1781 Alexander Hamilton

In the summer of 1781, Hamilton is very recently married, as George Washington, he, and the troops prepare for a rendezvous with destiny.

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In late August, Hamilton informed Eliza indiscreetly that he and part of the army would be moving to Virginia. (The move was still a military secret.) He refused to quit his troops or request a leave to see his bride.

“I must go without seeing you,” he wrote three days after the New York troops began to march south. “I must go without embracing you. Alas I must go.” He remained, however, the dreamy newlywed. “I am more greedy of your love” than a miser of his gold, he continued. “It is the food of my hopes, the object of my wishes, the only enjoyment of my life.”

On September 6, he divulged to Eliza the army’s destination - “tomorrow we embark for Yorktown” - and sounded confident of victory. In a poetic conceit that he often played with but never acted upon, he toyed with abandoning worldly pursuits to luxuriate in her company: “Every day confirms me in the intention of renouncing public life and devoting myself wholly to you. Let others waste their time and their tranquility in a vain pursuit of power and glory. Be it my object to be happy in a quiet retreat with my better angel.”

Like other founders and Enlightenment politicians, Hamilton could never quite admit the depth of his ambition, lest it cast doubts on his revolutionary purity. In the midst of such rarefied goals as freedom and independence, who could admit to baser motives or any thoughts of personal gain.

-- Ron Chernow, “Alexander Hamilton”

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InsaneJournal

Pi asks, "What are you laughing at?"

Monk says, "Oh, I was punching in InsaneJournal, and the name InaneJournal sprang to mind, and it's too bad that no webmaster took that name. It would be so much more descriptive."

Guns

The gun interests are not cowed by the current popular enthusiasm to see greater gun control after the latest school shooting. They are pushing back aggressively and seeking to recruit kids to deepen the support for their little industry of murder.

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Threatened by long-term declining participation in shooting sports, the firearms industry has poured millions of dollars into a broad campaign to ensure its future by getting guns into the hands of more, and younger, children.

The industry’s strategies include giving firearms, ammunition and cash to youth groups; weakening state restrictions on hunting by young children; marketing an affordable military-style rifle for “junior shooters” and sponsoring semiautomatic-handgun competitions for youths; and developing a target-shooting video game that promotes brand-name weapons, with links to the Web sites of their makers.

[...]

“Who knows?” [an ad] said. “Maybe you’ll find a Bushmaster AR-15 under your tree some frosty Christmas morning!”

-- Mike McIntire at The New York Times

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Monk says, "America, God shed His grace on thee..."

Daimon says, "Bah, this is what makes America such a kickass country. Even little American kids can be badass Rambos."

Monk says, "But I think we are becoming a parody of ourselves."

Kevin Bacon

I gave the TV show "The Following", about an FBI agent and a serial killer, a shot, but I don't think it is going to work for me. I had high hopes. It stars Kevin Bacon as the FBI agent. Despite all the Edgar Allan Poe references and literary feints, it seemed... too simple, too kiddy (despite the obvious attempts to be the new bold-and-edgy thing). However, I have not been able to care enough to remove it from my DVR schedule, so maybe I'll try the second episode. I only mention this because an interview with Kevin Bacon has come out, and I want to get his remarks on aging.

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ESQ: If the show takes off, it could take you into your sixties. Do you think much about aging?

KB: I honestly don't. You just try and stave off the inevitable decline. There was a time in my life when beautiful girls would come up to me and say, "Oh, I'm a big fan," and then it started to be beautiful girls would come up and say, "My mom's a big fan." And now it's beautiful girls coming up and saying, "My grandmother's a big fan."

-- ONTD

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At least you had your day to roar in the sun.

Pop is back

Pop is back from Ms. Walker's, and it is impressive how rejuvenated Pop seems after an amorous weekend. I only wish that they could keep it in her place, and let me enjoy the weekends having the house to myself - then it's a win-win for everyone.

Egypt Update

CAIRO - Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi declared a month-long state of emergency on Sunday in three cities along the Suez Canal which have been the focus of anti-government violence that has killed dozens of people over the past four days.

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In Cairo, police fired tear gas at dozens at protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs in a fourth day of clashes over what demonstrators there and in other cities say is a power grab by Islamists two years after Hosni Mubarak was overthrown.

-- News-LJ

I doubt that the Islamists, having gotten a strong foothold in the Morsi regime, will be as easily overthrown as Mubarak, but it is interesting to see the good fight being waged against militant fundamentalism. One might think that we have an interest in helping with that...

Britney Spears

She is looking pretty good, working it with that little-skirt action.

(ONTD)

Stephen King

Stephen King jumps into the big gun debate with a 25-page essay.

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"Autos and semi-autos are weapons of mass destruction. When lunatics want to make war on the unarmed and unprepared, these are the weapons they use," King wrote.

He said blanket opposition to gun control was less about defending the second amendment of the US constitution than "a stubborn desire to hold onto what they have, and to hell with the collateral damage". He added: "If that's the case, let me suggest that 'fuck you, Jack, I'm okay' is not a tenable position, morally speaking."

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The mockery continued when he noted semi-automatics had only two purposes: to kill people, and to let their owners go to a shooting range, "yell yeehaw, and get all horny at the rapid fire and the burning vapor spurting from the end of the barrel".

King noted that homicides by firearm declined by 60% in Australia after strict gun controls were introduced. And that about 80 people die of gunshot wounds daily in the US.

In a line sure to affront the NRA, and delight the gun-control lobby, he added : "Plenty of gun advocates cling to their semi-automatics the way Amy Winehouse and Michael Jackson clung to the shit that was killing them."

-- ONTD

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Daily Fun

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