Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Promise me you will always remember. You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

                           Christopher Robin to Pooh Bear written by A.A. Milne

It would do all of us good to start the day by looking in the mirror and repeat this sentence.

Yesterday I decided to stay home and take advantage of my movie library. I also felt in a very romantic mood so I watched “Mississippi Burning” (Gene Hackman), “Dirty Harry” (Clint Eastwood), “Gladiator” (Russell Crowe) and “Saving Private Ryan” (Tom Hanks).

A few days ago I gave y'all a small outline of “The Iliad” by Homer which was a tale of the Trojan War. Now here is an outline of “The Odyssey” also by Homer which is a tale about the adventures of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca on his way back home from Troy. Odysseus had many adventure as told by Homer that involved much of Greek mythology including various Gods and Goddesses. He and his sailors encountered Circe, Calypso, Neptune, Polyphemus the Cyclops, Zeus, Hera, etc. The Cyclops was the son of Neptune and had captured Odysseus and his crew. They escaped by stabbing the Cyclops in his one and only mid-forehead eye and sailed away. Neptune found out about this and since he was the God of the seas, he sent a storm that destroyed Odysseus' ship(s) and all were killed except Odysseus. He washed ashore on an island whose only occupant was Calypso. This girl was a Goddess and therefore immortal, she was also a stone fox and very, very sexually active. Odysseus stayed with this lovely child for seven years. She offered this man immortality and sex forever. He finally began looking out to sea longing for Ithaca and his wife and son. Calypso did not want Odysseus to leave but Gods higher up directed her to release him. She gave him food, water and allowed him to build a raft and off he went. Through a series of other adventures he finally arrived on the shores near his kingdom, he had been gone 20 years. There is an island in the Aegean Sea named Ithaka, by the way. The really strange thing is that in the book Odysseus said that Venus was just above the horizon at dawn and there was a solar eclipse and a new moon on the day Odysseus landed. Astronomers figure out that this was sometime in mid-April in the year 1197BC which is exactly when Homer said it was. It is difficult for me to believe that Homer had known about the time and location of Venus, a solar eclipse and the moon phase 300 years earlier. The remainder of this tale as to how Odysseus recovered his kingdom is a tale in its own and is worthy of your enjoyment. In Homer's days no one read books like this, just a chosen few would narrate these books to assembled crowds. Every adventure of Odysseus was separate book. After completion of all these adventures Homer editorialized by saying that even immortality and a willing beautiful woman for eternity does not equal a wife and family. Homer also surmised that without the fear of death there could be no courage and bravery. Think about that y'all.

When I was in the air traffic control business one of the most used procedures was a “visual approach”. This involves the air traffic controller guiding the plane into a position where the pilot could see the airport and the landing runway with enough distance and elevation to land himself. After all, to get a pilots license in the first place a potential pilot must make hundred of landings and takeoffs using visual information only. That crash in San Francisco was because the foreign pilot (and/or the co-pilot) saw the airport and the landing runway and was instructed to “Take over visually and complete the landing”. From that point they apparently had no concept of what elevation and distance they were from the end of the runway and overshot, landed long and fast...and crashed. The FAA has issued a directive that all foreign commercial airliners find the runway end using GPS rather than their visual information and judgment. That way they will know exactly how far they are from touchdown and adjust their elevation and speed appropriately. Another problem: Frequently pilots will be told things like “Follow the Delta Boeing 7-4-7 at 2 o'clock three miles, advise when you have it in sight”. When the pilot advises that he has the aircraft in sight he/she is told “Follow the 7-4-7 and contact the tower on freq....”). What is a foreign pilot going to do here? There are variations on this theme at different airports but judgment from the pilot is imperative. The FAA stated that there has been an unusually large number of aborted landing by foreign airlines at San Francisco because of bad pilot judgment of distance and elevation. It is apparent to me that foreign airline pilots are used to being radar guided by air traffic control to a point in line with the landing runway, and told what their altitude should be before letting them continue visually. That ain't the way it is here in the good ole USA, you have be a pilot not a bus driver. If you plan a trip involving a foreign airline and San Francisco...be afraid...be very afraid.

Your friend and mine Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona made a recent appearance on “Good Morning America”. As expected Joe stood up on his hind legs and made his position perfectly clear. He said that if any immigration protestors blocked the doors of his prison he would have no problem arresting them all and showing them what the inside looked like for several days. He also said that he did not understand what all the hype was about. He said that it is against the law to enter this country illegally and the perpetrators should be punished to limit of the law. Like I said, I know what the hype is about; it is about Obama knowing that 26% of the vote that put him in the White House is the Latinos. What all the left wing media neglects to tell you is that the Mexican drug gangs and street gangs like MS-13 blend in with the avalanche of illegal immigrants including the juveniles. How are we supposed to tell the difference between those that want to make a better life and those that want to suck our blood? I feel no sympathy, y’all. Mexico is a lot older than the United States yet they have always been a society of the “haves and the have nots” with nothing in between inspired by unbridled corruption and domination since recorded history. Dominated by outside powers like Spain and France. It is true that the United States is a “nation of immigrants” or a “melting pot”. The difference is that our ancestors were invited and were not interlopers which instilled a sense of pride and loyalty. I would like to see a show of hands of those who believe that all of these illegal immigrants have the depth of Patriotism for this country that brings tears to your eyes as it does mine. It is not, and will not, be an eventuality.

During the American Civil War there were several units totally composed of recent immigrants, especially the Irish and Germans. They wanted to preserve this nation that had taken them in when they had nowhere else to go. I can assure you that you would not see that from the illegal Latinos. Theft and lawlessness is apparently a way of life for them for the most part, there are exceptions.

A few years ago I had planned to rent a house on the beach near Merida, Mexico which is about 80 miles west of Cancun. The owner was from New Mexico and he sent me a few tips to make my trip more enjoyable. One of his points was to never leave anything outside unattended or it would be stolen and petty theft is more or less tolerated. He said they would not break in but anything outside unattended was considered abandoned and fair game including beach towels and wash cloths left on a hand rail to dry out, etc. A grill was to be taken out, used, and then wait for it to cool off and take it back in…or else lose it.

I also had a friend in the engineering business that was assigned a project in Puerto Rico. After a while he found out the same philosophy of occasional petty theft would be tolerated by the local constabulary and they would say things like “The people that stole your stuff are probably a lot poorer than you.” My friend solved it by buying a trained Doberman...that got the job done.

This Date in History July 30

1780 On this date Patriot Colonel Isaac Shelby and his division of 600 infantry captured Fort Thicketty which was about 10 mile southeast of Cowpens, South Carolina. Shelby and his troops were able to capture the fort that was manned totally by Loyalists without firing a shot. Earlier Shelby was part and parcel of the Battle of Kings Mountain, North Carolina where British General Thomas Ferguson and his division of Loyalists were trapped on top of a small mountain in the King’s mountain range near the North Carolina/South Carolina border and the Patriots had the bottom of the mountain surrounded. Even though Ferguson and his troops surrendered, he and his troops were annihilated. With Ferguson on horse back, he raised a white hanky as a signal of surrender and said “I am an officer in his majesty’s army and will be treated with dignity and respect.” This comment was met with at least 8 musket balls and Ferguson was dead as fried chicken before he hit the ground. This action was caused by the slaughter of 200 Patriots a few weeks earlier that had surrendered to the infamous British Colonel Banaste Tarleton at the village of Waxhaw just south of present day Charlotte, NC and all were bayoneted and/or killed. Word of Shelby and his “over the mountain” men had reached the Loyalists at Fort Thicketty and they wanted no part of Shelby and company. Shelby went on down and defeated the British at the Battle of Cedar Springs (in the center of the present day city of Spartanburg, SC) and on down to the Battle of Musgrove Mill which is about 30 mile southwest of Spartanburg. Shelby and his “over the mountain” men were bloodthirsty and ruthless and everybody knew it, especially the Loyalists. The “over the mountain” men were those back country men that came down from the wilds of the Appalachian Mountains to kill the British and were good at it. Speaking of good at it, Shelby was born in Maryland and was involved in Pontiac’s War. He scalped his first Indian at the age of 13. The city of Shelby, North Carolina is named for this Patriot

1619 This date saw the first gathering of a legislative body in America. The House of Burgesses was founded in the choir section of the local church in Jamestown, Virginia. It had been 12 years since Jamestown had been founded and the financier of this expedition was The London Company, a group of investors, and they required a legislative body in the colony. 22 people were voted into office by the local adult males. The first thing they did was establish the minimum price for tobacco. Then they established a law defining what a person could and could not do on the Sabbath. These folks were very religious, ya’ll. By the way, in old English “Burgess” means “the public”.

1863 On this date Shoshone chief Pocatello signed the treaty of Box Elder Creek making the immigrants able to cross southern Idaho safely. At one time the Bannock Shoshone were one of the most powerful tribes on the Great Plains. But a white man’s disease called smallpox had swept through the tribe in the epidemic of 1781 decimating their number to the point that the fierce Blackfoot had pushed them off the plains and into the mountains. Then there came an even more dangerous group in the Lewis and Clark expedition carrying even more white man’s diseases. The Shoshone wanted to be friends with the white man so they could lay their hands on firearms to defeat the hated Blackfoot. But 50 years later the Shoshone finally realized that the white man was a much more dangerous threat than the Blackfoot but it was too late, the pioneers and settlers were well established along with the US Cavalry.

Born today:

1891 Baseball manager Casey Stengel. He said “The key to being a good manger is to keep those people that hate you away from those that are undecided.” Casey was funny.

Died today:

1784 French philosopher Denis Diderot. He said “All children are essentially criminal.” Tack onto that “especially those little monsters in restaurants sitting in a booster chair five feet from me screaming in their gravelly voices “NO I DON”T WANT THAT, I WANT ICE CREAM!!!!!” I have asked more than one waitress to go knock those brats out. They never do.

1975 Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. He had said “I don’t need bodyguards”. On this date Jimmy was sitting in his Cadillac outside of a restaurant near Detroit one minute and the next minute he, his car and driver disappeared from the planet and have never been found to this day. I don’t know Jimmy, but maybe a couple of means guys with 1911's close by might have prevented that. But for today, goodbye Jimmy wherever you are.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow