Honoring 9/11 victims

Today is the 8th anniversary of that tragic day. As I thought of making my comeback to blogging, I thought no greater post could I make than to once again honor those who perished that day. So I’m not starting with politics. As I did 3 years ago, I gave my blog a simpler theme and limited it to showing one post.

First, I honor Scott Hazelcorn, an employee at Cantor Fitzgerald. Here’s what I posted last year.

“…Hazelcorn, 29, was a trader of long-term treasury bonds at Cantor Fitzgerald; his girlfriend, Amy Callahan, was a special-education teacher. The pair had plans for a summer camp for needy kids. Scott often told his parents that he wanted to buy an ice cream truck, so he could hear the squeals of children all day.”

This year, I also asked to remember someone else so I could learn about them. The name I received was George A. Llanes. George worked for Carr Futures on the 92nd floor of World Trade Center North tower. A poignant post by his step dad can be found here.

Google books has part of the book Portraits of 9/11 which starts off with,

George Llanes was a sensitive, studious child, the kind that classmates often teased.

George was an only child and didn’t move out of his parents house until he was nearly 34, shortly before his death, because he had started smoking and he wanted to get a dog, both of which would give his mother allergy attacks.

It appears that George was a funny guy cracking jokes and making people laugh. You can read tributes to him here.

He was also a poet. He had given his mother a bound copy of his poems and when they cleaned out his apartment after his death, they found poems everywhere.

It was Mr. Llanes devotion to his dog, that led to his death. The dog,

a pug named Mae Mae, persuaded him to rejigger his work schedule. He switched to a schedule of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. from an ordinary one of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., despite a lifelong aversion to getting up early.

Had he been on his normal schedule, George would have not yet been at work on that fateful morning.

Two men. One sunny and outgoing. The other, a shy poet. Both dead much too early.

This day is Scott’s and George’s.

Project 2996 is the driving force behind these tributes. Here is their Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, become a fan. If you have a blog, post a tribute. If you don’t, you can still honor a victim.

Filed under: History, September 11 , 9/11, George A. Llanes, Scott Hazelcorn, terrorism, World Trade Center

Didn’t we fight a war about this?

9 US States Declare Sovreignty

I believe this is called secession, and I’m pretty sure we fought a war over this. So why is it coming up again?

On a somewhat related note,  Human Events offered a book The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War which looks designed to show the North and her leaders did nothing right and the South and her leaders did nothing wrong regarding the Civil War.

It will show

Why Robert E. Lee had a higher regard for African Americans than Lincoln did

How, if there had been no Civil War, the South would have abolished slavery peaceably (as every other country in the Western Hemisphere did in the nineteenth century)

How the Confederate States of America might have helped the Allies win World War I sooner.

Leading Northern generals–like McClellan and Sherman–hated abolitionists

Bombing people “back to the Stone Age” got its start with the Federal siege of Vicksburg

General Sherman professed not to know which was “the greater evil”: slavery or democracy

Stonewall Jackson founded a Sunday school for slaves where he taught them how to read

General James Longstreet fought the Battle of Sharpsburg in his carpet slippers

Is this really “the truth of the Civil War?”

Filed under: History , book, Civil War, secession, sovereignty, Tenth Amendment, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War

Fifty year anniversary of “The Day The Music Died”

(H/T According to Coop).

I wasn’t a big Holly, Richardson or Valens fan although I remember the songs, but I did like “American Pie” by Don McLean. Shortly after it came out a DJ recorded an annotated version. It was similar to this one.

Are any of them accurate? Who knows? Only McLean knows for sure and I’ve never heard him help to interpret his song.

Filed under: History, Music , American Pie, Buddy Holly, Don McLean, History of Rock and Roll, J. P. Richardson, Music, Richie Valens, The Day the Music Died

Challenger disaster anniversary

Ed Morrissey has video at Hot Air about the disaster and President Reagan’s speech on it.

Filed under: History, Science , Challenger, NASA, Ronald Reagan

Apollo I and Challenger

Hot Air reminds us

Forty-one years ago today, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chafee perished in a capsule fire that almost derailed the Apollo program and our eventual triumph on the Moon. Twenty-three years ago tomorrow, we lost seven more astronauts in the Challenger explosion — Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik, and teacher Christa McAuliffe.

As a science geek when I was younger (and before they used “geek” or “nerd” to describe us), I followed the space program religiously. Being close to the Kennedy Space Center was a bonus.

I was overseas when the Challenger tragedy occured and had to follow the news on radio.

Filed under: History, Science , Apollo I, Challenger, NASA, US space program

Rebel flag to rise again at I-75

From Tampa Bay Online.com

With NFL officials from New York and football teams from Pittsburgh and Phoenix about to march on Tampa, the Sons of Confederate Veterans have vowed this:

The 1,800-square-foot confederate battle flag shall rise again.

The flag flies near the intersection of I-4 and I-75 just east of Tampa. It’s part of a memorial to Confederate veterans.

Many in the South look at the Confederate battle flag as merely harking back to a period of history, of their ancestry. Many also see it as freedom of expression.

African-Americans see it as a symbol of slavery.

Most of the time, however, the Stars and Bars comes out in response to some racial issue, usually when the perception is that African-Americans are being favored to whites. It was extensively used in the South to terrorize African-Americans and those who sought to aid them.

Filed under: History, Social issues , Confederate flag, freedom of expression, History, racism, Stars and Bays

For Obama, Lincoln was model president

From CNN.com

In the last couple of years, several best-selling books have focused on the life and political skills of the nation’s 16th president. And one man in particular has taken a particular interest in not just reading about the Illinois politician, but also modeling himself politically after him.

Yeah, about that modeling,

During the Civil War, Lincoln appropriated powers no previous President had wielded: he used his war powers to proclaim a blockade, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, spent money without congressional authorization, and imprisoned 18,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers without trial.

Hmmm.

Other important legislation involved economic matters, including the first income tax and higher tariffs.

During the war, Lincoln’s Treasury Department effectively controlled all cotton trade in the occupied South — the most dramatic incursion of federal controls on the economy. [All emphasis mine]

Is this the kind of model he intends to follow?

I wait and watch.

Filed under: Barack Obama, History , Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama

Historians say Obama is no Lincoln

From Politico.com,

Eric Foner, a Columbia historian who has written extensively on the Civil War era, agreed that comparing one’s self to Lincoln sets a rather high bar for success, and could come off like “a certain kind of hubris.”

Oooo. A politician with hubris. There’s something you don’t see very often.

Filed under: Barack Obama, History , Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, History, Politics

Not a Team of Rivals At All

So argue our friends at Shepherd Express, and, in a sense, they’re right.

But you could argue, Doris Kearns Goodwin notwithstanding, that Lincoln’s wasn’t really either.

It all depends on your criteria.

Filed under: Barack Obama, History , Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, Team of Rivals

Kennedy’s assassination 11/22/63

Forty-five years ago today, John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Here’s the front page from the NY Times. I used to have a copy of the local paper from my home town. Or maybe my sister has it. Here’s the article from that day.

I was in 6th grade at the time. We had just finished lunch. Another teacher came in crying and one of my buddies whispered, “I bet the president’s been shot.” The TV was turned on and sure enough that’s what had happened.

We had no more classes that day. We watched the news coverage till school ended in a couple of hours. He was killed on a Friday. There were only three networks back then so it was watch the coverage or don’t watch TV at all.

I remember the funeral, the riderless horse, the caisson, John, Jr. saluting. I don’t remember watching the actual event of Lee Harvey Oswald being gunned down by Jack Ruby, although I’ve seen it many times since. Maybe I was at church.

Since then we’ve learned a lot about the Kennedy years–the mistresses, the behind-the-scenes activities, and more. But back then he was a young president gunned down for no apparent reason.

Prof. John McAdams of Marquette University, who also writes the Marquette Warrior blog, has an extensively linked site to explore The Kennedy Assassination with an index and search page . I highly recommend it. Wikipedia’s articles are also recommended.

Here’s what I wrote three years ago.

I look at the Kennedy Assassination like instant replay in football. The call was made with the Warren Commission. It was looked at again by the House Select Committee on Assassinations who found evidence of a conspiracy but elimated all the popular conspirators. They couldn’t identify anyone in the conspiracy. That to me is inconclusive evidence that would not overturn a pro football call and does not overturn the original conclusion for me.

Others have different opinions and this is one conspiracy that will never be settled. Most of those involved have passed on.

You may not know that C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died on the same day.

Filed under: History , Aldous Huxley, C. S. Lewis, Jack Ruby, John Kennedy assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald