Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

When asked what was his definition of love he said:

“Love is the absence of judgment.”

Dalai Lama

How did Great Britain achieve such a great empire? At one time the phrase “The sun never sets on the British Empire” had meaning. They ruled Australia, New Zealand, various sections of Indonesia, parts of the Far East, India and what became the United States among other places. How did they do that? Their basic philosophy was to determine what was the most important to the inhabitants, take control or obtain a monopoly of this and enforce it with their military. They also took control of a land mass was to England's advantage. In the far East it was opium, in Indonesia it was rubber and oil, in India it was primarily salt for consumption and food preservation, in Australia it was place to send their lawbreakers, they told these robbers and murderers that they either learned how to fish and farm or starve, in the south Pacific it was to find a place to raise breadfruit to be used to feed slaves that would come later, in the Bahamas it was sugar cane which was a newly found delight in Europe, it was also used to make molasses, in the colonies (United States) molasses was used to make rum. The men in the colonies were very zealous about their daily consumption of “grog” or rum. The colonist were forbidden to fish in the North Atlantic for cod for which those in New England depended on a hell of a lot for extra protein. The colonies were also forbidden to trade with any other country beside England for dried/salted cod so they could maintain a monopoly...the same was true for tea. They would also try to make the invaded country pay for the presence of their military by taxing the crap out of the inhabitants. Here in the colonies in addition to having a monopoly on molasses and tea, they levied a tax on it and many other things primarily to pay for the military and to add to England's coffers. They also passed an act whereby any military unit could take control of anyone's building and use it as they pleased. Finally after the “Boston Tea Party” a law was passed whereby the local political body in Massachusetts could not govern themselves only Parliament could. Things started downhill after this and after 8 years of bloodshed, the colonists told England to take their taxes and monopolies and stuff it. Yes Munki, I exercised some artistic license.

This Date in History June 8

1968 On this date the supposed assassin of Martin Luther King, James Earl Ray, is capture in Heathrow Airport near London, England. Ray had fled the United States to Canada and then to London then he was supposed to go to Rhodesia, Africa and spend the rest of his days. Rhodesia was founded by people from the area of South Africa that just could not abide blacks and neither could James Earl Ray. Ray was a small time hoodlum most of his adult life yet he was able to afford and airline ticket to Toronto and then to London with his final destination being Rhodesia. Rhodesia eventually became Zimbabwe, an independent nation. Anyway, how could a small time hood like Ray afford the plane tickets for such a jaunt? Also, someone had to get permission from the country of Rhodesia to allow Ray to expatriate himself there. There is no doubt in this redneck’s mind that he did not operate alone. Ray died in prison of liver failure but in his last days he had a conference with Rev. Martin Luther King’s son and, knowing he was dying, told King’s son that he was just a very small part of a giant conspiracy and it was not he that fired the fatal shot. There are so many other possibilities for that assassination just like there is for the assassination of JFK.

632AD The exact date is unknown but the future prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca in the approximate year of 570AD. At the age of 25 he married a wealthy widow in Mecca and for the next 10 years he was an unremarkable trader. Then one day in the year 610AD he was was a cave in Mount Hira where he said the arch angel Gabriel came to him in a vision and instructed him to form the “true religion” and the roots of Islam began to form and grow. Strangely, Muhammad gathered thoughts and doctrines from the other two major religions, the Jews and Christians, and incorporated them into the new religion but added his own doctrines creating what he called the “perfect religion” and the introduced a bible known as Qur’ran or Koran. By 622AD Muhammad had gathered a substantial following which the city fathers of Mecca found threatening. They profited best under a pagan religion and put out a contract on Muhammad’s life. Muhammad found out about and fled to Medina. By the way, Mecca and Medina are in present day Saudi Arabia. Muhammad returned to Mecca in 629 as a conqueror and also at the head of substantial religion extending for thousands of miles across North Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain). Muhammad died on this date in the arms of his third and favorite wife Aishah. Then Islam advance into Europe was blunted by the defeat of the Moslem army at the Battle of Tours by Charles Martel and a Christian army in the year 732AD. Islam today is the world’s second most populous religion.

1986 A seldom remembered race car driver named Tim Richmond wins the first of his seven Winston Cup races for this year. Tim cut his teeth in sprint cars and Indy cars and got his first NASCAR win at the race in Pocono in 1983. In 1986 he got the break of his life when he was hired by Rick Hendricks to drive the Folger Coffee sponsored car and he responded with the seven wins. It was he and the legendary Dale Earnhardt that were named co-drivers of the year. Earnhardt was the typical NASCAR driver with his cowboy hat and boots and drinking beer after the races while Richmond was the antithesis of this. He wore the latest fashions, drove the fanciest cars and rubbed elbows with rock and movie stars. The race fans loved him but he was rejected by his teammates and competitors. He fell ill in the winter of 1986-1987. He was originally diagnosed with pneumonia but a little later it was confirmed as being AIDS. As the 1987 NASCAR season approached his condition worsened to double pneumonia and he missed the Daytona 500 opener. Later that year he had recovered enough to drive at Pocono which he won. As Earnhardt, Kyle Petty and others gathered around to congratulate him; he burst into tears and continued to sob throughout the ceremony in the winner’s circle. This was his last victory. NASCAR did everything to keep Tim off the track even by trumping up a charge of Tim failing a “drug test”. Tim sued but withdrew the suit because he did not want the public to find out about his condition, they did anyway. Tim died in the winter of 1988 and virtually disappeared from the NASCAR record books. Kyle Petty put it this way. “Tim disappeared from the record books because of AIDS and not from the lack of his driving skills and victories.” Indeed Kyle, indeed.

1944 After only two days of combat after the D-Day invasion, US General Omar Bradley’s American troops join with the British and Canadian troops that came ashore on Gold and Sword beaches to the East forming a continuous 70 mile long front. At the same time Russian Premier Stalin opened a front east of Germany preventing them from concentrating their forces against the Allies. This maneuver was agreed upon by America, Great Britain and Russia at the Tehran Conference.

Born today:

1917 US Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White. He said “We are the only branch of the government that writes out the reasoning of every decision we make.” Byron was probably the last Justice that I trust to make decisions based on the US Constitution rather than personal preference.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.