Good
morning,
Quote
of the day:
“Be
willing to sacrifice what you are for what you will become.”
Buddha
A
thought crossed my mind today. Assume you were either a policeman or
a member of the National Guard. A civil uprising began against the
present administration in Washington and thousands if not millions
were to march on your White House and you were ordered to stop this
peaceful demonstration assuming no firearms were evident, could you
open fire if ordered?
A
few years ago a 24 year old male school teacher at the Chapin, SC
elementary school went to a series of watering holes in Columbia, SC
known as Five Points and dropped the hammer on several Jack and
gingers. He called a 21 year old female acquaintance and told her
that he was at Five Points drunker than Cooter Brown and needed for
her to come and take him to the house. She refused. About an hour
later a cab pulled up in front of her house and guess who got out and
knocked on her door? That’s right, it was the man of Jack and
ginger fame. She told him to hit the road but he wasn’t buying.
He kicked open the door, chased this woman into her bedroom, pinned
her to the bed and raped her. She was able to escape and called the
cops who showed up quickly and rapist was thrown into the joint. The
next morning a judge sentenced this king of stupidity to sit in the
joint until he is arraigned and put on trial and if found guilty,
continue his stay in the joint until sentenced. Usually the amount
of time from arrest until trial is six months. The judge assured
dumb-ass that there would be no bond...his life is ruined. He will
have a felony on his record until hell freezes over and will be on
the sexual offenders list for the same length of time. He should
have stayed at Five Points passed out and spent the night in the
drunk tank. That would have been a lot simpler and lot less
expensive and he would have been free the next morning. Like I
said...
More
history of SC politics:
We
had two significant run-off elections. One was for Governor between
a woman named Nikki Haley who was endorsed by Sarah Palin and the Tea
Party and US Congressman Gresham Barrett who is endorsed by several
wannabes while Gresham is dancing around the fact that he voted for
NAFTA and TARP in spite of his constituents going down the toilet
financially. In the election Nikki garnered 49% of the vote and
Gresham got 22%. In this state a candidate must get at least 50%
which is the reason for the run-off.
The
candidates and the voters were in frenzy.
The
second run-off that was significant was for the US House seat for the
4th
district between Congressman Bob Inglis and State solicitor for the
4th
district Trey Gowdy. Gowdy appeared to be squeaky clean and
unbeatable. Inglis had lost touch with his constituents and as far
as I am concerned and committed the unpardonable sin. I sent him two
questions on his official US Congress web site and got no response in
either case. He is now history. Trey Gowdy sent this dumb-ass to
the showers.
This
Date in History June 11
1944
As we all know five days before the Allies assaulted the Normandy,
France coast in five different locations covering about 60 miles.
Before the actually beach landings occurred, hundreds of United
States and British paratroopers and glider forces landed behind the
beaches the night before to suppress any attempt at a counter-attack
and destroy artillery covering the beaches. In spite of ferocious
resistance by the Germans, especially at Omaha Beach, all the goals
set for the assault troops were achieved but at a bloody cost. On
schedule, on this date a combined force of 330,000 Allied troops
joined up into a solid front, began a pivot toward the east and the
heartland of Germany. As I have said in the past, during this pivot
to the east over 20,000 German troops were trapped near the town of
Falaise, France and all but a handful were killed by the British VIII
army from the north and the American 3rd
Army from the south. It was a massacre, y'all. Just a few hundred
Germans escaped. Once the Allies had assembled this gigantic front,
the outcome of the war was assured even though many days of bloody
warfare were still ahead because as General Eisenhower said, “The
German infantry dies hard”.
1864
Shortly after the Union army received a severe ass-kicking at Cold
Harbor, US General Grant sent US General Phillip Sheridan and his
cavalry unit out to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad. The
Virginia Central Railroad was the chief supply route to CSA General
Robert E. Lee and his troops in and around Petersburg. General Lee
had sent South Carolinian cavalry commander CSA General Wade Hampton
to protect this vital lifeline. Sheridan’s and Hampton’s troops
collided at Trevilliian Station near Charlottesville, Virginia. One
of Sheridan’s divisional commanders was Captain George Armstrong
Custer. As usual Custer charged in with a reckless abandon and
almost immediately had his unit surrounded. He formed his unit into
a triangle and fought a desperate battle and was eventually able to
escape. Sheridan’s troops were running out of ammo and so he began
to withdraw but General Hampton saw fit to launch an old fashioned
saber charge and Sheridan’s troops departed the area faster than
anticipated. The Yankees were able to tear up about five miles of
railroad track but the damage was minor and a repair was made by the
next afternoon. By the way, it was General Wade Hampton that became
Lee’s commander of the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia
after the death of CSA General J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern.
1963
On this date United States President John F, Kennedy issued
Executive Order 3542 forcing Alabama Governor George Wallace to
comply with a Federal Court order allowing five black students to
attend the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Wallace also knew
that the Executive Order carried with it the authority for the
President to order military forces out to enforce his order. Wallace
knew he had no choice but to comply but he was going make good his
promise that “he would stand in the front door of the University of
Alabama to prevent segregation.” Sure enough he stood in the front
door while the commander of the Alabama National Guard and a number
of armed troops stood to one side. Wallace still refused to stand
aside and Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach who was in
Tuscaloosa went to the campus and gathered up the black students and
walked up to Wallace face to face and asked if he was going to let
those students in to enroll. Wallace made a short speech about how
much the Federal Government was interfering with states rights and
then he stood aside and allowed the five black students to enter and
enroll. The days of “separate but equal” were circling the
drain.
Born today:
1864
German composer Richard Strauss. He said “I may not be a first
rate composer, but I am a first class, second rate composer.”
Richard needs help with his self esteem.
1572
English writer Ben Jonson. He said “Twas only fear at first
that brought gods.” In those days it was Ben and William
Shakespeare that were at the top of their game.
1880
US female politician Jeanette Rankin. She said “You can no more
win a war than you can win an earthquake.” Jeanette, listen to me.
The world has been full of despots and conquerors since before
recorded history. The only way to stop these animals from
indiscriminate murder and terror is to kill them before they can
complete their task. It is called war. A few are Attila the Hun,
Genghis Khan, Temujin, Napoleon, Hitler, a variety of Roman emperors,
a variety of Viking kings, a variety of Vandal kings, etc. The only
way to stop them is with war, earthquakes not withstanding.
I have added the
following by special request:
Two cases of
“Sophistication”
A
while back I was in Pensacola, Florida and I went into a very large
fish market with a small delicatessen attached. I gathered up a
grouper filet, about 8 prawns (extra large shrimp) and a quart of
jumbo oysters. I went through the check-out line for the seafood
first because they iced it down for you. Then I decided that I
needed vegetables to counter-balance all that protein and cholesterol
so I drifted into the deli. The deli had all Boars’ Head meat and
nearly everything else in there is of gourmet quality. They even had
a small collection of fresh vegetables including asparagus. I
figured steamed asparagus with butter and garlic would be a great
addition so I grab the asparagus and headed to the small checkout
counter manned by a girl that looked to be about 16 and I laid the
asparagus on the counter. The girl looked at me and said “What is
that?” I said “It is asparagus.” She said “How do you spell
it?” obviously looking for it on the touch screen but could not
find it. By then the others in line behind me began to giggle so I
said “Never mind, sweetie, I have changed my mind” and took the
asparagus back to the case and left hoping to spare that girl any
further embarrassment. Actually, I was the one that was embarrassed.
To those that are familiar, it was Joe Patti's Seafood Market.
You
never know the level of sophistication of the other person no matter
how basic. This and one other event taught me a valuable lesson in
not assuming the other person knows what you do.
The
other event was when I was with a woman that I had been dating a few
weeks and we were riding down the Main Street of Greenville, SC when
we stopped at a traffic light. She pointed to a large building on
the corner and said “Al, what is that building?” I said “It is
the Peace Center.” She said “What is it for?” I said “Well,
they have Broadway shows, operas, concerts and special entertainment
events of all kinds. Surely you know about it, it has been in the
papers for almost a year.” Then she said “Al, I can’t read.”
Then it dawned on me why she had always had me order for her at
restaurants, she could not read the menu. Needless to say, you could
have knocked me over with a feather. I apologized and mentally made
a note to never assume anything about the other person, again I was
the one that was embarrassed.
After
all, I had never laid eyes on, or even barely heard of a pizza until
I joined the Air Force. I had never had “fast food” other than a
very rare chili dog, either. In fact there was no “fast food”
restaurant chains invented yet. There were “drive-ins” such as
two or three “Clock” drive-ins, two or three “Pete’s”
drive-ins, a “Palmetto” drive-in, a “Carolina” drive-in and a
“Rainbow” drive-in and a “Sam’s Lunch” downtown where
everybody used to go get a hot dog and a Coke after a basketball game
that was about it. These curb service restaurants were owned by
Greek or Lebanese families and they were all related in one way or
another. We did not go there to eat anyway; we went there to meet
girls. My brother, sister and I led a pretty Spartan life, but I do
not remember being unhappy.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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