Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Sunday, November 1, 1942. Excapes


Japan's Ministry of Colonial Affairs ceased to exist, its functions going to the Ministry of Greater East Asia.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—November 1, 1942: US War Department designates Japanese aircraft with human names, initially with male names for fighters and female for all others.

This came about later than I'd realized.  She has a set of playing cards depicting Japanese aircraft up on her blog as well.

She also notes:

 US ceases production of liquor—warehouses contain a four-year stock.

I was completely unaware of that.  Note that this pertains to hard alcohol, not beer.

Films produced in this era routinely show casual drinking, which would at least suggest it was relatively common, and at least personal recollections I've heard suggest that very much was at the time.  The cessation of production should have had no immediate effect on prices for anything aged, which would have been most hard alcohols.

Alcohol had only become legal, once again, in 1932, and even then it was readily available, as some later depictions suggest.  Prohibition had a devastating impact on the production of Rye, which had predominated the quality American production prior to 1919 and which has never really fully recovered.

The Marines launched the Matanikau Offensive on Guadalcanal.  It would run for four days and secure Koli Point.

The Germans took Alagir in North Ossetia, in the USSR.

Four German sailors broke out of Fort Stanton, New Mexico. They'd soon be captured by a mounted posse, during which one of them was wounded.

Portugal held elections, but as it was a one party state, the victory of the National Union Party was somewhat foreordained.

Pornographer Larry Flynt, who was responsible for Hustler magazine, was born on this day.  Huslter followed in the wake of Playboy and Penthouse, and was cruder than either two, that avenue having been opened up for glossy smut due to Playboy.

It was the Solemnity of All Saints, as it is now, which is a Catholic Holy Day of Obligation.  Given as this one fell on a Sunday, there would have been no requirement for attendance at an extra Mass for Catholics on this week in 1942.

Wednesday, November 1, 1922. Endings

The Turkish Grand National Assembly declared the Ottoman Empire abolished.  It also ended Constantinople's status as the capital city.

Mehmed VI going into exile.

This ended Mehmed VI's status as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, but did not his status as caliph, among other things the head of the imperial family.  He'd hold that position until November 19 when his cousin Abdulmejid Efendi was elected caliph, which he'd hold for two years, upon which time the Assembly would abolish the Caliphate.

Mehmed protested the removal of his position as caliph, effectively a claim to lead the Islamic world, which he declared he had not intended to resign.  The destruction of the Ottoman Empire during the war had effectively eliminated Turkey's claim to occupy that position as a political entity.

He'd spend his exile in Malta and then later in Italy.

Mexican General Francisco R. Murguia, age 49, was executed for attempting a rebellion against President Alvaro Obregon.  Mexican forces had captured him the day prior.

A village in Mexico is now named after him.

Courthouses of the West: Vote No on the Proposed Amendment B to the Wyoming Constitution

Courthouses of the West: Vote No on the Proposed Amendment B to the Wyoming...

Vote No on the Proposed Amendment B to the Wyoming Constitution.


Let's get political for a second.

Oh no, you are likely thinking, isn't this blog dedicated to architecture and the like? Sure, it crosses over into the law itself, from time to time, but . . . 

Well, yes, we're departing from our normal programming to bring you this public service announcement.

And in doing so, I'll note, I'm typing this just a couple of days out of the hospital, too beat up from surgery to go back into the office yet.  

More on that later.

On November 8th when you go to the polls, you will be voting on Constitutional Amendment B, which would increase the mandatory retirement age of Wyoming Supreme Court justices and District Court judges from 70 to 75.  Circuit Court judges are not subject to a mandatory retirement age, oddly.

The Wyoming State Bar doesn't have an official position on it, but it's pretty clear that its unofficial position is vote yes.  The Chief Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court, who can openly come out on such matters, has, and her position is yes.

Vote No.

First, let's look at some material just released by the Wyoming State Bar.

Okay, there you have it.

Now, before we go on, let's note that the average Wyomingite is 38 years old, and that Wyoming is an "old" state.  So, even as a state whose population is routinely analyzed as getting older and older, it's still less than 40 years of age.

Keep that in mind.

So the arguments in favor of raising the judicial retirement age?  Well, as we all know, all Americans live free of bodily defect brought on by age, illness, or decline in mental faculties until they're 102 years old.

Right?

Not hardly.

Back the above reference to the hospital

This was my view for the last week.  It's a view of the mountain, between the parking garage and an administrative building belonging to the hospital.

I took the photo from here.

I'm out now.

I was in as I had a robotic right colectomy.  In other words, I had a large (very large) polyp in my large intestine that had to be removed.  I learned this was there when I went in for a colonoscopy. This was the following surgery.

This turned out to be a bigger deal. . . a much bigger deal, than I wanted to admit it was.  In my mind, I wanted to pretend that it would be in and out, or at least I'd be out by Friday.  Nope.  I did get out on Saturday, but I'm feeling rather beat up, and it's clear that it's going to take several days to get back to normal.

Army with two IV hookups.  I had two, as I was so dehydrated when I came in, they had a very difficult time finding my veins.

I am on the mend now, however.

I ignored the current advice, which is to go in for a scope at age 50.  You really should, and my failure to do so caused me to end up with this, probably. If I hadn't had this, I probably would have died from this right about the same time my father died from something sort of related, if not perfectly related.  So my life has probably been extended by modern medicine, just like the State Bar notes has generally been the case society wide.

So the State Bar is right, right?

Well, only so far as people now "live longer" as things like colon cancer don't go undetected as much as they once did, so people tend not to die of them. We don't even think of death's like that as natural deaths, whereas at one time, we pretty much did. There's a reason, after all, that in the Middle Ages people prayed for "good deaths".  Dying from colon cancer isn't a good death.

But living a "long", by historical standards, life doesn't mean living one free of deterioration of some sort.  It's been often noted that in recent decades the incidents of dementia have been increasing, with seemingly little public understanding that the reason for this is tied directly to longer lives.  Probably the incidents of cirrhosis of the liver have increased markedly since the Middle Ages as well, in spite of the huge amount of alcohol consumed at the time, for the simple fact that if you die when you are 40 years old you aren't likely to die by that means, in spite of your diet, as compared to its impact as you age past that point.  Lavran is well portrayed as aged at the time of his death in Kristin Lavransdatter when he's probably not even 50, or just over it.  Kristin is probably right about 50 when she dies.  The book is a fictional work, of course, but an extraordinarily well researched novel. It catches that earlier era well.

Put another way, by extending the retirement ages of lawyers up, we're guaranteeing that the percentage of them that experience mental decline while in office also goes up.  There's no doubt about it.

We're also guaranteeing that the average age of jurists will incline upwards, and their years on the bench will extend.

I've already noted that the median age in Wyoming is 38 years old.  Anyone in business of any kind knows that the post Baby Boom generations, Gen, X, Gen Y, the Millennials, and Generation Jones, do not have the same views and attitudes that Baby Boomers do.  For some period of time, Boomers expressed some contempt of that fact in regard to younger generations, and in more recent years younger generations have expressed contempt back.  Perhaps missed in all of this is that younger generations have had a much harder time with much more limited resources than the Boomers have, with that generation being the most privileged in American history.  This is not to pit one generation against another, but rather to point out that a person presiding in judgement over another ought to at least have some appreciation of where that younger person is coming from and what their experiences have been.

Indeed, here's where the points made by the Bar's information sheet actually cut the other way.  It notes:
By 2030, 9.5% of the civilian labor force is projected to be older than 65.

Citing for authority, the following:

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Number of people 75 and older in the labor force is expected to grow 96.5 percent by 2030 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2021/number-of-people-75-and-older-in-the-labor-force-is-expected-to-grow-96-5-percent-by-2030.htm (visited June 06, 2022).

We'd note at first, that's not necessarily a good thing.  That we've now returned to a condition in which the elderly have to keep working isn't a sign of a healthy economic environment, bur rather potentially the opposite. The population of the elderly working increasing society wide may mean they have to, not that they want to.  

And beyond that, these are figures for the US as a whole, not Wyoming in particular.

Be that as it may, even on its face, it means that over 90% of the workforce, is age 65 or younger.

The Bar's sheet also unintentionally pointed out by something additionally cuts the other way:
Mandatory judicial retirement at age 70 has resulted in the loss of many eminently qualified Justices and Judges in Wyoming, including Justice Michael K. Davis, Justice Michael Golden, Judge Timothy Day, and Judge Thomas Sullins to name a few. If the mandatory retirement age were extended, not only could these members of the judiciary continue to meaningfully contribute to the law in Wyoming, longer service would also result in a net savings for the State.
First of all, these individuals were not "lost", they're all still living.   While not mentioned in this list (which must be sort of deflating to them), I can easily think of four retired judges who are now mediators and arbitrators, at least one of whom is heavily called upon in that role. So, rather than losing them, we simply employed them, or they chose to employ themselves, in another role.

Additionally, each one of these jurists had a seat which was not abandoned, but occupied by a younger lawyer.  At least one of the individuals mentioned retired years ago, and his replacement is now long serving.  Why are we suggesting that he's some sort of flop?  That is exactly, however, what this suggests, untrue though it would be.

Additionally, like to say, of course, that we're a nation of laws, not of men, but those laws are filtered through the experiences and eyes of men, no matter how a person might wish to believe it.  The economic concerns, for example, of average Americans in their late 20s in the 2020s, who push marriage off for financial considerations, who have lived with their parents longer than any generation since World War Two, and whose attachment to careers are less stable, as the careers themselves are less stable, are considerably different than those for people who came of age in the 70s, when simply having a college degree meant while collar employment.

Experience, of course, counts, as we often here, but so does over experience.  Staying in a place, including an occupation, too long will bring about some sort of stagnation.  This is true in all things.  Spots coaching, where a sort of rough rule of the jungle applies, provides an interesting example. Like the law, the occupation exist geared toward producing a definitive result, so perhaps it's analogous in more ways than one.

In the NFL, for example, the same being an institution which Americans regard as sacrosanct, the two oldest coaches are 70 years of age, before the ages all drop down to less than 65.  The tenth-oldest coach is only 54.  Only one MLB manager is over 70 years of age.  The oldest NBA coach is 73, but in second position is one that's 65.

Another example might be the military, with it sometimes being noted that some aspects of the law are in fact substitutes for private warfare.  For officers, the most analogous group, the following is provided:

CHAPTER 63—RETIREMENT FOR AGE

Sec.1251.Age 62: regular commissioned officers in grades below general and flag officer grades; exceptions. 
1252.Age 64: permanent professors at academies. 
1253.Age 64: regular commissioned officers in general and flag officer grades; exception. 
1263.Age 62: warrant officers..
62 years of age, with exceptions up to 64.

Finally, we might also wish to note, the cost of passing this amendment is opportunity costs, in terms of lost opportunities, for the profession.  Recent appointees to the bench have been relatively young, often being in their 40s if in their 40s.  These individuals will already occupy these positions for up to three decades, meaning that they will fill them to the exclusion of other, also qualified, individuals.  While some may be great judges, we can never hope for that, and if most judges are adequate judges we are doing well.  What we do know, however, is that some great judges will never get to be that, as their chance will be taken up by the aged.  Lawyers who in their late 40s and early 50s still have a chance of being judges will lose that chance as occupants of the bench stay on, with everyone knowing that no matter how respected a lawyer may be, nobody is going to choose them for a judicial position after they are in their late 50s.

The one and only reason, therefore, to pass this amendment is the cost savings one noted by the State Bar, but that's a bad reason.  It reduces this, like so many other things in American life, to dollars and cents to serve economic interests alone.  The logical extension of it is simply to discourage retirement in general, something the larger American society in fact already does.

Vote no on Amendment B.

Monday, October 31, 2022

The Agony of being a Catholic Voter in 2022



Catholics, according to the Church, are obligated to vote, and to do so in an informed manner.

And, I'll add to that, those who like to say that religion should stay out of politics are grossly misinformed, at least to the extent they mean that religion should be held personally and not influence a person's vote.  A truly held set of religious beliefs ought to inform everything a person does.

This year is simply agonizing for the well-informed, thoughtful, Catholic voter.

In my area, where I will vote, two women contest for the position of Congressman.

The Republican expresses pro-life views, and views which suggest that she holds traditional views on the definition of marriage, two positions which are taken very seriously, even definitively so, by serious Catholics.

She also holds a mix of conservative views on various other issues, some of which I agree with, and some of which I do not, but none of which are moral issues, or at least not closely so.

The Democrat holds pro abortion and "progressive"  views on the definition of marriage, and a host of other liberal views, some of which I agree with, and some of which I do not, but none of which are moral issues, or at least not closely so.

So, no dilemma, in weighing the voting scale, eh?

Well, the Republican has also expressed the view that the election was stolen, and her entire campaign was basically a stab in the back on the incumbent who stood by principals.  In order to advance her campaign, she went from doubts, to being certain of election theft, and is now expressing views regarding the current administration which might charitably be described as nutty, even going so far as to suggest that inflation is a Democratic plot designed to bring about a liberal "Utopia".  If I'm to take her asserted positions as actually held, it would mean she's believing in wild flights of dangerous fantasy, thereby making her a scary potential office holder.  If I am to assume that they're taken for the purpose of being elected, she's lying and an enemy of democracy.

And there are no viable third party choices, really.  One is from the far right, and the other from the Libertarian Party.

The far right candidate, running on the Constitutional Party ticket, is probably every bit as far right as the Republican, but with a very obvious Protestant Evangelical bent to her campaign.  She doesn't say the vile things that the Republican does, and to the extent that her positions sound nutty, they sound nutty in the way that a position expressed by a person with little experience in the world and little education might voice them.  Innocently, in other words.

Maybe I haven't listened enough to her, however.  Frankly, I've disregarded her all along as a candidate that will obviously make no impact in the current election. (I subsequently listed to the debate she was in, and it's relatively clear that she's in the "coup didn't happen camp", although as noted, she probably genuinely feels that way, as opposed to Hageman, whom may not).

The Libertarian is a Libertarian, and there's no point in even going there.

A person could protest vote for the Constitutional Party candidate, but that's all it would be, a protest.  But then, in order to make that protest, a person ought to know what she really believes.  Perhaps I should go back and listed to her in the recent debate, which the GOP candidate skipped out on.

The only realistic hope of defeating the candidate that's either lying or coming off the rails is to vote for the Democrat, which is voting for a position which is normally gravely morally objectionable.

And then we have the Secretary of State's office, where a co-religious is running unopposed based on a stolen election theory along and is otherwise not a candidate which I'd prefer to consider.  A protest is surely mandated there, but it'll have to be a write-in protest.

And so the state's politics have come to this.  It feels like being a German going to the polls in 1932.

Some observations on being sick/injured

Lex Anteinternet: On the sick list.: This has been my view for the past several days.  It's a view of the mountain, between the parking garage and an administrative building...

Some random observations.

Daytime television is truly horrific.

Having a "lazy Sunday" or "lazy weekend", i.e., one which you spend all around the house (which I almost never do) is no fun at all if it's enforced on you.  I.e., you are there, as you have no choice.  It's only fun, if you have the option not to do it. 

It's hard to be sick, and be a professional.  I.e., occupy a profession.  Your obligations do not cease.

I'm sure that's true of all self-employed as well.  If I have to go out and harvest a field, well, I have to.

Saturday, October 31, 1942. False assumptions.

Hitler moved his headquarters from Werwolf in Ukraine back to the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia (now part of Poland) confident that Stalingrad would soon fall.

By I, Dennis Nilsson, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2916843

Hitler seemed oddly possessed of the notion that his physical presence close to the front served the Nazi war effort, whereas the Allied leaders generally governed from their capital cities, with certain exceptions from time to time.

Hitler's HQ's also demonstrated an odd fascination with wolves, which are native to Germany but which had been extirpated by the 1940s. They returned to Germany only in recent years.

The Luftwaffe hit Canterbury in their largest raid on England since the Blitz.  However, as Sara Sundin notes on her blog, their efforts were hampered by barrage balloons. During the raid, famous German fighter pilot Paul Galland, brother of the more famous Adolf Galland, was shot down while flying a FW190 by Spitfires.

White Christmas by Bing Crosby took the number one position on Billboard's singles chart.

In spite of the Christmas themed song on the charts, it was Halloween.  In the U.S. kids were out trick or treating, but on coastal cities, for the first time, that was during the day, due to blackouts at night.

Tuesday, October 31, 1922. Mussolini takes office.

Mussolini officially took office as the Prime Minister of Italy on this day in 1922.

Parades commemorating the event by current fascists took place in Italy yesterday.  As earlier noted here, the current Prime Minister is a member of a political party with fascist roots, although she maintains that she is not a fascist herself.

The Trial of Six commenced in Greece, in which the trial of the defeated heads of the late war effort against Turkey would be held, leading to their execution.  It was effectively a political trial for the crime of losing the war.

It was, of course, Halloween.

Something interesting to note.

 


Troops of the 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division going up the bluff at the E-1 draw in the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach, Normandy, on June 7, 1944.

The first three soldiers, and the seventh and eighth, are carrying M1903 Springfield bolt action rifles.  The fourth's weapon isn't visible at all, and if he's carrying one, it's probably a sidearm.  The fifth one is carrying an M1 carbine, as is the sixth and seventh.

These men have the appearance of being infantrymen, but the lack of M1 Garands suggests they might be combat engineers. At any rate, this photo nicely illustrates how prevalent the M1903 still was during World War Two.

The second man was 18 years old Pvt Vincent Mullen, who would be killed in action a few days after this photograph was taken.

Why on earth would this be surprising in any fashion?

 Regarding a set of Neanderthal remains found in Siberia:

When Skov started comparing the genomes from Chagyrskaya, he got the surprise of his career. Two individuals, an adult male and a teenage female, shared half of their DNA, a situation that could occur only if they were siblings or a parent and child. To determine the relationship, the researchers examined mitochondrial DNA — which is maternally inherited and would therefore be identical between siblings and between a mother and child, but not between a father and child. This differed between the male and female, suggesting that they were father and daughter.

This is a huge whopping surprise?

Rerun: Levis

Bumped up as a rerun from a decade ago, as the topic was mentioned recently:
Lex Anteinternet: Levis: Rancher, wearing blue jeans, in the early 1940s. The roll up cuff was extremely common at that time. At the time I started this entr...

Sunday, October 30, 2022

Best Posts of the Week of October 23, 2022

 The best posts of October 23, 2022, which at least on a personal level, was not a very good week.

Out of Sync. The Hail Mary makes a surprising appearance in advertising.









On the sick list.

This has been my view for the past several days.  It's a view of the mountain, between the parking garage and an administrative building belonging to the hospital.

I took the photo from here.


I'm out now.

I was in as I had a robotic right colectomy.  In other words, I had a large (very large) polyp in my large intestine that had to be removed.  I learned this was there when I went in for a colonoscopy, which I wrote about (in its entirety) here:

On modern medicine

As I wrote here the other day, I went in for a colonoscopy.

I'm almost a decade past the point where you are supposed to get one.  Just too busy, I guess, to have made it in back then, or in between, when I should have.  Having said that, a couple of my contemporaries I know very well only made it in recently as well.

In my last post on this topic, I discussed the statistics of colon cancer.  What I learned in my colonoscopy was that I have a polyp that was too big to be removed, and now I'll have to have surgery to address it.

The doctor is nearly certain that its not cancerous, but it has to be removed.  He also basically indicated it would turn to cancer if it wasn't removed, at some point.  Not yet, basically, but some day.

Which puts me in that statistic in a way.

Lesson learned.

Another lesson learned, however, is that this also puts me in the class of people who'd die early on for sure but for modern medicine.  A sobering thought.  We all imagine ourselves living until 102 worry free, but that isn't the case for most of us.  Lots of us make it further now than we would have, thanks to modern medicine.

This was the following surgery.

This turned out to be a bigger deal. . . a much bigger deal, than I wanted to admit it was.  In my mind, I wanted to pretend that it would be in and out, or at least I'd be out by Friday.  Nope.  I did get out on Saturday, but I'm feeling rather beat up, and it's clear that it's going to take several days to get back to normal.

Army with two IV hookups.  I had two, as I was so dehydrated when I came in they had a very difficult time finding my veins.

I am on the mend now, however.

A few observations.

Colonoscopies have been around, but they didn't become common until 1985 when Ronald Reagan had one which saved his life.  The screening recommendations came into effect in 1995, after the death of my father, who had one when he fell extremely ill in the early 1990s.  While it was probably unconnected, there was some suspicion at the time that a severe infection in his intestine was moved around by the scope, leading to the infection to spread.

As noted, in retrospect, that's probably not what occurred.

Anyhow, whether from that unhappy event or just a family reticence to seeking medical attention for anything, I ignored the current advice which is to go in for a scope at age 50.  You really should, and my failure to do so caused me to end up with this, probably.

That's the first observation here.

A second one is this.  It's interesting to note, I guess, that if I hadn't had this, I probably would have died from this right about the same time my father died from something sort of related, if not perfectly.  So my life has probably been extended by modern medicine.

The boyfriend of the sister of a good friend of mine died from colon cancer, I'd note, and it was a very bad way to go.  He'd been a tobacco chewer, and that may have caused it.  In my case, I don't use tobacco, so that isn't it.  Maybe genetics is.

The night before the procedure, as a distraction, I finished watching Father Stu, the cinematic treatment of the life of Father Stuart Long, who was born the same year I was, but who died of a terrible disease in 2014 which robbed him of his physical abilities.  He had been a boxer at one time, and was quite athletic.  There was some thought of not ordaining him at all, because of his affliction, but the Bishop of Helena moved forward as he sensed himself receiving the message that there was power in suffering, and he should be moved forward.  At his ordination, Father Stuart stated: "I stand before you as a broken man. Barring a miracle, I'm going to die from this disease, but I carry it for the cross of Christ, and we can all carry our crosses."

I note that here as the movie concluded with comments from Father Stuart himself noting that he felt his afflictions were given to him as a gift to overcome things that were a barrier to his union with Christ.  I sort of feel that way about this too, albeit very minor in comparison they may be.

I'd also note, in thinking about it, that this relates back to the purpose of this page, which is ostensibly research for a book.  One of the characters in that book is in his late 40s when the tale takes place, which oddly enough is about the age I was when I started this blog.  Anyhow, that character, perhaps the central protagonist, would be recognizable in lots of ways to people who know me.  Which also means, if I follow that through, he's likely a character that would have died a pretty bad death of disease in his early 60s, a very common experience at the time.

Modern medicine.


Long suffering spouse.
 

Monday, October 30, 1922. Casting.


Mussolini was sworn in as Prime Minster of Italy following what was essentially a coup.

Sunday Morning Scene. Churches of the West: St. Patrick Misson Church, Denver Colorado.

Churches of the West: St. Patrick Misson Church, Denver Colorado.

St. Patrick Misson Church, Denver Colorado.


This Catholic Church in North Denver is St. Patrick Mission Church.  The Mission Architecture Church was built from 1907 to 1910, and served the Denver Highlands.  Its architectural style is unusual for Denver.

This Church is also called St. Patrick's Oratory, and has a presence by the Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters.

There's more to this church than I have here, I just don't know what it is, but it may be explained by the Capuchin sisters. The church as a bit of a campus, and therefore as a mission, it might strongly reflect their presence.

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Sunday, October 29, 1942. The Alaska Highway Opens.

British clergymen and political figures met to denounce German persecution of the Jews.

Today In Wyoming's History: October 291942  The Alaska Canada Highway (ALCAN) opened as a military highway.

What does this have to do with Wyoming?  Well, arguably not much.  But the story is relevant, as depicted here, for a couple of reasons.  For one thing, it was the first really all year around, all weather, rural highway in the United States. The trucks depicted here are travelling in conditions that would be familiar to most Wyoming drivers, but which most people avoided travelling in for the most part, for long distances anyhow, prior to World War Two.

Pat of the reason that, after the war, they would travel in conditions like this has to do with a technology depicted here which wasn't common at all prior tot he war. . . the all wheel drive.  In this case, the vehicles are 6x6 2 1/2 ton military trucks, but it was the 4x4 military truck that would really cause a revolution in post war rural travel, when it put on civilian colors.



Gang Warfare Erupts Between Thomas Gobbles Gang and Other Turkeys


Well of course somebody is out feeding them.

Turkeys in town are a nuisance. They're mean, dirty and a large road hazard.  I wish the Game & Fish would relocate them.

Friday, October 28, 2022

Saturday, October 28, 1922. King Victor Emmanuel summons Mussolini.

The Saturday Evening Post went with a jester theme for its Halloween 1922 ediition, the Country Gentleman went with a jest.


King Victor Emmanuel III, Italy's king, refused a request from Prime Minister Luigi Facta to declare martial law to address the Fascist March on Rome.  The Italian army advised the king that it was fearful troops would disobey any order to fire on the Fascists, and therefore the request should be denied.

With this, the Italian government effectively surrendered to Fascism.  The King invited Mussolini to come to Rome to discuss the political situation with him.

KYW broadcast the first national radio transmission of a football game. The game was between Princeton and the University of Chicago.

Antrim Castle in Northern Ireland caught fire during a grand ball and was destroyed.  Suspicion existed that the castle fire may have been the work of the Irish Republican Army, but no charges were ever brought against anyone and no insurance claim was ever paid out.

La Bamba - Los Lobos (Version Jarana) Instrumental

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Tuesday, October 27, 1942. The execution of Helmuth Hübener.

Helmuth Günther Guddat Hübener, age 17, was executed by Germany for his role in a youthful German resistance group.

Hübener is unusual not only for his age, but for his religion.  He was a Mormon, a religion that was not common in Germany.  Moreover, the German LDS themselves had not come to a position on the repression of the Jews.  By and large it seems the majority of them were not supportive of the Nazi's repression of the Jews, but Hübener had the bad luck of his local branch having a handful who were, and he was even apparently expelled from the religion by a local figure prior to his execution.  In contrast, all the members of his small anti-Nazi group were also Mormons, and also youths.

The Battle of Santa Cruz Islands concluded with the Japanese winning a tactical victory while the US won the strategic victory, the latter being the more important of the two.  Japanese losses were high, and the result was that the Japanese lost the ability to obtain victory in the Pacific before superior US production would come to bear.

The Australians took Goodenough Island off of New Guinea.

The island would be developed into an air base.

The defense of Outpost Snipe came to a successful British conclusion.

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

Today In Wyoming's History: October 271922  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.

Bruce Channel - Hey Baby

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Thursday, October 26, 1972. "We believe that peace is at hand".

So stated Henry Kissinger publicly, and just eleven days prior to the 1972 Presidential Election.

Kissinger, Nixon and Alexander Haig at Camp David in 1972.

Nixon did not approve as he felt that Kissinger was hogging the limelight through the announcement, however Kissinger noted that the North Vietnamese had already published the text of the draft agreement.

Unbeknownst to the public, neither Nixon or Kissinger believed that the Republic of Vietnam had any chance of holding out long term against North Vietnam, and they were putting heavy pressure on the South Vietnamese, who had little faith in their abilities themselves to cooperate.

Igor Sikorsky, aviation giant and developer of helicopters, died on this day at age 83.

Sikorsky was born in Kyiv to Russian parents.  His father was an internationally known psychiatrist and his mother a physician, meaning he was born into an unusual family for the era.  He was drawn to aviation very early in his life and studied in Paris.  He worked in Paris during World War One and did not return to Russia due to the Russian Revolution, immigrating to the United States in 1919.  His first wife accordingly divorced him, as she remained in Russia with their daughter.  

Sikorsky's pioneering work in helicopters would end up being of enormous benefit to his adopted country, and his company still is a leader in heavy helicopters.

Monday, October 26, 1942. Hard fighting in the Solomons

Today In Wyoming's History: October 261942  The Torrington Post Office robbed. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

In the Solomons, the Battle for Henderson Field ended with an American victory, and the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands was raging.  On this date, the USS Hornet of Doolittle Raid fame was badly damaged, which would lead to her scuttling the following day.

Japanese losses in trying to take Henderson Field were grossly outside, with over 2,500 men being killed in comparison to less than 70 Americans.

In the Second Battle of El Alamein the Defense of Outpost Snip action began.

Thursday, October 26, 1922. The Italian Government resigns.

On this day in 1922 Luigi Facta, Prime Minister of Italy, and his ministers turned in their resignations to King Victor Emmanuel III.

Facta had wanted to declare martial law, which declared the King's signature. Victor Emmanuel refused, having sent Facta a secret note as to his decision. Facta never revealed the contents.  He and his cabinet resigned in protest.

Facta would die in 1930 with the public believing that he'd been to weak to encounter Mussolini, when in fact the opposite had been his desire.

U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Godfrey Chevalier became the first person to land an airplane on an American aircraft carrier.  He'd die the following month in an airplane crash at age 33.


Probably unusually for a pilot at the time, he wore glasses.

Juli Lynne Charlot, singer and designer of the poodle skirt, was born in New York. She's still living.

Painted Bricks: The Big Chief Bottling Company, Denver Colorado.

Painted Bricks: The Big Chief Bottling Company, Denver Colorado.

The Big Chief Bottling Company, Denver Colorado.


Big Chief was a soda brand that was bottled across the United States including Colorado, where this building housed that enterprise.

An old business, but how old?

Industrial History: Coors Brewery in Golden, CO

Industrial History: Coors Brewery in Golden, CO: ( 3D Satellite ) Historic Denver posted Coors Brewery in Golden, CO. (1910) [The Banquet brand is still brewed in just Golden and is shipped...

G. Love & Special Sauce - Come Up Man

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Sunday, October 25, 1942. Rommel returns, the Japanese Navy strikes.

Rommel returned to Africa.

During his absence, things had not gone well for the Axis.  There's no reason to believe that they would have gone any better had he been there.

Rommel arguably has an outsized reputation.  Perhaps because the British tended to admire him, for some reason, as an adversary, and as they measured their success in the desert in terms of defeating his command, he's obtained the reputation of being a "clean" German commander.  There actually is some evidence to support this, but it's mixed and not as clear-cut as sometimes claimed.

Spectacular photograph of US ships in action on the following day, October 26.

The Battle of Santa Cruz Islands began with the Japanese, operating under the assumption that they had taken Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, moved ships from the Shortland Island towards Guadalcanal in order to support the Japanese ground forces on the islands.  Aircraft from Henderson Field ended up attacking the Japanese convoy throughout the 25th, sinking a light cruiser.  This alerted the Japanese that Henderson Field remained in American hands, but they pushed forward in hopes of engaging the American Navy in a decisive naval battle.

Wednesday, October 25, 1922. Winners and Losers.


A "flying circus" was staged at Boling Field which even included a hot lunch being dropped in from the air.


The Dáil Éireann approved the Irish Free State Constitution Act of 1922.  It would become effective on December 6, 1922, when King George V proclaimed it, which created the Irish Free State as an independent and coequal member of the British Commonwealth.

On the same day, the Irish Republican Army declared the formation of a rival republican government with Eamon de Valera as "President of Ireland", a cabinet of ministers and a twelve member Council of State. By this point, however, the IRA did not holding any Irish territory of consequence.

Mussolini delivered an ultimatum to the Italian government, demanding that it surrender power to the Fascists.

Prince Andrew of Greece, a Greek army officer, was arrested on Corfu and charged with contributing the disastrous Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War.  The Prince, the father of the late Prince Consort Philip (Philippos) of the United Kingdom, would be allowed to leave the country.  Other Greek officers were executed or sentenced to long prison sentences.

The Red Army took Vladivostok.  As it did so, Imperial Russian General Mikhail Diterikhs was evacuated with such troops as could be evacuated by the Japanese.


Diterkhs was descended from German Lutherans from the Sudentenland and was a deeply religious Orthodox Christian.  He moved to China, as many Russian Whites from the far eastern part of Siberia did, where he died at age 63 in 1937.

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist XXXIX. Pretending


How you can tell that being "Gay" is no longer interesting.

I suppose it'll be controversial to say it, but everyone is well aware that some of the people who claim to be "gay", or more properly homosexual, only claim that for publicity's sake or because it's supposed to be edgy.  Others do, as they have weak personalities and adopt whatever trend is in the news, and its been in the news.

This doesn't mean that there aren't people with same sex attraction. There certainly are.  Indeed, the people who claim to be gay as it's trendy are an insult to people who actually have same sex attraction.

This sort of things is common with every sort of attribute.  Just a couple of years ago we had people who were claiming to be black, but weren't.  Claiming to be a Native American is another one, with at least one U.S. Senator and one college professor down in Colorado claiming that.  Claiming to be a veteran suffering from something is another, with all such people claiming that they saw really valiant service, rather than have worked in the mess hall in San Diego.

In the 30s, if you were of a certain type, being a Communist in certain circles was fun, until it suddenly wasn't.

Madonna has come out as gay.

She isn't.

She is, rather, in a stage of her life when she's no longer very interesting as window dressing. So she has to do something, now, doesn't she?

We might note that at this part, for people who have made such an extensive career as being heterosexual libertines, to claim that they're gay, really is a good indicator that its really not very interesting to people anymore.  I'm sure she'd claim to be a cocker spaniel if that was trendy, but it isn't. For that matter, being gay isn't either.

If she really wants to be in the news, and she obviously does, she should join the Ukrainian army. But then, that'd take real guts.

Or confronting her superficial past and making amends might, but people rarely do that.

Lying Little Feather

And, speaking of pretend, you have heard of Marie Louise Cruz, but as Sacheen Little Feather.  She became famous for appearing at the Academy Awards as the behest of Marlon Brando in order to receive his award for The Godfather.  Dressed in buckskins, she represented herself as a Native American and the protest was for Native American justice.

She wasn't a Native American.

Upset by the representation of their late sister regarding their late father, her sisters have come forward and revealed that in fact they're all Mexican American and that their father, whom Cruz portrayed as an abusive alcoholic, in fact didn't drink nor abuse anyone in the family.  He was, by their accounts, a hardworking immigrant who himself had had an abusive alcoholic father.

Cruz began portraying herself as a Native American in the very early 1970s, trying to obtain acting roles, which she was somewhat successful at doing, with the "Little Feather" persona.  Like Madonna, she stripped herself of her attire to be photographed, prior to becoming well known, appearing in an intended Playboy photo spread that was called "Ten Little Indians", apparently, as it featured ten Native American women.

Or at least ten who were thought to be Native Americans.

There's a quote in a San Francisco area newspaper about this episode.

“Sacheen Littlefeather, the Bay Area Indian Princess, and nine other tribal beauties are sore at Hugh Hefner. Playboy ordered pictures of them, riding horseback nude in Woodside and other beauty spots, and then Hefner rejected the shots (by Mark Fraser and Mike Kornafel) as ‘not erotic enough.’ Why do them in the first place? ‘Well,’ explained Littlefeather ‘everybody says black is beautiful — we wanted to show that red is, too.’ ”

That's obviously out of a different era.

Having said that, the title, and the concept of photographically exploiting Native American women's bodies was really pretty shocking then, even if it is more so now.

Well, the real tragedy, I suppose, was to her family, particularly to her father, who wasn't what he was accused of being.

‘Dilbert’ comic stripped from nearly 80 newspapers

Dilbert is funny.

This isn't something you can say about every cartoon.  Family Circle, for example, is not funny.  It may have been once, but it isn't anymore.

The same is largely true of Garfield.

It has to do with Lee Enterprises, which owns our local newspaper, as well as the one in Billings, which in fact frequently share news stores.

Lee also includes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which in an act of rebellion, and which saw its 34 cartoons go to 10, has been publishing letters of protest from its readership.

All of which goes to attack the frankly, flaming BS claim that modern newspapers tend to make that they're vital to the local reader.

One of the claimed BS benefits to reducing the cartoons is that they were making room for local newstories.  This is absurd, quite frankly, as anyone who ever picks up a thick old newspaper would know. Want more coverage, add it.  Poof, it's there.

And additionally, often children, whose young interests the papers claim to hold dear, often are first introduced to newspapers through cartoons.  Eliminate them, and there goes that readership.

Rotating door

A reporter from the local newspaper noted she's leaving.

No surprise, our local reporter position is a revolving door for cub reporters.  It's sad, really. The national paper company brings them in, and as soon as they're trained up, they move on.

Barnard College will offer abortion pills for students

So reads a headline.  This text followed.
Barnard applies a reproductive justice and gender-affirming framework to all of its student health and well-being services, and particularly to reproductive healthcare. In the post-Roe context, we are bolstering these services," Catallozzi and Grinage said.
Barnard apparently applies a lot of Orwellian babble as well.

Barnard is a women's college.  Whatever else it theoretically does, it's supplied to provide an education to the young women who go there, such that they'll be well-educated members of society who can be later productive in their chose endeavors.

"Reproductive justice" is something that, at least unless you are Chinese in which that would apply to struggles against injustice, doesn't rally mean anything whatsoever.  And gender-affirming frameworks have little to do with failing to control your own conduct.

Women's colleges have been in existence since 1836.  Weirdly, vast numbers of the students didn't end up pregnant at them in earlier eras, prior to "the pill".  It's almost like people were sufficiently educated that they knew what reproduction entailed, and how not to engage in it prematurely.

Weird.

More freedom, less government, and more cash?

The State gave out $6,600,000 in rent relief, funded by the Federal Government, last month.

This is interesting for a state that claims to hate Federal money like a Bar Tender hates the Temperance Union. We hate it just enough to hold our hands out.

I wonder how the "Less government, more freedom" party, at least one of whom new members is a prominent landlord, will react to this.

Will they turn down the Federal money?

Intellectual consistency would demand they would, tenants out on the street or not.

Guns bought through credit cards in the US will now be trackable


This is being treated in certain circles as disastrous, but it's really hard to get too concerned about it. So what?

Speaking of packing heat. . . 

Our current Interim Secretary of State has semi famously sported a sidearm all the time, although he's noted that he can't do that as Secretary of State, as the state government doesn't let you walk around inside its buildings armed.  UW doesn't let you do that on its grounds, either, but that didn't stop ISoS Allred from open carrying on the campus.

The concept, of course, is that a gun battle could break out at any time, and you'll be armed to address it.  If, however, that's what you are really worried about, concealed carry would make more sense, although I'd note that not everyone has the body to carry concealed.  Not everyone really has the body to open carry with that goal, either.

Anyhow, as this has now become a big deal in some circles locally, and those same circles make much of "less government, more freedom", and a "right to keep and bear arms" with no restrictions, implies the right to use them, is dueling now allowed?  It'd sure cut down on all that pesky civil litigation.