Thursday

                          Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Love is a condition in which the happiness of another is essential to your own.”

                                               Robert Heinlein

Right after my family and I moved to Pensacola a man had a confrontation with his girlfriend.  She went to work at a bank downtown.  A short while later the man went into the bank pulled a gun and shot and killed his girlfriend.  He then ran and got into his car and went to his grandmother's house near the intersection of 9th Avenue and Texar (pronounced Teh-hahr) Drive and estabished a barricade.  A police team showed up, using a bullhorn told him he had 5 minutes to come out.  He did not come out so they shot a few canister of tear gas into the house, went in and capped him. That was the first time I ever heard the term "SWAT team".   

This date in 1862 saw the end to the Fredericksburg Campaign by the Army of the Potomac 116,000 strong. It was Union General Ambrose Burnsides against CSA General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia 77,000 strong with Lee having two days to prepare. That, my friends, is asking for a disaster and that is exactly what happened. After a serious of frontal assaults on the Confederate fronts all resulting heavy casualties, Burnsides ordered a retreat and he was immediately relieved and replaced by General Joe Hooker. He was not any better. The statistics for this action are as follows: Union casualties 12,653 to 5,377 for the Confederacy. It is the worst statistical ass-kicking any American military unit has ever suffered in one engagement before or since. What made me think of this was a view of “The Wall” in Washington honoring the 58,000 Americans lost in Vietnam in nine years. Civil War battles were much more deadly.

               This Date in History   December 15

1961 Earlier in 1906 Adolf Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany. In 1932 he joined the Nazi party and was absorbed into the elite SS military/political machine of Adolf Hitler. He rose swiftly in rank and authority and eventually he was in the inner circle of those in the Nazi party chosen to find a way to exterminate all the Jews in Europe. As Field Marshal Herman Goering called it, “We need to find a “final solution” to the Jewish problem.” Goering was the second in command to Hitler and was tasked by Hitler with eliminating the Jews. Goering in turn assigned Eichmann to figure out a way to get this attempt at genocide on its feet and still be to best effect for the 3^rd Reich. Eichmann was equal to the task and very shortly had death camps, work camps where the workers were slaves building the tools of war for the German military. They were literally worked to death and buried in mass graves, or burned into dust in ovens. Eichmann’s creations were responsible for the deaths of about 4 million Jews, Slavs and Gypsies. There were another 2 million deaths that were the responsibility of others in the SS. After the war was lost Eichmann was captured but escaped and bounced around in the Middle East for several years before making his way to Argentina in 1950. The Argentinians played it fast and loose with immigrants, especially former German military personnel. Eichmann assumed the name of Roberto Klement and began a life of a factory worker in Buenos Aires. In 1957 a former German officer told the Israeli secret police, known as the Mossad, that Eichmann was living Buenos Aires. The Mossad was very interested in Eichmann for obvious reasons and sent two secret agents to Buenos Aries to try and find this monster. It took a while but they located the home of Eichmann. In May of 1960 Argentina was having a celebration commemorating the 150^th anniversary of freedom from Spanish rule. There was a large influx of visitors to this celebration and Mossad took this opportunity to bring in more agents. On May 11 the Mossad agents descended upon Eichmann’s house and waited. When Eichmann got off the bus coming home from work, the agents kidnapped him, drugged the hell out of him and flew his ass to Israel. Argentina raised hell and demanded Eichmann’s release but Israel said he was an international war criminal and there was no way in hell he was going to be released. He was put on trial for crimes against humanity in Israel. On this date Eichmann was convicted on all counts and was sentenced to death. Eichmann’s total defense was that he was doing as he was ordered like the good soldier that he was. On May 31, 1962 Adolf Eichmann was hanged, his body cremated and his ashes thrown into the sea. Thus ended the life of one on the worst monsters this world has ever known. But there are still more out there, never forget that.

1988 On this date “The Godfather of Soul” or “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business” James Brown begins serving a 6 year sentence in the State Park Correctional Facility in South Carolina. He had a few small run-ins with the law during the summer of 1988 but his escapades on September 24 went too far. My man James walked into an insurance seminar in Augusta, Georgia with a shotgun in one hand a pistol in the other and ordered everyone out. No one really knows why he did this because it was later proven that he did not know anyone there and had no interest in the insurance business. Anyway, James then got in his pick-up truck and headed for the house. The police began a chase that began in South Carolina then into Georgia and back to South Carolina. Finally South Carolina’s finest got fed up with James’s wild goose chase and shot out three of his tires. All this did was slow James down; he continued down the road and finally lost control and drove into a ditch bringing this fiasco to an end. All of these infractions brought James 6 ½ years in a South Carolina slammer. James was paroled after three years but he wasn’t finished yet. Soon after being free he was caught with a load of grass and did even more time. Finally it appeared that James literally got his act together and went on the road. His performances were as entertaining and dynamic as ever in spite of his age. James finally went to that great sound stage in the sky in December of 2006. He was 73 years old. What a performer.

1890 For years the holy man for the Lakota Sioux, Sitting Bull, had been warning his people that any contact with people other than those of their tribe would result in disaster. His warning proved to be prophetic as the honky settlers took more and more of Sioux land by force. This meant that the Sioux were fighting a defensive battle the great majority of the time trying to hold on their tribal lands and traditional way of life. It was a fruitless fight because the settlers were protected by a well armed and well trained United States Cavalry. Finally Sitting Bull persuaded his people to go to the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota or risk complete annihilation. The US Cavalry got wind of an increase of the practice of the legendary “Ghost Dance” by the Sioux. This dance was usually a prelude to war so the Cavalry assumed this practice was fostered by Sitting Bull. On this date the Reservation Police went to arrest Sitting Bull at his tiny cabin on the Grande River. They went to get him at 6:00a so they could take him away as quietly as possible. It was not to be. Sitting Bull began raising almighty hell and soon a crowd had gathered around the great leader also raising almighty hell. One hothead in the crowd shot one of the policemen and the police responded with shooting Sitting Bull in the chest and head killing him instantly. The police were not finished. They continued shooting killing 12 of the crowd and wounded 4. Just a few weeks later the Indian spirit was broken with the massacre of Chief Black Kettle and 156 of his tribe at Wounded Knee. This was the last “battle” between the US Cavalry and an Indian tribe. All the Indians wanted to was to be left alone to live their lives as they saw fit. It was not to be.

Born today:

1906 Ukrainian film producer Lew Grade. When involved in a biblical film he said “Twelve apostles? Why do we need twelve? Can’t we make do with six?” Lew, you are a dumb-ass.

1932 Irish writer Edna O’Brien. She said “Getting to vote means nothing. We women need to be armed”. Edna baby, lighten up.

             Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow