This is an amazingly clear Civil War photograph.

Never seen an image of the era so crystal clear. Company G, 93rd New York Infantry. 

'Course I wasn't looking for a photo of the 93rd New York; was looking for a photo--Any photo! Of any resolution!--of the 133rd Pennsylvania. Nada, of course. SOOO frustrates me. Googling "pennsylvania civil war sergeant" I got a "Nathan" (!!!) but a Captain :( in the same 93rd New York. Ells and Gees, Bees and Gees, Captain Nathan J. Johnson:

If I never find a photo of Nathan Bracken I'm adopting Capt Nathan. Like Nate, wanna be like Nate.

That is my kinda regiment!

Great Website

www.presbyteriansofthepast.com

What a Beautiful Love Story!

RECORD-BREAKING CANADIAN SNIPER KILLS ISIS FIGHTER WITH TWO-MILE SHOT

(Newsweek)

A member of Canada’s Joint Task Force 2—part of the U.S.-led coalition that is taking the fight to ISIS in Iraq—made the kill during an operation that took place within the last month in Iraq, sources told The Globe and Mail. The identity of the sniper and his observer was kept anonymous for operational security reasons.

The sniper used a McMillan TAC-50 sniper rifle—the standard long-range sniper of the Canadian military—and fired the shot from a high-rise building in an undisclosed location. Firing from such a distance, the shooter would have had to account for wind; the round dropping as it was fired from a higher location; and even the curvature of the earth.

To which I wish to add...

ALLAHU AKBAR! Heh-heh-heh-heh. Oh, I am such an asshole. Yes, I am.

Seeking the Soul: The Devil In Dan Gilbert

Dan Gilbert's Going To Fuck This Up Again, Isn't He?

...
It seems inevitable. Gilbert, owner of the Cavaliers and a scummy person in general, famously vented his spleen in Comic Sans when James left for the Miami Heat in 2010. For the fun of it, recall how insane it was for an NBA owner to post this shit on his team’s website:

You simply don’t deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.

You have given so much and deserve so much more.

In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:

“I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE”

You can take it to the bank....

...

Even with all the half-jokes that James already acts as the player-coach-GM, canning a guy who he likes working with creates unnecessary drama (especially if, as ESPN reported, Griffin was let go in part he was demanding a raise to be paid in line with his GM peers). Gilbert, a sensitive penis, doesn’t historically do well with drama.
http://deadspin.com/dan-gilberts-going-to-fuck-this-up-again-isnt-he-1796264679

As Dan Gilbert goes back to being Dan Gilbert, LeBron James learns consequences of forgiveness

LeBron James forgave Dan Gilbert. The last three years of Cleveland history — not just Cavaliers history, and not just Cleveland sports history — don’t happen if LeBron doesn’t forgive Gilbert...

The championship run has its roots in forgiveness, and it started with the prodigal-son player forgiving the hair-trigger owner, for getting into his feelings, letting his petty fly and raising the bar for all time on sour grapes. For a knee-jerk reaction that made a city of jersey-burners seem measured and reasonable.


It only took three years for everything to return to normal in "Believeland," though, that being a buffoonish owner doing buffoonish-owner things. And as carefully as he worded his reaction to Gilbert running off general manager David Griffin, at this time and place and after this run … LeBron James knows it.

He trusted the wrong guy. He told himself Dan Gilbert being Dan Gilbert wasn’t going be that bad, and now he knows that that’s always going to be bad, even when things are good.
...
[Gilbert] was just another rich guy who was lucky to have a local hero fall into his lap — twice.

This is Dan Gilbert, then, now and forever. 

And James should have known that then.


To be fair, he probably did. He likely still does. But he swallowed deep, grinned hard, and essentially said, “I’m letting bygones be bygones. What’s done is done. The past is the past." ...

Specifically, this is what LeBron James said in his famous “I’m Coming Home” letter, two years 11 months and nine days ago: “I’ve met with Dan, face-to-face, man-to-man. We’ve talked it out. Everybody makes mistakes. I’ve made mistakes as well. Who am I to hold a grudge?"
...
James chose to go back to work for that man...

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/news/lebron-james-nba-free-agency-rumors-cavs-news-owner-dan-gilbert-gm-david-griffin/1rcrxx82twz9v10i55x5eeur4w

...
Do you get the sense that something is wrong and sadly out of whack with the Cleveland Cavaliers?

I do. They haven’t lost LeBron James — not this offseason — but it’s very possible they have lost their pulse . . . lost their soul . . . lost their way.
...
 ...it’s not unfair to wonder how long the Cavaliers will be standing.
...
Remember Dan Gilbert’s “open letter” to Cavs fans in response to The Decision?

Let’s see, there was something in there about how “our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.”

Gilbert pointed out that LeBron made his announcement following “a several-day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up.”

Gilbert showed he’d have made a pretty bad sportswriter because he buried the lead when he told Cavs fans, “You simply don’t deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.”
...
A year ago, the Cavs held off the Warriors in the NBA Finals...One year later, the Cavs get blown out by the Warriors, the GM gets the gate, and the owner who once lambasted LeBron’s “cowardly betrayal” doesn’t bother to consult said coward about the move.

And now comes a report in the Chicago Sun Times that Cavs star Kyrie Irving might force a trade next summer if LeBron opts out.

Lost. Their. Soul.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics/2017/06/buckley_cavaliers_are_losing_their_way_opening_the_door_to_the_east_for_the

"Michigan airport knife attacker shouted 'Allahu Akbar', says FBI"

The victim, a police officer, was not killed. So...akbar? Quasi-akbar? Better than most? Above average?

Pisses Me Off

"Down in the River to Pray," a deeply soulful song, began as "The Good Old Way" in the early 1800's. It was a "slave song," composed by a slave in the American Deep South. It has the "hmmm" undercurrent typical of the old African-American spirituals. Yet, and this is what pisses me off, there are virtually NO versions of this song sung by African-Americans. The most popular contemporary rendition is by Alison Krause.

The longest day.

Hudson River Derby

Hey, New York City F.C., do you think you could maybe win one of these things Saturday? You are ahead of the Red Bulls in the standings. You've lost SIX OF SEVEN to them, including one by a touchdown and extra point last year. Stop that. Do this: WIN. Thank you. Good night.

"Allahu Akbar!"

Do they ever say that when they are NOT about to kill people?

Another "Allahu Akbar!" today. This time in Brussels at the train station. Two explosions but noone hurt. "A failed bombing attack."

So is Allahu not akbar when they fail to kill people? Why is Allahu akbar when they do kill people, or try to?

That is the the Karsh photograph of John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir) on the frontispiece of my edition of Pilgrim's Way. The first photo I ever saw of Buchan. His fractured skull scar not visible in profile. Angular. Weird lower lip thing.

The more famous, same sitting. The skull obtrusion prominent. The weird mouth thing and I never noticed the big chin mole. Not a handsome man but it's the eyes, so...menacing. I was startled that that hard, flinty man was the same gentle man who wrote Pilgrim's Way. I am still startled. I cannot reconcile image, and most below, and word.

As Governor-General of Canada with obsequious Mackenzie King, Prime Minister, President Roosevelt, and son. Click on the photograph to enlarge it. FDR doesn't know what to make of the guy. Buchan is benevolent but the president is like wtf. FDR is the only one not smiling in some manner.

Wtf indeed. Strange bird, strange looking bird, I should say.

Scar airbrushed.Not benevolent.The lower lip does add to the sinister look but, again, it's the eyes. I would never have dreamed...

FDR looks scared. Similar look to the one with Mackenzie King. Buchan looks scolding.

Look at Roosevelt studying him! He cannot make this guy out. Maybe he's looking at the scar, "How in hell did you get that?" You can see how wiry he was. A lifetime of adventuring.

Not benevolent but the eyes are not as menacing. He must have had bad teeth. He smiled and laughed a lot, just never for photographs.

A little softer.

Climbing to meet some divines in the Northwest Territories. Mother-fucker climbed like a mother-fucker.

Now, what is this? What are you doing? You look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa there and you're frightening the little divine. He's leaning back. What is this, your "Johnson treatment"? Gotta put up a photo of the Johnson treatment now.

Good. Good one. But where's the sequence with Teddy Green?

 Omg. Omg. lol. lolol.

 Anyway that's odd body language by Buchan. There is a lot about Buchan that is physically odd.

Buchan. John Buchan. Shaken not stirred. So strange.

Now that is the kindly, gentle Buchan of Pilgrim's Way.

And that.

And probably that. Maybe posed photographs made him look hard. He was a warm man.

LeBron James, your Decision to leave Dan Gilbert's franchise was an inspired one. You are a thinker and you made the right Decision for your career in putting Gilbert's incompetently run plantation in your rearview mirror after seven seasons. And as you often do, you accomplished more than one thing with one action. In leaving in 2010 you exposed Dan Gilbert as the hateful fool he is. Gilbert's comic sans bile full of hate directed at you was directed indirectly at all Black players in the NBA, and at all of Gilbert's employees. You have had four coaches and four general managers in Cleveland under Gilbert, not one of the latter category given a renewed contract. The Reverend Jesse Jackson was right: Gilbert treated you as a runaway slave.

In your decision to go back to Gilbert's plantation, uncharacteristically, you only saw one thing: bringing a championship to Cleveland and its (gag) "long-suffering" fans. The hatred shown you by Mistakers, you remember how touchy it was; no, let's speak truth: your first time back as a member of the Miami "Heat" was dangerous, Mr. James, dangerous. Gilbert's hate continued after you left. You had exposed him, sir, exposed him.

But you went back. You went back because the hatred of northeast Ohio bothered you. Made you feel that you had done something wrong. And so the prodigal slave returned, to gain redemption. You achieved that. You brought a championship to Lake Mistake, and the fans adored you once again. Congratulations.

You did not intend to but you did something more. You redeemed Dan Gilbert. You, so socially aware, treated like a runaway slave, went back to your former plantation and your former slave master. You won a championship for Dan Gilbert's franchise, sir, Dan Gilbert's! 

In going home you redeemed Dan Gilbert's treatment of you, and, as tonight, his other slaves. "See, he came back!" In winning Dan Gilbert a championship after just one year you validated the basketball judgment of an incompetent. "I, Dan Gilbert, won a championship."

You will leave Cleveland again, again justifiably. This time you will leave behind a legacy of redeeming Dan Gilbert's irredeemable soul. He is a bad man, Mr. James. You made a bad man look good. Yours is a shameful legacy, sir, shameful.

You tiny, tiny, tiny, little man.

"Why it Matters Who Females Choose to Have Sex With"

I have not been able to come up with a pithy learned comment on that headline.

There are some bits of information, often headlines, that just paralyze our brains' capacity to respond. The thoughts come at such speed, Zoom! Zoom!, that they just zoom right out without slowing down to be captured. Their velocity overheats and short-circuits the brain's neurons and synapses. Or so it is with me and that headline. Good night.