Wednesday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Whatever biases and/or conclusions you may have drawn or established are almost always based on hearsay unless you as an individual are an eyewitness or ear witness. If you read something in a book, in the electronic media or even talk to someone that was a witness to particular event, the descriptions are totally different from person to person. The reason is that every individual has preconceived ideas and beliefs and will either intentionally or subconsciously embellish certain portions of the event that agrees with what they believe and omit those parts of the event that disagrees with them. That is just human nature. That is why that the longer after a commission of a crime, the more unreliable an eyewitness testimony becomes. The ultimate conclusion is that if you are not an eye or ear witness to an event but forward a description to others that you have heard or read about, you are just fostering gossip or propaganda because the author(s) may have had an agenda. It is this human frailty that is cultivated by dictators and despots in the past and present to sway public opinion. See Germany under Hitler. Where does the truth lie? It lies in the mind of the eye or ear witness for a very short period of time. Any time subsequent to the event is corrupted by other information flooding into the senses every minute of every day. Be wary of what you read or hear and the deductions you may draw…they could be (probably are) based on corrupted, biased and prejudicial information… as Polonius told his son in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “To thine own self be true’”....because no one else will.

                                                  Al Campbell

I don’t know what made me think of it but during Desert Storm a US Marine unit was crossing over from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait near the coast. There was a series of bunkers built by the Iraqis and they were all occupied by less than professional Iraqi soldiers that were facing highly trained US Marines. I still have an image in my mind of a US Marine that was naked from the waist up with his undershirt tied around his head like a bandana. His arms were covered top to bottom with tattoos and he was yelling at the Iraqis to get their young asses out of those bunkers while waving an M-16 in one hand and a pistol (looked like a Glock) in the other. The Iraqis came crawling out of those bunkers with their hands on top of their heads. They would not even look at the Marine they were looking at the ground, y’all. It was funny.

               This Date in History   August 2

1939 On this date the world famous physicist Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging that the United States exercise “watchfulness and if necessary, quick action” to develop a nuclear device for warfare. Einstein has been talking with other European physicists like, Louis Szilard, Neils Bohr and Edward Teller; all had come to the US to escape Hitler, who was convinced that the Nazi regime led by Adolph Hitler was relatively close to perfecting a nuclear weapon. Roosevelt took Einstein’s advice and formed a “Uranium Committee” that in 1942 eventually became the “Manhattan Project” which was the name for the program to develop a nuclear bomb. The lead scientist was a brilliant but sometime obtuse man named J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer and his military counterpart General Leslie Groves clashed frequently over Groves’ insistence of air tight security which severely limited the movements of the scientists involved. But in just under three years this project delivered enough fissionable Uranium and Plutonium to produce three bombs. The test bomb (Plutonium) was detonated in the middle of a New Mexico desert in July of 1945 and the world changed forever. By the way, Einstein had no part in the development of this weapon except for his theories that had been published 20 years before.

1776 Exactly one month before the Continental Congress had accepted a proposal by Richard Henry Lee that “the colonies had a right and ought to be a free and separate nation.” Lee’s draft was taken under Thomas Jefferson’s wing and edited into what we know as the immortal Declaration of Independence. The president of the Congress John Hancock signed it immediately but the others wanted time to savor it before signing. They gathered on this date again in Philadelphia for the formal signing. The signatures began going from north to south with Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire signing first and George Walton of Georgia signing last. James Duane, Robert Livingston, John Jay and John Dickenson refused to sign. Then there were the fence riders in Carter Braxton, Robert Morris, George Reed and Edward Rutledge (SC) didn’t like it but they signed it anyway to give an appearance of unity. Five representatives were absent with George Washington (in the field), John Sullivan, James Clinton, Christopher Gadsden and the Governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry. The news of what happened on this fateful day arrived in London on September 8 and King George III peed his pants.

1865 The Confederate cruiser CSS Shenandoah was on patrol in the northern Pacific taking out Union whaling ships when on this date he was notified by a British merchantman that Lee had surrendered and the American Civil war was over. Earlier this ship commanded by Captain James I. Waddell had sailed around Cape Horn and immediately captured and burned 5 Yankee whaling vessels in the southern Pacific. Then he snuck into Melbourne, Australia for supplies and re-fitting. In January of 1865 he sailed out of Melbourne and headed directly for the whaling grounds around Alaska and raised almighty hell with the Yankee whalers, burning most of them. It is estimated that he did $1.6 million in damages to the Yankee Merchant Marine. After accepting the British word that the war was over, Waddell pulled off another spectacular feat. He sailed from Alaska to Liverpool, England non-stop. He was not about to surrender to those damned Yankees.

1876 The 39 year old “Wild Bill” Hickok was playing poker at the No. 10 saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. Bill had settled down from his wilder days and was eking out a living playing cards. Un-typically Bill was sitting with his back to the saloon door, normally he insisted on facing the door. A wannabe gunslinger named Jack McCall walked in and came up behind Bill and shot him once in the back of the head killing him instantly. Strangely, McCall tried to shoot others but every other round in his pistol was a dud. Two weeks later, McCall went to meet his maker wearing a hemp necktie.

Born today:

1871 US writer John Sloan. He said “Since we have to speak well of the dead, lets give them hell while they are alive.”

1905 US actress Myrna Loy. She said “I think that carrying on a life that is meant to be private in public is a breach of taste, common sense and mental hygiene.” Me too, Myrna.

                     Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow