Tuesday, August 20, 2013

How far back should the "digging" go?

I am a fan of Robin Abcarian of the L.A. Times.  While she is left of center, she isn't way, way out there.  She writes exceptionally well, and did a terrific job during her all too-short tenure in talk radio with the late (and sorely missed) Tracey Miller.  But I have a problem with her piece in today's Times.  She wants to know if Senator Ted Cruz was the beneficiary of the Canadian single-payer healthcare system from the moment he was born there until he was four years old.  At that point he went to live with his father in Florida.

There is absolutely no hypocrisy in having benefitted from a government program as a child, that you oppose as an adult.  Trying to infer there is, is beyond misleading.  It's unfair.  Should any child be held responsible for anything in their lives before their 5th birthday?  No! 

Now if someone who is now a college graduate were to oppose the idea of affirmative action in education, when they themselves benefitted from it while they were a student, that's a textbook example of hypocrisy.  If Ward Connerly, the man behind California's Proposition 209 were to have gotten into Sacramento State when he was an undergrad through affirmative action, he'd be among the worst hypocrites of our time (I don't know if he did or didn't). 

But I don't like the inference in Ms Abcarian's piece today.  It is beneath her usual level of thought-provoking commentary.  I am disappointed.

* * *

I love the Fox 11 Morning News, Good Day L.A. and their 10 p.m. newscast.  In fact I like all of their newscasts.  Today they reported that Jennifer Aniston's bill for hair care and skin care is more than $2,000 per month.  I checked.  Jennifer Aniston earned a little over $80 million over the four years prior to 2013 (according to Forbes Magazine).  That's more than $1.6 million per month.  That makes her outlay for skin/hair care 0.13% of her monthly income.  And, it is an expense that is part and parcel of her ability to earn that money.  It was an interesting piece, but no one should be surprised or upset over the amount.  I think she gets good value for the money.

* * *

I was among those who were very happy when cigarette smoking was banned in restaurants and bars in California.  I was equally pleased when that ban was extended to any indoor space open to the public.  The one negative about going to the casinos in Las Vegas (aside from losing money of course) was knowing that after a few hours, I'd probably leave with that putrid odor of cigarette smoke coming from my hair and clothing.  That's unavoidable there, but here it isn't a problem.

I just read about a sports bar in Washington, where recreational marijuana use is legal now, that allows (in fact encourages) patrons to share a pipe or blaze up a fatty of their own.  The new law bans smoking pot in public, but the bar gets around this the same way they got around the state's smoking ban in public places.  They made the second floor a "private" place with an annual membership fee.  The state sued and lost. 

Now the bar's owner is doing the same thing with pot smoking on his establishment's second floor and I think it is worthy of discussion.  Like it or not, depending on a facility's ventilation system, the potential for people getting "contact high" from the pot smoking of others is possible.  Now if a potential customer objects to the odor of pot, they can stay off of the second floor.  Not knowing if the odor is detectable on the first floor of this place, I can't address that issue.  But if they are non-tokers and they are with friends who are, they have a somewhat difficult choice.

I am a fan of laws being enforced as written.  If the intention was different when the law was created, then it wasn't properly created.  Once enacted, laws should be properly enforced and as necessary, interpreted by the courts.  Since the courts ruled this "private space" concept is legal for cigarette smoking, they will probably rule the same way on pot smoking. 

I only know that if California ever passes such a law, and an establishment I patronize does the same thing, I'll probably choose to go elsewhere.  If that's what others want to do, more power to them.  It's just not my thing.


* * *

Random Ponderings:

I noticed that I am yawning more these days than in the past.  I was having a particularly bad bout of it this morning.  Then I took a short nap and it has stopped completely.  Guess I'm just not getting enough rest.

A university study indicates that savers are more attractive dating material than spenders are.  Newsflash?  Hardly.  That's been the case for ages.  After all, many women will find a short man to be taller when he's standing on a very full wallet.  If he's heavy, he'll look thinner.  Oh, and it works both ways.  While there are many reasons for the trend toward younger men favoring "cougars", there are at least some of those men who are in it for more than just the great sex.

I guess if you work for the State Department you can act with impunity, no matter what you do.  After all, if the four who were suspended over Benghazi were allowed back to work without any further negative actions against them, it must be open season to do anything at Foggy Bottom.

I have to ask.  The news is reporting that a man weighing 1,345 pounds was taken by forklift from his home after he'd been unable to leave the premises for 2.5 years.  How in the world did they weigh him with any level of accuracy? 

Whatever sentence PFC Bradley Manning gets tomorrow, people will be saying it is too harsh.  Others will be saying it is too lenient.  I expect I will have no problem with whatever jail term he gets.  He will undoubtedly carry the stigma of a Dishonorable Discharge and multiple felony convictions on his record for the rest of his life.  He has apologized.  I hope he makes peace with himself in the future.

Will comments by Phil Robertson, star of the mega-hit reality show "Duck Dynasty" on A&E cut into their gigantic ratings?  Maybe.  He was taped making a speech where he spoke stridently in favor of outlawing abortion.

I'm tired of this movement to "defund Obamacare".  Until you have a better solution to this problem, shut up already.

I love the Fox 11 Morning News, Good Day L.A. and their 10 p.m. newscast.  In fact I like all of their newscasts.  Today they reported that Jennifer Aniston's bill for hair care and skin care is more than $2,000 per month.  I checked.  Jennifer Aniston earned a little over $80 million over the four years prior to 2013 (according to Forbes Magazine).  That's more than $1.6 million per month.  That makes her outlay for skin/hair care 0.13% of her monthly income.  And, it is an expense that is part and parcel of her ability to earn that money.  It was an interesting piece, but no one should be surprised or upset over the amount.  I think she gets good value for the money.

Just as the birthers like Trump and that nimrod Sheriff in Arizona should just let go of the issue, the issue of where Ted Cruz was born should be dropped.  It is a non-issue.  There are more important things to worry about.

I may not be a fan of some of what President Obama has done since first becoming President, but it's clearly obvious to anyone with an IQ over 87 that he doesn't hate anyone because of the color of their skin. 

On a related note, the members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins team who chose not to go to the White House today because they disapprove of the president are morons.  This was a celebration, not a political event.  To Larry Csonka, who was interviewed live on CNN about this, kudos for a well-spoken response.

Oh and in case anyone wasn't clear, President Nixon being the nation's #1 fan of the Washington Redskins was not why the 1972 Miami Dolphins didn't get to go to the White House after their perfect season, until now.  It just wasn't the norm back then.

* * *

This Date in History:

14 – Agrippa Postumus, adopted son of the late Roman Emperor Augustus, is executed by his guards while in exile under mysterious circumstances.
636 – Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine away from the Byzantine Empire, marking the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid advance of Islam outside Arabia.
917 – Battle of Acheloos: Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria decisively defeats a Byzantine army.
1000 – The foundation of the Hungarian state by Saint Stephen, celebrated as a National Day in Hungary.
1083 – Canonization of the first King of Hungary, Saint Stephen and his son Saint Emeric.
1308 – Pope Clement V pardons Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, absolving him of charges of heresy.
1391 – Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order.
1467 – The Second Battle of Olmedo takes places as part of a succession conflict between Henry IV of Castile and his half-brother Alfonso, Prince of Asturias.
1519 – Philosopher and general Wang Yangming defeats Zhu Chenhao, ending the Prince of Ning rebellion against the reign of the Ming Dynasty emperor Zhengde.
1672 – Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are brutally murdered by an angry mob in The Hague.
1707 – The first Siege of Pensacola comes to end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida.
1710 – War of the Spanish Succession: a multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg defeats the Spanish-Bourbon army commanded by Alexandre Maître, Marquis de Bay in the Battle of Saragossa.
1775 – The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.
1794 – Battle of Fallen Timbers – American troops force a confederacy of Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi warriors into a disorganized retreat.
1858 – Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory.
1866 – President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.
1882 – Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia.
1910 – The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the "Big Blowup" or the "Big Burn"  occurs in northeast Washington, northern Idaho (the panhandle), and western Montana, burning approximately 3 million acres (12,000 km2).
1914 – World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
1920 – The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit, Michigan.
1926 – Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established.
1938 – Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam – a record that still stands.
1940 – In Mexico City, Mexico exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramón Mercader. He dies the next day.
1940 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes the fourth of his famous wartime speeches, containing the line "Never was so much owed by so many to so few".
1944 – World War II: 168 captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being "terror fliers", arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.
1944 – World War II: the Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet Union offensive.
1950 – Korean War: United Nations repel an offensive by North Korean divisions attempting to cross the Naktong River and assault the city of Taegu.
1955 – In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.
1960 – Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence.
1962 – The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.
1968 – Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring.
1975 – Viking Program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars.
1977 – Voyager Program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
1986 – In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide.
1988 – "Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park
1988 – Peru becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1988 – Iran–Iraq War: a ceasefire is agreed after almost eight years of war.
1988 – The Troubles: Eight British Army soldiers are killed and 28 wounded when their bus is hit by a Provisional Irish Republican Army roadside bomb in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom (see Ballygawley bus bombing).
1989 – The pleasure boat Marchioness sinks on the River Thames following a collision. 51 people are killed.
1989 – The O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, the world's longest guided busway, opens.
1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: more than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup aiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.
1991 – Estonia, annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, issues a decision on the re-establishment of independence on the basis of historical continuity of its pre-World War II statehood.
1993 – After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Accords are signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the following month

Famous Folk Born On This Date:

Benjamin Harrison
Ton Duc Thang
H. P. Lovecraft
Alan Reed
Walter Bernstein
Jim Reeves
Ron Paul
Isaac Hayes
Connie Chung
James Pankow
Robert Plant
Mohamed Morsi
Gerry Bertier (an amazing man)
Al Roker
Joan Allen
David O. Russell (genius)
Fred Durst
Amy Adams
Demi Lovato

Movie quotes today are from 1995's "Get Shorty" to pay tribute to the brilliant writer, Elmore Leonard, who died today at age 87:

Chili Palmer: Rough business, this movie business. I'm gonna have to go back to loan-sharking just to take a rest.

#2


Bo Catlett: I'd like to introduce my associate, The Bear. Movie stuntman, champion bodybuilder. Throws out things I don't want.
Bear: I think you ought to turn around and head back to Miami.
Chili Palmer: So you're a stuntman, huh?
Bear: Yeah.
Chili Palmer: You any good?
Bear: Am I any good?
[He turns to Bo, laughing. Chili grabs him by the balls, then throws him down the stairs]
Chili Palmer: That's not bad for a guy his size.

#3

Harry Zimm: The guy's been in town two days, and already he thinks he's David O. Fucking Selznick.
 
#4

Karen Flores: I know I'm better than what I've been doing all these years, walking around in fuck-me pumps and a tank-top, waiting until it was time to scream.
Chili Palmer: Yeah, but what a scream.
Karen Flores: Oh yeah, it's a real talent. Look, all I'm saying is, what I wouldn't give for the chance to say one really great line. You know, like in that great Bette Davis movie where she says, "I'd kiss you... "
Chili Palmer: "But I just washed my hair."