Good morning,







Quote of the day:


“Benjamin Disraeli is a self-made man that worships his creator.”


                                 Jonathan Bright






Trivia question:


What is the largest of the “big cats”?






Another one:


What famous American Patriot's property was adjoining Bunker Hill during the battle in 1775?






For three days in February in 1860 the USS Constellation is in pursuit of the slave ship Cora along the west coast of Africa. The Cora had 750 slaves aboard literally crammed heel to toe in the hold. The Constellation's Captain believed that the Cora was smuggling the slaves into America and he was right. Believe it or not, the United States passed a law that forbade the trans-Atlantic importing of slaves to America in 1807. This law was not strictly enforced, however, and slavery did not end until the enactment of the 13th Amendment in 1865 that barred slavery “in the United States or it possessions.” The law of 1807 was passed only after a careful census indicated that the present slave population could be self-sutaining, meaning there were just as many slaves dying as there was being born. Anyway, the Constellation overtook the Cora and the slave ship surrendered but not before setting several hundred slaves adrift in small boats hoping the Constellation would stop and pick them up. They did not, but came after them after they had captured the Cora. They took all the slaves to the African country of Liberia and released them. The Constellation's crew was awarded $25 per slave that they rescued...In these three days, the crew members earned a years pay. The Cora was sailed into New York Harbor and the Constellation, having being built in Baltimore, was sailed there. This ship is now a museum in Baltimore Harbor.






A few months ago a man driving about 90 miles an hour in an SUV, rear ended two people riding a motorcycle. They were both killed. The driver began an attempt to drive away but changed his mind. The cops came and he blew a .21 on the meter and was charged with DUI with a fatal injury. This was not the first time the man had been charged with DUI but it was the first time he killed anyone. This past Friday he was tried and found guilty of DUI with fatal injury and sentenced to 25 years.






Down in Charleston, SC a 34 year old woman took her 4 year old nephew shopping with her in a local mall. About 5:30p the child was found wandering around by himself in one of the mall stores. The store manager made an announcement over the intercom that a child had been found and could be retrieved at this particular store. No one showed up. The Security cops were able to get the child to tell them her grandmother's name and at about 6:45p the grandmother was notified. She came and retrieved the child. The 34 year old was found still shopping and had no idea where her nephew was. She was arrested for child neglect and deservedly so.




             This date in history February 17






1865 On this date United States General William T. Sherman and his army of 60,000, in his continuing campaign against innocent and defenseless civilians, enters the state capitol of South Carolina and begins an orgy of rape and destruction. Two days before CSA General Wade Hampton III had pulled out of Columbia knowing that if he stayed and fought his small cavalry unit would be swarmed under and annihilated. The Yankee army took great pleasure and were very meticulous in their destruction of this city because they felt that it was South Carolina that was first to secede and provided the impetus for all the others. This method of “burnt turf” warfare was advocated by both General Ulysses Grant and President Abraham Lincoln. Y'all will need to remember that Abraham Lincoln issued a “call to arms to preserve the union” after the secession began. The US army had its ass handed to it by the Confederates in the first few battles of the Civil War and then the northerners pressed Lincoln to allow the Southerners to form their own country so as to stop the slaughter. Then Lincoln saw that patriotism was not going to get the job done so he switched horses and said the war was about freeing the slaves which changes the impetus from patriotism to a matter of conscience. Now when the US Army has a chance at barbarism with impunity they say they are punishing those that led the secession. That was bullshit; they are back on the other horse again. They were just doing rape and pillage because they could get away with it, politics not withstanding. But mankind’s history is full of similar events from the wars between the Mesopotamian city-states, Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, Tutsis vs Hutus not to mention what is happening in Darfur. Mankind’s history is full of atrocities against the innocents and it appears to me that there is no end in sight.






1906 Earlier there had been a workers strike at various silver and gold mines near Coeur de Lene, Idaho and the mine owners had beseeched the Governor Frank Steunenberg to intercede. Foolishly the Governor did indeed intercede in favor of the rich mine owners. Well, soon thereafter a bomb detonated at Governor Steunenberg’s fence gate at his Caldwell, Idaho home while he was opening it. The governor was killed instantly. The mine owners, not to be outdone, hire the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency to find out who killed the governor. The Pinkertons brought in their ace detective in John McParland to investigate in and around Caldwell. McParland and the local police focused in on a man named Tom Hogan. McParland befriended Hogan ands soon found out that he was not Tom Hogan but he was Harry Orchard, a renowned assassin. After much pressure was applied, Orchard implicated Bill Hayward, Charles Moyer and George Pettibone all leaders of the National Miners Union. The only problem was that all three were in Colorado where law enforcement is very sympathetic to unions and it was guaranteed that they would not extradite the three on the word of an admitted murderer. So Idaho did the next best thing. Several Idaho officials and a few Pinkerton agents went to Colorado and kidnapped the three back to Idaho. But the Union had another ace up its sleeve; they brought in famous lawyer Clarence Darrow in their defense. Hayward was tried first and the prosecution could not get any corroboration for Orchard’s testimony and it came down to Orchard’s testimony alone and being it almost a sure thing that he was guilty, Hayward was acquitted. Since Hayward was acquitted, there was no sense in trying the other two. After he was released Hayward fled to Russia where he spent the rest of his days. He was buried in the Kremlin.






1995 On this day the ferry Neptune departs Jeremie for Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This boat was only 150 feet long with three decks and was carrying 1,200 people and farm animals. Normally the trip takes 12 hours. The bad thing was that this boat was licensed for only 650 people, had no life rafts, no life preservers and no emergency radio. About half way to Port-au-Prince a storm rises and the bottom deck begins to become awash because of all the extra weight. The passengers, animals in tow, flee to the top deck. Well, ya’ll can guess what happened next. Most of the passengers get on one side and the boat capsizes. Haiti has no Navy or Coast Guard so those people are out there on their own paddling around and hanging on to the boat. Finally the United States send a Coast Guard cutter and they rescue about 350 people. The rest are lost. What a nightmare that must have been.






1820 On this date the United States Congress enacts legislation known as the Missouri Compromise. Since the beginning of the addition of more and more states the southern agrarian society had been fencing with the industrial north about slavery. The southern states were sensitive to having more free states than slaves states because if they were outnumbered, slavery could be abolished which would be devastating to the huge plantations. All of this was of great import to the south up until the invention of the cotton gin and the steam powered farm vehicles. Anyway, at this point in time Missouri was petitioning to come into the union as a slave state and the northern states objected because it would upset the balance. So the Missouri Compromise stated that Missouri would come into the union as a slave state and the next year Maine would be allowed in as a free state. All of this was just a delaying action because the Civil War exploded just 41 years later.






1944 On this date the United States Navy and Marines began the invasion of Eniwetok atoll in the northwest Marshall Islands. It was determined that the Marshall Islands had to be neutralized before the capture of the Marianas where the Unites States Air Force could launch strikes against the Japanese mainland. The capture of Eniwetok would achieve that purpose. The Japanese on Eniwetok were very outnumbered and outgunned. The battle was over in six days with only 64 of the original 2,677 Japanese soldiers surviving. There were only 195 American casualties. Soon after this the US Marines attacked and after a substantial struggle captured the Marianas Islands of Saipan, Tinian and Guam. The US Air Force launched bombing attacks on the Japanese mainland from Guam and Saipan using the newly invented B-29 long range bomber. It was from Tinian Island, which is adjacent to Saipan, that the B-29 Enola Gay departed on August 6, 1945 to make the bomb runs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and dropped a bomb that changed mankind for eternity.






     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow