Friday, December 31, 2010

Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“The price of Prozac went up 50% last year. When Prozac users were asked about it, they said, “Whatever…’

                                           Jay Leno



Last Tuesday the cops down in Mobile, Alabama a man named Luke Cole was arrested for burglarizing 5 different businesses in West Mobile one of which was a Christian book store. Also arrested was Luke’s father who was fencing whatever his son brought home. By the way, Luke is 17 years old.



Over in Fayetteville, NC an elderly cattleman had raised a black angus bull from a calf to a 2,000 behemoth. The bull never relented from his hostile behavior. The cattleman wanted to keep the bull at stud to replenish his herd but he had very little control of his its behavior. One day last week the bull got out of his personal pasture and was a couple of pastures over chasing the cows around. The cattleman attempted to coax the bull back into his personal field but tripped and fell. The bull immediately charged and pinned the old gentleman to the ground by pressing his forehead into the man’s chest. The old gentleman died. A few days before the cattleman had sold the bull to a slaughterhouse because of his behavior. The bull will soon be distributed around the southeast in smaller pieces.



I just read where the amount of money we contribute to Medicare in our lifetime in no way covers out medical expenses after the age of 65. I vehemently disagree. What about the hundreds of thousands of tax payers that die a couple of years before or after the age of 65? What happens to that money they contributed for all those years? Is there a refund to their heirs? Of course there isn’t. That money is spent anyway the House and Senate see fit.



I wish all of y’all a Happy and Prosperous New Year!



This date in history December 31




1600   On this date Queen Elizabeth I signed a charter authorizing a group of London merchants to form an organization known as the East India Company to act at the behest of the crown to capture the spice trade in the East Indies from the hands of the Dutch. This endeavor was unsuccessful but the market they found in India and China more than made up for their failure against the Dutch. Soon the flow of spices from India and the tea from China was almost unending on their way to England. This almost untapped gold mine of consumables did not go unnoticed by the French and Dutch and they attempted to move in and get part of this cornucopia. This prompted the East India Company to form their own army and navy to protect their investment. Eventually England felt it was necessary to declare India as a British possession and sent in a governor and staff to rule this most recent colony to protect the trade from interlopers by use of the mighty British army and navy. After this decision the East India Company became nothing but an administrative arm of the British Governor. In 1857 the Indian soldiers in the British army revolted against the British control of their country. This “Indian Revolt” was crushed the next year and Great Britain tightened its grip on India even more by dissolving the East India Company. They even had the gall to pass a law stating that the Indians could not go to the seaside and dig out settling ponds to allow the water to evaporate leaving the salt. Salt was imperative to the Indians not only for seasoning but for food preservation. This meant that they could only get their salt from the British. It was a monopoly of a necessary item. In the early 1930’s an Indian holy man named Mahatma Gandhi began a peaceful revolt that eventually caused the demise of English rule and the beginning of an Independent India. By the way, the beginning of the end of British rule began when Gandhi left home headed for the coast to evaporate out some salt stating that salt was a gift from God and should not be controlled by man. Along the way he had gathered more and more followers and he arrived at the coast with over 60,000 people following. The British army did not know what to do with that many people and they let them alone to get some salt.



1862    Earlier on December 11 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest left Columbus, Tennessee with the intention of destroying Yankee supply lines. He met and defeated a Yankee army near Lexington, Tennessee on December 18 and spent the week of Christmas destroying Yankee rail lines north of Jackson, Tennessee. On this date Forrest was approaching a small village of Parker’s Crossroad when his scouts told him that there was a Yankee army detachment ahead. In typical Forrest fashion, he ordered an attack. All of Forrest’s troops were mounted cavalry but on this encounter he ordered a large part of his troops to dismount and circle around and attack the right flank of the Yankees. He left several troopers behind to hold onto the horses left by those dismounted. Forrest engaged the Yankee troops ahead but soon heard gunfire from behind and then his troopers that were holding the horses came running past him and he found himself in the midst of the Yankees who ordered him to surrender. Forrest said that he would go get his horse and order his troops to surrender. He mounted his horse and instead of ordering surrender he yelled “Attack in both directions!” His troopers sprung to action and the majority of his 2,000 cavalrymen were able to escape including Forrest but he did lose 300 troopers when they were trapped and had to surrender.



1972   Baseball superstar Roberto Clemente is in the San Juan International Airport, Puerto Rico. Clemente was an all-star outfielder for the Pittsburg Pirates and spent the majority of the off-season doing charity work in his native Puerto Rico or other places in Central America. Earlier Clemente had sent a huge amount of relief supplies to Managua, Nicaragua after that city was ravaged by an earthquake. He found out later that only a small amount of the supplies had reached those that needed it; the majority of it had been stockpiled by corrupt officials and sold to the needy. Clemente was a fiery individual anyway and when he found out about this travesty, he gathered more supplies in Puerto Rico and was going to take them to Managua himself and distribute them to the needy. He soon found that he had more supplies that the plane that he had chartered could handle. Observing all of this was an unscrupulous man named Arthur Rivera. Rivera owned a ram shackled propeller driven DC-7 that could barely fly. He offered to rent this plane to Clemente for $4,000. Clemente agreed and they began loading the DC-7. Rivera was not a pilot and he began frantically searching for a pilot and found one in a man named Jerry Hill. Rivera, Clemente and the pilot finally got aboard and the plane began its takeoff roll. Observers knew the plane was in trouble from the start because of the sound of the engines. The plane reached about 200 feet over the Caribbean and exploded and fell into the sea. It was found that the pilot had over-boosted the engines. The bodies of Clemente, Rivera and Hill were never found. Clemente was admitted to the baseball Hall of Fame posthumously and in 2002 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. What a great loss for us all.



Born today:



1830   Scottish writer Alexander Smith. He said “To be occasionally quoted is all the fame I desire.” Tack on to that, “occasionally paid”.



1894   Movie star Pola Negri. She said “Love is disgusting when you no longer own yourself.” Pola baby, the secret is don’t give it away.



1943   US songwriter John Denver. He said “Music paints pictures and often tells stories. All of it magic and all of it true.” John had a pure and clear voice; I have not heard a voice close to his since his demise except maybe Josh Groban



1952   US Guitarist/singer George Thorogood. He said “There are two types of music, the “blues” and that bullshit they play on MTV.” I second that.



1958   US actress Bebe Neuwirth. She said “If you have to ask how to be sexy after the age of 40, you probably can’t do it.” I am still trying, Bebe.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“What is wrong with this country is an ineffective immigration policy enacted by the American Indians.”

                                      Pat Paulsen



I was just thinking about all those poor souls that will be spending the majority of this week in a airport lobby. I saw one person that was in the Milwaukee airport that was jammed to the rafters with others that have been trapped there since Saturday. This one woman said that she had no change of clothes because she had no clue where here luggage was. She did say that she had a small carry-on bag with her full of cosmetics only. Not only that, her credit cards were in the lost luggage (bad move) and she was out of money to eat on. The airport appeared to be operating but the departures were so far behind that it will “take until New Years to get caught up”. I also heard about a pregnant woman in New York that had gone into labor and the baby was in trouble. Someone with the woman called EMS and explained what was wrong. The EMS dispatcher said that she would get someone there as soon as possible. 9 hours later and ambulance showed up but it was too late, the baby was dead. You can imagine what kind of turmoil those guys were going through in the early hours of the blizzard.



The Charlotte weather bureau has reported that this December was that coldest on record. I wonder if Al Gore read this. By the way, I saw a program on TV about the ice melting on the ice caps. They showed one ice field that had retreated and it exposed an area that had not seen daylight for millions of years. Guess what was there? They found fossils of mussels and clams that will not live in water deeper than 10 feet and in water colder than 50 degrees. There were also fossilized stumps of trees that were of the cedar and cypress family All of this tells us that at one point the Arctic and Antarctic ice fields were in a temperate climate. Think about it.



This date in history December 30



1916    Earlier Czar Nicholas of Russia and his wife the Czarina Alexandra fell under the spell of a holy man named Rasputin. The Czar and Czarina had a son that was a hemophiliac and had suffered a cut and no one could stop the bleeding. Rasputin was called and somehow he was able to stop the bleeding and saved the boy’s life. From this time on Rasputin was in favor with the royal family. In addition to being a holy man, Rasputin was known to be a heavy drinker and skank chaser. Well, the best possible thing happened for Rasputin. Czar Nicholas was called away to a foreign war. This left the Czarina in control of Russia and Rasputin in charge of her. Eventually the other member of royalty got fed up with Rasputin and decided to cap this bastard. A group of them invited Rasputin to dinner in a fancy mansion. What Rasputin did not know was that his food and drink had been heavily poisoned but he swallowed everything with great relish with no apparent ill effects so they shot him. Rasputin falls and as the other try to drag him out of the room, Rasputin gets up and knocks one of them out and then runs outside trying to escape. He was shot once again and fell face down. The others jump on top of him, tied his hands and feet and threw him in a near freezing river never to be seen again. The Czarina was heartbroken at the loss of her lover but the Czar was ecstatic.



1853    Earlier the United States Secretary of War under Franklin Pearce, Jefferson Davis (later to become the President of the Confederate States of America) sent the Ambassador to Mexico named James Gadsden to visit with the President of Mexico, General Santa Ana. Gadsden’s job was to settle the squabbles the United States had been having with Mexico about the lands in the southwestern area of the present day United States. Gadsden and Santa Ana set down with a map and drew up a new border for northern Mexico and the southwestern United States that formed the area known as the Gadsden Purchase and that map became the present day southern border of Arizona and New Mexico. We offered Santa Ana $12 million that was later lowered to $10 million. The United States felt that this strip of land was vital for the development of a transcontinental railroad. In 1861 the “big four” in railroading, Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker got together and decided that a railroad was to be built on the newly acquired land and make it a branch of the Central Pacific Railroad known later as the immortal Southern Pacific Railroad.



1862    Earlier the United States ironclad U.S.S. Monitor had dueled with the Confederate ironclad C.S.S. Virginia (originally known as the Merrimac) on the James River near Hampton Roads. They battled to a draw but this duel signaled the end of wooden warships. The Monitor was used also to support U.S. General George B. McClellan’s ill fated Peninsular Campaign. The Monitor was effective in the relatively clam waters of bays and rivers, but it was decided that it would be very effective in the attempt to capture the city of Charleston, South Carolina so they started towing it down the east coast with the side wheeler U.S.S. Rhode Island. Very early on the Monitor started leaking around its turret but the onboard pumps were adequate to keep her afloat. Then they ran across a storm near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and the leaks got worse to the point that the pumps were overcome and the Monitor began sinking. On this date Captain Bankhead of the Monitor signaled the Rhode Island that they were going to abandon ship so the Rhode Island pulled as close as safety allowed and started taking aboard the crew of the Monitor. But there were 16 sailors aboard the Monitor that were not about to get up on the pitching deck of the Monitor and they went to the bottom with the Monitor. A few years ago the remains of the Monitor was located and photographed.



1803    One of the most important but least known Patriots in America dies on this date. Francis Lewis was born in Llandaff, Wales and immigrated to the colonies when he was 22. He started a very lucrative business supplying provisions to the British army in the colonies. He was an aide to General Hugh Mercer during the Seven Years War and was captured by the Oswego Indians and sent to France as a prisoner of war. Upon his return he was granted 3,000 acres by the New York Government as a reward for his services. In 1765 he sold his mercantile business and retired to Whitestone, Long Island. His retirement gave him a lot of time to get involved in the Revolution. He was a member of Congress, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, a member of those wild and crazy guys, the Sons of Liberty who made themselves famous at the Boston Tea Party. He served as a member of the Continental Congress until 1779 when he resigned and became a commissioner of the Board of the Admiralty. His patriotism came at a tall price, however. In 1776 the British destroyed his estate on Long Island and captured his wife and kept her as a prisoner of war. The problem with this was that George Washington had no British women to trade for Mrs. Lewis. It was reported that the British kept her without a change of clothes or a bath for some time and it affected her health. The destruction of his estate adversely affected Francis Lewis financially from which he never recovered completely. The time his wife spent as a prisoner of war affected her health to a point that she never completely recovered.



Born today:



1822    US theologian William Alger. He said “A man makes up in wrath what he lacks in reason.” That is a deep truth, ya’ll.



1895    English writer L.P. Hartley He said “Memory is a foreign country, they do things differently there.” Indeed they do.



1982    Canadian actress Kristin Kreuk. She said “Just because I don’t do bad things does not mean that I don’t have bad thoughts.” I have bad thoughts all the time, Kristin.



Died today:



1970    US Boxer Sonny Liston. He said “Newspaper men ask dumb questions. They squint at the sun and ask if it is shining.” Sonny was not the sharpest knife in the drawer.



2003    US writer John Dunne. He said “Writing is like hard labor of the mind, like laying pipe.” I am going to let this one alone.



2006    Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein. After he was caught he said “If you want to execute me, I will bring my own f---k---g rope.” He did not have to, the US provided one.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“Working with Cher was like being in a blender with an alligator.”

Sam Elliott



A few months ago a tow truck operator was hired by the city of Bluffton, S.C. (Hilton Head) to tow any vehicles that were illegally parked on this one particular street. The tow truck operator had hooked up a mini-van and was in the process of moving it when a man named Juan Olivera ran out and flagged the driver down. The driver got out and explained to Juan that the “No Parking” signs meant what they said and to get his van back, he would have to pay a $300 fine. Juan chose this moment to pull his jacket aside and showed the driver a pistol in his waist band. The driver chose this moment to produce a pistol of his own and sent Juan to meet his maker air conditioned with two shots from his trusty .40 caliber Glock. The driver told the cops that he was in fear for his life. No charges have been filed as of yet…I hope that none will.



I was thinking about the Christmas Day that I remembered the most as far back in years as I could. I think it was when I got my first bicycle. Within a couple of months my Dad had got me a paper route to help pay for the bike. We were really poor, y’all. The bike was also my transportation to school at a distance of about 3 miles. It doesn’t sound like much but in a driving rain storm it was no fun, and neither was the paper route. I delivered the evening paper. I had to ride about four miles to pick up my papers and backtracked on my delivery route. It was no fun but that experience plus making me work all summer bagging groceries or work with an air conditioner and heating repair man, went a long way convincing me that I needed to learn how to make a decent living rather than a “slave labor” job. My brother (an architect) wrapped insulation around air conditioning ductwork all summer, usually in the attic or worked on large construction sites as a “gofer” which usually meant pushing a wheelbarrows full of debris all summer. My brother and I got the message.

This date in history


1781    British troops under the command of Major James Henry Craig occupied John’s Island, South Carolina. Craig and his troops had been kicked out of Wilmington, North Carolina a month before. Patriot General Daniel Morgan ordered the inimitable Lt. Col. Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee and his famous cavalry unit from the Star Fort in the back country of South Carolina near the settlement of Ninety-Six to go kick those redcoats out of there. Just before arriving Lee learned that the Patriot infantry unit led by Major James Hamilton had arrived late and could not ford the Wapoo River so Lee aborted the attack. Because of the flow of the river and variable tidal conditions, the Wapoo River could only be forded once or twice a month and this was not one of those times. It was the relative isolation of some of the coastal island off South Carolina that preserved the Gullah language and traditions. Gullah is a Creole culture that dates back to Elizabethan times and was brought over to America in the slave trade. It was well into the 1950’s that some of these islands could only be reached by water. The Gullah language is exciting to hear because of the accents, rhythm and tempo. However, to the non-Gullah you can understand but very little. There are islands in the Chesapeake Bay, Tangier Island for instance, that was settled by the English and their isolation helped preserve the Old English language to this day.



1822    Future Confederate General William B. Taliaferro is born in Gloucester County, Virginia. He attended William and Mary College and Harvard Law School. He practiced law for just a few years before volunteering in the United States Army during the Mexican War where he achieved the rank of Major. Before the outbreak of the Civil War he served in the Virginia legislature and militia. After the war began he offered his services to the Confederacy and was assigned to General Thomas J “Stonewall” Jackson’s Brigade. He and Stonewall got off to a rocky start. He got involved in a dispute between Jackson and CSA General William Loring. Loring had circulated a petition protesting Jackson stationing troops at Romney, Virginia and Taliaferro had signed it. I did not look into the particulars of this situation because Jackson ignored both of them and did what he wanted to anyway. Taliaferro served with Jackson for the first part of the War and was with Jackson during the immortal Shenandoah Valley campaign. After that he went to Charleston, South Carolina and assisted CSA General P.T.G Beauregard in the design of the city’s coastal defenses. Beauregard had nothing but enthusiastic accolades for Taliaferro’s skills. He was present at the evacuation of Savannah, Georgia and ended the war fighting with CSA General Joseph Johnston near Bentonville, North Carolina. After the war he practiced law and served as a Virginia legislature and as a county judge before dying in his home in 1898. I visited Stonewall Jackson’s home in Lexington, Virginia once and the guide kept talking about Colonel “Tolliver” being part of Jackson’s staff. I kept looking at the booklet trying to find Colonel “Tolliver” with no success. I finally asked the guide who she was talking about in the pamphlet and she pointed to Colonel Taliaferro.



1793    0n this date American Thomas Paine is arrested in France and charged with treason. That’s right; it is the same Thomas Paine that wrote Common Sense and America in Crisis that inspired out forefathers to not give up in their quest for freedom from the British. At the outset of the French Revolution, Paine had gone to France to see if he could help. Evidently Paine loved revolutions. Paine was a hard core opponent to the death penalty and the French revolutionaries were keeping the guillotine hot chopping off heads of the elitist and backers King Louis. Paine raised so much hell that the revolutionaries arrested him to shut him up. It wasn’t a bad incarceration however. He was locked up in the Luxemburg Prison which used to be a castle. He had a room with two windows, was locked up only at night and had catered meals. None the less, when President James Monroe found out about it, he raised so much hell that the French released Paine after a short while. Paine had been writing a book called Age of Reason which stated that God did not influence the actions of people that it was science and rationality that prevailed over religion and superstition. After the book was published an outcry around the world was heard. Paine was declared as Godless and anti-Christ. Needless to say, his follows and admirers in America vanished. He died penniless in New York City in 1809. That just goes to show you that in those days you just did not suggest an alternative to religion.



1900    On this day, 6 foot tall, 175 pound Miss Carrie Nations walked into a bar in Wichita, Kansas and started giving everyone there a large ration of shit about drinking alcohol. While she is at it, she whips out a hatchet and begins breaking up the place. This was not the last one she started hacking up meaning she spent several nights in the slammer. What brought her to this point was early in life she married an Ohio doctor that had a serious drinking problem. She admitted that she knew of his problem before she married him but thought she could “change him”. It didn’t work, he died in an asylum. After this Carrie married a Methodist minister but never forgot the husband that died an alcoholic in spite of her nagging. As we all know, Carrie’s biggest mistake was thinking she could change a man into what she wanted him to be. Anyway, with Carrie stalking the bars in and around Kansas, the consumption of alcohol fell slightly. After Carrie died in 1911 it was business as usual in the land of the Jayhawks. This reminds me of an experience I had. I was sitting at one of my favorite watering holes and a young lady came in and sat down beside me with sadness around her so thick I could cut it with a knife. I asked her why she was so sad. She said her husband had just been sent to jail for two years for dealing drugs. I asked her how long she had been married and she said nine months. Then I asked her if she knew her husband was a dealer when she married him. She said “Yes I did, but thought I could change him.” HELLO! You accept people as they are or not at all!



1832    On this date, Vice President John C. Calhoun resigns to take a vacant United States Senate seat in his home state of South Carolina. This Yale graduate was the first sitting Vice President to resign but it would not be the last. I will let ya’ll figure out what other Vice-President(s) have resigned. Anyway, Calhoun did not get along at all with President Andrew Jackson who kept Calhoun under wraps to decrease his political clout. John C. Calhoun was born near Abbeville, South Carolina in 1782. He served in the state legislature before being elected as Senator. Calhoun was a protector of the agrarian based South against the industrial based North. He also was a hard-core believer in the slave/plantation institution. He called it a “positive good” rather than a ‘necessary evil”. Calhoun spent the majority of his life in high public office including Secretary of War, Vice-President under two different Presidents, US Senator, US Representative. During his time in office the most powerful politicians were Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. Calhoun died in 1850 in Washington, D.C. and is buried in the graveyard of St. Peters church in Charleston, South Carolina.



Born today:



1856    US President Woodrow Wilson, He said “Do not murder someone that is in the process of committing suicide.” Sound wisdom, Woody.



1905    US comedian “Charlie Weaver” who’s real name was Cliff Arquette. When he was on the TV show “Hollywood Squares” the emcee Peter Marshal asked him “If you are going on a parachute jump, how high should you be?” Charlie answered “Three days of straight drinking ought to do it.” I think so too.



1946    When Boston Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee gave his response to the question about the team losing 6 straight games to the Yankees the last week of the season. He said “Our pain ain’t as bad as you might think. Dead people don’t feel pain.” No Comment.



1969    US Computer expert Linus Thorvalds In 1968 this jackass said “Microsoft is not evil, it is just not a very good operation system” Hey Linus, have you ever heard of Bill Gates and John Allen? I didn’t think so. Come to think of it I have never heard of you either.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”

Charles Schultz



The overwhelming topic of conversation this weekend was the weather. There was a bad-assed winter storm that just clipped the corner of my neck-of-the-woods on Saturday night. We got about 3 inches of snow but it melted on the roads as fast as it fell. This was not the case with my friends that live in the mountains about 40 miles north in the Asheville, NC area. They caught a lot more wind, rain and snow than us. I was coming back from lunch Sunday afternoon and that route gives me a clear view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Those mountains are cloaked in white, It reminded me of Alaska.



I got exactly what I wanted for Christmas…two flashlights and 6 DVD movies. I wanted Debbie does the Marine Corps but nobody could find it, so I settled for Gods and Generals, This was a follow up to Killer Angels. Killer Angels was focused on the Battle of Gettysburg whereas Gods and Generals was about the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of the Wilderness. In both of those battles the Union Army took a severe ass-whipping. At the onset of the infantry charge at Fredericksburg almost 7,000 Union infantrymen were killed in 25 minutes. The slaughter was fantastic.



There was an engagement known as the Battle of the Wilderness. General R.E. Lee had taken a beating at Gettysburg and was retreating back into Virginia. He also knew that he was outnumbered by the Union forces by at least three to one and an infantry assault face to face would be suicide. This battle was the first one where the Union forces were commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant in the Eastern Theater. The Wilderness was a section of Virginia that had very nearly impenetrable undergrowth and thick forests. Lee knew that this type terrain would neutralize the advantage the Union forces had in overwhelming numbers. That part of Virginia had been suffering a drought and the woods and leaves were a tinderbox. Sure enough, when the Confederate and Union artillery began to exchange salvos, a forest fire began almost immediately from the exploding shells. The wounded Union and Confederate soldiers did not have a chance to escape and were burned alive. General Grant mounted his horse and rode far enough away that he could not hear the pitiful screams of those men that were trapped. Later on he said he did that so he would not be inhibited in the future from his typically aggressive style of warfare. It would have bothered the hell out of me too.



A long time ago I read a short story about a Welch Terrier named Blackfriar’s Bobby. It was the story about this dog’s dedication to his master. His master was a train engineer and was based in a town named Blackfriar in England. Every day Bobby would be at the train station at the same time every day waiting for his master. One fateful day Bobby’s master was killed in a train wreck and did not show at the train station to greet Bobby. Bobby showed up at the train station every day at about the same time for the rest of his life waiting for his master. There is a statue of Bobby cast in bronze at the train station donated by the people of Blackfriar. This story may have a few flaws because I did not research it as I normally do, but you dog lovers out there will understand what this all about.



This date in history December 27



1780    Earlier Patriot General Daniel Morgan ordered Patriot Colonel William Washington, George Washington’s cousin, and approximately 275 troops to neutralize the British /Loyalist presence near present day Mountville, South Carolina. The Loyalists led by British Colonel Thomas Waters had been harassing the Patriots in and around that area for some time. On this date Washington arrives with 75 cavalry under his direct command and 200 infantry under the command of Lt. Colonels Joe Hayes and Jim McCall. The area under scrutiny in particular was the area on Bush River near Fairforest Creek. Colonel Washington found the British/Loyalist camped near Hammond’s Store near Mountville. Mountville is about 8 miles south of present day Laurens, SC. Hammond’s Store was a blacksmith/trading post which Washington surrounded and launched a surprise attack. After a four day siege, of the 250 British/Loyalists, 150 were killed or wounded, 45 captured and rest scattered through the harsh South Carolina underbrush. The troops chose of burn Hammond’s Store. This area had only been occupied by Europeans since the early 1760’s and had been under almost continuous attack by the native Cherokees. There had been many cases of murder, rape and plunder by both the Europeans and the Cherokees against each other, not to mention the outlaws that attacked both sides. It was during this time period that this area was considered ungovernable because of all the different prejudices that had been instilled by the hostilities. As you might suspect, it took a limited war against the Cherokees and Choctaws to put and end that that problem. As soon as that was finished there was a short break of 14 years and then we chose to start a fight against those Colonists loyal to the British and the British themselves for our independence from Great Britain. It looks to me that they love of the sting of battle and is in our blood, especially the Scots and the Irish, and we have proven it time and time again. By the way, the exact location of Hammond’s Store has been lost to history.



1831    On this momentous day the HMS Beagle sailed from England for a five year voyage of discovery with a scientist named Charles Darwin aboard. The ship spent a lot of time on the east coast of South American continent before traversing Cape Horn over the west coast. The ship spent several months in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Peru. It was during this time period that Darwin developed the theory of evolution that he called “natural selection.” This theory is further described as the “survival of the fittest.” In other words, only the strong survive. After he had made all of his experiments and observations, almost apologetically Darwin wrote the immortal book “Origin of Species”. His book shook the scientific world to it roots, especially paleontology. What caused the turmoil was that this book and the one that followed, “The Descent of Man” tracked homo-sapiens back to sub-humans such as gorillas and chimpanzees. Needless to say the human elitists and the clergy hit the roof because it was adverse to what was taught in the Bible. But Darwin’s logic was impeccable and was almost bullet-proof and except for later changes made genetics and molecular biology his theory is valid today. To NOT believe what he found and deduced requires a leap of faith, not vice versa.



1979    Earlier in Afghanistan a devout communist named Hatzullah Amin had taken control of Afghanistan in a bloodless coup and began the installation as a hard –nosed, take-no-prisoners type communist government. Well, the well known Afghani warlords called bullshit on that and began a well armed revolution. Then another more moderate communist named Barack Karmal began an attempt to take control, except this time Russia sent in 75,000 troops to help Karmal gain control. Needless to say, Hatzullah was assassinated post haste and Karmal assumed control. The only problem here was that the waspish Afghani warlords were not happy with that either and escalated their attacks, especially against the Russian army. Ten years later, the Russians were no closer to vanquishing the Afghani rebels that at the beginning and had lost over 100,000 troops and this war had put Russia on the cusp of bankruptcy so they did the honorable thing. They gathered up their shit and went back to the house.



2004    Yesterday at about 3:00A Indonesian time an earthquake that read 9.3 on the Richter scale struck the ocean floor near the southern tip of the Indonesian archipelago. One part of the ocean bottom thrust upward by more than 15 feet displacing over 7 cubic miles of ocean. I guess we all remember the movies of the resulting tsunami that came ashore in Indonesia, Sumatra, India and even in Somalia in east Africa. There was even a tsunami in Alaska. This earthquake was the second strongest ever recorded since the Richter scale came into existence. Geologists tell use that the entire earth moved a centimeter or two as a result of this event. The strange thing is that the animals knew what was happening. Many of the dogs in some of the villages along the Indonesian coast began whining and ran to high ground and would not return. In some of the cities along the Indian coast, rats swarmed together in huge packs and ran down the streets in broad daylight. Some of the rats swarmed over the edge of wells and jumped in. It must have seemed like the end of the world. It was the end of the world for over 230,000 people.



1846    Earlier an American military unit led by US General John Wool had began an invasion of the state of Chihuahua in the Mexican War. On this date General Wool decided to withdraw when he found out that his wheeled vehicles could not be used in the desert. After this, US Colonel Alexander Doniphan and his arm of about 1,000 infantry began an attack on the Mexicans near El Paso, Texas. This rag-tag group of volunteers was known as “Doniphan’s Thousand”. He was facing an army of about 4,000 Mexicans. On his initial assault Doniphan’s wild men pierced the Mexican lines and kept going all the way to the sea of Cortez where they were picked up by ship and taken to New Orleans and discharged. This engagement proved that the Mexican Army was not as formidable as previously thought and US General Winfield Scott took an army into Mexico City which forced the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 in which Mexico ceded vast lands that stretched from Texas to the Pacific coast and up to Oregon.



Quotable quotes:



Upon meeting Henry James, William Faulkner said “He is one of the nicest old ladies I’ve ever met.”



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and then I thought, what good would it do?”

                                     Ronnie Shakes



Down on I-20 near Fort McClellan, Alabama the road surface is in terrible shape. A few days ago a family of four was traveling east toward Atlanta in an SUV. The parents were in the front and their two young children were in the back strapped into safety seats. A car was coming in the opposite direction and hit a pothole. The pothole had been repaired in the past but was falling apart again. When the car hit the pothole a piece of concrete flew up and crashed into the windshield of the SUV striking the mother in the forehead killing her instantly, then the concrete went between the two kids in the back and exited through the rear window. What are the chances of that piece of concrete and that woman’s forehead being at the same point in space at the same instant traveling in opposite directions and be an accident? The odds are astronomical, but it happened.



This date in history December 23




1944 In January of this year a man named Eddie Slovik was drafted into the United States Army. Slovik was originally rejected for the draft because he was a convicted felon (grand theft auto) but the standards were changed when more manpower was needed. Slovic was trained as a rifleman and in August of 1944 was assigned to the 28th Division which had taken a beating in the last few months both in France and in Germany because of the Battle of the Bulge. Slovic vowed that he would never fight because he hated guns but in October he arrived in France and went in search of the 28th Division during a ferocious battle and got lost. He found a Canadian outfit and they took him in. Eventually the heat of the battle abated and the Canadians took him to 28th Division Headquarters. It was not unusual for replacement troops to get lost in the midst of a major battle so Slovic’s tardiness was overlooked. Slovic again told the personnel at Division Headquarters that he hated guns and would not fight and would run away if forced to. He was ignored until the next day and Slovic showed up missing. A day later he came back in but still told his superiors that he would not fight. His commanding officer was fed up and told him he had a choice. Grab a rifle and go into combat immediately or face a court martial. He reminded Slovic that the United States Army in general and the 28th Division in particular was not in a forgiving mood because of all the casualties they had suffered. Slovic still refused and sure enough a court martial was convened. He was found guilty of desertion and given the death penalty and Slovic was “to be shot to death by musketry”. A stunned Slovic appealed to General Eisenhower for leniency. On this date General Eisenhower signed the order for the execution of Private Slovic. Eisenhower was in no mood for mercy either because of all the American casualties and the “Battle of the Bulge” was well under way where thousands of Allied solders were being slaughtered. In January of 1945 Private Slovic was stood up before a squad of 12 riflemen and shot to death. None of the riflemen even flinched because they believed that Slovic was getting what he deserved. He was the first American soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War.



1783   After the signing of the Treaty of Paris which declared the United States as a separate and sovereign nation General George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the American Army. He told his men this:



"Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming a respectable nation, I resign with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with diffidence; a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task; which however was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of the supreme power of the Union, and the patronage of Heaven.”



George Washington wished to go back to his plantation and live the life of a gentleman planter but his country called again when he was elected our first President. As I have said before, we were very fortunate to have the group of Patriots that we had on our side during this time frame. It almost seems like an act of Providence for all of these things to come together as they did when they did.



1862 On this date the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis declares US General Benjamin Butler a felon. This meant that if Butler was captured by Confederate forces he would be hanged on the spot. What happened was that the city of New Orleans was captured by US forces and Butler was made military governor. Butler’s leadership had nothing to do with the capture; it was the expertise of the US Navy commanded by David Porter. Anyway, Butler was a complete horse’s ass during his tenure. He allowed his troops to plunder the civilians personal effects. He also allowed his brother to set up shop in New Orleans and sell contraband that General Butler let him steal. And finally he issued General order No. 28. This abomination stated that if any lady insulted any of his troops, the lady would be assumed to be a prostitute and treated accordingly. In these days the ladies of the South were treated with great respect and honor. This order by Butler was the ultimate insult and President Davis essentially put a bounty on the head of Benjamin Butler.



Born today:



1896   Italian writer Giuseppe Lampedusa. He said “If you want things to remain as they are, they there will have to be some changes.” Huh?



1908   Armenian photographer Yousef Karsh. He said “There is a secret in every man and woman. It is my task as a photographer to reveal it if I can.”



Died today:



1834   English economist Edward Malthus. He said “Population, when unchecked, makes a geometrical progression of such a nature as to double itself every twenty-five years.” That is spooky, ya’ll, but this was before “the pill”.



1959   English politico Edward Halifax. He said “True merit, like a river, the deeper it is the less noise it makes.” Good thinking, Ed.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:



“Last month I went to get a test for AIDS. The problem is that you don’t get the result for five days. I spend those five days in deep reflection. What the hell was I doing fooling around with all that skanky-ass I met in Miami, Cleveland, Milwaukee and many other places? What the hell was I thinking?

                                         Chris Rock



As expected all those “Lame Duck” Democrats that got their young asses kicked out of office in November are trying their damnedest to get all the money they can from the taxpayers for their districts in the form of “earmarks” or “pork” in the latest money bill. Your friend and mine Harry Reid, the dumbest ass to come out of Nevada in history, finally admitted that he did not have the support to get this bill passed and the 1,200 page document went down the toilet. Maybe there is hope.



Late one night last week a teenager near Charlotte, NC heard a knock at his front door but he did not answer. He looked out a window and saw a young man standing on his porch. The person on the porch waved at two other people in the yard waving them to go around to the back door. The young man was not happy with this and ran upstairs and retrieved a Samurai sword. When he got back downstairs the two at the back door almost had the door knocked open. The teenager charged them with his sword awhirl. The two in the back ran into the street retrieving the third guy on the front porch and they hightailed down the street with the sword bearer in close pursuit. All three potential burglars were arrested. The young man said that he was fearful at the start but when they started running with him nipping at their heels he felt great exhilaration. I would have too.



I guess all of y’all know about the engagement of Prince William of England and his fiancé Kate Middleton. They have already made out their list of invitees. The most significant absence from the list is that of Barack and Michelle Obama. The Prince and Kate have seen fit to invite the president of France Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife of the day Carla. Carla is his third wife amid several present day extra-marital affairs for both. Anyway, they are supposed to attend the royal nuptials arm–in-arm. I guess Barack and Michelle will play a pick-up game of basketball with mouth guards in place.



Down at Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida two undocumented aliens were arrested. These arrests mean that a grand total of 40 undocumented aliens that have been arrested while working on an addition to the 7th Special Forces building. This outfit specializes in “Black Ops” y’all. It is these soldiers along with the Delta division based in nearby Hurlburt Air Force Base that do most of United States covert assignments worldwide. It is disconcerting to know that they cannot keep undocumented aliens away from one of the most secretive military units on the planet.



This date in history December 21




1761   Revolutionary War hero and hard-core Patriot Robert Barnwell was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. This boy joined his local militia at the age of 16 and was promptly engaged in the Battle of Mathew’s Farm on John’s Island near Charleston. During this battle young Robert received 17 separate wounds. He had his equipment taken from him and was left for dead. He was taken from the field by a slave to the plantation home of his aunt which was nearby. He spent several months in recovery and eventually rejoined his militia and was given the rank of lieutenant. Unfortunately, soon thereafter Charleston, South Carolina was captured by the British including Lieutenant Barnwell. Barnwell was put aboard the British prison ship Pack Horse anchored in Charleston Harbor where he spent 13 months before being exchanged. During the Revolutionary War, Barnwell rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the War Barnwell was elected a member of the South Carolina legislature and was sent to Washington as a member of the South Carolina delegation to ratify the US Constitution He spent two years in Washington as a member of the US House of Representative and then returned to his beloved South Carolina and rejoined the South Carolina legislature. He stayed in the legislature along with serving on the board of directors of Beaufort College until his death on October 24, 1814. Strangely enough his son Robert Woodward Barnwell was a passionate advocate of South Carolina secession from the Union. His son was trying to tear apart what his father had spent most of his life putting together.



1861   Earlier in November of this year a United States warship had stopped and boarded the British mail ship Trent in the Bahamas and captured two Confederate representatives on their way to England and took them prisoner. On this date British Secretary Lord Lyon met with United States Secretary of war William Seward about this event, Lord Lyon assured Secretary Seward that the British crown thought of this act as one of piracy and was worthy of a declaration of war if the Confederate representatives, James Mason and John Slidell, were not released immediately. Seward took Lyon’s words to Lincoln. Lincoln stalled for a few days until he found out that there were 11,000 British troops on the way to Canada. Soon thereafter, Mason and Slidell were released and the US promised to observe the sovereignty of British ships in the future. Lincoln could not risk having to fight a war on two fronts.
 


1975   On this date in Vienna, Austria, a terrorist named llich Ramirez Sanchez led a group of fellow terrorists into a meeting of OPEC and kill three guards and capture 16 OPEC members. This was not the first, nor the last, act of terrorism committed by a man that had been labeled Carlos the Jackal. He made a demand for a bus and an airplane which the Viennese government provided. Carlos directed the plane to Algeria where all aboard were released, Carlos was born into a wealthy Marxist family in Caracas, Venezuela, He was educated at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. He chose a life of terrorism at an early age. No one really knows why he chose a life on the run but he was an accomplished terrorist. He had practiced his craft for over 25 years without capture, However in 1994, French undercover agents tracked him down to the Sudan and kidnapped the son-of-a-bitch back to France. The French government chose to not announce his capture for three years when finally he was put on trial for killing two French counter-intelligence agents in 1975. He got life without parole. Not enough, as far as I am concerned.



1866   In 1861 the United States signed the Treaty of Laramie with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians ceding the Indians the lands that contained the Bozeman Trail, but soon after this treaty was signed, gold was discovered on the Indian lands and gold seekers resume using the Bozeman Trail once again much to the displeasure of the Indians in general and the Cheyenne chief Red Cloud in particular. The US Government not only allowed the breaking of the treaty, they built army forts along the Bozeman Train to protect the travelers. The most obnoxious one to the Indians was the fort on the Little Piney named Fort Phil Kearney. This fort saw very few days without some kind of attack by Red Clouds warriors. During all of this, the fort had to have timber for heat and sent out wood cutting groups on a regular basis. On this date, Red Cloud was waiting and killed all but one of the wood cutting crew. Red Cloud sent seven or eight warriors in view of the fort and when the fort fired a round of artillery the Indians ran away in fear….or so they thought. A Lieutenant Fetterman requested permission from the camp commander to chase down the Indians that had ran away in fear and the permission was granted. Fetterman took 45 cavalryman and 45 infantry and left the fort. Fetterman had instructions to not go out of sight of the fort but soon after leaving the fort Fetterman spotted 7 or 8 Indians running over the snowy hillside and chased after them. As soon as all the troopers were over the hill, Red Cloud and 2,000 of his warriors fell upon the hapless troopers and annihilated them to a man. Not only that, not one of the troopers was found in one piece. They had all been mutilated. Soon after this the United States decided to abandon Fort Phil Kearney. After the troopers left the fort, it was set afire by Red Cloud before the troopers were out of sight. This is one of the very few victories the Indians enjoyed.



Births and deaths:



1892   US Golfer Walter Hagen is born. He said “I don’t want to be a millionaire; I just want to live like one.” Me too, Walter, me too.



1909   US ambassador to the United Nations George Ball is born. He said “Nostalgia is a seductive liar.”



1937   US actress Jane Fonda is born. She said “Working in Hollywood does give one a certain expertise in the field of prostitution.”



1945   US General George Patton dies. He said “It is not the object of war to die for your country it is to make the other poor bastard die for his.”



Quotable quotes:



“I have an inferiority complex, but it is not a very good one.”
                            Stephen Wright



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday, December 20, 2010

Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“If you ask me the three scariest things facing the human race is nuclear war, global warming and Windows Vista.”

Dave Barry



In my last lesson I mentioned that Admiral Husband Kimmel, the commander of the US Naval Fleet in Pearl Harbor, and General Walter Short the US Army commander in Pearl Harbor were court martialed. That is not correct. The whole event was examined by a Congressional Committee and Kimmel and Short were relieved of their command and found derelict in their duties. Admiral Kimmel was also reduced to his permanent rank of Rear Admiral. Later on these charges were found to be wrongly administered but it was too late then. In the military, unlike Congress, when things go wrong they begin chopping at the top.



Most of y’all have read about a jewelry store owner down close to Houston that was involved in an attempted robbery. What happened was this: A man came in and pretended to look around then all of a sudden two other men burst through the door brandishing pistols and shouted “This is a robbery.” The robbers tied up the store owner’s wife and came over to tie up the owner. He pulled out a pistol from his waist band and instantly killed the closest robber. An open gunfight erupted. The store owner dove for and retrieved a shotgun and cut the other two robbers to ribbons with several shotgun blasts. The owner is in stable condition with three gunshot wounds of his own. He will survive. The three robbers went to meet their maker in several pieces.



The “Sons of The Confederacy” are planning a reenactment of the acceptance of the Instrument of Secession by the South Carolina Legislature in 1860. The President of this organization declares that slavery was indeed an abomination but this reenactment and dance afterward has nothing to do with slavery. It is about men and women that stood up for their right to secede. The NAACP plans a protest stating that secession was powered by the desire to keep slaves. The actual reason for the reenactment is determined by those participating not outside observers and their suppositions. I just have one question. How much longer would slavery have existed had it not been for the American Civil War? Be grateful for what happened when it happened. Do not grieve for what could have been. The Civil War began because several states seceded from the Union and Lincoln felt that he could not let that happen, not for any other moralistic reasons.



In day 10 of the trial of Stephen Nodine for the murder of his mistress Angel Downs continued with cross examination of a prosecution expert witness on suicide by the defense. The defense produced their own suicide “expert”. The prosecutor asked the expert on what evidence did he base his conclusion that Angel committed suicide. He responded that he had read Angels medical history from five years ago and knew that she had complained about her financial problems. The prosecutor asked if he had read the statements by Angel’s friends that she had told them that if she was found dead it would be because of Stephen not suicide, or another statement from her friends that she had begun a new relationship with another man and was excited about it and finally that she had started a plan to resolve her financial problems. The “expert” confessed that he had not read any of that testimony. There is little question in my mind that this so called expert was paid a huge sum of money to testify what the defense told him to. His confession that he had not researched recent events adds to the burden of the defense. I personally think Stephen is headed to the joint. Just think if he had not been so snot-nosed he could have had Angel. Now he might be going to have a 300 pound sex maniac for a roommate for the rest of his life. By the way, all testimony has been concluded and the jury will be charged on Monday and will retire to discuss a verdict. I will keep y’all advised.



I normally try to steer clear of pure politics but I am impelled to say this. I am really dismayed at the quality of our leadership both in the White House and the Capitol. President Obama seems to be way over his head and is at a loss for what direction to go and allows the Democratic leaders in Congress to dictate whence we are headed. That is the responsibility of the Executive branch. Obama is a good and entrancing speaker but there is much said about nothing. He appears to be wandering with no goal in sight. I personally do not believe he has the credentials to be President and may indeed be a “sleeper”. But that is way, way out in left field but is a possibility. OK, I feel better now.



One of the finest blues singers that y’all have never heard of died last Friday at the age of 55. It was Robin Rogers. Robin died of hepatitis that she probably received from a dirty needle that she used many years earlier. She ran away from a dysfunctional family at the age of 15 and slept and ate wherever she could and was easy prey for drug dealers. She learned to play a guitar and heard the blues as sung on the street by the homeless. It struck home. She was finally recognized for the talent that she was at about the age of 35 and cleaned up her act. She had 20 years of peace and fulfillment until she went to have a physical to get life insurance for her and her new husband. She was denied insurance because she tested positive for hepatitis. That was about a year ago. Anyway a wonderful talent has gone and it is our great loss. Y’all can find her on YouTube. Enjoy.



This date in history December 20

1862   On this date Confederate General Earl Van Dorn makes a successful raid on US General Ulysses Grant’s supply depot in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Grant was on his way to Vicksburg, Mississippi to capture this final Confederate bastion on the Mississippi River. Grant was approaching Vicksburg from the east and US General William Sherman was approaching from the north. This two pronged attack depended greatly on being supplied on a regular basis. The Confederates knew they could not survive a coordinated attack but they also knew that the Yankees needed their supplies. The Confederates decided to send Van Dorn with a fairly large cavalry unit from Grenada, Mississippi up to Holly Springs. Van Dorn easily ran off the small US infantry unit that was protecting the depot. He gathered up as many supplies that he could carry off and destroyed the rest. This attack caused Grant to delay the attack on Vicksburg until more supplies could be brought in. This was the high point in Van Dorn’s military career because he had been defeated in his last two engagements. Van Dorn was a notorious boozer and womanizer and five weeks from this date he was caught in bed with a married woman and her husband unceremoniously shot and killed him.



1860   On this date the South Carolina state legislature votes to secede from the United States in protest of the election of Abraham Lincoln as President because Lincoln was a Republican. This political party was formed in 1850 for the sole purpose of the abolition of slavery. Soon after South Carolina’s secession, six other states seceded and they formed the Confederate States of America. After the first shots were fired, four other states joined the Confederacy.



1986   On this date three black men were driving from Brooklyn to Queens, New York when their car broke down. They walked several miles to the pre-dominantly Italian neighborhood of Howard Beach and went into a pizza parlor to use a phone to call for help. They were told that there was no phone available so they ordered a pizza. Afterward they left and a gang of white teenager was waiting outside. The whites attacked and one of the blacks ran out into the street and was struck and killed by an automobile. One of the other blacks was able to run away but the other was not and was severely beaten but survived. This event stirred racial tensions in New York to a fever pitch that attracted national attention. The Reverend Al Sharpton organized a protest march and demanded a special prosecutor to look into this outrage because the District Attorney of Queens could not be trusted to be unbiased. Governor Mario Cuomo agreed and appointed Charles Hynes as special prosecutor. Hynes finally was able to convict three of the teenagers for the fatality. This was not the end of it. In 2005 three other black men were attacked by a group of white teenager wielding baseball bats. Two of the men escaped unscathed but one was beaten. Racial tensioned flared again. The state of New York passed severe penalties for hate-crimes and things calmed down…for now.



1987   On the day before the ferry Doma Paz had departed an Island near Leyte in the Philippines headed for Manila. The ferry was rated for 1,400 passengers but the demand for the 375 mile trip was great since it was near Christmas so they crammed about 4,000 passengers aboard. After the ferry was out in the open most of the veteran crew was drinking and watching TV with a rookie helmsman at the wheel. The ferry was approaching a busy straight when the 8,000 barrel oil tanker Victor loomed out of the darkness and the two ships collided and a violent explosion and fire ensued. Rescue ships arrived on the scene but were unable to get anywhere near because of the intense heat. There were only 23 survivors mostly from the tanker. For weeks scorched and burned bodies washed up on beaches up and down the Philippine Sea. It was the worst marine disaster in history.



1836   On this date President Andrew Jackson introduced to Congress a treaty that he had negotiated with Ioway, Fox, Sac, Sioux and Omaha Indian tribes. The tribe had agreed to move to lands designated by the US to make room for settlers. However, the US had negotiated over 400 treaties with the Indians most of which were ignored or broken by the US depending on the financial considerations. These events are a black mark on the history of this great nation.

Born today:



1865   Irish Patriot Maud Gonne. She said “The English may batter us to pieces but they will never break our spirit.” Hang in there, Maud. We Americans kicked their ass twice in fifty years.



1894   Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies. When chastised about his superiority attitude he said “Considering the company I keep in this place, it is hardly surprising.” The world hates snobs, Bob.



1902   Chicago mayor Richard Daley. He said “We shall reach greater and greater platitudes of achievement.” Dick, you were a dumb-ass, a very powerful dumb-ass, but still a dumb-ass.



1579   English writer John Fletcher. He said “I find the medicine worse than the malady.” John, you must know Doc Hammond.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of the living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of the fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope – progress.”

Bruce Barton



Down in the area of Gulf Shores, Alabama there is a murder trial under way. The prosecution has charged ex-county commissioner Shephen Nodine with the murder of his mistress 45 year old Angel Downs. Back in May Angel’s corpse was found in the driveway of her Gulf Shores condo with one bullet hole in her head. Her pistol was found nearby with no one’s fingerprints on the weapon but hers. About 6 years ago Angel and Stephen met at the infamous Flora-Bama Lounge. Let me tell y’all, I have been all over the world and Angel is in the top five best looking women I have ever seen top to bottom, she had everything. Angel and Stephen would come over to Pensacola Beach on occasion and party. They would stop in my favorite place from time to time. She stopped conversations when she walked in the door. Their relationship was a rocky one however. They squabbled frequently. Regardless of that Stephen spent many a night in her condo in spite of he being married and having a passel of kids. At one time he was considered a rising star in Alabama politics, not anymore. Angel had said more than once that she wished Stephen would divorce his wife and marry her so they could spend the rest of their days together but she eventually realized it was not going to happen. She broke up with Stephen and dated at least two other men. Just before she was found dead, Stephen had stormed into the Flora-Bama screaming “Where is the whore!” This blow up was witnessed by at least 100 people. Angel was not there but was found dead a little while later. What really got Stephen’s goat was a few nights before he walked in on Angel in bed with another man. The man was a friend that had known Angel for 30 years and she had asked him to stay with her that night because her front door lock was broken and she was afraid. That is what the man testified to. He said that Nodine walked into the bedroom unannounced and threw a garage door opener at her and left in a huff. The prosecution is claiming that Stephen killed Angel in a jealous rage. Stephen’s defense is that Angel committed suicide because her income had been cut in half in the last few years because of the economy and she could not pay her bills. On occasion Stephen would bring his older sons over and they would sleepover in Angel’s house. The impression I got is that Stephen was a man of power in that area of the country and was not used to not getting his way and being rejected. In any event his political career is over and if he is convicted of killing that beautiful creature, I will lift a toast to every day he spends in the joint. The trial is in its 9th day, I will keep y’all advised.



I assume that all of y’all know that your friend and mine, Michael Moore, provided the bail money to get that insect owner of Wikileaks out of a British prison over the strong objections of the Swedish government. He is wanted in Sweden on a sexual abuse charge. The British knew how slippery this vermin can be so they included that he must wear a locator anklet until the deal with Sweden is resolved. Good luck on that. Michael Moore, what a great American.



Last Friday 65 year old Earnest McDonald walked out of his house near Columbia and disappeared. He had no family in the area but his neighbors saw that he had not been home in several days and were fearful that he was disabled in this exceptionally cold weather and they knew he was on a slew of medications. Wednesday the Veteran’s Hospital in Tampa called the Sheriff’s department and said that Ernest was with them. So far no one know how he made that trip and Ernest does not remember.



Over in Rock Hill, South Carolina two police officers were trying to capture two loose pit bulls that had no collars. One of the dogs bit one of the officers on the arm and backed off and then both of the dogs charged the other officer. The officer shot and killed both of them. The owner of the dogs will be fined heavily. Perhaps some of you may not know this but in Dade County (Miami). Florida, it is illegal to own a pit bull or a Rottweiler. I have mentioned how I feel about these animals; there is no need to plow that ground again.



Thursday morning Larry Cooper was released on bail up in Charlotte for breaking into a church. Larry was required to wear a locator anklet until his trial. Three hours later the police detected that Larry’s anklet had been cut and about the same time a custodian walked into his church and saw a burglar who escaped by breaking out one of the rear windows. The cops and a dog were there in short order and the dog tracked the burglar down. It was none other than good old Larry Cooper. His is back in the joint under two charges, destroying an electronic device and breaking and entering a house of worship, second offense. I nominate Larry to be a candidate for the AGCUS award.



The ex-wife that I mentioned a few lessons ago said that she was not happy with what I wrote in my blog. Here is message for her. D-I-V-O-R-C-E Look it up. Apparently you don’t know what it means even after over 25 years. He Pete, do you really think it is the same woman?



This date in history December 17



1777   Earlier in October British General John Burgoyne had his ass handed to him by Patriot General Horatio Gates and the Continental army at the Battle of Saratoga, New York. The news of that ass-kicking reached France and our minister to France, Benjamin Franklin, on December 24. Franklin had been leaning on France to recognize the United Sates as an independent nation. The king of France, Louis XVI had been reluctant to openly recognize the United States until they had proven they were capable of holding their own against the mightiest army in the world, that being the British army and the victory at Saratoga demonstrated that. France had secretly been sending supplies to the United States for years. But on this date, Ben Franklin prevailed and France officially recognized the United States as a free and independent nation. This, of course meant war with England. France had been smarting about the loss of the North American continent to the British during the Seven Years War and the French and Indian War and they saw this as a way of sticking it to the British in revenge. Even though there was five more years of bloody conflict in our future, there was a light at the end of the tunnel.



1862   US General Ulysses Grant in a fit of anger issued an order that bans all Jews from his “department” and that being the states of Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. The reason was this. As a result of Grant’s military successes, thousands of slaves escaped which proved to be one hell of a logistics problem. One of the solutions was to have the slaves pick the cotton in abandoned fields and share in the profit once the Federal government sold off the cotton bales. The problem was that the cotton traders, mostly Jews, tried to divert the sale of the cotton from the government to the free market to themselves. They could make an enormous profit in this process. The final straw came when Grant’s father came to visit and he was accompanied by two men that had befriended Grant’s father on the train. It turned out that the two men were Jewish cotton traders that had befriended Grant’s father in the hopes of using Grant’s father as an avenue for them to get their hands of some of that cotton. Needless to say that Grant hit the damned roof when he found out the true reason the Jews had befriended his father. I would have been pretty upset my damned self. It took the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln to order Grant to rescind the order. Grant did indeed rescind the order but his dislike of the Jews prevailed throughout the rest of his life.



1905   On this momentous day two bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio name Wilbur and Orville Wright got a contraption that they had created to fly on under its own power for the first time in the history of the world on the dunes of Kitty Hawk, NC. This airplane flew for 12 seconds for a distance of 120 feet which is a little short of the wingspan of a Boeing 747. Just think on it folks, just 11 years later World War I fighter planes were flying 100 miles an hour for over an hour. There is no need for me to go into how far we have come in the aviation field since then. In the span of 100 years we have seen men on the moon and have erected a manned space station. It boggles mind.



1996   “Operation Iceman” comes to an end with the arrest of Richard Kuklinski in a truck stop on the New Jersey turnpike. A multiple killer, Kuklinski was brought down by an undercover agent named Dominick Pulitrone. It was believed that Kuklinski killed his business partner in 1980 with a shot to the head and stuffed him into a 55 gallon barrel and then froze it. He disposed of the body in 1983. He formed another partnership with two other men named George Mallibrand and Louis Matheny. They were in an illegal business and Kuklinski got nervous and decide to kill them both. He shot Matheny and poisoned Mallibrand with cyanide. The undercover agent had made friends with Kuklinski and asked Kuklinski the best way to kill someone and Kuklinski answered with cyanide. He is right. The physical evidence disappears almost immediately. It can kill with ingestion and even a spray in the face. From this the ATF was able to amass enough evidence to put Kuklinski away for life without parole.



1941   Here it is only 10 days after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the hunt is complete for a scapegoat, they found one in the Commander of the Pacific Fleet, Rear Admiral Husband Kimmel. On this date he was relieved of command. Previously, Kimmel had been a favorite of President Roosevelt and have served admirable as various battleship commanders. His damning fault was that he did not put enough credence in his intelligence sources. There were plenty of clues that an attack was imminent but chose to believe that attack was going to happen somewhere else other than Hawaii. His US army counterpart, General Walter Short was also relieved of command at the same time, they were both acknowledged scapegoats and during their court martial they were not even allowed to testify in their own behalf nor call witnesses. The court martial accused and convicted them of dereliction of duty. In February of 1941, Rear Admiral Kimmel had received a temporary rank of Admiral while overseeing a training exercise of the Pacific Fleet but he reverted back to his original rank of Rear Admiral after war had been declared on December 8. Both commanders were not given the military intelligence available to those in Washington. If they had; perhaps things would nave been different. They are those that believe US President Roosevelt allowed that attack to take place to get the Unites States people on a wartime footing. Roosevelt had stated on more than one occasion that “Unless attacked, the United States would not fight wars on foreign soil.” Well, here was an attack and sure enough, the United States did indeed fight wars on foreign soils.



Birth and deaths:



1796   Canadian writer Thomas Halliburton is born, he said “Nicknames stick to people, the more ridiculous, the more adhesive.” I have a friend and mentor nicknamed “Pathwalker” or “PW”.



1957   English writer Dorothy Sayers dies. She said “As I grow older and totter toward the tomb, I find I care less and less who goes to bed with whom.



Quotable quotes:



“Never raise your hands to your kids; it leaves your groin unprotected.” Red Buttons



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“Love is a condition in which the happiness of another is essential to your own.”

                                     Robert Heinlein



This past Monday a watcher of “America’s Most Wanted” in San Francisco recognized a 32 year old man and a 12 year old girl that were featured on a show. They had been missing from a town near Roanoke, Virginia since December 6. The San Francisco cops quickly arrested the man and sent to girl to DSS. The cops from Roanoke are already on a plane heading west. On December 6 the cops in Roanoke found the corpse of the mother of the 12 year old and she was also the man’s girlfriend. The cops have not called it a homicide but the little girl said that she knew her mother was dead. What else can it be?



Last month the police near Boston found the corpse of a 19 year man in a residential neighborhood that was severely mangled. The police were able to back track this man to being a resident of Charlotte, NC. The cops were baffled for a while but eventually they deduced that this young man snuck aboard an airliner departing Charlotte for Boston. He chose to stow away aboard the aircraft by hiding in the nose wheel well. First I don’t understand how he survived from Charlotte to Boston knowing that the wheel wells are not pressurized (no oxygen) and the temperature at 31,000 feet (estimated) is about 5 below zero (also estimated). But positively there is not enough oxygen above 11,000 feet to stay conscious more than 15 minutes. A flight from Charlotte to Boston would take about 2 hours and 10 minutes. In my opinion the young man died inside the wheel well from lack of oxygen or he froze to death. When the wheel well was opened for landing he fell out because he was not holding on. How is it possible that a man that age was not aware of the oxygen level on the planet or the temperature levels? Surely he told someone his plans; those people that he told are as ignorant as he was. The TSA agents at the Charlotte airport are catching hell for allowing someone to sneak aboard a commercial aircraft undetected. It could have been a terrorist with a two pound block of C-4 (explosive).



I read in the Charlotte newspaper that TV star Angie Harmon and her husband former NFL star Jason Sehorn and their three children are moving to Charlotte from Los Angeles because they think it is a better city in which to raise their children. Angie is from Dallas, Texas and originally and starred on “Law and Order” and now is on “Rizzoli and Isles”. Jason last played for Saint Louis but made his mark playing with the Giants. He is from Sacramento and played college ball for Southern Cal as a defensive back. I just hope their kids are not in a district when they end up at Garinger High School. But in reality I am sure their education will be the best that money can buy top to bottom.



Last month a 56 year old woman from Fayetteville, NC showed up missing. The police searched all over for her to no avail. A couple of days ago she showed up in a homeless shelter in Richmond, Virginia. She said that she had walked form Fayetteville to Richmond. The Fayetteville police said that they were familiar with her “walks”. A few years ago she showed up missing and she was found in a homeless shelter in New York City. She had walked every step of the way from Fayetteville to New York. People that know her said that she carries a small bucket to sit on when she gets tired. This girl is a free spirit, y’all. How could she travel those distances without attracting attention. But who knows what people pay attention to these days.



I guess all of you know by now that a Federal judge in Virginia has struck down the Obama Healthcare bill as being unconstitutional. How dare that judge say the it is unconstitutional for the Federal Government to dictate to Americans that they must spent their money like the Federal government says and buy health insurance or be fined. How dare he.



This date in 1862 saw the end to the Fredericksburg Campaign by the Army of the Potomac 116,000 strong. It was Union General Ambrose Burnsides against CSA General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia 77,000 strong with Lee having two days to prepare. That, my friends, is asking for a disaster and that is exactly what happened. After a serious of frontal assaults on the Confederate fronts all resulting heavy casualties, Burnsides ordered a retreat and he was immediately relieved and replaced by General Joe Hooker. He was not any better. The statistics for this action are as follows: Union casualties 12,653 to 5,377 for the Confederacy. It is the worst statistical ass-kicking any American military unit has ever suffered in one engagement before or since. What made me think of this was a view of “The Wall” in Washington honoring the 58,000 Americans lost in Vietnam in nine years. Civil War battles were much more deadly.



This date in history December 15




!961   Earlier in 1906 Adolf Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany. In 1932 he joined the Nazi party and was absorbed into the elite SS military/political machine of Adolf Hitler. He rose swiftly in rank and authority and eventually he was in the inner circle of those in the Nazi party chosen to find a way to exterminate all the Jews in Europe. As Field Marshal Herman Goering called it, “We need to find a “final solution” to the Jewish problem.” Goering was the second in command to Hitler and was tasked by Hitler with eliminating the Jews. Goering in turn assigned Eichmann to figure out a way to get this attempt at genocide on its feet and still be to best effect for the 3rd Reich. Eichmann was equal to the task and very shortly had death camps, work camps where the workers were slaves building the tools of war for the German military. They were literally worked to death and buried in mass graves, or burned into dust in ovens. Eichmann’s creations were responsible for the deaths of about 4 million Jews, Slavs and Gypsies. There were another 2 million deaths that were the responsibility of others in the SS. After the war was lost Eichmann was captured but escaped and bounced around in the Middle East for several years before making his way to Argentina in 1950. The Argentinians played it fast and loose with immigrants, especially former German military personnel. Eichmann assumed the name of Roberto Klement and began a life of a factory worker in Buenos Aires. In 1957 a former German officer told the Israeli secret police, known as the Mossad, that Eichmann was living Buenos Aires. The Mossad was very interested in Eichmann for obvious reasons and sent two secret agents to Buenos Aries to try and find this monster. It took a while but they located the home of Eichmann. In May of 1960 Argentina was having a celebration commemorating the 150th anniversary of freedom from Spanish rule. There was a large influx of visitors to this celebration and Mossad took this opportunity to bring in more agents. On May 11 the Mossad agents descended upon Eichmann’s house and waited. When Eichmann got off the bus coming home from work, the agents kidnapped him, drugged the hell out of him and flew his ass to Israel. Argentina raised hell and demanded Eichmann’s release but Israel said he was an international war criminal and there was no way in hell he was going to be released and he was put on trial for crimes against humanity in Israel. On this date Eichmann was convicted on all counts and was sentenced to death. Eichmann’s total defense was that he was doing as he was ordered like the good soldier that he was. On May 31, 1962 Adolf Eichmann was hanged, his body cremated and his ashes thrown into the sea. Thus ended the life of one on the worst monsters this world has ever known. But there are still more out there. Never forget that.



1973   Five months earlier the grandson of billionaire J. Paul Getty, J. Paul Getty III, was kidnapped in Italy and a ransom note was sent to his grandfather demanding $17 million. Incredibly, J. Paul Getty refused saying he could not raise that much cash. A few days later the severed ear of the grandson showed up at the office of a Naples newspaper. Finally, J. Paul coughed up $2.5 million in ransom and on this date, J. Paul Getty III was found alive and well in Naples, minus one ear. J. Paul Getty did not live a happy life. He was married and divorced five times and had a tumultuous relationship with his sons and daughters. In his later years he lived in a palatial home outside London that was protected by double rows of concertina wire and 20 German shepherd guard dogs roaming the grounds. His reputation as a miser was well deserved. As an example he had pay phones installed in his house for his guests to use. In 1976 J. Paul Getty died at the age of 86 and his children immediately began a cauldron of hell-raising looking for a piece of his fortune. But the old man had an air tight will already in place and the greatest majority of his money went to the Getty Art Museum in Los Angeles which is the richest endowed facility of its type in the world.



1988   On this date “The Godfather of Soul” or “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business” James Brown begins serving a 6 year sentence in the State Park Correctional Facility in South Carolina. He had a few small run-ins with the law during the summer of 1988 but his escapades on September 24 went too far. My man James walked into an insurance seminar in Augusta, Georgia with a shotgun in one hand a pistol in the other and ordered everyone out. No one really knows why he did this because it was later proven that he did not know anyone there and had no interest in the insurance business. Anyway, James then got in his pick-up truck and heads for the house. The police began a chase that began in South Carolina then into Georgia and back to South Carolina. Finally South Carolina’s finest got fed up with James’s wild goose chase and shot out three of his tires. All this did was slow James down; he continued down the road and finally loses control and drives into a ditch bringing this fiasco to an end. All of these infractions brought James 6 ½ years in a South Carolina slammer. James was paroled after three years but he wasn’t finished yet. Soon after being free he was caught with a load of grass and did even more time. Finally it appeared that James literally got his act together and went on the road. His performances were as entertaining and dynamic as ever in spite of his age. James finally went to that great sound stage in the sky in December of 2006. He was 73 years old. What a performer.



1890   For years the holy man for the Lakota Sioux, Sitting Bull, had been warning his people that any contact with people other than those of their tribe would result in disaster. His warning proved to be prophetic as the honky settlers took more and more of Sioux land by force. This meant that the Sioux were fighting a defensive battle the great majority of the time trying to hold on their tribal lands and traditional way of life. It was a fruitless fight because the settlers were protected by a well armed and well trained United States Cavalry. Finally Sitting Bull persuaded his people to go to the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota or risk complete annihilation. The US Cavalry got wind of an increase of the practice of the legendary “Ghost Dance” by the Sioux. This dance was usually a prelude to war so the Cavalry assumed this practice was fostered by Sitting Bull. On this date the Reservation Police went to arrest Sitting Bull at his tiny cabin on the Grande River. They went to get him at 6:00a so they could take him away as quietly as possible. It was not to be. Sitting Bull began raising almighty hell and soon a crowd had gathered around the great leader also raising almighty hell. One hothead in the crowd shot one of the policemen and the police responded with shooting Sitting Bull in the chest and head killing him instantly. The police were not finished. They continued shooting killing 12 of the crowd and wounded 4. Just a few weeks later the Indian spirit was broken with the massacre of Chief Black Kettle and 156 of his tribe at Wounded Knee. This was the last “battle” between the US Cavalry and an Indian tribe. All the Indians wanted to was to be left alone to live their lives as they saw fit. It was not to be.



Born today:



1888   US playwright Maxwell Anderson. When speaking of George Washington he said “There are some men that lift the age in which they inhabit, till all men walk on higher ground in that lifetime.” Indeed Max, indeed.



1892   US zillionaire J. Paul Getty. He said “If you can count your money, you are not a billionaire.” Paul, shut the hell up.



1906   Ukrainian film producer Lew Grade. When involved in a biblical film he said “Twelve apostles? Why do we need twelve? Can’t we make do with six?” Lew, you are a dumb-ass.



1932   Irish writer Edna O’Brien. She said “Getting to vote means nothing. We women need to be armed”. Edna baby, lighten up.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“To live is the rarest thing on earth. Most people just exist and that is all.”

Oscar Wilde



Well y’all, yet another event occurred that further mystifies me as to the mind of the female of the human species. Last week I got a manila envelope in the mail. It was from my second ex-wife and in the envelope was six or seven letters from me to her written in about 1983. She had also inserted a note saying that it was about time for her “close the door on this part of her life.” I did not know what she was talking about. Why did she save those letters for 26 years? I sent her an e-mail saying “Package received. Closing the door is a good idea” and I thought that was the end of it. But no, she sent me a return e-mail describing that some woman called her just before Thanksgiving looking for me. She said that the woman said that she had met me at a bar out on the beach and she found what she thought was my phone number from an old phone book. I have never had my name associated with that phone number in my life so I have to believe that this whole tale is a fabrication by her. What is the logic to telling a bald face lie that cannot be defended? Not only that, I haven’t been in her house in 26 years. She also said that her son had seen me out on the beach and that her son said that I saw him but avoided contact. I do not remember that encounter and why would I do that? That ain’t my style, I certainly am not bashful. What did she hope to accomplish with this dog and pony show? I give up.



Last week down in Bishopville, SC a 76 year old man let his wife out at the beauty parlor and simply disappeared. The cops were notified after he did not show up to pick his wife up. This man has been showing early signs of Alzheimer’s. A search of the surrounding community produced no results. Late that night up in Elizabethton, NC the police stopped a car going northbound in the southbound lane. It was the missing man disoriented and confused. His family drove the 160 miles and retrieved him and took him home. I suppose we all worry about being in that condition at one time or another.



Last Tuesday a 32 year old male, a 22 year old male and a 16 year old male showed up at Jerika Rookard’s mobile home in Inman, SC where she lived with her two young children. She had a visitor in the person of 27 year old Daniel Landrum. The three men shot and killed Landrum with a series of pistol shots. The terrified kids ran to the next door neighbor for help. The neighbor was able to identify the three men from a photo array and all are in the joint looking at life without parole at the very least. The cops are going to try the 16 year old as an adult meaning his life is essentially over. What a damned waste. The other two men should get that pesky needle for ending a meaningful life awaiting the 16 year old.



Up in the Charlotte, NC area Dustin Witherspoon had just got out of jail and had dedicated himself to straightening his life out since the birth of his son. Somehow Witherspoon got into a squabble on Facebook with two teenagers. One night last week, the two kids set Witherspoon’s house on fire. Witherspoon was able to save his wife and infant son but he perished in the flames. The two kids are 18 and 16. A fatal arson charge is a minimum of 50 years. That is two more lives wasted over nothing.



This date in history December 14



1799   On this date the father of our country, George Washington, died on his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia. He was 67 years old. George died of acute laryngitis. I cannot recall ever hearing of anyone dying of that but there was no anti-biotics in those days. George was born in 1732 in Westmorland County and his first military experience was as a Lieutenant Colonel for the Virginia militia in a few forays against the French in the Ohio Valley in 1754. In 1756 he took command of the defense of the western flank of Virginia during the French and Indian War and when the battle moved elsewhere he resigned and returned to his farm and took a seat in Virginia’s House of Burgesses. For two decades he vehemently opposed Great Britain in the over taxation and repression of the colonists. When the Revolutionary War broke out for good, Washington was elected a Commander-in-chief of the military by the Continental Congress. Some of those in the congress were opposed to Washington but they felt that having a Virginian in command would have a better chance of uniting the southern states with the war in the northeast. Washington’s superb leadership and foresight was able to bring a rag-tag army into one that defeated the mightiest nation on the planet. They were not alone however, the Continentals somehow persuaded France to contribute men, money and supplies to this fledgling country. In fact, if it had not been for the French Navy blockades on the Chesapeake Bay which trapped British General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown and forced him and his army to surrender essentially ending the land war in the Revolutionary War. At Washington’s eulogy it was his friend Henry Lee that uttered those immortal words “He was first in peace, first in war and first in the hearts of his countryman”.



1777   On this date Irish born Thomas Conway is selected as Inspector General of the United States. Conway was Irish born but fought for many years with the French army. He met Continental Representative Silas Deane in France and Deane invited him to join the Continental Army. Conway sailed over and met with George Washington who offered him a rank of Brigadier General and assigned him to the unit commanded by Major General John Sullivan. Conway fought admirably at Brandywine and at Germantown and received glowing reports from Sullivan. Washington named him Inspector General. Soon thereafter the Continental army suffered a couple of defeats so General Conway sent a letter to US General Horatio Gates suggesting that General Washington should be replaced. Washington got a copy of the letter and read it to the Congress. The embarrassed Conway offered his resignation which was unexpectedly accepted and Conway was out of the army. His troubles were not over yet. Washington supporter John Cadwalder challenged Conway to a duel in which Conway was severely wounded. After recovery he hauled his young ass back to France where he died in 1800.



1874   While asleep this night in New York, Holmes Van Brunt hears a commotion in the house next door. He gathered up three other men and they go next door each carrying a loaded shotgun. Upon arrival they encounter a group of men trying to kidnap Holmes’ neighbor. Holmes and his boys unload with their shotguns and cut down all of the kidnappers. On his deathbed, one of the kidnappers confessed that he was part of the Charlie Ross kidnapping also. Little four year old Charlie Ross was playing on his front lawn when he was kidnapped about 10 years before. The parents received a ransom note for $20,000 and took the money to the drop point but the money was never picked up. Little Charlie Ross was never found.



Born today:



1546   Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. He said “Now it is quite clear to me that there are no solid spheres in the heavens and those that have been devised by the authors for appearances exist only in their imagination.” Tycho, you were considered a genius during your time, but you should have chatted with Galileo, he had a telescope.



1935   US actress Lee Remick. She said “I make movies for adults. When Hollywood starts making them again, I will start acting again.” Lee went to that great movie lot in the sky in 1991.



Died today:



1873   Swiss naturalist Louis Agazzis. He said “Every scientific truth goes through three states: First, people say it conflicts with the Bible, next they say it has been discovered before and lastly, they say they always believed it.”



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.