This Date In History, The Southern Version

2012-01-27T06:55:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

Woman chatting with at a bridge game: “There is something seriously wrong with our computer. When I walk into the room where Harry is on the computer, the screen if full of naked women in compromising positions and Harry said he does not now how they got there so it must be a glitch in the computer.”

                                                                  Anonymous

A few months ago 26 year old James Brock and his wife came to a parting of the ways and his wife moved into another house not yet identified near Travelers Rest, SC. James chose to go to this house on several occasions trying to talk with his wife. The homeowner got fed up and obtained a non-trespass order on James. This past Wednesday night James foolishly chose to approach the house once again seeking a conversation with his estranged wife. Soon after this the homeowner called 9-1-1 and said that he had shot someone. He had shot James in the back with a shotgun. James was taken to the local hospital but he expired about an hour later. James was in the front yard when he was shot. I am not sure what the law is on a case like this. Is it murder? Is it self protection? As of this writing the homeowner has not been charged nor arrested. The exact relationship between the homeowner and James' wife was never identified and neither was the homeowner. It sounds like a relative to me.

This past December Heather Locklear and fiance Jack Wagner got into a spat at Jack's house in San Fernando Valley, California. Actually, it was more that a spat, Heather took a swing at Jack and Jack retaliated. The cops were called and a domestic violence report was filed on both of them. A few days later both Heather and Jack told the cops that they did not want to press charges. They were told that it was not a case of pressing charges...any and all domestic violence charges in the state of California are pursued and adjudicated before a judge, come hell or high water. They will be paying a judge a visit the end of this month. South Carolina has similar laws, law enforcement takes domestic violence charges seriously and after the charges are filed, it is no longer in the hands of the perpetrator or the victim.

Here is a case of the most inattentive person on the planet. A few days before Christmas over in Sarpy County, Nebraska there is one night at the local Wal-mart known as “Shop with a cop“ night. In this case 25 county cops took underprivileged

children Christmas shopping. On this particular night a 25 year old man chose to shoplift a video game, stuffing it under his jacket, and headed for the door. Needless to say, he was spotted and arrested. The strange part was that there were 15 police cruisers parked near the front door. What was this thief thinking? How can you miss a caravan of police cruisers?

                                               This date in history January 27

1863 On this date President Abraham Lincoln issued General War Order #1. He orders all US forces on land and sea to make an advance against the Confederate forces on February 22. Abe was fed up with the stalling tactics of General George B. McClellan and he was eager to get this conflict ended. Abe was neither military trained nor experienced so he rounded up some books on military tactics and read up on it. After this he decided that a simultaneous attack on all fronts would reveal the Confederate weaknesses and there they could concentrate their efforts. The philosophy was good but there were a host of reason why it would not work but he ordered the action anyway. The arrogant General McClellan called the order “amateurish” and ignored it and stayed encamped after February 22. However, US General Ulysses S. Grant in the Tennessee-Mississippi theater did indeed begin a push against the Rebs and captured Fort Donelson and other forts on the Mississippi River. This action eventually led to Grant being able to isolate and capture Vicksburg, Mississippi. While all of this was going on Abe found out that his Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, had been unapologetically taking bribes and using his position for personal gain. Abe fired Simon and installed Edwin Stanton into that position where he remained for the remainder of the war. A little later Abe fired McClellan and put US General Ambrose Burnside in his place. Ambrose lasted two months then Abe fired him and installed US General Joseph Hooker in his place. Even though Hooker was known to get into the sauce on a regular basis and allowed prostitutes to follow his troops (this is where the word “hooker” for a prostitute came from) he was not afraid to move his army and attack. This is what Abe wanted to see. It didn’t work however. Hooker was no match for CSA General Robert E. Lee and Abe had to fire him too.

1967 In 1960 US President John F. Kennedy had issued an order for the United States to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade and eventually NASA was born. NASA began a series of programs aimed at putting a man on the moon. The programs began with fits and starts and some failures but eventually progress was being made by leaps and bounds. Maybe too fast because on this date the spacecraft Apollo 1 was on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral with the crew aboard going through drills and exercises to be done once launched and a fire broke out and killed astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee. Examination revealed that it was an electrical short that had caused the fire but the real fault was the buildup of combustibles in the spacecraft. NASA engineers had ignored the possibility of a fire and plunged ahead recklessly. In spite of this tragedy, NASA was able to put a man on the moon with Apollo 8, Neil Armstrong commanding, in 1969. In all there were 17 Apollo missions and 6 visits to the moon.

1926 Scottish inventor John Baird demonstrated in London the first transmission and reception of a TV signal. It was a program about a red-haired housewife with a Cuban bandleader for a husband and their interplay with their landlord and his wife, just joking. Anyway, in 1932 the Radio Corporation of America demonstrates television using a cathode ray tube called an iconoscope created by a Russian inventor named Vladimir Zworykin. This invention made the picture much cleared than before. In 1936 the British Broadcasting Company began sporadic television broadcasts in high definition and in 1939 they began regular broadcasts. The first color set reached the public in 1954. In 1969 the head of the United States Federal Communication Commission, Newton Minnow, called television “a vast wasteland”. But things are much better today with shows like: The Simpsons, Wife Swap and American Idol. Hello Newton, where are you?

1975 On this date a Senate investigative committee headed by Idaho Senator Frank Church opened hearings on the actions of the FBI and the CIA. The committee comes to find out that the FBI had been conducting illegal surveillance on hundreds of thousands of Americans for years. The also found out that the CIA had been fostering or participating in the murder of elected officials worldwide. It was only two years before that the CIA had engineered the murder of the democratically elected president of Chile Salvador Allende and the military takeover of the government by a Chilean General that was sympathetic to the US, at least as long as the money kept rolling in. The real reason for the murder of Allende was he had threatened to nationalize the copper mines held by the American company Kennecott Copper and ITT also. He also had open trade with North Korea and Cuba among others, all United States enemies. Not only that, they had ignored a presidential directive to destroy their vast supply of poisons. It is ugly out there, y’all.

1978 On this date a man named Richard Chase is captured near Sacramento, California for the murder of Evelyn Mirith and Daniel Madden. He had sexually mutilated Evelyn with a knife before stabbing her to death and had shot Daniel in the head. The strange part of this is that Richard removed some of their organs, filled them with blood and took them to the house. The people that knew him were not surprised because a few years before Richard were found out in the middle of a pasture covered with the blood of the cow he had just killed. When the police searched Richard’s house they found blood in containers throughout the house. It appeared that Richard had been drinking blood for some time. He went to trial for murder and even though he was obviously insane, the jury found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life without parole. On the day after Christmas in 1980, Richard was found dead of a suicide in his San Quentin prison cell....... and stay gone.

1951 On this date United States detonated the first nuclear device, fueled by fissionable material made at the Hanford, Washington facility, on the recently acquired Nevada test site. The blast was so large that the flash was seen in San Francisco. The previous tests had been done at the test site at Los Alamos, New Mexico including the very first nuclear explosion in history in July of 1945. The device was known as “Fat Man”. The only other nuclear devise in existence at that time was also an American invention known as “Little Boy”. This bomb was dropped on Nagasaki without testing because the scientists were sure it would work and they were very, very right.

Born today:

1807 American author Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. He said “It take less time to do something right than it does to explain why you did something wrong.” Obviously Henry was a married man.

1847 English actress Ellen Terry. She said “No matter the skill of the actress can overcome the loss of youth.” Time marches on, Ellen....Damn it!

1886 US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. He said “The layman’s constitutional view is that anything he likes is constitutional and anything he doesn’t like is unconstitutional.” Yeah, so what is wrong with that, Hugo?

1897 US singer Marian Anderson. She said “So long as you hold somebody down, a part of you must be down there with them, meaning that you cannot soar as far as you otherwise might.” That sounds like my third ex-wife.

1902 US writer John Steinbeck. He said “Writers are somewhere between clowns and trained seals.” Steinbeck gave some of the best literature ever written and he received many awards for it. He gave us The Grapes of Wrath and Travels with Charlie among many others. He is no longer with us and it is our loss.

1912 English writer Lawrence Durrell. He said “All culture corrupts, but French culture corrupts absolutely.” My sentiments exactly Larry.

1913 US writer Irwin Shaw. When speaking of American football he said “If they armed the players, there would not be a stadium big enough to hold all the crowds.” I like the idea of men armed with ice picks against hungry lions.

1930 US actress and wife of Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward. She said “Sexiness wears this and beauty fades, but to be married to a man that makes you laugh every day, now that is a real treat.” Joanne went to high school right here in good old Greenville for a while.

1932 English-borne actress Elizabeth Taylor. I have been in love with Liz ever since I saw her in National Velvet. She said “The problem with people with no vices is there is a good chance they will have many irritating virtues”. There is little doubt that Liz had a plethora of vices. She was a skank, no doubt about it.

                              Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

2012-01-26T00:27:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I don't diet and I never gain an ounce. I eat six meals a day...four steaks, 10 pounds of potatoes, a dozen hamburgers, apple pie with ice cream and lots of beer. Yet I still weigh the same...367 pounds.”

Cyril Smith

The FBI has moved into the upscale town of East Haven, Connecticut. They have arrested four of the city police officers for police brutality and uneven enforcement of the law. It seems that in the last few years latinoes have moved into this town and now represent about 13 percent of the population.

The local natives were not pleased at all with this turn of events and neither were the police. The police began a campaign of harassment of the latinoes and especially latino business owners and people from Mexico and Ecuador. The Chief of Police was heard saying “These greaseballs drifted here on a raft of chicken bones and expect respect.” I understand the police and the native resident's unhappiness, but using the law as a weapon is unacceptable.

I guess all of you have read about the two hostages held by Somali pirates and were rescued a few nights ago. I found out that the rescue team was those wild and crazy guys known as SEAL Team Six. Y'all will remember them back in May going into Pakistan and capping Osama Bin Laden. All the report would say is that it was this team that parachuted in at night and rescued an American woman and a Danish man. The item did not mention if any of the Somali pirates were killed or not but it would be a miracle if there wasn't. SEAL teams don't take any chances. They shoot first and don't even fool with asking the questions later.

If y'all will recall a few days ago I told you about Iran backing off the threat of closing the Staits of Hormuz in retaliation for the US and other countries instituting sanctions on Iran for their continued attempts at developing nuclear weapons. Iran backed off of this threat two days ago. That same day the European Union instituted even more sanctions against Iran for their refusal to discontinue pursuit of nuclear weapons. On Tuesday afternoon Iran reinstituted the threat of blocking the Strait of Hormuz if the sanctions are not eased. Y'all need to keep in mind that the US 5th fleet is based in Bahrain which is in the Persian Gulf. Iran stated that they will request that all Arab combat vessels to come and help with the blockade. If this happens there is no question that a major military confrontation will occur between the Arabs and the rest of the world. Iran is counting on the rest of the world backing down because of the fear of an Armegeddon in the Middle East. If a blockade of the Straits of Hormuz occurs this will mean that the 5th Fleet and all the other countries bordering the Persian Gulf will not have access to the open sea. I do not believe that our nation and all the others in the world will allow that to happen. The Straits of Hormuz is considered open sea by international agreement. No one entity owns it.

Over in Monroe, NC good old Jeremiah McManus was stopped for weaving and crossing the center line under suspicion of DUI. The cops found an open container of an alcoholic beverage in the car. This is not an unusual event except that this is Jeremiah's sixth arrest for DUI. He pled guilty to FIVE DUI's in 2008 alone. This time there will be an additional charge of terminal stupidity.

Just to show you how we are manipulated my the media read this comparison. After the results of the GOP South Carolina primary hit the airwaves the descriptions were totally different dependant upon what particular media issued the statement. Fox news stated “Newt buries Mitt in South Carolina”. Yahoo news stated “Disappointing results in South Carolina.” Disappointing to whom, jackass?

This date in history January 26

1788 Eight months Captain Arthur Phillips was commissioned by the British government to establish a colony in the newly discovered land that eventually became Australia. The strange part of it was that the British government wanted Phillip to do it with prisoners that may or may not have farming expertise. So Phillip set out with 11 ships headed to the land down under with nearly as many Marines aboard as he had prisoners. On this date he hove to off the east coast of what was labeled New South Wales and the country of Australia was born. Right from the git-go Captain Phillip found out that most of his prisoners indeed knew more about robbing and killing than they did about farming and not only that the soil was not rich enough to raise crops. Needless to say discipline amongst the prisoners became a serious problem. Hungry criminals can be a handful, Marines nearby or not. Finally the Marines were not up to the task and Captain Phillip himself took over control of the prisoners and he proved to be a tough but fair overseer, but many floggings and several hangings ensued. Eventually Captain Phillip, the Marines and the prisoners were on the cusp of starvation for several years. Captain Phillip returned to England in 1792 but the colony had already showed signs that it would survive and by the turn of the century the colony became prosperous with a deep sense of patriotism. In fact in 1808 an Australian historian wrote “there was a celebration of the founding of the colony with much drinking and merriment.” Australia is famous for having one of the largest quantities of beer consumed per capita on the planet, mostly Foster’s. I like it myself.

1950 After years of hassling with the British, India passed its own Constitution and became an independent nation on this date. Indian religious leader Mahatma Gandhi had been leading the fight for independence for decades and he finally succeeded. But before all of this came to pass, religious differences between the Hindus and the Moslems raised it ugly head. To settle this problem the British Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, declared that the country would be partitioned with the Moslems going to Pakistan and the Hindus to India. This seemed like a perfect plan but the Moslems and the Hindus still fought vicious battles where thousands were killed, including Mahatma Gandhi. He was a Hindu and was assassinated by another Hindu because Gandhi accepted the partition in the interest of peace. You can say what you want but the most bloody and vicious wars ever fought were in the interest of one or more religion against another. Remember the Crusades?

1863 After the disastrous tenure of US General Ambrose Burnside in command of the Army of the Potomac and his subsequent removal, on this date US General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker takes command. Hooker knew that the morale of the Army of the Potomac was at its lowest ebb and he needed to do something to restore pride. He allowed each regiment to design and wear their own “badge” or shoulder patch hoping this would have an effect. Hooker was a West Point graduate and participated in the Seminole War. When the Civil War broke out he was given the rank of Brigadier General and given command of a Division in the Army of the Potomac. Speaking of command, Abe Lincoln had been having a hell of a time finding a commander that could defeat Robert E. Lee. This was a tall order for anyone. Lincoln had gone through Generals Irwin McDowell, George McClellan, John Pope, McClellan again, Ambrose Burnside and now Joseph Hooker, none of which had been successful against Bobby Lee but Hooker had his chance coming. Hooker had two faults: women and whiskey. In fact he allowed prostitutes to follow his army around and that is where the word “hooker” to identify prostitutes came from. In May of this year Joe Hooker got his chance against Bobby Lee in an engagement near the small Virginia town of Chancellorsville. Hooker had a good plan and by dark of this fateful day he had the Army of Northern Virginia caught in a pincer movement. But “Fighting Joe” had not planned on the tactics of Lee and the brilliance of “Stonewall” Jackson. Jackson led his division on a forced night march around the right flank of Hooker’s army. The next morning while the Union troops on the right flank were cooking their breakfast, all of a sudden deer, rabbits and all types of game came running out of the woods behind them and right behind the animals came Jackson’s wild-eyed screaming Confederate infantry and those stunned Yankees got up and ran without even stopping to gather their weapons and put out their camp fires. Hooker had the Army of Northern Virginia outnumbered by at least two to one but was routed by Bobby Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Thus was the beginning of the end of the career of “Fighting Joe”.

1936 On This date the dismembered corpse of Frances Portillo was found with the head in a basket and the remainder of the various parts stuffed into burlap sacks in Cleveland, Ohio. This was not the first nor would it be the last. The killings and dismemberment continued until the number reached double digits. Needless to say the Cleveland PD was frantic to find the “Mad Butcher”. The corpses had been dissected with precision and therefore the PD began looking for a real butcher. The arrested a butcher named Frank Dolezal and interrogated him for 40 straight hours until he confessed to killing Frances Portillo. Frank committed suicide in his cell soon thereafter. Very few of the people of Cleveland believed that Frank Dolezal was the actual “Mad Butcher” and that the real killer was a well heeled and well connected member of the community. The Cleveland PD chose to destroy any and all records about these crimes and the killings stopped after the suicide of Dolezal. But the actual identity of the “Mad Butcher” is unknown to this day.

1875 The James brothers, Jesse and Frank, had been hotly pursued by the Pinkerton Detective Agency for over a year. They had been hired by the railroad barons to try and stop the robbing of their trains and banks by the James gang. They were not successful, in fact one of their best detectives named James Witcher had been found dead from a gunshot to the abdomen and his upper torso had been eaten by wild hogs. It was known that Jesse and Frank would visit with their kin in Clay County, Missouri on occasion. On this date a group of men surrounded the house of Jesse and Frank’s mother in Clay County thinking that the James boys were home visiting Mom. It has never been confirmed if the men surrounding the house were law enforcement officials or Pinkerton detectives or a combination of both. Anyway, the people surrounding the house decided to throw in a couple of flares to flush out anyone in the house. One of the flares exploded killing Jesse and Frank’s nine year old step-brother outright and took off one of Mom’s arms. Jesse and Frank were not there and the local community came after the ones that surrounded the house with blood in their eye. The lawmen/detectives got away and no one to this day admits to who it was that committed that atrocity but after this the Pinkerton Agency cut back on their often violent methods.

Born today:

1715 French philosopher Claude Helvetius. He said “To limit the press is an insult to a nation; to prohibit the reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants either fool or slaves.” It was less than three years ago that a church in a small town outside of Greenpatch threatened to picket the local library to remove “Catcher in the Rye” from the shelves as being immoral because it mentions masturbation. There is no need for me to tell you what my response to that bullshit was. There is nothing more immoral on the planet than to tell someone what they can or cannot read. That is nothing but an attempt at mind control. I had forgotten why I don’t attend organized religions, after this, I remember.

Born today:

1880 US General Douglas MacArthur: He said “I will keep on living as if I expect to live forever. Nobody grows old by living a number of years. People grow old for deserting their Ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin but to give up wrinkles the soul.” General MacArthur was one of America’s greatest military commanders in spite of having an ego the size of Oklahoma.

1918 US writer Phillip Farmer. He said “The universe is a big place, maybe the biggest.” Phillip, shut up.

1925 US actor Paul Newman. Paul has a side business of different salad dressings and once said “It is embarrassing to know that my salad dressings are out grossing my movies.” Paul donates all of the profits from his salad dressings to charity. He is no longer with us. He had been married to actress Joanne Woodward since 1958.

1929 US cartoonist Jules Feiffer. He said “Christ died for out sins, dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?” I am working on it, Jules.

1935 US baseball catcher Bob Uecker. When asked how do you catch a knuckleball he said “You wait until it stops rolling and go pick it up.” Bob worked for several years as the color man of baseball game broadcasts. He is a funny guy.

1961 Canadian ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky. He said “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.” I have a friend in Charlotte that said “80% of all the golf balls that you do not putt hard enough don’t go in the hole.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

2012-01-25T07:50:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“The ability to make love frivolously is what separates humans from beasts.”

Heywood Broun

This past weekend the Anderson County, SC sheriff's department was called about a shooting. They went to an apartment complex near Iva, South Carolina. Sure enough, a woman had been shot in the neck but was still alive. In fact, the EMS technicians were very optimistic as to a quick recovery and the victim was able to identify the shooter. The cops were then notified about a car crash about 5 miles away that was probably fatal. When the cops arrived they discovered the crash was indeed fatal. The dead person was the shooter. He was going at a ferocious speed when he left the road and hit several trees before coming to rest inverted with the car in more that one piece. In fact the left front wheel was lodged in a fork of a tree 12 feet off the ground.

All of y'all know about the death of Joe Paterno at the age of 85. Joe was the head football coach of Penn State for many years before he was fired in a sex scandal involving one of his coaches. He is in the books as the winningest collegiate football coach in history. If you look back in history you will find that it is not unusual for a person that has spent their lifetime in a certain calling and dying very soon after retiring or getting out of what they know the best. In addition to Paterno we should remember “Bear” Bryant, Lyndon Johnson, General Douglas MacArthur and several others. It makes you believe that some people are put here on the planet for a specific purpose and when the purpose is served they leave us. By the way, here is an interesting trivia item. The only father/son combination where they both were awarded Medals of Honor is Arthur and Douglas MacArthur. Arthur (the father) was awarded a Medal of Honor in the Civil War and Douglas (the son) in WWII.

Last week your President sent a letter to the President of Iran who had threatened to block marine traffic in the Straits of Hormuz. Soon after this threat three American Navy aircraft carrier task forces moved into the Arabian Sea. The straits of Hormuz is a relatively narrow passage between the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. If this passage is blocked the oil producing countries bordering the Persian Gulf would not be able to export any oil. Some of these countries are, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Dubai and Iraq. How could that jackass President of Iran think that these countries would sit still for extortion like this? Anyway, soon after he received the letter from Obama he said that he was just joking about blocking the Straits of Hormuz...or words to that effect. I think the three US aircraft carrier task forces just offshore had an effect also. By the way, on Sunday evening the US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its support ships passed from the Arabian Sea through the Straits of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf unchallenged. The President of Iran had crow for dinner.

This date in history January 25

1500 On this day Spanish employer Vincente Pinzon raises the coast of Brazil. Pinzon was the captain of the Nina, one of the ships that came over with Christopher Columbus. Pinzon explored the northern coast of Brazil and the Amazon River. There was always contention as to who claimed this country first, the Spanish or the Portuguese. That issue was settled a few years later when the Portuguese explorer Pedro Cabol went ashore and established the city of Sao Paolo, Brazil.

1863 About two months ago Abe Lincoln had enough of US General McClellan’s snot-nose and told him to take a hike and put US General Ambrose Burnside in command of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan was a great trainer and organizer but was very shy and reluctant when it came to combat meaning that the aggressive CSA Robert E. Lee handed McClellan his ass on several occasions even though at times Lee was outnumbered two to one. The final straw came when McClellan’s army had defeated Lee’s army at Antietam and Lee headed back in to Virginia to lick his wounds. McClellan chose to stay in camp for 6 weeks and not pursue Lee. Anyway, that was enough for Abe and he sent McClellan to the showers in and promoted Burnside into command. Burnside had been a desk jockey most of his career with very little if any combat experience and told everyone that they should take someone else but General of the Army Henry Halleck insisted. Very soon after taking command, Burnside knowing that Abe wanted an aggressive commander, launched a movement against Lee. Unfortunately, the movement was detected by Lee and he moved his army in a position to intercept Burnside at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Some of y'all may not know what happened at Fredericksburg but the US Army walked into trap a prepared by Lee and his Lieutenants that cost the Union 15,000 casualties to 5,000 for the CSA. Lincoln gave Burnside another chance and he tried a counter-move to attack Lee’s position at Fredericksburg from another direction and during the movement it rained for four straight days and the Army of the Potomac was bogged down to a stop in mud waist deep. The exasperated US troops gained access to some booze, got hammered and many fights broke out between units, not only that the CSA troops were on the opposite side of the Rappahannock taunting and teasing without mercy. So Abe put a stop to it by firing Burnside after only two months of command and gave command of the Army of the Potomac to US General Joseph Hooker. Little did Hooker know that yet another spectacular victory for the CSA awaited him at a little town named Chancellorsville, Va.

1945 On this date, after a stiff fight the Russian army broke through the German defenses near Auschwitz, Poland. What they found here was evidence of the most cruel and inhumane treatment of human beings yet recorded. It was a death camp of unimaginable proportions. There were three main camps, I, II and III with 8 other “satellite” camps. This camp had but one purpose and that was killing of human beings. The Russians discovered ovens with human remains still inside smoking, metal buildings with an opening for the insertion of poison gas. The German’s used Cyklon B gas. It was an insecticide and easy and cheap to make, the down side was that it did not kill quickly meaning that the people that were put inside those buildings knew after a short while that they were being poisoned and fought and struggled for life. The Russians found 645 corpses and 7,000 walking skeletons who told them that the guards found out that the Russians were close and they began killing all that they could until they ran out of ammo and then they began blowing up the crematoria and death buildings. The Russians also found three warehouses that were stacked to the top with women’s dresses, men’s suits and shoes that the German’s did not have a chance to destroy. And finally they discover the laboratories and journals of Dr. Josef Mengele. Mengele performed inconceivably cruel and inhuman medical experiments on the prisoners, especially children. There are many records of what this animal did to others but I will not describe them now. But I can tell you that when the Russian army left Auschwitz, they had lost all mercy and remorse for any and all Germans and killed all they found, man, woman, children, dogs, cats, geese, ducks, etc...They intended to wipe the slate clean of Germans. When one particular Russian tank crew entered Berlin they were confronted by an antitank gun manned by seven Germans no older than 12. The Russians destroyed the German crew and repeatedly ran back and forth across the corpses with their tank until there was nothing there that could be identified as human. Hate and no remorse, all wars depend on it.

1905 About noon of this day, the supervisor of the Premier Diamond Mine in South Africa in making an inspection and stops briefly and noticed something sticking out of the wall above his head. He pulled out the largest diamond ever found. It is a 3,160 carat monster that was named the Star of Africa. The diamond is sent to the greatest diamond cutter in the world in Amsterdam for cutting and polishing. The cutter examined the stone for six months before making the first cut. When he decided where the cut will be made, he has a doctor standing by in case he makes a wrong cut and shattered the stone. He is successful and he produced two gigantic polished stone that are now in the Tower of London as part of the British National Treasury. There were hundreds of smaller stones also that made the Star of Africa the most valuable gem ever found.

Born today:

1759 Scottish poet Robert Burns. He said “There is nothing more uncertain as a sure thing.” Obviously Robert has been to a horse track.

1882 English writer Virginia Woolf. She said “On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.”

1950 US writer Gloria Naylor. She said “I don’t believe life is supposed to make you feel good, or make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel.” This sounds like a person I know in Black Mountain, NC.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

2012-01-24T09:17:00.000-05:00

Good morning.

Quote of the day:

“How do you know when it is time to wash your dishes, clean your house. Look inside your pants and if a penis is detected it is NOT time.

Al Campbell

Hey Edie, it was good to see you Saturday evening.

I never understood why ABC TV network wanted to interview Newt Gingrich's ex-wife. It is a well known fact the Newt and his ex-wife experienced a very bitter divorce. How can any journalist expect this woman to be objective? They cannot. This just confirms my suspicions that the news media lusts not after news but after sensationalism. That is the reason I cannot and will not read or watch any news with any thought of credibility. As far as I am concerned there is only one publication that is totally honest and without an agenda and that is the Christian Science Monitor.

Here are few tidbits about our past leaders that proves they and we are not perfect.

George Washington was a slave owner and whiskey maker.

John Adams had black women as housekeepers to help Abigail when John was gone. It is not clear if they were slaves, indentured servants or freedmen.

Thomas Jefferson sired several children by one of his slaves. When he was in France he had a blistering affair with a married woman.

Benjamin Franklin was a member of “The Hell Fire Club” in London. This club would meet occasionally and the men came dressed as priests and the women came dressed as nuns. They drank heavily and eventually the meeting descended into orgiastic debauchery.

William McKinley sold cabinet positions.

Dwight Eisenhower had a girlfriend while he was in command of all allied forces in Europe (SHAEF) while stationed in London. It was his driver, a foxy lady named Kay Summersby.

Harry Truman gained his political powers from being part and parcel of the Pendergast political machinery in St. Louis.

John Kennedy had several girlfriends including Marilyn Monroe and so did Bobby.

Richard Nixon interfered with FBI investigations of the Watergate burglary, it cost him his career.

Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Gennifer Flowers, etc, etc.

Teddy Kennedy and Chappaquiddick.

I have not scratched the surface of how flawed our leaders have been...We are very lucky...so far.

Early this past Saturday morning two men walked into a Waffle House near Spartanburg, SC. One of them produced a sidearm and announced that they were there to rob the place. Little did they know that one of the patrons was armed and had a concealed weapons permit. The patron got the drop on the robbers and told them to get down on the floor. The stupid one with the sidearm raised his weapon instead and the patron capped him with one shot to the chest and one to the head. The other robber fled but was captured two days later. In the sovereign state of South Carolina where concealed weapons permits are obtained with a minimum of effort, you can never tell who is packing and who isn't. No charges have been filed against the shooter.

This date in history January 24

1781 On this date the combined cavalry forces of the Virginian Lieutenant Colonel Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee and South Carolinian Brigadier General Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion descended upon a 200 man British encampment near Georgetown, South Carolina. Henry Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia and was the father of CSA General Robert E. Lee. Francis Marion was born on a plantation on Winyah Bay near Georgetown, South Carolina. Marion had been given command of the South Carolina Militia while the commander, Thomas “The Gamecock” Sumter, was recovering from a severe wound. The raid came as a complete surprise to the British and the Patriots were able to capture a large portion on the encampment including several officers and the camp commander. A month later “Light-Horse Harry” Lee was able to destroy another British unit on the banks of the Haw River in North Carolina. Lee’s unit was able to close in on the British without opposition this was because the uniforms worn by the Patriots were very similar to those worn by the British cavalry unit of the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton. When the Patriots were within sight of the British they waved greeting to them and kept it up until they were within striking distance. After this is was nothing short of a slaughter. The British commander, Colonel John Pyle, lost three fingers and the sight of one eye during the attack but was able to escape by jumping into a nearby pond and hiding in the reeds. To this day that body of water is known as “Pyle’s Pond”.

1956 Earlier a 14 year old black kid from Chicago named Emmett Till was visiting his great-uncle on his farm near Money, Mississippi. He bragged to the locals there that he had a white girlfriend in Chicago and was challenged to see if he could get one there in Mississippi. Emmett was the typical teenager and accepted the challenge. He went into the local convenience store and made a pass at a married white woman working there. A couple of days later the woman’s husband came home from a business trip and was told of what happened with Emmett. So J.W. Milam and his cousin Roy Bryant went to Emmett’s great-uncle’s farm and kidnap Emmett. I don’t have to tell you what happened next. They beat Emmett to death with their pistols; Milam and Bryant took Emmett’s corpse to the crest of the Tallahatchie Bridge, wrapped barbed wire around Emmett’s neck and the other end to a heavy cotton gin fan and threw them both off the bridge. The corpse was eventually discovered and Milam and Bryant were arrested and went to trial for murder. They were acquitted because the defense lawyer was able to convince the jury that the corpse was so decomposed that the true identification could not be determined. The prosecution produced a ring that was found on the corpse that was known to be owned by Emmett. The defense blew it off as being stolen. Anyway, because of the law of double jeopardy Milam and Bryant, knowing they could not be tried again, on this date sold their description of the murder of Emmett to Look magazine for $4,000. Emmett’s mother retrieved his corpse back to Chicago and in her anger held an open casket funeral that was attended by over 5,000 people. No other attempts to bring Milam and Bryant to justice but they both died of cancer a few years later. God works in mysterious ways.

1848 Earlier a Swiss emigrant to the United States named John Sutter had acquired 7,000 acres in Mexico owned California if he would swear allegiance to Mexico and keep those pesky European settlers at bay. The land was in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco. Sutter had ideas of creating a type of commune on his lands. He determined that in order to build housing he would need a saw mill so he hired a man named James Marshall to build one. The main water source in that area was the American River and Marshall decided to build his water powered saw mill on the south fork of the American River. He began digging to deepen the creek and in the diggings he kept seeing flashes of light off some of the flakes therein. On this date he gathered up some of the flakes and took them to Sutter who immediately took them to an assayer who told Sutter that it was indeed gold. Sutter tried to keep this discovery a secret and succeeded for a while but eventually the word leaked out and in 1849 the largest gold rush in history was under way. Sutter did not have to worry about the Mexicans any longer because Mexico ceded all its lands in California to the United States as a result of the US victory in the Mexican War. You would think that this would make Sutter very happy but by 1852 his thoughts of a commune had gone down the toilet and the oncoming gold seekers trampled his gardens and slaughtered his farm animals for food. He spent the last years of his life petitioning the US government to recompense him for his losses at the hand of the miners. He did not get anything.

1943 On this date the commander of the German 6th Army, General Frederick von Paulus, entreated Hitler to allow his army to surrender. Hitler refused. Earlier Hitler had launched Operation Barbarossa which was the attempt to conquer Russia. There were three armies that departed Germany on this mission. Paulus was the commander of the central army whose main target was the capture of the city of Stalingrad. Upon arrival at the gates of Stalingrad he ran across a nut he could not crack so he surrounded the city and established a siege in an attempt to starve the people of Stalingrad into submission. In spite of millions starving to death, the city did not fall. Eventually the Russian army got on its feet and attacked Paulus’ army at its weakest point, the Romanian detachment. After breaking through here, the Russians swarmed around the Germans and encircled them cutting off their supplies. After the Russians had overrun his last airfield, Paulus knew the end was near especially since the descent of the worst winter in fifty years. A few days after the loss of this airfield, Paulus surrendered his army to the Russians, Adolph Hitler be damned. The Russians, remembering the people that starved to death in Stalingrad, accepted the surrender and gathered up the 500,000 half starved, half frozen Germans and sent them to prison camps. Of those that were captured, only 5,000 ever lived to see Germany again. Paulus was tried at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials, but was released and spent his last days in East Berlin.

Quotable quotes:

“I go to see my doctor and tell him that when I get up in the morning I look in the mirror and begin to throw up. The doctor said that he did not know what was causing the nausea but my eyesight was perfect.” Rodney Dangerfield

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

2012-01-23T10:16:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Deja Moo...The feeling that you have heard this bullsh-t before.”

Anonymous

As all of you know the GOP primary was held in South Carolina over this past weekend. The favorite going in was The Georgia Amphibian Lizard or Newt Gingrich. The end result was a massacre by the lizard. Since the advent of primary elections the GOP winner in the South Carolina primary has ended up as the presidential nominee for the GOP. Several members of my family are Democrats. All I have to say to them is that it is time that we had an intellectual as president rather than a quasi-politicial wannabe...what a relief it would be. The lizard has a PhD in history...right up my alley. The Florida GOP primary is at the end of this month...we shall see what we shall see.

By now all of you have heard that your president has chosen to reject the proposed oil pipeline that would run from central Canada to two different locations in the USA. The project would have meant about 20,000 jobs all paid for by the petroleum companies that would benefit from it, not to mention income taxes gathered by the states involved and the Federal government. I am not sure what this man had in mind but why should he worry, he has a job and a guaranteed retirement. He has said in the past that he felt that America's energies should be focused on alternative energy sources like solar, wind and water movement (water wheels turned by the movement of the tide operating a dynamo) and other sources. What are we supposed to do with the recent discovery of shale oil in the Dakotas that contains more potential crude oil reserves than in the entire middle east? I can hardly wait until November.

For some reason I have been doing a lot of reading about explorers during the 15th and 16th centuries. One was an Italian explorer named Giovanni Caboto but he explored for England and went by the name of John Cabot. He was tasked with finding a water passage to the Orient across the North America better known as the Northwest Passage. He went on his first voyage but was unable to find a passage but asked for a second chance which was granted. He left Bristol, England with two ships and neither he, his ships nor his crews were ever seen or heard from again.

Then there was Henry Hudson. Henry was an English explorer during Elizabethan era. He was tasked with finding the Northwest Passage also. He explored the river that bears his name in what is now New York. He sailed up river for about 150 miles but determined that this could not be the way to the Pacific. He sailed back out into the Atlantic, went north and found the St Lawrence river and the bay that bears his name. There is a small bay off Hudson Bay that juts southward into Ontario, Canada. One particular winter Hudson found himself trapped in Hudson Bay by ice in the St. Lawrence so he sailed as far south as he could and spent the winter in that small bay now named James Bay. When the ice finally relented, Hudson ordered his crews to continue westward looking for the Northwest Passage. After the privations they suffered that winter in James Bay, his crewmen wanted to go to the house. Hudson insisted so they mutinied and put Hudson, his son and seven crewmen loyal to Hudson into a small boat and set them adrift in James Bay. Hudson and company were never seen nor heard from again. The mutineers sailed back to England but were not executed for mutiny because of the knowledge they had of the New World.

The first European to lay eyes on the Grand Canyon was a Spanish soldier named Cardenas who was part of the retinue of Spanish conquistador/explorer Francisco Coronado.

This date in history January 23

1865 On this date CSA General John Bell Hood is relieved of command of the CSA Army of Tennessee thus ending a sad chapter in the history of the United States. Hood had requested to be relieved a couple of weeks earlier. John Bell Hood was born in Kentucky and graduated from West Point in 1853. As with most of his class, he served in the western theater until hostilities broke out at the start of the Civil War. Hood resigned his commission and offered his services to the famous Texas 4th Infantry. His regiment was sent to serve with CSA General Robert E. Lee and the equally famous Army of Northern Virginia. Hood served with distinction in the Peninsular Campaign and especially in the Battle of the Seven Days in 1862. Hood aggressive nature did not go unnoticed and he was eventually given command of a division. There is little question that his aggressive counter-attack at the Battle of Antietam saved General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia from total annihilation. His next major assignment came at the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg in June of 1863 when he was ordered to attack the left flank of the Union lines on a hill known as Little Round Top. He had under his command was the 4th and 5th Texas, the 5th Alabama and a number of other regiments totaling about 2,500 men. He was attacking the 20th Maine numbering about 300. At the onset of the battle Hood was severely wounded and lost the use of an arm as a result. Hood’s troops were not successful in turning the flank of the Union army on Little Round Top only because of the stubbornness of the 20th Maine and the resolve of their commander Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain. Hood spent quite a bit of time recuperating from this severe wound. Hood resumed his duties with the CSA Army of Tennessee and fought at the bloody Battle of Chickamauga where he was again severely wounded which resulted in the loss of a leg. When US General William T. Sherman began his attack across the state of Georgia beginning near Chattanooga, Tennessee and aimed at Atlanta and the port of Savannah, CSA General Joseph Johnston was in command of the CSA Army of Tennessee. Johnston knew he was out manned and outgunned and chose to use defensive strategy by digging in, fight and retreat. The closer Sherman got to Atlanta, the more nervous CSA President Jefferson Davis became. Finally Davis decided that the CSA needed a more aggressive commander of the Army of Tennessee and relieved Johnston and named Hood as his replacement. Hood assumed command and immediately struck hard at Sherman’s army in three different futile and costly attacks in and around Atlanta. Eventually Hood pulled his army out of Atlanta, moved west and headed north back toward Chattanooga hoping that Sherman would follow to protect his supply line but it didn’t happen that way. Hood finally moved the Army of Tennessee within striking distance of Sherman’s vital supply line near Nashville, Tennessee. Another Union army was dug-in and waiting but Hood flung what was left of his army at the Union fortifications in two unsuccessful and even more costly attacks. At the end of these two battles the CSA Army of Tennessee ceased to exist as a viable fighting force. When Hood took command in July of 1864, the CSA Army of Tennessee had 64,000 troops, when he was relieved on this day there were 18,000. War is hell.

1968 The United States intelligence gathering vessel USS Pueblo is on patrol 16 miles off the coast of North Korea when a North Korean gunboat pulls along side the Pueblo and orders it to stop. The commander of the lightly armed Pueblo, Captain Lloyd Bucher, tries to run away but the gunship opens fire killing a crewman and wounding Bucher. Bucher surrenders and the ship is ordered to the North Korean port of Wonsan. The crew of 84 is taken off the ship and sent to the capitol of Pyongyang where they are imprisoned. US President Lyndon Johnson demands the release of the crewman stating that the ship was in international waters when attacked and captured. The North Koreans refused stating that the ship was well within the North Korean limit of 12 miles. Johnson had a much larger problem in the small Oriental country of Vietnam and did not want to risk having to fight another military engagement so he decided to let our guys rot in that North Korean prison and try to resolve the problem diplomatically. The North Koreans wanted Captain Bucher and the crew to make a public statement avowing that they were indeed intentionally spying in North Korean waters and were deeply sorry for this breach in the sovereignty of North Korea. When interviewed the American sailors made sarcastic remarks and stuck up their middle finger, a gesture the North Koreans did not understand. Finally the North Koreans caught on and beat those guys for a week and threatened further torture if their demands were not met. Not only that, they demanded that the US State Department to issue a similar statement. The US government finally conceded and issued a public apology and the crew was released. It would not do for me to be in a position of power when that sort of atrocity is made on our guys by those vermin in North Korea. I can assure you that part of the Orient would glow in the dark to this day.

1863 This is another incidence of the American cavalry out of control. Earlier a Montana cattle rancher named Malcolm Clarke had accused a Blackfoot sub-chief name Owl Child of stealing his horses and had savagely whipped him in public. As you might expect, Owl Child returned with a group of his closest friends and capped Clarke and his son in the most horrible of fashions and then fled north to join up with a group of rebel warriors led by another Blackfoot named Mountain Chief. The public outcry became so loud that the military Indian agent in that area notified Colonel Eugene Baker to gather up some troops and cavalrymen and seek out Owl Child and bring him in. The only problem here is that Colonel Baker is heavy into the sauce and stays in the bag most of the time. Anyway, the force led by Baker sets out looking for Owl Child. Finally, some of Baker’s Indian scouts find an Indian encampment. They return and tell Baker what they had found but they could tell by the markings on the teepees that they were not of the tribe that Owl Child belonged to, that they were a peaceful group of Blackfeet. Baker absorbs this information along with another quart of whiskey and at dusk he says “I don’t care, they are still Indians” and orders his troops to surround the village and open fire and burn anything combustible including their meager food supply. The troopers surround the encampment and did indeed open fire and burned all that would burn. The Indians have no idea what the hell is going on and are massacred. The total killed was 39 men, 60 women and 55 children. Baker allows the capture of a few of them but when he finds out that some of them have smallpox, a gift from the damned Europeans, and orders them released out onto the prairie in a Montana winter with no food. When word of this atrocity reaches the east there is a loud outcry and demands are made to correct this situation. President Ulysses Grant orders that all Indian agents must be civilians from now on. But the troopers and Colonel Baker were never brought to justice. No wonder Crazy Horse, Dull Knife, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull and the others were so vicious and cruel in their retribution. What goes around….

1556 In the middle of the afternoon the ground around the Chinese city of Shannxi begins to heave and shake. It is the beginning of the most deadly earthquake in recorded history. The city is a conglomeration of small shacks and huts that are heated by charcoal braziers that also serve as a stove. The aftershocks continue until the following morning triggering huge crevasses that open and close crushing thousands of people along with miles long landslides not to mention the fires. After all was said and done there were an estimated 830,000 deaths. I am going to repeat this: 830,000 deaths. The second largest disaster in history was the tsunami of 2004 in the Indian Ocean. There were only 240,000 deaths there. Repeat: 240,000 deaths.

Born today:

1737 US Super Patriot John Hancock. He said “A chip on the shoulder is too much baggage to carry around all of your life.” I know what will cure that infliction...age or a severe ass-kicking.

Died today:

1875 English clergyman Charles Kingsley. He said “Young blood must have its course, lad, and every dog its day.” I had often wondered where that adage came from.

1893 US clergyman Phillips Brooks. He said “Be such a man and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and lived a life such as your, the earth would be a paradise.” Phillips, you failed to mention women...Paradise Lost.

1931 Russian dancer Anna Pavlova. When on her death bed and seconds from dying she said “Get my swan costume ready.” A professional to the end.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

2012-01-20T10:45:00.002-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“New York is a place where if you have talent, and believe in yourself and you can show people what you can do, then some day maybe - just maybe - you could get shoved in front of a moving subway train.”

Dave Barry

Answer to the trivia question “What famous explorer was buried in the Mississippi River?”

Hernando DeSoto

Out at New Mexico State University a few days ago the cops were called about an indecent exposure incedent. A female student was on her way to a computer lab when she walked up on a man in a hallway masturbating while watching a middle-aged woman in the gym across the hall. The student was able to give the cops a detailled description but the cops are having trouble finding him. The student is a user of a Mac and her icons are confusing.

Out in El Paso, Texas the cops were called about yet another indecent exposure event. It seems that an off duty border patrol agent was riding down a rural road and pulled up beside a woman walking down the side of the road and asked her for directions. When the woman came over to the car she saw that the man had on no pants or underwear. This jackass was given a fine of $5,000. That seems a little steep until you realize that this was the agent's third offense. How can he still be a federal employee? Geez.

Down near Longwood, Florida in the Big Cypress Swamp state park the oldest cypress tree in existence caught fire and collapsed last week. This tree was about 1,500 years old when Christ was born. The loss of the tree was first thought to be arson but further investigation proved that it wasn't. It was a hell of a loss anyway.

Last week a man was walking around Lake Eola near Orlando, Florida. A black Austrailian swan charged him but he held his ground and grabbed the bird by the neck and decided to take that sucker to the house. A black Austrailian swan weighs at least 15 pounds and are very feisty. The man was carring the swan through the park when he saw a cop coming toward him and then he dropped the swan. The swan was not hurt but the man was arrested for cruelty to animals and grand theft. His bond was $1,000. What options did the man have when the swan charged?

A few days ago Calvin Broadus was arrested at the Sierra Blanca, Texas border crossing checkpoint. A dog detected marijuana in Calvin's tour bus. This is the same check point where Willie Nelson was busted for grass two years ago. Calvin was taken into a police station and then released. He has to meet with a local judge before January 25 to settle up. By the way Calvin Broadus' stage name is Snoop Dogg.

A few nights ago a cop in Boca Raton, Florida saw headlights tearing around on a construction site. He turned his spotlight on and saw two men in dune buggy. The driver ran through the briers and bushes trying to get away but ended up in a dog park where he surrendered. The driver reeked of Jack Daniels but swore he had only had two beers but was slurring his speech badly. He eventually agreed to a breathalyzer test and blew a .15...not good. He was arrested for DUI. By the way, the passenger was searched and two joints were found on him. He was arrested too. I am a little confused here. The dune buggy was never on a road or highway but the driver was arrested for DUI. Does that sound a little strange to y'all?.

This date in history January 20

1863 The dispirited US Army of the Potomac was still reeling from the terrible massacre of the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13 where the US had 13,000 casualties and the CSA Army of Northern Virginia suffered only 5,000.The commanders at the Battle of Fredericksburg was US General Ambrose Burnside and CSA General Robert E. Lee. Burnside decided that the best way to re-install the morale of his army was to go on the offensive as soon as possible. After refitting and rearming, Burnside decided that the best course of action was to quickly swing around the left flank of Lee’s army. It had not rained for the whole month of January so Burnside’s army departed on dry roads but a sprinkle of rain began on the first day, then it became a deluge that lasted for four days. Needless to say, the quick movement of this Army was lost in the quagmires that once were dry roads. Any surprise of attack also was lost when this huge army bogged down to a crawl. At its worst the Army of the Potomac was moving at a speed of 1 ½ miles per day. To make things worse, many Confederate troops moved in and began shouting “Burnside is stuck in the mud” from a distance. Due to conflicting orders an entire Corp crossed in front of another entire Corp churning whatever passable roads that might have been there into a slippery stew. Burnside then did the honorable thing hoping to cheer up the men; he brought up barrels of whiskey and dished it out. I don’t need to tell y'all what happened next. That’s right, Burnsides ended up with literally hundreds of drunken US soldiers fighting, sometimes regiment against regiment, and wallowing around in the mud. Mercifully, Burnside called an end to this attack forever known as the “Mud March”. This debacle was so embarrassing to Lincoln that Burnside was relieved three days later.

1777 Earlier a troop of 500 British soldiers had captured Van Newt’s mill near Millstone, New Jersey and had set about stealing all the wheat flour and corn meal they could carry along with many head of cattle that they had also stolen on the way to the mill all to feed the British troops at New Brunswick. General George Washington divided his forces to harass the British between New Brunswick and Amboy, New Jersey. Patriot Brigadier General Philemon Dickenson leading 400 “raw” New Jersey militia and 50 Pennsylvania riflemen commanded by Captain Robert Durkee went to put a stop to this bullsh-t. They had a problem in that the British had set up an array of cannon guarding the bridge across Millstone River leading to the mill. The Patriots did the unexpected and waded across the icy waters and attacked the British from an unexpected direction and routed those redcoats. General Dickenson wrote a report to General Washington about this action and said “we captured 49 British soldiers, 107 horses, 49 wagons, 114 cattle, 70 sheep and 40 barrels of flour.” It was reported later that the British were seen loading 25 to 30 wounded soldiers onto wagons. The Patriots lost 5 men. What a great victory for our ancestors.

1974 Rae Carruth is born on this date in Sacramento, California. Some people may know who this man is and others will not so I will tell you. Carruth was a gifted athlete as a wide receiver in football. He played four years at the University of Colorado and was first team All-American his senior year. He was picked by the Carolina Panthers in the 1997 NFL draft and signed a contract for four years for $3.7 million. Carruth was hell on wheels from the git-go and was on the all-rookie team with 44 catches averaging 12.7 yards per catch. Then something happened to this millionaire. On November 15, 1999 he met his pregnant girlfriend Cherica Adams at a movie house in Charlotte, NC. Charlotte is the home of the Panthers. After the movie Rae and Cherica get into their separate cars and head for Cherica’s house with Rae in the lead. Along the way a car pulled up beside Cherica and a passenger in other car pumps four shots into Cherica’s car and sped off. Cherica was not killed and called 911 and mentioned that Rae is somehow involved in the shooting. When the paramedics arrived Rae is no where in sight. Cherica’s baby is delivered by emergency caesarian section and survived. Cherica is in critical condition but is rational enough to tell the police that when the other car had pulled along side, Rae had slowed to a crawl forcing her to slow and blocked an avenue of escape and after the shots were fired he sped off also. The shooter was captured and decided to squeal to get a lighter sentence. He said that Rae had contracted the shooting and soon after Rae was arrested for conspiracy. Nine days later Cherica died and Rae’s charges are changed to complicity to commit murder. This dumb-ass Rae had been on his cell phone the whole time telling the shooter where he and Cherica were and his cell phone records proved it. Rae was tried and convicted and sentenced to a minimum of 18 years and 11 months in prison. The reason he ordered the shooting was that he did not want to pay child support. I am without words at this point.

Born today:

1920 Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. He said “All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.” What a great thought.

Died today:

1900 English critic John Ruskin. He said “There is hardly anything in this world that a man cannot make worse and sell a little cheaper.” I think I know this man,

1936 British monarch King George V. He said “Never pass up a chance to go to the bathroom.” I know whereof you speak, George.

1962 US writer Robinson Jeffers. He said “The heads of strong old age are beautiful beyond all grace of youth.” Hey Robbie, I have been telling women that until I am blue in the face.

1993 Belgium born actress Audrey Hepburn. Audrey had one of the most beautiful faces most people have ever seen and she said “I never thought I would get into pictures with a face like mine.” Audrey, it was my pleasure to have gazed upon your beauty.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

2012-01-19T00:35:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Love all, trust but few.”

William Shakespeare

Trivia Question:

What famous explorer was buried in the Mississippi River?

No fair going to Google, Kristina.

“Y'all would not believe the political frenzy that is afoot here in good old Greenville. All of it is squabbling among the GOP potential presidential candidates. The are blaming each other for everything from the fall of the Roman Empire to the death of Marilyn Monroe. It really is disgusting. My advise to all you South Carolinians is to not pay any attention to this pre-primary rhetoric because when its all over, they will be buddy-buddy again and join together to unseat Obama. Just do some cursory research on your favorite candidate(s) and choose one and stick with it. In the final analysis they are all not that far removed from each other anyway. The funny part is there is a cadre of left wingers in my social arena that were pure Obama in 2008 and now they are beating the drums for Ron Paul. They are forecasting doom in the Florida primaries including SWAT teams, Cobra helicopters, Delta teams all there to lean on the expected swarms of protestors especially in Tampa. I think they want an attempted coup d'etat by the people like there was in Egypt and Libya in recent times. Most of these people are good friends of mine and were in the hippie movement in the late 1960's. They are expecting, it if not looking forward to, a police riot in Tampa like we saw at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. Once a revolutionary, always a revolutionary even though grey of beard and long of tooth. Being it is Martin Luther King, Jr. week, I will give y'all one his nuggets of wisdom. He was approached by one of the leaders of the Black Panthers to help initiate armed guerrilla activity against white people in general and the US Government in particular. He said “Never forget that the US military is in command of the white man. You have a few rifles and pistols, they have tanks and airplanes and most of all, they have combat training.” A good thing to remember when you feel really angry. Never enter into combat as an amateur. You will lose.

Back in November the Cherokee County cops were called to a family disturbance in Cowpens, SC. Upon arrival they heard a lot of yelling and went up on the porch and knocked. Just then 38 year old Bobby Mathis came storming out yelling like a Banshee and spit on one of the officers trying to arrest him. The officer responded with a goodly portion of pepper spray which took the fight out of good ole Bobby. A few days ago at his trial Bobby confessed that he had indeed spit on the officer. At that he was convicted of transferring body fluids and resisting arrest. He was sentenced to 10 years in the joint. That may seem a bit harsh for that small of a crime especially since no one was hurt but Bobby has a record going back to 1998 that includes “huffing” hydrocarbons, larceny and public disturbance. I guess the judge was sick of seeing Bobby in his court room.

Over in Iran a man decided he wanted a tattoo on his penis. He wanted the phrase “Good luck on your journey” written in ancient Persian script along with the initial of his girl friend the letter “M”. The tattoo artist complied using a hand held needle. The only problem was that there was internal bleeding for several days which resulted in a permanent semi-erection. Doctors tried to relieve it by draining off excessive fluids but that did not work. The man refused any other treatment saying that he is able to perform as before so he needs no further medical assistance. No comment.

There was much said about the four Marines in the sniper unit that had killed a couple of Taliban snipers and chose to uninate on their corpses and the action was called disgusting. Perhaps it would have been better to have thrown their bodies into a car, set it on fire and took the remains and hung them from a bridge. After all, we have seen that done to Americans...not to mention Mogadishu. I don't want to hear that tired phrase “We are above that.” Think about Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin and Tokyo during WWII. During WWI US General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing was in Palestine with a few of his troops. He was attacked by Arab terrorists (sound familiar?) and a couple of his troops were killed. Pershing sent out hunter/killer teams who captured the terrorists. He ordered the terrorists lined up before a firing squad, had them doused in pigs blood and then shot. To the terrorists this meant they would not go to “Paradise” because they were “unclean”. Pershing had no further trouble with the Arabs. Was this disgusting?

This date in history January 19

1809 One of the greatest poet/writers this country has ever produced is born in Boston. Edgar Allen Poe was born on this day, but he had lost both of his parents by the time he was twelve he went to live with his Godfather John Allen, a wealthy tobacco dealer. Poe’s Godfather sent him to school in England for a while and then he came back and entered the prestigious University of Virginia. The trouble was that Poe was a player and made some major gambling debts and argued with his Godfather to bail him out. It did not happen and Poe was kicked out of UVA in 1826 after only eight months. Not only that, Poe was heavy into the sauce and would toke on opium from time to time. He joined the US Army serving two years and was offered an appointment to West Point. While in the army he was sent to Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island near Charleston, SC. While there he is to have supposedly written his first mystery novel The Gold Bug. There is a small tavern on Sullivan’s Island called Poe’s Tavern that is supposed to be the place that The Gold Bug was written, but that is just a legend. In any event, Poe’s Tavern is one of my most favorite watering holes on the planet. Poe did indeed attend West Point but had yet another falling out with his Godfather about money and at the same time he broke enough rules at West Point to get himself kicked out. During all of this time Poe a written a few credible poems which did not receive much attention. In 1836 while working as an editor for a newspaper in Richmond, Virginia this boy married his 13 year old cousin. Poe wrote his first full length work which was published in 1838. He lost his job in Richmond be cause he got heavy into the sauce again and he and his wife moved to Philadelphia and he went to work for two magazines as a literary critic. His critiques were admired for being correct and concise. It was during this time that he gave us “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, both of which are milestones of mystery novels to this day. Right after this he delivered “The Murder at Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter” which remains to this day the first detective novels. He then moved to New York and stunned the world with his poem the immortal The Raven which brought him eternal fame. Soon after this his wife fell ill from tuberculosis and died in 1847. This put Poe deeper into the sauce and opium but in 1849 he moved to Richmond and hooked up with an old flame and they decided to marry. He went to Baltimore to have a bachelor party with some of his trashy friends. After a while at the party Poe showed up missing but he was eventually found wallowing around in a gutter incoherent. His friends took him to a hospital, but he died on October 7, 1849 at the age of 40. What a damned waste of God given talent.

1983 On this day former Nazi Chief of Lyon, France, Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia for crimes against humanity 40 years earlier. While Barbie was the Nazi chief in Lyon, he sent thousands of French Jews and resistance worker to the deaths in interment camps in addition to personally torturing hundreds to get information. After World War II Barbie fled to Germany and joined an underground group to fight the Communists. The American Counter-Intelligence-Corps (CIC) broke up the group but hired Barbie to help gather information on the Communists by what ever means available. In 1949 the CIC felt that Barbie would serve the US well in Bolivia as a monitor of Communist activity in Central America and smuggled him into country. While there he also hired himself out to various military regimes especially the one headed by Hugo Banzer who came to power in 1971. Banzer was especially repressive and cruel and used Barbie to good advantage. About this time Nazi hunters Serge Klarsfield and Beatte Kunsel found out where Barbie was and came looking for him. As you might expect Banzer refused to extradite Barbie but four years later a more liberal regime came to power and agreed to extradite Barbie to France if the French government would aid the impoverished Bolivia. France agreed and “The Butcher of Lyon” was flown to France. In July of 1987 Barbie was convicted of 187 crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment, which is the highest penalty imposed in France. Barbie died of cancer in prison in 1991 at the age of 77. I wonder where he is today.

1822 The 23 year old Virginian Charles Bent decides to seek his fortune and headed to the Wild West. He joins in with the Missouri Fur Company. This company went down the toilet because of cutthroat competition of John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company. Bent decided to go into the mercantile business and opened a trading post in the Mexican owned city of Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico. He opened a second one on the Arkansas River in what is now Colorado and called it Bent’s Fort which is still with us. When the Mexican War began, Bent showed his true colors when he welcomed US General Stephan Kearny into Santa Fe with open arms much to the chagrin of the Mexicans. Kearny awarded Bent with the governorship of the new US territory of New Mexico and then Kearny and his troops left Bent on his own and headed for California. Kearny did leave a small contingent of troops for the protection of Bent. These troops openly showed their contempt for the Mexicans and the Indians in and around Taos which resulted in a heated uprising. On this day in 1847 a mob of Mexicans and Indians went to a house that Bent was visiting in Taos, killed his bodyguards and killed and scalped Charles Bent. The mob wasn’t done yet. They dragged Bent’s body through the streets and killed and scalped an additional 15 honkies. Within two weeks US Colonel Sterling Price arrived in Taos and he executed all of the ringleaders. In 1848 the Mexican War was over and Taos and Santa Fe came under American control even more. By the way, Colonel Sterling Price became a General for the Confederacy in 1861.

1806 On this date in Westmoreland County, Virginia a son is born to Revolutionary War hero Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee. Harry decided to name him Robert Edward Lee, or as he became known as Robert E. Lee. Robert was well educated in his teens and was given an appointment to West Point. He graduated not first in his class but went through the entire four years without a single demerit. Before the Civil War he returned to the Academy as Superintendent. After the Civil War he became the president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. This college eventually was titled Washington and Lee University in honor of Robert E. Lee. There is no use for me to expound on the leadership capabilities of this man for they are well known. Winston Churchill said of Lee “Never in the field of human conflict has one man been loved by so many.”

Born today:

1782 US politico Daniel Webster. He said “Every man’s life liberty and property are in danger when the legislature is in session.” Especially if it is under the control of the Democrats.

1876 Cousin and wife of Albert Einstein, Elsa Einstein. She said “I do not understand my husband’s theory of relativity, but I do know he can be trusted.” That goes a long way toward a happy marriage.

1913 US entertainer Danny Kaye. He said “Life is just a big canvas, throw all the paint on it that you can.” I feel the same way except I say, “Life is a smorgasbord, taste as many pieces of it that you can.”

Died today:

1936 English author Rudyard Kipling. He said “Borrow trouble for yourself if that is your nature. But don’t borrow some for your neighbors.”

2007 US Journalist Art Buchwald. He said “People are broad-minded. They will accept someone that is a drug addict, wife beater, alcoholic or even a newspaper man, but if they cannot drive a car they think there is something wrong with them.” That reminds me of the days when I was a “shagger” or a dancer of a style peculiar to the Carolinas. When we would go to the Myrtle Beach area twice a year for “SOS” which was a big, days long dance party, we would go to “home base” which was either “The Pad”, “Fat Harold’s” or “Ducks” (bars with big dance floors) and the people would gather in different bunches (and they did not talk to each other) which depended on the skill level of dancers. I believe that if Ted Bundy walked in there and danced well enough, he would be accepted. They were/are pretty shallow, y’all.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

2012-01-18T08:30:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“The ability to watch two men stand toe to toe and pummel each other into insensibility is what seperates us from the animals.”

“Reverend Jim” Ignatowski, Taxi

A few weeks ago the most severe arctic storm in a decade came ashore in northwestern Alaska. The result was that the roads to Nome, Kotzebue and several other villages were blocked. Not only that the sea ice gathered up in the bays which disallowed any tankers and supply ships from coming close enough to deliver. Finally after two weeks of the people holding on by their finger nails, this past weekend a US Coast Guard Ice breaker plowed a path for a Russian oil tanker to get within ½ mile of Nome. It will unload it 1.2 million gallons of arctic diesel and gasoline. The tanker cannot get any closer than ½ mile because of the depth of the bay. They will unload using hoses laying across the ice. By the way as I understand it, “arctic diesel” has a small percentage of alcohol to prevent freezing in ultra-low temperatures. On top of all of this, Cordova, Alaska received 18 feet of snow within the last two weeks. 18 FEET Y'ALL! Some of the residents were asked what they wanted the most and some of them said a snow shovel. What the hell is a resident in Alaska doing WITHOUT a show shovel? Keep all of this in mind with the knowledge that we are in the early stages of global warming. if you don't believe me ask Al Gore.

Two entertainers died this past year. Funny guy Dom DeLouise and Marilyn Chambers. Marilyn was a porno star with some outstanding skills. Ask any man what they were. She had enormous control as shown in the world famous movie Behind the Green Door.

A couple weeks ago a disgruntled employee of a lumber yard up in North Carolina showed up at work with a Model 12 Winchester 12 gauge shotgun and killed three of his fellow employees. He then went home, waited a while and then shot himself with the same shotgun. His wound was serious but not fatal. It is not easy shooting yourself with a shotgun in such a way that it is NOT instantly fatal. The shooter eventually did die about two weeks later. World famous author Ernest Hemmingway committed suicide with a shotgun. He was at his cabin in Ketchum, Idaho and put the butt end of his 12 gauge double-barrelled Fox standing upright on the floor and his forehead on the end of the barrells and lit that sucker off. It was not pretty

This date in history January 18

1778 Earlier one of the greatest navigators in history had sailed from England and discovered Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. Captain James Cook was assigned the task of the exploration of the South Pacific and departed England in the spring of 1776 commanding two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery. On this date Captain Cook sighted the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. Cook named these islands the Sandwich Islands in honor of one of his patrons, the Earl of Sandwich. After seeking an appropriate harbor, Cook anchored at Waimea on the island of Kauai. The islanders thought the Englishmen were Gods and were fascinated by the iron used on the ships because there is no metal ores in the Islands. The English sailors traded iron nails for sex with the native women. During Cooks stay one of the sailors died proving that they were not gods and tensions increased. After exploration of the islands, Cook sailed north looking for the alleged western entrance to the “Northwest Passage”. The Northwest Passage was a supposed water passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific across North America. As we know, this passage has been proven not to exist. After a year of exploration Cook returned to the Hawaiian Islands. This time Cook was unfortunate in his choice of anchorages when he sailed into Lono Bay. Lono Bay was considered a holy place by the natives on certain days of the year, unfortunately for Cook, this was one of the days. The ships were met with a hail of curses and a shower of stones and coral. The natives were able to steal one of the small transfer boats from the Resolution. Cook was not going to sit still for that and he and thirty other sailors armed themselves and went ashore (or tried to) to negotiate getting the boat back. One of the sailors got nervous and fired his weapon killing a native whereupon the natives attacked and killed most of the sailors, Cook included. Six or seven of the sailors were able to return to the ship. The next morning the Resolution fired a broadside at the islanders still yelling and screaming on the shore killing 30 of them. After this the sailors sailed their young asses back to England.

1776 On this evening the Committee for Safety in the city of Savannah, Georgia commanded by Patriot Major Joseph Habersham went to the home of Royal Governor James Wright and placed him under arrest. He stayed under house arrest until February 11 when he escaped and made his way to the British warship HMS Scarborough. After failing in an attempt to negotiate a treaty with Habersham he sailed for London. On December 28, 1778 Wright returned to Savannah with a hell of a lot of troops and was able to re-take Savannah but he was never able to control the entirety of Georgia. He remained as governor until 1782 but he found out that Patriot General Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne was on his way to Savannah with a group of seasoned and battle hardened veterans that had recently kicked the living sh-t out a military group of Loyalist/British/Cherokees even though Wayne’s troops were outnumbered 2 to 1. Rather than risk being captured or killed by Wayne’s troops, Wright got aboard yet another British warship and sailed his young ass back to England never to return. He died in London of February 7, 1785. Georgia was one of the few colonies the British were able to enforce the hated Stamp Act which was one of the main reasons for the fire being lighted under the move toward independence. Georgia had the largest percentage of Loyalists in the colonies but in spite of that, they were one of the first to argue for independence. Go figure.

`

1990 As incredible as it seems, the Mayor of Washington, D.C. Marion Barry is captured on camera smoking crack cocaine given to him by a woman that had proposed that if she gave him some “crack” he would help her get a reduced prison sentence. The woman that made the proposal was a plant by the Washington PD and Barry was arrested on the spot. Barry was taken away while screaming “That bitch set me up”, “That bitch set me up”. Barry was convicted and spent 6 months in the slammer. While he was in prison, the control of the city was reverted to the Congress with an appointed administrator in control. That did not end the career of Marion Barry. Even after being convicted of a drug crime, Barry ran for a city council seat and was elected by a vote of 96%. That should give you insight as to the character of the residents of our nation’s capitol.

1803 On this date President Thomas Jefferson sent a secret monetary request of $2,500 to Congress to be used for the “exploration of the Missouri River basin” which turned out to be the Lewis and Clark expedition. Jefferson rationalized that trade for furs with the yet to be discovered Indian tribes in the “higher latitudes” would more than re-pay the costs. Jefferson specified that the expedition would be just one officer and 10 men involved so that the Indians would not think it was an invasion. The expedition ended up with a few more men that what was requested but that “Corps of Discovery” made inroads into the expansion of this nation that were never equaled.

Born today:

1200 Japanese spiritualist Dogen. He said “Do not expect that you will be aware when you achieve enlightenment.” Are you listening, Jaci?

1807 American military leader Robert E. Lee. He said “Whiskey---I like it and always have, that is why I never use it.” I don’t like it so I limit myself to only 7 or 8 drinks a day.

1809 American author Edgar Allen Poe. He said “I have great faith in fools---self confidence my friends call it.” Been there, done that, do not have a tee shirt.

1943 US singer Janis Joplin. She said “Fourteen heart attacks and that son-of-a-bitch had to croak on my week---MY WEEK!” Janis was supposed to have been on the cover of Time magazine but it was preempted with the death of President Eisenhower.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

2012-01-17T07:56:00.002-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“For all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.”

John Greenleaf Whittier

Answer to trivia question:

It was Ferdinand Magellan. It happened in the Philippines.

I guess y'all saw about the Italian cruise ship “Concordia”. This ship lost its way in the Mediterranean Sea and impacted a sand bar and capsized off the coast of Tuscany, Italy. As of this writing there are 3 confirmed dead and 69 missing. How is that possible? All cruise ship have (or should have) the very latest in navigation and depth finding electronics. How is it possible for even a rank amateur to run aground with all that available information? They even have a radar screen that displays the surrounding terrain, other ships and the position of the ship its self. This includes a map of the area with your position shown on this map. It is unbelievable.

Last week my favorite actor was tooling around on his bicycle on Islamarado in the Florida Keys. It was 81 year old Gene Hackman and he was tapped in the rear wheel by a pick-up truck and fell off the bike. He was taken aboard a helicopter and flown the the Key West hospital. After a cursory examination he was released with just a few bumps and bruises. Gene won two Oscars in his career. One was for the best leading actor in The French Connection playng Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, He won best supporting actor for his role playing the sherrif, William “Little Bill” Daggett, in the epic western “The Unforgiven”. He is a dynamite actor. I liked him best in Mississippi Burning. He was beaten out for a third Ocsar by Al Pacino in his kick-ass performance in Scent of a Woman.

I told y'all about that woman down in Mount Pleasant, SC that was fined $480 for refusing to clean the debris out of her yard. She did not have the money for the fine so she was sentenced to jail for 10 days. She was released after 6 days and went home. She was a photographer by trade but the recent recession had put a stop to that. She took a job at a check-out counter at a local Harris-Teeter. The story of her plight with the downturn in her life has reached many others and what to her wondering eyes should appear when she got home was a contracting crew on her roof fixing the leaks plus a crew inside fixing other things. Also there was a landscaping crew on her front lawn removing the debris and adding plants, flowers and grass where needed. They also removed the fake pink flamingos and the fake snowy egrets. I think they made a bonfire with them and had marshmallows and hot dogs after it was all over. I don't know about y'all but this story makes me feel better.

Over in Jacksonville, NC a state trooper stopped car driven by Michael Ward, a murder suspect from Atlanta. It took two cars to get him stopped and he and his female companion rolled up the windows, locked the doors and refused to open them. We all know what happened next. The cops broke out a window, tazed the hell out of both of them and arrested them. They did a strip search of Michael and did not find anything in spite of making Michael do a “squat and strain” maneuver. The next morning they found a Smith and Wesson .38 Special, 6 shot

revolver with a 6 inch barrel lying on the floor. The pistol was not loaded but the cops checked it out and determined that it was operable. Michael had stuck the barrel of the gun up his anus and held it there. He will go back to the hospital to see if any damage was done by the front sight. I can assure you that the NCHP will be a hell of a lot more thorough in their body searches from now on. The gun could have been loaded and someone could have been killed, including Michael.

This date in history January 17

1950 After nearly two years of “casing” the Brinks Armored Car Service main office in Boston, Massachusetts, career criminal Arthur “Fats” Pino decides it is time to knock it over. Fats went out and hired ten other career criminals and on this date they go in and commit one of the most successful and profitable robberies ever executed up until that time. They walked out of the building with $2.6 million dollars and left absolutely no clues. They were all wearing rubber Halloween masks, long black overcoats and chauffer hats similar to those worn by the Brinks armored car drivers. The only thing they left was a few strands of rope that they used to tie up the office personnel. Fats and the other robbers agreed to hide their share of the money and not touch it for 6 ½ years when the statute of limitations expired. One of the conspirators named “Specs” O’Keefe gave his share of the money to one of the others to hold for him while he went to prison to serve 6 years for another crime. All the criminals laid low for 6 years and just days before the statute of limitations ran out, Specs got cold feet and did not believe the guy he gave his share to still has it and wants proof or he will blow the whistle. Well, Fats ain’t going to sit still for that and sends a “hit man” to the prison to kill their compatriot. The “hit man” only wounds Specs and then he really does “blow the whistle” and the Boston PD begins rounding up the other conspirators. A couple had died in the interim but all of those that were left went to the slammer for a long stretch. Only a couple of thousand dollars of the take was ever found. It is legend that the rest of the money is hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but who can tell.

1966 On this date a US Air Force B-52 that had been on patrol over the eastern Atlantic was attempting to hook up with a KC-135 tanker to re-fuel and head back its base in North Carolina. Something went wrong and the B-52 ran into the re-fueling boom and the incoming fuel ignited and the B-52 exploded killing all four of its crewmen. The explosion also destroyed the KC-135 but four of these crewmen were able to bail out successfully. The real downside was that the B-52 had four 70 kiloton nuclear bombs aboard and when the plane came apart the bombs fell to earth near Polamares, Spain. None of the bombs were armed but if the bomb comes apart, highly radioactive Plutonium escapes. Two of the bombs landed in an open field creating two craters and did indeed come apart spewing radioactive dust into the air. Another one of the bombs landed in a dry creek bed and the mud in the creek bed prevented that bomb from coming apart and it was retrieved almost intact. The fourth bomb fell into the ocean and was never found. Within a matter of hours Polamares, Spain was swarming with US Air Force personnel and nuclear specialists. The United States chose to scrape tons of soil from around the two craters until there were no more indications of radioactivity and hauled the dirt out of there. This was not the first nor will it be the last “Broken Arrow” incident. “Broken Arrow” means that a nuclear weapon had been lost or damaged. On another occasion another B-52 accidentally dropped its weapon is a bay near Wilmington, North Carolina and that puppy has never been found to this day. When I was in the Air Force I was based at Elmendorf, AFB near Anchorage, Alaska and before that I was stationed at Eielson AFB south of Fairbanks. Both of these bases had SAC units assigned meaning there were nuclear weapons close by. I was an air traffic controller at both places and you would not believe what went on while I was there. SAC had a “Recon” outfit at Eielson and their job was to fly up and down the Bering Straits (just a few miles from Russia, our sworn enemy at the time) and take “western movies” or photographs of Russian airbases. Because of the reaction of the SAC officers at Eielson at times, there was no doubt in my mind that there was some kind of encounter with the Russians, either one of our recon aircraft was shot at or shot down on more than one occasion. Satellites do that job for us now. Back then it would scare the hell out of you because the threat of nuclear war was just a hairsbreadth away.

1977 Earlier in 1972 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was a violation of the 8th Amendment because it was cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore banned. Well, in 1977 with almost 70% of the American public favoring the death penalty, the Supreme Court re-instated the death penalty. There was a man on death row in Utah named Gary Gilmore. Gary shot and killed an elderly couple because they would not loan him their car, for crying out loud. Gary had been sentenced to death by firing squad and on this date Gilmore was marched out to a post in the middle of a field inside the Utah prison grounds, tied to a post and was shot through the heart by twelve riflemen. Gilmore was the first person executed after the death penalty was re-instated. Gilmore was arrogant to the last. When the guards came to get him to take him out to the post, he said “Let’s do it”.

1781 Earlier the Commander of the Continental Army in the South, General Nathaniel Greene, decided to divide his army into two parts because this would force the British Forces in the area led by General Charles Cornwallis to fight on more than one front and it would be easier for these smaller units to feed themselves. The commander of one these Continental units was Colonel Daniel Morgan who was in command of about 1,000 troops. Morgan was assigned the task of kicking the British out of the Star Fort near the town of Ninety-Six, South Carolina. General Cornwallis smelled this out and sent the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton to intercept Morgan. On this date Morgan’s scouts detected the approach of Tarleton near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina. Morgan hid the majority of his troops into a bowl shaped forest. He instructed a few of his militia to skirmish with Tarleton’s troops for two shots and then run away through the center of the “bowl”. Tarleton’s troops believing it was a rout followed the troops into the center of the bowl then Morgan’s troops unleashed a deadly crossfire while the original skirmishers came back and joined their brethren adding to their killing efficiency. After this, Morgan brought in a cavalry attack on the flank of the hapless British/Loyalist troops. Tarleton ran like hell and came within a gnat’s ass of being captured. The British/Loyalists had about 700 of their number killed or captured. Morgan lost 12. After this battle and the Battle of Kings Mountain that came later in which the British/Loyalist were totally annihilated, Cornwallis knew that he had to get his ass and his army out the Carolinas and join up with the British army under General Sir Henry Clinton in New York. He didn’t make it.

Born today:

1860 Russian writer Anton Chekhov. He said “I do not know much about ballet, all I know is that during intermission the ballerinas smell like horses.” Thoroughbreds, I am sure.

1886 English writer Arthur Firbank. He said “In heaven the language is Hebrew, Spanish is seldom spoken.” Look at the date, ya’ll.

1899 US super criminal Al Capone. When asked if he had ever been to Canada he said “I don’t even know what street Canada is on.” Al, shut the hell up.

1931 Governor of Virginia Lawrence Wilder (black man) said “The first black president will be a black politician.” Larry, shut the hell up too.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

2012-01-15T22:32:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

When asked “Do you know why boxers don't have sex before a fight?” He said “I don't know, is it because they don't find each other attractive?”

Redd Foxx

To those of you that really care, I do have a blog website and have resumed additions to it after a few months of abandonment. The website is “bigalsdailyhistory.blogspot.com”, use it if you wish.

Trivia question:

What famous explorer was killed with a poisoned dart from a blow gun?

I have an acquaintance here in Greenville that had a brain tumor (malignant) a few years ago. She had surgery and it seemed to cure it. She is supposed to have a brain scan every six months just in case. About three weeks ago she had a brain scan and the doctor said that it looked suspicious. She is working at a place that provides health insurance. But the business is not doing well and she fears that if they lay her off she would be in deep trouble without insurance. She is moving to Massachusetts just so she can get health insurance. In that state a person can get health insurance with pre-existing conditions not withstanding, thanks to the Mitt Romney administration. I am just saying...

The state of South Carolina is alive with Republican presidential wannabes, especially the Greenville, Columbia and Charleston areas. It reminds me of 13th century Scotland. The Scottish landed gentry's (royalty) worst enemy in Scotland was the Kings of England who wanted to bring all of the British Isles under their umbrella. It was easy for that to happen because the Scottish royalty were too busy squabbling among themselves about who had hereditary title to certain tracts of land and what clan was really in control of Scotland. That is what we have today with the Republican candidates firing shots at each other rather than seeking a weakness in the real enemy in Washington. That bunch has been quietly gathering up enormous sums of money for the upcoming re-election campaign and laughing at the much ado about nothing among the Republican candidates.

Recently over is Spartanburg, SC a 39 year old woman was arrested for taking advantage of a 90 year old woman in the later stages of Alzheimer’s. She was the older woman's part time caretaker. This woman would write checks on the old woman's checking account for car insurance (old woman did not have a car), groceries (old woman lived in a facility where food is provided), checks to her personally, etc. and have the old lady sign them. The bank called the old woman's sister and told her what was going on. The sister said that the older woman was so far gone that she would sign anything put in front of her. The 39 year old woman was arrested but was released on a $25,000 bond. By the way, the older lady used to babysit the 39 year old when she was an infant.

Back in 1994, because of the untiring efforts of our ex-governor Carroll Campbell, BMW constructed a gigantic assembly plant about 12 mile northeast of Greenville. Needless to say the unemployment numbers in this area went down measurably due to this plant and the satellite providers that opened facilities nearby as well. This includes seven Michelin tire plants plus Michelin North American Headquarters is about six miles from my house. This past weekend BMW announced a $900 million expansion to said plant that will mean an additional 300 jobs for the local gentry. While Governor Campbell was courting BMW, he made a trip a week to Munich, Germany for nearly a year trying to sell them on South Carolina. He succeeded. The BMW plant is within rock-throwing distance of the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport. BMW regularly brings over Boeing 747's full of parts from Germany and parks them at the Customs house. Originally, BMW requested a private taxiway from the airport runway to the plant but that idea was shot down. What they got instead is a road from the Customs house to the receiving doors at the assembly plant. Trucks meet the planes and transport the parts, a distance of about a mile. So far the plant has produced over 2,000,000 cars that have been delivered worldwide. By the way. Governor Campbell died of Alzheimer’s in 2005 at the age of 65. What a damned shame.

A while back a 53 year old woman down in Mount Pleasant, SC was served with a “messy yard” citation. That's right, y'all, the local Constabulary was unhappy with the debris in her yard that included five or six fake pink flamingos. Evidently there is a city ordinance that forbids excessive debris in a front yard and this woman was either too busy did not give a sh-t. Anyway when the cop delivered the citation and heard her financial difficulties, he offered to gather some of his friends and help her clean up the yard. She refused. Eventually the Chief of Police himself came over and warned her about the debris in her yard. She chose this time to scream and yell that she was being singled out and persecuted. In spite of this, the Chief again offered to bring some of his friends over and help her clean it up. She again refused. The Chief had no choice but to obtain an arrest warrant. No one answered the door at the house for several days so finally the cops went to the Harris-Teeter supermarket on Long Point Road (been there) where she worked and waited outside. She finally showed up and was arrested outside. This girl spent six days in the joint for having a messy yard. The rumor is she took down the pink flamingos and put up a few fake snowy egrets.

Last week the South Carolina coast near Charleston was rattled by two loud booms. Everybody came up with their own interpretations of what happened from an alien aircraft crashing offshore to an earthquake down deep and even a “burp” of methane gas from the surrounding swamp. Let me offer my best guess. There is the McIntyre SCANG base near Sumter that has F-16's and F-22's, Shaw AFB that has F-16's. F-22's and others, Beaufort, SC MCAS which has F-18's, Charleston AFB that has mostly large transport aircraft but has an occasional F-15, F-16 and F-22 visitor all of which are supersonic. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that one of the pilots of one of these planes was out on a training mission and chose to break Mach-1 just for the hell of it. It would be very easy to do in a plane that is capable of 1,300 MPH. It would be nearly impossible to detect such an event with present day radar if the plane exceeded Mach-1 for just a second or two. Fighter pilots are an arrogant bunch.

This date in history January 16

1777 For years the state of New York had claimed what is now the state of Vermont was part of their state. As you might suspect, the hard-assed Vermonters called bullsh-t on that and had threatened each other with war on several occasions. You can imagine how the Vermonters felt when someone showed up in Vermont to claim a piece of land that was sold to them in New York as being part of that state. Earlier the frustrated Vermonters had petitioned Great Britain to allow them to join the British Empire as part of Canada. The stubborn United States Congress refused to recognize Vermont as anything other than a part of New York. Well, on this date the state of Vermont declared its independence from Great Britain and New York. They already had a constitution in place and operated as a separate state from New York even into the second year of Washington’s presidency. Their constitution was the first to prohibit slavery and allowed all adult males to vote rather than just the land owners. Originally the state was known as New Connecticut but when they formed their own country they decided they needed a new name and arrived at a corrupted French word for “Green Mountain”. Finally the United States recognized Vermont as a state and came into the fold as the 14th state in 1791 as a free state. This was counter-balanced a year later when Kentucky was admitted to the union as a slave state.

1861 Kentucky senator Joseph Crittenden introduced legislation called the Crittenden Compromise to try and stop the flood of states seceding from the union. Four states had already seceded and more were threatening. The Compromise was essentially this: In 1820 the Missouri Compromise was passed stating that all the states north of the latitude 36 degrees, 30 minutes north would be free states and any states south would be slave states. As you expect this did not float very well and the Compromise was amended in 1850 that made the decision as to whether a new state would be slave or free to be left up to the sovereignty of each state. Then in 1850 the Republican Party was formed whose admitted purpose was to stop the spread of slavery in the United States. What Crittenden proposed was that the United States would revert back to the 1820 version of the Missouri Compromise and the 36 degree, 30 minutes latitude issue in the hope that this would bring the seceding states and those threatening back into the fold. The compromise was defeated by two votes primarily because of the Representatives and Senators belonging to the Republican Party. The southern states could not secede fast enough and the Civil War erupted in April of 1861.

1780 On this date British Admiral Sir George Romney and 18 “ships of the line” encounter a squadron of 11 French battleships led by Don Juan de Langara off the coast of Portugal near Cape St. Vincent. Spain was at war with Great Britain because Spain had supported the United States in their bid for independence from Great Britain. The normal strategy in those days was for warships to line up parallel and blast away at each other. Admiral Langara knew that he was outnumbered and out gunned so he and his squadron head for Cadiz, Spain and safety. Admiral Rodney broke up his formation and told all his ships to give “general chase” knowing that his ships were a knot or two faster that the Spanish ships. The British ships were faster because the bottom of their ships were copper clad which eliminated barnacles and the Spanish ships were not meaning that they probably had barnacles attached which slowed them somewhat. The British fleet caught up with the Spanish at about 2:00am which made this battle known as the Moonlight Battle. This was not the norm in those days. Naval battles took place in daylight. Anyway, the Spanish surrendered all except for two ships which ran aground. The most important thing was that Admiral Langara’s flagship was captured. One again the British navy proved to be the sovereign of the seas.

1936 One of the most perverted maniacs in recorded history is executed in the electric chair in Sing Sing prison in New York. Albert Fish was known to have killed 10 people most of them under the age of ten and then consumed them. He was tried and convicted for the murder of little six year old Gracie Budd of Westchester, New York. A little later he wrote Gracie’s mother and described in detail how he had killed her, cut her up into pieces and made a stew that he ate off of for nine days. Not only was he a cannibal, he was a masochist. His children testified that he made them spank him with nail studded paddles. He ate his own excrement and burned himself with hot iron and red hot pokers. He also pushed sewing needles into his genitals. He told the prison officials about them and an investigation revealed over thirty needles imbedded there. Albert was interrogated by several psychiatrists and all reported back that there was no conceivable perversion that he had not done or was capable of doing. There was no question in the jury’s mind that Albert was insane but they voted for execution anyway to rid the earth of this animal. When he was told that he would be executed, he said that he was excited about it. He said he was looking forward to the new experience. When given the chance to write his last thoughts, it was full of filthy obscenities. To those that are opposed to the death penalty, keep Albert Fish in mind.

2007 On January 15 we commemorate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was born in Atlanta where his grandfather and father were the pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He was assistant pastor of that church also. Later on he accepted being the pastor of the Dexter Street Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. It was from this venue that he began his famous fight for equality for the blacks. He went to jail innumerable times and encouraged his followers to protest peacefully and accented that with the phrase “Remember, the military is in the hands of the white man.” At the unheard of age of 35 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Think what you want about Dr. King, but he was one of the most effective movers and shakers America has ever seen. He single handedly changed America but racial prejudice persists, I guess we all need someone to hate.

Quotable quotes:

“Heaven will be inherited by every man that has heaven in his soul.”

Henry Ward Beecher

“Learn to get in touch with that silence within yourself and know that everything in life has a purpose.”

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.

Born today:

1855 English writer Eleanor Marx. She said “By the time your life is finished, you will have learned just enough to live it well.” That is depressing, Eleanor.

1911 US baseball pitcher “Dizzy” Dean. After losing a game 1-0 he said “The game was closer that the score indicated.” “Ole Diz” was a hoot.

1944 US country singer Ronnie Milsap. He said “Work for the fun of it. The money will arrive sooner or later.” Ronnie, the problem is that we have to eat between “sooner” and “later”.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

2012-01-13T07:36:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I am always amazed to hear of air crash victims that are so mutilated they can only be identified by their dental records. My question is if they don't know who you are, how do they know who your dentist is?”

Paul Merton

I am sure that all of us have seen or heard something that immediately aroused our anger, then we did or said something that was regrettable. A wise person recently told me that everyone should rermember the “24 Hour Rule”. This means you wait 24 hours after the event before responding. The problem is after we jump the gun, it cannot be retrieved. It is like trying to “un-ring” bell.

A few years ago two young and well scrubbed boys in black pants and white shirts road up to my house on bicycles. They knocked on the door and introduced themselves as members of the Church of Latter Day Saints or Mormons. They wanted to tell me about their religion. I asked them if they had one of their bibles with them and they did. I told them to leave the bible with me and come back in a week. I read the bible cover to cover and it was the most fantastic tale I had ever read. It was full of events that were nothing short of miracles with no evidence that they ever happened. Of course, you could say the same thing about the parting of the Red Sea, turning the Nile into blood, getting water by striking a rock, etc. I won't get into it except to say that they do believe in God and Jesus Christ. If you look at the strict definition of a Christian you will find that it means “a follower of Christ”. If that is the case then the Mormons are Christians. There will be those of you out there that will say “That is not all there is to it.” Maybe, but anything added beyond this definition is arbitrary.

I am reading about the history of William “Braveheart” Wallace. His first major victory against the English Army was at Stirling Bridge. His army did not overpower the English army he just took advantage of their arrogance. The English attacked and Wallace's army feigned a retreat and ran across Stirling Bridge with the English hot on their heels. Stirling Bridge spans a fairly deep river and Wallace had hidden troops on the approach end of the bridge. When the bridge was jammed with English troops, his hidden troops set fire to the approach end trapping the English troops on the bridge. The English could not jump into the river because they would drown since they were in armor. They could not receive reinforcements because the approach end was on fire and the water was too deep to wade across. Wallace's troops were waiting on the departure end and almost leisurely hacked the English troops into confetti as they stepped off the bridge.

Up in Batavia, New York a 70 year old “greeter” at a local Walmart was punched in the face by a 26 year old woman. The woman was leaving and was stopped by the greeter to check her shopping bag and that is when she struck. The greeter was knocked to the floor and the woman ran away. She did not get but a few steps before she was surrounded by Walmart workers and a few customers. She was arrested and hit with two charges of assault and one charge of shoplifting. The reason she was hit with two charges of assault instead of one is the law in that county makes it a double charge if the victim is over 65. I like it.

Not long ago two men and a woman met at the woman's apartment for a few drinks after work. They had a few and then decided to go to another apartment where a party was under way. Everybody was drinking at this one and the girl had one too many, passed out and had to be physically carried to her apartment. She awoke the next morning naked and felt some “discomfort”. One of the men that was with her in her apartment earlier admitted that she and he had sex after he got her home but it was consensual. The woman filed a rape charge against this man even though she doesn't remember a damned thing for the whole night. The worse part was that the man was arrested and charged with rape. She said that she was mentally incapacitated and could not have agreed to sex. How do we know that she did not have a “moment of clarity” during the period she was passed out and agreed to have sex? We don't, and it is a damned travesty of justice that a charge issued by a drunk woman will effect this man the rest of his life. It ain't fair and I deeply resent it.

This date in history January 13

1776 The so-called Battle of Prudence Island happens on this day. Prudence Island is a barrier island off the coast of Rhode Island that had but one or two structures. It was primarily used as a pasture for sheep with the structure for the shepherds. The British troops had been hungrily watching the sheep across the waterway. One night the British decided to cross over to Prudence Island and make off with a couple of sheep, only the pretty ones of course. They rowed over and before they could get ashore they were met with musket fire from a fairly large detachment of militia led by Patriot Captain Thomas King and are turned back, The militia had learned of the planned sheep theft a day or two before and sitting there waiting for them in the dark. The militia just was not going to give up those lovely, sensual sheep.

1128 On this date Pope Honorius II names the Knights Templar, led by Frenchman Hughes de Payens, as the “army of God”. In the year 1118 the Knights was formed to protect the Christians that are on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They took their name from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In the beginning there were only 9 of them because of their very strict rules. They had to be of noble birth, take vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. By 1127 the grateful pilgrims had contributed considerable amounts of land and other valuables to the knights. Even though the knights had sworn a vow of poverty as individuals possession of lands by the organization was allowed and the Knights Templar became extremely wealthy. I’ll bet y'all can tell me what comes next. That’s right, in 1307 the Catholic Church led by Pope Clement V along with Philip IV of Spain lusted after these riches and they attacked the Knights Templar the only way they knew how and that was with religion. They dragged up the leader the Knights, Jacques DeMolay up on charges of heresy, sacrilege and Satanism. DeMolay denied these charges of course but with a little persuasion from the rack and hot irons, DeMolay acquiesced and was burned at the stake. That was pretty much the fate of the rest of the Knights. Their valuables and lands were given away to their closest rival, the Knights of Hospitaliers with a substantial chunk going to Phillip IV of Spain, Edward II of England and last but not least the Catholic Church. Later on the Catholic Church admitted wrong doing in this case and said that Pope Clement V was pressured by secular rulers to do what he did. Hey Clement V you jackass, what has the division of worldly possessions got to do with saving my soul? Thank God you have gone on to your reward. It was/is believed that the Knights Templar has possession of the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant and a piece of wood from the true cross that Jesus was crucified on. It is the possibility of these objects still being in existence that has made for today’s legends and made Dan Brown, the author of “The Da Vinci Code” a zillionaire.

1842 Early on this morning a British military doctor staggered into a British sentry post near Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He was the only survivor of a 16,000 British/Indian force that were attacked by extremely pissed off Afghani rebels at Khyber Pass. It seems that the ever Empirical England was attempting to expand their empire from India to include Afghanistan and blatantly interfered in the selection of the ruler of Afghanistan in that he would be a supportive of Great Britain. That 16,000 British/Indian Army was in Kabul to make sure of the transition but soon thereafter the pissed off Afghani warlords began gathering in Kabul and the British/Indian army had to choice but to withdraw. The combined warlords caught up with the British/Indian army at Khyber Pass and slaughtered them almost to a man. Only the doctor had escaped. This did not deter the British, however. They tried again and again were driven out but on the third try they were able make it stick. But not for long, the Afghanis love to fight; it is part and parcel of their makeup. The last total domination of that country was only when Alexander the Great passed through in the third century BC.

1958 Peter Manuel is arrested in a pub in Glasgow, Scotland. This maniac was born in America to British parents. He got an early start when he was arrested for burglary at the age of 12, then he moved up to assault at the age of 15 a little later he was convicted of sexual assault and did eight years of hard time. After getting out he resumed his life of crime by killing a mother, her two children and her sister during a burglary. A little later he broke into another house and killed the entire family. It is estimated that Peter Manuel had killed 15 people during his short life. They caught him by comparing bank notes that he had stolen form the family he had killed against the ones he used to buy beer in a Glasgow pub. He took the money from the father that had just been paid and the employer tracked the serial numbers of the bank notes used for salaries, shortly after Peter Manuel went to meet his maker wearing a hemp neck-tie. I don’t know what it is but sometime kids are just born with bad blood and insist on bad behavior in spite of the consequences.

I will tell y’all the brief history of a gang leader in the lower East side of New York. His gang did as most gangs; they raised money by selling drugs, extortion and occasional murder for hire. The leader’s name was “Yummy”. He got this name because he always had Oreo cookies close at hand. He was an uncompromising and insistent person that demanded complete loyalty among his soldiers. As was commonplace, there was a rival gang that Yummy and his boys had an ongoing turf war with, that frequently brought about large battles. During one of these battles, Yummy was captured by the rival gang, tortured for several days and then strangled. His body was thrown out in the middle of Harlem from a speeding car. Yummy was 12 years old.

1929 Nearly fifty years after his famous gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, Wyatt Earp died peacefully in Los Angeles. A little while after the gunfight Wyatt’s brother Virgil was ambushed riding along a trail and a shotgun blast took out his left arm permanently but he survived. A few days later Wyatt was playing billiards with his brother Morgan when a shot came the window and hit Morgan in the head and he was dead before he hit the floor. Wyatt and Doc Holliday left Arizona headed to California. But on the way our they killed Frank Stillwell in a Tucson rail yard and Florendento Cruz out in the desert as revenge for the murder of Morgan. Wyatt knocked around the west an occasional bartender even up in Nome, Alaska and was a temporary movie consultant in his life when he passed. He was legend, y'all.

Born today:

1884 US entertainer Sophie Tucker. She said “From birth to 18 a girl need good parents, From 18 to 36 she needs good looks, from 36 to 55 she needs a good personality, from 55 on she needs good money, that’s why I am saving.” Sophie was known as “The last of the red-hot mamas.” I think we could give that title to Brittany Spears these days

Died today:

1929 US western legend Wyatt Earp. He said “Fast is fine, accuracy is everything.” Wyatt was familiar with firearms, to say the least.

1978 US politico Hubert Humphrey. “We should not allow the shortness of funds to prevent the cities from financing needed projects.” Hubert, shut the hell up.

Thanks for listen I can hardly wait until tomorrow

2012-01-12T01:29:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

Debt ceiling description.

“Let's say you come home from work and there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood. Your house has sewerage all the way up to the ceilings. What do you think you should do? Raise the ceilings or pump out the sh-t? Your choice is coming next November...don't miss this opportunity.”

Ben Freeman

This last Sunday I was in the local tavern watching the Pittsburgh vs Denver game. There were three very loud Steeler fans in there in full regalia. They all had on number 43 “Polamalu” jerseys, Steeler caps and a stupid yellow “terrible towel” whatever the hell that is. When Tim Terrific threw that 80 yard touchdown pass in the first few seconds of the overtime to win the game, these jackasses beat on the bar with the flats of their hands and stalked out. It was so stupid looking that the rest of the patrons and myself laughed until they were out of sight. How sweet it was.

At the Detroit auto show this past weekend the car of the year was judged to be the Hyundai Elantra. How embarrassing that had to be for the makers of “Detroit Iron”.

Two weeks ago the Pensacola, Fl. city cops were called to a bar out on the west end of Cervantes Street. When they arrived there was a fight underway out in the parking lot. The cops broke up the fight except one of the participants, a 25 year old man named Robert Donson, backed off and pulled a gun, The cops were a tick faster and shot Robert in the abdomen. The cops are on paid administrative leave and Robert is in ICU. There were two cops and one Robert Donson, you do the math. By the way Donson had been arrested in the past on a gun related charge, it finally caught up with him.

A man named James Hendershot from Birmingham, Al. has filed a law suit to keep Obama off the presidential ballot in the next election. Hendershot maintains that Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States and is using a fake Social Security card making him ineligible to President. Hendershot has said if his lawsuit is rejected he will appeal to the Republican dominated Alabama Supreme Court and feels sure that he will win that battle.

I guess that most of you have read about an ex US Marine that has been convicted of spying for the CIA in Iran and has been sentenced to death. Personally I do not believe this man's guilt or innocence of spying has anything to do with it. Iran is beginning to feel the financial pinch of all the sanctions applied by the United States and others. Iran will use this man's life as a chess piece to try and get some of the sanctions lifted to save his life. This will be a good test for your government's will power. Watch it closely, y'all.

This date in history January 12

1984 On this date an international restoration committee attempting to restore the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, decide that modern day building techniques were not working. The mixture of water and limestone that was being used as a mortar was cracking the adjoining original limestone blocks. They also were attempting to restore the Sphinx and were successful using water and limestone. But on the Pyramid the restorers had to resort back to the ancient method interlocking blocks. It is believed that the Egyptians build over 100 pyramids with the majority of them during 2600 BC and 2200 BC. The method used to build these behemoths has been in dispute but the generally accepted method was a spiraling ramp built of sand and rubble and this ramp was disassembled after the completion. The three enormous pyramids on the plains of Giza were built by the Pharaoh Khufu, his son and grandson. They all were built with yellowish colored limestone and after completion coated with white limestone. The Great Pyramid was as tall as a 50 story building and had a burial chamber in the middle for the Pharaoh. What a sight it must have been to see a shimmering white building rising out of the Egyptian desert as you approached. It has been estimated that it took 20,000 men 25 years to complete the Great Pyramid. The Great Sphinx was built of one gigantic block of limestone in the quarry that was used to extract the stone used in the pyramids. The Great Pyramid is the last remaining of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

1777 On this date one of the most colorful and important leaders in the history of the United States, died of seven bayonet wounds delivered by the British at the Battle Of Princeton. Hugh Mercer was born in Rosehearty, Scotland in about 1725. It is known that he studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen and served King Bonnie Prince Charles and his army in 1745. After this army was crushed at the Battle of Culloden by the British, Mercer hauled ass to Aberdeenshire, Scotland and hid out for a couple of years. After this he secretly crossed the Atlantic and settled in Pennsylvania. Surprisingly enough, after his arrival in 1747 he joined the army of British King George III, the very king he was trying to overthrow two years before. During the Seven Years War he was under the command of British Edward Braddock. Braddock and company wandered into a disastrous ambush and were all but annihilated with Mercer being wounded also. After recovery he joined with Lt. Col. John Armstrong and was involved in the brilliant raid of Kittanning in 1756. Peace prevailed for a while and Mercer became a doctor and apothecary in Fredericksburg, Virginia. When the Colonies decided to take up arms against Great Britain and seek independence, Mercer’s warlike nature arose and he offered his service to the Colonial Army. He eventually ended up in command of the 3rd Virginia regiment with such luminaries as James Monroe and John Marshall under his command. General George Washington personally requested his promotion to Brigadier General. Five months later Mercer led a brigade into a line of British infantry at the Battle of Princeton and was impaled seven times. Even though he was under the care of one of the best doctors in America, Benjamin Rush, he died nine days later in a house on the north end of the battlefield. He was 52 years old. He did live long enough to know that The Continentals had kicked the living sh-t out of the British and this battle turned out to be a pivotal battle in America’s search for independence. Hugh Mercer was a pure warrior, y’all. He was one of many that showed up at the right place and the right time for America.

1888 On this date a blizzard that became known as the “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” struck the Great Plains killing 235 people. It was estimated that in this storm the temperature dropped over 100 degrees in 24 hours. The storm began in the Dakotas and Nebraska about 2:00p with the temperature dropping precipitously and the wind increasing the same way and then it started snowing ferociously. This put the schoolteachers in those tiny schoolhouses between a rock and a hard place. They could not let those kids out in that blizzard to lose their way and freeze to death. Many of them kept the kids in the schoolhouse if they had enough wood to heat it through the night. One teacher had the roof blown off her schoolhouse and she bundled up, tied a rope to the school and felt her way to her nearby house, tied the other end of the rope to the house and went back to the schoolhouse and got her kids and they felt there way to the teacher’s house following the rope. Another teacher whose house was only 90 yards away did not use the rope trick and felt she could lead her kids to the house directly. She was wrong. Three of her children froze to death and she wandered around long enough for her feet to freeze and had to be amputated. The next morning the parents of the kids came looking for them through five feet of snow. I do not understand how anyone can live in that part of the country and enjoy it.

1838 Earlier Joseph Smith had established a Mormon controlled bank in Kirkland, Ohio along with a Mormon settlement. Due to the nationwide run on banks called the Panic of 1837, Smith’s bank failed and he felt that the had better get his ass out of Dodge so on this date he headed into Missouri with the cops nipping at his heels. He and his followers did not stay long because word got out about the Mormons practicing polygamy and they were ran out of Missouri so they headed on to the Illinois frontier and settled a town they called Nauvoo. A little later on the word got out about the polygamy thing and a crowd of people surrounded the town with blood in their eye. Not to mention Joseph Smith had spread the word that he might run for president. Joseph told the mob that he and his brother would surrender if the rest of the town would be allowed to leave peacefully. The mob allowed this and jailed Joseph and his brother. Three days later, the mob got likkered up and raided the jail and hanged Joseph and his brother. Everyone thought that with the death of Smith the Mormon movement would collapse. They were wrong. Brigham Young assumed command and the whole bunch headed west and did not stop until Young saw the Great Salt Lake Valley and said the immortal words “This is the place”. The Church of Latter Day Saints based in Salt Lake City thrives to this day.

1943 Earlier Adolph Hitler decided that he wanted to conquer Russia even though he had signed a non-aggression pact with them. Hitler sent three enormous armies into Russia to capture its three largest cities, Leningrad, Stalingrad and Moscow. The three German armies were named the Northern army, The Central army and the Southern army. The Northern army took a bee line toward Leningrad thinking it would be an easy operation. They found out, as did the other two armies, that these operations would be no walk in the park. The Northern army ran up against a stone wall and was repeatedly repulsed on any attack they tried. Hitler decided that siege would be the best avenue so the Northern army surrounded the city and would not let anyone or anything in or out. During the first year of the siege 650,000 residents of the city died of exposure, starvation or injuries from the almost constant bombardments. The Russian secretly moved the very young and the very old out of the city and eventually left only 2 million people to feed and this left enough open ground to raise a modicum of crops and livestock. On this date during a blizzard with temperatures in the -30’s, the Russian army broke through the encirclement and surrounded the Germans themselves. The Germans were then in deep doo-doo because the Russians would cut off their supply lines and they would wither without a constant supply of high protein food and winter clothing to fight the worst Russian winter in 50 years. The Germans saw the handwriting on the wall and began a retreat back toward Germany on January 27 with the enraged Russians right behind them. The siege was over after 827 days and the sacrifice of millions upon millions of Russian lives. No one knows for sure but it is estimated that the Russians lost over 26,000,000 soldiers and civilians in WWII. It is no wonder that when the Russians finally began an offensive and entered Germany they slaughtered every air breather they came across. They wanted revenge and they got it.

Born today:

1729 Irish politico Edmund Burke. He said “It is an error to suppose that the loudest complainer for the public is really interested in its welfare.” That sounds like Hillary to me, Edmund.

1863 Indian spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda. He said “We already have the power of the universe at hand. It is we that hold out hands in front our face and say that it is dark.” It is good to hear a deep and rational thought from time to time.

1902 US actor Joe E. Lewis. He said “I went on a diet. No more eating and drinking and in the span of fourteen days I lost two weeks.”

1910 US actress Patsy Kelly. She said “Estelle Winwood is not Tallulah Bankhead’s best friend, I am and I have the scars to prove it.” Tallulah was hell on wheels, y’all.

1970 US Singer Zach de la Rocha. He said “Anger is a gift”. It certainly is, and it is a difficult one to control from time to time.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

January11

2012-01-11T09:18:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“They think they can make auto fuel from horse manure. I don't know it it will get you 30 MPG or not but it certainly will cut down on siphoning.”

Dave Barry

I guess most of you watched the BCS national championship game between LSU and Alabama. I thought the mighty South Carolina Gamecocks has a finely tuned defense but on Monday night the Tide defense exhibited one of the best defensive football teams I have ever seen. They allowed the LSU offense across the fifty yard line only once in the entire game. I think LSU's total offense was about 100 yards while Bama had over 400. The greatest mystery of all was why LSU head coach Les Miles let quarterback Jordan Jefferson play the entire game. It was obvious from the git-go the Jefferson was off his game. His handoffs were poorly timed as was his passes. It looked to me that Jefferson was “telegraphing” what play was coming next and the Bama defense was waiting on it. LSU has another quarterback named Jarrett Lee that is just as good a Jefferson but he did not play. Perhaps he would have been less shook-up than Jefferson. Far be it from me to second guess a high rated coach like Les Miles of LSU, but his team was not ready to play while Bama was on a razor's edge on both sides of the ball. Simply LSU was out coached and out prepared and out played. It was not a game, it was a mugging.

Recently the Florida Marlins baseball team traded for right handed pitcher Mark Buehrie. Mark has a problem. In 1989 Dade County Florida banned Pit Bulls, Rottweilers and all other dangerous dog breeds. Mark has a Staffordshire Terrier and three Vizlas. The terrier is essentially a Pit Bull and is forbidden to live in Dade county. Mark has refused to give up his dog so he will have to live outside Dade County. The Marlin's home office and the ball park is in the very center of Dade county. This means he will have a hell of a commute every day because Dade County is a large one, but the love of his animal evidently will take precedent.

A strange turn of events occurred over the weekend. A few days ago the Charlotte, NC PD arrested a young woman for shoplifting. They cuffed her and put her in the back of a cruiser. She was protesting loudly and somehow was able to wrap one of the seat belts around her neck and was strangled to death. All of this was confirmed by a camera on the dash of the car. The cops found that she was dead when they tried to talk with her and got no response. They tried CPR but it was too late. This past weekend a pseudo-religious group from Atlanta came up and began a protest demonstration against the Charlotte PD for police brutality. They said that the reason the girl committed suicide was because she was severely beaten before she was put in the cruiser. The girl's family told this group that they were wrong. They had seen the film from the dashboard camera and it was widely known the the girl was severely unbalanced. Additionally there was no evidence of a beating on her corpse. That did not seem to matter to those jackasses from Atlanta, they kept up with their bullsh-t anyway. Some people have too much time on their hands

A couple of weeks ago PFC Jason Whitmire, an Army medic from Greenville, SC, was killed in Afghanistan. He was brought home for burial. The loonies from Westboro Baptist Church had threatened to demonstrate at the funeral. A bunch of bikers known as The Patriot Guard vowed to be present to protect the Whitmire family from the taunts of the Westboro garbage. This past Saturday the funeral went off without a hitch. The Patriot Guard was present as advertised, the Westboro assh-les were not. It would not do for me to confront them at a soldier's funeral.

After a six month investigation South Carolina authorities busted a cocaine ring in Orangeburg this past weekend. Six men were arrested and charged with a variety of crimes. These guys were no amateurs. They had sophisticated devices for measuring and packaging the drug. In addition to their arrests, 9 vehicles were seized with a value of about $100,000, $300,000 in cash, three SKS assault rifles, two AK-47's, an AR-15, a TEC-9, a Remington 30.06 scoped rifle, body armor and a variety of handguns of various calibers. They also had a hell of a lot of ammo including specialized bullets that will penetrate police body armor. There is no telling how much time these jackasses will do.

Recently the good people of San Francisco elected Ross Mirkirami as sheriff. When it came time for him to be sworn in, the Superior Court judge, Katherine Feinstein (does that name sound familiar...US Senator Diane Feinstien perhaps) refused to swear Mirkirami in because he had a domestic violence charge pending. The district attorney will not review the sheriff's case until next week and then decide if the case will be pursued or not. Sheriff Mirkirami has denied any wrong doing. Judge Feinstein said that it would appear improper for her to swear in Mirkirami and later he being convicted of the domestic violence charge. I guess she is right...but I am suspicious as to what influence Diane had on the selection of Katherine as a judge. After all they are both from San Francisco.

This date in history January 11

1775 On this date the first Jew elected in the Americas took his seat on the South Carolina Provincial Congress. Francis Salvador came from a family deeply involved in the English East India Company. His father was the director of operations in the Portugal division. The Salvador family was also very high up in the Jewish Sephardic community in London. A severe earthquake virtually destroyed all the East India Company warehoused goods in Portugal which bankrupted the Salvador family. Francis decided that he would come to the colonies and try to recoup his family’s fortunes and sailed to Savannah, Georgia in spite of the fact that Jews were not permitted in the state of Georgia. I am going to repeat that, Jews were not permitted in the state of Georgia. He quickly headed into South Carolina to take control of 7,000 acres that had been given to him by his uncle. Salvador turned out to be a firebrand Patriot and was deeply involved in the movement of independence of the colonies from Great Britain. He was known as the “Southern Paul Revere” when he rode 30 miles on horseback to warn the people of Charleston, South Carolina that there was a British fleet approaching that he had spotted from his plantation. The city of Charleston was able to pre-arm Sullivan’s Island in the mouth of Charleston Harbor and when the British fleet under the command of Admiral Peter Parker arrived, the artillerymen on Sullivan’s Island opened up and handed Admiral Parker his ass and sent the British fleet askew. On another occasion he was scouting in the South Carolina foothills with a squad under command of Colonel John Wilkinson. Recent raids by the Cherokees on villages in the upstate sent Colonel Wilkinson looking for the renegade Cherokees. The renegades found them first and unleashed a wicked ambush near present day Seneca, South Carolina. Francis Salvador was knifed and scalped but he did not die right away. Colonel Wilkinson found him and assured Salvador that the victory was theirs, and then Salvador died. He was the first Jewish soldier killed in behalf of the colonies in their search for peace and independence. We needed more like him.

1937 Eleven days into a sit-down strike by the United Auto Workers at the General Motors Plant #2 in Flint, Michigan, on this date the General Motors “Security Forces” and the Flint Police showed up to evict the strikers inside the plant. It eventually became a pitched battle with the strikers holding their own with fire hoses and jury rigged slingshots while the Flint PD and the GM Security responded with gunfire and tear gas. The people on the picket line did what they could by blocking the entrances so heavy equipment could not be brought in and they threw rocks and bottles to break the windows to allow the tear gas to escape. Eventually Governor Frank Murphy got fed up and sent in the National Guard to put a stop to the violence. After 44 days the strike ended with General Motors conceding to the demands of the UAW. This is the first time that any of the “big three” auto manufacturers had ever set down and negotiated with a union. I previously mentioned the GW “Security Forces”. This outfit was nothing short of a militia to use force if necessary to apply the will of management. On more than one occasion these guys would see a group of GM workers standing around a recruiter for the union and would rush out and beat the hell out of everybody present with nightsticks whether on plant property or not. This contract put a stop to that bullshit everywhere.

1908 Earlier in the year 1540 one of the troops exploring with Coronado named Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas wandered upon a huge canyon in what is now southern Arizona. As far as history tells us this man was the first European to lay eyes on what is now known as the Grand Canyon. For three hundred years afterward this wonder of nature was virtually unknown to all but the Native Americans who had been living in the canyon for many centuries. Anyone that took one look at the twisting pathway leading down into the mile deep canyon thought that it appeared to be too foreboding, not to mention the torrential Colorado River in the bottom. Finally in 1869 a brave soul named John Wesley Powell and eight others drifted down the Green River in Wyoming to where it joined the Colorado. Then he decided to drift the mighty Colorado and off they went. Somehow he was able to take his flimsy wooden boats most of the length of the Grand Canyon through some of the wildest rapids in North America. In fact three of his crew abandoned him and crawled out of the canyon saying it was too dangerous. A week later these three were captured, tortured and killed by a group that was probably Apache. I suppose they guessed wrong as to what was dangerous and what was not. As you might suspect, different money seekers built some flimsy hotels on the south edge to take advantage of the spectacular view. It became worse when the Santa Fe Railroad built a rail line close by. Soon the visitors reached 100,000 and the trashing of the terrain became rampant. On this date In1906 one of the greatest environmentalists ever, Theodore Roosevelt, declared the Grand Canyon a National Monument and eventually a National Park saving forever the splendor of this great wonder.

Born today:

1755 US Patriot Alexander Hamilton. He said “I cannot expect perfect work from imperfect men.” Hey Alex, what about women, Hillary in particular?

1842 US writer Will James. He said “How pleasant is the day when we stop trying to be young....or slender.” I can identify with both situations.

1873 US statesman Dwight Morrow. He said “When one party takes claim for the rain, they must also take blame for a drought.” Come on Dwight, that ain’t fair.

1934 Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He said “A proof is a proof. What is a proof? It’s a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have proof, it is because it is proven.” Jean, you’re an idiot.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“They think they can make auto fuel from horse manure. I don't know it it will get you 30 MPG or not but it certainly will cut down on siphoning.”

Dave Barry

I guess most of you watched the BCS national championship game between LSU and Alabama. I thought the mighty South Carolina Gamecocks has a finely tuned defense but on Monday night the Tide defense exhibited one of the best defensive football teams I have ever seen. They allowed the LSU offense across the fifty yard line only once in the entire game. I think LSU's total offense was about 100 yards while Bama had over 400. The greatest mystery of all was why LSU head coach Les Miles let quarterback Jordan Jefferson play the entire game. It was obvious from the git-go the Jefferson was off his game. His handoffs were poorly timed as was his passes. It looked to me that Jefferson was “telegraphing” what play was coming next and the Bama defense was waiting on it. LSU has another quarterback named Jarrett Lee that is just as good a Jefferson but he did not play. Perhaps he would have been less shook-up than Jefferson. Far be it from me to second guess a high rated coach like Les Miles of LSU, but his team was not ready to play while Bama was on a razor's edge on both sides of the ball. Simply LSU was out coached and out prepared and out played. It was not a game, it was a mugging.

Recently the Florida Marlins baseball team traded for right handed pitcher Mark Buehrie. Mark has a problem. In 1989 Dade County Florida banned Pit Bulls, Rottweilers and all other dangerous dog breeds. Mark has a Staffordshire Terrier and three Vizlas. The terrier is essentially a Pit Bull and is forbidden to live in Dade county. Mark has refused to give up his dog so he will have to live outside Dade County. The Marlin's home office and the ball park is in the very center of Dade county. This means he will have a hell of a commute every day because Dade County is a large one, but the love of his animal evidently will take precedent.

A strange turn of events occurred over the weekend. A few days ago the Charlotte, NC PD arrested a young woman for shoplifting. They cuffed her and put her in the back of a cruiser. She was protesting loudly and somehow was able to wrap one of the seat belts around her neck and was strangled to death. All of this was confirmed by a camera on the dash of the car. The cops found that she was dead when they tried to talk with her and got no response. They tried CPR but it was too late. This past weekend a pseudo-religious group from Atlanta came up and began a protest demonstration against the Charlotte PD for police brutality. They said that the reason the girl committed suicide was because she was severely beaten before she was put in the cruiser. The girl's family told this group that they were wrong. They had seen the film from the dashboard camera and it was widely known the the girl was severely unbalanced. Additionally there was no evidence of a beating on her corpse. That did not seem to matter to those jackasses from Atlanta, they kept up with their bullsh-t anyway. Some people have too much time on their hands

A couple of weeks ago PFC Jason Whitmire, an Army medic from Greenville, SC, was killed in Afghanistan. He was brought home for burial. The loonies from Westboro Baptist Church had threatened to demonstrate at the funeral. A bunch of bikers known as The Patriot Guard vowed to be present to protect the Whitmire family from the taunts of the Westboro garbage. This past Saturday the funeral went off without a hitch. The Patriot Guard was present as advertised, the Westboro assh-les were not. It would not do for me to confront them at a soldier's funeral.

After a six month investigation South Carolina authorities busted a cocaine ring in Orangeburg this past weekend. Six men were arrested and charged with a variety of crimes. These guys were no amateurs. They had sophisticated devices for measuring and packaging the drug. In addition to their arrests, 9 vehicles were seized with a value of about $100,000, $300,000 in cash, three SKS assault rifles, two AK-47's, an AR-15, a TEC-9, a Remington 30.06 scoped rifle, body armor and a variety of handguns of various calibers. They also had a hell of a lot of ammo including specialized bullets that will penetrate police body armor. There is no telling how much time these jackasses will do.

Recently the good people of San Francisco elected Ross Mirkirami as sheriff. When it came time for him to be sworn in, the Superior Court judge, Katherine Feinstein (does that name sound familiar...US Senator Diane Feinstien perhaps) refused to swear Mirkirami in because he had a domestic violence charge pending. The district attorney will not review the sheriff's case until next week and then decide if the case will be pursued or not. Sheriff Mirkirami has denied any wrong doing. Judge Feinstein said that it would appear improper for her to swear in Mirkirami and later he being convicted of the domestic violence charge. I guess she is right...but I am suspicious as to what influence Diane had on the selection of Katherine as a judge. After all they are both from San Francisco.

This date in history January 11

1775 On this date the first Jew elected in the Americas took his seat on the South Carolina Provincial Congress. Francis Salvador came from a family deeply involved in the English East India Company. His father was the director of operations in the Portugal division. The Salvador family was also very high up in the Jewish Sephardic community in London. A severe earthquake virtually destroyed all the East India Company warehoused goods in Portugal which bankrupted the Salvador family. Francis decided that he would come to the colonies and try to recoup his family’s fortunes and sailed to Savannah, Georgia in spite of the fact that Jews were not permitted in the state of Georgia. I am going to repeat that, Jews were not permitted in the state of Georgia. He quickly headed into South Carolina to take control of 7,000 acres that had been given to him by his uncle. Salvador turned out to be a firebrand Patriot and was deeply involved in the movement of independence of the colonies from Great Britain. He was known as the “Southern Paul Revere” when he rode 30 miles on horseback to warn the people of Charleston, South Carolina that there was a British fleet approaching that he had spotted from his plantation. The city of Charleston was able to pre-arm Sullivan’s Island in the mouth of Charleston Harbor and when the British fleet under the command of Admiral Peter Parker arrived, the artillerymen on Sullivan’s Island opened up and handed Admiral Parker his ass and sent the British fleet askew. On another occasion he was scouting in the South Carolina foothills with a squad under command of Colonel John Wilkinson. Recent raids by the Cherokees on villages in the upstate sent Colonel Wilkinson looking for the renegade Cherokees. The renegades found them first and unleashed a wicked ambush near present day Seneca, South Carolina. Francis Salvador was knifed and scalped but he did not die right away. Colonel Wilkinson found him and assured Salvador that the victory was theirs, and then Salvador died. He was the first Jewish soldier killed in behalf of the colonies in their search for peace and independence. We needed more like him.

1937 Eleven days into a sit-down strike by the United Auto Workers at the General Motors Plant #2 in Flint, Michigan, on this date the General Motors “Security Forces” and the Flint Police showed up to evict the strikers inside the plant. It eventually became a pitched battle with the strikers holding their own with fire hoses and jury rigged slingshots while the Flint PD and the GM Security responded with gunfire and tear gas. The people on the picket line did what they could by blocking the entrances so heavy equipment could not be brought in and they threw rocks and bottles to break the windows to allow the tear gas to escape. Eventually Governor Frank Murphy got fed up and sent in the National Guard to put a stop to the violence. After 44 days the strike ended with General Motors conceding to the demands of the UAW. This is the first time that any of the “big three” auto manufacturers had ever set down and negotiated with a union. I previously mentioned the GW “Security Forces”. This outfit was nothing short of a militia to use force if necessary to apply the will of management. On more than one occasion these guys would see a group of GM workers standing around a recruiter for the union and would rush out and beat the hell out of everybody present with nightsticks whether on plant property or not. This contract put a stop to that bullshit everywhere.

1908 Earlier in the year 1540 one of the troops exploring with Coronado named Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas wandered upon a huge canyon in what is now southern Arizona. As far as history tells us this man was the first European to lay eyes on what is now known as the Grand Canyon. For three hundred years afterward this wonder of nature was virtually unknown to all but the Native Americans who had been living in the canyon for many centuries. Anyone that took one look at the twisting pathway leading down into the mile deep canyon thought that it appeared to be too foreboding, not to mention the torrential Colorado River in the bottom. Finally in 1869 a brave soul named John Wesley Powell and eight others drifted down the Green River in Wyoming to where it joined the Colorado. Then he decided to drift the mighty Colorado and off they went. Somehow he was able to take his flimsy wooden boats most of the length of the Grand Canyon through some of the wildest rapids in North America. In fact three of his crew abandoned him and crawled out of the canyon saying it was too dangerous. A week later these three were captured, tortured and killed by a group that was probably Apache. I suppose they guessed wrong as to what was dangerous and what was not. As you might suspect, different money seekers built some flimsy hotels on the south edge to take advantage of the spectacular view. It became worse when the Santa Fe Railroad built a rail line close by. Soon the visitors reached 100,000 and the trashing of the terrain became rampant. On this date In1906 one of the greatest environmentalists ever, Theodore Roosevelt, declared the Grand Canyon a National Monument and eventually a National Park saving forever the splendor of this great wonder.

Born today:

1755 US Patriot Alexander Hamilton. He said “I cannot expect perfect work from imperfect men.” Hey Alex, what about women, Hillary in particular?

1842 US writer Will James. He said “How pleasant is the day when we stop trying to be young....or slender.” I can identify with both situations.

1873 US statesman Dwight Morrow. He said “When one party takes claim for the rain, they must also take blame for a drought.” Come on Dwight, that ain’t fair.

1934 Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He said “A proof is a proof. What is a proof? It’s a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have proof, it is because it is proven.” Jean, you’re an idiot.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“They think they can make auto fuel from horse manure. I don't know it it will get you 30 MPG or not but it certainly will cut down on siphoning.”

Dave Barry

I guess most of you watched the BCS national championship game between LSU and Alabama. I thought the mighty South Carolina Gamecocks has a finely tuned defense but on Monday night the Tide defense exhibited one of the best defensive football teams I have ever seen. They allowed the LSU offense across the fifty yard line only once in the entire game. I think LSU's total offense was about 100 yards while Bama had over 400. The greatest mystery of all was why LSU head coach Les Miles let quarterback Jordan Jefferson play the entire game. It was obvious from the git-go the Jefferson was off his game. His handoffs were poorly timed as was his passes. It looked to me that Jefferson was “telegraphing” what play was coming next and the Bama defense was waiting on it. LSU has another quarterback named Jarrett Lee that is just as good a Jefferson but he did not play. Perhaps he would have been less shook-up than Jefferson. Far be it from me to second guess a high rated coach like Les Miles of LSU, but his team was not ready to play while Bama was on a razor's edge on both sides of the ball. Simply LSU was out coached and out prepared and out played. It was not a game, it was a mugging.

Recently the Florida Marlins baseball team traded for right handed pitcher Mark Buehrie. Mark has a problem. In 1989 Dade County Florida banned Pit Bulls, Rottweilers and all other dangerous dog breeds. Mark has a Staffordshire Terrier and three Vizlas. The terrier is essentially a Pit Bull and is forbidden to live in Dade county. Mark has refused to give up his dog so he will have to live outside Dade County. The Marlin's home office and the ball park is in the very center of Dade county. This means he will have a hell of a commute every day because Dade County is a large one, but the love of his animal evidently will take precedent.

A strange turn of events occurred over the weekend. A few days ago the Charlotte, NC PD arrested a young woman for shoplifting. They cuffed her and put her in the back of a cruiser. She was protesting loudly and somehow was able to wrap one of the seat belts around her neck and was strangled to death. All of this was confirmed by a camera on the dash of the car. The cops found that she was dead when they tried to talk with her and got no response. They tried CPR but it was too late. This past weekend a pseudo-religious group from Atlanta came up and began a protest demonstration against the Charlotte PD for police brutality. They said that the reason the girl committed suicide was because she was severely beaten before she was put in the cruiser. The girl's family told this group that they were wrong. They had seen the film from the dashboard camera and it was widely known the the girl was severely unbalanced. Additionally there was no evidence of a beating on her corpse. That did not seem to matter to those jackasses from Atlanta, they kept up with their bullsh-t anyway. Some people have too much time on their hands

A couple of weeks ago PFC Jason Whitmire, an Army medic from Greenville, SC, was killed in Afghanistan. He was brought home for burial. The loonies from Westboro Baptist Church had threatened to demonstrate at the funeral. A bunch of bikers known as The Patriot Guard vowed to be present to protect the Whitmire family from the taunts of the Westboro garbage. This past Saturday the funeral went off without a hitch. The Patriot Guard was present as advertised, the Westboro assh-les were not. It would not do for me to confront them at a soldier's funeral.

After a six month investigation South Carolina authorities busted a cocaine ring in Orangeburg this past weekend. Six men were arrested and charged with a variety of crimes. These guys were no amateurs. They had sophisticated devices for measuring and packaging the drug. In addition to their arrests, 9 vehicles were seized with a value of about $100,000, $300,000 in cash, three SKS assault rifles, two AK-47's, an AR-15, a TEC-9, a Remington 30.06 scoped rifle, body armor and a variety of handguns of various calibers. They also had a hell of a lot of ammo including specialized bullets that will penetrate police body armor. There is no telling how much time these jackasses will do.

Recently the good people of San Francisco elected Ross Mirkirami as sheriff. When it came time for him to be sworn in, the Superior Court judge, Katherine Feinstein (does that name sound familiar...US Senator Diane Feinstien perhaps) refused to swear Mirkirami in because he had a domestic violence charge pending. The district attorney will not review the sheriff's case until next week and then decide if the case will be pursued or not. Sheriff Mirkirami has denied any wrong doing. Judge Feinstein said that it would appear improper for her to swear in Mirkirami and later he being convicted of the domestic violence charge. I guess she is right...but I am suspicious as to what influence Diane had on the selection of Katherine as a judge. After all they are both from San Francisco.

This date in history January 11

1775 On this date the first Jew elected in the Americas took his seat on the South Carolina Provincial Congress. Francis Salvador came from a family deeply involved in the English East India Company. His father was the director of operations in the Portugal division. The Salvador family was also very high up in the Jewish Sephardic community in London. A severe earthquake virtually destroyed all the East India Company warehoused goods in Portugal which bankrupted the Salvador family. Francis decided that he would come to the colonies and try to recoup his family’s fortunes and sailed to Savannah, Georgia in spite of the fact that Jews were not permitted in the state of Georgia. I am going to repeat that, Jews were not permitted in the state of Georgia. He quickly headed into South Carolina to take control of 7,000 acres that had been given to him by his uncle. Salvador turned out to be a firebrand Patriot and was deeply involved in the movement of independence of the colonies from Great Britain. He was known as the “Southern Paul Revere” when he rode 30 miles on horseback to warn the people of Charleston, South Carolina that there was a British fleet approaching that he had spotted from his plantation. The city of Charleston was able to pre-arm Sullivan’s Island in the mouth of Charleston Harbor and when the British fleet under the command of Admiral Peter Parker arrived, the artillerymen on Sullivan’s Island opened up and handed Admiral Parker his ass and sent the British fleet askew. On another occasion he was scouting in the South Carolina foothills with a squad under command of Colonel John Wilkinson. Recent raids by the Cherokees on villages in the upstate sent Colonel Wilkinson looking for the renegade Cherokees. The renegades found them first and unleashed a wicked ambush near present day Seneca, South Carolina. Francis Salvador was knifed and scalped but he did not die right away. Colonel Wilkinson found him and assured Salvador that the victory was theirs, and then Salvador died. He was the first Jewish soldier killed in behalf of the colonies in their search for peace and independence. We needed more like him.

1937 Eleven days into a sit-down strike by the United Auto Workers at the General Motors Plant #2 in Flint, Michigan, on this date the General Motors “Security Forces” and the Flint Police showed up to evict the strikers inside the plant. It eventually became a pitched battle with the strikers holding their own with fire hoses and jury rigged slingshots while the Flint PD and the GM Security responded with gunfire and tear gas. The people on the picket line did what they could by blocking the entrances so heavy equipment could not be brought in and they threw rocks and bottles to break the windows to allow the tear gas to escape. Eventually Governor Frank Murphy got fed up and sent in the National Guard to put a stop to the violence. After 44 days the strike ended with General Motors conceding to the demands of the UAW. This is the first time that any of the “big three” auto manufacturers had ever set down and negotiated with a union. I previously mentioned the GW “Security Forces”. This outfit was nothing short of a militia to use force if necessary to apply the will of management. On more than one occasion these guys would see a group of GM workers standing around a recruiter for the union and would rush out and beat the hell out of everybody present with nightsticks whether on plant property or not. This contract put a stop to that bullshit everywhere.

1908 Earlier in the year 1540 one of the troops exploring with Coronado named Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas wandered upon a huge canyon in what is now southern Arizona. As far as history tells us this man was the first European to lay eyes on what is now known as the Grand Canyon. For three hundred years afterward this wonder of nature was virtually unknown to all but the Native Americans who had been living in the canyon for many centuries. Anyone that took one look at the twisting pathway leading down into the mile deep canyon thought that it appeared to be too foreboding, not to mention the torrential Colorado River in the bottom. Finally in 1869 a brave soul named John Wesley Powell and eight others drifted down the Green River in Wyoming to where it joined the Colorado. Then he decided to drift the mighty Colorado and off they went. Somehow he was able to take his flimsy wooden boats most of the length of the Grand Canyon through some of the wildest rapids in North America. In fact three of his crew abandoned him and crawled out of the canyon saying it was too dangerous. A week later these three were captured, tortured and killed by a group that was probably Apache. I suppose they guessed wrong as to what was dangerous and what was not. As you might suspect, different money seekers built some flimsy hotels on the south edge to take advantage of the spectacular view. It became worse when the Santa Fe Railroad built a rail line close by. Soon the visitors reached 100,000 and the trashing of the terrain became rampant. On this date In1906 one of the greatest environmentalists ever, Theodore Roosevelt, declared the Grand Canyon a National Monument and eventually a National Park saving forever the splendor of this great wonder.

Born today:

1755 US Patriot Alexander Hamilton. He said “I cannot expect perfect work from imperfect men.” Hey Alex, what about women, Hillary in particular?

1842 US writer Will James. He said “How pleasant is the day when we stop trying to be young....or slender.” I can identify with both situations.

1873 US statesman Dwight Morrow. He said “When one party takes claim for the rain, they must also take blame for a drought.” Come on Dwight, that ain’t fair.

1934 Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He said “A proof is a proof. What is a proof? It’s a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have proof, it is because it is proven.” Jean, you’re an idiot.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

2012-01-09T02:47:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I am living proof that members of a dysfunctional family do not all turn out bad.”

Gene Hackman

Speaking of dysfunctional families, I briefly dated a woman that was from the “West Side” here in Greenville. She had two sisters and a brother in addition to her mother. Her father was deceased. The cause of death of her father was interesting. He was a heavy drinker and on the way home one day he chose to take a nap in a nearby ditch. His wife came looking for him since her husband had done this several times before. She found him and was unable to get him awake so she did the honorable thing, she retrieved two gallons of gasoline, poured it on him and lit it off. He died of his burns. She went to jail for just a short period and was released for being crazy as a loon. Her children confirmed this as the correct diagnosis. On another occasion I went with my then girlfriend to her sister's house for an after Thanksgiving dinner. One of her sisters was an “Exotic” dancer at a local strip club and had a kick-ass body as you might suspect. Her stage name was “Chancellor”. We all were sitting around the living room waiting for dinner to be prepared and I was introduced to every body. There was both of her sisters and her brother, all of them were married. There were two extra men there the best I could figure and I asked my girlfriend who they were and she said they were her sister's boyfriends. I asked if it was true that her sisters were married and if so, who was the other two men? She said they were her sister's husbands. We all sat down and had dinner together. I put an end to that relationship as much as I hated too. My girlfriend was a dynamite “down home” cook...and built like her sister.

There was a recent burial with full military honors including a large tombstone. It was for “Lucky”, an American Belgian Malois combat dog about 10 years old. This hero had been on five deployments including Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and even worked for the Secret Service. His most recent handler said that Lucky was responsible for saving thousands of American lives by finding hidden explosives and detecting ambushers long before they arrived on the scene. It was a touching ceremony. Lucky died of cancer.

Last Saturday evening the Spartanburg, SC sheriff's deputies saw good old Bruce Stafford walking across the Detention Center parking lot a little bit unsteadily. They went out and had a chat with Bruce. He reeked of Jim Beam, slurred his words and stood weaving heavily to an unfelt breeze. The cops asked him if he had been drinking and he said “Yeah, and what the (expletive) is wrong with that?” The cops charged him with disorderly conduct and put him in the drunk tank to take a nap. He was released 8 hours later...with the mother of all hangovers. He chose the wrong place and the wrong circumstances to take a hike.

Down in Walterboro, South Carolina man left his house and started up his Cadillac to let it warm up before leaving for work and them went back in the house. From his house he saw a Yukon pull up and someone got out and jumped into the Caddy and took off. The owner had the description called to the cops before is was out of sight. Within five minutes the Caddy and been spotted by the cops and a high speed pursuit ensued. The driver eventually decided he could not escape the cops in the Caddy and chose to break and run away on foot. It was dark and the runner did not see the four foot high barbed wire fence and did an unwitting half-loop over the top. He got up and continued running leaving a trail of blood along the way from the multiple wounds he suffered. The cops brought in a dog and within minutes the runner had surrendered. The trail he left was a a piece of cake for the dog.

This date in history January 10

1776 On this date the Governor of North Carolina, Josiah Martin, speaking from exile aboard the British warship Cruiser anchored near Cape Fear, North Carolina, implores the Loyalists to gather an armed force and fight the Rebels (Patriots). Governor Martin was not elected by the people of North Carolina; he was placed in that position by the British. In his message Governor Martin stated that everyone knew what an honor it was to be a British subject and enjoy the freedom and blessings from the King. Well, the people could not relate to that message because Governor Martin had allowed government employees known as “Regulators” to go throughout the countryside and levy taxes at their discretion and put that money in their pockets. Anyway, the Loyalists were supposed to meet British General William Howe at the waterfront and he was suppose to supply the Loyalists better arms and ammunition plus additional troops. The Loyalists were only able to gather but 1,500 troops and when they arrived at the waterfront, it wasn’t General Howe waiting on them; it was an army of Patriots. The commander of the Loyalists, British General Donald McDonald, knew that he could not engage the heavily armed Patriots with a Loyalist army that was nearly unarmed. But McDonald fell ill and the command of the Loyalists fell to British General Donald McLeod. McLeod did not see a problem with attacking with the army as presently armed and attack they did. The Patriots were prepared and delivered a major ass-kicking. They killed 80 of the Loyalists and captured 880 while suffering only 2 killed. Martin had fled to the umbrella of a British warship after the Patriots burned his house down. After this defeat of the Loyalists, Josiah Martin made two more attempts to gain his power back was both attempts were turned back. He then sailed to Long Island and then to London where he died in 1786.

1901 On this date on a small hill named Spindletop near Beaumont, Texas at 10:30am a deep rumble was heard under the oil drilling derrick. A few seconds later the drill string began backing out of the hole and it was followed by oil gushing out of the well to a height twice as high as the derrick. This “gusher” ran wild for nine days at a rate of an estimated 100,000 barrels per day before it was brought under control. This was the first discovery of a major oil field in United States history. Earlier oil was found in Pennsylvania but not in the quantity of this oil field. Oil is still being extracted from this oil field to this day. Had this oil field and others like it had not been found, it is unlikely the internal combustion engine as we know it today would have ever developed. There is speculation that automobile would have continued to develop but the power would have been steam or electricity.

1987 Connecticut police continue their search for Helle Crafts. She was a Pan Am flight attendant and had been missing since December 1. Everyone thought that her husband Richard had killed Helle and disposed of the body but no body was found. The police had interviewed him several times but Richard claimed that he never left the house on the day of the supposed disappearance. The police crossed checked his credit cards and found that the day after the disappearance; he had bought a new mattress, a chain saw and had rented a wood chipper. A witness came forward and said that he had seen a person using a wood chipper on the banks of the Housatonic River. But the area where the person saw the wood chipper in use was feet deep in snow. The police thawed the snow and began a search for evidence and they sent divers in the river also. The divers found a chain saw in the river. The chain saw had tiny scraps of human tissue in the teeth of the saw and the police sent them off for analysis. It was found that the blood type of the tissue was consistent with that of Helle but that was not enough evidence for a conviction. After the police had gathered all the evidence from the riverbank that they could they had 2,660 hairs, one fingernail, one toenail, a scrap of tissue with two teeth embedded, two tooth caps and three tiny drops of blood. After obtaining a few hairs from Helle’s hair brush at her house and comparing her dental records, it was confirmed that the hairs and tooth caps they found on the riverbank belonged to Helle. This was enough evidence for the police and they arrested Helle’s husband Richard and charged him with murder. Richard first trial ended with a deadlock but at his second trial he was convicted and sentenced to 50 years. This was one of the rare times that a murderer is convicted without a corpse. But with forensics what they are today, getting away with murder ain’t as easy as it used to be.

1941 On this date US President Franklin Roosevelt signed a “lend-lease” with Great Britain. It was called a “lend-lease” but what it really did was promise Great Britain that the US would provide them with the “tools of war”. The United States was not yet involved in WWII. England had been taking a beating from the Germans who had been stockpiling armaments for years and England was severely outgunned. This program was to help even the odds. But it did not matter that much because the United States declared war on Germany, Japan and Italy on December 8 of this year, the day after the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. After this, the United States went full bore into the most devastating war in history.

Signs you are on a bad date:

She seems to know a hell of a lot about your shower routine.

Her multiple personalities began arguing after dinner about splitting the check.

You spend an inordinate amount of time lifting her head out of the soup.

After two beers she starts calling you Daddy.

Every place you mention for dinner she says “Nah, there might be cops in there.”

Y’all can substitute he/him for she/her at your discretion.

Eye opener:

No matter how great you become or how much good you do for mankind, the number of people that attend your funeral is determined by the weather

Thought to remember: Too bad that there are more horse’s asses than there are horses.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

2012-01-08T21:08:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“What's the matter with revenge? It's the perfect way to get even!

Archie Bunker

Hey Edie...It was good to see you again.

I guess some of you read about the young mother out in Oklahoma who was forced to defend her home and child. The 21 year old woman had a three month old daughter and her husband had died of cancer on Christmas Day. A 24 year old man had came by her house right after that and said he was a neighbor and wanted to express his condolences. She did not allow him in the house. A few days ago the same man brought a friend and a 12 inch Bowie knife and tried to break into the house with her and the baby there. She retrieved a 12 gauge double barreled shotgun and a pistol and called 9-1-1. She told the dispatcher that she was there all alone with her baby and there were two men trying to break in. She asked the dispatcher if it would be OK to shoot the men if they gained entrance. The dispatcher said that she could not answer that other than that she had the right to do what was necessary to protect herself and her baby. One of the men finally got in and was greeted with a shotgun blast that sent his young ass to the promised land. The other man ran away but turned himself in to the cops the next day. The local police said that she would not be arrested or charged because Oklahoma has a “castle” law . This means that a home owner has the right to protect his/her home using deadly force if necessary. I like it except the other man did not get his brains blown out. This woman had lost her husband about two weeks ago and these vermin were trying invade her home with an infant there. A woman with a baby can be very close to a female grizzly with cubs...very, very dangerous.

A couple of weeks ago up in the Chicago area a county cop named Chris Collins stopped a car driven by Evangelina Peredez and issued her a speeding ticket. A few days later the cop using police records located her residence and left a note on her windshield. It said “Hi, this is Chris the cop that gave you the speeding ticket. Since that day I could not get you out of my mind. I don't know if a beauty like you could be interested in a man like me but I know the ticket cost you $132 so the best I can do is take you out to dinner. Let me know if you are interested.” Evangelina was “interested” alright, she filed a law suit for stalking and using his position to invade her privacy. I am not sure that she should have went that far, a complaint with the sheriff's department would have got the job done, but it was her call. How do any of you girls out there feel about this?

Down in Brownsville, Texas a fifteen year old kid named Jamie Gonzalez decided to come to his middle school carrying a pistol the cops were called. The cops arrived and they approached Jamie in a hallway and told him to drop the gun a few times and he refused. Evidently Jamie made a false move and he was shot twice and killed. When the cops retrieved Jamie's firearm they found it was a carbon-dioxide powered pellet gun that was closely modeled after a Glock .40 caliber sidearm. In fact, you could not tell the difference without very close examination. The kids parents were devastated and raised hell asking why such deadly force had to be used on such a young person. This kid was raised by his grandmother because both parents had to work to make ends meet. What made this kid think it was OK to bring a firearm of any kind to school in the first place? It is lack of discipline and leadership, y'all. I don't blame the cops, they couldn't take a chance.

This date in history January 9

1493 On this date Christopher Columbus, having sailed from Spain with three ships 6 months earlier, makes an entry in the ships log that he has sighted three mermaids. He was in close proximity to the island of Hispaniola, present day Haiti/Dominican Republic, when he made the sightings. His entry said that the mermaids were not nearly as beautiful as the paintings of them he had seen. Reports of mermaid sightings had been made since the days of the ancient Greek mariners. They were usually portrayed as having a woman’s head and torso and a fish’s tail. There is little question that they were different versions of manatees because the location of the sightings are now known as the habitat of manatees or a version thereof. I now understand why Columbus said that they were not as beautiful as the paintings. Manatees are not the most handsome of God’s critters. It goes right along with reports of Sirens. In Greek legend, Sirens were half bird half woman that lived on small islands and when an unsuspecting ship came by they would sing beautiful and seductive songs to them and lured them to their deaths of shallow reefs or rocky shores. Homer spoke of them in his book “The Odyssey”. Now a days Sirens are found in places like The Trophy Club, Platinum Plus and Nepal’s (all strip joints in Greenville). Only they don’t sing men to their destruction, they wriggle them to it.

1806 In October of 1805 Napoleon Bonaparte was overpowering the whole of Europe and things did not look good for England. A British fleet of warships led by Lord Horatio Nelson met and engaged a combined fleet of French and Spanish warship off the coast of Spain near a point of land called Trafalgar. Even though outnumbered and outgunned, Nelson beat the hell out of Napoleon’s armada thus preventing the invasion of England. Before engaging the enemy fleet, Nelson had signaled to his fleet “England expects every man to do his duty.” During the battle, a sniper up in the rigging of a French warship put a bullet through the lungs of Lord Nelson and he collapsed on the deck. Before dying, Nelson asked if the battle was won. After being assured that the victory was his, Nelson said “Thank God I have done my duty” and then he died. The captain of the ship knew it would be a few months before they got back to England so he put Nelson’s body in a cask of rum to preserve it. From that day forward, the daily ration of “grog” or rum for English sailors was known as “Nelson’s blood”. On this date Lord Horatio Nelson was buried in the graveyard in Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London. The English people had a park in London named Trafalgar Square in his honor and erected a column with a statue of Lord Nelson at the top. I have been to both Saint Paul’s and Trafalgar Square and both are very impressive. When I was visiting Saint Paul’s I was thinking about the great fire of 1666 that nearly destroyed London and lo and behold, very near the Cathedral is a marker showing the limit of that great fire. On the way back to the hotel we went by the Tower of London and right across the street was the “Drawn and Quartered Pub.” I almost jumped out of the bus to get a tee shirt from that place but I couldn’t. But it just gives me a reason to return to that great historic city. By the way, the tour guide said that the main attraction to the younger tourists is the dungeons and torture chambers. I don’t get it.

1972 Earlier in 1937 in a Scottish shipyard, construction began on the largest passenger vessel ever built, the Queen Elizabeth. The ship was finished just in time for World War II and spent four years ferrying troops from various places to Europe to fight the Germans and Italians. After the war she was refitted into what she was meant to be, a luxurious passenger liner for the Cunard Line. She was retired in 1968 and went up for auction. In 1970 she was purchased by Taiwanese shipping magnate C.W. Tung and he renamed her Seawise University. Tung had envisioned a worldwide traveling university. Unfortunately, on this date just before completion of the refitting she caught fire and sank to the bottom in her moorings nothing more than a scrap heap. What a shame.

1984 Earlier in 1977 New Yorker Kenneth Bianchi decided that he wanted to move to Los Angeles and live with his cousin Angelo Buono. Angelo frequently had prostitutes over to his house and he and Kenneth start talking how easy it would be to kill one of them and no one would ever know the difference. So they picked up a hooker in Angelo’s van, took her to his house and torture, rape and strangle her. Then Angelo insists that she be cleaned so he gave her a bath, took her out to a hillside near a police station and carefully arranged her body into a vulgar position and left her there. The media assumed it was one person and named him The Hillside Strangler. After the police found the 10th corpse, all of a sudden the killings stopped. What had happened was the Angelo and Kenneth had a falling out and Kenneth moved to Bellingham, Washington and applied for a job as a policeman, for crying out loud. He did not get the job as a policeman but he did get one as a security guard. Eventually Kenneth’s bloodlust got the best of him and he tortured and murdered two college coeds. The difference here was that there were witnesses that saw them together and he was arrested soon after. Kenneth had seen the movie “Sybil” about a woman with multiple personalities so he tried it himself claiming that “Steve”, his other “person”, had done the deed. The police called in a couple of psychiatrists to examine Kenneth and they assured the police that Kenneth was putting on an act. The police told Kenneth that they did not believe him and assured him that they would seek the death penalty. That woke Kenneth up and he told the police that he could name the Hillside Strangler if he could be tried in California which did not have the death penalty at that time. The police agreed and he rolled on his cousin Angelo and both were tried and convicted and on this date Angelo was given life without parole. Kenneth is still in the slammer but Angelo died of a heart attack in 2002 and hell rejoiced at its new arrival.

1887 The past few winters had been very mild for the cattle ranchers in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado and therefore the ranchers decided not to raise cattle feed for the winter. In their greed the cattlemen put more cattle on the range that normal and they ate the grass more than normal. The summer of 1886 was a dry and blistering one and the grass died stranding the cattle with no feed. Then in this month a winter storm blew in and it snowed for 16 straight hours. The cattle were up to their bellies in snow and could not readily dig through to the sparse vegetation. Then a warm spell came and thawed the top several inches of snow, then extreme cold came and froze it over into a sheet of ice that the cattle could not break through. With no winter feed set aside the ranchers could do nothing but watch their cattle die. And die they did, to the tune of over a million head. Never again did the ranchers not raise winter feed for their cows and with the advent of barbed wire they could keep the cows out of the hay fields.

Born today:

1886 US writer Arthur Baer. He said “Alimony is like feeding oats to a dead horse.”

1908 French writer Simone Beauvoir. She said “This has always been a man’s world, and none the reasons I have been offered in explanation seem adequate.” Why ask for an explanation, Simone?

1913 US President Richard M. Nixon. He said “If the President does it, that means it cannot be illegal.” That may be true in Haiti, but it ain’t true here, Dick.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

2011-04-01T08:31:00.000-04:00

Good morning,

I told y'all that I would not issue a lesson today but an event occurred that has forced me to do some explaining. First, most if not all, of the journalist cannot contain themselves as reporting what they assume as being fact. What happened was this: An air traffic controller saw a target on his radar that was unknown but it had a transponder that told the controller the altitude of the aircraft. The controller asked a airliner that was behind and above this private aircraft to fly close enough to the aircraft to get the aircraft ID number that is painted on the side. The pilot complied and reported the number to the controller. The FAA jumped straight up into the air and suspended the controller as causing a near collision. The reporter said that the minimum separation between aircraft is 3 miles laterally and 1,000 feet vertically. That is not true. For instance: It is possible for a private aircraft to depart Greenville, SC turn off his radio and fly to Mobile, Alabama and not be under anyone's control and not talk to anyone. The only stipulation is that he must stay in relatively clear skies and avoid PCA's (positive control airspace) which is in use near high density areas like Atlanta. If you choose to fly through a PCA you must be in contact with an air traffic control facility. The minimum separation between aircraft flying under visual conditions and another aircraft is a coat of paint. There is no designated minimum separation for these flights, the pilot has assumed that responsibility by choosing to fly under visual conditions. For those aircraft flying under the auspices of air traffic control the separation between those aircraft being controlled is indeed 3 miles laterally and 1,000 feet vertically. All commercial aircraft must fly in “controlled” airspace. Those demi-gods that are spouting the “news” are telling us something that they know nothing about as being fact...typical. That is why we need to be very skeptical about anything we see and hear on the so-called “news”.

This date in history March 31

1776 On this date Continental Congressman John Adams’ wife Abigail writes him a letter saying in part “I long to hear that you and the others have declared an independency. By the way, in the new code of laws I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you to remember the ladies and be more favorable and generous to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws which we do not have any voice or representation,” Let us recap at this point. John Adams and the Continental Congress are gathered together in Philadelphia on the cusp of creating a new nation the likes of which the world has never seen. They are doing this knowing that the mightiest army and navy on the planet will bring all their forces to the fore to prevent this from happening. Then one our greatest leaders is reminded to remember gender parity under the threat of a “rebellion”. Abigail Adams was a brilliant person and was as devoted to John as John was to her but to threaten a “rebellion” at this point was nothing short of bullshit. This country was facing the most important decision in world history and Abigail is worried about gender parity!!!! Abigail, this ain’t the time to start nagging about that, for crying out loud!!! It is at least shortsightedness if not a total lack of vision. On second thought, maybe Abigail had extraordinary vision because it took just short of 150 years for the United States Congress to enact the 19th Amendment allowing women to vote. Abigail Adams and Barbara Bush are the only two women to be wives and mothers to two American presidents.

1492 On this date, at the direction of the Catholic Church in Spain, all Jews are ordered to become Christians or leave the country. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face, a great majority of the Jews did indeed leave rather than give up their heritage. They took with them huge amounts of money, skills and business connections with many of the countries in the Mediterranean, Europe and Scandinavia. But some of the Jews stayed and held secret Jewish ceremonies while claiming to be Christians. It didn’t help any; the Jews claiming to be Christians were treated like shit anyway. Then the Catholic Church in Spain stepped on its tongue once again and declared that all Moors (Moslems) in Spain must become Christians or leave the country also. One would think that the loss of such a money making and tax paying segment would bankrupt a country. But it didn’t. Spain remained one of the major players in Europe and the world for over 300 years afterward. They took a small dip in power when the Spanish navy was crushed by the English navy in the mid-1500’s. They took another hit when they joined with France and Napoleon Bonaparte and again were crushed by the British navy in the late 1700’s. But Spain reaped an enormous fortune from the “new world” by their conquistadors enslaving the natives in Central and South America and bringing literally tons of gold, silver and precious gems back home.

1999 On this date a 22 year old woman is found running down a dirt road in New Mexico naked except for a padlocked metal collar around her neck. She tells a fascinating tale about being kidnapped three days ago by a man named David Ray and a woman named Cynthia Hendy and being taken to a mobile home and raped and tortured. The police find out that David Ray is an employee of the Elephant Butte State Park located near the mobile home. The woman escaped from Ray and Hendy when Ray left for work and the woman stabbed Hendy in the back of the neck with an ice pick. After an investigation the police believe that this woman is not the only victim of Ray and Hendy. There was and unsolved case of a woman disappearing from an Elephant Butte bar a few years earlier and after the news came out about this event, several woman came forward and said that they had been victims of Ray and Hendy but to ashamed to report it. Needless to say, the attendance at Elephant Butte State Park went to hell.

Born today:

1844 Scottish writer Andrew Lang. He said of one of his competitors “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses a lamppost, for support not illumination.”

1914 Mexican writer Octavio Paz. He said “Deserve your dream,” That is heavy, y'all.

1915 TV personality Henry Morgan. He said “A careful driver is one that blows his horn as he runs a red light.” I have seen this happen.

1925 US writer Leo Buscaglia. He said “I do not have wisdom. I can only teach you what ignorance is.”

1948 US politico Al Gore. He said “A leopard cannot change its stripes.” Al is a piece of work. Pretty dumb for someone that invented the internet.

Died today:

1631 English writer John Donne. He said “Wicked is almost the same as discreet.” I prefer discreetly wicked.

1898 English born writer Eleanor Marx. She said “By the time your life had ended, you have learned enough to live it well.” She is right, dammit.

1931 US Football legend Knute Rockne. He said “Prayers work best when you have the biggest players.”

1998 US representative Bella Abzug. She said “The establishment is made up of little men, very frightened.”

Speaking of little men, I saw a short news blurb about someone interviewing Dennis Koslowski the ex-president of the giant company Tyco. This jackass stripped millions of dollars from his company to provide his personal aggrandizement. He had homes on Central Park with $50,000 shower curtains, etc. On his wife’s birthday he flew his entourage consisting of 65 people to Sardinia on a chartered jumbo jet for her birthday party, all charged to the company. He was tried and convicted of a variety of illegal acts and was in the slammer mopping floors for $1.00/day. It gives me the warm fuzzies.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

2011-03-29T05:32:00.000-04:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“And now here are the headlines. The Pope actually found to be Jewish. Liberace is Anastasia and Ethel Merman jams Russian radar. The East Germans claimed today that the Berlin Wall was actually a fraternity prank. Today the Pope decided to release Vatican-based bath products. An incredible thing, yes it is going to be pope-on-a-rope, that's right folks, pope-on-a-rope. Take one bath with it an go straight to heaven.”

Adrian Cronauer (Robin Williams)Good Morning, Vietnam

Last Friday Japanese officials got more and more evidence that the reactor in the damaged nuclear power plant has been holed or has cracked. That, my friends, means a very serious problem for those countries on the Pacific Rim. The fuel used is a mixture of utilities grade Uranium and weapons grade Plutonium in a 9/1 ratio. This is known as “MOX” and a plant to make this mixture is being designed and built on the Savannah River Site near Aiken, SC. I worked on this project myself. This arrangement was brought about because America signed a disarmament agreement with Russia to decrease the number of nuclear weapons on both sides. The problem was what the hell were we going to do with all that very high powered and very expensive weapons grade Plutonium. The agreement was to mix it with utilities grade Uranium in a manageable ratio and use it in nuclear power plants. If nothing goes wrong, it is a win-win situation. But if something goes wrong it is a lose-lose situation. I believe that they will have to do what they did at Chernobyl and that is start pouring heavy duty concrete in the reactor building that is giving them trouble until all radiation is undetectable and write that one off to experience.

I was watching TV show about a young lady that was trying her hand at buying houses, remodeling them and then selling them at a profit. She had set a remodeling cost of $30,000 but it ended up being $51,000 because there was a water leak in an inside-the-wall water line that had soaked one whole hardwood floor end to end 2” deep. After that a brand new stainless steel refrigerator with through-the-door water and ice refused to give any water or ice. She called company that sold her the refrigerator and complained. The salesman said that it was probably because the valve on the water line was closed. She said “What water line?.” “Do you mean that after I paid what I did for that refrigerator I have to do something else than just plug it in?” She finally called Sam the plumber and he fixed it. No comment.

Here is a note to any and all of the fans of the Big Ten, Ohio State in particular. From what I can determine, the athletic prowess in football and basketball that is crowed about all pre-season and during the season is nothing short of phoney hype. Almost without exception when they are ranked high in the national rankings and end up playing a team from the SEC and they get their brains beat out. They were ranked number one in the nation in basketball this year and they did not make it out of the sweet sixteen in March Madness. Paper tigers, y'all, paper tigers.

NEWS FLASH:

Hell has frozen over!!!! Virginia Commonwealth University Basketball team has beaten number the number one ranked Kansas Jayhawks!!! They will play Butler next.

This date in history March 28

1979 On this date began a comedy of errors resulted the worst nuclear accident in United States history at the recently built Reactor #2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. This particular power plant was built on an island in the middle the Susquehanna River about 10 miles from the Pennsylvania capitol of Harrisburg. There was a slight overpressure in the reactor and a pressure relief valve opened as it was supposed to, the only problem was that it failed to close back and cooling water began to escape. The emergency relief pumps began to operate automatically as they were suppose to. If the plant operators had let this safety system work as designed, nothing would have happened. But the newly trained plant workers could not figure out what the hell was going on. With the cooling water leaking out onto the floor of the containment building the reactor core temperature began to rise. For reasons known only to the plant operators, they chose to shut down the emergency relief pumps. There is no need for me to tell you what happened to the core temperature. Pennsylvania Governor Thornburgh was between a rock and a hard place. After being appraised of the situation, he had to so something but he did not want to cause a panic. He sent out a notice that everyone with a 10 mile radius of Three Mile Island to stay indoors. Then the next day he advised that pregnant women should evacuate. Then word leaked out that radioactive steam had escaped and a small amount of radioactive water had leaked into the Susquehanna River. All of this was true but it was not that much of a risk but a panic began and over 100,000 people near the plant evacuated. By now the core had reached a temperature of 4,000 degrees which is within 1,000 degrees of a complete meltdown. Eventually experts from Metropolitan Energy and the reactor designer (Babcock and Wilcox) arrived and figured out what the problem was and the emergency pumps were restarted and the core temperature began to fall. In an attempt to lessen the panic, United States President Jimmy Carter went to the plant. Carter was a Naval Academy trained nuclear engineer and had dealt with damaged cores in the past. This was probably in a nuclear submarine. But he was not there to offer expertise but to restore the confidence of the population. Everyone thought the problem had been solved but two days later a hydrogen bubble was discovered in the top of the containment building and there had been a small explosion but the containment building held. Apparently the containment building in Japan did not. It was determined that the hydrogen bubble was not a threat. By the way, it was an explosion of a hydrogen bubble that destroyed the Russian power plant at Chernobyl but the Russians did not use containment buildings over their reactors. The core had been damaged in reactor # 2 making it useless. During the crises, reactor # 1 had been shut down also. Reactor # 1 was not restarted until 1985 and reactor # 2 was sealed. Since this emergency the building of not one nuclear power plant has begun in the United States. There have been reports that those that stayed those few days after the initial accident have an increased incidence of leukemia and other cancers but it is not a proven statistic. There was one of the plant operators that put on a safe suit and went into the floor of the containment building where the water was about 18 inches deep trying to find out what the problem was. He had with him a flask of test water that began to effervesce like carbonated water very soon after he arrived. He saw this and got the hell out of there, and I don’t blame him. A lot of lessons were learned during this experience. That is the only upside I can find to this whole scenario.

.

1776 On this date Juan Bautista de Anza founded the city of San Francisco and has with him 247 settlers. Anza was born in Mexico and is the equivalent of Lewis and Clark, Kit Carson and John Colter when it comes to exploration. It was Anza that explored northwest out of Mexico City and discovered most of what is now the resort area of the west coast of Mexico. He blazed a trail all the way to northern California and established trading posts and helped locate several Spanish missions along the way. In spite of Spanish ships sailing up and down the west coast of North America for 200 years, they had never discovered San Francisco Bay and neither had the Russians. It took Anza’s exploration by land to discover it. This area remained under Spanish control until the Mexicans kicked them out and under Mexican control until they lost the Mexican War in 1848 to the United States.

Born today:

1868 Russian writer Maxim Gorky. He said “A man may be stupid and still be good. But a bad man needs brains.” Believe what you want, but Hitler was brilliant.

1890 US bandleader Paul Whiteman. He said “Jazz came to America 300 years ago in chains.” So did okra, the banjo and Gullah.

1942 English politician Neil Kinnock. He said “You cannot make one wit out of two half wits.” I know lots of them.

Died today:

1941 English writer Virginia Wolfe. She said “I have lost friends because of death and others for no other reason than the inability to cross a street.” I hope I never reach that point.

1957 US writer Christopher Morley. He said “A critic is a gong at a railroad crossing clanging wildly while the train passes by.” I cannot relate to this, y’all. Critique me all you want, I am very happy with me.

1958 US song writer W.C. Handy. He said “You never can tell what’s on a woman’s mind, and if she is from Harlem there’s no use trying.” Add Greenville, SC to that, W.C.

1984 US educator Benjamin Mays. He said “Isn’t it a calamity that we died with unfulfilled dreams, but it is even a bigger calamity not to dream.” Ben was a wise individual.

Quotable quotes:

“I think the reason men like women in leather outfits so much is they smell like a new car.”

George Fara

“She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.”

Raymond Chandler

“Start every day with a smile and then get over it.”

W.C. Fields

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

2011-03-22T16:15:00.000-04:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

When asked about Osama Bin Ladin he said “Osama is either alive and well, alive and not too well, or not alive.”

Donald Rumsfeld

Donald, you are a dumb ass.

About a year ago Rodell Vereen from Longs, South Carolina was caught in the act of having sex with one of the horses in the Lazy B stable owned by Barbara Kelsey. Barbara suspected that something was afoot and had a surveillance camera installed. On one occasion she saw something going on in the stable and Barbara step out from hiding with a shotgun and held Rodell (who was mounted on one of her horses) at bay until cops arrived. Rodell got 16 months in the joint for this crime. He was released on parole two days ago. All of y'all with good looking horses beware. There was no mention as to whether the sex was consensual or not. It is suspected that the horse was an Arabian mare with very shapely hindquarters and a promiscuous attitude.

A few days ago a 73 year old man down in Clinton, SC finished fabricating a home made single place airplane. He did a taxi test a few times to see if all the engine controls worked. Finally he decided to make a short test flight to see if the flight controls worked. His 68 year old wife was close by and took movies of the take-off from one of his pastures which was successful. After reaching about 50 feet in the air one of the wings clipped a small tree and the plane crashed to the ground. His wife ran to the wreck and found her husband face down in the wreckage unconscious and pulled him free. The EMS crew arrived on site and hurried the pilot to the hospital but it was too late, he died. His wife stated that the engine was running perfectly right up to the point of the crash. The pilot was experienced so there is no telling what caused that misjudgment. What a shame, a man dies fulfilling his life's dream.

A few days ago I told y'all about a young woman that chastised me about the Confederate battle flag being displayed on the South Carolina state capitol grounds in Columbia and explained why this, and many other events in the history of our great nation, should not be belittled. This lady was from Vermont. I could not help myself but to ask her if she knew the history of Vermont and she admitted that she did not so I gave her an ad hoc history lesson. Very briefly here it is. From the very beginning of the states in New England what is now Vermont was considered part of New York. It was not uncommon for real estate salesmen in New York to sell parcels of land in Vermont as being part of New York. The people of Vermont became very agitated at this and on more than one occasion tried to “secede” from the United States. They sent messages to King George III of England requesting to be admitted as being part of Canada so they could have independence from New York. Eventually that portion of the United States known as Vermont was declared as being a separate and independent state from New York and part of the United States independently. Those hardheads from what is now Vermont are still known to this day as rock-ribbed independent people. This means that it was not South Carolina that was the first state that wanted to secede from the Union, it was Vermont, so help me Stonewall Jackson.

This date in history March 22

1820 On this date one of America’s greatest naval heroes is shot in a duel with a man named James Barron. Stephen Decatur succumbs to his wounds that next day. Barron, also shot, survived his wounds. Stephen Decatur was born in 1769 in Maryland to a naval family. In 1789 he joined the American navy he went through the familiar naval training and was assigned as a midshipman of the new frigate, United States. The fledgling United States merchant navy was being preyed upon by pirates sailing out of the North African port of Tripoli on the north coast of Africa because they knew that the United States did not have a viable military navy such as Great Britain that could provide retribution. One of the United State’s newest warships, the Philadelphia, had been forced aground near Tripoli by the pirates. US President Thomas Jefferson tasked the navy with dealing with this situation because he did not want such a ship to fall into the hands of the pirates nor to allow them to use the American design of the ship to build one of their own. So the navy sent Stephen Decatur and 12 others to Tripoli disguised as Maltese fishermen. They sailed their small fishing smack into Tripoli harbor, overcame the guards on the Philadelphia and burned that puppy down to the waterline. English naval hero Horatio Nelson called this feat as “one of the most daring of the age.” Finally the United States navy gained enough armaments and manpower and sailed into each of the North African ports that had been giving them shit and sent in the recently chartered United States Marines. The Marines went in and kicked ass and took names and threatened each country with continued slaughter if they did not sign a peace agreement. It is from this action that in the Marine Corps Hymn the line “from the shores of Tripoli” arose. Anyway, the trouble with James Barron began when Barron was less that resistant to a British capture of a ship under his command. Barron was brought before a court martial board of which Stephan Decatur was a member. Barron was convicted of dereliction of duty and was kicked out of the US Navy for a period of five years. At the end of the five years, the United States was again at war with Great Britain in the War of 1812 and Barron chose to stay in Europe until the war was over. When he then tried to re-join the United States navy, Stephan Decatur opposed it and Barron was not accepted. Well, Barron felt now it was matter of honor and challenged Decatur to a duel. Duels were frowned upon except for the United States Navy. The challenge was accepted on this date the duel was consummated in Bladensburg, Maryland. Barron was finally reinstated into the US Navy in 1821.

1984 Earlier the most blatant display of public hysteria and miscarriage of justice ever seen began. Seven teachers at the McMartin Pre-School in Manhattan Beach, California are brought under siege by a yuppie soccer Mom who claimed that her 2 ½ year old toddler had been sexually molested at the school. The policed are brought in and they begin a comedy of stupid acts that results in the destruction several people’s reputations. After hearing the Soccer Mom they sent out 200 form letters to the parents of all the little kiddies that attended the school telling them about the charge and that the suspected culprit was on of the owner’s son, Ray Buckey. As you might suspect, the parents went apeshit and immediately withdrew their children and initiated lawsuits against the school and Ray Buckey in particular. Let’s recap at this point. As a result of zero credible information and the sheer stupidity of the police, a legitimate and honest business is destroyed and the eight employees are on the street. That ain’t all. On this date, seven employees including owners Ray Buckey and his mother are indicted after the Grand Jury interviews 18 of the toddlers. Then a wacko outfit is brought in called Children Information International. These jackasses spread panic across the United States by saying that nearly all juvenile daycare centers had instances of sexual abuse. The parents of the little kiddies nationwide acted as you might suspect, with hysteria. Finally, credible child psychologists were called in and convinced the courts that a child in the toddler range can and will tell you what he thinks you want to hear. As incredible as it sounds one child testified that Ray Buckey took him to a cemetery and they dug up bodies and cut them open. In the meantime the McMartin School was burned to the ground by an arsonist. Eventually, American parents came to their senses and the hysteria abated but not before a lot of damage was done. It took years for day care and pre-schools to regain credibility.

1908 On this date Louis L’Amour is born in Jamestown, North Dakota. Louis was not much of a student and at the age of 15 he left home to seek his fortune. At various times he was a cowboy, seaman, longshoreman, boxer, miner and fruit picker. During World War II he ended up an officer in the American tank corps. After the war he tried his hand at writing and was soon recognized for his compact and hard-hitting style. He wrote several novels that were moderately successful but he hit a home run with the novel “Hondo” that became the basis of a John Wayne movie. A little later he wrote the novel and screen wrote another hit in “How the West Was Won.” After these blockbusters his career was assured. He wrote a series of novels about three different pioneer families in the early west in “The Sacketts”, “The Chantrys and “The Talons”. For his contribution to the learning and lore of the American west he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1983. Louis went to that that great cattle ranch in the sky in 1988. I miss him.

Born today:

1930 US educator Derek Bok is born: He said “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” He is right. Mick Jagger has a degree in economics and look at him.

1930 US evangelical Pat Robertson. “During my Presidential bid I stated that I would only bring in Christians and Jews into my cabinet. This created a firestorm in the press and they asked “Do you mean that atheists, Hindus and Moslems are not any good at governing?” and I said “Yes, I do.” I normally am not enamored with his obvious prejudices and he did not disappoint this time either.

Died today:

1930 German philosopher Johann Goethe. He said “If everyone grew up to be what their parents think of them as children, we would all be geniuses.” Ah yes, I remember it well.

Thanks form listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

2011-03-18T15:49:00.001-04:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Diana Ross does not think of herself as a Supreme, she thinks she is supreme. On the census form where it says birthplace she wrote “manger”.

Joan Rivers

A few days ago a Greenville cop stopped a car for running a stop sign. The driver said that he did not have a license so the cop got him out and had him put his hands on the side of the cruiser and he began a search of the driver's car. He did not find anything but a few weed-like leaves on the floorboard but the driver began a loud and frequent barrage of abusive language so he was handcuffed and taken to jail. As is normal, the driver was strip searched and what their wondering eyes should appear, but a zip lock bag of crack in the crack. He is in the joint sans the dope. It is just as well, that dope can be a pain in the butt anyway.

I want to confess right now that I made a mistake voting for Nikki Haley for Governor of South Carolina. I thought she was different that the typical politician, I was wrong. This broad kicked off the board of directors a woman that has contributed enough money to the University of South Carolina that there is a wing named after her. She replaced her with a man that was a major contributor to her campaign fund. Politicians are all the same, gender apparently does not matter.

This week an 18 year old boy received an multimillion dollar judgment from Duke Energy. Back in 2006 a car the boy was riding in struck a power pole during driving rainstorm. The power pole and all the wiring fell to the ground. Included in the wiring was a 7,200 volt line. The people in the car were not hurt but the 7,200 volt line was still active. The boy got out of the car and stepped on the line and was immediately fried and set on fire. He has since been through a long series of skin grafts and has suffered brain damage. I found out something I did not know before and that is if a high tension power line falls to the ground it is supposed to automatically shut down, this one didn't and it cost Duke a lot of money and a young boy a lot of misery. Duke was actually sued for not having sufficient safety equipment in place, lets hope they stay safe from now on.

This date in history March 17

1776 On this date the hated 8 year occupation of Boston by the British ended. Thanks to Colonel Benedict Arnold, General Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, General Henry Knox, General John Thomas and hundred of dedicated Continental soldiers and workmen all commanded by General George Washington. It all began a few months earlier when a small Regiment of Continental Soldiers led by Colonel Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen made a surprise attack on the British encampment at Fort Ticonderoga on the northern end of Lake Champlain and captured the entire British garrison while firing only one shot. General Arnold woke them up and demanded their surrender or annihilation. They surrendered. After the Fort was evacuated, General Henry Knox was tasked by Washington to bring the 20 or so cannon in Fort Ticonderoga to Boston 300 miles away and do it without the British discovering it. Knox muffled the wheels of the caissons and did indeed cover the 300 miles undetected. Washington then tasked General John Thomas to take the cannon to the crest of Dorchester Heights, the highest ground in the vicinity of Boston and again, do it undetected. Thomas set out on his mission with 800 soldiers and 1,000 laborers. What roads there were to the crest were essentially cow paths meaning that Thomas and his crew had to hack their way to the top. They were discovered when they had about half finished and General William Howe, the British commander in Boston, ordered the British warships in Boston Harbor to bombard the Continental position on Dorchester Heights. But guess what happened. A two day rainstorm engulfed Boston and the warships could not fire at an unseen target. Thomas was able to finish the placement of the cannon and General Howe knew his position was untenable. Two days later, Howe and 11,000 British troops boarded their ships and sailed their young asses up to Nova Scotia to cheers of the elated Bostonians.

1863 Since the beginning of the Civil War, the Union cavalry had its ass kicked by the much more skilled Confederate cavalry. The Southern cavalry was made up of men from the agrarian sector and were all good horsemen. They also had better field commanders such as General J.E.B. Stuart, Colonel Fitzhugh Lee, General Wade Hampton III, John S. Moseley and last but not least, Nathan Bedford Forrest among others. A few days before, one of the parade of Generals commanding the Union Army of the Potomac, General Joseph Hooker got fed up with the Confederate dominance of the cavalry and sent US Colonel William Averill and a select unit of cavalrymen to attack a known cavalry position near the Culpepper Court House, Virginia. Averill arrived on this date and was met by a squad of 60 Confederate sharpshooters. After repeated attacks, Averill was able to overwhelm the rifle pits. After this, Confederate cavalry leader Fitzhugh Lee arrived on the scene and was commanded by his father General Robert E. Lee to immediately attack these smart ass Yankees. Fitzhugh Lee attacked twice and was repulsed each time. Soon after, CSA General J.E.B. Stuart arrived on the scene. Averill seeing Stuart arrive began a withdrawal thinking that Stuart had his powerful cavalry behind him. The truth was that Stuart and artillery commander Colonel John Pelham had just came over to observe. The downside of this was that Colonel John Pelham, by far the finest artillery commander in the Confederacy, was killed by a piece of shrapnel. This battle was fought near a place called Kelly’s Ford. Somehow the Union considered this draw a victory because they did not get their ass kicked by the Confederate cavalry.

1804 Two months before the Lewis and Clark left on their immortal expedition James Bridger was born in Richmond, Virginia. Jim became one of the most important explorers of the American west in its history. He was the original “Mountain Man”. Little is known of Jim’s childhood but it is known the he and his family moved to Saint Louis, Missouri in 1818. Jim honed his skill by exploring the area around Saint Louis and followed the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition. When Jim was 18 years old he found out about an enterprise named the Ashley-Henry Fur Company. Their idea was to head west and trade with the Indian for furs, especially beaver and mink. The first person hired was Jim Bridger. Jim was successful in trading with the Indians, even the fierce and protective Blackfoot that gave Lewis and Clark so much trouble. He was successful in building the first fur trading post on the Yellowstone River. It is acknowledged that he was the first Anglo to lay eyes of the Great Salt Lake even though he thought it was the Pacific Ocean. He had an enormous recall of geographic detail that saved his ass more than once. He operated as an independent trapper for several years. He grew tired of the nomadic life and decided that there was enough traffic on the Oregon Trail to warrant a trading post so he married a Flathead woman named Cora and founded and build Fort Bridger in the Green River section of southern Wyoming. His fort became a regular stop for the pioneers headed west. He and Cora had three children and it looked like an idealistic life for Jim, but it was not to be. Cora died, one of his daughters was killed by the Blackfoot and the third died of jaundice. After these episodes Jim would retreat into the mountains and trap, living with different Indian tribes. In 1853, Jim married a Shoshone woman he named Mary, and lived at the Fort in the summer and with the Shoshone in the winter. The Mormons in the area became jealous of Jim’s success and tried to have him arrested. But Jim and Mary escaped into the mountains along with their three children. The Mormons burned and gutted his fort and destroyed his supplies. The Mormons are not as benevolent as they would want you to believe. He was worried how to feed his family and bought a farm near Westport, Missouri and left his family there during his western adventures. In 1858 he sold his fort and made his living as a guide to the pioneers and as a scout to the US cavalry. In 1868 he retired to his farm in Westport and tended his apple orchard. With his eyesight failing and rheumatism rampant, he died July 13, 1881 at the age of 76 in Westport. What a contribution this man made to the expansion of these United States.

Born today:

1829 US writer Jean Ingelow. She said “I have lived long enough to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered.” Me too.

1941 President of the Orlando Magic NBA team Pat Williams. He said about former star Charles Barkley “He is so fat his bathtub has stretch marks.” Charles claims he will eventually run for the governor of his native state of Alabama. Come on Charles, face reality.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Daily history

2011-03-18T15:44:00.000-04:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“When I went to college I found out that if it squirms, is it biology; if it stinks, it is chemistry; if it doesn't work, it is physics; if you can't understand it, it is mathematics.”

Magnus Pyke

I recently found out that a treasured friend of mine has a physical condition that is very serious. He does not want anyone to know about it because he does not want a bunch of sympathy calls and people worrying about him. I understand that train of thought and will honor his desires. In my mind's eye I see him attending my funeral, not vice versa. Get well my friend.

It does not look good for that area of northeast Japan. They still do not have a handle on those four nuclear reactor buildings, three of which have experienced explosions. The United States has finally realized that the worldwide pattern of the jet stream is and has always been from west to east. This means that if enough of the dust from those out of control reactors could reach America aboard the jet stream and contaminate the west coast if not all of North America. There have been radiation detectors deployed in Hawaii, Guam, Alaska, western Canada and the west coast of America. I will be very interested in the increase (if any) of lung cancer and/or pancreatic cancer in the next year in the previously mentioned areas. This is what would happen in the event of a nuclear war except that the cancers would be way more frequent and severe because weapons grade plutonium, uranium, americium, curium, etc. are much more virulent than those fuels used in nuclear power plants. Keep in mind that our enemies are actively seeking possession of weapons grade nuclear weapons. They would not need tritium (trigger) to light it off, all they would need is about 30 pounds of the weapons grade material and wrap several sticks of powerful explosives like TNT or C4 around the package and blow it into dust in the middle of a large American city like Chicago. Millions would die in a matter of weeks and millions more that lived downwind. This had been called a “Scorpion in a bottle”...indeed.

I defy anyone to surf the channels on TV in the next few weeks and not find a basketball game. That's right, it is March Madness meaning the frenzy to find a NCAA basketball champion for this season through a series of tournaments nationwide. I personally think it will end up being the Kansas Jayhawks or the Duke Blue Devils. We shall see.

That great electronics God in the sky has chosen to frown upon me in the last couple of days. I normally have two laptops working. One is for my “creative” writing and the other is for personal and business communications. The one that I use for creative writing decided to power down and will not re-ignite. I press the “power on” button and the power on lights come on for about 6 seconds and then powers down. On top of that, my cell phone (the only phone of any kind that I have) decided to fall apart and will not cooperate in reassembly. So I am now saddled with only one laptop and a trip to Verizon yesterday provided me with a replacement for my four year old cell phone. It has the same features as my old phone but it has bigger and more readable letter/digits. Time marches on.

This date in history March 18

1864 Abraham Lincoln was fed up with his wounded soldiers being disabled permanently or for extended periods simply because of the septic conditions at the treatment and convalescent areas. So on this date he decides to do something about it. He did the best possible thing in organizing a “Sanitary Commission” to oversee the treatment of the wounded soldiers. He gave the responsibility for forming this Commission to a few dependable men and in a moment of clarity, they hired a bunch of really hard-assed women nurses and gave them some authority and sent them into the field. Much to the chagrin of the field combat doctors, these nurses would show up almost immediately after a battle and oversee the treatment of the wounded and the sanitation of the operating and convalescent areas. On one occasion after the battle of Chattanooga, the nurses ordered the disassembly of the wooden embrasures that the Union soldiers were hiding behind to be used as fuel for fires to keep the wounded warm. But the “commission” did do one thing; they vastly decreased the time of recovery of the wounded and got the wounded back in the field much sooner.

1950 On this date the Nationalist Chinese army led by General Chaing-Kai-Shek and under the auspices of the United States, begins an assault on mainland China. Chaing and the Nationalist Chinese had been living on the island of Formosa since being kicked out of mainland China by the Chinese Communists led by the legendary Mao Zedong and his party named the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The battle does not last long and the Nationalist Chinese and Chaing beat a hasty retreat back to Formosa. Chaing thought that the people of China would rise up against the Communists if they found that he was in country. It didn’t happen, Chaing always has been known for his overblown ego so he and his army retreat back to Formosa and there they remain until this day, except for Chaing, he has gone on to that great Sushi Bar in the sky.

1937 In the East Texas oil and Gas field near the town of New London there were about 10,000 oil and gas derricks, in fact there were 11 derricks on the grounds of the Consolidated Elementary School. It was not uncommon for the homes around New London to use the waste gas from the oil wells that is called “wet-gas”. Wet gas is a lot more unstable than regular natural gas from a strictly natural gas well. If ya’ll have ever seen oil derricks in operation you probably have seen a long pipe with fire coming out the end. That is “wet-gas” being burned off because it is so unstable. But in 1937 the instability of wet gas was not known. The Consolidated Elementary School had been using regular natural gas for cooking and heating and bought their gas from Union Natural Gas at the cost of $300 a month. The school decided to use “wet-gas” for free and save that $300. So Parade Gas Company began piping their waste gas to the school. On this date at 3:05P with the 694 students and 40 teachers eagerly awaiting the final bell at 3:15P, a horrendous explosion literally blows the roof off the school and kills 300 kids instantly. There were so many wounded that they had to be taken to four hospitals in the surrounding communities. The spark that set off the explosion was never determined but it could have been just static electricity, we will never know. But because of this disaster, wet gas is not allowed to leave a well site and thus the pipe with the flame.

1834 On this date six farm laborers from England are sentenced to 7 years of exile in the province of New South Wales, Australia. Their crime was after losing money for three years in a row, they organized a farm workers union called the Friendly Agricultural Laborers. The Union grew by leaps and bounds and the laborers agreed to not take less than 10 Shillings a week for their services. Parliament wanted a stop put to this but was hard pressed to find a law that these six founders had broken. So they chose to accuse them of taking an illegal oath. This law was meant for sailors in the Royal Navy to help head off mutinies. I am telling you; those in Parliament were desperate to stop the independence of farm workers. Anyway, two years after these six arrived at New South Wales, the English ministers of justice stepped in and put a stop to this outrage and set aside the sentences and they were released. Only one of them returned to England, the rest immigrated to Canada, and I don’t blame them.

1765 In this year Parliament had passed the hated Stamp Act which put a tax on nearly each and every piece of printed material coming into the American colonies. Parliament was trying to raise funds to help pay for the presence of the English military in the colonies. The instant the colonists heard about this, they raised almighty hell almost continuously. They boycotted anything coming from England and gave the English military a huge ration of shit. The colonies sent Benjamin Franklin over to London to plead their case. Ben did his usual good job speaking to Parliament and in this year the Stamp Act was nullified. However, soon thereafter Parliament passed the Declaratory Act. This abomination stated that Parliament had final legislative authority over the colonies. This was just a little more fuel to the fire that erupted into open warfare on the plains of Breeds (Bunker) Hill, Massachusetts ten years later.

Born today:

1837 US President Grover Cleveland. He said “No man has ever been hanged for breaking the spirit of the law.”

1901 Canadian writer Manly Hall. He said “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed on this world.” Hey Manly, does this include Hillary?

1932 US writer John Updike. He said “A healthy adult male bore consumes in one year one and a half times his weight in people’s patience.” Do any of ya’ll know of such a person?

Died today:

1871 English mathematician Augustus de Morgan. When asked his age he said “I was x years old in the year x^2.” Gus, you are such a smart ass.

1980 US psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. He said “Man thinks that he loses something—time—if he does not do things swiftly and then he does not know what to do with the time he saved...except kill it.” Hey Erich, see my comment above.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

2011-03-16T09:40:00.000-04:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

When reviewing The Sex Pistols, critic Joe Strummer said: “They would not recognize the Antichrist if he hit them in the face with a sardine.”

At one point in my life while I was in the Air Force I was chosen to teach a class on “Surviving a Nuclear Attack”. After reading the supplied material I determined that I am not sure that I want to survive a nuclear attack. The “half-life” of U-235 Uranium or weapons grade Plutonium is several lifetimes. “Half-life” is the time it takes for the radioactive material to decrease in toxicity by one half. In case of full scale retaliatory strikes world wide, the atmosphere would be so toxic that it would be unbreathable for centuries. If the minutest amount of the dust is ingested through the mouth or nose it is curtains, sooner or later. That is a possibility in Japan. At the most severely damaged nuclear power plant in Japan that has four reactors, three have experienced explosions and the leakage of radioactive material. The difference is that the fuel used in nuclear power plants are a lot less toxic that weapons grade Uranium or Plutonium. There is a scale used to quantify the severity of a nuclear accident and leakage into the ground water or atmosphere. Three Mile Island was rated a number 3, Chernobyl was rank a number 7 (the most severe ranking). The accident in Japan is a number 6. This means that the area around those reactors will be uninhabitable for at least 30 years for a radius of at least 20 miles. After the Chernobyl explosion and resulting fire, the building was so radioactive that there were no safety suits available that would protect the firemen enough to save their lives but the fire had to be extinguished. The Ukrainian officials told any volunteer firemen that went into that inferno that they would surely die from radiation poisoning but their families would receive unlimited care for the rest of their lives. Enough firemen volunteered and the fire was indeed extinguished. Three weeks later all the volunteer firemen were dead. That, my friends, is grace under fire.

Up in Sharon, SC a 53 year woman did not show up for work and her fellow workers sent someone to her house that she shared with her 47 year old boyfriend for seven years. The doors were locked and no one answered their yells and knocks so they forced their way in. They found both of them sitting on the couch dead as fried chicken with a bullet to the brain. The cops determined that the man capped the woman and turned the weapon on himself. How can things get so bad that a murder/suicide appears to be the only answer? My philosophy is that life is a smorgasbord, try to take a little taste of it all.

I will be going to the local kick-ass jazz club tonight for good music. They also serve kick-ass fine dining food. Both the food and the music will be a real treat. A good friend of mine will be playing trumpet and singing and then she is having minor surgery on Friday that will put her out of circulation for a few weeks but she says it will be worth it.

This date in history March 16

1751 On this date future president James Madison is born on a Virginia plantation. James led a privileged childhood and attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) and graduated after only two years. After college in 1771 Madison returned home very ill and it took him until 1776 to sufficiently recover to return to politics where he became a member of the Virginia legislature. James was a drafter of the United States Constitution and was a chronicler of the Constitutional Convention. His notes of the Convention are the most accurate of any records of that immortal meeting. But Madison forbade any of his notes to be made public until all those in attendance had died. It was he, John Jay and Thomas Jefferson that authored The Federalist Papers which foster the idea of a larger government being better capable of the protection of individual rights. The most important of these was Federalist Paper no. 10 authored by Madison alone. James married Dolley Payne Todd who proved to be one of the finest hosts in Washington of all time. While James Madison was Secretary of State under the widowed Thomas Jefferson, it was Dolley that arranged and hosted the White House frivolities in behalf of Jefferson. After resigning from public office he became rector for Thomas Jefferson’s beloved University of Virginia. Later on he became the president of Virginia State Teachers College at Harrisonburg. The college eventually became James Madison University. Madison was yet another man that showed up at the right place in the right time in history with the right skills and determination to contribute to the success of this great experiment in freedom known as the United States of America. We need many more men/women of this caliber.

1985 On this date Associated Press Beirut bureau chief is kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon. American journalist Terry Anderson was leaving his hotel when he was whisked into a waiting car, blindfolded and taken to the basement of a destroyed house in southern Beirut where other western journalists were being held. Terry stayed in different houses in Beirut until November 2, 1991 when he was released by his Hezbollah captors, meaning 2,455 days wearing a blindfold the whole time. No one to this day knows to what end these journalists were captured. What the hell did Hezbollah want from these journalists and/or their employers? Israel and the other free nations are supposed to negotiate with these jackasses. Negotiate what? There never really said what they wanted in exchange for the journalists. By the way, Terry was one of a very few that got away from these hyenas. The greatest majority were assumed killed and were never seen again. After being released Anderson sued Iran and received several million dollars in recompense. In 2002 wrote a book about his captivity named “Den of Lions.” He ran for Senator from Ohio but was defeated.

1881 On this date on of the most famous gigolos in Los Angeles, California is found shot to death through the right eye. Francisco “Chico” Forster was the most eligible bachelor in the Los Angeles area when he happened into the pool hall owned by Jose Abarta. Jose’s daughter Lastania was singing there. Chico was smitten by this raven haired Latino beauty and began to pay her much attention. On March 14 Lastania was invited to sing at a party given in honor of the outgoing Governor of California, Pio Pico the last Mexican Governor of California. Chico’s father had just tricked a huge chunk of land near San Diego from the unfortunate Pio. In one of her songs, Lastania made fun of Pio and the stupid land deal he made with Chico’s father. Bad feelings began to surface so Chico and Lastania left and went to a fancy hotel. As men will do on occasion, Chico told Lastania that he would marry her if she would have sex with him. Lastania agreed. Afterward Chico left saying he was going to get a ring and a Padre to marry them. As you might guess, he never showed up again. So Lastania and her sister hit the road looking for Chico. They find him at the horse track and gathered his young ass up, put him in a carriage and the three head for a preacher. At one point Chico jumps out of the carriage and begins walking away. Lastania is right behind and tells him to stop because she has a gun. Chico turns around and sure enough, she has a revolver pointed at this head. Chico says “You aren’t going to shoot.......“ Lastania put a .38 caliber bullet through Chico’s right eye killing him instantly. At the trial, Lastania’s lawyer was able to convince the jury that Lastania was in “her time of the month” and as everyone knows, a woman’s blood flow is disrupted during this time and the blood in Lastania’s brain was clogged and she wasn’t thinking clearly. The jury bought it and Lastania was released and immediately disappeared. All you guys out there keep this in mind if some women promises marriage if you will sleep with them, and if betrayed, you cannot shoot them and use a defense of it was my “time of the month”.

1903 One of the most colorful characters in the history of the American west dies. It was Judge Roy Bean of Langtry, Texas. He was the self proclaimed “Law West of the Pecos.” Bean was born somewhere in Kentucky in the 1820’s. In 1847 he and his brother Sam left home and went to Mexico and lived a rogue’s life until he got into an argument with another man and ended up killing him. This forced Bean out of Mexico and he ended up in San Diego. As usual, Bean got into a fight in a bar and ended up killing anther man so he had to skedaddle out of there and ended up in Los Angeles. He got into a fight with a Mexican General over a woman and shot and killed the General. The General had a lot of friends and they took Bean to the closest tree and strung him up. The woman who he had the fight over ran to his rescue and cut him down in the nick of time. He carried the scars from that rope for the rest of his life. Bean decided that California just ain’t the place to be and he moved out into the wilds of New Mexico and Texas. For about 16 years he was a prosperous and legitimate business man in San Antonio. In 1882 he moved to southwest Texas and built his famous bar “Jersey Lilly”. Eventually he founded the town of Langtry, Texas named after the actress Lilly Langtry as was his bar. Bean became a justice of the peace in Langtry and was famous for dispensing justice using common sense rather that the letter of the law. He once fined a dead man for carrying a concealed weapon. But on the down side when a man shot a Chinese rail worker, Bean let him go saying that he could find no law against shooting a Chinaman. Bean fell ill and died in November of 1903, just 10 months before the real Lilly Langtry came by for a visit to his famous saloon.

Born today:

1751 American President James Madison. He said “The truth is that all men of power should be mistrusted.” Right on, James. I learned my lesson with Richard Nixon.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

2011-03-14T23:55:00.000-04:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

Comedian Chris Rock talking to his black brothers on how to avoid an ass-kicking. “When you see a blue light flashing in your rear view mirror, stop immediately and do not run. If the cops have to come after you, you can be assured that they will bring an ass-kicking with them.”

In the previous lesson I said that Mother Nature evidently was disappointed in us and since the Indonesian earthquake/tsunami in 2004 we have suffered a horrendous volcano eruption in Iceland, 2 earthquake/tsunamis in Chile' and the worst earthquake/tsunami in Japanese recorded history. For some reason I left out the Haiti disaster. I do not know if global warming has disturbed the earth's crust or not but if it has I can assure you the Al Gore will claim victory in his predictions. What a moron.

Some of y'all may have read this but down on New Orleans someone had rented a bar down in the French Quarter for a teenager party. While the party was underway, someone walked by and fired and automatic weapon into the crowd injuring 5 and killing 1. The kids in the bar were from 15 to 18 years old. I have searched my mind and I cannot rationalize why someone would rent a bar in the French Quarter to have a party for kids that young. People that frequent that area of the world are not Franciscan priests, they are very, very rough and ruthless. The organizer of the party needs a no anesthesia castration or tubal ligation.

I found out yesterday that that ancient rock star “Prince” (or that rock star previously known at Prince) is coming to Greenville to do a concert. It has stirred up quite a stir with middle aged women. That is because Prince was popular when they were in high school. All of my men friends say “Who?” when I mention Prince. But they sigh when I mention Raquel Welch. It is a case of priorities, I suppose.

This date in history March 15

1783 Previously the United States Congress had received word that a group of officers in the Continental Army had planned a secret meeting in the Newburgh, New York area to plan a revolt or mutiny, if you will, because Congress had failed to pay them and provide them with a clothing and food allowance that had been previously promised. On this date, George Washington shows up at the meeting of the officers. As you might suspect, you could hear a pin drop as Washington walked up to the rostrum. He read them the riot act and called the meeting illegal and nonmilitary. He then pulled out a letter that Congress had sent him about the meeting. With his hands slightly shaking he reached in his coat pocket and retrieved a pair of spectacles and before he put them on he said “I am shaking because I have grown old in the service of my country, and now it appears that I will go blind.” At this there was not a dry eye in the house because they realized what a tremendous contribution this great man had made for his country and they felt very small for what they were contemplating. Anyway, the officers withdrew any threat to Congress and rededicated themselves to the service of their country. We all need to contemplate this.

44BC On this date, the Ides of March, Julius Caesar is murdered in the Roman Senate by 60 Senators. Leading the attack was Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, better known as Brutus and Cassius. After Caesar was struck in the neck with a sword, the rest of the Senators fell upon him and made a contribution with a stab of their own. Because of the contribution that Caesar had made to Rome with his organizational skills and military expertise, he was named dictator for life. Well, come to find out that even this much power is too much for one man and the Senate agreed that they had to cap Caesar. It is legend that his last words were “et to Brute” meaning “You to Brutus?” Brutus and Caesar had been life long friends and I suppose Caesar could not believe that Brutus would be part of this conspiracy. As the saying goes “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

1831 On this date Edward R. Perry is born in Richmond, Massachusetts and is educated at Lee Academy and at Yale. In 1852 he moved to Georgia to teach school and study law. After a trip to Alabama he decided to settle in Pensacola, Florida to practice law. At the outbreak of the Civil War he offered his services to the Confederacy and became a member of the Pensacola Rifle Rangers. This unit was absorbed into the 2nd Florida Regiment which played and important role in several battles later on. His unit was involved in the Peninsular Campaign and especially the Battle of the Seven Days. The commander of his unit was killed at the Battle of Williamsburg and Perry assumed command and was promoted to Brigadier General and was given command of two other regiments. A few months later his unit was involved in the Battle of Antietam and suffered heavy losses. He came down with typhoid fever and he missed Gettysburg where his unit suffered heavy losses once again. He was able to rejoin his unit just in time for the Battle of the Wilderness where he was seriously wounded. This wound forced him to surrender command of his unit and he spent the rest of the war recruiting in Alabama. He served as Governor of Florida from 1884 to 1888. With his health failing he moved to a drier climate in Kerrville, Texas in 1889 where he died from a stroke in October of that year. He is buried in the cemetery of Saint John’s Church in Pensacola. The city of Perry, Florida is named in his honor.

1767 On this date Andrew Jackson is born in the Waxhaw villages on the North Carolina/South Carolina border. Andy was captured and tortured at the age of 13 by the British during the French and Indian War, an ordeal he never forgot and never cut a British military unit an inch of slack for the rest of his life. He proved it time and time again when he was sent to northern Florida to clear out the British. He did this with much efficiency and a hell of a lot of brutality. He was taken to task for his relentless slaughter of every Briton he found, but he was effective and they finally let him alone. We all know of his triumph at the Battle of New Orleans where he defeated the British assault almost to the point of annihilation. Andy fought many duels and was wounded more than once, but for the most part his opponents suffered far worse. He finally became president and was known for taking walks along the streets of Washington. On one occasion while walking out of the capital building a man ran up to him and whipped out pistol and fired only the pistol misfired. He then pulled out another one and it misfired also. It was then that Andy raised his hickory cane and beat the living s--t out of this guy and probably would have killed him if others had not intervened. It was from this event that he gained the nickname of “Old Hickory”. It was Andy that signed the Removal Act which resulted in the transfer on the greatest majority of the Southern Cherokees to Oklahoma and the infamous “Trail of Tears”. Andy had proven time and again that he was a hater of blacks and Indians. Andy died in 1845 and is buried at his home near Nashville, Tennessee known as “The Hermitage”.

1820 The State of Maine enters the Union. Maine was the other side of the Missouri Compromise. Missouri was allowed into the United States as a slave state if it was guaranteed that Maine would enter the Union as a free state so as to keep the balance of Free states to Slave states.

Born today:

1767 Future President Andrew Jackson. He said “It’s a damned poor mind that think of only one way to spell a word.” Andy was not the most educated man we ever had for a president but he damned sure was the meanest.

1849 English actress Dame Margaret Kendal. When speaking of Sarah Bernhardt she said “She is a great actress from the waist down.” I wonder what she meant by that.

1935 US televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. He said “The media is run by Satan, I wonder how many Christians are aware of that”. When it comes to being a sincere preacher, Jimmy is a good singer/piano player.

1892 English writer Dame Rebecca West. She said “The hatred of doing housework is the natural progression of civilization.” Methinks the good Dame Becky and I are related.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

2011-03-14T13:26:00.000-04:00

Good Morning,

Quote of the day:

“Your just might be a Republican if have ever uttered the phrase 'Why don't we just bomb the sons of bitches!.”
Dennis Miller

I have returned safe and sound from my exploratory expedition. I am not going to tell you where I was but I saw a hell of a lot of short needle pines, Sable pines, Palmetto trees, bayonet plants and wildlife, especially deer and bottle-nosed dolphin. The very thick forests reminded me of what the world must have looked like in the Cretaceous and Terciary periods which formed the petroleum deposits that supplies the worlds oil. Yes, there is and end to the supply. My guide on this expedition was very knowledgable and gracious and will not be forgotten.

I don't know what to say about the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. In a land that has seen hundreds of earthquakes this is the worst one in recorded history. There is no telling how many casualties will eventually be found. The leak at that nuclear power plant will set back nuclear power plant development in the United States for decades. I used to work on the engineering phase of a particular type of nuclear power plant so I know how toxic and deadly they can be if a leak develops. In American designed nuclear power plant it is very unlikely that a leak will develop in the “containment” building but the problem could be if the cooling water is stopped along with the electricity. All of them have auxillary power but cooling water is paramount. I don't know what has caused all of these “acts of God” since the 2004 earthquake in Indonesia but the Earth has suffered an horrendous volcano eruption in Iceland, two earthquake/tsunamis in Chile and now this disaster in Japan. Mother Nature apparently is disapponted in us. Perhaps it is global warming that has an affect on the Earth's crust. If it is, I can assure you that Al Gore will proclaim that in his book and will spread the word on the internet that he invented.

It appears that the NFL Players Association (union) and the NFL owners have reached an impasse. The owners have declared a “lockout” and the Players Association have “decertified”. I do not know exactly what lockout means but being decertified means that the Players Association cannot negotiate for the players collectively and it is each player that is responsible for their own contract. If it comes to that the lawyers will have a field day. The people that seems to be in the know say that the season will start on schedule with minor changes. We shall see.

This is a message to the Scarlett Knight:

If time gets hard, keep moving because that makes you harder to find...Me too.

This date in history March 14

1991 On November 21, 1974 bombs explode in two different Birmingham, England pubs killing 22 and injuring many more. From the forensic evidence the police know the bombs were manufactured by the Irish Republican Army. So the police round up known IRA members and take them in for “interrogation”. The problem with the friction between Northern Ireland and England goes back to the time of King James I of England in about 1604. To dilute the almost constant rebellions by the waspish Irish Catholics, King James took control of five “shires” or counties in Ireland and kicked out the Irish and the Catholic churches in those shires and brought over Scottish Lords and their tenants and Churches of England and repopulated that area with these people and called it Ulster. Later on the Irish gained their independence from England and stayed Catholic, all except Ulster. Ulster being totally Scottish and members of the Church of England (protestant) voted to stay under the umbrella of the King of England. So what you have here is most of the island of Ireland independent Catholics except for a section of the northeast corner being English protestant. That section is known to this day as Northern Ireland, an English protectorate. Over the years the law forbidding Irish to live and own lands in Ulster disappeared and now you have a volatile mix of Irish Catholics and Scottish Protestants living side by side, an even more volatile situation. The Irish in Northern Ireland want the British out and for Northern Ireland to join with the rest of independent Ireland. The British army ain’t leaving because Northern Ireland is an English state and the Protestants want the British army there to protect them. Anyway, after the police gather up the IRA guys who are yelling and screaming the whole time that they are innocent, finally three of the nine that are arrested confess but the other six still maintain their innocence but are put on trial anyway. Using the flimsiest of evidence like residue off their fingertips, they are convicted and sentence to long terms. On this date the so-called Birmingham six are released. Forensic experts had determined that the residue from their fingertips that the prosecution said came from bombs could have come from a cigarette wrapper or a deck of cards. It is my personal belief that the English authorities saw a chance to get some of the IRA off the street and fabricated evidence to get it done. The six stayed in prison for 14 years while being innocent, however. It is bad enough when you have friction between different political factions, but when you throw in a religious issue, there is no end to it. Look at the Sunnis and the Shiites. They have been at each others throats since about 880 AD with no end in sight to the violence.

1862 On this date US General Ambrose Burnside put ashore 12,000 troops about 10 miles south of New Bern, North Carolina and began an assault on the city from the south. The town has about 6,000 Confederate soldiers led by CSA General Lawrence Branch. There were considerable defenses around the city and the attacking Yankees had much difficulty overcoming these embrasures. But the Confederates did not have enough men to adequately defend and were eventually forced to retreat. One bright spot was that Confederate General Zebulon Vance ferried his troops across to an island by boat and then burned the bridge that connected it to the mainland preventing capture of his troops. Zebulon Vance ended up being a Governor of North Carolina.

1776 Alexander Hamilton is promoted to Captain in an artillery unit for the Continental Army in and around New York. His skill attracted the attention of George Washington and he was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel and personal aide to Washington. He served Washington well and was present at the turning of the tide at the Battle of Yorktown. After the war Hamilton became the Secretary of the Treasury. During the campaign for the second term of John Adams, Hamilton backed Adams instead of his party’s nominee, Aaron Burr. Adams won probably because of Hamilton support. Then Burr ran for the Governor of New York and was again opposed by Hamilton. Well, Burr felt this was the final insult and challenged Hamilton to a duel. Duels were against the law in New York so the two went over to Weehawken, New Jersey and dueled. Hamilton was fatally wounded; Burr survived but was no longer a viable political entity in these United States.

1919 Perhaps the most prolific author of western novels of all published his first book, The Untamed. Max Brand cranked out novel after novel but he wasn’t the real thing. Max Brand was one of twenty pen names of Frederick Faust. Faust was born and raised in poverty in the San Joachim Valley of California. He used various pen names because he was not really proud of what he had written. He realized that most of his writings would end up at pulp fiction novels even though he became very wealthy. Faust claimed to hate the American west and lived most of his life in Europe. In his western novels there was a central character named Dan Barry who would essentially run from trouble but if he saw the innocent being wronged, he would jump in and kick ass, a familiar theme. Bad novels or not, it is estimated that he wrote 3 million words in his novels and short stories. He also created the character of Doctor Kildare that later became a TV series. Frederick “Max Brand” Faust went to that great publisher in the sky in 1944. I’ll take Louis L’Amour anytime.

Born today:

1681 German composer Frederick Handel. When asked about his composing of Hallelujah Chorus in his composition The Messiah he said “Whether I was inside my body or outside, only God knows.” That is concentration, ya’ll.

1920 US cartoonist Hank Ketchum. He said “Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don’t swallow it.” Good advice, but few can accept if for long without believing it.

1933 US songwriter Quincy Jones. He said “I don’t deserve to be in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, but a few years ago I got a brain operation, I didn’t deserve that either, so I will accept it.”

1945 British comic Jasper Carrott. He said “I am amazed at radio DJ’s today. I am convinced that AM stands for “Absolute Moron”. I am not going to being to tell you what FM stands for.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Daily history

2011-03-14T12:59:00.000-04:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“You just might be a redneck if you get hot flashes at a cattle auction.”

Jeff Foxworthy

Down in Columbia, SC chiropractor Ronnie Shows has been arrested for sexual misbehavior. It seems that a 23 and 35 year old woman filed a complaint against the good doctor and their reports are identical. They came in for an “adjustment” and Dr. Shows told them to take off all their clothes except for their underwear and put on a surgical gown. He then told them to lie down on the treatment table face up. Then he provided an “adjustment” at a point that was considered inappropriate in the field of chiropractics. I don’t know about that. One of them had a pain in her hip. If you look at an x-ray of your lower torso you will see how close everything is in that area. But the other woman had a pain in her neck…

The mighty University of South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team beat Clemson two out of three games over the last few days. The Gamecocks are ranked number 5 and Clemson is ranked number 10 in the nation. After the games the coach of the Clemson team said that one of his players picked up a Gamecock bat and it felt warm. The coach, Jack Leggett, said that a heated bat was bordering on cheating. Needless to say, that the Gamecock coach, Ray Tanner, hit the roof. He said he was offended that statement stating that his team did not need to cheat. He also said that the heating of bats is not covered in NCAA rulebooks anyway. He emphasized that we here in the Carolinas are fortunate by having temperate weather but bat-warmers in Michigan-Ohio-Wisconsin, etc. colleges are common. College baseball teams in the United States use aluminum bats. I hate poor losers and whiners.

Up in Charlotte, NC a Rottweiler-Pit Bull mix attacked two dogs in their yard and killed one of them and put the other in the hospital. It fled as soon as two adult men approached. The cops found the owner and a judge fined the hell out of her. About an hour later a loose pit bull attacked six dogs in different locations killing three and putting three in the hospital. It is dangerous out there. I heard from a real estate agent that there has been a small increase in families from Wisconsin and Ohio moving into this area. I don’t know what that indicates but something is afoot.

This date in history March 10

1865 On this date Confederate General William Henry Chase Whiting died in a Union prison camp as a result of wounds received earlier. Whiting is one of the most exceptional officers the Confederacy ever had. He was born in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1825 and attended college at Boston College and Georgetown University graduating at the age of 16 at the top of his class. He then entered West Point in 1845 and did not disappoint this time either graduating again at the top of his class. After graduating he joined the Corp of Engineers in helping design coastal defenses. He was assigned to help design the coastal defenses at the mouth of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. It was there in Wilmington that he married and settled down. When the Civil War broke out he offered his services to the Confederacy. He was at Fort Sumter when the Union forces there surrendered. After this he returned to Wilmington and continued to design coastal defenses but was eventually called to Virginia during the formation of the Confederate army and was named as Chief Engineer. It was he who moved the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley to Manassas, Virginia in time for the Battle of 1st Manassas. He was instrumental in the rout of the Union forces in that battle. Whiting was given command of a division and was given praise by all of his superiors during the Battle of the Seven Days. In 1862 he was given command of the District of Wilmington which allowed him to return home. It was due to his efforts with the defenses in the mouth of the Cape Fear River that made Wilmington one of the most important blockade running port of the Confederacy. He remained in Wilmington for the reminder of the war except for a short period when he went to Petersburg, Virginia and helped design defenses there. Finally the Union Army decided that Wilmington had to be captured and sent US General Benjamin Butler to attack the defenses there especially Fort Fisher located in the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Butler was repulsed with heavy losses. The Union then sent General Alfred Terry and an overwhelming force and did indeed overcome Fort Fisher. It was during this second attack that Whiting was wounded and that proved to be a fatal one.

1993 Early on this morning Doctor David Gunn had arrived at the Pensacola Women’s Medical Services (abortion clinic). While still getting out of his car, a brave bastard named Michael Griffin yelled out “Don’t kill anymore babies” and opened fire and shot Gunn in the back three times. Gunn died instantly and Griffin immediately surrendered to the nearby police. The anti-abortion group known as Rescue America called the killing a “necessary evil” in the battle against abortion. While Griffin was in prison he began communicating with a woman named Rachelle Shannon who later stated that Griffin was the bravest and most important man in America. Shannon shows up at an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and opened fire on a doctor but only succeeds in wounding him. Just a short time later a fervent anti-abortionist named Paul Hill shows up on the TV talk show The Phil Donohue Show. This jackass said that both Griffin and Shannon should be acknowledged as heroes. About a year after this, Paul Hill shows up at another abortion clinic in Pensacola and guns down and kills two more abortion doctors. I don’t understand how the anti-abortionists can justify murder as a “necessary evil”. It is clear to me that they are trying to protect those inside the womb but once you are outside you are fair game. What is wrong with this picture?

1864 Earlier there was a man in the rugged mining town of Virginia City, Montana named Jack Slade. Jack was a well respected member of the community while he was sober, but once he had a snoot full, he would turn into the most obnoxious bastard out there. He would laugh real loud, slap people hard on the back and make threats although no one was ever injured. I am sure that those out there with me in the land of song and ale have known of such a person. Anyway, the law enforcement in those early frontier towns was very lacking so the community leader formed what would be called Vigilante Committees and they dispensed justice as they saw fit. The community leaders decided that Virginia City needed to be “cleaned up” and made a place fit to raise children. The first target was the loud and obnoxious drunks and that meant Jack Slade. On this date, the Vigilantes gathered up Jack Slade and hanged him for no other reason than he could not hold his liquor. Well, the word of this atrocity reached the Governor and the nearby military and Vigilantes eventually became a thing of the past. That is what happens when you put the law into the “respectable” citizen’s purview.

1970 On this date US Army Captain Ernest Medina and four other soldiers were charged with war crimes in the massacre of between 300 and 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai in March of 1968. They were also charged with using torture during interrogation of these civilians. Apparently the US army unit led by Lieutenant William Calley had been taking casualties from mines and booby traps and when they got to the village and found no soldiers they took out their frustrations on the villagers. They began the wholesale slaughter of any and every villager in sight, men, women and children. The villagers fled with the soldiers in hot pursuit and the killing would have continued if not for the brave act of a scout helicopter pilot name Warrant officer Hugh Thompson who landed his helicopter between the soldiers and the fleeing villagers and put a stop to it. There was testimony that Lieutenant Calley had ordered the killing and he was tried and convicted of killing 22 civilians. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was paroled after serving three years. War is hell.

Born today:

1946 North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano. He said “I asked the referee if I could get a technical foul for what I was thinking. He said no. So I said “I think you stink” and he gave me a technical. You can’t trust them.”

Died today:

1919 US writer Amelia Barr. She said “Regardless of the scientists if you take the supernatural out of life, all you have left is the unnatural.”

1948 Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She said “No one has ever measured, not even the poets, how much the heart can hold.” Zelda was the last of the true romantics.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

2011-03-08T10:04:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Grace flows like a river through our lives reminding us that there is magic and power beyond what our eyes can see.”

Anonymous

Over in Spartanburg, SC a middle-aged brother and sister were arrested for criminal neglect. The DSS was informed about an elderly man that was being cared for by his son and daughter but he was in serious condition. The DSS officers went to the address and sure enough they found and elderly man covered in bed sores and barely alive from malnutrition. They called for an ambulance and the cops. The cops came and arrested the son and daughter. The father died on the way to the hospital which made the charge a hell of a lot more serious. The son and daughter were spending their father’s social security checks on themselves and to hell with Dad. How cruel can you get to watch your own father starve to death right before your eyes?

Maybe one of y’all can help me with my confusion. A couple of weeks ago up in Charlotte a couple of policemen confronted a burglar in the act of burglarizing a business. The cops approached the burglar from two different directions and ordered the thief to lay flat on the floor and spread his arms and legs. He made a false move and did not lay down right away so one of the cops shot him in the hip and down he went and was arrested. Keep in mind that these cops had Tasers, pepper spray and night sticks but chose to use potentially lethal force not knowing if the thief was armed. Then about three days ago a man in Gastonia, NC goes crazy as hell and starts shooting up the neighborhood with a rifle. A SWAT team arrives and the man runs back into the house and take a few pot shots at the SWAT team. The team withholds their gun fire and sneaks around and loads the house with tear gas and sends in a team with gas masks on. The team comes out a few minutes later with the crazy man in tow…alive and uninjured. If ever there was a person that deserved to be shot it was him…but he wasn’t. The burglar being shot was questionable at best. What’s up with all of that, especially with the cops having a plethora of non-lethal methods at their disposal?

Down in Columbia, SC a rock band from Atlanta named Grand Prize Winner were playing at a night club downtown. After the show, one of the musicians stepped out onto the sidewalk wearing only his underwear. He was spotted by the cops who called for him to stand still while they had a chat. Instead Drummer Walter Lewis broke and ran down Harden Street closely followed by the cops. Lewis tripped and fell and is arrested. He is jailed for indecent exposure. There was no reason stated as to why Walter tripped. I am going to leave that one alone.

This date in history March 8

1782 On this date 160 Pennsylvania Patriot militiamen raid a Moravian church in Ohio, County and massacre 96 Christian Indians including 39 children, 29 women and 28 men. These Indians were members of the Moravian church which meant they were devout pacifists and when the raid began, the Indians just went to their knees and awaited their fate while singing and praying. The raiders did not disappoint. They killed the Indians by smashing them in the skull with wooden mallets. The reason for the raid was a few of the outlying settlements had been raided by Indians that were clearly members of the Delaware tribe. But the Pennsylvania Militia was just looking for ANY Indians and these pacifists were an easy target. It was too bad because the Moravian Indians, even though pacifists were anti-British and would help the Patriots any way they could short of bloodshed. After this little tea party, the Moravian Indians became neutral and helped neither side, British or Patriot. It caused the Patriots a valuable ally because of that damned prejudicial militia.

1862 After several months of rebuilding and refurbishing the Confederate Navy had completed its first ironclad vessel. It had originally been named the Merrimack but on this day it was christened the CSS Virginia. The CSA navy had a hell of a time finding enough iron to clad this ship sufficiently but the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond proved to be equal to the task. On this day the CSS Virginia sallied forth into the waters of Hampton Roads, Virginia. It was an odd looking ship. It was basically rectangular with sheets of iron plate sheathing the sides sloping inward at the top. It had cannon ports out the side. The first vessel the Virginia engaged was the USS Congress. The USS Congress and nearly every other US vessel nearby showered the Virginia with everything they had to no effect. Finally the Virginia got into position and unleashed a broadside into the wooden USS Congress and succeeded in detonating the powder magazine and the USS Congress went up in a volcano of splinters. Then the Virginia attacked the USS Minnesota. The Minnesota fired everything it had to no effect and then decided to run for it. Even though the Virginia was not the fastest ship afloat, it was able to cut off the Minnesota and run it aground. After this, the Captain of the Virginia decided that he had a pretty successful day and went to the house. Very soon thereafter a United States vessel named the USS Monitor shows up in Hampton Roads. It is an ironclad also except the design was totally different. The freeboard (distance above water line) was very shallow, maybe four feet or so. But mounted in the middle was a round turret that could be rotated with two Dahlgren cannon apparent. The Monitor and the Virginia did battle only once that ended in a draw. But this engagement was the death knell for wooden ships worldwide.

1951 Earlier Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez had met via a “Lonely Heart Club” advertisement in a New York magazine. Let me described these two. Martha was extremely obese with oily hair and acne. In fact it was reported that if she had been an inch taller she would have been a perfect sphere, just joking. But she was a porker. Raymond had received a severe head wound in WWII and was bald, had constant headaches and wore a cheap black toupee. Well, Martha and Raymond set up a meet and for reasons known only to them, they fell in love. These two had an adversity toward a profitable job so they decided that the “Lonely Hearts Club” was a target rich venue for rich and lonely older women. So Raymond began communicating with a few of them and would marry them and/or kill then and take all their money and leave while passing off Martha as his sister. Finally Raymond made the mistake of hooking up with a somewhat younger woman and she was not buying this brother/sister act. Even though she allowed Raymond and Martha to move in, she refused to marry until she was sure of Raymond and Martha’s relationship. Eventually, Raymond and Martha got tired of waiting and killed the woman and her two year old daughter and buried them in the basement. After this they fled to Michigan. They were arrested in Michigan and thought all was cool because Michigan did not have the death penalty. That is until they found out that they were going to be extradited back to New York where the death penalty was an option. Then they started trying to plea as being insane and enthralled the courtroom with vivid descriptions of kinky sex acts performed beside the various corpses. The jury was not amused and convicted them and sentenced them to death. On this date they both were executed by “Old Sparky” the electric chair in Sing Sing. It is a rumor that to this day, a faint aroma of sizzling lard can still be detected there.

1669 On this date Mount Etna, a volcano in northeast Sicily erupts after several days of warnings like lava flows, ash blowing out the top, etc. But today was the real thing. Etna exploded and threw white hot ash and poisonous gasses into the atmosphere. Well, the Sicilians that lived near the volcano refused to leave hoping to save their towns and villages. I don’t know what they thought they could do but over 25,000 people perished on the flanks of this volcano. This definitely was not the first nor would it be the last eruption of this famous volcano.

Born today:

1799 US Senator Simon Cameron from Pennsylvania. He said “An honest politician is one that when he is bought, he will stay bought.” I don’t know any.

1890 US writer Gene Fowler. He said “Writing is easy. All you have to do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until two drops of blood form on your forehead.” Si, Senor.

1917 On this date began the famous revolution in Russia that brought down the Romanov dynasty. The people were tired and hungry after WWI and there was no relief in sight. But the Royal Family was in fine shape. The still had their mansions, carriages, jewelry, etc. The crowd began throwing missiles and setting fires so the Tsar, Nicholas II, sent in a brigade into Petrograd to break up the demonstration. When the soldiers arrived they joined in with the demonstrators. Two weeks later Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and throne and the entire family was slaughtered by the Russian military.

1963 Supermodel and magazine mogul Kathy Ireland. She said “Modeling is very lucrative. I am able to save up and take only the movie roles I want.” I would like to see a show of hands of everyone that as ever seen this broad in ANY movie. A Meryl Streep she ain’t.

Died today:

1874 President Millard Fillmore. He said “An honorable defeat is better that a dishonorable victory.” Hey Millard, if George Patton ever heard the President of the United States say that he would move to Costa Rica. There is no honor to be had in a defeat.

1959 US baseball player and husband to Marilyn Monroe Joe DiMaggio. He said “People say I am graceful when batting. My father drove railroad spikes in Martinez, California for 10 cents and hour to support his family. That was grace.” Indeed it was, Joe, indeed it was.

2005 Welsh writer Alice Ellis. She said “There is no reciprocity, men love women, women love children and children love hamsters.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

2011-03-07T04:35:00.000-05:00

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Joan Collins has had so many men that she is known as The British Open.”

Joan Rivers

A few years ago I was standing around in my favorite watering hole on Pensacola Beach with some of my friends. There was Mayor Bob, Iron Mike, Gary the Fish (fisherman), Larry the drill (works on offshore drilling rigs), Pete the pilot (Delta pilot), Cajun Tom and a few others. A young lady came in and sat down at the bar by herself and said nothing to anyone. She seemed pretty morose. All of us guys gave her a good look (as men will do) and went back to our conversation. Someone came over and put some money in the jukebox and punched in a few songs among the first to play was “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge. When Percy started the second stanza, the young lady suddenly stood up, flung out her arms and joined with Percy in about the same volume. She completed the song with Percy using well defined arm and facial expressions. After the song was over she sat back down and went back to nursing her Budweiser. My crowd gave polite applause and a few whistles and went back to our conversations. It was bizarre.

Another time a man that no one knew came in and joined out little conversation group. He looked familiar but I just could not place him. Eventually we found out that he was the drummer for the rock group “Ozark Mountain Daredevils”. He told us a story of back when he was just a kid and he was out with his grandmother picking blackberries somewhere in Arkansas. They had not paid much attention to the weather but suddenly they heard a clap of thunder close by. They eventually looked up and saw a tornado close aboard. They knew they could not get home before the twister arrived so they jumped down in a ditch and lay down to wait it out. With the pressure reduction popping their ear drums, they started getting stung all over their bodies. They had jumped on top of a yellow jackets nest. They could not get up so they just lay there as quietly as possible and take the stings. They survived but his grandmother had to go to the hospital. A lot of vinegar baths brought him through, however. We laughed out asses off.

Down near Columbia, SC a motorist saw a young child still in diapers walking down the side of a well travelled road and called the cops. The cops came and picked up the three year old child who had a load in his diaper. The cops were able to find the kid’s home and went inside to find a two year old kid wandering around, also carrying a load, and the parents asleep. They woke up the parents and arrested them. Out in the yard there was a pen that looked like a dog pen except it had a bunch of toys inside. The parents explained that they would put the kids in that pen to play when the weather permitted so they would not have to look after them. The kids are in the care of DSS and the parents are in the joint and rightfully so.

This date in history March 7

1777 On this date Abigail Adams received three letters from her husband John and he received two letters from her. These exchanges of letters showed time and time again how dedicated they were to each other. John was complaining how much he disliked being in Baltimore taking care of Government business because The United States Congress had to leave Philadelphia because of the British army’s presence there. He complained that the residents in Baltimore were not as sophisticated as those in Philadelphia because Baltimore was full of those boring Quakers. Abigail was in Braintree, Massachusetts taking care of the farm and told John how adverse the weather was for the last few weeks. Ya’ll keep in mind that his was 140 years before women were allowed to vote. Albeit I have been accused of being a male chauvinist more than once, if it had not been for the support of the “women taking care of the farm” for our ancestors more than likely things would have turned out much differently.

1862 Earlier CSA General Sterling Price had to withdraw from Missouri and was being chased by US General Samuel Curtis. General Price and his army of 8,000 met up with CSA General Ben McCullough and another small army led by CSA General Earl Van Dorn and they combined into an army of 14,000 and turned to face General Curtis and his army of 10,000. General Earl Van Dorn was selected to be the battlefield commander. On this date the two armies met at Pea Ridge, Arkansas near the Elkhorn Tavern. Van Dorn sent Ben McCullough and his troops on a flanking maneuver early on but McCullough was killed and his troops were soon in disarray. After seeing this, US General Curtis launched a counter-attack and after prolonged bitter fighting the Confederates withdrew. This battle was a serious loss for the Confederates because they never again were a viable power in the state of Arkansas. By the way, CSA General Earl Van Dorn was literally caught in the saddle by a jealous husband and killed ending a brilliant military career.

1981 On this date 23 year old Karen Barnes is found dead in her San Francisco apartment with her skull crushed and stabbed 27 times in the face and neck. Earlier Karen had allowed Susan and James Carson to live in her apartment. Susan and James were children of privileged parent but decided to live a life on the dark side. Karen, James and Susan went for weeks walking around naked and all were arrested for indecent exposure and a variety of drug charges more than once. As you might suspect, James and Susan were no where to be found after the police found Karen. They had moved to small town in Arizona and into a mobile home with a man name Gary Ferguson. One night Gary said something that Susan considered an insult and James whips out a pistol and caps Gary. In 1983 James and Susan end up out on the highway hitchhiking and were picked up by John Hillyer. Poor old John said something that Susan thought was offensive and James came to the rescue with his trusty sidearm and dispatches John with three shots to the head. The police finally catch up with these two jackasses and they are tried for the murder of Karen Barnes, Gary Ferguson and John Hillyer. Their defense was that all three of them were witches and the Bible and the Koran allows the killing of witches. Although a novel defense, the jury didn’t by it and sent them to prison for life without parole. It is too bad that they were tried in California. If it had been Texas or South Carolina they would have met their maker fried to golden brown, or maybe meet their mentor in a place a lot warmer.

1885 On this date the state of Kansas restricts cattle from Texas entering the state from March to December meaning that there would only be two months that the cattle would be allowed. The dairy farmers had been complaining that Texas cattle had been bringing tick fever and hoof and mouth disease into Kansas infecting their herds. The lowest time in the year for these diseases is January and February. The trouble was that the railhead cow towns like Abilene, Hays, Newton among others relied on the Texas cowboys for a great deal of their income from their cattle drives up from San Antonio, Texas by the Chisholm Trail. But Kansas had to make a decision. It was either cattle or agriculture and the powers that be knew it would be agriculture so they had to start weaning those cow towns from Texas money. It was a moot point a few years later when the railroads reached the center of Texas and Kansas became famous not for wild shootouts and Wild Bill Hickok but for horizon to horizon fields of grain.

Born today:

1934 TV personality Willard Scott. He said “Bryant Gumbel’s ego has applied for statehood. If it allowed it will be the fifth largest.” I agree totally. Bye the way, Bryant and his brother were born in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

1965 US opera star Denyce Graves. She said “Real poverty is the loss of imagination.” In that case I will never be poverty stricken.

Died today:

332BC Greek philosopher Aristotle. He said “Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.” Aristotle was the personal tutor to Alexander the Great.

1971 English writer Florence Smith. She said “If I had been the Virgin Mary, I would have said no”. I would venture to say this broad is a feminist.

1981 English writer Bosley Crowder. When speaking of Loretta Young he said “Whatever it was this actress never had, she still hasn’t got it.” I did not like her either.

1999 English filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. He said “I keep seeing lousy films and I say to myself, “I don’t know anything about making movies but I can do better than that.”

Quotable quotes:

A French military commander reported to King Charles the Bald that 20 to 30 Viking ships were headed up the Seine River from the English Channel. Charles responds with “We do not have to worry about a few Viking ships”. The commander said “Sire, when the leader of this group of Vikings is named Ragnar the Skull Splitter, we should at least be concerned.”

“It is not the length of life, but the depth of it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow