Al's
Most Recent
Quote
of the day:
“I
like for men to act like men...strong and childish.”
Francoise Sagan
I
read on the web that Mario Rubio is a member of a weird religious
organization and has vowed to govern by its tenets if elected
President. Here is what his biography tells us:
His
parents were immigrants from Cuba and Roman Catholic as you might
expect. Mario was raised a Roman Catholic in Miami until he was 8
years old when his family moved to Las Vegas where his father was a
bartender and his mother was a house keeper. While there the family
attended a Mormon church. At the age of 11 Mario and family moved
back to Miami and resumed attending a Roman Catholic church. Mario
was confirmed in 1984 and was married in a Roman Catholic church and
has been Catholic ever since. The writer of the accusation justifies
his position by saying that Pope Francis wrote a book about “having
mercy” and since Rubio is a Catholic he must think the same way. A
while back the commissioner of the FCC Newton Minnow said that TV is
a “vast wasteland”...not any longer, it is the internet.
It
has been pretty cold for the last few days here in South Carolina and
that got me thinking about Spring. One of my subscribers (Shirley)
signs her messages with “Think Spring”.
What
causes seasons in the first place? Here is why.
The
Earth is not vertical with respect to the sun, it is tilted on its
axis. This means that one hemisphere of the Earth is closer to the
sun than the other half at some point in its orbit around the sun and
is receiving more direct sunlight. When that happens it is summer.
On the opposite side of this orbit that hemisphere is in winter
because it is further from the sun and is receiving less direct
sunlight.
The
tilt also means that the closer to the equator the less seasonal
changes occur (tropics) and the further from the equator the more
severe the change (Arctic/Antarctic).
The
theory of the sun being the center of our universe (solar system) was
not thought of until submitted by Polish scientist Nicolaus
Copernicus in the middle of the 16th
century and verified by Galileo. This theory was not allowed to be
taught or even discussed because it is not what the Catholic Church
believed. Torture and death awaited anyone that transgressed.
Galileo was paid a visit by a member of the Vatican for publishing
his favorable thoughts on Copernicus' theory. They told him to
recant or risk torture and death. He recanted and spent the rest of
his days under house arrest but was able to smuggle out some of his
thoughts...300 years later the Catholic church admitted their error.
This
Date in History January 18
1778
Earlier one of the greatest navigators in history had sailed from
England and discovered Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia.
Captain James Cook was assigned the task of the exploration of the
South Pacific and departed England in the spring of 1776 commanding
two ships, the Resolution
and the Discovery.
On this date Captain Cook sighted the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. Cook
named these islands the Sandwich Islands in honor of one of his
patrons, the Earl of Sandwich. After seeking an appropriate harbor,
Cook anchored at Waimea on the island of Kauai. The islanders
thought the Englishmen were Gods and were fascinated by the iron used
on the ships because there is no metal ore in the Islands. The
English sailors traded iron nails for sex with the native women.
During Cook's stay one of the sailors died proving that they were not
gods and tensions increased. After exploration of the islands, Cook
sailed north looking for the alleged western entrance to the
“Northwest Passage”. The Northwest Passage was a supposed water
passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific across North America. As
we know now this passage does not exist except by submarine.
After
a year of exploration Cook returned to the Hawaiian Islands. This
time Cook was unfortunate in his choice of anchorages when he sailed
into Lono Bay. Lono Bay was considered a holy place by the natives
on certain days of the year, unfortunately for Cook, this was one of
the days. The ships were met with a hail of curses and a shower of
stones and coral. The natives were able to steal one of the small
transfer boats from the Resolution.
Cook was not going to sit still for that and he and thirty other
sailors armed themselves and went ashore (or tried to) to negotiate
getting the boat back. One of the sailors got nervous and fired his
weapon killing a native whereupon the natives attacked and killed
most of the sailors, Cook included. Six or seven of the sailors were
able to return to the ship. The next morning the Resolution
fired a broadside at the islanders still yelling and screaming on the
shore killing 30 of them. After this they sailed back to England.
1776
On this evening the Committee for Safety in the city of Savannah,
Georgia commanded by Patriot Major Joseph Habersham went to the home
of Royal Governor James Wright and placed him under arrest. He
stayed under house arrest until February 11 when he escaped and made
his way to the British warship HMS
Scarborough. After failing in an
attempt to negotiate a treaty Wright sailed for London. On December
28, 1778 Wright returned to Savannah with a hell of a lot of troops
and was able to retake Savannah but he was never able to control the
entirety of Georgia. He remained as governor until 1782 but he found
out that Patriot General Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne was on his
way to Savannah with a group of seasoned and battle hardened veterans
that had recently kicked the living crap out a military group of
Loyalist/British/Cherokees even though Wayne’s troops were
outnumbered 2 to 1. Rather than risk being captured or killed by
Wayne’s troops, Wright got aboard yet another British warship and
sailed back to England never to return. He died in London of
February 7, 1785. Georgia was one of the few colonies the British
were able to enforce the hated Stamp Act which was one of the main
reasons for the fire being lighted under the move toward
independence. Georgia had the largest percentage of Loyalists in the
colonies but in spite of that, they were one of the first to argue
for independence. Go figure.
1803
On this date President Thomas Jefferson sent a secret monetary
request of $2,500 to Congress to be used for the “exploration of
the Missouri River basin” which turned out to be the Lewis and
Clark expedition. Jefferson rationalized that trade for furs with
the yet to be discovered Indian tribes in the “higher latitudes”
would more than re-pay the costs. Jefferson specified that the
expedition would be just one officer and 10 men involved so that the
Indians would not think it was an invasion. The expedition ended up
with a few more men than what was requested but that “Corps of
Discovery” made inroads into the expansion of this nation that were
never equaled.
Born today:
1809
American author Edgar Allen Poe. He said “I have great faith in
fools---self confidence my friends call it.” Been there, done
that, do not have a tee shirt.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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