Good
morning,
Quote
of the day:
“There
will be no drinking when we are doing a gospel song...but tonight we
ain't going to do any gospel songs.”
Gary
Nichols...The lead singer for The
Steel Drivers Bluegrass Band
For
the first time in my life I watched a soccer game beginning to end.
Of course it was USA vs Belgium. Early on I saw that the Belgians
had a better team that the USA. They spent a hell of lot more time
on the USA end of the field than vice versa. The bright spot was the
USA goalie. This man had a spectacular game with 15 saves, the most
saves in one game in the last 50 years. He held the Belgians
scoreless for the regular game but surrendered 2 goals in overtime.
The final was 2-1. As a person that I know well once said “This
game is making my butt clinch.”
I
was watching the story of an English bomber crew during WWII. Each
crew member was expected to fly 30 missions. The crew chief had
flown his 30 missions but his fellow crew members had not flown but
29 so he decided to go with his crew on their last mission. It was a
night mission to a Schwienfurt, Germany ball bearing factory. After
dropping their bombs they turned for home but were attacked by a
German fighter and one of the bomber's engines caught on fire. They
shut down the engine but the fire persisted. The crew chief decided
to climb out on the wing and try to put the fire out with a fire
extinguisher. He put on a parachute, opened it and the other crew
members bundled the shroud lines into one and fed it out to him as he
crept out onto the wing. The idea was that if he was successful,
they would pull him back in. The pilot slowed the aircraft to 140
knots and out he went. He made it to the engine fire and almost had
the fire out when the German fighter that had started the fire in the
first place returned for another pass. The crew chief was hit and
fell off the wing and those holding on released the parachute. The
parachute opened but had caught on fire passing by the flaming
engine. The pilot ordered a bailout and all but two escaped and were
captured and imprisoned including the crew chief. That's right, in
spite of him being wounded and his parachute on fire, he survived and
lived to return to England.
The
human spirit is something to behold.
I
cannot figure out what the hell this world coming to. The other day
I was driving from my condo to a place on Woodruff Road here in
Greenville, SC. I don't normally go on this road at all because it
is similar to that can of worms where I-5 nears Pasadena, Ca. or
trying to leave DFW (Dallas Ft. Worth) airport. Woodruff Road is not
good for my demeanor but I promised this person to meet her at a
place on this abomination for lunch. Anyway, I was following an
unknown woman in a VW beetle convertible. This b-tch was using the
rear view mirror to put on make up, lipstick, combing her eyelashes
and talking on the cell phone at the same time. She was all over the
place. I finally was able to get around her but I was so mad that I
almost threw my martini at her.
A
while back while the largest wildfire in the history of Arizona was
sweeping the sides of entire mountains, a group of 20 smoke jumpers
that call themselves the “Granite Mountain Hotshots” engaged the
fire in an attempt to suppress this monster. The fire was a result
of a hell of long drought and and invasion of bark beetles a few
years ago that resulted in a massive die-off of some evergreens
setting the stage for a gigantic wildfire...then lightning struck.
The Granite Mountain Hotshots are recognized as one of the best
wildfire crews in the world. The fire they were fighting all of a
sudden shifted direction and trapped all of them. They wrapped
themselves in the fireproof blankets and hid as best they could. It
was not enough. All were killed except one, probably from
asphyxiation. It is a damned shame that a crew like that, trained to
a razor's edge were destroyed by a mere shift in the wind. But the
reality is that they knew what they were getting into when they
started training and accepted the risk. I once was an air traffic
controller in Pensacola where the Blue Angels were based. They would
fly out over the Gulf of Mexico and train almost every day. On one
occasion two of the planes collided and both plunged into the
water...one pilot ejected successfully and the other one was killed.
We had a new secretary that was once worked with the Blue Angels.
She was very sad and despondent because she knew the pilot that was
killed. Most of us were sad also except one man named Charlie. He
said “This man knew what the job entailed and was willing to risk
his life for the fame.” That is not quite the same with the
smoke-jumpers but knowing you are the one of the best in the world at
your profession, especially a risky one is a strong attraction, the
danger not withstanding.
A
reminder of times past:
To
no one's surprise the United States has seen fit to stick its nose in
another country's business. A while back there was millions of
people demonstrating in the streets of Cairo, Egypt against the new
President Morsi. The Egyptian military sent out an ultimatum to the
President to listen to the complaints of the demonstrators and do
something or they would come in and take over. That tactic is known
as a military coup. The US Secretary of State stated that the US
will not sit still for a military coup in the only US ally in the
middle East. US ally? Egypt is a totally Muslim country and it is
hard for me to believe that the US considers Egypt an “ally”. So
one day we may see the US Army and Marines driving across the thirsty
Negev Desert. Let's see now...Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan and
Afghanistan...a hell of a lot of desert and rivers ,Tigris and
Euphrates among others. I think our military is fed up with the
deserts and are in need of more foilage. Lets pull out and invade
Honduras or maybe Costa Rica. A few years ago I spent a week in a
Costa Rican resort on the Pacific Coast. It was a wonderful vacation
but the only drawback was that this resort had no “brown” whiskey
meaning Canadian Club, Jack Daniels, etc. They also only had the
local beer that is made in country called Nationale. The beer was OK
but I got fed up with gin, tequila, rum, etc. The reason that there
was only these beverages was the resort was all inclusive. The food
was OK, but not what we expect here in the good old USA. What made
the trip a success was the Costa Rican people. They were all very
kind, nice and polite. Great people. I would like to go again.
This
Date in History July 3
1863 This, the final
day of the Battle of Gettysburg, sees CSA General Robert E. Lee
giving CSA General James Longstreet the battle plan for the day. Lee
believes that since the Union flanks were attacked yesterday, the
Union will reinforce there leaving the very center of their line
weakened. So he ordered Longstreet to plan an attack on the center
of the Union lines. Longstreet is not thrilled with this operation
and told Lee that he thinks a frontal assault will fail but Lee
stands fast and Longstreet begins ironing out the details of the
attack. His plan is to gather about 15,000 soldiers, and spread them
out in a line about a mile long and attack. And at the last moment,
all of the troops would turn and attack one spot. That spot was a
clump of trees in the center of the Union lines. Lee picked the
clump of trees because they would be visible to all. The attack
began about 1:00p with a two hour long artillery barrage by the
Confederates which was the most powerful barrage ever fired in North
America. The Union leaders were taken by surprise at such a
ferocious barrage but they knew what was coming next. After the
barrage lifted, the infantry stepped out of McPherson’s Woods and
began their march across an open field about a mile across. I have
been there and let me tell you, there was no cover anywhere on that
field. The lead element of the infantry was CSA General George
Pickett’s division. Almost as soon as they cleared the woods, the
infantry came under artillery fire from the Union batteries which
continued during the entire attack. The Confederates had to cross
Emmitsburg Road which was fenced on both sides and the Confederates
were slightly delayed tearing down the fences. This allowed the
Union artillery to re-aim and the result was devastating to the
Confederates. They were broken up into small clumps of men rather
than a unified front. By then they were within range of the Union
riflemen and the fire cut the Confederates down like wheat.
Eventually, the Confederates reached the Union lines and hand to hand
combat ensued. The Confederates had lost so many men that they could
not break the Union line and had to retreat back across that open
field still being hounded by the Union artillery. After the firing
ceased, there were over 7,000 Confederates dead on the field. Lee
was expecting a counter-attack and told his officers to prepare a
defense. When he told George Pickett to “see to your division”.
Pickett responded with “General Lee, I have no division.” It was
true. Only a handful of Pickett’s men made it back across that
field. The Union did not counter-attack as expected and Lee ordered
his troops to gather up and prepare to go back to Virginia. The next
morning during a deluge, the Army of Northern Virginia began the long
trek back across the Potomac and the safety of home.
1989 On this date
down in Georgia, Martha Ann Johnson is arrested for the murder of her
daughter Jennyann Bowen. That’s right folks, I said her daughter.
And that ain’t all, listen to this. An Atlanta newspaper picked up
on this and did some research and found out that this monster had a
string of dead children going back to 1977. It began in 1977 after
she married her third husband Earl Bowen and she was just 21 years
old. She had two children by her previous marriages. She and Bowen
had a fuss and Earl left. Soon thereafter, she takes her 6 month old
son James to the emergency room dead. The attending physician
diagnosed it as SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). After this Earl
decided to come back to her in her grief. After a while another fuss
occurs and Earl takes a hike. You guessed it, the other child shows
up dead and again it is diagnosed as SIDS. Again Earl comes back and
they reconcile. The have two children together, Jennyann and Earl,
Jr. Things rock along for a while until another spat happens and
Earl splits. Little Earl, Jr shows up dead and you can guess what
the diagnosis was. During a visit with a Social Worker to help
little Jennyann get over the loss of Earl, Jr., Jennyann tells the
worker that she is afraid of her mother. The worker blows it off and
sends her home. The worst possible thing happens, Earl leaves again
but this time it is for good. Jennyann was her last victim. After
her arrest, Martha Ann readily admitted to killing Earl, Jr and
Jennyann but denied killing the other two. She said she wanted Earl
to come back and since he did so in the past after a death of her
children, he would not come back this time. She said she killed her
kids by sitting on them resulting in asphyxiation. This broad
weighed more than 275 pounds, ya’ll. At the trial she recanted her
confession but the jury was shown the taped confession and they
convicted her of 1st
degree murder. After this, the diagnosis of SIDS was looked at a lot
closer in the state of Georgia. Martha Ann was sentenced to death
and her appeal to the Georgia State Supreme Court was rejected in
1991. There are many, many punishments I can think of for this
animal in killing little children that depended on her to take care
of them, protect them and love them. Yes, there are many
punishments.
1775 On this date
George Washington officially takes command of the fledgling
Continental Army. George was selected for two reasons. He had
experience in military tactics from the French and Indian War.
Washington was an officer in that struggle, and secondly he was a
Virginian. Congress believed that the southern colonies would more
readily follow another southerner and they were right. Washington
saw his ragtag army develop into a viable fighting force and defeat
that most powerful army in the world. After the war Washington went
back to his plantation, Mount Vernon. But he answered his countries
call again when in 1789 he was selected to be the first President of
these United States. He served for two terms but refused a third and
went back to Virginia. He died the next year, 1799.
Births
and deaths:
1909 Secretary of
Agriculture Earl Butz is born. He said of the Pope’s ruling on
birth control “He no playa da game, he no makea de rules.” It is
obvious Earl wasn’t Catholic.
Quotable
quotes:
“A
hard man is good to find’"
Mae West\
Her words y'all.
“I
don’t at all like knowing what people say about me behind my back,
it makes me far too conceited.”
Oscar
Wilde
Oscar was aflame, but
a brilliant writer.
“I
chased this woman until I found out that we had the same interest.
We liked girls”.
Groucho
Marx
Groucho was a dirty old man, funny but dirty.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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