Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“It is not necessary to change, survival is not mandatory.”

                                W. Edwards Deming

This edition is for my friend Dotty and her clan in Horseshoe Bay:

The settlers in Texas, especially in the “Hill Country” area complained bitterly about the apparent blasé attitude of the local Comanche. They had a habit of walking into any house un- announced and uninvited and taking whatever they fancied. The Texas government contacted the local Comanche tribe and asked for a conference to try and settle this problem. Seven sub-chiefs showed up in Austin. The whites were expecting them to show up in full regalia astride prancing Spanish mustangs. They showed up naked from the waist up (it was summer), hair in tangles and stained breech clouts. They were astride several different examples of horseflesh including mules. The Comanches were responsive to a peace treaty but the whites demanded that all the white hostages must be released. The next day the Comanches brought in a 16 year old girl that had been a captive for 7 years. The girl was not in good shape. She had many visible burn scars including her nose that had been burned off to the bone which infuriated the whites. The whites also knew that the Comanche had a lot more white captives that this one girl. The seven sub-chiefs were puzzled over the anger of the whites because they believed that it was common practice to keep whatever captives they wanted and treat them anyway they wanted. The whites reacted by hanging four of the sub-chiefs and imprisoning the others in spite of them being there under a flag of truce. The whites ought not to have done that because the enraged Comanches stopped walking in and stealing things and began a campaign of systematic torture and massacre of the white settlers especially those on the banks of the Brazos River (west and north of Houston). The carnage continued until a large contingent of US Cavalry arrived and then the Comanches just melted away into the countryside. At their zenith the Comanche dominated about 250,000 square miles of present day Texas representing about 80% of the state including Marble Falls and it environs. More to come later. By the way a breech clout is a long strip of cloth, animal hide, etc. that is placed between the legs and brought up to the waist in the front and back and held there with a belt. I am unsure of the hygiene of this apparel.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the enthusiastic display of patriotism over this past weekend. Even though I think we are in the greatest peril since the Great Depression but not as perilous as the Civil War, it seems that love of country is still present in the hearts of Americans...true Americans...especially those that get teary eyed at the play of the national anthem and a waving American flag. Those of you that have one scintilla of knowledge of the history of this nation will understand...those of you that don't won't.

The Attorney General of South Carolina has indicted 115 thugs and organized drug dealers in the last couple of weeks. We had found out that the “Crips” street gang from Los Angeles had set up illegal drug operations on Greenville’s west side and another in Walterboro, SC. Both locations are being attacked in force by a combination of law enforcement officers from a variety of agencies including the FBI and ATF. Good for you Henry.

                                      This Date in History July 7

On this date frontiersman Christopher “Kit” Carson departed Santa Fe on a mission to gather up all the Navahos in the four corners area and take them 300 miles to a reservation for the duration of the Civil War. Before the outset of the war Carson was a friend and confidant to the Navaho, Mescalero Apache, Kiowa and several other tribes in the southwestern United States. After the Civil war started Carson offered his services to the US and was given the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the 1^st New Mexico Volunteers. He was present at the battle of Val Verde where the Confederates beat the crap out of a US Cavalry unit. Something happened to old Kit as soon as he put on that uniform. Suddenly he became a hater of all Indians and began a campaign of terror against them. When the Navajo resisted going to the reservation, Kit ordered their villages burned, poison their water supply, burned their crops and slaughtered their livestock, mostly sheep and horses. Then the Navajo began a 300 mile walk across the desert to the reservation. There is no use for me to go into what happened to the old and very young. I don’t know what happens to some people when they gain a little power; some of them just go crazy as hell. History is full of examples. Like Hitler, Napoleon and the queen of mean, Leona Helmsley and finally Tony Rodriguez.

1863 On this date, for the first time in the history of the United States issued a sentence of death to a woman and she is hanged. There were other women hanged and burned at the stake as being witches in our early years in and around Salem, Massachusetts but we were not the United States at that time. By the way, it took the Governor of Massachusetts stepping in to put a stop to that carnage. Anyway, the woman’s name was Mary Surratt and she was convicted of treason in spite of overwhelming evidence that she was innocent. Mary ran a boarding house about 2 blocks from the Ford Theatre in Washington where Lincoln was assassinated. What made her “guilty” was that the real conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln used her parlor to plan it. There was no evidence that she knew anything at all about what they were planning. Another travesty of justice was the imprisonment of Dr. Mudd that treated and set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth after he had broken it jumping to the stage after shooting Lincoln. Mudd had taken the Hippocratic Oath that he would treat anyone that needed it. All of that not withstanding, he was jailed for keeping his oath. The powers that be in Washington were in a frenzy of revenge, no matter how unjust.

2006 That’s right y'all, two days ago a 31 year of man named Anthony Berry beat another 53 year old man into a coma. It is his father, Jeffrey Berry. Jeffrey was the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. This did not take place in Meridian, Mississippi, it happened in South Bend, Indiana. Earlier, Jeffrey had granted an interview at his house with a local TV station as he being the Grand Wizard. After the interview, the news reporters told him that they would be adding comments from other Klansmen to the interview. Jeffrey said “Like Hell you are, give me that video tape”. As you might expect the reporters refused. Jeffrey’s assistant produces a shotgun and Jeffrey says that they ain’t leaving until they surrender the tape. They did not give up the tape and as soon as they got free they went to the police and filed a complaint for kidnapping. Jeffrey was tried and convicted and sentenced to ten years. He was out on probation after three. No one knows what precipitated the attack on Jeffrey. Isn’t there something about “Live by the sword die by the sword” here?

2006 Again, two days ago Kenneth Lay the former president of Enron died suddenly of a heart attack in his summer home in Aspen, Colorado. Isn’t it ironic that he still has a summer home in the Colorado Rockies and has already been convicted of several crimes and could possibly be sentenced to life? His sentencing was due in October along with CFO Jeffrey Skilling, also previously convicted. A member of the jury that convicted Lay said that she had doubts about his guilt until he testified and seemed irritable and arrogant. When he was asked about giving his wife a $200,000 yacht for her birthday even after the company had gone bankrupt costing thousand of employees their pensions and savings, he said “You can’t give up this lifestyle like turning off a spigot.” It was then that the juror knew that he had no remorse for what he had done to his employees and voted guilty. I would have too.

Births and deaths:

1940 Professional dumb-ass and musician Ringo Starr is born. He said “I like Beethoven, especially his poems.” Ringo, shut up.

1816 English parliamentarian Richard Sheridan dies. When hitting on a potential new mistress he said “Will you come into my garden, my roses would like to see you”. Listen up guys; I don’t know if I have ever heard a better pick-up line than that.

Quotable quotes:

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.”

Thomas Paine

“It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory”

Blaise Pascal. Think on that, y'all.

“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”

General George Patton

“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer”.

Gen. George S. Patton

“If you see a snake, just kill it. Don’t appoint a committee.”

H. Ross Perot

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice your gift.”

Steve Prefontaine

“The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridges to cross and which to burn.”

Laurence Peter

“Life is to be lived as a child at play”

Plato

And finally:

“Most people run a race to see who is the fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts”

Steve Prefontaine

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow