The New York Post article cited above was featured here a few weeks ago. A comment after the article indicated Andy Jackson’s place has already been “similarly profaned”.

I’d been to Monticello days before and it’s as ugly as described.

I know these people – the Jeffersons.

Tom fathered no children with Sally Hemings, or any other woman, black or white, other than his wife, Martha.

Nah, you’re wrong.

You’re like progressives on TV news who wax profoundly with inarguable authority about really bad ideas. Next, tell us how it’s best to water the lawn after two inches of rain.

While you were looking did you notice no mention of the Lincoln administration advocating emancipation in inaugurating war to oppose secession? It wasn’t until two years from the beginning that they changed the rules in fear that the CSA would be recognized by England.

The only contemporary calls from the North to end slavery came from a few newspaper editors and poets with borrowed melodies. Even in the event there is little evidence of concern for humanity rather than simple politics.

If Southern states hadn’t seceded slavery would have simply continued, wouldn’t it? We have the answer from no less an authority than President Lincoln, himself.

Robert E. Lee could never had fought a defensive war with any hope of winning. The precedents cited are usually George Washington and Nathanael Greene during the Revolutionary War, both of whom, while commanding smaller armies, also faced smaller British armies. Lee faced a resolute adversary separated only by the Potomac, not weeks and an ocean away as the Continentals did. Among advantages it afforded Lincoln’s armies were reinforcement and re-supply almost as needed.

The war was near an end at Richmond when Lee took command of the CSA’s largest army in spring, 1862, in front of possibly the best outfitted and trained army ever assembled. His intention to destroy the Federal army wasn’t realized, yet a month later the narrative had flipped. Some like to say Lee often fought with numerical superiority then didn’t follow up victories. In nearly every case his Army of Northern Virginia expended tremendous effort in maneuver and battle with corresponding casualties because they didn’t have the luxury of waiting as the Federals had another army within a day’s march.

Lee’s alternative was retreat, retreat, assuredly ending with being besieged and having supply lines cut. The numerous examples of the strategy and it’s result include Petersburg two years after Lee took command. Lee knew the people in the North as well as the South and thought he could destroy Lincoln’s largest army, thereby weakening the will of Northern people and causing their politicians to sue for peace. He and his army fought a great defensive campaign starting with the Wilderness, spring, 1864, warding off many blows through Col Harbor, to inevitably end in encirclement in Petersburg.

General Lee’s only mistake at Gettysburg was the third day. The ANV had chances the first two days for great victories and he had such confidence in his army he was convinced one more battle would bring victory. His mistake was operating with the expectation of having his plans carried out as he’d had for the previous year with General Jackson. The disappointments of the first two days could have dampened his expectations but didn’t.

You are spot on with your perspective of Gettysburg. I made the almost identical observation above, minutes before. “[Lee’s] mistake was operating with the expectation of having his plans carried out as he’d had for the previous year with General Jackson. The disappointments of the first two days could have dampened his expectations but didn’t”, leading to the disaster of Pickett’s charge.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone attribute Lee’s aggressiveness and failures at Gettysburg to his faithful assumption that the ANV would continue as if Jackson was still there. It made sense they would maintain aggressiveness but it seems Lee neither considered completely what they had lost a Chancellorsville, nor his own frame of mind.

I think it explains more about the results of Gettysburg in two paragraphs than a century and a thousand volumes from academics and lecturers.

I won’t argue with Bonekemper. He had Credentials. He had the one point on his side that I can’t argue with: Lee lost.

In actuality, it leaves him with polemics. The Federal War Dept. had the South almost surrounded by the end of 1862, with armies occupying much of, or marching throughout, the Confederate states. Lee was certainly the wrong man to lead a guerrilla war – he said so to Gen. Alexander at Appomattox – but the Southern people wouldn’t have supported it anyway; the Northern people wouldn’t have even known of it, nor cared. Whether defensive strategy or defeat in battle led to the loss of life, land and property, the result would be the same. Lincoln’s government wasn’t letting go. Lee thought forcing the surrender of Lincoln’s Host would convince the North otherwise.

I think Lee’s reasoning was sound, if not successful in the end. The whole thing was tragic but I think what the Confederate nation and it’s armies achieved is remarkable, starting with nothing and coming close at a few points of reaching it’s goal. It only seems contradictory to say “they never had a chance and yet…” .

Lee was right about something else: “…one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin.” He hated politics but he knew the resolve of the politicians he faced.

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

No, you can’t do better than Freeman.

Freeman’s 3 volume LEE’S LIEUTENANTS, while not strictly biography, is close though.

Whether you’re serious or not, there has been a Directors Cut for GODS AND GENERALS. Includes a complete additional story line involving actor John Wilkes Booth and Harrison the Spy. Also adds Sharpsburg/Antietam. Removes a few scenes. I forget which.

I admit I’ve never been able to stay with 3 vol. Lieutenants, many say it’s better than the 4 vol. biography which I’d like to read again. I still want to read Freeman’s 7 vol.Washington.

Given my actuarial status, I’d better hurry.

You are right.

We had the moral, legal and political right to the government of our choosing. Whether secession was a good idea may be questioned but the manner in which Lincoln’s government prosecuted the war renders the affirmative easier.

A curious ignorance, today, among many purporting to be conservative of the North’s precipitating the war, treatment of non-combatants in the South and obliterating of civil rights in the north reveals unadulterated Neo-Conservatism. If they decry abuses from “Obama and Biden” they could do worse than look to the Lincoln Administration as precedent.

And for what it’s worth, we didn’t lose the war – we just wore ourselves out kicking their butt.

We had the moral, legal and political right to the government of our choosing. Whether secession was a good idea may be questioned but the manner in which Lincoln’s government prosecuted the war renders the affirmative easier.

A curious ignorance, today, among many purporting to be conservative of the North’s precipitation of the war, treatment of non-combatants in the South and obliterating civil rights in the North reveals unadulterated Neo-Conservatism. If they decry abuses from recent administrations they could do worse than look to the Lincoln Administration for precedent.

That ignorance is manifest in default acceptance of the condition of the union of states, the United Sates, from the 20th century and beyond to that of the 1800’s. Robert E. Lee and millions of other citizens of Southern states were products of their homes, immediate environment and state from birth, without further consideration. Lee and other officers resigned their commissions over prospects of familicide, prospects they were never going to accept. Those prospects, just the same as suicide, are bound to be outside demands of the Oath of Allegiance.

The whole thing was tragic. Lee was as American as anybody in the North – Lincoln, Grant or anybody else. That he chose the losing side of the contest he never regretted. Nor do I. It pleases me that my people refused willful subjugation, just as they did with the Spirit of ’76. In the event, if JW Booth had stuck to acting we wouldn’t even be concerned with it.

” …one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin.”

It’s correct that the South fired the first shot of the war and I’ve argued, at times, that it was a mistake. I’m not sure that the seceded states wouldn’t have later rejoined the union if cooler heads had prevailed. It’s a difficult argument, though, that even in the absence of a declaration of war, manning and supplying forts in Charleston Harbor wasn’t an act of war, notwithstanding any question of ownership of the forts, South Carolina or the US. Correspondence abounds between Lincoln, his cabinet and the officers commanding that shows the expected result. Pardon the tedium but one of the earliest, from Cpt. Montgomery Meigs, reads:

By great exertions, within less than six days from the time the subject was broached in the office of the President, a war steamer sails from this port……While the mere throwing of a few men into Fort Pickens may seem a small operation, the opening of the campaign is a great one……This is the beginning of the war which every statesman and soldier has foreseen since the South Carolina ordinance of secession. (Ellipses have no effect on context.)

The Star of the West sailing to provision an already provisioned Fort Sumter was not far behind and the rest is history.

The question of perpetual union was argued from the Constitutional Convention onward, usually with New England states threatening secession. It’s a messy argument. The states didn’t enter the union by coercion, nor did they expect to be held at gunpoint to stay. After secession, appeal by the Southern states for redress of grievances to the US Supreme Court was as moot as demand for adherence to the US Constitution. We wanted nothing to do with DC. I occasionally wonder, Why didn’t they just let us go?

The argument was decisively settled by April, 1865. I’ve never heard it from anyone else but still believe if Lincoln had lived it would barely be a story. I have no use for him but have no doubt he was prepared to be completely magnanimous following unconditional surrender.

I knew nothing of the whole thing until adulthood – thought as a kid the “Confederate flag” was something bikers wore. I became interested when I saw and sometimes experienced disdain as a Southerner. It made me understand and like the people from whom I’ve descended. It’s never bothered me having lost the war, only wishing to avoid calumny. Along with the rest of the solid South, I’ve licked my wounds and remain a patriotic American. Still, I see things and wonder if they could be better and think about 1861.

I also, in this time, warn people who talk of taking on Washington or seceding that “we tried it once and it didn’t turn out too good”.

Sir:
I wrote a reply to your recent but evidently neglected to click “reply” first, so stands alone.

Old Virginia

…..If I Can Dream …..Suspicious Minds……Follow That Dream…..Big Hunk O’ Love
Mystery Train…..Reconsider Baby….Blue Christmas…….My Way…….That’s Alright Mama…..

This could take all day.

If ever a biopic, documentary or even a book was superfluous and just plain un-needed in introducing and explaining someone, it’s with Elvis Presley. A beautiful, eccentric man, he opened himself to anybody listening. If you can’t feel something in yourself with his interpretation of much of his music, none of which he wrote, you’re in denial or not listening.

By the end of Elvis’ career, his influences hardly mattered. Elvis made everything his own and never cheated himself or listeners with the care and performance of his vocals. Unfortunate release of a live recording late in his life, betraying slurred vocals from abuse of pharmaceuticals, stands as an aberration.

He was a good guy, too.

I think the act would be an umbrella term for general redistribution. It wouldn’t require hundreds of acres and a barnyard full of equipment.

I know one gentleman who is considered by some as a farmer who has a couple of acres and a couple of tractors. He produces and sells some vegetables and firewood but few would see him at his place and think he was a farmer. He’s a fine guy, a hard worker and much respected. I may not object to him getting aid but I’m sure there’ll be bogus claims.

Try this:

Next time you pass through a highway construction zone see if you can tell who the guys are with the clipboards, the guys in the critical position making sure the job is done to specs, to last and to assure safety of travelers.

Tangentially, not since I watched Neil Armstrong step on the moon have I ever wanted to travel in space, but a recent article telling about the next moon landing in a few years ended with the matter-of-fact that the flight will see the first woman and minority step on the moon; it may have included a sexually confused person. There’s a box checking flight I can skip.

The contractor digging up the grave referred to Gen’l Hill’s remains as “Inventory. LOL!” on an Instagram post.

Absolutely true.

I live near Richmond. I never would have lived there but always thought it was a cool place. On the day Gen’l Lee’s statue came down, a State Assemblywoman was interviewed saying she always felt uncomfortable taking Monument Ave. to the capital.

I won’t be traveling down Monument Ave. again, or any other street within the city boundaries. I just don’t feel comfortable being there. It’s not a blood vow, I’m just not going. I don’t say it with a shrug – I loathe the place.

But I wondered – will the city of Richmond be a better place in the future, when I’m not there, than it was in the past when I may have frequented it but the esteemed Assembly member felt uncomfortable? Everyone knows the answer.

You are right, of course. I knew people like Uncle Remus growing up. Local accent, great story teller, generous. Maybe because it was my childhood but they’re my favorite people, still.

Joel Chandler Harris’ stories, as told through Remus and B’rer Rabbit, were taken from African folklore. There is stuff to learn from the stories; of much use is to convince an adversary to “fling me in dat brier-patch” by making him think I fear it the most. It’s funny they complain about having their culture stolen and they are the ones insisting it be forgotten.

We have to accept the new paradigm of the Majority Black population, made entirely of middle and upper middle class, while serving them as compliant white people. The last is said with tongue in cheek.

Y’know, now that I think about it, I must have missed the issue of National Geographic that showed apes trashing their habitat.

They’re just making stuff up now.

The same person is getting a monument to replace a Confederate in Baltimore. This myth sure doesn’t measure up to the Myth of the Lost Cause. Then again, that the Lost Cause was a myth is a myth by itself. It wasn’t even a lost cause.

They’re just making stuff up now.

The same person is getting a monument to replace a Confederate in Baltimore. This myth sure doesn’t rank with the Myth of the Lost Cause. Then again, the Lost Cause wasn’t a myth. It wasn’t even a lost cause.

They’re just making stuff up now.

The same person is getting a monument in Baltimore to replace a Confederate. This myth sure doesn’t rank with the Myth of the Lost Cause. Then again, Gen’l Lee’s Lost Cause wasn’t a myth. It wasn’t even a lost cause.

There was recently a report from a major outlet about NASA’s hope and plan to resume landing people on the moon. At the end of the article was the pointed promise that the first flight would feature the first woman and minority to land on the moon.

That’s fine with me but I’ll quickly give up my seat with a venture that prioritizes box checking over expertise, fitness and daring. They can send Amazon aboriginals if they are able and I suspect they wouldn’t find any that fit the bill.

The dark side of the moon isn’t the place to be explaining the sexual orientation of a cabinmate, either.

If you mean morally – absolutely. I’ll ride with any driver. Any good driver.
Nor am I qualified in any other way because of the third criterion. Strictly terra firma for me.
But, how about you? With your life and your hopes of success depending on it who would you ride with, Bubba Wallace or Mario Andretti? A politician or a champion?

Yes, I would give up the seat if they are considering demographics first, “instead of competence”.

No, I absolutely don’t make the cut to be a space traveler. I lack the skill, knowledge – and competence. If forced onto a spacecraft as a passenger I would pray the flight crew were the best available. Given reports, there would be cause to doubt it.

I bet Mario Andretti can still stick in the curves. If age denies the hypothetical, substitute Jimmie Johnson. He’s the only other driver I can think of at the moment.

Agreed very much.

I think of the history of Charles and Anne Lindbergh who… ‘ took the first aerial photographs of Mayan sites in British Honduras (now Belize), Guatemala, and Mexico, as well as ancestral Puebloan sites in southwestern United States. Their milestone photography illuminated the details of pre-Columbian societies and became permanent aerial records of these settlements.’

https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/pioneering-aerial-archeology-charles-and-anne-lindbergh

No doubt such an act today would be considered a racial hate crime of some type.

Space flight and aerospace engineering doesn’t suffer fools.

I was watching a Celtics game when Bird was moving right to left on the TV screen across the baseline without the ball, there was an errant pass or deflection underneath the basket, Bird dove and with his right hand rifled the ball across his body, over his left shoulder behind him to Dennis Johnson (I think) standing at half court, in the opposite corner. Clumsily worded but it wasn’t a conventional play.

A blind, one-handed, falling, half-court, cross-court strike to keep possession. That’s court sense. I think Larry Bird would be great in any era.

Remember about 10 years earlier in L.A. when even Fred Sanford didn’t want the black dentist pulling his tooth?

Grant took command of a magnificent army built by McClellan with overwhelming advantage in manpower, in every instance with the ability to replace his losses, unlimited supply of materiel and sustenance for the army, furnished by unmolested supply lines.

He matched the president with single-minded resolve to win by any means necessary, never flinching at hurling troops into bloody combat. From the Wilderness to Petersburg he saw more casualties than his enemy had troops in their entire army. Grant himself said, “I don’t maneuver”.

Grant won unconditional surrender at Appomattox, showing admirable magnanimity, again following Lincoln’s example. Nevertheless, did Grant do anything in Virginia or the west before that to convince you he would have been successful under other circumstances?

He was successful with his army. Would he have been with the other guy’s army?

I don’t get popular dismissal of early Beatles. The Cavern Club through “Help” is the real deal, pure rock’n’roll, Chuck Berry plus the Everly Brothers. Berry invented the structure but the only thing he had on the Beatles was better recording sound. The Beatles were every bit as urgent and rocking, as millions of hot, sweaty girls attested to.

I was in the room during Sullivan in ’64 but too young to care. I began to listen to them as a young adult, originally the art-rock tunes starting with Revolver, Hey Jude, Sgt. Peppers, etc.; they were evocative of memories growing up.

Then I found the “Red” album, 1962 – 1966. McCartney, probably George Martin, too, liked the occasional show tune but a few ballads only lay in relief to definitive rock. John Lennon himself said, Nobody could touch us. I still like the White Album but even an early obscurity like their “Leave My Kitten Alone” jumps out of the speakers and makes me dance across the kitchen.

As long as there is interest in popular music, post-WWII, the Beatles will stand out. Anybody thinking otherwise is in denial or axe grinding.

The same goes for Elvis Presley. Elvis’ talent transcends rock music, a whole other thing. It’s not just aging boomers filing past Graceland’s gates at least twice a year.

At any point in the future “I Saw Her Standing There” or “Day Tripper” will grab an unsuspecting listener by the ear, just as will “Heartbreak Hotel” or “Suspicious Minds”.

…but to answer the question within the subjective nature of popular music – Revolution 9. A major work that needs only one listen.

Allowing that the Beatles were two bands, early a rock’n’roll band, late an art-rock band, all their albums have something to offer. Even slight songs throughout their career had something not done as well elsewhere.

As previously noted, “Mr. Moonlight” has a helluva a vocal by Lennon. Not as good as “Leave My Kitten Alone”, though.

Senator Braun’s one-sided fight with the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which was made memorable by Sen. Jesse Helms when he greeted Sen. Braun in the senate chamber by literally whistling Dixie, wasn’t the earliest salvo fired against American white people.

A legal watershed was the reaction to a Federal court decision in 1990 which ruled that Alabama could display a Confederate flag at the state capitol. The decision prompted The Yale Law Journal, in 1991, to publish “Driving Dixie Down: Removing the Confederate Flag From Southern State Capitols”. The hateful Ivy League treatise began as a road map for removing symbols of Southern culture, with leftist progressives only recently using the momentum to “fundamentally transform” the United States.

At the same time, 1991, the NAACP in convention, to excite interest while faced with lagging membership adopted the resolution to target all thing Confederate. I remember reading, in the few reports about it, Well It’s Just Confederates.

Any reverence for the Confederacy is a sad pathetic charade of false honor and integrity. It’s moronic to compare the relations with Vietnam or Japan to the American Civil War. For one, those were foreign governments that have existed in their unique geographies for quite some time and completely independent from the United States. The Confederacy was a domestic insurgent movement intent on destroying the United States from inside. And worse, their reasons for doing so were objectively abhorrent even by the standards of the time. I personally do not respect or take pride in a group of people who attempted to undermine the American experiment and in effect spit on the graves of our Founding Fathers. And I say this as someone who grew up in the South. The Lost Cause revisionism began as soon as the war ended, and it should only take a modicum of historical understanding to see that rehabilitating the men who were responsible for the deaths of more than 1% of the total American population in perhaps the single darkest time in American history is an absolutely useless endeavor for anyone who can honestly call themselves a real American.

A prominent character in the War, observing behavior in men and their practices in the Federal government during and soon after the fight, noted to a correspondent, “The consolidation of the states into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.

A conservative in 2023 may see distinct prescience in the statement.

I agree – “Knowing Me, Knowing You” is a great tune. It would fit on Rumours sonically and thematically.

I disagree – “Waterloo” is a fine pop song. Fun, too.

And for the life of me, I don’t see how anyone can think Dionne Warwicke is not a great singer.

You may be right about songwriting and musicianship in country music. It’s always been stellar. But do you think the product – production, songs, records, even vocals is good?

I’ve liked every generation from Jimmie Rodgers through ’60s countrypolitan and up to Red Solo Cup. Anything on current Hot Country Hits sounds like the same song, nearly too boring to be bad. I haven’t looked beyond am/fm but what’s there doesn’t sound like country music.

There was some good stuff in the ’90s and beyond but I never liked Garth Brooks either…..

…..except for “Friends In Low Places”. Everybody has had a “friends in low places” moment.

The context of your comment doesn’t need it but it’s remarkable to me that I never, anymore, hear any mention of Towe’s and Burleson’s teammate, the great, truly great, David Thompson. I’m long since a former sports fan so maybe DT’s name is evoked occasionally and I miss it.

Thompson was the most exciting – and dominant, his slender 6’4″ height notwithstanding – player I ever saw. Jordan before Jordan.

All that’s true but even before market expansion there were some great talents. I saw Dr. J live in some ABA games and couldn’t believe a man could take off from the foul line to dunk a basketball.

I’m having difficulty with the words to describe a play I saw David Thompson make live on TV. I was watching the 1974 east regional final when Thompson exploded through the lane to block a shot and his knee caught 6’8″ teammate Phil Spence on the shoulder, somersaulting to the floor and landing on his head. Knee on shoulder. I remember he’d raced down the court, mad, after refs failed to call a foul on a Pitt player as he attempted a shot.

I checked to see if I remembered it correctly and found a really grainy video of the trip and fall in the lane, without the race down the court. A remarkable feat, even without hi-def.

Nope.

You can argue with yourself into eternity about GOATs but Thompson was a great all-around basketball player, leader and a champion. I saw Erving in person and he was amazing; as a one-time UNC basketball fan I watched Thompson dozens of times and I agree with Michael Jordan – David Thompson was one of the greats and truly electrifying. Erving was Dr. J, Thompson is a homeboy and they’re both Hall of Famers.

Erving’s and Thompson’s prime years were nearly concurrent. Before Thompson’s knee injuries caused diminishment their numbers were nearly identical: ppg, fg% even 3p%; Erving had a clear lead in rebounds; steals, assists within fractions.

While Erving was winning a couple ABA titles, Thompson led NCState over UCLA for the NCAA championship, not much difference. The only other title between them was after D. J met Moses Malone.

I think most post Beatles music was made only because of who they were. Most of the time they were in dire need of each other.

All Things Must Pass is great as is “Instant Karma”; Shaved Fish and Rock’N’Roll, Ringo – Blast From Your Past, Band On the Run, Wings’ Greatest are all good as are a few scattered singles and other tunes. The rest is, at best, just Soundtrack of Our Life. The Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There” through “Day Tripper” can still make me dance across the kitchen floor.

John Lennon was a confirmed contrarian and probably would never have been a political adherent but I agree it’s entirely possible he could’ve voted for Trump. He once admitted casually, I like making money.

I remember, well, sitting on my father’s knee; I have a picture of him at the knee of the nephew of R.E. Lee; Gen’l Lee’s father, Harry, whom he barely knew, knew and hated Thomas Jefferson, the feeling being mutual; Tom knew a lot of people.

Maybe it would be more impressive to say Harry Lee paid a debt to George Washington with a check that bounced.

It’s the best I can do. I wish I knew some ballplayers or somebody.

Dr. Wilson, I presume?

I wish I had caught this thread two weeks ago.

The first five lines in your comment go a long way towards making many of the comments before and for the two weeks since superfluous meanderings. I’m privileged to say I’m familiar with much of your published work, half of which taught me something, the other half serving to confirm things I’ve learned through experience and casual, though continuing and avid, study. I can also say I’ve enjoyed it all, both because of the scholarship and because a lot of it is funny as heck.

The series of four, slim, “Essential Books, A Southern Reader’s Guide” alone are entertaining by themselves.

Good work.

You should get used to it.

I was in Richmond, Va. in 1996 and could have used those exact words except for substituting “Arthur Ashe” for Tubman. Ashe memorials were fine, he was an accomplished and dignified man. Yet, the statue depicting him that was installed on the world-class Monument Ave. is a monstrosity; cliched and formless, notable for showing both arms upraised, a tennis racket in one hand, books in another, children at his feet. The timeless memorial has him wearing a warm-up suit; he may as well have been wearing pajamas.

Following your theme, EVERYTHING else was torn down. Bad form, notwithstanding.

(I meant “formerly world-class Monument Ave.)

Finally! Somebody is trying to tell the story about Charlottesville on a platform with some reach.

I was in and out of the city in the years, weeks and days – and the day of – the rally. In real time up to the day before the event a local news station described machinations leading up to the rally. At one point council members invited counter protesters to the city to “not let Unite the Right get away with it” – “it” being a peaceful march.

Padraig Martin writes, as Neil Kumar points out, that very thing happened by order of city officials to the police during the march. As only Martin’s personal experience is detailed, not mentioned is that the Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, also was part of the decision to allow the leftists to attack the marchers.

Also not mentioned: One of the council members, after becoming mayor a few years later, replied on Facebook to questions about Charlottesville no longer celebrating Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, “I’m sure that he’s able to celebrate his birthday in hell”.

To borrow from “Dandy” Don Meredith, “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts then every day would be Christmas”.

The reason Tiger came up short of Nicklaus doesn’t matter, does it? There’s more to success as an athlete than dominating for periods at a time. I admire Tiger, he’s one of the greats. By any measure he’s had a remarkable career. I don’t think he’s a bad guy but lacking something in character and discipline isn’t a footnote that overrides results.

Nicklaus’ unwavering competitiveness and dedication spanning two generations of competition leaves him, still, the greatest. So, it seems to me.

Your analogy to mechanics is entirely accurate. It’s ancient history but at the end of the 1950’s International Harvester ambitiously began to produce tractors with stepped-up horsepower, neglecting to bolster the rest of the power train and implement hitches. The result wasn’t by any measure disastrous, the problems were remedied through warranty and redesign, but the damaged reputation allowed John Deere to leap ahead in sales.

There are still plenty IH/Farmall tractors of the ’60’s and ’70’s being used daily in various ways but it’s fair to wonder about the design miscalculation. Sometimes we attempt to carry more weight – or propel a ball farther – than than the equipment allows.

Come on, the CSA was the most non-Jewish society and government ever. Benjamin was nothing but an employee and if his purpose was securing help from the British he failed miserably.

The Southern states were always and determined to be forever agrarian in occupation, Jeffersonian in governance, and no more at risk of being a British subject than Francis Marion.

Pitchers and catchers use the shift to take away half the field, pounding the inside of the plate and inside off the plate, then going away off speed for swing-and-miss and weak contact. By the nature and science of the game there is variation, including missed location, but hitters are in essence forced to hit into the shift.

I’m an old catcher. With location even good hitters can be made to hit it where you want them to hit it and regulating the shift is bound to open up the game.

I agree with your review of Mr. Kumar’s piece and especially appreciate your first paragraph. I’ve lived in the South all my life, love the people and the life. I took it for granted until getting out into the world and met many from…..a particular other region.

To be sure, I’ve known some good ol’ boys who were confirmed jackasses and a number of fine people from that other region, but I’ve always been made to feel at home wherever I was in any Southern states. That includes being at home with the history of the South, the one constant being, from colonial times to now, we only want to be left to follow our own course – maybe even having some fun every now and then.

I’m glad you got to experience it.

This is the second time I’ve seen the “rolling down hill…” line from the Hag quoted on a message forum this week. The first was without attribution and nobody noticed.

There are a dozens of lines from Merle that could be deployed in describing events these days. The only writer I’ve seen that can match him is Thomas Jefferson.

Alas, most of the comments here reveal how ignorant and destructive the people calling themselves
white are. Jews caused the Civil War and the Confederacy? No, very white Yankees caused the Civil War through their natural hypocrisy, malice, and greed. One characteristic of a Southerner is admiration of courage. Mr. Kumar has it in spades. Un like him, none of the nasty whiners here have ever done anything worthwhile

The notion that the CSA was run by Jews would be absurd if it wasn’t simply silly. The closest the people and the state came to Jewish rule was devotion to a Jewish carpenter with the Great Revival of 1863.

Judah Benjamin did a lousy job of bringing help to the cause; Moses Ezekiel fought with the rank and file during the War, and brought veneration to the CSA and her soldiers afterward.

If diminishing popularity from platform rigidity can cause the end of the Democrat Party, yes, its very possible. It would change nothing in the miserable State of the Union since campaigns and policy debate, including campaign debates, themselves, are being bypassed in favor of ballot engineering.

The 2020 presidential election is the model, of course. Popular party politics are being rendered superfluous.

I don’t consider this exchange an argument but no matter the polemics offered or the various people on the periphery, the Confederate States of America was no more created or governed by Jews than the American colonies in 1776.

I could be convinced of Jewish influence in the North given subsequent consolidation of power, industrialization and mercantilism. Whether Karl Marx was a practicing Jew or just a born one, he was an acknowledged fan of the U.S. president and his government.

The question defies synopsis – it was a messy business – but the overwhelming sentiment driving Southerners was to forever remain agrarian.

Interesting reading, I don’t dismiss the ideas out of hand.

Agreed.

Even if Robert F. Kennedy, Jr ran on, won and signed strong 2nd Amendment legislation as president, I can’t imagine he would ever nominate an Alito or Thomas for the US Supreme court. If he won the office, I can’t imagine it would be with a conservative Senate that would confirm such a nominee.

RFK, Jr. seems like an honest and intelligent man and we’ve seen the country can do worse. Other than the with the Political Science of vaccines and shutdowns, he doesn’t seem to have the audacity to defy aggressive New World Order.

I’m in total agreement. RFK, Jr hasn’t misrepresented himself, he’s a classic liberal.

Hoping he would support the 2nd Amendment is so forlorn there is no bet worth making. I offered an “If a frog had wings” “if” to underscore he’d never further sustain individual liberty versus authoritarianism. He may have something beneficial to offer but not as President of the United States.

I can’t say how many times I’ve been yelled at for pointing that out but it seems like more and more people are coming to learn it.

The true “Myth of the Lost Cause”.

Nope. You’re wrong about everything.

The Southern states were distinct from New England since 1776 and before. They were often allied but there were always rivalries and jealousies. I can cite endless and prominent references but as always, you can find out for yourself – if you want to.

There was no civil war, no Southern state had any interest with Washington D.C.. Outcome notwithstanding, we weren’t whipped. We accepted a challenge from a big bully and wore ourselves out kicking his ass.

“”””There was no civil war, no Southern state had any interest with Washington D.C..”””
—————————

Indeed. The South did not want to take over the country. They simply wanted to secede and form their own country like the 13 colonies did 80 years before. America was founded on secession. But Lincoln said – No, the union is perpetual.

I’m not disagreeing but there were some black people who gleefully led in incitement leading up to the event. I remember two town council members calling for recruitment of opposition to the legally and officially permitted Unite the Right marchers.

I’m pleased to have forgotten their names because, as you imply, they’d be clerks or service personnel without sponsorship but one of them became mayor soon after the event. Her chief distinction to posterity is, after being asked, Why is Thomas Jefferson’s birthday not being recognized this year, she replied, quote, I’m sure that he’s still able to celebrate his birthday in hell, end-quote.

Interesting, the idea of a Convention of the States. I think it’s the only answer.

There are still enough sectional differences and sympathies to imagine a positive result. It wouldn’t necessarily involve secession, just a legal redefining of interests and borders. The Solid South is still a thing, as is New England, Pacific Coast, Upper Mid-West, etc.. The Bill of Rights still reigns supreme but is emphasized, the U.S. Constitution still the law of the land but amended to define sovereignty.

The South IS still a place – twenty miles from the interstates.

Should there be an “i” rather than a “u” in “Duck”?

Henry Adams, John Adams’ gr-gandson, described classmate Rooney Lee, Gen’l Lee’s son thusly:

“… simple beyond analysis, so simple that even the simple New England student could not realize him. No one knew enough to know how ignorant he was; how childlike; how helpless he was before the relative complexity of a school…. the southerner had no mind; he had temperament… .”

Adams later won a Pulitzer for “Education of Henry Adams”, or something, but I doubt anybody cares. In the end he sounds like writers and experts on news shows waxing profoundly until everybody’s eyes glaze over leading to a commercial break.

Lee couldn’t get away from Harvard fast enough, going on to fight effectively while defending his home and family – I think Adams spent the war abroad – and further service to the end of his life. As a board member for a new founded VPI he discouraged it becoming a liberal arts schools as he considered the Harvard education of little positive consequence.

Only an anecdote. I should just agree, Yes, “Yankees and Southerners are not the same people”.

I think you’re right and it was one of the worst of many poor decisions made by Fogerty. CCR’s set, which was finally released in ’19 was tight, brutal rock’n’roll. It may be the essence of Creedence as it was recorded before three quarters of their hit songs but it’s hardly noticed. There’s nothing on the original Woodstock release that compares.

One wonders what they lost in money and legend by holding out.

Tell you what – we’ll both go back. I’ll drop you off at ’83, I’m going to keep going to ’73.

Maybe even earlier.

Notice, too, Fogerty seems to be inspired only when a Republican is in office; Blue Moon Swamp is the exception and even there the last song is a screed against a conservative, or so I’ve read. It’s perfectly okay to criticize Republicans but, C’mon, John, can’t you find something, anything, unsavory about Clintons or Obamas?

Even classic Bad Moon Rising is about Nixon, only months into his first term, after LBJ escalated Vietnam into the disaster it became.

I’ve long-since come to grips with CCR being essential, though. Not an unnecessary or misplaced note.

Eddie was great simply for his tone. Some pretty epic riffs, too.

I’m not even a huge Van Halen fan.

I should take Magritte and his intent at his word but it would not be unexpected, at an artist’s critique, to ask, What is this? with the question understood to mean, What does this represent?

Of course, the artist and his critique are concerned with the technique, color and space practiced in reaching a representation of an object but it’s not unreasonable to start with the representation itself.

Even in my distant past while eeking out a degree in art there were times and places where language of utility was sufficient. But maybe I should have taken some philosophy classes.

It seems to me baseball absolutely is getting better athletes than ever before. Year round travel ball and training makes these guys look like linebackers, all of them ripped. MLB teams often recruit, draft and sign 3 sport stars, many foregoing college commitments in football and basketball. I used to watch in envy, thinking I could do – or could have done – that. No more.

Players, infielders and outfielders, cover more ground on defense and similarly display elite sprint speed on the base paths; catchers are bigger and stronger with refined catch and throw skills. Velocity may have barely increased among starting pitchers but it seems like every reliever trotted out for the last four innings of every game touches 100mph.

I occasionally break out the complete 7 game’75 World Series between the Big Red Machine and Red Sox and while I think it shows some of the baseball ever played, all the players appear small in stature compared to today.

It hardly seems like the same game. I could be wrong. I only watch on tv and I don’t do analytics.

That’s an obvious and undeniable truth but it may be more accurate that the beginning of the end was the day Ronald Reagan left office in Jan., 1989. George HW Bush retained some of the trappings of his predecessor but formally introduced the New World Order in popular consciousness and opened the door for the Clintons and globalists.

It’s argued that Ronald Reagan was no different and it’s a certainty that the elements for takeover and dismantling of the Spirit of ’76 had long been in place. Whatever – but Reagan and the literally overwhelming popular support he enjoyed embodied nothing as much as American patriotism.

Science and common sense says the Launching Pad helped Henry Aaron hit more homers but it was also a conscious decision by Aaron. He began his career spraying line drives from left to right, but according to teammates he watched his friend, the great Eddie Mathews, getting attention for hitting homers so he wanted to do the same and became a dead pull hitter.

Mathews later said that if it was true that Aaron wanted to hit more home runs than he, then “Hank sure as hell succeeded”. As it is they have the record for most home runs as teammates, which Mathews said was his proudest accomplishment.

The focus of the game on which everything else depends, pitcher versus hitter, is exactly the same:

A good fastball is still the essential element, 1923 or 2023. Location – up and in, down and away; changing speeds – upsetting timing.

Exceptional velocity, disguised pitches with late break can create elite performance but a fastball well placed has always played, always will.

Among the others, a Jack Russell Terrorist. Anything twice their size and under. They don’t just rejoice – they brag about it.

That’s true and the training and conditioning of modern athletes make a difference too.

Anaytics have changed hitting approach as getting on base is forsaken for slugging; seems like striking out is okay now. I read recently somebody saying Pete Rose was just okay.

Notice, too, every player has an uppercut in their swing? Ted Williams preached that 80 years ago. Looks like the Walt Hriniak/Charlie Lau school of hitting is closed.

I’m pleased to have company regarding Pete Rose. He’s a dog and his fatal mistake was not ‘fessin up but he was a heck of a player and always played to win. Pete also didn’t nearly ruin the game by giving a wink-and-nod to steroid use like the players association, sportswriters – and Hall of Fame commissioner Bud Selig.

Pete Rose, an all-star when the event meant something at five positions and a key player in three championships.

The idea doesn’t have the structural integrity of a house of cards. White Europeans never “kidnapped” black people from Africa. They only purchased a product harvested and produced by other Africans.

Like a used car, a simple change of title.

I heard a black female state legislator say on the morning that Gen’l Lee’s statue was removed from Monument Ave, Richmond, Va., that she felt welcome in the city for the first time. It’s obvious now that I, a nearby resident, is not welcome there and will certainly never visit other than by summons.

At the time I posed the question, Will Richmond be a better place in the future, without the statues, than it had been for the last 120 years with them?

Just picture it.

Sort of like James Callendar and Thomas Jefferson.

A LOT like James Callendar and Thomas Jefferson.

“We like them because they are true wild animals still”.

A friend, a cat rescuer, calls them “the perfect killing machine”. I’ve also heard of a study that purports to prove cats would kill their humans if they could.

You and Jesse Lee are right. This is news only incidentally.

I told my farmer brother twenty years ago, One day you’ll get a knock at the door from two men with badges and a summons giving you 30 days to vacate your property. My family has owned and continually worked the property for almost 200 years.

Very recently, the same brother visited a neighboring farm and noticed a couple white guys he’d never seen before performing skilled farm labor. Before leaving he was able to speak with them and was told they’d fled S. Africa for their lives and, “It’s coming here next”.

There’s nothing new under the sun. This is from a memoir, published in 1906, of a veteran of the war that resulted in summary freedom for North American slaves in 1865:

“The negro under a condition of servitude, acknowledging his subordination to his superiors, is well mannered and contains himself within the bounds of perfect and unfaltering respect for the white race, even when no one is near to make him afraid. The same negro, with the supposed advantages of freedom and education, after the expenditure of much money and time in the effort to elevate him, becomes a wild beast and a terror, a prey to uncontrollable passion. How shall this be explained? Is it not fairly chargeable…. to the unqualified enfranchisement of the blacks and to the corrupt teaching of the meddling and misguided fanatics who came among the negroes and implanted in their minds erroneous and dangerous notions as to their rights and privileges, so that, with vast numbers of them, their conception of freedom is unbridled license, and their tendency to a life of idleness, immorality, and crime is truly sad and disheartening.”

I’ve always like The Band. I’ve always liked “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, even Baez’s version for the childhood memories.

As with just about all popular music, even from apparent sources of authenticity, it turn’s out the song portrays a rendering of things the author heard others say and not much else. The important tell is that Robert E. Lee was never near Tennessee at any time during or after the War. It matters. It could make me wonder about other testimonials in the song.

When I figured it out decades ago there was no sense of betrayal, having already begun to suspect the gravity of pop music. Even to this day I appreciate the sentiment of the song as sung by Levon Helm. If I want second-hand sources of events of the time I rely on Douglas S. Freeman or my 94 year old Aunt Lee; for primary sources, Sam R. Watkins in “Co. AYTCH, or a Side Show of the Big Show” or Col. Walter H. Taylor.

Well…. it’s not clear it’s about a boat, nothing in the tune hints at it. Since I’ve heard it only by terrestrial radio and ’70s speakers, I figured maybe I’ve missed “the” before Robert E. Lee; one lyric reference online shows the word, eight exclude it.

“By May the 10th, Richmond had fell” further weakens an historical narrative. Richmond was evacuated over a month before, even Johnston had surrendered in N.C. two weeks before. Virgil Kane was also mistaken about Stoneman tearing up the “Danville” tracks.

Sorry to offend but you’re supporting my observation that there’s no value in the song as a memoir and is flawed as Americana as written. It’s a good tune and charming in earnest effort. I like it.

It suits me fine to hear “Freebird” once a day – or twice – studio version in the morning, live version at night. “Sweet Home Alabama”, too. Also “Tuesday’s Gone”…. “Comin’ Home”…. “Four Walls of Raiford”…. “Call me the Breeze”…. .

They were the Real Thing.

Naming bases for Confederates from the late War had a lot more to do with honoring great Southern soldiers – in the South – than as a sales pitch for enlistment. It’s not a Lost Cause Myth that, regardless of the result of the war, the CSA wore themselves out kicking the federal army’s ass.

As recently as the first Gulf War, the top story on the nightly news was General Schwarzkopf using Lee and Jackson’s Chancellorsville strategy. I’ve recently heard some of the same analysts whining about Confederates being acknowledged at West Point. They’re still mad about the three years of embarrassing performances at the hands of an upstart nation.

The rise of Confederate imagery, such as state flags, while coming 50 years after most of the monuments, coincided with the Centennial celebration across the South. I was never taught about the War as a kid but well remember re-enactments through the mid ’60s.

A question regarding Reconstruction: How come, following the Coming of the Glory and summary freedom, the U.S. government didn’t offer the 40 acres and a mule to former slaves in westward expansion? Why didn’t their yearning for freedom create millions of black pioneer settlers?

In a related matter, I bet info-babes and other teleprompter readers are on pins and needles these days with stories about Niger.

Thanks.

Yep, the question is for anybody who insists The Late Unpleasantness was a Northern – or Republican – Crusade for Freedom.

Cool. I’m not sure what it is but I often, still, get chills when listening to their playing. It seems like they played like their lives depended on it. They’re always called a party band but they’re country blues, pure and simple.

I still like “Stairway”, once the drummer starts to play.

You ever heard “Stairway to Freebird” by Dash Rip Rock? It’s pretty good and funny as heck but not as grotesque as one would think.

The never played anymore live version from “One More From the Road” does the same for me.

The video from Bill Graham’s “Day on the Green” in Oakland, ’77, too. The video isn’t as well produced as Knebworth but the performance is great. I believe Frampton was the headliner. Skynyrd was hard to follow.

And those ’70 girls in the front rows… .

A great story from Knebworth is awestruck Skynyrd singer Jo Billingsly approached Paul McCartney backstage, he ignored her and after the show, McCartney, impressed by Skynyrd’s performance, tried to speak to Billingsly. She returned the favor, turned around and walked away.

Who knows? Land isn’t all that costly there. The county is part of the rolling hills in the Piedmont – rocky, red clay. I suspect zoning discourages development, lessening the value of the property, too.

Living on the land must be a priority for Anthony. If I’d used my hard earned pay for a few years of mortgage payments instead of a number of long abandoned classic car projects, I may have owned the 90 acres next to him.

It’s also okay if he inherited it.

A friend has, at times, taken pleasure in informing me that, “Catholics aren’t Christians”.

As someone living mostly in the secular world I never hear Catholics speaking of Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity, Protestants won’t let me pass without introducing me anew.

I agree with just about everything to one degree or another. All one needs to do is think of conditions five years ago, peace and relative prosperity, versus now; the substantial negatives of the Trump’s administration were continuing persecution and distraction of his tweeting.

Trump’s biggest failing has been fighting the last war when he could have been preparing for the next one. He could’ve used his status as reigning nominee and party leader to hammer state legislatures, courts and the media for election reform instead of constant whining about 2020, the result of which All the King’s Horses couldn’t have changed after midnight following Election Day.

Trump is a challenge even to supporters but he’s going to be the Republican nominee no matter the insistence against it by party apparatchiks and the preferences of self-styled online braintrust. He’ll still be preferable to whatever tool progressives trot out to oppose him.

Things change. Brian McCann, old-school Atlanta Braves catcher, twice counseled opposing hitters in 2013 for unbecoming behavior after hitting homers. McCann blocked home plate as the Brewers’ Carlos Gomez approached at the end of his home run trot. Gomez never touched the plate and a brawl ensued. Weeks earlier McCann allowed Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez, having hit his first homer, to touch the plate before having a heart to heart, parting as friends.

McCann and Gomez have met since, mugging for the camera, friendly ex-competitors. McCann has said he wouldn’t respond the same way, now.

Watching every night now, there seems a fine line. Flamboyance, bat-flips, etc., usually shown by Hispanic players appears okay as long as gestures are literally directed towards the player’s teammates and dugout.

Baseball was lagging. Chiefs wide receiver Elmo Wright helped introduce the end zone dance in 1971. A couple years later Neal Colzie lost a Rose Bowl game for Woody Hayes by spiking the ball after an interception, drawing a penalty. I’m old school like Brian McCann – and Steelers coach Chuck Noll who told his players, after scoring a touchdown, “Act like you’ve been there before”. But things change.

Henry Aaron once said, Any player saying he wasn’t afraid of being hit by a fastball is lying.

There have been various instances on-line recently with someone dismissing baseball players as not tough. As a kid I saw more than one tough guy come out, have a few at-bats and never play again; one in particular took his turn, ducked three pitches and was gone before his next time up.

And playing third base is worse.

I suppose context matters. Hank meant a fastball to the face. Hunt used it as a way to get on base, part of his game. There are still players like him but Hunt didn’t have armor.

A cursory search shows most of the greats under 50 HBP for their career – three switch-hitters, Eddie Murray, Mickey Mantle, Chipper Jones all under 20. A whole lot of good modern players over 100 – Derek Jeter, Manny Ramirez, Chase Utley, even Albert Pujols. I’m guessing because of crowding the plate, taking the inside away from the pitcher.