Right this second, somewhere in Georgia, a person had no idea that they will become the first victim of a new state law. They are just living their life, not knowing that this life will be ended by a conflagration of bad decisions.
It could be the quiet guy at the end of the bar. He's there most weeknights, nursing one big schooner of beer and watching sports on television. He dreams of mustering up the courage to ask the pretty waitress for her number, knowing she would never give it to him.
Perhaps it will be the bank manager who wanted to retire early, until her stock portfolio and retirement fund were hammered in the fiscal crisis of the prior decade. Now she's stuck at a job she hates until she hits the maximum retirement age of 67, when she can finally retire.
Maybe it's the 11 year old twins, a boy and a girl, walking home from school together. Fraternal twins, yet much more identical than many identical twins are. Maybe it will be only one of them, the other left to live out their life with a gaping void in their heart.
Who will be the first victim of someone who is carrying a gun legally, when that person snaps and fires at the source of their ire; killing someone other than who they were aiming at? Better still, who will be killed by an illegal weapon that couldn't be stopped? After all, law enforcement officers can no longer ask anyone toting a gun if they have a license to carry it.
Georgia is a state of 10 million people. Fully five percent of them currently have permits to carry concealed weapons. They have passed a background check, which just means they haven't yet committed a crime. Many have little or no training in handling that gun they are carrying. I suspect some of them have probably never even fired it.
I don't object to the notion of people being allowed to bear arms. In their homes. And there are a limited number of people who should be allowed to carry a weapon outside their home. Aside from cops and other sworn law enforcement personnel, security guards who are licenses to carry, people who are properly trained and who are at greater risk of becoming a victim of crime. If I were carrying tens of thousands in cash, I need a guard or the right to guard myself. Let me make it clearer. I am highly trained in weapons and tactics, earned my expert marksmanship award (with multiple weapons) and I have no need to be carrying a gun; concealed or otherwise.
However, I also know that I wouldn't draw that weapon and shoot someone who has done nothing except to really piss me off, in a bar, church, government building or anywhere else outside of my home. I can't say the same for people without psychological screening and definitely without training.
More important than the identity of the first victim, I'd love to know when will there be a final victim.
* * *
For most of you, I hope you never have to experience the feeling that came flooding back to me today as I watched a rerun of "Grey's Anatomy." In this particular episode, a patient with a terminal illness decided to have his life support removed, so that he could donate his organs before they were rendered unusable for transplant. He had a breathing tube in his throat.
When I first awoke in the ICU, unable to speak, with a tube down my throat (intubation), I could feel the tube. It was a very disquieting feeling. I was quite relieved five days later when it was removed. But the second time I was hospitalized, I awoke after two months, with a tube inserted directly into my neck (tracheostomy) and that was much, much worse.
Worst of all were those few times when the tube became so clogged with mucous that it became almost impossible to breathe. This sensation came back later when they first started weaning me off of positive air pressure. They changed the settings to CPAP, so that I would get oxygen if I were to stop breathing for a long enough duration.
As I watched the television character gasping for his last few breaths, those feelings (years old) came rushing back for some reason. Maybe to remind me to take better care of myself so I don't have to go through that a third time.
* * *
Cliven Bundy is almost certainly as racist as the mainstream media is portraying him. The fact that Fox News is backing away from someone they previously labeled as a "hero" says a lot.
I think his comments aren't just racist, but idiotic as well. No matter how you portray the lives of those living in public housing, those with no income other than government assistance, and the tragedies that such a life makes much more frequent, it's better than being someone's property.
The fact that we continue to learn of people being enslaved in the 21st century is shocking, until we remember that there are those who will do anything to profit at the expense of others.
Wonder if Bundy will continue to prevail as his political supporters run for cover?
* * *
As I read the latest article on the anger of people over Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's proposal to hire 50 more part-time traffic control officers to bring in more revenue from parking tickets, I thought back to a high school moment.
I was working in the afternoons in West Los Angeles and the only parking available was street parking. The area didn't have meters at the time while nearby areas did, so open spaces were scarce. One afternoon I had trouble finding one and after a few minutes of circling for one, I saw an available space. It was the only one on this particularly short block. There was a new business located next to it. I wasn't late, but I wanted to get in early and get a head start on my work. So I locked my car and headed down the street to the business I was working at in those days.
"Where are you going" was shouted after me and I turned around to see who'd just done that. It was the owner of that new business.
"I'm going to work, man" was my reply.
"You need to park somewhere else first. This is the only space for my customers."
"Not my problem, man."
"Well, I can't promise you won't come back and find your tires slashed, or your windows broken or something like that." So I decided I wasn't going to go to work. I got my basketball out of the trunk and just stood next to my car dribbling it. I had time. "What are you doing" he asked as he came back out of his store (I never did see a customer go in the entire time his business was there, though I can't remember what kind of business it was).
"Guarding my car. Someone said it might be damaged if I left it here."
Eventually we made a deal. He'd leave my car alone and I'd promise to find other parking on future workdays.
Los Angeles has parking meters. Lots of them. Why? Several reasons.
1. They need the revenue.
2. They need the revenue.
3. They need the revenue.
4. Ostensibly it is to encourage turnover of vehicles in business zones.
Santa Monica, Hermosa Beach, and just about every other city in the area has meters and wants/needs the revenue they generate. Most are the newer meters that accept credit cards and don't allow you to put more money in to keep a space without moving your vehicle out of the range of their scanner.
It is that feature that should be used to allow these cities to make a change. There are far too many areas where the parking meters are "one-hour parking." It's hard enough to find a place to park on the street but then to have to get up in the middle of lunch and pull your car out and back into a space in order to avoid a $63 ticket is ridiculous.
Last year I paid for two parking tickets at my job. Both of them were my fault. One for parking during street cleaning hours and the other for allegedly being more than 30% outside of the parking space markers for my meter. In both cases, they ate up most of what I made on those days. It is expensive, but both tickets were avoidable. My clients almost all set an alarm on their smartphones so ensure that our meeting doesn't result in a ticket for them.
If those meters were two hours rather than one hour, this wouldn't be a problem. I suspect most people would pay for the whole two hours and then that time gets wiped away when the car pulls out before the end of the second hour. That allows the city in question to essentially re-rent that space to the next vehicle that pulls in. No more win-win by finding a metered space where there's time left on the meter.
The reason the city won't make this change is because the result would be a sharp drop in the number of tickets issued.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Cameron Diaz says she doesn't wear deodorant and hasn't for 20 years. If it works for you, I guess. Other celebrities who do likewise include Matthew McConaughey and Bradley Cooper.
From the "it couldn't happen to a nicer guy" file, a man who runs child porn websites has been convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison. What makes it interesting is that he ran 18 Chinese language kiddie porn sites and his name is Yong Wang. As the fired lawyer says in "Legally Blonde", 'enjoy prison.'
It's cool that a little girl gave her dad's resume to the First Lady in front of the media. He's been out of work for three years. He'll probably land a job out of this. What's bothersome is that more effort will be put into putting him to work rather than focusing on the bigger picture of unemployment, immigration and income inequality.
The desperation of Joan Rivers to remain relevant has led her to take cheap shots at the victims of horrific crimes. Equating ten years of captivity and repeatedly being raped to "cheap rent" is despicable.
Mark Cuban calls being on "Shark Tank" is "P.R. Viagra" for the contestants trying to get him or one of the other sharks to invest in their project. It's a pretty apt analysis. If they can't handle the "rise" in their profile, they won't make it.
Emma Stone looked incredibly gorgeous at the premiere of "The Amazing Spiderman 2."
The end of net neutrality will result in bandwidth inequality.
The former commanding officer of the Navy's Blue Angels precision flight team has been accused of encouraging a "lewd environment" in the workplace. Anyone surprised at this? Seems that for some officers in the military, Sexual Harassment Awareness Training is designed to make them aware of how to engage in that behavior without getting caught.
Anyone who objects to high school students inviting celebrities to their prom has forgotten the innocence of being a teen. Dare to dream, dare to ask!
Bryan Singer's announcement that he won't take part in the media events leading up to the opening of "X-Men: Days of Future Passed" because of the allegations being made against him will generate more publicity for the film than any junket or other attempt to hype his new film would have done.
What do Lance Armstrong and Rosie Ruiz have in common? Both cheated and both continue to claim they won the event they cheated in. You cheated, Lance. Doesn't matter if everyone else was cheating. If you were as good as you proclaimed yourself to be, you shouldn't have needed to cheat to win. Greg LeMond was able to win without cheating.
Speaking of cheating, Michael Pineda of the NY Yankees says he will "learn something" from his ejection for being caught using pine tar. Probably to hide the stuff better in the future.
* * *
April 24th in History:
In 1980 on this date, a poorly planned attempt to rescue the U. S. hostages in our embassy in Iran was launched. Why it was poorly planned and why it failed is best left for another day. On this date I want to pay tribute to the eight men whose lives were lost out there in the sands of Iran:
Sgt John Harvey, USMC
Cpl George Holmes, Jr., USMC
SSgt Dewey Johnson, USMC
Maj Richard Bakke, USAF
Maj Harold Lewis, Jr., USAF
TSgt Joel Mayo, USAF
Maj Lyn McIntosh, USAF
Capt Charles McMillan, USAF
RIP gentlemen.
1479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of
Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low
Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).
1184 BC – Traditional date of the fall of Troy.
1547 – Battle of Mühlberg. Duke of Alba, commanding
Spanish-Imperial forces of Charles I of Spain, defeats the troops of
Schmalkaldic League.
1558 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of
France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris.
1704 – The first regular newspaper in British
Colonial America, the News-Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts.
1800 – The United States Library of Congress is
established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000
USD to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of
Congress".
1877 – Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares
war on Ottoman Empire.
1885 – American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired
by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
1895 – Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail
single-handedly around the world, sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard
the sloop "Spray".
1904 – The Lithuanian press ban is lifted after
almost 40 years.
1907 – Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for
the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.
1913 – The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York
City is opened.
1914 – The Franck–Hertz experiment, a pillar of
quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
1915 – The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and
community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
1916 – Easter Rising: The Irish Republican
Brotherhood led by nationalists Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Joseph
Plunkett starts a rebellion in Ireland.
1916 – Ernest Shackleton and five men of the
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant
Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the ice-trapped ship
Endurance.
1918 – First tank-to-tank combat, at
Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
1922 – The first segment of the Imperial Wireless
Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England,
and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.
1923 – In Vienna, the paper Das Ich und das Es (The
Ego and the Id) by Sigmund Freud is published, which outlines Freud's theories
of the id, ego, and super-ego.
1926 – The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and
the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other
by a third party for the next five years.
1932 – Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of
Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom.
1933 – Nazi Germany begins its persecution of
Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in
Magdeburg.
1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen
Elizabeth II.
1955 – The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine
non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns
colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
1957 – Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened
following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.
1957 – The BBC first broadcast The Sky at Night
presented by Patrick Moore
1963 – Marriage of HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent to
the Hon Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.
1965 – Civil war breaks out in the Dominican
Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrows the triumvirate that had
been in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch.
1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1
when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space
mission.
1967 – Vietnam War: American General William
Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support
in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which
he cannot win militarily."
1968 – Mauritius becomes a member state of the
United Nations.
1970 – The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong
I, is launched.
1970 – The Gambia becomes a republic within the
Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as the first President.
1971 – Soyuz 10 docks with Salyut 1.
1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle
Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is
launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery. Shuttle
mission STS-31 lifts off, carrying Hubble into orbit.
1990 – Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially
declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.
1993 – An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area
of London.
1996 – In the United States, the Antiterrorism and
Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.
2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions
imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in
eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as
the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.
2005 – Snuppy becomes world's first cloned dog.
2013 – A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh,
killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others.
Famous Folk Born On April 24th:
Saint Vincent de Paul
Edmund Cartwright
Philippe Petain
Oscar Zariski
Robert Penn Warren
William Joyce
William Castle
David Blackwell
J. D. Cannon (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDWJmrt-5I4)
Ruth Kobart (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2q4NPa56v0 she's the bus driver)
Richard Donner (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDOpSxgKahY)
Patricia Bosworth (author of a really good biography of Marlon Brando)
Shirley MacLaine (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh2UVul29CM)
Jill Ireland (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhr1Q-v0YH0)
Sue Grafton
Richard Holbrooke
Richard M. Daley
Eric Bogosian (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBXfBmlw5Bk)
Michael O'Keefe (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTa94kSlV0U)
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Cedric The Entertainer (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEj0R15q8bw)
Chipper Jones
Eric Kripke
Derek Luke (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXWiCWnW304)
Carlos Beltran
Eric Balfour (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnti2JFK5gA)
Austin Nichols (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgj5zjRAXcc)
