Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 12/17/2024 4:51 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Yes. I'm always struck by the fact that so many people forget that the
existence of slavery has been the norm in human societies.

Not to the industrial scale though. Ie shipped across continents in huge
numbers. Nor with any means of an end.

Sorry, I disagree. The Roman Empire ran on slavery. They didn't ship
them to other continents only because the empire didn't extend to
distant continents. They certainly shipped conquered people around the
empire as needed.

It’s more complicated and the Romans and antiquity in general slavery,
family units where generally kept together, it was more akin to serfs etc
in the Middle Ages, which is to say still a life of service and lack of any control, but very different to the industrial process to the Slave trade.

They all are bad but the Slave trade moved folks across the Atlantic in conditions which meant that they would loose some to the conditions of
travel. As it was more profitable, and once there family units were not generally kept, and the process was much more industrial and profit driven.

And it wasn't just the Romans. I once had a conversation with a Native American national park ranger, who was whitewashing her (Navajo?)
tribe's record of enslaving other (Hopi?) Indians, by saying they did so
only to learn valuable skills from them. Yeah, right.

Well yes most cultures if not all had some form of slavery and all
conquest. Would have been people’s before the Navajo and so on.

Roger Merriman

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On Sun, 22 Dec 2024 20:14:30 -0000 (UTC), pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org>
wrote:

Hi Joy.
Glad to see you posting. The Solstice is passed and warmer/longer days lie ahead.

Longer days, but it will continue getting colder for a while. Luckiliy
I perk up in the sun, and I have alpaca tights still at the back of
the closet. And ripstop trousers to wear over them.

So far, the synthetics have been enough, except for a silk base
layer.

It's amazing how many people don't know that it's possible to dress
for weather -- I've met people astounded that I'm out on such a cold
day as high as fifty degrees.

I was the only member of the Auxilliary who ran upstairs to put on
long underwear after shutting down the computer so I could hear a call
to duty. (The Internet was dial-up in those days.)

Which always reminds me of the time I didn't think I needed to put my
coat on to carry something we'd just completed out to the warming bus.
When I started to come back in, I realized that I'd left my key to the firehouse in my coat pocket. The kitchen was upstairs and I couldn't
make myself heard. Finally I went across the street and someone was
still in the engine room, and he had a key to the firehouse.

I was out for an all-day ride on the Solstice. I slept so late that I
didn't get off until noon, which made for a short all-day ride! I got
back just before curfew. But I hit the Winter Market (cookies),
Meijer (pencils and erasers; it was threatening to spit snow so I
didn't tour the whole store), the health-food store (chocolate candy),
Kroger (hamburger and cream cheese), and Jimmy-John's sub shop. (After
supper for two, I ate the last of the sub for breakfast today.)
Weather Underground says it's likely to be next year before I ride
again.

24 December 2024

A case of "special clothes discourage cycling". I needed parsnips for tomorrow's feast, and it was cloudy-bright, but I didn't want to put
on four shirts and four pairs of tights. (Besides, I bought a package
of paper towels far too large to fit into a pannier.)

Not a good day to go to the grocery. They had lots of lanes open and
I was checked out with almost no delay, but it was harder to get out
of the parking lot than it had been to get in. Partly because my easy-to-back-out-of spot had been taken.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

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