In response to my historical stuff about Plymouth Rock (et some al, too) Mark writes,

“*** Plymouth Rock was where the Pilgrims landed because they couldn’t get to Virginia. They landed in November of 1620. If we had had better immigration laws, there would have been no Yankees.”

I take offense at that Rober the blabber mouth! One of my ancestors, by the last name of White, came over with those insufferable “yankees” on the Mayflower and had it not been for them I would not be here today. So “pffffff!” on you and your ole Virginia!

Comment by Mark

RESPONSE:
Mark, PLEASE watch your language! This is a Family Publication*.

Oh, and another thing! You Virginians like to act like you were the sole universe when it came to the Civil War. Well, let me remind you that us Missourians were fighting the war a good decade before anyone in Virginia even thought of wearing pretty little grey uniforms. We were invaded by anti slavery Yankees from the north who migrated to Kansas for the sole purpose of causing harm to us border folk. We were invaded twice in fact, once by New England Kansans and later, after succession and entry into the Confederacy, by Lincoln’s armed goons. And our armies werent even given the rights ordinary military folk were afforded when captured. Our armies were considered traitors and outlaws and hanged if captured. So again, “Pffffff!” on your ole Virginia! Gonsarnitt!

Comment by Mark

RESPONSE:

Quantrell forever!

I am not one of those stuck-up Virginians — they threw us out of there shortly after they tossed us out of England.

I am of the modest South Carolina type, where Charleston in located at the place where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers come together to form the Atlantic Ocean.

* The Addams Family

I stole LibAnon’s comment whole and made it part of Bob’s Blog. But that is not plaguerism.

I shamelesly steal commenters’ statements from time to time and make them part of Bob’s Blog.

And I think you all know the old rule:

“If you steal ONE person’s writings, it’s called plaguery. If you steal SEVERAL people’s words, it’s called research.”

This is another comment that I simply insert — or steal — for Bob’s Blog:

Scurvy was another Great Leap Forward from the Renaissance.”
LOL! Well, there go your Maoist admirers. The liberals are still here, though.
I think the Renaissance was more like the Cultural Revolution, myself.
I’ve seen interesting analyses that see the Renaissance as the culmination of the increasing
influence of Islam on the West. It began with the cult of chivalry and the troubadour,
imported from Islam by the Crusaders. The technological revolution that emerged from the
Renaissance was the result of the rediscovery of algebra, the source of which is indicated
by the fact that “algebra” is an Arabic word. Finally, the political event that marked the
beginning of the Renaissance was the Ottoman conquest Constantinople in 1453.

I don’t hold with this theory myself, but it is popular with many who don’t like the modern world very much and who would therefore like to prove that it’s all due to Asiatic, anti-Western
influence. The most prominent supporters of this theory today are, of course, the neoconservatives.

COMMENT:

You see, I can not only write, I can COMMENT, too!

I would call myself a Renaissance Man, but in this case I will desist.

It is interesting how the Renaissance was popular with the conservative professors of Europe

and nineteenth century America. They used it, in fact, Walter Pater INVENTED it — to show

how the masses were in a thousand years of stagnation and misery throught the Dark Ages– in

which they included the Middle Ages –until the Scholars discovered Civilization again in the

Renaissance.

There was no civilization when the Scholars were lost inthe Fall of Rome (a term that always

confused Constantinople). So for exactlya thousand years all was darkness and dirty until

the Scholars of the Renaissance rediscovered the Scholars of Classic Times.

This unmitigated crap was Official Doctrine when I was in shcool in the 1950s. Nobody put

it into the bald and perffectly correct English I stated it in above.

We are, in fact, being destroyed by overcomplicating things that are, stated in English,

plainly absurd.

What is interesting is that the academic bureaucracy that calls itself The Intellectuals

today have taken on the old Tory view of the Renaissance without any interruption. Once

they, the Scholars, take over, all will be well.

Walter Pater and Mao Tse Tung would have agreed perfectly that it is not the PEOPLE who make

a society. They would agree that it is a set of BOOKS that will make all peoples what they

should be.

I will end by repeating LibAnon on this aspect of the Renaissance:

“I don’t hold with this hteory myself, but it is popular with many who don’t like the modern world very much and who would therefore like to prove that it’s all due to Asiatic, anti-Western influence. The most prominent supporters of this theory today are, of course, the neoconservatives.”