Senators Brooks' & Sumner having at it.....

We may think that all this mean talk today in politics is all new, but it isn’t. It has been around for quite a long, long time. There are so many stories much like what we hear today, and even worse, and others were downright creative. Let’s begin with a creative story. In 1950 George Smathers was running against Claude Pepper for the US Senate. In Smather’s campaign speeches he’d say strange things about Pepper, like Pepper is “known extrovert,” he’d say things like this with such contempt, that the audience thought this Pepper guy must be bad for them. Another time he said that Pepper’s brother was a “practicing homo sapiens.” Another time he said, that Pepper “practiced celibacy before marriage.” Huh? Again he’d say silly stuff like this emphatically and with scorn that he convinced the audiences that Pepper sucked, and he was the man. Well it worked because Smathers won. People…who can figure us out?

Then there was the Long brothers back in the 30’s.  Sibling rivalry is bad enough at home; it gets worse when brothers are running against each other in the political world. Earl Long called a political opponent, “a big-bellied, lily-livered liar and the crookedest man who ever lived,” he was referring to his brother Huey Long. One time Earl got so pissed off at his brother he called him a “son of a bitch,” not thinking twice of the implications. Earl, that isn’t a nice name to call your momma. Earl also had a tactic on getting his message out when he ran for office. He’d follow his opponent around and plant himself in the audience where the opponent was speaking. He’d yell out from the audience to inspire spontaneous debate. This allowed Earl to control the agenda for discussion, and got his message out on his opponent’s dime. This really backfired one day for Earl though. His brother Huey Long was running for senate and was speaking at a rally where his sneaky brother was part of the audience. Huey was proudly telling the people of his state what he had done for the state of Louisiana, when out of the crowd someone yelled out, “I know one person you ain’t done nothin’ for—your brother!” Earl replies, “I done something for you, Earl. He continues, “I built a big mental hospital down at Jackson and I had them reserve a room for you.” LOL! These two brothers eventually worked things out, and sadly one, Huey who became a presidential contender, was assassinated in 1935. Ah no, not by his brother.

The Longs were not the only brothers to have it out in the political world. Jimmy Carter’s worse nightmare was his beer guzzling brother, Billy. Billy was a drunk and was constantly embarrassing the peanut farmer, turned president.  One incident of the many led Jimmy to finally put his brother on a plane to Georgia for good. Billy decides to relieve himself on an airport runway in front of the Washington press corps! Now that’s telling Washington he’d didn’t give a sh*t huh? LOL

In 1856 during the height of the slavery debate, Representative Preston Brooks, of South Carolina didn’t like some remarks made about his family by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. Brooks got so pissed off that he walked into the Senate Chamber and started to beat Sumner with his walking cane! I think Herman Cain would get a laugh out of this one! Brooks later regretted his actions, but not so much for beating Sumner, more about breaking his cane. But was comforted that he at least saved the gold-plated handle!

One of my favorite stories is the one of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt didn’t need a cane; in 1883 he simply decked a Democratic opponent with one punch. When the guy gets up, he punches him again. Talk about how to handle a Democrat! LOL Just kidding guys, just kidding.

There are many more stories like these, I can go on forever. So the next time you hear our politicians duking it out, just remember it’s not new. If anything they are a lot more tamed today, and probably wishing they could turn back the clock.

"The first actual case of a bug being found..."

Don’t you just hate a bug on your iPhone, computers, etc?  They make your life a living hell! But where did the term “computer bug” come from, and which computer got it first?  Back in 1945, after WWII ended, the gargantuan Mark II computer which ran ordinance calculations for the U.S. Navy shut down. Technicians eventually found that a moth trapped between two of the machine’s relay points was the culprit. Navy personnel preserved the moth in the daily log (photo above) & noted “the first actual case of a bug being found” in a computer, hence “computer bug.” However, the culprit being a bug was sort of a coincidence, because the term “bug” had been used to describe a mechanical malfunction since Thomas Edison’s day. Today the term “bug,” & “debugging,” is techie jargon and one we all have come to understand to mean a major pain in the ass if you have one.

The Navy’s “debugging,” was quite simple, close all windows in the lab. That’s it, no more bugs. Today, it’s a lot more complicated to debug. In 1949 a mathematician Jon Von Newmann said that constructing self replicating computer programs was possible. The dude was right, today bugs, worms, viruses, and other pain in the asses, have become every computer users worst nightmare. Computer experts say that 55,000 new malware programs are introduced over the Internet every day.

Lesson of the day, closing your windows won’t rid you of computer bugs, so make sure you have good anti-virus software on your computer or you will pay dearly.

Umm yummy ice cream!

One third of the ice cream consumed today is licked off an ice cream cone. It’s one of America’s favorite treats during the hot summer days. But have you ever wondered who came up with this brilliant, yummy idea? The year is 1904 on a very hot day in the Saint Louis World’s Fair. Ernest Hamwi, an immigrant from Syria was having a real hard time selling hot Persian Waffles. Who would want a hot waffle on stifling summer day? But he noticed that another vendor was selling ice cream like….hotcakes. The vendor ran out of plates. What was he to do? Plenty of ice cream, but nothing to put it on. Ernest got an “aha” moment and rolled a cone out of a waffle and offered it as a substitute to the panicked vendor. The rest is, well history. The ice cream cone was born.

This is the story that is backed by the International Ice Cream Association. But as life has it, many wanted to get in on a good thing. Half a dozen vendors at the fair claimed they came up with the idea. To this day the descendants of these dozen argue, passionately, about it.

One thing all agreed on, it was born at that fair on a hot summer day. And I for one, am glad the idea was born. It was such a good idea that many took the idea back home after the fair and the cone became an instant success from coast to coast. So the next time you have an ice cream cone, think of Ernest who couldn’t sell his hot waffles, but became an instant sensation when he introduced waffle to ice cream. This is truly an American story!

Have you ever stood in an elevator and it seemed like you would never get to your floor? Even worse, is the horrible “elevator music,” they torture us with. Who is responsible for this music we hear in elevators, malls, & supermarkets? George Owen Squier, an aviation trailblazer, & inventor that’s who. As a major in the Army Signal Corps, he supervised testing of the Wright Brothers’ plane in 1908. In fact, his flight with Orville Wright made him one of the first passengers to ever ride in an airplane. Squier played a major role in convincing the army to buy the Wright Flyer, hence launching the age of military aviation. During WW I Squier rose to command of the Army Air Corps. Quite an accomplished man, but that is just the beginning. Squier was a prolific inventor having more than sixty patents to his name! In 1911 he patented what he called, “wired wireless,” basically cable’s forerunner. This technology allowed many radio signals to travel over a single wire.

George Owen Squier

Squier retired from the army and decided to start a company to bring wired wireless to America. For $2 a month, Americans could have radio programs piped into their home over the electrical wires. It was an idea way ahead of its day, but one that Americans didn’t want to pay for, since they were getting radio for free. Squier didn’t give up and decided to market his wired wireless to businesses. It was felt that when an office had piped in music, employees would produce more. Businesses liked it, and bought into it.

In 1934 Squier changed his company’s name from Wired Radio to a more catchy name, “Muzak.” A name you are likely familiar with. Muzak is what you and 1 million people a day hear in elevators, stores, restaurants, malls, and offices. Is it really music to our ears? Or is there something else at play here? Well, elevator music of a specific type has been found to have a psychological effect: slower, more relaxed music tends to make people slow down and browse longer. The next time you’re in an elevator, or at a doctor’s office, notice how the music makes you feel. When you are out shopping do the same, but also take notice of  how much you spend. Believe it or not, that piped in music plays a big role on our moods & spending decisions.

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, I’d like to set the record straight. There seems to be a group of people who believe that MLK could have never been a Republican because most blacks today are Democrats. As far as I know, there is no record of how MLK voted, but his niece Rev. Alveda King, has long argued that her uncle was a Republican. History will tell you that during MLK’s time, most, if not all blacks were Republicans. It stands to reason that if I were black at the time, I’d be too. Why? When the Republican party was founded in 1854, it was known as the party of anti-slavery, it later championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. In an article by Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) she outlines the reasons she believes MLK was a Republican. She speaks of how it was the Democratic party that in fact made it impossible for blacks throughout history, and have kept blacks and other minorities in the gutter through a system which makes it appear as if they are the “caring party,” when in fact, its history tells a different story. The article tells of an ominous game being played by the “caring party,” on blacks and other minorities. Rice says,

It was the Democrats who fought to keep blacks in slavery and passed the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. The Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan to lynch and terrorize blacks. The Democrats fought to prevent the passage of every civil rights law beginning with the civil rights laws of the 1860s, and continuing with the civil rights laws of the 1950s and 1960s.

Now looking at this fact, do you really think MLK would have had anything to do with the Democratic party? I really don’t think so. It’s a no brainer. I think today, many want to believe he was, but all facts point to the contrary. You don’t have to take my word for it. After I read Rice’s article I am thoroughly convinced that MLK was a Republican. Not only for religious reasons, but also because the Republican party stood for the very same principles he stood and  fought for.

Sources: Frances Rice’s Article, MLK was a Conservative-Republican

The 1920′s or the Jazz age has always fascinated me. So much happened, so quickly to change the world. One of the things that happened was the birth of the Flapper. The Flapper embraced all things new and modern. Out with the Victorian rules, and in with the modern, young, and the carefree. WW I birthed the flapper and the flapper ways. Many came back from the war disillusioned. When they returned from the war the old world order crammed their style.

The flapper cuts her hair short, the hem lines come up, they use make up, they experiment with sex, alcohol, drugs, and they danced the night away. It was a rebellion of sorts and once the flapper came out, there was no turning back.

One of the interesting things the Flapper did was to encourage the flat-chested look in women. Understand that Victorian women were robust, they were aging by this point, and the clothing and look of the flapper was out their reach.Everyone in the 1920′s wanted to have that slender flat-chested, tanned body and face of a 15-year-old. Women rushed to the beauty salons, health clubs, anybody that could help them achieve “the look.” You can imagine how hard it was for the aging Victorian women who were used to wearing the boring matronly dresses. Leaders of fashion had to change and change quick because the Flapper was all the rage.

Now if you were naturally flat-chested, you did ok, but what if you weren’t? Bras at the time were more like bodices or camisoles, they offered no support. This wasn’t going to work for the top heavy gals. The top heavy girls resorted to bandaging their breasts flat. Others would purchase a bra made at the time called Symington Side Lacer, basically a bra that laced at both sides and when pulled would flatten the chest. Women looking like boys was a fashion statement. My how things have changed huh?

Many believe that the women’s movement and the sexual revolution started back in the 60′s, I disagree, it started in the 20′s. The Flapper gave up the restricting clothing way before the liberated women burned their bras. The Women’s suffrage movement was in full swing, and women gave up a lot of the inhibitions imposed on them by society. I can’t say that all was for the good. Some good came out of this, and some bad too. But I suppose it comes with the territory.

The story of Archduke Franz Ferdinand has always fascinated me. If you think about it, his assassination was a pivotal point in history. It set things in motion which changed the world forever. Many believe that not only did this cause WW I, but root causes of  WWII, Cold War, and present day events can be traced back to June 28, 1914.

The Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne decides he and his wife Sopie will visit one of the empire’s territories, Bosnia. Things are not stable in Bosnia, in fact, things are hot, and the Archduke is not popular. And among those who despised the Archduke was a 19-year-old named Gavilo Princip, a Slavic Nationalist. In Princip’s mind killing the Archduke meant freedom for the people of Bosnia, Serbia joined forces with Bosnia to rid themselves of what they thought was an oppressor of the people.

June 28^th comes, and the Archduke and his wife are in a motorcade in Bosnia. The plot is to kill him as he drives through Sarajevo. One of the would-be assassins throws a bomb at the Archduke’s car. The Archduke narrowly escapes. The story goes that the Archduke insisted on visiting an aid at a hospital, who had been hurt in the blast.  His driver completely unfamiliar with the roads makes a wrong turn and decides to ask for directions of a young man on the road. The young man on the road must’ve looked defeated, lifeless, as he, unbeknownst to the driver, was one of the conspirators involved in the foiled plot. You can imagine his surprise when he realizes, he’s got a second chance to kill the Archduke! And so he drew his pistol and killed the Archduke and his wife. And the course of events started from that point on. It was as if this part of the world was boiling for a very long time and the shot sparked a flame which started an explosion which has reverberated up on until the present day.

References: Rick Beyer, The Greatest Stories Never Told , (2003),

“Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, 1914,” EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1998)