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