The Dave Bowman Show

If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. – Abraham Lincoln, August 22nd, 1862 While L...

If you were confused, you’re not the only one. It’s Father’s Day (definitely not a Friday evening) and the Good Friar and the Rabbi are totally confused by the Presidents remarks as well as why it is that billionaire sports team owners need to have taxpayer funded stadiums. Sports are the theme of the day, and it’s a reminder that men like sports, even the mascots, while in Soccer, Mexico and the...

There came a time when the political system was unable to deal with the pressures brought on it by the political differences which divided the nation. By April of an election year, there were men who had decided that the moderate course which had guided the nation for four score and four years was no longer acceptable to them. In the arena of politics, calculations were made, votes were counted, a...

What is “blue?” Now… before you answer that question, think for a moment about it. Ask yourself, what if there was no “blue?” And if there was no “blue,” what would change for your understanding of how to describe things? Is it possible to destroy words in such a manner to change human thought and understanding? Or… has it already begun?

As the summer begins to warm the streets of Philadelphia, the temperatures inside the State House begin to rise. While most believe that the convention delegates are “united,” the truth is much, much darker. The “small” States are horrified at the Virginia Plans implications. They see it as nothing less than their compete and utter annihilation. In fact, the ONLY unity among the delegates, is a wi...

For me, history is highly tactile. I connect when my hands can feel and touch the things about which I have studied and learned. A few weeks ago, I was able to place my hands on a sixty-six million year old rock, in which was embedded a Tyrannosaur who had once walked the banks of Hells Creek in what is now Montana. A few days later, almost on a whim, I walked with my son on the field of Gettysbur...

Rabbi Dave is back from his nineteen days on the road with a thirteen year old boy. It’s a great way to see America and at the same time miss all the news and happenings that Friar Rod kept up on. scientists, the same ones who keep telling us that everything is settled, have figured out a way to solve global warming and keep the Earth from overheating. It won’t work, but somebody will get very ric...

The Virginians introduce their plan for a new National Government, which officially shocks the Convention since they believed (officially) that they were there only to revise and amend the Articles of Confederation. The Convention adjourns to the Committee of the Whole – which is the same people, in the same room with the same purpose as the Convention but without General Washington sitting on the...

The Convention finally gets underway. First things first, rules must be established and agreed upon. Then the business of reforming the Government can get rolling. The first presentations take on the problems the nation confronts, including the biggest danger facing America. The local Newspaper wants a story, and somebody, just who isn’t exactly clear, is giving them one. George Wythe and his rule...

Week Two of our Dave Does History on Bill Mick Live look at the Philadelphia Convention... While waiting for a week for more delegates to arrive, the Virginia delegates have been meeting and discussing the plan that James Madison plans to propose. when John Dickinson of Delaware gets a whiff of what is going on, he iDDs appalled. Not only is the Virginia delegation planning to NOT simply “fix” the...

Why is there a Page 6? Why is the high speed car chase of Harry and Megan through the streets of Manhattan a news story? Why do “social media influencers” even exist? Why is our society so obsessed with having our the fifteen minutes of fame? We all claim that we want privacy and we are appalled when it is “violated.” But is that really who we are? Why is our society so determined to tell everythi...

Over the past few months, in increasing desperate sounding letters, eMails and phone calls, my mortgage company has been begging me to re-fi my house. Or… even if I want to sell my house and maybe even buy a new one? As it turns out, there is a reason for all this unseemly begging. I happen to have a good bit of equity in my house and I also have a locked rate of 2.5%. There is a shortage of house...

Look, I get it. we should all be pissed off. Left, right, center. What we learned this week is that J Edgar Hoover was alive and well in the one institution that we were told that we could trust. Efrem Zimbalist Jr, and Tom Clancy novels not withstanding, we learned that abuse of power infects every alphabet agency and hall of marble buildings across the government. i do not care what party you sa...

One of the things that I have wanted to do for some time is a complete revision of the Convention Episodes of Constitution Thursday. This summer, except for the three weeks I will be gone, Dave Does History gives me the chance to do just that. For the next few months we will take a weekly look at the things that happened in the Philadelphia in the Summer of 1787. This will not be a word for word r...

A recent tweet about the ancient deity Moloch by a conservative Talk Show Host has lit up some folks (get it?). In essence he tweeted that the white liberal women (specifically) “will throw their own children (and yours) into the fires of Molech without the slightest bit of hesitation.” Now… that’s the kind of reference that seems arcane. The truth is that most of the people who read it or heard a...

The good news isn’t that Britney Griner is back playing practice games in the WNBA. It’s what she says about it that really has people excited. Meanwhile the City of Yonkers, New York is really mad at New York City over the dumping of illegal immigrants. But even Yonkers isn’t as mad as a Florida couple who had planned to get married in Orange County (NY), but… well… their big day got usurped by t...

At 0530 this morning I was reawakened by my Ben, who wanted to know how soon we could go to GameStop. At 0530. Sometimes things are pretty important, even if they don’t seem so to me. And sometimes the underlying motivations aren’t as clear as they seem in the media.

Yesterday on Bill Mick Live we talked about the Astor Place riots and the impact that the love of Shakespeare in America of the 19th Century had on the nation, and the events of May 10, 1849. After the show, I was thinking a bit more about things, and it occurred to me that there might be a related issue today. The New York times recently ran an article explaining the problems in primary schooling...

Look, I love New York City. I’ve only been there a few times, and usually I didn’t have any time to look around much. But I have always harbored a secret desire to live there, at least visit for an extended stay. To really experience New York City. I have a friend who lives there, and I told him several times that I expect him to keep busy, because I live my own NYC life vicariously through him. T...

Yes, King Chuck III got hisself coronated yesterday at three in the morning. we did not get up to watch. That said, we still have questions. A man is dead after his behavior on the NYC Subway caused problems. The bigger question is whether or not this was truly just “mental illness” or if it was learned behavior? King Chuck has “giant sausage fingers.” And now, for just $63, you can suck on them....

The US Navy announced this week that it had… appointed?… a “digital ambassador” to help with lagging recruiting. The controversy comes in the fact that this particular digital ambassador was apparently appointed as such because he is a drag queen. furthermore, it seems to be actually aimed at recruiting other drag queens into the Navy. Naturally, the interwebs and the politicians have exploded int...

For what seems to be basically an American drinking festival, Cinco de Mayo has become “a lightening rod for controversy*.” A few years ago in California, white students began wearing American Flag t-shirts to school on the day. Of course, this was met with outrage, because… that’s what high school students have learned is the “proper” response to a perceived insult. When t-shirts aren’t the issue...

A Law professor at Harvard – the smartest school in America – says that there is just too much free speech out there, especially on the interwebs. And he isn’t even close to being the dumbest professor at Harvard – the smartest school in America. Speaking of dumb, what if the Bud Lite execs , who have said that they had no clue what was going on, actually didn’t know what was going on? was firing...

The whole concept of forced, or compelled assimilation is one that is repetitive through history. Whether you’re talking about the Jews and the attempts to force them to convert, the Conquistadors forcing their beliefs onto the Mesoamericans, or even the attempts by the US Government to force “civilization” onto the Native American, it’s a constant theme. While the macro versions of these attempts...

Admiral Irosuku Yamamoto, the leader of the Imperial Japanese Navy, was reputed to have once said that he personally would dictate the peace terms to the United States in the Oval Office. As the mastermind behind the the attack on Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto was seen as the evil genius behind the successes of the Japanese Navy up through the end of the Guadalcanal Campaign in early 1943. Now, in a desp...