Wednesday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Men can read maps better than women...because only the male mind could conceive of one inch equaling a hundred miles.”

                                          Roseanne Barr

A TV station in Atlanta, using the Freedom of Information Act, got their hot little hands on a summary of who is crossing our southern borders in addition to the Mexicans. It turns out that in addition to the Guatemalans, Panamanians, Salvadorans, etc there are Afghanis, Pakistanis, Jordanians, Syrians and Iraqis all of which have flown into a Central American country, learned to speak Spanish and blend in with the river of illegal aliens crossing into America in Texas, Arizona and California. What are these Muslims up to? I think all of you know what is going on. So the next time you think about those poor little Mexicans that are crossing into America just to see if they can make a better life for their families and we should cut them a little slack, think about who is coming with them. In addition to the genuine day workers, we have Muslim Jihadists and “mules” for the Mexican drug cartel coming along for the ride. Our government has refused time and time again to seal our borders and allowed this avalanche of garbage that have dedicated their lives to the demise of America to set up camp on our soil.

This Date in History May 25

1660 On this date the people of the English Commonwealth invited the exiled King Charles II to return to England and assume the throne. Earlier the father of Charles II, Charles I had engaged his army of Royalist against the army of Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians and was defeated. Cromwell became the ruler of England. He could not be King because he was not of royal blood. He was a very militaristic leader and demanded puritanical behavior from everyone. After the defeat of his father, Charles II handed Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell, a blank sheet of paper meaning that he would concede nearly everything Parliament wanted. But that wasn’t good enough for Cromwell, he wanted the head of Charles I and sure enough, Charles I was beheaded. After the death of Charles I, royalist in England and Ireland proclaimed Charles II as King but Cromwell still prevailed and Charles II fled to Germany and the Netherlands living in exile. Cromwell ruled until his death and then his son Richard assume command. Richard proved to be an ineffectual ruler and the people were fed up with the Puritanical military leadership. General George Monck met with Charles II and assured him that he and his army would assure his return to the English throne if Charles would grant amnesty and religious toleration for his former enemies. Charles agreed and sailed across the English channel to Dover (been there) and four days later he made a triumphant entrance to London and was restored as King of England. This event is known as the English Restoration. Eleven years later Charles II decided that Oliver Cromwell had been a traitor and dug him up and hung his corpse in Tiburon, a suburb of London designated for the execution of traitors. What a sight that must have been. I am here to tell y'all that the medieval English were a mean and spiteful bunch and they were very inventive in their machines of torture.

1787 On this date, four years after the United States had won its independence from Great Britain, the first Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia. It was attended by George Washington, James Monroe and Ben Franklin among other luminaries. This meeting was the defining moments of these United States and what makes it great. The country had been operating under what was called the Articles of Federation. This document did nothing but assure each state of its sovereignty. The people of America were so fearful that another monarchy might raise its ugly head here that they nailed down that as being impossible. But the Articles were unwieldy and did not work for the benefit of the entire nation and they all knew it. After three weeks of deliberation these heroes delivered brilliant document that is the spine of our present day Republic. However, several states felt that there were not enough guarantees of personal rights and refused to sign unless something was done about this. Then they delivered another document of pure brilliance called the Bill of Rights that contained 10 articles. After this enough states signed it and it became the law of the land. There was a story that while all of the discussions were going on, Ben Franklin walked out for a break and a woman asked him what form of government was being sculpted and he said “Madam, it appears that it will be a Republic, if we can hold it.” Our government is a finely balanced, well oiled machine that does not allow any one branch to over power another. It is a miracle that all of this was conceived out of mid air because nothing like it had ever existed in the past, a miracle indeed.

1862 On this date the first Battle of Winchester, Virginia occurred. This battle was part of CSA General Stonewall Jackson’s brilliant Shenandoah Valley campaign that made Jackson recognized as one of the most brilliant military minds in history. The Union army of Nathaniel Banks was right outside Winchester when Jackson struck. The Confederates were originally repulsed but Jackson brilliantly ordered a simultaneous attack on both flanks of the Yankees with devastating effect and Bank’s army broke and retreated in panic through Winchester. The good citizens of Winchester took this opportunity to shoot at them from the windows of their homes. Banks retreated all the way into Maryland and safety. This allowed Jackson to continue his unprecedented rampage against the other two Union armies in the valley. He kicked their asses too.

1944 On this date Adolph Hitler initiated Operation Knights Move. In this operation Hitler sent in a group of paratroopers to capture or kill the leader of Yugoslavia Marshall Tito. Tito had been leading his country to resist the German occupation. The paratroopers landed in a village where they thought Tito was but never found him, he had escaped. In exasperation the paratroopers shot and killed each and every air breather in the village meaning, men women, children, dogs, cats, cattle, horses, etc.

Also on this date a riot broke out in one of the sections of the infamous concentration camp of Auschwitz. This section was known as Birkenau. Several hundred Polish Jews realizing what would happen to them, rioted at night and were able to get through the fence and fled into the nearby woods. What they did not know was that the Germans had installed floodlights throughout the woods and when the turned them on it illuminated like daylight. The German prison guards casually walked into the woods an unceremoniously killed them all to a man.

Born today:

1803 US philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. He said “The more he talked about his honor, the faster we counted our silver.” Sounds like Ralph knew Harry Reid.

1897 Canadian statesman Lord Beaverbrook. He said “Buy old master paintings. They are cheaper in the long run than a young mistress.”

1898 American columnist Bennett Cerf. He said “The Detroit String Quartet played Brahms last night. Brahms lost”

         Thanks for listening I can hardy wait until tomorrow.