ok - the civil war - - the great war of a nation that was split in two - so split, in fact, that an actual line was drawn to show the separation between the northern and southern states! the mason-dixon line - which still is shown on southern maps today - - and, in fact, there are highway signs in maryland that show when you cross that infamous line. we pass them all the time as we drive to ohio to visit family.

there are thousands of books and historical accounts of the battles of this war. we've been to many of the battlefields on our travels over the past few years. virginia and maryland have plenty of historical sites to visit if you enjoy battlefield lore.

my interest in the civil war this time was not battlefield related. rather i wanted to look at the war from a socio-economic perspective. what was going on when the war started.....

unfortunately, the split between the northern and southern states had been brewing for quite some time - - and contrary to what you may have learned growing up, it had very little to do with the slavery issue. or maybe it would be more correct to say that the slavery issue was not the primary reason for the battle between the northern and southern states. it was far deeper than simply slavery.

to begin to grasp these troubled times you have to picture the northern states as the beginnings of the industrial revolution was taking place. factories, offices, stores and shopping - - you reported to work early and worked hard on your shift and then went home. it was what you might call a "scheduled" society. there were class groups forming in the north - the factory owners, business leaders and then the working class.

now shift your imagination to the southern states. plantations, farms, growing seasons, you lived on what you grew, traded with neighbors who grew other crops and sent surplus crops to the north. there was very little of a "scheduled" environment other than crop planting and harvesting. there had developed a socieital structure to the south. there were distinct class groups - but much different from those in the north.

clearly the nation was two totally different societal groups. and as you would expect tensions between these groups were terrible.

one clear example was the invention and proliferation of the cotton gin. cotton farming was a purely southern event - from the planting, harvesting, and ginning the cotton to the shipping virtually all over the world! the giant cotton farms of the south welcomed the invention of the gin, especially once it was discovered that it could be had by all the farmers.

frankly, it was the cotton gin - as wonderful an invention as it was - that really was a key factor in increasing tensions between the north and the south. especially after the northern machinists got hold of the gin and figured out how to make an entire factory out of it! imagine - one factory could buy up all the cotton from farms in the south and spin it up and sell it themselves.

soon the world cotton market was flooded - - between the southern farmers and the northern factories, cotton became practically worthless. southern society was beginning to crumble - - and it was the fault of the northern factories.

add to this many other economy-related issues - - rifles, ammunition, food - - then add in the fact that those northern folks were becoming unhappy with their dealings with their southern brothers and sisters. taxes, government activites, interference from the northern industrialists.

somewhere down on the list of differences was certainly the slavery issue. people of the north were always hearing stories of the thousands of slaves and how badly they were mistreated - beaten, bought & sold, beaten some more. from most of the reading i've done, it seems that the violence against slaves was not as bad as historically reported. generally speaking the majority of slaves were treated well.

i don't mean to make light of slavery - it's a terrible thing. but it didn't involve much of the cruelness we see in movies today. after all - these people were the work force of the south. you don't mistreat those who are making your living for you....

another thing you learn as you read about the socio-economics of that period is that slavery (at that time) was not simply related to african people. there were caucasian, latino, asian, german, french, haitian, cuban - - many many races were indentured into slavery. some over unpaid debts, some over criminal activities - - some just uneducated who fell into slavery as a result of happenstance....

president lincoln was not a popular person of his time. in fact, he was a bit of a buffoon in the early days. what attracted him to the party at the time, was the fact that he was from what is now the mid-west. at that time, not southern and not really northern. he was painted as one who could smooth relations between what was becoming two rival factions - the northern states and the southern states.

somehow he had to bring together two totally unique societal structures. a massive and very intimidating thing. the money and economic powers were definitely held by the north - - but the north couldn't exist without the crops and raw materials that the south had. then underlying all that was the slavery issue - - the northern business minds were preaching anti-slavery in the worst way - it was contrary to all they had been working towards as the inductrialized the north. it didn't fit into the grand scheme of things and therefore had to go.

soon the southern states had begun holding meetings among themselves. something had to be done. the northern industrialists had used their influence to get the northern military deployed around the southern states. harbors were being guarded by the northern armies - - and they were scaring off the slavers and other trader's who were dealing with the coastal states. charleston sc was such a harbor. it was a main seaport for southern shipping activities involving cotton, crops and other raw materials.

i won't re-iterate the events leading up to that fateful shot - - but here's a great link to that story. check it out.


i really don't know how to summarize all this. our civil war was about as nasty a period of time as you can possibly imagine. it was more than slavery - it was a direct clash of two totally different cultures and societies. and after the civil war ended there was a long period of time in our nation where not much happened. rebuilding was slow - especially in the south where most of the battles were fought and damages were extensive. putting everyone and everything back together was a long long process. i may have to put that next in my readings.....

it's an interesting time to read about. i'm gathering up some of the internet links that i used to read about this period of history. i'll include them next day or so

we're home again! and during the last couple weeks we've been in texas, i've been doing some reading/studying about the civil war......

so i think my next post - maybe tomorrow - - will probably involve some thoughts about the great war that took place right here in our own country......and such a war it was! wow....... anyway - i'm working on it.....

been really dry around the southern md area.....corn crop is mostly a waste, not enough water to suck in and form ears.....stuff is barely waist high.....and already looking burned up around the stalks.....not good.....

noticed that the grass crunched when we walked up today too....and there have been some thunderboomers around....just missing us.....

maybe tomorrow - - they're calling for storms again....we'll see......

me with my lil angels!



grandma with the two angels!


we've been having a great time! the kids enjoyed their trip to Cancun - had a nice, restful time without the babies and diaper changing and were able to give some attention to each other for a few days......and that's always a good thing!

so i reckon on wednesday about lunch time we'll head back up home. i leave for denver on monday and mom heads downtown DC for a class all week starting on the 30th...so going to be a busy time when we get home again....

anyway - just a quick post of pics.....i'll try and catch up on news and stuff - but haven't watched/seen/read hardly any news for the last week....

we're in texas with the grandbabies! life is good! of course it's hot - but then this IS texas and it is july...... but it's really not as bad as other times we've been here in the summer. it's hovering around the 90's - actually about the same temps as we were having back home in maryland.

trip down was nice - fortunately no problems, no incidents. stayed in our usual hotels for our trip down here...dunno if we'll be able to do that on our way home..since the daughter and kids are going to go home with us!!! hurrah! two and a half days in a car with a 2 year old and a one year old and two women......sounds like a theme for a national lampoon movie! lol should be fun - - we'll see how it goes....

they're coming home for most of august - - then going to fly home. sue's mom will be flying back to texas with them near the end of august. she was planning a visit anyway, so this works out pretty well.

we took a bunch of pics yesterday - - i'll get a couple of them on here soon.

tonight i'm going to share with everyone a few things i've received via email the last couple of days. i've got to warn you though - i've not verified any of these - although a quick check at urbanlegends/snopes turned up nothing. take them for whatever their worth - it certainly gives one pause for thought....

Start of first email
This will tighten your bolts down....
Subject: PARKLAND MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - DALLAS, TX INTERESTING


Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas is a fairly famous institution and for a variety of reasons:

1. John F.Kennedy died there in 1963
2. Lee Harvey Oswald died there shortly after
3. Jack Ruby-who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, died there a few years later.by coincidence

On the flip side, Parkland is also home to the second busiest maternity ward in the country with almost 16,000 new babies arriving each year.
(That's almost 44 per day---every day)

A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants.' Crikey, that's 11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas. According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to end up with almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding. Medicaid kicked in $34.5 million, Dallas County taxpayers kicked in $31.3 million and the feds tossed in another $9.5 million.

The average patient in Parkland's maternity wards is 25 years old, married and giving birth to her second child. She is also an illegal immigrant. By law, pregnant women cannot be denied medical care based on their immigration status or ability to pay. OK, fine. That doesn't mean they should receive better care than everyday, middle-class American citizens. But at Parkland Hospital, they do.

Parkland Memorial Hospital has nine prenatal clinics. NINE. The Dallas Morning News article followed a Hispanic woman who was a patient at one of the clinics and pregnant with her third child---her previous two were also born at Parkland. Her first two deliveries were free and the Mexican native was grateful because it would have cost $200 to have them in Mexico. This time, the hospital wants her to pay $10 per visit and $100 for the delivery but she was unsure if she could come up with the money. Not that it matters, the hospital won't turn her away.
(I wonder why they even bother asking at this point.)

How long has this been going on? What are the long-term effects? Well, another subject of the article was born at Parkland in 1986 shortly after her mother entered the U.S. illegally---now she is having her own child there as well. (That's right, she's technically a U.S. citizen.) These women receive free prenatal care including medication, nutrition, birthing classes and child care classes. They also get freebies such as car seats, bottles, diapers and formula. Most of these things are available to American citizens as well but only for low-income applicants and even then, the red tape involved is almost insurmountable.

Because these women are illegal immigrants they do not have to provide any sort of legitimate identification---no proof of income. An American citizen would have to provide a social security number which would reveal their annual income---an illegal immigrant need only claim to be poor and the hospital must take them at their word.

My husband is a pilot for the United States Navy (yes, he fought in Iraq) and while the health care is good, we Navy wives don't get any of these perks! Car seats? Diapers? Not so much. So my question is this: Does our public medical care system treat illegal immigrants better than American citizens? Yes it does!

As I mentioned, the care I have received is perfectly adequate but it's bare bones, meat and potato medical care---not top of the line.

Their (the illegals) medical care is free---simply because they are illegal immigrants? Once again, there is no way to verify their income. Parkland Hospital offers indigent care to Dallas County residents who earn less than $40,000 per year. (They also have to prove that they did not refuse health coverage at their current job. Yeah, the 'free' care is not so easy for Americans.)

There are about 140 patients who received roughly $4 million dollars for un-reimbursed medical care. As it turns out, they did not qualify for free treatment because they resided outside of Dallas County. So the hospital is going to sue them! Illegals get it all free! But U.S. citizens who live outside of Dallas County get sued! How stupid is this?

As if that isn't annoying enough, the illegal immigrant patients are actually complaining about hospital staff not speaking Spanish. In this AP story, the author speaks with a woman who is upset that she had to translate comments from the hospital staff into Spanish for her husband. The doctor was trying to explain the situation to the family and the mother was forced to translate for her husband who only spoke Spanish. This was apparently a great injustice to her.

"In an attempt to create a Spanish-speaking staff, Parkland Hospital is now providing incentives in the form of extra pay for applicants who speak Spanish. Additionally, medical students at the University of Texas Southwestern for which Parkland Hospital is the training facility will now have a Spanish language requirement added to their already jammed-packed curriculum. No other school in the country boasts such a ridiculous multi-semester (multicultural) requirement.

(Ed: Sorry for the length, but this needs wide circulation----particularly to our "employees" in the Congress.)


POST SCRIP FROM A U.S. CITIZEN .--- Many of us are now in the so called, "Donut hole" with our prescriptions. We paid our money to protect us in our later years, but our people in Washington have elected to give it to the illegal immigrants, How fair can that be ?

end of first email
start of second email
Let Me See If I Understand This Correctly

1. We can't balance the budget
2. We can't protect our borders
3. We can't fund protective gear for our troops in combat
4. We can't affect the balance in trade
5. We can't prevent the migration of jobs to outside the country
6. We can't develop a rational energy policy
7. We can't stop the flow of drugs into this country
8. We can't fund the VA to treat the mangled troops returning from
the Middle East and past wars.
9. We can't LISTEN to the voices of our constituents, but
10. We CAN vote ourselves a raise -
Congressional payraise

end of second email

welllll while i'm here trying to figure out what happened to my counter, i'll say that the directv guy (different guy) was here at about 8:30 this morning - checked out the box, then headed on up to the roof and determined that the white nodules on the front of the dish were bad. they were giving funny strength readings - one minute zeros; then 90 signal strength.

so after some strenuous work trying to undo the nuts that the previous fella tightened down so extremely well, he got the part replaced and we have tv again!

good thing too - -tonite's the homerun derby and the all-star game is tomorrow night..

did you all hear the crap about that sheehan woman wanting to run against the majority leader - - awwww what's her name? pelahi, no,....pelati?...hmmmm peroni..peroghi?..........pelosi --- yeh there it is....pelosi.....sorry i have trouble keeping of track of this particular congress - - they are so useless and have done absolutely nothing of value or note other than hassle the POTUS over silly shit....such a waste....i suppose sheenaham couldn't really be any worse - she certainly fits the useless part......

update update - - went to turn on the tv about 3 - - down again!!! same problem - - continually searches for satellite signal...on both the downstairs and the upstairs box...

so i called the directv customer service folks again. appointment for monday morning between 8am and noon. i told her not to worry i was going to take the entire day to be around the house because i know they can't keep an appointment....she just giggled..........

dunno what the problem might be - - but i do know that no satellite signal is getting into the boxes....my guess is the problem is on the roof with their dish or the connections to it..... we'll see......

i was able to watch baseball last night! although we did end up watch an old bud spenceer and terrence hill western - we still caught most of our favorite teams playing...

to end the story about directv - - i waited until about 12:30pm - - and the service guy still had not shown up. so i called customer service again. they were appropriately contrite and even gave us a $100 credit on our bill because of a missed appointment. the service guy showed up at about 1 or 1:15pm....of course he was grumpy and short - - obviously he had been chewed out on the radio or something, and of course, it was my fault in his mind.....

he explained to me that they don't set their appointments - - customer service headquarters does and then let's them know about how many calls they are supposed to make. this had like 15 appointments scheduled for friday between 8 and noon!!! he says usually it's 25-30 - - says it's very seldom that they are able to do what's scheduled.

you would think that the customer service offices would figure it out - - but i suppose now....

anyway, turns out that the dish up on the roof had somehow moved enough to be out of the signal range - - so he climbed up there and re-adjusted the azimuth and got a signal reading and everything was fine. signal quality up around 99 now.....looking good....he tightened up the bolts pretty good, said it could have been most anything, gust of wind that hit it just right....maybe the bolts weren't tightened real good, who knows.....

so he was here for about 30 minutes....then off to another waiting customer who probably wasn't happily patiently waiting....

by the way - - thanks all for the words about the travbuddy map - - someone emailed me a link to it - i thought it was pretty cool, so added it to the page..

shoprat, i been pretty fortunate and blessed during my Navy time - got to go a lot of places and see a lot of things - alot by myself onboard ships, but mostly with the family too. it was a great 20-odd years......

i don't like to post about politics and news stuff all the time, so something different today - - - -

i'm going to tell the story of my directv service this week! such a tale it is to tell! we watched sunday night baseball last sunday - - then turned off the tv and went to bed. since we both had to go to our offices for work on monday, no one was home and the tv wasn't on all day. in fact, it was after 7pm when we decided to turn it on and see how the indians were doing on their ballgame.

the tv stayed black - - little box in the corner said, no signal - searching.....

and stayed that way for 20 minutes. so i did what the directv folks say to do - i reset the box - - hit that little reset button and let it reset itself. still not luck, couldn't find a signal....

so i called the customer service folks and told them, and (of course) they have me do the usual stuff - - check the connections, is it plugged in - all that stuff that simply insults my intelligence, but i put up with them cuz if i argue or piss 'em off, then nothing will ever work again.....

anyway, they finally agreed that we had some sort of problem. and since i have the service plan, they scheduled an appointment for wednesday (yes they worked on the 4th) - - they asked if between 8am and noon would be ok. we had picnic plans, but agreed we'd wait until noon so they could come and check things out....

so we had no tv at all on tuesday - - wednesday morning (the 4th) we were up and ready for them by 8am - 9am - 10am - 11am - - 12pm......hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm things are not looking good....

12:05 the phone rings - - its the directv customer service lady - - has you technician showed up, she asks. funny thing about that - NO i replied. she says, they must be taking longer than expected, let me call them and find out where they are. i said, don't bother - we have plans for this afternoon; we postponed things to wait until noon for your tech - he hasn't shown up, we're leaving.

she says, oh i'm sorry - - can we reschedule the visit? i say, sure, what do you have in mind? she says, how about friday between 8am and noon. i say, why sure - i'll be here. she says, thank you.

now - i happen to know that the directv technicians around here are all independent agents. so what they do is book themselves 10-15 visits all between 8am and noon, then push people off and you end up waiting all day for a 6pm service call that was originally supposed to happen between 8am and noon!

why directiv does this is beyond me. someone needs a lesson in time management and scheduling. 8am and noon does not mean show up at 3pm or 1pm.......

so anyway - we've been without tv all week. not that it really bothers us - other than all the baseball we're missing...we'll see what happens tomorrow....i'll be sure to follow up on this and let ya know how they do....we're betting they don't show until late afternoon..... :) :)

Happy Fourth of July everyone!!

have i commented that i really (really) like that 'day by day' cartoon at the top of the site? the cartoonist is terrific......

by know we all know i'm a barry bonds fan - - the media all give him a bad time, but just in case you want to know what kind of guy barry is - - during yesterday's game a fan jumped down on to the field and ran towards barry in left field...barry just silently stood there as the fan approached - - as barry said later - "the guy just wanted to shake my hand, he had obviously been drinking...." - - and what did barry do? he actually shook the guys hand, put his arm around his shoulders and walked him back to the waiting security guys!! asked what he said to the guy, barry said, "i just told him to come with me, let's not get you in any more trouble than you are"......now that's the barry i've come to know and respect.....and he's five homers away from hank's record!!!!!!

headline in the post today under a photo of newt gingrich with this quote, "i don't want to be President. but i'm willing to be President." huh? not the way to win over voters..... personally, i'd just as soon he didn't do us any favors....

one last thing here and i'll call this one good.....click here and check out this news story tell me - - is anyone surprised by this?