Monday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I have never killed anyone, but I have read many obituaries with much pleasure.”

Clarence Darrow

Trivia question of the day:

Who played Sonny Corleone?  Answer at the end of the blog.

                This Date in History January 1

1781 On this date 1,500 infantrymen known as the “Pennsylvania Line” serving under Patriot General Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne gather up their gear near Morristown, N.J. and headed home because their enlistments had expired. I forgot to mention that more than half of them were drunker than Cooter Brown. Anyway, soon after they left Wayne they were approached by emissaries from British General Sir Henry Clinton offering them a complete pardon and all the back pay the US owed them if they would join the British army. Instead they turned south and attacked and captured Princeton, N.J. The then headed toward Philadelphia and the US Congress. But before that they sent some emissaries back to see General Wayne who had been following them. They had not given up on the Patriotic cause but felt they had grievances. When they met with Wayne they handed over the emissaries sent by British General Clinton and Wayne promptly hanged them. At the meeting with Wayne, it was agreed that those with expired enlistments could go home but Wayne offered a 30 day furlough and a handsome bonus for those that re-enlisted. Nearly half of them accepted the offer to re-enlist and were sent to fight with the Southern Army. A week or so later a group of about 200 Patriot troops from New Jersey heard about this deal and decided to mutiny themselves and barter for the deal that Wayne issued. Only this time the troops were under George Washington and George rounded up the two ring leaders and stood them up in front of a firing squad. That kept the Continental army together for the present. But even at that, there were more colonists fighting with the British than with George Washington. What enormous character this man must have had to have continued and prevailed. I must believe he was not there by accident.

1973 On this night a 28 year old school teacher named Kathy Cleary decided to bring in the New Year at Tweed’s Bar of the upper west side of Manhattan, while there she meets a man named Joe Willie Simpson. Simpson was dangerously disturbed but appeared to be a pleasant and affable young man to young Miss Cleary. Kathy and Joe Willie agree to go to Joe Willie’s place for the rest of the evening; it was there the other Joe Willie emerges. It seems that Joe Willie is a suppressed homosexual at heart which makes him a hater of women. Joe Willie ends up strangling Kathy and stabbing her numerous times and sexually mutilates her. This event was the theme of the book and movie titled “Looking for Mister Goodbar”. The book was written by Judith Rossner as a warning about what could happen during the so-called “sexual revolution”. By the way, before Joe Willie Simpson came to trial he hanged himself in his cell.

1863 On this date the most useless document ever fomented goes into effect. It is the Emancipation Proclamation. This document supposedly freed the slaves in “those states in rebellion” and no where else. They were not “states in rebellion”, they were another nation, constitution included, called the Confederate States of America. How can one nation issue laws applicable to another nation? And how could they hope to enforce it? What happens to the slaves in those slave-holding states NOT in rebellion like Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Delaware? For the life of me I cannot figure out what Abe was thinking. It could have been just to let the CSA know that he did not recognize its legitimacy. But the downside was that it put the four slave-holding states not in rebellion one step closer to seceding and joining the Confederacy. I don’t know who talked Abe into this abomination called the Emancipation Proclamation should have been fired for lack of vision and sheer stupidity. Slavery was outlawed in the United States and its possessions with the adoption of the 13^th Amendment in December of 1865.

1966 On this date the Transportation Workers of America and the New York subway workers in particular cause on of the worst nightmares imaginable for New Yorkers. The subway workers went on strike at the direction New York TWA leader Michael Quill. On the January 3, the Governor ordered the strike stopped or Quill would go to jail. All that did was inflame the situation and the striker dug in their heels and Quill was indeed jailed. The strike crippled the transportation in New York and the situation became intolerable. On the 13^th the subway workers went back to work with a 13% pay raise.

1915 During WWI a British battle group containing the battle ship Formidable had been assembling in the English Channel for a couple of days. What they did not know was that German submarine U-24 commanded by Captain Rudolph Schneider had been watching the whole scenario undetected waiting for a chance at the battleship. On this day his chance came. He slipped in close and put a torpedo into the starboard side just even with the front stack. The bad part was that he maneuvered around, again undetected, and put another fish into the port side just even with the second stack. The ships pumps could not handle the influx of the water and she went to the bottom taking all but 223 of her crew of 770 to Davy Jones Locker.

Births and deaths:

1839 English writer Ouida is born. She said “Could we see when and where we would meet again, we would be tenderer when we bid our friends goodbye.” Pretty heavy, y'all.

1919 US writer J.D. Salinger is born. He said “I am a paranoid in reverse. I believe that there are people out there plotting to make me happy.” Me too.

Quotable quotes:

“Walter Mondale has as much charisma as a speed bump”

                                   William Durst.

When speaking of Adlai Stevenson he said “He is no better than the average sissy.”

                                                Harry Truman

Answer to the trivia question:

Sonny Corleone was played by James Caan.

                 Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                          Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“To me the outdoors is what you pass through on the way from your house to a taxi.”

                                                 Fran Lebowitz

Trivia question of the day:

What Hall of Fame baseball player was nicknamed “The Georgia Peach”?

I heard it again. A person that was a member of a very large Baptist Church in Taylors, SC and had abandoned the church told me the reason he left. He said that it was brought up before the church to leave the doors unlocked to allow the homeless a place to sleep when it is really cold. The church voted against this proposal with some of the faithful saying “There is no telling what kind of filth and disease they would bring. Jesus was born in an indoor livestock enclosure with the animals present...but I guess Mary and Joseph did not have on clothing from Anne Taylor and Brooks Brothers arriving in an Audi or a Mercedes. Some people go to church to see and be seen and not to seek redemption, to them it is a social event. That is all I have to say about that.

           This Date in History   December 29

1778 On this date British Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell and an army of between 2,500 and 3,600 launched a surprise attack on the city of Savannah, Georgia. Included in the army were the 71^st Highlanders, some New York Loyalists and a group of Hessian mercenaries. Savannah was defended by Patriot Major General Robert Howe and a rag tag army of 650-900 infantrymen. Howe saw that he did not have a chance and ordered the evacuation of the city then he ordered the withdrawal of the Patriot troops. The Georgia Brigade was cut off and nearly annihilated with the killing of 83 and the capture of 483. After the completion of the withdrawal the British had suffered 3 killed and 10 wounded. The British occupied Savannah and left only because they wanted to in July of 1782. The majority of the residents of Savannah were Loyalists anyway making their occupation much easier. The Patriots tried to kick the British out of Savannah once in 1779 when they established a siege but it didn’t work so the Patriots said to hell with it and just sealed off the city so no one came or sent except by sea. What was peculiar was that Savannah was a hotbed of Loyalists (Colonists loyal to the King of England) in fact; the entire state of Georgia was more than 50% Loyalist. That is really peculiar because right next door in South Carolina was full of firebrands for independence from Great Britain. Maybe y'all don’t know the reason why there is a Georgia in the first place. The state of Georgia was formed by England at the behest of the wealthy plantation owners in South Carolina to be a buffer between their plantations and the bloodthirsty Spanish slave traders coming up from Spanish-owned Florida. This meant that the people that settled in Georgia were owing to the British crown for the lands that were given to them. I suppose that is where the Loyalist syndrome came from. It sucked, in any event.

1890 On this date one of the most damnable acts ever committed by the US Army happened. The plains Indians had been vanquished and sent to reservations, especially the fiery Lakota Sioux. The last remnants of this once proud and independent tribe were sent to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Due to the corruptness of the US officials, the Sioux on the reservation were not getting the food that was promised to them and starvation was staring them in the face not to mention the abominable living conditions. The killing of the chief medicine man, Sitting Bull, further inflamed the situation. Before he died, Sitting Bull had told his follower that if they resurrected the ritual of the Ghost Dance, they could regain their strength and power that they had in the past. So the ritual of the Ghost Dance was begun. This ritual would not have made any difference but it did give the Sioux the hope and belief that they could prevail therefore the Ghost Dance was forbidden by the US authorities. On this date, on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek, a group of Sioux were doing the Ghost Dance when a group of US Cavalry shows up to try to put a stop to it. During the confrontation a cavalryman and an Indian get into a scuffle and a shot was fired. No one knows who fired the shot but immediately the cavalrymen opened fire and in a matter of seconds 146 Lakota Sioux were dead more than half were women and children. This Massacre at Wounded Knee is the last armed conflict between the US army and Native Americans. There is a book titled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee authored by Dee Brown that all should read; I promise you it will give you pause about what we Americans are all about.

1170 Earlier Henry II had seen to it that Thomas Becket was made the Archbishop of Canterbury in the hope that Becket would help him get the church out of state business. But almost as soon as Becket assumed the position, he said that he supported the Church taking part in state business. There were several heated conversations between Henry and Thomas but with no resolution to the problem. In a moment of anger Henry says “What parcel of fools and dastards have I nourished in my house, and not one of them will avenge me of this upstart clerk?” Four of Henry’s knights saw this as Henry wanting Becket dead. On this date, the four knights enter Canterbury Cathedral and killed Thomas. The Christian world is in an uproar that a man of the cloth is killed in the house of God. Henry caught a large ration of shit about this and in 1174 he was forced to do penance at Thomas Becket’s tomb. Not only that, England had to endure the church meddling in state affairs until Henry VIII came along and put a stop to it. The church canonized Thomas Becket meaning he was made a Catholic Saint. In 1220 Becket’s remains was re-buried in Canterbury Cathedral (been there).

1862 Earlier US General Ulysses Grant had planned a two pronged assault on Vicksburg, Mississippi. He assigned one prong of the attack to US General William Sherman and Grant would direct the other one. It was a good plan except for one thing. CSA Generals Nathan Bedford Forrest and Earl Van Dorn and their respective cavalry units were out there roaming the countryside. Forrest and Van Dorn found Grants supply dump and destroyed it. This forced Grant to delay if not scratch the attack but he did not get word to Sherman in time. The Rebs only had 6,000 troops dug in to face Sherman and his army of 37,000. But within just hours of the attack the Rebs received an additional 6,000. On this date, Sherman attacked as planned but his attack was across open country and anticipated. With Grant not attacking and providing a diversion, the dug in Rebs crushed the attack before it had got started. Sherman learned from this experience and never again attacked across open ground and always inflicted more casualties than he received.

1940 Earlier in July the countries of Holland, Belgium, Norway and France had fallen to the onslaught of the German army. In August Hitler put Operation Sea Lion into effect. This was the plan to defeat England and complete his domination of Europe. Hitler was assured by Herman Goering that England could be defeated by air power alone. So the German air force began the bombing of RAF air bases and radar sites. The German’s sent 1,500 bombers over in a single day. Nothing worked except the German air force began losing many, many aircraft to the RAF fighter pilots. The enraged Hitler ordered that to hell with the RAF bases, bomb the hell out of English cities especially London in the hopes of breaking the English morale. That didn’t work either but in this date, the worst air attack yet came. The Germans rained incendiaries on London starting conflagrations that burned for two days and nights. The upside of this was that the RAF bases were spared attack and were able to repair and recover. The result was that on the next air attack, 56 German aircraft went down in a matter of minutes. After this, Hitler said to hell with Operation Seal Lion.

Answer to the trivia question:

It is Ty Cobb from Royston, Georgia. Ty played his career with Detroit. He is arguably the greatest all around baseball played that has yet lived. His record in lifetime batting average (.367) and number of batting titles (11) are still unmatched.

             Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Working with Cher was like being in a blender with an alligator.”

                                                   Sam Elliott

Trivia question of the day:

What future English king lead the Christians during the 3^rd Crusade?

I am reading about the history of France in WWII. When the German army was closing in on France with no chance of stopping them, a french politician named Pierre Laval negotiated an armistice. This agreement divided France into two sections. One was German occupied northern France that included Paris and the other was southern France governed by Frenchmen that were totally answerable the Germans and based in the resort town of Vichy. The leader of the Vichy government was Pierre Laval. After the Allies liberated France, Laval was captured, tried for high treason and sentenced to death by firing squad. In late September of 1945 somehow Laval digested some poison and was on the cusp of death but a team of doctors and nurses working feverishly pumped his stomach and saved his life. Two weeks later he was stood before a firing squad and executed. His death was not the issue, the Frenchmen wanted their pound of flesh by killing the rotten bastard themselves.

I was thinking about the Christmas Day that I remembered the most as far back in years as I could. I think it was when I got my first bicycle. Within a couple of months my Dad had got me a paper route to help pay for the bike. We were really poor, y’all. The bike was also my transportation to school at a distance of about 3 miles. It doesn’t sound like much but in a driving rain storm it was no fun, and neither was the paper route. I delivered the evening paper. I had to ride about four miles to pick up my papers and backtracked on my delivery route. It was no fun but that experience plus making me work all summer bagging groceries or work with an air conditioner and heating repair man, went a long way convincing me that I needed to learn how to make a decent living rather than a “slave labor” job. My brother (an architect) wrapped insulation around air conditioning duct work all summer, usually in attics or worked on large construction sites as a “gofer” which usually meant pushing a wheelbarrows full of debris all summer. My brother and I got the message.

I worked with a civil engineer on a job near Paducah, Kentucky that was an ex-Marine and from South Carolina. This man told me that he had a similar experience. After high school he knew his mother had a substantial nest egg set aside for his education. He told his mother that he was not going to school but was going to work and wanted the money help him get started. He mother said that was a good idea and put him to work with her brother. He ran a paving company and put that man behind a truck spreading hot asphalt by hand. After a couple of days of that he told his mother that he had changed his mind and entered the University of South Carolina. Do you see things like that today? I think not.

             This Date in History December 28

1781 British troops under the command of Major James Henry Craig occupied John’s Island, South Carolina. Craig and his troops had been kicked out of Wilmington, North Carolina a month before. Patriot General Daniel Morgan ordered the inimitable Lt. Col. Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee and his famous cavalry unit from the Star Fort in the back country of South Carolina near the settlement of Ninety-Six to go kick those redcoats out of there. Just before arriving Lee learned that the Patriot infantry unit led by Major James Hamilton had arrived late and could not ford the Wapoo River so Lee aborted the attack. Because of the flow of the river and variable tidal conditions, the Wapoo River could only be forded once or twice a month and this was not one of those times. It was the relative isolation of some of the coastal island off South Carolina that preserved the Gullah language and traditions. Gullah is a Creole culture that dates back to Elizabethan times and was brought over to America in the slave trade. It was well into the 1950’s that some of these islands could only be reached by water. The Gullah language is exciting to hear because of the accents, rhythm and tempo. However, to the non-Gullah you can understand but very little. There are islands in the Chesapeake Bay, Tangier Island for instance, that was settled by the English and their isolation helped preserve the Old English language to this day.

1793 0n this date American Thomas Paine was arrested in France and charged with treason. That’s right; it is the same Thomas Paine that wrote Common Sense and America in Crisis that inspired out forefathers to not give up in their quest for freedom from the British. At the outset of the French Revolution, Paine had gone to France to see if he could help. Evidently Paine loved revolutions. Paine was a hard core opponent to the death penalty and the French revolutionaries were keeping the guillotine hot chopping off heads of the elitist and backers King Louis. Paine raised so much hell that the revolutionaries arrested him to shut him up. It wasn’t a bad incarceration however. He was locked up in the Luxemburg Prison which used to be a castle. He had a room with two windows, was locked up only at night and had catered meals. None the less, when President James Monroe found out about it, he raised so much hell that the French released Paine after a short while. Paine had been writing a book called Age of Reason which stated that God did not influence the actions of people that it was science and rationality that prevailed over religion and superstition. After the book was published an outcry around the world was heard. Paine was declared as Godless and anti-Christ. Needless to say, his follows and admirers in America vanished. He died penniless in New York City in 1809. That just goes to show you that in those days you just did not suggest an alternative to religion.

1832 On this date, Vice President John C. Calhoun resigned to take a vacant United States Senate seat in his home state of South Carolina. This Yale graduate was the first sitting Vice President to resign but it would not be the last. I will let y'all figure out what other Vice-President(s) have resigned. Calhoun did not get along at all with President Andrew Jackson who kept Calhoun under wraps to decrease his political clout. John C. Calhoun was born near Abbeville, South Carolina in 1782. He served in the state legislature before being elected as Senator. Calhoun was a protector of the agrarian based South against the industrial based North. He also was a hard-core believer in the slave/plantation institution. He called it a “positive good” rather than a ‘necessary evil”. Calhoun spent the majority of his life in high public office including Secretary of War, Vice-President under two different Presidents, US Senator, US Representative. Calhoun died in 1850 in Washington, D.C. and is buried in the graveyard of St. Peters church in Charleston, South Carolina (been there).

Answer to the trivia question:

The future king that was the leader of the Christians in the 3^rd Crusade was Richard the Lionhearted. On the way home Richard was captured in Germany and held for ransom. The Vatican negotiated his release for an enormous donation from his very wealthy mother Eleanor of Aquitaine.

          Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                             Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”

                                                   Charles Schultz

Trivia question of the day:

“What is the “coriolis” effect?

There was an engagement known as the Battle of the Wilderness during the Civil War. CSA General R.E. Lee had taken a beating at Gettysburg and was retreating back into Virginia. He also knew that he was outnumbered by the Union forces by at least three to one and an infantry assault face to face would be suicide. This battle was the first one where the Union forces were commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant in the Eastern Theater. The Wilderness was a section of Virginia that had very nearly impenetrable undergrowth and thick forests. Lee knew that this type terrain would neutralize the advantage the Union forces had in overwhelming numbers. That part of Virginia had been suffering a drought and the woods and leaves were a tinderbox. Sure enough, when the Confederate and Union artillery began to exchange salvos, a forest fire began almost immediately from the exploding shells. The wounded Union and Confederate soldiers did not have a chance to escape and were burned alive. General Grant mounted his horse and rode far enough away that he could not hear the pitiful screams of those men that were trapped. Later on he said he did that so he would not be inhibited in the future from his typically aggressive style of warfare. It would have bothered the hell out of me too.

A long time ago I read a short story about a Welch Terrier named Blackfriar’s Bobby. It was the story about this dog’s dedication to his master. His master was a train engineer and was based in a town named Blackfriar in England. Every day Bobby would be at the train station at the same time every day waiting for his master. One fateful day Bobby’s master was killed in a train wreck and did not show at the train station to greet Bobby. Bobby showed up at the train station every day at about the same time for the rest of his life waiting for his master. There is a statue of Bobby cast in bronze at the train station donated by the people of Blackfriar. This story may have a few flaws because I did not research it as I normally do, but you dog lovers out there will understand what this all about.

This Date in History December 27

1780 Earlier Patriot General Daniel Morgan ordered Patriot Colonel William Washington, George Washington’s cousin, and approximately 275 troops to neutralize the British /Loyalist presence near present day Mountville, South Carolina. The Loyalists led by British Colonel Thomas Waters had been harassing the Patriots in and around that area for some time. On this date Washington arrived with 75 cavalry under his direct command and 200 infantry under the command of Lt. Colonels Joe Hayes and Jim McCall. The area under scrutiny in particular was the area on Bush River near Fairforest Creek. Colonel Washington found the British/Loyalist camped near Hammond’s Store near Mountville. Mountville is about 8 miles south of present day Laurens, SC. Hammond’s Store was a blacksmith/trading post which Washington surrounded and launched a surprise attack. After a four day siege, of the 250 British/Loyalists, 150 were killed or wounded, 45 captured and rest scattered through the harsh South Carolina underbrush. The troops chose of burn Hammond’s Store. This area had only been occupied by Europeans since the early 1760’s and had been under almost continuous attack by the native Cherokees. There had been many cases of murder, rape and plunder by both the Europeans and the Cherokees against each other, not to mention the outlaws that attacked both sides. It was during this time period that this area was considered ungovernable because of all the different prejudices that had been instilled by the hostilities. As you might suspect, it took a limited war against the Cherokee and Choctaw to put and end that that problem. As soon as that was finished there was a short break of 14 years and then we chose to start a fight against those Colonists loyal to the British and the British themselves for our independence from Great Britain. It looks to me that they love of the sting of battle and is in our blood, especially the Scots and the Irish, and we have proven it time and time again. By the way, the exact location of Hammond’s Store has been lost to history.

1831 On this momentous day the HMS Beagle sailed from England for a five year voyage of discovery with a scientist named Charles Darwin aboard. The ship spent a lot of time on the east coast of South American continent before traversing Cape Horn over the west coast. The ship spent several months in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Peru. It was during this time period that Darwin developed the theory of evolution that he called “natural selection.” This theory is further described as the “survival of the fittest.” In other words, only the strong survive. After he had made all of his experiments and observations, almost apologetically Darwin wrote the immortal book “Origin of Species”. His book shook the scientific world to it roots, especially paleontology. What caused the turmoil was that this book and the one that followed, “The Descent of Man” tracked homo-sapiens back to sub-humans such as gorillas and chimpanzees. Needless to say the human elitists and the clergy hit the roof because it was adverse to what was taught in the Bible. But Darwin’s logic was impeccable and was almost bullet-proof and except for later changes made genetics and molecular biology his theory is valid today. To NOT believe what he found and deduced requires a leap of faith, not vice versa.

2004 The day before at about 3:00A Indonesian time an earthquake that read 9.3 on the Richter scale struck the ocean floor near the southern tip of the Indonesian archipelago. One part of the ocean bottom thrust upward by more than 15 feet displacing over 7 cubic miles of ocean. I guess we all remember the movies of the resulting tsunami that came ashore in Indonesia, Sumatra, India and even in Somalia in east Africa. There was even a tsunami in Alaska. This earthquake was the second strongest ever recorded since the Richter scale came into existence. Geologists tell use that the entire earth moved a centimeter or two as a result of this event. The strange thing is that the animals knew what was happening. Many of the dogs in some of the villages along the Indonesian coast began whining and ran to high ground and would not return. In some of the cities along the Indian coast, rats swarmed together in huge packs and ran down the streets in broad daylight. Some of the rats swarmed over the edge of wells and jumped in. It must have seemed like the end of the world. It was the end of the world for over 230,000 people.

Answer to the trivia question:

The coriolis effect what the current in the world oceans and the rotation of the Earth that makes storms in the southern hemisphere to rotate clock wise and counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere. It is also responsible for the different direction of rotation of fluids going down a drain in the hemispheres.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

Future Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal was aboard a ship offshore from Iwo Jima during that epic battle. Shortly after the Marines had landed and endured an avalanche of slaughter administered by the Japanese, a squad of Marines fought their way to the top of the extinct volcano known as Mount Suribachi and raised an American flag. All of the ships blew their ship's whistles and horns and there was a loud shout from all the Marines on the island. Forrestal said “That will ensure existence of the United States Marines for the next 500 years.” The image of the flag raising on Suribachi is the soul of the United States Marines. Iwo Jima is the only battle where the US Marines suffered more casualties than they inflicted.

Trivia question of the day:

“Who was the German commander of their lead tank column in the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge?”

Speaking of combat here is something I did not know.

There are 14 nations that have women in combat units, the United States is not one of them until very recently. There were two women attempting to become a US Army Ranger. The could not handle the physical requirements of the final test but they made them Rangers anyway. The reason that if it became US policy that women are required to fight in combat units then they would have to register for the draft like the men and would not have a choice. The politicians don't want to see their sweet little girls in the draft in time of war.

This Date in History December 26

2004 On this date at 8:06a Indonesian time a large slip in the earth’s crust occurred when a continental plate southwest of the Indonesian archipelago, dropped about 15 feet for a length of about 50 miles. This event generated an enormous amount of energy that spread rapidly throughout the Indian Ocean and displayed itself as one of the most devastating series of tsunamis or tidal waves in recorded history. The hardest hit was several different beaches in Thailand which was just a short distance north and east of the tectonic event. Then the waves traveled across the Indian Ocean and came ashore on the east coast of India and Bangladesh and traveled on to the east coast of Africa to a lesser extent. There were many home movies made at the resorts in Thailand and it was scary to watch as the water on the beaches retreat to the horizon and then come storming back with a vengeance in three or four waves. I have a mental image a little kid on the beach after the water had disappeared and then when the tsunami arrived it washed that kid inland like a rag doll. She did not survive. I fact there was in the vicinity of 350,000 deaths attributed to these tsunamis world wide. We will never know exactly because the small villages up and down the coast that simply disappeared. One strange thing was the people on the beaches in Thailand saw their dogs, cats and even goats and cattle run for high ground even before the water retreated. They knew what was going on.

1908 On this date the first black American Jack Johnson won the World Heavyweight boxing title by knocking out Canadian Tommy Burns in 14 rounds near Sydney Australia. Johnson held the title until 1915 and was hated and reviled by boxing fans in the United States because he did not fit in the typical “Jim Crow” image Americans had of the back man. Johnson drove fancy cars and wore fancy clothes and had a white wife, flashed gold teeth and had several overlapping affairs with different women, all white, which further inflamed the prejudiced. Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas in 1878. He dropped of the school in the fifth grade and began working on the docks in Galveston. Not long thereafter he began his career as a boxer. In those days boxing was divided into black and white divisions and Johnson became the “Black Heavyweight Champion” on 1903. In 1904 Johnson issued a challenge to the White Heavyweight Champion, Jim Jefferies. Jefferies was not interested. It was not until 1908 that White Heavyweight Champion Tommie Burns granted Johnson the match in Australia which Johnson won. It wasn’t long before the sports reporters began writing about a “Great White Hope” to get the Heavyweight Championship back into white hands. Johnson was one of the best defensive boxers in history. He was also a devastating slugger when the opportunity presented itself. In 1910 Jim Jefferies agreed to come out of retirement and challenge Johnson. Johnson was the only boxer that Jefferies ever faced that knocked him off his feet. In the 15^th round Jefferies’ corner threw in the towel and it was all over. Johnson faced several challengers and defeated them all. In 1912 Johnson was convicted of transporting an unmarried woman across state lines for “immoral purposes”. This law was implemented to stop prostitution and white slavery not to stop a night club owner and World Champion from taking his white secretary out for a weekend tryst. This was clearly an instance of law enforcement using the law for their own prejudicial purposes. Johnson was released pending an appeal. Johnson decided to get the hell out of Dodge and fled to Europe where he lived in exile for seven years and continued to defend his title in Europe and he became a very rich man. In 1915 he fought Jess Willard in Havana and was defeated. Some thought that he had thrown the match hoping the charges against him would be dropped. He returned to the United States into the waiting arm of U.S. Marshals. He did a year of hard time in a prison in Kansas then he was released and he tried boxing again but he had lost a step and was not effective. His fortune went away and he ended up working in carnival side shows. He died in an automobile accident in 1945. He was 67 years old. I don’t know what lesson we can learn from this man’s life except “Don’t flaunt it and take the money and run.”

1820 On this date Moses Austin received permission from Spanish officials to bring 300 families into Spanish territory and establish a settlement. Initially the Spanish refused but after further persuasion by Austin they agreed to grant 200,000 acres for this settlement. Delighted, Austin went back into the United States and began recruiting families to his settlement which was in the lower reaches of the Colorado and Brazos rivers. Unfortunately, Moses died before he could get back to his proposed settlement so his son Stephan F. Austin stepped in and continued fulfillment of his fathers dream. The first settlers arrived in December of 1821 and within a decade the settlement numbered 25,000 people. As you might suspect, the settlers had no love for the Spanish and in 1836 they became part of the Republic of Texas and eventually one of these United States. By the way, the settlement is now the Texas state capitol of Austin.

1944 On this date tank units of General George Patton’s 3^rd Army broke through the German army encirclement of the Belgian city of Bastogne. This city was a major objective of the German Army when they launched a surprise assault out of the Ardennes Forest that later became know as the Battle of the Bulge. The city was defended by 18,000 Americans mostly of the 101^st Airborne. During the encirclement the troops defending Bastogne eventually ran very nearly out of food, water and ammunition at the same time. They also were ill-dressed for the bitterly cold weather. After the breaking of the siege the long hard task of pushing the Germans back to where they came from began. Patton pulled off one of the greatest maneuvers in military history. His 3^rd army was driving east toward Germany 100 mile south of Bastogne when the German assault began out of the Ardennes. Patton was able to turn his army 90 degrees to the left and attack the German encirclement of Bastogne. That was an amazing feat considering the logistics involved making that happen. In spite of the brilliance of Patton in rescuing the 101^st many of those proud paratroopers said “We were not f----k---g rescued, we were relieved.”. By the way, if I am not mistaken, the leader of the tank column that broke through to the city was Colonel Creighton Abrams, later to become a four star General.

Answer to the trivia question:

The leader of the tank column in the German breakout in the Battle of the Bulge was Joachim Peiper. He was tried for crimes against humanity in the Nuremburg trials because of the Malmedy massacre. (look it up).

                  Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                           Musings and History

              Merry Christmas, y'all!

Quote of the day:

“In Los Angeles there is a hotline for people in denial. So far no one has called.”

George Carlin

Trivia question of the day: In the movie “Gone With The Wind” Scarlett's boyfriend before Rhett was Ashley Wilkes. What was the name of the Wilkes' plantation and who played Ashley in the movie? Answer at the end of the blog

On the weekend ending July 16 2016 there was five murders here in Greenville, SC, the buckle of the Bible Belt. On Friday afternoon a woman in her mid-thirties drove into the parking garage of an apartment complex in downtown Greenville. She waited for and then shot a 28 year old woman to death while she was getting out of her car. She then drove about 7 miles to a race track, stopped her black Jeep Patriot and shot and killed her 9 and 5 year old kids and then herself. What in the hell could have caused this craziness? Here is the reason:

She and her husband had separated and there was trouble brewing about custody of the kids. Not only that her estranged husband had moved out of their pretty fancy home in an affluent neighborhood and moved into that apartment complex downtown where the murder took place. His wife thought he was having an affair with the 28 year old woman and apparently was moving on with his life. Both he and the alleged girlfriend were employees at Michelin. The cops had visited the estranged wife on several occasions because of threats she had made to her husband the the murdered woman but no action was taken. According to many that woman's mind was clearly unbalanced and the kids needed to be removed from her custody but there is a limit on what the police can do. But there are agencies that do have the authority to judge a parent's mental state when children lives are involved or threatened and take action..this did not happen and the kids and the murdered woman paid the price.

Then over on the west side a man and woman were seen arguing. A short while later the man with gun in hand was seen chasing the woman and eventually caught up and shot her. In the meantime some of the witnesses to this called the cops and they were on the scene very shortly after that shooting and confronted the shooter who responded by opening fire on the cops. They responded with gunfire of their own and the shooter was dead before he hit the ground. The woman lived for a few minutes after she was shot but succumbed a short while later. Merry Christmas.

This Date in History December 25

1776 After a few days of planning General George Washington decided that on this date he would sail back across the Delaware River from Valley Forge and retake the Hessian compound known to be in Trenton, New Jersey. The Continental army consisted of 5,400 men and several artillery pieces. When Washington arrived on the New Jersey shore he had only 3,000 troops and no artillery but he decided to attack anyway. He suspected that the most of the Hessians would be under the weather from partying the night before. The Hessians had the mother of all hangovers and when the Patriots swarmed the town they either ran away or surrendered. The Patriots lost only 4 killed and they captured over 1,000 Hessians. One peculiar thing that happened was that the commander of the Hessians in Trenton was dying of tuberculosis and was very near death. Some of the Hessian soldiers asked that Washington visit with him and accept sword of surrender before he died. Washington initially said “to hell with the bastard.” But his officers persuaded him that it would be the honorable thing to do. So he went into the tent and waited while the German General said a speech before handing over his sword with Washington standing there tapping his foot. Finally the General handed over the sword, Washington took it and with out a word turned away and quickly left the tent. I don’t think he wanted to be there. This victory was not significant in any way except it proved to each of his soldiers that they could prevail against the enemy after a series of losses.

1996 Little JonBenet Ramsey is murdered in her Boulder, Colorado home. At 5:52 a JonBenet’s parent John and Patsy Ramsey called the police the next morning and reported her missing. There was a ransom not of $188,000 found the seemed peculiar because that was the exact amount of John Ramsey’s bonus for that year. The ransom not was unnecessary because the corpse of JonBenet was found in basement of her parent’s house wrapped in a carpet. She had her hands tied behind her with electrical cord and there was duct tape over her mouth. There also were signs of sexual assault. The dumb-assed Boulder PD screwed up the crime scene when they allowed the father to moved JonBenet’s body to her bedroom. As you might suspect, this corrupted any and all further forensic evidence that could be used to find the killer. As a result the murderer of little JonBenet has not been determined to this day.

1869 On this date a 16 year old John Wesley Hardin got into an argument in a card game and with definite lack of Christmas spirit, Wes called the man out into the street for a show down. Both men drew and Wes shot his fellow card player in the forehead killing him instantly. This was neither the first nor the last of men killed by Wes Hardin. In fact he was by far the most prolific murderer in the history of the old west; it is known that he had killed at least 20 men, maybe more. On one occasion he got into a gun fight with a soldier and killed him. The military sent three troopers to arrest him and he killed all three of them. He hated blacks and would hunt for them just like he hunted rabbits so blacks gave Wes a wide berth. Finally law enforcement got fed up and Wes was sent to prison for 14 years and came out a changed man. He was no longer the bloodthirsty killer of before and had studied law while in prison and came out and was admitted to the bar. He opened a practice in Gonzales, Texas but found the town too boring and moved to El Paso. While standing in a bar in El Paso a local gunman walked up behind Wes and shot him point plank in the back of the head. This jackass wanted to be known as the man that killed Wes Hardin. The Judge in El Paso decided that the shooter had enough notoriety and sent him to the gallows. I’ll bet he was shocked, or maybe he felt suspended.

Born today:

1642 English physicist Sir Isaac Newton. He said “I can calculate the motions of the heavens but not the madness of man.” Me neither, Sir Isaac. He is one of my heroes, by the way.

1887 American Hotelier Conrad Hilton. He said “Success seems to be connected to action. They that are successful are always moving, they may make mistakes but they are always moving.”

1908 Flaming homosexual Quinton Crisp. Once while making a speech in Ireland he said he was an atheist. This dumb-ass woman got up at asked “Is that the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants that you don’t believe in.” There is no accounting for blind stupidity.

Answer to the trivia question:

Leslie Howard played Ashley Wilkes and his plantation was “Twelve Oaks”.

         Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Friday

                                   Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Indecision may, or may not, be my problem.”

                      Jimmy Buffett

Trivia question of the day:

Who was documented as the first Europeans to lay eyes on the Grand Canyon? Answer at the end of the blog.

              This Date in History December 22

1984 On this date a 45 year old white man named Bernard Goetz is surrounded by four young black men on a New York subway car and demanded money from Goetz. Goetz whipped out a .38 caliber revolver and opened fire wounding three of them and the fourth was cowering in a doorway when Goetz said “You don’t look too bad, here’s another” and shot him in the back severing his spinal cord. This eighteen year old black man was named Darrell Cabey who was paralyzed from the waist down and had brain damage. Goetz fled the scene but turned himself in eight days later at a police station in New Hampshire. In the subsequent interview that was videotaped Goetz admitted that he was scared and when the four smirked at him he wanted to “kill them all” but felt he has just protecting himself and plead innocent to attempted murder at his arraignment. Goetz’s actions was racially motivated according to the District Attorney but many people in New York and around the country agreed with Goetz and money flowed in for his defense. Goetz’s act was very divisive to the city of New York where racial tensions were very high at the time. In 1987 Goetz went to trial and was acquitted of attempted murder and assault but was convicted of a violation of New York’s Sullivan Law that forbids unlicensed firearms in the city. He served a little over eight months in prison for that indiscretion. After his release he was sued in a civil suit by Darrell Cabey for damages to the tune of $14 million. Goetz promptly declared bankruptcy and disappeared into the woodwork. I can assure you that if that scenario happened there in Charleston, I doubt that the shooter would be arrested, not because of the racial issue but South Carolina is very lenient when it comes self defense but if he was arrested, he would be released on his own recognizance. If it happened to me I would shoot first and take whatever heat comes later no matter if they were black, white, Latino, Chinese, Native American, etc. I will not be mugged by some undisciplined jackasses that had rather rob someone rather than work.

1894 On this date a French Army Captain named Alfred Dreyfus is arrested and charged with treason for giving military secrets to the Germans. Four months later Dreyfus was convicted on the flimsiest of evidence and sent to infamous Devil’s Island Prison on the north coast of South America. Captain Dreyfus was guilty of nothing but being Jewish. The French military hierarchy was vehemently anti-Semitic. Two years later newly found evidence pointed to a French Captain Esterhazy as the culprit in giving secrets to the Germans. The French Military had no choice but to put Esterhazy on trial who was acquitted in four hours. The French military was not about to admit that they had made a mistake with the Jew Dreyfus. When this trial was made public the famous novelist Emile Zola printed an article in a Paris newspaper labeled “L’Accuse” accusing the French courts of being under the thumb of the French military. This caused a division in the French people. The nationalists and the Catholic Church supported the military and the Republicans, socialists and those interested in religious freedom for just as opposed and lined up to support Dreyfus. In 1898 A French Captain named Hubert Henry who originally found the evidence against Dreyfus admitted he had forged most if not all of it and then committed suicide. Esterhazy had log since fled the country. The French Military brought Dreyfus back for another trial and again convicted him and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. But this time a new administration was in place and they immediately pardoned Dreyfus. In 1906 the French courts overturned his original conviction. This whole debacle brought social reform and a reduction to the power of the military. Formal laws were passed that provided the permanent separation of church and state which in my opinion, was the main problem all along.

1775 On this date the Continental Congress voted to form a Continental Navy commanded by Esek Hopkins as commander of the fleet. This fledgling navy only had four vessels, the Alfred, Columbus, Andrea Doria and the Cabot. They had four captains, Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicholas Biddle and John Burrows Hopkins. They had only 8 lieutenants but one of which was to become a national hero in John Paul Jones. Esek Hopkins was an interesting man; he was also a very wealthy man from Rhode Island. He married a very wealthy woman but he made a fortune during the Seven Years War. He bought a boat with his wife’s money and became a privateer sailing up and down the east coast. As a privateer he was essentially a pirate working for whoever paid him the most or allowed him to keep a majority of the booty he captured. The Continental Congress wanted him to continue this enterprise working for the Colonies and again offered him a percentage of the take. What they were really after was warships and that is exactly what Hopkins and company did, especially John Paul Jones. They would sneak aboard British warships, assassinate the Captain and any of the crew that objected and sail the ship into Continental waters and take command. Our navy did not begin in an auspicious manner but look at us now. In this case crime paid.

1978 On this date John Wayne Gacy confessed to murdering 24 young men and boys and burying their bodies under his suburban Chicago house. Law enforcement officials did indeed find the bodies. Gacy was tried and convicted and sentenced to death. Gacy spent 14 years on death row where he painted pictures of clowns that sold for thousands of dollars. Gacy was a clown in charity events from time to time, if you can believe that. Finally after all of his appeals were exhausted he was executed by lethal injection in the prison in Joliet, Illinois and hell rejoiced at the new arrival. For a while Gacy was the worst serial killer in American history until George Ridgeway, also known as the Green River Killer, was caught and convicted of killing over 48 women that were mostly prostitutes in the Pacific Northwest. He is visiting with John Wayne Gacy as we speak.

1884 Earlier a mover and shaker in the old west John Chisum is born in Tennessee in 1824. When he was six, his family moved to Paris, Texas. After he grew up he became involved in construction for a while then he decided that he wanted to raise cattle and started a cattle ranch on the Pecos River in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Chisum was very successful and was soon running over 80,000 head. The problem was that running a herd that large over such a wide range invited cattle rustlers and it soon became apparent that Chisum was losing about 10,000 head a year to rustlers. Chisum found that this unacceptable and tracked down the culprits. The culprits were a group running a mercantile establishment known as “The House” in Lincoln County. The House was really not a mercantile business; it was a clearing house for rustled cattle that were sold to the US Cavalry under exclusive contract meaning that Chisum and the other large ranchers were undercut by The House. Tensions flared and one of the employees of Chisum shot and killed one of the employees of The House. This shooter was Billy the Kid. After this shooting a war broke out between the large ranchers and The House forever known as the Lincoln County War. The war raged for several months but it became apparent that The House would prevail because they had the backing of the US Cavalry and the war ended. Devastated by the Lincoln County War and the continued loss of cattle, John Chisum moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to retire. He died three months later. Even then he left an inheritance of over $500,000 indicating the enormous wealth he had accumulated.

Answer to the trivia question. The first documented Europeans to see the Grand Canyon was a group of 13 Spanish soldiers in September of 1540 led by a Garcia de Cardenas...they were a scouting expedition sent out by Coronado, the Spanish conquistador.

                   Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                              Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Last month I went to get a test for AIDS. The problem is that you don’t get the result for five days. I spend those five days in deep reflection. What the hell was I doing fooling around with all that skanky-ass I met in Miami, Cleveland, Milwaukee and many other places? What the hell was I thinking?”

                                                       Chris Rock

Trivia question of the day:

Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel...who was his opponent?

Answer at the end of the blog.

A while back a teenager near Charlotte, NC heard a knock at his front door but he did not answer. He looked out a window and saw a young man standing on his porch. The person on the porch waved at two other people in the yard waving them to go around to the back door. The young man was not happy with this and ran upstairs and retrieved a Samurai sword. When he got back downstairs the two at the back door almost had the door knocked open. The teenager charged them with his sword over his head. The two in the back ran into the street retrieving the third guy on the front porch and they hightailed down the street with the sword bearer in close pursuit. All three potential burglars were arrested. The young man said that he was fearful at the start but when they started running with him nipping at their heels he felt great exhilaration. I would have too.

Down at Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida two undocumented aliens were arrested. These arrests mean that a grand total of 40 undocumented aliens that have been arrested while working on an addition to the 7^th Special Forces building. This outfit specializes in “Black Ops” y’all. It is these soldiers along with the Delta division based in nearby Hurlburt Air Force Base that do most of United States covert assignments worldwide. It is disconcerting to know that they cannot keep undocumented aliens away from one of the most secretive military units on the planet.

          This Date in History   December 21

1761 Revolutionary War hero and hard-core Patriot Robert Barnwell was born in Beaufort, South Carolina. This boy joined his local militia at the age of 16 and was promptly engaged in the Battle of Mathew’s Farm on John’s Island near Charleston. During this battle young Robert received 17 separate wounds. He had his equipment taken from him and was left for dead. He was taken from the field by a slave to the plantation home of his aunt which was nearby. He spent several months in recovery and eventually rejoined his militia and was given the rank of lieutenant. Unfortunately, soon thereafter Charleston, South Carolina was captured by the British including Lieutenant Barnwell. Barnwell was put aboard the British prison ship Pack Horse anchored in Charleston Harbor where he spent 13 months before being exchanged. During the Revolutionary War, Barnwell rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After the War Barnwell was elected a member of the South Carolina legislature and was sent to Washington as a member of the South Carolina delegation to ratify the US Constitution He spent two years in Washington as a member of the US House of Representative and then returned to his beloved South Carolina and rejoined the South Carolina legislature. He stayed in the legislature along with serving on the board of directors of Beaufort College until his death on October 24, 1814. Strangely enough his son Robert Woodward Barnwell was a passionate advocate of South Carolina secession from the Union. His son was trying to tear apart what his father had spent most of his life putting together.

1861 Earlier in November of this year a United States warship had stopped and boarded the British mail ship Trent in the Bahamas and captured two Confederate representatives on their way to England and took them prisoner. On this date British Secretary Lord Lyon met with United States Secretary of war William Seward about this event, Lord Lyon assured Secretary Seward that the British crown thought of this act as one of piracy and was worthy of a declaration of war if the Confederate representatives, James Mason and John Slidell, were not released immediately. Seward took Lyon’s words to Lincoln. Lincoln stalled for a few days until he found out that there were 11,000 British troops on the way to Canada. Soon thereafter, Mason and Slidell were released and the US promised to observe the sovereignty of British ships in the future. Lincoln could not risk having to fight a war on two fronts.

1975 On this date in Vienna, Austria, a terrorist named llich Ramirez Sanchez led a group of fellow terrorists into a meeting of OPEC and kill three guards and capture 16 OPEC members. This was not the first, nor the last, act of terrorism committed by a man that had been labeled Carlos the Jackal. He made a demand for a bus and an airplane which the Viennese government provided. Carlos directed the plane to Algeria where all aboard were released, Carlos was born into a wealthy Marxist family in Caracas, Venezuela, He was educated at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. He chose a life of terrorism at an early age. No one really knows why he chose a life on the run but he was an accomplished terrorist. He had practiced his craft for over 25 years without capture, However in 1994, French undercover agents tracked him down to the Sudan and kidnapped the son-of-a-bitch back to France. The French government chose to not announce his capture for three years when finally he was put on trial for killing two French counter-intelligence agents in 1975. He got life without parole. Not enough, as far as I am concerned.

1866 In 1861 the United States signed the Treaty of Laramie with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians ceding the Indians the lands that contained the Bozeman Trail, but soon after this treaty was signed, gold was discovered on the Indian lands and gold seekers resume using the Bozeman Trail once again much to the displeasure of the Indians in general and the Cheyenne chief Red Cloud in particular. The US Government not only allowed the breaking of the treaty, they built army forts along the Bozeman Train to protect the travelers. The most obnoxious one to the Indians was the fort on the Little Piney named Fort Phil Kearney. This fort saw very few days without some kind of attack by Red Clouds warriors. During all of this, the fort had to have timber for heat and sent out wood cutting groups on a regular basis. On this date, Red Cloud was waiting and killed all but one of the wood cutting crew. Red Cloud sent seven or eight warriors in view of the fort and when the fort fired a round of artillery the Indians ran away in fear….or so they thought. A Lieutenant Fetterman requested permission from the camp commander to chase down the Indians that had ran away in fear and the permission was granted. Fetterman took 45 cavalryman and 45 infantry and left the fort. Fetterman had instructions to not go out of sight of the fort but soon after leaving the fort Fetterman spotted 7 or 8 Indians running over the snowy hillside and chased after them. As soon as all the troopers were over the hill, Red Cloud and 2,000 of his warriors fell upon the hapless troopers and annihilated them to a man. Not only that, not one of the troopers was found in one piece. They had all been mutilated. Soon after this the United States decided to abandon Fort Phil Kearney. After the troopers left the fort, it was set afire by Red Cloud before the troopers were out of sight. This is one of the very few victories the Native-Americans enjoyed.

Answer to the trivia question:

Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow