Thurday

                         Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Hustle can overcome talent if the talented fails to hustle.”

                                       Pete Rose

The relatives of that 16 year kid old that was killed in the process of sticking up that restaurant in Gaffney, SC have said “We want answers about why Michael Davidson was shot in the back, he was apparently running away.” The coroner has only said that Michael died from a chest wound and I don’t know where the relatives got that information. I have questions for the relatives. Where did that 16 year old black kid get a pistol? Where did the kid get the idea that he could rob someone with impunity? Why did this kid obviously not know right from wrong? What the hell was he doing riding around with other young teenagers at 3:30a all having firearms looking for someone to rob? Does his parents/caretakers give a damn about this kids discipline and future rather than looking for the basis of a law suit because of the tragedy caused by uncaring family/caretaker members? It really bothers me that in a situation like the family members come out of the woodwork looking to profit from it. To answer their question: The kid may have been moving toward the door but no one knows if the kid would turn and fire at any moment. If someone had invaded my home and then began heading for the door I would start shooting and keep shooting until he/she was either gone for good or dead and I would not worry if their backs or fronts were evident. Even then, who is to say that a criminal like that might return and try to kill you because you can identify them? I have no sympathy for criminals. They commit the crime with their eyes wide open and should expect retaliation especially in this neck of the woods where many, many of us are armed including your truly.

              This Date in History   May 11

1934 On this date the phrase “Dust Bowl” in the United States came into being. The farmers in the southern plains had repeatedly plowed under the prairie grass to make room for their crops and turned their cattle loose on the range also. It was the prairie grass that held the topsoil and moisture in place but the farmers that settled on the Great Plains came from farms in the deep South or middle America where ground cover was not an issue and crop rotation was not practiced. There had been a three year long drought and on this date the mother of all dust storms occurs in the southern plains, primarily in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico, and 350 million tons of topsoil in blown 1,500 miles to the American east coast. In fact, ships 350 miles at sea in the Atlantic found their decks covered with dirt. The combination of the drought and the dust storms that depleted the richness of the soil forced many of the farmers to pull up stakes and west to California seeking a fresh start. These immigrants were known as “Okies” no matter where they came from. Bakersfield, California became a favorite destination of the displaced farmers because of the rich agriculture in the area. They found the situation in California was nearly as bad as it was back home because of the lack work from the effects of the Great Depression. It was a dark time in the history of America.

1812 On this date a man named John Bellingham walked up to English Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the House of Commons in London and pumped a bullet into the back of Perceval’s head killing him instantly. Bellingham immediately surrendered. He was upset about the property he lost in the War of 1812. Perceval was the Chancellor of the Exchequer for Great Britain also and it would have been up to him to reimburse Bellingham if he saw fit. He did not see fit and paid for that decision with his life. One week later Bellingham went to meet his maker dangling from the end of a rope. That’s right folks, I said one week later.

1987 Earlier during World War II a German monster named Klaus Barbie was made head of the German Gestapo in Lyon, France. Barbie was equal to the task and had no problem with sending Jewish Frenchmen to concentration and outright death camps. He also was known as a master torturer in his own right. At the end of the war Barbie was captured by the American army but they did not turn him over to the French but hired him as an agent to gather information about the Communists. Eventually, Barbie went to Bolivia and was hired by the leftist government as a security specialist. This jackass held this job for nearly 40 years. Finally a more liberal government was elected and Barbie was handed over to the French where he went on trial for crimes against humanity. The trial began on this date and he was charged with implementing the death of 7,500 and the torture of 4,000. On one occasion he found a group of elementary school children and two teachers and sent them all to the notorious death camp of Auschwitz. In July of this year Barbie was convicted and sentenced him to life imprisonment which was the most severe penalty available at the time. He died of cancer in prison in 1991 at the age of 77. He was known as “The Butcher of Lyon”. Indeed.

1987 On this date a fire broke out in the wooden roof of a soccer stadium in Bradford, England during a game with the all the seats taken. It was only a week before the roof was scheduled to be replaced with a steel one. Anyway, the smoke from the fire became so thick and stifling that no one under the roof could see and as you might suspect, panic arose. The panic stricken people crushed against each other trying to escape and the end result was 53 killed and hundreds wounded. The investigators determined that the fire began from the pile of debris beneath the seats that caught fire from a cigarette. It took only four minutes for the entire stadium to burn to the ground.

1864 During a savage cavalry battle near Yellow Tavern, Virginia, a dismounted US cavalryman severely wounded the commander of the Confederate Cavalry General J.E.B. Stuart. Stuart lasted through the night and died early the next morning. Stuart was a flamboyant critter. He always wore a clean and pressed uniform, wore a full beard and an ostrich plume in his hat. He was a very vain man, but he was one of the most brilliant horse cavalrymen ever foaled in the United States . It was Stuart’s intelligence gathering that was instrumental in CSA General Robert E. Lee’s enormous successes early in the war. As you might suspect, Stuart did outlandish things some believe to get his name in the Richmond newspapers because the military value of some of his journeys were questionable. But there is no question that General Lee held him in very high esteem because when “Stonewall” Jackson died, Lee put Stuart in command of Jackson’s Corp. The loss of Stuart and Jackson went a long way toward the Confederate’s loss of the war. Perhaps it was preordained that we not end up as a Continent of six nations, Canada, United States, Confederate States of America, Republic of Texas, probably the Republic of California and Mexico. It would not have been a good situation. I have friends that are unreconstructed and would disagree with me.

1944 On this date the Allied forces in Italy attack the German defenses known as the Gustav Line. This line of defense was designed by the brilliant German commander Alfred “Smiling Alfred” Kesselring. The defense was formidable and it took five days for the Allies to break through at a terrible cost. Kesselring had seen to it that any and all things that could be used to hide behind, or used a camouflage was eliminated putting the attacking forces out in the open. But the Allies prevailed due to the grit and determination of the American soldier. Thank God for our military.

              Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow