Reporting Matt Talbot’s life and death, then and now
The Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial was unveiled in France on grounds where the Battle of the Somme had been fought.
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Showing posts with label Personalities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personalities. Show all posts
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Tuesday, June 7, 1910. Suppressing a rebellion, incorporating a town, birth of a famous photographer.
Mexican troops were dispatched to suppress an uprising by the Maya Indians in Yucatán.
Byron Wyoming was incorporated.
Farm Security Administration Marion Post Wolcott was born in New Jersey.
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Sunday, June 5, 1910. Death of O. Henry.
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Occupational Identity and authenticity, a rambling thread.
Occupational identity refers to the conscious awareness of oneself as a worker. The process of occupational identity formation in modern societies can be difficult and stressful. However, establishing a strong, self-chosen, positive, and flexible occupational identity appears to be an important contributor to occupational success, social adaptation, and psychological well-being. Whereas previous research has demonstrated that the strength and clarity of occupational identity are major determinants of career decision-making and psychosocial adjustment, more attention needs to be paid to its structure and contents. We describe the structure of occupational identity using an extended identity status model, which includes the traditional constructs of moratorium and foreclosure, but also differentiates between identity diffusion and identity confusion as well as between static and dynamic identity achievement. Dynamic identity achievement appears to be the most adaptive occupational identity status, whereas confusion may be particularly problematic. We represent the contents of occupational identity via a theoretical taxonomy of general orientations toward work (Job, Social Ladder, Calling, and Career) determined by the prevailing work motivation (extrinsic vs. intrinsic) and preferred career dynamics (stability vs. growth). There is evidence that perception of work as a calling is associated with positive mental health, whereas perception of work as a career can be highly beneficial in terms of occupational success and satisfaction. We conclude that further research is needed on the structure and contents of occupational identity and we note that there is also an urgent need to address the issues of cross-cultural differences and intervention that have not received sufficient attention in previous research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Skorikov, V. B., & Vondracek, F. W. (2011). Occupational identity. In S. J. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, & V. L. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of identity theory and research.
How some lawyers apparently want the public to imagine them.
A number of relatively recent experiences has lead me to post this thread.
Posted around town are some billboards by a lawyer who is apparently specializing in plaintiffs' cases and criminal defense. I don't know him well, but I do know him.
When I first met him, he came across, quite frankly, as a metrosexual. I was quite surprised later on when I learned that he'd grown up on a ranch, and that he had a brother who now ran it. Now, however, he appears on billboards with a huge mustache in Western attire and saddle and portrays himself as a cowboy.
And I guess, by cowboy, I mean both real cowboys and the movie image of a cowboy.
Cowboys, and that is of course a real occupation, have been a popular cultural image since the late 19th Century. It's really interesting to me, as somebody who is a stockman and who has, accordingly, done a fair amount of cowboying, how cowboys continue to have a sort of wild image that they acquired in that time period. I love working stock, but most of it isn't anything like what movies portray. Maybe none of is, which is why the popular Yellowstone television show tends to anger me.
Of course, being a lawyer isn't anything like portrayed on television either.
Anyhow, I never tell people that "I'm a cowboy", but I find that I"m referred to that way, in the working sense of the word, from time to time. Or, people will refer to me as a rancher the same way from time to time. I'm always a bit flattered when they do, as if I'd had my ruthers in the world, which I haven't, that's what I would have done full time. I can't say its my occupational identity, however, as I'm well aware that I don't do it full time.
Affecting the image, however, miffs me. It's fake. If you simply come across that way, as you are naturally that way, that's one thing. Using it to promote your legal career, however, is bullshit.
Indeed, on real cowboys, not all of which are men, today:
Come As You Are
I guess this gets back in a way to this thread:
A Nation of Slobs. But then. . .
If you are going to be a lawyer, look like one, it's what you actually are.
And, by the way, there's at least one politician in the state that does the same thing, and I'd have the same criticism about. He's not a lawyer, but a commercial landlord.
Anyhow, it also gets to the weird association that the law picked up at some point with cowboys around here. I don't know when this occurred, but it might have been about the time that Gerry Spence's book Gunning for Justice came out. Spence didn't try to portray himself as a cowboy, but he did take on a Western influenced style, wearing a fringed jacket and a cowboy hat as a matter of course. Spence being sui generis has been able to consistently pull that off whereas those copying him tend to look absurd.
Anyhow, "Gunning for Justice" is actually a phrase that's been around for awhile and he didn't introduce it, as t his movie poster from 1948 demonstrates:
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On this, it's interesting that the cowboy image can be coopted this way, whereas other "manly" professions genuinely cannot. Fighters (boxers) have been a little bit, and I suppose that was an obviously one, but nobody, for example, talks about "whaling for justice".
Anyhow, dressing up like a cowboy for affect if you are not punching makes you a Rexall Ranger, not a cowboy.
While I'm at it, a Wyoming lawyer has affected the cowboy appearance for her columns on one of the local electronic journals. In this case, she's gone for the a way too big hat big pushed way up on the forehead so you can see the face look, which to a working stockman looks absolutely absurd. The same journal actually as a working rancher who wears his hat correctly as a columnist, and up until recently had another who did the same.
As a total side, if you notice in old cowboy portraits they often have their hats pushed to the back of their head, something moderns have wondered about, and for which they've even assumed that must be how they wore them.
No, the cameras were bad.
Isom Dart at Brown’s Hole Wyoming.
If they hadn't pushed them up some, their faces would have been in shadow
On identifies, I had a couple of odd encounters recently, one of which involves mental decline, and the other which involves gender attraction.
I'll start with the latter one first. There's an older profession that I don't know well, but who've I've been familiar with for a very long time. Somebody much more familiar with him than me dropped that he's a homosexual. I was shocked. Not because homosexuality in general shocks me, but because it was very well closeted for decades. Indeed, he's married with children.
I suppose that might be the rule for people north of 70, the closteting, that is.
In retrospect, it pretty quickly made sense for some reason. It just explained some personality quirks that I'd long noticed. The point of posting it here, however, is that if it's true, he's lived a lifetime with sort of an interesting strained identity.
He's not the only one I know of who is alleged to be in this category. Frankly a fairly well known person in the region is claimed by some insiders to fit this as well. In that case, it's more notable for his public opinions on things, which would be generally contrary to this inclination, assuming its true.
Now, I'll note that I have the typically misunderstood Catholic views on homosexuality. I'll also note that one of these individuals is a co-religious, and the other was. My only real point in noting all of this is to note that it must be a strain to live an entire life with a sort of false identity, assuming that its true in either case, which I can't really say for sure.
I'll also note that homosexuals of that vintage who did not present themselves as "gay", which is different, may have had a better understanding of marriage than many. Catholic Answers Hugh Barbour defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman to produce children for the worship of God, which while it may be more than that, that captures a lot of it. People like to say that before Obergefell homosexuals couldn't marry, but that's simply false, if we consider that marriage is a unique institution between two people capable of reproducing and bound to care for those they create.
Going on to occupations, I've also run across recently a situation in which I've been dealing with somebody whom, once again, I don't know that well but who is still working fulltime and whose clearly suffering from some compression loss in the psychological cylinders. I'm not their pal or anything but it's sad to watch. It's also sad to watch, however, somebody whose psychological identify is so closely identified with the practice of law, they can't leave it.
I've known more than one lawyer who practiced into advanced old age with no mental detriment. But it's also the case quite frankly that a person's physical clockworks, and often their mental ones, start to slip a bit after the hands hit 60 or so. I'm frankly not convinced at all that allowing people to practice a profession after some point in their 60s is a good thing, and I don't think people should carry on into their 70s. For one thing, it's just sad. Surely there was something else that interested them once.
Back to occupational identities.
One of the really minor features of this blog is the M65 Field Jackets in the wild. page. Minor.
I like M65 field jackets. When I was in the Guard I had at least six of them due to having bought two and having been issued four more. The reason I was issued four is that at Ft. Sill the switch from OG-107 to BDU was going on and we were issued OD field jackets. As soon as I got back, we were issued BDU field jackets, and told to keep the old ones.
I gave one of the OD ones to a girlfriend who had need of a jacket while I was in university, and then eventually I just got to big, i.e,. gained weight, or filled out, whatever, and couldn't wear the size I'd been issued. But I still had the next larger size, Large Regular.
Well, time, etc.
A surplus store here had a whole bunch of uniform items here before they went out of business and I bought several BDU ones. I just really like them. I picked up a OD one for my son, as they're a nice coat, but naively didn't for myself. The OD ones you can wear for daily wear really.
Well, here recently I found a Greek Lizard pattern one for sale and I bought it for hunting. Which meant that I had three woodland pattern ones, one desert pattern one (a gift of an old soldier) and a Lizard pattern one. Then I saw the current multicam pattern one for sale on Ebay, which I ordered. Finally, I decided I needed an OD one and bought one of those off of ebay.
Some of these have the US Army tape on them. One, the multicam one, came with paratrooper wings from the former and his name tape. I took the name tape off and the paratrooper wings. I'm not a paratrooper. The OD one came with a name tape, the U.S. Army tape, and two unit patches. I took everything off but the US Army tape.
For reasons that are silly, and I can't explain, I ended up ordering name tapes. I can now sew those on.
Why? I'm not sure. I don't need name tapes on old uniform items for any rational reason. Rather, I was required to do it back in the day, and I still feel like am now. Indeed, it would make a lot more sense to take the US Army patch off the OD one so I can use it for its intended purpose of regular daily wear.
Odd
Well, I found a M1943 replica on sale and ordered it. It won't have any patches.
I need to stop buying them.
As a further aside, a Carhartt coat is much warmer. My old one is pretty much blown out now. It was a gift from my wife and I've been resisting getting a new one, even though I need to. Guess I'm hoping for another one as a gift so that I don't have to buy it.
Back to occupational identities for a moment. It occured to me how, when I was young, men had much less of one. They genuinely seemed more well rounded than men do today
People always like to claim things were different, if not outright perfect, when they were young. But it does seem to me that genuinely men were quite family oriented. That meant that their professions and occupations were focused on providing for their families, but it also meant that their professions tended not to be all that they were, including to themselves. I can vaguely recall some men who were very career oriented being criticized for it.
Every man that I knew when I was young tended to almost be identified by a collection of interests. Medical professionals were often hunters and fishermen. Indeed, I don't know one who wasn't. Some were dramatically so. Men who had come into professions from farms and ranches tended to still be identified with their origin and retain some contacts with that life. I knew a fireman who was a pretty good amature geologist, another who was a car restorer, and another who was the first long distance runner I ever knew. More recently professionals, or at least lawyers, have almost become cartoons of themselves in some instances, only engaging in the law or perhaps one activity that's sort of socially approved for lawyers.
It isn't good.
Last Sunday I ran this item:
Pack Animals - the 🇩🇪 German Mountain Infantry Brigade
I knew that the Bundesheer has a mountain infantry brigade.
I've sometimes thought that if I had been born in Germany, which I'm very much glad I was not, I'd have opted for a career with this unit. Outdoors. . . animals, etc. By the same token, if I had been born French, there's the Chasseurs Alpins.
Hmmm. . .
Well, I didn't opt for a career with the Wyoming Game & Fish, so I'm probably just fooling myself.
Have a nice day at work.
Mehr Mensch sein,
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Sunday, May 20, 1945. Contracting in China.
Chocolate Drop Hill on Okinawa was taken by U.S. troops. The final fighting was in interconnected tunnels.
The 1st Marine Division captured Wana Ridge on Okinawa. Marines also conducted mopping up operations on Horseshoe and Half Moon using flamethrowers, resulting in a desperate Japanese counterattack that ends with 200 Japanese troops killed.
The US took Malaybalay on Mindanao.
The Japanese Army evacuated Hochih, China as the Imperial Japanese General Staff decided to deploy forces closer to the Japanese Home Islands.
The Japanese had secured enormous territorial gains in China with a just completed offensive, and yet there was a massive amount of China left, the same problem the Japanese had been faced with since 1932 when they first began to fight in the country. In many ways, for the Japanese, World War Two was principally about China, and now it was faced with the reality that being tied down there was contributing enormously to its losing in the war.
The Soviets appointed Soviet authorities appointed Dr. Arthur Werner as the Oberbergermeister of the Berlin. The appointment would be shortly confirmed by the Western Allies.
He was not a Communist and had not been a Nazi. An engineer, he had lost his teaching position in 1942.
Last edition:
Saturday, May 19, 1945. Landing in Syria and Lebanon.
Monday, May 19, 2025
Tuesday, May 19, 1925. Birthdays and a last game.
This is the birthday of Malcolm Little, known to history as Malcolm X.
I've discussed him to some extent here on this blog before, but I had neglected to enter him as a topic category until today. An extremely intelligent man and the son of a Baptist lay minister, he had undergone a continuing religious evolution and was a Muslim at the time of his murder. I suspect that, had he lived, he would have returned to Christianity.
It is also the birthday of Pol Pot
Pol Pot has featured on this blog a lot recently. Born Saloth Sâr the Cambodian Communist leader would go down in history as one of the greatest mass murderers of all time. Quite well educated, he became a Communist while studying in France after World War Two. He died in exile in 1998.
Casey Stengel played his last major league game.
Last edition:
Sunday, May 17, 1925. The canonization of Thérèse of Lisieux
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Sunday, May 17, 1925. The canonization of Thérèse of Lisieux
Thérèse of Lisieux was canonized. She had died in 1897, making her canonization remarkably quick.
Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians became the fifth baseball player to accomplish the feat of making 3,000 hits in his career.
Baseball pitcher Buster Ross of the Boston Red Sox set a still standing record, of committing four errors in a single game.
Last edition:
Saturday, May 16, 1925.
Thursday, May 15, 2025
Friday, May 15, 1925. Coolidge decides the Navy isn't a police force.
President Coolidge rejected prohibitionist Wayne Wheeler's plan to use the U.S. Navy to enforce the Volstead Act.
Coolidge believed the Navy was for national defense, not police duty.
Japanese editorials decried American plans to strengthen the naval base at Pearl Harbor.
Gen. Nelson A. Miles, famous for his role in the Indian Wars, and whose name was given to Miles City, Montana, died at age 85.
Last edition:
Tuesday, May 12, 1925. President Hindenburg and Prosecutor Bryan.
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Wednesday, May 14, 1975. Hmong evacuation.
Thousands of Hmong soldiers and officers and their families who had assisted the CIA during the Laotian Civil War, reported to the Long Chieng airbase in Laos for air evacuation. Only two cargo planes were assigned the duty, but they managed to take out 2,500 Hmong.
This brings back up the discussion here earlier of Ma Yang, a Hmong was deported by the U.S. to Laos even though she only speaks English and has lived in the US since she was eight months old. As far as I know, nothing has yet been done to address her plight.
Today is Hmong American Day in the United States, which is set on this day in recognition of the evacuation and ultimately that a population of the Hmong Diaspora relocated to the U.S. The largest population of Hmong live in China, which is actually where the ethnic group originates, with Vietnam having the second largest population.
Dalton Trumbo was presented an Academy Award for his 1956 script for The Brave Ones, which had been earlier awarded under a pseudonym due to Trumbo then being blacklisted.
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Dalton and Cleo Trumbo at a 1947 House Committee on UnAmerican Affairs hearing.
Trumbo actually was a Communist and pretty up front about it. 1973's Papillon was his last screenplay to be produced prior to his death in 1976.
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Related Threads:
Ma Yang
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Tuesday, May 13, 1975. Breakthrough at Long Tieng.
Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese troops broke through the defense lines of the Hmong army headquartered in Long Tieng, Laos, "the most secret place on earth." From that location, the Hmong has opposed the Pathet Lao and NVA.
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Jerry Daniels of the CIA organized an air evacuation of Vang Pao and about 2,000 Hmong, mostly soldiers and their families to Thailand.
Daniels is an interesting character who stayed on in Thailand after the conclusion of the Indochinese wars. He was claimed to to have died in 1982 due to asphyxiation from a water heater gas leak, but his casket was sealed with instructions not to open it. After his funeral in Montana, which was widely attended by Hmong refugees, various members of the Hmong community have claimed to have seen him in Indochina or the US.
Last edition:
Monday, May 12, 1975. The Mayaguez taken.
Saturday, May 3, 2025
2025 Elections In Other Countries.
February 24, 2025.
The Christian Democratic Union and the Bavarian Christian Social Union won the German election with about 29% of the vote. The AfD came in second, but underperformed. The overall breakdown of seats is as follows:
CDU/CSU 14,158,432 28.52 208
AfD 10,327,148 20.80 152
SPD 8,148,284 16.41 120
Greens 5,761,476 11.61 85
Die Linke 4,355,382 8.77 64
Others 2,273,817 4.58 1
BSW 2,468,670 4.97 0
FDP 2,148,878 4.33 0
The Social Democratic Party had been in power.
The government will be a coalition government with Friedrich Merz as the Chancellor. Like me, Merz is Catholic, a lawyer, and had served as an artilleryman.
March 10, 2025
Not really a popular election, but an internal party one in a parliamentary system, the Liberal Party of Canada has chosen Mark Carney to be head of its party and hence the new Prime Minster, replacing Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau had become deeply unpopular, but rallied the country nonetheless when Canada became the subject of economic attack due to the closeted autarkic policies of demented infant, Donny Trump. Trump, who has the brain of a two year old, took to insulting Trudeau repeatedly and now Canadians hate the United States. Carney is an economist who is well suited for the role of dealing with "but I learned this in the Classic Comics cartoon about William B. McKinley" approach to taxation being exhibited by Mango Mussolini.
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Carney also holds British and Irish citizenship, and in 2015 was declared the most influential Catholic in Britain. Both outgoing Trudeau and incoming Carney made it once again clear that Canada will not be entering the United States.
April 29, 2025.
Canada
The Liberal Party narrowly won a fourth term. It's unclear at the present time if they won a plurality or majority of the votes, but a plurality that's a near majority seems likely, which means they'll need the cooperation of minor parties, which they've gained in the past.
The result is a stunning reversal in fortune. The party's fortunes just several months ago made it appear that it was doomed to defeat, but Donald Trump's assisinne ramblings about annexing Canada as s state revived its fortunes as it's last premier, Justin Trudeau, resisted such calls and insults, and the current one, Mark Carney, stepped out aggressively against them and American tariffs.
May 3, 2025
Australia
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Australia's center-left government dramatically increased its majority after the conservative Liberal-National coalition suffered a major defeat.
Conservatives noted that Donald Trump's spastic bizarre example of the far right in the US helped boost the fortunes of the left, making this the second election in an English speaking country where that has occurred.
Last edition:
2024 Elections In Other Countries.
Thursday, May 1, 2025
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Wednesday, April 30, 1975. The Fall of Saigon.
Saigon fell to the NVA.
Gen. Dũng received orders from the Politburo to attack and take Saigon, which was surrounded except on approaches from the sea. Early in the morning NVA sappers tried to take the Newport Bridge but were repulsed by ARVN Airborne. An armored battle ensued, holding the bridge.
NVA armor then attacked Tan Son Nhut, which was defended by ARVN Rangers. An armored battle ensued there as well. A pitch battle broke out, but the NVA overcame the ARVN.
At 10:24 South Vietnamese President Minh surrendered unconditionally, although the ARVN continued to fight at the Newport Bridge, unaware of the surrender. They stopped fighting upon learning of the surrender.
The surrender was announced to the nation at 2:30.
I, General Duong Van Minh, president of the Saigon administration, appeal to the armed forces of the Republic of Vietnam to laydown their arms and surrender unconditionally to the forces of the Liberation Army of South Vietnam. Furthermore, I declare that the Saigon government is completely dissolved at all levels. From the Central government to the local governments must be handed over to the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam.
Duong Van Minh on the transcript written by Bùi Văn Tùng
This was followed by:
We, the representatives for the forces of the Liberation Army of South Vietnam, solemnly declare that the City of Saigon was completely liberated. We accepted the unconditional surrender of General Dương Văn Minh, the president of the Saigon administration.
Bùi Văn Tùng.
In the Mekong Delta, the ARVN actually fought on for a day thereafter. Upon learning of the unconditional surrendered, they abandoned the ARVN or surrendered to VC forces that they outnumbered.
ARVN generals Le Van Hung, 42, Tran Van Hai, 50, Le Nguyen Vy, 42, and Pham Van Phu, 46, committed suicide.
Brig Gen. Pham Duy Tat, the ARVN officer known for his hopelessly naive cheerful attitude in Ken Burn's documentary on the Vietnam War, survived but would serve 17 years in a Communist reeducation camp. Upon being released, he relocated to the United States, passing away in 2019.
ARVN generals, Le Van Hung, Tran Van Hai, Le Nguyen Vy, and Pham Van Phu, committed suicide.
Operation Frequent Wind concluded.
Over 7,000 people were evacuated.
Last Marines out. Both are wearing tropical combat uniforms which have been altered to be short sleeved, something never officially authorized. The one in front carries a M1 or M2 carbine in addition to his M16A1 rifle, probably an embassy weapon.
This date has been widely marked in Vietnam this year, as well as the Vietnamese Diaspora community in the US, which naturally view it differently. Celebrations have been taking place in Vietnam. Indeed, a rather odd video clip of young women, very contemporarily addressed, watching a parade in Hanoi in which the Chinese Army was participating, shows them yelling catcalls at the Chinese troops of Chinese PLA honor guards get catcalls of "老公，老公！" (husband, husband!).
I don't get it, but perhaps if a Vietnamese person stops in, they'll explain it.
Anyway, a momentous day in history, certainly for Vietnam, but also for the United States.
Sunday, April 27, 2025
Sunday, April 27, 1975. Big Minh takes charge.
Minh in 1964.
Duong Van Minh, "Big Minh" was unanimously elected as President of South Vietnam by the South Vietnamese National Assembly, and authorized to negotiate a peace agreement with the Viet Cong and with North Vietnam. "
Tran Van Huong refused to step aside as President, however.
A career Army office, Minh had joined the French Army early in World War Two and had been captured by the Japanese. He subsequently joined the French supported Vietnamese National Army and became aprionser of the Viet Minh. After the Paris Peace Accords he's advocated for Vietnam to be reunited as neither a right wing or Communist nation. He was regarded as a friendly South Vietnamese politician by the Communists and therefore was allowed to return to his villa after the South Vietnamese surrender, which he orchestrated. In 1983 he moved to France, and then in 1988 to the US. He remained silent about the war after the 1975 surrender.
He died in 2001, unlamented by the Vietnamese diaspora, who blamed him for the South Vietnamese surrender.
The NVA took Nam Yet Island, Ba Ria Town, and the entire Phuoc Tuy Province.
Last edition:
Saturday, April 26, 1975. The attack on Saigon begins.
Friday, April 27, 1945. Mussolini captured by Partisans, Second Austrian Republic comes into being.
Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were captured by partisans while attempting to cross into Switzerland.
The Red Army took Potsdam, Prenzlau, Angemunde and Tempelhof airfield.
US troops liberated Kaufering concentration camp.
The Western Allies rejected Himmler's peace offer for the Germans to lay down their arms in the west and sent a reminder that the German surrender was to be unconditional.
One of the interesting things here is that its not entirely clearly that the Western Allies understood the offer the way it was made. Theoretically, it might have been possible to accept the offer as a largescale troop surrender which, while it would have ended fighting in the west, it would not have ended the war against Germany.
The U.S. Fifth Army reached Genoa, Italy, which was mostly already liberated by Italian partisans.
SS architect Hans Schleif committed suicide at age 43. Schleif had been involved in removing cultural material from Poland, but he oddly never really seemed to be fully on board with the worst elements of Nazism. His death was probably needless, but he probably would have served time after the war.
Former Austrian chancellor Karl Renner set up a provisional government composed of Social Democrats, Christian Socialists, and Communists and proclaimed the reestablishment of Austria as a democratic republic. This became the Second Austrian Republic, which remains today.
US and Philippine forces commenced the Battle of Davao. US forces took Baguio.
U.S. troops firing a pack howitzer in the Philippines, April 27, 1945.
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