Seventy-five years ago, The United States was drawn into WW2 with a wanton attack of the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, on Oahu Island, Hawaii.

The entry of the United States in the war ensured the eventual decisive victory of the Allies over the Axis powers during the war.

May we long remember and pay homage to the more than, 2300 soldiers and sailors killed at the attack and the more than 480,000 casualties during the resulting war.

These heroes kept America safe.

Irony – “a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.”

On this date 154 years ago, in a battle of the Civil War, the Union forces held off an attack by the Confederate forces to secure parts of Missouri and Arkansas for the United States, in the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas. This battle, along with other notables, ensured the United States would stay whole.

This culminated with the defeat of the Confederacy, keeping the Confederate States in the United States.

The irony to me, is that as California and other states talk secession, maybe all the original Confederate states simply stay put, bide their time and watch their coastal brothers leave the Union.

Ultimately, wouldn’t that be the same as if they had won the Civil war and left? All that without firing a single shot!

A good friend of mine called me this morning to whine about U of H losing another head coach, this time to the University of Texas. Let’s see, that makes Baylor, Texas A & M and now UT.

Now my friend, William Bradleigh McKinney, better known as Billy Mac, not to be confused with the “detective down in Texas”, and I have known each other for a good many years.

We both went to UT years ago, both playing some sports while we were there. When we graduated, I went over the pond to Oxford for what Billy Mac laughingly calls the “Roads Scholarship”.

He did graduate work at the University of Houston, so has some identification with both schools. Actually, he has mixed feelings about both of them when they play each other.

Well, he called up bellyaching about losing the current UH head coach to Texas. Said there wasn’t anything money couldn’t buy. While I guess he’s right, I hope he helps UT do better.

I do kinda feel a little bad that UH has lost three of its last coaches to bigger (and wealthier) schools.