Today -100: December 9, 1911: Of apologies and concrete furniture

The Japanese emperor’s train was delayed an hour because a carriage derailed due to of a misplaced switch. The train superintendent, naturally, atoned for his shame in keeping the emperor waiting by committing suicide (throwing himself under a train, naturally).

Some time ago, Thomas Edison announced plans to build concrete houses which would cost just $1,000. Now, he adds that he will also sell concrete furniture, costing $200 to furnish the $1,000 house and, says Edison, “more artistic and more durable than is now to be found in the most palatial residence in Paris or along the Rhine.”

In other technology news, the California National Guard is experimenting with using wireless telephones, automobiles and airplanes for scouting.

Alongside bubble gum or batteries

Obama took a few questions today. Orally.

Asked whether he’s guilty of appeasement in the Middle East: “Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22-out-of-30 top al Qaeda leaders
who’ve been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement. Or whoever is left out there, ask them about that.” And the transformation into George W. Bush is now complete.

He fully supports, “as the father of two daughters,” Kathleen Sibelius’s refusal to let women under 17 get Plan B without a prescription, which he considers to be simply the application of “some common sense.” No good ever came attached to the words “common sense” coming from the mouth of any politician. He said little girls shouldn’t be able, “alongside bubble gum or batteries -- be able to buy a medication that potentially, if not used properly, could end up having an adverse effect. And I think most parents would probably feel the same way. ... And her judgment was that there was not enough evidence that this potentially could be used improperly in a way that had adverse health effects on those young people.”

We’re talking about a pill (evidently a single pill rather than two, as I said yesterday, at least in the version of the medication affected by this decision), so used improperly how? Does he think they’ll stick it up their nostrils?

Today -100: December 8, 1911: Of the hot-headed student class

Sophisticated NYT analysis of the situation in China: “The hot-headed student class is powerful in China, and is enforcing extreme demands because of the racial timidity of the elders”.

Use only as directed, and not for any sex-based cults

Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sibelius overrules the FDA and refuses to allow Plan B (the morning after pill) to be made available without a prescription to women under 17 years old. She bases this entirely on the stupidity of adolescent girls: “However, the switch from prescription to over the counter for this product requires that we have enough evidence to show that those who use this medicine can understand the label and use the product appropriately.”

So what does the label say that is so hard to comprehend? When the Bush FDA likewise refused to allow the drug to be sold over the counter to minors in 2004, it made the same claim, and since the media didn’t bother telling us what the drug’s instructions were (I bet they won’t today either), I went to my local pharmacy and asked them to print them out. Those instructions: take one pill. 12 hours later, take another pill. That’s it.

In private, by the way, the FDA’s deputy operations commissioner in 2004 privately “stated that we could not anticipate, or prevent extreme promiscuous behaviors such as the medication taking on an ‘urban legend’ status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B.” Sibelius probably isn’t saying as nutty as that behind closed doors but the upshot is that she’s still giving us the exact same policy.

Transcription error of the day

“Trance gender people.” The mind boggles.

Suggest possible definitions (and examples) of trance gender people in comments.

Today -100: December 7, 1911: Of regents and passports

In China, Prince Chun, father of the child-emperor, resigns as regent. This is announced in an edict which says “He wept and prayed to resign the Regency, at the same time expressing his earnest intention to abstain from politics.” Basically, they sacrificed him in the hopes of saving the emperor, which (spoiler alert) is too little, way too late.

A large meeting at Carnegie Hall demands the abrogation of the 1832 treaty with Russia unless it honors the passports of American Jews. There has been a groundswell of demand for this lately, and the speakers at this meeting include Speaker of the House Champ Clark, William Randolph Hearst, Gov. Woodrow Wilson and assorted members of Congress.

If it was good enough for John Kerry...

Romney proselytized in France (neatly avoiding Vietnam); Gingrich researched his dissertation in Belgium (neatly avoiding Vietnam). How many of the Republican candidates are hiding the shameful secret that they... speak French?

Today -100: December 6, 1911: Of lynchings, blasphemy, good government and women voters, and the State of the Union

NYT Index Typo of the Day: “ENGAGED WOMEN MOB TRIANGLE WAIST MEN.” Enraged, of course.

A mob at the ironically named Valliant, Oklahoma, lynches a black man, hanging him at the fairgrounds.

And in Washington, Georgia, a T. B. Walker evidently murdered a white guy, then escaped from a lynch mob, was captured and sentenced to hanging, escaped, was recaptured, then was shot in the face by the brother of his victim (the brother will not be tried for this attempted murder) as he was standing in court being re-sentenced, and was executed just three hours later (so quickly because they were afraid he’d manage to escape again).

The London Times reports that Thomas William Steward, president of Free Thought Socialist League and of the British Secular League, has been convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to 3 months for saying “God is not a fit companion for a respectable man like me.”

Los Angeles Mayor George Alexander (Good Government Party) is re-elected, soundly defeating Socialist candidate Job Harriman, who can’t have been helped by being one of the lawyers for the McNamara brothers, who confessed to that little dynamiting job just last week. Even Alexander is at least a little socialist, supporting municipalization of telephones and utilities, including bakeries. A prohibition proposition for the city fails, badly. Women, voting for the first time, had a turn-out of over 90% and more women voted than men.

Taft issues his third State of the Union address, or at least the first part of it, dealing with corporation law. He calls again for provision for corporations to be (voluntarily) incorporated at the national rather than state level. That got nowhere after his SOTU two years ago, so he uses... the exact same words. He also insists that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act not be amended to reverse the Supreme Court’s ruling that it applied only to “unreasonable” restraint of trade. He thinks that as the Act becomes “better understood” over time, judges and juries will become more willing to imprison people who violate it than they have been up until now.

Today -100: December 5, 1911: Of weeping witnesses and Southern women

The trial of the owners of the Triangle Waist Company for manslaughter begins. Prospective jurors are asked if they would give the defendants a fair trial “if many of the witnesses called by the prosecution should weep while testifying”.

By the way, you’d think someone would have warned Max Blanck that if you’re accused of being a heartless capitalist responsible for the deaths of 147 of your sweated employees, you maybe shouldn’t wear a large diamond in your lapel.

Letter to the Editor of the Day -100:

Today -100: December 4, 1911: Of race wars and air ships

Racial violence in Mannford, Oklahoma has killed five people (2 white, 3 black) so far. It started when a negro who’d held up three people was first shot by a posse, then seized from a deputy and lynched.

The German military is planning to build a dirigible that can carry 300 persons, though it doesn’t explain how that would be militarily useful.

Safety measures

Here’s a detail about the British Grenadier guardsman convicted by court-martial for stabbing a 10-year-old Afghan boy, Ghulam Nabi, in the kidney with a bayonet: He had been drinking heavily the night before his unit went out on patrol. When they did, “[Daniel] Crook followed, arming himself with two grenades and a bayonet because his rifle had been confiscated as a safety measure.” I think I can see a tiny flaw in their safety measures.

Crook was actually convicted in June, but the whole thing was kept under wraps. The Guardian just uncovered it.

18 months, by the way, is the sentence for bayoneting a child.

And $800 is what the British military pays to a family whose child one of its members bayoneted.

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Donald Trump is to moderate a Republican presidential debate. This must be some definition of the word “moderate” I’ve just never come across before.

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Watched the movie “Fair Game” last night. ’s okay. I can’t find out what Scooter Libby’s been doing with himself, and doing for a living, for the last four or five years. Anyone know?

Today -100: December 3, 1911: Of tame affairs and carriers

Headline of the Day -100: “Capture of Nanking Was a Tame Affair.” Everyone’s a critic.

Mary Mallon, aka “Typhoid Mary,” sues the NYC Health Dept for $50,000 for holding her in isolation for three years (until last year), claiming she never had typhoid fever – which is true, she was a carrier – and that she has been unable to follow her trade as a cook since her release.

Today -100: December 2, 1911: Of ultimata and confessions

Rebels take Nanking.

Persia’s National Council rejects Russia’s ultimatum (despite a telegram from British Foreign Minister Edward Grey advising they give in).

On the eve of their trial, the McNamara brothers confess to dynamiting the LA Times building. Organized labor, which had strongly believed that the McNamara brothers were framed, is devastated.

A happy ending

President Karzai finally intervenes in the case of a 19-year-old rape victim named Gulnaz. She will be released from prison, where she was placed for “adultery,” along with the child of rape she give birth to in prison, as long as she marries her rapist (this deal would also release him from prison, because of course it would). Out of one prison into the larger prison of forced marriage and the still larger prison for women that is Afghanistan.

Today -100: December 1, 1911: Of atrocities, mummers, negro invasions, and hissing

The US sends warships to Santo Domingo to “protect foreign interests” and insist on the strict observation of the constitution in replacing assassinated President Ramon Caceras. Because the United States has always been all about observing constitutional requirements in the replacement of Latin American presidents.

Italy claims that the Turks and Arabs fighting them in Libya have committed atrocities. Lots and lots of atrocities. Burying prisoners up to the neck to starve to death, crucifixions, etc.

Mummers were out in the street for Thanksgiving, as used to be the custom. Trouble occurred at 112th Street and 3rd in New York when someone spotted a black man and a white woman together. A stone was thrown and the couple ran from a growing mob, finally with the assistance of a cop getting on a trolley car and escaping. Thing is, the inter-racial couple were actually two white male youths, one in black face and the other in a Columbine suit with a white wig.

Not-At-All-Racist Headline of the Day -100: “Invasion of Negroes Cuts Harlem Values.”

The NYT editorializes that hissing is not acceptable in theaters. “The art of acting was never improved by hissing.”

Today -100: November 30, 1911: Of ultimata, turkeys, and corn

Russia says that if Persia doesn’t give in to its demands within 48 hours, Russian troops will march on Teheran and add the cost of that to the indemnity. Not only must Persia’s American treasurer be fired, but no more foreigners may be hired without the permission of Russia and Britain.

Revolutionaries fail to take Nanking. The US offers the emperor 2,500 troops currently stationed in the Philippines to keep open the Peking Railway and protect foreigners.

Headline of the Day -100: “Women Howl Down Asquith.” Suffragists, of course, prevent the prime minister delivering a speech on settlement work. Another speaker, future prime minister and class traitor Ramsay MacDonald, describes the heckling as an insult to the prime minister and a degradation of English public life.

Thanksgiving Headline of the Day -100: “40-Lb. Turkey for Taft.” Insert your own Taft-is-fat joke here.

Evidently competitive eating is not a recently created sport. One Charles W. Glidden of Lawrence, Massachusetts is betting $25 that he can eat... well, a whole disgusting menu I won’t repeat here. Glidden “broke into fame not long ago by eating 58 ears of corn in 115 minutes.” Piker. The current corn-eating record is 46 ears of corn in 12 minutes, set by Joe LaRue in 2010.

Today -100: November 29, 1911: Of Greek, the other yellow peril, and bulls

Oxford University rejects a proposal to allow math and science students to skip the Ancient Greek requirement.

Harvard University rejects British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, denying her the use of any Harvard building in which to make a speech, on the grounds that Harvard is a man’s college, and women should not be allowed to speak in it.

A national anti-women’s suffrage association has been formed. Its slogan will be “Down With the Yellow Peril, Women’s Votes!” (yellow being the color of the suffrage movement.) It will be led by a Mrs. Arthur Dodge, who says that the heavy voter registration of women in California does not indicate that women really want the vote. Rather, it was discovered that “the lower element among the women” were registering in order to vote Socialist; naturally, men of the better sort responded by “sen[ding] their wives and daughters” to register.

Russia is demanding that Persia fire its treasurer-general, the American W. Morgan Shuster, and pay an indemnity to compensate Russia for the cost of sending its troops to threaten Persia.

Headline of the Day -100: LAT: “BULL FIGHTS AEROPLANE.” Broke both its wings, too.

The plane’s wings, not the bull’s.

It’s probably an infinite number of people who could come forward with a story

Gov. Brownback has apologized for his staff going ballistic on Emma Sullivan’s tweet, and her high school decided she won’t have to write a letter of apology after all – after she refused to write one. Does anyone doubt that if she’d caved to all the pressure they put on her, they’d simply have made a show of accepting her apology “gracefully” (by which I mean smugly) rather than be forced to acknowledge her First Amendment rights?

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Herman Cain was on Wolf Blitzer’s The Situation Comedy Room tonight.

On Pakistan Army Chief of Staff General Kayani: “I have faith in him because I’ve actually talked with someone who went to school with him.”

On the newest accusation of a 13-year affair: “it’s going to be proved that it was probably something else that was baseless.” Probably.

Also, he’s met a lot of people, so “A hundred thousand people could possibly come out. ... it’s probably an infinite number of people who could come forward with a story.” Probably.

“As long as my wife is behind me, and as long as my wife believes that I should stay in this race, I’m staying in this race”. Is it at all creepy that the man accused of all sorts of sexual improprieties always refers to his wife as “my wife” (7 times in the course of this interview) and never by her actual name? Is he afraid he’ll accidentally call her by some other woman’s name?

What is he doing next? “When I go to this fundraiser that I’m permitted to go with supporters, I am going to have a nice steak dinner. When you’ve done nothing wrong, I’m going to continue my routine as normal as planned.” So is having a nice steak dinner proof that he’s done nothing wrong, or is it a euphemism for... something? Answers in comments, please.

Today -100: November 28, 1911: Of burning halibut capitals, un-Roman behavior, sedatives for political alcoholism, and radioactive love letters

Canadian Headline of the Day -100: “A Canadian Capitol in Ruins.” All the government buildings in Prince Rupert burned down. Wikipedia says Prince Rupert was the Halibut Capital of the World until the early 1980s, so this is a pretty big deal.

A Brooklyn judge offers one Antonio Scarrello a suspended sentence on a knife charge if he’ll return to Italy, join the army and go to Libya to fight the dreaded Turk. Scarrello thinks not. The judge sentences him to one year, commenting, “Evidently your blood is not the same as that of the old Romans.”

Rep. Victor Berger (Socialist-Wisc.) says he will introduce a bill for women’s suffrage, although women “probably will make a frightful botch of the ballot at first”.

Germany removes its gunboats from Morocco, officially ending the crisis.

British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey gives a statement to Parliament relating the history of negotiations with Germany about Morocco. He hopes, he says, that the speech will be “a sedative to a world which has been indulging in a fit of political alcoholism”. He claims, as does PM Asquith later, that British has no secret treaties. They are lying. He says “I do not believe that Germany has aggressive designs”. Er, okay then.

In the debate that followed, Irish Nationalist John Dillon points out that in Grey’s hour and a half speech, there was no word of sympathy for the people of Morocco.

Riots in Lisbon, with exchanges of gunfire between troops and rioters, leading to at least two deaths. Is this a royalist counter-revolution or, as the NYT claims, were the riots caused by the expulsion of two Chinese women for selling phony blindness cures?

The NYT reprints Marie Curie’s love letters at surprising length.

Quote of the Day

The Bachmann: “This type of amnesty will only encourage other illegals to enter our country illegally.”