Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“My wife and I decided that we were in love, but it turned out to be benign.”

Woody Allen

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that there would be definite retribution for a bombing at the Moscow airport. I believe this guy. The Russians do not have a Constitution whereby everyone has “human rights” and are guaranteed due process of law. I saw several instances whereby a criminal in Russia is not arrested and cuffed and quietly led to a squad car. In one instance a man had high jacked a tour bus and was caught in a road block. The police ordered him to release the passengers and he complied…15 seconds later he was dead. There was no negotiation. In another instance the Russian police had a hidden camera in a hotel room where an undercover cop was making a drug deal with some long time drug dealers. One of the drug dealers got angry and slapped the undercover cop. The cops observing from another room had enough and burst into the room guns drawn. The three drug dealers automatically fell to the floor and curled into the fetal position with their hands over their heads. They knew what was coming and the cops did not disappoint . They pistol whipped all of them senseless and dragged their ass out of there. I don’t know about these days but a while back if a criminal was sentenced to death in Russia they would not tell him the date of his execution. While in prison waiting, once in a while a guard would sneak up behind him a dry fire a pistol beside his ear. Sometimes they would take him out into the courtyard, tie him to a post and a crew of riflemen would draw down on him and then not shoot and walk away laughing. That would be worse than death, y’all.

I think y’all will remember the story I told about two armed robbers going into a Subway sandwich shop in Charlotte and demanding cash. The man behind the counter produced a gun of his own and outright killed one of the robbers and severely wounded the other. The wounded bastard got out of the hospital the following Monday and was warmly met by a couple Charlotte’s finest and whisked off to the joint. To my knowledge no charges have been filed against the man that was behind the counter at the Subway.

This Date in History January 26

1788 Eight months Captain Arthur Phillip was commissioned by the British government to establish a colony in the newly discovered land that eventually became Australia. The strange part of it was that the British government wanted Phillip to do it with prisoners that may or may not have farming expertise. So Phillip set out with 11 ships headed to the land down under with nearly as many Marines aboard as he had prisoners. On this date he hove to off the east coast of what was labeled New South Wales and the country of Australia was born. Right from the git-go Captain Phillip found out that most of his prisoners indeed knew more about robbing and killing than they did about farming and not only that the soil was not rich enough to raise crops. Needless to say discipline among the prisoners became a serious problem. Hungry criminals can be a handful, Marines nearby or not. Finally the Marines were not up to the task and Captain Phillip himself took over control of the prisoners and he proved to be a tough but fair overseer, but many floggings and several hangings ensued. Eventually Captain Phillip, the Marines and the prisoners were on the cusp of starvation for several years. Captain Phillip returned to England in 1792 but the colony had already showed signs that it would survive and by the turn of the century the colony became prosperous with a deep sense of patriotism. In fact in 1808 an Australian historian wrote “there was a celebration of the founding of the colony with much drinking and merriment.” Australia is famous for having one of the largest quantities of beer consumed per capita on the planet, mostly Foster’s. I like it myself.

1950 After years of hassling with the British, India passed its own Constitution and became an independent nation on this date. Indian religious leader Mahatma Gandhi had been leading the fight for independence for decades and he finally succeeded. But before all of this came to pass, religious differences between the Hindus and the Moslems raised it ugly head. To settle this problem the British Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, declared that the country would be partitioned with the Moslems going to Pakistan and the Hindus to India. This seemed like a perfect plan but the Moslems and the Hindus still fought vicious battles where thousands were killed, including Mahatma Gandhi. He was a Hindu and was assassinated by another Hindu because Gandhi accepted the partition in the interest of peace. You can say what you want but the most bloody and vicious wars ever fought were in the interest of one or more religion against another. Remember the Crusades?

1863 After the disastrous tenure of US General Ambrose Burnside in command of the Army of the Potomac and his subsequent removal, on this date US General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker took command. Hooker knew that the morale of the Army of the Potomac was at its lowest ebb and he needed to do something to restore pride. He allowed each regiment to design and wear their own “badge” or shoulder patch hoping this would have an effect. Hooker was a West Point graduate and participated in the Seminole War. When the Civil War broke out he was given the rank of Brigadier General and given command of a Division in the Army of the Potomac. Speaking of command, Abe Lincoln had been having a hell of a time finding a commander that could defeat Robert E. Lee. This was a tall order for anyone. Lincoln had gone through Generals Irwin McDowell, George McClellan, John Pope, McClellan again, Ambrose Burnside and now Joseph Hooker, none of which had been successful against Bobby Lee but Hooker had his chance coming. Hooker had two faults: women and whiskey. In fact he allowed prostitutes to follow his army around and that is where the word “hooker” to identify prostitutes came from. In May of this year Joe Hooker got his chance against Bobby Lee in an engagement near the small Virginia town of Chancellorsville. Hooker had a good plan and by dark of this fateful day he had the Army of Northern Virginia caught in a pincer movement. But “Fighting Joe” had not planned on the tactics of Lee and the brilliance of “Stonewall” Jackson. Jackson led his division on a forced night march around the right flank of Hooker’s army. The next afternoon while the Union troops on the right flank were cooking their supper, all of a sudden deer, rabbits and all types of game came running out of the woods behind them and right behind the animals came Jackson’s wild-eyed screaming Confederate infantry and those stunned Yankees got up and ran without even stopping to gather their weapons and put out their camp fires. Hooker had the Army of Northern Virginia outnumbered by at least two to one but was routed by Bobby Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Thus was the beginning of the end of the career of “Fighting Joe”.

1936 On This date the dismembered corpse of Frances Portillo was found with the head in a basket and the remainder of the various parts stuffed into burlap sacks in Cleveland, Ohio. This was not the first nor would it be the last. The killings and dismemberment continued until the number reached double digits. Needless to say the Cleveland PD was frantic to find the “Mad Butcher”. The corpses had been dissected with precision and therefore the PD began looking for a real butcher. The arrested a butcher named Frank Dolezal and interrogated him for 40 straight hours until he confessed to killing Frances Portillo. Frank committed suicide in his cell soon thereafter. Very few of the people of Cleveland believed that Frank Dolezal was the actual “Mad Butcher” and that the real killer was a well heeled and well connected member of the community. The Cleveland PD chose to destroy any and all records about these crimes and the killings stopped after the suicide of Dolezal. But the actual identity of the “Mad Butcher” is unknown to this day.

1875 The James brothers, Jesse and Frank, had been hotly pursued by the Pinkerton Detective Agency for over a year. They had been hired by the railroad barons to try and stop the robbing of their trains and banks by the James gang. They were not successful, in fact one of their best detectives named James Witcher had been found dead from a gunshot to the abdomen and his upper torso had been eaten by wild hogs. It was known that Jesse and Frank would visit with their kin in Clay County, Missouri on occasion. On this date a group of men surrounded the house of Jesse and Frank’s mother in Clay County thinking that the James boys were home visiting Mom. It has never been confirmed if the men surrounding the house were law enforcement officials or Pinkerton detectives or a combination of both. Anyway, the people surrounding the house decided to throw in a couple of flares to flush out anyone in the house. One of the flares exploded killing Jesse and Frank’s nine year old step-brother outright and took off one of Mom’s arms. Jesse and Frank were not there and the local community came after the ones that surrounded the house with blood in their eye. The lawmen/detectives got away and no one to this day admits to who it was that committed that atrocity but after this the Pinkerton Agency cut back on their often violent methods.

Born today:

1715 French philosopher Claude Helvetius. He said “To limit the press is an insult to a nation; to prohibit the reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants either fool or slaves.” A while back a church in a small town outside of Greenville, SC threatened to picket the local library to remove Catcher in the Rye from the shelves as being immoral because it mentioned masturbation. There is no need for me to tell you what my response to that was. There is nothing more immoral on the planet than to tell someone what they can or cannot read. That is nothing but an attempt at mind control. I had forgotten why I don’t attend organized religions, now I remember.

Born today:

1880 US General Douglas McArthur: He said “I will keep on living as if I expect to live forever. Nobody grows old by living a number of years. People grow old for deserting their Ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin but to give up wrinkles the soul.” General McArthur was one of America’s greatest military commanders in spite of having an ego the size of Oklahoma.

1918 US writer Phillip Farmer. He said “The universe is a big place, maybe the biggest.” Phillip, shut up.

1925 US actor Paul Newman. Paul has a side business of different salad dressings and once said “It is embarrassing to know that my salad dressings are out grossing my movies.” Paul donates all of the profits from his salad dressings to charity. He is no longer with us. He had been married to actress Joanne Woodward since 1958.

1929 US cartoonist Jules Feiffer. He said “Christ died for out sins, dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?” I am working on it Jules.

1935 US baseball catcher Bon Uecker. When asked how do you catch a knuckleball he said “You wait until it stops rolling and go pick it up.” Bob worked for several years as the color man of baseball game broadcasts. He was a funny guy.

1961 Canadian ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky. He said “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.” I have a friend in Charlotte that said “80% of all the golf balls that you do not putt hard enough don’t go in the hole.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow