Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Combat over the 1914 Christmas Truce.
December 26, 1914. Boxing Day.
The unofficial truce between the combatants, which by this point had spread to certain areas of the Eastern Front where the Austro Hungarian Army was present, continued into its third, and final, day.
No news of the truce had spread to newspapers as the reporting of the event had been suppressed, although that would soon change.
Last edition:
Christmas Day, 1914.
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Christmas Day, 1914.
The unofficial truce between German and British troops was widely observed with the troops mingling between the lines and playing soccer.
Elsewhere the war raged on.
Ottoman forces besieged Ardahan, held by the Russians. The Russians were ordered to withdraw from Sarikamish.
The Russians pushed the Polish Legion back at Łowczówek, Galicia, but their defense caused the Russians to halt further advances.
Aircraft of the Royal Navy raided Cuxhaven.
Last edition:
Thursday, December 24, 1914. The Christmas Truce.
Merry Christmas!
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Thursday, December 24, 1914. The Christmas Truce.
The unofficial Christmas Truce of 1914 commenced between German and British troops, both in Europe, and interestingly also in Africa. The Pope had called for one, but that had been rejected by the warring parties. The troops caused the truce on their own.
John Muir died in Los Angeles at age 76.
Last edition:
Tuesday, November 17, 1914. Strained resources.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Everything old could be new again: Letters of Marque and Reprisal
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
Train crew size

An interesting article in the Tribune today relates that railroads are petitioning to allow trains to have a single crewman.
It also related that at the end of World War Two, trains (by which I think they meant freight trains) had a crew of seven, which was down to five by the 1970s, and which is now down to two. Pretty remarkable change.
I guess in the fwiw category, while I don't doubt that a train could be manned by a single man, I think it a poor idea really, given the safety concerns that might give rise to in certain situations.
UW Foundation intent on cashing-in gift of Y Cross ranch
We've commented on this before, but an ongoing "boo hiss" is in order for the University of Wyoming on this one.
A Christmas Dinner for horses.
Monday, December 22, 2014
Lex Anteinternet: Shaving
Lex Anteinternet: Shaving:Bleh. . . I have to admit that recently shaving has been one of those daily tasks I'd gladly give up. I actually will skip it at least one day of the weekend, Saturday, and frequently I'll skip it on Sunday too. If I have a few days off, which I hardly ever do, I'll generally skip it then as well. I just don't like doing it first thing in the morning, and if I were retired, which I'm nowhere near being, and for which there's a fair chance I'll never be, I might just grow a short beard. This is particularly in mind this morning as I shaved on both days of the weekend, which I rarely do.
West Point Cadet shaving with a straight razor in the field. The
first thing I do every weekday, or at least every weekday that I work
Having said this, I'm increasingly surprised by the number of men who find it acceptable to pack a couple of days stubble during the workweek. It's really common. I was at a deposition the other day in which, for instances, one of the lawyers had on a suit and tie and about two days of beard growth.
An odd thing about that is how thin a lot of those beards are too. They're scraggly, in many instances. For a guy like me, with a really heavy beard, it's weird to see guys skipping a couple of days shaving to grow such thin beards, when if I did that, I'd look like a bear in short order. Looking back on photos of the hairy 19th Century, it makes me wonder where those guys were then, as it seems like everyone in that era could either grown a titanic beard or mustache.
At any rate, it's probably a sign of my age, but either grow a beard or don't. The scraggly two or three days of thin beard growth look just doesn't work.
Christmas in the Trenches: A unit Christmas Card from World War One.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Christmas Posters, World War One
Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Casper Wyoming
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Sunday, December 20, 1914. Champagne.
The French Fourth Army launched attacks from Artois and Champagne-Ardenne.
British Indian troops were dealt a setback by the Germans at Givenchy.
The Aurora arrived at Hobart, Tasmania, Australia to take on final stores before journeying to the Antarctic before proceeding to the same to set out a base for the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, still proceeding in spite of the outbreak of World War One.
Last edition:
Friday, December 18, 1914. Africa and the Great War.
Friday, December 19, 2014
Today In Wyoming's History: December 18 Updated.
2014. Nebraska and Oklahoma filed a petition with the United States Supreme Court seeking to have leave to sue Colorado on a Constitutional basis.regarding Colorado's state legalization of marijuana. The basis of their argument is that Colorado's action violates the United States Constitution by ignoring the supremacy nature of Federal provisions banning marijuana.
While an interesting argument, my guess is that this will fail, as the Colorado action, while flying in the face of Federal law, does exist in an atmosphere in which the Federal government has ceased enforcing the law itself.
Kill and eat. The deeply unnatural, and rather odd, nature of vegetarianism.
Of course, you can also hunt for your mean, in part or whole, which not only doesn't impact wildlands, but which has been demonstrated to be their most effective protector. Its hunters who have been the main drivers for the protection of any type of wildland, followed, in the United States, by ranchers who require what most people would regard as wiildlands, even if they don't, large acreages for grazing.
Moreover, the natural diet is the one that's best for you. That's the one you are evolved to eat.
On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!”Kill and eat. Not even close to what those who imagine themselves to be following in terms of Christianity in the context of vegetarianism, like to cite.
And of course Moslems also have a history of eating meat. I'm much less familiar with the tenants of Islam in this context, but basically Islamic practices and laws concerning diet are fairly similar to Jewish ones, with the addition that Moslems are not supposed to drink alcohol. Like the Jews, Moslems have a least one yearly observance with requires the slaughtering of a lamb, so the religion doesn't square with vegetarianism at all. However, being a faith that's much more centered in the non Westernized regions of the globe up until very recently, I also do not think I've ever heard anyone claim to be a Moslem vegetarian either.
Okay, so where does this take us, where, to here.
Well for one thing, the fact that there are so many vegetarians and even vegans says something about our society and the the times we live in, and not in a good way, for the most part. Societies that live close to nature live close to reality, and that a lot of people are electing for this deeply unnatural, and even anti-natural, diet shows how far from a sense of reality we now live. That a lot of these same people are very well meaning and also deeply believe that their acting in accordance with nature, or in accordance with some species of philosophical high mindedness, shows how badly we now fail to understand basic nature and have even a remote grasp on philosophical matters. This doesn't mean that these people are "bad" people, but it does mean that a huge number of these people are acting in accordance with a set of beliefs that can only exist if a person has very little exposure to the natural order and even a misconstruction of it, with some certain exceptions existing for people who have taken this up for other thought out reasons.
Additionally, a set of summations about this can be made, those being:
1. Be a vegetarian if you wish, but don't fool yourself that its an ethically superior choice, or an environmentally benign one. It's neither, save for the sole example of somebody giving up meat as a species of intentional moral self sacrifice, which is very rare in this day and age. But even at that, unless that sacrifice is based in religion, it isn't really going towards any point.
2. Don't fool yourself that its the healthiest choice going. Reason would stand to dictate that the diet you should eat is the one you are evolved to eat, and that's not a vegetarian diet by any stretch of the imagination. Don't make false comparisons here either, and note that a diet of Big Macs isn't good for you. Of course it isn't, but two unnatural choices doesn't mean that those are the only choices that exist.
3. Let's not pretend that its the "natural" diet, that's a western world hallucination only capable of being believed in a highly industrialized society that can supply protein in some other fashion. Nowhere else is that fantasy believed and its scientifically invalid.
4. Don't argue that its religiously mandated by religions of antiquity, that just isn't so and any argument to that effect is demonstrably false.
Does this mean you shouldn't be a vegetarian? Well, frankly it does. As a diet its not supported by our evolution and that pretty much means you're having to make huge adjustments somewhere. Does that mean you ought to eat bacon burgers three times a day? Of course not, that's not supported by our evolution either. It does mean that the folks in the western world who take some of their own meat in the field or streams, and there are those who take all of their meat that way, are dieting closest to what nature would have for us, but it otherwise means that a person ought to simply use their heads a bit and not buy into dietary fantasy, something that's particularly common in our flighty and overweight society. Perhaps it would be simply best if people bought a fly rod or a shotgun and headed out to the field every now and then.
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*One of the most amusing, or maddening, arguments made by vegetarians is that every single historical figure of consequence was a vegetarian. This sort of argument is actually common for any sort of social movement, which is what vegetarianism really is, and they all tend to go back towards figures of antiquity on occasion as the further back you go, the more difficult any assertion you might make is to disprove. Rarely are the claims for any one person analyzed in depth. For example, I've seen it cited for Benjamin Franklin, but its rarely noted that he switched back and forth on his diet over time making him inconsistent in these regards, and as brilliant of man as he was, he also had other practices most of us wouldn't feel that we were compelled to take up. And in this instance, the most famous of all modern vegetarians, the gassy murderous Adolph Hitler, is always omitted, which he should not be as, after all, he's a really well known example whose habits are very well known.
**Most westerners have real misunderstanding of religions of the East and frequently misunderstand their basic tenants. For one thing, a lot of westerners don't grasp that monotheistic religions are as common in the East as any others and that a person can't really discuss Eastern religions without including them. For example, there are Catholic populations in Indian that date to the Apostolic age and Christians are quite numerous in South Korea and China, and of course the Philippines, where they are the majority. Islam is a major Asian religion in China, Central Asia, Indonesia, the Philippines and parts of Southeast Asia. Animist religions, based on the worship of departed souls, is common in much of China and Korea, and retains a following in Japan. In Korea, Japan and China, that type of devotion far exceeds the number of people who adhere to Buddhism and none of those countries can be regarded as "Buddhist". Buddhism itself, being sort of a philosophy in certain ways, sometimes accommodates itself to other native religions so that there are people who combine an animist religion with it. The mainland Southeast Asian countries are, or were, Buddhist, but all of them have had significant Christian or Moslem minorities for a very long time. The nature and practice of Buddhism itself is often quite misunderstood in the west, and its rarely grasped that it was a reform of Hinduism.
***I do realize in typing this out that there are some contemporary Monotheistic religions that hold to vegetarianism as part of their beliefs, but none of them date to antiquity. Some that are sometimes cited as being vegetarians are, additionally, not although some of their members may be as a form of observance, which is once again different from the practice being a tenant of their Faith.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Hollywood lets North Korea win.
We know know that the childish Stalinist theme park, the North Korean Clown College Republic, was responsible for the recent hack of Sony
I haven' frankly followed this much, as I don't care about Hollywood's secrets. But I do agree its bad that a government is targeting an American business, although if you have to be targeted by anyone, a government that's clearly not long for this world and which will fall relatively soon, leaving a reluctant South Korea to fix things, is the one you want to be targetd by.
Anyhow, for all it likes to pretend to be on the forfront of everythign, the movie industry proved to be real chickens here. The hack turns out to be because North Korea can't stand to be the target of a joke, even though, it should realize, the country itself is a pathetic international joke. Mad at the Dear Leader being the target of satire, it went after Sony, who made the film. Sony's now pulled the film, after certain chain theaters indicated that they wouldn't show it out of fear that North Korea would target them.
Well, so North Korea wins and looks like a serious international pirate.
Some day soon I'm fairly certain that China will make a Godfather like deal with South Korea. That deal will basically be something like this. China will suggest to South Korea that if it invites the U.S. military to go home, China will take care of the North Korean government, which will then go into retirement, and the border will open. My guess is that this will happen in less than five years, and certainly no more than ten. An advancing China doesn't want an embarrassing Stalinist reminder next door, Russia doesn't want a reminder of what Communism in its infancy was really like, South Korea doesn't want a dangerous neighbor constantly threatening it, and truth be know the U.S. would just as soon go home.
In the meantime, the cutting edge movie industry has thrown North Korea a bone. It shouldn't have.
Restoring Diplomatic Relations with Cuba
And with the People's Republic of China.
Shoot, up until just after Pearl Harbor, we also did with Nazi Germany.
And we had them with the USSR from 1933 until the USSR collapsed in 1990.
So, it's about time we had renewed relations with Cuba.
Not because we think Cuba's government is nifty, but rather because we don't like it.
We broke relations with Cuba when Fidel Castro, whom we edged up on liking beforehand, declared himself and Cuba to be Communist. At the same time, we imposed a trade embargo on the country. The thought was that isolating the country like that might bring it back around.
Well, it hasn't worked and there's no sign that its going to. But it has made dealing with our little Communist neighbor difficult and its brought about a lot of misery for people who have cross border affairs between our nations.
Time that the relations be reestablished. And for that matter, the trade embargo should go as well. Chances are a lot better that an increased stream of American tourists and money will operate to undercut the isolated nation's Communist government a lot better than the ongoing shunning has been.
Now, I know that this will upset some, but these appear to be the incontestable facts of the matter. And continuing to lack diplomatic relations only serves to hurt U.S. interests on the island and to boost the respective interests of other nations.
And lifting the trade embargo would allow free trade between the US and Cuba to the benefit of both nations's people. That would seem to benefit the Cuban government as well, but chances are it really would not. If we seek to have Cuba change its government and liberalize, the best way to do that is increase U.S. tourism and trade to the island, which will boost the economic fortunes of the average Cuban. Once that occurs, they're going to want to exercise some freedom and will pressure their government into reform The reasons would be fairly simple, and while such arguments are not fool proof, the increased money in the hands of average Cubans, and the increased exposure to a society that lives with rights that benefit the citizens, will lead to the means and increased desire on the part of Cubans to have their own government reform.
That desire is already there, but the iron fist to the Castroist regime keeps the country from opening up. The general example from Communist countries is that the support for Communism is nearly always remarkably thin, and once the population has some means and independence, it begins to desire more. That hasn't worked, yet, everywhere. China doesn't have a democratic government yet, and neither does Vietnam, but they seem to be getting dragged by their populations that way. Cuba, which never really had a Communist movement comparable to that of Vietnam or China has a western population that's been constantly exposed to the United States by way of its close proximity to us, and to other western nations by way of tourism. Chances are high that progress would occur there much more rapidly.
Friday, December 18, 1914. Africa and the Great War.
German colonial troops took Naulila, Portuguese Angola.
The Sultanate of Egypt became a British protectorate.
Last edition:
Wednesday, December 16, 1914. Battle of Kolubara concludes. The Scarsborough Raid.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Wednesday, December 16, 1914. Battle of Kolubara concludes. The Scarsborough Raid.
Serbia prevailed in the Battle of Kolubara with the Austro Hungarians suffering 225,000 casualties, including 30,000 killed, 173,000 wounded and 70,000 taken prisoner, including 200 officers, and the Serbians losing h 22,000 killed, 91,000 wounded and 19,000 missing or captured.
Some Germans had to be wondering why they'd gone to war for Austro Hungary.
The Imperial German Navy raided the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby causing hundreds of civilian casualties.
The British were enraged against the Germans for the raid, and the Royal Navy for failing to prevent it.
Last edition: