Tickets! Tickets please!

Before the horrific Frank McCourt era, I was part of a group that had season tickets to the Dodgers.  The group had four seats in a great location, and a full share was 20 games with two seats at each.  I had a 3/4ths share with a co-worker who only wanted to attend five games a season anyway. 

We had an annual ritual.  We would meet once the tickets had arrived from the Dodgers sales office, and pick out which games we wanted to attend.  There was a process to make it very fair.  Eight full shares, so the eight of us would pick the numbers 1 through 8 from a hat (or box or whatever).  Then we'd move into those positions around a table.  1 picked first, and then everyone thereafter in numeric order.  Once it was #8's turn, they would pick twice and then the turn would move backwards around the table again.  When it got back to #1 they would pick twice and so on.

If you drew a number higher than 4, you could forget about either Opening Day or Fan Appreciation Day, as those always went first.  In those days I'd buy anywhere from 5 to 15 additional tickets per season as going to Chavez Ravine was one of my favorite things to do.

Now that ritual is going to change, at least a little (assuming the group is still together.  As it will for all who hold season seats for the Dodgers.  They are going to get rid of the paper ticket.  No more ticket stubs and that's not a good thing.

I used to save ticket stubs when I was a kid.  I had my first stub from a Lakers game, lots of stubs from when I was young and my father was a season seat holder for the Kings.  Section 7, Row P, seats 1 and 2 were a second home to me.  When the "un-official" fan club known as the "white hats" (they wore painters hats) began circling the walkway around the Forum during the second intermission, I went out and bought a hat for myself.  I joined in when they did the walk and as we stopped at random to lead sections of the Loge level in cheers. 

Ticket stubs from a famous game are magical.  A stub from game 1 of the 1963 World Series is listed on Ebay for $250 or best offer.  Sandy Koufax pitched a complete game, gave up only two runs and struck out 15 Yankees (then a record).  He began the game by whiffing the first five batters he faced.  Holding that stub would bring that game back to life.  I'd love to own it.

Holding a bar code brings nothing but the feel of worthless paper between your fingers.  Getting rid of tickets may be eco-friendly, it may ultimately save time (it will do the opposite at first), but it is a big mistake.

* * *

Everyone in the Southern California area is all excited because the current owner of the St. Louis Rams just bought a big parking lot in Inglewood.  The 60 acre lot sits between the Forum, which is owned by the Madison Square Garden Company.  They've just spent $50 million renovating the property.

Hollywood Park's racetrack closed this past December.  People have been trying to develop its 238 acres into housing, an entertainment center, parks and more, since 2009. 

When there was a sporting event at the Forum (seating capacity for game of the Lakers and Kings was less than 20,000) and there were races scheduled at the track next door, traffic was a major headache.  Even the addition of digital traffic lights that allowed the conversion of the major thoroughfares adjacent to the forum into one way streets to aid traffic flow didn't help all that much.  A football stadium would seat two to three times what the Forum held.

Without careful planning, the development of these two large parcels at the same time will snarl traffic worse than it was before, and there won't be nearly enough parking in the area.

Let's temper the excitement with caution.  Having pro football in SoCal would be good.  Careful planning is required.

* * *

Is the path to citizenship going to be the deal-breaker when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform?  If so, whoever is insisting it be part of the deal needs to back down.  Reform that guarantees an end to the problem of illegal immigration in the U. S. doesn't have to include a path to citizenship for the current generation of people here illegally.

As long as they can live without fear of deportation, pay the appropriate taxes, have access to the same programs and benefits as do the citizens of the United States, the difference between being a permanent resident under whatever program is proposed, and the path to citizenship is minimal at best.

Illegal immigrants are exploited and victimized by unscrupulous employers and individuals.  They are forced to commit fraud to gain employment, through the use of social security numbers that are not their own.  There's no point to arguing the causation of the present population of these people who live here in the U. S.  A solution must be found that removes any stigma from their existence, while bringing our nation into a situation where we no longer have a border that is so easy to cross illegally.  If every other modern nation on Earth can have and enforce immigration laws, so can we.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

How many college coaches had a song like this done about/for them?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itx-n_VsxMo

The moment I heard the news that Congressman Waxman was retiring I wondered how long it would take Wendy Gruel to toss her hat into the ring.  Didn't take very long.  Doesn't matter.  I'll make my endorsement now, assuming the candidate of my choice runs (and she should definitely do so).  Vote Debra Bowen for 33rd Congressional District.  She rocks.

It will take more than buying land to convince me the Rams are coming back to Los Angeles.

I'll bet there is never a new episode of the Jerry Springer show where the word "lesbian" isn't used at least once.

TMZ should set up a separate website for their Justin Bieber coverage, so it isn't overshadowing all their other celebrity gossip.

It's not really clear if the extradition treaty between Italy and the United States does or doesn't permit the extradition of Amanda Knox if her recent conviction is upheld.

A recent study shows the better your reaction times are, the less likely you are to die a premature death.  I'm not sure if I should be comforted by my above-average reaction times or not.

Didn't Irwindale lobby Huy Fong Foods to build their Sriracha sauce plant in their city?

Steven Berkoff is a fine actor, but I'm much more inclined to believe William Friedkin in this flap over Berkoff leaving a play that Friedkin is directing.  Friedkin is an extraordinary director.

Jesse Eisenberg would not have been my choice to portray Lex Luthor.

A Wall Street trader leaving the big bucks behind because he realized he was suffering from "wealth addiction?"  Wow.

Tonight Show staffers are being laid off and apparently this is a major news story for some media outlets.  Geez, production is moving to New York.  Of course there are layoffs.

CA State Senator Roderick Wright was convicted of multiple felonies involving voter fraud and perjury (he was convicted of lying about living in the district he represents).  Instead of resigning, he introduced a bill into the Senate to allow some non-violent felonies to be converted to misdemeanors.  Now there's a politician with absolutely no shame.

* * *

January 31st in History:

314 – Silvester I begins his reign as Pope of the Catholic Church, succeeding Pope Miltiades.
1504 – France cedes Naples to Aragon.
1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting against Parliament and King James.
1747 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
1801 – John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States.
1814 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of Argentina.
1846 – After the Milwaukee Bridge War, Juneautown and Kilbourntown unify as the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1848 – John C. Frémont is Court-martialed for mutiny and disobeying orders.
1849 – Corn Laws are abolished in the United Kingdom pursuant to legislation in 1846.
1862 – Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through an 18.5-inch (47 cm) telescope now located at Northwestern University.
1865 – American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery and submits it to the states for ratification.
1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.
1867 – Maronite nationalist leader Youssef Karam leaves Lebanon on board a French ship bound for Algeria.
1891 – History of Portugal: The first attempt at a Portuguese republican revolution breaks out in the northern city of Porto.
1900 – Datu Muhammad Salleh is assassinated in Kampung Teboh, Tambunan, ending the Mat Salleh Rebellion.
1915 – World War I: Germany is the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia.
1917 – World War I: Germany announces that its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare after a two-year hiatus.
1918 – A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.
1919 – The Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, Scotland.
1929 – The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.
1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.
1942 – World War II: Allied forces are defeated by the Japanese at the Battle of Malaya and retreat to the island of Singapore.
1943 – World War II: German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed 2 days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army, ending one of the war's fiercest battles.
1944 – World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1944 – World War II: During the Anzio campaign the 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.
1945 – US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.
1945 – World War II: About 3,000 inmates from the Stutthof concentration camp are forcibly marched into the Baltic Sea at Palmnicken (now Yantarny, Russia) and executed.
1946 – Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling that of the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).
1949 – These Are My Children, the first television daytime soap opera is broadcast by the NBC station in Chicago.
1950 – President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.
1953 – A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands and over 300 in the United Kingdom
1957 – Eight people on the ground in Pacoima, California are killed following the mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet.
1958 – Explorer program: Explorer 1 – The first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit.
1958 – James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt.
1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.
1966 – The Soviet Union launches the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft as part of the Luna program.
1968 – Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.
1968 – Nauru gains independence from Australia.
1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 – Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell, aboard a Saturn V, lift off for a mission to the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon.
1971 – The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begins in Detroit, Michigan.
1990 – The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow.
1995 – President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.
1996 – An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
1996 – Comet Hyakutake is discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake.
2000 – Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash: An MD-83, experiencing horizontal stabilizer problems, crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Point Mugu, California, killing all 88 aboard.
2001 – In the Netherlands, a Scottish court convicts Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and acquits another Libyan citizen for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
2003 – The Waterfall rail accident occurs near Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia.
2007 – Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.
2009 – In Kenya, at least 113 people are killed and over 200 injured following an oil spillage ignition in Molo, days after a massive fire at a Nakumatt supermarket in Nairobi killed at least 25 people.
2010 – Avatar becomes the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide.
2011 – A winter storm hits North America for the second time in the same month, causing $1.8 billion in damage across the United States and Canada and killing 24 people.
2011 – Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated the last two /8 IPv4 address blocks to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).
2013 – An explosion at the Pemex Executive Tower in Mexico City kills at least 33 people and injures more than 100.

Famous Folk Born on January 31st:

Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu
Louis de Montfort
Franz Schubert
Zane Grey
Eddie Cantor
Tallulah Bankhead
Don Hutson
Jackie Robinson (he had guts, to sit back and take the abuse he took)
Stewart Udall
Carol Channing
Mario Lanza (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o8SZng55T0)
Jersey Joe Walcott
Norman Mailer
Benjamin Hooks
Ernie Banks
James Franciscus
Phillip Glass
Suzanne Pleshette
Dick Gephardt
Daniela Bianchi
Terry Kath
Glynn Turman
Nolan Ryan
Harry Wayne Casey
Shirley Babashoff
Kelly Lynch
Chad Channing
Minnie Driver
Portia de Rossi
Kerry Washington
Justin Timberlake
Megan Ellison


In honor of Minnie Driver's birthday, "Sleepers" provides today's movie quotes:

Lorenzo: The temperature topped out at ninety-eight degrees the day our lives were forever altered.

#2

Father Bobby: I stopped off at Attica today on my way up here to see an old friend of mine.
Young Lorenzo 'Shakes' Carcaterra: You have any friends who aren't in jail?
Father Bobby: Not as many as I'd like.

#3

Lorenzo: Do you love him?
Carol: I don't think about it, Shakes. If I did, I'd say yes.

#4

Father Bobby: It was the Sistine Chapel he painted.
John Reilly: Sixteenth Chapel?
Father Bobby: Sistine Chapel.
John Reilly: Who painted the other fifteen?

Do things look grim for Congressman Grimm and other eye-catching headlines

Congressman Michael Grimm (R) from New York apologized on Wednesday for having threatened a reporter the night before, following an interview.  Grimm had threatened to throw the reporter from the balcony and "...break you in half like a boy."  He said there was "no excuse" for the threat and then offered excuses like "...I was out of breath..." and that he'd had a "long day."

Sources are saying that actress Nicollete Sheridan will get a new trial in the case where she claims she was wrongfully terminated from the show "Desperate Housewives."  She apparently was able to prove she did not need to exhaust her administrative remedies before filing suit, as an appeals court had previously ruled.

TMZ reports that Justin Bieber has more legal troubles, this time in Toronto.  The accused egger/DUI singer was charged with assault.

Things looked good for the Miami Heat on Wednesday night when they lead the Oklahoma City Thunder by a score of 22-4 in the first quarter of their game.  It was all downhill from there as OKC roared back to extinguish the Heat.  Final score of the game was Thunder 112, Heat 95.

In his last appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno as the host, Bill Maher said that if you're going to engage in bestiality, doing it with a seal is better than doing it with a walrus, because the seal will applaud afterward.

Zachery Reeder is a 31 year old former teacher who was sentenced to ten years in prison for posing as a young girl on Facebook to get boys to send him explicit photos.  His wife filed for divorce following his arrest.  There's a message for Mr. Reeder at 2:02 in this video clip:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I_GYgGjxFM

Next time someone calls you a Neanderthal, smile and nod.  Turns out we all have at least a little Neanderthal DNA in us.

Christie Brinkley will turn 60 on February 2nd, and she still looks great.  But perhaps the claims that she looks "just as good in a bathing suit today as she did in Sports Illustrated" are a tiny bit overstated.

The hot sauce business in the U. S. is exploding, with a growth rate of more than 150% since the year 2000.

A tiny liberal arts college in Salt Lake City will send more athletes to the Winter Olympics in Sochi.  23 students from Westminster College will compete at the Games.

As pointed out in this blog months ago, when the language of "Obamacare" was written, someone forgot to include language to allow the IRS to enforce the "penalty" for failing to comply with the individual mandate.  So if you are assessed a penalty, the only way the IRS can collect is if you are owed a tax refund.

A McDonald's employee in Pittsburgh was adding a little extra to the Happy Meals she was selling in the drive-thru.  Heroin.  She was arrested for dealing after cops ran an undercover buy operation at the fast-food eatery.

The former aide to Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander who took his own life after being arrested and charged with possessing child pornography left behind a letter.  Jesse Ryan Loskarn said that he himself had been sexually abused as a child.

Jon Cryer won a victory in court when a judge refused to grant his ex-wife's petition for an increase in her $8,000 child support.  Sarah Trigger had requested a bump up to $88,000 per month because she claimed her son was unable to enjoy the same level of lifestyle his Buckley School classmates did.  Basically the judge told her to get a job.

We had IRA, then Roth IRA and now we get MyRA?

A few definitions to start:

IRA - Individual Retirement Arrangement.  There are two types.
     Traditional IRA - contributions to a traditional IRA can reduce your adjusted gross income.
     Roth IRA - contributions do not reduce your adjusted gross income.

Contribution - an amount you put into an IRA of either type.

Defined Benefit Plan - a retirement plan where you are promised a specific monthly benefit upon reaching retirement age.  The pension amount is not variable based on the return on investments in the fund.

Defined Contribution Plan - a retirement plan where your earnings at retirement will vary depending on how well the fund performs. 

Distribution - an amount you take out of an IRA of either type.  Distributions from traditional IRAs can be fully or partly taxable.  Distributions from a Roth IRA are usually tax free.

* * *

The detailed specifications of the proposed MyRA program aren't available yet.  But from what information is available I'm not impressed.  If employers aren't offering retirement savings plans now, what incentive will they have to start offering them?  Workers with low to moderate incomes can save for retirement now, without regard to whether or not their employers have a retirement plan. 

Those supporting the MyRA plan say it allows workers to start with a small amount and make small additional investments at regular intervals, again through their employer.  Anyone with earned income can start a Roth IRA now.  The new MyRA would work like a Roth in that the money going in would be after-tax dollars, and the distributions would be tax-free.  We have that already.

So how are they different?  The MyRA would be invested in government securities.  Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.  So there's no risk to the investor. 

This is just a way to get the workers to give the government more money to waste.  They already use the "contributions" workers make through Social Security (read Social Insecurity) to pay current bills.  Some call it a Ponzi scheme and it seems to fit at least part of that definition.  Now workers will get a second opportunity to save for retirement through the government, because they can't count on Social Insecurity. 

In the end, the youth of today will be in for a double-disappointment.  They won't get the full amount of Social Insecurity and they won't get the full return they should get on their MyRAs because the Congress can't stop spending more than it takes in.

* * *

The elderly woman that was normally the third person at my dining room table at meals has been in a rehab facility for a few months now.  I missed being able to talk to her about issues of the day and other stuff, because she had a sharp mind.  I did not miss her constant diatribes about water spots on glasses, silverware and dishes that weren't clean enough to meet her standards and complaints about the food.  It got old after the first few weeks she was seated at my table and got worse over time.  One of the reasons I started having lunch and dinner in my room was to avoid hearing that nonsense.  It had begun to outweigh the value of other conversations we shared.  To be fair, I must confess I much prefer eating in my room because I can watch television while eating.

I found out this morning that she died at some point in the last few days.  I'd kept saying I would drop in and visit her at the rehab facility the next time I was in that part of town, but I just never got to that part of town.  I feel bad that I didn't visit her, although since I had no way of knowing that I would not see her again, I wouldn't have been there to have a "last visit."

Last night as we played trivia, one of the answers to a question was Jim Croce, who died in a plane crash when he was only 30.  Of course someone mentioned "taken too soon" and this started a conversation that I stayed out of, where some said "it's never too soon."  All deaths are tragic.  If it were possible to ask people after their death if they felt it came too soon, the overwhelming majority would say it was definitely too soon.  I can understand how those living in extreme physical pain would not say that.  From the math geek standpoint, anyone who dies before reaching the age of average life expectancy, dies too soon.

I just wonder if my friends might look at this from a slightly different philosophical viewpoint if they'd ever come close to death.  I know I do.

* * *

The Newport Beach School District has expelled 11 students connected to a cheating scandal where the computer passwords of teachers were stolen, allegedly with the help of a private tutor.  Those students who actually cheated deserve to be expelled.

Those who were aware of the cheating but chose to remain silent do not.  Corona del Mar High School is not West Point or Annapolis.  A public high school is not a place where students should be held accountable under someone's twisted vision of a "Code of Honor" where failing to step forward when one has knowledge someone is cheating results in a punishment equal to what the cheaters receive.

There can be a Code of Honor in a public school.  Students who are aware of such transgressions and who choose not to report them could receive more appropriate punishments.  Being forced to write essays about ethics during a detention session.  Being made to do community service.  Those kinds of punishments are designed to rehabilitate and educate the offenders that their choice to stay silent is not the best choice.

I don't know if any of the students involved was over 18 at the time this happened, but they were students, not cadets. 

* * *

The Super Bowl media-day is always a fiasco in that reporters who know little to nothing about football and football players.  Some of them ask some really idiotic questions.  Here's a sampling:

"On the Seahawks, other than the quarterback, who is your best quarterback?"  (the answer was "Tavaris Jackson" since he's the backup QB)

"On the Broncos, who has the hottest wife?"

"I’m unfamiliar with the 12th man, so I have to ask you — I think it’s unfair that when you play on the football field, you have 12 people on the football field and the opponent has 11. You are breaking the rules by having 12 people on the field."

"Are you single?"

"Hey Doug, is this a must-win game?"

"Do you smoke marijuana?"

"So which would you rather have on Sunday, salsa or seven-layer dip?"

* * *

Random Ponderings:

How will the White House respond to the petition to deport Justin Bieber now that it has enough signatures to require a response?  They'll say it isn't their place to do it.

You are way too into football when you name your new daughter "Cyndee Leigh 12th Mann" to honor the Seahawks.  Way, way too over the top.

I'm not sure I understand the logic being used by people trying to figure out why a 53 year old male teacher had 400 dead and decaying snakes (pythons) in his house.  His neighbors think he might have been lonely after the death of his mother.  Are snakes really the right pet for that kind of thing?  I can't imagine cuddling with a python.

If Kanye West wants to give me $250,000, he can try to give me a beat down. 

What do the creditors of Toni Braxton who were left with little after her most recent bankruptcy thinking about her recent $3 million purchase of a house?

C. M. Punk is making noises about leaving the WWE, again.  

Here's an illustration of how values differ from nation to nation.  Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase saw his firm pay out $20 billion in fines and lay off 7,500 employees in 2013.  His pay is going to double.  Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo just announced he will cut his salary in half for the next five months to atone for a dramatic drop in profits, and did not rule out keeping the decrease in place beyond five months depending on the company's performance.

Maybe the convicted murderer who is terrified of dying at his scheduled execution should have thought about that BEFORE committing murder.  Yes, I'm against the death penalty, but for financial reasons.

Did singer Sara Bareilles fire her manager Jordan Feldstein (Jonah Hill's brother) because she didn't win a Grammy?

I know it would involve sacrifice on my part but I would be willing to marry the daughter of that Hong Kong tycoon in return for $130 million and I would definitely treat her and her lesbian partner with the utmost respect.  They can continue to live happily together in Hong Kong and I'll stay here.

For the second time in less than 18 months, a story about someone who was bitten by a snake and was billed over $50,000 for anti-venom is making news.  The real problem is the healthcare system, not how expensive anti-venom is or isn't.

Chocolate-flavored toothpaste?  Seriously?

If your wife donated her kidney to you, cheating on her afterwards is orders of magnitude worse than "ordinary" cheating.

The people who write the State of the Union speech for the president may well borrow words from the addresses delivered by previous presidents.  It isn't plagiarizing.

The greed of the NFL, charging people attending the Super Bowl $51 to use their "approved shuttle" service to get to the stadium should surprise no one.  Since you can't walk, taxi or limo to the game, you apparently can pay $150 to park, or $51 to use the shuttle.

Hadn't Motley Crue retired a long time ago?

* * *

January 29th in History:

757 – An Lushan, leader of a revolt against the Tang Dynasty and emperor of Yan, is murdered by his own son, An Qingxu.
904 – Sergius III comes out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.
1676 – Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia.
1814 – France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.
1819 – Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.
1834 – US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.
1845 – "The Raven" is published in the New York Evening Mirror, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe
1850 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.
1856 – Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.
1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.
1863 – Bear River Massacre.
1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
1891 – Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii, its last monarch.
1900 – The American League is organized in Philadelphia with eight founding teams.
1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.
1916 – World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.
1918 – Ukrainian–Soviet War: The Bolshevik Red Army, on its way to besiege Kiev, is met by a small group of military students at the Battle of Kruty.
1918 – Ukrainian–Soviet War: An armed uprising organized by the Bolsheviks in anticipation of the encroaching Red Army begins at the Kiev Arsenal, which will be put down six days later.
1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.
1940 – Three trains on the Sakurajima Line, in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station. 181 people are killed.
1941 – Alexandros Koryzis becomes Prime Minister of Greece upon the sudden death of his predecessor, dictator Ioannis Metaxas.
1943 – The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, U.S. cruiser Chicago is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers.
1944 – World War II: Approximately 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland.
1944 – In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio is destroyed in an air-raid.
1963 – The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.
1967 – The "ultimate high" of the hippie era, the Mantra-Rock Dance, takes place in San Francisco and features Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.
1989 – Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so
1991 – Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins.
1996 – President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing.
1996 – La Fenice, Venice's opera house, is destroyed by fire.
1998 – In Birmingham, Alabama, a bomb explodes at an abortion clinic, killing one and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph is suspected as the culprit.
2001 – Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
2002 – In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
2005 – The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.
2009 – The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt rules that people who do not adhere to one of the three government-recognized religions, while not allowed to list any belief outside of those three, are still eligible to receive government identity documents.
2009 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.

Famous Folk Born on January 29th:

Thomas Paine
Henry Lee III
William McKinley
Anton Chekov
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
W. C. Fields (what the heck is a little chickadee anyway?)
Victor Mature
David Rubitsky (RIP, but I never believed that he'd single-handedly killed over 500 Japanese soldiers during the Battle of Buna)
John Forsythe
Paddy Chayefsky
Ed Shaughnessy
Puggy Pearson
Katherine Ross
Claudine Longet
Tom Selleck
Marc Singer
Ann Jillian
Charlie Wilson
Oprah Winfrey
Greg Louganis
Steve Sax
Dominik Hasek
Ed Burns
Heather Graham
Paul Ryan
Sara Gilbert
Adam Lambert
Marc Gasol

In honor of Tom Selleck's birthday, today's movie quotes come from "In & Out"

[while listening to the "How to be a man" tape]
Voice on tape: Now, repeat after me: "Yo!"
Howard Brackett: Yo!
Voice on tape: Hot damn!
Howard Brackett: Hot damn!
Voice on tape: What a fabulous window treatment!
Howard Brackett: What a fabu...
Voice on tape: That was a trick!

 

#2

 

[at the Academy Awards] Glenn Close: This is Cameron's first nomination and he's in extremely good company. Tonight he joins fellow best actor nominee Paul Newman for "Coot", Clint Eastwood for "Codger", Michael Douglas for "Primary Urges"
[blows him a kiss]
Glenn Close: and Steven Seagal for "Snowball in Hell".  (reporter's note, a clear reference to the chances of Steven Seagal ever being nominated for an Oscar)

#3

Peter Malloy: One day I just clicked. I said: "Mom, dad, Sparky, I'm gay."
Howard Brackett: So what happened?
Peter Malloy: My mom cried, for exactly 10 seconds, my boss said: "Who cares?", and my dad said: "But you're so tall...!".

#4

Howard: [at confession, about "a friend"] He's just never had a physical relationship with her.
Father Tim: Never? In three years?
Howard: He respects her.
Father Tim: He's gay!
 

The Real State of the Union

Tomorrow night President Obama will give his annual State of the Union Address.  Almost everyone who is anyone of major importance in Washington, D. C. will be there.  The Vice-President.  All nine of the Supreme Court Justices.  Fourteen of the fifteen members of President Obama's Cabinet (the 15th is the "designated survivor and watches from another location, just in case of a catastrophe wiping out the rest of our government).  Almost every member of Congress (again, some are kept elsewhere to ensure government would continue, "just in case").

Why does the President make this annual speech?  Because of this text from our Constitution regarding the duties of a president:  "He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."  Thomas Jefferson decided to send his message to Congress in writing, being of the opinion that making such a speech would make him look more like a king than a president.  It wasn't formally referred to as the "State of the Union" until President Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the label.  But there's no mandate to deliver the message in person, and as recently as President Jimmy Carter, presidents have chosen to send a written message to Congress in lieu of making a speech.

We always hear about the strength of the "Union" and the President pays tribute to guests in the gallery who have done things worthy of note.  But what is the real state of our union at the moment?  It isn't really discussed in this speech as it probably should be.  I see the present state of our nation as follows:

As of my last glance at www.usdebtclock.org, the national debt of the Federal government stood at $17.33 trillion dollars.  $54,618 per citizen.  $150,253 per taxpayer.  The number of people actually not working, adding together those on unemployment and those no longer receiving unemployment who have stopped looking for work is over 19 million, nearly double the amount of the 10 million who are "officially" unemployed and used to create that artificial number showing unemployment is shrinking.  If measured without gimmicks, the number of people who want to work in our country who are not working is growing, not shrinking.

Homelessness is increasing.  Unemployment is increasing.  The concentration of wealth at the top of the income scale is increasing.  The inequality of income distribution is increasing.  These are issues that get nowhere near the amount of attention they deserve. 

More Americans are living below the poverty line since the Great Depression of the 1930s.  One in five households is receiving food stamps.  One person going to bed hungry in a nation of so much food production is tragic.  Millions going to bed hungry is inexcusable.

The party that says Taxed Enough Already aren't wrong when they call on the American people to be self-reliant, in a nation where there is means and opportunity to provide for oneself.  The stockholders of corporations are much more interested in earning more and more on that investment than they are ensuring there are Americans able to afford the products and services these corporations generate. 

It isn't impossible.  Look at Sam's Club Warehouses and Costco.  The former is laying off 5% of its workforce (2,500 people), adding to the unemployment lines.  Costco is hiring.  Read this excerpt from the Costco employment website to see why:  "Costco offers benefits to hourly full-time employees first of the month after 90 days on the job and hourly part-time employees first of the month after 180 days. Salaried employees are offered benefits the first of the month after date of hire. Those benefits all may include health, dental & vision care, a prescription drug plan, 401k plan, disability & life insurance and a variety of work/life programs to meet employee needs."

Both businesses are sellers of large quantity items in big box warehouses.  Membership clubs that sell at a discount to only those members.  Costco's CEO knows that investing in employees pays off with lower turnover, lower training costs and the fact that a happy employee population has fewer sick days.  Sometimes narrow focus on the bottom line results is fiscal blindness in regards to the big picture.

Government at every level in this nation has unfunded and underfunded liabilities in pensions and benefits that they continue to ignore.  Using the tactic of the ostrich is not going to help.

That's how I see the State of our Union.  Let's see if President Obama has any real solutions.

* * *

Two men apply for law licenses with the state of California.  He graduated from a law school that is...well, less than top tier.  Only 45% of its graduates pass the bar exam.  One once used a false alien registration number and falsely attested that he was a lawful permanent residence.   Then he failed to disclose this information on his application to join the bar.  He is also in this country in violation of the nation's immigration laws.  He cannot be hired by any law firm and almost certainly cannot appear in or practice law in the federal court system.

The other man graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown Law School, regularly in the top 14 law schools in the nation as ranked by U. S. World News and Reports.  As far as I can determine, he did not fail to disclose any violations of the law, or any other types of transgressions from his application.

So the California Supreme Court decides that the first man, Sergio Garcia, can be granted a law license, and the second man, Stephen Glass cannot.  Why?  Because during a three year period that ended almost fifteen years ago, he fabricated information for articles he wrote for "The New Republic."  The court said he'd failed to "sustain his heavy burden of rehabilitation..." and questioned his moral fitness to be an attorney.

I disagree with both decisions by the court.  Yes, it is really, really wrong to do what Stephen Glass did, on a moral basis.  But he apparently committed no crimes.  He was never prosecuted.  He's spent 15 years since his days making up information for his supposedly factual writings being a pariah.  How much time does one have to spend before we begin to forgive them their transgressions.  He didn't kill anyone.  He didn't enable others to engage in criminal behavior.

My objections to giving Sergio Garcia are well known.  We need to fix the immigration problem rather than making patchwork solutions like the one that permitted him to get around a 1996 federal law prohibiting states from granting professional licenses to those here in violation of immigration law.

Personally I find the fact that Mr. Glass (a professional journalist at the time) did what he did, to be reprehensible.  However, I also think that he's paid his penance.

* * *

Rand Paul is dredging up the affair between then President Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky to label Clinton as a "predator" as his response to claims Republicans are conducting a war on women.  Well Senator Paul, how about we discuss former Senator John Ensign of Nevada, who was having an affair with a staffer and paying hush money to keep it quiet?  Former Senator Bob Packwood, who resigned rather than face Senate hearings on allegations of sexual harassment of at least ten women who had worked in his offices? 

The notion that one side of the political aisle is any worse or better when it comes to mistreating women in the workplace is silly.  People are people.  There's no causal connection or correlation between one's politics and one's proclivity to be a sexual predator.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

Movie theater owners are demanding that the trailers they are obligated to show before the feature film plays be made shorter.  Maybe if they didn't insist on showing seven or eight of them, their length wouldn't be an issue.

While Quentin Tarrantino wasn't required to put a copyright notice on his pilfered screenplay before it was pilfered, it would have been a good idea to do so.

While I'm usually game to read almost anything, I can't imagine bringing myself to read the letters of Heinrich Himmler that were recently published online.  If the universe was just, he'd be in a Hell where he was being led to the showers and being gassed to death over and over.

Did I really just hear Newt Gingrich criticize Hilary Clinton because she hasn't driven a car herself for more than a decade?  What a stupid non-issue to raise.

The only surprise about recent revelations about misconduct by general officers in our military is that anyone finds it surprising.  It's amusing that a general who warned his troops that the Army has a zero tolerance for sexual harassment and sexual assault said those words when he was under investigation for groping one of his mistresses (yes, it reads plural) on numerous occasions.  BTW, Senator Paul, the general in that case, almost certainly a registered Republican, was having affairs with two of his subordinates.  Still want to try and claim one party has a monopoly on sexual predators?

One of the reasons I don't watch awards shows (the Oscars and Independent Spirit Awards being exceptions) came to pass last night.  The Grammys honored Cory Monteith, a non-Grammy winner in their "In Memoriam" tribute, and failed to include multiple Grammy winner Jeff Hanneman, guitarist for Slayer.  Disgusting.  Something wrong with heavy metal, NARAS?

Would someone please explain to Yahoo's editors the difference between a transvestite and a transsexual?  Oh wait, apparently no one edits the pablum written by Yahoo's writers.  Never mind.

So the actor who played the Marlboro Man in commercials died of lung cancer?  No surprise there.

It has to really hurt to be a high school boys basketball team and lose a game in overtime where the entire overtime was played as a 5 on 3 and you had the 5.

* * *

January 27th in History:

98 – Trajan succeeded his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire would reach its maximum extent.
661 – The Rashidun Caliphate ends with the death of Ali.
1142 – Song Dynasty General Yue Fei is executed.
1186 – Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, marries Constance of Sicily.
1343 – Pope Clement VI issues the papal bull Unigenitus to justify the power of the pope and the use of indulgences. Nearly 200 years later, Martin Luther would protest this.
1593 – The Vatican opens the seven-year trial of scholar Giordano Bruno.
1606 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.
1695 – Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa rules until his abdication in 1703.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1785 – The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.
1825 – The U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears".
1868 – Boshin War: The Battle of Toba-Fushimi between forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and pro-Imperial factions begins, which will end in defeat for the shogunate, and is a pivotal point in the Meiji Restoration.
1869 – Boshin War: Tokugawa rebels establish the Ezo Republic in Hokkaidō.
1870 – The Kappa Alpha Theta fraternity is founded at DePauw University.
1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.
1909 – The Young Left is founded in Norway.
1927 – Ibn Saud takes the title of King of Nejd.
1939 – First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
1943 – World War II: The VIII Bomber Command dispatched ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-Boat construction yards at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. This was the first American bombing attack on Germany of the war.
1944 – World War II: The 900-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
1945 – World War II: The Red Army liberates the remained inmates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp built by the Nazi Germans on the territory of Poland.
1951 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat.
1961 – Soviet submarine S-80 sinks with all hands lost.
1967 – Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
1967 – The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.
1973 – The Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde is killed in action becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty.
1974 – The Brisbane River breaches its banks causing the largest flood to affect the city of Brisbane in the 20th century.
1980 – Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian Caper.
1983 – The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō, breaks through.
1984 – Pop singer Michael Jackson suffers second degree burns to his scalp during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in the Shrine Auditorium.
1993 – American-born sumo wrestler Akebono Tarō becomes the first foreigner to be promoted to the sport's highest rank of yokozuna.
1996 – In a military coup Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane.
1996 – Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
2002 – An explosion at a military storage facility in Lagos, Nigeria, kills at least 1,100 people and displaces over 20,000 others.
2003 – The first selections for the National Recording Registry are announced by the Library of Congress.
2006 – Western Union discontinues its Telegram and Commercial Messaging services.
2010 – The 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis ends when Porfirio Lobo Sosa becomes the new President of Honduras.
2011 – Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution begins as over 16,000 protestors demonstrate in Sana'a.
2013 – 241 people die in a nightclub fire in the city of Santa Maria, Brazil.

Famous Folk Born on January 27th:

Samuel Foote
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Lewis Carroll
Samuel Gompers
Elizabeth Israel (she lived from 1875-2003)
Hyman Rickover
Otto P. Weyland
William Randolph Hearst, Jr.
Skitch Henderson
Elmore James
Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.
Donna Reed
Bobby Bland
Troy Donahue
James Cromwell
Nick Mason
Ed Schultz
Brian Engblom
John Roberts
Mimi Rogers
Frank Miller
Susanna Thompson
Cris Collinsworth
Keith Olbermann
Karen Velez
Bridget Fonda
Tamlyn Tomita
Patton Oswalt
Josh Randall
Jake Pavelka
Rosamund Pike (she was friends with Chelsea Clinton when they were in college together)

Movie quotes today come from "The Road to Wellville", one of the few films in 1994 that wasn't very good, but it has some very funny lines/moments:

Interviewer: Sir, how often should one evacuate one's bowels?
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg: One should never, ever, interrupt one's desire to defecate. I have inquired at the Bronx and London Zoos as to the daily bowel evacuations of primates. It is not once, twice, or three times, sir, but four. At the end of an average day, their cages are filled with a veritable mountain of natural health.
Interviewer: And, sex?
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg: Sex is the sewer drain of a healthy body, sir! Any use of the sexual act other than procreation is a waste of vital energy! Wasted seeds are wasted lives!

#2

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg: My own stools, Sir, are gigantic and have no more odor than a hot biscuit.

#3

William Lightbody: Oh, no, no, I can't eat fifteen gallons of yoghurt.
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg: Oh, it's not going in that end, Mr. Lightbody.

#4

Waiter: What would you like for dinner?
William Lightbody: Toast.
Waiter: And how would you like that, sir?
William Lightbody: Toasted.

#5

William Lightbody: They're dead! They've been electrocuted!
Endymion Hart-Jones: Rather a severe cure for flatulence, I do admit.

The Olympic Games and terrorism

What a difference four decades makes.  In 1972, as the Summer Games were about to open in Munich, there was little concern about terrorists, or what was then known as "Situation 21."  Situation 21 was just one of 26 scenarios created by a West German forensic psychologist to forecast what terrorists might try to do at the games.  Why not?  Because the organizers of the games were afraid of the backlash they would encounter if there was too much security.  The "Carefree Games" were specifically designed to present a much different image of Germany than the world had viewed in the 1936 Summer Games.  So security was lax, the security fence around the Athlete's Village was only six feet high and the eight members of Black September (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_(group) had only to scale that low fence and then pry open the door to where the Israeli athletes were being housed.  In the end, 11 Israelis, five terrorists and one West German police officer were dead.

Der Spiegel, a German magazine published a story in 2012 that claimed the Germans had been warned of plans by Palestinian terrorists to carry out an attack at the Munich Games.  The story they published went on to say that this information was in the hands of the German Foreign Ministry and their "secret service" as much as three weeks before the Games began.  They apparently ignored the warning.

42 years later, the Winter Games of 2014 are about to begin in Sochi.  The terrorists threatening to attack someone or something at these Games aren't making their intentions secret.  Vladimir Putin can brag all he wants about his "ring of steel", people's lives are at risk in Sochi.  It would be foolish to think they aren't.

When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, military weaponry and supplies disappeared in droves.  For terrorists to get guns and explosives in and around Sochi would not be all that difficult.  Just as Neo-Nazis almost certainly helped the Black September terrorists in 1972, there are probably locals in Sochi who share political viewpoints with the various terrorists groups that are making these threats.  Maybe they can keep the venues and the athlete's housing safe, but that's not going to be easy.  The surrounding area is definitely a much greater risk.  I wouldn't go to Sochi if you paid me six figures and provided me a dozen armed guards.

My real concern here is the propagation of the myth that the U. S. military can somehow "evacuate" the more than 200 athletes, along with coaches, trainers and support staff from the Sochi Games.  A properly configured jumbo jet can handle more than 500 passengers.  So in theory it would take only one, possibly two such jets to fly in and evacuate the American team.  In theory.

The airport at Sochi is not certified to handle either the Boeing 747 or the A380 jumbo jets.  It can handle 737s, 757s, neither of which can hold more than 300 passengers, and the 767 which can hold another 70 or so.  It is a small airport whose location permits inbound aircraft to use only a seaside approach vector.  There are more than 80 nations taking part in the 2014 Winter Games and more than 2,500 athletes.  Who gets out first?

Then there's that little problem of providing security for the athletes being evacuated, and transporting them from the three villages that will be housing them to the airport.  That will take several hundred troops.  They'd have to be airlifted in, and then out when the mission was complete. 

None of this takes into account the U. S. citizens who are at the Games as tourists, or rooting for family members/friends who are competing.  That could double or triple the number of evacuees in the event of a terrorist attack.  Or worse.

The members of the U. S. ski and snowboarding teams have already made it clear how they feel about this.  They've hired an outside security firm to provide them with additional protection and evacuation contingencies.

The media may be selling the myth that we can rescue our athletes from Sochi, but I'm not buying.

* * *

Former Governor Mike Huckabee said, "Our party stands for the recognition of the equality of women and the capacity of women. That's not a war on them; it's a war for them. And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it, let's that that discussion all across America, because women are far more than Democrats have made them to be."

The more I watch and listen to the Republicans who are potential candidates for their party's nomination for the 2016 presidential election, the more I believe they will lose an election they could have easily won.  Huckabee's defense of his remarks and attitude in claiming he's extoling the virtues of women rather than attacking them is ridiculous. 

Women don't want birth control because they are helpless in controlling their reproductive systems or their libido.  They want it because it's the safest way to ensure they won't have a child that they don't want.  This isn't rocket science. 

NJ Governor Chris Christie is allowing himself to be embroiled in scandals.  Huckabee is saying things that will alienate a large segment of the voting population he would need to be nominated, and especially to win.  Senator Ted Cruz's intransigence regarding the government shutdown will definitely haunt him.  Donald Trump couldn't get elected javelin catcher, let alone dog catcher (I know, old joke).  Rick Perry marginalized himself long ago.

Only Rand Paul, Jon Huntsman and Peter King, among those who are considered potential candidates haven't done something stupid since the 2012 election.  Jeb Bush made it clear he wasn't going to run, but rumors swirl that he's reconsidering.  He'll have to convince his mother to change her position on his candidacy since she's spoken stridently opposing such a move.

But at the rate Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot, there may be none left to run.  At least none who could possibly win.

* * *

Banks have no business preventing customers from making large cash withdrawals at a branch, as long as they've properly verified the person's identity, and they comply with laws and banking regulations.  Temporary ATM limits following fiascos like the Target thing are okay.

$700 for a Roomba 880?  Wow.

I'm browsing through the Craigslist classifieds, but there are only a couple worthy of note.  One is a "high-profile dental practice" looking to hire a sign twirler.  Another was an ad for topless maids, offering $50 per hour plus tips. 

Dear Abby got a letter from a woman complaining that her 21 year old daughter texted her the words "I'm pregnant" and it has upset her.  She wrote "She's been dating a marijuana smoking man for less than a year and I'm disappointed at this outcome."  So she's pregnant by this guy and the thing she notes first is that he smokes pot?  Get a clue, lady.

Octomom Nadya Sulemon supports birth control...for pets.  That's laughable.

Now that a judge says the hospital must take Marlise Munoz off of life support, I'm wondering if her husband will receive a bill from the hospital for these past weeks of unwanted care.  They forced it upon him, he didn't want it.  He shouldn't have to pay for it either.

It must be torture for Kobe Bryant to sit on the bench of the Lakers and watch them suck.

That some people worry that taking an IRA distribution might jeopardize their Social Security (read Insecurity) benefits just shows that those people need to do research or talk to experts.

Arizona Senator John McClain was "censured" by the AZ Republican Party for his voting record being insufficiently conservative.  He's not up for election until 2016 and he'll be 80 then.  Censuring him is like urinating into the wind.

Almost every time I read about something Kris Jenner has done, I'm more thankful than ever for the wonderful mother that fate gave me.

Mariska Hargitay looks damn good for 50.

Deputy Dan Akyroyd?  Yep.  Publicity stunt, or just trying to give back?  Probably a bit of both.

* * *

January 25th in History:

41 – After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate.
750 – In the Battle of the Zab, the Abbasid rebels defeat the Umayyad Caliphate, leading to overthrow of the dynasty.
1348 – A strong earthquake strikes the South Alpine region of Friuli in modern Italy, causing considerable damage to buildings as far away as Rome.
1494 – Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.
1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.
1554 – Founding of São Paulo city, Brazil.
1573 – Battle of Mikatagahara: In Japan, Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu.
1575 – Luanda, the capital of Angola, is founded by the Portuguese navigator Paulo Dias de Novais.
1704 – The Battle of Ayubale results in the destruction of most of the Spanish missions in Florida.
1755 – Moscow University is established on Tatiana Day.
1765 – Port Egmont, the first British settlement in the Falkland Islands at the southern tip of South America, is founded.
1787 – Shays' Rebellion: The rebellion's largest confrontation, outside the Springfield Armory, results in the killing of four rebels and the wounding of twenty.
1791 – The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791 and splits the old Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada.
1792 – The London Corresponding Society is founded.
1858 – The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn is played at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia, and becomes a popular wedding recessional.
1879 – The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.
1881 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.
1909 – Richard Strauss's opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.
1915 – Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco.
1918 – Ukraine declares independence from Bolshevik Russia.
1919 – The League of Nations is founded.
1924 – The 1924 Winter Olympics opens in Chamonix, in the French Alps, inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
1932 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese National Revolutionary Army begins its defense of Harbin.
1937 – The Guiding Light debuts on NBC radio from Chicago. In 1952 it moves to CBS television, where it remains until Sept. 18, 2009.
1941 – Pope Pius XII elevates the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.
1942 – World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.
1944 – Florence Li Tim-Oi is ordained in China, becoming the first woman Anglican priest.
1945 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge ends.
1946 – The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.
1947 – Thomas Goldsmith Jr. files a patent for a cathode ray tubeamusement device
1949 – At the Hollywood Athletic Club the first Emmy Awards are presented.
1955 – The Soviet Union ends the state of war with Germany.
1960 – The National Association of Broadcasters reacts to the "payola" scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accept money for playing particular records.
1961 – In Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.
1969 – Brazilian Army captain Carlos Lamarca deserts in order to fight against the military dictatorship, taking with him 10 machine guns and 63 rifles.
1971 – Charles Manson and three female "Family" members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
1971 – Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president.
1979 – Pope John Paul II starts his first official papal visits outside Italy to the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Mexico.
1980 – Mother Teresa is honored with India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna
1981 – Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, is sentenced to death.
1986 – The National Resistance Movement topples the government of Tito Okello in Uganda.
1993 – Five people are shot outside the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Two are killed and three wounded.
1994 – The Clementine space probe launches.
1995 – The Norwegian rocket incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile.
1996 – Billy Bailey becomes the last person to be hanged in the USA.
1998 – During a historic visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II demands political reforms and the release of political prisoners while condemning US attempts to isolate the country.
1998 – A suicide attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth kills eight and injures 25 others.
1999 – A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.
2003 – 2003 Invasion of Iraq: A group of people leave London, England, for Baghdad, Iraq, to serve as human shields, intending to prevent the U.S.-led coalition troops from bombing certain locations.
2004 – Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.
2005 – A stampede at the Mandhradevi temple in Maharashtra, India kills at least 258.
2006 – Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star.
2006 – Mexican professional wrestler Juana Barraza is arrested in connection with the serial killing of at least 10 elderly women.

Famous Folk Born on January 25th:

Robert Burns
William Colgate
General George Pickett
Charles Curtis
W. Somerset Maugham
Virginia Woolf
Ernie Harwell
Sally Starr
Jean Tattinger
Lou "The Toe" Groza
Eduard Shevardnadze
Dean Jones
Corazon Aquino
Conrad Burns
Diana Hyland
Etta James
Leigh Taylor-Young
Steve Prefontaine (his death at such a young age was a tragedy...what he might have done...)
The Honky Tonk Man
Dinah Manhoff
Ana Ortiz
Alicia Keys

Officer Clark: Don't you think I'd look good in a moustache?
Bimbeau: You'd be perfect. You'd be a perfect horse's ass.

#2

Sally: Turk, did you come?
Newbomb Turk: A little.
Sally: A little? What do you mean a little? Either you came or you didn't come. Did you come or not?
Newbomb Turk: I came.
Sally: Oh my God, I'm so embarrassed.

#3

[Sally's friends are topless sunbathing by the pool]
Sally: I don't know why you're doing that. The last time I did that my tits peeled so much I went from a B cup to an A.

#4

[Dudley is calling his mother from Tubby's]
Dudley: Mother?
Dudley's Mother: Dudley?
Dudley: Mother, I am calling you to tell you I will be out rather late tonight. In point of fact, I might not be in at all.
Dudley's Mother: You're not in bed, dear?
Dudley: Mother, I have a assignation with a young lady. I am going to explore the boundaries of my manhood. Mother, I am going to get laid.
Dudley's Mother: You're going to be late, dear?
Dudley: Not late, mother, laid; the past participle of the verb 'to lay'. Mother, I am going to screw someone.
Dudley's Mother: Oh!
[faints]
Dudley: Now, I just have to figure out how.