Tuesday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The worst thing about a new baby is its mother's singing.”

                                     Kim Hubbard

Trivia question of the day:

There was a commander of the starship “Enterprise” in Star Trek before James T. Kirk played by William Shatner. What was his name and who played him? Answer at the end of the blog.

                     This Date in History   March 12

1930 On this date the spiritual leader of India, Mohandas Gandhi begian a march of defiance from Delhi to the sea to gather salt. If you can believe this, the British government had forbidden the population of India to buy, sell or gather salt except from a supply owned by the British. Salt was a very important addition to the diet of the Indians because of the heat and food preservation. As in the past with opium in China, Great Britain wanted a monopoly on what was needed in different populations of the earth to keep the economy flourishing. In fact, Great Britain went to war with the Chinese Government over supplying opium to the Chinese. It was Great Britain’s contention that they had supplied the opium to China in the first place to get them addicted; now they wanted a monopoly. The Chinese government said that the drug was harmful and a war began because of it. Anyway, Great Britain had cornered the market on salt in India and they wanted to continue the monopoly but the religious leader Mohandas Gandhi called bullshit on that and headed for the Indian Ocean to gather salt. Gandhi contended that salt was a gift from Siva (God) and no man could sell it under force of law. He started the march of 241 miles with 78 followers, and when he reached the coastal town of Dandhi, he had a following of over 60,000. In that town, natural sea salt was available for the taking at low tide. The British chose to grind the sea salt into the mud making it un attainable, but Gandhi walked down to the ocean’s edge and reached down into the mud and brought out a crystal of sea salt, washed it off and ate a bite of it which started a chain of civil disobedience events that eventually drove the British out of India and led to their independence. Gandhi was arrested but immediately began a hunger strike that if it resulted in his death, the British would have millions of angry Indians on their hands. So Gandhi was released soon thereafter. By the way, Mohandas Gandhi was a student of American Henry David Thoreau and his theories of effective civil disobedience. India finally achieved independence from Great Britain in1947 and Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated by left wing extremists a year later. This reminds me of the assassination of the Egyptian Anwar Sadat. He tried to gain some sort of peace with Israel and was succeeding but he was killed. I guess there are those out there that just like killing; world history is full of it unceasingly.

1864 Today began one of the worst fiascos in the history of the American military. In their wisdom, the American military set forth a plan to sent Admiral David Porter and 20 warships up the Red River from New Orleans into Texas with the intent of further expansion and control of the river systems in the Confederacy. The only problem here was that the put US General Nathaniel Banks, a proven loser, in command of the 27,000 ground troops that would follow along on the west bank of the river. Previously, Banks had been tasked with gaining control of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The only problem here was that CSA General Stonewall Jackson and CSA General Jubal Early awaited him and wasted no time in handing Banks his ass and sending him back to Washington. In his defense, Banks was not an experienced military field commander but had good connections with the upper military officials in Washington so they decided to give him a second chance. So on this date, Banks and his army departed New Orleans headed up the Red River with Porter’s warships close aboard. They achieved moderate success with the capture of the Confederate outpost of Fort Derussy and then Porter captured Alexandria almost single handed. The only problem here was that Banks and his army was about two weeks late arriving at Alexandria which gave the Confederates plenty of advanced notice that he was coming. Porter headed on up toward Shreveport but Banks finds the going a little soggy and heads inland to get out of the swamp. After he is about 20 miles from the river CSA General Richard Taylor (son of US President Zachary Taylor) and his army of howling Confederates ambushed Banks army and administers the mother of all ass-whippings and Porters naval guns are useless at that range. Banks, ass in hand, said to hell with it and headed back toward New Orleans leaving Porter with no support. Porter turned his ships around and headed back south toward the Big Easy with the Confederates on both banks of the river shooting his ass off every step of the way. That ain’t all. The river had fallen to the point that Porter’s ships were aground with no way out in sight. Porter was considering burning his ships and surrendering then a pretty smart Yankee engineer devises “wing dams” which raises the water a few feet and the warships head for home. A few of the ships were lost because there were waterfalls where there was none before, but essentially, the retreat was a success. Porter makes his report on the expedition and US General Nathaniel Banks disappeared from view never to be seen or heard from again.

1922 Jack Kerouac is born this date in Lowell, Massachusetts. Jack had a big influence on my life at one time. He was a member of the “beat” generation who saw life in a non-materialistic way but sought inner peace and the purpose of life. Jack gave us just a few books but by far the most important of was “On the Road”. Jack had traveled the country mostly hitchhiking and getting rides anyway he could. He developed an amalgam of ideas and outlooks that forged his own philosophy. He also gave us the book “The Subterraneans” which was about people he had met that had an even more slanted outlook on life and preferred to be less visible with their beliefs in non-conformity. Jack died of a brain aneurism in Saint Petersburg, Florida in 1967. He was 45 years old. What a damned shame.

Born today:

1889 English historian Phillip Guedella. He said “History repeats itself, historians repeat each other”. Good insight, Phillip.

1912 Canadian writer Irving Layton. He said of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau “Canada has finally produced a Prime Minister worthy of assassination.” Ouch!

1928 US playwright Edward Albee. When speaking to his wife he said “If you existed, I would divorce you.” That, my friends, is the best insult I have ever read.

Died today:

2001 US entrepreneur Morton Downey, Jr. When speaking about women who smoke he said “I had rather have sex with a raccoon.” I would not go that far, Morton.

Answer to the trivia question:

The commander of the Enterprise before James T. Kirk played by William Shatner was Jefferson Pike played by Jeffrey Hunter.

            Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                            Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“Margaret Thatcher has the mouth of Marilyn Monroe and the eyes of Caligula.”

                                          Francois Mitterrand

Trivia question of the day:

Who was the most successful pirate in world history? Answer at the end of the blog.

Thursday lunch was at one of my favorite restaurants and one of my friends as the server. She has an infectious smile and a cheery attitude...in fact she has a following. After a crossword I had:

I had eggplant Parmesan, garlic bread, a cup of tomato Florentine pasta soup, water and 3 cups of coffee. It cost twice as much as the “down home” food I had a couple of days ago but there was twice as much food. I ate half and brought half home and had it later in the evening so it equaled out. All of it was delicious.

This was from pre-election times:

I don't want to appear prejudicial but after 2 super Tuesdays it looks like the Trump freight train is unstoppable but I ain't sure about the Hillary skate board. I heard a newsman on CNN say that he questions if the Democratic National Committee will even nominate her in spite of her delegates. They are really concerned about the likelihood that she will be indicted. Her wrong doings are a lot more serious that those of General Petraeus and he got hammered by Congress and the media. But no one ever said that everybody gets treated equally in the eyes of the law here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

                 This Date in History March 11

1779 On this date the United States Congress decided to implement an arm of the Government called the Corp of Engineers. The Congress decided that better offensive and defensive structures were sorely needed, especially around the mouth of New York harbor. In the war of 1812 The British navy took one look the defenses in the approaches to New York and said “To hell with, we ain’t going through there.” Then they attempted to invade other American ports and were successful for the most part that is until they ran across Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Chalmette or better know as the Battle of New Orleans. With the aid of the Corp of Engineers, “Old Hickory” constructed a formidable defense and kicked the crap out of the attacking British. The sad part here was that the Treaty ending this War of 1812 had been signed several weeks before and the war was actually over before the Battle was fought. After the Revolutionary War ended in 1784, the Corp of Engineers shrunk appreciably as a great number of civil engineers went back to the house to start their lives over. In 1804 the Corp was given an even larger role in the management of our natural resources. They were assigned the task of flood control of our rivers and later on were tasked with damming of there river for electricity and recreation. In my home state nearly all the lakes of the border rivers with the accompanying states are “Corp” lakes meaning they are responsible for the flow of the rivers related to flood control and maintenance of the dams and the power is governed by individual power companies such as Duke Energy and Carolina Power and Light, etc.

1862 On this date Abraham Lincoln being fed up with his field commanders, as was evident in their defeat in the Battle of 1^st Manassas, decided to break the army into three sections which essentially demoted the previous Commander of the Army, General George C. McClellan. The vain and arrogant McClellan still retained command of the Army of the Potomac which meant he was still the hound chasing the fox in CSA General Robert E. Lee. The three sections went to McClellan in the East, Fremont in the Appalachians and Halleck in the west. The bad thing about this arrangement was that Fremont was no military commander; he was an explorer/surveyor and a good one. While in this capacity as a military leader, he had the misfortune of running up against CSA General “Stonewall” Jackson during his brilliant Shenandoah Valley Campaign and Fremont had his ass handed to him. Fremont was so severely whipped that he resigned and went back out west and did some superb mapping and surveying which was his calling. Halleck was in his sixties and everyone felt he was too damned old to be in the field even though he had told Abe what strategy he should use and eventually that is what happened, The Anaconda Plan was Halleck’s. This plan was blown off by the younger officers as being untenable. But the plan called for the blockading of all the Southern ports and taking control of the Mississippi river and that is exactly what they did. Abe brought Halleck back to Washington and put him behind a desk. That left McClellan the only feasible commander out there. That is until a scruffy Ohioan named Grant began raising hell out west and then Abe told McClellan to take a hike.

1897 Up in Chicago there was a wealthy man named Adolph Leutgent. Adolph owned a sausage factory there. Adolph was a notorious woman chaser of the first magnitude and one day Adolph ordered his crew in the factory to put 300 pounds of potash (potassium chloride) into one of the larger vessels. Soon thereafter he took a walk in the park with his wife and this girl was never seen again. Adolph told the police that his wife had run off with another man but her friends knew better than that. Adolph and she had three children that his wife was devoted to them and they told the police about it. In their investigation they inspected Adolph’s plant and in the vessel with all the potash they found four teeth and three rings, one with Adolph’s wife’s name on it. On this evidence alone, Adolph was convicted and sentenced to life. He died in his cell 14 years later.

1884 Earlier a Texan named Ben Thompson gained a reputation as a gunslinger by shooting a black man in a fight in Austin, Texas. He was 16. As with the majority of the gunfighters of that era they learned their trade during the Civil War. Ben earned no special notoriety during the war and even began an honest occupation of a typesetter in New Orleans after the war. But the whorehouses and gambling parlors there was too much of an attraction and Ben went over to the dark side. In 1872 Ben went to the cow town of Ellsworth, Kansas to meet his brother Billy. One night Billy and Ben got into an argument with other gamblers and the local deputy came in and broke it up. About that time the sheriff named Chauncey Whitney came to the deputy’s assistance and was escorting the Thompson brothers across the street to their hotel. All of a sudden Billy pulled out his hog leg and killed Sheriff Whitney. The two got away and Ben roamed around Kansas staying clear of Ellsworth. He gained some respectability and was successful in running for sheriff of Austin, Texas. He could not stay away from the gambling, however and got into fight over a gambling debt with three other men. Ben killed one of them but the other two escaped. On this date, Ben was coming out of the Vaudeville Theater in San Antonio when he was ambushed and killed by the two other gamblers that got away. Evil begets evil, y'all.

Born today:

1936 US Supreme Court Justice Anthonin Scalia. He said “It is no secret in the realization that the Constitution insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.” Well said your Honor...and RIP.

Answer to the trivia question:

The most successful pirate in world history was a Chinese woman known a Madame Cheng. At one point she had 17,000 ships and boats and 60,000 fellow pirates. She had ocean going vessels and smaller boats with a much shallower draft to travel up and down rivers.

                     Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

                           Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Grace flows like a river through our lives reminding us that there is magic and power beyond what our eyes can see.”

                                                  Anonymous

Trivia question of the day:

In the movie “The Ten Commandments” who played Moses' brother Aaron? Answer at the end of the blog.

Here is an example of “messin' with Mother Nature” whether intended or by accident and the turmoil that results. I was told this tale and researched it. It is happening as incredible as it sounds.

As a result of the Spanish-America War, in 1898 Spain ceded the northwestern Pacific island of Guam to the United States. The Japanese successfully invaded Guam during WWII but were kicked out by the US Army and Marines 30 months later. After the rape of Guam by the Japanese the US began bringing life's necessities back to Guam via ship from a variety of ports. Somehow reptiles known as a Brown Tree snakes were inadvertently brought to Guam aboard these vessels. This reptile has no natural predator on Guam and as you might suspect they flourished. Their technique is to hang around in tree branches and prey on birds, birds eggs and small lizards. The result was several species of birds disappeared and spiders increased exponentially because they are the prime targets of certain small lizards. The obvious solution is the destruction of an estimated one million Brown Tree snakes. Because of the US military (USAF and USMC) on Guam generating a lot of traffic to and from Hawaii environmentalists are desperate to prevent these snake from finding their way there. There is almost daily aircraft drops of poisonous baits aimed at these critters. It was found that acetaminophen (Tylenol) was poisonous to only the snakes. There is a plan to anesthetize thousands of mice, insert a small amount of Tylenol into their little bodies, fit them with a small parachute and throw them out of airplanes hoping the parachute will catch on tree limbs making them bait for the snakes. I ain't kidding y'all. I don't know what the results are or will be.

Guam is an American territory and all the native born in Guam are United States citizens. But since Guam is not a state they cannot vote for President and their congressional representatives have no vote. I wonder if a Guamanian can run for President. By the way, when the US Army and Marines invaded to re-take Guam in WWII there was about 18,700 Japanese on the island...when the fight was over there was about 1,250 Japanese left alive. The Americans suffered 3,000 killed and 7,000 wounded.

Maybe one of y’all can help me with my confusion. A while back up in Charlotte a couple of policemen confronted a man in the act of burglarizing a business. The cops approached the burglar from two different directions and ordered the thief to lay flat on the floor and spread his arms and legs. He made a false move and did not lay down right away so one of the cops shot him in the hip, down he went and was arrested. Keep in mind that these cops had Tasers, pepper spray and night sticks but chose to use potentially lethal force not knowing if the thief was armed. Then about three days later a man in Gastonia, NC went crazy as hell and started shooting up the neighborhood with a rifle. A SWAT team arrived. The man ran back into the house and took a few pot shots at the SWAT team. The team withheld their gunfire, sneaked around and loaded up the house with tear gas then sent in a team wearing gas masks . The team came out a few minutes later with the crazy man in tow…alive and uninjured. If ever there was a person that deserved to be shot it was him…but he wasn’t. The burglar being shot was questionable at best. What’s up with all of that, especially with the cops having a plethora of non-lethal weapons at their disposal?

              This Date in History   March 8

1862 After several months of rebuilding and refurbishing the Confederate Navy had completed its first ironclad vessel. It had originally been named the Merrimack but on this day it was christened the CSS Virginia. The CSA navy had a hell of a time finding enough iron to clad this ship sufficiently but the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond proved to be equal to the task. On this day the CSS Virginia sallied forth into the waters of Hampton Roads, Virginia. It was an odd looking ship. It was basically rectangular with sheets of iron plate sheathing the sides sloping inward at the top. It had cannon ports out the side. The first vessel the Virginia engaged was the USS Congress. The USS Congress and nearly every other US vessel nearby showered the Virginia with everything they had to no effect. Finally the Virginia got into position and unleashed a broadside into the wooden USS Congress and succeeded in detonating the powder magazine and the USS Congress went up in a volcano of splinters. Then the Virginia attacked the USS Minnesota. The Minnesota fired everything it had to no effect and then decided to run for it. Even though the Virginia was not the fastest ship afloat, it was able to cut off the Minnesota and run it aground. After this, the Captain of the Virginia decided that he had a pretty successful day and went to the house. Very soon thereafter a United States vessel named the USS Monitor showed up in Hampton Roads. It is an ironclad also except the design was totally different. The freeboard (distance above water line) was very shallow, maybe four feet or so. But mounted in the middle was a round turret that could be rotated with two Dahlgren cannon apparent. The Monitor and the Virginia did battle only once that ended in a draw. But this engagement was the death knell for wooden ships worldwide.

1669 On this date Mount Etna, a volcano in northeast Sicily erupted after several days of warnings like lava flows, ash blowing out the top, etc. But today was the real thing. Etna exploded and threw white hot ash and poisonous gasses into the atmosphere. The Sicilians that lived near the volcano refused to leave hoping to save their towns and villages. I don’t know what they thought they could do but over 25,000 people perished on the flanks of this volcano. This definitely was not the first nor would it be the last eruption of this famous, if not infamous, volcano.

Born today:

1799 US Senator Simon Cameron from Pennsylvania. He said “An honest politician is one that when he is bought, he will stay bought.” I don’t know any.

Died today:

1874 President Millard Fillmore. He said “An honorable defeat is better that a dishonorable victory.” Hey Millard, if George Patton ever heard the President of the United States say that he would move to Costa Rica. He said there is no honor to be had in a defeat and had nothing but distain for a person that lost and laughed.

1959 US baseball player and husband to Marilyn Monroe Joe DiMaggio. He said “People say I am graceful when batting. My father drove railroad spikes in Martinez, California for 10 cents and hour to support his family. That was grace.” Indeed it was, Joe, indeed it was.

2005 Welsh writer Alice Ellis. She said “There is no reciprocity, men love women, women love children and children love hamsters.”

Answer to the trivia question:

In the movie “The Ten Commandments” Moses' brother Aaron was played by John Carradine.

         Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

                         Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Joan Collins has had so many men that she is known as The British Open.”

                                              Joan Rivers

Trivia question of the day:

In the movie “The Ten Commandments” who played the pharaoh Rameses the Great? Answer at the end of the blog.

A while back at a Republican debate one of news people tried to embarrass Trump by asking about him saying that he would have no problem killing any terrorists...and their families. I am no hardcore Trump supporter but that reminded me of a quote made by US Generals George Patton and Curtis Lemay. They said “There are only two ways to win a war, you kill them all or prosecute the war so severely that the enemy surrenders.”

I invite all of you to look at what happened to Coventry, Bristol, London and several other cities in England in the spring of 1940...they were bombed day and night by the German Luftwaffe and thousands of civilians were killed. Also look at what happened to Leipzig, Hamburg, Regensburg, Berlin and several other German cities in 1943, 1944 and 1945 by the RAF and USAAF, not to mention Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo, Nagoya and several other Japanese cities. Why were these cities destroyed...most had very little military value? It was to “prosecute the war so severely that the enemy surrenders”...civilians were killed wholesale. The problem with Germany was all that bombing did not make them surrender, so the “kill them all” part came to bear when the US and the Allies sealed off western Germany and would not accept a surrender. The Russians attacked from the east and southeast and killed anything German they encountered especially after seeing what happened at Buchenwald and Dachau which they had liberated. After this display of unbridled savagery by the Russians, hopefully the world will never see again, Germany surrendered completing an Allied victory in Europe.

Since then the USA has engaged in wars that we did not and will not win like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan because we did not listen to Lemay and Patton. Thousands of American soldiers have died or are being killed for nothing because there is no final goal. We are neither “killing them all” nor “prosecuting the war severely”, it is a fight for “containment” of the enemy. This accomplishes nothing.

The loss of civilian lives goes back to the Bible when Joshua was instructed by God through Moses to kill every person, man, woman or child, they encountered on their way north up the Jordan river valley to Canaan so there would be no army arrayed behind them. It is nothing new.

If you were considering being a terrorist like we saw in Paris, San Bernadino, 9-11, etc. would you proceed knowing that if you (or your corpse) was identified your entire family would be destroyed top to bottom? Well, would you? I can hear it now...that is not what we Americans are about...really? The USAAF firebombed Hamburg, Germany and 76,000 civilians died in one night (see the book The Night Hamburg Died)...or the firebombing of Tokyo and over 110,000 civilians died in three days, not to mention Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It sounds cruel but it put a stop to Americans being killed and and put a stop to hostilities by “prosecuting the war severely”. Make no mistake, we are at war. By the way, before all of this the US cavalry did not have a problem with raiding Native American villages and destroying their livestock and crops knowing that the very old and very young would starve to death. The first concentrated attack against United States civilians was US General William Sherman's “March to the Sea” during the Civil War. His army laid waste to a 60 mile wide swath of Georgia from Chattanooga to Savannah. Thousands of civilians died of starvation, exposure and disease. I can assure you that we in the land of the free and the home of the brave have proven time and again that we have no problem with destruction of non-combatants. Remember “prosecute the war severely...”? Vladimir Putin understands this concept...and his enemies know it.

This Date in History March 7

1862 Earlier CSA General Sterling Price had to withdraw from Missouri and was being chased by US General Samuel Curtis. General Price and his army of 8,000 met up with CSA General Ben McCullough and another small army led by CSA General Earl Van Dorn and they combined into an army of 14,000 and turned to face General Curtis and his army of 10,000. General Earl Van Dorn was selected to be the battlefield commander. On this date the two armies met at Pea Ridge, Arkansas near the Elkhorn Tavern. Van Dorn sent Ben McCullough and his troops on a flanking maneuver early on but McCullough was killed and his troops were soon in disarray. After seeing this, US General Curtis launched a counter-attack and after prolonged bitter fighting the Confederates withdrew. This battle was a serious loss for the Confederates because they never again were a viable power in the state of Arkansas. By the way, CSA General Earl Van Dorn was literally caught in the saddle by a jealous husband and killed ending a brilliant military career.

1981 On this date 23 year old Karen Barnes is found dead in her San Francisco apartment with her skull crushed and stabbed 27 times in the face and neck. Earlier Karen had allowed Susan and James Carson to live in her apartment. Susan and James were children of privileged parent but decided to live a life on the dark side. Karen, James and Susan went for weeks walking around naked and all were arrested for indecent exposure and a variety of drug charges more than once. As you might suspect, James and Susan were no where to be found after the police found Karen. They had moved to small town in Arizona and into a mobile home with a man name Gary Ferguson. One night Gary said something that Susan considered an insult and James whipped out a pistol and capped Gary. In 1983 James and Susan end up out on the highway hitchhiking and were picked up by John Hillyer. Poor old John said something that Susan thought was offensive and James came to the rescue with his trusty sidearm and dispatched John with three shots to the head. The police finally caught up with these two demons and they are tried for the murder of Karen Barnes, Gary Ferguson and John Hillyer. Their defense was that all three of them were witches and the Bible and the Koran allows the killing of witches. Although a novel defense, the jury didn’t by it and sent them to prison for life without parole. It is too bad that they were tried in California. If it had been Texas or South Carolina they would have met their maker fried to golden brown and meet their mentor in a place a lot warmer.

Answer to the trivia question:

In the movie “The Ten Commandments” Rameses the Great was played by Yul Brynner.

               Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

                             Musing and History

Quote of the day:

“Music hath the charm to soothe the savage beast, but bring a .357 revolver with you just in case.”

                                                    Josh Billings

Trivia question of the day:

In the movie “Ben Hur” he ended up as a galley slave on a Roman warship, who played the captain of that ship? Answer at the end of the blog.

Here is another event that shows I am here for a reason:

I was a based in Greenville, Mississippi while in the USAF. That base has since closed. Greenville is on the Mississippi river and has docks and piers. Just north of Greenville is an oxbow lake. It is a lake that was formed when the river changed course and was full of pan fish like shell cracker and bream. I decided to go fishing and headed out for a fish camp that was on a levee bordering the lake. I was driving my '51 Ford. While on the levee headed north a ferocious thunderstorm arose and it rained harder than I had ever seen before or since. The water in the lake rose rapidly and was running across the levee into a swamp. I stopped before I reached the overflow and took a look. It did not look that bad to me so I decided to cross. I was wrong and it washed me and my '51 off the road into the swamp. The car was on its right side nose down and was filling with water rapidly. Somehow I was able to get the driver side door open and crawl back up the levee to the top. I should have been killed for being so stupid. The fish camp was in sight and I walked up there and explained the situation to one of the people there. They called a wrecker and found out I had a long wait...so I went fishing.

                       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.

1951 The espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg began on this day. Julius and Ethel were nuclear scientists at the Los Alamos nuclear Laboratory where atomic bombs were formulated. During the “Red Scare” days where the US government feared that there was a communist saboteur/spy behind every tree, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were fired for being Communists as indeed Julius was. Julius and Ethel in their anger got together with a machinist in the laboratory name David Greenglass and recruited him to be a “mule” smuggling atomic secrets out of the Laboratory and sell them to the Russians. The Rosenbergs had already made the deal with the Russians through a Russian named Martin Sobell. Greenglass in turn hired a man named Harry Gold to make the actual exchange of the secrets for the money. The trial lasted nearly a month and ended with all four being convicted. The Rosenbergs got the death penalty even though they could not be accused of treason because we were not at war with the Russians. Sobell got thirty years and Greenglass got fifteen. Soon after all of this Russia detonated its first nuclear device and acknowledged that they had constructed the weapon with information partially provided by the Rosenbergs. The Rosenbergs were offered life in prison if they would confess; they did not and fulfilled their destiny with a visit to “Old Sparky” and went to meet their maker extra crispy.

1475 On this date one of the greatest creative geniuses in history is born. Michelangelo Buanorrati is born in the small Italian town of Caprese. His father was a minor government official and had close ties with the powerful Italian Medici family. The Medici family was famous sponsors of the arts, especially in Florence. Michelangelo became an artist’s apprentice at the age of 13. He spent two years in the Medici palace studying sculpture under the master sculptor Bertoldo de Giovanni and also studied the Medici family collection of other Italian sculptures. He eventually grew into the genius that we all recognized today. His first major creation was the sculpture “Pieta” in marble showing a dead Jesus lying across the lap of his mother Mary. This work was commissioned by the French ambassador to the Holy See, Michelangelo was 24 years old. But I guess his most famous works were the statue of David and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Both of which were commissioned by Pope Julius II. There is little question that painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was by far the most difficult. Not only did he have to paint lying on his back, he had to had to paint his creations in the correct proportions on a curved surface, no easy trick. The majority of the Sistine Chapel was a dome. Michelangelo was very prodigious in anything he attempted, be it painting, sculpture, sketches or drawings. It would repetitive for me to list all of this great artist’s works. Just suffice it to say there has never been anyone like him before or since. He was a man for all the ages. What is eerie is that he, Leonardo da Vinci and the artist Rafael all lived at the same time in the same city (Florence) at one time or another. Michelangelo died in Rome at the age of 89 leaving a trail of works of art that probably will never be equaled in history. The world is a more beautiful place because of him.

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 clam shell 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 clam shell 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, like closing the barn door before the horse escapes.

Born today:

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.

Answer to the trivia question:

In the movie “Ben Hur” he was a galley slave on a warship commanded by English actor Jack Hawkins.

                   Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

                         Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“Cats were put here by God to show us that not everything on Earth has a purpose.”

                                               Garrison Keillor

Trivia question of the day:

In the movie “Silence Of The Lambs” in what city was the asylum located?” Answer at the end of the blog.

                    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, ya’ll, 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 hard-ass Bostonians gathered outside the Custom House where the British gathered 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. Well, 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.

1962 On this date actor George C. Scott rejected his Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “The Hustler”. George said the award was a waste of time and meaningless. This wasn’t the only time he turned the Oscar down. He rejected his winning Best Actor award for “Patton”. In “The Hustler” he played the money backer to a pool shark named “Fast Eddie” Felson played by Paul Newman. Felson’s girl friend was played by Piper Laurie. Scott’s promiscuous wife was played by Ann Margaret. The core of the whole movie was “Fast Eddie” in a showdown with a world famous pool shark named “Minnesota Fats” played by Jackie Gleason. It was a great movie. “Fast Eddie” played by Paul Newman showed up in another movie later on where he was the advisor and mentor to another young pool shark played by Tom Cruise in “The Color of Money.” It was another good movie. George C. Scott went to that great sound stage in the sky in 1999, an actor unparalleled.

1953 On this date one of the most evil persons the world had ever known died much to the relief of the rest of the world and mostly his own countrymen. Josef Stalin, the Russian dictator since 1924 died of a brain hemorrhage in Moscow. This man had no honor. He signed a peace agreement with Adolph Hitler hoping to gain land and fortune siding with this jackass. Not long after this, Hitler unleashes Operation Barbarossa which was the attempt to subjugate Russia under heel of Germany. Hitler sent in three armies totaling over 2 million men. The Germans would have succeeded had they started the operation two months earlier. The worst winter in 50 years caught the German Army out in the open without sufficient clothing to handle the blistering winter wind coming across the Steppes at 50 to 60 MPH at -20 degrees. During all his reign, Stalin would keep a close watch on his Generals and if one of them became extra popular, he would have the General executed under false pretenses. This way he cut short any coups that may be afoot. He also had murdered thousands if not millions of his own people for real or imagined plots against him. It was rumored that if the forecast for crops showed that there would not be enough food to feed all the people, he would murder enough of his people that the remainder could be fed. And as strange as it seems, he would not allow his people to immigrate. The world is a better place without Josef Stalin, and hell applauded his arrival.

Born today:

1958 Australian rock singer Andy Gibb. He said “Girls are always running through my mind, they don’t dare walk.”

1879 English economist William Beaveridge. He said “Scratch a pessimist and often you will find a defender of privilege.”

Died today:

1893 French historian Hippolyte Taine. He said “I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.”

1953 US movie producer Herman Mankeiwicz. He said “If people are not sitting at Charlie Chaplin’s feet, he goes out and stands where people are sitting.”

1981 US songwriter E.Y. Harburg. He wrote “This we learn from Watergate, that almost any creep will be glad to help the government overthrow the people.”

Quotable quotes:

“The fundamental fault with fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.”

Bertrand Russell

“Feminism is just a way for ugly women to get into mainstream America.”

Rush Limbaugh (I am just the messenger here)

“I don’t believe in drunk driving, but those kids have to get to school.”

Joan Rivers

When asked if he liked grass or Astroturf Joe Namath said “I don’t know I have never smoked Astroturf.”

Answer to the trivia question:

The asylum in the movie “Silence Of The Lambs” was in Baltimore.

            Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

                            Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“A psychiatrist is someone that goes to a strip joint and watches the audience.”

                                               Mervyn Stockwood

Trivia question of the day:

Who played Steve McQueen's girlfriend in the movie “Bullitt”? Answer at the end of the blog.

A while back over a three month period, 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 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 wisely decided against starting the car and got back out. They produced 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 magnanimous.

A while back I went to one of my favorite watering holes. The bartender is of the alternative life style. My group was discussing another watering hole that is open 23 hours a day here in Greenville 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”. It was difficult for us to grasp this concept because this place is pretty rough. 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. He said that on one occasion the bartender came over to him and said that he could not be in there with 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 if it was OK if he left a trail of urine on the way to the men’s room and kept his flip-flops on. The bartender was adamant, the flip-flops had to go. Apparently a trail of urine was not as offensive as flip-flops.

                This Date in History   March 4

1861 Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as President. Immediately after he was elected in November seven southern states seceded from the Union. 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 Theater 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 prime. The bombing of Berlin was effective but did not do anything to disrupt the morale of the German people. What happened later 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. 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 about 13 or 14 years old. They took a shot at an oncoming Russian tank and missed, the Russian tank commander sent a round their way killing all of them then rolled over the gun and the boys repeatedly until there was nothing left that could be identified as human. War is hell y'all, especially if one side has nothing on its mind except revenge.

1944 As a child Lepke Burkhalter would run up and down the streets of his neighborhood in New York and rob the poor guys selling fruit and produce off of their pushcarts. A little later he met up with a hoodlum name Jacob Shapiro and they formed a relationship and began to expand their business into extortion, prostitution and bootlegging. His organization became so large that it attracted the attention of the likes of Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and “Dutch” Schultz. This group formed a loose business partnership. That is until Dutch decided he was going to cap the District Attorney of New York, Thomas Dewey. The group knew that this was a bad idea so they sent Burkhalter to take care of the problem. So he shot and killed Dutch, end of problem. It was after this that Burkhalter organized his own individual service known as “Murder Incorporated”. It is estimated that Burkhalter had over 250 men and women working for his at one time or another. All it was that if you wanted someone capped, you just contacted Lepke or one of his associates and after they investigated to see if the hit was legit and enough money changed hands, your problem was over. Anyway, Lepke was arrested and convicted of murder and on this date he went to meet his maker extra crispy courtesy of “Old Sparky” in Sing Sing.

Answer to the trivia question:

Steve McQueen's girlfriend in the movie “Bullitt” was played by Jacqueline Bissett.

            Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow