Archive for the ‘History’ Category

Baja Arizona? How About North South Carolina?

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

Some of the folks in Pima County, Arizona, are fed up with those numb-skulls a few miles west along Interstate 10 in Maricopa County.  Fed up with the reactionary right-wingers who make up “Maricopistan”.  Some in Pima County are so fed up they want to secede from Arizona and form the 51st state, Baja Arizona.

Sound ludicrous?  Well, the United States has a very proud history of secession.  Delaware in colonial times was actually part of Pennsylvania, but eventually became it’s own colony due to the Quakers’ vehement anti-slavery.  (The Lower Counties, as Delaware was then called, were slave-holding counties.)  Of course, the American Revolution was nothing more than 13 British colonies seceding from Great Britain.  The three first new states, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, were all carved from existing states – New York, Virginia, and North Carolina, respectively.  Poor Virginia – not only did it’s trans-Appalachian lands secede and become Kentucky in 1792, its northwestern counties seceded and became West Virginia in 1863.

Maine was taken from Massachusetts and made its own state in 1820.  (This is probably why Massachusetts still hates Missouri!)  Texas seceded from Mexico in 1835, joined the United States in 1845, and then seceded from the United States in 1861!  During the War of 1812, the New England states gathered at the Hartford Convention and threatened to secede.  Let’s not forget the South Carolina Nullification Crisis of 1832.  And, the ultimate secession, The War of Southern Secession, otherwise known as the American Civil War, a bloody conflict in which the south unsucessfully tried to secede, en mass, from the United States.  Secession, or the contemplation of, is as American as Apple Pie and Uncle Sam.

If Pima County were to successfully secede, it would not be the smallest state either geographically or by population.  When they created the western states, Congress had grown weary of the whole state-making thing and had gotten lazy, creating huge states with huge counties, as it’s much quicker to survey a couple of huge things than many small things.  Pima County is geographically larger than many important northeastern states, such as New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, as well as not-so-important ones such as Rhode Island and Delaware.  Population-wise, as it is the home of Tucson and the University of Arizona (the hated Phoenix and Arizona State University are in Maricopistan), and has more people than such meccas as the North Dakota, Wyoming, and Alaska.  Of course, the desire to create Baja Arizona got me thinking of what other states could be created if certain areas seceded from existing ones?

Suppose Las Cruces and the White Sands area decides it has had enough of Albuquerque and Santa Fe.  Would they be “New New Mexico”?

If the rest of Oregon throws Portland out, would the remainder be “Orastay”?

If the chunk of Illinois that is not Chicago seceded, would it be “Wellinois”?

Suppose Pocatello had had enough of Boise and it’s sleazy ways.  Would the new state be “Inotdaho’?

If Charlotte, North Carolina, and it’s suburb, Rock Hill, South Carolina, decided they wanted to be in the same state together, would it be “North South Carolina” or “South North Carolina”?

If Wilmington separated from Dover, would it be “Delahere?”

If Kentucky split in two, would the new state be “Barbietucky’?  If the Mississippi coast split off from the rest of the state, would it be “Mistersippi”?

If the northern part of North Dakota were to become independent, would it be “North North Dakota” or “Far North Dakota” or just “Manitscolda”?

If Spokane said “see ya!” to Seattle, which one would be in “Dryington”?  If Duluth gives the Twin Cities the heave ho, would it be in “Maxisota” or “Minnecoffee?”  The possibilities are mind-numbing!

Suppose Eaton, Pennsylvania, the home of Crayola, decides to go it alone, it’s new state name would logically be, you guessed it, Crayonvania.

If Indiana decided that it doesn’t want Gary anymore, then the perfect name would be Gary, Outdiana.

One state, my current home state, was actually created out of two different territories, and could be easily split back into it’s two pieces, two pieces which are as different as night and day.  Since the eastern half was Indian Territory, and most of the people are not Indian, that wouldn’t make a very good name.  Given that it wouldn’t be part of Oklahoma, and the tendency for nasty windstorms, an appropriate name might be –  Oklanohoma.

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Friday The 13th = Bad Luck

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Friday the 13th May Result in A Series of Unfortunate Events

Nov 12th 2009 6:42PM
By Digital City Staff

Friday the 13th is at the center of one of the most universal superstitions. Believing that bad luck can befall even the most unsuspecting of folks on this day, many people might not even leave their house.

Every year, we experience at least one Friday the 13th and this year, we’ve had three – the most you can have in a single year and a phenomenon that won’t happen again until 2015. Whether or not you believe the hype, we’ve made it through these days relatively unscathed.

But, with a little research, it’s easy to see that not every Friday the 13th has passed so easily. We found several unfortunate events – thirteen, in fact – which have surpassed on a Friday the 13th in pretty recent history.

With events, including a Hurricane, a horrible plane crash, the subject of several movies and books, and a few tragic deaths, this day hasn’t been lucky for a great many people. These thirteen unlucky events should be a warning to you: watch your step today and make sure you don’t meet up with any black cats or walk underneath any ladders – you’ll only make it worse for yourself.

These incidents may be the proof skeptics need to believe that Friday the 13th really isn’t the most lucky day for many of us. Or perhaps these are just coincidences? You’ll have to decide for yourself.

Check out this list of the 13 most unfortunate events to have taken place on a Friday the 13th:

1. Friday, October 13, 2006
Buffalo, N.Y. experienced an unusually early snow storm which virtually shut down when the metro area was covered in up to two feet of snow. The storm, which the Toronto Star called one of the worst snow storms in U.S. history, was nicknamed the “Friday the 13th Storm.” And some even referred to it as “The Arborgeddon Storm” or the “Columbus Day Massacre.”

The storm, which began on Thursday the 12th, resulted in the two snowiest days that Buffalo had seen in the 137 years that the National Weather Service had been operating. Not only did it snow many people in, it surprised the the town, which had barely done any preparations for winter storms. Schools remained closed for nearly ten days following the snow fall.

2. Friday, August 13, 2004
During what proved to be a very busy hurricane season, Hurricane Charley really packed a wallop compared to the other 2004 storms that came before and after him. It was on Friday the 13th when this Category 4 hurricane came ashore in Port Charlotte, Florida. And this happened less than a day after Tropical Storm Bonnie had stormed through Northern Florida.

Early predictions had the storm hitting Florida just north of Tampa but when it unexpectedly turned into Charlotte Harbor, it caught many residents off guard. The 150 mile per hour winds ransacked the coastal town, uprooting trees, tearing down traffic lights and destroying homes.

Charley paved its way northeast from the coast, tearing through several towns and by the time it reached the middle of the state, it still boasted winds of over 100 miles per hour.

When the disastrous tempest finally left Florida behind, it also left behind a death toll of ten people and over $15.4 billion in damages throughout the state. Floridians hit hardest spent years cleaning up the mess but the disaster was eclipsed a year later when Hurricane Katrina hit their Gulf Coast brethren in New Orleans, La.

3. Friday, May 13, 2005
The Andijan Massacre took place in Adijan, Uzbekistan on this Friday the 13th when troops fired into a crowd of protesters gathered in the central square to voice their anger over growing poverty and other concerns. Accounts of how the events went down are conflicting as the official government statement makes the event seem much more tame than what human rights advocates would have you think.

But what seems to be certain is that after a group of escaped, wrongly convicted prisoners took over a government building, a protest and riot ensued. By the evening troops were firing on the civilians in an area that may have been blocked off by the government. The final number of deaths is anywhere between 187 to 5,000 depending on who you talk to.

4. Friday, June 13, 1997
One of the worst fire tragedies in Indian history occurred on a Friday the 13th when the Uphaar Cinema in New Delhi caught fire during the showing of a patriotic Hindi movie. Upon discovering the fire, those in attendance panicked and caused a stampede which killed 59 people and injured at least 100 more.

The fire started when faulty electricity transformer burst and the flame spread through the parking lot before meeting the five-story building where the cinema was located. To add to the chaos, fire responders were delayed by traffic before they arrived and took well over an hour to put out the flames.

5. Friday, September 13, 1996
The death of Tupac Shakur, which took place on a Friday the 13th, is the result of a sordid story. Shakur, a successful rapper, was shot by a drive-by shooter as he rode in the passenger seat of Suge Knight’s car through the streets of Las Vegas on the night of September 7. Six days later, Shakur succumbed to his wounds and passed away.

Even after his death, Shakur remains an icon and even continues having success in the music industry. An Elvis-style legend has even evolved from the events of his death with some fans believing that the rapper faked his death and is actually still alive.

6. Friday, October 13, 1972
This Friday the 13th story has made such an impact that two movies have been inspired by the incident. The Stella Maris College rugby team was supposed to fly to Santiago, Chile on Thursday the 12th but due to poor conditions, the flight was grounded and the trip resumed the next afternoon on Friday the 13th.

Continuing weather problems forced the pilots to make an educated guess about descent into Chile. They clipped several mountains in the Andes and crashed in the snow covered slopes.

Initially, 27 passengers survived the crash. But as food started to run out and the freezing temperatures took their toll, those left struggled to stay alive. A search party, finding no trace of the plane, was called off eight days after the crash and the passengers realized that they needed to escape the mountains on their own.

They foraged for warm garments, searched for a way out and eventually had to make the decision to cannibalize their departed companions and classmates to keep from starving.

After 72 days in the mountains, two of the survivors found their way to civilization and told people who they were. They then led a rescue team back to their comrades still living in the wreckage of the plane. Only 16 of the original 45 passengers survived the entire ordeal.

7. Friday, March 13, 1992
Erzincan, Turkey was rocked on Friday the 13th by an earthquake which measured 6.8 on the richter scale. Erzincan is located on the North Anatolian Fault and has seen its share of seismic activity. The 1939 Erzincan Earthquake left nearly 39,000 people dead and caused flooding and other disasters as a result.

This, the last major earthquake to take place in the region, took the lives of 500 residents and injured many more. In addition, many of Turkey’s citizens were left homeless after this incident.

8. Friday, October 13, 1989
After a news report released information about United Airlines’ parent company botching a buyout deal for the price of $6.75 million on the morning of Friday the 13th, the stock market plunged to a frightening low for the 1980s. The Dow Jones fell 6.91 percent, the NASDAQ dropped 3.09 percent and the S&P plunged 6.12 percent.

Since 1989, several other stock market incidents have certainly dwarfed this particular mini-crash. But at the time, the drop seemed like a tragedy or even a disaster to investors of the 1980s.

9. Friday, February 13, 1981
More than two miles of Louisville, Kentucky roads were destroyed when sewer explosions woke up the entire town at 5:16 AM on Friday the 13th. Since it happened before most sane people were out and about in Old Louisville, no one was hurt or killed in the blasts but witnesses said it looked like a series of bombs exploding. Water lines were also severed, leaving residents without running water for weeks.

Caused by the ignition of hexane gases, the event exposed the fact that a local soybean processing plant had been illegally discharging the hexane which they used as a solvent to extract oil from the soybean. It was determined that a spark from a car caused the gases to ignite.

10. Friday, June 13, 1930
Sir Henry Segrave was warned not to go out on his boat on Friday the 13th but that didn’t keep him from trying to beat the water speed record – an achievement that would cost him his life. Born in Baltimore, Md., this speed freak was raised in Ireland and raced for the British. He flew planes, raced cars and drove motor boats. There was no form of travel that this daredevil didn’t attempt – except for maybe trains. But he was a skilled racer in many fields.

By the end of 1929, Segrave had broken the land speed record three times but decided to attempt the water speed record after a fellow racer died attempting to break his record. Segrave was a veteran motor boat racer. He raced against a multiple water speed record holder in Miami and won, an accomplishment which earned him his knighthood in 1929.

The unlucky day of his death, Segrave was still working on breaking the water speed record. He was driving his boat, the Miss England II, in England’s largest natural lake, Windermere, when he managed to break the record. But before he could learn how fast he’d gone, the boat hit a log and capsized, immediately killing the on-board mechanic and fatally injuring Segrave. Before he passed away in the hospital, he was informed that he’d broken the record. He died moments later.

11. Friday, January 13, 1939
Considered one of the worst natural bush fires in the world, the Black Friday Fires ravaged much of Victoria, Australia on Friday the 13th. The unlucky mix of exceedingly hot temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds spread a few small brush fires across nearly 5 million acres in the Down Under. Five major fires contributed to the overall destruction, the largest of these was found in the Victorian Alps area.

The incident is still looked on as one of the worst disasters to ever happen in Australia. Seventy-one people lost their lives and over 1,300 homes were completely destroyed along with entire towns. Some areas are still regrowing after the damage from so many years ago.

12. Friday, December 13, 1867
In what appears to have been a grand prison escape attempt, a gunpowder explosion targeted the exercise yard of Clerkenwell Goal, a prison outside of London, on Friday the 13th. The blast killed several bystanders including a few prison officials.

The Fenian Society was blamed for the incident which damaged the prison, originally built during the reign of King James 1. Before the incident, Clerkenwell was known as a pretty strict prison, enforcing penal labor. Around the time of the explosion, members of the Cato Street Conspiracy, which aimed to kill British cabinet members, were temporarily imprisoned at Clerkenwell.

13. Friday, November 13, 1863
After what would later be deemed an unfair trial, Josefa “Chipita” Rodriguez became the first and only woman to be legally hanged in Texas when she was executed on Friday the 13th. Convicted on circumstantial evidence, prosecutors never managed to definitively tie Rodriguez, who seemed to be a rather charitable inn keeper, to the axe murder and robbery of a trader named John Savage. In fact, some believe that the woman was really only protecting a man believed to be her illegitimate son.

Witnesses to her death claim that she may have even been buried alive. To this day, many believe that Chipita Rodriguez’s tortured ghost haunts the region where she was executed and some even suggest that her death resulted in a curse on the entire town which these days only amounts to a little over 300 residents (according to the 2000 Census).

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Where Were You?

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

Where were you seven years ago when the planes hit?  I was in my car driving from my house in Grand Prairie, Texas, to the law school in Fort Worth, and I heard it on the radio that the first tower had been hit.  When I first heard, the second plane hadn’t hit, so they were calling it an accident.  I called my wife and told her to turn on the television to see what was happening.  While I was on the phone, she told me that the second tower had been hit.  And then there was silence. 

It hadn’t quite sunk in yet, as my fellow Texans went about their daily commute.  I drove as fast as I could to the law school, hoping to hear more when I got there.  Every television was on and tuned to the news; the students sat in their seats and silently watched in horror.  By this time, the first tower had fallen, and I got to watch in horror the televised spectacle of people plunging out of the remaining tower to their deaths and its sudden, spectacular collapse.  To say it was surreal seeing American landmarks collapse is an understatement.

After the collapses, there was a general state of panic.  Was the President safe?  There had been rumors that Air Force One had been shot down.  What other cities were under attack?  We knew about the Pentagon, and we knew there was a missing plane headed west, somewhere, United 93.  Being a structural engineer, I was queried by my fellow law students about how the buildings could collapse like that.  Students engaged in conversations, some of them completely pointless, just to take their minds off of the horror we were seeing.  Our country, the United States of America, was under attack, and there wasn’t a thing any of us could do about it!

After several hours mesmerized by the t.v. news, we were ordered to evacuate.  The I.R.S. occupied the top floor of the building, and there was a very real fear that all federal buildings were under attack.  It wasn’t just our low-rise three story building that was evacuated — all the high-rise buildings in downtown Ft. Worth were too, just in case. 

Walking out of the law school, I witnessed a fear and pandemonium I hope to never witness again.  People were constantly looking to the sky with worry that Ft. Worth would be the next to go.  Cars jammed the streets; panicked drivers laid on horns and drove through barricades into closed off streets in an attempt to get out of the city as fast as possible.  It was chaos.

When I got home, the first thing I noticed was the quiet.  You see, my house was under the flight path of not only DFW Airport, but two smaller GA airports as well.  On a normal night, the planes would be so low you could pretty much read the serial numbers, and you’d look up in the sky and see a dozen or so planes.  On that night seven years ago, I looked up in the sky and saw nothing.  I had gotten so used to the noise, that the quiet was very disturbing.  What I had known, what I had gotten comfortable with, no longer existed.  Things had changed; my heart was heavy.

Like him or not, Bush has kept the country safe from further attacks during his watch.  Since that fateful day, there have been terror attacks in Spain, in London, in Indonesia, and throughout the world, but none here in the United States.  That is Bush’s legacy. 

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Take The Democrats, Please!

Tuesday, May 9th, 2006

 As a Democrat, it is very sad and disheartening to see what has happened to a onetime proud and relevant party.  The Republicans, in their greed for wealth and power, are morally bankrupt.    The Republicans are the modern day Pharisees –  they chastise others for moral failings that are trivial compared to their own.  The Republicans have sold ever virtue for the sake of power and wealth; they’d sell off their own kin if they could make a buck off it.  You want to know why the Republicans don’t want to do anything about the illegal immigration problem?  Because they are making buckets full of money off it.  Companies that employ illegals are NOT passing the labor savings onto the average consumer; they are pocketing it.  And who can blame them?  If I had been smart and crafty enough to figure out how to break the law, reinstitute a virtual slavery, and make millions from it…then I’d be a very wealthy man right now.  I do not begrudge capitalism.  What I do begrudge are those who try to justify and excuse the stretching of the rules by trying to portray it with some pure and benevolent motive.  There is nothing wrong with being greedy, and by all means, admit it! 

While the Republicans are quickly driving this country to the brink of oblivion, the Democrats are giving them not only the keys to the “car of state”, but the gas to drive it, as well as detailed directions to the nearest cliff!  (Some Democrats have experience at driving into, or off of, things.)  The Dems had, yes had, a chance to stop our destruction by coming up with real ideas and real plans that would allow them to take back Congress.  But NOOOO!  Instead, all the Dems can do is spout their anti-Bush rhetoric and pledge to begin impeachment hearings as soon as they take back Congress.  Guess what?  That won’t happen, because the Democrats won’t be taking back Congress, at least while Bush is still in office.  The Dems need leadership NOW!  I mean real leadership, not someone who could win primal screaming awards.   They need a real platform, a real reason for the people to vote for them.  Just saying that they aren’t Republican isn’t enough.  It didn’t work in 2000, 2002, or 2004, and it won’t work now. 

The Democrats are as spineless and wishy-washy as the Whigs were in the 1840s.  And where are the Whigs now?  Oh yeah!  They ceased to exist! Call it extinction due to irrelevance. 

It is not healthy for the future of any representative government to have that government be dominated by one party.  A periodic change in government philosophy is always good.  Why has most of Europe stagnated?  It has been dominated for far too long by one philosophy, a socialist one. 

A working clock is one is which the pendulum constantly swings back and forth, providing the momentum to keeps the gears turning.  If the pendulum stays in one place, then there is no more momentum, the gears stop, and the clock ceases to function.  Our government is like that clock — it needs the momentum provided by the constant swinging of the political pendulum from one party to the other in order to keep functioning properly.  In order to achieve this, we must have two equal parties.  We do not have that. 

The last time our country saw such a gaping imbalance between the two parties was during Radical Reconstruction, when the shrill Radical Republicans were able to cram a bunch of legislation designed to perpetuate their wealth and power down the peoples’ collective throats because they could, because there effectively was no other party as the Democrats, the party of secession, had been emasculated and were left for dead.  Of course we all know what happened next — the backlash against the Radicals was so great that the Democrats, four years after the end of the tyranny called Reconstructed, were once again the Republicans’ equal, managed to recapture most of what they had lost, repealed a bunch of punitive and ridiculous laws, and, if it hadn’t been for a bit of skullduggery and treachery, would have recaptured the Presidency. 

Like the Democrats of old, the present Democrats all also prostrate, but, unlike the Democrats of old, do not have to vision or leadership to once again become a counterbalance to the tyranny of the majority.  Instead of standing and fighting against incredibly long odds, like Robert E. Lee, the new Democrats like to cower under the table and run, even when they have the superior position.  What famous Civil War general does that sound like?  We all know that it was Grant, not McClellan, who accepted Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. 

  

 

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