Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“God does not deduct from a man’s life the time spent fishing.”

Izaak Walton

I am reading a book by Jimmy Buffet. As you might suspect the setting is the Caribbean specifically Cancun, Tulum, Belize and a mythical place named Punta Margharita. The mention of Tulum brought back memories of my visit there during the honeymoon with my third ex-wife. I am a historian especially interested in the Maya. Tulum was a thriving Maya trading post in the 13^th and 14^th centuries. It is located about 70 kilometers south of Cancun with the main building (El Castillo) being on a bluff overlooking a breathtaking beach. El Castillo is built of stone and is three stories tall. There are a number of windows on the top floor facing the Caribbean. No one could figure out the purpose of this building until recently. Paleontologists traveled to the top floor via a tiny staircase and found evidence of lanterns being placed at specific spots. The size of the staircase gave us a hint at the diminutive size of the Maya in general. Like many places in the Caribbean there is a reef just off shore with one natural opening to the beach. It was discovered that if two or three of these lanterns were aligned by boats outside the reef, it would lead them through the natural opening. El Castillo was a type of light house. The Maya were amazing people. What happened to the Maya in Tulum? The Spanish happened. In 1518 a Spanish conquistadors arrived at Tulum and met with fierce resistance but gunpowder and armor prevailed...and so did smallpox, tuberculosis and measles, etc. There is a place in Maya mythology called Xilbalba (She-bahl-ba). It is a name for the underworld or hell. Considering the person I was with on this trip, I made a visit to Xibalba also.

I saw a program on the history channel about strange lights on earth that are unexplained. One of them was about Brown Mountain, North Carolina where strange lights have been seen for centuries. Scientists went up there with all sorts of gadgets and cameras to diagnose this phenomenon. Sure enough the lights showed up and the eggheads took pictures from several different angles and sent them to several analytical laboratories. The lights are still unexplained, that is until they talked to an old Cherokee. He explained it this way: Back in the year 1200 there was a ferocious battle between a tribe of Cherokees and a tribe of Creeks at the base of Brown Mountain. On the night after the battle the Cherokee and Creek women carrying torches went among the corpses trying to find if any of their loved ones were still alive. The lights that people have been seeing ever since then are the ghosts of those women. That explains it to me.

Over in Spartanburg, South Carolina two women went to visit a friend. As soon as the door was opened the owner’s pit bull attacked the women who retreated to their car and the pit bull continued the attack trying to get at them through the windows. The owner tried to pull the dog away and was attacked himself. The dog bit him in the face and when he backed away the dog grabbed him by the arm and held on. By then a sheriff’s deputy arrived and shot the dog in the chest with his trusty 9mm but the attack continued. The deputy fired once again and the dog died but still held on to the owner’s arm. It took the EMS crew using a large screwdriver to pry the dog’s mouth open. I don’t care what Cesar Millan says, that breed has been used for fighting since before colonial times and their genetics have been affected. They can and will be dangerous, “Daddy” notwithstanding. By the way, the Animal Rescue of Spartanburg was called and they refused to come out until their shift supervisor ordered them to and then only after they had learned that the dog had been killed. That is an example of our tax dollars at work.

This Date in History November 24

1859 After spending five years at sea aboard the exploratory ship the HMS Beagle, English scientist Charles Darwin finally published a book about what he had seen and deduced during his travels. He waited quite a few years before publishing The Origin of Species because he knew how much hell would be raised by the evangelicals. The books tell how man adapted to his environment through the “survival” of the fittest” meaning those creatures that had the right distribution of the genetics would survive whilst those that did not would perish. Those creatures with the right genetics would continue to thrive and reproduce their images. If there was a change in the environment, then there would be another period of testing whereby those that had the right genetics to be able to survive would send forth their genetics to their progeny, etc, etc. Notice that there was no mention of divine guidance and intervention. This is what bothered the bible-thumpers. Then in 1871 Darwin unleashed yet another bomb. He published The Descent of Man which traced the rise of man from a lower animal again with no mention of God. Oh Hell!!! The Evangelicals began a show of fury and foaming at the mouth that continues to this day. I am no geneticists but it is a fact that mans genetic profile is more than 90% that of a chimpanzee. I personally believe in the rise of man through evolution from lower animal and resolve it in my mind by saying to my self that God used evolution as the mechanics to get man to where he is today. The problem that I have not yet resolved is the issue of at what point did man achieve having a soul. The existence of a God is unquestionable and I can prove it with logic and not with a leap of faith or reading a bible. OK, I will shut up now.

1963 Two days earlier the President of the United States John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while riding around Dallas, Texas in an open car. A man named Lee Harvey Oswald was stopped and questioned by Dallas cop J. D. Tippet whereupon Oswald whipped out a pistol and shot and killed Tippet. Oswald was eventually captured and charged with the murder of Officer Tippet and was sent to jail. On this date, the Dallas Police chose to move Oswald to a different facility and while Oswald was being moved out of the basement of the jail amid a swarm of Dallas cops, a strip club owner named Jack Ruby broke through and pumped one round from his .38 Special into the stomach of Oswald. Oswald died the next day. Ruby was immediately arrested and charged with 1^st degree murder. He said that his motive was his rage at the killing of President Kennedy but the skeptical ones (me included) believe he did it to silence Oswald from spilling his guts about a giant conspiracy. To me the proof positive was that in very short time Ruby was discovered and having stomach cancer and died. To me that sounds like Jack knew his days was numbered and he volunteered to the other conspirators to kill Oswald because he was living on borrowed time anyway.

1971 This date saw the beginning of a legend. A man named D.B. Cooper commandeered a Northwest Orient Airline B-727 and forced it to land at the Seattle–Tacoma airport. He demanded $200,000 and four parachutes. His demands were met and the plane took back off without the passengers and the crew locked into the cockpit with instructions to “fly toward Mexico”. About 15 minutes into the flight, the crew detected that the rear stair door had opened. After the plane landed the crew found that Cooper had indeed bailed out of the aircraft. The problem was the aircraft was flying through a violent thunderstorm when Cooper bailed out. Most people believed that Cooper had been killed during the jump however; in 1980 a kid found about $6,000 of the ransom money buried a sandy bank of the Columbia River five miles from Vancouver, Washington which was a long ass way from the bailout point. Anyway, no trace of D.B. Cooper or the remainder of the ransom money has ever been found.

1944 Earlier a United States Army Air Force reconnaissance B-29 named Tokyo Rose made a pass over Tokyo taking 700 photos of the Nakajima aircraft factory. This factory would be the target for a raid very soon. On this date 111 B-29’s departed Tinian and Saipan headed for the Nakajima Aircraft factory. They bombed the hell out of Iwo Jima on the way which was about half way to Tokyo to keep the Japanese fighters on the ground. At this point in time the Marines had not yet captured Iwo Jima. Upon their arrival at Tokyo they found the target obscured by clouds and even with radar their bombing was only 5% effective. But this raid was just the first of an ocean of B-29’s coming to Japan.

Born today:

1713 English writer Laurence Sterne. He said “I take a simple view of life. I keep my eyes open and get on with it.” It sounds like Larry was living a life of drudgery.

1808 French writer Alphonse Kerr. He said “Some people think that virtue consists of severity toward others.” Some people are full of shit too, Alphonse.

1877 US Vice President Alben Barkley. He said “The best audience is intelligent, well educated and a little drunk.” Alben, you need to hang around with my trashy friends.

1922 English statistician Sir Claus Moser. He said “Education is expensive, but not as expensive as ignorance.” Hey Claus, did you say something?

1925 US writer William F. Buckley. He said “Bobby Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller are having a fight, ostensively over the plight of New York’s mentally retarded who the majority of are people that voted for Bobby Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller.” Bill Buckley is a conservative’s conservative.

1944 US actress Candy Darling. She said “I believe that the socially unacceptable men make the best lovers because they are more sensitive” Hey Candy; did you know that I am known as “Lone Wolf” Campbell?

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

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