Friday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“My neighbors love it when I play my piano; they throw rocks and break my windows so they can hear me better.”

                                              Les Dawson

I had a discombobulating experience a while back and I would like y'all’s opinion of my behavior.

I was sitting in on a board meeting of the Four O’clock Club when a sweet young thing beside me struck up a conversation. She introduced me to her husband of just a couple of years sitting beside her. They were both about 27 years old. After just a few minutes of conversation she said “Do you feel intimidated sitting next to a self-assured woman?” I was momentarily taken aback but gathered my wits quickly and said “I will answer that question if you will answer two questions that I have.” She said “go ahead.” I said “Do I seem like someone that would be intimidated by anyone or anything? And secondly, where do I find a ‘self assured’ woman within earshot?” She started telling me about how deprived she was as a child and how successful she was in her career. That opened a gigantic doorway for me to bury her; she had aroused my competitive spirit. I began telling her the history of Colin Powell, W.C. Handy, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, George Washington Carver (born a slave), etc. After an extensive history lesson I told her “I can go out on this street and mention any of those previously named and 99% of the people will know who I am talking about, but 100% of them will not know that you exist.” I began gathering up my drink to go somewhere else in the room to get some fresh air. I told my brother in imbibers (Michelin Mike, the accountant) that was sitting with me that I was leaving and he said he was too. The young lady smugly said “So both of you are intimidated.” I said “No sweetie, we are just bored as hell with your breast….make that your chest beating about how great you are. You are light years from being able to carry on an intelligent conversation with either me or Mike. Your husband looks bored too.” She said “He has no choice; I have all the money, or will have when my inheritance comes in three years.” That was it for me. I said “If I was your husband I would take a piece of that inheritance and go find a real woman, I will leave it to your imagination as to what I would do after that, goodbye.” As I passed her husband he was laughing his ass off and said “Good job.” Mike and I found another conversationalist...or two.

                This Date in History   February 17

1865 On this date United States General William T. Sherman and his army of 60,000, in his continuing campaign against innocent and defenseless civilians, enters the state capitol of South Carolina and begins an orgy of rape and destruction. Two days before CSA General Wade Hampton III had pulled out of Columbia knowing that if he stayed and fought his small cavalry unit would be swarmed under and annihilated. The Yankee army took great pleasure and were very meticulous in their destruction of this city because they felt that it was South Carolina that was first to secede and provided the impetus for all the others. This method of “burnt turf” warfare was advocated by both General Ulysses Grant and President Abraham Lincoln. Y'all will need to remember that Abraham Lincoln issued a “call to arms to preserve the union” after the secession began. The US army had its ass handed to it by the Confederates in the first few battles of the Civil War and then the northerners pressed Lincoln to allow the Southerners to form their own country so as to stop the slaughter. Then Lincoln saw that patriotism was not going to get the job done so he switched horses and said the war was about freeing the slaves which changes the impetus from patriotism to a matter of conscience. Now when the US Army has a chance at barbarism with impunity they say they are punishing those that led the secession. That was bullshit; they are back on the other horse again. They were just doing rape and pillage because they could get away with it, politics not withstanding. But mankind’s history is full of similar events from the wars between the Mesopotamian city-states, Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, Tutsis vs Hutus not to mention what happened in Darfur. Mankind’s history is full of atrocities against the innocents and it appears to me that there is no end in sight.

1906 Earlier there had been a workers strike at various silver and gold mines near Coeur de Lene, Idaho and the mine owners had beseeched the Governor Frank Steunenberg to intercede. Foolishly the Governor did indeed intercede in favor of the rich mine owners. Well, soon thereafter a bomb detonated at Governor Steunenberg’s fence gate at his Caldwell, Idaho home while he was opening it. The governor was killed instantly. The mine owners, not to be outdone, hire the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency to find out who killed the governor. The Pinkertons brought in their ace detective in John McParland to investigate in and around Caldwell. McParland and the local police focused in on a man named Tom Hogan. McParland befriended Hogan ands soon found out that he was not Tom Hogan but he was Harry Orchard, a renowned assassin. After much pressure was applied, Orchard implicated Bill Hayward, Charles Moyer and George Pettibone all leaders of the National Miners Union. The only problem was that all three were in Colorado where law enforcement is very sympathetic to unions and it was guaranteed that they would not extradite the three on the word of an admitted murderer. So Idaho did the next best thing. Several Idaho officials and a few Pinkerton agents went to Colorado and kidnapped the three back to Idaho. But the Union had another ace up its sleeve; they brought in famous lawyer Clarence Darrow in their defense. Hayward was tried first and the prosecution could not get any corroboration for Orchard’s testimony and it came down to Orchard’s testimony alone and being it almost a sure thing that he was guilty, Hayward was acquitted. Since Hayward was acquitted, there was no sense in trying the other two. After he was released Hayward fled to Russia where he spent the rest of his days. He was buried in the Kremlin.

1820 On this date the United States Congress enacted legislation known as the Missouri Compromise. Since the beginning of the addition of more and more states the southern agrarian society had been fencing with the industrial north about slavery. The southern states were sensitive to having more free states than slaves states because if they were outnumbered, slavery could be abolished which would be devastating to the huge plantations. All of this was of great import to the south up until the invention of the cotton gin and the steam powered farm vehicles. At this point in time Missouri was petitioning to come into the union as a slave state and the northern states objected because it would upset the balance. So the Missouri Compromise stated that Missouri would come into the union as a slave state and the next year Maine would be allowed in as a free state. All of this was just a delaying action because the Civil War exploded just 41 years later.

                Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow