House of the rising Moonglum

Second book read on the train. During February, I am behind on posting my book reviews. Three more coming up.

This is a hilarious book. It is a “travel diary” describing Sarah Vowells efforts to go and see the sites that relate to the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. In the process you get a good deal of the history surrounding the time of death of the three presidents. Lincoln is by far the most famous and thus has the most assassination memorabilia scattered around the country and thus the most of the book devoted to him. Garfield, being completely unknown (having served for so short a time) gets the shortest chapter, though a lot of introspection on what it means to be remembered. In addition to educating us on the history surrounding the deaths of these three presidents, we also learn the personal histories of the presidents and their assassins.

All of this comes to us, however, in the rambling style of Sarah Vowell. Which is to say distracted storytelling that jumps from one thought to the next without a care or concern in the world. This leads from hilarious notes about the friends and family that she drags with here on these expeditions (she doesn’t drive) to more somber reflections on the people who care for the museums and sites of such macabre topics. Mostly the book ends up being good old fashioned storytelling rather than a history lesson. But there is plenty of history to pick up along the way.

All in all this is an excellent and rather quick read, all the better for me because my knowledge of Lincoln and Garfield was so limited. (Strangely, since I was really interested in the history of Hawaii at one point, I actually knew a bit about McKinley.)

Probably the most interesting bit of history you get out of the book though are the tidbits of Robert Todd Lincoln’s life. What a strange and tragic character.

I really do wonder how much secrecy is necessary in a democracy. Really, I mean that. If we are expected to be able to vote for the people who are going to make the best decisions, how are we going to know who that is when we don’t know what decisions they are making?

So it appears that someone who just lost his job is complaining that telling the truth risks national security. Really? All this sounds like is sour grapes. He should just be thankful that Obama isn’t charging anyone for crimes committed.

I understand that some secrets are needed, but I really do fear when every little item is classified for “national security”. And Obama is just continuing this trend with (thankfully at least) a few exceptions.

Yet another article showing the progress the EPA is making. I can’t say what a breath of fresh air this is. I don’t know how much of this will actually pan out into policies that are good for our national viability and the environment, but it is nice to see it being talked about at the very least.

Do you listen to Obama’s weekly podcast? (well, video address anyway, what is that a vidcast? a podeo?) This week’s was pretty awesome. He is a pretty awesome preacher, and calmly, in 5 minute sermons each Sunday, calms the hearts and minds of America. (And occasionally of Iran.) Easter and Passover as an excuse to extend foreign relations? That there is some clever talking.