Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Stress is nothing more than a sociably acceptable definition of mental illness.”

                                            Richard Carlson

I felt the need to say a few things about this. There was a play written by William Shakespeare titled Much Ado About Nothing and that is what we have here with the Pledge of Allegiance. There is much ado as to whether the phrase “under God” should be part of it or not. This phrase was added during the Eisenhower administration. It is being hinted that God will abandon the United States if this phrase is not there. I think it is too late now bat anyway this frame of thought is sponsored by the Evangelicals, of course. Keep in mind that the Continental Army that beat the mightiest military organization on the planet at the time (Great Britain) never said that phrase. The greatest American generation saved the world during World War II without saying that phrase even though they survived the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Then we get someone saying “Remember the bible says that if you deny Jesus, Jesus will deny you before God”....or words to that effect. The Bible also said that God relayed instructions through Moses to Joshua that when the Hebrews finally stopped fooling around in the Negev desert for 40 years and headed north up the Jordan river valley, Joshua was instructed to slaughter every human they came across so they would not leave people behind that could attack them from the rear. That is in the Bible too. They did not try to save their souls or convert them...they killed them out of military necessity. The point of all of this is that it is not what you say or swear, it is what you do. Think about the Marines on Guadalcanal. They charged through a fetid stinking jungle and kicked out the Japanese because they needed the airstrip that was there. When asked about why they fought so hard and so long, the greatest majority of the marines said the “I did not want to let my unit down” and “it was the right thing to do.” There was no mention of the Pledge of Allegiance and/or it's phasing. I am not belittling the Pledge ...it serves a purpose but actions not words is what makes a difference. In my humble opinion, it is love of country and your countrymen that make you a Patriot not your phrasing...religion not withstanding.

I just read where the South Carolina violent crimes are reduced by several percentage points over this time in 2009. Then in the next column I read where South Carolina has taken over third place in the FBI “states with the most violent crimes per capita.” As most of you can guess, it all depends who is giving out the facts as to who is the most accurate. I would not doubt the FBI rating. Almost every day I make a comparison with the violent crimes in the Greenville/Spartanburg area as compared with crimes in the Austin, Texas area. I chose Austin because it is a close approximation to the Greenville/Spartanburg area in population. There is no comparison. There are three times the violent crimes up here in the piney woods of northwestern South and North Carolina than in the Austin area. I do not know what the reasoning is. Unfortunately, perhaps we rednecks here in the western Carolinas have less respect for the law than those cowboys around Austin...not to mention that nearly everybody there is packing a firearm. Austin seems like a good place to live to me...except for the heat in the summer.

Back in May a 19 year old Clemson coed was picking some things up from a storage facility she had rented. Suddenly she was attacked and thrown into an adjacent cubicle by a drifter that had rented the storage cubicle and was living there. He tied her up and raped her but he did not frisk her. After the drifter left the coed was able to free herself and called 911 on her undetected cell phone and was rescued by sheriff’s deputies. The deputies found out that a 37 year old man named Dennis Temple had rented the next cubicle. Dennis was arrested that night. He is being charged with kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct and larceny. If he is convicted and does not get the death penalty (which is likely) he will be an old man when he sees the light of day again and rightfully so. Like I say, no respect for the law…or anything else.

       This Date in History  September 16

1908 A great visionary William C. Durant founded General Motors with the consolidation of Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac along with Chevrolet, Delco, Fisher Body and Frigidaire. The first electric starter came on a 1912 Cadillac; the starter was invented by Charles Kettering. Pontiac came later on and with this consolidation General Motors surpassed Ford in gross sales. But in the early 60’s with the avalanche of better quality import cars, GM had to cut back, close some of their plants and re-think their product quality.

1620 English ship Mayflower left Plymouth harbor bound for the new world, Jamestown in particular. After a stormy 66 day passage and being blown off course by 500 miles they end up at the tip of Cape Cod and dropped anchor in Providencetown harbor. While enroute the passengers got together and made up a document known as the Mayflower Compact. This document was the earliest basis for what is now our present democracy. A few armed men under the leadership of Myles Standish departed the ship and begin a hunt for a suitable site to begin a settlement. They found an open field with plenty of running water and named it Plimouth (their spelling). An interesting fact about Standish was that he was so short that he had to cut 6 inches off his sword and scabbard to keep them from dragging the ground, that would make him no taller than 5’-3” and probably shorter. But he was a fiery and capable military commander and we are lucky he was aboard. The Mayflower sailed around to Plymouth harbor and thus began preparations for the tough upcoming winter. The majority of those aboard were religious dissidents against the Church of England the rest were opportunist and entrepreneurs. While anchored in Plymouth harbor Susanna White delivered a son name Peregrine, he being the first child born in this new settlement. In my opinion, this expedition along with the founding of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, ranks up there with the Lewis and Clark expedition as being the greatest adventures of all time. I would have loved to be on either of them.

1920 Someone pulled a wagon load of explosives in front of the sub-treasury on Wall Street and lights it off killing 300 people and injuring many. No one came forward to claim responsibility and therefore rumors flew that is was the Communists, Anarchists, etc. Some even claim that it was a construction wagon that turned down the wrong street. In any event this mystery remains unsolved to this day. I think it was a Sunni that had spotted a Shiite and the battle was on. They are all crazy as bedbugs anyway, let them kill each other off.

1925 US bluesman B.B. King. He said “We musicians don’t steal from each other; we just borrow from time to time.” B.B. is no longer with us much to my grief.

             Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow