Michael Flynn's Blog, page 62
November 17, 2010
Magic in the Air
November 16, 2010
History in Action
November 13, 2010
Something Fishy This Way Comes
A Darwin grouper?
November 11, 2010
11th Hour, 11th Day, 11th Month
General Order General Headquarters, A. E. F. No. 203 France, November 12, 1918
The enemy has capitulated. It is fitting that I address myself in thanks directly to the officers and soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces, who by their heroic efforts have made possible this glorious result.
Our Armies, hurriedly raised and hastily trained, met a veteran enemy, and by courage, discipline and skill always defeated him. Without complaint you have endured incessant toil, privation and danger. You have seen many of your comrades make the Supreme Sacrifice that freedom may live.
I thank you for your patience and courage with which j-ou have endured. I congratulate you upon the splendid fruits of victory, which your heroism and the blood of our gallant dead are now presenting to our nation. Your deeds will live forever on the most glorious pages of America's history.
Those things jou have done. There remains now a harder task which will test your soldierly qualities to the utmost. Success in this and little note will be taken and few praises sung; fail, and the light of your glorious achievements of the past will be sadly dimmed.
But you will not fail. Every natural tendency may urge towards relaxation in discipline, in conduct, in appearance, in everything that marks the soldier. Yet you will remember that each officer and EACH SOLDIER IS THE REPRESENTATIVE IN EUROPE OF HIS PEOPLE and that his brilliant deeds of yesterday permit no action of today to pass unnoticed by friend or foe.
You will meet this test as gallantly as you met the test of the battlefield. Sustained by your high ideals and inspired by the heroic part you have played, you will carry back to your people the proud consciousness of a new Americanism born of sacrifice.
Whether you stand on hostile territory or the friendly soil of France, you will bear yourself IN DISCIPLINE, APPEARANCE AND RESPECT FOR ALL CIVIL RIGHTS THAT YOU WILL CONFIRM FOR ALL TIME THE PRIDE AND LOVE WHICH EVERY AMERICAN FEELS FOR YOUR UNIFORM AND FOR YOU.
John J. Pershing,
General, Commander-in-Chief.
November 6, 2010
Civil War Blog
[November 1, 1860] was an ordinary day in America: one of the last such days for a very long time to come.
In dusty San Antonio, Colonel Robert E. Lee of the U.S. Army had just submitted a long report to Washington about recent skirmishes against marauding Comanches and Mexican banditti. In Louisiana, William Tecumseh Sherman was in the midst of a tedious week interviewing teenage applicants to the military academy where he served as superintendent. In Galena, Ill., passers-by might have seen a man in a shabby military greatcoat and slouch hat trudging to work that Thursday morning, as he did every weekday. He was Ulysses Grant, a middle-aged shop clerk in his family’s leather-goods store.
The trick to history, John Lukacs used to say, is to study Salamis as if the Persians might still win. But can we really read the <snip> above and think of Lee as just an Indian fighter, and Grant as no more than a dry goods clerk? As if the trajectories of their lives were not about to get knocked skew-wise by great and terrible events to come?
November 5, 2010
Hallelujiah
sure do like to sing, even while shopping. You saw them last at Reading Terminal Market singing opera. Now, along with 650 close friends and the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, they do a little seasonal chorale. A word of explanation on the venue: Wanamaker's was the old downtown department story in Philadelphia, which features a huge organ that plays for shoppers. There is also a large sculpture of an eagle that is iconic for Philadelphians. "I'll meet you under the Eagle" was a common phrase when I was going to college down there, and explains all those people we would see sitting around at its feet. It is also why the Philadelphia Football Team bears that name.
November 4, 2010
Me-Say, You-Say
Unclear on the Concept
The WSJ reports in Best of the Web:
"Students have vowed to protest or block North Carolina State University's Free Expression Tunnel until the university's chancellor gives guarantees that no hate speech will be allowed there," Raleigh's WRAL-TV reports:
[Sophomore Monique] Bonds said that graffiti demeaning many different groups is common in the tunnel.
"It's free expression, but nobody is walking through, regulating it," she said. "They're just letting it happen, and it's not just racism, but gender, sexuality and religious discrimination."
And that is too delicious not to count as todays Quote of the Day
"It's free expression, but nobody is walking through, regulating it." -- Monique Bonds
November 3, 2010
Political Junk
All politics is local, they say; so here is this here locale
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
As of 10:00 PM but with some updating to 10:30 63% of districts counted (now higher)
The political geography. There are three Pennsylvanias
Philadelphia metroPittsburgh metroThe T (Everyone else) Philly is headquartered on Main Line and features Social Liberals in charge, plus Philadelphia City, a city so enthused about voting that she has been known to cast more ballots than the census counts residents. It is simply a done deal that it will vote Democratic.
Pittsburgh is economically liberal, the old-fashioned guns-and-bible, union liberal. The do not like the Philly Social Liberals and have been known to vote Republican or to sit on their hands if Philly (which pretty much controls state-wide nominations) hands them someone they cannot stomach. With the decline of Steel and industry, the old-line Democrats have been losing power to the Main Line; blue collar to blue cheese.
Since these two account for South-east and South-west, resp., the rest of the Commonwealth forms a stubby T. It has been Republican country since the Civil War, but has been known to vote for Democrats of the Pittsburgh variety. There are blue pockets, like Scranton and Erie; but they are blue collar not blue cheese, as I've said. Dauphin County, containing the state government, is the blue cheese exception. There is something in the water of the Susquehannah River that drives mad all men who live on its banks too long.
The city machines count early (and often), so PA always looks blue at first. Then comes the long wait for the T to phone home. These are the mountain counties, the Amish country, the old mfg fringe outside the two big cities. The Commonwealth begins to turn purple, and sometimes red. Depending.
That's why they call her a swing state. Here are the results statewide (and for my home county of Northampton).
Senator
Pat Toomey (R) 49.6% (48.6%)
Joe Sestak (D) 50.4% (51.5%)
(when I checked earlier, Sestak was at 52% and I've been watching it shrink since as the T reports in. If it gets too close, Philadelphia will discover some "lost" ballot boxes somewhere.)
Governor
Tom Corbett (R) 52.2% (53.3%)
Dan Onorato (D) 47.8% (46.7%)
Our local House race
15th District
Charles Dent (R) 46.1% (52.0%)
John Callahan (D) 40.3% (40.2%)
Jake Towne (TFC) 13.6% (7.8%)
Locally, Callahan was a popular mayor of Bethlehem City, and so is doing well. A doomed sentimental favorite is Jack Towne, whose memorable campaign slogan was "Who is Jack Towne?" which if nothing else was to the point. The local paper actually endorsed him. He seems sensible, if unseasoned, and he is a chemical engineer not a lawyer. He'll get maybe 10%, but I hope he runs again for something. (TFC stands for Towne For Congress. I would have used Whig, and said be-damned with them.)
The local turnout was about: 34%
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