Real road rage

Earlier today NewMexiKen wrote about George Marshall’s commute. Commuting in the nation’s capital, as NewMexiKen did for more than 14 years, is difficult at best, frightening at worst.

While riding in a car pool many years ago, our driver became extremely agitated when cut off. As some do, he accelerated to cut back in front of the car he believed had wronged him. Not good. The car that had cut us off was a security chase vehicle attempting to stay in proximity to FBI Director William Webster’s car. Fortunately, before guns were drawn, the agents protecting the director realized our driver was just an aggravated commuter and not a real threat. But for a moment…

Presumption of innocence

Talk Left has a very interesting take on O.J.

A surprise new purge

The Oregonian is concerned about Florida:

We confidently predict that the outcome of the 2004 presidential election will not hang on paper ballots’ “hanging chads” in Florida. We are immensely troubled, though, that the Nov. 2 Election Day winner could be determined by denying the vote to thousands of Floridians, predominantly African Americans, who will be purged wrongly — and in our view illegally — from the voter rolls.

Read more from The Oregonian editorial.

Thanks to Lee for the pointer.

Very fishy

From The Sideshow:

Found in the 29 May issue of The Week:

An American Christian group is lobbying to have the whale reclassified as a fish, because that is how the animal is described in the story of Jonah. “the Bible is God’s own words,” says a spokesman for Concerned Christians for Education Reform. “If the Lord says the whale is a ‘great fish’, it’s a fish. Period.”

Xanadu

From the Los Angeles Times:

California officials and Hearst Corp. have reached a tentative agreement on a $95-million deal to preserve most of the rolling hills and grassy tablelands of the Hearst Ranch around San Simeon, which have long served as a picturesque gateway to Big Sur.

Under the proposed accord, which California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman announced after months of negotiations, the state would buy about 1,400 acres west of Highway 1. The purchase would make public about 13 miles of the state’s best-known undeveloped stretch of coast — a land of cliffs, rocky outcrops and short beaches colonized by lounging elephant seals.

Hearst Corp. would retain ownership of four parcels along the coast, totaling five miles of shoreline. At the base of one of those parcels — San Simeon Point — the company, owned by a family foundation, would retain the right to build a 100-room hotel based on architectural plans of Julia Morgan, who designed Hearst Castle.

The corporation would allow some public access across each of the parcels by way of the California Coastal Trail, a work in progress that is designed to run the length of the state.

On the rest of the roughly 120-square-mile cattle ranch that surrounds Hearst Castle, a “conservation easement” would prevent most development. The ranch reaches from the coastline far into the forests and rangeland of the Santa Lucia Mountains in northern San Luis Obispo County.

Hearst Corp. would keep the right to build 27 homes deep in the canyons so long as they were out of view of the highway and Hearst Castle, which is owned and operated by state park officials. The homes are presumably for family members, but could be sold to outsiders, according to negotiators. The family has owned the ranch since 1865.

The triple crown

From Morning Briefing in the Los Angeles Times:

Which is harder to win, the Triple Crown of baseball or the Triple Crown of horse racing?

In the past 117 years, there have been 17 Triple Crown winners in baseball. In the past 122 years, there have been 11 Triple Crown winners in horse racing.

The last Triple Crown winners in baseball were Frank Robinson in 1966 and Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. The last Triple Crown winner in horse racing was Affirmed in 1978.

Tom Durkin, who will call today’s Belmont Stakes for NBC, said on a conference call this week, “There’s no question that the Triple Crown of horse racing is more difficult. How many years did Willie Mays play? Twenty years? [Actually 22]. He had 20 chances to do it. Smarty Jones has one. That’s it.”

Dissenting vote: Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News claims the Triple Crown debate is a walkover for baseball.

“Think about it,” he wrote. “To claim a spot in his sport’s pantheon, Smarty Jones has to be better than a dozen or so horses for just more than six minutes.

“To win baseball’s Triple Crown, a hitter must be at the top of his game for six grinding months … competing against hundreds of the best.”

The Marshall Plan II

Marshall is one of the truly great Americans. He was Army chief of staff during World War II (and the first five-star general in American history), secretary of state 1947-1949, and secretary of defense 1950-1951 (at age 72). Marshall received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.

According to one story told to NewMexiKen, Marshall lived near Leesburg, Virginia, some 35 miles from Washington. As a cabinet officer Marshall was entitled to a car and driver for his commute. Marshall, however, thought it was unreasonable for the taxpayers to pay when he chose to live so far out. So each day he drove himself 23 miles to Tysons Corner, Virginia, where he was met by his driver for the few miles remaining of the trip to the office.

Not many like Marshall anymore.

The Marshall Plan

Secretary of State George C. Marshall announced what became known as the Marshall Plan at a speech at Harvard University’s graduation ceremonies on this date in 1947. The State Department provides this brief summary:

Europe, still devastated by the war, had just survived one of the worst winters on record. The nations of Europe had nothing to sell for hard currency, and the democratic socialist governments in most countries were unwilling to adopt the draconian proposals for recovery advocated by old-line classical economists. Something had to be done, both for humanitarian reasons and also to stop the potential spread of communism westward.

The United States offered up to $20 billion for relief, but only if the European nations could get together and draw up a rational plan on how they would use the aid. For the first time, they would have to act as a single economic unit; they would have to cooperate with each other. Marshall also offered aid to the Soviet Union and its allies in eastern Europe, but Stalin denounced the program as a trick and refused to participate. The Russian rejection probably made passage of the measure through Congress possible.

The Marshall Plan, it should be noted, benefited the American economy as well. The money would be used to buy goods from the United States, and they had to be shipped across the Atlantic on American merchant vessels. But it worked. By 1953 the United States had pumped in $13 billion, and Europe was standing on its feet again. Moreover, the Plan included West Germany, which was thus reintegrated into the European community.

Robert Kennedy

was shot by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan early on this date in 1968. The 42-year-old brother of assassinated president John Kennedy died the next day. Read the story from The New York Times.

Sirhan’s snubnosed .22-caliber Iver Johnson Cadet model revolver, which wounded five individuals in addition to killing Senator Kennedy.

Doroteo Arango…

was born on this date in 1878. He became known as Pancho Villa.

Read what NewMexiKen posted about Pancho Villa’s 1916 raid on Columbus, New Mexico — the last raid on American soil by a foreign force until 2001.

Unequivocal

Retired General William Tecumseh Sherman wired the Republican national convention on this date 120 years ago to say, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”

Sherman did not want a deadlocked convention to nominate him. On the fourth ballot the Republicans nominated James G. Blaine, who lost to Grover Cleveland.