Tuesday

Good Morning,

Quote of the day:

“There will be a clear cold morning when there isn't any “more”. No more hugs, no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat. I seems to me that one of the important things to do before that morning comes, is let your friends and family know that you care for them and finding simple ways to let them know your heartfelt beliefs and guiding principles of your life so they can say 'He was my friend and I knew where he stood.'”

Clint Eastwood

While the media is continuing to foster and promote racial unrest lets remember this. At the peak of the rioting in Ferguson there were 76 arrests of which 12 were local, the rest were from out of state. Why were they there?

 

Also, while the media I covering the funeral of young Brown like a blanket, I request that you remember the “Darkhorse” or the 3^rd Battalion, 5^th Marines who recently lost 12 men in 4 days in Afghanistan. What? You did not know that? Wonder why?

I hardly know where to begin so I will start with this. There used to be a small railroad that came through downtown Greenville and the locals called it “The Swamp Rabbit” and is about 14 miles long in this area. The rail line was discontinued but the track remained. The local powers that be decided that if the tracks and ties were gone it would be a great jogging and bicycle trail and so the rails and the ties were removed and sold and the track bed was manicured into a smooth surface. The track became very popular for joggers, bicyclists and muggers. The muggers wait in ambush in thick brush and attack the joggers and bikers. Not only that, there have been two homicide victims found near the trail. It is crap like this that makes me an advocate of medieval justice and punishments. There is little doubt in my mind that the gallows, block, guillotine, iron maiden, hot iron bars, the rack, a variety of disemboweling tools and finally a Clydesdale tied to each limb and lashed a couple of times would decrease crime...but we are above that...aren't we?

I saw a TV program that was questioning whether the mystique of Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey will be as popular overseas as it is in America. I know several people that work or have worked in many foreign countries and they all say that you can go into almost any bar in the world and say “Jack and ginger” and the bartender will know what you are talking about. According to the distiller the newest and most profitable markets are in Poland, and Australia. Jack used to be my favorite but I have switched over to Makers Mark...but almost anything will do.

Here is a trick I used on wildlife that had become a pest. I used to live in a remote forest on top of a mountain peak in Pickens county S.C. I began having trouble with squirrels (both gray and flying) trying to get into my attic by burrowing in beside my chimney. The house was wooden and the chimney was brick. Finally I bought some poplar (soft wood) I X 2's and soaked them in Tabasco for a few weeks, I then tacked them tight against the chimney in the area they had been gnawing. After a while I heard some squealing from the squirrels and they stopped gnawing...for a while.

A couple of days ago on the edge and center of the so-called “entertainment district” of downtown there have been muggings, beatings and armed robberies and nearly all the culprits are teenagers. The latest is an armed robbery within a block of the much advertised “Fluor Field” (a minor league baseball stadium) a couple was robbed of their wallets and cell phones at gunpoint. This kind of crap is on the fast track upward here in the “progressive New South”. I wonder what the media would say or do if those two teenagers that been shot and killed by the victims. I can assure you that racial prejudice would be an alleged issue because the two teenagers that were arrested were African-Americans and the couple that was mugged were white. It really does not make a difference to me because a crime is a crime but it would be fodder for the news media. By the way the last four arrests for assault and robbery downtown were African-American and Caucasian teenagers. WHERE THE HELL ARE THEIR PARENTS OR CAREGIVERS? Who would be the first to raise hell if one of the kids was killed in the commission of a crime regardless of race. It would be the parents behaving like they were grief-stricken. That is baloney and you all know it...I don't go downtown for the above stated reasons...but if I do...I know where there is this small, five shot nickel plated, .38 special revolver.....

By the way, my maternal grandfather was a policeman in the city of Greenville many years ago. He and his partner officer Kitchens raided a poker game and a gunfight erupted. My grandfather Alford Blair (I was named after him) and officer Kitchens were both killed. This happened on Park Avenue which is near downtown. My grandfather and officer Kitchens have their badges of the wall of honor in the Greenville Law Enforcement Center. The killer ran away to North Carolina and got into another gunfight with the cops and was arrested. The man that killed my grandfather was electrocuted in North Carolina 3 months later. My grandmother was invited to the execution. She refused and continued in her duties of taking care of her five children.

Here is some news, most of it bad. Nigerian law enforcement has busted a house in the capitol of Lagos where unexpurgated slavery was in progress. They found 23 children in one room from the age of 19 months to 9 that were for sale, y'all. The bad part was this house had been in business for at least 20 years but the authorities were not sure what kind of business was there until recently. DID NOT KNOW??? I smell major bribery for a lot of years here. Anyway, slavery is alive and well in this world today.

If I asked what female athlete made the most money most of you would say either Serena or Venus Williams or maybe Danica Patrick. It is neither one, it is Maria Sharapova. Even though she is not in the spotlight as often and the others, she has several big time contracts especially with Nike, Ericcson, Tiffany and others making her twice as wealthy as any other athletes. Her contract with Nike alone is rumored to be about $70 million. By the way, Maria has a kick-ass body....the last I heard she lived in Monte Carlo.

When President Obama and family was on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. At an earlier time, it is reported that he stopped by a book store and bought books for his kids to read. He made good choices here. He bought To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Red Pony by John Steinbeck (one of my favorite authors). For himself he was given Freedom by Jonathon Franzen. This book was not on the shelves yet but an advanced copy was forthcoming. Here is a few interesting facts about Harper Lee. She was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She wrote only the one book and was awarded that Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her efforts. The book was about racial prejudice as she saw it in Monroeville while she was growing up. A little known fact was that she assisted her good friend Truman Capote in the writing of the immortal book In Cold Blood. Both books were made into Oscar winning movies. Mockingbird starred Gregory Peck and In Cold Blood starred Robert Blake.

                     This Date in History August 26

1346 Ever since William the Conqueror crossed over from France in 1066 and successfully invaded England, there had been succession of English invasions of France to try to claim the section of France known as Normandy as part of the English Empire. William the Conqueror was William the Duke of Normandy before he was the king of England and successive English kings felt that William’s lands in Normandy now belonged to the English crown. Naturally, the French kings called bullshit on that and several battles were fought in Normandy. On July 12 English King Edward III landed on the coast of Normandy with an army of 14,000. After raping and pillaging French countryside, King Edward headed toward Calais as did nearly every English invasion force because Calais was a very important deep water port on the English Channel that the English needed for re-supply. On this date, King Edward met the French army near the village of Crecy in Normandy. The French army was led by French king Philip IV at the head of 8,000 mounted knights and 4,000 Genoese crossbowmen. The French army had no idea that Edward’s army had a secret weapon, the newly perfected longbow. Anyway, Edward awaited the French attack and late in the afternoon Phillip sent in the Genoese crossbowmen who were met by a hailstorm of English arrows at a range out of the reach of the crossbow. The longbow had an effective range of over 200 yards, unheard of in those days. The Genoese crossbowmen withdrew and then Phillip sent in his 8,000 mounted knights who met the same fate as the Genoese. The air was filled with arrows from the English with the arrows tipped with the newly designed bodkin arrowheads designed to penetrate armor and chain mail. The French knights and their horses fell in writhing mass in the center of the battle ground. After all was said and done, King Phillip had lost over 4,000 men and horses whilst the English lost less than 100. This battle was significant because it marked the end of great horse cavalry attacks over open ground. The English longbow had changed the method battle and tactics forever. King Edward continued his march to Calais and began a siege. The city surrendered to Edward early in 1347.

1968 This was a time of unrest in America. The United States was involved in an unpopular war in Vietnam and there were many protesters of the war on the streets. On this date the Democratic Convention opened at the International Amphitheater in Chicago seeking to come up with a presidential candidate. It looked like it was going to be Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Anyway the streets outside the Ampitheater were filled with war protesters which were expected. The Democratic Party had almost changed their Convention location to Miami because of the fear that protest marches would get out of hand in Chicago, but cooler heads prevailed when Mayor Daley of Chicago assured them that his cops could contain nearly any eventuality. Daley then told the chief of police to not let the protesters get out of hand no matter what action it took to suppress them. Well, sure enough the protester showed up and so did the Chicago PD and the Illinois National Guard. At one point the head of the police force in front of the Amphitheater ordered the protestors off the street and as you might suspect, a riot broke out. The protesters did not have a chance; the Chicago PD immediately waded into them and the cracked skulls and other bones until the protesters were subdued. It was a police riot, y'all. It did not end in the street. A few police went inside the building and began roughing up some of the delegates and newsmen including Mike Wallace who received a fist to the jaw during the melee. The Chicago police arrested hundreds but released all but seven who they said was the ringleaders and put them on trial. Naturally, this caused even more riots. There were riots on and off until the United States pulled out of South Vietnam and left it to the Communist North Vietnamese in 1973.

1862 After US General George McClellan was severely out-generaled by CSA General Robert E. Lee in the Peninsular Campaign, President Lincoln pulled some of his troops away and assigned them US General John Pope’s Army of Virginia. On this date CSA General Fitzhugh Lee and his cavalry unit captured the railroad depot at Manassas, Virginia. The first large scale engagement had occurred about a year earlier at Manassas. Anyway, when General Pope heard about this he and his army came running. General Lee sent Stonewall Jackson to Manassas to keep and eye on Pope. Pope found out that Jackson was in the area but he could not find Jackson nor his army. Jackson had hidden his troops in the forests and brush along side Bull Run Creek. A day or two later the remainder of Lee’s army arrived and Jackson’s army came screaming out of the woods and joined with the rest of Lee’s Army and swept Pope and his army from the field in a total rout.

Born today:

!853 US inventor Dr. Lee de Forest. In 1952 he said “The use of transistors in radio and television is far into the future.” Dr. de Forest was an inventor; no one said he had vision.

1904 English writer George Isherwood. He said “Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique and not too much imagination.”

Died today:

1910 US writer William James. He said “Some people believe they are thinking when they are just rearranging their prejudices.”

1937 US banker Andrew Mellon. He said “Gentlemen prefer bonds.”

1962 Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefanson. He said “What is the difference between ethical and unethical advertising? Unethical advertisers use lies to deceive the public and ethical advertisers use the truth to deceive the public.” Good observation there, Vil.

Quotable quotes:

“History is a set of lies that has been agreed upon.” Napoleon Bonaparte

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.