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Today is a day to remember those who served in this war.
Many of those who served were drafted into the war, and many others did so out of a sense of patriotism. All served our country… whether you agreed with the war or not.
And so it was back in the day.
I used to be a bit of a Bill Maher fan, but not so for the last several years. I now find him to be a self-righteous pendejo, and thus hard to watch. However, the video below was embedded in an article that appeared in the online version of the St. Louis Jewish Light: ‘Where do you think Israel is going?’ Bill Maher quips in viral eight-minute clip.
Maher makes a lot a sense to me in his segment. At some point you just have to move on. Of course, it took me a few years to stop lamenting about some of the fallout from my divorce, but you just do it. Sometimes you just need to let go.
Given that this is Bill Maher, the language is reasonably clean.
If you want a good quick review of the current history of Israel and The Occupied Territories, I discussed a recently published book by Daniel Skotach at this link: Can We Talk About Israel?
And is almost always the case, there are two sides to the story, if not more. I discussed a 2005 Arabic language movie about the recruitment of two young West Bankers to be suicide bombers here: Paradise Now | Revisited
While not Jewish myself, my wife is, so much of this strikes close to home. Especially so as our October trip to Israel – a lifetime dream of my spouse – was cancelled abruptly.
And so it goes in this absurdity we call life.
This last weekend Señora and I went to Checotah, Oklahoma. On the very long shot chance you do not know about Checotah, it is the birthplace of yours truly. Way back in 1952 there was actually a three bed hospital in Checotah on 3rd street where I was born, delivered by Dr. N. E. Cornstubble. It is also the home of Carrie Underwood and the Steer Wresting Capital of the World, having many champion steer wrestlers from around Checotah. When I was a kid there was a rodeo arena within walking distance of my grandmother’s house, and we used to walk down there to watch them practice. If you are a fan of cowboy clothes you will know about the line of cowboy shirts from Wrangler named Checotah.
My great grandparents and grandparents farmed/sharecropped in this part of Oklahoma, ending up in Continue reading “USS Carr Crew Reunion with Carr Family”
I have written about my Uncle Paul, my mother’s brother, several times on this blog. He is considered a war hero from WW II, and for 30 years or so there was a Navy missile frigate floating around the oceans with his name on the bow.
Below you will find two links to letters written to the family from the Navy. The first is to my grandmother, who everyone knew as Mama Carr, from the Commander of the USS Samuel B. Roberts. The second letter is from the Executive Officer to Paul’s wife Goldia.
I had always heard that the Captain of the ship had nominated Paul H. Carr for the Navy Cross, but this the first time I have seen it in print. I believe the Navy’s reason for not awarding it was that there needed to have been more witnesses…
Just click the links to open the PDFs.
PHCMF NAVY LETTER to PHC’s Mother
PHCMF NAVY Letter to PHC’s wife
And since we are on the subject here are some more links on Paul H. Carr.
Paul H. Carr inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors
USS Samuel B. Roberts shipwreck found
And so it went…
I recently watched on Wondrium a very interesting and worthwhile pair of courses on the US Constitution taught by Eric Berger, a professor at the University of Nebraska Law School. The two courses were:
I am currently in the process of watching:
While the US Constitution is not that long and is not that hard to read, reading it and understanding it are two distinct things. Both of the first two courses are good, but the second was more interesting to me as Continue reading “What Do You Know About the Constitution?”
Another quote to meditate on from The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. For some reason the last part of this sentence keeps echoing in my mind, that part of the definition of a sovereign state is that the state has sole proprietorship of legitimate violence within its boundaries. It is something I knew before, but I had never articulated in quite that manner.
“…is confident that an objective statistical analysis, shorn of sentiment, will show us to be living in an age of unprecedented peace and security. And this, he suggests, is the logical outcome of living in sovereign states, each with a monopoly over the legitimate use of violence within its borders…“
Well…not an earwig, but definitely a mental perseveration.
“….we saw in earlier chapters, tracing the place of women in societies without writing often means using clues left, quite literally, in the fabric of material culture, such as painted ceramics that mimic both textile designs and female bodies in their forms and elaborate decorative structures. To take just two examples, it’s hard to believe that the kind of complex mathematical knowledge displayed in early Mesopotamian cuneiform documents or in the layout of Peru’s Chavín temples sprang fully formed from the mind of a male scribe or sculptor, like Athena from the head of Zeus. Far more likely, these represent knowledge accumulated in earlier times through concrete practices such as the solid geometry and applied calculus of weaving or beadwork. What until now has passed for ‘civilization’ might in fact be nothing more than a gendered appropriation – by men, etching their claims in stone – of some earlier system of knowledge that had women at its centre.“
The above quote is from The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Their book is an attempt to upend the linear, inevitable human history as we have been taught and is currently de rigueur in popular books of overarching human history.
No earth shattering conclusions…I am just putting this out there as a nugget to meditate on. That ‘civilization‘ may not have been the product of men breaking the mold and having a sudden intellectual epiphanies on various subjects and endeavors, but the slow accumulation of knowledge by women that men appropriated. Although I am not sure appropriation is the proper word as many of these past societies were less gender stratified than became the norm later.
Now assume the lotus position…
We just celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day this third Monday of January , the 17th, which started me thinking about an anecdote I have been telling for years.
In the fall of 1983, much against the desires and better judgment of my now ex-spouse, I weaseled – and weasel is the operative word – my way back into her abode after a very long separation. I don’t remember exactly how long this particular separation had been, probably somewhere around 18 months. While we stayed together, more or less, for another dozen years, the marriage had been a tumultuous relationship nearly from day one. At one point in my life I spent a lot of time ruminating Continue reading “Strange Bedfellows”
This is the ship that Paul Henry Carr served on and died on… Paul Henry Carr was my mother’s brother, and for many years there was a US Navy missile frigate on active duty that borne his name.