Thursday

   Musings and History

Quote of the day:

I asked a friend that is an LSU fan how to stop the Crimson Tide football juggernaut and he said:

“I don't see a way except maybe a sniper with a high powered rifle up high in the cheap seats.”

Trivia question of the day:

Who was Vlad the Impaler?

Reasons

For reasons that I don't understand after citing events in the past where Christians proved to be great mass killers like 7 Crusades and 5 inquisitions I was accused of being an “Left Winger” by bringing up events from the "Dark ages". I was asked has any Christians beheaded anyone. The answer is yes (see Mary Queen of Scots, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Charles I, Anne Boleyn among many others) in addition to “The Rack”, the “Iron Maiden” and many other tools of torture not to mention burning at the stake (see Joan of Arc). Here is some more recent events:

What was the most devastating terrorist attack in America's history beside 9/11? Give up? It was the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. There were 168 dead including at least 30 children under the age of 7 and 680 wounded of varying severity. The bombers were America born and military veterans named Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols...both were Catholic. What was next?

It was the destruction of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. 86 killed including several children under age of 12. The leader of the compound was a man named Vernon Howell but later changed it to David Koresh. He was born in Houston, Texas and claims to have been "saved" in a Southern Baptist Church. He later changed to the Mormon church apparently because he had the hots for the daughter of a particular Mormon Church pastor. He eventually formed a splinter group known as the Branch Davidian. After a 51 day siege a tank was brought in and knocked down a wall and discharged several tear gas canisters which might have caused the fire that killed the 76 inhabitants. There were 10 others killed in earlier skirmishes including several federal officers.

I have a very talented friend that is a songwriter, here is the lyrics of one of my favorites. It is a tribute to Patsy Cline.

Where I Could Be Patsy

Writer Brenda McAfee

Legs dangling from a limb, salt shaker in my hand

Green apples and imagination, my childhood combination

For flights of fancy

Queen of the hill, world at my command

Dreaming dreams beyond my means, a reverie of finer things

Utopia, my own fairyland, where I could be Patsy

Home alone, front porch for a stage

Crazy, Sweet Dreams and Wayward winds would take me away

But I never could stay

Rope on a limb, wood plank for a seat

I'd sing and swing my fantasy complete

Then there I'd be, back to reality

Queen of the hill, world at my command

Dreaming dreams beyond my means, a reverie of finer things

Utopia, my own fairy land, where I could be Patsy

                    This Date in History   October 31

1863 US General Winfield Scott retired from military service. Scott had been given command of all the US army by A. Lincoln at the outbreak of the Civil War in April. Lincoln’s detractors criticized Lincoln for this because of Scott’s advanced years and ill health. Scott was the commander of the American Army during the Mexican War of 1846-1847. When asked how best to defeat the Confederacy he proposed what was called “The Anaconda Plan” whereby all of the Confederate naval ports would be blockaded to strangle them financially and gain control of the Mississippi River to starve them. This plan was scoffed at as being too sluggish but in the final analysis, that is exactly what happened. After his resignation Scott moved to West Point to write his memoirs. He died in 1866 at the age of 80.

1892 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is published. Doyle had been writing about Sherlock Holmes in different magazines as a serial but this was the first time in a book. Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and attended Edinburgh University and became a doctor. One of his teachers at the university was renowned for his deductive reasoning and it is believed that Doyle used him as a model for Sherlock. After graduating from Edinburgh Doyle went to London and set up a medical practice that was moderately successful and gave him time to dive into more of his writing. After the success of the Sherlock Holmes novels, he dropped out of the medical profession and began writing full time. Doyle died in 1930 as an icon of creative writing.

1926 Escape artist Harry Houdini died of peritonitis in Detroit. Twelve days earlier Houdini had been giving a speech at a university and told everyone there how hard his stomach muscles were. One of the students came up and blindsided him with two hard blows to the stomach before Houdini could prepare for it. The blows had ruptured his appendix. Houdini had a scheduled performance the next day and went through with it even though he was in severe pain. After another day or two the pain became unbearable and he went to a hospital and went into surgery almost immediately but it was too late, the poison had already taken its toll throughout his entire system. Houdini had made a pact with his wife and a close circle of friends that after the death of either one of them, they would try to contact the others from the spiritual world. A few of Houdini’s friends did indeed die but Houdini never received any contact. After he died his wife had heard nothing from Harry and declared the test a failure

1864 Nevada became a state. Even though the state only had 40,000 residents as opposed the normal requirement of 60,000 it was allowed into the fold for two reasons: The state was hard core Republican and Lincoln needed all the help he could get for the upcoming election and the largest silver deposit ever found was discovered in Nevada in the Comstock Lode not to mention placer gold mining. Politics and money...a deadly combination.

Births and Deaths:

1948 Baseball player Mickey Rivers is born. Mickey once said “Me, George and Billy are two of a kind.” If Mickey wasn’t black I would think he was related to Yogi Berra.

1993 US actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose outside a Los Angeles nightspot at the age of 23. River was a very talented actor but as many who achieve fame do, he thought he was ten feet tall and bulletproof. Wrong. Ironically he once said “I would rather quit while I am ahead, there is no use in overstaying your welcome.” What a waste of god given talent.

Answer to the trivia question:

Vlad the Impaler was Vlad Dracula the ruler of the western European country of Wallachia in the 15^th century. The regent of Hungary decided to invade Wallachia so Vlad killed many prisoners and many other of his own people that he didn't like and impaled them on long stakes and stood the up at the Hungarian border. When the invading army arrived and saw this horror they decided not to continue and went back to the house.

                       Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

•    Musings and History

  
  

  Quote of the day:

  “Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion.”

                        Dorothy Parker

  
  

  Trivia question of the day:

  Who was the Russian Premier during the Cuban missile crisis? Answer at the end of the blog.

  
  

                 This Date in History   October 30

  
  

  1775 The Continental Congress decides that if they are going to war with England they will need more than two war ships to combat the mightiest navy in the world. So they decided to form a seven man committee headed by Esek Hopkins to do something about it. Esek and the others first start by trying to find naval commanders and crews with combat experience. This was a tall order because this young nation had never been at war before that required a navy. But they round up seven men with sailing experience including a young Scotsman named John Paul Jones that later became a hero of the upcoming conflict. They finally round up seven warships in the Alfred, Columbus, Andrea Doria, Cabot, Hornet, Wasp and the Fly. These vessels were in no way the equal of even the smallest British war ship but it was a start. The plan was to use these vessels to surreptitiously board British vessels, murder the captain and most of the crew and abscond with the warship. In other words, they were to utilized open piracy to advance the strength of their country’s navy. It was soon discovered that the best at this strategy was the young Scotsman John Paul Jones. After a time the fledgling Continental Navy had increased their navy to 40 warships and toward the end of the war were able to more than hold their own against the British warships one-on-one. After the war was over in 1781 these ships were decommissioned and the Captains and crews furloughed. It was not until 1798 that it was decided that a permanent United States navy would be required. This was caused by the constant harassment and capture of United States merchant ships by pirates off the west coast of Africa and in the Mediterranean Sea near the North African coast, especially near the coast of Tripoli. If you listen to the Marine Corps hymn and the phrase “to the shores of Tripoli”, this is the Tripoli they are talking about. That’s right; the ubiquitous Marines went ashore and took care of business. No more pirates.

  
  

  1938 Communications genius Orson Welles and distinguished actor John Houseman formed a radio program named the Mercury Radio Theatre. They would put on weekly plays using guest actors and actresses. Keep in mind that Orson was still a teenager. At the beginning of the show on this date, Orson stated that everything the public heard in the following show was fiction and wished everyone a Happy Halloween. The show started with a mystery play and about five minutes into the show, a voice broke into the play and announced that he was a news reporter and was observing the following. An alien spaceship had landed on a farm in central New Jersey and was moving across the countryside vaporizing everything and everyone in sight. The US Army was on site and had nothing that could stop the space ship. It looked like it was the end of the world. He went on telling what carnage the ship was producing and how impotent the military was. Well, people from all over the country ran out of their houses screaming for divine intervention from this apparently unstoppable foe. After about 20 minutes of this nonsense the “reporter” bade his farewell to the audience because the spaceship was nearly on top of him and the “death ray” was coming his way. After this Orson came back on the air and said that he wished that all had enjoyed the program and wished them a good night. Only then did America realize it was a ruse. I am a loss for words at this, after all it was Halloween. It was Adolph Hitler who said “The more preposterous the suggestion, the more likely it is to be believed.”

  
  

  1811 On this date one of the greatest novels ever written in Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen is published in England. Jane would not allow her name to be used as the author and the author was named as “a young lady”. Jane refrained from using her name because a woman writing novels was not considered “ladylike”. Even when she was writing at her desk and someone came in she would hide her manuscripts under the blotter. Jane also delivered to the world other masterpieces such as Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. As for Jane not using her real name because of what she thought people would think of her. There are some of those writers of “romance” novels out there need to stop generating that trash and go home, the 1^st Amendment not withstanding.

  
  

  1735 One of the heroes of the American Revolution, John Adams, is born in Braintree, Massachusetts. Braintree is now part if Quincy, Massachusetts. He was the third son of John and Susanna Adams and was recognized at an early age as an intellectual. He attended Harvard at the age of 16 and graduated at the age of 20. For a while he worked and studied in the law firm of James Putnam and taught school at Worchester, Massachusetts. He was admitted to bar at the age of 26 and married Abigail Smith at the age of 29. Abigail was the daughter of a Weymouth, Massachusetts congregational minister. From the start of the marriage John and Abigail developed a deep trust and respect for each others thoughts and opinions and Abigail was not afraid to express hers even if it was the opposite of John’s. John and Abigail were eyewitnesses to the Battle of Bunker Hill that was fought literally in their back yard. John became a ridgepole in the support of the cause for American independence. He was never in the military but his political guidance was instrumental in the machinations of our government. It was he that brilliantly mapped out the three branches of Federal Government; Legislative, Judicial and Executive. He also saw the Legislative branch with two sections (House and Senate). This man had incredible vision and ideas that are in practice to this day. He had a problem with the Federalists party under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton who wanted a Federal Government stronger than Adams had envisioned. But that problem dissolved when Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr. It was said that Madison was an intellectual, Jefferson was the unquenchable idealist, and Franklin the most charming and versatile but is was Adams that was the most captivating of all of out founding fathers on most counts. Even though the Declaration of Independence was primarily drafted by Thomas Jefferson, Adams was among the group of people to offer help to Jefferson in the phrasing. The Declaration of Independence was introduced as a resolution to the Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee and that resolution was seconded by John Adams. After the Revolutionary War he was elected as representative to The Court of St. James in 1787. This today is known as the Ambassador to Great Britain. Adams was responsible for beginning the healing of the wounds inflicted to both sides in the Revolutionary War that had ended in 1781 and establish a friendship and rapport between the United States and England that exists to this day. Adams played a very important role in establishing the United States as a major player in the world politic, especially in Europe and Holland in particular. The Dutch were major worldwide traders in those days and Adams saw the market for American goods being shipped on Dutch vessels as an advantage for both America and Holland. There are so many contributions that Adams made to his country, including the first Vice-President and the second President, that it would take a book to fully cover this man’s life and indeed there are many of them out there. It would be worth all of out times to read one about this giant in the history of the United States.

  
  

  Births and deaths:

  
  

  1751 English satirist Richard Sheridan is born. In an argument with his son about his academics, his son suggested that he should write “Room for rent” across his own forehead and Richard responded with “Write under that ‘unfurnished’”

  
  

  The answer to the trivia question:

  The Russian premier during the Cuban missile crisis was Nikita Khrushchev

  
  

                           Thanks for listening   I can hardy wait until tomorrow

  
  

  ---

30

Settings

Alfred Campbell

albig29640@yahoo.com

(864) 901-5456

Edit contact

Tuesday

     Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“We all suffer hills and valleys in our lives and have to deal with them. The problem is our struggle to get to the top of the hills is overwhelmed by the avalanches into the valleys.”

                                                  Al Campbell

From early 2016:

I made up my mind a while back that my support for our next President would have these qualifications. I am up my eyeballs in professional politicians that may or may not keep their constituents in mind in proposed legislation. It is apparently dependent upon whether or not they keep their jobs and the feathering of their nests. Not only that, in my opinion this Democratic administration is the most divisive in history. So all of this means that it will have to not be a politician nor a Democrat. That leaves me with the choices of Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and Donald Trump. I prefer Carly because she knows how to hire a staff of experts (see Hewlett-Packard) and how to run a business. The same can be said about the bombastic Donald Trump. Carly was indeed fired as CEO but she said that when she proposed changes that would decrease the number of people on the Board of Directors they got scared for their jobs. It is agreed by all that the the US Government should be run as a business. Ben seems the most sincere but lacks the previously named assets. I think we all agree that the most dangerous pot boiler today is the turmoil in the Middle East...in my opinion Armageddon could be on the horizon if this problem is not resolved tactfully. I saw an interview with a Syrian Ambassador who was asked who was behind ISIS. He said that he believed it was a conglomeration of Israel, the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey...especially Turkey. The world will eventually have to deal with the Muslim countries that are in turmoil. As we all know, the Muslim countries do not hold women in very high esteem...that one fact gives me pause about Carly and especially Hillary. But on the other hand we cannot let other religious and tribal law dictate who our President will be. After all Israel survived with Golda Meir as Prime Minister and England with Margaret Thatcher. Both countries were challenged militarily during their terms in office primarily because it was believed that women were not as tough as men. They were wrong. I am still weighing all of this...you should too.

I am back to the textbook on the history of the Comanche. For over 80 years these guys were recognized as the finest light cavalry in the world. They were aboard fiery Spanish ponies that had escaped the Spanish conquistadors and ran wild and bred for a couple of centuries. The Comanche were the first to capture and train them. Both the Comanche riders and the ponies could last longer without rest, food and water than anyone chasing them. The ponies were in great demand to the other plains tribes for running down bison. Eventually the Comanche realized that if they were going to expand their influence they needed firearms and metal tipped axes, lances and arrows, etc. They decided that the answer was kidnapping people, especially the Spanish and the Apache. Why them? They had horses. They would kidnap these people and hold them as hostages and trade them back for at least three horses per person. They would take the extra horses and trade them to the illegal gun runners for firearms and metal tools. In many cases they would take the extra horses and trade them to the other plains tribes for bead work, gold and silver and use that as currency. Eventually the US cavalry entered the picture and they needed horses also and business boomed because the horse ranchers and illegal gun runners needed even more horses to sell to the US cavalry. But finally the US cavalry began indiscriminate slaughter of the plains tribes. In a stunning display of logic, these tribes determined that there were more members of their tribe that were dying or disappearing than were being born and if that continued they would be annihilated. They decided that they needed replacements for their women and children that were murdered or died from the white man's diseases. The plains tribes felt that if the honkies were responsible for the death or disappearance of their women and children then the honkies should be responsible for replacing them and the human slavery business increased exponentially for the Comanche. The beginning of the end for the Comanche came when the US Cavalry ceased trying to track down the warriors and began a wholesale slaughter of horses wherever they found them. Without horses the Comanche had nothing to trade and no way to run down bison. The tribes as a whole did not believe that anyone would indiscriminately try to annihilate animals just to subdue other human beings. They were wrong.

                    This Date in History October 29

1777 After a prolonged illness, John Hancock resigned as president of the Continental Congress. Hancock is famous for his large and flowing signature on the monumental Declaration of Independence that was signed on July 4, 1776. He was present in one capacity or another at nearly every important document signing in this country’s fight for independence. He was a very wealthy man and had much to lose if the rebellion had failed. After resigning he went back home to Massachusetts and started his recovery from his illness. By 1780 he had recovered enough to run for the Governor of Massachusetts which he easily won. He served for five years and then refused to run again in 1785 and went back to his home. Two years later in 1787 he ran for the Governorship again and won. He served in this capacity until his death in 1793. His tenures as Governor of Massachusetts proved this man’s great leadership and administrative skills. Not only that, he was a feisty devil and the British knew it and had a bounty on him. After signing the Declaration of Independence, Hancock said about his signature, “Now the British can read it without their spectacles, their bounty be damned.” I like his attitude.

1901 The assassin of US President William McKinley is executed in the electric chair. Leon Czolgosz went to meet his maker medium rare courtesy of the electric chair. Leon was in a receiving line waiting to shake the hand of President McKinley at the World’s Fair. When it came Leon’s turn, he had a handkerchief tied around his right hand hiding a small revolver. McKinley thinking that Leon was crippled reached out with his left hand and Leon pumped two rounds into McKinley’s abdomen. Leon was immediately disarmed and arrested. Of the two shots, one went all the way through and caused very little damage but the other one lodged near his liver and had to be removed surgically. It looked like McKinley was going to be OK but after a couple of days her started getting worse and soon died. It was gangrene that had set up inside his abdomen that was undetected. Leon was unrepentant to the end. His last words were “I am not sorry, he was an evil man.”

1619 English explorer and bon vivant Sir Walter Raleigh had a fateful meeting with a big guy with a big axe on the lawn of the Tower of London and went to meet his maker in two pieces. It seems that Sir Walter had been a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I and she was quite fond of him. She sent Sir Walter on several exploratory trips to the new world including the fateful settlement on Roanoke Island, North Carolina of which not one scrap was ever found after a supply ship arrived two years later. After returning to London Queen Elizabeth found out that Sir Walter had been having a liaison with a Scottish beauty named Bessy Throckmorton, one of the Queen’s Maids-of-Honor, and the Queen became enraged and threw Sir Walter and Bessy into the Tower. Sir Walter coughed up enough money to bail them both out . Sir Walter and Bessy were married and they tried their damnedest to stay out of the way of the Queen. Elizabeth died in 1603 and James I rose to power. James accused Sir Walter of opposing him becoming King but allowed him to live so he could send Sir Walter on some more expeditions. Sir Walter finally returned from an expedition of establishing a village near a gold mine in South America. James I evidently felt that Sir Walter had outlived his usefulness and wearied of paying him his pension as a knight. He resurrected the alleged crime of 15 years before and on this date in 1618 had him beheaded. Sir Walter Raleigh was 66 years old and had spent the greatest part of his life in the service of his country. In But as the saying goes “What have you done for me lately, Walt?”

Sir Walter once said “All men are evil and will declare themselves so if the occasion occurs” including James I.

                 Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being.”

                                                        Dalai Lama

Here is the root of our celebration of Halloween:

                                The History of Halloween

This pagan celebration of Halloween goes back more that 2000 years to the ancient Celts of present day Ireland, England and northern France. The original name of the festival was Sawhain pronounced “sow-in” and was to celebrate the harvest and prepare for the upcoming harsh winter. The Celts celebrated November 1 as the beginning of a new year and the evening before became known as “All Hallow’s Eve” which was corrupted to Halloween. It was the only day of the year that the boundary between the living and the dead became clouded and on this night the dead walked the earth. It was also believed that only on this night could one person predict the future of another. This was very important because of the rigors of the upcoming winter did indeed kill many of them. Every house extinguished the fire in their hearth because the Celtic priests (Druids) would cut down a sacred tree and build a gigantic bonfire for this night’s celebration. The people believed that if they could get a scrap of burning wood from this sacred fire and bring it into their homes, it would keep them warm throughout the winter. When the Celts approached the sacred fire they were costumed in animal heads and skins for ritualistic reasons. Upon the arrival of the Romans the rituals changed somewhat and Roman rituals were introduced as being part of the ritual. One of these rituals was the celebration of the harvest also except here they would honor the Roman goddess of fruits and trees, Pomona. Pomona is represented by the symbol of an apple. I guess y’all see where this is going. That’s right; it is the bobbing for apples and trying to bite an apple while it is hanging from a string that was the result of paying homage to Pomona. During the 8^th and 9^th century the Roman Catholic Church tried their damnedest to eliminate this pagan festival and make it a church related event and instituted all Saint’s Day on November 1 hoping to sway the existing pagans back under the umbrella of the church. It did not work. This pagan festival continues to this day. There is no written evidence for the rise of the event known as “trick or treat” except that on All Hallow’s Eve some of the dead that walked the earth were mean, spiteful creatures. I suspect that ritual was really fostered by candy manufacturers and costume makers. Anyway the colors that are associated with Halloween as being orange and black have a meaning. Orange represented the changing color of the leaves on deciduous trees and black meant winter, shorter days and death was on the horizon for some. It bothers me somewhat for different churches to sponsor a Halloween event. It means that they are fostering a pagan festival but it could keep some of the kids off the street.

                          This Date in History   October 28

1775 The new British military governor, General William Howe, ordered that every citizen of the city of Boston cannot leave town until further notice. Additionally, he decreed that all the citizens were expected to combat that group of ruffians that threw the tea into the harbor and that rag tag militia that had killed 226 and wounded 838 of his majesty’s troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June of this year.  The Continental Congress had elected Virginia planter George Washington as commander-in-chief of the army but he was having a hell of a time convincing his troops that this was not a game. They were used to being commanded like a militia whereby the leaders are elected by the troops and if the leader was not what they wanted they simply fired him. Not only that, they all went back to the farm at harvest time. It happened here and Washington had no choice but to wait until spring and recruit a new army. Only this time he would have a professional military trainer to whip them into shape. That man was the Prussian Baron Von Steuben who joined Washington at Valley Forge this winter. Von Steuben did indeed begin training the remainder of the troops soon after his arrival. It worked and a well trained and disciplined army emerged. Howe stayed in Boston until in the following March when Washington and the brilliant Henry Knox were able to get some captured British artillery on high ground overlooking Boston. Howe had no choice but to retreat and the Bostonians were free to travel about for the first time in six months.

1961 Rhythm and blues singer Chuck Berry went on trial for the second time for violation of the Mann Act. The trial was dubbed the “Apache Trial” by the media. It seems that Chuck had met Janice Escalante in a bar in El Paso, Texas. Chuck became enamored with Janice and invited her to join his entourage. Janice was a Mescalero Apache Indian. Chuck questioned her at length about her age and she insisted that she was 21 years old. After a few weeks Janice tired of the road and Chuck’s treatment of her and she went to the cops and complained and Chuck was arrested. At the trial the prosecution produced a birth certificate showing Janice as being only 14 years old. In spite of the fact that Janice lied to Chuck about her age, Chuck was indeed found guilty and was sentenced to three years and sent to Leavenworth. Later on he was sent to a jail in Saint Louis where he served his time until paroled. By the way, the Mann Act makes it a Federal crime to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes. It was meant to prevent interstate prostitution and white slavery. Does that mean if I take a woman from Greenville, South Carolina to Hendersonville, North Carolina, about 40 miles, to view the Autumn leaves or pick apples and we spend the night, am I am guilty of a Federal crime? I realize that leaf looking and apple picking is not immoral, but I probably would have had thoughts of spending the night from the start.

1999 Cyclone 05B comes ashore on the southeast coast of India. As y'all know, in that part of the world a hurricane is known as a cyclone. This bad boy was a category 4 when it came ashore. The only problem is that it never quite came ashore completely and stalled out with part of it still out over the Indian Ocean which kept feeding it warm, moist air and therefore the storm never broke up. It poured torrential rains for days which resulted in monumental flooding. After it was all over there were 10,000 dead or missing along with 406,000 head of cattle. The same thing happened like that earlier in Bangladesh. Some of the human bodies were not found right away...but the tigers found them. The tigers came out of the jungle and feasted on them. They developed a taste for it and began hunting humans as a matter of course. It took a generation for the tigers to get back to normal.

                   Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow