Monday, May 12, 2014

Examples

Donald Sterling says this when asked if he'd apologized to Earvin "Magic" Johnson regarding the racist remarks that Sterling was taped making.  "...I just don't think he's a good example for the children of Los Angeles."

Are you kidding me?  Are you freaking kidding me?  Donald Sterling has no business judging the kind of example anyone sets for anyone else.  Magic Johnson didn't pay out the largest settlement in history to get out of a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.  Donald Sterling did. Over 20 years ago, Magic Johnson engaged in marital infidelity and paid a very heavy price for it.  Sterling has been married to his wife since 1955 and is a serial philanderer.  He's claimed he was trying to get V. Stiviano to sleep with him as a rationale for the racist statements that he was recorded making.

Sterling is scum.  Magic Johnson has given back to his community since he first started achieving success.  He doesn't need to take out full page advertisements in newspapers to trumpet his generous nature, let alone make false overstatements about it.  The truth here is that Donald T. Sterling should be the one to use Magic Johnson as an example of being a responsible member of the community.

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Over the last couple of years, we were treated to images of military personnel returning from tours in combat zones to kisses from their spouses.  Same-sex spouses or opposite sex spouses, the sentiment has been an endearing one.  There should no longer be a stigma attached to an image of two men kissing at a moment of joy.

Apparently the homophobic attitude that makes such images improper in the minds of those small-minded people who speak out against them is part and parcel of the macho attitude of athletics.  NCAA basketball players send out tweets of outrage and then lie that it was just an "experiment" when they experience a strong, negative reaction to their sentiments.

If you want to be disgusted by two men kissing, that's just fine.  But if you must speak out about it, own your words.  If you can't own them, don't write them. Don't tweet them.

By the way, it's a great thing that Michael Sam was drafted by an NFL team, the first openly gay player to be drafted.  But until he makes a team's roster in the regular season, he hasn't really broken through the final barrier.  I hope he will make it.  Based on his merits as a player, rather than his sexual orientation.

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Is the situation in the Ukraine the top potential threat of war out there?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I'm just as worried about the small but finite probability that North Korea's Kim Jong Un may decide to send his gigantic military force across the DMZ and attack the South.  Maybe more worried about that than I am about the Ukraine.  There are other stakeholders with legitimate security interests in who winds up in control of that area; and in stemming the expansionist goals of Vladimir Putin.  Most of the world really doesn't care too much if war breaks out on the Korean peninsula.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is in serious economic trouble.  They are closing in on having a nuclear weapons capability and this is a threat that cannot be ignored.  Nor can their attempts to obtain other weapons of mass destruction.  They don't have delivery systems to send such weapons to the United States, yet, but they are close enough to launch that kind of attack on Japan.  We can't afford to stand by and let that happen. 

The Obama Administration needs to stop ignoring this part of the world.

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Random Ponderings:

Once again, women are on the Maury Povich program, having men take DNA tests when those women MUST know there is at least a probability the man they claim is the father of the child in question, is NOT the father.  Why?  If you slept with more than one man in the window of time where either (or however many) might be the kid's dad, avoid the possibility of being humiliated that way.  DNA tests can be done without the need for a television backdrop.

Considering how many fights break out at or near these so-called "Battle of the DJs" can we rename these events with a label less likely to incite violence?

Was the signing of Vince Young by the Browns just a "smoke screen" for their plans to draft Johnny Football?  Is that why Young has been cut less than two weeks after having been signed?  We will never know.

The toilet seat is not the dirtiest place in a public restroom.  The floor is. I doubt many people worry about sitting on the floor of a public restroom.

Are you taxed on so much of your income that you'd leave the U. S. and live abroad for the rest of your life?

E! online is reporting that Carrie Fisher has lost 40 lbs so far in her quest to look great in Episode VII.   Good for her!

Malls that have a Sears and/or a J. C. Penney store as one of their anchors do not do well when those stores close.  With both retailers closing stores at an ever increasing pace, it isn't good news for the mall's other tenants.

As long as California lets states like Texas steal businesses from our state, we get the economic future we deserve.

Gotta love the "$5 discount for well-behaved child" receipt making the rounds on Reddit.com, a discount given to a family for Mother's Day.  Nice.

The UC Berkeley Law School grad who killed a bird in Vegas by twisting its neck off may never get to practice law, unless he can have his felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor.   Let's review.  Get drunk and do something horrible, can't be a lawyer in CA.  Work as a reporter and plagiarize your writings, can't be a lawyer in CA.  Violate immigration law and be in the U. S. illegally, you CAN be a lawyer in CA.  Got it.

Tomorrow, Kyle White will be at the White House, being awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallant actions on a November in 2007.  If you happen to see that ceremony, pause a moment and think of Sean Langevin.  They were members of the same platoon and promised to always be there for the family of the other if anything happened.  Sean was one of the six men in Kyle's platoon that he couldn't save.  Sean's mother and widow will be there at the ceremony.  Gentlemen, you have our thanks and gratitude for your sacrifice and service.

There are reports that Donald Sterling has been turned down by several of L. A.'s big law firms, as they don't want to rep him in his action against the NBA; fearful their other clients might bolt.  Here's a tip, Mr. Sterling.  4929 Wilshire Boulevard, at Highland is your salvation.  The Cochran Law Firm is there.

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May 12th in History:

254 – Pope Stephen I succeeds Pope Lucius I as the 23rd pope.
304 – Roman Emperor Diocletian orders the beheading of the 14-year-old Pancras of Rome.
907 – Zhu Wen forces Emperor Ai into abdicating, ending the Tang Dynasty after nearly three hundred years of rule.
922 – After much hardship, Abbasid envoy Ahmad ibn Fadlan arrived in the lands of Volga Bulgars.
1191 – Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre who is crowned Queen consort of England the same day.
1328 – Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice.
1364 – Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Poland, is founded in Kraków, Poland.
1510 – The Prince of Anhua rebellion begins when Zhu Zhifan kills all the officials invited to a banquet and declares his intent on ousting the powerful Ming Dynasty eunuch Liu Jin during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor.
1551 – National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, is founded in Lima, Peru.
1588 – French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry of Guise enters the city and a spontaneous uprising occurs.
1689 – King William's War: William III of England joins the League of Augsburg starting a war with France.
1743 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Bohemia after defeating her rival, Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: In the largest defeat of the Continental Army, Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.
1797 – First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquers Venice.
1821 – The first major battle of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks is fought in Valtetsi.
1862 – U.S. federal troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Raymond: Two divisions of James B. McPherson's XVII Corps (ACW) turn the left wing of Confederate General John C. Pemberton's defensive line on Fourteen Mile Creek, opening up the interior of Mississippi to the Union Army during the Vicksburg Campaign.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: Thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die in "the Bloody Angle".
1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Palmito Ranch: The first day of the last major land action to take place during the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory.
1870 – The Manitoba Act is given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15.
1873 – Coronation of Oscar II of Sweden
1881 – In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.
1885 – North-West Rebellion: The four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat.
1926 – 1926 General Strike: In the United Kingdom, a nine-day general strike by trade unions ends.
1926 – The Italian-built airship Norge becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.
1932 – Ten weeks after his abduction, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, Charles Jr., is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.
1933 – The Agricultural Adjustment Act is enacted to restrict agricultural production by paying farmers subsidies.
1935 – Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith (founders of Alcoholics Anonymous) meet for the first time in Akron, Ohio, at the home of Henrietta Siberling.
1937 – The Duke and Duchess of York are crowned as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Westminster Abbey.
1941 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
1942 – World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov: In eastern Ukraine, Red Army forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launch a major offensive from the Izium bridgehead, only to be encircled and destroyed by the troops of Army Group South two weeks later.
1942 – World War II: The U.S. tanker Virginia is torpedoed in the mouth of the Mississippi River by the German U-Boat U-507.
1942 – The Holocaust: 1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.
1945 – Argentinian labour leader José Peter declares the Federación Obrera de la Industria de la Carne dissolved.
1948 – Wilhelmina, Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands cedes throne.
1949 – The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.
1949 – The western occupying powers approve the Basic Law for the new German state: The Federal Republic of Germany.
1952 – Gaj Singh is crowned Maharaja of Jodhpur.
1955 – Nineteen days after bus workers went on strike in Singapore, rioting breaks out and seriously impacts Singapore's bid for independence.
1955 – Austria regains its independence as the Allied occupation following World War II ends.
1958 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.
1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
1968 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attack Australian troops defending Fire Support Base Coral, east of Lai Khe in South Vietnam on the night of 12/13 May, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides and beginning the Battle of Coral–Balmoral.
1975 – Mayagüez incident: The Cambodian navy seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters.
1978 – In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba (now known as Katanga). The local government asks the U.S.A., France and Belgium to restore order.
1981 – Francis Hughes starves to death in the Maze Prison in a Republican campaign for political prisoner status to be granted to Provisional IRA prisoners.
1982 – During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan María Fernández y Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, believed that the Pope had to be killed for being an "agent of Moscow".
1986 – NBC debuts the current well-known peacock as seen in the NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration.
1989 – The San Bernardino train disaster kills four people. A week later an underground gasoline pipeline explodes killing two more people.
1998 – Four students are shot at Trisakti University, leading to widespread riots and the fall of Suharto
2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
2003 – The Riyadh compound bombings, carried out by Al Qaeda, kill 26 people.
2006 – Mass unrest by the Primeiro Comando da Capital begins in São Paulo (Brazil), leaving at least 150 dead.
2006 – Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon published in an Iranian magazine as insulting, resulting in massive riots throughout the country.
2007 – Riots in which over 50 people are killed and over 100 are injured take place in Karachi upon the arrival in town of the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
2008 – An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people.
2008 – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts the largest-ever raid of a workplace in Postville, Iowa, arresting nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud.

Famous Folk Born on May 12th:

Emperor Shōkō of Japan
Gustav I of Sweden
Florence Nightingale
Edward Lear
Henry Cabot Lodge
William Alden Smith
Lincoln Ellsworth
Ernst A. Lehmann
Otto Frank
Katharine Hepburn


Howard K. Smith

 

Mary Kay Ash
Julius Rosenberg
Yogi Berra
Burt Bacharach


Felipe Alou
Tom Synder
George Carlin
Ron Zeigler
Norman Whitfield


Billy Swan
Linda Dano
Steve Winwood
Bruce Boxleitner
Gabriel Byrne
Billy Squier
Rafael Yglesias
Ving Rhames
Vanessa A. Williams


Stephen Baldwin
Tony Hawk
Kim Fields
Samantha Mathis
Jason Biggs

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Number One Hits of 1987

The Bangles


Gregory Abbott


Billy Vera and the Beaters


Madonna


Bon Jovi


Huey Lewis and the News


Club Nouveau


Starship


Aretha Franklin and George Michael


Cutting Crew


U2


Madonna


Los Lobos


Michael Jackson w Siedah Garrett


Whitney Houston


Whitesnake


Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam


Michael Jackson


Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes


Belinda Carlisle


George Michael