Natasha Trethewey has reacted humbly to her selection as the 19th Poet Laureate for the U.S. Library of Congress, even though she’s unintentionally broken the mold. At 46, she’s the youngest U.S. Poet Laureate and, as a native of Gulfport, Mississippi, she’s only the second one from the South. Poetry often has been considered the ugly stepchild of the literary world; no one wants to deal with it unless it’s absolutely necessary. But, Trethewey approaches the craft “without preaching,” said James Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
Trethewey has attained some significant accomplishments, notably receiving the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for her collection “Native Guard.” She is the author of two prior poetry collections, “Domestic Work,” (2000) and “Bellocq’s Ophelia” (2002), and the 2010 nonfiction book, “Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.” Another collection of poetry, “Thrall,” is set to be published later this year.
Trethewey discovered her poetic muse after a brutal personal tragedy. While still a college alpahmore, her stepfather killed her mother. Trethewey started writing poems “as a response to that great loss.”
Trethewey, who is currently Mississippi’s poet laureate, will serve the term as U.S. poet laureate concurrently. She has elected to live and work in Washington from January through May of 2013, becoming the first U.S. poet laureate to choose to work in the Poets Room at the Library of Congress during her term.
Albert Kahn was a French-born banker and philanthropist who amassed a collection of color photographs produced in the early 1900’s, when color photography was rare and expensive. He used his fortune to commission individual photographers to travel to more than 50 countries around the world and capture their unique cultures on film. Kahn’s gallery of over 72,000 autochromes remained mostly hidden until recently, when the BBC embarked on an ambitious project to bring them into the public domain. These particular photographs were taken in Mongolia in 1913.
A hunter near Urga
A woman sentenced to starvation death
Badamdorj in vicinity of the Yellow Palace, Urga
Carriage of Stefan Passe between Kykhta and Urga
Lama
Lamas at the Yellow Palace
Married woman in Urga
Outside Urga, the capital city
Mongolian yurtas, large round tents with vertical walls and conical roofs
Street in Urga
Stupas, dome-shaped monuments used to house Buddhist relics, in Urga
Actor – comedian Jerry Stiller (Seinfeld, The King of Queens, Hairspray, Tattingers) is 85.
Comedienne – author Joan Rivers (Joan Alexandra Molinsky) is 79.
Actor Bernie Casey (Roots: The Next Generation, The Bay City Blues, In the Mouth of Madness, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Rent-A- Cop, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, Backfire) is 73.
Singer Nancy Sinatra (These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, Sugar Town, Somethin’ Stupid) is 72.
632 – Mohammed, the founder of Islam, died in Medina, near present-day Saudi Arabia.
A folio from an early Quran, written in Kufic script (Abbasid period, 8th–9th century).
1783 – Iceland’s Laki Volcano erupted and spewed lava continuously for eight months. One of the most violent of volcanic eruptions ever recorded, it killed 9,350 people and caused a famine which lasted until 1790.
1786 – Commercial ice cream was manufactured for the first time in New York City.
1810 – Composer Robert Schumann (Symphonic Etudes, Fantasia in C Major, Concerto in a Minor) was born in Saxony, Germany.
1867 – Architect Frank Lloyd Wright (Pennsylvania’s Falling Water, NYC’s Guggenheim Museum) was born in Richland Center, WI.
1869 – Ives W. McGaffey of Chicago, IL, received a U.S. patent for the suction vacuum cleaner.
1874 – Chief Cochise, a leader of the Apache Indians, died on the Chiricahua Reservation in southeastern Arizona.
“Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a study between those that are on welfare and see how much and how often they read the Bible. You know, if Booker T. Washington is right that Christianity and reading the Bible increases your desires and therefore your ability for hard work; if we take that as an axiom, does that mean that the people who are getting government assistance spend nearly no time in the Bible, therefore have no desire, and therefore no ability for hard work? I could go a lot of places with this. I would love to see this proven out in some kind of sociological study, but it makes perfect sense.”
– David Barton, about a supposed connection linking welfare to failure to read the Bible.
Barton sits on the Texas State Board of Education as an alleged “expert” for the state’s social studies curriculum. That’s like saying Rick Santorum is an expert on birth control.
Beginning this weekend, the North Texas Water Garden Society will stage their 21st annual “Tour of Ponds.” This is when various homeowners throughout the entire Dallas / Fort Worth metropolitan area present their decorative ponds for public viewing. Former Dallas City Councilman Ron Natinsky and his wife, Nancy, are among the homeowners. But, Ron Natinsky has done something different with his pond; it features a quarter-mile of train tracks winding through a scenic village and a large water garden highlighted by a stream, a bridge and glimmering koi fish. Some men – myself included – never grow up when it comes to model trains, cars and the like.
“We visited Switzerland and Germany and we saw these miniature villages,” explains Natinsky. “I had to have one. These were big, man-sized toy trains.”
These sets are known as G Scale to toy-train enthusiasts and are roughly one-twentieth actual size. When Natinsky began his train collection about eight years ago, they were not readily available in this area, so he brought engines and train cars back from Europe. Now several area retailers sell garden train supplies, as well as many online businesses.
The Natinskys have created a backyard village with surprising details. A doughnut shop has a police officer standing out front; a pair of sunbathers lounge under the protection of a dinosaur; and a miniature Love Field hangar is home to several airplanes. The area is kept in scale with dwarf vegetation such as mugo pines and dwarf yaupon hollies, Japanese maples and pomegranates. These are just a handful of photos of the Natinsky setup. Check out this 360 view. All photos by Lara Solt, Dallas Morning News staff photographer.
Ron and Nancy Natinsky oversee the garden railroad at their North Dallas home.
Several dwarf ornamental plants, including a pomegranate, landscape the area around the pond.
Ron Natinsky saw garden railroad setups in Europe and told his wife he had to have one for his own.
Ron Natinsky rearranges a miniature gas station in preparation for the pond tour on Saturday and Sunday.
The Natinskys’ address is one of more than 30 included in the North Texas Water Garden Society’s 21st annual event.
Singer Tom Jones (It’s Not Unusual, She’s a Lady, What’s New Pussycat?, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, Without Love, Delilah, Love Me Tonight, Green Green Grass of Home, Sex Bomb) is 72.
Poet Nikki Giovanni (The Women and the Men, My House) is 69.
Actor Ken Osmond (Leave It to Beaver, High School U.S.A.) is 69.
Actor Liam Neeson (Excalibur, The Dead Pool, Ethan Frome, Schindler’s List, Rob Roy) is 60.
Singer – songwriter – guitarist – music producer Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson; I Wanna be Your Lover, When Doves Cry, Let’s Go Crazy, Purple Rain, Raspberry Beret, Kiss) is 54.
Actress Gia Carides (Primary Colors, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, A Secret Affair) is 48.
Guitarist David M. Navarro (Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 45.
Hockey player Mike Modano (Minnesota North Stars, Dallas Stars) is 42.
1848 – Artist Paul Gaugin (The Yellow Christ, Where Do We Come From? Where Are We? Where Are We Going?) was born in Paris.
1866 – Chief Seattle, for whom the Seattle, WA, is named, died in a nearby coastal village.
1909 – Physician Virginia Apgar, developed the Apgar Score System, a method of evaluating newborns’ need for medical care, was born in Westfield, NJ.
1913 – Hudson Stuck, an Alaskan missionary, led the first successful ascent of Mt. McKinley, the highest point on the North American continent.
1917 – Poet Gwendolyn Brooks (Annie Allen, We Real Cool, The Bean Eaters, Winnie, Coming Home) was born in Topeka, KS.
1917 – Dean Martin (Dino Paul Crocetti; singer: Memories are Made of This, Return to Me, Everybody Loves Somebody, The Door is Still Open to My Heart, Houston; actor: My Friend Irma, Hollywood or Bust, Airport) was born in Steubenville, OH.
1939 – King George VI became the first British monarch to visit the United States, when he and his wife, Elizabeth, crossed the U.S. – Canadian border at Niagara Falls, NY.
1942 – The 4-day “Battle of Midway” – one of the most decisive victories in the U.S. war against Japan – came to an end. But then, Japanese soldiers landed on and temporarily took control of the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska, marking the only time foreign military personnel occupied U.S. territory during World War II. The Japanese killed 25 American troops in the initial assault, but the U.S. wouldn’t recapture the islands until the following year.
Mitt Romney probably won’t admit it, but his father – the late George Romney, a successful business executive and two-term Michigan governor – was a Mexican. Not an ethnic Mexican – as someone of at least partial Mexican Indian extraction, such as myself – but a Mexican by birth. George Romney was born in Galeana, Chihuahua, México in 1907. His father, Gaskell Romney, and grandfather, Miles Park Romney, had moved to the region with their families 22 years earlier, after leaving their homes in Utah. But, the mere thought of calling his own father a Mexican apparently makes Mitt Romney squirm. This past January, when he appeared at Miami Dade College for an interview with Univision, the large Spanish-language network, host Jorge Ramos asked whether the “severely conservative” former Massachusetts governor felt he was Mexican-American. It certainly put Romney in a tough spot. If he said yes, he could alienate himself from the conservative and mostly non-Hispanic White voting base. But, if he said no, he could lose one of the largest demographics in the United States. Instead, like a true politician, he deflected the possibility by answering, “I would love to be able to convince people of that, particularly in a Florida primary. But I think that might be disingenuous on my part.” Where’s the birther crowd when you need them?
Mitt Romney likes to claim that his family fled Utah to avoid government-induced religious persecution; wandering like some lost tribe of Israel until they found a place they could call home: the heart of the Mexican desert. There, they could finally live in peace and take care of their own; being completely self-sufficient, while intermingling with their Indian neighbors who were friendly and otherwise oblivious to the plight of the tortured Romneys. Supposedly, if the Romneys hadn’t run for their lives, according to Mitt’s mythology, they would have been forced to sacrifice their dignity and practice a more mainstream Christian faith. On one level, Romney insinuates his family’s flight to México is comparable to that of Jews fleeing Nazi Europe; lest they be annihilated because of their faith. But, on another, he implies that his family’s ordeals mirror those of Native Americans; people whom European interlopers denounced as vermin who could only survive if they adopted Christianity. What drama! What poetry! What a lie!
In reality, the Romneys moved to México to continue their polygamous lifestyles. Many other Mormon families relocated to México in the late 1800’s, while others moved to Canada. The United States had passed its first piece of legislation banning polygamy in 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act into law. But, it didn’t do much to enforce it, since the nation was overwhelmed by the Civil War. However, in the 1870’s, the U.S. began cracking down on polygamy. Mormon men – not wanting to relinquish their harems – simply reacted by moving outside the U.S. Both Gaskell Romney and Miles Park Romney had a gallery of wives. Fortunately, though, George Romney only had one. In 1911, Miles Park Romney returned to Utah with his family, as México descended into political and social chaos. That time they really were running for their lives. But, it’s an insult to real victims of religious and ethnic genocide for Mitt Romney to intimate that his ancestors suffered similar indignities.
George Romney met his future wife, Lenore LaFount, in high school. Lenore had aspired to be an actress; she even had a contract offered to her by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. But, as women were apt to do in those days – regardless of religion – she relinquished that ambition to marry George in 1931. By then, George had gone to work for Alcoa, an aluminum manufacturing company, and eventually rose to executive status. His job took the Romneys to Michigan where George switched over to American Motors, becoming its first CEO. In 1962, he ran successfully for Michigan governor, earning a second 2-year term in 1964 and then, a 4-year term in 1966. Two years later, he launched an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination; losing to Richard Nixon in the primaries. His support for civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam War surely cost him votes from the party faithful. Still, Nixon appointed Romney as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. After leaving that post in 1973, Romney began a life of public service. He died in 1995. Lenore Romney passed away 4 years later.
But, since George Romney was born in México, would he have qualified to run for president? The U.S. Constitution requires that the president be a natural born citizen. The 14th Amendment defines citizenship somewhat specifically: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Yet, Title 8 of the U.S. Code clarifies citizenship even further:
Anyone born inside the United States.*
Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States, provided being a citizen of the U.S. does not impair the person’s status as a citizen of the tribe.
Anyone born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the U.S., as long as one parent has lived in the U.S.
Anyone born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national.
Anyone born in a U.S. possession, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year.
Anyone found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age 21.
Anyone born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time).
A final, historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.
* There is an exception in the law – the person must be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. This would exempt the child of a diplomat, for example, from this provision.
Anyone falling into these categories is considered natural-born, and therefore, is eligible to run for President or Vice President. These provisions allow the children of military families to be considered natural-born, for example. Thus, because his parents were born in the United States, George Romney was automatically a U.S. citizen.
And, so is Barack Obama, since his mother was born here. The birther crowd, however, still hasn’t figured that out, or – more accurately – won’t accept it. Sometimes, the truth just hurts too much. But, where are they to demand Mitt Romney’s long-form birth certificate? How do we know he was really born in Michigan? Don’t those conservative extremists who comprise the birther clan hate México as much as they do Kenya?
Oh, yes, of course. Kenya – Africa – Negro. That’s where the difference lies. George Romney was a full-blooded Caucasian. How silly of me to forget the Republican definition of an American. Either way, it’s interesting to note that, should Mitt Romney clinch the GOP nomination at the party’s convention in Tampa, I believe this will be the first time in U.S. history that the two primary candidates for the presidency both had fathers born in other countries.
Surprisingly – or perhaps not – many Romneys still reside in México; Anglo-American ranchers, farmers and business people who speak English and Spanish and consider Colonia Juarez home. It’s a slice of Americana in a land first occupied by the Tarahumara thousands of years ago. Some support their American cousin’s presidential ambitions, while others don’t; still others seem to have no opinion on the matter.
I have to admit I would relish the thought of a leftist version of the birthers demanding to see Mitt Romney’s birth certificate. The issue of his Mexican relatives has come up only sparsely in the popular media. But, while extremist liberals have some measure of lunacy in their ranks – denouncing the U.S. military as murderers, while supporting any defensive action taken by Israel, for example – I don’t think even they feel this would play well.
I don’t know what’s become of the birther gang in recent months. Either the media stopped giving them the attention they never really deserved, or the group finally discovered real issues to confront like – you know – the economy. I suppose they slinked away quietly once President Obama produced his long form birth certificate last year. Their self-anointed leader, Russian-born California attorney / dentist Orly Taitz, however, still rears her peroxide-coated head, squawking here and there. It’s an extreme insult that Taitz – a foreigner – has the audacity to say Barack Obama isn’t qualified to be the President of the United States because he allegedly was born in another country. I’d like to see that chick’s immigration papers.
México’s citizenship requirements mirror those of the United States rather closely, so Mitt Romney and his siblings therefore, would qualify as Mexican citizens. My father and I technically would fall into the same category since our respective mothers were born in México. But, while my paternal grandmother made a concerted effort to attain U.S. citizenship in the 1940’s, my mother was already an American citizen at birth because her father was born – in Michigan. This citizenship stuff can be as fun as it is complicated.
A few weeks ago, on his CNN show “AC360,” host Anderson Cooper spoke with Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer about a statement Schweitzer had made claiming Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith would be an “electoral liability” with female and Hispanic voters.
“I was saying that Mitt Romney currently has a problem with Latino voters,” Schweitzer said later in defense of his remarks. “And it is ironic that his father had come from México. You could think he could embrace his Latino roots. I wasn’t talking about anybody’s religion. In fact, in my comments I simply said that Mitt Romney is not a polygamist, doesn’t support polygamy and neither does the Mormon Church.” Schweitzer said that he was trying to explain Romney’s problem connecting with Latino voters and women when he told The Daily Beast that Romney’s “family came from a polygamy commune in México.”
I guess Mitt Romney will have trouble living down that polygamy thing, which – unlike the birther gang charges against Obama – is actually based in fact. But even now, I can see rumors in the press: Mitt Romney is keeping a cluster of other wives locked up in the White House with Ann Romney, as the figure head First Lady and “Chief Sister Wife.” Secret Service agents running themselves ragged trying to keep up with so many women who aren’t prostitutes and so many kids who can’t storm through the Rose Garden. A clandestine tunnel from Colonia Juarez to the White House wine cellar. So many possibilities with so many untruths! A Mexican telenovela couldn’t do it any better.
Chief Writing Wolf 
Quote of the Day
“Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a study between those that are on welfare and see how much and how often they read the Bible. You know, if Booker T. Washington is right that Christianity and reading the Bible increases your desires and therefore your ability for hard work; if we take that as an axiom, does that mean that the people who are getting government assistance spend nearly no time in the Bible, therefore have no desire, and therefore no ability for hard work? I could go a lot of places with this. I would love to see this proven out in some kind of sociological study, but it makes perfect sense.”
– David Barton, about a supposed connection linking welfare to failure to read the Bible.
Barton sits on the Texas State Board of Education as an alleged “expert” for the state’s social studies curriculum. That’s like saying Rick Santorum is an expert on birth control.
1 Comment
Filed under News
Tagged as David Barton, revisionist history, stupid comments, Texas State Board of Education