Monday

                            Musings and History

After this episode I will not be forwarding any more lessons until after Thanksgiving. I am going to visit my friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving, y'all

Quote of the day:

“The sport of snow skiing consists of wearing $500 worth of clothes and equipment and driving 200 miles in the snow in order to stand around a bar and get drunk.”

P. J. O’Rourke

Trivia question of the day:

Harvard is acknowledged to be the oldest university in the USA...what is the second oldest? Answer at the end of the blog.

I watched a TV show about the greatest Samurai swordsman in history. He was a Japanese warrior named Musashi. This man killed his first man in a duel at the age of 13. He then went back into a remote forest and stayed four years training himself into a razor sharp swordsman. He soon was attached to a warrior clan that was hell bent on taking over Japan and their leader becoming the Shogun (king). They soon ran into another clan of Samurai warriors that wanted the same thing and a battle erupted. In this battle in 1601 there were over 160,000 warriors engaged. Over 80,000 died in that one day and they did it the hard way, with swords, knives, pikes and arrows. Musashi was different. He used a sword in each hand rather than both hands on one sword. He proved himself a worthy warrior at the age of 17. In this battle the warriors that were killed were beheaded and all the heads were amassed in one pile. I wonder what that smelled like a week later. Musashi began roaming the countryside looking for duels. It has been documented that he was in 60+ duels and never lost. He believed that a sword had a life of its own and was an extension of the bearer. It is true that all Samurai swords are a little different because they are all handmade. He finally gained a duel with the alleged greatest swordsman in western Japan and they agreed to meet on a small island. Musashi was four hours late and by then his opponent was furious which is what Musashi wanted. He came ashore without a sword which enraged his opponent even more. He did have a wooden sword that the carved from an oar. His opponent launched a furious attack but was soon struck down a beaten to death by Musashi. He had two things working for him, he had “psyched out” his opponent and he made his wooden sword 8 inches longer that his opponent’s. That just goes to show that a fight is not just who is the strongest, fastest or the fiercest. It is a mind game.

Over in Anderson County, S.C. the Sheriff and several other law enforcement agencies formed a task force to take down the one of the largest drug rings in the state that had an annual income of about $30 million. The raid was a few days ago and 32 people were arrested including 2 nieces and 1 nephew of the Anderson County sheriff. Also confiscated was $430,000 in cash, powder and crack cocaine worth a tidy sum on the street, a variety of vehicles, guns and houses. When asked about arresting his own relatives, the sheriff said that he knew it was going on but did not have the evidence until this raid. He said he felt relieved. Me too.

This Date in History November 19

1942 Earlier in 1941 Adolph Hitler ordered his army to invade Russia is spite of a treaty that had been signed just a few months earlier. The German army dashed across the Russian plains delivering horrendous death and destruction. The Germans had unquestioned control of the skies and could bomb anything they felt like. The Germans had split their forces into three sections and very soon Moscow and Leningrad were under siege. Hitler ordered the 6^th Army to attack and capture the great city of Stalingrad. The 6^th Army was commanded by General Von Paulus and he had 250,000 troops. Von Paulus estimated it would take about 10 days to force the city to surrender. There was one thing that he neglected, the Russian winter. The German air force had bombed Stalingrad into rubble and Von Paulus thought he could set up a siege and Stalingrad would surrender. He was wrong. The Russians used the rubble to establish defensive strong points. This meant that the Germans would have to go in and dig the defenders out a few at a time. What happened after that was a battle that went down in history as one of the most ferocious ever fought. There were 15,000 to 16,000 casualties every day for an extended period. Finally the winter descended on the Germans that were not prepared for such bitter weather. Eventually the 6^th army rolling stock came to a halt. On this date Russian General Zhukov orders a counter attack and he was able to cut the supply lines to the Germans. Between the cold weather and the Russians looking for revenge, Von Paulus surrendered. He only had 90,000 troops left with no help in sight. There were only 5,000 Germans that lived to see their homeland again.

1967 On this date Chaplain (Major) Charles Watters is recommended for the Medal of Honor. The Chaplain went in with the 2^nd Battalion, 503^rd Infantry when they attacked the North Vietnamese regulars on hill 875 during the battle of Doc To. The Americans were taking a beating but the Chaplain moved among the troops administering first aid to those that he could reach. He went outside the perimeter on several occasions to retrieve soldiers that had been caught outside the perimeter and wounded. Chaplain Watters was on his knees giving the last rights to a dying soldier when an American fighter/bomber dropped a 500 pound bomb on the perimeter by mistake. Chaplain Watters was killed instantly. The Medal of Honor was given posthumously in a White House ceremony in 1969.

1977 On this date in an unprecedented move, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Israeli President Menachem Begin in Jerusalem and made a speech to the Israeli Knesset, or the equivalent of the House and Senate in the United States. Sadat was seeking peace with the Israelis after fighting on and off with them since 1948. It is needless to say that the rest of the Moslem world was outraged. The two went one step further the next year when they met in Camp David, Maryland under the sponsorship of US President Jimmy Carter and an accord was reached and signed by all parties concerned. This historic event cost Anwar Sadat his life when he was assassinated the next year. He was killed because he sought peace. The greater majority of Moslems don’t want peace.

1985 Earlier the petroleum giant Pennzoil made an offer to buy the family owned Getty Oil. Getty Oil agreed to the price and the deal was announced over the media. The problem was that there was not yet a signed agreement for the deal, so the even bigger oil giant Texaco step in and offered the Getty family twice as much as what Pennzoil had offered and they took the deal. Pennzoil raised almighty hell and initiated a lawsuit against Texaco. On this date a state court in Texas awarded Pennzoil a judgment of $10 Billion stating that even though there was not a written contract, there was indeed a contract. That just goes to show you that in Texas your word is a contract and that is the way it should be, except when you utter “I do”.

Born today:

1917 Indian politician Indira Ghandi. She said “There is not politician in India that is bold enough to say that cows can be eaten.” People in India are starving to death with a cow standing just outside the door. I don’t get it.

Answer to the trivia question

The second oldest university in the USA is William and Mary.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.