Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

“There is no doubt that is around family and home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created.”

                                        Anne Frank

Wildlife authorities in Texas have decided to release thousands of hatchlings of the very rare Ridley sea turtles on Padre Island near Corpus Christie. These turtles normally hatch on the beaches of Mississippi, Alabama and Northwest Florida but due to the oil spill the eggs were dug up and incubated in Georgia and Texas. Those that hatched in Georgia will be released into the Atlantic and those that are hatched in Texas will be released into the western Gulf of Mexico. It is known that these turtles will eventually migrate eastward toward the area of the oil spill. The wildlife authorities believe that the oil spill will be cleaned up by the time the turtles arrive. I admire their optimism, I wonder if the turtles do.

The Charleston, South Carolina authorities issued a warning for this past weekend about the heat. Combined with the expected humidity the heat index will be about 110 degrees. This kind of heat will promote a very quick sun burn or heat stroke. They also issued a warning for an expected vicious rip current on the Charleston area beaches including very rough surf. It will be a miracle if there is not a fatality.

South Carolina’s Republican nominee for Governor, Nikki Haley, has changed position on a couple of issues. Back in 2004 she said that she would be opposed to signing any tax cut pledges. Last week she did indeed sign an anti-tax increase pledge issued by the American for Tax Reform anti- tax increase movement. When asked about this change of heart Nikki said that the economic situation has changed and indeed it has. She also stated that any South Carolina legislator that voted for the Wall Street bailout should not be re-elected, this included US Rep. Joe “You Lie” Wilson. This week Nikki gave her support to Joe Wilson’s re-election. When asked about this Nikki said that Joe was the only conservative in that race. I have always heard that a woman has the right to change her mind so I guess Nikki is behaving normally.

Up in Pontiac, Michigan 23 year old Torrie Emery and 20 year old Michelle Booth had been throwing darts at each other on Facebook because both of them were in love with an inmate in a Michigan prison. Last week Torrie saw Michelle in the passenger seat of a car driven by Michelle’s friend Alesha Abernathy and gave chase. The two cars reached speed of over 100 mph with Abernathy just trying to get away. The cops fell into line and joined the chase trying to put a stop to it. Abernathy was unable to stop for a red light and T-boned a dump truck in the intersection turning the truck on its side but the driver was not injured. However, Alesha was killed and Michelle was seriously injured. Lunatic Torrie was arrested and charged with murder. All of this happened for a convicted felon. I don’t get it. By the way, lunatic Torrie had her three year old daughter in the car with her during the chase.

Military units of South Korea and the United States are conducting joint war games in South Korea and South Korean waters. Those maniacs from North Korea see this exercise as a threat and have promised a “nuclear response”. I am sure that they are aware that there are enough free world nuclear submarines in the Sea of Japan off the shores of North Korea that a person could walk from Pyongyang to Nagoya, Japan without getting their feet wet. Not to mention the United States aircraft carrier USS George Washington. This puppy has fighter bombers that can carry nuclear devises also. I can promise you that if those idiots launch a nuclear devise of any kind the North Korea part of the Korean peninsula will glow in the dark for years to come.

This date in history July 27

1974   On this date the House Judiciary Committee handed down a bill of impeachment with a recommendation of removal from office of the sitting President of the United States, Richard Nixon. All of this adventure began when a group of men were caught and arrested inside the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. Two of those arrested were on the White house staff. It was a given that Nixon could not be beaten in upcoming election because the Democrats did not have a viable candidate but his staff still felt it was necessary to burglarize. Originally the report of these arrests were stuck in the fourth or fifth page of the Washington Post newspaper but two reporters Named Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein smelled a rat and began digging. The more they dug the closer they came to the White House. When these two began writing their columns about what they had discovered, the staff at the White House circled the wagons and refused to cooperate with law enforcement which attracted the attention of the US Congress. The Congress selected Archibald Cox, the head of the Harvard Law School, to act as special prosecutor. Not only did Nixon try to get two Assistant Attorney Generals (Caper Weinberger and Nick Katzenbach) to fire Cox, he called in a very high official in the FBI and told them to not investigate the Watergate incident. Weinberger and Katzenbach not only refused but resigned in protest at this obvious cover-up. Nixon finally persuaded a lesser Federal judge (Richard Bork) to fire Cox. During this time it was determined that Nixon had been taping all the conversations in the Oval Office. Judge Leon Jaworski along with Judge John Sirica, who had replaced Cox, demanded the tapes but Nixon refused claiming executive privilege and a threat to national security. Over a period of time the US Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes which he did. Nixon was not done yet. Some of the most critical tapes had blank spaces which experts said was an erasure. Again the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to produce depositions saying what had been said during the erasures. When these damning documents reached the House Judiciary Committee, A Bill of Impeachment soon followed. Soon thereafter Nixon resigned, turned over the reins to Vice-President Gerald Ford, and moved back to where he came from, San Clemente, California. It was a tragic and time of testing for the United States judiciary/legislative system.

1981   On this date 6 year old Adam Walsh is abducted at a Hollywood, Florida shopping Mall. It seems that Adam and his mother Reve went shopping and little Adam wanted to watch some older boys play video games while his mother was shopping close by. As will happen, the older boys got rowdy and the mall security guard came by and ran everybody out. Little Adam just followed the older boys outside rather than seeking his mother. He waited out side for a short while then he disappeared. A few days later, Adams’s head was found in drainage ditch near Vero Beach, Florida which is nearly 100 miles from Hollywood. The police focused on career criminals and convicted child molesters Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas. Toole was found in jail for another crime and confessed to the murder of little Adam but said that career criminal Henry Lee Lucas was with him and it was he that did the murder. The police investigated and found to no one’s surprise, that Toole was lying because Lucas was in jail in Virginia when Adam was abducted. Toole then recanted his story. The police decided that they would need Adam’s complete body to prosecute anyone. Adams body was never found and the case remains unsolved. Toole was executed in Florida for another murder. We all know what work Adam’s father John has done by establishing the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.”

1806   During the Lewis and Clark expedition, the group reached the Great Falls on the Missouri River. Clark took a few men and began exploring further downstream, Lewis headed north to explore the Marias River basin. They left 6 men to portage their boats around the falls. Lewis knew they were in Blackfoot country. The Blackfoot were the fiercest tribe in the area and are to be feared and sure enough, Lewis met up with a party of Blackfoot and he tried to be cordial. It appeared to be working and Lewis invited the Indians to his camp. After it got dark, one of Lewis’s men yelled out that the Indians were trying to steal their horses and rifles. Lewis ran after them and one of the Indians turned and moved toward Lewis whereupon Lewis shot him in the stomach. The rest of the Indians retreated and the horses and rifles were saved. Lewis knew that if there was trouble between the expedition and the Indians while going west, there would be trouble coming back east. Not only that, one of his men said that during the attempt to get the horses back, he had caught up with one of the Indians and stabbed him to death. More trouble, but they would have been in more serious trouble without horses and rifles.

Born today:

1824   French author Alexander Dumas the Younger. He said “I prefer rogues to imbeciles because sometime they take a rest.” We all know some of each.

1956   US comic Carol Liefer. She said “He tricked me into marrying him, he said he was pregnant.” Carol, shut up.

Died today:

2003   US comedian Bob Hope. He said “You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.” Amen, brother.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow