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Posted on 04/08/2003 12:02:46 AM PDT by LaDivaLoca
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51 degrees as I post this, goin' for 60. A little cool spell . . .
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Rats ! My George W. Bush pic in the white hat won't post correctly right now. :O(
Diva, stopping by for a quick morning preview and Wow, this looks great. I shall read bits and pieces throughout the day. Off to work!
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PLAY Ball!
Good morning, Sam! Good morning, Canteen Crew! Good morning, EVERYBODY!
Chicagoland Weather
Current Conditions:
As reported at KORD, O'Hare Arpt.. ..
Last update Mon 8 Apr 2003 4:55 AM CDT. 
Cloudy
31°F Feels Like: 23°F
UV Index: 0 Minimal
Wind: From the NE at 8 mph
Humidity: 91 %
Visibility: unlimited
Barometer: 30.24 inches and Steady
Today's Forecast Tue 08 Apr 2003 03:46 AM CDT
AM Ice 
Low 26°F
High 35°F
Our President... A Cowboy They call my president a Cowboy... It once ticked me off when the Muslim detractors in the Middle East, or the socialist detractors in Europe, Hollywood and other cesspools of America called my President a cowboy, but the more I think about it, the more glad I am that he is. When I was a kid, cowboys were my heroes. Well, I mean the ones in the white hats, not the black hats, who were the bad guys. There was Tom Mix, Buck Jones, Johnny Mack Brown, Hopalong Cassidy, Red Ryder, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, then later Marshall Matt Dillon, and others. Personally, I think Gene Autry could beat 'em all up, and then sing a song afterward to his girl friend. He was my favorite. What were common attributes of these legendary cowboys? Here are a few: 1. They were never looking for trouble. 2. But when it came, they faced it with courage. 3. They were always on the side of right. 4. They defended good people against bad people. 5. They had high morals. 6. They had good manners. 7. They were honest. 8. They spoke their minds and they spoke the truth, regardless of what people thought or "political correctness," which no one had ever heard of back then. 9. They were a beacon of integrity in the wild, wild West. 10. They were respected. When they walked into a saloon (where they usually drank only sarsaparilla), the place became quiet, and the bad guys kept their distance. 11. If in a gunfight, they could outdraw anyone. If in a fist fight, they could beat up anyone. 12. They always won. They always got their man. In victory, they rode off into the sunset. Those were the days when there was such a thing as right and wrong, something blurred in our modern world, and denied by many. Those were the days when women were respected and treated as ladies, because they acted like ladies. Now as a senior citizen, I still like cowboys. They represent something good -- something pure that America has been missing. Ronald Reagan was a "cowboy", who was brave, positive, and who gave us hope. He wore a "white hat". (Any good fan of the old western movies knows a man in a "white hat" is a "good guy".) To the consternation of his liberal critics, he had the courage to call a spade a spade and call the former Soviet Union what it was -- the evil empire. Liberals hated Ronald Reagan. They also hate President Bush because he distinguishes between good and evil. He calls a spade a spade, and after 9-11 called evil "evil," without mincing any words, to the shock of the liberal establishment. That's what cowboys do, you know. He also told the French to "put their cards on the table" (old West talk), which they did, exposing their cowardice and greed. The Arabs are wrong. In the old West, "might" did not make right. Right made right. Cowboys in white hats were always on the side of right, and that was their might. I am glad my President is a cowboy. He'll get his man. "Cowboys" do, you know... 
Redneck Vasectomy
After having their 11th child, an Alabama couple decided that was enough, and they couldn't afford a larger bed. So the husband went to his veterinarian and told him that he and his cousin didn't want to have any more children. The doctor told him that there was a procedure called a vasectomy that could fix the problem but that it was expensive. A less costly alternative, said the doctor, was to go home, get a cherry bomb (fireworks are legal in Alabama), light it, put it in a beer can, then hold the can up to his ear and count to 10. The Alabamian said to the doctor, "I may not be the smartest man in the world, but I don't see how putting a cherry bomb in a beer can next to my ear is going to help me." "Trust me," said the doctor. So the man went home, lit a cherry bomb and put it in a beer can. He held the can up to his ear and began to count: "1" "2" "3" "4" "5" At which point he paused, placed the beer can between his legs, and resumed counting on his other hand. This procedure also works in Kentucky, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
Nah, she ain't my sister, she's my first cousin
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These were Indian fighting militiamen who were established in a Texas area that was freed of Mexican rule. After Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana overthrew the Constitution of 1824, the Rangers organized themselves into a broader band whose intent was to seek restoration of the Constitution. Thus, "The Texas Rangers" was formally organized into a force of three 56-men companies to be deployed on the Indian frontier to protect the Texas citizenry against Indians and Mexican raiders. 
Some of the most prominent rangers included: Ben McCulloch, the Tennessee frontiersman and friend of Davy Crockett's, William A.A. "Big Foot" Wallace, John Coffee "Jack" Hays. It was Hays who helped the Rangers earn their reputation for brutality during the war, men with "uncouth costumes, bearded faces, lean and brawny forms, fierce wild eyes and swaggering manners...fit representatives of the outlaws which make up the population of the Lone Star State", according to Samuel Chamberlain. 
After the Mexican War, the Rangers returned to patrol the new state of Texas, trying to end Comanche Indian raids. Captain John S. "Rip" Ford was the famous frontiersman who is credited with killing many Comanches. IN the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, the Rangers continued their pursuit of Indian raiders, outlaws, and cattle rustlers. They tracked the bandit John Wesley Hardin all to the way to Pensacola, Florida . The Texas Rangers were reorganized in 1935 as a branch of the Texas Department of Public Safety and remain active today as the oldest law enforcement agency in America. 
The Alamo was founded in 1718 in San Antonio, Texas as the Mission de San Antonio de Valero and its function was to convert several area Indian tribes. In 1836, however, it was converted into a fortress to protect Texas against Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna who took control of the Mexican government, declared Martial Law and abolished the 1824 constitution. Santa Anna began his siege of the Alamo on February 24, 1836 with a force numbering about 4,000 against the 150 who protected the mission. Some of the principals included Colonel Jim Bowie (famous for the Bowie knife), David Crockett (who brought the Tennessee Mounted Volunteers, Sam Houston (as commander in chief of the Texas Army), William Barret Travis. 
The final siege was on March 6, 1836 and most everyone inside was killed, including the sick in the hospital who were slaughtered outright. One man escaped alive overnight by going over the wall. That final battle lasted 90 minutes. When it was over, five defenders had survived long enough to be brought to Santa Anna who promptly executed them and set them afire. "Remember the Alamo" became the rallying cry as the Mexicans were driven from Texas the following April when Sam Houston and 800 men defeated Santa Anna's 3,000-man army and forced the now captured Santa Anna to sign a peace treaty recognizing Texas independence. 
Frontiersman Daniel Boone was born in 1734 in Pennsylvania. His family to North Carolina in 1750. He went to Kentucky in 1767 and again in 1769. He was hired to blaze a new trail from Cumberland Gap, Virginia to the Kentucky River which he did. He brought his wife and daughter with him and founded Boonesborough. In 1778 he was captured by the Shawnee Indians but escaped five months later. He raced back to Boonesborough to warn of an imminent attack by a joint force of British soldiers and Shawnees. His preservation of the fort (Boonesborough) proved vital to continued westward migration and settlement. During the Revolutionary War, Boone served as a lieutenant colonel of the Fayette County militia; he was also a legislator, county lieutenant and deputy surveyor. He was captured by the British in 1781 but later released. he died in 1820. 
He was born in Iowa in 1846 and his family moved to Kansas in 1854. He was a frontiersman, scout and showman. he rode for the Pony Express when he was just 15. He served in the Calvary during the Civil War. Following the war, he served as a scout and soon married Louisa Frederici. He left scouting to run a hotel but this was not the life for him so he left and scouted for Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. It is believed he earned his nickname in 1867 while hunting buffalo for the Union Pacific construction crews. Between 1866 and 1872 he fought in a slew of Indian skirmishes. He soon became the legend behind a series of dime store novels. He was awarded the Medal Honor in 1872 for his service in Indian campaigns but it was rescinded in 1917 because he had been a civilian at the time and was not qualified to receive one. 
In 1989 the Medal was restored to Cody, 72 years after his death following a new ruling by the Army. In 1882, in North Platte, Nebraska and in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Cody launched his world famous "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show", an extravaganza that included a Pony Express race, a runaway stagecoach, a reenactment of a Custer battle with Indians, sharpshooting, roping and riding exhibitions. The show featured Annie Oakley and in 1885, the Hunkapap Sioux chief Sitting Bull joined them. The show also went to Europe in 1887, 1889 and in 1906 and was a huge success everywhere. He merged his show with another then performed periodically with a circus until a month before his death in January 1917. 
An expert rifle and shotgun markswoman, Phoebe Anne Moses went on to achieve fame all over the world as a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show - although most people know her as Annie Oakley. Despite her big reputation as being a heroine of the Old West and she did visit, she never really lived any further west than Ohio. Her nickname was "Little Sure Shot" was given to her by Chief Sitting Bull who was so amazed by her skills. She was severely injured in 1901 when the train that carried the Wild West show collided with another and she became partially paralyzed. She performed again but not as the same Annie. She died in 1926, a few years after an auto accident from which she never regained her health
She was born Martha Jane Canary; there are numerous tales of how she got her nickname but no one knows for sure. She was a tough cookie and dressed like a man, in buckskins. By the time she was 18, after moving to Salt Lake City with her parents after the Civil War, Jane had been a nurse, a dishwasher, a waitress, a cook and an ox-team driver. She had a reputation for being able to handle a man, shoot like a cowboy, skills that took her into Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show where she performed sharpshooting astride her horse. The love of her life was Wild Bill Hickok. They were secretly married in 1870 but he took off after the birth of their daughter three years later. Jane then remarried as had Hickok and they were reunited briefly, just before Hickok was killed. During the 1870's, Jane was the subject of some dime novels which brought her national fame. She is buried in Deadwood near Wild Bill Hickok 
A novelist and a poet, Helen Jackson's remarkable "A Century of Dishonor" stirred public outrage over the U.S. government's mistreatment of Native Americans. Her book centered on seven tribes, among them: Cheyennes, Nez Perce, Sioux, Cherokees and detailed four massacres in particular. At her own expense, she sent a copy of the book to every member of Congress. She was born in Massachusetts in 1830 and became a lifelong friend of poet Emily Dickinson. After her first husband's death (and that of her two young sons in an accident), Jackson moved to Colorado Springs where she married William Sharpless Jackson. It was on a visit to Boston that she learned of the unjust treatment of Indians during a lecture and spent countless years crusading for public awareness. She founded the Boston Indian Citizenship Association. Her crusade lasted until her death in 1885 when even from her deathbed she wrote President Grover Cleveland a letter urging the Indian cause. 
Before 1917, the only states in the Union that granted the vote to women were in the West. Women were granted the right to vote in Wyoming Territory in 1869; Utah Territory in 1870; Washington Territory in 1883, state of Wyoming in 1890; Colorado in 1893 and in Utah in 1896. As a result: the first woman elected to Congress was Jeannette Rankin of Montana; first elected mayor was Mary Howard of Kanab, Utah; the first elected mayor of a major city was Bertha Landes of Seattle, Washington; the first elected governors were Miriam "Ma" Ferguson of Texas and Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming. 
