Browsing: Society

A Brief History On April 6, 2011, the second San Fernando mass killings incident was discovered.  On February 22, 2014, the day I (Major Dan) actually wrote this article, cable and national news outlets trumpeted the capture of Mexican drug Kingpin, Joaquin Guzman, known as “Shorty” or “El Chapo” in Spanish. Digging Deeper Although not the drug lord responsible for the San Fernando massacres, as head of the Sinaloa cartel his underlings have committed perhaps hundreds of murders, massacres, and have certainly planted more than a few mass graves!  Making billions of dollars of ill gotten profits a year, Guzman…

A Brief History It is believed that on April 5, 1994, Nirvana front man, Kurt Cobain, killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head.  He was only 27 years old and had been a brilliant musical success, his band having sold over 75 million albums worldwide. Digging Deeper Despite being rich and successful, Cobain was depressed and got into trouble with drugs, specifically heroin.  Sadly, it seems drugs are at the root of many celebrity suicides and accidental deaths. Cobain had not always had it so good.  He had dropped out of high school and had been kicked out of the house by…

A Brief History On April 2, 1917, just a few months after being reelected President of the United States on a platform of “He kept us out of war,” Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, proving that you cannot believe a word a politician says. Digging Deeper Wilson, more or less the “peace candidate” who had initially resisted involvement in World War I, had been the President of Princeton University and the Governor of New Jersey prior to being elected President of the United States in 1912.  To this day, Wilson remains the only American president to have earned a…

A Brief History On March 31, 1992, the U.S. Navy decommissioned the USS Missouri, the last of the Iowa-class battleships.  The Mighty Mo, also known as BB-63, gained immortality by being the host for the signing of the Japanese surrender in World War II on September 2, 1945.  The fact that President Truman was from Missouri probably had some influence on the choice of the ship for the signing!   The Missouri now resides at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii as a museum/memorial ship.  Digging Deeper First fielded during World War II, the Iowa class was an improvement over the South Dakota and…

A Brief History On March 29, 1911, the Colt M1911, a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, was adopted as the first semi-automatic service pistol for regular use by the U.S. military. Digging Deeper  Last year we first told you the tale of this great pistol, but today we will compare the relative merits of the semi-automatic pistol vs. the merits of the revolvers that preceded it. (Semi-automatics are usually called “pistols” to differentiate them from revolvers.) Originally, revolvers were built with a “single-action” mechanism, which means that prior to firing the handgun, it had to be cocked by pulling back the hammer.  Those were later made…