Wednesday OYSTERS

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The next time a prostitute solicits you for business, ask her for the clergyman's rate.”

                                      George Carlin

I recently wrote an article that was published in the newspaper. It essentially advocated the destruction of the families of our enemies as a deterrent. I offered the WWII firebombing of cities in Europe and Japan by the US as precedent. Look at Brussels...why can those monsters kill innocents and we cannot respond?

What is the difference between “tamed” and “domesticated” animals? In a book I am reading it is this. A tamed animal is like the Indian elephants that are used in the timber industry but it takes at least 20 years for one of them to get large enough and trained enough to be useful. A domesticated animal is like cows, chickens, dogs, etc. They mature fairly quickly and can be bred into many varieties. Some animal cannot be domesticated for a variety of reasons even though they mature relatively quickly. An example is the African cape buffalo. They are bovine (cows) but the are some of the most temperamental and downright dangerous beasts out there. The zebra has never been domesticated because they absolutely will not breed in captivity. Cheetahs have not either. The reason is the females insist on going through a mating ritual that covers miles of running and sparring. If this don't happen, the female does not ovulate and rejects all suitors...story of my life.

        This Date in History March 23

1862 Earlier CSA General “Stonewall” Jackson is tasked by CSA General Robert E. Lee to watch for Union troops leaving the Shenandoah Valley. Lee believes that US General George McClellan is calling for all available troops in the Shenandoah to join his already gigantic army for a spring offensive as indeed he was. If such a movement was detected, Jackson was to stop or delay it. Accordingly, Jackson stepped up patrols by his cavalry commander CSA Colonel Turner Ashby. On this date, Ashby does indeed detect a troop movement near Kernstown, Virginia by US General Shields. Only this time Jackson was outfoxed by the sly Shields. Ashby sent a courier back to Jackson and informed him of the troop movement and estimates the troop strength at 3,000. The difference here is that Shields had kept most of his troops hidden, he really had 9,000 troops. After receiving the message, Jackson sent additional troops to join Ashby raising the Confederate total to 4,000. In the middle of the afternoon Jackson, in spite of it being Sunday, ordered an attack on Shields left flank. Jackson, being a very pious man, tried not to fight on the Sabbath. After the attack was well underway, Shields brought out his hidden troops. Confederate division commander General Richard Garnett, expecting a short battle against only 3,000 and providing ammo to his troops accordingly, ran out of ammo and is forced to retreat which forced the divisions on either side to follow and soon the Confederates were in a general retreat making it a victory for Shields. This was the beginning of Jackson’s brilliant Shenandoah Valley campaign and the last battle he ever lost. After the battle, Jackson accused Garnett of cowardice in retreating no matter that his troops were out of ammo. Some believe that Jackson was trying to blame someone else for the loss because he had been outfoxed by Shields. Anyway, Garnett carried that stigma with him the rest of his career even after the death of Jackson. Garnett was determined to shed this stigma of cowardice that Jackson had burdened him with and at Gettysburg, in spite of a general order that no one rides, Garnett rode a horse directly into the very teeth of Union artillery fire. No part of CSA General Richard Garnett was ever found that could be identified. The Confederates knew that he was dead because his horse “Red-Eye” returned to Confederate lines without him.

1979 In 1976 former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and two his friends, Mike and Ronni Moffitt, were riding in a limousine down Embassy Row in Washington, DC when a bomb exploded under the car killing all aboard. Letelier was the US ambassador for the leftist Chilean government headed by Salvatore Allende who was elected in a democratic election. The CIA unashamedly engineered a military coup and Chilean General Augusto Pinochet took over in Chile. But the CIA had done its job by preventing another openly leftist government in the western hemisphere. General Pinochet arrests Letelier and imprisoned him in a facility down near the Straights of Magellan. Eventually Letelier was released and came to Washington and began a campaign of voicing anti Pinochet rhetoric. On this date, the men responsible for the car bombing are convicted and sentenced to life. The only problem here was that later on it was found that the CIA knew about the pending car bomb attack, and since Letelier was a leftist they did nothing to stop it. Because of this the two bombers were released. Way to go, CIA!

1806 The Lewis and Clark expedition after spending a miserable winter near present day Astoria, Oregon broke camp and headed back east up the Columbia River. They had named it Camp Clapsop for reasons known only to them. In my opinion, this is the greatest adventure of all time and I would have loved to have been part of it.

1961 A US intelligence gathering (spy) aircraft is shot down in Laos. The US was interested in learning the extent of Russian assistance given to the Pathet Lao guerillas. The guerillas and the Royal Lao had been battling for some time and US President John Kennedy was asked to broker a truce. Kennedy needed information no matter how illegal and stated there had to be a joint cease fire before anything happened.

Born today:

1900 US psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. He said “Education makes machines that behave like men, and men that behave like machines.” I think Erich knew Al Gore.

1910 Japanese director Akira Kurasowa. He said “All men are geniuses when they dream.”

1912 German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. He said “Basic research is what I call it when I don’t know what the hell I am doing”.

1972 US Pro basketball player Jason Kidd. Upon joining the Dallas Mavericks he said “We are going to turn this team around 360 degrees.” Jason, shut up.

Died today:

1953 French artist Raoul Dufy. He said “My eyes were made to erase all that is ugly.” I don’t think Raoul ever met Rosie O’Donnell or Janet Reno because the human eye cannot erase that much ugly.

1995 US actor Jerry Lester. He said “What do you give a man who has everything? Penicillin.”

Quotable quotes:

“Man forgives women of everything except the ability to outwit him.”

                                    Minna Antrim

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow