Monday

                      Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“No one has ever had a good idea while wearing a suit.”

                       Sir Frederick Banting

Trivia question of the day:

What was the name of the whaling vessel in the book “Moby Dick”? Answer at the end of the blog.

This is the only comment I will make about the Mosque planned to be built in New York. The argument made by Mayor Bloomberg and others is that the 1st amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression. This is certainly true here in the USA. But let’s suppose that I felt the need to express my disapproval with the outcome of the American Civil War and planted a Confederate battle flag at the Lincoln Memorial, or maybe I was not happy with the outcome of WWII and planted a Swastika flag at the Holocaust Memorial or the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach, or I was not happy with the outcome of the American Revolutionary War and planted a British Union jack at George Washington’s grave site. All of these actions fall into the purview of the 1^st Amendment as exercising my right of freedom of expression. The difference is that these actions may be legal but they are inflammatory and in incredibly bad taste and I can assure you that they would not be allowed.

                  This Date in History   August 27

1883 On this date the most powerful volcano explosions in recorded history occurs in the Indonesian archipelago. The volcano was a small uninhabited island named Krakatoa. The volcano had sent out signals that it was restless because several cargo ships had reported a column of ash and dust several miles high over the island. The explosion was heard 3,000 miles away and produced a tsunami 120 feet high that took the lives of over 36,000 people on nearby islands. An additional 4,000 people were burned to death from the white hot ash that rained down from the ejecta that was blown up to 50,000 feet in the stratosphere and then came back down miles away on inhabited islands. Krakatoa is still active ya’ll, as is an additional 136 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Indonesia has the most active volcanoes in the world. There is evidence that an even larger volcanic eruption that occurred in the Mediterranean in about 1300 BC. The present day name for the caldera is Santorini. I am sure there were plenty of eyewitnesses but to our knowledge this event was not recorded.

1979 On this date the Irish Republican Army makes its first strike against British royalty when IRA member Thomas McMahon sneaks aboard Lord Louis Mountbatten’s fishing boat, Shadow V, and plants 50 pounds of TNT in the hold of the boat with a remote control detonator. Mountbatten and family come aboard and McMahon lights off the explosive killing Mountbatten and two others. The IRA and the British government have been squabbling since King James I formed the community of Ulster which is now Northern Ireland in about 1612. James got fed up with the irascible Irish Catholics being in almost constant rebellion. James was a devout Protestant and no love in his heart for the Catholics so he seized five shires (counties) in Ireland, kicked out the Irish and brought in some Protestant Scottish lords along with their tenant farmers. James believed that if he could dilute the Catholic population in Ireland they would be easier to control. They were....for a while. The problem in Ireland today is that when Ireland had a chance to become independent from England the overwhelming majority of the Catholics voted for independence but what was originally Ulster and almost entirely Protestant (Presbyterian) voted to stay under wing of England and that was the birth of Northern Ireland. So what it boils down to is that the majority of Ireland is Catholic and they want Northern Ireland to become part of Ireland proper but the Protestants won’t hear of it because they are afraid they will be discriminated against because they are the religious minority in Ireland. The English Army is present to prevent a violent takeover by the IRA. I don’t see an end to it. When it comes to religion, everybody thinks God is on their side.

1859 On this date Edwin Drake strikes oil at a depth of 69 feet neat Titusville, Pennsylvania. This discovery was a welcome replacement for whale oil used in lamps world wide. Whale oil was expensive and not always available. Petroleum was used for this purpose for a several decades until the invention of the automobile then every continent in the world began hunting for “black gold” not just for the fuel but for the asphalt to build roads. But by far the most lucrative find was the oil in the middle east known as “Arab light” which means that there is not as much undesirable additives in the oil that need to be refined out, especially sulphur, making it much cheaper to refine adding to the profits.

1964 On this date 15 year Edmund Kemper decides to do something exciting and shoots and kills his grandparents. He isn’t done yet, he called his mother and told her what he had done and said “I just wanted to see what it felt like to kill Grandma.” Edmund was a troubled youth. He began by cutting the heads off his sister’s dolls and setting fire to the family cat. His parents knew he was crazy as a loon but rather than getting him help, they just sent him to stay with his grandparents. Edmund killed a few more people before he was caught and sent to prison. Apparently prison agreed with Edmund because he was finally paroled and he was 6’-9” and weighed over 300 pounds. Very soon after being paroled he paid a visit to his mother, beat her to death with a hammer, mutilated her body and raped the corpse. I am telling y'all, this cowboy was a lunatic. He called the police and told them what he had done but they blew it off as a scam and did not respond. Two more people lost their lives and heads to Edmund before the police decided to check of the strange call about a man killing his mother and found out that it was true. They started looking for Edmund in earnest. Edmund went to Colorado and called the Santa Cruz police and confessed to the latest two murders. The police picked him up and he was convicted of 8 murders and sentenced to life without parole. But Edmund himself said that he should have been sentenced to “death by torture,” I agree Edmund, let me select the torture.

Born today:

1908 US football coach Frank Leahy. He said “Egotism in the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.” Frank knew what he was talking about. He was a football coach at Army.

1910 Mother Teresa. She said “Loneliness is the most terrible part of poverty.” But it was Mahatma Gandhi that said “The bed of poverty is fertile.”

Died today:

1948 Supreme Court justice Charles Evans Hughes. He said “If there is muck to be raked, it must be raked, and the people must know of it, so justice can be given.” It was Justice Evans that also said “It is better to release 1,000 guilty than to jail one innocent.” I think we are on that path now, Judge.

1950 Italian writer Cesare Pavese. He said “Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is the anesthetic.”

1964 US comedienne Gracie Allen and wife of George Burns. She said “They laughed at Joan of Arc, but she went ahead and built it.”

Answer to the trivia question:

The whaling vessel in Moby Dick was the “Pequod” under the command of Captain Ahab.

           Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.