Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“We are born wet, naked and hungry and then things get worse.”

                                       George Carlin

Yesterday I went to get some drugs (prescription) and dropped by to visit with a friend in a restaurant that has a TV on both sides of the breakfast bar. It is called the “far left” side and the “far right” side. The left side has CNN on all the time and the right side has Fox News on all the time. CNN proved how politically kiss-ass they really are. Both networks had Mike Huckabee on making his formal announcement for being a presidential candidate. About half way through his speech CNN cut over to Obama naming the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that will take office in November. Those ass-kissers at CNN could not delay showing Obama's announcement long enough for Huckabee to finish his speech. If this was planned and CNN agreed it is nothing but pure no-class. It is typical Chicago political bullshit. Fox News stayed on Huckabee until he finished. I am not a fan of Huckabee but that was a blatant display political favoritism and I will not forget it nor will I ever believe anything CNN reporters say, especially Wolf Blitzer, because their agenda is now clear. They don't give a shit about balanced reporting, it is more important for them to influence people's politics. CNN cutting over to Obama disallowed millions to hear Huckabee's complete message. They want to promote those they approve of and stymie those they do not.

I hear a lot of chatter about corporal punishment being detrimental to children. Here is something to consider...there is no question that the “greatest generation” this young country has ever produced was those Americans that lived between about 1900 and 1965. They endured giant dust storms, unparalleled poverty during the Great Depression, stopped the Germans in WWI, stopped the Nazis and Japanese in WWII and fought in Korea in addition to innumerable nasty skirmishes in the attempt to preserve freedom. For bad behavior corporal punishment was common and was expected. It did not scar their hearts and souls? Do we have more violent crimes then or now? How about mass murder even though nearly everyone was armed? To me it is clearly a general lack of respect and discipline in present day. Where did that come from? You do the math.

A while back the Asheville, NC police department notified the Anderson, South Carolina police to be on the lookout for forty year old Charles Bennett, Jr. of Anderson. This jackass had been in an internet chat room and solicited sex from what he thought was an 11 year old girl. The Anderson cops went on the chat room, found Bennett and pretended to be the 11 year old girl and the cops set up a meet and Bennett agreed. Bennett went to the meet only it wasn’t an 11 year old girl, it was a couple of Anderson’s finest. Bennett is looking at 20 years of hard time. I like it.

A while back Princes William and Harry were spotted going into a private room in the Rendezvous restaurant, a world famous rib house in Memphis, Tennessee. It is reported that they were there for a friend's wedding. It has been a long time but I have visited the Rendezvous. Back in those days I was not that familiar with pork ribs and I was blown away when I first tasted them. Since then I have tasted many ribs from different parts of the country and have developed a taste for them. There are a couple of rib houses here in Greenville, SC that are super. Both smoke the ribs and offer a variety of sauces. I prefer a mustard base sauce but the best overall is Henry's Smokehouse and next is Bucky's Barbecue. On that visit to Memphis I also paid a visit to Beale Street, one of the locations of the beginnings of “Delta” blues. Delta blues is a type of blues that was played almost exclusively by African-Americans up and down the Mississippi River in the very early years. The true capitol of Delta blues is Clarksdale, Mississippi. It is a small town on the Mississippi River several miles south of Memphis. Morgan Freeman has a large interest in a blues club in Clarksdale not to mention a huge estate in Washington, Mississippi which is a short distance from Clarksdale. I looked the estate up on Google Earth and zoomed in on it...huge, y'all. My favorite blues artist is Muddy Waters (real name McKinley Morganfield) who was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi but he made blues history in Chicago. His style of music was unabashedly copied by the Rolling Stones. Muddy once said “Mick Jagger stole my music but he made me famous.” I did research on Muddy's life and was amazed at how many famous blues musicians he performed with. Many are legends in Delta blues. The downside was he signed a recording contract with the Chess brothers who essentially robbed the hell out of him all of his life. They made millions off of his recordings and paid Muddy a very modest salary and bought him a new Cadillac every 3^rd year. It was the Caddy that dazzled Muddy but I guess everybody has their own priorities.

This Date in History May 6

1876 The Thomas Gainsborough portrait of Georgia Spenser, better known as The Duchess of Devonshire is auctioned off in London nearly 100 years after it mysteriously disappeared. Georgia Spenser was an ancestor to Princess Diana. The public interest was aroused once again when the painting was stolen from the Thomas Agnew & Sons art gallery. It was stolen by master thief Adam Worth who needed it to provide bail for his jailed brother. But his brother was able to make bail on his own but Worth decided that he liked the painting and would keep it. Adam Worth was the 19^th century’s most masterful criminal and was the model for writer A. Conan Doyle‘s master criminal Mr. Moriarity in the Sherlock Holmes series. Worth was born in Germany and raised in the United States. He joined the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War and was reported killed at the Battle of the Second Manassas. After this he joined several different units, took the enlistment bonus and promptly deserted. After the war Worth went to New York and joined with a group of pickpockets. He was finally caught and sentenced to three years in Sing Sing but escaped after just a few weeks and took up bank robbery. Worth was very careful and in addition to robbing banks he became very efficient in forgery and moved to England to ply his trade. He still had possession of The Duchess of Devonshire portrait. But he had two conspirators in the theft of the portrait who felt they did not get enough money for helping in the heist and went to the police. Worth refused to tell where the portrait was and he was jailed but not on charges related to the portrait. While in prison Worth decided that he would use the portrait as a bargaining tool to get out of prison or at least have his sentence reduced. It did not work and he served the entire four years and after his release he moved back to America. After a change of heart he began negotiation with the Pinkerton Detective agency for the return of the portrait. An amount was agreed upon and the painting was finally returned to England in 1901. US financier J.P. Morgan became fascinated by the story and went to England and bought The Duchess of Devonshire for $150,000. Worth did not get as much a ransom as he thought and died penniless a few years later.

Born today:

1853 US Senator Philander Knox. When speaking to President Theodore Roosevelt about the Panama Canal he said “Mr. President, do not let so great an achievement suffer any taint of legality.”

1856 Moravian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. He said “I have found little that is good about human beings. Most of them are trash.” I wonder if Will Rogers ever met Sig.

       Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow