Quote of the day:
"Politicians are like diapers. They occasionally need to be changed for the same reason."
Adlai Stevenson
I received a small amount of feedback about my history of slavery in yesterday's lesson. There are those that say I did not stress that slavery was indeed wide-spread in the colonies not just in the southern tier. This is true. There was a slave rebellion in New York in 1741 and about 1745 the Quakers in Pennsylvania began raising hell with their neighbors about owning slaves. This issue was settled by each state voting if they wanted to accept the institution of slavery or not. Those that did were Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
This is the last comment I will make about the Health Plan change that is on the agenda in Congress for the upcoming session.
I know people that have read the Health Care plan top to bottom. Neither one of them has read anything that suggests all the terrror things that we have been reading about like "death squads", etc. All of that is horse shit, I have read that from the terror tacticians. What ever terror tactics you have ever read is a scam. Here is the question for you. Who will make money from the change in the Health Care system and who will suffer? The answer is that those that will gain is no one. Who will lose is the insurance companies. They are the ones that are blowing smoke up your ass. Once the bill goes into effect, their skyrocketing profits will go down the toilet. I defy any one of you out there to show me that the Health Care Bill will cause all the bullshit terror that we have been fed. You know why, it is because we are too damned lazy and rather sit at home watching foorball games on TV than plow into the bill itself to make a decision on our own so you buy any one elses opinion that agrees with yours, the truth be damned. I personally do not want to hear any more threats against my survivability. I will be here, I promise you. All of you that are telling me that the sky is falling do not know what the hell you are talking about unless you have read the bill from top to bottom. You have been scammed by those that have an agenda and that means those that will lose once the bill is passed. Who is that, y'all? I think you know.
Good news:
The Southern California steelhead was in serious trouble and facing extinction. Recent dams on the Santa Clara river system cut off the fish from their native spawning grounds. A steelhead is a salmonid that essentially is a seagoing rainbow trout. The steelhead grown much larger that the native rainbow trout, however. A recent agreement with California Trout (a trout preservation organization) arrived at an agreement with the owners of the dams to build fish ladders to allow the migrating steelheads an avenue to their spawning streams. The survival of the Southern California steelhead is assured.
Greenpatch Grime:
I guess all of y'all know about the mass murder down near Brunswick, Georgia. There are eight dead and one seriously injured. They were found in a ratty house trailer on the grounds of what was the New Hope Plantation all apparently beaten to death. The sheriff of that county is only giving out a minimum of details about the murders which upsets the neighbors. The sheriff says that he wants certain details about this massacre kept secret to be known only by the police and the killer. This will help the cops identify the killer once he/she is captured and interviewed. That does not help the neighbors who are nearly all sleeping with a hogleg under their pillow.
A specter has raised it's ugly head here in good old Greenville again. There is a beautifully landscaped park in the middle of Greenville known as Falls Park. You guessed it, there is a multi-stage waterfall in the park...Last spring hundreds of very young teenagers began gathering there and blocked the sidewalks and numerous fights broke out. The local businesses complained to the police. The police responded with a cufew that anyone under the age of 18 cannot be in the park after 9:00p without an adult. This past Saturday night at 9:00p the teens just moved out of the park and went a block north and reassembled where they blocked the sidewalks and numerous fights broke out. The cops came and brokeup the fights, unblocked the sidewalks and kept watch. Nearly all of the kids were gone by 11:45p.
I remember way back when I was a teen, many of my friends and I would gather at a local drive-in restaurant (the Clock on Wade Hampton) and we would stand around in the parking lot blocking traffic and an occasional fight broke out....but that's different.
A man walked into a convenience store in Inman, SC to buy some cigarettes. A panhandler came up to him and asked for money. The man said that he had been out of work for a long time and did not have any money to spare and walked away. The panhandler attacked with a knife and stabbed the man seven time before he could escape. The attacker has not been identified nor captured, but I am sure he will be.
Players from the teams of 2008 and 2009 have complained about the head coach of Michigan, Rich Rodriguez, spending too much time training and practicing football players that was outside NCAA parameters. Evidently, the NCAA is afraid that if the football coach demands too much time training the football players they would not have enough time to get the education they are there for. I agree with the NCAA, they are there to get an education first, and then play sports.
SEPTEMBER 1ST
1862 On this the day after the Union army, General John Pope commanding, received a monster ass-kicking in the Battle of Second Manassas by CSA General R.E. Lee, Lee was not satisfied and sought complete annihilation of those Yankees. Pope’s army was heading east toward Washington; about 25 miles away, as fast their fat little legs could carry them, asses in hand. Lee sent Stonewall Jackson and the 2nd Corp with Col. J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry as a screen, north, then east and then south to try and cut off the retreat of the Yankees and catch them in envelopment before they were able to get behind the Washington defenses. The US General-in-charge being Henry Halleck sitting behind a desk in Washington sent a message to Pope to make sure he protected Centerville most of all. Jackson was aware of this order and by-passed Centerville and finally US General Isaac Stevens launched a partially successful attack on Jackson’s troops at Chantilly, Virginia and scattered a Louisiana unit but soon after General Stevens received a fatal head wound and the Confederates counter attacked and drove those Yankees back. All of this was taking place during ferocious thunderstorm with much thunder and lightning. Additionally, US General Phillip Kearney was scouting ahead on horseback trying to locate the Confederates in very dense cover. He came upon a line of Union infantry who told him to go no further because the Rebs were just a few feet ahead. Kearney responded with, “I don’t see any.............” That sentence was cut short by a Confederate musket ball in the throat and he was killed. The battle was over in 90 minutes and the rainstorm persisted. Lee finally determines that envelopment is not possible and turns his army north into Maryland toward a small village name Sharpsburg near a small creek named Antietam.
1985 Seventy-three years before the largest and “most safe” ocean liner in the world, the “Titanic”, departs England, makes a short stop in Ireland and then heads out across the North Atlantic for New York. About half way over, the mighty ship strikes an iceberg that rips a hole in the ship above the flood proof bulkheads. The Marine engineer that designed the ship was aboard because this was the Titanic’s maiden voyage goes below and looks at the damage and then goes to the ships captain, Captain John Smith, and tells him that the ship is fatally damaged. Captain Smith orders the ship abandoned which was severely mishandled which resulted in the death of over 1,200 souls. The ship finally rose up almost vertical, broke into two pieces and disappeared beneath the waves. On this date a joint French/US expedition aboard the research vessel “Knorr” locates a promising sonar target on the bottom of the ocean near the last reported position of the Titanic. The expedition was led by world famous explorer Bob Ballard. The crew sends down an undersea exploratory vessel named “Argo” to find out what was down there in the 17,000 feet of water. The first thing found was a gigantic boiler that was known to be aboard the Titanic and they just followed the debris field until they came upon the bow of the Titanic itself. The Argo brought back photos never before seen of this great ship.
1775 On this date American Representatives Richard Penn and Arthur Lee bring a document that had been called “An Olive Branch” document to British Lord Dartmouth to be forwarded to King George III. The document had been written by one of America’s best wordsmiths in John Dickenson. In short the document accused Parliament and other politicians of imposing insufferable laws and taxes on the American colonies without the knowledge of the King. The document stated that the colonists want their grandchildren to be raised under the wing of the King of England and suggests that the king should intervene in the colonist’s behalf. Well, King George decided that he was too busy and disinterested in anything the Colonists had to say and the document was never opened. He should not have done that because a year later the Colonists delivered the Declaration of Independence which called King George III everything but a white man and said they did not want any part of him ever again. Thus began eight years of pain, suffering and bloodletting and did indeed result in the birth of the mightiest nation this planet has ever seen.
1981 On this date 15 year old Eric Witte shoots and kills his father while he is lying on the couch. Eric claimed it was an accident when he slipped on a carpet while carrying a .22 rifle. The plea was accepted and Eric was released. A couple of years later the grandmother of Eric and his brother Butch was killed with a crossbow. The police look closer at the Witte Family and come to find out that Eric and Butch’s mother Hilma had told the boys that their father was going to divorce her and that she and the boys would end up in the street so they had to kill their father. She had been trying for years with valium and rat poison but it took the rifle to get the job done. They were living in their grandmother’s house and good old Hilma told the boys that their grandmother was going to kick them out of the house so she would have to be killed also. She tasked Butch with that mission and he chose the crossbow. After skewering Grandma, the family went to court to see if the boys could receive disability benefits because of the loss on their father. Then they come home and cut up Grandma with a knife and chainsaw and then spread the body parts all over northern California and continue to forge the signature of Grandma on her Social Security checks and cashed them for several months. They were finally found out, tried and convicted. Butch and Eric got 10 and 5 years respectively and were released in 1991. Good old Hilma got 90 years. I hope she never sees light of day again.
1802 Even back in these days we had scandals. On this date the Richmond Register printed information stating that Thomas Jefferson had a mistress which was a slave named Sally Hemmings. It also stated that he had sired several kids via this liaison. The article pointed to Sally’s son John that had “a remarkable resemblance to Jefferson”. After this Jefferson exposed the fact that Alexander Hamilton had a clandestine adulterous relationship with the wife of one of the prominent politicians to which Hamilton eventually confessed. Jefferson never freed Sally but he did free Sally’s sons and daughters. Sally Hemmings walked away a free woman in 1826 after the death of Jefferson. Recent DNA tests prove without a doubt that there are ancestors of the Jefferson/Hemmings tryst walking the earth as we speak. In Thomas Jefferson’s defense, none of this action took place until after Jefferson’s wife Martha had died. I hate politics.
Born today:
1868 US writer Frank Hubbard. He said “Sometimes the only time you see men with their wives is after they are indicted.” Especially politicians.
1939 US comedienne Lily Tomlin. She said “If love is the answer, would someone please re-phrase the question.”
Died today:
1715 King Louis XIV of France. He said “Has God forgotten all that I have done for him?” This French King was known as “The Sun King” or “Louis the Great” for all the beautiful additions he made to his country and victories his armies enjoyed. He ruled for 77 years.
1975 French writer Francois Mauriac. He said “A man’s mind is like an old palace. The owner lives is just a few rooms and blocks off the rest of the rooms where he never goes.” That is a deep but accurate thought.
Thanks for listening, I can hardly wait until tomorrow...
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