Pause for Station Identification

Sorry about the quiet there folks, the semester is coming to an end. As as you know, that means tests, finals and papers due. I took three honors courses this semester...and then got sick at the beginning of the semester which put me behind the 8-ball. As a result I, as my father put so succinctly, choked, so life is more than a little crazy right now as I try an salvage some respectable grades. In fact I'm in the foreign language lab now waiting for the Russian tutor.

There is a lot to talk about: the rumblings of a Draft (as long as they use all those spiffy spy programs to draft anyone who has seriously uttered the words "Libtard, "Islamofacists" and "glass parking lot" first.) , Hillary and Condi as Presidential Candiates ("Not happenin'" and "No Fucking Way"), and "Yes Virginia, It's a Civil War", The Justice Department Watching the Watchers (YEAH!) , Global Warming Goes to Washington, When Mother Nature Gets Testy, and of course, the new Bond film....

... so hopefully I will get around to them this weekend when I have some breathing room.

So have a great week everyone, don't get carpal tunnel doing your X-Mas shopping, and I'll talk to you very soon.

In the meantime, enjoy this Holiday favorite from YouTube: It's An Outkast Chirstmas Charlie Brown

It's a Geek Thanksgiving

Since today is a family holiday and everyone is supposed to be having a good time, I will spare folks my political rant in favor of something more fun. Had my clan gathered this year:(, this one of the many sorts of things discussed over the mounds of food.

Best Space Ships in SciFi.

Last week a debate broke out on Fark over the best space ships in SciFi. It was prompted by a rather pedestrian list that appeared on a blog that both limited the ships to movies only and still made some rather glaring omissions.

He also didn't seem to remember that the ship in question in Star Trek IV was a Klingon Bird of Prey, not the Enterprise. Tsk. Tsk.

Now, not being a big book-reading SciFi person, I have to omit any notable space ships from Science Fiction literature (though I would be quite willing to listen to any recommendations) but I can compile a more accurate list from TV and movies than “Enterprise” and “Star Destroyers”.

So in no particular order...

Serenity (Firefly). Serenity is the inheritor of the Millennium Falcon, the run down transport that has been bought/won in a poker game second hand and is now doing work as a smuggler. Always two steps from falling out of the sky, in Wash and Kaylee’s capable hands and with Mal iron will, she could do just about anything.

Starfuries (Babylon Five) are a winner for me because they are what X-Wings should have become if some of the engineers from the Gunstar Project (The Last Starfighter) had come over. Not the fastest of fighters, but with multidirectional thruster assemblies on every projecting arm/wing, they were certainly the most agile. The later Thunderbolt series with the atmospheric airfoils was just completing the circle back to the X-Wings.

Romulan Warbirds (Star Trek: The Next Generation) As my brother once commented long ago, “They’re the Ferraris of the Star Trek Universe.” One always had the sneaking suspicion that any Federation Captain that ever faced down a Romulan Captain secretly thought, “Why does his ship look cooler than mine..?” Plus they come with a cloaking device. Standard.

Enterprise 1701-E (Sovereign Class, Star Trek: TNG Films) The first Enterprise looked like a scrappy little contender. The Enterprise of Next Generation looked like a cruise ship. This enterprise of the last two films looked like it could seriously kick ass and take names. This was the Enterprise I had been waiting for. Too bad she came along so late…and in Berman’s time.

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars IV, V, VI). Can anyone not love this ship? The mechanical expression of Han Solo’s broken down cynic with a hero lurking inside of him, Chewbacca beat them both up (the human metaphorically) in order to bring them back to their noble selves. The Falcon became *the* ship that represented the Star Wars series and the lack of such a redeemed morally-ambiguous curmudgeon character/ship is one of the many reasons why the “Prequel” films failed.

Earth Alliance Destroyers (Babylon Five). In the Babylon Five universe, all the starships seem to be built with an organic feel along these elegant flowing lines. Except the massive, brick-like Earth Alliance cruisers. Huge block of engines in the back, bulky rotating section in the middle with a sledge hammer-like bow and bristling with guns on every surface, this is the realistic progression of “What if we did have to take battleships into space?”

Shadow Vessels (Babylon Five). The living embodiment of pure chaos, damn-near impervious, incredibly destructive and with their own consciousness, the spider-like shadow vessels competes with the Borg cube for most scary starship in SciFi TV. As an audience member, whenever you saw either of these ships, all you could think was “Oh, shit…”

Discovery One (2001). “I’m sorry Dave. I can’t do that.” Ranking up among most iconic of the evil/scary ships, Discovery took Hal and mankind to the thin line between God and science with murder and mayhem making the Discovery’s appearance in 2010 creep-out factor 10.

(Though I have to admit being partial to the Leonov and it's atmospheric braking in 2010.)

Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker Guide to The Galaxy) With infinite improbability drive, no more mucking about in hyperspace. One of the late Douglas Adams more brilliant conceptual creations blending science and philosophy in a nonsensically funny mix, Heart of Gold was one of the reason why the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy took off the way it did. And could any other space ship be classified as Dada-equse?

Borg Vessel (ST:TNG). Resistance is Futile. You could destroy 80% of this vessel, and it would just. Keep. Coming. That’s IF you can actually do that much damage. Considering one Borg ship pretty much wiped out the entire Federation fleet at Wolf 359, chances of that were slim to none. I recently rewatched “Best of Both Worlds” and Q’s gift to the Federation can still send a chill down your spine.

Tardis (Dr. Who). 40+ years in television, they must be doing something right. This concept of the ultimate in time space travel was given the random British twist when it’s “chameleon circuit” was fused so the ship permanently looks like a London Police box...flying through time and space. The concept of it’s interior being much larger than the exterior has made "Tardis" a catch phrase in British popular culture for anything bigger than it looks.

Satellite o’Love. Home to Joel (later Mike) and the ‘Bots: Tom Servo and Crow (and Gypsy and cambot) of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fame. "It's just a show, so you really shoudl just relax..."

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix series). A hovercraft. A fast and agile hovercraft. Not technically a starship, but Morpheus ride was just so utterly cool I wanted one.

Moya/TinMan (Farscape/ST:TNG). The concept of a living starship that bonds with terrestrial being for navigation and care is a very interesting one. I believe the motif has been used in SciFi literature for quite some time, but Star Trek was the first TV show to play with it. Moya is the most complete examination of that concept onscreen to date, and a very cool one it is.

Battlestar Galactica (the original series). I know the new ship is sleek and all… but it’s sleek and all. The original ship had such class, plus the Colonial Vipers were like the muscle cars of space.

I also understand that the Liberator of Blake 7 is also a ship worthy of note, however I have not seen the series. So I will leave the commentary to the better informed. Other ship mentioned in the discussion were the Narn Dreadnoughts, Cygnus of The Black Hole, The Event Horizon, starfighters from Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century, the Eagle from Space 1999, Red Dwarf and Space Ball One. I know that Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyers are an iconic sillouette in SciFi, but I just never took to them.

If you really want to get your geek on, have a look at this site which actually mapped out the relative sizes of *all* the ships in the more famous series (and some not so famous) for comparison so you can really get an idea how big they are vs. one another. Everything from Dyson Spheres to Federation Shuttles. And you can drag them around!

Bonus: I also recommend scrolling down to the bottom of “1 Meter per Pixel” page to check out the sizes of various buildings vs. Godzilla and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.)

So enjoy your family and friends everyone and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

You Know Al…

Sunday evening when I talked about the Fishbone song, I mentioned that there were a lot of apocalyptic songs running around during the 1980’s. And there were.

On top of Party at Ground Zero, 99 Luft Balloons, and Cities in Dust, you had Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, All Fall Down by Migde Ure, Land of Confusion by Genesis, Games Without Frontiers by Peter Gabriel, Minutes to Midnight by Midnight Oil, Russians by Sting, Seconds & Unforgettable Fire by U2, Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears and the list goes on and on and on.

In fact, here is a page that lists all the song about nuclear war from the 1980’s. It will surprise you how many there were.

Thing is, no one singled these songs out as being political. They were played on radio station regularly with Duran Duran and Bananarama with no one saying boo beyond, “cool song”. The threat of nuclear holocaust was such a common and constant part of life that artists sang about it with the aplomb artists of most era would sing about love or the way artists of today sing about malaise/ennui. Truthfully, no one thought much of it.

Now during those 50+ years we lived with the idea that one man had the power to wipe out all of human civilization with the push of a button, we did get paranoid once. We did allow the government to run away with our fears, once. Then the Attorney General for the Army stood up to Joe McCarthy and the Congressional Committee and said, “Have you no decency, sir?”

Last week, the nation's Attorney General claimed that people who attacked the Warretless Wiretapping program as limiting American freedoms (and indeed it fly directly in the face of the Fouth Amendment)…

"But this view is shortsighted," he said. "Its definition of freedom one utterly divorced from civic responsibility is superficial and is itself a grave threat to the liberty and security of the American people."


(Anyone like the 1984 “goodspeak” there? “Curtailing of freedom is liberty”. Orwell would be so….utterly dejected at being proven right.)

Joe McCarthy went after due process by allowing people to be dragged before the congressional committee based on anonymous hearsay and spraying invective and innuendo on innocent people's good names. That’s it.

The Bush administration has attacked rights Joe McCarthy wouldn't even dream of touching. He has allowed torture, he has closed hearings of terrorism suspects to the public (the McCarthy hearings were on TV), he has fostered the program to spy on American citizens, he has done away with the right of Habeus Corpus paving the way for arbitrary arrest and indefinite detainment all because we are supposed to be terrified of what?

A bunch of guys with box cutters and IEDs?

More terrified of them than we were of Khrushchev, a man with a nuclear arsenal who banged his shoe on the podium at the UN and said of America “We will bury you!”

The fact is America said to McCarthy, “Y’know even if there are communists in the government (and you haven’t proven there were) it’s not worth giving up the ideals this nation was founded on. Shove off.”

And look what happened: We rested our faith in the American freedom and democracy and lo and behold, the Soviet system collapsed under it’s own weight. We were right.

Why can’t we have that faith now? Why can’t we entrust that American freedom and democracy will prevail over the murderous thuggery and religious zealotry of terrorism. Why have we lost faith in America such that believing in our freedoms is seen as being “utterly divorced from civic responsibility”?

Have you no decency Attorney General? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

Top Tens

NASCAR Championship

Well, the final race was today at Homestead and as many suspected, Jimmie Johnson is the Nextel Cup Champion.

Honestly as much as his toady-ness annoys me, the truth is he and Chad Knauss are a first rate team and it was only a matter of time before they took the big one home. They deserved it. Congrats to them and the entire #48 Team.

It was a good race. It would have been more interesting to watch if the guys in the booth had talked about more people then just the top five Chase contenders. And Jimmie Johnson, could they have tried to go five minutes without talking about him?

(And how much saccrine psuedo-inspirational crap are we supposed to take? It's like molasses guys: a little goes a long way.)

“And we’re cycling through pit stops and hey…look who’s in the lead…Elliott Sadler!”

And they never mentioned him again. I know from the grid that he took four tires with 50-60 laps to go when everyone else took two. A smart move. If they were going to take four it was the time to do so when they still had the laps to make it work for them, but then he just vanished. Only by watching the ticker did I find out he had to drop out of the race and we don’t know for what reason.

Anyway, rough day for the #8. They were putting up a good fight and had a strong lead but a mess-up in the pits which ticked off Dale who then over-drove the car and smacked the wall…But hey, you guys ended up 5th in points, that ain’t chopped liver. Congrats on a great year. :)

And Elliott, congrats on hopefully finding the right situation for you to shine in next year. :)

Well. Except for the Banquet it’s over. As JJ and Co. sticks around to do Victory Lane on SPEED, everyone else is moving at warp speed to get their butts back to their respective families for hopefully a few days of coma and the Thanksgiving Holiday. NASCAR has the longest season of any sport, period. It starts February 12 and goes to now, the weekend before Thanksgiving. 36 races, plus the non-points oddities like the Nextel All Star and the Budweiser Shootout. Enjoy your time off fellas, you earned it.

It’s been an interesting season…

I have seen a couple lists of great import this weekend and felt I should contribute to the ongoing discussion of such vital topics as…

Greatest Songs of the 1980’s and Best Ships in SciFi.

We’ll tackle songs first and ships tomorrow.

Music of the 1980's

I graduated high school in 1989, so for me to discuss it’s pop culture is not an attempt at trendy kitsch, but a true nostalgia. As Grosse Point Blank spelled out so well, the music truly defined that generation, perhaps more so than the kids living today in a Clear Channel/manufactured music media world.

Now, there are many songs that are symbolic of the era. Born In The U.S.A. for example. Honestly, I was never overly fond of this song. I prefer Springsteen’s earlier stuff like Born to Run. However this was *the* song that represented the American Middle Class, it’s growing disillusionment with the Government and the failing American Dream. Had Reagan not heisted it for his 1984 campaign, it might have remained a pure rock anthem. As it was, it was everywhere and catapulted Springsteen into superstardom.

But every 80’s list includes and discusses songs like this and the Police “Every Breath You Take” and Duran Duran. I don’t need to go over those songs.

Here are some that to me represent that time in culture and my life.

That is, after being forced down to 10 and in no particular order…

- Life In a Northern Town by the Dream Academy. Arriving in Southern California from a miniscule town in Maine was something of a culture shock. Not to say that I didn’t take advantage of living in place that afforded more entertainments for the rebellious youth than swiping a six pack and driving off into the woods to get pregnant, but the big city, specially the hot big city, was never home to me. I still miss Maine. This song captures some of the pace and almost surreal detachment felt in such a grey cold place, even if the lyrics describe the height of summer.

- Suburbia by the Pet Shop Boys. This is where I moved into in Southern California and my Gawd did this song capture the vapid cloister teenagers were so desperate to escape.

- Whisper to a Scream by Icicle Works. There is no better teen rebellious angst empowerment song…ever. Though Big Country comes close, the drums on “Whisper”rock.

- Party at Ground Zero by Fishbone. There were many playful post-apocalyptic songs floating around during the 1980’s: Nina’s “99 Luft Ballons” and another one of my favorites Souxsie and Banshee’s “Cities in Dust” for examples, but this was the ultimate statement of, “We’ve been living with this nuclear Mexican standoff for so long, we just don’t care anymore.” ..and you can dance to it.

- Killing Jar by Souxsie and the Banshees, probably one of the most quietly influential bands of the era. Killing Jar is about vivisection, but it’s so..fun sounding. Honestly the lyrics an emotionally damaging exposé’ on mankind’s not mere capacity but seeming desire for destruction, but they are further brought into relief by being set to music that is so lighthearted. Which is kind of the point and how we ignore this part of ourselves. Plus the lyric “The soft hoodwink shadow size of make believe” inspired one of my favorite D&D characters. (I am such a geek.)

Honestly Souxsie had a bunch of great songs that I adored. Peekaboo, Cities in Dust, their remake of Dear Prudence and one of the sweetest, if a tad dark, love songs I have ever heard, The Last Beat of My Heart. It’s truly difficult to chose just one song from them.

- Just Another Day by Oingo Boingo. The only way most of the rest of the county has heard of Boingo is “That band Danny Elfman used to be in” or they hear “Dead Man’s Party” every Halloween, but some of us were truly blest to live on the West Coast and be exposed to Boingo’s darkly satirical light. Oingo Boingo’s tribute to paranoia remains one of my favorites to this day.

- Where the Streets Have No Name by U2. If there is one word to describe U2 it’s “passion”…and a completely tight and grand sound all their own. The same sweeping passion they brought to their political music they built their more personal or romantic music on. This one holds all the exciting and expansive promise of falling in love.

Interestingly enough, I remember KROQ in Los Angeles calling for fans to come down and be in the video…they got a few more than expected.

- Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol. What list wouldn’t be complete without an admission of a guilty pleasure? I don’t care what all you gutter-minded folk say it’s about, it damn fun to dance to.

And the video has all the nonsensical hallmarks of early MTV trashy goodness.

- Something About You by Level 42. Best/Cutest Love Song ever. That was just a great song. I really don’t know how to say anything more than that.

-Love Is a Stranger by the Eurythmics. Was their ever a vocalist like Anne? What a Voice. There are few women in music now who can sing, and even fewer who can emote as she can, plus she has matured nicely so women who loved her in the Eurythmics love her still as a soloist.

Like Bands like the Police and Bruce Springsteen, it is very hard to think of the music of the 1980’s without thinking of the Eurythmics. Truly there are many great songs to chose from but to take a break from the “Sweet Dreams” and “Here Comes the Rain Again”, I would chose “Love Is a Stranger” for expressing so eloquently all the fears most people have to conquer when they fall in love.

- Better Be Good To Me by Tina Turner. Speaking of women who can sing, Tina had 80’s women’s back and this was a great song for that “I’m getting over heartbreak” phase.

- Rag Doll by Aerosmith. Growing up in the North East, liking Aerosmith is as culturally de riguer as liking Lynnard Skynnard in the South East. During the 1980’s, Aerosmith came back together to save us from drowning in the New Wave and the release of Permanent Vacation was an event. Rag Doll is the fun with a old jazzy-rockin’ feel.

I was fortunate to see them, fourth row center, for their Pump Tour. The same year I saw Alice Cooper at the Pantages, 13th row. Honestly, there will be no shows that can top those. I never have to go to concert again.

Another 1980’s offering of theirs I really love is the bluesy What It Takes, but that was really in came out in 1989 which kind of pushes boundary a bit...though it was definitely before the Metal to Grunge transition.

-Pink Houses by John Cougar Mellencamp. (I could never stop saying the “Cougar”) Mellencamp always did balance pure American rock n’ roll with a poignant awareness of American small town culture. Hurt’s So Good and Jack and Diane on the same album for instance.

Note: After a discussion following the release of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, my brother and I decided that a person’s reaction to Jack and Diane was an acid test to whether they truly understood American small town life. People either say “Oh, that’s a cute song” or they just nod solemnly.

But my personal favorite was always Pink Houses. There is such a tattered and uniquely American pride in it.

- Pressure by Billy Joel. I love this song. I love this album (Nylon Curtin). It’s the in-yer-face Billy before he got tamed by Christie Brinkley. Pressure not only has a rockin’ sound, it’s “What the fuck do you know?” lyrics are a great way to vent at the world (and it’s something for someone trying to consul a friend through a crisis to keep in mind.) Plus the video image of Billy drowning in shag carpeting is one that stuck with me forever.

Oh lord, I’ve gone over ten haven’t it?

O.K. a couple more.

Come Dancing by the Kinks. It’s just a fun tune with a lovely hint of nostalgia.

Our House by Madness. Because if it wasn’t your house, you wished it was. Certainly after the video came out, which I think I remember it being voted the best of that year.

O.K. That’s the 80’s to me.

You Seriously Consider Emigrating When…

Don’t Light Up in Belmont, CA

California City Bans Smoking outdoors.

The Belmont City Council voted unanimously last night to pursue a strict law that will prohibit smoking anywhere in the city except for single-family detached residences. Smoking on the street, in a park and even in one’s car will become illegal and police would have the option of handing out tickets if they catch someone.

In their own cars.

In Los Angeles.

I really don’t want to think of ten of thousands of people sitting on the 105, the 110 and the 405 having nic fits simultaneously.

I used to smoke, and it is rather amusing that I quit after I came to North Carolina, but I’m not going to be one of those “reformed snots” getting up in people’s faces.

Where is this “growing evidence?” The only evidence I have seen that indicates that second hand smoke is a problem is for people who live with smokers, day in, day out. ie. It’s the continuous exposure in a confined area that is a problem. So don’t smoke around the kids.

You aren’t going to get emphysema from walking by a couple smokers at the park.

I guess American paranoiac hysteria isn’t confined to terrorism.

I can’t wait ‘till this one hits the supreme court.

Creationist Museum Opens in Kentucky

Prepare to Believe.

I ask wonderingly, about those fossilized remains of early man-like creatures? Marsh knows all about that: "There are no such things. Humans are basically as you see them today. Those skeletons they've found, what's the word? ... they could have been deformed, diseased or something. I've seen people like that running round the streets of New York."

*pinches bridge of nose*

I could perhaps see someone like this wandering down the street of Manahattan without anyone paying too much mind. It's not like New Yorkers actually look at one another on the street anyway.

But this is a Neanderthal, our closest relative that immediately precedes us on the evolutionary tree.

I don't think someone like this.....

(Homo erectus)

Or this...

Would get far don't the street without someone noticing.

If not pointing and screaming.

And these are simply the next two down the line, this isn't including all the Australopithecenes/Paranthropus species and others such as Orrorin Tugenensis.

ID people whine that "there is no missing link!". The fact is there are dozens of "missing links" that have been found, various stages of evolutionary development.

I suspect they are waiting for a fossil to turn up with "This Is the Missing Link" blazed on it's forhead.

Oi!

But this is the part that kills me…

The museum's research scientist, Dr Jason Lisle, has a PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He realised he was a Christian while he was an undergraduate, but didn't spread it around: "People get very emotional about the issue. I don't believe we should ever be obnoxious about our faith. I just kept quiet." And how did he pass the exams? "I never lied, but if I was asked a question about the age of the universe, I answered from my knowledge of the topic, not my beliefs."

He acknowledges that the facts, what is real and provable, and his beliefs are completely different things. In other words...

So Much for Casting the First Stone

North Carolina Baptist Convention Bans Churches Who Are Nice to Gay People.

Now I have made the point before that gay’s marrying does nothing to “harm the institution of marriage”. Britney Spears has done more harm to the institution of marriage than Ellen DeGeneres ever will. But even if you are a Christian and believe that homosexuality is a sin, aren’t you supposed to “love the sinner and hate the sin”? Aren’t you supposed to welcome sinner into your midst because, hey aren’t we all?

Why isn’t Christ part of the Christian Church anymore? I mean, I'm not christians, but isn't he kind of important?

Or is he just the guy who dispenses everlasting life and to hell with anything he actually said?

Wow...

Is It That You People Just Don't Learn?

Or that you can't?

Trent Lott elected Minority Whip.

To some observers, the choice of Trent Lott as the new number two Republican in the Senate may seem like a step backward for a party still reeling from its election drubbing. But in fact the upset victory by the Mississippi Senator, bounced out of his post as the Republican leader of the Senate four years ago after he made comments praising then-Senator Strom Thurmond for his segregationist 1948 presidential campaign, may be the clearest sign yet of how the G.O.P. plans to move forward...

...Lott is more conservative and partisan than his opponent, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, which could signal more polarization and less cooperation in the Senate; in other words, the post-election talk of putting partisanship aside and getting the people's business done may be short-lived.












you too GOP.

...and Doggies, oh My!

The Report About Pilot

Pilot has gained 16 pounds and 4 inches in height since she came home. She also lost all her puppy teeth within two weeks and all her adult teeth will be fully in within a week or two. This leads me to belive she was actually older than we thought, simply malnourished. So now we have no idea how big she will get.

Here she is during her morning meditation. I don't know of any puppies that would actually stop their morning walk early in to just have a sit.








Playing with Sabre, who's the only one who will play with her.










Rutger is too busy helping me study.
(Actually, he's just a cranky old man...)














Afternoon walk. She loves the puddles.

Home Warm and Cozy

Ni-Night.

Democrats & Drivers

November 11th, 2006

Dear Congressmen, Congresswomen and Senators,

Congratulations on the Democratic Party’s retaking the House and the Senate. At last we can begin to breathe a little easier knowing that the legislation proposed by this the incompetent and ethically corrupt Bush administration will no longer simply be rubberstamped by a neo-conservative congress, that the balance of power between the three branches is finally returning.

Things gave gotten very, very bad in the last six years. We have placed our trust in your hands to bring back America, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. Please, we beg you, don’t mess this up.

Now here is where I think the new Congress needs to start.

1. The security recommendations of the 9-11 Commission should put in place with all due diligence and speed. We want to be safe and “safe” means actually protecting American citizens not waging a morally nebulous war overseas.

2. A plan to withdraw our troops from Iraq within the next three years should be created as soon as possible, perhaps sooner.

3. We want an end to the Patriot Act, warrentless wiretapping and the Military Commissions Act. We want our 4th Amendment rights and our right of Habeas Corpus back. We want a complete end to the torture of detainees, no matter how the president may define it. Police departments all over the U.S. manage to illicit confessions everyday without laying a finger on their prisoners. Maybe the CIA and DOD interrogators should go take a class with the NYPD. We also want public trails of terrorism suspects and we want to suspects and their attorneys to have access to the evidence against them. If we “know” these people are trying to harm us, we should have proof and not be afraid of showing that proof.

Plus you can point out that as long as the Patriot Act has been in effect, it hasn’t caught anyone.

I never understood how having the FBI look at my pelvic exams was supposed to catch terrorists anyway.

Sorry, little off-color humor there.

4. You of course know there needs to be a comprehensive plan to eliminate the national debt. That means not only going after pork but rolling back tax cuts for the rich and corporations. Before I retuned to college full time this year, I was making 45k a year and paid 17% in federal and state taxes and I doubt I was the only one. I don’t mind doing my part, but when I hear that corporations pay only 5% of their income I find that completely unfair. There is an axiom about blood and stones that applies. Go after the people that have the money to make up for the mad spending spree the GOP has been on for the last 6 years.

5. We want an investigation into the misuse of taxpayer dollars by government contractors and companies like Haliburton with charges filed for any fraud or criminal misconduct. 45$ for a 6-pack of Pepsi applies as fraud.

6. We want veterans benefits to keep pace with the growing need of members of the armed services. We got them into this, we need to take care of them for the injuries they sustained on our behalf.

That's enough to start with.

Godspeed.

Sincerely,
Kiplingkat

Aaannd....

Best of Luck to Elliott and Dale at Phoenix today!

An interesting interview with Eillott in Paddock Talk Friday. Car of Tomorrow and Hunting.

Wonder how they adjusted the gear ratio?

And the beard is back! Yea!

Though I must say *this* pic is swiftly becoming one of my faves. *chuckle*

As Promised!

I must say I am enjoying a quiet glow right now.

But first...

Come Back Jack!

Jack Palance passed away today. Before he made his second splash with City Slickers, he was a staple of American westerns and menacing tough guy extrodinare. Some of may remember with delight his historical re-enactments on Ripley’s Believe It or Not. (Rasputin’s murder sticks out vividly.)
Thank you Mr. Palace, you will be missed.

The Real Steampunk

Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that takes place in the past but with futuristic technology for that time. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for example would qualify as "steampunk".

However, Mr. Verne wasn't that far off.

Necessity is the mother of invention and war creates a lot of necessity (not that that is an excuse for it, just stating a fact). The Civil War saw great advances in the technology of war. Sadly the tactics of the time did not keep pace with the technology resulting in death tolls and causality lists in the hundreds of thousands on both sides of the conflict.

However, having acknowledged that, we can enjoy some of the groovier aspects of the war.

My personal interest of course is ships. Now, of course the ultimate in Naval steampunk for the era is the CSS Hunley. One of the first thing they noticed was that, as opposed to their reconstructions, the Hunley had been flush riveted. We are waiting to see if the engineers that created and refined the Hunley had anymore tricks up their sleeves.

But there have been documentaries and TV movies a plenty, so you don't need me to go into that again here.

Now at the start of the Civil War, steam was just beginning to be used widely in shipping, but it was not something that captains and purser wanted to rely on so most steamships looked like this.

Sail for the good days and steam for the bad.

The Union blockade of the Confederate coast set the engineers in the shipyards of Scotland and Liverpool on a new quest for speed, silence and invisibility.

In short, this:

Sort of like comparing a Lincoln and a Ferrari isn't it?

“The fact is, the blockade runner was almost invisible at night as Harlequin in the Pantomime. Nothing showed above deck but two short masts, and the smoke stacks, and the lead colored hull could scarcely be seen at the distance of one hundred yards. Even on a clear day they were not easily discovered.”, wrote Captain John Wilkinson of the ships in “The Trade”, as blockade running was called. Normally these ships only displaced 400 to 600 tons with a seven to ten foot draft, unlike the Union warships which were usually much heavier to accommodate their batteries of guns and therefore with a much deeper draft. This meant a blockade runner could sail fifteen to twenty miles up or down the coast and approach whatever inlet they chose by hugging the shore, sailing in shallow water where the Union ships could not enter. This would be a challenge to any sailor to sail a big ship that far right along the beach, but the emergence of twin propellers helped the ships “turn almost on their keels” remarked Wilkinson, though they did not match the outright speed of paddle wheels. “Screws” or propellers would not be perfected and supercede paddlewheels until the 20th century, but the placement of the ships drive completely underwater also meant that it was quieter and more protected from canon fire than a paddlewheel box.

Raked and telescoping smokestacks (that's the one that gets me: Telescoping Smokestacks), steam vents underwater, nearly smokeless anthracite coal, padded/muffled paddlewheel boxes and low profile grey hulls also added to the blockade runner’s stealth while turtle-backed bows let the slice through the waves rather than going over them and cotton soaked with turpentine in the fires added to their speed in a crisis, which was often.

The union blockade around Cape fear ended up totaling 30 or so ships, stretched in three lines between the Cape and Bermuda and St. George. (These were only a couple days out, but they were the neutral points of trade for countries like Britain to do business with the Confederacy.) Captured ships would be sold at auction (usually to the Union navy to be re-fitted) The sailors of the ship that made the capture in the first place would get a cut of the price, usually a couple times their yearly salary, so as you can imagine Union sailors worked very hard to capture Confederate ships. Add to this the natural dangers of navigating around cape fear with the addition of shipwrecks and ship purposely sunk to hinder the blockade you can be sure the Pilots earned their fee. Especially when you keep in mind that they were doing this in the dark, the complete dark as most captains attempted to run the blockade during the dark of the moon and doused all light onboard to keep from being seen.

(Sometimes that would get stuck between lines of the blockade when the sun came up. Then they got to spend the day trying to stay out of sight or flying an American flag to convince the other ship they were the new Union ship added to the line.)

Anyway, it some pretty hairy stuff. Lots of fun to read about.

Thank You! UPDATED

Props to Farker Obscure

Thank you to everyone who voted, no matter how. Many states reported very high voter turn out as people took the time to participate in American government the way we should.

Thank you to those to crossed party lines in the realization that it was not about what "team" we're on, it's about the good of the American people. Thank you for voting to bring back the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.

Montana has almost wrapped things up and the Democrat candiate for the Senate there still leads by a very narrow margin, so let's keep our fingers crossed for the day.

UPDATE: Montana Went Blue! Whooo!

UPDATE II: Donald Rumsfeld resigns. I think they figured out we weren't happy with them. (Either that, or Donny is freeing up time for all those Congressional oversight committee/investigative hearings he will be sitting in.)

We won't hear the final word on Virginia Senate race for sometime as proceedures there force a recount of any tight race, and given the amount of irregularties in that election, I think that's only right. So let's keep our fingers crossed for them as well.

Now for the House.

Props to Farker Madgecko13

First woman speaker!

Let hope Murtha takes Minority leader and we can get something done about Iraq soon.

Here's hoping to a bipartisian light at the end of the tunnel.

Some Quick Notes

Chasing Round Dice in Heaven...

I just wanted to say Requiescat In Pace to Godzilla, my Sister and Bro-in-Law's cat who passed over the weekend.

You once told me that if you you didn't belive in God, but you knew dogs went to heaven. I'm sure Cat's have annexed part of that for themselves. The soft cushy part with lots of mice.

My best wishes and thoughts are with you both. (((K&C)))

I Know I Said I Wouldn't...

But two items people might find of interest.

Robocalls Threatening Arrest for Voting

Like all the trouble with the diebold machines wasn't enough?
This is truly henious. I think election tampering should be treated as a serious felony resulting in hard prison time.

War Simulation in 1999 Pointed Out Iraq Invasion Problems

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A series of secret U.S. war games in 1999 showed that an invasion and post-war administration of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, nearly three times the number there now.

And even then, the games showed, the country still had a chance of dissolving into chaos.

This may be one of the many expert analysis mentioned in the Atlantic Monthly article I posted a couple years ago, Blind Into Baghdad. (It has been included in a book) that the Bush administration ignored in their stampede to invade Iraq.

Congrats to Dale Jr.!

Fighting the flu, Dale rallied back from 34th to finish 6th with a car that had smacked the wall early on. Well done indeed sir! Dale is third in the standings with two races to go.

So someone tell him to put down the controller and get some sleep.

It's the only thing for flu.

Elliott? What the hey happened?

And whomever is making him shave needs to be kicked in the shins.

...That's it! He's like Sampson. :D Betcha if they let him go "mountain Man" again he'd be posting top fives.

Please Vote!

I know things are really slimey and seem really hopeless out there right now, but it is certain nothing will change if we don't even try.

You can easily find your country board of elections online to find your polling place.

I know I owe you guys a final post on the Blockade Runners of the Civil War, it's forthcomming. Promise!

BTW- Go Elliott!

Qualified second at Texas!

Whooo!

And Good Luck to Dale Jr. as he persues his first championship! Have a great race guys.

Yes, You Can Fly That Flag…

Now then, given all this evidence of what the South was fighting for, I think it pretty obvious what the Confederate battle flag (the “Stars and Bars” so popularized at events like NASCAR races) stands for. People love to think of the elegance and the “Southern Gentlemen” and “Steel Magnolias” of the ante-bellum South…

Except perhaps those who lived at the time of course….

"Like the patriarchs of old, our men live all in one house with their wives and concubines; and the mulattoes one sees in every family partly resemble the white children. Any lady is ready to tell you who is the father of all the mulatto children in everybody's household but her own. Those, she seems to think, drop from the clouds." ~ Mary Chestnut 1861.

But they ignore the fact that that entire plantation system that so characterized the ante-bellum South relied on the exploitation, torture and rape of entire ethnicity. You can’t have one without the other. It’s like trying to own glories of Rome while leaving behind the brutality of the Coliseum and the exploitation of the provinces. Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way.

And in fact, people of the South still felt the Confederacy's ties to subjugating blacks well into the 20th century. They accuse the Klu Klux Klan of co-opting the Confederate flag for the fight to support segregation, but the fact is when you watch those newsreals of the students at Little Rock, all those angry upstanding Southern mothers are waving Confederate flags. You want to tell me they were *all* Klan members?

It's a flag of racism. Deal.

But you know, we are the country of the First Amendment, supporting freedom of speech. So by all means, hang that puppy up above your tailgate.

Just don’t be upset when people look at you funny and call you a racist cracker, because y’know that’s what you're are advertising. I'm not going to run around wearing a swastika and expect people, especially Jewish people, to smile and wave. You shouldn't expect it either.

No, it's no different.

What kills me is that the Stars and Bars was a battle flag. Men fought, bled and died for that flag. Today’s southerners don’t fight to hang it up on anniversary of the Bull Run or the day their state seceded from the Union, they have a snit because they want to hang it up over a kegger.

Yeah, I’m sure their Confederate ancestors would be so proud to see how their flag is being used.

So by all means, wave that puppy high and proud.

Jackass.

Deal Johnny Reb Adendum

Oh, I forgot a couple more arguments used by the “The Civil War wasn’t about slavery” crowd: The “The North had slaves”, “The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free the salves in the North” and finally the “The South freed the salves”/”The Slaves fought for the South” arguments.

The first two refer of course to the border states of Delaware, Maryland, the newly formed West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, since very northerly states such as Massachusetts had done away with slavery in 1780 and the like. (The last Northern state to abolish slavery was New Jersey in 1804.)

Once again, so?

Just because these four states had slavery when the Civil War started and did not chose to secede doesn’t negate the evidence that the fight was started by and about slavery. Lincoln handled these states very carefully because of their strategic value and so did not force any changes on them lest he create an anti-union backlash. As it was he didn’t need to. Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Missouri did away with slavery during the Civil War on their own. Kentucky was the only state to hold out until the 13th Amendment and since the population there was very hotly (occasionally violently) divided between Unionism and Secessionism, Lincoln was not about to force the issue.

Yes, the South freed the slaves and there were slaves that fought for the South, but that only came at the very tail end of the war when the Confederacy was running out of men. They promised freedom to any slave that served in the Confederate forces. They had of course been using slaves for “grunt work”, as laborers, during the entire war, but there was no more choice for them in that than working on a plantation. The fact is the Constitution of the Confederate States of America is nearly identical to the United States Constitution with one notable exception. It protected the right of people to own black people (and that is spelled out: "negro") slaves.

Yes, there were some tariff issues between the Northern and Southern states but it was slavery that was the one issue neither side could compromise on.

"The anti-slavery party contend that slavery is wrong in itself, and the Government is a consolidated national democracy. We of the South contend that slavery is right, and that this is a confederate Republic of sovereign States." ~ Congressman Keitt of South Carolina, 1860

Deal Johnny Reb Part II EDITED

Yes Virginia, It Was About Slavery...

Now, another common argument I hear it’s “Well, it was only a small percentage of the population that were slave owners. All those foot soldiers didn’t own slaves!”

Quite right, the majority of those (often bare)foot soldiers did not own slaves.

But their leaders did. Their senators, congressmen, members of their state assemblies, their governors did. And remember folks, this is a time before internet, before CNN, before TV, before radio, before telephones. Newspapers. That was it. And newspapers were blatantly biased. Most of the time in a big town you had two newspapers: one written and edited by those sympathetic to the Whig or Republican party and one written and edited by those sympathetic to the Democratic Party (which BTW, is the oldest of two major parties active today, though it has gone through much metamorphosis).

It would be as if you had two news sources: the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee. How “fair and balanced” do you think the coverage would be?

Many poor or middle class people in the south didn’t like slavery, but were scared what would happen if all the slaves were freed. They were scared of how the blacks would retalliate if given legislative power. After the Nat Turner rebellion, some were scared of violence. Many of the poor whites were scared of the flood of freed slaves on the job market. Some hoped slavery would end but wanted it to end on it’s own rather than a federal power legislating it. (They ignored the fact that it was being actively transported to newly formed states and not showing much signs of dying a quiet & peaceful death.)

Throw into the mix a pack of leaders who have a vested interest in keep the slaves on their plantations and the hefty rhetoric of guys like John C. Calhoun …

Very different would be the circumstances under which emancipation would take place with us. If it ever should be effected, it will be through the agency of the Federal Government, controlled by the dominant power of the Northern States of the Confederacy, against the resistance and struggle of the Southern. It can then only be effected by the prostration of the white race; and that would necessarily engender the bitterest feelings of hostility between them and the North. But the reverse would be the case between the blacks of the South and the people of the North. Owing their emancipation to them, they would regard them as friends, guardians, and patrons, and centre, accordingly, all their sympathy in them. The people of the North would not fail to reciprocate and to favor them, instead of the whites. Under the influence of such feelings, and impelled by fanaticism and love of power, they would not stop at emancipation. Another step would be taken--to raise them to a political and social equality with their former owners, by giving them the right of voting and holding public offices under the Federal Government. We see the first step toward it in the bill already alluded to--to vest the free blacks and slaves with the right to vote on the question of emancipation in this District. But when once raised to an equality, they would become the fast political associates of the North, acting and voting with them on all questions, and by this political union between them, holding the white race at the South in complete subjection. The blacks, and the profligate whites that might unite with them, would become the principal recipients of federal offices and patronage, and would, in consequence, be raised above the whites of the South in the political and social scale. We would, in a word, change conditions with them--a degradation greater than has ever yet fallen to the lot of a free and enlightened people, and one from which we could not escape, should emancipation take place (which it certainly will if not prevented), but by fleeing the homes of ourselves and ancestors, and by abandoning our country to our former slaves, to become the permanent abode of disorder, anarchy, poverty, misery, and wretchedness.

...and you have a non-slave owning public ready to fight so you can keep your slaves. They thought the Union was going to come down and destroy their way of life.

Kinda in the same way there are tens of thousands of troops in Iraq “fighting for American freedom” right now. (Well, maybe not so many of them believe that now.)

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

So the South was fighting for State's Rights.

Unfortunately, the Right they chose to take a stand on and fight over was slavery.

EDIT: What amuses me was that people say they were "fighting for states rights!", yet when those states rights interfered with slavery, it was another story altogether. The Fugitive Slave Act and the Dredd Scott decision both put the rights of slave owner over state laws in order to return the slave to the owner or for the owner to keep the slave as propoerty, despite his residence in a non-slave state. Hell, not only did the Fugitive Slave Act allow roving bands of slave hunters through non-slave states, the Act stated that the local citizens of a non-slave owning state *must* assist in the capture of runaway slaves no matter what the laws of the state maybe.

Where are the rights of the States in that?

Now as for the “Lincoln started the war” crap...

The fact is the South was so paranoid about keeping their slaves that Lincoln didn’t even appear on the ballot in many southern states. They were so scared of his abolitionist views they started seceding as soon as he was elected, before he even took office. He was elected in November of 1860, South Carolina succeeded in December. Before he took office in March of 1861, eight states had left the Union.

He didn’t even have the power to do anything yet.

Now when South Carolina succeeded, they had a slight problem: The federally owned fort on the federally owned island in Charleston Harbor.

"Federally owned" which means that when the Confederate army took it over they were invading Federal territory, months before Lincoln sent the troops to Bull Run.

And the fact is April of 1861 is not the first time the Confederates had opened fire on a federal ship. Buchanan had attempted to resupply and reinforce the Fort Sumter in January of that year with the steamship The Star of the West. (BTW- Very interesting source there.) The Rebels shot at that one too, driving it out of the bay. The Commander of the Fort refrained from opening fire on the Confederate batteries for fear of starting a war.

The truth is the South seceded first and they fired first, before Lincoln had a chance to do squat.

Now it is probably true that Lincoln wanted an opening to bring the Confederate states back into the Union by any means necessary.

And it is quite probable that Lincoln knew that sending a ship into to resupply Ft. Sumter was going to cause a war.

But quite frankly the Confederates were spoiling for one so bad he could have just sneezed in a general southerly direction and they would have been firing the forward batteries.

So he sneezed, so to speak.

And what choice did he have really? Anderson had told him that they either had to be re-supplied or they had to surrender the fort. I find it amusing that so many people who so loudly proclaim America’s sovereignty and national defense as paramount in today’s political climate feel that Lincoln should have been more mellow handing over a federal fort to a state full of traitors.

Was Lincoln ready to call up 75,000 troops the day after the Fort fell to Confederate cannon fire…and send them into Maryland in July? Hell yes. But the South fired first. Twice.

Now having said all this, the South put up one hell of a fight and the descendants of those soldiers should be proud of their ancestors service, if not for the reasons why. The fact is no one ever out-thought Lee except perhaps Lee himself (at Gettysburg), and even when those troops were starving they were prepared to fight on. Grant & Sherman weren’t smarter, they just beat them into submission. They were the first set of Union commanders to walk out of a battle in which they lost 30,000 men to say, “I still have 70,000 men. We’ll break camp and persue at day break.”

I always find the Civil War a fascinating piece of American history because…well, for one it was the last “gentlemen’s war”. All the commanding officers knew each other on the other side of the battle field and so there are these almost romantically chivalrous moments of friendship that shine through this horrific amount of bloodshed. Shelby Foote, God rest him, once said that the most bloody, nasty fist fights he had ever witnessed had been between brothers and so it is with Civil Wars of all nations. It brings out the best and the worst in a people.

I mean as a Historian I cannot read the account of Chamberlain’s salute to the Confederate soldiers at Appomattox without tears in my eyes.

And that fact that when Americans were pushed to throw the hammer down, they didn’t do it over resources (well, one could say the South defined it as being over resources) or money, they did it over ideals of “All men are created equal…”

It’s a tremendously interesting and poignant point in our history.

For further into, here is a timeline of the American Civil War.

And a place to get started with some of the most interesting people involved in the Civil War.

Addendum: Deconstructions of Lincoln

The recent trend in popular history is to deconstruct major historical figures. Delve into their nasty underbellies and if their underbellies are not nasty enough, project something onto them. What is always amusing is how someone will write a best seller about how George Washington was a lecher (or something similar) like they are revealing the Ark of the Covenant and all the Historians are sitting around saying, “Well, yah. So?”

Not news to us.

(I once had a friend call me up, very excited from having read Holy Blood, Holy Grail. "OhmiGawd, Jen! Did you know the ruling family of England isn't even English!"

"Uhm, Yeah. The German family that took over changed their names to Windsor during World War I because of the anti-German sentiment runing around."

She was very disappointed.)

Lincoln in particular has become the focus of this trend from theorizing he is a homosexual to his being a racist.

There isn’t anything wrong with homosexuality. The problem is there is simply no proof to support our 14th president being so inclined. Nada.

Often the language of the time used among family and close friends confuses our skittishly homophobic and sexually obsessed modern society. When I was doing my research last semester on the Blockade of Wilmington, I came across a series of letters written between one of the confederate officers stationed in Wilmington and someone he addressed every letter to as “My Darling” with very banal and fatherly content. It took me a few very confusing minutes to figure out he was exchanging letters with his nephew. Forms of address and expressions of friendship in that time were not hung up on our modern concepts of machismo.

Besides, even if Lincoln was a homosexual, he was so far in the closest it’s impact on history is non-existent.

Was Lincoln a racist? Yes. He was. So was everyone else. It would be very, very hard to find anyone in that time that did not qualify as a racist to our modern values. I’m sure there were some, but they were few and far between. It doesn't make racism right, but you do have to evaluate the man, or any historical figure, while taking his time and the society in which he lived into account. Lincoln believed that slavery was inherently evil but he was unsure of the black man’s intellectual equality with the white. For his time he was considered radically progressive by much of the population.

I think this is best summed up by Fredrick Douglas’ comments at the anniversary of Lincolns Death.

I have said that President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the colored race. Looking back to his times and to the condition of his country, we are compelled to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may be safely set down as one element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American people for the tremendous conflict before them, and bringing them safely through that conflict. His great mission was to accomplish two things: first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin; and, second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the other, or both, he must have the earnest sympathy and the powerful cooperation of his loyal fellow-countrymen. Without this primary and essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and utterly fruitless. Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible. Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.

Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery. The man who could say, "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war shall soon pass away, yet if God wills it continue till all the wealth piled by two hundred years of bondage shall have been wasted, and each drop of blood drawn by the lash shall have been paid for by one drawn by the sword, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether," gives all needed proof of his feeling on the subject of slavery. He was willing, while the South was loyal, that it should have its pound of flesh, because he thought that it was so nominated in the bond; but farther than this no earthly power could make him go.

Deal Johnny Reb - Part I

As I said, we are going to take a break from the political scene while the popular media whips itself into an frenzy. My sister in law just sent out an e-mail saying they had started to screen their calls because of the constant barrage of “vote for me” telemarketing calls.

Though I will note that I did receive a letter from Senator Dole’s Office about troop withdrawal from Iraq…which means there is some confused soul out there getting a letter about warrentless wiretapping. But from her. “The president is protecting us from the Terrorists!” tone of the letter I got, I can imagine what she said in the letter someone else got.

So…let take a break shall we.

The Civil War - Lincoln and Slavery.

One of the most common arguments I encounter on the internet is the “The Civil War wasn’t about slavery!”. I love this one. That combined with the “Lincoln started the civil war!” is always good for a pleasant hour or two of spearing-fish-in-a-barrel fun.

Usually the Confederate Wannabe begins by whipping this quote out:

“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” ~Abraham Lincoln.

And that’s fine. Yes. As President, Lincoln’s main focus was preserving the Union lest a young struggling divided nation fall prey to the European powers they had struggled so hard to be free of.

BUT…

Would you like to read the entire letter from which this quote was drawn?

Hon. Horace Greeley:
Dear Sir.

I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable [sic] in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.
As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing" as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.

Yours,
A. Lincoln.

Can you imagine President Bush even attempting such a letter?

When the founding fathers created this country, they left the issue of slavery alone for fear of alienating the southern states, which were the colonies’ bread basket. One observer at the time of the Constitutional Congresses noted that slavery, “was the serpent coiled up beneath the table.” The elephant in the room no one wanted to deal with head on for risk of destroying the fragile foundations they were laying down. While their reasoning is understandable, it remains their biggest shame.

The fact is almost everything in American politics leading up to Lincoln’s election had become about slavery. The Missouri Compromise in 1820. Nat Turner rebellion in 1831. The murder of Abolitionist Lovejoy in 1837. The wild popularity of the inflammatory “Uncle Toms Cabin” published in 1852. The Dredd Scott decision. John Brown. In 1856, Congressmen Sumner of Massachusetts gave a speech against the pro-slavery elements in Congress, three days later he was beaten unconscious by Congressman Brooks of South Carolina...on the Senate floor. The Mid-West was already being ripped about in violence as pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions fought over “Bleeding Kansas”. And these are just the some major events. It was the one issue the northern and southern states simply could not compromise on, though gawd knows saner heads had tried to prevail throughout the 1800’s

By 1858, slavery was the Iraq War/Terrorism of it’s time. It was *The* topic. During his campaign for president in 1858, Lincoln engaged his opponent Stephen Douglas in a series of debates across his home state of Illinois. (These were very different affairs than the debates we see on TV now. The candidates traded off speeches of an hour or more. On one occasion Dougals would give a speech, then Lincoln would give a speech, then Douglas would give a rejoinder/reply. The next time they would trade off who went first and got to reply last.) The seven debates were almost exclusively about slavery and topics relating to slavery such as racial equality and the Dredd Scott decision.

Prior to his run for president, Lincoln had served in the House and was noted for opposing Polk’s Mexican American war and opposing the Kansas-Nebraska act. Politically, while straddling the fence on the abolition of slavery, he had always stood firmly against the expansion of slavery into new territories. His private feelings on the matter were even more clearly defined.

“How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be take pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic]. ~ (Letter to Joshua Speed, 1855)

(No offense Irina.)

Now, Lincoln's feelings about slavery and what he acted on politically can be a muddle of things that either side can draw isolated acts and quotes from to support their argument, but I think his letter to Horace Greely was very representative of where he was coming from. Privately he abhorred slavery as a stain on American principles. He may have had doubts as to the full biological/intellectual equality of blacks, but he believed as Christians of mercy and charity the enslavement of another man was inherently wrong and as Americans, extremely hypocritical. But as President, he realized his duty was to the country as a whole, not his private principles. And 1/2 the country was slave states. Somehow he had to make it work. If he could find someway to eliminate slavery without ripping the nation to pieces, peachy keen. But he wasn’t about the destroy the nation to do so.

But then, someone made that choice for him…

To Be Continued later today with How The Civil War Started, to be followed by Yes, You Can Fly That Flag and The Real Steampunk - Civil War Stealth Technology.