Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

“Happiness is not having what you want; it is wanting what you have.”

                                       Lord Byron

Down in Panama City, Florida a group of eight kids were expelled from a middle school for trying to originate a criminal gang. They were found out when a young kid expressed interest in joining the gang and he was told that he would have to go through an initiation. The initiation was a severe beating from all the members at the same time. They took the kid into an alley and beat the hell out of him but what they did not notice was a security camera above. When the film was viewed by a security service they immediately turned it over to the cops. What the hell is this world coming to? Where are these kid’s parents/caretakers? Middle school, for crying out loud!

A couple of months ago the sheriff of Okaloosa County, Florida (Ft. Walton Beach area) Charlie Morris was sentenced to 71 months in Federal Prison for using funds from Homeland Security for his own use. He used the funds to give bonuses to his deputies if they would give his some of it back. This past week Charlie Morris’ mistress, Sabra Thornton, went on trial for taking $80,000 and some expensive gifts from good old Charlie Morris. The $80,000 was for a job that she never did, also Homeland Security funds, to improve law enforcement in Okaloosa County, for crying out loud.

It has happened again, y’all and I am still confused. Up in Charlotte, NC the cops arrested a 36 year old former teacher at Olympia High School for having sex with a 17 year old student. He was arrested for having sex with this girl in his home but the cops suspect more encounters happened in the school building. What I am confused about is the age of the girl was 17, what is the legal age of consent in North Carolina? Maybe the law is that a teacher and a student of any age cannot have sexual contact. That is ludicrous but believable

One of my subscribers sent me a scathing message about her anger at what is happening in Haiti. She seemed disappointed that the Haitian police have a jail and are in uniform. She is especially angered at the arrest of the missionaries even though they had undocumented orphans in their care. She believes the missionaries when they say the parents told them that they could not care for them and to take them away. This may have happened but without documentation how do you know it was really the child’s parents? Are all missionaries in possession of a kind heart and soul and have the child’s interest foremost in their minds? Could they be a player in the worldwide children marketing scheme? Who can you trust anymore? After all, that Russian bad boy Rasputin was a “Holy Man” and David Koresh and Jim Jones were evangelists and had churches in the United States. What really bothered me was that the church that the missionaries were representing of an unknown credo was from central Idaho. There were at least three churches in central Idaho that were hotbeds of the origination of white supremacy militia groups such as “The Brotherhood” and several others. I do not know if these missionaries have a well defined base or not, but I have not read anything that leads us in their direction. Are they Christian, Catholic, Baptist, Mormon, Moslem, Hindu or what? I do not trust any splinter group religion after Jim Jones.

This date in history February 8

1777    On August 12, 1739 Timothy Bigelow is born in Worchester, Massachusetts. After helping remove some of the dead Patriot soldiers from the field after the battle of Lexington, he joins the Continental Army. He is one of two majors with General Benedict Arnold on the ghastly march from Maine to Quebec, Canada. Many Continental soldiers died of starvation and exposure during this ordeal. The attack on Quebec was not successful and Bigelow was captured and was imprisoned by the British from December 1775 to August 1776 and then released. After returning to the Continental Army he was promoted to the rank of Colonel on this date. Bigelow was a dedicated and very efficient soldier. He was present at some of the most important battles in United States history. He was there at the Battle of Saratoga, a Patriot victory that persuaded France to come to our aid, the Battle of Monmouth, and most of all he was with the Continental Army at the battle of Yorktown where the entire army under British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered. After the war Bigelow went back home to Worchester and resumed his profession as a blacksmith. He fell into financial ruin and was jailed for failure to repay his debts. He died in prison on March 31, 1790. He left a wife and five children. What the hell can you say about this outrage?

1587    In 1542 Mary is six days old when her father James V, the King of Scotland dies making little Mary the ruling Monarch of Scotland. After reaching an appropriate age Mary is sent to be raised in France. She ends up marrying the dauphin (apparent heir to the French throne) and he eventually becomes King Francis II. Francis dies the year after becoming king and Mary returns to Scotland to assume her position as the ruling monarch, Mary Queen of Scots. Mary marries her cousin Lord Darnley but has a lover in Lord Bothwell. Lord Darnley is killed in a mysterious explosion and three months later Mary marries Lord Bothwell. Well, the Scottish nobles call bullshit on that action and accuse Mary and Bothwell of assassinating Lord Darnley to get him out of the way and call for Mary to step down. Mary refuses and civil war breaks out with the army that is loyal to Mary against an army raised by the Scottish nobles. Mary’s army has the crap kicked out it and Mary has no choice but to flee the country. She goes to England seeking refuge with her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Mary’s son James becomes the King of Scotland as James VI. Elizabeth welcomes Mary and offers refuge. Later on it was discovered that Mary had conspired with the French to assassinate Elizabeth so Mary can rise to the throne of England. Queen Elizabeth is not pleased and in 1568 sends Mary to Fotheringay Castle for imprisonment. She stays imprisoned for 19 years and on this date, Mary Queen of Scots has a date with the ever present big guy with a big axe and a black hood. Mary went to meet her maker in two pieces. Mary’s son James calmly accepts his mother’s execution and cools his heels waiting for Elizabeth to expire and sure enough, in 1603 Elizabeth passes away and James VI of Scotland becomes the King of Scotland, Ireland and the King of England and is titled James I. This is the first time all three countries were under one rule and the phrase “Great Britain” came into being.

1887    On this date President Grover Cleveland signs the Dawes Severalty Act. As incredible as it sounds, Senator Lauren Dawes of Massachusetts formulates a plan to divide the Indian’s reservations into domestic plots with Indian males with families would get 160 acres, single males 80 acres and boys 40 acres. The women were not eligible for any lands at all. After all of this took place, what land that would be left over would be sold to the Anglos. The so called “friends of the Indians” endorsed this project as the best way to assimilate the Indians into the Anglo society in spite of the fact that the Indians lost ownership of 86 million acres or 63 % of their lands. The “friends of the Indians” were the first in line when the excess lands came up for sale. They weren’t “friends” they were just lusting after Indian lands. The Dawes Severalty Act remained in place for 40 years and then in 1934 the Wheeler-Howard Act became law and the Dawes Act was repudiated. The Wheeler-Howard Act stated that the Indian tribes would be allowed to revert back to a central type government that they had been in the past. But much damage had already been done. We honkies are not such hot shit, are we? After all, we were the very first “illegal aliens” to step foot on the Continent to stay (the Vikings were first but they did not stay) and drive the Natives almost into extinction with disease, cheating, betrayal and mass murder. It is estimated that there were 26 million Indians on the lands that became the continental United States when Columbus arrived in the Bahamas. After the last US military engagement with the Indians at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota in the 1880’s, there were 750,000. What is wrong with this picture?

1692    Previously the good Reverend Samuel Parris had purchased two slaves in the Bahamas and brought them back to his home in Salem, Massachusetts. The two teenaged girls living in his house were his niece Abigail Williams and his daughter Betty. The girls were beginning to act a little weird so the Reverend took them to see a doctor. On this date the doctor diagnosed the girls as being under the influence of an “evil spirit.” Well, the Reverend immediately suspected his slaves and being the culprits so he takes his slaves, Tituba and John Indian aside and administers a severe beating to them both trying to get them to confess to being witches/warlocks. Neither one of them confessed. One of the neighbors suggested making a cake with the girls’ urine and fed it to the dog. The logic was if the dog began acting strangely, then the girls were under the influence of a witch. Fortunately for Fido, that idea was scrapped. But the girls kept having what appeared to be fits and convulsions and said that they had seen Tituba in their hallucinations. Then other girls that had visited Abigail and Betty began having fits and convulsions. This set off the well documented panic in the fear of witches in the town of Salem. Soon everyone was pointing fingers at others with which they had a grievance against. On February 29 an arrest warrant was issued for three other women as being witches and the panic was in high gear. In the summer of 1692 the first of the Salem witch trials began with Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe and Sarah Wildes. All were convicted and sentenced to hang on July 23. While these women were on the gallows all but one forgave those that convicted them. The one woman said to the executioner Nicholas Noyes who read them the order of execution for being witches “You are a liar. I am no more a witch that you are a wizard and if you take my life, God will give you blood to drink.” Nicholas Noyes died a few years later bleeding from the mouth. Eventually the credibility of the accusers went away and the good people of Salem came to their senses, but not before hanging 19 and imprisoning over 100 and the Governor stepping in and putting a stop to it. The most important family in Salem was the Proctor family. The powers that be chose to hang John Proctor as a witch but spared his wife because she was pregnant. People are fools at times, in fact, most of the time.

Born today:

1820    US General William Tecumseh Sherman. He said “If I had my choice I would kill all of the reporters but we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.” Believe it or not the US General that laid waste to Georgia and South Carolina became the President of LSU.

1828    French writer Jules Verne. He said “Whatever one man can conceive another man can achieve.” Jules was one of the first authors to write about space travel.

1884    English racer Lord Brabazon. He said “If you cannot say what you want to say in twenty minutes you ought to go home and write a book.” Lord Brabazon was not known for his patience.

1888    US movie director Elbert “King” Vidor. He said “Marriage isn’t a word...it is a sentence.” It is close to life without parole.

1931    US actor James Dean. He said “Dream as if you will live forever, live as if you will die today.” James was a rising star in the movies when he was killed in a car wreck at the age of 24. He only made three movies, Giant, East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, but he is a legend to this day.

1941    US actor Nick Nolte. When speaking about Barbra Streisand he said “She is a ball-buster...protect me from her.” Hey Nick, there are million of them out there.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Hell has frozen over, the New Orleans Saints have won the Super Bowl