The state of West Virginia has a motto that more than speaks for its better citizens: “Montani Semper Liberi”. For those of us who do not speak Latin, that simply means “Mountaineers are always free.” Certainly, no one ever exemplified the meaning of that motto more than the senior U. S. Senator from West Virginia, Robert. C. Byrd.
That is not to say that Sen. Byrd was perfect; no one is. As a young man, Sen. Byrd made what can only be described as a series of puzzling decisions. For instance, he joined the Ku Klux Kan in 1942 at the age of 24, and expressed some very racist viewpoints, such as those in a 1944 letter to a segregationist, Miss. U. S. Senator Theodore Bilbo, wherein he said he would rather die and see “Old Glory trampled…never to rise again…(before seeing the country) degraded by race mongrels…” .
Although by his own admission, he left the Klan within a year, Sen. Byrd held some very conservative viewpoints at the outset of his Congressional career, and for many years afterwards. He even joined the Republicans in a filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was an ardent supporter of the Vietnam War.
But his way of thinking and his ideology underwent dramatic changes during his congressional career. Of his more racist statements, Sen. Byrd said in 2005: “I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times ... and I don't mind apologizing over and over again. I can't erase what happened.”
And the Senator that was so pro-war during the Vietnam era was almost a lone voice of reason when President George W. Bush proposed going to war in Iraq. His attempt at a filibuster was rejected, even by members of his own party. But Byrd predicted that such a war would require two victories, the quick military victory, and a second victory for peace which would take many years and require hundreds of billions of dollars. Considering how quickly the President declared victory after the onset of hostilities, and yet how long the military has been tied up in Iraq, it would seem the Senator knew what he was talking about.
No matter what he ever did or thought, there was one group from his home state of West Virginia that Sen. Byrd always cared deeply for, and that was the state’s miners. After the death of 29 miners at Upper Big Branch in Montcoal, WV, Sen. Byrd made a rare appearance at a Senate subcommittee hearing, where he blasted claims by Massey’s CEO that it never let profits trump safety by noting: "I cannot fathom how (Massey) could practice such disgraceful health and safety policies while…boasting about its commitment to the safety of its workers".
To Don Blankenship, the Senator made the following statement: "Twenty-nine men are now dead. Dead. Dead, simply because they went to work that morning.” He then read the list of Massey’s many safety violations to its recalcitrant CEO, to refresh Mr. Blankenship’s memory.
Sen. Byrd’s senatorial career ended on June 28, 2010, when he passed away at the age of 92. At his death, he was the longest serving U. S. Senator/Member of Congress in the Legislative Branch’s history
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
It’s Started All Over Again
It’s Started All Over Again
Well, if you live long enough, you’re bound to see history repeat itself. Yes, there is that whole thing about “forget your past and you’re condemned to repeat it”, courtesy of a philosopher, George Santayana, that poorer history students might mistake for a general from the Mexican/American War. That doesn’t mean that these students are the only ones who have trouble remembering this, though.
Take, for instance, that Douglas MacArthur/Harry Truman run-in from the Korean War. This involved a heavyweight military officer, a household name, who oversaw the Japanese Theater of Operation in WW2, and who accepted Japan’s surrender aboard the USS Missouri. His opponent? A one-time senator from Missouri, of all things, who many thought was the President by accident.
To make a long story short, MacArthur decided the Commander-in-Chief (CinC) did not know enough to conduct the war in Korea. His criticism of the President was made public by a well-meaning Member of Congress with whom MacArthur had been corresponding. Perhaps he thought his rank, General of the Army, or his standing with the public, would shield him from any fallout. If so, he reckoned without considering who Harry Truman was. In short order, Harry called his man back to D. C., and gave him his walking papers. Big Mac gave his “old soldiers never die” speech, and in short order, faded away.
Fast forward some 60 years, and again, we find a highly-regarded military commander, Lt, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and a lightly-regarded President, Barrack Obama. But here, the highly-regarded military officer did MacArthur one better. Not only did Lt. Gen. McChrystal dis the CinC of the U. S. Military, he went after other higher-ups in a story that was published in Rolling Stone magazine.
First up was the second-in-command. “ Are you asking about Vice President Biden?” McChrystal joked. “Who’s that?” Then the Lt. Gen. revealed that he also had trouble with the White House’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrook. Of Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, the Lt. Gen. speculated that the Ambassador was protecting himself when a memo critical of the war effort was leaked. And a retired four-star General, Jim Jones, was singled out as “a clown…stuck in 1985”.
But it was the criticism of President Obama that led the news coverage of this whole sordid affair. What is most surprising is that McChrystal revealed that he actually voted for Obama, but was “disappointed’ in his CinC when the two actually met. He also expressed some displeasure in having been reprimanded by Obama after he went public with his desire for more troops last fall.
McChrystal does show that he’s taken at least some of the MacArthur/Truman affray to heart. He apologized. “It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened”, the Lt. Gen. was quoted as saying.
Obama is showing that he has studied history, too. Like his predecessor, Harry Truman, Obama has summoned McChrystal back to D. C., to a high-level meeting.
Will the President dismiss his commander in Afghanistan? I’m tempted to say, no. Obama has shown that he is tolerant of dissent, and if he fired McChrystal, he’d have to break in a new man.
Better to keep an experienced man on the job, an experienced man who would then owe Obama big time.
Well, if you live long enough, you’re bound to see history repeat itself. Yes, there is that whole thing about “forget your past and you’re condemned to repeat it”, courtesy of a philosopher, George Santayana, that poorer history students might mistake for a general from the Mexican/American War. That doesn’t mean that these students are the only ones who have trouble remembering this, though.
Take, for instance, that Douglas MacArthur/Harry Truman run-in from the Korean War. This involved a heavyweight military officer, a household name, who oversaw the Japanese Theater of Operation in WW2, and who accepted Japan’s surrender aboard the USS Missouri. His opponent? A one-time senator from Missouri, of all things, who many thought was the President by accident.
To make a long story short, MacArthur decided the Commander-in-Chief (CinC) did not know enough to conduct the war in Korea. His criticism of the President was made public by a well-meaning Member of Congress with whom MacArthur had been corresponding. Perhaps he thought his rank, General of the Army, or his standing with the public, would shield him from any fallout. If so, he reckoned without considering who Harry Truman was. In short order, Harry called his man back to D. C., and gave him his walking papers. Big Mac gave his “old soldiers never die” speech, and in short order, faded away.
Fast forward some 60 years, and again, we find a highly-regarded military commander, Lt, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and a lightly-regarded President, Barrack Obama. But here, the highly-regarded military officer did MacArthur one better. Not only did Lt. Gen. McChrystal dis the CinC of the U. S. Military, he went after other higher-ups in a story that was published in Rolling Stone magazine.
First up was the second-in-command. “ Are you asking about Vice President Biden?” McChrystal joked. “Who’s that?” Then the Lt. Gen. revealed that he also had trouble with the White House’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrook. Of Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, the Lt. Gen. speculated that the Ambassador was protecting himself when a memo critical of the war effort was leaked. And a retired four-star General, Jim Jones, was singled out as “a clown…stuck in 1985”.
But it was the criticism of President Obama that led the news coverage of this whole sordid affair. What is most surprising is that McChrystal revealed that he actually voted for Obama, but was “disappointed’ in his CinC when the two actually met. He also expressed some displeasure in having been reprimanded by Obama after he went public with his desire for more troops last fall.
McChrystal does show that he’s taken at least some of the MacArthur/Truman affray to heart. He apologized. “It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened”, the Lt. Gen. was quoted as saying.
Obama is showing that he has studied history, too. Like his predecessor, Harry Truman, Obama has summoned McChrystal back to D. C., to a high-level meeting.
Will the President dismiss his commander in Afghanistan? I’m tempted to say, no. Obama has shown that he is tolerant of dissent, and if he fired McChrystal, he’d have to break in a new man.
Better to keep an experienced man on the job, an experienced man who would then owe Obama big time.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Our Annual Report
Are you aware of the social sites on the web, such as facebook? These sites allow you to use your computer to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances, no matter how many years or miles separate you.
This site can also unite people who have a common background or support a common cause. Oh, sure, there are the mundane political issues, but there are also more appealing reasons to start a group page. One might be a common history the group members have shared, as is the case with the alumni of a school.
It was with this in mind that I started a page called “Feds Creek Yearbooks”. Because it asks you for it, I have stated as the purpose of this group the posting of every page of every yearbook ever put out in the history of Feds Creek High School. Keep in mind that this school’s history spanned the years from 1932, when the school was in a one-room building at the mouth of Motley Fork, to its last year as a high school in 2002, so this goal is ambitious, to say the least.
Not that a yearbook was published for every year. The oldest ones I am aware of were two published in the late ‘30’s. Two more appeared in late ‘40’s, while the ‘50’s may have seen no more than 3 or 4. This tradition of yearbooks being published randomly continued into the ‘60’s, although more were published in this decade. Still, ’62 was perhaps the first yearbook, and ’65 may have been the next. 1967, the year the school was runner-up in the region, had no annual, while 1969 saw a smaller edition of a yearbook in a paperback booklet.
Because I started the group, I also started the tedious task of scanning in my oldest annual, the 1965 yearbook. First the pages have to be scanned into your computer, then uploaded to an album on your facebook page. I included the front cover, then scanned each section of the yearbook in separately. Because pictures are arranged alphabetically, and because I wanted quick access to each picture, I saved each with a single letter, beginning with t. The second one as tt, and so on. This puts pictures together and makes uploading them much easier.
The album into which I save the annual was titled “1965 Feds Creek Annual”. For whatever reason, a group’s page won’t allow you to post separate albums. So, once the annual was completely uploaded to my facebook page, I then posted a link to it on the group’s page. I now have three annuals posted, the last being from 1968.
I plan on continuing until I have posted all of my annuals. The rest of my collection is from the ‘70’s, and I am missing ’71, ’72, and ’74. The rest will make their appearances shortly.
If you are interested in this group, log into facebook and enter the words Feds Creek Yearbooks. This will bring up the group’s page. It includes instructions on how to get your annuals scanned in for you. The cost for this could be as little as the price of shipping.
In the meantime, check out the group’s page. There are some memories that would like to see you.
This site can also unite people who have a common background or support a common cause. Oh, sure, there are the mundane political issues, but there are also more appealing reasons to start a group page. One might be a common history the group members have shared, as is the case with the alumni of a school.
It was with this in mind that I started a page called “Feds Creek Yearbooks”. Because it asks you for it, I have stated as the purpose of this group the posting of every page of every yearbook ever put out in the history of Feds Creek High School. Keep in mind that this school’s history spanned the years from 1932, when the school was in a one-room building at the mouth of Motley Fork, to its last year as a high school in 2002, so this goal is ambitious, to say the least.
Not that a yearbook was published for every year. The oldest ones I am aware of were two published in the late ‘30’s. Two more appeared in late ‘40’s, while the ‘50’s may have seen no more than 3 or 4. This tradition of yearbooks being published randomly continued into the ‘60’s, although more were published in this decade. Still, ’62 was perhaps the first yearbook, and ’65 may have been the next. 1967, the year the school was runner-up in the region, had no annual, while 1969 saw a smaller edition of a yearbook in a paperback booklet.
Because I started the group, I also started the tedious task of scanning in my oldest annual, the 1965 yearbook. First the pages have to be scanned into your computer, then uploaded to an album on your facebook page. I included the front cover, then scanned each section of the yearbook in separately. Because pictures are arranged alphabetically, and because I wanted quick access to each picture, I saved each with a single letter, beginning with t. The second one as tt, and so on. This puts pictures together and makes uploading them much easier.
The album into which I save the annual was titled “1965 Feds Creek Annual”. For whatever reason, a group’s page won’t allow you to post separate albums. So, once the annual was completely uploaded to my facebook page, I then posted a link to it on the group’s page. I now have three annuals posted, the last being from 1968.
I plan on continuing until I have posted all of my annuals. The rest of my collection is from the ‘70’s, and I am missing ’71, ’72, and ’74. The rest will make their appearances shortly.
If you are interested in this group, log into facebook and enter the words Feds Creek Yearbooks. This will bring up the group’s page. It includes instructions on how to get your annuals scanned in for you. The cost for this could be as little as the price of shipping.
In the meantime, check out the group’s page. There are some memories that would like to see you.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Sombrero, top hat, or dunce cap?
By now, you might have heard something about a little oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. No, not the on-going one that British Petroleum (BP) is responsible for. We’re taking about one that occurred from June 6, 1979-March 23rd, 1980. It was in all the papers. This spill turned loose 3.5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in just 200 feet of water.
How did those responsible for this mess respond to that crisis? Well, they tried the “top kill” method, pumping the well full of “mud” to stop the flow of oil, but this proved to be a no go. Then they tried the “junk shot”, filling the well casing full of assorted scraps to form a clog, and again came up short. Next, they went to what they called “the sombrero”, a cute little device meant to seal off the gusher, and allow the oil to be collected in tankers, and again failed miserably. In the end, the only thing that stopped this manmade catastrophe was a relief well that took nine months to complete. If you want to know what happened in the meantime, turn on the news.
What a wonderful learning experience this should have been. But it all seems to have been for naught. Not only didn’t we learn the potential consequences of an off-shore drilling accident, we didn’t even learn that no cute, sleight of hand tricks will get us out of a gigantic mess of our own making.
That doesn’t apply to everyone, just to those responsible for managing oil exploration in this country. In Canada, if you are drilling for oil offshore, you are required to drill a relief well simultaneously. That way, when it turns out you don’t you don't know what you're doing, it won’t be noticed for quite so long.
Not that the BP executives are alone in looking stupid. Some politicos are trying to upstage them. Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s Governor, once a very vocal proponent of offshore drilling, is now alternately ranting and raving about, and then standing by, Big Oil. For instance, he will preach BP CEO Tony Hayward’s funeral one day, and next day criticize President Obama’s moratorium on off-shore drilling.
Sarah Palin, the ½ term governor of Alaska, has gone for a tried and true reaction to BP’s oil spill; blame the environmentalists. Yes, she said, it is the ban on drilling for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) that drove BP into such deep waters. In other words, let us drill in ANWR, and we won’t get in over our heads elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Alaska's Senator Murkowski, is keeping a bill that would force BP to pay for the cleanup from being voted on. No one knows why. Or do they?
Those who normally think big government is the problem are now calling on it to fix the problem they’d normally leave to the free market to correct. Maybe they’d be alright with the Russian solution, a small nuke to seal the leak.
These people are even calling on President Obama to do something. Well, it ain’t like he’s got anything else to do. These people would know. So sure, throw another crisis on the plate. There’s nothing that requires his attention elsewhere, is there?
How did those responsible for this mess respond to that crisis? Well, they tried the “top kill” method, pumping the well full of “mud” to stop the flow of oil, but this proved to be a no go. Then they tried the “junk shot”, filling the well casing full of assorted scraps to form a clog, and again came up short. Next, they went to what they called “the sombrero”, a cute little device meant to seal off the gusher, and allow the oil to be collected in tankers, and again failed miserably. In the end, the only thing that stopped this manmade catastrophe was a relief well that took nine months to complete. If you want to know what happened in the meantime, turn on the news.
What a wonderful learning experience this should have been. But it all seems to have been for naught. Not only didn’t we learn the potential consequences of an off-shore drilling accident, we didn’t even learn that no cute, sleight of hand tricks will get us out of a gigantic mess of our own making.
That doesn’t apply to everyone, just to those responsible for managing oil exploration in this country. In Canada, if you are drilling for oil offshore, you are required to drill a relief well simultaneously. That way, when it turns out you don’t you don't know what you're doing, it won’t be noticed for quite so long.
Not that the BP executives are alone in looking stupid. Some politicos are trying to upstage them. Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s Governor, once a very vocal proponent of offshore drilling, is now alternately ranting and raving about, and then standing by, Big Oil. For instance, he will preach BP CEO Tony Hayward’s funeral one day, and next day criticize President Obama’s moratorium on off-shore drilling.
Sarah Palin, the ½ term governor of Alaska, has gone for a tried and true reaction to BP’s oil spill; blame the environmentalists. Yes, she said, it is the ban on drilling for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) that drove BP into such deep waters. In other words, let us drill in ANWR, and we won’t get in over our heads elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Alaska's Senator Murkowski, is keeping a bill that would force BP to pay for the cleanup from being voted on. No one knows why. Or do they?
Those who normally think big government is the problem are now calling on it to fix the problem they’d normally leave to the free market to correct. Maybe they’d be alright with the Russian solution, a small nuke to seal the leak.
These people are even calling on President Obama to do something. Well, it ain’t like he’s got anything else to do. These people would know. So sure, throw another crisis on the plate. There’s nothing that requires his attention elsewhere, is there?
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Here We Go Again
Have you ever read one of my columns and wished you could tell me what you think of it? If so, simply google the following website address: http://ripsnortinroy.blogspot.com/. There’s space for comments at the bottom of each column. Oh, and while you’re there, be a dear and click on some of the nice ads.
Now on to the business at hand. We are all aware of the warning penned many years ago by George Santayana, philosopher extraordinaire, that went "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." It’s a self-explanatory and trite but true adage that Santayana, in his later years, would tell over and over again.
The latest group who might have benefited from keeping it in mind could be those responsible for turning the University of Kentucky into a prep school for the National Basketball Association; Athletic Director, Mitch Barnhart, Et. al.
Mitch was also responsible for the debacle that became known as the Billy Gillespie years at U. K. By comparison, even former coach Eddie Sutton’s last year looked pretty good.
I could never get over the fact that Barnhart hired Gillespie even after he interviewed him. I sometimes even got the idea that interview might have taken place in one of Billy G.’s favorite haunts, and might have sounded like the conversation between Otis Campbell and Barney Fife when Deputy Fife was attempting to interrogate Otis after applying some elixir to facilitate that chore.
A. D. Barnhart followed up on that momentous decision by hiring John Calipari from Memphis, at the tidy sum of $4million a year. (And I thought that Tubby at $2 million a year was overpaid.) What did U. K. get for that money? A New York Yankees-style team, bought and paid for, that under performed at key points during the season. Oh, and a record setting coach, in that Coach Calipari has had two schools forfeit the bulk of a season's wins after making the final four.
What with the news I am about to relate, it might have been for the best that U. K. didn’t make that Duke game in March. Otherwise this might be the third school with that dubious honor. Yes, U. K. has a player, point guard Eric Bledsoe, who’s now under the NCAA microscope. And it doesn’t look good. It’s alleged that his high school coach during his senior year was paying the rent for Bledsoe and his mother, and that’s a no-no. In fact, if this is proved, Bledsoe could be joining company with Derrick Rose in having been declared ineligible after the fact.
Worse than that, if this is the case, U. K. is planning on the Memphis defense. (But YOU said he was eligible!) Didn’t work for Memphis, probably won’t work for U. K.
We can always hope that everything will work out okay, but from what I’ve read, this doesn’t look likely. U. K. may lose the distinction of having been the first school to reach 2000 wins, and fall to second place in the number of overall wins.
Well, I tried to tell them to hire Travis Ford instead of Billy G. way back when. But would Mitch listen? No! Well, if worse comes to worse, let’s hope that the new A. D. at U. K. will.
Now on to the business at hand. We are all aware of the warning penned many years ago by George Santayana, philosopher extraordinaire, that went "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." It’s a self-explanatory and trite but true adage that Santayana, in his later years, would tell over and over again.
The latest group who might have benefited from keeping it in mind could be those responsible for turning the University of Kentucky into a prep school for the National Basketball Association; Athletic Director, Mitch Barnhart, Et. al.
Mitch was also responsible for the debacle that became known as the Billy Gillespie years at U. K. By comparison, even former coach Eddie Sutton’s last year looked pretty good.
I could never get over the fact that Barnhart hired Gillespie even after he interviewed him. I sometimes even got the idea that interview might have taken place in one of Billy G.’s favorite haunts, and might have sounded like the conversation between Otis Campbell and Barney Fife when Deputy Fife was attempting to interrogate Otis after applying some elixir to facilitate that chore.
A. D. Barnhart followed up on that momentous decision by hiring John Calipari from Memphis, at the tidy sum of $4million a year. (And I thought that Tubby at $2 million a year was overpaid.) What did U. K. get for that money? A New York Yankees-style team, bought and paid for, that under performed at key points during the season. Oh, and a record setting coach, in that Coach Calipari has had two schools forfeit the bulk of a season's wins after making the final four.
What with the news I am about to relate, it might have been for the best that U. K. didn’t make that Duke game in March. Otherwise this might be the third school with that dubious honor. Yes, U. K. has a player, point guard Eric Bledsoe, who’s now under the NCAA microscope. And it doesn’t look good. It’s alleged that his high school coach during his senior year was paying the rent for Bledsoe and his mother, and that’s a no-no. In fact, if this is proved, Bledsoe could be joining company with Derrick Rose in having been declared ineligible after the fact.
Worse than that, if this is the case, U. K. is planning on the Memphis defense. (But YOU said he was eligible!) Didn’t work for Memphis, probably won’t work for U. K.
We can always hope that everything will work out okay, but from what I’ve read, this doesn’t look likely. U. K. may lose the distinction of having been the first school to reach 2000 wins, and fall to second place in the number of overall wins.
Well, I tried to tell them to hire Travis Ford instead of Billy G. way back when. But would Mitch listen? No! Well, if worse comes to worse, let’s hope that the new A. D. at U. K. will.
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