Good morning,







Quote of the day:


“Pamela Anderson released a statement confirming that she has had her breast implants removed. Doctors say that she is doing fine and her old implants are now dating Charlie Sheen.”


Conan O'Brien






As you may or may not know, anyone that has something of substance to say, send it too me and I will post here. Here is an example from Lynn:






“It doesn’t matter who gets elected, it’s which party has the majority in the House/Congress/Senate.  If the President is Democratic and the majority is Republican (or vice versa) nothing gets done, approved and campaign promises are not met out of spitefulness.  Nothing is accomplished in the best interest of the US citizens because we don’t know how to play nice.  We are all hypocrites because we teach our children they must play nice, be nice, turn the other cheek, blah, blah, blah and we can’t even do it ourselves. “ Are you depressed now?






All of you know by now that Mitt Romney beat Newt's brains out in the GOP Florida primary a couple of days ago. I am normally a Newt supporter but when he found out that the polls indicated that he was falling further and further behind Romney, his rhetoric toward Romney became more and more vicious. That attitude disturbs me. Perhaps I will jump on the Colbert bandwagon, at least we know he is jesting.






Over in Greer, SC a few days ago an apparently desperate woman knocked on the front door of a private residence. The homeowner opened the door and the woman produced a sidearm and demanded money. The homeowner produced a sidearm of his own and both fired at the same time. The homeowner was hit in the chest and died instantly, the woman was hit in the leg, her femoral artery was severed and she bled out in a matter of minutes. How either stupid or desperate does someone have to be to knock on someone's door and demand money, especially in this part of the country where a large percentage of private citizens are armed.






For those of you that are not familiar with the terrain in the Greenville area, there are some pretty rugged mountains just north of that and attracts a lot of hikers. This past weekend a female hiker failed to show up after she left on a hike alone across a rugged trail. Search and rescue squads deployed and began an organized search without results. They called for one particular person here in Greenville who owns a search dog named Frisco, a female German Shepherd. They put Frisco on the trail and she found the hiker. The hiker had fallen down a 12 foot cliff and broke an ankle. Frisco half slid half fell down the cliff to to woman. It took the searchers a hour just to get to her and four hours to get her out only after having to cut their way out with chain saws. Like I said, there are some rugged mountains nearby. What I want to know is why was this hiker out there in terrain like that alone? Not only is the risk of being isolated because of an injury possible, there are other animals out there that can hurt you...bears, cougars, timber rattlers, copperheads, etc. Wildlife experts say that the Eastern Mountain Lions (Cougar) are extinct but the mountain folk that live waaayyy back in these mountains say otherwise.






This date in history February 2










1943 Earlier on June 22, 1942, in spite of an existing treaty, Adolph Hitler ordered an enormous German army divided into three sections to start an invasion of Russia. Hitler’s military advisers had warned Hitler that if the attack could not begin by the first of May it should not begin at all because of the severe Russian winters. The German army was not ready by the first of May but Hitler ordered the invasion to begin late anyway. The Germans made progress by leaps and bounds primarily because they had control of the air. The slaughter they inflicted on the Russian army and civilians was beyond comprehension. They laid siege to Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad and cut off any supplies to those cities and thousands upon thousands starved to death. It was the German 6th Army that had Stalingrad surrounded. Russian premier Josef Stalin was not about to let the city named after him to surrender and ordered the residents and the Russian Army defending the city to resist to the bitter end and resist they did. The Germans bombed the entire city into rubble trying to break their spirit. It did not work and the Russians used the rubble to establish formidable defenses. The Germans had no choice but to send in small squads of 8 or 10 to try and root out the defenders. That did not work either. The Russians proved to be formidable street fighters. In October the worst winter in fifty years arrived as advertised. The drop in temperature caused a break in the attack and gave the Russians defending the city time to reorganize and receive reinforcements. In November the Russians army launched a merciless counter-attack. The Italian and Romanian soldiers surrendered immediately but not the Germans. They held out until they were surrounded by the Russians and all of their supplies had been cut off. The German army that had surrounded Stalingrad in the beginning numbered about 200,000. On this date the remaining German army at Stalingrad numbering only 90,000 surrendered ending the siege of Stalingrad. Of the 90,000 Germans that went to prison camps, only 5,000 lived to see Germany again. I had given some figures about this siege in the past that were inaccurate, these numbers are accurate.






1847 In October of 1846 a group of wagons gathered at South Pass, Wyoming to cross the formidable Sierra Nevada Mountains into California. The assumed leader of this wagon train was George Donner. All they had to navigate by was a crude map out of a magazine. They were warned that it was too late in the year to try to cross the mountains and should wait until spring. They left anyway. They ran into some tough terrain and at one point made only 36 miles in 13 days. As you might suspect the winter snows caught them in a narrow pass and they had to abandon their wagons loaded with tons of meat and flour plus their oxen. I suppose all of y’all know the story of the Donner Party but it was on this day that the first person died. The final number was 42 dead and those that survived did so by cannibalism. It was dark days in that mountain pass just a few miles from Lake Tahoe.






1971 On this date Major General Idi Amin, commander of the Ugandan Army and Air Force declares himself President. A week before the government of Ugandan President Daniel Obote had collapsed. Amin immediately began a purge of two different tribes and virtually annihilated them. Next he ordered the Asians out of Uganda and the Indians and Pakistanis fled in swarms. Very soon thereafter the economy of Uganda goes down the toilet because it was the Asians that were the financial base of the country. In 1979 Amin invades Tanzania in order to gain a disputed section of land but the real reason was to take away attention from the bad conditions in Uganda. The army of Tanzania accompanied by a group of people that had been kicked out of Uganda met Amin’s army and kicked the living sh-t out of them. Amin and a few of his cronies fled the country and landed in Saudi Arabia. And that is where lived until he died in 2003. it is estimated that Idi Amin was responsible for the death of over 300,000 Ugandans. I believe the movie “The Last King of Scotland” recently released is a bio of Amin.






1781 Yesterday I wrote about the Battle of Cowan’s Ford and the death of William Davidson during the Revolutionary War. Today’s lesson is a continuation of that saga. Patriot General Nathaniel Greene was waiting at Steele’s Tavern near Salisbury, North Carolina for the militia that was engaged in the Cowan’s Ford attack the day before. Greene was to meet with the militia at the home of David Carr which was six miles south of Steele’s Tavern. The militia did not arrive as agreed because they were attacked by British Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s Dragoons at Tarrant’s Tavern five mile south of David Carr’s house and 10 or 50 Patriots were killed. While waiting at Steele’s Tavern, Greene struck up a conversation with his doctor that was staying there also and mentioned that he was very hungry and was penniless. The owner of the tavern, Elizabeth Maxwell Steele overheard Greene and offered Greene breakfast and gave him two bags of gold coin. Greene was elated because he could now pay his troops. There was a portrait of British king George III hanging in the Tavern. Greene went to the portrait and wrote on the back “O George, hide thy face and mourn” and turned the portrait toward the wall. This portrait and inscription is kept in the Thyatira Presbyterian Church museum near Salisbury to this day. Greene now fed and with cash is further elated upon the discovery of 1,700 muskets and ammo near Salisbury. Greene sacrificed much for the Patriot cause and we should be grateful for his presence during this trying time.






1980 The ABSCAM scandal is exposed to the public. ABSCAM was a program initiated by the FBI to root out corruption in United States federal government officials. The premise was that a representative of an Arab sheik was looking for backing for a project and was willing to pay for it. As you might suspect there were several Senators and Representatives that were on the take. The FBI has filmed all the offers and payoffs and this evidence was presented at the trial of those that took the bribe. All but one resigned to avoid expulsion from their elected office including South Carolina Representative John Jenrette. We need to do more of this. I guess y’all read about Vietnam War hero and Navy ace pilot “Duke” Cunningham was convicted of influence peddling and sentenced to a long term in the slammer plus losing everything he and his family had ever owned. The bad part was that Duke had a menu for all to see that had a percentage of how much the person looking for his influence were expected to gain and what his cut of the profits would be. Of all the people in our government Duke would be the last person I would think could do this. Power corrupts, total power corrupts totally.






Born today:






1745 English writer Hannah More. She said: “Going to the opera is like getting drunk, both sins carry their own penalty, and a severe one at that.” Been there, done that.






1754 French politico Charles Francis de Talleyrand. “The French court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars.” About forty years after this the French people rose up and began rolling royal heads with a guillotine during the French Revolution and that was the end of the French Monarchs and royalty.






1859 English writer Havelock Ellis. He said “The only place where optimism endures is in the lunatic asylum.” Tack on the that “or a singles bar after last call”






1901 Russian violinist Jascha Heifetz. He said “No matter which side of the argument you are on, you always find some one on your side that should be on the other.” Been there, done that, too. Do not have a tee shirt.






1915 Israeli politico Abba Eban. He said “History has proven to us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.” Eban was the Israeli representative to the United Nations. I remember watching him speak to the United Nations during one the several wars Israel had with the Arab nations. He was a gifted orator and had a commanding presence.






1923 US writer James Dickey. He said “A poet is a person that stands out in the rain hoping to get struck by lightning.” It was Dickey that gave the immortal novel Deliverance. He was also Poet-in-Residence at the University of South Carolina. He has since gone to that great laptop in the sky.






1931 US writer Judith Viorst. She said: Love is better to be in than an automobile accident, a tight girdle, a higher tax bracket or in a holding pattern over Philadelphia.”
                                    Judith, shut up.






Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow