Good morning,




Quote of the day:

When asked “Do you know why boxers don't have sex before a fight?” He said “I don't know, is it because they don't find each other attractive?”

Redd Foxx



To those of you that really care, I do have a blog website and have resumed additions to it after a few months of abandonment. The website is “bigalsdailyhistory.blogspot.com”, use it if you wish.



Trivia question:

What famous explorer was killed with a poisoned dart from a blow gun?



I have an acquaintance here in Greenville that had a brain tumor (malignant) a few years ago. She had surgery and it seemed to cure it. She is supposed to have a brain scan every six months just in case. About three weeks ago she had a brain scan and the doctor said that it looked suspicious. She is working at a place that provides health insurance. But the business is not doing well and she fears that if they lay her off she would be in deep trouble without insurance. She is moving to Massachusetts just so she can get health insurance. In that state a person can get health insurance with pre-existing conditions not withstanding, thanks to the Mitt Romney administration. I am just saying...



The state of South Carolina is alive with Republican presidential wannabes, especially the Greenville, Columbia and Charleston areas. It reminds me of 13th century Scotland. The Scottish landed gentry's (royalty) worst enemy in Scotland was the Kings of England who wanted to bring all of the British Isles under their umbrella. It was easy for that to happen because the Scottish royalty were too busy squabbling among themselves about who had hereditary title to certain tracts of land and what clan was really in control of Scotland. That is what we have today with the Republican candidates firing shots at each other rather than seeking a weakness in the real enemy in Washington. That bunch has been quietly gathering up enormous sums of money for the upcoming re-election campaign and laughing at the much ado about nothing among the Republican candidates.



Recently over is Spartanburg, SC a 39 year old woman was arrested for taking advantage of a 90 year old woman in the later stages of Alzheimer’s. She was the older woman's part time caretaker. This woman would write checks on the old woman's checking account for car insurance (old woman did not have a car), groceries (old woman lived in a facility where food is provided), checks to her personally, etc. and have the old lady sign them. The bank called the old woman's sister and told her what was going on. The sister said that the older woman was so far gone that she would sign anything put in front of her. The 39 year old woman was arrested but was released on a $25,000 bond. By the way, the older lady used to babysit the 39 year old when she was an infant.



Back in 1994, because of the untiring efforts of our ex-governor Carroll Campbell, BMW constructed a gigantic assembly plant about 12 mile northeast of Greenville. Needless to say the unemployment numbers in this area went down measurably due to this plant and the satellite providers that opened facilities nearby as well. This includes seven Michelin tire plants plus Michelin North American Headquarters is about six miles from my house. This past weekend BMW announced a $900 million expansion to said plant that will mean an additional 300 jobs for the local gentry. While Governor Campbell was courting BMW, he made a trip a week to Munich, Germany for nearly a year trying to sell them on South Carolina. He succeeded. The BMW plant is within rock-throwing distance of the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport. BMW regularly brings over Boeing 747's full of parts from Germany and parks them at the Customs house. Originally, BMW requested a private taxiway from the airport runway to the plant but that idea was shot down. What they got instead is a road from the Customs house to the receiving doors at the assembly plant. Trucks meet the planes and transport the parts, a distance of about a mile. So far the plant has produced over 2,000,000 cars that have been delivered worldwide. By the way. Governor Campbell died of Alzheimer’s in 2005 at the age of 65. What a damned shame.



A while back a 53 year old woman down in Mount Pleasant, SC was served with a “messy yard” citation. That's right, y'all, the local Constabulary was unhappy with the debris in her yard that included five or six fake pink flamingos. Evidently there is a city ordinance that forbids excessive debris in a front yard and this woman was either too busy did not give a sh-t. Anyway when the cop delivered the citation and heard her financial difficulties, he offered to gather some of his friends and help her clean up the yard. She refused. Eventually the Chief of Police himself came over and warned her about the debris in her yard. She chose this time to scream and yell that she was being singled out and persecuted. In spite of this, the Chief again offered to bring some of his friends over and help her clean it up. She again refused. The Chief had no choice but to obtain an arrest warrant. No one answered the door at the house for several days so finally the cops went to the Harris-Teeter supermarket on Long Point Road (been there) where she worked and waited outside. She finally showed up and was arrested outside. This girl spent six days in the joint for having a messy yard. The rumor is she took down the pink flamingos and put up a few fake snowy egrets.



Last week the South Carolina coast near Charleston was rattled by two loud booms. Everybody came up with their own interpretations of what happened from an alien aircraft crashing offshore to an earthquake down deep and even a “burp” of methane gas from the surrounding swamp. Let me offer my best guess. There is the McIntyre SCANG base near Sumter that has F-16's and F-22's, Shaw AFB that has F-16's. F-22's and others, Beaufort, SC MCAS which has F-18's, Charleston AFB that has mostly large transport aircraft but has an occasional F-15, F-16 and F-22 visitor all of which are supersonic. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that one of the pilots of one of these planes was out on a training mission and chose to break Mach-1 just for the hell of it. It would be very easy to do in a plane that is capable of 1,300 MPH. It would be nearly impossible to detect such an event with present day radar if the plane exceeded Mach-1 for just a second or two. Fighter pilots are an arrogant bunch.



This date in history January 16





1777 For years the state of New York had claimed what is now the state of Vermont was part of their state. As you might suspect, the hard-assed Vermonters called bullsh-t on that and had threatened each other with war on several occasions. You can imagine how the Vermonters felt when someone showed up in Vermont to claim a piece of land that was sold to them in New York as being part of that state. Earlier the frustrated Vermonters had petitioned Great Britain to allow them to join the British Empire as part of Canada. The stubborn United States Congress refused to recognize Vermont as anything other than a part of New York. Well, on this date the state of Vermont declared its independence from Great Britain and New York. They already had a constitution in place and operated as a separate state from New York even into the second year of Washington’s presidency. Their constitution was the first to prohibit slavery and allowed all adult males to vote rather than just the land owners. Originally the state was known as New Connecticut but when they formed their own country they decided they needed a new name and arrived at a corrupted French word for “Green Mountain”. Finally the United States recognized Vermont as a state and came into the fold as the 14th state in 1791 as a free state. This was counter-balanced a year later when Kentucky was admitted to the union as a slave state.



1861 Kentucky senator Joseph Crittenden introduced legislation called the Crittenden Compromise to try and stop the flood of states seceding from the union. Four states had already seceded and more were threatening. The Compromise was essentially this: In 1820 the Missouri Compromise was passed stating that all the states north of the latitude 36 degrees, 30 minutes north would be free states and any states south would be slave states. As you expect this did not float very well and the Compromise was amended in 1850 that made the decision as to whether a new state would be slave or free to be left up to the sovereignty of each state. Then in 1850 the Republican Party was formed whose admitted purpose was to stop the spread of slavery in the United States. What Crittenden proposed was that the United States would revert back to the 1820 version of the Missouri Compromise and the 36 degree, 30 minutes latitude issue in the hope that this would bring the seceding states and those threatening back into the fold. The compromise was defeated by two votes primarily because of the Representatives and Senators belonging to the Republican Party. The southern states could not secede fast enough and the Civil War erupted in April of 1861.



1780 On this date British Admiral Sir George Romney and 18 “ships of the line” encounter a squadron of 11 French battleships led by Don Juan de Langara off the coast of Portugal near Cape St. Vincent. Spain was at war with Great Britain because Spain had supported the United States in their bid for independence from Great Britain. The normal strategy in those days was for warships to line up parallel and blast away at each other. Admiral Langara knew that he was outnumbered and out gunned so he and his squadron head for Cadiz, Spain and safety. Admiral Rodney broke up his formation and told all his ships to give “general chase” knowing that his ships were a knot or two faster that the Spanish ships. The British ships were faster because the bottom of their ships were copper clad which eliminated barnacles and the Spanish ships were not meaning that they probably had barnacles attached which slowed them somewhat. The British fleet caught up with the Spanish at about 2:00am which made this battle known as the Moonlight Battle. This was not the norm in those days. Naval battles took place in daylight. Anyway, the Spanish surrendered all except for two ships which ran aground. The most important thing was that Admiral Langara’s flagship was captured. One again the British navy proved to be the sovereign of the seas.



1936 One of the most perverted maniacs in recorded history is executed in the electric chair in Sing Sing prison in New York. Albert Fish was known to have killed 10 people most of them under the age of ten and then consumed them. He was tried and convicted for the murder of little six year old Gracie Budd of Westchester, New York. A little later he wrote Gracie’s mother and described in detail how he had killed her, cut her up into pieces and made a stew that he ate off of for nine days. Not only was he a cannibal, he was a masochist. His children testified that he made them spank him with nail studded paddles. He ate his own excrement and burned himself with hot iron and red hot pokers. He also pushed sewing needles into his genitals. He told the prison officials about them and an investigation revealed over thirty needles imbedded there. Albert was interrogated by several psychiatrists and all reported back that there was no conceivable perversion that he had not done or was capable of doing. There was no question in the jury’s mind that Albert was insane but they voted for execution anyway to rid the earth of this animal. When he was told that he would be executed, he said that he was excited about it. He said he was looking forward to the new experience. When given the chance to write his last thoughts, it was full of filthy obscenities. To those that are opposed to the death penalty, keep Albert Fish in mind.



2007 On January 15 we commemorate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was born in Atlanta where his grandfather and father were the pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He was assistant pastor of that church also. Later on he accepted being the pastor of the Dexter Street Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama. It was from this venue that he began his famous fight for equality for the blacks. He went to jail innumerable times and encouraged his followers to protest peacefully and accented that with the phrase “Remember, the military is in the hands of the white man.” At the unheard of age of 35 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Think what you want about Dr. King, but he was one of the most effective movers and shakers America has ever seen. He single handedly changed America but racial prejudice persists, I guess we all need someone to hate.



Quotable quotes:



“Heaven will be inherited by every man that has heaven in his soul.”

Henry Ward Beecher



“Learn to get in touch with that silence within yourself and know that everything in life has a purpose.”

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.



Born today:



1855 English writer Eleanor Marx. She said “By the time your life is finished, you will have learned just enough to live it well.” That is depressing, Eleanor.



1911 US baseball pitcher “Dizzy” Dean. After losing a game 1-0 he said “The game was closer that the score indicated.” “Ole Diz” was a hoot.



1944 US country singer Ronnie Milsap. He said “Work for the fun of it. The money will arrive sooner or later.” Ronnie, the problem is that we have to eat between “sooner” and “later”.



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow