Tuesday February 23, 2021
My intention, when I set out to write this book, was simply to tell one of the most exciting adventures of modern times as truthfully as possible. As the work advanced, the excitement did not abate, but the difficulty of establishing the truth became increasingly evident. It would be convenient if the historian, by various ‘scientific’ methods of analyzing the sum of documentary evidence, could reach factual certainty about what really happened. Documentary evidence, however falsified, must not be ignored, of course, but whenever it is in conflict with elementary common sense it should be regarded with extreme diffidence. In the last resort the historian, like any humble member of a trial jury, is compelled to let his instinct and his experience of human affairs supplement that contradictory assertions put before him, or else he is a fool.
So begins the Preface to J. Christopher Herold’s book “Bonaparte in Egypt.”
He goes on to give credit to La Jonquière, whom he refers to as “the most scrupulous historian I have ever read.” La Jonquière was an officer in the French army. He wrote under their authority five volumes and many unpublished documents of the campaign. He was however a patriot with great respect for Bonaparte. Herold goes on to say that all scholars on this subject use La Jonquière even if they don’t give him credit.
At this point I am torn in two directions. To write about the great literary works and their effect, and to loo at the politics of then and compare to now. I will save the literary discussion until later. I wander if Herold was hinting that La Jonquière was the Sean Spicer of his day? Herold has much more respect for La Jonquière than anyone would have for the job that Spicer did. However, the thought remains.
Napoleon was a great general and a terrific PR man. Egypt militarily was a disaster. However, Napoleon took with him to Egypt 150 scientists and scholars. They laid down the foundations of modern Egyptology. Beyond that Napoleon created what became the Louvre and in so doing created the idea of the modern museum. Before him the wealthy had “Cabinets of Curiosities.” Artifacts and what not that one could go inspect, perhaps after dinner?
I only know of one museum that has anything like a cabinet of curiosities and that is The Walters Gallery in Baltimore. They have a room which is stuffed with curiosities. I can’t tell from their map if it is The Great Room or The Grand Salon, but when I entered I thought I had gone back in time. Perhaps to the time of Teddy Roosevelt, and this was the room that he collected stuff from his travels and adventures. Horns and armor, bugs and birds, engraved this and translucent that. Fabulous. Especially for a kid! (Parents take note!)
Napoleon when he realized he couldn’t fulfill his dream to do as Alexander had done, left his men and returned to Egypt. It was a disaster. What did he do on return to France? Had a medal struck in his honor. Great victory in Egypt! (Sound familiar?) Descriptions of Napoleon paint a picture of a driven man, but not liked. Respected and smart (okay comparisons to recent times break down) armed with the flame of revolution and thoughts of brotherhood and egalitarianism he used it all to his advantage.
I kind of get the sense that he was a blend of Ted Cruz, Satan, and Biden.
Oh well, where was I?
Quick Quiz – If you are an elected official in Texas and disaster strikes :
1. What do you do?
A. Try to marshall resources and help
B. Blame the Green New Deal
C. Blame the weather
D. Blame the operators of the power grid
E. Excuse the event as a “once in a life time event”
F. Go on Fox News and claim any of B-E
2. Where do you go?
A. Cancun,
B. Utah,
C. Hiding
3. When citizens are sent sky high electric bills and have the money automatically taken out of their accounts, you:
A. Hold a press conference and say you’ll get to the bottom of it
B. Claim they should have read the fine print – too bad, so sad
C. Go on Fox News and claim that Texas has some of the lowest energy prices anywhere
D. Say nothing
Answer Key: It depends:
If you are Greg Abbott the governor – 1. B-E, 2. C, 3. D
If you are the AG for the state – 2B (skipping 1 and 3)
If you are Ted Cruz – 1. F, 2. A, 3. D
Answers may not be complete or correct, and could possibly change over time.
You didn’t cheat by looking up the answers did you?
If you are a person who lost an election to one of the elected officials or if you are a Congresswoman attacked by said elected officials of Texas what do you do?
A. You raise money for Texas, like $5 million and you go to Texas and help out.
B. You tour the state bringing awareness to underserved communities and you marshall resources to help those in need.
C. You are in charge of a House Committee that investigates such disasters and you bring change so it doesn’t happen (Not gonna say “again”) but for a fourth time. It’s happened in 1989, 2011, and 2021. Curiously, these disaster all happened when Republicans were governors.
In other news the $1.9T Covid Relief package is sailing through the committees of the House and should be ready for a floor vote by Friday. Lawrence O’Donnell, no newbie to legislative matters, says he’s never seen anything like it. The Democrats are staying united, they are not letting the Republicans gum up the works. In fact, they are asking for the Republican input, but hey guess what? The Republicans, as per usual, got nothing.
All of a sudden the Republicans and Joe Manchen are offended by what they consider mean tweets. Neera Tanden made tweets that as far as I have seen were critical, sometimes sharply critical of people, but mean? I don’t think she was body shaming or calling people derogatory names or worse, like some of the nominees that Republicans voted for during the reign of Satan.
The Supreme Court refuses to hear the case of Trump’s tax returns opening the door for the information to be given to the city prosecutor of New York. What’s the big deal? Fake news. Witch hunt. And oh yes: tax fraud, insurance fraud, bank fraud, illegal campaign contributions, and like that there. Could be state level only, or Federal as well. Questions arise like – how could sweet little Ivanka be an employee and consultant at the same time? Were the hush payments to Stormy Daniels and others correctly reported? (Hey, come on, there’s no line for ‘hush payments’! Oh wait, there is one for bribes? Maybe it should have gone there? Who knows? Oh, they do know? Never mind.)
It’s probably all a lot of noise about nothing, don’t you think? What? The New York prosecutor has hired a top mob lawyer? And an accounting firm that specializes in forensic accounting? Hum. Maybe, Donnie in trouble plenty?
But that’s not all the New York prosecutor will get. They’ll get the back up data to the tax returns too. You know, like “On your tax returns you said the property was only worth ten grand but on the loan application you said ten million. Slip of the pen? Odd, it seems that you have a very slippery pen because it happens so often.”
Donald released a statement about this. For those who have read it, they report it seems like a long rambling bunch of twitter tweets. Cy Vance, the prosecutor put out a three word statement, “The work continues.”
Where do, we the people, buy a cow sized rotator spit and hot coal bed?
Mike Lindell, the myPillow guy, is being sued for $1.3 billion by the voting machine people. They claim he knew better and was using it to sell his crappy pillows.
A black man was arrested in Texas for walking on an icy street. Charges have been dropped.
In Aurora it has been determined that police didn’t have legal cause to stop a man. Too bad, they choked him to death.
Italy’s ambassador to the Congo was assassinated there.
Aaron Rodgers in engaged to “not Olivia Munn.” Who knew?
PS Before and after the 2nd ice storm.
dean jordan says
Wow.