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Slipping Standards of American Justice
July 7, 2016
— 4 Comments
The daily reports of violence make life in America scary and real. I see the trend that has been targeting young black males, but I am a little old lady, as WASP as WASP can be. I do not trust the police as far as I can throw them. They make my neighborhood very unsafe by refusing to respond when crime is reported. I don’t fear brutality, but everyone where I live has suffered years of police mendacity that has destroyed any trust there might have been in our local law enforcement agencies. The new sliding scale introduced for the unprecedented Hillary e mail case is all about intent. Now it is more important to decide if the entity meant do violate laws rather than to know if laws were broken. That is how there can be a homicide with no person who committed it. The crazy trend to reach a verdict without any trial or jury, by letting the FBI decide, or by letting cops murder people without even arresting them has gone way too far. We are not safe in our homes or on the streets of our cities. The system is not rigged, per se, it is just entirely corrupt. It is not a matter of good cop/bad cop. It is a dysfunctional system that is not attached to justice, but to a separate reality in which there is no law but their opinion. My Puritan ancestors would plotz to know what has become of their nation.
What would the ancestors do?
- Create a public school system for the purpose of teaching civics
- Reward those who tattle on any infraction of the law
- Publicly shame those who break the law
- Keep a very close watch on the constable to avoid corruption
- Make every man woman and child defend the nation through service
- Punish everyone who deviated from their religious beliefs (that was where they lost it and went off the rails)
We can never go back to colonial America to find out how we lost our ethical boundaries and our civil rights. Murders by cop are live streamed to the world today. I have not watched this last one because I saw the one from Baton Rouge yesterday, and I can’t take in another one. The victim’s mother has decided not to watch it for her own mental health. We need to find a way to stop the bloodbath. I am calling on all my relations to give me insight into this crisis.
white senior issues
Happy 240th Birthday America! — Cherokee Billie Spiritual Advisor
July 2, 2016
— 3 Comments
“America, God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood…from sea to shining sea!” Happy 240th Birthday America! “The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.” President John F. Kennedy Freedom […]
via Happy 240th Birthday America! — Cherokee Billie Spiritual Advisor
Patriotic Poetry by the Man in Black, Johnny Cash
K9 Piper Salutes the Blue Angles
July 2, 2016
— 1 Comment
My latest K9 crush is a border collie who works for the US Coast Guard on Lake Michigan, at an airport. K9 Piper patrols for wildlife around the airport and fulfills various duties with his human partners. Because he often works on an active runway he is fitted with special goggles to protect his eyes. He looks darling in them, but they serve a very useful purpose. He also wears ear muffs to protect his hearing when a plane or helicopter is landing. The look is so cute I can hardly stand it.
This week he is working his popular instagram profile to salute the Blue Angles Navy flight team. I love the way his eyewear provider custom designed tribute goggles to honor fallen Angel Captain Jeff Kuss. Piper’s eyewear represents the best kind of partnership when he lets folks know about high quality dog goggles (for those who need this sort of thing) and sends his own personal canine message of tribute at the same time. #HappyFourthofJuly #airportk9 Piper. You rule.
These Images Of Jupiter’s Auroras Are Awe-Inspiring — Real Stories – UPROXX
June 30, 2016
— 1 Comment
Facebook/Nasa Over the last couple years NASA has had a few emotional hits and a few selfie-inducing misses. But what they do best, and what we can perpetually depend on them to do, is blow some minds with their extra-terrestrial imagery. Recently, they upped the bar when images of Jupiter’s auroras came back from the…
via These Images Of Jupiter’s Auroras Are Awe-Inspiring — Real Stories – UPROXX
Margaret Howard, 13th Great-Grandmother
June 30, 2016
— 2 Comments
Margaret Howard
Margaret Howard was the daughter of Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk (March 10, 1538-June 2, 1572) and his second wife, Margaret Audley (1539-January 10, 1564). Her father’s execution for treason when she was ten limited her choice of husbands but in February 1569 she married Robert Sackville of Bolbrooke and Buckhurst, Sussex and Knole, Kent (1561-February 27, 1609), later Lord Buckhurst and earl of Dorset. They had three sons and three daughters, including Richard (1590-1624), Edward (1591-1652), Anne, and Cecily. After her death, Robert Southwell published a small volume in her honor and Sackville described his late wife as “a lady . . . of as great virtue . . . as is possible for any man to wish to be matched withal.” He asked to be buried at Withyham “as near to my first dearly beloved wife . . . as can be” and ordered that £200 to £300 be spent on their tomb, with effigies of them both. A devout Catholic, she influenced his religious beliefs.
Robert Sackville and Margaret Howard
Margaret Howard (1561 – 1591)
13th great-grandmother
Lady Ann Dorset (1552 – 1680)
daughter of Margaret Howard
Robert Lewis (1574 – 1656)
son of Lady Ann Dorset
Robert Lewis (1607 – 1644)
son of Robert Lewis
Ann Lewis (1631 – 1686)
daughter of Robert Lewis
Joshua Morse (1669 – 1753)
son of Ann Lewis
Joseph Morse (1692 – 1759)
son of Joshua Morse
Joseph Morse (1721 – 1776)
son of Joseph Morse
Joseph Morse III (1756 – 1835)
son of Joseph Morse
John Henry Morse (1775 – 1864)
son of Joseph Morse III
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
son of John Henry Morse
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
son of Abner Morse
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse
Robert Sackville, 2nd Earl of Dorset, married first, in February 1580, Lady Margaret, by then only surviving daughter of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, then suspected as a crypto-Catholic. By her he had six children, including:
Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset (18 March 1589 – 28 March 1624)
Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset (1591 – 17 July 1652)
Anne, married Sir Edward Seymour, eldest son of Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp, and, secondly, Sir Edward Lewis (d.1630) by whom she had issue
Cecily, married Sir Henry Compton, K.B.
Lady Margaret died on 19 August 1591; Robert Southwell, who never met her, published in her honour, in 1596, Triumphs over Death, with dedicatory verses to her surviving children
My 15th great-uncle, Thomas Sackville, inherited a calendar house, Knole House, in Kent, where they, no doubt, all visited. The house became famous:
Knole is an English country house in the town of Sevenoaks in west Kent, surrounded by a 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) deer park. One of England’s largest houses, it is reputed to be a calendar house, having 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances and 7 courtyards. It is known for the degree to which its early 17th-century appearance is preserved, particularly in the case of the state rooms: the exteriors and interiors of many houses of this period, such as Clandon Park in Surrey, were dramatically altered later on. The surrounding deer park has also survived with little having changed over the past 400 years except for the loss of over 70% of its trees in the Great Storm of 1987.
In 1566, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it came into the possession of her cousin Thomas Sackville whose descendants the Earls and Dukes of Dorset and Barons Sackville have lived there since 1603 (the intervening years saw the house let to the Lennard family). Most notably, these include writer Vita Sackville-West (her Knole and the Sackvilles, published 1922, is regarded as a classic in the literature of English country houses); her friend and lover Virginia Woolf wrote the novel Orlando drawing on the history of the house and Sackville-West’s ancestors. The Sackville family custom of following the Salic rules of primogeniture prevented Sackville-West herself from inheriting Knole upon the death of her father Lionel (1867–1930), the 3rd Lord Sackville, and her father bequeathed the estate to his brother Charles (1870–1962).
The Case For #TattleTuesday in Tucson
June 27, 2016
— 1 Comment
Dropping the truth bomb
In Tucson we experience a major dilution of our tattle as it passes through needless layers of middlemen to reach law enforcement central. We report one thing and the bureaucrats report quite another, which results in chronic problems that might be solved by collecting really reliable intelligence in the first place. Pure tattle goes from your lips to the ears of the principal. It does not travel through the teachers, the students, or the PTA. Tattle, and the need to deliver pure, unadulterated tattle, is not only a basic human right, but a basic human instinct. To make use of this instinct one simply needs to direct and manage it professionally. A vessel, a place, and a time must be established for the task of collecting pure intelligence from citizens and using it to both prevent and stop chronic crime.
I am urging my police department to initiate a program on-line as well as in person at the station near me to give folks a chance to express themselves for ten minutes at ten a.m. each Tuesday. I am choosing this increment of time because they always say they are too busy to try new communication methods. They can’t possibly argue that they don’t have 10 minutes a week. Citizens in my neighborhood have gone to the station with evidence of black tar heroin in a vial and a report of on going crime near their home, but were turned away at the window of the cop shop and the vial of evidence was thrown in the trash in front of the two ladies. We need a system that works much better than that. We need to trust that what we report and evidence we submit is used to help solve the crime problems here. I think a funnel that directs intelligence to the attention of the police live on a regular basis will make a difference to the level of trust in the whole operation. I believe intelligence is the most valuable commodity police can have. It protects both them and us.
Sun Sets on Empire
June 24, 2016
— 1 Comment
Brits become curious
https://twitter.com/biancatesfaye1/status/746394668485742593
The British voted to leave the European Union and then started to google “What is the EU?” They also started to inquire into getting Irish passports, since Ireland is in the EU. The vote was dramatically divided between young and old in the electorate. Scotland is furious because they stayed in Great Britain recently because the Brits told them that by leaving Britain they would leave the EU. Now they voted overwhelmingly to stay, and feel mighty baited and switched. To add insult to injury Donald Trump flew to Scotland to “celebrate” the Brexit with his peeps. Ever the party boy, he started tweeting his glee to the horror of Scottish people. He has run into controversy in that country with conservation groups. Now he is indicating he is thrilled at the collapse of the currency because more people will visit his golf course. He knows how to make a point. Sometimes the only way to deal with current events is to laugh at them.
https://twitter.com/Jenn_Abrams/status/746388211195248641
https://twitter.com/RosieBlackadder/status/746392996682285058
Say it in Latin, Mortui Vivos Docent
June 23, 2016
— 2 Comments
Anatomical theater Leiden 1610
Anatomical theater in Padua 1594
The dead teach the living is the meaning of the phrase mortui vivos docent. It was used to justify dissection of human bodies for science. In the middle ages there was fear of dead bodies that, coupled with real danger present in corpses, made dissection dangerous. The biggest danger faced by science, however, was the long arm of Catholic Church. Miguel Serveto (1511-1553), was a physician and theologist who studied medicine in Paris at Sylvius’. He published work describing post mortem examinations of corpses. For this sin Serveto was burnt at the stake along with his books, both medical and religious, sentenced to death by the Holy Inquisition.
The Greek physician Gallen taught anatomy in the second century, teaching by direct empirical observation. Ironically, his teachings were used to dissect one or two executed prisoners a year in the Middle Ages, but this practice was done more for theater than for research. In 1543 of Andreas Vesalius published his masterpiece, De Humani Corporis Fabrica. Vesalius, a young physician and professor at the University of Padua, changed the course of medical history. He demonstrated the importance of direct observation, creating illustrations of anatomy in action, teaching the secrets of the inner workings of the human body. Public dissection for educational purposes became popular.
The Middle Ages were plagued by the black death. Those dark ages were characterized by superstition and ignorance. The Renaissance occurred when science, art, and humanism gave rise to new philosophies. Some of these same ideas drove my ancestors to colonial America in the 1600’s. One of my ancestors, Dr John Greene, was perhaps the first surgeon in America. I have to wonder if he ever did any dissection in his training. I have not. I puked in the clay bucket for the art class (located right next to the science lab) in the 10th grade and was excused for frog dissection. It was never mentioned again, and boy was I glad.
Strawberry Moon Walk
June 20, 2016
— 2 Comments
The phases of the moon influence tides and other liquid phenomena. Farmers have traditionally used the moon phases to plan planting and harvest schedules. The Farmer’s Almanac, formerly very widely used, is still published. It still distributes information about the moon to all the gentle readers of the publication. In 2016, the solstice falls on June 20 at 6:34 p.m. EDT. This is the “summer” solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. For the first time in 70 years the solstice is coinciding with the full strawberry moon.
This year the Farmer’s Almanac is hosting a live stream of the full moon event on Monday evening 20 June. Bob Berman will be looking through a giant telescope at the Moon, courtesy of Slooh, and streaming it live to any and all visitors here. We have come a long way since Galileo took a walk on the wild side and had to face the Catholic church for his efforts.
Galileo before the Holy Office
Step outside to enjoy this special moon event, or watch it stream live on your computer. This is the right night to toast Galileo with a strawberry daiquiri. Cheers, gentle reader.
Cooking With My Father
June 19, 2016
— 4 Comments
Richard Arden Morse snoozing
My dad loved to smoke food outside on his Hasty Bake. He collected his hickory wood in Arkansas and cured it by soaking it in water in small pieces. He was serious about his ribs, but smoked lots of fish too because he was a fisherman. In fact, fishing and cooking were my dad’s only hobbies until he took up hot air ballooning with my mom in his 60’s. We lived blocks from a famous golf club, and our town was golf obsessed, but my parents did not play the game. They were dancers. They like to have friends over to sing at the player piano.
He did not play competitive sports except when he was on a bolas criollas (bocce) team in Venezuela for a few years. He never went hunting, owned no guns, and had very poor eyesight. He was obsessed with catching fish. Money was no object when fishing was involved. Deep sea, tropical jungle, or lake..it made no difference to my dad. He did not fly fish..that was not his thing. He flew to South America and spent tons of money to go on jungle fishing trips with his friends. I did some fishing with him in my childhood, but not very much. I took up fishing seriously later in life with a hand line in the Bahamas. I never liked the rod and reel system. I did not like the complication of it. You can feel the fish on a hand line, but your choices are fewer. His parents both liked to fish, and there are written reports I have that his mother was an expert angler in her childhood in Kansas.
My father and his father
Dick on a family fishing grip
What I remember doing as a team sport with my father was brunch. We made crepes Suzettes and broiled grapefruit from his Wolf in Chef’s Clothing cookbook. We had a small kitchen so there was just enough room for the two of us to make the crepes and the set them on fire in a chafing dish. Our regular menu had nothing so exciting as flambé food. I used to beg for that brunch, but it only came around on very rare occasions. The other popular dish, for which my dad got credit but was actually concocted by my mom, was home-made ice cream. We had the only ice cream freezer in my immediate neighborhood, so this memorable dish made my back yard a very popular place to be. My friends and I would sit on the top of the freezer when it got harder to turn the handle. This usually happened during a barbecue while he was watching the smoker.
I have some very fond memories of cooking with my dad. His repertoire was small, but each dish was very special. Did you cook with your father in your childhood, gentle reader?
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