"And Ajax by mad passion borne stern had replied, fierce scorn enhancing scorn to fell extremes…"
From FB:
“You know, I wasn’t always this “cool.”
There was a time I had bleached hair, wore ersatz surfer clothing (WRV!), and drove an ’81 Honda Accord hatchback with an Oakley sticker on the front windshield, and a personalized license plate referencing both my prospective graduation date and “Revenge of the Nerds.”
In my own little world, I thought I was AWESOME…”
I am.
I’m me.
“I sent one boy to the gas chamber at Huntsville. One and only one. My arrest and my testimony.
I went up there and visited with him two or three times. Three times. The last time was the day of his execution. I didn’t have to go but I did. I sure didn’t want to.
He’d killed a fourteen year old girl and I can tell you right now I never did have no great desire to visit with him let alone go to his execution but I done it. The papers said it was a crime of passion and he told me there wasn’t no passion to it. He’d been datin’ this girl, young as she was. He was nineteen. And he told me that he had been plannin’ to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he’d do it again. Said he knew he was goin’ to Hell. Told it to me out of his own mouth.
I don’t know what to make of that. I surely don’t…”
When I left my unit in the 82nd, I was hoping they’d give me a plaque I’d be proud to display.
I got this…
At this point I had some salt & pepper action going on in my disappointingly thin beard.
A few short years later, it was completely gray.
I blame my children.
Three times a year I had to rake our front and backyard. Usually took all weekend.
Don’t miss that one bit.
From FB:
“In today’s click-bait society I know I’m pissing in the wind when I try to defend a seemingly antediluvian position like the belief that the monuments to Confederate military leaders should not be torn down.
A long time ago, I realized that while I admired these men, they were on the wrong side and should have lost. And while my ancestors were not enslaved (only driven from their mountain homes to dusty non-arable Oklahoma lands at the tip of Andrew Jackson’s sword) I still bristle when I hear the rhetoric from today’s Left essentially comparing the Confederate soldier to a “Nazi” and calling them “chickenshit” and “pathetic losers.”
First, if you consider that each of us has 64 Great-Great-Grandfathers and you’re “white” and educated, there’s a better than average chance that a couple of your ancestors either owned slaves or fought for the Confederacy. Regardless, the average Confederate soldier didn’t give two shits about that. Despite what today’s Progressives would have you believe, Johnny Reb didn’t charge through a veritable hail of musket fire, canister, grapeshot, and shell to defend slavery. They did it for their brother on their right and left and to defend their sovereign state against what they considered an invasion from the North. Period. Full stop.
It bothers me when I hear the loose rhetoric from the Left trying to assert that the articles of secession from each state specifically cite the protection of slavery as one of their main goals and therefore the reason why each Southern soldier fought was to “defend slavery.”
From my 40 year fascination with the American Civil War, I find such reductionism to be both ignorant and offensive.
To wit, I’d like to direct you to this passage from John G. Waugh’s highly acclaimed book, “The Class of 1846: From West Point To Appomattox,” which I just finished after 530 pages of long but fascinating reading.
For context, Major General John Gibbon (West Point Class of ’47) was a transplanted career soldier from Pennsylvania who grew up in North Carolina, whose father was a slaveholder, and whose three brothers, two brothers-in-law, and cousin all joined the Confederate military.
Regardless, General Gibbon sided with the Union and fought in every major campaign of the Army of the Potomac – from Second Manassas to Antietam to Fredericksburg to Gettysburg. General Gibbon was even there when his group of Wisconsin soldiers earned the sobriquet “Iron Brigade” at the Battle of South Mountain and gained eternal glory. He was wounded multiple times by Confederate shot and shell and had every reason to hate the Southern Rebels who opposed him and killed his men. Yet, after four years of fighting, Gibbon conveyed his more merciful disposition upon seeing the enemy Rebels surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.
It is my wish in today’s hyperventilating political and cultural climate that each of us, Left and Right, would pause for a moment and have a moment of humility in order to recognize that no society is born perfect, but that with honor, sacrifice, and perspective, we can lean upon the Better Angels of Our Nature and seek wisdom from the past in order to chart a more united forward future.”
From FB:
“August 23rd is the feast of Nemesea, the day of the Nemesis – goddess of Divine Retribution, Vengeance, and Balance. The root of her name “neme”, means “to allot” or “to portion dues.” Nemesis does not act out of malice, she acts to restore balance. She measures out happiness AND unhappiness in order to balance the over enthusiasm of blessing goddesses like Tyche (Fortune).
Hubris (arrogance before the Gods) in particular draws Nemesis’ wrath, as do evil deeds and undeserved good fortune. One of her other names is “Andrasteia,” the Inescapable One. Nemesis was often sometimes depicted as a winged goddess. Her attributes were apple-branch, rein, lash, sword, or balance.”
Standing at the summit of Little Round Top.
From FB:
“Out on an early morning 12+ mile bike ride with some unexpected single-track.”
Song Of Ajax 