Monday OYSTERS

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I live in a tough neighborhood. I left my apartment the other day and left a note on the outside of the door saying ‘I’m inside’. I came home and my apartment was ransacked and there was a note on the inside of the door saying ‘I looked all over for you’.”

                                               Rodney Dangerfield

Jan C....I am looking forward to your comments.

Whatever drought we were suffering here in South Carolina is over. It has been reported that a periscope was seen traveling north on Ocean Blvd in Myrtle Beach. Not only that Saturday afternoon the cops sealed off the Charleston peninsula because of flooding and several dams have failed. Times are not good here in the land of the Gamecock.

The US is involved in a bigger mess than Vietnam in Syria. We are bombing the ISIS forces in the northern part and the Russians are bombing the revolutionary Syrian military in the southern part. The US is supporting the revolutionaries that are trying generate a military coup to oust Assad, the president of Syria. The Russians want Assad to remain in office. As always, the people that are paying the price is the civilians. What I don't understand is why are they trying to get to central and eastern Europe. Turkey is just across the border and it is a Muslim majority country to boot.

Your President is raising hell about the gun laws in the US after that disaster in Roseburg, Oregon. What he failed mention is the number of gun deaths in Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland last weekend. Aside from doing a background check on anyone purchasing a firearm, what else can they do on a national level? How are you going to contain all the legal and illegal weapons already out there? Millions of firearms are sold and traded among individual US citizens every year. The US government certainly would not be so foolish as to try to capture all the firearms in the US. By the way, a report showed that lunatic shooter in Roseburg would have passed a background check. He was not killed by the cops, he committed suicide. He just went crazy as hell...how do you stop that?  By the way, nearly all of the long guns (shotguns and rifles) are not required to be registered...only the pistols and only a small percentage of them are indeed registered...it ain't the weapon it is the person that is dangerous.

This Date in History October 5

1986 Earlier the United States Congress became alarmed with President Reagan’s apparent obsession with Sandinista paramilitary group in Nicaragua which Reagan believed was Communists led and financed seeking a foothold in Central America. Their opposition was the Contras which Reagan wanted to finance and supply. Congress saw the whole situation as a civil war and passed the Boland Amendment which forbade any appropriated funds from being used in any way to aid the Contras. On this day an unmarked cargo plane flying over Nicaragua was shot down with two of the crewmen killed but the pilot, Eugene Hasenfus, survived. Hasenfus was interrogated and admitted that he and the dead crewmen were employees of the CIA and were supplying arms to the Contras. Meaning that he, the dead crewmen, the CIA and President Reagan were breaking the law as being in violation of the Boland Amendment. Well, many Senators and Representatives hit roof at the apparent arrogance of the CIA and the cavalier attitude of the Reagan administration in defying Congress and an in depth investigation began. This debacle became known as the Iran-Contra scandal. What came to the fore was that the CIA was selling surplus US arms to Iran and using those funds to purchase arms and materiel to give to the Contras. In effect they were dancing around the Boland Amendment because no “appropriated” funds were used. But they were converting arms that had been purchased with appropriated funds as barter. This was defeating the spirit of the Boland Amendment which was to keep the US out of a Central American civil war. The broker in these transactions was a US Marine Lieutenant Colonel named Oliver North. In the final analysis the public confidence in the Reagan administration was shaken to the core. 13 members of the administration received various forms and lengths of punishment. Eugene Hasenfus was tried and convicted in Nicaragua and sentenced to 30 years. However, he was back in the US in a matter of weeks.

1892 On this autumn morning in Coffeyville, Kansas, Bob Dalton, Grat Dalton, Emmett Dalton and Dick Broadwell, better known as the Dalton gang, attempt to rob two banks at once. The banks were across the street from each other. They thought that the sheer audacity of the plan would stun the general population into inaction. They were wrong, dead wrong. The local populous had spotted the gang when they rode into town even though they were in disguise. The heavily armed good citizens of Coffeyville were waiting when the gang came out of the banks having already killed one bank teller. The gang made it to the alley where their horses were tied and then the mother of all gunfights erupted. A virtual hailstorm of gunfire rained upon the gang killing all but Emmett Dalton who had suffered 13 gunshot wounds but was still alive. Dick Broadwell was able to ride out of town even though he was severely wounded. Two miles out of town Dick fell off his horse and died. Emmet survived his wounds and served 16 years in prison. He eventually became a successful screenwriter in Hollywood. He died in 1937 at the age of 62.

1945 At the outset of WWII and the capitulation of France to the Germans, French politico Pierre Laval is convinced that the Germans will win the war and begins to kiss the Germans’ ass so as to get a good position in the French Government when the war is over. He proves his stripes more than once by pointing out French Jews to the Germans and sending his French countrymen to German labor camps. When France was liberated, Laval knew he was in deep sh-t and tried to flee. But he was caught, tried and convicted of treason and sentenced to death by firing squad. Laval was scheduled to be executed on October 6, 1945 but somehow got his hands on some cyanide and attempted suicide on this date. Luckily for him, a doctor was close by and was able to pump Laval’s stomach and save his life. Two weeks later Laval went to meet his maker air conditioned by a squad of riflemen. Now that was a lot better than a cyanide suicide, wasn’t it?

Births and deaths:

1879 US Educator John Erskine is born. “There is a difference between beauty and charm. Beauty is what I notice in a women and charm is when she notices me.” You know, under these rules I haven’t met a charming woman in years.

1908 US actor/director Joshua Logan is born. He said “Not since Attila the Hun who swept across Europe leaving 500 years of blackness has there been a man like Lee Marvin.” Lee was in the Marines during WWII and was wounded in Battle of Saipan. By the way, he was named after Robert E. Lee, a distant relative. Should Lee's Academy Award for Best Actor be recalled because of this?

2004 US comic Rodney Dangerfield dies. He said “If it were not for pickpockets I would have not a sex life at all.” He was one of my favorites, and he did have my respect.

Quotable quotes:

“I have been breast feeding for two years. I can light my gas range with my nipples.”

Jo Brand

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow