Sunday - February 27, 2005

History and Science

It’s taken a long time but soon we may be able to get better insight into the link between early Jamestown settlers and England.

For those of you worried about the Hubble telescope falling to earth soon, it looks like it may get a one year lease on life.

The report comes from Berkley.  The finding took place in China.  I just do not know if I can believe a “bear-dog” existed.

It’s all about credibility, eh?

For the sake of animals we sacrifice humans.  And animal rights assholes like PETA and Audubon society clap thunderously.

Read this for a better insight into the real dangers of NOT using DDT.

Here’s a snippet:

Although some birds declined before DDT, they became much more abundant during the years of greatest DDT-use. But facts have not impeded the endless repetition of Carson’s bird myth.

Or this:

One experimenter, to demonstrate eggshell-thinning, fed quail a diet with DDT but containing only one-fifth of the normal amount of calcium. His experiment succeeded in producing thinner eggshells, but his deception was exposed.

More?  How about this:

THE BROWN PELICAN AND the peregrine falcon did suffer declines in population, but not because of DDT, according to Professor Edwards’s article, “DDT Effects on Bird Abundance and Reproduction.”

Brown pelicans suffered, not from fish they ate but from their catastrophic reproductive failure caused by the great Santa Barbara oil spill surrounding their nesting colonies on the island of Anacapa. Federal and California officials ignored the oil spill and attributed pelican difficulties “solely to DDT in the environment.”

In Texas, peregrine falcons declined from 5,000 in 1918 to 200 in 1941, three years before DDT. Around the Gulf of Mexico, they declined from 1918 to 1934 by 82 percent, but the 1935 survey was done 15 years before any DDT appeared.

Likewise, in the East, peregrine falcons declined long before there was any DDT present there, because of egg-collectors and falconers. Falconers “raided every nest they could find” and shot falcons on sight.

Junk science. pure junk science.  Rachel Carson should be exhumed and her remains fed to bald eagles.  Her followers should be rounded up, sterilized and have a restraining order clapped on their asses to keep them from spreading their lies. 

You’ll excuse me while I go dust the waterway behind my house with some that I bought at a garage sale a couple of years ago.

Imagine yourself frozen for 32,000 and then getting warmed back up again---to discover you still live!!

Now imagine yourself a bacteria.

   Wednesday - February 23, 2005

Photo Dictionary

Recently, several Barking Moonbats have taken to using words in the English language in a warped and twisted manner. These asshats have referred to: victims of 9/11 as “little Eichmanns”, the US invasion of Iraq as “aggression”, the Jewish settlement in Israel as “occupation”, and may other distortions of the language that do not bear repeating.

In order to clarify this and set the record straight, the BMEWS Librarian has compiled the following pictorial to help people keep straight in their minds what these words mean. Please pay attention. There will be a test later ....

AGGRESSION: ag·gres·sion (noun) - 1. The act of initiating hostilities or invasion; 2. The practice or habit of launching attacks; 3. Hostile or destructive behavior or actions.

Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941

New York - September 11, 2001

OCCUPATION: oc·cu·pa·tion (noun) - 1. Invasion, conquest, and control of a nation or territory by foreign armed forces; 2. The military government exercising control over an occupied nation or territory.

German Army in Paris, 1940

Iraqi Army in Kuwait, 1990

TRAITOR: trai·tor (noun) - 1: someone who betrays his country by committing treason; 2: a person who says one thing and does another.

Jane Fonda, Hanoi - 1972

Ward Churchill, University Of Colorado - 2005

GENOCIDE: gen·o·cide (noun) - 1.  The systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group.

Auschwitz, Germany

Kurdistan, Iraq

Print this guide out and keep it with you at all times. The next time some smelly hippy or leftist demonstrator verbally abuses you with “Bush is Hitler!”, or “America deserved what happened on 9/11!”, or “Israel is occupying Palestine!”, or “America is practicing genocide by not sending enough money to Africa!” .... just whip these pictures out and show them to the mental midget and while he (or she) is gazing at the pictures kick the living shit out of him (or her).

   Tuesday - February 01, 2005

Kind, Loving, Peaceful?

Kind, Loving, Peaceful?

Surely you all can recall how the leftist, tree-hugging, self-flagellating apologists in this country would moan and cry about how EVIL the white man was, especially Columbus and those NASTY SPANISH guys when they conquered the peace-loving Indians......ooops, “indigenous peoples.”

The Spanish are blamed for robbing, looting, pillaging, raping, enslaving, introducing disease (on purpose--as if they even KNEW what diseases were back then) and otherwise decimating entire populations of Indians............oops, “indigenous peoples.”

They waste no time telling us how the world would be a better place if they were still around to teach us about peace, love, understanding, getting along with mother nature, living off the land instead of pillaging it for resources, etc. 

We are also told how we should be ashamed that we came here and took their lands by force using our guns and cannons against their sticks, stones, bows, arrows and spears.  Well, if they were so great as a civilization, why didn’t THEY have guns and cannons?

The answer to THAT question is easy.........these “indigenous people” were too busy being SAVAGES!!!!! They enslaved their own people.  They warred with one another. 

They engaged in ritual sacrifice.

Often. 

And with a great many victims.  Many of them children.  (GASP!!  OH, NO!  NOT CHILDREN!!) And what happened to these victims?  Glad you asked.  They:

“had their hearts cut out or were decapitated, shot full of arrows, clawed, sliced to death, stoned, crushed, skinned, buried alive or tossed from the tops of temples.”

NICE!!  PEACEFUL!! LOVING!!! IN TUNE WITH GAIA!!!

Oh, did I mention ritual cannibalism?

This is something these apologists do not want to accept.

Spanish diaries revealed these activities but the “intelligentsia” refused to accept it as truth.  Now they are finding out differently.  But still cast doubts as evidenced in this quote:

“It’s now a question of quantity,” said Lopez Lujan, who thinks the Spaniards - and Indian picture-book scribes working under their control - exaggerated the number of victims, claiming in one case that 80,400 people were sacrificed at a temple inauguration in 1487. We’re not finding anywhere near that . . . even if we added some zeroes.”

Deny it all you want, Pedro or Juan or whatever your name is out there in the revisionism land you all live in but a savage is a savage.

As for me, I am glad the Spanish came in and took care of things.  If not, we’d all either still be in Euro-weenie land or living in mud huts killing and skinning buffalo or lizards or chucking spears into fish.

Too bad so many of them settled in Mexico.  Now it looks like it is our turn to go in there and wipe THEM out!

   Monday - January 31, 2005

The Most Expensive War In History

Did you know that you, the American Taxpayer, are still paying for the Spanish American War? For those who are historically challenged, let me refresh your historical memory ....

15 February 1898
U.S.S. Maine explodes in Havana Harbor.

19 April 1898
The U.S. Congress by vote of 311 to 6 in the House and 42 to 35 in the Senate adopted the Joint Resolution for war with Spain.

20 April 1898
U.S. President William McKinley signed the Joint Resolution for war with Spain and the ultimatum was forwarded to Spain.

25 April 1898
War was formally declared between Spain and the United States.

April - December 1898
US kicks Spanish butt in Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, Phillipines ....

10 December 1898
Representatitves of Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Peace in Paris. Spain renounced all rights to Cuba and allowed an independent Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and the island of Guam to the United States, gave up its possessions in the West Indies, and sold the Philippine Islands, receiving in exchange $20,000,000.

6 February 1899
U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Paris by a vote of 52 to 27.

So there you have it. A minor little war that the Spanish never really wanted a part of and probably should never have gotten involved in. The whole thing, from start to finish, was over in less than a year and the US came away with lots of new territory.

So, what’s the point? Well, let me tell you about it ....

An influential congressional committee has dropped a political bombshell by suggesting that a tax originally created to pay for the Spanish American War could be extended to all Internet and data connections this year.

The committee, deeply involved in writing U.S. tax laws, unexpectedly said in a report Thursday that the 3 percent telecommunications tax could be revised to cover “all data communications services to end users,” including broadband; dial-up; fiber; cable modems; cellular; and DSL, or digital subscriber line, links.

Congress enacted the so-called “luxury” excise tax at 1 cent a phone call to pay for the Spanish American War back in 1898, when only a few thousand phone lines existed in the country. It was repealed in 1902, but was reimposed at 1 cent a call in 1914 to pay for World War I and eventually became permanent at a rate of 3 percent in 1990.

That 3% telecomm tax you pay each month is what this is all about and now Congress wants to expand the tax to internet access. Go read the article and write your CongressCrook today. Tell him or her how you feel about this blatant bullshit! Do it now!

Re-Writing History

I guess being relegated to the bottom of the pile for earthquake deaths has caused some “historians” in California (natch!!) to want to revise death numbers upwards.

I liken that to the same bullshit that goes on here in Florida during hurricane season.  A hurricane passes by and anyone dying of a heart attack died because of the hurricane.  Never mind that the poor son of a bitch was going to die the next time a dog barked and spooked him anyway.

Part of their justification is found near the end:

“There is evidence to show the number was suppressed for political reasons.”

Yet one paragraph above they claim that the revision:

would make the earthquake among the deadliest natural disasters in the nation’s history.

Political reasons indeed!!

And how much credibility can you give a newspaper that reports this and uses the word, “pour” when they mean “pore.”

Hey, I make mistakes too but I am not a newspaper nor do I have an editorial staff.  So lighten up! 

   Saturday - October 23, 2004

Civil War?

Saturday has finally arrived .. and not a second too soon as far as I’m concerned. The workload at the office has been miserable this week with all manner of deadlines coming due this week or next. Plus, I’ve been spending my evenings attending on-line Bush/Cheney Team Leader meetings and mailing out letters to about thirty newspapers I have targeted. I’ve canvassed my neighborhoods and I can safely say that folks around here are 100% behind George Bush. Florida, where Vilmar is, is another matter entirely. I was proud to see Vilmar get a chance to attend a Bush rally earlier this week. He sent me a DVD with ALL the pictures and several MPG movie files of the event. As Vilmar said, the crowd was highly responsive to Bush’s message. The pictures and movies he took are definite proof.

Needless to say, our Benevolent Dictator has been fired up this week and has churned out one editorial, research article or opinion piece after another. I’ve kinda let him run with it and stood aside. Reading his posts has been much fun and entirely interesting, I think you will agree. Let’s encourage him to keep it up. There are only ten days until the election and Kerry and the Liberals are holding on. We have to defeat them. If we don’t it will mean the end of the world as we know it. Asteroids hitting the earth, monstrous floods and volcanoes, plagues of frogs and locusts descending on all the earth .... it will be Armageddon of Biblical proportions.

The only good thing that might come from a Kerry victory would be the end of the perpetual whining from the Left that we have endured for four long, tedious years.

As William F. Buckley noted in a recent editorial ....

It pays to remind ourselves that working democracies depend for their existence on one thing, one thing alone. It is the submission of the minority. When that isn’t forthcoming, as in the U.S. in 1860, confederations break apart.

Think about that for a few minutes. If the party which loses an election is content to accept their loss and bide their time until the next election, democracy survives. If the voters who cast their vote for a particular law are defeated and they accept the verdict of the majority of people, democracy survives. As long as the course of the country is determined by the majority of the people, democracy survives. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Take a careful look back at the last four years. The Democrats never accepted their loss in 2000 and have been on a steady, unrelenting, divisive attack on President Bush since he was sworn into office in January, 2001. The liberal media have carried their share of that hatred and venom to all parts of the country, poisoning the social atmosphere in a steady barrage of attacks on President Bush’s administration. Fringe groups like the ACLU and PETA and many others have tried over and over again to overrule the wishes of the majority of people in this country by using the nation’s court systems. Trial lawyers have almost managed to bankrupt entire industries and in some cases have succeeded. Case in point: did you know that the recent flu vaccine shortage is actually due to trial lawyers? True. Evidence: the flu vaccine is currently made by two companies only .... one in Britain and one in France. Why don’t American companies make our own vaccine? You guessed it. Every one of them has stopped making vaccines because of the trial lawyers and million-dollar lawsuits by trial lawyers like John Edwards.

What has the last four years taught us?

Well, here is my list:

(1) George Bush had the guts and determination to carry the war to the terrorists after they attacked us in a cowardly fashion on Septmeber 11, 2001.

(2) The American people stood solidly behind the President for a brief period after the attack - after all, none of us wants to be dead, do we?.

(3) With their craven, mad attacks on the President, the Democrats have gradually eroded support for the war overseas as a means of regaining power.

(4) Their attacks have nothing constructive about them, but are only based on “promises”, “plans” and personal attacks on the President’s early life.

(5) Hollywood has not lost its chance to divide the country and make millions off of movies like “Fahrenneit 9/11”. The line between politics and entertainment is now blurred in their minds.

(6) Nearly half of the population of this country has been suckered into this mindless hatred of Bush and most of them really can’t tell you why in a rational manner.

(7) The major news media have finally come out of the closet and decided that influencing the elections is more important than reporting the news. They have become propaganda stooges of the Democratic Party.

(8) Minority groups like homosexuals and atheists are changing the social landscape of America in spite of the wishes of the populace in general. Tolerance is one thing. This is something else, something dangerous when the wishes of minorities overrule the wishes of the majority.

(9) From all the signs above, the Democrats and Liberals are making this their “last stand”. They are going all out to win this election. They know they’re outside the mainstream and if they lose they will be relegated to the toilet of history. They are lying to the people, physically breaking into Bush campaign offices around the country, resurrecting every old Democratic politician in the vault, mounting personal attacks on Bush, Cheney and their families, firing off attacks ads, movies & editorials while complaining about every response by the Bush/Cheney campaign. It is a scorched-earth campaign.

(10) A vote for John Kerry is a vote in favor of all of the “wrongs” noted above. There is nothing “right” about the Kerry/Edwards campaign. This election is not about Right and Left. It is about Right and Wrong.

America, you can go to the polls on November 2 and cast your vote as you see fit. Just try to remember that this is the most important election since 1860. In that election, the Democrats were wrong and the Republicans were right. It took a Civil War .. and 620,000 dead Americans .. to sort that one out. Will history repeat itself? It’s your choice. Choose wisely please. We can’t afford another meeting at Appomattox Courthouse.

   Tuesday - October 19, 2004

Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

“I am prepared to filibuster, if necessary, any Supreme Court nominee who would turn back the clock on a woman’s right to choose...”
-- John Kerry, June 20, 2003

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On This Day In History
October 19th

1781 - Victory At Yorktown
Hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American force, effectively bringing an end to the American Revolution. Lord Cornwallis was one of the most capable British generals of the American Revolution. In 1776, he drove General George Washington’s Patriots forces out of New Jersey, and in 1780 he won a stunning victory over General Horatio Gates’ Patriot army at Camden, South Carolina. Cornwallis’ subsequent invasion of North Carolina was less successful, however, and in April 1781 he led his weary and battered troops toward the Virginia coast, where he could maintain seaborne lines of communication with the large British army of General Henry Clinton in New York City. After conducting a series of raids against towns and plantations in Virginia, Cornwallis settled in the tidewater town of Yorktown in August. The British immediately began fortifying the town and the adjacent promontory of Gloucester Point across the York River. General George Washington instructed the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in Virginia with an American army of around 5,000 men, to block Cornwallis’ escape from Yorktown by land. In the meantime, Washington’s 2,500 troops in New York were joined by a French army of 4,000 men under the Count de Rochambeau. Washington and Rochambeau made plans to attack Cornwallis with the assistance of a large French fleet under the Count de Grasse, and on August 21 they crossed the Hudson River to march south to Yorktown. Covering 200 miles in 15 days, the allied force reached the head of Chesapeake Bay in early September. Meanwhile, a British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves failed to break French naval superiority at the Battle of Virginia Capes on September 5, denying Cornwallis his expected reinforcements. Beginning September 14, de Grasse transported Washington and Rochambeau’s men down the Chesapeake to Virginia, where they joined Lafayette and completed the encirclement of Yorktown on September 28. De Grasse landed another 3,000 French troops carried by his fleet. During the first two weeks of October, the 14,000 Franco-American troops gradually overcame the fortified British positions with the aid of de Grasse’s warships. A large British fleet carrying 7,000 men set out to rescue Cornwallis, but it was too late. On October 19, General Cornwallis surrendered 7,087 officers and men, 900 seamen, 144 cannons, 15 galleys, a frigate, and 30 transport ships. Pleading illness, he did not attend the surrender ceremony, but his second-in-command, General Charles O’Hara, carried Cornwallis’ sword to the American and French commanders. As the British and Hessian troops marched out to surrender, the British bands played the song “The World Turned Upside Down.” Although the war persisted on the high seas and in other theaters, the Patriot victory at Yorktown effectively ended fighting in the American colonies. Peace negotiations began in 1782, and on September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, formally recognizing the United States as a free and independent nation after eight years of war.

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Today’s Birthdays

John le Carré, (pseud. of David John Moore Cornwell), (1931- ), English spy novelist
John Lithgow, (1945- ), Actor
Evander Holyfield, (1962- ), Boxer

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - InfoPlease.}

   Monday - October 18, 2004

Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

“I committed the same kinds of atrocities as thousands of others in that I shot in free fire zones, used harassment and interdiction fire, joined in search and destroy missions, and burned villages.  All of these acts were established policies from the top down, and the men who ordered this are war criminals.”
-- John Kerry, April, 1971 - to William Fullbright’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee

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On This Day In History
October 18th

1867 - The United States Formally Takes Possession Of Alaska From Russia
On this day in 1867, the American flag flew for the first time in Alaska, marking the formal transfer of this massive northern territory from Russia to the United States. Separated from the far eastern edge of the Russian empire by only the narrow Bering Strait, the Russians had been the first Europeans to significantly explore and develop Alaska. During the early 19th century, the state-sponsored Russian-American Company established the settlement of Sitka and began a lucrative fur trade with the Native Americans. However, Russian settlement in Alaska remained small, never exceeding more than a few hundred people. By the 1860s, the Russian-American Company had become unprofitable. Faced with having to heavily subsidize the company if an active Russian presence in the territory was to be maintained, the tsar and his ministers chose instead to sell to the Americans. Seeing the giant Alaska territory as a chance to cheaply expand the size of the nation, William H. Seward, President Andrew Johnson’s secretary of state, moved to arrange the purchase of Alaska. Agreeing to pay a mere $7 million for some 591,000 square miles of land-a territory twice the size of Texas and equal to nearly a fifth of the continental United States-Seward secured the purchase of Alaska at the ridiculously low rate of less than 2ýF an acre. Later myths to the contrary, most Americans recognized that Seward had made a smart deal with the Alaska Purchase. Still, a few ill-informed critics did not miss the opportunity to needle the Johnson administration by calling the purchase “Seward’s Folly” and “Seward’s Icebox,” or joking that the administration had only bought the territory to create new political appointments like a “Polar Bear’s Bureau” and a “Superintendent of Walruses.” Johnson’s opponents (who were trying to impeach him at the time) also succeeded in delaying approval of the $7 million appropriation. But after a year of squabbling, Congress approved the purchase, and Russia formally transferred control of the vast northern land to the United States. Within a few decades, Alaska would prove to be an amazing treasure trove of natural resources from gold to oil, proving Seward’s wisdom and exposing the shortsightedness of those who had once poked fun at the purchase.

1469 - Ferdinand II of Aragón married Isabella of Castile, uniting Spain and making it a dominant world power.

1767 - The boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, the Mason-Dixon line, was agreed upon.

1931 - Inventor Thomas Alva Edison died in West Orange, N.J., at age 84.

1968 - The U.S. Olympic Committee suspended two black athletes for giving a “black power” salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games.

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Today’s Birthdays

Chuck Berry, (1926- ), American rock music guitarist, singer, and songwriter
Lee Harvey Oswald, (1939–63), presumed assassin of John F. Kennedy
Martina Navratilova, (1956- ), Czech-American tennis player
Jean-Claude Van Damme, (1960- ), Actor

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - InfoPlease.}

   Sunday - October 17, 2004

Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

“We urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq’s refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.”
-- John Kerry, Oct. 9, 1998 - in a letter to President Clinton

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On This Day In History
October 17th

1777 - American Revolution: Victory At Saratoga
During the American Revolution, British General John Burgoyne surrenders 5,000 British and Hessian troops to Patriot General Horatio Gates at Saratoga, New York. In the summer of 1777, General Burgoyne led an army of 8,000 men south through New York State in an effort to join forces with British General Sir William Howe’s troops along the Hudson River. After capturing several forts, Burgoyne’s force camped near Saratoga while a larger Patriot army under General Gates gathered just four miles away. On September 19, a British advance column marched out and engaged the Patriot force at the Battle of Freeman’s Farm, or the First Battle of Saratoga. Failing to break through the American lines, Burgoyne’s force retreated. On October 7, another British reconnaissance force was repulsed by an American force under General Benedict Arnold in the Battle of Bemis Heights, also known as the Second Battle of Saratoga. Gates retreated north to the village of Saratoga with his 5,000 surviving troops. By October 13, some 20,000 Americans had surrounded the British, and four days later Burgoyne was forced to agree to the first large-scale surrender of British forces in the Revolutionary War. When word of the Patriot victory reached France, King Louis XVI agreed to recognize the independence of the United States. Soon after, French Foreign Minister Comte de Vergennes made arrangements with U.S. Ambassador Benjamin Franklin to begin providing French aid to the Patriot cause.

1931 - Mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion for which he was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

1933 - Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

1979 - Mother Theresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor in Calcutta, India.

1989 - An earthquake measuring 7.1 in magnitude killed 67 and injured over 3,000 in San Francisco.

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Today’s Birthdays

Arthur Miller, (1915- ), American dramatist
Rita Hayworth, (Margarita Carmen Cansino), (1918-1987), Fiery movie actress and popular World War II pinup

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - InfoPlease.}

   Saturday - October 16, 2004

Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

‘’I’m a liberal, and proud of it.’’
-- John Kerry, July, 1991

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On This Day In History
October 16th

1793 - Marie Antoinette Is Beheaded
Nine months after the execution of her husband, the former King Louis XVI of France, Marie-Antoinette follows him to the guillotine. The daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, she married Louis in 1770 to strengthen the French-Austrian alliance. At a time of economic turmoil in France, she lived extravagantly and encouraged her husband to resist reform of the monarchy. In one episode, she allegedly responded to news that the French peasantry had no bread to eat by callously replying, “Let them eat cake.” The increasing revolutionary uproar convinced the king and queen to attempt an escape to Austria in 1791, but they were captured by revolutionary forces and carried back to Paris. In 1792, the French monarchy was abolished, and Louis and Marie-Antoinette were condemned for treason.

1946 - Nazi War Criminals Executed
At Nuremberg, Germany, 10 high-ranking Nazi officials are executed by hanging for their crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and war crimes during World War II. Two weeks earlier, the 10 were found guilty by the International War Crimes Tribunal and sentenced to death along with two other Nazi officials. Among those condemned to die by hanging were Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi minister of foreign affairs; Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo and chief of the German air force; and Wilhelm Frick, minister of the interior. Seven others, including Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler’s former deputy, were given prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life. Three others were acquitted. The trial, which had lasted nearly 10 months, was conducted by an international tribunal made up of representatives from the United States, the USSR, France, and Great Britain. It was the first trial of its kind in history, and the defendants faced charges ranging from crimes against peace, to crimes of war and crimes against humanity. On October 16, 10 of the architects of Nazi policy were hanged one by one. Hermann Goering, who at sentencing was called the “leading war aggressor and creator of the oppressive program against the Jews,” committed suicide by poison on the eve of his scheduled execution. Nazi Party leader Martin Bormann was condemned to death in absentia; he is now known to have died in Berlin at the end of the war.

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Today’s Birthdays

Noah Webster, (1758–1843), American lexicographer and philologist
Oscar Wilde, (Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde), (1854–1900), Irish author and wit
David Ben-Gurion, (1886–1973), Israeli statesman

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - InfoPlease.}

   Friday - October 15, 2004

Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

“[Ex-]President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn’t be upset if I could earn the right to be the second”
-- John Kerry, Mar 2, 2004

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On This Day In History
October 15th

1863 - C.S.S. Hunley Sinks During Tests
The C.S.S. Hunley, the first successful submarine, sinks during a test run, killing its inventor and seven crewmembers. Horace Lawson Hunley developed the submarine from a cylinder boiler. It was operated by a crew of eight--one person steered while the other seven turned a crank that drove the ship’s propeller. The Hunley could dive, but it required calm seas for safe operations. It was tested successfully in Alabama’s Mobile Bay in the summer of 1863, and Confederate commander General Pierre G.T. Beauregard recognized that the vessel might be useful to ram Union ships and break the blockade of Charleston Harbor. The Hunley was placed on a railcar and shipped to South Carolina. The submarine experienced problems upon its arrival. During a test run, a crewmember became tangled in part of the craft’s machinery and the craft dove with its hatch open; only two men survived the accident. The ship was raised and repaired, but it was difficult to find another crew that was willing to assume the risk of operating the submarine. Its inventor and namesake stepped forward to restore confidence in his creation. On October 15, he took the submarine into Charleston Harbor for another test. In front of a crowd of spectators, the Hunley slipped below the surface and did not reappear. Horace Hunley and his entire crew perished. Surprisingly, another willing crew was assembled and the Hunley went back into the water. On February 17, 1864, the ship headed out of Charleston Harbor and approached the U.S.S. Housatanic. The Hunley stuck a torpedo into the Yankee ship and then backed away before the explosion. The Housatanic sank in shallow water, and the Hunley became the first submarine to sink a ship in battle. Unfortunately, its first successful mission was also its last--the Hunley sank before it returned to Charleston, taking yet another crew down with it. The vessel was raised on August 8, 2000, and will now reside in an exhibit at the Charleston History Museum.

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Today’s Birthdays

P. G. Wodehouse, (Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse), (1881–1975), English-American novelist and humorist
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche , (1844–1900), German philosopher
Lee Iacocca, (Lido Anthony Iacocca), (1924- ), American business executive

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - InfoPlease.}

   Thursday - October 14, 2004

Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

“I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way. By that I mean that yesterday, during this Presidential campaign, and even throughout recent times, Vietnam has been discussed and written about without an adequate statement of its full meaning.”
-- John Kerry, Jan. 30, 1992

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On This Day In History
October 14th

1947 - Chuck Yeager Breaks The Sound Barrier
U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. Yeager, born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923, was a combat fighter during World War II and flew 64 missions over Europe. He shot down 13 German planes and was himself shot down over France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French Underground. After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test-fly the experimental X-1 rocket plane, built by the Bell Aircraft Company to explore the possibility of supersonic flight. For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transonic drag rise would tear any aircraft apart. All that changed on October 14, 1947, when Yeager flew the X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California. The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles per hour (the sound barrier at that altitude). The rocket plane, nicknamed “Glamorous Glennis,” was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50-caliber bullet. Because of the secrecy of the project, Bell and Yeager’s achievement was not announced until June 1948. Yeager continued to serve as a test pilot, and in 1953 he flew 1,650 miles per hour in an X-1A rocket plane. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1975 with the rank of brigadier general.

1066 - The Normans, under William the Conqueror, defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.

1964 - Martin Luther King, Jr., was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in civil rights.

1968 - The first live telecast from a staffed U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7.

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Today’s Birthdays

Dwight D. Eisenhower, (1890–1969), American general and 34th President of the United States
William Penn, (1644–1718), English Quaker, founder of Pennsylvania

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - InfoPlease.}

   Wednesday - October 13, 2004

Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

“I’m an internationalist. I’d like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.”
-- John Kerry, Feb. 18, 1970

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On This Day In History
October 13th

1775 - Continental Navy Established
The Continental Congress authorizes construction and administration of the first American naval force--the precursor of the United States Navy. Since the outbreak of open hostilities with the British in April, little consideration had been given to protection by sea until Congress received news that a British naval fleet was on its way. In November, the Continental Navy was formally organized, and in December Esek Hopkins was appointed the first commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy. His first fleet consisted of seven ships: two 24-gun frigates, the Alfred and the Columbus; two 14-gun brigs, the Andrea Doria and the Cabot; and three schooners, the Hornet, the Wasp, and the Fly. During the American Revolution, the Continental Navy successfully preyed on British merchant shipping and won several victories over British warships. After being disbanded for several years, the United States Navy was formally established with the creation of the Department of the Navy in April 1798.

1843 - The Jewish organization B’nai B’rith was founded.

1943 - Italy declared war on Germany, its former Axis partner, during World War II.

1974 - Ed Sullivan died in New York City at age 72.

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Today’s Birthdays

Margaret Thatcher, (1925- ), British political leader
Paul Simon, (1941- ), American singer, songwriter, and guitarist

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - InfoPlease.}

   Tuesday - October 12, 2004

Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”
-- Edward R. Murrow (1908 - 1965)

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On This Day In History
October 12th

1492 - Columbus Reaches The New World
After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island, believing he has reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.

Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. Little is known of his early life, but he worked as a seaman and then a maritime entrepreneur. He became obsessed with the possibility of pioneering a western sea route to Cathay (China), India, and the gold and spice islands of Asia. At the time, Europeans knew no direct sea route to southern Asia, and the route via Egypt and the Red Sea was closed to Europeans by the Ottoman Empire, as were many land routes. Contrary to popular legend, educated Europeans of Columbus’ day did believe that the world was round, as argued by St. Isidore in the seventh century. However, Columbus, and most others, underestimated the world’s size, calculating that East Asia must lie approximately where North America sits on the globe (they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed).

With only the Atlantic Ocean, he thought, lying between Europe and the riches of the East Indies, Columbus met with King John II of Portugal and tried to persuade him to back his “Enterprise of the Indies,” as he called his plan. He was rebuffed and went to Spain, where he was also rejected at least twice by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. However, after the Spanish conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada in January 1492, the Spanish monarchs, flush with victory, agreed to support his voyage.

On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa Marýa, the Pinta, and the Niýa. On October 12, the expedition reached land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. He established a small colony there with 39 of his men. The explorer returned to Spain with gold, spices, and “Indian” captives in March 1493 and was received with the highest honors by the Spanish court. He was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century.

During his lifetime, Columbus led a total of four expeditions to the New World, discovering various Caribbean islands, the Gulf of Mexico, and the South and Central American mainlands, but he never accomplished his original goal--a western ocean route to the great cities of Asia. Columbus died in Spain in 1506 without realizing the great scope of what he did achieve: He had discovered for Europe the New World, whose riches over the next century would help make Spain the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.

1870 - Gen. Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Va., at age 63.

1960 - Soviet premier Nikita Krushchev created a disturbance at the U.N. General Assembly by pounding his desk with his shoe.

1964 - The Soviets launched Voskhod I, the first space capsule to carry three people into orbit.

1999 - NBA Hall-of-Famer Wilt Chamberlain died at his Bel Air home at age 63.

2000 - 17 U.S. sailors killed with the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in Yemen.

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Today’s Birthdays

Elmer Ambrose Sperry, (1860–1930), American inventor
Luciano Pavarotti, (1936- ) Italian tenor

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - InfoPlease.}

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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