Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Love all, trust but few.”
William Shakespeare
Trivia Question:
What famous explorer was buried in the Mississippi River?
No fair going to Google, Kristina.
“Y'all would not believe the political frenzy that is afoot here in good old Greenville. All of it is squabbling among the GOP potential presidential candidates. The are blaming each other for everything from the fall of the Roman Empire to the death of Marilyn Monroe. It really is disgusting. My advise to all you South Carolinians is to not pay any attention to this pre-primary rhetoric because when its all over, they will be buddy-buddy again and join together to unseat Obama. Just do some cursory research on your favorite candidate(s) and choose one and stick with it. In the final analysis they are all not that far removed from each other anyway. The funny part is there is a cadre of left wingers in my social arena that were pure Obama in 2008 and now they are beating the drums for Ron Paul. They are forecasting doom in the Florida primaries including SWAT teams, Cobra helicopters, Delta teams all there to lean on the expected swarms of protestors especially in Tampa. I think they want an attempted coup d'etat by the people like there was in Egypt and Libya in recent times. Most of these people are good friends of mine and were in the hippie movement in the late 1960's. They are expecting, it if not looking forward to, a police riot in Tampa like we saw at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. Once a revolutionary, always a revolutionary even though grey of beard and long of tooth. Being it is Martin Luther King, Jr. week, I will give y'all one his nuggets of wisdom. He was approached by one of the leaders of the Black Panthers to help initiate armed guerrilla activity against white people in general and the US Government in particular. He said “Never forget that the US military is in command of the white man. You have a few rifles and pistols, they have tanks and airplanes and most of all, they have combat training.” A good thing to remember when you feel really angry. Never enter into combat as an amateur. You will lose.
Back in November the Cherokee County cops were called to a family disturbance in Cowpens, SC. Upon arrival they heard a lot of yelling and went up on the porch and knocked. Just then 38 year old Bobby Mathis came storming out yelling like a Banshee and spit on one of the officers trying to arrest him. The officer responded with a goodly portion of pepper spray which took the fight out of good ole Bobby. A few days ago at his trial Bobby confessed that he had indeed spit on the officer. At that he was convicted of transferring body fluids and resisting arrest. He was sentenced to 10 years in the joint. That may seem a bit harsh for that small of a crime especially since no one was hurt but Bobby has a record going back to 1998 that includes “huffing” hydrocarbons, larceny and public disturbance. I guess the judge was sick of seeing Bobby in his court room.
Over in Iran a man decided he wanted a tattoo on his penis. He wanted the phrase “Good luck on your journey” written in ancient Persian script along with the initial of his girl friend the letter “M”. The tattoo artist complied using a hand held needle. The only problem was that there was internal bleeding for several days which resulted in a permanent semi-erection. Doctors tried to relieve it by draining off excessive fluids but that did not work. The man refused any other treatment saying that he is able to perform as before so he needs no further medical assistance. No comment.
There was much said about the four Marines in the sniper unit that had killed a couple of Taliban snipers and chose to uninate on their corpses and the action was called disgusting. Perhaps it would have been better to have thrown their bodies into a car, set it on fire and took the remains and hung them from a bridge. After all, we have seen that done to Americans...not to mention Mogadishu. I don't want to hear that tired phrase “We are above that.” Think about Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin and Tokyo during WWII. During WWI US General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing was in Palestine with a few of his troops. He was attacked by Arab terrorists (sound familiar?) and a couple of his troops were killed. Pershing sent out hunter/killer teams who captured the terrorists. He ordered the terrorists lined up before a firing squad, had them doused in pigs blood and then shot. To the terrorists this meant they would not go to “Paradise” because they were “unclean”. Pershing had no further trouble with the Arabs. Was this disgusting?
This date in history January 19
1809 One of the greatest poet/writers this country has ever produced is born in Boston. Edgar Allen Poe was born on this day, but he had lost both of his parents by the time he was twelve he went to live with his Godfather John Allen, a wealthy tobacco dealer. Poe’s Godfather sent him to school in England for a while and then he came back and entered the prestigious University of Virginia. The trouble was that Poe was a player and made some major gambling debts and argued with his Godfather to bail him out. It did not happen and Poe was kicked out of UVA in 1826 after only eight months. Not only that, Poe was heavy into the sauce and would toke on opium from time to time. He joined the US Army serving two years and was offered an appointment to West Point. While in the army he was sent to Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island near Charleston, SC. While there he is to have supposedly written his first mystery novel The Gold Bug. There is a small tavern on Sullivan’s Island called Poe’s Tavern that is supposed to be the place that The Gold Bug was written, but that is just a legend. In any event, Poe’s Tavern is one of my most favorite watering holes on the planet. Poe did indeed attend West Point but had yet another falling out with his Godfather about money and at the same time he broke enough rules at West Point to get himself kicked out. During all of this time Poe a written a few credible poems which did not receive much attention. In 1836 while working as an editor for a newspaper in Richmond, Virginia this boy married his 13 year old cousin. Poe wrote his first full length work which was published in 1838. He lost his job in Richmond be cause he got heavy into the sauce again and he and his wife moved to Philadelphia and he went to work for two magazines as a literary critic. His critiques were admired for being correct and concise. It was during this time that he gave us “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, both of which are milestones of mystery novels to this day. Right after this he delivered “The Murder at Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter” which remains to this day the first detective novels. He then moved to New York and stunned the world with his poem the immortal The Raven which brought him eternal fame. Soon after this his wife fell ill from tuberculosis and died in 1847. This put Poe deeper into the sauce and opium but in 1849 he moved to Richmond and hooked up with an old flame and they decided to marry. He went to Baltimore to have a bachelor party with some of his trashy friends. After a while at the party Poe showed up missing but he was eventually found wallowing around in a gutter incoherent. His friends took him to a hospital, but he died on October 7, 1849 at the age of 40. What a damned waste of God given talent.
1983 On this day former Nazi Chief of Lyon, France, Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia for crimes against humanity 40 years earlier. While Barbie was the Nazi chief in Lyon, he sent thousands of French Jews and resistance worker to the deaths in interment camps in addition to personally torturing hundreds to get information. After World War II Barbie fled to Germany and joined an underground group to fight the Communists. The American Counter-Intelligence-Corps (CIC) broke up the group but hired Barbie to help gather information on the Communists by what ever means available. In 1949 the CIC felt that Barbie would serve the US well in Bolivia as a monitor of Communist activity in Central America and smuggled him into country. While there he also hired himself out to various military regimes especially the one headed by Hugo Banzer who came to power in 1971. Banzer was especially repressive and cruel and used Barbie to good advantage. About this time Nazi hunters Serge Klarsfield and Beatte Kunsel found out where Barbie was and came looking for him. As you might expect Banzer refused to extradite Barbie but four years later a more liberal regime came to power and agreed to extradite Barbie to France if the French government would aid the impoverished Bolivia. France agreed and “The Butcher of Lyon” was flown to France. In July of 1987 Barbie was convicted of 187 crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment, which is the highest penalty imposed in France. Barbie died of cancer in prison in 1991 at the age of 77. I wonder where he is today.
1822 The 23 year old Virginian Charles Bent decides to seek his fortune and headed to the Wild West. He joins in with the Missouri Fur Company. This company went down the toilet because of cutthroat competition of John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company. Bent decided to go into the mercantile business and opened a trading post in the Mexican owned city of Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico. He opened a second one on the Arkansas River in what is now Colorado and called it Bent’s Fort which is still with us. When the Mexican War began, Bent showed his true colors when he welcomed US General Stephan Kearny into Santa Fe with open arms much to the chagrin of the Mexicans. Kearny awarded Bent with the governorship of the new US territory of New Mexico and then Kearny and his troops left Bent on his own and headed for California. Kearny did leave a small contingent of troops for the protection of Bent. These troops openly showed their contempt for the Mexicans and the Indians in and around Taos which resulted in a heated uprising. On this day in 1847 a mob of Mexicans and Indians went to a house that Bent was visiting in Taos, killed his bodyguards and killed and scalped Charles Bent. The mob wasn’t done yet. They dragged Bent’s body through the streets and killed and scalped an additional 15 honkies. Within two weeks US Colonel Sterling Price arrived in Taos and he executed all of the ringleaders. In 1848 the Mexican War was over and Taos and Santa Fe came under American control even more. By the way, Colonel Sterling Price became a General for the Confederacy in 1861.
1806 On this date in Westmoreland County, Virginia a son is born to Revolutionary War hero Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee. Harry decided to name him Robert Edward Lee, or as he became known as Robert E. Lee. Robert was well educated in his teens and was given an appointment to West Point. He graduated not first in his class but went through the entire four years without a single demerit. Before the Civil War he returned to the Academy as Superintendent. After the Civil War he became the president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. This college eventually was titled Washington and Lee University in honor of Robert E. Lee. There is no use for me to expound on the leadership capabilities of this man for they are well known. Winston Churchill said of Lee “Never in the field of human conflict has one man been loved by so many.”
Born today:
1782 US politico Daniel Webster. He said “Every man’s life liberty and property are in danger when the legislature is in session.” Especially if it is under the control of the Democrats.
1876 Cousin and wife of Albert Einstein, Elsa Einstein. She said “I do not understand my husband’s theory of relativity, but I do know he can be trusted.” That goes a long way toward a happy marriage.
1913 US entertainer Danny Kaye. He said “Life is just a big canvas, throw all the paint on it that you can.” I feel the same way except I say, “Life is a smorgasbord, taste as many pieces of it that you can.”
Died today:
1936 English author Rudyard Kipling. He said “Borrow trouble for yourself if that is your nature. But don’t borrow some for your neighbors.”
2007 US Journalist Art Buchwald. He said “People are broad-minded. They will accept someone that is a drug addict, wife beater, alcoholic or even a newspaper man, but if they cannot drive a car they think there is something wrong with them.” That reminds me of the days when I was a “shagger” or a dancer of a style peculiar to the Carolinas. When we would go to the Myrtle Beach area twice a year for “SOS” which was a big, days long dance party, we would go to “home base” which was either “The Pad”, “Fat Harold’s” or “Ducks” (bars with big dance floors) and the people would gather in different bunches (and they did not talk to each other) which depended on the skill level of dancers. I believe that if Ted Bundy walked in there and danced well enough, he would be accepted. They were/are pretty shallow, y’all.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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