COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, April 09, 2010

Sherman's March of Revenge and Destruction





The Story of the Roswell Mill Workers Deportation

by Webb Garrison



On July 5, 1864, Federal General Kenner Garrard's cavalry reached Roswell and finding it undefended, occupied the city. General Garrard reported to General William T. Sherman on July 6, 1864 that..."there were fine factories here, I had the building burnt, all were burnt. The cotton factory was working up to the time of its destruction, some 400 women being employed."

Former Associate Dean of Emory University, Webb Garrison writes of the destruction of the Roswell Mills. He says..."incidents of this sort occurred repeatedly throughout the Civil War. Had the usual attitudes prevailed, the destruction of the industrial complex would have ended the matter. That it did not was due to the temperament and inclination of the man (Sherman)."

What General Sherman did next would shock good people in the North and create a mystery that has endured to this day. On July 7, 1864 Sherman reported to his superiors in Washington..." I have ordered General Garrard to arrest for treason all owners and employees, foreign and native (of the Roswell Mills), and send them under guard to Marietta, whence I will send them North."

On July 7, 1864, Sherman wrote to General Garrard:..." I repeat my orders that you arrest all people, male and female, connected with these factories, no matter the clamor, and let them foot it, under guard, to Marietta, Then I will send them by cars to the North."

A northern newspaper correspondent reported on the deportation...." only think of it! Four hundred weeping and terrified Ellens, Susans and Maggies transported in springless and seatless army wagons, away from their loves and brothers of the sunny South, and all for the offense of weaving tent-cloth.

On July 10, 1864, General Thomas reported the arrival of four to five hundred mill hands, mostly women, in Marietta. Other documents indicate that an undetermined number of children accompanied their mothers. Webb Garrison writes of the women's arrival in Marietta:...." for the military record, that closed the case in which women and children were illegally deported after having been charged with treason." He further writes..."had the Roswell incident not been followed immediately by major military developments, it might have made a lasting impact upon opinion. In this century, few analysts have given it the emphasis it deserves."

In conclusion, Dr. Garrison writes...."The mystery of the Roswell women, whose ultimate fate remains unknown, is one of major importance in its own right. Even more significant is its foreshadowing of things to come."

The mystery of the Roswell women is made up of four to five hundred individual tragedies. Most of these stories are lost to history; however, two of the men involved in the proposed monument are either related to or descended from mill workers. Wayne Bagley of the Roswell Mills Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is related to Adeline Bagley Buice. Adeline was a pregnant seamstress working at the Roswell Mills while her husband was off to war. Deported north with the other women, she went all the way to Chicago. Left to fend for herself as best she could, it would be five years before Adeline and her daughter would return to Roswell on foot. Adeline's soldier husband returned to Roswell. In time, thinking her dead, he remarried. Adeline's grave, in Forsyth County, is maintained with a special marker by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Wayne Shelly is a member of the General Nathan B. Forrest Camp 469 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Rome, Georgia. His grandmother was a teenage mill worker and her mother and grandmother also worked at the Roswell Mills. All three were charged with treason and deported. The mother died on a train between Chattanooga and Nashville, Tennessee. The grandmother died on a steamship on the Ohio River, after being carried aboard in a rocking chair. Wayne's grandmother married a Confederate veteran in Louisville, Kentucky. The two tried to make a new life in Indiana; however, the deportation had ruined the health of the young mill worker and a doctor advised that she would not live through another Indiana winter. The couple then moved south to Cartersville, Georgia.

The War Between the States was, without question, Roswell's moment on the stage of world history. If Roswell has a history, it is surely in part the mill worker' story.


NOTE: Webb Garrison's quotations are from his book Atlanta and the War. He has written articles for "The Atlanta Journal" on the Roswell women and is a leading expert on the incident.


137 comments:

  1. son of a bitch!
    F...... "conflicting edits" and nobody gets published, my masterpiece, trashed!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, I got resurrected!
    Google Rules!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tocqueville on Us

    The tyranny [Tocqueville] foresees for us does not have much in common with the vicious dictatorships of the last century, or with contemporary North Korea, Iran, or Saudi Arabia.

    He apologizes for lacking the proper words with which to define it. He hesitates to call it either tyranny or despotism, because it does not rule by terror or oppression. There are no secret police, no concentration camps, and no torture.
    “The nature of despotic power in democratic ages is not to be fierce or cruel, but minute and meddling.”


    The vision and even the language anticipate Orwell’s 1984, or Huxley’s Brave New World. Tocqueville describes the new tyranny as “an immense and tutelary power,” and its task is to watch over us all, and regulate every aspect of our lives.

    It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd.

    We will not be bludgeoned into submission; we will be seduced. He foresees the collapse of American democracy as the end result of two parallel developments that ultimately render us meekly subservient to an enlarged bureaucratic power: the corruption of our character, and the emergence of a vast welfare state that manages all the details of our lives....

    - Ledeen

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  4. moral abomination and profound contradiction of radical founding principles.

    was not the exclusive purveyance of the slave holding states.

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  5. Rufus Greenspan

    "A bubble in home prices for the nation as a whole does not appear likely."

    "Home price declines . . . were they to occur, likely would not have substantial macroeconomic implications."

    "Nationwide banking and widespread securitization of mortgages make it less likely that financial intermediation would be impaired."

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  6. You couldn't quite do it unalloyed.

    I figured that might be the case.

    Yesterday it was the flawed institution.

    Today it's Sherman's massacre and the Battle Hymn sung by Central Texas State.

    The Union mourns a wayward son, chief.

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  7. "The issue of retrospective and figuring out what you should have done differently is a really futile activity," Greenspan advised the commission, which is dedicated to just that. "I was right 70 percent of the time, but I was wrong 30 percent of the time."

    Under questioning from Bill Thomas, the vice chairman, Greenspan elaborated: "If we get it right 70 percent of the time, that is exceptionally good."

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  8. As usual, I have no idea what the Hell Trish is gnawing about.

    ...always nibbling at subtle corners, never a straight shot at the truth of the matter.

    Sad, to be one of the hoi poloi.

    Unless you are not, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  9. All that hot ass chased Tiger 'cause of his shoes...

    Buy Nike!

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  10. New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force Director and Middle East Channel Editor Daniel Levy provides an excellent "breaking analysis" of David Igantius' and Helene Cooper's reports yesterday that the Obama administration is considering proposing a comprehensive peace plan for Israel and Palestine.

    Levy's analysis is too nuanced to allow me to do it justice by excerpting it, but I will highlight one counter-intuitive point that Levy has been making for awhile: that the settlement fracas has actually pushed Benjamin Netanyahu into an uncomfortable position.

    It is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has, inadvertently, confronted the administration with Kurtzer's truisms and helped create a learning curve of what one might call "policy review by painful experience." Netanyahu helped provide a moment of clarity, demonstrating that confidence cannot be built incrementally, that settlements will not be frozen, and that East Jerusalem cannot be ignored. If one is to ascribe strategic foresight to the Obama administration (and that may be merited), then what they have done is to walk the Israeli prime minister down a corridor in which, in part due to his own actions, the exit routes are being sealed and a moment of real choice is approaching.

    As I argued here back in September, the Obama settlement-freeze strategy took Netanyahu out of his comfort zone (of interim measures and economic peace). In rejecting the freeze, Netanyahu found himself not only facing but embracing the thing he most abhors -- endgame peace negotiations. The latest round has taken this a step further, now making a discussion of Jerusalem inescapable. The more Netanyahu demands recognition of Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, the more obvious and unavoidable the flip side becomes -- namely, that Palestinian East Jerusalem and Palestinian neighborhoods will need to be recognized as part of the Palestinian capital and state. He continues to be walked down that corridor.

    - The Washington Note

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  11. I feel for the 400 women and their kids whose lives were torn asunder by the decision to deport them to the North.

    It was tragic....

    That being said..

    How did the Ottomans handle the their civil war?

    " It was characterized by the use of massacres, and the use of deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of Armenian deaths generally held to have been between one and one and a half million."

    yep....

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  12. - The Washington Note

    Good to have posters of anti-semitic scum and praise of Marxist America Haters.

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  13. "The Palestinian capital and state."

    PBUBHO !

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  14. That will be required, doug-o, to fulfill GW Bush's and the United States's desire for a Two State Solution, in both occupied anf free Palistine.

    That or one man one vote for ALL the residents and refugees from the Russian occupied area of the Levant.

    In which case the Europeons will lose control, regardless.

    Demographics, dear boy, dooms that Europeon colony on the shores of the eastern Med, eventually.

    And besides, Arabic is a Semitic language, so wi"o", the biggest anti-semite we have posting, here, next to allen, the man with the fanciful life story timeline.

    Both hate Arabic Semitics.

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  15. While loving Russian and Eastern Europeon authoritarians.

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  16. "Demographics, dear boy, dooms that Europeon colony on the shores of the eastern Med, eventually."
    ---
    Always best to cave, in the pursuit of good, surrendering to the advance of evil.

    ...even in conversation.

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  17. I don't care much for many Arab Muslims, myself.
    And you?

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  18. Did your son join the Marines
    to "get some" Jewish Terrorists?

    ReplyDelete
  19. "Good to have posters of anti-semitic scum and praise of Marxist America Haters."

    It's Casual Friday, Doug. Not Crazy Friday. Read the calendar.

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  20. Quirk said...

    "That seems an appropriately logical reductio for multiculturalism: the subhuman zionazis and the Riot Against Israeli Apartheid executive committee united by their opposition to Ann Coulter.

    Celebrate diversity! Thus, the new Canada: intolerance is “tolerance”; mob rule is “restraint”; “kike¬roaches” is “civility”; law enforcement is optional; jokes are actionable; up is down; black is white; “conflict studies” majors are rioting; Steve Paikin interviewing the Ontario finance minister on public television makes Jerry Springer interviewing transsexuals who date their ex-wives’ dads look like Jack Paar hosting Kitty Carlisle Hart; and sticks and stones may break your bones, but Rocks like Allan will issue a soothing press release. What an Olympic opening ceremony it would make."


    What an Olympic opening ceremony it would make."Mark Steyn Sings 'O Canada'

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  21. Bart Stupak throws in the towel. MSNBC says because he got threatening phone calls.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Fred Couples wearing sneakers w/o spikes!

    Watson, @ 59 still amazes.

    Tiger,
    Still a low-life Jerk.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Poor Bart.

    "I didn't do it.
    Nobody saw me!
    "

    ReplyDelete
  24. I do not know but one or two, doug.

    They seem to be reasonable folk.
    Much more reasonable than the pro-Israeli posters, here.

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  25. Yeah, Atta is my personal hero, Rat Boy.

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  26. The boy joined the Marines to carry out the foreign policy of the United States, on the ground in far and away places, doug-o.

    To follow the orders of those empowered by the Constitution to give them.

    And he did.

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  27. You avoided my reference to your son's reason for joining our finest to defend against those who wish us harm.

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  28. Kind of a Trish-like answer,
    to me.

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  29. I never met Atta, doug.

    Was he a guest at your house?
    Or just a member of your local club?

    What does Atta have to do with the Levant, anyway?

    You and the Israeli propagandists have, for a decade now, tried to connect the challenges in the Levant with the cross border raid of 9-11-01.

    The was little connection then, less now.

    Especially when the results of the Iraqi War are factored into the equation. What with the empowering of Iran, while Bush/Cheney ran the show.

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  30. Just think of it, Doug.

    A thousand more days of our Marxistmuslimterroristlovinamerica-hatin' president.

    A thoooooouuuuusand more days.

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  31. I definitely remember your reference to his desire to "get some."

    (just as I would get some in a heartbeat if I, in my dottage, could push a button)

    ...the "some" is the bastards that live to kill us.
    Not some abstract "policy."

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  32. Slavery is Freedom!
    - random Trish left wing link.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I heard you the first time, sweetheart.

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  34. You're obsessed with the Levant, 'Rat.
    I'm obsessed with the Muslim hate lovers.

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  35. The reason ...

    He was such a bad student, his English skills being minimal, that I would not fund the lifestyle he desired, along with a post High School education.

    So he joined the Federals, for a term of service, to improve his language skills and qualify for further Federal benefits.

    He succeeded, in that.

    Did he want to "Get some", when he enlisted, yep. By the time his term was over, he thought the Marines to be PC foolish.

    He told me they were training the Marines heading to Iraq to clear houses, with handguns.

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  36. "Did he want to "Get some", when he enlisted, yep. By the time his term was over, he thought the Marines to be PC foolish."
    ---
    Yeah,
    We're all exquisitely frustrated by PC Bullshitters like EB poster Trish.

    ReplyDelete
  37. ...she of the left-wing non-links.

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  38. Netanyahu tells Obama to shit in his hat.

    Binyamin Netanyahu's decision not to take part in next week's nuclear security summit in the US will be seen as a victory for mounting Arab and Muslim pressure on Israel over its most controversial and secret weapon.

    Egypt has long campaigned on the issue of Israel's atomic arsenal. Last month the Arab League called on the UN to declare the Middle East a nuclear-free zone. Saudi Arabia has been active too. Turkey also backs this demand as it offers to mediate between the west and Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme.

    Israel, constantly highlighting the danger from Iran, is estimated to have 150 to 200 atomic bombs, deliverable by aircraft, missile or submarine. Its programme was developed after France built a nuclear reactor at Dimona in the Negev desert in the 1950s. The so-called Samson option was seen by Israel's first generation of leaders as designed to prevent another Holocaust – its bombs reportedly bearing the slogan "never again".

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  39. ...you can't kill the sniper in the minaret.
    ...you can't bomb the relocated Taliban.
    ...you can't upset Nancy Pelosi.

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  40. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjMN-SewDNU

    ReplyDelete
  41. ...you must suck up to the Salon editorial committee.

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  42. desert rat said...
    That will be required, doug-o, to fulfill GW Bush's and the United States's desire for a Two State Solution, in both occupied anf free Palistine.


    Notice the rat's usage of "occupied" and "free Palestine" (and his lack of spelling "palestine" correctly?" Israel is a Nation that has a place in the world, even at the UN, whereas "Palestine" is not a nation, nor has it ever been one.


    Rat continues: That or one man one vote for ALL the residents and refugees from the Russian occupied area of the Levant.

    Now rat comments on the Russians that have moved into Israel, where they do share the right to vote with all citizens of the state of Israel, including the 20% of the population that are infact ARABS, his attempt to suggest that somehow non-citizens of Israel that live in the west bank and gaza are due voting rights smacks of sloganeering rather than the concept that people have voting rights. israelis do not vote in Gaza nor the West Bank, nor in Jordan (if they actually vote at all) to suggest that the only way for peace to be is that Israel should open voting rights to non-citizens is just plain delusional.

    rat continues: In which case the Europeons will lose control, regardless.

    Demographics, dear boy, dooms that Europeon colony on the shores of the eastern Med, eventually



    Rat discounts Israel's right to be followed by the concept that somehow it's a colony. rat forgets (always) the millions of Jews, driven from their historic homes in the Arab world, where they lived before arabs came north from Medina, that now live in a tiny sliver of the middle east.

    To remind rat of the fact that the arabs occupy 649/650th of the middle east and have control in that "euro colony" of 20%" and that Israel sits on a tiny % of it's promised land mass, as promised by the League of Nations. Will not do any good as Rat believes that Israel should not exist...

    rat: And besides, Arabic is a Semitic language, so wi"o", the biggest anti-semite we have posting,


    More rat lies... the term anti-semite is specific in referring to jew hatred, that is how and why it was created, but rat knows that, he's just taking a page from the PLO Israel Hating Handbook

    Rat: here, next to allen, the man with the fanciful life story timeline.

    Both hate Arabic Semitics.



    No Allen and I hate murderers.... Allen and I both are proud that Israel has christian, jewish, moslems, blacks, whites, russians, morrocans, africans of all stripes living in peace as full citizens of the state of Israel. Allen and I fully support a peace process that allows Israel to fly it's flag with security. Rats position is that Israel has no right to nationhood...

    Well i for one am really glad that rat has expressed himself... thanks rat for clarifying your position of the case for Israel. your input is as valued as the fecal matter I just flushed....

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  43. We seem a little grumpy, Doug.

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  44. warning to you guys:

    careful on pushing rat any farther. his claimed connection to mexican migrant workers willing to maim you for money may be contracted.

    always IP anonymize!

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  45. Why the fuck can't you ever just assert something in plain English?

    (squishy)

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  46. I LOVE bitter, stupid, senile old people.

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  47. DR,

    The man who doesn't give me much thought has not disappointed. This morning, as so many others, I am on his mind (let's not quibble about what "mind" means for the moment).

    Thanks DR, for remaining constant, at least in your inconstant statements. Again, "liar" would be appropriate for someone competent. I will not apply the epithet to you, however.

    Do continue to have a nice day, not thinking about me, of course :)

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  48. Allen...

    It's amazing the memory of the Rat (real or made up) He grasps on to any little tidbit about anyone to somehow make his statements more biting..

    and yet, what do we really know about Rat?

    nothing...

    oh, except he hates Israel & Jews, that we are sure...

    Oh and he hires illegal mexicans to provide hit squads for his enforcement of law..

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  49. Seems there is a Shermanesque mood here this morning.

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  50. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  51. Doug said...
    Did your son join the Marines
    to "get some" Jewish Terrorists?

    Fri Apr 09, 08:32:00 AM EDT


    Doug,

    I doubt he ever had a son in the Corps. You may have noticed that the imaginary son has gone unmentioned since habu's departure. Not unlike disuse of Campbell and "Zorroasty" since bob's departure.

    DR just makes it up as he goes along, hoping to inflicit his misery on others by the use of deceit, fabrication, insult and profanity. He is the typical small man with an ego as big as Mount Rushmore.

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  52. WiO wrote:

    "The offer of 67 borders with lands swaps was made 2 times and REFUSED by the arabs..."

    yeppers they did. Why did they? well dry dusty sand in return for hilltops with aquifers was not the best deal in their view and they were clinging to the "right of return". The Palis, like the Israelis, have desires incompatible with settlement hence the rise of the notion of a forced deal.






    Israel's refusal to sign the NPT while harping about Iran's nuclear ambitions has served to highlight Israel's shared status with the likes of North Korea, India, and Pakistan. More trouble for Bibi.

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  53. allen wrote:

    "He is the typical small man with an ego as big as Mount Rushmore."


    There goes the pot calling the kettle black again.

    ReplyDelete
  54. trish said...

    "I LOVE bitter, stupid, senile old people."

    Incisive, deep insight.

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  55. WiO,

    Rat is typical of his malady. As written before, he is the guy who takes a gigsaw puzzle and using scissors cuts pieces to fit. That the end result bears no resemblence to the intended design only proves to DR the dastardly intentions of the manufacturer of the puzzle.

    I cannot not take him seriously; there is no "there" there.

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  56. Sherman's job, as he saw it, was to win the war, and put down the illegal insurrection by the people of the South, as quickly, and expeditiously as possible. His actions made perfect sense.

    Grant got the Credit, but Sherman won the War.

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  57. And, the current Governor of Virginia is a fool for opening up that can of worms.

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  58. What fucking can of worms did he
    "open up"
    Alan?

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  59. Rufus sucks BHO's cock.

    ...to alleviate white southerner's guilt.

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  60. Bart wants to spend more time with his family.

    Have any of us not relied on that one at one low point or another?

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  61. I have no "white southerner's guilt," dumbshit; I'm from Missouri.

    The War was what it was. There were three options available:

    1) The South would be allowed to conduct business as usual as Slave-owning "States of the Union,"

    2) The South would be allowed to Secede from the Union, and exist as a "Slave owning" Country in its own right, or

    3) Would be conquered, and brought back into the Union as "Non-Slave" States.

    The North chose Door No. 3. They won the war. Sherman's "March to the Sea" probably got Lincoln reelected, and sealed the fate of the South.

    McDonnell is a fool because the Confederacy, rightly, or wrongly, is associated to the N'th Degree with "Slavery." To honor our ancestors who fought for their "State, and Country" - The Confederacy - is One Thing; to "Honor" the Confederacy, itself, is quite another.

    Foolishness at at time when we don't need "foolishness."

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  62. OK
    I'll look up what McDonnell had to say.

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  63. We bombed the shit out of Germany's Industrial areas. It wasn't for "revenge," or the rabid desire for "destruction." It was to diminish their "war-fighting" ability.

    Sherman did the same thing. It was the "facories" such as the one at Roswell that kept the soldiers in the field. Marching the women to Marietta was, probably, a step too far, but Sherman's goal was to "strike fear" into the hearts of those who worked in the factories, and, as a result, aided in the killing of HIS soldiers.

    If my Grandson ever has to go to "War" I pray that the General of the Armies, and the President are men cut from the same cloth as W.T. Sherman.

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  64. Missouri?
    We might be cousins!
    Know the Tarvins, or the Mckims?

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  65. How'd you end up in Mississippi?

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  66. Would Lee have done the same to Pennsylvania?

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  67. The Casinos. After I retired, I spent about a decade, and a half playing poker.

    I'm not as enamored of Lee as are some people. I find his "fight" at Gettysburg, "inexplicable." I would never want me, or one of mine, to be under the command of one such as Lee.

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  68. Re: Lee and PA

    No, Lee was very clear on the matter.

    In July 1863, Lee hoped to defeat Federal forces in detail and bring a negotiated end to hostilites.

    By the time of Sherman's campaign, the fall of the Confederacy was foregone; it was simply a matter of time, assuming Lincoln held the presidency. Additionally, so much pain had been suffered and so much blood spilled that there was in the North a strong desire to punish the South. Recall the campaigns of Grant "The Butcher" to get a sense of the horror and rage in the North.

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  69. If slavery was an abomination at the time, were other practices abomoninable? Did Sherman's conduct go beyond the morality of the time?

    By some accounts it did.

    Clearly, any US military officer that would conduct himself in Iraq or Afghanistan in the same manner as Sherman would be relieved of his command.

    Serbians would be on trial in the Hague for similar behavior.

    History needs to be looked at in the context of the time. It is not history to pick and choose that which appeals to your favor and ignore that which does not.

    The Confederacy was a fact. It was much more complex than mean ignorant white southerners whipping and lashing black slaves, brought to justice by an avenging federal army.

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  70. Lee's job was to prolong the war, and bring about a "truce," and negotiated settlement. He was well on his way to accomplishing that task until his bizarre actions at Gettysburg.

    He made a sympathetic "Grandfather on a pretty white horse" image for the Confederacy, but in the end he was just a "Slavery-supporting" Rebel that Sacrificed tens of thousands of his troops in one of the worst battles in the history of warfare.

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  71. Good point, then either the behavior and conduct of Lee or Sherman was the acceptable norm of the time. One was not.

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  72. "Virgil Caine is the name and I served on the Danville train
    'Til Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again
    In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive
    By May the tenth, Richmond had fell
    It's a time I remember, oh so well

    Like my father before me, I will work the land
    And like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand
    He was just eighteen, proud and brave, but a Yankee laid him in his grave
    I swear by the mud below my feet
    You can't raise a Caine back up when he's in defeat"

    a truly historic song.

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  73. Let's face it; we all have "Unlimited Capacity for lying to Ourselves."

    Lee, and Slavery were the "accepted norm" if you were born, and raised in the American South circa 1860. It was Not the accepted norm if you were born, and bred in Boston, Terre Haute, or London.

    Sherman didn't slaugher civilians. (some of his troops did, but some men will revert to savagery very easily when "at War.")

    He managed to get his Campaign "approved" by stating that he would not need a long supply line, that he could "live off the land" as he took Atlanta, marched to the Sea, took the Carolinas, and broke the back of the Confederacy.

    His Guiding Principle was that "War is an Abomination," and should be brought to and end as quickly as possible. I consider him one of The United States' Greatest Generals. The "Patton" of his time. To Grant's "Eisenhower."

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  74. rufus wrote:

    If my Grandson ever has to go to "War" I pray that the General of the Armies, and the President are men cut from the same cloth as W.T. Sherman.


    In three months, my son, my only son, will make application for his commission. Ambivalence best describes my feelings on the matter at this moment. That I cannot slight him by attempting to intercede only compounds the accompanying impotence.

    For some of us, this is not a game or a clever exercise in adolescent inanities. G-d forbid, the loss of my son will end my line and end the life of one of the best men I have ever known.

    O, and I am nearly old enough to be his grandfather. There will, therefore, be no second chance.

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  75. PERSONALS


    Occult vegetarian ambidexterous truck-driving juggler with broccoli fetish and penchant for gothic novels seeks women with similar interests. Write to Stan Box 69, Ispiming, MI.


    .

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  76. I was "born, and raised" in Southeastern Missouri (Cotton Country.) Jim Crow was the norm. I never gave it a second thought. It seemed "normal" to me.

    Only after several years did I realize how wrong that culture had been. I wasn't a "Bad" kid; just ignorant.

    More intelligent people showed me the way - not directly, but through their actions, and their writings, and, yes, by their "laws." (sometimes you have to put the 2 x 4 upside the mule's head to get his attention.)

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  77. Wholesale Inventories and Sales Up Solidly in Feb

    With this "fidgety" economy, though, Feb seems like a loooong time ago.

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  78. De Tocqueville was, surely, prescient. But, dammit, there's just something about the man that just grates on me. Silly, I know; but, I just can't help it.

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  79. Wikipedia:
    Deportation can also happen within a state, when (for example) an individual or a group of people is forcibly resettled to a different part of the country. If ethnic groups are affected by this, it may also be referred to as population transfer. The rationale is often that these groups might assist the enemy in war or insurrection. For example, the American state of Georgia deported 400 female mill workers during the Civil War on the suspicion they were Northern sympathizers.[11]

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  80. ash:
    Israel's refusal to sign the NPT while harping about Iran's nuclear ambitions has served to highlight Israel's shared status with the likes of North Korea, India, and Pakistan. More trouble for Bibi.


    Iran signed and LIED about the NPT...

    Big difference, the fact you cannot tell the difference says it all....

    As for the shared status of North Korea, India, Pakistan?

    Really where do you get this crap?

    From Rat?

    India and Israel are in no way, shape or form in the same status as North Korea or Pakistan...

    If you sign the NPT agreement and you are proven to hide, lie and steal (iraq, iran & north korea) there are costs involved. The NPT is not required.

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  81. ash:

    yeppers they did. Why did they? well dry dusty sand in return for hilltops with aquifers was not the best deal in their view and they were clinging to the "right of return". The Palis, like the Israelis, have desires incompatible with settlement hence the rise of the notion of a forced deal.


    Ash, the arabs have offers in 1948, 1967, 1973, 1984, 1999, 2001, 2006....

    If you keep waiting they will have less each time...

    sucks being stupid and greedy....

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  82. Random thoughts and facts:

    Sherman was an evil son of a bitch, and he proved it when he annilated the Indians during those wars after the War of Northern Aggression.

    He did slaughter civilians as he was responsible for his soldiers' actions.

    Lee would not have done the same thing in PA.

    During the Gettysburg campaign, Lee was coping with a severe case of dysentry and was taking large doses of an opiate.

    I had 3 great great grandfathers who fought for the Confederacy, 2 which were killed. None had slaves.

    It wasnt JUST about slavery. The country was less thans 100 years old. Each state thought of themselves as sovereign, and didnt like big government (sound familiar?). Most rank and file Confederate soldiers fought because of the states rights issue.

    Famous conversation between Union and Confederate soldiers during a lull at Shiloh:

    Union Soldier: "Why are you fighting us?"

    Confederate Soldier: "Cause ya'll are down here!"

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  83. "No one gets IP'd here."

    "A Canadian model has won a landmark case in a New York court after Google was forced to disclose the online identity of a blogger who anonymously posted derogatory comments about the Vogue covergirl."

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  84. A TOUCHING STORY, illustrating this noble trait of General Lee’s character, was told years after the war by a Union veteran who was viewing the great panorama, “The Battle of Gettysburg.” He said:
    I was at the battle of Gettysburg myself. I had been a most bitter anti-South roan, and fought and cursed the Confederates desperately. I could see nothing good in any of them. The last day of the fight I was badly wounded.
    Aball shattered my left leg. I lay on the ground not far from Cemetery Ridge, and as General Lee ordered his retreat, he and his officers rode near me. As they came along I recognized him, and, though faint from exposure and loss
    of blood, I raised up my hands, looked Lee in the face, and shouted as loud as I could, “Hurrah for the Union!” The general heard me, looked, stopped
    his horse, dismounted, and came toward me. I confess that I at first thought he meant to kill me. But as he came up he looked down at me with such a sad expression upon his face that all fear left me, and I wondered what he was
    about. He extended his hand to me, and grasping mine firmly and looking right into my eyes, said, “My son, I hope you will soon be well.”

    If I live a thousand years I shall never forget the expression on General Lee’s face. There he was, defeated, retiring from a field that had cost him and his cause almost their last hope, and yet he stopped to say words like those to a wounded soldier of the opposition who had taunted him as he passed by. As soon as the general had left me I cried myself to sleep there upon the bloody ground.

    Lee - a man of honor
    Sherman - an evil and brutal killer

    Rufus, you can go to hell with Sherman; I would prefer heaven with Lee.

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  85. My father's side was from the South (the part that wasn't Cherokee,) and probably fought for the Confederacy. My mother's folks were from the North, and probably lost a few fighting for the Union. My father's grandmother could have cared less, since she living in a teepee, somewhere. Life goes on.

    No, it wasn't JUST about Slavery. The North was beating the South to death with import/export tariffs that forced the South to buy their industrial goods from the North, and severely hampered their ability to export their agricultural products.

    Everyone, then and now, were pretty much assholes protecting their own rice bowls. 'Ceptin the poor Blacks, of course, they didn't have any "rice bowl" to protect.

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  86. Here, JWillie, let me fix that for you:

    Sherman - fought against Slavery, and through a Daring, and Well-executed campaign brought a speedy end to a brutal war.

    Lee - Fought to Continue the Enslavement, into perpetuity, of Millions of People of African Descent, and fought one of the worst battles in American Military History at Gettysburg, Pa.

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  87. Sherman would have killed your father's grandmother and taken her ear as a trophy if he would have happened upon her.

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  88. That's okay, Gag; her father would have done the same to Sherman if he were given the chance.

    Life goes on, folks.

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  89. The only battle I'm interested in right now is the one between Ethanol, and Big Oil. It will have an effect on my life. That other stuff is just . . . history.

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  90. Right now, I'm watching a very interesting skirmish between the oil "bears," and "bulls" on CNBC.

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  91. I know where your heart is, Rufus, and probably your money, but I think Big Oil will win that battle.

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  92. by the way, Rufus, my mother was born in Kennett and we have a family cemetery in Zelma, know where that is?

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  93. It can't, in anything but the "shortest run," Gag. It's in the same predicament the South was in. It's on the "wrong side of history."

    However, like most wars, this one will find most of its casualties in the ranks of the "Civilians."

    VMT (vehicles miles travelled) is starting to dip downward, again, and the CEO of Gulf Oil said this morning that the average gallons/purchase at filling stations has started to fall. That's a sign that the consumer is starting to hurt.

    The only question all along is how high can gasoline prices go before they push us back into recession. I was guessing $3.25, but it's looking like I might have been a touch on the high side.

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  94. Your family knows a lot of my kinfolks. Most of ours are buried at Stanfeld (sp) outside of Clarkton.

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  95. Stanfield Cemetery.

    I knew that didn't look right.

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  96. So now you know. If I go quiet for a long time just look up Stanfield Cemetery, Clarkton Mo and see who got buried there that sounds ornery enough to be "Rufus."

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  97. rufus what evidence suggests that rise and fall of gas prices determines economic outcomes as opposed to being a product of the economy?

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  98. Robert E Lee's life defines the word leadership, Rufus, but you are too ignorant to know it, or else too intellectually inflexible to accept it.

    Just so happens there's another thread where an ignoramus spouted off nonsense about General Lee getting control of his ego and surrendering at Appomattox Courthouse 145 years ago today. Plenty of others who aren't ignorant have stepped up to point out the author's mistake. Go read it - you might learn something: http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/04/09/friday-free-for-all-appomattox-edition/

    For the record, Lee was probably the humblest General to ever wear the US Army uniform. He was offered the leadership of the entire Union Army by Winfield Scott, who knew that his honor bound him to Virginia (people thought of their states as countries back then and Lee's family history was deeply intertwined in Virginia's). Nevertheless, Scott, under whose command Lee fought in Mexico, knew that if Lee were to be preempted from leading a Confederate Army, and would instead lead a Union Army, the war would have been effectively over before it began.

    Sherman was not and is not held in such high regard as a leader, or as a man.

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  99. From that thread at BigGovernment.com regarding Appomattox:

    R.E. Lee was a remarkable man and his surrender was an act of compassion. When he took over the Army of Northern Virginia he knew the outcome, not by the quality of the soldiers but by attrition. He had freed all of his inherited slaves at the beginning of the war, a year plus before Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. His personal assistant stayed with him as a free man until he died, Lee accompanied the casket for burial in Savannah. There was much more to the surrender at Appomattox, than who won and who lost.

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  100. Okay, j willie, I'll let it drop. I'm sure he was well-loved by all that knew him.

    Ash, the simple fact (and, it really is a fact) is: a significant gasoline price increase precedes the recession about 90% of the time.

    Now, it's true, Correlation isn't "necessarily" causation; but that is awfully high correlation.

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  101. Correlation definitely does not imply causation. It is a chicken and egg kind of thing. Booming economy = increased usage therefore increase in price and the converse being true. The economy is such a dynamic thing with many inputs that I'm skeptical that one input would be so determinative. I suspect that the price of fuel is more a function of the economy than a determinant but I have little evidence to support such a contention. I'm curious as to evidence indicating the contrary.

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  102. Ash, I think many of us overlook how dependent our system is on the ability (and, willingness) of the lower 1/3 to move around, and contribute to the economy.

    But, when the lower 1/3 goes into a shell it feeds all the way up the food chain, and it's the lower classes that are hammered by higher gasoline prices. An extra $30.00/wk is a Hard Tax on someone supporting a family on $11.00/hr.

    Remember, we were in recession well before the financial "crisis."

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  103. Oh yea, in recession before the financial crisis. What would lead me to believe that oil prices cause the recession would be consistent high prices BEFORE signs of recession. The trouble is determining when a recession actually starts. It is all interrelated for sure.

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  104. Well, I think we can agree that low gasoline prices are "better" than High gasoline prices. :)

    My current pet theory (that I, absolutely Cannot prove) is that we're coming to the end of the "floating" storage, and that it's taking a higher, and higher price to get it onshore.

    I, also, am Not confident that Saudi Arabia, or anyone else, can come up with the oil needed to make up for the loss of that "reserve" that we've been drawing from for the last six months, and for the added demand from Asia.

    My horror scenario is that prices rise until we slide back into recession far enough that we drag China into recession, thereby reducing demand enough to halt the rise in prices.

    Well, actually, the REAL horror story would be if supplies fell enough that even the OECD, AND China going into recession couldn't pull prices back down (but, that is, at present, probably unlikely.)

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  105. The Higher Highs, and Higher Lows that we're seeing in the Oil "Forwards" Contracts seem to track pretty well with my theory on the looming demise of "floating" storage.

    The EIA Inventory reports have been "Bearish" now for something like ten weeks running, but the bears are having a hard time pushing oil back below $84.00 this go-round. If they fail to break $80.00 I think that will be telling.

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  106. BTW, the cost of ethanol at the refinery-gate is now about $1.44. Subtract the $0.45 Blenders' Credit, and you're looking at $0.99/gal.

    Like I said, Oil is on "The Wrong Side of History."

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  107. My reading of the entrails leading to my prediction for the future is that we are heading toward a second dip. I hope I'm wrong but I don't see that any structural changes have occurred affecting what led us into the last crisis we've only just kicked the can down the road. The recent rise in the markets appears similar to the rise that followed the first crash of the depression. I hope I'm wrong though. Really I do. Krugman wrote today along a similar line only different (he was talking lessons from the Greece situation). The whole piece is worth reading but here is his conclusion:

    "What worries me most about the U.S. situation right now is the rising clamor from inflation hawks, who want the Fed to raise rates (and the federal government to pull back from stimulus) even though employment has barely started to recover. If they get their way, they’ll perpetuate mass unemployment. But that’s not all. America’s public debt will be manageable if we eventually return to vigorous growth and moderate inflation. But if the tight-money people prevail, that won’t happen — and all bets will be off. "

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/opinion/09krugman.html?hp

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  108. "America’s public debt will be manageable if we eventually return to vigorous growth and moderate inflation."

    And puppies are cute and water is wet.

    Krugman is a moron.

    (And another obviously sad comment on the jury handing out the Nobel prizes)


    .

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  109. Krugman is probably right, as far as he goes; but, as usual, he doesn't go very far.

    The American Economy is at a true "inflection" point, just as it was in the late 1920's.

    We have too many people, now, working unproductively in the "Wrong" jobs.

    An ex. - I saw an article the other day about a fully automated coal mine. In a few days a small town in WV will be holding services for 25 Coal Miners.

    The days of men going down into the coal mine are about over. They could more productively be used somewhere else. We have, at least, 4 times (to pull a figure out of my ass) more people working in the Chevy plants than we need for the required output.

    It's the 21st Century, and we're still doing some (most?) things the same way we were at the turn of the 20th Century.

    We're getting 20 miles out of a gallon of gasoline (or ethanol) when we should be getting 40, or more.

    Paradigm shifts are HARD. That's where "failure" normally occurs.

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  110. An article this morning: BP is shutting down 1/2 of the production from Thunderhorse. For those of you unfamiliar with Thunderhorse, it's the Deep Water Gulf Platform that took 10 years to get "up and running."

    It seems they've gotta go 6,000 ft down, and replace a lotta stuff. Presumably, when they get this half fixed, they'll have to go fix the "other" half.

    The Brazilians, now, find that that much ballyhooed deepwater discovery of theirs (Tupi) has considerably less oil than was "estimated," and it might be just a little too deep, and too difficult after all.

    You see, here's the problem. Most of the stuff they're "finding" now is going to require oil in the $100.00 range when all is said and done. That's $3.50 + gasoline. If $3.25 gasoline puts you in recession, and destroys "demand" then, what the hell?

    And, the Banker says, "Hmmmm. How Many Billion?"

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  111. vigorous growth and modest inflation are the only way I can see out of the debt trap Quirk. Do you foresee another way?

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  112. At some point (maybe sooner than later) Oil becomes too expensive to use. Let me repeat, "It. Becomes. Too. Expensive. To. Use."

    Big-Time Pardigm Shift.

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  113. You can't, I don't believe, have "Vigorous Growth," and "Low Inflation" with $3.50 + Gasoline.

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  114. Especially, when the $400+ Billion/yr (in today's dollars) is going to Saudi Arabia, or Iraq.

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  115. I am probably the only one here who got my William Tecumseh on while eating an open-face pimento cheese sandwich on klosterbrot deli rye.

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  116. My Dear, I'm just almost Certain you are.

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  117. Did I thank Trish for her inspiration on Todays' post?

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  118. You needn't.






    We have unfinished business.

    Don't go anywhere.

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  119. Should we pop some popcorn?

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  120. The smoking light is lit and it is happy hour which lasts till 2:00AM EDT.

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  121. This day in history: On April 10th 1633 bananas were supposedly displayed in the shop window of merchant Thomas Johnson. This was the first time the banana had ever been seen in Great Britain. It would be more than 200 years before they were regularly imported. In 1999 remains of a banana were found at a Tudor archaeological site on the banks of the Thames River. This would seem to date it 150 years earlier than Thomas Johnson's banana. A classic food mystery! The word banana is a derivated from the Arabic meaning finger. Some believe the banana was the forbidden fruit of Eden.

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