Little known fact…President William McKinley survived for 8-days after being shot by an assassin in 1901.
Lesser known fact…he spent those 8-days getting brandy injections and having “nutritive” concoctions of egg whites and whiskey shoved up his ass.
Battleship Missouri firing its main gun battery in 1991
Battleships are so fucking cool. The 16-inch main guns of an Iowa-class battleship could hurl a projectile the size of a Volkwsagen Beetle over 24-miles, and they had enough armor plating to laugh off almost any modern anti-ship missile, mine or torpedo.
Built in the 30’s and 40’s, they were last deployed during the 1991 Iraq war. The guns were fired using the same primitive, room-sized computers used during WWII. Building artillery on this scale is impressive enough, but then making it float on a boat that can go 30 knots is an engineering marvel.
Sadly all the Iowas are now serving as museum ships (though subject to recall in the event of a national emergency). Right now a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is having to show the flag in the Straits of Hormuz, and there’s a lot of debate about what would happen if one of these nuclear powered bedrocks of the US Navy came under actual attack - something that’s never happened.
Whereas one well-placed cruise missile could take out a carrier’s flight deck and render her useless, or blow an escort vessel in half, an Iowa battleship could have sailed into the straits with no such worries. Iran’s anti-ship missiles would literally char the paint, with all the ship’s critical systems protected behind armor designed to deflect the impact of 18-inch armor-piercing shells.
Guess it’s time to watch “Under Siege” again…
They decided to not actually go through with it, but another federal judge WAS arrested after finding Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus was unconstitutional. This is a link to the original court documents detailing the events. They are astounding.
Judge Matthew Merrick, a sitting federal judge, granted a writ of habeas corpus and ordered the chief marshal in Washington to produce the body of an American citizen in military custody in his courtroom. The lawyer who tried to serve the writ was arrested, and Judge Merrick was placed under house arrest.
The other DC circuit justices then took up the case, and tried to find the marshal in contempt, under the same process courts still use today. The marshal ignored the order to appear, at the direction of the President.
And this is the part that sends chills through my spine. The judiciary branch effectively surrenders to Lincoln, simply admitting that he’s got the guns and the court has no ability to enforce its orders. At that point, separation of powers ceased to exist in this country.
The federal court system is largely unchanged since the 1860’s, and reading these documents makes me shudder as I imagine it happening in modern times. Swap out the names and dates, and the documents would look the same. Lincoln’s exalted seat at the end of the National Mall is not undeserved, but from the standpoint of the Constitution and the separation of powers, he makes George W. Bush look like the head of the ACLU.
In what is now an annual tradition, I present the funniest Thanksgiving-related off the cuff discussion in television history. Ladies and gentleman, Johnny Carson and Doc Severinson talk turkey.
So in the 1950’s, complete strangers could meet at a party and do THIS?! Greatest generation indeed.
First Mother Maybelle Carter plays a duet with Ike Everly on one guitar like it ain’t nothin’. Then a little later Johnny Cash and his FUCKING DAD talk about meeting Nixon. Then Johnny Cash’s FUCKING MOTHER comes out and plays piano while everyone sings “Silent Night.”
You’re welcome.
Lloyd Benstsen tells Dan Quayle he’s no Jack Kennedy…
Everyone knows the barn burner first line, but his ICE COLD response to Quayle’s pathetic defense is almost better.
The single greatest televised debate smack down in American political history, period.
Sometimes my culturally conservative streak rears its head, and I get all huffy about the explicit language, sexuality and violence present in so much hip hop music.
Well, yesterday I came across the lyrics to “Candy Man Blues” written by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928, and I need to loosen up a little.
Well all you ladies gather ‘round
That good sweet candy man’s in town
It’s the candy man
It’s the candy man
He likes a stick of candy just nine inch long
He sells as fast a hog can chew his corn
It’s the candy man
It’s the candy man
All heard what sister Johnson said
She always takes a candy stick to bed
It’s the candy man
It’s the candy man
Don’t stand close to the candy man
He’ll leave a big candy stick in your hand
It’s the candy man
It’s the candy man
He sold some candy to sister Bad
The very next day she took all he had
It’s the candy man
It’s the candy man
If you try his candy, good friend of mine,
you sure will want it for a long long time
It’s the candy man
It’s the candy man
His stick candy don’t melt away
It just gets better, so the ladies say
It’s the candy man
It’s the candy man
