Tueday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Delightfully tacky yet unrefined.”

Recently seen on the back of a biker's tee shirt...the front read “Hooters-Daytona”

Back in 1941 the United States sent all of its military might against the Germans starting in North Africa. Why did we do this? The Germans had not invaded the United States but they did torpedo American ships after warning them to stay the hell out of posted waters. We did it because the Germans were nothing but rabid dogs devouring all they could. What is the difference between the Germans of 1941 and ISIS of 2015? By the way, I don't give a shit about their religion.

Back in 1945 the Battle of Iwo Jima was still under way today. There were many Medals of Honor awarded during this struggle. Here is one of the most famous. This Texan is a legend in Marine Corp history.

The President of the United States in behalf of Congress takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to

FIRST LIEUTENANT JACK LUMMUS
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE

For service as set forth in the following:

CITATION:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Leader of a Rifle Platoon, attached to Company E, Second Battalion, Twenty-seventh Marines, Fifth Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, 8 March 1945.

Resuming his assault tactics with bold decision after fighting without respite for two days and nights, First Lieutenant Lummus slowly advanced his platoon against an enemy deeply entrenched in a network of mutually supporting positions. Suddenly halted by a terrific concentration of hostile fire, he unhesitatingly moved forward of his front line in an effort to neutralize the Japanese position. Although knocked to the ground when an enemy grenade exploded close by, he immediately recovered himself and, again moving forward despite the intensified barrage, quickly located, attacked and destroyed the occupied emplacement. Instantly taken under fire by the garrison of a supporting pillbox and further assailed by the slashing fury of hostile rifle fire, he fell under the impact of a second enemy grenade, but courageously disregarding painful shoulder wounds, staunchly continued his heroic one-man assault and charged the second pillbox annihilating all the occupants. Subsequently returning to his platoon position, he fearlessly traversed his lines under fire, encouraging his men to advance and directing the fire of supporting tanks against other stubbornly holding Japanese emplacements. Held up again by a devastating barrage, he again moved into the open, rushed a third heavily fortified installation and killed the defending enemy. Determined to crush all resistance, he led his men indomitably, personally, attacking foxholes and spider-traps with his carbine and systematically reducing the fanatic opposition until, stepping on a land mine, he sustained fatal wounds. By his outstanding valor, skilled tactics and tenacious perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds, First Lieutenant Lummus had inspired his stouthearted Marines to continue the relentless drive northward, thereby contributing materially to the success of his company's mission. His dauntless leadership and unwavering devotion to duty throughout enhanced and sustained the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.

/S/ HARRY S. TRUMAN

An observer wrote: “After seeing Lieutenant Lummus absorb all this punishment alone and keep fighting, all of the men of his rifle company were crying and when the land mine finally killed him, they rose up together and screaming at the top of their lungs, charged the entrenched Japanese and executed them all.'

This Date in History March 10

1865 On this date Confederate General William Henry Chase Whiting died in a Union prison camp as a result of wounds received earlier. Whiting is one of the most exceptional officers the Confederacy ever had. He was born in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1825 and attended college at Boston College and Georgetown University graduating at the age of 16 at the top of his class. He then entered West Point in 1845 and did not disappoint this time either graduating again at the top of his class. After graduating he joined the Corp of Engineers in helping design coastal defenses. He was assigned to help design the coastal defenses at the mouth of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. It was there in Wilmington that he married and settled down. When the Civil War broke out he offered his services to the Confederacy. He was at Fort Sumter when the Union forces there surrendered. After this he returned to Wilmington and continued to design coastal defenses but was eventually called to Virginia during the formation of the Confederate army and was named as Chief Engineer. It was he who moved the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley to Manassas, Virginia in time for the Battle of 1^st Manassas. He was instrumental in the rout of the Union forces in that battle. Whiting was given command of a division and was given praise by all of his superiors during the Battle of the Seven Days. In 1862 he was given command of the District of Wilmington which allowed him to return home. It was due to his efforts with the defenses in the mouth of the Cape Fear River that made Wilmington one of the most important blockade running port of the Confederacy. He remained in Wilmington for the reminder of the war except for a short period when he went to Petersburg, Virginia and helped design defenses there. Finally the Union Army decided that Wilmington had to be captured and sent US General Benjamin Butler to attack the defenses there especially Fort Fisher located in the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Butler was repulsed with heavy losses. The Union then sent General Alfred Terry and an overwhelming force and did indeed overcome Fort Fisher. It was during this second attack that Whiting was wounded and that proved to be a fatal one.

Born today:

1946 North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano. He said “I asked the referee if I could get a technical foul for what I was thinking. He said no. So I said “I think you stink” and he gave me a technical. You can’t trust them.”

Died today:

1919 US writer Amelia Barr. She said “Regardless of the scientists if you take the supernatural out of life, all you have left is the unnatural.”

1948 Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She said “No one has ever measured, not even the poets, how much the heart can hold.” Zelda was the last of the true romantics.

      Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

Good Morning,

Quote of the day:

“Men approach sex like playing a game of pinball. They have no idea of what the inner workings are about or what it takes to win. All they want to do is keep the ball in play as long as possible.”

Tim Steeves

This is a biography of one of the heroes of the American Revolutionary War.

Francis Marion

The Swamp Fox

Francis Marion was the last of six children born to Gabriel and Esther Marion on the Winyah plantation which is near near present day Georgetown, South Carolina in the year of 1757. He was a puny and sickly child and his parents worried greatly for his health. His cousin Peter Horry (pronounced Ow-ree) once wrote the “He was so small as an infant that he could have been mistaken for a New England lobster and would have fit into a pot used for cooking one.” The irony of this statement is the Peter Horry ended up as a member of Marion’s staff while engaged in combat against the British. While living in Georgetown, Francis Marion became enamored with ships and decided that a sailor’s life is where it was at. He approached his parents with this idea and they readily agreed assuming that life at sea would enhance his health. He signed on as the seventh member of a crew headed for the Bahamas aboard a trading sloop. He made several trips but on one return trip an angry sperm whale rammed the boat knocking loose a board. The boat flooded and sank so fast that the crew was not able to get any food or water to take aboard the life boat. Three days hence two of the crew died of thirst and starvation but two days later the little life boat beached itself and the remainder of the crew was saved. Francis made his way back to the house and strangely enough he was in much better health with “his pale face was being a hale and hearty olive” as stated by the ever-present Peter Horry. By this time Marion’s family had moved to another plantation near Eutaw Springs (present day Eutawville, South Carolina). Most of this plantation was covered by Lake Marion on the famous Santee-Cooper lake complex. Marion joined Colonel William Moultrie in the French and Indian War and they ended up slaughtering the Creeks and Cherokees in western South Carolina. This part of the war wore heavily on Francis. He grieved over burning entire villages of the most shabby of huts and cutting large fields of near ripe corn knowing what the resulting misery it would cause the old and very young. Peter Horry wrote again of the misgivings of Francis about this venture. In June of 1775 he was a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress and was named Captain in the 2^nd South Carolina Regiment, General Thomas Moultrie commanding, to try to kick the redcoats out of South Carolina. Marion was present at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island and the Battle of Fort Moultrie but they were unsuccessful in preventing the British from capturing the port of Charleston, South Carolina. Marion joined with Continental General Horatio Gates at Camden, South Carolina. Gates had no faith in Marion and assigned him the task of heading south toward Charleston and cutting off the retreat of the British after Gates had kicked the crap out of the British at the Battle of Camden. The only problem here was that the British kicked the crap out Gates and his army and they retreated north which left Marion hanging in the wind down south by himself out in the Great Pee Dee swamp. Marion was not to be outdone. He gathered together about 70 men that supplied their own clothing, horses and most of their food while waging a guerrilla war against British General Charles Cornwallis. Cornwallis had never even heard of such ungentlemanly warfare as attack and does as much damage as you can and then retreat into a nearly impenetrable swamp. So Cornwallis sent the most vicious of his commanders in Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton to bring this man and his men to bay. Tarleton had the same results in getting attacked from ambush and his attackers running back into the swamp. Tarleton despaired and called Marion “the old swamp fox”. Marion honed his techniques and he and his men are considered America’s first “Ranger” unit. Marion was so successful against the British because of his intelligence gathering was far and above that of the hated Redcoats. After the arrival of Continental Army General Nathanial Greene who had been tasked by General George Washington with kicking the Redcoats out of the Carolinas, Georgia and the South in general, Marion was teamed up with the famous if not infamous Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee into a single unit of cavalry. Marion and Lee were successful in cutting the communications between nearly all of the British encampments. After this, the Continental army and the British knew it was just a matter of time before the Continentals would destroy each encampment one at a time. The end was in sight. Marion was in command of the Continental right wing under the command of General Nathaneal Greene at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, an important victory for the Continentals. In June of 1782 he returned to be a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress and his men became discouraged, that is until he returned to annihilate a Loyalist uprising on the banks of the Pee Dee River. Marion knew the war was over after Cornwallis left the South and surrendered 8,000 of his troops to George Washington after being trapped at Yorktown. He returned home and married his cousin Mary Esther Videau. Mary used to listen intensively to the adventures of her cousin “The Swamp Fox”. Marion was like most of the political and military leaders in the Continental Army, George Washington included, he was a slave owner. When he was in the field he was accompanied by a slave named Oscar Marion. The greatest majority of slaves always took the name of their owners. The following is on his Marion’s gravestone:

Sacred to the Memory

Of
BRIG. GEN. FRANCIS MARION
Who departed his life, on the 27th of February, 1795,
IN THE SIXTY-THIRD YEAR OF HIS AGE
Deeply regretted by all his fellow citizens
HISTORY
will record his worth, and rising generations embalm
his memory, as one of the most distinguished
Patriots and Heroes of the American Revolution:
which elevated his native Country
TO HONOR AND INDEPENDENCE,
AND
Secured to her the blessings of
LIBERTY AND PEACE
This tribute of veneration and gratitude is erected
in commemoration of
the noble and disinterested virtues of the
CITIZEN;
and the gallant exploits of the
SOLDIER

Who lived without fear, and died without reproach

Like the tombstone said he died in February of 1795 and is buried in the Belle Isle plantation cemetery in Berkeley County, South Carolina. The places, towns and monuments named in his honor are too numerous to mention. As I have said in the past. There are those that were present at the right place at the right time to make this great nation come to fruition, he was one of them. Was he here at this place and time by accident? I think not.

Born today:

1923 US publisher James Buckley. When visiting a McDonalds for the first time he was asked what he wanted to drink he said “I will take a glass of your house Chablis.” James was a sophisticate, y'all

            Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“At my back I hear time's mighty chariot hurrying near.”

                                 Andrew Marvell

I had a conversation with several people about what the chemical companies are doing to us and our children. The largest poisoner that I can find is Monsanto. There have been instances of Monsanto sending corn to impoverished nations. The problem was the corn they sent had been treated with a type of poison to prevent insects from feeding on them once they were planted hoping to increase the yield. It was seed corn only. The people that received this corn did not read the instructions because they could not read. They immediately ground up the corn and fried up some corn cakes, ate them and the entire villages were killed. If I understand federal law correctly is is illegal for corn farmers to make their own seed corn they must buy their seed corn from Monsanto and Monsanto only because their seed corn has been treated with a hormone that will increase the number of kernels per cob and therefore the US will have more corn to use as a trade item worldwide. No mention is made as to the adverse effects this corn may have on humans. There are several chicken ranches owned by giant corporations that use feed for their chickens that has been treated with a hormone to make their breast grow to maturity much earlier than usual. A certain percentage of the chickens grow a mature breast while the rest on their bodies are very immature. The result is that hundreds of chicks are unable to carry the weight of the larger breast, fall down and die of starvation just inches from food (more corn treated with a hormone) and water. Most of the time the hormone infused feed is provided by Monsanto.

The same is true of cattle in feed lots. Calves are fed corn that has a growth hormone. The cattle mature much faster than normal. No mention is made as to what effect this hormone has on humans. You read a lot about “good grain fed beef”. Cattle are grazers, grass is their natural food. They are fed hormone treated corn because they can feed a hell of a lot more cattle in a smaller space (feed lot) and they mature much faster. Again no mention is made as to the possible dangers their growth hormones may have on humans. The bottom line is the governing issue. When it comes to possible dangers or an increase in the bottom line, what do you think they will do. I personally worked on an engineering project where we were designing a plant to make a hormone to give to dairy cows that could increase the amount of milk given by 40%. There was no concern about the possible dangers to humans. I am not scratching the surface as to what is happening out there.

The is an old story about Henry Ford II. It was reported that the rear bumper of the Ford Pinto had a bolt head just inches from the gas tank and just a small rear end collision could rupture the tank causing a conflagration. Henry Ford II was called into a meeting about this hazardous condition. Henry asked his attorneys about an estimate of what law suits would cost if nothing was done. Then he asked one of his engineers how much it would cost to recall all the Pintos and refit. The lower number was the law suits...so nothing was done and to hell with the danger to us all.

 

All of this being said, Both Monsanto and Ford are stock held companies.  This means that the investors (possibly you and me) expect to make money on their investment and if they do not I guarantee you that the Board of Directors would be replaced.  So who is the greedy ones here?     

                    This Date in History    March 6

1857 On this date the United States Supreme Court handed down one of the most infamous decisions ever made in the history of jurisprudence. It seems that a US Army doctor had a slave name Dred Scott that traveled with him on his various military assignments. Two of these assignments were in state of Illinois and the Territory of Wisconsin. These two were “free” states by what was called “popular sovereignty”. Popular sovereignty meant that before a state or a territory could become part of the United States they had a vote of the residents to whether they wanted to be a “free” state or a “slave” state. Both Illinois and Wisconsin had voted to be Free states. Dred Scot sued that since he had lived as a resident of both states he should be granted his freedom. The United States Supreme Court ruled that the United States Constitution did not recognize Negroes as human beings and therefore Dred Scot would remain the property of the US Army officer, popular sovereignty not withstanding and on top of that there were many free blacks already living in Illinois and Wisconsin. Well, all this did was throw fuel to the fire of secession and Civil War which erupted 4 years later. The Supreme Court had been stacked with five southerners along with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney being a supporter of slavery. This decision threw a big monkey wrench into the Republican Party whose only reason for its existence was the abolition of slavery. About this time Kansas and its next door neighbor Missouri entered the Union with Kansas being a free state and Missouri being a slave state. Everyone knew that trouble would be a-brewing there pretty soon. They were right.

1987 On this date the car ferry “Herald of Free Enterprise” was preparing to leave Zeebruge, Belgium (been there) for a cross channel trip to Dover, England. The fairly large vessel was loaded with 543 people, 84 cars and 36 trucks. It had been the practice in the past for the ferry to back away from the dock with the front clamshell doors still open and would closed them as it was turning around to head out to sea. The ferry normally would take on an inconsequential amount of water in this process. But on this day, the crewman that was responsible for closing the clamshell doors was asleep, I SAID ASLEEP, Y'ALL. When the ferry got turned around and was headed out to sea, the water pressure on the doors was so heavy that they could not close and soon the bilge and lower deck was flooded and when everybody on board went to one side to see what the hell was happening, the ship rolled upside down trapping all that were on the lower decks and throwing those on the upper decks into the sea. In all 186 people were drowned even if they were less than 100 yards from land. It took marine rescuers four days for them to retrieve all the bodies that were trapped under the ship. The ships company was found guilty “top to bottom with sloppiness”. As you might expect, new safety regulations were written for ferry operations. You know, closing the barn door after the horse escapes.

Born today:

1906 Polish writer Stanislaw Lec. He said “Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?” I wonder if Jeffrey Dahmer did.

1936 Washington mayor Marion Barry, Jr. He said “I am going to provide you with a copulation of answers to several questions.” It is compilation Marion, compilation for crying out loud. Marion was a tent short of a campsite anyway.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies but we will remember the silence of our friends.”

                                         Martin Luther King, Jr.

As some of you may or may not know South Carolina is one of the leaders in the United States in violent crimes per capita and Greenville county leads the state. That ain't all...Greenville county is also one of the state wide leaders in illegal narcotics. One of my nephew's best friends died Monday. It was suicide...a self inflicted overdose of heroin...that's right, right here in river city, y'all...he was from a relatively upscale family. In spite of the rantings of the Chamber of Commerce, Greenville ain't Nirvana.

As some of you may of may not know I was an air traffic controller for 25 years and was also a certified weather observer. I know intimately what the mechanics of the air traffic control system here in the United States and most other nations. I also am very familiar with what makes our weather and what makes it move always west to east across the contiguous land area of North America. I was also a licensed private pilot. I have been in a friendly argument with some others that do not understand how tightly controlled aircraft in American airspace are, especially military and commercial because of their size and speed and especially after after 9/11. They believe that something surreptitiously is taking place in our skies that I know for certain is impossible. But one of them put me in my place when she said “We will believe what we want to and you believe what you want to.” She is right, I will not discuss it with them any longer...they have their minds made up so I will not confuse them with the facts. It is human nature to fear things they do not understand. Come to think of it, there are many things that we read and choose to believe without one scintilla of personal knowledge. We believe them because they agree with our already preconceived prejudices and that makes us feel more justified, right or wrong. Hitler said it best: “The more preposterous the proposal, the more likely it is to be believed.”

Over the weekend there was a strange occurrence here in Greenville. A cop stopped a car for an alleged traffic violation. The driver decided to not lower his window and began to drive away. The cop “tried to stop the car”, fell and was injured. He was out the hospital the next morning. The driver was arrested for attempted murder, for crying out loud. How in the hell can it be attempted murder without intent. I am as sure as I am sitting here that the driver just wanted to get away from the cop...attempted murder? I could not do the job of a cop but I believe that after a while a cop having seen the dregs of society will begin to believe we all are criminals. It has eventually become not “to protect and serve” but “it is us against them”. I guess all of you have seen that clip of a man that was stopped for an alleged traffic violation and the cop came up to the side of the car and began yelling at him like he was Al Capone. Little did the cops know that the man was recording all of this on his cell phone and it became viral nationwide. Like I have said before, my grandfather was a city cop here in Greenville and was killed in the line of duty. He was a very kind and religious person and I certainly do not believe that he would treat anyone with disrespect from the git-go like it is these days. The cops have their jobs because we are here, not vice-versa. Watch the TV show “Cops” and see how everyone they meet is treated...its ugly and disrespectful. By the way, how was the cop going to stop a 4,000 pound moving vehicle with his hands and body? Was that stupid or what?

Down in Gulf Shores, Alabama a fight broke out at 1:30a in the parking lot of “Mud Bug's Pub And Club”. The cops arrived and the fight had essentially stopped. They found out that there was one man down and one with a knife wound. It seems that there was a short fight between two men that was broken up by one of the two bouncers. The problem was the wife of one of fighters would not give up and launched an attack of her own. One of the bouncers restrained her but her husband produced a knife and stabbed that bouncer. The other bouncer got a choke hold on this lunatic and threw him to the tarmac with a sickening crack as his head hit the surface. This man later died at a local hospital. The stabbed bouncer refused treatment. What lesson can we learn from this? Stay away from any place named Mud Bug's...do not stab a bouncer...do not “restrain” a raging female just knock her the hell out. At one point in my widely varied career I was a bouncer at a beach bar on Pensacola Beach. One thing I found out very early. You can reason with a drunk man because they understand the meaning of “ass whipping”. Women apparently do not. I could go up to an “over-served” man and whisper “It is time for you to leave or I will get a cop in here that will take you out of here in two piece.  Your move, pal.” They would just nod their head and leave. Not the “over served” ladies...they wanted to fight every time. I used whatever force that was necessary, a knock out blow was not out of the realm of possibility if a weapon was involved. I am not proud of this part of my life but it was a learning experience that I could never have gotten otherwise. By the way, the beach cops loved for me to call. Most of the time violence would be involved....they loved it.

This Date in History March 5

1770 In 1768 the British army occupied Boston because the gnarly Bostonians were giving the British hell about taxes that had been levied on them by Parliament while there was no one in Parliament representing Boston or any other city or state in the colonies. Three days before today, a group of British soldiers had gone down to John Hancock’s dock seeking a part time job. There is no need for me to tell you what the response was from the American dockworkers already there. That’s right, y'all, it was a wall banging brawl. It took the British army to straighten it out. The fight was over but the hard feelings were still embroiled. On this cold and snowy night a group of Bostonians gathered outside the Custom House where the British stored the tax money and began throwing snowballs and rocks at the lone British guard posted at the door. The pelting became so severe that the guard called for help and seven other troops showed up. Five of the guards that showed up and several of the Bostonians were the same ones in the fight at Hancock’s dock. Y'all know what happened next, the snowballs came at more speed and more tightly packed along with many words of profanity exchanged. One of the guards named Robert Montgomery slipped and fell and discharged his musket. Upon hearing gunfire, the rest of the guards fired their weapons also. After the smoke cleared, five Bostonians lay dead or dying. This event was from that moment on was known as the Boston Massacre. All of the soldiers were put on trial and were defended by John Adams and Josiah Quincy as a show to the British that justice existed in the Colonies. All the soldiers were acquitted with the exception of two. Those two had the letter “M” branded on their thumbs to identify them as murderers. I suppose justice was served but what a strange punishment.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

Thanks to Leslie for this one.

“On a foggy winter day...a poem about being lost...and being found...and listening to the heartbeat all things. Find the inner warmth this winter that is only found by turning within, below the stream of thought, deeper still into your own heart...which is connected to the heart of all things...one tear and the world opens.”

                                              Anonymous

I acknowledge that I am guilty of saying things on the spur of the moment that may be interpreted wrongly or downright misunderstood....I have decided that my best response is just to keep on doing what I am doing and declare that I am not trying to disturb or upset anyone. If I do say something that can be interpreted wrongly, the offended person should just look back at this paragraph and keep moving....because I certainly will. Life is too short to dwell on stuff like “Did he really men that?” or “What did he really mean?” Just move the hell on. Remember that you cannot change what happened in the past, you do not know what tomorrow will bring, so live for the moment.

A while back Federal Drug agencies arrested 678 gang members of which 449 are illegal aliens. Every one of them had an attachment to Central American drug cartels. They arrested 67 in the Charlotte, NC area. That reminds me of a couple of friends of mine that met me in downtown Charlotte to partake of a few frosty adult beverages. After a fairly long evening my friends headed for the Corvette they came in. It was parked on Tryon Street which is the main drag in Charlotte. After making it to their car by taking two steps forward and one step back for several minutes they finally got seated in the car. Suddenly there was a tap on the driver’s side window. It was a Charlotte city cop tapping the window with a night stick. My friend lowered his window and the cop said “If you start this car you are going to jail.” My friends decided that they did not want that to happen and got back out of the car. They pulled out a cell phone and began trying to find a hotel. The cop came around and pointed to a doorway about 10 feet away and told them that was a hotel. They made their way into the hotel and got a room. The cop could have waited until the car was started and arrested them both. I guess he was feeling lenient.

Recently two robbers walked into a Subway sandwich shop in Charlotte and tried to rob the place at gunpoint. The clerk produced a weapon of his own and shot both burglars. One died and the other spent some time in the hospital and even more time in the joint which is where he is today. The city attorney ruled to not to press charges against the clerk because he believed no jury would convict him of excessive force. Me neither. Even the mother of the dead burglar blamed her son for his death, not the clerk.

I went to one of my favorite watering hole a while back. My group was discussing another watering hole nearby that is open 23 hours a day which is pretty damned redneck. The bartender came over and told us that he and his social group meet at this establishment almost every Sunday morning at the crack of dawn for their “gathering”. He said that the majority of his social group was either bartenders or servers making Sunday morning the optimum time for a gathering because most of them were not working. On one occasion the bartender came over to him and said that he could not be in there wearing flip-flops. He reassured the bartender that he and his group would be drinking high dollar shots and expensive drinks. The bartender did not back down and told him that he had to change shoes or leave. About that time an elderly man got up from the bar and headed to the men’s room leaving a trail of pee along the entire route. My friend asked why it was OK to leave a trail of urine on the way to the men’s room but not OK to keep on his flip-flops. The bartender was adamant, the flip-flops had to go. Apparently a trail of urine was not as offensive as flip-flops to this bartender. There are a lot of strange critters out there.

This Date in History March 4

1861 Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as President on this date. Immediately after he was elected in November seven southern states seceded from the Union in protest. A few years before the Republican Party was formed for the expressed purpose of freeing the slaves. Old Abe knew that he was stepping into a quagmire of Civil War but he thought he was ready for the job but after his United States Army received two or three ass-kickings from the outset and he could not find a field commander worth a damn. But as I said in a past lesson, Abe finally found Ulysses S. Grant who knew had more replacements than the Confederates and was not bashful about sending in his troops against an almost impregnable Confederate position just so he could kill just a few of them because they had no replacements and he did. Four years later Lincoln was inaugurated again after being re-elected for a second term. Shortly thereafter he and his wife Mary decided to see the play “My American Cousin” at the Ford Theatre in Washington. A Confederate sympathizer, an actor named John Wilkes Booth was waiting near the box seat where President and Mrs. Lincoln would be seated. We all know what happened next.

1944 Previously the British Bomber Command had been making night bombing raids on Berlin along with other major German cities that manufactured the tools of war. The United States Army Air Corps, the 8^th Air Force in particular, flying out of various bases in England had been making daylight on cities other than Berlin. On this date the 8^th Air Force made its first night raid on Berlin giving the exhausted British a breather. The 8^th Air Force had a variety of commanders such as General “Hap” Arnold, General Carl Spaatz and Medal of Honor winner General Jimmy Doolittle who had led the raid on Tokyo early in the war. The defenses around Berlin had stiffened since other military targets had been destroyed and the Air Force was looking for other targets of opportunity and Berlin was a prime target. The bombing of Berlin was effective but did not do anything to disrupt the morale of the German people. What happened was this. Later on in the spring of 1945, the allies sealed off the western side of Berlin and Germany as a whole and waited not accepting any surrenders. They were giving the Russians coming in from the east and southeast a chance at their “pound of flesh”. The Russians had lost about 26 million of their countrymen to the Germans during Operation Barbarossa. Hundreds of Russian towns and villages were razed and the citizenry were unceremoniously murdered in the German onslaught. Not only that, when the Russians finally began to gain ground back toward Germany, it was the Russians that liberated the hell on earth places like Dachau, Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps set up by the Germans. One can imagine the frame of mind those Russians were in after seeing all of this horror along with the death of so many of their own. The Russians struck Berlin from the east and southeast with unparalleled ferocity that will probably never be repeated in history. They killed and literally ground into the soil anything they confronted including men, women, children, dogs, cats and any thing else that was in their path. There was one story of a German anti-tank gun in Berlin being manned by German boys 12 to 14 years old. They took a shot at an oncoming Russian tank and missed. The Russian tank commander destroyed the gun and the boys and repeatedly rolled over their corpses until there was nothing left that could be identified as human. War is hell y'all.

         Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Either do or not do, there is no try”.

                         Yoda

Up in a Boone, North Carolina high school there is an award winning high school English teacher that specified a book titled The House of Spirits for the purpose of a book report to be written by a sophomore class. This makes her students about 15 years old. The book included instances of torture and rape. There was a move by some of the parents to have the book removed from the curriculum but kept in the library. This effort failed. The book was approved by 90% of the parents but an alternate book was made available to those that objected. The objecting parents did not give up and continued their assault on the teacher (several death threats) and the book. What we have here is some people that object to a book and don't want anyone else to read it. Who the hell do they think they are? Everyone has their own conscience and it is not for someone else to force their thoughts and opinions onto others. This is once again an attempt at censorship. If you don't like the book and object to your kids reading it...OK, don't read the son-of-a bitch and don't let your snot nosed kids read it either, there is an alternative. The last book burning was by the Nazis in 1938. I can assure you that your kids already know what torture and rape is all about. Mankind's history is full of it from before recorded history to present day. My suggestion to the parents is to read about how the kings of those city-states in the Mesopotamia (Ur, Mari and Babylon for instance) at the dawn of the written word dealt with those in rebellion...then read about present day Congo, Sierra Leone, Darfur, the Tutsis and the Hutus, Zanzibar and many more of those small nations up and down the center of Africa. Human slavery involving torture and rape is alive and well here and many other places on this Earth. But I suppose if you do not read about it and object to anyone else reading about it then it does not exist.  I am assuming you can read in the first place. I have read books and seen movies that disturbed me (Deer Hunter and Full Metal Jacket for instance) but I certainly will not object to others from reading about them or seeing them. You and I should be able to make our own choices...that is what freedom is all about. It has not been long ago that a large church over in a small town west of Greenville objected to the local library having the book A Catcher in the Rye being on the shelves of the library and wanted them kept under the counters out of sight of the youths of the community. This book is fiction and about a teenager named Holden Caulfield written by J. D. Salinger in 1951. In the book Holden in 16 years old and being treated for a mental illness. He is writing about his trials and tribulations especially the mystery of his own feelings while maturing into an adult. Holden describes his experimentation with masturbation and this is what the faithful objected to. This, my friends, is the epitome of hypocrisy. The library was picketed by the sign-carrying faithful. I suppose they were terrified of the horrible evils of masturbation. I would like to see a show hands of those that have ever......never mind. By the way, A Catcher in the Rye is one of the top most published books of all time and it certainly is not because of the masturbation.  By the way, that church did not have a problem with the depictions of the slaughter of over 640,000 Americans during the American Civil War or the horrors of the Holocaust. Evidently masturbation is more horrible than all of this. I sounds to me like they are worried about their sexuality.

     This Date in History    March 3

1776 On this date United States emissary Silas Deane departed Boston on a secret mission to France. He is going to meet with French Foreign minister Charles Gravier to convince him that the United States is indeed on the road to independence and military tools of war from France is needed to assist in this endeavor. He is successful to some degree in that France offers 200 brass cannon, gunpowder and shot to match. Silas Deane also reminded the American Congress that that he had offered the Marquis de Lafayette the rank of Major General if he would come over to the United States and join with George Washington and use his considerable military expertise in our behalf. The confirmation of this rank for Lafayette had to come from Congress. Deane also complained that he was given not enough instructions so the American Congress sent three more emissaries to France to assist Deane. One of these was a man named Arthur Lee who accused Deane of lining his pockets with the gold that America had sent to pay for the French military hardware. This never happened. Deane was a dedicated Patriot but the accusation stuck and Deane was forever branded as a greedy and unpatriotic man. Thirty years after the death of Deane, Congress donated a considerable amount to Deane’s granddaughter for the wrong her grandfather had suffered unnecessarily.

1974 About two years before a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 departed Toronto, Ontario and upon reaching 12,000 feet a hatch blew of the side of the aircraft and knocked a gaping hole in the side and rapid decompression occurred. Gratefully there were not at a very high altitude. The debris and pieces of sheet metal flew throughout the aircraft and several important hydraulic lines were cut and the inside deck collapsed. The pilot was able to maintain enough control to make a safe landing at Detroit. The NTSB faulted McDonnell-Douglas for installing an improper latch on the hatch that had blown off. McDonnell-Douglas issued a bulletin to all to install an updated latch on all of their DC-10’s. McDonnell-Douglas sold one of their DC-10’s to a Turkish airline with the old latch but with a bulletin to update the latch on this particular hatch. The bulletin went unheeded and on this day a Turkish DC-10 departed Paris, France with 364 passengers and crew. Upon reaching 11,000 feet, the hatch in question blew off and ripped a gaping hole in the side. The six passengers in the rear seats were sucked out of the aircraft and were killed instantly when they landed in a field not far from the airport. The pilot was unable to maintain control and the gigantic aircraft crashed headed straight down at over 500 MPH. The crash was so destructive and powerful that all aboard were killed and only 40 bodies were found intact. McDonnell-Douglas pointed at the ground crew at the Paris Airport as not closing the hatch correctly. The ground crews responded with refusing to service or load baggage on any DC-10. McDonnell-Douglas was finally faulted for selling a DC-10 knowing it to have an unsatisfactory latch, bulletin not withstanding.

Born today:

1756 English writer Robert Godwin. He said “He that loves reading has everything within his reach.” Indeed it does, Robert, indeed it does

1847 Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell. He said “When one door closes another opens; but we so often look regretfully at the closed one that we do not see what is open for us.” Sound wisdom.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations the possibilities are limitless.”

                                 Jamie Paolinetti

A friend sent me a vignette about the US Marines and it reminded me of this story. When I was an air traffic controller in Greenville I had a supervisor named Ralph that was a Marine pilot in WWII. He told me that on one occasion he was doing gunnery practice out over the Pacific Ocean and the target was a flag towed by another aircraft using a long cable. The target was stabilized by a large lead weight in the front of the flag. Ralph had not been scoring well in gunnery and he was determined to make this practice count. He bored in so close to the flag that the lead weight struck the oil cooler in one of the wings and the engine froze immediately. He was flying an F4U Corsair. Ralph bailed out and was rescued by a destroyer that was on station for just that purpose. I asked him if he was scared. He said “A nineteen year old Marine is not afraid of anything.” Ralph was back in the air the next day doing gunnery practice over the Pacific Ocean. He was also aboard the aircraft carrier USS Franklin when it was hit by a Kamikaze while on station near Okinawa. The Franklin was fatally struck. Ralph said that he was in a briefing room when the plane hit and all the lights went out and the room filled with smoke. All of the people in the room held hands and felt their way up several ladders, climbed out onto the flight deck, ran across the deck and jumped over the side. He was rescued by a destroyer once again. The Franklin sank a flaming wreck. I asked Ralph if he was scared that time. He said that he did not remember anything after they grabbed hands. But when he was picked up by the destroyer he determined that he had to have done all that maneuvering to have ended up where he was. The mind takes care of itself when it needs to.

I was reading about the Punic Wars (Rome vs. Carthage) about the 3^rd century BC. Rome had not appreciable navy because they conquered all they needed to with infantry. Carthage (present day Tunisia) had a formidable navy because they did all of their exploring and conquering by crossing over from North Africa to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually Rome realized that Carthage was taking over many of their trading posts and decided that a war would be necessary. The problem was they had no combat ready navy and if they challenged Carthage at sea they would received the mother of all ass-kickings. Rome decided the way to win this war was to get their first class infantry aboard the Carthaginian ships and let them take care of business. The Romans designed a walkway that was 40 to 50 feet long and 4 feet wide and made of heavy timbers so they would support the heavily armed and armored infantry making the walkway very heavy. The walkway had a large iron spike on the front. The walkway was held vertical in the front of the Roman ships and dropped when they got close enough to an enemy ship. The iron spike would penetrate the deck of the enemy ship and hold them together while the infantry crossed over. The ship builders told the Roman military that the walkway was too heavy and that much weight above the waterline would make the Roman ships unstable. The Roman military thought it would work and launched 500 ships with 100 infantrymen aboard each ship. After the 500 ships were several miles off shore a severe storm showed up and every one of the ships capsized and each and every infantryman drowned. That, my friends is a casualty list of over 50,000. That is the worst naval disaster in recorded history to that time. The worst one came in the 13^th century in the times of Kublai Khan, but that is another story.

This Date in History March 2

1776 Finally all the hard work and sacrifices made by our ancestors is paying off. With all the military battles fought by Nathaniel Greene and Benedict Arnold in capturing the British artillery pieces in Fort Ticonderoga, and General Henry Knox bringing them back to Boston undetected and General John Thomas getting those bad boys up on Dorchester Ridge that ended up staring down the throats of the hated British led by Sir Charles Howe. Howe had no choice but board his ships and sail his army up to the safety of Nova Scotia. The siege of Boston was over. Brigadier John Thomas was rewarded with another star for his actions here and he became Major General John Thomas. Thomas was assigned to replace General Richard Montgomery who was killed at the Battle of Quebec. Even with the addition of General Thomas, it was found that Quebec could not be taken and the Continental army began retreat back into New York. During this retreat General Thomas, a physician by trade, fell ill and died of smallpox on June 2. A terrific loss for the Continental army.

1836 On this date the state of Texas declared its independence from Mexico. A group of hard-assed Texans arrived on the Washington-on-the-Brazos and declared David Burnet as provisional Governor and Sam Houston as commander-in-chief of all military forces. Importantly, they adopted a constitution that allowed the institution of slavery which had not been allowed by the Mexicans. During this time Mexican General Santa Anna had the Alamo church in San Antonio surrounded with 2,000 of his troops against 237 Patriots. Earlier in 1821 after Mexico won their independence from Spain, Moses Austin had petitioned the Mexican government to allow him to bring 300 families to settle sparsely populated lands on the Brazos River. The Mexicans agreed as long as the settlers were Catholic. Moses Austin died soon after this and the cause was taken up by his son Stephen A. Austin. Austin brought in mostly southern states Protestants because they knew how to run plantations. More and more Americans flooded the land and soon had the resident Mexicans outnumbered. In 1830 the Mexican Government took steps to prevent the hordes of honkies headed their way. All of this sounds familiar except in reverse, doesn’t it? Anyway, Austin plead for statehood in the Mexican Federation but was imprisoned for it because he told his settlers to declare themselves a Mexican state anyway. He was released in 1835. In 1834 Santa Anna had told the people in Gonzales, Texas to relinquish the cannon that had been given to them by Santa Anna as protection from the wild-eyed Comanche. The hard-asses in Gonzales sent a message back “Come and take it”. Santa Anna send 100 men to get the cannon but they were driven off by the settlers and the cannon stayed. This was considered the first battle for Texas Independence. In 1835 Santa Anna amassed a large force south of the Rio Grande and an invasion appeared to be on the horizon and Sam Houston ordered the Alamo abandoned. Colonel James Bowie saw that all the artillery in the Alamo could not be moved before Santa Anna arrived and requested permission to stay so that would give Sam Houston more time to raise an army large enough to combat Santa Anna. Bowie was joined by a small cavalry under the command of Colonel William Travis bringing the total count to about 140 men. One week later they were joined by the frontiersman Davy Crockett and his entourage bringing the total to about 155. On February 23 Santa Anna and his 2,000 troops set siege to the Alamo. During the chaos a few men from Gonzales broke through and joined with the rest and brought the total up to 237. On March 5^th Santa Anna ordered an all out assault with no quarter. In about an hour it was over and all the Patriot men were killed in savage hand to hand combat. There were a few women and children allowed to leave. Six weeks later Sam Houston surprised Santa Anna and his army near the town of San Jacinto and those Texans herded the Mexicans into waist deep water in a swamp and killed them wholesale. Santa Anna was captured and brought before Sam Houston and Houston told him that his life would be spared but he had better take what was left of his army and get his young ass back across the Rio Grande and don’t ever come back. The Mexican dictator had to acknowledge the independence of Texas. Texas petitioned to be annexed into the United States but anti-slavery forces opposed it. So Texas rocked along there as an independent nation for 10 years (this is where the Lone Star comes from) with Sam Houston as President of the Republic of Texas. In 1845 Texas was admitted to the Union and soon thereafter the Mexican War erupted.

Born today:

1810 Pope Leo XIII. He said “It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, or writing or worship as if these were so many gifts given by nature to man.” I had to read this statement over and over again to make sure that I copied it right from the text. Pope Leo XIII has since gone on to his reward.

Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow