On this day in 1947, then Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten. He had been named Duke of Edinburgh just before the wedding by Elizabeth’s father, Colin Firth George VI. Anyway, so the two of them have now been married for 68 years — quite a lot longer than I plan to live.

It seems wrong to me that they are both still alive. Elizabeth will be 90 next year and Philip will be 95. Are they ever going to die? It seems that the most useless of people live the longest. I understand: they’re tourist attractions. But so is Mickey Mouse. If he were an actual human being — or a mouse for that matter — it would be a pretty pathetic way to spend a life.

I think the UK should just bring the royal family together and say, “Thank you for all your fine work. You can keep all the money and the mansions. But your services will no longer be needed.” They could just go on to be the normal useless rich. Having the titles is bit much. It’s like the whole nation of the UK is involved in some kind of childish game, pretending that they have a monarchy.

I remember the wedding of Charles and Diana. I was in Germany at the time. And everyone was so excited about it. And I see the same thing with what’s her name. I wish they would all just go away. They offend me. They should offend all Americans. If the people of the UK want to keep them, that’s their business. But they are useless and offensive.

I suppose I can think of one way that they are useful: they are a reminder that we live in nothing like a meritocracy. They were born to their wealth and station and that is that. Sadly, I think there are a lot of people, who think that the royal family shows that the rich really are better than the rest of us. They aren’t.

Afterword

Proud of me? No a single joke about anyone dying in a car crash. Because truly: I don’t wish them ill. I just wish them gone.

On this day in 1940, George Metesky planted his first bomb in an office of Consolidated Edison. He was know as “the mad bomber.” Over the course of 16 years, he planted 33 bombs — 22 exploded. In total, 15 people were injured but none were killed. Generally, he placed warning calls to the facilities where he planted the bombs. But it did have a terrorizing effect on the people of New York City.

In the 1930s, he worked for Consolidated Edison. He was involved in an accident that made him disabled. After 26 weeks of sick pay, the company fired him. He screwed up and filed too late to get workers’ compensation. All of his appeals were denied. He developed a great hatred for the company.

His bombs were very simple: pipe bombs. The first two were duds. That may have been intentional. At the start of World War II, he sent the police a note saying that he would not plant any more bombs for the duration of the war because of his patriotic feelings. But that afterwards, he would bring Con Edison to justice for their “dastardly deeds.” He planted no more bombs until 1951. He was finally captured in 1957.

He was declared a paranoid schizophrenic and placed in the Matteawan Hospital for the Criminally Insane. But because of some legal technicalities, he was released in 1973. At that time, he told a reporter, “I wrote 900 letters to the Mayor, to the Police Commissioner, to the newspapers, and I never even got a penny postcard back. Then I went to the newspapers to try to buy advertising space, but all of them turned me down. I was compelled to bring my story to the public.”

He lived in peace for another 20 years — dying at the age of 90 in 1994.

On this day in 1777, the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation. It took them 16 months to come up with that piece of crap. It just shows how little the colonies trusted each other. But over time, we did become one nation. What most amazes me is how much we’ve regressed. It used to just be the south that couldn’t get over the fact that their human “property” was taken from them. But now it seems that a majority of Republicans really think that the Articles of Confederation are superior to the Constitution.

The conservatives who most claim to love the Constitution most embrace the Tenth Amendment, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” But conservatives think it reads, “The powers not expressly delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” But that’s not what the Constitution says; it is what the the Articles of Confederation say. Well, actually, it said, “Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.”

The Articles of Confederation stopped us from being a functioning country — largely because of that clause. But I’ve never gotten the idea that modern conservatives hate the idea of one country. But they know that they can’t, for example, make the whole country allow slavery. But they do think they could enforce slavery in Mississippi. And so that’s where we get all the “states’ rights” garbage and the idea that the federal government can’t do anything other than what it is expressly given the power to do.

So, am I saying that conservatives are not patriotic? Yes, in general, I am. Not all conservatives, of course. Originally, it was the conservatives who were most in favor of federalism. But anyone who talks about states’ rights and waves around the Confederate battle flag is indeed not patriotic. They ought to be waving around an ISIS flag for all I care. I would respect their right to do either, but I don’t respect any of the people who do so. But the thing is, I can’t imagine an ISIS supporter going around claiming that they are patriotic Americans.

Yet we get nothing but Neo-Confederates claiming that they love the Constitution and the United States so much. But they don’t. And they are already involved in terrorism, and it will only get worse — helped on by the NRA, which is only committed to the well being of gun manufactures, who are in turn only interested in their profits. Going back to the Articles of Confederation were hurt all of them more than the rest of us. The economic powerhouse states would still get along. But that doesn’t mean that it still wouldn’t be very bad for the nation and the world.

On this day in 1969, Seymour Hersh broke the story about the My Lai Massacre, which happened 16 March 1968. Most people I talk to don’t know much about it. They know that it was something really bad. But it isn’t exactly something that we Americans like to dwell on. By the military’s accounting, 347 men, women, and children were murdered. Other estimates are higher. Some of the women were gang raped. It actually took place in two hamlets: My Lai and My Khe. Twenty-six soldiers were involved in this vile act.

There were three service members who tried to stop the massacre and rescue those Vietnamese who were hiding. Not surprisingly, these three were publicly smeared. They were shunned inside the military. It took the US government 30 years to recognize and decorate those three soldiers for their acts of heroism. One of them had died — less than a month after the massacre.

Of the 26 soldiers who were charged criminally, only one was found guilty. It’s amazing how “just following orders” works wonderful when it is your own army that is conducting the trial. The only one held accountable was Lieutenant William Calley. He was sentenced to life in prison. But within one day, President Nixon had his sentence changed to “house arrest.” He ended up serving only three and a half years. Ultimately, his defense to this day is that was just following orders.

The truth is that I’m somewhat sympathetic to that defense — just as I am to many of the Nazis who used that defense. When you are talking about the military, there is no sense of morality. The right thing to do is always whatever it is you are told. It is ridiculous to think that soldiers can be taught to always follow orders but that they shouldn’t under certain circumstances that imply future knowledge. The problem is the military and war itself. I hate hearing the outrage over things like the My Lai Massacre from people who are totally pro-war. Regardless of how bad the behavior, it is outrageous to think that wars are going to be fought without this kind of stuff. Wars are about dehumanizing people. And the My Lai Massacre is an obvious outcome of that.

Seymour Hersh is a great journalist. But my understanding is that the My Lai Massacre wasn’t exactly a secret. Hersh’s greatest attribute has always been his bravery. Journalism is probably worse today than it was then. But it has always been bad. Journalists don’t want to lose their access to powerful people. We would have a far greater press if our journalists simply changed their attitudes toward their jobs. It is to seek out the truth — not to collect powerful sources so as to make future banal stories easier to write.