Musings
and History
Quote
of the day:
"A
Jewish nymphomaniac is a woman that will have sex on the same day she
has her hair done.”
Margaret
Lipman
Here
an interesting series of events. After the Confederate states
essentially surrendered in April of 1865, in December the 13th
amendment as ratified declaring that slavery was outlawed “in the
United States and its possessions.” However it took to July, 1868
before the 14th
amendment was ratified. This is the amendment that gave citizenship
to those born in the United States or naturalized. This act gave
citizenship to the freed slaves, before then they were not
citizens...I am not going to go into citizenship for Native
Americans. We ain't perfect.
I
cannot believe what I am seeing on the media. I saw a yuppie newsman
interviewing a retired US Army general. He asked the general what
was the solution to present day acts of terrorism especially since
they use civilians as shields. As I thought the general said you do
not attack them individually you make the price for the continuation
of acts of terrorism more than they are willing to pay and that may
include the killing of civilians. The newsman was aghast at such a
suggestion. The general said the terrorists are killing innocent
men, women and children and make sure they know they do not have
sanctuary among civilians. The newsman quickly changed the subject.
World War II was brought to an end by the intentional mass killing of
the enemy's populous and that newsman should have known that.
Terrorism is a two way street. The first instance of America's
military making war on civilians (other than the Native Americans)
was Sherman's “March to the Sea” during the Civil War where a 60
mile wide swath of Georgia was destroyed. Thousands of very old and
very young Georgians died as a result. This is nothing short of
terrorism but it went a long way toward ending the war.
By
the way, your President and most of the US Congress does not have a
gut in their bodies and we are not safe because of it. Pray for Baton Rouge
This
Date in History July 18
1969 This date saw
two historic events that were important to these United States. The
most important one was the landing of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the
moon with Buzz Aldrin and Neal Armstrong aboard. The second one was
not as heroic. Senator Ted Kennedy and his friend Joe Gargan were
hosting a cookout on the affluent Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s
Vineyard. Attending the cookout was a stone fox named Mary Joe
Kopechne. She and young Ted apparently stirred up a mutual fire and
Ted borrowed someone’s Oldsmobile and he and she headed for a
remote beach on the island. Young Ted, not being familiar with this
part of Martha’s Vineyard, missed a turn and ran off a short bridge
into a small tidal basin. The Oldsmobile went under water enough to
cover the car. Ted was able to escape and swan to shore and then on
over to his family’s compound where he changed clothes and sat down
trying to figure out what to do. Ten hours later he called a rescue
team and the Olds is pulled from the basin with the corpse of Mary Jo
aboard. Ted has never been able to satisfactorily explain his
behavior on the fateful night. His behavior was demonstrated by his
lack of character. He died of a malignant brain tumor. God works is
mysterious and sometime vengeful ways.
1792 Revolutionary
War hero John Paul Jones died in his Paris apartment. He was in
Paris awaiting a commission to become the US ambassador to Algiers.
This man was instrumental in the creation of a viable navy for the
fledgling United States. The US did not have any warships to speak
of not the money to buy any. So Jones showed the honorable way to
get the ships, he and a group of his men would sneak aboard a British
man-of-war, kill the captain and most of the crew, throw them over
the side and sail the ship back into American waters for re-fitting
and renaming. The first of these was when Jones sailed his ship the
USS
Ranger
out of Brest, France and made a successful raid on the English port
of Whitehaven and then on over to the Irish Sea that Jones knew well
since he was a native Scot. He spied the British man-of-war
HMS
Drake,
engaged her in combat and boarded, killed the captain and the second
in command and some of the crew and took command of the Drake
also. His most famous fight was when he was in command of the US
warship the USS
Bonhomie Richard
and engaged the larger and more heavily armed HMS
Serapis.
Jones took a hell of a beating in the early stages and was taking on
water and on fire. The captain of the Serapis
signaled for Jones to surrender. Jones signaled back “I have not
yet begun to fight.” Jones and his crew was able to stem the leaks
and put out the fires and maneuvered the Serapis
into a position that it was forced to surrender. Jones died at the
age of 45 and is buried in a crypt on the US Naval Academy grounds in
Annapolis, Maryland.
1863 Earlier the
United States government was in a quandary about black men. They
said they were fighting the Civil War under the presumption that all
men are created equal yet they had not one black combat unit in the
entire army. Either they were equal or they were not and if they
were, they need to be in combat like all the other white men out
there. Lincoln himself was very cool to the idea and suggested that
the black man was “not far enough along” to assume the duties of
mortal combat. But influential men like Frederick Douglass leaned on
Lincoln enough to where he conceded but insisted that the leadership
of such a unit would have to be white. Finally a black unit was
assembled, trained and armed and became the 54th
Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Boston aristocrat Colonel Robert
Gould Shaw. Two of Frederick Douglass’s sons were in this
Regiment. The first combat this unit experienced was when they
landed near Port Royal, South Carolina and were successful in
repelling attacks by the Confederates from Georgia. The port of
Charleston, SC was paramount in importance to the US military. The
problem was that the mouth of Charleston Harbor was bristling with
artillery on both sides not to mention Fort Sumter in the middle of
the harbor. The US military decided to reduce the Confederate
artillery on the south side of the harbor located on Morris Island
and known as Fort Wagner. The 54th
was assigned this task. On this date late in the afternoon the 54th
began their assault. The biggest problem was that the only land
approach to Fort Wagner was over a narrow path that paralleled the
beach with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and an impenetrable marsh
on the other. The attack was repulsed even though the Fort was
breached in two places but the Confederates were able to throw them
back. In all there were 254 of the 54th
killed in this endeavor including Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. They
made a movie named Glory
about this episode in our history. Denzell Washington won an Oscar
for his performance in this movie.
1984 On this date
at lunch time a man named James Huberty told his wife that he is
going hunting and then he says “Only this time I am going hunting
humans.” He walks into a crowded McDonalds in San Ysidro,
California, pulled out an automatic rifle and pistol and orders
everyone to lie on the floor. Everyone complies and Huberty calmly
walked around in the restaurant and indiscriminately shot and killed
21 people and wounded another 20. The police finally arrived and
surround the place but do not shoot because they do not know how many
shooters are involved. Finally, one of the managers managed to
escape through the basement and told the police that Huberty is the
only shooter so they give a police sniper to go ahead to take this
son-of-a-bitch out. The sniper finally got an open shot and put a
round in Huberty’s heart killing him instantly. There are crazies
out there, y'all. Huberty’s wife told the police that Huberty had
called the County Mental Health Facility seeking and appointment a
week before but got no call back.
Born today:
1908 US playwright
Clifford Odets. He said “Rich men play polo, poor men have sex.”
We all need recreation, Cliff. Mahatma Gandhi said “The bed of
poverty is fertile” and I guess that is why you will see a shack
barely standing with a whole squadron of kids running around.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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