It looks like good news, but is it?
The unemployment rate in the U.S. fell below the 7% mark in December. That's the first time it's fallen that low in five years. Sounds great, right? No. As usual, the story told on the face of the numbers is quite different than the one told by the details.
The "participation rate", which measures the percentage of the total labor pool that has work or is looking for work is now at a 35 year low. Only 62.8% of the members of that labor pool are working or seeking employment. You can spin it to look even worse, by noting that in December of 1978, the last time the rate was that low, women weren't working outside of the home in the numbers they are today.
Is there an easy answer? No. Greed, which Gordon Gekko said is good, has caused those who own businesses to send jobs outside the U.S. to boost profits. For a variety of reasons. Yes, lower labor costs top the list; however, that isn't the only reason. The convoluted U.S. tax code charges Apple a lower tax rate on profits from iPhones made in China than if they were to be made in the U. S. According to Forbes magazine, Apple's profits for iPhones made in China are taxed at only 2%, while if they were to move production to the U. S., those profits would be taxed at 35%.
When our own tax code is providing incentives to U. S. businesses to locate their operations elsewhere, who should we blame for our failing economy?
So I have a modest proposal. It's been a while since the Centrist Party has been heard from, and this is just the right issue for us. The Centrist Party platform is hereby amended to include a plank calling for Congress to pass a new tax on U. S. corporations. A tax on their foreign payrolls. Employers pay a tax of 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare for their U.S. based employees, so we will tax them the same amount on their foreign payrolls. And, just to sweeten the pot and provide incentives to re-relocate those jobs and operations back to the U.S., we will no longer allow them to deduct the cost of foreign wages on their corporate tax returns. But the best part is that for any employees of U. S. corporations that are employed abroad, we will impute that they are paid at least the U. S. minimum wage in calculating the payroll base that will be taxed at 7.65%.
If only the corporations were not so easily able to defeat any proposal like this by buying votes.
* * *
The hate-mongers behind the effort to keep same-sex marriage illegal are now taking aim at laws seeking equality for transgendered persons, particularly those who are still students in the public school system.
I actually listened to one of them advancing the theory that a boy who wanted to play "Peeping Tom" in the girls' locker room could just go to the principal's office, declare himself transgendered and then be given access to all the naked girls he could imagine.
Let's imagine for a moment how that would go. We'll call our imaginary boy "Tom" to fit within the scenario from the hate-monger. Tom goes to the principal's office and declares that he's really a girl, wants to take girl's PE, use the female restrooms and locker rooms and if "she" wants to play sports, play on the female teams. The principal says he needs to get his parents approval and hands him some paperwork. Then the principal drops the bombshell. "Of course, you'll need to be under the care of a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist who will sign off that you've declared yourself to be transgendered to them. Once the paperwork is complete, we will change all of your school records to show you are female, change your name to a female name here at school and then you'll be a girl in our eyes, officially."
99.99% of Peeping Toms will run as well they should. That's why only the truly transgendered will be stepping forward and even they are hesitant. Given how they see others like them are treated, who can blame them?
* * *
I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this one. The Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") mandates that employers provide benefits for employees who work 30 hours a week or more, beginning next year. This applies to employers with 50 or more "full-time equivalents" (FTEs). Many of these employers are opting to simply hire more part-time employees, schedule them fewer hours and avoid having to pay out the benefits.
Many are critical of the approach of these employers in doing this. They aren't doing anything illegal. It may be immoral in the minds of some, but when the law says "do X or Y will happen" and there is a way to not do X and avoid Y, is it really wrong to follow the law?
I firmly believe that paying better wages and benefits will encourage long-term employment, reducing turnover, reducing the costs of recruiting and training, and pay for itself in the long run. But just because I believe that doesn't mean I can impose it on the businesses owned by others.
This isn't a liberal versus conservative issue either. I can list a number of organizations, for-profit and not-for-profit, who have been hiring people and giving them a work schedule that falls just below the amount of hours where under their own policies those people would be eligible for benefits. When the benefits plan of an employer says that employees who work 30 hours per week are eligible for benefits, then scheduling employees 28 hours a week is a strategic move to avoid having to pay for the cost of those benefits. When your budget has razor thin margins, being able to add a new employee is sometimes impossible when you're forced to add the additional $3,000 to $6,000 required for benefits.
If Congress were to lower the threshold for the healthcare mandate from 30 hours to 15 hours, or 10 hours, employers would just cut work schedules for these part-time employees further. The question is, do we as a nation have the political will to mandate that employers must provide all employees with benefits? I don't think we do.
* * *
It's Monday and tonight at the Culver City Council meeting, fans of the Culver City Ice Rink on Sepulveda will be there to speak out in an attempt to save the rink. It's scheduled to close next month after the current operator lost his lease. The building's owner offered a renewal of the lease to business operator John Jackson, but at a rent of $68,000 per month, nearly double the current rent. It isn't affordable for him.
Or is it? It costs an adult about $15 to go skating, including skate rental. Would the 7,000 or so individuals who have signed the petition to keep the rink open be willing to continue to skate there if that rate were doubled? Would the hockey players who play at odd hours to get good rates to rent the ice still do so at double the price? I don't believe they would.
The facility will be taken over by a company that will offer indoor climbing, yoga and fitness activities. They have some hurdles to overcome (the ground under the rink is filled with permafrost because the rink above it has been frozen for 52 years without a break) but they will undoubtedly get the facility reopened at some point.
There is another ice rink in El Segundo, just over six miles away. It's a newer facility, with three rinks. Now that doesn't mean those who play hockey at odd hours in Culver City, or others can find a home there. But it is an alternative.
So here's my question to those who want to see the Culver City Ice Rink stay open. Who should do what to make this happen? Should the building owner be forced to accept a lower rent (probably unconstitutional under the Takings Clause)? Should the operator just double prices and go broke when no one shows up? Or can you propose a different solution?
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Wonder how many people got the meaning of "alright, alright, alright" said by Matthew McConaughey when he accepted his Golden Globe Award last night (it's the very first line he ever said in a feature film)?
What kind of idiot sports reporter asks a player on the losing team in an NFL playoff game which of the two teams he'll be rooting for in the game he won't be able to participate in?
Thumbs down on the attempt by the Seattle Seahawks to prevent fans of the SF 49ers from being able to buy tickets to their NFC championship game.
If your cell phone falls in the river, don't jump in after it. If you see someone jump into the river after their cell phone, don't jump in to try to save them. Two people in Chicago are now dead because of a stupid cell phone.
Was Jacqueline Bisset drunk when she made her speech at the Golden Globes? Confused? In shock? We'll never know.
I guess winning three Grand Slam tennis titles helps when you're accused of hitting and stalking your ex-boyfriend.
Are you surprised that the Clintons kept a "hit-list"? I'm not. I am surprised there aren't more people with a rating of 7 on it (7 being the code for most treacherous).
The Motley Fool has it right when they say that Americans who get tax refunds every year are cheating themselves out of their own money. But for some, it's the only way to save a few bucks to do something great each year, so there are two sides to that equation.
The State of California should do a cost-benefit analysis before sending OctoMom Nadya Suleman to prison for welfare fraud. It might cost more for the state to take on the cost of caring for her 14 children for five years than to just give her probation and order her to make restitution.
The conservative Republicans in Missouri and other states who are trying to prevent enforcement of federal laws regarding possession of firearms within their borders need to take remedial government class so they can be made to understand federal law trumps state law.
Thumbs up on the decision of the New York Film Critics Circle to boot Armond White from their ranks.
The clip of the pastor who gave a sermon lasting only one minute in order for him to be able to watch his beloved 49ers isn't really that amusing.
The pilots who landed at the wrong airport have some "splaining" to do.
* * *
January 13th in History:
532 – Nika riots in Constantinople.
888 – Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.
1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey is sentenced to death.
1607 – The Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
1666 – French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier arrived Dhaka and met Shaista Khan.
1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, lynched by a mob in Rome
1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running ashore, resulting in the death of over 900.
1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
1830 – The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins.
1832 – President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California.
1869 – National convention of black leaders meets in Washington, D.C.
1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting.
1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
1898 – Émile Zola's J'accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.
1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.
1910 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, New York.
1913 – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University.
1915 – An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.
1934 – The Candidate of Sciences degree is established in the Soviet Union.
1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
1939 – The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
1942 – World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
1951 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Vinh Yen begins, which will end in a major victory for France.
1953 – An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.
1958 – The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
1964 – Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, resulting in 100 deaths.
1964 – Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Kraków, Poland.
1966 – Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison
1972 – Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.
1974 – Seraphim is elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
1978 – U.S. Food & Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled "paid" or "volunteer" donors.
1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.
1985 – A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.
1986 – A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
1990 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
1991 – Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding 1000.
1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.
2001 – An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy. There are 31 confirmed deaths with one still missing, Russel Rebello, amongst the 4232 passengers and crew.
Famous Folk Born on January 13th:
Jan van Goyen
Salmon P. Chase
Horatio Alger, Jr.
Sophie Tucker
Alfred Fuller (yes, the guy who started Fuller Brush)
Robert Stack
Gwen Verdon
Frances Sternhagen
Charles Nelson Reilly
Rip Taylor
Richard Moll
Brandon Tartikoff
Bruce Hart
Mark O'Meara
Kelly Hrudey
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss
Trace Adkins
Penelope Ann Miller
Shonda Rhimes
Nicole Eggert
Michael Pena
Bill Bailey
Patrick Dempsey
Traci Bingham
Orlando Bloom
Ronny Turiaf
Liam Hemsworth
In honor of Robert Stack's birthday, today's movie quotes come from 1980's "Airplane" where he played no-nonsense airline pilot Rex Kramer:
Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.
#2
Rex Kramer: [talking to Steve McCroskey] Our only hope is to build this man up. We gotta give him all the confidence we can.
[to Striker]
Rex Kramer: Striker, have you ever flown a multi-engine plane before?
Ted Striker: No, never.
Rex Kramer: [to McCroskey, with the microphone still on] Shit! This is a God damn waste of time! There's no way he can land this plane!
#3
Radio DJ: This is WZAZ in Chicago, where disco lives forever...
[the airplane zooms overhead the building, knocking the radio antenna down, and the signal goes dead]
#4
Steve McCroskey: I need the best man on this. Someone who knows that plane inside and out and won't crack under pressure.
Johnny: How about Mister Rogers?
Note: Johnny's response above was originally "How about Mamie Eisenhower" but she died prior to the film's release, so they dubbed in the Mister Rogers reference out of respect.
The "participation rate", which measures the percentage of the total labor pool that has work or is looking for work is now at a 35 year low. Only 62.8% of the members of that labor pool are working or seeking employment. You can spin it to look even worse, by noting that in December of 1978, the last time the rate was that low, women weren't working outside of the home in the numbers they are today.
Is there an easy answer? No. Greed, which Gordon Gekko said is good, has caused those who own businesses to send jobs outside the U.S. to boost profits. For a variety of reasons. Yes, lower labor costs top the list; however, that isn't the only reason. The convoluted U.S. tax code charges Apple a lower tax rate on profits from iPhones made in China than if they were to be made in the U. S. According to Forbes magazine, Apple's profits for iPhones made in China are taxed at only 2%, while if they were to move production to the U. S., those profits would be taxed at 35%.
When our own tax code is providing incentives to U. S. businesses to locate their operations elsewhere, who should we blame for our failing economy?
So I have a modest proposal. It's been a while since the Centrist Party has been heard from, and this is just the right issue for us. The Centrist Party platform is hereby amended to include a plank calling for Congress to pass a new tax on U. S. corporations. A tax on their foreign payrolls. Employers pay a tax of 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare for their U.S. based employees, so we will tax them the same amount on their foreign payrolls. And, just to sweeten the pot and provide incentives to re-relocate those jobs and operations back to the U.S., we will no longer allow them to deduct the cost of foreign wages on their corporate tax returns. But the best part is that for any employees of U. S. corporations that are employed abroad, we will impute that they are paid at least the U. S. minimum wage in calculating the payroll base that will be taxed at 7.65%.
If only the corporations were not so easily able to defeat any proposal like this by buying votes.
* * *
The hate-mongers behind the effort to keep same-sex marriage illegal are now taking aim at laws seeking equality for transgendered persons, particularly those who are still students in the public school system.
I actually listened to one of them advancing the theory that a boy who wanted to play "Peeping Tom" in the girls' locker room could just go to the principal's office, declare himself transgendered and then be given access to all the naked girls he could imagine.
Let's imagine for a moment how that would go. We'll call our imaginary boy "Tom" to fit within the scenario from the hate-monger. Tom goes to the principal's office and declares that he's really a girl, wants to take girl's PE, use the female restrooms and locker rooms and if "she" wants to play sports, play on the female teams. The principal says he needs to get his parents approval and hands him some paperwork. Then the principal drops the bombshell. "Of course, you'll need to be under the care of a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist who will sign off that you've declared yourself to be transgendered to them. Once the paperwork is complete, we will change all of your school records to show you are female, change your name to a female name here at school and then you'll be a girl in our eyes, officially."
99.99% of Peeping Toms will run as well they should. That's why only the truly transgendered will be stepping forward and even they are hesitant. Given how they see others like them are treated, who can blame them?
* * *
I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this one. The Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") mandates that employers provide benefits for employees who work 30 hours a week or more, beginning next year. This applies to employers with 50 or more "full-time equivalents" (FTEs). Many of these employers are opting to simply hire more part-time employees, schedule them fewer hours and avoid having to pay out the benefits.
Many are critical of the approach of these employers in doing this. They aren't doing anything illegal. It may be immoral in the minds of some, but when the law says "do X or Y will happen" and there is a way to not do X and avoid Y, is it really wrong to follow the law?
I firmly believe that paying better wages and benefits will encourage long-term employment, reducing turnover, reducing the costs of recruiting and training, and pay for itself in the long run. But just because I believe that doesn't mean I can impose it on the businesses owned by others.
This isn't a liberal versus conservative issue either. I can list a number of organizations, for-profit and not-for-profit, who have been hiring people and giving them a work schedule that falls just below the amount of hours where under their own policies those people would be eligible for benefits. When the benefits plan of an employer says that employees who work 30 hours per week are eligible for benefits, then scheduling employees 28 hours a week is a strategic move to avoid having to pay for the cost of those benefits. When your budget has razor thin margins, being able to add a new employee is sometimes impossible when you're forced to add the additional $3,000 to $6,000 required for benefits.
If Congress were to lower the threshold for the healthcare mandate from 30 hours to 15 hours, or 10 hours, employers would just cut work schedules for these part-time employees further. The question is, do we as a nation have the political will to mandate that employers must provide all employees with benefits? I don't think we do.
* * *
It's Monday and tonight at the Culver City Council meeting, fans of the Culver City Ice Rink on Sepulveda will be there to speak out in an attempt to save the rink. It's scheduled to close next month after the current operator lost his lease. The building's owner offered a renewal of the lease to business operator John Jackson, but at a rent of $68,000 per month, nearly double the current rent. It isn't affordable for him.
Or is it? It costs an adult about $15 to go skating, including skate rental. Would the 7,000 or so individuals who have signed the petition to keep the rink open be willing to continue to skate there if that rate were doubled? Would the hockey players who play at odd hours to get good rates to rent the ice still do so at double the price? I don't believe they would.
The facility will be taken over by a company that will offer indoor climbing, yoga and fitness activities. They have some hurdles to overcome (the ground under the rink is filled with permafrost because the rink above it has been frozen for 52 years without a break) but they will undoubtedly get the facility reopened at some point.
There is another ice rink in El Segundo, just over six miles away. It's a newer facility, with three rinks. Now that doesn't mean those who play hockey at odd hours in Culver City, or others can find a home there. But it is an alternative.
So here's my question to those who want to see the Culver City Ice Rink stay open. Who should do what to make this happen? Should the building owner be forced to accept a lower rent (probably unconstitutional under the Takings Clause)? Should the operator just double prices and go broke when no one shows up? Or can you propose a different solution?
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Wonder how many people got the meaning of "alright, alright, alright" said by Matthew McConaughey when he accepted his Golden Globe Award last night (it's the very first line he ever said in a feature film)?
What kind of idiot sports reporter asks a player on the losing team in an NFL playoff game which of the two teams he'll be rooting for in the game he won't be able to participate in?
Thumbs down on the attempt by the Seattle Seahawks to prevent fans of the SF 49ers from being able to buy tickets to their NFC championship game.
If your cell phone falls in the river, don't jump in after it. If you see someone jump into the river after their cell phone, don't jump in to try to save them. Two people in Chicago are now dead because of a stupid cell phone.
Was Jacqueline Bisset drunk when she made her speech at the Golden Globes? Confused? In shock? We'll never know.
I guess winning three Grand Slam tennis titles helps when you're accused of hitting and stalking your ex-boyfriend.
Are you surprised that the Clintons kept a "hit-list"? I'm not. I am surprised there aren't more people with a rating of 7 on it (7 being the code for most treacherous).
The Motley Fool has it right when they say that Americans who get tax refunds every year are cheating themselves out of their own money. But for some, it's the only way to save a few bucks to do something great each year, so there are two sides to that equation.
The State of California should do a cost-benefit analysis before sending OctoMom Nadya Suleman to prison for welfare fraud. It might cost more for the state to take on the cost of caring for her 14 children for five years than to just give her probation and order her to make restitution.
The conservative Republicans in Missouri and other states who are trying to prevent enforcement of federal laws regarding possession of firearms within their borders need to take remedial government class so they can be made to understand federal law trumps state law.
Thumbs up on the decision of the New York Film Critics Circle to boot Armond White from their ranks.
The clip of the pastor who gave a sermon lasting only one minute in order for him to be able to watch his beloved 49ers isn't really that amusing.
The pilots who landed at the wrong airport have some "splaining" to do.
* * *
January 13th in History:
532 – Nika riots in Constantinople.
888 – Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
1435 – Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.
1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey is sentenced to death.
1607 – The Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
1666 – French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier arrived Dhaka and met Shaista Khan.
1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, lynched by a mob in Rome
1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running ashore, resulting in the death of over 900.
1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
1830 – The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins.
1832 – President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California.
1869 – National convention of black leaders meets in Washington, D.C.
1893 – The Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom holds its first meeting.
1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
1898 – Émile Zola's J'accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.
1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.
1910 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, New York.
1913 – Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University.
1915 – An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.
1934 – The Candidate of Sciences degree is established in the Soviet Union.
1935 – A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
1939 – The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
1942 – World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
1951 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Vinh Yen begins, which will end in a major victory for France.
1953 – An article appears in Pravda accusing some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors, mostly Jews, in the Soviet Union of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership.
1958 – The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
1964 – Anti-Muslim riots break out in Calcutta, resulting in 100 deaths.
1964 – Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Kraków, Poland.
1966 – Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member when he is appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison
1972 – Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.
1974 – Seraphim is elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
1978 – U.S. Food & Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled "paid" or "volunteer" donors.
1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.
1985 – A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.
1986 – A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
1990 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
1991 – Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding 1000.
1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.
2001 – An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy. There are 31 confirmed deaths with one still missing, Russel Rebello, amongst the 4232 passengers and crew.
Famous Folk Born on January 13th:
Jan van Goyen
Salmon P. Chase
Horatio Alger, Jr.
Sophie Tucker
Alfred Fuller (yes, the guy who started Fuller Brush)
Robert Stack
Gwen Verdon
Frances Sternhagen
Charles Nelson Reilly
Rip Taylor
Richard Moll
Brandon Tartikoff
Bruce Hart
Mark O'Meara
Kelly Hrudey
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss
Trace Adkins
Penelope Ann Miller
Shonda Rhimes
Nicole Eggert
Michael Pena
Bill Bailey
Patrick Dempsey
Traci Bingham
Orlando Bloom
Ronny Turiaf
Liam Hemsworth
In honor of Robert Stack's birthday, today's movie quotes come from 1980's "Airplane" where he played no-nonsense airline pilot Rex Kramer:
Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.
#2
Rex Kramer: [talking to Steve McCroskey] Our only hope is to build this man up. We gotta give him all the confidence we can.
[to Striker]
Rex Kramer: Striker, have you ever flown a multi-engine plane before?
Ted Striker: No, never.
Rex Kramer: [to McCroskey, with the microphone still on] Shit! This is a God damn waste of time! There's no way he can land this plane!
#3
Radio DJ: This is WZAZ in Chicago, where disco lives forever...
[the airplane zooms overhead the building, knocking the radio antenna down, and the signal goes dead]
#4
Steve McCroskey: I need the best man on this. Someone who knows that plane inside and out and won't crack under pressure.
Johnny: How about Mister Rogers?
Note: Johnny's response above was originally "How about Mamie Eisenhower" but she died prior to the film's release, so they dubbed in the Mister Rogers reference out of respect.
posted by me at 3:39 PM
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