HMS Queen
Mary: Reliving history & election fraud
"But why do you like murder mysteries so much," you might ask. "Don't
you ever find all that blood and death to be depressing?" No, not
really. In fact, murder-mysteries actually give me hope and
inspiration.
When writing about political stuff like I do, it is always so very discouraging to stand by and watch helplessly as greedy, corrupt and/or sadistic politicians always seem to win every time. Take that last election for instance. The Repubs won bigtime in the Red States -- but only because they committed shameless election fraud http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/27009-voter-purges-alter-us-political-map. And now our Senate is going to be ruled by a bunch of greedy blood-thirsty morons -- and the Blue States are gonna once again be frog-marched down the garden path to Hooverville as an illegally-elected minority once again forces us to pay for unnecessary wars and to give our natural resources away tax-free to right-wing billionaires. Yuck.
When writing about political stuff like I do, it is always so very discouraging to stand by and watch helplessly as greedy, corrupt and/or sadistic politicians always seem to win every time. Take that last election for instance. The Repubs won bigtime in the Red States -- but only because they committed shameless election fraud http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/27009-voter-purges-alter-us-political-map. And now our Senate is going to be ruled by a bunch of greedy blood-thirsty morons -- and the Blue States are gonna once again be frog-marched down the garden path to Hooverville as an illegally-elected minority once again forces us to pay for unnecessary wars and to give our natural resources away tax-free to right-wing billionaires. Yuck.
For the next two grim years, it's gonna be Jim Crow, Dixiecrats and the
Confederate secession all over again in America -- except that
apparently no one is going to stand up and fight for American democracy
this time. You can just bet that no court in the land is going to be
brave enough throw that fraudulent election out. Bye-bye to the
Republic for which we stand. "Move along please. No Washingtons or
Lincolns left to see here."
Yes, the 2014 election was good for the wingnuts in the Red States -- but bad for America. Virtue had failed to triumph once again. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2014/11/heres-special-guest-blog-about-rigged.html
Yes, the 2014 election was good for the wingnuts in the Red States -- but bad for America. Virtue had failed to triumph once again. http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2014/11/heres-special-guest-blog-about-rigged.html
And this is exactly why I love murder mysteries so much. At the end of
every single crime-fiction book that I read, justice always triumphs.
Justice always triumphs. Never the bad guys. Not like in politics.
However, what I really want to write about here isn't the grubbiness of
today's politics but rather about the grand and stately HMS Queen Mary,
where I was lucky enough to stay at while I was in Long Beach last
week. The City of Long Beach has totally restored this amazing ship and
turned it into
a hotel.
Little-known fact: The Queen Mary is actually bigger than the Titanic.
Sleeping
aboard the Queen Mary was like reliving history. It was awesome. I
expected the ghost of Winston Churchill to show up right there in my
stateroom at any moment. And I think that he actually did. Late one
night, the cabin lights flickered spookily, my stateroom suddenly turned
all chillingly cold and I could even smell a strange whiff of cigar
smoke. Plus (and this actually happened) the fire alarm suddenly went
off and everyone on my floor had to leave the ship at 2:00 am. Thanks a
lot, Winston.
I loved being completely enveloped in history like that. And I would
do it again in a heartbeat. There is so much that we can learn from the
past and even sometimes actually experience it ourselves.
Maybe I should try to go sleep in the Lincoln bedroom
next!
But there is also a whole bunch of history now being repeated these
days that is actually stupid and dumb and dumber. As mentioned above
for instance, the American Red States are currently trying their best to
drag America down to their own selfish, racist and greedy
level -- in a complete replay of 1860.
But despite all this current propaganda crap about the good old days of the antebellum South being pushed on us now, there really was nothing sweet or glamorous about the Ole South back in the first half of the 19th century. It was a culture based on human misery. And now the Southern good ol' boys in Washington are trying to palm their love of human misery off onto the rest of us once again. History repeats itself.
But despite all this current propaganda crap about the good old days of the antebellum South being pushed on us now, there really was nothing sweet or glamorous about the Ole South back in the first half of the 19th century. It was a culture based on human misery. And now the Southern good ol' boys in Washington are trying to palm their love of human misery off onto the rest of us once again. History repeats itself.
History is also repeating itself in other ways
too. For instance, the HMS Queen Mary was built between World War I and World War II http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/10/27/1918-when-war-ended-though-others-would-follow
It was then used to be a troop ship back in World War II. And now our
so-called grand leaders in Washington appear to be trying everything
within their power to get us into World War
III as well http://robinwestenra.blogspot.com/2014/11/more-on-mh17.html.
And to also reenact
their beloved Cold War too. What a waste of time and money -- bringing
out the worst in whatever America has ever done, the very worst in all
of our past. Uggghhh.
However. Nobody here in America seems to be willing to recreate the awesome 1776 era of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitutional Convention of 1787 -- or even our most creative times either. The sweet little Hudson River school of painting comes immediately to mind. Make art, not war!
However. Nobody here in America seems to be willing to recreate the awesome 1776 era of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitutional Convention of 1787 -- or even our most creative times either. The sweet little Hudson River school of painting comes immediately to mind. Make art, not war!
And speaking of art, Her Majesty's Ship the Queen Mary is also a work
of art too -- with miles of wood paneling and a tea room and powerful
engines and a Queen's Salon that made my heart sing. But Americans just
spent eleven trillion dollars on war. War never
makes anyone's heart
sing.
PPS: I'm about to go in for surgery on my left wrist because the bone didn't set properly the first time I broke it back in July of 2013 and it still hurts a lot. Let us please hope that this "pretty big procedure" is not going to be a repeat of the great bone-break of 2013! Ouch.
