Is it really Thanksgiving again already

Someone once told me that as we age, the time passes both faster, and slower.  Faster in most things, but so much slower when it comes to waiting for things we want.  The minute I finished watching "The Avengers" in the theater, I wanted them to get the sequel finished so I could see it on opening night, at the first show.  Of course, it won't hit theaters until May 1, 2015, which puts it just over 18 months in the future.  That's an eternity to wait.  But I remember quite well sitting here last Thanksgiving and that seems like yesterday.

I re-read my blog entry from last year about the things I was thankful for on that day.  The ones listed then are still things I am very grateful and thankful for.  My continued existence.  Considering how close it came to ending, every Thanksgiving (hell, every single day) is a joy and a blessing.  Social media, as it allows me to remain in touch with family and friends. 

I'm going to see one or two more movies the rest of this weekend, but I plan to take it pretty easy.  Next week is a bit crowded.  Training on Monday.  Trivia scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.  I have to work a bit on Tuesday in the morning but I'm going to go in early and try to have it done before 10:30.  Needless to say, considering how thankful I am to be alive, I need to pay attention to my physical limitations.

* * *

I wondered how long it would take before one of the lawyers for the estate of Michael Jackson raised the issue of physician/patient privilege with regard to the statements Conrad Murray has made about the late singer.  The fact that Jackson was allegedly incontinent at night during his last days is not something that Murray had any reason or justification for making public, aside from self-aggrandizement.

The estate has sent Murray a letter saying that they will sue him if he makes any further statements, but I think that's an empty threat.  Murray has no money.  They can sue him and win all day long and they'll lose money on the deal.

So how do they force Murray to shut up?  Good question.

* * *

Watch this video.  Pay particular attention to what you can see Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd saying 18 seconds into the 54 second video.  http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-to-fine-jason-kidd--50-000-for-spilled-drink-stunt-003042479.html

As you can see, he says "hit me" to one of his players so it will look like his spilling of the drink in his hand will cause a delay in the game.  This allowed him to diagram a play for his team to run.   It didn't work, but what if it had?  If they'd won because he deliberately delayed the game, should the win stand?

A version of the same thing happened on Thanksgiving Day at a football game.  Watch the video and you can see Steelers coach Mike Tomlin interfering with a kickoff return that might well have gone for a touchdown.  http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-steelers-mike-tomlin-jacoby-jones-20131129,0,2666077.story

I used to think in sports you did what you had to do to win, and if it meant breaking a rule, then you break the rule and take the hit for breaking it.  Do the two or five minutes in the penalty box.  Pay the fine.  Let the other team shoot the technical foul if you get caught in defensive three seconds.

I can't subscribe to this thought process any longer.  It's a very slippery slope.  If it's okay to throw a spitball in baseball, then it becomes okay to cork your bat.  Or use PEDs.  Where does it end? 

A fine of $50,000 won't discourage an NBA coach from doing what Jason Kidd did.  He's earning somewhere between $2 million and $2.5 million this season.  It's a stiff fine, but I'm sure ownership will find some way to reimburse him.  Whatever the NFL fines Tomlin won't be enough to keep him from doing the same thing in the future.

It was wrong of them to cheat, although they'd say their only mistake was being caught (if they were to be honest).  What is really wrong though is so many of the fans think it was a good thing to do.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

If a retailer wants to open on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day, that's their business.  But no employee should be FORCED to work on that day.  I like what Whole Foods Market is doing.  Working on Thanksgiving is voluntary and employees who choose to work earn time and a half for doing so.

Sarah Atwell has more courage and strength that many girls her age.  She will grow to be a much finer person than those who are bullying her.

If people want WalMart to pay higher wages to their employees they should go shop at Costco.  Costco's pay and benefits are much higher and prices are comparable to WalMart.

Turns out that someone living in Seattle who was known for his frugality and modest lifestyle was actually very wealthy.  Nearly $188 million wealth, all of which was put into trust for various charities.  Way cool!

I could have lived my whole life without needing or wanting to know that Hayden Panettiere couldn't handle a phone call from a producer for the Ellen show and getting a bikini wax at the same time.

The fools who fired the manager of their Pizza Hut franchise did a bit of damage control by rehiring him but I hope they're run out of business anyway.

First Lady Michelle Obama is probably right in not wanting her daughters to be on Facebook.  But I think if they were allowed to use it with the highest security settings and only allowed to connect with people they know is real life, it should be safe.  If it isn't, there's something wrong with the way their security settings work.

Hoping the Florida woman who got 20 years for a warning shot is convicted of something, but with a sentence of time served.

Would cars that run on fuel from whiskey be a case of drinking and driving that is legal?

If you were to look at Malin Ackerman today you wouldn't suspect that she was once among the homeless of Los Angeles.  Kudos to her for overcoming that, and more for giving back to the homeless and underprivileged.

I've noticed that I'm falling asleep more easily and sleeping better now that I stop using the computer at least one hour before planning to go to bed.

* * *

November 29th in History:

561 – King Chlothar I dies at Compiègne. The Merovingian dynasty is continued by his four sons — Charibert I, Guntram, Sigebert I and Chilperic I — who divide the Frankish Kingdom.
800 – Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III.
1394 – The Korean king Yi Seong-gye, founder of the Joseon Dynasty, moves the capital from Kaesŏng to Hanyang, today known as Seoul.
1549 – The papal conclave of 1549–50 begins.
1612 – The Battle of Swally takes place, which loosens the Portuguese Empire's hold on India.
1729 – Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia, comes to an end with the arrival of British reinforcements.
1777 – San Jose, California, is founded as Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. It is the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California.
1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea to claim insurance.
1783 – A 5.3 magnitude earthquake strikes New Jersey.
1830 – November Uprising: An armed rebellion against Russia's rule in Poland begins.
1847 – The Sonderbund is defeated by the joint forces of other Swiss cantons under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour.
1847 – Whitman Massacre: Missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 15 others are killed by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, causing the Cayuse War.
1850 – The treaty, Punctation of Olmütz, is signed in Olomouc. Prussia capitulates to Austria, which will take over the leadership of the German Confederation.
1864 – American Indian Wars: Sand Creek Massacre – Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants inside Colorado Territory.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Spring Hill – A Confederate advance into Tennessee misses an opportunity to crush the Union Army. General John Bell Hood is angered, which leads to the Battle of Franklin.
1872 – American Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.
1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.
1885 – End of Third Anglo-Burmese War, and end of Burmese monarchy
1890 – The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan, and the first Diet convenes.
1893 – The Ziqiang Institute, today known as Wuhan University, is founded by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan Provinces in late Qing Dynasty China, after his memorial to the throne is approved by the Qing Government.
1902 – The Pittsburgh Stars defeated the Philadelphia Athletics, 11-0, at the Pittsburgh Coliseum, to win the first championship associated with an American national professional football league.
1929 – U.S. Admiral Richard E. Byrd leads the first expedition to fly over the South Pole.
1943 – World War II: The second session of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), held to determine the post-war ordering of the country, concludes in Jajce in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1944 – The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
1944 – World War II: Albania is liberated by partisan forces.
1945 – The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia is declared.
1946 – The All Indonesia Centre of Labour Organizations (SOBSI) is founded in Jakarta.
1947 – Partition Plan: The United Nations General Assembly approves a plan for the partition of Palestine.
1947 – First Indochina War: French forces carry out a massacre at Mỹ Trạch, Vietnam.
1950 – Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force United Nations forces to retreat from North Korea.
1952 – Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.
1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbits the Earth twice and splashes down off the coast of Puerto Rico.
1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
1965 – The Canadian Space Agency launches the satellite Alouette 2.
1967 – Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation.
1972 – Atari announces the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game.
1975 – Graham Hill and Tony Brise, along with three other members of the Embassy Hill F1 team, were killed when their plane crashed at Arkley golf course, England, in thick fog.
1987 – Korean Air Flight 858 explodes over the Thai-Burmese border, killing 155.
1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes two resolutions to restore international peace and security if Iraq does not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

Famous Folk Born On November 29th:

Christian Doppler (yes, the one responsible for the Doppler Effect)
Morrison Waite (7th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court)
Louisa May Alcott
Busby Berkley
William Tubman
C. S. Lewis
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Madeleine L'Engle (I've got to re-read "A Wrinkle in Time")
Joe Weider
Jackie Stallone
Charles E. Mower (a real American hero)
Minnie Minoso (only person to play professional baseball in seven different decades)
Vin Scully
Paul Simon (the senator, not the singer)
Jacques Chirac
Diane Ladd
Denny Doherty (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h81Ojd3d2rY)
Chuck Mangione (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pl1YU1rXuE)
Suzy Chafee (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev7DHWG7wsY)
Ronnie Montrose
Jerry "The King" Lawler (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrN9CzslMGE don't watch unless you want to see Michael Cole kiss the King's foot)
Garry Shandling
Joel Coen
Howie Mandel (don't try to shake his hand)
Leo Laporte
Janet Napolitano
Michael Dempsey
Cathy Moriarty
Kim Delaney
Andrew McCarthy
Don Cheadle (great actor...and I'll leave it at that)
Rahm Emanuel
Tom Sizemore
John Layfield (wow, him and the King have the same birthday??)
Mariano Rivera
Gena Lee Nolin
Brian Baumgartner (I heard one of my old teammates from trivia team "Team Colin Farrell" was dating this guy)
Anna Faris

Eight years ago today, the very talented Wendie Jo Sperber lost her battle with cancer.  She was an extraordinary person.  Today's movie quotes from "Back to the Future" are in her honor:

Lorraine Baines: Kids, we're gonna have to eat this cake by ourselves. Your Uncle Joey didn't make parole again.
[drops the cake on the dining table. It reads "Welcome Home, Uncle Joey"]
Lorraine Baines: I think it would be nice if you all dropped him a line.
Marty McFly: Uncle "Jailbird" Joey?
Dave McFly: He's your brother, Mom.
Linda McFly: Yeah. I think it's a major embarrassment having an uncle in prison.
Lorraine Baines: We all make mistakes in life, children.

#2

Linda McFly: Then how am I supposed to ever meet anybody?
Lorraine Baines: Well, it'll just happen. Like the way I met your father.
Linda McFly: That was so stupid! Grandpa hit him with the car.
Lorraine Baines: [wistfully] It was meant to be.

#3

Marty McFly: [Marty has just woken up to a new and improved 1985, and sees his brother and sister well-dressed and sitting at the dinner table, eating breakfast]
Marty McFly: Hey. What the hell is this?
Linda McFly: Breakfast.

#4

Marty McFly: [Doc has just been shot. Marty runs over to him] Doc! Doc!
Marty McFly: [Marty turns Doc's body over to reveal it is apparently bullet-ridden and lifeless. Marty begins to cry] No! No!
Marty McFly: [Doc suddenly blinks and sits up] You're alive.
Marty McFly: [Doc unzips his radiation suit to reveal a bulletproof vest underneath] Bulletproof vest? How did you know? I never got a chance to tell you.
Marty McFly: [Doc smiles and removes a weathered piece of paper from his pocket. Marty unfolds the paper to reveal it is the warning letter he had written in 1955, taped back together] What about all that talk about screwing up future events? The space-time continuum?
Dr. Emmett Brown: Well, I figured, what the hell?

By the authority

The following is an extract of the very first Executive Order that President Obama issued:  "By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to establish policies and procedures governing the assertion of executive privilege by incumbent and former Presidents in connection with the release of Presidential records by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) pursuant to the Presidential Records Act of 1978, it is hereby ordered as follows:..."

He has the authority.  He cited the law passed by Congress and signed by Jimmy Carter who was the president at the time.  It is perfectly legal. 

So when a columnist takes issue with President Obama and claims that he is more or less speaking out of both sides of his mouth when he talks about immigration reform, some clarification about what President Obama can and can't do is probably a good idea.

President George Washington issued eight Executive Orders.  President Herbert Hoover served only four years in office and issued nearly 1,000 of them.  All presidents except William Henry Harrison issued at least one, and I am sure he would have issued some if he'd served more than 31 days in office.  They weren't numbered sequentially until the early 1900s, when they were numbered retroactively to one issued by President Abraham Lincoln.  So when you read that the next Executive Order that President Obama issues will be 13652, bear in mind that isn't the complete total to date.  There were more. 

But in all that time, only two Executive Orders were ever overturned by the court system.  One written by President Truman that placed all steel mills in the nation under federal control.  The other was issued only 18 years ago by President Clinton that wanted to outlaw the federal government contracting with companies that had strike-breakers on their payroll.

One of the best ways that a president ensures that their Executive Order isn't overturned by the legal system is by citing the law that Congress passed that he is using as authority for the order.  So when President Obama wrote the Executive Order that allowed the children of illegal immigrants who are themselves here illegally (as the law is presently written) to remain in the U.S. and be free of fear of deportation; he was implementing the current version of immigration law in terms of how it will be enforced.

That is his right as the Chief Executive.  Look at a list of President Obama's Executive Orders and you'll see many of them involve procedural matters and instructing federal agencies how they will operate under the legal authority already granted to them.  He just can't issue an Executive Order to make all of the illegal immigrants currently here, legal.  If he were to order ICE to stop deportations completely, in terms of those already in the U.S., that would almost certainly be overturned by the courts.

I've said it before.  We need comprehensive immigration reform that solves the problems of those who are here now, and ensuring future waves of illegal immigration are prevented.  An Executive Order is not the solution to those two problems.

* * *

I'm the first to admit that I'm not much into the fine arts.  I enjoy classical music, and there are a few paintings and sculptures that I like.  But for the most part it isn't my thing.  Maybe that's why I can't see any logical reason that the plans of the creditors of the city of Detroit, and the city's Emergency Manager to seek the liquidation of the art collection of the Detroit Art Institute not to go forward.

The DIA would have been shuttered long ago had the state and the city not stepped in to provide funding.  They no longer fund the DIA but the art there is almost certainly the legal property of the city.  There's no doubt that the collection of more than 60,000 pieces is worth billions of dollars. 

The city's debt stands at $18 billion.  If the art at the DIA is worth only $2 billion, that would represent more than 10% of the city's debt that could be paid off.  This isn't just about art.  This is about thousands of former employees of the city who may lose a large part of their pension benefits if the city's fiscal problems can't be solved. 

If the patrons of the arts are that concerned about this collection, then they can step up, purchase the art and donate it back to the DIA.

* * *

There is a lot of discussion going on about whether or not the viral image of a credit card slip that allegedly read, "I'm sorry but I cannot tip because I don't agree with your lifestyle & how you live your life." 

I don't know if it was a hoax or not.  I did take a close look at the credit card receipt the family accused of this slur provided to reporters.  It sure looks like the one the waitress ranted about on a Facebook page is a duplicate.  When she ran the family's card she could have easily printed an extra copy.  Give them two to fill out, keep the third and do whatever you want with it.

The restaurant says it is conducting an internal investigation.  This isn't rocket science or anything close to it.  You pull the receipts from that day that were processed and find the one in question.  You examine it.  You see that either the waitress or the family is lying and you call out the liar.  The fact that the restaurant isn't doing this immediately makes me suspect the waitress did lie and the owners don't want to be negatively impacted by her actions.  Particularly if they were complicit in this, although there is no reason to suspect that.

They should release their copy of the receipt, showing the truth and put this behind all of us for good.  If she lied, she should tell the world why and then move on. 

Lying about being the victim of discrimination is just as discriminatory against the rest of the group you belong to; because it gives those who do discriminate against you cause to continue.  "You (fill in the blank) all lie and here's the proof" is just one example of their twisted thought process.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

The teen assassin who was just released from a Mexican jail, who plans to live in San Antonio, is a U.S. citizen.  So why shouldn't he be entitled to come home?  He did his time under the laws of Mexico. 

Add Kanye West to the list of "do as I say, but I'm exempt because I'm special" of celebrities.  After urging NYC to not buy Louis Vuitton because the company dissed him, he was photographed travelling with the firm's expensive luggage.  Maybe he should change his moniker from Yeezus to Hippocritus.

Neal Schon is an incredible guitarist and I love listening to Journey.  I'd go to a Journey concert in a minute.  However, the idea of plunking down $14.95 to watch him marry Michaele Salahi is ridiculous.  Unless of course her estranged husband is guaranteed to crash the proceedings and rush the altar just as the couple is about to exchange their "I do's" and then I'd probably buy it.

The idiots who want to boycott Pizza Hut because one franchise owner fired one manager for refusing to make his employees work on Thanksgiving need to shut up and get a clue.  It wasn't the chain.  It wasn't a corporate decision.  One franchisee decided to make the choice to be open.  Boycott that one location and leave the rest alone unless they too forced employees to work on Thanksgiving.

Should we be surprised that the detective investigating the rape allegations accusing FSU quarterback Jameis Winston is a FSU graduate, works in his off-duty time for a Seminole booster group on occasion and has numerous other ties to the university?  Nah.

Maybe another fast food chain will pick up the pretzel bun now that Wendy's is no longer going to offer it.  Never tried one although I used to love pretzel bagels at the bagel shop I went to.  They had great pizza bagels too.

Who is the father of Khloe Kardashian?  Who cares is a better question.

Gotta give props to the Knightstown, Indiana police chief who is going to take a 50,000 volt charge from a stun gun in a fundraising stunt.  The money is desperately needed to get a new squad car for the small town force.

Anyone who I text who thinks my use of a period to end a sentence is anything other than good grammar is being silly.  I use exclamation points to express feeling, not periods.

How many of the men who own businesses that want to exercise their "religious rights" and deny access to birth control as part of their health plans, are going to continue to cover Viagra and in vitro fertilization as part of their healthcare plans?  After all, if one is "God's will", aren't they all?

I wonder how much the city officials in Irwindale who rushed to court to force Huy Fong Foods to stop making their incredibly popular Sriracha sauce at the large plant they built there, will be whining like babies when the company relocates and takes their jobs and city tax revenue elsewhere.

Looks like the Barenaked Ladies are reconsidering their decision to perform at Sea World after they watched the documentary film "Blackfish".  Wonder if other bands will follow suit?

How many of the people who gripe about the low wages paid by Wal Mart, fast food places and the like continue to patronize those businesses?  Are they willing to pay more so that those employees get paid more? 

Will YouTube ever realize I'm not going to subscribe to any channels, no matter how many they suggest?

* * *

November 27th in History:

25 – Luoyang is declared capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty by Emperor Guangwu of Han.
176 – Emperor Marcus Aurelius grants his son Commodus the rank of "Imperator" and makes him Supreme Commander of the Roman legions.
395 – Rufinus, praetorian prefect of the East, is murdered by Gothic mercenaries under Gainas.
511 – King Clovis I dies at Paris ("Lutetia") and is buried in the Abbey of St Genevieve. The Merovingian Dynasty is continued by his four sons — Theuderic I, Chlodomer, Childebert I and Chlothar I — who divide the Frankish Kingdom and rule from the capitals at Metz, Orléans, Paris and Soissons.
602 – Emperor Maurice is forced to watch his five sons be executed before being beheaded himself; their bodies are thrown into the sea and their heads are exhibited in Constantinople.
1095 – Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont.
1295 – The first elected representatives from Lancashire are called to Westminster by King Edward I to attend what later became known as "The Model Parliament".
1703 – The first Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703.
1727 – The foundation stone to the Jerusalem's Church in Berlin is laid.
1807 – The Portuguese Royal Family leaves Lisbon to escape from Napoleonic troops.
1810 – The Berners Street Hoax was perpetrated by Theodore Hook in the City of Westminster, London.
1815 – Adoption of Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland.
1830 – St. Catherine Laboure experiences a vision of the Blessed Virgin standing on a globe, crushing a serpent with her feet, and emanating rays of light from her hands.
1835 – James Pratt and John Smith are hanged in London; they are the last two to be executed for sodomy in England.
1839 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the American Statistical Association is founded.
1856 – The Coup of 1856 leads to Luxembourg's unilateral adoption of a new, reactionary constitution.
1863 – American Civil War: Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and several of his men escape the Ohio Penitentiary and return safely to the South.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Mine Run – Union forces under General George Meade take up positions against troops led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
1868 – American Indian Wars: Battle of Washita River – United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on Cheyenne living on reservation land.
1886 – German judge Emil Hartwich sustains fatal injuries in a duel, which would become the background for Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest.
1895 – At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies.
1901 – The U.S. Army War College is established.
1912 – Spain declares a protectorate over the north shore of Morocco.
1924 – In New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.
1934 – Bank robber Baby Face Nelson dies in a shoot-out with the FBI.
1940 – In Romania, the ruling Iron Guard fascist party assassinates over 60 of arrested King Carol II of Romania's aides and other political dissidents, including former Prime Minister Nicolae Iorga.
1940 – World War II: At the Battle of Cape Spartivento, the Royal Navy engages the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean Sea.
1942 – World War II: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.
1944 – World War II: RAF Fauld explosion – An explosion at a Royal Air Force ammunition dump in Staffordshire kills seventy people.
1950 – Korean War: Troops from the People's Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and United Nations forces (Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.
1954 – Alger Hiss is released from prison after serving 44 months for perjury.
1963 – The Convention on the Unification of Certain Points of Substantive Law on Patents for Invention is signed at Strasbourg.
1965 – Vietnam War: The Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.
1968 – Penny Ann Early became the first woman to play major professional basketball, for the Kentucky Colonels in an ABA game against the Los Angeles Stars.
1971 – The Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module. It malfunctions and crashes, but it is the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars.
1973 – Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States Senate votes 92 to 3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On December 6, the House will confirm him 387 to 35).
1975 – The Provisional IRA assassinates Ross McWhirter, after a press conference in which McWhirter had announced a reward for the capture of those responsible for multiple bombings and shootings across England.
1978 – In San Francisco, California, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by former supervisor Dan White.
1978 – The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is founded in the city of Riha (Urfa) in Turkey.
1983 – Avianca Flight 011: A Boeing 747 crashes near Madrid's Barajas Airport, killing 181.
1984 – Under the Brussels Agreement signed between the governments of the United Kingdom and Spain, the former agreed to enter into discussions with Spain over Gibraltar, including sovereignty.
1989 – Avianca Flight 203, a Boeing 727, explodes in mid-air over Colombia, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground. The Medellín Cartel will claim responsibility for the attack.
1991 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Security Council Resolution 721, leading the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.
1992 – For the second time in a year, military forces try to overthrow president Carlos Andres Perez in Venezuela.
1997 – Twenty-five are killed in the second Souhane massacre in Algeria.
1999 – The left-wing Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government with leader Helen Clark becoming the first elected female Prime Minister in New Zealand's history.
2001 – A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.
2004 – Pope John Paul II returns the relics of Saint John Chrysostom to the Eastern Orthodox Church.
2005 – The first partial human face transplant is completed in Amiens, France.
2006 – The Canadian House of Commons approves a motion tabled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper recognizing the Québécois as a nation within Canada.

Famous Folk Born on November 27th:

Robert R. Livingston
Cornelius Vanderbilt II
Charles A. Beard
Charles Dvorak
Vito Genovese
James Agee
Chick Hearn
Buffalo Bob Smith
Cal Worthington (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOCNphyw2OE)
Benigno Aquino, Jr.
Gordon S. Wood
Al Jackson, Jr.
Gail Sheehy
Eddie Rabbitt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtLrTrjwzLo)
Marilyn Hacker
Barbara Anderson
Kathryn Bieglow
Sheila Copps
Curtis Armstrong
Bill Nye (the science guy)
William Fichtner
Ambassador Caroline Kennedy
Mike Scioscia
Tim Pawlenty
Samantha Bond
Steve Oederkerk
Davey Boy Smith
Fisher Stevens
Robin Givens
Michael Vartan
Brooke Langton
Erik Menendez
Nick Van Exel
Shane Salerno
Samantha Harris
Hilary Hahn
Alison Pill

Today's movie quotes will come from several films.  First, to honor William Fichtner, from the remake of "The Longest Yard" (Fichtner made a great 'Captain Knauer')

Captain Knauer: Do you have any idea who's beating you out there? This was supposed to be a blow out and they're showing you up in front of the whole nation. The whole nation!
Guard Engleheart: I like it when he's angry.

#2

Switowski: He broke-ded my nose
Paul 'Wrecking' Crewe: Let me try to fix that.
[Crewe fixes his nose]
Switowski: How do I look?
Caretaker: Much better, like a young Michael Jackson.
Switowski: I love little Michael.

Next we have a couple from "Revenge of the Nerds" where Curtis Armstrong played the unforgettable 'Booger':

[Lewis and Gilbert are discussing Gilbert's girlfriend, innocently]
Booger: Big deal! Did you get in her pants?
Gibert: She's not that kind of girl, Booger.
Booger: Why? Does she have a penis?

#2

Takashi: Excuse please, but why do they call you "booger"?
Booger: [picking his nose] I don't know.

#3

Betty Childs, Pi-Delta-Pi: [blissfully] Oh, Stan. You were wonderful. You did things to me you've never done before.
[Lewis takes off his mask]
Betty Childs, Pi-Delta-Pi: [gasps] Ahhh! You're that NERD!
Lewis: Yeah.
Betty Childs, Pi-Delta-Pi: [blissfully] Oh, you were wonderful.
[gasps in ecstacy]
Betty Childs, Pi-Delta-Pi: Are all nerds as good as you?
Lewis: Yes.
Betty Childs, Pi-Delta-Pi: How come?
Lewis: 'Cause all Jocks ever think about is sports, all we ever think about is sex.

I was going to include quotes from one of the films of Bruce Lee, but the dialogue from all save Enter the Dragon is really cheesy and I've done that film within the last few months.  I will share this, from "The Game of Death" though:

Billy Lo: You lose Carl Miller!

It is worth noting that the yellow tracksuit with the black trim that Bruce Lee wore in "The Game of Death" was paid a tribute in the first film quoted above.  In "Revenge of the Nerds," 'Takashi' wears the same tracksuit while competing in the tricycle race.

Grandma may get run over by a blizzard

At this hour it looks like those travelling for the Thanksgiving holiday will have to deal with delays and jams caused by a major winter storm.  At this writing there is a 40 mile traffic backup in the Atlanta area.  Leave early and pack your patience in your carry-on.

The most recent survey of shoplifting by a major loss-prevention company reveals that cosmetics, pregnancy tests and baby formula are among the most popular items among shoplifters.  Is there some hidden meaning there?

No announcement has been made when or if the Fox Network will ever go ahead with its plans to make a celebrity version of "The Swan".  I can think of a number of potential contestants.

Olivia Wise, the 16 year old who was suffering from an inoperable brain tumor when she achieved fame for her cover of Katy Perry's song "Roar" has died.

Some are wondering why it is that Alec Baldwin was fired by MSNBC (I don't believe for a minute that it was a "mutual parting", that's agent spin) and Martin Bashir remains unpunished.  Maybe because Baldwin was suspended and then fired for uttering a homophobic slur, while all Bashir did was say something awful about Sarah Palin.

Maria Kang posted something on Facebook and it apparently touched raw nerves.  The social media giant deleted her post and her access to the site.  Her account has been restored, but not the post itself.  She's claiming Facebook violated her freedom of speech.  Reporter's note:  This woman needs to re-read the First Amendment, because it says government can't limit freedom of speech, not businesses.

There's a new problem with E-cigarettes.  Unlike their tobacco counterparts, when smokers toss the E-cigarette cartridge out of the car window, it can and will damage the tires of a car running it over.  Normal cigarette butts don't do that.

Some sick SOB doused puppies in gasoline and then abandoned them in Phoenix.  Fortunately, they were found by an animal lover who took them to the Maricopa County Animal Shelter.  The pups were thoroughly cleansed of the fuel and will be available for adoption tomorrow.

The judge may find Charlie Sheen in contempt of court for his latest Twitter rant about the Department of Children and Family Services in Los Angeles County.  He's pissed that the DCFS appears to be giving his ex-wife Brooke a way to obtain full custody of their children.

CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan is on an indefinite leave of absence from the network.  She is also a correspondent for 60 Minutes and it was her report on that program regarding what took place in Benghazi that has landed her in hot water.  Given a speech on Benghazi she'd delivered before the report was aired, she shouldn't have been covering it in the first place.

The tax people are after boxer Manny Pacquaio claiming he owes $2.2 billion in unpaid taxes to the government of the Philippines (that's about $50 million).  He and promoter Bob Arum claim it is a mistake and that since he paid income tax to the U.S. on the earnings in question, he doesn't owe anything to his homeland.

Pity poor Kelly Osbourne.  She was stuck in traffic for over an hour because she couldn't go home.  Police had blocked off that street due to the visit of President Obama.  She took to Twitter to vent her frustration.  The backlash was severe.

If you're a big fan of sriracha sauce, better stock up.  A judge has ordered the Huy Fong Foods company to cease operations at its Irwindale plant that might produce the  "odors" that are bothering the plant's neighbors

Howard Stern, the self-appointed King of all media cries.  When?  When kittens that he and his wife Beth have been caring for through a foster program of theirs leave for their new homes.

The cover-ups continue

Four school employees including the superintendent of school were indicted by a grand jury in Steubenville, OH.  The state's Attorney General, Mike DeWine announced the indictments on Monday.  The four are charged in connection with the case where two football players were convicted of raping a 16 year old girl.

There are allegations of a cover-up linked to the allegations that FSU quarterback Jameis Winston.  We all know more than we'd like to about what went on at Penn State with Jerry Sandusky and however many children he sexually abused.  So what is it about football that seems to make it much more susceptible to sexual crimes and their cover-up?  Yes, there are allegations of rape against athletes of every sport.  I'm also aware that there are more football players on a team than other sports like baseball, basketball, ice hockey and the rest.  So there are more of them out there.  It just seems to me that there is more of this going on with football players and the people who love their football teams burying the crimes.  Why is this?

I think that the reasons can be found in the tale of the book that was the basis for the fine film "Friday Night Lights" that came out in 2004.  The book, "Friday Night Lights: A Town, a team and a dream" was first published in 1990.  It's a great read.  It follows the football team from Permian High in Odessa, TX from summer practice to their last game of the year.  In that game they suffered a heartbreaking loss to Dallas Carter High.  While the people of Odessa were all about Permian and their team's "mojo", the fanaticism at Carter was even stronger.  As a result, once they had beaten Permian and gone on to win the state title, some of the players thought they were untouchable.  Invincible. 

Perhaps because they believed themselves to be untouchable, Gary Edwards, Derric Evans, Keith Campbell and Patrick Williams, all players on that championship team began committing armed robberies.  In an interview 20 years after the fact, Gary Edwards tries to downplay what they did.  When asked during an interview with the Dallas Morning News what kind of gun was used, he says "It was just a .22. It was just for show. It was just full out show and that was it. It was on safety. I don't even know if it had bullets in it. It was never going to be used."  Their victims didn't know that. 

The players had been cut slack all throughout high school because they were football players.  Edwards was involved in a controversy about his algebra grade that ultimately resulted in the team being stripped of the title; but at the time of the robberies, it appeared that he had won that battle.  He and his friends actually thought they would get off with probation and he was ready to play football at the University of Houston on a full scholarship. 

He was sentenced to 16 years in prison and was shocked that he wouldn't be headed to college and then hopefully to the NFL.  He had the talent.  He didn't need the money.  It was just for fun.  He and his buddies thought there were no rules for them.

That is the crux of the problem.  These players believe that the rules don't exist for them because those fanatical football fans feel they must protect the players from everything, in order to let them get out on the field and win games.  It shouldn't have to be articulated just how morally and ethically wrong this is for teachers, administrators and the like to cover-up actual crimes just to win football games.  But apparently it does.  Even today, the name Joe Paterno is spoken with reverence and adoration at Penn State.  Did he know about the investigation into Jerry Sandusky back in 1998 that was dropped?  There is no proof he did, but most who followed his coaching career closely say that the idea he was ignorant about something like that involving one of his top assistants is laughable.  Paterno did cancel some appointments on his calendar around the time that Sandusky told the mother of one of his victims (with police eavesdropping from inside her home) that his genitals might have touched her son and he felt "badly" and wished he was dead.  Is the timing a coincidence?  Paterno was well-known for following his appointment schedule religiously.  I think he knew.  I think he helped to cover up the situation.  That's just my opinion.  One I dare not voice anywhere near the PSU campus.

The time has come for those who adore football to step up and say that this is not acceptable.  Victims deserve justice, not platitudes about how their attackers are too important to be accused.

* * *

I've ranted about the unfairness of California's system of property taxes before, but since today a list that points out Westchester County in NY has the nation's highest average property tax, it's worth revisiting.

The average property tax burden in that county is $9,647 per annum, more than three times as much as the Los Angeles County average of $3,131.  But unlike Los Angeles County, the residents of that Westchester don't see one home with a huge bill next door to one with a comparatively nonexistent bill.

I'm thinking of two particular homes in an affluent suburb of L.A. County.  The lots are the same size. The houses are roughly the same size in square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and both have swimming pools.  If either home were to be listed for sale, the listing price would be roughly $1 million in today's market.  I'm guessing the assessed valuations for the two are almost identical.

But because one is a Proposition 13 home, the property tax bills are very, very different.  In one case the owners are paying $12,500 in annual property taxes.  Their next door neighbors are paying slightly less than one-tenth of that amount, because the assessed value of that particular home was less than $100,000 in 1975.  Worse yet, it is possible for a parent to transfer title to the home to a child without a reassessment of the home's value for property tax calculation.

Only 35 years have gone by since the voters passed Proposition 13 (and yes, I did vote for it at the time) and we already have this kind of unfairness.  What happens when the current generation of children who own homes transferred to them by their parents do the same for their children?  What about when the following generation does the same?  Will the owners of the non-Prop 13 home be paying 20 times as much in property tax? 30 times as much?

The voters of California have to approve any kind of a tax increase.  Right now there is a lawsuit that is attempting to overturn the portion of Proposition 13 that requires any vote to approve new taxes be a 2/3rds majority.  Without regard to whether or not that lawsuit is successful, the voters will have to enact a change and a change WILL come.  Why?  Because eventually those who are paying a disparate amount in property taxes will have a 2/3rds majority.  It may take a few decades, but it will happen.

This is what I would do, were I "in charge" of California.  Put forth a ballot proposition that would require that property taxes be calculated, but not charged, based on an assessment that is a reflection of the fair market value of the home.  The Proposition 13 rate would continue to be claimed.  The uncollected amount would be recorded as owed to the state by the property owner, but it would remain uncollectible until the property is sold. 

That part is easy to justify.  The argument in favor of Proposition 13 was to prevent elderly people from being forced out of their homes because they couldn't afford their property tax obligations.  This way no one would lose their home over the uncollected portion of the tax.  Therefore that argument would now be invalid.  The argument that these homeowners shouldn't see their equity diluted is invalid.  That's not why Prop 13 was passed.

The next part would be trickier and might not pass.  The ballot proposition would require that the assessed value of a home transferred from parent to child (or grandparent to grandchild) be stepped up.  An increase so that the child would be paying 125% of the prior property tax bill, with the remainder continuing to be recorded as a future liability upon sale of the home would be fair.  Should the unpaid property tax bill go higher than the fair market value of the home, there would be no attempt to collect the portion of the amount owed to the county in excess of the home's sale price.

Yes, this means that in some cases, by the time a home is sold, the entire sales price would go to satisfy unpaid property taxes.  But the original goal of Prop 13 would still be intact.  No one would lose their home and be forced to move out.  That some would experience the loss of equity is nowhere nearly as important as it the basic principle of fairness to all.  Doing this means that all homeowners would be taxed at the same rate, but no one would be in danger of losing a home as long as they paid their property taxes.

I know every single person who might read this who has a Prop 13 home will hate this idea.  I ask you to think how you would feel if you were paying the full amount of property taxes like your next door neighbor who doesn't own a Prop 13 assessment.

* * *

We won't know for at least a year whether or not the decision to give Kobe Bryant a two year contract extension that represents essentially 1/3rd of the Lakers salary for players during those two seasons was brilliant or a disaster.  It was certainly one or the other.  There is no middle ground here.

I would never bet against Kobe Bryant coming back at the top of his abilities, tempered by the fact he's now 35 years old.  He is an incredibly driven player, with amazing skills.  His work ethic is second to none.  If anyone can get past an Achilles tendon tear at his age, he's the guy.

That doesn't mean the odds aren't against him.  I won't bore you with a bunch of statistics showing how the offensive production and plus/minus statistics of players go down as they age.  They do in almost every case.  Wilt Chamberlain is considered by many to have lost nothing physically during his last years in the league, but his numbers dropped dramatically after he turned 30.  There's no telling what kind of numbers Michael Jordan would have put up during those years that came after his retirement at the age of 35; but we do know that when he came back at age 38 he was only a shadow of his former self (still a strong scorer even at that age, but not the man he was).

Where this is going to sting a little is that it means the Lakers can't go shopping for a major free agent during those two seasons.  They will have to find other ways to approve the roster, or ownership will just have to raise ticket prices or find other sources of income to simply absorb a great big luxury tax bill.

It's a tough decision.  I'm glad I didn't have to make it.  But for the legacy of the franchise, for the long-term future, it is the right call.  Better to ensure that Kobe Bryant never plays in an NBA game in any uniform other than those of the Lakers.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

I'm cracking up with laughter at the thought of Ron Burgundy covering an actual curling match.

Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny is my current judicial hero for blocking use of state bond money for the "bullet train". 

The Dodgers move to sign Dan Haren for one year at $10 million is awesome.  They don't commit to a long-term and they get someone who might just be a great 5th starter.

Did someone really figure out that Thanksgiving and Hanukah won't come again on the same day for 79,043 years?  Sounds like something I'd do.  Not sure if I should be impressed, or peeved I didn't think of it.

People being scammed by private high schools that aren't accredited need to be protected from this kind of scam, but how?  Maybe if we publicize that these scammers are out there? 

Did Jennifer Lawrence sell her soul to the devil?  After all, last year she had an Oscar winning turn in one film and another that went wild at the box office.  Now she's making a mint in the sequel to the box office smash and getting raves for another performance for the same writer/director.  I know, she is just very talented and very fortunate.

This video is very touching:  http://screen.yahoo.com/storyful/young-cancer-patient-gets-surprise-203118906.html

Katy Perry almost certainly intend to be offensive or seem like a racist when she performed at the AMAs in geisha attire and whiteface.  But given the reaction to Julianne Hough's Halloween costume, she should have known better.

Employers are passing on more of the burden of the cost of providing health insurance benefits to their employees, blaming Obamacare.  But in fact, if they get better participation rates among their employee populations, their rates will ultimately go lower.  Or at least they should go lower.

The latest celebrity marriage in Vegas in front of Elvis where the people are now saying they were drunk and want an annulment has me thinking; maybe people in Vegas who want to get married should have to take a breathalyzer test first.

I won't be surprised if Motown goes ahead with the remake of their film "The Last Dragon" with an eye to releasing it next year for their 50th anniversary.

* * *

783 – The Asturian queen Adosinda is put up in a monastery to prevent her kin from retaking the throne from Mauregatus.
1476 – Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) defeats Basarab Laiota with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Bathory and becomes the ruler of Wallachia for the third time.
1703 – The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, makes landfall. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people die.
1778 – In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui.
1784 – The Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of the United States established.
1789 – A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.
1805 – Official opening of Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
1825 – At Union College in Schenectady, New York a group of college students form Kappa Alpha Society, the first college social fraternity.
1842 – The University of Notre Dame is founded.
1863 – President Abraham Lincoln proclaims November 26 as a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated annually on the final Thursday of November (since 1941, on the fourth Thursday).
1865 – Battle of Papudo: A Spanish navy Schooner is defeated by a Chilean Corvette north of Valparaiso, Chile.
1917 – The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams.
1918 – The Podgorica Assembly votes for "union of the people", declaring assimilation into the Kingdom of Serbia.
1922 – Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3000 years.
1922 – Toll of the Sea debuts as the first general release film to use two-tone Technicolor (The Gulf Between is the first film to do so but it is not widely distributed).
1939 – Shelling of Mainila: The Soviet Army orchestrates the incident which is used to justify the start of the Winter War with Finland four days later.
1942 – World War II: Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihać in northwestern Bosnia.
1943 – World War II: HMT Rohna sunk by the Luftwaffe in an air attack in the Mediterranean north of Béjaïa, Algeria.
1944 – World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's shop on New Cross High Street, United Kingdom, killing 168 people.
1944 – World War II: Germany begins V-1 and V-2 attacks on Antwerp, Belgium.
1949 – The Indian Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution presented by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.
1950 – Korean War: Troops from the People's Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and United Nations forces (Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River and Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.
1965 – In the Hammaguir launch facility in the Sahara Desert, France launches a Diamant-A rocket with its first satellite, Asterix-1 on board.
1968 – Vietnam War: United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.
1970 – In Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, 1.5 inches (38.1 mm) of rain fall in a minute, the heaviest rainfall ever recorded.
1977 – An unidentified hijacker named 'Vrillon', claiming to be the representative of the 'Ashtar Galactic Command', takes over Britain's Southern Television for six minutes at 5:12 pm.
1983 – Brink's-MAT robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million are stolen from the Brink's-MAT vault at Heathrow Airport.
1986 – Iran-Contra scandal: U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces the members of what will become known as the Tower Commission.
1990 – The Delta II rocket makes its maiden flight.
1991 – National Assembly of Azerbaijan abolishes the autonomous status of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan and renames several cities back to their original names.
1998 – Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Republic of Ireland's parliament.
2000 – George W. Bush is certified the winner of Florida's electoral votes by Katherine Harris, going on to win the United States presidential election, despite losing in the national popular vote.
2003 – Concorde makes its final flight, over Bristol, England.
2004 – Ruzhou School massacre: a man stabs and kills eight people and seriously wounds another four in a school dormitory in Ruzhou, China.
2004 – The last Po'ouli (Black-faced honeycreeper) dies of Avian malaria in the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, Hawaii before it could breed, making the species in all probability extinct.
2008 – 2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistan-sponsored Lashkar-e-Taiba.
2011 – 2011 NATO attack in Pakistan: NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani checkpost in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others.

Famous Folk born on November 26th:

Johannes Bach
Henry Dunster
Rene Goblet
Bat Masterson
Edward Higgins
Ibn Saud
Bill W.
Richard Hauptmann
William Sterling Parsons
Lefty Gomez
Samuel Reshevsky
Eric Sevareid
Frederik Pohl
Charles M. Schulz
Robert Goulet
Rich Little
Tina Turner
Olivia Cole
Bruce Paltrow
Jean Terrell (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3LRWRo3nQs - very different from the version with Diana Ross on lead)
Daniel Davis (loved him as Moriarty on TNG)
Michael Omartian
Art Shell
Honey Wilder
Dale Jarrett
Chuck Finley
Shawn Kemp (how many children have you fathered, Shawn?)
Peter Facinelli

Movie quotes today come from 1990's "The Hunt for Red October" in which Daniel Davis had a small role as a U.S. Navy Captain:

Capt. Bart Mancuso: How did you know that his next turn would be to starboard?
Jack Ryan: I didn't. I had a 50/50 chance. I needed a break. Sorry.
Capt. Bart Mancuso: That's all right, Mr Ryan. My Morse is so rusty, I could be sending him dimensions on Playmate of the Month.

#2

Capt. Vasili Borodin: I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck... maybe even a "recreational vehicle." And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?
Captain Ramius: I suppose.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: No papers?
Captain Ramius: No papers, state to state.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: Well then, in winter I will live in... Arizona. Actually, I think I will need two wives.
Captain Ramius: Oh, at least.

#3

Jack Ryan: [to himself, imitating Ramius] "Ryan, some things in here don't react well to bullets." Yeah, like me. I don't react well to bullets.  (worthy of note is how good Alec Baldwin's impression of Sean Connery's voice is when he says this line)

#4

Jeffrey Pelt: Listen, I'm a politician which means I'm a cheat and a liar, and when I'm not kissing babies I'm stealing their lollipops. But it also means I keep my options open.  (best damn description of politicians in real life, within a film)

The art of the question

The Boy Scout motto is of course, "Be Prepared" and it's a good motto.  In fact, it should be the motto of those who consider themselves to be journalists.  Why?  Because whenever you're presented with an opportunity to question a newsmaker, you need to have a good question ready.  When I'm going to be doing an interview, I sit down in advance and write out all of the questions I can think of.  I never get to ask all of them, so I try to organize them so that I'm asking those I consider most important at the outset.  That's been my process after I did one of my earliest interviews and wasn't fully prepared.

Because of this, I admire those who ask the good questions, the tough questions, the questions that people don't like to answer.  I applaud ESPN's Quint Kessich for asking Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio about his "clock management" at halftime of the MSU v Northwestern game yesterday.  He asked a tough question and the coach ducked it because he didn't want to admit he'd made a mistake.  The mistake didn't matter in the overall result of the game, but it was still an excellent question.

Sometimes it isn't the quality of the question that is posed, but the answer that it elicits.  A reporter once asked Betty Ford if she thought her kids used marijuana.  Most of the other reporters there thought it was a bad question.  A wasted question.  Right up until the moment when she said "yes" and then it became a brilliant question.  Rather than the expected "no", her answer ignited discussion about marijuana use.  Another great example of the question that doesn't seem too bright until you hear the response was asked by someone I used to know.  It was very early in Paul Olden's career in broadcasting when he asked Tommy Lasorda about Lasorda's opinion about something following a Dodgers loss.  Here's the question and Lasorda's answer.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIwrYH6Urbs

When it comes to politics, the best journalists ask the tough questions, even when their political leanings might otherwise make them sympathetic to the person they are questioning. 

We need our news gathers to keep asking the hard questions.

* * *

The Swiss have voted not to impose a limit on CEO pay.  The proposal was to limit what a CEO is paid to an amount equal to 12 times what the company's lowest paid employee receives.  That got me to thinking about this concept again. 

The President of USC earns $1.4 million in total compensation.  I'm guessing the lowest paid employee (excluding part-time employees) isn't earning more than $15 per hour in salary and at most, $20 per hour in total compensation (including health and retirement benefits).  Let's be generous and round up to $50,000.  That would limit the president's compensation to $600,000 a year.  Considering that the president of USC is in charge of an institution that generates nearly $3.6 billion in gross receipts annually while employing over 15,000 people, $600,000 seems a low wage.  Then again, USC is a private university.  I'm of the mind that a privately held business should be able to pay its employees what it wants to.  A medical doctor and a billing specialist in a hospital both work a full-time week and in fact the doctor may well earn more than the hospital's CEO.  But the value of the labor provided by that doctor and that billing specialist to the hospital's success aren't equal.  We'd like to think it is, but it isn't.

Oracle co-founder and CEO Larry Ellison was paid over $96 million in 2012.  He tops the list of the 100 highest paid CEOs prepared by the AFL-CIO.  There are over 100,000 employees working for Oracle.  Even if the calculation was changed so that the CEO could earn 20 times what the company's lowest paid employee makes, his salary would be limited to $10 million per year.  Considering that his company earned $3.5 billion in net income in 2012, I think the shareholders are happy with his performance.  Then again, he does own around 23% of the company personally.

The shareholders of a publicly held company should be the ones who decide if that company's CEO and other employees are overpaid.  It's their money at risk. 

Here is what we can do that would influence this situation.  First, we need to change the rules on something called the carried interest rule.  This is the loophole that hedge fund managers use to avoid literally billions of dollars in income taxes.  In 2011, the 40th highest paid hedge fund managers earned over $13 billion between them.  Assuming it was all subject to ordinary income taxation, the tax bill would have been 35%.  Because of the carried interest rule, that $13 billion was taxed at only 15%.  That means that this group avoided paying $2.6 billion in income tax they should have paid if they weren't given a special break.  The justification for this special break is an exercise in pretzel logic.

Next we have to alter the rules on stock options.  The stock options that CEOs and many people up and down the "food chain" of a corporation come with a tax advantage.  They are compensation that isn't taxed as income.  It winds up being taxed as a capital gain.  So if they hold the option for one year after exercising it, the top rate of taxation on it is only 15%.  Once again, up to 20% in income tax is being avoided.

I don't propose to eliminate this break completely.  My proposal is that the first $100,000 realized in any year from these ISO (incentive stock options) grants is taxed as a capital gain.  But any amount realized above that amount realized from an ISO should be taxed at the person's normal income tax rate, just like wages.  Why should stock options given as compensation be treated differently than wages given as compensation?  If someone can give me a good answer, I'll reconsider.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

I saw four groups of people lined up outside of Best Buy today (I passed it on the way to the market).  One group had pitched a tent.  They'll be there until Friday.  How much will the items they purchase after spending days out in the elements save them over what they could have paid a few days later, or right before Christmas?  Not enough to justify what they're doing in terms of lost time and inconvenience, in my mind.

The fans who are bitching because the St. Louis Cardinals just tripled the salary of PED user Jhonny Peralta need to look in the mirror rather than blaming management for encouraging the use of PEDs.  The fact is that fans put ownership and management under more pressure to deliver winning teams than anyone else.  Fan interest drives revenues and profits.  Win and earn.  Lose and lose.  What would be the incentive of the owners to band together and refuse to compete for Peralta's services as a player?  You want to create a disincentive to stop players from using PEDs.  Suspend and fine them for a full season for the first offense and then limit them to the major league minimum for two seasons thereafter. 

Yahoo does it again.  Look at this excerpt from their article about how the new film "Hunger Games: Catching Fire":  The next installments of the series based on author Suzanne Collins’ best-selling young-adult trilogy– “Mockingjay Part 1” and “Mockingjay Part 2” – are set for release in November of 2014 and 2015. The studio has launched a massive global merchandising campaign around around Katniss and Co., and has even talked “Hunger Games” theme parks.  As much money as they make, you'd think they could afford a couple of editors.  Maybe the author of the piece was listening to this when they wrote it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leohcvmf8kM  They go "around and around" too.

The rest of Fleetwood Mac should just ask Christine McVie to rejoin the band already.  She says she wants to.

Is anyone surprised that Paula Deen and Miley Cyrus joined Dennis Rodman and disgraced member of Congress Anthony "I text my" Weiner on GQ's Least Influential Celebrity list?  I'm not.

Now that Amy Robach has been learned she had a second, undetected malignancy, I bet she's even more grateful she got the assignment to go out and get a mammogram and report on it.

* * *

November 24th in History:

380 – Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal entry, into Constantinople.
1227 – Polish Prince Leszek I the White is assassinated at an assembly of Piast dukes at Gąsawa.
1248 – In the middle of the night a mass on the north side of Mont Granier suddenly collapsed, in one of the largest historical rockslope failures known in Europe.
1429 – Joan of Arc unsuccessfully besieges La Charité.
1542 – Battle of Solway Moss: An English army defeats a much larger Scottish force near the River Esk in Dumfries and Galloway.
1642 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).
1835 – The Texas Provincial Government authorizes the creation of a horse-mounted police force called the Texas Rangers (which is now the Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety).
1850 – Danish troops defeat a Schleswig-Holstein force in the town of Lottorf, Schleswig-Holstein.
1859 – Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, the anniversary of which is sometimes called "Evolution Day"
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Lookout Mountain – Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg.
1906 – A 13-6 victory by the Massillon Tigers over their rivals, the Canton Bulldogs, for the "Ohio League" Championship, leads to accusations that the championship series was fixed and results in the first major scandal in professional American football.
1922 – Nine Irish Republican Army members are executed by an Irish Free State firing squad. Among them is author Robert Erskine Childers, who had been arrested for illegally carrying a revolver.
1932 – In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.
1935 – The Senegalese Socialist Party holds its second congress.
1940 – World War II: The First Slovak Republic becomes a signatory to the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers.
1941 – World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.
1943 – World War II: The USS Liscome Bay is torpedoed near Tarawa and sinks, killing 650 men.
1944 – World War II: Bombing of Tokyo – The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital from the east and by land is carried out by 88 American aircraft.
1950 – The "Storm of the Century", a violent snowstorm, takes shape on this date before paralyzing the northeastern United States and the Appalachians the next day, bringing winds up to 100 mph and sub-zero temperatures. Pickens, West Virginia, records 57 inches of snow. 353 people would die as a result of the storm.
1962 – The West Berlin branch of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany forms a separate party, the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin.
1962 – The influential British satirical television programme That Was the Week That Was is first broadcast.
1963 – Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is murdered two days after the assassination, by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police department headquarters. The shooting happens to be broadcast live on television.
1963 – Vietnam War: Newly sworn-in U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam both militarily and economically.
1965 – Joseph-Désiré Mobutu seizes power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and becomes President; he rules the country (which he renames Zaire in 1971) for over 30 years, until being overthrown by rebels in 1997.
1966 – Bulgarian TABSO Flight 101 crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 people on board.
1969 – Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to land on the Moon.
1971 – During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (aka D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money. He has never been found.
1973 – A national speed limit is imposed on the Autobahn in Germany because of the 1973 oil crisis. The speed limit lasted only four months.
1974 – Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed "Lucy" (after The Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"), in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression.
1976 – The 1976 Çaldıran-Muradiye earthquake in eastern Turkey kills between 4,000 and 5,000 people.
2012 – A fire at a clothing factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, kills at least 112 people.

Famous Folk Born on November 24th:

Charles XI of Sweden
Father Junipero Serra
Alexander Suvorov
Zachary Taylor (the general and president of the U. S., not my close friend who I served with during three of my duty assignments in the Air Force)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Scott Joplin
Alben W. Barkley
Dale Carnegie
Charles "Lucky" Luciano
Garson Kanin
Barbara Sheldon
Howard Duff
John Lindsay (the inspiration for Mayor Linseed on the old TV series version of "Batman")
Ron Dellums
Oscar Robertson (only NBA player to ever average a triple-double for a season)
Paul Tagliabue
Pete Best
Donald "Duck" Dunn (RIP, you were an amazing musical talent)
Ted Bundy
Dwight Schultz
Steve Yeager
Linda Tripp (don't tell her anything you want to be kept confidential)
Denise Crosby (wonder if she regrets the choice to leave ST:TNG?)
Garret Dillahunt
Colin Hanks
Katherine Heigl

Movie quotes today come from "Knocked Up" since it is Katherine Heigl's birthday:

Alison Scott: [to Debbie] What do you think? He's funny, right?
Ben Stone: [to Debbie's kids] Fetch!
Debbie: [to Alison] He's playing fetch... with my kids... he's treating my kids like they're dogs.

#2

Debbie: I'm not gonna go to the end of the fucking line, who the fuck are you? I have just as much of a right to be here as any of these little skanky girls. What, am I not skanky enough for you, you want me to hike up my fucking skirt? What the fuck is your problem? I'm not going anywhere, you're just some roided out freak with a fucking clipboard. And your stupid little fucking rope! You know what, you may have power now but you are not god. You're a doorman, okay. You're a doorman, doorman, doorman, doorman, doorman, so... Fuck You! You fucking fag with your fucking little faggy gloves.
Doorman: I know... you're right. I'm so sorry, I fuckin' hate this job. I don't want to be the one to pass judgement, decide who gets in. Shit makes me sick to my stomach, I get the runs from the stress. It's not cause you're not hot, I would love to tap that ass. I would tear that ass up. I can't let you in cause you're old as fuck. For this club, you know, not for the earth.
Debbie: What?
Doorman: You old, she pregnant. Can't have a bunch of old pregnant bitches running around. That's crazy, I'm only allowed to let in five percent black people. He said that, that means if there's 25 people here I get to let in one and a quarter black people. So I gotta hope there's a black midget in the crowd.

#3

Alison Scott: I was drunk!
Ben Stone: Was your vagina drunk?

#4

Ben Stone: Hey Doc Howard, Ben Stone calling, guess what the fuck's up? Allison is going into labor and you are not fucking here, you know where you're at? Your at a fucking bar mitzvah in San Francisco you motherfucking piece of shit, and you know what I'm gonna have to do now? I'm going have to kill you, I'm gonna pop a fucking cap in your ass. You're dead, you're Tupac, you are fucking Biggie you piece of shit, I hope you fucking die or drop the chair and kill that fucking kid... I hope your plane crashes, peace fucker!