Mickey Z

Cool Observer

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Friday, March 17, 2006

If it's March 17, this post must be about St. Patrick's Battalion

It was during the buildup to the Mexican-American War (1846-8) that scores of immigrant Irishmen joined the army for the $7 a month. “The U.S. anti-immigrant press of the time caricatured the Irish with simian features, portraying then as unintelligent and drunk and charging that they were seditiously loyal to the pope,” Anne-Marie O’Connor wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 1997. “But cheap Irish labor was welcome. Irish maids became as familiar as Latin American nannies are today.”

“Many of the Irish were also Catholic,” explained Rodolfo Acuña, author of Occupied America. “They resented the treatment of Catholic priests and nuns by the invading Protestants.”

“(St. Patrick’s Battalion) is a story about assimilation,” historian Peter F. Stevens added. “A lot of these guys deserted because of the anti-Catholic, anti-foreigner movement.”

(To read the complete story, please click “more” below.)

I’d walk a mile for a Camus...

Plenty of you asked for it...so here it comes: I just got myself a copy of The Rebel, so I guess it’s a good time to start talking about a date to discuss that book. Lots of factors for me: Michele and I are moving in late March/early April and then visiting my family in mid-April, plus: The Rebel is not exactly a quick, light read. So, I’m thinking late April/early May. Any thoughts, Expendables? Who’s in for The Rebel? Hello? Is there anybody out there?

Bouncy’s Camus Quote of the Day:
“The society based on production is only productive, not creative.”