Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I do not feel that it is incumbent upon me to believe that God has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect and intends for us to forgo their use.”

                                                              Galileo Galilei

Even though he was acknowledged to have one of the most brilliant minds on the planet, Galileo was taken to task for teaching that the sun was the center of our “universe” and the Earth orbited around it. This theory was opposed to what the Pope and the Catholic Church believed. Galileo was paid a visit by papal representatives who assured him the rest of his days would be in agonizing pain if he did not recant his teachings. It was then that Galileo said the statement above. But he did indeed recant and was exiled to his summer home for the rest of his days. From here Galileo made a telescope and made observations that confirmed his and Copernicus' theory of the sun being central. His observations and teachings were smuggled out for the rest of the world to understand what was really happening out there in the firmament in spite of the terrorism of the papacy. 300 years later the Catholic Church admitted they were wrong.

I saw a TV show about why we human behave like we do, especially unfairness. As all of you know there have been many acts of violence because some felt like they had been treated unfairly. In the show a behavioral scientist from Georgia State did a test on two Capuchin monkeys. She had trained both of these monkeys to take a stone from her hand and put it in a cup inside the cage for which she would reward them with food. On one occasion she gave them both a stone and they put them in the cup and came back for the treat. She gave one of them a piece of bell pepper which they both like, but she gave the second monkey a grape which they both like even more. Not only that she gave the second monkey two grapes! The first monkey lost it! He brought his cup over and dumped the rocks onto the floor and even threw out his piece of bell pepper. Does all of this sound familiar? The question is: Are we behaving like monkeys or are monkeys behaving like us? Those of you who do not believe in evolution just ignore this question. In another test a family of chimpanzees (our closest relative primate) there was a test done that even though the Alpha male is the acknowledged leader, if he does or even allows unfair treatment he is driven from the family by the others. They just will not sit still for unfairness. The children and adult males ignore him and the females refuse to mate with him. The message here is don't get too cocky or you will be alone.

                                      This Date in History June 13

323BC 33 years earlier one of the most powerful and influential people to ever have drawn a breath is born to Philip of Macedonia and his wife Olympia. His parents choose to employ the acknowledged most intelligent person on the planet as his tutor and that being the Greek genius Aristotle. They chose to allow his father to be his teacher in military tactics. A wise choice, his father was one of the best military leaders I recorded history, until his son came along; of course, I am talking about Alexander the Great. At the age of 16 Alexander was a commander of several different military engagements and as far as recoded history is concerned, he never lost a battle. Three years later his father was assassinated and Alexander inherited the most powerful and experienced army on earth. Alexander knew his father wanted to conquer the cities in Asia Minor so he rounded up his army and headed east. By the way, Macedonia is just north of present day Greece. Anyway, Alexander kicked ass and went through the Balkan countries and ended up in present day Egypt and founded a city. By now y'all know I am speaking of Alexandria, Egypt. After getting the city under control, he left one of his generals named Ptolemy in command and he continued his voyage of conquest to the east. I think y'all know what an enormous swath of land that this man and his army conquered. He did it the smart way. Of those lands that he conquered, he enlisted the current leaders of these countries to help him administrate. If they did not help, they were looking down the throat of Alexander’s almost invincible army in retribution. Anyway, a few days before he started feeling bad after several days of partying in a wedding reception. On this night he did not wake up. His body was carried back to Alexandria and legend has it that he was buried in a gold coffin in that city. His burial site has never been found. His conquest covered what was then the known world. It went from northern Greece to India. Look on a map to see what I am talking about. Anyway, Alexander believed that he was a god as did many of his followers and he did not believe he was capable of death. He was wrong; he died in Babylon which is in present day Iran.

1381 Because of the bubonic plague epidemic, the supply of laborers in England was very limited. A peasant worker named Wat Tyler led a large group of peasant laborers into London in a show of strength and began burning their way through the city. This bullshit started when Parliament refused to acknowledge that England needed the laborers and insisted on sticking to the feudal system and encouraged those owning large tracks of land to stick to the feudal system and not to bend to Wat Tyler and his mob. Parliament then raised the poll tax which essentially prevented the poor from voting. After this the revolt began. Eventually Wat gained audience with King Richard II and the king agreed to many of his demands. All this did was to slow down Wat and guys for a while so that King Richard II could gather together an army. Wat and the mayor of London have a meeting to hammer out an agreement. During the meeting, the mayor got so mad at Wat’s arrogance that he lunged at poor old Wat and fatally skewered him with his sword. After this, the leadership of the poor laborers was gone and Richard’s army showed up and one of the worst massacres in world history occurs. Richard II decided to show Wat Tyler’s head on a pole in a field near London for several weeks thereafter.

1777 On this date 19 year old French Marquis de Lafayette arrived in Charleston, South Carolina. The Marquis volunteered his services to the fledgling American colonies who were seeking independence from Great Britain. When he left France on the way to the United States the British navy had known he was headed this way and set up a blockade looking for him. That is why he ended up in Charleston, South Carolina. In spite of his young age he was welcomed into the Army led by General George Washington and given the rank of Brigadier General. This assignment of rank rankled many of General Washington’s older officers but later on the Marquis prove his worth in combat. There were many occasions where the Marquis displayed his military training in one victory after another especially at the Battle of Yorktown. If it had not been for the Marquis and Baron Von Steuben (Prussian volunteer) it is unlikely that Washington and his Continentals would have ever achieved this world shaking victory.

1978 On this date two hard-headed bastards at Ford Motor Company clash and Henry Ford II wins. He fired the president of Ford in Lee Iacocca. Iacocca was chiefly responsible for the marketing of the 1964 Mustang that was a phenomenal success as was many years of the Mustangs to follow and made Ford billions of dollars. Iacocca was the king of the bean-counters and through his leadership; Ford went from near bankruptcy into a money-making operation. Henry Ford II hated Iacocca because of his notoriety and fired him. As we all know, Iacocca was hired to help bail Chrysler Corporation out of near bankruptcy to a profit-making organization in the space of five years. He did it with the help of a US Government guaranteed loan that he paid back early. It was Lee that told Chrysler that he refused the $6 million a year in salary offered by saying “What am I going to do with $6 million a year? I will take a $1 million and I don’t know what I will do with that.” I like Lee.

Born today:

1752 English writer Fanny Burney. She said “Traveling is the ruin of all happiness! How can one be happy with the buildings here in England once you have been to Italy” I don’t know about that Fanny. I was impressed with Buckingham Palace and the British Museum.

1786 US General Winfield Scott. He said “To our seceding states “Go our wayward sister and go in peace.” We tried Winnie. But Abe and the boys would not allow it.

1875 The governor of Texas Miriam “Ma” Ferguson. She said “English was good enough for Jesus Christ so it is good enough for the children of Texas.” Ma, you don’t really think they spoke English in 33 AD in Palestine do you? Considering the source, maybe you did. You were a scary bitch.

1926 US entertainer Paul Lynde. Once on Hollywood Squares this exchange took place,

Peter Marshall: “After Trigger died, what did Roy Roger say he would do?”

Paul Lynde: “Dismount.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow