Tuesday

                        Musings and History

 Quote of the day:
Before leading the 300 Spartans to the Battle of Thermopylae where is was an almost certainty that no one would survive King Leonidas said to his wife Gorgo: "Marry a good man that will treat you well, bear him children and live a good life."

I would like to see a show of hands of those that will never watch an NFL game in which Colin Kaepernick is playing. I have expanded on that...I will not watch any team that the players do not honor our national anthem. Not only that, I will complain to the TV sponsors. Screw you Colin Kaepernick and the jackass you rode in on...you have no class and I hope you never find a job doing anything.

How are women treated by the Muslims worldwide, and they are the majority? Why did all those Syrian refugees NOT go to those Arab nations just a few miles from them on the Arabian peninsula like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman, Somalia, etc.? They were denied sanctuary because the Syrians are of the Shia branch of Islam and the others are Sunnis. That, my friends, is prejudice in its barest form.

                   This Date in History August 29

2005  Earlier a small Category 1 hurricane named Katrina slipped out of the Caribbean Sea, took a swipe at the southern tip of Florida and then broke loose in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico on a northwest course. The warm waters of the Gulf pump Katrina up to a Category 3 in short order. It looked like the hurricane was going ashore in Mobile, Alabama or maybe Pensacola, Florida. But on this date, the storm took dead aim at the Mississippi River delta and New Orleans. Early on this morning Katrina quickly expanded to a Category 4 and then briefly to a Category 5 and then back to a category 3 and stormed ashore in the Mississippi river delta packing winds of 140 MPH and a storm surge of 22 feet. The eye of the storm reached New Orleans intact and the excess water and wind quickly overwhelmed the levees holding back the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. From what I have read, the majority of Big Easy is at least 6 feet lower than the River and the Lake. Once the levees failed, the center of New Orleans was flooded with the 9^th Ward being the hardest hit. Hundreds of people were stranded on the roofs of their houses and just had to wait to be rescued by boats or helicopters. There were some areas that boats were not allowed because of downed power lines and the rescuers just had to try to block out the screams for help in those areas. As we have all seen, the unflooded areas of the commercial districts were subject to unobstructed looting while being observed by the NOPD. The next few days were a montage of events of pure bravery and further events of battles with gangsters trying to take control of the city by force. The arrival of the 82^nd Airborne and the Louisiana National Guard put a stop to this. But of those that evacuated 9^th Ward to the tune of at least 100,000, almost none have returned. I do not know the exact amount of evacuees that left their homes as a result of Hurricane Katrina including parts of Mississippi, but many, many remain in cities like, Atlanta, Houston, Austin and many others, there does not seem to be a desire to return to the Gulf Coast. It looks like they are no longer evacuees but settlers in new lands. It was the worst natural disaster in United States history. I do not remember any presence of the 82^nd Airborne or any looting during the flooding in central Iowa. What’s up with that?

1779 On this day the American Continental army commanded by Major General John Sullivan and Brigadier General James Clinton engage a combined Loyalist/Indian army commanded by British Captain William Butler and Iroquois chief William Brandt. The engagement took place near Chemung, New York which is Elmira today. Earlier George Washington had tasked Patriot General Horatio Gates with going to the Finger Lake region and subduing the Iroquois Indians under Chief Brandt who are on constant attack of the new settlements. Gates refused the assignment so Washington assigned the task to Major General John Sullivan. Sullivan and company departed Easton, Pennsylvania and travel by the Susquehanna River to the area of conflict. The Patriot artillery was too much for the Indians and they fled leaving a small contingent of Loyalist which were killed or captured by the Patriot infantry. Sullivan ordered his troops to burn and destroy the Iroquois villages and supplies. His troops laid waste to 40 Indian villages and mountains of supplies which made the following winter a severe one for the Iroquois but it did not belay their spirit and the attacks continued at least for a while. Eventually Iroquois leader Charles Brandt saw that the Patriots were going to win the war and took his tribe into Canada to lands given to them by the British.

1885 On this date German inventor Gottfried Daimler invented the prototype of the modern motorcycle. The motorcycle was used extensively WWI by both sides as a messenger vehicle. The popularity fell between WWI and WWII but the motorcycle was again used extensively by both sides during WWII. After the war the returning veterans had developed a taste for them and the demand rose precipitously. The down side of the rise in motorcycle craze was led by a group of hardcore gangsters led by the leader of a San Bernardino group of bikers that organized themselves into a club named the “Hell’s Angels”. Their leader was Sonny Barger. From then many “Hell’s Angels” clubs and clubs like them were formed world wide fostering a wild, unfettered lifestyle. They wanted to project a tough, “Don’t mess with me image” and they indeed succeeded. But today the greatest majority by far, is middle class America that holds meets without the gangster types. For instance this month a motorcycle rally is held in Sturgis, South Dakota that over 500,000 motorcyclists attend, not to mention those rallies at Daytona Beach, Fla., Myrtle Beach, South Carolina among other places and they all seem to happen without a lot of trouble. I was a rider at one time. But I did not ride on the street that much, I preferred to ride a trail bike in the mountains up and down logging trails or make my own trails, the rougher the better. It was not a glorifying type of avocation but I enjoyed the hell out of it. I can’t do it now because of my age, but I miss the challenges.

Born today:

1876 US inventor Charles Kettering. He said “I am more interested in the future because that is where I am going to spend the rest of my life.” Kettering invented the electric starter for automobiles among other things.

                 Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow