Monday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Finding Nemo was the number on hit at the box office. It was based on a game President Clinton used to play with the White House interns. “

                                       David Letterman

There is a small storm about needing a photo ID and proof of citizenship to be able to vote. The 15^th amendment allowing that all citizens could vote was enacted in 1870 ad I can assure you that photos of any kind were rare if at all. To me I would think a law requiring a photo ID to vote is unconstitutional. I do not have a problem with requiring proof of citizenship like a birth certificate or naturalization certificate...but not a photo ID. Not everybody has a driver's license.

Here is a short bio of a madman:

1997 The body of 45 year old cemetery caretaker William Reese of Pennsville, New Jersey was found dead shot in the head with a Golden Saber .38 pistol. It was found that the murderer was Andrew Cunanan who killed Reese just for his pick-up truck. Cunanan was in the middle of a murder spree that began on the American west coast with Reese being the fourth victim. Cunanan was a homosexual that serviced elderly and wealthy homosexuals across the country. On the way to New Jersey he had killed three other homosexuals for reasons known only to him. Cunanan was featured of the famous TV show America’s Most Wanted several times. He spent a few days in New York City in Greenwich Village before heading to Miami. There he stalked the famous clothing designer Gianni Versace and on July 15 caught Versace on the front steps of his Miami mansion and blew his brains out. The police began scouring the countryside for the murderer believing that it was probably Cunanan. During the search, a caretaker at a Miami marina called the cops and told them that someone had broken into a houseboat moored at the marina. The Miami PD surrounded the houseboat and demanded anyone inside to come out. No one came out and finally a SWAT went inside and found the body of Andrew Cunanan dead from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Too bad. It would have solved a lot of questions if he could have been interviewed so we could get a clue as to what was on this madman’s mind.

                   This Date in History August 1

1966 On this date an ex-US Marine named Charles Whitman gathered arms and ammo and makes his way to the top of the 300 foot tall bell tower located on the University of Texas campus in Austin. Whitman also was an Eagle Scout, if you can believe that. In March of 1966 his mother had left his father for reason not known and Charles did not take it well. He began getting treatment from a psychiatrist complaining about a feeling of uncontrolled anger. He also told the doctor that he was thinking about going to the top of the bell tower and shooting people. This wonderful doctor blew it off and did not believe he meant what he said. On this fateful day Whitman walked into the base of the bell tower armed with several pistols and the rifle and killed the receptionist and two other visitors and made his way to the top. Before he went to the tower, he stopped by a sporting good store and bought plenty of ammo and a .30 caliber carbine, he even packed a lunch and dinner. Once he arrives at the top he opened fire with the sniper rifle. He is an expert marksman and is able to hit people at 500 yards. He ended up killing 16 and wounded 30. Oh, by the way, the night before he had stabbed and shot his mother to death and then went home and stabbed his wife to death. He left a note saying that after he died he wanted an autopsy performed on himself to see if there was a detectable brain disease. For an hour and a half the campus police and the Austin PD were at a loss as to how to deal with this maniac. They had their own marksmen but they could not get a good shot and realized that someone had make their way up there and cap this son-of-a-bitch. Finally two members of the Austin PD volunteered to go after Whitman. They charged up the stairs (300 feet, mind you) and Officer Ramiro Martinez got an open shot and capped Whitman ending this carnage.

1953 After the trials of WWII the American adults wanted more realistic movies rather than the Grade B movies like Hopalong Cassidy. On this date one of the greatest western movies ever made is released. The movie was Shane starring Alan Ladd and Van Heflin. It is a story about a gunfighter who is known only as Shane (Alan Ladd), came down out of the rugged Teton Mountains and stumbled upon a small ranch owned by Joe and Marian Starrett and their young son Joey. Shane wanted to give up the life of the gun and took a job as a ranch hand on the Starrett ranch. The problem was that the Starrett ranch was on a plot of land that was previously open range and used by a nearby cattle rancher to graze their cattle. The Starrett ranch and others like it was in the way. The cattle baron hired a gunfighter named Wilson (played by Jack Palance) to scare the settlers off their legally obtained lands so he can continue to graze his cattle unhindered. Wilson ended up killing one of the settlers and Joe Starrett strapped on a gun and headed to town to confront Wilson and the cattle baron. Shane knew that Joe would be killed and knocked him out and strapped on his own gun and went into town. He capped Wilson and several others employed by the cattle baron. Shane realized that the west is not ready for non-violence and rode off into the sunset with little Joey behind him yelling: “Come back, Shane”, what a great movie.

1943 The Japanese had been bombing the hell out of the US Naval installation on Rendova Island in the Solomon Islands. Rendova was a major PT boat base for the US Navy. The Japanese had to keep open a supply route to their combat troops in the area and the PT boats represented a definite threat. A PT boat is a small but very fast boat that was capable of sneaking in close to a ship and launching a torpedo at nearly point blank range. On this date, PT-109, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy commanding, was on patrol on this dark and murky night when a Japanese destroyer suddenly appeared close aboard and rammed the small plywood boat slicing it in two. Two crewmen were killed outright but 11 survived, including Lt. Kennedy. They swam to a nearby coral island hoping that someone would come after them. Other PT boats saw the debris the next morning and assumed that all of the crewmen were killed. At night Lt. Kennedy would swim out into the channel hoping to flag down a friendly boat but none came. Kennedy led the group in swimming to another larger island hoping that there would be detected by friendly forces. They met a couple of natives and Kennedy carved a message on a coconut as to their location and asked for help. The natives paddled away on their canoes and gave the coconut to a coast watcher and soon Kennedy and crew were rescued. Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Cross for gallantry. By the way, the coconut has a permanent home in the White House Oval Office.

Born today:

1819 US writer Herman Melville. Melville gave us the immortal novel Moby Dick. Melville said “It is better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.” I think I have slept with both, but not at the same time.

1881 English writer Dame Rose Macaulay. She said “It is a common delusion to believe you can make things better by talking about them.” That sounds like Rose knew my third ex-wife.

1942 Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia. He said “Taking the lesser of two evils is still taking evil.” He must have known my third ex-wife also.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“It hurts to love someone and not be loved in return, but the hurt is much worse when you love someone and do not have the courage to tell them how you feel.”

                                              Charles Swindoll

I tried for years without success to try to tell Dolly Parton how much I care...Jennifer Lopez, too.

Back in 2007 an illegal immigrant named Alejandro Umana wanted to make an impression to the notorious Mexican street gang MS-13. He chose to walk into a restaurant in Greensboro, NC and gunned down two brothers for no other reason than to make an impression. After that he threatened many of the witnesses to try and stop them from cooperating with the investigation, he tried to extort money from a local drug lord for MS-13. Later on his trial was completed and he was sentenced to death. Yes indeed, we really want those illegal Latino immigrants living with us. By the way, adios Alejandro, you garlic-snapping grease ball.

A while back up in Gaston County, North Carolina 28 year old Howard Pouser drifted to the opposite side of the road and slammed head on into an ’89 Oldsmobile. He went far enough over that he struck the passenger side of the Olds which was the heaviest. Recent high school graduate 17 year old Laura Fortenberry was riding in the passenger seat and was killed instantly. Here is the bad part. Howard had been convicted of three other DWI’s in addition to several other crimes. The law enforcement officials sent Howard to the hospital for a minor injury and he was released afterward. Howard went home, crawled into bed and went to sleep, for crying out loud. The cops came and woke him up and got a blood sample for DWI reasons. He was arrested and his bond is $2 million. How could this jackass be still be on the streets? He had better take a good look at the sun because it may be the last he will see of it for years to come.

      This Date in History  July 29

1588 A few years earlier Queen Elizabeth I of England had sent her most able sea captain in Sir Francis Drake out to harass Spain, England’s worst enemy at the time. Drake did not disappoint. He caught the Spanish fleet at anchor in Cadiz, Spain and sent in ships that were on fire into the fleet and bombarded them with long range artillery. This attack delayed by one year King Phillip of Spain’s attempt at the control of the English Channel and therefore controlling England’s commerce. Drake’s attack also alerted England to Spain’s intentions. Queen Elizabeth had sent monetary aid and supplies to some of the Dutch colonies that were rebelling against Spain’s attempt to occupy those lands. Eventually, King Phillip of Spain got his fleet together to the tune of 130 ships containing 8,000 guns manned by 2,000 sailors and 20,000 infantry. This fleet was known as the “Great Armada” but later it was known as the Spanish Armada. Anyway, the fleet left Spain headed for the English Channel in a line of ships eight miles long. The delay had allowed the English fleet almost a year to prepare and when the Spanish Armada arrived in the English Channel the English were ready. The English ships were not a fast as the Spanish ships but they were a lot more rugged, especially in rough seas, and had cannon with a lot longer range. As you might suspect, the English ships stood off out of range of the Spanish ships and bombarded the hell out them. Then the worst possible thing happened for the Spanish Armada. A typical English Channel storm arrived unexpectedly and the mighty Spanish Armada was forced to seek shelter in a small bay near Calais, France where they anchored down to ride out the storm. The English fleet, Sir Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake commanding, waited until the storm abated and on this date they sealed off the mouth of the bay the Spanish Fleet had occupied and again bombarded the hell out of them and sent in, you guessed it, fire ships meant to set fire to the Armada. After that it was every Spanish ship for himself and the ships left that bay the best way they could. Most of the ships did escape from the bay but they were not in formation and disorganized, the English were waiting and picked them off one by one. Not only that the wind shifted and the Spanish Fleet had no chance to sail back to Spain and many of them crashed on the shores of Scotland and Ireland with the English fleet in hot pursuit. The English fleet turned back at the north end of Scotland. Finally, the survivors of the “Great Armada” arrived back in Spain less than half strength. This is one of the most important military events in history in stopping Spain from invading England.

1981 On this date the heir apparent to the English throne Prince Charles, the oldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, and Diana Spencer are married in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London (been there). Nearly one billion, I said one billion, people watched that wedding from 74 countries on TV. Since Diana was of a royal descent she automatically became Princess Diana. There were 2,650 guests at the wedding. The “happy” couple was blessed with a son about a year later when Prince William was born and in 1984 Prince Harry was born. It was soon thereafter that a rift appeared between the two and the English press got scent of it. They announced formal separation in 1992 but in reality they had been apart longer than that. They continued to carry out their royal duties until August of 1996 when a divorce was granted. The only thing Diana had to give up was the title of “Her Royal Highness” and Charles gained his mistress of many years, Camilla Bowles. We all know what happened to Princess Di but Prince Charles chose to marry Camilla. How he could ever arrive at this decision is beyond me. When I was in London in ’04 I went on a bus tour of that great city. Our tour guide was aflame but he was a funny guy. He said that on one occasion Prince Charles was driving into Buckingham Palace with a couple of his friends and ran over one of Queen Elizabeth’s prize Corgi dogs. He got out and found that the Corgi had been crushed top to bottom. His friends persuade him just to bury the dog and pretend that he did not know what happened to it. So he started digging a hole and hit something metallic and it is a brass lamp. Charles began rubbing and a Genie popped out. The Genie offered Charles one wish and he asked if the Genie can bring the dog back to life. The Genie says, “Hand me the dog” and he looks the dog over and says “I can’t do anything with this, the dog is crushed from one end to the other, but you still have a wish. So Charles said, “Can you make Camilla any prettier?” There was a long pause and the Genie says “Let me see the dog again.” By the way, our tour of London included a visit to St. Paul’s. What a stunning sight it is. Many, many of England’s greatest heroes are buried in the cemetery including Lord Wellington and Lord Nelson. The dome of St. Peters was designed by the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren in the late 1600’s. The dome has structural members that meet at the top and there is nothing underneath. Sir Wren designed a chain that was attached to all the members at the bottom which prevented them from spreading apart. As far as I know, that chain is still there. Wren was a pretty smart guy.

1945 On this date the battleship USS Indianapolis is enroute from Tinian to the Philippines after delivering the final part of the Hiroshima bomb. A Japanese submarine spots the Indy and put two torpedoes in the side of this great ship. The shots are fatal and the Indy goes down fairly quickly but most of the crew of 800 escaped into the sea. But there are not enough life rafts to get everybody aboard so they rotate hanging on the sides and sitting inside. There were 134 survivors to this tragedy. The sharks fed on those hanging on the side.

             Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                    Brief History of America

This is a brief history of the United States for the last 153 years. I will be hitting just the high spots.  We ain't perfect.

In 1853 the Republican Party was formed for the prime purpose of abolishing slavery. In 1860 the Republican nominee for President was elected in the person of Abraham Lincoln. At the time there was 15 “slave” states and 15 “free' states. In 1861 11 of the 15 slave states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. The four slaves state that did not join the Confederacy was Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware and Maryland.

President Lincoln declared that a divided nation was intolerable and asked for volunteers to form an army to prevent this division by force of arms if necessary and war was declared on the Confederacy. He had no trouble forming several gigantic armies.

After two years the Union army had not been doing well in the field of combat, both sides were aghast at the slaughter. The press in the northern states began a campaign to allow seceding states to form their own country but the slaughter had to stop. After this campaign gained steam President Lincoln declared that now is was not just a war to preserve the Union, it was a war to free the slaves. This made it a war of conscience rather than patriotism. He issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed the slaves “in those states in rebellion”. This was just a meaningless gesture because it was unenforceable and did not free the slaves in those four slave states that did not join the Confederacy making it prejudicial. Those four states continued to buy, sell and trade slaves during the entire Civil War. The Union armies that came through the Confederate states and were joined by slaves were slowed down making them more vulnerable and gave the armies more mouths to feed...it was untenable.

The Union armies defeated the Confederacy because it became not a war of combat skills but a war of attrition, meaning the Union had more men and material than the Confederacy and a lot more manufacturing ability.

The Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E Lee commanding, surrendered in the spring of 1865 and the other armies of the Confederacy surrendered soon thereafter.

The greater majority of Confederate soldiers interviewed after the war said that they fought because they felt they had they right to secede and/or they were being invaded...90% of all battles was on Confederate soil. Slavery was not an issue with the rank and file soldier. This war cost the lives of about 680,000 Americans more than all other wars combined.

In December of 1865 the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified outlawing slavery in the United States and its possessions.

The freed slaves were disenfranchised because they were not citizens but the ratification of the 14^th Amendment in 1868 stating that those born on American soil or naturalized were citizens, including freed slaves...but they still could not vote.

In the summer of 1870 the 15^th amendment was ratified certifying that all citizens could vote...except women. In some states the freed slaves were kept disenfranchised by poll taxes and literacy testing.

Women could not vote until the ratification of the 19^th amendment in 1920 in spite of 100 years of complaints and demonstrations by inspired leaders like Lucretia Mott and others.

Around the turn of the century the Republican William McKinley administration engaged the United States in the Spanish-American War to “protect American businesses”. It is from this war that Puerto Rico became a United States possession. McKinley was assassinated at the beginning of his second term.

During the Democratic Woodrow Wilson administration ground troops were sent to what was then known as WW1 in Europe. It was most of Europe against Germany and a few other countries. So what else is new.

For the next 20 years the United States sent a variety of ground troops (mostly Marines) to dirty little insurgencies mostly in Nicaragua, Haiti among other places in the Caribbean.

During the Great Depression Democratic nominee Franklin Roosevelt was sworn in as President in April of 1933. In 1939 he made a famous speech saying that the United States “would never be involved in a European War” meaning we were isolationists, then Pearl Harbor happened in December of 1941 and everything changed.

The first encounter of American troops against the Germans was at Kasserine Pass in North Africa. The Americans were nearly wiped out, but they learned something...the value of a swift tank attack.

The first major attack against the Japanese army/marines was at Guadalcanal, the US Marines prevailed in a rout.

The war dragged on until the summer of 1944 when allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy in northern France and headed east toward Germany. Roosevelt was still President and the end was in sight.

In the spring of 1945 Germany surrendered and in the summer the Japanese surrendered after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Roosevelt died in April of 1945 and did not witness the surrenders but he knew victory was coming. Harry Truman became President.

Five years later the Democratic Harry Truman administration sent ground troops to South Korea because they were being invaded by North Korea and South Korea was a member of SEATO. This war ended in a truce at the 38^th parallel in 1953 and remains that way to this day.

In 1955 President Dwight Eisenhower sent military advisers to South Vietnam and so did his successor President John Kennedy. Democratic President Lyndon Johnson increased the United States involvement into what was really a civil war by a factor of 20. Ground forces, combat aircraft, bombers and naval support was going full bore...except they were afraid of killing civilians. We did not prevail because our leaders did not allow the use of total war rather than a type of police action like we did in Korea. A waste of American lives and I deeply resent it.

In 1973 Republican President Richard Nixon mercifully ordered the withdrawal of all US troops from South Vietnam.

Republican President Herbert Bush sent ground and air forces into Kuwait and Iraq to drive the invading Iraq army out of Kuwait. It was a short war with a minimum of American casualties.

Republican President George Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq to depose dictator Saddam Hussein. Saddam was executed but this war was way more involved than what his father was involved with. We still have troops on the ground there and there is no end in sight. Included in his tenure was the terrorist attack of 9/11, the worst in American history.

Democratic President Barak Obama advocated the vast allowance of undocumented aliens into the USA and appears to favor the Muslims but there may be an end in sight. I do not believe that either Hillary or Donald are Muslim devotees...but we shall see. This may be the worst people available for the most powerful office in the world since Bush and Gore...I have friends on the left that agree we are in deep doodoo either way. I am concerned.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                       Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“There is no doubt that is around family and home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created.”

                                                       Anne Frank

In 1810 Pope Leo XIII was born. In the later stages of his life as Pope he said “It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, or writing or worship as if these were so many gifts given by nature to man.” I had to read this statement over and over again to make sure that I copied it right from the text. Pope Leo XIII has since gone on to his reward.

Up in Pontiac, Michigan 23 year old Torrie Emery and 20 year old Michelle Booth had been throwing darts at each other on Facebook because both of them were in love with the same inmate in a Michigan prison. Last week Torrie saw Michelle in the passenger seat of a car driven by Michelle’s friend Alesha Abernathy and gave chase. The two cars reached speed of over 100 mph with Abernathy just trying to get away. The cops fell into line and joined the chase trying to put a stop to it. Abernathy was unable to stop for a red light and T-boned a dump truck in the intersection turning the truck on its side but the driver was not injured. However, Alesha was killed and Michelle was seriously injured. Lunatic Torrie was arrested and charged with murder. All of this happened for a convicted felon. I don’t get it. By the way, lunatic Torrie had her three year old daughter in the car with her during the chase.

Military units of South Korea and the United States were conducting joint war games in South Korea and South Korean waters. Those maniacs from North Korea saw this exercise as a threat and have promised a “nuclear response”. I am sure that they are aware that there are enough free world nuclear submarines in the Sea of Japan that a person could walk from Pyongyang to Nagoya, Japan without getting their feet wet. Not to mention the United States aircraft carrier USS George Washington. This puppy has fighter bombers that can carry nuclear devices also. I can promise you that if those idiots launch a nuclear devise of any kind the North Korea part of the Korean peninsula will glow in the dark for years to come.

                This Date in History July 27

1974 On this date the House Judiciary Committee handed down a bill of impeachment with a recommendation of removal from office of the sitting President of the United States, Richard Nixon. All of this adventure began when a group of men were caught and arrested inside the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. Two of those arrested were on the White house staff. It was a given that Nixon could not be beaten in upcoming election because the Democrats did not have a viable candidate but his staff still felt it was necessary to burglarize. Originally the report of these arrests were stuck in the fourth or fifth page of the Washington Post newspaper but two reporters named Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein smelled a rat and began digging. The more they dug the closer they came to the White House. When these two began writing their columns about what they had discovered, the staff at the White House circled the wagons and refused to cooperate with law enforcement which attracted the attention of the Congress. Congress selected Archibald Cox, the head of the Harvard Law School, to act as special prosecutor. Not only did Nixon try to get two Assistant Attorney Generals (Caper Weinberger and Nick Katzenbach) to fire Cox, he called in a very high official in the FBI and told them to not investigate the Watergate incident. Weinberger and Katzenbach not only refused but resigned in protest at this obvious cover-up. Nixon finally persuaded a lesser Federal judge (Richard Bork) to fire Cox. During this time it was determined that Nixon had been taping all the conversations in the Oval Office. Judge Leon Jaworski along with Judge John Sirica, who had replaced Cox, demanded the tapes but Nixon refused claiming executive privilege and a threat to national security. Over a period of time the US Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes which he did. Nixon was not done yet. Some of the most critical tapes had blank spaces which experts said was an erasure. Again the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to produce depositions saying what had been said during the erasures. When these damning documents reached the House Judiciary Committee, A Bill of Impeachment soon followed. Soon thereafter Nixon resigned, turned over the reins to Vice-President Gerald Ford, and moved back to where he came from, San Clemente, California. It was a tragic and time of testing for the United States judiciary/legislative system.

1981 On this date 6 year old Adam Walsh is abducted at a Hollywood, Florida shopping Mall. It seems that Adam and his mother Reve went shopping and little Adam wanted to watch some older boys play video games while his mother was shopping close by. As will happen, the older boys got rowdy and the mall security guard came by and ran everybody out. Little Adam just followed the older boys outside rather than seeking his mother. He waited out side for a short while then he disappeared. A few days later, Adams’s head was found in drainage ditch near Vero Beach, Florida which is nearly 100 miles from Hollywood. The police focused on career criminals and convicted child molesters Ottis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas. Toole was found in jail for another crime and confessed to the murder of little Adam but said that career criminal Henry Lee Lucas was with him and it was he that did the murder. The police investigated and found to no one’s surprise, that Toole was lying because Lucas was in jail in Virginia when Adam was abducted. Toole then recanted his story. The police decided that they would need Adam’s complete body to prosecute anyone. Adams body was never found and the case remains unsolved. Toole was executed in Florida for another murder. We all know what work Adam’s father John has done by establishing the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.”

1806 During the Lewis and Clark expedition, the group reached the Great Falls on the Missouri River. Clark took a few men and began exploring further downstream, Lewis headed north to explore the Marias River basin. They left 6 men to portage their boats around the falls. Lewis knew they were in Blackfoot country. The Blackfoot were the fiercest tribe in the area and are to be feared and sure enough, Lewis met up with a party of Blackfoot and he tried to be cordial. It appeared to be working and Lewis invited the Indians to his camp. After it got dark, one of Lewis’s men yelled out that the Indians were trying to steal their horses and rifles. Lewis ran after them and one of the Indians turned and moved toward Lewis whereupon Lewis shot him in the stomach. The rest of the Indians retreated and the horses and rifles were saved. Lewis knew that if there was trouble between the expedition and the Indians while going west, there would be trouble coming back east. Not only that, one of his men said that during the attempt to get the horses back, he had caught up with one of the Indians and stabbed him to death. More trouble, but they would have been in more serious trouble without horses and rifles.

Born today:

1824 French author Alexander Dumas the Younger. He said “I prefer rogues to imbeciles because sometime they take a rest.” We all know some of each.

1956 US comic Carol Liefer. She said “He tricked me into marrying him, he said he was pregnant.” Carol, shut up.

Died today:

2003 US comedian Bob Hope. He said “You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.” Amen, brother.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                      Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of DNA hidden in every cell of our bodies.”

                                                Shirley Abbot

Out in Bell, California, a small town southeast of Los Angeles, there are just short of 40,000 residents. The majority is Latinos and 17% live below the poverty level spending a lot of time getting food stamps and standing in line at the Food Bank. The Los Angeles Times published the salaries of the city governing body and here is what the residents discovered. The city manager’s salary was $789,000/year with a 12% raise per year guaranteed. That, my friends, is double what the President of the United States salary is. The fire chief had a salary of $458,000 which is half again what the fire chief of Los Angeles gets in a city of 3.8 million. Needless to say, the residents showed up at city hall in force demanding the ouster of the Mayor, the City Manager and the Fire Chief. After a while those three did resign in the knowledge that they would receive 2/3 of their salary as a retirement pension. More hell was raised and finally the District Attorney of Los Angeles County stepped in and began an investigation as to whether obviously corrupt city officials were indeed eligible for a pension.

Over in Cowpens, South Carolina a few days ago an undercover cop working in the vice squad paid a visit to “Mr. Waffle” near I-85 (been there) seeking prostitutes. He saw a woman loitering out front and struck up a conversation. The woman asked him to buy her a soft drink which he did. The woman offered him “any kind companionship he liked.” She introduced herself as Angela which surprisingly was her real name. They got into the deputy’s truck and she demanded to see the man’s penis and he complied and Angela grabbed him by his penis and said “Ok, I guess you are not a cop.” The man suggested a form of sex and Angela “repositioned” herself and it was at this time that the deputy identified himself as being under cover and arrested poor Angela. The question I have is how did Angela expect to identify the man as a cop or not by feeling of his penis? Do cops have a tacitly identifiable peculiarity down there? We learn things every day. By the way, they had a photo of Angela in the item and she had a strangely familiar looking face…she looked a lot like Jeremy Shockey, the tight end for the new Orleans Saints.

A few years ago a group of men got together and decided to open a bar/restaurant on the east side of Austin, Texas. The discussed a name and a logo and decided on The Long Branch Inn was the name and a caricature of a beaver as their logo. The beaver ended up with just the smiling head and buck teeth with LBI on the brim of a sailor’s hat. This last week they got a cease and desist order from an organization saying that the Long Branch was infringing on the copyrights of the University of Oregon State Beavers logo. The owners thought it was a joke but it proved not to be. A comparison photo of each logo was shown and sure enough they were identical except for the “LBI” on one of the sailor’s caps and “OSU” on the other. The Long Branch agreed to change their logo and initiated a contest. The Long Branch has a stuffed Beaver above their bar. So far the leading entry is the same beaver logo except this one has black Groucho Marx glasses on. I don’t know if that will be enough, however. It is pretty damned bad when there is an organization that makes a living making comparisons on college logos against those in free enterprise.

This Date in History July 26

1775 Earlier in October of 1774 a Patriot printer from Philadelphia named William Goddard, after years of being frustrated because the Royal Mail Service was not unable to deliver his newspaper to his readers nor to bring important information to Goddard, petitioned the Continental Congress to form a Continental Post Office. The Congress delayed its decision until after the Battles of Lexington and Concord. On this date Congress authorized the formation of a Continental Post Office with Ben Franklin as this nations very first Postmaster General. Ben held this post until the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 and then he was sent to France as the American Emissary. Ben’s son-in-law Richard Bache was named to replace Ben. This was the very first act, and would not be the last, of nepotism in the United States government arena.

1908 On this date Attorney General Charles Bonaparte ordered a group of newly hired investigators to report to Chief Examiner Stanley Finch of the Department of Justice. This event was the first baby step in the formation of the FBI. One year later the Office of Chief Examiner was renamed the Bureau of Investigation. When America entered WWI, the Bureau of Investigation was tasked with investigating draft dodgers, violators of the Espionage Act and immigrants suspected of radicalism. The last one bothers me. Radicalism could be interpreted as an every day attitude to some people but very dangerous to others. Anyway, lawyer and librarian J. Edgar Hoover joined the bureau in 1917 and quickly worked his way to be an assistant to the Attorney General. Hoover and his anti-radical philosophy made him popular during the time period known as the “Red scare era” in 1920-1921. Hoover established a card file on anyone he felt was a “radical” numbering over 450,000. He also had over 10,000 “suspected” communists arrested. The great majority of these people were questioned briefly and released. Hoover was just flexing his muscles. This was a very dangerous ideology and gave Hoover enormous power. Congress eventually became very afraid of this man but his powers of investigation insured his longevity at his position. The upside of the formation of the FBI was they could pursue criminals across state lies since they were a federal agency. Hoover became the acting director of the Bureau of Investigation in 1924. With Congressional approval, Hoover greatly expanded and improved the Bureau with a centralized fingerprint file, an agent training school for agents and he whipped the Bureau into a very efficient crime fighting entity. They were going to need it in the 1930’s during prohibition because powerful criminals like the head of Murder, Incorporated Lepke Burkhalter, “Machine Gun” Kelly who specialized in the kidnapping of people of rich families and demanding enormous ransoms, not to mention Al “Scarface” Capone, “Dutch” Schultz among many others would present a great challenge. The bureau was titled the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. Hoover established an arm of the bureau called COINPRO which was an acronym for counter-intelligence program. This unit was used to counter the supposed infiltration of communists into the US. But it was also used to keep tabs on organizations like the KKK and was used unashamedly to harass and track the movements of Martin Luther King, Jr. simply because Hoover did not agree with his goals of equality for all. When the Watergate scandal broke much pressure and criticism was brought on the Bureau in general and Hoover in particular for the first time Hoover’s tenure. It was during this time frame that Hoover died of heart failure at the age of 77. Evidence proved that the FBI had suppressed evidence that would have proven the culpability of President Richard Nixon in the knowledge of the wrong doing and the attempt to cover it up. Since this time the Congress has established a process of selection of the FBI director that included Congressional approval and limited the tenure to 10 years. The FBI has proven to be a great asset to Americans, but at times have severely over stepped its boundaries.

             Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I am not a fascist. I am a priest. Fascists dress up in black and tell people what do, whereas priests drink a lot more.”

                                            Father Ted Crilly

                This Date in History July 25

1955 On this date the impossible happens. Two ocean liners collide off shore from Nantucket. The Andrea Doria was outbound and the Stockholm was inbound to New York. As y'all may or may not know there are definite “rules of the road” in the marine world. What ships do when approaching at 90 degree angles, when overtaking, when approaching head-on, etc. are set so each ship's captain knows what to expect from the other ships. The trouble here was that the navigator on the outbound ship was navigating by radar and misinterpreted what he saw on the screen. He thought the other ship was crossing his path when it was going to pass to his right with plenty of clearance. The navigator ordered a turn to the right into the path of the Stockholm. The bow of the Stockholm plowed into the side of the Andrea Doria inflicting a fatal wound. The Stockholm was damaged but was still able to sail. The Stockholm stayed with the Andrea Doria and was responsible for the rescue of many of the passengers. Not only that, the luxury French cruise ship the Ile de France that had left New York earlier, turned around and rescued many of the passengers. The Andrea Doria finally rolled on her side and slipped to the bottom. The Andrea Doria is in waters that can be reached by amateur divers and is considered the “Mount Everest” of sport diving. But the divers are faced with very cold water, heavy current and hundreds of Great White sharks. Not this horse.

1963 On this date Bob Dylan performed at the Newport Jazz Festival and a new type of music was born. Bob was able to blend jazz, folk and rock and roll into one genre. He was born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota in 1941 but he changed his name because he was an admirer of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. While in high school he formed a band but eventually dropped out of school to pursue his musical career as a performer/songwriter. His life changed when he went to New York and met folk music legend Woody Guthrie several times. It was Woody’s semi-protest song writings that influenced Bob the most. It was Dylan that gave us “Blowin’ in the Wind” which was a monster hit for “Peter, Paul and Mary”. The next hit was “Times they are A-changing” which was the keystone hit of a very successful album. Bob Dylan has been a world recognized songwriter for over 40 years now. He remains very secretive and reclusive when it comes to his personal life. When was the last time y'all have read anything scandalous about Bob Dylan? In fact, when is the last time you read anything at all about Bob Dylan?

1853 Earlier a Mexican immigrant named Joachim Murrieta had moved to northern California during the gold rush of 1849 and staked a claim on the Stanislaus River. According to unsubstantiated stories written by a San Francisco newspaper reporter, Murrieta and his family were treated severely by the other prejudicial gold miners. It was said that he was beaten and whipped, his wife repeatedly raped and his children killed. Because of this, Murrieta organized a gang of thieves and began a reign of terror throughout the gold fields of the area. Finally the state of California got fed up and put out a reward of $6,000 on the head of Joachim Murrieta. They also hired professional gunman Harry Love to hunt down and bring Joachim in, dead or alive. Harry hired 20 men to accompany him on his search. Love finally located Joachim and his gang camped out on Cantua Creek in Calaveras County. At sunrise Harry Love and his posse attack Joachim and his gang of seven others and kill them all including Joachim and his right hand man “Three fingers Jack”. As you might suspect, Jack was missing a finger on his right hand. In order for Harry and his men to collect the $6,000 reward they had to prove that they had killed Joachim. Rather than bring Joachim’s body in they decided to bring his head in instead. So they behead poor Joachim, put the head in a large glass jar and fill it up with whiskey. On this date the head of Joachim Murrieta was put on display in Stockton, California and Harry and the boys collected the $6,000. As a show of class, Harry had cut off the right hand of “Three Fingers Jack” and had it dangling by a string for all to see.

1861 On this date the US Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution. This document stated that the purpose of United States fighting the Civil War was to keep unity and was not for the abolition of slavery. John Crittenden felt that this resolution was necessary to keep the slave-holding states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware from seceding. Even though these were “slave” states they had not joined the Confederacy. At the beginning of the war most northerners felt that the war was necessary for unity but did not give a damn one way or the other when it came to the issue of slavery. Even this attitude changed after the Union armies had suffered one ass-kicking after another including a rout at the Battle of Manassas. Then the northern attitude was “To hell with it. Stop the slaughter and let the Confederacy become their own country.” Even though the resolution had good intentions, the whole meaning was compromised two weeks later when Lincoln signed the Confiscation Act which allowed for the seizure of the property (including slaves) from any rebellious person. This really upset the slave owners in the afore mentioned states and it took a lot of dancing around to stop them from seceding.

Born today:

1902 US philosopher Eric Hoffer. He said “Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.” I guess that is the reason that I see so many agitated people.

1905 Bulgarian writer Elias Canetti. He said “Whenever you observe an animal closely, you feel as if a human being is inside making fun of you.” I think my brother’s dog “Katie”, a golden retriever who is no longer with us, did exactly that.

1973 Brazilian soccer star Ze Maria. He said “The pain is very painful.” Ze, shut up.

Died today:

1834 English writer Samuel Coleridge. When speaking about a fellow writer he said “Gibbon’s writing style is detestable, but that is not the worst thing about him.” Sam, I like your style.

                  Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day;

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I did not have a single talent left and could say 'I used all that you gave me.'”

                                              Erma Bombeck

I have been taken to task lately because of my reports about the Catholic Church that I read in several news sources. The complaint is not that I report them; it is the embellishments that I add. After all even the Pope acknowledges that there is a problem. A while back I reported about a Pentecostal Holiness minister that hit hard on a fifteen year old girl that was cleaning his house and was forced to resign. So I feel obliged to touch on some of the other religions. Back in the 1870’s on up to WWI the Ku Klux Klan was fostered heavily by the Southern Baptists and Methodists.

In 1875 the Mormons attacked a wagon train that was traveling from Arkansas to California and were passing through Utah. At a place called Mountain Meadows a Morman militia disguised as Paiute Indians along with some real Paiutes attacked the wagon train for no apparent reason. The Immigrants fought back and the fight came to a standoff. A couple of Mormons identified themselves and told the Immigrants that if they surrendered their weapons, they would be allowed to continue. They did indeed surrender their weapons but the Mormon’s resumed their attack and a massacre was the result. They would not kill the women, they assigned the Paiutes that task and they did not kill anyone younger than 8 years old. The final death toll was 120 and the corpses were allowed to rot on the prairie for two years until a US Cavalry unit found them.

I was also taken to task for making somewhat uncalled for remarks about women. I try to be fair when it comes to that. I will use that tired old cliché that a lot of my friends are women as is many of my heroes. All of you subscribers out there may or may not know that I have had three wives and two live-ins and several dating girlfriends. These experiences will add a particular flavor to my editorials. By the way, I am between wives and/or girlfriends at the present.

A couple of days ago the Spartanburg city cops were called to a disturbance at a McDonalds. It seems that a 39 year old lady was pretty hammered and was getting unruly. She had ordered two hamburgers and two small coffees to go. When she was handed the bag she went to the restroom and returned claiming that there was only one hamburger in the bag. Y’all see what is coming. The workers at McDonalds began to see a grease stain forming in the crotch of the lady’s shorts and so did the cops. The cops cuffed the lady and a female cop came and dipped her hand into her shorts and retrieved a hamburger. Does anyone have any suggestions about what to do with the hamburger?

          This Day in History July 22

1934 FBI agent Melvin Purvis had been hunting gangster John Dillinger for a few years without success. So he decided that he had to do something else besides trying to anticipate where John would be at any given time. Purvis began an investigation into who was on the perimeter of John’s group of gangsters. It turned out that there was a woman in Chicago that Dillinger would go to from time to time to hide out. This woman was an illegal alien from one of the Balkan countries. Purvis found this out and had a meeting with this woman and told her that either she helped them catch Dillinger or she would be deported. She agreed and a few months later she called Purvis and told him that Dillinger was coming by for a visit. Purvis told her to get Dillinger out of the house and call him back and tell him how she was going to do it. She called back and said that she and John were going to the movies. As you might suspect, Dillinger loved gangster movies and wanted to see Manhattan Melodrama starring Clark Gable. On this date the movie was being shown at the Biograph theater and Purvis and company had it surrounded. Dillinger and his girl friend came out and after they moved away from the front door, Purvis approached with gun drawn and ordered Dillinger to surrender. Dillinger ducked into a nearby alley and produced a pistol of his own and begins firing. John had no idea as to how many men he was facing because all of them opened fire and poor John went down in hailstorm of gunfire. This was the end to one of the most recognized criminals in American history. By the way, they deported the woman anyway.

2003 On this date US forces encircled a large house in northwestern Baghdad. They suspected that Saddam Hussein’s sons Qusay and Uday were inside. They found out for sure when a firefight began. The fight lasted three hours and ended with the American forces brought in a piece of armor and shot the house down. Sure enough Qusay and Uday were indeed in the house dead as fried chicken. They were both monsters with Uday leaning more toward exotic methods of torture. The quick death they received was too good for them they should have left it up to me and my redneck friends.

1991 On this date the Milwaukee PD saw a naked teenager in hand cuffs running down the street so they stop and to find out what the hell is going on. The teen named Tracy Edwards tells the police that he had been held hostage and his life had been threatened. The cops think that young Tracy is doing a dance around something really fishy so they escort him back to the apartment he said he escaped from. An amiable young man answered the door and explained that it had been just a misunderstanding and nothing illegal had occurred. The cops bought it and were on their way out when one of them spotted a couple of Polaroid photos of dismembered body parts and thus began the discovery of the den of horrors of a man named Jeffrey Dahmer. The cops called for back-up and soon the full impact of what this demon had propagated came to light. It was something out of Dante’s Inferno. He had hundred of various and sundry human body parts stuffed in his freezer and refrigerator. He had two genuine human skulls on top of his TV. On the stove was a kind of stew containing human organs. The police could not believe what they were seeing but they took Dahmer into custody and charged him with a plethora of offenses, including cannibalism. During subsequent investigations the cops found out the Dahmer would prowl that gay community of Milwaukee looking for the youngest male he could find, take them home and kill and dissect them. Not only that, he would use some of the body parts in a variety of recipes including the afore mentioned stew. Needless to say, he went to the slammer for life. I would be content with that knowing what kind of treatment he would be facing. Hopefully his roomie was a 350 pound, 6’-5” sexual pervert. He had been in prison for just a short while when the worst possible thing happened. One of the other prisoners stuck a shank in his liver and he died, damn it. By the way, a shank is a knife that is made of something different like a toothbrush or a fork or a sliver of Plexiglas, y'all get the picture.

Born today:

1844 English religious leader and dyslexic William Spooner. He wrote this. “Sir, you have tasted two whole worms, you have hissed at all of my mystery lectures and been caught fighting a liar in the quad. You will leave Oxford by the next town drain.” This reminds me of g.

1955 US actor Willam Dafoe. He said “I am not a weird person. I am just a square from Wisconsin.” I know another square from Wisconsin named Ron, but he ain’t an actor, he designs pipe in 3D. I know what you are thinking. What is there to design about pipe? It is cylindrical, rigid and is of various lengths and diameters. I ain’t going any further with this.

          Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Thursday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires and a touch that never hurts.”

                                             Charles Dickens

I read about the number of people injured on the job, some fatally. I also read how much construction firms in the US hate the people from OSHA which tries to guarantee the safety of the workers. That reminded me of an engineering job I was on early in my career. It was a polyester plant to be built in Mexico. Polyester is originally a solid pellet that is heated and melted into a thick liquid and sent to the molds of different things. The piping that is used to transport the polyester is called “jacketed” pipe. This means that there is a pipe within a pipe. The polyester is in the inner pipe and a chemical called Dowtherm is in the larger pipe and heated to 600 degrees by a boiler to keep the polyester from becoming solid before reaching the molds. This chemical will not boil or foam making it ideal for this purpose, the downside is that the fumes are a carcinogen. The Dowtherm return piping to the boiler is under great scrutiny. I was designing the return piping on one segment of the plant and was called in to a meeting along with several others. We were told that instead of designing the entire return piping system were to tap the Dowtherm pipe after the appropriate length of pipe run and put in a valve. But we were told that the valve had to be at least a meter off the floor of the building. We were confused until we received an explanation. To save money the client was not going to have the return piping, he was going to have people put buckets under the valve and physically carry the Dowtherm (about 400 degrees and the fumes a carcinogen) to the boiler and pour it back in for reheating. They needed a meter under the valve to get that done. I think the client eventually changed their feeble minds and return piping was designed, but it goes to show you what corporate America's minds were capable of...and still are. How many lives would it have cost and who would have spoken for those Latino laborers had they followed through with that insane plan?  It reminds me of Monsanto.

                       This Date in History July 21

1861 On this date the first major battle of the War of Northern Aggression (The American Civil War) was fought at a railroad junction near the Virginia town of Manassas which was about 22 miles west of Washington, DC. The Union army had sent General Irvin McDowell and a force of 34,000 ill-trained and ill-equipped militiamen to seek out and subdue a Confederate army known to be nearby. As the Union army was heading toward Manassas civilians fell in line and followed them to watch the Rebs get spanked. The Confederates were led by CSA General P.T.G Beauregard (former superintendent at West Point as was R. E. Lee) commanding a force of 20,000 who were joined by CSA General Joseph Johnston and a force of 9,000 brought in by railroad shortly before the battle. At the outset the Union forces were able to drive back the right flank of the Confederates but Beauregard establish a line of defense on Henry House Hill with a unit of Virginia infantry led by CSA General Thomas J. Jackson anchoring the right flank. The Union army attacked Jackson’s unit and were repulsed several times, Jackson’s men just could not be dislodged. It was at this action that General Jackson gained the nickname of “Stonewall”. Finally the Confederates counter-attacked and the great majority of the Union army broke and ran back toward Washington and literally ran over the civilians watching the action. Before this battle the Union army and politicians thought the Confederates would be easily defeated with a minimum loss of life. After this battle the Union army suffered 3,000 casualties, the Confederates 2,000 both sides realized it was going to be long and bloody conflict.

Medal of Honor

BORDELON, WILLIAM JAMES

Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 25 December 1920, San Antonio, Texas.

Citation:

For valorous and gallant conduct above and beyond the call of duty as a member of an assault engineer platoon of the 1st Battalion, 18th Marines, tactically attached to the 2d Marine Division, in action against the Japanese-held atoll of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands on 20 November 1943. Landing in the assault waves under withering enemy fire which killed all but 4 of the men in his tractor, S/Sgt. Bordelon hurriedly made demolition charges and personally put 2 pillboxes out of action. Hit by enemy machinegun fire just as a charge exploded in his hand while assaulting a third position, he courageously remained in action and, although out of demolition, provided himself with a rifle and furnished fire coverage for a group of men scaling the seawall. Disregarding his own serious condition, he unhesitatingly went to the aid of one of his demolition men, wounded and calling for help in the water, rescuing this man and another who had been hit by enemy fire while attempting to make the rescue. Still refusing first aid for himself, he again made up demolition charges and single-handedly assaulted a fourth Japanese machinegun position but was instantly killed when caught in a final burst of fire from the enemy. S/Sgt. Bordelon's great personal valor during a critical phase of securing the limited beachhead was a contributing factor in the ultimate occupation of the island, and his heroic determination throughout 3 days of violent battle reflects the highest credit upon the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

Medal of Honor

INOUYE, DANIEL K.

Second Lieutenant Daniel K. Inouye distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 21 April 1945, in the vicinity of San Terenzo, Italy. While attacking a defended ridge guarding an important road junction, Second Lieutenant Inouye skillfully directed his platoon through a hail of automatic weapon and small arms fire, in a swift enveloping movement that resulted in the capture of an artillery and mortar post and brought his men to within 40 yards of the hostile force. Emplaced in bunkers and rock formations, the enemy halted the advance with crossfire from three machine guns. With complete disregard for his personal safety, Second Lieutenant Inouye crawled up the treacherous slope to within five yards of the nearest machine gun and hurled two grenades, destroying the emplacement. Before the enemy could retaliate, he stood up and neutralized a second machine gun nest. Although wounded by a sniper's bullet, he continued to engage other hostile positions at close range until an exploding grenade shattered his right arm. Despite the intense pain, he refused evacuation and continued to direct his platoon until enemy resistance was broken and his men were again deployed in defensive positions. In the attack, 25 enemy soldiers were killed and eight others captured. By his gallant, aggressive tactics and by his indomitable leadership, Second Lieutenant Inouye enabled his platoon to advance through formidable resistance, and was instrumental in the capture of the ridge. Second Lieutenant Inouye's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

Lieutenant Inouye was of Japanese ancestry and his parents were interred during the war. He was born in Hawaii and after the war he became a well respected United States Senator.

                     Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow