Thursday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I have never killed anyone, but I have read a few obituaries with much pleasure.”

                                           Clarence Darrow

The original concept of a democratic republic was for the general population to elect people represent their interests for a period of time and then "go back to the farm" not to stay and wallow in the morass of corruption that is inevitable after an extended period.

A while back a man was elected to represent us in the 4^th district in for "only two terms". After running for re-election for his sixth term he was defeated because of his betrayal of this promise. Later when asked he said "The power and influence you gain is intoxicating".

To me that translates to "Power corrupts". The longer you stay the more you are corrupted.

         This Date in History   March 30

1775 On this date King George III of England endorsed the so-call Restraining Act. Parliament had proposed this abomination and the King liked it. Now y'all listen to this. This act declared that the colonies must trade exclusively with Great Britain and that ain’t all, the Act forbade the American fishing fleet from fishing in the North Atlantic. Are you mad yet? This meant that all the most eaten fish in the colonies such as cod and salmon would have to be bought from Great Britain even though the Danes and Dutch fished the North Atlantic also and the American fleet had no problem with supplying its people with these fish. The British Prime Minister, Lord North, knew that this act would stir up a hornets nest in the colonies and tried to calm things down by stating that if a colony paid the salary of the Royal Governor of their Colony, they would be taxed less. But Lord North knew this would have little or no effect and sent the Military Commander General Thomas Gage to Boston to become Governor of Massachusetts. This was just the first step toward martial law and the colonists knew it. In July Gage sent a British regiment to destroy a cache of arms and ammo known to be in Concord, Massachusetts and arrest firebrands Patriots Samuel Adams and John Hancock. It was during this event that the first shot was fired at the British in anger and the Revolutionary War was under way. Considering what humiliation burdens the British put on the colonists, I am amazed it did not start before then.

1980 In the stormy North Sea the oil companies provided apartments for the drilling platform workers on their off time. The apartment had room for about 220 workers and was afloat on gigantic pontoons. On this night while most of the workers were watching a movie with a gale howling outside, a gigantic rogue wave estimated to be over 100 feet high slammed into the apartment and it capsized . Most of the workers were Norwegian but there were a few Brits and Americans aboard. The apartment was about 220 miles from Dundee, Scotland and soon Royal and Norwegian helicopters were on site but the gale was still howling and rescue was difficult if not impossible. Of the 208 that were aboard the apartment, 123 were unable to reach a life boat and were drowned. Eight years later there was a fire and explosion on a drilling rig in the North Sea took the life of another 167. The oil platform workers make a lot of money but it isn’t worth the risk.

1867 On this date the United States Secretary of State William Seward coughed up $7.2 million dollars and gave it to Russia for what is now Alaska. Seward caught a large ration of shit for this deal. His detractors called Alaska a “huge stump of ice “or “Seward’s Icebox.” Little did they know what a plethora of minerals lay under ground including gold, silver, coal, and iron ore not to mention oil. I would say that the $7.2 million was a good investment for these United States.

Quotable quotes:

“The Cardinal rule of politics is don’t get caught in bed with a live man or a dead woman”. Larry Hagman

How about a semi-dead woman, Larry?

                Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I worked in strip joints, but I never got my clothes off, the crowd kept yelling 'Don't do it, Don't do it'”

                                             Whoopi Goldberg

On March 2, 1810 Pope Leo XIII was born. In the later stages of his life as Pope he said:

“It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, or writing or worship as if these were so many gifts given by nature to man.” I had to read this statement over and over again to make sure that I copied it right. Pope Leo XIII has since gone on to his reward.

When speaking of Hollywood stars he said:

“I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.”  Me too

                                                  Ben Stein

               This Date in History   March 29

1776 On this date General George Washington assigns the task of the protection of New York and its waterways to General Israel Putnam. If ever there was a true warrior it was Israel Putnam. He was a lieutenant under George Washington during the French and Indian War. He was captured and tortured by the Caughanawega Indians but eventually escaped. This man was a fire-breathing Patriot from the git-go when the British began with their enactment of laws trying to suppress the colonist’s rebellious attitude. He was a founding father of the infamous Sons of Liberty. It was this bunch that was the hosts at the so-called Boston Tea Party. Israel was there. After hostilities really got under way, Israel joined the Continental Army with gusto. He was with Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen at their victories at Ticonderoga and Montreal. After taking command of the troops in New York, he suffered two defeats in a row at Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton in 1777. After these two losses, Washington’s faith in Israel Putnam began to fade. He continued to serve in the Continental Army until he had a career ending stroke in 1779. It is unfortunate that such a warrior ended his career in disrepute. Putnam was raised in Salem, Massachusetts and it was some of his ancestors that were responsible for execution by various means of “witches and warlocks” during the infamous Salem witch trials in 1692.

1951 Earlier nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs was arrested in England by British authorities with the assistance of the FBI. Fuchs worked on the A-bomb project both in England and the United States during the development period. He was arrested for espionage in a conspiracy to give atomic secrets to the Russians. Fuchs readily admitted to the conspiracy and pointed his finger at his “mule” Harry Gold. Gold had been the go-between to deliver the paperwork to the Russians. Gold was arrested and admitted to being the “mule” but said he knew of someone with a hell of a lot more knowledge about the inner workings and pointed to David Greenglass. Greenglass was also arrested who worked at the laboratory at Los Alamos with his sister and brother-in-law Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Greenglass named Ethel as the brains of the conspiracy and Julius was the activator. All four went on trial were convicted. Greenglass and Gold got prison sentences. On this date the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death for treason in spite of the fact that Russia was an ally at the end of WWII. But the “fear” of atomic attack from the Russians was a real one for several years. What condemned the Rosenbergs was that Greenglass and Gold gave almost identical testimony against the Rosenbergs in separate hearings. Julius and Ethel were executed in 1953 in the electric chair in Sing Sing yelling that they were innocent to the very end.

1973 Two weeks after the signing of the peace agreement between North Vietnam and the United States, the last American combat troops leave South Vietnam and the last of the American POW’s (allegedly) are released. After a seven bloody years, the Vietnam War is over for the United States. Within a matter of hours the North Vietnam army enters Saigon and renames it Ho Chi Mien City and Vietnam is one country once again. The mightiest military force the world has ever seen was unable to keep the country split into two nations at the cost of about 70,000 American lives. Thank God that nightmare is over, but another may have replaced it.

1878 Earlier the Boers, or Dutch settlers in Africa, were driven from Natal by the British. In the way was the nation of the Zulu. The Zulus were renowned for their ferocity in battle. The British tried to remove the Zulus but soon found that they had a tiger by the tail and the so-called Zulu Wars began. The British got their ass handed to them on two successive battles, however on this date 2,000 British troops routed about 20,000 Zulus and the conquest of South Africa by Great Britain was complete when the province of Natal was absorbed in the Republic of South Africa.

Born today:

1819 US entrepreneur Edwin Drake. When proposing to his investors that he was going to drill for oil. His investors said “Drill into the ground and expect to find oil! Are you crazy?” I would have said the same thing.

Died today:

1885 US writer Anna Strong. She said “I normally do not know where my journey is going until just before I arrive.” I like this girl’s attitude.

1957 English writer Joyce Cary. She said “How unfortunate love is, it is always too much or too little.” That is true except with a dog, they give unconditional love.

2004 English commentator Alistair Cooke. When speaking about Greta Garbo he said “She gave you the impression that, if your imagination had to sin, it could at least congratulate itself on impeccable taste.”

                Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”

                                 Benjamin Franklin

Here is another event that proves I am here for a reason:

When I was in the USAF I was based at Greenville, Mississippi. This base was closed and donated to the city of Greenville who turned it into an industrial park. While there as most of us in our youth believe, I thought I was 10 feet tall and bullet-proof. Greenville is on the Mississippi and has docks and piers along with some pretty rough bars. My friend Tim Rushbrook from West Virginia and I decided to go into one of them and just see what it was all about. We had not been there very long when a very drunk guy began walking around the room asking everyone if they wanted to fight. He was pointing his finger in everybody's face a yelling. A guy sitting at the next table said “I hope he don't do that with me.” Guess what, he did. The guy sitting down pulled out a revolver and shot the drunk point blank in his right shoulder. He could have easily killed him but showed some mercy.  It was so close that the drunks shirt briefly caught on fire. The drunk hit the floor and the rest of us stampeded out the door, including the shooter, before the cops came. If the drunk had been armed it would have been the OK corral with me in the middle. God works in mysterious ways.

Here is a colorful individual from the old American west:

                          Judge Roy Bean

One of the most colorful characters in the history of the American west dies. It was Judge Roy Bean of Langtry, Texas. He was the self proclaimed “Law West of the Pecos.” Bean was born somewhere in Kentucky in the 1820’s. In 1847 he and his brother Sam left home and went to Mexico and lived a rogue’s life until he got into an argument with another man and ended up killing him. This forced Bean out of Mexico and he ended up in San Diego. As usual, Bean got into a fight in a bar and ended up killing anther man so he had to skedaddle out of there and ended up in Los Angeles. He got into a fight with a Mexican General over a woman and shot and killed the General. The General had a lot of friends and they took Bean to the closest tree and strung him up. The woman who he had the fight over ran to his rescue and cut him down in the nick of time. He carried the scars from that rope for the rest of his life. Bean decided that California just ain’t the place to be and he moved out into the wilds of New Mexico and Texas. For about 16 years he was a prosperous and legitimate business man in San Antonio. In 1882 he moved to southwest Texas and built his famous bar “Jersey Lily”. Eventually he founded the town of Langtry, Texas named after the actress Lily Langtry as was his bar. Bean became a justice of the peace in Langtry and was famous for dispensing justice using common sense rather that the letter of the law. He once fined a dead man for carrying a concealed weapon. But on the down side when a man shot a Chinese rail worker, Bean let him go saying that he could find no law against shooting a “Chinaman”. Bean fell ill and died in November of 1903, just 10 months before the real Lily Langtry came by for a visit to his famous saloon.

              This Date in History March 28

1979 On this date began a comedy of errors resulted the worst nuclear accident in United States history at the recently built Reactor #2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. This particular power plant was built on an island in the middle the Susquehanna River about 10 miles from the Pennsylvania capitol of Harrisburg. There was a slight over pressure in the reactor and a pressure relief valve opened as it was supposed to, the only problem was that it failed to close back and cooling water began to escape. The emergency relief pumps began to operate automatically as they were suppose to. If the plant operators had let this safety system work as designed, nothing would have happened. But the newly trained plant workers could not figure out what the hell was going on. With the cooling water leaking out onto the floor of the containment building the reactor core temperature began to rise. For reasons known only to the plant operators, they chose to shut down the emergency relief pumps. There is no need for me to tell you what happened to the core temperature. Pennsylvania Governor Thornburgh was between a rock and a hard place. After being appraised of the situation, he had to so something but he did not want to cause a panic. He sent out a notice that everyone with a 10 mile radius of Three Mile Island to stay indoors. Then the next day he advised that pregnant women should evacuate. Then word leaked out that radioactive steam had escaped and a small amount of radioactive water had leaked into the Susquehanna River. All of this was true but it was not that much of a risk but a panic began and over 100,000 people near the plant evacuated. By now the core had reached a temperature of 4,000 degrees which is within 1,000 degrees of a complete meltdown. Eventually experts from Metropolitan Energy and the reactor designer (Babcock and Wilcox) arrived and figured out what the problem was and the emergency pumps were restarted and the core temperature began to fall. In an attempt to lessen the panic, United States President Jimmy Carter went to the plant. Carter was a Naval Academy trained nuclear engineer and had dealt with damaged cores in the past probably in a nuclear submarine. But he was not there to offer expertise but to restore the confidence of the population. Everyone thought the problem had been solved but two days later a hydrogen bubble was discovered in the top of the containment building and there had been a small explosion but the containment building held. It was determined that the hydrogen bubble was not a threat. By the way, it was an explosion of a hydrogen bubble that destroyed the Russian power plant at Chernobyl but the Russians did not use containment buildings. The core had been damaged in reactor # 2 making it useless. During the crises, reactor # 1 had been shut down also. Reactor # 1 was not restarted until 1985 and reactor # 2 was sealed. Since this emergency the building of not one nuclear power plant has begun in the United States. There have been reports that those that stayed those few days after the initial accident have an increased incidence of leukemia and other cancers but it is not a proven statistic. There was one of the plant operators that put on a safe suit and went into the floor of the containment building where the water was about 18 inches deep trying to find out what the problem was. He had with him a flask of test water that began to effervesce like carbonated water very soon after he arrived. He saw this and got the hell out of there, and I don’t blame him. A lot of lessons were learned during this experience. That is the only upside I can find to this whole scenario.

Died today:

1957 US writer Christopher Morley. He said “A critic is a gong at a railroad crossing clanging wildly while the train passes by.”

1984 US educator Benjamin Mays. He said “Isn’t it a calamity that we died with unfulfilled dreams, but it is even a bigger calamity not to dream.” Ben was a wise individual.

                Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I decided not to pursue a career in music because have you ever heard anyone say “There goes that banjo picker in his Ferrari.”

                                              Steve Martin

I saw a post on Facebook about a dog that had uncovered a recently born cottontail and guided his master to it. The master looked the rabbit over and then took it back to where it was discovered, covered it with leaves and left hoping that the mother would retrieve it. I had a similar experience a long time ago. I had been married only a short time and my bride and I were living in an apartment in large antebellum house near Balfour, North Carolina. The house was on a large property surrounded by a lot of scrub oaks and weeds. Our closest neighbor was about 100 yards away down in the “holler”. Occasionally we would here a beagle trailing something down in that area. One day we went walking down a wagon trail through the underbrush and a rabbit ran across the trail in front of us followed closely by a beagle puppy. I recognized its voice as the one we had been hearing. The neighbor saw us walking and came over to say howdy. I asked him about the beagle pup and he said her name was Petey and he was going to have to give her away because he had all he could handle as is. I jumped at that and took Petey home that day. As Petey grew her voice deepened somewhat but she as still a soprano. One day she came walking up the drive way with a baby rabbit in her mouth and laid it on our front porch. My wife was not please because the rabbit was squealing the whole time and she took it back to the thickest brush and turned it loose and that is the last we saw of it. I was not optimistic because the squealing would have attracted predators. Shortly after that we moved to Greenville, SC and brought Petey and Sam (my wife's chihuahua) with us. Both Petey and Sam were essentially house dogs but if Petey saw me put on my hunting jacket she would start jumping up and down on the front paws in anticipation. I did not really want to kill rabbits I just enjoyed watch Petey work. She would get in the car put her rear paws on the seat and her front paws on the window sill and would watch the passing scenery with much interest. When we got to the field and she would run around frantically urinating several times before getting down to business and industriously sniffing the ground in a zig-zag pattern for that familiar scent. She made no sound until she struck a hot scent then she would whimper and occasionally bay a short burst. When she finally got the rabbit on the run she would begin a serenade of baying from a low note to a high note...it was music y'all. On one occasion I was ahead of her and jumped a rabbit. I had a particular yell meant for that situation and Petey came running but there was a small pond between me and her. Rather than run around the pond she jumped in, swam across and picked up the trail and off she went along with her familiar melody. One time I was ready to go and I yelled the command for her to come and she didn't show up. I figured she was out of hearing range. I took off my jacket, laid it on the ground and left. I came back two hours later and there she was curled up on my jacket. When she got in the car she laid down on the seat rather than look out the windows, she was tired. Not only that there were a few spots on her ears that were bleeding from brier scratches. That's right, she had no problem with burrowing into a brier patch after her prey...she was relentless. She was very good company around the house too and a friend to my wife, kids and me. Petey died of kidney failure in her later years. I had forgotten what a great blessing she was to all of those who knew her...now I remember.

              This Date in History March 27

1775 On this date a young redhead from Virginia is elected to the 2nd United States Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson was soon recognized as an efficient composer of letters especially with his first submission called “A Summary View of the Rights of British America.” He also stunned the others with “Draft Notes on the Virginia Constitution”. Jefferson had a large part in drafting the Virginia Constitution and as a result he was tasked at drafting the instrument that the United States would use to separate from England. He was 33 years old. He came up with a document he titled “A Declaration by the Representative Congress Assembled”. This document has been recognized as the most important in the history of democracy. Jefferson presented his draft to Congress on Jun, 28, 1776 and a very few changes were made to the text and the title was changed to The Declaration of Independence and adopted on July 4, 1776. I still wonder at the bravery and courage of these men by adopting and signing this monumental declaration knowing it would bring even more pressure from the mightiest army and navy on the planet. Not only that: There was a good percentage of the American population that wanted to stay under the wing of King George III and many ended up joining the British Army. In fact, most of the combat units for the British in the Carolinas were all Loyalists led by British commanders. That is why the encounters between the Loyalists and the Patriots were so savage and bitter. Anyway, Jefferson held several positions in the Government of Virginia and the United States and ended up being elected as our third president and served two terms 1801-1809. It was Jefferson that was president for the Louisiana Purchase and for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He eventually retired to his homestead in Virginia known as Monticello. He dabbled in the formation and running of his beloved University of Virginia. He died on July 4, 1826; exactly 50 years after his draft of the Declaration of Independence became adopted. He was 86 years old. Jefferson is a giant among the framers of this great nation. We were very, very lucky to have had men of his caliber. Was he here at this place in this time frame by accident? I think not.

1964 Late in the afternoon the Pacific plate slipped against the North American plate at a point about 8 miles northeast of Anchorage, Alaska. The end result was the largest earthquake ever measured in North America of 8.5 on the Richter scale. The quake lasted about 3 minutes and witnesses said that ground waved like a wheat field. There were gigantic chasms that opened and closed not leaving a trace that anything had happened. Tsunamis were felt down the United States west coast, Hawaii and Japan. There was one report by a deck hand aboard a cargo ship tied to a pier in Homer, Alaska that he watched every drop of water in the harbor disappear over the horizon and left the boat sitting on the bottom. Then over the horizon he saw a gigantic wave coming toward him like a freight train. There is nothing he can do but hang on and when the wave struck him and the boat are flung inland several hundred yards. He survived but the boat was trashed. There was another case of a man near Homer who was holding on to something substantial and saw his 50 foot house trailer, wife and dog enclosed washed out to sea and never saw hide or hair of either one again. I was stationed near Anchorage at Elmendorf Air Force Base as a control tower operator. I left in 1961 but I saw pictures of my old control tower. It was a pile of scrap metal and glass. The two controllers in the tower during the quake were killed. As bad as it was, this quake could not hold a candle to Christmas Eve quake/tsunami in the Indian Ocean a couple of years ago. There was no way all the deaths could be tallied in this one but it is acknowledged to be over 350,000, too horrible to contemplate.

           Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“What we call progress is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance.”

                                      Havelock Ellis

Aggravations:

I was working in Charlotte, NC and would occasionally come back to Greenville, SC (about 93 miles) on days off. I had gotten off work and was headed toward Greenville on I-85, I was going fishing with my brother the next day. Close to the Gastonia, NC exit the traffic slowed to about 15 MPH and was backed up to the horizon. I thought it must have been a horrendous crash. When I got to where the backup began I discovered that people were slowing down to look at all the vehicles with flashing blue and red lights. The problem was whatever the problem was it as on the other side of the median...with a 6 foot tall concrete barrier in the middle. You could not see a damned thing except the reflection of lights flashing. I was beside myself.

Aggravation: Dumb-assed rubberneckers.

                This Date in History  March 24

1765 On this date British Parliament passed the Colonies Quartering Act making it the responsibility of the American Colonies to provide quarters, or barracks, for the British troops that had been sent to the colonies, as inflaming as it sounds. Look at the date and tell me how the colonists were able to put up with this abomination for 10 years without revolting. There was an order of priorities for which type of cover the colonists had to provide of the Redcoats. The very last on the list was a colonist’s house but it was there. Just to think that it was the responsibility of the land being invaded to be responsible for the housing of the army doing the invading. The arrogance of even thinking of such a thing arouses the Scottish blood in my veins and makes me believe that freedom and liberty are indeed worth dying for. Don’t test me..don’t even go there.

1989 The night before Captain Joseph Hazelwood, the commander of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez is out partying with some of his crew and the regular bar flies in the city of Valdez, Alaska. On this afternoon Captain Hazelwood is on the bridge when the gigantic oil tanker leaves the docks of Valdez filled to the scuppers with Alaskan North Slope crude. But when he is assured that the course is clear, he takes little nip and retires to his cabin. The unqualified officer he left in command on the bridge gets confused by all the icebergs in Prince William Sound and ran aground on Bligh Reef in the middle of the Sound. That ain’t the bad part; the Exxon Valdez is holed and begins leaking Alaskan crude oil into the pristine Prince William Sound. Captain Hazelwood is awakened and called the Coast Guard in short order and reported what happened. There was no response from a containment group for three hours. After that it was too late. 11 million gallons of crude were leaked into the Sound, and spread into a 100 mile radius and polluted 700 miles of shoreline killing thousands of animals and making the normally fertile Prince William Sound a marine desert. In short it was the worst ecological disaster in American history. There was a lot of financial fencing done between the state of Alaska, Exxon and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Eventually, Exxon offered the state of Alaska $25 million unopposed against the contested amount of $100 million. The state of Alaska took the $25 million. Money talks.

1862 On this date abolitionist Wendell Phillips was scheduled to make a speech in Cincinnati, Ohio. Phillips was the son of a famous and wealthy family in the New England area. Wendell never had to work so he was looking for a “cause” to occupy his time. He chose freeing the slaves as his crusade. After the Civil War broke out, the abolitionists tried to persuade Lincoln to declare the reason for the war was to free the slaves. For almost two years Lincoln called baloney on that and proclaimed the purpose of the war was to maintain the union. Then when that didn’t work after the Union army got their ass kicked in rapid succession and the Union supporters said “to hell with it, let them have their own country, stop the slaughter.” Then Lincoln changed horses and proclaimed the War was to free the slaves making it a moral issue. Anyway, Wendell Phillips got up on the rostrum in Cincinnati and started orating about how right it was that the war was to free the slaves and he was booed off the stage and had to be escorted off the premises under armed escort. Of course I am not an advocate of slavery, but Lincoln not staying with the original “cause” as being the preservation of the Union was at least suspect if not unconscionable in its sincerity. If you weigh the freeing of the slaves against the preservation of this great nation, it is no contest.

1890 On this date the United States Supreme Court handed down what was called a “surprise decision”. The case in question was the Milwaukee, Chicago and St. Paul Railroad v the State of Minnesota. The State of Minnesota imposed fees on the railroad to limit the profits to a “reasonable amount”. The railroad sued claiming that in this situation the railroad must be considered an individual and therefore the 14^th Amendment applied which stated that an individual is allowed to make as much money as they want. Incredibly the Court ruled in favor of the railroad making the railroad the same as an individual. But we must keep in mind that at that point in time this country was literally run by the railroad barons, Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan for instance. But eventually these barons ran upon a hard–ass named Teddy Roosevelt and things began to change.

Born today:

1936 Canadian scientist David Suzuki. He said “Education has in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson can teach: Skepticism.” I agree.

Died today:

1603 Queen Elizabeth I of England. When speaking to Sir Walter Raleigh she said “I have known many people that have turned gold into smoke, but you are the first person that I have seen that turned smoke into gold.” Her Majesty was speaking of Walt bringing tobacco into Europe.

1882 US writer Henry Longfellow. He said “Talk not of wasted affection, affection is never wasted.” Henry sure had a way with words.

1905 French writer Jules Verne. He said “I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure could walk on a cloud without coming through.”

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The next time a prostitute solicits you for business, ask her for the clergyman's rate.”

                                               George Carlin

What is the difference between “tamed” and “domesticated” animals? In a book I am reading it is this. A tamed animal is like the Indian elephants that are used in the timber industry but it takes at least 20 years for one of them to get large enough and trained enough to be useful. A domesticated animal is like cows, chickens, dogs, etc. They mature fairly quickly and can be bred into many varieties. Some animals cannot be domesticated for a variety of reasons even though they mature relatively quickly. An example is the African cape buffalo. They are bovine (cows) but the are some of the most temperamental and downright dangerous beasts out there. The zebra has never been domesticated because they absolutely will not breed in captivity. Cheetahs will not either. The reason is the females insist on going through a mating ritual that covers miles of running and sparring. If this don't happen, the female does not ovulate and rejects all suitors...story of my life.

This is a little different from my normal format but ignorance combined with arrogance really bothers me. The following may be offensive to some but I didn't make this stuff up, y'all, this is what happened.

I saw a TV show about Thomas Jefferson and his Monticello estate in Virginia. The “host” was a minor TV personality that was so smug and arrogant it was distracting from the guided tour by the manager of the estate. When the guide pointed to some small buildings and said “These were the slave quarters.” The host said “You mean that he was a slave holder...that changes everything I thought about him.” That just goes to show how stupid and ignorant people are about the history of slavery in the world and the United States in particular. Let me say this about that. Ulysses Grant's wife had slaves, the wharves and piers of New York and Philadelphia and many other projects in these United States were built by slave labor. I am not defending that vile practice but it it just the way things were back then and you cannot apply present day morality to past years...time, people and values change. I feel the need the give a brief history of slavery in the western hemisphere. When I say that I mean from the eastern end of the Mediterranean sea including Africa to the west coast of North and South America.

The first written acknowledgment of slavery was by clay tablets written in cuneiform describing the exploits of several kings of city-states in Mesopotamia or Iraq/Iran. These tablets are over 7,000 years old. The kings regaled in the number people they captured, enslaved and used as trade items. The Jews in their Babylonian and Egyptian captivity are an example.

There are hundreds of descriptions of battles going back 4,500 years where the Egyptians also captured and enslaved their enemies and used them in barter and trade.

Every nation in ancient north Africa including Carthage and Tripoli were involved in slave trade for profit.

The same can be said for ancient Greece, the Balkan countries, certainly the Roman empire and nearly every other European country. Eventually the Europeans did not call them slaves they were called vassals or serfs but the results were same...they were chattel.

About the 400 AD the Vikings began raiding the west coast of the Europe via the English Channel and sailing up different rivers in search for gold, silver, anything of value and yes, people to enslave. They reached their peak about 700 AD and had a regular pipeline to providing slaves to the “Rus” or the tribes that border the Volga River. They eventually became the Russians. That is why today there are blond and red haired people in Russia even though that trait is not in their ancestry except for slaves.

The Dutch opened sugar plantations in the Windward and Leeward islands in the eastern Caribbean about the same time the settlers in what later became the United States also established huge plantations on the eastern seaboard all of which cried out for slave labor. This was about 1630AD. The first documented use of slaves in America was at the Plymouth Ma. colony in about the year 1624 when a Dutch slave ship stopped at Plymouth and traded slaves for food to get them back across the Atlantic and home. The Dutch knew the need for slaves existed and sailed down the west coast of Africa and worked out a trade agreement with several kings of the independent nations therein. These kings would provide slaves for the Dutch trade goods including firearms. The kings were African and would send search parties inland to capture other Africans to be sold as slaves. The difference was the kings were Muslim and the Koran forbade the enslaving of other Muslims but anyone else was fair game. Enslaving a person of the same race was not an issue, their religion was.

The Spanish saw how wealthy the Dutch were becoming by trading dry good for slaves, sailing over to the new colonies and selling the slaves for sugar (worth its weight in gold in Europe), gold or precious gems and sailing home much richer than they left.

The Spanish were unsure of the morality of all of this and asked the Pope for guidance. The Pope decreed that it was OK to enslave others as long as they were not Catholic...more religion. The Spanish and English joined this new enterprise and a flood of slave ships sailed south from Europe to the “Slave”, “Gold” and “Ivory” coasts of west Africa and took care of business.

The Spanish found a better source of wealth in plundering the Inca, Maya and Aztec by stealing their mountains of gold, silver and precious gems while enslaving them to work in their own mines. By the way, the Inca, Maya and Aztecs also used slave labor in their mines before the Spanish came.

In 1641 King Charles I got fed up with the constant rebellion of the Irish and in the span of 10 years killed 500,000 Irish and enslaved 300,000 Irish men, women and children and sold them mostly to the sugar plantations on Barbados.

As the settlers in the US moved west they found that the Native Americans would enslave people if it was to their advantage. The tribes would do a census from time to time and if they found there were more of their tribe dying than were being born they had no problem with raiding other sources for women to be child bearers in their tribe so they wouldn't go extinct. They were not particular about their race...just so they were women. There were exceptions...the Mexican Apache and Comanche was heavy into the slave trade and would hold bi-yearly “Fairs”in Santa Fe to buy, sell and trade their slaves. In the “Trail Of Tears” when the Cherokee and Creek were forced from their lands in the Carolinas and northern Georgia there was a military report that said “they left their villages with everything they and their slaves could carry.”

In 1807 the United States after doing a detailed census showing that there was more slaves being born than were dying, banned further importing of slaves but the buying, selling and trading of the existing slaves continued unchecked until December of 1865.

The same thing happened on the plantations in the Caribbean and further slaves were not needed. The slave trade in the trans-Atlantic expired.

Guess what happened next. Gold and diamonds were discovered in South Africa and y'all know what was needed to operate those mines. A slave market was opened off the eastern coast of Africa on the island of Zanzibar and is still operating to this day. It is estimated that there have been more slaves sold in Zanzibar by a factor of 4 than were sold on the east coast of Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas...4 times as many, y'all.

Slavery is not dead...it is alive and well on the east coast of Africa and there does not appear to be an end to it. There was a blonde high school girl from Birmingham Al. that disappeared without a trace while on a senior high school trip to Aruba, a Dutch owned property. I would not be surprised if she went through Zanzibar at one time or another, blondes are at a premium. Like I said, I did not make all of this up, this is what happened like it or not.

                    Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                         Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I don't like repeat offenders, I like dead offenders.”

                                Ted Nugent

I guess most of you have seen where the Broadway musical “Beauty and the Beast” has been re-written to include a segment that shows a homosexual encounter and other meetings that are nothing short of bad taste. A while back I saw an attempt to re-write “Richard III” by William Shakespeare to show that Richard was a homosexual as was the majority of his court. Let me say this about that. I am far from a homophobic but it is nothing but a lack of imagination and naked plagiarism to have to modify another artist's works to portray something that is of a personal conviction and is a disgusting insult to the authors.

Beauty and the Beast was a book originally written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve a french authoress who died in 1755. The present version was written by Jeanne-Marie de Prince Beaumont, also a french authoress who died n 1780. I do not believe that either one of these women had a homosexual encounter or scenes bordering on pornography in mind at any time while writing this milestone of literature. But somehow the present day producers consider it “breaking new ground” or “doing daring things” but it is nothing but showing a supreme lack of talent and imagination and an extreme overload of shallowness.

             This Date in History   March 22

1820 On this date one of America’s greatest naval heroes is shot in a duel with a man named James Barron. Stephan Decatur succumbs to his wounds the next day. Barron, also shot, survived his wounds. Stephen Decatur was born in 1769 in Maryland to a naval family. In 1789 he joined the American navy he went through the familiar naval training and was assigned as a midshipman of the new frigate, United States. The fledgling United States merchant navy was being preyed upon by pirates sailing out of the North African port of Tripoli on the north coast of Africa because they knew that the United States did not have a viable military navy such as Great Britain that could provide retribution. One of the United State’s newest warships, the USS Philadelphia, had been forced aground near Tripoli by the pirates. US President Thomas Jefferson tasked the navy with dealing with this situation because he did not want such a ship to fall into the hands of the pirates nor to allow them to use the American design of the ship to build one of their own. So the navy sent Stephen Decatur and 12 others to Tripoli disguised as Maltese fishermen. They sailed their small fishing smack into Tripoli harbor, overcame the guards on the Philadelphia and burned that puppy down to the waterline. English naval hero Horatio Nelson called this feat as “one of the most daring of the age.” Finally the United States navy gained enough armaments and manpower and sailed into each of the North African ports that had been giving them trouble and sent in the recently chartered United States Marines. The Marines went in and kicked ass and took names and threatened each country with continued slaughter if they did not sign a peace agreement. It is from this action that in the Marine Corps Hymn the line “from the shores of Tripoli” arose. Anyway, the trouble with James Barron began when Barron was less that resistant to a British capture of a ship under his command. Barron was brought before a court martial board of which Stephan Decatur was a member. Barron was convicted of dereliction of duty and was kicked out of the US Navy for a period of five years. At the end of the five years, the United States was again at war with Great Britain in the War of 1812 and Barron chose to stay in Europe until the war was over. When he then tried to re-join the United States navy, Stephan Decatur opposed it and Barron was not accepted. Well, Barron felt now it was matter of honor and challenged Decatur to a duel. Duels were frowned upon except for the United States Navy. The challenge was accepted on this date the duel was consummated in Bladensburg, Maryland...Decatur was killed. Barron was finally reinstated into the US Navy in 1821.

1984 Earlier the most blatant display of public hysteria and miscarriage of justice ever seen began. Seven teachers at the McMartin Pre-School in Manhattan Beach, California are brought under siege by a yuppie soccer Mom who claimed that her 2 ½ year old toddler had been sexually molested at the school. The police are brought in and they began a comedy of stupid acts that results in the destruction several people’s reputations. After hearing the Soccer Mom they sent out 200 form letters to the parents of all the little kiddies that attended that school telling them about the charge and that the suspected culprit was on of the owner’s son, Ray Buckey. As you might suspect, the parents went crazy as hell and immediately withdrew their children and initiated lawsuits against the school and Ray Buckey in particular. Let’s recap at this point. As a result of zero credible information and the sheer stupidity of the police, a legitimate and honest business is destroyed and the eight employees are on the street. That ain’t all. On this date, seven employees including owners Ray Buckey and his mother are indicted after the Grand Jury interviews 18 of the toddlers. Then a wacko outfit is brought in called Children Information International. These jackasses spread panic across the United States by saying that nearly all juvenile daycare centers had instances of sexual abuse. The parents of the little kiddies nationwide acted as you might suspect, with hysteria. Finally, credible child psychologists were called in and convinced the courts that a child in the toddler range can and will tell you what he thinks you want to hear. As incredible as it sounds one child testified that Ray Buckey took him to a cemetery and they dug up bodies and cut them open. In the meantime the McMartin School was burned to the ground by an arsonist. Eventually, American parents came to their senses and the hysteria abated but not before a lot of damage was done. It took years for day care and pre-schools to regain credibility.

1908 On this date Louis L’Amour is born in Jamestown, North Dakota. Louis was not much of a student and at the age of 15 he left home to seek his fortune. At various times he was a cowboy, seaman, longshoreman, boxer, miner and fruit picker. During World War II he ended up an officer in the American tank corps. After the war he tried his hand at writing and was soon recognized for his compact and hard-hitting style. He wrote several novels that were moderately successful but he hit a home run with the novel “Hondo” that became the basis of a John Wayne movie. A little later he wrote the novel and screen wrote another hit in “How the West Was Won.” After these blockbusters his career was assured. He wrote a series of novels about three different pioneer families in the early west in “The Sacketts”, “The Chantrys and “The Talons”. For his contribution to the learning and lore of the American west he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1983. Louis went to that that great cattle ranch in the sky in 1988. I miss him.

Born today:

1930 US educator Derek Bok is born: He said “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” He is right. Mick Jagger has a degree in economics and look at him.

1930 US evangelical Pat Robertson. “During my Presidential bid I stated that I would only bring in Christians and Jews into my cabinet. This created a firestorm in the press and they asked “Do you mean that atheists, Hindus and Moslems are not any good at governing?” and I said “Yes, I do.” I normally am not enamored with his obvious prejudices and he did not disappoint this time.

                   Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow   

Tuesday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Propaganda is that branch of lying which often deceives your friends without ever deceiving your enemies.”

                                          Walter Lippman

A while back for lunch I had “Reedy River, 8, 16 and 18. That is shorthand for fried flounder, potato salad, fried okra and sweet potato cobbler. I also had iced sweet tea and cornbread.

My server was a middle aged black man named James. He had on a black tee shirt with cross and “I Love My Church” on the front. He was occasionally singing ...”Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand...” and frequently saying “Lord, I am too blessed to be stressed”. I asked him where he was from and he said “I am from Georgia...I am a runaway slave.” James is a hoot.

               This Date in History March 21

1778 Earlier Loyalist Colonel Charles Mawhood had successfully attacked the Patriot regiment at Quinton’s Bridge, Mass. with a mixture of Loyalist and British troops. On this night, he attacked the Patriot troops sleeping on the ground near Hancock’s Bridge, Mass. with the same regiment. He attacked with bayonet only to try and not arouse anyone unnecessarily. Finally, he yelled “Attack, Attack Give no quarter”, and several Patriots were killed with their hands in the air. The arrogant Mawhood also ran into the house of the nearby George Hancock house and killed everyone in it including Mr. Hancock who was a devoted subject of the King. He then threatened all the survivors with killing all of their families and burning down their houses, but changed his mind when the survivors told him that was a two way street and they would send people looking for him and his family very soon if that occurred. I cannot find any further reference to Mawhood other than he was present at the Battles of Princeton and Trenton and was also present at a murder trial where one of his officers was shot and killed by an English Ensign.

1980 On this date United States President Jimmy Carter announced that the American contingent of Olympic athletes would not be allowed to attend the games in Moscow. This was the first time the United States would not be in attendance since the revival of the modern games in 1896. Jimmy did not want to contribute to the economy of Russia who had just a few months before ruthlessly invaded Afghanistan (who is over there now) to try and prop up the Russian backed government that was having its ass handed to it by the Mujahadin or the independent warlords that are giving our troops in present day Afghanistan such a difficult time. The Afghani warlords owe their loyalty to no one and are fiercely independent. The system of independent warlords in Afghanistan has been in place since the days of Alexander the Great and I do not think it is going to change anytime soon. These guys love to fight and are not afraid of death and ended up sending the mighty Russian army home with its tail between its legs. The Russians had more than 70,000 casualties. How does the Untied States expect to change this system that has been in place for 2,300 years into a Democracy? I don’t get it.

1932 A surge of warm air rose out of the Gulf of Mexico and met up with an Alberta Clipper (a mass of really cold air) sweeping down from Canada. The meeting took place in lower and central Alabama and as you might suspect violent weather is the result, especially tornadoes. These people in rural Alabama and any other southern tier state were already suffering in the grinding Depression then here this monster comes. The first town hit with a tornado was Marion, Alabama which resulted in enormous damage and 18 killed and 150 wounded. This deadly front moved northeast, as they all do, and dealt death and destruction to Demopolis, Northport, and Sylacauga, Alabama before splitting into two divisions and one going into Tennessee and Kentucky and the other into the Carolinas and Georgia. The end result was millions in damage and 299 killed and thousands wounded. I don’t know but I would think those people that were already suffering under the yoke of the depression would have felt that this was the end of the world.

1960 On this date there was a peaceful demonstration in the South African town of Sharpeville. The demonstration was by blacks who had travel restrictions put on them that did not apply to the whites. Sharpeville is near Johannesburg, South Africa. The local police in Sharpeville waded into the crowd and opened fire with automatic weapons killing 69 and wounded 180. The next day in Cape Town, South Africa thousands of blacks hit the streets in protest and order was regained only after 10,000 were arrested. It was after this that Nelson Mandela, the president of the African National Congress decided that peaceful disobedience would not work and began raising an army. Mandela was captured, tried and convicted of treason and thrown in jail for life. After 27 years Mandela was released. He eventually became the first black President of South Africa. What an amazing display of perseverance.

1871 On this date American ex-patriot Henry Stanley departed Zanzibar after being tasked with locating the British explorer Davis Livingstone or proof of his death. Livingstone was in Africa trying to find the source of the Nile River and had not been heard from for six years. Stanley left with 2,000 porters and guides but the greatest majority of them had deserted shortly after the expedition began. Stanley searched for eight months and then one day he walked into the village of Ujiji on the banks of Lake Tanganyika, American flag flying. He spotted a white male in the middle of the village and walked up and uttered the immortal “Doctor Livingstone, I presume.” By the way, the source of the Nile River is Lake Victoria.

Born today:

1685 German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. He said When speaking of playing the harpsichord he said “There nothing to it, all one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.” It is simple, y'all.

1905 US writer Phyllis McGinley. She said “In Australia, not reading poetry is a national pastime.” I really think their national pastime is drinking Foster’s beer.

1946 US Director Russ Meyer. He said of his third marriage. “I am a serial bigamist.”

Quotable Quotes:

“I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”

                                                   Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens is my most favorite author of all time.

                  Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Success is worrying about everything in the world except money.”

                                          Johnny Cash

My blog is also available on my web site:  bigalsdailyhistory.blogspot.com

                                    Hammurabi

The Babylonians of the 1800 century BC were led by a king named Hammurabi. A dolomite finger shaped stelae (carved column) was found by an Egyptian archaeologist in 1901. The stelae had all 261 laws of Hammurabi engraved on the side. Later on there was found identical markings on several clay tablets. They were all written in the Akkadian language that was still in use at the time of Christ. We must keep in mind that the Hebrews were captured and enslaved by the Babylonians on three different occasions and there is little doubt that the Jewish law absorbed part of the Hammurabi law into their own. Here are a few of them that will smack of present day law.

If a man and a woman married and there is no intercourse, she is not his wife. In these days an “annulment” quickly follows the absence of sex in a marriage or if either partner objects.

Hammurabi says If a man takes another man’s child he shall be put to death. Back in the 1930’s the Charles Lindberg baby was kidnapped and killed. Bruno Hauptman, an illegal German immigrant was captured, tried and convicted on the flimsiest of evidence of this horrible crime. A year after the conviction he was executed by electric chair In Trenton, New Jersey.

Hammurabi law stated that if a man accused another of a crime, the accused would be required to jump in the river and if he died, the accuser would gain the man’s house and lands. However, if the jumper survived, the accuser would be killed and the accused would gain all of his lands and house. It hasn’t been that long ago that “affairs of honor” were settled in duels. This law is very close to that.

It appears that the Babylonia law system of sorts existed. The Executive and Legislative branch was the king, the Judicial and enforcement branch was the “elders”. Nearly all serious cases came before the “elders” for judgment. There were defined punishments for a given crime but the punishment had a little “wiggle room” dependent upon circumstances.

Even judges that convicted a man that later proved to be innocent, the judge was to be executed. I like this one.

It seems a harsh method of justice but they were harsh people and the Hammurabi knew that.

This is just few of the Hammurabi laws of the 261 but it should give us some insight into how life was in the Middle East 3800 years ago. 

This Date In History March 17

1804 Two months before the Lewis and Clark left on their immortal expedition James Bridger was born in Richmond, Virginia. Jim became one of the most important explorers of the American west in its history. He was the original “Mountain Man”. Little is known of Jim’s childhood but it is known the he and his family moved to Saint Louis, Missouri in 1818. Jim honed his skill by exploring the area around Saint Louis and followed the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition. When Jim was 18 years old he found out about an enterprise named the Ashley-Henry Fur Company expedition. Their idea was to head west and trade with the Indian for furs, especially beaver and mink. The first person hired was Jim Bridger. Jim was successful in trading with the Indians, even with the fierce and protective Blackfeet that gave Lewis and Clark so much trouble. He was successful in building the first fur trading post on the Yellowstone River. It is acknowledged that he was the first Anglo to lay eyes of the Great Salt Lake even though he thought it was the Pacific Ocean. He had an enormous recall of geographic detail that saved his ass more than once. He operated as an independent trapper for several years. He grew tired of the nomadic life and decided that there was enough traffic on the Oregon Trail to warrant a trading post so he married a Flathead woman named Cora and founded and build Fort Bridger in the Green River section of southern Wyoming. His fort became a regular stop for the pioneers headed west. He and Cora had three children and it looked like an idealistic life for Jim, but it was not to be. Cora died, one of his daughters was killed by the Blackfeet and the third died of jaundice. After these episodes Jim would retreat into the mountains and trap, living with different Indian tribes. In 1853, Jim married a Shoshone woman he named Mary, and lived at the Fort in the summer and with the Shoshone in the winter. The Mormons in the area became jealous of Jim’s success and tried to have him arrested. But Jim and Mary escaped into the mountains along with their children. The Mormons burned and gutted his fort destroying his supplies. They are not as benevolent as they would want you to believe. He was worried how to feed his family and bought a farm near Westport, Missouri and left his family there during his western adventures. In 1858 he sold his fort and made his living as a guide to the pioneers and as a scout to the US cavalry. In 1868 he retired to his farm in Westport and tended his apple orchard. With his eyesight failing and rheumatism rampant, he died July 13, 1881 at the age of 76 in Westport. What a contribution this man made to the expansion of these United States.

By the way, The movie “Revenant” was loosely based on the life of mountain man Hugh Glass. Hugh's troubles began when he was attacked by female grizzly and severely injured. While under attack he was screaming his lungs out and the 2 of the trappers he was with came running and killed the bear. They thought Hugh would die so they skinned the bear, covered him with the pelt and left. One of these men that killed and skinned the bear was Jim Bridger.

            Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow