“Billy the Kid pardon shot down by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson because of 'historical ambiguity' - New York Daily News” plus 1 more |
| Posted: 31 Dec 2010 08:30 AM PST  Handout William Bonney, also known as Billy the Kid. The famous gunslinger lost a bid to be pardoned.New Mexico's governor shot down a pardon Friday for the legendary Wild West bandit Billy the Kid. Gov. Bill Richardson declined to pardon the gunslinger, who killed between nine and 21 people, according to various accounts . Richardson cited the"historical ambiguity" surrounding an alleged deal the state's then-governor made with the outlaw in exchange for his testimony in other killings. The governor announced his decision on the final day of his term. Talk of a pardon stemmed from New Mexico's territorial governor in 1881, Lew Wallace, supposedly offering Billy the Kid a reprieve for killing Lincoln County Sheriff William Brady. However, Richardson said there was a"lack of conclusiveness" as to why Wallace broke his promise. Ancestors of Wallace and Sheriff Pat Garrett, who killed Billy the Kid, criticized Richardson for considering a pardon. "The big picture is that Wallace obviously had no intent to pardon Billy - even telling a reporter that fact in an interview on April 28, 1881," the sheriff's grandson, J.P. Garrett of Albuquerque, wrote. "So there was no 'pardon promise' that Wallace broke. But I do think there was a pardon 'trick,' in that Wallace led Billy on to get his testimony." Albuquerque attorney Randi McGinn formally petitioned Richardson for the pardon, citing a letter Billy the Kid , who was also known as William Bonney, wrote to Lew Wallace asking for immunity.
Wallace responded, saying,"I have authority to exempt you from prosecution if you will testify to what you say you know." However, a newspaper account from 1881 reports that Wallace said,"I can't see how a fellow like him should expect any clemency from me." Richardson said his office got more than 800 emails, with 430 in favor of pardoning Billy the Kid. Despite taking heat for pondering a pardon, Richardson had no regrets. "We should not neglect the historical record and the history of the American West." With News Wire Services This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Barefoot Shoes? The Primal Reason You Want to Take Off Your Shoes - Huffingtonpost.com Posted: 31 Dec 2010 08:30 AM PST Absent any social obligations, fashion expectations, or store regulations regarding the necessity of footwear, would you choose to go barefoot as often as possible? I think you would. Most people, when they get home after work, or vacation in a tropical locale, kick their shoes off. It's a momentary whim satisfied, but you could never, ever, for example, go to a job interview in bare feet. It just isn't done, right? But doesn't the existence of that instinct toward kicking your shoes off, that inclination toward freeing your feet, make you wonder why? Instincts, after all, are there for a reason. If you dig deep enough and go back far enough, any particular instinct conferred some survival benefit to the organism with the instinct. Now, some instincts are obsolete, or even detrimental, in the modern world -- like tribalism, which served a distinct purpose for hunter-gatherers but only sows discord, hate, and fear today. But others still make sense: an infant's propensity toward putting things in its mouth (introduces novel bacteria to their budding immune systems); a teen's, ahem, primal urges when it comes to sex (allows the propagation of the species, with some caveats, of course!); and our love of sunny days (sun exposure provides vitamin D, an essential micronutrient for health). I'd argue that our love of being barefoot is a similarly beneficial instinct. If you look at the structure of the foot itself, it's a remarkably complex piece of machinery, with more than 26 bones, 33 joints, and over a hundred tendons, ligaments, and muscles. It's also one of our oldest bodily features, having been essentially unchanged since our graduation into full-on bipedalism at least four million years ago. Bipedalism was a really big deal for our early human ancestors. Walking upright freed our hands for tool making and usage, it gave us greater visibility across the Saharan grasslands for spotting prey and predators, and it reduced the amount of skin directly exposed to the sun when it was at its harshest and brightest. It allowed us to travel great distances more efficiently than quadrupeds. And it was all done without expensive Nikes. Anthropologists place the earliest footwear at about 40,000 years ago, probably a protective measure to guard against snow and ice. So, for the vast bulk of our evolutionary history, the human foot was designed to handle the rigors of walking and running in its completely natural, bare state. We've still got those same feet, but we don't use them anymore. Instead, we cover them up. We wear shoes that alter the structure and function of our feet, and that weaken the myriad tendons, muscles, and ligaments through disuse. We strap on rubber soles that sever our proprioceptive connection with the ground and restrict our nervous system's ability to subconsciously respond to changing environments and protect us from tripping or turning an ankle. An early 20th century orthopedist named Philip Hoffman had a similar idea. His mostly ignored 1905 study, titled "Conclusions Drawn From a Comparative Study of the Feet of Barefooted and Shoe-Wearing People," (gotta love the blunt frankness of early research) did exactly what the title states. He looked at the feet of people who spent their lives barefooted, of people who started out barefoot and then "graduated" to shoes, and of people who grew up in shoe-wearing cultures. The results were clear: lifelong bare footers displayed wider feet with wider toe beds and fewer foot dysfunctions, while shoe-wearers displayed narrower feet, narrower toe beds, and many more foot dysfunctions. And the shoes acted quickly, too; individuals who had spent most of their lives barefoot experienced significant, rapid alteration of the foot structure after a few weeks of wearing shoes. In the end, Hoffman concluded that of the "one hundred and eighty-six pairs of primitive feet examined, [he] did not find a single foot associated with the symptoms of weakness so common in adult shoe-wearing feet, which are weakened by the restraint the shoe exerts over function." Take a look at the linked PDF, because the pictures are startling. This is not an appeal to the naturalistic fallacy. This is simply stating a fact: the human foot was designed by millions of years of natural selection to work in its unaltered state. Putting on thick, restrictive shoes with prominent heels and lots of padding puts us at a greater risk of lower body injuries, both chronic and acute. It allows the muscles in our feet to atrophy from disuse. And once that primary link between our bodies and the ground is compromised, the rest follows: ankle pain, knee pain, hip pain, back pain. So, what can you do if you've been wearing shoes your entire life, or if you're already suffering from foot, leg, or knee pain? Throw in the towel and pony up the money for orthotics? No way! Need arch support? Use your built-in arch support! Just as dealing with the ramifications of tribalism, by ignoring the problem, only exacerbates the situation, sticking your feet in a desensitizing, immobilizing cast made of rubber and leather in order to reduce lower body pain avoids the root cause of the problem and focuses on the immediate symptoms. Go barefoot as often as possible. It's as simple as that. Ditch the shoes when and where it's acceptable: at home, on walks around the block, at the park. Working in the office? Go in socks and leave the shoes under the desk. Go to the beach and take a long walk. Grasp the sand with them and flex your foot muscles. As with any muscle you haven't been using for an extended period of time, your feet are probably weak, and rushing into mile runs or two hours hikes in unprepared bare feet will be painful and potentially dangerous. Ease your way into it, especially if you're habitually shod. Free your feet, pay attention to the sensations, and walk the way your genes intended. Mark Sisson is a former elite marathoner and triathlete. He is the author of the best-selling health and fitness book, "The Primal Blueprint", and publisher of the health blog, MarksDailyApple.com. Become a fan on Facebook and visit Mark's blog for daily health tips.
Follow Mark Sisson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Mark_Sisson This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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