Monday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.”

                                       Norman Thomas

Trivia question of the day:

Who was the trainer of Justify the Kentucky Derby winner? Answer at the end of the blog.

Earlier a 19 year old female student showed up missing from the Clemson University campus. She was gone about a day and then she called the police saying she had been bound and gagged in a storage facility and had been repeatedly raped. She was able to get herself loose and called 911. The cops were able to find and release her and she immediately identified her attacker and he was arrested post haste. He was charged with kidnapping and rape both of which are heavy-duty felonies. His bail is $500,000 and I don’t think he will see the light of day for many, many years. What was this jackass thinking? He had to know he would not get away with it.

The final word on the three teenagers trying to hold up Sonny’s Café over in Gaffney is this. Two of the teenagers were shot but not killed and are recuperating and a 16 year old boy was killed when the employees of Sonny’s opened fire with weapons of their own. The family of the dead boy thought that the boy was shot in the back and raised hell saying that he should have been allowed to run away. The coroner report came out on Wednesday and it said that the dead boy was hit in the chest and stomach from the front. End of argument. It is his parents and/or caretakers are the ones that need to go to prison.

                 This Date in History   May 14

1948 On this date the present day state of Israel came into being for the first time in 2,000 years. In the early afternoon the occupying British military forces left leaving that portion of Palestine in the hands of the Chairman of the Jewish Agency David Ben-Gurion. Just a few hours after the British left, Ben-Gurion called a meeting in the Tel-Aviv Art museum and said “We hereby proclaim the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel.” Immediately there were shouts of joy and an ocean of tears from those in attendance. David Ben-Gurion was elected as Israel’s first Prime Minister. But ominously in the background could be heard the rumbling of artillery and bombs, the Arabs had started their attacks almost immediately after the British pulled out. Israel officially became a state at midnight when the British Mandate expired. Within minutes the United States had officially recognized Israel. The movement to establish a homeland for the Jews (Zionism) began shortly after the Russian revolution of 1905 when Eastern European and Russian Jews began immigrating to Palestine. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in WWI, Great Britain took over Palestine in 1917. Soon after Great Britain issued the Balfour Declaration stating that the British intended to incorporate part of Palestine as a home for a Jewish state. There is no need for me to tell you what response they got from the Arab nations. Because of this obvious hostility the British occupied Palestine through the 20’s and 30’s to avoid a bloodbath. In 1945 the United States took up the cause of the Zionists and Great Britain being unable to determine a solution to this problem, threw it into the lap of the United Nations. The United Nations decided to partition Palestine giving the Jewish State more than half of Palestine even though the Jews represented less than half of the population. Israel’s army was not as well trained and worse equipped than their Arab neighbors they were able to fight them off. Through a series of Israeli victories, they have been able to increase their land area which only inflamed the Arabs that much more. The Arabs and the Israelis have been fighting ever since 1948 and before and I personally see no end to it short of Armageddon.

1804 On this date, in my opinion the greatest adventure in history begins when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark depart Saint Louis, Missouri to begin exploring the Missouri River basin. This was only one year after the United States had gained the Louisiana Purchase which doubled the land area of this great nation. US President Thomas Jefferson tasked his personal secretary Meriwether Lewis with exploring the newly acquired land. Lewis hired George Rogers Clark’s brother William, as second in command. After locating 50 woods-wise crewmen although they ended up with only 33 that made the full trek, they launched their river boats on the Mississippi River, headed upstream and took the left fork at the intersection with the Missouri River. They wintered near a known Mandan Indian village in North Dakota. The next spring when the expedition pushed off headed west into unknown territory. Lewis wrote in his diary that “when we pushed off, it was the most exciting moment in my life”. It would have been the same for me.

1948 On this night three-year old June Devaney disappeared from her crib in the Queens Park Hospital in Blackburn, England. Her absence was detected at about 1:30A and the police were immediately called. They found a footprint on the floor and a set of fingerprints on a water bottle that had been moved. The next morning little June’s body was found with multiple skull fractures. She had been raped and then dashed against a wall while being held by her feet. After this the police were frantic to find the perpetrator. They examined the fingerprints and foot prints but were unable to match them to anyone in the hospital. Then they did something that would never be allowed in the United States. They ordered the fingerprinting of everyone in Blackburn, England. In the US that would be a violation of the 4^th Amendment, forbidding illegal search and seizure. The police came up with 40,000 sets of fingerprints and set about a 24/7 comparison. They finally were able to match one set to a man named Phillip Griffith. They matched his footprint also. Griffith’s defense was that he was drunk. Six months later Phillip Griffith was hanged for murder. To bad it was not in medieval times, I can assure you that Griffith would have rued the day he was born before his rotten soul would have departed this earth after being drawn and quartered. Too bad.

1861 On this date William J. Fetterman joins the United States army. He appeared to be a born soldier. He gained much recognition and battlefield promotions during the Civil war. After the war he was assigned duty at Fort Phil Kearney in northern Wyoming. This fort was very important as it protected the Bozeman Trail and the pioneers headed for the gold fields in Montana and on into California. It was also in the very middle of the Cheyenne hunting grounds owned by Chief Red Cloud. Red Cloud did not treat those travelers on the Bozeman Trail with kindness be they pioneer or soldier. On one particular winter day with snow on the ground, a small group of wood cutters left the fort to go cut some fire wood. Eventually one of the wood cutters came back and said that some Indians had attacked and killed them all except him. Lieutenant Fetterman then approached the fort commander Colonel Carrington to allow him to go out and punish the Indians for this attack. Carrington agreed and Fetterman left with 45 cavalrymen and 45 infantry. Carrington warned Fetterman to “do not go past Lodge Pole Ridge” which would be within sight of the fort. Soon after leaving the fort Fetterman saw a few Indians and set off in chase and ordered the infantrymen to ride double with the cavalrymen in their pursuit. The Indians lured the troopers over and beyond Lodge Pole Ridge whereupon approximately 1,500 of Red Cloud’s boys appeared from hidden positions and massacred and mutilated each and every one of the troopers. Soon after this, the US Cavalry pulled out of Fort Phil Kearney and before they were out of sight Red Cloud had set fire to the hated fort.

Answer to the trivia question:

The trainer of Justify the Kentucky Derby winner is Bob Baffert.

             Thanks for listening I can hardy wait until tomorrow