Friday

  Musings and History

Quote of the day:

When speaking of Richard Nixon he said:

“He is a monument to all the rancid genes and broken chromosomes that corrupt the possibilities of the American Dream.”

                                                Hunter “Gonzo” Thompson

The astrophysicists worldwide are all agog because they have found a solar system with 7 planets orbiting a red dwarf sun. This means that some of the planets would fall into the “Goldilocks” category. It means that certain planets would be the right distance from the sun to allow the right range of temperatures and have the possibility of liquid water, both are necessities for life as we know it. They are also happy that the system is only 40 light years from Earth, a mere blink of the eye when it is compared with the size of the universe. A light year is the distance that light can travel in one year. The problem is the age of humans and time itself. Scientists know that we have not developed any means of propulsion that will allow acceleration to anywhere near the speed of light. Even if a method was conceived that would allow 1/10^th the speed of light it would take 400 years to get there and 400 back. 1/10^th the speed of light is about 67 million miles per hour, y'all. It also would take a hundred year to accelerate to that speed. Time is our enemy. We will have to figure out a way to make people live longer or put them into suspended animation otherwise there will be 5 generations to live and die aboard the spacecraft before it gets there. The length of time that a living being can be put into suspended animation is not known. Einstein said it is possible to manipulate the time/space continuum and travel in time but no one has yet figured out how. Until we solve these problems...we ain't going no where. Just remember this, light from those planets that we are seeing now is 40 years old. The planets and their sun may not be there any longer. If we send an electronic signal to them it will take 40 years to get there. It boggle the mind, y'all.

                        This Date in History   February 28

1784 On this date John Wesley established the first Methodist church in America in colonial Georgia. Wesley was a devout Anglican but after the defeat of the British during the American Revolutionary War the Anglican Church abandoned the United States and Wesley felt that he had to replace the Anglican Church so he devised the Methodical Anglicans or Methodists. While in Georgia he became involved with a religious sect mostly from Germany called the Moravians. This was a turning point in Wesley’s life because he admitted that for the first time that he felt the presence of God was at one of those meeting that he attended. While keeping touch with the Moravians he sought the advice of fellow Cambridge graduate George Whitefield. While at Cambridge Wesley and his brother Charles had founded the “Holy Club”. John Wesley’s teachings were not allowed in any Anglican Church so he preached out in the open and over a period of years he had gathered a large following. He finally realized that there had to be more evangelicals than himself along with an administrative staff. His only problem was that his new church had no bishops. He was still used to the Anglican way of things where a minister must be ordained by the”laying on of hands” by a bishop. So John decided that he would ordain the ministers himself and the first two were Dr. John Coke and Francis Asbury and as the saying goes, the rest is history.

1864 US Cavalry Commander Hugh Judson Kilpatrick and Colonel Ulrich Dahlgren are tasked with riding into Richmond and freeing the Union prisoners of war. It was Dahlgren’s job to release the prisoners while Kilpatrick provided cover. They had one additional job and that was to tell every Johnny Reb they met that President Lincoln had offered amnesty and restoration of property to those that would lay down their arms and swear allegiance to the United States. To provide a diversion two divisions of cavalry one led by General John Sedgwick and the other led by Colonel George A. Custer would made raid into the western parts of Virginia. On this date Sedgwick, Custer, Kilpatrick and Dahlgren parted company and went about their assignments. Dahlgren was supposed to approach Richmond from the west and Kilpatrick from the northwest. Kilpatrick arrived of March 1^st with CSA General Wade Hampton III and his howling, wild-eyed Confederate Cavalry hot on his tail. Kilpatrick knows he is danger of annihilation and turns his ass back north which leaves Dahlgren cut off. In the mean time Dahlgren had hired a local guide to take his cavalry to the shallowest part of the James River for crossing into Richmond. The guide instead leads him to the deepest and swiftest current part of the river. The infuriated Dahlgren hanged the guide on the spot. Dahlgren had no choice but to backtrack out of there knowing the Confederates knew he was there. Not only that, by now he had found out that Kilpatrick had been routed and he was on his own. Dahlgren’s cavalry was ambushed time and time again on their way out and they were nearly cut to pieces. There is no record of a Confederate soldier taking Lincoln’s offer of amnesty and restoration. They were a hard-headed bunch.

1993 Earlier a squabble occurred between two people trying to organize the Mount Carmel Church. One of the squabblers was Vernon Howell who claimed to be God and therefore his children would be children of God. The other guy said that to prove who should lead the church would be the one that could dig up a corpse from a graveyard. Howell nixed that idea and in fact went to the police and told them that the other guy was out digging in graveyards. The police did not want anything to do with a religious disagreement. Finally, the two settle it the Christian way, they had a gun fight and Howell wins so it must be God’s will. Howell changed his name to David Koresh and called his church the Branch Dravidian. They then buy a compound outside Waco, Texas. One day a delivery man going to the compound drops a package and out rolls hand grenades. The deliveryman goes to the local police who then notified the Alcohol, Tax and Firearms division. The ATF tried to talk Davis Koresh into giving up his considerable stash of weapons and Koresh refuses saying he has the right to bear arms. On this date, the ATF organized a raid of the compound in which 4 ATF agents are killed along with 6 of the faithful inside. The ATF back off and a two month siege ensues. Finally on one very windy day, a US Army tank rolled up to the buildings, poked its cannon through the wall and pumped in a hell of a lot of tear gas. The only problem here is that the tear gas canisters can, and very often do, cause a fire. The building caught fire and in that brisk wind it burns to the ground in minimum time killing 80 of the occupants, men, women and children. There were 11 that escaped the inferno. US Attorney General Janet Reno accepted full responsibility for the disaster because it was she that told the commander of the forces surrounding the compound to get it over with, “We have spent too much money on it already.” Indeed, Janet, indeed.

1881 A section of the US Great Plains had been occupied by Utes, Arapahoes and Cheyenne Indians with virtually no Anglos for centuries. Then gold was discovered near Pike’s Peak in what is now Colorado. Then one of many gold rushes was underway. The gold near Pike’s Peak played out early and so the gold seekers kept moving west to the Rocky Mountains and there they found more gold and silver. On this date, the US Government decided that a new state was needed and they took a piece of Kansas, Utah and New Mexico and came up with a rectangular state and called it the Territory of Colorado.

            Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

     Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“I went to a Pavarotti concert once. He doesn't like it when you join in.”

                                                  Mick Miller

Trivia Question of the day:

What NFL safety was known as “The Assassin”? Answer at the end of the blog.

I watch the movie “Invictus”. It as about the life of Nelson Mandela. He was released from prison after serving 27 years and elected as President of South Africa. Morgan Freeman deserved and Oscar for this one. Mandela said that there was a poem sustained him during the horrors of the time in prison. Here is that poem:

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeoning of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

William Earnest Henley

                                   This Date in History February 27

1776 Earlier the Royal Governor of North Carolina, Josiah Martin, had ordered British Colonel Donald McLeod and 1,600 Loyalist soldiers to leave their encampment at Cross Creek, North Carolina and go to the North Carolina coastal town of Brunswick to rendezvous with another Loyalist unit. A 1,000 man Patriot force under the command of Colonel James Carswell decided to intercept the McLeod’s troops and prevent the meeting of the Loyalists. On this date the Patriots arrive ahead of the Loyalists coming from Cross Creek and prepare an ambush at the Moore’s Creek Bridge. Carswell arranged his artillery and troops evenly divided in the woods on either side of the bridge and waited. The Loyalists find out about the ambush but believing that it is just a small militia decide to cross the bridge anyway. So they gathered at the bridge and yell “King George and broadswords” and begin running across the bridge only to be met with a hailstorm of musket balls and grape-shot from the Patriots. After only two salvos the Loyalists surrender. The planned gathering of a British/Loyalist army at Brunswick was cancelled and the British lost control of North Carolina. It was only two months later that North Carolina declared its independence from England. Josiah Martin knew he was in deep do-do and departed the area. This was the first victory for the Patriots in an organized battle against the British/Loyalists. There is a monument and park there commemorating this great event

1827 Since the late 1600’s the French settlers in the New Orleans area had brought with them the tradition of the celebration of Carnival or Mardi Gras. It was mostly private parties at different homes. However, on this date a group of students that had been studying in France and enjoyed the celebration there, adorned themselves with costumes and masks and took to the streets of New Orleans to celebrate Fat Tuesday. As you might expect, it became a tradition except there was no organization and therefore in the 1850’s the celebration degenerated into a series of drunken street fights. Then a rich land owner near New Orleans organized the Krewe of Comus and they organized the parade and the tradition of the people in the parade throwing gifts at the observers. After that, many “Krewes” have been organized and the celebration is much better. However, Hurricane Katrina put a severe crimp into Mardi Gras but this year the city fathers of New Orleans tell us that the attendance at this year’s Fat Tuesday was about 90% of pre-Katrina days. According to what I have read, tourism is the largest industry in that city. Maybe so, but there is a hell of a lot of boat and barge traffic going through there.

1991 Years earlier two brothers Artie and Jim Mitchell opened a strip joint in San Francisco. The joint is a phenomenal success and the brothers become very rich. But in spite of that, they argue and fight frequently. When I say fight, I mean putting each other in the hospital on occasion. Then they decide to go into the porno film business when it was in its infancy. They being the first to make feature length porno movies made them both very, very rich but the fighting continued. On this date the 911 operator in Corte Madera, California got an emergency call from Artie Mitchell saying he had been shot. In the back round he heard 8 shots with a 30 second break between two of them. The police arrive and find Jim wandering around in the yard with a rifle in his hand. Jim is arrested and charged with the murder of Artie. The prosecution uses the 911 tape and reconstructs what they think happened during the 911 call and make an animated movie of it and introduced it into evidence. In spite of not knowing what shots that struck Artie was fired when, the judge allowed it. The defense attacked the movie as being imaginary and had no basis in fact. Because of the long history of the brothers fighting, the jury ruled that Artie was killed during yet another fight and the killing was not intentional. Jim went to jail for 6 years, believe it or not.

1942 America’s first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, is sunk by Japanese bombers with a little help from an American destroyer. The Langley was converted from a coal carrier named the “Jupiter” in 1922. On this date the Langley, with 32 War Hawk fighters aboard departed from its convoy headed for Java and the Dutch East Indies. The ship was supposed to rendezvous with a squadron of destroyers to accompany them to Java. The rendezvous was made and the destroyers strung out on both sides. The Langley asked for fighter cover but this early in the war none could be spared. When about 75 miles from Java, the Langley was attacked by nine Japanese bombers. The first three bombers missed but the second three hit their target and all the planes on the deck of the Langley were aflame. The ship began taking on water and began to list and the Captain ordered abandon ship. Because of the nearness of the destroyers, all but 12 crewmen were saved. One of the destroyers put two torpedoes in the Langley sent her to the bottom to keep her out of Japanese hands. The fighters on the deck of the Langley were the same type that was used by the immortal Flying Tigers.

1922 On this date the United States Supreme Court by a unanimous vote declared that the 19^th amendment to the Constitution allowing women to vote was indeed Constitutional. It had taken 70 years of meeting, petitions, rallies and marches to get this Amendment to even be introduced to Congress. On August 22 the state of Tennessee voted to adopt the amendment making it the required 75% and the 19^th Amendment took effect on August 28.

The answer to the trivia question:

Jack Tatum when he was with the Oakland Raiders was known as “The Assassin” because of his savage style of play.

                            Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“One of the best cures for pride is seasickness. A man that wants to vomit will not put on airs.”

                                                          Josh Billings

What NFL wide receiver was known as “Bambi”? He is in the Hall of Fame.  Answer at the end of the blog.

Here is a conversation I had with a Democratic lady from Killeen, Tx and is a long time friend. She died recently and I miss her.

Me...“Donald is coming.”

Her...“Oh s—t...my daughter thinks he is the anti-christ.”

Me...“He is too old to be the anti-christ”.

Her...“I did not know there was an age limit.”

Me...“In my mental image he is too old...but Hillary is about right.”

A couple years ago my 8 year old HP laptop slowed down to an intolerable crawl and kept freezing up. Rather than buy another laptop I chose to do this. This computer has a program that once initiated will take the computer back to where it was when it came out of the factory. I did this and when it finally stopped whining and flashing, sure enough it was back to basic. But it did save all the programs that had been deleted and all I had to do was reload what I wanted. I had one problem, I accidentally deleted about 550 items that I had written and saved. Thank God that a good friend had given me a “thumb” drive for Christmas and I had downloaded all of my writings on it. I downloaded all of this back aboard the laptop. I did lose all I had written since the initial download but this is a hell of lot better than losing it all. 

               This Date in History February 26

1813 Robert R. (R.R.) Livingston dies on this date. Livingston was one of those people in the history of our country that played a major role but was not well known. Robert was the eldest of nine children to a powerful judge also named Robert R. who owned vast stretches of land along with two major estates in the Hudson River Valley in upstate New York. The main estate where the family lived was Clermont the other was Belvedere. In 1766 the elder Livingston tried to impose restrictive leases onto his tenant farmers which resulted in a tenant farmer uprising who threatened to kill the elder Livingston and burn down his estates. The British army came to his rescue and his estates remained. After this, young Robert is sent to Kings College (Now Columbia University) where he graduated with a law degree. In 1777 after the elder and younger Livingstons has declared their allegiance to the Patriots, the British Army burned down Clermont and Belvedere. The younger Robert represented the Provincial New York Congress to the Continental Congress. He was selected to be the United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs and engineered the sale of the French holdings in North America to the United States. This was known as The Louisiana Purchase. This addition to the United States nearly doubled the size of our country. He was named as “chancellor” of New York. I do not know the equivalent of this office today. But from then on his nickname was “The Chancellor”. It was he that swore in our first President George Washington. There are statues of him in New York City and in the United States Capitol building.

1862 On this date Elisha Hunt Rhodes is in camp in Washington, DC. Rhodes is a soldier in the 2^nd Rhode Island Regiment attached to The Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. Rhodes was a gifted writer and kept a detailed diary for the entire four years he was in the army. The resulting book made from his diary gives us a seldom seen insight into the day-in, day-out existence to the average infantryman. There are hours of sheer boredom intermixed with moments of heart stopping terror and views of horrible after-battle carnage. On this particular day he and his friend Isaac Cooper go to hear a speech by Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson and then the go to a fair in a Methodist church. Elisha and Isaac meet two girls at the fair and walk them home. I suppose even Yankees can get lucky from time to time. Just joking.

1993 On this cold and snowy morning in New York City a thunderously powerful explosion happened in the parking garage under the North Tower of the World Trade Center. There were six people killed and over 1,000 injured. The police had no choice but to evacuate both the North and South towers. The initial investigation indicated that it was a band of Serbs that had done the deed but it was later found that this group was simply jewel thieves. From this the FBI was able to dissolve a large diamond theft organization. But the investigation continued into the bastards that were responsible for the explosion. Investigators found a piece of a van that carried the explosives that still had the serial number visible. From this they tracked the van back to a rental agency in Jersey City, New Jersey where a contract showed the van was rented to one Mohammed Salaamed. This jackass had reported the van as stolen on February 25 and told the agency that he was coming to get his $400 deposit back. There is no need for me to tell you that the FBI was waiting and arrested this dumb ass. A search of Salaamed’s apartment and records implicated two others. They also found a video tape on how to build bombs and were able to identify a fourth person in the video. An owner of a storage facility came forth and said that he had seen four men loading something into a rental van in one of his rental garages. The FBI investigated this site and found enough nitro-glycerin to build another gigantic bomb. Also one of the four had went to the AGL Welding Service and purchased steel hydrogen tanks. In the debris from the blast the investigators found a piece of a tank that still had the AGL logo on it. All four of these lunatics went on trial and were convicted. They all received sentences of 240 years each. I can only hope that all of them are taken under the wing of a 6’-9”, 375 lb. sex pervert that has a penchant for middle-eastern men.

1942 On this date US actress Joan Fontaine won the Oscar for best actress for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Suspicion. Right after this gossip columnist Louella Parsons wrote in her column that Joan did not get the Oscar for her performances on stage but for her performances in bed with every producer west of the Rockies.

By accident Louella and Joan met in the bar at the famous Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles and the verbal exchange between these two women went down in sailor history as a benchmark in the delivery of profanity.

1564 On this date poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe is christened in the Church at Canterbury, England. Two months later William Shakespeare was christened. Marlowe was recognized and being a bright person and was given a scholarship to Cambridge where he earned a B.A. degree. It was believed that he was a spy for Queen Elizabeth while at Cambridge and was nearly denied his masters degree until a representative of the Queen dropped by and suggested that Marlowe had better get his degree ”for services rendered.” Marlowe did indeed receive his master’s degree. During a search of the apartment that he and Thomas Kyd shared, some literature was found that smacked of treason and Kyd was taken to the Tower and tortured. Kyd finally said the literature was Marlowe’s. Marlowe was arrested but made bail and was free. Soon after Marlowe got into a fight with a bartender over his tab and the bartender put a knife into Marlowe’s liver and it is adios Christopher. The moral here is when hammered do not argue with an armed bartender, just pay the freaking tab and go to the house.

Answer to the trivia question.

Lance Alworth was known as “Bambi”. He played most of his career with the San Diego Chargers. He was called Bambi because of his graceful leaps and bounds he reminded people of a deer.

                          Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

  Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“You can spend the majority of your life trying to be popular, but in the final analysis the number of people attending your funeral will be governed by the weather.”

                                                       Lily Tomlin

One of my subscribers reminded me of an important event on February 23, 1945. Here is a little background and a brief history of that event.

After the United States was attacked on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the American military was extremely interested in at attack on the Japanese homeland. It was determined that due to the vast distances between island airports in the western Pacific. The B-17 aircraft used in Europe would be impractical because of its relatively short range and limited bomb load. The Commander of the US Army Air Corp, General “Hap” Arnold issued a prospective order to the different US aircraft manufacturers and described the minimum requirements that included a range of 6,000 miles and a bomb load of 10,000 pounds. Boeing Aircraft won the order with the inimitable B-29 Superfortress. Now the US Navy and Marines were assigned the task of capturing islands with airports in the Marianas and the Caroline Island chains that could be made available to aircraft the size and weight of the B-29. The first two to fall were Kwajalein and Eniwetok. Next came the airports they were really after on Tinian, Saipan and Guam. The islands were within 2,500 miles of the Japanese homeland and all could be modified to handle the B-29. The problem was that the Japanese had already figured out what the Allied strategy was and was ramping up a defense of these islands. The Battle of Saipan was one of the bloodiest in history up to that point. The US Army Air Force began bombing attacks on the Japanese mainland in the summer and fall of 1944. The immediate problem was that the Japanese had radar and a squadron of interceptors on the island of Iwo Jima which was about halfway between Tinian and the Japanese mainland making the trip to and from the Japanese mainland very hazardous resulting in many B-29’s and crews being lost. Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur agreed that Iwo Jima had to be taken at all cost. The reason was two-fold. One was they had to eliminate the interceptors launching from Iwo Jima and two, if the B-29’s on bombing missions had engine trouble or damaged from anti-aircraft fire, they could land at Iwo Jima.

On February 19, 1945 a task force led by Admiral Marc Mitscher for the US Navy and General Holland Smith for the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th divisions of the US Marine Corps dropped anchor on the east side of Iwo Jima. The big guns of three US battleships opened up and along with US Navy fighter/bombers began the largest artillery/bombing assault in history. In the meantime, 20,000 Marines were loaded onto landing craft to await the completion of the bombardment to commence landing. After this earth-shattering barrage, the Marines landed. Nearly the entire first assault wave had landed before they experienced any gunfire from the Japanese. The Japanese commander was General Kuribayashi, a very smart and capable leader. After the Marines were on the island, the Japanese opened up with everything they had and the slaughter was fantastic. The Japanese had dug 11 mile of tunnels on the island, especially on the extinct volcano named Suribachi on the south side of the island. All of these tunnels were bomb proof meaning the naval bombardment had hardly any effect. This mutual slaughter continued until February 23 when a Marine platoon fought its way to the peak of Suribachi and raised an American flag. All the troops below yelled, screamed and cried, the assault ships blew their horns and whistles and the Secretary of the US Navy, James Forestall said “This action will ensure the US Marines for 500 years.” This is the first and only battle where the casualties of the American forces exceeded those of the enemy. The only difference is the Americans had about 6,800 killed and 19,000 wounded where there were only 217 Japanese survivors out of 18,400 in this battle. When General Kuribayashi sent his last message to Tokyo he said “We have not eaten or drank in five days, our weapons have been destroyed, but out spirits are high. We will launch out last attack tonight. May Japan exist for a thousand years.” Sure enough, he led a night assault that was crushed by the Marines. The remains of General Kuribayashi was never identified.

There were 28 Medals of Honor given in this battle, most of them posthumously. That represents 85% of all Medals of Honor given to US Navy/US Marines in the entire war.

By the way, the average age of the combat Marines in this action was 19.7.

                   This Date in History February 25

1779 A few days earlier American Patriot George Rogers Clark departed the small village of Kaskaskia on the Mississippi River with 175 militia and a few French mercenaries to capture Fort Sackville near present day Vincennes, Indiana. After wading through icy cold water Clark’s men arrived at the fort from a direction that was unexpected by the British army inside. Clark called for the surrender of the fort from the British commander who refused. Then Clark personally brought five Indians that he and his group had captured along the way, out in front of the fort and Clark personally hacked them all to death and disemboweled them with a tomahawk. Clark then called again for a surrender which was readily accepted. There were just over ninety British soldiers and their families in the fort. The success of this raid put the British between a rock and a hard place in that area because the French settlers realized that they could not depend on the British military to defend them and sided with the Patriots. George Roger Clark again was one of those little known hard-asses for the Patriots that had he not been where he was when he was, things may have turned out differently.

1576 On this date the head of then Roman Catholic Church, Pope Pius VI ex-communicated the Queen of England, Elizabeth I and told the English Catholics that they did not have to obey Elizabeth any longer. Elizabeth really did not care because her father, Henry VIII got fed up with the pope interfering with the affairs of the English crown and he formed his own church, a protestant church known as the Anglican Church or the Church of England. The only difference between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church was the Pope was head of the Catholics and the King/Queen was the head of the Anglicans. Not a hell of a lot of difference for the faithful. Elizabeth did not have to stress that the English subjects had better abide by the rule of the queen or they would meet a date in a dungeon somewhere or meet a big guy with a big axe and a black hood over his head. Elizabeth proved to be one of the greatest monarchs in the history of western man.

Famous quotes:

“Some people see things that are and ask why, others see things that are not and ask why, others have to go to work and don’t have time for all that bullshit.”

                                             George Carlin

“Good soldiers decide that they will be killed in battle and lose their fear. Then they can kill with no compassion and no remorse. All wars depend on it.”

                                           George Patton

               Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow