Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Worthless people live to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink to live.”

                                            Socrates

Recently I have determined that many do not know the sequence of events that preceded the American Civil War. I will try to present it without editorial.

After a series of fits and starts the United States became a democratic republic with our present form of government being three branches: Executive (President), Legislative (House and Senate) and Judicial (Supreme Court). At that time many of our ancestors were very suspicious of a centralized government because it too closely resembled a monarchy (England) and we had just fought out way out of one in the recent past. It was eventually proven that each state could not support and defend itself independently so a finely balanced republic was the answer. The southern United States was the worlds major supplier of cotton along with a hell of a lot of rice. This made the plantation owners very wealthy. There is no doubt that much manpower was required to keep this much acreage viable and slavery was the answer. At one point the population of those southern agricultural states was about 50% slaves. In 1850 the Republican Party was formed for the sole purpose of the abolition of slavery. The writings of the Republican leaders and the southern politicos showed a prolific increase in tension. Republican Abraham Lincoln took office in 1860 in spite of losing the popular vote but winning the electoral vote. That brought the tensions to the boiling point and secession began. At that time the states were divided into either “free states” or “slave states” meaning that slavery was allowed in some states and not others. Congress made it a point that there was an equal number of free and slave states so neither side could dominate. In this time period there were 15 states each. There were eleven “slave” states that seceded and four that did not. Those that did not were Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri. The Union army declared war against those states that had seceded. The Union army did not do well in the first 18 months so Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This document freed the slaves “in those states in rebellion.” Lincoln had admitted that he hoped the slaves would rise in revolt and take some of the heat off his military. The Lincoln administration admittedly had to do a lot of dancing to keep Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri from joining the Confederacy because they were slave states but were not “in rebellion” so they stayed “slave states” until the 13^th Amendment was ratified. In January 1865 the US Congress (minus the representatives from the Confederate states) passed a resolution in the form of the 13^th Amendment that abolished slavery in the United States and its possessions. On April 9 of 1865 the war in the Eastern theater ended with the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia led by Robert E. Lee. Lincoln was assassinated 5 days later. There was another considerable Confederate army in the Carolinas led by Joseph Johnson and he surrendered to William Sherman in North Carolina about two weeks after Lee. There was yet other Confederate armies in the western arena lead by General's Joe Shelby and Kirby Smith. They fought a guerrilla war for a while but eventually those armies faded away. On December 6 of 1865 the 13^th Amendment was ratified by all of the United States (Georgia being the last one) and the bloodiest war in American history had ended along with slavery.

This is editorial:

The Civil War may have been started because of slavery but the Confederate soldiers did not fight like they did to protect it. 90 percent were not slave owners. When interviewed most said that they fought for the right to secede no matter the reason and/or they felt they were being invaded by the Union army.

2% of the entire population of the United States was either killed or died in this tragedy. Disease killed nearly a as many as combat. Today 2% would be a little over 7 million, or about 95% of the present population of New York City. I used New York City as an example arbitrarily.

This Date in History May 1

1960 On this date in this year I was in the United States Air Force stationed at Eielson AFB, Alaska. Eielson was an intelligence gathering and cold weather testing base, meaning there was a lot of spy planes that passed through there like RB-47’s, RB-66’s, RB-58’s, and an occasional U-2. I found out later that the U-2’s were capable of flying at or above 70,000 feet and the CIA believed that the Russians had no fighters or missiles that could reach that altitude so they would send U-2’s on over flights of Russia taking precision photos along the way. On one particular night, the klaxon began blasting and SAC intelligence officers ran up in the control tower with me and we spent the night together. The story was that the Russians had something interesting going on near the Bering Straits and our military wanted photos. This particular night they chose to send out an RB-47 and a KC-135 tanker. Neither plane got off the ground because the fuel was contaminated. To this day I think it was sabotage and so did the SAC officers. Speaking of U-2’s, later on one of them departed Karachi, Pakistan and was on his way to Buda, Norway, but it might have been vice-versa but in any event Russia is in the middle of that flight path. This spy flight U-2 was shot down in Russia with CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers aboard. The CIA was not worried, the said that there was no part of the plane that was identifiable as American and the pilot was suppose to commit suicide with a cyanide tablet that was aboard the aircraft, therefore President Eisenhower said it was a weather recon aircraft that had gotten off course. Little did President Ike know that the pilot had not taken the poison but was alive and in the hands of the Russians, parachute and a large chunk of the aircraft included. After this Ike had to admit it was indeed a spy flight and the relationship with the Russians hit an all time low. Powers was a prisoner for two years then he was swapped for master Russian spy Rudolph Abel. It seems that Abel had been spying for Russia in United States. Spying is spying whether on the ground or in the air.

1898 A few months before the US battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor for reasons unknown. A naval investigation showed it was caused by a mine no matter whose it was but that was probably not the real reason. In any case, a series of events led to the United States and Spain declaring war on each other. At the same time US Commodore George Dewey was tasked by US President William McKinley with the destruction of the Spanish fleet in the Pacific. Dewey found the Spanish fleet anchored in Manila Bay in the Philippines. Dewey had all the ships in his fleet to extinguish their lights and on this night they sneaked into the harbor and deployed. At the crack of dawn Commodore Dewey issued the famous order to the commander of his flagship the USS Olympia saying “You may fire when ready, Gridley.” And Gridley indeed opened fire and 10 of the Spanish vessels were sunk in their moorings from which the Spanish navy never recovered. The Spanish-American War was over in short order after this fiasco.

Born today:

1918 TV host Jack Paar. He said “Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.” Si senor.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“You don't have to be a corpse to be a hero.”

Gen. George Patton

Do any of you remember the riots in Oakland, Watts, Detroit, Chicago, Montgomery, and now Baltimore? What did they accomplish beside an opportunity for stealing, assault and arson? Now do you remember the peace walks lead by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? This man organized peaceful and legally authorized walks and would discontinue them immediately if there was even a hint of violence. What did these walks accomplish? I will tell you what, it was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With the use of passive resistance as taught by Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mahatma Gandhi, King was able to change the laws of the United States almost single handed in addition to winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Riots like we see in Baltimore does nothing to improve the situation, without question the community becomes even more unstable. What bothered me a lot is the look on the faces of those people (kids really) jumping up and down on cars while laughing and “high-fiving” each other...they were not angry, they were having fun. There is little question that the dead man was healthy when arrested and showed up dead a few hours later. That is unacceptable if not criminal. If we are going to stay viable as a nation we have to rely on the criminal justice system to do its job or slide into anarchy. This means that the person with the most firepower wins...that being either law enforcement or the military. That mother that came and got her son off the street after he threw a couple of rocks at the cops is my hero. I knew she was his mother because he refused to put his hands on her in spite of her beating him up side the head. I have to look at all of this with a jaundiced eye because the media is having a field day and we are not seeing everything, only violence. I have questions. What percentage of the black community in Baltimore is involved in rioting? What was the average age of the rioters? Does the media give a shit about balanced reporting? Did the media show a group of community members lining up between the rioters and the cops? Why not?

Yesterday I watch a an old movie titled The Proud and the Profane. It starred William Holden and Deborah Kerr and many years ago it was one of my favorites. After what I have seen recently the Proud was that woman in Baltimore that saw her son on TV in a terrorist hood throwing rocks at the cops and went and found that boy and unceremoniously beat his ass and sent him to the house. The most Profane thing was either that man running out of a CVS in Baltimore with 8 or 9 boxes of condoms under his arms or a woman running out of a store with 5 shoe boxes under her arms. How does that honor the memory of Freddie? It doesn't, it spoils everything for everybody including those who loved Freddie.

I have told this story before and this is a good time to repeat it:

After Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated much of the black community of Augusta, Georgia headed toward downtown torches in hand. A very famous black entertainer that lived near Augusta drove his pickup into downtown, got up in the back and told the mob that it was stupid to burn down their own town. The building owners will just get their structures rebuilt by their insurance or collect the money. He told them just to go home and grieve the loss of the great man that was assassinated...and they did. It was James Brown, y'all...”The Hardest Working Man in Show Business”. Not only that, he understood the meaning of “what is the right thing to do.”

This past winter may be the worst that I remember for cold for long periods...and now tornadoes in the springtime. I cannot offer a logical opinion for the cause of all of this. Could it be La Nina or El Nino, global warming, Al Gore, Obamacare, Jadeveon Clowney, a raise in the price of pork at Henry's Smokehouse, a raise in the price of coffee at Omega...or maybe the disappearance of flight MH-370? I don't know, but something is afoot.

                 This Date in History   April 30

1945 On this date one of the most depraved beasts to ever walk this earth committed suicide. Adolph Hitler spent the last few days of his life in his underground bunker 30 feet under the German Chancellery in Berlin. He could easily hear the thunderous approach of the Russian army coming from the east and southeast. He had already instructed his staff to gather up 40 liters of gasoline to incinerate his corpse when the time came. Earlier this bastard had came out of his bunker and met with his “last line of defense” and that being untrained boys at the age of 15 and younger and old men over the age of 70. Even trained German paratroopers would be no match for the relentless Russians but this son-of-a-bitch wanted children and old men to sacrifice their lives for him with him knowing that all was lost. All the other important members of his private staff had already committed suicide by biting into a cyanide capsule. Early in the day Hitler had married his mistress Eva Braun and it was she and Hitler that were left in his private bunker when he died much to the free world’s relief. Eva had taken cyanide and Hitler had taken cyanide also but before the poison had time to work, he put a 9mm bullet in his brain. Oh, I almost forgot. In order to test the cyanide poison, he gave a dose of it to his German shepherd named Blondi. She died also. There was no end to the depth of Hitler’s evilness. As instructed, his staff dug a small trench in the garden of the Chancellery, put Hitler’s corpse and 40 liters of gasoline into it and lit it off. Finally, the world was rid of Adolph Hitler. But there will be another; history has proven it time and again.

Born today:

1771 US theologian Hosea Ballou. He said “Real happiness is cheap enough, but how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.”

1834 English naturalist Sir John Lubbock. He said “Reading, writing, arithmetic and grammar do not make an education any more than a knife, fork and spoon make a dinner.”

1933 US songwriter/singer Willie Nelson. When asked why he smokes marijuana he said “It keeps me from killing people.” Willie is a hoot.

     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

When asked what surprised him the most about humanity he answered “Man...because he sacrifices his health for money. Then he sacrifices his money to regain his health. Then he is so anxious about his future that he does not enjoy the present: The end result is that he lives in neither the present nor the future; he lives like he is never going to die then he dies never knowing he has really lived.”

                                     Dalai Lama

I saw a story about the Winder family in Selmer, Tennessee. The man of the house was a Church of Christ minister. His wife looked just like you might suspect coming from a tiny town in south Central Tennessee and an ever smaller church. The man and the wife had issue of three daughters. He was a tall, good-looking athletic type, the wife was a very quiet mousy type. One night she got out of bed, retrieved a pump shotgun and fired one round into the back of her husband who was asleep. The blast did not kill the man right away and he wallowed around on the floor until he bled out. The wife gathered up her girls into the family van and disappeared. The next afternoon the church was holding a bible study and neither the preacher nor his wife showed up. After the service a couple of the elders went over to the Reverend's house. The doors were locked but a key was found in a tackle box in the garage. They got into the house and found the minister dead as fried chicken and the wife and kids were gone. The local sheriff put out a nationwide BOLO (be on the lookout) for the wife, kids and the van. Everybody thought it had been a kidnapping, but about 600 miles away near Orange Beach, Alabama (been there), a van matching the BOLO made an illegal U turn on Ocean Boulevard and was stopped. It was indeed the minister's wife and kids. She went on trial for murder. With her and the older daughter's testimony it appeared that the good minister was a wife beater in addition to having a few kinks. The wife still had a few bruises on her arms and chest and produced a couple of wigs and platform shoes that had been bought by her husband for her to wear. When asked if her husband had required her to do sex acts she was not comfortable with...she nodded her head....when asked what she just said “on top”....it took me a while to grasp that as being “kinky” but being a wife-beater is not allowed under any circumstance, wigs and shoes not withstanding. The end result was she was convicted of manslaughter and given 210 days minus time served. There was no doubt that her testimony was from the heart. Her parents were given custody of the kids while she was in the joint. Six months after she was released she had her kids with her once again. We never know what goes on behind closed doors...do we?

This Date in History April 29

1945   On this date the 45th division of the United States 7^th Army (US General Alexander ‘Sandy’ Patch commanding) on its march across Europe to free the different nations from the hell of the Nazis, come upon an enclosed camp in Poland. General Patch was as an efficient commander as General George Patton, the commander of the 3^rd Army, but was not as an egomaniac. The soldiers could detect the plant from afar because of the smothering stench that emanated downwind. It was Auschwitz, y'all. It was facility that had no other purpose that to kill Jews and Gypsies as fast and efficiently as possible. It is estimated that 3 million Jews that were literally exterminated as vermin by these Nazi beasts. When the Nazi camp commander and his staff determined that the Americans were within a day or two of liberating the camp, they went on a murder rampage hoping to eliminate all the prisoners that they could before running out of ammo and then scorched as many of the buildings with flamethrowers as they could and then they left hoping to blend in with the general population. The Americans were stunned at what they saw. There were heap and piles of emaciated copses including a nearby train with cattle cars full to capacity with the same. The Americans had no choice but to bury the corpses along with tons of quick lime to eliminate the chance of a cholera epidemic. It was the Russians that came upon the camp at Buchenwald, the worst of them all. Buchenwald had ovens, y'all, ovens. I will leave it to you to figure out what the ovens were for but when the Russians arrived the ovens were out of coal and had stopped working. The Russians had nothing on their minds but revenge for the Germans killing 26 million of their brethren, now upon seeing this every Russian soldier was a razor. They left there and headed to Germany and were not to be denied their revenge. It turned out to be a 570 mile long bloodbath. It was nothing short of a massacre of the Germans by the Russians be it, man, woman, children, dogs, cats, cattle or any other air breather...all were slaughtered. In the meantime the allies had sealed off the western side of Germany and would not accept a surrender. They just saw to it that the Russians got their belly full of German blood. The Russians did not cut any slack y'all, they indeed got a belly full.

Born today:

1897 English conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. When speaking to a female cellist in his orchestra he said “Madam, you have between your legs an instrument that is capable of giving pleasure to thousands, all you have to do is scratch it.” No Comment.

Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”

                                        Dalai Lama

We don't really know what is going on in Baltimore because all we see is what the media wants us to see and bad news sells. What I saw was about 75 young people rioting by destroying shit and looting a CVS and a liquor store. I would like to see a show of hands that believe this is the majority of the black people in Baltimore...that's what I thought, me neither. I am very suspicious of what happened to the man that was arrested while trying to run away and then ended up dead with a major back injury but stealing drugs and a half gallon of Jack Daniels ain't the solution.

Yesterday I mentioned Medusa and Perseus from Greek mythology...here is the rest of the story.

Through a series of unfortunate events Perseus and his mother ended up very poor in a small island kingdom. The king held a banquet and demanded a gift from all his subjects preferably a horse. Perseus said that he did not have a horse but was there anything else he would accept. The king said that he wanted the head of Medusa. As with most Homeric tales Perseus went through a series of thrilling adventures before he reached the dwelling of Medusa. As I said previously Medusa lived in a cave on a remote island. Perseus reached this island and saw a cave with a menagerie of warriors made of stone in the mouth of said cave and he knew that this must be the place. Perseus had received advice from another Greek Goddess who told him to polish the inside of his shield to a mirror finish. Perseus entered the cave with a helmet, shield and sword. He hid behind a wall when he heard someone/something coming. He turned his shield to where he could see the reflection of what was coming...it was Medusa. He did not look at her face but watched her feet until he knew she was within range and blindly swung his sword and in one stroke beheaded Medusa. He put the head in a cloth sack and went back home and saved his mother and himself. Perseus' adventures before arriving at the island kingdom and the trip to finding Medusa are worth your while to read. The word “nymphomania” came from an adventure during Perseus's trip to find Medusa.

                   This Date in History   April 28

1789 Earlier the Government of England has tasked ship Captain William Bligh to sail into the South Pacific with a ship load of breadfruit saplings. The idea was to plant the breadfruit sapling and see if the fruit grew in sufficient quantity to feed the slaves that were gong to be used in the area later on. The ship he was commanding was the HMS Bounty. The ship arrived in Tahiti in October of 1788 and remained five months doing research. But the Captain and his botanist was not the only people aboard doing research and planting. The ships crew had fallen for the warm weather, laid-back life style not to mention the beautiful and receptive Polynesian women. To make it worse, Captain Bligh was a notorious hard-ass and was unmerciful in the dispensing of his form of discipline, many unfair floggings included. Anyway, after leaving Tahiti the ship went to Tonga to plant some more saplings. It was during this trip that the shit hit the fan. The majority of the crew persuaded the second in command, Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, to take over the ship and stop this brutal treatment by Captain Bligh. On this date, the majority of the crew led by Fletcher Christian did indeed mutiny and took control of the ship. Christian chose to put Bligh and 18 of his loyal crew men adrift in a 25 foot sailboat and sailed away. In a superb show of seamanship, Bligh was able to navigate the boat using the stars alone to Timor Island, a distance of 3,600 mile and he made it there on June 24, 1789. After a brief stop at Tubuai Island looking for a place to settle, the crew of the Bounty set sail for the ever loving arms of Tahiti. After arriving at Tahiti Christian had second thoughts knowing the British Navy would be there soon looking for the Bounty because that was on Bligh’s pre-sailing log. So he gave his crew the choice of going with him to find another settlement or to stay here in Tahiti and risk the wrath on the British Navy. 16 of the crew chose to stay in Tahiti, the British Navy be damned. Fletcher Christian sailed off with eight of the crewmen, six Tahitian men and 12 Tahitian women looking for a remote island to settle. They chose Pitcairn Island about 1,000 miles north of Tahiti. After stripping the Bounty, Christian ordered it burned. The British navy never looked for them there but they were discovered in 1806 by a whaling vessel that saw smoke from a cooking fire. In 1825 a British ship finally arrived at tiny Pitcairn and those remaining crewmembers were granted amnesty and were taken to Tahiti. After a few year they decided that they had rather be at Pitcairn and went back home. To this day there are about 40 people on Pitcairn all of which can trace their ancestry to the British crewman of the Bounty. By the way, this was not the only mutiny Bligh had to endure, this one was the third.

1955 On this date little Stephanie Bryan disappeared from her neighborhood in Berkeley, California. The police were about to write this one off when something peculiar happened. The wife of one Burton Abbot found a strange pocketbook in the garage. After looking inside she found Stephanie’s student identification card and knowing the cops were looking for her gave them a call. The cops swarmed the garage and found a bra that same size and type of that worn by Stephanie. They interviewed Burton extensively but he denied everything and said that his garage had been used as a polling place in the past and that is where the evidence came from. The police were about to buy Abbot’s story then a radio news reporter hired a detective and a bloodhound and went to the Abbot’s mountain cabin and found the corpse of little Stephanie. Abbot was tried and convicted of murder and was sentenced to death. Abbot appealed his death penalty unsuccessfully several time but he was one too short when he was sitting in a chair when some pellets were dropped into a pan of acid under his seat and he was dead in four minutes. Two minutes later the Governor called and tried to issue a stop execution order. Too bad.

1950 US comic Jay Leno. He said “You can say want you want but when Dan Quayle was in the National Guard, not one Viet Cong got past Muncie, Indiana.”

              Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

The Allies had secured a foothold in France after D-Day and he was asked what he thought and he said “We have destroyed the German Navy and the Luftwaffe (German air force) but the German infantry dies hard.”

                 U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower

Here is an interesting story from Greek mythology:

A mortal young lady that was beautiful top to bottom had decided to channel her life in a direction that required her being a virgin. Her beauty did not go unnoticed by the most lusty immortal entity of all...the chief God Zeus. Zeus would seduce a mortal lady from time to time but this girl was surrounded by a wall with just a few windows. Zeus transformed himself into a shower of gold, flew into an open window and transformed himself back into his normal form. He succeeded in seducing this girl and her future was lost. Zeus's wife Hera was also immortal and found out about this tryst. She was furious but knew she could not fool around with the mighty Zeus so she targeted the girl even though she was innocent. Hera turned the girl into a “gorgon” and made her the ugliest being ever conceived. The girl ended up with pale gray skin and live snakes for hair. By now y'all know I am talking about Medusa. Medusa was so ugly that anyone that gazed upon her face would be turned to stone. She lived alone in a cave on a remote island but the sight of her face turning people to stone was weapon that the military could use with great effect. All they had to do was to move toward an enemy while holding up Medusa's head and they would either have to run away or be turned to stone. What eventually happened to Medusa is part and parcel of a myth about a hero named Perseus. I will pursue this later . This is to remind all men about the wrath of an angry woman.

Here is another case of what happens when you fool around with nature. Over in India many of their cattle were being infected with a mosquito-born virus. A drug was found that would counteract this virus. They found out that the drug was fatal to vultures but it was too late. When a cow died the first scavengers there was the vultures and there was a hell of a die off. This meant that packs of wild dogs became the chief scavengers and their population exploded. As a result the cases of rabies in the human population tripled. As the saying goes, it is not nice to fool with with mother nature.

This Date in History April 27

4977BC It is on this is the date that German astronomer Johann Kepler named as the date the Universe came into being. It was Kepler, Galileo and Copernicus that promoted the idea that it was the planets orbiting the sun rather that the Earth being the center of the Universe as taught by the all powerful Catholic Church. Kepler was correct in determining that the sun was the center of the “universe” but he was wrong in supposing the earth was created on April 27, 4977BC. Anyone can go out into their backyard and pick up a rock that is a million years old without a whole lot of trouble. Kepler was fortunate in that he was able to study with another genius astronomer in Nicholas Copernicus. Kepler also came up with laws of motion one of which is that the orbits of the planets are ellipses and tend to speed up when closest to the sun and slow down as they travel away from the sun. Another law was that ratio to how long a planet takes to orbit the sun as to its distance from the sun. Kepler was able to continue his research unhindered because he joined the brilliant Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in Prague. Brahe died and left all of his writings and notes about observations he had made with the naked eye. Kepler became the chief astronomer for Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor. Kepler and Copernicus had been communicating with Galileo and found that Galileo had improved upon a telescope and Galileo had sent them instructions on how to make one of their own and indeed Kepler had a telescope made for him. Galileo was forced to recant any teaching about the earth orbiting the sun because the Pope did not see it that way and promised Galileo a life of torture if he didn’t recant. After the telescope a light came on in the mind of Kepler. It was Kepler that described in detail the operation of the human eye. Kepler died in Regensburg, Germany in 1630. Then 13 years later the sun rose over the scientific and mathematical community with the birth of Isaac Newton. Newton utilized many of Kepler’s theories in defining his own laws of motion that are still in use to this day. Even though Kepler made gigantic contributions to the scientific world, he was wrong about the age of the earth. Since the universally accepted beginning of the universe is the so-called “Big Bang” theory, Kepler was only off by about 13.7 billion years.

1865    Just a few days after the end of the Civil War one of the worst marine disasters in history occurs. The steamboat Sultana had departed New Orleans headed for Cairo, Illinois via the Mississippi River. The Captain of the ship was offered money per person by the US Army to take Union soldiers that were in the south at the end of the war, especially those poor souls that endured the Andersonville Prison, back up north an let them off in Cairo. The Captain saw dollar signs and began loading more and more soldiers aboard his vessel at each stop. After a while he was more than doubly overloaded. His chief mechanic came and told the Captain that the steam boiler had a leak in the plating and they needed to stop, bleed off the steam and make repairs. The Captain could not see anything but dollar signs and ordered a temporary repair and he continued up the river. The temporary repair was made and on they went with about 2,100 people aboard on a boat made for 1,100 passengers and crew. Just above Memphis the Sultana’s boiler exploded and all but 400 are either scalded to death in the steam or drown in the swift river which was just under flood stage after heavy rains. Nearly all of the victims were Union soldiers from Andersonville prison.

Born today:

1822 US General Ulysses Grant. He said “I only know two tunes, one is ‘Yankee Doodle’ and the other one isn’t.” Grant was successful because he knew he could win a war of attrition, the other generals before him did not realize this.

                    Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

                                           Bruce Lee

A while back a physicist named Higgs had predicted that there was such a thing as a “God” particle. This meant there is a particle that is the base particle of all others. Recently this particle was indeed found at a collider and was named the Higgs Boson. This collider is a device that is in a circle underground and about 13 miles in length. Using huge magnets particles of protons and anti-protons are accelerated around this circle in opposite directions until the they reach enormous speeds and eventually collide and shatter into their basic parts. The scientists have found particles called “quarks” but the particles that make them up are seen for a millionth of a second and then disappear. It is these particles that interest the scientists because they know that these particles are what all material is made of in its most basic form...or “the building blocks of God”. The Higgs Boson was identified using this process. Many of the physicists are sad because the search for this Boson took most of their lives...now it is over...or is it?

Speaking of the very small, here is something I read about the very big. Recently a group of cosmologists aimed the Hubble telescope at an apparent section of empty space and took a photo that was exposed for 14 hours. The space was nowhere near “empty”. There were swarms of galaxies so far away that “time and space were warped” and the light behind some of the galaxies was bent more that once. That is tough for me to wrap my mind around. They also said that the light from some of the further galaxies began their journey to Earth 5 billion years ago. The Earth is acknowledged to be about 4.3 billion years old. That is even tougher for me to wrap my head around because those galaxies were there before the Earth ever existed.

A US Marine Lieutenant named Sage Santangelo was recently interviewed about her try at being in command of a US Marine infantry unit. To qualify for a position such as this there is a severe field trial which Lt. Santangelo failed on the first day. She said that her body just could not hold up. She complained that the Marines did not prepare her for this crucible when they put her into an all woman unit where the physical requirements are not as stringent. She also said that she was not given a second chance like the male candidates. There is no question that women are hinged differently and normally do not have the upper body strength of males (see hunter/gatherer theory). There also is no question that women can and do have the mental toughness of males...but if I am a “grunt” Marine I want someone leading me that can do the same things that I am required to do. I admire Lt. Santangelo's determination and spirit but there is no changing the legendary physical strength and determination of a United States Marine....See Iwo Jima.

                This Date in History   April 24

1945 In 1939 US President Franklin Roosevelt had a meeting with Danish physicist Niels Bohr who stated that he believed the Germans were on the right track for the creation of an atomic bomb in a few short years and Roosevelt heard the same thing from Albert Einstein. It was then that Roosevelt tasked US General Leslie Grove with assembling a scientific community in total secrecy to formulate an atomic weapon. Grove chose the remote desert outpost of Los Alamos, New Mexico and hand picked the brilliant but eccentric nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to be lead scientist. Oppenheimer’s politics was way to the left and he might have been a Communist but he had the brains to get this job done and hand picked a staff to do the research. Roosevelt did not tell his Vice-President, Harry Truman about the project for fear of a leak to the press. After Roosevelt died, on this date Secretary of War Henry Stimson had no choice but to brief Truman on the “Manhattan Project” as the project to build the bomb was known. Truman was coming home from a meeting with Churchill, Stalin and himself when on July 16 he got word that “Trinity” was a success. Trinity was the code word for the testing of a nuclear weapon. Truman knew that they only had enough nuclear material for three bombs and they had already used one of them in this test. Truman responded that Stimson was free to use the bomb after August 2. Truman had negotiations that would end on that date. The first nuclear weapon used in anger was dropped of Hiroshima of August 6 and on Nagasaki on August 8. The Japanese government surrendered on August 14. The nuclear weapon attacks had a lot to do with the surrender but the Russians preparing to cross the Sea of Japan an attack Japan's northern Islands was the final straw.

Born today:

1911 US comic Jack E. Leonard when speaking to Ed Sullivan he said “There is nothing about you that reincarnation won’t cure.”

1934 US actress Shirley MacLaine. She said “I have been cast as a hooker so many times that they don’t pay me the regular way anymore; they just leave it on the dresser.”

     Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“It is good to celebrate success but it is much better to learn from our failures.”

                                                    Bill Gates

I was thinking about my younger years and couple of people came to mind. One was a bar owner that later on owned a flooring company. I will call him Dave. He is remembered because of his toughness. He and his girl friend went on a cruise with a friend of mine and his wife. While on the cruise my friend said that his color changed and he was not as chipper as he normally was. A couple of days later he was unable to get out of bed and the ships doctor came and examined him. He found that he had had a heart attack...about three days before but absolutely refused to admit it and ruin the cruise for the others. He was a ferocious street fighter and he had plenty of practice primarily because of one man. This guy had the tenacity of a wolverine and I will call him Joe. Joe was a street fighter and would not admit that he could not beat Dave in spite of being put in the hospital by Dave a couple of times. The last time that Joe got out of the hospital and recovered for a period of time he came looking for Dave once more. Dave refused to “step outside” this time, locked himself in his office and called the cops. Dave later said that he was afraid he might kill Joe. The cops came and Joe wanted fight them. That's right, y'all, he went back to the hospital. Some people just do not learn. That was a long time ago and I do not know what ever became of either Dave or Joe but I thought y'all would enjoy knowing that such people exist here in the buckle of the bible belt.

This Date in History April 23

1934    On this date the FBI thought they had the John Dillinger gang cornered at Little Bohemia Inn in central Wisconsin. As you might suspect, there was the mother of all shoot-outs when the gang chose to fight their way out. Among the gang was George “Baby-Face” Nelson. Nelson had a pistol in each hand when he ran from the Inn toward a car he was going to use for escape. Two agents tried to intercept Nelson and he yelled “I know you wear bullet-proof vests so I will shoot high and low” and fire away he did. He was successful in reaching the car after killing FBI agent H. Carter Baum along the way. Nelson led what would be called a “normal” childhood but upon reaching adulthood he decided on the ways of the gun. He started of as a member of Al Capone’s gang in Chicago. The only problem here was that Nelson was so mean and brutal that he scared other members of the gang and he was kicked out. Can you imagine being too mean for Al Capone? He preferred to be called “Big George” Nelson but because of his juvenile appearance he was called “Baby Face” but not to his face. You would risk annihilation if you did. This man hated to be called “Baby Face”. Anyway after splitting with Capone he joined with some California bootleggers then he met his mentor, John Dillinger. He accompanied Dillinger on two bank robbing trips to Iowa and South Dakota with Nelson killing a bank employee in each. Dillinger perfectly understood Nelson’s rage and said nothing to him about it. However with Nelson killing someone at every stop, Dillinger finally had to put a stop to it. When Dillinger was killed in an ambush by the FBI in Chicago, Nelson became # 1 on the FBI’s most wanted list. Nelson was spotted in Illinois and two FBI agents cornered him on a remote dirt road. Nelson hid behind his car and the agents hid behind theirs and they blazed away at each other. Finally Nelson got fed up and jumped out from behind his car, Tommy gun in hand, and charged the two agents like John Wayne. He was successful in killing both of the agents and staggered back to his car. The next morning the FBI found the dead agents and the body of George “Baby Face” Nelson in a ditch beside his car. He had 17 bullet wounds. I guess the agents called him “Baby Face”.

1564  It is on this date and on this same date in 1616 that most historians name as the date that William Shakespeare was born and died. Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on Avon, England. When he was 18 he got married to Anne Hathaway and 6 months later a daughter was born. It appears that William was doing more than writing plays. Anyway, he wrote most of his comedies in his younger days and his tragedies in his later years. In any event he became a member of one of the most envied acting troops called “Lord Chamberlain’s Men” and moved to London and acted and wrote many plays. He did the greatest majority of his acting in the Globe Theater (been there) in London. There was a move afoot that it was impossible for a man of less than noble birth such as Shakespeare to have authored so many gems of plays and sonnets. They suggest it was a man of more noble birth like Sir Francis Bacon that chose to remain anonymous. The elitists can kiss my ass; I will take the beloved Bard of Avon every time.

Born today:

1524 English playwright William Shakespeare. He said “Many a good hanging stops a bad marriage.” William, methinks thee are a bit harsh.

1791 US President James Buchanan. He said “I like the noise of a democracy”. Me too, like “Off with his head!”

1818 English historian Edward Froude. He said “The superstition of science scoffs at the superstition of faith.” Hey Ed, how can science be a superstition, it does not require a leap of faith.

1928 US actress Shirley Temple Black. She said “I quit believing in Santa Claus when I was six. My mother took me to a department store to see Santa and he asked for my autograph.” The weight of notoriety is a heavy burden.

1936 US musical legend Roy Orbison. He said “I may be a living legend but that does not help when changing a flat tire.”

1954 US film maker and political activist Michael Moore when speaking of President George “Dubya” Bush he said “When the Pope and The Dixie Chicks are against you, your time is up.” Michael Moore is full of shit.

Died today:

1616 English playwright William Shakespeare. He said “I am basically not an honest man, but I am that way sometimes by mistake”. I love you, Bill

               Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.”

                               Confucius

Here in Greenville, SC a Cabela's recently opened and Bass Pro Shop has announced the nearby location of a new giant facility that will be built soon. To those of you that are not familiar with Cabela's, it is essentially a sporting goods store but they have a large clothing section also. I heard some people talking about being in the mob that was there for the grand opening. They spoke about the number of mounted animal heads and whole animals and said that they really were opposed to the killing of animals for sport. Then when they began to leave they discussed going to either Henry's Smokehouse, Outback Steakhouse or Harbor Inn for dinner. Those people that are opposed to the killing game animals need to go to a slaughterhouse where pigs or cattle are processed, or worse still a chicken processing plant. Those animals know what is up and resist with all their might...and then we kill and eat them. One of my daughters told me that she was riding down a street behind a truck load of live chickens and one of the chickens stuck his head out and looked directly at her. She felt strongly that the chicken knew what was up and was looking to her for help. She would not eat chicken for a long time.

I read something interesting. The absolute first written language yet found is called cuneiform. It originated in those ancient cities near the northern end of the Persian gulf in present day Iraq. This written language spread throughout the “Fertile Crescent” or the land between and near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This would include that area in the Jordan River valley known as Canaan. In addition to being mentioned many time in the Bible, the people of Canaan are responsible for modifying Cuneiform into a 40 character alphabet. It was the Arabs and the Greeks that are responsible for the modification of the Canaanite alphabet into the present day 26 character alphabet that we all are familiar with. Speaking of the Canaanites, a lot of the Bible is dedicated to the adventures of the Israelite army led by Joshua fighting its way to Canaan. All of this is supposedly dated to about 1,400BC. A problem arises because this time period is proven to be the absolute peak of Egyptian dominance throughout that area. It is very unlikely that Egypt would have allowed an Israelite army to capture lands that belonged to them, but we believe what we want to. By the way there is no mention of Joshua in any other historical document yet discovered other than the Old Testament. In fact there is no mention of anything of the Israelite people in that area until about 1040BC and that is on an Egyptian stone carving. It has been estimated that there were about 630,000 Hebrews that were released from Egypt at the behest of Moses and then wandered the thirsty Negev for 40 years. The is no archaeological evidence that his ever happened, not even evidence of one camp site or pottery shard...nothing. But anything that is believed and cannot be proven is called faith, humanity depends on it.

                    This Date in History   April 22

1886  On this date the state on Ohio passed a law against seduction. That’s right y'all, I said seduction. The law forbade any male over the age of 21 that was a teacher or instructor of women from having even consensual sex with women of any age that he was instructing. The penalty for breaking this statute was 2 to 10 years in the joint, believe it or not. This law was not unique. New York had a law that disallowed any male “from having illicit connection with a previously chaste woman” if the man previously promised to marry said woman. Georgia’s version made it unlawful for men to “seduce a virtuous unmarried female and induce her into his ‘lustful’ embraces, and allow him to have carnal knowledge of her.” These laws were essentially ignored by law enforcement but on one occasion a man in Michigan was brought up on three counts with the same woman. The judge did his best to get all the charges dismissed because he knew the law was unenforceable. The last two of the charges were dismissed because the judge reasoned that after the first encounter the woman was no longer “virtuous”. The first encounter supposedly took place in a buggy and a doctor testified that penetration was not possible in a buggy so the first charge was dismissed. However some unscrupulous women would use this law to capture a husband. In one case in 1867 a man was on trial for seduction and was looking at 5 years in the slammer so he proposed to the woman that he had “seduced” and she accepted. A parson was retrieved and the trial turned into a wedding ceremony. That ain’t fair, y'all.

1889   At exactly 12:00 noon the legendary Oklahoma Land Rush begins. The United States Cavalry was present to ensure that no one left the demarcation line early. There were some that did anyway and were known as “Sooners” thus the name of the University of Oklahoma mascot. The Oklahoma territory was originally thought to be uninhabitable to Caucasians because of the aridity and the relative lack of water making the area not fit for farming. This made it ideal for reservation for the Native Americans like the Cherokee, Choctaw, Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache among others. Finally better farming techniques assured all that the great plains could be farmed for grain and the Federal Government opened up the “Cherokee Strip” which basically was the majority of Oklahoma for homesteading. All told between 50,000 and 60,000 settlers came into the area over a 24 hour period. Towns like Norman, Oklahoma City, Kingfisher and Guthrie were established and populated almost overnight. Did I mention that the already established Indian reservations were also over run? The settlers felt like the land owned by the Osage Indians was least arable and did not bother them. It was indeed not farmland but about 7,000 feet below the surface was an ocean of oil known as the Anadarko basin. This oil and gas field was discovered and explored making the Osage nation one of the wealthiest in the world.

Born today:

1766  French writer Germaine Stael. She said “The desire of men is women; the desire of women is the desire of men.” Does this mean that all that women want is to be desired? Does that mean that diamonds are NOT a girl’s best friend? Does that mean that there is no need for flowers, fancy candlelight dinners, remembrance of anniversaries and birthdays, candy on Valentine’s Day, etc? Who the hell are you trying to kid, Germaine?

               Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“No matter how preposterous the proposition some people will believe it because it agrees with their preconceived prejudices and will ridicule what is left...the truth be damned.”

                                         Anonymous

Back between the 5^th and 9^th centuries the Vikings spent several centuries raping and pillaging their way across the whole of Europe. Christianity began in the middle east and eventually ended up with its capitol in Rome where it stayed for several centuries. In spite of this the majority of the population of Europe during this time period were pagans primarily due to the Vikings having a host of pagan gods. One of these gods was Tyr who was one of the Norse gods of war along with Odin and Thor. Tyr later was identified with Ares the Greek god of War who was also Mars the Roman god of war. It was pronounced “tear” but was spelled Tiw in old English and pronounced “tiew”. The third day of the week is named in his honor...Tuesday. Lets see, we have week days honoring celestial objects, religious leaders but most of all it is pagan gods. They are Sunday (Sunsday), Monday (Moonsday), Tuesday (Tiewsday), Wednesday (Wodensday), Thursday (Thorsday), Friday (Friarsday), Saturday (Saturnsday). Saturn was the Roman god of wealth and agriculture among other things. Perhaps we are pagans at heart after all...I said perhaps.

         This Date in History   April 21

1836   After a couple of years of intimidation by Mexican dictator Santa Anna when he murdered over 400 Texans at Goliad that had surrendered not to mention the 226 at the Alamo, Santa Anna considered parts of Texas as part of Mexico and he was not about to part with it without a fight. The Texans were not going to settle for anything else other than total independence. During these losses for the Texans, Sam Houston had been training a small but fierce army. On this date, Sam unleashed his army against 2,000 of Santa Anna’s army southwest of what is now Houston, Texas near the San Jacinto River. The howling Texans came boiling out a forest onto the encamped Mexicans screaming “Remember Goliad” and “Remember the Alamo”. The Mexicans fought briefly and then ran like rabbits into the waist deep San Jacinto River where they were picked off unmercifully by the Texans. The battle took 18 minutes. Among those Mexicans that surrendered and were not killed anyway was Santa Anna himself. He was brought before a malaria ridden Sam Houston and Sam said “I don’t want Santa Anna, I want Texas.” He then told Santa Anna to get his young ass back to Mexico and never come back and recognize Texas as an independent nation. Santa Anna agreed and went back to Mexico. The Texans drew up a constitution and elected Sam Houston as the President of Texas. They then petitioned the United States to become a state. The United States initially refused because Texas was a “slave holding” state and the acceptance of Texas into the Union would upset the balance of “slave” and “free” states. Texas remained essentially an independent nation until Santa Anna began to show his ass again and the Mexican War broke out in 1848. It took the American army crossing into Mexico and kicked Santa Anna’s ass in his own country to put an end to it. An official treaty was signed by Mexico and the US giving the US the contested part of Texas. Shortly after this Texas became a welcome addition to these great United States....but only after Maine became a member of the United States as a “free” state.

1838   On this date John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland. He and his family moved to a farm in central Wisconsin when he was just a child. At the time Wisconsin was on the American western frontier. He stayed with his family on the farm until he was 23 years old. He traveled the Midwest for several years. Muir had a mechanical and inventive mind. He was working in a wagon factory when he slipped and scratched his left cornea with a file he was holding. His right eye dimmed in sympathy and he was temporarily blinded. During this period of retrieving his sight, Muir re-thought his mission in life. After getting his sight back, he departed on a 1,000 mile hike to the American West. During his travels he came upon the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California and he was deeply moved. He knew then what his mission was the preservation of this pristine wilderness. He began studying transcendentalism as taught by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau saying that the wilderness is “a window open into heaven, a mirror reflecting the image of God”. He and several others formed the Sierra Club dedicated to preservation of wildernesses. He had his biggest fight when the issue of damming the river in the Hetch Hetchy canyon in Yosemite to provide water for San Francisco. In spite of Muir’s fight, the dam was built and exists to this day. Muir died in 1914 disappointed that he was unable to stop the dam but he lit a fire of wilderness stewardship that burns to this day.

Born today:

1828   French historian Hippolyte Taine. He said “I have made a study of philosophers and cats. Cats have wisdom that is infinitely superior.” They are also delicious, just joking.

1838   Scottish naturalist John Muir. He said “And surely God’s people, no matter how savage or serious, great or small, like to play. Elephants and whales, dancing, humming gnats, and invisibly small microbes, all are warm with divine radium and must have lots of fun in them.” Muir was one in million, y'all.

1958   US actress Andie McDowell. She said “In my next life I want to come back five foot, two inches with the finest ass and tits you have ever seen.” Andie is from Gaffney, SC and married her high school boyfriend a few years ago. As far as I know they are still together.

Died today:

1910  US writer Mark Twain. He said “Sometimes too much drink is barely enough”. Mark Twain is the hero of the most cynical of writers.

        Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow