ARepublicanForAllReasons
Since Feb 8, 2003

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John the Baptist Pictures, Images and Photos

Constitutionalist. Logician. Lounge Pianist. Former Technical Editor and Typographer. Semi-retired.

Favorite Persons in History: (In the order they come to mind.)

1) Jesus, who was Christ, and hailed from Nazareth. Also known as Yashua and Issa. The most controversial and inspiring figure in all of history.

2) Krishna, the Christ of India, who taught us how to fight spiritually

3) Ben Franklin, the greatest all-around thinker in history, and the most benevolent. The one man most indispensable to our country's founding, excepting the next entry.

4) 1st President of the United States of America, General George Washington

5) Thomas Jefferson

6) Sir Thomas More, who gave his life to honor the oath he had taken to uphold the law

7) John Fox, who suffered torture rather than recant his religious beliefs

8) Moses, a great God-infused soul and brilliant military tactician, who restored God's Chosen People to their homeland

9) Pythagoras, the first known person to study music scientifically

10) Aristotle, who invented logic. Without his foundation, we would not have had the scientific/industrial revolution, set theory or algebraic logic.

11) St. Francis of Assisi, who practiced what most of the Church only taught

12) JS Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. One a Protestant, one a Catholic and one a Pantheist. All inspired by God, all devout in their own way. (Don't believe that awful movie Amadeus. Read the biography by Marcia Davenport.)

13) Fredric Chopin, the greatest composer of music for the piano - ever!

14) Louis Pasteur, who prevented untold suffering through his dedication to science, and inspired others find cures. Because of him, today we expect to find a cure for any disease, knowing it's simply a matter of patient research.

15) General Douglas McArthur, who could have changed the world even more than he did if Truman had put some trust in him. Imagine a world without N Korea!

16) Charles Martel, for stopping the Muslims at Tours

17) Sir Francis Bacon, for setting the philosophical underpinnings of modern science

18) John Locke, for setting the philosophical ground for our Constitutional government (There are many others who share credit with him, however he is the most influential philosopher.)

19) Socrates, for virtually inventing philosophic dialog and for inspiring Plato and Aristotle. And Plato for writing down his words, though we must forgive him for his elaborations.

20) Henry David Thoreau, for espousing self-suffiency, and being a prominent tax protestor.

21) Louis L'Amour, for setting the record straight about our remarkable history, and being one of the most entertaining writers I have encountered.

22) Rosalind Franklin, whose work in X-ray crystalography was a crucial element in delineating the structure of DNA. She deserves at least as much credit as Crick and Watson, but has been relegated to a footnote in scientific history.

23) Johann Gutenberg, for making books affordable and literacy nearly universal in Europe, then the world.

24) Jelly Roll Morton, who claimed to have 'invented' jazz (this is only a slight exaggeration)

25) Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Charles Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie for pioneering modern jazz

There are many other great minds and men and women of action who have changed the world, but I omit them in preference to those who gave everything they had to their passion.

Gustav Mahler, photographed in 1907
at the end of his period as director
of the Vienna Hofoper