Tag Archives: West Virginia

Trying to piece together the young life of my great grandmother, Minnie Florian Wise

By Mark | January 7, 2020

The woman to the right is my great grandmother. Her name was Minnie Florence Wise, and she was born on December 9, 1892, in Montgomery County, Kentucky, which is about 30 miles east of Lexington, where, if I’m not mistaken, her grandfather, John Anderson Wise (1823-1893), fought on the side of the Union during the […]

Posted in History, Mark's Life, Uncategorized | Also tagged 14th Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, 1889, 1892, 1900, 1912, 1950, Arlo, barefoot, census, Charles Maynard, Civil War, coal, Confederate States, Curt Florian, Curtis Florian, depression glass, Florian, flour sack dresses, Franklin, Franklin County, genealogy, Georgetown, Goin' Up Cripple Creek, Grover Cleveland Wise, Jefferson Davis, Jefferson Davis Wise, John Anderson Wise, John Calhoun Wise, Joseph Phillip Florian, Kentucky, Louvina J. Tipton, Ma Florian, Mark's ancestors, Mark's aunt Betsy, marriage license, Matilda Gill, Matilda Gill Wise, Mayfair Open Rose, Minnie Florence Wise, Minorsville, Mollie Onan, Monterey, Mt. Sterling, National Archives, Rebecca Clark, root cellar, Scott County, secession, Seth Reese Wise, Stamping Ground, Switzer, union, White Sulpher, Wise, Woodlake | 15 Comments

The day in racist, totalitarian creep

By Mark | April 23, 2018

To my knowledge, President Trump has yet to comment on the four people who were murdered yesterday in Tennessee. It could be because the gunman used an assault weapon, like those the Republicans are fighting to keep on the market, in spite of widespread public support for legislation that would see them banned. Of course, […]

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged assault weapons, assault weapons ban, authoritarian, Dan Blankenship, Donald Trump, good guy with a gun, mass murder, racism, sovereign citizen, Tennessee, totalitarian, Travis Reinking, Waffle House | 25 Comments

Donald Trump and the fiction that “women are raped at levels that nobody’s ever seen before” along the path of the migrant march from Honduras

By Mark | April 5, 2018

Remember how, a few days ago, our president, after having watched a segment on Fox News about how a dangerous “caravan” of immigrants was making its way to our border from Latin America, took to Twitter to say that we had no choice to pass hardline immigration legislation. Well, in spite of having been informed […]

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged border wall, caravan, conspiracy theories, Donald Trump, fear, Honduras, immigration, racism, rape, Republican platform, tax cuts, voter fraud | 39 Comments

On the road with my 13 yer old daughter… marching for stricter gun laws in DC, learning about the holocaust, and getting to know one another as adults

By Mark | March 26, 2018

In an attempt to further radicalize my 13 year old daughter, I whisked her away on a last-minute road trip to D.C. Friday afternoon so that we could attend the big March for Our Lives demonstration. Having spent much of the past few days behind the wheel, I’m pretty exhausted at the moment, but I […]

Posted in Mark's Life, Uncategorized | Also tagged "We could have bought a lot of guillotines for $700 billion", #MarchForOurLivesDC, Abraham Lincoln, assault weapons, assault weapons ban, Barbara Kruger, Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s, Chicago, Clementine, country ham, crying, Dorothy Avery, Elie Wiesel, Florida, guillotines, Guillotines Not Guns, gun control, gun laws, gun violence, Hirshhorn, holocaust, Lincoln Memorial, MAGA, Make America Great Again, March for our Lives, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Mark Bradford, Martha Mitchell, Morgantown, NRA, parenting, parenting advice, Parkland, Pickett's Charge, road trips, Ron Mueck, tears, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, Watergate | 21 Comments

We’re just one Republican vote away from stopping Betsy DeVos from taking over the Department of Education

By Mark | February 1, 2017

Today, Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced on the floor of the Senate that they would not be voting to confirm President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Assuming neither Senator changes her mind between now and the vote, which is expected to happen as early as […]