Wednesday

•  Musings and History

  
  

  Quote of the day:

  “I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what your heard is not what I meant.”

                                                 Robert McCloskey

  This sounds like a conversation with my third ex-wife.

  
  

  Recently a group of Canadian archaeologists discovered the wreckage of the HMS Investigator in Mercy Bay. The ship was tasked by the British Government with locating the fabled Northwest Passage which was a sea passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans through North America. This passage is possible but not with a wooden ship like the Investigator that began the search in 1850. The commander of the Investigator, Sir John Franklin, was blocked by sea ice on his first attempt and wintered in Mercy Bay. The next summer he tried again and was blocked by sea ice once again and sailed back into Mercy Bay and awaited rescue. The rescue came in the form of HMS Resolute in 1853 and the Investigator was abandoned. The archaeologist found the ship in superb condition due to the cold water. They also found the corpses of three sailors. Out of respect to the dead, the ship will not be raised.

  
  

  A while back I could hardly restrain myself when I saw President Obama speaking about the so-called “Arizona law” he said “The United States cannot allow an individual in power (Governor of Arizona) to declare themselves anti-immigrant just to make a name for themselves…”. Hey Barack, what about the 66% of Americans who agree with the Arizona law as written? Are all of us trying to make a name for ourselves? You are so out of touch with mainstream America it is scary….and I mean scary.

  
  

                  This Date in History  August 5

  
  

  1981 On this date President Ronald Reagan fired about 11,600 air traffic controllers that had gone on strike earlier. I was one of them. The roots of the strike began about three years earlier when our Union President went out and contacted Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, the ex-governor of California, and told him that we the 16,000 members of the Air traffic controller’s union would campaign to get him elected if he would just promised to do one thing. The union had tried to get the retirement system for air traffic controllers changed because the stress wore heavily on their ability as they aged. The Union had spent millions of dollars literally bribing the right Senators and Representatives to get a bill introduced that would change the retirement system for air traffic controllers. All was asked of Reagan was that he not interfere or veto the bill once it is introduced as part of the next contract. According to our Union President Reagan agreed to this. Reagan came to office in 1980 and the next year our contract came up for renewal. We were excited that a change in the retirement was on the horizon. Reagan came out and said “Here is $43,000,000 dollars, do with it what you want, and that is all you are getting for your contract.” Money was not an issue as far as we were concerned; we wanted a change in the retirement plan. But when we threatened a strike President Reagan pointed to the $43,000.000 and said something how greedy we were in typical political bullshit, he did not even mention the retirement change. Even if we had wanted a pay raise, $43,000,000 divided into 16,000 people for three years made it a 58 cent an hour pay raise. That made it a matter of honor, so we went on strike and was fired. This whole scenario was described to the rank and file by our Union President and therefore could have been enhanced...one way or another. It probably saved my life getting out of that business because counting my time in the Air Force I had been doing it for 25 years and I was pretty much worn out anyway.

  
  

  1864 US Admiral David Farragut had been tasked with the capture of Mobile Bay and the city of Mobile, Alabama. On this day he arranged his ships in two columns out in the Gulf of Mexico and then turned into the mouth of Mobile Bay. The Confederates had a well armed fort on either side of the entrance to the bay. They were Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines. Farragut sent four ironclad ships to lead the way. When the two forts opened fire, one of Farragut’s ironclads “The Tecumseh” went to the bottom within minutes. The ships behind began to run around in confusion until Admiral Farragut supposedly signaled “Damn the torpedoes (artillery), full speed ahead” and the ships fell back into line and kept going into the bay. Farragut’s quote during this battle is suspect at best, but the US Navy succeeded in capturing Mobile Bay and the city of Mobile, Alabama. The US fleet did not escape totally unscathed except for the “Tecumseh”, several US ships were destroyed or ran aground but the victory was Farragut’s.

  
  

  1953 On this date ex-Texas Ranger Ira Aten dies at his home in Burlingame, California at the age of 89. At the age of 13 Ira and his family had moved to a farm in the central Texas town of Round Rock. This was on the outer edge of the western frontier at the time and Ira had to learn the law of the west first hand. His father was a Methodist minister and attended to the burial of more than one outlaw that was killed by vigilante groups. He became very handy with his fists, hand guns and was a crack shot with a rifle. At the age of 20 he joined the Texas Rangers and was assigned a territory on the Rio Grande River where much cattle rustling happened headed both north and south. He got into several gunfights but always came away unhurt. He was then sent to the west Texas frontier that was considered to be more peaceful. While there he met up with an outlaw named Judd Roberts and tried to arrest him but Roberts wanted to fight so Aten shot Roberts in the gun hand but Roberts escaped. Aten met up with Roberts again and tried to arrest him but Roberts again wanted to fight so Aten shot him in the leg but Roberts escaped anyway. Finally, Aten met Roberts a third time and did not try to arrest him; he put a bullet into Roberts’s sternum killing him instantly. Aten finally got out of law enforcement and became a supervisor on the enormous XIT (Ten in Texas) ranch. Even then he had to deal with cattle rustlers. He finally moved to Burlingame with his five children and lived out the rest of his days in serenity. He was one of the last to have lived in the legendary “wild west”.

  
  

  Born today:

  1961 US comic writer Liz Winstead. When speaking of Jerry Lewis she said “The train of bitterness stopped at his station years ago.”

  
  

  Died today:

  1895 German philosopher Frederick Engels. He said “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory”.

  
  

  Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

  
  

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Tuesday

•     Musings and History
  

  
  

  Quote of the day:

  “If the cops have to run you down you can be sure they will bring an ass whipping with them.”

                                                             Chris Rock

  
  

  There is a man-made lake complex in eastern South Carolina that may be the largest east of the Mississippi River. It is known as Santee-Cooper. It is two giant lakes connected by a canal. The eastern most lake is labeled Lake Moultrie and the entire area is surrounded by very thick swamps that contain a myriad of wildlife including full grown American alligators. A while back a 56 year old man staggered into a picnic area on Lake Moultrie minus a left arm up to the shoulder. Fortunately for him, there were five nurses present in the picnic area and the staunched the blood flow with ice and called 911. The EMT’s showed up and transported man to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. A Wildlife officer also showed up and found out an alligator had taken that unfortunate man’s arm off. A team of Wildlife officer went on the search for the Gator and found an 11 foot, 550 pound gator at the spot described by the victim. They dispatched the reptile and open up its stomach and retrieved the man’s arm and immediately put it on ice and sped it to the MUSC just in case it could be re-attached. That 56 year old victim is the luckiest man on the planet to have found a group of nurses immediately after such a trauma as that. He is lucky to be alive...if this tale is not urban legend.

  
  

  The unluckiest man, or maybe the stupidest, man on the planet is the moron that called the Myrtle Beach, SC cops and reported a home invasion where he was wounded in the hand. The cops came and began dusting for prints to identify the invaders. What they found in addition to the prints was a large stash of cocaine belonging to the home owner. This moron is in the joint charged with possession with the intent to distribute. If he had had about half of what the cops found it would be simple possession, but no, he had a large stash and invited the cops over. Holy dummy, Batman!

  
  

                          This Date in History   August 4

  
  

  1892 On this date the Fall River, Massachusetts police are called to the home of Andy and Abbie Borden. The two had not been seen or heard for several days. Upon entry the cops found Andy in the downstairs living room where someone had chosen to part Andy’s face down the middle with an axe. The police were stunned, that is until they go upstairs to one of the bedrooms where Abbie was lying in a pool of blood. This girl had been struck several times on her skull also with an axe. According to the police Abbie’s head had been literally crushed from multiple blows. Well, the only possible suspects that could have committed this massacre were a daughter Lizzie or the housekeeper. Abbie was Lizzie’s step-mother and the word on the street was that they were not very friendly toward each other. The police arrested Lizzie for murder. She was tried and acquitted in spite if the evidence. In those days it was inconceivable that young lady could muster up such a rage and deliver a hacking like that, especially on her parents. There is little question that Lizzie did the deed but the good people from Massachusetts did not want to admit that one of their young ladies were capable of such a slaughter.

  
  

  1961 On June 21 three civil rights workers were scanning the countryside in and around Meridian, Mississippi in an attempt to resister to vote many black people that had never voted before. Two of them were from New York named Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. They were accompanied by a local black man name James Chaney. On June 21 they were riding away from the jail in Philadelphia, Mississippi where they had spent a couple of hours for a trumped up charge of speeding. What they really went to jail for was so the Sheriff could notify the KKK and they could prepare an ambush when they left. The ambush was indeed sprung and all three of the civil right workers were killed. The parents of the New Yorkers got concerned when they did not hear anything from Michael and Andrew for several days and notified the local police and the FBI. The local police were not interested in pursing the case but the FBI was very interested. They moved into Philadelphia, Mississippi in force and began an investigation that was somewhat less than gentlemanly. The local rednecks responded with more and more heat being applied to the blacks. Finally the FBI bribed a local Klansman into telling where the bodies of the three workers were buried. They were in the bottom of an earthen dam that was under construction and the corpses were unearthed on this date. Several Klansmen went to trial fro murder but were acquitted by a very prejudicial jury. The FBI re-arrested them and put them on trial for violation of their civil rights, a federal offense. They all did hard time but not what they would have gotten if they had been convicted of murder. Mississippi declared that their people don’t think that way any longer and they are out in the sunshine now. I certainly hope so.

  
  

  1864 Earlier Confederate General John Bell Hood had launched three separate attacks against the troops of US General William Sherman in his attempt to protect Atlanta, Georgia. All three attacks were repulsed with heavy losses causing Hood’s army to become ineffective from then on. Sherman sent US General Schofield and his Corp around to cut the railroad supplying Atlanta from the south and southwest. He also sent US General John Palmer to help Schofield. Then egos got in the way. General Palmer was very sensitive as to who had seniority, the mission be damned. Palmer would only accept orders from US General George Thomas (a Virginian, by the way) and because he felt that Schofield was his junior the mission came to a standstill in spite of the fact that it was Schofield’s assignment. Palmer refused to accept orders form Sherman also so Sherman took the bull by the horns and declared that Schofield was senior to Palmer whereupon Palmer resigned and went home to Illinois. This squabbling allowed the Confederates to re-group and reassemble. When the Union soldiers resumed their attempt to take the railroad the Confederates were ready and delivered a bloody repulse and heavy casualties. As usual, this meant that the over inflated egos of Generals cost the lives of the men in their commands. So what else is new?

  
  

  1873 Lt. Colonel George Custer had been assigned the task of protecting a survey party that was laying out the Northern Pacific Railroad. This route took them through the Sioux territory of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull but the Indians seemed to not pay any attention to them much to Custer’s chagrin. Custer was hungry for combat. Since there was no action, Custer took this opportunity to go hunting for buffalo, elk, deer, etc. On one occasion he found himself far from the rest of the troops. He was near the Tongue River hunting when a considerable force of Sioux Indians shows up on the horizon and attack. Custer was asleep and when awakened he was able to form an effective defense and the Indians withdrew. From this Custer developed the idea that the Indians would rather run than fight. He had this attitude three years later at Little Big Horn when he attacked without reconnaissance and was massacred. The Indians did not run this time.

  
  

                           Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

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Monday

 Musings and History

Quote of the day:

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

                                               Anonymous

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

At the risk of going against my personal rule of staying away from religion and arousing plethora of different opinions, I am going to report what I read about what a Charlotte newspaper reporter said about his visit with the Charlotte Society of Atheists and Agnostics.

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

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

                       This Date in History   August 3

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

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

Born today:

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

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

           Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow