Al's
Most Recent
Quote
of the day:
“Nobody
can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and
have a new ending.”
Maria
Robinson
Here
is something to consider.
In the fairly recent past in North America the polar ice cap was
down as far as what is now central Illinois. Not only that it was
about a mile thick. As far as anyone knows there were no human
beings in North America...yet. Because of all this water being
frozen, the ocean levels were lower by at least 300 feet. Since the
seas was so low there was dry land between Siberia and Alaska and human migration to North America began, according to the most accepted theory.
The
Great Lakes were formed by glaciers. Bed rock in Central Park in NYC
was scoured by moving glaciers not to mention all those canyons in
Yellowstone and Yosemite. What happened to all this ice? It melted,
y'all. It could not have been ”global warming” caused by humans
putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but there is no question
that global warming occurred. What caused this ice age and the
others before it and the subsequent melting? History tells us that
ice ages come and go in cycles. Global warming and ice ages appears
to be proven parts of the mechanics of this planet. There is no
question that we are poisoning our atmosphere and it needs attention
but not because of global warming.
This
planet's axis is not perpendicular to the sun, it is tilted off
vertical by about 16 degrees. Not only that, the Earth wobbles on
its axis like a spinning top when it slows down. One
complete”wobble” takes about 26,000 years. Perhaps it is this
wobble that precipitates ice ages and the thawing.
Speaking
of global warming. Our present executive and legislative branches
are absorbed with controlling global warming while the United States
and indeed the rest of the world is in turmoil created by lunatics.
They should take care of the immediate problem first. There is a
saying “Do not worry about draining the swamp when you are up to
your ass in alligators.”
This
Date in History December 16
1773
On this night those wild and crazy guys from Boston known at the
Sons
of Liberty
decided to pay a visit to three British tea clippers anchored in
Boston harbor. They were not pleased that Great Britain had
maneuvered the tax structure trying to save the British owned East
India Company to the point that East India Company had a monopoly on
tea coming to the colonies. The Sons
of Liberty
felt like they did not want to taken for granted and used so they
went aboard the three ships, the Dartmouth,
Eleanor
and Beaver
dressed
as Mohawk Indians and threw all the tea into the harbor. This event
is forever known as the Boston
Tea Party. The
British authorities in Boston got word back to Parliament in London
and they about wet their pants at the loss of about 1 million pounds
sterling worth of tea. They immediately passed the Coercive Acts as
punishment to the colonies for this outrage. The Coercive Act
essentially declared Martial Law in the state of Massachusetts; it
also declared that English officers would be exempt from the law and
could not be tried for any crimes whatsoever. The final straw
declared that British soldiers could commandeer private lands and
houses if they felt like it. There is no sense for me to tell you
what effect this had on the already hot-blooded Sons
of
Liberty.
All it did was light an even larger fire under the crucible of
freedom. The Revolutionary War began in earnest at the Battle of
Bunker Hill two years later.
1944
With the attack on Germany from the east by the Russians beginning
in earnest the German army knew that with the attack of the Allies
from the west their days were numbered unless they could attack what
they considered the weaker of the two forces, that being the Allies
closing in from the west, and fight their way northwest and capture
the Belgian deep water port of Antwerp. Then they might have a
chance of being re-supplied and refitted and continue the war. They
knew they could not win the war but if they succeeded in this
operation they could negotiate a peace treaty from a position of
strength. After stockpiling troops, artillery, tanks and other tools
of war undetected in the Belgian Ardennes Forest over a period of
months, on this morning the Germans launched a three pronged attack
during a snowstorm. The battle line was about 50 miles long with the
center prong led by a ruthless German Tank commander named Joachim
Pieper. The Germans enjoyed initial success and drove through the
unsuspecting American troops with ease until they had pushed out
about 60 miles and had encircled the important transportation center
of Bastogne, Belgium that was defended by 18,000 members of the 101st
Airborne and the 10th
artillery. The troops held on in spite of constant German artillery
barrages from every direction and attempted attacks with infantry.
On December 22 the German commander asked for a truce and brought a
surrender request to the Commander of the 101st
named General Anthony McAuliffe telling him to surrender or risk
annihilation. McAuliffe sent back one word “Nuts”. The German
officer had to get an interpretation of what it meant and was told
that it meant “go to hell”. During all this time the skies had
never cleared so the Allied air superiority could not have its
effect. On the next day, the skies opened up and the allied fighter
bombers fell upon the German tanks and artillery that had the roads
choked and destroyed them in place. On the day after Christmas a
tank column from Patton’s 3rd
Army reached the beleaguered town of Bastogne and the 101st
and the 10th
were relieved. The strange thing is the 101st
was pissed off that the tank column came because they felt they did
not need any relief. They felt they could beat the damned Germans
alone without any help even though they were nearly out of ammo, food
and winter clothing. They were/are arrogant warriors, y'all.
General Eisenhower assigned British General Bernard Law Montgomery to
attack the German right flank, US General Omar Bradley to attack the
center, and US General George Patton to attack the right flank and
drive those Germans back into Germany. They succeeded but it cost
about 80,000 American lives, the worst loss of American forces ever
in one operation. The Germans lost 120,000 troops, 1,600 planes, 700
tanks. The end was in sight for the defeat of Germany. This was the Battle of the Bulge.
Quotable
quotes:
“My dog is half
Labrador and half pit bull. It bites my leg off and then brings it
to me.”
Frank
Carson
“I was trying to
daydream, but my mind kept wandering”.
Steven
Wright
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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