I occasionally peruse the lists of who was born when, who died when & what happened when for interesting little bits. I don't even do this so I can blog about it (although sometimes I do); I do it because these little windows can be so interesting to look through.
Today has quite an obscure gem: the assignation of the 1st Earl of Moray in 1570. Who was the 1st Earl of Moray you ask? Well let me tell you the Tudors had nothing NOTHING on the Stewarts. In fact, for over the top melodrama, the Stewarts just might take the taco. Mary, Queen of Scots made one of the more notable exits (on the Tudor's dime no less) by concealing her little dog under her very sober skirts & blood red petticoats. When the head came off, the dog panicked, charged out & I am guessing scared the crap out of everyone there for the private viewing. You have to admit it is whole level of planning you just don't see much when it comes to one's own execution.
The 1st Earl of Moray was one of the legion of James Stewarts so let's just call him Moray-1. Moray-1 was also one of the legion of illegitimate sons of his royal father (guess what his name was, go on...guess). Even in the day when a king could father child with a married-woman-not-his-wife & claim him, Moray-1 turned heads. Not because of his inauspicious origins (they weren't so inauspicious then, you can thank the Victorians for that) but because of his extreme ambition. Imagine what extreme ambition in an age where rivals knifed each other, blew up each others homes, etc. must have looked like (welcome to the upside of those prudey Victorians).
You can do the reading on Moray-1 if you wish, I am just going to give you the highlights: despite being big with church reform (among other reforms-that's right these savages were REFORMERS), he was chief adviser to his half-sister, the above mentioned Mary. He had no respect for her priests, but apparently he had a knack for keeping her out of trouble. Or at least only in the trouble he wanted her in. Among the trouble he thought she should avoid: Lord Darnley. That is another piece of work you can read up on your own. Back & forth, back & forth Moray-fled, Darnley maybe killed Rizzio, Moray-1 came back, Darnley escaped being blow up only to be ?strangled? while Moray-1 was out of town. He lay low through the next incarnation of intrigue & returned when herself abdicated the throne in favor of her infant son, James Stewart. Guess who got made regent? Yes, James Stewart, of course, but which one? If you guessed our man Moray-1 you would be correct.
Things tick along eventfully: raids, betrayals, & so forth for the next three years until....until today in 1570 another guy named James but not Stewart waited in his uncle the Archbishop's house & shot Moray-1 from a window. & that is the end of Moray-1.
What makes this particular story interesting? Well, the murder of James Stewart, First Earl of Moray is the first recorded instance of assassination by firearm. Sweet, huh? The only thing that would make this anniversary sweeter for me is if it had lined up with Gun Appreciation Day last Saturday, but you cannot have everything.
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Saturday, January 29, 2011
In which everything old is new again
I thought I was done posting for the month & then....& then:
the fruit bats at Dove World are trying to make headlines again. All that publicity last year & they still did not unload the merchandise they hoped to. I remember reading about cow being tried for witchcraft in 18th century France. Dove World would love to put something living in the mix & burn it alive, I am sure, but the local constabulary are all out of patience with Jones et al. Thankfully the inter-webs gives us full & free access to their whole agenda. The only thing that cheers me about this is the typo in the title of their own event.
bring your guns to school day is working its way to reality, if unofficially. A week ago I listed three gun related good times already on the record here in Fladidah schools. Since then we have had another...in a pre-school. The short version is the five year old found the gun in his step-fathers vehicle. He made this claim after it fell out of his pocket during music class. These are hardly the only armed incidents so far this year, they are just the only ones involving schools. For those of you keeping score, we are averaging one a week.
In other local news this week: a man died last night when he drove into (& killed) three horses in the dark; the horses had broken loose from their paddock & were not visible on the unlit state road. Two different babies in two different towns are dead because two different adults rolled over & suffocated them while sleeping. A drunk driver was arrested before he did any damage on the road when the people working the drive thru at the Taco Bell he was patronizing called the police & then discovered a child asleep on the back seat . There is good news to (I suppose the Taco Bell story was good news, kinda): a local rapist was identified via his FaceBook photos & has been arrested. A pilot landed a small plane safely after deploying the parachute in his plane, for his plane. The family of the officer shot & killed in the line of duty earlier this week expect to be keeping his K-9 partner. I guess the good news is a little thin.
So I went out the back gate, into the fog & watched the sunrise over the horse gate between our back pasture & W*****'s. Then I took this picture.
the fruit bats at Dove World are trying to make headlines again. All that publicity last year & they still did not unload the merchandise they hoped to. I remember reading about cow being tried for witchcraft in 18th century France. Dove World would love to put something living in the mix & burn it alive, I am sure, but the local constabulary are all out of patience with Jones et al. Thankfully the inter-webs gives us full & free access to their whole agenda. The only thing that cheers me about this is the typo in the title of their own event.
bring your guns to school day is working its way to reality, if unofficially. A week ago I listed three gun related good times already on the record here in Fladidah schools. Since then we have had another...in a pre-school. The short version is the five year old found the gun in his step-fathers vehicle. He made this claim after it fell out of his pocket during music class. These are hardly the only armed incidents so far this year, they are just the only ones involving schools. For those of you keeping score, we are averaging one a week.
In other local news this week: a man died last night when he drove into (& killed) three horses in the dark; the horses had broken loose from their paddock & were not visible on the unlit state road. Two different babies in two different towns are dead because two different adults rolled over & suffocated them while sleeping. A drunk driver was arrested before he did any damage on the road when the people working the drive thru at the Taco Bell he was patronizing called the police & then discovered a child asleep on the back seat . There is good news to (I suppose the Taco Bell story was good news, kinda): a local rapist was identified via his FaceBook photos & has been arrested. A pilot landed a small plane safely after deploying the parachute in his plane, for his plane. The family of the officer shot & killed in the line of duty earlier this week expect to be keeping his K-9 partner. I guess the good news is a little thin.
So I went out the back gate, into the fog & watched the sunrise over the horse gate between our back pasture & W*****'s. Then I took this picture.
Friday, January 21, 2011
This week in the right to bear arms
I avoided talking about the shooting in Tucson because my opinion was so very very predictable I figured why fill space with that noise, right? & so let me assure you that aside from that sentence just then, my chatter re: Tucson ends now.
Which brings us to much more pedestrian/garden variety/everyday joe gun fun here in Fladidah. I could open with the guy last month who opened fire on a school board meeting, but I thought I would try to limit myself to just 2011. We opened with a news item regarding the shooting surrounding FSU. No not the old shooting, the new shooting. The short version on this one: Ashley Cowie died because a guy who had experience with hunting rifles, etc. was showing a "new accessory"" to some friends. Hey that's the kind of thing that could happen to anyone, right? Anyone who brought a loaded rifle to a fraternity gathering & started showing off that is. & if one random person has to die, well such is life. Or death.
Of course, a second life is also as good as over: the shooter, remember the shooter? Exorcising his Constitutionally protected right to bear arms, he accidentally killed someone which means he gets charged with manslaughter. That means five or so in with career criminal types who have not actually been convicted for killing anyone. Anyhow, we opened the week with more stories about what an upstanding citizen he is & how it is a damn shame this happened. I'm sure he will be just as good a guy when he gets out.
Next we had the gun in the backpack. No, not the one that the kids dropped on a desk & shot two of his classmates, that was in Los Angeles. Here at home, our local PD is hosting two kids from an adjacent county who brought a gun & a knife to school Everyone thinks it is important to stress that the kids just had them. There is no clue they were bullies or being bullied or any sign that they were planning a school shooting. School just seemed like a good place for one to hand-off the gun, removed from a parent's closet, to the other. Well that's a relief, isn't it?
Finally there is the bill introduced to allow guns to be carried on Fladidah campuses, legally that is. When is that ever not a good idea. As the wife of a physics professor (the secondary education gunmans' favorite target), maybe I have a kind of skewed perspective. I know, I know, if people keep aiming at physics professors, they must deserve it on some level. After all, the classes they teach are hard &, if you are pre-med or an engineer, required. & it turns out the laws of physics aren't like, say the laws of poetry (my own area of study) & there really is a right answer. Like I said, hard.
Of course, our campus has the extra party that comes with all those football fans. The locals get fringe benefits out the drunk & disorderly visitors (those fines add up), but I'm not sure they'll be so gung-ho about arming them. Especially as they barely want the campus police armed after that whole shot a guy in the head because same guy -unarmed- threaten to kill himself. Nothing says don't kill yourself like a bullet in the brain.
Naturally A himself has a point of view on this whole "bring your gun to campus" thing. He mused that perhaps he WOULD start bringing a loaded gun to school, maybe leave it there, in plain view, while he teaches or even during office hours & exams. Sure it will probably make it hard for students to concentrate with the muzzle pointing across the desk, but since when has what happens in the classroom been about them?
Which brings us to much more pedestrian/garden variety/everyday joe gun fun here in Fladidah. I could open with the guy last month who opened fire on a school board meeting, but I thought I would try to limit myself to just 2011. We opened with a news item regarding the shooting surrounding FSU. No not the old shooting, the new shooting. The short version on this one: Ashley Cowie died because a guy who had experience with hunting rifles, etc. was showing a "new accessory"" to some friends. Hey that's the kind of thing that could happen to anyone, right? Anyone who brought a loaded rifle to a fraternity gathering & started showing off that is. & if one random person has to die, well such is life. Or death.
Of course, a second life is also as good as over: the shooter, remember the shooter? Exorcising his Constitutionally protected right to bear arms, he accidentally killed someone which means he gets charged with manslaughter. That means five or so in with career criminal types who have not actually been convicted for killing anyone. Anyhow, we opened the week with more stories about what an upstanding citizen he is & how it is a damn shame this happened. I'm sure he will be just as good a guy when he gets out.
Next we had the gun in the backpack. No, not the one that the kids dropped on a desk & shot two of his classmates, that was in Los Angeles. Here at home, our local PD is hosting two kids from an adjacent county who brought a gun & a knife to school Everyone thinks it is important to stress that the kids just had them. There is no clue they were bullies or being bullied or any sign that they were planning a school shooting. School just seemed like a good place for one to hand-off the gun, removed from a parent's closet, to the other. Well that's a relief, isn't it?
Finally there is the bill introduced to allow guns to be carried on Fladidah campuses, legally that is. When is that ever not a good idea. As the wife of a physics professor (the secondary education gunmans' favorite target), maybe I have a kind of skewed perspective. I know, I know, if people keep aiming at physics professors, they must deserve it on some level. After all, the classes they teach are hard &, if you are pre-med or an engineer, required. & it turns out the laws of physics aren't like, say the laws of poetry (my own area of study) & there really is a right answer. Like I said, hard.
Of course, our campus has the extra party that comes with all those football fans. The locals get fringe benefits out the drunk & disorderly visitors (those fines add up), but I'm not sure they'll be so gung-ho about arming them. Especially as they barely want the campus police armed after that whole shot a guy in the head because same guy -unarmed- threaten to kill himself. Nothing says don't kill yourself like a bullet in the brain.
Naturally A himself has a point of view on this whole "bring your gun to campus" thing. He mused that perhaps he WOULD start bringing a loaded gun to school, maybe leave it there, in plain view, while he teaches or even during office hours & exams. Sure it will probably make it hard for students to concentrate with the muzzle pointing across the desk, but since when has what happens in the classroom been about them?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)