The Democratic convention keynote will be on the 45th anniversary of “I have a dream”.
History FTW.
Archive for the 'History' Category
This issue of Time is going to sell well. Mothers and fathers will get it to show their kids its not a pipe dream, it is no longer theoretical. I’ll be getting one to show the children I have in the future.
“I was there. I remember when it happened. Right at the start of it all. Obama.”
Hammerin’ Hank Aaron on Jackie Robinson:
Jackie Robinson had to be bigger than life. He had to be bigger than the Brooklyn teammates who got up a petition to keep him off the ball club, bigger than the pitchers who threw at him or the base runners who dug their spikes into his shin, bigger than the bench jockeys who hollered for him to carry their bags and shine their shoes, bigger than the so-called fans who mocked him with mops on their heads and wrote him death threats.
When Branch Rickey first met with Jackie about joining the Dodgers, he told him that for three years he would have to turn the other cheek and silently suffer all the vile things that would come his way. Believe me, it wasn’t Jackie’s nature to do that. He was a fighter, the proudest and most competitive person I’ve ever seen. This was a man who, as a lieutenant in the Army, risked a court-martial by refusing to sit in the back of a military bus. But when Rickey read to him from The Life of Christ, Jackie understood the wisdom and the necessity of forbearance.
To this day, I don’t know how he withstood the things he did without lashing back. I’ve been through a lot in my time, and I consider myself to be a patient man, but I know I couldn’t have done what Jackie did. I don’t think anybody else could have done it. Somehow, though, Jackie had the strength to suppress his instincts, to sacrifice his pride for his people’s. It was an incredible act of selflessness that brought the races closer together than ever before and shaped the dreams of an entire generation.
Some new pictures of Hiroshima post-bombing have provoked what has now come to be the expected response from some liberals in the HuffPo comments section. Ridiculous things like how the bombing could have been avoided, or stupid things like creating a moral equivalence to Hitler.
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a necessary extreme action to end the war. At the end of the day the atomic bomb saved millions of American lives. The Japanese attacked us and declared war on us and we ended the fight.
I am no less tolerant of when people on the left rewrite history as I am when people on the right do it.
Ezra Klein makes the (convincing to me, at least) that American foreign policy should better be expressed as Superman versus Jack Bauer. Though to be honest the foreign policy we’ve got right now bears more resemblance to Lex Luthor.
John McCain is today claiming that though Martin Luther King was killed when McCain was 32 he didn’t understand the “issue” when he was 47, 15 years later. He goes on to treat a commemoration of the leading civil rights figure in U.S. history as if he was just one of the lobbyists he employs on his campaign:
I had come from being in the military to running for Congress in a state that did not have a large African American population.
So is McCain saying that only states with large black populations should or did care enough to vote for Dr. King’s hollday? Or is McCain saying that King and the Civil Rights movement is just something like your local Mason’s lodge?
And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop.
And I don’t mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I’m happy, tonight.
I’m not worried about anything.
I’m not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!
I love stories like this.
Is fifth-grader Kenton Stufflebeam smarter than the Smithsonian? The 11-year-old boy, who lives in Allegan but attends Alamo Elementary School near Kalamazoo, went with his family during winter break to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington.
Since it opened in 1981, millions of people have paraded past the museum’s Tower of Time, a display involving prehistoric time. Not one visitor had reported anything amiss with the exhibit until Kenton noticed that a notation, in bold lettering, identified the Precambrian as an era.
Kenton knew that was wrong. His fifth-grade teacher, John Chapman, had nearly made the same mistake in a classroom earth-science lesson before catching himself.
“I knew Mr. Chapman wouldn’t tell all these students” bad information, the boy told the Kalamazoo Gazette for a story published Wednesday.
So Kevin Stufflebeam took his son to the museum’s information desk to report Kenton’s concern on a comment form. Last week, the boy received a letter from the museum acknowledging that his observation was “spot on.”
“The Precambrian is a dimensionless unit of time, which embraces all the time between the origin of Earth and the beginning of the Cambrian Period of geologic time,” the letter says.
According to the Right Honorable August J Pollak
There is not a single instance of political discourse in the history of this nation in which the participants did not want to simply kick their opponent in the balls.
Verily, he doth tell the truth.
I watched the first three episodes of HBO’s excellent John Adams series today, and while looking forward to episode four tomorrow, I thought to myself about Senator Clinton’s anti-intellectual attack on Sen. Obama’s oratory as “just words”.
Much of the first and second Continental Congress and its work product - the Declaration of Independence - was flowery and forceful debate and oratory. It happened to be about fundamental issues that caused a global earthquake that reverberated in the formation of America, but under the Clinton formula it would boil down to “just words”.
If “just words” resembles the following:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Shouldn’t every American be on the side of “just words”?
One of my personal maxims has been that politicians will disappoint you. The ones you like will have personal failings, while the ones you detest will fail time and time again. With Senator Obama, for the first time in my life, I have watched a political leader who I don’t worry if he’ll be up to the task.
It’s like you had Michael Jordan in his prime or Joe Montana with 2 minutes to go. It’s that feeling where you say to yourself: Ok, breathe, he’s got it.
Chill, Barack’s got it.
Video of Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” Speech
Commemorating Martin Luther King? Why not invite serial moron Sean Hannity? Kee-rist.
Sen. Clinton repeatedly cites 35 years of experience as a major rationale for her presidential candidacy. Next to her term in the Senate (in which the most significant vote she cast was a vote in favor of the Iraq war), the only other experience of hers that has national significance is the 8 years she served as First Lady. As she and her campaign recounts it, this was a high intensity position, one in which she had a major role to play in earthshaking decisions affecting millions of people. Certainly her husband, the president, turned to his spouse for advice on the issues of the day - though he is the one who ultimately made the decisions - what else did she do in her official role as First Lady of the United States that now apparently makes her more qualified than Sen. Obama to be the commander-in-chief, as she says? Let’s look.
First Lady Hillary Clinton, with her husband the President, at the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn. She may as well be ordering an airstrike on Bosnia.
First Lady Hillary Clinton at a state dinner with her husband, the President. It’s not everyone who knows which fork is the salad fork you know.
First Lady Hillary Clinton and the White House Christmas tree. Can we roll the dice on someone who hasn’t chosen the decorations for a really big Christmas tree before? I don’t think so.
First Lady Hillary Clinton smiles and waves at her husband, the President’s second inaugural. Smiles. And waves. At the same time. Do they even teach you how to do that in Illinois?
First Lady Hillary Clinton poses with her family at Christmas. Bold. Decisive. Ready to Lead.
First Lady Hillary Clinton reads to some children. Notice how the Cat In The Hat resembles a member of Al Qaeda? Hillary did.
First Lady Hillary Clinton attends Richard Nixons funeral with her husband, the President. Look how she attended the frick out of that ceremony!
First Lady Hillary Clinton as part of her role leading the health care reform task force, speaks to a senior citizen. This, uh, failed miserably.
First Lady Hillary Clinton meets with some girl scouts. This is totally like meeting with soldiers. That is, soldiers who are as cute as a button and love playing with Barbies.
First Lady Hillary Clinton oversees the construction of a gingerbread house. For our purposes substitute “Baghdad” or “New Orleans” for “gingerbread house” and you can see where I’m going with this.
First Lady Hillary Clinton and some Sesame Street characters meet. It’s like a high level meeting at Camp David. Right.
First Lady Hillary Clinton cuts the ribbon of a Women’s Wellness Center. Many refer to this as her version of “Nixon goes to China”.
First Lady Hillary Clinton testifies to congress about the healthcare reform task… you know what, let’s move on.
First Lady Hillary Clinton and the US Women’s World Cup Team. Global? Yes, she’s got that covered.
First Lady Hillary Clinton has high level talks with Danny Devito at a summit discussing raising teens. Now she’s totally ready to take on Kim Jong Il.
First Lady Hillary Clinton displays a book about White House sculpture. There are two kinds of leaders in this world: Ones who know White House sculpture and ones who don’t. Sorry, Barack.
First Lady Hillary Clinton and the 1996 US Olympic team. Hillary Clinton is the woman to the right, just one person away from her husband, the President, the only one who at that time was Commander In Chief. He, not her, was the only one tasked by the Constitution to serve as Commander In Chief. She was his wife, his partner, his confidante, his soul-mate and more. But she was not the President.
Interesting story.
Dr. Martin Luther King: I may not get there with you…
Anyone who contends that negative advertising is a product of radio or television simply hasn’t opened a history book and read it. This type of campaign has been a part of U.S. history since there was a U.S. to contend with. (via)
Thought I would share some pictures I’ve taken related to Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor Memorial, Hawaii
List of the Dead, Pearl Harbor Hawaii
Plaque Commemorating Pearl Harbor Memorial in Pearl Harbor Hawaii
WW2 Memorial in Washington, DC.
Love it, it’s right in my wheelhouse - about WWII and done in that authoritative PBS/Ken Burns style. The only problem so far was the added on segment about the hispanic soldiers, “Carlson’s Raiders”. I understand the justification for adding it, but man the way they tacked it on was sloppy as heck. The program is done, then it starts up again for this 10 minute sequence. I’ll still be watching the rest though.
Also, can someone at WETA and Comcast please update their tv schedule info? I wanted to watch the show in HD but the guide on the HD PBS channel said it was something else entirely.
For me, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the Greatest President Of All Time (G.P.O.A.T.). Last weekend I walked around the tidal basin to check out once again his fitting memorial in Washington. Really beautiful (and I’m biased because I live in the area and am a native of Maryland, but people, please come see your capital, it is a truly spectacular city and worthy of our nation). One of the things I like about FDR was his clear lack of timidity. Right when America needed a leader to pull it out of a spiral, that sort of attitude was just what the doctor ordered. Check out this justification of his for why the Pentagon should be five-sided:
“You know, gentlemen, I like that pentagon-shaped building,” Roosevelt said. “You know why?”
“No,” the commissioners replied resignedly.
“I like it because nothing like it has ever been done that way before.”
You can almost see him clenching his cigarette between his considerable chompers and giving a jaunty laugh after that exchange.
From all of I’ve read and watched of FDR, that’s how he tackled the big trials of his time. The Depression? We will defeat it. The Nazis and the Japanese Empire? We will win.
And we did.
Man, it feels like the Challenger accident just happened. When it occurred I was 8 years old, and obsessed with going into space and the entire process involved in doing so. They were people who died in the pursuit of science and furthering human knowledge of the universe - very noble indeed.
Won’t ever be forgotten.
Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dead At 92
Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks has died, Local 4 has learned.
Parks, 92, reportedly died around 7 p.m. Monday at St. John Hospital on Detroit’s east side.
Parks’ refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 landed her in jail and sparked a bus boycott that is considered the start of the modern civil rights movement. The bus is on display at the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn.
Parks, was born Feb. 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Ala. She lived in Detroit.
Seeing as how its in the news today, thought I’d add my two cents. I think President Truman did the right thing. Yes, the dropping of the A-Bomb created mass casualties on a biblical level, but you have to consider what the Japanese would have done if the shoe were on the other foot. This was a war to the death - period, and for Truman to have stepped backwards would have led to the deaths of thousands of Americans.
