Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“The inherent vice of Capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of misery.”

                                    Winston Churchill

The Clemson Tigers (here in the piney woods of northwestern South Carolina) are ranked number 12 this week. I don't doubt it, after all they were really tested by Wofford College last week and have that giant of a team Appalachian State this week. How do they stand up under this enormous pressure?

Once again I am getting messages from people that believe something found on the internet that is unreasonable and unproven. They believe it because it reinforces their preconceived prejudices therefore it must be true. This is human nature. They use a “report” from an alleged “expert” and will not listen to reason and logic. A couple of days ago a message came across the internet from a fancy named source in the entertainment business that James Earl Jones had died, he of course had not...and this is not the first time a hoax like this has occurred. Be suspicious of anything on the web, especially if it has an official sounding name. This message has come to you courtesy of Masters of the Universe, Inc.

Today is September 11...remember it...but for now...

This Date in History September 11

2001 Arab terrorists primarily from Saudi Arabia skyjack 4 US airliners and crash 2 of them into the twin towers of the World Trade center in lower Manhattan completely destroying them, crash one in the Pentagon and one of the skyjacked plane’s coward terrorists are overcome by the passengers and the plane crashes into a field in central Pennsylvania. There were no survivors in any of the crashes. These coward terrorist were supposedly sponsored and financed by Saudi national Osama Ben Laden and his network of even more cowards known as al Qaeda. America was/is under attack and is in fact at war to this day. I just go to bed at night secure in the knowledge that America continues to send out its own version of “terrorists” like A-Teams, Marine Recon teams, Air Commandos, Seal teams and Delta teams who are out there in the world covertly capping those cowards and their families faster than a dog can trot. By the way Ben Laden has gone on to his reward thanks to SEAL team 6.

1931 Movie star Fatty Arbuckle is arrested for the killing of starlet Virginia Rappe. It seems that the 350 lbs Fatty and Virginia were participants in a wild sex/drinking party in San Francisco at which Fatty, apparently in the male superior position, ruptured Virginia’s bladder from which she died a few days later. After two hung juries Fatty was acquitted and released but his movie career was history from then on. It was the biggest scandal to ever happen to the movie industry up until that time. Fatty did continue as a director for several years using the pseudonym George Goodrich. He was credited with discovering comedian Buster Keaton which was one of the most sought after movie stars ever. Fatty died in 1933.

1961 Former Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev died. Nikita was in power in 1961 during the Cuban missile crises. These were scary days, y'all. We were within a gnats ass of a nuclear exchange with the Russians but JFK and RFK among others got us out of that pickle and there were concessions on both sides primarily Russia remove the nuclear missiles from Cuba and we took our missiles out of Turkey which we were going to do anyway. It was a breath holding experience for us all.

1931 Crime mob boss Salvatore Maranzano is found strangled and stabbed to death in New York and there is little doubt that it was Lucky Luciano that ordered the hit. Luciano made millions of dollars and lived in the Waldorf Astoria but he claimed an income of $22,000 per year. His rent alone was more than this. In 1929 Luciano was captured and stabbed in the neck with an ice pick but fortunately for Lucky it missed the jugular. The police interviewed Lucky about the attack but he said he had done it himself and that it was an accident. Several days later several bodies were found floating in the Hudson River and they all were “associates” of mobster “Legs” Diamond. “Legs” was never the same after that. Later on the Feds figured that they had enough evidence against Lucky to take him to trial and put him in the joint for the rest of his life. About then WWII broke out and the Feds made a deal with Lucky that if he would ensure that there would be no labor problems on the docks during the war effort they would not try him but deport him. Lucky died in Italy.

1857 A wagon train of pioneers/settlers from Arkansas and Missouri are massacred by Mormon guerrillas and Paiute Indians while crossing Utah at a place called Mountain Meadows. The Mormons were pissed off because more and more non-Mormons were settling their lands. A few years before the Mormons were kicked out of Missouri and those settlers from Missouri chided the Mormons about it. The Mormon guerrillas made a deal with the Paiutes, they would kill the men and the Paiutes would kill the women. In all there were 120 men and women killed. There were 18 children survivors. The US was incensed by this and ordered Brigham Young to come up with another agreement whereby there would be a non-Mormon Governor and a US military presence would be allowed because they were coming anyway.

Born today:

1862 US writer O. Henry. He said “The only thing a straw vote does is tell which direction the hot air is blowing.”

1877 English physicist James Jeans. He said “From the intrinsic evidence of his creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now appears to be a pure mathematician.” This is clearly offensive to the Evangelicals.

1895 English writer D. H. Lawrence. Upon his return from a trip to France he said “It would have been better without the French people.” When I went to France in ’04, the ship stopped at La Havre, France and within 15 minutes of getting off the ship I was in a yelling match with some French son-of-a-bitch.

1925 US actress Grace Matthau. Grace was the wife of actor Walter Matthau who was hitting hard on a Hollywood starlet. Walter kept asking her what her age was and finally Grace came over and said “For God’s sake Walter, why don’t you just cut off her legs and count the rings.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow