Why History Gets Rewritten --And Why Journalists Can't Always Be Trusted

I'm going to do something I don't like to do: I'm going to give a shout-out to someone that I don't like and who doesn't (didn't) like me back. Years ago in grad school, I took (more than) one class from noted historian Dr. Joan Hoff. A bit of a dissonance there, to be sure, and our last conversation was ...sub-optimal. And goodness knows she was far from conservative (oh come on, the "Broccoli" bumper sticker on the office door was a wee bit of a giveaway...). But she knew her stuff (and yes, she can be forgiven for not knowing the first woman U.S. governor, as Miriam "Ma" Ferguson was by no means a feminist pioneer), especially about Richard Nixon, a man she hated Back In The Day and still disliked but yet one could not help but note a certain respect in her tone hearing her discuss him.

Some folks thought it a wee bit odd when, in her Nixon course, she assigned Colodny and Getlin's Silent Coup, discussing an alternate version of the "standard heroic narrative" of Misters Woodward and Bernstein. John Dean figured prominently in their plot. She argued --and this was back in the early 90s, mind you-- that the full version of Watergate had yet to come out and would probably be substantially different from the one we all knew. Who knew how prescient she ended up being? Although the part about the composite "Deep Throat" has at least partially been discredited, the main thrust of the book is starting to look more and more attractive.

The whole thing does not pass the smell test: if Dean is clean, why is he still making such efforts to control his image? It's all so very... Nixonian. And now this: Watergate Figure John Dean Threatens to Sue Historian Over Damaging Tape Recordings. It makes me sad that a professor at Texas A&M would bow to this sort of thing: the Aggie Honor Code states that an Aggie does not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerates those who do. Professor Nichter, while not bound as a student, should nevertheless set a good example and fight the good fight over this. (Hell, man, would Terry Anderson put up with this BS?! No!!!)

It also is a good lesson in not putting too much trust in journalists. Not only do they frequently have agendas which they deliberately hide (I may not like Eric Alterman, for instance, but I respect him for wearing it on his sleeve), but their first-drafts of history have a bad habit of being way off (All The President's Men, anyone? [No, not written by them, but done with their blessing]).

(And if for some unfathomable reason you are reading this, Dr. J., I'll use the passive whenever I want --though not as much as I once did. And by damn if you weren't right about a thing or two! For those things, at least, thanks. Oh, and I'm a hell of a lot better instructor than writer, as it turns out. And yes, I'm still watching for signs, just like you are --not there yet, but getting disturbingly closer.)

News Of Great Joy To Members Of My Family

Drinking five cups of coffee a day could reverse memory problems seen in Alzheimer's disease, US scientists say. Modified rapture!

Is This Still Radical And Subversive?

• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.


• That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.


• That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

And we are unanimous in that...

Ah well, I knew she was getting up there in years: Actress Mollie Sugden dies at 86: best known as Mrs. Slocombe on "Are You Being Served?" An excellent commentary on her impact may be found here.

Olderlescence (an Essay by Roy, with a further amendment by Yours Truly)

The following is an original essay by Roy, sent to his brother, Del, to mark his 40th birthday, July 2. There is wisdom herein...

Dear Del,

Happy Birthday!

Being older and ostensibly wiser than you, I would like to offer you a few insights into the age you are entering. While the change from being 29 to being 30 is significant only in a wow-it's-a-new-digit-in-the-tens-place way, turning 40 is a real milestone. It's like entering puberty: the body is rapidly changing to make you a very different person. I call it olderlescence. You enter adolescence a child and come out a young adult. You enter olderlescence a pretty-much-still-young adult, but you're going to come out of it an old guy.

In adolescence, you start sprouting hair in places you didn't used to have it. Same thing happens in olderlescence, only the locations are more arbitrary and pointless. Don't need hair on your earlobes? Well, you're going to get it. It's just one of the characteristics that says "old guy".

The hair on your scalp, which so far has probably just entertained a few gray or white fellows in the name of diversity, will suddenly decide that these newcomers have the right idea. Mass conversions. It's an unstoppable craze among follicles. If they don't just shut down entirely, that is.

Up to now, your body has been pretty cooperative about turning food into muscle and energy. Soon, it will get tired of that and want to try something different: turning it into a gut. When adolescence ended, your ability to eat quite so much and stay trim was reduced. There is another quantum drop coming. On the plus side, it saves on food bills. Just try to enjoy every bite, because six is a meal.

Your eyes, which have worked pretty much the same since you were two, are going to retire. They'll still function, but they're not going to work at it. Change focus? Not anymore, I'm retired! You want something in-focus, you move it.

The encouraging news is that you don't have to have an "old guy" brain. You know, the curmudgeonly types that complain about everything new, different, or fashionable. You can stay "hip" and "with-it" as long as you like, although God knows why you'd want to, with all the stupid things young people are wearing these days. And Twittering and Facebook! What kind of time-wasting, TMI nonsense is that? I swear, if that's the future of this country, it couldn't get more depressing. When we were their age, we knew how to dress, and how to treat people with respect!

And while that was quite complete, I felt that Roy had managed to leave out a rather important point, which I emailed thusly:

One other rather significant thing that you will very definitely notice is an alteration in libidinous intentions. (This is in no way related to female menopause, and even mentioning this in the presence of a woman within your age cohort can have disastrous consequences... ) Quite simply, you are going to start slowing down. You've had your fun (presumably), and now your higher-order brain has decided to start finally exerting control over the more deeply-rooted areas of your cerebellum and medulla oblongata. Fixing faulty appliances will begin to have more appeal than watching, say, Baywatch or Spike TV. Driving past coeds on campus wearing short skirts will no longer cause unnecessary deviation in vehicle speed and/or direction. Very significantly, you are now of an age such that someone who is not a teenager may well fit the statement, "Oh, for crying out loud, she's young enough to be your daughter!" and a certain amount of decorum kicks in. You are not, repeat, not dead; it's that on a certain level you realize that Something has had his own way for a good portion of your life since the age of thirteen or so, and that maybe other body parts would like a turn in the driver's seat for a change.

Yikes, Four Dead Celebs In One Week...

Ed, Farrah, Michael, and now Billy Mays. Wowzers.

Too bad most folks have already forgotten about Neda.

UPDATE: five now. Bye bye, Karl Malden.

Yippee, I'm Rich; Thank You, Uncle Luciano! (Or, The Scammers Get Even More Stupid II)

From:lucianopavarotti@Sify.com

Subject: !!! NOTIFICATION OF BEQUEST!!!

Date: June 25, 2009 7:00:23 AM CDT

To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Reply-To:lucianopavarotti@Sify.com

Notification of Bequest

On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the Estate of Late Mr. Luciano Pavarotti, I hereby attempt to reach you again. I wish to notify you that Late Mr Luciano Pavarotti made you a beneficiary to His WILL. He left the sum of Ten Million five Hundred Thousand US Dollars.($10,500,000.00) to you in the codicil land last testament to his WILL. This may sound strange and Unbelievable to you, but it is real and true. Luciano Pavarotti was known for his humanitarian work.

Yippee, I'm Rich!!!

Unintended Consequences, Part II

Ozone Solution Poses a Growing Climate Threat : "A group of chemicals called hydrofluorocarbons, long hailed as a substitute for gases that can destroy the ozone layer, are now seen as a growing greenhouse threat given their outsize ability to warm the atmosphere." Really, someone ought to do a better job of predicting outcomes...

On Iran's Elections -UPDATED REPOST

UPDATE: links added; also see Cyberwar Guide To Helping The Iranian Protesters. There are now reports that the army is moving against the protesters in many cities. You can follow breaking news on Twitter here, with the caveat that not everything you read may be gospel-truth.

Five days of protests and still no signs of abating. (Full-time coverage of the highest rate found here). I visited my Farsi Friend the other day. He fled the Khomeini Revolution and has been living in the U.S. ever since, quite successfully. He has a very different take on a lot of accepted history about the Revolution. Some of it is things I have heard elsewhere (Khomeini imported Palestinian Arabs to do his dirty work --a pattern which seems to be repeating itself ). Some of it is downright scary (the American oil companies put Khomeini in charge because he would be far tougher on the Communists than the Shah --which proved to be correct in the end).

He said it was funny that I called him just at that moment, since he had just gotten off of an online chat with his nieces living in Teheran. They were all kinds of upset about just how badly the elections were rigged. My Friend consoled them by saying that they ought to have known that the elections were going to be rigged, and besides, how much of a moderate is Mousavi really, anyway? (All candidates are vetted by the ayatollahs and the Revolutionary Guards, it should be noted.) But what really got me was his response to my question, "Well, are these protests going to do anything?"

He said:

"No, because Iranian people don't have guns, Mojo. They don't have a Second Amendment, never did. Only the government had guns. When the students go into the streets, Basij militia beat them and Revolutionary Guards shoot them. They don't have a chance. That's why I get nervous every time the government here in U.S. talks about limiting guns. They thought in Iran, too, that nothing bad could ever happen."

Help the Iranian Protesters

The Jawa Report: Sandcralwer PSA: Cyberwar Guide To Helping The Iranian Protesters (sticky): read and execute.