Good
morning,
Quote
of the day:
“The
Washington Redskins need to change their disgusting and demeaning
name back to just “The Redskins”.
Ruth Buzzi
Your
President has decided to sent 300 “advisers” to help the Iraqi
government with the “insurrection” presently under way. The
present Iraqi government is entirely Shiite and the insurrectionists
are Sunnis. The Sunnis and Shiites are people of differing religious
beliefs. Each one of them believes that Allah means for them to rule
the Arab world if not the entire world and they have been fighting
about this issue since about 800AD. IT IS A RELIGIOUS WAR! America
cannot take sides...but we have. We are sending help to the Shiites
and can expect retaliation by the Sunnis and your President has
acknowledged this. There have been wars in Europe over religion
many, many times including nine Crusades and nothing good ever comes
from it. We have not learned a damned thing. There are two tribes
in central Africa known as the Tutsis and the Hutus. They hate each
other for reason unknown and have fought for centuries including an
untold number of massacres of each other. Why doesn't the good ole
USA do something about this destruction of humanity? They don't have
any oil.
I
had occasion to visit with my brother recently. He and I often
discuss space travel and the colonization of another planet. We
always come to the same conclusion. We have no way to overcome the
enormity of time and distance with our present technology...we ain't
going nowhere. The closest star system is Alpha Centauri which is
about 4.7 light years away. This means that it would take 4.7 years
traveling at the speed of light to get there. This velocity is
impossible because of the enormous amount of fuel required to
accelerate to that speed. Even if we were able to achieve 1/10th
the speed of light it would take about 47 years to get there and 47
years back. Even this speed is unimaginable to present day
physicists. But if it was this would mean that two generations would
be born and die aboard the vehicle while in transit. Not only that,
according to Albert Einstein, at that speed time would slow down to
about 1/7 that of Earth. The vehicle and the people aboard would
have aged about 94 years but Earth would have aged about 650 years.
Would the Earth still exist after that time span? Would the mission
still be remembered? Here is something to consider. Look up at the
sky and pick out a star. It is likely that the light from that star
has been traveling toward Earth for millions if not hundreds of
millions of years. This means that you are looking into the past.
That star may have exploded thousands of years ago but light from
that event has not yet arrived. It is tough to wrap you head around,
isn't it?
South
Carolina politics revisited:
The
Republican primary election and run-offs are over and the results are
enlightening. A first generation offspring of a couple that
immigrated to South Carolina from India, Nikki Haley, won the
Republican nomination for governor which all but guarantees that she
will be elected Governor in November in this heavily Republican
state...she was. She defeated US Congressman Gresham Barrett.
Barrett voted to bail out the banks and he is an incumbent which is
two strikes. During the campaign some numbskull told the press that
he had a sexual encounter with Nikki in the recent past. Nikki has
been married 13 years and vehemently denied the allegation. Nobody
believed him and we all decided that the only person that could
benefit from that kind of mudslinging was Barrett. It was that way
for me at least making it strike three. 12 year Congressman Bob
Inglis was easily defeated by Spartanburg solicitor (District
Attorney) Trey Gowdy for the 4th
District seat in the US House of Representatives. I sent two
different messages to Inglis on his official web site and received no
answer. That is the death knell as far as I am concerned. A person
in political office MUST be receptive to their constituents. Another
strike was when Inglis called Gowdy “The Spartanburg
representative”. Inglis is from Greenville but District Four
includes Greenville and Spartanburg. Greenville is more heavily
populated than Spartanburg and Inglis was trying to plant a seed of
divisiveness just to get the Greenville vote and not only that he
supported TARP. How stupid did he think we were? And finally Tim
Scott won the Republican nomination for the US House seat for
District one. Tim Scott is a black man and is the first black
Republican to be nominated for a Congressional seat in South Carolina
in over 100 years. Then one of our Senators Jim DeMint resigned and
took over as president of Heritage, USA which is a right wing
political organization. The previously mentioned Tim Scott was
selected to finish out Jim DeMint's term as Senator. There is no
doubt that he will be elected Senator on his own...he is well thought
of. Remember Governor Mark Sanford? He was elected as US
Representative to replace Tim Scott...and the beat goes on.
Let’s
recap. The incumbents in House seats in District 4 and 5 are out
looking for a job. An offspring of Indian immigrants is almost
guaranteed to be Governor of the sovereign state of South Carolina
and on top of that, she is a woman. A black man has been elected as
the Republican nominee for the US Congressional seat in District 1
and he did this by defeating the son of South Carolina icon Strom
Thurmond. Perhaps those out there in the rest of the world will
discontinue viewing the people from South Carolina as images from
“The Dukes of Hazzard” any longer and see that we have character
and savvy and stop your freaking worrying about the Confederate flag
on the capitol grounds. It doesn’t bother Darius Rucker, the black
man that was lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish and went to
college in Columbia, so why should it bother anyone else that doesn’t
live here? Mind your own f--king business. I feel better now.
A
while back a “corporate retreat” was held on the banks of the
Chattooga River in extreme northwest South Carolina on the Georgia
border. I used to go trout fishing on that river. To gain access to
the upstream pools my friends and I would ride very narrow an steep
trails on motorcycles. The ride was a hoot and a big challenge
because the raging Chattooga was just a few feet away and the trail
could be very slippery if there had been a heavy rain or an overflow.
There are some class five rapids (highest of the ratings) on this
famous river. It was made famous in the movie “Deliverance”
starring Burt Reynolds. The movie was shot on this river. Some of
the meanest rapids are “Five Falls”, “Sock 'em Dog” and
probably the worst is called “Devil's Elbow”. The corporate
retreat included a raft trip down this river. A passenger from the
Tampa area fell out of his raft and was never seen again...until
about 10 days later. There was a team of white-water rescue experts
on hand and the found this man's corpse via an underwater camera.
They said that it will take several days to retrieve the body because
of the high water. In the movie the rafters were tossed overboard
and three made it to the bank and one was drowned. The problem was
the local mountain men in the area. They did not cotton to strangers
in their mountains. These guys were portrayed as being just a baby
step above a Neanderthal. They hunted the rafters like they were
rabbits. I don't know if that is an accurate portrayal but I used to
trail ride on my motorcycle just for the fun of it. I was riding a
very old logging trail for over and hour and stopped to pee. I was
on the crest of an almost vertical cliff. I heard noise and looked
over the edge of the cliff and down there about 100 feet was a house,
a cabin actually. I did not see any power poles or any wires coming
to the cabin. There was a fairly bold stream beside the cabin but no
signs of life...except there were clothes on a clothes line beside
the cabin. I left as soon as I could. Anyway the rafter that
drowned last week was found under a waterfall pinned to the bottom by
the hydraulics. It was the “Five Falls” rapids. By the way,
that access to upstream Chattooga has been declared a “Primitive”
area which means foot traffic only. The trout fishing was fantastic
because of its remoteness in the upstream areas not to mention post
card scenery...and the bears...and mountain lions...and most of
all...the locals.
I
got an e-mail from a friend that had this scenario: A few hours
before the President arrived on the Gulf Coast for an inspection of
what is being done about the oil spill, several bus loads of people
are brought in to Grande Isle, Louisiana wearing white jump suits
with a “BP” logo. They spread out and start picking up globs of
tar and vacuuming the oil that has coated the estuaries. Very soon
after the President left, these people got back aboard the buses and
are seen no more. I do not know how accurate or truthful this is or
even what we can assume from this but either case is not good. I
would not put this past “big-oil”.
This
Date in History June 24
1997
On this day the United States issued its final report on the 1948
incident at Roswell, New Mexico. The locals in the area had reported
that a space ship in the shape of a disc had crashed in the desert on
a ranch owned by J. J. Brazell. While riding patrol on the ranch,
Brazell ran across some scattered metallic debris and two bodies, one
alive and the other dead. His descriptions of the bodies are what
you imagine them to be today. Big head, small torso, large almond
shaped eyes, almost no nostrils or lips, very short and skin with a
greenish tint. The local newspaper printed that it was indeed a
“flying saucer” and the bodies were those of alien beings. Well,
United States Air Force officers and other government officials
descended on Roswell and the alleged crash site like locusts and
spirited away any scrap of evidence including the bodies. The next
day the local newspaper reported that it was a high altitude balloon
that had crashed with two dummies that were to be used for high
altitude parachute tests. And that is the report that was issued on
this date as the “official’ report on the incident and the US
government would no longer discuss the incident. There are two
things that keep my interest alive when it comes to this and that is
soon after the Government officials departed the Roswell area, a
hangar at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio became restricted
with an armed AP’s guarding it. Wright-Patterson was noted for its
medical facilities on site. Another thing was the extraordinary
activity near Grooms Lake, Nevada. This place eventually became the
infamous Area 51. By the way, if you have “Google Earth”
software, you can crank in ‘Grooms Lake” or just look at the west
central area of the Nevada desert and , Voila!, there is an airport
with two very, very long runways and various and assorted buildings
in a place where the US Government says that there is no such place.
I look at it frequently and can see aircraft on the ground but I am
unable to determine what kind. Secret bases always make me
suspicious.
1675
After fifty years of relative harmony the settlers in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Wampanoag tribe began to have
disharmony. It all started when the Indians found out that they had
a “mole” in the tribe. A “mole” is one that spies on his
tribe for the settlers. Anyway the mole was discovered and killed.
This angered the settlers and they captured and killed three of the
tribe. Well, not to be out done, the chief of the tribe named King
Phillip sent an attack group to the new settlement of Swansea,
Massachusetts and killed every air-breather there, including birds
and livestock. Well, y'all know what happened next. A young war
broke out between the tribe and the settlers known as King Phillip’s
War. Soon the whole of New England was involved in destroying Indian
villages and the Indians destroying settler’s villages. It was a
massacre on both sides. The settlers accidentally burned a
Narragansett village which brought them onto King Philip’s side and
the war was escalated. The Narragansett were easily overcome but King
Philip was another story. That tribe was finally brought under
control but not before King Philip was found in his secret
headquarters in Rhode island and was assassinated by yet another
”mole”. After this the settlers finally gained control as peace
(of a sort) again prevailed.
1812
After Czar Alexander I rejected the “continental” plan as
described by Napoleon Bonaparte making Napoleon the ruler of the
European continent, Napoleon assembled what he calls the “Grand
Armee” in anticipation of the invasion of Russia. Napoleon has
amassed over 500,000 troops for this adventure. On this day, the
invasion began. Napoleon made the same mistake Hitler made 30 years
later. He waited too long before advancing. The result was that
winter arrived before their objectives were met. Anyway, when
Napoleon and his army arrive at the gates of Moscow and Petersburg in
the middle of the winter, suddenly he smelled smoke and soon all of
Moscow is an inferno. The Russians had move out into the countryside
carrying their extra food and supplies with them and burned any
building that could be used as shelter denying Napoleon and his army
protection from the fierce Russian winter that was already upon them.
Napoleon had no choice but head his young ass back to France. The
Russian army was waiting. At nearly every bridge the Russians would
wait until the majority of the troops were across and then burn the
bridge stranding some of Napoleon’s troops on the other side where
they were massacred by the awaiting Russians. Anyway, Napoleon
arrived back in the Balkans with just over 100,000 troops. That
right folks, he had lost 400,000 troops. This adventure by Napoleon
is one of the worst military disasters in recorded history.
1853
As one might expect, the California gold rush brought a lot of
gold seekers but it also brought a hell of a lot of bandits one of
which was Joachim Murrieta and his number one henchman “Three
Fingered” Jack. Joachim and Jack were raising hell with the gold
miners and were named “The Terror of the Stanislaus” meaning the
Stanislaus River. The miners finally got fed up and hired a group of
professional man-hunters to bring Joachim and Jack to justice.
Joachim became this vengeful because he came to the Stanislaus River
from Mexico to pan for gold but because of his Mexican heritage, he
was beaten, his claim stolen and his wife repeatedly raped. After
all of this Joachim formed his own gang of Mexicans and sought his
revenge. Anyway, the man-hunters hired by the miners departed
Stockton, California seeking Joachim and his gang. It was reported
that the man-hunters found Joachim and his gang near El Tajon Pass.
On this day they arrived back in Stockton and spiked the head of
Joachim Murrieta on top of a lamp post and hung the hand of Three
Fingered Jack on a string below. They explained that it was a lot
easier to do it this way than to have to bring them in alive.
Born today:
1842
US writer Ambrose Bierce. He said there are four kinds of murder.
“Felonious, excusable, justifiable and praiseworthy.” Does
anyone know a person that fits the last two?
1915
English astronomer Sir Fred Doyle. He said “Space is not that
far away. You can reach it in your car in a couple of hours if you
drive straight up.”
1946
US politician Robert Reich. He said “In Washington it is dog
eat dog. In academia it just the opposite.”
Thanks for
listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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