Monday, June 9, 2014

Tuesday


Good morning,



Quote of the day:

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”

                                                                             Plato



Speaking of Plato...the date and place of his birth is not known exactly but it was approximately 425BC in Athens, Greece and he died at the approximate age of 78. He was a student of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle who taught Alexander the Great. Even then Plato knew the importance of voting. “Get involved or shut the hell up”...that was my quote.



As some of y'all know I look into a couple of dating sites on occasion. I read the profile of a lady down near Atlanta. She described the man she was looking for down to the minutest detail...in appearance. There was “no beards”...”no mustaches that were bigger than SHE thought was appropriate”...”over 5'-8” ...”must not wear hats or caps because she thinks that is trying to hide a bald head”...”cannot have any or possibly debilitating diseases”...Apparently they could have the demeanor of Jeffrey Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy as long as their appearance met her standards. It was like she was ordering a pastry from a bakery. I have met shallow people before but this one takes the cake, pardon the pun. So here is what I want. From the waist down she must closely resemble Jennfier Lopez, from the waist up to the neck she must resemble Dolly Parton, from there on up she must look like Sandra Bullock. Demeanor??? In public she must behave like Mother Teresa and like Lindsay Lohan in the bedroom. Is that too much to ask?



More history of SC politics:

There was two election run-off in the Republican primary. One is between Gubernatorial candidates Nikki Haley and US Congressman Gresham Barrett. In the primary voting Nikki had a substantial lead but did not capture 50% of the vote as required by state law so a run-off is required. The same is true with US Congressional seat for the 4th district (Greenville/Spartanburg area) contested by Incumbent Bob Inglis and Solicitor Trey Gowdy among others. Gowdy had the lead in the primary but it was not 50% so a run-off will be required. Here is a brief resume’ of the mud that was slung in the past relating to these events. Two guys claimed an affair with Nikki Haley in the previous four years. She is adamant that she has been totally faithful to her husband of 13 years. By the way, Nikki's parents were immigrants from India. Her father is a doctor living in Bamberg, SC. Gresham Barrett voted for TARP and swore he would do it again and is extremely skilled at dancing around this issue even to present day. By the way, in the primary Nikki garnered 49% of the vote and Barrett got 22%. He should have dropped out, but he did not.



No slime has been cast about on the name of Trey Gowdy who beat the living crap out of Inglis. It is a little suspicious that the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Department made a drug sweep on the weekend before the primaries with Solicitor (District Attorney) Trey Gowdy issuing over 100 warrants. Maybe it was a coincidence…Or was it? It was a good way for Trey to get his name in the media in a heroic fashion. But maybe I am being too suspicious. In just these primaries the United States citizenry has demonstrated that they are not pleased with the present administration and all the incumbents are at risk.



A while back ago down in a small village in Bolivia a rape and murder occurred. The victim was a 35 year old mother of two. The suspect was an unruly 17 year old man...I use the term loosely. The 200 people in the village were outraged and captured the suspect, blocked all the roads into the village to inhibit any law enforcement and buried the rapist/killer alive in the grave that was dug for the murdered woman. They dug another grave beside this one and buried the woman with full honors and ceremony. I don't know about y'all, but this event somehow makes me feel good in spite of no trial by his peers. But in a village that small, there is very little that happens that is unknown to anyone.



Over in London there is a 13 year old girl that is an immigrant from Bangalore, India. She is a 13 year old name Nehu Rama. For reasons unknown she took a Mensa test for people under the age of 18 and scored 162. In that particular test a 140 is considered a genius. This makes this girl smarter that Stephen Hawking, considered to be the most intelligent astrophysicist since Isaac Newton. No one knows exactly what Hawking's IQ is but is estimated to be 160. I will have to wait and see where this girl's future leads her. Perhaps she will replace Hawking as the President of the Royal Society in Cambridge University. I do not remember how old Hawking was when he became President but Isaac Newton was 27. By the way, Stephen Hawking was born exactly 300 years after the death of Isaac Newton. Is that just a coincidence? I ain't sure, but I do believe in reincarnation and have always believed it ever since I was a rhinoceros.



Last week the governor of Rhode Island signed a document freeing a group of slaves in that state. It seems that....wait a freaking minute...slaves in Rhode Island!!! Everybody knows that all the slaves were south of Maryland, but there were indeed slaves even in Maryland, for crying out loud. Anyway, there were 14 slaves that petitioned the state to free them during the Revolutionary War (1776-1783) but this petition was ignored until very recently. There is known data that the early piers and wharfs of Philadelphia were built on the bones of slaves. Don't get moralistically superior when it comes to this issue, I know much about it.



                            This Date in History June 10



1864   Earlier US General William T. Sherman had begun an attack leaving Chattanooga, Tennessee headed for the Georgia coast. The problem with this was that the further he went from his supply bases at Chattanooga and Nashville the longer and more vulnerable his supply lines became. This was especially dangerous with CSA General Nathan Bedford Forrest in the area. Forrest was an exceptional cavalry leader and probably one of the top three or four this country ever produced. Anyway, Sherman sent US General Sturgis out of Memphis, Tennessee with an army of 5,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry to protect his supply lines. Forrest found out about the Sturgis expedition and lined up his troops on a railroad between Corinth and Tupelo to wait and see which direction Sturgis would be headed. It was Tupelo. Forrest carefully chose the point of interception as being a small place in a thick forest known as Brice’s Crossroad. Forrest prepared an ambush of the leading Yankee cavalry units knowing their infantry would come running. About 10:00am his plan worked to perfection. The ambush was launched on the cavalry amid high humidity and temperatures in the high nineties and the Yankee infantry came running from about five miles away and arrived on scene totally exhausted. At this point Forrest had no problem routing Sturgis’ army even though he was outnumbered better than two to one. Forrest was never able to totally stop the supply line to Sherman but this engagement was his finest hour.



1692     On this date in the village of Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a woman named Bridget Bishop was hanged as a witch. She was the first of several that met their fate in such a fashion for practicing witchcraft. This whole debacle began when a Presbyterian minister named Samuel Parris had a daughter and a niece that began having fits and other mysterious maladies. The good minister took the girls to a doctor who diagnosed their illnesses as being possessed by demons and everything went downhill from there. Upon hearing this Minister Parris went immediately to two of his slaves that he had bought in the West Indies and tried to beat them into admitting they were devil worshipers and they were the cause of the illness with his niece and daughter. I am going to repeat that. The beatings didn’t work. No matter how much he beat them, they would not admit to demon worship. That’s right folks; I said a Presbyterian minister from Massachusetts that had bought slaves in the West Indies and he believed they knew devil worship and he was a spiritual leader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Anyway, it became neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend or any one else that had an axe to grind against another. And accusations flew. They established a court to try those people accused of witchcraft. That court was governed by Chief Justice William Stoughton. After several people were ordered hanged and executed the governor of Massachusetts stepped in and put a stop to this bullshit. This just goes to show you that the public can be coerced into believing anything no matter how ridiculous. It had happened before this time and after this time and it will happen yet again, depend on it. Here is a quote by Adolph Hitler taken from his book “Mein Kampf”. “The more preposterous the proposition the more likely it is to be believed.”



1991     On this date the evacuation of US Clark Air Base began because of the ominous rumblings from the volcano named Pinatubo 25 miles away. There were two US military bases in the Philippines. They were Clark and the naval base at Subic Bay. The 14,500 people on Clark were evacuated in one day and not too soon. Soon after the evacuations, Mount Pinatubo unleashes three stupendous explosions over a period of days sending poison gasses 62,000 feet into the stratosphere along with red hot ash and lava down its sides killing hundreds of farmers that had refused to leave. After the volcano had quieted down it was determined that the original height of the volcano was about 5,800 feet was now 4,800 feet high. It was quite a blast and the evacuation saved thousands of lives.



1885    We have all heard the tales of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday among others in conjunction with the settling of the American west. But there were other heroes and here is a small essay of one of them name Billy Daniels. Daniels gained his reputation because of the so-called “Bisbee Massacre”. What happened here was a gang of five led by Dan “Big Dan” Dowd rode into Bisbee, Arizona to rob the General store where they believed a payroll of $7,000 existed. He was early. The payroll had not yet arrived so he robbed what was there totaling between $700 and $3,000. For reasons unknown Big Dan and his gang indiscriminately murdered 8 people including a four year old boy and a woman. The newspapers called it the “Bisbee Massacre”. There was an immediate posse formed to look for these murderers but their trail was lost and they escaped and were forgotten all....except for Billy Daniels. Daniels tracked down each and every member of the gang and put them in the Bisbee jail until all were captured and a gallows for five was erected. All of Big Dan’s gang was hanged at the same time. A few weeks later Billy Daniels and two others were tracking yet another outlaw through a narrow canyon in the Mule Mountains in Arizona when they walked into an Apache ambush. Daniel’s horse was killed immediately and fell pinning Billy to the ground. Daniels fought with his rifle as best he could but the wild-eyed Apaches swept down and cut him to pieces. The other two were able to escape and returned with a posse the next day and found Daniels very badly mutilated corpse and as you might suspect, the posse was unable to track down the Apaches.



Born today:



1904   Austrian composer Frederick Loewe. After hearing of the death of his lyricist Alan Jay Lerner he said “I guess we will be writing again with him up there. I just hope they have a well tuned piano.”



1921    The husband of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Phillip. When present for the opening of the Vancouver City Hall he said “I now declare this thing open, whatever it is.” Phillip, shut up.



1922     US actress Judy Garland. She said “I was born at the age of 12 on a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer back lot.” Judy was a dynamite entertainer but here life was rife with drugs and unhappiness. What a tragic life, worthy of everyone reading about.



1928   US illustrator Maurice Sendak. He said “There has to be more to life than having everything.” I don’t know what to say to that, Mo. However, comedian/actor Jim Carrey said something similar. He said “I wish everybody could have everything they ever wanted then they would realize that is not the answer.”



               Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow






















No comments:

Post a Comment