Musings
and History
Quote
of the day:
“To
me the outdoors is what you pass through on the way from your house
to a taxi.”
Fran
Lebowitz
I
heard it again. A person that was a member of a very large Baptist
Church in Taylors, SC and had abandoned the church told me the reason
he left. He said that it was brought up before the church to leave
the doors unlocked to allow the homeless a place to sleep when it is
really cold. The church voted against this proposal with some of the
faithful saying “There is no telling what kind of filth and disease
they would bring.
Jesus
was born in an indoor livestock enclosure with the animals
present...but I guess Mary and Joseph did not have on clothing from
Anne Taylor and Brooks Brothers arriving in a Beemer or a Mercedes.
Some people go to church to see and be seen and not to seek
redemption, to them it is a social event. That is all I have to say
about that.
This
Date in History December 29
1778 On this date
British Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell and an army of between
2,500 and 3,600 launched a surprise attack on the city of Savannah,
Georgia. Included in the army were the 71st
Highlanders, some New York Loyalists and a group of Hessian
mercenaries. Savannah was defended by Patriot Major General Robert
Howe and a rag tag army of 650-900 infantrymen. Howe saw that he did
not have a chance and ordered the evacuation of the city then he
ordered the withdrawal of the Patriot troops. The Georgia Brigade
was cut off and nearly annihilated with the killing of 83 and the
capture of 483. After the completion of the withdrawal the British
had suffered 3 killed and 10 wounded. The British occupied Savannah
and left only because they wanted to in July of 1782. The majority
of the residents of Savannah were Loyalists anyway making their
occupation much easier. The Patriots tried to kick the British out
of Savannah once in 1779 when they established a siege but it didn’t
work so the Patriots said to hell with it and just sealed off the
city so no one came or sent except by sea. What was peculiar was
that Savannah was a hotbed of Loyalists (Colonists loyal to the King
of England) in fact; the entire state of Georgia was more than 50%
Loyalist. That is really peculiar because right next door in South
Carolina was full of firebrands for independence from Great Britain.
Maybe y'all don’t know the reason why there is a Georgia in the
first place. The state of Georgia was formed by England at the
behest of the wealthy plantation owners in South Carolina to be a
buffer between their plantations and the bloodthirsty Spanish slave
traders coming up from Spanish-owned Florida. This meant that the
people that settled in Georgia were owing to the British crown for
the lands that were given to them. I suppose that is where the
Loyalist syndrome came from. It sucked, in any event.
1890 On this date
one of the most damnable acts ever committed by the US Army happened.
The plains Indians had been vanquished and sent to reservations,
especially the fiery Lakota Sioux. The last remnants of this once
proud and independent tribe were sent to the Pine Ridge Reservation
in South Dakota. Due to the corruptness of the US officials, the
Sioux on the reservation were not getting the food that was promised
to them and starvation was staring them in the face not to mention
the abominable living conditions. The killing of the chief medicine
man, Sitting Bull, further inflamed the situation. Before he died,
Sitting Bull had told his follower that if they resurrected the
ritual of the Ghost Dance, they could regain their strength and power
that they had in the past. So the ritual of the Ghost Dance was
begun. This ritual would not have made any difference but it did
give the Sioux the hope and belief that they could prevail therefore
the Ghost Dance was forbidden by the US authorities. On this date,
on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek, a group of Sioux were doing the
Ghost Dance when a group of US Cavalry shows up to try to put a stop
to it. During the confrontation a cavalryman and an Indian get into
a scuffle and a shot was fired. No one knows who fired the shot but
immediately the cavalrymen opened fire and in a matter of seconds 146
Lakota Sioux were dead more than half were women and children. This
Massacre at Wounded Knee is the last armed conflict between the US
army and Native Americans. There is a book titled Bury
My Heart at Wounded Knee
authored by Dee Brown that all should read; I promise you it will
give you pause about what we Americans are all about.
1170 Earlier Henry
II had seen to it that Thomas Becket was made the Archbishop of
Canterbury in the hope that Becket would help him get the church out
of state business. But almost as soon as Becket assumed the
position, he said that he supported the Church taking part in state
business. There were several heated conversations between Henry and
Thomas but with no resolution to the problem. In a moment of anger
Henry says “What parcel of fools and dastards have I nourished in
my house, and not one of them will avenge me of this upstart clerk?”
Four of Henry’s knights saw this as Henry wanting Becket dead. On
this date, the four knights enter Canterbury Cathedral and killed
Thomas. The Christian world is in an uproar that a man of the cloth
is killed in the house of God. Henry caught a large ration of shit
about this and in 1174 he was forced to do penance at Thomas Becket’s
tomb. Not only that, England had to endure the church meddling in
state affairs until Henry VIII came along and put a stop to it. The
church canonized Thomas Becket meaning he was made a Catholic Saint.
In 1220 Becket’s remains was re-buried in Canterbury Cathedral
(been there).
1862 Earlier US
General Ulysses Grant had planned a two pronged assault on Vicksburg,
Mississippi. He assigned one prong of the attack to US General
William Sherman and Grant would direct the other one. It was a good
plan except for one thing. CSA Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and
Earl Van Dorn and their respective cavalry units were out there
roaming the countryside. Forrest and Van Dorn found Grants supply
dump and destroyed it. This forced Grant to delay if not scratch the
attack but he did not get word to Sherman in time. The Rebs only had
6,000 troops dug in to face Sherman and his army of 37,000. But
within just hours of the attack the Rebs received an additional
6,000. On this date, Sherman attacked as planned but his attack was
across open country and anticipated. With Grant not attacking and
providing a diversion, the dug in Rebs crushed the attack before it
had got started. Sherman learned from this experience and never
again attacked across open ground and always inflicted more
casualties than he received.
1940 Earlier in
July the countries of Holland, Belgium, Norway and France had fallen
to the onslaught of the German army. In August Hitler put Operation
Sea Lion
into effect. This was the plan to defeat England and complete his
domination of Europe. Hitler was assured by Herman Goering that
England could be defeated by air power alone. So the German air
force began the bombing of RAF air bases and radar sites. The
German’s sent 1,500 bombers over in a single day. Nothing worked
except the German air force began losing many, many aircraft to the
RAF fighter pilots. The enraged Hitler ordered that to hell with the
RAF bases, bomb the hell out of English cities especially London in
the hopes of breaking the English morale. That didn’t work either
but in this date, the worst air attack yet came. The Germans rained
incendiaries on London starting conflagrations that burned for two
days and nights. The upside of this was that the RAF bases were
spared attack and were able to repair and recover. The result was
that on the next air attack, 56 German aircraft went down in a matter
of minutes. After this, Hitler said to hell with Operation
Seal Lion.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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