Magna charta cum statutis angliae, (Great Charter with English Statutes). Library of Congress
These links are to exhibits that are closed, but whose images are still maintained on line. The Library promises to update exhibits, and on line collections will grow, too.
There really is some remarkable stuff, most of it obscure enough to be really cool, still.
A 16th century miniature pictures Rustam, the hero of the Persian national epic, The Shah Namah, tossed into the sea by the demon Akwan. (Library of Congress, Near East Section).
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Liberals in America struggle as they try to deal with the little bit of success in the last elections. Used to sniping from the sidelines for the past eight years, and unused to having a president who doesn’t make them pull their hair out at least once a day, liberals might be excused for breathing a massive sigh of relief and taking a few weeks off.
Oh, but that few weeks’ vacation did serious damage to the liberal presence on the internet.
The Carnival of the Liberals is back in a new and improved constitution, with an eye on working for liberal, patriotic ideals with a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and a president who might actually do some of the things that need to be done.
More seriously, there are some good articles there. Go check it out. The new format looks promising. Liberals need to get back to the kicking and shoving that make politics work.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Walter Cronkite in the last decade - Texas Parks and Wildlife photo by Richard Roberts
Along with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC, Mr. Cronkite was among the first celebrity anchormen. In 1995, 14 years after he retired from the “CBS Evening News,” a TV Guide poll ranked him No. 1 in seven of eight categories for measuring television journalists. (He professed incomprehension that Maria Shriver beat him out in the eighth category, attractiveness.) He was so widely known that in Sweden anchormen were once called Cronkiters. (from the New York Times)
I’m saddened at the death of Cronkite. One of the things that saddens me is that he probably could have anchored for at least a decade past when he last signed off. Nothing against Dan Rather, at least not from me — just that Cronkite was one of a kind. He won’t be missed by too many people alive today who never had a chance to see him work.
Bookmark that site, social studies teachers: It’s a great site for details on Millard Fillmore that your students won’t find easily anywhere else — and on Zachary Taylor, and on politics and history in general in the two decades prior to the Civil War. Go see: “Zachary Taylor is no more!”
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Star-spangled Banner and the War of 1812 – The original Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the song that would become our national anthem, is among the most treasured artifacts in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Every school kid learns the story of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” or should.
During the War of 1812, Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key, stood aboard a British ship in Baltimore Harbor to negotiate the release of his friend, Dr. William Beanes, who had been taken prisoner while the British stormed through Bladensburg, Maryland, after burning Washington, D.C. Key witnessed the British shelling of Fort McHenry, the guardian of Baltimore’s harbor. Inspired when he saw the U.S. flag still waving at dawn after a night of constant shelling, Key wrote a poem.
Key published the poem, suggested it might be put to the tune of “Anachreon in Heaven” (a tavern tune popular at the time) — and the popularity of the song grew until Congress designated it the national anthem in 1931. In telling the story of the latest restoration of that garrison flag now housed at the Smithsonian Museum of American History,Smithsonian Magazine repeated the story in the July 2000 issue: “Our Flag Was Still There.”
It’s a wonderful history with lots of splendid, interesting details (Dolley Madison fleeing the Executive Mansion clutching the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington, the guy who had introduced Dolley to James Madison and then snubbed them after they were married; the British troops eating the White House dinner the Madisons left in their haste; the gigantic, 42 by 30 foot flag sewn by Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore widow trying to support her family; the rag-tag Baltimore militia stopping cold “Wellington’s Invicibles;” the British massing of 50 boats and gunships; and much more).
It’s a grand and glorious history that stirs the patriotic embers of the most cynical Americans.
And it’s all true.
So it doesn’t deserve the voodoo history version, the bogus history created by some person preaching in a church (I gather from the “amens”) that is making the rounds of the internet, stripped of attribution so we cannot hunt down the fool who is at fault.
We got this in an e-mail yesterday; patriots save us, there must be a hundred repetitions that turn up on Google, not one correcting this horrible distortion of American history.
Horrible distortion of American history
(The full version is a mind-numbing 11 minutes plus. Some people have put it on other sites.)
Why do I complain?
It was the War of 1812, not the Revolutionary War — there were 15 states, not 13 colonies.
There was no ultimatum to to Baltimore, nor to the U.S., as this fellow describes it.
Key negotiated for the release of one man, Dr. Beanes. There was no brig full of U.S. prisoners.
It’s Fort McHenry, not “Henry.” The fort was named after James McHenry, a physician who was one of the foreign-born signers of the Constitution, who had assisted Generals Washington and Lafayette during the American Revolution, and who had served as Secretary of War to Presidents Washington and Adams.
Fort McHenry was a military institution, a fort defending Baltimore Harbor. It was not a refuge for women and children.
The nation would not have reverted to British rule had Fort McHenry fallen.
There were 50 ships, not hundreds. Most of them were rafts with guns on them. Baltimore Harbor is an arm of Chesapeake Bay; Fort McHenry is not on the ocean.
The battle started in daylight.
Bogus quote: George Washington never said “What sets the American Christian apart from all other people in this world is he will die on his feet before he will live on his knees.” Tough words. Spanish Civil War. Not George Washington. I particularly hate it when people make up stuff to put in the mouths of great men. Washington left his diaries and considerably more — we don’t have to make up inspiring stuff, and when we do, we get it wrong.
The battle was not over the flag; the British were trying to take Baltimore, one of America’s great ports. At this point, they rather needed to since the Baltimore militia had stunned and stopped the ground troops east of the city. There’s enough American bravery and pluck in this part of the story to merit no exaggerations.
To the best of our knowledge, the British did not specifically target the flag.
There were about 25 American casualties. Bodies of the dead were not used to hold up the flag pole — a 42 by 30 foot flag has to be on a well-anchored pole, not held up by a few dead bodies stacked around it.
You can probably find even more inaccuracies (please note them in comments if you do).
The entire enterprise is voodoo history. The name of Key is right; the flag is right; almost everything else is wrong.
Please help: Can you find who wrote this piece of crap? Can you learn who the narrator is, and where it was recorded?
I keep finding troubling notes with this on the internet: ‘My school kids are going to see this to get the real story.’ ‘Why are the libs suppressing the truth?’ ‘I didn’t know this true story before, and now I wonder why my teachers wouldn’t tell it.’
If Peter Marshall and David Barton gave a gosh darn about American history, they would muster their mighty “ministries” to correct the inaccuracies in this piece. But they are silent.
Unemployed? Let ’em eat airplane-hunted caribou soaked in petroleum, eh, Sarah?
Palin’s piece doesn’t ramble as much as her press conference on quitting the governor’s chair, but it makes about an equal amount of sense. While whining that the current legislative proposal is the wrong way to go, Palin doesn’t hint at what might be the right way to go to reduce air pollution, help prevent global warming, and keep energy available.
Churchill noted that democracy is the worst form of government ever devised by men, except, of course, for all the others. Obama supports cap-and-trade legislation that is the worst thing we could do, except for anything else proposed, and especially except for doing nothing at all.
Is this important? Ask anyone who travels with a beloved four-legged critter. Well, we don’t have to ask — AA vet Dennis Crosby tells the story:
I think it is a great idea. Every time we take our dog to Ft. Myers, airport palm trees get irrigated immediately upon arrival.
Could have really used this at DFW about 3 years ago. On the way home to Chicago via a connection, my family and I experienced an air interruption about 30 minutes out of DFW. Back at the gate in front of Dickey’s barbeque, we were advised that we would leave in 4 hours at 515 PM. Went to the Admirals Club and tried to keep an eye on updates. Final check revealed that the flight had left in 2 hours , 10 minutes before I checked for the third time with the folks at the reception desk. Given that it was on a January 3, our options were few – they finally put us on a positioning 777 five hours later. Needless to say, we could not keep our pup, whose vet prescribed sedative had worn off much earlier, inside his soft sided carry on bag. The zipper broke and out burst Marshall, our Bichon Frise. He is a nice dog, and he eventually made friends with everyone in the Admirals Club when he slipped out of his leash. At that point, I was beyond caring.
Anyway, about an hour before departure, I took little Marshall to the men’s room and did my best to show him what to do. I am sure that image must be quite horrific to most of you. Marshall elected to ignore me and make friends with the other folks there as well.
As departure time came, we realized that the zipper on Marshall’s bag was irreparably broken. My wife Patti took the shoelace out of one of her tennis shoes and we literally “stitched” him back in. And then we flew home to Chicago, looking at that point very much like the Clampett family. After a missed approach in icy fog at ORD, we finally got to the claim area 16 hours after our initial flight had left FLL. Nature being what it is, Marshall had an immediate explosive decompression of his own, right there in the claim area of my alma mater. Luckily, most of the folks pushing through the claim area did not notice – or at least did not notice until sometime later.
Great idea at JFK. I urge AA to build one at ORD too. I know Marshall would be grateful.
O’Hare used to have large ficus trees throughout its terminals, and small flocks of resident sparrows who blundered in through open doors or ramp doors. One crowded winter night I watched a guy sneak his pup up into the large pot holding one of the trees to irrigate it. When he caught me laughing he explained the dog had been cooped up for more than eight hours, four of them stranded on some runway waiting for Air Traffic Control clearance.
I pointed out to him that American had far more trees in its area than United did, and he should have been glad to be flying American. He said he would watch for trees in other terminals.
Too bad that guy doesn’t read this blog.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Jack Keady. Keep us posted on all the important stuff, Jack!
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Important agenda items include 3. Ethics Training, 4. Legislative Update, 6. Discussion of Expert Reviewers, and 7. Discussion of Texas High School Graduation Requirements.
More meetings tomorrow and Friday — they should all be webcasts.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Italian economist, engineer and political activist Vilfredo Pareto was born on July 15, 1848, in Paris, where his father had fled due to political difficulties.
Pareto should be more famous, for his explanation of the 80/20 rule, and for his contribution to making better things, the Pareto chart. Many economic texts ignore his work almost completely.
The Pareto index is a measure of the inequality of income distribution.
The Pareto chart is a special type of histogram, used to view causes of a problem in order of severity from largest to smallest. It is a statistical tool that graphically demonstrates the Pareto principle or the 80-20 rule.
Dallas Morning News columnist Jackie Floyd gets at the real issues week after week, stripping away the spin and silliness other reporters cover in the misaimed hope for objectivity.
A lot of what the expert advisers have to say about the standards for teaching social studies to Texas kids is genuinely depressing stuff.
It’s depressing because, as you wade through the half-dozen point-by-point reports that will be used to advise the people deciding what your kids will learn, you might wonder whether the people who oversee our public schools care a lot less about education than they do about ideology.
You might even get the sense they care an awful lot less about helping the next generation of Texans lead meaningful, productive lives than about telling them how to vote.
It’s not a big surprise, since some members of the State Board of Education sometimes behave as if schooling children is simply a matter of making them memorize an encyclopedic list of political talking points.
She names names, though I doubt she had a chance to actually kick the butts that need kicking.
And it’s the board that appointed a panel of experts that includes a family-values activist from Aledo and a minister in Massachusetts who specializes in “Christian heritage.” It’s that awful, embarrassing fight over evolution all over again.
As a result, what is presumably supposed to be a sensible discussion about what children need to learn has been reduced to a self-serving bickering match over who gets to be commandant of the indoctrination camp.
“To have Cesar Chavez listed next to Ben Franklin is ludicrous,” snarls one of the panelists; another says kids must be drilled more about Roe vs. Wade, which he says has “arguably more impacted American life than any other Supreme Court decision in the 20th century.”
Another expert makes careful tallies over whether curriculum recommendations cite Latinos with the same frequency as black and white historical figures – as if classroom studies can be reduced to a racial quid pro quo of the number of times specific historical figures are mentioned.
It’s not all ideological flag-waving, of course – but a lot of it is. There’s a silly freedom-fries debate over whether to substitute the term “free enterprise system” for “capitalism,” of whether suggested teaching examples should exclude Carl Sagan or Neil Armstrong or the guy who invented canned milk; of whether there are too many women and minorities and not enough founding fathers; of whether religion and the rule of law should be taught with more or less vigor than civil liberties and colonial adventurism.
Best, she notices that there were a couple of real experts on the panel whose reports have gotten short shrift in the news, and whose reports will be give short shrift by the politically-driven education board.
Miraculously – or at least astonishingly – in one of the reports, I found that awareness candidly articulated.
Somehow, Dr. Lybeth Hodges, a Texas Woman’s University history professor and a last-minute panel appointee, did not see a need to draft a political manifesto. She just made (get this!) sensible, useful curriculum recommendations.
She pointed out items that might actually help kids learn more and be better prepared for tests, such as that specific grade-level curriculum doesn’t always match the dreaded TAKS tests.
She noted that there are more than 90 “student expectations” for fifth-graders, an unrealistic pipe dream given that “some sound like test questions I give my college freshmen.”
Hodges, unlike some other appointees, took the blessedly pragmatic view that constantly trying to balance dueling ideologies will only result in a bloated, unmanageable list of standards that few kids will find meaningful and retain.
“It should not be a political exercise,” she said briskly, when we spoke a few days ago.
“I never thought about the political aspect at all,” she said. “I thought we were being asked to do what is reasonable and helpful for teachers. … They have enough red tape as it is.”
As we talked, my head was gradually swaddled in a pleasurable sense of optimism: Here was one person, at least, more interested in getting something useful done than in endlessly re-enacting the same old tired-out culture battle.
Call me a starry-eyed dreamer, but American education isn’t supposed to be a tedious exercise in demagoguery.
“To me, teachers aren’t there to carry out indoctrination in our schools,” Hodges said. “These people are trying to open little minds.”
If we’re going to open them successfully, we need more big minds at the top.
You saw the photo? The one where Obama and Sarkozy are, um, “admiring” the rear end of a 17-year old girl? Shame on Obama, right?
I’ll wager that all the radical right-wing blogs that feature the still photo won’t bother to check out the video. Palin’s woes are nothing compared to Obama’s.
Of course, Obama ain’t whinin’ and he ain’t quittin’.
Makers of Kool-Aid are probably not too happy about the common use of the phrase now, though it would be interesting to see what their marketing studies show — does the use of the phrase hurt sales or keep the name of the product in the public’s mind?
No matter. Use of the phrase to mean that an insult target is brainlessly following some concept is tired, decrepit, grating, and in need of retirement.
Uses just in the past few days:
Daily Kos: “Of course, the CoC crowd have drunk the kool-aid and blamed “liberal regulators” for their problem.”
Daily Green, by Marion Nestle: “But before you decide that I must have drunk the Kool Aid on this one, hear me out. He really is a good choice for this job.”
In The Baltimore Sun, the Rev. Jason Poling: “But I must have drunk the Kool-Aid back in civics class, because when I think about freedom, liberty, just government and all that good stuff, my thoughts fly to the Declaration of Independence.”
The Wall Street Journal, John Paul Newport: “I remember pondering these issues back when I first started paying attention to golf as an adult, before I’d drunk the Kool-Aid.”
Michael Hirsh in Washington Monthly: “Before long, Power says, she had ‘drunk the Kool-Aid‘ on Obama.” [And this usage in an otherwise excellent story that you really should read.]
Bill King in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “I still haven’t drunk the Kool-Aid when it comes to Big 12 teams, so while I recognize the Pokes have a high-powered offense that some expect to overpower the Dogs defense, and others question whether Georgia’s offense, minus last year’s star power, can keep up, I don’t believe that’s going to be the season’s biggest road challenge.” [Longest sentence in this list?]
Todd Robberson in a blog of the Dallas Morning News: “Steve Salazar on the City Council has drunk the Kool-Aid on this subject, convinced that the online and phone-in survey conducted last year regarding possible names for Industrial somehow constituted a scientific poll with, as Salazar told us, a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.”
Politics Daily: “If you feel like forwarding this to those who are open minded and have not drunk the Kool-Aid, feel free.”
Newsbusters: “Back on Thursday, March 5 when Obama held a dog and pony show at the White House, CBS drunk the kool-aid.” [When I used the phrase “drunk the Kool-Aid,” I thought I’d avoid incorrect grammar in use of the Kool-Aid phrase — clearly I was wrong.]
Frank Rich in The New York Times: “Those Republicans who have not drunk the Palin Kool-Aid are apocalyptic for good reason.” [This is the one that set me off, today — Rich is too good a writer to drink the Kool-Aid on using such clichés.]
Can we just retire the phrase now? Copy editor’s, make a note of Darrell’s Corollary: When any writer uses the phrase “drunk the Kool-Aid” to mean something other than someone has drunk some Kool-Aid, the piece needs to be rewritten.
Building in Hasting, Nebraska, where Kool-Aid was invented by Gerard and Edwin Perkins. Wikimedia photo
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Or, until that account is unsuspended by the forces supporting Donald Trump: Follow @FillmoreWhite, the account of the Millard Fillmore White House Library
We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!
Retired teacher of law, economics, history, AP government, psychology and science. Former speechwriter, press guy and legislative aide in U.S. Senate. Former Department of Education. Former airline real estate, telecom towers, Big 6 (that old!) consultant. Lab and field research in air pollution control.
My blog, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, is a continuing experiment to test how to use blogs to improve and speed up learning processes for students, perhaps by making some of the courses actually interesting. It is a blog for teachers, to see if we can use blogs. It is for people interested in social studies and social studies education, to see if we can learn to get it right. It's a blog for science fans, to promote good science and good science policy. It's a blog for people interested in good government and how to achieve it.
BS in Mass Communication, University of Utah
Graduate study in Rhetoric and Speech Communication, University of Arizona
JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 