Thursday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Richard Nixon is the type person that would cut down a redwood tree and then stand on the stump and make a speech on conservation.”

                                         Adlai Stevenson

                         Political Expediency

Here is what history as told us about acts of war.

Since before recorded history skirmishes, battles and wars are not won by the side that is the most educated, the most spiritual, the most forgiving nor with the most noble of causes, they are won by the side that is the most ruthless and vicious.

In WWII the German air force indiscriminately bombed cities in England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Russia among other places without thought of collateral damage. They did this to break the spirit of the populous making them easier prey.

The allies did the same thing by bombing cities in Germany with no other intention than breaking their spirit. In 1943 the US and British air forces raided Hamburg, Germany with incendiaries and killed over 76,000 civilians in one night. The US did the same thing in Japan and their various properties. The same principals can be applied to those that fight for ISIS. Once they are identified their families and properties would be destroyed. This is powerful deterrent no matter the brain washing. Even if it was not a deterrent, their families know they would be targeted would take the appropriate action...or die.

Nearly all military great realize this. I think it was General “Black Jack” Pershing and General Curtis LeMay that said “The only way to win a war is to kill ALL of the enemy or prosecute the war so severely that they surrender.”

We are not fighting a nation or a country, we are fighting a religion but they still need logistics. They need money, food, water, fuel, rolling stock, firearms and ammo. It is within our grasp to attack any and all of these.

We cannot continue to sent out troops in harms way without an avenue for victory...not “containment” or “suppression” but victory. If we continue this then we would be wasting American lives for political expediency, the most disgusting and evil of all premises...and we would lose.

This Date in History October 13

1976 Secretary Of Defense Robert McNamara went on his 8^th fact finding mission to South Vietnam. Bob visited with General Westmoreland, Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, South Vietnam Premier Ky and President Thieu and then went back to Washington to a press conference and with his bare face hanging out declared that the war is proceeding satisfactorily. Then he went to LBJ and secretly tells him that we are in deep doodoo over there. LBJ got tired of McNamara’s vacillating and replaced him with Clark Clifford. He isn’t much better. That whole debacle was a disaster top to bottom from the git-go.

1792 The cornerstone of the White House is laid on this day. The Irish American architect James Hoban was hired to design the house and he used the Lienster House in Dublin as a model. The location for the house was made by George Washington and the first resident was President John Adams. The White House was burned by the British during the war of 1812 in retaliation for US guerillas burning the British Embassy in Canada but James Hoban was again hired to direct its restoration. The White House and the adjacent Lafayette Square are blocked off from vehicular traffic for security purposes. Over a million people a year visit the White House.

1943 26 year old poet Robert Lowell is given a one year jail term for refusing the draft because he is upset about the allies using “blanket bombing”. I wonder what Bob would have felt if he had seen what was going on at the German Auschwitz concentration camp. Anyway, Bob was born to privileged and wealthy parents and he received a good education. He wrote some very good essays and poems and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1959 for “Life Stories” which was an account of how he was dealing with his mental instabilities. In the early 60’s he read poet Allan Ginsberg’s “Howl” and was blown away by Ginsberg’s honesty and being down to earth. Bob was involved heavily in the opposition to the Vietnam War and was present at nearly all protest meetings/marches. Bob went to that great library in the sky in 1977.

1935 Doctor Buck Ruston is arrested for murder in Lancaster, England. The good doctor’s maid Mary Roberson and common law wife Isabella Van Ness had been missing for some time and an intense investigation had begun at the behest of the good doctor I guess to throw suspicion off him self. Well, investigate they did. A farmer in Scotland found several objects wrapped in newspaper on a river bank which turned out to be various body parts two of which was mutilated human heads from which all the teeth had been removed and the nose cut off one of them and had been disemboweled. All the fingertips on both had been removed also. Even though identification of the bodies was nearly impossible, Scotland Yard determined from the evidence the time of death and from the newspapers that they were issued in the good doctor’s home town. The searched the doctors home and found traces of human blood and human fat in the kitchen sink drain and therefore the doctor was tried and convicted of a double homicide. Just before going to the gallows the doctor stated that he had killed his wife in a quarrel and that the maid had walked in on him in the act and so he had to kill her too. Doctor Ruston went to meet his maker about 2 inches taller than he had been.

1845 Under the leadership of Sam Houston, the people of Texas approve a state constitution and ask that they be allowed to become a member of the United States. In 1836, again under the leadership of Sam Houston, the people of Texas had declared themselves independent of Mexico and became the Republic of Texas. The acceptance of Texas into the fold was delayed somewhat because it was to be a “slave” state and that was not palpable to some interests in the Northeastern US and Mexico had stated that if Texas became a state they would declare war on the US. Eventually Texas was admitted into the US and sure enough a war with Mexico ensued. It didn’t last long though.

Births and deaths:

1959 Marie Osmond is born. Marie had seven brothers and no sisters. She and Donnie Osmond had a moderately successful TV career together.

1969 Ice skater Nancy Kerrigan is born. Nancy was famous for when one of Tonya Harding’s friends runs up to Nancy and pops her on the knee with a pipe so as to eliminate Nancy from the Olympic tryouts. Tonya believed that Nancy was her only competition and said so. Her friends took that as a request to stop Nancy from competing. It was proven that Tonya had no part of this attack. Tonya had dynamite legs, y'all.

1925 Stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce is born. Lenny told us “More and more people are straying from the church and getting back to God.”

1997 Movie actor Clifton Webb died. Clifton once said “Barbara Stanwick is my favorite American lesbian”. Clifton was brutal.

              Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow