Ye Olde Patriot Coffeehouse

Colonial Williamsburg, which describes itself as "the world’s largest living history museum in Williamsburg, Virginia—the restored 18th-century capital of Britain’s largest, wealthiest, and most populous outpost of empire in the New World," is in the process of reconstructing Richard Charlton's coffeehouse, an establishment that once existed near the colonial Capitol building. According to this article:

[The coffeehouse] wasn't a big space: two rooms that total 35 square feet, with a fireplace in the middle. Once the place is rebuilt, the public room will hold 12 to 15 visitors who come in for tea, coffee or chocolate.

It was the location that helped Charlton to find his upscale market: His coffeehouse was just a few feet from the Capitol. Royal Governor Francis Fauquier wrote of taking his political advisers there — and of saving a royal tax collector from Charlton's front porch when an anti-Stamp Act mob cornered him there in 1765.

The coffeehouse served Williamsburg residents and visiting politicians from 1755 to 1769. Unlike a tavern, a coffeehouse usually catered only to men, served hot beverages more often than alcohol and was not required to rent rooms. [James] Horn [vice president of research for Colonial Williamsburg] said this reconstruction will be the only true Colonial coffeehouse in the United States.

Hmmm ... a true Colonial coffeehouse, sort of an 18th-century Starbucks. I see endless possibilities for the sort of Kolonial Kitsch that makes me so enjoy Williamsburg. It goes without saying that Charlton's coffeehouse will serve Americanos, but will it also have Liberty Lattes, Freedom Frappuccinos, and Shaken Limey Tea? Modern-day cup sizes of Tall/Grande/Vente might be translated into 18th-century vernacular as Wee/Middling/Buxom. And I can all too easily imagine a Patrick Henry 'living history' re-enactor declaiming: "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me a double espresso or give me death!"

When they get that place finished, I'll be the first customer in line.

Nigerian Ministry Of Finance Offers Me $800,000 (and the FBI Approves!)

Imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail (below) and learned that Barrister Robert Scheels of the Federal Ministry Of Finance, Nigeria, is willing to send me $800,000 in payment for some sort of contract or inheritance transaction - I'm not exactly sure what transaction that is, and the e-mail isn't too clear about that part - and all I have to do is contact the ATM Card Centre and pay them a $550 fee to obtain the PIN number for my new ATM card.

Best of all, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has already checked this deal out and assures me it is "100% risk free." Frankly, if not for the vigilance of the FBI's Anti-Terrorist and Monitory Crimes Division, I might have hesitated to respond to an offer that arrived from Nigeria, what with all the advanced fee frauds that originate from there. I've been so critical of the FBI in the past, and now they go and do me this favor; it's enough to make me re-think my negative attitude toward the Bureau.

-----------------------------

Anti-Terrorist and Monitory Crimes Division.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
J. Edgar. Hoover Building Washington D.C
Tel: 914 373 6388 Fax: 206 339 7032

Attn: Beneficiary,

This is to Officially Inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated by the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having a Legal Transaction with one Barrister Robert Scheels of the Federal Ministry Of Finance Nigeria. During our Investigation, it came to our notice that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfill your Financial Obligation giving to you in respect of your Contract/Inheritance Payment.

So therefore, we have contacted the Federal Ministry Of Finance on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem by arranging your payment in total of US$800,000.00 in an ATM CARD which you will use to withdraw money in anywhere of the world. You now have the lawful right to claim your fund in the ATM CARD by contacting the ATM CARD CENTER.

Also, we have being informed by Mr. Robert Scheels that he gave you instructions on how to proceed and contact the ATM CARD CENTER for their requirements to procure your Approval Slip which contains details of your PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (PIN) which you would use in activating and operating your ATM CARD in any ATM Machine closer to you and note that to procure your Approval Slip it would cost you $550.00. Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved in this transaction, all you did have to do is to be rest assured for this is 100% risk free so do contact the ATM CARD CENTRE so they could let you know on how to make payment for the procurement of your Approval Slip which is the only payment needed before the delivery of your ATM CARD is being effected.

Below are the contact details of the ATM CARD CENTRE which you are to proceed and contact them for their requirements to proceed and procure your Approval Slip after making payment of $550.00

CONTACT DETAILS

Name: Mr. Paul Smith
Email: paulcardsmithatm@aol.com


We do await your response so we can move on with our Investigation and make sure your ATM SWIFT CARD gets to you.

Thanks and hope to read from you soon.

FBI Director

Robert S. Mueller

Note: Do disregard any email you get from any imposter or office claiming to be in possesion of your ATM CARD, you are adviced only to be in contact with Mr. Paul Smith of the ATM CARD CENTRE who is the rightful person you are suppose to deal with in regards your ATM CARD PAYMENT and forward any email you get from imposters to this office so we could act upon and commence investigation.

Gons Nachman to the Judge: In My Mind, I'm Only a Little Bit Guilty

Damn! I was so looking forward to seeing Gons Nachman get sentenced tomorrow at the Federal Courthouse in Alexandria. But now he's gotten a last-minute postponement. According to today's AP story:

An ex-diplomat [Gons G. Nachman] convicted of having sex with teenage girls in the Congo and Brazil and taping the encounters is asking a judge for leniency, claiming that cultural differences in those countries make sex with girls more acceptable.

Gons is the former INS Asylum Officer and State Department Vice Consul whose legal troubles I've been following for months (see here, here, here, here, and finally, here).

The judge has agreed to postpone sentencing until August 22, so that a "noted forensic psychologist" can probe Nachman's psyche as part of a defense ploy to show that Nachman became so highly attuned to Congolese cultural norms while serving as a U.S. Embassy political officer in Kinshasa that he came to believe it was only slightly improper to have sex with 14 year-old girls. And, if you buy that premise, then he shouldn't be punished as harshly as if he'd had sex with 14 year-olds in more Puritanical countries. Seriously. That's his story, a cultural subjectivist interpretation of statutory rape laws: 'Your Honor, having adopted the values of my exotic surroundings, I did not regard those particular 14 year-old girls as deserving of the protection afforded them by U.S. law, and I ask that you respect my cultural beliefs.'

But Gons isn't betting everything on this novel legal theory. According to the AP story, he also wrote a jailhouse letter to the Director of the U.S. Foreign Service in an apparent attempt to lay the groundwork for an appeal of his conviction.

Another odd twist is Nachman's prominence in the nudist community: In the 1990s, when attending law school at the University of Pennsylvania, Nachman led several public demonstrations advocating nudity. Nachman now contends that he was targeted for investigation in part because of his well-known affinity for the nudist lifestyle.

In his letter to the Foreign Service director, Nachman says investigators knew of his interest in nudism and illegally searched his apartment with the notion of finding images that, taken out of context, could be used against him.

Nachman says in the letter that he disclosed his activism and lifestyle to the Foreign Service and had no problems receiving a security clearance. State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson declined to comment directly on whether an individual's advocacy for public nudity would be a factor in the State Department's hiring process.

Now I'll have to wait another five weeks for the next installment of the Gons Nachman saga.

The Bureaucrats Without Borders

Foreign Policy magazine has a good article about "the new colonists," that is, the large corps of internationalist do-gooders who staff the non-government organizations that have, one way or another, ended up running many failed states. The FP article is available to subscribers only, but it's discussed by Judith Apter Klinghofer at her blog (here), only she takes a decidedly jaded view of "the growing power and influence of unaccountable and self appointed NGOs".

I had a good look at some of these NGOers while working for the World Bank in the late 1990s, and I share Judith's reservations about them. I'm sure they all went into the NGO business for the most altruistic of motives, but I couldn't help but notice that many of them were doing well by doing good. As one of them told me on my very first day at the Bank, "there's a lot of money in poverty."

Keeping the Economy in Perspective

Chart provided by the International Monetary Fund, and run in The Economist today.

Post-Nationalist Politics: Change You Can Believe In?

Judith Apter Klinghofer's blog at History News Network had an insightful piece last week about the post-nationalist - or, better, the supra-nationalist - politics of European elites. Read it here: EU Has Post-Nationalist Leadership; US Next?

She speculates that post-nationalism is the reason for the wave of European support for Barack Obama's candidacy. That, I think, is a key point most people miss about Obama. While everybody, including Obama himself, fixates on his being half-Black, the really formative influence on him, politically speaking, is that he's half-American.

Back on the Net, Minus 'Matters of Official Concern'

I took a hiatus from blogging this past week after deciding that it is impractical to continue posting or commenting upon matters that are of official concern to my employer. The regulations that apply to private writings by employees state that we worker bees may comment freely about matters that are clearly not of official concern - such as, your plans for the 4th of July weekend - but must obtain several levels of review and clearance before writing about matters of official concern. 'Matters of official concern' evidently encompass something less than 100% of all official matters, but it is not clear to me where the line is drawn between permissible and impermissible official matters. Since it would hardly be practical to ask for a review before posting anything that so much as mentions the [REDACTED] [the foreign affairs department of the Washington DC area's largest employer], I've decided to err on the side of caution and restrict myself to writing solely about matters that are clearly not of official concern.

That restriction will not be very limiting, since it still allows me to write about the other departments of the [REDACTED] [the Washington DC area's largest employer], as well as about everything else under the sun. But, by avoiding 'matters of official concern' I will also avoid causing trouble for my supervisors and co-workers, some of whom have been mistaken for me to their discomfort.

p.s. - This 4th of July weekend I plan to emulate George Washington, who kicked off the original Independence Day celebration by ordering that his Continental Army receive a double ration of rum, followed by an artillery salute. The rum part will be easy, but the artillery salute will be only a pale imitation of the original, thanks to the worrywarts who now run George Washington's old stomping grounds of Northern Virginia.