentioned.
The United States wanted the war to end quickly for obvious reasons, and a few subtle ones. America did not want to share the spoils of Japanese war with The Soviet Union. There were already tensions between the two allies, and the cold war was not far off. Many felt The United States used the Little Boy as a warning to The Soviet Union.
When you get your moral software out, you might want to figure in the effect of opening the nuclear Pandora’s box. Would the nuclear bomb have been developed by other countries if America had not led the way? The science is not that complicated…after all, America hit paydirt with the Manhattan Project fairly quickly. Nonetheless, there is karma involved in using a terrible new device on a civilian population. The United States started the wind of the arms race, and has yet to feel the whirlwind.
This is a repost. The pictures are from The Library of Congress. Ansel Adams took the social media picture in 1943. “Manzanar street scene, spring, Manzanar Relocation Center.” The ladies in the bridge game are Aiko Hamaguchi, Chiye Yamanaki, Catherine Yamaguchi, and Kazoko Nagahama.
Walt Whitman And The War
This content was originally published July 4, 2024. … Every Night For A Thousand Years is a story about Walt Whitman’s time as a caregiver during the War Between the States. It appears this month on The New Yorker fiction podcast. ENFATY was written in the voice of Mr. Whitman by Chris Adrian, and read for the podcast by @NathanEnglander.
After looking for his wounded brother, Mr. Whitman was struck by the plight of wounded soldiers. He started to visit the soldiers, giving them candy and food, writing letters for them, and giving what comfort he could. ENFATY focuses on one soldier, Hank Smith. Doctors wanted to amputate his leg. Hank had a pistol, and would not let them. By the time Hank was tricked into allowing an amputation, it was too late.
Not everyone approved of Mr. Whitman. “One disapproving commissioner, Harriet Hawley, complained to her husband: “Here comes that odious Walt Whitman to talk evil and unbelief to my boys. I think I would rather see the evil one himself—at least if he had horns and hooves.”
Others saw things differently. “Union Colonel Richard Hinton met Whitman at Armory Square Hospital while recovering from a bullet wound suffered at Antietam … “When this old heathen came and gave me a pipe and tobacco, it was about the most joyous moment of my life. Walt Whitman’s funny stories, and his pipes and tobacco were worth more than all the preachers and tracts in Christendom. A wounded soldier don’t like to be reminded of his God more than twenty times a day. Walt Whitman didn’t bring any tracts or bibles; he didn’t ask if you loved the Lord, and didn’t seem to care whether you did nor not.”
Conditions conditions in the hospitals were beyond horrible. This was an era when many people said “I do not need to wash my hands every day!” One nurse asked Mr. Whitman if he had a Bible. She wanted to cheer up, by reading the Book of Job.
“These hospitals, ranging in size from converted private mansions to filthy, mud-encrusted tents in contraband camps, were places to be feared by any thinking person. The great European medical advances in bacteriology and antisepsis were still tragically a few years in the future … the overworked and understaffed physicians continued to ascribe the soldiers’ ills to such fantastical causes as “malarial miasms, mephitic effluvia, … sewer emanations, and poisonous fungi in the atmosphere.” …
The predictable result of such hurried and horrific operations was postoperative infection. Pyemia, septicemia, erysipelas, osteomyelitis, tetanus, and gangrene were grouped together as “surgical fevers.” Pyemia, literally “pus in the blood,” was the most dreaded of all, with a mortality rate of 97.4 percent, but the other surgical fevers also claimed their deadly share of victims. Not without reason did Civil War soldiers fear doctors much more intensely than they feared the enemy. They had a greater chance of dying in the hospital than in the field.
“That whole damned war business is about 999 parts diarrhea to one part glory.” The quote is on page 187 of Intimate with Walt – Selections from Whitman’s Conversations with Horace Traubel, 1882-1892. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture was taken in September 1864. “Petersburg, Va. Group of Company B, U.S. Engineer Battalion”
Gaza In 2010
This content was originally published July 28, 2010. … British prime minister David Cameron is on a visit to Turkey. He made a few comments about Gaza. “Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change. Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.” Israel’s ambassador to Great Britain, Ron Prosor, replied “The people of Gaza are the prisoners of the terrorist organization Hamas. The situation in Gaza is the direct result of Hamas’ rule and priorities.” … Hamas was founded in 1987. This was just after the Iran contra affair, when Israel was helping Iran buy weapons. …
… 1987 is 39 years after the creation of the state of Israel. Many Arabs living in what became Israel left in 1948, and many settled in the Gaza Strip. The creation of Hamas was 20 years after the six day war, when Israel took control of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli soldiers were not greeted as liberators. What followed was an Israeli occupation of the territory. It was by, most accounts, a brutal affair, with Gazan resistance (“terrorism”) met by Israeli force. During this occupation, the prime “terrorist organization” was the P.L.O. They were the object of attacks by Israel, both propaganda and military. They were connected to the party Fatah, which became the primary agent of governance in Palestine. There was an election, and Hamas won. …
… There are reports that Hamas was secretly founded by Israel , to fight Fatah/PLO. Whether or not this is true, the fact is that Israel maintained a brutal occupation of Gaza. It should be no surprise that a “terrorist organization” would be popular, and win an election over yesterday’s boogieman. Both sides in this conflict have good talking points, and have suffered losses. The commentary above is oversimplified. However, to say the suffering of the Gazans “is the direct result of Hamas” constitutes an obscene piece of propaganda. HT to Juan Cole, an excellent source for news on the middle east.
This content was originally published July 29, 2010. … The fourth diva on the cd is Janis Joplin. Unlike the first three, she used her birth name as a stage name. Janis Lyn Joplin was born January 19, 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas. Janis was a legend. As the singer for Big Brother and the Holding Company, she became an overnight superstar in 1967. She soon left Big Brother, and had ups and downs as a solo performer. As most of you know, she was fond of Southern Comfort and heroin. Janis passed away October 4, 1970. Janis appeared on the Dick Cavett Show on June 25, 1967. …
… Marianne Faithfull (Marian Evelyn Faithfull) was born 29 December 1946, in London. Unlike the first four divas in this series, she is still alive, and doing rather well. This is not for lack of trying, as she has had her adventures with hard drugs. She also dated Mick Jagger. There were many wild and crazy times, including being busted while wearing only a fur rug. Eventually, Ms. Faithfull went into a decline. She made a comeback in 1979 with “Broken English”. She continues to perform. … Marianne Faithfull passed away January 30, 2025. …
Dorothy Ashby is the third performer we will discuss today. She is not as well known as the first five, and is not known for her singing. She played harp. Dorothy Jeanne Thompson was born August 6, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan. She married John Ashby, who played drums in her band. She died April 13, 1986. Youtube does not seem to have any videos of Mrs. Ashby performing. We will have to use an still picture video to include her. On the cd, she performs “Theme from Valley of the Dolls”. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken September 23, 1952. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
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