Daily history

Good morning,


Quote of the day:

“Promise me you will always remember. You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

Christopher Robin to Pooh written by A.A. Milne

It would do all of us good to start the day by looking in the mirror and repeating this sentence.

I have a friend that works at Fluor Corporation here in Greenville. They have recently received a contract for providing clean-up crews for the oil mess in the Gulf States. The stipulation is that they must hire local people and go through local personnel agencies so as to keep the money in the local area. This is different from BP that hired prison trustees from various institutes far and wide to keep the costs down and to hell with the local economy. By the way, rapes in Mobile, Alabama are up by 130% over last year. I wonder why the hell that is happening. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Your friend and mine Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona made a recent appearance on “Good Morning America”. As expected Joe stood up on his hind legs and made his position perfectly clear. He said that if any immigration protestors blocked the doors of his prison he would have no problem arresting them all and showing them what the inside looked like for several days. He also said that he did not understand what all the hype was about. He said that it is against the law to enter this country illegally and the perpetrators should be punished to limit of the law. Like I said, I know what the hype is about; it is about Obama knowing that 26% of the vote that put him in the White House is the Latinos. What all the left wing media neglects to tell you is that the Mexican drug gangs and street gangs like MS-13 blend in with the avalanche of illegal immigrants. How are we supposed to tell the difference between those that want to make a better life and those that want to suck our blood? I feel no sympathy, y’all. Mexico is a lot older than the United States yet they have always been a society of the “haves and the have nots” with nothing in between inspired by unbridled corruption and domination since recorded history by outside powers like Spain and France. It is true that the United States is a “nation of immigrants” or a “melting pot”. The difference is that our ancestors were invited and were not interlopers which instilled a sense of pride and loyalty. I would like to see a show of hands of those who believe that all of these illegal immigrants have the depth of Patriotism for this country that brings tears to your eyes as it does mine. It is not, and will not, ever happen. During the American Civil War there were several units totally composed of recent immigrants, especially the Irish and Germans. They wanted to preserve this nation that had taken them in when they had nowhere else to go. I can assure you that you would not see that from the Latinos. Theft and lawlessness is apparently a way of life for them for the most part, there are exceptions. A few years ago I had planned to rent a house near Merida, Mexico which is about 80 miles west of Cancun. The owner was from New Mexico and he sent me a few tips to make my trip more enjoyable. One of his points was to never leave anything outside unattended or it would be stolen. He said they would not break in but anything outside unattended was considered abandoned and fair game this included beach towels and wash cloths left on a hand rail to dry out, etc. A grill was to be taken out, used, and then wait for it to cool off and take it back in…or else lose it. I did read about a Latino that graduated from Arizona State University with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He eventually realized that he could not get a job with an American engineering firm because he was indeed an illegal immigrant so he went back to Mexico. Nearly all large engineering firms that do business with the US Government require American citizenships only from people that work on security sensitive projects.

This date in history July 30

1780    On this date Patriot Colonel Isaac Shelby and his division of 600 infantry captured Fort Thicketty which was about 10 mile southeast of Cowpens, South Carolina. Shelby and his troops were able to capture the fort that was manned totally by Loyalists without firing a shot. Earlier Shelby was part and parcel of the Battle of Kings Mountain, North Carolina where British General Thomas Ferguson and his division of Loyalists were trapped on top of a small mountain in the King’s mountain range near the North Carolina/South Carolina border and the Patriots had the bottom of the mountain surrounded. Even though Ferguson and his troops surrendered, he and his troops were annihilated. When Ferguson raised a white hanky as a signal of surrender, he said “I am an officer in his majesty’s army and will be treated with dignity and respect.” This comment was met with at least 8 musket balls and Ferguson was dead as fried chicken before he hit the ground. This action was caused by the slaughter of 200 Patriots a few weeks earlier that had surrendered to the infamous British Colonel Banaste Tarleton at the village of Waxhaw just south of present day Charlotte, NC and all were bayoneted and killed. Word of Shelby and his “over the mountain” men had reached the Loyalists at Fort Thicketty and they wanted no part of Shelby and company. Shelby went on down and defeated the British at the Battle of Cedar Springs (in the center of the present day city of Spartanburg, SC) and on down to the Battle of Musgrove Mill which is about 30 mile southwest of Spartanburg. Shelby and his “over the mountain” men were bloodthirsty and ruthless and everybody knew it, especially the Loyalists. The “over the mountain” men were those back country men that came down from the wilds of the Appalachian Mountains to kill the British and were good at it. Speaking of good at it, Shelby was born in Maryland and was involved in Pontiac’s War. He scalped his first Indian at the age of 13. The city of Shelby, North Carolina is named for this Patriot

1619    This date saw the first gathering of a legislative body in America. The House of Burgesses was founded in the choir section of the local church in Jamestown, Virginia. It had been 12 years since Jamestown had been founded and the financier of this expedition was The London Company, a group of investors, and they required a legislative body in the colony. 22 people were voted into office by the local adult males. The first thing they did was establish the minimum price for tobacco. Then they established a law defining what a person could and could not do on the Sabbath. These folks were very religious, ya’ll. By the way, in old English “Burgess” means “the public”.

1863    On this date Shoshone chief Pocatello signed the treaty of Box Elder Creek making the immigrants able to cross southern Idaho safely. At one time the Bannock Shoshone were one of the most powerful tribes on the Great Plains. But a white man’s disease called smallpox had swept through the tribe in the epidemic of 1781 decimating their number to the point that the fierce Blackfoot had pushed them off the plains and into the mountains. Then there came an even more dangerous group in the Lewis and Clark expedition carrying even more white man’s diseases. The Shoshone wanted to be friends with the white man so they could lay their hands on firearms to defeat the hated Blackfoot. But 50 years later the Shoshone finally realized that the white man was a much more dangerous threat than the Blackfoot but it was too late, the pioneers and settlers were well established along with the US Cavalry.

Born today:

1891    Baseball manager Casey Stengel. He said “The key to being a good manger is to keep those people that hate you away from those that are undecided.” Casey was funny.

Died today:

1784    French philosopher Denis Diderot. He said “All children are essentially criminal.” Tack onto that “especially those little monsters in restaurants sitting in a booster chair five feet from me screaming in their gravelly voices “NO I DON”T WANT THAT, I WANT ICE CREAM!!!!!” I have asked more than one waitress to go knock those brats out. They never do.

1975    Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. He had said “I don’t need bodyguards”. On this date Jimmy was sitting in his Cadillac outside of a restaurant near Detroit one minute and the next minute he and his car disappeared from the planet and have never been found to this day. I don’t know Jimmy, but maybe a couple of means guys with, .45 ACP automatics close by might have prevented that. But for today, goodbye Jimmy wherever you are.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow