Rudolph
Someone posted a bit of revisionism about a holiday classic. As he sees it, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” is about racism.
In a bit of yuletime synchronicity, the urban mythbusters at Snopes posted a piece about Rudolph the same day. It seems as though the Rudolph story was originally written for the Montgomery Ward Stores. The idea was to print a Christmas booklet to give to customers. A staff writer named Robert L. May was picked for the job.
Originally, there were concerns about the red nose, and the connection to heavy drinking. At the time, the original meaning of “merry christmas” had been forgotten. Merry meant intoxicated, and a merry christmas was a drunken one. The booklet was released. It was a big hit with shoppers.
Mr. May had a brother in law named Johnny Marks, who was musically gifted. Mr. Marks wrote the song, and somehow or another Gene Autry came to sing it. A story (which PG heard once, but cannot find a source for) had Mr. Autry doing a recording session. The session went very smoothly, and the sides scheduled to be recorded were finished early. There was a half hour of studio time paid for. Someone produced copies of “Rudolph”, gave them to the musicians, and the recording was knocked out. It became a very big hit.
“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” has become a beloved standard, without the troubling religious implications of many holiday songs. It is the second biggest selling record of all time. The only song to sell more is “White Christmas”.
The story above is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. There is an appearance by Gerald Rudolph Ford, and his women. Betty was a merry soul.
Ansel Adams And Dorothea Lange
The facebook feed has recently had links to a story, Dorothea Lange’s Censored Photographs of FDR’s Japanese Concentration Camps. Miss Lange was the photographer of the iconic Migrant Mother. After Pearl Harbor, Miss Lange took a job with the War Relocation Authority, documenting the “relocation” of Japanese-Americans to interment camps. The photographs did not please the authorities. They were censored, and only appeared recently. This is a repost.
Ansel Adams also took photographs at the Manzanar, California, camp. In the current stories, he is literally a footnote: quotes were used from a book about his photography. Why is Dorothea Lange receiving attention, while Ansel Adams is ignored?
One answer is that Miss Lange was hired early on, and shows the harsh reality of relocation. “On July 30, 1942, the WRA laid her off “without prejudice,” adding that the cause was “completion of work…. the WRA impounded the majority of her photographs of Manzanar and the forced detentions, and later deposited 800 image from the series in the National Archives without announcement.”
“After Lange’s departure, Manzanar’s director Ralph Merritt visited renowned environmentalist and landscape photographer Ansel Adams and suggested he document the camp — Merritt and Adams were friends from the Sierra Club. Lange, also friends with Adams, encouraged him to take the job. (Coincidentally Adams printed “Migrant Mother” for her ) …Ansel Adams made several trips to Manzanar between October 1943 and July 1944 for this new personal project, and, as Alinder writes, he was primed to try the kind of documentary photography regularly practiced by Dorothea Lange and the Farm Security Administration that he had earlier shunned. Unlike Lange, a white woman who had been viewed with suspicion by her subjects, Adams was welcomed by the incarcerees, even greeted as a celebrity in a cultural community that had a deep appreciation of nature — many incarcerees at Manzanar literally opened their doors to him dressed in their finest clothes. … By 1943, Manzanar’s incarcarees had had time to settle in and enjoy the fruits of their collective work. In less than ideal surroundings, they had collectively built their own post office, town hall, library, auditorium, co-op store system, police station, jail, cemetery with memorial, published their own newspaper (the ironically named the Manzanar Free Press, which was regularly censored by the military), and even their own YMCA.”
“As for Lange, looking at the historical record, it appears that she was treated differently from the other WRA photographers. She was discouraged from talking to the incarcerees, was constantly followed by a censor, and faced harassment. She was refused access to areas after being given clearance, and she was often hounded over phone charges and receipts. … After being discharged, Lange expressed in letters her dismay that her work was ineffective in helping the people she documented. Her assistant Christina Clausen later noted the ferocity of this body of work also marked the beginning of the photographer’s bleeding gastric ulcers. Lange was unable to work for a number of years after her harrowing experience at Manzanar. She died from esophageal cancer in 1965.”
“In 1944, Adams’s photographs were published as a book, “Born Free and Equal: The Story of Loyal Japanese Americans,” and shown at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Nativists took offense. They saw Adams’s work as a slur on the war effort. He was a “Jap lover.” This quote is from a 2016 article, Let’s be honest, Ansel Adams’s images of a WWII internment camp are propaganda
“Adams visited Manzanar to take photos in 1943 at the request of camp director Ralph Merritt, who was a personal friend. “They don’t look quite as dusty and quite as forbidding as Dorothea Lange’s photos … Indeed, the place that looks barren and depressing in Lange’s pictures manages to look beautiful in Adams’. You get little sense that it was even a detention center, in part because Adams, like other photographers, was not allowed to shoot the guard towers or barbed wire…
There are scenes from a baseball game, kids walking to school, a gathering outside a chapel. Lots of smiles, too, and portraits of camp residents cropped so close, you can see every blemish and stray hair. In Adams’ vision, Manzanar comes off as a place where Japanese-Americans, dignified, resilient and optimistic in spite of their circumstances, built a temporary community in the desert.
(Skirball Cultural Center director Robert) Kirschner said that if Adams’ photos appear to sugarcoat the indignities of life in an internment camp, it is because he did not see himself as a social activist the way Lange did. Still, Kirscher says, Adams was challenging internment in his own way, by depicting its victims as patriotic, law-abiding Americans. Unlike Lange, Adams was given permission to publish his photos. Before the war ended, he did so in a book called “Born Free and Equal: The Story of Loyal Japanese Americans,” in which he warned about the dangers of letting wartime hysteria justify depriving U.S. citizens of their freedom.”
The NPR article mentions a third Manzanar photographer. “Before World War II, Toyo Miyatake had a photo studio in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. When he learned he would be interned at Manzanar, he asked a carpenter to build him a wooden box with a hole carved out at one end to accommodate a lens. He turned this box into a makeshift camera that he snuck around the camp, as his grandson Alan Miyatake explains in the video below, which is featured in the exhibit.
Fearful of being discovered, Miyatake at first only took pictures at dusk or dawn, usually without people in them. Camp director Merritt eventually caught Miyatake, but instead of punishing him, allowed him to take pictures openly. Miyatake later became the camp’s official photographer.”
Pictures for today’s feature are from The Library of Congress. These are pictures that Ansel Adams took at Manzanar. They have been posted at chamblee54 before. The ladies in the bridge game are Aiko Hamaguchi, Chiye Yamanaki, Catherine Yamaguchi, and Kazoko Nagahama.
Slow Days, Fast Company
On the last wednesday of 2021, I read the last paragraph of Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh, and L.A. by Eve Babitz. Bret Easton Ellis mentioned EB, and SDFC, several times on his podcast. I ordered SDFC from the library. While reading it, on December 17, Eve Babitz died. Did I kill EB, by reading her book? This is a repost.
SDFC has been described as the work of an unapologetically shallow California girl. It is true. Then EB references Virginia Wolff, or Diane Arbus. In one story, EB (no middle name) goes to a gated community in Orange County for the weekend. The people there are so Nixony! Later, one of the ladies commits suicide. EB plows ahead without missing a beat.
EB was gonna design an album cover for Janis Joplin, and went to meet her. Janis was in the studio. The music was painfully loud. Janis was passed out on the floor of the studio. A few days later, EB went to visit Janis at some hotel in Los Angeles. Janis was laying up in the pool face up, not drowning but obviously on a distant planet.
SDFC is an amazing book. It’s not very long, broken down into nine stories. EB went to Bakersfield to hang out with the son of a grape grower. Another is when that EB hangs out with a lady who is a musician, and heroin user. EB thinks that heroin is very glamorous, for other people. EB was a big tequila fan, and consumed a few plane-loads of white powder. SDFC is set around 1973, before the democratization of cocaine in the eighties.
After the demise of Joan Didion, and EB, Bret had Lily Anolick on his show. She did a podcast series about Bennington College. The lady … whose name is not anal-lick … wrote Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A. Amazon had a one star review: Totally the C Word “After reading this book I thought I was going to have to go to the clinic and get treated for VD. Incredible, did she really have sex with this many people?”
SDFC is written by a woman, from a woman’s point of view. Here is a sample. “Women want to be loved like roses. They spend hours perfecting their eyebrows and toes and inventing irresistible curls that fall by accident down the back of their necks from otherwise austere hair-dos. … The only time men fall in love with roses is on douche commercials.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Second International Pageant of Pulchritude and Eighth Annual Bathing Girl Revue, May 21, 22, 23, Galveston, Texas, 1927. This article includes the picture of a naked EB playing chess with Marcel Duchamp.
War Between The States
It is a truism that history is written by the winner of the war. This seems to apply to the naming of the conflict. There was a horrific armed struggle in North America between 1861 and 1865. The name used most often is Civil War. To many in the South, it is the War Between The States. In PG’s humble opinion, WBTS is a better name.
In fifth grade, PG had to write an essay about the Battle of Atlanta. The essay was a device for teaching grammar, utilized by the english teacher, Miss McKenzie. The contest was sponsored by the Daughters of the Confederacy . The expression “Civil War” was not permitted. The proper name for this conflict was War Between the States.
In many ways, this conflict started as soon as the United States became independent from Great Britain. The South was an agrarian society, with slaves to work the fields. The north was becoming an industrial society, with a need for an independent work force. The north wanted high tariffs to protect her industries, while the south wanted to sell it’s cotton to Europe. There were plenty of ways for this conflict to manifest.
Slavery was a very important factor. The south wanted to keep “the peculiar institution” intact, while many in the north were horrified. There were numerous compromises over the years, as Congress struggled to keep the Union intact. This ties in with a central dilemma of the american experience … how much power to give to the states, and how much power to give to the federal government.
The phrase civil war is defined as “A war fought between factions of the inhabitants of a single country, or the citizens of a single republic”. By the time the shooting started, the southern states had left the union. They formed a confederacy of independent states, rather than one monolithic union. It was, indeed, a war between the states.
This is a repost. Pictures, of Union soldiers, are from The Library of Congress.
The recent destruction of #SilentSam, was defended by a quote from the 1913 dedication speech. Here is something else that Julian Carr said that day: “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.”
The demonization of the Confederacy has intensified lately. Yes, slavery was a wretched institution. However, much of the rhetoric today does not take into account many of the other causes of that war. And it forgets that *the war is over.* The early twentieth century was a time of reconciliation between the north and the south. Yes, there was Jim Crow, and white supremacy. People of color (both black and non black, both north and south) were treated horribly. Creating a more perfect union is a slow, and uneven, process.
Part two of today’s feature is a double repost. Part one is based on an interview with Shelby Foote, where he goes into some of the points made above. If you get a chance to listen to the link, you can hear Mr. Foote talk for an hour in a luxurious Mississippi accent. The second part of today’s feature goes into some of the financial causes of the War Between The States. It is an old truism that all wars are about money. The causes people are told about, both at the time of the conflict and historically, are not always the real reason for the war. Look at how WMD was used to justify “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” WMD was the excuse for the conflict, not the reason.
PG spent a pleasant Saturday afternoon editing pictures from The Library of Congress (which illustrate this post) and listening to a 1994 interview with Shelby Foote. There was a book to be sold, and Mr. Foote made the necessary appearances to sell the product. The gentleman has a handsome Mississippi accent, and is a delight to listen to. There is a transcript, aka the lazy bloggers friend.
A few of the things he said are timely. When this show was taped in 1994, Mr. Foote spoke of healing from the War Between the States. Today, we seem to be regressing. Trash talk about the Confederacy is back in fashion. It is a good time to revisit these comments. Shelby Foote died in 2005, and can no longer comment.
“Slavery is a huge stain on us. We all carry it. I carry it deep in my bones, the consequences of slavery. But emancipation comes pretty close to being as heavy a sin. They told — what is its million or 7 million people, “You’re now free. Hit the road,” and there was a Freedman’s Bureau, which was a sort of joke. There were people down here exploiting them. Three-quarters of them couldn’t read or write, had no job, no hope of a job, no way to learn a new job even, and they drifted back into this peon age system under sharecropping, which was about all they could do.
To this day, we are paying and they are paying for this kind of treatment. I don’t mean there should have been a gradual emancipation. I mean there should have been true preparation to get this people ready for living a kind of life. They were free and should have been free all along, but they were not prepared for living in the world. They’d been living under conditions of slavery, which kept them from living in the world…..”
“The Civil War, there’s a great compromise, as it’s called. It consists of Southerners admitting freely that it’s probably best that the Union wasn’t divided, and the North admits rather freely that the South fought bravely for a cause in which it believed. That is a great compromise and we live with that and that works for us. We are now able to look at the war with some coolness, which we couldn’t do before now, and, incidentally, I very much doubt whether a history such as mine could have been written much before 100 years had elapsed. It took all that time for things to cool down….”
(Booknotes host Brian) LAMB: “Was the Civil War inevitable? FOOTE: I think that it was necessary. I do not believe that those differences could have been settled without bloodshed. The question is the horrendous amount of bloodshed. That was not necessary. That could have been stopped at some point. God knows. But there apparently were differences so profound between the abolitionists in New England and the fire-eaters of South Carolina that dragged the rest of the country into this conflict that I’m inclined to agree with Seward, who called it an irrepressible conflict….” (Chamblee54 recently published a post, Why Was The War Fought?. about the financial aspects of the War. Follow the money, and find the truth. The post is seen below.)
LAMB: “From what you know now and your own political philosophy, if you had a voice and you lived back there, which side would you have been on? FOOTE: There’s absolutely no doubt. I’m from Mississippi. I would have been on the Confederate side. Right or wrong, I would have fought with my people. LAMB: Why? FOOTE: Because they’re my people. It would have meant the end of my life as I had known it if I fought on the other side. It would have been a falsification of everything I’d lived by, even if I opposed it. No matter how much I was opposed to slavery, I still would have fought for the Confederacy — not for slavery, but for other things, such as freedom to secede from the Union.”
Last week, this slack blogger found a tweet. The tweet said that Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy fought the Federal Reserve, and both were killed. I did a little research, and found something that questions the conventional wisdom about the War Between the States.
Before getting to the quote, a disclaimer is in order. 100777.com is a sketchy website. What is says cannot be taken as literal truth. However, the statement about WBTS does raise some questions.
“One point should be made here: The Rothschild bank financed the North and the Paris branch of the same bank financed the South, which is the real reason the Civil War was ignited and allowed to follow its long, and bloody course.”
Maybe it was not the Rothschild Bank that financed WBTS. Somebody did. War is a profitable enterprise. People are going to egg on the combatants, knowing that there is money to be made. Someone encouraged the southern states to secede. Others encouraged the north to take a hard line on slavery, knowing that it would lead to a profitable war. Was slavery the reason for this war, or the excuse? Follow the money.
Rhett Butler was a central character in Gone With The Wind. He was a blockade runner, bringing in supplies to the south. He said this: “I told you once before that there were two times for making big money, one in the up-building of a country and the other in its destruction. Slow money on the up-building, fast money in the crack-up. Remember my words.”
It should be noted that slavery was a big money operation. “But I think we think of it differently when we realize that the value of slave property, some $4 billion, enormous amount of money in 1861, represented actually more money than the value of all of the industry and all of the railroads in the entire United States combined. So for Southern planters to simply one day liberate all of that property would have been like asking people today to simply overnight give up their stock portfolios.”
When the thirteen colonies declared independence, they were not creating a union. The idea was to kick out the British. The concept of a federal union, made up of more-or-less independent states, was fairly new. States had conquered other states, and formed empires, for a long time. A federal union of states was a new, and controversial, idea. Many European states wanted to see this federal union fail. These states encouraged the south to secede. Some people say the War Between the States began the day the British left.
Pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library “… a collection of images of downtown Atlanta streets that were taken before the viaduct construction of 1927 – 1929. Later, some of the covered streets became part of Underground Atlanta.”
Henry Woodfin Grady
This is a repost from 2019. Grady High School is now known as Midtown. The public health care system is still known as Grady. Controversy continues, about a variety of subjects. … Before yesterday, PG did not know much about Henry Woodfin Grady. He saw the statue downtown, and visited people in the namesake hospital. PG knew Mr. Grady was a newspaper man, and a pioneer salesman of Atlanta, Inc. There was something called The New South Address.
That all changed Wednesday morning. Editorial: Mayor Bottoms, tear down this statue! was the headline at the Signal, Georgia State University’s student newspaper. Someone at the University of Massachusetts read the New South Address, and found some amusing quotes.
“What of the negro? This of him. I want no better friend than the black boy who was raised by my side, and who is now trudging patiently with downcast eyes and shambling figure through his lowly way in life. I want no sweeter music than the crooning of my old “mammy,” now dead and gone to rest, as I heard it when she held me in her loving arms, and bending her old black face above me stole the cares from my brain, and led me smiling into sleep. I want no truer soul than that which moved the trusty slave, who for four years while my father fought with the armies that barred his freedom, slept every night at my mother’s chamber door, holding her and her children as safe as if her husband stood guard, and ready to lay down his humble life on her threshold. History has no parallel to the faith kept by the negro in the South during the war.”
This is one of the nicer parts. About half the speech is about the Negro, and what the White man should do about him. When PG finally read the speech itself, he was amazed. The rhetoric was much worse than PG expected. If you want to get your woke knickers thoroughly twisted, read between page 23 and page 33. (The speech starts on page 21.)
The well meaning GSU students printed a dose of contemporary rhetoric, about a speech given October 26, 1887. PG summarized this on Facebook. Editorial: Mayor Bottoms, tear down this statue! The GSU Signal cranked up the purple prose machine for an attack on Henry W. Grady. “A monument to Henry Grady and his accomplishments on Marietta and Forsyth streets — also named Henry Grady Square — still stands today. Etched into his plaque are three celebratory words: “Journalist, Orator, Patriot.” Let us be clear in recognizing that Grady, as a journalist, promoted racism. Grady, as an orator, promoted racism. And Grady was certainly no patriot — he was simply a racist.”
A facebook friend, who we will call Macon, asked “What part of it do you disagree with?” 28 comments later, PG got on his digital horse, and rode into the sunset.
The initial response was about the the comment “Grady was certainly no patriot — he was simply a racist.” The New South Address was in 1887, 22 years after the War ended. Before that hideous conflict, the states were seen as separate entities, with helpful guidance from the Federal government. When the Confederate states left this union, a ghastly war ensued.
After the south was conquered by the north, there was little doubt. The states were governing districts, under the control of the mighty federal government. Most people today take this arrangement for granted. The truth is, it has been controversial over the years. In his landmark address, Henry W. Grady was calling for an economic union of the south and north, to go along with a militarily-enforced political union. 22 years after a horrific war over secession, a southerner was calling for a stronger union with the north. To PG, this is patriotism. The fact that Mr. Grady said impolite things does not change this.
Macon responded “… but he was a racist …” A few comments were exchanged. Macon said what Macon wanted to say. PG said what PG wanted to say. PG was ready to walk away, and go to the gym. Before leaving, PG said: “I note that you have not addressed the patriotism issue. You asked me what I disagree with, in this assessment of Henry Grady. I replied that working for a strong Federal Union, less than a generation after the War Between the States, was an act of patriotism. You have not responded to this.”
When PG got back, he saw where Macon had posted a series of lurid quotes from the NSA. What PG missed, at first, was the comment “I agree it was patriotic.” Since PG had missed this comment, he continued to hammer away at the patriotism issue. Finally, Macon said “Yes, was Sen. Joe McCarthy a patriot? Was Hitler? … ” Godwin’s Law is now in effect. Adult conversation has left the building.
What to make of all this? It is apparent that Mr. Grady said some unfortunate things. Does this negate all the good that he did? Looking back, it seems that the main contribution made by Henry W. Grady was as a salesman for the south. In Atlanta, a town built on marketing, this makes him a publicity patron saint. Now we are learning about exactly what Henry W. Grady said. G-d is in the details. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Without Losing Enthusiasm
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Candlelight vigil for teen shooting victim in DeKalb turns deadly
success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm
“accepted being the weirdo that I am but you know”
Wrestling with anti-Semitism Some thoughts on Dave Chappelle and Tom Stoppard
Mother of 12 y.o. boy killed near Atlantic Station begged for help from Atlanta police
America is a nation that can be defined in a single word. Asfutmsifwffutsh
a Christmas tree made of vintage car parts at Pegasus Plaza in Downtown Dallas
The polarization in today’s Congress has roots that go back decades
乌鲁木齐市吉祥苑小区15层起火，火势后蔓延至17层，烟气扩散至更高楼层 据官方媒体报道
Elections, Emails, & ACRB-Never a Dull Moment in Atlanta by Scarlet Hawk
A Cocktail Lounge Hits the Midtown Bar Scene in December Oozing Sexy 1970s Vibes
5 Cars Rented By President Biden’s Secret Service Burst Into Flames By Jason Hall
Chris Welch: Keith Emerson | Syd Barrett’s Dislike for Bowie | Jethro Tull
The stories will stay alive as long as new queer minds are being born
The Measure of a Life Well Lived Henry Miller on growing old, the perils of success …
When Neil deGrasse Tyson called out Joe Rogan for ADD-like tendencies of sharing …
Mother of autistic fan banned by BYU speaks out about son being wrongly accused …
Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center “Picking Your Brain” Podcast “Psychological …
Secret Twitter Files on Censorship of Hunter Biden Story
Policemen Don’t Have Balls “you’re going to sell me tickets to the Highway Patrol Ball.”
‘I Kiss His Balls for Luck’ – legend holds that the wife of a famous golfer blurted out …
27 Embarrassing Reactions to Taibbi Thread About Twitter Censoring Hunter Biden
The Incoherence and Cruelty of Mental Illness as Meme Freddie deBoer
On Schizophrenia, Violence, And The Problem With Shallow Allyship You can’t help …
rtfa ~ hey jude ~ waukesha ~ ww2 death ~ rumble
khoalabear ~ james beaman ~ james beaman ~ iggy eno ~ mirror
righteous room ~ m. c. escher ~ laurel canyon ~ parasite cleanses ~ mmiwg2s
hunter biden ~ today ~ angela davis ~ Angela Davis ~ dock ellis
rechargeable battery ~ jaco pastorius ~ peach pundit ~ m.c. escher ~ monty python
celebration ~ christine mcvie ~ jesse ~ angodesignstudio ~ naan violence
cannabis ~ anthony freshwater ~ fricative ~ sibilant ~ lunae-lumen
kobalt khb 3040-06 ~ leaf blower ~ mandela effect ~ dylan/bowie ~ earwigs
marshmellow ~ appurtenances thereof ~ uncle hotep ~ jesse ~ angodesignstudio
i just had my first adventure of the day. A phone line fell off the pole, into the street. It is four houses south, which will become important later. When I called ATT, they would not accept the address I gave them, but assigned the job ticket to my house. The tech called this morning, and I told him the story. I went down to chat with him when he arrived. He is a super friendly black man. We chit chatted for a bit, he cut the wire, and went on his way. ~ The word is that Jesus paid the price for the sins of mankind. Is 44 hours in a cave enough? When you consider the lies, murders, and fornications, you have to wonder. Maybe Jesus is taking the place of man in hell, paying the price for your sins. ~ i was in a writing workshop. the prompt was to write about your past, and use the word shadow … this post rambled into a place you have fond memories of … shadow comes from a big family, with a lot of brothers. John Doe. Play Doe. Dosee Doe. Is this the past, or is the past a present? … A musician, with the stage name John Doe, plays in a band called X. I saw them one night at the moonshadow saloon, on johnson road between briarcliff and north highland. That is another shadow. X was a hard rock band, so Dosee Doe might have taken the night off. The moonshadow was next to a veteran liquor store. This legacy liquor emporium was on the fulton side of the county line, which was a very profitable location when Dekalb was a dry county. One night i went in this store, bought a single kobir, and the man at the checkout offered me a church key to open it with. The law took a dim view of this. Another time, i drove by this store, and one of the letters had gone dark on the sign. I can’t remember which one. It might have been the r, making it a liquo store, or maybe it was the li, and the sold quors inside. Moonshadow saloon is now a place where emory university parks shuttle busses overnight, or some sort of vehicle for hire. ~ @BenBurgis🧵 Conservatives say many ridiculous things about the Taibbi tweets about Twitter censorship because conservatives say ridiculous things about everything. It’s who they are. But: ~ @chamblee54 @benburgis I remember the day this broke. I had mailed in my absentee ballot, and wanted to hear no more about the election from hell. Then, I saw that @NYDailyNews had a story suppressed. My curiosity was aroused. ~ @chamblee54 I remember when #HunterBidenLaptop story broke. I had mailed in my ballot, and wanted to hear no more about the election. I saw that @NYDailyNews had a story suppressed. My curiosity was aroused. If the story had gotten out without fuss, it would have been quickly forgotten. ~ @FreeSpeech4Moi Replying to @chamblee54 and @ggreenwald “The media certainly would have attempted to “forget” it, as they are doing now with the #FTX crime/money laundering/funneling to the Democrats And the potential collusion with the DNC to ‘donate’ to weak Republicans in the primaries. #SBF_FTX said he only cared abt primaries” ~ “potential collusion with the DNC to ‘donate’ to weak Republicans in the primaries.” This line caught my eye. Is this why the Republicans nominated Herschel Walker? ~ GUEST HOST MICHAEL SINDLER CAFÉ GENERALISSIMMO OPEN MIC MONDAY, DECEMBER 5th at 5:30 EST/4:30 PM CST/3:30 PM MST/2:30 PM PST/10:30 PM BST ZOOM ID: 821 2043 0676 Passcode: 313209 ~ pictures today are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Police Killing Unarmed Black People
Unarmed Black people killed by police is a hot button issue. The Washington Post maintains a database of police killings. In 2022, 7 unarmed Black men have been killed by police. This is out of a total of 1,091 police homicides, with 26 involving an unarmed person. This breaks down to White 4, Black 7, Hispanic 2, Other 1, Unknown 12. Here are the 7 unarmed Black men:
Dyonta Quarles, January 30, Crofton MD
Daniel Patrick Knight, February 19, Winter Park FL
Patrick Lyoya, April 4, Grand Rapids MI
Jayland Walker, June 27, Akron OH
Kyle Dail, July 27, Dallas TX
Donovan Lewis, August 30, Columbus OH
Maalik Roquemore, September 5, Cleveland OH
Jayland Walker and Kyle Dail appear to have been armed. “During that struggle, Dail pulled a handgun from his front pants pocket and raised it in the air in front of Hoffman’s face, according to the video. After Dail took out the handgun, Hoffman fired his weapon, hitting the suspect. When reviewing store surveillance cameras and the officers’ body-worn cameras, detectives saw the suspect remove the handgun from his pocket.”
“A Black man shot and killed by Akron police officers in a hail of bullets following a vehicle and foot pursuit was unarmed at the time of the shooting, but a shot appeared to have come from the vehicle during the pursuit, and officers said they feared he was preparing to fire when they discharged their weapons, authorities said. … Police said a few minutes later the car slowed and Walker emerged from the still-moving vehicle wearing a ski mask and fled on foot. A handgun, a loaded magazine and a wedding ring were found on the seat and a casing consistent with the weapon was later found at the point where officers believed a shot came from the vehicle.”
“A former Grand Rapids police officer … Chris Schurr, 31, is charged with second-degree murder for the April 4 killing of Patrick Lyoya, 26. … Schurr’s defense team is arguing he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Lyoya following a traffic stop and struggle over Schurr’s Taser and that he was justified in shooting Lyoya under the “fleeing felon” common law — saying Lyoya became a felon when he attempted to run away. In charging Schurr with second-degree murder, the prosecutor said the shooting could not be justified by self-defense.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Similar reports: 2020 2021.
Did Socrates Read And Write?
This story starts with a facebook meme. A fbf posted a picture of a thoughtful statue. The text read ‘When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.’ -Socrates. PG thought that Socrates never wrote anything that survived. All of what we attribute to Socrates was written by Plato. People reading this blog should know what happened next. This is a repost
Did Socrates Say Slander Is ‘The Tool of the Losers”? is one of several results. They all said the same thing … the quote is bogus. A tweet from Eric Trump is not evidence of authenticity.
PG began to think, which is never a good sign. Was Socrates able to read and write? was on the screen a few minutes later. The speculation is mixed. Some say that that Socrates was stone illiterate.
Thomas Musselman “Socrates served in the government on juries. Historians now know that legal proceedings were common over business matters of great sophistication and the the juries were well-educated concerning such matters. General literacy existed by the late 400s BC for the general pubic in primary school. Upper class males even in Socrates’ day would have been literate and there was an active book-seller market. To function in the world that Socrates functioned in required literacy.”
Google turned up a curious document. It is a passage written by Plato,“Phaedrus.” Pp. 551-552 in Compete Works. An Egyptian G-d is talking to a King, about an invention … writing.
“In fact, it (writing) will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own. You have not discovered a potion for remembering, but for reminding; you provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing. And they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.”
SOCRATES: “But, my friend, the priests of the temple of Zeus at Dodona say that the first prophecies were the words of an oak. Everyone who lived at that time, not being as wise as you young ones are today, found it rewarding enough in their simplicity to listen to an oak or even a stone, so long as it was telling the truth, while it seems to make a difference to you, Phaedrus, who is speaking and where he comes from. Why, though, don’t you just consider whether what he says is right or wrong?”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Part two is after the break.
A facebook friend posted a meme. It had an picture of Bertrand Russell, quoted as saying “If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” PG consulted with Mr. Google, and had his answer in seconds.
“From the wikiquotes page of Anatole France “Si 50 millions de personnes disent une bêtise, c’est quand même une bêtise. If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. As quoted in Listening and Speaking : A Guide to Effective Oral Communication (1954) by Ralph G. Nichols and Thomas R. Lewis, p. 74. Misattributed to Bertrand Russell, by Laurence J. Peter, in The Peter Prescription : How To Make Things Go Right (1976), but he subsequently attributed to France in Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977).”
“As I’ve said on many occasions, I don’t care who a quote is (mis)attributed to. I share a meme because its message resonates for me.” PG “If a million facebook users post a misattributed quote, it is still a misattributed quote … I have this vague sense that it does make a difference, but I can’t find the words to say why. Maybe google will have a snappy quote, preferably in English, that will give me a reason why correct attribution matters.”
“With google available, it is so, so easy to verify a quote before you post it. Often, the context of the quote puts a different shade on the meaning. Like the quote above. I have no idea why Mr. France said that, or what he meant. Sometimes, the words come from a foolish character in a story, and the author is making fun of them. Since I do not read French, I do not know how accurate the translation is.” (Google translate says “If 50 million people say stupidity, it’s still a stupidity.”)
“There is a famous quote from Ben Franklin about security and liberty. The quote is totally legitimate. It is taken from an Editorial Mr. Franklin was paid to write. The editorial supported the colonial government, in their efforts to levy a tax on farmers.”
The Ben Franklin post linked above has a useful link. “‘Contextomy’ refers to the selective excerpting of words from their original linguistic context in a way that distorts the source’s intended meaning, also known as ‘quoting out of context’. Contextomy is employed in contemporary mass media to promote products, defame public figures and misappropriate rhetoric. A contextomized quotation not only prompts audiences to form a false impression of the source’s intentions, but can contaminate subsequent interpretation of the quote when it is restored to its original context.”
Another chamblee54 post, about a dubious quote, refers to the Four Principles of Quotation. Principle 1 Whenever you see a quotation given with an author but no source assume that it is probably bogus. Principle 2 Whenever you see a quotation given with a full source assume that it is probably being misused, unless you find good evidence that the quoter has read it in the source. Principle 3 Whenever you make a quotation, give the exact source. Principle 4 Only quote from works that you have read.
This does not answer the question… is it WRONG to put the incorrect name at the bottom of a quote? Sharing a meme on facebook is not the same as putting a goofy quote in a term paper. While this is something that PG is loath to do, is it really that bad for someone else? Certainly there are concerns about context. Memes often do not use the quote as the author would have intended.
After a few frustrating search terms, PG decided to google “I don’t care who a quote is (mis)attributed to. I share a meme because its message resonates for me.” Google replied “Did you mean: I don’t care who a quote is (mis)attributed to. I share a meme because it’s message resonates for me” Apparently, Google does not know that the possesive form of its does not have an apostrophe. It’s is short for it is.
There were some lively results, though few answered the key question. “Furthermore, and this does bear mentioning, Andy Rooney did not write this. He died in 2011 so the words in the post, “let’s make 2019/2020 the year the silent majority is heard,” is ridiculous.” “Ever since the quote’s real author emerged, there’s been a lively discussion on Facebook about whether it even matters who said it – as long as someone said it.”
One result typifies the entire commodity wisdom catalog. Best Inspirational Quotes For Killer Social Media Posts There is a pop-up ad that will not go away. “149 Inspirational Quotes: Free PDF! Want to inspire your friends and followers with uplifting words? Grab my collection of 149 short quotes that are just the right length for social media posts, PLUS tips on how to make and post them! Sign up now and you’ll have the free PDF in a flash” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Are My Racial Attitudes Your Business?
PG was living his life when see saw something on facebook: “And another thing: if you are going to claim NOT to be racist, I feel like you should familiarize yourself with some contemporary writings and definitions of racism, not just what Mirriam Webster says.” The first reaction was to ignore this. If you reply to a comment about racism on facebook, you are asking for trouble. Life is too short to be wasting time on such unpleasantness.
But the thought engine had been kickstarted, and continued to idle in the background. When PG pulled into the Kroger parking lot, the idea hit full force. Maybe it is none of your business.
Some people say that a PWOC is not affected by racism. If this is the case, then why should the racial attitudes of a PWOC affect another PWOC? If a person treats you fairly, do you really need to know this person’s attitudes about race?
The fbf ex-fbf does not say what the context of this claim is. Did anyone ask you whether or not you were a racist? If not, are you assuming that they are interested? Maybe someone assumed the listener was interested. Maybe the proper response to look bored, and say TMI.
The comment mentioned “contemporary writings and definitions of racism.” Who are the people who set themselves up as arbiters about what we should think about race? What are the qualifications? Who asked them what they thought? How do we know that these people are dependable?.
Maybe the answer is to show compassion and kindness to your neighbor, and don’t worry about their racial attitudes. If you are proud of your racial attitudes, please refrain from boasting. Not everyone is interested. This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Controversial Take
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generalissimo ~ the roches ~ portnoy’s complaint ~ ncaa div.1 ~ fbi
hammertoe ~ bydhttmwfi ~ McPherson ~ Arlo Guthrie ~ mcpherson’s last ride
lab leak ~ michael diebert ~ close to you ~ muscogee ~ solace ~ semi modular synthesiser
jane fonda ~ bret & bob ~ menbodied ~ tadalafil ~ anderson lee aldrich ~ Anderson Lee Aldrich
“what is DNA again?” “thats that stuff, like at a crime scene, like if you have DNA, it means you’re guilty” “that’s why I never spank my monkey at a crime scene” ~ Shelby Foote tells a story. He was talking to a descendant of Gen. Nathan B. Forrest. “That war produced two geniuses, Lincoln and Forrest.” “In this house we don’t think too much of Mr. Lincoln.” ~ @ProfBrianKalt Your annual reminder that the turkeys the president pardoned can still be prosecuted for state charges ~ @chamblee54 What if people were as proud of their ability to listen, as they are of the clever things they say? ~ There is something intimidating about the blank slate, the tabula rasa, the empty white page. The white serves as the background, while the black characters transmit the message. Unless it is a black screen, with white letters, in which case the dynamic is reversed. I should think about this sunday. I took the weekly reading of the water meter, and saw that we had a good week, water comsumption wise. I did a load of laundry, and had a lovely breeze filled day to dry the clothes. The falcons lost, which should surprise nobody. I went walking at the river, and angered my friend by walking too slow. These things too shall pass away. There was an attack ad on the radio for the senate race. I was trying to remember it later, and don’t know who it was for. I think it was pro-herschel, because it said a lot of rude … and pointless … things about senator warlock… warnock … but did not mention the name of the republican alternative. I am rather discouraged about this election. Both men are puppets, who will do what their sponsors tell them to do. The democrats persuaded Christian Walker to trash his father, which made me very very sad. I have heard some sermons by senator warnock, and he says some things that make my skin crawl. I am going to have to hold my nose when i vote. The voting takes place in the cafetorium of ashford park school, where i attended classes… i have held my nose in there many times before ~ @chamblee54 What would have happened if the HB laptop story had come out, and the actors had not tried to suppress it? It was October 2020. Most voters were over the election. Just release the story, and let it die ~ @chamblee54 I want to know why those bomb charges against #AndyAldrich were dismissed. His grandfather is a politician. Someone with influence made very serious charges go away ~ @chamblee54 Would a second Trump administration have been so aggressive in promoting the vaccine? I think it was the established government at work, and the party of the POTUS made little difference. ~ pictures for this post turkey day turkey are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Did The KKK Endorse Donald Trump?
In the last days of the 2016 election, people began to say that Donald Trump was endorsed by the KKK. @DefiantLionUK Don’t forget President-elect Donald #Trump is a hate-filled, #KKK endorsed, #racist & that simply can’t be tolerated #TrumpProtest. @Eti_Verde Vote! American democracy in action! Stop Trump & his white nationalist KKKlan!
The consensus was that DJT was endorsed by the KKK, and that DJT is a racist. Therefore, if you support DJT, you support the KKK, and you are a racist. There is a name for this type of logical fallacy. The net result is the election of DJT.
It is tough to say how much impact this KKK talk had on the election. By November 8, America had been hit over the head with political talk for two years. The various factions tend to live in echo chambers, where they only hear information that reinforces what they already think. People say what sounds good to them. If someone does not agree, then they are a racist. People seem to assume that their neighbor will agree with them, if only you insult them enough.
Google “kkk endorses donald trump.” The top result is in the Washington Post, KKK’s official newspaper supports Donald Trump for president. “It is called the Crusader — and it is one of the most prominent newspapers of the Ku Klux Klan. Under the banner “Make America Great Again,” the entire front page of the paper’s current issue is devoted to a lengthy defense of Trump’s message — an embrace some have labeled a de facto endorsement.”
There is no link to the endorsement. If you google the Crusader, you find this. The Crusader is a tacky little newspaper, headquartered in Harrison, Arkansas. It is “The official Newspaper of The Knights Party.” You get “4 Big Quarterly Issues” for $20. “The Charge on your Credit Card Statement will show up as Christian Books and Things”
The truth is that the Ku Klux Klan is an obsolete movement. There are a few dozen chapters, who often do not get along. The hand wringing by “liberals” empowers the Klan. If people would ignore the Klan, they would go away.
“The KKK is split into many smaller subdivisions, explained (KKK Imperial Wizard Frank) Ancona, and often times, banished members of a larger branch will attempt to start their own. Ancona believes this is the case with Murray, who is not even known to the Traditionalist American Knights. “He basically made up his own name,” Ancona said, explaining that Murray may not even be on his birth certificate…. Half of them don’t have the rituals for our ceremonies.” Frank Ancona died in 2017.
Despite it’s fierce reputation as a “racist terrorist” organization, the KKK is in bad shape. It has less credibility than the Westboro Baptist Church. The custom of wearing bedsheets makes them the easy target for jokes. The Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center say the membership of the KKK is dwindling.
A good argument could be made that anonymous publicity is helping the KKK. It makes bedsheets look dangerous. While the three digital stooges of anonymous/facebook/twitter are focused on bedsheets, more dangerous white (and other color) hate groups are operating in darkness. With people fascinated with who is under the bedsheets, people that can do damage are buying ammunition, and buying elections.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These men were Union soldiers, in the War Between the States. They did not post on facebook. This is a repost from 2016.
Thanksgiving Story
Thanksgiving was a time our family cherished. It was the only time all of us got together under one roof and mingled. Except for me. ~ I was the the family embarrassment. They were Catholic, and disliked my way of life. I played guitar, loved Heavy Metal, and worshiped Satan. ~ All this explains why my family shunned me. In their eyes, I was the flaw of a nearly perfect gem, but in mine, I was the cream of the crop.
I should’ve known they had something awful in mind when they asked me to join them somewhere. They drove me to the very corner of the ranch. ~ “What the fuck are we doing back here,” I asked. My only reply was, “Shut up you blaspheming fool.”
At last we got to the destination. My father, mother, and sister were standing around, wearing funeral clothes. ~ In the middle was a shallow grave. “What’s that hole for?” I asked dumbly. “Take a guess you satanic fucker!” Was the reply from my father.
I felt a thud on my head. I hit the ground with a loud thlap. I turned in spite of excruciating pain to see my uncle wielding a shovel. ~ I touched the back of my head to find my fingers coated in blood. I suddenly grew light headed and passed out. When I woke up I inhaled dirt. ~ Luckily, my family didn’t know how to properly bury someone so I was able to dig myself out. I sat there and puked for about fifteen minutes.
When I got back, it was Thanksgiving night. through the window I could see my family, sitting there, saying grace like the sheeple they were. ~ Seeing them praying made my hate for them and all Catholics grow. It went from a smouldering, muddled anger, to a flaming, outrageous hatred
I ran into the garage and found my uncle’s shotgun, sitting there, waiting for me, beckoning, saying, “Go ahead, make these fuckers pay.” ~ “Hi Mom!” I shouted as I pulled the trigger, I started laughing uncontrollably as I continued firing at my family until I was empty.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” My father asked, wounded, shot in the gut. “Wrong with me?” I asked calmly. “What’s wrong with you?” ~ With that I threw the gun away and dined. Not on Turkey, but on raw human flesh. It was the best Thanksgiving ever. ~ Twitter serialization by @creepypasta_txt. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Chamblee54 
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