- Musings and HistoryQuote of the day:“Life is a smorgasbord. Take a little bite of different parts of it every day.”Al CampbellTrivia question of the day:Elton John wrote the song “Candle In The Wind” about a person. Who was it?This is from a while back:As far as I am concerned the sky has fallen. The incoming tide on Pensacola Beach, Florida on Tuesday night brought a sheet of black tar and a chocolate brown sheet of emulsified crude oil. There was no mention of the aroma but from my days working in the oil fields I remember a heavy naptha/motor oil smell. It makes me very sad to see such a pristine, sugar white beach spoiled in that fashion. In addition to that, it makes me very angry. The problem is that they are wearing HAZMAT coveralls made of Kevlar. Kevlar is a tightly woven material that does not breathe. Not only that, the suit is taped at the ankles and wrists and full masks are worn. That is because that most petroleum can contain toxic benzene which can be absorbed through the skin. With the temperature in the nineties the workers cannot stay in the sun any longer than 15 to 20 minutes at a time because of the chance of heat stroke. This extends the clean up period several times over. The night clean-up crew worked at a much faster pace and the beach was clean by Thursday morning. I say clean, but there still was a visible stain on the sand at the high tide mark. I will still go down there this year to visit with my trashy friends but it will not be the same. There is a ritual that is followed almost every morning, weather permitting. There is a man named “Mayor Bob” Merrimon that sets up on the beach for two or three hours in the morning and sunbaths. Bob is a friend of mine and even if he is not the official “Mayor” he is acknowledged to be the leader of the sun worshippers. Bob is in his mid-eighties and has a golden tan year round. When Bob sets up on the beach, there is a crowd of other sun worshippers that gather around him. Bob identifies his location with a portable flag pole with several identifiable flags aflutter. Dependent upon the aroma of the oil pollution, those days may be over. Bob has been holding his morning ritual for 30 years. It is possible that he will move over to Santa Rosa Sound and set up, but it will not be the same. From now on I will plan carefully where I buy my gasoline, I can promise you it will not be BP.Thursday afternoon the Brussels, Belgium police with a search warrant in hand, raided the home and office of a Roman Catholic Archbishop named Godfried Daneels. The cops captured a lot of written material and the hard drive out of his computer. Y’all can guess what the raid was all about but it was in connection with the sexual abuse of minors. The police were not specific if they were looking for evidence against the Archbishop himself of for information about others that participated. The cops did say that the Archbishop was fully cooperating. There is no telling for how long or how much abuse of children has been evident over the centuries.This Date in History June 251876 Earlier the US Army tasked three US cavalry commanders to form three columns and proceed to south and central Montana and round up the hostile Sioux and Cheyenne and escort them to reservations. A few days earlier the main column of US General John Gibbon was attacked by over 2,000 Sioux warriors and was forced to retreat and re-group. This critical information never reached the other two columns thus informing them of the number of hostiles out there. Anyway, it was on this day that one of the divisions of US General Terry; the 7th Cavalry commanded by Colonel George Custer approached an area of Montana known as Greasy Grass to the Indians. Several of Custer’s Crow and Shoshone scouts return to Custer with word of the largest Indian gathering ever seen on the northern plains and suggested they wait for reinforcements. Custer blew them off and said they were exaggerating. They were not exaggerating, there were over 5,000 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Custer ordered his troops into a two pronged attack formation. The Crow and Shoshone scouts asked for time to sing their death songs but Custer refused and launched the attack. He sent Major Benteen and Major Reno and their commands to attack from the east and Custer swung around and attacked from the north. From the time the first shot was fired an estimated 2,500 wild-eyed Sioux and Cheyenne swarmed out of the sea of teepees and delivered the mother of all ass-kickings. Major Benteen and Major Reno were immediately overwhelmed and were forced to dismount and fight from cover. They eventually retreated in a rout and were forced to leave Custer alone. When Custer saw the overwhelming number of warriors approaching, he hastily established a defense perimeter but it was too little too late. Crazy Horse surrounded the small group and picked them off one at a time until they were all dead. Then the worst happened. The Sioux and Cheyenne women came in and heavily mutilated the dead troopers. It was their belief that if a man’s body was not complete, he could not go to heaven (happy hunting ground). 227 US cavalry troopers were massacred on this day, but the Indians paid a price that has been exacted every day since.1915 Four days before at the Battle of Ypres in Belgium the Germans unleashed a chlorine gas attack on their French adversaries via artillery shells. The French raised almighty hell at these “barbarism”. Once a person inhales chlorine gas, he dies by drowning in his own body fluids. It is horrible death that takes a long time. On this date the Germans respond by calling the French hypocrites because the French had already invented Mustard gas that is designed for warfare. That was true, but the French had not yet used it. A few weeks earlier the French has indeed used tear gas in an attack on the Germans which essentially blinded the German troops although temporarily, but it did allow the French infantry to attack unopposed. In short, the Germans did not repent nor apologize and the “War to End All Wars” continued its bloody course. Germany lost this war primarily because of the entry into the war by the British and the United States. After the end of the war in 1919 Germany was totally beaten and impoverished making it prime territory someone to restore German pride and hope. That individual showed his ugly head in Munich in 1934 in the form of Adolph Hitler and soon hell on earth prevailed.The answer to the trivia question.The person “Candle In The Wind” was written about was Marilyn Monroe or Norma Jean Baker.Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
This is my commentary on current news items, what's happening around my neck of the woods and what happened on this date in history. I sometimes get on my soapbox and stay there a while so be prepared.
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Wednesday
- Musings and HistoryQuote of the day: “Civilian politicians make policy, not Generals.”President Harry Truman when firing US General Douglas MacArthur.Trivia question of the day:Other than size what is the main difference between an ostrich and an emu? Answer at the end of the blog.Here is a little of my ancestry on my father's side. I know nothing earlier that this census report of 1910. My Grandfather was 33 years old living in Cross Anchor, South Carolina with my Grandmother who was 22 years old. He worked in the card room of a local cotton mill and my grandmother was a house wife. They had a daughter named Nora and a son named Roy who was from from my Grandfather's previous marriage. Here is a few facts to put thing into perspective. My Grandfather was born one year after Little Big Horn. He was 5 years old when Jesse James was murdered. My Grandmother was two years old when the Massacre at Wounded Knee occurred. Makes me feel old...but I am old. Thanks again to Mr. Ralph McGlasson for his research. My maternal grandmother was 5 years old when Jesse James was killed and lived to see a man on the moon. Think about that.This Date in History June 241997 On this day the United States issues its final report on the 1948 incident at Roswell, New Mexico. The locals in the area had reported that a space ship in the shape of a disc had crashed in the desert on a ranch owned by J. J. Brazell. While riding patrol on the ranch, Brazell ran across some scattered metallic debris and two bodies, one alive and the other dead. His descriptions of the bodies are what you imagine them to be today. Big head, small torso, large almond shaped eyes, almost no nostrils or lips, very short and skin with a greenish tint. The local newspaper printed that it was indeed a “flying saucer” and the bodies were those of alien beings. Well, United States Air Force officers and other government officials descended on Roswell and the alleged crash site like locusts and spirited away any scrap of evidence including the bodies. The next day the local newspaper reported that it was a high altitude balloon that had crashed with two dummies that were to be used for high altitude parachute tests. And that is the report that was issued on this date as the “official’ report on the incident and the US government would no longer discuss the incident. There are two things that keep my interest alive when it comes to this and that is soon after the Government officials departed the Roswell area, a hangar at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio became restricted with an armed AP’s guarding it. Wright-Patterson was noted for its medical facilities on site. Another thing was the extraordinary activity near Grooms Lake, Nevada. This place eventually became the infamous Area 51. By the way, if you have “Google Earth” software, you can crank in ‘Grooms Lake” or just look at the west central area of the Nevada desert and , Voila!, there is an airport with two very, very long runways and various and assorted buildings in a place where the US Government says that there is no such place. I look at it frequently and can see aircraft on the ground but I am unable to determine what kind. Secret bases always make me suspicious.1675 After fifty years of relative harmony the settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Wampanoag tribe began to have disharmony. It all started when the Indians found out that they had a “mole” in the tribe. A “mole” is one that spies on his tribe for the British. Anyway the mole was discovered and killed. This angered the British and they captured and killed three of the tribe. Well, not to be out done, the chief of the tribe named King Phillip sent an attack group to the new English settlement of Swansea, Massachusetts and killed every air-breather there, including birds and livestock. Well, y'all know what happened next. A young war broke out between the tribe and the settlers known as King Phillip’s War. Soon the whole of New England was involved in destroying Indian villages and the Indians destroying settler’s villages. It was a massacre on both sides. The settlers accidentally burned a Narragansett village which brought them onto King Philip’s side and the war was escalated. The Narragansett were easily overcome but King Philip was another story. That tribe was finally brought under control but not before King Philip was found in his secret headquarters in Rhode island and was assassinated by yet another British ”mole”. After this the settlers finally gained control as peace again prevailed.1812 After Czar Alexander I rejected the “continental” plan as described by Napoleon Bonaparte making Napoleon the ruler of the European continent, Napoleon assembles what he calls the “Grand Armee” in anticipation of the invasion of Russia. Napoleon has amassed over 500,000 troops for this adventure. On this day, the invasion began. Napoleon made the same mistake Hitler made 30 years later. He waited too long before advancing. The result was that winter arrived before their objectives were met. When Napoleon and his army arrive at the gates of Moscow and Petersburg in the middle of the winter, he smelled smoke and soon all of Moscow was an inferno. The Russians had move out into the countryside carrying their extra food and supplies with them and burned any building that could be used as shelter denying Napoleon and his army protection from the fierce Russian winter that was already upon them. Napoleon had no choice but head back to France. The Russian army was waiting. At nearly every bridge the Russians would wait until the majority of the troops were across and then burn the bridge stranding some of Napoleon’s troops on the other side where they were massacred by the awaiting Russians. Napoleon arrived back in the Balkans with just over 100,000 troops. That right folks, he had lost 400,000 troops. This adventure by Napoleon is one of the worst military disasters in recorded history.1853 As one might expect, the California gold rush brought a lot of gold seekers but it also brought a hell of a lot of bandits one of which was Joachim Murrieta and his number one henchman “Three Fingered” Jack. Joachim and Jack were raising hell with the gold miners and were named “The Terror of the Stanislaus” meaning the Stanislaus River. The miners finally got fed up and hired a group of professional man-hunters to bring Joachim and Jack to justice. Joachim became this vengeful because he came to the Stanislaus River from Mexico to pan for gold but because of his Mexican heritage, he was beaten, his claim stolen and his wife repeatedly raped. After all of this Joachim formed his own gang of Mexicans and sought his revenge. Anyway, the man-hunters hired by the miners departed Stockton, California seeking Joachim and his gang. It was reported that the man-hunters found Joachim and his gang near El Tajon Pass. On this day they arrived back in Stockton and spiked the head of Joachim Murrieta on top of a lamp post and hung the hand of Three Fingered Jack on a string below. They explained that it was a lot easier to do it this way than to have to bring them in alive.Born today:1842 US writer Ambrose Bierce. He said there are four kinds of murder. “Felonious, excusable, justifiable and praiseworthy.” Does anyone know a person that fits the last two?1915 English astronomer Sir Fred Doyle. He said “Space is not that far away. You can reach it in your car in a couple of hours if you drive straight up.”1946 US enonomist Robert Reich. He said “In Washington it is dog eat dog. In academia it just the opposite.”Answer to the trivia question:The ostrich has only two toes on each foot where the emu and all other birds have three or more.Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
Monday, June 22, 2020
Tuesday
- Musings and HistoryQuote of the day:“Go for it today. The future is promised to no one.”William DyerI had an amateur genealogist look into my ancestry and found some interesting things. My Great-Great grandparents Andrew Justus was born in Newberry, SC in 1805 and Hanna Gilreath as born in Greenvile County, SC in 1809. They were married in 1829 and moved to Hendersonville, NC. They had 9 children one of which was Walker Sevier Justus my Great Grandfather and the father of Laura Christine Justus Blair, my maternal grandmother. Of their 9 children 4 of their sons died in the Civil War fighting for the CSA. Two died at Petersburg, Va, one at Fredericksburg, Va. and one at Valley Mountain, Va. Two died of disease and the cause of death of the other two is unknown but the dates of their deaths corresponds to well known battles. Death by disease was common in those days because of the lack of sanitation and very septic treatment of wounds resulting in gangrene. This is my mother's side of my family my father's side will come later. I want to thank Mr. Ralph McGlasson for his research and this report.A while back the ex-mayor of North Charleston, South Carolina Bobby Kinard had convinced himself that his estranged wife had a boyfriend. He retrieved his handgun and went to her apartment. The man that Bobby thought was his wife’s paramour was there and Bobby shot him. The man was just wounded but when a police car pulled up outside Bobby took his own life. Bobby’s wife said that he had been suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome from his days as a helicopter door gunner in Vietnam. His depression was so severe lately that he was seeing a psychiatrist and taking powerful anti-depressants. He talked frequently about being in combat but to make matters worse, his son is in a combat unit in Afghanistan. His wife claims that the man Bobby wounded was just a friend. At one point in my life I was accused by a very jealous husband of being the lover of his wife. They were going through a very bitter divorce at the time. I was not even a friend of this woman much less a lover but I could have ended up very dead. I just kept a lot of space between me and that man and woman until everything calmed down. No, I did not pursue her even then; I was not going to take a chance.This Date in History June 231996 On this date John Gotti, better known as the “The Teflon Don”, is sentenced to life without parole on a RICO charge. A RICO charge is about racketeering but Gotti was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and extortion. He had been arrested and put on trial and had been acquitted many times thus the nickname “Teflon Don”. Gotti was raised on the mean streets of Brooklyn, New York and became a member on organized crime at an early age. He was an enforcer or one who collected money due the organization by what ever means it took, including murder. He worked his way up to a “capo” or a captain which was third in line to the “Don” or the head of the organization. Gotti was an ambitious devil and decided that the wanted to be the head of his organization which was a branch of the Gambino crime family. The leader of Gotti’s group was Paul “Big Pauli” Castellano. Castellano was a tall man with salt and pepper wavy hair. After a while Gotti decided that he had reached a point where he needed to take over the leadership so he did the honorable thing. He sent three assassins to Sparks Steak House in Brooklyn and awaited the arrival of Big Pauli who was known to be coming there for supper. Sure enough Big Pauli and the driver of his limo Anthony “Fat Tony” Bilotti arrived and the assassins open up with a hailstorm of automatic gunfire and Big Pauli and Fat Tony are dead before they hit the sidewalk. The next day began the reign of John Gotti. Gotti died a horrible death in prison from cancer of the throat. God works in mysterious ways.1959 Back in 1930 a brilliant but young scientist in Germany name Klaus Fuchs joins the German Communist Party. In 1934 Klaus decides that he had better get the hell out of Germany because of the rise of the Nazi Party which was the dead set enemy of Communists. So he moved to London and is soon recognized for the brilliant scientist that he was. A few years later England and the United States began testing the waters for a nuclear weapon. England hired Fuchs in spite of his Communist background and used him as a research scientist for a nuclear project. Fuchs did not disappoint and proved to be very knowledgeable. The English sent Fuchs to the United States and was absorbed into the Manhattan Project and in fact he joined the other scientists at Los Alamos, New Mexico where the first actual nuclear device was invented and detonated. Little did anyone know that Fuchs had already contacted a Soviet spy and began feeding his information on the progress of America’s attempt at a nuclear weapon. In fact he sent this spy the actual blueprint of “Fat Man” or the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. It was after the capture of Fuchs and the understanding of how much damaging information had been passed to the Russians that Harry Truman authorized the research into a H-bomb, or a bomb that was a thousand times more powerful that the Hiroshima bomb. The first one of these was detonated in 1952. Anyway, Fuch was found out and convicted and went to prison. He was released on this date for good behavior after just 12 years. They could not try him for treason because neither England nor the United States was at war with Russia at the time of the acts of espionage. Fuch immediately went to Communist East Germany where he lived out his days. He died in 1988, the chicken-shit bastard that he was.1776 Earlier England had called sea Captain Peter Parker out of a ten year retirement and tasked him with capturing Charleston, South Carolina and providing support to the Loyalists. On this date Captain Parker and his armada approached Charleston and opened fire on Sullivan’s Island embrasures. The fortifications were made with Palmetto logs that are so soft that the naval artillery shells just buried into the logs and did not explode doing little or no damage. Then the commander of the forces on Sullivan’s Island, Colonel William Moultrie, directed a very accurate and efficient return barrage that did tremendous damage to Parker’s ships especially his flagship the HMS Bristol. Parker himself was injured in both legs and ended up with his pants removed so his wounds could be treated. To add insult to injury the Royal Governor William Campbell who was also on the Bristol, was killed along with 261 more English sailors. The HMS Sphinx had its bowsprit shot away and the HMS Actaeon ran aground right in front of Moultrie’s deadly guns and was shot into kindling. Captain Parker decided to get out of range of Moultrie’s death dealing ordinance and the battle was ended. The Patriots suffered six with minor injuries.1878 In 1822 Martin Sweeney was born somewhere in New Jersey. At the age of 23 he got gold fever and headed west and ended up being a blacksmith on an Apache Indian reservation. Sweeney became absorbed into the Apache lifestyle and gained a great respect for the Apache abilities to survive in the desert when honkies could not. He was asked to be a US Government liaison officer since he had learned the language. Sweeney refused because he found something that held his attention better and that being mining speculation. Along the way Sweeney gained a reputation as a man with a quick temper and an even quicker set of fists. He and a partner named Oliver Boyer bought controlling interest in silver mines near Tombstone, Arizona. On this date, Martin and his partner Oliver, enter into a heated argument. Even though Sweeney was good with his fists he did not pack a gun but Oliver did. The argument reached a fever pitch and eventually Oliver pulled a gun and shot Martin in the chest killing him instantly. Oliver was sentenced to 25 years in prison.Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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