Good
morning,
Quote
of the day:
“There
is no doubt that is around family and home that all the greatest
virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created.”
Anne Frank
A
while back Wildlife authorities in Texas decided to release thousands
of hatchlings of the very rare Ridley sea turtles on Padre Island
near Corpus Christie. These turtles normally hatch on the beaches of
Mississippi, Alabama and Northwest Florida but due to the oil spill
the eggs were dug up and incubated in Georgia and Texas. Those that
hatched in Georgia will be released into the Atlantic and those that
are hatched in Texas will be released into the western Gulf of
Mexico. It is known that these turtles will eventually migrate back
to where they originated in the area of the oil spill. The wildlife
authorities believe that the oil spill will be cleaned up by the time
the turtles arrive. I admire their optimism, I wonder if the turtles
do.
I
watched a TV show about the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. One of the
leaders of the three German tank spearheads on December 16, 1944 was
Joachim Peiper. His orders were to gain as much ground as fast as he
could while the weather was bad. Once the skies cleared Peiper's
tank column could be wiped out by allied aircraft. He moved so fast
that he overran and captured about 220 American soldiers. He chose
to not waste time with them and had them all shot. Once the word got
out about that atrocity the Allies and the 82nd
and 101st
Airborne in particular swore that they would take no prisoners.
There was an interview of a member of the 82nd
who said that even if a German soldier ran toward them hands in the
air or even carrying a white flag they were shot. They did take
prisoners on occasion to gain information. The soldier being
interviewed said “When interviewing prisoners you would be
surprised what effect a shot to the forehead of a prisoner with a .45
at the range of 1 foot has on the others”. By the way, Peiper was tried and convicted of crimes against humanity at Nuremburg. He did some prison time and was released and he moved to a small town in Germany. Soon thereafter his house caught on fire and he was burned alive. The Israelis denied any knowledge of this event.
This
Date in History July 27
1974
On this date the House Judiciary Committee handed down a bill of
impeachment with a recommendation of removal from office of the
sitting President of the United States, Richard Nixon. All of this
adventure began when a group of men were caught and arrested inside
the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate complex in
Washington, DC. Two of those arrested were on the White house staff.
It was a given that Nixon could not be beaten in upcoming election
because the Democrats did not have a viable candidate but his staff
still felt it was necessary to burglarize. Originally the report of
these arrests were stuck in the fourth or fifth page of the
Washington Post newspaper but two reporters Named Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein smelled a rat and began digging. The more they dug
the closer they came to the White House. When these two began
writing their columns about what they had discovered, the staff at
the White House circled the wagons and refused to cooperate with law
enforcement which attracted the attention of the US Congress. The
Congress selected Archibald Cox, the head of the Harvard Law School,
to act as special prosecutor. Not only did Nixon try to get two
Assistant Attorney Generals (Caper Weinberger and Nick Katzenbach) to
fire Cox, he called in a very high official in the FBI and told them
to not investigate the Watergate incident. Weinberger and Katzenbach
not only refused but resigned in protest at this obvious cover-up.
Nixon finally persuaded a lesser Federal judge (Richard Bork) to fire
Cox. During this time it was determined that Nixon had been taping
all the conversations in the Oval Office. Judge Leon Jaworski along
with Judge John Sirica, who had replaced Cox, demanded the tapes but
Nixon refused claiming executive privilege and a threat to national
security. Over a period of time the US Supreme Court ordered Nixon
to turn over the tapes which he did. Nixon was not done yet. Some
of the most critical tapes had blank spaces which experts said was an
erasure. Again the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to produce
depositions saying what had been said during the erasures. When
these damning documents reached the House Judiciary Committee, A Bill
of Impeachment soon followed. Soon thereafter Nixon resigned, turned
over the reins to Vice-President Gerald Ford, and moved back to where
he came from, San Clemente, California. It was a tragic and time of
testing for the United States judiciary/legislative system.
1981
On this date 6 year old Adam Walsh is abducted at a Hollywood,
Florida shopping Mall. It seems that Adam and his mother Reve went
shopping and little Adam wanted to watch some older boys play video
games while his mother was shopping close by. As will happen, the
older boys got rowdy and the mall security guard came by and ran
everybody out. Little Adam just followed the older boys outside
rather than seeking his mother. He waited out side for a short while
then he disappeared. A few days later, Adams’s head was found in
drainage ditch near Vero Beach, Florida which is nearly 100 miles
from Hollywood. The police focused on career criminals and convicted
child molesters Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas. Toole was found in
jail for another crime and confessed to the murder of little Adam but
said that career criminal Henry Lee Lucas was with him and it was he
that did the murder. The police investigated and found to no one’s
surprise, that Toole was lying because Lucas was in jail in Virginia
when Adam was abducted. Toole then recanted his story. The police
decided that they would need Adam’s complete body to prosecute
anyone. Adams body was never found and the case remains unsolved.
Toole was executed in Florida for another murder. We all know what
work Adam’s father John has done by establishing the TV show
“America’s Most Wanted.”
1806
During the Lewis and Clark expedition, the group reached the Great
Falls on the Missouri River. Clark took a few men and began
exploring further downstream, Lewis headed north to explore the
Marias River basin. They left 6 men to portage their boats around
the falls. Lewis knew they were in Blackfoot country. The Blackfoot
were the fiercest tribe in the area and are to be feared and sure
enough, Lewis met up with a party of Blackfoot and he tried to be
cordial. It appeared to be working and Lewis invited the Indians to
his camp. After it got dark, one of Lewis’s men yelled out that
the Indians were trying to steal their horses and rifles. Lewis ran
after them and one of the Indians turned and moved toward Lewis
whereupon Lewis shot him in the stomach. The rest of the Indians
retreated and the horses and rifles were saved. Lewis knew that if
there was trouble between the expedition and the Indians while going
west, there would be trouble coming back east. Not only that, one of
his men said that during the attempt to get the horses back, he had
caught up with one of the Indians and stabbed him to death. More
trouble, but they would have been in more serious trouble without
horses and rifles.
Born today:
1824
French author Alexander Dumas the Younger. He said “I prefer
rogues to imbeciles because sometime they take a rest.” We all
know some of each.
1956
US comic Carol Liefer. She said “He tricked me into marrying
him, he said he was pregnant.” Carol, shut up.
Died today:
2003
US comedian Bob Hope. He said “You know you are getting old
when the candles cost more than the cake.” Amen, brother.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait
until tomorrow
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