The Constitution Murders

Conover Hunt at the Hampton Yacht Club

Having majored in history in college, I love a good history book.  I also love a good mystery/suspense book, especially one with foreign intrigue.  In the Constitution Murders, available on Amazon, our dear friend, Conover Hunt has created a combination of the two.  Yes, many characters are fictional, but woven throughout are real nuggets of history - something Conover knows well given that she has written 7 or 8 history works and was the creator of the Book Depository museum in Dallas, Texas (she's an expert on the Madison administration and the JFK assassination).  She even works in a thread involving the Romanov dynasty - something of interest to me since Anna Anderson (who said she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia) was one of my neighbors in Charlottesville many years ago.  Also in the book are insider glimpses of Hampton and Richmond.

A Last S.O.S. for the S.S. United States

The super liner U.S. United States was built at Newport News Shipbuilding less than ten miles from where I sit typing this post and was launched in the same year that I was born.   In her prime, she was the fastest ocean liner afloat and counted presidents, movie stars and royalty among her passengers.  Now, she is a rusting hulk facing the scrape yard if funds are not raised to maintain her while a plan to develop her into a water front attraction and hotel in New York City are completed.  The S.S. United States is small compared to some of today's massive cruise ships that resemble mammoth hotels slapped on a hull, but her sleek lines and wind swept superstructure recall the days when crossing the Atlantic was most often for the rich and famous.  The New York Times looks at the ship and the fate that I hope she manages to dodge.  Here are excerpts:

A Titanic-sized supership that once ferried presidents, Hollywood royalty, actual royalty and even the Mona Lisa has a place in the history books as the fastest oceanliner in the world. The owners are now racing to avoid having the ship, the S.S. United States, relegated to the junk heap.

A preservationist group, the S.S. United States Conservancy, saved the vessel from being scrapped a few years ago. Its members are working with a developer to give the mothballed vessel a new life as a stationary waterfront real-estate development in New York City, the ship’s home port in her heyday.

Their big dreams, however, now face a financial crisis: Short of money, the conservancy in recent days formally authorized a ship broker to explore the potential sale to a recycler. In other words, the preservationists might have to scrap their vessel.

The conservancy continues to seek out donors, investors or a buyer to preserve the ship and press forward with development. But unless something happens by Oct. 31, the group said in a statement, “We will have no choice but to negotiate the sale of the ship to a responsible recycler.”

The decision to seek bids from scrappers was “excruciating,” said Ms. Gibbs, particularly since the development plan emerged in the last year. “We’ve never been closer to saving the S.S. United States, and we’ve never been closer to losing her,” she said.

In the 1950s and ’60s, the ship was a marvel of technology and elegance, offering regular passenger service between New York and Europe. The 1952 maiden voyage smashed trans-Atlantic speed records. She was so fast, her propellers were a Cold War state secret.

Passenger jets doomed the superliners, however. The S.S. United States left service in the late 1960s. Today she is docked in Philadelphia, stripped of her interiors and rusting in the Delaware River across the street from an Ikea store.

The redevelopment plan is underway, said Keith Harper, vice president for design at Gibbs & Cox, the firm that originally designed the S.S. United States. Late last year, a real estate developer hired the firm to help devise specific ideas for possible reuse. . . . . The ship has roughly 600,000 square feet of floor space.

 
Admirers remain optimistic. Among them is John Quadrozzi, whose company happens to own a pier in Brooklyn big enough to accommodate an oceanliner. He says he would welcome the ship there, where docking costs would be considerably lower. The conservancy is considering the move, if the money can be raised.

The S.S. United States was conceived with two purposes: to provide luxury passenger service to and from Europe, and to quickly convert into a superfast military transport, although that need never arose. Built partly with government funds, the ship represented a powerful expression of American postwar optimism and ambition.

Newspapers speculated on her secret top speed and wrote about her comings and goings like no airplane route gets written about. In the 1950s and ’60s, she was featured in a Disney movie, a Munsters movie, and a sequel to the Marilyn Monroe blockbuster “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” according to a conservancy history. Her twin red-white-and-blue stacks can be glimpsed in the opening of “West Side Story.”

America, unlike much of Europe, destroys its history and historic buildings and, in this case, ships.  The S.S. United States is one of a kind and I hope the funds are found to save her and make her into a waterfront destination.    Consider making a donation here.

Vacation/Cruise - Last Day at Sea

Full moon over Santorini as the ship pulled out headed for Mykonos

We had a wonderful time in Olympia, Greece and are enjoying a day at sea as we return to Venice.  All too typically, I had to review/revise/comment on documents for a client this morning.  With the truly terrible satellite Internet aboard the Norwegian Jade - I love the ship otherwise - keeping up with the office has been a major chore. 

As a lover of history, especially the Greco-Roman era, being in Olympia and walking the sacred sites to Zeus and Hera as well as the facilities for the Olympic Games was truly a dream come true.  The husband was totally caught up in the history of the place as well.  As has occurred other times when I have traveled in Europe, I have been struck by what arrogant upstarts many Americans must seem to Europeans.  America has existed for less than 300 years.  The Olympic Games began in 776 B.C.E. and continued until 393 A.D. 

I will have more post once we are back in Venice with decent Internet.

Saving an American Icon

The super liner SS United States was built less than 10 miles from where I live and there are many in the area still living who worked on its construction.  To this day it holds the speed record for Atlantic crossings by an ocean liner - its top speed still unknown, but having averaged 44 miles per hour on one crossing.  Not bad for a ship 990 feet long.  Built in 1952 (the year of my birth) the United States was among the last of the great liners that once were representatives of national pride and prestige.  Now the ship lies tied up in Philadelphia- for years it languished in Norfolk where I had the opportunity to go on board -  and her fate is uncertain although there is talk of moving her to New York City for conversion into a hotel/convention venue.  A piece in the New York Times looks at the ship which should be preserved as a national symbol.  Here are excerpts:

Once upon a time, it carried princes and potentates across the Atlantic in high style and at great speed.

Then it was towed ignominiously to Ukraine where the partitions and bulkheads that once divided luxurious cabins and glittering ballrooms were torn out to remove acres of asbestos.

And since 1996, the steamship United States has been tied to a Delaware River pier beside a South Philadelphia shopping mall, while chunks of paint peel off its black hull and red-and-white funnels.

Now, the 990-foot-long ocean liner that plied the Atlantic from 1952 until 1969 is the focus of what its financially struggling owner, the SS United States Conservancy, says is a final effort to save it from the scrap yard.

Saying the ship could be only months away from being broken up, the conservancy is in talks with three developers about its potential to become a hotel, museum, shopping and restaurant mall, entertainment complex, conference center, educational facility, or some combination of all options for reuse.

Conservancy officials say the ship has about 500,000 square feet of usable space that represents both a business opportunity and a means of rescuing the historic vessel, 45 years after losing its trans-Atlantic market to commercial aviation.

Scrapping the ship would destroy a piece of American social history and an engineering landmark that still holds the record for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing by an ocean liner, said Susan L. Gibbs, executive director of the conservancy and granddaughter of the ship’s designer, William Francis Gibbs.   “There is no other American ocean liner left,” she said in an interview. “This is the last one.”

Redevelopment is expected to cost $170 million to $300 million, depending on the combination of uses, and “seed capital” of about $15 million will be needed for an initial phase of the project, Mr. McSweeney said. Putting the ship back into the cruise market could cost as much as $1 billion, which is too expensive to contemplate, he added.

He declined to identify the potential developers but said all would move the ship to New York, its former home port, where its commercial potential would be most likely to be realized.

Mr. McSweeney said that the conservancy — which bought the ship from Norwegian Cruise Line for $3 million in 2011 — also considered locating the ship in Miami, Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia and other cities but that none matched New York.

The ship’s future may have parallels with the Rotterdam, another liner that sailed the Atlantic for Holland America Line from 1959 until 1997, and is now a mixed-used center in its home port.

After leaving service as a liner, the Rotterdam was bought by a Dutch government-backed company for 250 million euros and converted into spaces for businesses.

Since 2010, it has been occupied by shops and restaurants, a theater, a meeting center and a hotel, which together attract about 500,000 visitors a year, according to Casper van Hooren, a former investor in the project and now an adviser to the SS United States Conservancy.

Mr. van Hooren said the Rotterdam’s businesses over all are profitable, and he predicted that the liner United States would succeed as a result of New York’s many tourists.

Inside the ship, cabins once occupied by notable figures such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Harry Truman and Rita Hayworth are now marked by low dividers in the steel floor, while the ballroom where Duke Ellington once played for first-class passengers in tuxedos and ball gowns is a dimly lit shell overhung with disconnected pipes and wiring.

America routinely destroys its historic buildings and sites.  I hope the United States is saved.  If moved to New York City, we'd certainly visit it.

Sunday Morning Reflections - Sailing, History and Entertaining

Some weekends the boyfriend and I get ourselves over scheduled socially.  This weekend is one such weekend and began with a small dinner for a friend's birthday Friday evening at the yacht club, I had the regatta much of the day yesterday and then we had dinner at historic Warner Hall plantation in near Gloucester, Virginia.  Today we are throwing a brunch for some of the boyfriend's clients who are more fun than the law should allow.

The regatta was great fun and my boat (image above) managed to place second in all three heats even though none of the three of us had ever raced before.  While you cannot fully see it from the photo, the boat has a rainbow flag like stripe along the waterline - I suspect I was assigned to it due to the sailing director's sense of humor (she has a gay cousin).  The image below is of the boat that was our nearest rival and with which we were in close quarters - as in a few feet away - as we fought to be first around a couple of the marker buoys.  After a cloudy start with some rain showers, the day turned hot, sunny and gorgeous.

Once the regatta was over, I had to literally jump off the boat as it headed to dock and race home to shower and get ready for dinner at the Inn at Warner Hall near Gloucester, Virginia.  The property is amazing and dates back to 1642 and was owned by George Washington's great grand father.  

Here's a bit of history from the Inn's website:

Ideally situated at the head of the Severn River in Gloucester County, the manor house at Warner Hall stands on a neck of land that has been occupied and built upon continually from the mid-17th century. Referred to as “Austin’s Desire” in the 1642-land patent, the original six hundred-acre plantation site was established by Augustine Warner as a “land grant” from the British Crown. Augustine Warner received the acreage in exchange for bringing twelve settlers across the Atlantic Ocean to the Jamestown Settlement, a colony desperately in need of manpower to survive in the New World.

The two families associated with the property from this early period until well into the 19th century, the Warners and the Lewises, were among the most prominent families in Colonial Virginia. Over the years, Warner Hall Plantation thrived, as did the descendants of Augustine Warner. Some of the most recognized names in American history are direct descendents of Augustine Warner – George Washington, the first president of the United States, Robert E. Lee, the most famous Civil War General and Captain Meriwether Lewis, renowned American explorer of the Lewis & Clark expedition. George Washington was a frequent visitor to his grandparent’s plantation.

Queen Elizabeth II, the current monarch of England, is a direct descendant of Augustine Warner through the Bowes-Lyon family and the Earl of Strathmore. In England, Warner Hall is referred to as “The home of the Queen’s American ancestors”.

Besides dinner on weekends, the plantation house is open as an inn 365 days a year.   The accommodations are elegant.  It's not inexpensive, but by many standards it is an amazing deal.

Virginia has amazing history and things to see.  Regrettably, the state remains anti-gay - the inn decidedly, is not - and LGBT travelers sadly have good reason to take their money and vacation elsewhere.

Shortly, I have to get going to help "Martha Stewart" prepare for the brunch.  The table is set:

Op Sail 2012 Pageantry

Approaching Fort Monroe and the HRBT Tunnel - Click image to enlarge

Driving in to work yesterday morning I was able to see the tall ships forming up for their parade of sail into Hampton Roads harbor.  Seeing all the towering masts gave a glimpse of what the views of incoming ships looked like more than a century ago.   And Hampton Roads does have its share of history when it comes to ships ranging from the shipping history which ranges from the first colonists landing at Cape Henry in Virginia Beach, Hampton's place a the oldest continuous English speaking city in the USA, to the battle of the Monitor and Merrimac just off shore from our the street the boyfriend and I live on, to the building of ships such as the fabled liner  S.S. United States to the Navy's biggest carriers at Newport News. The sea and ships are ever present.  Above and below are a few photos of the Op Sail pageantry with ships from South America and as far away as Indonesia (we had dinner with friends in Norfolk last evening and saw some of the tall ship cadets strolling on the side walk - they were HOT!).

Passing Fort Monroe

Sunrise yesterday off of Virginia Beach - Click image to enlarge

The Dewaruci from Indonesia - Click image to enlarge

The Cisne Branco from Brazil - Click image to enlarge

Cadets on the Guayas from Ecuador - Click image to enlarge

Op Sail to Dominate Weekend

Click image to enlarge

This weekend's events in Hampton Roads will be dominated by Op Sail 2012 which brigs a large number of tall ships to the region.  A parade of sail will begin momentarily as the flotilla of ships moves from off of Virginia Beach and sails through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel to enter Hampton Roads harbor itself.  The image above shows some of the ships while the video below shows the ships early this morning at anchor. The Virginian Pilot has these descriptions of the event:

Tall ships with billowing sails, the kind that traveled the seas hundreds of years ago, will encircle Hampton Roads on Friday as the boats of OpSail parade through our waters and draw thousands of gawkers.

A flurry of festive events connected to the arrival of these ships includes concerts, air shows, symposiums and fireworks. It all culminates [today] with the Parade of Sail, the arrival of military and warships from different countries plying the waters of Virginia. The international fleet will be manned by hundreds of military officers and crew, with some ships open to tour.

[T]he ships will move through Hampton Roads and up the Elizabeth River to downtown Norfolk. The first ships in the parade will reach Town Point Park in downtown Norfolk at noon. Ships will then proceed to their docks in downtown Norfolk, or in other ports, before opening to the public for tours.

Mariners Museum - Titanic Centenial Event

Since I was a child I have been fascinated by ships and the sea - even though during my earlier years and through high school I did not live near the coast. I still recall as a teenager going to New York City with my dad and walking down to the Hudson River wharves to see the liners Queen Elizabeth 2 and the Italian Line's Raffaello. Since moving to Hampton Roads I have come to truly enjoy The Mariners Museum in nearby Newport News which keeps alive the amazing history of ships and shipping. I wrote a while back about a fundraiser that will take place on April 14, 2012 - the centennial of the last night on board the R.M.S. Titanic. The image below gives information on tickets. You can also get information here.

The boyfriend and I are attending the First Class recreation of the last dinner on that fateful night almost 100 years ago along with my youngest daughter (who will be wearing a Edwardian like sequined gown) and some friends - our neighbor is on the museum board - and some of the boyfriend's clients. One of our dear friends is truly a kindred spirit with the "unsinkable" Molly Brown and will be a great edition to the evening. True to form, the boyfriend, a/k/a "Martha Stewart" will be doing hair and making Edwardian styled hair pieces for my daughter and friends. I hope local readers will consider attending if they are free on April 14th (unfortunately, the event conflicts with the EV Commonwealth Dinner that same night).

Click image to enlarge

Did Colonialism Help Launch the AIDS Epidemic?

Back in October I wrote in a VEER Magazine column about information reported by the New York Times in a book review of “The Origins of AIDS,” published by Cambridge University Press, and written by Dr. Jacques Pépin, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec. The piece suggested that there were a number of factors involved - including prostitution and unsanitary medical conditions - in the unlikely spread of a rare virus. The piece also made it clear that Belgian and French colonial policies also played a role as did corrupt and unsanitary procedures in a Hatian plasma center that exported plasma to the USA.. Now, a new article in the Washington Post places even more blame on colonial policies and the population upheavals that colonial trade triggered. Here are some highlights:

We are unlikely to ever know all the details of the birth of the AIDS epidemic. But a series of recent genetic discoveries have shed new light on it, starting with the moment when a connection from chimp to human changed the course of history.

We now know where the epidemic began: a small patch of dense forest in southeastern Cameroon. We know when: within a couple of decades on either side of 1900. We have a good idea of how: A hunter caught an infected chimpanzee for food, allowing the virus to pass from the chimp’s blood into the hunter’s body, probably through a cut during butchering.

For decades nobody knew the reasons behind the birth of the AIDS epidemic. But it is now clear that the epidemic’s birth and crucial early growth happened during Africa’s colonial era, amid massive intrusion of new people and technology into a land where ancient ways still prevailed. European powers engaged in a feverish race for wealth and glory blazed routes up muddy rivers and into dense forests that had been traveled only sporadically by humans before.

The most disruptive of these intruders were thousands of African porters. Forced into service by European colonial powers, they cut paths through the exact area that researchers have now identified as the birthplace of the AIDS epidemic. It was here, in a single moment of transmission from chimp to human, that a strain of virus called HIV-1 group M first appeared.

In the century since, it has been responsible for 99 percent of all of the world’s deaths from AIDS — not just in Africa but in Moscow, Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, New York, Washington.

Once the virus made the jump from chimp to human, a single infected person could have carried HIV down the Sangha, onto the Congo River and into Kinshasa. The Belgians had founded the city in 1881, during what historians call “The Scramble for Africa,” when colonial powers carved up the continent into areas of influence. By the early 20th century Kinshasa, then called Leopoldville, was the biggest city in Central Africa, fueled by the dizzying growth of trade with the outside world.

[A]s scientists plotted out the genetic histories of these varieties and built an extensive family tree for HIV, they all appeared to have spread from a single explosion, a big bang of the AIDS epidemic: Ground Zero was Kinshasa.

The only obstacle to European companies’ reaping huge profits was that collecting ivory and rubber required massive amounts of labor. . . . . The solution to the manpower demands soon became obvious. Colonial powers created what was essentially slavery: cheap muscle at the point of a gun. . . . . That meant African porters had to carry goods and supplies anyplace the steamboats couldn’t reach.

All these roles were filled by Africans, many imported from villages hundreds or even thousands of miles away. African life here was beyond cheap. It was disposable. Contemporary accounts by journalists and missionaries tell of colonial officials across the Congo Basin ordering mass slaughters and the torching of restive villages while creating forced settlements that resembled nothing so much as concentration camps.

Ominously, something else followed the rubber trade through Cameroon: disease. Sleeping sickness, smallpox and skin infections were the most obvious. . . . . Colonial authorities attempted mass inoculation campaigns for smallpox and set up quarantine zones that restricted where the porters were allowed to travel. But even so, the diseases spread.

[I]t’s clear that colonial commerce created massive new networks of sexual interactions — and massive new transmissions of infections. (In later decades, transmission through the reuse of hypodermic needles in medical care probably had some role in HIV’s spread as well.)

To fulfill its grim destiny, HIV needed a kind of place never before seen in Central Africa but one that now was rising in the heart of the region: a big, thriving, hectic place jammed with people and energy, where old rules were cast aside amid the tumult of new commerce. It needed Kinshasa. It was here, hundreds of miles downriver from Cameroon, that HIV began to grow beyond a mere outbreak. It was here that AIDS grew into an epidemic.

So the improbable journey of the killer strain of HIV was feasible for only a few hectic decades, from the 1880s to the 1920s. Without “The Scramble for Africa,” it’s hard to see how HIV could have made it out of southeastern Cameroon to eventually kill tens of millions of people. Even a delay might have caused the killer strain of HIV to die a lonely death deep in the forest.

Regardless of the cause identified with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it goes without saying that HIV/AIDS has been a tragedy for humanity.

Last Dinner on the RMS Titanic

Given the arrogance and contempt for the poor, blacks, Hispanics - basically every one other than white conservative Christians (preferably with lots of money) on display in the Virginia General Assembly, it is perhaps fitting that the Mariners Museum in nearby Newport News will be hosting a major fundraiser event on April 14, 2012, to mark the 100th anniversary of the night the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and subsequently sank two hours and forty minutes later. At the time, little did the ruling classes realize that within a decade their world would be markedly changed particularly after World War I swept away numerous monarchies and never again would class distinction s and barriers be as powerful. Not, of course, that the Republican Party is not actively trying to bring back that bygone age. The country is experiencing wealth disparities likely last seen a century ago and as Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and others are demonstrating, contempt for the poor and minorities are at a new high amongst the GOP base. One can only hope that the current GOP meets a fate akin to that of the Titanic.

But I digress. The Mariners Museum is a wonderful facility and has artifacts that range from the turret of the ironclad U.S.S. Monitor to items from the super liner U.S.S. United States to a collection of vintage Chris-Craft runabouts. The event is pricey because of its fundraiser objective. Here's a description from the Museum's website:

On the evening of Saturday, April 14, 2012, we will commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the RMS Titanic’s fateful maiden voyage with a black-tie Last Dinner on the Titanic event. Participants will dine in either “first class” or "third class" style as they mingle with “passengers” from the past. We’ll conclude with a special remembrance at the exact time the ship struck the iceberg. Proceeds from this event will support the 2012 programs and exhibitions at The Mariners’ Museum.

First Class Dinner in the Museum Grand Lobby

The experience begins at 6:30 p.m. as you are greeted by Captain Edward J. Smith and welcomed into the Grand Salon of the RMS Titanic. A sumptuous 5-course re-creation of the Last Dinner awaits you as you are serenaded by the sounds of a chamber quartet. Enjoy the company of John Jacob Astor & Benjamin Guggenheim.

$250 per person, $2,500 per table (seats 8), Black tie or period costume.

Third Class “The Real Party” in the Huntington Room

This event begins at 7:30 p.m. when you pass through Immigration inspection and are sent to the Dining Hall. There you will enjoy hearty fare & beverages and enjoy rousing Irish tunes.

$125 per person, Period costume optional.

Yes, the Boyfriend and I will be attending and we will be taking my youngest daughter with us a birthday gift. A neighbor is on the Museum's board and we fully support the Museum's mission. More information on the event can be found here. We have one friend who is going that we think would make a perfect "Unsinkable Molly Brown." We love her to death and she's a great ally to the LGBT community.

Titanic Artifacts Are Up for Auction Come April

Through strange circumstances the fate of artifacts from the famed but short lived White Star liner Titanic has continued to involve the federal district court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Perhaps because some of the first recovered artifacts came ashore right at the Otter berth on the downtown Norfolk waterfront - I was there when the unloading began and being a Titanic history buff, I had my books on the ship autographed by members of the salvage team, and the boyfriend and I plan on attending a "Last Dinner" event at The Mariners' Museum this coming April. In any event, the Norfolk court seems destined to continue to be involved as Premier Exhibitions and its subsidiary, RMS Titanic, announce the hiring of the New York auction house Guernsey's to seek auction bids on the artifact collection. The Virginian Pilot has coverage on the proposed sale and issues that will surround the effort. Here are highlights:

With the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic approaching, fans of the doomed steamship can relive the journey on a memorial cruise, attend one of myriad Titanic festivals, or watch the re-release of "Titanic" in 3-D.

But one lucky devotee can buy 5,500 Titanic artifacts plucked from the wreck site in the North Atlantic. Asking price: around $200 million.

The company that owns thousands of artifacts plans to auction off the collection in April - the same month, but 100 years later, that the cruise liner struck an iceberg and sank, killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew.

Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions and its subsidiary, RMS Titanic, announced the hiring of the New York auction house Guernsey's to seek bids on the collection. The results of the auction are expected to be announced around the 100th anniversary date of the Titanic sinking, April 15, the company said in a news release.

The process will likely be scrutinized by a Norfolk federal judge who has presided over a civil action involving the salvage operations and preservation of the artifacts.

The artifacts had been in a sort of legal limbo for more than a decade as the company, and its predecessor, sought permission from the court to obtain full title to the collection. Earlier this year, Norfolk U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith granted Premier the title it sought with the condition that the collection be maintained as a whole forever.

The company filed papers in federal court alerting the judge to the upcoming sale. She has not issued any orders on the matter. The Justice Department, which has monitored the court proceeding, may also take a position. The local U.S. Attorney's Office had no comment on the latest developments.

Sellers and company attorney Brian Wainger of Virginia Beach said the company remains committed to preserving the collection as a whole and finding a suitable home for it. They said there can be no better time to do it than the 100th anniversary.

The 5,500 artifacts - including china, jewelry, playing cards, musical instruments and light fixtures - are exhibited in tours around the world. The company also maintains a large chunk of the ship's hull. The artifacts were collected during seven expeditions more than two miles below the ocean surface over nearly 25 years.

The company, and its predecessor, spent millions on those trips, renting expensive ships and submersibles. The company has seen little in profits from the touring exhibits, and Sellers and Wainger acknowledge that part of the reason for the sale is to satisfy shareholders. They say they understand there will be detractors. Some have already begun criticizing the company, on various Titanic blogs, about the sale.

He [Wainger] also noted that the sale is allowed under the covenants and conditions approved by the court and agreed to by the government. Compliance with the covenants and conditions is an absolute condition of any sale of the artifacts, he said.

December 25th Isn't Owned By Christians

One of the favorite myths that the Christianist like to promote is that there's a war on Christmas or that Christians are under attack. Related to this myth is the assault by registered hate groups such as the American Family Association ("AFA") against retailers and businesses that recognize that America is a nation of diverse faiths and, therefore reasonably opt for "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings." And the holiday season this year is no exception. As the Washington Post recently reported, AFA has targeted Barnes & Noble for false accusations of being anti-Chistian and anti-Christmas. It's all hog wash, of course, but its par for the course with these unsavory folks. The truth is that for many citizens, December 25th is just another day in the year. Moreover, it's not even really the date of Christ's birth. Rather, it's a date that was cynically commandeered by the Roman Catholic Church from other groups to further the Church's own agenda. Civil Commotion takes a great look at the REAL history of December 25th and, if one is historically accurate, the date originally was deemed to be the birth date of the Eastern god Mithras (pictured above) - who bore some uncanny parallels to the Christ image promoted by the Church. Here are some highlights:

Only an ignoramus believes that December 25th is, in fact, Jesus’ birthday.

Pagan Rome had a policy of allowing conquered peoples to keep their gods and observe their holidays. Virtually all faith traditions observed the Winter Solstice, however, albeit on slightly different days thanks to custom and calendar differences. Eventually, the holidays and observances became disruptive of public order, and it was decreed that everybody would party-down on December 25th.

Eventually, when Constantine declared Rome Christian, they took over. The actual birthday of Jesus was forgotten by the early Christian movement. in those days, various groups celebrated his birth on JAN-6, APR-21 and MAY-1. By the 4th century, the church selected the approximate time of the winter solstice as the date to recognize Jesus’ birth. They picked up this date from Pagan sources.

But believers in other parts of the world refused for centuries to honor the Christmas holiday, for the reason of its pagan origins.
**Eastern churches began to celebrate Christmas after 375 CE.
**The church in Jerusalem started in the 7th century.
**Ireland started in the 5th century.
**Austria, England and Switzerland in the 8th century.
**Slavic lands in the 9th and 10th centuries.

But the real killer is this:

Mithra was a Persian savior. Worship of Mithra became common throughout the Roman Empire, particularly among the Roman civil service and military. Mithraism was a competitor of Christianity until the 4th century. Their god was believed to have been born on DEC-25, circa 500 BCE. His birth was witnessed by shepherds and by gift-carrying Magi. This was celebrated as the “Dies Natalis Solic Invite,” The “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.” Some followers believed that he was born of a virgin. During his life, he performed many miracles, cured many illnesses, and cast out devils. He celebrated a Last Supper with his 12 disciples. He ascended to heaven at the time of the spring equinox, about March 21.

Ignoramus? Yep, that's a most apt description of the folks at AFA. And to that term, I'd add "hate-filled," "bigoted," "false Christian," "religious extremists," and "modern day Pharisees." This kind of Christianist batshitery underscores the need for high school students to learn detailed ACCURATE history. It is one of the best tools to defeat Christianist lies.

It's Official - Fort Monroe is a National Monument and the Freepers Go Crazy

The photo above via the Virginian Pilot is from today's signing ceremony at the White Hose where Barack Obama utilized his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate federally owned land of significant historical value as a national monument. As I have noted in prior posts, Fort Monroe is a unique historic treasure (another picture is set out below) that needs to be preserved for future generations. Moreover, the national monument designation will help increase tourism to the City of Hampton and create in the neighborhood of 2.000 jobs as per a study commissioned by the City of Hampton and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

What's amazing - as evidenced by the photo above - is that politicians of both parties supported the designation, including Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and our local Congressman Scott Rigell (who I despise and who was endorsed by an anti-gay hate group when he ran for office). Thus, one would expect that it would be perceived that Obama score a home run with his action. Not so, however, if one looks at the comments on coverage on the national monument designation over at the misnamed Real Clear Politics where the only thing that is clear is that far too many of the readers drink Kool-Aid by the bucket full. The insane attacks on Obama by those who clearly knew NOTHING about Ft. Monroe were scary and evidence just how ignorant and depraved the GOP base has become.

One individual who deserves praise is Hampton Mayor Molly Ward (pictured third from the left above) who quietly worked to help make today's event happen. More importantly, she "gets it" that to be competitive in today's changing global environment, cities and localities must embrace diversity and welcome those who can bring talent and innovation to the economy and society be they black or white, gay or straight, native born or immigrants. Would that more in Virginia - including Virginia's current governor and attorney general, would figure this out and stop placing a "You're Not Welcome" sign across Virginia. I am proud to call Molly Ward my friend.

Obama to Name Hampton's Fort Monroe a National Monument

In a move that local leaders of all political stripes have sought aggressively, Barack Obama will reportedly name historic Fort Monroe which has guarded the mouth of Hampton Roads' harbor for over 180 years. On its site, fortifications have existed as far back as 1609. Fort Monroe is the largest stone fort ever built in the United States and it has seen an interesting history over the years since construction began in 1819 as part of a plan of coastal defenses after the British burned Washington, D. C. during the War of 1812. This designation will help ensure that Ft. Monroe will exist as a tourist destination and that its history is not lost. For the City of Hampton - whose leadership has shown itself to be among the most LGBT friendly in the region - the national monument designation should be a huge boon. Interestingly, Hampton Roads Business OutReach's ("HRBOR") December business networking event on Thursday, December 8, 2011, will be hosted by the City of Hampton at Ft. Monroe. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

Fort Monroe will take its place among the nation's most revered places on Tuesday, when President Barack Obama is expected to designate much of the former Army base a national park.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a phone interview Saturday that Obama would use powers granted to him under the Antiquities Act to preserve the Hampton waterfront fortress and hundreds of acres of open space along the Chesapeake Bay.

More than a dozen presidents, starting with Theodore Roosevelt, have used the 1906 act to protect historic or endangered places that loom large in American lore, including the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty.

The announcement delighted local and state officials and the region's bipartisan congressional delegation, which introduced legislation to create a national park but pressed Obama to use his executive powers to make it happen more quickly.

Salazar said bipartisan backing for a national park, buttressed by broad public support, helped persuade Obama to act. He also cited jobs creation as a motivator for the president, saying that the money spent by tourists who visit the park would create many jobs in coming years.

"It's a huge economic opportunity for southern Virginia," Salazar said, noting that national parks draw tourists and attract businesses that cater to them.

Fort Monroe's most historic chapter came during the Civil War, when it remained a bastion of federal power even after Virginia seceded. Early in the conflict, three escaped slaves reached the fort and asked for the Union Army's protection. The commanding general's decision not to send the men back to their Confederate owners set the stage for a mass migration of slaves to Fort Monroe and helped bring about the Emancipation Proclamation.

Fort Monroe won't be only a national park, though. If the president follows the blueprint of the pending legislation, the park service would manage slightly more than half of the property, including the north beach area and about 90 acres inside and around the moated stone fortress. The Fort Monroe Authority, a state entity, would handle the rest - including limited new development in certain areas.

U.S. Students Remain Poor at History - And An Easy Targets for Demagogues

I have lamented many times about the utter ignorance most American students display when it comes to a knowledge of history - even U. S. history. This ignorance plays directly into the hands of Christian dominionists like David Barton who seek to re-write history to further their goals of a Bible based theocracy. It also plays into the hands of Demagogues - principally on the GOP side of the isle - who count on an ignorance of accurate history so as to convince the ignorant that they are the protectors of the nation and all kinds of other bullshit. The New York Times looks at this very, very dangerous deficit in knowledge among not only our school students but also far too many adults. Here are some highlights:
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American students are less proficient in their nation’s history than in any other subject, according to results of a nationwide test released on Tuesday, with most fourth graders unable to say why Abraham Lincoln was an important figure and few high school seniors able to identify China as the North Korean ally that fought American troops during the Korean War.
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20 percent of fourth graders, 17 percent of eighth graders and 12 percent of high school seniors demonstrated proficiency . . .
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Diane Ravitch, an education historian who was invited by the national assessment’s governing board to review the results, said she was particularly disturbed by the fact that only 2 percent of 12th graders correctly answered a question concerning Brown v. Board of Education, which she called “very likely the most important decision” of the United States Supreme Court in the past seven decades.
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History advocates contend that students’ poor showing on the tests underlines neglect shown to the subject by federal and state policy makers, especially since the 2002 No Child Left Behind act began requiring schools to raise scores in math and reading but in no other subject. The federal accountability law, the advocates say, has given schools and teachers an incentive to spend less time on history and other subjects.
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“History is very much being shortchanged,” said Linda K. Salvucci, a history professor in San Antonio who is chairwoman-elect of the National Council for History Education.
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Many teacher-education programs, Ms. Salvucci said, also contribute to the problem by encouraging aspiring teachers to seek certification in social studies, rather than in history. “They think they’ll be more versatile, that they can teach civics, government, whatever,” she said. “But they’re not prepared to teach history.”
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This abysmal lack of knowledge is how someone like Sarah Palin - a certifiable idiot in my opinion - can be taken as credible despite their constant gaffes in factual accuracy.

Religious Based Bigotry in Maryland House Kills Marriage Equality Bill for This Year

Sadly, yesterday saw yet another situation where the religious freedom promised under the U. S. Constitution was flushed down the toilet as religious extremists and bigots - and their spineless political whores - once again genuflected to intolerance and gave special rights to a particular toxic form of Christianity. Given the countless number of deaths religious wars caused by and perpetrated by self-righteous Christians have claimed over the centuries, it's beyond disgusting that the same hate-filled mindset triumphed in Annapolis yesterday. What's even more sad is that among those killing passage were black members of the House who continue to allow themselves to be used as tools of the descendants of white Christianists who supported slavery and then the Jim Crow laws and segregation. At the risk of sounding harsh, why don't these delegates wear a sign around their necks stating "I'm an ignorant idiot"? They certainly need to learn some accurate history as to whom they have climbed in bed with politically. Tony Perkins and other KKK loving Christianists must be laughing their asses off. The Washington Post looks at this story and here are brief highlights:
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The Maryland House of Delegates has voted to effectively kill for this year a bill that would have allowed same-sex marriage in the state. The House approved on voice vote a motion to send the bill back to the Judiciary Committee, an acknowledgment by supporters that it did not have sufficient votes to pass on the floor.
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The bill had significant momentum coming out of the Senate but ran into resistance in the Democratic-led House from African-American lawmakers from Prince George's County, who cited religious opposition in their districts, and conservative Democrats in Southern Maryland and the Baltimore suburbs.

Preservation Group Buys Ocean Liner SS United States

I have always had an interest in ships and the ocean - even as a child living in central New York and well away from the ocean. Since college and law school I have always lived in coastal areas and at my first law firm out of law school I worked on a number maritime law matters. In addition, years ago, I was able to go aboard the liner SS United States while it was tied up in Norfolk. While not as large as newer cruise ships and not as lavish as some of the liners of yesteryear, the SS United States - built in nearby Newport News - has always had the distinction of being the fastest ocean liner ever built with a top speed of in the neighborhood of 38.3 knots (44.1 mph). Given its length of 990 feet and 53,330 gross tons, that speed is amazing. The Virginian Pilot is reporting today that the liner has once again dodged the scrap yard. I hope the restoration plan pans out this time around. Here are some highlights:
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After decades of false starts, shifting owners, dashed hopes and a nomadic existence, it appears the SS United States' distress call is finally being answered. The nonprofit SS United States Conservancy announced Tuesday it has purchased the legendary ocean liner, berthed in Philadelphia since 1996, from Norwegian Cruise Lines and its parent for $3 million. The ship, built in Newport News, was once berthed in Norfolk.

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"While we've already been talking with a number of investors, municipal officials and developers, we can take these conservations to the next level because we now hold title to the vessel," said Susan Gibbs, conservancy board president and the granddaughter of William Francis Gibbs, the ship's Philadelphia-born designer.

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The estimated $200 million cost to renovate the ship's of development space will come from for-profit entities. The conservancy is exploring possible partnerships with as yet unnamed entities in Philadelphia, New York and Miami to redevelop the liner as a stationary entertainment complex with a hotel, restaurants, retail, educational and museum components, Gibbs said. In the meantime, the group has launched a $1 million fundraising campaign to pay for title transfer costs, structural assessments, PCB removal and other costs, said Dan McSweeney, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based conservancy.

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"This is the first time in the history of the SS United States that a group concerned primarily with the vessel's historic significance and preservation has owned her," McSweeney said. "We can't truly say she's saved yet — that will happen when we establish a successful partnership to redevelop the ship — but we can say that we're generating the right momentum to be able to achieve that goal," he said.

John McCain: The Man Who Never Was

I have commented on John McCain - recent nemesis to LGBT Americans due to his opposition to DADT repeal - on a number of occasions and basically posed the question of WTF happened to the man. I and many others once respected the man and supported him in his 2000 bid for the GOP nomination for president. Ten years later, I could not stand the man and his pick of Sarah Palin, a cunning cretin, sealed the deal where even holding my nose I could not have voted for the man. Is the 2010 John McCain the result of senility, obscene political cynicism, or did we simply never know the real McCain? An article in the November issue of Vanity Fair suggests that the latter may be the correct answer with McCain showing his willingness to sell his soul to remain in office. Sometimes it is better to fade from the scene with dignity and honor. Sadly, that is not the route that McCain has followed. Here are some article highlights:
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Desperate to keep his Senate seat, John McCain repudiated his record, his principles, and even his maverick reputation, entrenching himself as the anti-Obama. Which raises the issue of whether the leader so many Americans admired—and so many journalists covered—ever truly existed.
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[I]t fell to Hayworth, a glib galoot who was twice informally ranked among the dumbest members of Congress during his 12 years in the House, to deliver the dead-on zinger that summed up where McCain has found himself in this strange and angry political season, struggling not to win the presidency but simply to hold on to the job which defines him, and which is all he has left. “It’s really sad to see John McCain, who should be revered as a statesman, basically reduced to a political shape-shifter,” Hayworth said.
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McCain would go on to trounce Hayworth in the August primary, by 24 points, but not before turning himself into an off-putting, almost unrecognizable political creature. . . . . McCain not only sold his soul, he went through a small fortune, spending $20 million to blow Hayworth out of the water. And far from seeing Hayworth’s challenge as a depressing indignity, McCain seemed to enjoy the opportunity.
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The prevailing question about John McCain this year is: What happened? What happened to that other John McCain, the refreshingly unpredictable figure who stood apart from his colleagues and seemed to promise something better than politics as usual? The question may miss the point. It’s quite possible that nothing at all has changed about John McCain, a ruthless and self-centered survivor who endured five and a half years in captivity in North Vietnam, and who once told Torie Clarke that his favorite animal was the rat, because it is cunning and eats well. It’s possible to see McCain’s entire career as the story of a man who has lived in the moment, who has never stood for any overriding philosophy in any consistent way, and who has been willing to do all that it takes to get whatever it is he wants. He himself said, in the thick of his battle with Hayworth, “I’ve always done whatever’s necessary to win.” Maybe the rest of us just misunderstood.
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As his daughter Meghan recently wrote, he has always been more of a craps guy than a strategic poker player. He has never been a party leader, like his old friend Bob Dole, of Kansas, or a wise elder, like his colleague Dick Lugar, of Indiana, or a Republican moderate, like Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, of Maine. He flies solo, first, last, and always, and his paramount cause has always been his own. That is the bracing reality of John McCain. It is the tragedy, too.
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[T]here is no doubt that being John McCain 2010 is a colossal comedown for a man who was described just three years ago by The Almanac of American Politics as “the closest thing our politics has to a national hero.”
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His choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate was, of course, the apogee of his hotheaded, cold-blooded self-protectiveness. Denied his own first choice, his friend Joe Lieberman, the Independent-Democrat from Connecticut, he opted instead for the only candidate his advisers thought stood a chance of reinforcing his much-dimmed reputation as a maverick. But in doing so he chose a person so manifestly unqualified for the presidency as to make him look like little more than a hack.
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McCain and his wife, Cindy, have been living essentially separate lives for years. She has spent most of her time in Arizona while he has spent the workweek in a Virginia condominium where, he once told me, he sometimes went months at a time without ever entering the living room, simply coming home to the kitchen and bedroom late at night and leaving again early the next morning.
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The real McCain will be lost to history. He’s got years ahead of him, but he is lost to history. The narrative is the narrative, completely untrue and unfair, but he is the old guy who ran a derogatory campaign and can’t remember how many houses he had.” Yes, you can make that argument—that the grand sweep of history, in all its majesty and indifference, will leave behind a false version of John McCain. But you can also make another argument, and it’s the one John McCain himself has been making powerfully by his behavior and example. It is that history has revealed the real McCain at last.

Professional Christians Ignore the Pagan Roots of Christmas

As we near the apogee of the Christmas season and fussy, busybody, anti-gay Christianists continue to hyperventilate over the repeal of DADT, it's important to remember the artificial construct on which these modern day Pharisees have built their propaganda machine - especially when they whine about those who use the term "Happy Holidays" in lieu of the de rigor "Merry Christmas." The truth is that there is little new under the sun and as history tells us, the story line of death and rebirth around the time of the winter solstice goes back for centuries before the Church's selected birth date of Christ. Yes, I have touched on this issue before, but with Del. Bob Marshall continuing his religious based crusade against LGBT Virginians, it's appropriate to touch on the subject again. Bob Felton at Civil Commotion looks at the topic as does ReligiousIntolerance.org. with an extensive review of solstice religious observances from around the world. The long and short of the matter is that Christians merely bootstrapped their religious celebration onto existing observances and that much of the "holiday traditions" are in fact pagan hold overs. First this from Bob Felton:
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It is the day of least sunshine; it signifies the start of lengthening days and, soon, better hunting and freshening fields. It is the low-point in the eternal cycle, and there is no end of myth accompanying this day, all pointing toward and celebrating rebirth.
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By the third century CE, there were many religions and spiritual mysteries being followed within the Roman Empire. Many, if not most, celebrated the birth of their god-man near the time of the solstice. Emperor Aurelian blended a number of Pagan solstice celebrations of the nativity of such god-men/saviors as Appolo, Attis, Baal, Dionysus, Helios, Hercules, Horus, Mithra, Osiris, Perseus, and Theseus into a single festival called the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun” on Dec-25.
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Many symbols and practices associated with Christmas are of Pagan origin: holly, ivy, mistletoe, yule log, the giving of gifts, decorated evergreen tree, magical reindeer, etc. Polydor Virgil, a 15th century British Christian, said “Dancing, masques, mummeries, stageplays, and other such Christmas disorders now in use with Christians, were derived from these Roman Saturnalian and Bacchanalian festivals; which should cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them.” In Massachusetts, Puritans unsuccessfully tried to ban Christmas entirely during the 17th century, because of its heathenism. The English Parliament abolished Christmas in 1647.
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The Christianists - and the leadership of the Catholic Church - rely upon the ignorance of their audience to further their agenda of power and control (and money raising). While it's fine and good to celebrate Christmas if one so desires, it is important to understand that its uniqueness is subject to serious doubt and in many ways it is a revamped holdover from much earlier religious beliefs. Here are a few highlights from ReligiousIntolerance.org:
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ANCIENT EGYPT: The god-man/savior Osiris died and was entombed on DEC-21. "At midnight, the priests emerged from an inner shrine crying 'The Virgin has brought forth! The light is waxing" and showing the image of a baby to the worshipers."
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ANCIENT ROME: Saturnalia began as a feast day for Saturn on DEC-17 and of Ops (DEC-19). About 50 BCE, both were later converted into two day celebrations. During the Empire, the festivals were combined to cover a full week: DEC-17 to 23. By the third century CE, there were many religions and spiritual mysteries being followed within the Roman Empire. Many, if not most, celebrated the birth of their god-man near the time of the solstice. Emperor Aurelian (270 to 275 CE) blended a number of Pagan solstice celebrations of the nativity of such god-men/saviors as Appolo, Attis, Baal, Dionysus, Helios, Hercules, Horus, Mithra, Osiris, Perseus, and Theseus into a single festival called the "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun" on DEC-25. At the time, Mithraism and Christianity were fierce competitors. Aurelian had even declared Mithraism the official religion of the Roman Empire in 274 CE. Christianity won out by becoming the new official religion in the 4th century CE.
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BUDDHISM: On DEC-8, or on the Sunday immediately preceding, Buddhists celebrate Bodhi Day (a.k.a. Rohatsu). It recalls the day in 596 BCE, when the Buddha achieved enlightenment. . . . Being an Eastern tradition, Bodhi Day has none of the associations with the solstice and seasonal changes found in other religious observances at this time of year. However, it does signify the point in time when the Buddha achieved enlightenment and escaped the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth through reincarnation -- themes that are observed in other religions in December.
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DRUIDISM: Druids and Druidesses formed the professional class in ancient Celtic society. They performed the functions of modern day priests, teachers, ambassadors, astronomers, genealogists, philosophers, musicians, theologians, scientists, poets and judges. Druids led all public rituals, which were normally held within fenced groves of sacred trees. The solstice is the time of the death of the old sun and the birth of the dark-half of the year.
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IRAN: Shabe-Yalda (a.k.a. Shab-e Yaldaa) is celebrated in Iran by followers of many religions. It originated in Zoroastrianism, the state religion which preceded Islam. The name refers to the birthday or rebirth of the sun.
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CHRISTIANITY: Any record of the date of birth of Yeshua of Nazareth (later known as Jesus Christ) has been lost. There is sufficient evidence in the Gospels to indicate that Yeshua was born in the fall, but this seems to have been unknown to early Christians. By the beginning of the 4th century CE, there was intense interest in choosing a day to celebrate Yeshua's birthday. The western church leaders selected DEC-25 because this was already the date recognized throughout the Roman Empire as the birthday of various Pagan gods. Since there was no central Christian authority at the time, it took centuries before the tradition was universally accepted.