Now watch the bloodbath over the legacy of Michael Jackson, children, assets and his recordings. History in the making!

It has been a long time since we have been treated to show like this. I have expressed my sorrow over the death of Jackson. I feel for his children and to his family.

However, every group or person that can and will, has come out of the woodwork to claim a piece of the prize.

Jackson's legacy might end up in the hands of his bizarre father.

His mother has claimed that she should have the rights to his children and to his estate. I am still wondering if they are indeed his children?

Al Sharpton has of course made his presence known as the family spokesman.

The brothers and sisters have made their statements.

Even the monkey that Jackson used to have is now being used as a pawn to get money.

The whole thing is going to become a big bloodbath over who will get the most media attention. Cause all of the folks mentioned want it. There is a will that has been produced and has been filed.

This circus will go on for a long time as each of the groups, family members, friends, possibly lovers and ex what ever's go at it.

Now of course did I mention the lawyers? They have something to gain with this too. The loans, assets, contracts, debts, and the whole financial world that was Michael Jackson.

What about Neverland? Will they bury him there and create a shrine? Who will control that?

This will be a show to watch for the next few months. It will be one big family feud, with a lot of special guest artists to balance the story.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009 The death of a great performer. My personal thoughts

Jackson has been a force to reckon with since he came on to the scene in the later 1960's. He has been and will be for a long time the "King of Pop". He has had his score of troubles from marriage, children, sex abuse, and money.

But through it all he has remained a star of amazing proportions.

His fame is greater in many ways in Europe and Asia. I recall going through Singapore and having pointed out to me where he stayed and how he was so beloved there. In the United States he was always under pressure. Now that pressure is gone, and so is he.

A void is felt in the entertainment industry, that is only rivaled with perhaps the death of Elvis Presley. He was of a talent of which there are few.

All I can say is rest in peace and thank you for the many wonderful performances you have shared and left us. In many ways now with his death, he gains the peace that he never had in life. The court cases, the embarrassing charges of this and that, made his life so hard.

Now we say goodbye and thank you.

He will be for many of several generations always the king of pop. The album of " Thriller " sold more copies than any other in history! He was for the generation of the 80's and 90's like Elvis Presley was for the 50's and 60's.

He joins the ranks of great recording artists who will eternally entertain us. One can see how precious the art of recorded sound is, and how it saves for us the living person. Or to put it better, it is the closest thing to a time machine ever invented.

Michael Jackson is alive forever in the grooves of his records, in the magnetic pulses of his CD's and of course in the many films and videos in which he performs.

He now belongs to past, present, and to the future.

The new ranking of Presidents. I agree on some, but strong disagree on others

I have seen in the last few months a new ranking of Presidents. My blood boiled a little and I had a few chuckles and agreements, and of course as we all do, some points on which we disagree. I have a few comments to make.

It listed Lincoln as #1. He has often held that title and it seems fair to retain him. Although who Lincoln was is often not too well known. We have a myth factor around him, so to be honest we will never really know the real Lincoln. He has been stretched out of shape by too many historians and biographers with a slant this way or that. Also he did do many things that often are not talked about much. But he was great at what he did.

#2 was Washington who also was an amazing man and the first President. Who was Washington ? No one really knows him too well either as much of his information has been stretched by historians like Lincoln has.

Then we get the rest. I like Franklin Roosevelt, he was a good and crafty liar as most politicians have to be. Although he was a far worse liar than Lincoln. Lincoln made it an art form. Roosevelt was good though. Roosevelt saw us through WW2 and some of the Depression. He stole a lot of Hoover's ideas and they didn't work for him either. In fact it was WW2 that got us out of the great depression, not Roosevelt. Like it or not Roosevelt should be where he is.

Jefferson I find to be not worthy of the top 10. He was not much and has been made into much more by political historians who have held their noses not to smell the rotten truth of what and who Jefferson was. He was snake in the grass and worked hard to destroy many people.

Woodrow Wilson was a sick man. His health was pretty bad. Much of his Presidency was like a class at Princeton. What the office of President needs more often than not is a man who can make history, not recite it.

Through his broken dream and mind he laid waste to much that would follow him. He knew history and followed his goal. We are still suffering from him to this day.

I choked when I saw JFK was listed as 6th!

I can seriously list him around 18 or 20. But was he great? No, not at all.

He caused more trouble and did many corrupt and bad things. He was more concerned at times with getting his rocks off, than doing his job.

In many ways he was very much like Warren G Harding. The only different thing between Harding and Kennedy was this...Harding didn't have a fan club. And people to protect his legacy, and in Kennedy's case it was largely made up.

Jackie Kennedy often regretted coming up with that phony idealized version of what his Presidency was. Camelot was nothing like the Kennedy Presidency

I would think that Lyndon B Johnson would get a better rating than he did. Well he did a lot more than Kennedy. In fact when came to civil rights, JFK had to be forced into to supporting it. He really did not do too much. Although the civil rights bill was presented to Congress through the Kennedy administration, Kennedy did not push the issue. he just did what he had too, nothing more.

The man who did it all was LBJ. In all those idealized pictures of JFK, MLK and RFK I always get a chuckle. Robert Kennedy was tapping Martin L King's phone lines. and JFK was not doing too much.

Thank you LBJ for the Civil Rights Act. You should be in that picture. For it was through you that it was passed and fought for.

Now U.S. Grant went up from being near dead last for the last century to being 23? What the hell was that about? He was a lousy President , and had more corruption in his administration than Harding and Nixon combined.

But being that he was inept, he was unaware of any. He belongs with Andrew Johnson.

George W Bush and Jimmy Carter are two peas in a pod Equally lousy. Nuff said

Theodore Roosevelt is a little too high on the list for my judgement. I always liked to recall what Truman said of him." He was more bull than moose." Much of Roosevelt's fame was constructed to make him look more heroic than what was really there.

Was he the great trust buster? Not really, William Howard Taft in half the time busted many more trusts than Roosevelt. But few wish to mention that. Cause it takes away from the myth.

Speaking of Taft he was shafted by this survey I can see him higher, not too much higher. But where he is listed is nonsense.

I can see Reagan around 12-14 on the list. he was good in his first term but he was too old in his second. He became a shadow of himself in the second term. He was literally lost in his own mind. partially due to his sickness, and partially due to the fact he was too old and feeble for the job.

I would like to see McKinley higher as he did a lot for which he is never credited . TR takes away much of what was McKinley's.

I would also like to push for a much higher listing and level for John Tyler. He reshaped the Presidency too and was the building block to which every succeeding Vice President who had to assume office should be thankful for.

I will agree that James Buchanan was the worst President we ever had.

Pierce, Johnson, Carter, Bush, Grant, Hoover,Harding, and Coolidge are worthy of being in his circle.

I would like to go through all of them here and I will in time. When I started this blog a few years ago, I did a posting of listings of Presidents and who were great, near great, very good, fair, etc. I will have to revisit it, and I welcome you to do that too. I will do a listing of all the Presidents in a few weeks and a poll that I feel suits them. Of course we will never all agree, but I wish to use a more scientific method in judging them...pure facts, nothing to do with popularity or wishful thinking. Just the facts. When you do it that way many of these men look far different than how they are pictured.

My Great Great Grandfather's discharge from the Civil War 1865

My great great grandfather was from Bavaria and arrived in the United States in early 1865. He went through immigration at Castle Clinton and found himself all at once in the Union Army. He was drummed out of the service in July of 1865 in Washington DC.  He was a blacksmith and that was a very good career to have back then. I remember asking my grandfather when I was a very little boy about him. It was through my grandfather that I know anything about him. Sadly my conversations with him were when I was 8 years of age.

He was born in 1842, and he would die in West Hoboken in late 1917. I have visited his grave several times in Union City and I will add some other info I have on that later. But while I have been thinking of the history of our servicemen on this 65th anniversary of D Day. My thoughts also went to those who have served before, such as my great great grandfather, Jacob Schick.

The oldest WWI vet enjoys his 113th birthday Enjoy the history as they will soon be all gone.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/World-War-Ones-Oldest-Survivor-Henry-Allingham-Celebrates-113th-Birthday-With-Royal-Navy/Article/200906115297014?lpos=UK_News_First_Home_Page_Feature_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15297014_World_War_Ones_Oldest_Survivor_Henry_Allingham_Celebrates_113th_Birthday_With_Royal_Navy

Why is the Queen of England not at the anniversary of D Day ????

One of the more sadder and stupid moments in history. For on the 65th anniversary of D Day, the one person who is a head of state and was involved in the war, was not invited. 

 That is stupid, idiotic and most of all embarrassing. All we have there are the leaders who mean nothing much at all in comparison to her. The Presidents and Prime ministers of the barely allied nations now.  In fact none of them were keen at all to push for having the Queen there. The President of France, well what would one expect, the Prime Minister of the nation she is from, Canada and lastly the USA.

 I would have liked to see Obama say that if the Queen is not there or invited he would not be there in protest.  

But all of them just talked and did not do much of the walking. There is a quality of the old leaders that you do not see in this new batch....Prince Charles made the event, even though there was no invitation for him. This is just politics in its most ugly form.

The Queen of England and her family stood firm during the war as bombs were dropping and never left England. Winston Churchill was there, strong and defiant.  

Thank you the great living veterans and all servicemen and women of World War 2. 

Thank you the great leaders  of World War 2.

 Thank you Queen Elizabeth for your steadfast leadership and that of your parents who could teach the present generation and specially this poor lots of leaders we have today a thing or two.

 Cause rather than just saying, yes we can....you did!  

 

Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the ill fated RMS Titanic, has joined the majority

Millvina Dean  1912 - 2009

In my life I have seen several of them and was fortunate to meet two of them. But now all of those who were there on the RMS Titanic, in April of 1912 on that cold icy night in the Atlantic are gone.  

In many ways she was a special case as she had no memories of the event. She was the youngest survivor, all of but 2 months old. 

But she was a survivor and yes the very last.  As historians and lovers of history we always hate to see that door to the past forever closed. One may say as long as we can talk to those who were there, we can share with them the history that they represent. What ever the event was. 

Now with the RMS Titanic that door has closed forever.  I guess I should mention the two people who I met, who had been on the Titanic. They were Edwina McKenzie and Eva Hart. Two remarkable woman who thrilled me to no end when I was but 20 years old and I got to chat with them. I have Eva Hart's autograph from that time 32 years ago. 

That was a long time ago, but at that time there were many survivors still around. In fact in 1977 I guess there must have been 30 or more.  Now they are all gone and we will be talking to the children and grandchildren of survivors now.  I did buy a few years ago a photograph of the Titanic  autographed by Miss Dean. It was just something I thought would be nice to have.

 But one has to say the magic is gone and it is not very exciting to talk to me about what Eva Hart said, but to hear her say it was very special.  Edwina McKenzie was funny. She had a line she used and I guess used often.."How could I drown? My maiden name was Trout!"  Eva Hart's story was much more serious as she lost her father in the disaster.  What she told me was what she had told many and it is told on and in  many books and websites I am sure.

But now I will join the rest of you in closing the door to this event forever. And tossing the key to that door into the depths of time as it can never be opened again. 

Rest in Peace Miss Dean