Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Judiciously worn mini skirts and stiletto heels are remarkably effective in commanding extra help with the household chores.”

                                              Vanessa Feltz

The South Carolina state legislature is on the cusp of making the disposition of the Confederate flag on state grounds an issue for a referendum meaning the citizens of this state would vote on what happens. If it goes to a statewide vote I believe that flag will stay where it is. South Carolinians are no different than anyone else...you get pushed, you push back. There are thousands of people nationwide that are not offended by the flag and are NOT black-hating, slavery-loving racists me included. I hope you are not one of those that think that if you do not believe like I do about the flag then you must be a red-neck racist. With that kind of intolerance, I know who the bigot is here. If you cannot allow someone to have an opinion different than yours and still have respect for them...It is you that is the red-neck.

Here is a short history lesson:

In 1863 President Lincoln signed a proclamation stating that all the slaves “in those states in rebellion” are free. That meant the Confederacy but there was no way to enforce it. The Union army had more than it could handle with fighting the Confederate army. Think about this. What about those “slave” states that were not in rebellion. This meant that for almost three years there were about 460,000 Americans dying from disease or being literally chopped to pieces while those slave states that did not join the Confederacy were doing business as usual. That's right, y'all, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri were selling and trading slaves during the entire war with no interference. What about their “flags”? Their flags was the stars and stripes. Don't be a hypocrite.

More history:

The Dutch, British and the Portuguese were the major players in dealing with the kings of several kingdoms on the African “Gold Coast” for Africans they kidnapped from the interior and sold into slavery. These kings were black Africans. The Portuguese primarily went to South America and the British and Dutch went to North America. The American “colonies” got most of their slaves from the British with the main ports being Savannah, Charleston, Annapolis and Philadelphia. After the Treaty of Paris of 1783 whereby the United States of America was born the slave trade continued until 1809. At this point the importation of slaves to the United States was outlawed but ownership, trading and selling was still allowed. This law was passed only after a careful census was taken to determine that there were enough newborn slaves to replace those that died and therefore the population stayed the same. This was the situation until 1865 when the 13^th amendment was ratified outlawing slavery of any type in the United States or its possessions. This means that slavery operated in the United States under a Dutch flag, a British flag...and the stars and stripes.

Here is another interesting event in our history:

Soon after settling around the Great Salt Lake the Mormons were in serious trouble. The Utes, Arapaho and a few other Native American tribes were raiding them on a regular basis. Brigham Young sent a request to President Rutherford B. Hayes for US Cavalry presence to deter these raids. Hayes sent back a note that that the Cavalry would not be coming nor would the Mormons ever become part of the United States if they continued with polygamy. The Mormons had a choice of possible annihilation or a change in their religion. They chose the change and the US Cavalry came riding to the rescue. This is not the first time nor will it be the last that a government hammered a religion into becoming what they deemed as within certain boundaries based on what is perceived as “morality”...good, bad or indifferent.

I was watching the story of an English bomber crew during WWII. Each crew member was expected to fly 30 missions. The crew chief had flown his 30 missions but his fellow crew members had not flown but 29 so he decided to go with his crew on their last mission. It was a night mission to a Schwienfurt, Germany ball bearing factory. After dropping their bombs they turned for home but were attacked by a German fighter and one of the bomber's engines caught on fire. They shut down the engine but the fire persisted. The crew chief decided to climb out on the wing and try to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher. He put on a parachute, opened it and the other crew members bundled the shroud lines into one and fed it out to him as he crept out onto the wing. The idea was that if he was successful, they would pull him back in. The pilot slowed the aircraft to 140 knots and out he went. He made it to the engine fire and almost had the fire out when the German fighter that had started the fire in the first place returned for another pass. The crew chief was hit and fell off the wing and those holding on released the parachute. The parachute opened but had caught on fire passing by the flaming engine. The pilot ordered a bailout and all but two survived and were captured and imprisoned including the crew chief. That's right, in spite of him being wounded and his parachute on fire, he survived and lived to return to England.

The human spirit is something to behold.

I cannot figure out what the hell this world coming to. The other day I was driving from my condo to a place on Woodruff Road here in Greenville, SC. I don't normally go on this road at all because it is similar to that can of worms where I-5 nears Pasadena, Ca. or trying to leave DFW (Dallas Ft. Worth) airport. Woodruff Road is not good for my demeanor but I promised this person to meet her at a place on this road for lunch. I was following an unknown woman in a VW beetle convertible. This person (I use the term loosely) was using the rear view mirror to put on make up, lipstick, combing her eyelashes and talking on the cell phone at the same time. She was all over the place. I finally was able to get around her and I was so mad that I almost threw my martini glass at her.

A while back while the largest wildfire in the history of Arizona was sweeping the sides of entire mountains, a group of 20 smoke jumpers that call themselves the “Granite Mountain Hotshots” engaged the fire in an attempt to suppress this monster. The fire was a result of a hell of long drought and and invasion of bark beetles a few years ago that resulted in a massive die-off of some evergreens setting the stage for a gigantic wildfire...then lightning struck. The Granite Mountain Hotshots are recognized as one of the best wildfire crews in the world. The fire they were fighting all of a sudden shifted direction and trapped all of them. They wrapped themselves in the fireproof blankets and hid as best they could. It was not enough. All were killed except one, probably from asphyxiation. It is a damned shame that a crew like that, trained to a razor's edge were destroyed by a mere shift in the wind. But the reality is that they knew what they were getting into when they started training and accepted the risk for the fame.

                Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow