Friday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I worked in strip joints, but I never got my clothes off, the crowd kept yelling 'Don't do it, Don't do it'”

                                              Whoopi Goldberg

Trivia question of the day:

What Olympic track star played with the Dallas Cowboys? Answer at the end of the blog.

On March 2, 1810 Pope Leo XIII was born. In the later stages of his life as Pope he said:

“It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, or writing or worship as if these were so many gifts given by nature to man.” I had to read this statement over and over again to make sure that I copied it right. Pope Leo XIII has since gone on to his reward.

When speaking of Hollywood stars he said:

“I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.”

Ben Stein

                  This Date in History   March 29

1776 On this date General George Washington assigns the task of the protection of New York and its waterways to General Israel Putnam. If ever there was a true warrior it was Israel Putnam. He was a lieutenant under George Washington during the French and Indian War. He was captured and tortured by the Caughanawega Indians but eventually escaped. This man was a fire-breathing Patriot from the git-go when the British began with their enactment of laws trying to suppress the colonist’s rebellious attitude. He was a founding father of the infamous Sons of Liberty. It was this bunch that was the hosts at the so-called Boston Tea Party. Israel was there. After hostilities really got under way, Israel joined the Continental Army with gusto. He was with Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen at their victories at Ticonderoga and Montreal. After taking command of the troops in New York, he suffered two defeats in a row at Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton in 1777. After these two losses, Washington’s faith in Israel Putnam began to fade. He continued to serve in the Continental Army until he had a career ending stroke in 1779. It is unfortunate that such a warrior ended his career in disrepute. Putnam was raised in Salem, Massachusetts and it was some of his ancestors that were responsible for execution by various means of “witches and warlocks” during the infamous Salem witch trials in 1692.

1951 Earlier nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs was arrested in England by British authorities with the assistance of the FBI. Fuchs worked on the A-bomb project both in England and the United States during the development period. He was arrested for espionage in a conspiracy to give atomic secrets to the Russians. Fuchs readily admitted to the conspiracy and pointed his finger at his “mule” Harry Gold. Gold had been the go-between to deliver the paperwork to the Russians. Gold was arrested and admitted to being the “mule” but said he knew of someone with a hell of a lot more knowledge about the inner workings and pointed to David Greenglass. Greenglass was also arrested who worked at the laboratory at Los Alamos with his sister and brother-in-law Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Greenglass named Ethel as the brains of the conspiracy and Julius was the activator. All four went on trial were convicted. Greenglass and Gold got prison sentences. On this date the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death for treason in spite of the fact that Russia was an ally at the end of WWII. But the “fear” of atomic attack from the Russians was a real one for several years. What condemned the Rosenbergs was that Greenglass and Gold gave almost identical testimony against the Rosenbergs in separate hearings. Julius and Ethel were executed in 1953 in the electric chair in Sing Sing yelling that they were innocent to the very end.

1973 Two weeks after the signing of the peace agreement between North Vietnam and the United States, the last American combat troops leave South Vietnam and the last of the American POW’s (allegedly) are released. After a seven bloody years, the Vietnam War is over for the United States. Within a matter of hours the North Vietnam army enters Saigon and renames it Ho Chi Mien City and Vietnam is one country once again. The mightiest military force the world has ever seen was unable to keep the country split into two nations at the cost of about 70,000 American lives. Thank God that nightmare is over, but another may have replaced it.

1878 Earlier the Boers, or Dutch settlers in Africa, were driven from Natal by the British. In the way was the nation of the Zulu. The Zulus were renowned for their ferocity in battle. The British tried to remove the Zulus but soon found that they had a tiger by the tail and the so-called Zulu Wars began. The British got their ass handed to them on two successive battles, however on this date 2,000 British troops routed about 20,000 Zulus and the conquest of South Africa by Great Britain was complete when the province of Natal was absorbed in the Republic of South Africa.

Born today:

1819 US entrepreneur Edwin Drake. When proposing to his investors that he was going to drill for oil. His investors said “Drill into the ground and expect to find oil! Are you crazy?” I would have said the same thing.

Died today:

1885 US writer Anna Strong. She said “I normally do not know where my journey is going until just before I arrive.” I like this girl’s attitude.

1957 English writer Joyce Cary. She said “How unfortunate love is, it is always too much or too little.” That is true except with a dog, they give unconditional love.

2004 English commentator Alistair Cooke. When speaking about Greta Garbo he said “She gave you the impression that, if your imagination had to sin, it could at least congratulate itself on impeccable taste.”

Answer to the trivia question:

The Olympic track star that played with the Dallas Cowboys was wide receiver Bob Hayes.

                         Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                             Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”

                                      Benjamin Franklin

Trivia question of the day:

Who was Mary Jo Kopechne? Answer at the end of the blog.

Here is another event that proves I am here for a reason:

When I was in the USAF I was based at Greenville, Mississippi. This base was closed and donated to the city of Greenville who turned it into an industrial park. While there as most of us in our youth believe, I thought I was 10 feet tall and bullet-proof. Greenville in on the Mississippi and has docks and piers along with some pretty rough bars. A friend and I decided to go into one of them and just see what it was all about. We had not been there very long when a very drunk guy began walking around the room asking everyone if they wanted to fight. He was pointing his finger in everybody's face a yelling. A guy sitting at the next table said “I hope he don't do that with me.” Guess what, he did. The guy sitting down pulled out a revolver and shot the drunk point blank in his right shoulder. It was so close that the drunks shirt briefly caught on fire. The drunk hit the floor and the rest of us stampeded out the door, including the shooter. If the drunk had been armed it would have been the OK corral with me in the middle. God works in mysterious ways.

Here is a colorful individual from the old American west:

                           Judge Roy Bean

One of the most colorful characters in the history of the American west dies. It was Judge Roy Bean of Langtry, Texas. He was the self proclaimed “Law West of the Pecos.” Bean was born somewhere in Kentucky in the 1820’s. In 1847 he and his brother Sam left home and went to Mexico and lived a rogue’s life until he got into an argument with another man and ended up killing him. This forced Bean out of Mexico and he ended up in San Diego. As usual, Bean got into a fight in a bar and ended up killing anther man so he had to skedaddle out of there and ended up in Los Angeles. He got into a fight with a Mexican General over a woman and shot and killed the General. The General had a lot of friends and they took Bean to the closest tree and strung him up. The woman who he had the fight over ran to his rescue and cut him down in the nick of time. He carried the scars from that rope for the rest of his life. Bean decided that California just ain’t the place to be and he moved out into the wilds of New Mexico and Texas. For about 16 years he was a prosperous and legitimate business man in San Antonio. In 1882 he moved to southwest Texas and built his famous bar “Jersey Lily”. Eventually he founded the town of Langtry, Texas named after the actress Lily Langtry as was his bar. Bean became a justice of the peace in Langtry and was famous for dispensing justice using common sense rather that the letter of the law. He once fined a dead man for carrying a concealed weapon. But on the down side when a man shot a Chinese rail worker, Bean let him go saying that he could find no law against shooting a “Chinaman”. Bean fell ill and died in November of 1903, just 10 months before the real Lily Langtry came by for a visit to his famous saloon.

                This Date in History   March 28

1979 On this date began a comedy of errors resulted the worst nuclear accident in United States history at the recently built Reactor #2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. This particular power plant was built on an island in the middle the Susquehanna River about 10 miles from the Pennsylvania capitol of Harrisburg. There was a slight over pressure in the reactor and a pressure relief valve opened as it was supposed to, the only problem was that it failed to close back and cooling water began to escape. The emergency relief pumps began to operate automatically as they were suppose to. If the plant operators had let this safety system work as designed, nothing would have happened. But the newly trained plant workers could not figure out what the hell was going on. With the cooling water leaking out onto the floor of the containment building the reactor core temperature began to rise. For reasons known only to the plant operators, they chose to shut down the emergency relief pumps. There is no need for me to tell you what happened to the core temperature. Pennsylvania Governor Thornburgh was between a rock and a hard place. After being appraised of the situation, he had to so something but he did not want to cause a panic. He sent out a notice that everyone with a 10 mile radius of Three Mile Island to stay indoors. Then the next day he advised that pregnant women should evacuate. Then word leaked out that radioactive steam had escaped and a small amount of radioactive water had leaked into the Susquehanna River. All of this was true but it was not that much of a risk but a panic began and over 100,000 people near the plant evacuated. By now the core had reached a temperature of 4,000 degrees which is within 1,000 degrees of a complete meltdown. Eventually experts from Metropolitan Energy and the reactor designer (Babcock and Wilcox) arrived and figured out what the problem was and the emergency pumps were restarted and the core temperature began to fall. In an attempt to lessen the panic, United States President Jimmy Carter went to the plant. Carter was a Naval Academy trained nuclear engineer and had dealt with damaged cores in the past probably in a nuclear submarine. But he was not there to offer expertise but to restore the confidence of the population. Everyone thought the problem had been solved but two days later a hydrogen bubble was discovered in the top of the containment building and there had been a small explosion but the containment building held. It was determined that the hydrogen bubble was not a threat. By the way, it was an explosion of a hydrogen bubble that destroyed the Russian power plant at Chernobyl but the Russians did not use containment buildings. The core had been damaged in reactor # 2 making it useless. During the crises, reactor # 1 had been shut down also. Reactor # 1 was not restarted until 1985 and reactor # 2 was sealed. Since this emergency the building of not one nuclear power plant has begun in the United States. There have been reports that those that stayed those few days after the initial accident have an increased incidence of leukemia and other cancers but it is not a proven statistic. There was one of the plant operators that put on a safe suit and went into the floor of the containment building where the water was about 18 inches deep trying to find out what the problem was. He had with him a flask of test water that began to effervesce like carbonated water very soon after he arrived. He saw this and got the hell out of there, and I don’t blame him. A lot of lessons were learned during this experience. That is the only upside I can find to this whole scenario.

Died today:

1957 US writer Christopher Morley. He said “A critic is a gong at a railroad crossing clanging wildly while the train passes by.”

1984 US educator Benjamin Mays. He said “Isn’t it a calamity that we died with unfulfilled dreams, but it is even a bigger calamity not to dream.” Ben was a wise individual.

Answer to the trivia question:

Mary Jo Kopechne was the woman killed in the Chappaquiddick incident while riding with Ted Kennedy.

                 Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I decided not to pursue a career in music because have you ever heard anyone say “There goes that banjo picker in his Ferrari.”

                                                Steve Martin

Trivia question of the day:

Why was Alexander Hamilton not eligible to be President? Answer at the end of the blog.

I saw a post on Facebook about a dog that had uncovered a recently born cottontail and guided his master to it. The master looked the rabbit over and then took it back to where it was discovered, covered it with leaves and left hoping that the mother would retrieve it. I had a similar experience a long time ago. I had been married only a short time and my bride and I were living in an apartment in large antebellum house near Balfour, North Carolina. The house was on a large property surrounded by a lot of scrub oaks and weeds. Our closest neighbor was about 100 yards away down in the “holler”. Occasionally we would here a beagle trailing something down in that area. One day we went walking down a wagon trail through the underbrush and a rabbit ran across the trail in front of us followed closely by a beagle puppy. I recognized its voice as the one we had been hearing. The neighbor saw us walking and came over to say howdy. I asked him about the beagle pup and he said her name was Petey and he was going to have to give her away because he had all he could handle as is. I jumped at that and took Petey home that day. As Petey grew her voice deepened somewhat but she as still a soprano. One day she came walking up the drive way with a baby rabbit in her mouth and laid it on our front porch. My wife was not please because the rabbit was squealing the whole time and she took it back to the thickest brush and turned it loose and that is the last we saw of it. I was not optimistic because the squealing would have attracted predators. Shortly after that we moved to Greenville, SC and brought Petey and Sam (my wife's chihuahua) with us. Both Petey and Sam were essentially house dogs but if Petey saw me put on my hunting jacket she would start jumping up and down on the front paws in anticipation. I did not really want to kill rabbits I just enjoyed watch Petey work. She would get in the car put her rear paws on the seat and her front paws on the window sill and would watch the passing scenery with much interest. When we got to the field and she would run around frantically urinating several times before getting down to business and industriously sniffing the ground in a zig-zag pattern for that familiar scent. She made no sound until she struck a hot scent then she would whimper and occasionally bay a short burst. When she finally got the rabbit on the run she would begin a serenade of baying from a low note to a high note...it was music y'all. On one occasion I was ahead of her and jumped a rabbit. I had a particular yell meant for that situation and Petey came running but there was a small pond between me and her. Rather than run around the pond she jumped in, swam across and picked up the trail and off she went along with her familiar melody. One time I was ready to go and I yelled the command for her to come and she didn't show up. I figured she was out of hearing range. I took off my jacket, laid it on the ground and left. I came back two hours later and there she was curled up on my jacket. When she got in the car she laid down on the seat rather than look out the windows, she was tired. Not only that there were a few spots on her ears that were bleeding from brier scratches. That's right, she had no problem with burrowing into a brier patch after her prey...she was relentless. She was very good company around the house too and a friend to my wife, kids and me. Petey died of kidney failure in her later years. I had forgotten what a great blessing she was to all of those who knew her...now I remember.

              This Date in History   March 27

1775 On this date a young redhead from Virginia is elected to the 2nd United States Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson was soon recognized as an efficient composer of letters especially with his first submission called “A Summary View of the Rights of British America.” He also stunned the others with “Draft Notes on the Virginia Constitution”. Jefferson had a large part in drafting the Virginia Constitution and as a result he was tasked at drafting the instrument that the United States would use to separate from England. He was 33 years old. He came up with a document he titled “A Declaration by the Representative Congress Assembled”. This document has been recognized as the most important in the history of democracy. Jefferson presented his draft to Congress on Jun, 28, 1776 and a very few changes were made to the text and the title was changed to The Declaration of Independence and adopted on July 4, 1776. I still wonder at the bravery and courage of these men by adopting and signing this monumental declaration knowing it would bring even more pressure from the mightiest army and navy on the planet. Not only that: There was a good percentage of the American population that wanted to stay under the wing of King George III and many ended up joining the British Army. In fact, most of the combat units for the British in the Carolinas were all Loyalists led by British commanders. That is why the encounters between the Loyalists and the Patriots were so savage and bitter. Anyway, Jefferson held several positions in the Government of Virginia and the United States and ended up being elected as our third president and served two terms 1801-1809. It was Jefferson that was president for the Louisiana Purchase and for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He eventually retired to his homestead in Virginia known as Monticello. He dabbled in the formation and running of his beloved University of Virginia. He died on July 4, 1826; exactly 50 years after his draft of the Declaration of Independence became adopted. He was 86 years old. Jefferson is a giant among the framers of this great nation. We were very, very lucky to have had men of his caliber. Was he here at this place in this time frame by accident? I think not.

1964 Late in the afternoon the Pacific plate slipped against the North American plate at a point about 8 miles northeast of Anchorage, Alaska. The end result was the largest earthquake ever measured in North America of 8.5 on the Richter scale. The quake lasted about 3 minutes and witnesses said that ground waved like a wheat field. There were gigantic chasms that opened and closed not leaving a trace that anything had happened. Tsunamis were felt down the United States west coast, Hawaii and Japan. There was one report by a deck hand aboard a cargo ship tied to a pier in Homer, Alaska that he watched every drop of water in the harbor disappear over the horizon and left the boat sitting on the bottom. Then over the horizon he sees a gigantic wave coming toward him like a freight train. There is nothing he can do but hang on and when the wave strikes him and the boat are flung inland several hundred yards. He survived but the boat was trashed. There was another case of a man near Homer who was holding on to something substantial and saw his 50 foot house trailer, wife and dog enclosed washed out to sea and never saw hide or hair of either one again. I was stationed near Anchorage at Elmendorf Air Force Base as a control tower operator. I left in 1961 but I saw pictures of my old control tower. It was a pile of scrap metal and glass. The two controllers in the tower during the quake were killed. As bad as it was, this quake could not hold a candle to Christmas Eve quake/tsunami in the Indian Ocean a few years ago. There was no way all the deaths could be tallied in this one but it is acknowledged to be over 350,000, too horrible to contemplate.

Answer to the trivia question.

Alexander Hamilton could not be President because he was not born on American soil, he was born in the Bahamas on St. Kitts.

               Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                          Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Inanimate objects are classified scientifically into three major categories—those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost.”

Russell Baker

Trivia question of the day:

Who was Crispus Attucks? Answer at the end of the blog.

                  This Date in History   March 26

1776 The Provincial Government of South Carolina declared their independence from Great Britain, adopted a new constitution and renamed itself the General Assembly of South Carolina. They elected John Rutledge as president, Henry Laurens as Vice-President and William Drayton as Chief Justice. This was four months before the Continental Congress declared independence for the entire Colonies on July 4. During the next two years John Rutledge had near dictatorial powers in South Carolina and the others decided a change was needed. In 1778 changes were proposed to the State constitution that Rutledge was opposed to and he resigned. Rawlins Lowndes took over a Governor and instituted the changes Rutledge found objectionable. The changes took veto powers from the President and made it a law that state senators were to be elected in a general election. It also changed the office of the state President to a governorship. In spite of all of this, in 1779 Rutledge was re-elected only this time he would not be President but a Governor with a lot less power than before. It was Drayton that drafted the state constitution that gave Rutledge such heart burn. Drayton went on to serve in the Continental Congress and died in Philadelphia at the age of 37 in 1779. Rutledge lost most of his wealth when the British captured Charleston earlier but lived to see a new century and died in 1800. Henry Laurens was elected to the Continental Congress and in 1780 was sent on a diplomatic mission to Holland but was captured by the British and was imprisoned in the Tower of London where he served 15 months and was released. He came back to America and spent the rest of his years on his plantation where he died in 1792.

1987 On this date the Philadelphia police are called to a rundown house owned by one Gary Heidnik. In the basement they find a den of horrors. There were two women chained to the wall, one woman at the bottom of a deep pit. There was a fourth but she was the one that had escaped and called the cops. Hiednik had been a mental patient in the past but had made his self wealthy on the stock market. He did not pay any income tax because he had declared himself a Bishop of his own church, The Church of God’s Ministries. It was in 1986 that Heidnik had decided to have a harem and began gathering women off the streets of Philadelphia. He killed one woman by throwing her into the pit, filling it with water and then throwing in an operating electric fan. He killed another by chaining her to the wall and letting her starve to death. The grisliest of all was when he killed another woman, dismembered her and cooked and fed her to the others. Needless to say, Heidnik was tried and convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed in July of 1999. This jackass was able to live 12 years after committing these abominations. It ain’t right, y'all. It just ain’t right.

1997 The San Diego police are called to a fancy mansion in the Rancho Santa Fe area. They find 39 corpses all in a very peaceful and serene positions. The police cannot find blood anywhere and it appears that all have committed suicide by mixing a deadly cocktail of Phenobarbital and vodka. There were 21 women and 19 men. The head of this cult was a strange looking guy named Marshall Applewhite. The basis for Heaven’s gate was to absolve yourself of all earthly possessions, give whatever money you can get for it and give it to the Heaven’s Gate organization and then hang around for God to send a space ship to take you to heaven in a spiritual form. Then the unexpected happens. The Hale-Bopp comet shows up in spectacular fashion. Applewhite takes this as a sign from God and believed the space ship is hidden in the tail of the comet. He decides that it would be prudent to assume the spiritual form when the comet makes its closest pass to earth. I am not saying that the Heaven’s Gate faithful are not sitting aboard a starship as we speak, nor am I denying the turning of the Nile River into blood, nor water into wine nor the parting of the Red Sea because all the above require a leap of faith. It just depends upon what you choose to believe, and it doesn’t have to be logical. What I don’t get is if they are in a spiritual form why do they need a piece of hardware like a space ship. Did I mention Jim Jones and David Koresh?

1832 On this date the American Fur Company owned by John Jacob Astor launches its newest device to capture even more of the North American fur trade. It is the riverboat Yellowstone. Astor had the boat built in New Orleans to have a shallow draft but yet be maneuverable. The boat departed Saint Louis on this date and headed up the Missouri River to the American Fur Company trading post at the intersection of the Missouri and the Yellowstone rivers. The trading post was name Fort Union and was nearly the only successful fur trading fort in the American west. Astor’s fur company was so huge that they could undercut or absorb any and all of their competition. Normally, the furs were brought down river to Saint Louis by small 12 man skiffs with them fighting off the Mandan and Blackfoot Indians most of the way. The Indians would not attack a vessel the size of the Yellowstone so the American Fur Company could transport their furs carrying many times over what the competition could carry and did not have to fool with the pesky Blackfoot. After the Astor family became enormously rich, the need for furs faded and the Yellowstone faded from memory also.

Born today:

1874 American poet Robert Frost. He said “Home is the place where, when you go there, they must take you in.” It is a comforting thought isn’t it.

1904 US writer Joseph Campbell. He said “Computers are like Old Testament gods: lots of rules and no mercy.” I’ve been there as most of us have.

1911 US writer Tennessee Williams. He said of Truman Capote. “I have always said that Truman’s voice is so high it could only be heard by a bat.”

1914 US General William Westmoreland. He said “The military doesn’t start wars, politicians start wars.”

1942 US write Erica Jong. She said “It is often that you see a smart man with a dumb woman, but it is rare that you see a smart woman with a dumb man.” Hey my daughters, pay attention to this. Erica says this because dumb men are so rare.

1944 US singer Dianna Ross. She said “Hair is always important.” To whom, Dianna, to whom?

Answer to the trivia question:

Crispus Attucks was alleged to be the first person killed in the “Boston Massacre” which was one of the major causes of the rebellion that became the American Revolutionary War. Crispus was Native-American/Black.

         Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                               Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Be the master of your petty annoyances and preserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It is not the mountain ahead that wears you out...it is the pebble in your shoe.”

                                                     Robert Service

Trivia question of the day:

Who was the last MLB player to hit .400 or better for a season. Answer at the end of the blog.

At home I have three pair of reading glasses. One pair on my coffee table to use when I read, a pair near my laptop to use when I am doing research and writing my blog, and finally a pair on my night stand for even more reading. At one point I could not find any of them. Throughout the day they surfaced one at a time until I had them all back. This is not the first time this has happened. I don't know who keeps coming in and hiding my glasses like that, but I eventually find them. By the way, I have two pair in my car but somehow those are never hidden from me.

I am a historian and this is what history tells us about dealing with difficult circumstances in the past. Here is one example. Hannibal crossed the Mediterranean from Carthage (present day Tunis) to the present day Spanish Riviera and headed east with the aim of defeating Rome. He brought 32 war elephants with him. He assembled a considerable army on the way east because the people he encountered had been under the heel of the Romans for centuries and wanted revenge...Hannibal had many volunteers especially in France. After crossing the Alps and entering Italy from the north Hannibal encountered the vaunted Roman legions. It was no contest. The horses used by the Roman cavalry had never seen, heard or smelled an elephant and panicked. Hannibal's horses were used to them. An entire Roman legion was annihilated and this happened more than once. The Romans decided that they could not defeat Hannibal in open combat so they chose to combat Hannibal with terrorism. The Roman army went behind Hannibal's army and began the slaughter of anyone and their families that had aided Hannibal or did nothing to stop him thus discouraging volunteers and it cut his supply lines. Then they went to Carthage and leveled it. The order was to not leave one stone standing atop another, to salt the earth so nothing would grow and poison their water sources. This had the desired effect and Hannibal eventually was defeated. The point I am making is the Romans killed thousands of civilians behind Hannibal's army and the destruction of Carthage would leave the Carthaginian army no place to come home to and no families to greet them. It destroyed their dedication and the Romans prevailed. What can we learn from this? It is cruel but the open slaughter of innocent civilians as we have seen recently cannot under any circumstance be a one way street. If it is, then the slaughter will continue. Savage and brutal attacks require savage and brutal responses...history has proven it time and again.

            This Date in History   March 25

1774 On this date the British Parliament passed the Boston Port Act which was part of the so-called Coercive Acts. The Boston Port Act closed the ports of Boston and Charleston, SC to any shipping not condoned by the British navy, a blockade if you please. The Boston Port Act also had a glimmer of hope for the Bostonians in that if the city coughed up the equivalent $1 million dollars to repay the English merchants for the loss of their tea in the famous Boston Tea Party, they MIGHT lighten up on the blockade. That was bullshit because the British brought in the military commander of the British army in the Colonies, General Thomas Gage, and made him the Governor of Massachusetts. The Bostonians and the colonies in general saw correctly that this was the first step toward martial law and England’s attempt to isolate New England and Boston in particular from the rest of the colonies. It did not work, y'all. The rest of the colonies gathered together and began sending supplies to New England via different avenues and the colonies overwhelmingly decided to tell those British merchants to suck it up because they ain't repaying them anything for the lost tea. If you take all the things the British Parliament burdened the colonies with collectively, it is a wonder the Revolutionary War did not start before Lexington and Bunker Hill. In addition to the Boston Port Act they gave us the Stamp Act which decrees that every scrap of printed matter must have a British designed stamp on it at a cost to the colonists. The income from the Stamp Act was to be used to finance the British Army in the colonies. In other words, the colonists were going to provide pay for their own invaders. Parliament also passed the Quartering Act. This act decreed that it was the responsibility of the colonists to provide quarters for the British troops, the colonist’s own homes if necessary. There were other acts but these three were the most obnoxious and clearly led to the Revolutionary War and the creation of this great experiment in freedom known as the United States of America.

1932 On this date the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction of nine young black men from Scottsboro, Alabama for rape of two white women. It all started when two women riding on a train told police that nine black men also riding on the train had forcibly raped them. The nine blacks were soon arrested and charged with rape. The Alabama court found out these two women are not “flowers of the South” but are professional prostitutes and later on admit that they made up the rape story. That did not stop the Alabama court and they proceeded on with the case against the black guys. As you might suspect, they were convicted and sentenced to death. The liberals all over the country jumped out of their chairs and ran to the defense of the black men in this unbelievable outrage. The black men never even met their defense attorneys until the day of the trial. With the conviction overturned, the Alabama courts were not done yet. The nine were arrested again; convicted again and sentenced to death again and again the United States Supreme Court stepped in and put a stop to it. The nine men are finally permanently released but not before spending about 10 years in prison unnecessarily. Prejudicial hatred has no limit.

1911 On this date a fire broke out in a box of rags in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company located on the lower east side of New York City. This building lacked the basic safety features like outside fire escapes and sprinkler systems. There were fire hose connections at regular intervals but each and every one of them had not been tested in so long that all the valves were rusted closed. Not only that, the three elevators operated only sporadically and on this date, they all went to the bottom but the doors would not open nor would the elevator move upwards meaning that those in the elevators were doomed. The greedy owners have access to a stairwell that took them to the roof and they were able to escape by running to the roof of the next building. As you might expect all of the production workers were women and the greatest majority of them were immigrants. 146 women were killed in this conflagration. The upside from this is that all buildings in that part of New York ended up with outside fire escapes and eventually sprinkler systems, but it was too late and not enough for those ladies in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company.

Answer to the trivia question:

The last MLB player to hit over .400 in a season was Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox.

           Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                          Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I don't like repeat offenders, I like dead offenders.”

                              Ted Nugent

Trivia question of the day:

Who was the last NFL player to play both offense and defense? Answer at the end of the blog.

I guess some of you have seen where the Broadway musical “Beauty and the Beast” has been re-written to include a segment that shows a homosexual encounter and other meetings that are nothing short of bad taste. A while back I saw an attempt to re-write “Richard III” by William Shakespeare to show that Richard was a homosexual as was the majority of his court. Let me say this about that. I am far from a homophobic but it is nothing but a lack of imagination and naked plagiarism to have to modify another artist's works to portray something that is of a personal conviction and is a disgusting insult to the authors.

Beauty and the Beast was a book originally written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve a french authoress who died in 1755. The present version was written by Jeanne-Marie de Prince Beaumont, also a french authoress who died n 1780. I do not believe that either one of these women had a homosexual encounter or scenes bordering on pornography in mind at an time while writing this milestone of literature. But somehow the present day producers consider it “breaking new ground” or “doing daring things” but it is nothing but showing a supreme lack of talent and imagination and a disgusting overload of shallowness. If they want to produce a play of that ilk, let them write one themselves...but I can assure you they don't have the heart, mind nor talent to create.

          This Date in History     March 22

1820 On this date one of America’s greatest naval heroes is shot in a duel with a man named James Barron. Stephan Decatur succumbs to his wounds the next day. Barron, also shot, survived his wounds. Stephen Decatur was born in 1769 in Maryland to a naval family. In 1789 he joined the American navy he went through the familiar naval training and was assigned as a midshipman of the new frigate, United States. The fledgling United States merchant navy was being preyed upon by pirates sailing out of the North African port of Tripoli on the north coast of Africa because they knew that the United States did not have a viable military navy such as Great Britain that could provide retribution. One of the United State’s newest warships, the USS Philadelphia, had been forced aground near Tripoli by the pirates. US President Thomas Jefferson tasked the navy with dealing with this situation because he did not want such a ship to fall into the hands of the pirates nor to allow them to use the American design of the ship to build one of their own. So the navy sent Stephen Decatur and 12 others to Tripoli disguised as Maltese fishermen. They sailed their small fishing smack into Tripoli harbor, overcame the guards on the Philadelphia and burned that puppy down to the waterline. English naval hero Horatio Nelson called this feat as “one of the most daring of the age.” Finally the United States navy gained enough armaments and manpower and sailed into each of the North African ports that had been giving them trouble and sent in the recently chartered United States Marines. The Marines went in and kicked ass and took names and threatened each country with continued slaughter if they did not sign a peace agreement. It is from this action that in the Marine Corps Hymn the line “from the shores of Tripoli” arose. Anyway, the trouble with James Barron began when Barron was less that resistant to a British capture of a ship under his command. Barron was brought before a court martial board of which Stephan Decatur was a member. Barron was convicted of dereliction of duty and was kicked out of the US Navy for a period of five years. At the end of the five years, the United States was again at war with Great Britain in the War of 1812 and Barron chose to stay in Europe until the war was over. When he then tried to re-join the United States navy, Stephan Decatur opposed it and Barron was not accepted. Barron felt now it was matter of honor and challenged Decatur to a duel. Duels were frowned upon except for the United States Navy. The challenge was accepted on this date the duel was consummated in Bladensburg, Maryland...Decatur was killed. Barron was finally reinstated into the US Navy in 1821.

1984 Earlier the most blatant display of public hysteria and miscarriage of justice ever seen began. Seven teachers at the McMartin Pre-School in Manhattan Beach, California are brought under siege by a yuppie soccer Mom who claimed that her 2 ½ year old toddler had been sexually molested at the school. The police are brought in and they began a comedy of stupid acts that results in the destruction several people’s reputations. After hearing the Soccer Mom they sent out 200 form letters to the parents of all the little kiddies that attended that school telling them about the charge and that the suspected culprit was on of the owner’s son, Ray Buckey. As you might suspect, the parents went crazy as hell and immediately withdrew their children and initiated lawsuits against the school and Ray Buckey in particular. Let’s recap at this point. As a result of zero credible information and the sheer stupidity of the police, a legitimate and honest business is destroyed and the eight employees are on the street. That ain’t all. On this date, seven employees including owners Ray Buckey and his mother are indicted after the Grand Jury interviews 18 of the toddlers. Then a wacko outfit is brought in called Children Information International. These jackasses spread panic across the United States by saying that nearly all juvenile daycare centers had instances of sexual abuse. The parents of the little kiddies nationwide acted as you might suspect, with hysteria. Finally, credible child psychologists were called in and convinced the courts that a child in the toddler range can and will tell you what he thinks you want to hear. As incredible as it sounds one child testified that Ray Buckey took him to a cemetery and they dug up bodies and cut them open. In the meantime the McMartin School was burned to the ground by an arsonist. Eventually, American parents came to their senses and the hysteria abated but not before a lot of damage was done. It took years for day care and pre-schools to regain credibility.

1908 On this date Louis L’Amour is born in Jamestown, North Dakota. Louis was not much of a student and at the age of 15 he left home to seek his fortune. At various times he was a cowboy, seaman, longshoreman, boxer, miner and fruit picker. During World War II he ended up an officer in the American tank corps. After the war he tried his hand at writing and was soon recognized for his compact and hard-hitting style. He wrote several novels that were moderately successful but he hit a home run with the novel “Hondo” that became the basis of a John Wayne movie. A little later he wrote the novel and screen wrote another hit in “How the West Was Won.” After these blockbusters his career was assured. He wrote a series of novels about three different pioneer families in the early west in “The Sacketts”, “The Chantrys and “The Talons”. For his contribution to the learning and lore of the American west he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1983. Louis went to that that great cattle ranch in the sky in 1988. I miss him.

Born today:

1930 US evangelical Pat Robertson. “During my Presidential bid I stated that I would only bring in Christians and Jews into my cabinet. This created a firestorm in the press and they asked “Do you mean that atheists, Hindus and Moslems are not any good at governing?” and I said “Yes, I do.” I normally am not enamored with his obvious prejudices and he did not disappoint this time.

Answer to the trivia question:

My research says that the last NFL played to play both offense and defense was Deion Sanders. He play right corner of defense and ran punts and kickoffs back on offense.

            Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Propaganda is that branch of lying which often deceives your friends without ever deceiving your enemies.”

                                           Walter Lippman

Trivia question of the day:

How did Alexander Hamilton die? Answer at the end of the blog.

A while back for lunch I had “Reedy River,”and 8, 16 and 18. That is shorthand for fried flounder, potato salad, fried okra and sweet potato cobbler. I also had iced sweet tea and cornbread.

My server was a middle aged black man named James. He had on a black tee shirt with cross and “I Love My Church” on the front. He was occasionally singing ...”Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand...” and frequently saying “Lord, I am too blessed to be stressed”. I asked him where he was from and he said “I am from Georgia...I am a runaway slave.” James is a hoot.

                This Date in History  March 21

1778 Earlier Loyalist Colonel Charles Mawhood had successfully attacked the Patriot regiment at Quinton’s Bridge, Mass. with a mixture of Loyalist and British troops. On this night, he attacked the Patriot troops sleeping on the ground near Hancock’s Bridge, Mass. with the same regiment. He attacked with bayonet only to try and not arouse anyone unnecessarily. Finally, he yelled “Attack, Attack Give no quarter”, and several Patriots were killed with their hands in the air. The arrogant Mawhood also ran into the house of the nearby George Hancock house and killed everyone in it including Mr. Hancock who was a devoted subject of the King. He then threatened all the survivors with killing all of their families and burning down their houses, but changed his mind when the survivors told him that was a two way street and they would send people looking for him and his family very soon if that occurred. I cannot find any further reference to Mawhood other than he was present at the Battles of Princeton and Trenton and was also present at a murder trial where one of his officers was shot and killed by an English Ensign.

1980 On this date United States President Jimmy Carter announced that the American contingent of Olympic athletes would not be allowed to attend the games in Moscow. This was the first time the United States would not be in attendance since the revival of the modern games in 1896. Jimmy did not want to contribute to the economy of Russia who had just a few months before ruthlessly invaded Afghanistan (who is over there now) to try and prop up the Russian backed government that was having its ass handed to it by the Mujahadin or the independent warlords that are giving our troops in present day Afghanistan such a difficult time. The Afghani warlords owe their loyalty to no one and are fiercely independent. The system of independent warlords in Afghanistan has been in place since the days of Alexander the Great and I do not think it is going to change anytime soon. These guys love to fight and are not afraid of death and ended up sending the mighty Russian army home with its tail between its legs. The Russians had more than 70,000 casualties. How does the Untied States expect to change this system that has been in place for 2,300 years into a Democracy? I don’t get it.

1932 A surge of warm air rose out of the Gulf of Mexico and met up with an Alberta Clipper (a mass of really cold air) sweeping down from Canada. The meeting took place in lower and central Alabama and as you might suspect violent weather is the result, especially tornadoes. These people in rural Alabama and any other southern tier state were already suffering in the grinding Depression then here this monster comes. The first town hit with a tornado was Marion, Alabama which resulted in enormous damage and 18 killed and 150 wounded. This deadly front moved northeast, as they all do, and dealt death and destruction to Demopolis, Northport, and Sylacauga, Alabama before splitting into two divisions and one going into Tennessee and Kentucky and the other into the Carolinas and Georgia. The end result was millions in damage and 299 killed and thousands wounded. I don’t know but I would think those people that were already suffering under the yoke of the depression would have felt that this was the end of the world.

1960 On this date there was a peaceful demonstration in the South African town of Sharpeville. The demonstration was by blacks who had travel restrictions put on them that did not apply to the whites. Sharpeville is near Johannesburg, South Africa. The local police in Sharpeville waded into the crowd and opened fire with automatic weapons killing 69 and wounded 180. The next day in Cape Town, South Africa thousands of blacks hit the streets in protest and order was regained only after 10,000 were arrested. It was after this that Nelson Mandela, the president of the African National Congress decided that peaceful disobedience would not work and began raising an army. Mandela was captured, tried and convicted of treason and thrown in jail for life. After 27 years Mandela was released. He eventually became the first black President of South Africa. What an amazing display of perseverance.

1871 On this date American ex-patriot Henry Stanley departed Zanzibar after being tasked with locating the British explorer Davis Livingstone or proof of his death. Livingstone was in Africa trying to find the source of the Nile River and had not been heard from for six years. Stanley left with 2,000 porters and guides but the greatest majority of them had deserted shortly after the expedition began. Stanley searched for eight months and then one day he walked into the village of Ujiji on the banks of Lake Tanganyika, American flag flying. He spotted a white male in the middle of the village and walked up and uttered the immortal “Doctor Livingstone, I presume.” By the way, the source of the Nile River is Lake Victoria.

Born today:

1685 German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. He said When speaking of playing the harpsichord he said “There nothing to it, all one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.” It is simple, y'all.

1905 US writer Phyllis McGinley. She said “In Australia, not reading poetry is a national pastime.” I really think their national pastime is drinking Foster’s beer.

1946 US Director Russ Meyer. He said of his third marriage. “I am a serial bigamist.”

Quotable Quotes:

“I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”

                                                  Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens is my most favorite author of all time.

Answer to the trivia question:

Alexander Hamilton was killed in a pistol duel with Aaron Burr.

              Thanks for listening     I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                             Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Norwegian charisma is somewhere between a Presbyterian minister and a tree.”

                                               Johnny Carson

Trivia question of the day:

In what state was Johnny Carson born? Answer at the end of the blog.

Here is an event that proves to me that the United States is here for a reason and that there is a God.

The Revolutionary war had been underway for a short while and things were not going well for the Patriots. In August of 1776 George Washington's army of about 10,000 was in Brooklyn, NY surrounded on three sides by the British army of about 30,000 with their backs to the East River near where the Brooklyn Bridge is today. It would take a miracle for the army to not be annihilated and sure enough...a miracle showed up. A fiery Patriot mariner/fisherman named John Glover offered to shuttle the army over to Manhattan with 10 small boats. Not only would he have to take the soldiers, he would have to take their artillery, horses, gunpowder, musket balls, rifles and small arms and do it at night in near silence so the British patrols would not find it out. It was a full moon but a heavy overcast showed up (coincidence #1). There was three British warships near the southern tip of Manhattan that could cut off this retreat but suddenly a wind blowing to the South arose preventing it. (coincidence #2). After nearly nine hours of at least 10 trips per boat it became daylight and a British patrol discovered them. They ran to the river bank and began firing but on cue a fog bank rolled in and the visibility went down to matter of yards (coincidence #3). There was four Patriots killed but the Continental army was in tact. All of these conditions could not be coincidental, it had to be the hand of God for all of these events to occur in sequence and at a time they were needed the most. We are here for reasons yet determined, y'all. God works in mysterious ways.

                  This Date in History   March 20

1778 On this date United States representatives Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee have an audience with King Louis XVI of France. They are there in order to persuade France to recognize the United States as an independent nation and become an ally. France was the prime enemy of Great Britain since their embarrassing loss to the English in the Severn Years War. This loss cost France their lands in North America and they were still smarting from it. The United States representatives were anxious to have the French Canadians as allies to protect their northern borders. King Louis XVI was cautious toward backing a losing cause but after the Patriots beat the crap out of the British at the Battle of Saratoga, he decided to recognize the United States as being an independent nation which put him at war with England. He had been covertly sending arms and ammo to the United States and now that he was an ally he sent them openly. A helping hand was given by the second most powerful man in the French Court, Charles Gravier, who wanted to become an ally with the United States for a different reason. After the British captured Philadelphia, Gravier was afraid that the Patriots would not fight without French backing. It was the French that sealed the fate of the British army under General Charles Cornwallis when the French navy sailed into Chesapeake Bay in 1782 and sealed off the avenue of retreat of Cornwallis while Washington was attacking him on three sides on land. We are here because of the dynamic men we had on our side at this point in time.

1965 On this date President Lyndon Johnson called the Governor of Alabama George Wallace and told him that he would not hesitate to send in the National Guard to allow a peaceful march of protesters from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Previously, this protest march was stopped at the Pettus Bridge near Selma when the local police and the State troopers waded into the protesters and beat the crap out of many of them. President Johnson reminded Wallace that it was his duty to protect the Constitutional rights of peaceful assembly and protest and if he was unwilling or refused to do so, then Johnson would. Wallace countered with that he did not think he could restrain his troopers and police because of “outside agitators”. The next march was accompanied by a division of Alabama National Guard sent by Lyndon and peace prevailed.

1413 King Henry IV died and his son Henry V assumed the crown. Earlier King Edward III had promised Henry V the Duchy of Normandy which is on the northwest part of France All of this got started when William, the Duke of Normandy and a Viking, became the King of England. William was also known as William the Conqueror. From then on every King of England thought he had a claim on Normandy. It was Henry V that pulled off one of the greatest military feats in history with his victory at the Battle of Agincourt. Henry landed on the Normandy coast and encircled the French town of Hanfleur and eventually captured it. Henry lost half of his strength due to battle wounds and disease. Henry decided he had better get up to Calais, France and meet his navy and get on back to England. By the way, Calais is the closest point in France to England, about 21 miles across the English Channel. On the way to Calais, Henry was cut off by a French army three times the size of his. Henry moved his troops into a narrow field which would eliminate the chance of encirclement and unleashed an avalanche of bodkin tipped arrows at the closely packed and heavily armored French knights. The bodkin tips were designed to penetrate chain mail and they did their damage to swarming knights. Another good thing in Henry’s favor was that it had rained heavily for the last few days and the chosen field was very muddy which made the footing very treacherous for the heavily armored knights. The French army was packed so close together that they could not even swing their swords. Upon seeing this, Henry ordered his bowmen to pick up their terrible double-handed and double-bladed axes and swords and join with the infantry and wade into those Frenchmen and take care of business. The French suffered 6,700 casualties to Henry’s less than 1,000. It was a stunning victory for the English if not in the history of warfare. Henry died in Vincennes, France in 1422.

1324 On this date the brain trust at the University of Paris determined what was causing the epidemic of Bubonic Plague or “Black Death” that was sweeping across Europe. I don’t know why they didn’t think of it sooner but they said it was caused by the triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars on the 40^th degree of Aquarius. Damn, it was so obvious, how did they miss it before? That pandemic was caused by the Crusaders bringing disease carrying fleas, riding on rats coming back from the Middle East after one of the Crusades. It was too late and nearly 1/3 of the population of Europe had expired. Can you believe they taught Astrology in an institution the caliber of the University of Paris?

1995 On this date someone unleashed a container of Sarin, one of the most deadly nerve gas known to man, in a crowded Tokyo subway. Twelve died and over 2,000 were injured. The Tokyo police were frantic to find out who did this act of terrorism. It took them a while because they automatically started thinking Arab terrorist but eventually it fell upon a religious fanatical group in Japan. The police found their headquarters and also found enough chemicals to make enough Sarin to kill everyone in Tokyo. The police were successful in arresting all involved including the leader who was very old, long silver hair and blind and normally sat cross legged on a satin cushion. Not any more.

Answer to the trivia question:

Johnny Carson was born in Nebraska.

                Thanks for listening    I can hardy wait until tomorrow