Black Civil War veteran honored in SC

A white gravestone for a black Union Civil War veteran was dedicated Thursday, nearly a century after his death.

Henry Benjamin Noisette, whose military past was not discovered until recently by a researcher with the African American Historical Alliance, was honored during a Veterans Day ceremony at a small black cemetery in Charleston.

The African American Historical Alliance is a nonprofit group formed in 2006 to highlight the contributions of more than 200,000 black soldiers and sailors during the Civil War.

Noisette was an escaped slave from Charleston who joined the US Navy in 1862. He served on the USS Huron, a lightly armed wooden ship that intercepted blockade runners and often tested Confederate defenses along the Lowcountry’s rivers.

Assessing television, warts and all

It’s curious to see how some bloggers’ minds work. Take Bryan Caplan of EconLog, named one of the Wall Street Journal’s Top 25 Economics Blogs.

As a bit of background, Caplan is an associate professor of Economics at George Mason University. He is also the author of The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies. According to the EconLog website, Caplan’s current project is a new book, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent Is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think.

Caplan generally does a pretty good job writing about economics, but every once in a while he gives a glimpse as to why university types occasionally are referred to derisively as “eggheads.”

Where’s Waldo? Returning soon, hopefully

It’s been nearly a week since Waldo Lydecker has posted on his Journal. That’s nearly a week too long.

Goodness knows there’s already a dearth of well-written blogs in South Carolina; the last thing we need is to lose one of the few we have.

Hopefully, he’s just taking a break to enjoy the cool, crisp fall weather that’s finally arrived in the Carolinas.

Hurry back, Waldo. Goodness knows I can’t possibly keep tabs on this clown by myself.

Hipp has hard work ahead in NC

The man who help convert South Carolina Bank and Trust from a largely rural bank into a major player in South Carolina business circles has been named chief executive of Charlotte-based NewDominion Bank.

John Hipp, 59, was chief executive of South Carolina Bank and Trust for 10 years, taking over when it was still based in Orangeburg and known as First National Bank. He helped orchestrate its relocation to Columbia and growth into a multibillion-dollar company.

Hipp will have his work cut out for him in Charlotte.

The story of America’s most stunning stamp

Of the thousands of stamps churned out by the US Postal Service over the past 160-plus years, a top contender for the nation’s most beautiful piece of postage is the 1898 $1 issue titled Western Cattle in Storm.

The stamp was part of the Trans-Mississippi Issue, a set of nine commemorative postage stamps issued by the US to mark the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition held in Omaha, Neb.

While all nine stamps in the set are noted for their beauty, Western Cattle in Storm stands out. The breed of cattle that were meant to represent the ruggedness of the American West and that inspired the original painting actually derive from the West Highlands of Scotland.

That’s because the vision for the design was sparked by a James McWhirter painting depicting cattle in a winter storm in the West Highlands of Scotland. This painting was copied, without the permission of the owner, Lord Blythswood, by an American cattle company as a trademark of sorts, according to the website The Swedish Tiger.

Kudzu-covered houses offer glimpse of past

Having spent more than a few hours poking around abandoned houses in rural South Carolina over the years, I couldn’t help but be captivated by a post from Like the Dew ‘s Tom Poland titled Old Home Places.

Many a time while in search of elusive largemouth bass I’ve pulled my car over, trampled through briars and stepped up into a house that’s been uninhabited for 40 years or more.

It’s usually easy to date the last inhabitants by the newspapers scattered on the floor or the calendar hanging on the wall.

Most recently, I came across a long-empty home in Newberry County this past weekend that might have been 700 square feet in all. No inside bathroom. One small fireplace. The remnants of a refuse pit in the back. Ten miles from the nearest town of any size.

Online effort seeks to return Nazi-looted art

In an effort to simplify the search for artwork and other cultural items looted by the Nazis in France and Belgium during World War II, the Jewish Claims Conference has posted a catalogue of plundered items online.

The list, accompanied by photographs, is intended to help families and their heirs in their quest for items seized more than 60 years ago. 

In addition, museums, art dealers and auction houses can also use the data bank to verify that they are not handling stolen works of art, according to the organization.

The database record of more than 20,000 works of art looted by the Nazis from Jews in France and Belgium during World War II shows that at least half have yet to be returned to their original owners, according to Reuters.

School reformer defeats defiant establishment

Tonight in Irmo, the worst nightmare of the “establishment” comes true as outsider Kim Murphy will be sworn in as a member of Lexington-Richland School District 5 board.

Murphy, a long-time opponent of the district’s spendthrift ways, ruffled quite a few feathers earlier this year when she filed an appeal with the S.C. Administrative Law Court seeking to overturn and deny certification for a ballfield expansion project at Chapin High School.

She contended that the district had failed to demonstrate that there was no practicable alternatives for the project, which would impact area wetlands. She wanted District 5 to consider less costly and less environmentally damaging alternatives for new ballfields.

Sunlit Uplands values attacks over accuracy

Just another day of wild inaccuracy and innuendo at Sunlit Uplands.

Sunlit is running a brutally incorrect story about President Obama’s trip to Mumbai, India, which features a headline that reads “Obama’s Visit to Mumbai to Cost $200 Million a Day”.

(Included before the story is this bit of pithy commentary: “It will be worth it if he defects. Will Bo, the family dog, have his own plane, or is that just for his trips to the Cape?” Some advice, Sunlit: Keep your day job.)

Anyway, it’s a bit of an embarrassment that someone who either sits on or used to sit on the South Carolina Advisory Board to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who print such misleading hogwash.

WIS: tops at leaving viewers confused

Richland County leaders say they don’t know how they will finish a list of road projects in the works after a tax that was to have funded the improvements was turned down by voters, according to WIS-TV.

However, in typical WIS fashion, it’s difficult to determine what this means for Richland County residents. In fact, it’s difficult to make heads of tails of much of the piece.

The story is about the one-cent tax proposal that was voted down Tuesday. The only information about road projects that may or may not be completed is found in the opening paragraph.

The rest of the story is about potential cuts to local transportation.