Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
Robert McCloskey
Hey Your Honor, it was nice seeing you and Dave once again.
A while back I could hardly restrain myself when I saw President Obama speaking about the so-called “Arizona law” he said “The United States cannot allow an individual in power (Governor of Arizona) to declare themselves anti-immigrant just to make a name for themselves…”. Hey Barry, you dumb-ass what about the 66% of us Americans who agree with the Arizona law as written? Are all of us trying to make a name for ourselves? You are so out of touch with mainstream America it is scary….and I mean scary. You need to go ahead and buy a plane ticket back to wherever you came from. I think Delta has a direct flight from DCA to Nairobi...but if not take one going anywhere. I looked it up and there is no direct flight to Nairobi. Barry, the best I can do for you is Swissair from IAD (Dulles) to Zurich to Nairobi. It is 17 hours but what is time among friends. I believe there is sufficient evidence that Barry was born in Kenya and pulled the greatest scam in history.
I used to belong to a Facebook page titled “Natives of Greenville, SC.” I think that I was the oldest “native” on this site. It became a contest of who can think of the oldest place or things that existed in this locale and talk about how great things were “back in the good ole days”. It became so sickeningly sweet with everyone talking about the way things used to be and how Greenville is Nirvana. I got fed up and tried to tell them that It is not a location that makes you happy, it is your frame of mind and what is in your heart. Oh my God, you would have thought I had cursed Dale Earnhardt. One person responded with listing all the places she had lived (obviously military assignments) and said she had chosen to retire in the Greenville-Spartanburg area and then she asked “Where else would you have me go?” I ignored the obvious answer to that one and told her “You should go to where your heart is the happiest and it has nothing to do with location, it is frame of mind and attitude...but I guess that understanding this concept is beyond you.” To all of you that are interested the sun does not rise in Union (about 40 miles east) and set in Westminster (about 40 miles west) with Greenville being the center of the universe. The center of the universe is where you as an individual wants it to be. Another person obviously got very testy when I even suggested that I don't give a damn about “the good ole days” nor those that revere this city or any other section of earth. Heaven is in your heart and mind, not at the intersection of Main and Coffee. Personally I would be closer to heaven sitting in the shade under the Pensacola Beach fishing pier contemplating the future which would mean a scrumptious seafood dinner including Apalachicola oysters on the half shell...but that is just me. I cannot and will not revere the past...there is just as many sorrowful memories back there as there are pleasurable ones. What is really a mystery to me is these people try to remember everything from deep in their past as being pleasurable and then say how much they love Greenville. What is Greenville? Is it the old Ice house near Poe Mill, Reedy River falls, the Blue Ridge mountains being only 25 miles away (as the crow flies)...or is it the people? Of course it is the people. I can assure you that back in the 60's and 70's compared to today the population has at least tripled or maybe quadrupled with immigrants from several different locations worldwide but especially central and western Pennsylvania and Ohio because of the collapse of the American steel industry. This makes the Greenville of the 60's and 70's light years from what it is today. The people that have moved here have a different mind set, values, traditions, etc. Greenville is not the same city of yore. Use your mind for something creative and fulfilling not trying to remember something pleasant from the past and ignoring the sorrows. Try to live for today...and the future. OK y'all, the sermon is over...Amen....Vivre pour la journée...laissez le bon temps rouler de temps!
And for Ana...Vivar pars el dia...que los buenos tiempos sean!
I read about the 10 most dangerous cities in the world. Two of them are in the United States. As you might suspect, the 2nd most dangerous city in the world is Detroit. This cesspool has a murder rate of 43.5 per 100,000. Since this writing Chicago has become the MOST dangerous. Down about 7th in the world is New Orleans, if you can believe that. They have a murder rate of close to 40 per 100,000. I will be going to Gulf Breeze, Florida eventually...they have mean cops when it comes to speeding, running red lights and stop signs...but the natives are friendly even though most are armed...and so am I.
This Date in History August 5
1981 President of the United States Ronald Reagan fired over 11,000 air traffic controllers for going on strike. I was one of them. The roots of the strike began about three years earlier when our Union President went out and contacted Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, the ex-governor of California, and told him that we the 16,000 members of the air traffic controller’s union would campaign to get him elected if he would just promised to do one thing. The union had tried to get the retirement system for air traffic controllers changed because the stress wore heavily on their ability as they aged. The Union had spent millions of dollars literally bribing the right Senators and Representatives to get a bill introduced that would change the retirement system for air traffic controllers. All was asked of Reagan was that he not interfere or veto the bill once it is introduced as part of the next contract. According to our union president Reagan agreed to this. Reagan came to office in 1980 and the next year our contract came up for renewal. We were excited that a change in the retirement was on the horizon. Reagan came out and essentially said “Here is $43,000,000 dollars, do with it what you want, and that is all you are getting for your contract.” Money was not an issue as far as we were concerned; we wanted a change in the retirement plan. But when we threatened a strike President Reagan pointed to the $43,000.000 and said something how greedy we were in typical political bullshit. He did not even mention the retirement change. Even if we had wanted a pay raise, $43,000,000 divided among 16,000 people for the length of the contract which was three years would have meant a raise of about 53 cents an hour which was an insult. That made it a matter of honor, so we went on strike and was fired. It probably saved my life getting out of that business because counting my time in the Air Force I had been doing it for 25 years and I was pretty much worn out anyway. Either Reagan or our union president lied. In any event the rank and file were betrayed. I am sorry for all of your Reagan lovers, but this is what happened .
1936 Earlier in this year, FBI head J. Edgar Hoover was grilled by a congressional committee and was criticized because he had never made an arrest himself. Old Edgar had an ego the size of Montana and he went on a mission to arrest a well known criminal personally. The agency had already captured or killed some on the most famous criminals in American history like John Dillinger, “Machine Gun” Kelly, “Ma” Barker and her sons so Hoover decided it would be Alvin Karpis. He was number one on the FBI most wanted list. Alvin’s prime game was kidnapping and collecting a ransom but he was not above assault and battery and even murder. Hoover sent a task force to locate the elusive Alvin. They used every thing at their disposal including letting other criminals out of jail if they would give them information on Alvin, or making outright bribes. They tracked Alvin through a series of “safe” houses which was mostly whorehouses in Illinois and Arkansas. Finally they were able to track Alvin down to a whorehouse in New Orleans. The task force surrounded the house and waited for Hoover to arrive. Hoover arrived and hid in an alley while the agents took Alvin down and made sure he was unarmed and then that scion of bravery, J. Edgar Hoover stepped out and made the arrest and put on the handcuffs while the newspapers were there in force to take photos at Hoover’s behest. On this date Alvin Karpis stepped foot in Alcatraz and there he is to stay until 1969 when he is paroled and deported to Canada. He died there 10 years later.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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