Thursday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

While attending a cocktail party, Sir Winston Churchill had one too many brandies and was obviously hammered. A frumpy elderly lady walked up and said “Sir Winston, you are drunk.” Sir Winston said “Yes madam I am, and you are ugly. But tomorrow morning I will be sober.”

Trivia question of the day
Who played Sam the pianist/singer in the movie "Casablanca"?  Answer at the end.

Some of y’all may not know of the Wong case in western North Carolina. Eduardo Wong was driving west on I-40 when he was stopped by a state trooper for a tail light outage. Wong chose to shoot the trooper three times killing him, he then got out and went through the trooper’s pockets. He was caught and went on trial a couple of weeks ago. The jury convicted him but could not agree on a sentence, for crying out loud. Any time a law enforcement officer is killed it is common practice to throw the book at the perpetrator, but not in this case. The judge was forced to issue a sentence which was life without parole. What the hell is wrong with the death penalty in this case?

41 year old David Meggett was arrested in Charleston, SC and charged with criminal sexual assault. It seems that a 21 year old woman woke up to find Meggett sitting on her bed asking her to repay the $200 that she borrowed from him. She told Meggett that she did not have the money but would pay him in a few days. Meggett exploded and ripped the sheet off of her, ripped off her PJ’s and forcibly raped her. After this Meggett apologized and left. Apologized, for crying out loud. This is not the first time Meggett has done this. He was out on parole for the very same thing committed in 2009. What is wrong with him, thinking he can get away with that? By the way, David Meggett was a star running back with the Giants, Patriots and the Jets.

                This Date in History   November 9

1780 on this date British General James Wemyss and 190 cavalrymen attempted to ambush Patriot General Thomas “Gamecock” Sumter and 300 infantrymen at Fishdam Ford, South Carolina. Sumter was nicknamed “Gamecock” by the British for his fighting style. Wemyss was the second most hated British officer in the southern United States. The most hated was Colonel Banastre Tarleton but both he and Wemyss waged war against civilians by burning down homes and the indiscriminate killing of livestock among other atrocities. Wemyss’ ambush was discovered and Sumter’s men were ready when the attack came. Wemyss was wounded in the arm and knee and was captured by Sumter. It was Sumter and Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion that was the largest thorn in the side of the British in the southern United States, primarily in North and South Carolina. Both Sumter and Marion were very capable military commanders and proved it time and time again. Unfortunately, Sumter was captured by Tarleton on November 30 and was out of action. The leadership of all the Southern Patriot armies fell to Francis Marion. Marion did not disappoint and was instrumental in driving the hated Redcoats out of the Carolinas into Virginia to the waiting Patriot army led by George Washington. The war was coming to a close when British General Cornwallis and the army that had departed the Carolinas were trapped against the Chesapeake Bay near Yorktown, Virginia with no possible means of escape and Cornwallis surrendered.

1965 The largest power failure in United States history occured on this date at rush hour. The failure started in Canada when a major power line failed which automatically shifted more power to other lines and they began failing from overload. The domino effect hit New York City and seven other states and three Canadian provinces. It trapped 800,000 people in the New York subways and thousands more in elevators and office buildings. In all there were 30 million people affected. By the following morning all power had been restored. The strange part was that 9 months later there was a spike in the birth rate in the northeastern United States.

1862 On this date the commander of the 9^th Corp of the Army of the Potomac is promoted to command of the entire army. US General Ambrose Burnside protested vehemently against this but was voted down. He felt that he was at his capacity as a Corp commander and General of the entire army was over his head. The right man for the job would have been US General Joseph Hooker but he was a drinker and chased skanky women which did not float in the eyes of General in Chief Henry Halleck and he persuaded Lincoln to select Burnside to replace the inept George B. McClellan rather than Hooker. Burnside was born in Indiana and graduated from West Point in 1847 ranked number 18 in a class of 20. After serving in the Seminole War he resigned and became the Treasurer of the Illinois Central Railroad. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was given the rank of Colonel and assumed command of a division. He performed admirably at the Battle of 1^st Manassas and was promoted to Brigadier General and given command of the 9^th Corp of the Army of the Potomac. After assuming command of the Army of the Potomac, Burnsides confirmed his fears of being over his head. The first thing he had to do was resolve the animosity that existed in the ranks between those that liked McClellan and those who didn’t. Then he set out in pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia led by CSA General Robert E. Lee and his very capable Corp commanders CSA General James Longstreet and CSA General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. Lee knew that Burnside was in pursuit and set up a defensive position at a place called Marye’s Heights near Fredericksburg, Virginia and after two days of preparation, Burnside and his army arrived. Burnside ordered an attack that was not well coordinated and fragmented. Jackson and Longstreet’s artillery had been pre-registered and the slaughter of the advancing Yankees was horrendous. Those that survived the artillery found themselves facing a stone wall with shoulder to shoulder Rebel riflemen behind it who rose up and fired almost point blank. Needless to say, the attack was called off after 13 different charges that were repelled with stupefying losses. Soon after this, Burnside was relieved and was replaced by Hooker with the skanky women and whiskey not withstanding. It was after this battle that Lee uttered the famous line “It is good that war is so terrible or we would learn to love it.” Indeed General Lee, indeed. Not long after Hooker took command he ran across Bobby Lee near a small town named Chancellorsville, but that is another story.

1971 On this date a quiet, unassuming and very religious man named John List killed his Mother Alma, his wife Helen and his three children. Earlier, he had stopped the mail and milk delivery and had called his children’s school and told them that he was taking his children out of town to a long visit with a sick relative. John had lost his job as an accountant and kept it from his family. He was close to losing everything and decided that it would be best if his family went on to heaven rather than suffer in poverty. Because of his preparation, no one missed the family for several days and John all but disappeared. He took a train to Denver and began a new life. He eventually ended up in Virginia with a new wife and family. His downfall came when he was featured of “America’s Most Wanted” television show even though the case was 18 years old. The shows producers tasked a reconstructive artist to use the 18 year old photo of John and create a bust of him as what he would look like today with the aging. The artist delivered a dead on match of John and he was soon arrested using the alias of Robert Clark. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to five life terms.

Born today:

1935 US baseball flame throwing pitcher Bob Gibson. He said “Why should I have to be an example to your kid. You be an example for your kid.” Bob hit the nail on the head here, y'all.

Answer to the trivia question:  It was Mookie Wilson that played Sam

                 Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow    

Wednesday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“War means young men die and old men talk.”

Attributed to Achilles in The Iliad by Homer

Speaking of bad taste, that reminds me of Randy Moss the ex-wide receiver for the Vikings. Moss has only been with the Vikings for a few weeks but he was released on waivers shortly after. It seems that the coaches and the owners quickly tired of his abominable arrogance and constant whining. His obvious lack of effort in the game the week before cost the Vikings a victory. The final straw came when he walked into a catered buffet after Friday’s practice and said “Who ordered this f----g sh-t? I wouldn’t feed this to my f------g dog!” He then stormed out of the room. The next morning he was released. The restaurant that catered the buffet made up a special dinner for Saturday. The first 50 customers would get an $8.40 deduction from their bill if they donated a Randy Moss jersey. The jerseys would then be auctioned off and the money given to the local Boys and Girls Club. The $8.40 amount comes from Moss’ jersey number which is 84. There was only one team that offered to pick up Moss on waivers, the Tennessee Titans. Randy Moss is disgusting.

Down in Wilbur, Alabama a 27 year old man was arrested for cruelty to animals. This jackass was having sex with a miniature horse. The owner of the horse knew something was wrong. She went into the pen and the horse was sad with head down and tail up in the air. She saw blood coming from the horse and knew for sure something was not right. She called the cops and during the investigation they found a wallet in the pen with the horse. It was easy after that. The perpetrator lived about 5 miles from the stable. His excuse for the wallet being in the pen with horse was that he was chasing a deer that went into the pen with the horse and then jumped back out with him in pursuit. In addition to being perverted, he is a terrible liar.

            This Date in History   November 8

1775 On this day US General George Washington began an attempt to absorb the militias in New England into the United States Army. Those obstreperous Yankees in the militias were even more prejudicial and any member of the Klan. Their militias were divided into men from different areas of a state and in some cases different neighborhood in the same city. They had no concept of cohesion of forces. They acted like the war was something like camping out. It was common knowledge that militias from Massachusetts saw no need to have militiamen from Rhode Island in their ranks. The Connecticut militias saw no need for militiamen from New York in their ranks, etc. Washington was in dire need of experienced military men, especially officers and the different militias had just that. The problem was the loyalty to their neighbors rather than their country. Not only that, the troops had no concept of sanitation and frequently and were sickened by it causing a loss of troops for Washington. Then Prussian officer Baron Von Steuben arrived on the scene and everything changed. He drilled the hell out those demoralized troops into a proud razor sharp fighting unit. He also taught the troops basic sanitation, like not camping downhill from a latrine. Those Yankees were used to living their own filth. Von Steuben had published a basic handbook of military procedures and codes and some of them are in use to this day. There is no question that Von Steuben was instrumental in the success of this great nation’s fight for independence.

1861 On this date a United States warship USS San Jacinto stopped and boarded the British mail ship the HMS Trent. They took two representatives from the Confederate States of America and imprisoned them in Philadelphia. Great Britain was not amused and sent a message to the United States stating that they would not abide this act of piracy and threatened war. The United States did nothing and England responded with sending 40,000 British troops to Canada. That got A. Lincoln’s attention and he ordered the two CSA representative released and a war with England was avoided. The United States would have been in deep doo-doo if they would have had to fight the British AND the Confederacy simultaneously.

1974 On this date one of the worst serial killers in American history botches an abduction. Ted Bundy went to a shopping center in Salt Lake City and walked up to a woman named Carol DaRonde and said that he was the police and her car had been involved in an accident and she needed to come with him to file a report. In spite of her misgivings she followed Ted to his VW. Once she got inside, Ted clapped some handcuffs on her and tried to hit her with a crow bar. Carol fought him off and leaped out of the car and escaped. She went to the Salt Lake City cops with this tale and they were very interested as was the Seattle police because they had several cases each of missing women. Bundy was arrested and spent several months in a Salt Lake jail but somehow eventually escaped. Ted resumed his trail of dead and missing women all across the United States. This monster was eventually captured in Pensacola, Florida but not before torturing and killing several Florida women. Ted finally was tried and convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. On January 24, 1989 with all of his appeals exhausted, Ted Bundy went to meet his maker medium rare after a rendezvous with “Old Sparky” the electric chair. On that night there was a large crowd just outside the fence where Ted was executed. They weren’t there to protest the death penalty; they were there barbecuing hamburgers, laughing and singing in celebration of the roasting of Ted. I like it.

1895 On this day a German scientist named Conrad Roentgen is experimenting with a cathode ray tube and notices that another cathode ray tube is lighting up just from being close to the active one. Roentgen could not figure out what the hell he had going but he knew there was some kind of radiation causing it so he called them x-rays. Further experiments showed that the rays could penetrate skin and flesh but could not penetrate hard substances like bone and metal. This monumental find made history in the world of diagnostic medicine. The scientists in the world were ecstatic with this new tool but did not know its dangers. After one of Thomas Edison’s assistants died of cancer after extended experiments with x-rays that it was found that x-rays taken in excess would kill your ass, probably by leukemia or a brain tumor. After that more stringent safety precautions were implemented. It would be impossible to say how many lives were saved with this discovery. Roentgen received the Nobel Prize for this contribution to science.

Births and deaths:

1975 One of the most evil and perverted people in the history of the world dies. German Dr. Josef Mengele died while swimming in the surf off the coast of Brazil. Mengele was a doctor at the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. He conducted unspeakably horrible medical experiments, especially on children. After the war he somehow made his way to Paraguay where he lived for many years. His remains were not positively identified until 1985 with the use of DNA samples.

            Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Those that think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us that do.”

                                              Isaac Asimov

After the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the assassination of Lincoln, oncoming President Andrew Johnson issued a presidential pardon to all the soldiers of the Confederacy with the exception of Lee, J. Davis and James Longstreet saying these three were responsible for so much misery and death. But in 1868 Congress issued a pardon for these three and they were American citizens once again.

Longstreet had known Ulysses S. Grant at West Point and they fought side by side in the Mexican War, he also attended Grant's wedding before the war. After the war Longstreet campaigned for Grant's election to the presidency and his reward was an ambassadorship to the Ottoman Empire. All of this didn't sit well with most of the ex-Confederates who were still carrying a grudge and felt he had sold out.

At the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg a gathering of both side was held on the Gettysburg battlefield. Longstreet was not invited. During a series of speeches all of a sudden a tall man with a long beard in a tailored Confederate officers uniform proudly walked down the center isle toward the dais...it was the 72 year old ram-rod straight James Longstreet. Amid screams, rebel yells and an ocean of tear from a lot of gray haired old men he mounted the dais, gave salute and walked back out...it was a momentous occasion.

                                  The Damned Media

I feel like I have had a great awakening, it all seems very clear now. We the general public are being played like a piano. The maestro is the media networks. The are trying to control our thoughts and emotions for one purpose only...ratings. Ratings are the percentage of people within a certain age group that are watching a particular network. The higher the ratings the more advertising and higher price they can demand. It is for money, y'all. Make no mistake, turmoil sells...peace doesn't. They are not interested in issuing unbiased information, they want racial strife. There can be no question in your mind that the media is promoting an agenda that includes a giant conspiracy by all the American police nationwide to kill black men.

When was the last time you saw a news program about the cops killing a Caucasian, Latino, Middle Eastern (other than a terrorist), Native American, Asian, Greek, Italian, Turk, with or without a gun, etc, etc? You must know that there have been but these are ignored in favor of reporting in depth those killings that will cause the most angst. They are causing unrest in the long run because it is to their financial benefit. Not many people realize that they have already been turned into a parrot bespeaking what the media has taught them and believe they are free thinkers. What GOOD did showing the police video in Charlotte do? It only aroused anger and disgust to no avail. The media wants you to make a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the police and/or the victim. That is not your business, that is the business of the judicial system. They want you to be angry and disgusted because it diverts you attention from the real issue..and that is mind control so they can make more money. I know a person that was in the media but quit because this person realized they were governed only by their ratings...the quality of the programming be damned. Why do they only want a network news person to moderate the presidential debate? There are plenty of respected people out there that could serve without bias, but no, they want to make a choice that suits their agenda. There was a movie I saw once where everyone was screaming “I AM MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE.”

If you were not a personal eye or ear witness to a specific event then it is suspect if you are depending on the media to keep you informed, they have an agenda, y'all. They are not journalists, they are comedians like Richard Pryor or Red Skelton...only they ain't funny but they are clowns.

             This Date in History   November 7

1989 This date will go down as one of the most important in history. The head a borough in New York City is elected mayor and the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia is elected as Governor. It was David Dinkins of New York and Douglas Wilder of Virginia both are African-American. This is the first timer in history that a black man was elected Governor. Virginia law forbids a Governor from staying in office for more than two terms so Wilder was out after two terms. Mayor David Dinkins was defeated at the end of his first term by Rudy Giuliani.

1965 Earlier in 1964 a drag racer from Ohio named Art Arfons build a drag racer utilizing a J-79 jet engine with afterburner. Art has eyes for the land speed record and hauls that beast he named The Green Monster out to the Bonneville Salt Flats to see what he could do. Art unleashed his car and ran a measured mile at a new record of 434.034 MPH. However the record did not stand but six days when another speed burner named Craig Breedlove piloting his jet powered car named The Spirit of America to a new record speed of 468.719 MPH. Art Arfons packed up his car and went back to Ohio and tweaked the Monster for almost a year. On this date he returned to Bonneville with a new and improved Green Monster and blistered the track at a new world record speed of 576.553 MPH. If I am not mistaken the latest world speed record is about 762 MPH which is beyond the speed of sound, y'all. That is scary.

1985 On this date a salesman named David Hendricks was traveling in Wisconsin and called the police in Bloomington, Illinois. Hendricks said that he had been trying to call his family in Bloomington all weekend and had received no response. The police went to the Hendricks house only to find his wife and thee children had been cut to pieces with an axe and a butcher knife. The police could not find any sign of forced entry and almost no sign of a struggle making the killings very suspicious. The police were at a loss for clues so they examined the father more closely. The father said that he had taken the family out for pizza at about 7:30p and allowed the kids to play in an amusement are and eventually arrived back home at about 9:30p. He said that soon thereafter he left for a business trip to Wisconsin. The Hendricks family belonged to a very religious organization called the Plymouth Brethern which was similar to the Quakers. The police examined each and every thread of clothing in Hendrick’s car which proved to be inconclusive. However, the coroner found that the food in the intestines of the children proved to be a vegetable pizza that was not sufficiently digested to comply with the timeline in Hendrick’s alibi. The police charged him with murder even though they did not have a scintilla of a motive since his religion forbade violence. During the trial Hendrick’s attorney hammered at the food digestion process that can be altered with a lot of physical activity knowing the kids had been in a playground after eating. He was right about the food digestion process but in spite the prosecution not having a motive and the problem with the food digestion, Hendricks was convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. This just goes to show you that the justice system here in the good old USA ain’t perfect.

Born today:

1897 US movie producer Herman Mankiewicz. After being sick after a formal dinner and asked how he felt he said “I am fine. The white wine came up with the fish.” Hey Herman, it wasn’t the wine.

             Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“This whole rock and roll thing is very over rated. Take away the sex, drugs and booze and what do you have left?”

                                                   Chrissie Hynde

                                 History of wedding rings

It seems that the ritual of rings with a special meaning goes back to about 2,500BC, perhaps further back than that but there is no written language earlier than that explaining the meaning of rings in spite of corpses from previous eras wearing rings. The first ring with a written confirmation of its meaning came from the finger of a mummy that is about 4,000 years old. The ring was made of plant fibers and was a complete circle. A poem on the wall in the mausoleum in hieroglyphics said something on the order that the fibers are made from the earth and in a never ending circle as our lives were intertwined. Evidently the Egyptians were a romantic bunch. This is not the case with the Romans. The Romans put a ring on the fingers of those beings they felt they owned. This included all their slaves, gladiators, soldiers and wives. The Romans were a pragmatic bunch. I read a story about Hannibal Barca, the famous Carthaginian warrior, where he defeated five Roman legions in three battles and gathered the gold rings off the dead Roman soldiers and took them back to Carthage as a prize of war. According to the number of soldiers killed, Hannibal collected about 350 pounds of gold. Then with the Greeks the ring was simply a token of friendship. It was after the ritual of the rings reached Western Europe (Germans, Spanish, French, English, Scandinavians, etc.) that the rings had a meaning associated with matrimony. It is believed that the ritual was reinforced by the Catholic Church and other religious organizations to discourage polygamy, but that is just a supposition.

           This Date in History   November 6

1528 Earlier Spanish conquistador Alva Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his army of 300 had been exploring north Florida but insects, disease and persistent attacks by the Indians drove them into the sea with only 80 to 90 men left. They built five flimsy boats and set sail westward. They suffered from the lack of food and water and when they tried to land to acquire fresh water and food they were driven back into the sea because the ubiquitous Indians were watching them all the while. On this date, they crashed on a beach in what is now Texas, probably near Galveston. These were most likely the first white men to see Texas. They were immediately captured by the Indians and made virtual slaves. But with Cabeza’s rudimentary knowledge of medicine, he was able to attain the title of medicine man and he and his survivors were released after two years. By now they were down to only Cabeza and three others left out of the 300. Cabeza and the others set out traveling west across New Mexico and Arizona heading for Mexico City that was by now under the control of the men left by the Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortez. After a torturous trek, they ran across a Spanish unit out hunting for slaves. This meeting took place near Sinaloa, Mexico. With help of these men, Cabeza finally arrived in Mexico City and told his tale of survival that enthralled all that heard it. The unbelievable story of Cabeza and his men made its way to Europe and the rest of the world. But his story of the inhospitable lands and hostile Indians did not deter anyone and soon a flood of honkies began arriving in the America. Now this flood of honkies is accompanied a deluge of the progeny of the Spanish conquistadors. Their ancestry goes back to the Maya, Inca, Olmecs and Aztecs but they do not speak Quechua or any other language of their ancestors, they speak the language of their conquerors, Spanish. It is kind of funny that at no time was there ever more than 600 Spanish soldiers in one place at one time but the Natives could not kick them out. The Spanish had a few things that made a difference. They had shoulder fired weapons, war dogs, armor and horses. The natives had never seen a horse before the arrival of the Spanish. The Spanish also had natural immunity to measles, small pox, tuberculosis, etc. that he natives did not. It was disease that conquered them; it was not the military expertise of the Spaniards.

1906 On this date United States President Theodore Roosevelt departed on a diplomatic mission to Panama and Puerto Rico. This is the first time that a sitting United States president had departed the contiguous United States on a diplomatic mission. He really went to Panama to visit the Panama Canal that was still under construction and to Puerto Rico it being a United States possession. Remember that citizens of Puerto Rico can vote in elections and have representatives in Congress. I have a friend of mine that lives in eastern Pennsylvania that says the local Puerto Ricans are the one complaining the loudest about the flood of illegals into their “hood” and have “discouraged” them on more than one occasion. Anyway, Teddy Roosevelt as far as I am concerned, is the best president we have had since A. Lincoln. I have some “unreconstructed” friends out there that are breathing smoke out their ears upon hearing this, but had it not been for Lincoln we would be two, maybe four, nations rather than one. We are better off united. Everyone knew where Teddy stood on any issue and all had respect and confidence in him. He was what I call “a stand up guy”. You knew where he was coming from all the time and you could believe anything he said as being the truth. Those virtues are few and far between since him. I might have said the Dwight Eisenhower would have been except he lied about the Francis Gary Powers spy flight that he later recanted. Harry Truman was close but he was a politician first and a patriot second. We need more like Teddy. Teddy contracted Malaria while on the trip to Panama and it contributed to his demise at relatively early age. Whatever happened to “stand up guys”?

1861 Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama. Like A. Lincoln he was born in Kentucky but in the year of 1808. He attended West Point and graduated in1828 and fought in the Black Hawk War. In 1832 he married Sarah Taylor who was the daughter of General (and future President) Zachary Taylor. Davis and Taylor remained close friends though out the rest of their lives. Soon after Davis and his new bride Sarah settled on Brierwood Plantation in Mississippi. Just a short time Sarah came down with malaria and died from it. In 1845 he married Varina Howells. After the southern states began seceding Davis thought that they may come to him for the Presidency. After his election Davis made this statement “Upon my weary heart was showered smiles, plaudits and flowers. But beyond this I see troubles and thorns innumerable.” Indeed Jeff, indeed.

1887 Land near Toccoa, Georgia was bought for the purpose of building a Christian and Missionary College. An earthen damn was built across Toccoa Creek creating a small but deep lake with the college downstream of the dam. On this date in 1997 an examination of the dam was made and declared safe. Just hours later, the dam failed and a wall of water moving at 120 MPH arrived at the College. There were 38 students and teachers drowned and many injured. One teacher grabbed hold of a passing roof truss and held on and was washed a mile downstream. Her two children were not so lucky and were included in the 38 victims. Two days later First Lady Rosalyn Carter showed up and offered any assistance she could. I do not know what happened to the dam inspector.

1943 US humorist Jon Carroll is born. He said “Everyone should live to be 92 years old, have an orgasm and drop dead.” That is cold, y’all.

1836 French King Charles X died. He said “It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” What can you do with that rock hard logic?

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”

                                                Maya Angelou

On Pensacola Beach there is a cross that has been erected on the highest sand dune (about 15 feet). The legend is that one of the Spanish explorers (I presume to be Tristan De Luna or one of his fleet) was sailing westbound just off shore. It was Easter Sunday in the approximate year of 1559. The Catholic priest aboard (all Spanish ships had a priest aboard, especially the explorers) felt the need to hold an Easter Mass service so all the ships hove to and anchored. Row boats shuttled the sailors ashore to witness the service. The priest crawled up to the top of this particular dune and delivered Easter Mass service to the amassed sailors. I don’t know if it is true or not but there is no question that Spanish explorers were in this area in this time frame. Wrecks of their supply ships have been found and explored not to mention the foundations of buildings built in an attempt to colonize Pensacola. They lasted about three years but their stay was cut short when a hurricane destroyed a fleet of supply ships that had sailed up from Vera Cruz, Mexico.

On this date in 1941 the Japanese Admiralty gave Admiral Yamamota the go-ahead for planning an airborne attack on the American Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. I think we all agree that this was a terrible error in judgment by the Japanese.

           This Date in History November 3

1816 Jubal Anderson Early was born in 1816 in Franklin County, Virginia. Little is known of little Jubal’s early life but it is known that he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1833. He graduated four years later ranked 11^th in a class of 50. He participated in the Seminole War and resigned in 1838 and began a law practice. He was prosecutor for Franklin and Floyd counties in Virginia but his law practice was interrupted by the Mexican-American war of 1846-1848. Early was a Whig and opposed to secession but changed his mind when Lincoln called for 75,000 soldiers to begin suppressing the rebellion and offered his services to the Confederacy. He was given the rank of Colonel in the Virginia Militia and sent to Lynchburg, Virginia to begin recruiting. He was able to raise three regiments and commanded one of them, the 24^th Infantry. He commanded a regiment at the Battle of 1^st Manassas and was impressive to his commander, CSA General P.T.G. Beauregard who saw fit to promote him to Brigadier General. He was present at nearly all of the important battles in the eastern theatre. He was at the battles of The Seven Days, 2^nd Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg plus several major skirmishes in the Shenandoah Valley. Jubal was known to CSA General Robert E. Lee as “my bad old man” because of Jubal’s irascible attitude and quick temper especially form anyone of less rank. But he was a superb combat organizer, planner and tactician. During the Battle of Gettysburg he was assigned the task of capturing York, Pennsylvania and eventually attacking the US forces at Gettysburg from the northeast. He indeed did capture York but was unable to launch a successful attack and ended up covering the rear of CSA General Lee’s retreat. Early was wounded in 1862 at the Battle of Williamsburg while personally leading an infantry charge against preposterous odds. He convalesced in Rocky Mount, Virginia and returned to action two months later only this time he would be commanded by CSA General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson just in time for the Battle of Malvern Hill. This time Early did not shine as usual. His navigation was faulty and he and his division got lost in thick woods and was late arriving at the battle. In spite of this he excelled at the Battles of Spotsylvania Court house and The Wilderness and was promoted to Major General. It was his actions in the Shenandoah Valley that he made his mark. During the siege of Petersburg, Lee sent Early and an army of 14,000 to patrol the Valley and to prevent the Yankees from capturing it. The Shenandoah was where the majority of the food for the CSA Army of Northern Virginia came from. Early was also tasked with threatening Washington so as to draw some troops away from Petersburg. On his way to Washington he defeated several Union armies. His tactics worked and US General U.S. Grant sent troops to counter Early but it was not enough to weaken the US position around Petersburg. Grant sent US General Philip Sheridan and 40,000 troops to neutralize Early. Early lost two major battles against Sheridan but launched a ferocious surprise attack at Cedar Creek and drove those Yankees back several miles. It was only by Sheridan’s personal direction that the Yankees were able to counterattack and win the battle. When the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered in 1865, Jubal rode to Texas on horseback trying to find any units still fighting. From there he went to Mexico then to Cuba and finally sailed to Canada and settled in Toronto. He wrote his memoirs while there. He named it “The Memoirs of the Last Year of a War for Independence, the Confederate States of America.” After US President Andrew Johnson declared a general amnesty in 1869, Early returned to Virginia and resumed his law practice. After falling down a flight of stairs, Early died at the age of 77. He remained unreconstructed (loyal to the Confederate cause) to the day he died. He is buried in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia. Here is a quote about Jubal A. Early:

“Honest and outspoken, honorable and uncompromising, Jubal A. Early epitomized much that was the Southern Confederacy. His self-reliance, courage, sagacity, and devotion to the cause brought confidence then just as it inspires reverence now.”

—James I. Robertson, Jr., Alumni Distinguished Professor of History, Virginia Tech

I have a read several books by Mr. Robertson. He is considered an expert on the Civil War.

1984 Serial killer rapist Bobby Joe Long is arrested in Tampa, Florida. His capture was engineered by the bravery and courage of his last victim, Lisa McVey. Lisa was riding home from school on her bicycle when she was attacked and captured by Long. After Long forced her into his car, Lisa began taking mental notes about what she could see in the car. She also mentally timed the length of the ride when Long stopped at an ATM. He took her to a motel room and ravaged her for most of the day but agreed not to kill her. After releasing her, Lisa went to the police and told them about what she had observed in the car the police had a good idea what model and year the car was. And when she told them about the length of time it took to get to the ATM, the police had a radius to search. In that time ATM’s were not that plentiful and the police narrowed the possible ATM’s to a very few. And when Lisa told them the approximate time it took to get to the motel, the rest was easy. Bobby Joe went to meet his maker with puncture marks in his arms.

1941 The Japanese War Ministry led by General Tojo met and set the final day for the attack on the United States Naval installations in Hawaii. There was little doubt that war was coming because the Japanese had already made preparations for the attack on the Philippines and The United States knew it. The Philippines was an American protectorate at the time. They decided it would be December 5 but the Japanese fleet was delayed by weather and the attack materialized on the 7^th. A date that will live in infamy.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                                  Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved — loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”

                                                               Victor Hugo

At one time I was working for Halliburton in the oil and gas fields in western Oklahoma. One day I was going west from Oklahoma City and stopped at a roadside marker in the small town of El Reno. The marker stated that approximately 2.5 million cattle crossed over this spot on trail drives from central Texas to the railroad in Abilene, Kansas. I looked south across a field and there as indeed a shallow depression about 50 yards wide as far as the eye could see...it was the Chisolm Trail, y'all, this kind of thing is right up my alley.

Down in Pensacola the county cops were called out to a domestic disturbance. Three officers showed up and all three were shot soon after arrival. After this display of hostility a SWAT team was called in and the shooters themselves were shot by the team. I don’t think anyone was killed but a couple was in serious condition. It is really is a mistake to shoot a cop, they are better trained and much more heavily armed.

A while back down in Summerville, South Carolina a man and woman pulled into the parking lot at Perkins restaurant. Witnesses said they could hear the couple screaming at each other as they entered the lot. The woman was driving. After they got out of the car, the man produced an automatic pistol and began shooting at the woman. She went down almost immediately but the man kept shooting at least eight more rounds. He then pointed the gun at the nearby witnesses and told them got “get inside.” The woman was declared dead at the scene and the man was last seen running behind the restaurant. 47 year old Randal Benton was captured in Alabama the next day and charged with the murder of 36 year old Trevi Benton at Perkins Restaurant. How can things get that bad? All he had to do was leave.

            This Date in History    November 2

1863 Major General John C. Fremont is relieved of command of the Western Department of the Union Army. Fremont was an interesting character. He was born in Savannah, Georgia and raised in Charleston, South Carolina and attended the College of Charleston. He was kicked out of school because of “idleness and lack of attention” but he excelled in mathematics and secured a position with the US Navy teaching mathematics. He was the illegitimate son of prominent Virginia socialite Janice Whiting who got knocked up by a French teacher from Norfolk, Virginia named Jean Fremon. It was later on the John changed his name by adding a “t” and a comma over the “e” in his last name. John joined the Union army in 1838 but made a great career move by marrying Jesse Benton. Jesse was the daughter of powerful Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. As a result of his father-in-law’s influence, John was assigned three different expeditions of discovery. He started by mapping the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers that had been explored earlier by the Lewis and Clark expedition but they did not map the area like Fremont did. The next two were in the American west which he also mapped and proved to be of incalculable help to the pioneers that followed. It is believed that he was the first honkie to lay eyes on Lake Tahoe but he did not do it alone; he had guidance from mountain men like Kit Carson and Jim Bridger. Fremont was superb cartographer but his expertise in combat was suspect. At the outbreak of the Civil War, again with his father-in-laws influence, he was named commander of the Union Army Western Department based in Saint Louis, Missouri. Soon thereafter a Union army commanded by US General Nathaniel Lyons ran up against a CSA army commanded by CSA General Sterling Price at the place called Wilson’s Creek. It was a massacre, y’all. The Union army was cut to pieces, including General Lyons. That Union army fled into the four winds in a complete rout. General Fremont was assailed for not providing Lyons assistance. Fremont was stung by this criticism and fought back by declaring martial law and chose to free the slaves in the state of Missouri. This act was way more than he had authority for. Not only that, it put A. Lincoln and the Republicans between a rock and a hard place. There were four slave holding states that had not seceded and they were Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and Missouri. When Fremont freed the slaves in Missouri, he really pissed off the slave owners that had voted not to secede into thinking that maybe they really should secede and join the Confederacy. When Fremont’s actions in Missouri reached Kentucky, Delaware and Maryland the fires of secession were again kindled. Lincoln knew he had to do something so he requested Fremont to rescind his order. Fremont refused and that forced Lincoln to relieve him of command and Lincoln rescinded the order himself. They really did not know what to do with Fremont so they gave him command of a small army and sent him to a safe location, or so they thought, in West Virginia near the Shenandoah Valley. Soon after his arrival in West Virginia, the US army sent three separate armies, including Fremont, into the Shenandoah Valley to kick CSA General Thomas J.”Stonewall” Jackson and his army out of the valley. There is an upside to this for Fremont. He was included in the details of one of the greatest military actions ever documented when Stonewall Jackson defeated and routed not only Fremont but the other two armies as well. But it took an enormous amount of grit, endurance and determination by Stonewall’s troops and well as his unquestioned military genius. After having his ass handed to him by Jackson, Fremont retired from military service. In 1864 he was approached to challenge A. Lincoln for the Republican nominee for president but he declined. After the war he became the territorial governor of Arizona. He died in 1890 in New York. Fremont delivered some of the most important information ever discovered about the topography this country. He was just did not have a military mind.

1982 At the beginning of Russia’s disastrous war in Afghanistan, the worst disaster of that entire debacle occurred. There was a long truck convoy coming from Russia into Afghanistan carrying troops, fuel and other tools of war. The convoy had to traverse the Salang tunnel near the border town on Hairotum, Afghanistan. This tunnel was at an elevation of 11,000 feet, was 1.7 miles long, 24 feet high and 17 feet wide. After the trucks were about half way through, a truck load of troops rear ended a tanker truck full of diesel fuel and an explosion and fire erupted. The Russians thought that they were under attack and put guards on each end of the tunnel and would not let anyone out. The fire quickly spread and ate up most of the oxygen and the oxygen was replaced by carbon monoxide from the fire and the still running trucks. To make matters worse, the tunnel ventilation system was out of order. After the Russians figured out what had happened, they began pulling the trucks out of the tunnel but it was too little too late. Over 3,000 bodies were found. Due to the tight-lipped Russians who rarely tell the general public about negative news, we may never know the true bottom line in this disaster.

Quotable quotes:

“I stumbled across a case of bourbon and went on stumbling for several days thereafter.” That sounds like Jack Daniels to me.

W.C Fields

“When I was in grammar school, I was so fat that I was chosen to play Bethlehem in the school nativity.”

Jo Brand.

                      Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“All we have is the here and now. If we play it right it is all we will need.”

                                         Ann Richards

Here is a Medal of Honor citation given to one bad dude, y’all. The history lesson will follow.

WOODFILL, SAMUEL

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 60th Infantry, 5th Division. Place and date: At Cunel, France, 12 October 1918. Entered service at: Bryantsburg, Ind. Birth: Jefferson County, Ind. G.O. No.: 16, W.D., 1919.

Citation:

While he was leading his company against the enemy, his line came under heavy machine gun fire, which threatened to hold up the advance. Followed by 2 soldiers at 25 yards, this officer went out ahead of his first line toward a machine gun nest and worked his way around its flank, leaving the 2 soldiers in front. When he got within 10 yards of the gun it ceased firing and 4 of the enemy appeared, 3 of who were shot by 1st Lt. Woodfill. The fourth, an officer, rushed at 1st Lt. Woodfill, who attempted to club the officer with his rifle. After a hand-to-hand struggle, 1st Lt. Woodfill killed the officer with his pistol. His company thereupon continued to advance, until shortly afterwards another machine gun nest was encountered. Calling on his men to follow, 1st Lt. Woodfill rushed ahead of his line in the face of heavy fire from the nest, and when several of the enemy appeared above the nest he shot them, capturing 3 other members of the crew and silencing the gun. A few minutes later this officer for the third time demonstrated conspicuous daring by charging another machine gun position, killing 5 men in one machine gun pit with his rifle. He then drew his revolver and started to jump into the pit, when 2 other gunners only a few yards away turned their gun on him. Failing to kill them with his revolver, he grabbed a pick-axe lying nearby and killed both of them. Inspired by the exceptional courage displayed by this officer, his men pressed on to their objective under severe shell and machine gun fire.

           This Date in History   November 1

1512 Earlier in the year 1475 a genius was born in Caprese, Italy. His father was a minor city official and at an early age his family moved Florence, Italy. At the age of 13 Michelangelo was apprenticed out to a local artist. It soon became obvious that this young man was an artist with skills rarely seen. He was taken under the wing of the powerful art patron Lorenzo de Medici and delivered the breathtaking sculptures of “The Pieta” and “David” which stunned the art world, especially the Pope. Michelangelo was called to Rome and was commissioned to several works of art for the Vatican. Eventually in 1508 the Pope commissioned him to paint the history of the Christian world in a series of frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The ceiling was curved and between a series of buttresses making the design and perspective very difficult, not to mention that the painting had to be done by Michelangelo while lying on his back. His workmen built scaffolding up as close as they could to the ceiling but in some places they had to bore holes in the ceiling and drop platforms down. In most of these cases Michelangelo incorporated the holes into the scene he was painting. Four years later on this date, the Sistine Chapel was opened to the public. The visitors were stunned with the beauty and magnitude of this gigantic accomplishment. It is the same today.

1765 Earlier Great Britain had fought two wars trying to keep control of what was then called the English colonies or present day United States. First it was the French and Indian War that lasted about 7 years and then there was Pontiac’s Rebellion that lasted two more years. These years of conflict had put Great Britain in a big need of cash. They had already added a “Sugar Tax” to the colonists to try to recoup some of their expenses. The “Sugar Tax” essentially was buried in tax on molasses which the men colonists used to make Rum which was an essential part of their lives and they were not going to do without it. England was still in need of even more cash to pay the English soldiers and mercenaries they had stationed in the colonies so they came up with a “Stamp Act” which was enacted on this date. What this abomination did was tax each and every document in the colonies including newspapers. Well, since there was no rum involved the colonists, men especially raised almighty hell. They threatened the tax collectors, burned their houses down among other things. The tax collectors finally said “to hell with it” and stopped trying to collect. The Stamp Act was the beginning of the colonists complaining about “taxation without representation” which was the prelude to the Revolutionary War. With the failure of the Stamp Act, England still was hurting for money so they instituted the “Tea Tax”. It was then that those wild and crazy guys, The Sons of Liberty emptied three British ships of their tea into Boston harbor later called the “Boston Tea Party”. England was not pleased and we all know what happened next.

1952 For reasons known only to the United States military industrial complex, on this date the United States detonated history’s first thermo-nuclear device on the island/atoll of Eniwetok in the central Pacific. The United States military felt it was necessary to develop the most powerful nuclear weapon as soon as possible after the Russians detonated a bomb similar to the Hiroshima device in 1948. The father of the Hiroshima bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer and several other nuclear physicists plead with the United States to not pursue the development of thermo-nuclear weapons because all it would do is initiate an arms race because the Russians would soon follow suit and they were right. The Eniwetok device was 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. There is no telling what is out there today. I read about the device known as “Bravo” that was detonated in the Bikini atoll, also in the central Pacific that had a “yield” of 15 megatons (15 millions of tons) of TNT. Think about that y'all, the Hiroshima bomb had a “yield” of kilotons (hundreds of tons) of TNT. Everyone should keep in mind the devastation that can be inflicted by what has been called “A scorpion in a bottle”. Once it is out, look out.

1924 Earlier William Tilghman was born in a small town in Iowa in 1854. He was a rather rambunctious youth and moved west at the age of 16. He fell in with a group of thieves who began stealing horses from the Indians. That proved to be a bad move by having the Indians after you. Billy decided that being chased by the Indians was not a smooth move so he gave up rustling and moved to Dodge City, Kansas where he briefly was a deputy marshal before buying a saloon. He was arrested twice for alleged train robbery and rustling but the charges did not stick. Slowly but surely he became one of the most trusted and respected lawmen in America. He was universally known as “Uncle Billy”. He was especially intolerant of people that took the law into their own hands including lynch mobs and broke up more than one mob and saw to the prosecution of the mob leaders. I read a story about him going to a cabin way back in the wilderness where four bank robbers were holed up. He was alone and attacked the cabin single handed and after a roaring gunfight was able to bring in all the robbers to jail by himself. “Uncle Billy” was a hell of a lawman. He finally moved to Oklahoma City and became a state legislator and at times a deputy sheriff. He never retired; it seemed that “Uncle Billy” loved his profession. He accepted a job as city marshal in Cromwell, Okla. and was killed trying to arrest a drunken prohibition agent. Let me repeat that, he was killed trying to arrest a drunken prohibition officer.

                  Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow