The real victims

I'm on record as being a supporter of the right of people to vote with their wallets.  By that I mean, to choose not to patronize a business because they don't agree with something the owners and/or operators of that business do.  Or say.  Or believe and make that belief known to the public.  People who don't want to eat at Chick-Fil-A because they were (and may still be) donors to organizations opposed to gay rights are free to do so.  People who don't want to eat at El Coyote Restaurant because back in 2008 the manager gave $100 to the campaign in support of Proposition 8 should do just that.  And if you want to avoid the Beverly Hills Hotel because its owner has implemented Sharia Law in Brunei, by all means do so.

I just want both sides to stop pretending who the real victims of boycotts like these are.  Christopher Cowdray is the CEO of the company that operates the luxury hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei.  He is complaining that the employees of the hotel are the real victims of this boycott.  While he's right, he isn't the one to be making this point.  Mostly because those employees aren't his primary interest.  Keeping the hotels he runs going is.

Wait a minute.  Did I just write that Cowdray is correct?  Yes I did.  The real victims of economic boycotts of large businesses aren't the owners.  They have the money to withstand the losses such a boycott can bring to bear.  Estimates are that the Beverly Hills Hotel has lost over $2 million in business since the boycott began.  The Sultan's net worth is estimated to be over $20 billion.  To illustrate how little this loss means to him, think about it this way.  If you're a working stiff and you and your spouse bring home $100,000 a year, if you suffered the losses in a year that the Sultan has to this point, you'd be out all of ten bucks.

Unless the Clippers win tomorrow, or on Tuesday, tomorrow's game will be their last this season at the Staples Center.  It will be the 51st homegame this season (including preseason).  Now imagine next year, the NBA is unable to work out an arrangement to force Donald Sterling to sell the team and either a player's boycott, or other action forces the cancellation of the team's season (it's very unlikely, but possible).

The players will get paid.  They have a union.  The coaches and some of the front office people will undoubtedly get paid.  But the ticket takers, the concession stand workers, the ushers and the like will not get paid.  Many of them work at those jobs to supplement inadequate earnings from another job.  Or it puts them through school.  Or it supplements retirement income.  Those folks will be out of luck.  They will be the real victims.  Perhaps it is more accurate and compelling to point out that rather than being the "real" victims, they will be the victims who will suffer the most harm from a boycott.

I have a friend who works for the Los Angeles Lakers.  This friend has been there for more than two decades as a part-time employee.  Twice now, this friend has seen a dramatic reduction in that part-time income because the Lakers played shortened seasons.  1998-99 and 2011-12.  Both times more than 20% of the games were cancelled.  That's a big hit.

Economic boycotts are a powerful tool.  Just don't pretend the only person you damage when you boycott is the owner of the business you're avoiding. 

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Personally I don't give a damn if you smoke cigarettes every ten minutes, seven days a week.  It's your life.  As long as you aren't exposing others to your smoke (and don't try to bullshit me that the negative effects of second-hand smoke aren't fully proven, they are) it has no real impact on my life.

I bring this up because I had a very interesting conversation with a friend today.  He has been smoking all of his adult life (he's somewhere between 50 and 65).  We were talking about smokers we both knew and how their choice to smoke shortened their lives.  One of them was so badly addicted to cigarettes that they would smoke in their room even though they were on oxygen via nasal cannula.  That once caused a fire that could have killed everyone who lives here, but I'm focused on the negative impacts smoking has on the smoker at the moment.

My friend wants to quit.  Badly.  But he's so convinced that he can't that he is making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.  It is possible to quit.  My father did it.  My maternal grandfather did it, after it cost him most of his larynx in his 20s.  He lived to be 84.  You can recover from the deleterious effects of smoking to some degree no matter when you quit.

What's really sad is that the State of California, in its "nanny-state" like involvement in our lives; offers free stop-smoking programs, programs that people aren't aware of.  I turned my friend on to those programs today.  They are available to all at 1-800-NO-BUTTS.

Last soap-box thought on the subject.  It is your life, but think about the lives of those who will live on after you are gone before your time.

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Note I don't pontificate about all negative decisions we make that impact our own health, given the multitude of "less than best possible" choices I've made in my life.  Those bad choices led me to spend another lovely few hours (around 4.5) in an emergency room, hooked up to oxygen.  I'm home now, feel much better and don't need oxygen or breathing treatments or anything else.

However, I have a constant reminder that the Congestive Heart Failure I live with daily can worsen quickly.  Especially if I'm not careful with my fluid intake.  I take all my meds, I try to get what limited exercise I can and I do make fewer and fewer less than best eating choices as time passes.  However, that constant reminder is something called "Weeping Edema" and it isn't going away anytime soon.  A technical explanation of this condition is available at http://www.reference.com/motif/health/congestive-heart-failure-and-weeping-legs. 

What the reference materials don't mention is that this condition becomes excruciatingly painful as the skin stretches and stretches to the point where fluid seeps out through the pores. That fluid drips all day long, and it is a major annoyance.  I am supposed to wear compression stockings to help with the inner fluid issue, but when midway through the day the left stocking is sopping wet, it isn't easy to keep myself from pulling the damn thing off and tossing it against the wall (where it will stick before sliding slowly to the ground).

It wasn't the wetness that wouldn't let me sleep last night.  It was that pain that kept me from sleeping.  Pain that drove me to get up just before four in the morning and drive myself to the ER.  Pain that was finally alleviated when the doctor ordered some morphine for me.  Pain I feel returning as I write this.  Fortunately for me, I got a prescription for something that will relieve the pain when it's bedtime tonight.

I can do some things that will hasten the process of stopping this weeping.  Take in lower amounts of fluids.  Elevate my leg at every opportunity (I'm grateful this time it is only going on in one leg, in 2009 I had it in both).  Lose weight.

I will do all of these things.  Considering every day is another borrowed day, I have no choice.

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A reminder that all opinions expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone and are just that, opinions; unless otherwise attributed to someone else.

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Random Ponderings:

I'm not sure what to make of this photo: 

I don't hold President Obama responsible for starting the wars in either Iraq or Afghanistan.  I don't have an accurate number of how many Muslim girls have died as collateral damage in U. S. drone strikes, but even one is too many.  However, that doesn't justify the wholesale kidnapping and enslaving of hundreds of young women.  That's what I think, but I'm much more interested in what you think.  Hit me up with an email, a tweet or a post on my FB page.

Jerry Jones didn't draft Johnny Football because he is "too invested in Tony Romo" or so he says.  Tony Romo is one of the best 4th quarter quarterbacks in history.  But he's 34.  He has four, maybe five good seasons left.  Johnny Manziel is going to turn 22 this coming December.  So Jones is being short-sighted...if Manziel is destined to be a great NFL quarterback.  He might be another Roger Staubach, or he might be another Ryan Leaf.  Time will pass judgment on the decision of Jerry Jones far more accurately than any football pundit.

Where were Fox News Channel's probing exposes into the NSA when Bush Junior was president?

Why would someone sign the release form to allow their story of "Sex Sent me to the ER" for the entire world to see?  Other than someone with an obsessive desire to be on TV of course.

If Ben Affleck can count a six-deck shoe at a blackjack table, more power to him.  If it was that big a problem, the casino should have used two self-shuffling shoes at the same table and changed them out every five hands.  Or three shoes if two can't shuffle enough to keep pace.

If Kim Kardashian wants to wear white to a bridal shower, or to the actual wedding, that's her choice.  But there's nothing virginal or pure about that woman.

 So the Wu-Tang affiliated rapper who cut off his privates says he does so because he was depressed over not being able to see his kids.  Somehow I can't find a connection there.

Can you guess whose glutes these are? 



Hint:  The answer can be found somewhere above the photo.

So someone at the Vatican is logging onto a porn site for "women who enjoy exploring their sexuality" and the media assumes it has to be a woman. 

One last Kardashian tidbit, apparently they can't find anyone in the Hamptons to rent them a house to shoot another reality spinoff.  I wouldn't rent to them either.

BTW, Dr. Dre, Forbes says you won't be a billionaire just yet.  But $800 million is pretty damn close.  Party on, dude.

Here's hoping the only criteria that Michael Sam is evaluated on during his rookie training camp is his ability on the field.

Let's hope there will come a day when it is no longer news that a same-sex marriage license has been issued.

Another draft pick of the St. Louis Rams has quite a story, he once worked as a janitor at the stadium where they play.

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May 10th in History:

28 BCE – A sunspot is observed by Han Dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, one of the earliest dated sunspot observations in China.

70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, opens a full-scale assault on Jerusalem and attacks the city's Third Wall to the northwest.

1291 – Scottish nobles recognize the authority of Edward I of England.

1497 – Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.

1503 – Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there.

1534 – Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland.

1655 – England, with troops under the command of Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables, annexes Jamaica from Spain.

1768 – John Wilkes is imprisoned for writing an article for The North Briton severely criticizing King George III. This action provokes rioting in London.

1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: A small Colonial militia led by Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold captures Fort Ticonderoga.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: Representatives from the Thirteen Colonies begin the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

1796 – First Coalition: Napoleon I of France wins a decisive victory against Austrian forces at Lodi bridge over the Adda River in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men.

1801 – First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.

1824 – The National Gallery in London opens to the public.

1833 – The desecration of the grave of the viceroy of southern Vietnam Lê Văn Duyệt by Emperor Minh Mạng provokes his adopted son to start a revolt.

1837 – Panic of 1837: New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels.

1849 – Astor Place Riot: A riot breaks out at the Astor Opera House in Manhattan, New York City over a dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, killing at least 25 and injuring over 120.

1857 – Indian Rebellion of 1857: In India, the first war of Independence begins. Sepoys mutiny against their commanding officers at Meerut.

1863 – American Civil War: Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson dies eight days after he is accidentally shot by his own troops.

1864 – American Civil War: Colonel Emory Upton leads a 10-regiment "Attack-in-depth" assault against the Confederate works at The Battle of Spotsylvania, which, though ultimately unsuccessful, would provide the idea for the massive assault against the Bloody Angle on May 12. Upton is slightly wounded but is immediately promoted to Brigadier general.

1865 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.

1865 – American Civil War: In Kentucky, Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill, who lingers until his death on June 6.

1866 – Romania National Holiday 1866-1947, The Modern Monarchy Instauration of the Kingdom of Romania, Carol I of Romania

1869 – The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike.

1872 – Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States.

1877 – Romania declares itself independent from the Ottoman Empire following the Senate adoption of Mihail Kogălniceanu's Declaration of Independence. Recognized on March 26, 1881 after the end of the Romanian War of Independence.

1893 – The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883.

1904 – The Horch & Cir. Motorwagenwerke AG is founded.

1908 – Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.

1916 – Sailing in the lifeboat James Caird, Ernest Shackleton arrives at South Georgia after a journey of 800 nautical miles from Elephant Island.

1922 – The United States annex the Kingman Reef.

1924 – J. Edgar Hoover is appointed the Director of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, and remains so until his death in 1972.

1933 – Censorship: In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings.

1940 – World War II: German fighters accidentally bomb the German city of Freiburg.

1940 – World War II: German raids on British shipping convoys and military airfields begin.

1940 – World War II: Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

1940 – World War II: Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1940 – World War II: Invasion of Iceland by the United Kingdom.

1941 – World War II: The House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.

1941 – World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try to negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany.

1942 – World War II: The Thai Phayap Army invades the Shan States during the Burma Campaign.

1946 – First successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.

1948 – The Republic of China implements "temporary provisions" granting President Chiang Kai-shek extended powers to deal with the Communist uprising; they will remain in effect until 1991.

1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.

1960 – The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.

1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.

1969 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.

1970 – Bobby Orr scores "The Goal" to win the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals, for the Boston Bruins' fourth NHL championship in their history.

1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder in Japan.

1979 – The Federated States of Micronesia become self-governing.

1981 – François Mitterrand wins the presidential election and becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French Fifth Republic.

1993 – In Thailand, a fire at the Kader Toy Factory kills 156 workers.

1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

1997 – A 7.3 Mw earthquake strikes Iran's Khorasan Province, killing 1,567, injuring over 2,300, leaving 50,000 homeless, and damaging or destroying over 15,000 homes.

1997 – The Maeslantkering, a storm surge barrier in the Netherlands that is one of the world's largest moving structures, is opened by Queen Beatrix.

2002 – F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

2005 – A hand grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutinian lands about 65 feet (20 metres) from U.S. President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.

2008 – An EF4 tornado strikes the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, killing 21 people and injuring over 100.

2012 – The Damascus bombings were carried out using a pair of car bombs detonated by suicide bombers outside of a military intelligence complex in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people and injuring 400 others

2013 – One World Trade Center becomes the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

Famous Folk Born on May 10th:

Emperor Fushimi of Japan

Robert Gray (in modern times he'd probably be a captain on "Deadliest Catch")

John Wilkes Booth (if only Johnny Cochran had been there to defend him, he might have surrendered)

Alfred Jodl (almost certainly guilty of some of the crimes for which he was hanged, but probably not guilty of all of those he was accused of.  Signing the "Commando Order" was enough to warrant the death penalty)

Fred Astaire 

David O. Selznick

Carl Albert

Denis Thatcher

Jeff Cooper (the United States Marine)

Nancy Walker (actress and director of "Can't Stop the Music" a film that should have had all of its copies buried in New Mexico with those Atari video games)

Lothar Schmid (probably the only man alive in 1972 who was able to handle being the arbiter of the Fischer-Spassky world chess championship match)

Scott Muni

Pat Summerall

Barbara Taylor Bradford

Gary Owens

Henry Fambrough



General Wayne A. Downing (a great soldier and leader of soldiers)

Wayne Dyer

Danny Rapp

Carl Douglas (see the new section of the blog for his one-hit)

Jim Abrahams



Dave Mason

Tito Santana

Chris Berman

Mark David Chapman

Sid Vicious

Rick Santorum

Bono

Linda Evangelista

Erik Palladino

William Regal

Helio Castroneves (sorry, this is a no DWTS weekend)

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Trying something new today with this.

#1 Hit Songs of - 1974

Jim Croce

Steve Miller Band

Al Wilson





Ringo Starr

Barbra Streisand

The Love Unlimited Orchestra

Terry Jacks

Cher

John Denver

Blue Swede

MFSB

Grand Funk Railroad

Ray Stevens

Paul McCartney and Wings



Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods

Gordon Lightfoot



The Hues Corporation

George McCrae



John Denver





Roberta Flack



Paper Lace

Paul Anka and Odia Coates

Eric Clapton

Barry White

Andy Kim



Olivia Newton-John

Billy Preston

Dionne Warwick and the Spinners

Stevie Wonder

Bachman-Turner Overdrive

John Lennon

Billy Swan

Carl Douglas

Harry Chapin

Helen Reddy