Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Sex without love is an empty experience, but as empty experiences go, it is one of the best.”

Woody Allen

This is for fishermen. About two months ago my brother went fishing at Lake Russell. Lake Russell is on the Georgia/South Carolina border on the Savannah River series of lakes. My brother is a hard core largemouth bass fisherman and on this particular day he was exceptionally successful. If I remember correctly, he had caught and released 20 largemouth. The best part was when he was on a deep point casting a 6” Rapala, black over gold suspending “jerk” bait. He said he saw a swirl and then a very large tail fin indicating a big fish diving at his lure. It was a big fish...it was a near 40 pound striped bass. He hooked up and wrestled with this monster for several minutes before netting it. Fortunately the fish headed for deep water (about 60 feet) and apparently there was not any underwater standing timber. I asked hm how long it took and he said about five minutes. Because of his long experience he knew how to handle it...he maneuvered his boat with the electric motor to stay right on top of the fish and allowed the drag on the reel to do the work. He uses the absolute latest fishing gear. I am guessing but I think he was using a 7 foot, medium action, fast tip graphite rod, with either a Quantum or Calcutta casting reel loaded with 12 pound test fluorocarbon line. He is almost as a dedicated fisherman as I used to be. It is almost an addiction....I said almost.

I saw a program about the earthquake and resulting tsunami off the coast of Japan in March of 2011 and especially the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. The cooling water pumps were flooded and destroyed by the tsunami and the result was that three of the six reactors went into meltdown. The operators of the plant had no choice but to send people into the surviving reactors and apply cooling water manually. Needless to say the radioactivity was rampantly out of control and the people that went inside were closely monitored and withdrawn before absorbing too much radioactivity. The absorption of radioactivity by humans is cumulative, meaning that the human body can absorb only a given amount (called RADS) in a life time without permanent damage or death...this includes X-rays, by the way. Fortunately there was no fire like there was at Chernobyl. The operators of that plant had to send in volunteer firefighters knowing they would die of radiation poisoning...and so did the firemen but they went anyway . The fire had to be extinguished as soon as possible or the atmosphere worldwide would be effected. The deal was that the families of the firemen would be cared for by the government for life. The area around Chernobyl is still so radioactive to this day that no one is allowed anywhere near and it will stay that way far into the foreseeable future. If I remember my USAF training class correctly, power plant fuel is Uranium (U-238) or a derivative thereof and has a “half-life” of about 4.7 billion years. That means that its radioactivity will decrease by ½ in 4.7 billion years. Weapons grade Uranium (U-235) has a half life of 704 million years. It is some nasty stuff, y'all.

I guess all of you know by now about Aaron Hernandez, the ex-starting tight end for the New England Patriots. He had just signed a deal with the Pats for $40 million for five years. Apparently to celebrate, he murdered a semi-pro football player in his house in a Boston suburb. After this he went through a frenzy to erase any evidence to the point that he hired 10 cleaning personnel to scrub his house squeaky clean. It didn't work. A forensic team went in behind them and found enough evidence to arrest this stupid jackass for murder. Not only that, since this arrest he has been charged with yet another murder. His house was a 6,000 square foot Victorian looking structure that could be taken for a junkie flop house. For the life of me I do not understand why professional athletes buy/build super fancy houses when they first get a pocket full of money. There are hundreds of ways to put that money to use to build a substantial nest egg...but no, they buy big houses, several exotic cars, boats, airplanes, jewelry, etc. I guess they have to flaunt their new found wealth and eventually end up broke. Apparently stupidity come with the athletic ability to some. By the way, the Pats eliminated Hernandez from the team 1½ hours after he was arrested. No money, y'all...now what? It is a rumor that Hernandez was in a drug gang in high school and still tried to stay connected during college and professional football. More stupidity. When he was being booked he was smiling a “know it all” smile that oozed arrogance. Lets see how arrogant he will be when goes to the joint and is forced to grab his ankles by several of “The Aryan Nation”. This is a nationwide prison gang that believes in white supremacy. That is right, y'all...racism is alive and well especially in prisons. Even the Muslims have a raging sense of bigotry between the Sunnis and the Shiites. They hate each other because of what each other believes and how they worship. Crime is not an issue. How stupid is that?

History revisited:

Y'all know that the Supreme Court has chosen pass the buck once again. The court chose to rule on the DOMA law in California by saying the issue needs to go back to a lower court for more study. DOMA was a law passed in California that did not recognize homosexual marriages as being valid. This move allowed the court to avoid ruling directly on homosexual marriage and shoveled it further down hill. I personally do not care one way or another. There are those out there that will bring up the Bible as the final authority but keep in mind that in the Old Testament many Jewish kings had a number of wives...especially Solomon. In the history of the Romans and Greeks those in high places had young boys as lovers along with wives. Morality? What is it? It is what the powers that be thinks it is at any given time.

This Date in History June 27

1844 Earlier in 1823 Joseph Smith, an 18 year old Vermonter, claimed to have been visited by a Christian archangel named Moroni. Moroni supposedly told Joseph about a book that had been written on gold plates by a Native American in the 4^th century. The book was a history of an ancient Israeli tribe that had came to America centuries ago but had been wiped out except for about 34 survivors. Moroni told Joseph where the book was buried and he dug it up and it was written in an unknown language, unknown to everyone except Joseph. Joseph deciphered this book into English and it became the Book of Mormon. Joseph formed a church that became The Church of Latter-Day Saints which flourished and quickly grew in number. The tenets of the Mormon Church did not sit well with the regular Christians primarily because polygamy was allowed. This hostility caused Joseph Smith and his faithful to stay on the move to Ohio, Missouri and finally to a town near Carthage, Illinois that Smith named Nauvoo. Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were arrested and jailed in Carthage. On this date, a group of “Christians” stormed the jail, removed Joseph and Hyrum and hanged them. This did not stop the growth of this religion, however, Brigham Young saw to that.

1864 In Early May the Union Army of the Tennessee had departed the Chattanooga, Tennessee area headed for Atlanta, Georgia about 100 miles distant. The Union army was commanded by US General William T. Sherman and the Confederate army in opposition was commanded by CSA General Joseph Johnston. It was a very slow moving campaign which was to the Confederate advantage. A couple of weeks before a corps of the Confederates led by CSA General John Bell Hood had attacked at a place known as Kolb’s farm and had lost 1,600 precious soldiers. The Confederacy had no replacements. Seeing this, Sherman thought that the Confederates were weakened and on this date he feinted to both the right and left of the Confederate lines and launched an 8,000 man attack on the Confederate center. The attack was repulsed with heavy losses for the Union and Sherman ordered a retreat. However, the unit that had feinted to the Confederate left held its ground and Johnston knew that eventually his position would be untenable and he retreated back toward Atlanta.

1874 Earlier Indian tribal chiefs Quanah Parker and Lone Wolf had signed the Treaty of Medicine Lodge in which they agreed to go to a reservation in Oklahoma but reserved the right to claim the panhandle of Texas as their private hunting grounds, primarily for the buffalo. However, a group of white buffalo hunters believed that the Panhandle of Texas was open range for hunting. The hunters established a small settlement in the panhandle known as Adobe Walls which is where most of the hides and meat was brought for trading. When Quanah Parker, Lone Wolf and the other chiefs saw that the US was not going to force the buffalo hunters off the agreed upon hunting ground they formed an army of their own totaling 700 Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne to drive the buffalo hunters off their lands. On this date the Indians attacked Adobe Walls that was manned by only 28 buffalo hunters. The difference was the buffalo hunters had the newly developed .50 caliber Sharps buffalo rifle that was hard-hitting and had a long range. Also to the advantage of the hunters was the thickness of the walls that could stop any bullet or arrow. After three days the Indians decided that the fort could not be taken and withdrew. Enraged at this loss, the Indians went on a rampage of raping and pillaging less well defended forts, house and farms that became known as The Red River War. This war decimated what was left of the plains Indians in that area and even more lands were taken from the American Indian by lies and conquest.

1944 Three weeks before, the Allies had successfully landed on the Normandy beaches and established a permanent beachhead. But one of the main reasons for the attack at Normandy was to secure a deep water seaport to bring supplies in. That seaport was Cherbourg, France on the northern tip of the Contenin peninsula. The task of kicking the Germans out of the Contenin peninsula and Cherbourg in particular, fell to US General Omar Bradley. On this date Cherbourg was declared liberated. As the Allies turned east toward Germany they knew they would need another deep water port and that was Antwerp, Belgium. But that is another story.

Born today:

US billionaire H. Ross Perot. He said “Life is like a spider web, not an organizational chart.” I wonder what life would have been like with this Texan as our president.

1938 Former US Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. When speaking to one of his opponents he said “You fought the good fight and you were in it until the beginning.”

1938 British writer Alan Coren. He said “I wonder if those companies that make fool proof items have a couple of fools on their payroll for testing purposes.” I don’t know, Alan, but I know where they can find a few.

                    Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow