Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.”

                                                   Yogi Berra

                                              Child Abuse

Since before recorded history child abuse has been suspected but not proven. Infants were found mummified in Egypt tombs and even then there was no soft tissue to determine the cause of death if there were no broken bones or skull damage. That is not only place mummified children were found. In the upper elevations of the Andes in what is now Bolivia and Peru children were found mummified some with suspicious markings on their throats. The people that produced these mummification were the predecessors of the mighty Inca empire later to be overpowered and enslaved by the Spanish Conquistadors for their gold, silver and precious gems. Then we have definite proof of child abuse. There is no question that the Maya and Aztecs sacrificed children by throwing them into cenotes (large wells) or gruesome ceremonies with flint knives to appease their Gods especially during a drought. The Spanish saw these ceremonies and were appalled at the savagery so they the honorable thing and waded into the adults and slaughtered them wholesale. After the Spanish prevailed the slaughter of the innocents abated because they needed slaves including children to work in their gold, silver and precious gems mines.

Here is one of the most mysterious events in history involving children. In the late 1400's King Edward IV of England had two sons aged 12 and 9 and the eldest was next in line for the crown. Edward was dying and on his deathbed named his half-brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester to be regent (temporary king) until his eldest son was of age. Due to political squabbling Richard decided to take personal custody of the young princes. The two boys were seen frequently playing in and around the Tower of London. In those days the Tower was not a prison but one of the residences of the sitting king. Richard decided that the children were illegitimate and therefore not eligible for the crown and that he should be king. It was not because their father had been promiscuous but King Edward IV himself was illegitimate. Richard produced two documents showing that King Edward's mother and father were 100 miles apart when the conception had to have occurred. This accusation produced a hell of lot more hell-raising especially from Henry Tudor. In June of 1483 the boys seem to have disappeared and Richard was crowned King Richard III. You would automatically think that it was Richard was responsible for the disappearance but that did not suit his character. During his entire life he displayed much courage bravery in spite of a cruel physical condition. Richard's title came under challenge by Henry Tudor who landed in Wales and was headed toward London gathering an army as he went. Richard gathered his troops and went to meet him. They met at a place called Bosworth Field and Richard was struck down and killed. Here was the king of England leading an army in combat. Henry was crowned King Henry VII. Two hundred years later a construction project was under way in the Tower and the skeleton of two young boys was discovered under a stairwell. There is little question whose bones they were. The actual murderer(s) was never identified.

Remember the Spanish Conquistadors? In spite of the time and distance involved, these guys brought horses with them to the Americas. Eventually a few of the horses escaped and ended up in Mexico and the Great Plains. Over a period of time the herds increased precipitously. One of the greatest human conglomerates that arose in North America was based on the horse...it was the Comanche. They were the first to capture, break and train the Spanish mustangs. The horses made it possible to run down and kill bison and this made the horse a very valuable commodity. The Comanche kidnapped women and children from anywhere they could find them and a few times a year they would take them to Taos and Santa Fe. There were “fairs” in those towns where the Comanche traded their kidnapped women and children for horses primarily with the southwest and Mexican Apache. Women and children were valuable commodities also. They were used to replace those women and children that had died in various villages in the intervening months. It was important to both the Comanche and Apache to maintain or increase the population of their tribes. Eventually when the white man arrived with firearms the value of women and children increased exponentially. Kidnapped white women and children would be kidnapped and held for ransom.  They would use the payment, mostly in gold and horses, to buy firearms from the illegal gun runners. A Comanche expert horseman armed with a repeating rifle was a formidable opponent. The central and north Texas Comanche raiding parties was considered to be the best light cavalry in the world for years. They and their mounts were able to go further without rest, food or water than anyone chasing them. They also would sell women and children to those tribes that mined silver and use the silver to buy guns. As you might suspect, the women were used to replace those that had died and to birth more. The children were used in the mines until they came to an age where the males would become warriors and the females would become mothers or they would be traded or sold into slavery. The Comanche added a twist once the white man arrived. If one of a tribe died of a “white man's disease” like smallpox, TB, measles, etc. they would raid a white settlement and kidnap a replacement. Speaking of slavery...human slavery is alive and well in the world today especially in central Africa with Zanzibar being the major trading post.

At first blush, child abuse appears to have been with us for a long time but to intentionally make someone suffer that is innocent and helpless brings revenge to most of our minds. One of my friends said that a public hanging would be appropriate for all child abusers. There is a gray area here. There are children that are born into abject poverty are will never fed and clothed properly. In my mind this is child abuse. What would be the appropriate punishment here...sterilization? I do not have an answer, all I have is questions. I have heard and read that education would go a long way to preventing child abuse. Education cannot happen without a desire to learn and as we all know there are many that just do not care. That leads me to only one conclusion...make the penalty for child abuse so severe that no one would risk it. Is that the answer? I cannot dwell on the premise that someone intentionally abuses a child that relies on that person for love and care. It bothers me...a lot.

 

      Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“You may not be interested in war, but rest assured that war is interested in you.”

                                       Leon Trotsky

I read a book for the second time, it is Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It is essentially the history of the Native Americans and their relationship with the United States Government. There is little question that our ancestors did all they could to take this land from them who had been here for at least 13,000 years. This includes military action, broken promises and treaties that we dishonored by the trunk full. The last military action of the US against the native Americans was at a place named Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1890. It was not a battle of any sort...it was a clear massacre of the innocents. A small band of Hunkpapa and Miniconjou Lakota Sioux were being rounded up and forced into a reservation. One of the old men had a rifle and a cavalryman asked him for it but unknown to the troopers, this man was deaf and therefore refused to hand over the gun. A struggle ensued and the rifle discharged. When this was heard the rest of the 500 troopers opened fire including four Hotchkiss guns (cannons) and in short order 225 women, old men and children were dead. There were 23 cavalrymen either killed or wounded also. All of us should read this book by Dee Brown. You will be enlightened or depressed...or both. We tried to either eliminate this entire culture or change them into what we wanted them to be...and that is to be just like us. I invite any of you to go to Pine Ridge Reservation, or any reservation for that matter, and see how they live. They have lost touch with their culture and do not cope well what we have forced upon them. I am not proud of this...and you should not be either. By the way, a Medal of Honor was awarded to a US cavalryman for action in this disgusting episode.

This Date in History February 26

1993 On this cold and snowy morning in New York City a thunderously powerful explosion happened in the parking garage under the North Tower of the World Trade Center. There were six people killed and over 1,000 injured. The police had no choice but to evacuate both the North and South towers. The initial investigation indicated that it was a band of Serbs that had done the deed but it was later found that this group was simply jewel thieves. From this the FBI was able to dissolve a large diamond theft organization. But the investigation continued into the bastards that were responsible for the explosion. Investigators found a piece of a van that carried the explosives that still had the serial number visible. From this they tracked the van back to a rental agency in Jersey City, New Jersey where a contract showed the van was rented to one Mohammed Salaamed. This jackass had reported the van as stolen on February 25 and told the agency that he was coming to get his $400 deposit back. There is no need for me to tell you that the FBI was waiting and arrested this towel head. A search of Salaamed’s apartment and records implicated two other towel heads. They also find a video tape on how to build bombs and are able to identify a fourth person in the video. An owner of a storage facility came forth and said that he had seen four men loading something into a rental van in one of his rental garages. The FBI investigated this site and found enough nitroglycerin to build another gigantic bomb. Also one of the four had went to the AGL Welding Service and purchased steel hydrogen tanks. In the debris from the blast the investigators found a piece of a tank that still had the AGL logo on it. All four of these camel jockeys went on trial and were convicted. They all received sentences of 240 years each. I can only hope that all of them are taken under the wing of a 6’-10”, 375 lb. sex pervert that has a penchant for middle-eastern men.

1942 On this date US actress Joan Fontaine won the Oscar for best actress for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Suspicion. Right after this gossip columnist Louella Parsons wrote in her column that Joan did not get the Oscar for her performances on stage but for her performances in bed with every producer west of the Rockies. By accident Louella and Joan met in the bar at the famous Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles and the verbal exchange between these two women went down in sailor history as a benchmark in the delivery of profanity.

1564 On this date poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe is christened in the Church at Canterbury, England. Two months later William Shakespeare was christened. Marlowe was recognized and being a bright person and was given a scholarship to Cambridge where he earned a B.A. degree. It was believed that he was a spy for Queen Elizabeth while at Cambridge and was nearly denied his masters degree until a representative of the Queen dropped by and suggested that Marlowe had better get his degree ”for services rendered.” Marlowe did indeed receive his master’s degree. During a search of the apartment that he and Thomas Kyd shared, some literature was found that smacked of treason and Kyd was taken to the Tower and tortured. Kyd finally said the literature was Marlowe’s. Marlowe was arrested but made bail and was free. Soon after Marlowe got into a fight with a bartender over his tab and the bartender put a knife into Marlowe’s liver and it was all over for Christopher. Marlowe gave us some immortal works like “Tamburlaine the Great”, “Dr. Faustus” and “The Jew of Malta” among others. Moral of this story: Don't get hammered and argue with an armed bartender.

Born today:

1933 French financier James Goldsmith. He said “You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” No comment

1802 French writer Victor Hugo is born. He said “An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.”

1916 US personality Jackie Gleason. He said “Modesty is the artifice of actors, kind of like a show a passion by a call girl.” Well said, Jackie. I miss you.

          Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“At this point in history we need a leader like Teddy Roosevelt but what we have is one like Peewee Herman.”

Anonymous

One of my subscribers reminded me of an important event on February 23, 1945. Here is a little background and a brief history of that event.

After the United States was attacked on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the American military was extremely interested in at attack on the Japanese homeland. It was determined that due to the vast distances between island airports in the western Pacific. The B-17 aircraft used in Europe would be impractical because of its relatively short range and limited bomb load. The Commander of the US Army Air Corp, General “Hap” Arnold issued a prospective order to the different US aircraft manufacturers and described the minimum requirements that included a range of 6,000 miles and a bomb load of 10,000 pounds. Boeing Aircraft won the order with the inimitable B-29 Superfortress. Now the US Navy and Marines were assigned the task of capturing islands with airports in the Marianas and the Caroline Island chains that could be made available to aircraft the size and weight of the B-29. The first two to fall were Kwajalein and Eniwetok. Next came the airports they were really after on Tinian, Saipan and Guam. The islands were within 2,500 miles of the Japanese homeland and all could be modified to handle the B-29. The problem was that the Japanese had already figured out what the Allied strategy was and was ramping up a defense of these islands. The Battle of Saipan was one of the bloodiest in history up to that point. The US Army Air Force began bombing attacks on the Japanese mainland in the summer and fall of 1944. The immediate problem was that the Japanese had radar and a squadron of interceptors on the island of Iwo Jima which was about halfway between Tinian and the Japanese mainland making the trip to and from the Japanese mainland very hazardous resulting in many B-29’s and crews being lost. Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas McArthur agreed that Iwo Jima had to be taken at all cost. The reason was two-fold. One was they had to eliminate the interceptors launching from Iwo Jima and two; if the B-29’s on bombing missions had engine trouble or damaged from anti-aircraft fire, they could land at Iwo Jima and be saved. Hell ensued.

Here is a recap of an event that happened a couple of days ago. I was in a restaurant having breakfast when a young lady sat down beside me. Her accent was familiar and I asked her if she was from Pennsylvania and she said that she was from the Pittsburgh area the home of six Super Bowl champions and one Stanley Cup winner. I had known this person less than a minute and she wants to bring that crap up and I have experienced this disgusting arrogance before. She kept talking about it saying “we” did that and “we” did that. I finally had enough and told her that I do not remember seeing her on the gridiron or the ice so how could she say “we”. I looked into the major players for those Pittsburgh football teams and this is what I found. I will give you the players name, position and birthplace:

Terry Bradshaw...Quarterback...Shreveport, LA.

Franco Harris...Running back...Springtown, NJ

Bennie Cunningham...Tight end...Laurens, SC.

John Stallworth...Wide receiver...Tuscaloosa, Al.

Lynn Swann...Wide receiver...Alcoa, TN

The famous “Steel Curtain” defense:

“Mean” Joe Green...Defensive end...Elgin, TX

Ernie Holmes...Defensive Tackle...Jamestown, TX

L. C. Greenwood...Defensive tackle...Canton, MS.

Dwight White...Defensive end...Hampton, VA.

How many players do you see from Pennsylvania?

How many “down home” players do you see?

To you Pittsburgh Steeler chest-beaters, just shut the hell up.

This Date in History February 25

1779 A few days earlier American Patriot George Rogers Clark departed the small village of Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River with 175 militia and a few French mercenaries to capture Fort Sackville near present day Vincennes, Indiana. After wading through icy cold water Clark’s men arrived at the fort from a direction that was unexpected by the British army inside. Clark called for the surrender of the fort from the British commander who refused. Then Clark personally brought five Indians that he and his group had captured along the way, out in front of the fort and Clark personally hacked them all to death and disemboweled them with a tomahawk. Clark then called again for a surrender which was readily accepted. There were just over ninety British soldiers and their families in the fort. The success of this raid put the British between a rock and a hard place in that area because the French settlers realized that they could not depend on the British military to defend them and sided with the Patriots. George Roger Clark again was one of those little known hard-asses for the Patriots that had he not been where he was when he was, things may have turned out differently.

1576 On this date the head of then Roman Catholic Church, Pope Pius VI ex-communicated the queen of England, Elizabeth I and told the English Catholics that they did not have to obey Elizabeth any longer. Elizabeth really did not give a shit because her father, Henry VIII got fed up with the pope interfering with the affairs of the English crown and he formed his own church, a protestant church known as the Anglican Church or the Church of England. The only difference between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church was the Pope was head of the Catholics and the King/Queen was the head of the Anglicans. Not a hell of a lot of difference for the faithful. Elizabeth did not have to stress that the English subjects had better abide by the rule of the queen or they would meet a date in a dungeon somewhere or meet a big guy with a big axe and a black hood over his head. Elizabeth proved to be one of the greatest monarchs in the history of western man.

Famous quotes:

“Some people see things that are and ask why, others see things that are not and ask why, others have to go to work and don’t have time for all that bullshit.”

George Carlin

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Being in politics is like being a football coach; you have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it is important.”

Eugene McCarthy

After reading the next segment I would like to know what your thoughts are on child abuse and its prevention.

Julie Valentine

In research of this item I discovered a few things. The state of South Carolina is one of the leaders in rape and child abuse per capita in the USA and Greenville county leads the state. Keep this in mind when reading what comes next.

25 years ago close to Valentine's Day a man was out in an open field on the southeast side of Greenville, SC. He was gathering wild flowers to bring to his wife for Valentine's Day. This particular field had been used as a trash dump by those jackasses with no class. The gatherer stumbled upon a box that previously contained a new vacuum cleaner from Sears, noticed a peculiar odor and opened the box. To his horror he found the corpse of a days old female infant with the umbilical cord and placenta included. This was the days before cell phones so the man went to the closest commercial establishment and called the cops. The cops arrived and began a detailed investigation. The infant was wrapped in bloody rags and covered in a days old copy of the Wall Street Journal. An autopsy was performed and there was no abnormalities, in fact there was air in the lungs meaning that the child had taken a breath and this means the baby was alive at one point. Are you disgusted yet? Are you asking why the mother did not give the baby up for adoption? Anyway, the cops tried to track down any subscribers to the Wall Street Journal in the area and were not able to tie anything together. They began interviewing anyone that passed the site and found two witnesses that said they saw a red Pontiac Fiera sports car parked near there a few days before the corpse was discovered. There had been just a few of these automobiles sold in the USA meaning that tracking one down here should be easy. It did not happen. They were able to track down the box that held the corpse and it came down to an elderly couple that lived a considerable distance away and they were eliminated as suspects. They also did a detailed investigation of the man that found the corpse and that went nowhere. DNA comparison was in its infancy but there was plenty of blood for sampling. The problem was they had no one to compare with the blood sample. They found three hairs, two Caucasian and one black but as with the blood sample they had no one to compare them to. The baby was Caucasian. The official name of the baby was Baby Jane Doe but the police named her Julie Valentine. The name Julie came from a woman that was a local heroine deep into the advocacy of abused women and children. Valentine came from the time of the year she was found. The local rape crisis center here is the Julie Valentine Center. She was buried at a local cemetery with a bronze plaque saying “Baby Jane Doe” and “Julie Valentine” under that. The police have not given up on this one...and they shouldn't. I have a few crosses that I am bearing and I am sure that those involved in this tragedy are also. Thanks to Lyn R. for most of this information.

One of my female subscribers bitched me out about my prologues here lately. She said they needed more “bite” to them. These prologues should get the job done.

The TV series “Band of Brothers” was about the 101^st Airborne, “Easy” company in particular. In basic paratrooper training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia one of the obstacles that the trainees had to conquer was a nearby mountain named “Currahee” by the Creek Indians. All training units had to run up and down that mountain several times during their training curriculum. The running of that course was exceptionally grueling and the 101^st adopted the word “Currahee” as their motto. A while back a member of the 101^st was wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. It took off both legs and did something to his mind. He became essentially a zombie. He lay in bed, looking but not seeing, listening but not hearing, eating and drinking but not tasting, etc. His mother and father came to his bedside and were with him constantly getting no response from their son. This warrior was visited by General Petraus who was the commander of the 101^st at one point in his career. He spoke to the wounded man for several minutes to no avail. He turned to leave but at the last minute the General turned and said in a loud voice “CURRAHEE” and the warrior’s leg stumps began moving and soon he sat bolt upright in the bed and acknowledged those around him. A year later the warrior is moving around very well with artificial limbs and has recovered all of his communication skills. Later on General Petraus visited this man once again and they hugged each other amid many tears. By the way, Currahee means “Stand alone” in Creek. God works in mysterious ways, y’all.

A while back I met an old friend that I had not seen in a couple of years and we got re-acquainted. He told me that his wife of 47 years had mysteriously died about a year before and he was at a loss as to how to deal with the grief. He said that she knew the end was coming by the things she said and preparations she made. One morning she arose, showered and dressed for work. She told my friend that she was going to lay down on the couch and take a short nap before going to work. She never woke up. The doctors could not find a thing wrong with her except her heart just just stopped. I did not pursue that because he got a choked up talking about it. He told me that a little later on he was standing in the bathroom shaving when he saw his wife in the mirror standing behind him and she was radiant. He turned around and they hugged and he asked how she got there. She said that she was allowed this one visit and told him that it was time for him to get on with his life and stop grieving as best he could. He said he closed his eyes in tears and when he opened them she was gone. I do not know where reality lies here except that it certainly is real in the mind of my friend and that is all I need to know.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Being in politics is like being a football coach; you have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it is important.”

                                     Eugene McCarthy

After reading the next segment I would like to know what your thoughts are on child abuse and its prevention.

                                    Julie Valentine

In research of this item I discovered a few things. The state of South Carolina is one of the leaders in rape and child abuse per capita in the USA and Greenville county leads the state. Keep this in mind when reading what comes next.

25 years ago close to Valentine's Day a man was out in an open field on the southeast side of Greenville, SC. He was gathering wild flowers to bring to his wife for Valentine's Day. This particular field had been used as a trash dump by those jackasses with no class. The gatherer stumbled upon a box that previously contained a new vacuum cleaner from Sears, noticed a peculiar odor and opened the box. To his horror he found the corpse of a days old female infant with the umbilical cord and placenta included. This was the days before cell phones so the man went to the closest commercial establishment and called the cops. The cops arrived and began a detailed investigation. The infant was wrapped in bloody rags and covered in a days old copy of the Wall Street Journal. An autopsy was performed and there was no abnormalities, in fact there was air in the lungs meaning that the child had taken a breath and this means the baby was alive at one point. Are you disgusted yet? Are you asking why the mother did not give the baby up for adoption? Anyway, the cops tried to track down any subscribers to the Wall Street Journal in the area and were not able to tie anything together. They began interviewing anyone that passed the site and found two witnesses that said they saw a red Pontiac Fiera sports car parked near there a few days before the corpse was discovered. There had been just a few of these automobiles sold in the USA meaning that tracking one down here should be easy. It did not happen. They were able to track down the box that held the corpse and it came down to an elderly couple that lived a considerable distance away and they were eliminated as suspects. They also did a detailed investigation of the man that found the corpse and that went nowhere. DNA comparison was in its infancy but there was plenty of blood for sampling. The problem was they had no one to compare with the blood sample. They found three hairs, two Caucasian and one black but as with the blood sample they had no one to compare them to. The baby was Caucasian. The official name of the baby was Baby Jane Doe but the police named her Julie Valentine. The name Julie came from a woman that was a local heroine deep into the advocacy of abused women and children. Valentine came from the time of the year she was found. The local rape crisis center here is the Julie Valentine Center. She was buried at a local cemetery with a bronze plaque saying “Baby Jane Doe” and “Julie Valentine” under that. The police have not given up on this one...and they shouldn't. I have a few crosses that I am bearing and I am sure that those involved in this tragedy are also. Thanks to Lyn R. for most of this information.

One of my female subscribers bitched me out about my prologues here lately. She said they needed more “bite” to them. These prologues should get the job done.

The TV series “Band of Brothers” was about the 101^st Airborne, “Easy” company in particular. In basic paratrooper training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia one of the obstacles that the trainees had to conquer was a nearby mountain named “Currahee” by the Creek Indians. All training units had to run up and down that mountain several times during their training curriculum. The running of that course was exceptionally grueling and the 101^st adopted the word “Currahee” as their motto. A while back a member of the 101^st was wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. It took off both legs and did something to his mind. He became essentially a zombie. He lay in bed, looking but not seeing, listening but not hearing, eating and drinking but not tasting, etc. His mother and father came to his bedside and were with him constantly getting no response from their son. This warrior was visited by General Petraus who was the commander of the 101^st at one point in his career. He spoke to the wounded man for several minutes to no avail. He turned to leave but at the last minute the General turned and said in a loud voice “CURRAHEE” and the warrior’s leg stumps began moving and soon he sat bolt upright in the bed and acknowledged those around him. A year later the warrior is moving around very well with artificial limbs and has recovered all of his communication skills. Later on General Petraus visited this man once again and they hugged each other amid many tears.    God works in mysterious ways, y’all.

A while back I met an old friend that I had not seen in a couple of years and we got re-acquainted. He told me that his wife of 47 years had mysteriously died about a year before and he was at a loss as to how to deal with the grief. He said that she knew the end was coming by the things she said and preparations she made. One morning she arose, showered and dressed for work. She told my friend that she was going to lay down on the couch and take a short nap before going to work. She never woke up. The doctors could not find a thing wrong with her except her heart just just stopped. I did not pursue that because he got a choked up talking about it. He told me that a little later on he was standing in the bathroom shaving when he saw his wife in the mirror standing behind him and she was radiant. He turned around and they hugged and he asked how she got there. She said that she was allowed this one visit and told him that it was time for him to get on with his life and stop grieving as best he could. He said he closed his eyes in tears and when he opened them she was gone. I do not know where reality lies here except that it certainly is real in the mind of my friend and that is all I need to know.

      Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“The primary cause of trouble in the world today is the ignorant are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”

                               Bertrand Russell

I have been reading the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle once again especially about what they think would be a “perfect government”. They both agree that it should be a “benevolent dictatorship”. Plato describes this premise in theory but Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander the Great and produced one of the most effective leaders in recorded history both in the executive methods and military expertise. According to Plato and Aristotle a “benevolent dictator” would be the offspring of a man and a woman that had all the leadership qualities desired. The child would be trained from birth how to rule benevolently. There would be a select group of men and women that was just to produce children for this purpose. Alexander the Great was indeed a benevolent dictator to the people of Greece and Macedonia...except for one shortcoming. When he went on that famous expedition where he conquered the known world, he had no problem with using his troops in combat that cost thousands of lives...both his and those that were conquered. Everyone in Greece and Macedonia knew he was doing this for the betterment of all...especially his troops. He overcame the loss of his troops by promising the troops in the countries that he had conquered a piece of the action if they would fight for him. These troops and those that started with him were fiery and eternally loyal. Once a country was conquered Alexander had no problem with using the local administrators to run the country but they were overseen by representatives of Alexander. He could not conquer Afghanistan and had to marry an Afghan princess to establish a viable organization. But in the long haul Alexander developed a mental and emotional breakdown and attempted suicide more than once. The symptoms described sounded like a variety of mental or emotional illnesses but was probably either epilepsy or bi-polar or both. He died in Babylon and was being transported back to Macedonia for burial. The entourage was hijacked in Syria by one of his Generals named Ptolemy and Alexander's corpse was taken to Alexandria, Egypt and buried in a secret location that has yet to be discovered.

Another mover and shaker died while on a military campaign. Atilla the Hun died and was transported to his burial place. The entourage that took him to his burial place killed everyone that saw them and the entire group of grave diggers and the burial squad was killed or committed suicide. Therefore no one knows where he is buried to this day. He died about 453AD.

This Date in History February 20

1985 Up until 1979 Irish law prohibited the importation and sale of contraceptives because the Catholic Church disapproved. I will paraphrase that. The Catholic Church wanted to go into the Irish bedrooms and tell them how to have sex. In 1979 the Irish Supreme Court ruled that the use of contraceptives fell under purview of privacy and was not a matter for the clergy to determine. The Catholic hierarchy in Ireland about peed their pants because the weight of the opinion of the Catholic Church was paramount in Ireland and with this ruling by the Irish Supreme Court the Church saw their power, influence and possibly a hell of a lot of money going down the toilet. But the sale and use of contraceptives still had a string attached. Contraceptives could only be distributed by a licensed pharmacist and only to those with a prescription from a licensed physician. And that is the way is stayed until this date when the Irish lawmakers shook off the shackles of the Church and on this date passed a law stating that it was up to anyone’s choice as to the use of contraceptives, prescriptions not withstanding. To quote MLK. Jr., Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I am free at last.

1950 On this date one of the most gifted poets of all time arrived in the United States to go on a reading tour. The Welshman Dylan Thomas began his reading tour with blockbuster reviews. This man was truly gifted. Before coming to the US he had published a book titled 18 Poems in 1934 and then 25 Poems in 1936. Dylan’s shortcoming was that a very heavy drinker. He met a young woman named Caitlin McNamara in a London Bar and Dylan was smitten and began to court Caitlin. She was not enamored with Dylan at first but after she heard him read his poetry in his rich and resonant Welsh voice, she was also smitten and they married. They had issue of three children. The only problem with this union was that Caitlin could hang with Dylan drink for drink and they spent many a foggy night together. In August of 1953 Dylan visited the White Horse Bar on Hudson Street in New York City and knocked back 15 shots of Scotch and walked out on the sidewalk and promptly dropped dead. Caitlin never forgave him for that. What a damned shame and a waste of talent. He was 39 years old.

Born today:

1888 French writer Georges Bernanos. He said, “It is a fine thing to rise above pride, but you must have pride to begin with.”

1924 US heiress Gloria Vanderbilt. She said “The fame you earn is a lot different that the fame that is thrust upon you.”

1963 US basketballer Charles Barkley. He said “We don’t need ref’s, but I guess the white guys need something to do.” Hey Charles, you forgot about Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Pete Maravich, Larry Bird among many, many others.

     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“A victory has many fathers, a defeat is an orphan.”

             Sitting Bull, Lakota Sioux

Here is a very sad tale about a woman that was forced to live her life as directed by others. It killed her.

                                 Cynthia Anne Parker

Cynthia Anne Parker was born in Crawford County, Illinois in 1826. When little Cynthia was seven years old, her family moved to east Texas to the headwaters of the Navasota River near present day Groesbeck, Texas. Groesbeck is a short distance SSE of Dallas and was in the very heart of Comanche country. By 1834 the extended Parker family had completed Fort Parker. When Cynthia Anne was ten years old a large party of Comanche warriors swept down on the fort and after killing 5 men, they kidnapped two women and three children. The kidnapped children were Cynthia Anne, her brother John and a cousin named James Plummer. I cannot find out what happened to John and James but Cynthia Anne spent nearly 25 years with the Comanche. Her Comanche name was Naduah (Someone found) and she married a Comanche warrior named Pohtocnocony or as the white man called him, Peta Nocona. Cynthia and Peta Nocona had two sons, Quanah (Fragrant) and Pecos (Peanuts) and one daughter named Topsannah (Prairie Flower). Cynthia’s husband, Peta Nacona, was eventually named chief of the tribe. In December of 1860 a troop of Texas Rangers, led by Captain Sullivan Ross, surrounded and captured a group of Comanche near the Pease River. Included in this group were Cynthia and her infant daughter Prairie Flower. After interviewing Cynthia many of the Rangers told Captain Ross that they thought it would be best for Cynthia to be allowed to rejoin her adopted Comanche family because she had spent so much time with them that they did not believe she could adapt to life with the whites. But Captain Ross had heard so many complaints about white children being kidnapped by that he thought it would be best for all concerned if they tried to rehabilitate her. Cynthia and Prairie Flower were sent to Camp Cooper where Cynthia was identified by an uncle named Isaac Parker. Isaac took Cynthia and Prairie Flower to his ranch near Birdville, Texas. The Texas legislature granted Cynthia a league of land which is equal to 4,428 acres and a pension of $100 per year for five years. Incidentally, most land grants given by the Mexican Government to the Anglo settlers in what later became Texas was a “labor and a league”. A labor was 177 acres that had water frontage and a league was land without water frontage. They also named her uncles Isaac and Benjamin Parker as her guardians. It did not help. Cynthia was terminally homesick and tried to escape several times. In 1862 Cynthia went to live with her brother Silas in Van Zandt County, Texas. Later Cynthia went to live with her sister Olrena. Just before the outbreak of the Civil War, the Parker family was in negotiation to send Cynthia back to live with her Comanche family in west Texas but unfortunately the war got in the way. To make things much worse, in 1864 Prairie Flower died of influenza. This was bad enough but what made Cynthia so unhappy was that she missed her sons and did not know what had happened to them. Anyway she wasted away and died in1870 of malnutrition at the age of 44 because she refused to eat. After several movements of her body she was finally put to rest beside her son Quanah and her daughter Prairie Flower in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Her son Quanah became a legend in the history of the American Indians and I will do a biography on him in the near future. The city of Quanah, Texas was named for him and the city of Nocona is named for Cynthia’s Comanche husband.

This Date in History February 19

1847 Back in August of 1846 a wagon train of 86 people arrived at Fort Bridger, Wyoming from Springfield, Illinois headed for California. The unofficial leader of the wagon train was George Donner. For some reason the wagon train chose to go on the recently blazed train known as the Hastings Cutoff rather than the tried and true California Trail blazed by Jim Bridger. They believed the new trail was shorter and would save time. The trail was a bit shorter but the terrain was much rougher and cost them time instead. In October the wagon train was caught on top of the Sierra Nevadas and the snows came locking them in. It was on this date that a rescue party from California reached what was left of the survivors. We all know how they survived.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“When you want to know the difference between “involved” and “committed” think of ham and eggs. The chicken was involved but the pig was committed.”

Ogden Nash

A while back a man went into a Walmart on a very busy thoroughfare here in Greenville. He picked up three butcher knives and began threatening the customers and soon four of Greenville’s finest were on the scene. Let’s stop at this point and take inventory of the weaponry involved. On one side there are three butcher knives with an effective range of about 6 feet. On the other side we have four Glock .40 caliber handguns, effective range about 40 yards. Then we have four laser aimed Tasers, effective range about 18 feet. Four metal batons, effective range is arm’s length. Four cans of pepper spray, effective range about 10 feet. Add to this the ability to have reinforcements on site in a matter of seconds. A man has to be insane to challenge this definitely out-manned and out-gunned situation. But challenge he did by throwing a knife at one of the deputies causing a cut on his leg that required 30 stitches. At this point one of the deputies decided that the Taser and/or the pepper spray were not enough and the situation required deadly force. He fired his trusty Glock three times and all three slugs struck the knife-thrower, two in the legs and one in the abdomen. The drama was over at that point and the crazy man was transported to a local hospital to get patched up. By the way, the man was roaming around inside yelling “She should have never treated me that way! I did not deserve all of this!” Does this sound familiar to anyone? Perhaps all of us if you interchange “she” and “he”.

Over in Monroe, NC the local police were called about an indecent exposure incident at the Poplin Place Shopping Center. The cops quietly pulled up behind a car parked in front of the Pier One shop. They found John Ionnone sitting there with his pants down around his ankles and obviously aroused. Ionnone saw the cops coming and quickly covered himself with a towel. The cops ordered him to pull up his pants and get out of the car. Instead Ionnone chose to ram the police cruiser, pulled up and did it again. By then the cops knew he was not going to comply with their orders and broke out the driver side window and assured him that a .40 caliber slug awaited him if he did not comply. The cops finally got the car stopped and Ionnone got out and surrendered. He has been charged with a variety of offensives. His defense was that those scented candles and porcelain churns in the window were so sexy. The cops were not impressed...and neither was the court.

This Date in History February 18

1885 On this date a masterpiece of American literature “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” authored by Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, is published. Twain looked at the novel as a sequel to another blockbuster of his called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Even though the novel is recognized as a masterpiece it proved to be very controversial even to this date. What made it controversial was that it was a story about Huck Finn helping a runaway slave named Jim escape to Ohio by drifting the Mississippi River on a raft. The novel was essentially the observations of Huck and Jim of the people they met on their adventure. Even though Twain portrayed the Caucasian people they met as being dumb, stupid and prejudicial and Jim as being brave, generous and trustworthy many people were offended by the association of a white boy and a black man. Later on the black community objected to the portrayal of Jim as being a “Jim Crow” image, or kowtowing to the whites. The book was taken from the shelves of most libraries as being “tawdry” and too controversial. Even up to 1997 this book was banned by several American communities as being a possible cause of racial unrest. I don’t get it. All one has to do is read the liner notes and if they don’t like what they read then put the damned book back on the shelf and pick another, but don’t prevent others from reading it. Who the hell do they think they are? They ban Tom Sawyer but allow Lady Chatterley's Lover. They are behaving like Nazis...nothing less. Don’t get me started on censorship.

1776 On this date James Murray, the 4^th Earl of Dunmore and the Royal Governor of Virginia, sent a note to William Legge, the 2^nd Earl of Dartmouth stating his “inexpressible mortification” that the British military commander in the colonies, Sir Henry Clinton, had decided to by-pass Virginia and go to the “insignificant colony” of North Carolina to crush the rebellion there. Dunmore had already been kicked out of office by the Patriots and was aboard a British warship in Norfolk harbor. Sir Henry was accompanied by British General Charles Cornwallis and his army but upon reaching Cape Fear, North Carolina they decided to wait on the British navy commanded by Admiral Peter Parker that was just leaving Cork, Ireland. The British navy arrived in early May but Admiral Parker convinced Clinton and Cornwallis that the best tactic was to capture Charleston, South Carolina and blockade that important harbor. Upon arriving at Charleston, the Patriot shore batteries were aimed, armed and ready and delivered the mother of all ass-kickings to Admiral Parker’s navy. So Parker, Clinton and Cornwallis said “to hell with it” and sailed back to New York. By the way, the state of South Carolina is known as the “Palmetto State” because of this engagement. The shore batteries at Charleston were surrounded by palmetto tree logs. The palmetto tree trunk is very soft and the artillery shells from Parkers ships just buried up in the logs and did not explode with any intensity and the victory was ours, thus the mighty and sovereign Palmetto State.

Born today:

1838 German physicist Ernst Mach. He said “The Theory of Relativity is just unacceptable to me as the presence of atoms or any such dogma.” Ernst discovered the speed of sound which is named for him, but he obviously was a dumb-ass otherwise.

1859 Russian writer Sholom Aleichem. He said “No matter how bad things get, you must keep on living, even if it kills you.” Sholom, shut up.

1922 US writer Helen Gurley Brown. She said “Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.” I know many of the latter and very few of the former.

         Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“My neighbors love it when I play my piano; they throw rocks and break my windows so they can hear me better.”

Les Dawson

Here is something that some of you will not like. It disheartens me to read about someone attempting to feed or establish a “personal” relationship with a wild animal. It does not help the animal it only benefits the human and it almost sentences the animal to death...especially deer. They have a natural fear of the sight, scent and sound of humans for good reason. Mankind has been hunter/gatherers since the days of the Neanderthal and wildlife has learned from it. Once this fear is compromised they are easily killed by hunters...and yes, there is an open season on does as well a bucks. Wild animals are instinctive opportunists. They do not have abstract thoughts. They will take food wherever it is the easiest to obtain. I read a story about an older lady up in the Smoky Mountains that lived alone. For a long time she was putting out food for bears and they responded. She apparently thought the bears were coming to visit her and she had a “personal” relationship with a few of them. One day she went outside to visit with the waiting bears without food. She was attacked, killed and devoured. The bears were doing what comes naturally. Wild animals are called “wild” for a reason and there is natural wary instincts for a reason. These animals will and have survived for thousands of years without human interference or manipulation. I would rather see them in a zoo than stripped of their defense mechanisms and sent back out. That's right, there is such a thing as Mother Nature...let her the hell alone.

We often hear the phrase “get the hell out of Dodge”. That phrase began back in the 1880's when Wild Bill Hickok was the sheriff of Dodge City, Kansas and vicinity. Bill was ruthless and cut no one any slack. If he said “come with me” you had better start trotting or risk getting you brains knocked out or worse. If you found out that Bill was coming after you, you either surrendered immediately or “got the hell out of Dodge”. There was one incident where Bill was called to a disturbance at a bar by a crowd of Texas cattle drovers that had just arrived and they were obviously hammered. Bill came in and told them the party was over and it was time to go to bed. The trail boss took one step forward and Bill capped him with one shot to the forehead. The best thing for the trail boss to have done was to....you know.

This Date in History February 17

1865 On this date United States General William T. Sherman and his army of 60,000, in his continuing campaign against innocent and defenseless civilians, entered the state capitol of South Carolina after an orgy of rape and destruction. Two days before CSA General Wade Hampton III had pulled out of Columbia knowing that if he stayed and fought his small cavalry unit would be swarmed under and annihilated. Sherman's army took great pleasure and were very meticulous in their destruction of this city because they felt that it was South Carolina that was first to secede and provided the impetus for all the others. This method of “burnt turf” warfare was advocated by both General Ulysses Grant and President Lincoln. Y'all will need to remember that Abraham Lincoln issued a “call to arms to preserve the union” after the secession began. The US army had its ass handed to it by the Confederates in the first few battles of the Civil War and then the northerners pressed Lincoln to allow the Southerners to form their own country so as to stop the slaughter. Lincoln then saw that patriotism was not going to get the job done so he switched horses and said the war was about freeing the slaves which changes the impetus from patriotism to a matter of conscience. Now when the US Army has a chance at barbarism with impunity they say they are punishing those that led the secession. That was baloney; they are back on the other horse again. They were just doing rape and pillage because they could get away with it, politics not withstanding. But mankind’s history is full of similar events from the wars between the Mesopotamian city-states, Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, Tutsis vs Hutus not to mention what happened in Darfur. Mankind’s history is full of atrocities against the innocents and it appears to me that there is no end in sight.

1995 On this day the ferry Neptune departed Jeremie for Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This boat was only 150 feet long with three decks and was carrying 1,200 people and farm animals. Normally the trip takes 12 hours. The bad thing was that this boat was licensed for only 650 people, had no life rafts, no life preservers and no emergency radio. About half way to Port-au-Prince a storm arose and the bottom deck began to become awash because of all the extra weight. The passengers, animals in tow, fled to the top deck. Y’all can guess what happened next. Most of the passengers got on one side and the boat capsized. Haiti has no Navy or Coast Guard so those people are out there on their own paddling around and hanging on to the boat. Finally the United States sent a Coast Guard cutter and they rescued about 350 people. The rest are lost. What a nightmare that must have been.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“By the time my girlfriend Hilda was eighteen she had sown enough wild oats to make a grain deal with Russia.”

                                           Phyllis Diller

One of my nephews had been wandering around in a dark and fetid jungle of uncertainty for over two years. Saturday afternoon he found a path and stepped out into the sunlight...he likes it.

Once again I read a sad story. A man was telling a very energetic and driven person to go slow, be low key so there is no pressure, live longer. Is that what we are here for to see how long we can live? It damn sure is not why I am here. A low key life will not guarantee a longer life either and all they will have left is memories of nothing. Life is not a bowl of whipped cream, it is a fiery adventure to be remembered. Years ago my father called me over knowing he was dying. He said that right after he and my mother retired they wanted to go on a trip to Hawaii but decided to not spend the money. Then he said “It is too late now, we are too old. Don't let this happen to you.” I want to sample every nuance of life I can...take chances...live a challenging and thrilling life. I am at a point that most of that is beyond my pocketbook and physical abilities but I have an ocean of memories that I would not trade to anyone. I was no Crocodile Dundee but I was not a bump on a log either. I feel sorry for those out there that all they have is memories of their job. Don't get me wrong, time with my family is very important and very memorable especially adventures with my girls, but accepting and overcoming challenges is the secret ingredient that makes you who and what you are.

For the first time in history a few years ago the state dog of South Carolina represented a breed in the prestigious Westminster Dog Show. The breed is the Boykin Spaniel. This particular breed does not have a long history.

Here is the story:

About 1900 a man named John Whitaker came out of church in Spartanburg, SC and there was a stray dog roaming the grounds. It looked like a Cocker but it was a bit larger and a solid dark liver color. He took the dog home as a pet. Whitaker saw some traits in the dog that would be advantageous to a hunter and sent the dog to his hunting partner who was also a dog breeder. His partner lived in the small town near Camden, SC. The man’s name was “Whit” Boykin. Boykin also recognized the built-in skills of the little dog and began a breeding program to take advantage of them. This little male stray dog began a new breed that is recognized today by hunters and dog fanciers everywhere. Boykin bred him with Chesapeake Bay retrievers and water spaniels until the right mix of speed, stamina and savvy was achieved. The final product is about 35-40 pounds for a male and slightly smaller for a female but all are bundles of irrepressible energy and enthusiasm when taken afield. They are superb on a dove field as well as a duck blind. When I lived in Taylors, SC many years ago my neighbor owned a female Boykin. I went with him once when he took Curlie out onto an open field to let her “stretch her legs”. When she got out of the car she was urinating in anticipation but held close to the owner until he said “Go”. Off she went in a zigzag pattern very low to the ground running at a blistering pace. Finally she slowed down and began a search running at a gait like a cheetah just before they break into a full run. Her back was low to the ground but it did not move up and down, she moved in a straight, rhythmic pattern…it was poetry in motion. It was a beautiful sight that I will never forget.

Here is a story about greed and pride. Back in the 1980's there was a Canadian scientist named Gerald Bull. Bull was an astrophysicist but his long suit was designing artillery. He designed an artillery piece that could fire a shell, even a nuclear tipped one, over 500 miles. I know it sounds improbable but Bull took his drawings to Canada, US, England, France and a couple of more countries who all agreed that the design was plausible but they had no use for it since the barrel would have to be about 150 feet long. But he finally found a buyer...Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Saddam was very interested knowing he would be able to hold the entire middle east hostage including Israel. Bull was questioned as to why he would want to put a weapon like that in the hands of a dictator like Saddam. He said that all the other countries had their chance, to hell with them. While he was supervising the installation of the 500 mile range cannon he was designing another cannon that could put something in orbit. All of this came to the attention of Iran, Jordan, Syria and especially Israel. They all knew that if Bull and Saddam were allowed to continued the entire world would be held hostage so something had to be done. It was decided that the Israeli secret police known as Mossad would get the assignment. Bull had a second home in Belgium and that is where he was spending the majority of the time while not in Iraq. They finally caught Bull in the hallway of his house in Belgium and capped him with two shots to the temple with a .22 long rifle target pistol and a silencer. Bull kept all of his drawings secret so no one else knew what he knew about artillery and Israel's problem with him was over. Why a .22 and not a 9mm you ask. It is the noise that might attract attention. Mossad has used a small .22 revolver using .22 short cartridges with half the powder removed. That makes very little noise and is very effective in an ear, eye or up the nostril. By the way, the cannon that was under construction in Iraq was abandoned...no one had the drawings nor the formula for the propellant.

This Date in History February 16

1862 US General U.S. Grant completed a brilliant campaign in the western theater with the capture of Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. Just 10 days before he had captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River which severely damaged the Confederate supply routes. The Confederate troops at Fort Donelson were led by General Gideon Pillow. Fort Donelson was well defended by seasoned troops. Grant chose to attack from two directions and was initially successful but General Pillow ordered a counter-attack and drove the US army back making an escape possible, but Pillow got greedy. He thought he would win and continued the attack rather than ordering an escape. Included in those that chose to escape were CSA General Nathan Bedford Forrest and 500 cavalrymen that proved to be a thorn in the side of the Union army for the entire war. Eventually Grant was able to flank Pillows troops and they were forced to surrender. When Pillow asked Grant for surrender terms the answer was “nothing but total and unconditional surrender will be accepted”. Grants troops joked around saying that the U.S. in Grant’s name meant “Unconditional Surrender”.

1803 The fledgling United States merchant fleet had been under attack by pirates from North Africa while the ships were in the Mediterranean Sea. President Thomas Jefferson got fed up and sent our Navy there to counteract the pirates. One of the US warships, the Philadelphia ran aground near Tripoli and was captured. The US Navy felt that they had to prevent the pirates from adding to their fleet with a ship of this caliber. On this date, Lieutenant Stephan Decatur and 73 sailors and Marines sailed into Tripoli harbor disguised as Maltese fishermen. They boarded the Philadelphia, killed the crew and set fire to the ship and burned that puppy down to the waterline. Decatur and his crew escaped with no casualties. Decatur became an icon in the history of the United States Navy. There are several towns named for him.

           Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow