May 25, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
May 25 is … National Tap Dance Day
The Bulls are not officially eliminated but their chances of advancement are minimal at best. It appears the big three were worth it after all.
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert,
in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."
Milton Friedman.
I am a day late on this item. The brief story was sent to me by my brother, a Lincoln Scholar. May 24, 2011 is the sesquicentennial of the death of Union Colonel Elmer Ellsworth. Ellsworth was the first notable death and the first officer to die in the US Civil War.
Ellsworth was born in New York in 1837 and later lived in Rockford, Illinois and Chicago. He moved to Springfield, Illinois in 1860 where he clerked in the Lincoln-Herndon law office and served as an aide to Lincoln during the fall campaign for the presidency. Lincoln became very fond of Ellsworth who traveled with the Lincolns to Washington in February 1861 aboard the presidential train. With Robert Lincoln away at Harvard, Ellsworth became like an older brother to the two younger Lincoln boys, even contracting measles from them.
Ellsworth studied military sciences during his spare time and had helped train militia units in Rockford (the Rockford Greys), Milwaukee and Madison. Later in Chicago he helped drill National Guard cadets. Ellsworth had admired the French Zouave soldiers and modeled his troops after them.
When the Civil War broke out, Lincoln called for 75,000 troops and Ellsworth helped recruit. He traveled to his home state of New York and raised the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, made up of New York firemen. Returning to Washington on April 29, 1861, Ellsworth paraded his disciplined troops up Pennsylvania Avenue. The unit was outfitted in colorful Zouave-style uniforms and they became a nationally known drill team.
After Virginia seceded from the Union, a large Confederate flag mounted on top of the Marshall House hotel across the river in Alexandria was visible from the White House. Ellsworth led the 11th New York across the Potomac uncontested and secured the local telegraph office to prevent communication to the South. Ellsworth himself went to the top of the hotel and took down the Confederate flag. As he was coming back down the stairs, he was met by the hotel proprietor who shot and killed him instantly with a shotgun blast to the chest. Cpl. F.E. Brownell immediately killed the hotel keeper. Brownell became known as “Ellsworth’s Avenger.”
Ellsworth’s death became national news and he was mourned across the North. Lincoln ordered Ellsworth’s body lay in state in the East Room of the White House. Just at the moment Lincoln was told the news of Ellsworth’s death, two visitors entered the room. Lincoln, stunned and grieved, turned to the visitors, extended his hand, and said “Excuse me, but I cannot talk.” On the day before Ellsworth’s funeral, Lincoln, consumed in grief, wrote to his parents, “In the untimely loss of your noble son, our affliction here is scarcely less than your own . . . In hope that it may be no intrusion upon the sacredness of your sorrow, I have ventured to address this tribute to your brave and early fallen child. May God give you that consolation which is beyond all earthly power.”
Throughout the North, Ellsworth became known as a symbol of courageous young men willing to sacrifice their lives for the Union. “Remember Ellsworth” became a patriotic slogan. In death, Ellsworth became a hero and relics associated with his death became souvenirs.
Speaking of tap dancing, a Kennedy thinks we need to show sympathy for Gabby Gifford’s shooter as much as we show for Gifford. He apparently does not understand Gifford was innocent while the shooter made a decision to shoot and kill people. In an interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) argued that Jared Loughner deserves sympathy for his apparent mental problems. Loughner is the 22-year-old man charged in the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson, Ariz. that killed six people and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) with a traumatic brain injury.
"It's an irony," Kennedy told Gupta, "but we think no stigma towards Gabby and her brain injury, but [Loughner] has a brain injury as well, because clearly his brain was not working properly when he picked up that gun and shot all those people."
"We failed as a society," he added, "because every time we see someone who's -- and we use the pejorative words -- 'crazy,' 'psycho,' 'nuts,' we look the other way."
The interview focused on Kennedy's own battles with depression and substance abuse, his campaign to destigmatize chemical dependency and mental illness; and on his ambitious mission, inspired by his struggles, to ramp up funding for brain research. Kennedy made his first trip to rehab in 1985, for cocaine abuse, when he was a 17-year-old high school senior in Andover, Mass. Around that time he also received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, although he now says he suffers from a different, unspecified mental disorder.
In 1995 Kennedy was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and held the seat until 2011. During that time, several incidents signaled his continuing struggle: he was caught shoving a security guard at Los Angeles International Airport and got in a fight on a yacht that attracted the attention of the Coast Guard. In May 2006 he crashed a green Mustang convertible into a concrete barrier just blocks from the U.S. Capitol shortly after 2:30 a.m. Blaming the crash on sleeping pills, he announced that he would seek rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota
Two months before his father's death from brain cancer, Patrick Kennedy checked into rehab again; the stress of his father's illness had renewed his depression and substance dependency. The elder Kennedy died in August 2009. Six months later, Patrick Kennedy announced that he would not seek reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives. He left office in January 2011, having spent more than half his life in public office.
This guy is a nut and not in touch with reality or the average American. Because of liberals like the Kennedys, criminals are not put to death but are coddled and told it is not their fault because dad drank too much and mom did not hug you enough. Give me a break.
Pat Kennedy needs a drink and a reality check.
Speaking of liberals, the Supreme Court entered another decision that amounts to an unfunded mandate on States. The Supreme Court on Monday narrowly endorsed reducing California's cramped prison population by more than 30,000 inmates to fix sometimes deadly problems in medical care, ruling that federal judges retain enormous power to oversee troubled state prisons.
The court said in a 5-4 decision that the reduction is "required by the Constitution" to correct longstanding violations of inmates' rights. The order mandates a prison population of no more than 110,000 inmates, still far above the system's designed capacity. There were more than 143,000 inmates in the state's 33 adult prisons as of May 11, meaning roughly 33,000 inmates will need to be transferred to other jurisdictions or released.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, a California native, wrote the majority opinion, in which he included photos of severe overcrowding. The court's four Democratic appointees joined with Kennedy. "The violations have persisted for years. They remain uncorrected," Kennedy said. The lawsuit challenging the provision of mental health care was filed in 1990.
Justice Antonin Scalia said in dissent that the court order is "perhaps the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation's history." Scalia, reading his dissent aloud Monday, said it would require the release of "the staggering number of 46,000 convicted felons." Scalia's number, cited in legal filings, comes from a period in which the prison population was even higher.
Justice Clarence Thomas joined Scalia's opinion, while Justice Samuel Alito wrote a separate dissent for himself and Chief Justice John Roberts.
The Supreme Court is once again making law from the bench without any concern for reality and the money needed to implement its decision. He Supreme Court does not a member that was elected nationally or even locally. All of the Supremes making this decision are Democrats.
Just a couple of thoughts I had.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
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Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"It is the weakness and danger of republics that the vices as well as virtues of the people are represented in their legislation." - Helen Hunt Jackson
