Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“It is the mark of many famous people that they cannot part with their finest hour.”

                                        Lillian Hellman

An example of the above quote was British General Bernard L. Montgomery. During WWII German General Erwin Rommel was kicking ass in north Africa along the Mediterranean coast. Finally due to the British navy destroying German shipping in the Mediterranean the under-supplied and under-manned German army met a well armed, well supplied and well manned allied army commanded by Montgomery at a place called El Alamein in Egypt. Montgomery unleashed a ferocious artillery barrage followed by a tank attack that drove Rommel back west across the desert into the waiting arms of US General George Patton who had recently landed on the northwest coast of Africa . After this victory, Montgomery no longer signed his name as “General Bernard L. Montgomery”...he signed simply “Montgomery of El Alamein” for the rest of his stupid, egotistical life.

Here is an interesting statistic. The movie American Sniper was released of Christmas day 2014. On January 26, 2015 the film had grossed $226 million. The budget for the making of the movie was about $59 million. As of January 2015 the movie has grossed nearly as much as all the Oscar nominees for “Best Movie” combined. It was a Clint Eastwood movie but I don't think he needs the money. I looked up Clint's homes. He has homes in Los Angeles, Carmel, Ca., and the island of Maui, Hawaii. They are all breathtaking. But to me he is The Outlaw Josie Wales.

This Date in History March 20

1778 On this date United States representatives Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee have an audience with King Louis XVI of France. They are there in order to persuade France to recognize the United States as an independent nation and become an ally. France was the prime enemy of Great Britain since their embarrassing loss to the English in the Severn Years War. This loss cost France their lands in North America and they were still smarting from it. The United States representatives were anxious to have the French Canadians as allies to protect their northern borders. King Louis XVI was cautious toward backing a losing cause but after the Patriots beat the crap out of the British at the Battle of Saratoga, he decided to recognize the United States as being an independent nation which put him at war with England. He had been covertly sending arms and ammo to the United States and now that he was an ally he sent them openly. A helping hand was given by the second most powerful man in the French Court, Charles Gravier, who wanted to become an ally with the United States for a different reason. After the British captured Philadelphia, Gravier was afraid that the Patriots would not fight without French backing. It was the French that sealed the fate of the British army under General Charles Cornwallis when the French navy sailed into Chesapeake Bay in 1782 and sealed off the avenue of retreat and supply for Cornwallis while Washington was attacking him on three sides on land. We are here because of the dynamic men we had on our side at this point in time...it was not by accident.

1965 On this date President Lyndon Johnson called Governor of Alabama George Wallace and told him that he would not hesitate to send in the National Guard to allow a peaceful march of protesters from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Previously, this protest march was stopped at the Pettus Bridge near Selma when the local police and the State troopers waded into the protesters and beat the crap out of many of them. President Johnson reminded Wallace that it was his duty to protect the Constitutional rights of peaceful assembly and protest and if he was unwilling or refused to do so, then Johnson would. Wallace countered with that he did not think he could restrain his troopers and police because of “outside agitators”. The next march was accompanied by a division of Alabama National Guard sent by Lyndon and peace prevailed.

1413 King Henry IV died and his son Henry V assumed the crown. Earlier King Edward III had promised Henry V the Duchy of Normandy which is on the northwest part of France All of this got started when William, the Duke of Normandy became the King of England. William was also known as William the Conqueror. From then on every King of England thought they had a claim on Normandy. It was Henry V that pulled off one of the greatest military feats in history with his victory at the Battle of Agincourt. Henry landed on the Normandy coast and encircled the French town of Hanfleur and eventually captured it. Henry lost half of his strength due to battle wounds and disease. He decided he had better get his young ass up to Calais, France to meet his navy and get on back to England. By the way Calais is the closest point in France to England, about 21 miles across the English Channel. On the way to Calais, Henry was cut off by a French army three times his size. Henry moved his troops into a narrow field which would eliminate the chance of encirclement and unleashed an avalanche of bodkin tipped arrows into the closely packed and heavily armored French knights. The bodkin tips were designed to penetrate armor and chain mail and they did their damage to swarming knights. Another good thing in Henry’s favor was that it had rained heavily for the last few days and the chosen field was very muddy which made the footing very treacherous for the heavily armored French infantry. The French army was packed so close together that they could not even swing their swords. Upon seeing this, Henry ordered his bowmen to pick up their terrible double-handed and double- bladed axes and swords and join with the infantry and wade into those Frenchmen and take care of business. The French suffered 6,700 casualties to Henry’s less than 1,000. It was a stunning lopsided victory for the English. This battle went down in military history as one of the greatest victories every recorded. Henry V died in Vincennes, France in 1422.

1324 On this date the brain trust at the University of Paris determined what was causing the epidemic of Bubonic Plague or “Black Death” that was sweeping across Europe. I don’t know why they didn’t think of it sooner but they said it was caused by the triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars on the 40^th degree of Aquarius. Damn, it was so obvious, how did they miss it before? Anyway, that fairy tale that it was caused by the Crusaders bringing disease carrying fleas, riding on rats coming back from the Middle East was not to be believed. That is until it was too late and nearly 1/3 of the population of Europe had expired. Can you believe they taught Astrology in an institution the calibre of the University of Paris? I wonder what other bullshit is being taught in institutes of higher learning today?

Born today:

43AD Roman writer Ovid. He said “Before joining into a double harness, take a good look at the other horse.” Sound wisdom.

1828 Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen. He said “It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals, they should use journalists or politicians instead.” Here, here!

1994 US writer Lewis Grizzard. He said “The public will usually forgive a mistake, but not if you try to wriggle or weasel out of one.” (See Richard M. Nixon and/or Ted Kennedy)

Thanks for listening I can hardy wait until tomorrow

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