Wednesday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“You can never cross oceans until you have the courage to lose sight of land.”

                                            Christopher Columbus

I had a first recently. I was in a local sports bar watching football when a woman about 30 years old sat down beside me and ordered a gin and tonic in a tall glass. She also asked for a separate Styrofoam cup. She pulled out something that looked like a hockey puck opened it and took out a pinch of the contents and stuffed it between her lip and gum. It smelled like mint. When she wasn't looking I leaned over to see what was in the hockey puck...the label said "Grizzly" so I guess it was snuff. For the first half of the Cowboys game she would take the empty cup and spit in it every few minutes. I have never seen a woman use that disgusting shit before.

I was reading about the history of Black Panthers and their leaders. Even though nearly all of these leaders advocated the violent overthrow of the America, they were brought to their senses when Martin Luther King reminded them that the military is in command of the white man and a violent takeover is inviting annihilation. Good, bad or indifferent, that is just the way it is.

Thursday morning of last week a SCHP trooper pulled over a car traveling north on I-85 near Moore, SC. The car had Maryland tags. The trooper found several gallons of moonshine in the trunk and the occupants were arrested. Now here is what griped everybody. The trooper pulled the car over because he was doing 53 MPH in a 60 MPH zone therefore delaying traffic. The minimum posted speed is 40 MPH. The damned cop did not have probable cause to stop that car in the first place; 53 MPH was a bona fide legal speed. That part of I-85 has three lanes on each side. The driver was in the middle lane and those cars that were being delayed had two other lanes to pass. That is rotten, y’all, and all of you know it. This area of South Carolina has a serious drug and gang problem and they are freaking worried about somebody going 7 MPH SLOWER than the speed limit? No wonder we are going down the toilet here in the buckle of the bible belt.

                This Date in History October 18

1867 In March of this year United States Secretary of State Henry Seward began negotiations with the Russian government for the purchase of Alaska. It seems that Seward and President Andrew Johnson were to only people in the US Government that had any vision. They were both ridiculed for fostering this purchase even though Alaska was one fifth size of the remainder of the United States. The public called it “Seward’s Folly” or President Johnson’s “Polar bear garden”. On this date Secretary Seward handed over a check to the Russians for $7.2 Million or about two cents an acre. The Russians had decided that Alaska was too vast and spread out to defend and they did not want to start a squabble with the English so the United States was the obvious choice. The first value of this great land came in 1897 when gold was discovered in the Klondike River. Today Alaska delivers nearly 1/3^rd of our oil and nearly 50% of our seafood. I lived up there for two years and I can assure you there is not more breathtakingly beautiful scenery on this Earth. It is a sportsman paradise with waters teeming with fish and game birds and big game in the woodlands. It gets into your blood and yes, I have plans to return.

1898 I have said before the United States gained foreign territories by conquest and on this date we added another in the form of the island of Puerto Rico. At the end of the Spanish-American War Spain abandoned Puerto Rico and declared it as being free of Spanish rule. Almost immediately the American army that was already in place descended onto the island and declare it as a possession of the United States and installed a military government. In 1913 the United States declared that all the peoples of Puerto Rico were now citizens and English was the official language. But it wasn’t over yet. In 1948, after a series of actions by the Puerto Ricans aimed at independence, the United States declared Puerto Rico autonomous and would become an American Commonwealth. There were movements in 1967 and 1973 toward statehood for Puerto Rico but a public vote showed that the majority of the Puerto Ricans still preferred Commonwealth status.

1998 In the oil rich country of Nigeria on the west coast of Africa the oil is owned and controlled by several foreign companies in corporation with the Nigerian Government and the end result is the average person living in this country receives no benefits from the sea of oil below. In fact many pipe lines run through poverty ridden villages. Many of the villagers would steal a bucketful of oil from time to time from the pipeline to supplement their income. On this date a thunderous explosion occurs at a place where the villagers were tapping the pipeline. Over 600 people were incinerated instantly while others were horribly burned. Those that were burned would not go to a hospital because they thought they would be prosecuted for stealing the oil. What a damned shame.

Born today:

1785 English writer Charles Peacock. He said “Sometimes I think the purpose of science is the elimination of the human race.” Seems that way to me too, Charles, especially nuclear physics.

1865 French writer Henri Bergson. He said “The eye only sees what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” Hey Henri, I saw a woman last night that I did not comprehend.

1919 Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Once while visiting Edmonton, Alberta, Canada he said “It is not the end of the world, but you can see it from here.” Edmonton is a very remote city but there is a lot of engineering work in Edmonton. I have looked into it but the Canadian tax system makes any work there prohibitive.

                Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow