Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Today -100: October 10, 1912: Of holy undertakings, perfume, and ape stomachs
King Nicholas of Montenegro’s proclamation of war against Turkey calls it “this holy undertaking.” Aren’t they all, aren’t they all.
The Turkish foreign minister notes that Montenegro was in such a hurry that it began the war a bit before the declaration of war was made to the Porte. Also, that Montenegro hasn’t actually stated any reasons for going to war.
Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia are moving in the general direction of declaring war – recalling their ambassadors and so on – but haven’t yet done so.
Parochial Headline of the Day -100: “How the War Hurts Us.” The war has cut off the supply of attar of roses, which is used in high-end perfumes. War is hell.
Correction of the Day -100: I must have missed the original story, but the NYT now says that a Dr. Rovlies of Paris did not in fact replace the stomach of a man with that of an ape.
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Today -100: October 9, 1912: Of Balkan wars, Mongols, and deader languages
And we’re off: war, specifically the First Balkan War, is declared by Montenegro on the Ottoman Empire. At this time it is not known whether Montenegro acted in conjunction with its Balkan League allies. Since Montenegro is the aggressor, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece aren’t obligated by the defensive treaty to join in the fun. But they will, of course. The attempted intervention of the Great Powers seems, if anything, to have sped up the rush to war, as the League moves to forestall diplomacy.
There are reports that Bulgarians, led by police, massacred ethnic Turks in Turtukai.
The London Times claims that the Chinese army has killed 10,000 Mongols. Will we ever hear another word about this?
End of the World As We Know It News: the new vice-chancellor of Oxford University, Charles Buller Heberden, addressed the convocation in English rather than Latin.
Monday, October 08, 2012
Hope is not a strategry
Today Mitt Romney gave a “foreign policy speech” at the Virginia Military Institute, because nothing says Republican foreign policy like enunciating it in front of future cannon fodder.
DRAMATIC OPENING: “Last month, our nation was attacked again.” If by “our nation” you mean a consulate in Libya.
“The attacks against us in Libya were not an isolated incident. They were accompanied by anti-American riots in nearly two dozen other countries”. Some of which could in no way be fairly characterized as riots, but were in fact demonstrations, you know, people peacefully expressing their opinions.
REMEMBER, BLACK THINGS ARE ALWAYS BAD: “These mobs hoisted the black banner of Islamic extremism over American embassies on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks.”
WHAT THE ATTACKS ON AMERICA SHOULD NOT BE SEEN AS: “The attacks on America last month should not be seen as random acts. They are expressions of a larger struggle that is playing out across the broader Middle East”
LEAVE “INNOCENCE OF MUSLIMS” ALOOOONE! “This latest assault cannot be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting Islam, despite the Administration’s attempts to convince us of that for so long. No, as the Administration has finally conceded, these attacks were the deliberate work of terrorists who use violence to impose their dark ideology on others, especially women and girls...” Cough. “...who are fighting to control much of the Middle East today; and who seek to wage perpetual war on the West.” Actually, they probably seek to win the war. Why would they want to wage perpetual war? It’s this sort of insight into the minds of Islamic militants that’s been missing since George Bush skipped off the world stage.
Evidently this war is exactly like the Cold War. It’s a perfect analogy. “Fortunately, we had leaders of courage and vision, both Republicans and Democrats, who knew that America had to support friends who shared our values”. For Greek generals, read Saudi princes.
IN ENTERPRISE OF MARTIAL KIND,
WHEN THERE WAS ANY FIGHTING,
HE LED HIS REGIMENT FROM BEHIND (HE FOUND IT LESS EXCITING).
BUT WHEN AWAY HIS REGIMENT RAN, HIS PLACE WAS AT THE FORE, O...
“But it is our responsibility and the responsibility of the President to use America’s great power to shape history, not to lead from behind, leaving our destiny at the mercy of events.”
GREAT STRAINS: “The relationship between the president of the United States and the prime minister of Israel, for example, our closest ally in the region, has suffered great strains.” That’s rather ambiguous: is it Israel, or the Israeli prime minister, who is our closest ally? Because they’re not the same thing, as much as Bibi admittedly resembles Louis XIV.
AND HOW CLOSE IS THAT? “Iran today has never been closer to a nuclear weapons capability.”
BECAUSE IF THERE’S ONE THING THAT ALWAYS INFLUENCED EVENTS FOR THE BETTER IN IRAQ, IT’S US MILITARY OCCUPATION: “In Iraq the costly gains made by our troops are being eroded by rising violence, a resurgent al-Qaida, the weakening of democracy in Baghdad and the rising influence of Iran. And yet America’s ability to influence events for the better in Iraq has been undermined by the abrupt withdrawal of our entire troop presence.”
WHAT HOPE IS NOT: “I know the president hopes for a safer, freer and more prosperous Middle East allied with us. I share this hope. But hope is not a strategy.”
I CAN’T BE THE ONLY PERSON WHO, EVERY TIME I HEAR THE PHRASE “BEDROCK PRINCIPLES,” MUTTERS “YABBA DABBA DO” UNDER MY BREATH: “It is time to change course in the Middle East. That course should be organized around these bedrock principles: America must have confidence in our cause, clarity in our purpose and resolve in our might.” So hope is not a strategy but confidence, clarity and resolve are.
THAT WORD PEACE, I DO NOT THINK IT MEANS WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS: “For the sake of peace, we must make clear to Iran through actions, not just words, that their nuclear pursuit will not be tolerated.”
I’M NOT A NAVAL EXPERT, BUT I’M GUESSING THIS COMPARISON IS A LITTLE MISLEADING: “The size of our Navy is at levels not seen since 1916.” He wants to build 12 ships and 3 submarines every year, in case we need to fight pirates or Captain Nemo or something.
HEY, MAYBE WE CAN USE CLEAN COAL IN THOSE EFFECTIVE MISSILE DEFENSES: “I’ll implement effective missile defenses to protect against threats.”
“The president has not signed one new free trade agreement in the past four years.” I’m guessing the Romney people will say that the word “new” makes this not a lie, since the three Obama signed were all ones Bush failed to get ratified.
Romney goes on to describe (without any actual details) how he will magically create democracy and freedom in Libya and Egypt. And in Syria, “I’ll work with our partners to identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values and then ensure they obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad’s tanks helicopters and fighter jets.” Ignoring for a moment the question of whether it’s wise to dump anti-aircraft missiles willy nilly into the Middle East, does anyone doubt that one of, if not the only, “partner” with whom he’ll be picking winners and losers in Syria is Israel? And does anyone doubt how announcing his intention to do so will go over in Syria?
He says overthrowing Assad is important because it would be a “strategic defeat” for Iran. Syria will no doubt be pleased that Mitt’s interest in their country is merely a by-product of his wish to cock a snook at the mullahs.
He says that Obama has failed in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which is true, although not for presence of trying. “In this old conflict, as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new president will bring the chance to begin anew.” Because it’s all about us.
WHAT THERE’S A LONGING FOR IN THE MIDDLE EAST: “There’s a longing for American leadership in the Middle East”. Also for halvah, for some reason.
Really, just who is it in the Middle East who’s longing for American leadership? Names, I want names.
Throughout the speech, he talks about leading and leadership: “if America doesn’t lead, others will,” Obama “leads from behind” and “failed to lead in Syria,” etc. He’s vague on what that leading would actually consist of, beyond a lot of asserting principles. It’s the foreign policy equivalent of his line at that fundraiser about the economy improving if he’s elected without his actually doing anything. The only specific things he promises involve military hardware: more ships, Star Wars, weapons to Syrian rebels.
BIG FINISH: “The 21st century can and must be an American century. It began with terror and war and economic calamity. It’s our duty to steer it onto the path of freedom and peace and prosperity. The torch America carries is one of decency and hope. It’s not America’s torch alone, but it is America’s duty and honor to hold it high enough that all the world can see its light.” As we carry that torch of decency and hope into the Middle East where it will ignite the oil-fire of decency and hope.
Today -100: October 8, 1912: Their thought is not our thought
Woodrow Wilson keeps saying that US Steel is behind the Bull Moose Party. In defining the difference between himself and Roosevelt, he has been emphasizing their policies on trusts.
(Update: challenged by Roosevelt to prove it, Wilson says the next day that he didn’t mean financially. “What I meant was that they are supporting him with their thought, and their thought is not our thought.” And that the kind of “control” TR wants to exercise over monopolies is the kind of control US Steel wants.)
In Nicaragua, three American marines and sailors are killed by what the NYT calls “an irresponsible mob,” when all they were doing was invading and occupying the town of Leon. The marines kill 50 townfolk in return, as was the custom.
Sunday, October 07, 2012
Today -100: October 7, 1912: Of natural Bull Moosers, and Balkan wars
Thomas Edison endorses Theodore Roosevelt for president, declaring himself a “natural Bull Mooser.”
The Great Powers (note: the US was not a Great Power; Italy was. Huh.) are working on a deal for the Balkans. They would authorize Austria and Russia to guarantee the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire (i.e., that the countries of the anti-Turkish coalition would gain nothing from a war) and that reforms would be implemented in Macedonia. However, Bulgaria and the other would-be belligerents really have their hearts set on some bloodshed (assuming that the war hasn’t already started – the LAT reports a fight on the Turkish-Montenegrin border).
Saturday, October 06, 2012
Leon Panetta scolds our new-caught, sullen peoples
Secretary of War Leon Panetta tells Hamid Karzai to just shut up and be grateful for the 11-year war in his country: “Those lives were lost fighting the right enemy not the wrong enemy and I think it would be helpful if the president, every once in a while, expressed his thanks for the sacrifices that have been made by those who have fought and died for Afghanistan, rather than criticizing them.”
Indeed, according to Little Leon, “We have made progress in Afghanistan because there are men and women in uniform who have been willing to fight and die for Afghanistan’s sovereignty.” And nothing says “defending Afghanistan’s sovereignty” like ordering the wogs to express their gratitude to the soldiers occupying their country.
Today -100: October 6, 1912: Terrorized into becoming Albanians
American Marines fight Nicaraguan rebels alongside government forces, despite the premise that they were sent there to protect American property and lives and, you know, property. Four marines die; the rebel general Zeledon is killed (or possibly captured and then killed) and the rebels routed.
The NYT explains the Balkans situation: “Old Servia has 1,050,000 inhabitants, of whom 700,000 are Servians and 350,000 Albanians, among which latter are 150,000 Servians, who have been terrorized into becoming Albanians during the last forty years.”
Friday, October 05, 2012
Today -100: October 5, 1912: Of Balkan wars and civilizing bathtubs
France is trying to get the Powers to cooperate in preventing a Balkan war.
Condescending Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times): “NEW BATHTUBS AS CIVILIZERS. INDIAN AGENT GIVES APACHES START IN CULTURE.”
Thursday, October 04, 2012
Today -100: October 4, 1912: Of Balkan Wars, electors, homicides, brothels, and startled bankers
The war in the Balkans is rumored to have begun with an attack by Turkish troops on Serbia and fighting on the Bulgarian-Turkish border. I think these are false rumors.
Theodore Roosevelt is finally allowed to testify before the Senate about past campaign contributions. He introduces telegrams he wrote to the RNC in 1908 (when he was president but not a candidate) objecting to Standard Oil being asked for money (which he had also refused to do in 1904).
The California Supreme Court rules that President Taft’s electors cannot appear on the November ballot, even by petition. It rules that the state Republican convention, dominated by Theodores, was empowered by state law to select electors, even if it had repudiated the national ticket. California Tafties are trying to figure out what to do next. One option, challenging the constitutionality of CA’s primary law in order to ensure that California sits out the 1912 presidential elections entirely, was decided against because the Progressives would just call the Legislature into special session and name pro-Roosevelt electors.
NYT: “The increase of the number of homicides in American cities is disheartening, but it is probably explainable on other grounds than the degeneracy of the Nation.” So that’s okay then.
Oh, Christ, it goes on to blame immigrants from Southern Europe (i.e., Italy), and notes that the city with the highest homicide rate, Memphis, has a large negro population.
Woodrow Wilson is happy about the selection of William Sulzer as Democratic candidate for governor of New York, although he doesn’t seem to be entirely sure what his name is.
NYC Mayor Gaynor says William Randolph Hearst owns several brothels on West 58th Street.
Headline of the Day -100: “Heavy Woman Hit Bankers.” 265-pound Mary Bopa, drying her laundry on the roof of the Indiana Harbor State Bank, trips and falls through a skylight. Being bankers, they demanded that she pay for the skylight and the table she fell on. She refused.
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
If there’s one thing we can all agree on about the debates
it’s that the next one has to be hosted by Louis C.K.
(Update: Patton Oswalt on Twitter has suggested 1) R. Lee Ermey, 2) the Dowager Countess/Maggie Smith, 3) Vic Mackey (of "The Shield"), presumably for separate debates. I imagine someone has suggested Big Bird. Consider this a Who Should Be the Next Moderator CONTEST.)
Presidential debate: Zing, zing, zing goes my heartstrings
Mitt has a bigger flag lapel. That means he automatically wins the debate.
THE ROM-COM BEGINS: Romney says it’s very sweet of Obama to spend his anniversary with him.
First zinger™, I guess: Mittens says O. believes in “trickle-down government.”
Oh dear, Romney’s going to be smirking on the split-screen every time O. is talking.
R. says middle-class income drop is an “economy tax.” Guess he’ll just keep dropping made-up phrases on us.
R. says food prices are up. This would be a perfect moment for Jim Lehrer to ask him how much a gallon of milk costs. Waiting... waiting...
Evidently, the middle class are being “crushed.”
R: “I like coal.”
No tax cut that adds to the deficit.
Romney compares Obama to his “boys,” who are evidently incredible liars and just keep repeating their lies.
Wondering where Romney’s sons learned to lie like that?
Obama: R. would cut Donald Trump’s taxes as a small business, and Donald Trump doesn’t like thinking of himself as small anything. TrumpZing!
Donald Trump is a HUGE douche.
Mittens: I don’t want to cut jobs (he was for cutting jobs before he was against it).
R. likes Big Bird and Jim Lehrer, but he’ll sell PBS to the Chinese, who will stir-fry both of them.
So Romney will eliminate the deficit by ending Obamacare and PBS and nothing else he cares to name.
R: “I don’t want to go down the path to Spain.”
R on Solyndra: you don’t pick the winners & losers, you pick the losers. Zing!
O. talks about his grandmother who worked hard and blah blah blah, and could continue living independently because Social Security and Medicare guaranteed that there was a floor under which she could not go. Romney would totally put Obama’s grandmother under the floor.
R: “Try and get a mortgage these days.”
R: “Expensive things hurt families.”
O: “Obamacare says insurance companies can’t jerk you around.”
R. accuses O. of having continued working on Obamacare even after Scott Brown was elected, which was clearly a rebuke by the entire nation of the very idea.
O. says there isn’t a better way of dealing with pre-existing conditions than O-care. Um, I can think of a better way.
O: Is R. keeping his plans so secret because they’re too good?
I think that was a trick question.
Romney says Obamacare violates the 10th Amendment. Somewhere, Rick Perry just got an erection.
R: “I love great schools.”
R says the federal gov has no role in education. A minute later, Lehrer asks if the federal gov has a role in education; R. says yes.
O says R genuinely cares about education, but offers no proof.
R says the money O spent on green energy (which he then suggests was to reward O’s campaign contributors) could have paid for a bunch of teachers. Who R would never pay for.
Well, that was as interesting as it was informative and I need to lie down now.
Today -100: October 3, 1912: Of Balkan wars, unbossed conventions, lynchings, and stamps
The four Balkan League countries allied against the Ottomans are on the verge of issuing their ultimatum, which will evidently be a demand for full autonomy for Macedonia, Albania and Old Serbia – implemented in no more than three days. Those countries all have small populations compared to the Ottoman Empire, but if they are to be believed, they have mobilized something like 1/5 of their adult male population.
Thanks to the presence of the Progressive Party on the ballot, no one got a majority in Vermont’s elections last month, which under the state constitution means that the Legislature gets to pick all the state officers from governor down. It picks all Republicans.
Tammany’s Boss Murphy graciously allows the New York Democratic Convention to dump the incumbent governor, John Alden Dix, and instead nominate William Sulzer, a member of Congress since 1895 (and Speaker of the state Assembly before that). During the roll call, Murphy failed to vote when called upon, leaving his minions in some confusion as to what they were supposed to do. Sulzer seems to have come out of nowhere (not that he needed a public campaign when the public had little to say about this decision). Just a few days ago it seemed that the anti-Dix faction had united around state Supreme Court Justice Victor Dowling.
I predict a long and successful career as governor for Mr. Sulzer.
A mob in Rawlins, Wyoming tries to lynch a black man accused of attacking an old lady, but while the mob was storming the front door of the county jail, the sheriff snuck him out the back door and brought him to the state pen. Where he is lynched by his fellow inmates.
Mark Wilks, imprisoned for not paying his suffragette wife’s income taxes in Britain, is released after 15 days, no explanation given.
Disappointing Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times): “Dies for Exposition Stamps.” Turns out to be dies, noun, the things used to print stamps.
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Crap dialogue is what I’m talking about
With Jerry Seinfeld entering the gladiatorial ring with a NYT critic over whether “Really?” is over-used by comedy writers, I feel I cannot continue to remain silent about the laziest, most over-used line of dialogue in the arsenal of tv and movie writers: “What are you talking about?” It’s everywhere, but like those circles drawn in the corner of the frame to signal reel-changes in movies from the days when there were still reel-changes, you don’t notice them until you start noticing them (I think it was an episode of Columbo that pointed those out to me) and then you can’t stop noticing them until they fade into the background again. Also, there’s a thing many actresses do with a certain facial feature that is so weird and so distracting once it’s pointed out to you that I will do you the favor of not doing so. I first noticed “What are you talking about?” on “24,” when Jack Bauer snapped it at someone literally every single episode (sometimes more than once) and Chloe every other episode, but then I realized it was everywhere.
Has anybody ever said “What are you talking about?” to someone else in real life? Have you?
Comment-geddon redux
As threatened/foretold in the Book of Revelations, all the old comments are now gone.
Fortunately, thanks to the greater susceptibility of the Blogger commenting system to spam, I spend half the day deleting stuff like this:
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Was the comment linking to a weight-loss site put on my post about a hunger-striker in Guantanamo? Of course it was.
Today -100: October 2, 1912: Of Balkan wars and watermelons
Turkey mobilizes its army and reserves. Various Balkans countries are stopping freight and shipping to each other, and Turkey will seize all Greek ships in its waters.
The NYT says there won’t be a war in the Balkans because wars in the Balkans don’t happen in October. So that’s okay then.
Headline of the Day -100: “Wilson Gets a Watermelon.”
Monday, October 01, 2012
Today -100: October 1, 1912: Of Balkan wars, perfume, and fake lynch mobs
Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece are mobilizing their armies.
Latest fad in Paris: injecting perfume.
I mentioned that the US gave Mexico permission for some of its troops to travel through American soil to fight rebels. Texas Gov. Colquitt was asked to give his permission too and he did, but has changed his mind, though too late to do any good (especially since he sent his message to the departments of State and War on a Friday, and they are closed for the weekend).
The sheriff of Kenosha County, Wisconsin stages a fake lynching in which a fake mob pretends to overpower the sheriff and puts a noose around the neck of a black prisoner to coerce him into confessing to stealing a gun. It worked.
Want to know what William Howard Taft sounded like? The Library of Congress has two brief recordings dated today -100.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
What, you got something better to do?
On Fox News Sunday, Paul Ryan refused to explain which tax loopholes he’d close, because it would be very time-consuming, with the time and the math and the counting on his fingers and toes.
Today -100: September 30, 1912: Of non-lynchings, red flags, Balkan wars, and kid gloves
A mob is thwarted from lynching Hugh Long, the mayor of Wagener, South Carolina and state representative-elect, after he shot and killed one Pickens N. Gunter, president of the Bank of Wagener, over their political differences. (Long will be acquitted next June).
Police in Lawrence, Massachusetts attack an IWW parade, essentially because they had red flags.
Russia is mobilizing seven army corps, as a precaution in case it gets involved in the increasingly likely war in the Balkans. Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece have all been issuing threats against the Ottoman Empire.
Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs holds a rally in Madison Square Garden. The NYT says the audience was equally divided by gender. Debs calls Woodrow Wilson “the kid glove on the paw of the Tammany tiger.” He notes that Taft, Roosevelt and Wilson have never had to look for a job, never been on strike, been slugged by a capitalistic policeman, been in jail, or produced enough to feed a gallanipper (mosquito).
Woodrow Wilson demands that the upcoming New York Democratic Convention not be run by Boss Murphy (Wilson’s been trying to force Gov. John Dix, Murphy’s man, out of office).
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Today -100: September 29, 1912: Of covenants, the typical Englishman of the year 3912, non-thinking people, and bears
Northern Irish Protestants sign the Covenant, pledging to resist Home Rule and never recognize the authority of an Irish Parliament, “in sure confidence that God will defend the right.”
A Dr. Forbes Ross suggests that with the current eugenic trends in England, 2,000 years from now the average Englishman’s face will be that of a typical criminal, with prognathous jaws and face, receding forehead, broad, flat nose, well-marked canine teeth, small eyes, short neck, head set well back between the shoulders, and a depraved gorilla countenance.
Taft attacks Roosevelt, though not by name, saying the Bull Moose Party split off from the Republican Party “not for any one principle, or indeed on any principle at all, but merely to gratify personal ambition and vengeance, and in the gratification of that personal ambition and vengeance, every new fad and theory, some of them good, some of them utterly preposterous and impracticable, some of them as Socialistic as anything that has been proposed in the countries of Europe... have been crowded into a platform in order to tempt the voters of enthusiastic supporters of each of these proposed reforms. ... an entire willingness to destroy every limitation of constitutional representative government in order that, by short cuts, these various reforms... may be accomplished by the decree of a benevolent despotism to be supported by the acclaim of hero-worshiping, emotional, undiscriminating, superficially minded, and non-thinking people.” Adding, probably, “But if superficially minded, non-thinking people want to vote for me instead, that’s cool.” Seriously, is that how you try to win back disaffected Republican voters? The rest of the speech was about the need to preserve the protective tariff.
An engineer, Carroll Livingston Riker, has written a book (which astonishingly seems to have been republished this year) proposing the building of a wall into the Atlantic from Newfoundland to redirect the Gulf Stream to the Arctic, melting the Polar ice caps and heating up the Earth, and all for only $190 million, less than the cost of building the Panama Canal.
Headline of the Day -100 (LA Times): “Kaiser Throws Carrot To Bear.”
Friday, September 28, 2012
Today -100: September 28, 1912: Of insurrections
Roosevelt is campaigning in the South (Louisiana today, Tennessee yesterday), which he knows will never vote for anyone but a Democrat.
Evidently Augusta, Georgia is in a state of “insurrection.” Ah, that means that locals were a tad upset about National Guard shooting at striking trolley workers, killing one.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Today -100: September 27, 1912: Of very delightful meetings
William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson meet at the Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston, the only time their paths will cross during the campaign. Wilson said afterward, “It was a very delightful meeting. I am very fond of President Taft.” They exchanged pleasantries about how their voices were holding out. The NYT notes that an hour before the two met, Wilson made a speech declaring Taft totally ineffectual. Oddly enough, Wilson had spent the previous night at the Taft Hotel in New Haven, in a bed specially made for President Taft.
Joseph Smith, president of the Mormon Church, endorses Taft (I think because he didn’t invade Mexico, endangering the future status of the Mormon polygamist colonies there). So that’s one state in the bag. One more state, and he’ll have two.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Today -100: September 26, 1912: Of aroused judges, and tea
Headline of the Day -100: “Divorce Judge Aroused.”
Mary Wood, President of the Pasaic, NJ branch of the Equal Suffrage League, resigns, saying the members do nothing but drink tea.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Obama at the United Nations: There’s no video that justifies an attack on an embassy
Obama spoke this morning to the UN General Assembly (otherwise known as the bit of the UN that doesn’t count because France doesn’t have a veto in it).
HE WAS A STEEL-DRIVING MAN: “Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentleman: I would like to begin today by telling you about an American named Chris Stevens.”
IT’S JUST ALWAYS ALL ABOUT US, ISN’T IT? “The attacks on the civilians in Benghazi were attacks on America.”
SO IT’LL JUST BE CANADA AND MONACO? “Today, we must declare that this violence and intolerance has no place among our United Nations.”
Then he talks about the Arab Spring. “the world has been captivated by the transformation that’s taken place, and the United States has supported the forces of change,” adding, “except for, you know, Bahrain. Oh, and the Saudis, and, um...”
IT’S JUST ALWAYS ALL ABOUT US, ISN’T IT? “We were inspired by the Tunisian protests that toppled a dictator, because we recognized our own beliefs in the aspiration of men and women who took to the streets.”
AND BY ULTIMATELY, I MEAN AFTER DECADES OF BEING ON THE OTHER SIDE: “We insisted on change in Egypt, because our support for democracy ultimately put us on the side of the people.”
THE UNITED STATES IS ALWAYS GOOD AT TELLING EXACTLY WHEN THE INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE STOP BEING SERVED BY A CORRUPT STATUS QUO: “We supported a transition of leadership in Yemen, because the interests of the people were no longer being served by a corrupt status quo.”
WELL, ASPIRATIONS AND AIR STRIKES: “We intervened in Libya alongside a broad coalition, and with the mandate of the United Nations Security Council, because we had the ability to stop the slaughter of innocents, and because we believed that the aspirations of the people were more powerful than a tyrant.”
OR TO TAKE THAT SECOND CRULLER: “Those in power have to resist the temptation to crack down on dissidents.”
LOOKIN’ AT YOU, ROMNEY: “In hard economic times, countries must be tempted -- may be tempted to rally the people around perceived enemies, at home and abroad, rather than focusing on the painstaking work of reform.”
It occurs to me that while he once again castigates the “crude and disgusting video” whose “message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity,” at no point has he ever specified what problems he has with the film. What do you find so disgusting, Barack? The acting? The portrayal of Mohammed? Or are you simply outsourcing your disgust – Muslims claim to find it disgusting, therefore in solidarity we all have to?
In the next paragraph, he notes that he himself is a Christian, because of course he did. But we don’t have blasphemy laws protecting the sensibilities of Christians. And “As President of our country and Commander-in-Chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day -- (laughter) -- and I will always defend their right to do so.” Oh good, he just implicitly compared himself to Mohammed; that’ll go down well.
He goes on for a bit with a boilerplate defense of free speech – okay, but not particularly inspired – then uses a word, well let’s see if you spot the problematic word: “We do so because given the power of faith in our lives, and the passion that religious differences can inflame, the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression; it is more speech -- the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect.” The word, of course, is blasphemy, which does not belong in any proper defense of free speech.
ON THIS WE MUST AGREE (BUT DON’T): “And on this we must agree: There is no speech that justifies mindless violence. There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents. There’s no video that justifies an attack on an embassy.” Mindless violence? It’s precisely the minds behind the violence that’s the problem.
BUT SOMEONE IS WRONG ON THE INTERNET: “In this modern world with modern technologies, for us to respond in that way to hateful speech empowers any individual who engages in such speech to create chaos around the world. We empower the worst of us if that’s how we respond.”
AND BY “BE CLEAR,” I MEAN “LIE LIKE A WEASEL”: “Now, let me be clear: Just as we cannot solve every problem in the world, the United States has not and will not seek to dictate the outcome of democratic transitions abroad.”
AND HERE’S THE PART WHERE HE TAKES BACK WHAT HE JUST SAID ABOUT FREE SPEECH: “It is time to marginalize those who -- even when not directly resorting to violence -- use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel, as the central organizing principle of politics. For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes an excuse, for those who do resort to violence.” So Mr. Free Speech wants to suppress speech that “gives cover” or provides an excuse for violence. And I’m not sure what “marginalize” is supposed to mean, although I can guess, but the assumption behind the word is that the majority have the right to decide what sort of speech is acceptable.
UNLESS YOU COUNT FLAG RECOGNITION 101: “Burning an American flag does nothing to provide a child an education.”
UNLESS YOU COUNT WINDOW REPAIRERS: “Attacking an embassy won’t create a single job.”
FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE GREAT SATAN....The impulse towards intolerance and violence may initially be focused on the West, but over time it cannot be contained.”
He says of “extremists,” “They don’t build; they only destroy.” You didn’t build that!
OH GOOD, I WAS HOPING SOMEONE WOULD TELL ME WHEN IT WAS TIME FOR THAT: “It is time to leave the call of violence and the politics of division behind.”
GUANTANAMO? “On so many issues, we face a choice between the promise of the future, or the prisons of the past.”
WHEREIN OBAMA TELLS MUSLIMS HOW TO BE CREDIBLE: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied.” That sentence is weird, right?
WALK, NO, WADDLE, YES: “Understanding that such a [Middle East] peace must come through a just agreement between the parties, America will walk alongside all who are prepared to make that journey.”
REALLY? HAVE YOU CHECKED WITH STEPHEN HAWKING? On Iran’s nuclear program: “But that time is not unlimited.”
WHAT WE RESPECT: “We respect the right of nations to access peaceful nuclear power, but one of the purposes of the United Nations is to see that we harness that power for peace. And make no mistake....”
Whenever a president or candidate says "Make no mistake," I go out & make 22 mistakes on purpose.
— rob delaney (@robdelaney) September 25, 2012
“...a nuclear-armed Iran is not a challenge that can be contained. It would threaten the elimination of Israel...” Or would if Israel didn’t have several hundred nukes. “...It risks triggering a nuclear-arms race in the region, and the unraveling of the non-proliferation treaty.” The one Israel didn’t sign.
HAS ANYONE TOLD THE IRAQIS? “The war in Iraq is over. American troops have come home.” Well, been transferred to Afghanistan. “We’ve begun a transition in Afghanistan, and America and our allies will end our war on schedule in 2014.” It says so right here on Google Calendar.
SO THERE’VE BEEN NO MORE THAN SIX ANGRY MOBS??? “for every angry mob that gets shown on television, there are billions around the world who share similar hopes and dreams.”
IS THAT LIKE WHEN ROOMMATES’ MENSTRUAL CYCLES SYNCH UP? “They tell us that there is a common heartbeat to humanity.”
Comment-geddon
For 6½ years this blog and many others relied on the commenting service Haloscan/Echo/JS-Kit. Thousands of comments were made here from 2005 to earlier this year and were entrusted to it. But Haloscan/Echo/JS-Kit decided to get out of the commenting biz, so on Monday, all those comments will vanish. All that cleverness, outrage and snark, gone.
There seems to be no way to import them into the Blogger system.
This is quite upsetting.
I switched to the Blogger comments system a few months ago, so you can make comments or, about twenty times more frequently, try to get spam past the filtering software. Seriously, does it seem likely that readers of this blog are that interested in Louis Vuitton bags?
Anyway, I wish Haloscan/Echo/JS-Kit luck in its future endeavours.
And by luck, I mean syphilis.
Today -100: September 25, 1912: Of marines, bull moose heads, and imbeciles
President Taft sends marines to patrol the disputed Haiti-Santo Domingo border, where Dominican rebels have been interfering with the Americans collecting the Dominican customs duties.
Roosevelt is campaigning in Oklahoma in a car decorated with the head of a bull moose. Gross.
Headline of the Day -100: “Ohio’s Many Imbeciles.” The president of the State Board of Administration says that if they don’t start sterilizing them forcibly, the state will go bankrupt within ten years from the cost of supporting the weak-minded. There are over 100 of them in the state institution.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Today -100: September 24, 1912: Of petticoats
Sign of the Times -100: A letter to the NYT bemoans the vanishing of the petticoat industry, thanks to “freakish French fashion, which insisted that women show their shapes instead of draping their shapely forms.”
Want to know what Woodrow Wilson sounded like? The Library of Congress has five brief recordings dated today -100.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
The State Department deploys its strongest Word of Condemnation
saying the reward offered by the Pakistani Minister for Railroads and Assholery for the murder of the Innocence of the Muslims auteur is “inflammatory and”... wait for it... wait for it... “inappropriate.”
I’m sure Ghulam Ahmad Bilour feels thoroughly chastened.
Today -100: September 23, 1912: Of pathetic spectacles, nun grabs, angel dicks, and moose bribery
Theodore Roosevelt’s running mate, California Gov. Hiram Johnson, denies that he called President Taft “the most pathetic spectacle in our history.” Rather, he says, he said that politically Taft was the most pathetic spectacle in our political history. So that’s okay then.
NYT Index Typo of the Day -100: “TAFT LETS NUNS KEEP THEIR GRAB.” Nuns teaching in schools on Indian reservations will be allowed to wear their habits (but only the 51 nuns who are already teachers, not any future ones). Note that these are government employees in nun garb.
Paris authorities are refusing to unveil Jacob Epstein’s sculpture of an angel with a large penis on Oscar Wilde’s tomb (I’d include a picture, but I can’t find one from before some moron castrated the poor angel in the 1960s). Rodin supports Epstein, “a talented artist who will make his mark.” With penises!
Several suffragettes heckle British Chancellor David Lloyd George at a meeting in Llanystumdwy and are attacked by the audience. One of them is beaten and her clothes torn off and distributed amongst the crowd as souvenirs, as was the custom. (A longer description appears in the NYT magazine section in October).
Elsewhere, a suffragette threw a worm at Winston Churchill as he was playing golf.
Headline of the Day -100: “Charges Moose Bribery.”
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Today -100: September 22, 1912: Of whiskers, gum, stones, and so-called civil rights
Headline of the Day -100: “ROBBED OF HIS WHISKERS.; Old Bridge, N.J., Resident Reports an Odd Hold-Up.”
The British are developing the American habit of gum-chewing.
Northern Irish Headline of the Day -100: “Ulster Leaders Stoned.” Would explain a lot.
It’s the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation (well, of Lincoln’s threat to issue it if the South didn’t surrender), and the NYT Magazine has an article about how “The Negro Has Accomplished Much Since Emancipation.” Let’s see how much I can read before I throw up. Well, it seems that in 1862 negroes were “ignorant, untrained, emotional, an easy mark for promoters and hypocrites, and in no sense equal to the obligations forced upon him for political uses,” but they’ve gotten somewhat better since then by working hard and not expecting anything from white folks. And Southern negroes “have not taken an active part in politics for years; but they have lost nothing of really intrinsic value by their abstention... and do not seem to feel the loss of their so-called civil rights.” So that’s okay then.
Want to know what Teddy Roosevelt sounded like? The Library of Congress has three short recordings dated today -100.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Today -100: September 21, 1912: Of lost hope, alliances, warplanes, and making imperial ends meet
Election 1912 Headline of the Day -100: “Roosevelt Has Lost Hope.” According to one letter he allegedly wrote to some unnamed person in London (this story is sort of like the Huffington Post -100).
Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece (which last week initiated conscription) form a military alliance against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan League.
(Usage note: In English, Serbia was called Servia until early in World War I, when it was decided that Britain’s brave little ally needed a less, um, servile-sounding name.)
The Interparliamentary Union, whatever that is, approves a ban on the use of airplanes in warfare, proposed by Belgium’s former prime minister (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Auguste Beernaert. So that settles that.
Congress snuck into the Post Office Bill a provision that any newspaper going through the mail has to display the names of its owners, editors, and publishers.
In Britain, Dr. Elizabeth Wilks of the Tax Resistance League has been protesting the lack of women’s suffrage by refusing to pay income taxes. Thanks to a quirk of British law (tax law hasn’t caught up with the notion that married women can own property in their own right, which has been the case for a few decades now), it’s actually her husband who has to report her income (but he has no legal power to compel her to tell him what her income is) and pay the tax. Indeed, when the Inland Revenue seized her furniture, she went to court and won a claim that they could only go after her husband for her income tax. So now Mark Wilks, who in any case can’t afford to pay her tax from his own, smaller income (he’s a schoolmaster) is going to jail.
The former Empress of France Eugénie is shocked at the current price of gowns in Paris. Why, when she was empress, she never paid more than $120. “Even then I was accused of extravagance. If I had had to pay what you ladies pay I should never have been able to make both ends meet.”
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Kerry joins the Appropriateness Police
John Kerry castigates Iraq for letting Iranian planes overfly its territory on the way to Syria: “It just seems completely inappropriate that we’re trying to help build their democracy, support them, put American lives on the line, money into the country, and they’re working against our interest so overtly.”
Oh the utter ingratitude, after all we’ve done
Just a reminder
that Adnan Latif died in Guantanamo 12 days ago, and the government won’t tell us the cause of death.
We know he was a hunger-striker and was presumably forcibly fed, although the government claims that he wasn’t hunger striking at the time of his death. Of course, the Pentagon no longer tells us how many hunger strikers there are at Guantanamo.
Today -100: September 20, 1912: Of recalls and covenants
Theodore Roosevelt says he’d be okay with the recall even being applied to the office of president.
Next month, Ulster Unionists will all sign a “Covenant” to fight “the present conspiracy to set up home rule in Ireland”.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Today -100: September 19, 1912: Of in-touch candidates, airships, and dead mules
Election 1912 Headline of the Day -100: “West Finds Wilson in Touch With Life.” Evidently he’s not a cold scholar after all (spoiler alert: yes he is). Woodrow Wilson, campaigning in Minnesota, is doing the Romney thing of trying to connect to regular voters. He said the best response to Roosevelt’s idea of tight regulation of trusts is “Rats.” NYT: “When he added ‘Let Roosevelt tell it to the marines,’ the crowd became decidedly hilarious.”
Wilson speaks warmly of President Taft’s integrity and patriotism; “If he has got into bad company it is no fault of his, because he didn’t choose the company; it was there beforehand. And if he has taken their advice it has been because they were nearest to him, and he didn’t hear anybody else. That is why I would rather have the advice of a crowd like this than the advice of a Cabinet.” That is a nicely done takedown of the chubby chief executive.
Military Headline of the Day -100: “Navy Unafraid of Airships.” Even the newest battleships will not be equipped with anti-aircraft guns or protection against aerial bombs. Rear Admiral Twining thinks ordinary rifles are sufficient protection against planes and airships.
On the other hand, the British army had to abandon army maneuvers because aerial scouting made the implementation of strategic plans impossible.
The Army convenes a board of inquiry consisting of five officers to investigate which of two cavalry horses kicked a mule to death.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Romney and the Dependents of Doom
Romney went on Fox today in yet more damage control. He says he’s not really writing off the 47% (except on his taxes, ha!): “we go after every group we can to get votes.” Interesting that he thinks of voters as “groups.”
He says, more in sorrow than in anger, that he just won’t be able to get the votes of “those that are dependent upon government,” which is not a condescending way to describe people collecting entitlements at all.
He says his policies will give people “the privilege of higher incomes that allow them to be paying taxes,” as opposed to those with the privilege of super-high incomes that allow them to pay no taxes.
He repeated the bit about the 47% who “pay no tax” not responding to his message about lowering taxes. That’s nonsense, because this line of his has always been a, for lack of a better term, double dog whistle. See, the rich people hearing that line know that he shares their contempt for the poors, while the lower class all know that they do, in fact, pay taxes (there’s a reason Mitt leaves off “income” before “tax”), so Mitt must be talking about someone else, you know, those people.
Today -100: September 18, 1912: Of dead cocks, moral mandates, turned heads, gentleman burglars, small bills, and pink lemonade
Campaigning in Tuscon, Theodore Roosevelt calls Taft “a dead cock in the pit”.
The US has issued a public note to the Nicaraguan government and rebels, saying that the latter are very naughty boys and that “the United States has a moral mandate to exert its influence for the preservation of the general peace of Central America, which is seriously menaced by the present uprising”. The US’s purpose, it says, is to foster true constitutional government and free elections. This it justifies under the Washington Conventions of 1907, which the Central American nations took as banning them supporting rebellion in other countries, not as giving the US a “moral mandate” to suppress internal rebellions militarily.
Cardinal Gibbons, the Archbishop of Baltimore, says that if women had the vote, “there is a probability that on the slightest provocation she would seek divorce. ... It might have the effect of turning their heads.”
Alphonse Bertillon, the French cop who introduced the collection of detailed description of criminals through measurements (anthropometry), which is what they had before fingerprints, says there is no such thing as a “gentleman burglar.”
New American paper currency will soon be issued, reduced in size by 1/3 (to the present size).
The Dutch Socialist Party organizes a (banned) demonstration for universal (male and female) suffrage to coincide with the opening of Parliament. The police “repulsed them with bare swords,” which may be a euphemism; it certainly sounds like a euphemism.
Obituary of the Day -100: Henry “Bunk” Allen, inventor of pink lemonade.
Monday, September 17, 2012
The worst thing about Romney’s remarks
and the three-question press conference slash damage control session tonight, in which he said he was just talking about “process” at the fundraiser, was how he consistently states that people’s voting behaviour will be based entirely on their personal economic self-interest, not on their ideals, not on the public good. It’s a very impoverished view of democracy, viewing people’s relationship with their government as a strictly financial interaction.
Distractions
WaPo headline: “Romney Campaign Faces Distractions.” Is Romney speaking honestly distracting from Romney lying?
Today -100: September 17, 1912: But then, they saw that coming
Scotland Yard bans advertising by palmists and crystal-ball gazers.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Today -100: September 16, 1912: Of red flags
Providence, RI police fight with IWW demonstrators who refuse to take down a red flag.
Remember the war between Italy and the Ottoman Empire over Libya? Officially still going on, although I don’t think anyone’s been killing anyone for some time. Unofficial negotiations just broke down. Italy was proposing that Turkey declare its Libyan provinces independent, whereupon Italy would immediately annex them. That’s Italy’s idea of a compromise.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Today -100: September 15, 1912: Of outworn academic doctrine and splits
Oh dear, Roosevelt is playing the egg-head card against Woodrow Wilson. A few days ago, Wilson criticized the Bull Moosers and TR’s plans to increase the power and size of government to match the increase in power and size of corporations. Wilson said that the “history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power” and “As to the monopolies, which Mr. Roosevelt proposes to legalize and to welcome... I do not look forward with pleasure to the time when the juggernauts are licensed and driven by commissioners of the United States.” [I may have quotes from 2 different recent speeches there.] TR calls this “a bit of outworn academic doctrine which was kept in the school room and the professorial study for a generation after it had been abandoned by all who had had experience of actual life.” Also, liberty equaled limitation of government power when there were kings, not when power is held (ha!) by the people.
I suppose it’s inevitable that the anti-intellectual card would be played against the former president of Princeton, but by Roosevelt? TR wrote more books and articles than Wilson ever did, on a wider variety of subjects, including history, zoology, ornithology, literature (here he is on Dante), and certainly read more (Wilson was a slow reader) and in more languages (he was a big fan of German poetry). TR was no great thinker, but if you compare him to recent “smart” presidents like Clinton and Obama, his range of intellectual interests was much greater.
California holds county party conventions. At many of the Republican ones, Taft supporters bolt to hold separate conventions, including Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Riverside, etc.
Friday, September 14, 2012
A lot of things that aren’t accurate
Yesterday (but airing today), George Stephanopoulos interviewed Romney.
Walking slightly back his attack on the tweets by the US embassy in Cairo, he now suggests the problem isn’t that they were issued after the attack on the embassy as he first falsely claimed, but that they “stayed up on their website for, I think, 14-15 hours.” So he’s complaining that while mobs were attacking the embassy, the embassy staff wasn’t editing its Twitter account.
He suggests that he said the statement (tweet) was “inappropriate” (I seem to recall that the actual word he used was “disgraceful”) and that the White House also thought it was “inappropriate” (although he initially attributed it to “the Obama administration,” which by the transitive property states that the White House condemned itself, in total agreement with Romney’s condemnation of it. Who said there’s no agreement in politics any more?
Mittens repeats the word “inappropriate” over and over (including “not appropriate,” 9 times during the interview), and can I just say how annoying I find the use of that condescending, nanny-scold word by pretty much fucking everyone?
He says that Obama’s comment that Romney “shoots first and aims later” is just “politics.” As opposed to whatever it is he thinks he’s been doing.
He says he never intends to see Ed Wood’s Life of Brian and “the idea of using something that some people consider sacred and then parading that out a negative way is...” wait for it.... “simply inappropriate and wrong.” And fuck you Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
He thinks people should never offend other peoples’ faiths. As opposed to knocking at their doors at dinner time to tell them that their religion is wrong and would you like a free copy of the Book of Mormon.
He wants “to bring Egypt closer to us. I think it’s important for them to understand that it’s an advantage to have a close relationship with the United States”. Just ask Mubarak, the dictator we armed and help keep in power for decades. Egypt, he says, “is the heart of the Arab world.” Except for not being Arabs. And he wants to keep them as an ally, by which he means, “I would do virtually everything in my power to make sure they understand what the requirements are to remain an ally of the United States”. Funny how the “requirements” are all on one side.
Asked what his “red line” would be for Iran (another country for whom the requirements are all on one side), he says “Well, my red line is Iran may not have a nuclear weapon. It is...” wait for it... “inappropriate for them to have the capacity to terrorize the world.” UnfitMitt (© Watertiger, I think) doesn’t seem to understand what everyone else means by red lines in this context, which is the steps well shy of having a nuclear weapon (centrifuges, enrichment to a certain level, etc) that would cause us to attack.
He says he wouldn’t reappoint Ben Bernanke. Of course Bernanke’s term doesn’t expire until 2014, so that could get a little awkward.
He won’t raise taxes on middle-income people, which he helpfully defines for us as “$200,000 to $250,000 and less.”
He refuses to say which deductions he’d eliminate because “I’ve found that you have to work with the people across the aisle. ... So if I’d have come out and said, ‘Here this is my bill. This is the way I want it,’ you’d never get it done. You lay out your principles.” So he’s laying out principles rather than a plan, except he earlier referred to it as “my plan... my tax plan... my plan”.
Little George brings up a stupid poll question ABC asked, “Who would you rather have dinner with?” No one wants to have dinner with Mittens, probably because they find unicorn meat to be too gamey. George asks what dinner would be like at the Romney home, and evidently it involves his grandchildren climbing all over you and throwing food across the table, like anyone believes Mittens would tolerate that sort of behaviour for a minute. But note that in his attempt to make himself more likeable, he doesn’t say a thing about himself but about the genetically perfect clone-babies.
What will Obama do to him during the debates? “Well I think he’s going to say a lot of things that aren’t accurate. ... But I think the challenge that I’ll have in the debate is that the president tends to, how shall I say it...” Yes, Mitt, how will you say it? “...to say things that aren’t true.”
During debates, Ann is always in the front row, “I look and see her. Typically, her eyes are down. She’s more nervous in the debates than I am.” And certainly not from shame at all.
Today -100: September 14, 1912: Of happy wilsons, claims, seppukus (if that is the correct plural), scandals, and forcible bathing
Headline of the Day -100: “Wilson Boyishly Happy.” A major squabble between him and NY Gov. John Dix, who he denounces as a tool of Tammany, which is fair enough.
Mexico rejects the Manning & Mackintosh claim, but they don’t explain what it’s about either. I suspect no one really knows.
Count Nogi Maresuke, a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and former governor-general of Taiwan, commits seppuku to coincide with the funeral of the emperor. The same emperor had refused him permission to kill himself in atonement for the loss of life during the siege of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War. Nogi’s wife also kills herself.
Nogi will now pass into history as some sort of super-bushido, the epitome of Japanese military somethingorother. Not sure what this makes his wife.
The US State Department is not quite sure how to respond to a patriotic ritual suicide. Condolences? Congratulations?
Unhelpful Headline of the Day -100: “Scandal Attacks English Statesman.” Specifically, “a prominent and much-hated leader.” The article goes on for some length but fails to name him (Lloyd George?)
Last month, the British Medical Journal had an article by several pro-suffrage doctors which denied the British governments claim that the forcible feeding of hunger-striking suffrage prisoners was not dangerous and painful. Today, the Lancet responds by publishing a parody of that report by a Dr. Charles Mercier. Evidently finding hilarious and unbelievable the idea that forcible feeding fails in its objective of providing adequate nutrition, his article is entitled “Preliminary Report on the Forcible Bathing of Prisoners,” which purports to find that dirt actually adheres more readily to the forcibly bathed etc etc. Hilarious.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Today -100: September 13, 1912: Of majors and federation all round
A Charles C. Young is believed to be the first black major in the US Army (and the only black graduate of West Point). He is the military attaché to Liberia.
In what the London Times describes as his “annual visit to his constituents in Dundee”, Winston Churchill proposes several local English parliaments, “federation all round.” Much heckling of the speech by suffragettes. Actually, you can pretty much take that as read for any speech by any cabinet minister for the next two years.
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