Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but conformity."
Robert Anthony
I watched the CMA awards last night until I got so bored that I switched over to the History Channel. That ain't country music,y'all. Darius Rucker ain't country and neither is Taylor Swift and the Underwood girl. The last female country singer I heard was Loretta Lynn. The last male country singers I heard was Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash. That ain't country we are hearing today. I am glad that Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Kitty Wells,Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette among others are not alive today to hear what is being represented as "country" music. We still have George "Possum" Jones, though. However, we never hear anything from him now a days. I guess he is too old fashioned. Me too.
There is trouble here in paradise. Back in May of 2008 17 year old Jarvis Home was shot and killed at a McDonald's on the west side of Pensacola. Tywann Carter and Joe Jenkins were arrested and charged with the murder. This Thursday morning these two went on trial for 2nd degree murder at the local court house. The families of both of the men on trial and the victim were in attendance in the court room. At breaking for lunch, everyone went outside. The families of the accused and the victim began yelling at each other which soon degenerated into a old fashioned brawl, and I am talking about wallowing around on the sidewalk. It took 12 cops to restore order and five adults and one juvenile were arrested. Three of the adults were women. It just goes to show you anybody can fight.
Good news:
I saw a program on PBS yesterday where older retired people go to the airport and personally greet each and every American soldier, sailor or airman passing through, either coming or going. Neither all are ex-military and have made this their job. It inspires both parties.
The weather here in paradise has calmed down and is back to normal. The morning temp is in the mid 50's and the daily high will be in the mid to high 70's The wind is back to where it is supposed to be at is east-northeast at about 7-10 MPH. The sky and air is crystal clear.
Recently the Feds boarded a private jet here at the Pensacola airport and found 10 kilos of cocaine that they had flown in from the Dominican Republic.
They arrested several people people one of which was a multi-millionaire from Orlando who is reportedly worth $110 million. His name is Pedro "Pete" Benevidos. All I have to say is, isn't $110 million enough? In addition to speed, greed kills.
It is Friday the 13th, y'all. There are several opinions as to where the bad stigma comes from but the most accepted is this one.
In the 11th Century nine knights were formed into the "Knights Templar". The new order gained fame and men of title from all over Europe joined. The Knights built way points (castles) along the route from Europe to Jerusalem to protect the Christians going on pilgrimage to the holy land. The travelers gave money, jewelry and lands to the Knights in gratitude. By the 14th century the Knights Templar had become very wealthy and powerful. This did not go unnoticed by the King of Spain Philip IV nor the Catholic church. On a FRIDAY THE 13th troops sent by the King of Spain and Pope Clement V captured all of the leaders of the Knights and either hanged or burned them all at the stake because of trumped up charges. The last Knight leader to go to the stake was Jaques de Molay. It is legend that while burning he cursed the Pope and King Phillip and asked them to join him in death within a year. Sure enough both the Pope and the King died within a year. It is unlikely that de Molay's curse caused the death of the Pope and the King...or did it?
This date in history November 13
1775 On this date Continental General Richard Montgomery captures Montreal, Canada without firing a shot. At the direction of General George Washington, Montgomery had been tasked with the capture of Montreal that was a marshaling place for the British army to get organized for forays into the Colonies. The British Governor/General Guy Carleton had escaped to Quebec City. Earlier a Continental army commanded by Ethan Allen had launched a fragmented and undermanned attack on Montreal that failed with Allen being captured by the British and sent to prison in Pendennis Castle in Cornwall, England. The upside was that the British Governor/General Carleton would not split his defensive units to counter the probe coming from Montgomery’s troops which allowed Montgomery to get into position unmolested. Once his position was established the British realized that they could not successfully defend Montreal and surrendered. The Continental’s next objective was Quebec. Montgomery decided that he would launch a two pronged attack with him leading one prong and the other led by Continental Colonel Benedict Arnold. The attack was launched during a blizzard and was well coordinated but British Governor/General Carleton had been made aware of the attack and was prepared and waiting. Carleton’s troops fired a devastating artillery and rifle barrage at Montgomery’s unit approaching from the west and Montgomery was killed early on and that attach was stalled. Carleton then turned his attention to Benedict Arnold’s troops attacking from the north and Arnold suffered a severe leg wound. Patriot Colonel Daniel Morgan immediately assumed command and the attack continued and the first line of defense was breached. At this point Morgan halted the attack to await reinforcements that were supposed to be on the way. The re-enforcements were late and that allowed the British to re-group and Morgan’s attack was repulsed. The Patriot army retreated to the St. Lawrence River and crossed back in the Colonies. Benedict Arnold supervised the crossing, wounded leg and all, and after making sure that all of the troops were on their way, Arnold shot his horse and crossed the river in a canoe. Benedict Arnold was an enigma, ya’ll. He was a superior military field commander but his vanity and pride got in the way and he betrayed his country. His act of treason hurt his commander, George Washington, more than anyone.
1861 Earlier A. Lincoln had appointed George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac and on this date, President A. Lincoln and the Secretary of War Hay came by McClellan’s house to chat with him about strategy against the CSA Army of Northern Virginia led by the legendary General Robert E. Lee. After their arrival they discovered that McClellan was not in so they sat and waited for about an hour. Little did they know that McClellan had came home very soon after their arrival and after learning that Lincoln and Hay were waiting, went to his bedroom and retired without speaking. After finding this out, Lincoln and Hay departed but the seed of mistrust had been planted. McClellan had written to his wife that Lincoln was “a well-meaning baboon” and Secretary Hay was an “inept puppy”. McClellan was an arrogant bastard but later events proved that it was he that was the “inept puppy” after R.E. Lee handed his ass to him on more than one occasion and the “well meaning baboon” fired his young ass.
1953 As incredible as it seems a woman named Mrs. Thomas White who was on a school board in Indiana, recommended the school board remove the accounts “Robin Hood” from the shelves of the public school libraries. She said it was a bad influence to the children because it fostered taking from the rich and giving to the poor which was the basis of Communism. She also sued the school boards for not condemning the Quakers because of their passive attitude and refusal to fight. Even more incredibly the affected school boards took her seriously and even considered her recommendations. These were the days of everybody being afraid of the “Red Menace” or that there was a predatory Communist behind every tree that were just days away from taking over the country surreptitiously. She also condemned the classic books “Johnny Got His Gun” by Dalton Trumbo and “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck as having Communist leanings. The Governor of Indiana jumped in and defended the Quakers but wanted no part of the book dispute. As some of ya’ll may know, the main culprit in the legend of Robin Hood was the Sheriff of Nottingham along with King John. The very first mention of Robin Hood or a variation of the spelling thereof was found in literature dating back to 1229. The Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin of Loxley and several other characters are mentioned therein. When the current Sheriff of Nottingham heard about the turmoil in Indiana, he wrote the school board and assured them that Robin of Loxley was no Communist. It just goes to show you how inane censoring literature can get. We laugh about it now but then it was a serious matter. Reading any form of literature is optional and so is believing what it says is fact. We must have freedom of thought and expression or we invite anarchy.
1970 A relatively small cyclone slams ashore in East Pakistan, which is present day Bangladesh, but the mountainous terrain funneled the tidal wave into a relatively small area and therefore the tidal wave grew to a monstrous 32 feet. The resulting deluge killed 200,000. The local governments were so overwhelmed that later it was though the actual count was actually 500,000 or maybe even one million. This was not the first nor would it be the last storm that killed thousands of people in this area. As ya’ll can imagine, all the corpses were not found and therefore not buried, but the tigers found them and feasted. They developed a taste for us and when the corpses were gone, many man-killing tigers roamed the landscape looking for the “long pig”.
1941 Earlier in 1935 the US Congress passes the Neutrality Act which forbade and United States registered vessels to deliver arms to any and all belligerent nations, meaning those countries at war. Congress in those days was almost entirely for neutrality and keeping the United States out of any foreign war. After seeing what Hitler was doing in Europe and what the Japanese were doing in the Pacific they knew that war including the United States was on the near horizon and repealed the Neutrality Act on this date. 24 days later the Japanese launched the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the United States was indeed catapulted into the bloodiest war in the history of mankind.
Births and deaths:
1929 US writer George Higgins is born. He described a woman thusly “She had rouged her cheeks the color of a Pontiac Firebird and had a feathered appliance in her ears that resembled a surfcasting jig that is especially attractive to Striped Bass.” I think I know this woman.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Friday, November 13, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"Imagination is a quality given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for what he is."
Oscar Wilde
The weather here in paradise is cloudy but no rain. The low temp was about 55 and the high today will be in the mid-70s. The wind is pretty stiff from straight out of the north. I guess there is still an influence of Ida. Normally the wind is from the east-northeast.
Perhaps I have been too hard on my home state of South Carolina and it's crime rate. I have heard from more than one source about me being unfair about it. The truth is that there are more people moving to the Greenville, South Carolina area than there are moving to Gulf Breeze/Pensacola, Florida. Maybe I should start trying to think of Greenville's assets rather than its liabilities. It is true that all sections of the country has a certain amount of crime but I have not seen drive-by shootings, gang activity, etc. where I am right now. But that is not all there is to it, I suppose. I will be coming home in a week so I guess I should get another mind set for living in a much bigger city with all its advantages and disadvantages but I will miss Boardwalk condo, unit E-3. Thanks Mo.
That being said, there was a woman walking her dog near a locally famous golf course located at or near 34 degrees, 56 minutes north by eighty-two degrees, 20 minutes west when a man jumped out of the bushes, grabbed her and raped her. In addition to a hog-leg to blow that bastard's brains out, she needed a 100 pound Rottweiler, German Shepherd or Pit Bull on the other end of the leash to bite his leg (or whatever) off.
Last night I went to my favorite watering hole for karaoke. There were four Hispanics and a white guy in there that nobody had ever seen before. They got louder and brassier as the evening wore on and everyone knew a confrontation was on the horizon. The owners of this place, Sonny and Beverly, hire top notch bartenders in skill, personality and good looks and they dress the part. They are always well dressed but there is no doubt about the condition and shape of their bodies top to bottom. Anyway, one of the bartenders named Hillary came out from behind the bar and headed toward the storeroom when one of the Hispanics grabbed her. Hillary stopped, turned around and told them all to get out. The white guy said that she would be losing a lot of money if they left. By then at least 10 of the regulars were headed toward Hillary. Hillary said "You can take your lousy $150 and get the f--k out of here. I make twice that in tips every day." They wisely chose to get the f--k out. I think the Hispanics think all women are toys to be played with. There a two major building projects underway on the island and I am sure that is where they came from. They will get an education, I assure you.
This past Monday a female student at Presbyterian University in Clinton, SC was reported missing. She had not answered her phone, there was no activity in her bank account and she was not attending classes. On Wednesday she contacted her family and will be returning to school. The Chief of Police in Clinton did not want any more information about this event given out. That seems strange to me. I sounds like she was kidnapped, a ransom was paid and she was released. But I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Good News:
The Secretary of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has taken the brown pelican off the endangered list. This bird has been on the endangered list ever since the disaster with DDT was discovered in 1972. DDT got into the bird's food chain through insects that had been sprayed with the insecticide and fell into the water, were eaten by smaller fish and those fish were eaten by the pelicans. DDT makes bird egg shells very fragile and would break at the slightest movement. As we know, DDT has been banned but it took a generation for DDT-free pelicans to mature. I see a hell of a lot of them out my back windows. They are great dive bombers.
This date in history November 12
1775 Earlier in 1774 the American colonies sent a document to King George III called “The Olive Branch” proposal written by John Dickenson. The proposal was directed to the King specifically and stated the colony’s unhappiness with the different laws and taxes levied upon them by Parliament. The scent of war was heavy in the colonies and several important men in the colonies, including John Dickenson, would travel almost any avenue to avoid war with Great Britain. They wanted to make sure that the King knew what Parliament was doing to them before any warlike action was taken. The proposal essentially kissed King George’s ass in the hopes of not inflaming him. Well, King George not only did not read the proposal, he did not even open the envelope. This told the colonies that King George was in agreement and complicit with whatever Parliament was dishing out. Upon receiving the notification that King George did not even open the envelope, a letter was written to John Adams on this date stating: “Let us separate, they are unworthy to be our Brethren. Let us renounce them and instead of supplications for their happiness and prosperity, let us beseech the almighty to blast their councils (Parliament) and bring naught to all of their devices (laws and taxes).” This person was obviously very pissed. The letter was written by John Adam’s wife Abigail. The next year the Declaration of Independence was written and among other things said this about King George: “The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of injuries and usurpation, all having in direct object the establishment of absolute tyranny over these states.” So our forefathers in the span of one year went from kissing George’s ass to calling him a tyrant. There is little question that this document did indeed inflame King George but our ancestors in their wisdom, told King George III to kiss their ass.
1864 Earlier US General William T. Sherman had arrived in Atlanta, Georgia after a torturous running battle with the Confederates coming south from Chattanooga, Tennessee. On this date Sherman orders the destruction of anything that could be useful to the Confederate Army. During the trip down from Chattanooga, Sherman had accumulated a large store of supplies captured from the Confederates. Sherman decided to set up a large supply dump in Atlanta and destroy everything else. He then split his army and sent US General George Thomas backtracking to make sure that what was left of the Confederate army commanded by CSA General John Bell Hood did not try to cut off his supply line coming down from the north. This move assured Sherman that he could continue south and destroy what ended up being 37% of consumables in the state of Georgia and hastened the end to the tragedy known as the American Civil War.
1867 After almost a decade of battles with the Cheyenne and the Sioux Indians of the Great Plains, not to mention the Civil War, the US military held a conference at Fort Laramie, Wyoming to try to work out a peace agreement with Indians. There had been unspeakable atrocities on both sides and the American public was fed up with the bloodletting both on the plains and during the Civil War. The US military chose to abandon their policy of an “aggressive military solution” to the “Indian problem” and called in several Sioux leaders for a pow-wow. The negotiations bore fruit when the American military decided to abandon their forts on the Bozeman Trail through Montana which was a major sore spot with the Sioux and Cheyenne, Chief Red Cloud in particular. Well, as usual the US military reneged on their promise to provide several Cheyenne tribes with guns and the Cheyenne showed their anger by slaughtering 15 people in Kansas and raping five women. The US military saw that peace was impossible and in 1868 began ramping up for war with the Sioux and Cheyenne. The US military agreed to treaty after treaty with the Sioux and Cheyenne among other tribes and broke each and every one of them. If ever there was a black mark on this great nation it is the treatment of the Native Americans. We came within a gnat’s ass of complete genocide.
2001 Almost two months to the day after the destruction of the World Trade Center an American Airline Airbus 300 with 265 people aboard departed runway 31 at New York’s JFK airport bound for the Dominican Republic. Before takeoff a Japan Airline Boeing 747 had departed ahead of the Airbus. After reaching 13,000 feet the Airbus suddenly fell almost vertically into a Rockaway, New York neighborhood killing all aboard and many on the ground. The immediate thought that it was an act of terrorism. But the FAA/National Aviation Safety Org. recovered the cockpit voice recorder and the so-called “black box” and determined the following: Even though the correct takeoff distance (4 miles) between two “heavy” aircraft was maintained, the wake turbulence behind the Japan Airline 747 was sufficient to cause an upset to the aircraft behind. In a “heavy” (300,000 pounds or heavier) aircraft there are horizontal “tornadoes” (wake turbulence) coming off the wingtips. The heavier the aircraft, the more intense the wake turbulence. The pilot and co-pilot of the American Airline Airbus felt a slight shudder and then a large dive and then a severe climb and over compensated and tore the tail section off the aircraft. In fact, the tail section fell into Rockaway bay. After that, the Airbus fell like a rock. When I was an air traffic controller, we received a lot of instructions on how to deal with “heavies”. Even if all the procedures are followed, there can still be a chance of an upset if the atmospheric conditions are exactly right. That is what happened here.
Born today:
1908 US Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. When asked to describe the Supreme Court he said “We’re all eccentrics. We’re nine prima donnas.” Hey Harry, tell us something we don’t know.
1929 US actress Grace Kelly. She said “The freedom of the press works I such a way that there is not much freedom from it.” I personally fed up with the press spoon feeding us what they want us to know and nothing else. When is the last time you have seen a photo of a Republican candidate that was not in a paid political ad? When is the last time you saw a photo of Hilary and/or Obama in a news item? The press is using a type of psychology on us, the more we see of the Democrats and the less we see of the Republicans the more likely we are to vote Democrat. This horse is not a clone, my mind is sharp, clear and individualistic and not fooled. OK, I am off my soapbox now.
Died today:
1865 English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. She said “Sometimes one likes a fool for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.” It would be nice to know people with a little of both, a sense of humor is a gift.
1989 Spanish communist leader Delores Ibarurri. She said “It is better to be the widow of a hero that the wife of a coward.” I would think it would depend on how much money they make.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Quote of the day:
"Imagination is a quality given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for what he is."
Oscar Wilde
The weather here in paradise is cloudy but no rain. The low temp was about 55 and the high today will be in the mid-70s. The wind is pretty stiff from straight out of the north. I guess there is still an influence of Ida. Normally the wind is from the east-northeast.
Perhaps I have been too hard on my home state of South Carolina and it's crime rate. I have heard from more than one source about me being unfair about it. The truth is that there are more people moving to the Greenville, South Carolina area than there are moving to Gulf Breeze/Pensacola, Florida. Maybe I should start trying to think of Greenville's assets rather than its liabilities. It is true that all sections of the country has a certain amount of crime but I have not seen drive-by shootings, gang activity, etc. where I am right now. But that is not all there is to it, I suppose. I will be coming home in a week so I guess I should get another mind set for living in a much bigger city with all its advantages and disadvantages but I will miss Boardwalk condo, unit E-3. Thanks Mo.
That being said, there was a woman walking her dog near a locally famous golf course located at or near 34 degrees, 56 minutes north by eighty-two degrees, 20 minutes west when a man jumped out of the bushes, grabbed her and raped her. In addition to a hog-leg to blow that bastard's brains out, she needed a 100 pound Rottweiler, German Shepherd or Pit Bull on the other end of the leash to bite his leg (or whatever) off.
Last night I went to my favorite watering hole for karaoke. There were four Hispanics and a white guy in there that nobody had ever seen before. They got louder and brassier as the evening wore on and everyone knew a confrontation was on the horizon. The owners of this place, Sonny and Beverly, hire top notch bartenders in skill, personality and good looks and they dress the part. They are always well dressed but there is no doubt about the condition and shape of their bodies top to bottom. Anyway, one of the bartenders named Hillary came out from behind the bar and headed toward the storeroom when one of the Hispanics grabbed her. Hillary stopped, turned around and told them all to get out. The white guy said that she would be losing a lot of money if they left. By then at least 10 of the regulars were headed toward Hillary. Hillary said "You can take your lousy $150 and get the f--k out of here. I make twice that in tips every day." They wisely chose to get the f--k out. I think the Hispanics think all women are toys to be played with. There a two major building projects underway on the island and I am sure that is where they came from. They will get an education, I assure you.
This past Monday a female student at Presbyterian University in Clinton, SC was reported missing. She had not answered her phone, there was no activity in her bank account and she was not attending classes. On Wednesday she contacted her family and will be returning to school. The Chief of Police in Clinton did not want any more information about this event given out. That seems strange to me. I sounds like she was kidnapped, a ransom was paid and she was released. But I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Good News:
The Secretary of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has taken the brown pelican off the endangered list. This bird has been on the endangered list ever since the disaster with DDT was discovered in 1972. DDT got into the bird's food chain through insects that had been sprayed with the insecticide and fell into the water, were eaten by smaller fish and those fish were eaten by the pelicans. DDT makes bird egg shells very fragile and would break at the slightest movement. As we know, DDT has been banned but it took a generation for DDT-free pelicans to mature. I see a hell of a lot of them out my back windows. They are great dive bombers.
This date in history November 12
1775 Earlier in 1774 the American colonies sent a document to King George III called “The Olive Branch” proposal written by John Dickenson. The proposal was directed to the King specifically and stated the colony’s unhappiness with the different laws and taxes levied upon them by Parliament. The scent of war was heavy in the colonies and several important men in the colonies, including John Dickenson, would travel almost any avenue to avoid war with Great Britain. They wanted to make sure that the King knew what Parliament was doing to them before any warlike action was taken. The proposal essentially kissed King George’s ass in the hopes of not inflaming him. Well, King George not only did not read the proposal, he did not even open the envelope. This told the colonies that King George was in agreement and complicit with whatever Parliament was dishing out. Upon receiving the notification that King George did not even open the envelope, a letter was written to John Adams on this date stating: “Let us separate, they are unworthy to be our Brethren. Let us renounce them and instead of supplications for their happiness and prosperity, let us beseech the almighty to blast their councils (Parliament) and bring naught to all of their devices (laws and taxes).” This person was obviously very pissed. The letter was written by John Adam’s wife Abigail. The next year the Declaration of Independence was written and among other things said this about King George: “The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of injuries and usurpation, all having in direct object the establishment of absolute tyranny over these states.” So our forefathers in the span of one year went from kissing George’s ass to calling him a tyrant. There is little question that this document did indeed inflame King George but our ancestors in their wisdom, told King George III to kiss their ass.
1864 Earlier US General William T. Sherman had arrived in Atlanta, Georgia after a torturous running battle with the Confederates coming south from Chattanooga, Tennessee. On this date Sherman orders the destruction of anything that could be useful to the Confederate Army. During the trip down from Chattanooga, Sherman had accumulated a large store of supplies captured from the Confederates. Sherman decided to set up a large supply dump in Atlanta and destroy everything else. He then split his army and sent US General George Thomas backtracking to make sure that what was left of the Confederate army commanded by CSA General John Bell Hood did not try to cut off his supply line coming down from the north. This move assured Sherman that he could continue south and destroy what ended up being 37% of consumables in the state of Georgia and hastened the end to the tragedy known as the American Civil War.
1867 After almost a decade of battles with the Cheyenne and the Sioux Indians of the Great Plains, not to mention the Civil War, the US military held a conference at Fort Laramie, Wyoming to try to work out a peace agreement with Indians. There had been unspeakable atrocities on both sides and the American public was fed up with the bloodletting both on the plains and during the Civil War. The US military chose to abandon their policy of an “aggressive military solution” to the “Indian problem” and called in several Sioux leaders for a pow-wow. The negotiations bore fruit when the American military decided to abandon their forts on the Bozeman Trail through Montana which was a major sore spot with the Sioux and Cheyenne, Chief Red Cloud in particular. Well, as usual the US military reneged on their promise to provide several Cheyenne tribes with guns and the Cheyenne showed their anger by slaughtering 15 people in Kansas and raping five women. The US military saw that peace was impossible and in 1868 began ramping up for war with the Sioux and Cheyenne. The US military agreed to treaty after treaty with the Sioux and Cheyenne among other tribes and broke each and every one of them. If ever there was a black mark on this great nation it is the treatment of the Native Americans. We came within a gnat’s ass of complete genocide.
2001 Almost two months to the day after the destruction of the World Trade Center an American Airline Airbus 300 with 265 people aboard departed runway 31 at New York’s JFK airport bound for the Dominican Republic. Before takeoff a Japan Airline Boeing 747 had departed ahead of the Airbus. After reaching 13,000 feet the Airbus suddenly fell almost vertically into a Rockaway, New York neighborhood killing all aboard and many on the ground. The immediate thought that it was an act of terrorism. But the FAA/National Aviation Safety Org. recovered the cockpit voice recorder and the so-called “black box” and determined the following: Even though the correct takeoff distance (4 miles) between two “heavy” aircraft was maintained, the wake turbulence behind the Japan Airline 747 was sufficient to cause an upset to the aircraft behind. In a “heavy” (300,000 pounds or heavier) aircraft there are horizontal “tornadoes” (wake turbulence) coming off the wingtips. The heavier the aircraft, the more intense the wake turbulence. The pilot and co-pilot of the American Airline Airbus felt a slight shudder and then a large dive and then a severe climb and over compensated and tore the tail section off the aircraft. In fact, the tail section fell into Rockaway bay. After that, the Airbus fell like a rock. When I was an air traffic controller, we received a lot of instructions on how to deal with “heavies”. Even if all the procedures are followed, there can still be a chance of an upset if the atmospheric conditions are exactly right. That is what happened here.
Born today:
1908 US Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. When asked to describe the Supreme Court he said “We’re all eccentrics. We’re nine prima donnas.” Hey Harry, tell us something we don’t know.
1929 US actress Grace Kelly. She said “The freedom of the press works I such a way that there is not much freedom from it.” I personally fed up with the press spoon feeding us what they want us to know and nothing else. When is the last time you have seen a photo of a Republican candidate that was not in a paid political ad? When is the last time you saw a photo of Hilary and/or Obama in a news item? The press is using a type of psychology on us, the more we see of the Democrats and the less we see of the Republicans the more likely we are to vote Democrat. This horse is not a clone, my mind is sharp, clear and individualistic and not fooled. OK, I am off my soapbox now.
Died today:
1865 English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. She said “Sometimes one likes a fool for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.” It would be nice to know people with a little of both, a sense of humor is a gift.
1989 Spanish communist leader Delores Ibarurri. She said “It is better to be the widow of a hero that the wife of a coward.” I would think it would depend on how much money they make.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Daily history
Good morning,
Remember Veteran's Day, y'all!
Quote of the day:
"Now that it is over, what did you do yesterday that is worth mentioning?"
Coleman Cox
I am going to stay at my daughter's house a little longer than normal for two reasons. One, Jerry's Drive-in will open at ten and I can get a decent breakfast and two, the beach road to my condo tends to flood so I am going to give it time to subside.
I have not mentioned this yet but my comment on the Bama vs LSU game follows. It looked to me like there were three things that made Bama the winner. One was Bama had better leadership at quarterback. The LSU quarterback looked tentative at times. The Bama offensive line clearly was superior to the LSU defensive front three/four and the linebackers. Bama has a better running back in Ingram. However, Bama has had trouble in the Red Zone. If they give that Florida defense a short field to defend all day with no big plays, they will be in big trouble. The championship game between Bama and Florida will be a young war.
I can hardly wait to get back to the real world in South Carolina. I just read where a family down in Walterboro, SC were sitting out in their front yard playing cards when a car pulled up and someone in the car opened fire. The result was that a 45 year old male, a 23 year old male and a 20 month old toddler were killed and five others wounded. The cops are looking for a black car with one headlight out.
That kind of crap wants me to stay here and be oblivious to the real world like the natives do. To most of those that I hang around with here are only worried about their next meal, their next drink or getting home without getting arrested. It is a pretty simple life for them. Some would say they are trashy, but the chances are they will live longer in their happy little cocoons than I will roaming the earth not knowing exactly what I am looking for. As Bob Segar said...Running against the Wind...
Additionally down in Anderson, SC a man got into a fight with a woman's son, the man pulled a gun and shot the woman's son AND his mother. The man was arrested on the scene and charged with assault with intent to kill. Yes indeed, I can hardly wait to get back to murder and mayhem in the real world.
The bad news here in paradise is there is some flooded roads and some of the farmers raising a late crops will suffer from the flooding of their fields.
I am still getting e-mails about how rotten our legislators and those in the executive branch are. I read things like "I heard", "this expert person said", or "this expert person wrote", and then there is a tirade about a pet agenda someone has. Y'all just keep all that trash to yourselves. If you cannot personally verify it's authenticity then it is just a rumor. Spreading rumors does more damage than good and I think all of you know that. Some of you forward this crap just because it agrees with your point of view, veracity be damned. If you think this country is being taken away from us then you have two choices. One is an armed revolt with the military joining in. An armed revolt must have support of the military because a bunch of civilian warriors are no match for a trained military who would be called in to quash the revolt because anarchy is an not acceptable in any civilization, or two, change the legislature and executive branches at the voting booth. Take your pick. Otherwise, just shut the hell up.
By the time y'all read this the "Beltway Sniper", John Mohammad will be in that great sniper's nest in the sky. The US Supreme Court denied his appeal on Monday and the Governor is not about to grant clemency and expect to stay in office. I smile a lot knowing we will not have to support that bastard the rest of his miserable life. There is a God.
I guess y'all read about that Muslim "Imam" somewhere in a sweaty, grimy part of the world said that the Fort Hood killer should be venerated as a hero. If I was in power the first time anyone in the world vocally advocated the violent death of Americans I would be on the phone immediately with the Delta Force over at Hurlburt Air Force Base and tell them to cap that son-of-a-bitch tout suite. I would also tell them to not worry, I would have their back covered. Enough is enough.
Good News:
Not all those rock stars are spoiled children. Jon Bon Jovi has organized what he calls "Soul Foundation". From that he developed a program called the "The Power of We" whereby he finances training programs for people in New Jersey and Philadelphia to help train those that are interested in crawling out of their squalor and joining society. Good for Jon Bon Jovi.
This date in history November 11
1918 On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month an armistice was signed in a railcar near Compeigne, France ending four years of one of the bloodiest conflicts in the history of warfare called World War I. This war began in 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the apparent heir to the Austria-Hungary Empire. The Archduke was inspecting his uncle’s troops in Sarajevo, Bosnia when he and his wife were gunned down by a Bosnian Serb nationalist. There had been bad blood between Austria-Hungary and Serbia in the past and Austria-Hungary chose this opportunity to settle the issue once and for all. After Austria-Hungary had received assurances that Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany would support Austria-Hungary if they declared war on Serbia and Russia intervened, they declared war on Serbia and began shelling the capitol of Belgrade. Russia was an ally of Serbia and began mobilization to support Serbia and Germany began mobilization in support of Austria-Hungary. Well, the rest of Europe began taking sides and it eventually ended up being Europe (France, Belgium, England and eventually the US) against Germany combined with Austria-Hungary. The war cost the lives of over 9 million and 26 million wounded. Finally the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was signed which officially ended the conflict. The Treaty was so harsh to the German people that many German civilians died of starvation and disease afterward. All this did was to anger the German people and they almost immediately began seeking revenge. And sure enough, a German madman named Adolph Hitler said the right words In the early 1930’s and instilled a pride back into the German people and he also engineered the re-birth of the German military expertise and equipment in spite of the Treaty of Versailles and in 1938, they launched the most effective and deadly assemblage of military might the world had ever seen. But this time, they had control of the air over Europe, something never seen in WWI, WWII was underway.
1988 On this date the Sacramento, California police make a grisly discovery on the front lawn of Dorothea Puente. It was the corpse of an elderly woman. The police found out that Puente ran a residential home for the elderly. They also found six more buried corpses and not only that, she had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic years before. This bitch had previously done hard time for forging checks and going to bars and slipping drugs into people’s drinks and the robbing them. After she got out of prison she decides to open a residential home for the elderly, if ya’ll can believe that. A social worker had sent 19 people to stay with Dorothea and many of them just disappeared. Finally, the neighbors began smelling the aroma of rotting flesh which brought the police into the act. All of the corpses found on her property had been drugged with a sedative but the coroner could not name that as the cause of death nor could the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that good old Dorothea had even buried the bodies that were found there in spite of 3,100 exhibits. The prosecution had charged Puente with nine murders but she was convicted of just three. The police believed that she was responsible for the disappearance of 25 people that had been staying there. I wonder where she is today.
1933 On this day a sustained wind out of the west arrives in the farmlands of South Dakota. This was the beginning of one of the largest dust storms in American history. The Great Plains of American had been suffering from 6 year long drought that added to the misery of the Great Depression. This particular dust storm arising out of what was called the “Dust Bowl” lifted tons and tons of topsoil and took much of it as far east as Albany, New York. There were many factors that brought this misery to the fore. There was the drought of course plus the farmers plowing up nearly all of the prairie grasses and then planting a less hearty plant such as wheat or barley. They also had no clue as to contour plowing and other modern techniques. There was a story about a representative of the US Department of Agriculture that giving a seminar to the farmers in the Dust Bowl on how to farm more productively when one older farmer rose up and said “Sonny, You can’t tell me about how to farm. I have worn out three farms already.”
Born today:
1744 Wife of President John Adams, Abigail Smith Adams. She said “We have too many high sounding words and not enough action.” Abigail was not afraid to state her opinion, no matter who was listening. There is a country song that has the phrase “A little less talk and a lot more action”, that sounds like Abigail to me.
1885 US General (and my hero) George S. Patton. He said “No good decision was ever made from a swivel chair.” Hey George, add to that “nor in committee meetings”.
1964 US actress Calista Flockhart. While on the David Letterman Show she said “I just want to take this opportunity to tell the press to KISS MY SKINNY WHITE ASS!” Good job, but you don’t have to prove your description to us, Calista.
1962 US actress Demi Moore. She said “There are a lot of people out there that think I am a bitch.” Yes Demi, there is.
"Diolch am wrando prin y gallaf aros tan yfory"
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow (in Welsh)
Remember Veteran's Day, y'all!
Quote of the day:
"Now that it is over, what did you do yesterday that is worth mentioning?"
Coleman Cox
I am going to stay at my daughter's house a little longer than normal for two reasons. One, Jerry's Drive-in will open at ten and I can get a decent breakfast and two, the beach road to my condo tends to flood so I am going to give it time to subside.
I have not mentioned this yet but my comment on the Bama vs LSU game follows. It looked to me like there were three things that made Bama the winner. One was Bama had better leadership at quarterback. The LSU quarterback looked tentative at times. The Bama offensive line clearly was superior to the LSU defensive front three/four and the linebackers. Bama has a better running back in Ingram. However, Bama has had trouble in the Red Zone. If they give that Florida defense a short field to defend all day with no big plays, they will be in big trouble. The championship game between Bama and Florida will be a young war.
I can hardly wait to get back to the real world in South Carolina. I just read where a family down in Walterboro, SC were sitting out in their front yard playing cards when a car pulled up and someone in the car opened fire. The result was that a 45 year old male, a 23 year old male and a 20 month old toddler were killed and five others wounded. The cops are looking for a black car with one headlight out.
That kind of crap wants me to stay here and be oblivious to the real world like the natives do. To most of those that I hang around with here are only worried about their next meal, their next drink or getting home without getting arrested. It is a pretty simple life for them. Some would say they are trashy, but the chances are they will live longer in their happy little cocoons than I will roaming the earth not knowing exactly what I am looking for. As Bob Segar said...Running against the Wind...
Additionally down in Anderson, SC a man got into a fight with a woman's son, the man pulled a gun and shot the woman's son AND his mother. The man was arrested on the scene and charged with assault with intent to kill. Yes indeed, I can hardly wait to get back to murder and mayhem in the real world.
The bad news here in paradise is there is some flooded roads and some of the farmers raising a late crops will suffer from the flooding of their fields.
I am still getting e-mails about how rotten our legislators and those in the executive branch are. I read things like "I heard", "this expert person said", or "this expert person wrote", and then there is a tirade about a pet agenda someone has. Y'all just keep all that trash to yourselves. If you cannot personally verify it's authenticity then it is just a rumor. Spreading rumors does more damage than good and I think all of you know that. Some of you forward this crap just because it agrees with your point of view, veracity be damned. If you think this country is being taken away from us then you have two choices. One is an armed revolt with the military joining in. An armed revolt must have support of the military because a bunch of civilian warriors are no match for a trained military who would be called in to quash the revolt because anarchy is an not acceptable in any civilization, or two, change the legislature and executive branches at the voting booth. Take your pick. Otherwise, just shut the hell up.
By the time y'all read this the "Beltway Sniper", John Mohammad will be in that great sniper's nest in the sky. The US Supreme Court denied his appeal on Monday and the Governor is not about to grant clemency and expect to stay in office. I smile a lot knowing we will not have to support that bastard the rest of his miserable life. There is a God.
I guess y'all read about that Muslim "Imam" somewhere in a sweaty, grimy part of the world said that the Fort Hood killer should be venerated as a hero. If I was in power the first time anyone in the world vocally advocated the violent death of Americans I would be on the phone immediately with the Delta Force over at Hurlburt Air Force Base and tell them to cap that son-of-a-bitch tout suite. I would also tell them to not worry, I would have their back covered. Enough is enough.
Good News:
Not all those rock stars are spoiled children. Jon Bon Jovi has organized what he calls "Soul Foundation". From that he developed a program called the "The Power of We" whereby he finances training programs for people in New Jersey and Philadelphia to help train those that are interested in crawling out of their squalor and joining society. Good for Jon Bon Jovi.
This date in history November 11
1918 On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month an armistice was signed in a railcar near Compeigne, France ending four years of one of the bloodiest conflicts in the history of warfare called World War I. This war began in 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the apparent heir to the Austria-Hungary Empire. The Archduke was inspecting his uncle’s troops in Sarajevo, Bosnia when he and his wife were gunned down by a Bosnian Serb nationalist. There had been bad blood between Austria-Hungary and Serbia in the past and Austria-Hungary chose this opportunity to settle the issue once and for all. After Austria-Hungary had received assurances that Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany would support Austria-Hungary if they declared war on Serbia and Russia intervened, they declared war on Serbia and began shelling the capitol of Belgrade. Russia was an ally of Serbia and began mobilization to support Serbia and Germany began mobilization in support of Austria-Hungary. Well, the rest of Europe began taking sides and it eventually ended up being Europe (France, Belgium, England and eventually the US) against Germany combined with Austria-Hungary. The war cost the lives of over 9 million and 26 million wounded. Finally the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was signed which officially ended the conflict. The Treaty was so harsh to the German people that many German civilians died of starvation and disease afterward. All this did was to anger the German people and they almost immediately began seeking revenge. And sure enough, a German madman named Adolph Hitler said the right words In the early 1930’s and instilled a pride back into the German people and he also engineered the re-birth of the German military expertise and equipment in spite of the Treaty of Versailles and in 1938, they launched the most effective and deadly assemblage of military might the world had ever seen. But this time, they had control of the air over Europe, something never seen in WWI, WWII was underway.
1988 On this date the Sacramento, California police make a grisly discovery on the front lawn of Dorothea Puente. It was the corpse of an elderly woman. The police found out that Puente ran a residential home for the elderly. They also found six more buried corpses and not only that, she had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic years before. This bitch had previously done hard time for forging checks and going to bars and slipping drugs into people’s drinks and the robbing them. After she got out of prison she decides to open a residential home for the elderly, if ya’ll can believe that. A social worker had sent 19 people to stay with Dorothea and many of them just disappeared. Finally, the neighbors began smelling the aroma of rotting flesh which brought the police into the act. All of the corpses found on her property had been drugged with a sedative but the coroner could not name that as the cause of death nor could the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that good old Dorothea had even buried the bodies that were found there in spite of 3,100 exhibits. The prosecution had charged Puente with nine murders but she was convicted of just three. The police believed that she was responsible for the disappearance of 25 people that had been staying there. I wonder where she is today.
1933 On this day a sustained wind out of the west arrives in the farmlands of South Dakota. This was the beginning of one of the largest dust storms in American history. The Great Plains of American had been suffering from 6 year long drought that added to the misery of the Great Depression. This particular dust storm arising out of what was called the “Dust Bowl” lifted tons and tons of topsoil and took much of it as far east as Albany, New York. There were many factors that brought this misery to the fore. There was the drought of course plus the farmers plowing up nearly all of the prairie grasses and then planting a less hearty plant such as wheat or barley. They also had no clue as to contour plowing and other modern techniques. There was a story about a representative of the US Department of Agriculture that giving a seminar to the farmers in the Dust Bowl on how to farm more productively when one older farmer rose up and said “Sonny, You can’t tell me about how to farm. I have worn out three farms already.”
Born today:
1744 Wife of President John Adams, Abigail Smith Adams. She said “We have too many high sounding words and not enough action.” Abigail was not afraid to state her opinion, no matter who was listening. There is a country song that has the phrase “A little less talk and a lot more action”, that sounds like Abigail to me.
1885 US General (and my hero) George S. Patton. He said “No good decision was ever made from a swivel chair.” Hey George, add to that “nor in committee meetings”.
1964 US actress Calista Flockhart. While on the David Letterman Show she said “I just want to take this opportunity to tell the press to KISS MY SKINNY WHITE ASS!” Good job, but you don’t have to prove your description to us, Calista.
1962 US actress Demi Moore. She said “There are a lot of people out there that think I am a bitch.” Yes Demi, there is.
"Diolch am wrando prin y gallaf aros tan yfory"
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow (in Welsh)
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"He is a wise man that does not grieve for things he has not, but rejoices for those things which he has."
Epictetus 120AD
The Greenville, SC media reported that a "small plane" landed short of runway 03 at the Greenville-Spartanburg International airport blocking the infamous Highway 14. Even though it was not a Boeing 777, it was a Beechcraft King-Air 200 capable of carry at least 10 people. If the plane was a 2004 or later model the price would be at least $3.5 million. To me that ain't no "small aircraft". By the way, that airport became "International" for one reason only and that was so BMW would be able to fly Boeing 747's full of auto parts from Munich to GSP non-stop. The BMW assembly plant is a driver and a four iron from the airport and they have a road that goes from the plant to the custom's hangar. Money talks.
Everybody here in paradise is buttoning up for the night's big blow with Ida. Nearly all the schools will be closed because of the possibility of bad visibility and flooded roads and the schools will be closed on Wednesday also for Veteran's Day. The forecast is for 3 to 4 inches of rain over the next 18 hours. That ia a pretty good bit of rain over a relatively short period of time. Back when all the lakes in South Carolina were at an all time low level due to a drought my brother said "What we need is the rain that comes with a hurricane." Hey Bro, here it comes. It is now early morning on Tuesday and there is no visible damage so I will be headed back to the beach shortly. Thanks Leslie.
Good news:
The students, faculty and staff at Oral Roberts University have initiated a program called "Shoes that Save" for the shoeless kids in Iraq. They raise money through various means and then their business management faculty and students went out and negotiated the lowest price they could. They finally got nearly 4,000 shoes (sneakers) for $1.26 a pair including shipment to Iraq. The school thinks they will be able to get 10,000 shoes sent there by the end of the year just in time for winter. I just don't get it, y'all. Beside Russia, the largest pool of crude oil and natural gas in the world is near Tikrit, Iraq. Why do they need any assistance at all? Iraq and no other country in the world has to give charity to America and we have not near as much oil. What's up with that?
This date in history November 10
1775 The United States Marines were born on this date with the signing of a resolution by President John Adams specifying the formation of “two battalions of Marines”. The first amphibious assault by the Continental marines was led by Captain Samuel Nicholson against a British held fort on New Province Island in the Bahamas which was captured by the Marines. The Marines consider Captain Nicholson the first Commandant. After the Revolutionary War in 1783 the short-sighted United States Congress de-mobilized the Navy and disbanded the Marines. However in 1798 United States shipping was harassed partly because of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. Not only that, pirates were preying on US shipping in the southern Mediterranean near the Barbary Coast (Tripoli) so the United States navy was resurrected along with the US Marines as an arm of the Navy. Now a days the Marines are divided into three divisions based at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina, Camp Pendleton, California and Okinawa. In these divisions there an “expeditionary” force. These guys are ready to go anywhere in the world and attack in force within two weeks of notification. The have their own artillery, tanks and armaments, etc meaning they are pretty much self contained. The US Marines have made over 300 landings in their history. As we all know, they are usually the first ones in and the last ones out. They are very much feared and respected by our enemies, as well they should be.
1865 Henry Wirz is executed by hanging. Wirz was the commandant of the notorious Confederate Prison near Andersonville, Georgia. After the Civil war essentially ended in April of 1865, the prison at Andersonville was abandoned. But the conditions those Yankee inmates had to live in was atrocious. They did not receive brutal treatment but the sanitation was so bad that many, many died from disease. As the war wore on Wirz received less and less supplies and medicine but the US held him personally responsible. The supplies and medicine were more sorely needed for the Confederate combat troops. What you won’t see is the commandants of the US prison camps at Columbus, Ohio, Elmira, New York and the most deadly of all, the prison camp in Chicago, being tried and hanged for crimes against humanity even though the percentage of deaths while in prison in Andersonville and these other three are all about the same, approximately 1/3 of the prison population never made it out. At his trial Wirz produced documents showing that he had repeatedly requested food and medicine from the Confederate Government the never came even after Wirz expressed fear of a Cholera epidemic. He was hanged anyway proving that they were not after justice, they were after revenge. It doesn’t matter what is right or wrong, all that matters is who has the power.
1926 Mrs. William Edwards shows up dead in San Francisco. Mrs. Edwards had been strangled to death and raped, in that order. She was not the only one that had been killed in that manner, there were nine others. The police finally figured it was a madman named Earle Nelson. Earle was a smoothie. He would go to a boarding house bible in hand and ask to speak to the landlady about a room. Once he got inside the door it was all over for the landlady. Earle felt the heat from the police and skedaddled into Canada and set up shop there. Pretty soon the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Mounties) discovered a trail of murdered and raped women all across Canada. Coordination with the American authorities who put the Mounties on Nelson’s trail and he was finally arrested but not before killing and raping an additional 11 Canadian women. When the Mounties asked if he was Earle Nelson and was it he who had killed all of those women? He said “Yes, but I only killed my ladies on Saturday nights.” Obviously Earle was a tent short of a campsite. Earle was tried and convicted and sentenced to death. He went to meet his maker at a “necktie party” in his honor in 1928.
1975 Two days before the merchant ship Edmund Fitzgerald had departed an iron mill in Wisconsin with a load of 26,000 tons of taconite (iron pellets) heading east across Lake Superior. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the biggest and fastest of all the ships on the Great Lakes. This puppy was 729 feet long with a crew of 29. On this night a storm of hurricane proportions roared in out of Canada. The merchant ship Anderson was following the Fitzgerald a few miles back and they were in occasional radio and visual contact. As night fell and the winds increased to over 80 miles an hour pushing up monstrous waves. According to the captain of the Anderson he had the Fitzgerald on his radar almost all the time then all of a sudden the blip disappeared and there were no answers to his radio calls. It was later determined that the huge ship had sank with all aboard killed. The ship was only 15 miles from Whitefish Bay and safety. The remains of the ship were found in 536 feet of water. The ship was in two pieces but that is no indicator of why the ship went down in the first place. That mystery will remain. The ship’s bell was recovered and is now in a museum on Whitefish Point.
1808 The Osage branch of the Sioux Indians cedes to the United States their lands in Missouri and Arkansas for settlers in return for a huge chunk of land in central Oklahoma. What the United States did not know was that that hunk of land was virtually afloat on a sea of oil and natural gas. Not only that, cattle ranches exploded with the arrival of new people and a railroad so the Osage Indians charged to let the cattle ranchers graze cattle on their lands while drilling for oil. As of this writing, the Osage Indians are the richest tribe in the Americas.
Births and deaths:
1867 US inventor Wilbur Wright is born. When he and Orville were at Kitty Hawk, Wilbur said “We can hardly wait to get up in the morning”. They knew they were on the cusp of a world shaking event. What a thrill it had to be when that contraption flew under its own power.
1889 Comedic genius Charlie Chaplin is born. He said “In the end, it is all a gag.” You lost me there, Charlie.
1922 English writer Kingsley Amis is born. When speaking of a fellow writer he said “He is chiefly of the faith in the sense that the church he does not attend is Catholic.” I know several people like that.
Dank fur das horen, kann ich bis morgen kaum warten
Quote of the day:
"He is a wise man that does not grieve for things he has not, but rejoices for those things which he has."
Epictetus 120AD
The Greenville, SC media reported that a "small plane" landed short of runway 03 at the Greenville-Spartanburg International airport blocking the infamous Highway 14. Even though it was not a Boeing 777, it was a Beechcraft King-Air 200 capable of carry at least 10 people. If the plane was a 2004 or later model the price would be at least $3.5 million. To me that ain't no "small aircraft". By the way, that airport became "International" for one reason only and that was so BMW would be able to fly Boeing 747's full of auto parts from Munich to GSP non-stop. The BMW assembly plant is a driver and a four iron from the airport and they have a road that goes from the plant to the custom's hangar. Money talks.
Everybody here in paradise is buttoning up for the night's big blow with Ida. Nearly all the schools will be closed because of the possibility of bad visibility and flooded roads and the schools will be closed on Wednesday also for Veteran's Day. The forecast is for 3 to 4 inches of rain over the next 18 hours. That ia a pretty good bit of rain over a relatively short period of time. Back when all the lakes in South Carolina were at an all time low level due to a drought my brother said "What we need is the rain that comes with a hurricane." Hey Bro, here it comes. It is now early morning on Tuesday and there is no visible damage so I will be headed back to the beach shortly. Thanks Leslie.
Good news:
The students, faculty and staff at Oral Roberts University have initiated a program called "Shoes that Save" for the shoeless kids in Iraq. They raise money through various means and then their business management faculty and students went out and negotiated the lowest price they could. They finally got nearly 4,000 shoes (sneakers) for $1.26 a pair including shipment to Iraq. The school thinks they will be able to get 10,000 shoes sent there by the end of the year just in time for winter. I just don't get it, y'all. Beside Russia, the largest pool of crude oil and natural gas in the world is near Tikrit, Iraq. Why do they need any assistance at all? Iraq and no other country in the world has to give charity to America and we have not near as much oil. What's up with that?
This date in history November 10
1775 The United States Marines were born on this date with the signing of a resolution by President John Adams specifying the formation of “two battalions of Marines”. The first amphibious assault by the Continental marines was led by Captain Samuel Nicholson against a British held fort on New Province Island in the Bahamas which was captured by the Marines. The Marines consider Captain Nicholson the first Commandant. After the Revolutionary War in 1783 the short-sighted United States Congress de-mobilized the Navy and disbanded the Marines. However in 1798 United States shipping was harassed partly because of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. Not only that, pirates were preying on US shipping in the southern Mediterranean near the Barbary Coast (Tripoli) so the United States navy was resurrected along with the US Marines as an arm of the Navy. Now a days the Marines are divided into three divisions based at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina, Camp Pendleton, California and Okinawa. In these divisions there an “expeditionary” force. These guys are ready to go anywhere in the world and attack in force within two weeks of notification. The have their own artillery, tanks and armaments, etc meaning they are pretty much self contained. The US Marines have made over 300 landings in their history. As we all know, they are usually the first ones in and the last ones out. They are very much feared and respected by our enemies, as well they should be.
1865 Henry Wirz is executed by hanging. Wirz was the commandant of the notorious Confederate Prison near Andersonville, Georgia. After the Civil war essentially ended in April of 1865, the prison at Andersonville was abandoned. But the conditions those Yankee inmates had to live in was atrocious. They did not receive brutal treatment but the sanitation was so bad that many, many died from disease. As the war wore on Wirz received less and less supplies and medicine but the US held him personally responsible. The supplies and medicine were more sorely needed for the Confederate combat troops. What you won’t see is the commandants of the US prison camps at Columbus, Ohio, Elmira, New York and the most deadly of all, the prison camp in Chicago, being tried and hanged for crimes against humanity even though the percentage of deaths while in prison in Andersonville and these other three are all about the same, approximately 1/3 of the prison population never made it out. At his trial Wirz produced documents showing that he had repeatedly requested food and medicine from the Confederate Government the never came even after Wirz expressed fear of a Cholera epidemic. He was hanged anyway proving that they were not after justice, they were after revenge. It doesn’t matter what is right or wrong, all that matters is who has the power.
1926 Mrs. William Edwards shows up dead in San Francisco. Mrs. Edwards had been strangled to death and raped, in that order. She was not the only one that had been killed in that manner, there were nine others. The police finally figured it was a madman named Earle Nelson. Earle was a smoothie. He would go to a boarding house bible in hand and ask to speak to the landlady about a room. Once he got inside the door it was all over for the landlady. Earle felt the heat from the police and skedaddled into Canada and set up shop there. Pretty soon the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Mounties) discovered a trail of murdered and raped women all across Canada. Coordination with the American authorities who put the Mounties on Nelson’s trail and he was finally arrested but not before killing and raping an additional 11 Canadian women. When the Mounties asked if he was Earle Nelson and was it he who had killed all of those women? He said “Yes, but I only killed my ladies on Saturday nights.” Obviously Earle was a tent short of a campsite. Earle was tried and convicted and sentenced to death. He went to meet his maker at a “necktie party” in his honor in 1928.
1975 Two days before the merchant ship Edmund Fitzgerald had departed an iron mill in Wisconsin with a load of 26,000 tons of taconite (iron pellets) heading east across Lake Superior. The Edmund Fitzgerald was the biggest and fastest of all the ships on the Great Lakes. This puppy was 729 feet long with a crew of 29. On this night a storm of hurricane proportions roared in out of Canada. The merchant ship Anderson was following the Fitzgerald a few miles back and they were in occasional radio and visual contact. As night fell and the winds increased to over 80 miles an hour pushing up monstrous waves. According to the captain of the Anderson he had the Fitzgerald on his radar almost all the time then all of a sudden the blip disappeared and there were no answers to his radio calls. It was later determined that the huge ship had sank with all aboard killed. The ship was only 15 miles from Whitefish Bay and safety. The remains of the ship were found in 536 feet of water. The ship was in two pieces but that is no indicator of why the ship went down in the first place. That mystery will remain. The ship’s bell was recovered and is now in a museum on Whitefish Point.
1808 The Osage branch of the Sioux Indians cedes to the United States their lands in Missouri and Arkansas for settlers in return for a huge chunk of land in central Oklahoma. What the United States did not know was that that hunk of land was virtually afloat on a sea of oil and natural gas. Not only that, cattle ranches exploded with the arrival of new people and a railroad so the Osage Indians charged to let the cattle ranchers graze cattle on their lands while drilling for oil. As of this writing, the Osage Indians are the richest tribe in the Americas.
Births and deaths:
1867 US inventor Wilbur Wright is born. When he and Orville were at Kitty Hawk, Wilbur said “We can hardly wait to get up in the morning”. They knew they were on the cusp of a world shaking event. What a thrill it had to be when that contraption flew under its own power.
1889 Comedic genius Charlie Chaplin is born. He said “In the end, it is all a gag.” You lost me there, Charlie.
1922 English writer Kingsley Amis is born. When speaking of a fellow writer he said “He is chiefly of the faith in the sense that the church he does not attend is Catholic.” I know several people like that.
Dank fur das horen, kann ich bis morgen kaum warten
Monday, November 9, 2009
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"Two may walk under the same roof for many years and never meet; and two other are old friends at first speech."
Mary Catherwood
The weather bureau has promised us a visit from Hurricane Ida Monday night and Tuesday. As of 6AM Monday Ida was located 250 miles due south of Mobile Bay moving north at 16MPH. She has maximum sustained winds of 80 MPH. If my calculations are right she should arrive dead center of Pensacola at about 10PM tonight. I will give y'all a summary tomorrow.
The House version of the health reform bill passed by the narrowest of margins last night. Every Republican in the house voted against the Health Care Reform Bill with one exception. Representative Joseph Cao (R-La.) voted for the bill. The Democrats leaned heavily on Cao because they want the vote to be "bi-partisan". They make me sick.
Recently a policeman here in Pensacola saw a man that was on a wanted poster and gave chase. The fugitive attempted to escape on a bicycle but a police cruiser pulled along side and the cop Tasered him out the window. The bike rider fell under the cruiser and was killed. Now in typical knee-jerk fashion the family of the criminal that was accidentally killed want Tasers banned from the police. Perhaps you are right. Maybe it would be better to shoot their brains out with a .40 caliber Glock rather give them a minor electric shock that they get over in a matter of seconds. Great thinking out there you family of the wanted criminal. Why didn't y'all get off your lazy asses and intervene in the young man's burgeoning criminal career? Oh no, you typically want to blame everybody but yourselves.
I read a story about a 16 year old kid down in the Miami area that held up a convenience store and ran away. The cops got there with a dog and the dog picked up the scent immediately and tracked the robber to a canal where the kid was trying to swim across and escape. The cops turned the dog loose who immediately jumped in and started swimming toward the robber. The robber saw the dog coming and panicked and ended up drowning in spite of the police pulling the kid out and doing CPR. The family of the kid wanted to sue the city for the death because the dog did not bite him but scared him into drowning. I am at a loss for words here.
If that boys parents/or caretakers had been worth a damn this tragedy would never had happened. What should have scared him was the knowledge that bad behavior would have brought retribution at home.
Tuesday the "Beltway sniper", John Mohammad, is scheduled to be executed in Virginia by lethal injection. He was tried and convicted of killing one person but it is believed that he and his partner Lee Malvo killed over 27. Malvo has already been convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Mohammad had the damn nerve to say that he would identify all of those that he killed if he got immunity. Goodbye, John. Sweet dreams.
Your US Goverment has cut the season on Red Snapper and Grouper more than half and decreased the limit by two thirds. Naturally the commercial and sportsfishing boat captains are raising hell and I don't blame them. Some of the boat captains from the TV show "Deadliest Catch" are in town offering support.
Good news:
NBC news did a special on the orphans that the war in Afghanistan has created. Apparenty the program struck a nerve and money began pouring in in the orphan's behalf. It is up to $50,000 with no end in sight. By the way, that jackass shooter in Ft. Hood is no longer on a respirator but is still in ICU. That is good news because he is one step closer to a firing squad.
This date in history November 9
1780 On this date British General James Wemyss and 190 cavalrymen attempt to ambush Patriot General Thomas “Gamecock” Sumter and 300 infantrymen at Fishdam Ford, South Carolina. Sumter was nicknamed “Gamecock” by the British for his fighting style. Wemyss was the second most hated British officer in the southern United States. The most hated was Colonel Banastre Tarleton but both he and Wemyss waged war against civilians by burning down homes and the indiscriminant killing of livestock among other atrocities. Wemyss’ ambush was discovered and Sumter’s men were ready when the attack came. Wemyss was wounded in the arm and knee and was captured by Sumter. It was Sumter and Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion that was the largest thorn in the side of the British in the southern United States, primarily in North and South Carolina. Both Sumter and Marion were very capable military commanders and proved it time and time again. Unfortunately, Sumter was captured by Tarleton on November 30 and was out of action. The leadership of all the Southern Patriot armies fell to Francis Marion. Marion did not disappoint and was instrumental in driving the hated Redcoats out of the Carolinas into Virginia to the waiting Patriot army led by George Washington. The war was coming to a close when British General Cornwallis and the army that had departed the Carolinas were trapped against the Chesapeake Bay near Yorktown, Virginia with no possible means of escape and Cornwallis surrendered.
1965 The largest power failure in United States history occurs on this date at rush hour. The failure started in Canada when a major power line failed which automatically shifted more power to other lines and they began failing from overload. The domino effect hit New York City and seven other states and three Canadian provinces. It trapped 800,000 people in the New York subways and thousands more in elevators and office buildings. In all there were 30 million people affected. By the following morning all power had been restored. The strange part was that 9 months later there was a spike in the birth rate in the northeastern United States. Hmmmmmm.
1862 On this date the commander of the 9th Corp of the Army of the Potomac is promoted to command of the entire army. US General Ambrose Burnside protested vehemently against this but was voted down. He felt that he was at his capacity as a Corp commander and General of the entire army was over his head. The right man for the job would have been US General Joseph Hooker but he was a drinker and chased skanky women which did not float in the eyes of General in Chief Henry Halleck and he persuaded Lincoln to select Burnside to replace the inept George B. McClellan rather than Hooker. Burnside was born in Indiana and graduated from West Point in 1847 ranked number 18 in a class of 20. After serving in the Seminole War he resigned and became the Treasurer of the Illinois Central Railroad. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was given the rank of Colonel and assumed command of a division. He performed admirably at the Battle of 1st Manassas and was promoted to Brigadier General and given command of the 9th Corp of the Army of the Potomac. After assuming command of the Army of the Potomac, Burnsides confirmed his fears of being over his head. The first thing he had to do was resolve the animosity that existed in the ranks between those that liked McClellan and those who didn’t. Then he set out in pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia led by CSA General Robert E. Lee and his very capable Corp commanders CSA General James Longstreet and CSA General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. Lee knew that Burnside was in pursuit and set up a defensive position at a place called Marye’s Heights near Fredericksburg, Virginia and after two days of preparation, Burnside and his army arrives. Burnside ordered an attack that was not well coordinated and fragmented. Jackson and Longstreet’s artillery had been pre-registered and the slaughter of the advancing Yankees was horrendous. Those that survived the artillery found themselves facing a stone wall with shoulder to shoulder Rebel riflemen behind it who rose up and fired almost point blank. Needless to say, the attack was called off after 13 different charges that were repelled with stupefying losses. Soon after this, Burnside was relieved and was replaced by Hooker with the skanky women and whiskey not withstanding. It was after this battle that Lee uttered the famous line “It is good that war is so terrible or we would learn to love it.” Indeed General Lee, indeed. Not long after Hooker took command he ran across Bobby Lee near a small town named Chancellorsville, but that is another story.
1971 On this date a quiet, unassuming and very religious man named John List killed his Mother Alma, his wife Helen and his three children. Earlier, he had stopped the mail and milk delivery and had called his children’s school and told them that he was taking his children out of town to a long visit with a sick relative. John had lost his job as an accountant and kept it from his family. He was close to losing everything and decided that it would be best if his family went on to heaven rather than suffer in poverty. Because of his preparation, no one missed the family for several days and John all but disappeared. He took a train to Denver and began a new life. He eventually ended up in Virginia with a new wife and family. His downfall came when he was featured of “America’s Most Wanted” television show even though the case was 18 years old. The shows producers tasked a reconstructive artist to use the 18 year old photo of John and create a bust of him as what he would look like today with the aging. The artist delivered a dead on match of John and he was soon arrested using the alias of Robert Clark. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to five life terms.
1875 On this day the equivalent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs declared that the Teton Sioux and Cheyenne were hostile. Earlier the Sioux under the command of Chief Red Cloud had agreed to go to a huge reservation in the Black Hills of South Dakota against wishes of many of the tribe. Then the Bureau wanted the Sioux and Cheyenne to do the same and sent an order for them to report to Fort Robinson, Nebraska and if they were not there by a given date they would be declared hostile and the task of getting them to the reservation would be handed to the US Army. On of the worst blizzard in American history occurred and the message never reached the Sioux and Cheyenne and of course they did not go to the reservation and were declared hostile. Soon after this gold was discovered in the Black Hills and prospectors swarmed into Red Cloud’s reservation with impunity from the Bureau. Disgusted with this betrayal, many of Red Cloud’s warriors left and joined with Sioux Chief Sitting Bull and the great Cheyenne warrior Crazy Horse in Montana to hunt buffalo. It was this combined tribes that met with the US 7th Cavalry led by George A. Custer at the Little Big Horn a year later.
Born today:
1683 English royalty King George II. When told that his General Wolfe was a madman he said “Madman is he? Well I hope he bites some of my other generals.” Wolfe was somewhat unstable but he was nearly always successful in combat.
1918 Austrian actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr. She said “Any woman can be glamorous; all they have to do is stand around looking stupid.” Hedy made a fortune several times over with her inventions. She was a brilliant person.
1918 US Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. He said “I apologize for lying to you. I promise that I will not deceive you except in matters of this sort.” He was forced to resign the Vice-Presidency when it was discovered he had taken bribes and kick backs whilst the Governor of Maryland.
1921 US Representative (MA) Silvio Conte. He said “This is not time to pull the rug out the middle of the stream.” Silvio, go back to Massachusetts and quit making me sick.
1928 US writer Anne Sexton. She said “In your dreams you are never eighty.” In my dreams everybody else is eighty, especially the women in an erotic dream.
1935 US baseball flame throwing pitcher Bob Gibson. He said “Why should I have to be an example to your kid. You be and example for your kid.” Bob hit the nail on the head here, ya’ll.
Merci pour ecoutant, moi peux a peine attendre jusq’a demain
(Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow)
Quote of the day:
"Two may walk under the same roof for many years and never meet; and two other are old friends at first speech."
Mary Catherwood
The weather bureau has promised us a visit from Hurricane Ida Monday night and Tuesday. As of 6AM Monday Ida was located 250 miles due south of Mobile Bay moving north at 16MPH. She has maximum sustained winds of 80 MPH. If my calculations are right she should arrive dead center of Pensacola at about 10PM tonight. I will give y'all a summary tomorrow.
The House version of the health reform bill passed by the narrowest of margins last night. Every Republican in the house voted against the Health Care Reform Bill with one exception. Representative Joseph Cao (R-La.) voted for the bill. The Democrats leaned heavily on Cao because they want the vote to be "bi-partisan". They make me sick.
Recently a policeman here in Pensacola saw a man that was on a wanted poster and gave chase. The fugitive attempted to escape on a bicycle but a police cruiser pulled along side and the cop Tasered him out the window. The bike rider fell under the cruiser and was killed. Now in typical knee-jerk fashion the family of the criminal that was accidentally killed want Tasers banned from the police. Perhaps you are right. Maybe it would be better to shoot their brains out with a .40 caliber Glock rather give them a minor electric shock that they get over in a matter of seconds. Great thinking out there you family of the wanted criminal. Why didn't y'all get off your lazy asses and intervene in the young man's burgeoning criminal career? Oh no, you typically want to blame everybody but yourselves.
I read a story about a 16 year old kid down in the Miami area that held up a convenience store and ran away. The cops got there with a dog and the dog picked up the scent immediately and tracked the robber to a canal where the kid was trying to swim across and escape. The cops turned the dog loose who immediately jumped in and started swimming toward the robber. The robber saw the dog coming and panicked and ended up drowning in spite of the police pulling the kid out and doing CPR. The family of the kid wanted to sue the city for the death because the dog did not bite him but scared him into drowning. I am at a loss for words here.
If that boys parents/or caretakers had been worth a damn this tragedy would never had happened. What should have scared him was the knowledge that bad behavior would have brought retribution at home.
Tuesday the "Beltway sniper", John Mohammad, is scheduled to be executed in Virginia by lethal injection. He was tried and convicted of killing one person but it is believed that he and his partner Lee Malvo killed over 27. Malvo has already been convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Mohammad had the damn nerve to say that he would identify all of those that he killed if he got immunity. Goodbye, John. Sweet dreams.
Your US Goverment has cut the season on Red Snapper and Grouper more than half and decreased the limit by two thirds. Naturally the commercial and sportsfishing boat captains are raising hell and I don't blame them. Some of the boat captains from the TV show "Deadliest Catch" are in town offering support.
Good news:
NBC news did a special on the orphans that the war in Afghanistan has created. Apparenty the program struck a nerve and money began pouring in in the orphan's behalf. It is up to $50,000 with no end in sight. By the way, that jackass shooter in Ft. Hood is no longer on a respirator but is still in ICU. That is good news because he is one step closer to a firing squad.
This date in history November 9
1780 On this date British General James Wemyss and 190 cavalrymen attempt to ambush Patriot General Thomas “Gamecock” Sumter and 300 infantrymen at Fishdam Ford, South Carolina. Sumter was nicknamed “Gamecock” by the British for his fighting style. Wemyss was the second most hated British officer in the southern United States. The most hated was Colonel Banastre Tarleton but both he and Wemyss waged war against civilians by burning down homes and the indiscriminant killing of livestock among other atrocities. Wemyss’ ambush was discovered and Sumter’s men were ready when the attack came. Wemyss was wounded in the arm and knee and was captured by Sumter. It was Sumter and Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion that was the largest thorn in the side of the British in the southern United States, primarily in North and South Carolina. Both Sumter and Marion were very capable military commanders and proved it time and time again. Unfortunately, Sumter was captured by Tarleton on November 30 and was out of action. The leadership of all the Southern Patriot armies fell to Francis Marion. Marion did not disappoint and was instrumental in driving the hated Redcoats out of the Carolinas into Virginia to the waiting Patriot army led by George Washington. The war was coming to a close when British General Cornwallis and the army that had departed the Carolinas were trapped against the Chesapeake Bay near Yorktown, Virginia with no possible means of escape and Cornwallis surrendered.
1965 The largest power failure in United States history occurs on this date at rush hour. The failure started in Canada when a major power line failed which automatically shifted more power to other lines and they began failing from overload. The domino effect hit New York City and seven other states and three Canadian provinces. It trapped 800,000 people in the New York subways and thousands more in elevators and office buildings. In all there were 30 million people affected. By the following morning all power had been restored. The strange part was that 9 months later there was a spike in the birth rate in the northeastern United States. Hmmmmmm.
1862 On this date the commander of the 9th Corp of the Army of the Potomac is promoted to command of the entire army. US General Ambrose Burnside protested vehemently against this but was voted down. He felt that he was at his capacity as a Corp commander and General of the entire army was over his head. The right man for the job would have been US General Joseph Hooker but he was a drinker and chased skanky women which did not float in the eyes of General in Chief Henry Halleck and he persuaded Lincoln to select Burnside to replace the inept George B. McClellan rather than Hooker. Burnside was born in Indiana and graduated from West Point in 1847 ranked number 18 in a class of 20. After serving in the Seminole War he resigned and became the Treasurer of the Illinois Central Railroad. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was given the rank of Colonel and assumed command of a division. He performed admirably at the Battle of 1st Manassas and was promoted to Brigadier General and given command of the 9th Corp of the Army of the Potomac. After assuming command of the Army of the Potomac, Burnsides confirmed his fears of being over his head. The first thing he had to do was resolve the animosity that existed in the ranks between those that liked McClellan and those who didn’t. Then he set out in pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia led by CSA General Robert E. Lee and his very capable Corp commanders CSA General James Longstreet and CSA General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. Lee knew that Burnside was in pursuit and set up a defensive position at a place called Marye’s Heights near Fredericksburg, Virginia and after two days of preparation, Burnside and his army arrives. Burnside ordered an attack that was not well coordinated and fragmented. Jackson and Longstreet’s artillery had been pre-registered and the slaughter of the advancing Yankees was horrendous. Those that survived the artillery found themselves facing a stone wall with shoulder to shoulder Rebel riflemen behind it who rose up and fired almost point blank. Needless to say, the attack was called off after 13 different charges that were repelled with stupefying losses. Soon after this, Burnside was relieved and was replaced by Hooker with the skanky women and whiskey not withstanding. It was after this battle that Lee uttered the famous line “It is good that war is so terrible or we would learn to love it.” Indeed General Lee, indeed. Not long after Hooker took command he ran across Bobby Lee near a small town named Chancellorsville, but that is another story.
1971 On this date a quiet, unassuming and very religious man named John List killed his Mother Alma, his wife Helen and his three children. Earlier, he had stopped the mail and milk delivery and had called his children’s school and told them that he was taking his children out of town to a long visit with a sick relative. John had lost his job as an accountant and kept it from his family. He was close to losing everything and decided that it would be best if his family went on to heaven rather than suffer in poverty. Because of his preparation, no one missed the family for several days and John all but disappeared. He took a train to Denver and began a new life. He eventually ended up in Virginia with a new wife and family. His downfall came when he was featured of “America’s Most Wanted” television show even though the case was 18 years old. The shows producers tasked a reconstructive artist to use the 18 year old photo of John and create a bust of him as what he would look like today with the aging. The artist delivered a dead on match of John and he was soon arrested using the alias of Robert Clark. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to five life terms.
1875 On this day the equivalent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs declared that the Teton Sioux and Cheyenne were hostile. Earlier the Sioux under the command of Chief Red Cloud had agreed to go to a huge reservation in the Black Hills of South Dakota against wishes of many of the tribe. Then the Bureau wanted the Sioux and Cheyenne to do the same and sent an order for them to report to Fort Robinson, Nebraska and if they were not there by a given date they would be declared hostile and the task of getting them to the reservation would be handed to the US Army. On of the worst blizzard in American history occurred and the message never reached the Sioux and Cheyenne and of course they did not go to the reservation and were declared hostile. Soon after this gold was discovered in the Black Hills and prospectors swarmed into Red Cloud’s reservation with impunity from the Bureau. Disgusted with this betrayal, many of Red Cloud’s warriors left and joined with Sioux Chief Sitting Bull and the great Cheyenne warrior Crazy Horse in Montana to hunt buffalo. It was this combined tribes that met with the US 7th Cavalry led by George A. Custer at the Little Big Horn a year later.
Born today:
1683 English royalty King George II. When told that his General Wolfe was a madman he said “Madman is he? Well I hope he bites some of my other generals.” Wolfe was somewhat unstable but he was nearly always successful in combat.
1918 Austrian actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr. She said “Any woman can be glamorous; all they have to do is stand around looking stupid.” Hedy made a fortune several times over with her inventions. She was a brilliant person.
1918 US Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. He said “I apologize for lying to you. I promise that I will not deceive you except in matters of this sort.” He was forced to resign the Vice-Presidency when it was discovered he had taken bribes and kick backs whilst the Governor of Maryland.
1921 US Representative (MA) Silvio Conte. He said “This is not time to pull the rug out the middle of the stream.” Silvio, go back to Massachusetts and quit making me sick.
1928 US writer Anne Sexton. She said “In your dreams you are never eighty.” In my dreams everybody else is eighty, especially the women in an erotic dream.
1935 US baseball flame throwing pitcher Bob Gibson. He said “Why should I have to be an example to your kid. You be and example for your kid.” Bob hit the nail on the head here, ya’ll.
Merci pour ecoutant, moi peux a peine attendre jusq’a demain
(Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow)
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Daily history
Good morning,
I have included a Medal of Honor citation at the end of the lesson. This guy is the epitome of an "Iron Man".
Quote of the day:
"Politics: This word comes from the Latin word 'poli' meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning bloodsucking creatures."
Robin Williams
The weather is still sparkling with clear skies the low temps are in the mid 50's and the high in the mid 70's. As usual the wind is from the northeast at about 7 MPH.
As I have mentioned in the past, Boeing Aircraft has chosen to to quit hassling around with the Machinist union out in Everett, Washington and build an assembly plant for the 787 "Dreamliner" in North Charleston, SC. The contract for the design and construction of the enormous assembly building was awarded to BE&K/Turner Construction company in Greenville, SC. This contract is the largest ever let in the state of South Carolina. Before this it was the BMW assembly plant near Greenville. This windfall did not come too soon. The unemployment rate in SC in the highest since the great depression.
On Friday the Spartanburg, SC Sheriff's department was called to a mobile home in Greer, SC because a report of domestic violence. Upon arrival they could see a warm of roaches crawling around on the front door. The started in the house but there were so many roaches in the house that the cops backed out and put on hazardous material protective suits and re-entered the house. The cops saw swarms of roaches everywhere they looked even on the beds including those of the two children living there. The cops arrested the male occupant for criminal domestic violence, the mother for child endangerment because of amount of the filth in the house and they took the kids to DSS where roaches were found in their clothing. I am at a loss as to how to comment on this abomination except to ask how degenerate can you get?
Well it looks like the impossible will happen. Tropical storm/Hurricane Ida has back into the Caribbean Sea and has reorganized and strenghtened. At present the center is about 100 mile east of Belize and headed north-northwest. The forecast is for Ida to close within 150 to 200 mile of Pensacola/Panama City and then turn 90 degrees right and head for Tampa. We shall see.
College Football news:
The South Carolina Gamecocks were outmanned by the Arkansas Razorbacks. As usual, the Cocks shot themselves in the foot several times.
I got bored with the Clemson vs Florida State game so I do not know how it ended.
Both Alabama and Florida remain undefeated and it is amost a certainty they will meet each other in the SEC Championship game. It is my opinion that the winner of this game will play in the national championship game.
Good News:
A scotsman named David Blount decided that he was spending too much time in the house and bought a metal detector. On his first trip out he found something near an old church in ruins. David dug up a treasure trove of gold jewelry from the middle ages. He notified the British Museum who showed immediate interest and valued the cache at one million Pounds. So after just one trip David will not have to work again if he doesn't want to.
This date in history November 8
1775 On this day US General George Washington begins an attempt to absorb the militias in New England into the United States Army. Those obstreperous Yankees in the militias were even more prejudicial and any member of the Klan. Their militias were divided into men from different areas of a state and in some cases different neighborhood in the same city. They had no concept of cohesion of forces. The acted like the war was something like camping out with the Boy Scouts. It was common knowledge that militias from Massachusetts saw no need to have militiamen from Rhode Island in their ranks. The Connecticut militias saw no need for militiamen from New York in their ranks, etc. Washington was in dire need of experienced military men, especially officers and the different militias had just that. The problem was the loyalty to their neighbors rather than their country. Not only that, the troops had no concept of sanitation and frequently and were sickened by it causing a loss of troops for Washington. Then Prussian officer Baron Von Steuben arrived on the scene and everything changed. He drilled the hell out those demoralized troops into a proud razor sharp fighting unit. He also taught the troops basic sanitation, like not camping downhill from a latrine. Those Yankees were used to living their own filth. Von Steuben had published a basic handbook of military procedures and codes and some of them are in use to this day. There is no question that Von Steuben was instrumental in the success of this great nation’s fight for independence.
1861 On this date a United States warship USS San Jacinto stops and boards the British mail ship the HMS Trent. They took two representatives from the Confederate States of America and imprisoned them in Philadelphia. Great Britain was not amused and sent a message to the United States stating that they would not abide this act of piracy and threatened war. The United States did nothing and England responded with sending 40,000 British troops to Canada. That got A. Lincoln’s attention and he ordered the two CSA representative released and a war with England was avoided. The United States would have been in deep doo-doo if they would have had to fight the British AND the Confederacy simultaneously.
1974 On this date one of the worst serial killers in American history botches an abduction. Ted Bundy went to a shopping center in Salt Lake City and walked up to a woman named Carol DaRonde and said that he was the police and her car had been involved in an accident and she needed to come with him to file a report. In spite of her misgivings she followed Ted to his VW. Once she got inside, Ted clapped some handcuffs on her and tried to hit her with a crow bar. Carol fought him off and leaped out of the car and escaped. She went to the Salt Lake City cops with this tale and they were very interested as was the Seattle police because they had several cases each of missing women. Bundy was arrested and spent several months in a Salt Lake jail but somehow eventually escaped. Ted resumed his trail of dead and missing women all across the United States. This monster was eventually captured in Pensacola, Florida but not before torturing and killing several Florida women. Ted finally was tried an convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. On January 24, 1989 with all of his appeals exhausted, Ted Bundy went to meet his maker medium rare after a rendezvous with “Old Sparky” the electric chair. They use the needle now a days. Too bad. On that night there was a large crowd just outside the fence where Ted was executed. They weren’t there to protest the death penalty; they were there barbequing hamburgers, laughing and singing in celebration of the roasting of Ted. I like it.
1895 On this day a German scientist named Conrad Roentgen is experimenting with a cathode ray tube and notices that another cathode ray tube is lighting up just from being close to the active one. Roentgen could not figure out what the hell he had going but he knew there was some kind of radiation causing it so he called them x-rays. Further experiments showed that the rays could penetrate skin and flesh but could not penetrate hard substances like bone and metal. This monumental find made history in the world of diagnostic medicine. The scientists in the world were ecstatic with this new tool but did not know its dangers. After one of Thomas Edison’s assistants died of cancer after extended experiments with x-rays that it was found that x-rays taken in excess would kill your ass, probably by leukemia or a brain tumor. After that more stringent safety precautions were implemented. It would be impossible to say how many lives were saved with this discovery. Roentgen received the Nobel Prize for this contribution to science.
Births and deaths:
1975 One of the most evil and perverted people in the annuls of history dies. German Dr. Josef Mengele dies while swimming in the surf off the coast of Brazil. Mengele was a doctor at the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. He conducted unspeakably horrible medical experiments, especially on children. After the war he somehow made his way to Paraguay where he lived for many years. His remains were not positively identified until 1985 with the use of DNA samples.
1817 Abolitionist Fredric Douglass is born. He once said “You may not always get what you pay for but you will always pay for what you get.” Those words are true today.
1960 US actor James Spaden is born. He said “If I don’t need the money, I don’t work.” He and I are paddling the same boat.
1880 Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler is born. He said “We must interpret a bad temper as a sign of inferiority.” I don’t know about that, look at US Gen George Patton, US Adm. William “Bull” Halsey and US Marine Gen. Holland M. “Howling Mad” Smith. Sometime a short temper is required.
1963 US economist Anthony Consani when speaking of corporate takeovers he said “It is not the intention of a tick to become a dog.” Good thinking.
The President of the United States
in the name of The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the
Medal of Honor
to
LEE, HUBERT L.
Rank and organization: Master Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company I, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Ip-ori, Korea, 1 February 1951. Entered service at: Leland, Miss. Born: 2 February 1915, Arburg, Mo. G.O. No.: 21, 5 February 1952.
Citation:
M/Sgt. Lee, a member of Company I, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. When his platoon was forced from its position by a numerically superior enemy force, and his platoon leader wounded, M/Sgt. Lee assumed command, regrouped the remnants of his unit, and led them in repeated assaults to regain the position. Within 25 yards of his objective he received a leg wound from grenade fragments, but refused assistance and continued the attack. Although forced to withdraw 5 times, each time he regrouped his remaining men and renewed the assault. Moving forward at the head of his small group in the fifth attempt, he was struck by an exploding grenade, knocked to the ground, and seriously wounded in both legs. Still refusing assistance, he advanced by crawling, rising to his knees to fire, and urging his men to follow. While thus directing the final assault he was wounded a third time, by small-arms fire. Persistently continuing to crawl forward, he directed his men in a final and successful attack which regained the vital objective. His intrepid leadership and determination led to the destruction of 83 of the enemy and withdrawal of the remainder, and was a vital factor in stopping the enemy attack. M/Sgt. Lee's indomitable courage, consummate valor, and outstanding leadership reflect the highest credit upon himself and are in keeping with the finest traditions of the infantry and the U.S. Army.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
I have included a Medal of Honor citation at the end of the lesson. This guy is the epitome of an "Iron Man".
Quote of the day:
"Politics: This word comes from the Latin word 'poli' meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning bloodsucking creatures."
Robin Williams
The weather is still sparkling with clear skies the low temps are in the mid 50's and the high in the mid 70's. As usual the wind is from the northeast at about 7 MPH.
As I have mentioned in the past, Boeing Aircraft has chosen to to quit hassling around with the Machinist union out in Everett, Washington and build an assembly plant for the 787 "Dreamliner" in North Charleston, SC. The contract for the design and construction of the enormous assembly building was awarded to BE&K/Turner Construction company in Greenville, SC. This contract is the largest ever let in the state of South Carolina. Before this it was the BMW assembly plant near Greenville. This windfall did not come too soon. The unemployment rate in SC in the highest since the great depression.
On Friday the Spartanburg, SC Sheriff's department was called to a mobile home in Greer, SC because a report of domestic violence. Upon arrival they could see a warm of roaches crawling around on the front door. The started in the house but there were so many roaches in the house that the cops backed out and put on hazardous material protective suits and re-entered the house. The cops saw swarms of roaches everywhere they looked even on the beds including those of the two children living there. The cops arrested the male occupant for criminal domestic violence, the mother for child endangerment because of amount of the filth in the house and they took the kids to DSS where roaches were found in their clothing. I am at a loss as to how to comment on this abomination except to ask how degenerate can you get?
Well it looks like the impossible will happen. Tropical storm/Hurricane Ida has back into the Caribbean Sea and has reorganized and strenghtened. At present the center is about 100 mile east of Belize and headed north-northwest. The forecast is for Ida to close within 150 to 200 mile of Pensacola/Panama City and then turn 90 degrees right and head for Tampa. We shall see.
College Football news:
The South Carolina Gamecocks were outmanned by the Arkansas Razorbacks. As usual, the Cocks shot themselves in the foot several times.
I got bored with the Clemson vs Florida State game so I do not know how it ended.
Both Alabama and Florida remain undefeated and it is amost a certainty they will meet each other in the SEC Championship game. It is my opinion that the winner of this game will play in the national championship game.
Good News:
A scotsman named David Blount decided that he was spending too much time in the house and bought a metal detector. On his first trip out he found something near an old church in ruins. David dug up a treasure trove of gold jewelry from the middle ages. He notified the British Museum who showed immediate interest and valued the cache at one million Pounds. So after just one trip David will not have to work again if he doesn't want to.
This date in history November 8
1775 On this day US General George Washington begins an attempt to absorb the militias in New England into the United States Army. Those obstreperous Yankees in the militias were even more prejudicial and any member of the Klan. Their militias were divided into men from different areas of a state and in some cases different neighborhood in the same city. They had no concept of cohesion of forces. The acted like the war was something like camping out with the Boy Scouts. It was common knowledge that militias from Massachusetts saw no need to have militiamen from Rhode Island in their ranks. The Connecticut militias saw no need for militiamen from New York in their ranks, etc. Washington was in dire need of experienced military men, especially officers and the different militias had just that. The problem was the loyalty to their neighbors rather than their country. Not only that, the troops had no concept of sanitation and frequently and were sickened by it causing a loss of troops for Washington. Then Prussian officer Baron Von Steuben arrived on the scene and everything changed. He drilled the hell out those demoralized troops into a proud razor sharp fighting unit. He also taught the troops basic sanitation, like not camping downhill from a latrine. Those Yankees were used to living their own filth. Von Steuben had published a basic handbook of military procedures and codes and some of them are in use to this day. There is no question that Von Steuben was instrumental in the success of this great nation’s fight for independence.
1861 On this date a United States warship USS San Jacinto stops and boards the British mail ship the HMS Trent. They took two representatives from the Confederate States of America and imprisoned them in Philadelphia. Great Britain was not amused and sent a message to the United States stating that they would not abide this act of piracy and threatened war. The United States did nothing and England responded with sending 40,000 British troops to Canada. That got A. Lincoln’s attention and he ordered the two CSA representative released and a war with England was avoided. The United States would have been in deep doo-doo if they would have had to fight the British AND the Confederacy simultaneously.
1974 On this date one of the worst serial killers in American history botches an abduction. Ted Bundy went to a shopping center in Salt Lake City and walked up to a woman named Carol DaRonde and said that he was the police and her car had been involved in an accident and she needed to come with him to file a report. In spite of her misgivings she followed Ted to his VW. Once she got inside, Ted clapped some handcuffs on her and tried to hit her with a crow bar. Carol fought him off and leaped out of the car and escaped. She went to the Salt Lake City cops with this tale and they were very interested as was the Seattle police because they had several cases each of missing women. Bundy was arrested and spent several months in a Salt Lake jail but somehow eventually escaped. Ted resumed his trail of dead and missing women all across the United States. This monster was eventually captured in Pensacola, Florida but not before torturing and killing several Florida women. Ted finally was tried an convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. On January 24, 1989 with all of his appeals exhausted, Ted Bundy went to meet his maker medium rare after a rendezvous with “Old Sparky” the electric chair. They use the needle now a days. Too bad. On that night there was a large crowd just outside the fence where Ted was executed. They weren’t there to protest the death penalty; they were there barbequing hamburgers, laughing and singing in celebration of the roasting of Ted. I like it.
1895 On this day a German scientist named Conrad Roentgen is experimenting with a cathode ray tube and notices that another cathode ray tube is lighting up just from being close to the active one. Roentgen could not figure out what the hell he had going but he knew there was some kind of radiation causing it so he called them x-rays. Further experiments showed that the rays could penetrate skin and flesh but could not penetrate hard substances like bone and metal. This monumental find made history in the world of diagnostic medicine. The scientists in the world were ecstatic with this new tool but did not know its dangers. After one of Thomas Edison’s assistants died of cancer after extended experiments with x-rays that it was found that x-rays taken in excess would kill your ass, probably by leukemia or a brain tumor. After that more stringent safety precautions were implemented. It would be impossible to say how many lives were saved with this discovery. Roentgen received the Nobel Prize for this contribution to science.
Births and deaths:
1975 One of the most evil and perverted people in the annuls of history dies. German Dr. Josef Mengele dies while swimming in the surf off the coast of Brazil. Mengele was a doctor at the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. He conducted unspeakably horrible medical experiments, especially on children. After the war he somehow made his way to Paraguay where he lived for many years. His remains were not positively identified until 1985 with the use of DNA samples.
1817 Abolitionist Fredric Douglass is born. He once said “You may not always get what you pay for but you will always pay for what you get.” Those words are true today.
1960 US actor James Spaden is born. He said “If I don’t need the money, I don’t work.” He and I are paddling the same boat.
1880 Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler is born. He said “We must interpret a bad temper as a sign of inferiority.” I don’t know about that, look at US Gen George Patton, US Adm. William “Bull” Halsey and US Marine Gen. Holland M. “Howling Mad” Smith. Sometime a short temper is required.
1963 US economist Anthony Consani when speaking of corporate takeovers he said “It is not the intention of a tick to become a dog.” Good thinking.
The President of the United States
in the name of The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the
Medal of Honor
to
LEE, HUBERT L.
Rank and organization: Master Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company I, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Ip-ori, Korea, 1 February 1951. Entered service at: Leland, Miss. Born: 2 February 1915, Arburg, Mo. G.O. No.: 21, 5 February 1952.
Citation:
M/Sgt. Lee, a member of Company I, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. When his platoon was forced from its position by a numerically superior enemy force, and his platoon leader wounded, M/Sgt. Lee assumed command, regrouped the remnants of his unit, and led them in repeated assaults to regain the position. Within 25 yards of his objective he received a leg wound from grenade fragments, but refused assistance and continued the attack. Although forced to withdraw 5 times, each time he regrouped his remaining men and renewed the assault. Moving forward at the head of his small group in the fifth attempt, he was struck by an exploding grenade, knocked to the ground, and seriously wounded in both legs. Still refusing assistance, he advanced by crawling, rising to his knees to fire, and urging his men to follow. While thus directing the final assault he was wounded a third time, by small-arms fire. Persistently continuing to crawl forward, he directed his men in a final and successful attack which regained the vital objective. His intrepid leadership and determination led to the destruction of 83 of the enemy and withdrawal of the remainder, and was a vital factor in stopping the enemy attack. M/Sgt. Lee's indomitable courage, consummate valor, and outstanding leadership reflect the highest credit upon himself and are in keeping with the finest traditions of the infantry and the U.S. Army.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Daily history
Good morning,
Quote of the day:
"Do not judge each day by what you reap but how many seeds you sow."
Robert Louis Stevenson
The weather is the same as yesterday with one exception. When I look south over the Gulf I see a lot of east-west cirrus clouds. It could be the outer fringes of Hurricane/ tropical depression Ida. We shall see.
Down at Fort Hood, Texas this past Thursday that after that crazy bastard that started shooting everybody, a female civilian cop jumped into the line of fire and took a round from the shooter and then put him down with four shots of her own. Her name is Sgt. Kimberly Lumley. She is in stable condition, the shooter is on a respirator, prognosis unknown. That effort displayed by Kimberly was pure courage and bravery. I am proud of her.
Then on Friday morning another crazy son-of-a-bitch down in Orlando opens fire in a high rise office building. There was one killed and five wounded. It turned out that shooter was an architect named Jason Rodriguez that had been laid off. After the shootings, he runs home to Mama. The cops arrest him at his Mommie's house without a struggle.
Who said crime is not addictive? A robber came into the Corner Market convenience store in Greenville, SC and waved a silver and black pistol and demanded money. This event happened on October 18, October 30 and on November 5. Each time it was after midnight and the robber ran away on foot in the same direction. The description was the same for all events. A black man about 5'-6" to 6'-0" weighing between 160 and 175 pounds, wearing a grey hoodie and a black ski mask. Would it be murder if the store owner laid in wait for that jackass and gave him a 12 gauge headache the next time he tried that foolishness? I don't know.
In the winter of 2007 a married man named Pernell Thompson had an affair with a 15 year old Union, SC High School cheerleader. Pernell's wife Yolanda found out about it and told Pernell that the only way he could "prove his love for her" was to murder the cheerleader, Marisha Jeter. In January of 2008 Pernell and Yolanda lured Marisha into a parking lot and Pernell stabbed her in the neck killing her. They then burned her car and threw her corpse into a river. Earlier Pernell was sentenced to life without parole. On Friday past Yolanda got the same sentence. The defense had to bring a lot of witnesses in her behalf to stop her from getting the needle. Now their three kids have no one. How stupid can a person(s) be?
Hurricane Ida is wallowing around in Nicaragua headed north at 7 MPH. It had been downgraded to a tropical depression but it is expected to reorganize and strengthen one it enters the Gulf of Mexico early next week due south of Pensacola. Since weather records have been kept, I cannot find any time that a hurricane has came ashore in the northern Gulf of Mexico in November. But there is always a first.
Good news:
I am going to paraphrase a story I just read:
My Mother Yvonne was a perfect positive thinker, a woman of faith, she could have written circles around those that wrote about positive thinking. She prayed visually, fervently with feeling and energy everyday. She also read inspirational books daily. She often prayed that she would die in her sleep. When she got into her 80's she had a series of episodes where she would pass out but quickly recover. After several of these events I took her to her doctor. He found a serious heart condition and told Yvonne that she needed a pacemaker and described the procedure. The doctor came over to me and whispered that she had about a year to live. Yvonne asked the doctor what would happen later on and he said that she would probably die in her sleep. Yvonne said "Perfect, that is what I have always prayed for." She died in her sleep at the age of 94. Her prayers were answered.
This date in history November 7
1989 This date will go down as one of the most important in history. The head a borough in New York City is elected mayor and the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia is elected as Governor. It was David Dinkins of New York and Douglas Wilder of Virginia both are African-American. This is the first time in history that a black man was elected Governor. Virginia law forbids a Governor from staying in office for more than two terms so Wilder was out after two terms. Mayor David Dinkins was defeated art the end of his first term by Rudy Giuliani.
1965 Earlier in 1964 a drag racer from Ohio named Art Arfons build a drag racer utilizing a J-79 jet engine with afterburner. Art had eyes for the land speed record and hauls that beast he named "The Green Monster" out to the Bonneville Salt Flats to see what he could do. Art unleashed his car and ran a measured mile at a new record of 434.034 MPH. However the record did not stand but six days when another speed burner named Craig Breedlove piloting his jet powered car named The Spirit of America to a new record speed of 468.719 MPH. Art Arfons packs up his car and goes back to Ohio and tweaks the Monster for almost a year. On this date he returns to Bonneville with a new and improved Green Monster and blisters the track at a new world record speed of 576.553 MPH. If I am not mistaken the latest world speed record is about 762 MPH which is beyond the speed of sound, ya’ll. That is scary.
1985 On this date a salesman named David Hendricks was traveling in Wisconsin and calls the police in Bloomington, Illinois. Hendricks said that he had been trying to call his family in Bloomington all weekend and had received no response. The police go to the Hendricks house only to find his wife and thee children had been cut to pieces with an axe and a butcher knife. The police could not find any sign of forced entry and almost not sign of a struggle making the killings very suspicious. The police were at a loss for clues so they examined the father more closely. The father said that he had taken the family out for pizza at about 7:30p and allowed the kids to play in an amusement are and eventually arrived back home at about 9:30p. He said that soon thereafter he left for a business trip to Wisconsin. The Hendricks family belonged to a very religious organization called the Plymouth Brethren which was similar to the Quakers. The police examined each and every thread of clothing in Hendrick’s car which proved to be inconclusive. However, the coroner found that the food in the intestines of the children proved to be a vegetable pizza that was not sufficiently digested to comply with the timeline in Hendrick’s alibi. The police charged him with murder even though they did not have a scintilla of a motive since his religion forbade violence. During the trial Hendrick’s attorney hammered at the food digestion process that can be altered with a lot of physical activity knowing the kids had been in a playground after eating. He was right about the food digestion process but in spite the prosecution not having a motive and the problem with the food digestion, Hendricks was convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. This just goes to show you that the justice system here in the good old USA ain’t perfect.
Born today:
1897 US movie producer Herman Mankiewicz. After being sick after a formal dinner and asked how he felt he said “I am fine. The white wine came up with the fish.” Hey Herman, it wasn’t the wine.
Died today:
1962 First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She said “You always admire what you don’t understand”. That sounds like a woman to me, Eleanor.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
Quote of the day:
"Do not judge each day by what you reap but how many seeds you sow."
Robert Louis Stevenson
The weather is the same as yesterday with one exception. When I look south over the Gulf I see a lot of east-west cirrus clouds. It could be the outer fringes of Hurricane/ tropical depression Ida. We shall see.
Down at Fort Hood, Texas this past Thursday that after that crazy bastard that started shooting everybody, a female civilian cop jumped into the line of fire and took a round from the shooter and then put him down with four shots of her own. Her name is Sgt. Kimberly Lumley. She is in stable condition, the shooter is on a respirator, prognosis unknown. That effort displayed by Kimberly was pure courage and bravery. I am proud of her.
Then on Friday morning another crazy son-of-a-bitch down in Orlando opens fire in a high rise office building. There was one killed and five wounded. It turned out that shooter was an architect named Jason Rodriguez that had been laid off. After the shootings, he runs home to Mama. The cops arrest him at his Mommie's house without a struggle.
Who said crime is not addictive? A robber came into the Corner Market convenience store in Greenville, SC and waved a silver and black pistol and demanded money. This event happened on October 18, October 30 and on November 5. Each time it was after midnight and the robber ran away on foot in the same direction. The description was the same for all events. A black man about 5'-6" to 6'-0" weighing between 160 and 175 pounds, wearing a grey hoodie and a black ski mask. Would it be murder if the store owner laid in wait for that jackass and gave him a 12 gauge headache the next time he tried that foolishness? I don't know.
In the winter of 2007 a married man named Pernell Thompson had an affair with a 15 year old Union, SC High School cheerleader. Pernell's wife Yolanda found out about it and told Pernell that the only way he could "prove his love for her" was to murder the cheerleader, Marisha Jeter. In January of 2008 Pernell and Yolanda lured Marisha into a parking lot and Pernell stabbed her in the neck killing her. They then burned her car and threw her corpse into a river. Earlier Pernell was sentenced to life without parole. On Friday past Yolanda got the same sentence. The defense had to bring a lot of witnesses in her behalf to stop her from getting the needle. Now their three kids have no one. How stupid can a person(s) be?
Hurricane Ida is wallowing around in Nicaragua headed north at 7 MPH. It had been downgraded to a tropical depression but it is expected to reorganize and strengthen one it enters the Gulf of Mexico early next week due south of Pensacola. Since weather records have been kept, I cannot find any time that a hurricane has came ashore in the northern Gulf of Mexico in November. But there is always a first.
Good news:
I am going to paraphrase a story I just read:
My Mother Yvonne was a perfect positive thinker, a woman of faith, she could have written circles around those that wrote about positive thinking. She prayed visually, fervently with feeling and energy everyday. She also read inspirational books daily. She often prayed that she would die in her sleep. When she got into her 80's she had a series of episodes where she would pass out but quickly recover. After several of these events I took her to her doctor. He found a serious heart condition and told Yvonne that she needed a pacemaker and described the procedure. The doctor came over to me and whispered that she had about a year to live. Yvonne asked the doctor what would happen later on and he said that she would probably die in her sleep. Yvonne said "Perfect, that is what I have always prayed for." She died in her sleep at the age of 94. Her prayers were answered.
This date in history November 7
1989 This date will go down as one of the most important in history. The head a borough in New York City is elected mayor and the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia is elected as Governor. It was David Dinkins of New York and Douglas Wilder of Virginia both are African-American. This is the first time in history that a black man was elected Governor. Virginia law forbids a Governor from staying in office for more than two terms so Wilder was out after two terms. Mayor David Dinkins was defeated art the end of his first term by Rudy Giuliani.
1965 Earlier in 1964 a drag racer from Ohio named Art Arfons build a drag racer utilizing a J-79 jet engine with afterburner. Art had eyes for the land speed record and hauls that beast he named "The Green Monster" out to the Bonneville Salt Flats to see what he could do. Art unleashed his car and ran a measured mile at a new record of 434.034 MPH. However the record did not stand but six days when another speed burner named Craig Breedlove piloting his jet powered car named The Spirit of America to a new record speed of 468.719 MPH. Art Arfons packs up his car and goes back to Ohio and tweaks the Monster for almost a year. On this date he returns to Bonneville with a new and improved Green Monster and blisters the track at a new world record speed of 576.553 MPH. If I am not mistaken the latest world speed record is about 762 MPH which is beyond the speed of sound, ya’ll. That is scary.
1985 On this date a salesman named David Hendricks was traveling in Wisconsin and calls the police in Bloomington, Illinois. Hendricks said that he had been trying to call his family in Bloomington all weekend and had received no response. The police go to the Hendricks house only to find his wife and thee children had been cut to pieces with an axe and a butcher knife. The police could not find any sign of forced entry and almost not sign of a struggle making the killings very suspicious. The police were at a loss for clues so they examined the father more closely. The father said that he had taken the family out for pizza at about 7:30p and allowed the kids to play in an amusement are and eventually arrived back home at about 9:30p. He said that soon thereafter he left for a business trip to Wisconsin. The Hendricks family belonged to a very religious organization called the Plymouth Brethren which was similar to the Quakers. The police examined each and every thread of clothing in Hendrick’s car which proved to be inconclusive. However, the coroner found that the food in the intestines of the children proved to be a vegetable pizza that was not sufficiently digested to comply with the timeline in Hendrick’s alibi. The police charged him with murder even though they did not have a scintilla of a motive since his religion forbade violence. During the trial Hendrick’s attorney hammered at the food digestion process that can be altered with a lot of physical activity knowing the kids had been in a playground after eating. He was right about the food digestion process but in spite the prosecution not having a motive and the problem with the food digestion, Hendricks was convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. This just goes to show you that the justice system here in the good old USA ain’t perfect.
Born today:
1897 US movie producer Herman Mankiewicz. After being sick after a formal dinner and asked how he felt he said “I am fine. The white wine came up with the fish.” Hey Herman, it wasn’t the wine.
Died today:
1962 First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She said “You always admire what you don’t understand”. That sounds like a woman to me, Eleanor.
Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow.
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