Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“The price of Prozac went up 50% last year. When Prozac users were asked about it, they said, “Whatever…’”

Jay Leno

I am still reading “Comanche Empire”. As I understand it this is used as a textbook at Southern Methodist University. There was one passage that stood out. The Osage tribe originally lived within the boundaries of the Comancheria (lands claimed by the Comanche) but constant clashes with the well mounted and well experienced Comanche cavalry forced them to move to a small strip of land on the present day Oklahoma/Kansas border. In 1823 under the auspices of the US Government a treaty between the Osage and Comanche was achieved and a system of trade was established. In one trade session the Osage bought 20 white children for firearms, gunpowder and ammo that they had taken in raids on white settlers. The Osage took the kids to a US Cavalry fort where an American Indian Agency existed and offered them for horses and metal utensils like knives, axes and pots and pans (believe it or not) in return. The Osage decided that ransoming white children was a great way to make a living. Two years later the Osage and the Comanche met for another trade event and a trade valued at an estimated $60,000 changed hands. That was a hell of a lot of money in those days. By the way, right after the turn of the century the mighty Comanche had virtually disappeared and so had the bison. The Osage discovered that the cattle ranchers would pay rent to the Osage to allow grazing on the miles and miles of grass on Osage land. They also discovered that their lands were virtually afloat on a sea of oil. To this day, the Osage is the richest aboriginal tribe in existence. God works in mysterious ways.

Over in Fayetteville, NC an elderly cattleman had raised a black Angus bull from a calf to a 2,000 pound behemoth. The bull never relented from his hostile behavior. The cattleman wanted to keep the bull at stud to replenish his herd but he had very little control of his behavior. One day the bull got out of his personal pasture and went a couple of pastures over chasing the cows around. The cattleman attempted to coax the bull back into his personal field but tripped and fell. The bull immediately charged and pinned the old gentleman to the ground by pressing his forehead into the man’s chest killing him. A few days before the cattleman had sold the bull to a slaughterhouse because of its behavior. The bull will soon be distributed around the southeast in smaller pieces.

I just read where the amount of money we contribute to Medicare in our lifetime in no way covers out medical expenses after the age of 65. I vehemently disagree. What about the hundreds of thousands of tax payers that die a couple of years before or after the age of 65? What happens to that money they contributed virtually all their lives? Is there a refund to their heirs? Of course there isn’t. That money is spent anyway the House and Senate...and Obama...see fit.

Here is a few comments about the book Guns, Germs and Steel. The author is investigating the mystery of why some segments of society progress to become conquerors and adventurers and others do not. In one chapter he touches on the Aborigine peoples of Australia. It is well known the they had been there alone for at least 40,000 years and DNA has proven that their ancestors came from the Indonesian archipelago. It seems that during a distant ice age the sea levels fell hundreds of feet making it possible to walk from Indonesia to Australia...except for one stretch where there was a channel about 50 miles wide that would require a substantial boat. The Aborigine never did have boats larger than a hollowed out log and essentially did not know what a ship was until they saw the English arrive in them.

Not only that, the Aborigine never progressed past the stone age before the arrival of the Europeans. They did not need to...they could kill or capture game with sharpened stone tipped weapons. What the mystery is, what happened to make the Aborigine have no ambition to improve their lives? They did not seek ways to improve their health...no medicine...no sanitation, no discovery of the causes of diseases, etc. I read about one instance where an explorer went with a group of them on a food scavenging trip. They walked for a considerable distance, stopped and dug up a plant that was of the sweet potato family, removed the tuber and planted it back in the same hole. The explorer asked them why did they not take it back to their camp and plant it and they said that they never thought of it.

There are tribes in central Africa and in the Amazon rain forest that to this day are still in the stone age. How is this possible with me sitting here looking at an devise that is about 1 1/2” X 3” and I can pick it up and talk to someone in Russia in real time?

I wish all of y’all a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

This Date in History December 31

1600 On this date Queen Elizabeth I signed a charter authorizing a group of London merchants to form an organization known as the East India Company to act at the behest of the crown to capture the spice trade in the East Indies from the hands of the Dutch. This endeavor was unsuccessful but the market they found in India and China more than made up for their failure against the Dutch. Soon the flow of spices from India and the tea from China was almost unending on their way to England. This almost untapped gold mine of consumables did not go unnoticed by the French and Dutch and they attempted to move in and get part of this cornucopia. This prompted the East India Company to form their own army and navy to protect their investment. Eventually England felt it was necessary to declare India as a British possession and sent in a governor and staff to rule this most recent colony to protect the trade from interlopers by use of the mighty British army and navy. After this decision the East India Company became nothing but an administrative arm of the British Governor. In 1857 the Indian soldiers in the British army revolted against the British control of their country. This “Indian Revolt” was crushed the next year and Great Britain tightened its grip on India even more by dissolving the East India Company. They even had the gall to pass a law stating that the Indians could not go to the seaside and dig out settling ponds to allow the water to evaporate leaving the salt. Salt was imperative to the Indians not only for seasoning but for food preservation. This meant that they could only get their salt from the British. It was a monopoly of a necessary item. In the early 1930’s an Indian holy man named Mahatma Gandhi began a peaceful revolt that eventually caused the demise of English rule and the beginning of an Independent India. By the way, the beginning of the end of British rule began when Gandhi left home headed for the coast to evaporate out some salt stating that salt was a gift from God and should not be controlled by man. Along the way he had gathered more and more followers and he arrived at the coast with over 60,000 people following. The British army did not know what to do with that many people and they let them alone to get some salt.

1862 Earlier on December 11 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest left Columbus, Tennessee with the intention of destroying Yankee supply lines. He met and defeated a Yankee army near Lexington, Tennessee on December 18 and spent the week of Christmas destroying Yankee rail lines north of Jackson, Tennessee. On this date Forrest was approaching a small village of Parker’s Crossroad when his scouts told him that there was a Yankee army detachment ahead. In typical Forrest fashion, he ordered an attack. All of Forrest’s troops were mounted cavalry but on this encounter he ordered a large part of his troops to dismount and circle around and attack the right flank of the Yankees. He left several troopers behind to hold onto the horses left by those dismounted. Forrest engaged the Yankee troops ahead but soon heard gunfire from behind and then his troopers that were holding the horses came running past him and he found himself in the midst of the Yankees who ordered him to surrender. Forrest said that he would go get his horse and order his troops to surrender. He mounted his horse and instead of ordering surrender he yelled “Attack in both directions!” His troopers sprung to action and the majority of his 2,000 cavalrymen were able to escape including Forrest but he did lose 300 troopers when they were trapped and had to surrender.

1972 Baseball superstar Roberto Clemente was in the San Juan International Airport, Puerto Rico. Clemente was an all-star outfielder for the Pittsburg Pirates and spent the majority of the off-season doing charity work in his native Puerto Rico or other places in Central America. Earlier Clemente had sent a huge amount of relief supplies to Managua, Nicaragua after that city was ravaged by an earthquake. He found out later that only a small amount of the supplies had reached those that needed it; the majority of it had been stockpiled by corrupt officials and sold to the needy. Clemente was a fiery individual anyway and when he found out about this travesty, he gathered more supplies in Puerto Rico and was going to take them to Managua himself and distribute them to the needy. He soon found that he had more supplies that the plane that he had chartered could handle. Observing all of this was an unscrupulous man named Arthur Rivera. Rivera owned a ram shackled propeller driven DC-7 that could barely fly. He offered to rent this plane to Clemente for $4,000. Clemente agreed and they began loading the DC-7. Rivera was not a pilot and he began frantically searching for a pilot and found one in a man named Jerry Hill. Rivera, Clemente and the pilot finally got aboard and the plane began its takeoff roll. Observers knew the plane was in trouble from the start because of the sound of the engines. The plane reached about 200 feet over the Caribbean and exploded and fell into the sea. It was found that the pilot had over-boosted the engines. The bodies of Clemente, Rivera and Hill were never found. Clemente was admitted to the baseball Hall of Fame posthumously and in 2002 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. What a great loss for us all.

Born today:

1830 Scottish writer Alexander Smith. He said “To be occasionally quoted is all the fame I desire.” Tack on to that, “occasionally paid”.

1894 Movie star Pola Negri. She said “Love is disgusting when you no longer own yourself.” Huh?

1943 US songwriter John Denver. He said “Music paints pictures and often tells stories. All of it magic and all of it true.” John had a pure and clear voice; I have not heard a voice close to his since his demise except Josh Groban

1952 US Guitarist/singer George Thorogood. He said “There are two types of music, the “blues” and that bullshit they play on MTV.” I second that.

1958 US actress Bebe Neuwirth. She said “If you have to ask how to be sexy after the age of 40, you probably can’t do it.” I am still trying, Bebe.

Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow