August 6, 1945

And what happened in Hiroshima on this date and Nagasaki on August 9 came too damn close close to being repeated in October 1962, September 26, 1983 and November 1983

150th Anniversary Of First Battle Of Bull Run/Manassas

150 years ago today the first land battle of the War To Perpetuate Slavery, the First Battle of Bull Run happened near the town of Manassas, VA. 

The battle that was fought from July 21-24 is known by two different names because the Union and Confederacy used different conventions for naming Civil War battles.  The Union named them after the nearest body of water, and the Confederates for the nearest settlement or farm.

In the months after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter public opinion and political pressure had been building for a Union attack on the CSA capitol of Richmond, VA.  President Lincoln and politicians were clamoring for action because the Confederate troops were encamped a very uncomfortable 25 miles (40 km) from Washington D.C and they believed the capture of Richmond would bring a speedy end to the nascent war.

Because of the building political pressure, the unseasoned troops of the Union Army of Northeastern Virginia under the command of Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell advanced his 35,000 man force across a creek called Bull Run, a Potomac river tributary.   McDowell's intent was to launch a surprise attack against the equally unseasoned CSA Army of the Potomac force of 22,000 troops under the command of Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard near Manassas Junction.   

The inexperienced showed as the Union Army clumsily executed the attack, but still had the advantage over the Confederate units on the scene until a brigade of Virginians under the command of a then unknown colonel and instructor at the Virginia Military Institute name Thomas J. Jackson  stood their ground against the Union attack and earned him his 'Stonewall Jackson' nickname.

Jackson's stand combined with the arrival of reinforcements via train from the Shenandoah Valley under the command of Brig Gen. Joseph E. Johnston swung the course of the battle in favor of the Confederacy as they launched a strong counterattack that forced a Union withdrawal under pressure.    The Union withdrawal turned into a rout as some of the troops panicked and fled in the direction of nearby Washington D.C.       

The First Battle of Bull Run was at that time the largest and bloodiest battle in US history, with Union casualties totaling 460 killed, 1,124 wounded, and 1,312 missing or captured.   On the Confederate side the victory came with a cost.  In addition to losing Brig. Gen. Barnard Bee and Col  Francis Bartow, their casualties were 387 killed, 1,582 wounded, and 13 missing

The First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas also caused both sides to realize that this would be a long, drawn out and nasty war with far bloodier battles to come and they began to act and think in those terms in the aftermath of this first clash of the war.   

Apollo 11 Moon Landing Anniversary

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.   President John F. Kennedy,  May 25, 1961 


42 years ago today on July 20, 1969 the United States and NASA fulfilled President Kennedy's goal by landing astronauts Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the moon in the Eagle landing craft while Michael Collins orbited the moon in Columbia.

Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface, spent 21 hours and 31 minutes on the Moon, collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of moon rocks before they blasted off its surface to rejoin Collins and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.

But this anniversary of the crowning achievement of the Apollo program is tempered by the bittersweet arrival in a few hours of the space shuttle Atlantis from its final mission to the ISS to cap the Space Shuttle program

So as the space shuttle touches down for the last time at KSC it's causing space junkies like myself to ask what's next for the US space program as we shift our sights away from low earth orbit missions and hand that responsibility to the private sector.

I believe the United States and NASA needs to be doing everything possible to expand our knowledge and technological capabilities in terms of executing space missions to and the eventual colonization of Mars, colonizing the Moon, and solve the challenges and problems of long duration space flights.


It will be necessary to do so not only just to explore our celestial neighborhood but nearby stars and emerging discovered planets as well. 

The United States for its future educational and economic well being definitely needs to continue on the path started by President Kennedy and NASA as a spacefaring nation.   We must be part of any international space exploration efforts or projects like the International Space Station.   

If we want the human race to survive and thrive as a species even with all its flaws we gripe about at times, we must explore the final frontier.

President Eisenhower Tells The Truth

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was next to President Gerald R. Ford, the last honest and honorable Republicans.   It's probably why the current crop of Republifools hate both of them with a foaming at the mouth passion or never mentions them.


Eisenhower represents the high water mark for African-American support of a Republican presidential candidate.   We liked Ike and he received 39% of the African American vote in the 1956 election that gave him his second term.  Nixon got 32% in the razor thin 1960 election vs John F. Kennedy, and then starting with the LBJ landslide of 1964 no Republican has gotten more than 15% of the African American vote since. .
But back to talking about Ike being one of the last honest Republican presidents.  During his January 17, 1961 farewell speech he warned us of the dangers of the military industrial complex.



He also said this

"Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.  There is a tiny splinter group, of course that believes that you can do these things, but their number is negligible and they are stupid."

Hmm, wonder who that resembles?