Did You Know....

[jarhead]

Good post Warph

[Warph]

....that in November of 1960, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected President of the United States. Three years later, he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, shot while in a motorcade going through Dallas, Texas.

Had Richard Paul Pavlick gotten his way, Oswald would have never gotten to pull the trigger. Because Pavlick wanted to kill JFK first.

On December 11, 1960, JFK was the President-Elect and Richard Paul Pavlick was a 73 year old retired postal worker. Both were in Palm Beach, Florida. JFK was there on a vacation of sorts, taking a trip to warmer climates as he prepared to assume the office of the President. Pavlick had followed Kennedy down there with the intention of blowing himself up and taking JFK with him. His plan was simple. He lined his car with dynamite — "enough to blow up a small mountain" per CNN – and outfitted it with a detonation switch. Then, he parked outside the Kennedy's Palm Beach compound and waited for Kennedy to leave his house to go to Sunday Mass. Pavlick's aim was to ram his car into JFK's limo as the President-to-be left his home, blowing both assassin and politician to smithereens.

But JFK did not leave his house alone that morning. He made his way to his limo with his wife, Jacqueline, and children, Caroline and John, Jr., with him. While Pavlick was willing to kill their husband and father, he did not want to kill them, so he resigned himself to trying again another day. He would not get a second chance at murderous infamy. On December 15th, he was arrested by a Palm Beach police officer working off a tip from the Secret Service.

Pavlick's undoing was the result of deranged postcards he sent to Thomas Murphy, then the Postmaster of Pavlick's home town of Belmont, New Hampshire. Murphy was put off by the strange tone of the postcards and his curiosity led him to do what Postmasters do — look at the postmarks. He noticed a pattern: Pavlick happened to be in the same general area as JFK, dotting the landscape as Kennedy travelled. Murphy called the local police department who in turn called the Secret Service, and from there, Pavlick's plan unraveled.

The would-be assassin was committed to a mental institution on January 27th of the following year, a week after Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States, pending charges. These charges were eventually dropped as it became increasingly clear that Pavlick acted out of an inability to distinguish between right and wrong (i.e. he was legally insane), but nevertheless, Pavlick remained in institutions until December 13, 1966, nearly six years after being apprehended. He died in 1975.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-24/opinion/greene.jfk.arrest_1_kennedy-family-mansion-election-lee-harvey-oswald?_s=PM:OPINION
http://www.theblackvault.com/wiki/index.php/Richard_Paul_Pavlick

Bonus fact: If Pavlick seems old for a would-be Presidential assassin, your instincts are correct. Lee Harvey Oswald was just 24 years old, making him the youngest of all four of the men who assassinated Presidents. John Wilkes Booth was 26 when he killed Abraham Lincoln; Leon Czolgosz was 28 when he assassinated William McKinley, and Charles Guiteau was 39 when he murdered James A. Garfield.

[Warph]

EXCLUSIVE: Obama's $500,000 book bonanza
by Washington Times  March 19, 2009


.....that as he empathized with recession-weary Americans, President Obama arranged in the days just before he took office to secure a $500,000 advance for a children's book project, a disclosure report shows.

The terms of the book deal were disclosed in a Senate financial disclosure report filed Tuesday.

Analysts say there don't appear to be any rules that would bar such transactions after a president takes office, but it's unclear whether an incoming or sitting president has ever signed a book deal upon entering the White House.

"I don't recall any sitting president entering into a book deal," said campaign finance lawyer Jan Baran, former general counsel to the Republican National Committee. "They all have historically done that after they leave office.

"I recall the only ones who did sign book deals while living there were first ladies, and my recollection is they gave it to charity."

Mr. Obama approved the $500,000 advance on Jan. 15. The advance is against royalties under a deal with Crown Publishing, a division of Random House. The project calls for an abridged version of his book "Dreams From My Father" for middle-school-aged children, according to the disclosure.

A White House aide said that the deal had been in the works for weeks and that the publisher will abridge the book. The aide, speaking on a condition of anonymity, said the publisher will get half of the money while Mr. Obama will sign off on the final version.

In addition, the financial disclosure showed Mr. Obama brokered an amendment to an existing book deal with Crown Publishing to put off writing a nonfiction book until after he leaves office.

The book deal came on top of nearly $2.5 million in book royalties paid to Mr. Obama last year for "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," according to the Senate report, which was filed by Robert F. Bauer, who served general counsel to Mr. Obama's presidential campaign.

The disclosure also cites income, listed as more than $1,000, paid to first lady Michelle Obama from the University of Chicago, where she had worked as vice president for community and external affairs.

Just as in 2007, public interest in Barack Obama the presidential candidate helped Barack Obama the author earn lots of money from book royalties, according to his latest financial disclosure report.

Last year, Mr. Obama reported earning $949,910 in royalties from "Dreams From My Father" and $1.5 million from "The Audacity of Hope." In 2007, he reported $3.2 million in book royalties from Random House.

Mr. Obama's books have helped boost the Obamas' income considerably in recent years, from about $1 million in 2006 to more than $4 million in 2007.

After getting permission from the Senate ethics committee in January 2005, Mr. Obama agreed to a $1.9 million advance for two nonfiction books and a children's book, of which $200,000 was to be donated to charity, according to his 2007 financial disclosure.

[Warph]

....that this can be verified True by Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/ping.asp

I think this is something of which all Americans should be aware.

Thank you Ping



This isn't a joke or cartoon; just something interesting to know ... you may want to forward this on to others. This was related to me by Mike, a friend of mine

He said that on Monday, "I played the Disney, Lake Buena Vista course. As usual the starters matched me with three other players. After a few holes we began to get to know each other a bit. One fellow was rather young and had his wife riding along in the golf cart with him. I noticed that his golf bag had his name on it and after closer inspection, it also said "wounded war veterans". When I had my first chance to chat with him I asked him about the bag. His response was simply that it was a gift. I then asked if he was wounded and he said yes. When I asked more about his injury, his response was "I'd rather not talk about it, sir".

Over a few holes, I learned that he had spent the last 15 months in an army rehabilitation hospital in San Antonio, Texas. His wife moved there to be with him and he was released from the hospital in September. He was a rather quiet fellow; however, he did say that he wanted to get good at golf. We had a nice round and as we became a bit more familiar I asked him about the brand new set of Ping woods and irons he was playing. Some looked like they had never been hit. His response was simple. He said that this round was the first full round he had played with these clubs.

Later in the round he told me the following. As part of the discharge process from the rehabilitation hospital, Ping comes in and provides three days of golf instruction, followed by club fitting. Upon discharge from the hospital, Ping gives each of the discharged veterans, generally about 40 soldiers, a brand new set of custom fitted clubs along with the impressive golf bags.

The fellow I met was named Ben Woods and he looked me in the eye and said that being fitted for those clubs was one of the best things that ever happened to him and he was determined to learn to play golf well enough to deserve the gift Ping had given him. Ben is now out of the service, medically discharged just a month ago. He is as fine a young man as you would ever want to meet.

Ping, whose products are made with pride here in America (Arizona), has the good judgment not to advertise this program. God Bless America and the game of golf.

Thank you "PING"!!!
May God Bless our Military!!!

[Warph]

                                         The International Space Station (ISS)

     

...that serving as an outpost for astronauts to conduct research, the International Space Station (ISS) is a marvel of a man-made structure. Having completed 10 years of orbiting the earth, the ISS is a one-of-its-kind laboratory cum observatory. It is equipped with solar arrays and skywalks, which make it a perfect platform for astronauts working in space; besides, it serves as a dock for space shuttles or expedition vehicles as they are called. The ISS sums up as a workstation, and more importantly, as a 'home among the stars' for the astronauts and space researchers.

Here's all you want to know about the International Space Station.

     

The International Space Station is, by far, the largest spacecraft to be ever built and assembled in space. As per statistics of August 2011, a total of 135 launches to the space station have been conducted. The first component of the space station was propelled with the aid of Zarya control module in November 1998.

The facts outlined below will give you an idea behind the working and structure of the ISS:


✈The total mass of the ISS is 417,298 kg or 919, 964 lb. On completion, it is expected to weigh about 419,600 kg or 925,000 lb.
✈The Canadarm2, attached to the ISS is capable of operating a maximum of 116,000 kilograms of payloads.
✈Once complete, the ISS is scheduled to have 262,400 solar cells on its 2500 square meters of solar panels.
✈Astronauts working at the ISS have taken more than 200,000 photographs of the earth.
✈The ISS has more than 100,000 people functioning jointly around the world.
✈The space station has a pressurized volume of 916 cubic meters, i.e, 32,333 cubic feet.
✈Currently, it has 13,696 cubic feet of habitable volume and on completion, it will provide the crew members with 935 cubic meters of habitable volume.
✈The ISS covers 17,500 miles per hour or takes about 90 minutes to complete one orbit.
✈The amount of research equipment taken to the ISS sums up to more than 17,000 lb.
✈With the clock still ticking, it has completed 4919* days in orbit.
✈The cumulative time spent by the crew on the ISS amounts to a whopping 4206* days.
✈Approximately 3,630 kilograms (7986lbs.) of food is required to feed the astronauts during every expedition.
✈The ISS is located 386 kilometers or 240 miles above the planet where it orbits the planet.
✈The ISS has a 360 degree bay window which serves as an amazing viewing platform/observatory.
✈The total length of the ISS is approximately 171 feet, which once completed, will measure a total of 110.03 meters.
✈As per the records, the astronauts have completed more than 161 spacewalks so far.
✈About 110 kW of electrical power will be generated by the solar arrays.
✈It is made up of 70 major components that are assembled in space.
✈It is controlled by 52 onboard computers.
✈It will require a minimum of 45 launches to fully assemble the space station.
✈A total of 37 states are participating.
✈In all, 31 expeditions to the ISS have been conducted so far.
✈There are 16 countries of the world, that are involved in the mission.
✈The ISS completes a total number of 15 orbits per day.
✈Present number of rooms on the ISS is 13.
✈A wire length of 8 miles will go into linking the electrical power system in the ISS.
✈Each expedition lasts for 6 months.
✈There are 6 crew members present aboard the ISS currently.
✈Astronauts aboard the ISS have to dedicate two hours of rigorous exercise daily.
Please note: *Statistics change on a daily basis.

[Warph]

....that Bolivia holds the highest turnover of governments. Since their independence from Spain in 1825, Bolivia has had almost 200 governments. Since 1945, Italy saw more than 50 governments and more than 20 Prime Ministers.

India is the world's largest democracy with more than 700 million registered voters.

The system of democracy was introduced 2 500 years ago in Athens, Greece.

The youngest active system of governance is communism, which was introduced in 1848 by Friedrich Engels and Karl
Marx.

The oldest existing governing body operates in Althing in Iceland. It was established in 930 AD.

David "Screaming Lord Sutch", as leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party, was Britain's longest serving party leader until he hung himself in June 1999.

Although the United States of America was established in 1776 the first American president ever to visited Europe while in office was Woodrow Wilson in 1918.

Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927) was the first woman to run for office of US President. She and her sister were the first
women to run a Wall Street brokerage (1870).

The United Nations organization (UN) was founded in 1945.

The Organization of American States (OAS) was founded in 1948 to promote peace, security and the economical development of the western hemisphere.

The European Union was founded in 1957 as the European Economic Community. It then became the EC (European Community) and in 1993 the EU (European Union).

The shortest war on record took place in 1896 when Zanzibar surrendered to Britain after 38 minutes.

The longest was the so-called 100-years war between Britain and France. It actually lasted 116 years, ending in 1453.

It was during the 100-years war that direct taxation on income was introduced, a British invention designed to finance the war with France.

Since 1495, no 25-year period has been without war.

Since 1815 there has been more than 210 interstate wars.

During the Battle of Waterloo, Lord Uxbridge had his horse shot from under him 9 times.

Chevy Chase was a battle that took place on the English-Scottish border in 1388.

The doors that cover US nuclear silos weigh 748 tons and opens in 19 seconds.

The first recorded revolution took place at around 2800 BC when people from the Sumerian city of Lagash overthrew bureaucrats who were lining their own pockets but kept raising taxes.

The NATO attack on Serbia in 1999 during the Kosovo war killed more animals than people.

The very first bomb that the Allies dropped on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea.

The first reference to a handgun was made in an order for iron bullets in 1326.

Approximately 1,100 U boats were sunk or lost during World War II.

When killed in battle, Japanese officers were promoted to the next highest rank.

During the 1991 Gulf War, the Allies dropped more than 17,000 smart bombs and 210,000 dumb (unguided) bombs on Iraqi troops.

Land mines cause 24,000 deaths a year.

In 1997, the US maintained 13,750 nuclear warheads, 5,546 of them on ballistic missiles. See today's figures.

About 50% of arms exports go to non-democratic regimes.

Annual global spending on military is more than $1.3 trillion (45% by USA).

Iceland has no military and no military expenditure.

Although the two-finger V for Victory sign is synonymous with Winston Churchill, it actually was the idea of a Belgian refugee in London, Victor De Laveleye.

Chemical and biological warfare have been used long before World War 1. During the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC, Spartans used sulfur and pitch to overcome the enemy.

One out of every two casualties of war is a civilian caught in the crossfire

[Catwoman]

Thank you, Warph, for posting all this cool stuff...Keep up the good work! 

[Warph]

                                  The Death Of Bonnie and Clyde 78 years ago today

...that Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were the most famous gangster couple in history.  From 1932 to 1934, during the height of the Great Depression, their gang evolved from petty theives to nationally-known bank robbers (the most taken out of all banks robbed, $4,000) and murderers.  Though a burgeoning yellow press romanticized their exploits, the gang was believed responsible for at least 13 murders, including two policemen, as well as several robberies and kidnappings.  The spree ended when they were betrayed by a friend and shot dead at a police roadblock in Louisiana on May 23, 1934.

                         

                         

[Warph]

 

...that Robert Todd Lincoln (August 1, 1843-June 26, 1926), was the sole child of President Abraham Lincoln to live to maturity.

He served on U.S. Grant's staff during the Civil War, following his graduation from Harvard. While still a youth he was rescued from falling from a moving train by Edwin Booth, elder brother of John Wilkes Booth (the assassin of his father).

He was connected with the assassinations of three American Presidents. He was present at his father's bedside when he died; was in the crowd at the Washington, DC, railroad station when President James Garfield was shot; and was at the Buffalo (NY) Pan-American Exposition when President William McKinley was shot. He later refused to attend Presidential functions, believing that he somehow brought bad luck to them.

He served the United States as the last Minister to Great Britain (before the title was changed to Ambassador) and as Secretary of War under President Garfield. His only son, Abraham Lincoln II, died in France while Robert was serving as Minister in London (see separate information on the younger Lincoln). http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=robert+todd+lincoln&view=detail&id=8F2553DDB5A840837BE396EFC11803819643BFD4&first=31&FORM=IDFRIR

He later became President of the Pullman Company in Chicago. He was also present at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

He died at his summer retreat, "Hildene," in Manchester, Vermont, where he had become a virtual recluse in the later years. He was described in contemporary reports as "A full-fleshed man, bearded and bespectacled who was impeccable in his social relations and personal grooming." He spent much of his time protecting his family against sensation seekers and speculators and was put into the position of having his mother (Mary Todd Lincoln) committed to a mental institution when her irrational behavior became worse. He is the only member of his father's immediate family not to be buried in the Lincoln family plot in Springfield, Illinois.

[Warph]

All in the Family
By John R. Coyne, Jr.

....that Jason Emerson's new biography of Robert Todd Lincoln captures a man of impressive achievement in his own right.

Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln
By Jason Emerson
(Southern Illinois University Press, 752 pages, $39.95)

Robert Todd Lincoln (he never used the Todd, Jason Emerson tells us), the oldest of Abraham Lincoln's four sons and the only one to live to adulthood, was one of those Midwestern men of business who made Chicago the post-Civil War center of American commerce and industry—a city, wrote Andrew Ferguson in his splendid Land of Lincoln, that "grew with the Lincoln legend and was, in part, a creature of it," a city leveled by fire and rebuilt, epitomizing the "entrepreneurial capitalism that came roaring out of the Civil War period and Lincoln came to symbolize."

The Chicago connection is central to Emerson's study, and interestingly enough, this magazine has strong Chicago ties as well. Andrew Ferguson, who made his bones as a journalist at The American Spectator, writes that his father worked as a lawyer in Chicago at the firm founded by Robert Todd Lincoln.

And hanging in the home library of Bob Tyrrell, the founder and editor of TAS, and himself a Chicago product, is a large picture of Abraham Lincoln, with a bronze plaque that reads: "Presented To P. D. Tyrrell, U.S.S.S. By Robert T. Lincoln April 14, 1887 For Loyalty And Service to his Father Abraham Lincoln."

Captain P.D. Tyrrell of the U.S. Secret Service, head of its regional office in Chicago, was Bob Tyrrell's great-great-grandfather; and his service to Robert Lincoln's father, performed twelve years after the assassination of the president, was to prevent the theft of Abraham Lincoln's body by a Chicago gang of body snatchers (they were also counterfeiters) from its burial place in Springfield, Illinois.

Grave robbing, Emerson tells us, a somewhat macabre form of kidnapping, was not uncommon at the time. In 1830, for instance, one sensational case occurred when "a fired gardener at George Washington's home in Mount Vernon tried to steal the first president's skull, but ended up with the bones of a distant relative."

In the end, the plot to snatch Lincoln's body, discussed in some detail in one of the most readable sections of this highly readable book, was foiled by Captain Tyrrell. Tyrrell, Emerson tells us, was an immigrant, born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1835, who moved to America at age three. He grew up in Buffalo, New York, and after a variety of jobs in law enforcement, made his way to Chicago, where he was named a police detective and "established himself as one of the department's best men," solving several of the department's most difficult cases.

When the Chicago chief of police was appointed chief of the U.S. Secret Service in 1874, "he brought Tyrrell with him and made the Irishman head of the Chicago regional office. There, Tyrrell again distinguished himself as a top operative by shutting down and arresting numerous counterfeiters and gangs, operations large and small."

P. D. Tyrrell, Emerson writes, "was one of the Service's most outstanding operatives, and later in his career would be considered one of the most distinguished law enforcement officers in the country."

The attempt to steal Lincoln's body is worth a book in itself, and at least one has already been written. But for Emerson's purpose, the whole episode also helps define the great responsibility to preserve and protect his father's memory and legacy that Robert Lincoln charged himself with bearing throughout his life and career:

In September 1901, the final re-burial of Abraham Lincoln took place....This was the seventeenth time the body was moved, and the sixth time it was exposed and viewed since 1865.... After thirty-six years of dealing with events concerning his father's tomb—the history of which one newspaper called "a sort of burlesque"—Robert never again had to worry about it, Abraham Lincoln was finally and permanently at rest. The entire affair, however, was only one small piece of the Lincoln legacy—a legacy that would occupy, satisfy, and very often aggravate Robert his entire life.

His self-appointed role as guardian of the Lincoln legacy also involved making judgments on the various works about the president and his family increasingly pouring out of the printing presses. He especially despised the life of Lincoln written by William Herndon, who as a boy had known the future president and later became his law partner. Some students of Abraham Lincoln find Herndon indispensable for his depiction of the fast-disappearing world of the frontier that helped shape and define Lincoln. (Interestingly, Robert Lincoln was enthusiastic about the two-volume life of his father written by Ida Tarbell, the noted muckraker.)

Part of Robert Lincoln's distaste for Herndon apparently grew out of what he considered "the negative depiction of Mary Lincoln." According to Emerson, a significant amount of his time was spent discrediting books and articles published about his mother, as well as trying "to collect and destroy all of his mother's letters written during what [he] called her 'period of mental derangement,' and also to attempt to block the publication of letters he could not destroy."

Perhaps the heaviest part of Robert Lincoln's burden as guardian of the family legacy was the continuous care and oversight of his mother, as she sank from instability into something very much like insanity, at one point requiring a formal commitment, which proved temporary, to an asylum. The extended scenes in which the relationship between mother and son are described are among the most painful in the book.

BUT MR. EMERSON'S biography is by no means an extended chronicle of heartbreak and suffering. True, it might seem there's a string of bad luck running through the Robert Lincoln story—especially where presidents are involved. Although not at Ford Theater when his father was shot, he was nearby at the White House and one of the first to arrive at the theater.

In 1881, he was with President James A. Garfield, whom he served as Secretary of War, when Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau; and in 1901, he was at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, when Leon F. Czolgosz shot President William McKinley. Apparently this led Lincoln to a number of refusals to attend events where a sitting president might be present.

At times Mr. Emerson, who shows that in later life Robert Lincoln adhered to "a Victorian values system," assumes a distinctly Victorian style himself. As a young man, he tells us, Robert Lincoln wasn't above a certain amount of hell-raising: "As dutiful and affectionate [a son] as Robert was, it is not incorrect to reveal his great desire and ability for smoking cigars, drinking, and carousing, which only increased during his college years."

During those years at Harvard, he was also eager to enlist, like so many of his fellow students, but was prevented from doing so by his mother, who was growing increasingly unstable. Finally, with the help of his father, he was able to join the personal staff of General Grant as a captain in time for the last few battles of the war, and was at Appomattox to witness General Lee's surrender.

With the end of the war and the assassination, Lincoln brought his mother and younger brother to live in Chicago, where he finished his law degree and eventually helped to establish the prestigious firm where Andrew Ferguson's father went to work a half-century later. It was in Chicago where he made his mark as a man of accomplishment in his own right, and where he became president of the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1897.

During those years he also served in prestigious posts in Republican administrations, among them Secretary of War under Presidents Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. As his reputation grew—and of course because of the family name—Lincoln became increasingly talked of as a presidential or vice presidential possibility. But he'd have none of it. In 1884, he explicitly forbade his name to be placed in nomination as vice president at the Republican convention.

Four years later, he again had strong support at the Republican convention and, despite not attending, took a significant number of votes for the top job. "It seemed as certain then as it does now," writes Emerson, "that had Robert Lincoln actively sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1888, he would have won it." In the end, the nomination went to former Senator Benjamin Harrison, who, upon defeating Grover Cleveland and taking office, nominated Lincoln as America's Minister to Great Britain.

In all, a distinguished career. As Emerson, very much his subject's champion, puts it: "Robert T. Lincoln was an accomplished man, one of the exemplars of his generation, who, beyond being the son of Abraham Lincoln, should and must be recognized for his independent achievement. On top of all that, Robert's life, from 1843 to 1926, spanned the most innovative, impressive, and dynamic era in American history." With much of it, one might add, played out in Chicago, the most dynamic city of the era.

"Robert's life is a fantastic journey through a rich period of American history," writes Justin Emerson. And it is to his great credit as a biographer and historian that he so successfully brings Robert T. Lincoln out of history's shadows and the times in which he lived back to vivid life.