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