Daily history

Good Morning,


Quote of the day:

“That mighty Mayan God of weather Chac has seen us and found us undeserving of warm weather and has chosen to smite us with cold and misery until a sacrifice is made.”

                                       Al Campbell

I am considering making the sacrifice of leaving home and suffering a few days in Sullivan’s Island, SC including a few places like Poe’s Tavern, Dunleavy’s, On the Hook, Soda Water, Richard’s, Magnolia’s, Noisy Oyster, etc. Perhaps that will placate Chac. But if it doesn’t, it will certainly placate me.

Up in the Flat Rock, North Carolina two illegal Latinos were caught taking spikes out of a Norfolk and Southern railroad track. A search of their residence found over 500 spikes that they were going to sell as scrap iron even though these cheap bastards could cause the deaths on hundreds if not thousand by a derailment that involved a tanker car full of toxic chemicals. The authorities promised that after they serve hard time they will be deported. I wonder how long they will stay away.

After five straight years of rioting and brawls during motorcycle Bike Week on Memorial Day weekend in Atlantic Beach near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the authorities have instituted a new set of laws for that event. The sale and use of alcohol will be tightly controlled and law enforcement will be very visible.

The gathering at Atlantic Beach is attended mostly by the black community. There is another motorcycle gathering in Myrtle Beach proper at another time that is attended mostly by the white community. The Myrtle Beach authorities have already clamped down on what happens in their town but I can’t imagine would happen if both motorcycle communities gathered in the same town during the same time period. Make no mistake, racial prejudice is alive and well…and that is a two way street, y’all.

Monday afternoon a call was received by the Spartanburg county Sheriff’s Department about a domestic disturbance at a home in Inman, SC. The cops arrived to find this scenario. 33 year old Jeffrey Cassidy had forced his way into his estranged wife’s house, threw her on the couch and told her if she got up he would shoot her. He then stormed down the hallway and kicked open a bedroom door where another man named Kevin Hull was. A brawl ensued. In the mean time the woman ran outside and called 911. The cops arrived and broke up the fight and found out that both Jeffrey and Kevin were South Carolina Highway Patrolmen. They were both suspended pending an investigation but Cassidy was arrested and charged with criminal domestic violence. What does the word “estranged” mean as it applies to a man and wife. To me it sounds like they are legally separated awaiting a divorce. Is it legal for the wife or husband to seek another companion under these circumstances in South Carolina? Even though I have been through several divorces none of them have been in South Carolina.

There is a group of islands in the southern part of Chile known as Juan Fernandez archipelago. Robinson Crusoe Island is the largest and the most populated. Right after the most recent earthquake a 12 year old girl on Robinson Crusoe felt a tremor and suspected an earthquake. She called her grandfather in Valparaiso and found out how powerful the quake had been. Her grandfather warned her to be prepared for a tsunami that was sure to follow. The girl ran down to the center of town and began ringing a gong in the town square that was the emergency signal for the island. Nearly everyone ran for high ground and sure enough, the tsunami arrived and flooded the town. The majority of the population was not injured thanks to the bravery of this little girl.

In the seaside resort village of Pellehue, Chile a group of 40 retirees were relaxing in the warm sun of this wine growing district. Suddenly they heard the report of the earthquake and the tsunami that was on the way. They hopped into their bus and headed for higher ground. They did not make it. The tsunami came in three waves, the first two about 18 feet high and the third about 20 feet. The waves rushed in and then rushed out to sea with the bus in tow. All they found of that bus was two of the corpses of two of the passengers. That area was ravaged by looters also so the government sent in 10,000 Chilean army and marine troops with orders to shoot to kill anyone found looting. They also initiated a curfew of 8pm to 11am. That put a stop to the looters especially after the military capped a few of them.

This date in history March 3

1776    On this date United States emissary Silas Deane departs Boston on a secret mission to France. He is going to meet with French Foreign minister Charles Gravier to convince him that the United States is indeed on the road to independence and military tools of war from France is needed to assist in this endeavor. He is successful to some degree in that France offers 200 brass cannon, gunpowder and shot to match. Silas Deane also reminded the American Congress that that he had offered the Marquis de Lafayette the rank of Major General if he would come over to the United States and join with George Washington and use his considerable military expertise in our behalf. The confirmation of this rank for Lafayette had to come from Congress. Deane also complained that he was given not enough instructions so the American Congress sent three more emissaries to France to assist Deane. One of these was a man named Arthur Lee who accused Deane of lining his pockets with the gold that America had sent to pay for the French military hardware. This never happened. Deane was a dedicated Patriot but the accusation stuck and Deane was forever branded as a greedy and unpatriotic man. Thirty years after the death of Deane, Congress donated a considerable amount to Deane’s granddaughter for the wrong her grandfather had suffered unnecessarily.

1865    The Freedman Bureau is established by Congress at the behest of the abolitionists. They were afraid that the freed slaves would not know what to do or who to contact to start a life of their own and they were right for the most part. The Freedman Bureau was administered by US General Oliver O. Howard from it conception to its disbandment 8 years later. The Bureau was supposed to assign “abandoned lands” to the poor blacks and poor whites as well. The only problem here was that there were still soldiers in the field that still owned these lands and were not “abandoned”. Not to mention the Ku Klux Klan that held a special place in their hearts for freed blacks and were not much better to poor whites. The Klan held a huge sway in the days immediately after the Civil War and during “reconstruction”. The program of Reconstruction by the US Congress was intended to help the South get back on its feet from all the devastation brought on by the war. As with all programs of this sort it was riddled with corruption and most of those in power hated the South for various reasons and wanted the suffering to continue as a matter of spite and downright meanness. This was the reason the Klan was so successful. Anyway, the Freedman Bureau eventually became unnecessary because the surviving soldiers from both sides returned home and reclaimed their lands and there was very little “abandoned lands” to be administered and the Freedman Bureau went down the toilet along with US General O.O. Howard.

1974    About two years before a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 departed Toronto, Ontario and upon reaching 12,000 feet a hatch blew of the side of the aircraft and knocked a gaping hole in the side and rapid decompression occurred. Gratefully there were not at a very high altitude. The debris and pieces of sheet metal flew throughout the aircraft and several important hydraulic lines were cut and the inside deck collapsed. The pilot was able to maintain enough control to make a safe landing at Detroit. The NTSB faulted McDonnell-Douglas for installing an improper latch on the hatch that had blown off. McDonnell-Douglas issued a bulletin to all to install an updated latch on all of their DC-10’s. McDonnell-Douglas sold one of their DC-10’s to a Turkish airline with the old latch but with a bulletin to update the latch on this particular hatch. The bulletin went unheeded and on this day a Turkish DC-10 departed Paris, France with 364 passengers and crew. Upon reaching 11,000 feet, the hatch in question blew off and ripped a gaping hole in the side. The six passengers in the rear seats were sucked out of the aircraft and were killed instantly when they landed in a field not far from the airport. The pilot was unable to maintain control and the gigantic aircraft crashed headed straight down at over 500 MPH. The crash was so destructive and powerful that all aboard were killed and only 40 bodies were found intact. McDonnell-Douglas pointed at the ground crew at the Paris Airport as not closing the hatch correctly. The ground crews responded with refusing to service or load baggage on any DC-10. McDonnell-Douglas was finally faulted for selling a DC-10 knowing it to have an unsatisfactory latch, bulletin not withstanding.

1991    On this date, a small time hoodlum named Rodney King was riding around Los Angeles in his white Hyundai with two of his friends. Rodney was hammered and the police detected it and gave chase. Rodney refused to stop for quite a spell then after finally stopping, he and the passengers were ordered to get out and lay flat on their faces. The two passengers complied, but not Rodney. He chose to get down on all fours and no further. The obviously enraged cops zapped Rodney with two Tasers to no effect, he stayed on all fours. By then a man across the street who had bought a digital camera that day starts filming the action. After the Tasers were unsuccessful, the cops began using the old fashion method of nightsticks, feet and fists and delivered an A-One beating on Rodney all of which was on film. No knowing they had been filmed, the cops blew it off as a minor event. The guy that had filmed it sold the film to a local TV station. The next morning Rodney watched himself receiving a severe ass-kicking from his hospital room along with millions of others out there in TV land. Needless to say, the s--t hit the fan in the LAPD. The five cops involved were arrested and charged with assault. They received a change of venue because of all the news in and around Los Angeles. They were tried in Simi Valley, a Yuppie community that is grateful for the police keeping their little city neat and clean, acquitted all the cops. Rodney sued the LAPD in a civil suit and received $3.8 million. I have no sympathy for Rodney but I am damn sure not sympathetic to those cops either.

Born today:

1756    English writer Robert Godwin. He said “He that loves reading has everything in his reach.” Indeed he does, Robert.

1847    Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell. He said “When one door closes another opens; but we so often look regretfully at the closed one that we do not see what is open for us.” That is sound wisdom.

1885    US sports writer Ring Lardner. He said of a baseball player “Although he is a poor fielder, he is a poor hitter.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow