The fuckin soffets

In the annals of military history there are many great Generals. U.S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Patton, come to mind. Then there are those who you may not have heard of. Generals like Ambrose Burnside, George McClellan, Joseph Johnston. The reason you may not of heard of these guys is well..they kind of sucked at their jobs. This article is about one in particular George Brinton McClellan. Graduate of West Point with an unmistakable air of professionalism about about him McClellan came to Washington at a time when all seemed lost. The Union Army of the Potomac had been routed at Bull Run and had straggled into Washington afterwards confused and demoralized. The General the pressed dubbed the 'Young Napoleon,' at first seemed to do everything right organizing the units into neat camps around Washington and drilling and training the men all day. McClellan inspired loyalty in pride in his troops. As historian Shelby Foote noted 'His specialty was preparing troops for battle. McClellan trained that army, whatever that army did in its later years was due to the training McClellan gave them in that first year.' Yet as summer turned to fall and later winter Abe Lincoln and his cabinet began to wonder why McClellan, now in command of 100,000 men, did not move this mighty host against the Confederates. When pressed McClellan would come up with a host of excuses, he didn't have enough men, he was ill, they weren't prepared. As Secretary of war Edwin Stanton observed 'If he had a million men he would swear the enemy had two million, and cry in the mud and ask for three.' Finally in the spring of 1862 McClellan launched what became known as the Peninsula campaign, moving his might host up the York/James peninsula in an attempt to move on Richmond. Even though McClellan outnumbered Lee, Lee kept up the offensive. After seven days of fighting in which the Union army won all but one of the engagements McClellan retreated to Harrisons landing. One officer suggested the General was motivated by 'Cowardice or treason.' And as one observer noted he had been 'He was simply out-Generaled.' Lee had read McClellan cautious nature and had taken the offensive from the start. Whilst McClellan preferred a defensive strategy. Many historians have argued where this apparent lack of will to fight came from. I think one of the factors is he simply didn't have the stomach for it. Writing to his wife Mary Ellen he wrote 'I grow tired of the sickening sight of the battlefield with its mangled limbs and poor suffering wounded. Victory had no glory for me when purchased at such cost.' True the battlefield is a sobering place. But your'e a goddamn General for chirst sake! Thats me saying as a line cook that I don't like doing multiple slips at one time, its part of your fucking job. After the peninsula campaign McClellan eventually faced Lee again at Antietam in Maryland where he was able to push Lee back into Virginia after his invasion of Maryland. Finally after Antietam and McClellan lack of follow up Lincoln ended up firing him. It took a long time for hold honest Abe to find a General who had what it takes to take on Bobby Lee but he finally found one in Ulysses S. Grant probably the exact opposite of McClellan, quiet, unpretentious, not found of military displays or parades. If I were old Abe I could have fired him long before.

This station is now the ultimate power in the universe.

Women are fuckin' nuts. Forgive me if I now go on a tirade but I speak the truth. As anyone who has been through an intense breakup or divorce can testify to women can turn on you. In a second, a blink of an eye. It can go from being all roses and good times to 'fuck you I don't want anything to do with you.' It can baffle you sometimes. I am continually baffled by it. I was watching this documentary on the history channel about this outlaw motorcycle gang and their ways and manners. And one member was talking about how basically they treat their women like property but that women still always want to be with them. This is what baffles us normal non-abusing, cheating folk. I was talking to a girl at my work who was wondering why this one guy was with this girl saying 'I've been with guys who have hit me, who have cheated on me why can't I get someone like him.' We too wonder why you keep going with those assholes, it remains a great mystery. One that most likely will not be solved anytime soon. I don't understand I don't get it. My good friend Katrina Bell once said that women are 'cruel, vicious, creatures.' And I think it rings true. Its just never said amidst the whole 'Girls are sugar and spice and everything nice.' Its an intense thing having a girlfriend, doing right. As hard as having a normal friend plus the whole sex thing. Someday i'll figure it out.

After midnight, we gonna let it all hang down.

'That sucked.' Those were my words or something of that nature after my first day of Kindergarten according to my Mom. Not that I don't remember an experience that would merit such a response. And that feeling pretty much sums up my experience in later years in school. I was always singled out for being 'different.' I was put in special ed programs for years taught by people that were well intentioned but it was obvious that funds were lacking. And I never felt like I learned anything. Beyond basic aspects of interacting with people of my own age group. But in terms of learning and gaining new knowledge it was few and far between. And I've always had something of a complex because of it. I see some people my sister for example who seem to be able to do the academic thing so well and excel at it. But I just don't feel it. I feel like school totally takes everything that is fun and good about reading and learning new things and makes it horrible. As I have grown older whenever I meet an older person they always ask me 'are you in school?' and I never know what to say. You say 'no.' I suppose they think you are some kind of a slacker. Sometimes I feel like saying 'You know what? I've had ten plus years of school and I did not enjoy it.' Maybe i'm insane, full of shit, its hard to say. But I never liked it. I remember in third grade I had this one special ed teacher who was well intentioned but had the worst breath. Like liver and onions type of deal. And she would always get really close to you when she talked which just exascerbated the problem. But I just never fit in never felt like part of the crowd.

Pickett's horrible charge

Today is July 3rd. In 1863 at Gettysburg Confederate general Robert E. Lee committed one of the most colossal blunders in military history, Pickett's charge. It was directed at the Union position on cemetery ridge and little round top where Joshua Lawrence Chamberlin's 20th Maine had fought a famous engagement the day before. It was through a half mile of open field with no cover at all. Suicide. The logic had been that an artillery barrage on the Union position an hour before would break down the defenses early. Some historians say Robert E. Lee was perhaps a little cocky. Indeed he may have had good reason to be given the fact that he had defeated or at least fought well against the Army of the Potomac many times before. General James Longstreet, one of his closest officers strongly disagrees. As historian Ed Bearss points out he had seen the carnage at Marye's heights in Fredericksburg, Virginia where a year before Union troops under Ambrose Burnside had made a disastrous and suicidal charge against a stone wall there. In fact as Lee's legions had come on the waiting Union troops had chanted 'Fredericksburg,Fredericksburg.' remembering that battle. It certainly must have been a morale booster for an army which had such a bad record at that time the result of poor generalship. Fredericksburg had cost 13,000 casualties and had helped give leverage to a movement to end the war. The units that went on Pickett's charge suffered 60 percent casualties. As they got closer they got hit with canister and grapeshot. Canister is basically a can packed with balls which when fired disperses cutting a wide swath through the enemy ranks. Now imagine several of those going off at the same time. As put in Ken Burns documentary 'Entire regiment's disappeared.' Lee never regained his offensive momentum after that. On July 3rd Vicksburg, Mississippi fell a crucial port of goods and with it the Confederacy's hope of victory. They were effectively cut in two. Parkers Hills a tour guide who I listened to when I went to Vicksburg said that basically after Gettysburg the war could have been over but the south chose to go on. As Shelby Foote says 'Especially that they were not going to get foreign recognition without which we wouldn't have won the first revolution.' England would simply not support a nation built by and maintained by slave labor. The people wouldn't stand for it. Anyhow whenever its a hot day around two o' clock in the afternoon, I think of those soldiers about to make that charge.

Fuckin' A.

The Mob killed JFK. Well not the Mob by itself but the Mob in collusion with the CIA. At face value this seems absurd. Sure you say the Mafia is a violent ruthless organization but carry out a hit on the Chief executive of the United States? Fuhghedaboutit! Wrong I say because the Mafia had both the motivation and the capability at that time to make it happen. The Mafia in the 60's was a far more powerful vibrant organization than the mob of today. During the 1950's the Mob was making millions of dollars in revenue from the casino it had set up in Cuba. Thanks to their partnership with with dictator Flugencio Batista the Mob had free reign on the island. When revolutionary Fidel Castro and his band of rebels overthrew the despot in 1959 a lot of wiseguy's from Florida to Brooklyn were not happy. After all they were taking a huge hit financially and a wiseguy's biggest concern is money. Johnny Roselli of the Chicago outfit had collaborated with the CIA in the early 60's in various efforts to oust Castro and the failure of the Bay of Pigs in 1961 must have further roiled some tempers. Also there was the matter of JFK's brother Bobby who was doing everything in his power as Attorney General to make life hell for the mobsters. They were pissed about this because the patriarch of the Kennedy clan Joe Kennedy had used his influence with the Chicago outfit to help get JFK elected. Frank Ragano, Santo Trafficante's longtime lawyer recalled a conversation with the Mob boss years later in which the aging mobster told him in Sicilian 'We shouldn't have killed Giovanni.' It could have been just boasting, or was it?

Have I ever told you how much I fucking hate IMs?

I was thinking recently about leadership. More specifically Generalship. How sometimes a commander who is beloved by his men might not always be effective on the battlefield. George McClellan considered by some in the northern press as the 'young Napoleon.' Who after months of plodding slowly advanced towards richmond. He was beloved by his men who thought of him as something of a father figure. Yet as a General he failed to get much done. As opposed to someone like Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson who was not always like by his men but followed because of his many victories. Long marches and gruesome scenes of battle. That it what total war is, right into the present. Grant who by no means wanted to see the casualties of war was prepared to accept them as a sacrifice to end the war. 'War is the remedy our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.' William Tecumseh Sherman said that and it pretty much sums up what he saw what no one else saw in the early days that this was total war. Countrymen against countrymen, brother against brother. Still McClellan was not prepare to accept this fact writing to his wife: 'I am tired to the sickening sight of the battlefield with its mangled limbs and rotting corpses, victory has no charms for me when purchased at such cost.' Then stop being a general you asshole find a new line of work. If you can't accept what it will mean then back
down. Stonewall Jackson rode his men hard but it paid off. Joseph Johnston also on the Confederate side was beloved by his men but notorious for retreating and being overly cautious. There was a story about Johnston before the Civil war. He was with a group of officers from west point hunting. When they came back he hadn't bagged even one. He was a good shot, they said but he was to hesitant always waiting for the perfect shot and in the end not shooting. McClellan may have been acting to not see more of his men dead, but his reluctance and hesitation in the end cost more lives and prolonged the war longer then it needed to be. 'War is the remedy our enemies have chosen and I say give them all they want.'Sherman said and it took a long while for people to realize what a total war it would be.

Yes indeed

A few years back on Thanksgiving I was watching a PBS documentary about Charles Shulz the creator of peanuts. I've forgotten the exact quote but he said something like 'When someone says 'I feel like Charlie Brown today.' you know what that means.' I thought that was fascinating. Because godamnit I do know what that means and how that feels. To wake up just feeling alienated and isolated and just plain fucking bummed out and you just don't know why. I remember in the documentary too how they talked about how Shulz himself was a very depressed inward kind of person. And how he pored his heart and soul into that comic strip. And how after he died he wouldn't let anyone else take over for him. And god bless him for it, I say. Because that strip was his work and he felt very personally about it. And he continued to draw it up until his death. And the football the Charlie brown tries to kick every time only to have it taken away by Lucy. How he talked about how he couldn't let him kick that football. That football represents something I think. Although i'm not sure what. That one thing that we are all striving for that somehow gets away from us. That demon we are chasing that always seems to elude us.