Friday

Good Morning,

Quote of the day:

It is not that I am opposed to any church but this is a verified event.

In the 1500's and for centuries before the Catholic Church had been selling “tolerances”. This meant that any Catholic that had committed a sin or was considering doing one could avoid the punishment of God by paying the Catholic church a sum of money and the sin would be allowed or “tolerated”. The Catholic church made billions of income with this scam. A German priest and college professor name Martin Luther finally got fed up and from the pulpit stated that he could not find anything in the Bible that permitted “tolerances”. Back then the Catholic Church did not allow anyone to learn Latin because that is what all Bibles were written in. This allowed the Church to say what was in the Bible knowing that the average Catholic could not read anything much less Latin and this is where “tolerances” was taught to be allowed by the God and the Church. This was a lie, of course, but it brought untold wealth to the church. When Martin Luther stated that “tolerances” were not mentioned in the bible, the church hit the freaking roof because it meant the loss of billions in income. Several representatives of the Vatican paid Martin a visit and promised him a life of unending torture if he did not recant. Luther asked for a day or two to consider this. A couple of days later Luther stated “I will not recant and will only preach and teach what is in the Bible.” This put the Catholic church in a hell of a bind. It meant that if the church punished Martin they would be admitting that they had been lying for centuries about “tolerances”. The Church did not punish Martin but he and nearly everyone else knew that the church had put a price on his head. He was rescued and hidden by one of his wealthy followers. During his exile he wrote the Bible in German and that version was spread across Europe. This was the end of the complete control of the people by the Catholic church and the Reformation had begun. If you are Catholic I am not apologetic...it is what it is.

Lets see what is going on this past week.

A cop in Ferguson, Missouri shot and killed a teenager that he felt was attacking. Alleged eye witnesses said that the kid had his hands in the air, anyway the kid is dead. That night there was a protest march that degenerated into a window busting torrent of burglaries. The very same thing happened in New Orleans when Canal street flooded due to Hurricane Katrina. There was no protest march it was just a case of the streets being flooded so the cops were at a disadvantage and allowed all of those fine citizens to rob and steal unencumbered. Protesting the killing of a black kid my ass. Many of them were just taking the opportunity of being with a large group of people so they would have a better chance at stealing and getting away with it, they are not worried about that kid. If they were, they would be parading not stealing. As Forest Gump said “Character is as character does.”

Then Robin Williams committed suicide. He was a comedic genius in my opinion. What I hate about all of this is everybody that has been within ten feet of Robin has an anecdote about him. I have not read that he did not leave a note of any kind so no one knows what was going through his mind at that minute. Everyone has their own personal dragons to slay. It is time to let that tortured soul rest in peace.

Lauren Bacall died at the age of 89. I guess it was her fencing with Humphrey Bogart in a few movies that got everyone's attention. In the movie “To Have and Have Not” she told Bogie that she was in the next room and If he needed her “To just whistle”. On the way out she said “You know how to whistle don't you? You just put your lips together and blow.” With that deep hoarse voice it was a riveting scene. She will be missed also.

Robin and Lauren have grabbed more press by far than people like Enrico Fermi, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Neils Bohr, Leslie Groves, Albert Einstein and Edward Teller among many others. You know who these people are and what they accomplished don't you? Of course you do. They changed the world...forever. These men were primarily responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb for America.

Lets see:

Enrico Fermi was an Italian immigrant. He taught physics at the University of Chicago. He died of stomach cancer at the age of 53.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was New York born and taught physics at Cal Berkeley. He died of throat cancer at the age of 63.

Niels Bohr was a Dane born in Copenhagen. He taught physics at the University of Copenhagen. He received the Nobel Prize for physics by describing how the atom is structured. He died of natural causes at the age of 81.

Leslie Groves was in overall charge of the “Manhattan Project” which was the name of the project to develop the atomic bomb. He was a US Army Colonel at the time but rose to the rank of a three star general before retiring. He died of natural causes and is buried in Arlington National cemetery.

Albert Einstein was a German Jew that immigrated to America after the outbreak of the Nazi's in 1933. He became the professor-in-residence at Princeton. He received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1922 but was instrumental in the design and creation of the atomic bomb. His formula of E=mc2 is the most recognized in history. He had an abdominal aneurism repaired in 1948. When he was 76 another repair was needed and he refused saying “I want to go when I want to. It is tasteless to stay alive artificially. I have done my part and have no regrets.” He died, was cremated and his ashes spread at an undisclosed location. When Einstein was in his forties another mental giant was born in England in Stephan Hawking.

Edward Teller was a Hungarian born physicist that immigrated to the US. It was he that raised so much hell about the Nazis working hard to develop an atomic bomb which caused the US to get busy developing their own. His contribution to the Manhattan Project was immense. He died at the age of 95 in Stanford, California. It was Teller's design that was used to built the first hydrogen bomb.

                        This Date in History August 15

1812 In 1770 William Wells is born in Pennsylvania and his family moved to Kentucky when little William was nine years old. Four years later William was taken prisoner by the Miami Indians and was adopted by chief Gavlahatte. William adapted well to the Indian lifestyle and eventually became a well respected warrior and married a woman that was the daughter of a prominent war chief. He fought for several years with the Miami against American soldiers trying to push them off their lands. But unfortunately for William, in 1792 the American soldiers captured his wife and adopted mother and offered to release them if William would come over to their side as an interpreter. A meeting with a long lost brother made the transition somewhat easier for William but he still had mixed loyalties the rest of his life. Wells became an invaluable guide and interpreter for the Americans. In 1797 he was appointed Indian agent for the Miami, Delaware, Potawatomie tribes and the other tribes in the “Old Northwest” (present day Midwest). But the continued pressure for the Indians to give up their lands to honkie settlers put William between a rock and a hard place. He did not know who to support. Then the worst possible thing happened. The War of 1812 broke out and the Indians saw this as an opportunity to help the invading British to kick those pesky Americans settlers off their lands and therefore aligned themselves with the British. Now William really did not know what to do. He knew that his niece was married to the commander at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) and he and 30 Miami warriors that were loyal to William headed north to rescue his niece. When they arrived they found the fort surrounded by swarms of hostile Indians but were able to enter the fort anyway. William tried to persuade the Fort commander to sit tight and wait on a larger American force to come to the rescue but the commander overruled William and ordered an evacuation. William dressed himself up and painted himself as a Miami warrior and led a group of 60 or 70 people out of the fort. On this date William and his small group was set upon by a swarm of howling Potawatomie Indians. Fifty of the group were killed and the others were taken captive. William fought valiantly but took a musket ball in the lungs and was dead before he hit the ground. The Potawatomie warriors swarmed over William, cut out his heart, cut it into tiny pieces and gave them out among those present. This act was really an act of honor to William. It showed that those that cut out his heart admired his bravery.

1945 On this date for the first time in the history of the ancient country of Japan, the Emperor made an announcement to the general public using public radio. In a carefully worded statement avoiding the phrase “unconditional surrender”, the emperor said that it was time for Japan to admit that any continued hostilities could result in the complete annihilation of the Japanese as a race, especially since the Russians had invaded Mongolia and was massing on the banks of the Sea of Japan for an invasion of Japan from the north. The Emperor was considered a semi-god by his subjects and anything he uttered must come from heaven. The Emperor knew that if he said “unconditional surrender”, there would be mass suicides nationwide because of the loss of face. Maintaining an individual’s pride was paramount to average Japanese but even more so to the Japanese military. The Potsdam Resolution that demanded Japanese unconditional surrender did back off on one stipulation. They did allow Japan to retain the Mikado or the Emperor but that was it. That is why the United States navy has two naval bases in Japan today.

1994 On this date one of the most ruthless terrorists ever to walk the earth is captured. His name is Illich Ramirez Sanchez better known as Carlos the Jackal. Two French secret agents tracked Carlos down to the city of Khartoum in the Sudan. Since there was no extradition treaty between France and Sudan, the French agents knew they would have to be creative in capturing Carlos. They walked up behind Carlos and stabbed him in the neck with a syringe full of enough drugs to knock down a mule. They dragged him into an alley and hustled his young butt to France to stand trial for various acts of terrorism. Carlos was aligned mostly with the PLO but he was not above working on occasion for whoever coughed up the right amount of cash. In 1975 the French police sent three police officers to arrest Carlos at a Paris apartment. Carlos killed them all and escaped. In late 1975 he and several accomplices broke into an OPEC conference in Vienna and kidnapped 70 officials and demanded ransom. Carlos and company escaped safely with between $25 and $50 million but it took Carlos killing three of the hostages before he was believed and the money was delivered. Anyway, he was tried and convicted and is presently cooling his heels in the basement of some French prison. By the way, the French can be very imaginative when it comes to torture and they proved it during the French Revolution of 1789. Hopefully Carlos is a target of these tried and true methods of retribution.

1983 Almost overnight a hurricane formed south of Louisiana and three days later it slammed ashore in Galveston, Texas as a Category 3 Hurricane named Alicia. A category 3 Hurricane has sustained winds of 100 MPH with gusts to 127 MPH. In spite of Galveston having invested millions of dollars in a seawall to protect the city after the hurricane of 1900 that killed 1,800 people, Alicia brought a 12 foot storm surge and an 11 foot tide with it which flooded each and every home in the Seabrook seashore sub-division. The next day saw 11 inches of rain in Houston and a total of 14 tornadoes between Galveston and Houston (about 40 miles) and nine the day after that. There were 12 killed and billions of dollars in damages. The Galveston seawall held and experts later said if it had not been for the seawall Galveston would not longer exist.

Born today:

1769 Corsican Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. He said “The French complain about everything, and always.” I think they suck too, Napoleon.

1944 US columnist Linda Ellerbee. She said “If men can run the world, why can’t they stop wearing neckties? How intelligent is it to start the day tying a noose around your neck?”

I am with you Linda, but why do women wear a harness around their breasts and start the day applying lipstick, powder and paint to their face and take it all off at night?”

It has been proven that the lipstick, powder and paint has no effect on the sensuality or frequency of a woman’s sex life with her husband. The question is why they lack make-up in the presence of the most important person in their lives ?

Died today:

1835 American humorist Will Rogers. Will was sitting in of a charity event when a long-winded speaker finally finished and the speaker said “Mr. Toastmaster, I am sorry I took so long, I left my watch at home.” Will said “Do you have a calendar?”

                Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow