Good morning,







             Happy Birthday, Mardy


                                Mardy's Dad






Quote of the day:


A US Marine sniper was asked what he felt when he shot one of the enemy. He said “Recoil”.






Recently city councilman Ed Hansen was chastised for having a Confederate flag on display in his back yard. Hansen responded with “It is my house and it is not coming down no matter what other people think.” The mayor chimed in with his disapproval saying “Even though the flag is in Hansen's back yard it is still visible from the street. I don't like it but there is little the mayors office can do.” Hansen said that if people would read the history of what the flag represents instead of jumping on someone else's bandwagon they would understand why he is doing it. Hansen followed that with “It is because of ignorance that a Nazi flag with a Swastika is more accepted than a Confederate flag.” By the way, Hansen is a city councilman in West St. Paul, Minnesota. The Confederate flag means different things to different people. The First Amendment allows and protects this concept. It it offends, don't look at it. It is a truism that nearly every knowledgeable historian is not offended by this symbol because they know what happened...many of you do not...do not make a judgment until you do. I know what happened and as far as I am concerned, it has nothing to do with an alleged attempt to preserve slavery, it has everything to do with the military actions that displayed unequaled bravery, courage and sacrifice on both sides on a scale seldom seen. More American died in the American Civil War than all other wars combined...I think of this often...so should you.






Recently I met a man at one of my local watering holes who was a professor at a local university. He said that the university staff has started a pool on what date the United States and others will attack Iran. How spooky is that?






This past Friday a state senator from New York and his wife were spending the weekend at the Seneca/Niagra Casino. A violenty argument broke out between two Seneca/Niagra (native American) businessmen. The senator tried to intervene and was immediately attacked by several other Seneca/Niagra people close by. The senator got away with bruised ribs and a scrape on his forehead. His wife got a broken nose. That just goes to show you that the Indians have not forgotten what us honkies did to them.






          This date in history February 15






1776 On this date the Royal Governor of Canada from his headquarters in Halifax has sent a letter to the British authorities in London that a traitorous bunch in Cumberland, Nova Scotia has sent an invitation to Patriot General George Washington inviting him to attack Nova Scotia with their help. The letter said that the people of Nova Scotia were fed up with being under the heel of King George III also. What really had them pissed off was that England was using Canada and Nova Scotia in particular as a dumping ground for a trash pile of humanity that England had no other place to put them. When the jails in England, Scotland and Ireland became full, they would send the overflow into exile in Nova Scotia. Not only that, any slaves that ran away from their owners and sought asylum with the British, they would send them to Nova Scotia. Also there were a considerable number of blacks that fought with the British as a member of the army and the Loyalists (Those Americans that stayed loyal to the King) that knew they had to get out of town when the Patriots prevailed. All of these people went to Nova Scotia. The blacks that fought with the British had a choice of a piece of land in Nova Scotia or receive free passage back to Africa. Many of these went to Africa and were instrumental in the establishment of Freetown, Liberia, a new nation. Anyway, it appeared that the locals in Nova Scotia were fed the hell up with all of the aliens and were looking to form their own nation like the United States and that is why they contacted Washington. George had his hands full with the British army here in the United States and could not pursue the invitation. But it just goes to show you that the dumping of aliens causes extreme tensions with the natives. Does that sound familiar?






1835 Alexander Stewart Webb was born in New York City. His Grandfather fought at Bunker Hill for the Patriots and his father was US minister to Brazil during the Civil War. Alexander attended West Point and graduated in 1855 13th in a class of 43. He taught mathematics at West Point and Florida before the outbreak of the Civil War. After the outbreak of the war he was sent to Fort Pickens, Florida. He did not stay long before he was called back to Washington and given command of an artillery battalion protecting the capitol. Webb’s first taste of combat came at the Second Battle of Manassas where he and his troops tasted defeat for the first time. The next major engagement he was in was the last day of the Battle of the Seven Days, the infamous encounter at Malvern Hill. In this battle Webb and his troops were victorious against the Confederates. They won this particular skirmish at Malvern Hill but the victory of the Battle of Seven Days went to Robert E. Lee but it was accredited to Webb that his artillery skills prevented the total annihilation of the US army by Confederate artillery. In spite of his obvious military skills he was passed over for promotion several times because of his association with General George B. McClellan who was fired by President Lincoln and that left Webb in limbo as a Colonel. Even some of his students at West Point became a General before him. He was finally promoted to Brigadier General and had command of a brigade in the center of the Union lines at Gettysburg during Pickett’s Charge. At the zenith of the charge the 5th and 7th North Carolina crashed through the Union lines and were close to opening a breach that would have allowed the rest of the 13,000 screaming Confederates to pass through to the rear of the Union lines where General J.E.B. Stuart and has stalwart cavalry awaited. Had these two forces been allowed to join up the US army would have been destroyed and perhaps a different history of these United States would have been written. But when the battle at the front line reached a critical point, General Webb personally led his brigade in a ferocious counter-attack and blunted the Confederate advance and drove them back across the line of attack and back across the field separating the two armies. For this action, Alexander Stewart Webb was awarded the Medal of Honor. He wasn’t done yet. He was at the savage battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse and received a terrible head wound. I took him eight months to recover. When he came back to duty he was made an aide to US General George Meade and eventually went back to West Point as an instructor. He was made president of City College of New York and he died in Riverdale New York in 1911. There is a statue of General Webb at the spot where his brigade was gathered during Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg.






1933 The President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt and the Mayor of Chicago Anton Cermak are walking together during a visit to Miami. All of a sudden a man named Giuseppe Zangara ran up and opened fire at Roosevelt and misses him but kills Mayor Cermak. Zangara is brought to trial on March 2, convicted and sentenced to death. On March 20 Zangara met his maker medium rare after an encounter with the electric chair. Keep this in mind when thinking of monster serial killers like Ted Bundy and Danny Rolling who spent 13 and 14 years and longer in prison before being executed. What’s up with that?






1942 One of the worst defeats in the history of British military culminates on this date. The British army was driven off the southern end of the Malay Peninsula by the Japanese General Yamashita and his 25th Army. The retreating British had a chance to delay the Japanese advance by dynamiting a causeway across a large inlet behind them on their way to Singapore, but the destruction was not complete and the Japanese were able to re-build in a matter of days and surrounded and began a siege around that great city. The British commander General Percival held out as long as he could but he ran out of water, food and ammunition and so he surrendered the city. There were over 130,000 allies captured in this disaster of which only a very small percentage ever saw their homes again.






1996 On this date during gut-wrenching storm off the south coast of Wales, the oil tanker Sea Empress runs aground and is holed and leaks 70,000 tons of crude oil. The Russia crew fought valiantly to secure the ship and stop the leak but to no avail. Sea going tugs came and got some lines on the Sea Empress. For a few minutes the Sea Empress was off the rocks but a critical rope broke and she went back onto the shoal. By then the ship was seriously listing and the crew was taken off by helicopter. There was no human fatalities but thousands of seabirds died in the slimy mess. All the British Coast guard could do was drop detergents and dispersants. The associated beaches nearby were still in a stage of recovery 10 years later.






Born today:






1368 Germanic Emperor Sigismund. He said “I am a Roman Emperor and am above grammar.” Siggy, shut the hell up.






1564 Astrophysicist Galileo. He said “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who had endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forego its use.” This came as a result of a squabble with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church wanted Galileo to teach want the Pope said instead of what he had discovered. The church prevailed under the threat of torture. I am going to repeat that. The church prevailed under the threat of torture.






1748 English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. He said “As to the evils of censorship, it is impossible to measure because there seems to be no end to it.” That is one of the main reasons for the establishment of the United States.






1912 English writer George Mikes. He said “British humor resembles the Loch Ness monster in that both are famous but there is a strong suspicion that neither one exists.”






1964 American comic Chris Farley. He paraphrased the famous quote by Erasmus who said “In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king.” Chris Farley said “In the land of skunks, the man with half a nose is king.”






     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow