Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key success. If you love what you are doing, happiness will be yours."

Albert Schweitzer

Normally I am on the side of law enforcement but as in any position of power, some people think they are ten feet tall and bullet-proof. This was the case with 43 year old Deputy Tallent over in Gaffney, SC. About a year ago Tallent was called to a local tavern because of a disturbance involving three men. Tallent went in and immediately sprayed one of the three with pepper spray and beat the living crap out of another with his night stick. The three men filed a complaint about excessive force. The Sheriff's department investigated and sure enough, the case against the Deputy was proven and he was convicted. His sentence was that he was immediately fired, given a sentence of 90 days in jail, a considerable length of time of home incarceration and five years probation.

No one was killed or seriously injured here and his sentence is way more than what John Ludwig received. Equal protection under the law...who are we kidding. Money talks.

In another instance a musician from Charlotte played a set here in Greenville and then went with a friend of mine to another musical venue. After leaving this place in the musicians car, she was stopped by a state trooper and arrested for suspected DUI. Her car was impounded. My friend who was a passenger called another friend to come take her home. The friend crawled out of bed and drove down to pick her up. When she got there another cop gave HER a roadside test. This cop had not seen her drive at all and she had not been drinking at all either so there was nothing on her breath. The cop had no probable cause or even a suspicion. He just thought he was God, when in reality he is just one step from the Gestapo. Keep in mind that Ludwig was given no test at all after killing someone.

There is a man here in Greenville that likes to complain just for the fun of it. He filed so many complaints about the postal service that a postal inspector was sent to his house to gather information. The inspector brought a deputy Sergeant with him because the complainer had threatened violence in some of his letters. The inspector and the deputy found the man on his front porch who drew a pistol out of his pants pocket and pointed toward the deputy. The deputy was able to draw his own service revolver and grab the other man's gun at the same time. A few seconds of intense struggling followed and the deputy was able to wrest the gun away from this maniac. In the mean time the deputy's service revolver fired four times but no one was injured. If it had been me and I heard the cops gun fire I would have surrendered immediately because he could have killed me and got away with it. I would not pull a hog-leg on a cop in any event, that is asking for death.

Christmas is usually a joyous time for the most of us, but has been proven to be a very sad time for others for a variety of reasons. Yesterday the Greenville police was called about a man in a van near the zoo, he was slumped over the steering wheel. The police found that he had a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the right temple. He was dead. Merry Christmas.

Good news:

Chevrolet and Nissan has promised us a hybrid car in 2012 that will have triple digit fuel economy. In response to this, Toyoda has promised a "plug-in" hybrid Prius to be released in 2011 hoping to get a jump on their competition. The car wil travel 14.5 miles on electricity alone and can be plugged in for recharging. It is not very far but it is a start. The best part is that Toyota has estimated 136 MPG on the plug-in hybrid. Toyota has developed a ground breaking lithium-ion battery in cooperation with Panansonic and Sanyo. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.

This date in history December 16

1773    On this night those wild and crazy guys from Boston known at the Sons of Liberty decided to pay a visit to three British tea clippers anchored in Boston harbor. The Sons of Liberty were not pleased that Great Britain had maneuvered the tax structure trying to save the British owned East India Company to the point that East India Company had a monopoly on tea coming to the colonies. The Sons of Liberty felt like they did not want to taken for granted and used so they went aboard the three ships, the "Dartmouth" , "Eleanor" and "Beaver" dressed as Mohawk Indians and threw all the tea aboard into the harbor. Well, the British authorities in Boston got word back to Parliament in London and they about peed their pants at the loss of about 1 million pounds sterling worth of tea. They immediately passed the Coercive Acts as punishment to the colonies for this outrage. The Coercive Act essentially declared Martial Law in the state of Massachusetts; it also declared that English officers would be exempt from the law and could not be tried for any crimes whatsoever. The final straw declared that British soldiers could commandeer private lands and houses if they felt like it. There is no sense for me to tell you what effect this had on the already hot-blooded Sons of Liberty. All it did was light even a larger fire under altar of freedom and the Revolutionary War began in earnest at the Battle of Bunker Hill two years later. As y'all have figured out by now, this event was forever known as the Boston Tea Party.

1811    The quiet of the afternoon in northwestern Tennessee near the Kentucky border was broken by an earthquake estimated to be in the 7.5 range on the Richter scale. Some of the lands moved up or down 15 feet and the Mississippi River briefly reversed course causing some of the nearby lowlands to flood. In one particular area the water was trapped into a permanent lake and it was name Reelfoot Lake . It is not often that we get to see the formation of a naturally created lake but we did this time. Reelfoot is close to the Mississippi flyway and enjoys a stopover to many thousands of ducks and geese on their way south and north. It also holds the distinction of having the largest number of nesting Bald eagles outside of Alaska .

1944    With the attack on Germany from the east by the Russians beginning in earnest the German army knew that with the attack of the Allies from the west their days were numbered unless they could attack what they considered the weaker of the two forces, that being the Allies closing in from the west. They figured that if they fought their way northwest and captured the Belgian deep water port of Antwerp, they might have a chance of being re-supplied and refitted and continue the war. They knew they could not win the war but if they succeeded in this operation they could negotiate a peace from a position of strength. After stockpiling troops, artillery, tanks and other tools of war undetected in the Belgian Ardennes Forest over a period of months, on this morning the Germans launched a three pronged attack during a snowstorm. The battle line was about 50 miles long with the center prong led by a ruthless German Tank commander named Joachim Pieper. The Germans enjoys initial success and drove through the unsuspecting American troops with ease until they had pushed out about 60 miles and had encircled the important transportation center of Bastogne, Belgium that was defended by 18,000 members of the 101st Airborne and the 10th artillery. The troops held out in spite of constant German artillery barrages from every direction and attempted attacks with infantry without success. On December 22 The German commander asked for a truce and brought a surrender request to the Commander of the 101st named Major General Anthony McAuliffe telling him surrender or risk annihilation. McAuliffe sent back one word “Nuts”. The German officer had to get an interpretation of what it meant and was told that it meant “kiss my ass”. During all this time the skies had never cleared so the Allied air superiority could have its effect. On the next day, the skies opened up and the Allied fighter bombers fell upon the German tanks and artillery that had the roads choked and destroyed them in place. On the day after Christmas a tank column from Patton’s 3rd Army reached the beleaguered town of Bastogne and the 101st and the 10th were relieved. The strange thing is the 101st was pissed off that the tank column came because they felt they did not need any relief. They felt they could beat the damned Germans alone without any help even though they were nearly out of ammo, food and winter clothing. They were/are arrogant warriors, ya’ll. Anyway, General Eisenhower assigned British General Bernard Law Montgomery to attack the German right flank, US General Omar Bradley to attack the center, and US General George Patton to attack the right flank and drive those Germans back into Germany. They succeeded but it cost about 80,000 American lives, the worst loss for an American force ever in one operation. The Germans lost 120,000 troops, 1,600 planes, 700 tanks. The end was in sight for the defeat of Germany .

Births and deaths:

1584    British jurist John Selden is born. He said “They that govern the most make the least noise.”

1787    Mary Medford English writer is born. She said of Jane Austen “She was the prettiest, silliest, and most affected husband hunter ever.”

1901    US anthropologist Margaret Mead is born. She said “Women want mediocre men and men are trying to become mediocre as soon as they can.”

1980    Colonel Harlan Sanders, the founder of KFC dies. He said “There is no sense in being the richest man in the cemetery. You can’t do business from there.”

Quotable quotes:

“My dog is half Labrador and half pit bull. It bites my leg off and then brings it to me.”     Frank Carson

“I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering”. Steven Wright

“I never had any trouble with drugs, only policemen.” Keith Richard

You know you drank too much the night before when you wake up with crop circles in your pubic hairs.” Doug Benson

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow