Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Two may walk under the same roof for many years and never meet; and two other are old friends at first speech."

                                Mary Catherwood

The weather bureau has promised us a visit from Hurricane Ida Monday night and Tuesday. As of 6AM Monday Ida was located 250 miles due south of Mobile Bay moving north at 16MPH. She has maximum sustained winds of 80 MPH. If my calculations are right she should arrive dead center of Pensacola at about 10PM tonight. I will give y'all a summary tomorrow.

The House version of the health reform bill passed by the narrowest of margins last night. Every Republican in the house voted against the Health Care Reform Bill with one exception. Representative Joseph Cao (R-La.) voted for the bill. The Democrats leaned heavily on Cao because they want the vote to be "bi-partisan". They make me sick.

Recently a policeman here in Pensacola saw a man that was on a wanted poster and gave chase. The fugitive attempted to escape on a bicycle but a police cruiser pulled along side and the cop Tasered him out the window. The bike rider fell under the cruiser and was killed. Now in typical knee-jerk fashion the family of the criminal that was accidentally killed want Tasers banned from the police. Perhaps you are right. Maybe it would be better to shoot their brains out with a .40 caliber Glock rather give them a minor electric shock that they get over in a matter of seconds. Great thinking out there you family of the wanted criminal. Why didn't y'all get off your lazy asses and intervene in the young man's burgeoning criminal career? Oh no, you typically want to blame everybody but yourselves.

I read a story about a 16 year old kid down in the Miami area that held up a convenience store and ran away. The cops got there with a dog and the dog picked up the scent immediately and tracked the robber to a canal where the kid was trying to swim across and escape. The cops turned the dog loose who immediately jumped in and started swimming toward the robber. The robber saw the dog coming and panicked and ended up drowning in spite of the police pulling the kid out and doing CPR. The family of the kid wanted to sue the city for the death because the dog did not bite him but scared him into drowning. I am at a loss for words here.
If that boys parents/or caretakers had been worth a damn this tragedy would never had happened. What should have scared him was the knowledge that bad behavior would have brought retribution at home.

Tuesday the "Beltway sniper", John Mohammad, is scheduled to be executed in Virginia by lethal injection. He was tried and convicted of killing one person but it is believed that he and his partner Lee Malvo killed over 27. Malvo has already been convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Mohammad had the damn nerve to say that he would identify all of those that he killed if he got immunity. Goodbye, John. Sweet dreams.

Your US Goverment has cut the season on Red Snapper and Grouper more than half and decreased the limit by two thirds. Naturally the commercial and sportsfishing boat captains are raising hell and I don't blame them. Some of the boat captains from the TV show "Deadliest Catch" are in town offering support.

Good news:

NBC news did a special on the orphans that the war in Afghanistan has created. Apparenty the program struck a nerve and money began pouring in in the orphan's behalf. It is up to $50,000 with no end in sight. By the way, that jackass shooter in Ft. Hood is no longer on a respirator but is still in ICU. That is good news because he is one step closer to a firing squad.

This date in history November 9

1780 On this date British General James Wemyss and 190 cavalrymen attempt 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 indiscriminant 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 occurs 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. Hmmmmmm.

1862    On this date the commander of the 9th 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 1st Manassas and was promoted to Brigadier General and given command of the 9th 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 arrives. 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.

1875    On this day the equivalent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs declared that the Teton Sioux and Cheyenne were hostile. Earlier the Sioux under the command of Chief Red Cloud had agreed to go to a huge reservation in the Black Hills of South Dakota against wishes of many of the tribe. Then the Bureau wanted the Sioux and Cheyenne to do the same and sent an order for them to report to Fort Robinson, Nebraska and if they were not there by a given date they would be declared hostile and the task of getting them to the reservation would be handed to the US Army. On of the worst blizzard in American history occurred and the message never reached the Sioux and Cheyenne and of course they did not go to the reservation and were declared hostile. Soon after this gold was discovered in the Black Hills and prospectors swarmed into Red Cloud’s reservation with impunity from the Bureau. Disgusted with this betrayal, many of Red Cloud’s warriors left and joined with Sioux Chief Sitting Bull and the great Cheyenne warrior Crazy Horse in Montana to hunt buffalo. It was this combined tribes that met with the US 7th Cavalry led by George A. Custer at the Little Big Horn a year later.

Born today:

1683    English royalty King George II. When told that his General Wolfe was a madman he said “Madman is he? Well I hope he bites some of my other generals.” Wolfe was somewhat unstable but he was nearly always successful in combat.

1918   Austrian actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr. She said “Any woman can be glamorous; all they have to do is stand around looking stupid.” Hedy made a fortune several times over with her inventions. She was a brilliant person.

1918    US Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. He said “I apologize for lying to you. I promise that I will not deceive you except in matters of this sort.” He was forced to resign the Vice-Presidency when it was discovered he had taken bribes and kick backs whilst the Governor of Maryland.

1921    US Representative (MA) Silvio Conte. He said “This is not time to pull the rug out the middle of the stream.” Silvio, go back to Massachusetts and quit making me sick.

1928    US writer Anne Sexton. She said “In your dreams you are never eighty.” In my dreams everybody else is eighty, especially the women in an erotic dream.

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

Merci pour ecoutant, moi peux a peine attendre jusq’a demain

(Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow)