Black Legion

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Although I watched the 1937 movie titled Black Legion because it was a vehicle for the early acting career of Humphrey Bogart, it very much reminded me of the shenanigans of modern-day white supremacists such as D. J. (Dishonest John) Drumph. If you get a chance, listen closely to the anti-foreigner diatribe and the blaming of the woes of all upright (white) Americans on someone else … often referred to as The Other.

Although the Black Legion was an offshoot of the more well-known hate-group, the Klu Klux Klan (KKK which is easier for the members to spell), the real message all Americans should be hearing in the movie or real-life screed is that these white supremacists are out to vilify and destroy anyone who is not like them. Depending on the period of history, this has included such groups as Italians, Poles, Irish, Jews, Muslims, Africans, homosexuals, gypsies, and anyone born South of the Border from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego.

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Is Race a Bigger Myth Than God?

Liberty ShipI grew up in San Diego, California, although I was born in North Carolina and my folks were from Arizona. Right after the war we lived in what is now a very posh area of San Diego—Point Loma—but when my Dad got into San Diego State College on the G. I. Bill, we moved to married student’s housing down by the jetty in Old Town. Most of the living arrangements in that area of town were temporary plywood multi-units built for the influx of workers for the war industries: building airplanes and ships. In Southern California where the weather is friendly, temporary buildings tend to last a long time. When I came home from New Jersey to surprise my buddy who was getting married, they held his bachelor party in a newly built townhouse on the side of a long hill where, until that visit, I would see only those old two-story plywood firetraps still being used to house the less fortunate of San Diego.

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What is a Classic?

Who's on FirstThis is  classic:

Lou: I love baseball. When we get to St. Louis, will you tell me the guys’ name on the team so when I go to see them in that St. Louis ball park I’ll be able to know those fellows?

Bud: All right. but you know, strange as it may seems, they give ball players nowadays very peculiar names, nick names, like “Dizzy Dean.” Now on the St. Louis team we have Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know is on third —

Lou: That’s what I want to find out. I want you to tell me the names of the fellows on the St. Louis team.

Bud: I’m telling you. Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know is on third —

Lou: You know the fellows’ names?

Bud: Yes.

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