Daily history

Good morning,


Due to a freaking ice storm that came through Friday night, I cannot even walk to my car safely. I have been in my crib for over 24 hours and I am tired of it. The low for Saturday night is projected to be 17. I looked at the weather forecast for my second home (Pensacola) and I keep asking myself why am I here in Greenpatch?

Quote of the day # 1:

"My philosophy of life is pretty simple, I empty what is full, fill what is empty and scratch where it itches."

                           Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Quote of the day #2:

"The Democrats keep asking us to give Obama a little time; how about 25 to life."

                                              Ron White

I think I told y'all about those two female high school teachers down in Jay, Florida that were caught having sex with three 17 year old boys that were their students. Well, a couple of days ago in Pensacola, Florida the parents of a 15 year old boy became suspicious of very sexually specific communications on his e-mail and tracked it down to one of his 26 year old school teachers. They came to find out that the teacher and student had been having sex for three or four months two and three times a week. The peculiar part is that the teacher would take them across state lines into Alabama for their trysts. I don't know what is going on down there except for a severe outbreak of cougars.

There is a seafood wholesaler down in Pensacola that was in collusion with two other people to sell fish and shellfish that were misrepresented. They sold fish as being "fresh" when actually they were frozen, thawed and washed with a bleach solution to brighten the meat back up. They had Nile perch that they sold as grouper and red snapper. They took the label off a box of oysters and glued on another with a date on it that showed the oysters were fresher than they really were. That is dangerous, as y'all know. They sold shrimp that were domestically pond raised as being caught in the wild. They were successful at it too. They sold 385,000 pounds of that crap. All of them are in jail now but there is no telling how much illness was spread by those greedy bastards.

Speaking of fishing: I was bass fishing with my late father a few years ago. We were slowly traveling the banks casting plastic worms and lizards for spawning bass. We entered a cove where another boat was and he waved us down. We stopped the boat and the guy came over and wanted advice. He said that he was from Missouri and was in a tournament. We were on gigantic Lake Hartwell which is on the South Carolina/Georgia line. The other guy had not had any luck and wanted to know how we had done. We had caught and released about 16 bass so far that day. He asked what kind of bait we were using, etc. While we were just sitting there chatting my father, who had left his line in the water, and all of a sudden his fishing rod snapped down and he eventually landed a bass of about 3 1/2 pounds. After he unhooked and released the bass, we turned and headed down the bank and yelled back at the other guy "There ain't nothing to it!." It is a moment I will never forget, my father was just beaming.

Friday night an Arizona state trooper stopped a pickup truck for an improper license tag. He obtained Identification of the two occupants and went back to his cruiser and checked them out. He found that one of the occupants had an outstanding warrant and was on his way back to the truck when one of the occupants opened fire and killed the trooper. It was not long before there was a high speed pursuit involving the pickup and a number of cruisers with 50 troopers involved. The law enforcement community frowns of one of theirs being killed and their wrath becomes manifest. They finally were able to corner the pickup near the town of Gilbert, Arizona. The two Latinos in the truck jumped out and the OK Corral is brought to mind. The two Latinos went down quickly in a storm of gunfire. Unfortunately, both of them were wounded in the legs and are expected to survive. That really disappoints me. I would hope they would have to pick up those bastards with a whisk broom.

This date in history January 31

1865    Earlier United States President Abraham Lincoln had declared that the purpose of the Civil War was to preserve the Union. But after the major ass-kickings the Union army had received during the first year of the War, the northern public said “To hell with it, let the Rebs have their own country, stop the bloodbath.” So Abe had to take another tack to get the country back together so he now changed horses and said the purpose of the War was to free the slaves. It had been noticed that when the Union Army infrequently won a battle, the slaves nearby would join-up with the Yankee soldiers and they would not give them back to their owners. Then Abe issued the Emancipation Proclamation which allegedly freed the slaves in those states in rebellion. Abe’s advisors had in mind that those slaves in the Confederacy would rise up in rebellion upon hearing of the Emancipation but they were wrong, it did not happen and Abe stood there with egg on his face. The Confederacy did not consider themselves “states in rebellion”. They considered themselves as a separate and equally sovereign nation. Not only that there were four states that had slaves but had not seceded. What happened to those slaves? And finally, the Proclamation was not enforceable. I don’t know what Abe was thinking but the Emancipation Proclamation wasn’t worth paper it was written on. It took the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that was ratified on this date to get the job done and it read in part ...”neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in the United States nor any place subject to their jurisdiction....” Now the law had some teeth. This amendment passed the Senate and a House vote of 119-65, barely enough of a majority. The bill was introduced in 1864 but failed to pass the House vote because of “states rights” issues.

1923    One of my favorite writers is born on this day. Norman Mailer is born in Long Branch, New Jersey and raised in Brooklyn, New York Norman was seen as a gifted child at an early age and was given a scholarship to Harvard during WWII but delayed his education and joined the army. After the war he attended the Sorbonne in Paris. While there he was encouraged to pursue his obvious writing skills and gave us one of the greatest war novels ever written in “The Naked and the Dead”. It is very unusual for an author to deliver such a blockbuster on their first try. He wrote a couple of more novels that were not as successful as his first. Norman joined the peace protest march in Washington in 1967 and wrote about his experiences in the book “Armies of the Night” and received a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for this one. Later he gave us another winner in “The Executioners Song”. It is the story of the last few days and months of convicted serial killer Gary Gilmore before he met his maker in front of a firing squad in Utah. Again, Norman received a Pulitzer Prize and another National Book Award. Norman is known as a two-fisted drinker/brawler and avid anti-feminists. He has written about nearly everything and everyone. He has written about politics, war, religion, etc and written biographies on people like Marilyn Monroe and Richard Nixon among many others. He wrote about the Chicago police riot during the Democratic National convention. His irascible nature and anti-feminisms has made him one of the most controversial in the entire literary world. It had been reported that he got into an argument with actor Rip Torn and the mother of all brawls ensued. He got into an argument with his wife at a party and chose to stab her in the arm. But no matter, Norman Mailer is one of the most versatile and talented writers this country has ever produced. Not that it matters, Norman is Jewish.

1945    During the later years of WWII the United States were running out of soldiers and lowered the draft requirements. Eddie Slovik had originally been rejected because of a Grand Theft Auto conviction. Since the lowering of the standards Slovik was re-classified as 1-A, trained and sent to France to join the 28th Division as a private. Slovik got lost in the turmoil of battle and ended up with a Canadian outfit. Slovik was a hater of guns and a pacifist and refused to fight. The Canadians finally got fed up with Slovik and turned him over to MP’s of the 28th Division. Slovik tells his commanding officer that he does not want to fight and runs away to the Canadians again. He is again returned to the MP’s of the 28th Division. This time his commander gives him a choice to go immediately to his combat team or face a firing squad. Slovik refuses and a date is set for his execution. He appeals to General Dwight Eisenhower but this is a bad time for this because the Battle of the Bulge was underway and American soldiers were dying by the hundreds. Eisenhower rejects Slovik’s appeal and on this date at dawn, a firing squad of twelve riflemen ends the life of Private Eddie Slovik for cowardice and desertion. He was the first man in the United States military that was executed since the Civil War. It was reported that the men in the firing squad never flinched because they believed he was getting what he deserved. Maybe so, maybe not.

1872    Future western writer Zane Grey is born to a wealthy family in Zanesville, Illinois. He is encouraged to become what his father is, a dentist. He also develops a good fist fighting technique because of his given name. In their wisdom, his parents had named him Pearl. It was later that he changed his name to Zane. Zane had a talent for baseball and is given a scholarship to Penn to play baseball while attending a school for dentistry. After graduating he moved to New York and opens a practice. Zane quickly determines that he hated the dentistry business and is on the alert for any other vocation so he tries writing. He wrote an unsuccessful novel about his ancestry and it looked like it might be a boring life of dentistry for Zane. Then he met a man named “Buffalo” Jones, an explorer of the American west. Zane was encouraged to write by Jones and so Zane wrote a novel about the life of Jones called “The Last of the Plainsmen” The novel received little attention so Jones took Zane on a tour of the great American west. This tour formed Zane’s life forever and western novels became his forte. In 1912 he delivered to the world the eternal western novel “Riders of the Purple Sage”. It was similar to the famous novel by Owen Wister “The Virginian” whereby a tenderfoot easterner comes west and learns what it takes to survive in a hostile environment and finds out things about himself that he did not know before. Zane wrote 78 western novels which made him a very wealthy man. He loved to big game fish and some of his records for big fish have never been broken and he fished on many an expedition with Ernest Hemingway. It was his descriptions of the great southwest like the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest that makes me want to go for a tour there to this day. His death was a loss for us all, but his books endure.

Born today:

1892    US entertainer Eddie Cantor. He said “Every time I see a Most Wanted list I have this thought. If they had been wanted in their youth, would they be wanted now?” I wonder if Atilla the Hun was wanted as a youth.

1905    US writer John O’Hara. He said “So who is perfect? Washington had false teeth, Ben Franklin was nearsighted, Mussolini had syphilis, unpleasant things have been said about Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde, Tchaikovsky had his problems too, and Lincoln was constipated.” That is really ironic that thousands of troops on both sides in the Civil war died of dysentery.

1921    US actor John Agar. He said “Hell I don’t drink anymore than John Wayne or Ward Bond or Spencer Tracy or Alan Ladd or Robert Walker but I got in hell of a lot more trouble.” John, that is because you got into the acting business only because you were married to Shirley Temple. You are really wimpy.

1938    US Secretary of the Interior James Watt. He said “Hell, we don’t have to protect the environment; the evangelicals say the Second Coming is at hand.” He is right ya’ll. If the Second Coming is at hand, why do we need to worry about the future?

Thanks for listening I can’t wait until tomorrow.

Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"It is not what you have, where you are, who you are or what your are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think of yourself."

                                       Oscar Wilde

The crack weathermen at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport are forecasting that ice, snow, freezing rain and general s--t is to befall my little niche in the planet beginning Friday afternoon and lasting until Saturday afternoon. To those of you that are not familiar with the Greenville, SC terrain this area is pretty damned hilly. This means that traveling on icy or snowbound roads is very much of an exciting adventure to get out there and mix it up with others who have no experience driving in slick environs either.

Down in Jay, Florida two thirty-year old female teachers plead no contest to having sex with three of their students. The guys were 17 years old and were considered "minors". I don't get it. I always thought the legal age of consent was 16. It is common for boys and girls to get married at the age of 16. How can sex be illegal at the age of 17? Perhaps I am being too pragmatic but I remain confused. Are they "minors" or are they not? They can't have it both ways. If a boy and girl at the age of 16 crawl in the back of a '75 Pontiac and a sex act occurs, was a crime committed? By whom? Who is the victim? Is statutory rape for females only? If it is, it ain't fair. Think about it.

Author J.D. Salinger has died. He lived in seclusion in a tiny house in a small town in New Hampshire. It was Salinger that gave us a milestone in American literature with "A Catcher in the Rye" that made him a fortune. It was a novel about a teenager named Holden Caulfield. Holden was a twisted young man going through the trial and tribulations of puberty and beyond. Holden saw the world as being full of "phonies" and mass unfairness. The book became almost a textbook for teenagers in the days of the "Cold War". It sold 30 million copies world wide. The evangelicals raised almighty hell about the book primarily because it described a rebellious and confused youth, masturbation was also briefly mentioned. That is what really inflamed the churchmen. They procalimed that the subject of self-gratifing sex is immoral and should not be brought into sunlight where the teen could read about it even though it is well known worldwide that it is a common practice, including the evangelicals. They did not say a thing about "The Graduate" where a young man is seduced by an older married woman. I don't get it. Apparently adultery is OK but masturbation is not. I will shut up now.

I heard that President Obama made a speech about the State of the Union. I think we all know the State of the Union.

This date in history January 29

1936 On this date the first baseball players were selected for the newly opened Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. They were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson. Ty Cobb, to this day, is the most productive hitter to ever play the game. Babe Ruth was both an ace pitcher and a devastating home run hitter, Honus Wagner was a versatile infielder and a dependable clutch hitter, Christy Mathewson had the most wins in National League history up until that time and Walter “Big Train” Johnson is considered to be one of the most powerful pitchers in history. The Hall of Fame was supposed to have opened in 1935 but money was at a premium because of the Depression so the opening was delayed. The rumor was spread that Civil War General Abner Doubleday was the inventor of baseball in Cooperstown but that was bullshit. The local businesses fostered that idea to pump up business and they made contributions toward the building of the Hall. The Hall of Fame has about 350,000 visitors a year.

1820 After 10 years of a debilitating disease that lead to total insanity, King George III of England dies. King George was the chief antagonist of the American colonists that resulted in the American Revolutionary War. King George knew that he was not well and was desperately seeking someone that he could trust to take care of business in his behalf. He found one in Lord North and King George was very relieved. The problem was that England lost its most profitable colony in America and the English people were furious. In 1784 William Pitt the elder gained enough power in Parliament to take control. After this the King retired from active participation in government except for an occasional interference with major issues such as “Catholic Emancipation” which was defeated in 1801. I have not researched this issue but I will soon. King George had a long history of illness beginning in 1765 when he had a nervous breakdown and in the winter of 1788-89 he had a severe bout with mental illness. By 1810 he was permanently insane but he was cared for tenderly by his wife Charlotte Sophia. His son, the Prince of Wales, was named regent and assumed throne as King George IV when his father died in 1820.

1861 On this date Kansas was admitted to the Union as a “free state”. This act was one of the prime causes of the American Civil War. Kansas was bordered on the east by Missouri and on the south by Texas; both were slave-holding states. There were many bloody skirmishes on the Kansas-Missouri border in the struggle for and against slavery. The United States Congress brought Kansas in as a “free state” in order to show support of the anti-slavery factions in the state and it blew up in their faces when the war broke out a few months later. I am not suggesting that slavery is acceptable but just that is what happened. After the Civil War got cranked up the attacks on Kansas and Missouri reached a crescendo with many atrocities committed by both pro and anti slavery factions. An example of each was when the fervent anti-slavery leader John Brown went to a small community in Missouri and slaughtered five people with a broad sword because “he thought” they were pro slavery. Then a pro slavery Confederate guerilla leader named William Quantrill leads his troops into Lawrence, Kansas and that group killed over 150 men and burned the town to the ground. Hatred has no limits.

Born today:

1737 Super American Patriot Thomas Paine. He said “When we are planning for posterity, we must remember that virtue is not hereditary.” Paine was one of the greatest wordsmiths this country ever produced.

1862 English composer Fredrick Delius. He said “Music is an outburst of the soul”. Indeed Fred, indeed.

1874 US industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. He said “A friendship based on business is better that a business based on friendship.” The Rockefeller dynasty began with the establishment of Standard Oil which eventually became Exxon.

1880 US comedian W.C. Fields. He said “My illness is due to my doctor insisting that I drink milk. It is a whitish fluid that they force down helpless babies.” Fields was a famous imbiber.

1923 US writer Paddy Chayefsky. He said “"Now listen to me, goddamnit! The Arabs are simplying buying us! A handful of gas, shahs, and emirs who despise this country and everything it stands for—democracy, freedom, the right for me to get up on television and tell you about it—a couple of dozen medieval fanatics are going to own where you work, where you live, what you read, what you see, your cars, your bowling alleys, your mortgages, your schools, your churches, your libraries, your kids, your whole life...!" Pay attention to Paddy, ya’ll, I could happen.

1939 Australian feminist Germaine Greer. She said “Freud is the father of psychoanalysis, it has no mother.” I agree, Germaine.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

Good afternoon,


A brief synopsis of what happened to me:

Last weekend I was doing some research on my computer when a dialog box opened up saying that I have at least 43 Trojan virus infections that could result in a nuclear explosion and that I might go to hell if I did not allow them to cleanse them out. I kept "x"ing out the boxes but they persisted and finally all that I could contact was the boxes. I could not open ANYTHING! Finally nothing would work except the damned dialog boxes. I knew then that I was infected with a virus. Right after all of this started I opened by McAfee security file and it said that nothing was wrong. So I knew I was under attack but I did not know what to do about it. I talked to a few people and the did not know what to do either so Monday morning I took my trusty laptop over to those wild and crazy guys over at Geek Squad and cried on their shoulder. They sympathized and offered to fix my laptop...for a fee. I paid them and left secure in the fact "Jake" and the boys would have no trouble erasing the damned spot. They contacted me this morning and said that they had changed my computer's diaper, wiped it's nose and sharpened it's pencil and was ready for my onslaught. So here I am back on line and so far all seem to be well. I have made myselt a promise that I will not open any links nor anything from someone I do not know because that is where I think the virus slide it's ugly form in and raised hell with me. I am sorry for the break in my "lessons" but perhaps you and I needed the break. On we go.

Quote of the day:

"I would like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me. I would like to be the help that you have always been glad to be. I would like to mean as much to you each minute of the day, as much as you have meant to me, my dear friend, all along the way."

                                       Oscar Wilde

This lesson will be shorter than most because I have not had the tools to do the research. Things will get better.

This date in history January 28

1917 Earlier in 1914 the President of Mexico, Victoriano Huerta, had resigned and there was an ensuing power struggle between Pancho Villa and his former compatriot Venustiana Carranza for the Presidency. The United States recognized Carranza as president which gave Villa severe heartburn. In his anger, Villa killed 15 of his own people. If that wasn’t enough, in order to show his displeasure with the American government, he crossed the Rio Grande River into New Mexico and raided the small town of Columbus, New Mexico killing 16 Americans. The American army was soon on his ass and killed 50 of his number in the United States and 70 more in Mexico. Not long after that US President Woodrow Wilson ordered General John “Black Jack” Pershing to take an army into Mexico and bring back Pancho Villa dead or alive. Pershing searched for 11 months and did not even catch sight of the elusive Villa. The Mexicans got fed up with the American military being in their country so long and tensions rose to the point that a small Mexican militia attacked Pershing’s troops killing 17 troopers but losing 35 of their own. Under constant pressure from the Mexican government, on this day Pershing was ordered home having failed in his mission to capture Villa. Villa continued his guerilla raids in northern Mexico until the brother of Victoriano Huerta became president then Villa retired. That didn’t help though, because he was assassinated three months later.

1777 On this date British General John Burgoyne submits a battle plan to British General Sir Henry Clinton. Burgoyne suggested that he head a large force of 8,000 troops out of Canada and go down Lake Champlain, the Mohawk River and eventually the Hudson River and isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. Burgoyne felt that if he could accomplish this it would make Philadelphia ripe for the picking by British General Howe. The plan was approved and Burgoyne achieved a modicum of success when he captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. What Burgoyne did not plan on was the over extension of his supply lines the further south he moved. Eventually the Patriots simply swung around and cut his supply line. Soon after this Burgoyne lost the Battle of Bennington, Vermont and engaged in a bloody draw at Bemis Heights, New York. After these battles he was unable to re-supply his troops so he retreated 16 miles north to Saratoga, New York and surrendered his remaining 6,000 troops to US General Horatio Gates. When the government of France saw this victory they officially recognized the United States as an independent nation which, of course, meant war with England. France had been covertly sending America money and the tools of war now they did it openly and with much more supplies. This decision by France assured an American victory because it meant that England would have to fight a war on both sides of the Atlantic.

1958 On this date a 19 year old high school dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska named Charles Starkweather and his 14 year old girlfriend Carol Fugate murder a Lincoln business man, his wife and their maid. This was the last in a string of 10 murder committed by the duo. This murder spree began at the home of Carol and an argument broke out between Charles and Carol’s parents. Charles chose to shoot Carol’s parent and strangle Carol’s two year old sister. Carol and Charles stayed holed up in the house for a few days before leaving in Charles’ car. Their next victims was a farmer and two teens and after that it was the previously mention Lincoln businessman, wife and maid. They were not done yet. They shot and killed a traveling shoe salesman to get his car. They were surrounded and captured near Douglas, Wyoming. Both Charles and Carol were convicted of murder and Charles got the death penalty and Carol got life. In 1959 Charles Starkweather went to meet his maker medium rare after a visit with the Nebraska version of “Old Sparky”, the electric chair. Carol was paroled after 18 years in the slammer. How could that girl sit in the house with her dead parents and sister for several days? They paroled her because she was so young at the time of the murders. I will have to call bullshit on that.

1986 On this day the space shuttle Challenger was set to launch for the 10th time. All previous missions with this vessel had been flawless. The shuttle had been scheduled to launch on January 22 but there were weather issues so the launch date was pushed back to January 28. Aboard with the regular astronauts was a school teacher name Christa McAuliffe from New Hampshire. The outside air temperature was below freezing and the rocket booster manufacturer warned the launch officials that some of the parts of the rocket booster do not operate well in cold weather, especially the O-ring seals. They warned that they became brittle in the cold and would hot hold. The launch officials blew it off and at 11:39a the Challenger blasted off. Seventy-three seconds into the flight the shuttle exploded into a spectacular three armed display and fell into the Atlantic killing all aboard. An investigation later proved that an O-ring seal had indeed failed and the flame from the rocket boosters had not been contained inside the cylinder causing an explosion. The arrogance of the launch officials in allowing the launch in spite of being warned set space exploration back several years.

Born today:

1887 Polish pianist Arthur Rubenstein. He said “When I was young, I had success with women because I was young. Now I have success with women because I am old. Middle age was hell.” Way to go, Arthur, way to go!

1933 Us writer Susan Sontag. She said “The best answer is one that destroys the question.” Susan is no longer with us.

1948 Latvian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. He said “When we dancers watch Fred Astaire, we know we are in the wrong business.” Fred was a pleasure to watch.

Died today:

1960 US writer Zora Hurston. She said “Every distant ship has every man’s dream aboard.” It does for me at least.

1996 Russian writer Josef Brodsky. He said “Life, the way it really is, is not a battle between bad and good, it is a battle between bad and worse.” And I thought I was a pessimist.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"The reason people find it so hard to be happy is because they see the past better that it really was, the present worse that it really is and the future less resolved than it will be."

                                     Marcel Pagnold

We have a new subscriber. It is a second cousin that I have not heard from in quite a spell. She thrives in that burgeoning metropolis of Boiling Springs, South Carolina. Welcome aboard, Sandy.

By the way, I have a blog site also. This same epistle that shows up in your e-mail will be in my blog eventually. So if you had rather just read the blog and not get the e-mail advise. The blog is bigalsdailyhistory.blogspot.com

I asked a couple questions about the shooting of the state capitol steps in Austin, Texas and got a response from an old friend that lives in one of the suburbs. She said the state of Texas allows people to carry a hog-leg in public as long as they have a permit. I think the same thing is true here in South Carolina. I am not entirely sure but I have a hog-leg close by at all times anyway. The main question is why is the shooter still alive. Texans have a reputation of "Shoot first and ask questions later." They didn't do that this time.

I try to stay out of the political arena in this venue. I tried to once and all I ended up doing was fence and parry which is not the purpose here. The main purpose is the teaching of historical events and historical people, but I will say this. I have never been more afraid for my country that I am today. The present administration does not appear to have the welfare of this nation at heart. It appears that they had a preconcieved idea about turning this country into something they had imagined, the Constitution be damned. I do not believe the President is a bona fide citizen and I do not believe he is a dyed in the wool Patriot such as myself and many, many others. The welfare of this nation should be at the top of his agenda...it is not. I just hope that we can survive long enough to solve the problem at the voting booth for that is the only way.

I will accept any other opinions but I will not accept a list of problems or wrongdoings or sins committed without a possible and viable solution. A chimpanzee can identify problems but it is the movers and shakers that find solutions. Don't sent me problems without a solution. Hot air disperses the quickest.

In the cities of New York, Atlanta and San Francisco billboards began popping up showing Charles Phillips, the President of the software maker Oracle, in a clinch with a woman that was not his wife. The woman was YaVaughnie Wilkins. Almost immediately Phillips confessed to an eight year tryst with Wilkins and stated that divorce proceedings with his wife have been underway since 2008. That means he was seeing Wilkins for six years before the proceeding were initiated. He has since dumped Wilkins also. Phillips has been appointed to the President's Economic Recovery Board and even more recently to the Tiger Wood Counsel on How Not to Get Your Butt Kicked in Divorce Court.

This date in history January 24

1781    On this date the combined cavalry forces of the Virginian Lieutenant Colonel Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee and South Carolinian Brigadier General Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion descended upon a 200 man British encampment near Georgetown, South Carolina. Henry Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia and was the father of CSA General Robert E. Lee. Francis Marion was born on a plantation on Winyah Bay near Georgetown, South Carolina. Marion had been given command of the South Carolina Militia while the commander, Thomas “The Gamecock” Sumter, was recovering from a severe wound. The raid came as a complete surprise to the British and the Patriots were able to capture a large portion on the encampment including several officers and the camp commander. A month later “Light-Horse Harry” Lee was able to destroy another British unit on the banks of the Haw River in North Carolina. Lee’s unit was able to close in on the British without opposition this was because the uniforms worn by the Patriots were very similar to those worn by the British cavalry unit of the infamous Colonel Banastre Tarleton. When the Patriots were within sight of the British they waved greeting to them and kept it up until they were within striking distance. After this is was nothing short of a slaughter. The British commander, Colonel John Pyle, lost three fingers and the sight of one eye during the attack but was able to escape by jumping into a nearby pond and hiding in the reeds. To this day that body of water is known as “Pyle’s Pond”.

1956    Earlier a 14 year old black kid from Chicago named Emmett Till was visiting his great-uncle on his farm near Money, Mississippi. He bragged to the locals there that he had a white girlfriend in Chicago and was challenged to see if he could get one there in Mississippi. Emmett was the typical teenager and accepted the challenge. He went into the local convenience store and made a pass at a married white woman working there. A couple of days later the woman’s husband came home from a business trip and was told of what happened with Emmett. So J.W. Milam and his cousin Roy Bryant go to Emmett’s great-uncle’s farm and kidnap Emmett. I don’t have to tell you what happened next. They beat Emmett to death with their pistols; Milam and Bryant took Emmett’s corpse to the crest of the Tallahatchie Bridge, wrapped barbed wire around Emmett’s neck and the other end to a heavy cotton gin fan and threw them both off the bridge. The corpse was eventually discovered and Milam and Bryant were arrested and went to trial for murder. They were acquitted because the defense lawyer was able to convince the jury that the corpse was so decomposed that the true identification could not be determined. The prosecution produced a ring that was found on the corpse that was known to be owned by Emmett. The defense blew it off as being stolen. Anyway, because of the law of double jeopardy Milam and Bryant, knowing they could not be tried again, on this date sold their description of the murder of Emmett to Look magazine for $4,000. Emmett’s mother retrieved his corpse back to Chicago and in her anger held an open casket funeral that was attended by over 5,000 people. No other attempts to bring Milam and Bryant to justice but they both died of cancer a few years later. God works in mysterious ways.

1848    Earlier a Swiss emigrant to the United States named John Sutter had acquired 7,000 acres in Mexico owned California if he would swear allegiance to Mexico and keep those pesky European settlers at bay. The land was in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco. Sutter had ideas of creating a type of commune on his lands. He determined that in order to build housing he would need a saw mill so he hired a man named James Marshall to build one. The main water source in that area was the American River and Marshall decided to build his water powered saw mill on the south fork of the American River. He began digging to deepen the creek and in the diggings he kept seeing flashes of light off some of the flakes therein. On this date he gathered up some of the flakes and took them to Sutter who immediately took them to an assayer who told Sutter that it was indeed gold. Sutter tried to keep this discovery a secret and succeeded for a while but eventually the word leaked out and in 1849 the largest gold rush in history was under way. Sutter did not have to worry about the Mexicans any longer because Mexico ceded all its lands in California to the United States as a result of the US victory in the Mexican War. You would think that this would make Sutter very happy but by 1852 his thoughts of a commune had gone down the toilet and the oncoming gold seekers trampled his gardens and slaughtered his farm animals for food. He spent the last years of his life petitioning the US government to recompense him for his losses at the hand of the miners. He did not get anything.

1943    On this date the commander of the German 6th Army, General Frederick von Paulus, entreated Hitler to allow his army to surrender. Hitler refused. Earlier Hitler had launched Operation Barbarossa which was the attempt to conquer Russia. There were three armies that departed Germany on this mission. Paulus was the commander of the central army whose main target was the capture of the city of Stalingrad. Upon arrival at the gates of Stalingrad he ran across a nut he could not crack so he surrounded the city and established a siege in an attempt to starve the people of Stalingrad into submission. In spite of millions starving to death, the city did not fall. Eventually the Russian army got on its feet and attacked Paulus’ army at its weakest point, the Romanian detachment. After breaking through here, the Russians swarmed around the Germans and encircled them cutting off their supplies. After the Russians had overrun his last airfield, Paulus knew the end was near especially since the descent of the worst winter in fifty years. A few days after the loss of this airfield, Paulus surrendered his army to the Russians, Adolph Hitler be damned. The Russians, remembering the people that starved to death in Stalingrad, accepted the surrender and gathered up the 500,000 half starved, half frozen Germans and sent them to prison camps. Of those that were captured, only 16,000 ever lived to see Germany again. Paulus was tried at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials, but was released and spent his last days in East Berlin.

Quotable quotes:

“I go to see my doctor and tell him that when I get up in the morning I look in the mirror and begin to throw up. The doctor said that he did not know what was causing the nausea but my eyesight was perfect.” Rodney Dangerfield

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Maybe the only thing we can hope for is to end our lives with the proper regrets."

                                       Arthur Miller

I guess we all have read that Conan O'Brien sucked as the host of "The Tonight Show" on NBC after he replaced Jay Leno. The rating for the show fell like a big tree and in that business ratings is all that counts. They use ratings to sell advertising time, bad rating mean cheaper advertising dollars. Even Jay Leno tried a one hour prime time show that sucked and it ended up with bad ratings. NBC asked O'Brien what would it take for him to give up his contract being the host of "The Tonight Show." The agreed upon number was $43 million and Jay Leno and his staff of about 130 will take over "The Tonight Show" once again. You have to admire Leno. When he agreed to take the show over once again, the first thing he asked was could he keep his old staff because he wanted them to keep working. This stipulation was agreed upon. All bosses should have the same attitude.

A couple of days ago in a small village north of Hendersonville, North Carolina the cops raided a house in a small housing development. What they found shocked them all. The house was being used to raise marijuana that had been genetically altered which made the grass twice as potent as field grown. This meant that the grass had a street value much higher that normal. They estimated that the few bags they recovered had a street value of about $900,000.

Wednesday afternoon a 26 year old male attempted to get in the office of state senator Dan Patrick located in the state capitol in Austin, Texas. He did not want to talk with Patrick he wanted to chat wth a woman that worked for Patrick. His request was denied and he went out on the capitol's south steps and pulled out a handgun and began firing. After five or six rounds he was subdued by state troopers and a couple of Texas Rangers. He is now cooling his heels in the Travis County jail. There are a few questions. How did he get to the Senator Patrick's office on the third floor of the capitol with a hog-leg in his waistband undetected? Why was the other workers in the capitol not warned that there was a gunman loose in the building? Finally, how is it possible that that man got off more than one shot with being capped by the troopers in the area?

This is a statement:

I was recently admonished because I have not attacked the President, reported on drug/gang activity, murder, Hugo Chavez, etc. This is not one of those rags you see at the grocery store check out counter. It is essentially a HISTORY report with a few personal comments on the side. I try to keep the reports local or something not normally seen. If there those of you that are looking for other than that then you should seek another venue. This is not the New York Times not the National Inquirer, again it is basically a HISTORY LESSON plus, and it will not change. Besides that, it is free.

This date in history January 23

1865    On this date CSA General John Bell Hood is relieved of command of the CSA Army of Tennessee thus ending a sad chapter in the history of the United States. Hood had requested to be relieved a couple of weeks earlier. John Bell Hood was born in Kentucky and graduated from West Point in 1853. As with most of his class, he served in the western theatre until hostilities broke out at the start of the Civil War. Hood resigned his commission and offered his services to the famous Texas 4th Infantry. His regiment was sent to serve with CSA General Robert E. Lee and the equally famous Army of Northern Virginia. Hood served with distinction in the Peninsular Campaign and especially in the Battle of the Seven Days in 1862. Hood aggressive nature did not go unnoticed and he was eventually given command of a division. There is little question that his aggressive counter-attack at the Battle of Antietam saved General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia from total annihilation. His next major assignment came at the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg in June of 1863 when he was ordered to attack the left flank of the Union lines on a hill known as Little Round Top. He had under his command was the 4th and 5th Texas, the 5th Alabama and a number of other regiments totaling about 2,500 men. He was attacking the 20th Maine numbering about 300. At the onset of the battle Hood was severely wounded and lost the use of an arm as a result. Hood’s troops were not successful in turning the flank of the Union army on Little Round Top only because of the stubbornness of the 20th Maine and the resolve of their commander Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain. Hood spent quite a bit of time recuperating from this severe wound. Hood resumed his duties with the CSA Army of Tennessee and fought at the bloody Battle of Chickamauga where he was again severely wounded which resulted in the loss of a leg. When US General William T. Sherman began his attack across the state of Georgia beginning near Chattanooga, Tennessee and aimed at Atlanta and the port of Savannah, CSA General Joseph Johnston was in command of the CSA Army of Tennessee. Johnston knew he was out manned and outgunned and chose to use defensive strategy by digging in, fight and retreat. The closer Sherman got to Atlanta, the more nervous CSA President Jefferson Davis became. Finally Davis decided that the CSA needed a more aggressive commander of the Army of Tennessee and relieved Johnston and named Hood as his replacement. Hood assumed command and immediately struck hard at Sherman’s army in three different futile and costly attacks in and around Atlanta. Eventually Hood pulled his army out of Atlanta, moved west and headed north back toward Chattanooga hoping that Sherman would follow to protect his supply line but it didn’t happen that way. Hood finally moved the Army of Tennessee within striking distance of Sherman’s vital supply line near Nashville, Tennessee. Another Union army was dug-in and waiting but Hood flung what was left of his army at the Union fortifications in two unsuccessful and even more costly attacks. At the end of these two battles the CSA Army of Tennessee ceased to exist as a viable fighting force. When Hood took command in July of 1864, the CSA Army of Tennessee had 64,000 troops, when he was relieved on this day there were 18,000. War is hell.

1968    The United States intelligence gathering vessel USS Pueblo is on patrol 16 miles off the coast of North Korea when a North Korean gunboat pulls along side the Pueblo and orders it to stop. The commander of the lightly armed Pueblo, Captain Lloyd Bucher, tries to run away but the gunship opens fire killing a crewman and wounding Bucher. Bucher surrenders and the ship is ordered to the North Korean port of Wonsan. The crew of 84 is taken off the ship and sent to the capitol of Pyongyang where they are imprisoned. US President Lyndon Johnson demands the release of the crewman stating that the ship was in international waters when attacked and captured. The North Koreans refused stating that the ship was well within the North Korean limit of 12 miles. Johnson had a much larger problem in the small Oriental country of Vietnam and did not want to risk having to fight another military engagement so he decided to let our guys rot in that North Korean prison and try to resolve the problem diplomatically. The North Koreans wanted Captain Bucher and the crew to make a public statement avowing that they were indeed intentionally spying in North Korean waters and were deeply sorry for this breach in the sovereignty of North Korea. When interviewed the American sailors made sarcastic remarks and stuck up their middle finger, a gesture the North Koreans did not understand. Finally the North Koreans caught on and beat those guys for a week and threatened further torture if their demands were not met. Not only that, they demanded that the US State Department to issue a similar statement. The US government finally conceded and issued a public apology and the crew was released. It would not do for me to be in a position of power when that sort of atrocity is made on our guys by those vermin in North Korea. I can assure you that part of the Orient would glow in the dark to this day.

1870    This is another incidence of the American cavalry out of control. Earlier a Montana cattle rancher named Malcolm Clarke had accused a Blackfoot sub-chief name Owl Child of stealing his horses and had savagely whipped him in public. As you might expect, Owl Child returned with a group of his closest friends and capped Clarke and his son in the most horrible of fashions and then fled north to join up with a group of rebel warriors led by another Blackfoot named Mountain Chief. The public outcry became so loud that the military Indian agent in that area notified Colonel Eugene Baker to gather up some troops and cavalrymen and seek out Owl Child and bring him in. The only problem here is that Colonel Baker is heavy into the sauce and stays in the bag most of the time. Anyway, the force led by Baker sets out looking for Owl Child. Finally, some of Baker’s Indian scouts find an Indian encampment. They return and tell Baker what they had found but they could tell by the markings on the teepees that they were not of the tribe that Owl Child belonged to, that they were a peaceful group of Blackfeet. Baker absorbs this information along with another quart of whiskey and at dusk he says “I don’t care, they are still Indians” and orders his troops to surround the village and open fire and burn anything combustible including their meager food supply. The troopers surround the encampment and did indeed open fire and burned all that would burn. The Indians have no idea what the hell is going on and are massacred. The total killed was 39 men, 60 women and 55 children. Baker allows the capture of a few of them but when he finds out that some of them have smallpox, a gift from the damned Europeans, and orders them released out onto the prairie in a Montana winter with no food. When word of this atrocity reaches the east there is a loud outcry and demands are made to correct this situation. President Ulysses Grant orders that all Indian agents must be civilians from now on. But the troopers and Colonel Baker were never brought to justice. No wonder Crazy Horse, Dull Knife, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull and the others were so vicious and cruel in their retribution. What goes around…......

1556    In the middle of the afternoon the ground around the Chinese city of Shannxi begins to heave and shake. It is the beginning of the most deadly earthquake in recorded history. The city is a conglomeration of small shacks and huts that are heated by charcoal braziers that also serve as a stove. The aftershocks continue until the following morning triggering huge crevasses that open and close crushing thousands of people along with miles long landslides not to mention the fires. After all was said and done there were an estimated 830,000 deaths. I am going to repeat this: 830,000 deaths. The second largest disaster in history was the tsunami of 2004 in the Indian Ocean. There were only 240,000 deaths there. Repeat: 240,000 deaths.

Born today:

1737    US Super Patriot John Hancock. He said “A chip on the shoulder is too much baggage to carry around all of your life.” I know what will cure that infliction...age or a severe ass-kicking.

Died today:

1875    English clergyman Charles Kingsley. He said “Young blood must have its course, lad, and every dog its day.” I had often wondered where that adage came from.

1893    US clergyman Phillips Brooks. He said “Be such a man and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and lived a life such as your, the earth would be a paradise.” Phillips, you failed to mention women...Paradise Lost.

1931    Russian dancer Anna Pavlova. When on her death bed and seconds from dying she said “Get my swan costume ready.” A professional to the end.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Ridicule is the tribute paid to geniuses by the mediocre."

                              Oscar Wilde

Ex-Presidential candidate James Edwards admitted that it was indeed he that knocked-up the photographer Reille Hunter. He also admitted that he is the father of the Reille's most recent baby. This admission came just days before one of Edwards' campaign aides was preparing to release a book stating that Edwards had approached him to claim that it was he that knocked-up Reille not Edwards. As y'all may or may not know Edward's wife had breast cancer in the past and it went into remission and than it came back on her with a vengeance and is now terminal.

On Wednesday night the police broke into a house on Lenhart Drive here in Greenville, SC and knocked over a high states poker game. They arrested 26 people and gathered up $64,000. The people involved said it was just a "friendly" poker game. The cops did not buy it. I wonder what happened to all that cash?

Here in Greenville a 17 year old boy and his mother were threatened with death because the boy wanted drop out of a gang named "Gangster Disciples" and go to college. They were threatened by 17 and 18 year old brothers and a 23 year old woman. The brothers, the 23 year old woman and a unnamed juvenile were arrested and are in the joint as we speak. Gangs? Here in a small town in the bible belt where everybody has a hog-leg? It is hard to believe.

Early Wednesday morning a routine Greenville police patrol sighted a naked woman trying to wave them down. The woman claimed that she had been beaten and raped by two men in room 224 of the nearby Relax Inn. The cops go to the room and there is indeed two men in the room. The men were arrested and the cops go to the motel owner and interview her. She said that she was surprised to hear about any violence in her place because she tried to run a clean place. She did say that she was familiar with the alleged victim and had banned her from the premises. There is little doubt that the victim was a Hooker but beating and rape is not part of the contract.

This date in history January 22

1819    On this date the Spanish minister Don Luis Onis and the United States Secretary of State John Quincy Adams sign the Florida Purchase Agreement in which Spain cedes Spanish holdings in what is now Florida to the United States. The ownership of Florida has a checkered past that began with the establishment of the Spanish colony of St. Augustine in 1565. The colonists at St. Augustine enjoyed several years of serenity until the Native Americans got fed up and established a consistent routine of attack and withdrawal. Along with that, in the early 17th century the irascible English colonists north of St. Augustine joining with the Indians hoping to drive the Spanish out of Florida. Then Spain made a mistake when it sided with France in the French and Indian War which the French lost and that indiscretion cost Spain its interests in Florida and Great Britain assumed ownership. Great Britain kept control for about 20 years then they lost the American Revolution and part of the treaty ending the War was that Great Britain had to give ownership of Florida back to Spain in 1783. This was Spain’s reward for recognizing (along with France) American independence earlier. There was several border and some time violent confrontations between the American settlers in southern Georgia and the Spanish in Florida, then John Quincy Adams pulled off this coup by gaining ownership of Florida for nearly nothing. All we had to do was assume the debt of about $5 million in suits that had filed against Spain by American interests. The US government appointed Andy “Old Hickory” Jackson as governor of The Florida Territory in 1819. Florida entered the fold of American states in 1845 as a slave state.

1847    On this date the American army numbering 5,000 under the command of General Zachary “Old Rough and Ready” Taylor is cornered near Angostura Pass in Mexico by Mexican General Santa Ana and his army of 15,000. Santa Ana sent a messenger to Taylor demanding his surrender. Taylor had been ordered to invade after the United States had declared war on Mexico. The US had annexed disputed lands in what is now Texas and sent in troops commanded by Taylor to protect the border. Santa Ana sent in several raids on the disputed land which prompted the attack on Mexico. Anyway, after receiving the order to surrender Taylor sent the messenger back to Santa Ana telling him to “Go to hell”. The next day Santa Ana attacked. Taylor sent the cream of his artillery to protect the right flank (Stonewall Jackson had command of one of these batteries) and he sent Jefferson Davis and his group of sharpshooters to protect the left flank. After daylong attacks and being repulsed, Santa Ana began to withdraw. The engagement was known as the Battle of Buena Vista. That’s right folks, the Jefferson Davis that I am talking about became the Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce in 1853 and the President of the Confederate States of America in 1861.

1777    On this date Georgia Patriot leader Archibald Bulloch dies under mysterious circumstances. Bulloch was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1730 to a Scottish father and a Puritan mother. He was well educated and practiced law in South Carolina for a while then he moved to Savannah, Georgia and in 1764 he married a woman named Mary de Veaux. He became active in Savannah and Georgia politics and became an acknowledged leader of the “Liberty” party which advocated independence of the colonies. He went to the Continental Congress in 1775. When it became obvious that the British were going to invade Georgia the state legislature appointed Bulloch as governor and gave him almost dictatorial powers to do what was necessary to repel the Redcoats. Within hours of the passing of this resolution, Bullock was dead. To this date no one knows what killed Archie but poison is the prime suspect. The motive is still unknown also. Bulloch was acknowledged to be a great leader in this country’s fight for freedom and was the great-great grandfather of one of my heroes, Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy’s son Archibald and Bulloch County Georgia is named in his honor.

1864    On this date Confederate Cavalry commander General Nathan Bedford Forrest routs a Federal army twice the size of his. Earlier US General William T. Sherman was heading east from Vicksburg intending to destroy the Confederate supply depots. He was successful in the destruction of the Confederate depot in Meridian, Mississippi and was headed toward a known depot in Selma, Alabama. Sherman was suppose to meet US General William Sooy Smith and his cavalry unit coming southeast from Memphis at a point near West Point, Mississippi. Smith’s unit was intercepted north of West Point by CSA Colonel Jeffrey Forrest (Nathan’s younger brother) and a small cavalry unit. Jeffrey’s job was to suck Smith and his cavalrymen into a trap south of West Point where his older brother Nathan and a large CSA cavalry unit awaited. Smith followed Jeffrey south of West Point but smelled the trap in the nick of time and with the combined forces of Nathan and Jeffrey hard on his ass he hauled ass back north and tried to make a stand north of West Point. A sharp battle ensued in which Jeffrey was killed but the Confederates had sealed off Smith’s access to West Point. This meant that he would not make the rendezvous with Sherman and more support so he disengaged and headed back to Memphis. Word was sent to Sherman about this turn of events and he turned around and headed back to Meridian. After the war was over even General William T. Sherman said that Nathan Bedford Forrest was “the greatest cavalry officer ever foaled”. Forrest was not the only superb cavalry officer in the Confederacy, there was Turner Ashby, J.E.B. Stuart, John S. Mosby, Fitzhugh Lee, Wade Hampton III, John Hunt Morgan, Joe Wheeler and many others. The Confederacy could not fight a war of attrition and logistics and that is exactly what happened.

1918    On this date Montana passed a law that was the largest violation of Constitutional rights in American history, they past the “Sedition Act.” Not only that, the Federal Government passed a similar law modeled after the Montana abomination. The United States was at war with Germany in WWII and Montana had a large population of German immigrants. This, and the fact that many of the mine workers unions in Montana were radical and had no problem with raising hell about local, state and federal government operations and were fervently anti-war made the Montanans very nervous and they were afraid of spying and sabotage by their German settlers. The “Sedition Act” forbade anyone from speaking adversely about any government agency in the time of war. It also forbade peaceful assembly in a demonstration of displeasure against any government agency. The even arrested people that spoke badly about the Red Cross. This law was not struck down until the war was over but it got the job done by crushing those radical unions. You would have thought that the United States would have learned from this raping of the people’s rights, but they didn’t. About 20 years later after the attack on Pearl Harbor, we locked up thousands of people of Japanese descent even if some of them were third and forth generation Americans. We did this because the attack on Pearl Harbor was perpetrated by Japan and out federal government was afraid of spying and sabotage by anyone that had yellow skin and almond shaped eyes. Like I have said in the past, I guess we all need someone to hate and the Constitution guarantees us that right.

1980    On this date a bunch of United States college kids playing ice hockey in the Olympics knocks over the four time world champion Russian professional hockey team. It was known as the Miracle on Ice. I remember watching it to this day. With about 20 seconds to go the American announcer Al Michaels was about to pee his pants. The Russians had the puck but it was stolen by the US team and they just skated around until the clock ran out. With about 3 seconds to go Al Michaels screams “Do you believe in miracles, YESSSSS!” What an exciting moment it was for us all.

Born today:

1788    German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. He said “Every man assumes that his field of vision is the limits of the world.” Art, this is not exactly true, some people live in even smaller cocoons that that.

1819    US writer James Russell Lowell. He said “In creating, the only hard thing is the start; it is no harder to create a blade of grass as it is an oak tree.” Jim, you left out creating an amicable relationship with a bitterly divorced woman.

1864    French writer Jules Renard. He said “Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties.” That’s right Jules; everything is focused on what is below.

1892    US writer Edna St. Vincent Millay. She said “Life is not just one damned thing after another, it is the same damned thing over and over.” Boredom is a bitch, Edna.

1900    Mexican filmmaker Luis Bunuel. He said “Thank God, I am still an atheist.” Luis, shut the hell up.

1932    US senator Edward Kennedy (MA). When speaking about George W. Bush he said “I hate to see young men get ahead just because of a famous family name.” Hey Eddie, can you spell hypocrite?

1962    Australian naturalist Steve Irwin. He said “Crikey mate, it is safer to deal with Australian crocodiles or western diamondback rattlesnakes than those executives and producers and the other sharks in that big MGM building.” Steve is gone, killed by an accidental sting ray barb to the heart. I miss him.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"It hurts to love and not be loved in return, but what is even more painful is to love someone and not find the courage to let them know how you feel."

                                 Maria Robinson

As we all know a Republican (Independent) named Scott Brown has tasken the Senate seat from Massachusetts that had been held by the Democrats (Kennedys) for decades. This is clear signal that the populus is not happy with the present administration and what they propose. Chris Dodd of Connecticut has already acknowledged that he will not run for office again. He did not give a reason but it is believed that the Democratic party has told him that he would be beaten in the next election so thy want to start a campaign with someone that they think can win. Senate majority leader Harry Reid has said that the vote on the Health Care bill will be delayed until Scott Brown of Massachusetts is seated which would guarantee a defeat of the bill as it is now written. The Democrats are busy re-writing a watered down version of the Health-Care bill to make it more palatable to the Independents and Republicans.

I have said it once and I will say it again, the mid-term elections in November '10 for the House seats will be a blood-bath for the Democrats. They will no longer be a Democratic majority in the House and Nancy Pelosi will dissappear back into the woodwork.

To you football fans it will be the New Orleans Saints VS Minnesota Vikings for the NFC Chanpionship and the New York Jets VS the Indianapolis Colts for the AFC championship. The winners of these two games will be in the Super Bowl.

There is stil uncontrolled chaos in Haiti. I addition to another 6.1 earthquake, the distribution of food, water and medical supplies is still hit and miss at best. I asked an evangelical who had been to Haiti what the people did for a living, I was told that by far the greatest majority of the people of Haiti survive on contributions from various Christian organizations and world-wide charities. In effect, no body is working. This is unsubstantiated, of course, but it would answer a lot of questions.

This date in history January 21

1793    Earlier in 1774 Louis XVI rose to be king of France succeeding his grandfather King Louis XV. Louis the XVI was by no means cut out to be a French monarch at this point in time because France was in serious financial trouble and Louis did not have a clue as to what to do about it. In 1789 as a last ditch effort to\\l the resolve the problem, Louis assembled a group of Frenchmen known as “The States-General”. An assembly like this had not happened since 1614. The States-General was an assemblage of representatives of French royalty, the clergy, and the commoners. This gave the French people the opportunity to declare themselves “The National Assembly” and the French revolted in July of 1789 by storming a prison in the center of Paris known as the Bastille, releasing all prisoners and eventually disassembled the building stone by stone by commoners because it was the very symbol of repression by French royalty. Although Louis outwardly accepted the revolution, he did not heed the advice of his advisors and modify the monarchy so as to save it. In October a mob stormed the home of Louis and his wife Marie, the palace of Versailles, and forced them to a lesser opulent home of Tuiliers. In June of 1791 the opposition to Louis and Marie became so heated that they decided to get the hell out of Dodge and headed for Austria. They were stopped and captured in the French city of Varennes and brought back to Paris and forced to accept the Constitution of 1791 which reduced the monarchy to mere figureheads. In August of 1792 Louis and Marie were arrested and imprisoned. They were tried for treason because the now National Convention had evidence that Marie had been communicating with Austria to declare war on France which would have allowed the monarchy to continue and there was no evidence that Louis had discouraged this arrangement. Both Louis and Marie were convicted of treason and sentenced to death. On this date Louis walked confidently to the guillotine and was beheaded before a gigantic screaming mob. Nine months later Louis’ wife Marie Antoinette was also beheaded and also before a screaming mob. Sometimes bloodlust has no limits.

1863    Earlier the US had captured the Confederate ports of Galveston and Sabine Pass, Texas which severely restricted imports into the Confederacy. The Confederacy sent General John Bankhead McGruder to retake these ports. In November of 1862 McGruder arrived at Galveston and re-took the port in 7 days. He then turned his attention to Sabine Pass (Texas/Louisiana border). McGruder brought two warships with him, the Bell and the Uncle Ben. He stacked cotton bales along the decks of these ships and put sharpshooters in place behind them. On this date he approached Sabine Pass and found two US ships protecting the fort that had been built by the Confederates. These two ships were the Morning Light and the Velocity. The Confederate sharpshooters opened up a withering fusillade and in the span of two hours the two Yankee ships surrendered and Sabine Pass was in Confederate hands once again. The US tried to take Sabine Pass port again about a year later but was repulsed with heavy casualties.

1996    The 555 ton passenger vessel Gurita used as a ferry in the islands of Indonesia departs a port in Sumatra with 400 passengers aboard. After the ship had been at sea for just a few hours it ran into a severe storm. There was no evidence that the ship was excessively overloaded but overloaded it was. The ship began to lurch violently and take on water. This resulted in the passengers fighting over life jackets of which there was not enough to go around. The ship eventually sank putting the passengers afloat. The warm waters around Sumatra are famous for its large number of sharks. There was a lighthouse on a small island about a mile away and everyone headed for it. 47 people made it to the island the rest were consumed by the sharks. The rescuers did not find one body.

Born today:

1905    Hungarian high wire walker Karl Wallenda. He said “Walking a high wire is living, everything else is just waiting.” There are two things I am afraid of and that is heights and places way up in the air, airplanes excluded.

1905    French fashion designer Christian Dior. He said “My dream is to save women from nature.” I would have thought that job belonged to people like Helena Rubenstein, Estee Lauder and the Revson family (Revlon).

1925    British funny man Benny Hill. He said “Just because nobody complains does not mean that all parachutes are perfect.” Benny was a funny guy. He went to that great stage in the sky in 1992.

1955    US baseball pitcher Dave Smigh (Astros). Commenting about being behind by 14 runs in the first inning he said “The last time I saw anything like this I was playing for the Tastee-Freeze in Little League.”

1957    US actress Geena Davis. When speaking of Dustin Hoffman she said “I have always looked up to him even though he is shorter than me.”

Died today:

1985    US chef James Beard. He said “If the time ever came where we had to resort to cannibalism, I might survive if I had enough tarragon.”

2002    US singer Peggy Lee. When speaking of her three marriages she said “They were not marriages, just years long costume parties.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Life is like a coin. You spend it anyway you want but you spend it only once."

                                         Lillian Dickson

Some of you may have read that the Governor of Pennsylvania made a trip to Haiti and went directly to an orphanage that had been destroyed by the earthquake. What was left of the orphange and about 56 orphans were left under the care of two very young girls from Pennsylvania who was clearly over their head with little or no water and food for the children. The governor and his entourage gathered up those kids and took them to Pittsburgh along with what was left of the staff at the orphanage. That is the only light I have seen in this tunnel of darkness.

Out near the North Carolina coast two county deputy sheriffs were on patrol on a remore country road when the spotted a man sitting in a ditch in front of a convenience store. They get out and approach the man to question his intentions. When they get within range the man pulls out a hog-leg and opens fire hitting one of the deputies in the leg. Both deputies open fire with their trust Glocks and the man expires in a hailstorm of lead. What was this guy thinking? How could he expect to get away with that? Even if he did kill them both, headquarters knew where they were and would send others after them when they did not answer radio calls.

I don't know if y'all know this or not but there are 5,500 Americans in Haiti that have NOT been accounted for. Here is a question for you. What should be America's first priority in Haiti? Should it be to give aid to those in the most need, or to find those Americans that are missing and get them the hell out of there and then help those in the most need?

This date in history January 20

1863    The dispirited US Army of the Potomac was still reeling from the terrible massacre of the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13 where the US had 13,000 casualties and the CSA Army of Northern Virginia suffered only 5,000.The commanders at the Battle of Fredericksburg was US General Ambrose Burnside and CSA General Robert E. Lee. Burnside decided that the best way to re-install the morale of his army was to go on the offensive as soon as possible. After refitting and rearming, Burnside decided that the best course of action was to quickly swing around the left flank of Lee’s army. It had not rained for the whole month of January so Burnside’s army departed on dry roads but a sprinkle of rain began on the first day, then it became a deluge that lasted for four days. Needless to say, the quick movement of this Army was lost in the quagmires that once were dry roads. Any surprise of attack also was lost when this huge army bogged down to a crawl. At it's best the Army of the Potomac was moving at a speed of 1 ½ miles per day. To make things worse, Many Confederate troops moved in and began shouting “Burnside is stuck in the mud” from a distance. Due to conflicting orders an entire Corp crossed in front of another entire Corp churning whatever passable roads that might have been there into a slippery stew. Burnside then did the honorable thing hoping to cheer up the men; he brought up barrels of whiskey and dished it out. I don’t need to tell ya’ll what happened next. That’s right, Burnsides ended up with literally hundreds of drunken US soldiers fighting, sometimes regiment against regiment, and wallowing around in the mud. Mercifully, Burnside called an end to this attack forever known as the “Mud March”. This debacle was so embarrassing to Lincoln that Burnside was relieved three days later.

1777    Earlier a troop of 500 British soldiers had captured Van Newt’s mill near Millstone, New Jersey and had set about stealing all the wheat flour and corn meal they could carry along with many head of cattle that they had also stolen on the way to the mill all to feed the British troops at New Brunswick. General George Washington divided his forces to harass the British between New Brunswick and Amboy, New Jersey. Patriot Brigadier General Philemon Dickenson leading 400 “raw” New Jersey militia and 50 Pennsylvania riflemen commanded by Captain Robert Durkee went to put a stop to this bullshit. They had a problem in that the British had set up an array of cannon guarding the bridge across Millstone River leading to the mill. The Patriots did the unexpected and waded across the icy waters and attacked the British from an unexpected direction and routed those redcoats. General Dickenson wrote a report to General Washington about this action and said “we captured 49 British soldiers, 107 horses, 49 wagons, 114 cattle, 70 sheep and 40 barrels of flour.” It was reported later that the British were seen loading 25 to 30 wounded soldiers onto wagons. The Patriots lost 5 men. What a great victory for our ancestors.

1974    Rae Carruth is born on this date in Sacramento, California. Some people may know who this man is and others will not so I will tell you. Carruth was a gifted athlete as a wide receiver in football. He played four years at the University of Colorado and was first team All-American his senior year. He was picked by the Carolina Panthers in the 1997 NFL draft and signed a contract for four years for $3.7 million. Carruth was hell on wheels from the git-go and was on the all-rookie team with 44 catches averaging 12.7 yards per catch. Then something happened to this millionaire. On November 15, 1999 he met his pregnant girlfriend Cherica Adams at a movie house in Charlotte, NC. Charlotte is the home of the Panthers. After the movie Rae and Cherica get into their separate cars and head for Cherica’s house with Rae in the lead. Along the way a car pulls up beside Cherica and a passenger in other car pumps four shots into Cherica’s car and speeds off. Cherica is not killed and calls 911 and mentions that Rae is somehow involved in the shooting. When the paramedics arrive Rae is no where in sight. Cherica’s baby is delivered by emergency caesarian section and survived. Cherica is in critical condition but is rational enough to tell the police that when the other car had pulled along side, Rae had slowed to a crawl forcing her to slow and blocked an avenue of escape and after the shots were fired he sped off also. The shooter was captured and decided to squeal to get a lighter sentence. He said that Rae had contracted the shooting and soon thereafter Rae was arrested for conspiracy. Nine days later Cherica dies and Rae’s charges are changed to complicity to commit murder. This dumb-ass Rae had been on his cell phone the whole time telling the shooter where he and Cherica were and his cell phone records proved it. Rae was tried and convicted and sentenced to a minimum of 18 years and 11 months in prison. The reason he ordered the shooting was that he did not want to pay child support. I am without words at this point.

Born today:

1920    Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. He said “All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.” What a great thought.

Died today:

1900    English critic John Ruskin. He said “There is hardly anything in this world that a man cannot make worse and sell a little cheaper.” I think I know this man.

1936    British monarch King George V. He said “Never pass up a chance to go to the bathroom.” I know whereof you speak, George.

1962    US writer Robinson Jeffers. He said “The heads of strong old age are beautiful beyond all grace of youth.” Hey Robinson, I have been telling women that until I am blue in the face.

1993    Belgium born actress Audrey Hepburn. Audrey had one of the most beautiful faces most people have ever seen and she said “I never thought I would get into pictures with a face like mine.” Audrey, it was my pleasure to have gazed upon your beauty.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Live life fully while you are here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up, you will anyway so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your mistake and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect, just try to be a good example of being human."

                                    Anthony Robbins

Right after I graduated from high school I knew that college was financially out of reach so I joined the Air Force. They tested me and found out that I would be a good air traffic controller and off I went to Keesler AFB near Biloxi, Mississippi for schooling. It was no picnic, The washout rate was about 40%. My first assignment was Moody AFB near Valdosta, Georgia. Moody was the headquarters of the USAF All-Weather Interceptor School. Back in those days the all-weather interceptors stationed there were F-86D's (radar equipped) and F-89 Scorpions. My first or second day in the control tower there was a night mission that departed about 11:00p. The planes flew out over the Gulf of Mexico to shoot down drones that were launched from Tyndall AFB near Panama City Beach, Florida. Two of those planes did not return. One crashed in the Gulf of Mexico and the other crashed almost immediately after takeoff resulting in a giant fireball killing the two aboard. It was then that I realized that this was not fun and games.

A strange thing happened at a Wal-Mart near Myrtle Beach, SC in the last couple of days. Two women were detected shoplifting by a couple of employees. The employees confronted the shoplifters and a fight ensued. I am not talking about a cuss-fight, I mean a scratching, hair-pulling brawl. All of a sudden one of the shoplifters dropped to the floor and dies. She was 41 years old. It came to be known that this girl was an asthmatic and literally died of suffocation. She had lost her purse with the inhaler inside during the fight. I wonder if the family of the dead woman will sue Wal-Mart....count on it.

A 44 year old Escambia County, Florida deputy sheriff and his wife got into an argument at a party. On the way home the argument escalated into a shouting match. One inside the house the argument got to the physical stage and the deputy struck his wife. She called the cops and the deputy is arrested and jailed with no bond available. The point of this is that the wife did not file a complaint and she did not have to. In Florida as with most states domestic violence is an automatic crime. There is no argument, no paperwork, he/she is going to jail.

To no one's surprise there is still chaos in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. There is rioting whenever supplies show up as you might suspect when people are literally fighting for their lives. Looting of food stores is rampant as is gangs of youths roaming the streets brandishing machete's with their faces masked. it reminds me of the criminal gangs that we see in Mexico and other big cities in America and Central America. I have thought of this situation in Haiti at length and I cannot find a viable answer to suit my conscience. There have been welfare workers and evangelicals in Haiti for over 50 years. The United States and many other countries have contributed time and money to Haiti in the name of humanity and apparently to no avail. Their infrastructure is in no better shape than it was in the 1950's then when a disaster of this magnitude strikes, all of the weaknesses in the civility of this nation is magnified. I have no answers. Like I said, humanity is just four or five days of thirst and hunger before becoming participants in anarchy.

This date in history January 19

1809    One of the greatest poet/writers this country has ever produced is born in Boston. Edgar Allen Poe was born on this day, but he had lost both of his parents by the time he was twelve he went to live with his Godfather John Allen, a wealthy tobacco dealer. Poe’s Godfather sent him to school in England for a while and then he came back and entered the prestigious University of Virginia. The trouble was that Poe was a player and made some major gambling debts and argued with his Godfather to bail him out. It did not happen and Poe was kicked out of UVA in 1826 after only eight months. Not only that, Poe was heavy into the sauce and would toke on opium from time to time. He joined the US Army serving two years and was offered an appointment to West Point. While in the army he was sent to Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island near Charleston, SC. While there he is to have supposedly written his first mystery novel The Gold Bug. There is a small tavern on Sullivan’s Island called Poe’s Tavern that is supposed to be the place that The Gold Bug was written, but that is just a legend. In any event, Poe’s Tavern is one of my most favorite watering holes on the planet along with Dunleavey's across the street. Poe did indeed attend West Point but had yet another falling out with his Godfather about money and at the same time he broke enough rules at West Point to get himself kicked out. During all of this time Poe a written a few credible poems which did not receive much attention. In 1836 while working as an editor for a newspaper in Richmond, Virginia this boy married his 13 year old cousin. Poe wrote his first full length work which was published in 1838. He lost his job in Richmond be cause he got heavy into the sauce again and he and his wife moved to Philadelphia and he went to work for two magazines as a literary critic. His critiques were admired for being correct and concise. It was during this time that he gave us “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, both of which are milestones of mystery novels to this day. Right after this he delivered “The Murder at Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter” which remains to this day the first detective novels. He then moved to New York and stunned the world with his poem the immortal The Raven which brought him eternal fame. Soon after this his wife fell ill from tuberculosis and died in 1847. Well, this put Poe deeper into the sauce and opium but in 1849 he moved to Richmond and hooked up with an old flame and they decided to marry. He went to Baltimore to have a bachelor party with some of his trashy friends. After a while at the party Poe showed up missing but he was eventually found wallowing around in a gutter incoherent. His friends took him to a hospital, but he died on October 7, 1849 at the age of 40. What a damned waste of God given talent.

1983    On this day former Nazi Chief of Lyon, France, Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia for crimes against humanity 40 years earlier. While Barbie was the Nazi chief in Lyon, he sent thousands of French Jews and resistance worker to the deaths in interment camps in addition to personally torturing hundreds to get information. After World War II Barbie fled to Germany and joined an underground group to fight the Communists. The American Counter-Intelligence-Corps (CIC) broke up the group but hired Barbie to help gather information on the Communists by what ever means available. In 1949 the CIC felt that Barbie would serve the US well in Bolivia as a monitor of Communist activity in Central America and smuggled him into country. While there he also hired himself out to various military regimes especially the one headed by Hugo Banzer who came to power in 1971. Banzer was especially repressive and cruel and used Barbie to good advantage. About this time Nazi hunters Serge Klarsfield and Beatte Kunsel found out where Barbie was and came looking for him. As you might expect Banzer refused to extradite Barbie but four years later a more liberal regime came to power and agreed to extradite Barbie to France if the French government would aid the impoverished Bolivia. France agreed and “The Butcher of Lyon” was flown to France. In July of 1987 Barbie was convicted of 187 crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment, which is the highest penalty imposed in France. Barbie died of cancer in prison in 1991 at the age of 77. I wonder where he is today.

1822    The 23 year old Virginian Charles Bent decides to seek his fortune and heads to the Wild West. He joins in with the Missouri Fur Company. This company went down the toilet because of cutthroat competition of John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company. Bent decided to go into the mercantile business and opens a trading post in the Mexican owned city of Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico. He opened a second one on the Arkansas River in what is now Colorado and called it Bent’s Fort which is still with us. When the Mexican War began, Bent showed his true colors when he welcomed US General Stephan Kearny into Santa Fe with open arms much to the chagrin of the Mexicans. Kearny awarded Bent with the governorship of the new US territory of New Mexico and then Kearny and his troops leaves Bent on his own and heads for California. Kearny did leave a small contingent of troops for the protection of Bent. These troops openly showed their contempt for the Mexicans and the Indians in and around Taos which resulted a heated uprising. On this day in 1847 a mob of Mexicans and Indians went to a house that Bent was visiting in Taos, killed his bodyguards and killed and scalped Charles Bent. The mob wasn’t done yet. They dragged Bent’s body through the streets and killed and scalped an additional 15 honkies. Within two weeks US Colonel Sterling Price arrived in Taos and he executed all of the ringleaders. In 1848 the Mexican War was over and Taos and Santa Fe came under American control even more. By the way, Colonel Sterling Price became a General for the Confederacy in 1861.

1806    On this date in Westmoreland County, Virginia a son is born to Revolutionary War hero Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee. Harry decided to name him Robert Edward Lee, or as he became known as Robert E. Lee. Robert was well educated in his teens and was given an appointment to West Point. He graduated not first in his class but went through the entire four years without a single demerit. Before the Civil War he returned to the Academy as Superintendent. After the Civil War he became the president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. This college eventually was titled Washington and Lee University in honor of Robert E. Lee. There is no use for me to expound on the leadership capabilities of this man for they are well known. Winston Churchill said of Lee “Never in the field of human conflict has one man been loved by so many.”

Born today:

1782    US politico Daniel Webster. He said “Every man’s life liberty and property are in danger when the legislature is in session.” Especially if it is under the control of the Democrats.

1876    Cousin and wife of Albert Einstein, Elsa Einstein. She said “I do not understand my husband’s theory of relativity, but I do know he can be trusted.” That goes a long way toward a happy marriage.

1913     US entertainer Danny Kaye. He said “Life is just a big canvas, throw all the paint on it that you can.” I feel the same way except I say, “Life is a smorgasbord, taste as many pieces of it that you can.”

Died today:

1936    English author Rudyard Kipling. He said “Borrow trouble for yourself is that is your nature. But don’t borrow some for your neighbors.”

2007    US Journalist Art Buchwald. He said “People are broad-minded. They will accept someone that is a drug addict, wife beater, alcoholic or even a newspaper man, but if they cannot drive a car they think there is something wrong with them.” That reminds me of the days when I was a “shagger” or a dancer of a style peculiar to the Carolinas. When we would go to the Myrtle Beach area twice a year for “SOS” which was a big, days long dance party, we would go to “home base” which was either “The Pad”, “Fat Harold’s” or “Ducks” (bars with big dance floors) and the people would gather in different bunches which depended on the skill level of dancers. After they had established the "pecking order" the bunches did to talk to each other. I believe that if Ted Bundy walked in there and danced well enough, he would be accepted. They were/are pretty shallow, y’all.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Daily lesson

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

"Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good  person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are vegetarian."

                                           Shari Barr

I am just recovering from the marathon at the Brown Street club in downtown Greenville Saturday night. The musician we came to see started at 6:30p and finished at 9:30p then a rock band came in and played until 1:30a. There was at least one of my acquaintances was there for the whole tour. That is seven hours of partying, y'all. I can't hold up to that now but there was a day....Wanda R. your stamina is admirable. It was a hoot, y'all. The musician we came to see was a guitarist/singer named Sabra Callas from Charlotte, NC. She has several venues she plays at mostly on Highway 51 in the Pineville/Mathews area. I have a good friend that lives in that area named Joanna. Joanna, she plays at a restaurant on Highway 51 near where Park Road crosses. She is worth a visit. The restaurant is called "Tiara Tria". That may be the wrong spelling but you will get the idea.

Early this morning some enterprizing people went to a busy branch bank on Woodruff Road in Greenville. They went to a Wachovia branch bank that had a construction site next door. The people were able to crank up a heavy duty front end loader on the construction site, drove over to the bank and tore the ATM out of the ground and took it to the house. The vehicle used to transport the ATM has not yet been identified but I am sure the dozens of security cameras will get that job done.

I have been asked to add the paragraph below at special request:

In addition to showing a dead heat between Brown and Coakley, a Suffolk University poll last week of 500 likely voters also revealed unhappiness with Massachusetts ' landmark health care law, which has been used in part as the blueprint for the national health care overhaul. Close to two-thirds of those polled said the state cannot afford the health care system.

This date in history January 18

1778    Earlier one of the greatest navigators in history had sailed from England and discovered Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. Captain James Cook was assigned the task of the exploration of the South Pacific and departed England in the spring of 1776 commanding two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery. On this date Captain Cook sighted the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. Cook named these islands the Sandwich Islands in honor of one of his patrons, the Earl of Sandwich. After seeking an appropriate harbor, Cook anchored at Waimea on the island of Kauai. The islanders thought the Englishmen were Gods and were fascinated by the iron used on the ships because there is no metal ores in the Islands. The English sailors traded iron nails for sex with the native women. During Cooks stay one of the sailors died proving that they were not gods and tensions increased. After exploration of the islands, Cook sailed north looking for the alleged western entrance to the “Northwest Passage”. The Northwest Passage was a supposed water passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific across North America. As we know, this passage has been proven not to exist. After a year of exploration Cook returned to the Hawaiian Islands. This time Cook was unfortunate in his choice of anchorages when he sailed into Lono Bay. Lono Bay was considered a holy place by the natives on certain days of the year, unfortunately for Cook; this was one of the days. The ships were met with a hail of curses and a shower of stones and coral. The natives were able to steal one of the small transfer boats from the Resolution. Cook was not going to sit still for that and he and thirty other sailors armed themselves and went ashore (or tried to) to negotiate getting the boat back. One of the sailors got nervous and fired his weapon killing a native whereupon the natives attacked and killed most of the sailors, Cook included. Six or seven of the sailors were able to return to the ship. The next morning the Resolution fired a broadside at the islanders still yelling and screaming on the shore killing 30 of them. After this the sailors sailed their young asses back to England.

1776     On this evening the Committee for Safety in the city of Savannah, Georgia commanded by Patriot Major Joseph Habersham goes to the home of Royal Governor James Wright and placed him under arrest. He stayed under house arrest until February 11 when he escaped and made his way to the British warship H.M.S. Scarborough. After failing in an attempt to negotiate a treaty with Habersham he sailed for London. On December 28, 1778 Wright returns to Savannah with a hell of a lot of troops and was able to re-take Savannah but he was never able to control the entirety of Georgia. He remained as governor until 1782 but he found out that Patriot General Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne was on his way to Savannah with a group of seasoned and battle hardened veterans that had recently kicked the living shit out a military group of Loyalist/British/Cherokees even though Wayne’s troops were outnumbered 2 to 1. Rather than risk being captured or killed by Wayne’s troops, Wright got aboard yet another British warship and sailed his young ass back to England never to return. He died in London of February 7, 1785. Georgia was one of the few colonies the British were able to enforce the hated Stamp Act which was one of the main reasons for the fire being lighted under the move toward independence. Georgia had the largest percentage of Loyalists in the colonies but in spite of that, they were one of the first to argue for independence. Go figure.

1990    As incredible as it seems, the Mayor of Washington, D.C. Marion Barry is captured on camera smoking crack cocaine given to him by a woman that had proposed that if she gave him some “crack” he would help her get a reduced prison sentence. The woman that made the proposal was a plant by the Washington PD and Barry was arrested on the spot. Barry was taken away while screaming “That bitch set me up”, “That bitch set me up”. Barry was convicted and spent 6 months in the slammer. While he was in prison, the control of the city was reverted to the Congress with an appointed administrator in control. That did not end the career of Marion Barry. Even after being convicted of a drug crime, Barry ran for a city council seat and was elected by a vote of 96%. That should give you insight as to the character of the residents of our nation’s capitol.

1803    On this date President Thomas Jefferson sends a secret monetary request of $2,500 to Congress to be used for the “exploration of the Missouri River basin” which turned out to be the Lewis and Clark expedition. Jefferson rationalized that trade for furs with the yet to be discovered Indian tribes in the “higher latitudes” would more than re-pay the costs. Jefferson specified that the expedition would be just one officer and 10 men involved so that the Indians would not think it was an invasion. The expedition ended up with a few more men that what was requested but that “Corps of Discovery” made inroads into the expansion of this nation that were never equaled.

Born today:

1200    Japanese spiritualist Dogen. He said “Do not expect that you will be aware when you achieve enlightenment.” Are you listening, Jaci?

1807    American military leader Robert E. Lee. He said “Whiskey---I like it and always have, that is why I never use it.” I don’t like it so I limit myself to only 7 or 8 drinks a day. That used to be the case but I am on the wagon now.

1809    American author Edgar Allen Poe. He said “I have great faith in fools---self confidence my friends call it.” Been there, done that, do not have a tee shirt.

1943    US singer Janis Joplin. She said “Fourteen heart attacks and that son-of-a-bitch had to croak on my week---MY WEEK! Janis was supposed to have been on the cover of Time magazine but it was preempted with the death of President Eisenhower.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow