Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I went to my doctor and told him I wanted a vasectomy. The doctor told me that with my face I will not need one.”

                                     Rodney Dangerfield

A while back I told y’all about the massacre of Jacob Hite and family by the Cherokees near Greer, SC back in 1776. The Patriots assembled a small army led by Captain Thomas Howard and set out in pursuit. Howard's small army was mostly Creek Indians (Cherokee foes for centuries) and a guide named Skyuka. The Patriots had a brief encounter with the Cherokees near Landrum, South Carolina but the Indians retreated deeper into the rugged mountains near Columbus, North Carolina about 20 mile northeast of Landrum. Skyuka led the army through a gap in the mountains known to this day as Howard Gap road. This short cut allowed Howard to position his army into an ambush position and launched an attack upon arrival of the fleeing Cherokees. It was a massacre, y’all. All of the Cherokees were killed or captured. It was the worst massacre of the Cherokees to that date. The attack was launched at the base of what was then named Round Mountain or Warrior Mountain and was known as the Battle of Round Mountain except it was not much of a battle, it was more butchery than anything.

From what I have been reading Mother Nature takes care of the population by the control of the protein. This means that for millennia once people began gathering together in villages the population would be controlled by the amount of protein that was available. Once the amount of protein became not enough to keep people in good health the local diseases like typhus, dysentery, malaria and others will eliminate enough of the population until the needed amount of protein for the population equalized. Eventually the people realized the maximum amount of people in a given area that could be sufficently fed. It was at this point that villages began spreading out and the more sparse the protein the further apart they were.

This Date in History June 15

1215 On this date King John of England put his seal on a document known at the Magna Carta making it the law of the land. King John had taken the reins of the crown of England after the death of his brother King Richard the Lionhearted. Richard was a hell of a warrior but proved to be a poor administrator and his brother King John was neither warrior nor administrator. After Richard died in 1199 a squabble for the crown began, but there was no question that the son of Queen Elizabeth I and the brother of the hero of the Crusades was indeed in line for the crown. Not long after he took control he lost the Duchy of Normandy to French Barons. The Duchy of Normandy was originally owned by William the Conqueror but after he became the King of England and subsequently died, the Duchy of Normandy went up for grabs. Subsequent kings of England believed that the Duchy of Normandy was a possession of English kings and they fought for it. King John lost possession of Normandy because he was a poor military leader so a huge hunk of land on the west coast of France that had been an English possession since the year 1066AD went down the toilet. Soon after this the English barons lost faith in King John and began pressuring him to bring some kind of order to England, especially between the King and the English royalty. King John had drafted this document which described in detail the limitations of the king. This was the first time in European history that the power of a monarch was questioned and this document is considered to be the first baby step toward democracy. By the way, there was a prayer that was said by those Englishmen, Irishmen, Scots and Frenchmen saying “God save us from the wrath of the Northmen”. They were talking about the Vikings coming down from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. For over 500 years they had been coming south feeding off the Europeans in southern Europe and were the most powerful conglomeration of countries on earth. It is from this name “Northman” that brought names like Normandy (Land of the Northman) in fact the very word Northman was degenerated into Norman. In the account of William the Conqueror invading England, it was reported that he had a force of 500 mounted Norman knights and that King Harold of England after being wounded was beheaded by a charging mounted Norman knight. William the Conqueror and his associated knights were direct descendants of those wild-eyed Vikings that sailed south from Scandinavia and took control of lands by force. Around the years 900AD the Viking kings met with some Christian traveling priests and are persuaded to adopt Christianity. After that the Vikings laid down their swords and axes and became a very docile people. I guess they just got all that hostility out of their system. But keep in mind that the Vikings rape and pillage of Europe was so complete that nearly all of us here in America with European ancestry have Vikings somewhere in our DNA.

1904 On this date there was a gathering if men, women, and children from the St. Marks Lutheran Church. The crowd totaled 1,360 people and they were gathered on a dock in lower Manhattan to take a ride up the East River on the side-wheeler boat the “General Slocum” and then go on a picnic. After the boat passed 86^th Street a little girl discovered a fire in a store room and ran up to the captain and told him. The captain said “Shut up and mind your own business.” After a while the smoke became so thick it could not be ignored and the crew tried to put the fire out with an on board fire hose but the hose was old and had never been tested and did not work. The passenger put on life jackets but they were filled with something other that cork and when people jumped over the side they went immediately to the bottom . The captain in his wisdom, rather than to dock the boat where a firefighting unit could get at the fire chose to beach the boat on an island in the river. Except there was no beach, it was all rock which did the expected; the boat was holed and sank amid the rocks. Panic ensued among the passengers and 600 people were killed by the fire and nearly all the others drowned. As you might expect, the shit hit the fan. The captain was not killed but he was tried and convicted of negligence and went to the slammer and the boat company, The Knickerbockers Boat company was heavily fined. There is a memorial ceremony at St. Marks Church every year on June 15.

Born today:

1963 US actress Helen Hunt. She said “To tell the truth. I do not have expensive tastes. I would be just as happy going to the beach and lying in the sun, I would not feel comfortable riding down there in a Bentley convertible,” Me neither, a Lamborghini Diablo would be acceptable.

1877 US writer Caroline Sheridan. She said “Until I truly loved, I was alone.” I think she is talking about the time after she bought a black Lab.

      Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow.