Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“I shall pass through this life but once. Any good I can therefore do, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor deflect it, for I shall never pass this way again.”
Etienne de Grellet
Rather than local and non-local news Items, I am going to add an essay I wrote about my Scots-Irish ancestors. I think a great many of us have Scot-Irish blood along with a dab or two of Creek and Cherokee especially those of us that have roots associated with the Appalachians. Here it is:
A Brief History of Rednecks
I have been reading the history of the impact of the Scots-Irish in America and naturally the author went back into the far past to trace them out to present day. By the way it is Scots, not Scotch. Scots are a people and Scotch is a whisky. Anyway, the big movement came right after James I became the King of Great Britain. Previously, he was James VI of Scotland making him the first of the dual crowned kings of Great Britain. It got started when James financed the expedition to the new world led by Captain John Smith. But James real passion was religion. He could not abide Catholics and he began a project to oust the Catholic landowners in Ireland and seize their lands. The Catholic Irish had been in rebellion against England for centuries and James saw this as a way of diluting them. This resulted in many Catholic Irish Earls fleeing the Emerald Isle trying to escape the wrath of the Protestants and Anglicans. To fill this void, it was decided that a “plantation” in Ireland in an area called Ulster would be formed. It consisted of six shires or counties. To fill the void James and company decided to kill two birds with one stone and offered land in Ulster to Protestant Scottish lords with the stipulation that they would bring their Scottish tenants with them. The waspish Scots would fight at the drop of a hat over anything that interfered with their independence or messed with the clans, or their tight-fisted Presbyterian religion. They were a hard-ass bunch, especially the Borderers or those that lived close to the border with England. As you might expect, the disenfranchised Catholic Irish fought like hell to take their lands back to no avail. The Scottish Lords indeed took the offer and brought their Scottish tenants with them. There was a stipulation that the Lords could not employ Irish tenants, they had to import them from England and Scotland and they had to be English speaking Protestants, moreover the landowners were banned from selling land to the Irish. Whatever land that was left over was given to the Protestant Churches of Ireland including any lands previously owned by the Roman Catholic Church. James meant to castrate the Catholics in Ireland, ya’ll. This influx put the Protestant Irish in a hard way because they spoke Gaelic while everyone else spoke English. As a result of this turmoil there were civil wars in England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1630 many Ulster Scots went home because Charles I, the king of England declared that the Church of Ireland had to use the prayer book of the Church of England essentially making it an Anglican church. That would change the way the fiery Scottish Presbyterians practiced their religion. As I have said before, you don’t pull on Superman’s cape or spit into the wind and you don’t fool around with the Scots religion. In 1638 an oath was imposed by King Charles I on the Ulster Scots binding them to never take up arms against England not matter what. I don’t need to tell you what kind of hell was raised after this outrage. By the way, it was King Charles I presumptuousness that cost him his head as will be discussed in a future lesson. In 1641 the Irish Catholics rose up in an armed rebellion and the prime target was the Plantation land owners. Many, many atrocities were committed by the Irish on the Scottish land owners in retribution for them taking Irish lands. In the 1690s a huge immigration of Protestant Scots came over to Ulster during a famine and as a result the Protestant Scots became the majority. The planters are known as the Ulster Scots. The present partition of Ireland with Ireland and Northern Ireland gets it roots from this era. Northern Ireland is occupied by the progeny of British Protestants and wanted to keep a link with England whereas the rest of Ireland are Catholic and want independence. Later on, the Scots being fed up with restrictions on their religion began heading west to America. They primarily landed in Philadelphia. They were not welcomed by the highbred plantation owners on the Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina tidewater and not by the snooty Puritans in the northeast so they headed further west and settled in small clans in the Appalachian mountain chain starting in western Pennsylvania and then south and west down the chain into Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. They were encouraged in this endeavor because of their warlike nature they would be a good match for the savage Shawnee and Cherokees, and a good match they were. There is a legend in my family on my father’s side that one of my great-great uncles owned a huge chunk of land in Maggie Valley, NC which is the very heart of Cherokee country, but he could not hold on to it because of the repeated attacks of the Cherokees. There are many reports of atrocities committed by both the natives and the Scots. It is the roots of almost constants turmoil, the love of fighting and an independent nature, especially their religion, which the so-called Scots-Irish have in their hearts and souls. Actually, the Scots-Irish are not a mix of Scots and the Irish; it is Scots that immigrated to Ulster, Ireland before coming to America and it is these Ulster Scots that are my ancestors on my father’s side. It is known that nearly all the troops fighting for the Patriots in the Revolutionary War in the south were Scots that came down out of the mountains and using guerilla type tactics like they use against the Indians and against the staid and upright British to great effect. They demonstrated their ferocity at the Battle of Cowpens where Patriot General Daniel Morgan outmaneuvered the infamous British Colonel Banastre Tarleton and would have annihilated the entire army of British/Loyalists but some of them escaped the wrath of Morgan’s wild-eyed mountain men. But there were no escapees at the Battle of Kings Mountain. This group of Patriots was led by General John Sevier and was able to trap British General John Ferguson and his army of Loyalists on the peak of a mountain by surrounding the base. General Ferguson fought for a while but then realized that there was no escape and surrendered. The surrender was not accepted and the Patriots waded in and either shot or hanged them all to a man. This massacre was brought about because of Tarleton killing 220 Patriots that had surrendered but were bayoneted by Tarleton’s troops angering the Patriots and especially the mountain men. They sought revenge and found it. My ancestry comes from the Holston Valley of Tennessee and the mountains of Habersham County Georgia. That’s right folks; I am a Redneck and/or a Cracker albeit a well read and well spoken one. I am proud of my ancestors.
The Scots proved their heritage again during the Civil War, some fought in gray and some fought in blue but they fought with great zeal just for the sheer joy of it.
This epistle in no way covers everything that happened to the Ulster Scots during this time period but it gives you an idea of the mold that formed them.
This date in history August 31
1777 On this date Patriot Captain Samuel Mason survived a savage Indian attack on Fort Henry (which he commanded) on the Ohio frontier. The Indians were a montage of different tribes in the Ohio valley, Mason was a member of a distinguished Virginia family. At the beginning of the attack, a few of Mason’s troops were caught outside the stockade trying to retrieve some livestock and drive them back inside the fort. Mason and 14 other troops rushed outside to help those trapped outside but that is just what the Indians wanted and ambushed them. All of the rescuers were killed except Mason. He was severely wounded and crawled under a log and was not detected. Yet another rescue team ran out to help Mason and they were wiped out also. Eventually Mason made his way back into the fort, recovered from his wounds and stayed the fort commander for several more years. Later on Mason fell on hard times and was accused of thievery. Mason responded by going deeper into the western frontier which meant those settlements on the Mississippi River. For reasons known only to Mason, he organized a small gang including his brother, and began preying on the boats and barges traveling the river plus raids on some of the villages and settlers on the Natchez Trace. Mason’s gang enjoyed quite a bit of success because of the lack of law enforcement. Remember, west of the River belonged to France, we had not yet made the Louisiana Purchase. Eventually Mason and his gang was captured on the west bank of the river by French troops and delivered to Colonial officials at the Natchez, Mississippi outpost. The gang shot their way out by killing three guards. After this a large reward was put on Mason’s head, dead or alive. The money was too much of a temptation for a couple of Mason’s gang members and they killed and beheaded Mason and took the head to the Natchez outpost to try and collect the reward. A couple of the officials at Natchez outpost recognized the two as being members of Mason’s gang and they were promptly hanged. To this day, no one has ever figured out why Mason went on the other side of the law, but greed was his undoing.
1939 On this date Adolph Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland and 58 divisions mass on the Polish border in a line about 1,700 miles long. Hitler had been warned by Great Britain, France and Spain that any invasion into Poland would mean war. So Hitler sends a few German soldiers across into Poland dressed in Polish uniforms and had them re-cross into Germany and destroy a few inconsequential buildings. They then brought in several prisoners, dressed them in Polish uniforms and them killed them and claimed that Poland had invaded Germany and were killed and here are the bodies to prove it. After that, the 58 division cranked up and crossed the Polish frontier led by swarms of Panzer and Tiger tanks. The brave but foolish Polish cavalry responds with a charge on horseback like they did in the days of Napoleon. Of course they were annihilated. The next afternoon war was declared on Germany by the majority of the rest of Europe and hell ensued.
1864 This day sees the Battle of Jonesboro, Georgia. US General William T. Sherman had been slugging his way toward Atlanta from Chattanooga, Tennessee, a distance of about 100 miles whist facing the CSA army commanded by CSA General Joseph E. Johnston. Johnston was a believer in rock solid defense and let the enemy beat their brains out trying to crack it. That strategy was not working with Sherman and the CSA army had been constantly retreating since Chattanooga. A few days earlier, CSA President Davis had relieved Johnston and installed CSA General John Bell Hood who was known to be very aggressive. Hood did not disappoint and ordered several attacks on the Union army but the CSA army suffered appalling losses to the point that the CSA army was deemed ineffective. On this day General Sherman orders the capture of the railroad south of Atlanta near Jonesboro, Georgia. This was the last supply route into Atlanta. A CSA division commanded by General William Hardee attacks the dug in Union troops near Jonesboro and is repulsed with staggering losses and the Union forces cut the railroad and that was the end of Atlanta, Georgia.
1985 Earlier a man the newspapers named “The Night Stalker” had been terrorizing the people of Los Angeles. He would sneak into a house late at night, shoot any men present and then rape, kill and mutilate any women there. The police had a hell of a time finding out who it was because he left no witnesses. He had murdered at least 12 people before the police got a break and was able to identify the prime suspect as Richard Ramirez. The police debated as to whether or not to publish his photo and describe his car in the newspaper being afraid it would warn Ramirez that they were on to him. Fortunately Ramirez was on a road trip and when he arrived in Los Angeles late in this day, he saw his face on the front page of the paper and on TV. He was driving down the street in a Latino neighborhood when he was recognized. The men in the neighborhood dragged that son-of-a-bitch out of his car and began beating the living shit out of him. The police finally arrive and dragged Ramirez away from the howling mob just in time or he would have been killed. During his trial he yelled and screamed at the jury claiming he was a devil worshipper. He was sentenced to death and yelled on his way out of the courtroom that he was not afraid of death; it was part of his reward of worshipping the Devil. But this bastard filed appeals which were denied, of course, but if he awaited death why was he appealing the death penalty? All of that courtroom bravado was bullshit. He is as afraid of death like the rest of us. He remains on death row to this day. Like I say, lets go back to medieval times with monsters such as this.
Born today:
1870 Italian educator Maria Montessori. She said “If help and salvation are to come, it must come from the children because from children we get men and women.” Sound wisdom, Maria.
1903 US actor Arthur Godfrey. He said “I am proud to pay taxes in this great country, but I would just as proud at half the price.” Me too, Arthur, me too.
1918 US songwriter Alan Jay Lerner. He said “I am a great fan of females, and I have the bills to prove it.” Been there, done that, have tee shirt.
1935 US activist and Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver. He said “You don’t have to teach people to be human, you have to teach them how to stop being inhuman.” That is a pretty deep though there, Eldridge.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry and I know you do the same things too. We are not really that different, you and I.”
Colin Rave
I was watching a national Geographic program about where the first humans came from to North America. The generally accepted version is that they came from Siberia across the Bering Sea land bridge and then down an ice free corridor across Alaska and Canada during the last ice age. The Bering Sea land bridge happened because of much of the water was frozen making the seas much shallower. The peculiar thing is that there has never been a skeleton found to date in North America that was older than 13,000 years old. Also, the ice free corridor mentioned only existed for about 500 years so we know about when this immigration took place. At the same time there was a solid ice sheet extending from Scotland to the vicinity of Nova Scotia and Maine. It has been suggested that ancient man traveled in boats from Europe to North America earlier than the Siberians by sailing close to the edge of the ice subsisting on the plentiful game and fish that existed there.
Paleontologists have found spear heads in different areas around the Chesapeake Bay that are more sophisticated than those found in the Texas/New Mexico area. This would indicate that the people that made the spearheads in the Chesapeake area had been doing it longer than those out west and therefore had been living there longer. This also indicates that North America was populated by at least two sources. Scientists have found that the DNA from the Chesapeake area ancient skeletons is indeed different from ancient skeletons found in the western US. It is an interesting mystery to me.
Mark Haffle is a drilling engineer for BP and was a major decision maker in the operation of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded and fell into the Gulf Of Mexico causing the worst oil spill in American history not to mention the death of 11 workers. There is a Federal investigation underway in Houston trying to find out what happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Mark Haffle was subpoenaed. Last Friday Mark exercised his rights under the 5th Amendment and refused to testify. We cannot assume that Mark had any liability but human nature makes us want to know why he refused. Another BP drilling engineer did indeed testify last Friday. What’s up with Mark?
Last Friday the trial of Anthony Briggs ended with he being sentenced to life without parole PLUS 15 years to run concurrently. What did Tony do? While living with his girlfriend he sexually abused his girlfriend’s five year old daughter. The prosecution only presented one witness and that was the testimony of the little girl while being interviewed by a child psychologist. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind, including the jury, that Tony was guilty. There is not much worse punishment than life in a South Carolina prison.
A couple of days ago in an Ingle’s grocery store in Spartanburg, SC, a sheriff’s deputy walked up on two grocery store workers and a man named Sammy Hess wallowing around on the sidewalk. The workers had seen Sammy shoplifting and were trying to physically restrain him. The deputy told Sammy who he was and took control and the two workers backed off. Sammy was not done and he began scuffling with the deputy. During this action two T-bone steaks fell out of Sammy’s clothing to the concrete. The deputy was able to wrestle Sammy to the ground about the time that back-up arrived and Sammy was cuffed and taken to the joint. Shoplifting was added to Sammy’s long rap sheet. All he had to do was give the steaks back to the workers and more than likely they would have released him. Let’s add “stupid” to Sammy’s rap sheet.
This date in history August 30
30BC On this date the infamous Cleopatra of Egypt committed suicide. Cleo was hell on wheels, ya’ll. She was not Egyptian but a descendant of a Macedonian (Greek) general named Ptolemy that was left in charge of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 323BC as he was passing through on his way east. Cleo was a dual ruler with her brother Ptolemy XIII after the death of their father Ptolemy XII. It was not long before Cleo and her brother got fed up with each other and a civil war erupted. Strangely, the most powerful nation on the planet was in the throes of civil war also and that was Rome. The civil war in Rome left Pompey the Great as the loser and he ran like hell to Egypt trying to escape the wrath of the winner, Julius Caesar. Pompey the Great was in Egypt about 15 minutes before he was skewered on a spear and killed because the Egyptians did not want Julius Caesar thinking they were siding with Pompey. Sure enough, here comes Julius Caesar looking for Pompey. He is shown the head of Pompey reassuring him that Pompey was dead and for him to not worry about Egypt’s alliances. While there he meets Cleo in a peculiar manner. She has herself wrapped in a carpet and taken to Julius where she appears when the carpet is unrolled. Cleo was a stone fox, ya’ll. Her beauty and skills at love making were legendary. Julius was smitten by this girl and they soon were lovers. Cleo did not give a shit about Julius except that he and his army and navy could help her win the civil war against her brother. Julius did not disappoint and soon Ptolemy XIII was dead and one of Cleo’s other brothers was named Ptolemy XIV. After this Julius goes on to Asia Minor to put down some rebellions. Cleo bears a son that she says was the spawn of Julius and names the boy Caesarian meaning “little Caesar”. Anyway, Julius was successful in putting down the rebellions and went back to Rome in triumph where Cleo and Caesarian joined him. Julius discreetly puts her and his son up in a separate house for appearances. But not long after this Julius got too cocky for the Roman Senate and is stabbed to death. This put Cleo in a pickle and she hauls ass back to Egypt. After she gets back to Egypt her brother Ptolemy XIV dies under suspicious circumstances. It is generally believed that Cleo poisoned him. Cleo promptly named Caesarian as Ptolemy XV. After Julius’ death a triumvirate (three rulers) was formed in Rome. It was Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus. These three split the Roman Empire into three sections with Mark Antony getting the Eastern Provinces meaning Egypt. Not long after arriving in Egypt Mark Antony meets Cleo and falls under her spell and Cleo bears twins by Antony. The triumvirate begins to collapse and a civil war between Antony and Octavian erupts. Antony and Cleo combine forces to combat Octavian’s army and navy. The combined force navy is defeated in the naval battle of Actium (Greece) and Cleo and Antony go back to Egypt. Octavian heads to Egypt looking for Antony to settle things once and for all. The two armies meet and Octavian prevails. Cleo is waiting for news and is told that Mark Antony had been killed and Cleo decides to commit suicide and holds a poisonous snake to her breast and is fatally bitten. But Antony is not dead and Cleo receives a note saying so but it is too late. Upon receiving the news that Cleo was dead, Antony stabs himself with his sword and dies also. Octavian promptly has Caesarian executed because he has Julius Caesars blood in his veins and may make a claim on Roman power later. Octavian later became know as Caesar Augustus and proved to be a very capable leader. What a story.
1862 On this date the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky occurs. This fight is one of the most lopsided in the Civil War. CSA General Kirby Smith is tasked with sweeping the US forces from central Tennessee and Kentucky. He is opposed by US General Horatio Wright. Wright decided to make a stand south of Lexington, Kentucky near the town of Richmond. Wright changes his mind and pulls his troops back north to the banks of the Kentucky River. There was one problem. The troops under the command of US General Mahlon Manson, 6,800 strong, did not get the word to withdraw and met the CSA army alone. The greater majority of Manson’s troops were new and had never experienced combat. The Confederates slammed into the Union center with a vengeance and the Union troops retreated about two miles and turned to make a stand. The Confederates delivered a withering attack and the Union forces retreated once again but this time the CSA cavalry commanded by Colonel John Scott cut off the retreat and it was all over. The end result was the Union forces had 1,200 killed and 4,800 captured, including General Manson and his entire staff, whilst the CSA had less than 100 casualties.
1989 In 1986 career criminal James Marlowe was paroled from Folsom prison. He gained the nicknamed ”The Folsom Wolf” while there. Soon after being released he met Cynthia Coffman and they hit it off famously. They did so well that they began traveling across the country together and they ended up in Tennessee and got married. For a wedding present Coffman had “Property of the Folsom Wolf” tattooed on her ass. They then headed west for California sponging off their relatives along the way. A woman named Corinna Novis disappeared from an ATM in Redlands, California. A few days later Lynel Murray is kidnapped in front of a dry cleaner in Orange County where Murray worked. A checkbook and other papers with both Novis and Murray names on them were found in a dumpster in Big Bear City, California. A lodge owner called the police and told them that the couple had just checked in. The police descended on the lodge and found the couple hiking in the nearby woods wearing clothes from Murray’s dry cleaner. They were tried and convicted of murder and on this date they were sentenced to death. Coffman was the first woman to receive the death penalty since its reinstatement in 1977. They both are cooling their heels on death row.
Born today:
1871 New Zealand physicist Lord Rutherford. He said “If your experiment needs statistics, you should have done a better experiment.”
1893 US senator Huey Long (La.). He said “Hard work is as over rated as monogamy.” Huey was also known as “Kingfish”. He was assassinated by an angry constituent.
1917 English statesman Denis Healey. After hearing a speech by a political rival he said “His speech was like being beaten with a dead sheep.” What a wordsmith.
1943 French ski champion Jean-Claude Killy. He said “To win you have to risk losing.” That is a good attitude for life also.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry and I know you do the same things too. We are not really that different, you and I.”
Colin Rave
I was watching a national Geographic program about where the first humans came from to North America. The generally accepted version is that they came from Siberia across the Bering Sea land bridge and then down an ice free corridor across Alaska and Canada during the last ice age. The Bering Sea land bridge happened because of much of the water was frozen making the seas much shallower. The peculiar thing is that there has never been a skeleton found to date in North America that was older than 13,000 years old. Also, the ice free corridor mentioned only existed for about 500 years so we know about when this immigration took place. At the same time there was a solid ice sheet extending from Scotland to the vicinity of Nova Scotia and Maine. It has been suggested that ancient man traveled in boats from Europe to North America earlier than the Siberians by sailing close to the edge of the ice subsisting on the plentiful game and fish that existed there.
Paleontologists have found spear heads in different areas around the Chesapeake Bay that are more sophisticated than those found in the Texas/New Mexico area. This would indicate that the people that made the spearheads in the Chesapeake area had been doing it longer than those out west and therefore had been living there longer. This also indicates that North America was populated by at least two sources. Scientists have found that the DNA from the Chesapeake area ancient skeletons is indeed different from ancient skeletons found in the western US. It is an interesting mystery to me.
Mark Haffle is a drilling engineer for BP and was a major decision maker in the operation of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded and fell into the Gulf Of Mexico causing the worst oil spill in American history not to mention the death of 11 workers. There is a Federal investigation underway in Houston trying to find out what happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Mark Haffle was subpoenaed. Last Friday Mark exercised his rights under the 5th Amendment and refused to testify. We cannot assume that Mark had any liability but human nature makes us want to know why he refused. Another BP drilling engineer did indeed testify last Friday. What’s up with Mark?
Last Friday the trial of Anthony Briggs ended with he being sentenced to life without parole PLUS 15 years to run concurrently. What did Tony do? While living with his girlfriend he sexually abused his girlfriend’s five year old daughter. The prosecution only presented one witness and that was the testimony of the little girl while being interviewed by a child psychologist. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind, including the jury, that Tony was guilty. There is not much worse punishment than life in a South Carolina prison.
A couple of days ago in an Ingle’s grocery store in Spartanburg, SC, a sheriff’s deputy walked up on two grocery store workers and a man named Sammy Hess wallowing around on the sidewalk. The workers had seen Sammy shoplifting and were trying to physically restrain him. The deputy told Sammy who he was and took control and the two workers backed off. Sammy was not done and he began scuffling with the deputy. During this action two T-bone steaks fell out of Sammy’s clothing to the concrete. The deputy was able to wrestle Sammy to the ground about the time that back-up arrived and Sammy was cuffed and taken to the joint. Shoplifting was added to Sammy’s long rap sheet. All he had to do was give the steaks back to the workers and more than likely they would have released him. Let’s add “stupid” to Sammy’s rap sheet.
This date in history August 30
30BC On this date the infamous Cleopatra of Egypt committed suicide. Cleo was hell on wheels, ya’ll. She was not Egyptian but a descendant of a Macedonian (Greek) general named Ptolemy that was left in charge of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 323BC as he was passing through on his way east. Cleo was a dual ruler with her brother Ptolemy XIII after the death of their father Ptolemy XII. It was not long before Cleo and her brother got fed up with each other and a civil war erupted. Strangely, the most powerful nation on the planet was in the throes of civil war also and that was Rome. The civil war in Rome left Pompey the Great as the loser and he ran like hell to Egypt trying to escape the wrath of the winner, Julius Caesar. Pompey the Great was in Egypt about 15 minutes before he was skewered on a spear and killed because the Egyptians did not want Julius Caesar thinking they were siding with Pompey. Sure enough, here comes Julius Caesar looking for Pompey. He is shown the head of Pompey reassuring him that Pompey was dead and for him to not worry about Egypt’s alliances. While there he meets Cleo in a peculiar manner. She has herself wrapped in a carpet and taken to Julius where she appears when the carpet is unrolled. Cleo was a stone fox, ya’ll. Her beauty and skills at love making were legendary. Julius was smitten by this girl and they soon were lovers. Cleo did not give a shit about Julius except that he and his army and navy could help her win the civil war against her brother. Julius did not disappoint and soon Ptolemy XIII was dead and one of Cleo’s other brothers was named Ptolemy XIV. After this Julius goes on to Asia Minor to put down some rebellions. Cleo bears a son that she says was the spawn of Julius and names the boy Caesarian meaning “little Caesar”. Anyway, Julius was successful in putting down the rebellions and went back to Rome in triumph where Cleo and Caesarian joined him. Julius discreetly puts her and his son up in a separate house for appearances. But not long after this Julius got too cocky for the Roman Senate and is stabbed to death. This put Cleo in a pickle and she hauls ass back to Egypt. After she gets back to Egypt her brother Ptolemy XIV dies under suspicious circumstances. It is generally believed that Cleo poisoned him. Cleo promptly named Caesarian as Ptolemy XV. After Julius’ death a triumvirate (three rulers) was formed in Rome. It was Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus. These three split the Roman Empire into three sections with Mark Antony getting the Eastern Provinces meaning Egypt. Not long after arriving in Egypt Mark Antony meets Cleo and falls under her spell and Cleo bears twins by Antony. The triumvirate begins to collapse and a civil war between Antony and Octavian erupts. Antony and Cleo combine forces to combat Octavian’s army and navy. The combined force navy is defeated in the naval battle of Actium (Greece) and Cleo and Antony go back to Egypt. Octavian heads to Egypt looking for Antony to settle things once and for all. The two armies meet and Octavian prevails. Cleo is waiting for news and is told that Mark Antony had been killed and Cleo decides to commit suicide and holds a poisonous snake to her breast and is fatally bitten. But Antony is not dead and Cleo receives a note saying so but it is too late. Upon receiving the news that Cleo was dead, Antony stabs himself with his sword and dies also. Octavian promptly has Caesarian executed because he has Julius Caesars blood in his veins and may make a claim on Roman power later. Octavian later became know as Caesar Augustus and proved to be a very capable leader. What a story.
1862 On this date the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky occurs. This fight is one of the most lopsided in the Civil War. CSA General Kirby Smith is tasked with sweeping the US forces from central Tennessee and Kentucky. He is opposed by US General Horatio Wright. Wright decided to make a stand south of Lexington, Kentucky near the town of Richmond. Wright changes his mind and pulls his troops back north to the banks of the Kentucky River. There was one problem. The troops under the command of US General Mahlon Manson, 6,800 strong, did not get the word to withdraw and met the CSA army alone. The greater majority of Manson’s troops were new and had never experienced combat. The Confederates slammed into the Union center with a vengeance and the Union troops retreated about two miles and turned to make a stand. The Confederates delivered a withering attack and the Union forces retreated once again but this time the CSA cavalry commanded by Colonel John Scott cut off the retreat and it was all over. The end result was the Union forces had 1,200 killed and 4,800 captured, including General Manson and his entire staff, whilst the CSA had less than 100 casualties.
1989 In 1986 career criminal James Marlowe was paroled from Folsom prison. He gained the nicknamed ”The Folsom Wolf” while there. Soon after being released he met Cynthia Coffman and they hit it off famously. They did so well that they began traveling across the country together and they ended up in Tennessee and got married. For a wedding present Coffman had “Property of the Folsom Wolf” tattooed on her ass. They then headed west for California sponging off their relatives along the way. A woman named Corinna Novis disappeared from an ATM in Redlands, California. A few days later Lynel Murray is kidnapped in front of a dry cleaner in Orange County where Murray worked. A checkbook and other papers with both Novis and Murray names on them were found in a dumpster in Big Bear City, California. A lodge owner called the police and told them that the couple had just checked in. The police descended on the lodge and found the couple hiking in the nearby woods wearing clothes from Murray’s dry cleaner. They were tried and convicted of murder and on this date they were sentenced to death. Coffman was the first woman to receive the death penalty since its reinstatement in 1977. They both are cooling their heels on death row.
Born today:
1871 New Zealand physicist Lord Rutherford. He said “If your experiment needs statistics, you should have done a better experiment.”
1893 US senator Huey Long (La.). He said “Hard work is as over rated as monogamy.” Huey was also known as “Kingfish”. He was assassinated by an angry constituent.
1917 English statesman Denis Healey. After hearing a speech by a political rival he said “His speech was like being beaten with a dead sheep.” What a wordsmith.
1943 French ski champion Jean-Claude Killy. He said “To win you have to risk losing.” That is a good attitude for life also.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Friday, August 27, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“No one has ever had a good idea while wearing a suit.”
Sir Frederick Banting
This is the only comment I will make about the Mosque planned to be built in New York. The argument made by Mayor Bloomberg and others is that the 1st amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression. This is certainly true here in the USA. But let’s suppose that I felt the need to express my disapproval with the outcome of the American Civil War and planted a Confederate battle flag at the Lincoln Memorial, or maybe I was not happy with the outcome of WWII and planted a Swastika flag at the Holocaust Memorial or the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach, or I was not happy with the outcome of the American Revolutionary War and planted a British Union jack at George Washington’s grave site. All of these actions fall into the purview of the 1st Amendment as exercising my right of freedom of expression. The difference is that these actions may be legal but they are inflammatory and in incredibly bad taste and I can assure you that they would not be allowed.
In addition to the history lesson I am adding a biography of one of the most hard-assed women that ever existed. Here it is.
Boudicca
Queen of the Iceni
The place and time of Boudicca’s birth is lost in history but it is believed that she was born about 35 AD. It was also believed by the historians Tacitus and Dio that she was of royal descent. Historian Dio said that Boudicca was “possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women”. His words, ya’ll. She was described a being tall with red hair down to her hips, having a harsh voice and a piecing glare. She always wore a heavy gold necklace and a multi-colored tunic and a thick cloak held together with a brooch. Her husband was known as Prasutagus, King of the Iceni branch of the Keltoi (Celts). His kingdom was in what is known today as Norfolk, England but his kingdom was still a province of the Roman Empire. Today Norfolk is in eastern England, north of Dover on the English Channel. Prasutagus’ kingdom was not originally part of the Roman Empire but he voluntarily allied himself with the Romans after the conquest of Claudius in 43AD. The Iceni was a fiercely independent bunch and revolted soon after the alliance in 43AD because the Roman governor, Publius Scapula, threatened to disarm them. It was common practice in those days for Rome to allow the independence of a Kingdom if the client king willed his lands to Rome upon his death. Prasutagus live a rich and sumptuous life primarily on money borrowed from Roman citizens including the Roman senator Seneca the Younger. After Prasutagus’ death, his debtors came calling including the government of Rome. It was the responsibility of Prasutagas’ subjects to make good his debts. The Roman army moved in and virtually enslaved the nobles and nearly all lands were confiscated. It was reported by Dio that Boudicca was flogged while having to watch her adolescent daughters being repeatedly raped. In about 60AD, while the Roman governor, Gaius Paulinus, was over in Angsley in northern Wales leading an expedition against the British rebels and the Druids, Boudicca called a conference with other Celtic kingdoms such as the Trinovantes, and they decided to revolt and they voted Boudicca as their leader. In those days the Roman army hated to go into combat against the Celts because the Celtic women were there standing with the men and swung and ax or sword with the best of them which intimidated the Romans. They could not bear to think that they could be defeated or killed by women. Boudicca used a form of divination to decide the way of a battle. She would release a rabbit from the folds of the cloak and interpret from the direction it ran, and she invoked upon her goddess of victory, Andraste, for advice. By the way her name Boudicca comes from the Celtic word “bouda” meaning victory. Anyway, after doing all of these rituals, she and her army that eventually grew to over 230,000, set out to kick the Romans out of Britain. Their first target was Camulodunum, which was the former capital of the Tranovantians but was now occupied by the Romans as a colony. They burned that sucker to the ground and massacred the Romans in residence. This city is today known as Colchester. After this event the X Legion, Quintas Cerialis commanding, came running to relieve the city but Boudicca’s Army of men and women routed the vaunted Legion killing the entire infantry to a man. Only Cerialis and few cavalrymen escaped. After this debacle, Roman Governor Suetonius hurried down Watling Street through hostile territory to the newly founded town of Londoninium and briefly thought about organizing a stand there but reconsidered when he counted the number of troops available to him and sacrificed the town to save the province and pulled out and left the town to Boudicca. As you might suspect that town is present day London. Soon Boudicca and her army showed up and burned Londoninium to the ground and killed any mammal that was still there. Archeologists have found a layer of burnt debris in London that corresponds with that time period. There next target was the town of Verulaminum and the same fate fell upon that town and any person left. This town is now St Albans. Between the three towns Boudicca’s army had killed between 70,000 and 80,000 people. The historian Tacitus reported that this Celtic army was not interested in prisoners, there were only interested in killing by gallows, fire or cross. Let me tell you, Boudicca wasn’t fooling around. Tacitus also reported that “the noblest of women were impaled on spikes and had their breasts cut off and sewn to their mouths, to the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets and wanton behavior.” In the mean time, Suetonius had assembled the XIV Legion and the XX Legion and any other he could find and decided to make a stand. The exact location is not known but it was probably in the West Midlands. Before this battle Boudicca made a speech saying that they had already met and defeated a Roman Legion that this on they were facing was no different. She said that she was not just a noble that had lost neither her lands nor a woman seeking revenge for what had happened to her and her daughters. She was a person that wanted her independence and freedom from slavery. She ended her speech with this statement which I paraphrase “I and my women warriors are resolved to win or die, If the men want to live in slavery, that was their choice.” Well, her army was so big it was unwieldy especially in close quarters and they did not have training in this aspect of warfare. Suetonius had wisely chosen a heavily wooded area with an open field for the battleground. The Celts commenced a wild charge and were met with a cloud of javelins from the Romans that killed thousands of the Celts. After the Romans had run out of javelins they formed up into their famous phalanx and waded into the screaming Celts. The Celts attempted to flee but were cut off by a ring of supply wagons that had the Celts had brought with them. The Celts were unceremoniously and methodically massacred by the Romans. Tacitus tells us that over 80,000 Celts fell on that day to only 400 Romans. After this defeat, Boudicca killed herself with poison confirming her oath to win or die. She was given a very lavish hero’s funeral and burial. There is a bronze statue of her aboard a chariot with her daughters at her side near the Westminster Pier in London (been there). Boudicca remains an important symbol in the culture of Great Britain.
This date in history August 27
1883 On this date the most powerful volcano explosions in recorded history occurs in the Indonesian archipelago. The volcano was a small uninhabited island named Krakatoa. The volcano had sent out signals that it was restless because several cargo ships had reported a column of ash and dust several miles high over the island. The explosion was heard 3,000 miles away and produced a tsunami 120 feet high that took the lives of over 36,000 people on nearby islands. An additional 4,000 people were burned to death from the white hot ash that rained down from the ejecta that was blown up to 50,000 feet in the stratosphere and then came back down miles away on inhabited islands. Krakatoa is still active ya’ll, as is an additional 136 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Indonesia has the most active volcanoes in the world. There is evidence that an even larger volcanic eruption that occurred in the Mediterranean in about 1300 BC. The present day name for the caldera is Santorini. I am sure there were plenty of eyewitnesses but to our knowledge this event was not recorded.
1979 On this date the Irish Republican Army makes its first strike against British royalty when IRA member Thomas McMahon sneaks aboard Lord Louis Mountbatten’s fishing boat, Shadow V, and plants 50 pounds of TNT in the hold of the boat with a remote control detonator. Mountbatten and family come aboard and McMahon lights off the explosive killing Mountbatten and two others. The IRA and the British government have been squabbling since King James I formed the community of Ulster which is now Northern Ireland in about 1612. James got fed up with the irascible Irish Catholics being in almost constant rebellion. James was a devout Protestant and no love in his heart for the Catholics so he seized five shires (counties) in Ireland, kicked out the Irish and brought in some Protestant Scottish lords along with their tenant farmers. James believed that if he could dilute the Catholic population in Ireland they would be easier to control. They were....for a while. The problem in Ireland today is that when Ireland had a chance to become independent from England the overwhelming majority of the Catholics voted for independence but what was originally Ulster and almost entirely Protestant (Presbyterian) voted to stay under wing of England and that was the birth of Northern Ireland. So what it boils down to is that the majority of Ireland is Catholic and they want Northern Ireland to become part of Ireland proper but the Protestants won’t hear of it because they are afraid they will be discriminated against because they are the religious minority in Ireland. The English Army is present to prevent a violent takeover by the IRA. I don’t see an end to it. When it comes to religion, everybody thinks God is on their side.
1859 On this date Edwin Drake strikes oil at a depth of 69 feet neat Titusville, Pennsylvania. This discovery was a welcome replacement for whale oil used in lamps world wide. Whale oil was expensive and not always available. Petroleum was used for this purpose for a several decades until the invention of the automobile then every continent in the world began hunting for “black gold” not just for the fuel but for the asphalt to build roads. But by far the most lucrative find was the oil in the middle east known as “Arab light” which means that there is not as much undesirable additives in the oil that need to be refined out, especially sulphur, making it much cheaper to refine adding to the profits.
1964 On this date 15 year Edmund Kemper decides to do something exciting and shoots and kills his grandparents. He isn’t done yet, he calls his mother and told her what he had done and said “I just wanted to see what it felt like to kill Grandma.” Edmund was a troubled youth. He began by cutting the heads off his sister’s dolls and setting fire to the family cat. His parents knew he was crazy as a loon but rather than getting him help, they jus sent him to stay with his grandparents. Edmund killed a few more people before he was caught and sent to prison. Apparently prison agreed with Edmund because he was finally paroled and he was 6’-9” and weighed over 300 pounds. Very soon after being paroled he paid a visit to his mother, beat her to death with a hammer, mutilated her body and raped the corpse. I am telling ya’ll, this cowboy was a lunatic. He called the police and told them what he had done but they blew it off as a scam and did not respond. Two more people lost their lives and heads to Edmund before the police decided to check of the strange call about a man killing his mother and found out that it was true. They started looking for Edmund in earnest. Edmund went to Colorado and called the Santa Cruz police and confessed to the latest two murders. The police picked him up and he was convicted of 8 murders and sentenced to life without parole. But Edmund himself said that he should have been sentenced to “death by torture,” I agree Edmund, let me select the torture.
Born today:
1871 US writer Theodore Dreiser. He said “In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.” Hey Ted, I can help you find the latter, it is everywhere.
1770 German philosopher William Hegel. He said “What experience and history has taught us is this...that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon the lessons they may have learned from it.” I second that.....
1908 US football coach Frank Leahy. He said “Egotism in the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.” Frank knew what he was talking about. He was a football coach at Army.
1910 Mother Teresa. She said “Loneliness is the most terrible part of poverty.” But it was Mahatma Gandhi that said “The bed of poverty is fertile.”
Died today:
1948 Supreme Court justice Charles Evans Hughes. He said “If there is muck to be raked, it must be raked, and the people must know of it, so justice can be given.” It was Justice Evans that also said “It is better to release 1,000 guilty than to jail one innocent.” I think we are on that path now, Judge.
1950 Italian writer Cesare Pavese. He said “Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is the anesthetic.” Not when using a condom, Cesare.
1964 US comedienne Gracie Allen and wife of George Burns. She said “They laughed at Joan of Arc, but she went ahead and built it.” Wake up Gracie.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
“No one has ever had a good idea while wearing a suit.”
Sir Frederick Banting
This is the only comment I will make about the Mosque planned to be built in New York. The argument made by Mayor Bloomberg and others is that the 1st amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression. This is certainly true here in the USA. But let’s suppose that I felt the need to express my disapproval with the outcome of the American Civil War and planted a Confederate battle flag at the Lincoln Memorial, or maybe I was not happy with the outcome of WWII and planted a Swastika flag at the Holocaust Memorial or the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach, or I was not happy with the outcome of the American Revolutionary War and planted a British Union jack at George Washington’s grave site. All of these actions fall into the purview of the 1st Amendment as exercising my right of freedom of expression. The difference is that these actions may be legal but they are inflammatory and in incredibly bad taste and I can assure you that they would not be allowed.
In addition to the history lesson I am adding a biography of one of the most hard-assed women that ever existed. Here it is.
Boudicca
Queen of the Iceni
The place and time of Boudicca’s birth is lost in history but it is believed that she was born about 35 AD. It was also believed by the historians Tacitus and Dio that she was of royal descent. Historian Dio said that Boudicca was “possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women”. His words, ya’ll. She was described a being tall with red hair down to her hips, having a harsh voice and a piecing glare. She always wore a heavy gold necklace and a multi-colored tunic and a thick cloak held together with a brooch. Her husband was known as Prasutagus, King of the Iceni branch of the Keltoi (Celts). His kingdom was in what is known today as Norfolk, England but his kingdom was still a province of the Roman Empire. Today Norfolk is in eastern England, north of Dover on the English Channel. Prasutagus’ kingdom was not originally part of the Roman Empire but he voluntarily allied himself with the Romans after the conquest of Claudius in 43AD. The Iceni was a fiercely independent bunch and revolted soon after the alliance in 43AD because the Roman governor, Publius Scapula, threatened to disarm them. It was common practice in those days for Rome to allow the independence of a Kingdom if the client king willed his lands to Rome upon his death. Prasutagus live a rich and sumptuous life primarily on money borrowed from Roman citizens including the Roman senator Seneca the Younger. After Prasutagus’ death, his debtors came calling including the government of Rome. It was the responsibility of Prasutagas’ subjects to make good his debts. The Roman army moved in and virtually enslaved the nobles and nearly all lands were confiscated. It was reported by Dio that Boudicca was flogged while having to watch her adolescent daughters being repeatedly raped. In about 60AD, while the Roman governor, Gaius Paulinus, was over in Angsley in northern Wales leading an expedition against the British rebels and the Druids, Boudicca called a conference with other Celtic kingdoms such as the Trinovantes, and they decided to revolt and they voted Boudicca as their leader. In those days the Roman army hated to go into combat against the Celts because the Celtic women were there standing with the men and swung and ax or sword with the best of them which intimidated the Romans. They could not bear to think that they could be defeated or killed by women. Boudicca used a form of divination to decide the way of a battle. She would release a rabbit from the folds of the cloak and interpret from the direction it ran, and she invoked upon her goddess of victory, Andraste, for advice. By the way her name Boudicca comes from the Celtic word “bouda” meaning victory. Anyway, after doing all of these rituals, she and her army that eventually grew to over 230,000, set out to kick the Romans out of Britain. Their first target was Camulodunum, which was the former capital of the Tranovantians but was now occupied by the Romans as a colony. They burned that sucker to the ground and massacred the Romans in residence. This city is today known as Colchester. After this event the X Legion, Quintas Cerialis commanding, came running to relieve the city but Boudicca’s Army of men and women routed the vaunted Legion killing the entire infantry to a man. Only Cerialis and few cavalrymen escaped. After this debacle, Roman Governor Suetonius hurried down Watling Street through hostile territory to the newly founded town of Londoninium and briefly thought about organizing a stand there but reconsidered when he counted the number of troops available to him and sacrificed the town to save the province and pulled out and left the town to Boudicca. As you might suspect that town is present day London. Soon Boudicca and her army showed up and burned Londoninium to the ground and killed any mammal that was still there. Archeologists have found a layer of burnt debris in London that corresponds with that time period. There next target was the town of Verulaminum and the same fate fell upon that town and any person left. This town is now St Albans. Between the three towns Boudicca’s army had killed between 70,000 and 80,000 people. The historian Tacitus reported that this Celtic army was not interested in prisoners, there were only interested in killing by gallows, fire or cross. Let me tell you, Boudicca wasn’t fooling around. Tacitus also reported that “the noblest of women were impaled on spikes and had their breasts cut off and sewn to their mouths, to the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets and wanton behavior.” In the mean time, Suetonius had assembled the XIV Legion and the XX Legion and any other he could find and decided to make a stand. The exact location is not known but it was probably in the West Midlands. Before this battle Boudicca made a speech saying that they had already met and defeated a Roman Legion that this on they were facing was no different. She said that she was not just a noble that had lost neither her lands nor a woman seeking revenge for what had happened to her and her daughters. She was a person that wanted her independence and freedom from slavery. She ended her speech with this statement which I paraphrase “I and my women warriors are resolved to win or die, If the men want to live in slavery, that was their choice.” Well, her army was so big it was unwieldy especially in close quarters and they did not have training in this aspect of warfare. Suetonius had wisely chosen a heavily wooded area with an open field for the battleground. The Celts commenced a wild charge and were met with a cloud of javelins from the Romans that killed thousands of the Celts. After the Romans had run out of javelins they formed up into their famous phalanx and waded into the screaming Celts. The Celts attempted to flee but were cut off by a ring of supply wagons that had the Celts had brought with them. The Celts were unceremoniously and methodically massacred by the Romans. Tacitus tells us that over 80,000 Celts fell on that day to only 400 Romans. After this defeat, Boudicca killed herself with poison confirming her oath to win or die. She was given a very lavish hero’s funeral and burial. There is a bronze statue of her aboard a chariot with her daughters at her side near the Westminster Pier in London (been there). Boudicca remains an important symbol in the culture of Great Britain.
This date in history August 27
1883 On this date the most powerful volcano explosions in recorded history occurs in the Indonesian archipelago. The volcano was a small uninhabited island named Krakatoa. The volcano had sent out signals that it was restless because several cargo ships had reported a column of ash and dust several miles high over the island. The explosion was heard 3,000 miles away and produced a tsunami 120 feet high that took the lives of over 36,000 people on nearby islands. An additional 4,000 people were burned to death from the white hot ash that rained down from the ejecta that was blown up to 50,000 feet in the stratosphere and then came back down miles away on inhabited islands. Krakatoa is still active ya’ll, as is an additional 136 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Indonesia has the most active volcanoes in the world. There is evidence that an even larger volcanic eruption that occurred in the Mediterranean in about 1300 BC. The present day name for the caldera is Santorini. I am sure there were plenty of eyewitnesses but to our knowledge this event was not recorded.
1979 On this date the Irish Republican Army makes its first strike against British royalty when IRA member Thomas McMahon sneaks aboard Lord Louis Mountbatten’s fishing boat, Shadow V, and plants 50 pounds of TNT in the hold of the boat with a remote control detonator. Mountbatten and family come aboard and McMahon lights off the explosive killing Mountbatten and two others. The IRA and the British government have been squabbling since King James I formed the community of Ulster which is now Northern Ireland in about 1612. James got fed up with the irascible Irish Catholics being in almost constant rebellion. James was a devout Protestant and no love in his heart for the Catholics so he seized five shires (counties) in Ireland, kicked out the Irish and brought in some Protestant Scottish lords along with their tenant farmers. James believed that if he could dilute the Catholic population in Ireland they would be easier to control. They were....for a while. The problem in Ireland today is that when Ireland had a chance to become independent from England the overwhelming majority of the Catholics voted for independence but what was originally Ulster and almost entirely Protestant (Presbyterian) voted to stay under wing of England and that was the birth of Northern Ireland. So what it boils down to is that the majority of Ireland is Catholic and they want Northern Ireland to become part of Ireland proper but the Protestants won’t hear of it because they are afraid they will be discriminated against because they are the religious minority in Ireland. The English Army is present to prevent a violent takeover by the IRA. I don’t see an end to it. When it comes to religion, everybody thinks God is on their side.
1859 On this date Edwin Drake strikes oil at a depth of 69 feet neat Titusville, Pennsylvania. This discovery was a welcome replacement for whale oil used in lamps world wide. Whale oil was expensive and not always available. Petroleum was used for this purpose for a several decades until the invention of the automobile then every continent in the world began hunting for “black gold” not just for the fuel but for the asphalt to build roads. But by far the most lucrative find was the oil in the middle east known as “Arab light” which means that there is not as much undesirable additives in the oil that need to be refined out, especially sulphur, making it much cheaper to refine adding to the profits.
1964 On this date 15 year Edmund Kemper decides to do something exciting and shoots and kills his grandparents. He isn’t done yet, he calls his mother and told her what he had done and said “I just wanted to see what it felt like to kill Grandma.” Edmund was a troubled youth. He began by cutting the heads off his sister’s dolls and setting fire to the family cat. His parents knew he was crazy as a loon but rather than getting him help, they jus sent him to stay with his grandparents. Edmund killed a few more people before he was caught and sent to prison. Apparently prison agreed with Edmund because he was finally paroled and he was 6’-9” and weighed over 300 pounds. Very soon after being paroled he paid a visit to his mother, beat her to death with a hammer, mutilated her body and raped the corpse. I am telling ya’ll, this cowboy was a lunatic. He called the police and told them what he had done but they blew it off as a scam and did not respond. Two more people lost their lives and heads to Edmund before the police decided to check of the strange call about a man killing his mother and found out that it was true. They started looking for Edmund in earnest. Edmund went to Colorado and called the Santa Cruz police and confessed to the latest two murders. The police picked him up and he was convicted of 8 murders and sentenced to life without parole. But Edmund himself said that he should have been sentenced to “death by torture,” I agree Edmund, let me select the torture.
Born today:
1871 US writer Theodore Dreiser. He said “In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.” Hey Ted, I can help you find the latter, it is everywhere.
1770 German philosopher William Hegel. He said “What experience and history has taught us is this...that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon the lessons they may have learned from it.” I second that.....
1908 US football coach Frank Leahy. He said “Egotism in the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.” Frank knew what he was talking about. He was a football coach at Army.
1910 Mother Teresa. She said “Loneliness is the most terrible part of poverty.” But it was Mahatma Gandhi that said “The bed of poverty is fertile.”
Died today:
1948 Supreme Court justice Charles Evans Hughes. He said “If there is muck to be raked, it must be raked, and the people must know of it, so justice can be given.” It was Justice Evans that also said “It is better to release 1,000 guilty than to jail one innocent.” I think we are on that path now, Judge.
1950 Italian writer Cesare Pavese. He said “Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is the anesthetic.” Not when using a condom, Cesare.
1964 US comedienne Gracie Allen and wife of George Burns. She said “They laughed at Joan of Arc, but she went ahead and built it.” Wake up Gracie.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Daily history
Good Morning,
Quote of the day:
“Live neither in the past nor in the future, but allow each day’s work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your wildest ambition.”
Sir William Osler
If I asked what female athlete made the most money most of your would say either Serena or Venus Williams or maybe Danica Patrick. It is neither one, it is Maria Sharapova. Even though she is not in the spotlight as often and the others, she has several big time contracts especially with Nike, Ericcson, Tiffany and others making her twice as wealthy as any other athletes. Her contract with Nike alone is rumored to be about $70 million. By the way, Maria has a kick-ass body.
President Obama and family is on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. It is reported that he stopped by a book store and bought books for his kids to read. He made good choices here. He bought To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Red Pony by John Steinbeck (one of my favorite authors). For himself he was given Freedom by Jonathon Franzen. This book was not on the shelves yet but an advanced copy was forthcoming. Here is a few interesting facts about Harper Lee. She was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She wrote only the one book and was awarded that Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her efforts. The book was about racial prejudice as she saw it in Monroeville while she was growing up. A little known fact was that she assisted her good friend Truman Capote in the writing of the immortal book In Cold Blood. Both books were made into Oscar winning movies. Mockingbird starred Gregory Peck and In Cold Blood starred Robert Blake.
You guys up in the Charlotte area had better pay attention to the cops. They set up a checkpoint in west Charlotte on Thursday night and in east Charlotte Friday night and early Saturday morning. The handed out about 200 tickets which included 15 arrests for DWI. The rest of them were mostly for expired license tags or expired if non-existent drivers license. They apparently are not kidding around.
Iran has begun fueling their nuclear power plant…or is it a plant to generate weapons grade Uranium/Plutonium/Tritium? They also are beating their breasts about a medium range missile and a drone aircraft that they bought from that Russian arms dealer recently arrested in Thailand. They forgot to mention the swarms of American/British/French nuclear submarines in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean all carrying nuclear tipped missiles aimed at every city in Iran with more than 500 in population. They also forgot to mention the Israeli fighter bombers with stealth technology, satellite information and nuclear weapons that will be more than happy to bomb Iran back into the Stone Age. Surely the Iranians are not stupid enough to think that they can get away with a nuclear attack on anyone….are they?
This date in history August 26
1346 Ever since William the Conqueror crossed over from France in 1066 and successfully invaded England, there had been succession of English invasions of France to try to claim the section of France known as Normandy as part of the English Empire. William the Conqueror was William the Duke of Normandy before he was the king of England and successive English kings felt that William’s lands in Normandy now belonged to the English crown. Naturally, the French kings called bullshit on that and several battles were fought in Normandy. On July 12 English King Edward III landed on the coast of Normandy with an army of 14,000. After raping and pillaging French countryside, King Edward headed toward Calais as did nearly every English invasion force because Calais was a very important deep water port on the English Channel that the English needed for re-supply. On this date, King Edward met the French army near the village of Crecy in Normandy. The French army was led by French king Philip IV at the head of 8,000 mounted knights and 4,000 Genoese crossbowmen. The French army had no idea that Edward’s army had a secret weapon, the newly perfected longbow. Anyway, Edward awaited the French attack and late in the afternoon Phillip sent in the Genoese crossbowmen who were met by a hailstorm of English arrows at a range out of the reach of the crossbow. The longbow had an effective range of over 200 yards, unheard of in those days. The Genoese crossbowmen withdrew and the Phillip sent in his 8,000 mounted knights who met the same fate as the Genoese. The air was filled with arrows from the English with the arrows tipped with bodkin arrowheads designed to penetrate armor and chain mail. The French knights and their horses fell in writhing mass in the center of the battle ground. After all was said and done, King Phillip had lost over 4,000 men and horses whilst the English lost less than 100. This battle was significant because it marked the end of great horse cavalry attacks over open ground. The English longbow had changed the method battle and tactics forever. King Edward continued his march to Calais and began a siege. The city surrendered to Edward early in 1347.
1968 This was a time of unrest in America. The United States was involved in an unpopular war in Vietnam and there were many protesters of the war on the streets. On this date the Democratic Convention opened at the International Amphitheater in Chicago seeking to come up with a presidential candidate. It looked like it was going to be Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Anyway the streets outside the Ampitheater were filled with war protesters which were expected. The Democratic Party had almost changed their Convention location to Miami because of the fear that protest marches would get out of hand in Chicago, but cooler heads prevailed when Mayor Daley of Chicago assured them that his cops could contain nearly any eventuality. Daley then told the chief of police to not let the protesters get out of hand no matter what action it took to suppress them. Well, sure enough the protester showed up and so did the Chicago PD and the Illinois National Guard. At one point the head of the police force in front of the Amphitheater ordered the protestors off the street and as you might suspect, a riot broke out. The protesters did not have a chance; the Chicago PD immediately waded into them and the cracked skulls and other bones until the protesters were subdued. It was a police riot, ya’ll. It did not end in the street. A few police went inside the building and began roughing up some of the delegates and newsmen including Mike Wallace who received a fist to the jaw during the melee. The Chicago police arrested hundreds but released all but seven who they said was the ringleaders and put them on trial. Naturally, this caused even more riots. There were riots on and off until the United States pulled out of South Vietnam and left it to the Communist North Vietnamese in 1973.
1862 After US General George McClellan was severely out-generaled by CSA General Robert E. Lee in the Peninsular Campaign, President Lincoln pulled some of his troops away and assigned them US General John Pope’s Army of Virginia. On this date CSA General Fitzhugh Lee and his cavalry unit capture the railroad depot at Manassas, Virginia. The first large scale engagement had occurred about a year earlier at Manassas. Anyway, when General Pope heard about this he and his army came running. General Lee sent Stonewall Jackson to Manassas to keep and eye on Pope. Pope found out the Jackson was in the area but he could not find Jackson or his army. Jackson had hidden his troops in the forests and brush along side Bull Run Creek. A day or two later the remainder of Lee’s army arrived and Jackson’s army came screaming out of the woods and joined with the rest of Lee’s Army and swept Pope and his army from the field in a total rout.
Born today:
!853 US inventor Dr. Lee de Forest. In 1952 he said “The use of transistors in radio and television is far into the future.” Dr. de Forest was an inventor; no one said he had vision.
1904 English writer George Isherwood. He said “Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique and not too much imagination.”
Died today:
1910 US writer William James. He said “Some people believe they are thinking when they are just rearranging their prejudices.”
1937 US banker Andrew Mellon. He said “Gentlemen prefer bonds.”
1962 Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefanson. He said “What is the difference between ethical and unethical advertising? Unethical advertisers use lies to deceive the public and ethical advertisers use the truth to deceive the public.” Good observation there, Vil.
Quotable quotes:
“History is a set of lies that has been agreed upon.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
“Live neither in the past nor in the future, but allow each day’s work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your wildest ambition.”
Sir William Osler
If I asked what female athlete made the most money most of your would say either Serena or Venus Williams or maybe Danica Patrick. It is neither one, it is Maria Sharapova. Even though she is not in the spotlight as often and the others, she has several big time contracts especially with Nike, Ericcson, Tiffany and others making her twice as wealthy as any other athletes. Her contract with Nike alone is rumored to be about $70 million. By the way, Maria has a kick-ass body.
President Obama and family is on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. It is reported that he stopped by a book store and bought books for his kids to read. He made good choices here. He bought To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Red Pony by John Steinbeck (one of my favorite authors). For himself he was given Freedom by Jonathon Franzen. This book was not on the shelves yet but an advanced copy was forthcoming. Here is a few interesting facts about Harper Lee. She was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She wrote only the one book and was awarded that Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her efforts. The book was about racial prejudice as she saw it in Monroeville while she was growing up. A little known fact was that she assisted her good friend Truman Capote in the writing of the immortal book In Cold Blood. Both books were made into Oscar winning movies. Mockingbird starred Gregory Peck and In Cold Blood starred Robert Blake.
You guys up in the Charlotte area had better pay attention to the cops. They set up a checkpoint in west Charlotte on Thursday night and in east Charlotte Friday night and early Saturday morning. The handed out about 200 tickets which included 15 arrests for DWI. The rest of them were mostly for expired license tags or expired if non-existent drivers license. They apparently are not kidding around.
Iran has begun fueling their nuclear power plant…or is it a plant to generate weapons grade Uranium/Plutonium/Tritium? They also are beating their breasts about a medium range missile and a drone aircraft that they bought from that Russian arms dealer recently arrested in Thailand. They forgot to mention the swarms of American/British/French nuclear submarines in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean all carrying nuclear tipped missiles aimed at every city in Iran with more than 500 in population. They also forgot to mention the Israeli fighter bombers with stealth technology, satellite information and nuclear weapons that will be more than happy to bomb Iran back into the Stone Age. Surely the Iranians are not stupid enough to think that they can get away with a nuclear attack on anyone….are they?
This date in history August 26
1346 Ever since William the Conqueror crossed over from France in 1066 and successfully invaded England, there had been succession of English invasions of France to try to claim the section of France known as Normandy as part of the English Empire. William the Conqueror was William the Duke of Normandy before he was the king of England and successive English kings felt that William’s lands in Normandy now belonged to the English crown. Naturally, the French kings called bullshit on that and several battles were fought in Normandy. On July 12 English King Edward III landed on the coast of Normandy with an army of 14,000. After raping and pillaging French countryside, King Edward headed toward Calais as did nearly every English invasion force because Calais was a very important deep water port on the English Channel that the English needed for re-supply. On this date, King Edward met the French army near the village of Crecy in Normandy. The French army was led by French king Philip IV at the head of 8,000 mounted knights and 4,000 Genoese crossbowmen. The French army had no idea that Edward’s army had a secret weapon, the newly perfected longbow. Anyway, Edward awaited the French attack and late in the afternoon Phillip sent in the Genoese crossbowmen who were met by a hailstorm of English arrows at a range out of the reach of the crossbow. The longbow had an effective range of over 200 yards, unheard of in those days. The Genoese crossbowmen withdrew and the Phillip sent in his 8,000 mounted knights who met the same fate as the Genoese. The air was filled with arrows from the English with the arrows tipped with bodkin arrowheads designed to penetrate armor and chain mail. The French knights and their horses fell in writhing mass in the center of the battle ground. After all was said and done, King Phillip had lost over 4,000 men and horses whilst the English lost less than 100. This battle was significant because it marked the end of great horse cavalry attacks over open ground. The English longbow had changed the method battle and tactics forever. King Edward continued his march to Calais and began a siege. The city surrendered to Edward early in 1347.
1968 This was a time of unrest in America. The United States was involved in an unpopular war in Vietnam and there were many protesters of the war on the streets. On this date the Democratic Convention opened at the International Amphitheater in Chicago seeking to come up with a presidential candidate. It looked like it was going to be Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Anyway the streets outside the Ampitheater were filled with war protesters which were expected. The Democratic Party had almost changed their Convention location to Miami because of the fear that protest marches would get out of hand in Chicago, but cooler heads prevailed when Mayor Daley of Chicago assured them that his cops could contain nearly any eventuality. Daley then told the chief of police to not let the protesters get out of hand no matter what action it took to suppress them. Well, sure enough the protester showed up and so did the Chicago PD and the Illinois National Guard. At one point the head of the police force in front of the Amphitheater ordered the protestors off the street and as you might suspect, a riot broke out. The protesters did not have a chance; the Chicago PD immediately waded into them and the cracked skulls and other bones until the protesters were subdued. It was a police riot, ya’ll. It did not end in the street. A few police went inside the building and began roughing up some of the delegates and newsmen including Mike Wallace who received a fist to the jaw during the melee. The Chicago police arrested hundreds but released all but seven who they said was the ringleaders and put them on trial. Naturally, this caused even more riots. There were riots on and off until the United States pulled out of South Vietnam and left it to the Communist North Vietnamese in 1973.
1862 After US General George McClellan was severely out-generaled by CSA General Robert E. Lee in the Peninsular Campaign, President Lincoln pulled some of his troops away and assigned them US General John Pope’s Army of Virginia. On this date CSA General Fitzhugh Lee and his cavalry unit capture the railroad depot at Manassas, Virginia. The first large scale engagement had occurred about a year earlier at Manassas. Anyway, when General Pope heard about this he and his army came running. General Lee sent Stonewall Jackson to Manassas to keep and eye on Pope. Pope found out the Jackson was in the area but he could not find Jackson or his army. Jackson had hidden his troops in the forests and brush along side Bull Run Creek. A day or two later the remainder of Lee’s army arrived and Jackson’s army came screaming out of the woods and joined with the rest of Lee’s Army and swept Pope and his army from the field in a total rout.
Born today:
!853 US inventor Dr. Lee de Forest. In 1952 he said “The use of transistors in radio and television is far into the future.” Dr. de Forest was an inventor; no one said he had vision.
1904 English writer George Isherwood. He said “Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique and not too much imagination.”
Died today:
1910 US writer William James. He said “Some people believe they are thinking when they are just rearranging their prejudices.”
1937 US banker Andrew Mellon. He said “Gentlemen prefer bonds.”
1962 Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefanson. He said “What is the difference between ethical and unethical advertising? Unethical advertisers use lies to deceive the public and ethical advertisers use the truth to deceive the public.” Good observation there, Vil.
Quotable quotes:
“History is a set of lies that has been agreed upon.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world.”
Albert Einstein
I guess it must have been a full moon this last weekend. A lot of strange things happened.
Over in Spartanburg, SC 26 year old Julius Cox was not happy with what his girlfriend was cooking for him and began beating on her. She headed for the bedroom and began gathering up her clothes to leave under a barrage of blows from her boyfriend. The cops finally arrived and put a stop to it and took Julius to the joint for criminal domestic violence. I don’t get it. If Julius was not happy with what she was cooking he could have went to Church’s Chicken, for crying out loud. Now she is eating some food that is barely edible and not much of it at that. I was always raised that if someone cooked for you, you ate it no matter what. It is a southern tradition. Obviously Julius is a Yankee.
Then over in the nearby town of Cowpens, 34 year old Earline Gowdy got mad at her husband for unknown reasons. She broke a leg off of and end table and hit him in the head three times opening severe gashes. When the cops arrived the husband was standing in the doorway bleeding like a stuck pig and yelling at the top of his lungs as was Earline. Earline was arrested for assault and battery and criminal domestic violence. Her husband was arrested for criminal domestic violence and taken to the Mary Black Hospital to have his head sewn up.
On a remote beach in New Zealand 58 pilot whales beached themselves and stayed that way for 12 hours before being discovered. Rescuers descended on the beach and began trying to re-float those that were still alive. They were able to get 11 of them headed back to sea with 7 of them appearing to be fit enough to travel and 4 seemed to be struggling. All the rest were dead. This is not the first time this has happened. Back in 2006 76 pilot whales beached themselves on this very same beach and none of them survived. No one knows why these whales choose to commit suicide like this.
This date in history August 25
1944 A few days before the hard fighting French 2nd Armored division, General Jacque-Philippe LeClerc commanding, approached the German occupied city of Paris, France from the north while the American 4th Infantry is approaching Paris from the south. The liberation of that great city was at hand. The 2nd Armored took a beating from the German artillery but when LeClerc heard that the 4th Infantry was approaching the center of Paris he found a surge of energy and they swept the west side of Paris while the 4th Infantry swept the east side. The German Commander in Paris was General Dietrich Von Choltitz. When Choltitz told Hitler that Paris was lost and would soon by occupied by the French and Americans Hitler ordered him to destroy all of the famous places in Paris like the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles palace, etc and then burn Paris to the ground. Choltitz thought about that about 3 minutes and then said to his staff “I will not go down in history as destroying the “the city of light”, the greatest city in Europe.” So none of the pre-set explosives installed by the Germans was detonated and Paris was saved when Choltitz signed an official surrender to the Allies. . There were about 20,000 German troops stationed in Paris but when they found out that they were trapped in a pincer movement and the Free French insurgents came out and began an attack on the troops out in the open, the German troops melted away. On this date a gigantic parade with the 2nd Armored, the 4th Infantry and The Free French march in victory down the Champs d’Elysses with General LeClerc and Charles DeGaulle in the lead. It was a great day for freedom.
1864 The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, General R.E. Lee commanding, is under siege in and around Petersburg, Virginia by the Army of the Potomac, General Ulysses Grant commanding. The majority of supplies coming into the Confederates were coming in via the Weldon Railroad from the south. Grant orders his 2nd Corps led by General Winfield Hancock to go down and destroy the railroad. Hancock is successful in destroying 8 miles of railroad track but the Confederates simply stopped the train south of the destroyed rails and brought the supplies up by wagons. Lee gets fed up and sends General A.P. Hill and his infantry supported by General Wade Hampton’s cavalry down to restore the railroad. The Confederate and Union troops meet at a railroad depot named Ream’s Station. The Union soldiers had build a revetment out of soil but they did not build it tall enough and the Confederate artillery easily crossed over and fell into the huddled troops on the other side. The troops under the command of US General John Gibbon were green and inexperienced. When the artillery shells began falling, those troops broke and ran with Hampton’s cavalry in hot pursuit. It was a rout. This was not easy for US General Hancock to witness because he was the hero of Gettysburg and was known as a leader that would stand his ground. Not this time. Hancock and Gibbon blamed each other for the debacle so Grant got fed up with the squabbling and transferred them both out of the 2nd Corps.
1896 In 1858 William Doolin was born on a farm in Arkansas. At an early age Bill moved to Oklahoma and became a ranch hand on the huge ranch owned by Oscar Haskell. Oscar took a liking to the young Arkansan and eventually Bill became a foreman. But for reasons known only to Bill, he decided to engage in a little thievery. In fact he joined up with the Dalton gang from time to time on bank and train robberies. He was a very meticulous thinker/planner and he was useful to the Daltons in the planning of a robbery. Bill was wounded more than once in the robberies but none seriously. But he decided to go to the mineral springs in Eureka Springs, Arkansas for rest and recuperation. But he did not plan on one thing; he was being tracked by the famous lawman William Tilghman. Tilghman was able to surprise Doolin and captured him without a fight. Tilghman took Doolin to the Guthrie, Oklahoma jail and soon thereafter Doolin escapes and eludes the police for about 2 months. On this date, a posse of 12 men traps Bill Doolin in a house in Lawson, Oklahoma. They call for Bill to surrender but he isn’t having any part of a long prison term and comes out the door guns blazing. All of the posse fire their rifles and shotguns at the same time cutting Bill to ribbons. He was 38 years old.
Born today:
1836 US writer Bret Harte. He said “A big vice in a man is likely to keep out many smaller ones.” It works for me, Bret.
1850 US humorist Bill Nye. He said “I have heard that Wagner’s music is a lot better than it sounds.”
1889 US writer William Feather. He said “Flattery must get pretty thick before anyone objects to it.”
1912 US cartoonist Walt Kelly. He said “Women are not as mere as they used to be.” Walt gave us the comic strip “Pogo”. Pogo gave us the immortal phrase “We have met the enemy and the enemy is us.”
1918 US composer Leonard Bernstein. He said “To achieve great things two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”
1919 Former Governor George Wallace. He said “I may not look like a black man, but my heart is as black as anyone here.” How is that again, George?
1942 Scottish guitarist David Russell. He said “We live in a Newtonian world of Einstein physics ruled by Frankenstein logic.”
1949 US musician Gene Simmons. He said “Walk among the natives in the daylight, but in your heart be Superman.”
1951 English singer Rob Halford (Judas Priest). He said “In music there is only heavy metal and the rest of that shit they play on radio and show on MTV.”
1613 English writer Richard Crashaw. He said to his wife “It is daylight, my sweet. Not from the east but from thine eyes.” All you married guys need to remember these words.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world.”
Albert Einstein
I guess it must have been a full moon this last weekend. A lot of strange things happened.
Over in Spartanburg, SC 26 year old Julius Cox was not happy with what his girlfriend was cooking for him and began beating on her. She headed for the bedroom and began gathering up her clothes to leave under a barrage of blows from her boyfriend. The cops finally arrived and put a stop to it and took Julius to the joint for criminal domestic violence. I don’t get it. If Julius was not happy with what she was cooking he could have went to Church’s Chicken, for crying out loud. Now she is eating some food that is barely edible and not much of it at that. I was always raised that if someone cooked for you, you ate it no matter what. It is a southern tradition. Obviously Julius is a Yankee.
Then over in the nearby town of Cowpens, 34 year old Earline Gowdy got mad at her husband for unknown reasons. She broke a leg off of and end table and hit him in the head three times opening severe gashes. When the cops arrived the husband was standing in the doorway bleeding like a stuck pig and yelling at the top of his lungs as was Earline. Earline was arrested for assault and battery and criminal domestic violence. Her husband was arrested for criminal domestic violence and taken to the Mary Black Hospital to have his head sewn up.
On a remote beach in New Zealand 58 pilot whales beached themselves and stayed that way for 12 hours before being discovered. Rescuers descended on the beach and began trying to re-float those that were still alive. They were able to get 11 of them headed back to sea with 7 of them appearing to be fit enough to travel and 4 seemed to be struggling. All the rest were dead. This is not the first time this has happened. Back in 2006 76 pilot whales beached themselves on this very same beach and none of them survived. No one knows why these whales choose to commit suicide like this.
This date in history August 25
1944 A few days before the hard fighting French 2nd Armored division, General Jacque-Philippe LeClerc commanding, approached the German occupied city of Paris, France from the north while the American 4th Infantry is approaching Paris from the south. The liberation of that great city was at hand. The 2nd Armored took a beating from the German artillery but when LeClerc heard that the 4th Infantry was approaching the center of Paris he found a surge of energy and they swept the west side of Paris while the 4th Infantry swept the east side. The German Commander in Paris was General Dietrich Von Choltitz. When Choltitz told Hitler that Paris was lost and would soon by occupied by the French and Americans Hitler ordered him to destroy all of the famous places in Paris like the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles palace, etc and then burn Paris to the ground. Choltitz thought about that about 3 minutes and then said to his staff “I will not go down in history as destroying the “the city of light”, the greatest city in Europe.” So none of the pre-set explosives installed by the Germans was detonated and Paris was saved when Choltitz signed an official surrender to the Allies. . There were about 20,000 German troops stationed in Paris but when they found out that they were trapped in a pincer movement and the Free French insurgents came out and began an attack on the troops out in the open, the German troops melted away. On this date a gigantic parade with the 2nd Armored, the 4th Infantry and The Free French march in victory down the Champs d’Elysses with General LeClerc and Charles DeGaulle in the lead. It was a great day for freedom.
1864 The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, General R.E. Lee commanding, is under siege in and around Petersburg, Virginia by the Army of the Potomac, General Ulysses Grant commanding. The majority of supplies coming into the Confederates were coming in via the Weldon Railroad from the south. Grant orders his 2nd Corps led by General Winfield Hancock to go down and destroy the railroad. Hancock is successful in destroying 8 miles of railroad track but the Confederates simply stopped the train south of the destroyed rails and brought the supplies up by wagons. Lee gets fed up and sends General A.P. Hill and his infantry supported by General Wade Hampton’s cavalry down to restore the railroad. The Confederate and Union troops meet at a railroad depot named Ream’s Station. The Union soldiers had build a revetment out of soil but they did not build it tall enough and the Confederate artillery easily crossed over and fell into the huddled troops on the other side. The troops under the command of US General John Gibbon were green and inexperienced. When the artillery shells began falling, those troops broke and ran with Hampton’s cavalry in hot pursuit. It was a rout. This was not easy for US General Hancock to witness because he was the hero of Gettysburg and was known as a leader that would stand his ground. Not this time. Hancock and Gibbon blamed each other for the debacle so Grant got fed up with the squabbling and transferred them both out of the 2nd Corps.
1896 In 1858 William Doolin was born on a farm in Arkansas. At an early age Bill moved to Oklahoma and became a ranch hand on the huge ranch owned by Oscar Haskell. Oscar took a liking to the young Arkansan and eventually Bill became a foreman. But for reasons known only to Bill, he decided to engage in a little thievery. In fact he joined up with the Dalton gang from time to time on bank and train robberies. He was a very meticulous thinker/planner and he was useful to the Daltons in the planning of a robbery. Bill was wounded more than once in the robberies but none seriously. But he decided to go to the mineral springs in Eureka Springs, Arkansas for rest and recuperation. But he did not plan on one thing; he was being tracked by the famous lawman William Tilghman. Tilghman was able to surprise Doolin and captured him without a fight. Tilghman took Doolin to the Guthrie, Oklahoma jail and soon thereafter Doolin escapes and eludes the police for about 2 months. On this date, a posse of 12 men traps Bill Doolin in a house in Lawson, Oklahoma. They call for Bill to surrender but he isn’t having any part of a long prison term and comes out the door guns blazing. All of the posse fire their rifles and shotguns at the same time cutting Bill to ribbons. He was 38 years old.
Born today:
1836 US writer Bret Harte. He said “A big vice in a man is likely to keep out many smaller ones.” It works for me, Bret.
1850 US humorist Bill Nye. He said “I have heard that Wagner’s music is a lot better than it sounds.”
1889 US writer William Feather. He said “Flattery must get pretty thick before anyone objects to it.”
1912 US cartoonist Walt Kelly. He said “Women are not as mere as they used to be.” Walt gave us the comic strip “Pogo”. Pogo gave us the immortal phrase “We have met the enemy and the enemy is us.”
1918 US composer Leonard Bernstein. He said “To achieve great things two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”
1919 Former Governor George Wallace. He said “I may not look like a black man, but my heart is as black as anyone here.” How is that again, George?
1942 Scottish guitarist David Russell. He said “We live in a Newtonian world of Einstein physics ruled by Frankenstein logic.”
1949 US musician Gene Simmons. He said “Walk among the natives in the daylight, but in your heart be Superman.”
1951 English singer Rob Halford (Judas Priest). He said “In music there is only heavy metal and the rest of that shit they play on radio and show on MTV.”
1613 English writer Richard Crashaw. He said to his wife “It is daylight, my sweet. Not from the east but from thine eyes.” All you married guys need to remember these words.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Daily History
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Sometimes people build walls around them not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”
Jeanette Smitherson
The French Government has begun gathering up all the Gypsies and flying back to their home country of Romania. It seems that the Gypsies as a group have been abusing their children and promoting prostitution. The prostitution issue is not that serious in France as long as the participants see to their sexual health on a regular basis. The Gypsies do not do this. The strange part of all of this is that the French Government gives the Gypsies 300 Euros each to help them get on their feet once they arrive in Romania. The France/Romania border is virtually non-existent and the Gypsies just walk back into France, await arrest, collect the 300 Euros and fly back home. There have been cases of people doing this 8 times. It is a living for them.
Well it looks like one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball is going to the joint for lying to Congress. That’s right, y’all, it is Roger “The Rocket” Clemens. Roger testified before Congress saying that he had never used an illegal substance such as steroids in his baseball career. But his trainer said that he had and offered proof in the form of a hypodermic syringe with traces of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and Roger’s DNA on it. HGH is a no-no in the world of professional baseball.
Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout has been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand and will be extradited to the United States for trial. This man is known worldwide as “The Merchant of Death.” He sold rifles, pistols, surface-to-air missiles, helicopter gunships, airplanes, tanks, submarines, grenade launchers, etc. to anyone that coughed up the cash, good or bad. Viktor is looking at life in prison. The Russian government is raising hell because Viktor worked closely with Russian intelligence. Not anymore.
Down south of Cleveland, Ohio there is a man who raises black bears in cages for two reasons. Occasionally a movie script will call for a bear and reason number two; this man will bring a bear to a county fair and charge people for the chance to wrestle one of his bears. I will repeat that. He charged people for a chance to wrestle a bear. Last Thursday a man paid the fee and attempted to wrestle a bear…the bear won by inflicting a fatal bite to his opponent’s neck. The bears don’t know that we are different than any other animal invading their space. Let them the hell alone.
By now I guess all of you know about the mother here in South Carolina that smothered her toddlers, strapped them into child seats in her car and rolled it into the Edisto River trying to cover up the murders. The mother confessed. The funeral for the kids was held in a small church near Orangeburg on Friday. Hundreds were in attendance. There is no use in me saying “Why didn’t she give them up for adoption?” I said the same thing about Susan Smith. It is too late now.
This date in history August 24
79AD On this date the Roman elite in the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum on the Bay of Naples were just sitting down to lunch or a late breakfast. Most of the houses in these cities were vacation homes to the Roman rich. Then a stupendous explosion shakes the very ground on which they were sitting/standing. It was the eruption of the centuries old extinct volcano Mount Vesuvius. A cloud of white hot ash and rock shot 20,000 feet into the atmosphere and lava and mud slid down the side of the volcano in torrents. The people in the cities did not have a chance. The dust and rocks in the atmosphere began raining down burning people to death or mixed with the poison gasses that accompanied the mud and lava and asphyxiated them. The ash and rock mixed with the lava and mud forming a sort of concrete and buried thousands of them under 10 to 15 feet which cooled into a solidified mass. A Roman General name Pliny the Elder was in command of a Roman fleet that was on patrol in the Bay of Naples when this great event occurred. Pliny saw with disbelief swarms of people swimming out into the bay to escape the enormous heat but the raining ash was still hot enough to burn and people were screaming for death in their agony. Pliny ordered some of his ships to go and try to rescue them but they returned after a short while saying the ash was so hot that it was setting their ships on fire. Pliny just could not stand aside and watch so he ordered his boat into the maelstrom and went to the sides of the ash flow and tried to comfort those that had escaped. Pliny got a whiff of the toxic gasses and collapsed and died. His nephew Pliny the Younger, aged 17, was on the opposite side of the bay and chronicled what he saw and gave it to the Roman historian Tactius. The two cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were eventually forgotten until a farmer digging a grape vineyard and the ground collapsed into the courtyard of a buried mansion. From then on archaeologists and paleontologists descended on the area and nearly the entire towns have been excavated giving us a snapshot of what life was like in those ill-fated cities.
1572 The king of France was King Charles IX but the real control was in the hands of his mother Catherine de Medici. Catherine went down in history as one of the most manipulative and ruthless person who ever lived. She and he son Charles were supposed to be Catholic but she would persuade Charles to dance with whoever held sway at a given time be it the Pope or the French Huguenots which were protestant. In this particular point in time the leader of the Huguenots Admiral Garpard de Coligny held sway with King Charles and good old Catherine saw the Admiral as a threat and ordered his murder. On this day, Saint Bartholomew’s Day, the assassins found the Admiral and killed him. For some reason the Catholics got their bloodlust aroused and they began killing the Huguenots wholesale all across France in spite of King Charles ordering them to stop. They stopped alright, after killing over 70,000 of them. This event was known since and The Saint Bartholomew Day Massacre. Catherine may have felt more secure after this but France suffered because all the surviving Huguenots moved away taking their money with them.
1814 Earlier during the War of 1812 the British army under the command of General Robert Ross flanks and defeats the Patriot Militia at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland. This victory for the British left the road to Washington undefended. On this date the British army marches into Washington unopposed and begin burning everything in sight. The British were pissed off because the Patriot army had burned the British consulate in Canada for no apparent reason. During the Battle of Bladensburg president James Madison went to the battle site and took command of one of the artillery batteries. This is the only time that a sitting American president engaged in combat. Before he left he told his wife Dolly that she would have to evacuate soon and to take only those things that were important. She took the portrait of George Washington with which we are all familiar. I guess it was that important because later that night the British burned the White House to the ground. But the redcoats ran up against US General Andrew Jackson and company near Chalmette, Louisiana who sent them running away with their asses in hand. But the war was over before this fight but the communications were so slow that Jackson knew nothing about the British surrender.
Born today:
1884 US Writer James Earl Biggers. He said “When the jig is up, there no need for any further dancing.”
1894 Welsh writer Jean Rhys. She said “Reading make immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but most importantly, it finds homes for us everywhere.” It does that for me.
1898 US writer Malcolm Crowley. He said “They tell you that you’ll lose your mind when you get older. What they don’t tell you is that you won’t miss it much.” Did you say something, Malcolm?
1929 PLO leader Yasser Arafat. He said “Choose your friends carefully, your enemies will choose you.” Especially ex-wives and girl friends.
1957 English writer Stephan Fry. He said “Once you have seen an infant do a backward summersault you will realize what clothing is for.” What a thought.
Died today:
1953 US writer Kate Wiggin. She said “Every child born into this world is a new thought of God, an ever fresh and radiant possibility.” That is except those monstrous brats that scream and yell running down the aisles of a library or a restaurant. They are the spawn of the loins of Beelzebub.
1957 English writer Ronald Knox. He said “It is a shame that modern civilization has chosen not to believe in the devil, when he is the only explanation for it all.” You notice that Ronald put the devil as masculine. See the next paragraph.
2004 Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Ross. She said “Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and believe that everything in life has a purpose.” Hey Elisabeth, what about my third ex-wife?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Sometimes people build walls around them not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”
Jeanette Smitherson
The French Government has begun gathering up all the Gypsies and flying back to their home country of Romania. It seems that the Gypsies as a group have been abusing their children and promoting prostitution. The prostitution issue is not that serious in France as long as the participants see to their sexual health on a regular basis. The Gypsies do not do this. The strange part of all of this is that the French Government gives the Gypsies 300 Euros each to help them get on their feet once they arrive in Romania. The France/Romania border is virtually non-existent and the Gypsies just walk back into France, await arrest, collect the 300 Euros and fly back home. There have been cases of people doing this 8 times. It is a living for them.
Well it looks like one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball is going to the joint for lying to Congress. That’s right, y’all, it is Roger “The Rocket” Clemens. Roger testified before Congress saying that he had never used an illegal substance such as steroids in his baseball career. But his trainer said that he had and offered proof in the form of a hypodermic syringe with traces of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and Roger’s DNA on it. HGH is a no-no in the world of professional baseball.
Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout has been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand and will be extradited to the United States for trial. This man is known worldwide as “The Merchant of Death.” He sold rifles, pistols, surface-to-air missiles, helicopter gunships, airplanes, tanks, submarines, grenade launchers, etc. to anyone that coughed up the cash, good or bad. Viktor is looking at life in prison. The Russian government is raising hell because Viktor worked closely with Russian intelligence. Not anymore.
Down south of Cleveland, Ohio there is a man who raises black bears in cages for two reasons. Occasionally a movie script will call for a bear and reason number two; this man will bring a bear to a county fair and charge people for the chance to wrestle one of his bears. I will repeat that. He charged people for a chance to wrestle a bear. Last Thursday a man paid the fee and attempted to wrestle a bear…the bear won by inflicting a fatal bite to his opponent’s neck. The bears don’t know that we are different than any other animal invading their space. Let them the hell alone.
By now I guess all of you know about the mother here in South Carolina that smothered her toddlers, strapped them into child seats in her car and rolled it into the Edisto River trying to cover up the murders. The mother confessed. The funeral for the kids was held in a small church near Orangeburg on Friday. Hundreds were in attendance. There is no use in me saying “Why didn’t she give them up for adoption?” I said the same thing about Susan Smith. It is too late now.
This date in history August 24
79AD On this date the Roman elite in the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum on the Bay of Naples were just sitting down to lunch or a late breakfast. Most of the houses in these cities were vacation homes to the Roman rich. Then a stupendous explosion shakes the very ground on which they were sitting/standing. It was the eruption of the centuries old extinct volcano Mount Vesuvius. A cloud of white hot ash and rock shot 20,000 feet into the atmosphere and lava and mud slid down the side of the volcano in torrents. The people in the cities did not have a chance. The dust and rocks in the atmosphere began raining down burning people to death or mixed with the poison gasses that accompanied the mud and lava and asphyxiated them. The ash and rock mixed with the lava and mud forming a sort of concrete and buried thousands of them under 10 to 15 feet which cooled into a solidified mass. A Roman General name Pliny the Elder was in command of a Roman fleet that was on patrol in the Bay of Naples when this great event occurred. Pliny saw with disbelief swarms of people swimming out into the bay to escape the enormous heat but the raining ash was still hot enough to burn and people were screaming for death in their agony. Pliny ordered some of his ships to go and try to rescue them but they returned after a short while saying the ash was so hot that it was setting their ships on fire. Pliny just could not stand aside and watch so he ordered his boat into the maelstrom and went to the sides of the ash flow and tried to comfort those that had escaped. Pliny got a whiff of the toxic gasses and collapsed and died. His nephew Pliny the Younger, aged 17, was on the opposite side of the bay and chronicled what he saw and gave it to the Roman historian Tactius. The two cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were eventually forgotten until a farmer digging a grape vineyard and the ground collapsed into the courtyard of a buried mansion. From then on archaeologists and paleontologists descended on the area and nearly the entire towns have been excavated giving us a snapshot of what life was like in those ill-fated cities.
1572 The king of France was King Charles IX but the real control was in the hands of his mother Catherine de Medici. Catherine went down in history as one of the most manipulative and ruthless person who ever lived. She and he son Charles were supposed to be Catholic but she would persuade Charles to dance with whoever held sway at a given time be it the Pope or the French Huguenots which were protestant. In this particular point in time the leader of the Huguenots Admiral Garpard de Coligny held sway with King Charles and good old Catherine saw the Admiral as a threat and ordered his murder. On this day, Saint Bartholomew’s Day, the assassins found the Admiral and killed him. For some reason the Catholics got their bloodlust aroused and they began killing the Huguenots wholesale all across France in spite of King Charles ordering them to stop. They stopped alright, after killing over 70,000 of them. This event was known since and The Saint Bartholomew Day Massacre. Catherine may have felt more secure after this but France suffered because all the surviving Huguenots moved away taking their money with them.
1814 Earlier during the War of 1812 the British army under the command of General Robert Ross flanks and defeats the Patriot Militia at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland. This victory for the British left the road to Washington undefended. On this date the British army marches into Washington unopposed and begin burning everything in sight. The British were pissed off because the Patriot army had burned the British consulate in Canada for no apparent reason. During the Battle of Bladensburg president James Madison went to the battle site and took command of one of the artillery batteries. This is the only time that a sitting American president engaged in combat. Before he left he told his wife Dolly that she would have to evacuate soon and to take only those things that were important. She took the portrait of George Washington with which we are all familiar. I guess it was that important because later that night the British burned the White House to the ground. But the redcoats ran up against US General Andrew Jackson and company near Chalmette, Louisiana who sent them running away with their asses in hand. But the war was over before this fight but the communications were so slow that Jackson knew nothing about the British surrender.
Born today:
1884 US Writer James Earl Biggers. He said “When the jig is up, there no need for any further dancing.”
1894 Welsh writer Jean Rhys. She said “Reading make immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but most importantly, it finds homes for us everywhere.” It does that for me.
1898 US writer Malcolm Crowley. He said “They tell you that you’ll lose your mind when you get older. What they don’t tell you is that you won’t miss it much.” Did you say something, Malcolm?
1929 PLO leader Yasser Arafat. He said “Choose your friends carefully, your enemies will choose you.” Especially ex-wives and girl friends.
1957 English writer Stephan Fry. He said “Once you have seen an infant do a backward summersault you will realize what clothing is for.” What a thought.
Died today:
1953 US writer Kate Wiggin. She said “Every child born into this world is a new thought of God, an ever fresh and radiant possibility.” That is except those monstrous brats that scream and yell running down the aisles of a library or a restaurant. They are the spawn of the loins of Beelzebub.
1957 English writer Ronald Knox. He said “It is a shame that modern civilization has chosen not to believe in the devil, when he is the only explanation for it all.” You notice that Ronald put the devil as masculine. See the next paragraph.
2004 Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Ross. She said “Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and believe that everything in life has a purpose.” Hey Elisabeth, what about my third ex-wife?
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only
human institution which rejects progress is in the cemetery.”
Harold Wilson
I guess by now all of you know that the last US combat troops are in the process of withdrawal from Iraq. However, there is a major increase in combat personnel in Afghanistan. I used to not have a clear understanding of our mission in either Iraq or Afghanistan but I think I have it figured them out. In Iraq there is very little of the Taliban, even the Iraqis don’t like their tight fisted attitude toward strict adherence to Islamic law. We are in Afghanistan to kill the Taliban. I used to wander around from pillar or post trying to figure out the politics of our presence in Afghanistan. It ain’t politics, y’all, it is war. Kill the enemy.
At the Friday meeting of the “Four o’clock Club” a rather winsome server came in to speak with the bartender. We all knew that she was in law enforcement in the past and someone asked her why she got out. She said that she could not make enough money. There was long pause and one of the guys said “Do you still have your handcuffs and shackles?”
A few days ago a 10 year old boy was out on a fishing pier near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Close by was a couple of men trying to wrestle a fair sized sting ray onto the pier. They succeeded amid a hell of a lot of flopping around by the ray. Suddenly the ray’s stinger flew apart and impelled itself in the stomach of the 10 year old where only a tiny amount of the stinger was showing. Fortunately for the kid, a nurse was close by and persuaded everyone to not try to withdraw the stinger because it is barbed like a fish hook and withdrawal would promote heavy bleeding. The boy was taken to a nearby hospital and the stinger was surgically removed successfully. The doctors said that the stinger had penetrated the boys liver and if the stinger had been backed out he would have bled out in a matter of minutes. That is what happened to Steve Irwin. He was penetrated in the heart and they tried to back it out he bled to death.
Last week 146 combat soldiers from Afghanistan arrived at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport for a little R & R. They were greeted in the airport terminal by a cheering crowd including Dubya and Laura Bush. He did not have to be there. Neither he nor Laura are running for public office. I think he and Laura went there because they are true Patriots, politics notwithstanding.
A few months ago a fight in Saudi Arabia resulted in one man being attacked by a man with a meat cleaver. This man was wounded in the spine and was paralyzed. As you might suspect a Saudi judge began searching for a hospital that would sever the attacker’s spinal column making him paralyzed as well. This judge has had men blinded when they caused the blindness of another and had a man’s teeth removed by a dentist when he had knocked out the teeth of another. Amnesty International is trying their best to rein in this judge from paralyzing the attacker on purpose. He apparently believes in the old mosaic rule of “an eye for an eye” statute.
This date in history August 23
1784 On this date four counties in the state of North Carolina declare their independence from the state and form a new state of Franklin. The state of North Carolina has previously ceded some of the lands in western North Carolina to the United States Congress. The residents in these lands equaling four counties were afraid that Congress would sell these lands to either France or Spain to pay off war debts accumulated during the Revolutionary War. In order to prevent this, the four counties form their own state. They had their own constitution, legislature, courts and president. The president was John Sevier who was a patriot warrior leader during the Revolutionary War. Franklin existed on it’s own for two years but got into financial trouble and offered to sell their lands to Spain. Needless to say the state of North Carolina frowned on the prospect of having a Spanish colony on their border and arrested Sevier. But the real problem with the state of Franklin was that they had no appreciable militia and this information got to the Cherokee, Chickamauga and Chickasaw and raids on frontier villages in the state of Franklin increased exponentially. So the state of Franklin asked to rejoin the state of North Carolina if for no other reason that the protection of the state militia from the Indians. These four counties were absorbed into the state of Tennessee later on.
1861 On this date Allen Pinkerton arrests Rose Greenhow in Washington, DC. Rose was an outspoken supporter of the Confederacy and was without a doubt the leader of a very efficient spy network in the nation’s capitol. Rose was close friends if not more with one of the Senators from Massachusetts and many of his friends. Rose fed information to CSA General P.T.G. Beauregard just before the Battle of 1st Manassas about the deployment of the Union troops commanded by US General Irwin McDowell which resulted in the severe ass-kicking delivered by the Confederates. After the war CSA General Jubal Early testified that the information delivered by Rose was instrumental in the defeat of the US army in more than one engagement. While Rose and her daughter were under house arrest in Washington she was allowed to have visitors which meant that he spy network did not slow down. Pinkerton became very exasperated with Rose and her daughter “Little Rose” and imprisoned her and her daughter in a real prison south of Washington. After a while she and he daughter was released and banned to live in the south until the war was over. Rose went abroad to drum up money for the Confederacy. On one occasion she was on her way back home to Charleston, SC when her ship was encountered by a US blockade ship and was run aground. Rose was washed overboard from her lifeboat and went to the bottom like an anvil because he had many pounds of gold on her person meant for the Confederacy. She died supporting her belief.
1877 Three years before outlaw John Wesley Hardin kills a deputy named Charles Webb in a small town near Austin, Texas. This murder was just one of several murders committed by this monster. If ever there was a “bad seed” on this earth it was John Wesley Hardin. He apparently took delight in killing, especially law enforcement officers. The Texas Rangers tasked their best man, John Armstrong, to find Hardin and bring him to justice. Hardin moved to southeast using and alias and divided his time between Florida and Alabama. The relentless Armstrong discovered his alias and tracked Hardin down to a rail yard in Pensacola, Florida. On this date Armstrong and two of his deputies boarded the rail car that held Hardin and two of his compatriots. The two of Hardin’s compatriots tried to draw their pistols and were shot and killed for their trouble. Hardin had a pistol in a shoulder holster but he got tangled up and Armstrong ran over and knocked Hardin’s brains out with the barrel of his pistol. As you might suspect, Armstrong and his buddies being Texas Rangers had no authority in Florida but Armstrong and company would not be denied. They took the unconscious Hardin off the train and waited until the next train headed west came by and got aboard. They arrived in Texas with Hardin in tow. Hardin was tried and sentenced to life in prison in the Huntsville, Texas prison. He spent 15 years in prison and was paroled. He went to El Paso, Texas and tried to settle down but a deputy sheriff found out who he was and walked up behind him in a bar and blew his brains out at point blank range. The good citizens of El Paso rejoiced.
Born today:
1932 US comedian Mark Russell. He said “I like the scientific theory that the rings around Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.” Mark is a funny guy.
1933 The governor of California Pete Wilson. When speaking of his adversaries he said “They can kiss my ass, if they can jump that high.” I like his attitude.
1834 US actress Barbara Eden. She said “If gentlemen prefer blondes then I am a blonde that prefers gentlemen.” Barbara had a drop dead good looking body, ya’ll.
1970 US actor River Phoenix. He said “I am having a hard time keeping my head above water in this crazy business.” This young man was a dynamite actor who died of an overdose at the age of 23. What a damned shame.
Died today:
1960 US lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. He said “If you want to be admitted to the fold of the brotherhood of man, you have to let everyone else in also.” We are already there, Oscar.
1995 German photographer Alfred Eisenstadt. He said “As long as I have a camera in my hand, I have no fear.” Good thought Alfred, but I prefer a .40 caliber Glock automatic.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only
human institution which rejects progress is in the cemetery.”
Harold Wilson
I guess by now all of you know that the last US combat troops are in the process of withdrawal from Iraq. However, there is a major increase in combat personnel in Afghanistan. I used to not have a clear understanding of our mission in either Iraq or Afghanistan but I think I have it figured them out. In Iraq there is very little of the Taliban, even the Iraqis don’t like their tight fisted attitude toward strict adherence to Islamic law. We are in Afghanistan to kill the Taliban. I used to wander around from pillar or post trying to figure out the politics of our presence in Afghanistan. It ain’t politics, y’all, it is war. Kill the enemy.
At the Friday meeting of the “Four o’clock Club” a rather winsome server came in to speak with the bartender. We all knew that she was in law enforcement in the past and someone asked her why she got out. She said that she could not make enough money. There was long pause and one of the guys said “Do you still have your handcuffs and shackles?”
A few days ago a 10 year old boy was out on a fishing pier near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Close by was a couple of men trying to wrestle a fair sized sting ray onto the pier. They succeeded amid a hell of a lot of flopping around by the ray. Suddenly the ray’s stinger flew apart and impelled itself in the stomach of the 10 year old where only a tiny amount of the stinger was showing. Fortunately for the kid, a nurse was close by and persuaded everyone to not try to withdraw the stinger because it is barbed like a fish hook and withdrawal would promote heavy bleeding. The boy was taken to a nearby hospital and the stinger was surgically removed successfully. The doctors said that the stinger had penetrated the boys liver and if the stinger had been backed out he would have bled out in a matter of minutes. That is what happened to Steve Irwin. He was penetrated in the heart and they tried to back it out he bled to death.
Last week 146 combat soldiers from Afghanistan arrived at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport for a little R & R. They were greeted in the airport terminal by a cheering crowd including Dubya and Laura Bush. He did not have to be there. Neither he nor Laura are running for public office. I think he and Laura went there because they are true Patriots, politics notwithstanding.
A few months ago a fight in Saudi Arabia resulted in one man being attacked by a man with a meat cleaver. This man was wounded in the spine and was paralyzed. As you might suspect a Saudi judge began searching for a hospital that would sever the attacker’s spinal column making him paralyzed as well. This judge has had men blinded when they caused the blindness of another and had a man’s teeth removed by a dentist when he had knocked out the teeth of another. Amnesty International is trying their best to rein in this judge from paralyzing the attacker on purpose. He apparently believes in the old mosaic rule of “an eye for an eye” statute.
This date in history August 23
1784 On this date four counties in the state of North Carolina declare their independence from the state and form a new state of Franklin. The state of North Carolina has previously ceded some of the lands in western North Carolina to the United States Congress. The residents in these lands equaling four counties were afraid that Congress would sell these lands to either France or Spain to pay off war debts accumulated during the Revolutionary War. In order to prevent this, the four counties form their own state. They had their own constitution, legislature, courts and president. The president was John Sevier who was a patriot warrior leader during the Revolutionary War. Franklin existed on it’s own for two years but got into financial trouble and offered to sell their lands to Spain. Needless to say the state of North Carolina frowned on the prospect of having a Spanish colony on their border and arrested Sevier. But the real problem with the state of Franklin was that they had no appreciable militia and this information got to the Cherokee, Chickamauga and Chickasaw and raids on frontier villages in the state of Franklin increased exponentially. So the state of Franklin asked to rejoin the state of North Carolina if for no other reason that the protection of the state militia from the Indians. These four counties were absorbed into the state of Tennessee later on.
1861 On this date Allen Pinkerton arrests Rose Greenhow in Washington, DC. Rose was an outspoken supporter of the Confederacy and was without a doubt the leader of a very efficient spy network in the nation’s capitol. Rose was close friends if not more with one of the Senators from Massachusetts and many of his friends. Rose fed information to CSA General P.T.G. Beauregard just before the Battle of 1st Manassas about the deployment of the Union troops commanded by US General Irwin McDowell which resulted in the severe ass-kicking delivered by the Confederates. After the war CSA General Jubal Early testified that the information delivered by Rose was instrumental in the defeat of the US army in more than one engagement. While Rose and her daughter were under house arrest in Washington she was allowed to have visitors which meant that he spy network did not slow down. Pinkerton became very exasperated with Rose and her daughter “Little Rose” and imprisoned her and her daughter in a real prison south of Washington. After a while she and he daughter was released and banned to live in the south until the war was over. Rose went abroad to drum up money for the Confederacy. On one occasion she was on her way back home to Charleston, SC when her ship was encountered by a US blockade ship and was run aground. Rose was washed overboard from her lifeboat and went to the bottom like an anvil because he had many pounds of gold on her person meant for the Confederacy. She died supporting her belief.
1877 Three years before outlaw John Wesley Hardin kills a deputy named Charles Webb in a small town near Austin, Texas. This murder was just one of several murders committed by this monster. If ever there was a “bad seed” on this earth it was John Wesley Hardin. He apparently took delight in killing, especially law enforcement officers. The Texas Rangers tasked their best man, John Armstrong, to find Hardin and bring him to justice. Hardin moved to southeast using and alias and divided his time between Florida and Alabama. The relentless Armstrong discovered his alias and tracked Hardin down to a rail yard in Pensacola, Florida. On this date Armstrong and two of his deputies boarded the rail car that held Hardin and two of his compatriots. The two of Hardin’s compatriots tried to draw their pistols and were shot and killed for their trouble. Hardin had a pistol in a shoulder holster but he got tangled up and Armstrong ran over and knocked Hardin’s brains out with the barrel of his pistol. As you might suspect, Armstrong and his buddies being Texas Rangers had no authority in Florida but Armstrong and company would not be denied. They took the unconscious Hardin off the train and waited until the next train headed west came by and got aboard. They arrived in Texas with Hardin in tow. Hardin was tried and sentenced to life in prison in the Huntsville, Texas prison. He spent 15 years in prison and was paroled. He went to El Paso, Texas and tried to settle down but a deputy sheriff found out who he was and walked up behind him in a bar and blew his brains out at point blank range. The good citizens of El Paso rejoiced.
Born today:
1932 US comedian Mark Russell. He said “I like the scientific theory that the rings around Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.” Mark is a funny guy.
1933 The governor of California Pete Wilson. When speaking of his adversaries he said “They can kiss my ass, if they can jump that high.” I like his attitude.
1834 US actress Barbara Eden. She said “If gentlemen prefer blondes then I am a blonde that prefers gentlemen.” Barbara had a drop dead good looking body, ya’ll.
1970 US actor River Phoenix. He said “I am having a hard time keeping my head above water in this crazy business.” This young man was a dynamite actor who died of an overdose at the age of 23. What a damned shame.
Died today:
1960 US lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. He said “If you want to be admitted to the fold of the brotherhood of man, you have to let everyone else in also.” We are already there, Oscar.
1995 German photographer Alfred Eisenstadt. He said “As long as I have a camera in my hand, I have no fear.” Good thought Alfred, but I prefer a .40 caliber Glock automatic.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Friday, August 20, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, and that is all.”
Oscar Wilde
Today’s prologue will be a short biography of one of the most interesting people in this country’s early history. He became a legend.
Jean Lafitte
Legendary Pirate
The exact place and date of birth of Jean Lafitte is not known for sure. The generally accepted year is 1776. Lafitte himself claimed Bordeaux, France as his birthplace while at the same time his brother Pierre claimed that their birthplace was Bayonne, France. At that time it would be advantageous to be a French citizen so as to not be subject to American laws. There are several documents out there that put Lafitte’s birthplace at many different places in the world including an island on the South Carolina coast. His biographer states that the best documentation puts his birthplace on the French possession island of Saint Domingue as it was known as then and is known as Haiti today. Jean’s father died and in approximately 1784 his mother moved him and his older brother Pierre to the Mississippi River Delta area which was a French possession also. Jean stayed with his mother and Pierre was raised by an extended family in other areas of Louisiana. Soon after their arrival Jean’s mother married a wealthy New Orleans merchant named Pedro Aubry. It is believed that as a young man Jean roamed the bayous and inlets from the Gulf of Mexico and became known as the most knowledgeable person alive about this area. Jean’s brother Pierre became a privateer for Saint Domingue and was carrying a Letter of the Marque. This meant that he was a pirate for Saint Domingue and would capture ships of the nation named in the “Letter” and split the booty with Saint Domingue in return for safe haven in Saint Domingue’s harbors. Jean began operating a warehouse and a store (probably on Royal Street) in New Orleans where he would distribute the booty brought to him by his brother to merchants in the New Orleans area. New Orleans and a hell of a lot more became American property with the Louisiana Purchase in 1804. This put a severe kink into the smuggling operation of the Lafitte brothers in New Orleans so they began looking elsewhere. They found a sparsely occupied island in Barataria Lake southwest of New Orleans. This lake was accessible only by a narrow channel between Grand Terre and Grand Isle that was easily defended and any ship approaching would be quickly detected and was a long way from American naval bases. Their business boomed once the privateers in the Gulf of Mexico found them. They would simply unload the ships and send the goods on barges up various bayous to New Orleans. Eventually the brothers got tired of being dry goods brokers and bought a boat, hired a captain and became privateers themselves. A few days later they made their first score. It was a Spanish ship with 77 slaves aboard. After selling the slaves (probably to Jim Bowie) and the other goods aboard they made about $18,000. They liked the boat and kept it also. A couple of days later they knocked over a Spanish brig and reaped about $9,000. They decided that this was a lot better than smuggling stolen goods. But they did not like this boat and chose to unload it and turn it back over to the original crew. The Lafitte brothers were renowned for good treatment of hijacked crews. A big turn of events occurred when England kept stopping American ships at sea and “Shanghaiing” American sailors. This means they would take American sailors off their ships and force them to serve on British ships. America finally got fed up and in 1812 declared war on England. During all of this the Lafitte brothers had gathered/swapped ships until they had three very fast sloops armed to the teeth. The British knew that The Americans did not have a viable navy and utilized pirates and privateers in their behalf so they approached Jean Lafitte and his small navy to join the British navy for pay. Jean believed that the Americans would win this war and wrote a letter to a member of the US congress telling him of the British offer. Previously Jean’s brother Pierre had been captured in a United States Navy raid and was imprisoned in New Orleans. Jean offered to join with the Americans in their war against Great Britain along with most of his crews if any criminal charges that were pending against he and his men would be dropped and Pierre would be released. The military person in command in this area was General Andrew Jackson and he balked at first but when three British warships showed up southwest of New Orleans he agreed. Jean Lafitte and his men were indeed present at the immortal Battle of New Orleans where the British had their asses handed to them even though they had the rag-tag army commanded by General Jackson out-numbered and out gunned. The British had 345 killed, including the British commanding General Packenham, and many wounded to 45 killed for the Americans. Lafitte knew that his operation at Barataria Bay was over and began looking for another location and found one in Galveston in what is now Texas. But at that time southern Texas was a Mexican property. Mexico was in the midst of a war for Independence with Spain. Both Pierre and Jean agreed to spy for Spain with Pierre in New Orleans and Jean on Galveston Island. Jean again established a base for smuggling on Galveston Island along with some pirating on his own. The US had passed a law that slaves could not brought in to the US unless they were captured off of a slave ship, then the slaves could be brought in to customs agents and be sold by them and half the profit going to the capturers so that told Jean and Pierre what their targets would be. They began a very profitable venture of capturing slaves, bringing them to New Orleans and letting the customs agents sell them to Jim Bowie at a reduced rate. Then they got an additional profit when Bowie sold them and gave the Lafitte brothers a commission. In 1821 the US Navy went to Galveston to run the Lafitte brothers out of the Gulf of Mexico. Jean agreed to leave without a fight and sailed down to Isla Mujeres off the northeast corner of the Yucatan peninsula Mexico and set up operations but it did not flourish like the others and his camp was nothing but a group of squalid huts. Later he became ill and moved onto a small village on the Mexican mainland and died a few days later died of a tropical fever. He was 47.
Much has been written about Jean Lafitte and his obvious gigantic collection of gold and treasure none of which has ever been found. Some believe it went down with his ship The Pride in the hurricane of 1826, some believe that he buried it in various locations around Barataria Bay with the prime location being a cotton/sugar plantation named The Destrehan Plantation. It is rumored that the ghost of Jean roams that plantation on nights with a full moon. Then again, others think he buried it in the shifting sands of Galveston Island. What we do know for sure is that he did not have any of it with him at Isla Mujeres and the location(s) of his treasure is a mystery to this date.
This date in history August 20
1794 Earlier at the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War, England ceded the so-called Northwest Territory which today is known as the Midwest to the United States. The problem was that some of the British soldiers did not abandon their forts and encouraged and supplied the Indians against the incoming American settlers. President George Washington got fed up and called in General Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne and tasked him with going in and taking care of that problem. General Wayne got the nickname “Mad Anthony” at his attack on the British encampment at Stony Point, New York. Wayne knew he would be outnumbered so he ordered the attack to begin at 1:30a and he also ordered his men to bayonet as many British/Loyalist soldiers in the throat as they could while they were asleep to keep them from crying out. His troops killed over 90 British/Loyalist troops which evened the odds and Wayne and his troops prevailed. Anyway on this assignment he had an army of 3,000 combat trained infantry which proved to be formidable. This was not the first time a United States military unit had been in that area trying to overcome these hostile Indians. Two years earlier United States General Arthur St. Clair had led a military force in that area and met up with an Indian chief named Blue Jacket and St. Clair received an ass-kicking to the tune of losing 630 men. On this date “Mad Anthony” Wayne and company met up with Blue Jacket and his army near present day Toledo, Ohio. A savage battle ensued in which Blue Jacket and his army was all but annihilated. The savagery of Wayne’s attack spread throughout the Indians in the area and the incoming settlers had little if any trouble with the Indians from this time on. This encounter went down in history as the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
1989 Incredible as it may seem, two brothers named Lyle, aged 22 and Erik, aged 18 decide to murder their mother and father. On this day the Menendez brothers opened fire with shotguns on their parents Jose and Kitty in their home in Beverly Hills and nearly cut them to pieces. They then go to a movie to have an alibi. After coming home from the movie, Eric called 911 and screamed “Someone has killed my parents!” At first the brothers were not suspects but Erik was overcome with guilt had to have psychiatric therapy. He confessed to his psychiatrist that he had done the deed. The psychiatrist had taped his sessions with Erik and in trying to impress his girlfriend, told her about what Erik had said. The girlfriend was not impressed and went to the cops and in March of 1990 Erik and Lyle were arrested. It took a three year battle through the courts before the California Supreme Court ruled that the psychiatrist’s taped confession could be played in court. Even after that the brothers testified that they had suffered sexual abuse from both their mother and father. It was an obvious lie but it was enough to cause a hung jury in the first trial. In the second trial the judge was more restrictive about the brother’s testimony that they killed their parents in self defense. They testified that they believed that their father would kill them rather than risk the exposure the he was a sexual deviant. That was a bald-faced lie and the jury did not buy it this time and the brothers were sentenced to life in prison. I forgot to mention that between the time they killed their parents and they were arrested, the Menendez brothers bought themselves a Porsche 911 each and had almost one continual party at their parent’s house. The bad part was that they were going to get their parent’s money anyway but they just could not wait. Now they will never see it.
1995 On this date in northern India one of the worst train disasters in history occurs. There was another train disaster a few years before in this area both of them involved a cow. Train travel in India is very popular primarily because it is pretty cheap. This means that nearly all of the passenger cars are very crowded. As most of us know the Hindu religion holds that their ancestors are reincarnated through animals, especially cows. Anyway, cows are allowed to run free across the countryside. On this particular occasion a cow wandered out on the railroad track and an express train from New Delhi hit the cow while running 75 MPH. As you might suspect the cow was killed instantly and the engineer of the train had a hell of a time getting the train stopped because the brakes were damaged in the collision. They finally got the train stopped but the signalman got so interested in the collision that he forgot about another express train that was 13 minutes behind and did not put out a signal to the following train. The following train was also traveling at 75 MPH and collided with the stopped train in a grinding crash. 376 people were killed almost instantly with hundreds were wounded. As soon as the crash came to a stop the forgetful signal man ran into the bush and was never seen or heard from again.
Born today:
1921 US writer Jacqueline Susann. She said of Phillip Roth the author of Portnoy’s Complaint. “He is a good writer but I would not want to shake hands with him.” She said that because in his book Roth described in detail a man masturbating.
Died today:
1912 The founder of the Salvation Army William Booth. He said “Prostitution is the only profession where the youngest apprentice starts at the highest pay.” I would have thought that a skill level would have been involved, but what do I know?
1940 Communist leader Leon Trotsky. He said “If would have had more time for meetings we surely would have made more mistakes.” Leon has his finger on how businesses operate.
2001 English astronomer Sir Fred Doyle. He said “There is a definite plan for the universe, but I don’t know what the plan is for.” Not to worry Fred, neither does anyone else.
Quotable quotes:
“There is no time like the present for putting off what you don’t want to do.” Arthur Bloch
Arthur and I speak the same language.
“A nymphomaniac is a woman with the same sex drive as the average man.” Phyllis Diller
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, and that is all.”
Oscar Wilde
Today’s prologue will be a short biography of one of the most interesting people in this country’s early history. He became a legend.
Jean Lafitte
Legendary Pirate
The exact place and date of birth of Jean Lafitte is not known for sure. The generally accepted year is 1776. Lafitte himself claimed Bordeaux, France as his birthplace while at the same time his brother Pierre claimed that their birthplace was Bayonne, France. At that time it would be advantageous to be a French citizen so as to not be subject to American laws. There are several documents out there that put Lafitte’s birthplace at many different places in the world including an island on the South Carolina coast. His biographer states that the best documentation puts his birthplace on the French possession island of Saint Domingue as it was known as then and is known as Haiti today. Jean’s father died and in approximately 1784 his mother moved him and his older brother Pierre to the Mississippi River Delta area which was a French possession also. Jean stayed with his mother and Pierre was raised by an extended family in other areas of Louisiana. Soon after their arrival Jean’s mother married a wealthy New Orleans merchant named Pedro Aubry. It is believed that as a young man Jean roamed the bayous and inlets from the Gulf of Mexico and became known as the most knowledgeable person alive about this area. Jean’s brother Pierre became a privateer for Saint Domingue and was carrying a Letter of the Marque. This meant that he was a pirate for Saint Domingue and would capture ships of the nation named in the “Letter” and split the booty with Saint Domingue in return for safe haven in Saint Domingue’s harbors. Jean began operating a warehouse and a store (probably on Royal Street) in New Orleans where he would distribute the booty brought to him by his brother to merchants in the New Orleans area. New Orleans and a hell of a lot more became American property with the Louisiana Purchase in 1804. This put a severe kink into the smuggling operation of the Lafitte brothers in New Orleans so they began looking elsewhere. They found a sparsely occupied island in Barataria Lake southwest of New Orleans. This lake was accessible only by a narrow channel between Grand Terre and Grand Isle that was easily defended and any ship approaching would be quickly detected and was a long way from American naval bases. Their business boomed once the privateers in the Gulf of Mexico found them. They would simply unload the ships and send the goods on barges up various bayous to New Orleans. Eventually the brothers got tired of being dry goods brokers and bought a boat, hired a captain and became privateers themselves. A few days later they made their first score. It was a Spanish ship with 77 slaves aboard. After selling the slaves (probably to Jim Bowie) and the other goods aboard they made about $18,000. They liked the boat and kept it also. A couple of days later they knocked over a Spanish brig and reaped about $9,000. They decided that this was a lot better than smuggling stolen goods. But they did not like this boat and chose to unload it and turn it back over to the original crew. The Lafitte brothers were renowned for good treatment of hijacked crews. A big turn of events occurred when England kept stopping American ships at sea and “Shanghaiing” American sailors. This means they would take American sailors off their ships and force them to serve on British ships. America finally got fed up and in 1812 declared war on England. During all of this the Lafitte brothers had gathered/swapped ships until they had three very fast sloops armed to the teeth. The British knew that The Americans did not have a viable navy and utilized pirates and privateers in their behalf so they approached Jean Lafitte and his small navy to join the British navy for pay. Jean believed that the Americans would win this war and wrote a letter to a member of the US congress telling him of the British offer. Previously Jean’s brother Pierre had been captured in a United States Navy raid and was imprisoned in New Orleans. Jean offered to join with the Americans in their war against Great Britain along with most of his crews if any criminal charges that were pending against he and his men would be dropped and Pierre would be released. The military person in command in this area was General Andrew Jackson and he balked at first but when three British warships showed up southwest of New Orleans he agreed. Jean Lafitte and his men were indeed present at the immortal Battle of New Orleans where the British had their asses handed to them even though they had the rag-tag army commanded by General Jackson out-numbered and out gunned. The British had 345 killed, including the British commanding General Packenham, and many wounded to 45 killed for the Americans. Lafitte knew that his operation at Barataria Bay was over and began looking for another location and found one in Galveston in what is now Texas. But at that time southern Texas was a Mexican property. Mexico was in the midst of a war for Independence with Spain. Both Pierre and Jean agreed to spy for Spain with Pierre in New Orleans and Jean on Galveston Island. Jean again established a base for smuggling on Galveston Island along with some pirating on his own. The US had passed a law that slaves could not brought in to the US unless they were captured off of a slave ship, then the slaves could be brought in to customs agents and be sold by them and half the profit going to the capturers so that told Jean and Pierre what their targets would be. They began a very profitable venture of capturing slaves, bringing them to New Orleans and letting the customs agents sell them to Jim Bowie at a reduced rate. Then they got an additional profit when Bowie sold them and gave the Lafitte brothers a commission. In 1821 the US Navy went to Galveston to run the Lafitte brothers out of the Gulf of Mexico. Jean agreed to leave without a fight and sailed down to Isla Mujeres off the northeast corner of the Yucatan peninsula Mexico and set up operations but it did not flourish like the others and his camp was nothing but a group of squalid huts. Later he became ill and moved onto a small village on the Mexican mainland and died a few days later died of a tropical fever. He was 47.
Much has been written about Jean Lafitte and his obvious gigantic collection of gold and treasure none of which has ever been found. Some believe it went down with his ship The Pride in the hurricane of 1826, some believe that he buried it in various locations around Barataria Bay with the prime location being a cotton/sugar plantation named The Destrehan Plantation. It is rumored that the ghost of Jean roams that plantation on nights with a full moon. Then again, others think he buried it in the shifting sands of Galveston Island. What we do know for sure is that he did not have any of it with him at Isla Mujeres and the location(s) of his treasure is a mystery to this date.
This date in history August 20
1794 Earlier at the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War, England ceded the so-called Northwest Territory which today is known as the Midwest to the United States. The problem was that some of the British soldiers did not abandon their forts and encouraged and supplied the Indians against the incoming American settlers. President George Washington got fed up and called in General Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne and tasked him with going in and taking care of that problem. General Wayne got the nickname “Mad Anthony” at his attack on the British encampment at Stony Point, New York. Wayne knew he would be outnumbered so he ordered the attack to begin at 1:30a and he also ordered his men to bayonet as many British/Loyalist soldiers in the throat as they could while they were asleep to keep them from crying out. His troops killed over 90 British/Loyalist troops which evened the odds and Wayne and his troops prevailed. Anyway on this assignment he had an army of 3,000 combat trained infantry which proved to be formidable. This was not the first time a United States military unit had been in that area trying to overcome these hostile Indians. Two years earlier United States General Arthur St. Clair had led a military force in that area and met up with an Indian chief named Blue Jacket and St. Clair received an ass-kicking to the tune of losing 630 men. On this date “Mad Anthony” Wayne and company met up with Blue Jacket and his army near present day Toledo, Ohio. A savage battle ensued in which Blue Jacket and his army was all but annihilated. The savagery of Wayne’s attack spread throughout the Indians in the area and the incoming settlers had little if any trouble with the Indians from this time on. This encounter went down in history as the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
1989 Incredible as it may seem, two brothers named Lyle, aged 22 and Erik, aged 18 decide to murder their mother and father. On this day the Menendez brothers opened fire with shotguns on their parents Jose and Kitty in their home in Beverly Hills and nearly cut them to pieces. They then go to a movie to have an alibi. After coming home from the movie, Eric called 911 and screamed “Someone has killed my parents!” At first the brothers were not suspects but Erik was overcome with guilt had to have psychiatric therapy. He confessed to his psychiatrist that he had done the deed. The psychiatrist had taped his sessions with Erik and in trying to impress his girlfriend, told her about what Erik had said. The girlfriend was not impressed and went to the cops and in March of 1990 Erik and Lyle were arrested. It took a three year battle through the courts before the California Supreme Court ruled that the psychiatrist’s taped confession could be played in court. Even after that the brothers testified that they had suffered sexual abuse from both their mother and father. It was an obvious lie but it was enough to cause a hung jury in the first trial. In the second trial the judge was more restrictive about the brother’s testimony that they killed their parents in self defense. They testified that they believed that their father would kill them rather than risk the exposure the he was a sexual deviant. That was a bald-faced lie and the jury did not buy it this time and the brothers were sentenced to life in prison. I forgot to mention that between the time they killed their parents and they were arrested, the Menendez brothers bought themselves a Porsche 911 each and had almost one continual party at their parent’s house. The bad part was that they were going to get their parent’s money anyway but they just could not wait. Now they will never see it.
1995 On this date in northern India one of the worst train disasters in history occurs. There was another train disaster a few years before in this area both of them involved a cow. Train travel in India is very popular primarily because it is pretty cheap. This means that nearly all of the passenger cars are very crowded. As most of us know the Hindu religion holds that their ancestors are reincarnated through animals, especially cows. Anyway, cows are allowed to run free across the countryside. On this particular occasion a cow wandered out on the railroad track and an express train from New Delhi hit the cow while running 75 MPH. As you might suspect the cow was killed instantly and the engineer of the train had a hell of a time getting the train stopped because the brakes were damaged in the collision. They finally got the train stopped but the signalman got so interested in the collision that he forgot about another express train that was 13 minutes behind and did not put out a signal to the following train. The following train was also traveling at 75 MPH and collided with the stopped train in a grinding crash. 376 people were killed almost instantly with hundreds were wounded. As soon as the crash came to a stop the forgetful signal man ran into the bush and was never seen or heard from again.
Born today:
1921 US writer Jacqueline Susann. She said of Phillip Roth the author of Portnoy’s Complaint. “He is a good writer but I would not want to shake hands with him.” She said that because in his book Roth described in detail a man masturbating.
Died today:
1912 The founder of the Salvation Army William Booth. He said “Prostitution is the only profession where the youngest apprentice starts at the highest pay.” I would have thought that a skill level would have been involved, but what do I know?
1940 Communist leader Leon Trotsky. He said “If would have had more time for meetings we surely would have made more mistakes.” Leon has his finger on how businesses operate.
2001 English astronomer Sir Fred Doyle. He said “There is a definite plan for the universe, but I don’t know what the plan is for.” Not to worry Fred, neither does anyone else.
Quotable quotes:
“There is no time like the present for putting off what you don’t want to do.” Arthur Bloch
Arthur and I speak the same language.
“A nymphomaniac is a woman with the same sex drive as the average man.” Phyllis Diller
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
It is only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth…and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up…that we will begin living our lives to the fullest…as if it is the only one we had.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Y’all will be glad to know that disgraced US Army General Stanley McChrystal, now retired, has avoided all the traps and millions of dollars offered to military men of his rank by the giant defense contractors and big business just to have his influence available. He has taken a job at Yale School of Global Affairs to teach at a newly founded leadership school. He will be in good company. In addition to McChrystal there will be John Negroponte, former US Ambassador and Deputy Secretary of State along with former Mexican President Ernesto Padilla. As expected, McChrystal was offered gigantic amounts of money to accept employment with several defense contractors plus agencies that represented wounded veterans but he chose another path. This will be strange territory for this man who was well known in “Special Ops” world as a leader of, or the planning of, covert missions. General McChrystal is a man’s man. It has been reported that he is being courted by the Republican Party to run for office in the upcoming mid-term elections. As far as I know, there has not been a response from the General.
I read an essay by Stephan Hawking on Monday. Hawking is the President of the Lucasian Society at Cambridge University in England. This society is primarily for those that are mathematical or astrophysical geniuses. Hawking advocated that we of the planet Earth need to start right now to plan to abandon this planet for another. He believes that we have already crossed the point of no return in exhausting or poisoning the materials required for our existence. He believes that our energies and resources should be aimed at finding another planet to migrate to. As we all know, the biggest problem with space travel is time/speed/distance. Our average lifespan is less than required just to get out of our solar system. We have not yet figure out how to even design a method of travel that is anywhere near the speed of light. Because of the enormous distances involved and our inability to travel but a couple of percentage points of the speed of light, travel to another galaxy would require several generations. The closest galaxy is 4 light years away. This mean it would take light traveling at 186,000 miles per second 4 years to reach us from that point in space. Assume that we become capable of traveling 1% of the speed of light, about 670,000 MPH which is very unlikely; it will take about 400 years to get to the nearest galaxy. Hawking said that research should begin immediately to find methods of time travel such as “worm holes”, etc. I don’t know if I understand all of this but after all, Hawking has been acknowledged to be the smartest man on Earth since Sir Isaac Newton. By the way, Sir Isaac was also the President of the Lucasian Society.
My annual trip to Pensacola Beach, Florida starts is two months. This means that I need to slow down on my social activities for the time being to save money and improve my strength and stamina. Life in condo E-3 at Boardwalk on Pensacola Beach can be serene and very blissful but there are plenty of chances to live the life of song and ale nearby.
One of my daughter’s husbands has taken a job as volley ball coach at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. They lived in Columbia, SC where my daughter has a high end job with the State of South Carolina. They agreed that my daughter would keep her job and her husband would gain experience in the college ranks and eventually return to South Carolina as volleyball coach at a college or university near Columbia. My son-in-law has been coaching volleyball at the high school/amateur level for several years. I am glad that he has taken this step upward. It was his dream to get into the college arena…and he finally did it, no matter how painful it is for him and my daughter to be.
This date in history August 19
1812 On the is date a United States frigate named the USS Constitution encountered the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia. A sea battle ensued and witnesses said that the British shells just bounced off the sides of the Constitution like they were made of iron. From then on the USS Constitution was known as “Old Ironsides” and went on to glory in sinking or capturing six more British vessels before the war of 1812 ended. The Constitution was a large ship built for 44 guns but frequently carried 50, built in Boston and had it’s oak sides sheathed in copper forged by that master metal smith Paul Revere. The ship carried a crew of about 485 men that savored combat, especially boarding and capturing and enemy vessel equal in size to their own. They loved one on one combat led by the ship’s commander Isaac Hull. After the war there was talk of scrapping “Old Ironsides” but public sentiment did not allow it and it was brought into Boston Harbor and refitted several times. It remains in old Charlestowne Harbor near Boston as a tourist attraction but is still seaworthy and is a commissioned ship in the inventory of the United States Navy.
1862 A small band of Dakota Indians after finding they had lost their corn crop to insects went to the local merchants near their reservation in Minnesota to get credit for food lest they starve to death. The credit was not forthcoming and the Dakota went on the warpath and slaughtered white families on their way down the Minnesota River looking for food. The Dakota had to endure hunger and the chipping away of the tribal lands and this lack of credit for food was the last straw. On this date they were approaching Fort Ridgley and decided to by-pass this American Infantry post and fell upon Fort Ulm later on and killed the inhabitants to a man. Finally, the United States cavalry showed up led by General John Pope and captured the renegade Dakota and hanged 37 of them simultaneously. Earlier Pope had his ass handed to him by CSA General Robert E. Lee at 2nd Manassas but now he was the hero by executing a few half starved mostly unarmed Native Americans. What a loser.
1980 Ya’ll listen to this. A Saudi Airline Lockheed 1011 with 300 people aboard had departed Karachi, Pakistan headed for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with a stopover at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The first leg to Riyadh was uneventful but immediately after departure from Riyadh the pilot called the control tower and reported a fire aboard and needed to return to the airport immediately. He notified the tower that he did not think he could make it back to have the emergency equipment waiting at the approach end of the airport. Sure enough, the plane (a big son-of-a-bitch) crashed landed on the approach end of the runway amid an avalanche of foam sprayed by the fire fighting equipment. It did not help; the plane burst into giant fireball that could not be controlled and all aboard were killed. NOW LISTEN TO THIS. The fire started because some hard core Muslims aboard had fired up a propane stove to cook dinner, if ya’ll can believe that. The strange part was that this was not unusual because the Moslem have a very defined diet and time to eat that is part and parcel of their religion, the danger to others be damned. Anyway, there should have been some survivors but none of the escape hatches were opened. This could have been caused by the panic stricken passengers ganged up tight against the hatches which would not have allowed them to be opened or that the pilot forgot to de-pressurize the airplane which would not have allowed the hatches to be opened either. The escape hatches have to be pulled inward first before they can go outward. With the cabin being pressurized, the hatches could not have been pulled inward. Keep that in mind if ya’ll ever think about flying in an airplane based in a Moslem country.
1895 On this date one of the most bloodthirsty killers in the history of the American west meets his maker in El Paso. John Wesley Hardin killed his first man at the age of 15 and the trail of blood was continuous after that. For reasons known only to Hardin he hated blacks and the blacks knew it and gave him a wide berth. He made the mistake of shooting a sheriff and was given a 14 year sentence. This jail time seemed to calm Hardin down and he studied enough to get a law degree. After he was paroled he went to Gonzales, Texas and opened a practice. He was not pleased with this sedate lifestyle and went looking for excitement. He chose to go to the wild and woolly town of El Paso. As luck would have it on this date he goes to a bar and gets into an argument. An off duty policeman recognizes Hardin and walks up and puts a slug into his head at point blank range killing Hardin instantly, thus ending the days of John Wesley Hardin.
Born today:
1686 English writer Samuel Richardson. He said “Calamity is the best test of integrity”. I cannot help but visualize the wholesale looting in mid-town New Orleans a few hours after Katrina and then the photos of those city and towns in central Iowa after the levees broke and water was 5 feet deep in the streets. Nothing was happening in Iowa except neighbor helping neighbor.
1870 US economist Bernard Baruch. He said “To me old age is fifteen years older than me.” Bernie’s father was a surgeon on the staff of CSA General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War.
1942 Ex-presidential candidate and Senator from Tennessee Fred Dalton Thompson. He said “I have not found my way around Washington. The other day I caught myself spending some of my own money.” Fred is an actor now and plays the District Attorney on the TV series Law and Order.
1942 Ex-president Bill Clinton. He said “You can put wings on a pig but that does not make it an eagle.” Speaking of pigs......
Thanks for listening I can hardly wit until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
It is only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth…and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up…that we will begin living our lives to the fullest…as if it is the only one we had.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Y’all will be glad to know that disgraced US Army General Stanley McChrystal, now retired, has avoided all the traps and millions of dollars offered to military men of his rank by the giant defense contractors and big business just to have his influence available. He has taken a job at Yale School of Global Affairs to teach at a newly founded leadership school. He will be in good company. In addition to McChrystal there will be John Negroponte, former US Ambassador and Deputy Secretary of State along with former Mexican President Ernesto Padilla. As expected, McChrystal was offered gigantic amounts of money to accept employment with several defense contractors plus agencies that represented wounded veterans but he chose another path. This will be strange territory for this man who was well known in “Special Ops” world as a leader of, or the planning of, covert missions. General McChrystal is a man’s man. It has been reported that he is being courted by the Republican Party to run for office in the upcoming mid-term elections. As far as I know, there has not been a response from the General.
I read an essay by Stephan Hawking on Monday. Hawking is the President of the Lucasian Society at Cambridge University in England. This society is primarily for those that are mathematical or astrophysical geniuses. Hawking advocated that we of the planet Earth need to start right now to plan to abandon this planet for another. He believes that we have already crossed the point of no return in exhausting or poisoning the materials required for our existence. He believes that our energies and resources should be aimed at finding another planet to migrate to. As we all know, the biggest problem with space travel is time/speed/distance. Our average lifespan is less than required just to get out of our solar system. We have not yet figure out how to even design a method of travel that is anywhere near the speed of light. Because of the enormous distances involved and our inability to travel but a couple of percentage points of the speed of light, travel to another galaxy would require several generations. The closest galaxy is 4 light years away. This mean it would take light traveling at 186,000 miles per second 4 years to reach us from that point in space. Assume that we become capable of traveling 1% of the speed of light, about 670,000 MPH which is very unlikely; it will take about 400 years to get to the nearest galaxy. Hawking said that research should begin immediately to find methods of time travel such as “worm holes”, etc. I don’t know if I understand all of this but after all, Hawking has been acknowledged to be the smartest man on Earth since Sir Isaac Newton. By the way, Sir Isaac was also the President of the Lucasian Society.
My annual trip to Pensacola Beach, Florida starts is two months. This means that I need to slow down on my social activities for the time being to save money and improve my strength and stamina. Life in condo E-3 at Boardwalk on Pensacola Beach can be serene and very blissful but there are plenty of chances to live the life of song and ale nearby.
One of my daughter’s husbands has taken a job as volley ball coach at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. They lived in Columbia, SC where my daughter has a high end job with the State of South Carolina. They agreed that my daughter would keep her job and her husband would gain experience in the college ranks and eventually return to South Carolina as volleyball coach at a college or university near Columbia. My son-in-law has been coaching volleyball at the high school/amateur level for several years. I am glad that he has taken this step upward. It was his dream to get into the college arena…and he finally did it, no matter how painful it is for him and my daughter to be.
This date in history August 19
1812 On the is date a United States frigate named the USS Constitution encountered the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia. A sea battle ensued and witnesses said that the British shells just bounced off the sides of the Constitution like they were made of iron. From then on the USS Constitution was known as “Old Ironsides” and went on to glory in sinking or capturing six more British vessels before the war of 1812 ended. The Constitution was a large ship built for 44 guns but frequently carried 50, built in Boston and had it’s oak sides sheathed in copper forged by that master metal smith Paul Revere. The ship carried a crew of about 485 men that savored combat, especially boarding and capturing and enemy vessel equal in size to their own. They loved one on one combat led by the ship’s commander Isaac Hull. After the war there was talk of scrapping “Old Ironsides” but public sentiment did not allow it and it was brought into Boston Harbor and refitted several times. It remains in old Charlestowne Harbor near Boston as a tourist attraction but is still seaworthy and is a commissioned ship in the inventory of the United States Navy.
1862 A small band of Dakota Indians after finding they had lost their corn crop to insects went to the local merchants near their reservation in Minnesota to get credit for food lest they starve to death. The credit was not forthcoming and the Dakota went on the warpath and slaughtered white families on their way down the Minnesota River looking for food. The Dakota had to endure hunger and the chipping away of the tribal lands and this lack of credit for food was the last straw. On this date they were approaching Fort Ridgley and decided to by-pass this American Infantry post and fell upon Fort Ulm later on and killed the inhabitants to a man. Finally, the United States cavalry showed up led by General John Pope and captured the renegade Dakota and hanged 37 of them simultaneously. Earlier Pope had his ass handed to him by CSA General Robert E. Lee at 2nd Manassas but now he was the hero by executing a few half starved mostly unarmed Native Americans. What a loser.
1980 Ya’ll listen to this. A Saudi Airline Lockheed 1011 with 300 people aboard had departed Karachi, Pakistan headed for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with a stopover at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The first leg to Riyadh was uneventful but immediately after departure from Riyadh the pilot called the control tower and reported a fire aboard and needed to return to the airport immediately. He notified the tower that he did not think he could make it back to have the emergency equipment waiting at the approach end of the airport. Sure enough, the plane (a big son-of-a-bitch) crashed landed on the approach end of the runway amid an avalanche of foam sprayed by the fire fighting equipment. It did not help; the plane burst into giant fireball that could not be controlled and all aboard were killed. NOW LISTEN TO THIS. The fire started because some hard core Muslims aboard had fired up a propane stove to cook dinner, if ya’ll can believe that. The strange part was that this was not unusual because the Moslem have a very defined diet and time to eat that is part and parcel of their religion, the danger to others be damned. Anyway, there should have been some survivors but none of the escape hatches were opened. This could have been caused by the panic stricken passengers ganged up tight against the hatches which would not have allowed them to be opened or that the pilot forgot to de-pressurize the airplane which would not have allowed the hatches to be opened either. The escape hatches have to be pulled inward first before they can go outward. With the cabin being pressurized, the hatches could not have been pulled inward. Keep that in mind if ya’ll ever think about flying in an airplane based in a Moslem country.
1895 On this date one of the most bloodthirsty killers in the history of the American west meets his maker in El Paso. John Wesley Hardin killed his first man at the age of 15 and the trail of blood was continuous after that. For reasons known only to Hardin he hated blacks and the blacks knew it and gave him a wide berth. He made the mistake of shooting a sheriff and was given a 14 year sentence. This jail time seemed to calm Hardin down and he studied enough to get a law degree. After he was paroled he went to Gonzales, Texas and opened a practice. He was not pleased with this sedate lifestyle and went looking for excitement. He chose to go to the wild and woolly town of El Paso. As luck would have it on this date he goes to a bar and gets into an argument. An off duty policeman recognizes Hardin and walks up and puts a slug into his head at point blank range killing Hardin instantly, thus ending the days of John Wesley Hardin.
Born today:
1686 English writer Samuel Richardson. He said “Calamity is the best test of integrity”. I cannot help but visualize the wholesale looting in mid-town New Orleans a few hours after Katrina and then the photos of those city and towns in central Iowa after the levees broke and water was 5 feet deep in the streets. Nothing was happening in Iowa except neighbor helping neighbor.
1870 US economist Bernard Baruch. He said “To me old age is fifteen years older than me.” Bernie’s father was a surgeon on the staff of CSA General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War.
1942 Ex-presidential candidate and Senator from Tennessee Fred Dalton Thompson. He said “I have not found my way around Washington. The other day I caught myself spending some of my own money.” Fred is an actor now and plays the District Attorney on the TV series Law and Order.
1942 Ex-president Bill Clinton. He said “You can put wings on a pig but that does not make it an eagle.” Speaking of pigs......
Thanks for listening I can hardly wit until tomorrow
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