Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Look...there is Jackson standing like a stonewall, rally around the Virginians.”

This was uttered by CSA Col. Bernard Bee, a South Carolinian. It was during the first minutes of the 1^st Battle of Manassas, Va. in July of 1861 at the beginning of the American Civil War. The Confederates were being nearly routed and were in a headlong retreat...except the Virginians commanded by General Thomas J. Jackson. They were standing their ground on Henry House Hill. When Bee and his South Carolinians and other units joined Jackson and the Virginians, the flow of the battle reversed and the Union army was soon literally running back toward Washington in a rout. The nickname “Stonewall” stuck.

I recently severely cut back on my Facebook experience. The reason being that it is no longer a “platform for social interaction” as designed by its founder Mark Zuckenburg. It has become a dumping ground for everything except social interaction. I did not realize that people form their lives around the most bogus and inane beliefs. It is their right to believe whatever they want no matter how uninformed and stupid. It is also my right to NOT look at and read whatever makes me sick to my stomach because of abject ignorance. There is advertising for gambling sites supposedly supported by some of my friends. I know for a fact that my friends knew nothing about it. This means that mine and your Facebook identity is for sale. There is also pure commercial ads...none of this is “social interaction”. I am paying for internet access and electricity to read this sludge...I don't think so.

This Date in History February 13

1776 On this date Patrick Henry joined the First Virginia Battalion and assigned the primary duty to protect the considerable stores of gunpowder in state from the British. Henry was a talented orator and had the ability to say the right words at the right time to stir men’s souls. It was before the Virginia House of Burgesses in St. John’s Church in Richmond that he made his most famous utterance. There had been debate about whether or not to take up arms against the advancing British troops with the majority against such action when Henry arose and said: “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Immediately after these words were heard the rest of the gathering shouted “To Arm! To Arms!” He was a gifted speaker.

The Royal Governor of Virginia Lord Dunsmore became more and more alarmed about the rebelliousness of his subjects and sent a military detachment to Williamsburg, Virginia to capture a known large cache of gunpowder there. The British militia stood eyeball to eyeball with Patrick Henry and his contingent over the store of gunpowder. A compromise was reached and bloodshed was avoided but there is not doubt in this writers mind that Henry would have ordered his troops to open fire if things had gone too far. After the Revolutionary war was over, Henry fought tooth and nail against the Constitution as being too in favor of the Federal government and he was instrumental in the addition of the Bill of Rights. He was a dedicated anti-federalist and favored Washington and Adams but not Madison. He died at his Red Hill Plantation, Virginia in 1799 at the age of 63. To those of you that are Civil War buffs, Patrick Henry’s sister was the grandmother of CSA General Joseph E. Johnston.

Here is more trivia. Henry’s second wife was the granddaughter of Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood. It was Spotswood that sent out an assassination team to kill Edward Teach (sometimes spelled Thach), better known as Blackbeard the Pirate who had taken up residence in Albemarle Sound, North Carolina. The Governor of North Carolina guaranteed protection if Blackbeard would split his booty with him. Albemarle Sound is right next door to the Chesapeake Bay and Governor Spotswood knew that Blackbeard would be preying on all the shipping traveling in and out. The assassination team cornered Blackbeard near Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina and with much difficulty, capped his ass. He was shot three times and suffered seven saber wounds but he was beheaded. There is no question that Blackbeard was one tough bastard.

1633 Incredible as this may seem, one of the most brilliant men in history, Galileo is called to Rome to be censured because he is teaching astrophysics that is adverse to what Pope Urban VIII and the Catholic Church believed. I am going to paraphrase that. He was subject to torture because he did not teach what the Church wanted to hear (This reminds me of the staff at Bob Jones University). His crime was that he read a thesis by a Polish astronomer named Copernicus who proved to Galileo’s satisfaction that the earth orbited the sun rather than the sun orbited the earth as the Catholic Church believed. Not only that Galileo had secured himself a telescope and did indeed prove to himself that Copernicus was correct. What we have here is the Catholic Church making policy in the scientific arena without making even one observation. Anyway, Galileo could not believe that God would give mankind the power of reasoning and then not allow him to use it. He continued to teach the Copernican theory until a member of the church hierarchy came by and threatened him with torture and told him that he had better get his ass to Rome because Pope Urban VIII was really pissed at his disobedience. Galileo went to Rome and was faced with a triumvirate of Catholic Church members who spared him from torture if he would recant his teachings and would accept being exiled to his villa in central Italy for the rest of his life. He took the exile but his thoughts and those of Copernicus prevail to this day. Galileo died on January 6, 1642 being part of an era of discovery never before equaled in history. By the way, it took the Catholic Church 300 years to admit that Copernicus and Galileo were right.

1945 One of the most controversial events in WWII began on this night. The combined forces of the United States and Great Britain had almost swept the skies clear of German fighters and bombed with impunity any target they chose. Tonight the English Air Force chose Dresden, Germany. Dresden had no military significance. There were no munitions plants close by, in fact there were no plants that manufactured the “tools of war” anywhere near Dresden. Dresden was a beautiful city dedicated to the arts and sciences. Some of the most architecturally beautiful buildings in the world were there. However on this night the English bombers showed up by the hundreds with a mixed load of high explosives and incendiaries. The next morning Dresden was a smoking pile of rubble. No one knows why Dresden was chosen except as revenge for the carpet bombing of Coventry, England by the Germans. Coventry was of no real military significance either. It is estimated that over 135,000 residences and soldiers in Dresden died on this night due to the firestorms created by the incendiaries. If the heat and poison gasses did not kill them, they suffocated due to the fires consumption of the oxygen. It was very similar to the firestorm that befell Hamburg, Germany. I am not sure that revenge is that sweet. After all, Germany was just two months before surrendering. However, if I had a loved one that was burned alive in Coventry, maybe it would be as sweet.

Born today:

1892 US Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson. He said “When the Supreme Court was moved to Washington in 1800, it was provided no books, which probably accounts for the high quality of early decisions.” There is such a thing as over-educated.

1892 US artist Grant Wood. He said “All good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.” I ain’t going there.

It was Grant Wood that gave us the famous painting “American Gothic.” Y'all remember the painting it is of an elderly man and woman that is obviously on a farm and she standing beside a man with a pitchfork.

1923 US legendary test pilot Charles “Chuck” Yeager. He said “Rules are made for people who are not willing to make up their own.” Chuck was a US Army Air Force ace in WWII flying the immortal P-51 Mustang and a test pilot later on.

       Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Men travel the Earth seeking what they need and eventually return home to find it…their families.”

George Moore

After my career as an air traffic controller I went back to school and went into the engineering business, mostly chemical, plastics and fiber piping design including manual drawings, 2D and 3D computer modeling. This included going “in the field” and supervising the assembly and installation of piping that we had designed. I was working on a plant site near Theodore, Al. when a peculiar thing happened. I was about 30 feet above ground and walking around in a pipe rack dropping a plumb bob to people below to determine places to add “branches” into existing piping. I was working for the Fluor-Greenville, SC office at the time. I heard someone coming toward me in the pipe rack. I eventually recognized him as the head of the Fluor-Greenville office. When he got close enough I asked him what the hell he was doing here. He just said that he wanted to see how it was “in the field”. How many people do you know with that much power and status that would climb around in huge chemical plant construction site just to see how his troops worked? I was impressed.

I have finished reading about pirates in the book “Golden Age of Piracy”. The book covered from about 1680 to 1862. The most successful by far was Bartholomew Roberts. He was a deckhand/navigator on a British slave ship that was captured by a pirate named Howell Davis. Both Davis and Roberts were Welshmen. Roberts was forced to become a crew member on Davis’ ship. Davis sailed into a Portuguese port in what is now Ghana flying the flag of a British man-of-war. Soon after they entered the port, the Portuguese figured out that Davis and company were indeed pirates. The governor of the port invited Davis ashore for a glass of wine and when Davis and his entourage stepped ashore they were all gunned down. The remainder of the pirates began looking for another captain and elected Roberts as their leader because of his navigation skills. Believe it or not, pirate ships were essentially a democracy. The crews elected a ship's captain and he could be kicked out if the crew saw fit. Roberts decided it would be better to be on a pirate ship rather than a slave ship where he had no chance of promotion and monstrous treatment of the slaves. Unlike most pirates, Roberts' home base was the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa at the closest point to the Leeward Islands and the Caribbean. His logic was that the slave ships loaded with trade goods coming south from England, France, Spain and Holland would pass right by him headed for west Africa. Those ships that got by him and loaded up with slaves would have to head northwest to catch the trade winds to the Caribbean. These ripe and ready ships were passing close to Roberts also. At his peak Roberts had four pirate ships under his command. I mentioned the trade winds. In the northern Atlantic the westerly trade winds come off the Sahara desert, across the Cape Verdi Islands and then over to the Leeward Islands, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico sometimes bringing hurricanes with them. Then from the Gulf of Mexico the winds turn north up the east coast of North America then turn east heading back across the North Atlantic to Europe then they turn south. It is a giant clockwise flow of winds called a “gyre”. Seafarers have used these predictable winds since before recorded history.

This Date in History February 12

1789 On this date the Patriot General Ethan Allen died of a stroke on the banks of the Winooski River in Vermont at the age of 56. In spite of the ongoing struggle between Vermont and New York, Allen was a superb military leader for the fledgling United States. The problem was that New York felt that the lands of Vermont were part of New York and the New Yorkers had no problem selling lands in Vermont and fought against admitting Vermont to join the Union as a separate state. Ethan Allen was even arrested for treason because he got fed up with being refused admission to the Union; he approached England to allow Vermont to be part of Canada. Vermont and New York eventually settled their differences and Vermont was admitted. In the meantime Allen teamed up with US General Benedict Arnold and they attacked the British at Montreal. Allen was captured by the British and was kept prisoner for 3 years. After his release he formed a unit called the Green Mountain Boys and joined up again with Benedict Arnold and captured the British bastion of Fort Ticonderoga. It was from this fort that the Patriot General Henry Knox brought the captured cannon to Boston and then to the peak of Dorchester Heights which drove the British out of Boston.

Born today:

1809 US President Abraham Lincoln. After receiving a message from Union General Joseph Hooker who signed the message “Headquarters in the saddle” Lincoln said “The trouble with Hooker is that he has his headquarters where his hindquarters ought to be.” Hooker had just been routed by CSA Generals R.E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville, Virginia in spite of the fact that Hooker had the Confederates outnumbered more than two to one. Before the battle Hooker had said “Now we have Lee where he will have to come out and fight or ingloriously run.” Lee and Jackson did neither; it was Hooker and Yankees that “ingloriously ran”. It cost Hooker his command.

Quotable quotes:

“Men marry because they are tired, women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.”

Oscar Wilde

“It seems that we must hire lobbyists to protect us from the people we just elected.”

Mark Twain

“Marriage is the price men pay for sex. Sex is the price women pay for marriage”

Oscar Wilde

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Mister Speaker, I withdraw my statement that half of the cabinet are asses. Half of the cabinet are not asses.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Here is a message from a person that was in touch with his soul. I think it is the best indictment ever written of what we are today. Some of you may have seen this before, here it is again.

“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space.

We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight or to just hit delete.

Remember, spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember to give a warm hug to the one next to you because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.”

George Carlin

This Date in History February 11

1861 On this date the recently elected President of the United States Abraham Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois headed for Washington. He is traveling by train that was packed with the family’s household goods that Lincoln packed himself. As expected, after Lincoln’s election seven southern states seceded from the Union and Lincoln knew full well that a civil war was on the near horizon. His parting words to the people of Springfield were “Here I have lived for a quarter of a century and have passed from a young man to an old man. My children have been born here and I have buried one here. Now I must leave not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater that that which rested on Washington. Without Divine assistance I cannot succeed, but with that assistance I cannot fail. To his care I am commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me. I bid you all an affectionate farewell”. It was reported that his chest heaved with emotion after completing this speech. He did indeed return to Springfield by train.

1960 Some of y'all may not know this but the first host of The Tonight Show was comedian/musician Steve Allen. After Steve retired the job of host fell to a fruitcake named Jack Paar. Paar was a funny guy but wore his emotions on his sleeve. He would often break into tears over the slightest thing and he often allowed his personal opinions on political matters to absorb him. When Fidel Castro overthrew Batista and his corrupt regime Parr praised Castro and called him a world hero. But when the Bay of Pigs fiasco occurred, he tried to engineer a swap of tractors for those captured by Castro. On this date Parr walked off the stage in angry tears and stayed away for a month. What happened was the show was taped and the NBC censors would snip and cut stuff from Paar’s monologue that they did not like. Finally Paar got fed up and when the censors cut a joke about a “water closet” (toilet) as being in bad taste he hit the roof.

1778 On this date French playwright Voltaire returned to Paris after a 28 year exile. Voltaire was a rapier witted writer of outstanding talent. When he was young his father sent him to school to study law but Voltaire wanted to be a playwright. His first play was named La Henriade. The play was a farce about politicians and religion so biting that he was arrested and spent a year in the Bastille (prison). In 1734 he delivered Letters Philosophique and as you might suspect it was attacking the politicos and religion and the heat came so intense for him that he had to flee to England. In 1756 he was invited to Berlin as the guest of King Frederick II of Prussia. After this he moved to Switzerland where he delivered his most famous work in Candide. After only three months back in his beloved Paris, he died leaving a legacy of free thought that lives to this day.

1805 The Lewis and Clark expedition was wintering with the Mandan Indians near present day Bismarck, North Dakota. There they met a French/Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. This guy had just bought two Indian women from the Hidatsa tribe that was famous for kidnapping and selling women. One of the women was kidnapped from the Shoshone tribe near the Montana/Idaho border. Her name was Sacagawea. Lewis and Clark knew they would need horses to cross the Continental divide and knew that their best bet was to buy them from the Shoshone. Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as a guide if he would bring Sacagawea with him to which he agreed. On this date Sacagawea went into labor and Clark acted as a midwife assisting her as best he could. Sacagawea was having a tough time but Clark was told that a brew made from powdered rattlesnake rattle would induce birth. Clark administered this to poor old Sacagawea and two hours later she delivered a son named Jean Baptiste Charbonneau into this world. Clark became very attached to this baby and nicknamed him Pompey, or Pomp and Clark paid for his education. Pomp died in 1866.

Born today:

1847 US inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He said “There ain’t no rules around here; we are trying to accomplish something.” I like his attitude, but he needed help with his grammar.

1921 Hungarian born actress Eva Gabor. She said “Marriage is too interesting of an experiment to be tried only once.” Eva was a beautiful woman. She went to the great wedding chapel in the sky in 1995.

1969 US actress Jennifer Anniston. She said “When a man with a camera follows you 20 blocks to a pharmacy and watches you buy toilet paper, you realize that your life has changed.” The so-called paparazzi are a pain in the buttock.

Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

From a Men's Rules list sent to me.

“If you come to us with a problem we will try to resolve it, that is what we do. If you want sympathy go to your girlfriends, that is what they do.”

Last Friday evening “Rebel Without a Cause” was on Turner Classic Movies. I was a senior in high school when this movie was released. It starred James Dean playing a teenager that was rebellious and confused. It was a huge hit with the youths of that period including myself. James Dean's performance was stunning as was the majority of the others. In addition to James Dean it starred Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Nick Adams and one of my favorites, Dennis Hopper. There were others with minor roles but then I realized that all of them had something in common, they are all dead. That made me feel old...briefly.

Have any of you ever heard of the city of Bangui? It is the capitol of the Central African Republic...I never heard of it either. About three years ago a Muslim was elected president and as you might suspect, the president began an extermination of Christians. Recently the Christians finally got fed up and initiated a coup. The Muslims of that nation saw the handwriting on the wall and started getting the hell out of Dodge. There eventually was a UN peace-keeping force on site but the roads were packed with cars and buses full of Muslims leaving the area with Christians lining the roads screaming obscenities. Unfortunately a Muslim man fell off the top of one of the buses and immediately was hacked to pieces with machetes. You notice I said “fell off the top of the bus”...that should give you a mental image of what was going on over there. Another man fell off one of the buses but the peace-keeping force arrived before the machetes and he was saved. As many people a lot smarter than I have said...”There is no wars as bitter and vicious as wars of religion.” That is because each side believes that God is on their side. I invite you to study about what atrocities were committed by nearly everybody involved during the 9 Crusades...this included Muslims, Christians and Jews among many others that killed just because they liked it. This may give some of you heartburn but the most savage of all armies during the middle ages was any army under the umbrella of the sitting Pope. I also invite you to look up the “Spanish Inquisition” in the middle of the 15^th century led by a representative of the Catholic Church named Bishop Tomas Torquemada. This man was very inventive when it came to dealing with those that were not followers of the Pope. His philosophy was to drag people before him and ask them if they were sinners. If they answered yes, he would say that they needed to be tortured for their sins. If they answered no, he would say that no mortal is sinless and this person would get a double dose of torture for being a sinner AND lying about it. Do not get me wrong, I am not anti-Catholic or any other religion, I am just a historian relaying what I have found. And finally, I also invite you to look into what happened to the Knights Templar and why.

By the way, the phrase “saw the handwriting on the wall” came from the book of Daniel in the Bible. Daniel and his people were captives in the city-state of Babylon where Nebuchadnezzar was king. Daniel was the official interpreter of dreams. At a large feast and a ghostly finger appeared and wrote something on the wall. No one could understand what it meant so Daniel was called. Daniel took one look and told the king that it said that his kingdom is doomed. That night Babylon was invaded and sure enough.....

I was reminded of when I was an air traffic controller in Pensacola which is the home of the Blue Angels. On one occasion the Angels were out over the Gulf of Mexico practicing and an accident occurred killing one of the pilots. The next day one of our secretaries had been a secretary for the Blue Angels and was very sad and morose. One of our guys told her “That man chose the glory and accepted the danger, don’t be sad he was doing exactly what he wanted to.”

This Date in History February 10

1779 On this date band of 350 Patriots led by General Andrew Pickens, Colonel Robert Dudley and Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Clarke left South Carolina headed for Wilkes County, Georgia. They were after a group of 200 British/Loyalist commanded by British Colonel John Hamilton at Carr’s Fort. The Patriots arrive at the site and battle ensued. Just when the Patriots are about to wrap up this battle, General Pickens called for withdrawal and they headed out toward another column of British/Loyalist headed for North Carolina with recruits gathered up from the city of Augusta, Ga. by Loyalist Colonel Robert Boyd. They set up an ambush for Boyd’s column near Kettle Creek, When the Loyalists are in the right position, Pickens springs the trap and all but annihilates the column of recruits. British Colonel Colonel Boyd is killed instantly. Both of these events occurred in Wilkes County, Georgia named after the British revolutionary John Wilkes who raised much hell in English Parliament in the behalf of the colonies that he was arrested and jailed for his fiery speeches. Some American colonists sent him money for his defense.

1962 Earlier an America spy pilot for the CIA named Gary Francis Powers launched a spy mission from a secret base in Pakistan and is to fly across central Russian enroute to a secret spy base near Buda, Norway. He was flying the infamous U-2 spy plane. At the same time Russian spy Rudolph Abel is gathering information for the Soviets in New York and Washington. About half way through his mission, Power’s U-2 aircraft lost power and descended to an altitude that can be reached by Russian fighters and ground-to-air missiles. Normally the U-2 is at such a high altitude that nothing can reach them, but not this time. Powers is shot down and captured alive. Meanwhile Russian spy Rudolph Abel is also captured. After a while the Russians and the US decided to swap Powers and Abel so on this day Gary Francis Powers and Rudolph Abel passed each other walking in opposite directions on a bridge to freedom for Powers and suppression for Abel.

1920 Unfortunately for silent actress Theda Bara, she opened in San Francisco in a play named “Kathleen Mavoureen”. The play makes fun and ridicules the Irish immigrants. The majority of the men in the audience were Irish immigrant miners and railroad workers that had moved out west to work in the gold and silver mines near San Francisco. After it became apparent that the play was making fun of the Irish, the Irishmen got out of their seats and tore the joint apart. The moral of the story is the Irish have no sense of humor when they are the focus of a joke.

Quotable quotes:

“My grandmother is 85 and still does not have glasses; she drinks right out of the bottle.”

Henny Youngman

“An opera is a play where a guy is stabbed in the back and instead of dying, he sings.

Robert Benchley

“There is a confection that induces women to give up sex. It is called wedding cake.”

Bill Maher

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“It is best to master the chaos within you. You are not being thrown into the fire...you are the fire.”

                                  Mama Indigo

Here is a bio of one of the most powerful women in history.

                     Catherine de Medici

Catherine was born on April 13, 1519 in Florence, Italy. Her father was Florentine ruler Lorenzo de Medici otherwise known as Lorenzo the Magnificent because of his support and fostering of the arts. In 1533 at the age of 14 she married the Duke of Orleans as part of a political arrangement as was done most of the time with the powerful families in Europe. The good Duke became the King of France as Henry II making Catherine the queen of France. Many of the French did not cotton to having and Italian as queen but she stayed anyway. She had little influence in affair of state until Henry II died and soon thereafter her first son and also king as Francis II, died in 1560 leaving her in control of the French government as regent for her younger son Charles IX until he became of age to take control. In 1563 Charles reached the appointed age and became a full-fledged king but Catherine continued to dominate Charles throughout his reign. Catherine saw her role as maintaining royal power at all costs. This girl was ruthless when it came to that as y'all will see. She spent much time and energy trying to maintain a balance of power between the Huguenots, a Protestant group led by military leader Gaspard de Coligny, and the Catholics led by the powerful House of Guise. After the beginning of the religious wars that began in 1562, Catherine was a Roman Catholic but sided with which ever side held sway at any given time. In order to maintain a balance she included her family in her wheeling and dealing. She arranged for her daughter Elizabeth to marry the powerful Roman Catholic king of Spain Phillip II. And then she arranged for another daughter, Margaret, to marry the powerful Protestant ruler Henry of Navarre. You see what she is doing here, maintaining political and religious alliances no matter what it took. Catherine looked on with alarm at the rise in influence the Huguenots were having on her son Charles. Then in 1572 she did the honorable thing by having the Huguenot leader Garpard de Coligny assassinated along with an estimated 50,000 of his followers. This event went down in history as the St. Bartholomew Day Massacre . In 1574 her son Charles the king died and is succeeded by her third son Henry III. Henry III ain’t buying any of this from his mom and tells Catherine to take a hike that he and only he is in command. Needless to say Catherine’s influence over the French court went down the toilet. Catherine died January 5, 1589 in Blois, France at the age of 70. Catherine like her father, was instrumental in the promotion of the arts what time she wasn’t involved in political intrigue. She added a wing to the famous Louvre museum began construction of the Tuileries Gardens and built the chateau of Monceau. Her personal library and rare manuscripts was and are some of the most treasured in history. She was a patron of the arts in spite of that indiscretion in the St.Bartholomew’s Day thing. She was a powerful influence in the history of Europe but as with most women, don’t threaten their security or they will do something rash.

This Date in History February 9

1942 In the late 1930’s the grandest ocean liner on the planet was built in France and named the Normandie. The ship had a revolutionary hull shape that made it very speedy and was able to cross the Atlantic in four days and was the first ship of that size to be able to do this. After the United States entered WWII in December of 1941, it became apparent that the American commercial fleet had enough ships to carry cargo but virtually no passenger vessels. In those times the luxury liners were English, Scottish or Dutch. England donated the liner Queen Mary to shuttle American troops worldwide. The French liner Normandie was seized while it was in port in New York and renamed the U.S.S. Lafayette. The ship fitters pulled the ship into dry dock and began transforming this ship from a luxury liner to a troop carrier. On this date a welder accidentally set fire to a large pile of life preservers and the fire spread quickly. The fire crews poured water into the ship at an enormous rate and finally the great ship capsized and burned into a lump of unusable steel. The ship was towed to a New Jersey and cut up for scrap. There was a rumor that President Roosevelt told the trade unions on American docks that a strike would not be tolerated for the duration of the war. Some of the more militant Union organizers ordered the Normandie destroyed as a sign that the trade unions would not be told what they could or could not do. But that is just a rumor.

Born today:

1773 President William Henry Harrison. He said “The Government that is the strongest is the one that is the most free”. He also made his hour and a half inauguration speech in sub-freezing weather with no coat on. He died of pneumonia 30 days later.

1865 Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Irish actress. She said “It doesn’t matter what you do in the bedroom as long as you don’t do it in the street and frighten the horses.” Mrs. Campbell must have known my third ex-wife before I did.

1821 Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. He said “Realists do not fear the results of their study.”

1921 Irish writer Brendan Behan. He said “I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman would not make it worse.”

1945 US actress Mia Farrow. She said “I can match bottoms with anyone in Hollywood.” I don’t know about that, Mia, it looks kind of lean to me.

 

         Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the soldier who died...rather we should thank God that such men lived.”

US General George S. Patton

In yesterday's edition I briefly described the story line of the movie The Kings Speech. I mentioned that Prince Edward rejected being the king of England so he could marry “The woman I love”. He and his bride were then titled the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and spent the rest of their days touring the world and living the high life. Their permanent residence was in Paris but they would go anywhere King George VI or Queen Elizabeth commanded. They were titled Windsor because that is the “house” that is/was the present lineage of the kings and queens of England. The Duke died first and was buried on the grounds of Windsor castle and his bride followed several years later. Windsor castle was originally built by William the Conqueror in about 1080.

About this time in 1945 there was a gathering of ships in the Marianas in the Pacific There were troop transports, cargo ships and war ships of all sizes. The overall commander as Admiral Chester Nimitz. It was essentially a US Marine operation as most operations in the Pacific were. The name of this event was Operation Detachment. The ships left their assembly point headed for tiny Island southeast of Okinawa that nobody ever heard of but had three airstrips and was about half way between Saipan/Tinian (where US bombers were based) and Japan. This tiny island was occupied by the Japanese under the command of a very competent leader named General Tadamishi Kuribayashi. The armada arrived on February 16 and hell on Earth was realized. It was Iwo Jima, y'all. After a month of savage fighting Kuribayashi sent his last dispatch to Tokyo saying “Our weapons have been destroyed. We have not eaten nor drank for five days but our spirit is good. We will mount our final charge tonight. May Japan exist for a thousand years.” A final charge was indeed launched that night and was totally crushed by the Marines. General Kuribayashi's corpse was never identified. Out of about 30,000 Japanese defenders on this island there were 220 survivors. By the way, this is the only battle involving the US Marines where the enemy suffered less casualties than the Marines. Casualties means killed OR wounded. The Japanese didn't play that...it was either fighting...or dead.

This Date in History February 6

1820 On this date the first ship carrying freed slaves out of the country left New York harbor for Freetown in the West African country of Sierra Leone. This voyage was sponsored by the American Colonization Society led by Robert Finley but the United States Congress had kicked in $100,000 for the expenses. These former slaves were those that were brought to the United States illegally after the passing of the American Law in 1808 that forbade slave trade. That’s right folks, slave trade in America was forbidden after 1808. This meant that slaves could no longer be brought into the United States. That did not mean that you could not keep the slaves you had and trade them, buy them or sell them within the boundaries of the United States. So the “illegal slaves” that were brought here after 1808 had the option to go back to Africa. The American plan was based on the English plan whereby the slaves that fought for England during the American Revolutionary War and were unhappy with what was given them in Canada and were allowed to go back to Africa. In 1787 England sent 300 former slaves and 60 white prostitutes to Sierra Leone. Very soon after their arrival they died of disease or in warfare with the Temne tribe. However, in 1792 a second fleet of ships departed but now it had 1,100 former slaves that had fought for England during the Revolutionary War plus thousands that had fled the West Indies and other parts of West Africa and came under the leadership of Thomas Clarkson to the new found country of Liberia and the capitol of Freetown to establish an independent nation. Between 1822 and 1861 15,000 Africans moved to Freetown and the new nation of Liberia was granted independence in 1847 and received diplomatic recognition from the US in 1863. Liberia is the first democratic black nation in history. All of y'all need to read about what recently happened to that country and the major employer Firestone.

Quotable quotes:

“I am sorry, what was the question? I was distracted by that half-masticated cow wallowing around in your mouth”.

Michael Caine in “Miss Congeniality”

“George W. Bush’s economic plan will create 2.5 million jobs. The bad news is that they are all for Iraqi soldiers.”

Craig Kilborn

“The graveyards are full of indispensable men.”

Charles de Gaulle

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

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Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Women are made to be loved, not understood.”

Oscar Wilde

Yesterday morning I watched the movie The King's Speech on Sundance. It was one of the most enjoyable movies I have ever seen. I did not know any of the actors but they all were superb. I did recognize the man who played the Archbishop. He played Senator Graccus in Gladiator. The Kings Speech was based on a true historical event and here is a brief explanation of what happened.

The King of England had died and the next in line was his eldest son Prince Edward. The Prince had a girlfriend/lover named Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. Edward had been sleeping with Wallis Simpson for quite a spell but she being an American AND twice divorced made her very unlikely to be accepted as Queen by the English peerage. Edward chose to give up (abdicate) his lineage as King of England so he could marry Wallis. In early 1937 he was officially shit-canned as the next King of England. That made his brother the next in line. The problem was that the brother “nicknamed Bertie” stammered horribly. The brother was crowned the King of England as George VI very close to the outbreak of WWII. Everyone close to the King knew that war with Hitler was inevitable and the King was expected to make a speech when England declared war on Germany. Bertie was very upset knowing that he eventually had to make speech to the entire British empire and the entire world and sought help where he could get it. He eventually contacted a man that was not a speech expert but Bertie had confidence in his ability to extract a good speech. The movie was about Bertie and his relationship with this man and others training him to make this speech. He eventually made the speech and it made me want to fight...but that is nothing unusual.

Once again I have read about the pro-choice vs pro-life arguments. I personally have decided that insisting on implementing one side or the other is playing God and believe me, I ain't qualified. I just have one question...how many unwanted children have those of the “pro-life” genre adopted or are supporting? If the answer is “few or none” then there is only one logical thought left. They foster their attitude only to appear noble. As far as the pro-choice side is concerned, each person is responsible for their soul and whatever reward or punishment awaits them. It is a personal issue and really none of my business...or anybody else's. I know, some of you pro-lifers out there are going to “yawp” (a word coined by Walt Whitman) about “What about the life of the baby?” What about it? Agree to adopt them, support them or shut the hell up. The only other answer is when a woman shows up pregnant by mistake or rape and does not want to have a baby for a variety of reasons, she is sent to the Gulag Archipelago to have the baby whether she likes it or not. Don't try to be God, you ain't qualified either.

This Date in History February 5

1631 A young hell-raiser arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is Roger Williams, a teacher and minister. This colorful guy begins traveling around to the different cities like Plymouth and Salem and began preaching that the civil authorities had no right to administrate religious behavior and not only that the civil authorities had no right to take Indian lands without offering recompense. The people in the Colony could not stand that kind of criticism and kicked Roger out of the Colony. Roger gathered a large number of Narragansett Indians and moved into another section not far away and named it Providence. That’s right if was the birth of the state of Rhode Island. Roger invited those that were unhappy with the civil government administrating an individuals religion and any and all religious sects were invited to join them.

1865 Union General U.S. Grant ordered General David Gregg to go try and break the Confederate lines near Dabney Mill during the siege of Petersburg during the Civil War. Upon arrival, Gregg attacked a dug in and ready Confederates with little or no effect. The next day the battle began anew but the Union added US General Gouverneur Warren and his brigade to the battle. It did not help either because the Confederates just moved to face the attacks and beat the living crap out of both regiments so those Yankees withdrew and went back to the house. The total was 1,000 Confederate casualties to 3,400 for the Union. But no matter, the war was over in April anyway,

1885 On this date the Southern Pacific Railroad completed its tracks on its so called “Sunset Route” This line ran from New Orleans to California. Earlier The Central Pacific had been completed when the tracks coming from California met the tracks coming west from the Great Plains met at Promontory Point, Utah. There were four men that owned the railroads in America at the time and they were Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins. It was Huntington that owned the Sunset Route. He knew he had to hurry to finish the route because the Texas Pacific Railroad was making good progress westbound. Using his superior finances, Huntington was able to tie in with the Santa Fe Railroad on this date first making the Sunset Route a reality.

“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.”

“But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

“Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.”

“They [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion.”

Some of his thoughts lead one to believe that he is an atheist but other documents say he is not. He authored a very famous document that contains the phrase “...nature and nature’s God entitle them”. The document is of course the Declaration of Independence and he is one of the most brilliant men this country has ever produced ...Thomas Jefferson.

         Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow