Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“A fanatic is someone who won't change their mind and refuses to change the subject.”

Winston Churchill

I don't get it. Up in Baltimore, and to a degree here in Greenville, SC. and many other places, there is a problem with young teenagers running wild. The kids TELL their parents that they are going to “hang out” and don't wait up. Then they go terrorized people on the street because when they are threatened with corporal punishment for disobedience they say “Your can't touch me because I will call the cops.” I don't really want to use myself as an example but I was spanked for anything resembling disobedience or misbehavior and so did everyone I knew...it was expected. Think about the kids that were brought up in the 20's, they were without question spanked for doing the wrong thing, went through the Great Depression and then they saved the world in World War II. Were they mentally scarred? You tell me. The greatest compliment I ever received was from one of my daughters. They (3) were raised for the most part in Pensacola, Florida. They all played sports, girl scouts, gymnastics, various group and family activities...they were busy year round. The oldest daughter said that if they had not been busy like this there is a good chance that they would have been on the streets in trouble. I played city league softball myself. I am not taking credit for all of this, their mother was a immensely positive influence on their lives and still is. I would hope that the threat of corporal punishment was not the reason for this unity...I would hope is was love and respect for each other. I was for me. As with all family units, there were squabbles and disagreements but we all are in relatively good shape. We are not together physically, but my mind and spirit is with them...and will be. I recently read about an interview with Bobby Bowden, the ex head coach at Florida State. He said that many of his players were without discipline and respect for others because they did not have it at home...many had no father figure and it made a difference. Bill Cosby said essentially the same thing.

Here is a brief history of what happened after Henry VIII.

This information came from a book donated to me by an expert on English royalty...Thanks Russ.

Henry had three children...Edward, Mary and Elizabeth. During his lifetime Henry had decreed that only those with Tudor blood and of a protestant religion could be his heir to the throne of England and this decree was seconded by Parliament. The first in line was Edward simply because he was male and after Henry died, he became Edward VI, king of England. The king normally has a council whose job is to advise the king on serious issues. This created a problem. The most powerful man in the council of Edward VI was John Dudley. John was of royal blood and titled Duke of Northumberland. For the sake of brevity I will use “John” rather than The Duke of Northumberland. John had two sons named Robert and Guilford. Robert was a a bachelor for the most part but Guilford was married to Lady Jane Grey. Lady Jane had royal blood and was a protestant. John felt that by hook and crook he could get Lady Jane on the throne which would make Guilford king and untold wealth and power for the family. The problem was Edward. He took the throne at about the age of 12 and John knew there would be years of waiting so he decided to slowly poison Edward with arsenic. Edward got sicker and sicker and finally died at the age of 15. John then went on a campaign of pushing Lady Grey to the throne. According to Henry VIII the next in line for the throne after Edward would have been Mary. Mary was the issue of Henry VIII and Catherine Howard and Elizabeth was the child of Henry and Anne Boleyn. The problem was that Mary was a very adamant and loyal Catholic which, according to Henry VIII, made her not eligible for the throne. The people of England had a choice. A queen that was not totally of Tudor blood (probably Plantagenet) but was a protestant or a queen that was Tudor blood but was a Catholic. When Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church, many persons of royalty seized the lands and properties of the Catholic church. The idea of a Catholic becoming the monarch once more could possibly result in the lands and properties previously seized would have to be returned to the church. This did not sit well with the high born new property owners. Several of the royalty in the Council backed John hoping that Guilford would become King and they would get a piece of the pie. The people chose blood and a serious uprising began among the English people clamoring for Mary as queen and Catholicism would be allowed as long as the seized properties would NOT have to be returned to the church. Lady Jane Grey had already accepted the crown but very reluctantly. She knew she did not deserve the throne but her husband and father in law insisted. Eventually an army of the people grew to about 60,000 and John and his followers knew they were in deep doo-doo. All of John's family, his followers and Lady Jane Grey were captured and thrown into the Tower. Eventually John, Lady Jane and two of John's followers were sentenced to death by hanging, drawn and quartering for treason. Mary changed sentences to a more merciful beheading with an ax. The others, including Robert, did time in the Tower and then were released. John was the first on the block and Lady Jane was the last. The executioner had to deliver two blows to Lady Jane and even then her head was hanging above the basket by a sinew. The executioner had to bend over a cut the sinew with the blade of the ax. I know, it is gory but that was the way things were in 16^th century England. Mary received the coronation and the crown and was named queen. She was the first female monarch in England in 300 years. Her half-sister Elizabeth came next and her story is even better. By the way, Elizabeth's lifelong friend/lover was Robert Dudley...remember him? It has been reported that Elizabeth had another lover in the Earl of Essex. That may be true but there is much more documentation for Robert who eventually became the Earl of Leicester but Elizabeth never married him. She said that even though she was really fond of Leicester she would never marry him or anyone else because she did not want her power diluted, Love conquers all...kinda. Thanks again to RW.

     This Date in History    September 12

1933  A man called John (Cannonball) Baker finds his calling in long distance motorcycle trips testing his endurance. Baker was normally in black leather pants and standing on the pegs completed a 3,379 mile trip from New York to San Diego. As you might suspect, the roads were nearly non-existent outside major cities at this point in time and riding over rough terrain standing on the pegs takes its toll on your kidneys, I am a witness to that as I used to ride in my younger days. He later took a 17,000 mile trip visiting every state capitol in the 48 states.

1912    Two automobile enthusiasts try to gather enough money together to build a transcontinental road from New York to San Francisco. They came up with $10 million in private funds but needed a little more so they approached Henry Ford and that jackass refused to contribute so they went to the president of Packard and he delivered $1.7 million and suggested that they name it the Lincoln Memorial Highway to make it eligible for federal funds. And sure enough they did and enough funds were found and the construction was started. This road later became the famous Route 66.

1992    Actor Anthony Perkins died of AIDS. I guess Tony’s most memorable performance was as Norman Bates in the horror thriller Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Friendly Persuasion but he was severely miscast as the baseball star Jim Pearsall in the movie Fear Strikes Out where Pearsall was pushed relentlessly by his father to become a major league baseball player. Pearsall finally did get to the major leagues but was crazy as a bedbug because of the pressure his father had put on him. Anthony Perkins obviously was no athlete and it was apparent when you saw him swing a bat or throw a ball, I felt embarrassed for him. His ways and demeanor were very effeminate. Anthony finished out his career capitalizing on his Norman Bates thing with 5 or 6 sequels to Psycho.

1861 CSA Gen. Sterling Price captures Lexington, Missouri after a nine day siege. Price had surrounded the town and cut off the water supply and just waited and therefore there were almost no casualties. Price was the CSA commander at the Battle of Wilson Creek a month before where the US army got the crap kicked out of it and its forces were scattered to the four winds.

1968 Ford and Nissan decide to create a minivan specifically aimed at the gutless, spineless, yuppie, PW’ed husbands that may be out there in suburbia. It was an immediate success because there are apparently more of the above men than anyone had ever dreamed. What makes me say this is once I was working in a men’s clothing store and a man and his wife and two kids come in the store. The man is responsible for keeping the kids corralled and the wife goes through the clothing picking out stuff for him. After all is said and done and they start to leave, I cannot resist so I take a very bold teal colored tie to the man and suggest that this is the hot color this year for the strong minded executives. It really wasn’t but I just wanted to stir up some sh-t and the man went to the front door and yells at his wife, who is already sitting in the DRIVER’S seat of a Ford Windstar, “Honey, can I get this tie?” She said “Not this time.” I asked him what he did and said he was a financial planner. This man is suppose to make decisions on people's financial futures and can’t make a decision on a tie on his own? I don’t think so. I had forgotten how spineless the American male had become, this reminded me.

1977    Steve Biko, a black activist against apartied in South Africa, dies of head trauma in Pretoria. Biko had been a thorn in the side of white South Africa for some years trying to make the country democratic with equal treatment for all. He was arrested enroute to a political rally in Port Elizabeth and taken to a prison that was notorious for torture and killing. That’s right folks, like it or not our Caucasian brethren used Nazi tactics to keep the blacks suppressed. During his 18 day stay he obviously was severely beaten because when they brought his out he was comatose but they offered no medical treatment and put him in the back of a van and drove him over 700 miles to Pretoria, hung him by his wrist from a window frame where he died. Even though former guards have testified that they grabbed Steve by the arms, bent him over and ran him headlong into a stone wall no one was ever sentenced for this outrage. But later on apartied was abolished and a black man named Nelson Mandela was elected president. Maybe this atones for Steve Biko’s torture and death, maybe. As all of us know, there are martyrs in every search for justice and freedom, history is full of them and now Steve Biko’s name has been added.

Born today:

1852   English Prime Minister Henry Asquith. He said “The War Department keep three sets of figures. One to fool Parliament, one to fool the public and one to fool itself. It is the same over here, Henry.

1880  US writer H.L. Mencken. He said “Everyone should respect other’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children are smart.” Mencken was a famous atheist.

1888   French actor Maurice Chevalier. He said “Old age is not so bad, considering the alternative.” Good thinking there, Maurice.

1917   Chinese writer Han Suyin. He said “The most powerful force in the world is gentleness.” Han, that is a hard pill to swallow when speaking of those rat shit Arab terrorists.

               Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow