Thursday

                    Musings and History

Quote of the day:

When speaking of George W. Bush he said “His command of the English language is somewhere between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Archbishop Tutu.”

                                             Richard Harris

Recently a 12 year old boy was told that he could not fly the American flag on the back of his bicycle when coming and going to school. The abomination was issued by a middle school in central California. On Monday about 40 bikers with the American flag on the back of their motorcycles escorted this young patriot to school. When this ruling by the school was sent across the countryside, the school was flooded with e-mails, telegrams and phone calls protesting this inane ruling and they rescinded the ban on the American flag. The school officials said that they made the ruling because they were afraid the Latino kids would be offended by the display of “Old Glory”. We have gutless traitors like this teaching our children? I am glad I was not there. At least the state of South Carolina has not bent to minority pressure and removed the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds. It is not that I am a racist, but the majority of the citizens of this state want the flag to stay. After all, this is still a Democracy…for now.

        This Date in History   January 12

1984 On this date an international restoration committee attempting to restore the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, decide that modern day building techniques were not working. The mixture of water and limestone that was being used as a mortar was cracking the adjoining original limestone blocks. They also were attempting to restore the Sphinx and were successful using water and limestone. But on the Pyramid the restorers had to resort back to the ancient method interlocking blocks. It is believed that the Egyptians build over 100 pyramids with the majority of them during 2600 BC and 2200 BC. The method used to build these behemoths has been in dispute but the generally accepted method was a spiraling ramp built of sand and rubble and this ramp was disassembled after the completion. The three enormous pyramids on the plains of Giza were built by the Pharaoh Khufu, his son and grandson. They all were built with yellowish colored limestone and after completion coated with white limestone. The Great Pyramid was as tall as a 50 story building and had a burial chamber in the middle for the Pharaoh. What a sight it must have been to see a shimmering white building rising out of the Egyptian desert as you approached. It has been estimated that it took 20,000 men 25 years to complete the Great Pyramid. The Great Sphinx was built of one gigantic block of limestone in the quarry that was used to extract the stone used in the pyramids. The Great Pyramid is the last remaining of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

1777 On this date one of the most colorful and important leaders in the history of the United States died of seven bayonet wounds delivered by the British at the Battle Of Princeton. Hugh Mercer was born in Rosehearty, Scotland in about 1725. It is known that he studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen and served King Bonnie Prince Charles and his army in 1745. After this army was crushed at the Battle of Culloden by the British, Mercer hauled ass to Aberdeenshire, Scotland and hid out for a couple of years. After this he secretly crossed the Atlantic and settled in Pennsylvania. Surprisingly enough, after his arrival in 1747 he joined the army of British King George III, the very king he was trying to overthrow two years before. During the Seven Years War he was under the command of British Edward Braddock. Braddock and company wandered into a disastrous ambush and were all but annihilated with Mercer being wounded also. After recovery he joined with Lt. Col. John Armstrong and was involved in the brilliant raid of Kittanning in 1756. Peace prevailed for a while and Mercer became a doctor and apothecary in Fredericksburg, Virginia. When the Colonies decided to take up arms against Great Britain and seek independence, Mercer’s warlike nature arose and he offered his service to the Colonial Army. He eventually ended up in command of the 3^rd Virginia regiment with such luminaries as James Monroe and John Marshall under his command. General George Washington personally requested his promotion to Brigadier General. Five months later Mercer led a brigade into a line of British infantry at the Battle of Princeton and was impaled seven times. Even though he was under the care of one of the best doctors in America, Benjamin Rush, he died nine days later in a house on the north end of the battlefield. He was 52 years old. He did live long enough to know that The Continentals had kicked the crap out of the British and this battle turned out to be a pivotal battle in America’s pursuit of independence. Hugh Mercer was a pure warrior, y'all. He was one of many that showed up at the right place and the right time for America.

1838 Earlier Joseph Smith had established a Mormon controlled bank in Kirkland, Ohio along with a Mormon settlement. Due to the nationwide run on banks called the Panic of 1837, Smith’s bank failed and he felt that the had better get his ass out of Dodge so on this date he headed into Missouri with the cops nipping at his heels. He and his followers did not stay long because word got out about the Mormons practicing polygamy and they were ran out of Missouri so they headed on to the Illinois frontier and settled a town they called Nauvoo. A little later on the word got out about the polygamy thing and a crowd of people surrounded the town with blood in their eye. Not to mention Joseph Smith had spread the word that he might run for president. Joseph told the mob that he and his brother would surrender if the rest of the town would be allowed to leave peacefully. The mob allowed this and jailed Joseph and his brother. Three days later, the mob got likkered up and raided the jail and hanged Joseph and his brother. Everyone thought that with the death of Smith the Mormon movement would collapse. They were wrong, Brigham Young assumed command and the whole bunch headed west and did not stop until Young saw the Great Salt Lake Valley and said the immortal words “This is the place”. The Church of Latter Day Saints based in Salt Lake City thrives to this day.

1943 Earlier Adolph Hitler decided that he wanted to conquer Russia even though he had signed a non-aggression pact with them earlier. Hitler sent three enormous armies into Russia to capture its three largest cities, Leningrad, Stalingrad and Moscow. The three German armies were named the Northern army, The Central army and the Southern army. The Northern army headed a bee line toward Leningrad thinking it would be an easy operation. They found out, as did the other two armies, that these operations would be no walk in the park. The Northern army ran up against a stone wall and was repeatedly repulsed on any attack they tried. Hitler decided that siege would be the best avenue so the Northern army surrounded the city and would not let anyone or anything in or out. During the first year of the siege 650,000 residents of the city died of exposure, starvation or injuries from the almost constant bombardments. The Russian secretly moved the very young and the very old out of the city and eventually left only 2 million people to feed and this left enough open ground to raise a modicum of crops and livestock. On this date during a blizzard with temperatures in the -30’s, the Russian army broke through the encirclement and surrounded the Germans themselves. The Germans were then in deep shit because the Russians would cut off their supply lines and they would wither without a constant supply of high protein food and winter clothing to fight the worst Russian winter in 50 years. The Germans saw the handwriting on the wall and began a retreat back toward Germany on January 27 with the enraged Russians right behind them. The siege was over after 827 days and the sacrifice of millions upon millions of Russians. No one knows for sure but it is estimated that the Russians lost over 26,000,000 soldiers and civilians in WWII. It is no wonder that when the Russians finally began an offensive and when they entered Germany they slaughtered every air breather they came across. They wanted their pound of flesh, y'all.

1970 US Singer Zach de la Rocha. He said “Anger is a gift”. It certainly is, and it is a difficult one to control from time to time.

            Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow