Good morning,







Quote of the day:


When asked about life in the White House he said “I don't know if it is the finest in public housing or the crown jewel in the Federal prison system.”


                                   Bill Clinton






Trivia question answers:


The word “hurricane” comes to us courtesy of the Maya. The Mayan god of storms is “Huracan”.






The first European to lay eyes on the Grand Canyon was a Spanish soldier whose last name was Cordoza in the year 1559.






Alaska cost us $7.2 million. We bought it from Russia with US Secretary of State William Seward in the lead in negotiations.






Over in Charlotte, NC a young man walked into a southside florist and went over to the cooler. After shopping around a while, he reached in and grabbed a pretty fancy bouquet in a vase. He then went to the counter and instead of paying, he pulled a pistol and demanded money. The clerk complied and the thief ran away flowers in hand. The clerk reported that he had on a tee shirt that read “I (heart shaped emblem) my girlfriend.” She also asked that the thief be notified that the photos of him taken by the security camera are ready.






Last week over in York, South Carolina a man that was arrested on a drug charge was mistakenly released from jail. That ain't the bad part. This man was a convicted murderer from North Carolina that had escaped prison. This man was arrested in Dallas, Texas this past Saturday. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) descended on the law enforcement facilities in York like locusts. How could an escaped convicted murder not be discovered while under arrest?






This past Satruday the mighty University of South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team beat the crap out of the hapless Clemson Tigers. The score was 3-2 in 11 innings.






About a week ago a 27 year old man was stopped and jailed for going 100 MPH in a 45 MPH zone. This jackass was southbound on the Pensacola (FL) Bay Bridge at 1:20a. Even though there was little traffic at this hour, the bridge has a “hump” in the middle to allow ship traffic to pass under. There could have been a car on the other side of the hump from this lunatic and they would have not been visible. This man has had seven suspension or revocations of his license over the last eight years. He is 27 years old. He is in the Santa Rosa County lockup...and I hope he stays there.






A few weeks ago down in Hartsville, South Carolina an unfortunate man was arrested by a county deputy for DUI. For reasons known only to the cop, after he had the man cuffed he chose to beat the man on the head several licks opening wounds that needed stitches. The doctor that administered the stitches notified the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) about the wounds. This past Thursday the cop that administered the beating was arrested by SLED agents and there is little question that this jackass with do a little hard time for that action...I feel sorry for him...no I don't.






             This date in history March 6






1857 On this date the United States Supreme Court handed down one of the most infamous decisions ever made in the history of jurisprudence. It seems that a US Army doctor had a slave name Dred Scott that traveled with him on his various military assignments. Two of these assignments were in state of Illinois and the Territory of Wisconsin. These two were “free” states by what was called “popular sovereignty”. Popular sovereignty meant that before a state or a territory could become part of the United States they had a vote of the residents to whether they wanted to be a “free” state or a “slave” state. Both Illinois and Wisconsin had voted to be Free states. Dred Scot sued that since he had lived as a resident of both states he should be granted his freedom. The United States Supreme Court ruled that the United States Constitution did not recognize Negroes as human beings and therefore Dred Scot would remain the property of the US Army officer, popular sovereignty not withstanding and on top of that there were many free blacks already living in Illinois and Wisconsin. Well, all this did was throw fuel to the fire of secession and Civil War which erupted 4 years later. The Supreme Court had been stacked with five southerners along with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney being a supporter of slavery. This decision threw a big monkey wrench into the Republican Party whose only reason for its existence was the abolition of slavery. About this time Kansas and its next door neighbor Missouri entered the Union with Kansas being a free state and Missouri being a slave state. Everyone knew that trouble would be a-brewing there pretty soon. They were right.






1951 The espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg begins on this day. Julius and Ethel were nuclear scientists at the Los Alamos nuclear Laboratory where out atomic bombs were formulated. During the “Red Scare” days where the US government feared that there was a communist saboteur/spy behind every tree, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were fired for being Communists as indeed Julius was. Anyway, Julius and Ethel in their anger got together with a machinist in the laboratory name David Greenglass and recruited him to be a “mule” smuggling atomic secrets out of the Laboratory and sell them to the Russians. The Rosenbergs had already made the deal with the Russians through a Russian named Martin Sobell. Greenglass in turn hired a man named Harry Gold to make the actual exchange of the secrets for the money. The trial lasted nearly a month and ended with all four being convicted. The Rosenbergs got the death penalty even though they could not be accused of treason because we were not at war with the Russians. Sobell got thirty years and Greenglass got fifteen. Soon after all of this Russia detonated its first nuclear device and acknowledged that they had constructed the weapon with information partially provided by the Rosenbergs. The Rosenbergs were offered life in prison if they would confess; they did not and fulfilled their destiny with a visit to “Old Sparky” and they went to meet their maker extra crispy.






1475 On this date one of the greatest creative geniuses in history is born. Michelangelo Buanorrati is born in the small Italian town of Caprese. His father was a minor government official and had close ties with the powerful Italian Medici family. The Medici family was famous sponsors of the arts, especially in Florence. Michelangelo became an artist’s apprentice at the age of 13. He spent two years in the Medici palace studying sculpture under the master sculptor Bertoldo de Giovanni and also studied the Medici family collection of other Italian sculptures. He eventually grew into the genius that we all recognized today. His first major creation was the sculpture “Pieta” in marble showing a dead Jesus lying across the lap of his mother Mary. This work was commissioned by the French ambassador to the Holy See, Michelangelo was 24 years old. But I guess his most famous works were the statue of David and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Both of which were commissioned by Pope Julius II. There is little question that painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was by far the most difficult. Not only did he have to paint lying on his back, he had to had to paint his creations in the correct proportions on a curved surface, no easy trick. The majority of the Sistine Chapel was a dome. Michelangelo was very prodigious in anything he attempted, be it painting, sculpture, sketches or drawings. It would repetitive for me to list all of this great artist’s works. Just suffice it to say there has never been anyone like him before or since. He was a man for all the ages. What is eerie is that he, Leonardo da Vinci and the artist Rafael all lived at the same time in the same city (Florence) at one time or another. Michelangelo died in Rome at the age of 89 leaving a trail of works of art that probably will never be equaled in history. The world is a worse place without him.






1987 On this date the car ferry “Herald of Free Enterprise” was preparing to leave Zeebruge, Belgium (been there) for a cross channel trip to Dover, England. The fairly large vessel was loaded with 543 people, 84 cars and 36 trucks. It had been the practice in the past for the ferry to back away from the dock with the front clamshell doors still open and would closed them as it was turning around to head out to sea. The ferry normally would take on an inconsequential amount of water in this process. But on this day, the crewman that was responsible for closing the clamshell doors was asleep, I SAID ASLEEP, Y'ALL. Well, when the ferry got turned around and was headed out to sea, the water pressure on the doors was so heavy that they could not close and soon the bilge and lower deck was flooded and when everybody on board went to one side to see what the hell was happening, the ship rolled upside down trapping all that were on the lower decks and throwing those on the upper decks into the sea. In all 186 people were drowned even if they were less than 100 yards from land. It took marine rescuers four days for them to retrieve all the bodies that were trapped under the ship. The ships company was found guilty “top to bottom with sloppiness”. As you might expect, new safety regulations were written for ferry operations. You know, closing the barn door after the horse escapes.






Born today:






1906 Polish writer Stanislaw Lec. He said “Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?”
                      I wonder if Jeffrey Dahmer did.






1936 Washington mayor Marion Barry, Jr. He said “I am going to provide you with a copulation of answers to several questions.” It is compilation Marion, compilation for crying out loud. Marion is a tent short of a campsite anyway.






     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.