Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“The one sin that I will never forgive myself for is that one day I will give up my obstinate pursuit of my individuality.”

                                               Oscar Wilde

Over in Zimbabwe there is a patrolled park for elephants. At one time there were millions of African elephants. During the last census if was found that there between 450,000 and 700,000 African elephants existing. All of this is because of poaching. Last week park rangers found two poachers. They buried one of them and arrested the other. They were poachers that had slipped onto park property to kill elephants for the ivory. The one that they had buried had been trampled to death and had a couple of holes in him that was obviously from the elephant's tusks. The one that was alive saw this happen and decide to wait on the park rangers to escort him out of there rather than risk an encounter with another angry elephant. It seems that the not so dumb elephants have figured out the destruction of their family units is caused by humans and they are pissed. The elephants used to travel from one section of the park to another dependent upon the season using the same ancient trails year after year. There would be much trumpeting upon arrival at their destinations. Now that they have figured out human greed, they still travel the same trails but they do it at night in silence. Over in China they are still paying about $1,300 a kilo (a little over two pounds) for ivory and even more for a rhinoceros horn which is considered a cure-all including impotence. The horns are made of the same material as a fingernails, so why not just chew your fingernails while wooing a woman? That along with the pills that are available should make the attempt end in success for everyone involved.

One of my many jobs after air traffic control was working in the oil fields in central and western Oklahoma. I worked on a “fracking” unit for Halliburton. Fracking has been in the news lately. Here is what is happening. When an oil/gas well is drilled they are looking for gaps in the strata of the earth. It is these gaps that oil and natural gas accumulate. The average depth of an oil well in east Texas is about 4 or 5 thousand feet. Over in the “Anadarko Basin” which is west Texas and Oklahoma the average depth is about 12 to 13 thousand feet. The temperature increases the deeper you go. Once all the oil or gas has been depleted from a particular gap or chasm, the oil companies use a “fracking” technique to open the gap wider to allow any oil or gas has been trapped in the nearby strata to drain into the larger gap. This is done by using very, very high pressure pumps and mixture of water and a gel (Musol) to pump into the gap. The gel melts immediately and forms a non-flammable gas that expands at a ratio of 70/1. The water evaporates in the heat but enormous pressure is applied in the gap. Some of these gaps or chasms can be miles wide and hundreds of feet high and of course this will require enormous amounts of water. In parts of the country that are in a drought situation the use of water in that volume is deeply resented and therein lies the rub. Also, It is possible that if there is a deep aquifer close by there could be pollution of the ground water. The odds are astronomical that his will or has happened but it is indeed possible.

                  This Date in History   June 19

1864 Earlier the Confederate raider CSS Alabama had raised hell with US shipping up and down the Atlantic to the tune of either sinking or capturing 68 US vessels. The ship was built in the shipyards of Liverpool, England as a blockade runner, meaning to carry trade good through the US blockade of Southern ports trying to do financial damage to the southern economy. The US Government complained bitterly about the building of the Alabama and other like ships but England tacitly supported the Confederacy. After the Alabama had sailed out of England under the command of CSA Admiral Raphael Semmes, the ship was re-armed and re-fitted into a commerce raider. Semmes sailed the Alabama nearly around the world attacking US shipping wherever he found them. Semmes sailed the ship back into the port of Cherbourg, France for a much needed repair and refit. The US warship USS Kearsarge found out that the Alabama was in Cherbourg and sailed to a point just outside French territorial waters and waited. The French Admiralty knew what was up and sent a ship of their own to make sure that the Kearsarge did not attack the Alabama in French waters. Finally the Alabama was ready and sailed out to meet the Kearsarge. On this date the two ships opened on each other but the Kearsarge had the latest chain-mail armor and the shots from the Alabama were ineffective and the Kearsarge destroyed the Alabama and it sank in the English Channel. This battle was observed by the British cruiser Deerhound and some of the survivors, including Semmes and most of his officers, were taken aboard that ship and therefore avoided capture. Semmes took a much needed vacation in Switzerland and then rejoined the Confederacy through Mexico. He was assigned duty patrolling the James River. After the war, he retired to Mobile, Alabama and practiced law and wrote a book about his experiences. Admiral Semmes died in Mobile at the age of 67.

1944 It was vital to the Japanese Empire to maintain control of the western Pacific if they wanted to continue their expansion. They had air bases at Saipan, Tinian and Guam to maintain dominance. The US Army and Marines had already invaded Saipan and it looked like they were there to stay. Trying to inspire the Japanese defenders of Saipan, Admiral Nagumo (The commander of the Japanese naval task force at Pearl Harbor) and General Saito (commander of the Japanese troops on Saipan), commit suicide but not before sending out an inspiring message to their troops. It worked. The next day nearly all the Japanese military, cooks included, swarmed out of the hills and jungle in a suicide attack unparalleled in history. The US Army and Marines fought back with everything they had but the overwhelming number allowed the Japanese to overrun many of their positions. The slaughter continued for two more days until there were just a handful of Japanese left on Saipan. The Japanese had lost 26,000 to 3,500 for the US. The US had sent the 5^th Fleet commanded by Admiral Raymond Spruance from the Marshall Island to the Marianas as support for the troops on Saipan. On the way over, Japanese Admiral Jisaburo decided to challenge the American fleet and on this date he sent 430 aircraft in attack. The 5^th Fleet detected the oncoming swarm on radar and send up their own swarm of American fighters to intercept. The result was 300 Japanese planes shot down and two Japanese aircraft carriers sunk to the loss of 29 American planes. This action known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea, or better known as the “Marianas Turkey Shoot” all but guaranteed the defeat of the Japanese in WWII.

1918 US Attorney General Evelle Younger. He said “If you have integrity nothing else matters...If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.” That is an odd quote coming from a politician.

1947 Indian-English writer Salman Rushdie. He said “If Woody Allen were a Muslim, he would be dead by now.” Woody married his step-daughter.

             Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

                                                   Melody Beattie

I had an occasion to be near downtown Greenville. I had a friend with me and we decided to go to a “soul food” cafeteria that we had visited before. The meats vary from day to day but there is always fish, usually fried whiting. I like fish myself but the meat loaf was too tempting. I had that along with mashed potatoes and gravy, turnip greens and cornbread. While we were eating an elderly man struggled with his tray and finally sat down near us. Soon afterward a server that was probably a relative came over and told this man that what he had to eat was not healthy for him. He said “I have four doctors telling me what to eat and not to eat, today I am going to eat what I want.” He had pigs feet (I told you it was soul food), macaroni and cheese, turnips greens, three slices of fried fatback and corn bread. Yummy!

In a previous edition I mentioned that I was reading about the history of the Comanche. They had pretty much settled their war with the Apache but continued in almost unrelenting raids of Spanish and French settlements. The Spanish were in what is now Texas, Missouri, Arizona and New Mexico and the French were in Louisiana. They were after people they could sell into slavery or trade them for needed items. The main “fairs” were in Taos and Santa Fe. If the women and children hostages they brought to the fairs were not taken in trade pretty quick they would publicly rape the women and release them then kill the children. They were mostly interested in anything metal especially axes, hatchets, knives, metal arrow heads, etc. They were a savage bunch...but so was the US Cavalry.

A while back an elderly couple was found dead in a Best Western motel room in Boone, North Carolina. The medical examiner found that the two had died of carbon dioxide poisoning. Then about a week later an 11 year old boy was found dead in the same room of the same malady. Later on after the deaths the medical examiner had opined that the swimming pool water heater was too close to that motel room air conditioner and that was where the CO2 was coming from. His opinion was accurate...but he did not tell any of the authorities who could have shut down the motel until the situation was resolved...and the 11 year old boy is dead because of it. The medical examiner resigned soon after. It is too late now. Surely there has to be some kind of procedure in effect that if the medical examiner finds something deadly he notifies others in authority to resolve it. That ex-medical examiner will carry this event on his conscience for the rest of his days.

This Date in History June 18

1812 On this date the United States Congress and President James Madison declared war on Great Britain. What the root of this disagreement was all the cause of England. They had been “Shanghaiing” American seaman into the British navy, meaning these men went into the British navy whether they liked it or not. Great Britain also was exercising financial sanctions against France because they were trading with America and finally, they were encouraging and financing the Indians along the Great Lakes against America. The war lasted 2 ½ years with the most remembered events being the burning of the White House to the ground, Dolly Madison ensuring the portrait of George Washington was saved from the conflagration and finally, the Battle of New Orleans with Andrew “Old Hickory” Jackson kicking ass even though the war was over a week before. This victory by the United States ensured their independence for the foreseeable future. By the way, Andrew Jackson got the nickname “Old Hickory” when he was walking through a building in Washington carrying his hickory cane when a man ran up to him, pulled a pistol and fired but the gun misfired, the assassin pulled another pistol and tried again and that one misfired also, Jackson then lifted his hickory cane and beat the holy shit out of this guy and would have killed him had some of his entourage not intervened. I like this South Carolinian.

1865 US General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain received a near fatal wound while leading an attack against Confederate emplacements at Petersburg, Virginia. Chamberlain won a Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg nearly a year before. He was wounded at Gettysburg also but it was a minor wound, in fact he had received 6 wounds before the end of hostilities. He won the Medal of Honor by commanding 300 Maine soldiers in defending the Union left flank at a place known as Little Round Top at Gettysburg. His troops fought as long as they could but eventually ran out of ammo so Chamberlain had a choice to make. Retreat and let the Confederates turn the flank which would be disastrous; stay where they were and get annihilated and the Confederates turn the flank anyway or to charge. So Chamberlain ordered his men to fix bayonets and ordered a charge and down the hill they went. The stunned Confederates retreated and the left flank of the Union line was secure. The next day Chamberlain and his troops were moved to a more “safe” area on the battlefield, right in the very middle of the Union lines. About 11:30a one of the largest artillery barrages ever fired in North America was launched toward the center of the Union lines by the Confederates. Chamberlain hugged the ground wondering when it would stop and when it finally did he heard the thin, high scream of the Rebel yell and saw 13,000 confederate infantry about a mile away coming his way. It was the famous Pickett’s charge. I just wasn’t Chamberlain’s day.

Born today:

1913 US economist Sylvia Porter. She said “The thing to remember about economic forecasting is that what you are about to forecast usually has already happened.” It is simple Sylvia, buy low and sell high.

1939 US baseball player Lou Brock. He said “I used to complain to my Dad that I imagined animals running under my bed. He fixed that by cutting the legs off my bed.”

Died today:

1902 British writer Samuel Butler. He said “It was good of God to allow Thomas Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle to marry each other so there will be only two unhappy people rather than four.”

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Wednesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I really live in a tough neighborhood. The other day I left a note on the front door saying 'I’m inside'. I came back home and my apartment is ransacked. There was a note inside of the front door saying 'I looked all over for you.'”

                                          Rodney Dangerfield

I am reading a book about the history of the Comanche. This book is courtesy of a good friend that owned a book store in Marble Falls, Texas and the book was used as a text book by Southern Methodist University. I have known the woman for many, many years but we have never met in person...but I still feel a closeness. The Comanche along with all the other Native Americans in North America did not have horses until the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors and that being Cortez in Mexico and Coronado in California. In the middle of the 16^th century these guys brought their horses with them across the Atlantic from Spain. Naturally a few horses escaped, formed herds and increased precipitously on the “great plains”. The Comanches were the first to capture and train these wild ponies then they were the most powerful tribe in North America, especially after joining into a coalition with the Utes. Before the discovery and taming of the horses the Comanche were your basic hunter/gatherers but after horses they were almost exclusively followers of the bison herds. They had a running war with the Apache in what is now New Mexico (Taos and Santa Fe area) and northern Mexico over the slave trade. That's right y'all, both tribes used captured human beings in barter and trade, especially women and children. The wars were finally subdued but not totally eliminated when the Apache started trading horses for humans with the Comanche. I was really surprised when I read this it changed my perspective. By the way, as I understand it most of the Spanish ponies were either Pinto or Appaloosa. I don't think the Spanish knew of the Arabians in those days.

I saw a story a couple of days ago about a couple that went through a bitter custody fight during a divorce action. The husband won custody. The wife then sought out the Vagabonds motorcycle club and solicited them to kill her ex-husband. The police sniffed it out and put a stop to it and arrested the wife who confessed. She did several years of hard time before being released. After this she filed a suit claiming half of her ex-husband’s assets and won for crying out loud! This happened in California where there is a “no-fault” divorce law which allowed this woman to seek half of the man’s assets no matter what. There is also a law stating that a criminal cannot profit from their crimes. The judicial system is in quite a quandary in California, but what else can you expect from California.

Y'all know that I am a member of two internet “dating sites” where I go grazing on occasion. I am not really looking for date it is just that I read their profiles in hopes that I will get a glimpse at how the female minds operates. It ain't working. What I did find that under “My favorite things” category about 70% “Want to take a walk on the beach hand in hand at sunset”. Many of them want “flowers for no apparent reason”. They want to “Have coffee or a drink and interesting conversation to see if there is any “chemistry”. I am not sure what that means but I am assuming it means mutual attraction. I can assure you that a men's sense of “chemistry” is a hell of a lot different than a woman's. It is a well known fact that men more readily remember what they see than what they hear. I think it goes back to the Cro-Magnon/Neanderthal days when men were hunter/gatherers and depended heavily on vision to make a kill. The women stayed around the campfire and relied on their hearing to warn them of predators. That is my theory anyway. I still am confused about the pics in the profiles. The lady whose profile I looked at had a nice pic of her and it said ten more pics. Of the remaining 10 pics four were of hers dogs, one of her cat, two of either a sunrise or a sunset somewhere, one of her with two of her daughters and one with her with her graduating high school class of 270 in 1960. After this I sent her a pic of my Nandinas that are in severe need of trimming, a pic of my neighbor's new grill, a pic of my nephew driving my brother's Corvette, a pic of me and my brother fishing in Alaska, a pic of me and my father with a large string of bass caught in Lake Hartwell in April of 1983, and finally a pic of my brother's Yellow lab Kaylee. This should give her a lot of insight into who and what I am as hers did for me.

Not long ago I went to my family doctor for my regular visit which is every four or five months. Since I am a two time cancer survivor he wants to see me on a regular basis. He was very pleased that my blood pressure was well within tolerance and my glucose (blood-sugar) count was almost perfect. Most of all he was pleased that I had lost 32 pounds in the last year and I am pleased also. This happened because I cut waaayyy back on the sauce and changed my diet to avoid red meat and nothing white (rice, bread, grits, etc). This means a hell of a lot of broiled or grilled chicken and/or fish but it is obviously working. I owe thanks to my eldest daughter for really bitching me out about my weight the last time I was in Florida. By the way, my daughters think my doctor is a witch doctor. I don't know about all that but I am in pretty good health for my age considering how badly I have treated myself and having cancer twice...my doctor gave me a black cat bone, eye of newt, a mojo (not you Cath), a doll made to look like my worst enemy that I can stick pins in along with lessons in the ancient art of creating Zombies...but that don't make him a witch doctor...does it?

This Date in History June 17

1775 On this date British General Charles Howe landed at Charles Town, Massachusetts near Boston with an infantry force and headed toward Breeds Hill where a known Patriot armed force waited. Breeds Hill was just south of a larger one named Bunker Hill. Breeds hill was on the property of John and Abigail Adams and they were indeed witnesses to the battle. The Patriots were led by General William Prescott and it was he who supposedly uttered the famous phrase “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” Sure enough, the Patriots waited until the neatly aligned and arranged British lines were within 40 yards and they opened up with a blistering fusillade which forced the British to retreat and re-aligned their lines and then they tried it again. The Patriots were again ready and waited until the British within 40 yards and opened up again forcing another retreat. The British again retreated out of range and re-grouped. On the third charge the British did not stop and retreat but kept coming and forced the Patriots to retreat. This first organized engagement between the British and the Patriots was a tactical victory for the Patriots because the British lost over 80 men while the Patriots lost less than 20. The down side was this battle proved the resolve of the British Army to achieve their objective. The Patriots knew they were in for a long haul indeed. This was the Battle of Bunker Hill and it was the end of the beginning, we were now committed to our war for Independence and freedom.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

Confucius

Yesterday in a segment about the Magna Carta I wrote that both King John and Richard the Lionhearted was sons of Elizabeth I. That was wrong. They both were sons of Eleanor of Aquitane who became queen of England when married to Henry II. I will try to do better.

What $1 Billion will get you:

The Chicago Cubs.

The Hannah Montana franchise.

The Los Angeles Lakers.

A small down payment on the restoration of the Gulf of Mexico.

I will never understand people. I send out my thoughts via the electronic media or verbally nearly every day but it is rare that I receive others thoughts. Either I am too outgoing and open or everybody else thinks those paranoids are out to get them and withhold their feelings. To quote a Japanese holy man “To achieve perfect peace forget everything you know or have ever known and just 'be'” That is a tall order for most of us because most of the time a piece of our heart and soul is in the possession of others.

Recently there have been two mass murders using knives, one was in Calgary, Canada, the other was in Santa Barbara, Cal. I wonder if the US Government is going to try to levy a limit on the length, width, keenness and number of knives that can owned by one individual. Why is there no more an intense attack on automobiles that cause untold death, injury and destruction? After all, the automobile is the instrument used...like a knife or a firearm. There is no comparison as to the number of people killed by vehicular homicide compared to all others combined. All I can think of is there are more voters that do not own firearms than drive cars. The safety of the general public is not the issue. The number of firearms in the US was known by the leader of the Japanese Navy before WWII. Admiral Yamamoto was schooled at Harvard and knew the manufacturing might of the US and that the masses were armed and an invasion would be met with millions of firearms and millions of deaths for his troops.

This Date in History June 16

1567 Earlier Mary, Queen of Scots returned from France where she had been married to the Dauphin (apparent heir to the French throne) and later he did indeed become the King of France with Mary as the Queen Consort. The King died and Mary could not assume the throne because she was not of a French royal blood line. She returned to Scotland looking to take the throne of Scotland. While she was gone to France Scotland had been ruled by a group of Scottish regents. Mary was notorious for being a promoter of Catholics and the rock-ribbed Presbyterian Scotsmen would have none of it. Mary raised an army (all Catholic) and attempted to take Scotland by force but a Scottish Army beat the crap out of Mary's army and on this date she was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle. Mary escaped and fled to England where her cousin Elizabeth I was queen and Mary was given sanctuary. Later on it was found that there was a cabal afoot to assassinate Elizabeth so Mary could take the throne and she promised to stack the English hierarchy with Catholics. Mary indeed was in line to be crowned Queen after the passing of Elizabeth because they were both descendants of Henry VIII. When Elizabeth found this out Mary was imprisoned in a variety of castles and manor houses. Elizabeth let her cool her heels for 18 ½ years but Mary finally had a rendezvous with a big guy with a big axe and a black hood on the lawn of Fotheringhay castle and went to meet her maker in two pieces.

1822 A man named Denmark Vessy was planning a slave rebellion in South Carolina. Vessy was an ex-slave who had bought his freedom when he won $1,500 in a lottery. He tried and tried to buy his wife's freedom to no avail so he started planning a slave uprising hoping this would lead to his wife's emancipation. The planning was discovered and on this day Vessy was arrested in Charleston, SC. Two weeks later Vessy was hanged from a tree on “Oyster Point” which is now know as “The Battery.”

1829 A child is born in a Mescalero Apache campsite in New Mexico. His name in English was Jerome but in Apache his name was Geronimo. I suppose all of you have heard of this great warrior. His first wife and two children were murdered by the Mexican army and that set the tone for the rest of Geronimo's life. He led his people from capture by the United States cavalry for many years. It was said that under his leadership it was very rare that any American trooper even caught sight of one of his warriors much less Geronimo himself. Finally after many of his horses were found and destroyed by the US Cavalry and his people were starving, Geronimo surrendered. He spent the next 20 years as a prisoner of war. But there was one famous person that admired him. Theodore Roosevelt had Geronimo in his inauguration parade. Geronimo went to the Happy Hunting Ground in 1909 at the age of 79...but his legacy continues.

1909 On this day many who consider to be the greatest athlete of all time pitched a 4-2 win playing for Rocky Mount, NC of the East Carolina Baseball League. It was Jim Thorpe. Later on Jim went to the Olympics as a track and field star and won more medals than any of the others by far. The Olympic committee found out about his playing in a minor league baseball game and demanded all the Olympic medals back. Back then the participants had to be undeniable amateurs to be in the Olympics and that game made Jim a professional. A lot of people including myself think that Jim was targeted because he was a full blooded Native American and that did not sit well for the race conscious jackasses of the day.

1913 On this day the South African Parliament passed a law that no blacks could own land in South Africa. Help me understand this. The natives have been on that land for at least 3 million years and now they can't own land? This abomination was corrected later on but the English and Dutch domination allowed the creation of the greatest empire the world has ever seen regardless of the cost to others. But on the other hand, we Americans did almost the same thing to the native Americans here. The only difference is that as far as we know the native Americans have only been in North America for about 14,000 years...like that would make a difference.

1943 Beaumont, Texas was a hub of shipbuilding during WWII, as was the case in many areas of America, there was much racial tension in the Houston/Beaumont area. On this day a race riot erupted in Beaumont involving many that worked in the shipyards. One African/American and one white man were killed and 50 injured. A large crowd of whites moved toward a jail with the intention of lynching what blacks were in there. Sheriff Bill Richardson holding a Thompson sub-machine gun met the crowd in the middle of the street and order them to disperse...or else. He ended this fiasco by telling them that we need ships for the war effort and that is only thing that should be on their minds. Thank you Sheriff Richardson...and the Tommy gun.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Monday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I went to my doctor and told him I wanted a vasectomy. The doctor told me that with my face I will not need one.”

                                     Rodney Dangerfield

A while back I told y’all about the massacre of Jacob Hite and family by the Cherokees near Greer, SC back in 1776. The Patriots assembled a small army led by Captain Thomas Howard and set out in pursuit. Howard's small army was mostly Creek Indians (Cherokee foes for centuries) and a guide named Skyuka. The Patriots had a brief encounter with the Cherokees near Landrum, South Carolina but the Indians retreated deeper into the rugged mountains near Columbus, North Carolina about 20 mile northeast of Landrum. Skyuka led the army through a gap in the mountains known to this day as Howard Gap road. This short cut allowed Howard to position his army into an ambush position and launched an attack upon arrival of the fleeing Cherokees. It was a massacre, y’all. All of the Cherokees were killed or captured. It was the worst massacre of the Cherokees to that date. The attack was launched at the base of what was then named Round Mountain or Warrior Mountain and was known as the Battle of Round Mountain except it was not much of a battle, it was more butchery than anything.

From what I have been reading Mother Nature takes care of the population by the control of the protein. This means that for millennia once people began gathering together in villages the population would be controlled by the amount of protein that was available. Once the amount of protein became not enough to keep people in good health the local diseases like typhus, dysentery, malaria and others will eliminate enough of the population until the needed amount of protein for the population equalized. Eventually the people realized the maximum amount of people in a given area that could be sufficently fed. It was at this point that villages began spreading out and the more sparse the protein the further apart they were.

This Date in History June 15

1215 On this date King John of England put his seal on a document known at the Magna Carta making it the law of the land. King John had taken the reins of the crown of England after the death of his brother King Richard the Lionhearted. Richard was a hell of a warrior but proved to be a poor administrator and his brother King John was neither warrior nor administrator. After Richard died in 1199 a squabble for the crown began, but there was no question that the son of Queen Elizabeth I and the brother of the hero of the Crusades was indeed in line for the crown. Not long after he took control he lost the Duchy of Normandy to French Barons. The Duchy of Normandy was originally owned by William the Conqueror but after he became the King of England and subsequently died, the Duchy of Normandy went up for grabs. Subsequent kings of England believed that the Duchy of Normandy was a possession of English kings and they fought for it. King John lost possession of Normandy because he was a poor military leader so a huge hunk of land on the west coast of France that had been an English possession since the year 1066AD went down the toilet. Soon after this the English barons lost faith in King John and began pressuring him to bring some kind of order to England, especially between the King and the English royalty. King John had drafted this document which described in detail the limitations of the king. This was the first time in European history that the power of a monarch was questioned and this document is considered to be the first baby step toward democracy. By the way, there was a prayer that was said by those Englishmen, Irishmen, Scots and Frenchmen saying “God save us from the wrath of the Northmen”. They were talking about the Vikings coming down from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. For over 500 years they had been coming south feeding off the Europeans in southern Europe and were the most powerful conglomeration of countries on earth. It is from this name “Northman” that brought names like Normandy (Land of the Northman) in fact the very word Northman was degenerated into Norman. In the account of William the Conqueror invading England, it was reported that he had a force of 500 mounted Norman knights and that King Harold of England after being wounded was beheaded by a charging mounted Norman knight. William the Conqueror and his associated knights were direct descendants of those wild-eyed Vikings that sailed south from Scandinavia and took control of lands by force. Around the years 900AD the Viking kings met with some Christian traveling priests and are persuaded to adopt Christianity. After that the Vikings laid down their swords and axes and became a very docile people. I guess they just got all that hostility out of their system. But keep in mind that the Vikings rape and pillage of Europe was so complete that nearly all of us here in America with European ancestry have Vikings somewhere in our DNA.

1904 On this date there was a gathering if men, women, and children from the St. Marks Lutheran Church. The crowd totaled 1,360 people and they were gathered on a dock in lower Manhattan to take a ride up the East River on the side-wheeler boat the “General Slocum” and then go on a picnic. After the boat passed 86^th Street a little girl discovered a fire in a store room and ran up to the captain and told him. The captain said “Shut up and mind your own business.” After a while the smoke became so thick it could not be ignored and the crew tried to put the fire out with an on board fire hose but the hose was old and had never been tested and did not work. The passenger put on life jackets but they were filled with something other that cork and when people jumped over the side they went immediately to the bottom . The captain in his wisdom, rather than to dock the boat where a firefighting unit could get at the fire chose to beach the boat on an island in the river. Except there was no beach, it was all rock which did the expected; the boat was holed and sank amid the rocks. Panic ensued among the passengers and 600 people were killed by the fire and nearly all the others drowned. As you might expect, the shit hit the fan. The captain was not killed but he was tried and convicted of negligence and went to the slammer and the boat company, The Knickerbockers Boat company was heavily fined. There is a memorial ceremony at St. Marks Church every year on June 15.

Born today:

1963 US actress Helen Hunt. She said “To tell the truth. I do not have expensive tastes. I would be just as happy going to the beach and lying in the sun, I would not feel comfortable riding down there in a Bentley convertible,” Me neither, a Lamborghini Diablo would be acceptable.

1877 US writer Caroline Sheridan. She said “Until I truly loved, I was alone.” I think she is talking about the time after she bought a black Lab.

      Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“If England treats her criminals like she treated me, she doesn't deserve to have any.”

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was jailed for having a years long homosexual affair with the son of the Marquis of Queensbury...the son was not jailed, however.

A couple of days ago I wrote about my trip to Omaha Beach for the ceremony honoring the 60^th Anniversary of D-Day. Some people showed interest about other events during that trip, if any. Here is a continuation. My companion and I flew from Charlotte, NC (I was living there then) to Newark, NJ. We left Newark in a British Airways Boeing 777 at about 10:00p EST headed to Heathrow airport near London. We landed at about 8:30a London time and arrived at our hotel about 10:00a. I did not sleep a wink as is my nature and I don't think my companion did either. The front desk said that our room would not be ready until about 1:30p. They had a bar (named Humphrey's) in the lobby that did not open until that afternoon. So my companion and I ducked under the red rope into the bar, crawled under one of the tables and went to sleep. We were awakened about 1:35p and told our room was ready. We went to the room, unpacked, took a shower and slept some more. Then we found the Stanhope Pub. More about this later

Recently those in charge of The Citadel decided to continue to allow the Confederate flag to fly over this institution. The Citadel is a private military school in Charleston, SC. It seems that some people were “offended” and wanted the flag removed permanently. Did y'all notice I wrote that it is a “private” institution meaning they can fly any freaking flag they want. I am not offended nor is anyone in my social group, do we count? What I am offended by is those people that do not know one scintilla of the history of this nation. All the hell they know is someone told them that they should be offended by the Confederate flag because it means the advocacy of slavery. That is not what it means to me and I am very, very knowledgeable as to what happened between 1861 and 1865. Included in that time period cadets from the Citadel assisted in the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. This volunteer action cost of several of their lives. That flag flies over Citadel to this day in their honor. Someone asked me what that flag means to me and I said “It represents the death of about 640,000 Americans in a tragic war. That is all I need to know.” Here is a quote: “Find out for yourself about what really happened because if you just believe what you are told then it is you that is the slave.” That quote is mine.

Here is a story told by deceased Civil War historian Shelby Foote:

He said that there was a squad of about 8 Confederates surrounded by a company of Union infantry. A Union officer demanded their surrender to no avail. The Confederates continued to fight ferociously until there was only one Confederate left alive but not before grabbing his rifle by the barrel and swinging it like a baseball bat. Finally the Confederate was wrestled to the ground and subdued. Afterward he was asked why he fought so desperately. He DID NOT say “Because I want that fat cat down in Mississippi to be able to keep his slaves.” What he DID SAY was “Because y'all are down here.”

All of you know that a while back North Korea had threatened to blow up the world because the US and South Korea are holding military maneuvers. The US Air Force had supersonic and stealth bombers cruising over South Korea along with nuclear submarines thick and fleas in the Yellow Sea. There is no question in this horse's mind that the North Koreans were just blowing a lot of smoke to see what they would have to deal with in case of real war. This tactic is an old one going back to the Bible and the exploits of Joshua and the Israeli army. There were many incidents where Joshua would bluff an infantry attack so he could see what power he was facing. The day before the final attack on the Alamo, Mexican General Santa Ana ordered a daylight infantry attack and withdrew after a short time. The defenders realized that the attack was just so he could “count the guns”. He knew where the weaknesses were after this. He ordered an all out attack the next night and focused the heaviest attack at the weaknesses he had seen the day before. As you know, he was successful....for a while. About two weeks later General Sam Houston ordered his troops to attack the encamped army of Santa Ana and they were all but annihilated in 18 minutes. Remember the Alamo! Are you reading this Nancy and Ted?

This Date in History June 12

1862 Earlier General George McClellan had persuaded his military superiors to allow him to bring the Army of the Potomac, 120,000 strong, to the James River peninsula by ship and attack Richmond from the southeast rather than from the obvious direction from the north. The plan had merit but how do you unload 120,000 troops and their associated accouterments without being noticed. They were indeed noticed and the Army of Northern Virginia 60,000 strong, CSA General Robert E. Lee commanding, headed down the peninsula to see what McClellan had in mind. What resulted was later known as the Battle of the Seven Days in which these gigantic armies slugged it out for seven days with McClellan admitting defeat and he took his young ass and his army back to the end of the peninsula and headed back north. But before the battles began in earnest, on this date General Lee tasked his cavalry commander, CSA General J.E.B. Stuart and 1,200 troopers, to reconnoiter McClellan’s left flank for weaknesses. Stuart started out and took a look at the Yankee left but decides to keep going eventually rode completely around the Army of the Potomac arriving back to Lee with a wealth of information but not before raising hell with McClellan’s supply wagons. The ironic thing about this whole trip was that Stuart was chased by several Yankee cavalry units, one of which was lead by US General Phillip St. George Cooke. General Cooke was Stuart’s father-in-law. After the battles began observers said that they could see McClellan begin to sag when he saw how battle chopped and mutilated his men. It is believed that the horror of this vision took most of the fight out of him and later he was relieved because the lack of energy and aggressiveness. In truth, I think it might have the same effect on most of us.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow

Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“Be willing to sacrifice what you are for what you will become.”

                                                 Buddha

Back in 1941 a man/child was born in Dawson, Georgia. Soon thereafter his family moved to Macon, Georgia and this man grew up in a very religious family. From the time he was 7 year old he sang in the church choir. Times were hard for the family and when he was 16 he became a driver/songwriter for a local band named Johnnie Jenkins and the Pinetoppers. One day they stopped at the Stax recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee for the band to make a couple of recordings. At this man's insistence the president of the studio allowed him 2 minutes to record one of his songs. He did These Arms of Mine and the president of the studio said that the hair on his arms stood up and he knew what a great singer he had in his studio. Stax signed him to a recording contract two days later. His fame skyrocketed with the help of another singer name Jerry Butler who was famous already. He went on several tours in Europe and the United States making a fortune very quickly. He ended up with his own airplane that would carry he and his band. In 1961 at the age of 26 his private plane crashed in Wisconsin killing him and his band. In addition to These Arms of Mine he gave us Try a Little Tenderness, R-E-S-P-E-C T made famous by Aretha Franklin and the immortal Dock of the Bay. That's right, y'all, it was Otis Redding. What a damned shame.

This Date in History June 11

1944 As we all know five days earlier the Allies assaulted the Normandy, France coast in five different locations covering about 60 miles. Before the actually beach landings occurred, hundreds of United States and British paratroopers and glider forces landed behind the beaches the night before to suppress any attempt at a counter-attack and destroy artillery covering the beaches. In spite of ferocious resistance by the Germans, especially at Omaha Beach, all the goals set for the assault troops were achieved but at a bloody cost. On schedule, on this date a combined force of 330,000 Allied troops joined up into a solid front, began a pivot toward the east and the heartland of Germany. As I have said in the past, during this pivot to the east over 20,000 German troops were trapped near the town of Falaise, France and all but a handful were killed by the British VIII army from the north and the American 3^rd Army from the south. It was a massacre, y'all. Just a few hundred Germans escaped. Once the Allies had assembled this gigantic front, the outcome of the war was assured even though many days of bloody warfare were still ahead because as General Eisenhower said, “The German infantry dies hard”.

I have added the following by special request:

Two cases of “Sophistication”

A while back I was in Pensacola, Florida and I went into a very large fish market with a small delicatessen attached. I gathered up that evenings dinner which was a grouper filet, about 12 prawns (extra large shrimp) and a quart of jumbo oysters. I went through the check-out line for the seafood first because they iced it down for you. Then I decided that I needed vegetables to counter-balance all that protein and cholesterol so I drifted into the deli. The deli had all Boars’ Head meat and nearly everything else in there is of gourmet quality. They even had a small collection of fresh vegetables including asparagus. I figured steamed asparagus with butter and garlic would be a great addition so I grab some and headed to the small checkout counter manned by a girl that looked to be about 16 . The girl looked at the asparagus and said “What is that?” I said “It is asparagus.” She said “How do you spell it?” obviously looking for it on the touch screen but could not find it. By then the others in line behind me began to giggle so I said “Never mind, sweetie, I have changed my mind” and took the asparagus back to the case and left hoping to spare that girl any further embarrassment. Actually, I was the one that was embarrassed. To those that are familiar, it was Joe Patti's Seafood Market.

You never know the level of sophistication of the other person no matter how basic. This and one other event taught me a valuable lesson in not assuming the other person knows what you do.

The other event was when I was with a woman that I had been dating a few weeks and we were riding down the Main Street of Greenville, SC when we stopped at a traffic light. She pointed to a large building on the corner and said “Al, what is that building?” I said “It is the Peace Center.” She said “What is it for?” I said “Well, they have Broadway shows, operas, concerts and special entertainment events of all kinds. Surely you know about it, it has been in the papers for almost a year.” Then she said “Al, I can’t read.” Then it dawned on me why she had always had me order for her at restaurants, she could not read the menu. Needless to say, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I apologized and mentally made a note to never assume anything about the other person, again I was the one that was embarrassed.

After all, I had never laid eyes on, or even barely heard of a pizza until I joined the Air Force. I had never had “fast food” other than a very rare chili dog, either. In fact there was no “fast food” restaurant chains invented yet. There were “drive-in restaurants” such as two or three “Clocks”, two or three “Pete’s”, a “Palmetto”, a “Carolina”, a “Rainbow” and a “Sam’s Lunch” downtown where everybody used to go get a hot dog and a Coke after a basketball game that was about it. We did not go those places to eat anyway; we went there to meet girls. My brother, sister and I led a pretty Spartan life, but I do not ever remember being unhappy.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow