Daily history

Good morning,







Quote of the day:


“A psychiatrist is suing Mike Tyson for $45,000 in unpaid bills. I am with Mike on this one. If ever there was a guy that deserved a refund on his psychiatry bill it is Mike Tyson.”


Jay Leno






Over in Alabama a man was cleaning his pistol and accidentally shot himself in the leg, fell down and dropped the weapon. His very young son happened by and grabbed pistol and as his mother entered the room, the kid fired the weapon hitting her in the neck. Both wounds were non life-threatening. My advice to that family is to keep all weapons safety barred, if they own a weapon at all.






Down in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina a local judge has decreed that a “cat conservatory” will have all of the cats removed. The woman-in-charge has over 300 cats in cages many of which are ill with diseases. I do not understand why people want to keep animals on their property caged up especially in that number. What are they gaining and what benefit is it to a cat? People can be weird critters, y’all.






Back in October 16 year old Kirsten Edwards was walking around in the Chattahoochee Valley Library nearly every day approaching people and asking them about their Christian religion commitment and biblical advice on how to achieve what he thought was Nirvana. As you might suspect, the people in the library were essentially a trapped audience and talking is verboten anyway. The head librarian barred Kirsten from the library for six months because he was causing uproars and would not shut the hell up. The head librarian said that Kirsten is eligible to get his library card reinstated and he would be welcome back under the library’s rules. I have mixed emotions about this issue. Naturally there is no talking in a library, but everyone should have the right to state an opinion religious or otherwise. In the final analysis I will have to side with the library on this issue because of the “trapped” audience. If he wants to express his views outside or in a different type public place then let him have at it, but don’t disturb my research.


Over near Spartanburg, South Carolina the County Sheriff was called about a vicious animal. When the cops arrived the turmoil was still underway. They finally saw what was identified as the owner covered in blood and laying on top of his Pit Bull trying to hold it down. Medical personnel were able to get a wire around the dog’s collar and tied the other end to a porch column. The owner had already been bitten in the face and when he tried to get up after the dog was restrained, the dog attacked again and grabbed him by the arm and refused to surrender. One of the cops shot the dog in the chest but the attack continued. Another round in the chest from the Glock got the job done and the dog was killed. The problem was not over. Even thought the dog was dead, his jaws were still clamped and had to pried open with a tire tool. The owner is in the hospital with the viability of his arm in serious question. Remember all of this the next time you see a loose Pit Bull.






This date in history March 3






1776 On this date United States emissary Silas Deane departs Boston on a secret mission to France. He is going to meet with French Foreign minister Charles Gravier to convince him that the United States is indeed on the road to independence and military tools of war from France is needed to assist in this endeavor. He is successful to some degree in that France offers 200 brass cannon, gunpowder and shot to match. Silas Deane also reminded the American Congress that that he had offered the Marquis de Lafayette the rank of Major General if he would come over to the United States and join with George Washington and use his considerable military expertise in our behalf. The confirmation of this rank for Lafayette had to come from Congress. Deane also complained that he was given not enough instructions so the American Congress sent three more emissaries to France to assist Deane. One of these was a man named Arthur Lee who accused Deane of lining his pockets with the gold that America had sent to pay for the French military hardware. This never happened. Deane was a dedicated Patriot but the accusation stuck and Deane was forever branded as a greedy and unpatriotic man. Thirty years after the death of Deane, Congress donated a considerable amount to Deane’s granddaughter for the wrong her grandfather had suffered unnecessarily.






1865 The Freedman Bureau is established by Congress at the behest of the abolitionists. They were afraid that the freed slaves would not know what to do or who to contact to start a life of their own and they were right for the most part. The Freedman Bureau was administered by US General Oliver O. Howard from it conception to its disbandment 8 years later. The Bureau was supposed to assign “abandoned lands” to the poor blacks and poor whites as well. The only problem here was that there were still soldiers in the field that still owned these lands and were not “abandoned”. Not to mention the Ku Klux Klan that held a special place in their hearts for freed blacks and were not much better to poor whites. The Klan held a huge sway in the days immediately after the Civil War and during “reconstruction”. The program of Reconstruction by the US Congress was intended to help the South get back on its feet from all the devastation brought on by the war. As with all programs of this sort it was riddled with corruption and most of those in power hated the South for various reasons and wanted the suffering to continue as a matter of spite and downright meanness. This was the reason the Klan was so successful. Anyway, the Freedman Bureau eventually became unnecessary because the surviving soldiers from both sides returned home and reclaimed their lands and there was very little “abandoned lands” to be administered and the Freedman Bureau went down the toilet along with US General O.O. Howard.






1974 About two years before a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 departed Toronto, Ontario and upon reaching 12,000 feet a hatch blew of the side of the aircraft and knocked a gaping hole in the side and rapid decompression occurred. Gratefully there were not at a very high altitude. The debris and pieces of sheet metal flew throughout the aircraft and several important hydraulic lines were cut and the inside deck collapsed. The pilot was able to maintain enough control to make a safe landing at Detroit. The NTSB faulted McDonnell-Douglas for installing an improper latch on the hatch that had blown off. McDonnell-Douglas issued a bulletin to all to install an updated latch on all of their DC-10’s. McDonnell-Douglas sold one of their DC-10’s to a Turkish airline with the old latch but with a bulletin to update the latch on this particular hatch. The bulletin went unheeded and on this day a Turkish DC-10 departed Paris, France with 364 passengers and crew. Upon reaching 11,000 feet, the hatch in question blew off and ripped a gaping hole in the side. The six passengers in the rear seats were sucked out of the aircraft and were killed instantly when they landed in a field not far from the airport. The pilot was unable to maintain control and the gigantic aircraft crashed headed straight down at over 500 MPH. The crash was so destructive and powerful that all aboard were killed and only 40 bodies were found intact. McDonnell-Douglas pointed at the ground crew at the Paris Airport as not closing the hatch correctly. The ground crews responded with refusing to service or load baggage on any DC-10. McDonnell-Douglas was finally faulted for selling a DC-10 knowing it to have an unsatisfactory latch, bulletin not withstanding.






1991 On this date, a small time hoodlum named Rodney King was riding around Los Angeles in his white Hyundai with two of his friends. Rodney was hammered and the police detected it and gave chase. Rodney refused to stop for quite a spell then after finally stopping, he and the passengers were ordered to get out and lay flat on their faces. The two passengers complied, but not Rodney. He chose to get down on all fours and no further. The obviously enraged cops zapped Rodney with two Tasers to no effect, he stayed on all fours. By then a man across the street who had bought a digital camera that day starts filming the action. After the Tasers were unsuccessful, the cops began using the old fashion method of nightsticks, feet and fists and delivered an A-One beating on Rodney all of which was on film. No knowing they had been filmed, the cops blew it off as a minor event. The guy that had filmed it sold the film to a local TV station. The next morning Rodney watched himself receiving a severe ass-kicking from his hospital room along with millions of others out there in TV land. Needless to say, the s--t hit the fan in the LAPD. The five cops involved were arrested and charged with assault. They received a change of venue because of all the news in and around Los Angeles. They were tried in Simi Valley, a Yuppie community that is grateful for the police keeping their little city neat and clean, acquitted all the cops. Rodney sued the LAPD in a civil suit and received $3.8 million. I have no sympathy for Rodney but I am damn sure not sympathetic to those cops either.






Born today:






1756 English writer Robert Godwin. He said “He that loves reading has everything in his reach.” Indeed he does, Robert.






1847 Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell. He said “When one door closes another opens; but we so often look regretfully at the closed one that we do not see what is open for us.” That is sound wisdom.






1885 US sports writer Ring Lardner. He said of a baseball player “Although he is a poor fielder, he is a poor hitter.”






Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow