Daily history

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“A wise man does not need advice and a fool will not take it.”

                                     Plato

Question of the day:

Why the hell did Jenny Sanford write a book about that tawdry affair her husband (Governor Mark Sanford) was involved in? Keep in mind that she certainly does not need the money and it has to be a terrible embarrassment to her four sons. I had lunch with a friend Tuesday and we could not arrive at a logical explanation other than spite, perhaps y’all can.

A few days ago the meanest man on the planet got into an argument with his mother. He is 30 years old and was living in the same house as his mother near Georgetown, SC. The neighbors called the cops when the argument reach a crescendo and suddenly stopped. The man left the house just before the cops arrived to find that the man had hacked his mother to death with a sword. He was later stopped and arrested at a roadblock. This event reminded me of the Roman emperor Caligula. This monster was jealous of his mother’s power and he decided to do something about it. He tried poison and that did not get the job done. Next he had her aboard his boat on a deep lake and pushed her over the side. Fortunately for her, she was not wearing as much jewelry as normal and was able to swim to shore. Finally he said to hell with it and sent four or five soldiers to kill her. This group got the job done by beating the mother to death with clubs.

Yesterday I mentioned that a 16 year old boy had called his mother saying that he was unsure of his location and bleeding and needed help. I assumed an automobile crash, but that was not the case. This kid made three calls and in the last one he said “They are going to kill me.” He had been kicked out of school for bringing drugs on campus. He was very fond of “downer” prescription drugs. The night before he had been to a “party” and had been involved in a brawl over “girls and drugs”. His mother thinks that he was drugged out because of taking a downer and drinking alcohol. Anyway, the police will not seek arrests until an autopsy is performed. Drugs, it is always drugs.

Professional wrestler Rick “Nature Boy” Flair was attacked in his Charlotte, North Carolina home. Rick called the cops and the attacker was arrested. Rick is 60 years old and the attacker is his 42 year old wife. WOOOOOOO! I had forgotten why I am not married; now I remember.

Yesterday I forgot to mention that February 23, 2010 was the 65th anniversary of the raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Photographer Joe Rosenthal snapped a photo of this event after three days of the most savage fighting ever documented. Rosenthal won a Pulitzer Prize for this very famous photo. The flag was raised by 5 US Marines and 1 Navy corpsman. There is a bronze statue of the momentous occasion on the grounds of the United States Marine headquarters in Washington. There was 23 Medal of Honor earned in this operation and we should never forget these acts of courage and dedication by our military.

This date in history February 24

1836   On this date the commander of the Texas Militia , a South Carolinian named William Travis, sends out a plea for help to his embattled troops trapped in an old Spanish Mission named the Alamo in the city of San Antonio de Bexar, or San Antonio as it is known today. Colonel Travis sent a note to “The people of Texas” to come to the assistance of about 220 militia along with volunteers under the command of Jim Bowie and another group under Davy Crockett. Travis sent his friend from the same area of South Carolina as he named James Bonham out carrying the message. Bonham was able to sneak out and sneak back in with 30 volunteers from Gonzales, Texas. But even with this help they were surrounded by a Mexican army of over 2,000 against a force of about 237 Patriots. Travis had ended the note he sent with Bonham stating those immortal words “victory or death”. The Mexican army under General Santa Ana kept tightening the noose and finally launched a night assault in early March and Santa Ana ordered “take no prisoners” and they stormed the Alamo and killed everyone to a man. The next encounter was the Texas Militia, commanded by Sam Houston, against Santa Ana southwest of Houston at a place called San Jacinto. But that is another story.

1991    In August of 1990 the ground forces of Iraq invade their tiny but oil-rich neighbor of Kuwait and occupy the major points within a matter of hours. One week later US military began “Operation Shield” and started to move the tools of war into Saudi Arabia to protect them from an invasion from Iraq. That is what they said, but you and I know they were preparing for an invasion of Iraq. Three months later the United Nations Security Council notified Iraq that if they did not departed Kuwait by January 15, 1991 they could expect military retaliation. Nothing happened and at 4:30p on January 16 the United Nations coalition launched “Operation Desert Storm” with massive air strikes on Iraqi from Saudi Arabia, aircraft carriers in the Persian Sea and the Red Sea, and various other launch points in the middle east and the Indian Ocean. Desert Storm was under the command of US General Norman Schwarzkopf. The United Nations coalition pounded the living hell out of various targets in Iraq especially Baghdad. On this date General “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf launched the ground assault. The US Marines attacked the Iraqi western border near the Persian Gulf and various coalition tank and attack helicopter units crossed the Iraqi border in force 300 miles north in the middle of the desert. General Schwarzkopf and his staff had believed that the Iraqi military would least expect an attack from that direction and they were right. In four days the coalition had crushed any opposition and was closing in on Baghdad from the northwest and the west. The Iraqi forces that were in Kuwait wisely decided that they had better get their asses out of there and headed for the Iraqi city of Basra. The coalition fighter-bombers were waiting for that when the booty-laden Iraqi troops began leaving Kuwait, they were trapped on the only road there and were utterly annihilated. This, along with the surrender of over 80,000 Iraqi troops, persuaded President George H. Bush to call an end to hostilities. The Iraqis swore to abide by United Nations peace terms. The US lost 125 troops in this operation. There is no way of knowing how many Iraqis and their allies perished but it had to be over 100,000. The last thing I remember about this encounter was General Schwarzkopf addressing his staff and said “I told you that we were going to come over here and kick ass, and that is exactly what we did.” War is hell.

1981    On this date socialite Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower. Tarnower was the author of the bestselling book titled The Scarsdale Diet. Harris and Tarnower had been lovers/companions since 1966 in spite of the fact that Harris was the superintendent of a fancy-schmantzy girl’s school in Virginia. Tarnower was a notorious womanizer but in spite of that Harris helped Tarnower write his book. Tarnower had vaguely promised Harris that he would eventually marry the 56 year old Harris but never did, and then one day Harris found out that Tarnower was going to dump her for a younger woman. Harris, accompanied by a .32 caliber revolver, jumps into her car and heads for Tarnower’s house in Westchester County, New York. Upon arrival at Tarnower’s house Harris let herself in with her key, goes upstairs to Tarnower’s bedroom and confronts him. Here is where things get a little fuzzy. Harris said she went up there to commit suicide and Tarnower tried to wrestle the gun away from her and it went off killing Tarnower making it an accident. The only problem was that Tarnower was shot four times in the abdomen at very close range with the wounds very close together. The jury did not buy the accident scenario and convicted Harris of first degree murder and gave her life in prison. Harris was a model prisoner and wrote a book about how women prisoners are treated titled “They Always Call Us Ladies”. Governor Mario Cuomo commuted her sentence in 1992 and upon her release she continued her campaign for better treatment of female prisoners. I have said it a million times, men have been putting up with rejection for centuries but if a woman gets rejected...look out. I have been asked why I say this and here is the answer. If you go to a dance, any dance, you will see men ask women to dance and get rejected and he just moves on to the next one. But if a woman asks a man to dance and he says no, the woman gets really pissed off and stalks away. I know what I am talking about here.

Born today:

1500    Roman Emperor Charles V. He said “Name me an emperor that has ever been struck by a cannonball.” Hey Chuck, don’t you know that old men start wars and young men fight them?

1940    Scottish soccer player Denis Law. He said “Whoever wins today wins the championship no matter who wins.” Denis, shut the hell up.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow