Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Thursday OYSTERS

                                     Al's Most Recent

Quote of the day:
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”
                 William Shakespeare from his play As You Like It

I think it is pretty classless to make fun of someone's physical appearance. That is something they cannot do anything about. However, Donald Trump's mouth, lips and movement thereof is reminiscent of a shellcracker (look it up).


Here is the supposed history of the Christmas tree. In the early 9th century an evangelist later named Saint Boniface crossed over from the British Isles and began ministering to the pagans in what is now northern France and Germany. When Christmas time came around he wanted to impress upon them the triumvirate of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit so he selected a fir tree because of it's triangular shape, the corners indicating the triumvirate. What this means is if you have an evergreen Christmas tree you are advocating Christianity no matter your religion...like it or not.

Tuesday I was having breakfast at my favorite diner. Sitting beside me at the bar was two young ladies about 25-30 years old. I could not help but hear their conversation. It went something like this: “Jim as driving down Haywood and he was LIKE really speeding. I told him to LIKE slow down or you might get a ticket. He got really mad and LIKE yelled at me really loud.” The other one said “I know. I did the same thing with Bob and LIKE he really yelled”. I just imagined either one of them being interviewed for a job by Human Resources at IBM, GE, GM, Microsoft, etc. and using that gibberish, they would be laughed at. I don't care if they are the absolute best at their profession, they have to communicate. Out there in the real world you have to be able to assemble a single thought in one sentence without having to interrupt it to figure out how to finish it. But perhaps they already know that and are just trying to be “cool”. I hope so, if not then our future leaders LIKE need a lot of help. Oh, I left out all of those lummoxes that add end their sentences with “You know what I'm saying?”...they suck too.

I have started reading a book titled Guns, Germs and Steel. This book was a Pulitzer Prize “winner authored by Jared Diamond and is the second reading for me. I have read several books more than once. The record for me is Texas by James Michener five times. James is no longer with us, unfortunately. James once said “My success never ceases to amaze me. All of my books have no violence or sex except as it applies to history and I have an enormous following.” Guns. Germs and Steel is a book attempting to explain why certain cultures excel and progress and others do not. It begins in New Guinea with the author interviewing a chief of a very primitive tribe. The chief does not understand why the author and other “whites” have more “cargo” than they do. Cargo being anything metal, woven cloth, medicines, umbrellas, etc. It appears that it is the hunter/gatherers that progress the slowest because they can make kills with stone tipped weapons, blowguns, etc. whereas the farmers cannot plow or reap efficiently with stone tipped implements and began looking for something better and found metal...which lead to swords, axes, guns, etc. It is apparently also true that the hunter/gatherers live in very small tribal groups and therefore develop no natural immunity to different diseases and when a foreign disease is encountered they were history. The North American Indians were a prime examples. The agricultural communities seemed to prevail over the long haul, the Egyptians are an example here. Speaking of the Egyptians, I spent a year studying these amazing people. The one thing about them that stuck with me was their burial sites, especially the Valley of the Kings. In some of them the actual burial site was 60 or 70 feet underground and 200 to 300 feet long with no light source except torches and lamps, we assume. With this in mind, there are walls of very detailed paintings and sculptures...and not one scintilla of soot has ever been found. Where did the light to work by come from? It cannot be torches and lamps because the availability of oxygen that far underground would be very limited and the torches and lamps would not burn efficiently putting out a hell of a lot of soot. None has been found...what happened? Not only that, most of the kings were buried in stone sarcophagi weighting up to 7,000 pounds (see King Tut). It was proven that some of these items were moved into place after the construction of the burial site. How did they do that?
                  This Date in History  December 24

1865 On this date a group of Confederate veterans headed by former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest met in Pulaski, Tennessee and formed the core of what became the Ku Klux Klan. They felt it was necessary for two reasons: To combat the influx of northern people into the south to take advantage of a defeated nation like taking lands and property from Confederate soldiers that had been killed in the Civil War. They also were very apprehensive about the rise of privilege and power of the black man. As I said, The first Grand Wizard was the famous CSA General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The name of the organization came from the Greek word “kyklos” meaning circle and “clan”. After two years Forrest resigned as Grand Wizard and tried to disband the organization because he felt the Klan had become too violent and indeed they had. In counties that were nearly balanced racially black and white, the Klan would make raids at night against the blacks and the white Republicans in an attempt to influence any upcoming elections to keep white men in control of the political machinery. Eventually in 1871 Congress decided that action was needed and they passed the Ku Klux Klan act giving the President, Ulysses Grant, the power to use what ever means he deemed necessary to subdue the Klan. In nine counties in South Carolina alone Grant instituted martial law and thousands were arrested. In 1882 the US Supreme Court declared the Klan act unconstitutional but by that time Reconstruction had ended and the Klan faded away. But the Klan arose again mightily during the 1920’s and 30’s. This time the major base was in Skokie, Illinois. The Klan was very influential in the internal politics of several states. But as the old saying goes, power corrupts and there was a sex scandal involving the Grand Wizard where a young lady died. After that the popularity of the Klan and those associated with it went to hell in a hand basket. The Klan has had its ups and downs though out the years but their basis for existence is white Anglo-Saxon supremacy. They don’t like Jews either. I don’t understand that concept, y'all, and I can find no redeeming value.

Born today:

1922 US actress Ava Gardner. She said “Deep down I am pretty superficial.” I think I know this woman and several others like her.

          Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow









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