History & Comment for June 16, 2025

 A look at historical and current events on this day, comment and humor so dry it would make a camel thirsty. 

Transcript

This is History and Comment for Monday the 16th of June 2025.   

How is it that we are in the second half of June?

We are pretty light on historical events today which might make some time for a couple of other topics.   

106 years ago an earthquake in Western India creates a ridge 20 feet high,   3 and a half miles wide and 50 miles long.   Our planet is a bit unique,  It has a near solid iron-nickel core with a molten outer core  and two layers of the outer crust.    Our outer crust is broken into a number of plates that move around causing the earthquakes.   This movement had also created the mountains that we see.    Of course the debate is, has the process always been at the current pace.   Some folks would like to support that assumption as it then suggest a very long timeline.   If the mountains are growing an inch or two each year then the process has been on-going for a very long time.  But what if the process was once very rapid and the current movement we observe is just the residual?    That assumption will given a much shorter timeline, but begs the question.  What started the process and what was the state before hand?     

Creation scientist have a theory. How would the scenario play out if during the intital stages of Noah’s flood the previous super continent broke up releasing vast amounts of subsurface water?    You might have massive mudflows on a global scale, and the pieces of continents moving not at fractions of an inch per year but at miles per hour.    It sounds like some hocus pokus,  written to come to a religious answer. But in fact if you take the simple narrative from the Genisus account which is short and vague on details and extrapolate to what we observe in nature today.  It is a very straight line.    And a short one.  

Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech to a group of Illinois Republicans in 1858, after receiving their nomination for US Senate.   The run will not be successful but it will pit Lincoln against Steven Douglas and that pairing will repeat itself again two years later in the 1860 Presidential Race.   Lincoln will of course win that one. 

In the closing session of the meeting Lincoln gives his House Divided speech in contrast to Douglas’ position.     Lincoln suggested that the United States would not continue its current course of half slave and half free.    Douglas was more moderate and had put his influence behind the idea that each state or new territory should be able to decide for its self.   That method had been applied to Kansas Territory and the results were a decade of bloody in fighting.   

The House Divided speech will be consider along with the Gettysburg Address and his second Ignaugral Speech as his best.  

The first purpose built roller coaster called the Switchback Railway opens at Coney Island in 1884.  The concept dates back at least to the 17th Century in Russia where snow mountains were built to sled down in winter.   A French inventor had built a early version in Paris in 1817.

The Switch back ran between two towers.   Riders climbed one and rode to the other by  gravity.  For a nickel riders could experience the thrill of a 6 MPH ride down the 600 foot track that included a few humps but no turns.   The nickel fare might be a couple of dollars in today’s money.  

The Ford Motor Company is incorporated in 1903.  

The forerunner to IBM is founded in 1911.  

The Sherriff in Boward County Forida stirred things up a bit late last week.   Boward County is one of the expensive areas on the Southern Florida Coast.  It includes Palm Beach.     Some folks were aghast and other were saying it it about time.     If you read George Orwell’s 1984 you would know the term New Speak. That was his term for the propaganda and narrative shaping that was common in his fictional society.    Words have meaning but that meaning was shifted if not completely distorted.     We are seeing New Speak on a daily basis.    To be certain I do not doubt that there were a number of people protesting in LA that did not commit acts of violence and vandalism.   Conversely,  there was a large number of criminal acts committed.  It is not fair to whitewash the matter and say it was mostly peaceful.   If I mention the Kent State war protest,   you will not think of three days of events but the fact that the National Guard fired on a crowd and eight people died.   The same can be said for the Boston Massacre in 1775.    The most serious events frame the narrative.   

Let’s draw some common sense lines on what is a peaceful protest and what is criminal or at least violence.    Holding a public event to voice your views is fine.   So is carrying signs and shouting slogans.   Law Enforcement and public official get a little edgy if the numbers get large, their priority is the peace and safety of society in general.    My HS government teacher was fond of saying your right to swing ends at my nose.   In fact it has ended if I feel the breeze of your swing.  You have invaded my personal space.  

The Sherriff went on pubic media and issued a very proactive set of guidelines.  Flatly saying if you cross his lines, you will end up in jail or dead.   Period.  Broward County was not going to be Los Angles.   

The line is crossed when protestors begin to interfere with other peoples lives, freedoms and property.   If two people want to stand ten feet apart and yell at each other no ones rights are being violated.    At ten inches we have a problem.   If a stick is swung or a rock thrown, we have crossed a line from protest into armed conflict.   Theft and destruction of property is always criminal.   There is not a free pass if the crowd is large and you won’t be caught.    Wrong is still wrong.   

It is your American right to open speech.   But recall you are not free from the consequences of that speech.   If your boss does not like your public speech you might lose your job.    Freedom does have a price.     

If you feel you need to wear a mask to hide your identity at a publc protest ask yourself why?   You are either committing a criminal act or do not want to live with the consequences of your actions.    The same can be applied to helmets or other protective gear.  You are coming expecting a fight.  

The rules are quite simple,   you can speak your mind in a wide array of ways. You cannot restrict another person freedoms nor harm their person or property.    You cannot threaten them with violence.  You cannot assault them in any physical manner.     Those are criminal acts.   It is not being fair nor a good citizen to leverage the fact you most likely will not be prosecuted.   

This is where many protest and I would add labor strikes cross a line.  They threaten violence just enough in the shadows to avoid legal action.    

On the local front there was talk of hate speech.   I have a major issue with that concept.    Certainly there are cases where criminal acts are committed but those should be prosecuted for the criminal acts they are.  I am not good with the idea that the crime should be trumped up, because of perceived intention.     A few years back a young gay man was brutally assaulted and died.    The crime was no greater because the perpetrators did not like gays.  Assault that ends in murder is a very agreeous crime, the motivation should not be a factor.  

We are adding political bias to free and open debate. We are approaching the point of suggesting of a crime to simply disagree with a person.    Go back and relisten to the discussion of what is a protest and what is a crime.   No segment of society gets a free ride from criticism.   I just cannot limit their freedom.    

We can and should have a free and open discussion on a wide range of topics that affect society.    Brandishing the broad term of hate speech or hate in general is not a good plan.   I respect the right of folks to live their lives as they see fit.  I am saddened when I think they have crossed a moral line.   Because I care for them and do not think their choices are wise.   

It is not hate to suggest that the sexualizing of society, children and schools is not a good path for society.    It is a topic that is well within the scope of public debate.   It is no different than the point we do not allow minors to purchase alcohol or tobacco or firearms or explosives.  Why can a ten year old not drive a car?   We limit their freedom because it is in the best interest of society.    

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