Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows"

                                    Epictetus

The weather here in paradise is as beautiful today as I have seen since I have been here. It was cool this morning, about 48 degrees. It will heat up to about 72 with a very light wind from the northeast. The skies and air is crystal clear.

One of my favorite women is raising a lot of eyebrows lately. Beautiful Sarah Palin is trudging around the country selling her book. She also has said that Senator McCain's election staff treated her poorly not to mention calling out Katie Couric. I think it is all part of a plan to get her in the public eye for the future. She definitely has an agenda.

A couple of days ago down in the Anderson, South Carolina area, a 13 year old boy and his 12 year old adopted brother showed up missing. The parents called the cops and they sent out patrols, including helicopters, scouring the countryside. The scary part was they were armed. Their family had avid hunters and the boys stole five weapons. On Thursday a man sighted the boys near a construction site and immediately knew who they were. Reports and photos were on every type of media and the man called out to the boys by name. The boys asked him for a ride, they were going to hitchhike to North Carolina. The man called the cops instead and the boys laid down their weapons and were taken to police headquarters and interviewed. All of this started when report cards from the boys school were not good and the parents put them on restrictions. The father said that he is relieved that they are safe but was angry at the same time. There is no report as to what punishment the boys received, if any.

On Saturday the Blue Angels will be the headliner at an air show at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. I have seen them there in the past. They are spectacular but the noise is horrific. The F-18 Hornet is a powerful airplane. This air show will be the last one for them in 2009. The pilots spend two year flying with the Blue Angels then they are deployed to the fleet.

About a month ago the city of Pritchard, Alabama (near Mobile) filed a Chapter 9 bankruptcy. When is the last time you ever heard of an entire city declaring bankruptcy? Anyway, this week the Chief of Police handed in his resignation to be come a probation officer. He said the city's bankruptcy had nothing to do with him resigning a year early from his five year contract. Everybody that believes that raise their hand.

I am watching a helicopter land on a Coast Guard cutter that is about a half mile from my condo. In fact the helicopter made five or six landings and takeoffs so they must be training. I have never seen a Coast Guard vessel this far up Santa Rosa Sound.

Good news:

The day after Tropical Storm Ida passed by a motorist near Gulf Shores, Alabama saw a bottle-nosed dolphin stranded about 150 feet up on the beach. The motorist notified the Alabama wildlife authorities and they were on the scene quickly. The 190 pound dolphin was taken to a unit in Gulfport, Mississippi that specializes in the rescue of dolphins. The attending veterinarian said the dolphin has a good chance of survival but does have pneumonia and a lot of parasites all of which are treatable. Apparently the dolphin was washed ashore by the high winds associated with Ida.

I just found out that the dolphin died. That veterinarian did not know whereof he spoke, did he?

I guess y'all know by now that the mastermind of the 9/11 disaster is going to be brought from Gitmo to New York City to stand trial. As SC Senator Jim DeMint said "What lunatic authorized that?" He is right. Putting a kingpin of terrorists on trial in the United States is asking for another strike. It is at least putting thousands of Americans at risk. By the way, the initials of the person that did authorize this is Barak Obama.

I went to a high school football game with my daughter last night. It was the Gulf Breeze Dolphins against the Navarre Raiders. We did not go especially to see the game but to see my grand daughter who is in the marching band. Let me tell y'all, the Gulf Breeze band had about 90 members. It looked like the Crimson Tide band out there. My grand daughter plays a french horn but in a marching band it is called something else. Scottie will know. By the way, my daughter and I left after the half time show with the score 28 to 6 in favor of Navarre.

This date in history November 14

1862    On this date President Abraham Lincoln approves US General Ambrose Burnsides’ plan for the capture of the Confederate capitol of Richmond , Virginia . Burnsides was the replacement for US General George McClellan who had been fired by Lincoln for being an obnoxious horse’s ass. McClellan was the architect of landing troops southeast of Richmond and attack Richmond up the James River Peninsula . Well, he ran into CSA General Robert E. Lee in a series of battle over the span of seven days and McClellan had his ass handed to him and he retreated back down the peninsula and took his young ass back north. However, he ran into Lee again near a small town in Maryland named Sharpsburg . The battle took place near a body of water named Antietam Creek. This was the bloodiest single day in American history and the battle was called a draw. Both armies were beat up badly which forced Lee to retreat back into Virginia to regroup and refit. McClellan, remembering what happened to him in Virginia before, decided to languish a couple of months near Sharpsburg and refused to follow Lee into Virginia . This was the last straw and Lincoln canned him in favor of Burnsides. Burnsides’ plan was to march down the east bank of the Rappahannock River cross over to the west side near the town of Fredericksburg , Virginia and attack Richmond from the south. Lincoln would have rather had Burnsides to try and crush Lee’s army but for the lack of any other choice he approved Burnsides’ plan. So Burnsides’ goes down the river bank until he was opposite Fredericksburg but he had to wait for two days because of the weather. By then Lee’s army had deployed his army on Marye’s Heights facing the River and had pre-registered (aimed) his artillery. In fact Lee's artillery commander said "A chicken could not cross that field and survive." Burnsides sent his troops on the attack a regiment at a time and those poor guys were literally chopped to pieces. This did not slow Burnsides down he kept sending more and more troops into that cauldron for 14 separate charges. All of them failed. Can you imagine what those soldiers that were in the 14th charge were wading through? Anyway, Burnsides ordered a retreat but then there came three days of torrential rain which turned the roads into quagmires. Burnsides’ retreat bogged down and the Confederates on the opposite bank were sniping at them from cover and were yelling taunts at them. Burnsides’ finally completed his retreat after suffering horrendous losses. This was an ignominious end to the combat command of US General Ambrose Burnsides.

1851    Earlier an author named Herman Melville had published a novel named Typee about his experiences aboard a trading ship in the south Pacific. But on this date he released one of the most engrossing books ever written. He gave us Moby Dick. This novel is based on Melville’s experiences on a whaling vessel. The first line of this book is famous: “Call me Ishmael.” It is a story of the revenge of a whaling vessel captain named Ahab against an albino sperm whale, that he named Moby Dick, for taking off his right leg on an earlier expedition. His desire for revenge was absorbed by the rest of his crew and their whole being became aimed at killing the great whale. I will let it go at that and ya’ll can find out what happened on your own. It gives you an insight to the depths that human hatred can descend.

1882    This is a tale about one of the lesser known gunmen in the old west named Franklin “Buckskin” Leslie. According to him he was either born in Texas or Kentucky depending upon his mood at the time. He also said that he went to medical school in Europe . No one really knew much about him except he was a very capable gunman. He gained a reputation as a bad-ass long before he arrived in that famous city of hell called Tombstone, Arizona . He was not as well known as the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday but he was just as deadly. He got into a cuss-fight with man named John Killeen about Killeen ’s wife. They drew down on each other and Killeen was killed. Very shortly afterward Leslie married the former Mrs. Killeen. After a while of him beating her up, his wife and Leslie were divorced. Leslie then took up with a Tombstone prostitute. Then one night he got drunk and chose to shoot and kill the prostitute. Even in Tombstone , the killing of a woman would not be tolerated and “Buckskin” went to the slammer for ten years. After he was released he returned to Tombstone and resumed his life of before. He had a drinking partner named Johnny Ringo that was just as mean and deadly as Buckskin. Well, Ringo was found dead outside Tombstone in Turkey Creek and yet another gunslinger named Billy “The Kid” Claiborne blamed Buckskin as the murderer. No one knows why, but on this date Claiborne proclaimed all of this in public which was essentially a challenge to Buckskin to fight and fight they did. Claiborne lost. After this the trail of Buckskin becomes obscure. Some claim that he made a fortune in the Klondike gold fields no one really knows but Buckskin Leslie faded from the pages of history. By the way, Wyatt Earp later claimed that it was he that had killed Johnny Ringo at Turkey Creek.

1940    On this date German Luftwaffe bombed the hell out of the English city of Coventry . There is a story that Winston Churchill knew that the Germans were going to attack Coventry because they had broken the German code named Enigma which is what the Luftwaffe used. He could not warn the people of Coventry that a raid was coming because then the Germans would know their code had been broken. War is hell.

Born today:

1951    US songwriter Stephen Bishop. He wrote a song named “I am so miserable without you; it is almost like having you here.” I think I was married to this woman

1952    US Representative Maureen Murphy. She said “The reason there are so few women politicians is that is so much trouble to put make-up on two faces.” I think we all know a female politician that has multiple faces, don’t we? Her initials are Hillary Clinton.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow