Showing posts with label 2022. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2022. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet On the Western Front).

 


He fell in October, 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.

He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.

The last two paragraphs of All Quiet On The Western Front

I've never reviewed All Quiet on the Western Front, even though I'd long ago seen the prior two versions.  I just saw the newest, German made, production of the book, which in Germany was released under the novel's German title, Im Westen nichts Neues, which literally translates as "in the West nothing new".*

All Quiet On The Western Front has a reputation as being the greatest anti-war novel ever written.  I'm sorry to say that I haven't actually read it, which I'll have to do.  Indeed, the recent German made version of the novel sort of compels me to do so.

The novel was first adapted to film in 1930 in an American version, which is a great film in its own right.

It was later adopted to a television in 1979, in another version that is very well regarded.  In 2022 this German version was released and shown on Netflix.  My original intent was to review just that version, but you really can't.  You have to review all three.

The best of the three is frankly the first one, although it does suffer from being a film that, due to cinematography, and due to pacing, hasn't aged as well as it should have.  It's hard not to watch the 1930 version and not, at least at first, appreciate that you are watching an old film.  

Still, this version sets the story at well, and perhaps with more than a degree of unintended irony in that the film came before the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1932, and therefore the early scene of enthusiastic school boys being eager for the war were ominous, retrospectively.  It's a gritty, good protrayal.

The 1979 television version is good as well, but frankly I just couldn't quite get around Richard Thomas in the role of the main protagonist, Paul Bäumer.  Lew Ayres was better in that role.  For that matter, Ernest Borgnine, who almost always turned in a good performance, did in the 1979 version as well, but he's just way too old for the German NCO Stanislaus Katczinsky he portrays.  For that matter, Louis Robert Wolheim really was as well, at age 50, but he carries the role off better, even though he was within a year of his own death at the time.

Anyhow, Thomas was so whiny, in a way, in The Waltons that I just can't get around that in this film, which really isn't his fault.  I just can't see him going from a green, naive recruit to a hardened combat veteran.

Which takes us to the new production.

This is the first German production of the film, and it shows it.  The production values in the film are absolutely excellent.  the material details are superb and. . . . the plot massively departs from the novel.

And for that reason, frankly, it suffers.  

This film really carries the post World War Two German guilt/excuse into a World War One work that was a novel.  It doesn't, therefore, really get Remarque's warning about militarism across, so much as it portrays average Germans as victims of the Great War and future victims of the Second World War.  The death of Katczinsky, which is a completely pointless combat death in the novel and first two films, is a weird murder by a French child in this version.  

And the ending of this movie departs massively from the novel and looses the point of it.  The protagonist dies on a quiet day, like thousands of soldiers did.  In the new German version he died in a  massive late war German assault at the end of the war.  That's completely different.  

For that matter, that's a major departure from actual history and it ties in, just a tad, to the Stabbed In the Back myth. The Germans had an ongoing revolution at home and the Frontsoldaten were collapsing. You couldn't have ordered them into an attack in late 1918 no matter how hard you tried.

So, the first version is the best.  I don't think I could get through the second again, and the third version is worth watching, once.

*This review was started in October, 2022.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Thursday, Feburary 7, 1924. De la Huerta retreats and the M1911A1 is born.

Adolfo de la Huerta and his staff withdrew by boat to Mérida, Yucatán, after federal troops recaptured Veracruz.

Crowd going to the National Cathedral, under construction, where President Wilson had been laid to rest.

Italy recognized the Soviet Union.

Around this time, Colt began to ship what is called the "Colt Transition Model 1911", which were actually the first of the M1911A1s.


The Colt M1911 is a John Browning designed semi-automatic pistol that can legitimately be regarded s the greatest handgun ever made, although there are, or perhaps more accurately were, a few other contenders.  Other than the mostly John Browning Designed Hi Power, none of the other contenders remain in service somewhere however and the M1911 has by far the longest period of service.

Adopted by the U.S. on March 29, 1911, in 1923 the handgun received some minor modifications, the most significant of which is a curved spring housing which changed the profile of the grip.  The trigger was also shortened.  In 1924 the modified design started to ship, this month, from Colt.  The M1911A1 designation came in 1926.  

Large quantities of M1911s were made in World War One, and even larger quantities of M1911A1s were made during World War Two. So many were in fact made that no new orders were placed for M1911s through the rest of its primary service life, up to when the M9 Beretta 9mm handgun was ordered to replace it.

MEU(SOC) pistol.

The M9 actually failed to completely replace the M1911A1, although it nearly did so.  Some small quantities of M1911A1s that had been issued to officers remained in ongoing use.  In addition, the pistol never ceased being used by special troops, who favored it over the 9mm M9 due to its larger .45ACP cartridge.  The Marines nearly immediately resisted the change and adopted a reworked and custom-built M1911, with flat spring housing, as the MEU(SOC) pistol for close combat, taking in quantities of M9s at the same time.

Female Marine firing M45A1.

During the war in Afghanistan, the M1911 started to reappear in force, being rebuilt by service armorers and with some small numbers being once again purchased for special forces.  In 2012 the Marine Corps began to acquire modernized M1911s, with the flat spring housing, which were ultimately adopted as the Marine Corps service pistol with the designation M45. Theoretically, these passed out of service in 2022, but it's frankly unlikely that they fully did.  The pistol almost certain remains in use to some degree by the US.

The pistol, given all of this, has an incredibly long service life, likely the longest of any US weapon.  And the M1911 itself has rebounded in popularity and is as popular as a civilian handgun as ever, perhaps more popular than ever.  As a police weapon, it was used by the FBI for decades, and also in various cartridge chamberings by law enforcement agencies.  No handgun rivals it.

Related Threads:

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Disparity

It's worth noting that the world's oldest democracy, the United Kingdom, saw its Prime Minister fall for having a party in violation of COVID rules, and then see him resign from Parliament for lying about it, while the United States is in serious danger of reelecting a President who attempted to overthrow an election.

Monday, May 15, 2023

Page Updates for 2022


April 27, 2022

They Were Lawyers.  New features, "but then" added to the bottom regarding people who started off to become lawyers, but then were diverted before barred or graduating law school.  February 4, 2022.

Both the Killetarian Cookbook and Cast Iron have been updated with the same entry, the same being orange stuffed roasts duck.  April 3, 2022.

Sometime during the last twenty four hours, there were two hits on an old Wyoming Cheese Steak item from the main site.  I realized I hadn't linked that old thread over to the Killetarian Cookbook, even though the recipe was there, so I added it.  April 27, 2022.

October 26, 2022

Antenna movement on my 1997 Jeep TJ Project page.

November 7, 2022


April 29, 2023


May 15, 2023













Saturday, May 13, 2023

Crisis on the border. Roots, origins, angst, and what is to be done.

May 13, 2023

Mexican Border Crisis

The predicted chaos did not ensue yesterday, which doesn't mean it's not arriving.

Those seeking asylum, FWIW, are required to have first applied in the countries from which they are departing, or online, or if they traveled through another country or countries, those places.  The problem remains of dealing with the requests of those who are allowed in.

Most of the migrants are fleeing economic distress or violence in their homelands, the product of a wide-ranging number of things, and which varies by countries.  Haiti, for example, remains impoverished as a legacy of paying its original French slaveholders upon achieving independence long ago.  Almost all of the Central American and South American states contributing to the human flood also suffer from the legacy of Spanish Colonialism, which saw its original liberators largely act in the name of their own self-interest rather than that of the native populations.  Stable Central American states, looked at with a long lens, have a single stable government example, which also contributes to the flood due to being in an unstable neighborhood.  The existence of multiple Central American states in the first place is nonsensical and is a symptom of failed policies itself. They should really all be part of Mexico, which in fact was at least partially the plan early on.  Repeated efforts to reunite into one state have failed, leaving tiny rump states that have been corruptly ruled and which have fallen into the control of criminal gangs, something the US's unending appetite for illegal drugs, a symptom of its own failed American Dream, fuels.

Marines in Nicaragua, 1932.

Central Americans have lived in fear of US intervention for decades, although that seems to have ceased, as has U.S. intervention.  Unfortunately, the region is terribly governed, with Socialist ineptitude governing in some places (Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela), to simply featuring failed states in others.  The US has repeatedly tried a "good neighbor" policy of non-intervention, and it retains guilt over supposed "American colonialism"  for intervention.  The US last put troops on the ground in Panama when it deposed the Panamanian leader during the Reagan Administration and then went right on to invade Grenada.

The problem remains that the neighbor analogy may be too appropriate.  It might be neighborly to ignore your neighbor's dissolute living for a while, but when it turns violent, do you?

It's clear something has to be done to address the root problems of what's being seen. But what is that?

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

The Kramer. Was Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: For the first time in 100 years....

Is anyone else reminded of the famous Seinfeld episode about the painting of Cosmo Kramer?
Speaker One: “I sense great vulnerability. A man-child crying out for love. An innocent orphan in the post-modern world.”

Speaker Two: “I see a parasite. A sexually depraved miscreant who is seeking only to gratify his basest and most immediate urges.”

Speaker One: “His struggle is man's struggle. He lifts my spirit.”

Speker Two: “He is a loathsome, offensive brute. Yet I can’t look away.”

Speaker One: “He transcends time and space.”

Speaker Two: “He sickens me.”

Speaker One: “I love it.”

Speaker Two: “Me too.”
And the third time is not the charm, with McCarthy losing an additional vote.

As noted, there's historical precedent for this, but this is a bit of a GOP disaster.  The GOP barely won the House in the midterms, and now it is in such disarray that it's in a Speaker fight for the first time in 100 years.

To have a ballot go over three rounds, moreover, is not a good sign.  It's happened eight times before, and each time it went over three rounds it jumped up to double digits, save for a single time, which was the 1923 example of the 68th Congress.  If this follows the historical pattern, which of course it may very well not, we'll now see at least nine rounds, which would stand to potentially weaken McCarthy enormously as a speaker.

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: For the first time in 100 years....

Lex Anteinternet: For the first time in 100 years. . .

Earlier we reported the below. Since then, he's lost round two, and appears to be set to lose round three.

Well, he still hasn't matched 1923, which went to 9.

And he's far short of 1855, which went to 155.

Lex Anteinternet: For the first time in 100 years. . .

For the first time in 100 years. . .

the election of Speaker of the House will go into a second round.

Kevin McCarthy, who obviously wants the position very badly, and who hitched his wagon to the Trump ass cart in an effort to get it, after first criticizing the January 6 Insurrection, failed to secure it as nineteen Republicans voted against him and for somebody else.

His opposition, ironically, has been from the arch right, some of whom voted for Andy Biggs.

Democrat Hakim Jeffries of New York had the most votes, at 212, with McCarthy at 203.  Under the rules, apparently, you need a majority of voting members, so Jeffries isn't it, in spite of beating out McCarthy.

Interestingly enough, for the readers of this blog, the last time this happened was in 1923, when Frederick Gillett became speaker after nine ballots.   In terms of overall Congressional history, however, this isn't that unique, and perhaps it should not be.  According to this chart by the Speaker of the House historian, it's happened quite a bit.

Congress (Years)                 Name                                                         State Final Ballot

3rd Congress (1793–1795) MUHLENBERG, Frederick Augustus Conrad PA 3rd

6th Congress (1799–1801) SEDGWICK, Theodore MA 2nd

9th Congress (1805–1807) MACON, Nathaniel NC 3rd

11th Congress (1809–1811) VARNUM, Joseph Bradley MA 2nd

16th Congress (1819–1821) TAYLOR, John W.1  NY 22nd

17th Congress (1821–1823) BARBOUR, Philip Pendleton VA 12th

19th Congress (1825–1827) TAYLOR, John W. NY 2nd

23rd Congress (1833–1835) BELL, John TN 10th

26th Congress (1839–1841) HUNTER, Robert Mercer Taliaferro VA 11th

30th Congress (1847–1849) WINTHROP, Robert Charles MA 3rd

31st Congress (1849–1851) COBB, Howell GA 63rd

34th Congress (1855–1857) BANKS, Nathaniel Prentice MA 133rd

36th Congress (1859–1861) PENNINGTON, William NJ 44th

68th Congress (1923–1925) GILLETT, Frederick Huntington MA 9th

McCarthy shouldn't get it, in my view, which differs from the view of those currently voting against him in the GOP (but probably coincides with Democrats who aren't voting for him).  His siding with Trump after the insurrection disqualifies him, in my view.

Sunday, January 1, 2023

In Memoriam

2022 closed out with enough departures from this life of interesting and significant people that it has that portents feeling to it.  Let's hope that's just being naturally ill at ease.

Pope Benedict XVI

The most significant death, of course, is that of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on the last day of the year.  His death was not unexpected.

The German-born Joseph Ratzinger was an intellectual and a theologian.  For misguided reasons, he was regarded as the "Panzer Cardinal" by some of his supporters, a nickname that never reflected his personality but which rose out of his stout defenses of orthodoxy.

His resignation as Pope, the first that had occurred in centuries, was due to ill health and was controversial at the time.  There is, frankly, much to be lamented by it, at least by those who have a conservative religious bent (as I do), who lost, if nothing else, and there was much else, a conservative Pope who would have appointed conservative cardinals and perhaps been in a better position to take on the German Bishops.

Benedict grew up in Nazi Germany, where his father was an outspoken anti-Nazi policeman.  His family was deeply religious.  He was conscripted into a Luftwaffe anti-aircraft batter late in the war at the time in which Germany was reaching down into the early teens for that role.  He lived an exceptional life, but by some accounts, given his academic nature, wasn't ideally suited for his role as Pope.

Ian Tyson

Ian Tyson was a Western, not Country and Western but Western, musician who was a giant in that arena.

Tyson was early on a folk musician who sang with Sylvia Fricker, whom he later married, and then divorced.  Following his divorce, he moved to Alberta to train horses and when Bob Dylan recorded Four Strong Winds he used the royalties to buy his ranch. Following that, he focused on traditional "Cowboy Style" music is distinct from the Hillbilly Country Music and Country Pop so popular in the U.S.  He was a pioneer in a small revival that's spread back into the US, but which still sees its most significant members being Canadian, showing the Western nature of Western Canada.

He died on December 29, at age 89.

Pelé

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, was the greatest soccer player in the world in his era, and will go down as one of those figures who are famous in a sport, and outside of it, forever.  

I know little about him, other than his fame in soccer, but as I don't follow soccer, that says something.  He died on December 29 at age 82.

Barbara Walters

Barbara Walters was born the same year as my late father and was a major newscaster and interviewer when I was growing up.

It's perfectly fair to say that she was a female pioneer in the area, although as we've pointed out in regard to the very early history of Meet The Press there were significant women, albeit few in number, in the field prior to her.

I'll be frank that I never liked her interviewing style and found her voice ill-suited for her role, as she was somewhat hard to understand, which some people are.  She died on December 30, at age 93.

Saturday, December 31, 2022

Reflections on 2022

The human heart plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps.

Proverbs, 16:9

2022 won't go down in my memory as a good year.

The Fall of 2022 saw me in the hospital three times, one of which was for several days, all of which were for surgical procedures, one major and two minor.  The result of the first one was to move a chunk of my colon, after which I learned that I barely dodged colon cancer.  And I do mean barely. 

God's providence, as Pope Francis has stated, is always one step ahead of us.

I got in that situation by basically disregarding the advice on getting a colonoscopy, getting mine a full decade after they recommend you start getting them. That sort of thing is typical for me, but it nearly got me killed.

At the time of writing this, I'm still waiting to find out what's up with a thyroid nodule.  I've had two fine needle aspirations and still don't have a diagnosis, other than that something is odd about it.  The material has gone out for a genetic analysis, which will determine whether or not it's something to worry about.

The doctor feels it probably isn't, but she doesn't sound reassuring about it.  I strongly suspect that it probably is, so 2023 will probably kick off with another surgery.

I'm in pretty good shape overall for somebody who is nearly 60, and who will turn that age, God willing, in 2023.  So all of this has caught me by surprise.  I didn't expect it.

I also didn't expect surgery to take so much out of me, but it did.  I was beat up for weeks.  My digestive track still hasn't returned fully to normal, or at least to the status quo ante, and I don't think it's probably going to.  This isn't like a huge disaster, but it is different, noticeably so.

I was tired for weeks after the surgery, and punchy too.  I didn't really realize how much so until some time later.

One of the things about running a blog is you get to know some people whom you know only through that.  Two of those folks came in with well-wishes when I was ill, which I appreciate.  One of them, however, who was a well known outdoor writer, died very shortly after his last post here, which was one of those posts.  It sort of punctuated this in a way.

Everyone else in the family is healthy, and I'm grateful to God for that, although COVID 19 visited the house.  My wife fell ill with it, even after being fully vaccinated.  That cost her a vacation with her brother and our sister-in-law.

Being laid up interrupted by hunting seasons enormously.  I didn't draw for anything other than elk, but I did get out for general deer with my daughter.  We got up on deer right away when some inconsiderate person drove right through where we were hunting, costing us some good bucks.  No deer for 2022.

I went out elk hunting on the first day, which was right before surgery.  I was tired and lethargic going out, which I now can look back on and realize that pretty much described me for all of 2022 before surgery.  I didn't see anything.

I got out the last Sunday as well. Felt better, but saw nothing.

Just two days out of a long season. Post surgery, restrictions kept me out of the field for a long time.

That also meant that I missed most of the waterfowl season, and indeed, when I started back up, as I had missed so much, it felt like the season was starting.  Of course, it was not.  I missed sage chicken season for some reason as well, maybe working cattle.

All of which means that in some odd ways, 2022 was more about my office job than ever.  I worked like a dog, even working from home the Monday after I got out of the hospital, but for some reason, I really have less to show for it this year than I should.  Or that's how I perceive it.  A post surgery outlook, perhaps.

I didn't work cattle hardly at all this Fall, same reason, which emphasized the indoors again.

An odd thing for me has been the various references people have started making to retirement.

I'm not old enough, on the Social Security scale, to retire even at the early age, and I won't be for a few years.  All of a sudden, however, people are asking me about it and I don't know quite why.

One reason may be that when I came into the practice of law, I rapidly ended up in the litigation major leagues.  Lots of the lawyers I worked with were young then, which I guess I didn't appreciate, but htey were older than me.  This has been a common experience in my life.  I graduated high school a year younger than most people, and I've often been the youngest person in any one group.  Added to that, I've tended to appear younger than I really am for almost all of my life.  

Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained by a life that is just.

Proverbs

That's no longer quite as true, although men age at remarkably varied rates.  Up until going into the hospital it seemed very much still the case, although over this year my facial hair, in my case expressed by my mustache, which I try to keep bushy, and my sideburns, which I try to keep short, have gone white.


And I mean white, not gray.

That's going to make you look a certain age, no matter what.  Some men would shave it, but I've been wearing a mustache now continually since 1988, and off and on before then, so I'm not.  And every once in a while I'll mention shaving it and my wife, who has never seen me without one, will object.

It is a shock, however, when I see my firm official photo.  All my hair was dark brown then.  The hair on my head remains brown, with gray mixed in, but my facial hair is white.

Added in that, however, I think is this.  I've often been the youngest person in a group, as noted above, which means the rest of the group is older.  All the guys I graduated with from high school were a little younger than me.  When I started working, a lot of the lawyers I knew, worked with, and became friends with were several years older than me.  They weren't old, they were just older than me.

At that time, somebody graduating from law school sometime in the first half of the decade prior to you seemed like a long time.  Graduating in the late 1970s even more so, and it really is.  But for those from the early 80s, if you were 1990, that isn't really that long of time, except at first.  Over time, it isn't, and those people begin to pretty much figure you are their contemporaries, and vice versa, which you basically are.

A couple of years ago, one lawyer I worked with a fair amount over the years pulled up and retired to the southwest.  Another that I'd worked with much more, and whom I'd become friends with, fell ill, retired, and died nearly immediately.  He wasn't that old, just in his 60s.  I'd been all over the west with him on cases.  A mutual friend of both of ours, who is a good friend of mine, is getting ready to retire.  A judge I worked with as a lawyer up and retired.  A lawyer I worked against a fair amount had a heart attack and died.  A couple of longstanding business contacts I am close to retired.  A lawyer that I'm pretty close to and have known my professional career is fighting a serious disease.

I feel like I'm The Last of the Mohicans.


Or maybe Will Penny.

Anyhow, you get the point.

Perverse speech sows discord, and talebearing separates bosom friends.l

The violent deceive their neighbors, and lead them into a way that is not good.Whoever winks an eye plans perversity; whoever purses the lips does evil.

Proverbs.

The events of the year oddly worked into this.  You wouldn't think that the background noise of the times would impact you personally that much, usually, but they do, and often heavily.  The state went into the 2022 election so dedicated to Trumpite populism that it felt more like South Carolina in December 1860 than Wyoming in, well. . . ever.  Views circulated in the state that I've never heard before, with some of them bordering on the unhinged.  Candidates were elected who seemed to be Berserker mad at the entire population of the country and who were ready to dive into the population, broad sword drawn, until they emerged screaming on the other end.  

It was weird.

In that atmosphere, we elected a Secretary of State with thin connections to the State and a Congresswoman who has long connections with it, but whom will start off as a nullity and whom I predict will forever remain there.  The entire time, large percentages of the state, including many people who have not lived here long, looked back romantically on a state history and culture that never ever existed.

So here, I feel like Sitting Bull.


It was not only weird, but for a native, downright depressing.

Indeed, in spite of my Sioux reference, a better analogy is that this must be what it was like if you were a Westphalian of my age, but in 1932.  The country you were born in, for all its faults, is now gone and completely unrecognizable.  The past decade has been a mix of extremes on all levels, cultural and political, and a big section of the country is now supporting extremism for reasons that are hard to grasp.

Well, here's hoping 2023 is a bit better.

How much better to get wisdom than gold!

To get understanding is preferable to silver.

Proverbs.

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas!


Here's hoping that it was a good one.  It will not be, of course, for everyone.  Remember them.


Pope Francis addressed this in his Christmas homily:

What does this night still have to say to our lives? Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, after so many Christmases spent amid decorations and gifts, after so much consumerism that has packaged the mystery we celebrate, there is a danger. We know many things about Christmas, but we forget its real meaning. So how do we rediscover the meaning of Christmas? First of all, where do we go to find it? The Gospel of Jesus’ birth appears to have been written precisely for this purpose: to take us by the hand and lead us where God would have us go.

It starts with a situation not unlike our own: everyone is bustling about, getting ready for an important event, the great census, which called for much preparation. In that sense, the atmosphere was very much like our modern celebration of Christmas. Yet the Gospel has little to do with that worldly scenario; it quickly shifts our gaze to something else, which it considers more important. It is a small and apparently insignificant detail that it nonetheless mentions three times, always in relation to the central figures in the narrative. First, Mary places Jesus “in a manger” (Lk 2:7); then the angels tell the shepherds about “a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (v. 12); and finally, the shepherds, who find “the child lying in the manger” (v. 16). In order to rediscover the meaning of Christmas, we need to look to the manger. Yet why is the manger so important? Because it is the sign, and not by chance, of Christ’s coming into this world. It is how he announces his coming. It is the way God is born in history, so that history itself can be reborn. What then does the Lord tell us? Through the manger, three things, at least: closeness, poverty and concreteness.

Closeness. The manger serves as a feeding trough, to enable food to be consumed more quickly. In this way, it can symbolize one aspect of our humanity: our greed for consumption. While animals feed in their stalls, men and women in our world, in their hunger for wealth and power, consume even their neighbors, their brothers and sisters. How many wars have we seen! And in how many places, even today, are human dignity and freedom treated with contempt! As always, the principal victims of this human greed are the weak and the vulnerable. This Christmas too, as in the case of Jesus, a world ravenous for money, ravenous for power and ravenous for pleasure does not make room for the little ones, for so many unborn, poor and forgotten children. I think above all of the children devoured by war, poverty and injustice. Yet those are the very places to which Jesus comes, a child in the manger of rejection and refusal. In him, the Child of Bethlehem, every child is present. And we ourselves are invited to view life, politics and history through the eyes of children.

In the manger of rejection and discomfort, God makes himself present. He comes there because there we see the problem of our humanity: the indifference produced by the greedy rush to possess and consume. There, in that manger, Christ is born, and there we discover his closeness to us. He comes there, to a feeding trough, in order to become our food. God is no father who devours his children, but the Father who, in Jesus, makes us his children and feeds us with his tender love. He comes to touch our hearts and to tell us that love alone is the power that changes the course of history. He does not remain distant and mighty, but draws near to us in humility; leaving his throne in heaven, he lets himself be laid in a manger.

Dear brother, dear sister, tonight God is drawing near to you, because you are important to him. From the manger, as food for your life, he tells you: “If you feel consumed by events, if you are devoured by a sense of guilt and inadequacy, if you hunger for justice, I, your God, am with you. I know what you are experiencing, for I experienced it myself in that manger. I know your weaknesses, your failings and your history. I was born in order to tell you that I am, and always will be, close to you”. The Christmas manger, the first message of the divine Child, tells us that God is with us, he loves us and he seeks us. So take heart! Do not allow yourself to be overcome by fear, resignation or discouragement. God was born in a manger so that you could be reborn in the very place where you thought you had hit rock bottom. There is no evil, there is no sin, from which Jesus does not want to save you. And he can. Christmas means that God is close to us: let confidence be reborn!

The manger of Bethlehem speaks to us not only of closeness, but also of poverty. Around the manger there is very little: hay and straw, a few animals, little else. People were warm in the inn, but not here in the coldness of a stable. Yet that is where Jesus was born. The manger reminds us that he was surrounded by nothing but love: Mary, Joseph and the shepherds; all poor people, united by affection and amazement, not by wealth and great expectations. The poverty of the manger thus shows us where the true riches in life are to be found: not in money and power, but in relationships and persons.

And the first person, the greatest wealth, is Jesus himself. Yet do we want to stand at his side? Do we draw close to him? Do we love his poverty? Or do we prefer to remain comfortably ensconced in our own interests and concerns? Above all, do we visit him where he is to be found, namely in the poor mangers of our world? For that is where he is present. We are called to be a Church that worships a Jesus who is poor and that serves him in the poor. As a saintly bishop once said: “The Church supports and blesses efforts to change the structures of injustice, and sets down but one condition: that social, economic and political change truly benefit the poor” (O.A. ROMERO, Pastoral Message for the New Year, 1 January 1980). Certainly, it is not easy to leave the comfortable warmth of worldliness to embrace the stark beauty of the grotto of Bethlehem, but let us remember that it is not truly Christmas without the poor. Without the poor, we can celebrate Christmas, but not the birth of Jesus. Dear brothers, dear sisters, at Christmas God is poor: let charity be reborn!

We now come to our last point: the manger speaks to us of concreteness. Indeed, a child lying in a manger presents us with a scene that is striking, even crude. It reminds us that God truly became flesh. As a result, all our theories, our fine thoughts and our pious sentiments are no longer enough. Jesus was born poor, lived poor and died poor; he did not so much talk about poverty as live it, to the very end, for our sake. From the manger to the cross, his love for us was always palpable, concrete. From birth to death, the carpenter’s son embraced the roughness of the wood, the harshness of our existence. He did not love us only in words; he loved us with utter seriousness!

Consequently, Jesus is not satisfied with appearances. He who took on our flesh wants more than simply good intentions. He who was born in the manger, demands a concrete faith, made up of adoration and charity, not empty words and superficiality. He who lay naked in the manger and hung naked on the cross, asks us for truth, he asks us to go to the bare reality of things, and to lay at the foot of the manger all our excuses, our justifications and our hypocrisies. Tenderly wrapped in swaddling clothes by Mary, he wants us to be clothed in love. God does not want appearances but concreteness. May we not let this Christmas pass without doing something good, brothers and sisters. Since it is his celebration, his birthday, let us give him the gifts he finds pleasing! At Christmas, God is concrete: in his name let us help a little hope to be born anew in those who feel hopeless!

Jesus we behold you lying in the manger. We see you as close, ever at our side: thank you Lord! We see you as poor, in order to teach us that true wealth does not reside in things but in persons, and above all in the poor: forgive us, if we have failed to acknowledge and serve you in them. We see you as concrete, because your love for us is palpable. Help us to give flesh and life to our faith. Amen.

For all of us, we hope your Christmas wasn't excessively Arctic, although this is of course Nothern Hemisphere winter.


And that Jólakötturinn chose merely to nap at your place.



Saturday, December 24, 2022

Sunday, December 24, 1922. Christmas Eve, 1922.

Normally I post these matters in chronological order, oldest to newest, but I missed something here of interest, that being the death of Sgt. John Martin.

Sgt. Martin, circa 1904.

Martin was a career soldier in the U.S. Army who is remembered today as the 7th Cavalry trumpeter who was assigned by George A. Custer to deliver a message to Frederic Benteen, to the effect of:
Benteen.

Come On. Big Village. Be quick. Bring Packs.

P.S. Bring packs. W.W. Cooke

The message delivered to Benteen, from Custer, had been reduced to writing by Custer's adjacent, W. W. Cooke probably because Benteen didn't trust Martin to be able to accurately convey the message, given his heavy Italian accent.  Martin had been born Giovanni Martino.

Martino had started off in life roughly, being born in 1852 in Salerno and being delivered to an orphanage just days after his birth.  He served as a teenage drummer under Garibaldi, joining that revolutionary force at age 14.  He immigrated to the United States at age 21 and joined the U.S. Army, serving as a trumpeter.  He was temporarily detailed to Custer's command on the date of the fateful Little Big Horn battle, and therefore received the assignment that would take him away from disaster somewhat randomly.

He married an Irish immigrant in 1879, and together they had five children.  He served in the Spanish American War, and retired from the Army in 1904, having served the required number of years in order to qualify for a retirement at that time.  Note that this meant he'd served, at that time, thirty years.  Following that, his family operated a candy store in Baltimore.  In 1906, for reasons that are unclear, he relocated to Brooklyn, seemingly to be near one of his daughters, working as a ticket agent for the New York subway.  The relocation meant a separation from his wife, which has caused speculation as to the reasons for it, but he traveled back to Baltimore frequently.  That job wore him down, and he took a job as a watchman for the Navy Yard in 1915.  His sons followed his footsteps and entered the Army.

In December 1922 he was hit by a truck after work and died from his injuries on this day.

All in all, this presents an interesting look into the day.  Martin was an adult when he immigrated in 1873, and found work in an occupation that readily took in immigrants, the military, and doing what he had done in Garibaldi's forces before, acting as a musician.  His marriage was "mixed", of a sort, with the common denominator being that he and his wife were both Catholics.  In spite of retiring from the Military after long service, he continued to need to be employed, at jobs that at the time were physically demanding.

And of interest, when his life, long under the circumstances, was cut short, he was a veteran of Little Big Horn living during the jazz age.

Dickey family, Christmas 1922.

Verklempt Trumpites, I mostly put up the photograph of the unhappy looking Dickey family near their Christmas Tree so that you can remember how an American family is supposed to look like. The two oldest sons wearing ties, the youngest one dressed as a high ranking Navy enlisted man, and all the women with dresses down to their toes.

Got that everyone?

Raymond Dickey was a Washington, D. C. lawyer, FWIW.

Harriet, did you get to see this. . note the absence of rhinestones. ... Lauren. . . no trousers.

Okay. Good. We expect to see you appropriately turned out.

The Workers Party of American held its Second Congress at the Labor Temple on East 84th Street in New York Seventy delegates showed up to suck the fun out of Christmas Eve.

Never heard of the party?  It's the American Communist Party.

They'd taken up holding their meeting over the Christmas holiday.  I'm not sure why, but it probably at least accidentally emphasized that they rejected anything that they couldn't see, and most of that. And, presumably being working men, they probably had the Christmas Holiday off.

 

Friday, December 23, 2022

“Zelenskyy was all rumpled and not wearing a suit, very disrespectful.”

George Washington as Commander of the Continental Army, in the same style of uniform as he wore at the Second Continental Congress in 1775.  Shocking.

Eh?

Did I hear that right?

Are Americans suddenly criticizing the dress of somebody appearing at a public function?

Oh yes, they are, and some are truly verklempt, or appearing to be.  Consider Newsmax's Benny Johnson:

This ungrateful piece of sh*t does not have the decency to wear a suit to the White House -- no respect the country that is funding his survival.

Track suit wearing eastern european con-man mafia.

Our leaders fell for it. They have disgraced us all. What an incredible insult.

Oh my. An American criticizing somebody for how they dress.  It's almost impossible to imagine.

I'm stunned.

I've commented on the decline on the dressing standard here quite a few times.  And I do generally think that appearing in front of Congress, and being at Congress, should require formal dress.  

And not just there, I'd note.

I don't know that I think that required of a man whose living under siege and who is a wartime leader of a country whose capital is within rocket range of what was thought, up until a few months ago, to potentially have the first or second most powerful military on earth.

Indeed, any rational observer of American dress has to know that Americans, generally, dress like slobs.  Quite a few dress like children all the time.  People toddle around in public markets dressed like their mothers just got them up for an early morning trip to the store in their pj's.  People board planes in jammies.  Some men wear knee pants all the time, even during the winter, choosing to affect a dashing infantile presentation in the worst weather.

And more than that, people appear at official functions poorly dressed all the time.

When I was first practicing law, as I noted here before, I didn't really have to tell witnesses how to dress in court.  A while later, however, I'd get asked, and when asked I'd use the Protestant term "Sunday Best", even though I'm not a Protestant, as everyone knew what that meant.  Later, however, I found that was no longer the case and I started to get lucky if people had a clean shirt.

The summer before last I tried a case in Denver in which a downtown Denver jury came in extremely informal clothing.  Shorts, t-shirts, etc.  Only the lawyers, the court staff, and the judge dressed up to the old standard.  A couple of decades ago, this would not have occurred.

Just recently I attended a multiple day contested case hearing in which the lawyers were no longer wearing ties, something that would be a defacto breach of the old official standard that applied to us when we were first practicing.  And I mean the latter.  Ties were part of the official rules for male lawyers up until the time I started practicing, and they basically remain that for courtroom attire.

No, not me, I wore jacket and tie every day.

The panel hearing the matter wore formal clothes, however.  Most of the lawyers, most of the time, did not.  Not that they'd gone full informal, they were still wearing dress shirts and jackets, but no ties.

This is becoming increasingly common.

During the recent January 6 hearings, many of the witnesses fell well below what we would have regarded as the old standard.  Not so low as the rioters, however, who were largely dressed down to the American standard.

I'd include in that dressing down, I'd note, the MAGA trucker's hat.  

I'm not a trucker's cap fan, for the most part, anyhow, with some exceptions.  I will wear real baseball caps from real baseball teams.  Baseball caps, however, are actually not baseball caps, which have longer bills, but an evolution of them that has looked bad from day one.  Thanks to the MAGA cap, now you see guys wearing sports coats and MAGA caps, which looks dumb.

Okay, I suppose we might ask if this is unprecedented?  I truly don't know.

What I can say is that Zelenskyy is a wartime leader. When he was a peacetime leader, he favored dark suits, and was clean-shaven.  Starting with the Russian invasion of his country, and the fighting in his own capital, he began to dress in a quasi military fashion.

He's not the first leader of a democratic country to do that.  I'll omit non-democratic ones, as their leaders affecting military style dress is extremely common.

The best example is Winston Churchill who dressed eclectically frequently.  We like to remember him dressed to the English standard, suit and bowler, but in actuality as he grew older he favored jumpsuits.  In his visits to see FDR he wore them quite frequently, and was photographed by the press wearing them due to their uniqueness.

Churchill, who had started off his professional life as a career British Army officer, but who had official roles with the Admiralty later on, really like to dress in quasi Naval attire, even while Prime Minister, including in official meetings with the heads of foreign states.


Indeed, he truly did.


George Bush, George Bush II, Barack Obama and Donald Trump have all appeared at various times wearing various types of flight jackets, an unmistakenly military item. No, they didn't wear them in Congress, but they wore them.  The two Bush's had both seen military service, as pilots, but President Obama and President Trump never did.

And let's not forget George Washington.

Washington famously appeared in Congress, as a member of the Continental Congress, that assembled to take up the problems with the Mother Country, dressed in the blue uniform of the American Continental militia officers.  

We might regard that as formal wear, but that was the combat uniform of the time.  Our failure to appreciate that is probably due to our inability to read the clothing of the time, but in context, quite frankly, it's shocking.

And it is pretty much what Zalenskyy did earlier this week, save for the fact that he's the besieged president of an embattled country, whereas Washington was implying that maybe the colonies ought to rebel against their established sovereign.

Oh well. The standard is reestablished.  Trumpites, your call is clear.  Off to Brooks Brothers to suit up, literally.

Broken records?

Strange. . . 

The official low on Thursday was -42, which is now being reported as breaking the -41 record set in 1949.

But when I looked it up earlier, the low for 1990 was -46.

Hmmmmm

Thursday, December 22, 2022

Volodymyr Zelenskyy's address to Congress.

 Dear Americans!

In all states, cities and communities. All those who value freedom and justice. Who cherish it as strongly, as we, Ukrainians, in all our cities, in each and every family. I hope my words of respect and gratitude resonate in each American heart!

Madam Vice President, I thank you for your efforts in helping Ukraine! Madam Speaker, you bravely visited Ukraine during the full-fledged war, thank you very much! It is a great honor, a great privilege to be here!

Dear members of the Congress – representatives of both parties – who also visited Kyiv! Esteemed Congressmen and Senators – from both parties – who will visit Ukraine, I’m sure, in the future! Dear representatives of diaspora – present in this chamber and spread across the country! Dear journalists!

It's a great honor for me to be at the U.S. Congress and speak to you and all Americans!

Against all odds and doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine did not fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.

And it gives me good reason to share with you our first joint victory – we defeated Russia in the battle for minds of the world. We have no fear. Nor should anyone in the world have it.

Ukrainians gained this victory – and it gives us courage, which inspires the entire world.

Americans gained this victory – and that's why you have succeeded in uniting the global community to protect freedom and international law.

Europeans gained this victory – and that's why Europe is now stronger and more independent than ever.

The Russian tyranny has lost control over us and it will never influence our minds again.

Yet, we have to do whatever it takes to ensure that countries of the Global South also gain such victory.

I know one more thing – the Russians will stand a chance to be free only when they defeat the Kremlin in their minds.

Yet, the battle continues! And we have to defeat the Kremlin on the battlefield.

This battle is not only for the territory – for this or another part of Europe. This battle is not only for life, freedom and security of Ukrainians or any other nation, which Russia attempts to conquer. This struggle will define – in what world our children and grandchildren will live and then – their children and grandchildren. It will define whether it will be a democracy – for Ukrainians and for Americans – for all.

This battle cannot be frozen or postponed. It cannot be ignored hoping that the ocean or something else will provide a protection.

From the United States to China, from Europe to Latin America, and from Africa to Australia – the world is too interconnected and interdependent to allow someone to stay aside – and at the same time – to feel safe when such a battle continues.

Our two nations are Allies in this battle.

And next year will be a turning point. The point, when Ukrainian courage and American resolve must guarantee the future of our common freedom. The freedom of people, who stand for their values.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Americans!

Yesterday – before coming here to Washington DC – I was at the frontline, in our Bakhmut. In our stronghold in the East of Ukraine – in the Donbas.

The Russian military and mercenaries have been attacking Bakhmut non-stop since May. They have been attacking it day and night. But Bakhmut stands.

Last year seventy thousand people lived there in Bakhmut and now only few civilians stay.

Every inch of that land is soaked in blood. Roaring guns sound every hour. Trenches in the Donbas change hands several times a day in fierce combat and even hand fighting. But the Ukrainian Donbas stands.

Russians use everything they have against Bakhmut and our other beautiful cities.

The occupiers have a significant advantage in artillery. They have an advantage in ammunition. They have much more missiles and planes than we ever had.

But our Defense Forces stand. And we all are proud of them.

The Russian tactic is primitive. They burn down and destroy everything they see. They sent thugs to the frontlines. They sent convicts to the war...

They threw everything against us – similar to the other tyranny, which in the Battle of the Bulge threw everything it had against the free world. Just like the brave American soldiers, which held their lines and fought back Hitler’s forces during the Christmas of 1944, brave Ukrainian soldiers are doing the same to Putin’s forces this Christmas. Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender!

So, here is the frontline – the tyranny, which has no lack of cruelty – against the lives of free people.

And your support is crucial – not just to stand in such fights, but to get to the turning point. To win on the battlefield.

We have artillery. Yes. Thank you. Is it enough? Honestly, not really. To ensure Bakhmut is not just a stronghold that holds back the Russian army – but for the Russian army to completely pull out – more cannons and shells are needed.

If so, just like the battle of Saratoga, the fight for Bakhmut will change the trajectory of our war for independence and freedom.

If your «Patriots» stop the Russian terror against our cities, it will let Ukrainian patriots work to the full to defend our freedom.

When Russia cannot reach our cities by its artillery, it tries to destroy them with missile attacks. More than that, Russia found an Ally in its genocidal policy – Iran.

Iranian deadly drones, sent to Russia in hundreds, became a threat to our critical infrastructure. That is how one terrorist has found the other. It is just a matter of time – when they will strike against your other allies, if we do not stop them now. We must do it!

I believe there should be no taboos between us in our alliance. Ukraine never asked the American soldiers to fight on our land instead of us. I assure you that Ukrainian soldiers can perfectly operate American tanks and planes themselves.

Financial assistance is also critically important. And I would like to thank you for both, financial packages you have already provided us with, and the ones you may be willing to decide on. Your money is not charity. It's an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.  

Russia could stop its aggression if it wanted to, but you can speed up our victory. I know it.

And it will prove to any potential aggressor that no one can succeed in breaking national borders, committing atrocities and reigning over people against their will.

It would be naive to wait for steps towards peace from Russia – which enjoys being a terrorist state. Russians are still poisoned by the Kremlin.

The restoration of international legal order is our joint task. We need peace. Ukraine has already offered proposals, which I just discussed with President Biden – our Peace Formula.

Ten points, which should and must be implemented for our joint security – guaranteed for decades ahead.

And the Summit, which can be held.

I am glad to stress that President Biden supported our peace initiative today. Each of you, ladies and gentlemen, can assist in its implementation – to ensure that America’s leadership remains solid, bicameral and bipartisan.

You can strengthen sanctions to make Russia feel how ruinous its aggression truly is.

It is in your power to help us bring to justice everyone, who started this unprovoked and criminal war. Let's do it!

Let the terrorist state be held responsible for its terror and aggression, and compensate all losses done by this war.

Let the world see that the United States is here!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Americans!

In two days, we will celebrate Christmas. Maybe, candlelit. Not because it is more romantic. But because there will be no electricity. Millions won't have neither heating nor running water. All of this will be the result of Russian missile and drone attacks on our energy infrastructure. But we do not complain.

We do not judge and compare whose life is easier.

Your well-being is the product of your national security – the result of your struggle for independence and your many victories.

We, Ukrainians, will also go through our war of independence and freedom with dignity and success.

We'll celebrate Christmas – and even if there is no electricity, the light of our faith in ourselves will not be put out. If Russian missiles attack us – we'll do our best to protect ourselves. If they attack us with Iranian drones and our people will have to go to bomb shelters on Christmas eve – Ukrainians will still sit down at a holiday table and cheer up each other. And we don't have to know everyone's wish as we know that all of us, millions of Ukrainians, wish the same – victory. Only victory.

We already built strong Ukraine – with strong people, strong army, and strong institutions. Together with you!

We develop strong security guarantees for our country and for entire Europe and the world. Together with you!

And also – together with you! – we’ll put in place everyone, who will defy freedom.

This will be the basis to protect democracy in Europe and the world over.

Now, on this special Christmas time, I want to thank you. All of you. I thank every American family, which cherishes the warmth of its home and wishes the same warmth to other people.

I thank President Biden and both parties at the Senate and the House – for your invaluable assistance.

I thank your cities and your citizens, who supported Ukraine this year, who hosted our people, who waved our national flags, who acted to help us.

Thank you all! From everyone, who is now at the frontline. From everyone, who is awaiting victory. 

Standing here today, I recall the words of the President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which are so good for this moment: "The American People in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory".

The Ukrainian People will win, too. Absolutely. I know that everything depends on us. On Ukrainian Armed Forces! Yet, so much depends on the world! So much in the world depends on you!

When I was in Bakhmut yesterday, our heroes gave me the flag. The battle flag. The flag of those who defend Ukraine, Europe and the world at the cost of their lives. They asked me to bring this flag to the US Congress – to members of the House of Representatives and Senators, whose decisions can save millions of people.

So, let these decisions be taken!

Let this flag stay with you, ladies and gentlemen!

This flag is a symbol of our victory in this war!

We stand, we fight and we will win. Because we are united. Ukraine, America and the entire free world.

May God protect our brave troops and citizens! May God forever bless the United States of America!

Merry Christmas and a happy victorious new year!

Слава Україні!