Sunday, March 17, 2013

News broadcasts announcing birthdays

are risky, as illustrated by what happened to L.A. area Channel 5 "newsperson" Henry DiCarlo.  He was given the name Hugh Janus, who was allegedly turning ten years of age and he read it on the air without realizing what he'd done.  At least until other members of the news team couldn't keep the fact he'd just been "punked" off of their faces.

There is a news story that Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's pizza has won a court victory that prevents him from being forced to offer contraceptive coverage in the health plan for his employees.  That's mildly interesting (this is probably an issue for state, not federal legislators) but what really intrigued me is that the story pointed out that Monaghan sold his stake in Domino's to Bain Capital.  So does Mitt Romney own a large piece of a pizza chain?  IIRC didn't he cast aspersions about a certain other former Presidential candidate who ran a pizza company, during the primary?  Or maybe I'm just engaging in wishful thinking.

BTW, it is also mentioned in that article that Monaghan's company has 45 full-time and 44 part-time employees.  If that were representative of our entire labor force in the U.S., it would be truly frightening.

Tonya Long is a name that you should become aware of.  She's not famous.  Not yet.  But she should be.  She's a 13 year veteran of the U.S. Army who is going to spend five years in prison for her part in a scam that saw $1 million stolen from the U.S., intended to go to pay Afghani drivers making deliveries.  She got a reduced sentence for cooperating, but still ran from the courtroom in tears.  One conservative estimate of fraud and theft from the ongoing U.S. military presence in Afghanistan is more than $10 million.  Just awful.

"I came through and I shall return".  The full version of the famous quotation from General Dougas MacArthur after he left the Philippines.  He fulfilled his promise.  But Colonel Edwin Ramsey went one better.  He never left.  Remaining behind, he ultimately took command of 40,000 Philippine resistance fighters and never gave up the struggle.  He was a true hero, awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (second only to the Medal of Honor in decorations for valor on the field of battle) and is revered in the Philippines even to this date.  He died recently at the age of 95.  RIP sir.

Did the late Richard M. Nixon engage in treason to win the 1968 presidential election?  That would seem to be the case based on newly released recordings of the late Lyndon B. Johnson.  A recorded conversation between Johnson and then Defense Secretary Clark Clifford has Clifford telling the President that Anna Chenault had told the South Vietnamese, on Nixon's behalf, to wait to enter into peace talks until after the election.  They had bugged the phone of the South Vietnamese ambassador.  If true, it merely casts a longer shadow on the tainted legacy of Nixon.  But the story should be told.

I watched an old Star Trek episode last night.  "All Our Yesterdays" has Kirk, Spock and McCoy trapped in the past on an alien world about to be destroyed by its sun going nova.  So why is it that Zarabeth wouldn't tell Spock and McCoy that they had to return or die?  She knew the truth.  Why was Spock regressing into what Vulcans had been in the past, but McCoy and Kirk weren't?  Just too many inconsistencies.

It isn't worth a full chapter of ATALFT but there was something amusing this morning at breakfast.  One of the residents was complaining that he was bothered by the noise a female resident's shoes made as she walked to her chair.  Now he definitely dislikes this woman, and he's made no secret of it.  So was it the noise that bothered him, or the noisemaker herself?  The latter, undoubtedly.  How petty.

Was a 20 year old Greek soccer player giving a Nazi salute, or just pointing at someone in the stands to dedicate a goal to them?  The fact that his "salute" was made with his fingers together, rather than pointing just one at the dedicatee (is that a word?) makes me suspect he's either very ignorant, or a Nazi.

Speaking of soccer, what the heck was a BBC actor doing trying to sneak on to a real soccer field to warm-up with a team before a real game?  Yeah, he plays a soccer player in a comedy on the BBC, but this just personifies idiocy.

When you have a moment, search the name Peter Linnerooth via Google or your search engine of choice.  It is an eye-opening, tragic story with an unhappy ending.  RIP, Captain Linnertooth.

It is of course, St. Patrick's day.  My green is in my wallet, so don't pinch me.

This Date in History:

On this date in 45 BC, almost exactly one year before his murder, Julius Caesar wins his last victory on the battlefield at Munda.
On this date in 180, Marcus Aurelius dies, leaving Commodus as Emperor.  Now, how many of you immediately thought of Joaquin Phoenix?
On this date in 1337, Edward the Black Prince becomes Duke of Cornwall.  First Duchy in England.
On this date in 1805, Napoleon becomes King of Italy.
On this date in 1941, FDR officially opens the National Gallery of Art.
On this date in 1942, the first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp.
On this date in 1947, the first flight of the B-45 bomber was made.
On this date in 1950, researchers at UC Berkeley announced the creation of element 98, which was later named Californium.
On this date in 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India.
On this date in 1960, President Eisenhower signs a directive that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
On this date in 1969, Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel.
On this date in 1970, the U.S. Army charges 14 officers with suppressing evidence of the My Lai Massacre.
On this date in 1985, Richard Ramirez, the "Night-Stalker" commits his first two murders in the L.A. area.

Famous Folk Born on this Date:

Roger Brooke Taney (former Chief Justice of the United States)
Walter Rudolf Hess
Alfred Newman (composer, not MAD Magazine icon)
Bobby Jones
Sammy Baugh
Nat King Cole
Myrlie Evers-Williams
Rudolf Nureyev
John Wayne Gacy
John Sebastian
Patrick Duffy
Kurt Russell
Gary Sinise
Danny Ainge
Sam Bowie
Rob Lowe (love his impression of Robert Wagner)
Barry Minkow
Mia Hamm
Caroline Corr

And on this date in 2005, one of the great lights of Science-Fiction and Fantasy was lost when Andre Norton passed.  I remain a major fan.