Daily history

Good morning,


There will be no lessons this weekend.

Quote of the day:

“Be willing to sacrifice what you are for what you will become.”

                                       Buddha

This past weekend a 24 year old school teacher at the Chapin, SC elementary school went to a famous series of watering holes in Columbia, SC known as Five Points and dropped the hammer on several Jack and gingers. He called a 21 year old female acquaintance and told her that he was at Five Points drunker than Cooter Brown and needed for her to come and get him and take him home. She refused. About an hour later a cab pulled up in front of her house and guess who got out and knocked on her door. That’s right it was the man of Jack and ginger fame from Five Points. She told him to hit the road but he wasn’t buying. He kicked open the door, chased this woman into her bedroom, pinned her to the bed and raped her. She was able to escape and called the cops who showed up quickly and rapist was thrown into the joint. The next morning a judge sentenced this king of stupidity to sit in the joint until he is arraigned and put on trial and if found guilty, continue his stay in the joint until sentenced. Usually the amount of time from arrest until trial is six months. The judge assured dumb-ass that there would be no bond. This jackass’ life is ruined. He will have a felony on his record until hell freezes over and will be on the sexual offenders list for the same length of time. He should have stayed at Five Points passed out and spent the night in the drunk tank. That would have been a lot simpler and lot less expensive and he would have been free the next morning. Like I said……

We have two significant run-off elections in the next few weeks. One is for Governor between a woman named Nikki Haley who was endorsed by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party and US Congressman Gresham Barrett who is endorsed by several wannabes while Gresham is dancing around the fact that he voted for NAFTA and TARP in spite of his constituents going down the toilet financially. In the election Nikki garnered 49% of the vote and Gresham got 22%. In this state a candidate must get at least 50% which is the reason for the run-off.

The candidates and the voters are in a frenzy.

The second run-off that is significant is for the US House seat for the 4th district between Congressman Bob Inglis and State solicitor for the 4th district Trey Gowdy. Gowdy is in the lead and appears to be squeaky clean and unbeatable. Inglis has lost touch with his constituents and as far as I am concerned committed the unpardonable sin. I sent him two questions on his official US Congress web site and got no response in either case. He is history…I hope.

This Date in History June 11

1944    As we all know five days before the Allies assaulted the Normandy, France coast in five different locations covering about 60 miles. Before the actually beach landings occurred, hundreds of United States and British paratroopers and glider forces landed behind the beaches the night before to suppress any attempt at a counter-attack and destroy artillery covering the beaches. In spite of ferocious resistance by the Germans, especially at Omaha Beach, all the goals set for the assault troops were achieved but at a bloody cost. On schedule, on this date a combined force of 330,000 Allied troops joined up into a solid front, began a pivot toward the east and the heartland of Germany. As I have said in the past, during this pivot to the east over 20,000 German troops were trapped near the town of Falaise, France and all but a handful were killed by the British VIII army from the north and the American 3rd Army from the south. It was a massacre, ya’ll. Just a few hundred Germans escaped. Once the Allies had assembled this gigantic front, the outcome of the war was assured even though many days of bloody warfare were still ahead because, as General Eisenhower said, “The German infantry dies hard”.

1864    Shortly after the Union army received a severe ass-kicking at Cold Harbor, US General Grant sent US General Phillip Sheridan and his cavalry unit out to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad. The Virginia Central Railroad was the chief supply route to CSA General Robert E. Lee and his troops in and around Petersburg. General Lee had sent South Carolinian cavalry commander CSA General Wade Hampton to protect this vital lifeline. Sheridan’s and Hampton’s troops collided at Trevilliian Station near Charlottesville, Virginia. One of Sheridan’s divisional commanders was Captain George Armstrong Custer. As usual Custer charges in with a reckless abandon and almost immediately had his unit surrounded. He formed his unit into a triangle and fought a desperate battle and was eventually able to escape. Sheridan’s troops were running out of ammo and so he began to withdraw but General Hampton saw fit to launch an old fashioned saber charge and Sheridan’s troops departed the area faster than anticipated. The Yankees were able to tear up about five miles of railroad track but the damage was minor and a repair was made by the next afternoon. By the way, it was General Wade Hampton that became Lee’s commander of the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia after the death of CSA General J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern.

1963    On this date United States President John F, Kennedy issues Executive Order 3542 forcing Alabama Governor George Wallace to comply with a Federal Court order allowing five black students to attend the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Wallace also knew that the Executive Order carried with it the authority for the President to order military forces out to enforce his order. Wallace knew he had no choice but to comply but he was going make good his promise that “he would stand in the front door of the University of Alabama to prevent segregation.” Sure enough he stood in the front door while the commander of the Alabama National Guard and a number of armed troops stood to one side. Wallace still refused to stand aside and Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach who was in Tuscaloosa went to the campus and gathered up the black students and walked up to Wallace face to face and asked if he was going to let those students in to enroll. Wallace made a short speech about how much the Federal Government was interfering with states rights and then he stood aside and allowed the five black students to enter and enroll. The days of “separate but equal” were circling the drain.

Born today:

1864    German composer Richard Strauss. He said “I may not be a first rate composer, but I am a first class, second rate composer.” Richard needs help with his self esteem.

1572    English writer Ben Jonson. He said “Twas only fear at first that brought gods.” In those days it was Ben and William Shakespeare that were at the top of their game in England.

1880    US female politician Jeanette Rankin. She said “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” Jeanette, listen to me. The world has been full of despots and conquerors since before recorded history. The only way to stop these animals from indiscriminate murder and terror is to kill them before they can complete their task. It is called war. A few are Atilla the Hun, Ghenghis Khan, Temujin, Napoleon, Hitler, a variety of Roman emperors, a variety of Viking kings, a variety of Vandal kings, etc. The only way to stop them is with war, earthquakes not withstanding.

I have added the following by special request:

                                       Sophistication

A while back I was in Pensacola, Florida and I went into a very large fish market with a small delicatessen attached. I gathered up a grouper filet, about 8 prawns (extra large shrimp) and a pint of jumbo oysters. I went through the check-out line for the seafood first because they iced it down for you. Then I decided that I needed vegetables to counter-balance all that protein and cholesterol so I drifted into the deli. The deli had all Boars’ Head meat and nearly everything else in there is of gourmet quality. They even had a small collection of fresh vegetables including asparagus. I figured steamed asparagus with butter would be a great addition so I grab the asparagus and head to the small checkout counter manned by a black girl that looked to be about 16 and I laid the asparagus up on the counter. The girl looked at me and said “What is that?” I said “It is asparagus.” She said “How do you spell it?” obviously looking for it on the touch screen but could not find it. By then the others in line behind me began to giggle so I said “Never mind, sweetie, I have changed my mind” and took the asparagus back to the case and left hoping to spare that girl any further embarrassment. But in a place that fancy-schmantzy they should have had someone a little more knowledgeable than that.

You never know the level of sophistication of the other person no matter how basic. This and one other event taught me a valuable lesson in not assuming the other person knows what you do.

The other event was when I was with a woman that had been dating a few weeks and we were riding down the Main Street of Greenville, SC when we stopped at a traffic light. She pointed to a large building on the corner and said “Al, what is that building?” I said “It is the Peace Center.” She said “What is it for?” I said “Well, they have Broadway shows, operas, special events of all kinds. Surely you know about it, it has been in the papers for almost a year.” Then she said “Al, I can’t read.” Then it dawned on me why she had always had me order for her at restaurants, she could not read the menu. Needless to say, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I apologized and mentally made a note to never assume anything about the other person.

After all, I had never laid eyes on, or even barely heard of a pizza until I joined the Air Force. I had never had “fast food” other than a very rare chili dog, either. In fact there was no “fast food” restaurant chains invented yet. There were “drive-ins” such as two or three “Clock” drive-ins, two or three “Pete’s” drive-ins, a “Palmetto” drive-in, a “Carolina” drive-in and a “Rainbow” drive-in and a “Sam’s Lunch” downtown where everybody used to go get a hot dog and a Coke after a basketball game that was about it. These curb service restaurants were owned by Greek or Lebanese families and they were all related in one way or another. We did not go there to eat anyway; we went there to meet girls. My brother and sister and I led a pretty Spartan life, but I do not remember being unhappy.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow