Sunday, February 19, 2012

Good morning,







Quote of the day:


“Al Gore's running mate was Joe Lieberman. Joe was the first Jew to serve under a president since Monica Lewinsky.”


                                   David Letterman






A few days ago a couple of my friends and I were at the local watering hole watching a basketball game. It was Oral Roberts vs Akron. One of these guys said “I wonder if the cheer for Oral Roberts is 'Go Oral!'” I am just the messenger here.






Trivia question:


What is the oldest novel still in print? Hint: It was NOT originally written in English and came in two volumes. Some consider it the “greatest literary work ever written and had the most influence on subsequent literature”. I said novel...the Bible is not a novel. Dante's Inferno is an allegorical poem.






The USPS wants to raise the price of a postage stamp to $.50. Some may be outraged but being able to send a ½ ounce letter from Key West to Seattle for a half dollar is still a deal.






Since my “lessons” address list has been reduced considerably I will continue to distribute the lessons on e-mail AND on the blog site which is: http://bigalsdailyhistory.blogspot.com/






A couple of days ago a 24 year old man was driving his Ford Explorer down a secondary road near Seneca, South Carolina. He went off the right side of the road and over-corrected and crossed over to the other side of the road, went into a ditch and rolled once and came to rest on its wheels into a wooden deck at a residence. Sounds pretty survivable, huh? It wasn't, the driver was killed because HE WAS NOT WEARING A SEAT BELT and was ejected and the Explorer rolled over him and crushed him. This is the second event of this type in a week. I have a question...do some people have a death wish or what?






Over in Greer, SC a 64 year old retired male school teacher was arrested for child pornography. This jackass had got onto a sex chat room and made contact with what he thought was a 12 year old girl...but it wasn't. It was a city cop up in Illinois who notified the cops in Greer. The cops were able to track him down and obtained a search warrant. They pulled the hard drive from his computer and found hundreds of pictures he had been distributing of kids less that 14 participating in sex. The ex-teacher was arrested, tried and convicted. This past Tuesday he was sentenced to 121 months in the joint.  That is 10 years and one month. It is practically a death sentence. He will not be treated well in the joint. Criminals hate child molesters/abusers/users and it will be a miracle if he survives 10 years.






Down in Columbia, SC on this past Friday morning the Richland County sheriff's department deputies armed with a search warrant arrived at the apartment of a suspected drug dealer. After the cops pounded on the door for a considerable time, a person inside the apartment opened fire through the door. Y'all know what happened next. That's right, the three deputies emptied their Glocks into the door. The shooter inside was indeed the person mention in the warrant and was severely injured in the gunfire. He is in the Palmetto Medical Center in ICU...the cops are back at the office reloading.






Out in the Long Beach, California Federal Building two ICE agents got into a squabble and one of them pulled his sidearm and put two rounds into his antagonist. A third agent saw it happen and pulled his sidearm and capped the shooter with one shot to the temple. The agent that was shot first is in serious condition but is expected to survive. The shooter is not expected to get any better. By the way, the shooter was fired about 15 minutes before this episode.






       This date in history February 20






1985 Up until 1979 Irish law prohibited the importation and sale of contraceptives because the Catholic Church disapproved. I will paraphrase that. The Catholic Church was into the Irish bedrooms and telling them how to have sex. Well, in 1979 the Irish Supreme Court ruled that the use of contraceptives fell under purview of privacy and was not a matter for the clergy to determine. The Catholic hierarchy in Ireland about peed their pants because the weight of the opinion of the Catholic Church was paramount in Ireland and with this ruling by the Irish Supreme Court the Church saw their power, influence and possibly a hell of a lot of money going down the toilet. But the sale and use of contraceptives still had a string attached. Contraceptives could only be distributed by a licensed pharmacist and only to those with a prescription from a licensed physician. And that is the way is stayed until this date when the Irish lawmakers shook off the shackles of the Catholic Church and on this date passed a law stating that it was up to anyone’s choice as to the use of contraceptives, prescriptions not withstanding. Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, they are free at last.






1725 On this date a posse from New Hampshire happened upon a group of Indians that they had been tracking and decided that they would try the Native American custom of “scalping”. The posse killed 10 and crudely scalped them. They brought the scalps back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony where they received 10 pounds sterling for each scalp. The act of scalping was not peculiar to the American Indian. Scalping had been practiced in Europe and Asia since before recorded history. In European, Asian and American Indian history it was believed that you gained the other person’s courage by taking his/her scalp. But as you might expect, this act by this posse set off a bloodbath of scalping between the Indians and the settlers that continued for generations.






1864 Earlier US General Quincy Gilmore had sent US General Truman Seymour and an army of 5,000 from Jacksonville, Florida to capture the rail yard at Lake City, Florida, about 60 miles west. Right behind Seymour was President Lincoln’s secretary John Hay trying to get some of the Floridians to sign and oath of allegiance to the Union and persuade them to come to the next Republican Convention so they could vote for Lincoln as the presidential candidate. He wasn’t having much luck then the US army ran across a Confederate army of 500 led by CSA General Joseph Finegan at the little crossroad town of Olustee. Seymour immediately attacked seeing that he had the Confederates greatly outnumbered. Finegan and company were able to hold their ground but were running out of ammo. Previously Finegan had sent for reinforcements and ammo and at the last minute the ammo and the reinforcements arrived and the forces were about equal at that point. After this it was no contest. The Confederates delivered a severe ass-kicking and Seymour and his army shuttled their young asses back to Jacksonville. Secretary Hay gave up on recruiting any Floridians and the state stayed under Confederate control for the remainder of the war. The US army suffered 1,800 casualties to the CSA’s 900.






1974 A couple of days before this the editor of the Atlanta Constitution, Reg Murphy had been contacted by a man named William Williams who promised Murphy that he would contribute 300,000 gallons of heating oil for the poor if he would meet him and make the deal front page news. Murphy agreed and met with Williams whereupon Williams pulled out a revolver and kidnapped Murphy. Williams wanted a ransom of $700,000 to be used by an extreme right wing militia. Williams had him and Murphy riding around Atlanta awaiting the results of his ransom demand. The second in command on the newspaper, G. James Minton rounded up the $700,000 delivered it to the pick-up point and Murphy was released. In a matter of hours the Atlanta PD was knocking of William’s door and he was arrested and the money recovered. He was originally sentenced to 40 years but he was tried again in federal court because of the kidnapping and was given 50 years. He was released after serving 9 years, believe it or not.






1950 On this date one of the most gifted poets of all time arrived in the United States to go on a reading tour. The Welshman Dylan Thomas began his reading tour with blockbuster reviews. This man was truly gifted. Before coming to the US he had published a book titled 18 Poems in 1934 and then 25 Poems in 1936. Dylan’s shortcoming was that a very heavy drinker. He met a young woman named Caitlin McNamara in a London Bar. Dylan was smitten and began to court Caitlin. Caitlin was not enamored with Dylan at first but after she heard him read his poetry in his rich and resonant Welsh voice, she was also smitten and they married. They had issue of three children. The only problem with this union was that Caitlin could hang with Dylan drink for drink and they spent many a foggy night together. In August of 1953 Dylan visited the White Horse Bar on Hudson Street in New York City and knocked back 17 shots of Scotch and promptly walked out on the sidewalk and dropped dead. He was 39 years old. What a damned shame and a waste of talent. Caitlin never forgave him for that.






1942 Earlier the USS Lexington, a United States aircraft carrier, had departed Bougainville in the Marshall Islands headed for the Japanese Island stronghold of Rabaul. This was supposed to be surprise attack but somehow the Japanese got wind of the pending attack and sent a squadron of bombers to intercept the Lexington. The Lexington picked up the oncoming bombers on radar and sent a squadron of F-4-F Wildcats led by Lieutenant Edward O’Hare to intercept the bombers. In the span of four minutes Lieutenant O’Hare shot down five of the bombers making him an ace. Not only was he an ace he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on this day. The O’Hare airport near Chicago is named for him. After this action the Lexington knew they had lost the element of surprise and retreated back to Bougainville.






2003 The rock band Great White opened a concert in a West Warwick, Rhode Island nightclub with fireworks behind the band. The fireworks caught the ceiling on fire and 100 are burned to death and 300 injured. The roadie that set off the pyrotechnics was arrested for setting of fireworks without a permit and 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to four years. That is 3.65 days for each person killed or wounded.






Born today:






1888 French writer Georges Bernanos. He said, “It is a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride to begin with.”






1924 US heiress Gloria Vanderbilt. She said “The fame you earn is a lot different that the fame that is thrust upon you.”






1963 US basketballer Charles Barkley. He said “We don’t need ref’s, but I guess the white guys need something to do.” Hey Charles, you forgot about Yao Ming, Steve Nash and Pete Maravich among others.






     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow













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