Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

"Let your love come like a misty rains, coming softly, but flooding the rivers."

                                     Malagasy Proverb

As we all know the so-called “health care reform” bill has passed the house and is on its way to be signed into law by the poser, Barak Obama. The last time I checked this form of government was a Democratic Republic. This means that there are two parts to the legislative branch, the House and the Senate. These two bodies are people that have been elected to represent their constituents in affairs of state. In this recent debacle there were several Representatives that were told they should be willing to sacrifice their careers to get this bill passed. This means that these particular Representatives knew that their constituents were opposed to the passing of this bill but they were going to do the opposite knowing they would be kicked out of office this coming November. How arrogant and corrupt can this administration be? They are making a mockery of what our ancestors suffered, bled and died for, a representative form of government. I can guarantee you that on November 27, 2010 the majority in the House of Representative will change and sure enough, those that chose the Democratic Party wishes rather than their constituents will be cleaning out their desks soon thereafter. Keep in mind, this bill was formulated for the benefit of 10% of the population at the expense of the other 90%. Make sure you are registered. Don’t get me started about this…I take enough blood pressure pills already. By the way, the Attorney General of South Carolina has promised a constitutional challenge to this bill once it is enacted and he is not the only one. But you have to look at Henry with a jaundiced eye, he is running for Governor of South Carolina also.

This past weekend two of my daughters from Columbia, South Carolina came to the “hill country” here in Greenville for a visit. I hoped that they were coming to see me but I did not kid myself, they were coming to visit my brother’s 9 week old female yellow Labrador retriever named Kaylee. This dog has AKC papers a mile long and her parents are both field trial champions. Kaylee already shows signs of brilliance but most Labs are. I have never seen a dumb one.

Saturday night we went to eat at a place called “Smoke on the Water”. I think it got that name because they have a lot of different smoked meats and the back of the building in on the banks of the mighty Reedy River. The Northern Iowa vs Kansas game was on while we were there and from where we were sitting we could not see the TV. This meant that one of us went to check on the score about every two minutes. We could not believe what we were seeing, the mighty Kansas Jayhawks, the number one ranked team in the nation, was losing to a nobody and indeed they did. This meant that Northern Iowa was in the “Sweet Sixteen” as incredible as it seems. There is no question that Kansas had Northern Iowa outmanned at every position but Northern Iowa wanted it more and were better prepared. War is hell, right Dotty?

Down in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina the Fire Chief was headed north on I-526 toward North Charleston in his red SUV. There was a disabled car in the emergency lane and the Chief apparently did not see it and rammed the hell out of it sending the driver to the hospital. The SCHP shows up and smells something and it ain’t gasoline, it is the Chief’s breath. The Chief was found to be hammered to the gills. Let’s do a recap. The fire chief of a small bedroom town like Mount Pleasant, SC is headed north on a freeway in the early afternoon driving a fire engine red SUV with all the signs and emblems and he is hammered. He struck a parked car in the emergency lane injuring someone. My guess is that the chief had better start looking for another line of work and enroll in a class that instructs people how to deal with a severe case of the dumb-ass.

This date in history March 23

1862    Earlier CSA General “Stonewall” Jackson is tasked by CSA General Robert E. Lee to watch for Union troops leaving the Shenandoah Valley. Lee believes that US General George McClellan is calling for all available troops in the Shenandoah to join his already gigantic army for a spring offensive as indeed he was. If such a movement was detected, Jackson was to stop or delay it. Accordingly, Jackson steps up patrols by his cavalry commander CSA Colonel Turner Ashby. On this date, Ashby does indeed detect a troop movement near Kernstown, Virginia by US General Shields. Only this time Jackson was outfoxed by the sly Shields. Ashby sends a courier back to Jackson and informs him of the troop movement and estimates the troop strength at 3,000. The difference here is that Shields had kept most of his troops hidden, he really had 9,000 troops. After receiving the message, Jackson sends additional troops to join Ashby to raise the Confederate total to 4,000. In the middle of the afternoon Jackson, in spite of it being Sunday, orders an attack on Shields left flank. Jackson, being a very pious man, tried not to fight on the Sabbath. Well, after the attack was well underway, Shields brings out his hidden troops. Confederate division commander General Richard Garnett, expecting a short battle against only 3,000 and providing ammo to his troops accordingly, runs out of ammo and is forced to retreat which forced the divisions on either side to follow and soon the Confederates were in a general retreat making it a victory for Shields. This was the beginning of Jackson’s brilliant Shenandoah Valley campaign and the last battle he ever lost. After the battle, Jackson accused Garnett of cowardice in retreating no matter that his troops were out of ammo. Some believe that Jackson was trying to blame someone else for the loss because he had been outfoxed by Shields. Anyway, Garnett carried that stigma with him the rest of his career even after the death of Jackson. Garnett was determined to shed this stigma of cowardice that Jackson had burdened him with and at Gettysburg, in spite of a general order that no one rides, Garnett rode a horse directly into the very teeth of Union artillery fire. No part of CSA General Richard Garnett was ever found that could be identified. The Confederates knew that he was dead because his horse “Red-Eye” returned to Confederate lines without him.

1979    In 1976 former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and two his friends, Mike and Ronni Moffitt, were riding in a limousine down Embassy Row in Washington, DC when a bomb explodes under the car killing all aboard. Letelier was the US ambassador for the leftist Chilean government headed by Salvatore Allende who was elected in a democratic election. The CIA unashamedly engineers a military coup and Chilean General Augusto Pinochet takes over in Chile. But the CIA had done its job by preventing another openly leftist government in the western hemisphere. General Pinochet arrests Letelier and imprisoned him in a facility down near the Straights of Magellan. Eventually Letelier was released and came to Washington and began a campaign of voicing anti Pinochet rhetoric. On this date, the men responsible for the car bombing are convicted and sentenced to life. The only problem here was that later on it was found that the CIA knew about the pending car bomb attack, and since Letelier was a leftist, they did nothing to stop it. Because of this the two bombers were released. Way to go, CIA!

1806    The Lewis and Clark expedition, after spending a miserable winter near present day Astoria, Oregon, breaks camp and heads back east up the Columbia River. They had named it Camp Clapsop for reasons known only to them. In my opinion, this is the greatest adventure of all time and I would have loved to have been part of it.

1961    Surprise, surprise, a US intelligence gathering (spy) aircraft is shot down in Laos. The US was interested in learning the extent of Russian assistance given to the Pathet Lao guerillas. The guerillas and the Royal Lao had been battling for some time and US President John Kennedy was asked to broker a truce. Kennedy needed information no matter how illegal and stated there had to be a joint cease fire before anything happened.

Born today:

1900    US psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. He said “Education makes machines that behave like men, and men that behave like machines.” I think Erich knew Al Gore.

1910    Japanese director Akira Kurasowa. He said “All men are geniuses when they dream.” I think Akira knew Erich Fromm.

1912    German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. He said “Basic research is what I call it when I don’t know what the hell I am doing”. Sounds like Nancy Pelosi to me.

1972    US Pro basketball player Jason Kidd. Upon joining the Dallas Mavericks he said “We are going to turn this team around 360 degrees.” Jason, shut up.

Died today:

1953    French artist Raoul Dufy. He said “My eyes were made to erase all that is ugly.” I don’t think Raoul ever met Rosie O’Donnell or Janet Reno because human eyes cannot erase that much ugly.

1995    US actor Jerry Lester. He said “What do you give a man who has everything? Penicillin.” Sounds like Keith Richards to me.

Quotable quotes:

“There is one thing I would break up over and that is if she caught me with another woman. I would not sit still for that.” Steve Martin....Me neither

“Women and elephants never forget an injury.” Saki....All men know this.

“I am really smart. I know a lot, I just can’t think of it.” Morey Amsterdam....Me too.

“Man forgives women of everything except the ability to outwit him.” Minna Antrim...My third ex-wife would try to understand this, but she never could fathom the idea that I was smarter than her.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.