Here is the outside of the cottage two days after the winter storm dropped some global warming.
Yes, we did the indoor decorating ourselves.
Posted on 12/14/2002 4:45:08 AM PST by Chairman_December_19th_Society
/john
Trill just had a craving for meat, and I whipped her up a horseradish butter stuffed filet mignon with sauted portabella mushroom slices and a red-wine/butter reduction sauce.
It was served hot and perfect (including resting time) about 12 minutes after I first started it.
I may not be to the cooking part yet, but I'm learning. grin!
/john
/john
The President's decision to innoculate the troops against small pox, Commander in Chief included, prompts this first quotation from the great Franklin:
In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.Wow.
Madison, Denominations and the First Amendment
/john
I left one part undone, a little community with no street names. I think whoever they give that to will be challenged, but I don't have the time. Besides, they've already agreed to pay me for what I've done.
My knees are feeling fine now. My only real casualty is my door handle which I busted yesterday. Ouch!
/john
/john
Mary Matalin, VP Cheney's PR strategist, is leaving the White House to spend more time with her family. The Pravda still couldn't avoid a dig, saying the Vice President had "unusal influence inside the White House." Shouldn't a VP have a high level of influence? Come on!Mr. Chairman, it pains, but I must. As my father says, every untruth adds to the imperfection of the earth. Pleae forgive this correction: For all the wrong reasons, the DC Pravda is right about Cheney's role in this Administration.
Remember when Bush chose Cheney as his running mate? Off-hand, I cannot think of another presidential candidate who chose his VP partner absent of political imperatives. I'm browsing a list of Presidents and VPs, and I can find only one: today's VP.
One of FDR's VP's, John Nance Gardner (a great limousine rider... scroll down to "Proper Back Seat Posture"), said the office wasn't worth "a bucket of spit" (or "piss," depending on the source). Most Americans couldn't identify the "President of the Senate." Most Americans think that the Senate has a "Speaker." I've seen that here at FR. (This explains much of the ignorance over the role, importance, and manner of Trent Lott). All the talk about Gore being an active part of the Clinton Administration was pure theatre. Gore and Clinton, I suspect, despise, and have always despised each other. Gore was a tool and nothing else.
In 1896, William McKinley ran with Garrett Hobart. Hobart was a political choice. Once in office, McKinley did something amazing. He brought Hobart into the Administration. Previously, the VP was for the Senate and only that. That McKinley invited Hobart to Cabinet meetings and actually listened to his VP shocked those who supposedly knew. Still, McKinley went with Theodore Roosevelt for his VP candidate in 1900. McKinley genuinely liked Roosevelt, and he trusted him about as far as he could throw a Rough Rider's hat. Roosevelt's selection was entirely political.
When TR became President at McKinley's death, he faced the same derision as every other ascending VP: the title, "His Accidency." One of Roosevelt's greatest accomplishments, in my opinion, was being reelected in 1904, for in it he overcame that stigma. When he took office in 1901, he declared himself to the McKinley legacy. Sadly, he discarded McKinley after the 1904 election, which led to the radicalization of the "Roosevelt Republicans," known as the "insurgents," and, later, the "progressives." Roosevelt left office in 1909 very popular, very controversial, and very compromised. His entire post-presidency was an effort to recuparate his good standing of 1904. That's another story, and, btw, there's a book that clarifies all this coming out in Spring/2003...
Another example is Truman. When FDR died, Truman didn't even know about the bomb. He was completely out of the loop. He was, thankfully, a fast learner.
Carl Rove and his McKinleyisms, aside, there's not another VP who held such a close relationship to the President as Dick Cheney does today. Taft's VP, James Schoolcraft Sherman was close; still, Sherman was more friend to Taft than advisor. Modern VPs rarely appear at the Senate. It's more a ceremonial office, like the First Lady.
What the (com)Post misses is that Cheney's role in this Adminstration is inspirational, innovative, and marvelous. Once again, they can't bring themselves to the logic of their anger, or its source. The complaint ought not be that Cheny has influence, it ought be that no other VP ever before brought such importance to the office.
I have been very aware of VP Cheney's importance, but I didn't know all of the history you so generously provided. Thank you.
By the way, I was so impressed by what I read on FR about your "Stretching It", that I went to the publishers site and nosed around. Bought a copy of your book for my s-i-l for Christmas. I think he'll love it.
(As a matter of fact, that turned out to be critical ..... who would have thunk it.)
On a serious note, recently the White House web site has featured different people associated with the administration giving video tours of various areas of the White House complex.
For example, the President presents a tour of the Oval Office, talking about some of the features and the accessories he's chosen to display (paintings, busts, etc.)
VP Cheney shows the viewer around his office in the Old Executive Office Building. He talks about the fact that for most of our country's history, the VP was considered purely the President of the Senate and not a part of the executive branch of the government at all. In fact, his salary is paid out of the Senate budget. Nixon was the first VP to actually work with the President in any sense at all; and only since the Peanut administration has the VP even had an office in the White House itself.
It's quite interesting to view these videos .... there is info I had never heard before.
Here is the outside of the cottage two days after the winter storm dropped some global warming.
Yes, we did the indoor decorating ourselves.
Do you know what happened to the Mississippi slaves after they were freed and the civil war was over? They became share croppers. They worked on the plantation but got paid with a portion of the cotton they raised and picked. The Share cropper provided huge amounts of labor and the MAN provided the land and the seed. The share cropper got to live on the property... generally in the old slave houses. It was the bottom of ladder. It was a life of abject poverty. After the civil war blacks went from valued slaves costing a small fortune each, to worthless share croppers eking out a bare subsistence. The tradgedy of the aftermath of the Civil war was it did not improve the living standard of blacks. Blacks were no longer owned but they were no less controlled.
Have you ever heard of Senator Byrd? He of the aristocratic former slave owning family known as the Byrd's of Virginia? Part of Virginia became West Virginia in the Civil war. Senator Byrd often refers to people as White N(Word)s. He even did it on TV a couple of years ago. He referred to some one as worthless and untrustworthy. He called them a White N(word);
After the civil war there was a terrible economy in the South especially in the Mississippi Delta. Some white families were reduced to share cropping for the MAN in the Big House on the Plantation, too. They were dirt poor and got the same deal the blacks did from the MAN. Some people took to calling these white share croppers "White N(word)s.
So when Lott talked about his Mom and Dad being share croppers, he was saying he was raised a white (NWord). Perhaps you remember a country song called "I Never picked Cotton"... It had a line with the lyrics of "But I never Picked Cotton, but my Daddy did, my Mother did, my Sister did and my Brother did. But I never picked cotton." It is a way of saying the Man did not own me... "I was born a white N(Word) but I refused to be or do the work of a White N(word).".. "I never picked cotton."
What Lott was saying was a lot more than what he said. He was saying how he improved his lot in life. He was saying to the Black communtiy in Mississipi, and perhaps in many other southern states that he had shared their fate. He kept saying that if he could succeed anyone could. He never mentioned it, but he made the point loud and clear to older black people.
He was making an unspoken explanation that some older blacks will relate to. It was Lott saying that sometimes even White N(Word)s forget how far they have come, and say to the MAN what the MAN wants to hear. There was a time you had too. And sometimes you forget. Roy Clark sang I never picked cotton. I often wondered if Roy knew what it meant. " Yesterday Lott said "I picked cotton." but I overcame it. You can too.
I wonder if Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton even know what it means to be a Mississippi Share Cropper raising cotton for the MAN in the big house.
OK, there's some SERIOUS lusting going on right now. What state are you in????? Man!!!! Woooo boy. Lust, jealousy, envy.....
And my sincere compliments for the decorating job!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.