Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:

“Mister Speaker, I withdraw my statement that half of the cabinet are asses. Half of the cabinet are not asses.”

                                  Benjamin Disraeli



As of 11:30a it is reported that Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has departed the royal palace in Cairo and has resigned. This comes even after the Egyptian army has sworn allegiance to Mubarak. It was also reported that the military has stated that they would guarantee fair and equitable elections when the time comes. That, my friends, is statements in conflict. I personally think the Egyptian military does not want to be known as the first military in 300 years to turn their power on their own people. There is one thing for sure, they would go down in history as the monsters they certainly would be.



As some of you may or may not know, the South Carolina state legislature is following the lead of Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona in cracking down heavily on illegal aliens including ordering all arms of law enforcement to enforce any and all state laws as they apply to illegal aliens. They have added one more stipulation that Arizona does not have as I understand it. That stipulation is that anyone entering a voting facility must produce a photo identification showing their citizenship. In today’s Greenville News, an editorial page cartoon showed a man wearing a “Border Patrol” cap and “state legislature” on his coat. I cannot help but think that the News thinks the crackdown is beyond the legislative purview or that we, the people object to it. If the city editors would read the description of our form of government which is a democratic republic, they would find that the members of the state and federal legislature are representatives of the people and are essentially mouthpieces for us, the people, not the mullet wrapper known as The Greenville News. I can assure you people that laughingly call yourselves journalist would take a poll of the citizens of the sovereign state of South Carolina and ask us if we approve of the efforts of the present state legislature when it comes to illegal aliens, they would find that the great majority favor the crackdown. In a democratic republic the majority rules and certainly not the local rag called The Greenville News. Oh, I forgot, The Greenville News’ politics is somewhere left of Barney Franks…that explains it.





This date in history February 11





1776    On this date the Royal Governor of Georgia Sir James Wright escapes from house arrest and hurries to the British warship HMS Scarborough anchored in the mouth of the Savannah River and sailed his young ass back to England. The capitol of Georgia was Savannah at the time. Two months earlier Wright had been captured by Patriot Major Joseph Habersham and placed under house arrest. Originally Georgia was formed by corporate charter sponsored by various investors. In 1752 British Parliament had cancelled the charter and took control of Georgia. Georgia was formed originally to be a state of poor whites, without slavery and alcohol to be a buffer between the plundering Spanish in Florida and the gigantic slaveholding plantations in South Carolina. The Spanish were famous for raids where they captured slaves and took them to various ports in Florida and sold them. The attempt at making Georgia an area of no slaves and no alcohol failed miserably, probably because of the success of the bootleggers. When the British determined that their experiment in Georgia was failing, they allowed both slaves and alcohol but that didn’t work either. Sir James Wright had vast plantations in South Carolina but when he was named as governor of Georgia, he sold his plantations and re-invested in lands in Georgia. In 1778 Wright returned to Georgia with a substantial army and re-took control. Wright remained governor of Georgia until 1782 when the British left for good. Georgia had a majority of Loyalists in the population and did not send anyone to the First Continental Congress.



1861    On this date the recently elected President of the United States Abraham Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois headed for Washington. He is traveling by train that was packed with the family’s household goods that Lincoln packed himself. As expected, after Lincoln’s election seven southern states seceded from the Union and Lincoln knew full well that a civil war was on the near horizon. His parting words to the people of Springfield were “Here I have lived for a quarter of a century and have passed from a young man to an old man. My children have been born here and I have buried one here. Now I must leave not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater that that which rested on Washington. Without Divine assistance I cannot succeed, but with that assistance I cannot fail. To his care I am commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me. I bid you all an affectionate farewell”. It was reported that his chest heaved with emotion after completing this speech. He did indeed return to Springfield by train.



1937    After a difficult, and often violent, 44 day sit-down strike by the auto workers at the GM Fisher body plant in Flint, Michigan, GM President Alfred Sloane signs the first contract with the United Auto Workers of America. The leaders of the UAW knew that their union members would not get any benefits from GM without a showdown with Sloane. So 44 days previous the workers at the plant quit work and sat down where they were. The supervisors in the plant kept the assembly line running but no work was performed so they shut down the line. Soon afterward the plant managers turned off the heat, water and power. That did not work so they had the local police fire in tear gas. The relatives and friends of the workers inside the plant heaved rocks through the plant windows to allow the gas to escape making this plan fail. Eventually the local police started firing real bullets into the plant and upon hearing this, the Governor of Michigan John Murphy sent in the National Guard to restore order. The arrival of the National Guard encouraged the strikers to stand their ground and finally Sloane conceded and met with the UAW leaders and the contract was signed ending the strike.



1960    Some of ya’ll may not know this but the first host of The Tonight Show was comedian/musician Steve Allen. After Steve retired the job of host fell to a fruitcake/comedian named Jack Paar. Paar was a funny guy but wore his emotions on his sleeve. He would often break into tears over the slightest thing and he often allowed his personal opinions on political matters to absorb him. When Fidel Castro overthrew Batista and his corrupt regime Parr praised Castro and called him a world hero. But when the Bay of Pigs fiasco occurred, he tried to engineer a swap of tractors for those captured by Castro. On this date Parr walked off the stage in angry tears and stayed away for a month. What happened was the show was taped and the NBC censors would snip and cut stuff from Paar’s monologue that they did not like. Finally Paar got fed up and when the censors cut a joke about a “water closet” (toilet) as being in bad taste he hit the roof and walked off the stage. Look at what we are seeing today, for crying out loud.



1778    On this date French playwright Voltaire returns to Paris after a 28 year exile. Voltaire was a rapier witted writer of outstanding talent. When he was young his father sent him to school to study law but Voltaire wanted to be a playwright. His first play was named La Henriade. The play was a farce about politicians and religion so biting that he was arrested and spent a year in the Bastille (prison). In 1734 he delivered Letters Philosophique and as you might suspect it was attacking the politicos and religion and the heat came so intense for him that he had to flee to England. In 1756 he was invited to Berlin as the guest of King Frederick II of Prussia. After this he moved to Switzerland where he delivered his most famous work in Candide. After only three months back in his beloved Paris, he died leaving a legacy of free thought that lives to this day.



1805    The Lewis and Clark expedition was wintering with the Mandan Indians near present day Bismarck, North Dakota. There they met a French/Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. This guy had just bought two Indian women from the Hidatsa tribe that was famous for kidnapping and selling women. One of the women was kidnapped from the Shoshone tribe near the Montana/Idaho border. Her name was Sacagawea. Lewis and Clark knew they would need horses to cross the Continental divide and knew that their best bet was to buy them from the Shoshone. Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as a guide if he would bring Sacagawea with him to which he agreed. On this date Sacagawea went into labor and Clark acted as a midwife assisting her as best he could. Sacagawea was having a tough time but Clark was told that a brew made from powdered rattlesnake rattle would induce birth. Clark administered this to poor old Sacagawea and two hours later she delivered a son named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau into this world. Clark became very attached to this baby and nicknamed him Pompey, or Pomp and Clark paid for his education. Pomp died in 1866.



Born today:



1847    US inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He said “There ain’t no rules around here; we are trying to accomplish something.” I like his attitude, but he needed help with his grammar.



1921    Hungarian born actress Eva Gabor. She said “Marriage is too interesting of an experiment to be tried only once.” Eva was a beautiful woman. She went to the great wedding chapel in the sky in 1995.



1969    US actress Jennifer Anniston. She said “When a man with a camera follows you 20 blocks to a pharmacy and watches you buy toilet paper, you realize that your life has changed.” The so-called paparazzi are a pain in the ass.







Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow