American history
Submitted by KAMuston on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 07:32.
I can’t verify or prove any of what follows, but this is what I think happened to Judge Crater. This story comes together from three separate sources; first from Stephen Ellis, the son of Emil Ellis, the lawyer who represented Stella Crater in her lawsuits against the insurance companies; second from a letter marked “Not to be opened until after my death”, left behind in the first decade of the 21st century by a 91 year old widow; and third from news stories published in the 1950’s. Each source is independent of the others, and although they would not pass muster in a court of law, in history research they are about as close as we are ever going to get to the truth. And at the center of all three is the infamous prohibition gangster, Legs Diamond.
Submitted by KAMuston on Wed, 07/23/2008 - 07:05.
I would like to own a time machine. And if I had one, the first place and time I would visit would be West 45th street, in Manhattan, just after 9:00 PM on the night of August 6, 1930. With a little luck I would have seen a dapper middle aged man, six feet tall, about 180 pounds, wearing a dark brown double-breasted coat and matching trousers, a bow tie, a Masonic ring and a gold wristwatch, a pair of pearl-gray pinstriped spats and all set off by straw panama hat, tipped at a jaunty angle. He was seen stepping into a cab outside of Billy Haas’ Chophouse, where he had just eaten dinner with friends. Given the chance I would get close enough to get a look at the cab driver’s face. Because if the driver was who I think he was, then the passenger would be newly appointed New York State Supreme Court Judge Joseph Force Crater. And after that cab pulled into the New York night, he dropped off the face of the earth.
Submitted by KAMuston on Sun, 06/29/2008 - 09:41.
I heard about a guy who came up with a brilliant idea, convinced some money to invest in his dream and made a billion dollars. He built himself a huge mansion and lived happily ever after. But you never hear about the fifty or sixty guys who came up with exactly the same idea and then went broke. I call this the “Savannah Effect” that being the name of the first ship to cross the Atlantic using steam power. And if you were wondering why Detroit doesn’t have an electric car ready for sale or why the U.S. spent billions on a Space Shuttle that is now considered a white elephant the answer is the “Savannah Effect”. It happened in 1819 and if you check the history books you will discover that the first steam ship to cross the Atlantic was the “Great Western” or the “Cape Breton” in 1833, or the “Siruis” in 1838. But you will not hear about the “Savannah” because, well, because it never made a dime.
Submitted by KAMuston on Wed, 06/18/2008 - 07:31.
I have always admired Alexander Hamilton. How could you not admire a man who could write, “A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous” That kind of self knowledge belies the life of a boy who was abandoned by his father at the age of ten, at twelve watched his mother die in the bed next to him, and was then adopted by a cousin who shortly thereafter committed suicide. Hamilton not only survived but within ten years became one of the most successful and powerful men in America, the man who invented the American economic system. But that childhood also goes a long way to explaining how such a smart man, a happily married man and a devoted father could fall for something as old and obvious as the Badger Game.
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Submitted by KAMuston on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 09:06.
I want to tell the story of the most amazing military campaign in American history, U.S. Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi in the spring of 1863. I will try and tell it in sequence and in real time. And I will begin with the observations of an amateur military genius, Abraham Lincoln, who tried to explain to those who were celebrating the capture of Memphis, Tennessee on June 6, 1862 that such victories were not enough. He lectured his cabinet, “Vicksburg is the key...The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pockets….We may take all the northern ports of the Confederacy, and they can still defy us from Vicksburg. It means hog and hominy without limit, fresh troops from all the states of the far South and a cotton country where they can raise the staple without interference.” And I have never found a more cogent or accurate description of the strategic situation in the spring of 1863 than this one.
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Submitted by KAMuston on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 09:49.
 WEDNESDAY APRIL 1, 1863
April’s Fools day 1863 marked a new beginning for the American Civil War. The first real draft in American history went into effect in the North, and all males between 20 and 45 years of age were required to register. However, you could buy an exemption from the draft for $300 ($6,162.00 in 2007 dollars), or pay someone to serve for you. In July this would lead to riots in New York City that would only be brought under control with Federal troops fresh from the Gettysburg battlefield who fired on the rioters.
Submitted by KAMuston on Mon, 08/20/2007 - 06:49.
I would like to offer an alternative to liberals in search of an analogy. The standard two liberal villains are Adolf Hitler and Joe McCarthy. Not only are they over used, but comparing any political opponent to Hitler is absurd. Hitler had no political opponents. He killed them all. On the bright side, he also ended up killing most of his supporters, as well.
Submitted by epppie on Thu, 08/16/2007 - 07:50.
I think the person we particularly need to look back to, for guidance and inspiration, is that latter day Founder, Martin Luther King. JFK's death is often thought of as the turning point of the sixties, but I think the real turning point was Martin Luther King's death. I think the impact it had the nation's soul was incalculable and that our journey as a nation became much darker after King was killed.
Submitted by winter rabbit on Thu, 08/02/2007 - 16:29.
Submitted by jimstaro on Sun, 07/08/2007 - 07:13.
The rove Revisionist History machine should hire Real Historians instead of attempting Propaganda when there is so much out there that it cannot simply be wiped out, unless we All become the people they seek!
Submitted by epppie on Wed, 06/27/2007 - 01:37.
The one thing about most right wingers that I can relate to is the hero worship. I put Martin Luther King on a pedestal, they put Ronald Reagan on a pedestal. Nuff said?
We even share at least one hero, Lincoln. Only, I admire Lincoln the Redeemer of the Nation and they admire Lincoln the Denier of Habeas Corpus. How sickening is that?
Submitted by winter rabbit on Wed, 05/23/2007 - 14:58.
Submitted by One Pissed Off ... on Wed, 05/16/2007 - 10:07.
Nixon and Kissinger were the boogeymen of my coming of age years. They foreshadowed Bush, and it seems as natural as it is un-natural that Bush turned to Kissinger for advice on Iraq. Ain’t no flies on Georgie boy, he knew who to turn to for war criminal advice.
Submitted by onecrankydem on Wed, 05/02/2007 - 18:38.
I was 15 the day of the murders at Kent State. I had just rented my first apartment on the Ohio State University campus for 50 bucks a month, furnished, kinda. It came with a old couch on bricks, a old lumpy bed, a stove and frig.. It was a one bedroom basement dump and I had a roommate. The Moratorium March and Strike had been coming for days. Everywhere you looked people had spray painted big red fists. We carried stencils and cans of paint in our hippy bags. We would spray the fist on everything including peoples t-shirts and jackets.
Submitted by Dr.Forbush on Fri, 04/06/2007 - 15:23.
Two hundred and thirty two years ago the frustration of British occupation reached the tipping point and men were killed in the name of freedom. But, what was the freedom these men desired that was worth risking life, limb and property in order to prevail? And, how could these average men from a far corner of the British Empire succeed against then arguably most powerful force on the planet?
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