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