Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Lincoln's Birthday

Today is the 199th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. The Department of Massachusetts of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War ("SUVCW") held a commemorative brunch on Sunday which I attended, being a member of that fine organization. The speaker was Russell McClintock, Ph. D. whose fine book, "Lincoln and the Decision for War: the Northern Response to Succession", analyses the events between the initial succession of the deep South states and the attack on Ft. Sumter. I bought a copy of the book from Dr. McClintock, which he kindly autographed with his signature and "Fraternity, Charity, Loyalty" the motto of the SUVCW. The book was just recently published by The University of North Carolina Press.

Dr. McClintock's talk was quite good and informative. He focussed on the actual facts and timing of the actions of northern leaders and Lincoln, in particular the compromise negotiations and the decision to re-supply Ft. Sumter by Lincoln. Covering crucial events leading to the war, his talk really helped one see the decisions made by the persons, not the legends. I've skimmed his book and think it will be a fine read, which I intend to begin today.

Since we've all lived through many wars, and in particular the current war in Iraq, seeing how historical persons made decisions leading to these is very helpful. I can already envision analogs of Lincoln's decisions to Roosevelt's leading up to US entry into World War II. The book may or may not bear those out, but that's part of learning. Reading good histories loaded with facts is crucial in understanding world events.

Celebrating Lincoln's birthday, and Washinton's birthday on February 22 is so much a better way to learn and understand America than this amorphous and silly "President's Day" - which is now just a shopping day - that the stupidity and selfishness of modern culture gives us.

Word of the Day #1 - "verdure" - n. [$10]
"Verdure" means 1. green vegetation; 2. the greenness of this; 3. (poetic) freshness.
Sentence: Living in what seems like the frozen ice planet of Hoth, I'm dreaming of the verdure of the forest in spring.

Word of the Day #2 - "veneficial" - adj. (Obs.) [$1000].
"Veneficial" means practising, associated with, malignant sorcery or witchcraft. The word is derived from "venefice" [$1000] meaning the practise of employing poison or magical potions; the exercise of sorcery by such means.
Sentence: Can Hillary save her dying campaign through political venefice, or will she resort to the usual Clintonist smear tactics ? hehe ;-)

44 comments:

Bunkerman said...

odd ... GM shows a profit ... some say US is in a recession ... hmmm ... perhaps a contradiction ?

mern said...

JPM nibble

thx for the help bman

mern said...

General Motors Corp. reported a $38.7 billion loss for 2007 on Tuesday, the largest annual loss ever for an automotive company, and said it is making a new round of buyout offers to U.S. hourly workers in hopes of replacing some of them with lower-paid help.


i know its paper, but still, what profits?

Bunkerman said...

wasn't it an operating profit ?

lol before the recurring non-recurring writedowns ... lol

mern said...

exactly

that is pretty funny

Bunkerman said...

taking the Kelpies to sheep herding class. Back around 2:30 PM

mern said...

have fun.

big interview today

nibbled on RIO too

again thx for the help

Frosty said...

IIF...fish on mr hunt...keep the rod tip up and line tight, let her run...lol...well done sir.

Frosty said...

Mern...good luck, you are going to need it.

Frosty said...

Bud...where is the man...his book shank him.

Bud said...

frosty i'm still waiting for you to admit how much you hate that liberal john mccain


PS.......was the uptick rule reinstated? how come Oman isn't whinin and cryin and huffin and puffin today? his anger is so transparently fake....what a joke he is

mfl59 said...

Mern buying stocks? Bud calling out the moderator!!! What is the world coming to?

Frosty said...

BIG JOHN

BIG JOHHHHHHHHNN

BIG BAD JOHN

Bud said...

no callin out......just bein honest

let's see now

Oman bt AAPL last week at 120......i bet he sold 99% of his position 130s.....ping pong indeed


long-term holder my ass

mern said...

bud, take some pamprin and insert a tampon. its ok to admit hildog took a dirt nap this weekend.

if want a lefty in the white house, obama is your only choice.

like obama showed his tax returns. will da clintons? NO WAY! THEY R CROOKS!

hope u cancelled that check before it went to paying the vig on hildogs "loan"

or maybe u mad that the rocket is headed to jail

mfl59 said...

Bunkerman must be unlaoding a lot of gold nuggets on the open mkt....

Bud said...

Oman's iphone must not be working...... he's haggling over price with ahmed.........GLD in freefall

mern said...

hey mfl, here is something u can appreciate.

a hand ball in our box, by the other team. clearly unitentional but the ball ended up on his foot, he shot it and scored. the ref said it was unitentional so he let play go on.

needless to say 30 seconds later i got my first yellow in over a yr. he shud of given me a red but he knew i was right, and he didnt even ding my card after the game, and shook my hand.

the refs down here r just horrendous. saw one get leveled about 10 yrs ago. the player was eventually charged with assault and i think spent a few days in jail.

LOL

mern said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRrIni6V7VM


OXYCLINTON

LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Frosty said...

NEM looking like AU before it tanked ala the hildog futures.

Bud said...

did Oman get shanked?


so much for knife-fighting lessons


lmaooooooooooooooo

mfl59 said...

lololol assaulting a referee? do you live in Tampa or Bogota?

Bunkerman said...

back.

gosh it was cold in the field watching the sheep herding lessons.

I still has all my stock in everything - last sales were the consolidatrion of 1/22.

All AAPL, GOOG, BAC.

Can't sell more gold until tomorrow when my gold dealer's bank account is replenished. Darn, I want at least $900/oz.

Did buy all the stocks [ETFs: VPL, VGK, VNQ, VTI and VWO] I wanted from the gold on margin, though. So that worked at least.

mern said...

oh nellie have i seen some crazy shit down here.

worst thing was in 99. we had 2 players that were (excuse my spelling) crotian. and we played a team of serbs.

now we knew this team and to say they were violent is polite.

we were very quite about having the crotians, not a beep from us.

well the serbs on sunday, dont watch football. they go to these soccer matches. like say 200 freaks, serbs chanting and flags waving.

then there was about 14 of us, no fans and 3 refs. luckily we had 2 cops on r team or this cud have gotten very ugly.

whistle blows, game starts, the whole attacks one of the croats. complete chaos. the fans started charging the field. i was scared shitless. one of the cops ran to his car, called it. game back with a shot gun.

that calmed things down, the cops showed up. the game was cancelled.

i really dont know what wud have happened, but 220 vs 13. uh, someone cud have killed.

i play on a different team now, but if we play one of the 3 serb teams. i bring a baseball bat with me, in my bad, with a ball and glove. otherwise, having the bat wud be illegal.

that was super duper freaky

Bunkerman said...

If PCU gets to 120, I might let a piece go - have too much of that one and my LT date is past.

mern said...

oh yeah soccer is pussies!
pffffffft, as spin wud say

mern said...

well off the BSC

peace

Bunkerman said...

good luck mern !

Bunkerman said...

Soccer is a pussy game.

Mrs. B stopped going to my rugby games since every game she went to see, she ended up taking a guy to the hospital with a broken limb, etc.

Bunkerman said...

I heard hildog played the crying card in Maine - that must be losing its effect.

Bunkerman said...

I hope mern is watching over you, Bud, so if Hillary pulls out [ hehe ;-) ], he can save you.

mfl59 said...

GOOG a 500 pin candidate? just sayin....

Bunkerman said...

no idea on GOOG - I own a lot for LT average price around 500.

Beefers can make any stock dance to any tune, so anything is possible for a few days or weeks.

Bud said...

Oman i'm not a sore loser like others are in here........i don't whine and complain and make excuses when i lose........i take the loss like a man


if my candidate loses....i tip my cap to the winner and move on


you on the other hand.....well....lemme just name a few ...uh...excuses........"uptick rule" "1920s manipulation" "absentee ballots"

need i say more?

mfl59 said...

Bud it sounds like the Jim Cramer chatroom has turned you into a bitter man....or is it the zeta mortgage blog chatroom? lmaoooooo

Bud said...

lololol GOOG pin

the Bush recession gonna pin GOOG to 350

Bud said...

looooooooool bitter man


Oman been accusin me of bein suicidal for awhile now..............i'm pretty happy these days........he's the one that's always angry

Frosty said...

take it like a man...LMAOOOOOO..you sir are no lisa lampanelli.

Bunkerman said...

Sheesh, Bud, you should be "Obud" - not recognizing reality like beefer manipulation, pins, window dressing, bear raids, etc. ;-)

Bunkerman said...

I guess after Obama pulls the hat trick on hildog, today, I need to check the card file for appropriate $10 words to express hildog's collapse. Looking ...

Spin-em said...

Bud didnt congratulate mfl and me on our gmen win....nooo...he told me to be ashamed...sportsman my azz...same for that Boston dickhead Chief-know it-all

loooooooool

mfl59 said...

that's Chief Mr. AFO to you spinny.....he's got it all figured out....yes indeed sir

mern said...

i have seen people DIE during a soccer match i played in.

heart attack, and his son was on the team.

i have also seen bones popping out of skin, ankles, fingers, legs.

bones r ivory white. does that happen in a pussy sport?

we were nothing but shin guards, fight, butt heads, die, concusions, acls, mcls blown.


seriously WTF r u talking about???????????

guns, knives, brawls that included over 500 peeps in the PA sate semis. mfl, can attest, luzak was there. im am not kidding. i saw his dad throwing adults off him, that were trying to kill him after we beat lower merion in state semis, in 88. u ever been in something like that?

"i made it rain sulfic acid, nothing is more exhausting than that except playing soccer"

NAME THAT MOVIE?

glue, selma hyeak was the muse

mern said...

ya i think i get this gig at BSC and will stop pesstering u soon. so enjoy the mernster while u can

word to your mother