The C.I.A. Honors America's Black Spies During Slavery

Will someone, please, make a serious movie of this woman's life?

During the war, African-Americans received recognition for their contributions through articles in the press. However, after the war, the recognition died off. Racial prejudice and a lack of official records of intelligence activities were factors in the lack of acknowledgment.

In honor of Black History Month and in an effort to give these brave black Americans the recognition they deserve, here are a few of their amazing stories… 

The Perfect Spy

African-Americans played an important role in the outcome of the Civil War. Slaves and freed African-Americans were an invaluable resource to the Union, providing information on the Confederate forces. This became known as the “black dispatches.”

The dispatches were most commonly obtained from debriefing slaves—either runaways or those who had come under Union control. And a few brave black Americans learned important intelligence about Confederate plans through behind-the-lines missions or by serving as an agent-in-place,...

The Knockout Game Is Older Than Drudge Can Imagine

“We felt that without sabotage there would be no way open to the African people to succeed in their struggle against the principle of white supremacy. All lawful modes of expressing opposition to this principle had been closed by legislation, and we were placed in a position in which we had either to accept a permanent state of inferiority, or to defy the Government. We chose to defy the Government.”

Things The Unloved Are Thankful For (Thanksgiving II)

Anyone (PW comes to mind) brave enough to see the world as it is,...

Been There, Done That, Didn't Happen - Wrong (Brains)

“Our Founding Fathers declared we are, “One nation under God,” and you better believe I’ll fight like mad to keep it that way. I can tell you from experience, there are no atheists in foxholes. We are the land of the free because of the brave. Many people don’t know this, but when you survive a near-death experience [as Johnson did when he was a POW in Vietnam, TF], you realize that the only thing you had to hold on to was your faith in God.”

Today In 1841 (A Successful Revolt On A Slave Ship)

Madison Washington, a cook who was enslaved in Virginia after attempting to rescue his wife after he escaped to Canada, was the first to spark the overthrow. The slaves were kept in a forward hold and when a grate was lifted, Washington overtook the deck. Washington and 17 other men sparked the clash by taking on the captain’s crew and killed a trader with a knife. The captain was wounded, but escaped with his life as he hid inside the ship’s rigging.

The slaves demanded the ship be sailed towards Liberia, as it was the only country they knew former slaves could go for freedom. However, another slave mentioned they should sail to the British West Indies because slaves were freed there a year prior. Upon arriving at Nassau, Bahamas on November 9, the ship was boarded by Black Bahamians who declared the group free under British colonial law.

...White slave owners were angered at the loss of workers they considered nothing more than property.

The Ones

"There are reasons why films of this vein are more readily produced than others. Both economic and social values influence the resurrection of historical accounts like the Amistad while Gabriel Prosser, Harriet Tubman and Charles Deslondes suffocate in obscurity.

One thought is that white audiences should never be left feeling guilty about their ancestors’ sins. Many can walk out of the theater and say to themselves: 'I would’ve been more like Brad Pitt if I was alive during Slavery,' even though residue of the system still permeates around them today — and one could argue that there’s a shortage of mass white outrage over the fact.

In essence, the Prossers and Tubmans of our past deny Hollywood this safety net. They resisted oppression and sacrificed their lives to liberate others.

But more importantly, they don’t leave much room for white saviors. They are the black Bravehearts. And for many of us, we hope to see the day when they’re finally seen in full heroic form on the big screen."

Hard = Escape. Something = Scientology. Stuff = Shit.

Leah Remini, a former cultist (yes!) on Dancing With The Stars - I honestly thought I may never see such a thing:

But then, so did Scientology,...

 

US Mercury Astronaut Scott Carpenter Has Died At 88

I always liked Scott Carpenter, he was a bit of a fool.

"You're looking out at a totally black sky, seeing an altimeter reading of 90,000ft and realise you are going straight up. And the thought crosses your mind:  

What am I doing?"

Like him, I'm shaking my head. 

Not only the second American to orbit Earth, Carpenter exemplified what became known as The Right Stuff after his capsule overshot the landing point by almost 300 fucking miles. 

He left our still-new-to-space-travel nation without communication and frantic with worry he was alive. 

But the Navy eventually found their astronaut, chillin' in the Caribbean, floating on his raft with his feet propped up.

He went around the globe three times in 1962. 

And as the backup pilot for the first Mercury mission, his was the  voice that famously said, "Godspeed, John Glenn." 

Carpenter was born in Boulder, Colorado, commissioned in the Navy in 1949, and served as a pilot in the Korean War. 

In 1959 he was selected as one of seven Mercury astronauts, training with NASA and specializing in communications and navigation. 

After retiring in 1969 he took up oceanography. As part of the Navy's (now famous and trendy) SeaLab program, in 1965 Carpenter went to California and spent 30 days under the sea.

He lived in Vail, Colorado and upon retiring founded Sea Sciences with the famous French researcher, Jacques Cousteau.

His second wife, Patty Barrett, said he suffered a stroke in September, and died not long after in hospice care.

Let it be known:

Scott Carpenter was easily the most badass #2 in history.

And John Glenn is the Mercury team's last surviving member.

Teach A Man To Fish & He'll Figure Out Where Africa Is (While Twitter Laughs At Us Losing Another Election)

As often as TMR calls people out for stupidity, 

you'd think they'd have checked with me first:

"If you caught Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) or Mike Lee (R-Utah) on the Sunday talk shows, you would quickly realize that these two have absolutely no idea what they are doing. Lee’s and Cruz’s insistence that they are the ones 'fighting' is belied by the facts. They are actually intent on running into a concrete wall again and again to prove their political machismo. For many Republicans this isn’t bravery but stupidity."

And speaking of stupidity, did you see the pile-on after Touré said Kenya was on the north coast of Africa? I'm no Touré fan but, man, I am even less of one for folks who hang on Twitter. They're like those people you meet at an office party you didn't want to go to - immature, obnoxious, slightly off, and not even a little funny.

Like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, I fail to see the attraction,...

 

9/11: Let's Hope We Never See The Likes Of It Again

Carrie Bergonia, looking at the name of her fiance, firefighter Joseph Ogren.

No one expected those towers to fall.

I had the misfortune of being awake early on 9/11, so I witnessed the attacks live on television, watched as Americans leaped to their deaths (some quite bravely and with a sense of purpose) and I remember the overall confusion, sadness, and terror, quite clearly.

This photo captures what it felt like as well as any I've seen,...

It's Haunting (But Not Surprising): There's No Women In This Photo - And The Dead Are "Firefighters" Not "Men"

I'm laid up in bed, injured, and my blood boils:

19 guys dead.

When has a group of women made such a sacrifice?

 

Margaret Thatcher Is Dead (October 1925 – April 2013)

I talk a lot of shit about women, but so few live up to expectations, it's practically impossible not to. 

But not Margaret Thatcher. 

The Iron Lady proved there was something more than the venal, small-minded "feminist" version - and that men will respond to it, welcome it, and, yeah, even defend it if necessary. She was no nonsense, decisive, attractive, and stood head-and-shoulders above her so-called "sisters" when it comes to just about everything. 

Margaret Thatcher was a "real woman" in every sense of the phrase, and anyone, male or female, looking for someone to emulate should look here. They'll find it.

My sincere condolences to her family.

Sleep well, baby,...

Everybody's Laughing At Us (Behind Our Backs,...)

‎One thing I definitely don't like to see in my country is cowardice. You know, "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave," and all that. We're supposed to have balls.

Yet what we're really engaged in, in this feminized era, is pretending to have balls. The real thing - even in print - is scary, or so I'm told. Why, I was recently called "a violent bully" for talking online, without so much as a single threat passing my keyboard.

The University of Michigan is now trying to claim hearing the childhood taunt "you're so gay" can somehow "cause stress, which can manifest in headaches and other health concerns" in an American (I'll wait until they talk to more than "114 gay, lesbian and bisexual students between the ages of 18 to 25 through an online survey" before I'll buy that idea, thanks.) These big pussies.

The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto has a great overview of the presidential nomination process this year and, when looked at objectively, I think it damns our culture as totally chickenshit - check out these lines:

Obama's journalistic supporters live in a bizarre alternate reality in which a politician's actual words mean nothing. When the president says something foolish and offensive, he didn't say that. Meanwhile every comment from a Republican can be translated, through a process of free association, to: "We don't like black people."

He is describing a complete and continual avoidance and/or denial of reality by a massive number of people - enough to be an actual phenomena. What warriors! Or try this:

Obama rose in 2008 as a symbol of racial aspirations--the black aspiration to be recognized as fully American and the white aspiration to redeem the sin of racism. That made it difficult to criticize him, much less to mock him. John McCain's campaign was hobbled by a fear of appearing racist, and Obama himself received a degree of deference that is excessive for any politician.

I don't think the words "hobbled by a fear" can be spun into an expression of strength, do you? Plus he lost - no. Here, one more:

Romney and the Republicans, however, have moved on. This was best exemplified by the nominee's birth-certificate quip, which we wrote about on Monday. Birtherism, once mortifying to mainstream conservatives and Republicans, is now just a joke, although the left continues to take it very seriously.

Gee, guys, while I'm glad you eventually got over it, "mortifying" is one of those shrink words I had to look up:

To cause to experience shame, humiliation, or wounded pride; humiliate.

My heroes.

I started thinking of all this while reading about polygamy and Mormonism in this election. According to Erika Johnsen of Hot Air:

There was much speculating as to whether the Republican National Convention would shy away from using the “M” word and just generally avoid talking too much about religion, but I didn’t think that was the case at all. Quite the opposite, actually,…

She then gives us FIVE examples of this oh-so-obvious Republican bravery - but only one of the five actually mentions the word "Mormon." One that didn't is by Mike Huckabee, who The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan explained "addressed the Mormon issue without ever saying 'the Mormon issue,'" because everyone knows never directly bringing up a subject is how you get to it's core, right?

Sure. How brave,…

 

R.I.P. Neil Armstrong: August 5, 1930 - August 25, 2012 (Our Nation's Hero And - Easily - One Of The Bravest Men To Have Walked On This Or Any Other Planet,...)

On July 20, 1969, this giant of a man walked on another world, an act of such foolish bravery I can still hardly fathom the audaciousness of it. Only those who have volunteered for war come close to the level of bravery this man exhibited, and few have matched the level of dignity with which he lived his life afterwards. A truly remarkable human being.

The true face of courage. 

 Here's what his amazing feat would've sounded like if it were me:

Christopher Hitchens: My Black Caddy

A nice surprise is delivered by Slate, in the form of some left-over notes from Hitchens' death bed. My favorite?

“If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does." 

Hello! Another is "Brave? Hah! Save it for a fight you can't run away from." I've been there so many times it's funny to see it written out. Like, even though he was a war correspondent, Hitch was never actually in a real battle until cancer came-a-knockin'.

Whatever - life, and reading other's writings, are deceptive. I consider my marriage's breakdown a far more grueling ordeal than any physical battle I've ever been in - because it was emotional sabotage, from the inside, where anyone is vulnerable. (Kind of hard to protect the family jewels when the thief has your key,...seems like I cried for years.) Wild.

Still, weird trigger for musings on my own past crippling or not - and, of course, that to come - even fragmentary Hitch is better than none at all. A nice reward for waking up again. 

 Humph. Before the divorce, waking up was it's own reward. I used to bound out of bed.

 I need coffee,...