Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“One of the best temporary cures for pride and affectation is seasickness. A person about to vomit does not pretend.”
Josh Billings
I can hardly wait to tell y’all what our crack state House of Representatives has introduced and was passed. They proposed that anyone legal to carry a concealed weapon may do so WITHOUT having to have a special license or training. It looks like the state Senate is favorable to this proposal and so am I. Their rock solid logic is that they cannot keep guns out of the hands of the criminals so the private citizen should have the same advantage. They believe that this measure will have a chilling effect on violent crime. So it is back to the days of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Wild Bill Hickok here in the land of moonshine, fast cars, slow speech and slower women.
Back in February of 1947 here in Greenville a taxi cab was sent to pick up a fare in the “black” community. The fare wanted a ride to the Liberty area (about 10 miles). About an hour later the cab driver was found beaten, robbed and stabbed. He was hustled to the hospital but died anyway. The cops tracked footprints from the crime scene to the home of Willie Earle, a black man. Inside the home they found money with blood stains, a jacket with blood stains and a hunting knife with blood stains. Willie was arrested and taken to the Greenville County Jail and charged with first degree murder. Very soon the jail was surrounded by about 28 taxi drivers screaming for Willie’s head. The Greenville cops hustled Willie out of the jail and secretly (supposedly) took him and adjacent county jail for his safety. Very soon the same cab drivers showed up at the Pickens County Jail and assured the jailer that if he did not surrender Willie it would cost him his life. The jailer did indeed surrender Willie. The next morning Willie was found in a power line right-of-way. He was dead from a beating, stabbing and a shotgun blast to the head. The same 28 taxi drivers were arrested and tried for murder. All the taxi drivers pointed to each other claimed “they” did it. This meant that the jury had no idea who the shooter really was and acquitted all concerned. This is the last known fatal lynching in the Palmetto State.
Libyan dictator Qadhafi has lost control of the Libyan military so he hired a load of mercenaries. He has Moroccan foot soldiers, Chechnya tank crews and Ukrainian fighter/bomber pilots. These guys have no allegiance to anyone except money. It has been reported that each mercenary is paid between $30,000 and $40,000 a week for their services. The only problem here is if someone else offers more money they would have no problem with capping Qadhafi.
I went to a local buffet for lunch this past Sunday. I had a piece of ham, chicken stew over cornbread dressing, black-eyed peas over rice, turnip greens and unsweetened tea. The guy across from me had nine (9) fried chicken legs, half a plate three inches deep of turnip greens, the other side of the plate was three inches high in steamed cabbage, followed by two overfilled bowls of vanilla ice cream. He was not that big either.
Then a big crowd of people came in and they were clearly attendees of the Tremont Avenue Church of God. I knew that because my mother and father attended the same church. This church is one step forward of the Amish. The women wear no make-up, no finger nail or toe nail polish, their hair is always at least down to their shoulders, the men wear clothing that is out of style but that is their choice. Don’t get me wrong, they are fine people, they just have a different outlook on the world and what is good and what is bad.
This date in history February 28
1784 On this date John Wesley established the first Methodist church in America in colonial Georgia. Wesley was a devout Anglican but after the defeat of the British during the American Revolutionary War the Anglican Church abandoned the United States and Wesley felt that he had to replace the Anglican Church so he devised the Methodical Anglicans or Methodists. While in Georgia he became involved with a religious sect mostly from Germany called the Moravians. This was a turning point in Wesley’s life because he admitted that for the first time that he felt the presence of God was at one of those meeting that he attended. While keeping touch with the Moravians he sought the advice of fellow Cambridge graduate George Whitefield. While at Cambridge Wesley and his brother Charles had founded the “Holy Club”. John Wesley’s teachings were not allowed in any Anglican Church so he preached out in the open and over a period of years he had gathered a large following. He finally realized that there had to be more evangelicals than himself along with an administrative staff. His only problem was that his new church had no bishops. He was still used to the Anglican way of things where a minister must be ordained by the”laying on of hands” by a bishop. So John decided that he would ordain the ministers himself and the first two were Dr. John Coke and Francis Asbury and as the saying goes, the rest is history.
1864 US Cavalry Commander Hugh Judson Kilpatrick and Colonel Ulrich Dahlgren are tasked with riding into Richmond and freeing the Union prisoners of war. It was Dahlgren’s job to release the prisoners while Kilpatrick provided cover. They had one additional job and that was to tell every Johnny Reb they met that President Lincoln had offered amnesty and restoration of property to those that would lay down their arms and swear allegiance to the United States. To provide a diversion two divisions of cavalry one led by General John Sedgwick and the other led by Colonel George A. Custer would made raid into the western parts of Virginia. On this date Sedgwick, Custer, Kilpatrick and Dahlgren parted company and went about their assignments. Dahlgren was supposed to approach Richmond from the west and Kilpatrick from the northwest. Kilpatrick arrived of March 1st with CSA General Wade Hampton III and his howling, wild-eyed Confederate Cavalry hot on his tail. Kilpatrick knows he is danger of annihilation and turns his young ass back north which leaves Dahlgren cut off. In the mean time Dahlgren had hired a local guide to take his cavalry to the shallowest part of the James River for crossing into Richmond. The guide instead leads him to the deepest and swiftest current part of the river. The infuriated Dahlgren hanged the guide on the spot. Dahlgren had no choice but to backtrack out of there knowing the Confederates knew he was there. Not only that, by now he had found out that Kilpatrick had been routed and he was on his own. Dahlgren’s cavalry was ambushed time and time again on their way out and they were nearly cut to pieces. There is no record of a Confederate soldier taking Lincoln’s offer of amnesty and restoration. They were a hard-headed bunch.
1993 Earlier a squabble occurred between two people trying to organize the Mount Carmel Church. One of the squabblers was Vernon Howell who claimed to be God and therefore his children would be children of God. The other guy said that to prove who should lead the church would be the one that could dig up a corpse from a graveyard. Howell nixed that idea and in fact went to the police and told them that the other guy was out digging in graveyards. The police did not want anything to do with a religious disagreement. Finally, the two settle it the Christian way, they had a gun fight and Howell wins so it must be God’s will. Howell changed his name to David Koresh and called his church the Branch Dravidian. They then buy a compound outside Waco, Texas. One day a delivery man going to the compound drops a package and out rolls hand grenades. The deliveryman goes to the local police who then notified the Alcohol, Tax and Firearms division. Well, the ATF try to talk Davis Koresh into giving up his considerable stash of weapons and Koresh refuses saying he has the right to bear arms. On this date, the ATF organizes a raid of the compound in which 4 ATF agents are killed along with 6 of the faithful inside. The ATF back off and a two month siege ensues. Finally on one very windy day, a US Army tank rolls up to the buildings, pokes its cannon through the wall and pumps in a hell of a lot of tear gas. The only problem here is that the tear gas canisters can, and very often do, cause a fire. The building catches on fire and in that brisk wind it burns to the ground in minimum time killing 80 of the occupants, men, women and children. There were 11 that escaped the inferno. US Attorney General Janet Reno accepted full responsibility for the disaster because it was she that told the commander of the forces surrounding the compound to get it over with, “We have spent too much money on it already.” Indeed, Janet, indeed.
1953 On this date Cambridge scientists Francis Crick and James Watson area able to isolate and identify a strand of DNA and determine how it is constructed. From this day on law enforcement made a giant leap forward but so did the ability to clone. We one day could have another Adolph Hitler or Attila the Hun. But then again we could have another Albert Schweitzer or Isaac Newton. I hope it is the later.
1881 A section of the US Great Plains had been occupied by Utes, Arapahoes and Cheyenne Indians with virtually no Anglos for centuries. Then gold was discovered near Pike’s Peak in what is now Colorado. Then one of many gold rushes was underway. The gold near Pike’s Peak played out early and so the gold seekers kept moving west to the Rocky Mountains and there they found more gold and silver. On this date, the US Government decided that a new state was needed and they took a piece of Kansas, Utah and New Mexico and came up with a rectangular state and called it the Territory of Colorado.
Born today:
1940 US race car driver Mario Andretti. He said “If everything seems to be under control, you aren’t going fast enough.” That sounds like my third ex-wife.
1976 US actress Ali Larter. She said “I hate all the pretty-boy types. I had rather have one with a pot belly than one who is in the gym all the time and watches what he eats.” I think I love this girl.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Monday, February 28, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“You can spend the majority of your life trying to be popular, but in the final analysis the number of people attending your funeral will be governed by the weather.”
Frank Skinner
Back in 1996 the United States Congress passed the “Marriage Act”. This act (now a federal law) states that the federal government will not recognize any marriage except those by a man and woman. On February 23 your President decreed that the US government will no longer “defend” this law because HE believes it is unconstitutional. He stood there with his bald face hanging out and uttered those words knowing that a federal judge down in Florida has ruled that “Obamacare” is indeed unconstitutional but it WILL be defended and that ruling will be challenged. Who does this bastard think he is? When he swore the oath office he swore to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. It did not say that he had the right to pick and choose the parts he liked or didn’t like. To declare a law unconstitutional is the function of Judicial Branch meaning the United States Supreme Court not the Executive Branch, meaning the President. His behavior in this arena is nothing but the definitive acts of a dictator.
One of my subscribers reminded me of an important event on February 23, 1945. Here is a little background and a brief history of that event.
After the United States was attacked on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the American military was extremely interested in at attack on the Japanese homeland. It was determined that due to the vast distances between island airports in the western Pacific. The B-17 aircraft used in Europe would be impractical because of its relatively short range and limited bomb load. The Commander of the US Army Air Corp, General “Hap” Arnold issued a prospective order to the different US aircraft manufacturers and described the minimum requirements that included a range of 6,000 miles and a bomb load of 10,000 pounds. Boeing Aircraft won the order with the inimitable B-29 Superfortress. Now the US Navy and Marines were assigned the task of capturing islands with airports in the Marianas and the Caroline Island chains that could be made available to aircraft the size and weight of the B-29. The first two to fall were Kwajalein and Eniwetok. Next came the airports they were really after on Tinian, Saipan and Guam. The islands were within 2,500 miles of the Japanese homeland and all could be modified to handle the B-29. The problem was that the Japanese had already figured out what the Allied strategy was and was ramping up a defense of these islands. The Battle of Saipan was one of the bloodiest in history up to that point. The US Army Air Force began bombing attacks on the Japanese mainland in the summer and fall of 1944. The immediate problem was that the Japanese had radar and a squadron of interceptors on the island of Iwo Jima which was about halfway between Tinian and the Japanese mainland making the trip to and from the Japanese mainland very hazardous resulting in many B-29’s and crews being lost. Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas McArthur agreed that Iwo Jima had to be taken at all cost. The reason was two-fold. One was they had to eliminate the interceptors launching from Iwo Jima and two; if the B-29’s on bombing missions had engine trouble or damaged from anti-aircraft fire, they could land at Iwo Jima and be saved.
On February 19, 1945 a task force led by Admiral Marc Mitscher for the US Navy and General Holland Smith for the 4th, 5th and 6th units of the US Marine Corps dropped anchor on the east side of Iwo Jima. The big guns of three US battleships opened up and along with US Navy fighter/bombers began the largest artillery/bombing assault in history. In the meantime, 20,000 Marines were loaded onto landing craft to await the completion of the bombardment to commence landing. After this earth-shattering barrage, the Marines landed. Nearly the entire first assault wave had landed before they experienced any gunfire from the Japanese. The Japanese commander was General Kuribayashi, a very smart and capable leader. After the Marines were on the island, the Japanese opened up with everything they had and the slaughter was fantastic. The Japanese had dug 11 mile of tunnels on the island, especially on the extinct volcano named Suribachi on the south side of the island. All of these tunnels were bomb proof meaning the naval bombardment had hardly any effect. This mutual slaughter continued until the 23rd when a Marine platoon fought its way to the peak of Suribachi and raised and American flag. All the troops below yelled, screamed and cried, the assault ships blew their horns and whistles and the Secretary of the US Navy, James Forestall said “This action will ensure the US Marines for 500 years.” This is the first and only battle where the casualties of the American forces exceeded those of the enemy. The only difference is the Americans had about 6,800 killed and 12,000 injured where there were only 217 Japanese survivors out of 16,000 in this battle. When General Kuribayashi sent his last message to Tokyo he said “We have not eaten or drank in five days, our weapons have been destroyed, but out spirits are high. We will launch out last attack tonight. May Japan exist for a thousand years.”
There were 28 Medals of Honor given in this battle, most of them posthumously. That represents 85% of all Medals of Honor given to US Navy/US Marines in the entire war.
By the way, the average age of the combat Marines in this action was 19.7.
This date in history February 25
1779 A few days earlier American Patriot George Rogers Clark departed the small village of Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River with 175 militia and a few French mercenaries to capture Fort Sackville near present day Vincennes, Indiana. After wading through icy cold water Clark’s men arrived at the fort from a direction that was unexpected by the British army inside. Clark called for the surrender of the fort from the British commander who refused. Then Clark personally brought five Indians that he and his group had captured along the way, out in front of the fort and Clark personally hacked them all to death and disemboweled them with a tomahawk. Clark then called again for a surrender which was readily accepted. There were just over ninety British soldiers and their families in the fort. The success of this raid put the British between a rock and a hard place in that area because the French settlers realized that they could not depend on the British military to defend them and sided with the Patriots. George Roger Clark again was one of those little known hard-asses for the Patriots that had he not been where he was when he was, things may have turned out differently.
1949 Famous actor Robert Mitchum was quietly sitting in a private home in Laurel Canyon toking on a joint when the police came rushing in and arrested Mitchum for possession of a narcotic. Mitchum yelled “Hell, this is the end of my job, my marriage; it is the end of everything.” Mitchum was going through a divorce from his wife Dorothy but she supported Mitchum throughout the trial. With the help of some fancy lawyers he ended up with a 60 jail day sentence. On this date he was released thinking that this was the end of his movie career but he was wrong. Soon after his release, he made the movie “Rachael and the Stranger” which was a box office hit. Mitchum went to that great sound stage in the sky in 1997 at the age of 80.
1576 On this date the head of then Roman Catholic Church, Pope Pius VI ex-communicates the queen of England, Elizabeth I and tells the English Catholics that they did not have to obey Elizabeth any longer. Elizabeth really did not give a shit because her father, Henry VIII got fed up with the pope interfering with the affairs of the English crown and he formed his own church, a protestant church known as the Anglican Church or the Church of England. The only difference between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church was the Pope was head of the Catholics and the King/Queen was the head of the Anglicans. Not a hell of a lot of difference for the faithful. Elizabeth did not have to stress that the English subjects had better abide by the rule of the queen or they would meet a date in a dungeon somewhere or meet a big guy with a big axe and a black hood over his head. Elizabeth proved to be one of the greatest monarchs in the history of western man.
Famous quotes:
“Some people see things that are and ask why, others see things that are not and ask why, others have to go to work and don’t have time for all that bullshit.”
George Carlin
“Nothing great in this world has ever been created without passion.”
G.V.H. Hegel
“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.”
George Patton
“Good soldiers decide that they will be killed in battle and lose their fear. Then they can kill with no compassion and no remorse. All wars depend on it.”
George Patton
“I have never allowed my schooling interfere with my education.”
Mark Twain
“Water taken in moderation cannot hurt anybody”
Mark Twain
“Let us not be too particular. It is better to have old second-hand diamonds that none at all.”
Mark Twain.
“Enjoy yourself; it is later than you think.”
Socrates
“Beauty is a short lived tyranny”
Socrates
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“You can spend the majority of your life trying to be popular, but in the final analysis the number of people attending your funeral will be governed by the weather.”
Frank Skinner
Back in 1996 the United States Congress passed the “Marriage Act”. This act (now a federal law) states that the federal government will not recognize any marriage except those by a man and woman. On February 23 your President decreed that the US government will no longer “defend” this law because HE believes it is unconstitutional. He stood there with his bald face hanging out and uttered those words knowing that a federal judge down in Florida has ruled that “Obamacare” is indeed unconstitutional but it WILL be defended and that ruling will be challenged. Who does this bastard think he is? When he swore the oath office he swore to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. It did not say that he had the right to pick and choose the parts he liked or didn’t like. To declare a law unconstitutional is the function of Judicial Branch meaning the United States Supreme Court not the Executive Branch, meaning the President. His behavior in this arena is nothing but the definitive acts of a dictator.
One of my subscribers reminded me of an important event on February 23, 1945. Here is a little background and a brief history of that event.
After the United States was attacked on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the American military was extremely interested in at attack on the Japanese homeland. It was determined that due to the vast distances between island airports in the western Pacific. The B-17 aircraft used in Europe would be impractical because of its relatively short range and limited bomb load. The Commander of the US Army Air Corp, General “Hap” Arnold issued a prospective order to the different US aircraft manufacturers and described the minimum requirements that included a range of 6,000 miles and a bomb load of 10,000 pounds. Boeing Aircraft won the order with the inimitable B-29 Superfortress. Now the US Navy and Marines were assigned the task of capturing islands with airports in the Marianas and the Caroline Island chains that could be made available to aircraft the size and weight of the B-29. The first two to fall were Kwajalein and Eniwetok. Next came the airports they were really after on Tinian, Saipan and Guam. The islands were within 2,500 miles of the Japanese homeland and all could be modified to handle the B-29. The problem was that the Japanese had already figured out what the Allied strategy was and was ramping up a defense of these islands. The Battle of Saipan was one of the bloodiest in history up to that point. The US Army Air Force began bombing attacks on the Japanese mainland in the summer and fall of 1944. The immediate problem was that the Japanese had radar and a squadron of interceptors on the island of Iwo Jima which was about halfway between Tinian and the Japanese mainland making the trip to and from the Japanese mainland very hazardous resulting in many B-29’s and crews being lost. Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas McArthur agreed that Iwo Jima had to be taken at all cost. The reason was two-fold. One was they had to eliminate the interceptors launching from Iwo Jima and two; if the B-29’s on bombing missions had engine trouble or damaged from anti-aircraft fire, they could land at Iwo Jima and be saved.
On February 19, 1945 a task force led by Admiral Marc Mitscher for the US Navy and General Holland Smith for the 4th, 5th and 6th units of the US Marine Corps dropped anchor on the east side of Iwo Jima. The big guns of three US battleships opened up and along with US Navy fighter/bombers began the largest artillery/bombing assault in history. In the meantime, 20,000 Marines were loaded onto landing craft to await the completion of the bombardment to commence landing. After this earth-shattering barrage, the Marines landed. Nearly the entire first assault wave had landed before they experienced any gunfire from the Japanese. The Japanese commander was General Kuribayashi, a very smart and capable leader. After the Marines were on the island, the Japanese opened up with everything they had and the slaughter was fantastic. The Japanese had dug 11 mile of tunnels on the island, especially on the extinct volcano named Suribachi on the south side of the island. All of these tunnels were bomb proof meaning the naval bombardment had hardly any effect. This mutual slaughter continued until the 23rd when a Marine platoon fought its way to the peak of Suribachi and raised and American flag. All the troops below yelled, screamed and cried, the assault ships blew their horns and whistles and the Secretary of the US Navy, James Forestall said “This action will ensure the US Marines for 500 years.” This is the first and only battle where the casualties of the American forces exceeded those of the enemy. The only difference is the Americans had about 6,800 killed and 12,000 injured where there were only 217 Japanese survivors out of 16,000 in this battle. When General Kuribayashi sent his last message to Tokyo he said “We have not eaten or drank in five days, our weapons have been destroyed, but out spirits are high. We will launch out last attack tonight. May Japan exist for a thousand years.”
There were 28 Medals of Honor given in this battle, most of them posthumously. That represents 85% of all Medals of Honor given to US Navy/US Marines in the entire war.
By the way, the average age of the combat Marines in this action was 19.7.
This date in history February 25
1779 A few days earlier American Patriot George Rogers Clark departed the small village of Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River with 175 militia and a few French mercenaries to capture Fort Sackville near present day Vincennes, Indiana. After wading through icy cold water Clark’s men arrived at the fort from a direction that was unexpected by the British army inside. Clark called for the surrender of the fort from the British commander who refused. Then Clark personally brought five Indians that he and his group had captured along the way, out in front of the fort and Clark personally hacked them all to death and disemboweled them with a tomahawk. Clark then called again for a surrender which was readily accepted. There were just over ninety British soldiers and their families in the fort. The success of this raid put the British between a rock and a hard place in that area because the French settlers realized that they could not depend on the British military to defend them and sided with the Patriots. George Roger Clark again was one of those little known hard-asses for the Patriots that had he not been where he was when he was, things may have turned out differently.
1949 Famous actor Robert Mitchum was quietly sitting in a private home in Laurel Canyon toking on a joint when the police came rushing in and arrested Mitchum for possession of a narcotic. Mitchum yelled “Hell, this is the end of my job, my marriage; it is the end of everything.” Mitchum was going through a divorce from his wife Dorothy but she supported Mitchum throughout the trial. With the help of some fancy lawyers he ended up with a 60 jail day sentence. On this date he was released thinking that this was the end of his movie career but he was wrong. Soon after his release, he made the movie “Rachael and the Stranger” which was a box office hit. Mitchum went to that great sound stage in the sky in 1997 at the age of 80.
1576 On this date the head of then Roman Catholic Church, Pope Pius VI ex-communicates the queen of England, Elizabeth I and tells the English Catholics that they did not have to obey Elizabeth any longer. Elizabeth really did not give a shit because her father, Henry VIII got fed up with the pope interfering with the affairs of the English crown and he formed his own church, a protestant church known as the Anglican Church or the Church of England. The only difference between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church was the Pope was head of the Catholics and the King/Queen was the head of the Anglicans. Not a hell of a lot of difference for the faithful. Elizabeth did not have to stress that the English subjects had better abide by the rule of the queen or they would meet a date in a dungeon somewhere or meet a big guy with a big axe and a black hood over his head. Elizabeth proved to be one of the greatest monarchs in the history of western man.
Famous quotes:
“Some people see things that are and ask why, others see things that are not and ask why, others have to go to work and don’t have time for all that bullshit.”
George Carlin
“Nothing great in this world has ever been created without passion.”
G.V.H. Hegel
“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.”
George Patton
“Good soldiers decide that they will be killed in battle and lose their fear. Then they can kill with no compassion and no remorse. All wars depend on it.”
George Patton
“I have never allowed my schooling interfere with my education.”
Mark Twain
“Water taken in moderation cannot hurt anybody”
Mark Twain
“Let us not be too particular. It is better to have old second-hand diamonds that none at all.”
Mark Twain.
“Enjoy yourself; it is later than you think.”
Socrates
“Beauty is a short lived tyranny”
Socrates
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Being in politics is like being a football coach; you have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it is important.”
Eugene McCarthy
One of my female subscribers bitched me out about my prologues here lately. She said they needed more “bite” to them. These prologues should get the job done.
The TV series “Band of Brothers” was about the 101st Airborne, “Easy” company in particular, in basic paratrooper training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. One of the obstacles that the trainees had to conquer was a nearby mountain named by the Creek Indians and called “Currahee”. All training units had to run up and down that mountain several times during their training curriculum. The running of that course was exceptionally grueling and the 101st adopted the word “Currahee” as their motto. About a year ago a member of the 101st was wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. It took off both legs and did something to his mind. He became essentially a zombie. He lay in bed, looking but not seeing, hearing but not responding, eating and drinking but not tasting, etc. His mother and father came to his bedside and were with him constantly getting no response from their son. This warrior was visited by General Petraus who was that commander of the 101st at one point in his career. He spoke to the wounded man for several minutes to no avail. He turned to leave but at the last minute the General turned and said in a loud voice “CURRAHEE” and the warrior’s leg stumps began moving and soon he sat bolt upright in the bed and acknowledged those around him. A year later the warrior is moving around very well with artificial limbs and has recovered all of his communication skills. A few weeks ago General Petraus visited this man once again and they grabbed and hugged each other with tears flowing. By the way, Currahee means “Stand alone” in Creek. God works in mysterious ways, y’all.
Monday night I met an old friend that I had not seen in a couple of year and we got re-acquainted. He told me that his wife of 47 years had mysteriously died about a year ago and he was at a loss as to how to live his life. He said that she knew the end was coming by the things she said and preparations she made. One morning she got up a showered and dressed for work. She told my friend that she was going to lay down on the couch and take a short nap before going to work. She never woke up. The doctors could not find a thing wrong with her except her heart just stopped. I did not pursue that because he got a little choked up talking about it. A little later on he was standing in the bathroom shaving when he saw his wife standing behind him in the mirror. He said that she was radiant. He turned around and they hugged and he asked how she got there. She said that she was allowed this one visit and told him that it was time for him to get on with his life and stop grieving as best he could. He said he closed his eyes in tears and when he opened them she was gone. I do not know where reality lies here except that it is certainly real in the mind of my friend and that is all I need to know.
This date in history February 24
1836 On this date the commander of the Texas Militia, a South Carolinian named William Travis, sent out a plea for help to his embattled troops trapped in an old Spanish Mission named the Alamo in the city of San Antonio de Bexar, or San Antonio as it is known today. Colonel Travis sent a note to “The people of Texas” to come to the assistance of about 220 Militia along with volunteers under the command of Jim Bowie and another group under Davy Crockett. Travis sent his friend from the same area of South Carolina as he named James Bonham out carrying the message. Bonham was able to sneak out and sneak back in with 30 volunteers from Gonzales, Texas. But even with this help they were surrounded by a Mexican army of over 2,000 against a force of about 237 Patriots. Travis had ended the note he sent with Bonham stating those immortal words “victory or death”. The Mexican army under General Santa Anna kept tightening the noose and finally launched a night assault in early March and Santa Anna ordered “take no prisoners” and they stormed the Alamo and killed everyone to a man. The next encounter was the Texas Militia, commanded by Sam Houston, against Santa Anna southwest of Houston at a place called San Jacinto. But that is another story.
1991 In August of 1990 the ground forces of Iraq invade their tiny but oil-rich neighbor of Kuwait and occupy the major points within a matter of hours. One week later US military began “Operation Shield” and started to moved the tools of war into Saudi Arabia to protect them from an invasion from Iraq. That is what they said, but you and I know they were preparing for an invasion of Iraq. Three months later the United Nations Security Council notified Iraq that if they did not departed Kuwait by January 15, 1991 they could expect military retaliation. Nothing happened and at 4:30p on January 16 the United Nations coalition launched “Operation Desert Storm” with massive air strikes on Iraqi from Saudi Arabia, aircraft carriers in the Persian Sea and the Red Sea, and various other launch points in the middle east and the Indian Ocean. Desert Storm was under the command of US General Norman Schwarzkopf. The United Nations coalition pounded the living hell out of various targets in Iraq especially Baghdad. On this date General “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf launched the ground assault. The US Marines attacked the Iraqi western border near the Persian Gulf and various coalition tank and attack helicopter units crossed the Iraqi border in force 300 miles north in the middle of the desert. General Schwarzkopf and his staff had believed that the Iraqi military would least expect an attack from that direction and they were right. In four days the coalition had crushed any opposition and was closing in on Baghdad from the northwest and the west. The Iraqi forces that were in Kuwait wisely decided that they had better get their asses out of there and headed for the Iraqi city of Basra. The coalition fighter-bombers were waiting for that and when the booty-laden Iraqi troops began leaving Kuwait, they were trapped on the only road there and were utterly annihilated. This, along with the surrender of over 80,000 Iraqi troops, persuaded President George H. Bush to call an end to hostilities. The Iraqis swore to abide by United Nations peace terms. The US lost 125 troops in this operation. There is no way of knowing how many Iraqis and their allies perished but it had to be over 100,000. The last thing I remember about this encounter was General Schwarzkopf addressing his staff and said “I told you that we were going to come over here and kick ass, and that is exactly what we did.” War is hell.
1981 On this date socialite Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower. Tarnower was the author of the bestselling book titled The Scarsdale Diet. Harris and Tarnower had been lovers/companions since 1966 in spite of the fact that Harris was the superintendent of a fancy-schmantzy girl’s school in Virginia. Tarnower was a notorious womanizer but in spite of that Harris helped Tarnower write his book. Tarnower had vaguely promised Harris that he would eventually marry the 56 year old Harris but never did, and then one day Harris found out that Tarnower was going to dump her for a younger woman. Harris, accompanied by a .32 caliber revolver, jumped into her car and headed for Tarnower’s house in Westchester County, New York. Upon arrival at Tarnower’s house Harris let herself in with her key, went upstairs to Tarnower’s bedroom and confronts him. Here is where things get a little fuzzy. Harris said she went up there to commit suicide and Tarnower tried to wrestle the gun away from her and it went off killing Tarnower making it an accident. The only problem was that Tarnower was shot four times in the abdomen at very close range with the wounds very close together. The jury did not buy the accident scenario and convicted Harris of first degree murder and gave her life in prison. Harris was a model prisoner and wrote a book about how women prisoners are treated titled “They Always Call Us Ladies”. Governor Mario Cuomo commuted her sentence in 1992 and upon her release she continued her campaign for better treatment of female prisoners. I have said it a million times, men have been putting up with rejection for centuries but if a woman gets rejected...look out. I have been asked why I say this and here is the answer. If you go to a dance, any dance, you will see men ask women to dance and get rejected and he just moves on to the next one. But if a woman asks a man to dance and he says no, the woman gets really pissed off and stalks away. I know what I am talking about here.
Born today:
1500 Roman Emperor Charles V. He said “Name me an emperor that has ever been struck by a cannonball.” Hey Chuck, don’t you know that old men start wars and young men fight them?
1940 Scottish soccer player Denis Law. He said “Whoever wins today wins the championship not matter who wins.” Denis, shut the hell up.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Being in politics is like being a football coach; you have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it is important.”
Eugene McCarthy
One of my female subscribers bitched me out about my prologues here lately. She said they needed more “bite” to them. These prologues should get the job done.
The TV series “Band of Brothers” was about the 101st Airborne, “Easy” company in particular, in basic paratrooper training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. One of the obstacles that the trainees had to conquer was a nearby mountain named by the Creek Indians and called “Currahee”. All training units had to run up and down that mountain several times during their training curriculum. The running of that course was exceptionally grueling and the 101st adopted the word “Currahee” as their motto. About a year ago a member of the 101st was wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. It took off both legs and did something to his mind. He became essentially a zombie. He lay in bed, looking but not seeing, hearing but not responding, eating and drinking but not tasting, etc. His mother and father came to his bedside and were with him constantly getting no response from their son. This warrior was visited by General Petraus who was that commander of the 101st at one point in his career. He spoke to the wounded man for several minutes to no avail. He turned to leave but at the last minute the General turned and said in a loud voice “CURRAHEE” and the warrior’s leg stumps began moving and soon he sat bolt upright in the bed and acknowledged those around him. A year later the warrior is moving around very well with artificial limbs and has recovered all of his communication skills. A few weeks ago General Petraus visited this man once again and they grabbed and hugged each other with tears flowing. By the way, Currahee means “Stand alone” in Creek. God works in mysterious ways, y’all.
Monday night I met an old friend that I had not seen in a couple of year and we got re-acquainted. He told me that his wife of 47 years had mysteriously died about a year ago and he was at a loss as to how to live his life. He said that she knew the end was coming by the things she said and preparations she made. One morning she got up a showered and dressed for work. She told my friend that she was going to lay down on the couch and take a short nap before going to work. She never woke up. The doctors could not find a thing wrong with her except her heart just stopped. I did not pursue that because he got a little choked up talking about it. A little later on he was standing in the bathroom shaving when he saw his wife standing behind him in the mirror. He said that she was radiant. He turned around and they hugged and he asked how she got there. She said that she was allowed this one visit and told him that it was time for him to get on with his life and stop grieving as best he could. He said he closed his eyes in tears and when he opened them she was gone. I do not know where reality lies here except that it is certainly real in the mind of my friend and that is all I need to know.
This date in history February 24
1836 On this date the commander of the Texas Militia, a South Carolinian named William Travis, sent out a plea for help to his embattled troops trapped in an old Spanish Mission named the Alamo in the city of San Antonio de Bexar, or San Antonio as it is known today. Colonel Travis sent a note to “The people of Texas” to come to the assistance of about 220 Militia along with volunteers under the command of Jim Bowie and another group under Davy Crockett. Travis sent his friend from the same area of South Carolina as he named James Bonham out carrying the message. Bonham was able to sneak out and sneak back in with 30 volunteers from Gonzales, Texas. But even with this help they were surrounded by a Mexican army of over 2,000 against a force of about 237 Patriots. Travis had ended the note he sent with Bonham stating those immortal words “victory or death”. The Mexican army under General Santa Anna kept tightening the noose and finally launched a night assault in early March and Santa Anna ordered “take no prisoners” and they stormed the Alamo and killed everyone to a man. The next encounter was the Texas Militia, commanded by Sam Houston, against Santa Anna southwest of Houston at a place called San Jacinto. But that is another story.
1991 In August of 1990 the ground forces of Iraq invade their tiny but oil-rich neighbor of Kuwait and occupy the major points within a matter of hours. One week later US military began “Operation Shield” and started to moved the tools of war into Saudi Arabia to protect them from an invasion from Iraq. That is what they said, but you and I know they were preparing for an invasion of Iraq. Three months later the United Nations Security Council notified Iraq that if they did not departed Kuwait by January 15, 1991 they could expect military retaliation. Nothing happened and at 4:30p on January 16 the United Nations coalition launched “Operation Desert Storm” with massive air strikes on Iraqi from Saudi Arabia, aircraft carriers in the Persian Sea and the Red Sea, and various other launch points in the middle east and the Indian Ocean. Desert Storm was under the command of US General Norman Schwarzkopf. The United Nations coalition pounded the living hell out of various targets in Iraq especially Baghdad. On this date General “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf launched the ground assault. The US Marines attacked the Iraqi western border near the Persian Gulf and various coalition tank and attack helicopter units crossed the Iraqi border in force 300 miles north in the middle of the desert. General Schwarzkopf and his staff had believed that the Iraqi military would least expect an attack from that direction and they were right. In four days the coalition had crushed any opposition and was closing in on Baghdad from the northwest and the west. The Iraqi forces that were in Kuwait wisely decided that they had better get their asses out of there and headed for the Iraqi city of Basra. The coalition fighter-bombers were waiting for that and when the booty-laden Iraqi troops began leaving Kuwait, they were trapped on the only road there and were utterly annihilated. This, along with the surrender of over 80,000 Iraqi troops, persuaded President George H. Bush to call an end to hostilities. The Iraqis swore to abide by United Nations peace terms. The US lost 125 troops in this operation. There is no way of knowing how many Iraqis and their allies perished but it had to be over 100,000. The last thing I remember about this encounter was General Schwarzkopf addressing his staff and said “I told you that we were going to come over here and kick ass, and that is exactly what we did.” War is hell.
1981 On this date socialite Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Dr. Herman Tarnower. Tarnower was the author of the bestselling book titled The Scarsdale Diet. Harris and Tarnower had been lovers/companions since 1966 in spite of the fact that Harris was the superintendent of a fancy-schmantzy girl’s school in Virginia. Tarnower was a notorious womanizer but in spite of that Harris helped Tarnower write his book. Tarnower had vaguely promised Harris that he would eventually marry the 56 year old Harris but never did, and then one day Harris found out that Tarnower was going to dump her for a younger woman. Harris, accompanied by a .32 caliber revolver, jumped into her car and headed for Tarnower’s house in Westchester County, New York. Upon arrival at Tarnower’s house Harris let herself in with her key, went upstairs to Tarnower’s bedroom and confronts him. Here is where things get a little fuzzy. Harris said she went up there to commit suicide and Tarnower tried to wrestle the gun away from her and it went off killing Tarnower making it an accident. The only problem was that Tarnower was shot four times in the abdomen at very close range with the wounds very close together. The jury did not buy the accident scenario and convicted Harris of first degree murder and gave her life in prison. Harris was a model prisoner and wrote a book about how women prisoners are treated titled “They Always Call Us Ladies”. Governor Mario Cuomo commuted her sentence in 1992 and upon her release she continued her campaign for better treatment of female prisoners. I have said it a million times, men have been putting up with rejection for centuries but if a woman gets rejected...look out. I have been asked why I say this and here is the answer. If you go to a dance, any dance, you will see men ask women to dance and get rejected and he just moves on to the next one. But if a woman asks a man to dance and he says no, the woman gets really pissed off and stalks away. I know what I am talking about here.
Born today:
1500 Roman Emperor Charles V. He said “Name me an emperor that has ever been struck by a cannonball.” Hey Chuck, don’t you know that old men start wars and young men fight them?
1940 Scottish soccer player Denis Law. He said “Whoever wins today wins the championship not matter who wins.” Denis, shut the hell up.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed often and for the same reason.”
Harold Wilson
A couple of weeks ago an oriental man flew into Sydney, Australia from Beijing to visit his girlfriend that he had broken up with a year ago. She met him at the airport and took him to her apartment for a bite to eat. As you might suspect, she made some soup. Orientals are big on soups. Without his knowledge, she loaded four sleeping pills into his soup and very soon he was taking a nap that was close to a coma. She took off all of his and her clothes and sat down straddle of his chest facing his head. She produced a butcher knife and stabbed him in the jaw just nicking the aorta and again in the upper arm. She then turned around facing his feet and exorcized any and all appendages below his crotch. She was not done yet. She remained seated until this young man bled to death. I have heard that “hell hath no fury” statement before but “Geeez” girl, lighten up, it has been a year for crying out loud. Now you are going to spend 20 to life in the joint for murder.
84 year old Carol Knight was opening up her restaurant in Johnston, South Carolina(farming community) when a 55 year old man that was a convicted sex offender walked into the restaurant and told Carol that this was a hold up. Carol made the mistake of not believing him and laughed. This enraged the intruder and he began beating the shit out of Carol yelling “give me the money”. Carol knew that she did not have a chance but she began fighting back the best she could. She took several blows that cost her black eyes and cut lips. I am sure she will heal physically, but not mentally. She still says that she has nightmares about the intruder. Eventually an employee came to work and saw the blood and called 911. The intruder was arrested and is spending time in the Saluda County Jail with no bail available. I want all of you to close your eyes and imagine your mother or grandmother trying to scratch out a living with her small restaurant is a small town in central South Carolina and this happening to them. What would you do if you got to this animal first? I don’t want to think about it….yes I do.
It does not look good for the 2nd ugliest mammal in existence. He is losing his grip on his country of Algeria. That’s right; I am talking about Moamar Quadhafi. Those serene and peace loving Arab Muslims have decided that Allah may not be right after all and have taken control of the second largest city in Algeria because they are sick and tired of the despotism of their ruler. Algeria and other Muslim dominated countries are in a riotous state. They also are sick and tired of being sick and tired. I normally would say “stand back and let those towel heads kick each other’s ass” but they have ½ of the world’s oil reserves…so far. I say “so far” because a pool of oil has been discovered in Russia that dwarfs the rest of the world’s supplies.
This date in history February 23
1778 On this date the Prussian Baron Frederich von Steuben joins General George Washington at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The Baron had been recommended by the French minister of war to Benjamin Franklin. Franklin, in turn recommends him to George Washington. Baron von Steuben was the son of a famous Prussian General and became an officer in the Prussian army himself at the age of 17. Frederich proved to be an able officer and distinguished himself in combat more than once and was promoted rapidly from the infantry to the general staff of the King of Prussia, Frederich the Great. For reasons unknown, after reaching the rank of captain he was discharged from the army. I might be able to shed some light on this event. Frederich the Great was a flaming homosexual albeit a brilliant military commander. Frederich the Great would hold staff meeting on a regular basis that was attended by all the younger officers. Toward the end of the meeting the King would walk by and drop a handkerchief in one of his younger officer’s lap. This officer had the duty to stay an extra hour with the King after the meeting was ended. We can guess for what reason. Perhaps Frederich von Steuben finally resisted the advances of the King, who knows. Anyway, almost immediately after arriving at Valley Forge he began intensive training of the troops emphasizing rock-hard discipline. He also educated the troops on simple hygiene. The American troops knew nothing about this and therefore many troops were lost to disease. He insisted that the latrines be on the opposite side of the camp than the eating facility. But in fact, the troops had no latrines at all; they just took care of business wherever they felt like it. Frederich also insisted that the latrines be on a down slope away form the camp. Eventually the American troops departed Valley Forge a proud and competent fighting machine. Frederich did not speak English but did speak French so Alexander Hamilton and Nathaniel Greene interpreted his French into English. He authored a handbook for the American military parts of which are still in use to this day. The arrival of this man into the America army was none too soon. The American army had been having its ass handed to it for two years and the morale was very low. But now the pendulum began to swing the other way and our independence was finally on the horizon.
1885 A few months earlier a rich older woman was found dead in her mansion in Exeter, England. She had been severely beaten and throat cut just outside the bedroom of her 19 year old housekeeper John Lee. The police deduced that John Lee must have been the culprit even though Lee proclaimed his innocence and did not flee the scene of the crime. Lee was tried and convicted on circumstantial evidence alone and was sentenced to hang. On this day the hangman put a weight equal to John Lee on the trapdoor and released it a couple of time to see if all was in working order and it apparently was. Then they brought John Lee to the platform to be executed. Lee stood on the trapdoor and the hangman pulled the release but nothing happened. The hangman jerked on the release a couple of time more and the trapdoor did not open. They took Lee off the platform and went through the procedure again with the weights and everything worked perfectly. They brought Lee back and again the trapdoor refused to open when Lee was aboard. They tried the deal with the weights once more time with the same results and tried it with Lee again with the same result. The officials were stunned and took Lee back to the prison whence he came and declared that it was an act of God that had prevented his hanging so they sentenced him to life in prison. Lee spent 20 years in prison and was released and he immigrated to America. There had never been an explanation as to what was up with the trapdoor. There ain’t any commutation of an execution because of “an act of God” anymore. When the time comes, you are going down y’all, come hell or high water.
1940 After years on the back roads and railroads of America during the grinding depression of the 1930’s, on this date Woody Guthrie writes the song “This Land is Your Land”. Woody was born in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1912. When the depression came in 1929, Woody and millions of others hit the road looking for work and whatever they could find to stay alive. It was during this time that Woody wrote many, many songs about the poor and downtrodden during this trying time. In 1937 he went to California to try to become a country/western singing star. He appeared on a few radio programs singing traditional folk songs. But eventually he was able to do some of his own songs and that put him on the charts. He became the chronicler of the people that had been through the depression and his words and music showed that he had been there and done that. His success took him to New York City but WWII broke out and his career was put on hold while he was in the Merchant Marine. After the war he returned to NYC and tried to resurrect his career and again he was on his way up when in 1954 he was struck down with Huntington’s disease. This was the same illness that took his mother’s life. While bedridden he was visited by many musicians among which was Bob Dylan. Woody died in 1967 in New York City and was cremated with his ashes being spread across New York City. His home town of Okemah, Oklahoma put up a headstone with his name on it anyway. Many have tried to copy Woody’s style and music, few if any have succeeded.
Born today:
1824 US writer George William Curtis. He said about one of his rivals “He is so old his blood type has been discontinued.” I am A + and don’t ya’ll forget it.
1914 US actor Zachary Scott. He said “As you grow older the only things you regret is the things you didn’t do.” This is why I am burning the candle at both ends, y’all.
1928 US writer Michael Harrington. He said “Clothes make the poor invisible. America has the best dressed poverty the world has ever known.” I have never thought of that. Get picture in your mind of the people in poverty in India and how they dress.
Died today:
1998 US comic Henny Youngman. He said “I read where drinking shortens your life, so I gave up reading.” I miss Henny...George Burns too.
1976 US writer H. Allen Smith. He said “On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are jerks.” I think we all feel that way at times.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed often and for the same reason.”
Harold Wilson
A couple of weeks ago an oriental man flew into Sydney, Australia from Beijing to visit his girlfriend that he had broken up with a year ago. She met him at the airport and took him to her apartment for a bite to eat. As you might suspect, she made some soup. Orientals are big on soups. Without his knowledge, she loaded four sleeping pills into his soup and very soon he was taking a nap that was close to a coma. She took off all of his and her clothes and sat down straddle of his chest facing his head. She produced a butcher knife and stabbed him in the jaw just nicking the aorta and again in the upper arm. She then turned around facing his feet and exorcized any and all appendages below his crotch. She was not done yet. She remained seated until this young man bled to death. I have heard that “hell hath no fury” statement before but “Geeez” girl, lighten up, it has been a year for crying out loud. Now you are going to spend 20 to life in the joint for murder.
84 year old Carol Knight was opening up her restaurant in Johnston, South Carolina(farming community) when a 55 year old man that was a convicted sex offender walked into the restaurant and told Carol that this was a hold up. Carol made the mistake of not believing him and laughed. This enraged the intruder and he began beating the shit out of Carol yelling “give me the money”. Carol knew that she did not have a chance but she began fighting back the best she could. She took several blows that cost her black eyes and cut lips. I am sure she will heal physically, but not mentally. She still says that she has nightmares about the intruder. Eventually an employee came to work and saw the blood and called 911. The intruder was arrested and is spending time in the Saluda County Jail with no bail available. I want all of you to close your eyes and imagine your mother or grandmother trying to scratch out a living with her small restaurant is a small town in central South Carolina and this happening to them. What would you do if you got to this animal first? I don’t want to think about it….yes I do.
It does not look good for the 2nd ugliest mammal in existence. He is losing his grip on his country of Algeria. That’s right; I am talking about Moamar Quadhafi. Those serene and peace loving Arab Muslims have decided that Allah may not be right after all and have taken control of the second largest city in Algeria because they are sick and tired of the despotism of their ruler. Algeria and other Muslim dominated countries are in a riotous state. They also are sick and tired of being sick and tired. I normally would say “stand back and let those towel heads kick each other’s ass” but they have ½ of the world’s oil reserves…so far. I say “so far” because a pool of oil has been discovered in Russia that dwarfs the rest of the world’s supplies.
This date in history February 23
1778 On this date the Prussian Baron Frederich von Steuben joins General George Washington at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The Baron had been recommended by the French minister of war to Benjamin Franklin. Franklin, in turn recommends him to George Washington. Baron von Steuben was the son of a famous Prussian General and became an officer in the Prussian army himself at the age of 17. Frederich proved to be an able officer and distinguished himself in combat more than once and was promoted rapidly from the infantry to the general staff of the King of Prussia, Frederich the Great. For reasons unknown, after reaching the rank of captain he was discharged from the army. I might be able to shed some light on this event. Frederich the Great was a flaming homosexual albeit a brilliant military commander. Frederich the Great would hold staff meeting on a regular basis that was attended by all the younger officers. Toward the end of the meeting the King would walk by and drop a handkerchief in one of his younger officer’s lap. This officer had the duty to stay an extra hour with the King after the meeting was ended. We can guess for what reason. Perhaps Frederich von Steuben finally resisted the advances of the King, who knows. Anyway, almost immediately after arriving at Valley Forge he began intensive training of the troops emphasizing rock-hard discipline. He also educated the troops on simple hygiene. The American troops knew nothing about this and therefore many troops were lost to disease. He insisted that the latrines be on the opposite side of the camp than the eating facility. But in fact, the troops had no latrines at all; they just took care of business wherever they felt like it. Frederich also insisted that the latrines be on a down slope away form the camp. Eventually the American troops departed Valley Forge a proud and competent fighting machine. Frederich did not speak English but did speak French so Alexander Hamilton and Nathaniel Greene interpreted his French into English. He authored a handbook for the American military parts of which are still in use to this day. The arrival of this man into the America army was none too soon. The American army had been having its ass handed to it for two years and the morale was very low. But now the pendulum began to swing the other way and our independence was finally on the horizon.
1885 A few months earlier a rich older woman was found dead in her mansion in Exeter, England. She had been severely beaten and throat cut just outside the bedroom of her 19 year old housekeeper John Lee. The police deduced that John Lee must have been the culprit even though Lee proclaimed his innocence and did not flee the scene of the crime. Lee was tried and convicted on circumstantial evidence alone and was sentenced to hang. On this day the hangman put a weight equal to John Lee on the trapdoor and released it a couple of time to see if all was in working order and it apparently was. Then they brought John Lee to the platform to be executed. Lee stood on the trapdoor and the hangman pulled the release but nothing happened. The hangman jerked on the release a couple of time more and the trapdoor did not open. They took Lee off the platform and went through the procedure again with the weights and everything worked perfectly. They brought Lee back and again the trapdoor refused to open when Lee was aboard. They tried the deal with the weights once more time with the same results and tried it with Lee again with the same result. The officials were stunned and took Lee back to the prison whence he came and declared that it was an act of God that had prevented his hanging so they sentenced him to life in prison. Lee spent 20 years in prison and was released and he immigrated to America. There had never been an explanation as to what was up with the trapdoor. There ain’t any commutation of an execution because of “an act of God” anymore. When the time comes, you are going down y’all, come hell or high water.
1940 After years on the back roads and railroads of America during the grinding depression of the 1930’s, on this date Woody Guthrie writes the song “This Land is Your Land”. Woody was born in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1912. When the depression came in 1929, Woody and millions of others hit the road looking for work and whatever they could find to stay alive. It was during this time that Woody wrote many, many songs about the poor and downtrodden during this trying time. In 1937 he went to California to try to become a country/western singing star. He appeared on a few radio programs singing traditional folk songs. But eventually he was able to do some of his own songs and that put him on the charts. He became the chronicler of the people that had been through the depression and his words and music showed that he had been there and done that. His success took him to New York City but WWII broke out and his career was put on hold while he was in the Merchant Marine. After the war he returned to NYC and tried to resurrect his career and again he was on his way up when in 1954 he was struck down with Huntington’s disease. This was the same illness that took his mother’s life. While bedridden he was visited by many musicians among which was Bob Dylan. Woody died in 1967 in New York City and was cremated with his ashes being spread across New York City. His home town of Okemah, Oklahoma put up a headstone with his name on it anyway. Many have tried to copy Woody’s style and music, few if any have succeeded.
Born today:
1824 US writer George William Curtis. He said about one of his rivals “He is so old his blood type has been discontinued.” I am A + and don’t ya’ll forget it.
1914 US actor Zachary Scott. He said “As you grow older the only things you regret is the things you didn’t do.” This is why I am burning the candle at both ends, y’all.
1928 US writer Michael Harrington. He said “Clothes make the poor invisible. America has the best dressed poverty the world has ever known.” I have never thought of that. Get picture in your mind of the people in poverty in India and how they dress.
Died today:
1998 US comic Henny Youngman. He said “I read where drinking shortens your life, so I gave up reading.” I miss Henny...George Burns too.
1976 US writer H. Allen Smith. He said “On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are jerks.” I think we all feel that way at times.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
When asked about running for governor of California he said, “It was the most difficult decision of my life, except in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
I am not exactly sure about what is going on in Wisconsin but the best I can deduce is this. The governor wants to negate all collective bargaining rights with all the public employees as stated in their union contracts. He state that all public employees will get pay raises or pay cuts as dictated by the growth or descent of the state’s GNP. He says that he can get a handle on the state’s economy with this move. The problem here is it was the state of Wisconsin that signed the various union contracts in the first place. There would have to be a change in Wisconsin state law for the right of union collective bargaining to be cancelled. That is why the Democrats in the Wisconsin legislature split to an Illinois resort this past week. They don’t want any part of this change in the law; it would cost them their positions, reputation and electability. But the Republicans have absolute control of the state legislature since the November elections but a vote cannot be taken without a certain percentage of Democrats on hand. As far as I am concerned the worst part of this whole scenario is that firefighters, police and state troopers still have the right of collective bargaining. Y’all see through that, of course. What chaos would arise if they went on strike? It is not fair, y’all. No offense intended, Mojo.
Three men tried to rob a man from Georgia that was staying in a North Charleston, SC motel. They did not want his car, his briefcase, cell phone, laptop, money, watch, etc. They wanted his dog. According to the police the dog was just a mutt with no particularly outstanding traits. It is obvious what this is all about. The three have interests in dog fighting. I will let it go at that.
After a three month investigation by federal and local authorities a raid on a house in a quiet community in a middle income neighborhood in Charlotte, NC yielded 3,000 pounds of pot and $1 million in cash. Five Latinos were arrested on site three of which were illegal aliens from Mexico. So what else is new?
Last Friday a 37 year old woman over in Gastonia, NC rammed a police cruiser and kept going like nothing had happened. The cops finally got her stopped and tested her for alcohol and then arrested her for DWI. The cops knew this girl by her first name; this was her seventh arrest for DWI. The cops knew that her license had been revoked long ago and asked her where she got the car. She said that she took her husband’s car without his knowledge for a trip to the liquor store.
This date in history February 22
1777 On this date Georgia heavyweight politico Archibald Bulloch is found dead under mysterious circumstances. The ongoing opinion was that he was poisoned. Bulloch was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1730 to a minister father named James, and a Puritan mother named Jean. Bulloch was educated at the College of South Carolina Law School (present day University of South Carolina) and opened a law practice in Charleston. In 1764 Bulloch moved to Savannah, Georgia and married Mary De Veaux, the daughter of a powerful judge and landowner. Bulloch began dabbling politics and was elected to the Georgia Commons House of Assembly in 1768 and eventually into the Continental Congress in 1775. In 1776 when it became obvious that Georgia would be invaded by the British, Bulloch was elected 1st President and commander of the Georgia Militia and gave him essentially Carte Blanche to do what he wanted to combat the English invaders. He was given what were essentially dictatorial powers. It was soon thereafter he showed up dead. The reason and cause of his death was never determined. Bulloch was the great-great- grandfather of United States President Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy named his first son Archibald in honor of his ancestor. Bulloch County, Georgia is also named in his honor.
1819 Finally the disposition of the lands in Florida is determined on this date. Spanish Minister Don Luis du Onis meets with American minister John Quincy Adams and signs over Florida to the United States. The United States received these lands just for the debts owed by Spanish to the settlers. Spain had a claim on Florida ever since the days of Pensacola and Saint Augustine settlements in the 16th century. However, in their greed Spain sided with the wrong side in the French and Indian War and lost Florida to England via the 1st Treaty of Paris. Then they sided with the right side during the American Revolution and got Florida back via the 2nd Treaty of Paris. Now it was in the hands of the United States and the drug kings from Cuba and other Central and South American countries.
1847 The United States and Mexico had been squabbling over the ownership of Texas for several years. Finally, President James K, Polk who believed heavily in western expansion for the United States sends the US Army into Mexico. A 15,000 man Mexican army commanded by General Santa Anna meets up with the recently landed 5,000 man America army commanded by General Zachary Taylor at Angostura Pass and the first day of the Battle of Buena Vista began. Santa Anna sent over an emissary under a flag of truce demanding the surrender of the Americans. In typical Taylor fashion he responded with “Tell the son-of–a-bitch to go to hell.” Santa Anna began a two pronged attack on Taylor’s position. Taylor organized the greater majority of his artillery onto one of the prongs. One of the commanders of an artillery unit was “Stonewall” Jackson. Taylor then sent Colonel Jefferson Davis and his hawk-eyed Mississippi sharpshooters to attack the other prong. We all recognize Jefferson Davis as later on being the President of the Confederacy. Well, the American artillery on the left flank and the sharpshooters on the right flank lay down a blistering fusillade and Santa Anna decided to retreat. Apparently Santa Anna did not learn his lesson because he again confronts Zachary “Old Rough and Ready” Taylor at the Battle of Monterrey and has his ass handed to him even though he has Taylor outnumbered. In 1848 Zachary Taylor running as a Whig defeated the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. And 13 years after that Jefferson Davis became the President of the Confederate States of America.
2006 On this date the largest robbery in the history of Great Britain occurs at the Kent bank depot. This evening two men dressed as policemen grab Securitis Bank president Colin Dixon as he was leaving the bank and persuade him to get into the car with them. They then drive to Dixon’s home and kidnap his wife and son and drive to a remote barn and a third person takes the wife and child into the barn and then reassured Colin Dixon that they would kill his wife and child if he did not cooperate. They go back to the bank and Dixon leads the other two through the bank’s security system and the two robbers tied up and gagged 14 other bank employees. They then load 53 million pounds into a van and drive away. The take was the equivalent of about 107 million US Dollars. Eventually one of the banks workers got loose and notified the police. The police put out a net for the robbers but to no avail because most of the loot was in used bills. The bank put out a reward of 2 million pounds with no takers. There were a few people arrested but they were all released. The police were able to recover only 20 million pounds but the majority of the loot is still out there.
1942 Things did not look good for the allied forces in the Philippines. The Japanese were running rampant across the Island of Luzon and were forcing the American army into a smaller and smaller perimeter ending up on the Bataan Peninsula. At this point the Commander of the American forces, General Douglas McArthur, was ordered out of the Philippines by the President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt. McArthur hesitated at first as he was prepared to fight to the last with his troops but on this date he conceded and boarded a PT-boat and was taken to New Guinea and eventually Australia where he began planning his return.
Born today:
1732 George Washington...The father of our country...I do not believe he was here at this point in time by accident.
1857 Robert Baden-Powell...The founder of the Boy Scouts...He said “A Scout always smiles and whistles no matter the circumstances.” Obviously Mr. Baden-Powell had never been involved in a divorce action.
1824 Jules Renard...French writer...He said “Love is like an hourglass, the heart fills as the mind empties.” Ah yes, I remember it well, kind of.
1892 Edna St. Vincent Millay...American writer...She said “It is not true that life is one damn thing after another, it is the same damn thing over and over.” Obviously Ms. Millay has been involved in more than one divorce action.
1900 Luis Bunuel...Mexican film maker...He said “Thank God, I am still an atheist” No comment.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
When asked about running for governor of California he said, “It was the most difficult decision of my life, except in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
I am not exactly sure about what is going on in Wisconsin but the best I can deduce is this. The governor wants to negate all collective bargaining rights with all the public employees as stated in their union contracts. He state that all public employees will get pay raises or pay cuts as dictated by the growth or descent of the state’s GNP. He says that he can get a handle on the state’s economy with this move. The problem here is it was the state of Wisconsin that signed the various union contracts in the first place. There would have to be a change in Wisconsin state law for the right of union collective bargaining to be cancelled. That is why the Democrats in the Wisconsin legislature split to an Illinois resort this past week. They don’t want any part of this change in the law; it would cost them their positions, reputation and electability. But the Republicans have absolute control of the state legislature since the November elections but a vote cannot be taken without a certain percentage of Democrats on hand. As far as I am concerned the worst part of this whole scenario is that firefighters, police and state troopers still have the right of collective bargaining. Y’all see through that, of course. What chaos would arise if they went on strike? It is not fair, y’all. No offense intended, Mojo.
Three men tried to rob a man from Georgia that was staying in a North Charleston, SC motel. They did not want his car, his briefcase, cell phone, laptop, money, watch, etc. They wanted his dog. According to the police the dog was just a mutt with no particularly outstanding traits. It is obvious what this is all about. The three have interests in dog fighting. I will let it go at that.
After a three month investigation by federal and local authorities a raid on a house in a quiet community in a middle income neighborhood in Charlotte, NC yielded 3,000 pounds of pot and $1 million in cash. Five Latinos were arrested on site three of which were illegal aliens from Mexico. So what else is new?
Last Friday a 37 year old woman over in Gastonia, NC rammed a police cruiser and kept going like nothing had happened. The cops finally got her stopped and tested her for alcohol and then arrested her for DWI. The cops knew this girl by her first name; this was her seventh arrest for DWI. The cops knew that her license had been revoked long ago and asked her where she got the car. She said that she took her husband’s car without his knowledge for a trip to the liquor store.
This date in history February 22
1777 On this date Georgia heavyweight politico Archibald Bulloch is found dead under mysterious circumstances. The ongoing opinion was that he was poisoned. Bulloch was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1730 to a minister father named James, and a Puritan mother named Jean. Bulloch was educated at the College of South Carolina Law School (present day University of South Carolina) and opened a law practice in Charleston. In 1764 Bulloch moved to Savannah, Georgia and married Mary De Veaux, the daughter of a powerful judge and landowner. Bulloch began dabbling politics and was elected to the Georgia Commons House of Assembly in 1768 and eventually into the Continental Congress in 1775. In 1776 when it became obvious that Georgia would be invaded by the British, Bulloch was elected 1st President and commander of the Georgia Militia and gave him essentially Carte Blanche to do what he wanted to combat the English invaders. He was given what were essentially dictatorial powers. It was soon thereafter he showed up dead. The reason and cause of his death was never determined. Bulloch was the great-great- grandfather of United States President Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy named his first son Archibald in honor of his ancestor. Bulloch County, Georgia is also named in his honor.
1819 Finally the disposition of the lands in Florida is determined on this date. Spanish Minister Don Luis du Onis meets with American minister John Quincy Adams and signs over Florida to the United States. The United States received these lands just for the debts owed by Spanish to the settlers. Spain had a claim on Florida ever since the days of Pensacola and Saint Augustine settlements in the 16th century. However, in their greed Spain sided with the wrong side in the French and Indian War and lost Florida to England via the 1st Treaty of Paris. Then they sided with the right side during the American Revolution and got Florida back via the 2nd Treaty of Paris. Now it was in the hands of the United States and the drug kings from Cuba and other Central and South American countries.
1847 The United States and Mexico had been squabbling over the ownership of Texas for several years. Finally, President James K, Polk who believed heavily in western expansion for the United States sends the US Army into Mexico. A 15,000 man Mexican army commanded by General Santa Anna meets up with the recently landed 5,000 man America army commanded by General Zachary Taylor at Angostura Pass and the first day of the Battle of Buena Vista began. Santa Anna sent over an emissary under a flag of truce demanding the surrender of the Americans. In typical Taylor fashion he responded with “Tell the son-of–a-bitch to go to hell.” Santa Anna began a two pronged attack on Taylor’s position. Taylor organized the greater majority of his artillery onto one of the prongs. One of the commanders of an artillery unit was “Stonewall” Jackson. Taylor then sent Colonel Jefferson Davis and his hawk-eyed Mississippi sharpshooters to attack the other prong. We all recognize Jefferson Davis as later on being the President of the Confederacy. Well, the American artillery on the left flank and the sharpshooters on the right flank lay down a blistering fusillade and Santa Anna decided to retreat. Apparently Santa Anna did not learn his lesson because he again confronts Zachary “Old Rough and Ready” Taylor at the Battle of Monterrey and has his ass handed to him even though he has Taylor outnumbered. In 1848 Zachary Taylor running as a Whig defeated the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. And 13 years after that Jefferson Davis became the President of the Confederate States of America.
2006 On this date the largest robbery in the history of Great Britain occurs at the Kent bank depot. This evening two men dressed as policemen grab Securitis Bank president Colin Dixon as he was leaving the bank and persuade him to get into the car with them. They then drive to Dixon’s home and kidnap his wife and son and drive to a remote barn and a third person takes the wife and child into the barn and then reassured Colin Dixon that they would kill his wife and child if he did not cooperate. They go back to the bank and Dixon leads the other two through the bank’s security system and the two robbers tied up and gagged 14 other bank employees. They then load 53 million pounds into a van and drive away. The take was the equivalent of about 107 million US Dollars. Eventually one of the banks workers got loose and notified the police. The police put out a net for the robbers but to no avail because most of the loot was in used bills. The bank put out a reward of 2 million pounds with no takers. There were a few people arrested but they were all released. The police were able to recover only 20 million pounds but the majority of the loot is still out there.
1942 Things did not look good for the allied forces in the Philippines. The Japanese were running rampant across the Island of Luzon and were forcing the American army into a smaller and smaller perimeter ending up on the Bataan Peninsula. At this point the Commander of the American forces, General Douglas McArthur, was ordered out of the Philippines by the President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt. McArthur hesitated at first as he was prepared to fight to the last with his troops but on this date he conceded and boarded a PT-boat and was taken to New Guinea and eventually Australia where he began planning his return.
Born today:
1732 George Washington...The father of our country...I do not believe he was here at this point in time by accident.
1857 Robert Baden-Powell...The founder of the Boy Scouts...He said “A Scout always smiles and whistles no matter the circumstances.” Obviously Mr. Baden-Powell had never been involved in a divorce action.
1824 Jules Renard...French writer...He said “Love is like an hourglass, the heart fills as the mind empties.” Ah yes, I remember it well, kind of.
1892 Edna St. Vincent Millay...American writer...She said “It is not true that life is one damn thing after another, it is the same damn thing over and over.” Obviously Ms. Millay has been involved in more than one divorce action.
1900 Luis Bunuel...Mexican film maker...He said “Thank God, I am still an atheist” No comment.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Monday, February 21, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
When speaking of a political opponent he said “He has the demeanor of an Easter Island statue with an ass full of razor blades.”
Harold McMillan
It has happened again. This past Thursday a 50 year old woman over in Dillon, SC was walking around in her front yard when she was attacked by two Rottweilers. The owner of the dogs immediately tried to physically restrain them and was severely bitten for his trouble. By this time a couple of armed neighbors arrived on the scene and drove the dogs back but they continued their attacks on the severely injured victims so the neighbors capped them both. The woman died and the owner is in the hospital in serious condition. It is always a Pit Bull or a Rottweiler that attacks humans or other dogs. Why don’t we just make it legal for people to have grizzly bears and Bengal tigers as unleashed pets? I personally have had enough of this. People are not safe in their own front yard because of some person nearby wants to keep an obviously vicious breed of dog that has a tendency to go crazy as hell and attack without provocation. I am not a hater of dogs; in fact one of my favorite beings on this planet was a Golden Retriever that is no longer with us. When is the last time you have heard of someone being attacked by a Golden Retriever? I miss you Kasey, wherever you are.
This past Friday night a man down in Walterboro, South Carolina answered a knock on his front door. When he opened the door, a man forced his way in and a hand-to-hand fight ensued while the man’s wife called 911. After just a few minutes the intruder was dead. The homeowner had held intruder in a choke hold until he quit struggling. The police arrived along with the EMS and carried the corpse away. The police knew who the intruder was and he was known to go into fits on occasion. The homeowner said that during the struggle the intruder was growling and barking like a dog….not any more.
Signs of the times:
Canadian teenage heart throb Jason Bieber gave his opinion about abortion in an interview. Hey Jason, stay focused on entertaining the teeny-boppers. We don’t give a shit about your opinion on political/moralistic issues. I could say the same for Kanye West. He can’t hold a candle to Eminem or Ice-T and you never hear a thing from them.
A few months ago Mel Gibson’s ex-wife agreed to a $16 million divorce settlement after it was found that my man Mel had ranted an anti-Semitic tirade in public that was caught on tape. This past week she reneged on that agreement stating that it wasn’t sufficient. I don’t want to say that she is undeserving because she is the mother of one of Mel’s kids but for crying out loud, $16 MILLION?
Chopper builder Jesse James and his wife du jour Sandra Bullock split up this past year and so did Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson. Y’all will have to admit that Sandra and Scarlett are two of the best looking women on the planet and it seems that is not enough. Jesse was caught having an affair and Sandra booked and the same with Ryan Reynolds. I don’t get it. A few months later Jesse was seen with his new squeeze. This girl looks just like a woman I met at Richard’s, a biker bar in Mount Pleasant, SC. The only difference was that the girl at Richard’s had on biker boots, leather chaps, lace bikini panties and a bra, and I don’t think that Jesse’s new squeeze had on the bikini panties.
This date in history February 21
1777 Earlier George Washington was involved in the French and Indian War and had a man named George Weedon that served as a lieutenant under his command during the war. Weedon was an innkeeper in Fredericksburg, Virginia and at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775 Washington sought out the services of Weedon. He was given the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and assigned to the regiment of General Hugh Mercer. In August 1776, Weedon was promoted to Colonel and given command of the 3rd Virginia Regiment. Weedon was with George Washington at battles in New York and New Jersey including Trenton, Brandywine and Germantown. He also commanded Pennsylvania and Virginia regiments in General Nathaniel Greene’s division at Valley Forge. In 1778 Weedon resigns because a rival named William Woodford was promoted to a position superior to him. Woodford was also a fighter under Washington during the French and Indian War. Weedon did not abandon his country however; he took command of a Virginia militia unit and continued fighting separate from the Continental Army. Weedon was present with his militia at the immortal Battle of Yorktown. His rival, William Woodford, was captured by the British during the siege of Charleston and died in captivity in1780. George Weedon lived to see his country as an independent nation thanks in part to him and others like him. Weedon was a meticulous records keeper and his invaluable notes and orders which he kept while encamped at Valley Forge are in possession of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
1965 A man child named Malcolm Little is born in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was a minister that was a black supremacist that had his life threatened more than once. The heat on the preacher got so hot that he moved his family to Lansing, Michigan but continued his inflammatory sermons. Finally a white supremacist group called Black Legion murdered the preacher. The bad part of this whole episode was that the city of Lansing and the state of Michigan refused to prosecute. This event had an immense effect on Malcolm because after this Malcolm X was brought into being. Malcolm called himself Malcolm “X” because he assumed his ancestors were slaves brought over from Africa and their last name was not known. Malcolm was even more inflammatory than his father but he had a lot more organizational skills. Malcolm eventually moved to Boston with his sister. His hatred of the white man grew in intensity year by year. He was very light skinned and said on more than one occasion that he ”hated every drop of the white rapist in his blood” even though he got his lightness from his father and there is no evidence that a rape had occurred at anytime in his ancestry. He eventually ended up in New York City, Harlem in particular, and chose to take up a life drug-dealing, gambling, racketeering and robbery. He was arrested for burglary after trying to sell stolen property to a pawn shop. He was convicted and received a 10 year sentence. While in prison he was taken under the wing of an older inmate who recognized his talents and encouraged him. Malcolm became a voracious reader and a member of a debate team that debated teams from Harvard and Yale. He became very popular with the other inmates but the authorities recognized that his knowledge and charisma could be a source of trouble. His brother Reginald wrote him about The Nation of Islam and Malcolm began to associate with Elijah Mohammed, the leader of The Nation of Islam. Malcolm became a member of the Sunni Islamic sect. He was brought in to be drafted but was rejected as having “an asocial personality with paranoid trends and schizophrenia.” The FBI had been monitoring Malcolm and came up with the same diagnosis and in fact Malcolm had gone to a psychiatrist for treatment. Malcolm’s fiery intellect along with his inflammatory attitude and speech, he climbed up in the structure of the Nation of Islam. But eventually relations between him and Elijah Muhammad became strained when he found that Muhammad was having sex with his secretaries and others in the organization were lining their pockets with Islamic funds. Malcolm visited several Islamic countries and became deeper involved in Islam. But his relationship with Elijah Muhammad deteriorated to where Elijah Mohammad put out a contract for Malcolm’s life. On this date he was to make a speech in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. A fight broke out apparently as a diversion and as Malcolm’s bodyguards went to squelch it and another man ran up and shot Malcolm in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other men ran up and emptied their handguns into Malcolm. He was dead almost immediately by the shotgun, the handguns were unnecessary. The three assassins were caught and arrested. They were all members of The Nation of Islam No one really knows the reason for the assassination of Malcolm by people of the Nation of Islam except that he was become way more popular than Elijah Muhammad and was in the process of opening his own mosque. I guess we will never know.
Quotable Quotes:
“There is nothing more responsible for the good old days as a bad memory.”
F.P. Adams
“I do not hate men. I think men are a terrific concept.”
Jo Brand
“The fastest way to a man’s heart is through his chest.”
Roseanne Barr
“When trying to describe modern man in one sentence it would be: He fornicated and read the paper.”
Madonna
“The act of sex, as gratifying as it may be, is God’s joke on man. It is man’s last desperate attempt at supremacy.”
Bette Davis
I love men, even if they are lying, cheating scumbags.”
Gwyneth Paltrow
“Money isn’t everything but it ranks right up there with oxygen.”
Rita Davenport
“Money isn’t everything but it sure helps keep you in touch with your children.”
J. Paul Getty
Here is a message to those that it applies to....KMIM
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
When speaking of a political opponent he said “He has the demeanor of an Easter Island statue with an ass full of razor blades.”
Harold McMillan
It has happened again. This past Thursday a 50 year old woman over in Dillon, SC was walking around in her front yard when she was attacked by two Rottweilers. The owner of the dogs immediately tried to physically restrain them and was severely bitten for his trouble. By this time a couple of armed neighbors arrived on the scene and drove the dogs back but they continued their attacks on the severely injured victims so the neighbors capped them both. The woman died and the owner is in the hospital in serious condition. It is always a Pit Bull or a Rottweiler that attacks humans or other dogs. Why don’t we just make it legal for people to have grizzly bears and Bengal tigers as unleashed pets? I personally have had enough of this. People are not safe in their own front yard because of some person nearby wants to keep an obviously vicious breed of dog that has a tendency to go crazy as hell and attack without provocation. I am not a hater of dogs; in fact one of my favorite beings on this planet was a Golden Retriever that is no longer with us. When is the last time you have heard of someone being attacked by a Golden Retriever? I miss you Kasey, wherever you are.
This past Friday night a man down in Walterboro, South Carolina answered a knock on his front door. When he opened the door, a man forced his way in and a hand-to-hand fight ensued while the man’s wife called 911. After just a few minutes the intruder was dead. The homeowner had held intruder in a choke hold until he quit struggling. The police arrived along with the EMS and carried the corpse away. The police knew who the intruder was and he was known to go into fits on occasion. The homeowner said that during the struggle the intruder was growling and barking like a dog….not any more.
Signs of the times:
Canadian teenage heart throb Jason Bieber gave his opinion about abortion in an interview. Hey Jason, stay focused on entertaining the teeny-boppers. We don’t give a shit about your opinion on political/moralistic issues. I could say the same for Kanye West. He can’t hold a candle to Eminem or Ice-T and you never hear a thing from them.
A few months ago Mel Gibson’s ex-wife agreed to a $16 million divorce settlement after it was found that my man Mel had ranted an anti-Semitic tirade in public that was caught on tape. This past week she reneged on that agreement stating that it wasn’t sufficient. I don’t want to say that she is undeserving because she is the mother of one of Mel’s kids but for crying out loud, $16 MILLION?
Chopper builder Jesse James and his wife du jour Sandra Bullock split up this past year and so did Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson. Y’all will have to admit that Sandra and Scarlett are two of the best looking women on the planet and it seems that is not enough. Jesse was caught having an affair and Sandra booked and the same with Ryan Reynolds. I don’t get it. A few months later Jesse was seen with his new squeeze. This girl looks just like a woman I met at Richard’s, a biker bar in Mount Pleasant, SC. The only difference was that the girl at Richard’s had on biker boots, leather chaps, lace bikini panties and a bra, and I don’t think that Jesse’s new squeeze had on the bikini panties.
This date in history February 21
1777 Earlier George Washington was involved in the French and Indian War and had a man named George Weedon that served as a lieutenant under his command during the war. Weedon was an innkeeper in Fredericksburg, Virginia and at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775 Washington sought out the services of Weedon. He was given the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and assigned to the regiment of General Hugh Mercer. In August 1776, Weedon was promoted to Colonel and given command of the 3rd Virginia Regiment. Weedon was with George Washington at battles in New York and New Jersey including Trenton, Brandywine and Germantown. He also commanded Pennsylvania and Virginia regiments in General Nathaniel Greene’s division at Valley Forge. In 1778 Weedon resigns because a rival named William Woodford was promoted to a position superior to him. Woodford was also a fighter under Washington during the French and Indian War. Weedon did not abandon his country however; he took command of a Virginia militia unit and continued fighting separate from the Continental Army. Weedon was present with his militia at the immortal Battle of Yorktown. His rival, William Woodford, was captured by the British during the siege of Charleston and died in captivity in1780. George Weedon lived to see his country as an independent nation thanks in part to him and others like him. Weedon was a meticulous records keeper and his invaluable notes and orders which he kept while encamped at Valley Forge are in possession of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
1965 A man child named Malcolm Little is born in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was a minister that was a black supremacist that had his life threatened more than once. The heat on the preacher got so hot that he moved his family to Lansing, Michigan but continued his inflammatory sermons. Finally a white supremacist group called Black Legion murdered the preacher. The bad part of this whole episode was that the city of Lansing and the state of Michigan refused to prosecute. This event had an immense effect on Malcolm because after this Malcolm X was brought into being. Malcolm called himself Malcolm “X” because he assumed his ancestors were slaves brought over from Africa and their last name was not known. Malcolm was even more inflammatory than his father but he had a lot more organizational skills. Malcolm eventually moved to Boston with his sister. His hatred of the white man grew in intensity year by year. He was very light skinned and said on more than one occasion that he ”hated every drop of the white rapist in his blood” even though he got his lightness from his father and there is no evidence that a rape had occurred at anytime in his ancestry. He eventually ended up in New York City, Harlem in particular, and chose to take up a life drug-dealing, gambling, racketeering and robbery. He was arrested for burglary after trying to sell stolen property to a pawn shop. He was convicted and received a 10 year sentence. While in prison he was taken under the wing of an older inmate who recognized his talents and encouraged him. Malcolm became a voracious reader and a member of a debate team that debated teams from Harvard and Yale. He became very popular with the other inmates but the authorities recognized that his knowledge and charisma could be a source of trouble. His brother Reginald wrote him about The Nation of Islam and Malcolm began to associate with Elijah Mohammed, the leader of The Nation of Islam. Malcolm became a member of the Sunni Islamic sect. He was brought in to be drafted but was rejected as having “an asocial personality with paranoid trends and schizophrenia.” The FBI had been monitoring Malcolm and came up with the same diagnosis and in fact Malcolm had gone to a psychiatrist for treatment. Malcolm’s fiery intellect along with his inflammatory attitude and speech, he climbed up in the structure of the Nation of Islam. But eventually relations between him and Elijah Muhammad became strained when he found that Muhammad was having sex with his secretaries and others in the organization were lining their pockets with Islamic funds. Malcolm visited several Islamic countries and became deeper involved in Islam. But his relationship with Elijah Muhammad deteriorated to where Elijah Mohammad put out a contract for Malcolm’s life. On this date he was to make a speech in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. A fight broke out apparently as a diversion and as Malcolm’s bodyguards went to squelch it and another man ran up and shot Malcolm in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other men ran up and emptied their handguns into Malcolm. He was dead almost immediately by the shotgun, the handguns were unnecessary. The three assassins were caught and arrested. They were all members of The Nation of Islam No one really knows the reason for the assassination of Malcolm by people of the Nation of Islam except that he was become way more popular than Elijah Muhammad and was in the process of opening his own mosque. I guess we will never know.
Quotable Quotes:
“There is nothing more responsible for the good old days as a bad memory.”
F.P. Adams
“I do not hate men. I think men are a terrific concept.”
Jo Brand
“The fastest way to a man’s heart is through his chest.”
Roseanne Barr
“When trying to describe modern man in one sentence it would be: He fornicated and read the paper.”
Madonna
“The act of sex, as gratifying as it may be, is God’s joke on man. It is man’s last desperate attempt at supremacy.”
Bette Davis
I love men, even if they are lying, cheating scumbags.”
Gwyneth Paltrow
“Money isn’t everything but it ranks right up there with oxygen.”
Rita Davenport
“Money isn’t everything but it sure helps keep you in touch with your children.”
J. Paul Getty
Here is a message to those that it applies to....KMIM
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“My neighbors love it when I play my piano; they throw rocks and break my windows so they can hear me better.”
Les Dawson
I had a discombobulating experience a few days ago and I would like y’all’s opinion of my behavior.
I was sitting in on a board meeting of the Four O’clock Club when a sweet young thing beside me struck up a conversation. She introduced me to her husband of just a couple of years sitting beside her. They were both about 27 years old. After just a few minutes of conversation she said “Do you feel intimidated sitting next to a self-assured woman?” I was momentarily taken aback but gathered my wits quickly and said “I will answer that question if you will answer two questions that I have.” She said “go ahead.” I said “Do I seem like someone that would be intimidated by anyone or anything? And secondly, where do I find a ‘self assured’ woman within earshot?” She started telling me about how deprived she was as a child and how successful she was in her career. That opened a gigantic doorway for me to bury her; she had aroused my competitive spirit. I began telling her the history of Colin Powell, W.C. Handy, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, George Washington Carver (born a slave), etc. After an extensive history lesson I told her “I can go out on this street and mention any of those previously named and 99% of the people will know who I am talking about, but 100% of them will not know that you exist.” I began gathering up my drink to go somewhere else in the room to get some fresh air. I told my brother in imbibers (Michelin Mike, the accountant) that was sitting with me that I was leaving and he said he was too. The young lady smugly said “So both of you are intimidated.” I said “No sweetie, we are just bored as hell with your breast….make that your chest beating about how great you are. You are light years from being able to carry on an intelligent conversation with either me or Mike. Your husband looks bored too.” She said “He has no choice; I have all the money, or will have when my inheritance comes in three years.” That was it for me. I said “If I was your husband I would take a piece of that inheritance and buy a lot of cyanide, I will leave it to your imagination as to how he uses it, goodbye.” As I passed her husband he was laughing his ass off and said “Good job.” Mike and I found another conversationalist or two.
This date in history February 17
1865 On this date United States General William T. Sherman and his army of 60,000, in his continuing campaign against innocent and defenseless civilians, enters the state capitol of South Carolina and begins an orgy of rape and destruction. Two days before CSA General Wade Hampton III had pulled out of Columbia knowing that if he stayed and fought his small cavalry unit would be swarmed under and annihilated. The Yankee army took great pleasure and were very meticulous in their destruction of this city because they felt that it was South Carolina that was first to secede and provided the impetus for all the others. This method of “burnt turf” warfare was advocated by both General Ulysses Grant and President Abraham Lincoln. Ya’ll will need to remember that Abraham Lincoln issued a “call to arms to preserve the union” after the secession began. The US army had its ass handed to it by the Confederates in the first few battles of the Civil War and then the northerners pressed Lincoln to allow the Southerners to form their own country so as to stop the slaughter. Then Lincoln saw that patriotism was not going to get the job done so he switched horses and said the war was about freeing the slaves which changes the impetus from patriotism to a matter of conscience. Now when the US Army has a chance at barbarism with impunity they say they are punishing those that led the secession. That was bullshit; they are back on the other horse again. They were just doing rape and pillage because they could get away with it, politics not withstanding. But mankind’s history is full of similar events from the wars between the Mesopotamian city-states, Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, Tutsis vs Hutus not to mention what is happening in Darfur. Mankind’s history is full of atrocities against the innocents and it appears to me that there is no end in sight.
1906 Earlier there had been a workers strike at various silver and gold mines near Coeur de Lene, Idaho and the mine owners had beseeched the Governor Frank Steunenberg to intercede. Foolishly the Governor did indeed intercede in favor of the rich mine owners. Well, soon thereafter a bomb detonated at Governor Steunenberg’s fence gate at his Caldwell, Idaho home while he was opening it. The governor was killed instantly. The mine owners, not to be outdone, hire the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency to find out who killed the governor. The Pinkertons brought in their ace detective in John McParland to investigate in and around Caldwell. McParland and the local police focused in on a man named Tom Hogan. McParland befriended Hogan ands soon found out that he was not Tom Hogan but he was Harry Orchard, a renowned assassin. After much pressure was applied, Orchard implicated Bill Hayward, Charles Moyer and George Pettibone all leaders of the National Miners Union. The only problem was that all three were in Colorado where law enforcement is very sympathetic to unions and it was guaranteed that they would not extradite the three on the word of an admitted murderer. So Idaho did the next best thing. Several Idaho officials and a few Pinkerton agents went to Colorado and kidnapped the three back to Idaho. But the Union had another ace up its sleeve; they brought in famous lawyer Clarence Darrow in their defense. Hayward was tried first and the prosecution could not get any corroboration for Orchard’s testimony and it came down to Orchard’s testimony alone and being it almost a sure thing that he was guilty, Hayward was acquitted. Since Hayward was acquitted, there was no sense in trying the other two. After he was released Hayward fled to Russia where he spent the rest of his days. He was buried in the Kremlin.
1995 On this day the ferry Neptune departs Jeremie for Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This boat was only 150 feet long with three decks and was carrying 1,200 people and farm animals. Normally the trip takes 12 hours. The bad thing was that this boat was licensed for only 650 people, had no life rafts, no life preservers and no emergency radio. About half way to Port-au-Prince a storm rises and the bottom deck begins to become awash because of all the extra weight. The passengers, animals in tow, flee to the top deck. Well, y’all can guess what happened next. Most of the passengers got on one side and the boat capsizes. Haiti has no Navy or Coast Guard so those people are out there on their own paddling around and hanging on to the boat. Finally the United States send a Coast Guard cutter and they rescue about 350 people. The rest are lost. What a nightmare that must have been.
1820 On this date the United States Congress enacts legislation known as the Missouri Compromise. Since the beginning of the addition of more and more states the southern agrarian society had been fencing with the industrial north about slavery. The southern states were sensitive to having more free states than slaves states because if they were outnumbered, slavery could be abolished which would be devastating to the huge plantations. All of this was of great import to the south up until the invention of the cotton gin and the steam powered farm vehicles. Anyway, at this point in time Missouri was petitioning to come into the union as a slave state and the northern states objected because it would upset the balance. So the Missouri Compromise stated that Missouri would come into the union as a slave state and the next year Maine would be allowed in as a free state. All of this was just a delaying action because the Civil War exploded just 41 years later.
1944 On this date the United States Navy and Marines began the invasion of Eniwetok atoll in the northwest Marshall Islands. It was determined that the Marshall Islands had to be neutralized before the capture of the Marianas where the Unites States Air Force could launch strikes against the Japanese mainland. The capture of Eniwetok would achieve that purpose. The Japanese on Eniwetok were very outnumbered and outgunned. The battle was over in six days with only 64 of the original 2,677 Japanese soldiers surviving. There were only 195 American casualties. Soon after this the US Marines attacked and after a substantial struggle captured the Marianas Islands of Saipan, Tinian and Guam. The US Air Force launched bombing attacks on the Japanese mainland from Guam and Saipan using the newly invented B-29 long range bomber. It was from Tinian Island, which is adjacent to Saipan, that the B-29 Enola Gay departed on August 6, 1945 to make the bomb runs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and dropped a bomb that changed mankind for eternity.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
“My neighbors love it when I play my piano; they throw rocks and break my windows so they can hear me better.”
Les Dawson
I had a discombobulating experience a few days ago and I would like y’all’s opinion of my behavior.
I was sitting in on a board meeting of the Four O’clock Club when a sweet young thing beside me struck up a conversation. She introduced me to her husband of just a couple of years sitting beside her. They were both about 27 years old. After just a few minutes of conversation she said “Do you feel intimidated sitting next to a self-assured woman?” I was momentarily taken aback but gathered my wits quickly and said “I will answer that question if you will answer two questions that I have.” She said “go ahead.” I said “Do I seem like someone that would be intimidated by anyone or anything? And secondly, where do I find a ‘self assured’ woman within earshot?” She started telling me about how deprived she was as a child and how successful she was in her career. That opened a gigantic doorway for me to bury her; she had aroused my competitive spirit. I began telling her the history of Colin Powell, W.C. Handy, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, George Washington Carver (born a slave), etc. After an extensive history lesson I told her “I can go out on this street and mention any of those previously named and 99% of the people will know who I am talking about, but 100% of them will not know that you exist.” I began gathering up my drink to go somewhere else in the room to get some fresh air. I told my brother in imbibers (Michelin Mike, the accountant) that was sitting with me that I was leaving and he said he was too. The young lady smugly said “So both of you are intimidated.” I said “No sweetie, we are just bored as hell with your breast….make that your chest beating about how great you are. You are light years from being able to carry on an intelligent conversation with either me or Mike. Your husband looks bored too.” She said “He has no choice; I have all the money, or will have when my inheritance comes in three years.” That was it for me. I said “If I was your husband I would take a piece of that inheritance and buy a lot of cyanide, I will leave it to your imagination as to how he uses it, goodbye.” As I passed her husband he was laughing his ass off and said “Good job.” Mike and I found another conversationalist or two.
This date in history February 17
1865 On this date United States General William T. Sherman and his army of 60,000, in his continuing campaign against innocent and defenseless civilians, enters the state capitol of South Carolina and begins an orgy of rape and destruction. Two days before CSA General Wade Hampton III had pulled out of Columbia knowing that if he stayed and fought his small cavalry unit would be swarmed under and annihilated. The Yankee army took great pleasure and were very meticulous in their destruction of this city because they felt that it was South Carolina that was first to secede and provided the impetus for all the others. This method of “burnt turf” warfare was advocated by both General Ulysses Grant and President Abraham Lincoln. Ya’ll will need to remember that Abraham Lincoln issued a “call to arms to preserve the union” after the secession began. The US army had its ass handed to it by the Confederates in the first few battles of the Civil War and then the northerners pressed Lincoln to allow the Southerners to form their own country so as to stop the slaughter. Then Lincoln saw that patriotism was not going to get the job done so he switched horses and said the war was about freeing the slaves which changes the impetus from patriotism to a matter of conscience. Now when the US Army has a chance at barbarism with impunity they say they are punishing those that led the secession. That was bullshit; they are back on the other horse again. They were just doing rape and pillage because they could get away with it, politics not withstanding. But mankind’s history is full of similar events from the wars between the Mesopotamian city-states, Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, Tutsis vs Hutus not to mention what is happening in Darfur. Mankind’s history is full of atrocities against the innocents and it appears to me that there is no end in sight.
1906 Earlier there had been a workers strike at various silver and gold mines near Coeur de Lene, Idaho and the mine owners had beseeched the Governor Frank Steunenberg to intercede. Foolishly the Governor did indeed intercede in favor of the rich mine owners. Well, soon thereafter a bomb detonated at Governor Steunenberg’s fence gate at his Caldwell, Idaho home while he was opening it. The governor was killed instantly. The mine owners, not to be outdone, hire the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency to find out who killed the governor. The Pinkertons brought in their ace detective in John McParland to investigate in and around Caldwell. McParland and the local police focused in on a man named Tom Hogan. McParland befriended Hogan ands soon found out that he was not Tom Hogan but he was Harry Orchard, a renowned assassin. After much pressure was applied, Orchard implicated Bill Hayward, Charles Moyer and George Pettibone all leaders of the National Miners Union. The only problem was that all three were in Colorado where law enforcement is very sympathetic to unions and it was guaranteed that they would not extradite the three on the word of an admitted murderer. So Idaho did the next best thing. Several Idaho officials and a few Pinkerton agents went to Colorado and kidnapped the three back to Idaho. But the Union had another ace up its sleeve; they brought in famous lawyer Clarence Darrow in their defense. Hayward was tried first and the prosecution could not get any corroboration for Orchard’s testimony and it came down to Orchard’s testimony alone and being it almost a sure thing that he was guilty, Hayward was acquitted. Since Hayward was acquitted, there was no sense in trying the other two. After he was released Hayward fled to Russia where he spent the rest of his days. He was buried in the Kremlin.
1995 On this day the ferry Neptune departs Jeremie for Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This boat was only 150 feet long with three decks and was carrying 1,200 people and farm animals. Normally the trip takes 12 hours. The bad thing was that this boat was licensed for only 650 people, had no life rafts, no life preservers and no emergency radio. About half way to Port-au-Prince a storm rises and the bottom deck begins to become awash because of all the extra weight. The passengers, animals in tow, flee to the top deck. Well, y’all can guess what happened next. Most of the passengers got on one side and the boat capsizes. Haiti has no Navy or Coast Guard so those people are out there on their own paddling around and hanging on to the boat. Finally the United States send a Coast Guard cutter and they rescue about 350 people. The rest are lost. What a nightmare that must have been.
1820 On this date the United States Congress enacts legislation known as the Missouri Compromise. Since the beginning of the addition of more and more states the southern agrarian society had been fencing with the industrial north about slavery. The southern states were sensitive to having more free states than slaves states because if they were outnumbered, slavery could be abolished which would be devastating to the huge plantations. All of this was of great import to the south up until the invention of the cotton gin and the steam powered farm vehicles. Anyway, at this point in time Missouri was petitioning to come into the union as a slave state and the northern states objected because it would upset the balance. So the Missouri Compromise stated that Missouri would come into the union as a slave state and the next year Maine would be allowed in as a free state. All of this was just a delaying action because the Civil War exploded just 41 years later.
1944 On this date the United States Navy and Marines began the invasion of Eniwetok atoll in the northwest Marshall Islands. It was determined that the Marshall Islands had to be neutralized before the capture of the Marianas where the Unites States Air Force could launch strikes against the Japanese mainland. The capture of Eniwetok would achieve that purpose. The Japanese on Eniwetok were very outnumbered and outgunned. The battle was over in six days with only 64 of the original 2,677 Japanese soldiers surviving. There were only 195 American casualties. Soon after this the US Marines attacked and after a substantial struggle captured the Marianas Islands of Saipan, Tinian and Guam. The US Air Force launched bombing attacks on the Japanese mainland from Guam and Saipan using the newly invented B-29 long range bomber. It was from Tinian Island, which is adjacent to Saipan, that the B-29 Enola Gay departed on August 6, 1945 to make the bomb runs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and dropped a bomb that changed mankind for eternity.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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