Out of 100 Senators who sit today in DC....roughly eighty of them (both parties) are really Republican-Democrats. This means....they really pretend to be of one party, but could flip on any given day to help some agenda group, foundation with political money, lobbyists, or special topic culture.
You'd think that they come to DC to represent their state, or the voters who sent them there. But that's only media gossip.
The "hype"? Thank goodness that the networks exist, and cable news have so many potential outlets.....to allow these guys to get their Hollywood-star-status out in front and capture the imagination of dimwitted voters.
I'd take a guess that if you viewed ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News on an average day....at least thirty Senators will appear, and at least two hours of commentary will be offered up in bullet-like clips. The news idiots are smart enough to ask a simple basic question, and try to limit the Senator to just forty words of commentary, cutting them off before they spill the beans that they really don't know much beyond the memorized piece they got this morning from the Party headquarters or the agenda group.
This sort of game of the media pumping up characters....plays out well, except the public probably has started to catch on, and is now more frustrated with politics. A soap opera-like scenario....bogus guys appearing nightly on TV.....stupid commentary from both the news media and political figures. All this adds up.
The fix? It's not a positive deal....but maybe it's finally time for multiple parties. Toss in two or three additional political parties with ten-to-fifteen percent of the nation behind each, and limit the Republicans and Democrats to sixty percent of the national vote. Maybe then, we end up with less theater and better leaders.
Wednesday, 17 September 2014
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
The US Army to Africa's Ebola Episode
News reports indicate that the US Army will ship around 3,000 medical personnel off to Africa in the next week.....to help one of the countries in their requirements. This is one of those deployments that will not end well.
You can figure that 2,000 of the group will be actual medical personnel. The other 1,000? Well....you start to get into support. There will be some kind of communications team....maybe eight guys to ensure satellite communications are up and computers are working. You can figure they will drag their own chow hall along with them, and twenty personnel will be keeping that running. Logistical folks? Figure at least fifty doing various things. Engineering folks? At least a hundred.
So, problem one.....the camp where they 'live' and the compound where they work, will be separated, and each will end up requiring security. In Africa.....things tend to disappear....so you can figure a minimum of twenty guys for each camp will be on security patrol.
Concentina wire? Yep.....they will put it up and make it look threatening. The locals will question this and ask if this really help or creating a military presence.
Food? You can figure they will fly in food every couple of days on a military transport. The water supply? No one is going to trust the local water supply....no matter how much the Colonel says it's pure and he sips each day.
In the heat of the tropics.....guys will screw up and make a mistake, and somewhere around day thirty of the deployment....one of the Army guys will come up with a fever. Tests will take forty-eight hours, and then they confirm that Private Snuffy got himself a case of Ebola. Snuffy will thrown on some transport aircraft, and hustled off to some Army fort in Georgia where his family arrives and gets all frustrated that the Army guys won't talk over his odds or his treatment.
A week or two later....the second guy gets Ebola. The Army tries to explain this to the Pentagon, but no one can understand how guys screwed up on the procedures and got infected.
When the unit is told to wrap up their initial six months and group two will arrive.....then someone in the Pentagon will write up an order that the first team must spend three weeks at some camp in Texas where they will be isolated and kept from everyone....before they can be released back to their regular lives.
Yeah, it's not the kind of medal or achievement that you'd want to brag much about.
You can figure that 2,000 of the group will be actual medical personnel. The other 1,000? Well....you start to get into support. There will be some kind of communications team....maybe eight guys to ensure satellite communications are up and computers are working. You can figure they will drag their own chow hall along with them, and twenty personnel will be keeping that running. Logistical folks? Figure at least fifty doing various things. Engineering folks? At least a hundred.
So, problem one.....the camp where they 'live' and the compound where they work, will be separated, and each will end up requiring security. In Africa.....things tend to disappear....so you can figure a minimum of twenty guys for each camp will be on security patrol.
Concentina wire? Yep.....they will put it up and make it look threatening. The locals will question this and ask if this really help or creating a military presence.
Food? You can figure they will fly in food every couple of days on a military transport. The water supply? No one is going to trust the local water supply....no matter how much the Colonel says it's pure and he sips each day.
In the heat of the tropics.....guys will screw up and make a mistake, and somewhere around day thirty of the deployment....one of the Army guys will come up with a fever. Tests will take forty-eight hours, and then they confirm that Private Snuffy got himself a case of Ebola. Snuffy will thrown on some transport aircraft, and hustled off to some Army fort in Georgia where his family arrives and gets all frustrated that the Army guys won't talk over his odds or his treatment.
A week or two later....the second guy gets Ebola. The Army tries to explain this to the Pentagon, but no one can understand how guys screwed up on the procedures and got infected.
When the unit is told to wrap up their initial six months and group two will arrive.....then someone in the Pentagon will write up an order that the first team must spend three weeks at some camp in Texas where they will be isolated and kept from everyone....before they can be released back to their regular lives.
Yeah, it's not the kind of medal or achievement that you'd want to brag much about.
Book Review: In Defense of Women
In Defense of Women, by H. L. Mencken (1918).
I will admit, I've never picked or read a single piece of Mencken's works. After this reading, I'll probably have to pick up every single writing he did, and read all of them.
Mencken wrote the piece around the era when women got the right to vote, and it was a all-in-one essay to cover women, marriage, and the various cynical episodes that occur. The analysis and views from 1918? It probably works just as well in 2014.
It's roughly 130 pages....readable in one weekend, and absolutely full of wit and humor. Some women might have some negative comments to say, but he throws just as much mud on men....along with political figures, religious freaks, and do-gooders.
I'd strongly recommend it for a college class project. For guys about to enter into marriage.....it might be a mandatory read.
H. L. throws one very interesting observation out on a page....suggesting that you could simply row the dice in some pub or public setting, and enter into the game of matrimony with some gal that you'd never met or talked to in your life....and the chances of a successful marriage were the same as if you dated her for several years. To this.....I agree. Maybe people think all this relationship stuff is complicated, and requires various introductions....but you could just as well work out this stuff on day two of the marriage, at least in my humble opinion.
So, if you were looking for a great read on relationships and women....by a cynical guy from 1918....this might be an interesting book to pick.
I will admit, I've never picked or read a single piece of Mencken's works. After this reading, I'll probably have to pick up every single writing he did, and read all of them.
Mencken wrote the piece around the era when women got the right to vote, and it was a all-in-one essay to cover women, marriage, and the various cynical episodes that occur. The analysis and views from 1918? It probably works just as well in 2014.
It's roughly 130 pages....readable in one weekend, and absolutely full of wit and humor. Some women might have some negative comments to say, but he throws just as much mud on men....along with political figures, religious freaks, and do-gooders.
I'd strongly recommend it for a college class project. For guys about to enter into marriage.....it might be a mandatory read.
H. L. throws one very interesting observation out on a page....suggesting that you could simply row the dice in some pub or public setting, and enter into the game of matrimony with some gal that you'd never met or talked to in your life....and the chances of a successful marriage were the same as if you dated her for several years. To this.....I agree. Maybe people think all this relationship stuff is complicated, and requires various introductions....but you could just as well work out this stuff on day two of the marriage, at least in my humble opinion.
So, if you were looking for a great read on relationships and women....by a cynical guy from 1918....this might be an interesting book to pick.
The "35-10" Phrase
There are around a thousand acronyms that I memorized during a twenty-two year period of service with the Air Force. Some were worthless, but the only way that you could communicate over some vivid topic deemed of highly significant priority by the Colonel or the First Sergeant.
35-10 was one of those phrases. It was the regulation that you were introduced to in basic training.....that had to deal with uniform and appearance.
When you talked hair style or length, it was 35-10. When you talked shoes authorized to wear, it was 35-10. When you talked the wearing of a hat, it was 35-10. When you noted the proper wear of a belt, it was 35-10. And when you noted watches, bracelets, or rings (the quantity).....it was 35-10.
It was around day three of basic training when I was formerly introduced to 35-10, and they were issuing the first uniform package. The green hat was a thirty-cent hat (by my prospective) and simply didn't fit or look anything like a professional hat. The pants and blouse-shirt? Ill-fitting and as cheaply made as possible (I think the shirt was $6 and the pants around $7). Their initial t-shirt distribution was 50-cent shirts that never made it past forty washes. The wool socks? They made your feet sweat in the 95-degree heat of Texas.
The instructor quickly introduced you to 35-10, and you felt there were a lot of rules about clothing, which didn't make much sense. The black wool socks would have been thrown out the first day, if they hadn't stuck it to you.....via 35-10....that they were awful important.
Around two weeks later, they issued out the blues package. The bus-driver hat? It looked like a bus-driver hat, and you just laughed. The two sets of blues? One had to be a pure-wool set for winter (it just didn't make any sense to me), and the other some type of summer blend of polyester. They let you know real quick....there were actual dates set up for the wear of one, versus the other. If you were spotted in August wearing the winter set.....unless you lived in Iceland.....you were in deep trouble. The black sock issue for the blues? They just wouldn't stay up and kept sinking down.
Over the years, I started to notice that they modified 35-10 about every two years. Up until the late 1980s....they were mostly all minor changes. You didn't really feel affected much. In the early 1990s.....changes started to occur once to twice a year, and people started to get frustrated, hostile, and argumentative about the changes.
At some point, badges became important. For half of my career....I didn't have to think much about this because neither of my professions had a badge. When they tried to force a badge onto the one profession in the late 1980s....all heck broke loose and a massive amount of criticism came out over it......halting it in a very short period of time. Five years later....they rammed it back down onto our profession....with no arguments allowed. The badge deal? Worthless, except as some boy-scout badge thrill. It was another $8 that you had to spend for the blues, and $25 for various cloth-type for the battle-dress uniform (mostly to get it sewn on).
The arguments over wear? I started to notice almost immediately upon my arrival at the first installation....that 35-10 arguments were almost daily, and kinda got worked up like a Baptist minister meeting where the words of Moses were heavily discussed and interpreted in various different ways.
Folks argued over hair styles, moustache lengths, braided hair on women, starch on uniforms, different blends of colors on the stupid belt, the fit of a women's skirt, and even the type of bracelets that folks wore. On an average base, I'd take a guess that over 3,000 man-hours a year were wasted on these 35-10 discussions and arguments, between 2,500 personnel on the installation.
The cost of uniforms? I really didn't see an issue until we got to the 1990s and the arrival of the new battle dress uniform. Between the pants, blouse, black t-shirt, and the sewn-on elements for the blouse....it was roughly $115 (one set). Considering the old "greens" were around $35....it was a hefty price.
The switch to the black t-shirt deal? The uniform shop in the early days of the this switch carried a plain vanilla black t-shirt set (three) for roughly $18. That was reasonable, but then you started to wash these, and the color started to fade after ten wash episodes. The cotton material? Cheap. So guys began to discover that you could get a really high-grade fancy black t-shirt, for $24 each. Yeah, it's fairly hefty amount of money, but I'd take a guess that half of all members went out and spent at least a hundred bucks on a couple of these t-shirts.
The boots? In basic, they issued you the plain black boots, the chuka boots, and the plain low-quarters. All together, they probably cost maybe $75. The low-quarters could always be replaced for around $18.....at least in the 1980s.
But by the 1990s....the newer boots had arrived, and you couldn't find anything that would fit right.....for less than $65. By the time I reached my last eighteen months.....I'd actually gone out and spent $100 for a pair of great fitting boots (I still have them today but never wear them).
I'd take a guess that my whole bag for basic training uniforms probably cost in the range of $450....which to me in 1977 was substantial. Today, I doubt if you could buy everything for less than $1200.
The necessity for stringent rules like 35-10? I guess it's the fact that people will interpret rules in various ways, and start to question things just because it's stupid. The black wool socks? It was something out of the 1950s, and I think eighty percent of the Air Force questioned the 35-10 standing on this....but waited patiently almost thirty years to get the rule tossed out. All the while....they violated the socks directive, and wore white socks whenever in combat boots.
I witnessed an episode around 1983 where some colonel wanted a female lieutenant in the organization to stand and have her dress length measured from her kneecap. Two inches above the cap was max, and for the sake of the argument....I kinda noted she was pushing four inches easily and it was a fairly short skirt. It's silly to argue over events like this, and it just starts soap-opera-like events to occur.
It's odd these episodes of life that take up unnecessary pieces of your memory. There are probably a hundred rules over 35-10 that I retain and can cite on a moment's notice. Worthless bits of directives......iron-clad stuck in your mind.
35-10 was one of those phrases. It was the regulation that you were introduced to in basic training.....that had to deal with uniform and appearance.
When you talked hair style or length, it was 35-10. When you talked shoes authorized to wear, it was 35-10. When you talked the wearing of a hat, it was 35-10. When you noted the proper wear of a belt, it was 35-10. And when you noted watches, bracelets, or rings (the quantity).....it was 35-10.
It was around day three of basic training when I was formerly introduced to 35-10, and they were issuing the first uniform package. The green hat was a thirty-cent hat (by my prospective) and simply didn't fit or look anything like a professional hat. The pants and blouse-shirt? Ill-fitting and as cheaply made as possible (I think the shirt was $6 and the pants around $7). Their initial t-shirt distribution was 50-cent shirts that never made it past forty washes. The wool socks? They made your feet sweat in the 95-degree heat of Texas.
The instructor quickly introduced you to 35-10, and you felt there were a lot of rules about clothing, which didn't make much sense. The black wool socks would have been thrown out the first day, if they hadn't stuck it to you.....via 35-10....that they were awful important.
Around two weeks later, they issued out the blues package. The bus-driver hat? It looked like a bus-driver hat, and you just laughed. The two sets of blues? One had to be a pure-wool set for winter (it just didn't make any sense to me), and the other some type of summer blend of polyester. They let you know real quick....there were actual dates set up for the wear of one, versus the other. If you were spotted in August wearing the winter set.....unless you lived in Iceland.....you were in deep trouble. The black sock issue for the blues? They just wouldn't stay up and kept sinking down.
Over the years, I started to notice that they modified 35-10 about every two years. Up until the late 1980s....they were mostly all minor changes. You didn't really feel affected much. In the early 1990s.....changes started to occur once to twice a year, and people started to get frustrated, hostile, and argumentative about the changes.
At some point, badges became important. For half of my career....I didn't have to think much about this because neither of my professions had a badge. When they tried to force a badge onto the one profession in the late 1980s....all heck broke loose and a massive amount of criticism came out over it......halting it in a very short period of time. Five years later....they rammed it back down onto our profession....with no arguments allowed. The badge deal? Worthless, except as some boy-scout badge thrill. It was another $8 that you had to spend for the blues, and $25 for various cloth-type for the battle-dress uniform (mostly to get it sewn on).
The arguments over wear? I started to notice almost immediately upon my arrival at the first installation....that 35-10 arguments were almost daily, and kinda got worked up like a Baptist minister meeting where the words of Moses were heavily discussed and interpreted in various different ways.
Folks argued over hair styles, moustache lengths, braided hair on women, starch on uniforms, different blends of colors on the stupid belt, the fit of a women's skirt, and even the type of bracelets that folks wore. On an average base, I'd take a guess that over 3,000 man-hours a year were wasted on these 35-10 discussions and arguments, between 2,500 personnel on the installation.
The cost of uniforms? I really didn't see an issue until we got to the 1990s and the arrival of the new battle dress uniform. Between the pants, blouse, black t-shirt, and the sewn-on elements for the blouse....it was roughly $115 (one set). Considering the old "greens" were around $35....it was a hefty price.
The switch to the black t-shirt deal? The uniform shop in the early days of the this switch carried a plain vanilla black t-shirt set (three) for roughly $18. That was reasonable, but then you started to wash these, and the color started to fade after ten wash episodes. The cotton material? Cheap. So guys began to discover that you could get a really high-grade fancy black t-shirt, for $24 each. Yeah, it's fairly hefty amount of money, but I'd take a guess that half of all members went out and spent at least a hundred bucks on a couple of these t-shirts.
The boots? In basic, they issued you the plain black boots, the chuka boots, and the plain low-quarters. All together, they probably cost maybe $75. The low-quarters could always be replaced for around $18.....at least in the 1980s.
But by the 1990s....the newer boots had arrived, and you couldn't find anything that would fit right.....for less than $65. By the time I reached my last eighteen months.....I'd actually gone out and spent $100 for a pair of great fitting boots (I still have them today but never wear them).
I'd take a guess that my whole bag for basic training uniforms probably cost in the range of $450....which to me in 1977 was substantial. Today, I doubt if you could buy everything for less than $1200.
The necessity for stringent rules like 35-10? I guess it's the fact that people will interpret rules in various ways, and start to question things just because it's stupid. The black wool socks? It was something out of the 1950s, and I think eighty percent of the Air Force questioned the 35-10 standing on this....but waited patiently almost thirty years to get the rule tossed out. All the while....they violated the socks directive, and wore white socks whenever in combat boots.
I witnessed an episode around 1983 where some colonel wanted a female lieutenant in the organization to stand and have her dress length measured from her kneecap. Two inches above the cap was max, and for the sake of the argument....I kinda noted she was pushing four inches easily and it was a fairly short skirt. It's silly to argue over events like this, and it just starts soap-opera-like events to occur.
It's odd these episodes of life that take up unnecessary pieces of your memory. There are probably a hundred rules over 35-10 that I retain and can cite on a moment's notice. Worthless bits of directives......iron-clad stuck in your mind.
Sunday, 14 September 2014
Our "Lost" Civilization
“It would be very important for the Democrats to retain control of the Senate, civilization as we know it today would be in jeopardy if the Republicans win the Senate.”
-- Representative Nancy Pelosi (D, Cal)
Civilization in jeopardy?
Americans live in a remarkable period. In any given election year (occurs every two years)....we are on the cutting edge of total collapse of our civilization. Well....it sounds good when you say that way.
The guys who built the Nazca Lines in Peru? They ended up being a lost civilization. You'd like to believe some Nazca Republicans got into the mix....screwing up things for the liberal side of the Nazca folks.....but basically weather, stupid leadership from the head guy, and some bad crop years led to their downfall.
The Mayan civilization? They kinda drifted away after the year 900. Republicans at fault in Central America? No....between bad weather and some violent tendencies.....crop yields went down, and folks just got discouraged and moved off. Maybe if the EPA had been around and regulated everything, and if they had a decent Attorney General.....things would have gone differently.
The Easter Island civilization? They kinda went into a tree-cutting frenzy and by 1200....had cut just about every tree on the island down. Republicans at fault? Well....if things had been regulated and trees replenished....things would have gone differently, and there'd still be stone statues put up today....maybe into the tens of thousands. Heck, they might even be selling them as quickly as they carved them up, but then some Democratic guys would stand up and claim they were sacred in some way and prevent their export.
The Cahokia civilization? Well....they were a mighty tribe along the Mississippi river and were kings of the territory until the 1200s. Republicans tearing them apart? No.....mostly just a disease or two that entered the area, and with a drought.....made things kinda miserable.
The lost colony civilization at Roanoke Island, Virginia? Republicans at fault? Well....no.....the guys who left and promised to return....took a bit longer than expected, and I would imagine that folks got worried, and left.
Generally, it's hard to find any reasonable excuse to say that some society or culture failed to survive a Republican or Democrat-led disaster.
People that hear this type of chatter....usually just start laughing, or gulp down another sip of booze....thinking it's brand-x type political talk, and doesn't amount to much.
The sad thing here is that political folks are thrown in front of a microphone and expected to give some nifty forty-word statement to the press, and it gets thrown on the front-page of some newspaper. You'd like to think that the political player would stand there and think about what to say, and then comment on something in a remarkable way....but it never happens like that. So we get some lousy one-star marginal statement....that you just shake your head over, and flip the channel to some 1936 movie with Greta Garbo....trying to forget about American politics.
Oh, and in January, after the election, after the arrival of the Republicans in the Senate, and after we've lost our civilization....you might want to ask about the civilization business. Maybe it just keeps on ticking.
-- Representative Nancy Pelosi (D, Cal)
Civilization in jeopardy?
Americans live in a remarkable period. In any given election year (occurs every two years)....we are on the cutting edge of total collapse of our civilization. Well....it sounds good when you say that way.
The guys who built the Nazca Lines in Peru? They ended up being a lost civilization. You'd like to believe some Nazca Republicans got into the mix....screwing up things for the liberal side of the Nazca folks.....but basically weather, stupid leadership from the head guy, and some bad crop years led to their downfall.
The Mayan civilization? They kinda drifted away after the year 900. Republicans at fault in Central America? No....between bad weather and some violent tendencies.....crop yields went down, and folks just got discouraged and moved off. Maybe if the EPA had been around and regulated everything, and if they had a decent Attorney General.....things would have gone differently.
The Easter Island civilization? They kinda went into a tree-cutting frenzy and by 1200....had cut just about every tree on the island down. Republicans at fault? Well....if things had been regulated and trees replenished....things would have gone differently, and there'd still be stone statues put up today....maybe into the tens of thousands. Heck, they might even be selling them as quickly as they carved them up, but then some Democratic guys would stand up and claim they were sacred in some way and prevent their export.
The Cahokia civilization? Well....they were a mighty tribe along the Mississippi river and were kings of the territory until the 1200s. Republicans tearing them apart? No.....mostly just a disease or two that entered the area, and with a drought.....made things kinda miserable.
The lost colony civilization at Roanoke Island, Virginia? Republicans at fault? Well....no.....the guys who left and promised to return....took a bit longer than expected, and I would imagine that folks got worried, and left.
Generally, it's hard to find any reasonable excuse to say that some society or culture failed to survive a Republican or Democrat-led disaster.
People that hear this type of chatter....usually just start laughing, or gulp down another sip of booze....thinking it's brand-x type political talk, and doesn't amount to much.
The sad thing here is that political folks are thrown in front of a microphone and expected to give some nifty forty-word statement to the press, and it gets thrown on the front-page of some newspaper. You'd like to think that the political player would stand there and think about what to say, and then comment on something in a remarkable way....but it never happens like that. So we get some lousy one-star marginal statement....that you just shake your head over, and flip the channel to some 1936 movie with Greta Garbo....trying to forget about American politics.
Oh, and in January, after the election, after the arrival of the Republicans in the Senate, and after we've lost our civilization....you might want to ask about the civilization business. Maybe it just keeps on ticking.
Friday, 12 September 2014
Booboisie
Booboisie is a word that has virtually disappeared from the commonly-used American vocabulary. It was invented about eighty-odd years ago by H. L. Mencken, who coined the phrase of "booboisie" as an ignorant guy from the heartland of America....who thinks he's smart enough to participate in Democracy (mostly by voting).....attempting to have bourgeoisie values (having status, money, class, or intellectual abilities beyond the lower class.
Mencken kinda had a view of most Americans being unable to comprehend the abusive nature of political figures, and their ability to promise you anything.....to get your vote.
Most people in America today....would be classified as potential members of the booboisie-class. I think Mencken would find himself a seat in an airport, a city park, a studio audience, or a city-hall meeting.....to observe people trying to manipulate democracy to work for their agenda or goals. Some might be for the better of mankind, and some might be only introduced to get your kid to add seven and seven.....to eventually get to the potential of equaling fifteen (by a mythical magical formula).
H. L. Mencken once said that "Democracy is the theory that people think they know what they want, and they want it good and hard." I suspect he'd seen a great deal of democracy at work, and knew it's general results were a mixed bag.
A cynical guy? Yeah. Mencken had seen enough of personal relationships that he more or less branded marriage as a dead-end. Oddly enough, he ended up meeting some Alabama gal, who had a degree in literature, and could write a wicked piece on occasion.....throwing common sense to the wind and marrying this Bama lass.
What made Mencken what he was? I went back a while ago looking at his youth, and how he'd somehow stumbled upon Huck Finn (by Mark Twain) and fell completely for the book. After you spend a period reading over Huck Finn.....you tend to admire simple language and the uncomplicated simplicity of life's little adventures.
So, as you might be sitting there tonight....watching ABC Nightly News, Fox's O'Reilly or CNN....with some joker trying hard to get you mentally set to some understanding of a topic or problem facing America.....deserving your time to get frustrated, angry, or hostile....thus voting a certain way, you might want to remember the word booboisie. You might be smart enough to get their message, but it doesn't mean you really understood or grasped the big picture of what's going on, or how you got manipulated into a bogus view.
Mencken kinda had a view of most Americans being unable to comprehend the abusive nature of political figures, and their ability to promise you anything.....to get your vote.
Most people in America today....would be classified as potential members of the booboisie-class. I think Mencken would find himself a seat in an airport, a city park, a studio audience, or a city-hall meeting.....to observe people trying to manipulate democracy to work for their agenda or goals. Some might be for the better of mankind, and some might be only introduced to get your kid to add seven and seven.....to eventually get to the potential of equaling fifteen (by a mythical magical formula).
H. L. Mencken once said that "Democracy is the theory that people think they know what they want, and they want it good and hard." I suspect he'd seen a great deal of democracy at work, and knew it's general results were a mixed bag.
A cynical guy? Yeah. Mencken had seen enough of personal relationships that he more or less branded marriage as a dead-end. Oddly enough, he ended up meeting some Alabama gal, who had a degree in literature, and could write a wicked piece on occasion.....throwing common sense to the wind and marrying this Bama lass.
What made Mencken what he was? I went back a while ago looking at his youth, and how he'd somehow stumbled upon Huck Finn (by Mark Twain) and fell completely for the book. After you spend a period reading over Huck Finn.....you tend to admire simple language and the uncomplicated simplicity of life's little adventures.
So, as you might be sitting there tonight....watching ABC Nightly News, Fox's O'Reilly or CNN....with some joker trying hard to get you mentally set to some understanding of a topic or problem facing America.....deserving your time to get frustrated, angry, or hostile....thus voting a certain way, you might want to remember the word booboisie. You might be smart enough to get their message, but it doesn't mean you really understood or grasped the big picture of what's going on, or how you got manipulated into a bogus view.
Thursday, 11 September 2014
Luther and Gutenberg
I often point out little bits of American history which aren't discussed much. Pennsylvania, in the beginning, was a melting pot of various radical religious groups which packed up and left England, Germany and the Netherlands, in search of a free place to operate and pray along their own lines.
Some of the original groups? Schwenkfelders, Tunkers, Labadists, New Born, New Mooners, Separatists, Zion's Brueder, Ronsdorfer, Inspired, Quietists, Gichtelians, Deprellians, Mountain Men, River Brethren, Brinser Brethren, and the Society of the Women in the Wilderness.
Why this wide spread division of Christianity that divides over and over?
This generally goes back to Europe's period of history from 1525 to the mid-1700s. With Martin Luther's standing against the Catholic Church (the dominating force of life and society up until 1525), and Gutenberg's printing press....this vast door opened for the Bible (not Christianity itself).
Once the Bible has relieved from the Catholic Church, and translated from Latin to various languages.....Gutenberg's printing press accomplished a mythical transformation.....bringing these new interpretations to every single village. With literacy hanging around 3-percent prior to 1525.....you can watch the next two-hundred years as an impact period.....villages and towns set up schools and put mass education as a priority.
The driving force for mass education? Gutenberg's publications.
People began reading the Bible in various translations and came to different meanings and interpretations. Prophets appeared out of thin air, and religious movements started to become common. All of this kinda scared the Catholic Church, which mounted various conflicts (The Thirty Years War was the last of the episode on the Continent).
The settling of America in the 1600s? It all goes back to Martin Luther and Gutenberg. The necessity of religious freedom being written into the Constitution? Back to Luther and Gutenberg. The wide arena of various religious groups in existence today in America? Back to Luther and Gutenberg.
Some of the original groups? Schwenkfelders, Tunkers, Labadists, New Born, New Mooners, Separatists, Zion's Brueder, Ronsdorfer, Inspired, Quietists, Gichtelians, Deprellians, Mountain Men, River Brethren, Brinser Brethren, and the Society of the Women in the Wilderness.
Why this wide spread division of Christianity that divides over and over?
This generally goes back to Europe's period of history from 1525 to the mid-1700s. With Martin Luther's standing against the Catholic Church (the dominating force of life and society up until 1525), and Gutenberg's printing press....this vast door opened for the Bible (not Christianity itself).
Once the Bible has relieved from the Catholic Church, and translated from Latin to various languages.....Gutenberg's printing press accomplished a mythical transformation.....bringing these new interpretations to every single village. With literacy hanging around 3-percent prior to 1525.....you can watch the next two-hundred years as an impact period.....villages and towns set up schools and put mass education as a priority.
The driving force for mass education? Gutenberg's publications.
People began reading the Bible in various translations and came to different meanings and interpretations. Prophets appeared out of thin air, and religious movements started to become common. All of this kinda scared the Catholic Church, which mounted various conflicts (The Thirty Years War was the last of the episode on the Continent).
The settling of America in the 1600s? It all goes back to Martin Luther and Gutenberg. The necessity of religious freedom being written into the Constitution? Back to Luther and Gutenberg. The wide arena of various religious groups in existence today in America? Back to Luther and Gutenberg.
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