Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

During the American Civil War US General John Sedgwick rode up to a high point to observe the progress of the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Va. Upon arrival his staff told him that he ought to take cover. Sedgwick scoffed and said “They couldn't hit an elephant at this dis…..”

I recently have been given access to a set of ten books about the American Civil War. This set of books was published in 1911 and commends the 50^th anniversary of this tragedy. The book is a lot about the combat photographers of the day. They also have an interesting format. On the left page is an description of a particular event or battle and the right page has photos of what was described. Almost all of the photos were taken by the Brady and Gardner team. There were others but none could match them. There is one pic of a man looking over a battlefield using binoculars and a cloud of smoke was rising where an artillery barrage had just been fired. It was the opening guns of the Battle of Antietam or sometimes known as the Battle of Sharpsburg. This was the bloodiest single day in American history, y'all. There were over 23,000 casualties in 12 hours. It was unimaginable horror. By the way, battles during the Civil War were named differently dependent on the Confederacy and the Union versions. For instance: The Battle of 1^st Manassas and the Battle of 1^st Bull Run are the same battle. Under most circumstances the Confederacy named battles after the closest town or village like Manassas and the Union named them after prominent geographical features like Bull Run Creek...but the blood flowed and the horror endured regardless of the name.

Recently I watched a program on the History channel about Thomas Jefferson. The “guide” through this program knew as much about the history of the United States as Kaylee the Lab. The “guide” acted astounded that Jefferson had help write the Constitution containing such phrases such as “Liberty and justice” but had about 600 slaves working his plantation Monticello and said that Jefferson was nothing but a racist. That got to me and here is my vent for that stupidity.

Jefferson was one of the smartest men this country has ever produced. The survival of this great experiment in a democratic republic never before tried in the history of the world would never had survived without Jefferson and people like him. Slavery was accepted as the norm in those days but changed later on. Nearly every Native American tribe used human beings as currency and that was just the way things were, good, bad or indifferent. There are many examples of racial prejudice that glare at us throughout history. I have chosen three. President Andrew Jackson hated Native Americans primarily because his family had to fight for survival against the Cherokees and Creeks while settling in the Waxhaw region on the North Carolina/South Carolina border. Jackson witnessed unspeakable torture delivered upon his friends and family at the hands of the Indians and he never forgot it. It was Jackson that implemented the infamous “Trail of Tears” moving the native Americans from their east coast homes to Oklahoma.

Then there was Ulysses Grant. His wife had three slaves for a while but eventually freed them. While Grant was President one of his relatives was riding on a train and met two men that were cotton brokers. These two guys found out that this man was related to Grant and schmoozed up to him just hoping that he would influence Grant in their behalf so they could get a piece of the glut of excess cotton gathered from the south after the Civil War. Grant smelled all of this out and came within a hair of killing the cotton brokers. They were Jews and Grant hated Jews from then on. That's right, y'all, Ulysses Grant was a racist...not against the blacks but a racist none the less.

And finally there was the British Empire. They were involved in the west African slave trade from day one. Then there came a time that it was not financially viable to continue so James II authorized the capture of those pesky “semi-human” Irishmen and selling them into slavery to the sugar plantation owners in the Caribbean and Barbados in particular. They kidnapped and sold about 1.1 million Irish into slavery. They were without a doubt racists...not against the blacks but racists none the less.

I am a racist myself...that is not the right word...I am prejudiced. I am vehemently opposed to any American that is trying to tear down or denigrate this great nation while suckling on its bounty. That really bothers me...especially Michael Moore, Al Sharpton and especially that jackass “guide” that knew nothing about anything but felt he was qualified to judge others. OK, I feel better now.

On last Thursday morning a woman was asleep on a USAirways flight from Boston to Charlotte. She was awakened by her seatmate that she did not know massaging her breasts. She woke up and told the masher to knock it off and then called a flight attendant, but before the attendant got there he had copped yet another feel. The attendant found her another seat and told the captain about these events the he notified the Charlotte USAirways ops about the situation. A couple of Charlotte’s finest was waiting at the gate for this jackass. I wonder what row she was on…how deeply she slept, etc, etc? Just joking.

Here is an event that I experienced as an air traffic controller. It was at Moody Air Force Base near Valdosta, Ga. Moody was a training base for all-weather interceptors. After a class got to a certain point, drone aircraft would be launched from Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida to a point in the Gulf of Mexico and the fighter/interceptors from Moody would be radar guided toward the drone until the aircraft radar picked it up, then the fighter was to shoot down the drone, regardless of the weather. One of the pilots in training had a wife that was afraid for her husband flying fighters. Her husband had received special permission for his wife to watch from the control tower a “maximum effort” night launch. It was supposed to give her confidence. I was working in the tower that night. Her husband successfully got his F-86D off the ground and was up to about 500 feet when he declared “Mayday” meaning he was in serious trouble. His plane exploded into a ball of flame and crashed to the earth about 2 miles south of the base. There is no need for me to tell y'all what turmoil ensued. She was pregnant, too.

This Date in History January 28

1777 On this date British General John Burgoyne submitted a battle plan to British General Sir Henry Clinton. Burgoyne suggested that he head a large force of 8,000 troops out of Canada and go down Lake Champlain, the Mohawk River and eventually the Hudson River and isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. Burgoyne felt that if he could accomplish this it would make Philadelphia ripe for the picking by British General Howe. The plan was approved and Burgoyne achieved a modicum of success when he captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. What Burgoyne did not plan on was the over extension of his supply lines the further south he moved. Eventually the Patriots simply swung around and cut his supply line. Soon after this Burgoyne lost the Battle of Bennington, Vermont and engaged in a bloody draw at Bemis Heights, New York. After these battles he was unable to re-supply his troops so he retreated 16 miles north to Saratoga, New York and surrendered his remaining 6,000 troops to US General Horatio Gates. When the government of France saw this victory they officially recognized the United States as an independent nation which, of course, meant war with England. France had been covertly sending America money and the tools of war now they did it openly and with much more supplies. This decision by France assured an American victory because it meant that England would have to fight a war on both sides of the Atlantic.

1958 On this date a 19 year old high school dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska named Charles Starkweather and his 14 year old girlfriend Carol Fugate murder a Lincoln business man, his wife and their maid. This was the last in a string of 10 murder committed by the duo. This murder spree began at the home of Carol and an argument broke out between Charles and Carol’s parents. Charles chose to shoot Carol’s parent and strangle Carol’s two year old sister. Carol and Charles stayed holed up in the house for a few days before leaving in Charles’ car. Their next victims was a farmer and two teens and after that it was the previously mention Lincoln businessman, wife and maid. They were not done yet. They shot and killed a traveling shoe salesman to get his car. They were surrounded and captured near Douglas, Wyoming. Both Charles and Carol were convicted of murder and Charles got the death penalty and Carol got life. In 1959 Charles Starkweather went to meet his maker medium rare after a visit with the Nebraska version of “Old Sparky”. Carol was paroled after 18 years. How could that girl sit in the house with her dead parents and sister for several days? They paroled her because she was so young at the time of the murders. I will have to call bullshit on that.

1986 On this day the space shuttle Challenger was set to launch for the 10^th time. All previous missions with this vessel had been flawless. The shuttle had been scheduled to launch on January 22 but there were weather issues so the launch date was pushed back to January 28. Aboard with the regular astronauts was a school teacher name Christa McAuliffe from New Hampshire. The outside air temperature was below freezing and the rocket booster manufacturer warned the launch officials that some of the parts of the rocket booster do not operate well in cold weather, especially the O-ring seals. They warned that they became brittle in the cold and would not hold. The launch officials blew it off and at 11:39a the Challenger blasted off. Seventy-three seconds into the flight the shuttle exploded into a spectacular three armed display and fell into the Atlantic killing all aboard. An investigation later proved that an O-ring seal had indeed failed and the flame from the rocket boosters had not been contained inside the cylinder causing an explosion. The arrogance of the launch officials in allowing the launch in spite of being warned set space exploration back several years.

Born today:

1887 Polish pianist Arthur Rubenstein. He said “When I was young, I had success with women because I was young. Now I have success with women because I am old. Middle age was hell.” Way to go Art, way to go!

1933 US writer Susan Sontag. She said “The best answer is one that destroys the question.” Susan is no longer with us.

1948 Latvian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. He said “When we dancers watch Fred Astaire, we know we are in the wrong business.” Fred was a pleasure to watch.

Died today:

1960 US writer Zora Hurston. She said “Every distant ship has every man’s dream aboard.” Yes it does...for me at least.

1996 Russian writer Josef Brodsky. He said “Life, the way it really is, is not a battle between bad and good, it is a battle between bad and worse.” And I thought I was a pessimist.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.