“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”

- Socrates

I read an article today on ESPN.com where the Ole Miss band leader at football games has been instructed to take out “The South will rise again” from the end of their fight song.  It seems that part of the song comes from the Confederate army’s fight song, ”Dixie.” It has been made official by the chancellor of Ole Miss that the phrase will no longer be used. A couple of quotes from the article that is found here.

“You take back on that slave mentality,” said Moss, who is black. “I know the South won’t rise again and the South can’t rise again.”

“I said the chant one day and there was a black family sitting in front of me and they turned around and gave me this look like I hurt them,” McNeill [former ASB president who is now in law school at Ole Miss] said.

The University of Mississippi has shortened one of its fight songs to discourage football fans from chanting “the South will rise again” during part of the tune, which critics say is an offensive reminder of the region’s intolerant past.

I get so frustrated when I read about stuff like this.  The Civil War was not started or fought because of slavery! Why don’t people read history.  The war was over state’s rights and economic and governmental oppresion from the North to the South.

Consider this fact: In July 1861, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution, by a nearly unanimous vote, that affirmed that the North was not waging the war to overthrow slavery but to preserve the Union (Klingaman, Abraham Lincoln and the Road to Emancipation, pp. 66-70).

I recently read the following paragraphs online here  and I agree 100%.  I copied and pasted them over because they are solid as-is without me having to rewrite them.

“The war was fought over secession, not over slavery. If the South had not declared its independence, Lincoln would not have launched an invasion, and there would have been no war. The only slave states that were charged with insurrection and then invaded were those that belonged to the Confederacy. Would Lincoln and his fellow Republicans have accepted secession if the Confederacy had announced it was abolishing slavery as the first official act of its existence? Would the Republicans have allowed a peaceful separation if the Confederacy had started an emancipation program right after the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run)? Any serious student of the Civil War will agree that the answer to both of these questions is no.  I don’t think anyone who has studied the subject believes the Republicans would have allowed the South to go in peace no matter when the Confederacy would have started to abolish slavery.”

There were important economic and political differences between the North and the South that were major reasons for the South’s desire for independence. Prior to secession, the South had complained for decades about unfair, unconstitutional Northern economic policies, especially tariff policy. One of the seven ordinances of secession and two of the Declarations of Causes of Secession of the Deep South states mention unfair Northern economic policies. Jefferson Davis mentioned the South’s complaints about Northern protectionist tariff policies in his first message to the Confederate congress (he cited the North’s imposition of “burdens on commerce as a protection to their manufacturing and shipping interests”). In his famous speech on secession to the Georgia legislature, Robert Toombs spent the first half of the speech listing some of the South’s economic complaints against the North, and he cited these complaints as reasons the South needed to be independent. Historian Frank Owsley discussed some of the reasons for these complaints:

The industrial North demanded a high tariff so as to monopolize the domestic markets, especially the Southern market.  It was an exploitative principle, originated at the expense of the South and for the benefit of the North.

The industrial section demanded a national subsidy for the shipping business and merchant marine, but, as the merchant marine was alien to the Southern agrarian system, the two sections clashed. It was once more an exploitation of one section for the benefit of the other.

The industrial North demanded internal improvements–roads, railroads, canals, at national expense to furnish transportation for its goods to Southern and Western markets which were already hedged around for the benefit of the North by the tariff wall.

So please, please stop thinking that the South stood for slavery and the Confederate flag is a symbol of Southern oppresion.  Study on American history instead of listening to heresy!

 

We shall pass this way on Earth but once,
if there is any kindness we can show,
or good act we can do,
let us do it now,
for we will never pass this way again.

Stephen Grellet

Beyond the winning and the goal,
Beyond the glory and the fame,
He feels the flame within his soul,
Born of the spirit of the game.
And where the barriers may wait,
Built up by the opposing gods,
He finds a thrill in bucking fate
And riding down the endless odds.
Where others wither in the fire
Or fall below some raw mishap,
Where others lag behind or tire
And break beneath the handicap,
He finds a new and deeper thrill
To take him on the uphill spin,
Because the test is greater still,
And something he can revel in.

-Grantland Rice

“We are not born winners or losers, but choosers.”

-Anthony Clark

Anthony wast the first man to bench 600 pounds raw (raw means without the aid of a bench shirt, etc.) and did it while having chronic asthma which he would eventually die from. Pretty impressive, huh?

President Obama has won a Nobel Peace Prize. 

 ”For what!?” You might ask and I agree.  What in the world for?  The official reason is: “Peace keeping efforts, fight against global warming, and fight against nuclear weapons.”

I think one reporter summed it up quite well when he said, “Still, the U.S. remains at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Congress has yet to pass a law reducing carbon emissions and there has been little significant reduction in global nuclear stockpiles since Obama took office.”

You have got to be kidding me…this is ridiculous!  The Nobel Peace Prize was rigged!!!

Been hard to get into blogging lately for some reason.  Work, softball, the new house, cutting down three trees, Caitlin getting her Master’s, just can’t seem to get into it.  So I have decided on a new segment or two.  One is going to be “People You (I) Should Know” and will be about certain figures in history a well educated person should expect to have knowledge about, and the second will be, “My House Has Taught Me,” which will be something that I have learned about houses, yards, lawnmowers, etc. 

The first People, er, Person You (I) Should Know is…

Name: Ernesto Guevara
Aliases: “Che”
Years: June 14, 1928 to October 9, 1967
Place of Birth: Rosario, Argentina
Why He His Famous: Marxist revolutionary and guerilla leader in the Cuban Revolution.
Brief Bio: Was an Argentine, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, military theorist and major figure of the Cuban Revolution.  As Che traveled through Latin America as a young medical student, he observed the rampant poverty and terrible living conditions of the indigenous people.  He blamed these conditions on capitalism, imperialism, and neocolonialism.  His beliefs led him to support the socialist reforms of Guatemala’s President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán who was later overthrown in a CIA assisted movement.  This involvement by the CIA solidified Che’s beliefs that capitalism was the downfall of Latin America which would lead to him meeting Raul and Fidel Castro.  He joined their movement, was promoted to second in command, and was a major player in the Casto’s overthrow of US backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.  After the Castro’s victory, Che became Cuba’s national bank director and leader of Cuba’s military forces.  He was instrumental in the strategy that repelled Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and was the driving force in bringing the Soviets to Cuba which precipated the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.  On October 7, 1967, Che and a band of guerilla soldiers were captured and taken hostage by Bolivian special forces led by Felix Rodriguez, a CIA Special Activities Division operative.  On October 9th, Bolivian President René Barrientos ordered that Che be executed.  In the moments preceding his execution, Che was asked if he was thinking about his immortality.  “No”, he replied, “I’m thinking about the immortality of the revolution.” Che Guevara then told his executioner, “I know you’ve come to kill me.  Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.”  Che was shot nine times across his body to imitate gunfire taken in open combat. 

Time Magazine named Che one of the 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century, and the photo above, taken by Alberta Korda titled Guerrillero Heroico, has been proclaimed the “most famous photo in the world.”

Since his death, the photo above has become a powerful countercultural symbol and a global recognized within pop culture.

I learned a ton writing this.  I had always thought of Che as a revolutionary leader for the downtrodden people of Latin America…which he was, I guess, but I had no idea that he had such a hatred for America and for capitalism.  I find it odd that as I walk through the mall, I see Che likenesses on clothing in stores such as Journey and Buckle when the man was directly responsible for our defeat at the Bay of Pigs and almost precipated a missile strike on US soil from Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Really changes my mind on stores that will run his merchandise and the people who wear it…

Sometimes, the only difference in a rut and a grave is depth.

Some people pray for a lesser load in life… might it not be more appropriate to pray for a stronger back?

This is written for fun and probably about 2.5 people who read this will know the series I am talking about.  The Wheel of Time series is/was written by Robert Jordan.  I say “was” because he recently passed away and his wife and a friend are finishing the last book of the series.  To date, there are eleven total novels with a twelfth one that will be broken up into three parts because of it’s length.  I would highly recomend the series.  You can read up on it here. 

Anyways, I thought it would be cool to pick actors for a fictional movie.  It seems that several studios have thought about making a movie- there is some awesome material to work with- but have been intimidated by it’s size.  Part I is the male cast of the book (main characters only).

Rand al’Thor (the lead): Jared Padalecki.  Why?  He is nearly 6′5″ which fits Rand’s part well, has the unruly hair that Jordan describes, and he has displayed in the hit CW show Supernatural that he can play a hard character.  Plus, he is just good looking enough (call: no homo) to get all the ladies that Rand gets. 

Matrim Cauthon (co-lead): Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Why?  He has the small stature necessary to play Mat and the humor/goofy side that will fit the role, too.

Perrin Aybara (co-lead): Paul Telfer.  Why?  Perrin is described as being one of the strongest, most muscled characters in the book from his life as a blacksmith.  Telfer definitely fits that role while having the darker complexion I imagine Perrin having.  He played Hercules and has starred in other Greek-themed movies, so he has experience with acting out hand-t0-hand combat.  Now all we need is a crescent-mooned shaped axe…

Lan Mandragoran: Hugh Jackman.  Why?  Who better to play the role of the hard, stone-faced, sword fighting, hero of Lan than Hugh Jackman?  Through his roles as Wolverine and Van Helsing, you know he can fit the bill.  Pull that hair back with a leather strap and add a sword and you got yourself one awesome Lan.

Tam al-Thor: Jeremy Irons.  Why?  I am not quite sure, actually.  I just saw his picture and  thought that this guy really reminded me of Tam.  He has the look of an old, scarred soldier to me, while still looking fit enough to handle a farm and battle off a few Trollocs to boot.

Thom Merrilin: Sam Elliot.  Why?  Just see the picture.  That is exactly how Jordan described him.

There are more characters that need fitting that play a crucial role.  There are the male Forsaken, as well as Moridin, Lews Therin Telamon, Gareth Bryne, and Elyas Machera to name a few.  Who do you think those should be and do you have any better ideas for the characters I picked?