**************************************************************** I was thinking the other day about Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. Do you know who that was? - Maybe? No, it's NOT a country-western group and I don't mean the furniture. Ethan Allen was a patriot during the American Revolution and produced the first American victory of the war in 1775. If you look at a map of New York State you will see that Lake George empties through Lake Champlain northward into the St Lawrence river. Just south of Lake George you can get onto the Hudson River which flows down to New York City. Together these form a natural invasion route either from Canada to New York City or from New York up into Canada and Montreal. The British had built Fort Ticonderoga strategically at the south end of Lake Chaplain during the French and Indian War (aka. the Seven Years War). Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys came over from Vermont and, in the middle of the night, in a surprise attack, captured it. The British commander asked by what authority they were demanding his surrender. In Ethan Allen's later account (1779) he said he had said: "In the name of the great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress!" If you remember your grade school history, other accounts said that what he ACTUALLY said was so vile, so dirty, so filthy, so crude that they refused to repeat it in deference to the countless future school children who would undoubtedly study this historic event and have to hear it. Some later accounts claim he said, "Come out of there you sons of British wh*res, or I'll smoke you out!" or "Come out of there, you g*ddam old rat!" But now, we will never really ever know Anyway, I was thinking, I bet other famous quotes have been "cleaned up" - I bet they were originally much more like this: "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death[, you British mother f**kers]!" Patrick Henry 1775 "Don't fire until you see the whites of [those British c***s*cker's] eyes! Then fire low!" - Israel Putnam, Battle of Bunker Hill 1775 "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country[, you f**king British c*nts]." - Nathan Hale 1776 "I have not yet begun to fight[, you G** d*** British sons of b*tches]!" - John Paul Jones 1779 Actually, I think grade school children would pay closer attention to their studies, if the originals had remained intact - and use the sort of language they hear their parents using everyday at home Anyway, people used to think such gutter talk was NEVER appropriate. People just didn't talk that way - especially in public. Sure, as adults we've all heard all the foul words, the "F" word, the "C" word, the "G.D." words, the "B.S." words, the double "Q" words. (Wait, what are the double "Q" words? Okay, I made that up, but you get my point.) I was always raised that using such language is never appropriate - (unless you're REALLY mad about something - then it's a sort of double-barreled blast It's sort of the opposite of being polite. If you and I were out at lunch and you said "pass the salt", I'm sure I'd pass it and not think twice about it - but it is a little nicer if people would say "please" and "thank you". Not a big deal - but courtesy does make the world just a little nicer place to live in - don't you think? Cussing is sort of the opposite of that. Sure, it's no big deal, go ahead, cuss away, I don't care, but my elderly aunt Mary would have thought "it's just not 'nice' to talk like that" So what made me think about all this? Well, if you remember, last week President Trump used the "B.S." word in his impeachment victory speech. ‘It was all b---s---’: Donald Trump delivers mocking, vitriolic speech after acquittal https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/06/trump-speech-acquittal-impeachment-mocking-vitriolic I don't recall ANY other U.S. president EVER talking like that before. Sure, every other word on the Nixon Watergate tapes is a cuss word, but he never intended the public to hear any of that. What Trump said was intentionally said in public. He shouldn't use language like that out of respect for the presidency - it's not appropriate. I think it's really a "tell" on what Trump really thinks about the office we have allowed him to hold. I think he thinks the 44 men who held that office before him were a bunch of clowns and losers. Sure, considering all the crimes I think he's committed - this is trivial. And I know it's old-fashioned, but I think my dear old aunt Mary would have thought "he must just not be a very 'nice' man" Now when future school children read about the Trump impeachment and how he destroyed the first American republic and replaced it with a fascist dictatorship, only to by strangled by a jealous porn star lover (or whatever else will happen to him), they will have to read his "B.S." words. I think that's unfortunate. It's just not 'nice' Ethan Allen From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Allen Capture of Fort Ticonderoga (May 10, 1775) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Fort_Ticonderoga Green Mountain Boys From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Mountain_Boys Ethan Allen (furniture) https://www.ethanallen.com/ **************************************************************** Poll: Majority of Republicans say Trump better president than Lincoln https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/472460-poll-majority-of-republicans-say-trump-better-president-than-lincoln "Fifty-three percent of Republicans said Trump was a better president than Lincoln, while 47 percent chose the Civil War-era leader." Really? We are talking about the same Abraham Lincoln, right? The guy on the five dollar bill? The guy that freed the slaves - that guy? Right? And I thought it was just those "liberal pinheads" who were always smoking dope all the time "I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal." — Abraham Lincoln **************************************************************** Stay Jazzed! --Tom Swezey