Good
morning,
Quote
of the day:
“I
have tried to know absolutely nothing about a great many things, and
I have succeeded fairly well.”
Robert Benchley
I
have been reading about the pollution of local streams and rivers by
the accumulated fly-ash from coal fired power plants escaping
containment or not contained at all. Without containment rain water
will eventually wash the fly-ash into the local ground water. Coal
fly-ash contains a variety of toxic chemicals including arsenic and
titanium. The obvious risk is if these chemicals arrive in a river
that feeds reservoirs from which drinking water is extracted. When I
was still working in the engineering business as a contract worker I
landed a job near Reading, Pa. The office where I worked was south
of Reading but the actual job I was working on was in Gypsy, West
Virginia. It was a coal fired power plant that was fined by the EPA
for constantly for polluting the air with fly-ash. The power company
had just paid the fine and increased the cost of their energy to
cover the additional costs but finally the EPA put their foot down
and told them to fix it. Our job was to design a new smoke stack
with electronic precipitators to capture the fly-ash before it left
the stack. Electronic precipitators are screens of a sort that are
negatively charged so that any particulate (fly-ash) would stick to
them. They would automatically wash the fly-ash off at regular
intervals and collect it in piles near the plant. As with Duke
Energy, this company complied with the EPA order to not allow fly-ash
into the atmosphere but there was no direction as to what to do with
the toxic fly-ash once collected. The power companies are not going
to volunteer do a damned thing that costs money even thought the
danger is apparent.
Back
in 2004 a good friend of mine from Charlotte and we decided we needed
a vacation and began a scan of the web. We found that Holland
America had a cruise that began with three days in London and then to
Dover to get aboard the ship. The ship made stops at Plymouth (a NATO
exercise was in progress there), then to Guernsey Island (the only
English property that was occupied by the Germans), then a three day
stop at Cherbourg, France. From there they bused us to Omaha Beach
for the 60th
anniversary ceremony of the D-Day invasion. The French Marines (in
red berets) were there thick as fleas as was helicopter gunships
constantly on patrol. It would have been a great time for a
terrorist attack considering that 9/11 was not that far in the past.
President Bush was there along with Condoleezza Rice, President of
France Chirac, Colin Powell, my companion and myself among other
celebrities. After several speeches, a 21 gun salute by 105
howitzers, a parade of American, French, English and Canadian
warships just off shore and “Taps” was played. There was not a
dry eye for miles, including mine. See the first item in the time
line section below.
From
there the ship sailed to Le Havre, Brussels, Amsterdam and back over
to Dover then we flew back home.
We
were in London for three days and made several interesting side trips
especially to the British Museum. What a great town but the food
sucked…too bland for my tastes. But all of that is worthy of
another lesson.
This
Date in History June 6
1944
On this date one of the most important events in recorded history
occurs. After waiting aboard ship for 48 hours, the Allied
(primarily the United States, Great Britain and Canada), troops are
landed on the continent of Europe on the beaches of Normandy in
northwestern France to destroy the German military machine that had
overrun Europe. The Allies paid a price for gaining a foot hold to
the tune of about 10,000 casualties. In this one day the Allies had
about 156,000 combat troops that they put ashore, 13,000
paratroopers, 5,000 ships and 10,000 aircraft of all kinds were
involved in this endeavor. The 10,000 casualties was redeemed a few
days later when the Allies pivoted east and trapped thousands of
German soldiers in a very small perimeter near the town of Falaise,
France. This was called the “Falaise Pocket”. The Allies poured
in all the gunfire they could find hoping to eliminate as many German
soldiers as they could. They did not get them all but General
Eisenhower visited the site later and said that one could walk for
hundreds of yards on the bodies of German soldiers and not touch the
ground. War is hell.
1918
Earlier in WWI, the German Army had driven through the Allied
forces and was within 45 miles of Paris. The American army and
Marines had joined the war by this time and were under the command of
General John J. “Blackjack” Pershing. Four German divisions had
dug in a place named Belleau Wood on the Paris-Metz road. General
Pershing tasked Marine General James Harbord with clearing Belleau
Wood of Germans. On this date the US Marines launched their attack.
By the end of the day the marines had suffered 1,000 casualties. For
the next three weeks the Marines launched one attack after another to
no avail. The German commander General Erich Ludendorff was just as
determined to keep possession of the Wood in spite of the Marines
bringing up US army artillery. Ludendorff brought up reinforcements
and counter-attacked with swarms of machine guns, artillery and
poison gas. The US Marines would not be denied and finally cleared
out the Germans. The price for this victory was 10,000 dead, wounded
or missing. It was during this battle that US Marine Sgt. Daniel
Daly ordered his platoon to “fix bayonets” and then ordered a
bayonet charge when he stood up and screamed the immortal phrase
“Come on you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever?”
Daly was a two time Medal of Honor winner and was recognized by the
Commandant of Marine Corp as “the fightingest Marine I ever saw.”
In 1918 Congress passed a law that there could only be one Medal of
Honor per hero.
1997
On this date the Lacey Township High School held their prom at the
Aberdeen Township banquet hall. During the dance, 18 year old Marie
Drexler chose to go into the bath room and deliver a full term baby,
strangle it, wrap in a black plastic garbage bag and put it into a
trash can. A clean-up crew was called in to clean up the large
amount of blood on the floor and it was then that they discovered the
trash bag. An autopsy proved that the baby was born alive and then
strangled. Finding who the culprit was proved to be easy and Marie
was taken into custody and charged with murder but that was plea
bargained down to aggravated manslaughter. At her sentencing hearing
a tearful Marie described her remorse and was sentenced to 15 years
with the possibility of parole after 3 years. Marie served 32 months
and was released. What burden to carry for the rest of her life.
1865
Earlier a man named William Quantrill had organized a Confederate
guerrilla group to harass US troops operating mostly in Kansas and
Missouri. Included in his small army were Frank and Jesse James.
“Quantrill’s Raiders” proved to be a sore thorn in the side of
the US army for the entire Civil War. It was well known that the
town of Lawrence, Kansas was used as a marshaling point for US
Cavalry. One night Quantrill led his men into Lawrence, they shot
and killed every man they saw and burned town to the ground. After
Lee surrendered in April of 1865, the Civil War was essentially over
but not to Quantrill’s Raiders. They continued raids until this
date when Quantrill was tracked down to Kentucky and killed by a unit
of US Cavalry. Since Quantrill and his raiders operated as
guerillas, they were not eligible for the blanket amnesty offered by
the US. For that reason many of Quantrill’s men turned to a life
of crime, including Frank and Jesse James.
Born today:
1606
French writer Pierre Corneille. He said “One must have a good
memory when he has told a lie.” Sounds like my 3rd
ex-wife.
1860
English writer William Inge. He said “One of life’s pleasures
is the pleasure of not going to church.” I have not been in a
while because I find the members hypocritical, including most
ministers and deacons. Perhaps I have not been to the right church.
1917
Dominican actress Maria Montez. She said “When I look in the
mirror, I am so beautiful I scream for joy.” I admire self-esteem
but this is ridiculous!
1955
US comic Sarah Bernhardt. She said “One side you have the
book-burners, Congressional wives and Pat Robertson. On the other
side you have vulgar comedians, foul-mouthed rap groups and Dennis
Hopper, the choice should be easy.” Sarah is pretty foul-mouthed
herself.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait
until tomorrow
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