Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”

Winston Churchill

These facts may confuse some an incense others. Here is a short history lesson.

I read and hear frequently that this country was founded on the Christian religion. That is not correct. It was founded on the freedom of religion, in fact the constitution forbids the establishment of a “state religion”. This means that we are NOT bound by the morality of any religion. I invite you to look into the religion of our founding fathers meaning George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, out first four Presidents. No one has ever pinned down Washington's religion because he never mentioned Jesus Christ in any public address or document but he did mention “God” and “Providence”. However, he was an Anglican (Church of England) before the Revolution and Episcopalian afterward so that makes him a Christian (believer of Christ).

The next three presidents were Unitarians. They believed that there was only one God and Jesus Christ did exist but he was not supernatural making them non-Christian (not followers of Christ). This is what history tells us but you believe what you want to...that is freedom of religion. By the way the Anglican Church (see Henry VIII) is identical to the Catholic Church except the ultimate authority is not the Pope but is the reigning monarch of the British Empire.

We can expect a raise on the cost of anything advertised before, during or immediately after the upcoming Republican debate on September 16. I has been reported that the host network CNN has chosen to increase the cost of advertising by a factor of 10 during this time period. I believe free enterprise and this is a good example of supply and demand...but the consumer (you and I) will be the ultimate financier.

It is the same down here in rural South Carolina. A woman called her estranged husband and told him that her present boyfriend, 31 year old Dave Mauger, was coming to shoot him. The man blew it off but about 20 minutes later Dave did not disappoint and came by and fired five or six rounds at the man’s double-wide. He did not hit anyone and only one round went into the trailer. Dave needs to spend more time at the range. Anyone that can only put one round out of six into something the size of a double wide needs help. Dave is in the joint right now, however.

I have read a biography of an American mountain man named John Johnson. He had a Flathead wife that he had been married to for less than six months. He had to be away from his house for an extended period while on a bison hunt even though his wife was pregnant. When he returned he found his wife and unborn child had been massacred by a Crow tribe. He began a personal vendetta against the Crows and killed 25 in hand to hand fights and many more with a rifle and from ambush. He was known to surrounding tribes as Dapiek Absaroka meaning “killer of the Crows”. His signature was removing their livers and taking a bite. He was known throughout the Rockies as “Liver Eatin' Johnson”. He served as a scout for the Union cavalry during the Civil War. He died in a Los Angeles veterans home in 1900. The movie Jeremiah Johnson starring Robert Redford was loosely based on his life. He was buried in a cemetery in Los Angeles but was disinterred and re-buried in a cemetery in Cody, Wyoming dedicated to those American mountain men that settled the west. Robert Redford was one of his pall-bearers. Not only that, nearly all the American Indians would remove and take a bite of an enemy's heart if he was exceptionally courageous hoping their courage would be instilled in them. This ritual was also known to many peoples of a violent and aggressive nature, such as the Vikings, Celts, Vandals and yes...even the Persians (Iran and Iraq today) and various others. Any reports of this ritual today is really ancient history.

Please will someone explain something to me. The United States was an eyelash from engaging in an armed conflict on foreign soil because it is alleged that country's administration delivered Sarin gas on its own citizenry to discourage an ongoing insurgency killing about 1,400. A few years ago in west central Africa there was a war between two tribes that have been squabbling for centuries. The tribes were the Hutus and the Tutsis. They finally engaged in all out war in the early 1980's and over 500,000 were slaughtered...it was probably more like 800,000 but they did not keep records. For the most part they did it the hard way, with knives, machetes, clubs and an occasional firearm. Why didn't the US, UN, NATO, Greenpeace, Red Cross, Salvation Army and a plethora of tree-huggers intervene? It obviously is not the number of lives lost, it apparently is the weapons used.

Now that I am stirred up here is something else. Somehow the Monsanto corporation has made it illegal for corn farmers to use any other seed corn other than Monsanto. That is a monopoly guaranteed by your government to the benefit of a private corporation. Not only that, since the days of cattle drives from Texas to Kansas young calves are raised in jammed packed “feed lots” and feed them corn to make them grow faster, bigger and minimize movement so to be more tender. Now Monsanto has gotten into bed with the meat producers and add growth hormones to the corn to make the livestock, including chickens, ducks, etc. grow even bigger faster, the danger or disadvantage to humans be damned. Back when I was in the engineering business I worked on a project for developing a plant to generate a hormone that was mixed with their feed to make dairy cows produce more milk. It was discovered that the hormone would eventually cause the cow to produce twice as much milk but would reduce their productive years by 25%. That is a big gain on the bottom line so to hell with what effect the hormone has on humans or the cattle. Americans are alleged to be the best fed, bigger and more robust than the rest of the world...but there are many countries whose people live longer on the average...wonder why? By the way, all of us have heard the scam of “tender corn fed beef”...cattle are grazers, they eat grass, not corn....don't even look into how veal is produced.

This Date in History September 9

1939 The Fox theater in Riverside, California had a surprise premier of the movie Gone with the Wind. The producer of the film David O. Selznick was sitting in the rear of the theater to see the audience’s reaction. Selznick had bought the film rights from Margaret Mitchell for $50,000 the year before and immediately began a search for Rhett and Scarlett. He was unsuccessful at first but he made a deal with MGM for Clark Gable for which MGM got a piece of the action. The newly arrived British actress Vivian Leigh came to the set to see her agent who was Selznick’s brother and was persuaded to read for the role of Scarlett. The official premier was in Atlanta in December.

1971 The worst prison riot in American history happened at Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, N.Y. The riot occurred spontaneously but was primarily caused by the severe overcrowding which resulted in deplorable living conditions. The inmates could take a shower only once a week and had one roll of toilet paper to last a month among many other things. Nearly all of the 2200 inmates joined in the riot. The riot was essentially contained in a recreational field but the inmates had 39 guards and civilians as hostages. There were long and tedious negotiations between the inmates and the prison officials, even the Governor Nelson Rockefeller came and talked with the inmates but the negotiations stalled and the governor order a forceful takeover. The officials sent a helicopter over the yard and dropped tear gas into the yard and the prison guards charged through the mist guns blazing. 10 prison guards were killed and 89 inmates were either killed or wounded. The prison officials at first said that the inmates had killed the guards by cutting their throats but autopsies proved that they were all killed with gunfire. A congressional investigation ensued.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow