Labor Day, September 1, 1941. Marking Targets for Death and Labor Day Addresses.

It was Labor Day in the United States, falling of course on the first Monday in September.

On this Monday, the German government announced that all Jews within the confines of the territory controlled by it, at home or conquered, were required to wear yellow Stars of David.

German poster declaring that "Whoever wears this badge is an enemy of our people."

The barbarity of this action can hardly be imagined today.  It marked the wearer as somebody to be subject to public scorn merely for his religion, or ethnicity, and ultimately it would mark them for death.

The yellow badge seems to date as far back as the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate in the early 8th Century and have been subsequently revived and kept in force for centuries as a means of marking Jews living within the caliphates control.  Both Christians and Jews were subject to repressive religious laws within Muslim territories, and indeed in some Muslim countries today being an open Christian is extremely risky, and conversion from Islam, although widely occurring, illegal.  Clothing requirements were in fact expanded beyond this to include other features.

Having said that, the practice of requiring Jews, and Muslims, to wear distinct clothing also expanded to Christian countries by the 13th Century, although with a different concern in mind.  As has been dealt with here elsewhere, originally marriage did not require a Priest to officiate and could be privately contracted in a fairly informal manner.  There were concerns in the 1200s that Christians and non Christians were falling into sexual relations that gave rise to invalid marriages in a hasty fashion, and therefore clothing requirements were imposed so that couples in the heat of the moment might be aware that they were going where they couldn't legally go and contracting what would have been regarded as invalid marriages.

The Germans, of course, were readopting the practice in order to make the Jews despised "others".  It was resisted in some occupied areas, such as Denmark, where non Jews took up wearing them as well, and in occupied areas of Catholic Czechoslovakia the authorities had to ban hat tipping to those wearing them, where the residents had taken it up as a sign of respect to the victims.

On the same day, Leningrad came within German artillery range.

The Canadians began to accept enlistments for the Canadian Army Women's Corps.  Of note, the day prior the British had deployed women in mixed gender anti-aircraft units in the UK, a rare example of women in a Western Allied military having a combat role in the war.  

The United States assumed responsibility for Atlantic convoys from Newfoundland to Iceland.  This was undoubtedly an example of direct participation in the war, even though the United States had not yet declared war.

The Soviet Union murdered retired Estonian military commander Karl Parts.

Parts had served in the Imperial Russian Army but had gone over to his native Estonia upon its separation from Russia.  He'd served against the German Freikorps and the Reds there, but had retired in 1925 and was a farmer thereafter.  The Soviets took him into custody in 1940 when they invaded the country and then murdered him on this day.  He was 55 years old.

President Roosevelt delivered a Labor Day address in which he stated that American labor bore the responsibility of winning World War Two.

KYW-TV, the first US television station outside of New York City, went on the air in Philadelphia.  It's still on the air there. 

Ted Williams appeared on the cover of Life Magazine.

Cornell, Wisconsin, suffered a serious flood.

Oyster harvesting seasons commenced.

Thursday, September 1, 1921. Launchings

On this day the first "Super dreadnought" USS Washington, a battleship of the Colorado Class, was launched.

Jean Summers, daughter of Senator Summers, who did the honors.

She'd serve only three years and then be sunk as a target, due to the Washington Naval Treaty.

One heck of a waste of money.

The first Washington State Highway Patrol officers were sworn in. Their vehicles were, at first, Indian Motor Cycles.

Scenes of August. Michigan National Guard at Camp Grayling

 

Today In Wyoming's History: Casper College Western History Center: Archival Ne...

Today In Wyoming's History: Casper College Western History Center: Archival Ne...:  Casper College Western History Center:Archival Needs Assessment Report

Defeat In Afghanistan. How It Came About.

Flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

The pathetic blame game going on regarding the debacle in Afghanistan has me once again stunned, even though I really ought to know better.

My right wing friends were backing withdrawal from Afghanistan fully when Trump launched the current disgrace.  As soon as Biden started what Trump started, they switched to decrying what occurred.  The mess isn't praiseworthy by any means, but this exercise is really a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black.

Let's look at what really occurred leading up to this embarrassing American defeat.

Indeed, we'll go all the way back.

Afghan ambush during the First Anglo Afghan War.

• 1838. The British invade Afghanistan and install King Shah Shujah. The event is termed the First Anglo Afghan War.
• 1842.  King Shah Shujah assassinated and Afghanis rebel, driving the British from Afghanistan.

Horse artillery in the Second Anglo Afghan War.

• 1878  The Second Anglo Afghan War commences resulting in British control of Afghanistan's foreign affairs.
• 1919  Emire Amanullah Khan declares British protectorite status over.
• 1926 to 1929.  Amanullah attemptes to modernize the country, leading to his being driven from teh country.
• 1933  Zahir Shah becomes King of Afghanistan.
• 1953  Gen. Mohammed Daud becomes Prime Minister, turns the country towars the Soviet Union for economic and military aid, and introduces social reforms.
• 1963  Mohammed Daud forced to step down as Prime Minister
• 1964  The country becomes a constitutional monarchy.
• 1973.  Mohammed Daud seizes power in a coup and deposes the monarchy.
• 1978  Mohammed Daud is overthrown in a pro Soviet coup.
• 1978   An anti Communist insurrection begins.
• 1979.  The Soviet Union interevenes to keep the pro Communist government from falling.
• 1980  Babrak Karmal installed as Soviet backed ruler.
• 1980  Western powers, Pakistan, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia start aid the mujahideen.
• 1985  Half of the Afghani population is in exhile.
• 1989.  Red Army pulls out and communist government collapses, followed by civil war.
• 1996  The Taliban, represeting armed Islamic extremist, seize control of Kabul
• 1997  Pakistan, with strong Islamic leaning, and Saudi Arabia, which is also the domain of extreme Islamic sentiments, recongize the Taliban as the legitimate government.
• 1998. The United States, in retaliation for terrorist acts by Al Queada, hits Al Queda basis in Afghanistan with missile strikes
• 1999  The United Nations impose sanctions on Afghanistan due to its harboring Osama bin Laden.
• 2001  Afghanistan based Al Quaeda stages the Twin Towers attack on the the United States.

• 2001  The United States invades Afghanistan in October following air raids, but with limited forces.  The main US effort rapidly turns towards Iraq, which was not involved in the terrorist strike.
• 2001  In December Hamid Karzai is made president.
• 2002   The invasion becomes more substantial with the arrival of NATO forces.
• 2002  Deposed King Zahir Shah returns, but makes no claim to the throne.
• 2003.  NATO takes control of Kabul.
• 2005.  First Afghan election in 30 years.  Most of the seats in parliament are taken by warlords.
• 2006  NATO takes control of security from the United States for the entire country.
• 2007  Afghanistan threatens to intervene against the Taliban in Pakistan, which is harboring them.
• 2008  US increases troop strength by 4,500 men.
• 2009  US increases troop strength by 17,000 men.
• 2009 US troop strength brought up to 100,000 men for "the surge" but President Obama also declares the UW will withdrawal by 2011.
• 2010  The Netherlands pulls out of Afghanistan.
• 2010  NATO declares it will turn security of the country over to Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
• 2013 Afghan army takes control of security of the country from NATO.
• 2014  The United States and United Kingdom end their combat operations.
• 2015  The United States announces it will delay full withdrawal from the country at the request of the Afghan government.
• 2015.  The Afghan government and the Taliban hold informal peace talks.  The Taliban refuses to lay down its arms.
• 2015.  The Taliban briefly takes Kunduz.
• 2015.  President Obama announces that 9,800 US troops will remain in the country.
• 2015. A Taliban splinter group forms but is crushed by the main Taliban.
• 2015. The Afghan National Army defeats a Taliban effort to take Sangin, backed up by US air support.
• 2016  Pakistan forcibly repatriates Afghanis in Pakistan.
• 2016  US air strikes reverse Islamic State advances in eastern Afghanistan.
• 2016  President Obama indicates 8,400 US troops will remain and that NATO will also remain until 2020.
• 2016  The Taliban makes advances in Helmond province.
• 2016  The Islamic State captures Tora Bora.
• 2017  President Trump, contrary to campaign pledges, indicates US troop strength in Afghanistan will be increased to fight the Taliban.
• 2019.  The United States enters negations with the Taliban
• 2020  The Unites States enters into a peace agreement with the Taliban without hte participation of the Afghan government.
• 2020  President Trump, following his election defeat, indicates that he will withdraw from Afghanistan before the inauguration of President Biden.  It doesn't occur, but the wheels for withdrawal are set in motion.
• 2021.  In July, the United States withdraws from Bagram air base overnight.
• 2021  President Biden commits to withdraw Americans forces from Afghanistan by September 11.
• 2021.  In August the Afghan government collapses and its armed forces do as well, the Taliban take the country.

And so that's where we are now. 

Now, what to make of all of this, that's the question.

Well, to start off with, perhaps we can make some conclusions about Afghanistan itself.

This long history of the country, from an American prospective shows that the country has in fact little evolved from what it was at the time of the First Anglo Afghan War.  The country isn't a country, but a collection of tribes, not all of whom are ethnically related, living within a certain border.  It's more defined, in some ways, by what it isn't, than it is.

The Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group, but there are significant numbers of Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Nuristani, Aimak, Turkmen, and Balochs in the country as well.  Indeed, in the far north of the country the native population has a distinctively Asian appearance.  Genetically, if you will, all of these groups are represented as are the genes of those who came through and with the forces of the Mongols in the Middle Ages.  The only really common thread among all of these people are that they are all Islamic.

Now, people are going to be quick to blame Islam on the plight of the Afghans, but the biggest single thing impacting their situation is their extremely tribal nature, and tribal natures are always local.  In this fashion the Afghans resemble the Russian peasantry of the 1910s and 1920s, which overwhelmingly opposed the Communists, but only when they were in the neighborhood.  With no real national identify, Tajikes, for example, from the country's far north have very little desire to go to war against anyone in the far south of the country, but are perfectly willing to fight if people show up in their own valley.  Just as the Russian peasantry didn't like the Reds, almost all Afghans don't really like the Taliban, they just don't identify with any country and therefore so need to fight hundreds of miles away against somebody else.

And this is why, we'd note, the Afghan parliament was a failure.  It was simply a collection of warlords.

We don't need to go through every year from 1839 to the present date to see that, but we can touch upon the highlights.  Afghans always opposed the British presence in the country in the 19th Century, but they never supported their own governments either.  Those governments managed to persevere mostly because they were so weak.  You don't need to worry about a king in Kabul if he really doesn't impact your actual life in your own valley.  That became really evident, in the 1970s, when there was a real effort to form a real national government, with that government being a Communist one.

It's seemingly forgotten by us now, but Communism was a real force throughout the Middle East and Central Asia in the 1950s through the 1980s not because it was reveolutionary per se, but because it was modern.  It offered educated people something the politics of their own countries completely lacked, modernization.  We may, and should, look at the forced modernization of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s with horror, but to educated people living in Middle Eastern and Central Asian backwaters after World War Two, that looked good in comparison to tribalistic village societies.  And no wonder.  Building a dam, for example, for hydroelectric power and increased irrigation may look good to you if you are an engineer, but to a local poppy farmer who has complete domination over his wife and daughters and enough money from heroin to get by, it doesn't look nearly as appetizing.  

This has, we'd note, been the history of forced civilization throughout history, something we very oddly forget even though its the history of our own cultures.  The Romans didn't spread through Europe as they were handing out kittens and greeting cards.  They fought their way through against tribes that bitterly resented their presence. And those tribes weren't "freedom fighters" like we imagine today.  Boadicea's rebelling wasn't about the vote.  It was about keeping civilization out, tribal society in, and all that meant. And that always meant the same thing.  Tribal rights, which may have been very free at the local level, or may not have been, depending upon the culture, but which were violent and often, well weird.

And this is also why 19th Century Colonia endeavors frankly were much more realistic than modern "nation building" endeavors have been.  European countries, when they went into the distant regions of the globe, flatly accepted that the local cultures had no concept of more civilized values and that they had to be forced upon them. If that sounds brutal and racist, and both may be true, our current view has tended to be that the entire world is populated by Jeffersonian democrats, which is both naive and incredibly stupid.

And indeed, while we hate to admit anything of the sort, for the most part colonization was a success in terms of turning tribal societies into countries.  For the most part, European colonial enterprises didn't invade other countries to force them into empire, they invaded tribal regions to do that.  Even examples in Europe, such as when the Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland, provide that example in context. And that's why it was so late in the day before any country attempted to invade and conquer Ethiopia.  It was already a nation.

The key is, however, that for this sort of thing to really work, a long presence is an absolute given, and that presence will be nearly wholly unwelcome.  Vietnam, perhaps, provides a good example. The Vietnamese never wanted the French in Indochina, but by the early 20th Century it had gone from a collection of local tribes of various types to an area with a real national identify.  When nationalism really broke out as a fighting force in the 1940s, due to World War Two, the Vietnamese of all stripes could see themselves as a nation.  When the French first showed up, well, not so much. The same example, in the case of the French, could be given in regard to Algeria.  By 1945, Algerians could identify an Algeria, and their interest with Algeria.  In earlier eras, they were simply local tribesmen.

Afghanistan has never gotten there.  It's made up of local tribesmen.

Taliban flag.

Well, what about the Taliban. They aren't a tribe, now are they?

No, they aren't, although they incorporate Pashtoon norms, and ironically they represent a more modernizing force than their opposition, even though we dare not admire them or regard them as modern.

The Taliban is a Deobandi Islamist movement which seeks to impose a Sunni Deobandi Islamic rule upon the country governed by their interpretation of Sharai law.  Most of its members are Pashtuns and they were educated as students, which is what Talib means, in Pakistan for the most part.  Their movement incorporates Pashtoon social norms with Sharia law.

We noted them as a more "modernizing" force than simple warlordism, but we do not suggest to mean a fully modernizing one. Their goal is to impose Sharai law, in a harsh form, over the entire country. To the extent it's modernizing, it would be simply because it would be based on a unifying national principal, rather than the current Afghan norm of everything really being local and tribal.

But, that principal, provides its own problems, to say the least.

The Taliban has no desire to actually modernize the country in any form. Rather, what it wishes to do is to impose a strict theocracy on the country.  What it will do in the future can be predicted by the past.  Women stand to not only lose their political rights, for example, but to become completely subservient to men.  In essence, what the Taliban intends to do is to put Sharia law combined with the Pashtunwali, the Pashtun social code, into effect as the law of the law of the country.

Traditionally Afghanistan has not only been tribal, and regional, but not extremely strict in the application of Islam. Islam is the religion of the country, both culturally and legally, but a fairly lax variant of that. The Taliban will end that. And it'll suppress all regionalism.

Now, it's tried that before, which lead to a civil war in various part of the country against it. That will repeat as well.  So what the future holds for the country is a retrograde advancement in regard to individual rights, particularly those for women, and a suppression of regional power, which will lead to civil war. 

So, what conclusions can we draw from all of this:

• The Bush neoconservatives who thought that the United States could make the country into a western democracy overnight were naive in the extreme.
• The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's fundamental problem was tribalism and regionalism.
• The Islamic Republic, however, was making progress in forming a national army, as long as it was backed up by the United States.
• The Taliban isn't popular in the country as a whole.

In short, what the Bush neo cons failed to appreciate is that it was going to take a very long time to make Afghanistan into a modern country.  A country that has no national identity has to form one.  That would have taken at least an additional two decades from the two that have already passed.

Should we have undertaken to do that?

Well, here's the thing, if we weren't going to, we shouldn't have started trying.  We could have simply engaged in a punitive raid in the country and left it.  That would have left it to the Taliban, to be sure, but that's what we've now done after having had an influence on the country and its people for 20 years.  We've done the worst thing possible, which is to go half the way.

Back in 2001 when this was debated, I took the position we could just do a punitive raid, although I did that elsewhere, as this blog wasn't a thing yet.  I thought we should go in, get Al Queada, and leave.  But we didn't.  We didn't even fight the initial war wisely.  

But fight it we did. And at that point, we had an obligation to stay.  There was no excuse for leaving.

Sunday August 31, 1941. First British Convoy to Archangel arrives

 

The first British convoy to arrive at Archangel did so.  The convoy, which had departed Iceland ten days earlier, consisted of ten merchant ships and nine escorts.

Saturday, August 30, 1941. Far away places.

For various reasons, I missed putting up the Anglo Soviet invasion of Iran when it occurred.  It commenced on August 25, 1941.

Soviet cavalry meeting British tankette.

On this day, it concluded with a ceasefire. The country would be occupied by the British and the Soviets for the remainder of World War Two.

Russian T-26 tank in Iran.

The Iranian military did resist, but ineffectively. The country would be occupied by the British and the Soviets throughout the war, with the British withdrawing on time in March 1946 but the Soviets refusing to do so, citing security concerns.  A complaint to the United Nations from Iran on this became the first such complaint filed with that then newly founded body. The Soviets withdrew in May, 1946.

British troops inspecting a Soviet 26, Soviet soldier on deck of tank.

Ultimately Iran became an Allied power and declared war on Germany.  The US contributed to the forces in Iran during the occupation, which assuaged Iranian fears of being absorbed as a colony by the occupying powers.  The Soviets did sponsor Communist groups that did create problems for the Iranian government, so it cannot be claimed that the occupation was wholly benign.

The Soviets launched a major counterattack near Smolensk which was successful, as to its objectives, but which sustained high casualties. The Germans also sustained high casualties.

The British conducted the first of two small nighttime commando raids on the Pas-de-Calais.

Tuesday August 30, 1921. Private Warfare.

President Harding intervened in the West Virginia Coal Wars and declared that if miners did not disperse near Logan, where they were fighting a much smaller force led by a local sheriff but equipped with machine guns and aircraft, that he would deploy Federal troops to the area.

A battle did ensue that day when 75 miners led by Reverend John Wilburn probed the operators/sheriffs line, resulting in a confused small battle and several deaths.

The entire matter was a dispute between union and non-union miners, and the owners of the mine.  One badly wounded non-union miner was flatly executed by a union miner.

This is interesting in part as people who imagine that the past was better than current times often omit things like this.  It's impossible to imagine private warfare of this type today.

Friday August 29, 1941. Shifting sands

On this day in 1941, Charles Lindbergh at a rally of the American First Committee in Oklahoma City warned the audience that the United Kingdom might turn against the US "as she had turned against France and Finland". 

Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana.

Lindbergh was backed up by Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler who counseled that "If our interventionist want to free a country from the domination of another country, we ought to declare war on Great Britain and free India.  I have never seen such slavery as I saw in India a few years ago".

Wheeler was an outspoken left wing Democrat who had at one time crossed over to the Progressive Party and then back.  He opposed entry to the war right up until December 7, 1941 and was instrumental in the leaking of US plans to aid the British prior to the war, which went to press on December 4, 1941.  His isolationist stances caused him to suffer defeat in the first Montana election in which he was up after December 7, and he never returned to politics. A lawyer by training, he returned to practicing law and defended Max Lowenthal in front of the House Committee On Un American Affairs in the 1950s.  He's an example of how opposition to entry into the war was not, as sometimes imagined, politically uniform.

The rally itself was not well received by the public, and polls started increasingly swinging towards the Administration's interventionist policies.

Speaking of Finland, the Finns retook Viipuri.  Not forever of course, its Vyborg, Russia.

Flag for the city of Vybork, in the Leningrad Oblast.

The city did have a Finnish population at the time, but its entire population was evacuated in 1944 with the collapse of the Eastern Front.  It is, therefore, an example today of the massive population disruption brought on by the Second World War.

Finnish victory parade, August 31, 1941.

In Serbia, the puppet collaborationist Government of National Salvation commenced control of the country.

Vichy authorities arrested American journalist Varian Fry.  Fry was running an underground railroad effort helping Jews escape from France and to the United States, using Spain and Portugal as conduits.  He'd be expelled from the country.

Arthur McFadden became Australian Prime Minister in a coalition government.  He was a member of the minority Country Party.  The National Country Party, the "Nats" is a center right party that's strongest in rural areas and which has a focus on agrarian issues.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: First Baptist Church, Rock River, Wyoming.

Churches of the West: First Baptist Church, Rock River, Wyoming.: 

First Baptist Church, Rock River, Wyoming.

This is the First Baptist Church in Rock River, Wyoming.  The Baptist church in the tiny town was founded in 2010 and obviously used a commercial structure for its basic design.

Best Post of the Week of August 22, 2021

The best posts of the past week.

Really, there weren't any great ones and I'm tempted not to put this up at all, but here goes. . .

German Wehrmacht driving in to surrender near Prague (1945)

Ambition

Thursday,, August 28, 1941. The Office of Price Administration Created, Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Loses Favor, The Soviet Dunkirk, Slaughter at Kamianets-Podilsky

The Office of Price Administration was crated by the Roosevelt Administration to combat inflationary trends caused by the massive boost in employment caused by World War Two and the countries efforts to get ready for it.

Stalin issued  a Decree of Banishment exiling Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic which had previously been an ethnic German Soviet enclave.  

The VGASSR would be officially disestablished on September 7.  It'd been created in the 1920s when the Soviets still attempted o placate local ethnic groups on the hopes that they'd come to like the Communist regime. 

Volga Oblast in yellow at bottom of map.

The fate of Volga Germans, in the country since the time of Catherine the Great, proved to be grim. The war would permanently impact their position in the country and while conditions improved for them after the death of Stalin, many emigrated to Germany under the German Law of Return, a trend that reached near totality in the 1980s and 1990s.  By that time it had reached a state of pathos and irony in that the remaining Volga Germans retained much of their early rustic nature, while also having lost the ability to speak German to a very large degree.  Their retained cultural attributes tended to shock modern Germans, while their inability to speak the language of their ancestors made it difficult for them to fit seamlessly into modern Germany.

While his action is regarded as one of the great atrocities of the Stalin era, and the Soviets have since apologized for it, at least in this instance Stalin's paranoid brutality was not without some reason to fear that they'd become a fifth column during the war given that anti Communist sentiments were strong in various Soviet ethnic groups.  Having said that, large numbers of Volga Germans volunteered for Soviet service in the Red Army during the war, although their services were not always accepted or wanted.

Emigrating to North America, it should be noted, had been a trend in the region for decades, and was accelerated when the Imperial Russian Government in later years rescinded exemption for the population from conscription.  In an interesting development, resistance to conscription, which in some Anabaptist German communities in Imperial Russia lead to North American emigration, did not tend to repeat itself in North America.

Today in World War II History—August 28, 1941

The Soviet Navy suffered a serious disaster when it lost several ships to mines while evacuating Tallinn, Estonia, in what has been called the "Soviet Dunkirk".   The Germans occupied the city on this day.  Meanwhile, the Germans lost a U boat to capture in Iceland. The boat would be returned to service in the Royal Navy as the HMS Graph.

The Germans also slaughtered 23,600 Jews in Kamianets-Podilsky on this day, as their campaign of slaughter reached new regions in the Soviet Union.

Another reason to admire Bhutan.

It has a Gross National Happiness Commission.

And that's not a joke.  Its actual goal is to promote the happiness of the population, something that's written into the country's constitution.

Boston - Peace of Mind (Audio)

Ambition

Let others work and lose their health
In piling up the sordid wealth,
    But that is not my wish.
Let others burn the midnight oils,
Devising ways of grabbing spoils;
    I’d rather sit and fish.

Let others solve the problems great,
Affecting the affairs of state;
    None of that on my dish.
Let others hew the nation’s path
And bear the thankless public’s wrath,
    I’d rather sit and fish.

Let others lead the strenuous life
That’s full of worry, toil and strife,
    But that’s not my ambish.
Let others wear their lives away
By living five years every day;
    I’d rather sit and fish.

Roy K. Moulton, July 29, 1913

Topeka State Journal.

German Wehrmacht driving in to surrender near Prague (1945)

Really fascinating film clip of German troops surrendering in Prague at the end of the Second World War.

Some observations.

At 1:07, a US soldier can be seen with a C96 "broomhandle" Mauser pistol in a holster.  In a few scenes down the film, the same soldier requires a bunch of German officers to surrender their sidearms.

Overall, these German soldiers are heavily armed with small arms and are still under arms.

At 4:46 an American Lt. Col speaks with a German officer and his driver. The officer, and maybe the driver, have pulled the Nazi cap devices off of their caps.

The German troops are accompanied by a lot of women who are riding out with them.  As they are not in Germany, it'd be interesting to know the circumstances that caused the women to be rather obviously riding with them.

Tuesday, August 23, 1921. The pieces of the Ottoman Empire.

President Harding signed the New York Harbor bill into law.

I have utterly no idea what the statute did, but the photograph is of fairly high quality.

Faisal I bin Hussein bin al-Hashemi was crowned King of Iraq.  The kingdom was sort of a consolation prize for not getting Syria, and not a particularly good one.  In later years, he'd note that "this country is ungovernable."

In another part of the former Ottoman Empire, the Battle of Sakarya commenced in Turkey.  It would prove to be a long, and pivotal, battle in the Greco Turkish War, with the Turks ultimately prevailing three weeks later.

And a photographer took the following photo contrasting new and old two wheeled means of transportation.

Sunday Morning Scene: Wind City Church, Medicine Bow, Wyoming

Churches of the West: Wind City Church, Medicine Bow, Wyoming: 

Wind City Church, Medicine Bow, Wyoming

These photographs are of Wind City Church in Medicine Bow, Wyoming.  The church is a fundamentalist Christian church of the sola scriptura branch of Protestantism.  It opened in 2019.

Best Posts of the Week of August 15, 2021. The going down in defeat edition.

The best posts of the week of August 15, 2021.

A big week for defeat, nationally and personally.

Sunday August 15, 1971. The End of Bretton Woods

Defeat in Afghanistan

Afghanistan: What We Should Do.

Kabul airport

President Biden hasn't been in office long. . .

Not sending "American boys to (fill in bank) boys should do for themselves". The President's speech.

How we lost the war in Afghanistan

Ben Sasse on Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the situation in Afghanistan.

An answered prayer?

Tom Tugendhat speech on Afghanistan

Lex Anteinternet: An answered prayer?

Blog Mirror: Glacier Achieves Full Certification as International Dark Sky Park

This is good, I guess, but the fact that we have to certify someplace as a "dark sky" park is, quite frankly, sad beyond belief.

Glacier Achieves Full Certification as International Dark Sky Park

Lex Anteinternet: An answered prayer?

Keeping at, that is what's described here:

Lex Anteinternet: An answered prayer?: God does not come to free us from our ever present daily problems, but to free us from the real problem, which is the lack of love. This is ...

And today I get this in my Twitter feed:

Fr. Joseph Krupp

@Joeinblack

#talkedtotheboss He said when we find ourselves in a spot where we want Him to change our circumstances, we need to be open to the possibility that He’ll change us instead.

I'll admit, this is becoming disconcerting.

Still keeping at it, however.

Saturday August 20, 1921. Depictions of women.

 

Tom Tugendhat speech on Afghanistan

An answered prayer?

God does not come to free us from our ever present daily problems, but to free us from the real problem, which is the lack of love. This is the main cause of our personal, social, international and environmental ills  Thinking only of ourselves:  this is the father of all evils.

Pope Francis.

This is from Pope Francis' Twitter feed.

I don't know, really, what I think about Popes having Twitter feeds, but Pope Francis does.  This showed up yesterday when I checked Twitter, which is odd as I don't subscribe to Pope Francis' Twitter feed.

I'm hoping it's not, actually, an answer to a prayer.

A statement like this by a Pope is really too simple to be reduced to dogma and of course everything a Pope says isn't infallible.  Indeed, rarely does any Pope speak in that fashion.  But this item is oddly timed for me, as yesterday morning as I hiked to work I definitely said a prayer to be freed from one of my "ever present daily problems", maybe.

I'm not going to get into that, but there's something I'd very much like to receive a yes answer to in a prayer, and it's very much on my mind right now.  It's perhaps in the nature of irony, given that to some people what I'm praying about is to be relieved of a sort of gift in the first place, and I'm lucky to hold it.  This is one of the ironies of individual human natures, just because other people may be envious of something you have, do, can do, or just because you may be known for it, doesn't mean it's how that plays out inside your head.

I'm reminded here of actor William Holden, actually, who is an actor I really like. He was great in an entire host of films, and yet he didn't really like acting.  He must have at one time, but in later years he was incredibly blunt when asked about it and told interviewers he didn't like it and only did it as he had to pay the bills.

Or consider Blind Owl Wilson, the famous guitar player from Canned Heat.  Wilson was a musical genius, but he absolutely hated performing on stage.  His superb talent was contradictory to his nature, and ultimately he descended into drugs, which killed him.

Another example would be a college professor I had at UW who was a fantastic and interesting professor.  I enjoyed two of his classes greatly, upper class courses in a discipline I wasn't actually in.  He was frank, however, that he didn't enjoy what he was doing and actually cited a work we read about that a person could in fact be good at something they didn't like.  But for his mentioning it, you'd never have suspected anything, as he was so good at it.  I don't know if he ever prayed about it, as he was a praying man and was a co-religious, but irrespective of that he left UW to went on to an Ivy League school, so you can make of that what you will.

Or consider a lawyer I remotely knew here at one time who wanted to be a filmmaker.  He moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream and, a few years later, was back, dream unfulfilled.

There are other examples I can think of, the problem being with all of them is that they're all things like this, which shouldn't be taken as direct analogies on anything.  People who dream of excelling in athletics but who don't have the talent, people who write works of music or literature but can't get them performed.  People who live in one place, seemingly in daily contentment, but who desperately wish to live in another.

There must be an endless list of things like this.  Maybe every person has them.

God answers all prayers, but sometimes his answer is 'no'! And you may become upset because he said no. But open up your eyes and look around at the things he said yes to.

Jerome D. Williams.

I'm not completely certain that Pope Francis is correct in his statement about ever  present daily problems, even though I agree with him on the larger statement.  The problem I have with the Pope's statement is that for lots of people, their ever present daily problems are pretty big problems, from their prospective.  People destroy their lives, literally and figuratively, over problems that seem small to us.  Being a lawyer, not a year goes by that I don't read about a successful lawyer somewhere that hasn't descended into drink, drugs, or even death, due to his occupation.  "We didn't see it coming" will be the quotes from his friends and family even as they recount that the victim was working seven days a week, night and day.  They saw it coming, and they just chose to ignore it, probably figuring it was that person's obsessive personality or that it was "temporary".  Indeed, a lot of the very worst problems an individual may have been indeed highly temporary, and yet in their minds they're overarching.  "Just get this done, and we'll go on vacation".  "Just get through the annual accounting, and we can buy that boat".  Whatever.  To a person carrying by a burden of some sort, which maybe is uniquely a burden just to them, it's still a burden.

That's what leads me to question Pope Francis on this one.  I believe in prayer, and I've seen at least one example of what I'd regard as a miraculous comeback from illness by a very sick person, due to prayer, and I agree with Dr. Williams.  Sometimes the answer is no, for reasons that we can't understand and won't in this life.

All of which gets to a minor part of the "problem of evil".  Why would God invest a person with a strong desire to do something (we'll assume something moral, or at least morally neutral) and yet not allow them to actually do it?  Why would God allow a person to be afflicted with a strong desire to do something immoral?  We don't really know why, and perhaps in our own lives we can't really see it.  Maybe it's a sort of Mr. Holland's Opus sort of situation, where a persona's affliction turns into a great benefit for others.

Maybe that's the reason the answer is sometimes no.

All I know is that I can't watch Mr. Holland's Opus.  And I've started to have the same reaction to It's A Wonderful Life.  They're getting to personal, really, and I just might not like the message, valid message though it is.

Anyhow, synchronicity is one of those things that's difficult to explain.  Yesterday, as I hiked downtown (my car was in the shop) I prayed on a topic I've prayed on before, and I asked for it to be solved that day.  During the day sometime I checked my Twitter feed and there was the Tweet from Pope Francis whom, as noted, I don't subscribe to on Twitter.  So maybe my prayer was answered, but not in the way I wanted it to be.

Well, I'm only human and very flawed.  I'm praying for the same thing again today. 

The first act of extremist who come to power by force of arms. . .

 is usually to make sure they're the only ones who have them.

Taliban in Afghan Capital Kabul Start Collecting Weapons From Civilians

"We understand people kept weapons for personal safety. They can now feel safe. We are not here to harm innocent civilians"