Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

In WWII when the US invaded the island of Tarawa in the Central Pacific it was defended by about 4,800 Japanese opposing 28,000 US Marines. After the island was secured a US officer asked how many Japanese were left and he was told “Seventeen, sir”...the officer said “You mean seventeen hundred”...the answer was “No sir, seventeen.”

A while back a 15 and 18 year old boy are taken to the home of a 91 year old retired educator near Charleston, SC in a car driven by a 16 year old girl for the purpose of robbing the man. The two males went into the house and begin beating the elderly an almost indefensible retiree and the man died. The boys complete the robbery and the girl took them away. The 15 year old was captured first then the other two know that the kid will identify them so they turned themselves in. These three are just starting out their lives and will spend a great deal of their immediate future being gang raped in a South Carolina prison and will probably emerge as hardened criminals. I am somewhat elderly myself and I can assure you that if anyone or group enters my house uninvited and/or by force at least one of them will end up in the morgue. I may too, but that is just the way it is. I have enough immediately available weaponry to wipe out a baseball team including a relief pitcher.

Here is a hypothetical problem for you. You are from Pennsylvania. After an exchange of political bullshit, a civil war is expected to erupt and the topography indicates that the majority of this war will be fought in Pennsylvania. You are offered command of the army that will invade Pennsylvania. You know that your immediate family and your extended family have lived in Pennsylvania since the American Revolution and will fight back. Could you accept this position knowing that you could be responsible for the deaths and destruction of them all? That is what Robert E. Lee was facing in 1861. Sure enough, the first major battle was fought in Manassas, Virginia. 

 

I received some stunning news recently. A man that I worked with for several years in Charlotte is no longer with us. He chose to take his own life at the age of 51. A mutual friend said about this man; “No one knows what happened in the abyss of his mind. He was a very pleasant person with an eternal smile and was a natural borne leader. What a damned shame…Goodbye Dana.” Me too, Dana.

This Date in History July 13

1793 Earlier Jean Paul Marat, a physician in Paris had led a blistering attack on the Royal family of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette that eventually led to the French Revolution resulting in thousands of those loyal to the crown losing their lives. Unfortunately for Jean Paul he had a serious skin disease that called for frequent baths in various and sundry elixirs. There was a young woman that lived in Normandy named Charlotte Corday that was a devotee to the Royal form of government that developed an intense hatred of those opposed to it especially Jean Paul. On this date her persistence succeeded and she gained an audience with Jean Paul under the guise that she was going to give up the identity of all of the people in Normandy that were Loyalists. Well, as you might suspect Jean Paul was in the tub taking a bath in a magic elixir (probably natural oils) and Charlotte walked in and produced a dagger from between her breasts and stabbed poor Jean Paul in the chest killing him instantly. She patiently waited for the police to arrest her. In typical revolutionary justice, she was beheaded on the guillotine four days later. They did not fool around with trial wondering if she was in a bad mental state, had PMS or a bad childhood, they just capped her ass.

1881 Earlier William Bonny, better known as “Billy the Kid” had broken out of the Fort Sumner, New Mexico jail killing two deputies in the process. He did it the hard way, with shotguns. The two deputies hardly knew what hit them and they were dead before their bodies hit the ground. Lawman Pat Garret took his trail and followed it to where Billy ended up at a farm house that had been used by many fugitives on the run but Garrett waited until later and hid in the farm house. On this date Pat caught Billy walking into a bedroom and shot first. Billy hit the floor after three shot and never made a sound and thus ended the legend of Billy the Kid. There is little doubt that “The Kid” had killed at least 20 men and probably more.

1866 Earlier an immigrant named John Bozeman blazed a trail across Montana leading to the gold fields in northern California. So many gold hunters came across the trail that the US Cavalry began building a fort near the Big Piney Creek and they named it Fort Phil Kearney in honor of the US General that was killed in a Civil War battle. The Fort was built right in the very middle of Cheyenne chief Red Cloud’s hunting ground and I want to tell y'all, Red Cloud was not pleased and he kept up constant harassment of the fort day and night. Finally, the fort commander, Colonel Carrington allowed a unit of 96 troopers out of the fort to seek out and destroy the Indians that had killed a group of eight woodcutters. The trooper barely got out of the Fort where they were assaulted by 2,500 of Red Cloud’s warriors and killed and mutilated them to a man. The killing of the woodcutters was a trap. After this debacle the troopers, Colonel Carrington included, pulled out of the fort permanently. By the time the troopers were less that three miles away, Red Cloud's boys had set the hated fort ablaze and it burned to the ground. What make Red Cloud so mad was that the US had signed a treaty with him to stay clear of his hunting grounds. But that was before gold was discovered in the Black Hills and California and then as usual the US felt justified in ignoring the treaty. This ain’t the first time nor would it be the last time we screwed over the Indians.

Born today:

1935 US footballer Alex Karras. He said “The best score I’ve ever had playing golf is 103 but I have only been playing 15 years.”

1946 US singer Linda Ronstadt. She said “I wish I was getting as much in bed as the newspapers say I am.” I can help you there, Linda....Well, maybe.

Died today:

1917 Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin. He said “Explosions are uncomfortable”. You think so, Yev?

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow