Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting with you now,
This much let me avow-
You are not wrong who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision or in none,
Is it therefore less gone?
All we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.”
Edgar Allen Poe
I don’t know if y’all know about this but Michael Vick is back in the news. It seems that Michael and his entourage decided to go to a Virginia Beach night club to celebrate Michael’s birthday. Included in his entourage was a couple of guys that was involved with Michael in an illegal dog fighting/breeding organization that Vick went to jail for. That night there was a shooting outside the club. According to Vick and many witnesses Vick had already left the club when the shooting occurred. I certainly hope so. Surely no one is so stupid as get involved in a shooting while on probation…but on second thought…
I cashed in my Father’s Day present (gift certificate from Amazon) and bought two books and three movies. The two books were about the history of the Comanches in central and northern Texas. In the 1880’s the Comanches were acknowledged by military experts worldwide as being the finest light cavalry in the world. Their primary leader was Quanah Parker, a half breed. His mother was a white woman that had been captured and spent 25 years with the Comanches. She bore her husband three children, one of which was Quanah. She was captured by the US Cavalry and sent back to her family. She strenuously objected to leaving her native family but was taken anyway. Just a few months later she was dead. She refused to eat and starved to death.
The second book is vignettes about others that were captured by the Indians and kept as their own.
The three movies were “Hurt Locker”, “Invictus” and “Blind side”. One of my daughters said the Hurt Locker disturbed her and she could not watch all of it. I felt the same way with “Deer Hunter” and “Platoon”.
Tropical Storm Alex is approaching hurricane strength and the eye is forecasted to grind ashore about 30 miles south of Brownsville, Texas on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning with winds in the 90’s. The clean-up crews dodged the bullet this time…but it is early in the hurricane season.
In the last few days a man from South Carolina chose to get into the professional Mixed-Martial Arts business. He had been doing it as an amateur and thought he was ready for the pros. In the first round of his debut fight he caught a right cross by his opponent and he suffered a brain hemorrhage and died. There is nothing sporting about MMA, it is just a street fight with gloves on, very small gloves at that.
This date in history June 30
1775 The Continental Congress ratified the Articles of War to be sent to King George III. This was a year before the Declaration of Independence was ratified. The Articles of War begins with the phrase “As his majesty’s most faithful subjects in these colonies”, and it goes on to describe “attempts of the British ministry to carry out the execution, by force of arms, unconstitutional and oppressive acts by British Parliament with taxes on America.” The colonists could not believe that King George III would knowingly allow unfair treatment of his subjects and this was an attempt to notify him of it. This was not a condemnation of King George, but of Parliament. Well, King George not only did not agree with the colonists, he did not even read the Articles of War. With this the Colonists knew they were being raped with the approval and encouragement of King George III. After this, the wrath of the colonists turned from Parliament to King George himself. The Declaration of Independence attacks and accuses King George not Parliament. In the span of 12 months the colonists re-focused their venom on the King alone. All of this was stoked into an inferno in January of 1776 when Thomas Paine published Common Sense and it scathingly called King George everything but a white man and listed many unfair things that he had allowed to happen to the colonists. This was a clear act of treason as the British saw it and they began applying even more harsh pressure on the colonists. It did not work then, nor in 1812 and hopefully never.
1862 We are about half way through the so-called Battle of the Seven Days. On this day the Battle of White Oak Swamp occurred. CSA General Robert E. Lee decided that the time has come to apply the coup de grace to the Army of the Potomac that is in full retreat with Lee hounding their every step. Lee gave a plan of attack to his three Corp commanders in which the Army of the Potomac would be attacked from three different directions at once. It was a complicated plan and required precise timing. After the attack began, inexplicably, CSA General “Stonewall” Jackson allowed his attack to stall at the edge of the swamp which allowed the Union troops being under attack by him to reinforce other troops that were being overwhelmed. No one has ever figured out to this day what Jackson was thinking. Anyway, this action also allowed the Army of the Potomac to go to the closet high ground and dig in……Malvern Hill. But that is another story.
1981 Glen Godwin got into an argument with a known drug dealer named Kim LeValley. In his rage Godwin stomped, beat, choked and stabbed him 28 times. He wasn’t done yet. He took the corpse out onto the desert near Palm Springs, California and using a home made explosive, blows it into confetti. Godwin is caught and sentenced to 25 to life and goes to Soledad Prison. While there he marries Shelly Rose. In 1985 He is transferred from Soledad to Folsom prison. In 1987 he escapes from Folsom through a 300 yard drain pipe that someone had cut the iron bars off the end from the outside. He gets on a raft, floats across the American River to freedom. In 1989 the American authorities receive a message from Mexico they have a man in custody named Stewart Carrera that has the same fingerprints as Glen Godwin. Before they could get him extradited, Godwin killed his cellmate and escapes. In 1996 Godwin is put on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list and he and Shelly are featured on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.” Someone recognized Shelly on the TV show as living in Dallas and she is arrested. But Shelly had divorced Glen long ago and had remarried. She had no idea where Glen was. And no one else does either because he is still at large to this day.
1876 On this day the 140 ft stern wheeler river boat “Far West” arrived on the Little Big Horn River and begins taking aboard the wounded troopers from the infamous battle. Remember, there were three units of US cavalry at that battle. It was only Custer’s unit that was annihilated. Even though the other two units suffered horrendous casualties, there were survivors. The pilot of the “Far West” was the best at the time in Grant Marsh. The boat only drew 20 inches of water when fully loaded and therefore could navigate a long way up streams and rivers before running out of water. Marsh took the wounded troopers to Fort Abraham Lincoln, North Dakota. There is little doubt that the easy ride on the boat saved many of the wounded. A ride in a wagon to the fort would have been fatal to many of them.
1520 On this day the Aztecs in the capitol of Tenochtitlan led by their king Montezuma II finally get fed up with the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez and his troops and revolt. First of all, Tenochtitlan is an island in the middle of a huge lake with a man made causeway to the mainland. It was located approximately where Mexico City is today. Anyway, the Aztecs seal off the causeway making Cortez and company have to fight their way out by boat. Cortez loses many troops when the boats carrying the troops along with an overload of gold booty each, capsize and sink, drowning most of them as they are in armor. Cortez escaped, but Montezuma is killed. No one knows if it was the Spanish or the Aztecs that killed him but the next day Montezuma’s brother assumes the crown. Eventually, Cortez returns and with the help of other tribes retook the city. The other tribes resented the hated Aztecs because they subjugated them and required tribute from them all, even all the way to present day Nicaragua.
Births and deaths:
1685 English writer John Gay is born. He said “Some men are born to lie, and women to believe them.” I can see in my minds eye all of you women out there nodding your heads in agreement.
1884 French writer Georges Duhamel is born. He said “It is always brave to say what others are thinking.” George must have been a politician also.
1917 US singer Lena Horne is born. She said “It is ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how much she wants it. But occasionally we do.” Lena has her finger on the pulse of womankind.
1984 US writer Lillian Hellman died. When asked what she thought of the beauty of actress Norma Shearer she said “She has a face unclouded by thought.” Lillian had a long and tumultuous relationship with famous writer Dashiell Hammett. Both were extremely talented. I guess that was the problem.
2003 US comedian Buddy Hackett died. He said “Golf is more fun that suddenly appearing naked to a strange crowd, but not by much.” I read a story about him playing in a golf tournament and he had knocked his ball in deep rough with grass over his head. He went in after the ball and later comes running out naked screaming “Run, Locusts, Locusts”. He was a funny guy.
Quotable quotes:
“Work is the curse of the drinking crowd.”
Oscar Wilde
“Smoking kills…If you are killed you have lost an important part of your life”
Professional moron, Brooke Shields
“You can tell German beer from vinegar by reading the label.”
Mark Twain
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
Ben Franklin (one of my heroes)
“Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Some would say the wheel, but it does not go near as well with pizza.”
Dave Barry
“People who drink “light” beer do not enjoy the taste of beer, they just enjoy peeing.”
Capitol Brewing
“An alcoholic is someone you don’t like that drinks more than you”.
Dylan Thomas
“If there is no God, who pops up the next Kleenex?”
Art Hoppe
“Hearing nuns’ confession is like being stoned to death with popcorn.”
Bishop Fulton Sheen
“If there is no hell, a good many preachers are receiving money under false pretenses.”
Billy Sunday
And finally,
“Thank God I am an atheist.” Luis Brunel. Shut up, Luis.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day
“I am not going to spend the later years of my life as a hermit so I can spend an extra two years in the geriatric ward.”
George Carlin
The General Assembly of South Carolina has passed a law that allows the hunting of wild pigs and coyotes at night. I do not ever remember this area of the country having problems with coyotes but evidently they have become a nuisance as have the pigs. It has been reported that there is a large population of coyotes living very near the Greenville Downtown airport. It seems that the two main runways are built on large embankments and the coyotes dig into the side and make a den. They are very smart and efficient hunters, including family pets. They also are subject to rabies and will attack humans if they think they are in danger. The wild pigs are another story. I used to deer hunt in swamps down on the Carolina coast and wild pigs were common. It seems that hunters from other parts of the state have been trapping wild boars and sows and moving them into private hunting preserves to give the owners prey to hunt. The problem with that is a wild sow can deliver a litter of 10 to 15 piglets twice a year. Assume that you place 5 sows in one area. You do the math on how many wild pigs you could have in a very short period of time. They also become menacing but it isn’t their fault, it is those supposed great hunters. In the swamps the pigs have bear, bobcat, panthers and even packs of bear dogs that run them down and kill them. That is not true elsewhere in the state. You mess with Mother Nature nothing ever good comes from it.
Several years ago immigrants to Australia brought rabbits with them to provide them with food in the future. You guessed it. The only predators in Australia are the canine Dingoes. As you can suppose the rabbits were able to easily out breed the Dingoes and soon the Australian could not plant anything and expect the rabbits to leave them alone and they were infested with rabbits. It took several years of hunting and poisoning to get a handle on that problem.
I don’t know if y’all knew it or not but President Obama has appointed an “oil spill czar” to oversee the clean-up on the Gulf coast. Now we yet another bureaucracy because this “czar” will have to hire a staff to deal with the EPA, Department of the Interior, BP, Transocean, Halliburton, thousands of pissed off fishermen and even thousands more that depend on the tourist industry in that area like hotels, motels, restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, etc. What a freaking nightmare.
I hope I do not step on anyone’s toes here but I thought that the angry statement by Pope Benedict that the Catholic Church is “autonomous” and should have been included in the investigation of the Belgian archbishop and other members of the Belgian Catholic hierarchy including the opening of one of the dead Bishops crypt looking for evidence was incredulous. Since when does the Catholic Church have the authority to trump civil crime investigations? If that is the case then the Southern Baptist Convention should have been included in the investigation of Jim and Tammy Fay Bakker. There have been many, many other non-Catholic criminal men and women of the cloth that were tried, convicted and sentenced without the inclusion of their church’s input. What started the investigation into the Belgian Catholic hierarchy was one of the Belgian bishops resigned after he confessed that he had been sexually abusing young boys for many years. A crime is committed by criminals, regardless of church affiliation.
I received some very depressing news. One of the finest seafood restaurants in the world named simply The Fish House in Pensacola, Florida has sadly stated that there will be no more Apalachicola oysters. They said that after what they have on ice is gone they will not be able to get anymore for the immediate future. It seems that the oystermen in the Apalachicola area can make a lot more money by leasing their boats to BP for the clean-up effort. This means that when I go down there in October there is a chance that only Texas and east coast oysters will be available. But if they get the leak stopped, and there is no pollution in St. George’s Bay in Apalachicola, the oystermen may begin harvesting oysters again. I certainly hope so. But if not, the “shrimp and grits a’ya ya” will still be available at the Fish House.
This date in history June 29
1776 The South Carolina representative to the Continental Congress, Edward Rutledge, sends a letter to John Jay of New York expressing his misgivings about independence from Great Britain. Both he and John Jay were ambivalent on this issue. It is understandable since both Edward and his brother John were educated in England with both becoming lawyers and members of the Continental Congress. Both were very successful with their Charleston, South Carolina clientele and they lived across the street from each other. Finally, Edward relented and did sign the Declaration of Independence being the youngest signer at the age of 27.
1993 On this date a knife-wielding man broke into the Allentown, Pennsylvania home of Denise Sam-Cali and tried to rape her. A struggle ensued but the rapist succeeded in raping Denise on the front lawn. He then stabbed Denise trying to kill her but she fought him off and the rapist ran away. This courageous woman would play a big role in the resolution of this crime. On the 9th of July a 15 year old girl is abducted and her body was found by a reservoir stabbed 22 times. She had been raped also. On the 15th of July a five year old girl was abducted and raped and the attacker unsuccessfully tried to strangle her. Then on the 19th of July the house of Denise Sam-Cali was broken into while she was away. The police decided to set a trap and staked out Sam-Cali’s house and left a window enticingly open. On July 30 a man crawled into the open window and was greeted by a policeman and a gunfight ensued. The intruder crashed his way out through another window and fled. A few hours later, career criminal Harvey Robinson staggers into a hospital with two gunshot wounds. While waiting he was recognized by a policeman and Harvey fled with the cop in close pursuit. The cops ran Harvey down and arrested him. He went to trial and was easily convicted due to the DNA evidence that they retrieved from Denise Sam-Cali’s clothing. Denise had carefully laid aside her underclothing she had on during the rape just for this eventuality. Harvey got the death penalty. I wish I could designate the type of death to be given to animals like this. If I could, I promise you crimes of this sort would drop precipitously.
1941 On June 22, a German army of 3,000,000 soldiers, thousands of tanks and aircraft crossed into Russia as Operation Barbarossa began. It was Hitler’s intention to subdue Russia in spite of signing a peace agreement with Joseph Stalin less than a year before. One week after beginning this operation, July 29, the Germans were at the door steps of Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev. During the previous week the Germans had captured the Ukrainian city of Lvov and slaughtered thousands and sent thousand to German slave labor camps. Those that were not killed or enslaved blamed the Jews for all of this and began killing the Jews in the streets. What’s up with that? Anyway, the Germans thought that if they were able to quickly overcome the Russian army, the populous would side with them since Stalin was an acknowledged monster. It didn’t happen. The Russian army was much larger than the German intelligence had supposed and the Russian people chose the lesser of two evils and stuck with Stalin and dug in their heels and resisted bitterly. This decision cost the lives of 6,000,000 civilians. Eventually “General Winter” shows up in mid-October and the German offensive ground to a halt. Because of the bitter cold, and the German soldiers having no winter clothing, the army was decimated. The very same thing happened about 130 years before when a short Corsican name Bonaparte tried to do the same thing as the Germans with the same results. The German army command believed they could wrap this operation up by early September and winter clothing was not necessary. They had severely miscalculated the resolve of the Russians and paid a terrible price for it. Eventually the Russian army got on its feet and crushed the attacking Germans and sent them fleeing back toward Germany with the Russian army hot on their heels. When the Russians entered Germany, they had no problem with slaughtering any air-breather they ran across in retribution. What goes around…
1613 The Globe theatre in London burned down. This was where William Shakespeare debuted most of his plays. The first indoor theatre in London was built by William Burbage in 1576. Before that, plays were enacted on street corners, taverns and on the lawns of houses. After Burbage’s lease ran out Shakespeare’s company, “Lord Chamberlain’s Men” disassembled the theatre and used the timbers to build the Globe. While I was in London in 2004 I saw a replica of the Globe on the banks of the Thames that was dwarfed by the gigantic Tate Art Museum next door. Also dwarfed was a replica of the English ship “Golden Hind” that was commanded by Sir Francis Drake who, though not being the first, sailed his ship around the world. The honor of the first circumnavigation of the globe belongs to Ferdinand Magellan about 45 years earlier. By the way, a “Hind” is a type of European male deer or stag.
1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a letter to J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was the lead scientist on the “Manhattan Project” or the project to invent a nuclear weapon before the Germans did during WWII. The military branch of the project was led by Army General Leslie Groves. It seems that General Groves, being a military man, was very tense about security on such a secret project as this and set up the laboratories for the scientist in the middle of a New Mexico desert near the town of Alamogordo so it could be easily be made ultra-secret without attracting a lot of attention. The scientists were not really pleased with the living quarters and the extra tight security which resulted in friction between Oppenheimer and Groves. Roosevelt was trying to stroke Oppenheimer so he would not bolt and run taking the other scientists with him. The letter succeeded and two years later early one July morning, a bright flash lingered over the New Mexico desert when a nuclear device known as Trinity is detonated ushering in the nuclear age whether you liked it or not.
Births and deaths:
1921 The mother of Winston, Lady Jennie Churchill died. She said “Even if you are a Princess or the richest woman in the world, you can be nothing greater than a lady.”
Hey Jennie, have you ever been to “Richard’s”, a biker bar near Mount Pleasant, SC? There are lots of "ladies" there, y'all, maybe a little skank too.
2002 American singer Rosemary Clooney died. She said “No matter how great a man is, the size of his funeral depends on the weather.” That thought brings me back to reality.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day
“I am not going to spend the later years of my life as a hermit so I can spend an extra two years in the geriatric ward.”
George Carlin
The General Assembly of South Carolina has passed a law that allows the hunting of wild pigs and coyotes at night. I do not ever remember this area of the country having problems with coyotes but evidently they have become a nuisance as have the pigs. It has been reported that there is a large population of coyotes living very near the Greenville Downtown airport. It seems that the two main runways are built on large embankments and the coyotes dig into the side and make a den. They are very smart and efficient hunters, including family pets. They also are subject to rabies and will attack humans if they think they are in danger. The wild pigs are another story. I used to deer hunt in swamps down on the Carolina coast and wild pigs were common. It seems that hunters from other parts of the state have been trapping wild boars and sows and moving them into private hunting preserves to give the owners prey to hunt. The problem with that is a wild sow can deliver a litter of 10 to 15 piglets twice a year. Assume that you place 5 sows in one area. You do the math on how many wild pigs you could have in a very short period of time. They also become menacing but it isn’t their fault, it is those supposed great hunters. In the swamps the pigs have bear, bobcat, panthers and even packs of bear dogs that run them down and kill them. That is not true elsewhere in the state. You mess with Mother Nature nothing ever good comes from it.
Several years ago immigrants to Australia brought rabbits with them to provide them with food in the future. You guessed it. The only predators in Australia are the canine Dingoes. As you can suppose the rabbits were able to easily out breed the Dingoes and soon the Australian could not plant anything and expect the rabbits to leave them alone and they were infested with rabbits. It took several years of hunting and poisoning to get a handle on that problem.
I don’t know if y’all knew it or not but President Obama has appointed an “oil spill czar” to oversee the clean-up on the Gulf coast. Now we yet another bureaucracy because this “czar” will have to hire a staff to deal with the EPA, Department of the Interior, BP, Transocean, Halliburton, thousands of pissed off fishermen and even thousands more that depend on the tourist industry in that area like hotels, motels, restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, etc. What a freaking nightmare.
I hope I do not step on anyone’s toes here but I thought that the angry statement by Pope Benedict that the Catholic Church is “autonomous” and should have been included in the investigation of the Belgian archbishop and other members of the Belgian Catholic hierarchy including the opening of one of the dead Bishops crypt looking for evidence was incredulous. Since when does the Catholic Church have the authority to trump civil crime investigations? If that is the case then the Southern Baptist Convention should have been included in the investigation of Jim and Tammy Fay Bakker. There have been many, many other non-Catholic criminal men and women of the cloth that were tried, convicted and sentenced without the inclusion of their church’s input. What started the investigation into the Belgian Catholic hierarchy was one of the Belgian bishops resigned after he confessed that he had been sexually abusing young boys for many years. A crime is committed by criminals, regardless of church affiliation.
I received some very depressing news. One of the finest seafood restaurants in the world named simply The Fish House in Pensacola, Florida has sadly stated that there will be no more Apalachicola oysters. They said that after what they have on ice is gone they will not be able to get anymore for the immediate future. It seems that the oystermen in the Apalachicola area can make a lot more money by leasing their boats to BP for the clean-up effort. This means that when I go down there in October there is a chance that only Texas and east coast oysters will be available. But if they get the leak stopped, and there is no pollution in St. George’s Bay in Apalachicola, the oystermen may begin harvesting oysters again. I certainly hope so. But if not, the “shrimp and grits a’ya ya” will still be available at the Fish House.
This date in history June 29
1776 The South Carolina representative to the Continental Congress, Edward Rutledge, sends a letter to John Jay of New York expressing his misgivings about independence from Great Britain. Both he and John Jay were ambivalent on this issue. It is understandable since both Edward and his brother John were educated in England with both becoming lawyers and members of the Continental Congress. Both were very successful with their Charleston, South Carolina clientele and they lived across the street from each other. Finally, Edward relented and did sign the Declaration of Independence being the youngest signer at the age of 27.
1993 On this date a knife-wielding man broke into the Allentown, Pennsylvania home of Denise Sam-Cali and tried to rape her. A struggle ensued but the rapist succeeded in raping Denise on the front lawn. He then stabbed Denise trying to kill her but she fought him off and the rapist ran away. This courageous woman would play a big role in the resolution of this crime. On the 9th of July a 15 year old girl is abducted and her body was found by a reservoir stabbed 22 times. She had been raped also. On the 15th of July a five year old girl was abducted and raped and the attacker unsuccessfully tried to strangle her. Then on the 19th of July the house of Denise Sam-Cali was broken into while she was away. The police decided to set a trap and staked out Sam-Cali’s house and left a window enticingly open. On July 30 a man crawled into the open window and was greeted by a policeman and a gunfight ensued. The intruder crashed his way out through another window and fled. A few hours later, career criminal Harvey Robinson staggers into a hospital with two gunshot wounds. While waiting he was recognized by a policeman and Harvey fled with the cop in close pursuit. The cops ran Harvey down and arrested him. He went to trial and was easily convicted due to the DNA evidence that they retrieved from Denise Sam-Cali’s clothing. Denise had carefully laid aside her underclothing she had on during the rape just for this eventuality. Harvey got the death penalty. I wish I could designate the type of death to be given to animals like this. If I could, I promise you crimes of this sort would drop precipitously.
1941 On June 22, a German army of 3,000,000 soldiers, thousands of tanks and aircraft crossed into Russia as Operation Barbarossa began. It was Hitler’s intention to subdue Russia in spite of signing a peace agreement with Joseph Stalin less than a year before. One week after beginning this operation, July 29, the Germans were at the door steps of Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev. During the previous week the Germans had captured the Ukrainian city of Lvov and slaughtered thousands and sent thousand to German slave labor camps. Those that were not killed or enslaved blamed the Jews for all of this and began killing the Jews in the streets. What’s up with that? Anyway, the Germans thought that if they were able to quickly overcome the Russian army, the populous would side with them since Stalin was an acknowledged monster. It didn’t happen. The Russian army was much larger than the German intelligence had supposed and the Russian people chose the lesser of two evils and stuck with Stalin and dug in their heels and resisted bitterly. This decision cost the lives of 6,000,000 civilians. Eventually “General Winter” shows up in mid-October and the German offensive ground to a halt. Because of the bitter cold, and the German soldiers having no winter clothing, the army was decimated. The very same thing happened about 130 years before when a short Corsican name Bonaparte tried to do the same thing as the Germans with the same results. The German army command believed they could wrap this operation up by early September and winter clothing was not necessary. They had severely miscalculated the resolve of the Russians and paid a terrible price for it. Eventually the Russian army got on its feet and crushed the attacking Germans and sent them fleeing back toward Germany with the Russian army hot on their heels. When the Russians entered Germany, they had no problem with slaughtering any air-breather they ran across in retribution. What goes around…
1613 The Globe theatre in London burned down. This was where William Shakespeare debuted most of his plays. The first indoor theatre in London was built by William Burbage in 1576. Before that, plays were enacted on street corners, taverns and on the lawns of houses. After Burbage’s lease ran out Shakespeare’s company, “Lord Chamberlain’s Men” disassembled the theatre and used the timbers to build the Globe. While I was in London in 2004 I saw a replica of the Globe on the banks of the Thames that was dwarfed by the gigantic Tate Art Museum next door. Also dwarfed was a replica of the English ship “Golden Hind” that was commanded by Sir Francis Drake who, though not being the first, sailed his ship around the world. The honor of the first circumnavigation of the globe belongs to Ferdinand Magellan about 45 years earlier. By the way, a “Hind” is a type of European male deer or stag.
1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a letter to J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was the lead scientist on the “Manhattan Project” or the project to invent a nuclear weapon before the Germans did during WWII. The military branch of the project was led by Army General Leslie Groves. It seems that General Groves, being a military man, was very tense about security on such a secret project as this and set up the laboratories for the scientist in the middle of a New Mexico desert near the town of Alamogordo so it could be easily be made ultra-secret without attracting a lot of attention. The scientists were not really pleased with the living quarters and the extra tight security which resulted in friction between Oppenheimer and Groves. Roosevelt was trying to stroke Oppenheimer so he would not bolt and run taking the other scientists with him. The letter succeeded and two years later early one July morning, a bright flash lingered over the New Mexico desert when a nuclear device known as Trinity is detonated ushering in the nuclear age whether you liked it or not.
Births and deaths:
1921 The mother of Winston, Lady Jennie Churchill died. She said “Even if you are a Princess or the richest woman in the world, you can be nothing greater than a lady.”
Hey Jennie, have you ever been to “Richard’s”, a biker bar near Mount Pleasant, SC? There are lots of "ladies" there, y'all, maybe a little skank too.
2002 American singer Rosemary Clooney died. She said “No matter how great a man is, the size of his funeral depends on the weather.” That thought brings me back to reality.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Monday, June 28, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
Robert Heinlein
The mighty University of South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team beat the hapless Clemson Tigers twice in consecutive nights to earn the right to play UCLA in a best two out of three for the national championship. They start tonight.
Zeke’s marina is located near the intercoastal waterway just outside Orange Beach, Alabama. It is the home of the 46 foot charter boat “Rookie” and the captain of this boat was 52 year old Allen Kruse. After the oil spill in the Gulf back in April Allen’s charter boat fishing business took a nosedive. He had been a charter boat captain for 25 years and now he was out of business. To make ends meet he hired his boat out to BP and was undergoing training on how to skim the oil off the water and to lay out floating booms. For the first time in 25 years he was not his own boss and had strangers yelling at him. He was exasperated at the snails pace operation and seeing the containment crews lounging around Zeke’s doing nothing. Last week he kissed his wife goodbye at his Foley, Alabama home and went to the marina. Allen climbed into the wheelhouse of his boat and blew his brains out. He said that life as he knew it would never be the same in his lifetime. It was more than he could bear.
Tropical storm Alex has crossed the Yucatan peninsula and is now in the Bay of Campeche headed west northwest gaining strength and headed for the area of Brownville, Texas....for now.
Here in the Greenville, South Carolina area the local newspaper is the Greenville News. They have a website where they post local and world news clips. They put out a notice last Thursday that after July 1 in order to access their website there would be a charge. The charge would be less if you subscribed to the newspaper. Their complaint was that their subscribers were becoming less and less because of information available on the internet so they had to initiate this action to survive. I have mixed emotions here. I want the paper to survive but charging for access to their website rankles me.
It has been reported that there are a lot more sharks in shallow water than normal up and down the northern Gulf coast because of the oil spill. That reminds me of when I lived in Pensacola and fished from the Pensacola Beach fishing pier frequently. The water is crystal clear out to about 12 feet deep. On many occasions I would be out on the pier and there would be surfers and bathers splashing around with hammerhead sharks just a few feet away and they never knew it. I think the sharks have been there all along but now people are watching the water more closely because of the oil spill.
BP has established a free boat washing station in Orange Beach, Alabama. It seems that boats coming in from offshore have crude oil on their hulls and are taking it with them to inshore waters that are not polluted. They will raise the boats on a lift and steam clean the hull. Like I say, what a freaking nightmare.
This date in history June 28
1836 James Madison died on his tobacco plantation in Virginia. He was a drafter of the Declaration of Independence, the chronicler of Continental Conventions, one of the authors of The Federalist Papers and the 4th President of the United States. Had it not been for him and others with the same zeal for freedom as he, we would not be what we are today. His chronicles of the Continental Convention are recognized as some of the most detailed and well phrased ever written. He sealed his chronicles and made them inaccessible until all involved were deceased. Madison started his rise to fame when he attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) and completed a four year curriculum in two. He helped form the American Whig Society which became the rival of the Cliosophic Society, both were literary and debate societies. He, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton were the authors of the Federalist Papers which were instrumental in keeping the public at large informed and fostered independence from England and persuaded the public that a central government could be sensitive to individual rights. I believe these writings were instrumental in the successful adoption of the Constitution. He became a rector at Thomas Jefferson’s beloved University of Virginia. In 1938 the Virginia State Teachers College in Harrisonburg changed to Madison College in his honor, it later became James Madison University. His wife Dolly Tate Madison was recognized as a superb first lady and host. It was she that saved the famous Gilbert portrait of George Washington from the British when she and James had to evacuate the White House from the British onslaught during the War of 1812. We need more like James and Dolly. By the way, James Madison is the only sitting US President to participate in combat. During the War of 1812 a British infantry unit was approaching Washington from Maryland. Madison crossed over into Maryland and took command of an artillery battery. It was during this time period that Dolly evacuated the White House and the British burned it to the ground.
1862 A brigand and adventurer named George Hollis joined the Confederacy and is given the rank of Colonel. Hollis hatches a plan to capture a civilian vessel on the Chesapeake Bay and use it against the Union warship USS Pawnee that was on constant patrol there. He enlists the help of Richard Zargona and they both go to Baltimore and hire a group of pirates to help them. They chose the passenger vessel St. Nicholas as their target. When the day of the attempt arrived, Zargona dressed up as a flirtaceous woman and got aboard in Baltimore. At the next stop, Hollis and the rest of the pirates got aboard as paying passengers. After the boat got out in the middle of the Bay, Hollis and the pirates went to Zargona’s cabin and mapped out their strategy. They then burst out of the cabin and catch the ships crew by surprise and do indeed capture the St. Nicholas. On their way to seek out the Pawnee, they happened upon a heavily laden freighter and being the adventurers and pirates that they were, they could not resist. They captured the freighter that was full of Brazilian coffee. They captured yet another freighter that was full of coal and ice. The cause for the Confederacy was forgotten for a while and they sold their booty for a tidy sum, the USS Pawnee be damned.
1964 On this date the employer of Jim Olive call the police and tell them that he has not shown up for work for several days and that was not like him. The Terra Linda, California police went to the home of Jim and Naomi Olive and find the house in disarray but no Jim and Naomi nor their teenage daughter Marlene. The next day Marlene showed up at the police department with a bizarre tale of the disappearance of her parents. She told several versions on the same theme from Naomi shot and killed Jim to Jim had shot and killed Naomi to the two were kidnapped by a group of Hell’s Angels. As you might suspect, the police did not believe her and finally she confessed. She had induced Jim to take her to the zoo and while they were gone Marlene’s boyfriend Chuck Riley, was to kill Naomi because she and Naomi did not get along. Marlene was using Riley as a source for her drugs by providing him sex in return. Once when Riley and Marlene went on a $6,000 shoplifting spree, Naomi found out about it threatened to tell the cops. It was then that Marlene decided that she had to go. Naomi was an acknowledged schizophrenic/paranoid. Anyway, Riley took a claw hammer with him and went in and started beating up on Naomi. That did not get the job so he resorted to a kitchen knife in the chest. While he was doing the stabbing Jim and Marlene walk in and Jim tried to intervene but Chuck shot Jim in the chest and he died also. Eventually Marlene and Chuck dragged the bodies out into the woods, dug a trench, put the bodies in and poured in several gallons of gasoline and lit it off. Marlene took the police to the site. Marlene got 20 years and Chuck got life without parole.
1969 The so-called “Stonewall” riot occurs on this day. The NYPD raided the gay bar known as “The Stonewall”. The police had cause because the bar was selling liquor without a license. The crowd that was present watched quietly as the owners and bartenders were herded up and put into a paddy-wagon but when the police arrested three drag-queens and a lesbian off the street, the crowd erupted and began throwing bottles and rocks at the cops. The cops had no choice but to retreat into the building and call for a riot squad to come and disperse the mob. It was later discovered that the NYPD raided the gay clubs almost three times as often as they did others. With this information in hands of the bar owners and bartenders the NYPD knew they had no chance and released all with no charges being made. Everyone has prejudices, they are guaranteed by the Constitution, but unequal enforcement of the law is not.
Births and Deaths:
1910 Scottish politico Lord William Whitelaw is born. When speaking of Prime Minister Harold Wilson he said “He is traveling around the country stirring up apathy.”
1926 US comic/actor/producer Mel Brooks is born. He said “If God had wanted us to fly he would have given us tickets.” He is a funny guy.
1946 US Comedienne Gilda Radner is born. She said “I can always be distracted by love, but eventually I get horny for my creativity.” And what a creative talent she was. She is gone and I miss her.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
Robert Heinlein
The mighty University of South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team beat the hapless Clemson Tigers twice in consecutive nights to earn the right to play UCLA in a best two out of three for the national championship. They start tonight.
Zeke’s marina is located near the intercoastal waterway just outside Orange Beach, Alabama. It is the home of the 46 foot charter boat “Rookie” and the captain of this boat was 52 year old Allen Kruse. After the oil spill in the Gulf back in April Allen’s charter boat fishing business took a nosedive. He had been a charter boat captain for 25 years and now he was out of business. To make ends meet he hired his boat out to BP and was undergoing training on how to skim the oil off the water and to lay out floating booms. For the first time in 25 years he was not his own boss and had strangers yelling at him. He was exasperated at the snails pace operation and seeing the containment crews lounging around Zeke’s doing nothing. Last week he kissed his wife goodbye at his Foley, Alabama home and went to the marina. Allen climbed into the wheelhouse of his boat and blew his brains out. He said that life as he knew it would never be the same in his lifetime. It was more than he could bear.
Tropical storm Alex has crossed the Yucatan peninsula and is now in the Bay of Campeche headed west northwest gaining strength and headed for the area of Brownville, Texas....for now.
Here in the Greenville, South Carolina area the local newspaper is the Greenville News. They have a website where they post local and world news clips. They put out a notice last Thursday that after July 1 in order to access their website there would be a charge. The charge would be less if you subscribed to the newspaper. Their complaint was that their subscribers were becoming less and less because of information available on the internet so they had to initiate this action to survive. I have mixed emotions here. I want the paper to survive but charging for access to their website rankles me.
It has been reported that there are a lot more sharks in shallow water than normal up and down the northern Gulf coast because of the oil spill. That reminds me of when I lived in Pensacola and fished from the Pensacola Beach fishing pier frequently. The water is crystal clear out to about 12 feet deep. On many occasions I would be out on the pier and there would be surfers and bathers splashing around with hammerhead sharks just a few feet away and they never knew it. I think the sharks have been there all along but now people are watching the water more closely because of the oil spill.
BP has established a free boat washing station in Orange Beach, Alabama. It seems that boats coming in from offshore have crude oil on their hulls and are taking it with them to inshore waters that are not polluted. They will raise the boats on a lift and steam clean the hull. Like I say, what a freaking nightmare.
This date in history June 28
1836 James Madison died on his tobacco plantation in Virginia. He was a drafter of the Declaration of Independence, the chronicler of Continental Conventions, one of the authors of The Federalist Papers and the 4th President of the United States. Had it not been for him and others with the same zeal for freedom as he, we would not be what we are today. His chronicles of the Continental Convention are recognized as some of the most detailed and well phrased ever written. He sealed his chronicles and made them inaccessible until all involved were deceased. Madison started his rise to fame when he attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) and completed a four year curriculum in two. He helped form the American Whig Society which became the rival of the Cliosophic Society, both were literary and debate societies. He, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton were the authors of the Federalist Papers which were instrumental in keeping the public at large informed and fostered independence from England and persuaded the public that a central government could be sensitive to individual rights. I believe these writings were instrumental in the successful adoption of the Constitution. He became a rector at Thomas Jefferson’s beloved University of Virginia. In 1938 the Virginia State Teachers College in Harrisonburg changed to Madison College in his honor, it later became James Madison University. His wife Dolly Tate Madison was recognized as a superb first lady and host. It was she that saved the famous Gilbert portrait of George Washington from the British when she and James had to evacuate the White House from the British onslaught during the War of 1812. We need more like James and Dolly. By the way, James Madison is the only sitting US President to participate in combat. During the War of 1812 a British infantry unit was approaching Washington from Maryland. Madison crossed over into Maryland and took command of an artillery battery. It was during this time period that Dolly evacuated the White House and the British burned it to the ground.
1862 A brigand and adventurer named George Hollis joined the Confederacy and is given the rank of Colonel. Hollis hatches a plan to capture a civilian vessel on the Chesapeake Bay and use it against the Union warship USS Pawnee that was on constant patrol there. He enlists the help of Richard Zargona and they both go to Baltimore and hire a group of pirates to help them. They chose the passenger vessel St. Nicholas as their target. When the day of the attempt arrived, Zargona dressed up as a flirtaceous woman and got aboard in Baltimore. At the next stop, Hollis and the rest of the pirates got aboard as paying passengers. After the boat got out in the middle of the Bay, Hollis and the pirates went to Zargona’s cabin and mapped out their strategy. They then burst out of the cabin and catch the ships crew by surprise and do indeed capture the St. Nicholas. On their way to seek out the Pawnee, they happened upon a heavily laden freighter and being the adventurers and pirates that they were, they could not resist. They captured the freighter that was full of Brazilian coffee. They captured yet another freighter that was full of coal and ice. The cause for the Confederacy was forgotten for a while and they sold their booty for a tidy sum, the USS Pawnee be damned.
1964 On this date the employer of Jim Olive call the police and tell them that he has not shown up for work for several days and that was not like him. The Terra Linda, California police went to the home of Jim and Naomi Olive and find the house in disarray but no Jim and Naomi nor their teenage daughter Marlene. The next day Marlene showed up at the police department with a bizarre tale of the disappearance of her parents. She told several versions on the same theme from Naomi shot and killed Jim to Jim had shot and killed Naomi to the two were kidnapped by a group of Hell’s Angels. As you might suspect, the police did not believe her and finally she confessed. She had induced Jim to take her to the zoo and while they were gone Marlene’s boyfriend Chuck Riley, was to kill Naomi because she and Naomi did not get along. Marlene was using Riley as a source for her drugs by providing him sex in return. Once when Riley and Marlene went on a $6,000 shoplifting spree, Naomi found out about it threatened to tell the cops. It was then that Marlene decided that she had to go. Naomi was an acknowledged schizophrenic/paranoid. Anyway, Riley took a claw hammer with him and went in and started beating up on Naomi. That did not get the job so he resorted to a kitchen knife in the chest. While he was doing the stabbing Jim and Marlene walk in and Jim tried to intervene but Chuck shot Jim in the chest and he died also. Eventually Marlene and Chuck dragged the bodies out into the woods, dug a trench, put the bodies in and poured in several gallons of gasoline and lit it off. Marlene took the police to the site. Marlene got 20 years and Chuck got life without parole.
1969 The so-called “Stonewall” riot occurs on this day. The NYPD raided the gay bar known as “The Stonewall”. The police had cause because the bar was selling liquor without a license. The crowd that was present watched quietly as the owners and bartenders were herded up and put into a paddy-wagon but when the police arrested three drag-queens and a lesbian off the street, the crowd erupted and began throwing bottles and rocks at the cops. The cops had no choice but to retreat into the building and call for a riot squad to come and disperse the mob. It was later discovered that the NYPD raided the gay clubs almost three times as often as they did others. With this information in hands of the bar owners and bartenders the NYPD knew they had no chance and released all with no charges being made. Everyone has prejudices, they are guaranteed by the Constitution, but unequal enforcement of the law is not.
Births and Deaths:
1910 Scottish politico Lord William Whitelaw is born. When speaking of Prime Minister Harold Wilson he said “He is traveling around the country stirring up apathy.”
1926 US comic/actor/producer Mel Brooks is born. He said “If God had wanted us to fly he would have given us tickets.” He is a funny guy.
1946 US Comedienne Gilda Radner is born. She said “I can always be distracted by love, but eventually I get horny for my creativity.” And what a creative talent she was. She is gone and I miss her.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Friday, June 25, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Life is a smorgasbord. Take a little bite of different parts of it every day.”
Al Campbell
As far as I am concerned the sky has fallen. The incoming tide on Pensacola Beach, Florida on Tuesday night brought a sheet of black tar and a chocolate brown sheet of emulsified crude oil. There was no mention of the aroma but from my days working in the oil fields I remember a heavy naptha/motor oil smell. It makes me very sad to see such a pristine, sugar white beach spoiled in that fashion. In addition to that, it makes me very angry. The clean-up crews attacked this mess soon after daylight. The problem is that they are wearing HAZMAT coveralls made of Kevlar. Kevlar is a tightly woven material that does not breathe. Not only that, the suit is taped at the ankles and wrists and full masks are worn. That is because that most petroleum can contain toxic benzene which can be absorbed through the skin. With the temperature in the nineties the workers cannot stay in the sun any longer than 15 to 20 minutes at a time because of the chance of heat stroke. This extends the clean up period several times over. The night clean-up crew worked at a much faster pace and the beach was clean by Thursday morning. I say clean, but there still was a visible stain on the sand at the high tide mark and there is no telling what is buried just under the surface. I will still go down there this year to visit with my trashy friends but it will not be the same. There is a ritual that is followed almost every morning, weather permitting. There is a man named “Mayor Bob” Merrimon that sets up on the beach for two or three hours in the morning and sunbaths. Bob is a friend of mine and even if he is not the official “Mayor” he is acknowledged to be the leader of the sun worshippers. Bob is in his mid-eighties and has a golden tan year round. When Bob sets up on the beach, there is a crowd of other sun worshippers that gather around him. Bob identifies his location with a portable flag pole with several identifiable flags aflutter. Dependent upon the aroma of the oil pollution, those days may be over. Bob has been holding his morning ritual for 30 years. It is possible that he will move over to Santa Rosa Sound and set up, but it will not be the same. From now on I will plan carefully where I buy my gasoline, I can promise you it will not be BP. By the way, there was a bottle-nosed dolphin (porpoise) that was in distress near the same place the pic was taken. A couple of life guards and wildlife officials wrestled the dolphin out of the oil-laden surf and loaded him aboard a truck and headed out toward a marine wildlife recovery facility in Panama City Beach, Florida. The dolphin died enroute. There was not a dry eye among the rescuers. What a damned shame and there is no end in sight.
Thursday afternoon the Brussels, Belgium police with a search warrant in hand, raided the home and office of a Roman Catholic Archbishop named Godfried Daneels. The cops captured a lot of written material and the hard drive out of his computer. Y’all can guess what the raid was all about but it was in connection with the sexual abuse of minors. The police were not specific if they were looking for evidence against the Archbishop himself of for information about others that participated. The cops did say that the Archbishop was fully cooperating. There is no telling for how long or how much abuse of children has been evident over the centuries.
I told y'all about the free Jimmy Buffett concert at Gulf Shores, Alabama. They had allotted 30,000 free tickets trying to beef up the oil spill damaged economy there. All of the ticket were gone in 8 minutes.
This date in history June 25
1876 Earlier the US Army tasked three US cavalry commanders to form three columns and proceed to south and central Montana and round up the hostile Sioux and Cheyenne and escort them to reservations. A few days earlier the main column of US General John Gibbon was attacked by over 2,000 Sioux warriors and was forced to retreat and re-group. This critical information never reached the other two columns thus informing them of the number of hostiles out there. Anyway, it was on this day that one of the divisions of US General Terry; the 7th Cavalry commanded by Colonel George Custer approached an area of Montana known as Greasy Grass to the Indians. Several of Custer’s Crow and Shoshone scouts return to Custer with word of the largest Indian gathering ever seen on the northern plains and suggested they wait for reinforcements. Custer blew them off and said they were exaggerating. They were not exaggerating, there were over 5,000 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Custer ordered his troops into a two pronged attack formation. The Crow and Shoshone scouts asked for time to sing their death songs but Custer refused and launched the attack. He sent Major Benteen and Major Reno and their commands to attack from the east and Custer swung around and attacked from the north. From the time the first shot was fired an estimated 2,500 wild-eyed Sioux and Cheyenne swarmed out of the sea of teepees and delivered the mother of all ass-kickings. Major Benteen and Major Reno were immediately overwhelmed and were forced to dismount and fight from cover. They eventually retreated in a rout and were forced to leave Custer alone, then when Custer saw the overwhelming number of warriors approaching, he hastily established a defense perimeter but it was too little too late. Crazy Horse surrounded the small group and picked them off one at a time until they were all dead. Then the worst happened. The Sioux and Cheyenne women came in and heavily mutilated the dead troopers. It was their belief that if a man’s body was not complete, he could not go to heaven (happy hunting ground). 227 US cavalry troopers were massacred on this day, but the Indians paid a price that has been exacted every day since.
1915 Four days before at the Battle of Ypres in Belgium the Germans unleashed a chlorine gas attack on their French adversaries via artillery shells. The French raised almighty hell at these “barbarism”. Once a person inhales chlorine gas, he dies by drowning in his own body fluids. It is horrible death that takes a long time. On this date the Germans respond by calling the French hypocrites because the French had already invented Mustard gas that is designed for warfare. That was true, but the French had not yet used it. A few weeks earlier the French has indeed used tear gas in an attack on the Germans which essentially blinded the German troops although temporarily, but it did allow the French infantry to attack unopposed. In short, the Germans did not repent nor apologize and the “War to End All Wars” continued its bloody course. Germany lost this war primarily because of the entry into the war by the British and the United States. After the end of the war in 1919 Germany was totally beaten and impoverished making it prime territory someone to restore German pride and hope. That individual showed his ugly head in Munich in 1934 in the form of Adolph Hitler and soon hell on earth prevailed.
1864 On this date US Colonel John Pleasants with the help of some Pennsylvania coal miners begins digging a tunnel under the Confederate line at Petersburg hoping to break the stalemate. Pleasants was convinced by the miners that they could dig a tunnel under the Confederate breastworks pile in tons of black powder and literally blow a hole. After a period of time the miners came to Pleasants and told him that the tunnel was finished and so Pleasants persuaded his superiors to give him the gunpowder needed and he had his miners stack the gunpowder in the end of the tunnel and lit it off. A gigantic explosion resulted in a hole being blown in the Confederate breastworks but another thing happened that was unexpected. In addition to the blast going upward, it went downward also resulting in a steep-walled hole 30 feet deep. A division of US troops (mostly black) were ordered into the gap. A few Confederates atop the breastworks were killed in the blast but when the Confederated recovered, they just leaned over the edge of the hole and slaughtered the troops that were trapped in the bottom unable to escape. War is hell.
1942 On this date US General Dwight Eisenhower is named as overall commander of the Allied forces in Europe during WWII. Even though “Ike” had never commanded a combat unit in his life, his organizational and planning skills were well known and Roosevelt, Churchill and US General George Marshall felt that these skills overrode any other. They were right. Had it not been for this man and others like him it is unlikely that the Allies would have prevailed over the German war machine.
Born today:
1796 Russian ruler Czar Nicholas I. He said “I do not rule Russia: Ten thousand clerks do.” Nothing has changed has it.
1865 US painter Robert Henri. He said “There are very few people who think what they think they think.” Hey Robert, what have you been smoking?”
1875 English politician Earnest Benn. He said “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and providing the wrong remedy,” Sounds like just another day at the office of the Democrats to me.
1945 US singer Carly Simon. She said of her divorce from singer/songwriter James Taylor she said “Basically he refused to dress up like Louis XIV before we had sex; I demand that in my man....” That is too bad Carly, I understand what you mean because I want my partner to dress up like Sacagawea; I demand that in my women.
Died today:
1997 Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. He said “What is a scientist anyway? He is a man looking through a keyhole, a keyhole of nature, trying to find out what’s going on.” I think Jacques was one of the most respected men of his generation.
2003 Governor of Georgia Lester Maddox. He said “It is great to be alive. A lot of people aren’t you know.” I loved Lester and his searing logic.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Life is a smorgasbord. Take a little bite of different parts of it every day.”
Al Campbell
As far as I am concerned the sky has fallen. The incoming tide on Pensacola Beach, Florida on Tuesday night brought a sheet of black tar and a chocolate brown sheet of emulsified crude oil. There was no mention of the aroma but from my days working in the oil fields I remember a heavy naptha/motor oil smell. It makes me very sad to see such a pristine, sugar white beach spoiled in that fashion. In addition to that, it makes me very angry. The clean-up crews attacked this mess soon after daylight. The problem is that they are wearing HAZMAT coveralls made of Kevlar. Kevlar is a tightly woven material that does not breathe. Not only that, the suit is taped at the ankles and wrists and full masks are worn. That is because that most petroleum can contain toxic benzene which can be absorbed through the skin. With the temperature in the nineties the workers cannot stay in the sun any longer than 15 to 20 minutes at a time because of the chance of heat stroke. This extends the clean up period several times over. The night clean-up crew worked at a much faster pace and the beach was clean by Thursday morning. I say clean, but there still was a visible stain on the sand at the high tide mark and there is no telling what is buried just under the surface. I will still go down there this year to visit with my trashy friends but it will not be the same. There is a ritual that is followed almost every morning, weather permitting. There is a man named “Mayor Bob” Merrimon that sets up on the beach for two or three hours in the morning and sunbaths. Bob is a friend of mine and even if he is not the official “Mayor” he is acknowledged to be the leader of the sun worshippers. Bob is in his mid-eighties and has a golden tan year round. When Bob sets up on the beach, there is a crowd of other sun worshippers that gather around him. Bob identifies his location with a portable flag pole with several identifiable flags aflutter. Dependent upon the aroma of the oil pollution, those days may be over. Bob has been holding his morning ritual for 30 years. It is possible that he will move over to Santa Rosa Sound and set up, but it will not be the same. From now on I will plan carefully where I buy my gasoline, I can promise you it will not be BP. By the way, there was a bottle-nosed dolphin (porpoise) that was in distress near the same place the pic was taken. A couple of life guards and wildlife officials wrestled the dolphin out of the oil-laden surf and loaded him aboard a truck and headed out toward a marine wildlife recovery facility in Panama City Beach, Florida. The dolphin died enroute. There was not a dry eye among the rescuers. What a damned shame and there is no end in sight.
Thursday afternoon the Brussels, Belgium police with a search warrant in hand, raided the home and office of a Roman Catholic Archbishop named Godfried Daneels. The cops captured a lot of written material and the hard drive out of his computer. Y’all can guess what the raid was all about but it was in connection with the sexual abuse of minors. The police were not specific if they were looking for evidence against the Archbishop himself of for information about others that participated. The cops did say that the Archbishop was fully cooperating. There is no telling for how long or how much abuse of children has been evident over the centuries.
I told y'all about the free Jimmy Buffett concert at Gulf Shores, Alabama. They had allotted 30,000 free tickets trying to beef up the oil spill damaged economy there. All of the ticket were gone in 8 minutes.
This date in history June 25
1876 Earlier the US Army tasked three US cavalry commanders to form three columns and proceed to south and central Montana and round up the hostile Sioux and Cheyenne and escort them to reservations. A few days earlier the main column of US General John Gibbon was attacked by over 2,000 Sioux warriors and was forced to retreat and re-group. This critical information never reached the other two columns thus informing them of the number of hostiles out there. Anyway, it was on this day that one of the divisions of US General Terry; the 7th Cavalry commanded by Colonel George Custer approached an area of Montana known as Greasy Grass to the Indians. Several of Custer’s Crow and Shoshone scouts return to Custer with word of the largest Indian gathering ever seen on the northern plains and suggested they wait for reinforcements. Custer blew them off and said they were exaggerating. They were not exaggerating, there were over 5,000 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Custer ordered his troops into a two pronged attack formation. The Crow and Shoshone scouts asked for time to sing their death songs but Custer refused and launched the attack. He sent Major Benteen and Major Reno and their commands to attack from the east and Custer swung around and attacked from the north. From the time the first shot was fired an estimated 2,500 wild-eyed Sioux and Cheyenne swarmed out of the sea of teepees and delivered the mother of all ass-kickings. Major Benteen and Major Reno were immediately overwhelmed and were forced to dismount and fight from cover. They eventually retreated in a rout and were forced to leave Custer alone, then when Custer saw the overwhelming number of warriors approaching, he hastily established a defense perimeter but it was too little too late. Crazy Horse surrounded the small group and picked them off one at a time until they were all dead. Then the worst happened. The Sioux and Cheyenne women came in and heavily mutilated the dead troopers. It was their belief that if a man’s body was not complete, he could not go to heaven (happy hunting ground). 227 US cavalry troopers were massacred on this day, but the Indians paid a price that has been exacted every day since.
1915 Four days before at the Battle of Ypres in Belgium the Germans unleashed a chlorine gas attack on their French adversaries via artillery shells. The French raised almighty hell at these “barbarism”. Once a person inhales chlorine gas, he dies by drowning in his own body fluids. It is horrible death that takes a long time. On this date the Germans respond by calling the French hypocrites because the French had already invented Mustard gas that is designed for warfare. That was true, but the French had not yet used it. A few weeks earlier the French has indeed used tear gas in an attack on the Germans which essentially blinded the German troops although temporarily, but it did allow the French infantry to attack unopposed. In short, the Germans did not repent nor apologize and the “War to End All Wars” continued its bloody course. Germany lost this war primarily because of the entry into the war by the British and the United States. After the end of the war in 1919 Germany was totally beaten and impoverished making it prime territory someone to restore German pride and hope. That individual showed his ugly head in Munich in 1934 in the form of Adolph Hitler and soon hell on earth prevailed.
1864 On this date US Colonel John Pleasants with the help of some Pennsylvania coal miners begins digging a tunnel under the Confederate line at Petersburg hoping to break the stalemate. Pleasants was convinced by the miners that they could dig a tunnel under the Confederate breastworks pile in tons of black powder and literally blow a hole. After a period of time the miners came to Pleasants and told him that the tunnel was finished and so Pleasants persuaded his superiors to give him the gunpowder needed and he had his miners stack the gunpowder in the end of the tunnel and lit it off. A gigantic explosion resulted in a hole being blown in the Confederate breastworks but another thing happened that was unexpected. In addition to the blast going upward, it went downward also resulting in a steep-walled hole 30 feet deep. A division of US troops (mostly black) were ordered into the gap. A few Confederates atop the breastworks were killed in the blast but when the Confederated recovered, they just leaned over the edge of the hole and slaughtered the troops that were trapped in the bottom unable to escape. War is hell.
1942 On this date US General Dwight Eisenhower is named as overall commander of the Allied forces in Europe during WWII. Even though “Ike” had never commanded a combat unit in his life, his organizational and planning skills were well known and Roosevelt, Churchill and US General George Marshall felt that these skills overrode any other. They were right. Had it not been for this man and others like him it is unlikely that the Allies would have prevailed over the German war machine.
Born today:
1796 Russian ruler Czar Nicholas I. He said “I do not rule Russia: Ten thousand clerks do.” Nothing has changed has it.
1865 US painter Robert Henri. He said “There are very few people who think what they think they think.” Hey Robert, what have you been smoking?”
1875 English politician Earnest Benn. He said “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and providing the wrong remedy,” Sounds like just another day at the office of the Democrats to me.
1945 US singer Carly Simon. She said of her divorce from singer/songwriter James Taylor she said “Basically he refused to dress up like Louis XIV before we had sex; I demand that in my man....” That is too bad Carly, I understand what you mean because I want my partner to dress up like Sacagawea; I demand that in my women.
Died today:
1997 Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. He said “What is a scientist anyway? He is a man looking through a keyhole, a keyhole of nature, trying to find out what’s going on.” I think Jacques was one of the most respected men of his generation.
2003 Governor of Georgia Lester Maddox. He said “It is great to be alive. A lot of people aren’t you know.” I loved Lester and his searing logic.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Civilian politicians make policy, not Generals.”
President Harry Truman when firing US General Douglas McArthur.
The Republican primary election and run-offs are over and the results are enlightening. A first generation offspring of a couple that immigrated to South Carolina from India, Nikki Haley, has won the Republican nomination for governor which all but guarantees that she will be elected Governor in November in this heavily Republican state. She defeated US Congressman Gresham Barrett. Barrett voted to bail out the banks and he is an incumbent which is two strikes. During the campaign some numbskull told the press that he had a sexual encounter with Nikki three years ago. Nikki has been married 13 years and vehemently denied the allegation. Nobody believed him and we all decided that the only person that could benefit from that kind of mudslinging was Barrett. It was that way for me at least making it strike three. 12 year Congressman Bob Inglis was easily defeated by Spartanburg solicitor (District Attorney) Trey Gowdy for the 4th District seat in the US House of Representatives. I sent two different messages to Inglis on his official web site and received no answer. That is the death knell as far as I am concerned. A person in political office MUST be receptive to their constituents. And strike three was when Inglis called Gowdy “The Spartanburg representative”. Inglis is from Greenville but District Four includes Greenville and Spartanburg. Greenville is more heavily populated than Spartanburg and Inglis was trying to plant a seed of divisiveness just to get the Greenville vote and not only that he supported TARP. How stupid did he think we were? And finally Tim Scott won the Republican nomination for the US House seat for District one. Tim Scott is a black man and is the first black Republican to be nominated for a Congressional seat in South Carolina in over 100 years.
Let’s recap. The incumbents in House seats in District 4 and 5 are out looking for a job. An offspring of Indian immigrants is almost guaranteed to be Governor of the sovereign state of South Carolina and on top of that, she is a woman. A black man has been elected as the Republican nominee for the US Congressional seat in District 1 and he did this by defeating the son of South Carolina icon Strom Thurmond. Perhaps those out there in the rest of the world will discontinue viewing the people from South Carolina as images from “The Dukes of Hazzard” any longer and see that we have character and savvy and stop your freaking worry about the Confederate flag on the capitol grounds. It doesn’t bother Darius Rucker, the black man that was lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish and went to college in Columbia, so why should it bother anyone else that doesn’t live here? Mind your own freaking business. I feel better now.
I got an e-mail from a friend that had this scenario: A few hours before the President arrives on the Gulf Coast for an inspection of what is being done about the oil spill, several bus loads of people are brought in to Grande Isle, Louisiana wearing white jump suits with a “BP” logo. They spread out and start picking up globs of tar and vacuuming the oil that has coated the estuaries. Very soon after the President leaves, these people get back aboard the busses and are seen no more. I do not know how accurate or truthful this is or even what we can assume from this but either case is not good. I would not put this past “big-oil”.
This date in history June 24
1997 On this day the United States issues its final report on the 1948 incident at Roswell, New Mexico. The locals in the area had reported that a space ship in the shape of a disc had crashed in the desert on a ranch owned by J. J. Brazell. While riding patrol on the ranch, Brazell ran across some scattered metallic debris and two bodies, one alive and the other dead. His descriptions of the bodies are what you imagine them to be today. Big head, small torso, large almond shaped eyes, almost no nostrils or lips, very short and skin with a greenish tint. The local newspaper printed that it was indeed a “flying saucer” and the bodies were those of alien beings. Well, United States Air Force officers and other government officials descended on Roswell and the alleged crash site like locusts and spirited away any scrap of evidence including the bodies. The next day the local newspaper reported that it was a high altitude balloon that had crashed with two dummies that were to be used for high altitude parachute tests. And that is the report that was issued on this date as the “official’ report on the incident and the US government would no longer discuss the incident. There are two things that keep my interest alive when it comes to this and that is soon after the Government officials departed the Roswell area, a hangar at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio became restricted with an armed AP’s guarding it. Wright-Patterson was noted for its medical facilities on site. Another thing was the extraordinary activity near Grooms Lake, Nevada. This place eventually became the infamous Area 51. By the way, if you have “Google Earth” software, you can crank in ‘Grooms Lake” or just look at the west central area of the Nevada desert and , Voila!, there is an airport with two very, very long runways and various and assorted buildings in a place where the US Government says that there is no such place. I look at it frequently and can see aircraft on the ground but I am unable to determine what kind. Secret bases always make me suspicious.
1675 After fifty years of relative harmony the settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Wampanoag tribe began to have disharmony. It all started when the Indians found out that they had a “mole” in the tribe. A “mole” is one that spies on his tribe for the British. Anyway the mole was discovered and killed. This angered the British and they captured and killed three of the tribe. Well, not to be out done, the chief of the tribe named King Phillip sent an attack group to the new English settlement of Swansea, Massachusetts and killed every air-breather there, including birds and livestock. Well, ya’ll know what happened next. A young war broke out between the tribe and the settlers known as King Phillip’s War. Soon the whole of New England was involved in destroying Indian villages and the Indians destroying settler’s villages. It was a massacre on both sides. The settlers accidentally burned a Narragansett village which brought them onto King Philip’s side and the war was escalated. The Narragansett were easily overcome but King Philip was another story. That tribe was finally brought under control but not before King Philip was found in his secret headquarters in Rhode island and was assassinated by yet another British ”mole”. After this the settlers finally gained control as peace again prevailed.
1812 After Czar Alexander I rejected the “continental” plan as described by Napoleon Bonaparte making Napoleon the ruler of the European continent, Napoleon assembles what he calls the “Grand Armee” in anticipation of the invasion of Russia. Napoleon has amassed over 500,000 troops for this adventure. On this day, the invasion began. Napoleon made the same mistake Hitler made 30 years later. He waited too long before advancing. The result was that winter arrived before their objectives were met. Anyway, when Napoleon and his army arrive at the gates of Moscow and Petersburg in the middle of the winter, suddenly he smells smoke and soon all of Moscow is an inferno. The Russians had move out into the countryside carrying their extra food and supplies with them and burned any building that could be used as shelter denying Napoleon and his army protection from the fierce Russian winter that was already upon them. Napoleon had no choice but head his young ass back to France. The Russian army was waiting. At nearly every bridge the Russians would wait until the majority of the troops were across and then burn the bridge stranding some of Napoleon’s troops on the other side where they were massacred by the awaiting Russians. Anyway, Napoleon arrived back in the Balkans with just over 100,000 troops. That right folks, he had lost 400,000 troops. This adventure by Napoleon is one of the worst military disasters in recorded history.
1853 As one might expect, the California gold rush brought a lot of gold seekers but it also brought a hell of a lot of bandits one of which was Joachim Murrieta and his number one henchman “Three Fingered” Jack. Joachim and Jack were raising hell with the gold miners and were named “The Terror of the Stanislaus” meaning the Stanislaus River. The miners finally got fed up and hired a group of professional man-hunters to bring Joachim and Jack to justice. Joachim became this vengeful because he came to the Stanislaus River from Mexico to pan for gold but because of his Mexican heritage, he was beaten, his claim stolen and his wife repeatedly raped. After all of this Joachim formed his own gang of Mexicans and sought his revenge. Anyway, the man-hunters hired by the miners departed Stockton, California seeking Joachim and his gang. It was reported that the man-hunters found Joachim and his gang near El Tajon Pass. On this day they arrived back in Stockton and spiked the head of Joachim Murrieta on top of a lamp post and hung the hand of Three Fingered Jack on a string below. They explained that it was a lot easier to do it this way than to have to bring them in alive.
Born today:
1842 US writer Ambrose Bierce. He said there are four kinds of murder. “Felonious, excusable, justifiable and praiseworthy.” Does anyone know a person that fits the last two?
1915 English astronomer Sir Fred Doyle. He said “Space is not that far away. You can reach it in your car in a couple of hours if you drive straight up.”
1946 US politician Robert Reich. He said “In Washington it is dog eat dog. In academia it just the opposite.”
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Civilian politicians make policy, not Generals.”
President Harry Truman when firing US General Douglas McArthur.
The Republican primary election and run-offs are over and the results are enlightening. A first generation offspring of a couple that immigrated to South Carolina from India, Nikki Haley, has won the Republican nomination for governor which all but guarantees that she will be elected Governor in November in this heavily Republican state. She defeated US Congressman Gresham Barrett. Barrett voted to bail out the banks and he is an incumbent which is two strikes. During the campaign some numbskull told the press that he had a sexual encounter with Nikki three years ago. Nikki has been married 13 years and vehemently denied the allegation. Nobody believed him and we all decided that the only person that could benefit from that kind of mudslinging was Barrett. It was that way for me at least making it strike three. 12 year Congressman Bob Inglis was easily defeated by Spartanburg solicitor (District Attorney) Trey Gowdy for the 4th District seat in the US House of Representatives. I sent two different messages to Inglis on his official web site and received no answer. That is the death knell as far as I am concerned. A person in political office MUST be receptive to their constituents. And strike three was when Inglis called Gowdy “The Spartanburg representative”. Inglis is from Greenville but District Four includes Greenville and Spartanburg. Greenville is more heavily populated than Spartanburg and Inglis was trying to plant a seed of divisiveness just to get the Greenville vote and not only that he supported TARP. How stupid did he think we were? And finally Tim Scott won the Republican nomination for the US House seat for District one. Tim Scott is a black man and is the first black Republican to be nominated for a Congressional seat in South Carolina in over 100 years.
Let’s recap. The incumbents in House seats in District 4 and 5 are out looking for a job. An offspring of Indian immigrants is almost guaranteed to be Governor of the sovereign state of South Carolina and on top of that, she is a woman. A black man has been elected as the Republican nominee for the US Congressional seat in District 1 and he did this by defeating the son of South Carolina icon Strom Thurmond. Perhaps those out there in the rest of the world will discontinue viewing the people from South Carolina as images from “The Dukes of Hazzard” any longer and see that we have character and savvy and stop your freaking worry about the Confederate flag on the capitol grounds. It doesn’t bother Darius Rucker, the black man that was lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish and went to college in Columbia, so why should it bother anyone else that doesn’t live here? Mind your own freaking business. I feel better now.
I got an e-mail from a friend that had this scenario: A few hours before the President arrives on the Gulf Coast for an inspection of what is being done about the oil spill, several bus loads of people are brought in to Grande Isle, Louisiana wearing white jump suits with a “BP” logo. They spread out and start picking up globs of tar and vacuuming the oil that has coated the estuaries. Very soon after the President leaves, these people get back aboard the busses and are seen no more. I do not know how accurate or truthful this is or even what we can assume from this but either case is not good. I would not put this past “big-oil”.
This date in history June 24
1997 On this day the United States issues its final report on the 1948 incident at Roswell, New Mexico. The locals in the area had reported that a space ship in the shape of a disc had crashed in the desert on a ranch owned by J. J. Brazell. While riding patrol on the ranch, Brazell ran across some scattered metallic debris and two bodies, one alive and the other dead. His descriptions of the bodies are what you imagine them to be today. Big head, small torso, large almond shaped eyes, almost no nostrils or lips, very short and skin with a greenish tint. The local newspaper printed that it was indeed a “flying saucer” and the bodies were those of alien beings. Well, United States Air Force officers and other government officials descended on Roswell and the alleged crash site like locusts and spirited away any scrap of evidence including the bodies. The next day the local newspaper reported that it was a high altitude balloon that had crashed with two dummies that were to be used for high altitude parachute tests. And that is the report that was issued on this date as the “official’ report on the incident and the US government would no longer discuss the incident. There are two things that keep my interest alive when it comes to this and that is soon after the Government officials departed the Roswell area, a hangar at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio became restricted with an armed AP’s guarding it. Wright-Patterson was noted for its medical facilities on site. Another thing was the extraordinary activity near Grooms Lake, Nevada. This place eventually became the infamous Area 51. By the way, if you have “Google Earth” software, you can crank in ‘Grooms Lake” or just look at the west central area of the Nevada desert and , Voila!, there is an airport with two very, very long runways and various and assorted buildings in a place where the US Government says that there is no such place. I look at it frequently and can see aircraft on the ground but I am unable to determine what kind. Secret bases always make me suspicious.
1675 After fifty years of relative harmony the settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Wampanoag tribe began to have disharmony. It all started when the Indians found out that they had a “mole” in the tribe. A “mole” is one that spies on his tribe for the British. Anyway the mole was discovered and killed. This angered the British and they captured and killed three of the tribe. Well, not to be out done, the chief of the tribe named King Phillip sent an attack group to the new English settlement of Swansea, Massachusetts and killed every air-breather there, including birds and livestock. Well, ya’ll know what happened next. A young war broke out between the tribe and the settlers known as King Phillip’s War. Soon the whole of New England was involved in destroying Indian villages and the Indians destroying settler’s villages. It was a massacre on both sides. The settlers accidentally burned a Narragansett village which brought them onto King Philip’s side and the war was escalated. The Narragansett were easily overcome but King Philip was another story. That tribe was finally brought under control but not before King Philip was found in his secret headquarters in Rhode island and was assassinated by yet another British ”mole”. After this the settlers finally gained control as peace again prevailed.
1812 After Czar Alexander I rejected the “continental” plan as described by Napoleon Bonaparte making Napoleon the ruler of the European continent, Napoleon assembles what he calls the “Grand Armee” in anticipation of the invasion of Russia. Napoleon has amassed over 500,000 troops for this adventure. On this day, the invasion began. Napoleon made the same mistake Hitler made 30 years later. He waited too long before advancing. The result was that winter arrived before their objectives were met. Anyway, when Napoleon and his army arrive at the gates of Moscow and Petersburg in the middle of the winter, suddenly he smells smoke and soon all of Moscow is an inferno. The Russians had move out into the countryside carrying their extra food and supplies with them and burned any building that could be used as shelter denying Napoleon and his army protection from the fierce Russian winter that was already upon them. Napoleon had no choice but head his young ass back to France. The Russian army was waiting. At nearly every bridge the Russians would wait until the majority of the troops were across and then burn the bridge stranding some of Napoleon’s troops on the other side where they were massacred by the awaiting Russians. Anyway, Napoleon arrived back in the Balkans with just over 100,000 troops. That right folks, he had lost 400,000 troops. This adventure by Napoleon is one of the worst military disasters in recorded history.
1853 As one might expect, the California gold rush brought a lot of gold seekers but it also brought a hell of a lot of bandits one of which was Joachim Murrieta and his number one henchman “Three Fingered” Jack. Joachim and Jack were raising hell with the gold miners and were named “The Terror of the Stanislaus” meaning the Stanislaus River. The miners finally got fed up and hired a group of professional man-hunters to bring Joachim and Jack to justice. Joachim became this vengeful because he came to the Stanislaus River from Mexico to pan for gold but because of his Mexican heritage, he was beaten, his claim stolen and his wife repeatedly raped. After all of this Joachim formed his own gang of Mexicans and sought his revenge. Anyway, the man-hunters hired by the miners departed Stockton, California seeking Joachim and his gang. It was reported that the man-hunters found Joachim and his gang near El Tajon Pass. On this day they arrived back in Stockton and spiked the head of Joachim Murrieta on top of a lamp post and hung the hand of Three Fingered Jack on a string below. They explained that it was a lot easier to do it this way than to have to bring them in alive.
Born today:
1842 US writer Ambrose Bierce. He said there are four kinds of murder. “Felonious, excusable, justifiable and praiseworthy.” Does anyone know a person that fits the last two?
1915 English astronomer Sir Fred Doyle. He said “Space is not that far away. You can reach it in your car in a couple of hours if you drive straight up.”
1946 US politician Robert Reich. He said “In Washington it is dog eat dog. In academia it just the opposite.”
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Go for it today. The future is promised to no one.”
William Dyer
That gadabout Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford has once again gone on vacation without informing Lieutenant Governor Andre’ Bauer. It has been confirmed that he spent two days with his four sons over Father’s Day on Sullivan’s Island, SC. The Governor will be back in his office on Tuesday. His staff claims that he was never out of touch with his office. There was a small change this time. He was accompanied by a couple of SLED agents at the behest of SLED Commander Reggie Lloyd. To those that are unaware, SLED is the law enforcement arm of the Attorney General of South Carolina. The latest rumor on the street is that the reason the Governor went to Argentina last year come hell or high water was that his “soul mate” was delivering their child that week. A continuation of this saga is that Sanford moved his “soul mate” and their child to the vicinity of Columbia, South Carolina as soon as the child was old enough. Like I say, this is just rumor but it would explain a lot of things. By the way, on this last vacation the Governor’s location, other than Sullivan’s Island to see his son’s, is unknown…except to the SLED agents.
Last Thursday the ex-mayor of North Charleston, South Carolina Bobby Kinard had convinced himself that his wife was cheating on him. He retrieved his sidearm and went to her apartment. The man that Bobby thought was his wife’s paramour was there and Bobby shot him. The man was just wounded but when a police car pulled up outside Bobby took his own life. Bobby’s wife said that he had been suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome from his days as a helicopter door gunner in Vietnam. His depression was so severe lately that he was seeing a psychiatrist and taking powerful anti-depressants. He talked frequently about being in combat but to make matters worse, his son is in a combat unit in Afghanistan. His wife claims that the man Bobby wounded was just a friend. At one point in my life I was accused by a very jealous husband of being the lover of his wife. They were going through a very bitter divorce at the time. I was not even a friend of this woman much less a lover but I could have ended up very dead. I just kept a lot of space between me and that man and woman until everything calmed down. No, I did not pursue her even then; I was not going to take a chance.
In yesterday’s lesson I stated that Andrea Yates had murdered three of her children. That was incorrect; she had murdered all five of her children. Thanks for keeping tabs on me Carol.
As most of y’all know some of the shrimpers and oystermen on the Gulf Coast have been reimbursed by BP (British Petroleum) for income lost due to the oil leak in the Gulf. Your friend and mine, the Internal Revenue Service is looking into seeking income tax on those awards. These guys used the net income on past income tax returns as the basis for their money reimbursement requests and now the IRS wants a part of what is essentially their net income. What the hell is America coming to?
There is a restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama named “Lulu’s”. The owner is Lucy Buffett who has a famous brother named Jimmy. Lucy announced Tuesday that she is working up a free concert on the beach starring Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefers Band and Kenny Chesney and the Zac Brown Band. The concert is planned for July 1 and the 35,000 free tickets go up for grabs on Wednesday, June 24. The tourist industry in Gulf Shores is suffering because of the oil spill and Lucy and her brother want to encourage people to come anyway. Jimmy and Lucy are Mobile, Alabama natives but spent many, many hours on the beach at Gulf Shores and the Flora-Bama Lounge in particular. I wonder how long those tickets will last.
This date in history June 23
1996 On this date John Gotti, better known as the “The Teflon Don”, is sentenced to life without parole on a RICO charge. A RICO charge is about racketeering but Gotti was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and extortion. He had been arrested and put on trial and had been acquitted many times thus the nickname “Teflon Don”. Gotti was raised on the mean streets of Brooklyn, New York and became a member on organized crime at an early age. He was an enforcer or one who collected money due the organization by what ever means it took, including murder. He worked his way up to a “capo” or a captain which was third in line to the “Don” or the head of the organization. Gotti was an ambitious devil and decided that the wanted to be the head of his organization which was a branch of the Gambino crime family. The leader of Gotti’s group was Paul “Big Pauli” Castellano. Castellano was a tall man with salt and pepper wavy hair. After a while Gotti decided that he had reached a point where he needed to take over the leadership so he did the honorable thing. He sent three assassins to Sparks Steak House in Brooklyn and awaited the arrival of Big Pauli who was known to be coming there for supper. Sure enough Big Pauli and the driver of his limo Anthony “Fat Tony” Bilotti arrive and the assassins open up with a hailstorm of automatic gunfire and Big Pauli and Fat Tony are dead before they hit the sidewalk. The next day began the reign of John Gotti. Gotti died a horrible death in prison from cancer of the throat. God works in mysterious ways.
1959 Back in 1930 a brilliant but young scientist in Germany name Klaus Fuchs joins the German Communist Party. In 1934 Klaus decides that he had better get the hell out of Germany because of the rise of the Nazi Party which was the dead set enemy of Communists. So he moves to London and is soon recognized for the brilliant scientist that he was. A few years later England and the United States began testing the waters for a nuclear weapon. England hired Fuchs in spite of his Communist background and used him as a research scientist for a nuclear project. Fuchs did not disappoint and proved to be very knowledgeable. The English sent Fuchs to the United States and was absorbed into the Manhattan Project and in fact he joined the other scientists at Los Alamos, New Mexico where the first actual nuclear device was invented and detonated. Little did anyone know that Fuchs had already contacted a Soviet spy and began feeding his information on the progress of America’s attempt at a nuclear weapon. In fact he sent this spy the actual blueprint of “Fat Man” or the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. It was after the capture of Fuchs and the understanding of how much damaging information had been passed to the Russians that Harry Truman authorized the research into a H-bomb, or a bomb that was a thousand times more powerful that the Hiroshima bomb. The first one of these was detonated in 1952. Anyway, Fuch was found out and convicted and went to prison. He was released on this date for good behavior after just 12 years. They could not try him for treason because neither England nor the United States was at war with Russia at the time of the acts of espionage. Fuch immediately went to Communist East Germany where he lived out his days. He died in 1988, the chicken-shit bastard that he was.
1776 Earlier England had called sea Captain Peter Parker out of a ten year retirement and tasked him with capturing Charleston, South Carolina and providing support to the Loyalists. On this date Captain Parker and his armada approached Charleston and opened fire on Sullivan’s Island embrasures. Well, the fortifications were made with Palmetto logs that are so soft that the naval artillery shells just buried into the logs and did not explode doing little or no damage. Then the commander of the forces on Sullivan’s Island, Colonel William Moultrie, directed a very accurate and efficient return barrage that did tremendous damage to Parker’s ships especially his flagship the HMS Bristol. Parker himself was injured in both legs and ended up with his pants removed so his wounds could be treated. To add insult to injury the Royal Governor William Campbell who was also on the Bristol, was killed along with 261 more English sailors. The HMS Sphinx had its bowsprit shot away and the HMS Actaeon ran aground right in front of Moultrie’s deadly guns and was shot into kindling. Captain Parker decided to get is young ass out of range of Moultrie’s death dealing ordinance and the battle was ended. The Patriots suffered six with minor injuries.
1862 Earlier the commander of the Army of the Potomac, US General George McClellan, had been transporting his army down the Chesapeake and disembarking them on the end of the James River peninsula in the hope of attacking Richmond from the southeast. This jackass had his army in place since June 1 and had been moving slowly and timidly ever since. CSA General Robert E. Lee had been watching and wondering the whole time wondering what McClellan had in mind. On this date General Lee calls a conference with his Corp commanders. Lee had decided that he was tired of waiting on McClellan’s first move and mapped out an assault on the Yankee left flank to begin on June 26. Lee had to wait a day or two because the troops of his II Corps were still on the way from the Shenandoah Valley but that Corps commander, CSA General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was present at the meeting. The attack on the 26th began with the Battle of Mechanicsville which was the first of the series of battles known as the Seven Days. At the end of these battles McClellan turned his ass around, re-boarded the awaiting ships and sailed his young ass back up the Chesapeake Bay to safety. He was a horrible commander, but Lincoln did not have anyone else. He kicked out McClellan and made a desk jockey named General Ambrose Burnsides as commander and he promptly leapt right into a meat grinder trap set by CSA General Robert E. Lee at Fredericksburg and the Army of the Potomac suffered its most ignominious defeat. But that is another story.
1878 In 1822 Martin Sweeney was born somewhere in New Jersey. At the age of 23 he got gold fever and headed west and ended up being a blacksmith on an Apache Indian reservation. Sweeney became absorbed into the Apache lifestyle and gained a great respect for the Apache abilities to survive in the desert when honkies could not. He was asked to be a US Government liaison officer since he had learned the language. Sweeney refused because he found something that held his attention better and that being mining speculation. Along the way Sweeney gained a reputation as a man with a quick temper and an even quicker set of fists. He and a partner named Oliver Boyer bought controlling interest in silver mines near Tombstone, Arizona. On this date, Martin and his partner Oliver, enter into a heated argument. Even though Sweeney was good with his fists he did not pack a gun but Oliver did. The argument reached a fever pitch and eventually Oliver pulled a gun and shot Martin in the chest killing him instantly. Oliver was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Born today:
1876 US writer Irving Cobb. Upon hearing that his boss was sick he said “My God, I hope it is nothing trivial.”
1925 NFL team owner Art Modell. He said “The power and presence of a professional football team in a town is far more important that 30 libraries.”
Shut up, Art.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Go for it today. The future is promised to no one.”
William Dyer
That gadabout Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford has once again gone on vacation without informing Lieutenant Governor Andre’ Bauer. It has been confirmed that he spent two days with his four sons over Father’s Day on Sullivan’s Island, SC. The Governor will be back in his office on Tuesday. His staff claims that he was never out of touch with his office. There was a small change this time. He was accompanied by a couple of SLED agents at the behest of SLED Commander Reggie Lloyd. To those that are unaware, SLED is the law enforcement arm of the Attorney General of South Carolina. The latest rumor on the street is that the reason the Governor went to Argentina last year come hell or high water was that his “soul mate” was delivering their child that week. A continuation of this saga is that Sanford moved his “soul mate” and their child to the vicinity of Columbia, South Carolina as soon as the child was old enough. Like I say, this is just rumor but it would explain a lot of things. By the way, on this last vacation the Governor’s location, other than Sullivan’s Island to see his son’s, is unknown…except to the SLED agents.
Last Thursday the ex-mayor of North Charleston, South Carolina Bobby Kinard had convinced himself that his wife was cheating on him. He retrieved his sidearm and went to her apartment. The man that Bobby thought was his wife’s paramour was there and Bobby shot him. The man was just wounded but when a police car pulled up outside Bobby took his own life. Bobby’s wife said that he had been suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome from his days as a helicopter door gunner in Vietnam. His depression was so severe lately that he was seeing a psychiatrist and taking powerful anti-depressants. He talked frequently about being in combat but to make matters worse, his son is in a combat unit in Afghanistan. His wife claims that the man Bobby wounded was just a friend. At one point in my life I was accused by a very jealous husband of being the lover of his wife. They were going through a very bitter divorce at the time. I was not even a friend of this woman much less a lover but I could have ended up very dead. I just kept a lot of space between me and that man and woman until everything calmed down. No, I did not pursue her even then; I was not going to take a chance.
In yesterday’s lesson I stated that Andrea Yates had murdered three of her children. That was incorrect; she had murdered all five of her children. Thanks for keeping tabs on me Carol.
As most of y’all know some of the shrimpers and oystermen on the Gulf Coast have been reimbursed by BP (British Petroleum) for income lost due to the oil leak in the Gulf. Your friend and mine, the Internal Revenue Service is looking into seeking income tax on those awards. These guys used the net income on past income tax returns as the basis for their money reimbursement requests and now the IRS wants a part of what is essentially their net income. What the hell is America coming to?
There is a restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama named “Lulu’s”. The owner is Lucy Buffett who has a famous brother named Jimmy. Lucy announced Tuesday that she is working up a free concert on the beach starring Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefers Band and Kenny Chesney and the Zac Brown Band. The concert is planned for July 1 and the 35,000 free tickets go up for grabs on Wednesday, June 24. The tourist industry in Gulf Shores is suffering because of the oil spill and Lucy and her brother want to encourage people to come anyway. Jimmy and Lucy are Mobile, Alabama natives but spent many, many hours on the beach at Gulf Shores and the Flora-Bama Lounge in particular. I wonder how long those tickets will last.
This date in history June 23
1996 On this date John Gotti, better known as the “The Teflon Don”, is sentenced to life without parole on a RICO charge. A RICO charge is about racketeering but Gotti was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and extortion. He had been arrested and put on trial and had been acquitted many times thus the nickname “Teflon Don”. Gotti was raised on the mean streets of Brooklyn, New York and became a member on organized crime at an early age. He was an enforcer or one who collected money due the organization by what ever means it took, including murder. He worked his way up to a “capo” or a captain which was third in line to the “Don” or the head of the organization. Gotti was an ambitious devil and decided that the wanted to be the head of his organization which was a branch of the Gambino crime family. The leader of Gotti’s group was Paul “Big Pauli” Castellano. Castellano was a tall man with salt and pepper wavy hair. After a while Gotti decided that he had reached a point where he needed to take over the leadership so he did the honorable thing. He sent three assassins to Sparks Steak House in Brooklyn and awaited the arrival of Big Pauli who was known to be coming there for supper. Sure enough Big Pauli and the driver of his limo Anthony “Fat Tony” Bilotti arrive and the assassins open up with a hailstorm of automatic gunfire and Big Pauli and Fat Tony are dead before they hit the sidewalk. The next day began the reign of John Gotti. Gotti died a horrible death in prison from cancer of the throat. God works in mysterious ways.
1959 Back in 1930 a brilliant but young scientist in Germany name Klaus Fuchs joins the German Communist Party. In 1934 Klaus decides that he had better get the hell out of Germany because of the rise of the Nazi Party which was the dead set enemy of Communists. So he moves to London and is soon recognized for the brilliant scientist that he was. A few years later England and the United States began testing the waters for a nuclear weapon. England hired Fuchs in spite of his Communist background and used him as a research scientist for a nuclear project. Fuchs did not disappoint and proved to be very knowledgeable. The English sent Fuchs to the United States and was absorbed into the Manhattan Project and in fact he joined the other scientists at Los Alamos, New Mexico where the first actual nuclear device was invented and detonated. Little did anyone know that Fuchs had already contacted a Soviet spy and began feeding his information on the progress of America’s attempt at a nuclear weapon. In fact he sent this spy the actual blueprint of “Fat Man” or the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. It was after the capture of Fuchs and the understanding of how much damaging information had been passed to the Russians that Harry Truman authorized the research into a H-bomb, or a bomb that was a thousand times more powerful that the Hiroshima bomb. The first one of these was detonated in 1952. Anyway, Fuch was found out and convicted and went to prison. He was released on this date for good behavior after just 12 years. They could not try him for treason because neither England nor the United States was at war with Russia at the time of the acts of espionage. Fuch immediately went to Communist East Germany where he lived out his days. He died in 1988, the chicken-shit bastard that he was.
1776 Earlier England had called sea Captain Peter Parker out of a ten year retirement and tasked him with capturing Charleston, South Carolina and providing support to the Loyalists. On this date Captain Parker and his armada approached Charleston and opened fire on Sullivan’s Island embrasures. Well, the fortifications were made with Palmetto logs that are so soft that the naval artillery shells just buried into the logs and did not explode doing little or no damage. Then the commander of the forces on Sullivan’s Island, Colonel William Moultrie, directed a very accurate and efficient return barrage that did tremendous damage to Parker’s ships especially his flagship the HMS Bristol. Parker himself was injured in both legs and ended up with his pants removed so his wounds could be treated. To add insult to injury the Royal Governor William Campbell who was also on the Bristol, was killed along with 261 more English sailors. The HMS Sphinx had its bowsprit shot away and the HMS Actaeon ran aground right in front of Moultrie’s deadly guns and was shot into kindling. Captain Parker decided to get is young ass out of range of Moultrie’s death dealing ordinance and the battle was ended. The Patriots suffered six with minor injuries.
1862 Earlier the commander of the Army of the Potomac, US General George McClellan, had been transporting his army down the Chesapeake and disembarking them on the end of the James River peninsula in the hope of attacking Richmond from the southeast. This jackass had his army in place since June 1 and had been moving slowly and timidly ever since. CSA General Robert E. Lee had been watching and wondering the whole time wondering what McClellan had in mind. On this date General Lee calls a conference with his Corp commanders. Lee had decided that he was tired of waiting on McClellan’s first move and mapped out an assault on the Yankee left flank to begin on June 26. Lee had to wait a day or two because the troops of his II Corps were still on the way from the Shenandoah Valley but that Corps commander, CSA General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was present at the meeting. The attack on the 26th began with the Battle of Mechanicsville which was the first of the series of battles known as the Seven Days. At the end of these battles McClellan turned his ass around, re-boarded the awaiting ships and sailed his young ass back up the Chesapeake Bay to safety. He was a horrible commander, but Lincoln did not have anyone else. He kicked out McClellan and made a desk jockey named General Ambrose Burnsides as commander and he promptly leapt right into a meat grinder trap set by CSA General Robert E. Lee at Fredericksburg and the Army of the Potomac suffered its most ignominious defeat. But that is another story.
1878 In 1822 Martin Sweeney was born somewhere in New Jersey. At the age of 23 he got gold fever and headed west and ended up being a blacksmith on an Apache Indian reservation. Sweeney became absorbed into the Apache lifestyle and gained a great respect for the Apache abilities to survive in the desert when honkies could not. He was asked to be a US Government liaison officer since he had learned the language. Sweeney refused because he found something that held his attention better and that being mining speculation. Along the way Sweeney gained a reputation as a man with a quick temper and an even quicker set of fists. He and a partner named Oliver Boyer bought controlling interest in silver mines near Tombstone, Arizona. On this date, Martin and his partner Oliver, enter into a heated argument. Even though Sweeney was good with his fists he did not pack a gun but Oliver did. The argument reached a fever pitch and eventually Oliver pulled a gun and shot Martin in the chest killing him instantly. Oliver was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Born today:
1876 US writer Irving Cobb. Upon hearing that his boss was sick he said “My God, I hope it is nothing trivial.”
1925 NFL team owner Art Modell. He said “The power and presence of a professional football team in a town is far more important that 30 libraries.”
Shut up, Art.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Daily History
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“I don’t want to hear that we are ‘holding our position’. We are not holding anything. We will let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and not hold on to anything except the Germans. We are going to hold him by the nose and kick him in the ass.”
US General George S. Patton
I am not sure that this situation happens anywhere but in Dixie. On occasion a person (I have seen both men and women) will set up camp on a street corner and begin preaching whether he has an audience or not. If a pedestrian passes by, most of the time the preacher will try to stop the pedestrian and quiz him/her about their association with God. They are very insistent and will walk with the person for as long as the person acknowledges their conversation. Local police see this as being a nuisance and will stop the preacher from shadowing the pedestrian. A few of these “concrete evangelists” have filed suit claiming that labeling them as violating the “nuisance statute” interferes with their 1st amendment rights, meaning freedom of speech. I put this situation in the same category as “your right to swing your arm ends at the tip of my nose”. I also am very sensitive to the exercise of an individual’s United States Constitutional rights because so much blood, sweat and tears were shed to give it to us, but to interfere with my normal stride down the street is indeed a nuisance. I do not know how this issue can be resolved legally but maybe it can be resolved with a right uppercut to the chin. The evangelists should be willing to suffer such a small sacrifice for their cause, or they could just get out of the way.
I finished two books this weekend. One of them was “Hand Picked By the King” and the other was “Teaching the Pig to Dance”. I met the author of “Hand Picked By the King” (Frieda Stroble) when she had a table set up in the lobby of my favorite watering hole which is a pretty fancy-schmantzy restaurant with a small bar. She and I talked a while and I took one of her books home. It was not what I had expected. This woman is a half Lumbee Indian from the cotton and tobacco belt of South Carolina. She and her family suffered incredible racial intimidation and discrimination most of her formative years. They were denied many things simply because they were dark skinned. Before the tenet of “separate but equal” was struck down by the Supreme Court, there were signs everywhere in the Dillon, South Carolina (the closest city to their farm) area say “White Only” and that included Indians as well as blacks. She finally was able to go to a “white” high school and essentially was ostracized for the entire time and it scarred her life. The book was about her time as a hair dresser in a “retirement home”. My Mom and Dad spent a time in a retirement home and it was not a happy time for either them or the rest of the family, especially me. The author wrote a series of vignettes about her trying to make those men and women in the home happier. The title of the book “Hand Picked by the King” is the author’s belief that God had hand picked her to be a hair dresser for the elderly making their lives more enjoyable. She is very religious and almost every page made reference to her religion and even included verses from the Bible. In my opinion this distracted from the ebb and flow of the sequence of events and it hinted the she felt herself an evangelist and can read the mind of God. When I spoke with her in person she was very amiable and charming, pretty too. But as most writers know, your soul shows itself when you write. The book was not the type of book that I normally read but I read it in one sitting. I am sorry Frieda, but I must call them the way I see them.
“Teaching the Pig to Dance” was written by former presidential candidate and actor, Fred Thompson. It is the history of Fred’s youth in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Fred’s father was a truck driver/used car dealer and the book was again a series of vignettes about his youth and the association with his father and the rest of his family. Frankly, even though I am a fan of Fred Thompson, this book appeared to be written as an afterthought or to fulfill a contract with a publisher. It was very frothy and without a lot of substance. The title came from a quote Fred made about learning Latin in high school. He said “Trying to teach me Latin would be like teaching a pig to dance. It would be exasperating for the teacher and be irritating to the pig.” Stay to acting and politics, Fred…Literature ain’t your bag.
We here in South Carolina and the 4th district in particular are voting in a series of run-off elections today. The most important of these is for Governor, Nikki Haley vs Gresham Barrett, Haley is favored, and for South Carolina 4th district United States Congressman, Trey Gowdy vs incumbent Bob Inglis, Gowdy is favored. Get out there and vote y’all.
This date in history June 22
1609 Two years earlier English navigator Henry Hudson had set sail from England aboard his ship Discovery having been tasked by Dutch merchants with finding a northwest passage to the Pacific ocean and the Orient without having to sail around the toe of South America known as Cape Horn. A passage around this headland was a major undertaking in any season. It was always stormy and very dangerous. Hudson sailed into New York, Delaware and the Chesapeake bays seeking a passage west. It was Hudson that was the first European that sailed up the river that bears his name to this day. No passage was found and when he tried the present day Hudson Bay in Canada he realized that he could not stay in this environment through the winter. His exit from the river back into the Atlantic became blocked with ice so he did the next best thing and anchored his boat as far south as he could and prepared to wait for spring. Henry and his crew were on the cusp of freezing and starving to death all winter long. As you might suspect the crew got really pissed and decided to mutiny when it got warmer and the ice began to melt. They set Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in a small boat none of which were ever seen or heard from again. It was Henry’s voyage up the present day Hudson River that gave the Dutch claim to that part of the New World and the English a claim to Hudson Bay. Once the crew reached England they were captured and tried for mutiny but were not executed because their knowledge of the New World was immeasurable.
2006 On this date the second trial of Andrea Yates began. Yates was the mother that drowned her three children in the bathtub of her Texas home. She had drowned her two sons aged 7 and 5 plus her 6 year old daughter. At her trial in 2001 she had given a not guilty plea by reason of insanity. During this trial the prosecution had gotten a conviction for 1st degree murder and had presented a psychiatrist as an “expert witness” and later it was discovered that his credentials were false and her conviction was thrown out. In this trial there was no doubt that his bitch was crazy as a loon. She had been taking many types of psychiatric drugs and even had attempted suicide three times in the past. How could this lunatic be allowed to be a caretaker of little children? In this trial she was acquitted of first degree murder but convicted of murder but not aware of the consequences of her acts. In other word, she was crazy as a shit house mouse. With this conviction she could not be given a life sentence in a correctional facility but there is no doubt in any Texan’s mind that this beast will be is a nut house for the rest of her days. I read a little about her first trial and she said that the 7 year old by fought hard but she overpowered him and he went underwater screaming “No, Momma, no!” Yates claimed that the Devil was inside her and she was afraid he would get into her children. She was partially right.
1941 On this date, against the advice of his Generals, Adolph Hitler orders the launch of “Operation Barabarrosa” which was the invasion of Russia. The invasion army consisted of 3 million troops divided in nearly equal numbers in three units. They also sent 3,500 tanks, 2,500 aircraft and 7,000 pieces of artillery. But his Generals had told him that if the operation could not be started by May 1 then it should not be started at all. The reason was that if the German army was not able to totally defeat the Russians by September the weather would become a factor. The Russian winters are notorious for being very severe and the German army was not prepared for such a turn of events. Hitler was sure that the total defeat of Russia would be just a matter of weeks. He was wrong. The Russians were never totally defeated and the Germans were caught out in the open during one of the worst winters in fifty years. It got so cold that mechanical devices would not work and German soldiers died by the thousands from exposure and literally freezing to death. During their rush across Russia the Germans had slaughtered 26,000,000 Russian civilians and soldiers. When the Russian army finally broke the German siege and started pushing the Germans back west toward their own country, their bloodlust was insatiable and their slaughter of the German Army was complete, especially after they had liberated the German concentration camps, including the worst of the worst in Dachau.
Born today:
1786 English artist Benjamin Haydon. He said “When man is no longer anxious to do more than well, he is done for.” Well said, Ben.
1898 German writer Erich Remarque. He said “You may turn into an archangel, a fool or a criminal and no one will see it. But if you are missing a button, everyone will see it.” That depends on where the button was, Erich.
1906 US movie director Billy Wilder. He said of Audrey Hepburn “I could worship the ground you walk on, Audrey...if only you lived in a better neighborhood.” That sound like all the girls I met in Oklahoma City.
1949 US actress Meryl Streep. She said “You cannot get spoiled if you do your own ironing.” Tack on to that “or take out your own garbage.”
1912 US first lady Pat Nixon. She said “Being the first lady is the hardest unpaid job in the world.” I would have thought it would have been going to bed with Richard Nixon every night.
1918 Advice columnist Ann Landers. She said “Do not accept your dog’s admiration as proof that you are wonderful.” Are you listening, Michael Vick?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
“I don’t want to hear that we are ‘holding our position’. We are not holding anything. We will let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and not hold on to anything except the Germans. We are going to hold him by the nose and kick him in the ass.”
US General George S. Patton
I am not sure that this situation happens anywhere but in Dixie. On occasion a person (I have seen both men and women) will set up camp on a street corner and begin preaching whether he has an audience or not. If a pedestrian passes by, most of the time the preacher will try to stop the pedestrian and quiz him/her about their association with God. They are very insistent and will walk with the person for as long as the person acknowledges their conversation. Local police see this as being a nuisance and will stop the preacher from shadowing the pedestrian. A few of these “concrete evangelists” have filed suit claiming that labeling them as violating the “nuisance statute” interferes with their 1st amendment rights, meaning freedom of speech. I put this situation in the same category as “your right to swing your arm ends at the tip of my nose”. I also am very sensitive to the exercise of an individual’s United States Constitutional rights because so much blood, sweat and tears were shed to give it to us, but to interfere with my normal stride down the street is indeed a nuisance. I do not know how this issue can be resolved legally but maybe it can be resolved with a right uppercut to the chin. The evangelists should be willing to suffer such a small sacrifice for their cause, or they could just get out of the way.
I finished two books this weekend. One of them was “Hand Picked By the King” and the other was “Teaching the Pig to Dance”. I met the author of “Hand Picked By the King” (Frieda Stroble) when she had a table set up in the lobby of my favorite watering hole which is a pretty fancy-schmantzy restaurant with a small bar. She and I talked a while and I took one of her books home. It was not what I had expected. This woman is a half Lumbee Indian from the cotton and tobacco belt of South Carolina. She and her family suffered incredible racial intimidation and discrimination most of her formative years. They were denied many things simply because they were dark skinned. Before the tenet of “separate but equal” was struck down by the Supreme Court, there were signs everywhere in the Dillon, South Carolina (the closest city to their farm) area say “White Only” and that included Indians as well as blacks. She finally was able to go to a “white” high school and essentially was ostracized for the entire time and it scarred her life. The book was about her time as a hair dresser in a “retirement home”. My Mom and Dad spent a time in a retirement home and it was not a happy time for either them or the rest of the family, especially me. The author wrote a series of vignettes about her trying to make those men and women in the home happier. The title of the book “Hand Picked by the King” is the author’s belief that God had hand picked her to be a hair dresser for the elderly making their lives more enjoyable. She is very religious and almost every page made reference to her religion and even included verses from the Bible. In my opinion this distracted from the ebb and flow of the sequence of events and it hinted the she felt herself an evangelist and can read the mind of God. When I spoke with her in person she was very amiable and charming, pretty too. But as most writers know, your soul shows itself when you write. The book was not the type of book that I normally read but I read it in one sitting. I am sorry Frieda, but I must call them the way I see them.
“Teaching the Pig to Dance” was written by former presidential candidate and actor, Fred Thompson. It is the history of Fred’s youth in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Fred’s father was a truck driver/used car dealer and the book was again a series of vignettes about his youth and the association with his father and the rest of his family. Frankly, even though I am a fan of Fred Thompson, this book appeared to be written as an afterthought or to fulfill a contract with a publisher. It was very frothy and without a lot of substance. The title came from a quote Fred made about learning Latin in high school. He said “Trying to teach me Latin would be like teaching a pig to dance. It would be exasperating for the teacher and be irritating to the pig.” Stay to acting and politics, Fred…Literature ain’t your bag.
We here in South Carolina and the 4th district in particular are voting in a series of run-off elections today. The most important of these is for Governor, Nikki Haley vs Gresham Barrett, Haley is favored, and for South Carolina 4th district United States Congressman, Trey Gowdy vs incumbent Bob Inglis, Gowdy is favored. Get out there and vote y’all.
This date in history June 22
1609 Two years earlier English navigator Henry Hudson had set sail from England aboard his ship Discovery having been tasked by Dutch merchants with finding a northwest passage to the Pacific ocean and the Orient without having to sail around the toe of South America known as Cape Horn. A passage around this headland was a major undertaking in any season. It was always stormy and very dangerous. Hudson sailed into New York, Delaware and the Chesapeake bays seeking a passage west. It was Hudson that was the first European that sailed up the river that bears his name to this day. No passage was found and when he tried the present day Hudson Bay in Canada he realized that he could not stay in this environment through the winter. His exit from the river back into the Atlantic became blocked with ice so he did the next best thing and anchored his boat as far south as he could and prepared to wait for spring. Henry and his crew were on the cusp of freezing and starving to death all winter long. As you might suspect the crew got really pissed and decided to mutiny when it got warmer and the ice began to melt. They set Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in a small boat none of which were ever seen or heard from again. It was Henry’s voyage up the present day Hudson River that gave the Dutch claim to that part of the New World and the English a claim to Hudson Bay. Once the crew reached England they were captured and tried for mutiny but were not executed because their knowledge of the New World was immeasurable.
2006 On this date the second trial of Andrea Yates began. Yates was the mother that drowned her three children in the bathtub of her Texas home. She had drowned her two sons aged 7 and 5 plus her 6 year old daughter. At her trial in 2001 she had given a not guilty plea by reason of insanity. During this trial the prosecution had gotten a conviction for 1st degree murder and had presented a psychiatrist as an “expert witness” and later it was discovered that his credentials were false and her conviction was thrown out. In this trial there was no doubt that his bitch was crazy as a loon. She had been taking many types of psychiatric drugs and even had attempted suicide three times in the past. How could this lunatic be allowed to be a caretaker of little children? In this trial she was acquitted of first degree murder but convicted of murder but not aware of the consequences of her acts. In other word, she was crazy as a shit house mouse. With this conviction she could not be given a life sentence in a correctional facility but there is no doubt in any Texan’s mind that this beast will be is a nut house for the rest of her days. I read a little about her first trial and she said that the 7 year old by fought hard but she overpowered him and he went underwater screaming “No, Momma, no!” Yates claimed that the Devil was inside her and she was afraid he would get into her children. She was partially right.
1941 On this date, against the advice of his Generals, Adolph Hitler orders the launch of “Operation Barabarrosa” which was the invasion of Russia. The invasion army consisted of 3 million troops divided in nearly equal numbers in three units. They also sent 3,500 tanks, 2,500 aircraft and 7,000 pieces of artillery. But his Generals had told him that if the operation could not be started by May 1 then it should not be started at all. The reason was that if the German army was not able to totally defeat the Russians by September the weather would become a factor. The Russian winters are notorious for being very severe and the German army was not prepared for such a turn of events. Hitler was sure that the total defeat of Russia would be just a matter of weeks. He was wrong. The Russians were never totally defeated and the Germans were caught out in the open during one of the worst winters in fifty years. It got so cold that mechanical devices would not work and German soldiers died by the thousands from exposure and literally freezing to death. During their rush across Russia the Germans had slaughtered 26,000,000 Russian civilians and soldiers. When the Russian army finally broke the German siege and started pushing the Germans back west toward their own country, their bloodlust was insatiable and their slaughter of the German Army was complete, especially after they had liberated the German concentration camps, including the worst of the worst in Dachau.
Born today:
1786 English artist Benjamin Haydon. He said “When man is no longer anxious to do more than well, he is done for.” Well said, Ben.
1898 German writer Erich Remarque. He said “You may turn into an archangel, a fool or a criminal and no one will see it. But if you are missing a button, everyone will see it.” That depends on where the button was, Erich.
1906 US movie director Billy Wilder. He said of Audrey Hepburn “I could worship the ground you walk on, Audrey...if only you lived in a better neighborhood.” That sound like all the girls I met in Oklahoma City.
1949 US actress Meryl Streep. She said “You cannot get spoiled if you do your own ironing.” Tack on to that “or take out your own garbage.”
1912 US first lady Pat Nixon. She said “Being the first lady is the hardest unpaid job in the world.” I would have thought it would have been going to bed with Richard Nixon every night.
1918 Advice columnist Ann Landers. She said “Do not accept your dog’s admiration as proof that you are wonderful.” Are you listening, Michael Vick?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Happiness is not the absence of problems; it is the ability to deal with them.”
Stacy Keach
The runaway gusher in the Gulf of Mexico continues. Those crack experts now are saying that there is methane present in the escaping natural gas and oil. Natural gas is lighter than air and will escape to the atmosphere; methane is also lighter than air and will escape into the atmosphere also only the problem is methane is much more toxic than natural gas. Are they hinting at an evacuation? How much money will that cost? I spoke with the manager of the condo complex on Pensacola Beach where I spend a lot of time in the winter and some of the condos are rentals. She said that many, many of the rentals are vacant because of cancellations by potential renters because of the fear of oil laden beaches and toxic surf. That is not the case but I really do not blame those families with kids who like to splash around in the water, they cannot afford to take a chance.
We have had yet another drive-by shooting here in the buckle of the Bible belt. This time it was a 17 year old boy sitting in a parked car. The police have already issued a warrant for the alleged shooter. It was about 1:00a that this occurred. I have asked this question many times, “What is a teenager doing out at that time of night?” This boy was a victim of the parents or caretaker not giving a damn.
Last week a containerized cargo ship docked at the municipal docks in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Early one morning the security cops arrested two unauthorized aliens walking away from the ship. These guys were stowaways inside one of the containers from the Dominican Republic. Both of these jackasses had been previously convicted of crimes here in the United States, did hard time and then were deported. They were handed over to Federal authorities. By the way, there originally were three of them but one of them died in the container and was left to rot by his buddies. Hell yes, let’s allow the unrestricted flow of Latino aliens, they will make great citizens, won’t they?
Last week down in Columbia, SC a food delivery truck was re-fueling at a Sonoco station when the driver went inside for personal reasons. When he came back, the truck was gone. That’s right, someone was really hungry. The truck was found the next day just a few miles away. All that was missing was some food. Times are tough, y’all.
I guess all of you know by now that the state of Utah offered a man on death row that was nearing his assigned execution date either the poison needle or a firing squad. He opted for the firing squad. This past week a firing squad was assembled and this convicted killer went to meet his make air conditioned. If you think about it, five rounds of 30.06 ammo simultaneously entering your chest causes death more instantaneous than the 20 seconds it takes for the poison. I do not see what all the hoopla is about, how about some sympathy for this animal’s victims.
Here is an item that should install confidence in the present bureaucracies. The state of Louisiana had bought a number of barges that have a vacuuming device aboard that is very effective in gathering oil off water surfaces. The United States Coast Guard forbade these barges from going out into the Gulf because there were not enough life jackets aboard each vessel. These barges stayed in port for four days before the Coast Guard would give them the nod. They are now on site and operating. There is an old proverb that says “You do not worry about draining the swamp when you are up to your ass in alligators.”
This date in history June 21
1964 Earlier two civil rights workers from New York named Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman and arrived in segregated Mississippi. They were working for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and their purpose was to try to register black voters. After their arrival in Neshoba County they were joined by a black Mississippi native named James Chaney, also working for CORE. In January Schwerner organized a successful boycott of a few businesses in Meridian, Mississippi and had been instrumental in the surge of black voters being registered. As a result of this the Grand Wizard of the KKK, Sam Bowers, put a contract out for Schwerner’s life. On June 16, 15 Klansmen descended on a black church, beat the crap out of a lot of people and burned the church to the ground. Schwerner had used the church as a rallying place to get the blacks to register to vote. He was not there that night he and the other two had gone to a training seminar in Ohio. On this date they returned to Mississippi they found out about the burned church and went to the site to talk with blacks that attended the church about what happened. After this they headed back to Meridian. They were stopped and arrested by the Deputy Sheriff of Neshoba County, Cecil Price, for suspicion of arson. They were using the church burning as an excuse to lock them up long enough to notify the Klan where they were. After 7 hours in the slammer and denied any phone calls, they were released and they resumed their trip toward Meridian. Awaiting them at the edge of the city of Philadelphia, Mississippi, which was the county seat of Neshoba County, was two car loads of Klansmen. They stopped the civil rights worker’s car and killed them all. After it became apparent to the relatives of the three that they had disappeared under ominous circumstances, they called the FBI and agents from that agency descended on Philadelphia like a swarm of locusts. They found the ringleaders of the murders and put them on trial for murder in a Philadelphia courthouse with a Mississippi judge presiding. They were all convicted but the judge did not sentence them to any punishment saying that they were provoked by “outsiders”. The shocked FBI went one step further and sued the ringleaders for a violation of the Constitutional right of the three. They were all convicted and went to prison. The bodies of the three workers were found buried in an earthen dam that was under construction.
1990 On this night in northwestern Iran, an earthquake with the magnitude of 7.7 on the Richter scale begins on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The resulting devastation kills 50,000 and injures over 130,000. There was a stretch of a series of villages 80 miles long on the coast of the Caspian Sea that every building had collapsed and every person was killed.
Quotable Quotes:
“Always acknowledge a mistake, this throws those in authority off guard and give you the opportunity to make more.” Mark Twain
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” Mark Twain
“Politics is more dangerous than war. In war they can only kill you once.” Winston Churchill
Thanks for listening. I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Happiness is not the absence of problems; it is the ability to deal with them.”
Stacy Keach
The runaway gusher in the Gulf of Mexico continues. Those crack experts now are saying that there is methane present in the escaping natural gas and oil. Natural gas is lighter than air and will escape to the atmosphere; methane is also lighter than air and will escape into the atmosphere also only the problem is methane is much more toxic than natural gas. Are they hinting at an evacuation? How much money will that cost? I spoke with the manager of the condo complex on Pensacola Beach where I spend a lot of time in the winter and some of the condos are rentals. She said that many, many of the rentals are vacant because of cancellations by potential renters because of the fear of oil laden beaches and toxic surf. That is not the case but I really do not blame those families with kids who like to splash around in the water, they cannot afford to take a chance.
We have had yet another drive-by shooting here in the buckle of the Bible belt. This time it was a 17 year old boy sitting in a parked car. The police have already issued a warrant for the alleged shooter. It was about 1:00a that this occurred. I have asked this question many times, “What is a teenager doing out at that time of night?” This boy was a victim of the parents or caretaker not giving a damn.
Last week a containerized cargo ship docked at the municipal docks in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Early one morning the security cops arrested two unauthorized aliens walking away from the ship. These guys were stowaways inside one of the containers from the Dominican Republic. Both of these jackasses had been previously convicted of crimes here in the United States, did hard time and then were deported. They were handed over to Federal authorities. By the way, there originally were three of them but one of them died in the container and was left to rot by his buddies. Hell yes, let’s allow the unrestricted flow of Latino aliens, they will make great citizens, won’t they?
Last week down in Columbia, SC a food delivery truck was re-fueling at a Sonoco station when the driver went inside for personal reasons. When he came back, the truck was gone. That’s right, someone was really hungry. The truck was found the next day just a few miles away. All that was missing was some food. Times are tough, y’all.
I guess all of you know by now that the state of Utah offered a man on death row that was nearing his assigned execution date either the poison needle or a firing squad. He opted for the firing squad. This past week a firing squad was assembled and this convicted killer went to meet his make air conditioned. If you think about it, five rounds of 30.06 ammo simultaneously entering your chest causes death more instantaneous than the 20 seconds it takes for the poison. I do not see what all the hoopla is about, how about some sympathy for this animal’s victims.
Here is an item that should install confidence in the present bureaucracies. The state of Louisiana had bought a number of barges that have a vacuuming device aboard that is very effective in gathering oil off water surfaces. The United States Coast Guard forbade these barges from going out into the Gulf because there were not enough life jackets aboard each vessel. These barges stayed in port for four days before the Coast Guard would give them the nod. They are now on site and operating. There is an old proverb that says “You do not worry about draining the swamp when you are up to your ass in alligators.”
This date in history June 21
1964 Earlier two civil rights workers from New York named Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman and arrived in segregated Mississippi. They were working for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and their purpose was to try to register black voters. After their arrival in Neshoba County they were joined by a black Mississippi native named James Chaney, also working for CORE. In January Schwerner organized a successful boycott of a few businesses in Meridian, Mississippi and had been instrumental in the surge of black voters being registered. As a result of this the Grand Wizard of the KKK, Sam Bowers, put a contract out for Schwerner’s life. On June 16, 15 Klansmen descended on a black church, beat the crap out of a lot of people and burned the church to the ground. Schwerner had used the church as a rallying place to get the blacks to register to vote. He was not there that night he and the other two had gone to a training seminar in Ohio. On this date they returned to Mississippi they found out about the burned church and went to the site to talk with blacks that attended the church about what happened. After this they headed back to Meridian. They were stopped and arrested by the Deputy Sheriff of Neshoba County, Cecil Price, for suspicion of arson. They were using the church burning as an excuse to lock them up long enough to notify the Klan where they were. After 7 hours in the slammer and denied any phone calls, they were released and they resumed their trip toward Meridian. Awaiting them at the edge of the city of Philadelphia, Mississippi, which was the county seat of Neshoba County, was two car loads of Klansmen. They stopped the civil rights worker’s car and killed them all. After it became apparent to the relatives of the three that they had disappeared under ominous circumstances, they called the FBI and agents from that agency descended on Philadelphia like a swarm of locusts. They found the ringleaders of the murders and put them on trial for murder in a Philadelphia courthouse with a Mississippi judge presiding. They were all convicted but the judge did not sentence them to any punishment saying that they were provoked by “outsiders”. The shocked FBI went one step further and sued the ringleaders for a violation of the Constitutional right of the three. They were all convicted and went to prison. The bodies of the three workers were found buried in an earthen dam that was under construction.
1990 On this night in northwestern Iran, an earthquake with the magnitude of 7.7 on the Richter scale begins on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The resulting devastation kills 50,000 and injures over 130,000. There was a stretch of a series of villages 80 miles long on the coast of the Caspian Sea that every building had collapsed and every person was killed.
Quotable Quotes:
“Always acknowledge a mistake, this throws those in authority off guard and give you the opportunity to make more.” Mark Twain
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” Mark Twain
“Politics is more dangerous than war. In war they can only kill you once.” Winston Churchill
Thanks for listening. I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Friday, June 18, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
Melody Beattie
I am going to dip my feet into the cesspool of South Carolina politics once again. South Carolina has a Republican Senator named Jim DeMint whose term expires in November and he is running for re-election. Jim is extremely popular and is in communication with his constituents on a regular basis. In other words, there is not another person on the planet that can beat Jim in the upcoming election. In the recent primaries, the Democrats offered up two candidates to run against DeMint. They were a lawyer named Vic Rawl and an unknown named Alvin Greene. Rawl is a lawyer from the coast and Alvin Greene is the enigma. He is unemployed. Recently discharged from the military and living with his father in the tiny town of Manning, South Carolina. Alvin also has a felony charge pending for distribution of pornography. He spent absolutely no money on his campaign. No flyers, no posters, nothing on any sort of media. This was totally unlike Vic Rawl who did all of the traditional things done in a political campaign. Not only that, the filing fee was $10,400. After the votes were counted, Greene had beaten Rawls 60% to 40 %. Everybody, including President Obama’s political advisor in South Carolina asked “What the hell is going on?” Everyone also is asking who gave him the $10,400 and for what reason? It is well known information that nobody is going to be able to beat Jim DeMint no matter their political party so the Republicans have no reason to waste the $10,400 filing fee. The Democrat certainly would not cough up the kind of money on an unknown, especially one that is looking at a possible felony conviction related to pornography. So who the hell is Alvin Greene and what is his purpose? The Democratic hierarchy in South Carolina is in a state of frenzy attempting to do some heavy duty sweeping of this bizarre event under the rug. By the way, in one particular voting district, there were more votes for my man Alvin that were cast in the total area. That would seem like a voting machine flaw to the average person. But voting machine experts have said that even if there were voting machine flaws, it would not account for the 60% to 40% margin. To those friends of mine in the Four O’clock Club that are mystery book readers, try and find a logical explanation for Alvin.
This date in history June 18
1812 On this date the United States Congress and President James Madison declare war on Great Britain. What the root of this disagreement was all the cause of England. They had been “Shanghaiing” American seaman into the British navy, meaning these men went into the British navy whether they liked it or not. Great Britain also was exercising financial sanctions against France because they were trading with America and finally, they were encouraging and financing the Indians along the Great Lakes against America. The war lasted 2 ½ years with the most remembered events being the burning of the White House to the ground, Dolly Madison ensuring the portrait of George Washington was saved from the conflagration and finally, the Battle of New Orleans with Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson kicking ass even though the war was over a week before. This victory by the United States ensured their independence for the foreseeable future. By the way, Andrew Jackson got the nickname “Old Hickory” when he was walking through a building in Washington carrying his hickory cane when a man ran up to him, pulled a pistol and fired but the gun misfired, the assassin pulled another pistol and tried again and that one misfired also, Jackson then lifted his hickory cane and beat the holy shit out of this guy and would have killed him had some of his entourage not intervened. I like this South Carolinian.
1815 One of the most important battles in world history occurs on this date. Earlier one of the greatest military strategists in history had suffered a series of defeats especially his attempt at the invasion of Russia. After this defeat Napoleon Bonaparte was captured and exiled to the island of Elbe in the Mediterranean. He escaped and went to France and gathered another army of over 100,000 and headed toward Belgium. His intent was to capture as many countries as he could as quick as he could so they could not join forces. On the way to Belgium he ran upon the 30,000 army of the Prussian Baron von Blucher. The Prussian knew when he was out manned and hastily retreated. Napoleon detached 32,000 of his own troops to pursue von Blucher. The next day Napoleon met up with the English army of 63,000 led by Lord Wellington near the small Belgian city of Waterloo. So what we have here are two armies about the same size with each having superior leadership. Then Napoleon makes a fatal mistake in judgment when he delays his attack until mid-day to allow the fields to dry out from the soaking rain the night before. Finally Napoleon launches his attack and has initial success but who should show up on his left flank but Baron Von Blucher and his 30,000 who had eluded his pursuers. This unexpected attack unnerved Napoleon and he paid more attention to that than he should have and did not send his reserves into the area of success which allowed Wellington to re-form his troops and they began a general advance and drove Napoleon from the field. Napoleon’s “Grand Armee” disintegrated. Napoleon knew he was in deep shit with the French so he surrendered to the English. He thought they would send him to the United States but no, they sent him into exile on the island of St. Helena off the coast of Africa where there was no chance of escape. He died six years later, probably of stomach cancer. He was 51 years old.
1865 US General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain received a near fatal wound while leading an attack against Confederate emplacements at Petersburg, Virginia. Chamberlain won a Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg nearly a year before. He was wounded at Gettysburg also but it was a minor wound, in fact he had received 6 wounds before the end of hostilities. He won the Medal of Honor by commanding 300 Maine soldiers in defending the Union left flank at a place known as Little Round Top at Gettysburg. His troops fought as long as they could but eventually ran out of ammo so Chamberlain had a choice to make. Retreat and let the Confederates turn the flank which would be disastrous; stay where they were and get annihilated and the Confederates turn the flank anyway or to charge. So Chamberlain ordered his men to fix bayonets and ordered a charge and down the hill they went. The stunned Confederates retreated and the left flank of the Union line was secure. The next day Chamberlain and his troops were moved to a more “safe” area on the battlefield, right in the very middle of the Union lines. About 11:30a one of the largest artillery barrages ever fired in North America was launched toward the center of the Union lines by the Confederates. Chamberlain hugged the ground wondering when it would stop and when it finally did, he heard the thin high scream of the Rebel yell and saw 13,000 confederate infantry about a mile away coming his way. It was the famous Pickett’s charge. It just wasn’t Chamberlain’s day.
1984 On this date shock-jock Alan Berg was gunned down in his driveway in Denver. Alan Berg was the star of a radio show where he tried to piss people off and be as abrasive as he could, he said that he wanted to be “the man you hate the most.” Well, there were so many people that had threatened to kill Berg that the Denver PD did not know where to start. But the FBI knew where to start. They had been trying to infiltrate an ultra-right organization known as “The Order. It was known that his organization had a Nazi posture and hated blacks and Jews. They were a step above the KKK. The FBI also knew that “The Order” had Alan Berg on their hit list and assumed they were the culprit, and they were right. About a year later, a high officer in the Order was arrested in Georgia with a truck load of arms and ammo. Through this man the case of the murder of Alan Berg was solved. This was not the first time that the length, width and depth of the hatred for Jews and blacks was uncovered. Hatred is out there ya’ll, look out for it.
Born today:
1913 US economist Sylvia Porter. She said “The thing to remember about economic forecasting is that what you are about to forecast usually has already happened.” It is simple Sylvia, buy low and sell high.
1939 US baseball player Lou Brock. He said “I used to complain to my Dad that I imagined animals running under my bed. He fixed that by cutting the legs off my bed.”
Died today:
1902 British writer Samuel Butler. He said “It was good of God to allow Thomas Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle to marry each other so there will be only two unhappy people rather than four.”
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
“Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
Melody Beattie
I am going to dip my feet into the cesspool of South Carolina politics once again. South Carolina has a Republican Senator named Jim DeMint whose term expires in November and he is running for re-election. Jim is extremely popular and is in communication with his constituents on a regular basis. In other words, there is not another person on the planet that can beat Jim in the upcoming election. In the recent primaries, the Democrats offered up two candidates to run against DeMint. They were a lawyer named Vic Rawl and an unknown named Alvin Greene. Rawl is a lawyer from the coast and Alvin Greene is the enigma. He is unemployed. Recently discharged from the military and living with his father in the tiny town of Manning, South Carolina. Alvin also has a felony charge pending for distribution of pornography. He spent absolutely no money on his campaign. No flyers, no posters, nothing on any sort of media. This was totally unlike Vic Rawl who did all of the traditional things done in a political campaign. Not only that, the filing fee was $10,400. After the votes were counted, Greene had beaten Rawls 60% to 40 %. Everybody, including President Obama’s political advisor in South Carolina asked “What the hell is going on?” Everyone also is asking who gave him the $10,400 and for what reason? It is well known information that nobody is going to be able to beat Jim DeMint no matter their political party so the Republicans have no reason to waste the $10,400 filing fee. The Democrat certainly would not cough up the kind of money on an unknown, especially one that is looking at a possible felony conviction related to pornography. So who the hell is Alvin Greene and what is his purpose? The Democratic hierarchy in South Carolina is in a state of frenzy attempting to do some heavy duty sweeping of this bizarre event under the rug. By the way, in one particular voting district, there were more votes for my man Alvin that were cast in the total area. That would seem like a voting machine flaw to the average person. But voting machine experts have said that even if there were voting machine flaws, it would not account for the 60% to 40% margin. To those friends of mine in the Four O’clock Club that are mystery book readers, try and find a logical explanation for Alvin.
This date in history June 18
1812 On this date the United States Congress and President James Madison declare war on Great Britain. What the root of this disagreement was all the cause of England. They had been “Shanghaiing” American seaman into the British navy, meaning these men went into the British navy whether they liked it or not. Great Britain also was exercising financial sanctions against France because they were trading with America and finally, they were encouraging and financing the Indians along the Great Lakes against America. The war lasted 2 ½ years with the most remembered events being the burning of the White House to the ground, Dolly Madison ensuring the portrait of George Washington was saved from the conflagration and finally, the Battle of New Orleans with Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson kicking ass even though the war was over a week before. This victory by the United States ensured their independence for the foreseeable future. By the way, Andrew Jackson got the nickname “Old Hickory” when he was walking through a building in Washington carrying his hickory cane when a man ran up to him, pulled a pistol and fired but the gun misfired, the assassin pulled another pistol and tried again and that one misfired also, Jackson then lifted his hickory cane and beat the holy shit out of this guy and would have killed him had some of his entourage not intervened. I like this South Carolinian.
1815 One of the most important battles in world history occurs on this date. Earlier one of the greatest military strategists in history had suffered a series of defeats especially his attempt at the invasion of Russia. After this defeat Napoleon Bonaparte was captured and exiled to the island of Elbe in the Mediterranean. He escaped and went to France and gathered another army of over 100,000 and headed toward Belgium. His intent was to capture as many countries as he could as quick as he could so they could not join forces. On the way to Belgium he ran upon the 30,000 army of the Prussian Baron von Blucher. The Prussian knew when he was out manned and hastily retreated. Napoleon detached 32,000 of his own troops to pursue von Blucher. The next day Napoleon met up with the English army of 63,000 led by Lord Wellington near the small Belgian city of Waterloo. So what we have here are two armies about the same size with each having superior leadership. Then Napoleon makes a fatal mistake in judgment when he delays his attack until mid-day to allow the fields to dry out from the soaking rain the night before. Finally Napoleon launches his attack and has initial success but who should show up on his left flank but Baron Von Blucher and his 30,000 who had eluded his pursuers. This unexpected attack unnerved Napoleon and he paid more attention to that than he should have and did not send his reserves into the area of success which allowed Wellington to re-form his troops and they began a general advance and drove Napoleon from the field. Napoleon’s “Grand Armee” disintegrated. Napoleon knew he was in deep shit with the French so he surrendered to the English. He thought they would send him to the United States but no, they sent him into exile on the island of St. Helena off the coast of Africa where there was no chance of escape. He died six years later, probably of stomach cancer. He was 51 years old.
1865 US General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain received a near fatal wound while leading an attack against Confederate emplacements at Petersburg, Virginia. Chamberlain won a Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg nearly a year before. He was wounded at Gettysburg also but it was a minor wound, in fact he had received 6 wounds before the end of hostilities. He won the Medal of Honor by commanding 300 Maine soldiers in defending the Union left flank at a place known as Little Round Top at Gettysburg. His troops fought as long as they could but eventually ran out of ammo so Chamberlain had a choice to make. Retreat and let the Confederates turn the flank which would be disastrous; stay where they were and get annihilated and the Confederates turn the flank anyway or to charge. So Chamberlain ordered his men to fix bayonets and ordered a charge and down the hill they went. The stunned Confederates retreated and the left flank of the Union line was secure. The next day Chamberlain and his troops were moved to a more “safe” area on the battlefield, right in the very middle of the Union lines. About 11:30a one of the largest artillery barrages ever fired in North America was launched toward the center of the Union lines by the Confederates. Chamberlain hugged the ground wondering when it would stop and when it finally did, he heard the thin high scream of the Rebel yell and saw 13,000 confederate infantry about a mile away coming his way. It was the famous Pickett’s charge. It just wasn’t Chamberlain’s day.
1984 On this date shock-jock Alan Berg was gunned down in his driveway in Denver. Alan Berg was the star of a radio show where he tried to piss people off and be as abrasive as he could, he said that he wanted to be “the man you hate the most.” Well, there were so many people that had threatened to kill Berg that the Denver PD did not know where to start. But the FBI knew where to start. They had been trying to infiltrate an ultra-right organization known as “The Order. It was known that his organization had a Nazi posture and hated blacks and Jews. They were a step above the KKK. The FBI also knew that “The Order” had Alan Berg on their hit list and assumed they were the culprit, and they were right. About a year later, a high officer in the Order was arrested in Georgia with a truck load of arms and ammo. Through this man the case of the murder of Alan Berg was solved. This was not the first time that the length, width and depth of the hatred for Jews and blacks was uncovered. Hatred is out there ya’ll, look out for it.
Born today:
1913 US economist Sylvia Porter. She said “The thing to remember about economic forecasting is that what you are about to forecast usually has already happened.” It is simple Sylvia, buy low and sell high.
1939 US baseball player Lou Brock. He said “I used to complain to my Dad that I imagined animals running under my bed. He fixed that by cutting the legs off my bed.”
Died today:
1902 British writer Samuel Butler. He said “It was good of God to allow Thomas Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle to marry each other so there will be only two unhappy people rather than four.”
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“I really live in a tough neighborhood. The other day I left a note on the front door saying “I’m inside”. I came back home and my apartment is ransacked. There was a note inside of the front door saying “I looked all over for you.”
Rodney Dangerfield
I saw a story a couple of days ago about a couple that went through a bitter custody fight during a divorce action. The husband won custody. The wife then seeks out the “Vagabonds” motorcycle club and solicits them to kill her ex-husband. The police sniffed it out and put a stop to it and arrested the wife who confessed. She did several years of hard time before being released. After this she filed a suit claiming half of her ex-husband’s assets and won, for crying out loud! This happened in California where there is a “no-fault” divorce law which allowed this woman to seek half of the man’s assets no matter what. There is also a law stating that a criminal cannot profit from their crimes. The judicial system is in quite a quandary in California, but what else can you suspect from California.
I have been pretty sickly here lately and went to my family doctor for advice. He said that I am not as young as I used to be and it is time for me to make a change in my lifestyle. So I have decided to start my evenings an hour later and change over from gin and tonic to scotch and water. I think I am allergic to limes anyway.
One of my subscribers has chosen to do research about the different historical events that I have mentioned in different lessons. The purpose of my lessons is to stimulate interest hoping that y’all will find it interesting enough to look into it for yourself. I don’t want to spell out an event to the minutest detail; I just want to pique your interest. Thanks Teresa for your interest.
This date in history June 17
1775 On this date British General Charles Howe lands at Charlestown, Massachusetts near Boston with an infantry force and heads toward Breeds Hill where a known Patriot armed force waited. Breeds Hill was just south of a larger one named Bunker Hill. Breeds hill was on the property of John and Abigail Adams and they were indeed witnesses to the battle. Anyway, the Patriots were led by General William Prescott and it was he who supposedly uttered the famous phrase “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” Sure enough, the Patriots waited until the neatly aligned and arranged British lines were within 40 yards and they opened up with a blistering fusillade which forced the British to retreat and re-aligned their lines and then they tried it again. The Patriots were again ready and waited until the British within 40 yards and opened up again forcing another retreat. The British again retreated out of range and re-grouped. On the third charge the British did not stop and retreat but kept coming and forced the Patriots to retreat. This first organized engagement between the British and the Patriots was a tactical victory for the Patriots because the British lost over 80 men while the Patriots lost less than 20. The down side was this battle proved the resolve of the British Army to achieve their objective. The Patriots knew they were in for a long haul indeed. This was the Battle of Bunker Hill and it was the end of the beginning, we were now committed to our war for Independence and freedom.
1579 Earlier in December of 1577 British sea captain Francis Drake was tasked by Queen Elizabeth I to locate and rob the Spanish settlements on the west coast of the new land. Drake left Plymouth, England (been there) with five ships and headed east. His small armada reached the east coast of South America and sailed south to the Straights of Magellan. Along the way one of his ships had to be abandoned and only four of his ships reached the Straights. There they encountered one of the Straights infamous storms. One of his ships was wrecked and two had to come about and head back to England leaving Drake and his ship, The Golden Hind, alone in his quest. Drake survived the storm and upon leaving the Straights into the Pacific, he encountered and captured a Spanish treasure ship. After loading the treasure aboard the Gold Hind he continued to sail north to seek Spanish settlements. He sailed all the way to present day Washington before returning to a small bay just north of San Francisco where he set about refurbishing and repairing his ship for crossing the vast Pacific. It was on this day while anchored in this small bay that he claimed California for England and Queen Elizabeth I. Drake finally got his repairs made and headed west. He sailed by the Philippines, out into the Indian Ocean and around the toe of Africa, The Cape of Good Hope, and finally back into the harbor of Plymouth with the Golden Hind loaded to the scuppers with Spanish gold. Needless to say, Queen Elizabeth was pleased and knighted Drake and he became the famous adventurer Sir Francis Drake. By the way, in London near the Tate Gallery on the Thames River is a replica of the Globe theatre where Shakespeare was an actor in plays that he had authored and a replica of the Golden Hind was also there. They thought highly of Sir Francis Drake.
1972 On this date a night watchman making his rounds in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC when he noticed a door lock that had been taped open and sees flashlights in that office, that being the Democratic National Committee Headquarters. The night watchman called the police and five men are arrested. There were three Cuban nationals, one Cuban/American and a man named James McCord. Found with these Bozos was burglary tools and very sophisticated bugging equipment. But what was the real surprise was that McCord was and ex-CIA agent and under the employ of CREEP, or the Committee to Re-elect the President. This means that they were hired by the Republican Party to burglarize and spy on the Democratic Party. The report of this arrest was stuck on the fourth or fifth page of the Washington Post until it was noticed by two reporters for the Post named Carl Bernstein and Robert Woodward. These guys dug into this event until they uncovered a conspiracy that went all the way to the White House. A Senate Committee headed by North Carolina Senator Sam Irvin was formed to look into possible impeachment of the president. By July of 1974 the Irvin Committee had adopted three articles of impeachment and was set to move on them when President Richard Nixon called in one of the Republican leaders in the Senate, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, and asked him if he, Nixon, had enough support in the Senate to overpower the impeachment charges. Goldwater told him no, he did not. A few days later for the first time in American history the President of the United States resigns and Vice-President Gerald Ford takes the reins of the Presidency. Nixon was a very spooky individual, when I heard him speak I said to myself that I would not buy a used car from this man. By the way, Gerald Ford was the only President we ever had that was an Eagle Scout.
1876 The United States Cavalry had been tasked with gathering up the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes in the northern plains led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and take then by force if necessary, to reservations. The Cavalry decided to send three columns led by General Terry from the east, General Gibbon from the west and General Crook coming up from the south. General Terry had the infamous 7th Cavalry, Colonel George A. Custer commanding, aboard. Anyway General Crook had about 270 Indian guides and scouts made up primarily of Crows and Shoshone. On this date General Gibbon ordered half of his troopers to dismount and allow the horses to graze and for the troopers to rest in the tall grass. Soon thereafter the Indian guides and scouts came riding in yelling “Many Sioux”, Many Sioux”. Right behind them came 2,000 Sioux warriors headed straight for the dismounted troopers. In an unbelievable show of bravery, the Crow and Shoshone Scouts ride headlong into the charge and turned it aside allowing the troopers to retrieve their horses and guns. But General Crook’s troopers suffered a severe ass-kicking that forced the whole column to retreat and re-organize. Little did they know what awaited the 7th Cavalry eight days later at Little Big Horn. Bye the way, General Crook was assigned the task of capturing Geronimo. In the span of five years Crook was unable to capture Geronimo and in fact only caught sight of him but once in the whole time. Because of this failure, General Crook resigned. But in his defense, an Apache warrior the caliber of Geronimo wasn’t meant to be captured.
Born today:
1898 Dutch artist M. C. Escher. He said “I don’t take drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.” Mine too. Most of the time it has something to do with limes.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“I really live in a tough neighborhood. The other day I left a note on the front door saying “I’m inside”. I came back home and my apartment is ransacked. There was a note inside of the front door saying “I looked all over for you.”
Rodney Dangerfield
I saw a story a couple of days ago about a couple that went through a bitter custody fight during a divorce action. The husband won custody. The wife then seeks out the “Vagabonds” motorcycle club and solicits them to kill her ex-husband. The police sniffed it out and put a stop to it and arrested the wife who confessed. She did several years of hard time before being released. After this she filed a suit claiming half of her ex-husband’s assets and won, for crying out loud! This happened in California where there is a “no-fault” divorce law which allowed this woman to seek half of the man’s assets no matter what. There is also a law stating that a criminal cannot profit from their crimes. The judicial system is in quite a quandary in California, but what else can you suspect from California.
I have been pretty sickly here lately and went to my family doctor for advice. He said that I am not as young as I used to be and it is time for me to make a change in my lifestyle. So I have decided to start my evenings an hour later and change over from gin and tonic to scotch and water. I think I am allergic to limes anyway.
One of my subscribers has chosen to do research about the different historical events that I have mentioned in different lessons. The purpose of my lessons is to stimulate interest hoping that y’all will find it interesting enough to look into it for yourself. I don’t want to spell out an event to the minutest detail; I just want to pique your interest. Thanks Teresa for your interest.
This date in history June 17
1775 On this date British General Charles Howe lands at Charlestown, Massachusetts near Boston with an infantry force and heads toward Breeds Hill where a known Patriot armed force waited. Breeds Hill was just south of a larger one named Bunker Hill. Breeds hill was on the property of John and Abigail Adams and they were indeed witnesses to the battle. Anyway, the Patriots were led by General William Prescott and it was he who supposedly uttered the famous phrase “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” Sure enough, the Patriots waited until the neatly aligned and arranged British lines were within 40 yards and they opened up with a blistering fusillade which forced the British to retreat and re-aligned their lines and then they tried it again. The Patriots were again ready and waited until the British within 40 yards and opened up again forcing another retreat. The British again retreated out of range and re-grouped. On the third charge the British did not stop and retreat but kept coming and forced the Patriots to retreat. This first organized engagement between the British and the Patriots was a tactical victory for the Patriots because the British lost over 80 men while the Patriots lost less than 20. The down side was this battle proved the resolve of the British Army to achieve their objective. The Patriots knew they were in for a long haul indeed. This was the Battle of Bunker Hill and it was the end of the beginning, we were now committed to our war for Independence and freedom.
1579 Earlier in December of 1577 British sea captain Francis Drake was tasked by Queen Elizabeth I to locate and rob the Spanish settlements on the west coast of the new land. Drake left Plymouth, England (been there) with five ships and headed east. His small armada reached the east coast of South America and sailed south to the Straights of Magellan. Along the way one of his ships had to be abandoned and only four of his ships reached the Straights. There they encountered one of the Straights infamous storms. One of his ships was wrecked and two had to come about and head back to England leaving Drake and his ship, The Golden Hind, alone in his quest. Drake survived the storm and upon leaving the Straights into the Pacific, he encountered and captured a Spanish treasure ship. After loading the treasure aboard the Gold Hind he continued to sail north to seek Spanish settlements. He sailed all the way to present day Washington before returning to a small bay just north of San Francisco where he set about refurbishing and repairing his ship for crossing the vast Pacific. It was on this day while anchored in this small bay that he claimed California for England and Queen Elizabeth I. Drake finally got his repairs made and headed west. He sailed by the Philippines, out into the Indian Ocean and around the toe of Africa, The Cape of Good Hope, and finally back into the harbor of Plymouth with the Golden Hind loaded to the scuppers with Spanish gold. Needless to say, Queen Elizabeth was pleased and knighted Drake and he became the famous adventurer Sir Francis Drake. By the way, in London near the Tate Gallery on the Thames River is a replica of the Globe theatre where Shakespeare was an actor in plays that he had authored and a replica of the Golden Hind was also there. They thought highly of Sir Francis Drake.
1972 On this date a night watchman making his rounds in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC when he noticed a door lock that had been taped open and sees flashlights in that office, that being the Democratic National Committee Headquarters. The night watchman called the police and five men are arrested. There were three Cuban nationals, one Cuban/American and a man named James McCord. Found with these Bozos was burglary tools and very sophisticated bugging equipment. But what was the real surprise was that McCord was and ex-CIA agent and under the employ of CREEP, or the Committee to Re-elect the President. This means that they were hired by the Republican Party to burglarize and spy on the Democratic Party. The report of this arrest was stuck on the fourth or fifth page of the Washington Post until it was noticed by two reporters for the Post named Carl Bernstein and Robert Woodward. These guys dug into this event until they uncovered a conspiracy that went all the way to the White House. A Senate Committee headed by North Carolina Senator Sam Irvin was formed to look into possible impeachment of the president. By July of 1974 the Irvin Committee had adopted three articles of impeachment and was set to move on them when President Richard Nixon called in one of the Republican leaders in the Senate, Barry Goldwater of Arizona, and asked him if he, Nixon, had enough support in the Senate to overpower the impeachment charges. Goldwater told him no, he did not. A few days later for the first time in American history the President of the United States resigns and Vice-President Gerald Ford takes the reins of the Presidency. Nixon was a very spooky individual, when I heard him speak I said to myself that I would not buy a used car from this man. By the way, Gerald Ford was the only President we ever had that was an Eagle Scout.
1876 The United States Cavalry had been tasked with gathering up the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes in the northern plains led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and take then by force if necessary, to reservations. The Cavalry decided to send three columns led by General Terry from the east, General Gibbon from the west and General Crook coming up from the south. General Terry had the infamous 7th Cavalry, Colonel George A. Custer commanding, aboard. Anyway General Crook had about 270 Indian guides and scouts made up primarily of Crows and Shoshone. On this date General Gibbon ordered half of his troopers to dismount and allow the horses to graze and for the troopers to rest in the tall grass. Soon thereafter the Indian guides and scouts came riding in yelling “Many Sioux”, Many Sioux”. Right behind them came 2,000 Sioux warriors headed straight for the dismounted troopers. In an unbelievable show of bravery, the Crow and Shoshone Scouts ride headlong into the charge and turned it aside allowing the troopers to retrieve their horses and guns. But General Crook’s troopers suffered a severe ass-kicking that forced the whole column to retreat and re-organize. Little did they know what awaited the 7th Cavalry eight days later at Little Big Horn. Bye the way, General Crook was assigned the task of capturing Geronimo. In the span of five years Crook was unable to capture Geronimo and in fact only caught sight of him but once in the whole time. Because of this failure, General Crook resigned. But in his defense, an Apache warrior the caliber of Geronimo wasn’t meant to be captured.
Born today:
1898 Dutch artist M. C. Escher. He said “I don’t take drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.” Mine too. Most of the time it has something to do with limes.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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