Tag: history

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The Republican Party… as it formerly was

Heather Cox Richardson is an historian and a professor at Boston College.  She also puts out a news letter (more or less daily) that generally relates current events to historical trends – among other things. I will confess to not reading everyone of her newsletters, but I read many.

Today’s topic was the Republican Party.  It has not always been the Tea Party infused lackey of corporations and the excessively wealthy, for much of its history it cared about the common individuals and sought to use government to do social good.  Her April 6, 2021 newsletter starts out:

“I spent much of today thinking about the Republican Party. Its roots lie in the immediate aftermath of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in spring 1854, when it became clear that elite southern slaveholders had taken control of the federal government and were using their power to spread their system of human enslavement across the continent.

At first, members of the new party knew only what they stood against: an economic system that concentrated wealth upward and made it impossible for ordinary men to prosper. But in 1859, their new spokesman, Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln, articulated a new vision of government…”

The whole article can be read here:  Letters from America – April 6, 2021 It is well worth the time it takes to read it. If you like that sort of thing, it is a good newsletter to subscribe to.

Keep well.

 

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #8,958

yeah I know you did not ask!

After scanning the news headlines this morning I decided there are two courses that should be required in every high school. The first, Civics, so people have some general sense about how our government should function.

The second course would be Civility.  Reading about people misbehaving so badly in businesses that have reopened in the middle of this pandemic it seems many folks are lacking in basic manners. I keep thinking of one of my Mother’s pet peeves that she strove mightily to drive into core of her 5 sons…with varying degrees of success, CFOP.  Which stands for Consideration For Other People.  If she caught you in a faux pas in this regard she had a whole spiel she would launch into wherein the acronym CFOP was repeated an amazing number of times.

Just for good measure a few semesters of US and World History would not hurt also.

 

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The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

The_Voyage_of_the_Beagle_1005Charles Darwin is one of the greatest intellects that mankind has produced. He is also a great  communicator and writer. This book was well received by a populist audience in its time. It is still an immensely accessible book. It is at times even poetic.

“Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the hand of man; whether those of Brazil, where the powers of Life are predominant, or those of Tierra del Fuego, where Death and decay prevail. Both are temples filled with the varied productions of the God of Nature:—no one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body.”

The book is first, and foremost a travelogue. The HMS Beagle left England just at the end of 1831 for a planned 2 year expedition. The voyage stretched out to almost five years, and circumnavigated the globe. The actual time Darwin spent on the Beagle was Continue reading “The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin”

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Ben Affleck, Sam Harris, Bill Maher and Islam

I really did not know a lot about Ben Affleck before this, but after watching this episode of Bill Maher I lost a lot of respect for him. He did what a lot of folks seem to do on these types of shows, rather than reason and debate, he was loud and obnoxious in an attempt to make a point.

I am secular and I have a hard time with most religions, but Islam in particular (at least as portrayed by our media). The main reason being is the few Muslims I know personally seem like good and reasonable people. They seem to love and believe their faith as much as any Baptist from Oklahoma. In an attempt to understand the religion that is so much in the news these days I have read a couple books about Islam. At the core Islam seems full of love, care and kindness for fellow humans. I know that the Islam religion as practiced early was very tolerant of other religions.   The Islam that seems to predominate today is one of the fundamentalist ilk that does not seem to very tolerant of some very basic human rights. It seems like separation of church and state is a goal to avoid. The religion I see on the news is not tolerant of different points of views. It appears to me that much of strife in the world currently comes from the Muslim arena.

The message that Christ preached was full of love, caring and kindness also. Something seems to happen when religions move pass this “Golden Rule” core. The history of all the Abrahamic religions is not pretty. It is one of strife, conquering, destruction, intolerance and murder all the way to genocide. The history of the Catholic Church is very troubling.

My basic point of view is that life is tough, so whatever gets you through the day is fine with me as long as you don’t want me to drink your Kool-Aid. I try to be tolerant of religion, but some days I just want to scream. I really do believe that the world would be a far better place if all religions would go away. I also realize that humans have a spiritual need. I just wish there was something else besides the bloody, intolerant Abrahamic religions to fill this need for the 2 or 3 billion individuals that follow these religions.

Oh well. Here is the video. It does not even include the worse of Ben Affleck’s rants.

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Bacon by Richard William Church

Bacon_1210Again this was an individual from history whose name I knew, but did not know why I should remember him.   From the Librivox blurb about The Essays of Francis Bacon:  “Diderot and Voltaire considered him the father of modern science. Others consider him only the father of the scientific method.”  Mr. Church went back and forth on this at one pointing stating that he was mainly the individual who had a platform and broadcasted the fundamentals of experimental science to a larger audience.  Either way it was an important contribution.

Bacon was a collector of “facts” and searcher after a key to unlock the meaning of the collected facts.  He was a proponent of deductive reasoning over inductive reason to understand our world.   Deductive reasoning with the scientific method1 was the key he sought.

Generally, when they call someone complex or complicated it is an indication that the good and bad side of humanity comes out frequently in an individual.  Francis Bacon was a complicated individual.  His real passion Continue reading “Bacon by Richard William Church”

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Damn it, you’re welcome

There is a lot of good advice in this short article, 19 Words That Will Make People Like You More.  There is one section that struck me most vividly as it has been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time now. From the article:

“Words No. 3 and 4: “You’re welcome.”

Sometime in fairly recent history it seems people stopped saying, “You’re welcome,” and started substituting, “Yep,” or, “No problem.” At the risk of sounding older than I am, I think this is a step in the wrong direction–at least in a business or professional setting.

Why? Because ditching “you’re welcome” for these other phrases changes the message. “You’re welcome” acknowledges that you’ve done something worth someone else’s thanks, while “no problem” suggests that it wasn’t that big of a deal. Saying the former phrase conveys that you think it was a worthwhile favor. That’s an impressive message to send.”

I first started noticing this phenomenon on NPR.  The interviewer would say to interviewee, Continue reading “Damn it, you’re welcome”

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Sitting Bull’s Speech Still Rings True

indian_heroes_1210I was raised a military brat.  I was born the year that Eisenhower started his presidency, and thus my early education was in the 50s and 60s.  The result of the two was a deep pride of country, and an admiration of our history.  As I grew older, as I studied more and as I read more I retained an admiration for our founding fathers.  They were remarkable men alive at a pivotal point of history, but they were still men.  Many things that happened then were the sausage of compromise. So much of our history after that point was colored by the institution of slavery and the genocide of the native populations.  Those two, in my mind, make the history of the United States less than glorious.  So much of our history from Vietnam onward is less than efflugent.  We have a sense of global empire that bothers me deeply.  Our government has basically been hijacked by the corporations and the mega-wealthy.   I would love to have a sense of pride and admiration in my country again, but it does not seem to be in the cards.

In my work commute of 54 miles round trip in big city traffic this week, I have been listening to the audio book, Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains by Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa).  In this book he included a speech by Sitting Bull that rings true even today for our society.  I have included it here with Eastman’s  introductory paragraph:

His bitter and at the same time well-grounded and philosophical dislike of the conquering race is well expressed in a speech made before the purely Indian council before referred to, upon the Powder River. I will give it in brief as it has been several times repeated to me by men who were present.

“Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love! Every seed is Continue reading “Sitting Bull’s Speech Still Rings True”

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War and Peace

warpeaceI knew very little about War and Peace before I read the book except it written b a Russian Leo Tolstoy and it was very long.  It is long, about 1300 pages in paperback.   By comparison the Harry Potter box set is 4167 pages with the print admittedly larger. I think the majority of us have read all the Harry Potter books.

This is not an attempt to review such a classic, but perhaps some impetus for someone to read this worthy book.

It is an historical novel.  It uses the fortunes of several folks to move the narrative forward.   It is a love story, but certainly not in the vein of Jane Austen.  Tolstoy brings the characters alive to point that you do care what happens to them.  Will Natasha marry the Prince?  Will Princess Mary ever find happiness?  How long will Count Bezukhov put up with his wayward wife?  Will the Rostovas go bust before the novel ends?  I had to remind myself it was normal for those times.  I found it a little creepy that  30 and 40 year old men were chasing the main love interest of the story,  16 year old Natasha.  Apparently if you were not married by the time you were 17 or 18 your were an old maid.  People were not so worried about marrying for love, but in making a match that increased the family’s finances.

It is a history of Russia from about 1800 to 1813 or so.  The epilogue goes past those dates.  It is the story of Bonaparte’s invasion into Russia and the Russian response.  Continue reading “War and Peace”

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And Another Thing I Do Not Understand

And another thing I do not understand is this.  Why do Evangelicals always quote scripture to you like that is the final authority on everything?  Obviously, if you are a non-believer, that is a logical argument of the dog chasing his own tail variety.

This branch of religion (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) has it roots in nomads who could not figure out for 40 years how to cross the Sinai Desert to get from Egypt to Israel.  The distance is less than 500 kilometers.  The piece de resistance is that while they wandered for 40 years in this barren place, food rained down from the heavens upon them.  I can think of many places today that this would be a blessing indeed.  I’ve yet to see it though.

Once they finally figured where  the heck Israel was, they went on a genocidal tear to take the land from the inhabitants that were already there.

Then we get into Jesus, a religious figure with no historical record.  It just seems improbably to me that a personage of this import would not put at least a minor verifiable page into history.   All we really have is mythology.  This puts him in the same company as Zeus, Thor, and Shiva.

Put that hound on a trail that I can see, feel, smell or otherwise sense, then get back to me.

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New York Times Editioral: What Happened to Obama?

This editioral appeared in the Sunday New York Times.   What Happened to Obama?  I personally think it is a must read if you are wondering what the hell happened to our country and Obama.

The last paragraph of the editorial pretty much sums up the situation for me.

“But the arc of history does not bend toward justice through capitulation cast as compromise. It does not bend when 400 people control more of the wealth than 150 million of their fellow Americans. It does not bend when the average middle-class family has seen its income stagnate over the last 30 years while the richest 1 percent has seen its income rise astronomically. It does not bend when we cut the fixed incomes of our parents and grandparents so hedge fund managers can keep their 15 percent tax rates. It does not bend when only one side in negotiations between workers and their bosses is allowed representation. And it does not bend when, as political scientists have shown, it is not public opinion but the opinions of the wealthy that predict the votes of the Senate. The arc of history can bend only so far before it breaks. ”  

I was rooting for Hillary from the git-go of Bush’s first term.  The woman has her issues (Bill?), but she knows the ropes, has the respect of her peers or least as much as you can in Washington.  And she is tough as nails.  I truly believe she has the good of little people in mind.

In part I blame the election of Obama on Oprah.  She spent years with every woman in America hanging onto her utterances.   However, when it came down to it, she chose race over gender.  Which is particularly sad considering how inexperienced Obama was and how experienced Hillary is.   But I also think that the corporate powers that really rule this country do not want competent leadership in Washington.  If that happens they might not be able run roughshod over the rest of us.

Deep sigh.