Monday

                         Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Today's beauty ideal, strictly enforced by the media, is a person with the same level of body fat as a paper clip. By today's beauty standards, Marilyn Monroe was an oil tanker.”

                                                 Dave Barry

The Babylonians of the 1800 century BC were led by a king named Hammurabi. A dolite finger shaped stelae was found by an Egyptian archaeologist in 1901. The stelae had all 261 laws of Hammurabi engraved on the side. Later there were found identical markings on several clay tablets. They were all written in the Akkadian language that was still in use at the time of Christ. We must keep in mind that the Hebrews were captured and enslaved by the Babylonians on three different occasions and there is little doubt that Jewish law absorbed part of the Hammurabi law into their own. Here are a few of them that will smack of present day law:

If a man and a woman married and there is no intercourse, she is not his wife. In these days an “annulment” quickly follows the absence of sex in a marriage if either partner objects.

Hammurabi said if a man takes another man’s child he shall be put to death. Back in the 1930’s the Charles Lindbergh baby was kidnapped and killed. Bruno Hauptman, an illegal German immigrant was captured, tried and convicted on the flimsiest of evidence of this horrible crime and a year later he was executed by electric chair in Trenton, New Jersey.

Hammurabi law stated that if a man accused another of a crime the accused would be required to jump in the river and if he died, the accuser would gain the man’s house and lands. However, if the jumper survived, the accuser would be killed and the accused would gain all of his lands and house. It hasn’t been that long ago that “affairs of honor” were settled in duels. The Hammurabi law is very close to this. This law also prevented trivial accusations...it could cost you your life if the person accused is a good swimmer.

It appears that The Babylonia law system of sorts existed. The Executive and Legislative branch was the king, the Judicial and enforcement branch was the “elders”. Nearly all serious cases came before the “elders” for judgment. There were defined punishments for a given crime but the punishment had a little “wiggle room” dependent upon circumstances.

Even judges that convicted a man that later proved to be innocent, the judge was executed.

It seems a harsh method of justice but they were harsh people and Hammurabi knew that.

       This Date in History   December 12

1862 In early November US President A. Lincoln replaced the commander of the Army of the Potomac, US General George B, McClellan, with US General Ambrose Burnside. Burnside almost immediately begins plans for the capture of Richmond and begins bringing his army down the Rappahannock River to Falmouth, Virginia. After arriving at Falmouth, he is disappointed to find that his engineers are not there with portable bridges and pontoons. So his enormous army has to wait several days for the bridges to be built. In the mean time, CSA General Robert E. Lee is able to dig in on the highest ground around at that being Marye’s Heights near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Burnside’s engineers begin building the pontoon bridge amid swarms of Confederate snipers in the town of Fredericksburg. Burnside ordered artillery fired into Fredericksburg to silence the snipers which all but levels the town but did not silence the snipers. Finally the bridge is completed and three US regiments go into the town and the snipers are finally silenced. On this date, Burnside finally got all of his army across and assembled. A little later Burnside ordered an attack on the dug in Rebs with devastating results. After the battle was complete, the US army had suffered 12,600 casualties to 2,500 Confederates. It is the worst casualty ratio any US army had suffered before or since.

1936 On this date the King of England, Edward VIII abdicated the throne of England after serving less than a year. A few years earlier the then Prince Edward had met with American born socialite Wallis Simpson and had fallen hard for this girl. Wallis was married to a minor American government official and had been previously married and divorced from a US Navy pilot. Prince Edward and Wallis begin a covert relationship which developed into a white-hot affair. Foreign newspapers jumped all over this scandal but the London Times ignored it out of respect for the crown. Edward had started to go to his father King George V to discuss his dilemma but the king died before Edward got to talk with him. With Edward being the eldest son, he was crowned King Edward VIII. In the mean time, Wallis had filed for divorce from her husband in the hopes of marrying Edward. You can be assured that a twice divorced woman would never in a million years be made Queen of England. Queen Mary, Edward’s mother, tried to compromise and offered Edward and Wallis a quasi-marriage whereby they would live together but Wallis would not receive any titles and would not attend any official functions. Wallis and Edward would not buy that arrangement and Edward made a radio address stating that he would give up the throne for “the woman I love”. Soon thereafter Edward’s younger brother became King George VI of England. King George made Edward the Duke of Windsor which made Wallis the Duchess of Windsor. The Duke and Duchess spent the greatest part of their lives in France, Paris in particular. The Duke died in 1972 and was buried at Frogmore cemetery on the grounds of Windsor Castle. The Duchess died in 1986 and was buried at Edward’s side.

1994 The largest Russian military contingent since Afghanistan swarmed across the border with Chechnya to keep this country under the Russian umbrella. The country of Chechnya is within the border of Russia even after the breakup of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Prime Minister Yeltsin and later Prime Minister Putin would have no part of a separate country with their borders. The Russians enjoyed initial success but when they neared the capitol of Grozny things changed. The Chechnya rebels were dug in and waiting. Thousands of Russian soldiers and Chechnya civilians were killed. A cease fire was finally reached and the Russians retreated back into Russia in the knowledge that Chechnya would remain under Russian influence. Soon thereafter many acts of terrorism occurred in Russian that was tracked back to the Chechnya rebels. The Russian army went back into Chechnya to try and purge the country of the hard asses. It did not work; there is still conflict there with no end in sight.

Born today:

1745 US politico John Jay. While acting as US Postmaster he received a request by some jackass that wanted his picture on postage stamps. Jay responded with “We cannot put someone’s picture on stamps unless they are deceased. I therefore suggest that you drop dead.”

Died today:

1897 US educator Lillian Smith. She said “Education is a private matter between the person and a world of knowledge and experience. It has nothing to do with universities and colleges.” This is true. One of my heroes was self taught at home but he was encouraged to proceed when teachers recognized his genius. Sir Isaac Newton is a giant in the catalog of brilliant minds.

         Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow