Saturday, April 25, 2015
Some Gave All: Lincoln Memorial
Some Gave All: Lincoln Memorial: The Lincoln Memorial, recalling the ultimate sacrifice of the melancholic lawyer who rose to the presidency on a principal and precise...
Sunday, April 15, 1915. Gallipoli.
The ill fated Allied landing began at Gallipoli with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landing at what became known as Anzac Cove while British and French troops landed at Cape Helles.
Ottoman resistance was immediate.
Canadian forces failed to retake St. Julien.
Last edition:
Saturday, April 24, 1915. The beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Does "Homeland" strike anyone else as a bit fascistic?
Ever since 9/11 Americans have been using the term "homeland". Following the Al Qaeda attack the US government formed the Department of Homeland Security. Government offices discuss "threats to the homeland". Even the news media will discuss "the homeland".
Homeland? What's that mean.
I think it's supposed to mean the United States, or perhaps the continental United States, as opposed to our diplomatic missions or overseas missions. It should frankly absurd, and even a little bit fascistic.
Traditionally, Americans haven't spoken of any part of their country as "the homeland". Rather, we speak of our country as, well, "our country", or "the United States", or "America", but not the homeland. Homeland has a certain "blood and soil"* type of connotation that Americans have generally sought to avoid. Indeed, one long hallmark of American culture is that even though we recognize and celebrate the existence of regional cultures, the country belongs to everyone. So, for example, a New Yorker can move to Alabama, should he chose, or an Alabaman to Hawaii, etc. By doing that, that internal immigrant is moving from one regional culture to another, but generally there's no folkish prohibition to hit.
Indeed, the closest term in the western world to "Homeland", as we're presently using it, is the German word Heimat. Heimat is a bit difficult to translate, but it roughly equates with "homeland" while adding a cultural, and indeed blood, relationship to the term. The Nazis were big on Heimat, although a cultural closeness to Heimat isn't unique to them in any fashion. Still, that type of association, which is sort of a fascist thing in general, is not something Americans have every held.
Americans have held a sentimental attachment to "the heartland", which is generally conceived to be the Mid West agricultural heart of the country, which many non Eastern Americans have a familial connection to. That's quite a bit different. Southerners, Texans, New Englanders, and Westerners (at least) have a sentimental attachment to their regions, which they usually just identify geographically. People of native ancestry often are attached to a region as well.
All that creeps up on the concept of a "motherland", which is a cultural concept that's strong with some ethnicities in the United States and some nationalities around the globe. Perhaps the one that's the strongest is the Russian one, with its concept of "Mother Russia". Irish Americans have traditionally had a strong sentimental and cultural attachment to "the old country", as have Italian Americans. None of those concepts, however, equates with "the homeland".
Even the adoption of the term in the security context is a bit odd. We used to speak of "national security" where we now speak of "homeland security". "National security" sounded mature and sober. "Homeland Security" sounds like the enemy is at the gates and we're holed up in the bunker. Not very appealing.
Indeed, for that matter, the change in terms strikes me the same way that the old change from the "War Department" to the "Department of Defense" strikes me. Poorly chosen. There was no doubt what the focus of the "War Department" was.
All good reasons, in my view, to ditch all this reference to "Homeland". Let's just call it was it is, we're either in a long term war with foreign enemies who have an internal fifth column, like the Cold War, or we're engaged in a huge effort against criminal organizations which occasionally have armed expression. Either way, there were existing departments for that sort of thing with less odd names.
*Blut und Boden: A Nazi phrase associated with Die Heimat (roughly, "the homeland", expressing a nearly genetic identity with a die Heimat with die Volk).
Homeland? What's that mean.
I think it's supposed to mean the United States, or perhaps the continental United States, as opposed to our diplomatic missions or overseas missions. It should frankly absurd, and even a little bit fascistic.
Traditionally, Americans haven't spoken of any part of their country as "the homeland". Rather, we speak of our country as, well, "our country", or "the United States", or "America", but not the homeland. Homeland has a certain "blood and soil"* type of connotation that Americans have generally sought to avoid. Indeed, one long hallmark of American culture is that even though we recognize and celebrate the existence of regional cultures, the country belongs to everyone. So, for example, a New Yorker can move to Alabama, should he chose, or an Alabaman to Hawaii, etc. By doing that, that internal immigrant is moving from one regional culture to another, but generally there's no folkish prohibition to hit.
Indeed, the closest term in the western world to "Homeland", as we're presently using it, is the German word Heimat. Heimat is a bit difficult to translate, but it roughly equates with "homeland" while adding a cultural, and indeed blood, relationship to the term. The Nazis were big on Heimat, although a cultural closeness to Heimat isn't unique to them in any fashion. Still, that type of association, which is sort of a fascist thing in general, is not something Americans have every held.
Americans have held a sentimental attachment to "the heartland", which is generally conceived to be the Mid West agricultural heart of the country, which many non Eastern Americans have a familial connection to. That's quite a bit different. Southerners, Texans, New Englanders, and Westerners (at least) have a sentimental attachment to their regions, which they usually just identify geographically. People of native ancestry often are attached to a region as well.
All that creeps up on the concept of a "motherland", which is a cultural concept that's strong with some ethnicities in the United States and some nationalities around the globe. Perhaps the one that's the strongest is the Russian one, with its concept of "Mother Russia". Irish Americans have traditionally had a strong sentimental and cultural attachment to "the old country", as have Italian Americans. None of those concepts, however, equates with "the homeland".
Even the adoption of the term in the security context is a bit odd. We used to speak of "national security" where we now speak of "homeland security". "National security" sounded mature and sober. "Homeland Security" sounds like the enemy is at the gates and we're holed up in the bunker. Not very appealing.
Indeed, for that matter, the change in terms strikes me the same way that the old change from the "War Department" to the "Department of Defense" strikes me. Poorly chosen. There was no doubt what the focus of the "War Department" was.
All good reasons, in my view, to ditch all this reference to "Homeland". Let's just call it was it is, we're either in a long term war with foreign enemies who have an internal fifth column, like the Cold War, or we're engaged in a huge effort against criminal organizations which occasionally have armed expression. Either way, there were existing departments for that sort of thing with less odd names.
*Blut und Boden: A Nazi phrase associated with Die Heimat (roughly, "the homeland", expressing a nearly genetic identity with a die Heimat with die Volk).
Saturday, April 24, 1915. The beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
The Armenian Genocide began with the deportation of Armenian intellectuals from Constantinople.
It's always easiest for the oppressor to remove those whom they'd like to repress. . .
The Germans launched a gas attack on Canadian positions at St. Julien, which allowed them to take the village.
The RMS Lusitania arrived in New York City coincident with the German embassy in Washington D.C. issuing a public warning that the waters around Great Britain being a war zone and that ships flying a British flag would be considered targets.
Last edition:
Thursday, April 22, 1915. Gas!
Labels: 1910s, 1915, Canadian Army, French Army, German Army, technology, Technology is ruining everything, The Second Battle of Ypres, Weapons, World War One
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Thursday, April 22, 1915. Gas!
The Germans used gas in scale for the first time at Ypres. The Allies sustained mass casualties, but Canadians, improvising protection with urine soaked rags, held their ground.
The First German Gas Attack at Ypres by William Roberts
Last edition:
Wednesday, April 21, 1915.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Wednesday, April 21, 1915.
Massive German Artillery barrages made the terrain of Hill 60 the classic pothole terrain of No Man's Land.
Anthony Quinn was born in Chihuahua. The great actor was raised in El Paso, Texas and East Los Angeles.
Prior to being an actor, he was a boxer and then an architect.
Last edition:
Tuesday, April 20, 1915. Conditions worsen at Van. US aircraft shot at for the first time.
Monday, April 20, 2015
Tuesday, April 20, 1915. Conditions worsen at Van. US aircraft shot at for the first time.
Ottoman forces laid siege to Van as tension there grew worse.
German forces attacked Hill 60 after bombarding British defenses during the day.
A U.S. aircrew and aircraft came under fire for the very first time when Mexican forces fired on a Martin biplane flying aerial reconnaissance on the U.S. border.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad went into bankruptcy.
Last edition:
Monday, April 19, 1915. Failing to retake the high ground.
Monday at the Bar: Courthouses of the West: Federal Courthouse, Lander Wyoming
Courthouses of the West: Federal Courthouse, Lander Wyoming:
This is the Federal Courthouse in Lander Wyoming, however it hasn't been used in that capacity in many years. The building is leased out by the Federal government, and chances are that most people, even in Lander, are not aware that this is a courthouse or that it has a courtroom.
I once had a case, about fifteen years ago, in which it was briefly suggested that the trial could be held in the courtroom, when this building was then under lease to the National Outdoor Leadership School, but the suggestion was quickly rejected on the basis that the courtroom had not been used as one in many years, and that it was too small.
This is the Federal Courthouse in Lander Wyoming, however it hasn't been used in that capacity in many years. The building is leased out by the Federal government, and chances are that most people, even in Lander, are not aware that this is a courthouse or that it has a courtroom.
I once had a case, about fifteen years ago, in which it was briefly suggested that the trial could be held in the courtroom, when this building was then under lease to the National Outdoor Leadership School, but the suggestion was quickly rejected on the basis that the courtroom had not been used as one in many years, and that it was too small.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Video: 100 Years on the Lincoln Highway | Watch Wyoming PBS Documentaries Online | Wyoming PBS Video
Video: 100 Years on the Lincoln Highway | Watch Wyoming PBS Documentaries Online | Wyoming PBS Video
A topic that I've discussed here from time to time, early transportation in Wyoming. Interesting stuff.
A topic that I've discussed here from time to time, early transportation in Wyoming. Interesting stuff.
Synchronicity
Several months ago, for no particular reason, I suddenly had the urge to email an old law school friend.
When he wrote back that day, he'd told me that he'd woken up in the middle of the night, and wondered how I was doing.
Synchronicity.
Recently, I went to look up an event I must speak at for my publisher. About five minutes later she emailed me regarding the event.
Synchronicity.
Recently I went to Denver. The proceeding I was at went way over-length. On the way home, before Cheyenne, my wife called and informed that friends had been in an accident north of Cheyenne. Could I pick them up?
Yes, but only due to. . .
Synchronicity.
Years and years ago, indeed perhaps a couple of decades ago, a friend and I left work early, on the last day of Blue Grouse season, to go hunting. We never left work early, but we did that day. We drove high up into the Big Horns, not really a wise decision on the last day of November, which was the last day of Blue Grouse season. The road started to drift in, and we decided to turn around, but then decided to go one more ridge, for no good reason. We had actually decided to turn around. When we got on the top of the ridge, there in the drifted in road was a sedan with an elderly man astride it. It turned out he was just out of the hospital, from hip replacement surgery, and had decided to go for a mountain drive and become lost. At that time of the year, with no cattle or sheep in the high country, and no earthly reason for anyone to be up there, it would likely have been days before anyone came that way. But we did, and we pulled him out.
Synchronicity.
Some call synchronicity "coincidence", which expresses the same thing, sort of. Synchronicity expresses the phenomenon of extraordinary things in time sync, while coincidence express to things, incidents co-existing in time. But what is missing from the etymology of both words is the fact, and I think it is a fact, that there's a mysterious element of it which is beyond explanation, and which is metaphysical.
People can dismiss that, but they do so at their hazard. Open to that possibility, indeed reality, many more things show to be synchronicitous. Why does one thing suddenly go one way, when past examples show that it should not. Sometimes, we're placed somewhere, and sometimes, others are placed somewhere in relation to us. Probably much more often than we realize.
Monday, April 19, 1915. Failing to retake the high ground.
German forces tried to take back Hartmannswillerkopf unsuccessfully.
The Ottomans cracked down on Armenians violently at Van.
Last edition:
Thursday, April 15, 1915. No mercy for the captured.
Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: First Christian Scientist, Denver Colorado
Churches of the West: First Christian Scientist, Denver Colorado:
This impressive structure is located in the Capitol Hill district of Denver Colorado. It has a Greek Revival style. I otherwise know nothing about it, including when it was built.
In this photograph, you can see the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the background, which is about one block away.
This impressive structure is located in the Capitol Hill district of Denver Colorado. It has a Greek Revival style. I otherwise know nothing about it, including when it was built.
In this photograph, you can see the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the background, which is about one block away.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Old Picture of the Day: New Mexico Dust Storm
Old Picture of the Day: New Mexico Dust Storm: Today's picture shows a dust storm in New Mexico. The picture was taken in 1935. What a terrible time this must have been.
Old Picture of the Day: North Dakota Dust Storm
Old Picture of the Day: North Dakota Dust Storm: Today's picture shows a dust storm in 1937. The picture was taken in North Dakota. Things look so bleak and barren one wonders how ...
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