Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

“Life is meaningless if you allow it to be. Each of us has the power to give life meaning, to make our time, our bodies and our words into instruments of love and hope.”

                                            Tom Head

Here is another entry into the cesspool known as South Carolina politics. The leading candidate for Governor is Nikki Haley, a 38 year old mother of two and a good looking woman. This past couple of days some jackass named Will Folks posted on a blog site that he had “an inappropriate physical relationship” with Nikki 3 years ago. The math tells us that Nikki was married at the time. This shovel of mud was neither confirmed nor substantiated. When asked why he chose to make this statement at this time Folks said the Nikki’s opponents were about to leak this information to the mainstream media to impugn both his and Nikki’s reputation. Nikki has already jumped on the closest soapbox and denied that anything like that ever happened. She said that she had been 100% faithful to her husband for their entire marriage of 13 years. Will Folks was a spokesman for present Governor Mark Sanford in the distant past but is now in the TV communications business. I believe Nikki because I think Folks is on the take. This toilet of political mud-slinging here in the buckle of the Bible belt stinks….to high heaven.

Here is something to get your blood flowing. There is a fresh water lake in south Texas named Lake Falcon and portions of this lake is within 200 yards of Mexico. There have been occasions of a boat load of Mexicans approaching a recreational boater, pulling an automatic weapon forcing the boater to stop, then boarding and robbing the people aboard. They then would throw the keys to the boat into the lake and driving away. With this in mind, did Arizona make the right decision?

To some of you that have never been to the extreme northwestern portion of South Carolina are missing a treat. There is a part of it called The Jocassee Gorges that is as close to untouched and pristine as any mountainous area can be because of its remoteness. There is a lake wedged between two mountains that is very, very deep and cold. It is believed that this lake will produce the new world record rainbow trout. The largemouth bass are sizable also because they feed on rainbow trout fry. Now we have an invader in this paradise. It is feral pigs, y’all, better known as wild hogs. These beasts have moved into this area and are rooting up everything in sight including some flowering plants that exists nowhere else on the planet. What do we do about it? That is hard to say. One female hog can deliver 40 piglets a year meaning if there are 10 females in one herd…well, you do the math. There are some farmers near the Jocassee Gorges that have been complaining for a long time that the herds of wild hogs are increasing faster than they can kill them and the result is their crops being destroyed. The hogs also eat the amphibians that feed on mosquito larvae and we know what that will mean. The South Carolina Wildlife Department has no answers…yet. A year round open season on wild hogs in Oconee County, SC would go a long way to putting a handle on this problem.

This date in history May 27

1831     In 1822 the Ashley fur trapping expedition departed Saint Louis headed up the Missouri River. Included in the expedition was two men named Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger. These two men play an immense role in the settling of the west. Jim Bridger was more of a mountain man/trapper and Jedediah Smith was more of an explorer. Bridger was the discoverer of the legendary South Pass in southern Wyoming which allowed pioneers and their heavily laden wagons and carts to cross the Rocky Mountains into Oregon and California. Bridger also was the first Caucasian to lay eyes on the Great Salt Lake. Some of his friends dared him to track down the end of a nearby creek and off he went. The creek emptied into the Salt Lake. Bridger had thought it was an inlet of the Pacific Ocean because of its salty taste. Bridger had a great memory for topography and was depended on greatly as a guide to others. But it was Smith who explored Oregon in depth and survived three or four attacks by the Indians in Oregon. He also explored the northern part of California. Smith wrote down everything he saw which proved to be invaluable to the people that followed. Even though Jim Bridger discovered the South Pass he chose not to tell a lot of people about it but Smith told in detail how to get to the Pass and the Oregon Trail was born. After Smith found out that his mother and sister had died he decided to move back to Saint Louis and open a mercantile store and write a complete book about his explorations, But before he could get started a trader offered him a deal he could not refuse. He wanted Smith to guide a wagon train full of trade good to Santa Fe. Smith agreed and off they went. Smith probably was over-confident about his skills and was eager to get back to Saint Louis knowing that the Santa Fe Trail was well marked and well used. After they got started Smith decided to depart from the Trail and head down the Cimarron River which would cut off about 300 miles. Smith was confident that he would be able to find potable water on the shortcut. Fresh water sources on the Santa Fe Trail were known and the wagon train left with enough water to get them to the first water hole but now they were off the trail. On this date the potable water became dangerously low and Smith sent seven men including him in different directions to find water. While Smith was hunting water in central Oklahoma a Comanche war party found him first. Smith was killed but his body was never found. We know that he was killed because of the account given by the Comanche. That is what over-confidence and impatience will do for you.

1813    On this date Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to his one time bitter political enemy John Adams to tell him that their mutual friend and physician Benjamin Rush had died. In the letter Jefferson reminisced about the heady days of the Revolutionary War. He mentioned that there were only six other signers of the Declaration of Independence still alive. Jefferson beat Adams in a very close presidential race in 1800. They argued bitterly about the form and power of the Federal government during this election and they remained silent to each other until this letter. Jefferson also had a tenuous relationship with Benjamin Rush over religion. Rush was a born again Christian and had accepted Christ as his savior while Jefferson was a deist meaning he believed in God but did not believe that Christ was the son of God. Jefferson and Rush had several conversations about this and had reached an impasse. Now here is where the spooky stuff happens. Jefferson and Adams both died on July 4, 1826 exactly fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Apparently God is sentimental also.

1863     On this day United States Supreme Court chief justice Roger Taney issues an Ex-parte Merryman against President Abraham Lincoln for suspending the writ of habeas corpus between the cities of Washington and Philadelphia. The reason for this is the plantation owners in Maryland were raising hell about the freeing of the slaves. Maryland was one of those states that were slave holding but did not secede. Lincoln allowed the military and others to arrest anyone that they felt was interfering or their dissent were causing unrest. Anyone they arrested could be held for an undetermined length of time without being charged or arraigned. I suspect that the President today could do the same thing in time of war. After all we interned many Japanese during WWII just because they were Japanese.

1940    As I told ya’ll in a previous lesson, many English boats had crossed the English Channel to evacuate the soldiers of the ill-fated invasion of Dunkirk. On this date the Germans commit one of many atrocities. They captured several English soldiers and herded them into a small depression and machine gunned them all and called in a bulldozer and covered them up. They were rotten people then. But General Eisenhower said toward the end of the war “I am not worried about the German navy or air force, I am worried about the German infantry, they die hard.”

Born today:

1912     English writer Arnold Bennett. He said “Always behave as if nothing has happened even if something has happened.” Arnold, shut up.

1894    French writer Louis Celine. He said “The more hated a person, I find, the happier they are.” You would expect something like that from a Frenchman. They all suck.

1907    US naturalist Rachel Carson. Rachel wrote the immortal book The Silent Spring. She said “In every outthrust headland, in the curve of every beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.” Silent Spring had a big effect on me, as with many others.

1911    US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. He said “The right to be heard does not include the right to be taken seriously.” I think Hubert knew Barack Obama.

1917    US editor Gene Fowler. He said “Every editor should have a pimp as a brother so he can have someone to look up to.” Gene obviously has animosity toward editors.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.