Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Happiness is the sole purpose and meaning of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

Aristotle

There are certain things that gets on our nerves here is one of mine.

I saw this on a nationwide ad. “When your going on a vacation......” WRONG!

The correct word is “When you're going on a vacation.....”

The word “your” is a possessive like ”Follow your heart.”

The word “you're” is a contraction for you are.

So the phrase without the contraction would have read “When you are going on vacation....”

This may help. When you use the word spelled “your” the next word must be a possession of someone else...like arm, leg, car, locomotive, airplane, temper, beauty, ugliness, disposition, etc. If this does not work then the appropriate word is “you're”.

You would think a proofreader for a national advertiser would have knowledge of the English language past the 6^th grade level.

This past weekend here in Greenville a 24 year old woman was stopped by the cops for driving erratically. There was a cop on the passenger side and the driver side. The woman refused to get out of the car and the cop on the passenger side opened the door and was trying to unfasten her seat belt when she chose to drive off dragging the cop with her. She hit a telephone pole and flipped the car. Neither the cop nor the woman was seriously hurt. It was determined that the woman had taken the following:

Two tablets of hydrocodone, five tablets of alprazolam (Xanax) and 32 mls of heroin. How was she still coherent?

Here is a continuation of my road trip from the west coast to the east coast. When my friend and I left Tacoma our intention was to drive to Santa Monica, Ca. and follow the famous Route 66 at least to Oklahoma. We changed out minds and turned east at the Columbia River. My last installment on this adventure left you at a blues bar in Boise, Idaho. We knew that our route would bring us through Salt Lake City, Utah and we planned to go by the Bonneville salt flats. We found that the salt flats required us to turn back west after we had passed Salt Lake and decided not to go. We had been going almost due south since Boise with the bulk of the Rocky Mountains on our left like a wall. We decided that we should turn east soon. As I best remember early one morning after spending the night in Provo, Utah, we took a road eastward heading toward Denver and across the mighty Rockies. We went through Steamboat Springs and several other small towns where there was snow on the ground...lots of snow. By the way, this trip was in mid-May. We reached the high point of this segment of the trip about midnight going through Rabbit Ears Pass. We were exhausted and our trusty '53 Chevy was gasping because of the high altitude...about 9,500 feet I think. The road leveled off for a short distance and then started downhill. Waaayy down below we could see the lights of a large city that turned out to be Denver. Soon after starting downhill we saw a bar made of stone on the right side of the road and immediately pulled in for a frosty adult beverage. It must have been a popular bar because the parking lot was packed. We went in and were amazed at how fancy-schmantzy this place was. The bartender was in a tuxedo and they had a table full of fancy finger food available. We got a drink and ambled over to the food. After taking a couple of bites the bartender came over and said “Pardon me, but are you friends of the bride or the groom?” It was not a bar, it was a wedding reception. Embarrassment is not the right word...apoplexy is. We apologized profusely and put down the food and the drink and headed for the door. About then the groom showed up and we explained as best we could much to his amusement. He was very gracious and told us to wait a few minutes while he made a phone call. He came back and told us that he had booked us a room at his expense in a motel about 5 miles down the road. He told us to hang around and eat and drink until the party broke up and it would not be long. We just could not stay there after all of that and be the laughing stock so we left. We did take the motel room, however. Next memorable stop was Denver...more later.

Next is a Medal of Honor citation lest we forget the courage and bravery of our military. Here it is:

SALOMON, BEN L.
Captain Ben L. Salomon was serving at Saipan, in the Marianas Islands on July 7, 1944, as the Surgeon for the 2d Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division.

The Regiment's 1st and 2d Battalions were attacked by an overwhelming force estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 Japanese soldiers. It was one of the largest attacks attempted in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Although both units fought furiously, the enemy soon penetrated the Battalions' combined perimeter and inflicted overwhelming casualties. In the first minutes of the attack, approximately 30 wounded soldiers walked, crawled, or were carried into Captain Salomon's aid station, and the small tent soon filled with wounded men. As the perimeter began to be overrun, it became increasingly difficult for Captain Salomon to work on the wounded. He then saw a Japanese soldier bayoneting one of the wounded soldiers lying near the tent. Firing from a squatting position, Captain Salomon quickly killed the enemy soldier. Then, as he turned his attention back to the wounded, two more Japanese soldiers appeared in the front entrance of the tent. As these enemy soldiers were killed, four more crawled under the tent walls. Rushing them, Captain Salomon kicked the knife out of the hand of one, shot another, and bayoneted a third. Captain Salomon butted the fourth enemy soldier in the stomach and a wounded comrade then shot and killed the enemy soldier. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Captain Salomon ordered the wounded to make their way as best they could back to the regimental aid station, while he attempted to hold off the enemy until they were clear. Captain Salomon then grabbed a rifle from one of the wounded and rushed out of the tent. After four men were killed while manning a machine gun, Captain Salomon took control of it. When his body was later found, 98 dead enemy soldiers were piled in front of his position. Captain Salomon's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army. He was awarded the Medal of Honor.

This Date in History September 1

1862 On this the day after the Union army, General John Pope commanding, received a monster ass-kicking in the Battle of Second Manassas by CSA General R.E. Lee; Lee was not satisfied and sought complete annihilation of those Yankees. Pope’s army was heading east toward Washington, about 25 miles away, as fast their fat little legs could carry them, asses in hand. Lee sent Stonewall Jackson and the 2^nd Corp with Col. J.E.B. Stuart and his cavalry as a screen, north, then east and them south to try and cut off the retreat of the Yankees and catch them in envelopment before they were able to get behind the Washington defenses. The US General-in-charge being Henry Halleck sitting behind a desk in Washington sent a message to Pope to make sure he protected Centerville most of all. Jackson was aware of this order and by-passed Centerville and finally US General Isaac Stevens launched a partially successful attack on Jackson’s troops at Chantilly, Virginia and scattered a Louisiana unit but soon after General Stevens received a fatal head wound and the Confederates counter attacked and drove those Yankees back. All of this was taking place during ferocious thunderstorm with much thunder and lightning. Additionally, US General Phillip Kearney was scouting ahead on horseback trying to locate the Confederates in very dense cover. He came upon a line of Union infantry who told him to go no further because the Rebs were just a few feet ahead. Kearney responded with, “I don’t see any.............” That sentence was cut short by a Confederate musket ball in the throat and he was killed. The battle was over in 90 minutes and the rainstorm persisted. Lee finally determined that an envelopment is not possible and turned his army north into Maryland toward a small village name Sharpsburg near a small creek named Antietam.

        Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I shall pass through this life but once. Any good I can therefore do, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor deflect it, for I shall never pass this way again.”

                                             Etienne de Grellet

Rather than local and non-local news Items, I am going to give y'all an essay I wrote about my Scots-Irish ancestors. I think a great many of us have Scots-Irish blood along with a drop or two of Creek/Cherokee/Shawnee/Choctaw blood especially those of us that have roots associated with the Appalachians. Here it is:

                         A Brief History of Rednecks

I have been reading the history of the impact of the Scots-Irish in America and naturally the author went back into the far past to trace them out to present day. By the way it is Scots, not Scotch. Scots are a people and Scotch is a whisky. Anyway, the big movement came right after James I became the king of Great Britain. Previously, he was James VI of Scotland making him the first of the crowned kings of Great Britain and Scotland. It got started when James financed the expedition to the new world led by Captain John Smith and the establishing of Jamestown in 1607. But James' real passion was religion. He could not abide Catholics and he began a project to oust the Catholic landowners in Ireland and seize their lands. Some of his anger came from the beheading of his mother Mary, Queen of Scots due to her being involved in a planned assassination of protestant Queen Elizabeth I instigated by Catholics. The Irish Catholics had been in rebellion against England for centuries and James saw this as a way of diluting them. This resulted in many Irish Catholic Earls fleeing the Emerald Isle trying to escape the wrath of the Protestants and Anglicans. To fill this void, it was decided that a “plantation” in Ireland would be formed and named Ulster. It consisted of six “shires” or counties in northeast Ireland. To fill the void James decided to kill two birds with one stone and offered land in Ulster to protestant Scottish lords with the stipulation that they would bring their Scottish tenants with them. The waspish Scots would fight at the drop of a hat over anything that interfered with their independence...messed with the clans or their tight-fisted Presbyterian religion. They were a hard-ass bunch, especially the Borderers or those that lived close to the border with England. The Scottish Lords indeed took the offer and brought their Scottish tenants with them. As you might suspect the Irish Catholics fought like hell to keep their lands to no avail. There was a stipulation that the Scottish Lords could not employ Irish tenants, they had to import them from England and Scotland and they had to be English speaking Protestants, moreover the landowners were banned from selling land to the Irish. Whatever land that was left over was given to the Protestant Churches of Ireland including any lands previously owned by the Roman Catholic Church. James meant to castrate the Catholics in Ireland, y'all. This influx put the Irish Protestant in a hard way because they spoke Gaelic while everyone else spoke English. As a result of this turmoil there were civil wars in England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1630 many Ulster Scots went back to Scotland because Charles I, the king of England declared that the Church of Ireland had to use the prayer book of the Church of England essentially making it an Anglican church. That would change the way the fiery Scottish Presbyterians practiced their religion. As I have said before, you don’t pull on Superman’s cape or spit into the wind and you don’t fool around with the Scots religion. In 1638 an oath was imposed by King Charles I on the Ulster Scots binding them to never take up arms against England no matter what. I don’t need to tell you what kind of hell was raised after this outrage. By the way, it was King Charles I presumptuousness that cost him his head as will be discussed in a future lesson. In 1641 the Irish Catholics rose up in an armed rebellion and the prime target was the Plantation land owners. Many, many atrocities were committed by the Irish on the Scottish land owners in retribution for them taking Irish lands. In the 1690s a huge immigration of protestant Scots came over to Ulster during a famine in Scotland and as a result the protestant Scots became the majority. The planters were known as the Ulster Scots. The present partition of Ireland with Northern Ireland gets it roots from this era. Northern Ireland is occupied by the progeny of British/Scot protestants and they wanted to keep a link with England whereas the rest of Ireland are Catholic and wanted independence. Later on the Scots being fed up with restrictions on their religion began heading west to America. They primarily landed in Annapolis, Philadelphia and New York. They were not welcomed by the high bred plantation owners on the Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina tidewater nor by the snooty Puritans in the northeast so they headed further west and settled in small clans in the Appalachian mountain chain starting in western Pennsylvania and Virginia and then south and west down the chain into the Carolinas and Georgia. They were encouraged in this endeavor because of their warlike nature they would be a good border guard against the savage Shawnee, Creek and Cherokee and a good match they were. There is a legend in my family on my father’s side that one of my great-great uncles owned a huge chunk of land in Maggie Valley, NC which is the very heart of Cherokee country. He could not hold on to it because of the repeated attacks by the Cherokees. There are many reports of atrocities committed by both the natives and the Scots. It is the roots of almost constants turmoil, the love of fighting and an independent nature, especially their religion which the so-called Scots-Irish have in their hearts and souls. Actually, the Scots-Irish are not a mix of Scots and the Irish; it is Scots that immigrated to Ulster, Ireland before coming to America and it is these Ulster Scots that are my ancestors on my father’s side. It is known that a great many of the troops fighting for the Patriots in the Revolutionary War in the south were Scots that came down out of the mountains. They used guerrilla tactics like they use against the Indians against the staid and upright British to great effect. They demonstrated their ferocity at the Battle of Cowpens where Patriot General Daniel Morgan outmaneuvered the infamous British Colonel Banastre Tarleton and would have annihilated the entire army of British/Loyalists but some of them escaped the wrath of Morgan’s wild-eyed mountain men. But there were no escapees at the Battle of Kings Mountain. This group of Patriots was led by General John Sevier and was able to trap British Colonel John Ferguson and his army of Loyalists on the peak of a mountain by surrounding the base. General Ferguson fought for a while but then realized that there was no escape and surrendered. Ferguson waved a white hanky and said “We surrender but I am an officer in his majesty's army and will be treated with respect.” He was immediately hit with eight musket balls and was as dead a fried chicken before he hit the ground. The surrender was not accepted and the Patriots waded in and either shot or hanged them all to a man. This massacre was brought about because of Tarleton killing 220 Patriots earlier that had surrendered but were bayoneted by Tarleton’s troops. This atrocity angered the Patriots and especially the mountain men...they sought revenge at King's Mountain and found it. My ancestry comes via the Holston river Valley of Tennessee (father) and the mountains of Habersham County Georgia (mother). That’s right folks, I am a Redneck albeit a well read and well spoken one.

The Scots proved their heritage again during the Civil War, some fought in gray and some fought in blue but they fought with great zeal just for the sheer joy of it.

This epistle in no way covers everything that happened to the Ulster Scots during this time period but it gives you an idea of the mold that formed them.

                    Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“There are people that say they can do things and there are those that say they can't...both are correct.”

                                                   Henry Ford

A while back we had this scenario. John Kerry's was sure that the government of Syria has used chemical weapons against their own people to suppress a revolt. Syria is signatory to a UNITED NATIONS declaration that forbids the used of chemical weapons at all. If this is the case, then why is the United States navy gathering along the coast of Syria with cruise missiles bristling and not the United Nations? Not only that, Russia has warned the US to not get involved in troubles in that area and make the mistakes they have made in the past. I think Putin is speaking of Iraq and Afghanistan. The United States obviously has been involved in civil wars with disastrous results and I am talking about Viet Nam, Korea, China (Boxer Rebellion), Haiti (1937), Nicaragua, Cuba (Spanish-American War), the Philippines, Bolivia, Chile' and several other dirty, nasty insurgencies world wide. Lets go back a little further. The Unites States rebelled against Great Britain and sought independence via the force of arms. The United States fought alone against the most powerful army and navy on the planet using supplies sent over from France until 1783. Then when France thought the United States could win, they sent over a substantial portion of their navy which was used to cut off the retreat of the British Army on the American east coast. This also cut off the support and supplies delivered to the British army by the British navy. The question of why was France so interested was because France owned a gigantic piece of land west of the Mississippi river and they had a substantial presence in northern Florida. The land that France owned west of the Mississippi was bought by the United States a little later and was called the Louisiana Purchase. This land was purchased by the US from the regime of Napoleon Bonaparte because he needed the money to continue his exploits in Europe. I have considerable knowledge of the history of our great nation but to this day I cannot figure out why we feel the need be the world's policeman.

This Date in History August 28

1955 Earlier a 14 year old black kid name Emmett Till came to Money, Mississippi from his home town of Chicago to spend the summer with his great-grandfather, a farmer near Money. Emmett came from a relatively tough neighborhood in Chicago and it appears that he felt that it was important that he display his toughness to the local Mississippi black kids. He told them he was the toughest kid in his school and had a white girl friend. As expected, the local black kids near Money blew that off as bullshit and dared him to try to pick up the white woman that ran the community grocery store. Emmett accepted the challenge and went in the store. There was no one else in the store except for the woman and Emmett. No one knows what happened in the store but on the way out Emmett is heard to say “Goodbye, baby.” Two days later the woman’s husband returned form a business trip and his wife told him that Emmett had grabbed her and made lewd suggestions. The woman’s husband, Ray Bryant, gathered up his brother-in-law and they went to Emmett’s grand-father’s house looking for Emmett. They took Emmett with them and rode around for a while probably beating the hell out of him. They finally made Emmett drag a 75 pound cotton gin fan to the crest of a bridge over the Tallahatchie River. There they shot Emmett several times, gouged out his eyes, beat on him with iron bars, wrapped barbed wire around his torso and face and wrapped the other end around the fan and threw them over the side. Emmett’s body was finally found but his body was so mutilated that the only way he was identified was an initial ring he was known to have owned. Ray Bryant and his brother-in-law were tried for murder and acquitted. The jury said that the prosecution failed to prove that the body was that of Emmett Till because of the mutilation. Emmett’s mother had the body returned to Chicago and she had an open casket funeral to show what discrimination in the south was all about. Photos of the body were published in Jet magazine. By the way, Ray Bryant and his brother-in-law both died of cancer a few years later. That my friends, is Karma.

1963 On this date several hundred thousand people are gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in a rally for racial equality. The chief speaker was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King delivered one of the most engrossing and stirring speeches ever uttered. It was the immortal “I Have a Dream” speech. Dr. King was instrumental in nearly every change in legislation toward racial equality. Five years later he was assassinated in Memphis while attending a rally for the garbage collectors of that city. The assassin, James Earl Ray confessed to Martin Luther King’s son that he did not do it knowing he (Ray) was dying of cancer. There is no doubt in this redneck’s mind that Ray went to meet his maker with a lie on his lips.

1990 On this date the bodies of two University of Florida students are found murdered in the Gatorwood apartments in Gainesville, Florida. I remember it well since I had a daughter attending Florida at the time. Not only that, she was living in Gatorwood apartments. When I read about the murders I almost peed in my pants especially since two days earlier three other students had been found murdered nearby. The corpses were displayed in an obscene manner making the police believe that all the murders were committed by the same person. The Gainesville PD was under enormous pressure to capture the villain because the parents of the students were pulling their kids out of school in droves. In desperation the Gainesville PD arrested a man named Ed Humphrey and even though they did not have sufficient evidence for the murders, they kept him in jail on unrelated charges and kept searching. Finally, the police found a campsite in a patch of woods near the University. There they found evidence enough to try and convict a monster name Danny Rolling of the murders. He was sentenced to death and went to meet his maker in 2004 with a needle in his arm. It is too bad that this was not the middle ages then we could have gotten medieval with his rotten ass.

Born today:

1899 French actor Charles Boyer. He said “A Frenchwoman when double-crossed she will kill her rival: An Italian woman would kill her deceitful lover: An English woman will just break off the relationship....but they will console themselves with another man.”

1982 US singer Lee Ann Rimes. When talking of the law suit against he father she said “I have to learn to forgive because I will become a bitter bitch if I don’t.”

Died today:

1985 US actress Ruth Gordon. She said “Never ever give up and under no circumstances never ever face the facts.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Albert Einstein developed and proved the immortal formula of E=MC2 or energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. There is no doubt that Einstein was a genius.

He developed another little known formula that states if you strip naked and run in a circle at 186,282 miles/sec (speed of light) it would be possible to screw yourself.

If you feel that you are unable to attain this speed then you can get the same results by voting Democratic on November 8, 2016.”

                                                                  Dan

                      (one of my fellow bar flies from the Sandshaker)

Actress Julianne Moore has become an activist advocating the changing of the name of her high school in Virginia. The high school is James E. Brown Stuart High School. Of course that is JEB Stuart the famous career cavalry officer for the United States and the Confederacy. Miss Moore says that it represents racism...it also indicates how ignorant Miss Moore is of what the facts are. JEB is probably the finest horse cavalry officer this country has ever produced. He was born on a farm in southwestern Virginia and graduated from West Point. Before the Civil War he was with R. E. Lee when they stopped the attempted takeover of the U. S. military arsenal at Harper's Ferry by John Brown and company. Both Lee and Stuart were career military officers. When the 11 states seceded, including Virginia, and formed the Confederacy those officers that were from these states had a choice to make. Would they stay in the United States Army and make war on their friends and families...or would they defend their homeland? Lee and Stuart both stated that they could not “raise their hands in anger” toward their families and chose to defend their homeland. With this in mind, Miss Moore is suggesting the either JEB Stuart should have been prepared to kill his family and/or burn their crops and houses and/or kill their livestock, etc., etc., and because he didn't he is a racist. See how stupid that is. Miss Moore is just wallowing in her ignorance as is most of those that cry the loudest without one scintilla of knowledge of the history of this nation.

                                                      Boudicca

                                               Queen of the Iceni

 

The place and time of Boudicca’s birth is lost in history but it is believed that she was born about 35 AD. It was also believed by the historians Tacitus and Dio that she was of royal descent. Historian Dio said that Boudicca was “possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women”. His words, y'all. She was described a being tall with red hair down to her hips, having a harsh voice and a piecing glare. She always wore a heavy gold necklace and a multi-colored tunic and a thick cloak held together with a brooch. Her husband was known as Prasutagus, King of the Iceni branch of the Keltoi (Celts). His kingdom was in what is known today as Norfolk, England but his kingdom was still a province of the Roman Empire. Today Norfolk is in eastern England, north of Dover on the English Channel. Prasutagus’ kingdom was not originally part of the Roman Empire but he voluntarily allied himself with the Romans after the conquest by Claudius in 43AD. The Iceni was a fiercely independent bunch and revolted soon after the alliance in 43AD because the Roman governor, Publius Scapula, threatened to disarm them. It was common practice in those days for Rome to allow the independence of a Kingdom if the client king willed his lands to Rome upon his death. Prasutagus live a rich and sumptuous life primarily on money borrowed from Roman citizens including the Roman senator Seneca the Younger. After Prasutagus’ death, his debtors came calling including the government of Rome. It was the responsibility of Prasutagas’ subjects to make good his debts. The Roman army moved in and virtually enslaved the nobles and nearly all lands were confiscated. It was reported by Dio that Boudicca was flogged while having to watch her adolescent daughters being repeatedly raped. In about 60AD, while the Roman governor, Gaius Paulinus, was over in Angsley in northern Wales leading an expedition against the British rebels and the Druids, Boudicca called a conference with other Celtic kingdoms such as the Trinovantes, and they decided to revolt and they voted Boudicca as their leader. In those days the Roman army hated to go into combat against the Celts because the Celtic women were there standing with the men and swung and ax or sword with the best of them which intimidated the Romans. They could not bear to think that they could be defeated or killed by women. Boudicca used a form of divination to decide the way of a battle. She would release a rabbit from the folds of the cloak and interpret from the direction it ran, and she invoked upon her goddess of victory, Andraste, for advice. By the way her name Boudicca comes from the Celtic word “bouda” meaning victory. Anyway, after doing all of these rituals, she and her army that eventually grew to over 230,000, set out to kick the Romans out of Britain. Their first target was Camulodunum, which was the former capital of the Tranovantians but was now occupied by the Romans as a colony. They burned that sucker to the ground and massacred the Romans in residence. This city is today known as Colchester. After this event the X Legion, Quintas Cerialis commanding, came running to relieve the city but Boudicca’s Army of men and women routed the vaunted Legion killing the entire infantry to a man. Only Cerialis and few cavalrymen escaped. After this debacle, Roman Governor Suetonius hurried down Watling Street through hostile territory to the newly founded town of Londoninium and briefly thought about organizing a stand there but reconsidered when he counted the number of troops available to him and sacrificed the town to save the province and pulled out and left the town to Boudicca. As you might suspect that town is present day London. Soon Boudicca and her army showed up and burned Londoninium to the ground and killed any mammal that was still there. Archeologists have found a layer of burnt debris in London that corresponds with that time period. There next target was the town of Verulaminum and the same fate fell upon that town and any person left. This town is now St Albans. Between the three towns Boudicca’s army had killed between 70,000 and 80,000 people. The historian Tacitus reported that this Celtic army was not interested in prisoners, there were only interested in killing by gallows, fire or cross. Let me tell you, Boudicca wasn’t fooling around. Tacitus also reported that “the noblest of women were impaled on spikes and had their breasts cut off and sewn to their mouths, to the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets and wanton behavior.” In the mean time, Suetonius had assembled the XIV Legion and the XX Legion and any other he could find and decided to make a stand. The exact location is not known but it was probably in the West Midlands. Before this battle Boudicca made a speech saying that they had already met and defeated a Roman Legion that this on they were facing was no different. She said that she was not just a noble that had lost neither her lands nor a woman seeking revenge for what had happened to her and her daughters. She was a person that wanted her independence and freedom from slavery. She ended her speech with this statement which I paraphrase “I and my women warriors are resolved to win or die, If the men want to live in slavery, that was their choice.” Well, her army was so big it was unwieldy especially in close quarters and they did not have training in this aspect of warfare. Suetonius had wisely chosen a heavily wooded area with an open field for the battleground. The Celts commenced a wild charge and were met with a cloud of javelins from the Romans that killed thousands of the Celts. After the Romans had run out of javelins they formed up into their famous phalanx and waded into the screaming Celts. The Celts attempted to flee but were cut off by a ring of supply wagons that had the Celts had brought with them. The Celts were unceremoniously and methodically massacred by the Romans. Tacitus tells us that over 80,000 Celts fell on that day to only 400 Romans. After this defeat, Boudicca killed herself with poison confirming her oath to win or die. She was given a very lavish hero’s funeral and burial. There is a bronze statue of her aboard a chariot with her daughters at her side near the Westminster Pier in London (been there). Boudicca remains an important symbol in the culture of Great Britain.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

Good Morning,

Quote of the day:

“There will be a clear cold morning when there isn't any more. No more hugs, no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat. I seems to me that one of the important things to do before that morning comes, is let your friends and family know that you care for them and finding simple ways to let them know your heartfelt beliefs and guiding principles of your life so they can say 'He was my friend and I knew where he stood.'”

                                              Clint Eastwood

I was recently enlightened as to what is probably really going on here in the land of the free and the home of Donald. Did you know the Koch brothers will spend $900 million dollars on this election cycle? Did you know that four of the leading Republican presidential candidates spent a long weekend retreat with the Kochs about a month ago? Did you know that the Koch brothers will spread that $900 million between both parties? Why? So that no matter what happens the winner will be in their pocket. We are being played like a violin by the “main stream” media. We are lead to believe that one network is pro Democrat and another is pro Republican, etc. etc. The reality of of it all is that they don't give a shit about politicians winning campaigns. What they do give a shit about is money. Sustaining the image that this political disparity between networks exists makes all of them more money because it arouses everyone's competitive spirit and they get better ratings. I have gotten information from someone very familiar with the media that CNN, Fox, NBC, ABC and ABC are all financed by the same BIG MONEY. A lot of smoke and mirrors in the form of angst among networks is used to divert our attention from what is really going on. We are fools if we continue to be bamboozled in this fashion. Do not trust any, and I mean any news agency to report any event accurately. Only use direct information from its source. This means watching a lot of PBS and C-Span. There was one event this past week is was reported by a news network that Trump said he wanted to used drones to monitor the US border with Mexico. That ain't what he said. He said that there are many caves on the Mexican side of the border used by drug cartels as storage facilities and he wanted to use drones to find them. All of that is just more smoke and mirrors to befuddle us. The use of drones is not the issue but it is used to divert our attention. As another person said “When one family spends $900 million on an election it ceases to be a Democracy.” This person also said that this country is being sold out from under us. Could be. In 1932 the Rothschild and Krupp families among others in Europe donated millions into political campaigns and the result was Adolph Hitler. My source is confident that Bernie Sanders is the only one so far that has acknowledged that all this monetary influence exists. By the way, why is the Confederate flag distasteful but it is OK watch Cosby reruns while eating a Subway sandwich?

My maternal grandfather was a policeman in the city of Greenville, SC many years ago. He and his partner officer Kitchens raided a poker game and a gunfight erupted. My grandfather Alford Blair (I was named after him) and officer Kitchens were both killed. This happened on Park Avenue which is near downtown. My grandfather and officer Kitchens have their badges of the wall of honor in the Greenville Law Enforcement Center. The killer ran away to North Carolina and got into another gunfight with the cops and was arrested. The man that killed my grandfather was electrocuted in North Carolina 3 months later. My grandmother was invited to the execution. She refused and continued in her duties of taking care of her five children.

              This Date in History August 26

1346 Ever since William the Conqueror crossed over from France in 1066 and successfully invaded England, there had been succession of English invasions of France to try to claim the section of France known as Normandy as part of the English Empire. William the Conqueror was William the Duke of Normandy before he was the king of England and successive English kings felt that William’s lands in Normandy now belonged to the English crown. Naturally, the French kings called bullshit on that and several battles were fought in Normandy. On July 12 English King Edward III landed on the coast of Normandy with an army of 14,000. After raping and pillaging French countryside, King Edward headed toward Calais as did nearly every English invasion force because Calais was a very important deep water port on the English Channel that the English needed for re-supply. On this date, King Edward met the French army near the village of Crecy in Normandy. The French army was led by French king Philip IV at the head of 8,000 mounted knights and 4,000 Genoese crossbowmen. The French army had no idea that Edward’s army had a secret weapon, the newly perfected longbow. Anyway, Edward awaited the French attack and late in the afternoon Phillip sent in the Genoese crossbowmen who were met by a hailstorm of English arrows at a range out of the reach of the crossbow. The longbow had an effective range of over 200 yards, unheard of in those days. The Genoese crossbowmen withdrew and then Phillip sent in his 8,000 mounted knights who met the same fate as the Genoese. The air was filled with arrows from the English with the arrows tipped with the newly designed bodkin arrowheads designed to penetrate armor and chain mail. The French knights and their horses fell in writhing mass in the center of the battle ground. After all was said and done, King Phillip had lost over 4,000 men and horses whilst the English lost less than 100. This battle was significant because it marked the end of great horse cavalry attacks over open ground. The English longbow had changed the method battle and tactics forever. King Edward continued his march to Calais and began a siege. The city surrendered to Edward early in 1347.

Born today:

!853 US inventor Dr. Lee de Forest. In 1952 he said “The use of transistors in radio and television is far into the future.” Dr. de Forest was an inventor; no one said he had vision.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world.”

                                                   Albert Einstein

Here is a continuation of my ancient road trip from Tacoma, Washington to the east coast. I am sure there were several stops but the next stop that was memorable was Boise, Idaho. We stopped at a motel on the north side of town and asked the desk clerk where was a good place to eat and a good watering hole. She told us a where to go get a steak and a bar that had live music. The steak was indeed a memorable one and the potato was way too big but after all we were in Idaho. Afterward we went to the nearby bar that the desk clerk told us about. It was as you might suspect. There was a hell of a lot horns, antlers and animal heads hanging from the walls. You would have thought the music would have western or country...wrong...it was blues, y'all. I do not mean Johnny Winters or the Allman Brothers, it was the Sonny Boy Williamson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters, etc. It was pure Delta Blues, y'all. I was flabbergasted and enthralled. I do not remember the name of the band (s) but they were dynamite. The evening gradually faded to gray amid a mixture of Jack and Bud but the music was memorable. By the way, while we were in the bar and the only ones in there without a cowboy hat, everybody knew we were not local. We told them that we had just gotten discharged from the Air Force and was on our way home to Florida and South Carolina. After that word spread around, I do not remember having to buy another drink. The next memorable stop was Rabbit Ears Pass.

I guess it must have been a full moon this last weekend. A lot of strange things happened.

Over in Spartanburg, SC 26 year old Julius Cox was not happy with what his girlfriend was cooking for him and began beating on her. She headed for the bedroom and began gathering up her clothes to leave under a barrage of blows from her boyfriend. The cops finally arrived and put a stop to it and took Julius to the joint for criminal domestic violence. I don’t get it. If Julius was not happy with what she was cooking all he had to do is to go to Church’s Chicken, for crying out loud. Now he is eating some food that is barely edible and not much of it. I was always raised that if someone cooked for you, you ate it no matter what. It is a southern tradition. Obviously Julius is a Yankee...make that a damned Yankee.

Over in the nearby town of Cowpens, 34 year old Earline Gowdy got mad at her husband for unknown reasons. She broke a leg off of and end table and hit him in the head three times opening severe gashes. When the cops arrived the husband was standing in the doorway bleeding like a stuck pig and yelling at the top of his lungs as was Earline. Earline was arrested for assault and battery and criminal domestic violence. Her husband was also arrested for criminal domestic violence and taken to the Mary Black Hospital to have his head sewn up.

        This Date in History   August 25

1944 A few days before the French 2^nd Armored division, General Jacque-Philippe LeClerc commanding, approached the German occupied city of Paris, France from the north while the American 4^th Infantry is approaching Paris from the south. The liberation of that great city was at hand. The 2^nd Armored took a beating from the German artillery but when LeClerc heard that the 4^th Infantry was approaching the center of Paris he found a surge of energy and they swept the west side of Paris while the 4^th Infantry swept the east side. The German Commander in Paris was General Dietrich Von Choltitz. When Choltitz told Hitler that Paris was lost and would soon by occupied by the French and Americans Hitler ordered him to destroy all of the famous places in Paris like the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles palace, etc and then burn Paris to the ground. Choltitz thought about that about 3 minutes and then said to his staff “I will not go down in history as destroying the greatest city in Europe.” So none of the pre-set explosives installed by the Germans was detonated and Paris was saved when Choltitz signed an official surrender to the Allies. There were about 20,000 German troops stationed in Paris but when they found out that they were trapped in a pincer movement and the Free French insurgents came out and began an attack on the troops out in the open, the German troops melted away. On this date a gigantic parade with the 2^nd Armored, the 4^th Infantry and The Free French march in victory down the Champs d’Elysses with General LeClerc and Charles DeGaulle in the lead. It was a great day for freedom.

1864 The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, General R.E. Lee commanding, is under siege in and around Petersburg, Virginia by the Army of the Potomac, General Ulysses Grant commanding. The majority of supplies coming into the Confederates were coming in via the Weldon Railroad from the south. Grant orders his 2^nd Corps led by General Winfield Hancock to go down and destroy the railroad. Hancock is successful in destroying 8 miles of railroad track but the Confederates simply stopped the train south of the destroyed rails and brought the supplies up by wagons. Lee got fed up and sent General A.P. Hill and his infantry supported by General Wade Hampton III’s cavalry down to restore the railroad. The Confederate and Union troops meet at a railroad depot named Ream’s Station. The Union soldiers had build a revetment out of soil but they did not build it tall enough and the Confederate artillery easily crossed over and fell into the huddled troops on the other side. The troops under the command of US General John Gibbon were green and inexperienced. When the artillery shells began falling, those troops broke and ran with Hampton’s cavalry in hot pursuit. It was a rout. This was not easy for US General Hancock to witness because he was the hero of Gettysburg and was known as a leader that would stand his ground. Not this time. Hancock and Gibbon blamed each other for the debacle so Grant got fed up with the squabbling and transferred them both out of the 2^nd Corps.

1896 In 1858 William Doolin was born on a farm in Arkansas. At an early age Bill moved to Oklahoma and became a ranch hand on the huge ranch owned by Oscar Haskell. Oscar took a liking to the young Arkansan and eventually Bill became a foreman. But for reasons known only to Bill, he decided to engage in a little thievery. In fact he joined up with the Dalton gang from time to time on bank and train robberies. He was a very meticulous thinker/planner and he was useful to the Daltons in the planning of a robbery. Bill was wounded more than once in the robberies but none seriously. But he decided to go to the mineral springs in Eureka Springs, Arkansas for rest and recuperation. But he did not plan on one thing; he was being tracked by the famous lawman William Tilghman. Tilghman was able to surprise Doolin and captured him without a fight. Tilghman took Doolin to the Guthrie, Oklahoma jail and soon thereafter Doolin escaped and eluded the police for about 2 months. On this date, a posse of 12 men trapped Bill Doolin in a house in Lawton, Oklahoma. They call for Bill to surrender but he isn’t having any part of a long prison term and came out the door guns blazing. All of the posse fire their rifles and shotguns at the same time cutting Bill to ribbons. He was 38 years old.

                  Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“It is really depressing when you realize that the number of your friends attending your funeral will be determined by the weather.”

                                           Lily Tomlin

I feel the need to express my opinion on discipline during my formative years. Being a historian I cannot find a greater American generation that those born about 1918. They endured near starvation during the dust storms on the Great Plains and the Great Depression. Then they went to Europe and the Pacific and fought in the greatest bloodbath in recorded history during WWII. They were not done yet...there was Korea. Do you know what most of them had in common? They were raised in families that fostered physical retribution if the transgressions deserved it. My father was from that era and brought that method with him. Our family was a patriarchy and all of us had enormous respect and love for him and knew he was fair and understanding. We also knew where our boundaries were and there would be an answering if those boundaries were crossed. This lifestyle did not turn us into serial killers or unbalanced career criminals. We ended up knowing that we were responsible for our own actions...that is greatest lesson anyone can learn. I remember one time when my one of us spoke disrespectful to our mother and my father stood him up and drew back his fist...he covered up and my father said “Drop your hands, you are going to stand there and take it”. He did...and he did. He is a very successful today. My father would also find us jobs in the summer when we were out of school, that and respect for others among many other things were lessons well learned from our mother and father and shaped our futures. My father and my mother were my best friends and always will be.

I saw an interview with Donald Trump. I am no fan of Trump but the interviewer was not interested in what Trump had to say on any issue without trying to dispute him in a very condescending tone. It was CNN as you might suspect. It just further convinced me that the news media has an agenda to try to denigrate anyone THEY do not approve of. Trump suggested that financial experts like Carl Icahn should be hired to oversee trade agreements to ensure that the United States is not ripped off. The major trade negotiator between the United States and any country is our ambassador. Japan enjoys an uneven trade balance over the United States by a factor of 3. Guess who went to Tokyo as the United States ambassador? It was Caroline Kennedy. Explain that to me.

                This Date in History August 24

79AD On this date the Roman elite in the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum on the Bay of Naples were just sitting down to lunch or a late breakfast. Most of the houses in these cities were vacation homes to the Roman rich. Then a stupendous explosion shook the very ground on which they were sitting/standing. It was the eruption of the centuries old extinct volcano Mount Vesuvius. A cloud of white hot ash and rock shot 20,000 feet into the atmosphere and lava and mud slid down the side of the volcano in torrents. The people in the cities did not have a chance. The dust and rocks in the atmosphere began raining down burning people to death or mixed with the poison gasses that accompanied the mud and lava and asphyxiated them. The ash and rock mixed with the lava and mud forming a sort of concrete and buried thousands of them under 10 to 15 feet which cooled into a solidified mass. A Roman General name Pliny the Elder was in command of a Roman fleet that was on patrol in the Bay of Naples when this great event occurred. Pliny saw with disbelief swarms of people swimming out into the bay to escape the enormous heat but the raining ash was still hot enough to burn and people were screaming for death in their agony. Pliny ordered some of his ships to go and try to rescue them but they returned after a short while saying the ash was so hot that it was setting their ships on fire. Pliny just could not stand aside and watch so he ordered his boat into the maelstrom and went to the sides of the ash flow and tried to comfort those that had escaped. Pliny got a whiff of the toxic gasses and collapsed and died. His nephew Pliny the Younger, aged 17, was on the opposite side of the bay and chronicled what he saw and gave it to the Roman historian Tactius. The two cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were eventually forgotten until a farmer digging a grape vineyard and the ground collapsed into the courtyard of a buried mansion. From then on archaeologists and paleontologists descended on the area and nearly the entire towns have been excavated giving us a snapshot of what life was like in those ill-fated cities.

1572 The king of France was King Charles IX but the real control was in the hands of his mother Catherine de Medici. Catherine went down in history as one of the most manipulative and ruthless person who ever lived. She and he son Charles were supposed to be Catholic but she would persuade Charles to dance with whoever held sway at a given time be it the Pope or the French Huguenots which were protestant. In this particular point in time the leader of the Huguenots Admiral Garpard de Coligny held sway with King Charles and good old Catherine saw the Admiral as a threat and ordered his murder. On this day, Saint Bartholomew’s Day, the assassins found the Admiral and killed him. For some reason the Catholics got their bloodlust aroused and they began killing the Huguenots wholesale all across France in spite of King Charles ordering them to stop. They stopped alright, after killing over 70,000 of them. This event was known since and The Saint Bartholomew Day Massacre. Catherine may have felt more secure after this but France suffered because all the surviving Huguenots moved away taking their money with them.

1814 Earlier during the War of 1812 the British army under the command of General Robert Ross flanked and defeated the Patriot Militia at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland. This victory for the British left the road to Washington undefended. On this date the British army marched into Washington unopposed and begin burning everything in sight. The British were pissed off because the Patriot army had burned the British consulate in Canada for no apparent reason. During the Battle of Bladensburg President James Madison went to the battle site and took command of one of the artillery batteries. This is the only time that a sitting American president engaged in combat. Before he left he told his wife Dolly that she would have to evacuate soon and to take only those things that were important. She took the portrait of George Washington with which we are all familiar. I guess it was that important because later that night the British burned the White House to the ground. But the redcoats ran up against US General Andrew Jackson and company near Chalmette, Louisiana who sent them running away with their asses in hand. But the war was over before this fight but the communications were so slow that Jackson knew nothing about the British surrender.

       Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“A lot of travel is fatal to anger, prejudice and narrow mindedness.”

                                                Mark Twain

I think can prove there is a God (or superior being) using logic alone. Here is what I am talking about: Recently over in China a tomb was uncovered that was about 6,500 years old. It was packed with the dead person's personal effects. This means they believed in an afterlife. The same can be said about the Maya, Vikings, Egyptians, Iroquois, Apache, Comanche, nearly all European nations in prehistory, and almost all nations of the middle and near east. Where did the seed of the thought of an afterlife come from? This concept is universal...how did this happen? One person said that human beings are born with the instinct of self preservation and the fear of death. OK...if that is true, how did all of that end up in the human psyche? Just imagine that tadpole looking microscopic creature that is swimming round in a seminal fluid and eventually penetrates an egg that is also microscopic both of which already have the instinct for self preservation and fear of death. How is this possible? How does that tadpole know where to go and what to do? It also has a rather inventive tail-like device for moving around that automatically drops away once the penetration is complete, who designed that? Answers anyone?

There is a site in the Bolivian Andes known as Teotihuacan. It is on the south end of Lake Titicaca. Someone built a temple there thousands of years ago using technology that would challenge what we have available today. The Temple is in ruins but there is still a doorway that is over 10 feet high made of three pieces of carved granite weighing thousands of tons. There are slabs of granite that have a surface that has been polished to within .0001 mm from being absolutely perfect. There are “H” shaped grooves cut into the granite that do not do all the way through. The surface on the inside of the “H” is also nearly perfectly polished, not only that, the corners are exactly, not almost, but exactly 90 degrees, both the inside and outside corners. This may be difficult for some to comprehend but those with a mechanical mind will. The local Indians have been asked how they were able to accomplish all of this and the say that it was not them...they say in their native language “It was the Gods” while pointing to the sky. The present day Indians (Inca), are growers of a few vegetables and herders of sheep, llama and goats, etc. Advanced engineering to them is unknown, much less what happened at Teotihuacan. There supposedly is a man living there that is the oldest person in the world. I think he is alleged to be 126 years old. He supposedly was born in 1888...or thereabouts. He said that a diet of potatoes mixed with a specific grain plus crewing coca leaves continuously is the secret to his longevity. Ingesting that much coke made him feel he was 20 years old anyway.

US writer Kate Chopin wrote “The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.” Kate was a great wordsmith.

This Date in History August 21

1831 On this date a slave named Nat Turner, believing he was directed by God to free the slaves, rose up and began gathering other slaves in Southampton County, Virginia and headed for the armory in Jerusalem, Virginia. Turner was educated and an ordained minister unlike the majority of the slaves in America. It was Turner’s intention to break into the armory in Jerusalem, gather as many weapons as possible and then head for the Great Dismal Swamp to hide from the eventual pursuers. On his way to the armory he gathered up seven other slaves and chose to slaughter his owner and all of his owner’s family. Over the next two days Turner assimilated 75 followers and they rampaged across the countryside killing about 60 honkies. Finally the whites gathered a defensive force and summoned the Virginia Militia who showed up with 3,000 soldiers and crushed the rebellion. Nearly all of the slaves in rebellion were caught and unceremoniously hanged. It was not until October that Turner himself was caught and hanged. The end result of this rebellion was the colonies passed laws that forbade the movement, gathering or education of slaves. These times were dark ones in the history of this great nation. But at the risk of being politically incorrect, I do not feel that I owe and apology to the blacks for what my ancestors may or may not have participated in. But I feel extremely guilty about the treatment of the Native Americans. It is estimated that at the time that Jamestown was founded there was about 28 million Native Americans in what is now the United States. By the year 1900 there were an estimated 750,000. We came within a hair’s breadth of genocide, y'all. Think on it.

1863 Earlier the state of Missouri was a slave holding state and next door was a hotbed of anti-slavery in Kansas. Needless to say there was much animosity that resulted in several skirmishes at the Kansas/Missouri border. Finally this fighting degenerated into guerrilla warfare on of the pro-Confederate armies was known as Quantrill’s Raiders. This army had as part of their group, Frank and Jesse James, the Younger brothers, “Bloody Bill” Anderson among others. Their ferocity was legendary. For some reason a US army officer kidnapped William Quantrill’s wife and daughters and took them to Kansas City hoping to influence Quantrill to cool it. Unfortunately for all, the building Quantrill’s family was being held in collapsed killing them all. Needless to say what effect this had on Quantrill and his troops. On this date Quantrill, having gathered a huge army, kidnapped four Kansas farmers to lead him to Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence was long known as a hotbed of anti-slavery sentiment. After Quantrill found Lawrence, he killed the farmers and sent his troops on a rampage through the town. Quantrill’s troops dragged over 185 men from their houses and killed them, sometimes in front of the man’s family. After this they burned Lawrence to the ground and hauled ass back into Missouri with the US Cavalry in hot pursuit. Once back in Missouri the US Cavalry wisely chose to discontinue the pursuit. It is very unlikely that this atrocity would never have been even considered had Quantrill’s family had not been kidnapped and died.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, and that is all.”

                                                         Oscar Wilde

Some of you have read this before but it wears on me so here it is again.

When I was in the USAF I was sent to Spokane, Washington (Fairchild AFB) to a seminar on what to expect in case of a nuclear war and how to survive. They began teaching about intercontinental ballistic missiles coming and going, long range bombers, etc. But one of the possibilities was this. Since the advanced refinement of nuclear materials it would be possible to create a nuclear weapon that would equal the yield of the Hiroshima bomb and only weigh about 40 pounds. They also stressed that it would be possible to create a “dirty bomb” that would not explode in a nuclear holocaust but simply be blown into dust by a conventional explosive like TNT or C-4 and the radioactive dust would go downwind and kill every air breather within ten days or so and nothing would be destroyed like buildings, bridges, etc. All one of our enemies would have to do is put one of these devices in a backpack, go upwind of an area of heavy population and light it off. We would not have a clue who did it...after all our border protection is laughable and therefore retaliation would be impossible. Look at the United States at night via a satellite view and you can tell where the heavy populated areas are. I figure about 40 of these devices would reduce our population by at least half. Every time I hear about a bomb going off like has been happening lately...I hold my breath hoping it is nor “dirty”. We are making a deal with Iran to stand aside while they improve their nuclear capabilities. I am talking about the Iran that has financed and armed the Taliban and al-queda among other terrorist groups and hold frequent street marches screaming “Death to America”. To this day selected post offices across the nation have Potassium Iodine stored. This is supposed help radiation poisoning. Somebody knows that this scenario is a possibility. Our most dangerous threat is not a missile or a bomb, it is a lunatic with a back pack. But maybe I am scaring you...you need to be.

I am once again reading ancient history when I go to bed at night. Previously it was thought that Jericho was the oldest city on Earth at about 7,500 years old. However, recent excavations have revealed two cities one in central Turkey and one in south central Turkey that have been radiocarbon dated at about 8,500 years years old. The ruins of the site in south-central Turkey had columns made of granite about ten feet tall and have bas-relief carvings top to bottom. The columns were basically made by stacking slabs of granite on top of each other before the artwork was begun. It is estimated that each slab weighed about 1.5 tons and had to be transported from a quarry that was nearby but it would take some muscle to get it moved, elevated and carved. Scientists estimate that it would have taken over 500 men about a year to get this thing accomplished. There are several problems with this. There is no evidence of enough residences within 100 miles of this site to house 500 people. If there were 500 workmen, how were they fed? There is no evidence of any type of garden and no kitchen midden. A kitchen midden is where people would throw their garbage...skins, bones etc. Who were these people? Where did they come from? Where did they go?. The structure required coordination meaning there had to be a written and/or spoken language along with knowledge of some math and engineering design. Where did this come from? They also did not have metals hard enough, if any metals at all, to carve granite. They could have done it with other stones but it would have taken centuries to get it done. It makes you wonder if we know anything at all about who and what we are.

Jean Lafitte

Legendary Pirate

The exact place and date of birth of Jean Lafitte is not known for sure. The generally accepted year is 1776. Lafitte himself claimed Bordeaux, France as his birthplace while at the same time his brother Pierre claimed that their birthplace was Bayonne, France. At that time it would be advantageous to be a French citizen so as to not be subject to American laws. There are several documents out there that put Lafitte’s birthplace at many different places in the world including an island on the South Carolina coast. His biographer states that the best documentation puts his birthplace on the French possession island of Saint Domingue as it was known as then and is known as Haiti today. Jean’s father died and in approximately 1784 his mother moved him and his older brother Pierre to the Mississippi River Delta area which was a French possession also. Jean stayed with his mother and Pierre was raised by an extended family in other areas of Louisiana. Soon after their arrival Jean’s mother married a wealthy New Orleans merchant named Pedro Aubry. It is believed that as a young man Jean roamed the bayous and inlets from the Gulf of Mexico and became known as the most knowledgeable person alive about this area. Jean’s brother Pierre became a privateer for Saint Domingue and was carrying a Letter of the Marque. This meant that he was a pirate for Saint Domingue and would capture ships of the nation named in the “Letter” and split the booty with Saint Domingue in return for safe haven in Saint Domingue’s harbors. Jean began operating a warehouse and a store (probably on Royal Street) in New Orleans where he would distribute the booty brought to him by his brother to merchants in the New Orleans area. New Orleans and a hell of a lot more became American property with the Louisiana Purchase in 1804. This put a severe kink into the smuggling operation of the Lafitte brothers in New Orleans so they began looking elsewhere. They found a sparsely occupied island in Barataria Lake southwest of New Orleans. This lake was accessible only by a narrow channel between Grand Terre and Grand Isle that was easily defended and any ship approaching would be quickly detected and was a long way from American naval bases. Their business boomed once the privateers in the Gulf of Mexico found them. They would simply unload the ships and send the goods on barges up various bayous to New Orleans. Eventually the brothers got tired of being dry goods brokers and bought a boat, hired a captain and became privateers themselves. A few days later they made their first score. It was a Spanish ship with 77 slaves aboard. After selling the slaves (probably to Jim Bowie) and the other goods aboard they made about $18,000. They liked the boat and kept it also. A couple of days later they knocked over a Spanish brig and reaped about $9,000. They decided that this was a lot better than smuggling stolen goods. But they did not like this boat and chose to unload it and turn it back over to the original crew. The Lafitte brothers were renowned for good treatment of hijacked crews. A big turn of events occurred when England kept stopping American ships at sea and “Shanghaiing” American sailors. This means they would take American sailors off their ships and force them to serve on British ships. America finally got fed up and in 1812 declared war on England. During all of this the Lafitte brothers had gathered/swapped ships until they had three very fast sloops armed to the teeth. The British knew that the Americans did not have a viable navy and utilized pirates and privateers in their behalf so they approached Jean Lafitte and his small navy to join the British navy for pay. Jean believed that the Americans would win this war and wrote a letter to a member of the US Congress telling him of the British offer. Previously Jean’s brother Pierre had been captured in a United States Navy raid and was imprisoned in New Orleans. Jean offered to join with the Americans in their war against Great Britain along with most of his crews if any criminal charges that were pending against he and his men would be dropped and Pierre would be released. The military person in command in this area was General Andrew Jackson and he balked at first but when three British warships showed up southwest of New Orleans he agreed. Jean Lafitte and his men were indeed present at the immortal Battle of New Orleans where the British had their asses handed to them even though they had the rag-tag army commanded by General Jackson out-numbered and out gunned. The British had 345 killed, including the British commanded General Packenham, and many wounded to 45 killed for the Americans. Lafitte knew that his operation at Barataria Bay was over and began looking for another location and found one in Galveston in what is now Texas. But at that time southern Texas was a Mexican property. Mexico was in the midst of a war for Independence with Spain. Both Pierre and Jean agreed to spy for Spain with Pierre in New Orleans and Jean on Galveston Island. Jean again established a base for smuggling on Galveston Island along with some pirating on his own. The US had passed a law that slaves could not brought in to the US unless they were captured off of a slave ship, then the slaves could be brought in to customs agents and be sold by them and half the profit going to the captors so that told Jean and Pierre what their targets would be. They began a very profitable venture of capturing slaves, bringing them to New Orleans and letting the customs agents sell them to Jim Bowie at a reduced rate. Then they got an additional profit when Bowie sold them and gave the Lafitte brothers a commission. In 1821 the US Navy went to Galveston to run the Lafitte brothers out of the Gulf of Mexico. Jean agreed to leave without a fight and sailed down to Isla Mujeres off the northeast corner of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico (near present day Cancun) and set up operations but it did not flourish like the others and his camp was nothing but a group of squalid huts. Later he became ill and moved onto a small village on the Mexican mainland and died a few days later died of a tropical fever. He was 47.

Thanks or listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow