Sunday September 6

Good morning,




Quote of the day:



"The cardinal rule in politics is never get caught in bed with a live man or a dead woman."



Larry Hagman



Question of the week:



Beside the American Revolutionary War, what event

had the greatest effect on the shape and character of these United States? The answer is subjective, of course.



I went to an outdoor concert Friday night and saw a guitarist/singer named Sabra Callas. This girl has the most powerful voice I have ever heard in person. Not only that, her guitar work is outstanding. It was a real treat. I have two of her CD's. All of you music fans out there need to look her up. Check her out with the link below.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGuVeIy2Vd0





Good news:



Don Phillips is an architect in Huntsville, Texas. Don despaired at seeing the local garbage dumps filled with discarded building supplies and single mothers living in tar paper shacks so he decided to do something about it and formed Phoenix Commotion. He builds substantial houses with trash and rubbish that other throw away. He drags it out of the dumps, picks it off the side of the road or anywhere he can find it. He saw a frame shop that was going out of business and bought all of their picture frame sample corners and used them to cover the ceiling of a living room of one of his houses in a spectacular zig-zag pattern. He used discarded license plates for roofing materiel, pyrex bowls for porthole windows and even floored a room in one of his houses with wine corks. There was a meatpacking house near one of his houses and he gathered up some pieces of a bull's spine, dried them out and made a wind chime out of them. His designs are in great demand in depressed areas of America. He has five minimum wage employees and demands that the potential buyer participate in the construction of the house. He says it cuts down on the costs and give the new home-owner a feeling of ownership. He said the biggest problem with the very poor is their lack of pride and it shows in the way they keep up their houses, but if they build it themselves and some of their suggestions are integrated into the house, they have a new mindset. I like it.



Greenpatch Grime:



Law Enforcement officers gathered together in Spartanburg, SC County over the last few days and initiated "Operation Rolling Thunder". They put a net around the area where I-26 and I-85 cross. They were successful. They gathered about $116,000 in illegal drug monies, arrested 216 including a man that was wanted for murder in Fayetteville, NC. They arrested another man that was on the "Terrorists List". This jackass and his partner were arrested and 3 pistols, 2 shotguns and an AK-47 were seized. Good job, y'all.



This is going to sound weird. Friday night a car was hauling ass down Pelham Road here in Greenville when apparently they lost control, jumped over the median and literally flew into the Walgreen's parking lot on the corner of Roper Mountain Road Ext. The car struck a sign post, skittered into the parking lot and burst into flame. Now here is what is peculiar. Witnesses said that two people got out of the car and jumped into a waiting car and sped away. What's up with that?



You people that plan to attend the Clemson game Saturday evening will not have to worry as much about drunk college kids staggering into you, running over you driving drunk, vomiting on your shoes, yelling the usual obscenities, etc. because the Clemson cops have beefed up their "DUI Squad" for the home games. They needed to, right Carol?



I missed the birthday of one of my uncles who was born September 5, 1900. His name was John Grindstaff. Uncle John was a kind and gentle person and was always good to me and most of the others in my family especially my cousin Carol who misses him with a passion. Uncle John was an alcoholic but I suppose I am too. I miss you too Uncle John.





This date in history September 6



1915 The first successful tracked military vehicle rolls out of an assembly plant in Great Britain. Because this vehicle was made in secret in a plant that made water tanks, the vehicle was called a “tank”. The British chose this plant site so they could bring in a lot of metal plates and not arouse suspicion. Most of the countries involved in WW1 were desperately trying to find a way to overcome trench warfare and a tracked vehicle that could cross over the trenches was the answer. England started making tanks at a furious pace and soon trench warfare was a thing of the past.



1949 Germany finally gets back on it feet when the allies release all of the former Nazi regime’s assets. This was prompted by the recovery and successful operation of the VW plant in Wolfsburg. The VW beetle was the largest selling automobile in Europe.



1863 Confederate soldiers abandon Fort Wagner located on the southern rim of Charleston harbor. In January the US navy had been given the task of capturing Charleston, S.C. US Admiral Samuel I. DuPont tried to enter the harbor with 8 warships and had his ass handed to him by the batteries on Fort Wagner. DuPont ordered his ships to turn around and go back to sea out of range of Fort Wagner’s guns. The US military knew that Fort Wagner had to be neutralized before the capture of Charleston was possible. The famous 54th Mass. Regiment tried a land assault and was repulsed with many, many casualties. The 54th, by the way, was the first all black unit in the US army. Later on CSA Gen. Beauregard saw that the continued defense of Fort Wagner was not possible and ordered it abandoned. The capture of Charleston came much later.



1976 A Russian fighter pilot lands his MIG-25 in Japan and asks for political asylum in the United States. US officials almost pee their collective pants because after the debut of the MIG-25 the American military became almost hysterical saying the MIG-25 could beat any other fighter in the free world, now they were going to be able to see one up close and personal. After a close examination it was determined that the MIG-25 was NOT even near the caliber of many of the other fighters out there. It was fast, but not maneuverable, and the electronic were very primitive. It turns out that the hysterical screams of the US military were just a scam to get more defenses spending out of Congress. I wonder if that scam is used today.



1847 Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau moves out of his shack on Walden Pond and moves in with the Ralph Waldo Emerson family. Emerson had been a close friend of Thoreau’s for several years he being a transcendentalist also. Thoreau was a Harvard graduate and he and his brother opened a school. Henry, while on a canoe trip, decides that teaching ain’t his bag and chooses to write essays and poetry like Emerson. Wonder what happened on that canoe trip that made him change his mind? He is successful with his books On Walden Pond and Civil Disobedience among others. It is interesting to note that Mohandas Ghandi, the architect of India’s separation and independence from Great Britain admittedly used Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience almost as a guide book in his search for independence. Thoreau was also an avid abolitionist also and was active in the “underground railroad”. He died in 1882.



1901 President William McKinley is shot by an anarchist assassin named Czolgosz, the pronunciation of this name is discretionary. McKinley was the first president to have body guards around him but these guys did not stop the assassin when he walked up to the President with his right hand out and a handkerchief covering his left hand and the gun. They did, however, beat the shit out of the assassin after he had put 2 rounds into the McKinley. It was McKinley that stopped the body guards from killing him. McKinley died of gangrene a week later.



1844 Explorer/cartographer John C. Fremont sees the Great Salt Lake and maps it. Fremont was not the first honky to see this sight. Mountain men had been coming back east and talking about the lake since the 1820’s. Fremont’s maps of the western lands were critical to those pioneers and settlers that followed. Had it not been for these maps the settling of the west would have come much later and a much higher price. Fremont was not a person that knew how to live off the land, he hired mountain men and people like Kit Carson to guide and advise him. Fremont was also made a US General during the War Between the States. It was soon apparent that being a field commander in combat was not his calling and he resigned and went back to exploring. He died in 1890.



Born today:



1757 French adventurer Marquis de Lafayette. He said “If the liberties of America are ever lost, it will be at the hands of the clergy.” I hope those are not the words of the future but the actions of the evangelicals are worrisome.



1888 US millionaire and father of President Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy. He said to John during his election “Don’t buy more votes than you need to, I’ll be damned if I am going to pay for a landslide.” John also had the help of the Mafia.



1926 US Secretary of Agriculture Jim Hightower. He said “Ronald Reagan promised us all a seven course meal. Mine turned out to be a possum and a six pack.” A possum is pretty oily unless you put it up and feed it corn and wheat and distilled water for a couple of weeks before eating it. Even then it tastes like shit.



1964 US actress Rosie Perez. She said “Yes, they are real and they are mine.” It doesn’t matter to me Rosie; I am an ass and leg man.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow