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