The fabric of the U.S.

Allen West reported to us on July 29 that he enjoys the chance he has to “educate, edify, and challenge us all to think beyond the obvious.” He then takes exception with a statement that President Barack Obama made about Muslims, namely, thanking Muslims for their 

achievements and contributions … to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy.

West invites us to “scour the annals of history” to look for instances in which Muslims have contributed to American history in this way. He picks up here:

I’d like some audience participation here. Please share what you think are the “achievements and contributions” for which we should all thank Muslim Americans in building the very fabric of our nation? Oh – and don’t forget “common values” — please share those as well.

I’ll go first. And I’ll go way back. I know Abraham was the father of all nations and he was Isaac and Ishmael’s dad. And in Genesis 16:11-12, (NIV) “The angel of the Lord also said to her (Hagar): You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

So to Muslims, I say thank you for being a part of the Judeo-Christian foundation that established this great nation. And I am thankful for this Bible verse so I understand God’s blessing upon what would ultimately lead to the growth of violent jihad.

The claim here, dubious at best, is that Ishmael was the ancestor of Arabs, and thus, a progenitor of Muslims, who will collectively and by extension “be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers,” as is the perception of radical Muslims.

In any case, Obama’s statement was obviously was not to be taken literally that Muslims were present and participated in the founding of the nation in 1787 — that’s absurd — just that they contributed to strengthening the modern democracy and cultural diversity that is the United States, which provides for the inclusion of people of all religions and all backgrounds, a doctrine which, as it happens, is the fabric of our nation.

Office read-off 2013

Below are the results of the 2013 office read-off between Blake and myself. Blake’s details are listed as page count, publication year and date completed. Details for my list are shown by the start and finish date and page count. I have provided links for the works we thought were the strongest.

Blake

  1. “George Washington’s War” — Robert Leckie, 660, 1992, 1/19
  2. Beyond the River” — Ann Hagedorn, 279, 2002, 3/17
  3. “The Man Who Would Be King” — Ben Macintyre, 291, 2004, 4/13
  4. The Captured” — Scott Zesch, 300, 2004, 4/20
  5. “Selling the President, 1920: Lasker & Harding” — John A. Morello, 102, 2001, 4/23
  6. Nellie Taft: Unconventional First Lady” — Carl Sferrazza Anthony, 411, 2005, 5/8
  7. “Eisenhower” — Alan Wykes, 157, 1982, 5/11
  8. Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding” — Darren Staloff, 361, 2005, 5/26
  9. “Means of Ascent” — Robert A. Caro, 412, 1990, 6/4
  10. “Words from the White House” — Paul Dickson, 179, 2013l, 6/6
  11. “Grover Cleveland: Study in Character” — Alyn Brodsky, 456, 2000, 6/17
  12. “Renegade: The Making of a President” — Richard Wolffe, 334, 2009, 

    6/28

  13. The Hunting of the President” — Conason and Lyons, 373, 2000, 7/11
  14. “Rothstein” — David Pietrusza, 387, 2003, 7/18
  15.  “A Good Life” — Ben Bradlee, 499, 1995, 7/26
  16. “Dominion of Memories” — Susan Dunn, 224, 2007, 8/3
  17. “Old Hickory” — Burke Davis, 386, 1977, 8/11
  18. “Presidency of James Earl Carter” — Burton I. Kaufman, 214, 1993, 8/18
  19. “The Kennedy Brothers” — Richard D. Mahoney, 377, 1999, 8/24
  20. “Founding Myths” — Ray Raphael, 277, 2004, 8/31
  21. “Island of Vice” — Richard Zacks, 366, 2012, 9/12
  22. “Last of His Kind” — Charles Robbins, 153, 1979, 9/19
  23. “Fraud of the Century” — Roy G. Morris Jr., 256, 2003, 10/1
  24. “The Devil in the White City” — Erik Larson, 390, 2002, 12/29

Jeremy

  1. Cleopatra: A Life” by Stacy Schiff, started Jan. 1, finished Jan. 20. – 324
  2. “Reconstruction” by Eric Foner, started Jan. 21 – 612, finished March 31
  3. “The Oedipus Cycle” by Sophocles, finished April 7. – 251
  4. “Why I Am Not A Christian” by Bertrand Russell, started March, finished April 7 – 259
  5. “The Portable Nietzsche,” edited and translated by Walter Kaufmann, started April 6, finished May 6 – 687
  6. “Absalom, Absalom!” by William Faulkner, started May 7, June 5 – 303
  7. “The History of White People” by Nell Irvin Painter, started May 7, finished June 29 – 396
  8. Judgment Days” by Nick Kotz, started July 20 – 434
  9. “Big Chief Elizabeth” by Giles Milton. Started July 20, finished Aug. 16 – 344
  10. The Fiery Trial” by Eric Foner – Started Aug. 14, finished Sept. 8 – 336
  11. “The Negro Classics” by Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois and James Weldon Johnson. Started Sept. 28, finished Oct. 4 – 511
  12. “V.” by Thomas Pynchon. – Started Sept. 8, finished Sept. 28 – 533
  13. “Half Slave and Half Free” by Bruce Levin – Started Oct. 4, finished 6 – 255
  14. “The Dante Club” by Matthew Pearl – Started Oct. 5, finished Oct. 10 – 380
  15. “Six Women of Salem” by Marilynne K. Roach – Started Oct. 13, finished Oct. 26 – 400
  16. “God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World” by Walter Russell Mead – Started Oct. 27, finished Nov. 13 – 413
  17. “Vineland” by Thomas Pynchon – Started Nov. 15, finished Dec. 1 – 385
  18. “Go Down, Moses” by William Faulkner – Started Dec. 1, finished Dec. 11 – 383
  19. “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells, Started Dec. 9, finished Dec. 13 – 104
  20. Morgan: American Financier” by Jean Strouse, Started Dec. 14, finished Dec. 31

Total page count — Blake: 7,844, Jeremy: 7,616.

MSNBC host steps in it

It’s one thing to blast Sarah Palin for her “rank ignorance,” callousness and flimsy grasp at history. Quite another to suggest that someone should shit in her mouth two girls, one cup style.

This is essentially what former MSNBC Martin Bashir did when he criticized Palin for comparing the national debt to slavery. He has subsequently apologized and resigned from his post.

Here is, in part, what he had to say in an email to Mediaite after the on-air segment:

I deeply regret what was said, will endeavor to work hard at making constructive contributions in the future and will always have a deep appreciation for our viewers – who are the smartest, most compassionate and discerning of all television audiences. I would also wish to express deepest gratitude to my immediate colleagues, and our contributors, all of whom have given so much of themselves to our broadcast.

Bashir’s comments highlight the problem with stations like MSNBC and FOX News. Pundits on these partisan stations — add left and right wing talk radio to the mix — spend the majority of their time lambasting the other side, and they ratchet up the rhetorical to such a high pitch that eventually they have nowhere else to go except to crude and personal attacks.

I disagree with 99.9 percent of the gibberish that comes out of Palin’s mouth, but dropping her, even metaphorically, in the 18th century to be stripped of her humanity and disciplined like a slave for her political views? Really? I mean, did one of Bashir’s producers not step in and say, “Hey man, this might be taking it too far?”

If you missed it, here’s the video:

Short book review: ‘Six Women of Salem’

salem

This is a short book review I prepared for Good Reads on Marilynne Roach’s 2013 book, “Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials.”

While Roach does provide interesting accounts of these six women’s lives and grounds the reader firmly in 17th century New England, this is a tedious and sometimes confusing read, and the “fictionalized” sections compounds the problem. Some reviewers said they could not finish the book because of the dry prose. I did manage to finish, but it was a challenge to do so. I really wanted to move on to another book about halfway through, so in that regard, Roach wasn’t able to hold my attention the way other colonial histories have done.

I was also looking for a little bit more analysis of witchcraft itself and why the “spectral” hysteria on that scale was more or less isolated to the Boston area in 1692. Roach stuck rigidly to the narrative of the six women and didn’t provide much of a big picture look at the political and religious contexts of witchcraft at that time in history.

All that said, I’m glad I gave the book a chance because I definitely learned a good deal about the accusers, the condemned and the afflicted, and I appreciate Roach’s diligence in digging up all the old records to be able to compile such a detailed narrative, even if the finished product left something to be desired.

[rating:2.0]

Grand Old Party of Irony

If the Republican’s aren’t that good at maintaining any level of credibility or even relevancy here in the year 2013, at least members of the House do one thing well: irony.

The same party that touts small government and limited spending proceeded to waste taxpayer dollars on almost 40 symbolic and separate votes against Obamacare the last four years and may also cost government $1 billion or more in the shutdown.

And now, apparently the thinking among some in Washington is that the shutdown is just what the doctor ordered in repairing their sullied image:

… the negative effects of the shutdown, even when felt by constituents, are softened by the idea that the members of Congress are fighting the good fight. And Republicans have been deliberate about shifting the blame for those things that threaten to frustrate their constituencies. The series of small funding bills — passing a measure to fund veterans’ services or to re-open national parks — serves to put the Senate Democrats in the difficult position of saying no. But more immediately it allows Republicans who might be on the hot seat to say to their districts (and the veterans and outdoors enthusiasts therein), hey, we tried, blame the Democrats. — “House Republicans Think This Shutdown Thing Is Going Fine

GOP proponents might think this move is brilliant. And it would be if not for the glaringly obvious fact that the Democrats were ready to pass a bill that would have continued funding the government, thus saving the paychecks of 788,000 people and possibly $1 billion more in spending, were it not for Republicans’ attempt at extortion to defund what is already the law of the land.

Of course, no one should really be surprised by this current bit of stupidity on The Hill; Americans on the right have kowtowed to the Tea Party for the better part of six years now, and the fringe’s plan all along has been the wholesale breakdown of a strong federal government or most preferably, the evisceration of government altogether. Take a big whiff. Americans who voted firebrands like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul into office are now getting the just fruits of all they deserve and more.

My top 10 American history books (2011-13)

As a matter of total randomness, I have decided to make a list of the top 10 American history books I have read since 2011. I have listed them from good studies in American history (6-10) to imperishable works with few rivals (1-5).

Drum roll …

10. “Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief” by James McPherson. Read my review here.

9. “Union 1812: The Americans who Fought the Second War of Independence” by A.J. Langguth.

8. “From Sea to Shining Sea: From the War of 1812 to the Mexican War, the Saga of America’s Expansion” by Robert Leckie.

7.  “John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights” by David S. Reynolds.

6. “Madison and Jefferson” by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg. Read my review here.

5. “Grant and Sherman” by Charles Flood.

4. “Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society” by John Andrew III. Read my review here.

3. “Judgment Days” by Nick Kotz.

2. “Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788” by Pauline Maier.

1. “Grant” by Jean Edward Smith. Read my review here.

Honorable mentions

  • “Reconstruction” by Eric Foner
  • “The American Civil War” by John Keegan
  • “Big Chief Elizabeth” by Giles Milton
  • “This Mighty Scourge” by James McPherson
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