Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I like a simple life. Right now it is: There are critters outside that want to kill and eat me (polar bears and wolves) and I don't want them to.”

Sue Aikens (She is the sole occupant of a refueling/monitoring station in Alaska about 60 mile south of the Arctic Ocean.)

Once again I have been reading about the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors in North and South America. Here is an interesting tale. Francisco Pizarro was a Spanish soldier that exploited the Inca in Peru. His brother Gonzalo was given the assignment of exploring east seeking a fabled city of gold. One of his lieutenants named Francisco de Orrellana was chosen to explore a mighty unexplored river they discovered. Once the expedition began floating the river there was no turning back because the current. The explorers were harassed frequently by the unfriendly natives. On one occasion they were showered by arrows fired by a large group of women and Fernando said “This is the river of Amazons” (in Spanish of course) and the name stuck. The expedition made it to the mouth of the Amazon in what is now Brazil. Francisco made it back to Spain and was given a royal assignment to further explore and exploit this mighty river. The karma here is that on his return trip his ship capsized in the mouth of the river and all aboard were drowned...including Francisco. By the way, the word Amazon come from Greek mythology about a Greek island that was inhabited solely by women warriors.

A while back 46 year old Tommy Harrison was driving his pickup truck north on US 25 just north of Greenwood, SC. For unknown reasons Tommy crossed over into the southbound lane and collided head on with a motorcyclist. The rider was flown to a hospital in Greenville, SC where he expired on the operating table. Tommy, on the other hand, fled the scene of the accident while driving on a suspended driver’s license. He went on trial and the jury was out for about 15 minutes and returned with a guilty verdict. He was sentenced for 20 years with a minimum of 85% being served. 17 to 20 years in a South Carolina prison will be like 100 years in hell.

The Iraqi clergy has decreed that a woman they think committed adultery should be “stoned to death.” If Islam ever took over the USA we would be out of stones very quickly. By the way because of world pressure, especially the Vatican, the Iranis have backed off of the stoning and just administered 99 lashes with a cane-like device. What great humanitarians those Iranis. By the way, there was no mention of the punishment for male adulterers.

This Date in History September 7

2005 The French Police raid the Paris hotel room of Lance Armstrong and search for illegal substances. He is arrested because three different outlawed substances were indeed found. It was soap, toothpaste, and deodorant. The police insisted on a full body search of Lance and found yet more things not seen or allowed in France and that being a set of balls and a spine which is unheard of in French men. I am being facetious, of course.

1936 Singer Buddy Holly is born in Lubbock, Texas. As we all know Buddy had a short but spectacular musical career with the making of such smash hits as “Peggy Sue”, “Maybe Baby” and “That’ll be the Day” among others. Buddy, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper were killed in the crash of a plane they had chartered.

1864 Gen. William T. Sherman ordered the evacuation of Atlanta. Sherman said that the civilians would be a hindrance in his preparations for the infamous “march to the sea” and he did not want his soldier mixing with civilians. Smart move there. Most of the Atlantans were allowed to go south toward the remnants of CSA Gen. John Bell Hood’s army others went north and west. When the mayor of Atlanta complained Sherman said “War is cruel, there is no way to refine it.” Indeed, William, indeed.

1979 The Chrysler Corporation requests and gets a loan of $1 Billion dollars that is guaranteed by the US Treasury to save the company from bankruptcy. Under the leadership of Lee Iacocca Chrysler was able to cut costs and overhead and was able to repay this loan with interest early. Say what you want but Lee is a superb executive, unlike Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom fame and Ken Lay of Enron. Bernie is in the slammer and Ken has gone to meet his maker in the knowledge that he lost forever millions of dollars from his employees' retirement program. What a guy. By the way, when Ken Lay was in court facing fraud charges he bought his wife a $275,000 yacht for her birthday. When the judge gave him hell about it, he said “Your honor, I can't just give up this lifestyle over night”.

2007 President Jimmy Carter signed an agreement with the Government of Panama whereby the control and ownership of the Panama Canal will go to the Panamanians at the end of the century and this would also cancel the so called “Canal Zone” which was a US owned section that allowed a military presence. But the agreement also says that the US had the right to keep the canal open by what ever means necessary. This was what the US used as an excuse to go capture Manuel Noriega.

1996 Rapper Tupak Shakur along with “Suge” Knight and others get into hassle with one Orlando Anderson and a group of the Los Angeles gang the Southside Crips in a recording studio lobby. Later on Tupak and Suge went to a boxing match in Vegas. As they are leaving, a white Caddy pulls up along side and someone opens up with an automatic weapon. Tupak is killed outright but Suge is just grazed on the forehead. No one was ever captured and sentenced for that. When the fight in the recording studio is shown via security cameras, Suge is shown swinging a punch which was a violation of his parole and he went back and had to do the remaining 9 years of his sentence.

1876 The James/Younger gang rode into Northfield, Minnesota to rob the bank there. Jesse James pulled his weapon on the bank clerk and orders the vault to be opened. The clerk says that the vault is on a timer (a lie, the timer is only on after business hours) and he can’t do it and at the same time makes a break for the back door and succeeds in getting it open and yelling for help before being shot in the shoulder by Jesse. The neighbors in Northfield come running out bristling with guns. Nearly all of the Younger brothers were killed but Frank and Jesse did escape and went into the Dakota Territory and started organizing another gang. By the way, Jesse went back and shot the bank clerk in the head.

Born today:

1533 Queen Elizabeth I, English monarch. She said “I would rather be a pauper and single than married and the Queen”. This girl was known as the “Virgin Queen” because she was never married. She did have two prominent boyfriends in the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Essex but it was never proven that she had carnal knowledge of either. She wanted to stay single so her power would not be “diluted”.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow