"Encouraging" behavior
Government has interesting ways of encouraging behavior. Laws are something we all understand. Follow the laws in how you act, or suffer the consequences. Different things have been legal or illegal at different times in our history. Prohibition of alcohol was tried, and it failed. It just drove a behavior that was suddenly illegal, underground. We've outlawed marijuana, decriminalized it and now it's becoming legal.
But there are other ways government tries to change our behaviors. In spite of the power of the tobacco lobby, it was just five years ago that the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes from 39 cents to $1.01. Here in California, the state adds another 87 cents per pack, plus sales taxes. But New York state adds $4.35 per pack. So in order for a smoker to buy a pack of cigarettes there, they have to shell out $5.36 in excise taxes and another 8.85% in sales taxes. A study done last summer showed the price of a pack of Marlboro Reds in NYC was $14.50. So is this disincentive working? According to the CDC, the percentage of the U. S. population that smoked on a daily basis fell from 13% in 2005 to only 8% in 2010.
On the other hand, the federal government and a number of state governments offer incentives to encourage certain behaviors. Sending yourself or your dependents to college is encouraged by education credits. Owning a home is encouraged by the deduction for mortgage interest, and for your property taxes. It makes sense. Educational institutions benefit from families being more able to afford college. Home builders can continue building because the tax breaks encourage home buying.
Then there are the incentives that really don't benefit behavior. California exempts the income you earn from recycling from taxation. I don't think more people are going to recycle because there's a small tax break for it. California doesn't tax your winnings from state lottery ticket sales. On the other hand, you can't write off lottery losses against other gambling winnings. I doubt these tax issues change the behavior of people who like to gamble.
I doubt that offering the 1%, or any larger group of wealthy people new incentives to invest in our economy will do much to encourage that behavior. They already get favorable treatment of capital-gains income. Jobs credits.
So how do we pry their fingers off of that cash sitting uselessly in cash vaults and get it injected into our economy to create jobs? These people do call themselves the job creators. So create already!
* * *
I love my country. I spent a decade in its service. So when my government is making a mistake I feel compelled to point it out. It is true that Syria's Bashar al-Assad is guilty of human right's violations. That doesn't give us the right to demand that any peace process in Syria must not involve that nation's current president.
Just as we have the right to choose our leaders, the Syrian people have the same right to choose theirs. They clearly are not a democracy but neither is North Korea or Cuba, both nations where there is a history of human rights abuses. We have no mandate from the rest of the world to impose our style of democratic rule on other nations.
Secretary of State John Kerry shouldn't be saying what "must" be. He should be saying what will have the best chance of succeeding. Once again, the Obama Administration is proving itself to be inept in the area of foreign affairs.
* * *
The mainstream media is biased. The "underdog conservative media" is biased. Truth be told, we are all biased to some degree. The challenge is to comment on these issues as objectively as possible, presenting both sides of the equation; and when we are espousing something we believe in, offering facts and cogent arguments to support those believes.
I have a number of beliefs that are very important to me. I no longer believe in capital punishment, but not because of the issue of it being a deterrent. I simply think it is economically foolish. I support a woman's right to choose, but believe sensible people can agree there is a point in a pregnancy where abortion is no longer appropriate. I'm in favor of state's rights, as long as the exercise of those rights doesn't trample on protected rights of a minority group, where those rights are set forth in the U. S. Constitution.
I can defend these believes. Dispassionately. Objectively. Considering that I was once very much in favor of capital punishment, I believe that I'm open to being convinced to change any of my views.
What I'm tired of is all of the finger pointing/divisiveness that's going on in the political discussion. I think I've previously mentioned my poli-sci professor who told me nearly 30 years ago that we were in for a future where politics would become more and more polarized until things shattered. We are headed in that direction.
Yes, the mainstream media hasn't been giving the apparent prevarications of Texas State Senator Wendy Davis regarding her biographical claims that it is giving to the scandals that may reach right into the office of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. But they aren't equivalent. Senator Davis' prevarications did not cause anyone, especially an ambulance en route to an emergency, to spend too much time in traffic. Nothing Senator Davis has claimed kept Superstorm Sandy relief funds away from a city in dire need of them. One story is a major event. The other is a minor blip.
But in an era where the right points fingers at the left for failing to cover stories, when the left doesn't cover some of those stories they should cover, and worse yet, both sides engage in dirty tricks, no one is being "properly informed" by either side. An NRO reporter, Andrew Stiles allegedly set up a website www.electwendydavis.com which claimed that she was running as "Wendy Davis for Late Term Abortion and Governor." He took down the front page almost immediately, but if you go there and click on the "about" or "contact us" links, you can see what was done. I almost laughed at the contact email address, nobrosallowed@gmail.com but I didn't.
Journalism should be a search for truth. Not a search for cheap shots to pave way for victory.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
You can make all the bad jokes about their love songs having gone wrong, but the Captain and Tennille are divorcing. That's sad. The people who swore "Love Will Keep Us Together" lasted 39 years, but no longer.
Quentin Tarrantino is right to be upset that someone leaked that script. But maybe scrapping the project is a bit of an overreaction.
Toronto's mayor is more entertaining than any scripted show on television.
I wonder why the Dodgers didn't just outbid the Yankees for Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka.
Why did the Academy Awards overlook "Blackfish" in the documentary category? It and "Inequality for All" are on my ten best documentaries list for 2013. Oh wait, only the documentary branch members choose the five nominees from a shortlist of 15. I remember now. That's why "Hoop Dreams" was overlooked when it came out.
16 months in prison for dragging a bloodied puppy behind you on a leash seems like not enough of a punishment.
What moron would think that "123456" would be more secure as a password than "password"?
So which member of Congress was it that slipped 68 words into an appropriations bill that might end the ability of the IRS to provide oversight of political groups?
I have no sympathy for former NFL star Vince Young, but maybe pro sports leagues will realize someday they need to force their stars to get proper help managing their money.
The Seattle business that fired a teen because he wore a Broncos jersey to work may be right legally, but they are wrong morally. However, if he was really fired for not going back to work after being sent home to change, then they are right morally and legally.
So it turns out the retired cop who shot a guy in a theater because he'd been texting may have had other conflicts in movie theaters over the cell phones of others. No surprise there. His claims of self-defense make no sense and the judge rightly ignored them in denying him bail.
Suspended from high school for fighting, or drinking alcohol, or other such transgressions makes sense. But being suspended for working in porno films to help Mom pay the bills? No way.
* * *
January 22nd in History:
565 – Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus.
613 – Constantine (8-month-old) is crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius at Constantinople.
1506 – The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.
1517 – The Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeats the Mamluk Sultanate and captures present-day Egypt at the Battle of Ridaniya.
1521 – Emperor Charles V opens the Diet of Worms
1555 – The Ava Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in what is now present-day Burma.
1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes to determine if James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones when he fled to France in 1688.
1824 – The Ashantis defeat British forces in the Gold Coast.
1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: The Siege of Multan ends after nine months when the last Sikh defenders of Multan, Punjab, surrender.
1863 – The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to regain Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Russia.
1877 – Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman is taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist practices.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Isandlwana – Zulu troops decisively defeat British troops.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Rorke's Drift – 139 British soldiers successfully defend their garrison against an onslaught by three to four thousand Zulu warriors.
1889 – Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C.
1890 – The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, Ohio.
1899 – Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation.
1901 – Edward VII is proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
1905 – Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.
1906 – SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130.
1915 – Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.
1917 – World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.
1919 – Act Zluky is signed, unifying the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian National Republic.
1924 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1927 – Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match anywhere in the world, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.
1941 – World War II: British and Commonwealth troops capture Tobruk from Italian forces during Operation Compass.
1944 – World War II: The Allies commence Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio, Italy.
1946 – In Iran, Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at Chuwarchira Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. He is the new president and Hadschi Baba Scheich is the prime minister.
1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.
1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood, California.
1957 – Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.
1957 – The New York City "Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
1959 – Knox Mine Disaster: Water breaches the River Slope Mine near Pittston City, Pennsylvania in Port Griffith; 12 miners are killed.
1962 – The Organization of American States suspends Cuba's membership.
1963 – The Elysée treaty of cooperation between France and Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.
1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.
1968 – Operation Igloo White, a US electronic surveillance system to stop communist infiltration into South Vietnam begins installation.
1969 – A gunman attempts to assassinate Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
1970 – The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport.
1971 – The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, is issued.
1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decision in Roe v. Wade, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.
1973 – A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria, killing 176.
1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial.
1987 – Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself during a televised press conference, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism.
1987 – Philippine security forces open fire on a crowd of 10,000–15,000 demonstrators at Malacañan Palace, Manila, killing 13.
1990 – Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet Computer worm.
1991 – Gulf War: Three SCUDs and one Patriot missile hit Ramat Gan in Israel, injuring 96 people. Three elderly people die of heart attacks.
1992 – Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.
1992 – Space Shuttle program: Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space
1995 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Beit Lid massacre – In central Israel, near Netanya, two suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip blow themselves up at a military transit point killing 19 Israelis.
1999 – Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.
2002 – Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
2006 – Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president.
2007 – At least 88 people are killed when two car bombs explode in the Bab Al-Sharqi market in central Baghdad, Iraq.
Famous Folk Born on January 22nd:
Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Francis Bacon
Noah Phelps
Grigori Rasputin
D. W. Griffith
Fred M. Vinson (Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court)
Marcel Dassault
Conrad Veidt
Robert E. Howard
Porfirio Rubirosa
Ann Sothern
U Thant
Irving Kristol
Sam Cooke
Bill Bixby
Graham Kerr
Seymour Cassel
Joseph Wambaugh
Jim Jarmusch
Linda Blair
Michael Hutchence
Steven Adler
DJ Jazzy Jeff
Diane Lane
Guy Fieri
Ava Devine
Balthazar Getty
Willa Ford
Daniel Wayne Smith
And on this date in 2008, much too soon, we lost Heath Ledger. So today's movie quotes come from 2008's "The Dark Knight":
Bruce Wayne: Targeting me won't get their money back. I knew the mob wouldn't go down without a fight, but this is different. They crossed the line.
Alfred Pennyworth: You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn't fully understand.
Bruce Wayne: Criminals aren't complicated, Alfred. Just have to figure out what he's after.
Alfred Pennyworth: With respect Master Wayne, perhaps this is a man that *you* don't fully understand, either. A long time ago, I was in Burma. My friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So, we went looking for the stones. But in six months, we never met anybody who traded with him. One day, I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.
Bruce Wayne: So why steal them?
Alfred Pennyworth: Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
#2
Batman: Then why do you want to kill me?
The Joker: [giggling] I don't, I don't want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No, no, NO! No. You... you... complete me.
Batman: You're garbage who kills for money.
The Joker: Don't talk like one of them. You're not! Even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.
#3
Two-Face: You thought we could be decent men, in an indecent time! But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased, unprejudiced... fair. His son's got the same chance she had. Fifty-fifty.
Batman: What happened to Rachel wasn't chance. We decided to act. We three.
Two-Face: Then why was it me who was the only one who lost everything?
Batman: [grieved] It wasn't...
#4
[Wayne Enterprises accountant Coleman Reese believes that he's discovered Batman's secret identity]
Lucius Fox: Let me get this straight. You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands; and your plan, is to *blackmail* this person?
[pause, Reese looks nervous]
Lucius Fox: Good luck.
But there are other ways government tries to change our behaviors. In spite of the power of the tobacco lobby, it was just five years ago that the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes from 39 cents to $1.01. Here in California, the state adds another 87 cents per pack, plus sales taxes. But New York state adds $4.35 per pack. So in order for a smoker to buy a pack of cigarettes there, they have to shell out $5.36 in excise taxes and another 8.85% in sales taxes. A study done last summer showed the price of a pack of Marlboro Reds in NYC was $14.50. So is this disincentive working? According to the CDC, the percentage of the U. S. population that smoked on a daily basis fell from 13% in 2005 to only 8% in 2010.
On the other hand, the federal government and a number of state governments offer incentives to encourage certain behaviors. Sending yourself or your dependents to college is encouraged by education credits. Owning a home is encouraged by the deduction for mortgage interest, and for your property taxes. It makes sense. Educational institutions benefit from families being more able to afford college. Home builders can continue building because the tax breaks encourage home buying.
Then there are the incentives that really don't benefit behavior. California exempts the income you earn from recycling from taxation. I don't think more people are going to recycle because there's a small tax break for it. California doesn't tax your winnings from state lottery ticket sales. On the other hand, you can't write off lottery losses against other gambling winnings. I doubt these tax issues change the behavior of people who like to gamble.
I doubt that offering the 1%, or any larger group of wealthy people new incentives to invest in our economy will do much to encourage that behavior. They already get favorable treatment of capital-gains income. Jobs credits.
So how do we pry their fingers off of that cash sitting uselessly in cash vaults and get it injected into our economy to create jobs? These people do call themselves the job creators. So create already!
* * *
I love my country. I spent a decade in its service. So when my government is making a mistake I feel compelled to point it out. It is true that Syria's Bashar al-Assad is guilty of human right's violations. That doesn't give us the right to demand that any peace process in Syria must not involve that nation's current president.
Just as we have the right to choose our leaders, the Syrian people have the same right to choose theirs. They clearly are not a democracy but neither is North Korea or Cuba, both nations where there is a history of human rights abuses. We have no mandate from the rest of the world to impose our style of democratic rule on other nations.
Secretary of State John Kerry shouldn't be saying what "must" be. He should be saying what will have the best chance of succeeding. Once again, the Obama Administration is proving itself to be inept in the area of foreign affairs.
* * *
The mainstream media is biased. The "underdog conservative media" is biased. Truth be told, we are all biased to some degree. The challenge is to comment on these issues as objectively as possible, presenting both sides of the equation; and when we are espousing something we believe in, offering facts and cogent arguments to support those believes.
I have a number of beliefs that are very important to me. I no longer believe in capital punishment, but not because of the issue of it being a deterrent. I simply think it is economically foolish. I support a woman's right to choose, but believe sensible people can agree there is a point in a pregnancy where abortion is no longer appropriate. I'm in favor of state's rights, as long as the exercise of those rights doesn't trample on protected rights of a minority group, where those rights are set forth in the U. S. Constitution.
I can defend these believes. Dispassionately. Objectively. Considering that I was once very much in favor of capital punishment, I believe that I'm open to being convinced to change any of my views.
What I'm tired of is all of the finger pointing/divisiveness that's going on in the political discussion. I think I've previously mentioned my poli-sci professor who told me nearly 30 years ago that we were in for a future where politics would become more and more polarized until things shattered. We are headed in that direction.
Yes, the mainstream media hasn't been giving the apparent prevarications of Texas State Senator Wendy Davis regarding her biographical claims that it is giving to the scandals that may reach right into the office of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. But they aren't equivalent. Senator Davis' prevarications did not cause anyone, especially an ambulance en route to an emergency, to spend too much time in traffic. Nothing Senator Davis has claimed kept Superstorm Sandy relief funds away from a city in dire need of them. One story is a major event. The other is a minor blip.
But in an era where the right points fingers at the left for failing to cover stories, when the left doesn't cover some of those stories they should cover, and worse yet, both sides engage in dirty tricks, no one is being "properly informed" by either side. An NRO reporter, Andrew Stiles allegedly set up a website www.electwendydavis.com which claimed that she was running as "Wendy Davis for Late Term Abortion and Governor." He took down the front page almost immediately, but if you go there and click on the "about" or "contact us" links, you can see what was done. I almost laughed at the contact email address, nobrosallowed@gmail.com but I didn't.
Journalism should be a search for truth. Not a search for cheap shots to pave way for victory.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
You can make all the bad jokes about their love songs having gone wrong, but the Captain and Tennille are divorcing. That's sad. The people who swore "Love Will Keep Us Together" lasted 39 years, but no longer.
Quentin Tarrantino is right to be upset that someone leaked that script. But maybe scrapping the project is a bit of an overreaction.
Toronto's mayor is more entertaining than any scripted show on television.
I wonder why the Dodgers didn't just outbid the Yankees for Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka.
Why did the Academy Awards overlook "Blackfish" in the documentary category? It and "Inequality for All" are on my ten best documentaries list for 2013. Oh wait, only the documentary branch members choose the five nominees from a shortlist of 15. I remember now. That's why "Hoop Dreams" was overlooked when it came out.
16 months in prison for dragging a bloodied puppy behind you on a leash seems like not enough of a punishment.
What moron would think that "123456" would be more secure as a password than "password"?
So which member of Congress was it that slipped 68 words into an appropriations bill that might end the ability of the IRS to provide oversight of political groups?
I have no sympathy for former NFL star Vince Young, but maybe pro sports leagues will realize someday they need to force their stars to get proper help managing their money.
The Seattle business that fired a teen because he wore a Broncos jersey to work may be right legally, but they are wrong morally. However, if he was really fired for not going back to work after being sent home to change, then they are right morally and legally.
So it turns out the retired cop who shot a guy in a theater because he'd been texting may have had other conflicts in movie theaters over the cell phones of others. No surprise there. His claims of self-defense make no sense and the judge rightly ignored them in denying him bail.
Suspended from high school for fighting, or drinking alcohol, or other such transgressions makes sense. But being suspended for working in porno films to help Mom pay the bills? No way.
* * *
January 22nd in History:
565 – Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus.
613 – Constantine (8-month-old) is crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius at Constantinople.
1506 – The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.
1517 – The Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeats the Mamluk Sultanate and captures present-day Egypt at the Battle of Ridaniya.
1521 – Emperor Charles V opens the Diet of Worms
1555 – The Ava Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in what is now present-day Burma.
1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes to determine if James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones when he fled to France in 1688.
1824 – The Ashantis defeat British forces in the Gold Coast.
1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: The Siege of Multan ends after nine months when the last Sikh defenders of Multan, Punjab, surrender.
1863 – The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to regain Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Russia.
1877 – Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman is taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist practices.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Isandlwana – Zulu troops decisively defeat British troops.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Rorke's Drift – 139 British soldiers successfully defend their garrison against an onslaught by three to four thousand Zulu warriors.
1889 – Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C.
1890 – The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, Ohio.
1899 – Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation.
1901 – Edward VII is proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
1905 – Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.
1906 – SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130.
1915 – Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.
1917 – World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.
1919 – Act Zluky is signed, unifying the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian National Republic.
1924 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1927 – Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match anywhere in the world, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.
1941 – World War II: British and Commonwealth troops capture Tobruk from Italian forces during Operation Compass.
1944 – World War II: The Allies commence Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio, Italy.
1946 – In Iran, Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at Chuwarchira Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. He is the new president and Hadschi Baba Scheich is the prime minister.
1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.
1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood, California.
1957 – Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.
1957 – The New York City "Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
1959 – Knox Mine Disaster: Water breaches the River Slope Mine near Pittston City, Pennsylvania in Port Griffith; 12 miners are killed.
1962 – The Organization of American States suspends Cuba's membership.
1963 – The Elysée treaty of cooperation between France and Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.
1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.
1968 – Operation Igloo White, a US electronic surveillance system to stop communist infiltration into South Vietnam begins installation.
1969 – A gunman attempts to assassinate Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
1970 – The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport.
1971 – The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, is issued.
1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decision in Roe v. Wade, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.
1973 – A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria, killing 176.
1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial.
1987 – Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself during a televised press conference, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism.
1987 – Philippine security forces open fire on a crowd of 10,000–15,000 demonstrators at Malacañan Palace, Manila, killing 13.
1990 – Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet Computer worm.
1991 – Gulf War: Three SCUDs and one Patriot missile hit Ramat Gan in Israel, injuring 96 people. Three elderly people die of heart attacks.
1992 – Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.
1992 – Space Shuttle program: Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space
1995 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Beit Lid massacre – In central Israel, near Netanya, two suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip blow themselves up at a military transit point killing 19 Israelis.
1999 – Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.
2002 – Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
2006 – Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president.
2007 – At least 88 people are killed when two car bombs explode in the Bab Al-Sharqi market in central Baghdad, Iraq.
Famous Folk Born on January 22nd:
Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Francis Bacon
Noah Phelps
Grigori Rasputin
D. W. Griffith
Fred M. Vinson (Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court)
Marcel Dassault
Conrad Veidt
Robert E. Howard
Porfirio Rubirosa
Ann Sothern
U Thant
Irving Kristol
Sam Cooke
Bill Bixby
Graham Kerr
Seymour Cassel
Joseph Wambaugh
Jim Jarmusch
Linda Blair
Michael Hutchence
Steven Adler
DJ Jazzy Jeff
Diane Lane
Guy Fieri
Ava Devine
Balthazar Getty
Willa Ford
Daniel Wayne Smith
And on this date in 2008, much too soon, we lost Heath Ledger. So today's movie quotes come from 2008's "The Dark Knight":
Bruce Wayne: Targeting me won't get their money back. I knew the mob wouldn't go down without a fight, but this is different. They crossed the line.
Alfred Pennyworth: You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn't fully understand.
Bruce Wayne: Criminals aren't complicated, Alfred. Just have to figure out what he's after.
Alfred Pennyworth: With respect Master Wayne, perhaps this is a man that *you* don't fully understand, either. A long time ago, I was in Burma. My friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So, we went looking for the stones. But in six months, we never met anybody who traded with him. One day, I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.
Bruce Wayne: So why steal them?
Alfred Pennyworth: Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
#2
Batman: Then why do you want to kill me?
The Joker: [giggling] I don't, I don't want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No, no, NO! No. You... you... complete me.
Batman: You're garbage who kills for money.
The Joker: Don't talk like one of them. You're not! Even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.
#3
Two-Face: You thought we could be decent men, in an indecent time! But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased, unprejudiced... fair. His son's got the same chance she had. Fifty-fifty.
Batman: What happened to Rachel wasn't chance. We decided to act. We three.
Two-Face: Then why was it me who was the only one who lost everything?
Batman: [grieved] It wasn't...
#4
[Wayne Enterprises accountant Coleman Reese believes that he's discovered Batman's secret identity]
Lucius Fox: Let me get this straight. You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands; and your plan, is to *blackmail* this person?
[pause, Reese looks nervous]
Lucius Fox: Good luck.
posted by me at 7:08 PM
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