Friday, March 11, 2005

The File: Horrors

Charles Francis Hall, the American who later searched for Franklin survivors, interviewed some of these Inuit nearly twenty years afterward. "Several native families," he reported, "provided an officer thought to be Crozier and a group of his men with seal meat. The Inuit then left, ignoring pleas for further aid." At the time, this was accepted as proof the native Americans abandoned Crozier and his pleading, begging men. In fact, that they shared what little seal meat they had was noble; that they stole away at the first opportunity is understandable. Imagine yourself on a family camping trip when, suddenly, a gang of hairy, incoherent Hell's Angels appear out of nowhere. They're plainly starving, heavily armed with guns, knives, and hatchets--and openly carrying human body parts. The Inuit, thinking they might be next on the menu, were clearly terrified. They gave what seal meat they had and got away as fast and as far as they could."
-- Scott Cookman, Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin's Lost Polar Expedition, pp. 181

I wonder if this Capt. Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier is any relation to Capt. William Crozier of the Indian, which rescued the Essex survivors off Valparaiso. I'll have to check.

11:30:19 PM    comment []

Kook Alert: Redux

"It helps that Sharpton can speak out against violence in rap without being charged with racism. But why stop with rappers? I'd like to propose a 90-day ban on all songs produced by suspected murderer Phil Spector. He doesn't have anything on Top-40 radio these days, of course, but the dude's all over the oldies stations. Better yet, I'd like to see the ban extended to cover the music of Toby Keith, Darryl Worley and others who have had hits with pro-war, pro-violence songs. Their posse, the U.S. Army, scares me quite a bit more than 50 Cent's."
-- Thomas Bartlett, "50 Cent, the Game and Al Sharpton" (Emphasis mine.)

WTF? I am a loyal Salon subscriber (over 2 years now) and a veteran of the USAF. Does this Bartlett fellow realize he's comparing the United States Army to a rapper's posse of gun-toting alleged criminals? Unless Bartlett honestly believes the Armed Forces are no better than "thug" rappers, he should apologize. That last sentence may be just a snide, facile, and thoughtless way to disparage country music stars like Toby Keith, but Bartlett went over the line.

1:11:35 PM    comment []