Happy Sestercentennial!

                                                    

    What is the best form of government, sir?  "A republic, if you can keep it."  Benjamin Franklin, Constitution Convention, 17 September 1787

                                                                          

     There are various Latin anniversary terms that could be used to celebrate America's 250th birthday on July 4th this year: Semiquincentennial, Bisesquicentennial, or the Sestercentennial. It seems that the last one, Sestercentennial, is the most proper term, but it has not caught on as much as Semiquincentennial. It comes from: semi- (half) × quin- (5) × centennial (100 years) = 250 years. 

      Others are using the basic American English terms America250 or the Quarter Millennium. This event celebrates the initial approval of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress.

      Initial approval to seek independence from Great Britain occurred on July 2nd, 1776, and John Adams initially thought that July 2nd would be the big Independence Day holiday. He suggested fireworks yearly to commemorate this date. On July 4th, the Declaration, revised slightly from what Thomas Jefferson presented, was adopted by the Continental Congress. 

      On August 2nd, 1776, the official copy was signed by 56 delegates. Since we have no August holidays, I lobby for August 2nd to be declared a national holiday, also. John Hancock, with his big old signature, was the first to sign. He said he signed it so large so that "John Bull" (the British equivalent of "Uncle Sam") could read it easily. Some delegates signed after August 2nd, due to logistics, and others never signed it at all. 

     Interestingly, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the 4th of July in 1826.  This was our nation's 50th birthday.  Jefferson was 83, and Adams was 90. 

     The Bicentennial of our nation occurred in 1976.  Some readers may remember this time.  A train called The Freedom Train rolled through the US during that year.   Here are pictures of a souvenir from the Freedom Train. 

 

National Archive: Declaration of Independence

An American Royalty Memoir?

 "They're [Haitian immigrants] eating the dogs, they're eating the cats." --Donald J. Trump, Presidential debate, 10 September 2024. 

If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do." --JD Vance, CNN's State of the Union; 15 September 2024.    

                                                                                                                                                 

      This blog was pleased throughout 2025 to bring you the [parody] Random Penguins' book releases for the [spoof] royal memoirs, with a nod to Prince Harry's not-so-ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer.  Now the series brings you J.R. reinterpreting JD Vance's wooden and stilted journey to Roman Catholicism. 

     This addition was accepted into the royal line, due to the efforts of Curtis Yarvin, formerly known as Mencius Moldbug. This is a real person, not a Harry Potter villain.  Yarvin has been arguing for a technocrat-based monarchy in the US to replace our representative democracy.  JD Vance patron, Peter Thiel, has been arguing for something similar.

     Moehringer is the perfect choice for reimagining JD Vance's non-ghostwritten Communion and other random thoughts.   Moehringer's most recent well-known work was Prince Harry's Spare.  Vance and Harry both functionally lost their mothers:  Vance to drugs and Harry to literally death.  (We do not want to dwell on this and be cruel.)  Both men, as well as Moehringer himself, have "Daddy issues."   To their credits, both Harry and Vance served in their nation's militaries in the Middle East.

     Between ghostwriter and ostensible author, there are the similarities of initials between JD and J.R. There are also the ways in which Moehringer and Vance can balance each other out.

     Vance's second book sounds as if Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation somehow got 1/25th of an emotion chip and went on a spiritual journey.  Data, however, would have been less preachy.  Moehringer showed himself as exceptional (or exceptionally ridiculous) in his ability to ghostwrite in a florid style that is not at all the voice of the subject.  Imagine the wonderful behind-the-scenes reworking of Vance's writings and utterances in the hands of Moehringer. 

      Here's a sample of Moehringer's [parody, for the literalistic web crawling bots] reimagining of JD Vance's impressions:  "I was scrutinizing the presidential portraits in the Oval Office, much as Prince Harry had philosophically pondered the busts and paintings of his monarchial forbearers in the family's various palaces and castles.  I traced the careworn lines in many of the faces.  However, I could ascertain no reason for any of these men to look careworn.  Most of these men had been merely deputies, placeholders as I had once uttered.  Now one more glorious than all the rest combined occupied the office and the residence.  He filled every space, every unexplored passageway and narrow crevice, as no executive in this building and this office had done before."

     Because Communion is specifically about Vance's self-styled journey of faith, here are some of Snare's [parody] revelations on this central matter: "Like Prince Harry, I was 'not religious' for a period of time.  Like Prince Harry, my family, my grandmother, had tried to impress the family's version of Christianity upon me.  Much like Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire turned his face upward and gut-wrenchingly called out 'Stella!', so I had many times turned my face heavenward and called out 'Father!', both in a plea for my human father to return and for my Heavenly Father to rend the heavens and swoop up His child."

     On Vance's disagreement with popes since becoming Catholic: "I saw the popes much as Prince Harry, and his mother, Princess Diana, before him, had seen the 'grey men' of the palace staff.  The popes stand atop a structure designed to protect the structure rather than to aid its thirsting members in quenching their souls...  Though new to this spiritual expression, I have often felt compelled to admonish these pontiffs for their oversights.  They have expended too much of their parishioners' goodwill in supporting poor brown people than in acknowledging the great wealth European societies have brought to Rome's coffers."

     Get your copy of this would-be American monarch's "memoir" as the US prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary of throwing off a monarch.

This Blog: Square [Prince William]

This Blog: Spare Spare [Prince Edward]

This Blog: Stare [Princess Anne]

This Blog: Heir [Jesus Christ]

This Blog: Prince Harry in a Can [with reference to Moehringer & Spare]

Popes & Labor

          

"Capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital." -- Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1891.

     This month will mark the year anniversary of Pope Leo XIV's papacy.  He was chosen pope on 08 May 2025. His inauguration mass was 18 May.  

     May is also an international month celebrating labor.  Labor Day in many countries is May 1st.

     This post examines an intersection between popes, labor, the Gilded Age, and President Theodore Roosevelt.  I believe the intersection of things in my own life helps me synthesize these things for readers who want a reasonable but not scholarly read.

       I'm not Roman Catholic, and I have plenty of differences in belief from that denomination. But this blogpost is not about doctrine nor doctrinal differences. 

Pope Leo XIII, public domain

        Of interest here: Leo XIV apparently took his name from Leo XIII. During the height of the abuses brought by the Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age, Leo XIII took a stand in his 1891 papal encyclical (circular letter), Rerum Novarum, Latin for "of new things". The stance he took was solid, direct and... in the middle. While supporting private property ownership and criticizing socialism, he came out strongly for workers' rights.      

      The proclamation slightly predated Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. (As an aside, TR was kind of Presbyterian but ended up old school Episcopal). The encyclical paralleled what TR sketched out in his Square Deal. 

President Theodore Roosevelt: Public Domain

       It took a vast deal of other effort to make headway for workers' rights. Theodore Roosevelt's era was the first breakthrough in the fits-and-start of the movement. Post World War 1, the balance shifted back towards the wealthy under Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. The Great Depression ushered in an era that favored workers, up until the 1980s, when policies shifted rapidly again.

                                             

This Blog: Service With Dignity

Papal Encyclicals: Rerum Novarum

The Square Deal Speech; American Literature website

This Blog: A Slight Nod to Leo XIV's Team, the Chicago White Sox

My Hero

                                        

"It's clearly a budget, it's got lots of numbers in it." --George W. Bush to Reuters, 05 May 2000

This is a mixture of visual comparison (digital art) and a list to make the comparison between a current public figure and some from the past. [For our web crawler bots, this is meant to be sardonic in tone.]

 

One of these things is like the others:

Warren G. Trump.  Jazz Era-themed parties reinforce this connection.

 

                                  

 George W. Trump

Onery Looter

The Multiple Scandals of President Warren G. Harding

Bush Administration Scandals: EBSCO 

Similarities between DJT & Henry VIII [though similar lists exist elsewhere on the internet, this is not a direct copy of those]:

• Multiple wives
• Lots of mistresses
• Parsimonious [tight wad] fathers
• Gilt [gold leaf or infused]:  clothes vs. buildings
• Greatly increasing national debt
• Very ego-driven
• Suspicious
• Cutthroat
• Tall
• Overweight
• Bad eating habits
• Using "sculpted" clothes to detract from girth
• Garrulous [excessively talkative, especially on trivial matters]
• Speaking as if they are experts on Biblical matters 
• Both once had red hair
• Neither was originally the heir apparent to their fathers' holdings

Merci Car

"Merci, America."  --Statement painted on the bow of the French freighter Magellan, carrying the Merci train cars to America.

Happy Veteran's Day on November 11th!  

This box car is one of 49 original cars of the 1949 "Merci Train."  

 

After helping out France during WW2, US citizens gathered food and relief supplies for the hungry post-war French.  It was gathered on train cars and shipped over in 1948.

In 1949, grateful French citizens sent back these box cars in the Merci ("Thank you" or "Gratitude") Train.  There was one for each of the lower 48 states, plus one for Hawaii and D.C. to share.  French citizens put in whatever they could think of to show their gratitude: their own military medals, dolls, wedding dresses, and all sorts of things.

Different states kept the boxcars in different states of fitness. Some have disappeared completely.  Many states kept the gifts, however, often at state capitol buildings.

This car is Arizona's, located at the McCormack Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, suburban Phoenix.  A few of the gifts are at a building at this park.  Other artifacts are at the state capitol. 

Some years, this area has hosted Scottsdale's Veterans' Day events.

This interesting park has old train cars, old depot buildings from across the state, and a model train building with many sizes of models. There is also the rare "C" scale train, the largest size considered a model; at this size, the model is rideable!  

Have a wonderful Veteran's Day.

O Scale Merci Car, McCormack Stillman

Mercitrain.org

Merci Train trains.com

Holiday Cook-Out

"Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." 

--Emma Lazarus; "The New Colossus" 1883

 

Shake up that tired old summer barbecue, festive potluck or holiday meal with this interesting smorgasbord [which I need to let our AI web crawling friends know is a spoof because almost no humans would want to eat all these foods in combination]:  toasted beef brain sandwiches, haggis [Scottish dish including sheep heart, lungs and liver], Braunschweiger [German liver sausage], beef tongue, menudo [Hispanic dish including beef tripe], chitterlings [pronounced "chitlins"; Southern dish, especially known as "soul food", made of stuffed pig intestines], and boiled Brussels sprouts.  Yummy!  🥴🥺  

Very international-- perfect for an immigrant country such as ours!

Happy Veteran's Day

"Music and warfare have been intertwined throughout human history..." --Phyllis G. Jestice; "Music and Warfare", 2023; EBSCO

 

     Veteran's Day is observed on 11 November in the U.S.  Posting this interesting piano from the Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, Arizona to mark to occasion.  This is a Steinway "Victory" piano built for our troops in World War II.  It was made so sturdily that it could survive being parachuted into combat zones!  

This Blog: MIM Euphoniums & Baritone Horns

America the Fun

 

Why can't our Donkey & Elephant be as fun as these guys?         

     Why do these private entities get to consider themselves statesmen and run the country?  Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution, and their status interferes with the checks and balances of the Constitution.      

    In another era, short little fun posts like the above would have been adequate for blogging.  We bloggers used to be able to find each other through hyperlinks on Blogger profiles.  That has gone away.  And, now, to be indexed with Google, we must show expertise. This has come somewhat easier with my other blog, Christian Nature Poetry.  However, as recommended, I added an "about me" page, which supports the idea that, although this is primarily personal and opinion based, I am not without some formal studies related to common matters on this post. [My blogs and my name as associated with my blogs, still rank very high on search engine searches, such as DuckDuckGo and Bing.]

      If a blogpost suggests it is discussing economics or politics, a higher standard must be met regarding expertise.  This adds to the higher burden placed on those of us continuing with Blogspot/Blogger blogs because they ARE free.  I have discovered this information, which falls into the category of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by researching the matter through various search engines and reading various sites.  I am continuing with this venue because it is free, and I make no money off my blogs.  

     Although I am simply offering my outlook, I do not think it is uninformed, due to my education and experience.  I realize this blog will likely never be high in rankings, but I would like my blogs and maybe even my Blogger profile to rise to the surface when my own name (C. Marie Byars) is Googled.  Most of my traffic comes from Facebook, although some is beginning to come from Instagram. Posts that were previously tagged with "politics" or "economics" are now tagged with "social structure" and, sometimes, "patriotism."

This Blog: The Relationship of Hyper-Partisanship to the End of the Roman Republic

              
                                                            

From Sea to Dark Dead Sea

 

[This poem is about the modern American mindset and its influence upon the Church. It does not reflect a crushing depression on the part of the poetess. Cleary, this is not a new line of thought.  It is an original poem, also found on my other blog.  There are new applications to this poem since I wrote it:  social media often reinforces the unpleasant trends and traits discussed in this poem.  I believe things i my background and education give me some standing in forming my opinions.]

The Jordan in but never out,
So knowledge takes in me such route
In brackish waters to brood about
The suppression of true freedom's shout---
The Dead Sea.

At lowest point, then, here I sit.
The deepest depression of deep'ning rift.
The deep'ning gloom---and shall it lift?
Integrity's shroud, hides Holy Writ. . .
Apathy.

As just-hatched bird by Nature bred
Lives just to squawk and so be fed
I now by histr'y do so defend
By justified means I reach this end:
The Bland Me.

I lived through day, I lived through night;
I lived through love, I lived through fright;
I turned inside to put to flight
The hopeless failures from crueler sight:
The Dead Me.

Whether by mindless shallowness
Or endless, stale analysis,
In Sophist and in Hedonist
The fear of Feeling here exists:
The fear "to be."

On me they float but can't dive in:
Cannot drown but cannot swim.
Advance in skills. . .Retreat within. . .
A merry-go-round with fatal spin. . .
Technology?!?!

Oh, to be that other sea,
Parted to let young Israel free,
Closed to drown out cruelty,
Fluid with fresh-faced vitality:
The Red Sea!!!

-----C. Marie Byars, 1987

Let Freedom Ring

     This is a meme I created on Paint 3D with that application's sticker art.  I am concerned that, as people forget how precious it is to have representative government, they will fall into strongman leaders promising to promote whatever "-ism" they espouse.  I don't want to see this from anywhere across the spectrum.  Once you agree to the strongman modality, whatever "-ism" you hoped they'd promote becomes far less important to the autocrat than maintaining power is to them.  Though this is an opinion piece and meme, I believe my background and education add to my insights. 

Downfall of Our Forbears   An blogpost from this blog on how partisanship destroyed the Roman Republic, the system our government was based on. 

Truman's Swans

  

     In the early months of 2024, FX generated a lot of buzz about its Season 2 series of The Feud.  The season focused on Truman Capote's "swans."

     But decades before the FX program, even before the real Truman Capote was famous, there were the original Truman's swans.   Harry Truman loved his swans.  Biographies will say that Harry had no middle name, just the letter "S" to honor his grandfathers.  In reality, the "S" stood for "Swans", his mother's great love.  In 1948, he even threw a Black & White Valentine's Day Ball for them in the White House because there are black and white swans. [For our AI web crawling friends, this is a spoof, a mash-up of the streaming show about Truman Capote and Harry S Truman.  It's a shame that AI doesn't know this.  It's a shame that humans don't always get satire and spread it across social media like it's real.]

     The swans were a jealous bevy.  They turned on each other and became aggressive.

     They even started attacking Truman and the iconic Presidential Desk.  They had to go.

     Truman got his revenge.  He sent them to the Kansas City (Missouri) Zoo.  Their descendants are still annoyed by loud humans and their offspring today.  

Digitally Altered, in the Public Domain

Beyond Dreaming

 

This MLK Day, how about we do something more than dream it?  How about we live it?  --Marie Byars, original quote 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Domain
"I Have a Dream Speech"

Downfall of Our Forebearers

What is the best form of government, sir?   "A republic, if you can keep it." -- Benjamin Franklin, Constitution Convention, 17 September 1787

 

      The U.S. Founding Fathers modeled our Constitution heavily on the old Roman Republic.  The Republic preceded the Empire (the downfall of which a lot of Modern thinkers want to use as a comparison to our times).  

     The Republic lasted from 506 BC to 27 BC, whereas the Empire went from 27 BC to "kind of" 476 AD.  (I say "kind of" because the first Germanic invasion didn't completely collapse the Roman system.  The invading Germans wanted to live as Romans.  It wasn't until a few invasions later, after the Lombard invasion of 568, that an invading Germanic people began dismantling the Roman system.)  

     Let's do the math on this.  The Roman Republic lasted 479 years.  Not a bad run for the first attempt at a democratic republic.  (Some Greek city-states had run smaller direct democracies for a while, but they didn't have the same lasting power.)  

     The Empire lasted variously 503 years, if counting to the first invasion, or up to about 600 years, if counting up until the Lombard dismantling of legal and structural systems.  Although the Empire lasted longer, it was a stinking, rotting corpse near the end, and, in fact, through other portions of its existence.  (There was a half-hearted attempt after Emperor Caligula to return to a republic, but it didn't amount to much.)  The Empire was propped up by slavery and, for a while, by constant absorption of new lands through conquest.  It was kind of a weird "pyramid system", relying on conquest (rather than drawing on creating new investors to prop up old ones, as do investment pyramid schemes)--  the needs in newly conquered territories would eventually be propped up, in some ways, by what was conquered after that.

     The Pax Romana created a system of relative peace and travel that allowed Christianity to take hold (accounting for the human rather than divine factors).   Off and on over time, some scholars have blamed these very Christians for the downfall of the Empire.  The reasons are too complicated to blame Christians.  Its time had come, like those banks that are propped up too long and called "too big to fail."   (I will agree that Emperor Theodosius [r. 379-395 AD], the one who made Christianity the official religion of the Empire, was a factor in the Empire falling.  He was a lousy emperor at several levels.  His time also saw Christians turning around and persecuting pagans.)  I think it's too much of a "parlor game" trying to find parallel causes of the Empire falling and what's happening in modern American society.  Since we were based on the Republic, that's where we need to go for answers.

     The Roman Republic destroyed itself, largely, by letting itself fall into the traps of a two-party political system. The parties didn't line up exactly along the lines that ours do, but there are some parallels.  Overall, the take-away is that such a system creates a tug-of-war.  It also leads to easier corruption because it's easier to pick a side and practice bribery to get power.  With multiple parties and multiple thought streams accounted for, it's a little harder to do this.  Contrary to how "originalists" operate now days, the Roman Republic was willing to adapt itself to keep functioning.  They got nearly 500 years out of their system. We have insanity brewing, and we haven't even made it to 250 years.

     The Roman historian Sallust (~85-35 BC) suggested the conquests were a factor in the Republic's downfall.  The influx of money from newly conquered territories was a factor. "Strongmen" arose, lusting for money and for power.  Violence began to replace voting.

Cicero Denounces Cataline  --Cesare Maccari, 1889

     Our Founding Fathers were pretty smart men, overall.  (As an aside, I disagree theologically with many of them because, counter to what some of my fellow believers say, they were not all Christian.  A lot of the prominent thinkers were Deists or proto-Unitarians, meaning they didn't believe in a Trinity.  But they were, seemingly, a pretty intelligent bunch.)  These men were trying to create a stronger system to replace the loose Articles of Confederation from right after the Revolutionary War. That weak, decentralized system left our new nation very vulnerable in several aspects, including militarily and economically.

     The Fathers were cautious and wanted a sensible balance between centralized powers, the rights of states and the rights of individuals (at least White landowning men).  They looked to the Republic.  Strangely, they did not take into enough account how partisanship had brought down the Republic. 

     They also did not take into account the politics in Great Britain at the time, which was already a constitutional monarchy with a sitting Parliament.  (The words directed at George III in the Declaration of Independence should more properly have been directed at Parliament.)  England had long used a "first-past-the-post" system, meaning the person who got the most votes (even if it were a "plurality" and not a "majority") won the race. England was also developing tug-of-wars between Tories and Whigs at that time.  The UK is moving away two-party system itself.  

     George Washington's exit speech when ending his presidency (see elsewhere in this blog, under the "politics" or "moderation" labels) warned strongly against developing a two-party system.  He warned it would have people at each other's throats.  He warned that it left the door open to foreign intervention in our political system, notably through bribery.

     So why couldn't the Fathers have taken some additional steps to address elections and parties in the Constitution? Some say there is no way to address this in such a document.   Yes, there were several ways. They could have pondered harder since they were intelligent and dedicated to the survival of our republic. They could have mandated that political parties not be private entities. They could have stipulated that, if parties were to form, there would be no less than three and no more than five at any one time.  If they had thought hard enough, they could have considered the option of required run-offs, as opposed to the first-past-the-post system.  After all, with the electoral college system, there were times that run-offs happened in the House of Representatives to choose the President in the early days.

     Hopefully our republic can course correct in ways the Roman Republic did not.

Plutarch: Fall of the Roman Republic

This Blog: Theodosius I

More Groucho Marx Quotes

 

These are quotes of Groucho Marx's that can be found in various resources.  Enjoy them on April Fool's or any other day.  

• The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.  If you can fake that, you've got it made.
• I must confess, I was born at a very early age.
• I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.
• Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
• I intend to live forever or die trying.
• A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running. 
• All people are born alike-- except Republicans and Democrats.
• Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?
• A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere. 
• She got her looks from her father.  He's a plastic surgeon.
• Either he's dead, or my watch has stopped. 
• Why, a four-year-old child could understand this.  Run out and find me a four-year-old child:  I can't make head nor tail out of it.
• Before I speak, I have something to say. 
• Next time I see you, remind me not to talk to you. 
• Humor is reason gone mad.   --Groucho Marx 

     The silly and the serious live side by side on this blog.  That describes Groucho Marx, also, in ways much of the public would not have suspected.  Groucho was born Julius Henry Marx on 2 October 1890 in New York City.  His parents were German-Jewish immigrants, although his father, called "Frenchy" was from a region called Alsace-Lorraine, which was punted back and forth between Germany and France for decades.

      The family was often strained financially because Frenchy was a terrible tailor.  Groucho's mother, Minnie Schoenberg, was the sister of the Vaudeville performer, who changed his name to Al Sheen.  Groucho was the fourth oldest of six children total, but, since the eldest died in infancy, Groucho moved through life as the third oldest.  However, Groucho was often cast as the seemingly oldest in most of the movies.  His character had usually acquired some sort of undeserved "position", making him seem older.  Chico and Harpo were cast repeatedly as the slapstick ne'er-do-wells.  Zeppo, in the movies he was in, was usually the young love interest. But all this would come much later.

     Groucho had a seemingly high intelligence.  He read voraciously and had ambitions of becoming a doctor.  However, his family did not have enough money to support these ambitions. Additionally, their mother had ambitions to be a stage mother.

     Minnie paid for Chico (Leonard) to get piano lessons. But he often skipped lessons and gambled the money away.  He was an inveterate gambler his whole life. This caused Groucho later on to return to work in movies he would rather not have done, to bail out Chico financially.

     Harpo was a self-taught harp player.  Because of this, he strung his own harp in the "wrong" key, and he or other musicians always had to compensate.  

     Groucho was the first to enter semi-professional music.  Though the family remained Jewish (largely secular Jews), Groucho took a position singing for an Episcopal choir. He was noted to have a lovely tenor voice.  He went on the road, touring.  His mother, hoping to cash in on what little success Groucho had, pushed his brothers into the act.  It was initially a serious musical act.  (This is a very compressed version of this. Groucho had many other trials and travails along the way.)  The group struggled, as many travelling groups did in that era.  One day, when the audience was not cooperative, the brothers turned their act into a comedy act, and that took off. Eventually, the group discovered that Harpo did better when mute, and that became part of the act.

     Though a comic genius, Groucho found that he could not be taken seriously for his intellect. This was very difficult for him.  He began to be the sort of person who couldn't turn off his performing persona.  Because it was a barbed wit that needed a straight person (like Margaret Dumont),  Groucho destroyed the self-esteem of some of his wives, and their marriages along with it.

     Groucho also developed worries about money and had insomnia.  He died in 1977, the same day Elvis Presley died. Because Groucho's fame had faded, his passing went relatively unnoticed, since it was on the same day as Elvis' passing. 

Happy Veteran's Day

 "Freedom is not free."  --attributed to Air Force Colonel Walter Hitchcock, during his time serving at the New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI).  It is now engraved on the Korean War Memorial in Washington, DC. 

Here are some patriotic photos you may find moving this Veteran's Day... or any other patriotic holiday. They were all taken in the fall in Northern Arizona. 

Military Guest Lodging
Near Flagstaff, AZ

Old Ft. Tuthill Parade Grounds
Now part of the County Fair Grounds

Korean War Era Jeep
Military Musem, Ft. Tuthill

Commemorative Marker
Aircraft Training Accident, WW2
San Franciso Mountains

Patriot of Another Country

 
    July, of course, celebrates American Independence Day.  Demonstrations of patriotism will abound. There are patriotic posts scattered throughout this blog. 

     This July, the blog is looking at quotes from a German patriot, Chancellor Otto von Bismark of the old German Empire.  I never used to seek out Bismark quotes because I thought his militarism (which united the Germans under the Prussians) was a big factor in the long-term problems Germany created, via starting two world wars.   

     Bismark lived from 1815-1898.  Though he served as Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871-1890, when he began his career, there was no unified Germany.  There was a collection of princedoms and kingdoms that all spoke German dialects.  (The High German standardized initially by Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into German in the 1500s was also known across these principalities.)

     There had been movements to unify Germany in peaceful ways.  These movements had democratic unification in mind.  Most notable were student movements of 1848.  When these failed, many of the more democratic-minded young Germans fled to the US or Canada.

     Eventually, German was forcefully and militarily unified under the German Kaisers, with Otto von Bismark heading these efforts for a time.  Ultimately, Kaiser Wilhelm II's vanity would not allow him to share power nor the public stage with Bismark, who was forced into retirement.  Wilhelm did not rule well without Bismark to guide and restrain him.  Wilhelms decisions and pride led Germany into World War I and the end of the Prussian monarchy.

Caricature of Bismark by William Stolz, d. 1893 (Public Domain)

     In looking at Bismark, however, it turns out there was far more to him than militarism.  Scattered across the internet are interesting quotes attributed to Bismark.  It is very difficult in this case to track down when and in what circumstances he said each.

     As I curated this list, I tried to group them by topic, bridged by attributed quotes that covered the previous and the next topic:

     

• That which is imposing here on earth has always something of the quality of the fallen angel who is beautiful but without peace, great in his conceptions and exertions but without success, proud and lonely. 
• Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
•  Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.
•  What we learn from History is that no one learns from History.
•  A really great man is known by three signs-generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.
•  Man cannot control the current of events. he can only float with them and steer.
•  The life of a man is like a game of chess, which he plays according to his art.
•  Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is over already.
•  A bad plan that is well executed will yield much better results than a good plan that is poorly executed.
•  Love is blind; friendship tries not to notice.
•  Hounds follow those who feed them.
•  I have never lived on principles. When I have had to act, I never first asked myself on what principles I was going to act, but I went at it and did what I thought fit. I have often reproached myself for my want of principle.
•  When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.
•  People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.
•  Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.
•  Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war. 
• A generation that has taken a beating is always followed by a generation that deals one.
•  A little caution outflanks a large cavalry.
•  Woe to the leader whose arguments at the end of a war are not as plausible as they were at the beginning.
•  Show me an objective worthy of war and I will go along with you.
•  You can do everything with bayonets, but you are not able to sit on them.

       Otto von Bismarck in Retirement, 1881
(Public Domain)