Daily history

Good morning.


Quote of the day:

“Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling fresh air is not worth the suffering and effort that life implies?”

                                        Erich Fromm

A linebacker for the New Orleans Saints name Jason Fujita was traded to the Cleveland Browns over the weekend. He left New Orleans on a good note. He gave his Super Bowl bonus away for charity. Half went to regular charities; the other half was spent for Hurricane Katrina Survivor Fund and the Louisiana Wetlands Recovery Project to repair the damage done to swamps by Katrina. There is chivalry in the world after all.

Down in Orangeburg, South Carolina a friendly game of pool was being played by some good old boys. A fight broke out and one person was shot and killed and another was severely beaten and probably had been killed if the cops had not shown up and fired a shot through the roof getting everyone’s attention. The person that was taking a beating from other men wielding big flashlights was taken to the hospital and the other person that was shot was taken to the morgue. By the way, the man that took the beating was an off duty Orangeburg cop. I don’t know, but if I was a cop I would not be hanging out in the local pool hall… that is asking for it.

Last year the PGA (Professional Golf Association) decided to take a step back and ruled that all the “irons” would no longer have “U” shaped grooves in the face of the club; they were going back to the “V” shaped grooves. The “U” shaped grooves allowed the golfer to better “shape” their shots and they were able to add more backspin. The outlaw of these type clubs took place on January 1, 2010. In the mean time, Ping Golf Club Mfg. filed a law suit claiming that their wedge with “U” shape grooves should be allowed because of a “Grandfather” clause. As a result the Ping wedge was allowed until it could be settled in court. Nearly all the PGA golfers gave up their clubs with “U” shaped grooves trying to comply with the spirit of the change. That is except for a few jackasses. One of which was “The Prince of Choke” Phil Michelson who continued to use the “U” grooved Ping wedge in defiance of what was the right thing to do. It did not help any, he is still a loser. Monday even the Ping “U” grooved wedge was outlawed. It does not look good for the “Chokemaster”.

Here is a continuation of my cross nation adventure. After that encounter with the waitress at the Colorado/Kansas border we headed out for Hays City, Kansas. Hays City, Newton, Wichita and Dodge City were all rail heads where the cattle drovers from the vicinity of San Antonio, Texas brought their enormous herds of longhorn cattle to the railroad towns to be shipped to the cities in the east. There was not yet a railroad system in Texas. As I was riding across western Kansas I could see in my mind’s eye what must have been there for millennia before the arrival of the Europeans. It has been estimated that there were approximately 60,000,000 bison in North America when Columbus arrived. There were enormous herds that blanketed our continent from Kentucky to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. They were almost annihilated for three reasons. It was for the sport of it, to feed the railroad crews laying the railroads and to starve the plains Indians in submission. These Indians relied almost entirely on the bison for all of their existence. The American military knew this and used their rifles to force submission. Anyway, Hays City hove into view after miles and miles of miles and miles. We were especially looking for “John Bitter’s Beer Saloon.” It was back in 1869 that Ellis County, Kansas hired James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok as sheriff because that area of Kansas was wild and untamed from all the Texas cattle drovers coming into town after 3 months on the trail. They were thirsty, horny and ready to rumble. The good citizens wanted a well know gunslinger to quiet things down. Bill did not disappoint. He had been in office just a few days when late one night he was notified that Bill Strawhun and his crew of drovers was over at “John Bitter’s Beer Saloon” in Hays City shooting up the place. Bill and his deputy walked in and said “This party is over”. Strawhun made the mistake of making a false move at Bill and received a bullet in the forehead from one of Bill’s .44 Colts for his trouble and was dead as fried chicken before he hit the floor. The party was indeed instantly over. A day or two later, Bill tried to arrest two drunk soldiers from the 7th Cavalry and a fight ensued. The two soldiers got Bill down on the floor and one of them put a pistol in Bill’s ear and pulled the trigger. The gun misfired and the two soldiers were temporarily stunned and that was all Bill needed. He pulled both of his .44’s and shot one of the soldiers in the legs and killed the other one. The good citizens of Ellis county decided that they were not quite ready for “Wild Bill” Hickok and he was voted out of office three months later. By the way, Bill wore his pistols in his belt and used a cross draw method. It was well known that Bill was not particularly fast on the draw but was deadly accurate with either hand. When he was killed in a poker game he had a .36 caliber Colt, a .44 Caliber Derringer and a sheath knife. He was 39 years old at his death. We did not find “John Bitter’s Beer Saloon” but we did find a small plaque designating where it used to be, and now on to Newton and Dodge City.

The mighty Mayan sun god Kinich Ahaw has found favor with us here in the buckle of the Bible belt and has chosen to bless us with a modicum of warmth and clear skies. But a glance westward indicates that the Mayan rain god Chac has not abandoned us and a reminder of his power approaches.

This date in history March 10

1865    On this date Confederate General William Henry Chase Whiting dies in a Union prison camp as a result of wounds received earlier. Whiting is one of the most exceptional officers the Confederacy ever had. He was born in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1825 and attended college at Boston College and Georgetown University graduating at the age of 16 at the top of his class. He then entered West Point in 1845 and did not disappoint this time either graduating again at the top of his class. After graduating he joined the Corp of Engineers in helping design coastal defenses. He was assigned to help design the coastal defenses at the mouth of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. It was there in Wilmington that he married and settled down. When the Civil War broke out he offered his services to the Confederacy. He was at Fort Sumter when the Union forces there surrendered. After this he returned to Wilmington and continued to design coastal defenses but was eventually called to Virginia during the formation of the Confederate army and was named as Chief Engineer. It was he who moved the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley to Manassas, Virginia in time for the Battle of 1st Manassas. He was instrumental in the rout of the Union forces in that battle. Whiting was given command of a division and was given praise by all of his superiors during the Battle of the Seven Days. In 1862 he was given command of the District of Wilmington which allowed him to return home. It was due to his efforts with the defenses in the mouth of the Cape Fear River that made Wilmington one of the most important blockade running port of the Confederacy. He remained in Wilmington for the reminder of the war except for a short period when he went to Petersburg, Virginia and helped design defenses there. Finally the Union Army decided that Wilmington had to be captured and sent US General Benjamin Butler to attack the defenses there especially Fort Fisher located in the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Butler was repulsed with heavy losses. The Union then sent General Alfred Terry and an overwhelming force and did indeed overcome Fort Fisher. It was during this second attack that Whiting was wounded and that proved to be a fatal one.

1993    Early on this morning Doctor David Gunn had arrived at the Pensacola Women’s Medical Services (abortion clinic). While still getting out of his car, a brave bastard named Michael Griffin yelled out “Don’t kill anymore babies” and opened fire and shot Gunn in the back three times. Gunn died instantly and Griffin immediately surrendered to the nearby police. The anti-abortion group known as Rescue America called the killing a “necessary evil” in the battle against abortion. While Griffin was in prison he began communicating with a woman named Rachelle Shannon who later stated that Griffin was the bravest and most important man in America. Shannon shows up at an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and opened fire on a doctor but only succeeds in wounding him. Just a short time later a fervent anti-abortionist named Paul Hill shows up on the TV talk show The Phil Donohue Show. This jackass said that both Griffin and Shannon should be acknowledged as heroes. About a year after this, Paul Hill shows up at another abortion clinic in Pensacola and guns down and kills two more abortion doctors. I don’t understand how the anti-abortionists can justify murder as a “necessary evil”. It is clear to me that they are trying to protect those inside the womb but once you are outside you are fair game. What is wrong with this picture?

1864    Earlier there was a man in the rugged mining town of Virginia City, Montana named Jack Slade. Jack was a well respected member of the community while he was sober, but once he had a snoot full, he would turn into the most obnoxious bastard out there. He would laugh real loud, slap people hard on the back and make threats although no one was ever injured. I am sure that those out there with me in the land of song and ale have known of such a person. Anyway, the law enforcement in those early frontier towns was very lacking so the community leader formed what would be called Vigilante Committees and they dispensed justice as they saw fit. The community leaders decided that Virginia City needed to be “cleaned up” and made a place fit to raise children. The first target was the loud and obnoxious drunks and that meant Jack Slade. On this date, the Vigilantes gathered up Jack Slade and hanged him for no other reason than he could not hold his liquor. Well, the word of this atrocity reached the Governor and the nearby military and Vigilantes eventually became a thing of the past. That is what happens when you put the law into the “respectable” citizen’s purview.

1970    On this date US Army Captain Ernest Medina and four other soldiers were charged with war crimes in the massacre of between 300 and 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai in March of 1968. They were also charged with using torture during interrogation of these civilians. Apparently the US army unit led by Lieutenant William Calley had been taking casualties from mines and booby traps and when they got to the village and found no soldiers they took out their frustrations on the villagers. They began the wholesale slaughter of any and every villager in sight, men, women and children. The villagers fled with the soldiers in hot pursuit and the killing would have continued if not for the brave act of a scout helicopter pilot name Warrant officer Hugh Thompson who landed his helicopter between the soldiers and the fleeing villagers and put a stop to it. There was testimony that Lieutenant Calley had ordered the killing and he was tried and convicted of killing 22 civilians. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was paroled after serving three years. War is hell.

Born today:

1946    North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano. He said “I asked the referee if I could get a technical foul for what I was thinking. He said no. So I said “I think you stink” and he gave me a technical. You can’t trust them.”

Died today:

1919   US writer Amelia Barr. She said “Regardless of the scientists if you take the supernatural out of life, all you have left is the unnatural.”

1948    Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She said “No one has ever measured, not even the poets, how much the heart can hold.” Zelda was the last of the true romantics.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow