Daily history

Good morning,


Quote(s) of the day:

       “Life: It is about the gift, not the package it comes in.”

                              Dennis Costea

                “Living is like licking honey off of a thorn.”

                                    Unknown

I am preparing a history of Haiti that I will send out soon. It is an ugly picture. It started out when Christopher Columbus tried three times to establish settlements on the north shore of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic) and all three were wiped out by the Carib Indians and it goes downhill from there. But the honkies got their revenge. The Caribs were wiped out to a man by measles, small pox, tuberculosis, etc. brought in by the Europeans.

I told y’all yesterday about a 61 year old divorce lawyer that was shot and killed by a man whose wife had the lawyer in a divorce action. A little bit more information came out Friday. The shooter was also 61 years old also. It appears that the shooter’s wife had filed a complaint that her husband (the shooter) had not coughed up the money that had been specified in the divorce decree and apparently the shooter got upset about this. What I don’t get is why shoot his ex-wife’s lawyer? After all he is just a mouthpiece for the wife. It was the wife that was the cause of the turmoil whether deserved or otherwise. But I do not know all the details and it is all over now, the wife will get all she wanted. It doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Is everyone like me and are about to spit up because of all the hype about the Super Bowl. All right already! We know it is a Cinderella story for New Orleans. We know P. Manning has been there before as a winner. Give it a rest, for crying out loud!

Up in Detroit on Woodrow Wilson Street you will see a lot of boarded up windows, burned out buildings and homeless people wandering the street but there is one warehouse that is different. Inside there is a whirr of activity with people riding stationary bicycles, shooting pool and ping pong, etc. It is the Cass Community Services building. It has 146 homeless residents but the peculiar thing is the attachments to the stationary bicycles. There is a small generator attached. As the bike is ridden electricity is generated and returned to the power grid the building is on. This cuts the building power bill significantly. They are already designing a garden on the property for next spring to help feed those unfortunate people, all of the men, women and children who are worse off than all of us.

Down in Pensacola, Florida a bookkeeper for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department was arrested for embezzling about $135,000 over a two year period. It was her responsibility to take whatever cash that was seized as a result of an arrest (especially drug busts) and deposit it into a special Sheriff’s Trust Account. This girl retired in January and her replacement did an audit and immediately found a $19,600 discrepancy. The previous bookkeeper was immediately arrested but was released on a $60,000 bond. Let’s do the math here. She embezzled $135,000 and her bond is $60,000? I don’t get it. What I do get is the stupidity of trying to steal money from law enforcement. The amount of money seized is in the police report filed immediately after the arrests. How did this girl expect to get away with that? The amount of money seized and the bank account had better balance. You could do that in your head.

By now all of you know that the 10 “missionaries” from Idaho that tried to bring 33 children out of Haiti into the Dominican Republic were arrested for kidnapping. An American lawyer went to Haiti in their behalf and was able to get the charges reduced to “child abduction and criminal association” which is a hell of lot better that kidnapping or child trafficking. Even at that, they are looking at being subject to Haitian law and the missionaries are looking at 12 years in a Haitian prison if convicted. I am sure that they had taking care of orphans in mind when they began, but incomplete research and a lot of assumptions doomed them.

This date in history February 6

1820    On this date the first ship carrying freed slaves out of the country left New York harbor for Freetown in the West African country of Sierra Leone. This voyage was sponsored by the American Colonization Society led by Robert Finley but the United States Congress had kicked in $100,000 for the expenses. These former slaves were those that were brought to the United States illegally after the passing of the American Law in 1808 that forbade slave trade. That’s right folks, slave trade in America was forbidden after 1808. This meant that slaves could no longer be brought into the United States. That did not mean that you could not keep the slaves you had and trade them, buy them or sell them within the boundaries of the United States. So the “illegal slaves” that were brought here after 1808 had the option to go back to Africa. The American plan was based on the English plan whereby the slaves that fought for England during the American Revolutionary War and were unhappy with what was given them in Canada and were allowed to go back to Africa. In 1787 England sent 300 former slaves and 60 white prostitutes to Sierra Leone. Very soon after their arrival they died of disease or in warfare with the Temne tribe. However, in 1792 a second fleet of ships departed but now it had 1,100 former slaves that had fought for England during the Revolutionary War plus thousands that had fled the West Indies and other parts of West Africa and came under the leadership of Thomas Clarkson to the new found country of Liberia and the capitol of Freetown to establish an independent nation. Between 1822 and 1861 15,000 Africans moved to Freetown and the new nation of Liberia was granted independence in 1847 and received diplomatic recognition from the US in 1863. Liberia is the first democratic black nation in history.

1865    On this date one of the most promising military officers on either side, Confederacy or Union, was killed at the Battle of Dabney Mill that I had written about a few days ago. It was the 33 year old John Pegram that was born in Virginia in 1832. He went to West Point and graduated 10th in a class of 46. As with many of his classmates, he resigned his commission at the outbreak of the Civil War and offered his services to the Confederacy. He was originally assigned to the staff of CSA General Braxton Bragg in Tennessee and then to CSA General Kirby Smith’s staff in Mississippi. He was severely injured at the Battle of the Wilderness. He recovered just in time to join CSA Jubal Early in his ill-fated battles with US General Phillip Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. In December of 1864 he was assigned an infantry division under CSA General John B. Gordon at Petersburg. Pegram took this opportunity to marry his fiancé, Hetty Cary in Richmond. It was reported that Hetty Cary was a stone fox, y'all. She was reported to be “The handsomest woman in the south.” John and Hetty were married on January 19, 1865 in Saint Paul’s Church in Richmond. Afterward Pegram returned to duty and was engaged in the Battle of Dabney Mill and while trying to rally his troops, he was killed instantly. His body was brought back to Richmond to Saint Paul’s church where the funeral was held with Hetty kneeling by his casket, they being married three weeks. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

1891    On this date the Dalton Brothers tries unsuccessfully try to rob a Southern Pacific railroad near Alila, California. Previously the Dalton Brothers, Grat and Bob, had left Oklahoma headed for California to meet brother Bill to rob banks and trains and had left behind their younger brother Emmett because they felt the was too young. On their first unsuccessful try, they boarded the train and asked the engineer where the money was but he refused and Bob shot him in the stomach. They three found the safe car on their own and ordered the guard to open the door. But the guard began firing through a small hole in the heavy door and the Dalton’s booked. The Daltons were four of a family of ten brothers. Their brother Frank was a deputy US Marshal that was killed by bootleggers and bother Bob was selected to take his place. So Bob hired his brothers Grat and Emmett as his deputies. The brothers used this opportunity to use the law to their advantage and began rustling cattle and horses unencumbered. They even killed a man that was hitting on Bob’s girlfriend. Well, the law enforcement hierarchy got fed up and fired them all. They did not do any hard time, however. After this they went into a system of train, stagecoach and bank robberies. Then finally, they did a stupid thing. They tried to rob two banks at once in Coffeyville, Kansas. They rode into town in disguise but were recognized anyway and the good citizens of Coffeyville armed themselves and waited for the Daltons to come out of the banks and out they came. They made it back to an alley where they had their horses tied but the citizenry blocked them into the alley and opened up with a withering fusillade. They all were killed except Emmett and he suffered twelve wounds. Emmett finally recovered from his wounds and was sentenced to 16 years in the slammer. After his release he moved to California and became a land speculator and contractor and became a very wealthy man.

Quotable quotes:

“I am sorry, what was the question? I was distracted by that half-masticated cow wallowing around in your mouth”. Michael Caine in Miss Congeniality. I think I know this woman.

“George W. Bush’s economic plan will create 2.5 million jobs. The bad news is that they are all for Iraqi soldiers.” Craig Kilborn
Craig, kiss my ass.

“The graveyards are full of indispensable men.” Charles de Gaulle
Chuck, lighten up.

“There are only two types of men on this beach, those that are dead and those that are going to be. Let’s get the hell out of here.” Story attributed to US General “Dutch” Cota but was probably made by Colonel George Taylor on Omaha Beach, 1944.

“Who the hell are you guys?” ”The 5th Rangers, sir”. “Well 5th Rangers, lead us the hell out of here.” Assistant Division Commander of the US 29th Division, Brigadier General Norman “Dutch” Cota, Omaha Beach, 1944.

“We are surrounded. Now they can’t get away from us killing them.”

USMC Brig. General “Chesty”Puller, Chosin Reservoir, North Korea, 1953. "Chesty" Puller is the most famous Marine of the modern era. The first time he ever saw a hand held flame thower he said "Where does the bayonet go?" He was a hard man y'all.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow