Santayana was right.
Damn it.
Adam Zyglis in the Buffalo News, Cagle Cartoon syndication
The pedant force pushes me to note Santayana’s quote is a little different (see the upper right hand corner of this blog):
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
(The Life of Reason, vol. 1: Reason in Common Sense)
The thought is not lost. Zyglis is right.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Editorial and Political Cartoons on Twitter, @EandPCartoons.
2 Comments | 
100 Milestone Documents of U.S. History, Cartoons, Education, Guns, History, Santayana's ghost, Second Amendment | Tagged: children, Education, History, Santayana's ghost, Second Anendment | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
On September 30, 1794, President George Washington mounted his horse to lead a 13,000-man all-volunteer army, against Americans who refused to pay, or threatened to not pay taxes on whiskey.
Tea Partiers and Republicans might do well to spend a few minutes refreshing their memories from history class — or getting the information they didn’t get the first time around. Citizens in western Pennsylvania, and that part of Virginia that would be come West Virgina, and the Ohio Territory, complained that federal taxes on whiskey were “theft.”
No, taxes are not “stealing.” Here’s an offending but explanatory poster I found on Facebook:
Who are the history-illiterates who make these offensive posters? Taxes are not “stolen,” at least, not according to patriots like George Washington.
I told one guy who posted it that I thought it was a crude misrepresentation of George Washington, there on the left — but that I had always suspected he didn’t like the “founders,” and was grateful to have any doubts I may have had, removed.
He said, “Huh?”
Pay your taxes, maybe they’ll put you on a stamp. This Prominent Americans series stamp of the United States from 1968 features Oliver Wendell Holmes. Wikipedia image
One could always refer to that wonderful line from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., about how he liked to pay taxes because “with them I buy civilization.” But I suspect most tax revolters in the U.S. don’t much like civilization (and they have the guns to prove it).
Instead I simply told the story of George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion, the first, and mostly-forgotten, case of U.S. tax rebels. You know the story.
I wrote:
Yeah, in 1794, a bunch of farmers out in western Pennsylvania got ticked off at taxes. They said paying taxes was like the government stealing from them. And, they had their representatives explain to President George Washington, didn’t they fight a war against paying taxes?
Washington, you may recall, was the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in the great American Revolution against Great Britain. “No taxes without representation” was one of the original war cries.
Washington said, ‘It takes money to run the government, and that money is collected from the people in taxes fairly levied by their elected representatives.’
The farmers weren’t having any of that. They were way out in western Pennsylvania, near the wilderness Fort Pittsburgh. The federal government, what little bit of it there was, was in Philadelphia. ‘How are they going to make us pay taxes?’ the rebel leaders shouted to crowds.
A more friendly portrayal of George “Pay Your Taxes or Swing” Washington – Wikipedia image (which bust is this? Library of Congress?)
Washington got a dozen nooses, and a volunteer army of 13,000 Americans, and marched to western Pennsylvania to hang anyone who wouldn’t pay the tax. Oddly, by the time Washington got there with the nooses, the rebels decided maybe it was a good idea to be patriotic about it after all.
So I assumed you just updated the pictures a little. [In the poster] There’s George Washington on the left, with his Smith and Wesson “noose,” telling the big corporate farmer to pay his taxes.I think your portrayal of Washington is a bit crude, but it’s historically accurate, with regard to taxes.
I always suspected you didn’t like George Washington. Now I know for sure you don’t.
You could have looked it up: The Whiskey Rebellion – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande22.html
And it was on this day in 1794, September 30, that Washington and the army set out to put down the rebellion.
How would Washington have dealt with secession, or the Texas Republic movement?
I don’t much like crude political dysfunction and disinformation from people who don’t know U.S. history, and won’t defend American principles. Am I being unreasonable?
More:
Gen. Washington, astride his favorite white horse, reviewing his troops at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, before the march to the western part of the state to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Image from the Department of the Treasury, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. (Just try to find who painted it!)
” . . . to execute the laws . . .” a painting by Donna Neary for the National Guard, on the Whiskey Rebellion. National Guard Caption: In September 1791 the western counties of Pennsylvania broke out in rebellion against a federal excise tax on the distillation of whiskey. After local and federal officials were attacked, President Washington and his advisors decided to send troops to pacify the region. It was further decided that militia troops, rather than regulars, would be sent. On August 7, 1794, under the provisions of the newly-enacted militia law, Secretary of War Henry Knox called upon the governors of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania for 12,950 troops as a test of the President’s power to enforce the law. Numerous problems, both political and logistical, had to be overcome and by October, 1794 the militiamen were on the march. The New Jersey units marched from Trenton to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There they were reviewed by their Commander-in Chief, President George Washington, accompanied by Secretary of the Treasury and Revolutionary war veteran Alexander Hamilton. By the time troops reached Pittsburgh, the rebellion had subsided, and western Pennsylvania was quickly pacified. This first use of the Militia Law of 1792 set a precedence for the use of the militia to “execute the laws of the union, (and) suppress insurrections”. New Jersey was the only state to immediately fulfill their levy of troops to the exact number required by the President. This proud tradition of service to state and nation is carried on today by the New Jersey Army and Air National Guard.
Tip of the old scrub brush to the historians and other fine people at Mount Vernon, for the reminder:
Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.
Leave a Comment » | George Washington, History, Santayana's ghost, Taxes | Tagged: George Washington, Government, History, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Santayana's ghost, Taxes, Whiskey Rebellion | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
How can this still be true, 79 years later to the day?
FDR warned us in 1936, that Republicans would try to gut federal programs that help people and make America great. It’s as if we have a haunting by Santayana‘s Ghost, on Social Security, unemployment insurance, job training, job creation and budget deficits:
Update: Shorter excerpt of speech, leaving out the parts I really wanted; the video originally featured is not available. Rats.
Our friend SBH pointed us to the text of the speech. FDR addressed the New York State Democratic Convention, in Syracuse, on September 29, 1936 (Can you imagine — does any state have such thing still — state party conventions so late in the year, today?). He found it at UC-Santa Barbara‘s American Presidency Project website. Here’s the text of the excerpt above, plus a little:
In New York and in Washington, Government which has rendered more than lip service to our Constitutional Democracy has done a work for the protection and preservation of our institutions that could not have been accomplished by repression and force.
Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion which says, “Of course we believe all these things; we believe in social security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present Administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them — we will do more of them, we will do them better; and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.”
But, my friends, these evaders are banking too heavily on the shortness of our memories. No one will forget that they had their golden opportunity—twelve long years of it.
Remember, too, that the first essential of doing a job well is to want to see the job done. Make no mistake about this: the Republican leadership today is not against the way we have done the job. The Republican leadership is against the job’s being done.
Read more at the American Presidency Project: Franklin D. Roosevelt: Address at the Democratic State Convention, Syracuse, N.Y. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15142&st=Roosevelt&st1#ixzz1T2VHx1tx
More:
Social Security Poster: old man (Photo from the Social Security Board, via Wikipedia)
Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.
Leave a Comment » | Democratic Party, FDR, Franklin Roosevelt, History, Politics, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost, Social Security | Tagged: American Presidency Project, Democratic Party, FDR, Franklin Roosevelt, Great Depression, History, New Deal, Politics, Republicans, Santayana's ghost, Social Security, UCSB | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I said earlier that you may wish to file this under o tempora, o mores; or perhaps under plus ça change.
These words seem oddly, perhaps astonishingly appropriate to political discussion today. They come from the past, from more than a half-century ago, but they refer to issues that have not yet been solved, and to issues that were resolved, but have come undone, or just come around again.
GOP vs. Dems. Image from Addicting Information, “15 differences between Democrats and Republicans.”
I posed this a quiz in a post a couple of days ago.
Does history repeat itself? George Santayana said history repeats for those who forget what happened before.
Here’s a political speech given in Minnesota. Without hitting Google, can you tell who said this, and when?
Democracy does not work that way. Democracy is a matter of faith–a faith in the soul of man–a faith in human rights. That is the kind of faith that moves mountains–that’s the kind of faith that hurled the Iron Range at the Axis and shook the world at Hiroshima.
Faith is much more than efficiency. Faith gives value to all things. Without faith, the people perish.
Today the forces of liberalism face a crisis. The people of the United States must make a choice between two ways of living–a decision, which will affect us the rest of our lives and our children and our grandchildren after us.
On the other side, there is the Wall Street way of life and politics. Trust the leader! Let big business take care of prices and profits! Measure all things by money! That is the philosophy of the masters of the Republican Party.
Well, I have been studying the Republican Party for over 12 years at close hand in the Capital of the United States. And by this time, I have discovered where the Republicans stand on most of the major issues.
Since they won’t tell you themselves, I am going to tell you.
They approve of the American farmer-but they are willing to help him go broke.
They stand four-square for the American home–but not for housing.
They are strong for labor–but they are stronger for restricting labor’s rights.
They favor a minimum wage–the smaller the minimum the better.
They indorse educational opportunity for all–but they won’t spend money for teachers or for schools.
They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine–for people who can afford them.
They approve of social security benefits-so much so that they took them away from almost a million people.
They believe in international trade–so much so that they crippled our reciprocal trade program, and killed our International Wheat Agreement.
They favor the admission of displaced persons–but only within shameful racial and religious limitations.
They consider electric power a great blessing-but only when the private power companies get their rake-off.
They say TVA is wonderful–but we ought never to try it again.
They condemn “cruelly high prices”–but fight to the death every effort to bring them down.
They think the American standard of living is a fine thing–so long as it doesn’t spread to all the people.
And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.
Now, my friends, that is the Wall Street Republican way of life. But there is another way–there is another way–the Democratic way, the way of the Democratic Party.
Of course, the Democratic Party is not perfect. Nobody ever said it was. But the Democratic Party believes in the people. It believes in freedom and progress, and it is fighting for its beliefs right now.
In the Democratic Party, you won’t find the kind of unity where everybody thinks what the boss tells him to think, and nothing else.
But you will find an overriding purpose to work for the good of mankind. And you will find a program–a concrete, realistic, and practical program that is worth believing in and fighting for.
Now, I call on all liberals and progressives to stand up and be counted for democracy in this great battle. I call on the old Farmer-Labor Party, the old Wisconsin Progressives, the Non-Partisan Leaguers, and the New Dealers to stand up and be counted in this fight.
What clues does that passage contain that it wasn’t said in the past year? Or was it?
I’ll post the answer in a day or so — take a guess in comments.
James said it was Harry Truman, and indeed it was.
President Harry S Truman, image from UCSB American Presidency Project
Truman spoke to a crowd in Minnesota, in the St. Paul Municipal Auditorium, on October 13, 1948, about three weeks before the 1948 election in which he “upset” New York Gov. Thomas Dewey. This was part of Truman’s famous Whistle Stop speaking tour of the U.S.
If the words look like they could have been said today, perhaps we should pay attention to them today, no?
Surely someone has a photograph of Truman speaking in St. Paul — but I haven’t found it yet.
More:
1 Comment | Famous quotes, Harry Truman, History, Politics, Quotes, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: Famous quotes, famous speeches, History, History Mystery, Politics, Quiz, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You may wish to file this under o tempora, o mores; or perhaps under plus ça change.
GOP vs. Dems. Image from Addicting Information, “15 differences between Democrats and Republicans.”
Does history repeat itself? George Santayana said history repeats for those who forget what happened before.
Here’s a political speech given in Minnesota. Without hitting Google, can you tell who said this, and when?
Democracy does not work that way. Democracy is a matter of faith–a faith in the soul of man–a faith in human rights. That is the kind of faith that moves mountains–that’s the kind of faith that hurled the Iron Range at the Axis and shook the world at Hiroshima.
Faith is much more than efficiency. Faith gives value to all things. Without faith, the people perish.
Today the forces of liberalism face a crisis. The people of the United States must make a choice between two ways of living–a decision, which will affect us the rest of our lives and our children and our grandchildren after us.
On the other side, there is the Wall Street way of life and politics. Trust the leader! Let big business take care of prices and profits! Measure all things by money! That is the philosophy of the masters of the Republican Party.
Well, I have been studying the Republican Party for over 12 years at close hand in the Capital of the United States. And by this time, I have discovered where the Republicans stand on most of the major issues.
Since they won’t tell you themselves, I am going to tell you.
They approve of the American farmer-but they are willing to help him go broke.
They stand four-square for the American home–but not for housing.
They are strong for labor–but they are stronger for restricting labor’s rights.
They favor a minimum wage–the smaller the minimum the better.
They indorse educational opportunity for all–but they won’t spend money for teachers or for schools.
They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine–for people who can afford them.
They approve of social security benefits-so much so that they took them away from almost a million people.
They believe in international trade–so much so that they crippled our reciprocal trade program, and killed our International Wheat Agreement.
They favor the admission of displaced persons–but only within shameful racial and religious limitations.
They consider electric power a great blessing-but only when the private power companies get their rake-off.
They say TVA is wonderful–but we ought never to try it again.
They condemn “cruelly high prices”–but fight to the death every effort to bring them down.
They think the American standard of living is a fine thing–so long as it doesn’t spread to all the people.
And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.
Now, my friends, that is the Wall Street Republican way of life. But there is another way–there is another way–the Democratic way, the way of the Democratic Party.
Of course, the Democratic Party is not perfect. Nobody ever said it was. But the Democratic Party believes in the people. It believes in freedom and progress, and it is fighting for its beliefs right now.
In the Democratic Party, you won’t find the kind of unity where everybody thinks what the boss tells him to think, and nothing else.
But you will find an overriding purpose to work for the good of mankind. And you will find a program–a concrete, realistic, and practical program that is worth believing in and fighting for.
Now, I call on all liberals and progressives to stand up and be counted for democracy in this great battle. I call on the old Farmer-Labor Party, the old Wisconsin Progressives, the Non-Partisan Leaguers, and the New Dealers to stand up and be counted in this fight.
What clues does that passage contain that it wasn’t said in the past year? Or was it?
I’ll post the answer in a day or so — take a guess in comments.
6 Comments | Famous quotes, History, Politics, Quotes, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: Famous quotes, famous speeches, History, History Mystery, Politics, Quiz, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
No, taxes are not “stealing.” Here’s the offending poster I found on Facebook:
Who are the history-illiterates who make these offensive posters? Taxes are not “stolen,” at least, not according to patriots like George Washington.
I told one guy who posted it that I thought it was a crude misrepresentation of George Washington, there on the left — but that I had always suspected he didn’t like the “founders,” and was grateful to have any doubts I may have had, removed.
He said, “Huh?”
Pay your taxes, maybe they’ll put you on a stamp. This Prominent Americans series stamp of the United States from 1968 features Oliver Wendell Holmes. Wikipedia image
One could always refer to that wonderful line from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., about how he liked to pay taxes because “with them I buy civilization.” But I suspect most tax revolters in the U.S. don’t much like civilization (and they have the guns to prove it).
Instead I simply told the story of George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion, the first, and mostly-forgotten, case of U.S. tax rebels. You know the story.
I wrote:
Yeah, in 1794, a bunch of farmers out in western Pennsylvania got ticked off at taxes. They said paying taxes was like the government stealing from them. And, they had their representatives explain to President George Washington, didn’t they fight a war against paying taxes?
Washington, you may recall, was the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in the great American Revolution against Great Britain. “No taxes without representation” was one of the original war cries.
Washington said, ‘It takes money to run the government, and that money is collected from the people in taxes fairly levied by their elected representatives.’
The farmers weren’t having any of that. They were way out in western Pennsylvania, near the wilderness Fort Pittsburgh. The federal government, what little bit of it there was, was in Philadelphia. ‘How are they going to make us pay taxes?’ the rebel leaders shouted to crowds.
A more friendly portrayal of George “Pay Your Taxes or Swing” Washington – Wikipedia image (which bust is this? Library of Congress?)
Washington got a dozen nooses, and a volunteer army of 13,000 Americans, and marched to western Pennsylvania to hang anyone who wouldn’t pay the tax. Oddly, by the time Washington got there with the nooses, the rebels decided maybe it was a good idea to be patriotic about it after all.
So I assumed you just updated the pictures a little. [In the poster] There’s George Washington on the left, with his Smith and Wesson “noose,” telling the big corporate farmer to pay his taxes.I think your portrayal of Washington is a bit crude, but it’s historically accurate, with regard to taxes.
I always suspected you didn’t like George Washington. Now I know for sure you don’t.
You could have looked it up: The Whiskey Rebellion – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande22.html
I don’t much like crude political dysfunction and disinformation from people who don’t know U.S. history, and won’t defend American principles. Am I being unreasonable?
More:
Gen. Washington, astride his favorite white horse, reviewing his troops at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, before the march to the western part of the state to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Image from the Department of the Treasury, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. (Just try to find who painted it!)
” . . . to execute the laws . . .” a painting by Donna Neary for the National Guard, on the Whiskey Rebellion. National Guard Caption: In September 1791 the western counties of Pennsylvania broke out in rebellion against a federal excise tax on the distillation of whiskey. After local and federal officials were attacked, President Washington and his advisors decided to send troops to pacify the region. It was further decided that militia troops, rather than regulars, would be sent. On August 7, 1794, under the provisions of the newly-enacted militia law, Secretary of War Henry Knox called upon the governors of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania for 12,950 troops as a test of the President’s power to enforce the law. Numerous problems, both political and logistical, had to be overcome and by October, 1794 the militiamen were on the march. The New Jersey units marched from Trenton to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There they were reviewed by their Commander-in Chief, President George Washington, accompanied by Secretary of the Treasury and Revolutionary war veteran Alexander Hamilton. By the time troops reached Pittsburgh, the rebellion had subsided, and western Pennsylvania was quickly pacified. This first use of the Militia Law of 1792 set a precedence for the use of the militia to “execute the laws of the union, (and) suppress insurrections”. New Jersey was the only state to immediately fulfill their levy of troops to the exact number required by the President. This proud tradition of service to state and nation is carried on today by the New Jersey Army and Air National Guard.
92 Comments | George Washington, Santayana's ghost, Taxes | Tagged: George Washington, Government, History, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Santayana's ghost, Taxes, Whiskey Rebellion | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Students of history will notice inaccuracies in this video right away.
They are dreams, an imagining of the great “if only.”
Santayana’s Ghost looks on, hoping we’ll get the message, remember history, and act accordingly.
“Imagine a World Without Hate,” from the ADL.
Join ADL in our Centennial Year as we Imagine a World Without Hate™, one where the hate crimes against Martin Luther King, Anne Frank, Matthew Shepard and others did not take place. Support us in the fight against bigotry and extremism by sharing this inspirational video and taking the pledge to create a world without hate at http://www.adl.org/imagine.
Imagine a World Without Hate™. We Do. Join Us.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Pat Carrithers and Upworthy. Pat writes in to remind us of the great John Greenleaf Whittier poem, “Maud Muller”:
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”
More:
American poet John Greenleaf Whittier’s study at his home in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Scanned from The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier: illustrated with steel portraits and photogravures by John Greenleaf Whittier, edited by Elizabeth Hussey Whittier. Published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1892. Item notes: v. 7 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
2 Comments | History, Martin Luther King, Nonviolent protest, Politics, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: ADL, Anne Frank, Anti-Defamation League, bullying, Hate crime, History, Holocaust, Martin Luther King, Matthew Shepard, Nonviolence, Politics, Santayana | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A haunting by Santayana‘s Ghost, on Social Security, unemployment insurance, job training, job creation and budget deficits:
[Editor’s note, 2016: Rats! that almost-perfect speech excerpt has disappeared from YouTube. Here’s a shorter excerpt.]
Our friend SBH pointed us to the text of the speech. FDR addressed the New York State Democratic Convention, in Syracuse, on September 29, 1936 (Can you imagine — does any state have such thing still — state party conventions so late in the year, today?). He found it at UC-Santa Barbara‘s American Presidency Project website. Here’s the text of the excerpt above, plus a little:
In New York and in Washington, Government which has rendered more than lip service to our Constitutional Democracy has done a work for the protection and preservation of our institutions that could not have been accomplished by repression and force.
Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion which says, “Of course we believe all these things; we believe in social security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present Administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them — we will do more of them, we will do them better; and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.”
But, my friends, these evaders are banking too heavily on the shortness of our memories. No one will forget that they had their golden opportunity—twelve long years of it.
Remember, too, that the first essential of doing a job well is to want to see the job done. Make no mistake about this: the Republican leadership today is not against the way we have done the job. The Republican leadership is against the job’s being done.
Read more at the American Presidency Project: Franklin D. Roosevelt: Address at the Democratic State Convention, Syracuse, N.Y. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15142&st=Roosevelt&st1#ixzz1T2VHx1tx
More:
Social Security Poster: old man (Photo from the Social Security Board, via Wikipedia)
This is mostly an encore post.
8 Comments | Democratic Party, FDR, Franklin Roosevelt, History, Politics, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost, Social Security | Tagged: American Presidency Project, Democratic Party, FDR, Franklin Roosevelt, Great Depression, History, New Deal, Politics, Republicans, Santayana's ghost, Social Security, UCSB | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I first posted a version of this back in August 2006. Since that time not much showed up on the internet to commemorate the story of Mel Mermelstein, nor to burn his deeds into the history books. Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub had many fewer readers each day, then too. This is a story that should not be forgotten about a story that must not be forgotten.
Mr. Mel Mermelstein, in 1993, recording an oral history for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
In early August 1985, Melvin Mermelstein struck a powerful blow against bogus history and historical hoaxes. Mel won a decision in a California court, in a contract case.
A group of Holocaust deniers had offered a $50,000 reward for anyone who could prove that the Holocaust actually happened. Mermelstein had watched his family marched to the gas chambers, and could testify. He offered his evidence. The Holocaust deniers, of course, had no intention of paying up. They dismissed any evidence offered as inadequate, and continued to claim no one could prove that the Holocaust actually occurred.
Mermelstein, however, was a businessman and he knew the law. He knew that the offer of the reward was a sweepstakes, a form of contract. He knew it was a contract enforceable in court. He sued to collect the offered reward. The reward was an offer, and Mel Mermelstein accepted the offer and, he said, he performed his part of the bargain. The issue in court would be, was Mermelstein’s evidence sufficient?
Mermelstein’s lawyer had a brilliant idea. He petitioned the court to take “judicial notice” of the fact of the Holocaust. Judicial note means that a fact is so well established that it doesn’t need to be evidenced when it is introduced in court — such as, 2+2=4, the freezing point of water is 32 degrees Fahrenheit, 0 degrees Celsius, etc.
The court ruled that the evidence presented overwhelmingly established that the Holocaust had occurred — the court made judicial note of the Holocaust. That ruling meant that, by operation of law, Mermelstein won the case. The only thing for the judge to do beyond that was award the money, and expenses and damages.
You can read the case and other materials at the Nizkor Holocaust remembrance site.
Appalachian State University takes the Holocaust seriously — there is a program of study on the issue, reported by the Mountain Times (the school is in Boone, North Carolina — not sure where the newspaper is).
Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations
Mountain Times, August 17, 2006
As co-directors of Appalachian State University’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies, Rennie Brantz and Zohara Boyd are always eager to expand and improve the center’s methods of education. Seldom, though, does this involve airfare.
Brantz and Boyd recently visited Israel to participate in the Fifth International Conference for Education: Teaching the Holocaust to Future Generations. The four-day conference was held in late June at Yad Vashem, an institute and museum in Jerusalem that specializes in the Nazi Holocaust. [link added]
“Yad Vashem is an incredible institute,” Brantz said. “It was founded in the ’50s to remember and commemorate those who perished in the Holocaust, and has been the premier international research institute dealing with the Holocaust.”
As Santayana advises, we remember the past in order to prevent its recurring. Clearly, this is a past we need to work harder at remembering.
Despite having been ordered to acknowledge the Holocaust, pay up on their sweepstakes offer, and apologize to Mr. Mermelstein, Holocaust deniers continue to publish claims that Mr. Mermelstein’s account is not accurate, or that it is contradictory or in some other way fails to measure up to the most strict tests of historical accuracy. So it is important that you remember the story of Mel Mermelstein, and that you spread it far and wide.
More:
4 Comments | 1941-1945, Accuracy, Bogus history, Education, Freedom - Political, History Revisionism, Hoaxes, Holocaust, Holocaust denial, Law, Santayana's ghost, Voodoo history, World War II | Tagged: Accuracy, Appalachian State University, Bogus history, History, Holocaust, Holocaust denial, Mel Mermelstein, Remembering history accurately, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A haunting by Santayana’s Ghost:
Was this a convention speech? I wonder when and where it was. Can anyone help?
_____________
Ha! In comments, SBH points us to the text of the speech. FDR addressed the New York State Democratic Convention, in Syracuse, on September 29, 1936 (Can you imagine — does any state have such thing still — state party conventions so late in the year, today?). He found it at UC-Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project website. Here’s the text of the excerpt above, plus a little:
In New York and in Washington, Government which has rendered more than lip service to our Constitutional Democracy has done a work for the protection and preservation of our institutions that could not have been accomplished by repression and force.
Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion which says, “Of course we believe all these things; we believe in social security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present Administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them- we will do more of them we will do them better; and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.”
But, my friends, these evaders are banking too heavily on the shortness of our memories. No one will forget that they had their golden opportunity—twelve long years of it.
Remember, too, that the first essential of doing a job well is to want to see the job done. Make no mistake about this: the Republican leadership today is not against the way we have done the job. The Republican leadership is against the job’s being done.
Read more at the American Presidency Project: Franklin D. Roosevelt: Address at the Democratic State Convention, Syracuse, N.Y. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15142&st=Roosevelt&st1#ixzz1T2VHx1tx
6 Comments | Democratic Party, FDR, Franklin Roosevelt, History, Politics, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost, Social Security | Tagged: American Presidency Project, Democratic Party, Franklin Roosevelt, History, Politics, Republicans, Santayana's ghost, Social Security, UCSB | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Rick Santorum: Running with . . .
. . . political philosopher, and Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes?
News item: Rick Santorum is running for president. No, seriously — he is. In order to run, a candidate needs a catchy slogan.
Santorum’s campaign announced he is planning to use “Let America be America, again” as his slogan.
It’s a phrase borrowed from Langston Hughes. One wonders if Rick Santorum reads any poetry, let alone someone from the Harlem Renaissance.
Did Santorum really intend to borrow from Hughes? Does he think Hughes would approve?
O, let America be America again–
The land that never has been yet–
And yet must be–the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine–the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME–
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.Sure, call me any ugly name you choose–
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
Full text of the poem here, at the American Academy of Poets.
No, it appears Santorum did not wish to affiliate with Langston Hughes. One more reason to vote against Santorum, as if anyone needed more. Santorum even admits not being much of a poetry fan.
How about this for a Santorum slogan: “All santorum, no guts or brains.”
Tip of the old scrub brush to Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars.
2 Comments | Harlem Renaissance, History, Humor, Poetry, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Republican Party, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: History, Humor, Langston Hughes, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Republican Party, Rick Santorum, Santayana's ghost | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Cover of "The Gilded Age," a novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner published in 1873. Image courtesy of the Center for Mark Twain Studies, Elmira College.
You know why it was called the Gilded Age, right?
Santayana’s Ghost keeps telling me the Republicans don’t know why. Republicans as a rule do not read Mark Twain, so it’s a cinch they’ve never read Mark Twain plus Charles Dudley Warner.
Mark Twain, who wrote the novel, The Gilded Age, with Charles Dudley Warner. Twain wrote of the Republican Manifesto earlier: "What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way? -- dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must." Image from Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut, via PBS
Still, don’t you recall with some fondness the Eisenhower, Nixon and Ford years, when Republicans at least pretended not to be grand misanthropes? Do you remember that? Nixon tried to make nicey-nice with conservationists and environmentalists, expanding the National Parks and creating the Environmental Protection Agency (fitting, since the environmental movement had been born among and from wealthy and smart Republicans); even after killing the air traffic controllers union, Ronald Reagan enjoyed easy camradary with Teamsters, and to some degree, even with the heads of the AFL-CIO. Reagan encouraged and signed a jobs training bill, and signed our first home health care law, making it possible for people to go home to die, where they ironically lived much longer than in hospitals, but at much reduced cost to Medicare.
Forget those days. Forget that human compassion. Today’s conservatives don’t have time for the wimpiness of Ronald Reagan.
Did you see the full list of proposed agency cuts the Republicans tried to pin on the 2011 appropriations bill, H.R. 1?
Here’s the entire list, from OMB Watch: OMB_Watch-HR1_Policy_Riders (April 7, 2011). I’m sure OMB Watch has a bias, but the descriptions of the cuts are so balanced and neutral that they may hide some of the more unscrupulous, Scroogey actions.
In consumer protection, for example, Republicans inexplicably oppose the creation of watchdogs to prevent another housing bubble — are Republicans protecting criminals here?
Prohibits the Federal Reserve from transferring more than $80 million to the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, Sec. 1517
Prohibits funds for a government sponsored “consumer products complaints database,” Sec. 4046.
No one to prevent new crimes, and no collecting of information to warn consumers of dangerous products. Wonderful.
Prohibits funds to take any action to effect or implement the disestablishment, closure or realignment of the US Joint Forces Command. Sec. 4020
No, no, don’t want the Pentagon to save money — heaven knows, wasting money at the Pentagon is flag-waving patriotism — so let’s ban the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, from making changes that save money. It’s in the Bible that this must be done, I’m sure.
Prohibits funds for implementing a provision specific to the State of Texas in the “Education Job Fund.” Sec. 4051
After claiming he wouldn’t accept “bailouts” from the federal government, Texas Gov. Rick Perry accepted money from Congress to prevent the loss of teaching jobs — but then threw the money into a different pot, so teachers were not protected. U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, amended the last appropriation bill to say that Texas can’t take money from the teachers — but the Republicans want to allow Perry to take the money, and keep it from the teachers, again. It’s the old playground game where the big kids play keep away from a little kid. It’s vicious, of course, and should be criminal — but the older kids have a lot of fun.
Prohibits funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program or the State Energy Program. Sec. 1434
Let the poor people freeze in the dark — they all vote Democratic, anyway. But wait! Tea Partiers, fresh from the Mad Hatter’s, say that global warming will take care of the poor people! No need for weatherization.
Prohibits funding for various environmental projects in California. Sec. 1475
Prohibits funding for a climate change czar in the White House. Sec. 1535
Prohibits funding for EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse gases. Sec. 1746
Oh, well, maybe there isn’t any global warming. Yeah, this is contrary to what the Republicans said about warming keeping the poor from needing weatherization — but they’re just poor people, the Republicans say. Let ’em get a job! (Where? Not the problem of Republicans; Republicans identified that the poor need to get a job, and that should be the limit of federal action . . .).
This morning on CBS, New York Sen. Charles Schumer said he would not list cuts until he sees a final copy of the bill. Probably wise — but it’s also almost a cinch that almost all of the cuts will be mean-spirited, worthy of Ebenezer Scrooge before his conversion, and damaging to the U.S. people and the U.S. economy.
What in the hell is going on in Washington?
Tip of the old scrub brush to Jean Detjen, protecting the nation from being over-run by Canadians up there in the north, in Wisconsin.
1 Comment | Gilded Age, Government, History, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Santayana's ghost, U.S. Congress | Tagged: Budget, Budget Cuts, Gilded Age, Government, H.R. 1, History, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Santayana's ghost, Scrooge | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Texas Republicans rammed through their radical budget cut program on April 3, 2011 — ironically on the anniversary of another legislative decision made in the depths of deficit spending.
Caption from Library of Congress: "Surrounded by members of Congress and his cabinet, on April 3, 1948, President Harry S Truman (1884-1972) signed the Foreign Assistance Act, the legislation establishing the Marshall Plan. His official statement said, "Few presidents have had the opportunity to sign legislation of such importance. . . . This measure is America's answer to the challenge facing the free world today." The Marshall Plan was a bipartisan effort--proposed by a Democratic president and enacted into law by a Republican Congress in a hotly contested presidential election year. The plan's supporters shown in the photograph are (l-r) Senator Arthur Vandenberg (R--Mich.), Treasury Secretary John Snyder, Representative Charles Eaton (R--N.J.), Senator Tom Connally (D--Tex.), Secretary of the Interior Julius A. Krug, Representative Joseph Martin (R--Mass.), Representative Sol Bloom (D--N.Y.),and Attorney General Tom Clark." Copyprint from The Marshall Plan at the Mid-Mark. Averell Harriman Papers, Manuscript Division
April 3 is the traditional anniversary of the Marshall Plan. From the U.S. Census Bureau:
SUNDAY, APRIL 3: MARSHALL PLAN
Profile America — Sunday, April 3rd. One of the major programs that helped to shape history after World War II was signed into law on this date in 1948. The European Recovery Program — far better known as the Marshall Plan, was suggested a year earlier by Secretary of State George Marshall. It had become clear that the economies of the nations battered by the war were not recovering on their own, and millions of people were not only jobless, but were also going hungry. The Marshall Plan lasted for four years, distributing some 130 billion in today’s dollars, and helped many nations on the road to recovery. Recently, the U.S. has given nearly $34 billion a year in economic aid and some $15.5 billion in military aid to countries around the world. Profile America is in its 14th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sources: Chase’s Calendar of Events 2011, p. 204
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2011, t. 1298
Profile America is produced by the Public Information Office of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for “Multimedia Gallery” by the “Newsroom” button).
SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/04/02/3523990/us-census-bureau-daily-feature.html#ixzz1IY7ec6mu
On that date in 1948, the U.S. faced the greatest deficits the nation had ever seen, leftover from World War II. Faced with the choice of deeper deficits or no Marshall Plan, Members of Congress chose to borrow the money to rebuild nations hammered by the war, including our enemies, Germany, Italy and Japan.
What would have happened had the U.S. said “we can’t afford a Marshall Plan?” Santayana’s Ghost shakes his head. The U.S. would not have had the aid of growing, free-market economics in France, Germany, Italy, England and Japan, during the Cold War. Advantages would have been conceded to the Soviet Union and communism, worldwide.
Notice the photograph includes Republicans and Democrats.
What are Texas and U.S. legislators thinking these days?
Resources:
Leave a Comment » | Cold War, Education, Education spending, History, Marshall Plan, Santayana's ghost, World War II | Tagged: Budgets, Cold War, Deficit Spending, Harry Truman, History, Marshall Plan, Santayana's ghost, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Thom Hartmann said so. In Hartmann’s reading, the 1773 Boston Tea Party was as much a protest against corporate oligarchy as a protest against government — quite the opposite of the way most Neo Tea Partiers see things. Is he right? Historians, what say you?
Hartmann relies on his copy of George R. T. Hewes’ book, A retrospect of the Boston tea-party, with a memoir of George R. T. Hewes, a survivor of the little band of patriots who drowned the tea in Boston harbour in 1773 (1834). Are you familiar with the book?
George Robert Twelves Hewes in 1835 at age 93, a veteran of the 1773 Boston Tea Party. Painting by Joseph G. Cole. CUNY image
More, and resources:
5 Comments | 1776, American Revolution, Books, History, How do we know what we know, Politics, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: 1775, American Revolution, Books, Boston Tea Party, History, How do we know what we know, Politics, Santayana's ghost, Tea Party, Thom Hartmann | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
When I wrote about George Santayana’s observation that, “Only the dead have seen the end of war,” I didn’t realize it was a quote with controversy over the attribution.
He said it: Spanish-American philosopher and writer George Santayana, early in his career (Photo: Wikipedia)
Ridley Scott‘s outstanding 2001 movie, “Blackhawk Down,” opened with the quote, but attributing it to Plato, according to Plato expert Bernard Suzanne in Paris. One philosopher is as good as another, you might say, so it’s understandable that a good line from a modern philosopher like Santayana might be attributed to one of the most famous philosophers of all time (“they all look alike,” I hear someone saying). Or, the cynics might say, perhaps Santayana lifted it from Plato — after all, who but another philosopher would actually read the stuff? Who would know?
Suzanne’s sleuthing is impressive if only because it shows the murkiness of the issue. According to Suzanne:
Who put it on the wall of the Imperial War Museum, and why did they misattribute it, just a dozen years after Santayana wrote it?
More:
Quote from George Santayana misattributed to Plato, on a coffee mug from Zazzle
20 Comments | Accuracy, Famous quotes, History, Quotes, Santayana's ghost, War | Tagged: Accuracy, Famous quotes, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, George Santayana, History, Quotes, War | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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