Thursday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Hillary Clinton has beautiful eyes...I especially like the green one.”

                                            Al Campbell

I met a man this morning that started his own industrial equipment business 6 years ago and is is thriving. I asked him if he heard Obama say that the small business owners did not do it by themselves. He said that he had heard that and Obama was right. He said that if it had not been for his God given intelligence, drive and the ability to detect a need for industrial equipment in this area he wold have never been successful, the other person involved was God. I said that I was impressed with his piety but I don't think that is what Obama had in mind. He was a helmsman aboard the American nuclear attack submarine “Corpus Christie” not long ago. He said that American attack submarines are named after cities and I remember in the movie “Hunt For The Red October” the American attack sub was the USS Dallas. He said that right after his sub was launched and named the evangelicals began raising hell about a vessel designed to kill being named after Jesus Christ. Corpus Christie translated is “The Body of Christ'. From then on the name of the sub is 'The City of Corpus Christie”. That is over the top as far as I am concerned. His sub was a “Los Angeles” (city of Angels) class. What about St. Joseph, St. Louis, St. John and St. Paul?

A while back a 15 and 18 year old boy are taken to the home of a 91 year old retired educator near Charleston, SC in a car driven by a 16 year old girl for the purpose of robbing the man. The two boys went into the house and began beating the elderly and almost defenseless retiree and the man died. The boys complete the robbery and the girl took them away. The 15 year old was captured first then the other two knowing that the kid will identify them so they turn themselves in. These three are just starting out their lives and will spend a great deal of their immediate future being gang raped in a South Carolina prison and will probably emerge as hardened criminals. I am somewhat elderly myself and I can assure you that if anyone enters my house uninvited at least one of us will end up in the morgue. It may be me but that is just the way it is. I have enough immediately available weaponry to wipe out a baseball team including the relief pitcher.

               This Date in History   July 13

1793 Earlier Jean Paul Marat, a physician in Paris had led a blistering attack on the Royal family of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette that eventually led to the French Revolution resulting in thousands of those loyal to the crown losing their lives. Unfortunately for Jean Paul he had a serious skin disease that called for frequent baths in various and sundry elixirs. There was a young woman that lived in Normandy named Charlotte Corday that was a devotee to the Royal form of government that developed an intense hatred of those opposed to it especially Jean Paul. On this date her persistence succeeded and she gained an audience with Jean Paul under the guise that she was going to give up the identity of all of the people in Normandy that were Loyalists. As you might suspect Jean Paul was in the tub taking a bath in a magic elixir (probably natural oils) and Charlotte walked in and produced a dagger from between her breasts and stabbed poor Jean Paul in the chest killing him instantly. She patiently waited for the police to arrest her. In typical revolutionary justice, she was beheaded on the guillotine four days later. They did not fool around with a trial wondering if she was in a bad mental state, had PMS or a bad childhood, they capped her ass. I was in France in ’04 and had a bad experience with one of those arrogant men sons-of-bitches but the ladies were OK, it is just the ball-less men that are full of it.

1942 This is going to sound like a fairy tale but on this date the largest tank battle in history ends. It was called the Battle of Kursk and it happened in Russia. The Germans ordered by Hitler had surrounded several cities in Russian in the hopes of capturing them. The Russian army somehow broke out of the encirclement and surrounded the attacking Germans forcing them to retreat. In this monstrous engagement there were over a million men involved along with over 6,000 tanks. The Russians had superior artillery and destroyed over 40% of German armor with artillery alone. After that they moved in with their T-34 tanks against the good German Tiger IV tanks. The Tigers were good tanks but not the equal of the firepower of the T-34 and the Germans were massacred. After this the Germans began a retreat all along the entire front and the beginning of the end for the German army was in sight.

1881 Earlier William Bonny, better known as “Billy the Kid” had broken out of the Fort Sumner, New Mexico jail killing two deputies in the process using a shotgun. The two deputies hardly knew what hit them and they were dead before they hit the ground. Lawman Pat Garret took his trail and followed it to where Billy ended up at a farm house that had been used by many fugitives on the run but Garrett waited until later and hid in the farm house. On this date Pat caught Billy walking into a bedroom and shot first. Billy hit the floor after three shot and never made a sound and thus ended the legend of Billy the Kid. There is little doubt that “The Kid” had killed at least 20 men and probably more.

1866 Earlier a Georgia immigrant named John Bozeman blazed a trail across Montana leading to the gold fields in northern California. So many gold hunters came across the trail that the US Cavalry began building a fort near the Big Piney Creek and they named it Fort Phil Kearney in honor of the US General that was killed in a Civil War battle. The Fort was built right in the very heart of Cheyenne chief Red Cloud’s hunting ground. Red Cloud was not pleased and he kept up constant harassment of the Fort day and night. Finally, the Fort commander, Colonel Carrington allowed a unit of 96 troopers out of the fort to seek out and destroy the Indians that had destroyed a group of nine woodcutters. The trooper barely got out of the Fort where they were assaulted by 2,000 of Red Cloud’s men, killed and mutilated to a man. After this debacle the troopers, Colonel Carrington included, pulled out of the fort permanently. By the time the troopers were less that three miles away, Red Clouds boys had set the fort ablaze and it burned to the ground. What make Red Cloud so mad was that the US had signed s treaty with him to stay clear of his hunting grounds. But that was before gold was discovered in the Black Hills and California and then as usual the US felt justified in ignoring the treaty. This ain’t the first time nor would it be the last time we screwed over the Indians.

Born today:

1935 US footballer Alex Karras. He said “The best score I’ve ever had playing golf is 103 but I have only been playing 15 years.”

1946 US singer Linda Ronstadt. She said “I wish I was getting as much in bed as the newspapers say I am.” I can help you there, Linda....Well, maybe.

Died today:

1904 Russian writer Anton Chekhov. He said “The only difference between a lawyer and a doctor is a lawyer will rob you whereas a doctor will rob and then kill you.” Hey Anton, you left out plumbers and auto mechanics.

           Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow