Musings and History

Quote of the day:
“Life is like a game of golf. I know I am on the back nine but I am unsure of what hole.”
                                               Anonymous

A while back I was working on an engineering job based on the 14th floor of the First Union bank building at the corner of 4th Avenue and Tryon Street in Charlotte, NC. We were designing a plant of a peculiar circumstance. This plant was designed utilizing American and French engineers and American designers. The premise was this. The USA and Russia had agreed upon a certain amount of disarmament meaning that there were nuclear weapons out there that were going to be disarmed. What was going to happen to all that weapons grade plutonium, uranium and derivatives thereof? It was decided that these composites, being the most toxic ever conceived, would be diluted and mixed with depleted uranium and plutonium and used in nuclear power plants. The plant we were designing was going to make this happen. The plant was going to be built on the Savannah River site near Aiken, SC. The thought of dealing with a weapons grade radioactive anything made me feel cautious. There were rules and stipulations that were in effect that were not applicable anywhere else. It was a difficult assignment. By the way, the French are the most successful in the world in the mixing of these composites and used in nuclear power plants, that is why we had them on the job. I left the job before the whole project was sent to the Savannah River site for completion. As I understand it, after ten years of design and the building of the plant itself, the project is still underway with nearly no chance of it being completed because the French engineering firm continues to find rework to keep their jobs. Your tax dollars at work.

At the risk of going against my personal rule of staying away from religion and arousing plethora of different opinions, I am going to report what I read about what a Charlotte newspaper reporter said about his visit with the Charlotte Society of Atheists and Agnostics.
Recently this society put a billboard on Billy Graham Parkway showing the phrase “one nation under God” with the “under God” struck through and another phrase saying “one nation indivisible” under it. This phrase was how it was written originally and “under God” was added in the 1950’s. The sign was vandalized over night, as you might suspect. The society holds a monthly meeting of about 70 people at a neighborhood tavern and you can guess that is main topic of conversation. Even though it is not enforced, there is a section of the North Carolina Constitution that says “a person that does not believe in God cannot hold public office”. That is a clear violation of the United States Constitution and the society points this out. At their meetings the society wears name tags with just their first names on them knowing if their full names were known they would be subject to prejudicial treatment by their bosses or fellow workers at their places of employment or even in their neighborhoods. They say that they as a group nationwide deserves acknowledgment stating that statistics show that there are as many people that are either atheists or agnostics in America as there is Mormons, Jews or Muslims. I personally have no sympathy. I believe that what you believe along those lines is an intensely personal one and is not for display. I will say this: Many people say that this is a “Christian” nation. We are not a “Christian” nation and never have been. Many of our leaders when the capitol as in Philadelphia were attendees of Joseph Priestley’s Unitarian church in Philadelphia. Priestly believed that there is a God but did not believe that Jesus Christ was supernatural. That makes them Deists, not “Christian”. A Christian by definition is a follower of Jesus Christ. And finally there were over 100 Jews that were instrumental in the establishment of this great nation. That is all I have to say about that.

Early Saturday morning 25 year old Zavier Davis held up a Wendy’s restaurant on Park Road in Charlotte, NC. The Charlotte police were called about the robbery and showed up very quickly. Officer Oliver Payne was waiting at the back door when Davis came running out with gun in hand. Davis apparently raised his gun but Officer Payne was quicker and shot Davis in the hind leg. Davis went down like a sack of potatoes and was arrested and sent to the hospital with a non-life threatening wound. Here is the interesting part. From November 2001 to March of 2005 this jackass was convicted of 27 felonies and 13 misdemeanors mainly for robbing fast food places, breaking into cars and trespassing. Why isn’t he in prison for good? What happened to the “Three Strike Law”? This usually means that after the third felony, it is life without parole. Maybe North Carolina does not have such a law. What a shame.

                       This Date in History   August 3


1958 Earlier in 1948 a US navy advocate of nuclear power, Captain Hyman Rickover, took command of the nuclear powered submarine program for the US Navy. The keel for the first nuclear submarine was laid by President Harry Truman in the ship building yards at Groton, Connecticut. Finally, in 1954 First Lady, Mamie Eisenhower broke a bottle of champagne across the bow of America’s first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus. This submarine could stay submerged for months undetected. The nuclear power plant needed no air nor water and only a very small amount of nuclear fuel. The principal was simple. The power plant was simply used to convert water into steam and the steam was directed through a turbine which turned the propeller and provided power and water to the crew. The water that was used to make the steam was captured, condensed and reheated in a continuous circuit. The Nautilus went through strenuous sea trials and proved to be all that she was advertised. The US Navy was very interested in the quickest route from Europe to the Orient without going through the Panama Canal. A few days earlier the Nautilus, commanded by Captain William Anderson, had departed Hawaii on “Operation Northwest Passage”. The Nautilus surfaced only once in the Bering sea to do a radar check and then submerged and went under the Arctic Ocean ice pack, by the north pole and surfaced between Sptizbergen and Greenland on August 5. This time was a hell of a lot better that the time it took to go through the Panama Canal. Captain Anderson was awarded the Legion of Merit by President Eisenhower. After 500,000 miles at sea, the Nautilus was decommissioned and is now a museum attraction at Groton, Connecticut.

1916 In 1911 Roger Casement was knighted by British King George V for his service to the realm. Then for reasons known only to Roger, he began to support the Irish Catholics in their sometime violent attempt to gain independence from England. Roger was raised in an arena of Presbyterians loyal to the king for all of his life. No one knows what changed his mind but he was eventually captured and sentenced to death as a traitor and hanged on the lawn of the infamous Tower of London. It was pretty common that English royalty frequently were beheaded or hanged in the 15th and 16th century, but not in this time period.

Born today:

1905 US writer and “Grey Panthers” advocate Maggie Kuhn. Her advice for staying young was “Keep up learning and sex until rigor mortis.” Maggie was a horny old girl for the great majority of her 90 years on the planet.

1940 US actor Martin Sheen. He said “I guess I am a “cliff-hanging” Catholic. I do not believe in God, but I believe that Mary was his mother.” Martin that is brilliant, if not full of self-serving logic.

           Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow