Good morning,







Quote of the day:


“Good for the body is the work of the body, good for the soul is the work of the soul and good for either is the work of the other.”


                       Henry David Thoreau






Answer to trivia question as to who came in second in the 100 meter race that made Jesse Owens famous....Ralph Metcalfe.






I guess that all of y’all know about the so-called “health summit” that was held a while back at the behest of the President. It was a foregone conclusion the Democrats could ram through any health plan they felt like because of their majority positions in the legislative branch, the wishes of populous notwithstanding. What really happened was all the politicians did all they could to advance their personal political agenda. This nation is a Representative Republic meaning that our elected representatives are to be answerable to their constituency. They are supposed to be working for us. That is not what is happening, they are working for themselves and we can go to hell. I wish all of you would remember all of this when you go to the voting booth this coming November. It is time to clean house and take back control of the future of this nation.






I saw an interview of the original trainer of the killer whale Tilikum that killed its trainer a while ago. From what I could understand he said that he recommended that Tilikum not be a part of a performance group because he thought that the animal did not have the personality for it. He said that he should be kept for breeding purposes only. He did admit that the training group at Sea World was the best in the world and if anyone could train Tilikum it was them. He thought that Tilikum was in an “excited play” mood and did not have malice in mind. I detected a deep sorrow in this man and I think it was just as much for Tilikum as it was for the slain trainer.






A certain man has put his name in the hat for the upcoming election to the Richland County (Columbia area) South Carolina County Council. This man was tried and convicted of burglary and mail fraud (both are felonies) and did hard time back in 1999. I do not know what the qualification are for holding office in Richland County but being a convicted felon should not be eligible. But we all remember the mayor of Washington, Marion Berry, being convicted on a drug charge and Congress seized control of the city’s politics, and the good people of Washington electing Berry to the city council.






A friend sent me a series of movie clips about the United States Marines. It started with a Marine in “dress blues” holding a ceremonial sword in a salute. An interesting bit of trivia about the Marine ceremonial sword is this: The fledgling United States Merchant fleet was attempting to expand their trade but pirates operating out of Tripoli made Mediterranean trade difficult if not impossible. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson sent a Marine unit to take out the pirates. The Marines made an amphibious landing east of Tripoli and attacked. It was no contest and the Marines surrounded the main staging point of the pirates and killed or captured all of them. The king of the city that is now Tunis was so impressed with this victory that he gave the commander of the Marine unit a ceremonial sword. All Marine ceremonial swords since then are an exact replica of that sword.






While reading a history of WWII I ran across an account about the town of Landesberg, Germany. The Nazis had built a concentration camp about 4 miles from the town and all the prisoners were Jews. As the American army closed in, the Nazi prison guards shot as many of the prisoners they could until they ran out of ammo. After that they burned the shacks that those that were too weak to stand were housed and then they left. The camp was discovered by an 101st Airborne patrol. The commander of the 101nst, General Maxwell Taylor, took one look and declared martial law in the town. The mayor declared that he did not know that was going on. The next morning the mayor and his wife along with every adult in the town were given an escorted tour of the camp and were ordered to bury the bodies. That night the mayor and his wife committed suicide. That is not enough, as far as I am concerned.






          This date in history February 27






1776 Earlier the Royal Governor of North Carolina, Josiah Martin, had ordered British Colonel Donald McLeod and 1,600 Loyalist soldiers to leave their encampment at Cross Creek, North Carolina and go to the North Carolina coastal town of Brunswick to rendezvous with another Loyalist unit. A 1,000 man Patriot force under the command of Colonel James Carswell decided to intercept the McLeod’s troops and prevent the meeting of the Loyalists. On this date the Patriots arrive ahead of the Loyalists coming from Cross Creek and prepare an ambush at the Moore’s Creek Bridge. Carswell arranges his artillery and troops evenly divided in the woods on either side of the bridge and wait. The Loyalists find out about the ambush but believing that it is just a small militia decide to cross the bridge anyway. So they gather at the bridge and yell “King George and broadswords” and begin running across the bridge only to be met with a hailstorm of musket balls and grape-shot from the Patriots. After only two salvos the Loyalists surrender. The planned gathering of a British/Loyalist army at Brunswick was cancelled and the British lost control of North Carolina. It was only two months later that North Carolina declared its independence from England. Josiah Martin knew he was in deep doodoo and departed the area. This was the first victory for the Patriots in an organized battle against the British/Loyalists. There is a monument and park there commemorating this great event






1827 Since the late 1600’s the French settlers in the New Orleans area had brought with them the tradition of the celebration of Carnival or Mardi Gras. It was mostly private parties at different homes. However, on this date a group of students that had been studying in France and enjoyed the celebration there, adorned themselves with costumes and masks and took to the streets of New Orleans to celebrate Fat Tuesday. As you might expect, it became a tradition except there was no organization and therefore in the 1850’s the celebration degenerated into a series of drunken street fights. Then a rich land owner near New Orleans organized the Krewe of Comus and they organized the parade and the tradition of the people in the parade throwing gifts at the observers. After that, many “Krewes” have been organized and the celebration is much better. However, Hurricane Katrina put a severe crimp into Mardi Gras but this year the city fathers of New Orleans tell us that the attendance at this year’s Fat Tuesday was about 90% of pre-Katrina days. According to what I have read, tourism is the largest industry in that city. Maybe so, but there is a hell of a lot of boat and barge traffic going through there.






1991 Years earlier two brother, Artie and Jim Mitchell, open a strip joint in San Francisco. The joint is a phenomenal success and the brothers become very rich. But in spite of that, they argue and fight frequently. When I say fight, I mean putting each other in the hospital on occasion. Then they decide to go into the porno film business when it was in its infancy. They being the first to make feature length porno movies made them both very, very rich but the fighting continued. On this date the 911 operator in Corte Madera, California gets an emergency call from Artie Mitchell saying he had been shot. In the background there are heard 8 shots with a 30 second break between two of them. The police arrive and find Jim wandering around in the yard with a rifle in his hand. Jim is arrested and charged with the murder of Artie. The prosecution uses the 911 tape and reconstructs what they think happened during the 911 call and make an animated movie of it and introduces it into evidence. In spite of not knowing what shots that struck Artie was fire when, the judge allowed it. The defense attacked the movie as being imaginary and had no basis in fact. Because of the long history of the brothers fighting, the jury ruled that Artie was killed during yet another fight and the killing was not intentional. Jim went to jail for 6 years, believe it or not.






1942 America’s first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, is sunk by Japanese bombers with a little help from an American destroyer. The Langley was converted from a coal carrier named the “Jupiter” in 1922. On this date the Langley, with 32 War Hawk fighters aboard departed from its convoy headed for Java and the Dutch East Indies. The ship was supposed to rendezvous with a squadron of destroyers to accompany them to Java. The rendezvous was made and the destroyers strung out on both sides. The Langley asked for fighter cover but this early in the war none could be spared. When the Langley was about 75 miles from Java it was attacked by nine Japanese bombers. The first three bombers missed but the second three hit their target and all the planes on the deck of the Langley were aflame. The ship began taking on water and began to list and the Captain ordered abandon ship. Because of the nearness of the destroyers, all but 12 crewmen were saved. One of the destroyers put two torpedoes in the Langley sent her to the bottom to keep her out of Japanese hands. The fighters on the deck of the Langley were the same type that was used by the immortal Flying Tigers.






1922 On this date the United States Supreme Court by a unanimous vote declared that the 19th amendment to the Constitution allowing women to vote was indeed constitutional. It had taken 70 years of meeting, petitions, rallies and marches to get this Amendment to even be introduced to Congress. On August 22 the state of Tennessee voted to adopt the amendment making it the required 75% and the 19th Amendment took effect on August 28.






Born today:






1930 US actress and wife of Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward. She said “Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man that makes you laugh every day, ah, now that is a real treat,” This girl has her head on straight, always has.






1917 US Secretary of the Treasury John Connolly. When speaking of fellow Texan George H. Bush he said “All hat, no cattle.” Connolly felt that George H. was a pretender.






1902 US writer and one of my favorite authors is John Steinbeck. He said “Writers are below clowns and a little above trained seals.” This man gave us some of greatest novels ever written that were mind boggling feats of sheer imagination.






1886 US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. He said “A layman’s view is that everything he likes is constitutional and everything he doesn’t like is unconstitutional.” Justice Black had his finger on the pulse of the common man.






      Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow