Kennedy and shades of Eagleton

In 1972, Democratic candidate for president, George McGovern, selected Senator Thomas Eagleton as his running mate. Public pressure mounted after it came out that Eagleton had been hospitalized three times for depression, and eventually Eagleton withdrew. My gut reaction is that treatment for depression sounds less serious than an identified parasitic worm eating part of the brain. Deserved or not, it seems likely that Kennedy Jr.'s brain issue will have a similarly negative effect on his candidacy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eagleton

Is the song God Bless the USA partisan?

I am in a group that meets locally once a week. We are nonpartisan and have been recently reminded by the statewide organizers to not talk politics at meetings. I just returned from a statewide gathering. The opening ceremony included standing for reciting Pledge of Allegiance and singing along to the song 'I'm Proud to be an American", a.k.a. "God Bless the USA". I used to like the song, despite its flaws, despite it opening Reagan, Bush, and Trump gatherings. But since the lyrics were inserted into the Trump Bible, an appeal to Christian nationalists in my view, I have found it repulsive. I was really turned off by inclusion of that song in a supposedly nonpartisan meeting; I was offended. Is it just me being oversensitive or was inclusion of that song politically insensitive?

Merry Christmas?

Merry Christmas! I am watching a course on ancient astronomy. One chapter is on the Star of Bethlehem. An astronomer, Michael Molnar, determined that to ancient astrologers, a double occultation of Jupiter by the moon (it happened on two nights, about a month apart) along with the position of many planets in Ares, would have indicated the birth of a king. This astrological event occurred during the reign of Herod, on April 17, 6 BC. Molnar supposes that this celestial event either drew Magi to Jerusalem and then on to Bethlehem, or that the 'Star of Bethlehem' was piously added to the Nativity narrative by a Greek who knew Greek astrology and the astrological significance. The Wikipedia "Star of Bethlehem" page explains it more clearly, but it is over my head, so this is the best I can do. So, again, Merry Christmas!

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48 years before statehood

If the law 48 years before statehood applies, then wouldn't about half the states remain subjects of the Crown? So, should those of us from the senior states curtsy before British aristocracy? Are some western states that were formerly Indian territory subject to tribal law? Is illegal immigration into Texas nullified because, 48 years before statehood, much of Texas was part of Mexico? The Dobbs decision holds that "from the 1200s to 1960, no statute, no English case, no state case... hinted at an abortion right". So, count on more ancient practices way beyond the 1800s; wife selling anyone?

Quotation from SCOTUS Blog https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/dobbss-history-and-the-future-of-abortion-and-privacy-law/

Urgent: Smoked glass danger

We attended a talk by astronomer (and author) Dean Rega, retired from the Cincinnati Observatory. I asked about smoked glass, but did not mention that I had used it as a kid in 1963 in Maine for the eclipse. He said it was unsafe, dangerous to your eyes. He also said he was astonished because no one has used it since the 1800s, which made me feel mighty old! (I'm 71, not 171, thank you!)

Be a hobbit: courage without hope

Sh** happens. Some of us lose hope and are unable to recover. Those of us who remain are left bereft. Some of us, despite the odds, are able to hold on to hope and courage, and are able to trudge on. And some of us lose all hope, but, nevertheless, hold on to courage. We do what we are called to do; we consider it our duty, our calling, or our destiny.

Quoting from the article on Courage Without Hope (cited below):
In JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
"Sam was given the task of staying with Frodo and helping him along his journey, though he didn’t know exactly what it would cost him in the end. As the seemingly endless miles of their journey wore on, Sam grew weary -- as anyone would -- but his ability to hold onto courage despite having no hope of a return journey home is incredibly inspiring.

In the Return of the King, Tolkien writes: 
"But the bitter truth came home to him [Sam] at last: at best their provision would take them to their goal; and when the task was done, there they would come to an end, alone, houseless, foodless in the midst of a terrible desert. There could be no return.

'So that was the job I felt I had to do when I started,' thought Sam: 'to help Mr. Frodo to the last step and then die with him? Well, if that is the job then I must do it...
But even as hope died in Sam, or seemed to die, it was turned to a new strength. Sam's plain hobbit-face grew stern, almost grim, as the will hardened in him, and he felt through all his limbs a thrill, as if he was turning into some creature of stone and steel that neither despair nor weariness nor endless barren miles could subdue.” 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.teawithtolkien.com/podcast/trd2021%3fformat=amp

Tracking links?

I posted my first link to a story this week. I haven't figured out how to excerpt an article yet, so I won't post again until I figure that out. (Some complaints lately on videos without accompanying text have me back to the drawing board). So on a post today I saw 'edited to take tracking out of link'. I had not heard of this, but I don't want to accidently post some kind of poison pill. I did google it, but got lots of articles on how to create a tracking link. If it is easy to edit out the tracking, please point me in the right direction. Or, if I can just spot a tracking link, at least I will know not to post it. (All of us will eventually get left behind by technology. I got an A in Fortran. )

Hur hearing clip on Trump mispeaking

My Lyrics to Stop the Tired Trailer Trope

First time published here at DU! These are lyrics I wrote some 40 years ago as an ode to our trailer park living. We were working our way up to a professional life after years of grad school, so we were still broke. We had decent, hardworking neighbors. The trope of "trailer trash" is tired, classist, and ignorant. Stop it.

ODE TO TRAILERS

They used to call them trailers.
Now they're called mobile homes.
We rent ours from a republican,
But we still call it home.

Chorus:
Some like to fix up a farm house.
Some want to build their own home.
But we're saving up for a double-wide
Deluxe mobile home of our own.

We've got wheels in case we travel.
There's a steering wheel over the sink.
We'll never be featured in Homes and Gardens,
But we don't care what they think.

You can hear the wind on the tin roof
Feel the wind as the trailer sways.
Your house may be built on a firm foundation,
But our house can roll away.