Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that isn't there."

                                        Eric Hoffer

I suppose everyone has OD'ed on college and pro football by now. This past weekend has proven that the SEC is much tougher than the ACC. If you don't believe me talk to Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson. Next week we will see Alabama vs Florida for the SEC championship and probably a seat in the BCS national championship game. Both teams are undefeated in the toughest conference on the nation. We cannot forget TCU, number four in the nation, they are undefeated also as is Boise State. In my humble opinion neither TCU nor Boise State can hold a candle to either Bama or Florida.

As some of you might know, this is the month of the Hajj. This is when the Muslim faithful go on a pilgrimage to various sites in Saudi Arabia to visit the locations where Muhammad was supposed to have performed various miraculous deeds, where he was born and where he was allegedly visited by the arch Angel Gabriel who defined which path Muhammad was to follow. Anyway, there are millions of Muslims that gather in very tight quarters in these ceremonies and this year H1N1 swine flu is kicking ass among them resulting in several deaths. Allah works in mysterious ways.

Saturday evening the Spartanburg, SC County Sheriffs department was called about a suspicious person lurking in a Union Street neighborhood. By the time the deputies arrived two men were injured. It appeared that 52 year old Charles Gory had walked from his house to the neighborhood packing a shotgun and was looking for 43 year old Lafayette Taylor. I seems that both Gory and Taylor had eyes for the same woman and thought that killing each other would resolve the issue. Gory unloaded his scattergun into Taylor's abdomen using very small bird shot. Taylor retaliated and Gory was injured in an undescribed manner. Both were taken to a hospital, treated and released with non life threatening wounds. Here we have 52 and 43 year old men fighting over a woman trying to use deady force. I wonder how old the woman was. How can she be worth killing someone over?

By now all of you know about the killings over near Tacoma, Washington. Early Sunday morning four uniformed policemen were sitting in a coffee shop with their laptops preparing to come on duty by looking to get a look-see and the most wanted. Someone walked into the shop and with a handgun killed all four of the cops. The police have a good description of the gunmen from the other people in the shop. That area is swarming with cops and dogs. It will be a miracle if the gunman will survive. Police frown on their own being killed and will be extra vigilant in their search for the gunman. I personally hope they cap his ass.

Good News:

Back in WWII when everybody in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz was trying to escape, a British soldier named Denis Avey smuggled his way in so he could witness the horror that was rampant and report it to the world. He had a double mission. He was there also to contact a prisoner named Ernst Lobethall on behalf of Ernst's sister who had escaped to the United States. Avey not only smuggled himself in but he had cigarettes and chocolate also. He gave this contraband to Ernst who traded them for favors which allowed him to survive. Ernst is dead but Denis is still with us at the age of 91. It is only recently that Denis was able to tell about his journeys into "hell on earth". He suffered severely with PTSD and it is no wonder.

This date in history November 30

1776    On this date one of the greatest screw-ups in history occurs. British Admiral Richard Howe and his bother British General William Howe offer amnesty to any colonist that would swear an oath to cease and desist from “Treasonable acting and doings” within 60 days. Earlier in September Admiral Howe had brought his fleet into Long Island Sound and disembarked his brother General William Howe and his well trained and polished infantry. After landing Howe engaged in two battles with Patriot General George Washington and his rag tag army and on one occasion Howe had the entire Patriot army flanked and could have cut off Washington’s retreat and captured and hanged him and his entire staff for treason and the rebellion would have ended. But the Howe brothers saw themselves as peace makers and allowed Washington and company to escape by boat over to Manhattan. A little while later The Patriots sent over a committee headed by Ben Franklin to negotiate with the Howe brothers. After two days of talks the negotiations broke down when the Howe brothers would not even consider American Independence as being necessary for peace. After this both sides ramped up for the all out war they knew was coming. Seven years later after an ocean of tears and blood was shed by our ancestors, victory was ours.

1835    On this date Samuel Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed out to a printer but then went to work for an older brother who was an editor with the Hannibal Journal in Hannibal, Missouri. He was commissioned to write a humorous travel column for the Keokuk Daily Post in Keokuk, Iowa. But Samuel saw himself as a riverboat captain on the mighty Mississippi and became an apprentice. At the age of 23 he received his license as a riverboat captain. He piloted until the outbreak of the Civil War and then nearly all riverboat traffic was discontinued. It was during his time as a captain that he received the nickname of “Mark Twain” which was a call out signifying the depth of two fathoms which was the minimum safe depth on the river. He moved out west and began writing for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, in Virginia City, Nevada. He eventually moved to San Francisco and began writing in earnest and delivered one of his best renderings in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. In addition to this he gave us “Huckleberry Finn”, “Tom Sawyer”, “Roughin’ it” and many other gems. It is unlikely that the world will ever be graced with such a talented wit as he. He eventually moved to Hartford, Connecticut where he died in 1910. What a great legacy he left us all.

1864    Earlier CSA General John Bell Hood and the once proud army under his command was trying his damnedest to stop the enormous Union army from capturing Atlanta from the north. He was not successful and finally had to pull his troops out of the area and into Alabama to refit and recover. After finally getting his army into condition Hood headed for Nashville, Tennessee to try and capture the Union supplies known to be there. U.S. General William T. Sherman had enough troops that he was able to send and army commanded by General George Thomas to Nashville to protect his supplies. Thomas arrived at Nashville way ahead of Hood and was dug in way before Hood’s arrival. Yet another Union army commanded by General John Schofield was headed toward Nashville from the south and Hood was approaching Nashville from the southwest. It looked like Hood and Schofield would arrive at Nashville on the same day. Hood’s scouts and Schofield’s scouts had located each other’s armies and reported their positions back to their commanders. Schofield’s plan was to march right by Hood and go to the already prepared positions just south of Nashville near the town of Franklin, Tennessee. Hood attacked the left flank of Schofield marching army to no avail. In spite of being attacked, those Yankees made it to their prepared positions and dug in. Hood was furious and blamed his underlings for not stopping Schofield and arrayed his troops for a frontal assault. On this date, Hood launched a ferocious attack on Schofield’s center in spite of the fact that all of his army had not yet arrived and much of his artillery was still miles away. The Confederates marched off in perfect unison and broke the Yankee lines on the outer flanks but were unable to crack the center. Then the Yankees launched and equally ferocious counter-attack from the center and pushed the Confederates back in defeat. This was the last attack of this type in the Civil War. Any battle after this was a cavalry exchange or a siege. In this one battle Hood lost seven Generals and a majority of his regimental commanders not to mention 5,500 troops. This was the end of the Confederate army in the “western theatre”. There was a meeting of CSA General Lee and US General Grant five months later in Appomattox Court House, Virginia where Lee asked for terms for the surrender of the once mighty Army of Northern Virginia. The war was over.

1989    On this date the so called “America’s first serial killer” struck. A trucker named Richard Mallory was last seen in the company of Aileen Wournos. They had left a truck stop near Palm Bay, Florida and Richard was never seen alive again. They found his truck three days later near Ormond Beach with his wallet, a few condoms and pocket change on the front seat, but no Richard. Finally Richard’s body turned up in a Daytona Beach junkyard with three bullet holes in his chest. Over a period of two years seven men were found dead killed in a similar manner. The Florida Bureau of Investigation finally tracked Wournous down to a seedy biker bar near Tampa. She went on trial and was convicted of murder on seven counts. After the jury rendered their verdict, Aileen screamed “I am innocent. It was self defense. I was raped. I hope all of you scum sucking maggots get raped.” This was not a smooth move for Aileen because it would be the same jury that would convene two weeks later and determine her punishment. They gave her the death penalty. After Aileen figured out that the state of Florida was not kidding and they were going to kill her, she became a born again Christian. Sure enough, the state of Florida did indeed mean business and in October of 2002 she went meet her maker and her corpse was cremated. The ashes sent to her birthplace in Michigan where a former friend spread her ashes under a tree where they used to play. It seems sad, but think of the families of her victims first, and then think of Aileen.

Born today:

1874    British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He said “Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.” Churchill is one of my favorite personalities.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow