•     Musings and History


    Quote of the day:

    “I have never killed anyone, but I have read a few obituaries with much pleasure.”

                                                           Clarence Darrow


    Trivia question of the day:

    What is the largest animal to ever live on planet Earth? Answer at the end of the blog.


    The original concept of a democratic republic was for the general population to elect people represent their interests for a period of time and then "go back to the farm" not to stay and wallow in the morass of corruption that is inevitable after an extended period.


    A while back a man was elected to represent us in the 4th district in for "only two terms". After running for re-election for his sixth term he was defeated because of his betrayal of this promise. Later when asked he said "The power and influence you gain is intoxicating".

    To me that translates to "Power corrupts". The longer you stay the more you are corrupted.


                               This Date in History   March 30


    1775 On this date King George III of England endorsed the so-call Restraining Act. Parliament had proposed this abomination and the King liked it. Now y'all listen to this. This act declared that the colonies must trade exclusively with Great Britain and that ain’t all, the Act forbade the American fishing fleet from fishing in the North Atlantic. Are you mad yet? This meant that all the most eaten fish in the colonies such as cod and salmon would have to be bought from Great Britain even though the Danes and Dutch fished the North Atlantic also and the American fleet had no problem with supplying its people with these fish. The British Prime Minister, Lord North, knew that this act would stir up a hornets nest in the colonies and tried to calm things down by stating that if a colony paid the salary of the Royal Governor of their Colony, they would be taxed less. But Lord North knew this would have little or no effect and sent the Military Commander General Thomas Gage to Boston to become Governor of Massachusetts. This was just the first step toward martial law and the colonists knew it. In July Gage sent a British regiment to destroy a cache of arms and ammo known to be in Concord, Massachusetts and arrest firebrands Patriots Samuel Adams and John Hancock. It was during this event that the first shot was fired at the British in anger and the Revolutionary War was under way. Considering what humiliation burdens the British put on the colonists, I am amazed it did not start before then.


    1980 In the stormy North Sea the oil companies provided apartments for the drilling platform workers on their off time. The apartment had room for about 220 workers and was afloat on gigantic pontoons. On this night while most of the workers were watching a movie with a gale howling outside, a gigantic rogue wave estimated to be over 100 feet high slammed into the apartment and it capsized . Most of the workers were Norwegian but there were a few Brits and Americans aboard. The apartment was about 220 miles from Dundee, Scotland and soon Royal and Norwegian helicopters were on site but the gale was still howling and rescue was difficult if not impossible. Of the 208 that were aboard the apartment, 123 were unable to reach a life boat and were drowned. Eight years later there was a fire and explosion on a drilling rig in the North Sea took the life of another 167. The oil platform workers make a lot of money but it isn’t worth the risk.


    1867 On this date the United States Secretary of State William Seward coughed up $7.2 million dollars and gave it to Russia for what is now Alaska. Seward caught a large ration of shit for this deal. His detractors called Alaska a “huge stump of ice “or “Seward’s Icebox.” Little did they know what a plethora of minerals lay under ground including gold, silver, coal, and iron ore not to mention oil. I would say that the $7.2 million was a good investment for these United States.


    Quotable quotes:


    “The Cardinal rule of politics is don’t get caught in bed with a live man or a dead woman”. Larry Hagman

    How about a semi-dead woman, Larry?


    Answer to the trivia question:

    The largest animal to ever lived of the planet is the adult blue whale measuring about 82 feet long and weighing about 300,000 pounds. It heart is the size of a VW Beetle.


                                Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow