Today -100: April 5, 1910: Of booze, the bull moose & the pope, and the sabbath

36 Michigan counties voted on prohibition, and 19 went dry. Of the 10 counties that went dry 2 years ago, 2 voted to let the saloons reopen.

Multiple stories in today’s paper giving the opinions of pretty much everyone on the planet of Roosevelt’s little scheduling problem with the pope.

President Taft visiting Worcester, Mass. on Sunday, pissing off a lot of church folk because he participated in a parade and a meeting – on the sabbath. Rev. Edward Eells noted that Roosevelt once gave up a bear hunt that fell on the sabbath.

Petty gossip

At Easter mass, Cardinal Angelo Sodano preached (if “fuck you” can be considered preaching), “Holy Father, the people of God are with you, and do not let themselves be impressed by the gossip of the moment, by the challenges that sometimes strike at the community of believers.”

Gossip.

(Update: Reuters gives the line as “petty gossip of the moment”.)

Today -100: April 4, 1910: Of disfranchisement, the bull moose & the pope, trolley lynchings, and pecan-headed parsons

The Maryland Legislature votes to disfranchise blacks in state and municipal elections, using the extremely dubious claim that the 15th Amendment, which Maryland never ratified, doesn’t apply to those elections. The national Democratic Party is worried that this will hurt them in November, possibly threatening their chances of taking back the House of Representatives, which depend in part on winning over some black voters in several states. The article mentions in passing that the minority (Democratic) leader in the Senate, Sen. Hernando De Soto Money of Mississippi (a former Confederate soldier), believes that the 14th and 15th Amendments weren’t constitutionally ratified.

You’ll remember that two months and 100 years ago, the pope canceled a meeting with former Vice President Fairbanks because Fairbanks was also going to speak in the American Methodist Church in Rome. Now, Teddy Roosevelt is visiting Rome, and received a preemptive warning from the Vatican that the same thing would happen if he dared speak to the Methodists (which he actually had no plans to do). TR replied that he refused to “submit to any conditions which in any way limit my freedom of conduct,” and so the pope won’t see him. TR explained in a letter to The Outlook that he thought most Americans, Catholic as well as Protestant, “will feel that I acted in the only way possible for an American to act”.

Yet another Philadelphia trolley runs over yet another child, 3-year-old John Traconnelli, and an “enraged crowd of foreigners” (i.e., Italians) set about lynching the conductor and motorman, but were thwarted by their being armed, and the police showing up.

Epithet of the Day -100: Rev. John Wesley Hill, doing the Glenn Beck thing 100 years early, attacks what he sees as socialism in churches. But the important thing is the epithet: “pecan-headed little parsons.”

Because if you’re going to have trauma, it should at least not be banal

The regional governor-elect of Veneto, Italy, Luca Zaia of the Northern League, said he will (illegally) prevent the administering of RU-486 because “It banalizes the trauma of abortion”. I’m sure Italian women will thank him for saving them from banality.

Today -100: April 3, 1910: Of premature burial and the red threat in Milwaukee

An article in the NYT Sunday magazine section reports a Lancet study which says that almost no one is ever buried alive.

The NYT has been warning that Milwaukee might just elect a socialist mayor, Victor Berger, Tuesday (spoiler alert: it will). The elections have been enlivened by the R’s and D’s bringing up an old quote of his: “Let every Socialist have a good rifle and the necessary rounds of ammunition in his home and be prepared to back up his ballot with his bullets if necessary.”

Blessed are the cheesemakers

Israel bombs Gaza, destroys a cheese factory.

Today -100: April 2, 1910: Of race

Jack Johnson, the world heavyweight champion boxer, is the subject of a short article in today -100’s NYTwhich is unique in not mentioning that he is a negro, although it might be taken as implied by the story. He was in court in Chicago on a speeding charge and not only insisted on a jury trial, but that at least two jurors be black.

Let’s make fun of a state where no one reads this blog anyway

The ACLU turned down a $20,000 donation from the American Humanist Association to fund a prom for that lesbian in Mississippi, because “the majority of Mississippians tremble in terror at the word ‘atheist.’”

CONTEST: What other words make the majority of Mississippians tremble in terror?

Today -100: April 1, 1910: Of death from above, helpful imperialists, suffrage, and street cars

The French Minister of War, Gen. Jean Jules Brun, denies that Germany is far ahead of France in aeronautics, plans to ask Parliament for $4 million to catch up. He’s also trying to figure out which is better, dirigibles or airplanes.

Liberia, experiencing some unrest, has received a friendly offer from the German cruiser Sperber to send in some troops to, you know, help out. Liberia not only said no, but ordered the Sperber to leave its waters or “take the consequences.” The Sperber left.

The Massachusetts House of Reps voted against women’s suffrage 47-148, with five pairs.

A St. Louis municipal court rules on one of the burning issues of everyday life: “Title to a seat in a street car rests in the man who gets it first in preference to the man who sees it first.”

Does the Catholic Church recruit exclusively from silent movie villains?

London Times: “German Bishop Accused of Beating Orphaned Girls.”

How long before we hear about an archbishop who used to tie helpless maidens to railroad tracks?

Minetti is back!

The famous pressure Obama is putting on Netanyahu is for a 4-month construction freeze in East Jerusalem. For which Obama would not only pressure Abbas to hold talks with Israel, but direct rather than indirect talks. Four full months. That’s like tipping your waiter a nickel.

---

Berlusconi, annoyingly, did well in regional elections (although the racist Northern League did better), and he got a judge to overturn the little fake-signatures problem in Lombardy, so showgirl slash dental hygienist Nicole Minetti can add another line to her resume: regional councillor.

---

The ANC is angry that a song, recently sung by the party’s Youth League leader, has been banned as hate speech (by a white High Court judge yet): “Shoot the Boer.” They say it’s part of their heritage. I can’t find this no doubt catchy ditty on You Tube, but here are the lyrics, in Zulu and English:

Ayasab’ amagwala [the cowards are scared]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
ayeah
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
ayasab ‘a magwala [the cowards are scared]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
awu yoh
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]

awe mama ndiyekele [mother leave me be]
awe mama iyeah [oh mother]
awe mama ndiyekele [mother leave me be]
awe mama iyo [oh mother]

aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]

Ayasab’ amagwala [the cowards are scared]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot ]
ayeah
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
ayasab ‘a magwala [the cowards are scared]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
iii yoh
dubula dubala [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]

awe mama ndiyekele [mother leave me be]
awe mama iyo [oh mother]
awe mama ndiyekele [mother leave me be]
awe mama iyo [oh mother]

aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]

Ziyarapa lezinja [these dogs are raping]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
ay iyeah
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ziyarapa lezinja [these dogs are raping]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
ay iiiyo
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]

Aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]

Ayasab’ amagwala [the cowards are scared]
Dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ay iyeah
Dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ayasab’ amagwala [the cowards are scared]
Dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ay iyeah

Today -100: March 30, 1910: not OK

Oklahoma Governor Haskell has signed a resolution to submit a referendum to the voters to disfranchise blacks (or some blacks) from voting on constitution amendments. The story is quite short, but I think this is the grandfather clause.

L.C. Dulaney, a fixer in Mississippi politics, is arrested for paying State Senator T. G. Bilbo $645 to vote for Leroy Percy for US senator. Bilbo claims it was a sting operation, and that he kept Rev. Culpepper, President of Clark Memorial College, in a hotel for four days so that he might witness the bribe whenever it occurred (however, the reverend missed the hand-over, which took place in another room).

Today -100: March 29, 1910: Of patience, apoplexy, and rolling eggs

Teddy Roosevelt addressed the University of Egypt, praising British colonial rule in the Sudan and saying that “the training of a nation to fit it successfully to fulfill the duties of self-government is not a matter of a decade or two, but of generations.” He quoted “the old Arab proverb, ‘God is with the patient if they know how to wait.’” Roosevelt of course was renowned for his... patience. He also came out against assassination (Egypt’s Premier Boutrous Pasha Ghali, grandfather of the UN secretary-general, was assassinated by a nationalist in February). And he opposed the nationalists’ demand for a constitution: “Some foolish persons believe that the granting of a paper Constitution, prefaced by some high-sounding declarations, in itself confers the power of self-government.”

Supreme Court Justice David Brewer dies of apoplexy.

Easter egg-rolling at the White House. Here’s a surprise: “Children of the rich and the poor, white and colored, all were admitted and had the run of the place for their games and their picnics.” An inter-racial event at the White House – however did the Republic survive? No adults were admitted unless accompanied by children, but some small boys hired themselves out to successive adults who wanted to see the custom.

Confusing Headline of the Day

(London Times): “Queen Withdraws from Tattoo in Staircase Row.”

Headbutts and butt-heads

Headline of the Day (the Indy): “Zookeeper Hospitalised after Giraffe Headbutt.”

---

There was an anti-Harry Reid tea party rally addressed by Sarah Palin in Searchlight, Nevada. The NYT tells us: “The show put on by a group called the Tea Party Express included Tea Party country songs and Tea Party rappers”.

So... there are Tea Party rappers.

Today -100: March 28, 1910: Of chivalry and beggars

In a letter to the NYT, Alice Stone Blackwell offers assurances that women’s suffrage will not herald the end of chivalry and force women to stand in trolley cars. Women are much more likely to be offered a seat in Denver than in New York. However, Blackwell says, justice would be worth more to women than chivalry; better to stand for 20 minutes in a street car and get equal pay. But the two are not incompatible.

The general strike in Philadelphia has been called off, though the trolley workers soldier on. But who has been hurt most by the strike? Beggars, according to one blind guy who made up to $30 a week selling shoe laces and lead pencils in Philly (if true, more than the trolleymen make) but after the strike began had to relocate to D.C.

Moral relativism

A blog post from Archbishop Timothy Dolan of NY complains about the church being singled out for criticism over the child abuse cases. Noting the NYT story “Doctor Asserts Church Ignored Abuse Warnings,” he asks why we never see headlines like “Doctor Asserts Public Schools Ignored Abuse Warnings,” because “abuse of minors by teachers, coaches, counsellors, and staff in government schools is much, much worse than by priests,” according to research (disputed research, I might add) by... wait for it... a Dr. Carol Shakeshaft.

So it’s official: according to a self-proclaimed expert on sin, two wrongs do in fact make a right.

Misc

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway, an opponent of gays in the military, says that if DADT is repealed, he will try to avoid making straight Marines roommates with gay ones – “I would not ask our Marines to live with someone who is homosexual if we can possibly avoid it” – which implies that he intends to continue trying to determine the sexuality of marines and record it in their files. He says the Marines might even have to resort to single-occupant rooms, and it’s the word “might” that indicates how little actual thought he put into this before shooting off his mouth, because he seems to have thought about his policy of segregating gays only from the perspective of homophobic straight Marines, without considering the, um, implications of putting all the homosexuals into two-person rooms.

---

The Vatican claims it’s just scurrilous to suggest that Pope Benny when he was Cardinal Rats knew about the paedophile priest in Germany being allowed to continue working, as it were, with children. The archdiocese “rejects any other version of events as mere speculation.” Great, wheel his freaking holiness out to deny it out of his own mouth.

---

“Stray bullet” – the perfect metaphor for Eric Cantor?

---

Quote of the Day, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, about checkpoints in Afghanistan: “We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat.”

Today -100: March 27, 1910: Of tariff wars, negro disenfranchisement, and plucky women

Tariff war with Canada has been averted. Still don’t care.

The Democrats of the Maryland Legislature, in caucus, agree to support the Negro Disenfranchisement Bill, which would do just what it sounds like it would do (Spoiler alert: the Lege will pass it and the governor will veto it). The claim is that this is constitutional because Maryland never ratified the 15th Amendment (in fact, the Legislature had rejected the amendment unanimously). (They finally ratified in 1973).

The London County Council had a marathon sitting that began at 2 in the afternoon and ended at 8 the next morning. The NYT is amazed that the 3 women councillors “pluckily” stuck with it, “bright and alert to the very end.”

Wherein is revealed what people have to get past

According to Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of US forces in Iraq, “People have to get past why we came here.”