Daily history

Good Morning,




Quote of the day:




“Your just might be a Republican if have ever uttered the phrase 'Why don't we just bomb the sons of bitches!.”
                                  Dennis Miller


I have returned safe and sound from my exploratory expedition. I am not going to tell you where I was but I saw a hell of a lot of short needle pines, Sable pines, Palmetto trees, bayonet plants and wildlife, especially deer and bottle-nosed dolphin. The very thick forests reminded me of what the world must have looked like in the Cretaceous and Terciary periods which formed the petroleum deposits that supplies the worlds oil. Yes, there is and end to the supply. My guide on this expedition was very knowledgable and gracious and will not be forgotten.


I don't know what to say about the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. In a land that has seen hundreds of earthquakes this is the worst one in recorded history. There is no telling how many casualties will eventually be found. The leak at that nuclear power plant will set back nuclear power plant development in the United States for decades. I used to work on the engineering phase of a particular type of nuclear power plant so I know how toxic and deadly they can be if a leak develops. In American designed nuclear power plant it is very unlikely that a leak will develop in the “containment” building but the problem could be if the cooling water is stopped along with the electricity. All of them have auxillary power but cooling water is paramount. I don't know what has caused all of these “acts of God” since the 2004 earthquake in Indonesia but the Earth has suffered an horrendous volcano eruption in Iceland, two earthquake/tsunamis in Chile and now this disaster in Japan. Mother Nature apparently is disapponted in us. Perhaps it is global warming that has an affect on the Earth's crust. If it is, I can assure you that Al Gore will proclaim that in his book and will spread the word on the internet that he invented.


It appears that the NFL Players Association (union) and the NFL owners have reached an impasse. The owners have declared a “lockout” and the Players Association have “decertified”. I do not know exactly what lockout means but being decertified means that the Players Association cannot negotiate for the players collectively and it is each player that is responsible for their own contract. If it comes to that the lawyers will have a field day. The people that seems to be in the know say that the season will start on schedule with minor changes. We shall see.


This is a message to the Scarlett Knight:

 If time gets hard, keep moving because that makes you harder to find...Me too.




This date in history March 14


1991 On November 21, 1974 bombs explode in two different Birmingham, England pubs killing 22 and injuring many more. From the forensic evidence the police know the bombs were manufactured by the Irish Republican Army. So the police round up known IRA members and take them in for “interrogation”. The problem with the friction between Northern Ireland and England goes back to the time of King James I of England in about 1604. To dilute the almost constant rebellions by the waspish Irish Catholics, King James took control of five “shires” or counties in Ireland and kicked out the Irish and the Catholic churches in those shires and brought over Scottish Lords and their tenants and Churches of England and repopulated that area with these people and called it Ulster. Later on the Irish gained their independence from England and stayed Catholic, all except Ulster. Ulster being totally Scottish and members of the Church of England (protestant) voted to stay under the umbrella of the King of England. So what you have here is most of the island of Ireland independent Catholics except for a section of the northeast corner being English protestant. That section is known to this day as Northern Ireland, an English protectorate. Over the years the law forbidding Irish to live and own lands in Ulster disappeared and now you have a volatile mix of Irish Catholics and Scottish Protestants living side by side, an even more volatile situation. The Irish in Northern Ireland want the British out and for Northern Ireland to join with the rest of independent Ireland. The British army ain’t leaving because Northern Ireland is an English state and the Protestants want the British army there to protect them. Anyway, after the police gather up the IRA guys who are yelling and screaming the whole time that they are innocent, finally three of the nine that are arrested confess but the other six still maintain their innocence but are put on trial anyway. Using the flimsiest of evidence like residue off their fingertips, they are convicted and sentence to long terms. On this date the so-called Birmingham six are released. Forensic experts had determined that the residue from their fingertips that the prosecution said came from bombs could have come from a cigarette wrapper or a deck of cards. It is my personal belief that the English authorities saw a chance to get some of the IRA off the street and fabricated evidence to get it done. The six stayed in prison for 14 years while being innocent, however. It is bad enough when you have friction between different political factions, but when you throw in a religious issue, there is no end to it. Look at the Sunnis and the Shiites. They have been at each others throats since about 880 AD with no end in sight to the violence.


1862 On this date US General Ambrose Burnside put ashore 12,000 troops about 10 miles south of New Bern, North Carolina and began an assault on the city from the south. The town has about 6,000 Confederate soldiers led by CSA General Lawrence Branch. There were considerable defenses around the city and the attacking Yankees had much difficulty overcoming these embrasures. But the Confederates did not have enough men to adequately defend and were eventually forced to retreat. One bright spot was that Confederate General Zebulon Vance ferried his troops across to an island by boat and then burned the bridge that connected it to the mainland preventing capture of his troops. Zebulon Vance ended up being a Governor of North Carolina.


1776 Alexander Hamilton is promoted to Captain in an artillery unit for the Continental Army in and around New York. His skill attracted the attention of George Washington and he was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel and personal aide to Washington. He served Washington well and was present at the turning of the tide at the Battle of Yorktown. After the war Hamilton became the Secretary of the Treasury. During the campaign for the second term of John Adams, Hamilton backed Adams instead of his party’s nominee, Aaron Burr. Adams won probably because of Hamilton support. Then Burr ran for the Governor of New York and was again opposed by Hamilton. Well, Burr felt this was the final insult and challenged Hamilton to a duel. Duels were against the law in New York so the two went over to Weehawken, New Jersey and dueled. Hamilton was fatally wounded; Burr survived but was no longer a viable political entity in these United States.


1919 Perhaps the most prolific author of western novels of all published his first book, The Untamed. Max Brand cranked out novel after novel but he wasn’t the real thing. Max Brand was one of twenty pen names of Frederick Faust. Faust was born and raised in poverty in the San Joachim Valley of California. He used various pen names because he was not really proud of what he had written. He realized that most of his writings would end up at pulp fiction novels even though he became very wealthy. Faust claimed to hate the American west and lived most of his life in Europe. In his western novels there was a central character named Dan Barry who would essentially run from trouble but if he saw the innocent being wronged, he would jump in and kick ass, a familiar theme. Bad novels or not, it is estimated that he wrote 3 million words in his novels and short stories. He also created the character of Doctor Kildare that later became a TV series. Frederick “Max Brand” Faust went to that great publisher in the sky in 1944. I’ll take Louis L’Amour anytime.




Born today:




1681 German composer Frederick Handel. When asked about his composing of Hallelujah Chorus in his composition The Messiah he said “Whether I was inside my body or outside, only God knows.” That is concentration, ya’ll.


1920 US cartoonist Hank Ketchum. He said “Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don’t swallow it.” Good advice, but few can accept if for long without believing it.


1933 US songwriter Quincy Jones. He said “I don’t deserve to be in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, but a few years ago I got a brain operation, I didn’t deserve that either, so I will accept it.”


1945 British comic Jasper Carrott. He said “I am amazed at radio DJ’s today. I am convinced that AM stands for “Absolute Moron”. I am not going to being to tell you what FM stands for.”


  Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.