Friday, April 27, 1923. The IRA calls it quits, The Pro Treaty Sinn Finn depart, New Country Club, Harding and Work.

Having already effectively ceased combat operations, as they'd already lost the war, Éamon de Valera announced that the Irish Republican Army was prepared to agree to a ceasefire.

On the same day, Cumann na nGaedheal ("Society of the Gaels) a political party of pro treaty former members of Sinn Féin was formed.  It would merge into Finn Gael in 1933.

For residents of Casper, familiar with the Country Club, the origins of it were in evidence in this day in 1923.

Quite an assortment of other news as well.

And not just in Casper, but all around, it would seem.

The horse jumping over car photograph, probably last popular as horse jumping over Jeep during World War Two, was in vogue.

Jack Prestage on Tipperary in this case.

President Harding, whom we now know should probably have been in a clinic, visited the Tri State Clinic.

Warren G. Harding, who was in the last year of his life, was 57 years old at the time of his death. . . a good 20 years older than Donald Trump is now.  People don't really "live longer", contrary to the common claim, but they don't die as young due to various factors and heart attacks and strokes kill fewer.

Still, It's insane to be electing a President over 70 years of age.  It's questionable, really, to be electing somebody to their first term over 60 which means, if my restrictions mean anything, that I wouldn't be qualified.  I'd do a better job than either of the main candidates, I'm quite certain, which disqualifies me to start with, but age ought to.

In this photo, Harding didn't really look well.

And the guy third second from his left, as viewed, looks annoyed.

Huber Work accepted a resolution from his postal clerks.

Blog Mirror: These German soldiers and their mules have achieved all my relationship goals

 

These German soldiers and their mules have achieved all my relationship goals

I have to admit, if I'd grown up in a country that was fielding mules in their army in the Alps, I'd now be a retired soldier.

That's cool.

Mid Week at Work. Packing in.

 

WY Geological Survey

@WyGeoSurvey

·

4h

WSGS geologists used horses and mules to pack in supplies for a week of field mapping on The Ramshorn quadrangle last summer. They rode in 20 miles along the South Fork Shoshone River to a basecamp in Bliss Creek Meadows, where they camped and mapped for the week. 1/2

We are Savotta and we make military gear

About the most matter of fact commercial ever.

Thursday, December 7, 1922. Coal, Boats, and Killings.

 

The Parliament of Northern Ireland voted unanimously to remain in the United Kingdom.  The Army of the Irish Free State severs communications with units based in Northern Ireland. Irish Parliamentarians and former members of the IRA Sean Hales of Cork and Padraig O'Maile of Mayo emerged from lunch at a hotel on Ormonde Quay in Dublin and were shot in revenge for the execution of IRA members earlier that week.  Hales was killed and O'Maile severely wounded.

The Northern Irish Parliament would govern Ulster on a home rule basis until 1972, when it was suspended due to its inability to address The Troubles.

The President's yacht was hit.

The public in Wyoming was apparently following the sensational trial of the Governor of Missippii and the results of a murder trail in Casper where the convicted assailant was a woman.

Friday, October 27, 1922. Horse events, funerals, savings certificates. And the March on Rome begins.

Today In Wyoming's History: October 27: 1922  The Schwartz Brothers Haberdashers store opened in Cheyenne.   Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

A military horse show took place in Washington, D.C. on this day in 1922.

Billy Mitchell was one of the competitors.

 Elsewhere, a military funeral was also conducted.

Andrew Mellon was issuing new Treasury saving certificates.

Southern Rhodesia, which later became Rhodesia, and which is now Zimbabwe, held a referendum on joining South Africa.  Voters rejected the proposal.

Italian Fascists took possession of cities around Italy as the March on Rome began.  The mach was a mass demonstration that was also a slow rolling coup in progress intended, ultimately, to put so much pressure on the Italian government that it would fall, and the Fascists take control of the government.  It would succeed in that aim.

Tuesday, October 24, 1922. Mussolini speaks and the Fascist March

Mussolini made a speech to a crowed of 60,000 diehard Fascist supporters, Blackshirts, declaring that the party would either govern by consent or seize power by marching on Rome.  Just a few days later, they'd do just that, leading Italy into tragedy.

His speech stated:

Fascists and citizens! It may be, or rather it is almost certain, that my eloquence will disappoint you, accustomed as you are to the impetuosity and rich imagery of your own orators. But since I realize my incapacity for rhetoric, I have decided to limit myself, when speaking, plain to necessity. We have gathered together here at Naples from every part of Italy to perform an act of brotherhood and love. We have with us our brothers from the borderland of betrayed Dalmatia, men who do not intend to yield. (Applause, and cries of "Long live Italian Dalmatia!") There are also the Fascists from Trieste, Istria and Venezia Tridentina, Fascists from all parts of Northern Italy, even from the islands, from Sicily and Sardinia, all come together to affirm quietly and positively the indestructibility of our united faith, which means to oppose strongly every more or less tasked attempt at autonomy or separatism.

Four years ago the Italian infantry, made great through twenty years of work and hardship, the Italian infantry in which the sons of your country were so largely represented, burst from the Piave and, having defeated the Austrians, surged on towards the Isonzo, and only the foolish democratic conception of the war prevented our victorious battalions from marching through the streets of Vienna and the highways of Budapest.

From Rome to Naples. A year ago at Rome, at one time, we found ourselves surrounded by a secret hostility, which had its origin in the misunderstandings and infamies characteristic of the uncertain political world of the capital. We have not forgotten all this.

Today we are happy that all Naples—this city which I call the big safety-reserve of the nation—welcomes us with a sincere and frank enthusiasm, which does our hearts good, both as men and Italians. For this reason I request that not the smallest incident of any kind shall disturb this meeting, for that would be a mistake, and a foolish one. I demand also, as soon as the meeting is over, that every Fascist not belonging to Naples shall leave the town immediately.

All Italy is watching this meeting, because—and let me say this without false modesty—there is not a post-war phenomenon of greater interest and originality in Europe or the world than Italian Fascism.

You certainly cannot expect from me what is usually called a big speech. I made one at Udine, another at Cremona, a third at Milan, and I am almost ashamed to speak again. But in view of the extremely grave situation in which we find ourselves today, I consider this an appropriate opportunity to establish the different points of the problem in order that individual responsibilities may be settled. The moment has arrived, in fact, when the arrow must leave the bow, or the cord, too far stretched, will break.

The Solving of the Problem. You remember that my friend Lupi and I placed before the Chamber the alternatives of this dilemma, which is not only Fascist but also national; that is to say, legality or illegality; Parliamentary conquest or revolution. By which means is Fascism to become the State? For we wish to become the State! Well! By October 3rd I had already settled the question.

When I ask for the elections, when I ask that they shall take place soon, and be regulated by a reformed electoral law, it is clear to everyone that I have chosen my path. The very urgency of my request shows that the tension of my spirit has arrived at breaking point. To have, or not to have, understood this means to hold, or not to hold, the key to the solution of the whole Italian political crisis.

The request came from me; but it also came from a party consisting of a formidably organised mass, which includes the rising generations in Italy and all the best, physically and morally, of the youth of the country; and from a party, too, which had a tremendous following among the vague and unstable public.

But, gentlemen, there is more. This request was made upon the morrow of the incidents of Bolzano and Trento, which had made plain to all eyes the complete paralysis of the Italian State, and revealed, at the same time, the no less complete efficiency of the Fascist State.

Well! In spite of all this, the inadequate Government at Rome puts the question on the footing of public safety and public order!

What we have asked the Government. The whole question has been approached in a fatally mistaken manner. Politicians ask what we want. We are not people who beat about the bush. We speak clearly. We do good to those who do good to us, and evil to those who do evil. What do we want, Fascists? We have answered quite simply: the dissolution of the present Chamber, electoral reform, and elections within a short time from now. We have demanded that the State shall abandon the ridiculous neutral position that it occupies between the national and the anti-national forces. We have asked for severe financial measures and the postponement of the evacuation of the third Dalmatic zone; we have asked for five portfolios as well as for the Commission of Aviation. We have, in fact, asked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the War Office, the Admiralty, the Ministries of Labour and of Public Works. I am sure none of you will find our requests excessive. But to complete the picture, I will add that I shall not take part with the Government in this legal solution of the problem, and the reason is obvious when you remember that to keep Fascism still under my control I must of necessity have an unrestricted sphere of action both for journalistic and polemic purposes.

A Ridiculous Answer. And what has been the Government's reply? Nothing! No; worse than that, it has given a ridiculous answer. In spite of everything, not one of the politicians has known how to pass the threshold of Montecitrio in order to look the problem of the country in the face. A miserable calculation of our strength has been made; there has been talk of Ministers without portfolios, as if this, after the more or less miserable experiences of the war, was not the culmination of human and political absurdity. There has been talk of sub-portfolios, too; but that is simply laughable! We Fascists do not intend to arrive at government by the window; we do not intend to give up this magnificent spiritual birthright for a miserable mess of ministerial pottage. Because we have what might be called the historical vision of the question as opposed to the merely political and Parliamentary view.

It is not a question of patching together a Government with a certain amount of life, but of including in the Liberal State—which has accomplished a considerable task which we shall not forget—all the forces of the rising generation of Italians which issued victorious from the war. This is essential to the welfare of the State, and not of the State only, but to the history of the nation. And then...?

A Question of Strength. Then, gentlemen, the question, not being understood within its historical limits, asserts itself and becomes a question of strength. As a matter of fact, at turning-points of history force always decides when it is a question of opposing interests and ideas. This is why we have gathered, firmly organised and strongly disciplined our legions, because thus, if the question must be settled by a recourse to force, we shall win. We are worthy of it. It is the right and duty of the Italian people to liberate their political and spiritual life from the parasitic incrustation of the past, which cannot be prolonged indefinitely in the present, as it would mean the death of the future.

It is then quite natural that the Government at Rome should try to divert and counteract the movement; that it should try to break up the Fascist organisation, and to surround us with problems.

These problems have the names of the Monarchy, the Army and Pacification.

The Acceptance of the Monarchy. I have already said that the discussion, abstract or concrete, of the good and evil of the monarchy as an institution is perfectly absurd. Every people in every epoch of history, given the time, place and conditions necessary, has had its regime. There is no doubt that the unity of Italy is soundly based upon the House of Savoy. (Loud applause.) There is equally no doubt that the Italian Monarchy, both by reason of its origin, development and history, cannot put itself in opposition to the new national forces. It did not manifest any opposition upon the occasion of the concession of the Charter, nor when the Italian people—who, even if they were a minority, were a determined and intelligent minority—asked and obtained their country's participation in the war. Would it then have reason to be in opposition today, when Fascism does not intend to attack the regime, but rather to free it from all those superstructures that overshadow its historical position and limit the expansion of our national spirit? Our enemies in vain try to keep this alleged misunderstanding alive.

Fascism and Democracy. The Parliament, gentlemen, and all the paraphernalia of Democracy have nothing in common with the monarchy. Not only this, but neither do we want to take away the people's toy—the Parliament. We say "toy" because a great part of the people seem to think of it in this way. Can you tell me else why, out of eleven million voters, six million do not trouble themselves to vote? It might be, however, that if tomorrow you took their "toy" away from them, they would be aggrieved. But we will not take it away. After all, it is our mentality and our methods that distinguish us from Democracy. Democracy thinks that principles are unchangeable when they can be applied at any time or in any place and situation.

We do not believe that history repeats itself, that it follows a given path; that after Democracy must come super-Democracy. If Democracy had its uses and served the nation in the nineteenth century, it may be that some other political form would be best for the welfare of the nation in the twentieth. So that not even fear of our anti-Democratic policy can influence the decision in favour of that continuity of which I spoke just now.

The Army. As regards the other institution in which the regime is personified—the army—the army knows that when the Ministry advised the officers to go about in civilian clothes to escape attack, we, then a mere handful of bold spirits, forbade it. We have created our ideal. It is faith and ardent love. It is not necessary for it to be brought into the sphere of reality. It is reality in so far as it is a stimulus for faith, hope and courage. Our ideal is the nation. Our ideal is the greatness of the nation, and we subordinate all the rest to this.

For us the nation has a soul and does not consist only in territory. There are nations that have had immense possessions and have left no traces in the history of humanity in spite of them. It is not only size that counts, because, on the other hand, there have been tiny, microscopic States that have left indelible marks in the history of art and philosophy. The greatness of a nation lies in the aggregation of all these virtues and all these conditions. A nation is great when its spiritual force is transferred into reality. Rome was great when, from her small rural democracy, little by little, her influence spread over the whole of Italy. Then she met the warriors of Carthage and fought them. It was one of the first wars in history. Then, bit by bit, she extended the dominion of the Eagle to the furthermost boundaries of the known world, but still, as ever, the Roman Empire is a creation of the spirit, as it was the spirit which first inspired the Roman legions to fight.

Our Syndicalism. What we want now is the greatness of the nation, both materially and spiritually. That is why we have become syndicalist, and not because we think that the masses by reason of their number can create in history something which will last. These myths of the lower kind of Socialist literature we reject. But the working people form a part of the nation; and they are a great part of the nation, necessary to its existence both in peace and in war. They neither can nor ought to be repulsed. They can and must be educated and their legitimate interests protected. We ask them: "Do you wish this state of civil war to continue to disturb the country?" No! For we are the first to suffer from the ceaseless Sunday wrangling with its list of dead and wounded. I was the first to try to bridge over the gap which exists between us and what is called the Italian Bolshevist world.

How Peace can be obtained. To prove this, I have just recently signed an agreement most gladly; in the first place because it was Gabriele d'Annunzio who asked me to, and in the second place because it was, as I thought, another step towards a national peace.

But we are no hysterical women who continually worry themselves by thinking of what might happen. We have not the catastrophic, apocalyptic view of history. The financial problem which is so much talked about is a question of will-power. Millions and millions would be saved if there were men in the Government who had the courage to say "No" to the different requests. But until the financial question is brought on to a political basis it will not be solved. We are all for pacification, and we should like to see all Italians find the common ground upon which it is possible for them to live together in a civilized way. But, on the other hand, we cannot give up our rights and the interests and the future of the nation for the sake of measures of pacification that we propose with loyalty but which are not accepted in the same spirit by the other side. We are at peace with those who ask for peace, but for those who ensnare us and, above all, ensnare the nation, there can be no peace until after victory.

A Hymn to the Queen of the Mediterranean. And now, Fascists and citizens of Naples, I thank you for the attention with which you have listened to me.

Naples gives a fine display of strength, discipline and austerity. It was a happy idea that led to our coming here from all parts of Italy, that has allowed us to see you as you are, to see your people who face the struggle for life like Romans, and who, with the desire to rebuild their lives and to gain wealth through hard work, carry ever in their hearts the love of this their wonderful town, which is destined to a great future, especially if Fascism does not deviate from its path.

Nor must the Democrats say that there is no need for Fascism here, as there has been no Bolshevism, for here there are other political movements no less dangerous than Bolshevism and no less likely to hinder the development of the public conscience.

I already see the Naples of the future endowed with an even greater splendour as the metropolis of the Mediterranean; and I see it together with Bari (which in 1805 had sixteen thousand inhabitants and now has one hundred and fifty thousand) and Palermo forming a powerful triangle. And I see Fascism concentrating all these energies, purifying certain circles, and removing certain members of society, gathering others under its standards.

And now, members of the Fascio of all Italy, lift up your flags and salute Naples, the capital of Southern Italy and the Queen of the Mediterranean!

Today, without a shot being fired, we captured the vibrant soul of Naples, the soul of all Southern Italy. The demonstration is an end in itself and can not turn into a battle, but I say to you with all the solemnity that the moment requires: either we will be given the government or else we must take it by marching on Rome. It is necessary for action to be simultaneous in every part of Italy.

And so, with a speech, Mussolini launched a march that would help take large portions of Europe into fascism, and from there, all of Europe and ultimately the world into war.

The German Reichstag voted 310 to 77 to postpone the 1924 elections into 1925 due to political unrest. It also voted to extend the term of President Ebert into 1925.  

On the same day, former German Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow gave an interview in which he indicated there was no chance for a return of the German monarchy as the republican forces were stronger than the "nationalist" ones.  He also predicated that Communism would not take hold of the country.

Closer to home, a tragedy, well actually a series of tragedies, appeared on the front page of the newspaper.

For reasons I'm unsure of now, I've mentioned Dr. Norwood, DDS's, death here before.  He came to Casper and homesteaded west of town at what is referred to here as "Six Mile Lakes".  There are some wet spots out in that general area, so presumably that's what's being referred to here.  He wasn't married and apparently desired to be a rancher while also practicing dentistry.  He rode a horse into town to his office every day.

Horse use, of course, was still very common, and a second tragedy, the automobile/team collision in a snow storm also gives us a glimpse of one of the dangers of the era.

NOTE:  These seemed familiar as I'd run them before. That's a 1920 newspaper, not a 1922 newspaper.

Tuesday, October 3, 1922. Aftermaths

 Somewhere on the East Coast, a "conduit" was being built.

Construction at the time still involved a lot of horse power in the literal sense, something that was rapidly changing.

And with that change would come to an end one more daily association of men with animals, making us the poorer for it.

The Convention of Madanya began with representatives of the Allied Powers meeting with Turkish representatives in order to negotiate an end to the Chanak Crisis.  The Allied Powers were frankly impaired, as the British government was not willing to fight over the issues the crisis presented without the support of the Dominions, and they didn't have it. The French were not willing to fight either, and the Greek government had collapsed.

On the same day, Metropolitan Gregory of Kydonies, age 58, together with other priests, were executed by the Turks.

The Irish Free State offered an amnesty to its armed opponents who voluntarily surrendered their arms before October 15.

Following that date, the Irish Free State, something that had come about due to civilian use of arms, unless a person buys the claim that those civilians were under arms from a legitimate, if unrecognized, government, would arrest in large numbers Irish Republicans caught with "illegal" arms.  Ever since that time, the Irish government has been hostile to civilian's owning arms, something which is truly ironic in context.

Italian Fascists took over the city of Bolzana and deposed the Mayor, who had been in power since 1895, at which time the city had been in Austria.

Donkeys

Donkeys transformed human history as essential beasts of burden for long-distance movement, especially across semi-arid and upland environments. They remain insufficiently studied despite globally expanding and providing key support to low- to middle-income communities. To elucidate their domestication history, we constructed a comprehensive genome panel of 207 modern and 31 ancient donkeys, as well as 15 wild equids. We found a strong phylogeographic structure in modern donkeys that supports a single domestication in Africa ~5000 BCE, followed by further expansions in this continent and Eurasia and ultimately returning to Africa. We uncover a previously unknown genetic lineage in the Levant ~200 BCE, which contributed increasing ancestry toward Asia. Donkey management involved inbreeding and the production of giant bloodlines at a time when mules were essential to the Roman economy and military.

Abstract, The genomic history and global expansion of domestic donkeys.

Mystery Lake Fish Stocking

Mystery Lake Fish Stocking

Popular horse trailers from 1971.

 

Popular horse trailers from 1971.

Tuesday May 16, 1922. Show and Work.

The National Horse Show, which still occurs, but which was then very much a major deal and becoming a bigger one, continued on.

Miss Alisa Mellon at the National Horse Show, May 16, 1922.  Mellon was the daughter of banker Andrew Mellon.  I think the interesting thing about this photograph is not so much Mellon, but the black gentleman in the background who is obviously employed in some laboring connection with the activities.  Note also the black man in the back driving a carriage.

Metropolitan (Washington, D. C.) police at National Horse Show.

 The Hardings at the National Horse Show.

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was at the cornerstone placement of the American Chamber of Commerce.

Monday, May 15, 1922. Lillian Sander at the National Horse Show.

 

Friday, May 13, 1922. Vamps, Dogs, Repairs, Horses and Baseball.

Judge went to press with a cover of a painting of Lenore Ulrich, who had perfected a certain dramatic pose as an actress.

In my view, they didn't actually do a very good job of capturing Ulrich.

Her career was principally on the stage, but she crossed over into silent films, and then into sound pictures, although most of her career remained in theater.  She principally played fiery tempered women.  This may have somewhat reflected her actual temper, as she noted that her ten-year marriage ended in part because she was difficult to live with.

Poser for one of Ulrich's better known films.

Colliers went for a less glamorous scene.

The Country Gentleman's cover featured a female dog and her puppies.

Having not read the article, I don't know "why farmers go mad".

I couldn't find a clear to post one from The Saturday Evening Post, but it was a class Webb illustration of a man giving an archery lesson to a woman, where more than just instruction in the ancient art is on the mind of one.

The National Horse Show continued.

Hoover made a pitch

He was Secretary of Commerce at the time and it was for the Departmental League.

Friday, May 12, 1922. Changing seasons.

Today In Wyoming's History: May 12: 1922  A spring blizzard hit northeastern Wyoming.  Attribution:  On This Day.

It was, indeed, a significant one, causing a lot of damage.

Elsewhere, where there was nice weather, a change in women's riding styles was evident.

 

Mid Week At Work. Judges of horses checking the entries at the San Angelo Fat Stock Show, San Angelo, Texas. March, 1940.

 

Wednesday March 22, 1922. Scenes from around Washington D. C.

Miss Beatrice Patton, daughter of George Patton.

 

"Society Circus", Marty 22, 1922.

Vice President Calvin Coolidge and sons playing catch.

Lawrence Sperry and his "Fliver".  Sperry was the inventor of the artificial horizon and the first autopilot.

Friday December 16, 1921. Animals at work and leisure

Secretary to the U.S. disarmament conference, Basil Miles, and his dog. /

Elanor Bulter Roosevelt, wife of Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (the son of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Moving kiosk in front of White House.

Parliament approved the creation of the Irish Free State by approving the recently negotiated treaty. The Dail had yet to convene on the matter.

 

Cliffnotes of Zeitgiest Part XXI. The Missing. States of female dress, Joking, Pride, Horses, Justin Trudeau sorry for skipping first national truth and reconciliation day, and heroes.

Uff

I had this entry nearly ready to go when I lost about 50% of it.

Fortunately, as there is no deadline, and not many readers, that really doesn't matter.

Still, its the pits.  You always think you've done some brilliant writing when something like this happens.

Still, maybe that means I ought to wrap this excessively long post up.

The Missing

When I started this edition of this series, Gabby Petito had not yet gone missing.  When she first was reported missing, I wrote a post on something that sort of riffed off of it, and I still might, although in further consideration, it's now so nuanced there may literally be no point.

When I last updates this, she hadn't yet been found.  Now she has been, and we know that she was murdered, and it seems rather obvious who the killer was.  Her boyfriend, if that's what he had been at the time, or her fiancé, which maybe he had been but no longer was, or in fact maybe was, has been by far the most likely suspect and he was stil missing as well when I lost the text. It would appear that he fled into a Flordia swamp, probably having taken off in a desperate attempt to avoid prosecution, and maybe with the intent to end his own life.  We'll probably soon know.  Assuming that's so, his returning home with her vehicle, but not her, puts him in the category of all time stupid criminals, again assuming guilt, which we are told we should not assume.  And indeed, we should note, that there are other possibilities.

Women are murdered by men all the time.  It's a fact and, unfortunately, in spite of the desperate desire to avoid reality in our society, it's a "natural fact".  Men are bigger, stronger, and more violent.  They are bigger, stronger, and more violent than women for natural reasons.  None of this excuses this reality, but it does partially explain it.  So why did this horrible event garner so much public attention?

What isn't a "fact" however, is that husbands are the always and obvious suspect.  Looking at the data has gotten a little difficult, but at least some figures, and I heard them recently independently repeated, hold that husbands figure in about 8% of female deaths.  It's easier to find older figures, although not really old, on murders by boyfriends, i.e., men that women are linked with romantically but not married to, which is actually right at about the same percent.  More recent figures tend to link the two together, which isn't statistically or existentially valid, in my view, which puts things at a higher percentage rate.  You can double those figures for a relatively common one, although I've seen one that's at 25%, which I question.

While the headlines tend to suggest, based on these statistics, that "romantic partners" are the most likely killers for women, they actually aren't.  That would mean, even accepting the high rate, that 75% of homicides of women are conducted by killers who aren't romantically linked to them. When we consider that it is the case that the majority of murders are committed by people who know their victims, this presents a much different overall picture of things.

To add to that, however, I strongly suspect, but have no data to prove it, that homicides by "boyfriends", "partners" (a term I hate), and husbands are different in character.

Anyhow, this story had, and has, a tremendous following.  Part of that is because it was and is a mystery.  And a very public one was the couple had a YouTube following which meant that they were being followed by fans.  That's a lot of it.  Under any similar set of circumstances, this would have sparked national interest.

Part of it too is that she was young and cute.  That's party of it too.  Undeniably so.  That sparked the following headlines.

710 Indigenous people, mostly girls, were reported missing in Wyoming over the past decade — the same state where Gabby Petito disappeared

If Gabby Petito Was A Person Of Color, Would Anyone Have Cared – Sadly, Probably Not

There's a lot to that, which doesn't reduce the tragedy.

710 is a horrible number.  It doesn't get much attention, it really ought to.

Well, as this plays out, let us hope that she's passed on to Perpetual Light and that the suffering she seemed to be enduring wasn't too awful.

Shacking up is not the same as being married.

What I started to type an item about when this first got rolling was the way that the news stories on this ignored the fact that Petito was engaging in conduct which when I was young would have been regarded as shocking and ill-advised, although even by that point, it might have occurred anyway, somewhat as an act of flaunting standards.  I noted even in typing it out that as I was drawing attention away from the tragedy, I felt hesitant and guilting about noting what I was noting.

Here's the gist of the last, or second to last (maybe) encounter with the couple that's known about.

After the van was pulled over, the officer said Petito was “crying uncontrollably” and told him she was struggling with her mental health. Petito was placed in the back of the officer’s car, the report said, while he spoke to Laundrie on his own.

Petito said she had hit Laundrie in the arm to get his attention as the officer was trying to pull them over, which caused the van to swerve into the curb, the report said. But Laundrie said he thought Petito was trying to grab the wheel while he was driving, resulting in the swerve. The officer said Laundrie's account "was not consistent with Gabrielle's statement" and reported he saw scratches on Laundrie's arm.

The couple had spent the past four or five months traveling together which was creating tension, the report said. “The time spent created emotional strain between them and increased the number of arguments,” the report said.

Antonio Planas, NBC News.

Now, one of the officers involved claims the couple seemed to be in a "toxic relationship".

A couple traveling near Grand Teton in Wyoming now claims they gave a hitchhiking Laundrie a lift in the area when he asked to go to "Jackson", but let him out when he freaked out as they were going to "Jackson Hole" which, if true, would have shown a blistering lack of geographic knowledge around the area.  He was also acting really weird.  Putting two and two together, this would suggest that at first he was attempting to flee on foot, or maybe that he'd left her injured or sick back at their van and was taking off.  He wasn't acting normally.

Petito was 22 years old.  Laundrie was reported to be her fiancé, and then not. Early on it was suggested in reports that they were cohabiting prior to their long trip, but then later reports suggested nothing of the kind.  Of course a very long van ride is a type of cohabitation.  The highway patrol noted that they seemed stressed, which is probably an easy observation to make, as a trip like that even between really good and long friends would be stressful.

Or not.  I can imagine easily making such a trip with my friends of long-standing, including my best friend, my wife, and not finding it particularly stressful.

The modern trend of playing at the incidents of marriage is really foolhardy.

That's treading where most would fear to go.  This couple shouldn't have been one, and they shouldn't have been on the road together.  Something went badly wrong, and a lot of things may have gone wrong.  She was young and cute, and shouldn't have been out there at all as she was, which at the end of the day was with a man she wasn't married to and who didn't look after her as a decent human would, most particularly a decent man bound to her for life, no matter what was going on.

Female Dresses and Undress

I've been getting a bunch of Twitter sidebars, i.e. suggested reading, that have to do with entertainment recently, which is odd as I don't follow the entertainment news.

The entertainment news follows female fashion, and what women "wear", if that term can be used loosely.  As a result, there were a few from the VMA awards of well known, apparently, female entertainers who basically were not dressed. One was Megan Fox, and another was some well known, apparently, female singer.  I didn't click on either, but even from the little box, you could see that Fox might as well have been completely nude, for all she wasn't wearing at the VMA's, and the female singer was dressed, or rather undressed, in an antiquarian style, by which we would mean the way that the over fevered brains of old time set designers imagined members of the harem to be dressed, or not dressed, basically.

Why do women betray other women this way?

It's an interseting cultural phenominon.  In an era when we're still in the aftershocks of the Me Two era in which women justifiably compalined about being treated like sexual objects, popular female figure display themselves as, well, sexual objects.

I've noted it before and will again.  Women will never achieve full equality with men in society as long as some women prostitute their image.  It demans and degrades them all.

There was also a Met Gala, at which a selection of notables appeared.  One was AoC who wore a full lengthy stylish dress with "Tax the Rich" emblazed on it in red.  And of course, Billie Eilish was there wearing a weird 1950s style move dress that flowed on and on which also was cut so that her ample, well you can figure it out, were prominently displayed.  It was her "Holiday Barbie" dress.  She's clearly riffing off of Marilyn Monroe at this point.  Hailee Steinfeld was there, not looking like Hailee Steinfeld, which is really unfortuante as people really ought to look like who they are.

What to make of all of that.

Well one thing you can make of it is that Eilish continues to play from Madonna's playbook. She's now a figure, and a full figured figure at that, whose public image is fully seperated from her voice and singing talent, if she has any.  And she's also clearly angling, as Madonna once did, to be a latter day Marilyn Monroe, and pulling that off more effectively than Madonna did.

Oh well, at least she's not stick thin, so perhaps, at least in her case, this trend isn't a bad one.

AoC's dress caused a Twitterstorm, predictably, even though we all know it isn't really her dress.

On dresses, a local art museum has a display of the dresses of a cross dressing man on display.

He was well known around here for years, long before there was any suggestion that people tolerate such things.  People by and large did, however, and for at least two decades.  His wife donated them for dispaly as she didn't want his legacy to be forgotten.

I'm not sure what the legacy is.  As odd as it may seem, what I most recall about the times I ran into him, generaly in grocery stores and the like, is how out of time and style the dresses were.  That may sound odd, but that was my reaction.  It wasn't that he was wearing a dress, but rather that they were not good looking dresses.  More like the dresses worn by elderly women who dance in polka groups, which also strike me as not very good looking.

Anyhow, I don't know quite what to make of putting a person's clothes on display.  Is this really honoring him?  I suspect, no matter how society may have altered or claimed to have altered its views on this, it was probably an ordeal for him during his life.  It just seems a strange act to me. And an average person's clothes don't really make for art or history.  What they do give, in some context, is a chance for people to virtue signal, however, which isn't really a meaningful thing in and of itself.

Blurred Lines

Speaking of dress and undress, Emily Ratajkowski claims Robin Thicke grabbed her bare boobs during the filiming of the video for "Blurred Lines".  The headlines climed this was a "sexual assault".

I'm sorry, but somehow the "Me Too" dog just doesn't hunt here.  The entire song is about improper sexual conduct, and in one of the two versions of it that was committed to video, Ratajkowski walks around with some other model topless apparently.  If the entire thing is about immoral and illicit sexual attraction, do you really expect Thicke to treat you like a something other than you were portraying.

That's really dense.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

The really beutiful Marylin Monroe at the height of her career.

Dimly connected to this post, the other day I watched the 1953 classic Gentlemen Prefer Bonds.

Really.

Now, musicals aren't my cup of tea and even though I have a pretty good knowledge of old movies, I have a pretty good knowledge of certain types of old movies, and not this type.  I'm not really a Marylin Monroe fan and her image grew so large, like Jmes Dean's, I"m inclined to ignore it really.  

Well, this movie caught me off guard.

Frankly, it started off being just as vapid as I expected it to be and I nearly turned it off, but as it went on I found it amusing.

And then shocking.

This is one of the most cynical movies I've ever seen.  I'm stunned that it was a hit in 1953.

Where the film really comes together is near the end, when Monroe's character explains to the father of her fiance that she doesn't intend to marry him for his mother, but rather, speaking to her future father-in-law "I'm marrying him for your money".  She goes on to ask him if it isn't true that men want a beutiful woman for a bride, which he confirms.  She goes on to say that for a woman, "money is like that".

This is just after the legendary scene in which Monroe sings "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has been sung.  And if you see the entire scene, it's shockingly cynical.

I don't believe that everyone shares the sentiments of this film by quite some measure, but there's more than a little to it.  

Straight Lines

If you wish to be perfect,go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Somebody whose lines aren't blurred are those of Polish javelin thrower Maria Andrewjczyk, who put her Olympic silver medal up for auction.  She is a devout Catholic and did it to donate the money to the parents of a child who desperately requires surgery.

She auctioned the medal and donated the money. The medal was bought by a Polish chain store, which gave the medal back to her.

Everyone did the right thing.

Maybe that's why there's been so little news about it.

Lawyer jokes.

I'm really tired of it

This applies to lawyer jokes.

Like most lawyers, I don't get upset at lawyer jokes in general, although the late Gerald Mason, at one time the president of the State Bar, was so upset about how they impacted the image of lawyers that he had a campaign urging lawyers not to repeat them.

Mason was an earnest man.  I never met him personally, but those who did generally liked him, but he was very earnest. From the far western part of the state, he was a sincere and observant Mormon who worried about the addiction rates displayed amongst his fellow lawyers. For that reason, he hosted the state's only dry State Bar Association Annual Meeting, at least before the Cyber variants brought in during COVID 19, which I’m guessing aren't completely dry.  Anyhow, Mason coined the phrase "Proud to be a Wyoming lawyer" as he was proud to be a Wyoming lawyer.

That was before the Uniform Bar Exam, however, which caused the shipping of legal work out of the state to Colorado.

Anyhow, Mason hated legal jokes and didn't want us to tell them.  We ignored that and his other suggestions, although for quite some time the state did use the "Proud to be a Wyoming lawyer" moniker.

Anyhow, recently I've had more than one occasion in which nervous litigants have been with me and the suggestion has been made, when there's an obvious accident or something, "you should give them your card, hah, hah".

I don't like it.

I don't like it as I'm not an ambulance chaser, and I'm not a plaintiff's lawyer, or at least I never thought I was.  A partner of mine recently pointed out to me that "we're trial lawyers" which, even though I've been a trial lawyer, and I am, for over 30 years, never dawned on me.

Clearly, I'm an idiot.

I guess in my mind I've always made the sharp distinction between lawyers who defend cases and those who prosecute them, in civil court, even though I've prosecuted some myself.  Now I don't have that luxury.

And I don't have it for more than one reason I'll not go into here.  So I'm finding myself, I suppose, like a Confederate veteran in 1870, after the war is over, when somebody says "you fought for slavery", and you realize, well, you did.

Like those guys whom that dawned on, I'll probably not be going to the United Confederate Veterans Association meeting like the guys who always knew that they were fighting for slavery, or those who can still pretend they were fighting for Virginia.

I still don't like being reminded, however.

Proud

Country Joe and the Fish.

My pride in general has been taking a bruising recently as well, for a variety of reasons, some of which would make other people proud.  I'm kind of like that host of Vietnam veterans in the late 1960s and early 1970s who hurled their medals at the White House or Pentagon.

It's a strange feeling.  And I don't even have Country Joe and the Fish to provide an anthem.

Opinion Today: Monica Lewinsky wants to talk about cancel culture

So reads a headline in my New York Times newsfeed.

I can't really see how being willing  to . . . um. . Bill Clinton elevates a person to the level of social critic.  Lewinsky is entitled to go on and live her life, but in order to really be a public figure after, well you know, and other things, she'd really have to break away from that entirely to be interesting or relevant.  Frankly, if you come up in the news due to a scandal like this, and you have some things on your ledger that are at least a little icky otherwise, you really have to probably make a big leap in order to merit being taken seriously on the public stage, or even be on the public stage.

Forgetting old knowledge

President Biden has condemned the ostensibly poor treatment of the illegal Haitian border crossers and Vice President Harris stated that the scenes remind her of slave scenes.

This reminds me of the degree to which modern Americans are, by and large, blisteringly ignorant of animals and hence disconnected from reality.

I’ve been around horses my entire life and very much admire their utility.  Frankly, they’re a very underutilized resource in the modern world simply because most people aren’t very familiar with them on workaday basis anymore.  You can do a lot with horses in a law enforcement scenario that you can’t with anything else, including crowd control and also, FWIW, in looking for the missing (dead or alive).  I always think of this when something like the Petito missing persons situation comes up.

Given that, this has been a frustrating thing to watch for me.

I don’t envy the Border Patrol their job at all.  It’s a tough job that lines a person up for constant criticism.  Right now, just to be a policeman anywhere in the US is to subject yourself to a fair amount of daily criticism even if you police in a region that has nothing to do with any of the events of the past couple of years, but the Border Patrol really gets the heat simply for doing its job.

Within the past couple of days the President has expressed a conclusion of guilt on the Border Patrolmen who were depicted on horseback and the Vice President claimed it reminded her of the days of slavery.   Those views are frankly not consistent with what we claim to be our view about guilt or innocence of a person as we’re convicting the Border Patrolmen without really knowing what they were doing, unless you do know what they were doing, in which case they are not guilty of anything.

The Border Patrolmen who were depicted were using split reins.  I use spit reins. Split reins are really something that working stockmen use, and I was surprised to see them use them, as even a lot of people who ride “western” don’t use split reins as they don’t’ know how to use them.  Riders who use split reins “neck reign”, rather than direct rein.  FWIW, cavalrymen, back in the day, were taught to direct rein.  I know how to do both, but I’ll neck reign by default, as that’s where I started off.

Riders who neck rein only use one had to rein, keeping the other free. That in fact is what the border patrolman in question was doing.  If you look at the photos carefully you’ll see that in the one dramatic photo he has his hand way out, and he’s practically out of the saddle in order to grab a person by the shirt.  He’s not whipping anyone.

Indeed, when you use split reins as a crop, the only thing you are getting the attention of is the horse.  Most ranch horses, in reality, are really rough stock, not anything like the horses that people in towns ride (I used to laugh when my son would say that he was a “poor rider”, as he was riding horses that would have been regarded as widow makers to most people in town).  Every now and then a rider of a ranch type horses will whack the rear end of the horse with the long reins.  You don’t have enough rein to actually inflict pain, but it gets their attention.

The reins aren’t long enough to hit anyone on the ground either.  Keep in mind that they’re attached to a bit of some sort, and the horse that uses them reins from the touch of the rein on the neck.  If you have that much rein, you are going into some big weird curve and aren’t going to do what you meant to do, assuming the horse doesn’t revolt and throw you off.  Indeed, the thing with split reins is that the rider needs to know how long or short they need to be, as if they’re too short the horse will protest, and if they’re too long, he won’t stop.  Every horse is a little different on this.

Horses are a long domesticated animal, and it's actually very difficult to get one to run into or over a person.  There are accounts of policemen charging crowds, for example, in which the horses leap over the people who have fallen as they generally won’t mow down a person.  I’ve seen men turn horses that were bucking or upset lots of times simply by stepping out in front of them and putting out their arms.  I personally have been bucked off horses and had a horse roll on me when it fell, but I’ve had one try to mow me over, and I’ve been around a lot of horses.  I can’t say the same, for example, about cattle, which have tried to stomp me flat and which actually have picked me up with their heads and thrown me around.  Horses can be dangerous, bud the real danger is getting thrown or kicked, not run down.

All of this is actually what makes horses good for crowd control.  A trained horse won’t kick a person, and they won’t run over them. But they are very large and look larger if you are on the ground.  As late as the Bush War in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe of the 80s, it was demonstrated that even armed men pretty much miss hitting horses when they’re running at you as it's scary.

All the Border Patrolmen were doing, in my observation, was trying to keep the border from being illegally crossed.  That’s their job.  Depriving them of horses will make it that much harder to do that job, which is pretty hard to do as it is, and it’ll deprive them of a patrolling asset that they need (and which the border customs agents, who also once used horses, no longer have as an asset, since the 80s I think).

Anyway, I’m pretty disgusted by the way the officers are being treated. They’re being compared to slave masters for simply trying to keep our border from being any more porous than it already is.

Trump is suing Twitter to force Twitter to restore is account.

It's a private company. They don't have to restore anyone's account.

Trump is suing Congress over subpoenas

The January 6 commission has been issuing subpoenas on figures associated with Trump.  Trump is suing to stop it.  It's almost as if that material might be embarrassing or something.

We're all for individual rights except when we aren't.

A Cheyenne attorney and former congressional candidate has declared YouTube’s ban of anti-vaccination content from its platform to be illegal censorship and in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

YouTube isn't the government, and we always hear around here that we're for individual rights.

We also hear that we're for property rights, and we're a right to work state.  A local politician appeared recently to support nurses who stand to be canned for not getting vaccinations, even though it's their employer's right to require them to do so.

And the legislature is going into session in order to take on a Federal mandate, in the name of individual rights, that would require employers with more than 100 employees to require those employees to be vaccinated.

All this is really confusing if we take any of this rights stuff serious and if we have also sworn an oath, as legislators (and lawyers) have to the Constitution.  The supremacy clause is well established, and we seemingly have no problem with the Federal Government requiring hard hats and steel toed boots of some workers. We also have no problem with vaccination requirements for school attendance, unless its for COVID 19, then we do.  We don't have a problem with employers telling employees how to dress.  There's no consistency here.

There is opportunism, however.  I'm sure some of the legislators going back to Cheyenne are completely sincere in their beliefs, but in this odd election season, there being no break from the past election, you have to wonder.

Justin Trudeau sorry for skipping first National Truth and Reconciliation Day

As The Guardian notes:

Canadian prime minister took family holiday on day to underscore bitter legacy of Indigenous residential schools – ‘I regret it’

It's hard to imagine how politicians get in this situation, but they continually do. Somebody will have a strict mask order, and then go dine out.  The Canadian PM virtues signals all the time, and then on the first Reconciliation Day event he goes on vacation.

Of course, the reality of it is that really reconciling isn't easy to do.  It's one thing to apologize for the sins of your ancestors, but that doesn't really accomplish anything.  Both Trudeau and I hail (him more than me) from people who decamped from Normandy in the 17th Century and went to New France, where their mere presence helped displace the native population, although in the French example, much less than the English example, as the French genuinely saw the natives as fellow souls to be saved, whereas the English, corrupted by the legacy of King Henry the Vandal and Queen Elizabeth I saw things in a more mercenary manner.

Be that as it may, neither Justin or I can really apologize to anyone impacted at the time or for anyone impacted at the time. They're all gone.  This would mean, of course, that you have to look out at the people in the real world today, and in regard to indigenous populations, there's plenty to be done.

For the most part, however, people aren't going to do it.  It's easier to lament the sins of those long gone and the plight of those long departed, than to look around and do something about anything now.

And then. . 

One guy who definitely isn't going to be apologizing for anything is Donald Trump.  He's not a truth and reconciliation kind of guy.  Indeed, he's still boosting the election was stolen line, and its pretty clear that he's out for revenge against anyone who didn't back him whom he thinks should have.

One of the guys that Trump apparently had a bit of an axe to grind about was the late Gen. Colin Powell.  Powell was the child of Jamaican immigrants and was born in Harlem.  He's a huge success story, which you have to accord even if you don't agree with every policy he supported when he was Secretary of State.  In response to the news of his death, Trump stated:

Wonderful to see Colin Powell, who made big mistakes on Iraq and famously, so-called weapons of mass destruction, be treated in death so beautifully by the Fake News Media. Hope that happens to me someday. He was a classic RINO, if even that, always being the first to attack other Republicans. He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace!

Okay, I'm not one of those people who take the line that you shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but Trump can't help but be a jerk.  The mistake that Trump apparently is referring to Powell's endorsement of the "weapons of mass destruction" line at the time of the second war with Iraq.

Powell later apologized for being in error on that.  Frankly, in my view, that line never justified the war in the first place, as "weapons of mass destruction" principally meant chemical weapons which are darned near worthless in the real world, as well as missiles, which lots of nations have.  But Powell's view stemmed from intelligence reports which were inaccurate, as he later acknowledged, and you can't fault a guy for believing erroneous stuff your own intelligence sources tell you.

And he was certainly a remarkable person.  He was the son of immigrants who rose up to be one of the most important figures in the country.  And like so many immigrant's children, he served the country in time of war whereas, like so many of the native born, our last couple of leaders can't say the same.