Friday

                         Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“The fastest way to a man’s heart is through his chest.”

                          Roseanne Barr

This from yesterday:

I broke my own rule this morning. I went to breakfast at a restaurant that has a bar with a TV on either side. The LEFT side is normally CNN and the RIGHT side is Fox News. I sat in the middle and watched CNN against my better judgment. My suspicions were confirmed that they are not in the journalism business, they are in show business. They had a Latino woman on that was caught trying to cross the border into the US illegally. She said that she just wanted to get a job so she could help out her elderly parents. They also had that Muslim father of a soldier that was killed in action in Iraq. The Latino woman AND CNN was pleading her case against Trump's promise of cracking down on illegal immigrants and also pleading the case of the Muslim father and CNN opposition to Trumps proposed moratorium on immigrants from several countries that harbor international terrorists that are all Muslim. Lets take each case separately. What has been the results of the last few years of loose borders with Mexico courtesy of the past administration? In addition to those seeking to make money, there is a exponential increase in the influx of drug gangs (M-13 for instance) and cartels that are poisoning our people, especially the young. Taken on the whole, this boils down to is some of our citizens are sacrificing their health, hearts and souls so that a portion of those crossing the border illegally can get a job. How in the hell can that be the honorable thing to do? To me it seems logical that if a group of people (Latinos) have a portion with them that are bad news causing the entire group problems, it should be up to them to take care of the bad new guys and not expect the victims to weed them out...that being us. On to the father of the slain soldier. There is no question that there has been an increase in attacks on the general citizenry by middle eastern terrorists, all Muslim, causing the deaths of innocent American citizens. Does it not seem logical to focus on those immigrants first and foremost? Or are we supposed to abide a certain portion of our citizenry to be slaughtered in the interest of “good public relations”. Again, if a group of people, peaceful Muslim immigrants, are being berated because of some bad news people in their midst it should be up to them to weed them out not the victims...that being us. I am up to my eyeballs with “the right thing to do” or “that is not what we are about”. Don't bring that up to me while all of this turmoil in our country is underway because of an administration that was trying to make a Utopian global community, a vision of smoke and mirrors.

Robert Dudley was one of Queen Elizabeth I lovers and she gave him the title of Earl Of Leicester. They were friends and lovers for 35 years. Dudley was dying, probably stomach cancer, and this is his last communication while on the way to a “healing bath”.

“I most humbly beseech your Majesty to pardon your poor old servant to be thus bold in sending to know how my gracious lady doth, and what ease of her late pain she finds, being the chiefest thing in the world I do pray for, for her to have good health and long life. For my own poor case, I continue still your medicine and find that [it] amends much better than any other thing that hath been given me. Thus hoping to find perfect cure at the bath, with the continuance of my wonted prayer for your Majesty's most happy preservation, I humbly kiss your foot. From your old lodging at Rycote, this Thursday morning, ready to take on my Journey, by Your Majesty's most faithful and obedient servant,

R. Leicester

Even as I had writ thus much, I received Your Majesty's token by Young Tracy.”

Evidently Elizabeth had sent Robert a gift.

It is a rumor that in Elizabeth’s last few days she could not speak and had the archbishop at her side holding her hand. Since she had no heir, everyone was waiting for her to name one. The archbishop went through a series of names and she would respond by squeezing his hand. It was determined that Elizabeth wanted James VI of Scotland to succeed her. When the archbishop mentioned the deceased Robert Dudley, Elizabeth squeezed his hand for a long time and a tear fell from her eye. It has been reported that Elizabeth had another lover in the Earl of Essex. This is probably true by I prefer to remember her childhood friend and her adult lover as her most favorite, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester.

This Date in History January 27

1967 In 1960 US President John F. Kennedy issued an order for the United States to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade and eventually NASA was born. NASA began a series of programs aimed at putting a man on the moon. The programs began with fits and starts and some failures but eventually progress was being made by leaps and bounds. Maybe too fast because on this date the spacecraft Apollo 1 was on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral with the crew aboard going through drills and exercises to be done once launched and a fire broke out and killed astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee. Examination revealed that it was an electrical short that had caused the fire but the real fault was the buildup of combustibles in the spacecraft. NASA engineers had ignored the possibility of a fire and plunged ahead recklessly. In spite of this tragedy, NASA was able to put a man on the moon with Apollo 8, Neil Armstrong commanding, in 1969. In all there were 17 Apollo missions and 6 visits to the moon.

1951 On this date United States detonated the first nuclear device, fueled by fissionable material made at the Hanford, Washington facility, on the acquired Nevada test site. The blast was so large that the flash was seen in San Francisco. The previous tests had been done at the test site at Los Alamos, New Mexico including the very first nuclear explosion in history in July of 1945. The device was known as “Little Boy”. The only other nuclear devise in existence at that time was also an American invention known as “Fat Man”. This bomb was dropped on Nagasaki without testing because the scientists were sure it would work and they were very, very right.

Born today:

1886 US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. He said “The layman’s constitutional view is that anything he likes is constitutional and anything he doesn’t like is unconstitutional.” Yeah, so what is wrong with that, Hugo?

1902 US writer John Steinbeck. He said “Writers are somewhere between clowns and trained seals.” Steinbeck gave some of the best literature ever written and he received many awards for it. He gave us The Grapes of Wrath and Travels with Charlie among many others. He is no longer with us and it is our loss.

1932 English-borne actress Elizabeth Taylor. I had been in love with Liz ever since I saw her in National Velvet. She said “The problem with people with no vices is there is a good chance they will have many irritating virtues”. There is little doubt that Liz had a plethora of vices. She was a skank, no doubt about it but damn what a skank she was.

           Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow