Wednesday

 History and Musings

Quote of the day:

“Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.”

                                             Julius Caesar

Trivia question of the day:

How old was Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde) when she was killed?  Answer at the end of the blog.

A while back up in Chattanooga, Tennessee two brothers were found dead at home in their recliners. They had been there three years. The were found because a relative called the cops and said that these guys had not been seen for quite a while. Foul play was not considered. How could these guys die in their chairs at the exact same time? The only answer I can come up with is it was in the winter and a faulty furnace put out an overdose of carbon monoxide.

Y'all will be glad to know that there has been 148 small earthquakes in Oklahoma in a 30 day period recently. They were only 2 or 3 on the Richter scale but they were indeed earthquakes. There were recent earthquakes in Nicaragua, Chile, the Solomon Islands and Los Angeles. I understand the earthquakes in Nicaragua, Chile, Los Angeles and the Solomons because they are on or very near the “Pacific rim”...but Oklahoma? My research revealed that there is indeed an ancient fault underlying Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma. In fact back in the early 1800's there was a kick-ass earthquake on the Arkansas/ Tennessee border that formed Reelfoot Lake and killed thousands. There is no way of telling how many deaths resulted because there was no census in those days. There were reports that the Mississippi River ran backward for several days. It could be an ancient fault but I think it because Mother Nature is fed up. At one time I worked in the western Oklahoma oil fields for Halliburton. I was in a “fracking” unit. What this means is this. The mantle of the Earth is not solid...there are caverns and caves deep down. This is where oil and natural gas accumulates and is the object of oil and gas wells among other sub-structures. A frack unit goes to a well that appears to be drying up and pumps a gel-like substance into the cave or caverns under tremendous pressure trying to pry open additional sections of the caverns and caves allowing for additional oil or gas to be recovered. The gel that is pumped expands at a rate of 70 to 1 and the heat below eventually reduces it to a liquid. Fracking is not a natural event and I think it could be damaging the earth's structure in certain locations causing small quakes...in addition to possible pollution of the water table even though the oil and gas wells are lined with steel pipe.

Does the name “Isleworth” mean anything to you? If I tell you there was a damaged fire hydrant in front of the house, would that help? How about if I told you it was in Windemere, Florida? It is the house that Tiger Woods and family were living in when his wife chased him with 7 iron when she found out what he had been doing with other women. She broke a window in Tiger's SUV while he was trying to escape her wrath and it was Tiger that ran into the fire hydrant. Guess who lives there now. It is Bubba Watson. Did you know Bubba's wife is 6'-4” tall? He also is a Masters winner.

I don't normally get into things like this but what I talking about is out of the box. Your Attorney General Eric Holder had a series of sharp and intense exchanges with Republican members of the Senate and followed with this. He said that no Attorney General, or the President for that matter has been treated so badly. That smacks of him pulling out the race card and it is disgusting. Eric, you dumb jackass, President Bill Clinton (white) was impeached for crying out loud and Attorney General John Mitchell (white) did jail time...Do You remember all of that you imbecile? It is incredible to think that a man in a position of power of the Attorney General of the United States feels like he is discriminated against because of his race when someone challenges him. It is a disgusting display of incompetence and lack of aplomb, two things required for the position he holds. In short, he sucks.

Speaking of prejudice...after winning the Masters Golf Tournament Bubba Watson, his wife, child and a few friends went to eat at a local Waffle House about 1:30a. The Golf Magazine made a big deal out of this saying “What else can you expect from a guy named Bubba?” Is it prejudicial for a man to be denigrated because of a nickname his father gave him? I just thought of one for them...”You Dumb-ass Yankee Bastards”...Is that prejudicial? By the way, Bubba had hash browns “covered and smothered” among other delicacies. Back when Phil Michelson won the Masters he took his kids to the local Krispy Kream while still wearing the green jacket but nothing was said about that...By the way, Bubba is from Baghdad, Florida and speaks with a detectable accent.

                                    This Date in History   April 15

1783   On this date, after 8 years of blood, sweat and tears and plowing through two or three different types of government, the treaty signed by The United States and England in Paris in 1782 is ratified by the United States Congress officially ending the American Revolutionary War making us an uncontested independent nation. It was a miracle ya’ll, it was a miracle. Great Britain ceded all lands east of the Mississippi to the US and granted US fisherman the rights to fish the fertile banks off the coast of Newfoundland. America agreed to return those lands captured by the US from the Loyalists. The United States and Great Britain were satisfied with the terms of the treaty but the western Indians damned sure were not. They fought in behalf of the British and had some of their lands ceded to the United States without compensation or consultation. The Indians did the honorable thing, they continued to fight and the Southern Indians also continued to fight the encroaching Georgians with help from the Spanish. North of the Ohio River the British continued to maintain their forts at Niagara and Detroit maintaining that the Americans had not handed back the lands previously owned by the Loyalists as specified in the Treaty of Paris in 1782. Not only that, The United States was freely trading with revolutionary France which scared the hell out of Great Britain so they openly gave supplies to those Indian tribes that were aggressive toward the United States. It took until 1795 for all of the British to leave American lands. The United States being friendly with revolutionary France paid off because in 1803 France offered to sell all of its lands in North America to the Americans for $11 million. Napoleon needed the money to continue his conquest of Europe. It was known as the Louisiana Purchase and nearly doubled the size of the United States.

1947   On this date the color barrier in professional baseball was broken when a black man named Jackie Robinson stepped onto Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn, New York. It took much courage for Jackie to agree to the contract offered by Brooklyn Dodger owner, Branch Rickey, and it took a lot of courage for Rickey to even offer it. There was a hell of a lot of prejudice in the fans of baseball against black players even in New York. Jackie proved him self on the field in several areas. His batting average was always exceptional as was his base stealing not to mention his defense. His jersey number of 42 was retired from each and every base ball team in his honor. No other player in history had ever received such an accolade.

Born today:

1452   Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci. He said “I have learned from an early age to abjure from the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals like they look at the murder of humans.”

1843   US write Henry James. He said “She had the unequaled gift of squeezing huge mistakes into small opportunities.” I think I was married to this person.

1861   Canadian writer Bliss Carman. She said “A ‘fact’ merely marks the point at which we choose to stop investigating.” I like this train of thought.

Answer to the trivia question:

Bonnie Parker was killed In 1934 at the age of 24.

                 Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow