Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“It isn’t what you have, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy, it is what you think about.”

                              Dale Carnegie

It is the 5^th of May or Cinco De Mayo, as the retailers call it. Let me tell you what Cinco De Mayo is all about. Back in the mid 19^th Century Mexico was under the heel of France which is one in a long line of foreign rulers of Mexico. The French army was almost unbeatable because of their training and superior weaponry. However, on one particular 5^th of May in the city of Puebla the local militia was able to kick the French army out and a great celebration ensued. The French came back a two weeks later and re-took Puebla. That, my friends, is what happened. Why do we here in the United States give a damn about a temporary victory by a Mexican militia? I certainly do not nor will I ever. Cinco De Mayo is a scam ran by retailers who also do not give a damn about a temporary victory by a Mexican militia in the 19^th century. The United States is the only country that recognizes this inconsequential day. What we need to recognize is when James I of England partitioned Ireland into Ireland and Northern Ireland and kicked out the Catholics from Northern Ireland and brought in Scottish lords and their crews and occupied this land. Nearly all of the Lords and crews were Presbyterian and devoutly loyal to James. This action precipitated a hell of a lot of immigration into the New World...or present day America...by the the Scots/Irish.

This Date in History May 5

1981 Sixty-six days before, the British army had arrested several members of the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland and threw them in prison in Belfast. One of them was a man named Bobby Sands. Bobby and the others were arrested as criminals and Bobby complained that he was not a criminal but a political prisoner and began a hunger strike. Bobby refused to eat anything and would only drink a pint of water a day. On this date Bobby Sands died of starvation as a martyr to the Catholics in Northern Ireland. Almost as soon as the word got out about Bobby’s death, the members of the IRA came out of the woodwork in Northern Ireland and some serious rioting and arson began. The British Army suffered many casualties and so did the IRA and many other prisoners begin hunger strikes causing even more turmoil. I have told ya’ll before the problem with Northern Ireland but I will give ya’ll a brief synopsis. In the early 1600’s King James I (also the financier of Jamestown settlement in Virginia) of Great Britain got fed up with the irascible Catholic Irish in Ireland rebelling against the rule of Great Britain. He decided the best way to resolve this was to turn five shires (counties) in the northeast corner of Ireland into a Great Britain friendly area. He seized the property of the Catholic landowners and even the Catholic Church in those five shires. He then gave that property to Scottish Lords if they would bring their Presbyterian tenant farmers with them. James named that land Ulster and some of the Scottish Lords came over along with their farmers and that particular area was Protestant in a land full of Catholics. Those five shires are known now as Northern Ireland. Eventually Ireland raised enough hell that they became independent from Great Britain. That is except for Northern Ireland, they voted to remain part of Great Britain. Therein is the rub. The Irish Catholics want Northern Ireland to become part of independent Ireland so the British Army will get the hell off the island. There is no question that the Irish Catholics discriminate against the Irish Protestants and vice verse. I don’t get it. But maybe y'all do. All I know is that religion is the problem, like in Iraq. So what else in new?

1990 On this date Jesse Tafero was executed in Florida after three malfunctions of the electric chair causing a flame to shoot out of the top of Jesse’s head. It was this event that started the move toward injecting poison in the convicted person’s veins. The states had two problems now. There were very few people in the country that could repair electric chairs and there were also very few people that could assemble the right amount of poison and of what type and what method to kill someone quickly without pain or paralysis. There was another case where a 350 pound person was electrocuted and his life ended with him screaming and blood running down his chest. So the states got into high gear perfecting a poison machine for execution purposes. I remember one case in my home state of South Carolina where a man convicted of murder was electrocuted and his heart burst and partially came out of his chest. After this the media had a conference with our Attorney General Henry McMaster and gave him hell about it and he said “All I can say is don’t come to South Carolina and commit murder because “Old Sparky” is waiting for you. I am more worried about the victim’s family than I am of him.” I liked Henry.

1877 Almost a year after US General George A. Custer and most of his 7^th Cavalry were annihilated at Little Big Horn, Sioux chief Sitting Bull and his followers were able avoid several different cavalry units and on this date crossed into Canada to safety. He and his group lived in Canada for four years. The first year was idyllic. There was plenty of buffalo and Sitting Bull had time to play with his grandchildren. After a couple of years Sitting Bull’s young braves became bored and began making trouble with the native Canadian tribes. This did not please the Canadian Government. Eventually the buffalo even in Canada began to disappear and Sitting Bull was forced to ask the Canadian Government for rations. A series of American emissaries came to visit Sitting Bull in Canada trying to persuade him to bring his tribe back into the United States and the Canadian Government encouraged him to go home so his braves would stop causing trouble. Eventually, Sitting Bull and most of his tribe did indeed come back and was sent to the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota. Sitting Bull was killed while resisting arrest for allowing his tribe to do the outlawed Ghost Dance which normally was a prelude to war.

Born today:

1813 Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. He said “People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.”

1818 German philosopher Karl Marx. He said “Philosophy is to the real world like masturbation is to sex.” No comment

1903 US chef James Beard. He said “A gourmet that thinks of calories is like a prostitute that looks at her watch.” James was a big guy; I’ll bet calories were the last thing on his mind.

Died today:

1821 French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. He said “I am surrounded by priests who tell me their kingdom is not of this world but they take everything they can lay their hands on.” Not only that, they do it in the name of God.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow