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Will of Agnes Keesee (nee Agnes Terry)
Written 10 February 1829; copy of original will #191 from Sumner County,
Tennessee Archives, transcribed by Carolyn Earle Billingsley, 7 April, 1999:
I Agnes Keesee of the county of Sumner & State of Tennessee This day I make my last will feeling my Self in a reasonable State of mind I make this will in preference to all other will aforesaid or maid this my Will and Testament in the name of God the great Savior of the universe hav I desolve my Soul to and my body to it's mother dust and may this my last Will be done I pray.
That is first I leave all of my cattle & hogs & sheepe and carrage & corn & pork & some other property to pay my dets [debts] doues [dues] & de mands, where in then
1 I give in to George W. Sanders one cart and all my farming tools
2 Then I give unto Mary Sanders one Burow & one bed and all of my bedclothes, one [spinning] wheel & cards, two pots, one oven one table
third I give unto Bedience ball [Obedience Ball--Agnes's daugher Obedience "Biddy" Keesee married James Ball; and perhaps also had a daughter named Obedience] a [Deske?] one cittle [kettle?] and one roan mare
Fourth I give un to Janie Ball one cupboard
Fifth I give unto Roady Ball one looking glass & towel
Six I give unto Champnes Ball one Arm cheer [chair]
Seventh I give unto Thomas Keesee one dollar
Eight I give unto George F. Keesee one dollor
Ninth I give unto Champness Keesee one dollar
10th I give unto Louisa Smith one dollar
11th I give unto Patiance Smith one dollar
12th I give unto Rody [Rhoda] McNight one dollar
13th I give unto Agnes Lyings [Lyons] one dollar
14th I give unto Nancy Henry one dollar
15th I give unto Robert Sanders one dollar
This is my Will given to my concent and I appoint George W. Sanders and James Ball my AdminisStraters for wich we Set our hands an Seals this the 10 of Feb. 1829
Test [Dick?/A. R.? Mills?--faded copy here] her {Seal} Agness Keesee X mark {Seal} Test H. K. Shockly George W. Sanders {Seal}
State of Tennessee
Sumner County Court May Term 1829
The last will & testament of Agnes Keesee decd was [entered?] in open court for probate & was duly proved by the oath of Andrew? R Mills one of the subscribing witnesses thereto & ordered to be recorded [therefor?] James Ball one of the Exors therein named appeared in court & agreed to take upon himself the [?] of the execution thereof & together with [Ande/Andrew?] R. Mills his security entered into & acknowledged their bond to the governor & his successors in office in the sum of five hundred dollars conditioned as the Law directs & took the oath of Exor [in both cases, this word in this document seems to be Exor with " over the r] forscribed/prescribed by law & at the same time rendered into court an account of sales or a part of the sales of said decedent which is ordered to be recorded
A Copy Test
A H. Douglass Clerk
[See more on Keesee at http://www.brightok.net/~lwmac/keesee.htm]
07 May 2006
Billingsley to discuss book at Batesville's Old Independence Regional Museum
Billingsley to discuss book on social, family history at museum
At noon on Wednesday, April 19, [2006] Old Independence Regional Museum will present its second springtime Brown Bag with a Book program. Historian and professional genealogist Carolyn Earle Billingsley will discuss and sign copies of her book, Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier (University of Georgia Press, 2004.) The book, a pioneering work in the fusion of social and family history, traces the migration of a network of families across the South from the Revolutionary era until the Civil War.
The author’s personal story is no less interesting than her book. A resident of central Arkansas since 1973, Billingsley spent the 1970s and '80s playing the role of suburban mom to her four children. In 1990, she enrolled at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock as a 41-year-old freshman. Graduating four years later with a B.A. in history and minor in German, she received a two-year Fulbright Scholarship to study German translation and Austrian history at Karl-Franzens Universistät in Graz, Austria. Following her study in Austria, Billingsley received a graduate fellowship to attend Rice University, where she served as an editorial intern at the Journal of Southern History and the Jefferson Davis Papers. She received the M.A. and Ph.D. in history at Rice.
Communities of Kinship is Billingsley’s revised dissertation. In addition, she has published extensively in the field of family and local history. Billingsley currently resides in Alexander, Ark., where she works as a professional genealogist and independent historian and manages her family’s land.
Bring a sack lunch to the museum (380 South 9th St.), relax, eat, and listen. Old Independence Regional Museum will provide free water and soft drinks.
At noon on Wednesday, April 19, [2006] Old Independence Regional Museum will present its second springtime Brown Bag with a Book program. Historian and professional genealogist Carolyn Earle Billingsley will discuss and sign copies of her book, Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier (University of Georgia Press, 2004.) The book, a pioneering work in the fusion of social and family history, traces the migration of a network of families across the South from the Revolutionary era until the Civil War.
The author’s personal story is no less interesting than her book. A resident of central Arkansas since 1973, Billingsley spent the 1970s and '80s playing the role of suburban mom to her four children. In 1990, she enrolled at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock as a 41-year-old freshman. Graduating four years later with a B.A. in history and minor in German, she received a two-year Fulbright Scholarship to study German translation and Austrian history at Karl-Franzens Universistät in Graz, Austria. Following her study in Austria, Billingsley received a graduate fellowship to attend Rice University, where she served as an editorial intern at the Journal of Southern History and the Jefferson Davis Papers. She received the M.A. and Ph.D. in history at Rice.
Communities of Kinship is Billingsley’s revised dissertation. In addition, she has published extensively in the field of family and local history. Billingsley currently resides in Alexander, Ark., where she works as a professional genealogist and independent historian and manages her family’s land.
Bring a sack lunch to the museum (380 South 9th St.), relax, eat, and listen. Old Independence Regional Museum will provide free water and soft drinks.
Beginner's Guide to Family History Research
Read this popular guide by Desmond Walls Allen and Carolyn Earle Billingsley free online at Arkansas Research.
Review: Communities of Kinship
Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier
Alabama Review, Jul 2005 by Glover, Lorri
Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier. By Carolyn Earle Billingsley. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004. xi, 215 pp. $49.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8203-2509-0. $19.95 (paper). ISBN 0-8203-2510-4.
Before earning her Ph.D. in history, Carolyn Earle Billingsley worked as a professional genealogist. Communities of Kinship blends her two crafts, and with this monograph she seeks to reveal how genealogical methodologies can advance historical analysis of southern families and culture. Billingsley argues that kinship lay at the center of antebellum southern life but remains under-analyzed by scholars studying the history of the region. According to her, only by expanding their use of genealogical approaches can historians fully appreciate the power of kinship in virtually every aspect of antebellum southerners' lives.
Billingsley begins her book with an extensive exploration of the terms and theories of kinship, pointing out that while historians occasionally invoke kinship in their descriptions of the early South, they seldom rigorously reconstruct kin networks in the way that genealogists do. Few scholars, she maintains, go beyond marriage records or surname matches in their analyses of kin. And without using genealogical approaches, she posits, scholars can never fully appreciate extra-nuclear family bonds. These ties to a wide array of consanguine, affinal, and even fictive kin mattered far more in the antebellum South than in the North or in contemporary America, according to Billingsley, because fewer public institutions existed in the early South. Family, broadly conceived, fulfilled a host of functions-practical, political, and spiritual-and formed the foundation of life for most antebellum whites.
In order to test these theories, Billingsley traces the kin ties of the Keesee family, from which she is descended, from their Tidewater roots in the eighteenth century through the erosion of their family power in the postbellum Southwest. Thomas Keesee was born in Virginia in 1778 and died in Arkansas in 1861. In the intervening years, he and numerous members of his nuclear and extended families moved to Tennessee, then Alabama, and finally Arkansas. Some of his descendants eventually migrated to Texas. At every move, they traveled with and settled near kinfolk. Thus the repopulation of the Southwest by whites depended on kin support. Neighborhoods and kin networks became synonymous, as migrating southerners lived physically surrounded by relatives. On occasion, members of the family separated, with some migrating farther west and others remaining behind. But "none of their moves or changes took place outside of a group of kindred" (p. 71). Billingsley includes a number of charts of neighborhood ties and migratory maps to convey visually the information collected in her database of the Keesee family and to reinforce the point that kinship drove westward settlement. Kinship similarly lay at the heart of religious identity. As with communities, kin and congregation usually overlapped on the southern frontier. Although members of the family changed denominational affiliation, they seldom did so without kin influence.
Deeply immersed in family ties, the Keesees appear in Billingsley's narrative as acquisitive and upwardly mobile. They sought inclusion in the planter elite and achieved that status by cooperating with their relatives and pooling their resources. Members of the Keesee network understood that economic and political power went hand in hand in the early South, and they used their kinship ties, particularly strategic marriages, to rise in their communities. Kinship identity, argues Billingsley, informed social status. An individual might not own substantial land or slaves himself, but he could claim a planter identity by virtue of his family membership. Kinship thus enabled the Keesees to expand onto the southern frontier, to build communities and congregations, and to join the ranks of the dominant planter elite.
Much of this, Billingsley's final chapter explains, came undone after the Civil War. Confederate defeat ended slavery and thereby undermined the wealth and power of planter families such as the Keesees. Moreover, the South experienced greater institutionalization after the war, and larger numbers of banks, schools, and government agencies made kinship less vital in the postbellum era. Although the ideas in this chapter, as with the earlier ones, will not appear terribly innovative to most southern historians, the rigor of the research methodology is impressive.
Billingsley will probably not succeed in convincing scholars to elevate kinship to a "category of analysis complementary to and potentially as powerful as race, class, and gender" (p. 1). But her work does reveal that the Keesees (and probably all southern whites) defined family broadly and relied on kin extensively. She argues convincingly that genealogy offers some useful and underutilized tools for professional historians.
Lorri Glover
University of Tennessee
Copyright University of Alabama Press Jul 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
http://www.looksmartfamilytree.com/p/articles/mi_qa3880/is_200507/ai_n15329048?pi=homfam
Alabama Review, Jul 2005 by Glover, Lorri
Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier. By Carolyn Earle Billingsley. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004. xi, 215 pp. $49.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8203-2509-0. $19.95 (paper). ISBN 0-8203-2510-4.
Before earning her Ph.D. in history, Carolyn Earle Billingsley worked as a professional genealogist. Communities of Kinship blends her two crafts, and with this monograph she seeks to reveal how genealogical methodologies can advance historical analysis of southern families and culture. Billingsley argues that kinship lay at the center of antebellum southern life but remains under-analyzed by scholars studying the history of the region. According to her, only by expanding their use of genealogical approaches can historians fully appreciate the power of kinship in virtually every aspect of antebellum southerners' lives.
Billingsley begins her book with an extensive exploration of the terms and theories of kinship, pointing out that while historians occasionally invoke kinship in their descriptions of the early South, they seldom rigorously reconstruct kin networks in the way that genealogists do. Few scholars, she maintains, go beyond marriage records or surname matches in their analyses of kin. And without using genealogical approaches, she posits, scholars can never fully appreciate extra-nuclear family bonds. These ties to a wide array of consanguine, affinal, and even fictive kin mattered far more in the antebellum South than in the North or in contemporary America, according to Billingsley, because fewer public institutions existed in the early South. Family, broadly conceived, fulfilled a host of functions-practical, political, and spiritual-and formed the foundation of life for most antebellum whites.
In order to test these theories, Billingsley traces the kin ties of the Keesee family, from which she is descended, from their Tidewater roots in the eighteenth century through the erosion of their family power in the postbellum Southwest. Thomas Keesee was born in Virginia in 1778 and died in Arkansas in 1861. In the intervening years, he and numerous members of his nuclear and extended families moved to Tennessee, then Alabama, and finally Arkansas. Some of his descendants eventually migrated to Texas. At every move, they traveled with and settled near kinfolk. Thus the repopulation of the Southwest by whites depended on kin support. Neighborhoods and kin networks became synonymous, as migrating southerners lived physically surrounded by relatives. On occasion, members of the family separated, with some migrating farther west and others remaining behind. But "none of their moves or changes took place outside of a group of kindred" (p. 71). Billingsley includes a number of charts of neighborhood ties and migratory maps to convey visually the information collected in her database of the Keesee family and to reinforce the point that kinship drove westward settlement. Kinship similarly lay at the heart of religious identity. As with communities, kin and congregation usually overlapped on the southern frontier. Although members of the family changed denominational affiliation, they seldom did so without kin influence.
Deeply immersed in family ties, the Keesees appear in Billingsley's narrative as acquisitive and upwardly mobile. They sought inclusion in the planter elite and achieved that status by cooperating with their relatives and pooling their resources. Members of the Keesee network understood that economic and political power went hand in hand in the early South, and they used their kinship ties, particularly strategic marriages, to rise in their communities. Kinship identity, argues Billingsley, informed social status. An individual might not own substantial land or slaves himself, but he could claim a planter identity by virtue of his family membership. Kinship thus enabled the Keesees to expand onto the southern frontier, to build communities and congregations, and to join the ranks of the dominant planter elite.
Much of this, Billingsley's final chapter explains, came undone after the Civil War. Confederate defeat ended slavery and thereby undermined the wealth and power of planter families such as the Keesees. Moreover, the South experienced greater institutionalization after the war, and larger numbers of banks, schools, and government agencies made kinship less vital in the postbellum era. Although the ideas in this chapter, as with the earlier ones, will not appear terribly innovative to most southern historians, the rigor of the research methodology is impressive.
Billingsley will probably not succeed in convincing scholars to elevate kinship to a "category of analysis complementary to and potentially as powerful as race, class, and gender" (p. 1). But her work does reveal that the Keesees (and probably all southern whites) defined family broadly and relied on kin extensively. She argues convincingly that genealogy offers some useful and underutilized tools for professional historians.
Lorri Glover
University of Tennessee
Copyright University of Alabama Press Jul 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
http://www.looksmartfamilytree.com/p/articles/mi_qa3880/is_200507/ai_n15329048?pi=homfam
28 November 2005
Rainer Maria Rilke, Excerpt- Fifth Duino Elegy
“Angel!: If there were a place that we didn’t know of, and there,
on some unsayable carpet, lovers displayed
what they could never bring to mastery here—the bold
exploits of their high-flying hearts,
their towers of pleasure, their ladders
that have long since been standing where there was no ground,
leaning
just on each other, trembling,—and could master all this,
before the surrounding spectators, the innumerable soundless dead:
Would these, then, throw down their final, forever saved-up,
forever hidden, unknown to us, eternally valid
coins of happiness before the at last
genuinely smiling pair on the gratified
carpet?”
[From The Fifth Duino Elegy, Rainer Maria Rilke]
In the original German:
Engel!: Es wäre ein Platz, den wir nicht wissen, und dorten,
auf unsäglichem Teppich, zeigten die Liebenden, die's hier
bis zum Können nie bringen, ihre kühnen
hohen Figuren des Herzschwungs,
ihre Türme aus Lust, ihre
längst, wo Boden nie war, nur an einander
lehnenden Leitern, bebend, und könntens,
vor den Zuschauern rings, unzähligen lautlosen Toten:
Würfen die dann ihre letzten, immer ersparten,
immer verborgenen, die wir nicht kennen, ewig
gültigen Münzen des Glücks vor das endlich
wahrhaft lächelnde Paar auf gestilltem
Teppich?
on some unsayable carpet, lovers displayed
what they could never bring to mastery here—the bold
exploits of their high-flying hearts,
their towers of pleasure, their ladders
that have long since been standing where there was no ground,
leaning
just on each other, trembling,—and could master all this,
before the surrounding spectators, the innumerable soundless dead:
Would these, then, throw down their final, forever saved-up,
forever hidden, unknown to us, eternally valid
coins of happiness before the at last
genuinely smiling pair on the gratified
carpet?”
[From The Fifth Duino Elegy, Rainer Maria Rilke]
In the original German:
Engel!: Es wäre ein Platz, den wir nicht wissen, und dorten,
auf unsäglichem Teppich, zeigten die Liebenden, die's hier
bis zum Können nie bringen, ihre kühnen
hohen Figuren des Herzschwungs,
ihre Türme aus Lust, ihre
längst, wo Boden nie war, nur an einander
lehnenden Leitern, bebend, und könntens,
vor den Zuschauern rings, unzähligen lautlosen Toten:
Würfen die dann ihre letzten, immer ersparten,
immer verborgenen, die wir nicht kennen, ewig
gültigen Münzen des Glücks vor das endlich
wahrhaft lächelnde Paar auf gestilltem
Teppich?
24 October 2005
The Genealogue
The Genealogue is a great blog. And funny. Check out the "Top Ten Genealogy Websites of 2050." My favortite is #6 "Iraq War Service Records, 2003-2038."
21 October 2005
This Blog is Hysterical
The Banterist: "From New York, a weblog of original humor by Brian Sack. Subject to all the flexible quality standards of internet self-publishing."
You're in for a treat if you real his eBay listing for a pair of leather pants.
You're in for a treat if you real his eBay listing for a pair of leather pants.
08 October 2005
The Effect of Country Music on Suicide
This article won the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Publication Information: Article Title: The Effect of Country Music on Suicide. Contributors: Jim Gundlach - author, Steven Stack - author. Journal Title: Social Forces. Volume: 71. Issue: 1. Publication Year: 1992. Page Number: 211.
Complete lists of Ig Nobel winners.
One of my favorite Ig Nobel winners is the one for LITERATURE in 2005, given to "The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters -- General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others -- each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them."
Publication Information: Article Title: The Effect of Country Music on Suicide. Contributors: Jim Gundlach - author, Steven Stack - author. Journal Title: Social Forces. Volume: 71. Issue: 1. Publication Year: 1992. Page Number: 211.
Complete lists of Ig Nobel winners.
One of my favorite Ig Nobel winners is the one for LITERATURE in 2005, given to "The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters -- General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others -- each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them."
05 October 2005
Billingsley Wins Booker Worthen Literary Prize
September 19, 2005
A Prized Evening Honors Three Arkansas Authors
by Carrie Snodgrass
The Central Arkansas Library System will host A Prized Evening honoring three Arkansas authors on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the Main Library’s Darragh Center.
Shirley Abbott will receive the Porter Prize for her works of nonfiction, Constance Merritt will receive the Porter Prize for her works of poetry and Carolyn Billingsley will receive the Worthen Prize for her book, Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier. Events for the evening will be award presentations, readings, book signings and a catered reception.
The Porter Literary Fund Literary Prize is presented annually to an Arkansas writer who has accomplished a substantial and impressive body of work that merits enhanced recognition. The prize was established in memory of Ben Drew Kimpel, Ph.D., who asked that the prize be named for his mother, Gladys Crane Kimpel Porter. Established in 1984, the Porter Fund is a non-profit organization supporting Arkansas writers and poets. All contributions are tax-deductible and can be made by contacting Phillip McMath at (501) 396-5416. Co-founders of the Porter Prize are Jack Butler and Phillip McMath.
CALS honors the memory of William Booker Worthen, grandson of the founder of the former Worthen Bank and Trust Company and 22-year member of the CALS Board of Trustees, through the Booker-Worthen Prize Literary Prize. The award for the best work of either fiction or nonfiction for adults or children is presented annually to an author living in the CALS service area. The Booker Worthen Endowment was established in 1985 by friends and family of Booker Worthen. Contributions are tax-deductible and can be made by contacting the Central Arkansas Library System, 918-3086.
Tickets for A Prized Evening are $50 per person and proceeds support the CALS Endowment Fund. For information or to make a reservation, please call 918-3032.
A Prized Evening Honors Three Arkansas Authors
by Carrie Snodgrass
The Central Arkansas Library System will host A Prized Evening honoring three Arkansas authors on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the Main Library’s Darragh Center.
Shirley Abbott will receive the Porter Prize for her works of nonfiction, Constance Merritt will receive the Porter Prize for her works of poetry and Carolyn Billingsley will receive the Worthen Prize for her book, Communities of Kinship: Antebellum Families and the Settlement of the Cotton Frontier. Events for the evening will be award presentations, readings, book signings and a catered reception.
The Porter Literary Fund Literary Prize is presented annually to an Arkansas writer who has accomplished a substantial and impressive body of work that merits enhanced recognition. The prize was established in memory of Ben Drew Kimpel, Ph.D., who asked that the prize be named for his mother, Gladys Crane Kimpel Porter. Established in 1984, the Porter Fund is a non-profit organization supporting Arkansas writers and poets. All contributions are tax-deductible and can be made by contacting Phillip McMath at (501) 396-5416. Co-founders of the Porter Prize are Jack Butler and Phillip McMath.
CALS honors the memory of William Booker Worthen, grandson of the founder of the former Worthen Bank and Trust Company and 22-year member of the CALS Board of Trustees, through the Booker-Worthen Prize Literary Prize. The award for the best work of either fiction or nonfiction for adults or children is presented annually to an author living in the CALS service area. The Booker Worthen Endowment was established in 1985 by friends and family of Booker Worthen. Contributions are tax-deductible and can be made by contacting the Central Arkansas Library System, 918-3086.
Tickets for A Prized Evening are $50 per person and proceeds support the CALS Endowment Fund. For information or to make a reservation, please call 918-3032.
27 September 2005
Bush Happy with Rita Photo Ops
By Andy Borowitz
Newsweek
Sept. 27, 2005
Another insightful article by Borowitz. One can only hope that the rest of American can see as well as Borowitz that Dubya is more concerned with illusion than reality.
Newsweek
Sept. 27, 2005
Another insightful article by Borowitz. One can only hope that the rest of American can see as well as Borowitz that Dubya is more concerned with illusion than reality.
14 September 2005
Lethargy Alert
Although this piece by Andy Borowitz is tongue-in-cheek, a goverment lethargy alert would certainly do a hellava lot more good than the terror alerts we've been subjected to for the past three years. Seems like the Bush adminstration only acts when the scream of public opinion penetrates their little bubble of insulation.
13 September 2005
Agassi over Blake in Five Sets
Did you watch the Agassi-Blake match tonight? I was like totally in to it, Blake wins first two sets, looks hopeless for Agassi. But NO, Agassi keeps playing and Blake fades a bit. AGASSI wins next two sets! Fifth set. Tied. The tension is incredible.
Then, the damned coverage on USA is over and they start showing Law and Order! Go to your CBS affiliate station, they say. I go. CBS here is showing David Letterman. I freaked.
I couldn't stand it and I called J even though it was midnight CDT (and he usually goes to bed before 10), but he was still up watching the tennis. I made him stay on the phone for twenty minutes, telling me what was happening, until it was over.
Agassi won in a tie-break in the 5th. Marvelous. Amazing. Incredible. My feel-good moment for the whole US Open. And I MISSED IT. Damn. Shit. Hell.
PS: An hour later CBS showed the rest of the match from the point of interruption. It was beyond words -- Blake was serving for the match and Agassi broke him. Then Blake almost broke him back. But he couldn't.
It was like two heavyweight boxers in a championship match. Amazing tennis.
Then Agassi was down in the tie-break, 0/3. But still, Agassi won. Blake was awesome -- power, grace, and agility. Agassi was Agassi -- calm determination and gasp-inducing shot-making. The most beautiful kind of tennis from start to finish.
I can't for the life of me figure out why the press refers to James Blake as African American. He more than 50% white. His mother is as blonde and fair as they come. All his friends are white. His girlfriend is the blondest of the blonde. And yet, he's still, apparently, black. I wonder what it takes to make a person white in our society?
05 September 2005
Reason Gone Mad
Read Bill Shein's blog for some pertinent comments about the Bush Administration and their handling of Katrina. In Shein's email notice, he writes:
"It's been a tough week, and there's not much I can say about the unfolding tragedy that hasn't already been said -- and felt.
"My column from yesterday's paper is now on the Reason Gone Mad site, and it's a non-comedic take on why I believe we need leaders who are not anti-government, particularly at times when effective administration of
the tools of government could save thousands of lives.
"I also tried to funnel some of my anger and frustration into a humor piece, "White House is Declared a Federal Disaster Area," which I posted in the blog at http://www.reasongonemad.com/blog"
"It's been a tough week, and there's not much I can say about the unfolding tragedy that hasn't already been said -- and felt.
"My column from yesterday's paper is now on the Reason Gone Mad site, and it's a non-comedic take on why I believe we need leaders who are not anti-government, particularly at times when effective administration of
the tools of government could save thousands of lives.
"I also tried to funnel some of my anger and frustration into a humor piece, "White House is Declared a Federal Disaster Area," which I posted in the blog at http://www.reasongonemad.com/blog"
04 September 2005
TV Show House and Hugh Laurie
Last season, House was my favorite show and Hugh Laurie my favorite man to watch. It was kind of surprising to find such a good show on Fox.
03 September 2005
Rhetoric Not Matching Reality
This article shows that at least someone can see that the Emperor has no clothes. Bush is all hat and no cattle, as Texans would say. The US is supposed to be prepared for a devastating emergency -- in the last few years the government has formed a Homeland Security division and spent billions of dollars in preparation for another disaster like 9/11. So what's the deal taking FOUR days to get help to a devastated city and the people of New Orleans. It just doesn't make sense unless somebody, aka the Bush administration, is woefully unprepared to handle reality. Are we safer? Nope. If the administration can't even handle Katrina and the flood, how can they possibly be ready to handle a terrorist attack, when things would be even more chaotic?
Another article from Newsweek illuminates how Bush is more about image than substance. He was sitting at his ranch with his thumb up his butt when one of his advisors must've decided he needed to look like he was actually doing something about Katrina.
Another article from Newsweek illuminates how Bush is more about image than substance. He was sitting at his ranch with his thumb up his butt when one of his advisors must've decided he needed to look like he was actually doing something about Katrina.
02 September 2005
The Roots of Racial Profiling
By Anita L. Willis
Ms. Willis is a writer, researcher, and genealogist, and author of the forthcoming book, Notes and Documents of Free Persons of Color: Colonial Virginia, 1650-1850 (March 2003).
Willis's article is thought-provoking and if her book poses similar arguments, I think it would make worthwhile reading. Here's a quote from "The Roots of Racial Profiling".
"Although racial profiling is not backed by written statutes, its roots are in the laws enacted during colonial times. Racial profiling, for want of a better term, is a Gateway Act -- an excuse used to approach citizens assumed to be criminals."
Wilis describes what happened to Mary, a seven-year-old girl in 17th-century Virginia, who was taken to court, judged to be mulatto, and then sentenced to a thirty-year indenture with the Washington family. Willis writes: "Because of her mixed race status, Mary had no rights in her community. Today , because of their appearance and ethnicity, citizens are being stopped, searched, and arrested. Were Mary to return to modern-day America she might pause to wonder if she was in the 18th century, not the 21st."
I think the foregoing is a bit of hyperbole and grossly overstated--does she really see but little difference between the plight of 17th- and 21st-century blacks or mixed race/non-white people in the US? -- yet I think her assertions provide some interesting grist for the mill in our study of the history of race relations in the South.
[Be sure to read the very polemical comments(arguments) asccessible through the link at the bottom of the article page.]
[See also "ANNOUNCEMENT OF BOOK RELEASE - NOTES AND DOCUMENTS OF FREE PERSONS OF COLOR: COLONIAL VIRGINIA 1650-1850 (#5499) by Anita Wills on December 7, 2002". Note that Ms. Willis's book is published by a genealogical publisher, rather than an academic press.]
Ms. Willis is a writer, researcher, and genealogist, and author of the forthcoming book, Notes and Documents of Free Persons of Color: Colonial Virginia, 1650-1850 (March 2003).
Willis's article is thought-provoking and if her book poses similar arguments, I think it would make worthwhile reading. Here's a quote from "The Roots of Racial Profiling".
"Although racial profiling is not backed by written statutes, its roots are in the laws enacted during colonial times. Racial profiling, for want of a better term, is a Gateway Act -- an excuse used to approach citizens assumed to be criminals."
Wilis describes what happened to Mary, a seven-year-old girl in 17th-century Virginia, who was taken to court, judged to be mulatto, and then sentenced to a thirty-year indenture with the Washington family. Willis writes: "Because of her mixed race status, Mary had no rights in her community. Today , because of their appearance and ethnicity, citizens are being stopped, searched, and arrested. Were Mary to return to modern-day America she might pause to wonder if she was in the 18th century, not the 21st."
I think the foregoing is a bit of hyperbole and grossly overstated--does she really see but little difference between the plight of 17th- and 21st-century blacks or mixed race/non-white people in the US? -- yet I think her assertions provide some interesting grist for the mill in our study of the history of race relations in the South.
[Be sure to read the very polemical comments(arguments) asccessible through the link at the bottom of the article page.]
[See also "ANNOUNCEMENT OF BOOK RELEASE - NOTES AND DOCUMENTS OF FREE PERSONS OF COLOR: COLONIAL VIRGINIA 1650-1850 (#5499) by Anita Wills on December 7, 2002". Note that Ms. Willis's book is published by a genealogical publisher, rather than an academic press.]
The Sin of Blasphemy
Pat Robertson gives Christianity a bad name. I used to watch his 700 Club television show decades ago when I couldn't sleep and there was nothing else on TV (pre-cable or -satellite era). Watching it made me lose faith in all of humanity. How could so many million people watch that propagandist drivel week after week and even send this anti-Christ their hard-earned dollars? If the average American (or even a hefty percentage of average Americans) is a supporter of Pat Robertson, then this country is really in a world of hurt.
The Sin of Blasphemy
Pat Robertson’s latest remarks have our columnist wondering: What does it really mean to be Christian?
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Patti Davis
Newsweek; Updated: 3:27 p.m. ET Aug. 23, 2005
Aug. 23, 2005 - Pat Robertson considers himself a man of God, a Christian, a preacher of the Gospel. To all of these aspects of his self-delusion, the only appropriate response is: Huh? His latest suggestion, as this self-proclaimed man of God, is that Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, should be assassinated. On his “700 Club” TV show, Robertson said Chavez could turn Venezuela into a safe haven for Communist and Muslim extremists. "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," said Robertson, who founded the Christian Coalition. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."
True men of God, of course, do not entertain such notions. They certainly don’t preach them. Men of blasphemy do.
Did Robertson lose his Bible? Or has he simply rewritten it in his own language? What happened to “Thou Shalt Not Kill?” This is not the first time Robertson has expressed a fondness for assassination. In October 2003 he suggested that nuclear weapons be dropped on the State Department.
Have any authorities checked his basement?
Here’s what I’m curious about. How does someone who has wrapped himself in the cloak of Christianity for decades come up with such ideas and express them with such ease? Does he pray first? Does he get on his knees, close his eyes and say, “God, I really want to take a few people out here. I know we’re all supposed to be your children, but there are some bad ones in the bunch and I’m figuring they probably got through by mistake. So how about culling the herd?” And then does he actually imagine God answering him and saying, “Go forth, my child with whatever weapons you can find. If you can’t scrounge up any yourself, spread the word. Preach to the masses. Someone will pick up the sword, pull the trigger or drop the bomb.”
At the risk of sounding quaint, this is just not the God I was raised with, and it certainly isn’t the God who answers me. I close my eyes sometimes and say, “God, I gave someone the finger today when I was driving. I know I shouldn’t have.” And what I hear back is something like, “I saw that. And I’ve told you before, that was a child of mine too. A tailgating one, but my child nonetheless.”
I’m actually feeling a lot better now about my temper flares in traffic. At least I’ve never considered using weaponry.
I’m sure the members of the Christian Coalition won’t take my suggestions, but they might want to consider making a rule that anyone who calls himself a Christian has to have some passing acquaintance with the teachings of Jesus. I’m no Biblical scholar but I am absolutely sure that Jesus never suggested assassinating anyone.
When I lived in New York City, I used to give money to a homeless man who stood on the same corner of Columbus Avenue every day, rain or shine. He was never pushy, he was always polite, and I just felt like giving him money. One day, I saw a man in a business suit getting right in this man’s face, waving a Bible at him and telling him he was a sinner and he had to accept Jesus and ask forgiveness for his sins. I walked up, gave the homeless man a five and said to the sidewalk preacher, “You know, Jesus would never do what you’re doing.” I walked away quickly before he could hit me with his Bible. And I walked away feeling very sorry for Jesus. People keep doing things in his name that are so un-Christianlike.
Well, if I felt sorry for Jesus then, I feel like weeping for him now. Shouldn’t people like Pat Robertson just go start their own religion and leave Jesus out of it?
I found another quote of Robertson’s from several years ago. He said that feminism encourages women “to kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
I would respond to this but I have to go boil some eye of newt, lizard tails and pig blood. And I am so behind on my schedule to bring down the bastions of capitalism. I got delayed because I was flirting with this cute girl down the street.
Davis, the daughter of Nancy and Ronald Reagan, is a writer based in Los Angeles.
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
The Sin of Blasphemy
Pat Robertson’s latest remarks have our columnist wondering: What does it really mean to be Christian?
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Patti Davis
Newsweek; Updated: 3:27 p.m. ET Aug. 23, 2005
Aug. 23, 2005 - Pat Robertson considers himself a man of God, a Christian, a preacher of the Gospel. To all of these aspects of his self-delusion, the only appropriate response is: Huh? His latest suggestion, as this self-proclaimed man of God, is that Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, should be assassinated. On his “700 Club” TV show, Robertson said Chavez could turn Venezuela into a safe haven for Communist and Muslim extremists. "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," said Robertson, who founded the Christian Coalition. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."
True men of God, of course, do not entertain such notions. They certainly don’t preach them. Men of blasphemy do.
Did Robertson lose his Bible? Or has he simply rewritten it in his own language? What happened to “Thou Shalt Not Kill?” This is not the first time Robertson has expressed a fondness for assassination. In October 2003 he suggested that nuclear weapons be dropped on the State Department.
Have any authorities checked his basement?
Here’s what I’m curious about. How does someone who has wrapped himself in the cloak of Christianity for decades come up with such ideas and express them with such ease? Does he pray first? Does he get on his knees, close his eyes and say, “God, I really want to take a few people out here. I know we’re all supposed to be your children, but there are some bad ones in the bunch and I’m figuring they probably got through by mistake. So how about culling the herd?” And then does he actually imagine God answering him and saying, “Go forth, my child with whatever weapons you can find. If you can’t scrounge up any yourself, spread the word. Preach to the masses. Someone will pick up the sword, pull the trigger or drop the bomb.”
At the risk of sounding quaint, this is just not the God I was raised with, and it certainly isn’t the God who answers me. I close my eyes sometimes and say, “God, I gave someone the finger today when I was driving. I know I shouldn’t have.” And what I hear back is something like, “I saw that. And I’ve told you before, that was a child of mine too. A tailgating one, but my child nonetheless.”
I’m actually feeling a lot better now about my temper flares in traffic. At least I’ve never considered using weaponry.
I’m sure the members of the Christian Coalition won’t take my suggestions, but they might want to consider making a rule that anyone who calls himself a Christian has to have some passing acquaintance with the teachings of Jesus. I’m no Biblical scholar but I am absolutely sure that Jesus never suggested assassinating anyone.
When I lived in New York City, I used to give money to a homeless man who stood on the same corner of Columbus Avenue every day, rain or shine. He was never pushy, he was always polite, and I just felt like giving him money. One day, I saw a man in a business suit getting right in this man’s face, waving a Bible at him and telling him he was a sinner and he had to accept Jesus and ask forgiveness for his sins. I walked up, gave the homeless man a five and said to the sidewalk preacher, “You know, Jesus would never do what you’re doing.” I walked away quickly before he could hit me with his Bible. And I walked away feeling very sorry for Jesus. People keep doing things in his name that are so un-Christianlike.
Well, if I felt sorry for Jesus then, I feel like weeping for him now. Shouldn’t people like Pat Robertson just go start their own religion and leave Jesus out of it?
I found another quote of Robertson’s from several years ago. He said that feminism encourages women “to kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
I would respond to this but I have to go boil some eye of newt, lizard tails and pig blood. And I am so behind on my schedule to bring down the bastions of capitalism. I got delayed because I was flirting with this cute girl down the street.
Davis, the daughter of Nancy and Ronald Reagan, is a writer based in Los Angeles.
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
27 August 2005
Resource for understanding DNA testing
Kerchner's DNA Testing & Genetic Genealogy Info and Resources Page
Charles F. Kerchner Jr. offers links to information about understanding DNA and DNA testing, including his recommended reading list of books.
Charles F. Kerchner Jr. offers links to information about understanding DNA and DNA testing, including his recommended reading list of books.
Secret Jews
Many people of Spanish ancestry now living in the Americas are Jews who have hidden their Jewishness since the time of the Spanish Inquisition in order to avoid persecution. DNA can sometimes provide a clue to Jewish origins but in most cases cited in this newspaper article, the secret has been handed down secretly from generation to generation.
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