Tuesday

     Musings and History

Quote of the day:

"Scientists have discovered the biological purpose of female breasts is to make

 men act stupid."

                                                Dave Barry

                    This Date in History   June 30

1775 The Continental Congress ratified the Articles of War to be sent to King George III. This was a year before the Declaration of Independence was ratified. The Articles of War begins with the phrase “As his majesty’s most faithful subjects in these colonies”, and it goes on to describe “attempts of the British ministry to carry out the execution, by force of arms, unconstitutional and oppressive acts by British Parliament with taxes on America.” The colonists could not believe that King George III would knowingly allow unfair treatment of his subjects and this was an attempt to notify him of it. This was not a condemnation of King George, but of Parliament. King George not only did not agree with the colonists, he did not even read the Articles of War. With this the Colonists knew they were being raped with the approval and encouragement of King George III. After this, the wrath of the colonists turned from Parliament to King George himself. The Declaration of Independence attacked and accused King George not Parliament. In the span of 12 months the colonists re-focused their venom on the King alone. All of this was stoked into an inferno in January of 1776 when Thomas Paine published Common Sense and it scathingly called King George everything but a white man and listed many unfair things that he had allowed to happen to the colonists. This was a clear act of treason as the British saw it and they began applying even more harsh pressure on the colonists. It did not work then, nor in 1812 and hopefully never.

1862 We are about half way through the so-called Battle of the Seven Days. On this day the Battle of White Oak Swamp occurred. CSA General Robert E. Lee decided that the time has come to apply the coup de grace to the Army of the Potomac that is in full retreat with Lee hounding their every step. Lee gave a plan of attack to his three Corp commanders in which the Army of the Potomac would be attacked from three different directions at once. It was a complicated plan and required precise timing. After the attack began, inexplicably, CSA General “Stonewall” Jackson allowed his attack to stall at the edge of the swamp which allowed the Union troops being under attack by him to reinforce other troops that were being overwhelmed. No one has ever figured out to this day what Jackson was thinking. Anyway, this action also allowed the Army of the Potomac to go to the closet high ground and dig in……Malvern Hill. But that is another story.

1981 Glen Godwin got into an argument with a known drug dealer named Kim LeValley. In his rage Godwin stomped, beat, choked and stabbed him 28 times. He wasn’t done yet. He took the corpse out onto the desert near Palm Springs, California and using a home made explosive, blowed it into confetti. Godwin is caught and sentenced to 25 to life and goes to Soledad Prison. While there he marries Shelly Rose. In 1985 He is transferred from Soledad to Folsom prison. In 1987 he escaped from Folsom through a 300 yard drain pipe that someone had cut the iron bars off the end from the outside. He got on a raft, floats across the American River to freedom. In 1989 the American authorities receive a message from Mexico they have a man in custody named Stewart Carrera that has the same fingerprints as Glen Godwin. Before they could get him extradited, Godwin killed his cellmate and escaped. In 1996 Godwin is put on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list and he and Shelly are featured on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.” Someone recognized Shelly on the TV show as living in Dallas and she is arrested. But Shelly had divorced Glen long ago and had remarried. She had no idea where Glen was. And no one else does either because he is still at large to this day.

1878 On this day the 140 ft stern wheeler river boat “Far West” arrived on the Little Big Horn River and begins taking aboard the wounded troopers from the infamous battle. Remember, there were three units of US cavalry at that battle. It was only Custer’s unit that was annihilated. Even though the other two units suffered horrendous casualties, there were survivors. The pilot of the “Far West” was the best at the time in Grant Marsh. The boat only drew 20 inches of water when fully loaded and therefore could navigate a long way up streams and rivers before running out of water. Marsh took the wounded troopers to Fort Abraham Lincoln, North Dakota. There is little doubt that the easy ride on the boat saved many of the wounded. A ride in a wagon to the fort would have been fatal to many of them.

1520 On this day the Aztecs in the capitol of Tenochtitlan led by their king Montezuma II finally get fed up with the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez and his troops and revolt. First of all, Tenochtitlan is an island in the middle of a huge lake with a man made causeway to the mainland. It was located approximately where Mexico City is today. Anyway, the Aztecs sealed off the causeway making Cortez and company have to fight their way out by boat. Cortez loses many troops when the boats carrying the troops along with an overload of gold booty each, capsize and sink, drowning most of them as they are in armor. Cortez escaped, but Montezuma is killed. No one knows if it was the Spanish or the Aztecs that killed him but the next day Montezuma’s brother assumes the crown. Eventually, Cortez returned and with the help of other tribes retook the city. The other tribes resented the hated Aztecs because they subjugated them and required tribute from them all, even all the way to present day Nicaragua.

Births and deaths:

1918 US singer Lena Horne is born. She said “It is ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how much she wants it. But occasionally we do.” Lena has her finger on the pulse of womanhood.”

Quotable Quotes:

“If there is no hell, a good many preachers are receiving money under false pretenses.”

                                                         Billy Sunday

                         Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

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Monday

• Musings and History

     Quote of the day:

   “Take this kiss upon the brow!

  And, in parting with you now,

  This much let me avow-

  You are not wrong who deem

  That my days have been a dream;

  Yet if hope has flown away

  In a night, or in a day,

  In a vision or in none,

  Is it therefore less gone?

  All we see or seem

  Is but a dream within a dream.”

  
  

  Edgar Allen Poe

  
  

  
  
  

  Trivia question of the day:

  Why were wheeled vehicles not used by the Maya and Aztecs?  Answer at the end of the blog.

  
  

                              This Date in History   June 29

  
  

  1775 The Continental Congress ratified the Articles of War to be sent to King George III. This was a year before the Declaration of Independence was ratified. The Articles of War begins with the phrase “As his majesty’s most faithful subjects in these colonies”, and it goes on to describe “attempts of the British ministry to carry out the execution, by force of arms, unconstitutional and oppressive acts by British Parliament with taxes on America.” The colonists could not believe that King George III would knowingly allow unfair treatment of his subjects and this was an attempt to notify him of it. This was not a condemnation of King George, but of Parliament. King George not only did not agree with the colonists, he did not even read the Articles of War. With this the Colonists knew they were being raped with the approval and encouragement of King George III. After this, the wrath of the colonists turned from Parliament to King George himself. The Declaration of Independence attacked and accused King George not Parliament. In the span of 12 months the colonists re-focused their venom on the King alone. All of this was stoked into an inferno in January of 1776 when Thomas Paine published Common Sense and it scathingly called King George everything but a white man and listed many unfair things that he had allowed to happen to the colonists. This was a clear act of treason as the British saw it and they began applying even more harsh pressure on the colonists. It did not work then, nor in 1812 and hopefully never.

  
  

  1862 We are about half way through the so-called Battle of the Seven Days. On this day the Battle of White Oak Swamp occurred. CSA General Robert E. Lee decided that the time has come to apply the coup de grace to the Army of the Potomac that is in full retreat with Lee hounding their every step. Lee gave a plan of attack to his three Corp commanders in which the Army of the Potomac would be attacked from three different directions at once. It was a complicated plan and required precise timing. After the attack began, inexplicably, CSA General “Stonewall” Jackson allowed his attack to stall at the edge of the swamp which allowed the Union troops being under attack by him to reinforce other troops that were being overwhelmed. No one has ever figured out to this day what Jackson was thinking. Anyway, this action also allowed the Army of the Potomac to go to the closet high ground and dig in……Malvern Hill. But that is another story.

  
  

  1981 Glen Godwin got into an argument with a known drug dealer named Kim LeValley. In his rage Godwin stomped, beat, choked and stabbed him 28 times. He wasn’t done yet. He took the corpse out onto the desert near Palm Springs, California and using a home made explosive, blowed it into confetti. Godwin is caught and sentenced to 25 to life and goes to Soledad Prison. While there he marries Shelly Rose. In 1985 He is transferred from Soledad to Folsom prison. In 1987 he escaped from Folsom through a 300 yard drain pipe that someone had cut the iron bars off the end from the outside. He got on a raft, floats across the American River to freedom. In 1989 the American authorities receive a message from Mexico they have a man in custody named Stewart Carrera that has the same fingerprints as Glen Godwin. Before they could get him extradited, Godwin killed his cellmate and escaped. In 1996 Godwin is put on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list and he and Shelly are featured on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.” Someone recognized Shelly on the TV show as living in Dallas and she is arrested. But Shelly had divorced Glen long ago and had remarried. She had no idea where Glen was. And no one else does either because he is still at large to this day.

  
  

  1878 On this day the 140 ft stern wheeler river boat “Far West” arrived on the Little Big Horn River and begins taking aboard the wounded troopers from the infamous battle. Remember, there were three units of US cavalry at that battle. It was only Custer’s unit that was annihilated. Even though the other two units suffered horrendous casualties, there were survivors. The pilot of the “Far West” was the best at the time in Grant Marsh. The boat only drew 20 inches of water when fully loaded and therefore could navigate a long way up streams and rivers before running out of water. Marsh took the wounded troopers to Fort Abraham Lincoln, North Dakota. There is little doubt that the easy ride on the boat saved many of the wounded. A ride in a wagon to the fort would have been fatal to many of them.

  
  

  1520 On this day the Aztecs in the capitol of Tenochtitlan led by their king Montezuma II finally get fed up with the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez and his troops and revolt. First of all, Tenochtitlan is an island in the middle of a huge lake with a man made causeway to the mainland. It was located approximately where Mexico City is today. The Aztecs sealed off the causeway making Cortez and company have to fight their way out by boat. Cortez loses many troops when the boats carrying the troops along with an overload of gold booty each, capsize and sink, drowning most of them as they are in armor. Cortez escaped, but Montezuma is killed. No one knows if it was the Spanish or the Aztecs that killed him but the next day Montezuma’s brother assumes the crown. Eventually, Cortez returned and with the help of other tribes retook the city. The other tribes resented the hated Aztecs because they subjugated them and required tribute from them all, even all the way to present day Nicaragua.

  
  

  Births and deaths:

  
  

  1918 US singer Lena Horne is born. She said “It is ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how much she wants it. But occasionally we do.” Lena has her finger on the pulse of womanhood.”

  
  

  Quotable Quotes:

  “If there is no hell, a good many preachers are receiving money under false pretenses.”

                                                    Billy Sunday

  
  

  Answer to the trivia question:

  Wheeled vehicles were known to the Maya and Aztecs because wheeled toys have been found in tombs but they did not use them in their lives because they had no draft animals.  Horses and mules were unknown in Central and North America before the Spanish came.

  
  

  
  

                         Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow
  

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Friday

•             Musings and History

  
  

  Quote of the day:

  
  

  While being asked about the weight of William “Refrigerator” Perry (360 pound defensive lineman from Clemson) who ran for a Chicago Bears touchdown in Super Bowl XX he said: “When the Fridge goes home to South Carolina the chicken population goes down measurably.”

                                                              Mike Ditka

  
  

  Trivia question of the day:

  In their adolescence Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart were cousins living close to each other in Louisiana/Mississippi border area and would frequently get together and jam musically. There was a biopic made about Jerry Lee titled “Great Balls of Fire” in which Dennis Quaid played Jerry Lee...who played Jimmy Swaggart? Answer at the end of the blog.

  
  

  Here is a moment in time:
  On April 1, 1945 the American 10th army arrived at Okinawa commanded by Lt. Gen. Simon B. Buckner. By evening of that day 60,000 troops had been put ashore. What followed was one of the bloodiest battles in recorded history. Okinawa is the last island before the Japanese mainland and the soldiers were fighting for there homeland. After suffering enormous casualties on both sides victory for the American troops was in sight. On June 18 General Buckner was killed by Japanese artillery. On Jun21 the troops had sealed the island. On June 22 the Japanese commander General Ushijima and his staff committed suicide and all hostilities ceased. There was 120,000 Japanese soldiers killed and there was none captured. Those left alive killed their wounded and committed suicide. Included in this was 2,000 Japanese kamikaze pilots that attacked the ships in support of the attack and 36 ships were lost. The US lost 13,500 killed and 35,000 wounded. The plan was to launch an attack from Okinawa onto the southernmost island of Japan with an estimated 1,000,000 casualties to capture the whole of Japan. However, on August 6 an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and August 9 another one was dropped on Nagasaki and the next day Japan surrendered making the attack on Okinawa unnecessary. God works in mysterious ways.

  
  

                     This Date in History   June 26

  
  

  1541 Earlier Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro had made a deal with another conquistador to split what they found while plundering what is now Colombia, South America. While raping and pillaging the natives in Colombia, Pizarro saw evidence of very rich civilization further south but did not discuss it with his partner. What he saw was evidence of the mighty Inca in Peru. Pizarro went around his partner, Diego de Almagro, and made a deal with King Charles V of Spain that granted Pizarro rights to the plundering the Inca if a percentage of the booty went to King Charles. Pizarro invaded Peru and captured the Inca king Atahualpa. He asked ransom for Atahualpa to the tune of a room full of gold. Incredibly, this demand was met but Pizarro killed Atahualpa anyway. Pizarro continued his slaughter, rape and enslavement of the Inca and was given the title of Governor. Lima, the city that became the capital of Peru was founded by Pizarro. Anyway, Pizarro’s erstwhile partner Diego de Almagro became very jealous of Pizarro’s success and demanded a piece of the action so Pizarro took out a map and drew out a sketch of the lands that he granted to de Almagro. Diego was displeased with the amount of land given and planned revenge and Diego de Almagro seized the city of Cuzco. Pizarro sent his half brother to take the city back which he accomplished with ease. On this date three years later some of the accomplices of Diego sneaked into Pizarro’s mansion and skewered him with a sword while he dined. The next day Diego de Mansa, Almagro’s son, declared himself as Governor of Peru.

  
  

  1957 On this date Margaret Harold of Annapolis, Maryland decided to take ride in her car with her boyfriend. All of a sudden a car whipped in front of Margaret and stopped. The driver got out carrying a .38 revolver, shot and killed Margaret but her boyfriend managed to escape. In an abandoned building a short distance away the police found the walls plastered with porno of the most gruesome type. Two years later the Jackson family of Fredericksburg, Virginia was out riding down a dirt road in a rural area when a car cut them off and a man got out carrying a .38 revolver. The father, mother, a two year old girl and a five year old boy were killed but not before the mother was brutally raped. She was raped in the same abandoned building that the police had found all the porno. Word leaked out to the press and tips began flooding in and one of them pointed to a man named Melvin Rees. Rees was eventually located in West Memphis, Arkansas and his apartment was searched and a .38 revolver was found. But the most damning evidence was a handwritten note paper clipped to a newspaper article about the Jackson family killing. The note described in gruesome detail how he had raped the mother. Further evidence implicated Rees in the murder of four other young women in the Virginia/Maryland area. This monster was tried and convicted of three murders and was sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life without parole. He died in prison in 1995. I wonder where he is now.

  
  

  1862 On June 1 the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, Joseph E. Johnston was replaced by General Robert E. Lee. Johnston had been severely injured at the Battle of Fair Oaks. On this date the Army of Northern Virginia encountered the enormous Army of the Potomac, US General George McClellan commanding, near a small town southwest of Richmond called Mechanicsville. The Battle was the first of the so-called Battle of the Seven Days. The Confederate cavalry commander Colonel J.E.B. Stuart had ridden completely around McClellan’s army and brought back information that the Union left flank was “in the air”. This meant that there was no natural barrier like a mountain or river protecting the left end of line of infantry. Lee sent CSA General “Stonewall” Jackson and his corps to attack the Union left. Jackson had just caught up with Lee after his brilliant Shenandoah Valley campaign. For reason known only to Jackson, he was slow in developing his attack and was discovered which allowed the Union troops to reinforce. The battle was a short but bloody one and was essentially a draw. The difference was that General McClellan was really unnerved at the sight of the carnage and his tactics softened. Lee jumped at this chance and aggressively drove the Union army backward to the end of the James River peninsula where they boarded ships and got their Yankee asses back to the house.

  
  

  Born today:

  1824 Lord Kelvin, Irish scientist. He said “A heavier than air flying machine is impossible.” Hey Kelvin, you were a brilliant man but had no vision.

  
  

  1904 US actor Peter Lorre. When attending the funeral of Bela Lugosi who played a vampire in many movies he said “Do you think we should drive a stake in his heart just to be sure.”

  
  

  1931 English writer Colin Wilson. He said “This new civilization bears a new type of hostility. To say it is the law of the jungle is being unfair to the jungle.” I understand, Colin.

  Answer to the trivia question:

  In the movie “Great Balls Of Fire” Jimmy Swaggart was played by Alec Baldwin, believe it or not.

  
  

  Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow    

  
  

                           

  
  

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