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