Daily lesson

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew."

                                   Abraham Lincoln

I think it would be wise for all of us to dwell on the above quote. This country has never been in as much trouble as it was during the American Civil War, including the days that we are now enduring. It is time to "think anew and act anew".


I went to bed last night during a light rain and awoke this morning to a raging deluge that lasted about two hours. It feels good to lay in bed nice and warm and listen to the rain pounding on your balcony just a few feet away. I think we all have had that experience. The storm has past but the skies are still overcast and there is a stiff wind from the northwest. The Sound is restless.


I went to the Coffee Cup in Pensacola for breakfast this morning and had a cheese and sausage omelet that was as fluffy as a cloud and a small bowl of Nassau grits along with a cup of coffee and a small tomato juice. It all was exactly what I had been craving. A new Italian restaurant opened here on the beach named Lillo's. I can't stay out of there. The price and portions are right.


I don't know what it is about Montgomery, Alabama. As y'all know, Montgomery is the state capitol. A few years ago the state elected Don Siegelman Governor. Just a few months later he was arrested for extortion, bribery and corruption. He was convicted and is now in state prison. In 2007 a state judge in Montgomery had charges filed against him for promising a lesser sentence for both men and women in return for sex. This jackass did not get the freaking message and continued this practice until a month or two ago when a grand jury indicted him for all the above plus once in a while the judge would have a prisoner taken from his cell and sent to his office where he would have them drop their pants or raise their skirts and beat them on the ass with a wooden paddle. Not only is this man a sexual pervert, he is a sadistic sexual pervert. He has resigned.


Good News:


As a result of the Ecological Conference held in Los Angeles, Governor Schwarzenegger has tagged ecologist Bill Toone of Escondido to join with Mexican ecologists in restoring the wintering grounds for the Monarch butterflies. I mentioned that there were a lot of them flying about here in Paradise in a previous lesson. It seems that the Monarchs winter in a forest of one particular type fir tree in the Sierra Madres of Mexico to the tune of 750,000 to 1 million individual butterflies. It seems that the local villagers have been cutting the trees down for fuel in heating and cooking plus a small amount of poaching. Toone and other Mexican ecologists are going to plant over 200,000 non-fir trees for use by the villagers plus many more fir trees preferred by the Monarchs.


I did not know this but those facilities that produce greenhouse gasses can get out of being fined heavily if they contribute heavily to other projects that are perfecting ways to eliminate green house gasses. I like it.


This date in history October 6


1973    Even after the severe ass-whipping they received in the 1967 six day war, the combined armies of Egypt and Syria attack Israel on this date. The Syrians attack down through Lebanon and the Egyptians attack across the thirsty Sinai desert. This attack came during Yom Kippur and the war was named such. The Israelis were not expecting this and their defensive forces were thrown back into a headlong retreat. After a while the Israelis got their act together and began a counter-attack. The Syrians/Egyptians were using the latest Soviet equipment and the Israelis were using the latest French and American equipment. After a ferocious tank battle with the Syrians, the Israelis gain the Golan Heights and brought swarms of artillery and rockets up there and rained hell on the hapless Syrian army. That, along with air superiority, sent the Syrians scurrying back to Damascus. Then the Israelis turned their attention to the Egyptians. Again using air power, the Israelis cut the retreat of the Egyptians and had them surrounded on the Sinai. It was within the Israeli’s grasp to virtually annihilate the Egyptian army. The Egyptians ran out of food, water and medical supplies and the end was near. Then Russia stepped in and threatened to go rescue the Egyptians if a cease fire was not brought to fruition. The Americans said”Like hell you will” and both the Russians and Americans began to ramp up their military presence in the middle east. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and a shaky cease fire was reached. The Russians and Americans came within a gnat’s ass of open warfare but the cease fire held and peace, of a sort, again prevailed. Those countries that want Israel out of there just do not get the picture. The want to attack without air supremacy and in that part of the world tanks, artillery pieces and rolling stock have no place to hide and the Israeli fighter-bombers just blow their young asses into confetti. Not only that, they fail to realize the Israel has nuclear weapons, Armageddon indeed.


1981    Previous to this date Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israel President Menachem Begin had signed a peace accord at Camp David, Maryland under the sponsorship of US President Jimmy Carter. Begin and Sadat had been deadly enemies since they were in their teens but somehow Carter was able to persuade them to seek peace together. They ended up signing the peace accord and shaking hands. On this date, Sadat is sitting on a reviewing stand watching a military parade commemorating the Egyptian losses in the Yom Kippur War (see above). About halfway through the parade, a personnel carrier rolled by and several men dressed in Egyptian camo jumped down and began firing and throwing grenades at the reviewing stand. Sadat was hit four times and died the next day. Vice President Hosni Mubarak was on the stand also but escaped injury. Mubarak assumed power soon thereafter and had over 800 people arrested looking for the culprits. I will give ya’ll one guess as to who the perpetrators were. Correct, it was Arab terrorists that do not want peace. As we all know these mad dogs thrive on chaos and turmoil and should be shot down as such. Mubarak finally whittled down the 800 detainees to 24. Most were hanged defiant to the end but a few went to prison for life. They were not given trials ya’ll, they were just executed or sent to prison. I like it.


1972    A train in Mexico had picked up a load of 1,600 pilgrims going from Saltillo and Monterrey to a festival at Saint Francis of Catorce for All Saints day. It was a festive day for all; the tequila flowed like water even into the crew of the train that was to take to pilgrims back home. The festival broke up about 9:00p and the 1,600 pilgrims boarded the train for the trip back home most of which were hammered to the gills on tequila including the train crew. On the way back there is a rather shaky railroad bridge that has a speed limit of 35 MPH. The train reached the bridge doing 75 MPH, the bridge disintegrated and the engine and 20 rail cars went into a river. There were 200 dead and several hundred injured. The firemen and engineer were killed fortunately for them. I cannot imagine anything worse than doing time in a Mexican prison.


1866    On this date the Reno Brothers, John and Simeon, execute the first train robbery in American history in Jackson County, Indiana. There had been some pilfering of some trains while they were stopped at a station but not one where a moving train was stopped and robbed out in a remote area away from curious onlookers. The Reno brothers got away with $13,000, an enormous sum for the time. Even though this method of robbery was invented in Indiana, it became very popular in the American west. The railroad owners finally installed very heavy safes and heavily armed guards to protect the cash and gold. They even went so far as to have a special railcar built whereby law enforcement officers and their horses would be ready to quickly disembark and give chase to the outlaws. Eventually, train robbery became more dangerous than it was worth and faded into legend.


Births and deaths:


1867    Saturday Evening Post editor George Lorimer is born. He said “Education is about the only thing lying loose in the world, and it’s about the only thing a fellow can have as much as he is willing to haul away.” I guess this means you can be as smart as you want to be.


1908    US actress Carole Lombard is born. When actor George Raft caught her applying peroxide to her pubic hair she said “Relax George, I am just making my collar and cuffs match.”


1989    US actress Bette Davis dies. She said “Growing old is not for sissies.”


Quotable quotes:


“I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn’t mine.”


Rita Rudner


“I cannot understand how a woman can pour hot wax on their upper thigh and rip out the hair and still be afraid of a spider.” Jerry Seinfeld


Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow