It’s Armistice Day

My Grandpa finally home from the Western Front, some time in the summer of 1919, with Granny and my Dad. (Look at all the crochet stuff! Granny used to crochet a cover for anything that stood still for more than ten minutes. I still have a shawl she crocheted stored away somewhere.)

ALso, too, do read Gary Wills, “What Romney Lost.”

13 thoughts on “It’s Armistice Day

  1. Nice looking family, maha!

    WWI: “The War To End All Wars.”
    How optimistic were people back then?
    There were probably more lives lost to war, combined, since 1918, than in all of the wars prior to it – going back to the first tribe of cave-dwellers, or savannah-livers, who attacked another “tribe.”

    I consider it a secular miracle that we haven’t nuked ourselve into non-existance since the nuclear era started.
    Our job, across the world, is to make sure that the Neocons in each nation, stay away from power.

    The whole world needs to echo the late great Phil Ochs – “I Ain’t Marching Anymore.”

    Here’s a video

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgAiuHIBlVs

  2. And here are the lyric’s, if you want to sing along:
    Oh I marched to the battle of New Orleans
    At the end of the early British war
    The young land started growing
    The young blood started flowing
    But I ain’t marchin’ anymore

    For I’ve killed my share of Indians
    In a thousand different fights
    I was there at the Little Big Horn
    I heard many men lying
    I saw many more dying
    But I ain’t marchin’ anymore

    It’s always the old to lead us to the war
    It’s always the young to fall
    Now look at all we’ve won with the sabre and the gun
    Tell me is it worth it all

    For I stole California from the Mexican land
    Fought in the bloody Civil War
    Yes I even killed my brother
    And so many others
    And I ain’t marchin’ anymore

    For I marched to the battles of the German trench
    In a war that was bound to end all wars
    Oh I must have killed a million men
    And now they want me back again
    But I ain’t marchin’ anymore

    (chorus)

    For I flew the final mission in the Japanese sky
    Set off the mighty mushroom roar
    When I saw the cities burning
    I knew that I was learning
    That I ain’t marchin’ anymore

    Now the labor leader’s screamin’ when they close the missile plants,
    United Fruit screams at the Cuban shore,
    Call it “Peace” or call it “Treason,”
    Call it “Love” or call it “Reason,”
    But I ain’t marchin’ any more.

    Peace.
    Out…

  3. OT – But if you thought we just had an election that might have popped the DC bubble amongst at least some of the pundits, get over it.

    Jayzoos H. Keerist, with a panel of feckin’ twits, instead of Apostles!!!

    Doris Kearns Goodwin, a good writer, a sh*tty pundit, and, as a historian, no Barbara Tuchman, she, was just on Meet the Republicans with Disco Dancin’ Dave, and came up with this bipartisan gem. I’ll paraphrase:
    ‘President Obama needs to bring business leaders into government.’
    Ok, not a bad idea, that! But who, pray tell, Doris?’
    ‘FDR brought in the presidents of Chrysler and Sears & Roebuck.’
    Yeah, Doris, we know that – but who now?
    ‘Why wouldn’t the President bring in Mitt Romney to deal with companies on how we keep manufacturing jobs here?’
    OY! OY!! OY!!!
    TEH STOOPID! IT BURNS!!! IT BURNS!!!
    OH, WHAT A WORLD… WHAT a world… what a world…

    Here’s a FECKIN’ historian who’s ignorant about the last 20 feckin’years.
    Just who the FECK do you think was one of the leaders in the “Save money, ship the jobs to China” faction in the American business world over the past few decades, there Doris? Yes, lets bring in a cat, to work with businesses on how to make a better mouse.

    Jayzoos, Doris, keep babbling about Lincoln, FDR, and LBJ. But when it comes to anything that’s happened over past 40 years – PLEASE STFU!!!

    Why can’t our pundit’s “Go Galt!”?
    You want a better country? First, kill all the pundits!

    OY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  4. Granny used to crochet a cover for anything that stood still for more than ten minutes.

    Mine too! I sort of learned to knit a few years ago, but crochet still flummoxes me. I end up looking like: Kitten 0, Ball of Yarn 1.

    Thinking of my veteran kin today, too. All long gone now, but how brave and stoic they were.

  5. cund: You write: “There were probably more lives lost to war, combined, since 1918, than in all of the wars prior to it – going back to the first tribe of cave-dwellers, or savannah-livers, who attacked another ‘tribe.’”
    If Steven Pinker is right, then you are probably mistaken. The old hunter-gatherer days were extremely violent, and also extremely indifferent to its own violence. Nowadays the absolute kill count is higher, but the population is much higher, so the relative frequency is lower.
    Also we are blessed by hypocrisy; we keep going to war, but we deplore it more than we used to. The result is that we get the same amount of political intimidation from a lower relative homicide rate. How efficient of us!

  6. Awesome family pic..thanks for sharing.I really dug it. Has anyone ever told you that you can see the similarities between you and your dad in your childhood photos?

    Somewhat off topic but I got a chuckle out of it and wanted to share: The tv show the Simpsons is one of my guilty pleasures. One of the really cool things about the show is that every show the animation of the opening theme song is always different. The boy in the show, bart, writes something different on the school chalk board. You gotta be quick to catch what it says and it is normally a comment about whatever “everyone ” is talking about at that time. This week they took at shot at karl rove ; Bart wrote on the black board : I will not concede the election until karl rove gives me permission.

  7. I see a resemblance to your grandmother too.

    I have a theory about babies. They resemble the parent or relative who is holding them.

    Hey, I didn’t say it was an insightful theory.

  8. OT:
    I wonder how long it will be until Newt calls for Issa to start impeaching President Obama for a BJ Petreaus got?

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