Mr. Korda And Mr. Reagan
PG was listening to an internet show, while editing the last of some pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. Typically, he works on a rotation. For a few weeks, it is GSU. Then, for a few weeks, it is The Library of Congress. The third part of the cycle is color pictures taken by himself. When the end of a batch is in sight, it is a time of happiness. As much fun as the pictures are, after a while PG gets tired of what he is working on, and is ready for a change. The pictures that go with this feature are the last ones of this GSU cycle.
The background entertainment was Booknotes, a C-Span show that ran a few years ago. It is hosted by Brian Lamb, the founder and CEO of C-Span. Mr. Lamb does not appear to have much of a personality. This means the show keeps the focus on the authors. Booknotes presents a transcript for the talks. Lazy bloggers enjoy this feature.
The author talking tonight is Michael Korda. When the show aired July 9, 1999, Mr. Korda was the Editor in Chief at Simon & Schuster. The house scored the Presidential memoirs of Ronald Reagan. Mr. Korda worked on the book. There were some good stories.
Mr. KORDA: … I then took on editing Ronald Reagan, which was sort of strange, because the president, of course, did not write his books. There was a ghostwriter, Bob Lindsey, whom we picked, and rather famously, at the end of the whole procedure, we had a press conference at which Ronald Reagan and I were photographed ostensibly editing his book. We were each–sat in front of the television cameras and given two sheafs of perfectly blank white paper, and a–and a ballpoint pen, and we sat there, the two of us together at this table, busily pretending to scribble editorial notes and things, and hand them back–on totally blank pieces of paper. I mean, not for nothing did the president come from the movies–and he was wonderful at it. Anybody watching this would–you know, the concentration, the firmness of his handwriting, his total immersion in what he was doing. But I mean, it was–it was the movies.
Anyway, I after this had taken place and this scene had been recorded for all the television shows, the president stood up, and he walked to the door and turned around–the cameras were still on him, of course, and still on–and turned around and waved, and he said, `I’m sure the book is great. I’m looking forward to reading it when I have the time.’ And it’s true. He had only the most tangential connection to this book. …
But he was always, when I–whenever I worked with him–the kindest and the nicest. He always brought his little bag of home-baked cookies to have with coffee in a paper bag in the morning, and he would put them on a plate and pass them around. … He said, `These are homemade chocolate chip cookies, made by Esmerelda, our maid, and I brought them in for us to have with our coffee.’ And we’d put them on a–but these weird look–because they looked like she was–I think she was Ecuadorian or In–Inc–South or Latin American–and they looked like, in fact, like chocolate chip cookies that had been made by somebody who’s never seen a chocolate chip cookie. You know, they were kind of too thick and too burned at the edges. Anyway–but he loved them, so we put them on the plate, and as we were having our coff–we’d pass them around the table. There were about six or seven of us around the table, all of us working on these proofs except for Ronald Reagan, who was kind of looking out the window, and wishing he were doing something else. And everybody has one of these chocolate chip cookies, and when the plate gets ’round to the end of the table, it’s put back in front of the president, and there’s one cookie left on the plate.
And about 15 or 20 minutes I realized that the president is paying no attention whatsoever to what we are saying, and that his mind is fixed on something else. And what it’s fixed on is this one remaining chocolate chip cookie, and it’s perfectly clear to me that he wants that second chocolate chocolate chip cookie with his coffee, but having been brought up in Dixon, Illinois, properly, he has been taught, as a maxim that cannot possibly be broken, that you do not take the last cookie on plate, particularly when you’re the host, so he can’t take it. So to break the spell, I said, `Mr. President, those chocolate chip cookies were delicious.’ And he holds up the plate and he said, `Oh, yes. Yeah, they–they’re good, weren’t they? They’re homemade,’ and he goes through the whole thing. He said, `Would anybody like the cookie?’ And he then passes the plate around the table, and it goes ’round everybody, gets to me, and I pass it on to Bob Lindsey, who’s sitting next to me and between me and the president, and you could see the relief on the president’s face, as this plate comes around with this one–and nobody’s touched this cookie. And just as it reaches Bob Lindsey, without even looking at it, Lindsey takes the cookie up and swallows it. And I looked, and Ronald Reagan’s face was such a picture of sadness that I–my heart went out to him, even though I don’t agree with him politically–I just felt for him. He could–you know, he almost had it, you know, he had that cookie in his hand. He was counting on it, and he didn’t get it.
Two More Years
The United States is currently in the second longest streak of Presidents living to finish their term in office. The last POTUS to die in office was John F. Kennedy, who met his maker on November 22, 1963. In a few weeks, that will be 50 years ago.
The first President to not finish his term, for mortal reasons, was William Henry Harrison. He perished April 4, 1841. This was 52 years, and 24 days, after George Washington was sworn in, on April 30, 1789. If BHO can get through two more years without the cigarettes killing him, then America will have a new record. The target date is December 16, 2015.
On the other side of the Atlantic, a similar countdown is in progress. Victoria served as Queen of England from June 20, 1837 to January 22, 1901 In calenderese, this is 63 years and 216 days. The current monarch, Elizabeth II, began her reign February 6, 1952. In another two years, unless her purse explodes and kills her, Elizabeth will be the longest serving ruler of England. She recently passed George III, who served 59 years. Elizabeth did not have a revolution in the colonies to concern her. The target date is September 10, 2015. This is a repost. Pictures by The Library of Congress.
Flood Facebook
There is a meme going around. With tomorrow the anniversary of our national humiliation, this sort of thing seems to be rampant. The text reads:
Everybody, let’s do this… let’s flood facebook with this: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under G-d, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” RE-POST IF YOU THINK G-D, OUR COUNTRY, OUR FLAG, AND OUR MILITARY DESERVE RESPECT!!! Let’s just see how AMERICANS will repost!
Posting ugly graphics does not show respect. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Nuclear Unclear Number Nine
The folks at Bloggingheads.tv have another glowing diavlog with John Horgan and Rod Adams. They talk about nuclear energy. Chamblee54 has written about these gentlemen twice. Mr. Adams thinks nuclear energy is safe, cost efficient, and just plain dandy. In this appearance, his moustache is no bigger, and he has a full beard to go with it. The new look works well.
As noted in the previous two posts, Mr. Adams is a master of rhetoric. He gets going along, throwing out twenty kiloton words like beads at a Mardi Gras parade. Before long, your eyes are glazing over. PG could only listen to sixteen minutes of the latest installment.
For those who are new here, PG is not totally anti nuke. The side effects of fossil fuels like oil and coal are considerable. In theory, nukes can be operated safely. It would require constant, corruption free oversight from somebody, usually a government of some sort. The problems of a mistake can be devastating. PG thinks solar is our best option, but realizes that it is not happening anytime soon in the you ess aa. There are no easy solutions, and a lot of problems any way you go.
Mr. Adams likes to respond to comments. This is in written form, and easy to paste into a blog post. Here is a comment from the recent discussion. “I’m pretty sure I did not claim that Fukushima cores were not melted. I did claim that only a small quantity of radioactive material would be released outside of the containments. I might have underestimated a little; but the quantities that were released really were tiny in physical terms when compared to the amount of material in the core or when compared to the billions of tons of waste products dumped every year as a result of fossil fuel combustion.”
Lets take a look at that. The size and weight of radioactive materials is not the problem. A relatively small plane was able to carry the nuke that destroyed Hiroshima. The problem with nukes is the radioactive juice contained in those small amounts of matter. The mass of the matter that was released at Fukushima is not the problem. Like the motivational slogan says, its not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog. To compare the mass of the material released from Fukushima, to the millions of tons of CO2 released into the air every year by fossil fuels, is misleading.
In a verbal discussion, Mr. Adams throws factoids like this out one after another. He spices these statements with big words, which may, or may not, deserve to scare people. It can be a bit overwhelming. It is like the last line of this spam email “NOTE : If You Receive This Message In Your Junk Or Spam Its Due To Your internet Provider.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Leo Frank And George Zimmerman
About this time one hundred years ago, Leo Frank was convicted of murdering Mary Phagan. Within two years, with the sentence commuted to life imprisonment, some people kidnapped him from a state prison. Leo Frank was taken to Marietta, and hung from an oak tree.
George Zimmerman is the object of the mob’s fury today. The two cases are different. There is little doubt that Mr. Zimmerman fired the weapon, that killed Trayvon Martin. There is considerable doubt about the guilt of Leo Frank. Much of the venom directed at Mr. Frank was because he was Jewish. Trayvon Martin was the unpopular minority in the current case.
The common thread in the two cases is media fueled demands for vengeance. The Supreme Court took note of this in the Frank case. “Mob law does not become due process of law by securing the assent of a terrorized jury.”
Tom Watson was one of the leading rabble rousers in Mr. Frank’s case. A politician and newspaper owner, Mr. Watson led the anti semitic charge. Today, a large bronze statue of Tom Watson is in front of the west side of the State Capitol. This side is the preferred site for rallies. Tom Watson is seen shaking a finger behind the speakers stand.
So far, the mob has not executed George Zimmerman. It is not out of the question. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Israel And Syria
There was a feature in the Washington Post, 9 questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask. The WP is corporate media through and through. The 9 questions feature had very little to say about Israel. This is curious. Israel is a powerful country that Syria is, technically, at war with. As conspiracy happy as the Middle East is, you would think there is something to say.
PG decided to do a test. The text of the article was copied into a word document. A search was done for Israel. Out of 2900 words in the article, Israel comes up twice.
The Cold War is long over, and most of the region long ago made peace with Israel and the United States; the Assad regime’s once-solid ideological and geopolitical identity is hopelessly outdated. But Bashar al-Assad, who took power in 2000 when his father died, never bothered to update it.
Iran’s thinking in supporting Assad is more straightforward. It perceives Israel and the United States as existential threats and uses Syria to protect itself, shipping arms through Syria to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and the Gaza-based militant group Hamas.
As is often the case online, the comments are more revealing than the main article.
You also left out the threat that Iran has made about using nuclear arms against Israel if the US intervenes in Syria. Israel is being used as a pawn in this stupid game of chess.
Regarding the chemical weapon attack, only two options appear to be being considered – that it was the Syrian Regime or the Opposition forces that discharged the weapon. What about the third alternative – that an outside force such as Mossad (Israel) or the Iranians discharged these weapons … to provoke the United Sates into retaliation and involvement.
… the rebels opposing Assad are not all civilians who took up arms; far from it, most of them are former Syrian soldiers who deserted to join the rebels. And seriously, if you think that “most of the region long ago made peace with Israel and the United States”, you lose all credibility in writing about “the region” – you’re blinded by your love for Israel and don’t understand anything about the Arabs ….
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
America Stay Out Of Syria
Ten and a half years ago, America was about to go to war. Congress had passed the fig leaf authorization. The troops were waiting nearby. Babylon was fixin’ to experience shock and awe.
PG did not think it was a very good idea, and wrote his representatives in Washington to tell them about it. While he did not think it would stop the invasion, it is good to be on the record as being opposed.
On this Labor Day weekend, we are looking at another war. While ground troops are not discussed… yet … the world is expecting us to kill some Arabs. This time, instead of useless letters to useless politicians, PG is going to write a blog post. It might not stop anything, but it is an effort.
The two Senators from Georgia are Republican idiots. PG is not sure who his congressman is. It is either Hank Johnson or Tom Price. The best thing that can be said is that neither is Cynthia McKinney. A copy of this post might go to the four gentleman anyway.
The best case scenario is for America to send in a few high tech missiles, kill a few Arabs, and let the Civil War go on as before. There is little way to know whether it is good guys, or bad guys, that we would be killing. Is anyone fighting in Syria a good guy? Kill them all, let Allah sort them out.
The worst case scenario is too horrible to consider. Nuclear armed Israel is next door, and enjoys killing Arabs. Nuclear armed Russia supports Syria, and enjoys killing just about anyone. The OPEC nations are nearby, and looking for an excuse to jack up the prices. There are so many ways for this to get out of control, and so many who want more chaos.
Maybe, just maybe, this is a time for America to sit one out. Let Israel take care of herself. Why is using chemical weapons so much worse than depleted uranium shells? How is what Syria does worse that what Israel did in Gaza? What about the reports that it was the Syrian rebels who were using chemical weapons? How will we know we are killing the correct people? The time to think about these things is before America starts to kill women and children.
Pictures for today’s entertainment were taken at the 2011 Dragon Con parade. PG was horrified by the overcrowding at the 2011 event, and chose to not attend this year. The costumes are probably very similar to what was on display today. Very few of the playtime soldiers at this parade will participate in any military action in Syria.
The Cost Of Football
Football is just around the corner. The teams are busy with the pre season, and soon weekends will be full of hitting and drinking. Perhaps this is a good time to wonder whether football is worth the human cost. Especially now, with a national debate raging about the future of our health care. Football injuries keep hospitals hopping during the autumn.
This is the annual post about the down side of football. There is a helping of hypocrisy here, as PG enjoys watching the hits. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Football season is here. While the games are fun to watch, the players are paying the price. Your health insurance premiums just might be affected.
Football is a contact sport. On every play, the linemen block other lineman to keep them from tackling a back. Someone gets hit on every play. Most of these hits are “clean” and cause only bruises. Some are “dirty”, and cause injuries. Even the clean hits can hurt someone.
It is estimated that 187,000 emergency room visits every year are due to football. What if an illegal drug sent 187k to the er annually? There would be a hue and cry to kill the pushers.
Knee injuries are especially prevalent. An estimated 45,000 knee operations are performed each year due to football injuries. Arthroscopy is a wonderful invention.
With all those helmets slamming into each other, head injuries occur. “The researchers found that there is approximately one catastrophic head injury per every 150,000 athletes playing, or 7 catastrophic injuries yearly. There were 0.67 injuries per 100,000 players at the high school level and 0.21 injuries per 100,000 for college level football players.” Often, the coaches get caught up in the do or die spirit of a big game, and don’t get the player the medical attention that he needs. “Football is a very macho sport. Athletes are taught to play through pain,” …“But concussions range in severity and symptoms, so all a player may experience is a headache several hours after impact. High school players need to be educated in these symptoms and encouraged to self report.”
Even cheerleading squads are reporting more injuries, due to botched stunts.
When you see the players in their youthful glory, you don’t think what they will look like after they quit playing. Many players know this, but the lure of today’s glory justifies the pain of tomorrow. The heroes of yesterday often walk with pain today.
Conservative Liberal Racist
The management of this blog is not responsible for brain damage incurred while reading this post. If you cant take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Those threatened by this discussion, or just are not interested, are encouraged to skip over the text, and look at the pictures. These images, of Union Soldiers of the War Between the States, are from The Library of Congress.
There is a meme, with the text a conservative is a liberal who has been labeled a racist. A few comments followed publication. Someone was paying attention. Uhm…WTF?! ~ its a long story ~ All three labels are useless and misleading. I try not to let the labels of others describe me, but sometimes it happens. It is a bit of poetic license.
The words liberal and conservative are useless. When he started to make the comment, PG intended to refer to those two expressions. Then he started to type.The realization hit … the word racist was just as obsolete as liberal and conservative, and probably misused more often.
The next day at work, PG began to think. If you saw a mushroom cloud rising over Jimmy Carter Boulevard, that is what you saw. Random thoughts began to emerge.
A- The popularity of con, lib, and rac, derive from America’s blind allegiance to the belief paradigm The general thought is that what you believe is more important than what you do. The dominant religion in America is Jesus Worship, which is based on beliefs rather than practices. While America is not officially a Christian country, their thought processes dominate the way things work here.
B- The belief paradigm filters down to the popularity of silly labels.We have people who claim to be small government conservatives, and who support sending 200k troops to a war eight time zone away. You can treat your black neighbors with kindness and grace, but if you say the wrong things on facebook you are considered a racist. It is a funny system.
C- Conservatives use liberal as an insult. Liberals use racist as an insult.
D- No one is certain what the words conservative, liberal, and racist mean. You should beware of anyone who claims to be certain of what these labels represent.
Meme Abuse
Last Sunday, PG had his peace of mind torpedoed by a tacky graphic on facebook. Some would say to just ignore it. While this is a good course of action sometimes, it will leave you unable to appreciate the good messages that are broadcast. It can be tough to tell the difference between the good, and the bad. This post is a proposal for responsibility on the part of the meme monger.
This comment was made: ” I respectfully suggest you read the book or at least a precis before you opine on this issue Luther. You do not know the facts and your ignorance of them is painful to me.” Maybe the person who posted the graphic is the guilty party. When you post something, you should be prepared to back up your statements. You should supply easy to navigate links, to show people where you get your information. The messenger should do a bit of heavy lifting. It is the responsibility of the meme monger to back up the claims that are made.
If someone challenges what you say, they are taking you seriously. This is a compliment, whether you realize it or not. When someone asks for a link, this means that they want some evidence that the statement presented is, in fact, the truth. It is easy to say, oh that’s just so and so talking. When you ask for evidence, it means you are paying attention. (A side note: If you are going to insult someone, do not start your statement by saying “I respectfully suggest”.)
The proliferation of memes is a problem. There are so many graphics with a message, and it is so easy to share. Thought is not required. The deplorable graphic quality of many memes is another issue. This post is about the message, not the medium. Pictures for today’s graphic extravaganza are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Coat Of Many Colors
This feature was originally posted last august. The first part was about the 2012 election. At the time where Mr. Romney was taken seriously. Out of kindness to the readers, that part has been left out today. The pictures, from The Library of Congress, are a year older. Dolly Parton is a year younger.
When PG saw this, he 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. Mitt Romney never had a coat of many colors.
The song talks about a story in the Bible. PG had heard about the story, but didn’t remember the details. He 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.
The Tin Soldiers
1 And G-d spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy G-d, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other G-ds before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:
for I the LORD thy G-d am a jealous G-d,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy G-d in vain;
for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy G-d: in it thou shalt not do any work,
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,
and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother:
that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy G-d giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife,
nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet,
and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear:
but let not G-d speak with us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not:
for G-d is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.
21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where G-d was.
22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel,
Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
23 Ye shall not make with me G-ds of silver, neither shall ye make unto you G-ds of gold.
24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.
A The ten commandos are not meant to be believed. They are meant to be practiced.
B If you take away the religious whoopee, the ten commandos hold up as common sense rules for living.
C If you meet someone who claims to practice all of the commandos, then you are dealing with a liar.
D We are all G-d’s children. She gave you a heart and a mind. When in doubt, trust your heart.
E The first commando is powerful and under appreciated. It does not include books about G-d.
F There is an ongoing controversy about the public display of the ten commandos. Some say such displays violate the second commando. Does a sign forbidding lying and stealing work in a courthouse?
G The third commando is more than G-d’s last name. It is about the proper use of a sacred name. In a perfect world, the word G-d would only be used for worship and respectful discussion. A “pledge of allegiance” to a nationalist symbol is not an appropriate use of a sacred name.
H Sunday is too fine of a day to spend inside a church house.
I When you are discussing religion, it is normal to be a hypocrite.
If you disagree with people, the easiest, cheapest, and laziest argument is to say they are hypocrites.
J Whenever possible, show kindness to your neighbor.
K The text for Exodus 20 is courtesy of King James Bible Online.
Pictures are by Chamblee54. This is a repost.
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