We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
A lengthy documentary, but it is difficult to stop watching. Very well done. They created a civilization that makes Medieval Europe, 2000 years later, seem like a back woods barbarian place.
As I wrote my piece on Wokism, I stumbled on a quote from Algernon Sidney. Few know that Jefferson mentioned Sidney as a source and/or inspiration for the Declaration of Independence. Here is the quote which resonated with me: "We live in an age that makes truth pass for treason, and as I dare not say anything against it, so the ears of those that are about me will probably be found too tender to hear it. This my trial and condemnation do sufficiently evidence." It can hardly be more true today, as "credible" news sources spread lies masquerading as truth based on nothing other than these sources own claim that they, themselves, are "credible." Credibility is in the information, not the source - and we have precious few truly credible sources of news today.
Sidney was a supporter of the Roundheads during the English Civil War, and a member of the Long Parliament. Despite his opposition to the king and support for the forces opposing him, Cromwell found it necessary to have Sidney removed, as Sidney had become critical of Cromwell's authoritarian nature. His refusal to leave his seat led to Cromwell ordering the parliamentarians removal and Sidney fled England.
I've not been contributing since about September, and I apologize for the long gap. I apologize only because it's rude to disappear without letting people know where you're going and I do my best to avoid being rude. In a nutshell, I've been overwhelmed at work, which is a good thing. After not working for many months, I managed to land a (much lower level) position which is working out very well for me and my long-term prospects have improved dramatically in the last few weeks. Of course, improved opportunity means additional responsibilities. Which means more time at a desk, at least in my current role. At my age (pushing 60), that's something many others cannot say. They're either at or near the pinnacle of your career, or winding it down. As I have done 4 other times in my life, I'm winding up again and feeling great.
One thing I do is try to go for a walk each day for at least an hour. Fresh air and exercise enables me to be nimble of body and mind. I'll listen to history podcasts while I walk, or just think. Recently, after a particularly difficult conversation with a friend who has gone full-on Woke, I chewed the mental cud and began to wonder where all this Wokism is headed.
It suddenly struck me what the essential problem of Wokism and Cancel Culture represent. In the name of creating and expanding opportunity, these people are limiting it severely. I wondered what history would look like if Woke and Cancel mindsets had been in place for a longer time than just the last decade or so. Not that we need another discussion on Wokism, but I felt this was a good mental exercise.
Looking at the Musk Ox video took me to the Laurentide Ice Age, just a few years ago when NYC was under a mile of glacier.
That glacier created the modern Great Lakes, Cape Cod, and Long Island. This was during the Pleistocene, when great mammals occupied North America - Mastodons, Camels, and other critters like Musk Ox. Also, humans from Siberia. Wooly Mammoths in New Jersey. Climate change, for the better.
1928, around Cape Horn. The ship is the Peking, now resting at NYC's South Street Seaport. Grew up on a Massachusetts farm, with the accent. Similar to Vermont.
Very doubtful that it was bubonic plague. It is more likely to have been a combination of European diseases like influenza, smallpox, common cold (a corona virus), etc first brought to the New World by Portuguese fishermen. The natives had no immunity to those things.
Here was the paradox: he knew from Vietnam that what the United States was doing in Afghanistan wouldn’t work—but he thought he could do it anyway. And there was something else. If he applied the real lesson of Vietnam—don’t—he would be out of a job. And then who would he be?
Over time, he learned to save Vietnam for his staff. One day, as he sat through another White House meeting on Afghanistan, listening to another optimistic military briefing, a quote surfaced from the deep past, and he scribbled it down on a scrap of paper and took it back to the office to show his young aides, who of course had no idea where it came from: “How can we lose when we’re so sincere?”
It seems an odd thing to think about, but I'd recently heard a comment about the world's first novel. If you'd asked me prior to hearing this comment, I'd have replied it was Beowulf or Canterbury Tales, mainly because these were items of Western Literature and it's what we read about in school. So you tend to think about what is familiar. I suppose you could also point to The Odyssey or The Iliad, though these are technically 'histories' of a sort, and are also classified (like Beowulf) as epic poems. Given this, the comment struck me as intriguing. Because not only was the first novel not from Western culture, but it also started an entire genre unto itself - the Romance Novel.
The Tale of Genji was written sometime in the 1000's, and was written by a woman, Murasaki Shikibu. This may not be her real name, as daughters' names were rarely recorded, and as a noblewoman, her name was more a title and descriptor of status. Shikibu means "Bureau of Ceremonial" - a post held by her father, and Murasaki is the name of the heroine in the novel. While reading and writing, for a woman of status, was not rare in Japanese culture, what Shibiku accomplished elevated the form, and introduced new aspects to writing as an art. She was creative, unique, and thoughtful. As such, she has been held in high esteem within Japanese culture.
Doing some reading, and musing, on this 245th year of the greatness which is our fine nation. Right now, we live in a world where we're supposed to be humble, and there are factions which would prefer to not tout American Greatness. Still others believe our best years are behind us. My view is some of our best years are behind us, but our very best is still ahead, as long as we understand where we've come from, and the principles for which we stand.
I don't believe in being humble about our national identity. No other nation has done many of the things our nation has. Our Constitution was one of the very first, and certainly the first that enshrined individual rights as primary over the predations of a government. Our Constitution started a period of constitutional revolution which spread around most of the world at that time. And while our nations' flaws are evident, we are among the few nations which air our dirty laundry, not proudly, but to learn and improve. Other nations can point to civil or human rights failings we have now, or have had in the past, but none of them have a track record better than ours improving these rights.
Recently, the term "Man of Kent" was mentioned to me. I supposed I could have responded with a limerick about his nose being terribly bent, and the fact nobody knows where he went. Of course, the limerick was about a young woman from Kent, and the term did specify Man of Kent. This term may not seem much to us here in the U.S. On the other hand, there can be an interesting delineation of culture if, in fact, you are from Kent.
After all, the difference between a Kentish Man (or Maid) and a Man (or Maid) of Kent may (or may not) be significant. It all depends on how you look at it, and whether or not you care much about the term itself. I suppose it's not unlike people being from Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. Both are from Pennsylvania, and if that's how you're looking at things, that's fine enough. On the other hand, don't think a denizen of Philly is going to relate easily to one from the Steel City. Even setting aside the rivalries in hockey and baseball (football not being played commonly enough between the cities to be of great importance), Philadelphia has a proud history. It is a birthplace of the Revolution, the Constitution, and was the nation's capital city for a brief period. This is countered by the economic power and free-spirited nature of western PA. After all, divisions from the Whiskey Rebellion still defines socio-political culture, and our transportation systems and urban landscape owe a great debt to the steel plants.
But this is about Kent, and the nature of what it means to be a Man (or Maid) of Kent.
I learned about the difference between castles and the later forts, the evolution of gunpowder use in the 1400s, the evolution and then disappearance of armor, the Hundred Year War, throwing down the gauntlet, siege warfare and assault warfare, the use of cavalry, the role of peasants and farmers in warfare, the reasons many tried to avoid being knighted, and why Henry Vlll was a great king.
And lots more about their Civil War. It was a bloody history, over all those years, for no good reasons. I suppose it has been like that everywhere. Power, money, land, glory.
Everybody has seen Seth Thomas clocks. Seth Thomas, born in 1785, brought mass production to clockmaking in the US.
The Seth Thomas company had a good run, going defunct in 2009. The factory employed so many people that the town's name was changed from Plymouth Hollow to Thomaston.
Yes, the clock in Grand Central Terminal was a Seth Thomas company product.
I've not been contributing since about September, and I apologize for the long gap. I apologize only because it's rude to disappear without letting people know where you're going and I do my best to avoid being rude. In a nutshell, I've been overwhelmed at work, which is a good thing. After not working for many months, I managed to land a (much lower level) position which is working out very well for me and my long-term prospects have improved dramatically in the last few weeks. Of course, improved opportunity means additional responsibilities. Which means more time at a desk, at least in my current role. At my age (pushing 60), that's something many others cannot say. They're either at or near the pinnacle of your career, or winding it down. As I have done 4 other times in my life, I'm winding up again and feeling great.
It seems an odd thing to think about, but I'd recently heard a comment about the world's first novel. If you'd asked me prior to hearing this comment, I'd have replied it was Beowulf or Canterbury Tales, mainly because these were items of Western Literature and it's what we read about in school. So you tend to think about what is familiar. I suppose you could also point to The Odyssey or The Iliad, though these are technically 'histories' of a sort, and are also classified (like Beowulf) as epic poems. Given this, the comment struck me as intriguing. Because not only was the first novel not from Western culture, but it also started an entire genre unto itself - the Romance Novel.
Doing some reading, and musing, on this 245th year of the greatness which is our fine nation. Right now, we live in a world where we're supposed to be humble, and there are factions which would prefer to not tout American Greatness. Still others believe our best years are behind us. My view is some of our best years are behind us, but our very best is still ahead, as long as we understand where we've come from, and the principles for which we stand.
I guess we were all asked to read Thucydides (a brilliant story-teller) in high school or college, but VDH's recounting of the Peloponesian Wars is much more fun to read:
I learned a lot from this book. 
Everybody has seen Seth Thomas clocks.