By the numbers

If we look at things by the numbers. at first glance the VA should be doing fine.  After all, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the total number of veterans in the U.S. declined by nearly 5 million between 2000 and 2013.

The problem is that the decline is from veterans of World War II and Korea who weren't eligible for healthcare from the VA dying off.  The number of veterans who are eligible for healthcare at the VA has risen dramatically.  That's why the budget for the VA has been rising in recent years.  If only adding money were the solution, things would be great at the VA.  Throwing money at a problem isn't always the answer.

Of the roughly 22 million veterans in the U.S. at the moment, nearly 8.8 million are being served by VA facilities.  The VA's priority system is byzantine but the basic rule of thumb is that if a veteran has a service-connected disability, or served after January 28th, 2003 and were discharged less than five years ago; or if they are eligible for Medicaid or have limited financial resources, then they qualify in one of the eight priorities.

The White House report calls the goal of seeing veterans who seek treatment within 14 days "unrealistic" and that may be true.  The last time I saw a particular specialist the earliest follow-up appointment (they wanted to see me after three weeks) was so far off that they couldn't schedule it.  They put me on "re-call" which is a system where you get a postcard telling you to call for an appointment.  I got a message to the doctor who found a way to get me in right when he wanted to see me.  However, I can understand calling the 14 day goal unrealistic.

I'm helping someone with filing a claim for a service-connected disability.  It's for a World War II veteran who was released from the Army due to a medical condition.  Unfortunately for him, it appears that the Army never documented the problem in his medical records and that's going to make it extremely difficult to get him the care he's entitled to.  I'm certain that if the diagnosis that caused him to be released during a time of war could be documented, his disability rating would be high enough to put him into one of the top two priority groups.

Another problem is even if we can obtain documentation of the service-connected disability, it may take too long to get the claim through the system.  A report released by several U. S. Senators looking into the problem of backlogged disability claims at the VA states quite clearly that there are more than 400,000 claims for disability benefits that have been in the system more than 125 days.  Some have languished for a year or more.

So what do we do?  For the person I'm helping, we request the records from the St. Louis Military Personnel Records Center and hope for the best.  For the VA as a whole, there's a key phrase in the summary of the White House report that reads “A corrosive culture has led to personnel problems across the Department that are seriously impacting morale and by extension, the timeliness of health care...”  There needs to be wholesale housecleaning among the VA's upper and middle management.  Every single employee who ordered data to be falsified, who threatened any whistleblower, or who engaged in any other actions that resulted in veterans being improperly denied or delayed in receiving treatment; needs to be disciplined.  A number of them need to be allowed to retire, while some need to be fired for cause.  Some quite probably need to be prosecuted.

Then again, assuming we don't get dragged into any more wars in the next few decades, the problem of an overburdened VA system will be resolved through attrition.  Eventually most of the veterans, those being cared for and those who were ignored, will die off.  Not the best solution.

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Governor Brown and the state legislature are being penny-wise and pound foolish by refusing an offer from the California Endowment to help keep people from leaving the Medi-Cal program. 

On the surface it may make sense.  Fewer enrollees, costs go down and the state saves money.  But that's not what will happen.  The newly uninsured will take advantage of the fact that emergency rooms must provide treatment to anyone and everyone, regardless of whether or not they are insured, or can pay cash; and get treatment there.  Hospitals, forced to eat the costs of providing care for these people will charge other people more to make up the difference.  Everyone will pay more.

We may never get a perfect healthcare system, but the more people who are covered, the lower the cost on an individual basis.  It's a basic axiom that the fearmongers who decry Obamacare as a failure choose to ignore.  At our peril.  Obamacare isn't a perfect solution, but it is the closest thing yet to one.  We tried letting the free-market work in the insurance industry and thus far all we have is insurers making billions in profits while we see countless petitions on Change.org seeking to get these same insurers to change decisions where coverage for care was denied.

It's the same with abortion funding.  One dollar for the funding for abortions will save eleven dollars in so-called "safety-net" spending.

* * *

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney is bloviating about how poorly the Obama Administration is handling the crisis in Iraq.  Never mind this is a mess for which Cheney deserves at least as much, if not more blame than former President George W. Bush for creating, but his criticisms lack a general validity.

The truth is, we went into the war in Iraq with plenty of plans for winning the war and not a single thought given to winning the peace afterward.  Depose Saddam Hussein, install democracy and live happily ever after was the height of insanity.  It ignores the ethnicity and religious divisions that deeply separate three main groups in the nation.

The Sunni Muslims, the Shia Muslims and the Kurds (who are mostly Sunni but also contain many other faiths among their ethnic population) are the main groups.  65% of the Muslim population of Iraq is Shia with the remaining 35% being Sunnis.  The Kurds make up roughly 17% of the overall population (remember, they are mostly Sunnis) while Iraqi "Arabs" make up 75% of the total population.

Since the current Prime Minister is a Shia, who took power in the elections of 2006 after a Sunni post-war government failed, the Sunnis are the "aggrieved" population, along with the Kurds.  They claim they are being discriminated against.  ISIS, who we've all heard about, now considers itself a sovereign state.  Actually, they claim to be a caliphate and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadiis their Caliph.

Is there an easy solution.  Sure.  Divide Iraq into three autonomous states within the nation, one Sunni, one Shia and one Kurdish.  Divvy up the nation's natural resources and voila, peace would prevail.  Yes, that was sarcasm.  There is no simple answer. These are age-old divisions (dating back to AD632) and they've only grown deeper with the passage of time.

And only time will tell what will happen in Iraq.  However, I'll wager the 300 advisors already in or on their way to Iraq won't be the last people we put in harm's way to continue to try to fix a mess of our making.

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Random Ponderings:

Like anyone else, Tim Cook's sexuality is nobody else's business.  Just because you're a CEO shouldn't entitle everyone to know about your private life.  Unless you're doing illegal things, which he isn't (to the best of our knowledge).

On the other hand, since it appears that former American Apparel CEO Dov Charney may have engaged in behavior that resulted in a plethora of lawsuits, who can blame the company's Board of Directors for getting rid of him?

Choosing former Proctor & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald to be the next Secretary of Veteran Affairs is an outside of the box choice by President Obama.  It didn't matter who he chooses, the nominee is going to be grilled by the Senate like a hot dog on the barbeque on July 4th, during the confirmation hearings.  Good luck Mr. McDonald.

Did Maria Sharapova's chances of winning Wimbledon improve with the early exit of Serena Williams?  Damn right they did.

Heidi Klum spend $14 million on a Brentwood home, spent "several million more" in improvements and has now listed the place for a mere $25 million.  Sad thing is, she'll probably get it, given how hot high-end homes are in L. A. at the moment.

The good news is that on average, we drive cars that get better gas mileage.  The bad news is that because of this, the fund to repair the nation's highways is going broke, because gas tax revenues are down.  Some politician will find some way to fix this by robbing some other fund.

Buy a new laptop and turns out the sound sucks.  Not sure what to do.  Take it back and see if something is wrong, exchange it for a different model or what.  Will sleep on it.

Why is it that when a famous, wealthy man dates a woman of modest means, her wealth and earnings aren't news, but when a famous, wealthy woman is married to a man who earns only 18,000 pounds (English) a year, that's news?

Not having Shia LaBeouf in the new "Transformers" movie didn't hurt it at the box office wars.  Meanwhile, both "Snowpiercer" and "Begin Again", indie films I highly recommend did boffo at the box office, both averaging over $20,000 per screen.  Sadly, "Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon" barely broke $700 per screen and looks to be on its last legs.  Funny how fickle audiences are.

What is it with Florida and vote tabulation?  I say this because just days after a woman was crowned Miss Florida, she lost her crown when an error was discovered in the vote count.

The Marine who just turned himself in after his second instance of desertion should be kept under lock and key until court-martialed.

Some op-ed piece on www.cnn.com is claiming the GI Bill is shortchanging today's veterans.  Well, the 1985 Montgomery G.I. Bill sure shortchanged me a lot worse.  I was given less than 30 months to use four years of educational benefits.  I know, I am bitter.

I feel bad for the Army vet whose storage unit was auctioned off while he was in another state, taking care of his ailing mother. 

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June 29th in History:

226 – Cao Pi dies after an illness; his son Cao Rui succeeds him as emperor of the Kingdom of Wei.

1149 – Raymond of Poitiers is defeated and killed at the Battle of Inab by Nur ad-Din Zangi.

1194 – Sverre is crowned King of Norway.

1444 – Skanderbeg defeats an Ottoman invasion force at Torvioll.

1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island.

1613 – The Globe Theatre in London, England burns to the ground.

1644 – Charles I of England defeats a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, the last battle won by an English King on English soil.

1659 – At the Battle of Konotop the Ukrainian armies of Ivan Vyhovsky defeat the Russians led by Prince Trubetskoy.

1776 – First privateer battle of the American Revolutionary War fought at Turtle Gut Inlet near Cape May, New Jersey

1776 – Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.

1786 – Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.

1807 – Russo-Turkish War: Admiral Dmitry Senyavin destroys the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Athos.

1850 – Autocephaly officially granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Church of Greece.

1864 – Ninety-nine people are killed in Canada's worst railway disaster near St-Hilaire, Quebec.

1874 – Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis publishes a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled "Who's to Blame?" in which he lays out his complaints against King George. He is elected Prime Minister of Greece the next year.

1880 – France annexes Tahiti.

1881 – In Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad declares himself to be the Mahdi, the messianic redeemer of Islam.

1888 – George Edward Gouraud records Handel's Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music.

1889 – Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships vote to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population.

1895 – Doukhobors burn their weapons as a protest against conscription by the Tsarist Russian government.

1914 – Jina Guseva attempts to assassinate Grigori Rasputin at his home town in Siberia.

1916 – The Irish Nationalist and British diplomat Sir Roger Casement is sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising.

1922 – France grants 1 km² at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes".

1926 – Arthur Meighen returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.

1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.

1927 – First test of Wallace Turnbull's controllable pitch propeller.

1928 – The Outerbridge Crossing and Goethals Bridge in Staten Island, New York are both opened.

1945 – Carpathian Ruthenia is annexed by the Soviet Union.

1956 – The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.

1972 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

1974 – Isabel Perón is sworn in as the first female President of Argentina. Her husband, President Juan Peron, had delegated responsibility due to weak health and died two days later.

1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.

1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer.

1976 – The Seychelles become independent from the United Kingdom.

1995 – Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.

1995 – The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.

2002 – Naval clashes between South Korea and North Korea lead to the death of six South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel.

2006 – Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush's plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.

2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone

Famous Folk Born on June 29th:

Emperor Go-Mizunoo of Japan
Maria of Aragon, Queen of Portugal
William James Mayo
General Ludwig Beck
James Van Der Zee
Nelson Eddy
Ruth Warrick
Ezra Laderman
Jackie Lynn Taylor
John Bocabella
Stokely Carmichael
Little Eva
Gary Busey
Fred Grandy
Dan Dierdorf
Colin Hay
Maria Conchita Alonso
Kimberlin Brown
Sharon Lawrence
Amanda Donohoe
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Melora Hardin
Samantha Smith (so much promise, taken much too soon)
Nicole Scherzinger (yes ma'am, I wish my girlfriend was hot like you)

Shia LaBeouf arrested and other eye-catching headlines

Shia LaBeouf got himself arrested at a Broadway show and some are speculating that it is no coincidence that this happened the day before the new Transformers movie that he was not asked to star in opens.

Jenny McCarthy and Sherri Shephard have been fired from "The View" and there's a rumor going around that Rosie O'Donnell will be returning to the talk program.

The woman who was going to represent Delaware at the upcoming Miss America pageant has been stripped of her title over a technicality.  She will turn 25 before year end, and that makes her ineligible.  She listed her correct date of birth on the application, but pageant officials didn't discover the problem until after she'd won.  Amanda Longacre will lose over $11,000 in scholarships.  Reporter's note:  Does the fact she was stripped of her title make the pageant organizers, "strippers?"

Actress Amy Adams noticed there was a soldier flying coach on a flight where she was sitting in 1st class, and she decided that she would give her plush seat to the soldier as a thank you.  Kudos to her.

Mark Mayfield, one of three members of the Mississippi Tea Party who allegedly conspired with a blogger to obtain photographs of Senator Thad Cochran's wife in the nursing home where she lives, has died.  Police are investigating the death as a suicide.

Former Vancouver Canucks player Gino Odjick has revealed that he has been told he has only weeks to live.  Diagnosed with a rare disease that causes protein deposits to form around and harden his heart, he has been hospitalized since he went to the ER for shortness of breath.  He wrote a letter to his fans that closed with “This isn't goodbye, but I wanted you to know what is happening. I'm going to stay strong and I hope to spend as much time with my kids as possible.”  Reporter's note:  I'm amazed by this man's courage and grace at such a trying moment.

Let's clear up a few entertainment industry rumors.  Tom Cruise is not in "Star Wars, Episode VII," Gabriel Iglesias will be back for the "Magic Mike" sequel but Matthew McConaughey may not, Rooney Mara wants to do the two "Girl With the Dragon Tattoos" but they probably won't happen, John Turturro wants to reprise the role of 'Jesus' from "The Big Lebowski," and while Chris Brown says he won't be doing a reality show for BET, it could still happen.

Protestors continue to push a boycott of the Beverly Hills Hotel to try and pressure the Sultan of Brunei to reverse his decision to impose Sharia law in his Sultanate.

In the wake of the U. S. Supreme Court decision that went against them, video streaming service Aereo suspended service on Saturday.  Until the case is resolved in a lower court, the service will not be available.

A 90 year old former Marine is fighting a battle to clear his military record, which shows he was AWOL during WWII.  Thomas Smith, Jr., is saying that the Marines confused him with another Marine with the same first and last name but with a different middle name.  He's written a letter seeking help from President Obama.

A mother went through the drive-thru at Sonic and in her French fries was a bag of marijuana.

Eddie Murphy is returning to the role that established him as a leading man, and "Beverly Hills Cop IV" will be filmed on location in Detroit.  The city has already given the production nearly $14 million in incentives.

You may want to try camel's milk, now being sold online by a Santa Monica based company when you find out it tastes just like cow's milk, but has 50% less fat and 40 less calories per cup.  Then again, the price of more than $16 per pint may dissuade you from trying it.

With two new county supervisors set to take office later this year in Los Angeles County along with a new sheriff and assessor, some will think that it isn't the best moment for the county's top administrative manager to retire.  However, William J. Fujioka has been in the job for seven years, originally committed to only five, and he's stepping down.

Singer/songwriter Bobby Womack has died at the age of 70.

Days that remind me of my limits

I begin this blog on a Thursday evening just before nine p.m.  It may take me a bit to finish as one of my favorite summer replacement programs is about to begin, so bear with me.  It has been a very long day.  A day that has worn me out and reminded me of the physical and mental limitations I must learn to live with.

After breakfast I went out to run a few errands.  One of which was getting my car's oil changed.  The only extra was a bulb to replace one that had burnt out and yet I'm out a total of $80.00.  Didn't oil changes used to go for around $29.99?  Anyway, after running errands and spending an hour laughing my posterior off at the phony characters on "Jerry Springer", I attempted to finish watching a film that opens tomorrow.  There are actually two films opening tomorrow that I had previously agreed to view and review but I'd seen one of them weeks ago.  That review was already written although I hadn't finished formatting the final version.

I'd have been done earlier but my mom called and needed a ride.  The van driver who was supposed to take her screwed up.  That cost me 90 minutes, which I don't mind one iota.  I'd do anything for my mother, but it was Murphy's Law at work...her need arising at just the wrong moment.  No worries, I got her where she needed to go and was back at the computer watching the film.

Now that I've written and scheduled two film reviews for posting in the morning I can focus on a though that's been gnawing at my brain for two days.  I was thinking about years that end in 14.  In 1914, the U.S. was producing pennies that look much like those we see now, although out of different materials and Honus Wagner became the first 20th Century Major League Baseball player to have 3,000 hits.  That was what got me started on this line of thinking, Wagner's achievement.

Today our technology has advanced so much that we track every possible statistic in baseball.  Honus Wagner wouldn't know a WHIP from a OPS, although he'd understand an at-bat and a strike-out.  At least they tracked some stats back then.

Go back another hundred years.  In 1814 they didn't keep good track of all of the American sailors who were impressed into service in the Royal Navy, and professional sports statistics weren't a thought in anyone's mind. 

We know something about the major figures of 1714, 1614 and so on going backward.  But there is little, if anything known about specific individuals who weren't major world figures going back that far.  Why?  The lack of easy information gathering and storage. 

Now we have the Internet and unlimited ability to communicate and store information.  Two or three hundred years from now I will be gone, but there's a pretty good chance my blog entries will be retrievable.  The records of my birth, death, military service and so much more will be easy for any curious individual to retrieve.

Think about this for a moment.  Two hundred years from now, every single thing you ever Tweet, post on Facebook, or write in a blog may well exist.  I wonder how many of us are probably more relieved than bothered by the relative inability to access some of the earlier webpages we created on old hosting sites like Geocities, Tripod and Angelfire. 

We probably don't think enough about the fact that what we do at our keyboards will be preserved for posterity long after we're gone.  Maybe we should give that more thought from time to time.

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The Supreme Court of the United States handed down some key rulings this week.  One of particular interest relates to the Fourth Amendment's protections involving being searched.  The court ruled that even if an individual has been arrested, police must first obtain a search warrant before examining the contents of that person's cellphone.

This makes perfect sense.  With the ever-growing capabilities of such devices, the need for the protection of their contents cannot be overstated.  Just as the police can't break into a locked filing cabinet in your home without a warrant, they shouldn't be able to scan the files on a phone.

Another important ruling dealt with the issue of presidential appointments during a Senate recess.  While the majority of appointments can no longer be held up by filibusters, this is still a contentious issue.  The president has a legitimate need to make appointments to fill vacancies at any time and if the Senate is in recess, that appointment shouldn't wait.

But indefinite appointments should not be permitted.  In an ideal world, any recess appointment should be subject to confirmation hearings and a vote within 30 days of the Senate returning from its recess. 

* * *

The issue of Hillary Clinton and her positions on financial/tax issues will become a more important topic once she declares she actually is a candidate for her party's nomination for 2016's presidential race. 

We already know she claimed to be "dead broke" when that was not quite the case.  Now it appears that what the Clintons say on an issue is far different from what they do on that issue.  The issue is the estate tax.

President Clinton was a proponent of the tax during his entire tenure in the White House.  Hillary talked up the estate tax and the dangers of inherited wealth on the campaign trail during 2008.  Yet the couple has taken advantage of a number of loopholes in the law to avoid their estates being subjected to the estate tax.  They used real estate trusts to own their homes, avoiding this tax on any increase in the value of the properties. 

Now this is perfectly legal.  But in an era where some billionaires are giving away the overwhelming majority of their own wealth, when someone like Sting is basically disinheriting his children; it seems to be the height of hypocrisy to champion the wealth tax and then do everything possible to avoid it.

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Random Ponderings:

Ann Coulter's bleating blatherings about soccer are just more of her need to see her name on the web and anywhere/everywhere else.  She may be an intelligent woman but she's way off-base on this topic.

There's something wrong with the legal system when a nanny who stopped doing her job refuses to leave the home of the couple who fired her and they have to formally evict her. 

From now on (or until I forget), Friday blogs will contain a video in honor of Parody Song Friday -

I often wonder if tabloid reporters who can't find a story and are on deadline just make one up.

I always thought "The View" was a show that was hosted by women.  I am a major fan of Ross Matthews and he's a brilliant comedian/talk show host, but the fact he is gay doesn't change the fact that adding him to the lineup on The View would be a change in the equation.

The homeowner's association in Florida who is trying to force a veteran to stop flying a small flag outside his home should relocate to another country.

It should be a crime to adopt a pet from government agencies or a non-profit and then turn around and sell the pet at a profit.

After reading about the burgeoning trade in illegal kidneys in Nepal, I'm crossing off the list of places I want to visit.

A man who was twice elected mayor of Providence, RI and both times forced out of office because he was convicted of crimes, is running for a third shot at the job.  The problem isn't the man the problem is the idiotic electorate who keeps voting for him.

The fact that a gay couple who was living in Arizona is being forced to move out of the state because laws there won't allow a "second-parent" adoption of their twin girls is proof that we heterosexuals have a lot of work left to do before equality will truly exist between gays and straights.

Are spaces in a church pew really worth fighting?  Going to jail?  I don't think so.

In Huntsville, AL, city council meetings begin with a prayer.  I didn't think there was a problem with that, until they uninvited a Wiccan who had been invited to give the invocation.  The reason their policy on prayer had seemed alright was it was supposed to include all faiths.  Apparently that was a lie.

Reading a story about how a man's intent to leave his kids nearly $500,000 in an IRA was thwarted by his having filled out the beneficiary form incorrectly is a reminder, check such things regularly.

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June 27th in History:

1358 – Republic of Dubrovnik is founded
1497 – Cornish rebels Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London, England.
1556 – The thirteen Stratford Martyrs are burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs.
1743 – War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of Dettingen: On the battlefield in Bavaria, George II personally leads troops into battle. The last time that a British monarch would command troops in the field.
1759 – General James Wolfe begins the siege of Quebec.
1760 – Cherokee warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Echoee near present-day Otto, North Carolina during the Anglo-Cherokee War.
1806 – British forces take Buenos Aires during the first British invasions of the Río de la Plata.
1844 – Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are murdered by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail.
1895 – The inaugural run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York, New York, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
1898 – The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia.
1899 – A. E. J. Collins scores 628 runs not out, the highest-ever recorded score in cricket.
1905 – Battleship Potemkin uprising: sailors start a mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin, denouncing the crimes of autocracy, demanding liberty and an end to war.
1927 – Prime Minister of Japan Tanaka Giichi leads a conference to discuss Japan's plans for China; later, a document detailing these plans, the "Tanaka Memorial" is leaked, although it is now considered a forgery.
1941 – Romanian governmental forces, allies of Nazi Germany, launch one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history in the city of Iaşi, (Romania), resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews.
1941 – German troops capture the city of Białystok during Operation Barbarossa.
1946 – In the Canadian Citizenship Act, the Parliament of Canada establishes the definition of Canadian citizenship.
1950 – The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War.
1952 – Guatemala passes Decree 900, ordering the redistribution of uncultivated land.
1954 – The Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, the Soviet Union's first nuclear power station, opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.
1954 – The 1954 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal match between Hungary and Brazil, highly anticipated to be exciting, instead turns violent, with three players ejected and further fighting continuing after the game.
1957 – Hurricane Audrey makes landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border, killing over 400 people, mainly in and around Cameron, Louisiana.
1971 – After only three years in business, rock promoter Bill Graham closes the Fillmore East in New York, New York, the "Church of Rock and Roll".
1973 – The President of Uruguay Juan María Bordaberry dissolves Parliament and establishes a dictatorship.
1974 – U.S. president Richard Nixon visits the Soviet Union.
1976 – Air France Flight 139 (Tel Aviv-Athens-Paris) is hijacked en route to Paris by the PLO and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda.
1977 – France grants independence to Djibouti.
1980 – Italian Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 mysteriously explodes in mid air while in route from Bologna to Palermo, killing all 81 on board. Also known in Italy as the Ustica disaster
1981 – The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issues its "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China", laying the blame for the Cultural Revolution on Mao Zedong.
1982 – Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final research and development flight mission, STS-4.
1985 – U.S. Route 66 is officially removed from the United States Highway System.
1988 – Gare de Lyon rail accident In Paris a train collides with a stationary train killing 56 people.
1991 – Slovenia, after declaring independence two days before is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft starting the Ten-Day War.
2007 – Tony Blair resigns as British Prime Minister, a position he had held since 1997.
2007 – The Brazilian Military Police invades the favelas of Complexo do Alemão in an episode which is remembered as the Complexo do Alemão massacre.
2008 – In a highly scrutizined election President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe is re-elected in a landslide after his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn a week earlier, citing violence against his party's supporters.
2013 – NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a space probe to observe the Sun.

Famous folk born on June 27th:

Louis XII of France
Charles IX of France
Paul Mauser
Helen Keller
Antoinette Perry
Juan Trippe
Billy Curtis
Willie Mosconi
Bob Keeshan
Peter Maas
H. Ross Perot
Charles Bronfman
Bruce Babbitt
Bruce Johnston
Rico Petrocelli
Norma Kamali
Vera Wang
Julia Duffy
Tobey Maguire
Khloe Kardashian
Madylin Sweeten

Man with knife in back walks into McDonald's and other eye-catching headlines

A man walked into a Queens McDonald's with a knife in his back and a cellphone in his hand.  He'd been stabbed in the back while trying to break up a fight outside.  He was taken to a hospital and actually released later in the day.

Potential presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says her mistake in talking about her wealth was "unartful use of a few words."  She claimed she and Bill Clinton were "dead broke" when they left the White House, a claim belied by the huge book advance she received just before the inauguration of George W. Bush.

A number of fans of the late Michael Jackson made their annual visit to his burial site at Forrest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale.  June 25th is the 5th anniversary of his passing.  Some wore one silver glove in his honor.

Caleb Bankston, a contestant on last season's edition of "Survivor," was crushed to death between two train cars in an industrial accident.

Gary Oldman has apologized for anti-Semitic remarks he made in an interview with Playboy but the Anti-Defamation League called his apology "insufficient."

Congressional investigators did find some of former IRS official Lois Lerner's emails, one of which showed that she attempted to initiate an audit of Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa.  Her attempt at an audit was premature, since it involved potential income, rather than income he had actually received.

KFC has concluded that the story of a 3 year old and her grandparent being asked to leave one of their locations in Jackson, MS, was a hoax.  Surveillance video from the day in question did not show the girl entering the store.  KFC will go ahead with a promised contribution of $30,000 toward the girl's recovery anyway.  A Facebook page put up to detail the girl's recovery was taken down on Tuesday.

How will Stan Lee react to hearing that Chris Hemsworth, who is the current "Thor" in movies involving Marvel's franchises, is under consideration to portray "Doc Savage" on the big screen?  Word around Hollywood is that Shane Black wants Hemsworth for the Savage role.

San Francisco Giants' pitcher Tim Lincecum throws his second no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in the past two seasons. 

A Georgia man who is being charged with felony murder for allegedly leaving his 22 month old son in his car all day while working has pleaded not guilty to the charges.  Police are now claiming he returned to the vehicle during his lunch break that day.

The United States Supreme Court handed down two key rulings, one involving cellphone privacy and the other the new business Aereo.  The court ruled that police can't search the cellphone of someone who has been arrested without a warrant.  As for Aereo, the company that was streaming broadcast television programming over the Internet for free and the Court ruled that this was a violation of the Copyright Act.

Speaker of the House John Boehner says he will initiate a lawsuit against President Obama for failing to faithfully carry out the duties of his office and abusing the Executive Order system.

FIFA is investigating an incident where one of the players in the World Cup may have violated the rules by briefly exposing his underwear with a non-event sponsor's logo on them.

Will the third time be a charm?  Jillian Michaels is going to leave the successful reality show "The Biggest Loser" for a third time, according to one of the show's producers. 

New York and Detroit are 1st and 2nd on a list of the nation's most stressed out cities.

A doctor in Redondo Beach and a member of his staff have been arrested for allegedly selling drugs to undercover officers.

George Talley loved his Corvette and was naturally distressed when it was stolen.  He was delighted to get the phone call that it had been recovered, even if it had taken 32 years.  In 1981 his 1979 model Stingray was stolen, but car and owner are being reunited.

Nick Young opted out of his contract for next season with the Lakers, but at least one fan hopes to change his mind.  This fan has launched a "Stay in L.A." campaign.  Young wants a longer-term deal than the Lakers can offer if they want to sign a top-tier free agent.  In a related item, there are rumors they are working to arrange a meeting with LeBron James.  Reporter's note:  Would there be enough room in the Lakers' locker room for the egos of both James and Kobe Bryant?

I'm putting you in the won't

There's been a running joke among a family I know that whenever one member pisses off the patriarch, he lets them know they're being moved from the will to the won't.  It's amusing and all, but in a way it is also controlling and mean-spirited.  People are of course free to disinherit whoever they like.  I've read that Warren Buffett is leaving one of his children only $90,000 and I've also read that the other two will receive bequests of less than one percent of his fortune.  Then again, with a net worth of $58.5 billion, even if estate taxes were to take the full 55%; the remaining 1% would still be a tidy sum.

The singer Sting has announced that none of his six children will receive a trust fund or otherwise inherit his wealth.  There are a number of other very wealthy people who are doing likewise.  I understand the concept of returning wealth to society.  In an era where the growing inequities in both wealth and income divide the population more than ever, this is a good concept.  Dynastic wealth often creates problems for those who inherit it without having learned strong ethics of work and morality.

But if I were a multi-billionaire and had children, I would not be able to live with myself by completely disinheriting them.  I would have instilled a strong work ethic in them, and made it clear that they would have to make their own way in life.  I just think it is wrong to have so much and leave one's offspring without at least some kind of safety net.  A trust that will ensure they never spend a night without food and shelter.  To prevent them from ever having spent a night in an apartment without electricity because they wouldn't have the money to pay the past-due bill until a day later.

I wouldn't want them to become a burden on society.  Why should my children wind up on welfare if I had so much at one time?  It wouldn't be likely, but it could happen.  I also wouldn't want them to become a burden on their siblings.  Brothers and sisters shouldn't have to be charged with providing for each other when their parents had such vast wealth.

So by all means, return the overwhelming majority of wealth to society.  To enrich the lives of all.  But provide a modest amount for your children.  If you really want them to have a better life than you, it's your duty.

* * *

As the reports continue to come in about how much bigger the scandal at and problems of the Veterans Administration are, a factoid has come to light.  The Washington Times claimed that President Obama hadn't met one on one with former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki for two years.  Fox News claims the same thing.  Truth be told, they're nearly right.  July 26, 2012 is the late time the President met with his Secretary for Veterans Affairs. 

There are 15 members of the Cabinet, and 9 others who are Cabinet level officers (the Vice President is among that second list).  Even with schedules as jam-packed as these kind of people have to live with, they need to meet one on one more often that every two years or so.

I will say that when I got back into the VA system after my release from the hospital back in 2011, I did have to wait more than 14 days to be seen.  But since then I have no trouble getting seen and treated, emergency or non-emergency.  Waiting to see specialists is part and parcel of any medical system.

I believe the accounts of waiting lists being rat-holed in desk drawers and so on, because that's how the government works.  The federal government, as of 2012, employed over 4.3 million individuals, when you include the executive branch civilians, the legislative and judicial system civilians and uniformed military personnel.  It's too easy for people to engage in corruption because there are not good systems of checks and balances to ensure people don't get away with fraudulent actions that can boggle the mind.  There was a state department employee who didn't show for work for weeks on end.  He drew his check without doing his work.  Tailhook.  The GSA conference excess.  The IRS excesses in meeting costs and doing stupid training films. 

None of that compares to the report that one veteran spent eight years in a VA psychiatric facility before receiving his first psychiatric evaluation.  Another veteran in the same Brockton, MA facility had one treatment note in his file, covering his seven years there.  Simply unconscionable.

People in government jobs get away with these things because no one really watches.  Maybe it's time to set up an independent agency, run by someone who reports directly to the Vice President to oversee and audit the activities of all government agencies, including how they spend their money.

Whatever it takes, even one veteran dying while waiting for care is completely unacceptable, and whoever is responsible should face criminal sanctions.

* * *
It is morning and as I walked back from having my leg re-bandaged, I was suddenly struck by the notion.  I had my wallet with me.  I had my driver license with me.  I could just go out for breakfast for once.  Steak, eggs, hash browns, a big glass of tomato juice and some sourdough toast.  Sounds great.  Then I checked the nutritional info for what was once a normal breakfast before I got sick:

Calories     Sodium

320             380                   Sourdough toast with jam
280             520                   Hash brown potatoes
470             490                   Steak and eggs
 35              610                   Tomato juice

1105           2000                 Totals

Mind-numbing.  Based on goals of 2,000 calories and 1800 mg of sodium per day, breakfast would be my only meal today, unless I could find something to eat that's completely free of sodium.

Just as I won the struggle last night at dinner (I wanted a burger and fries, I got a grilled chicken salad and stole one French fry from a friend's plate), I'm going to win again this morning.  I'll eat my usual healthy breakfast in the dining room and lightly salt the last two bites of my eggs.

* * *

There are reports that the story of the three year old girl whose family was told they had to leave a KFC franchise outlet in Mississippi because her facial injuries were disturbing others, was a hoax.  The family is denying the hoax allegations and the franchise owner has hired someone to do an independent investigation.

If this was a hoax, was it a crime?  Was the Facebook post making the allegation intended to obtain money?  I think that would be tough to prove.  This is the text of the FB post:

"Does this face look scary to you?   Last week at KFC in Jackson MS this precious face was asked to leave because her face scared the other diners. I personally will never step foot in another KFC again and will be personally writing the CEO."

America was outraged.  People wanted to tar and feather KFC (pun intended).  Now there are reports it was a hoax, an attempt to scam people into donating to the family of this young child.  If there is a better recent example of why we must maintain the presumption of innocence for any individual or corporation, I can't think of it.  Wait, maybe I can.

On the left, the allegedly doctored receipt that former Marine Dayna Morales claimed was given to her, because she's a lesbian.  On the right, the actual receipt, brought forward by the family who was outraged at the claim.  Once again, we jumped right away to condemn these people and did not wait for the evidence.

There's another example here of how people need to check things.  At one point, the mainstream news media began reporting that Ms Morales had been dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps.  That is not true.  She was administratively discharged with an Under Other than Honorable Conditions discharge.  There is a huge difference between that and a Dishonorable Discharge.  The DD requires that the individual be convicted by a court-martial of an offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice that allows for a DD.  The UOTHC is an administrative proceeding.  Court-martial convictions are just like any other felony conviction.  The media owes her an apology for mischaracterizing her service.

Innocent until proven guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt.  A presumption that must be preserved for all.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

Telling a judge to "f**k off" once is just plain dumb.  To then tell the same judge over and over to "suck my dick" isn't just the height of stupidity, it's probably a sign of in-breeding.
 

I really don't understand why drivers on the freeway feel the irresistible urge to speed up when you attempt to pass them.  Any thoughts?

The decision by both Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James to opt out of their contracts for next season and test the free agent market will have basketball pundits postulating prodigiously for weeks to come.

Next year if I have a client who gets a notice from the IRS to produce records, I'm going to respond that unfortunately, the hard drive on my client's computer crashed and we no longer have the records.  Wonder how that will go over?

Ice-T says it is just a "coincidence" that all of the people who get shot in his latest music video happen to be white.  Do you buy that?

I feel sorry for the residents of the condo building that Justin Bieber has moved into. 

I just read that the reason former NFL star Aaron Hernandez allegedly murdered two people was over a drink that was spilled on him.  Good thing no one spilled a plate of food on him, the body count might have been huge.

I can't stop chuckling at the thought of the burglar who got caught because he was dumb enough to log onto Facebook while in the home he was burglarizing.  Definitely not someone from the deep end of the brain gene pool.

Whole Foods is expensive enough without them overcharging by short-weighting its products.

Speaking of the shallow end of the intelligence quotient, why in the world would a woman insist on trying to feed cookies to the lions in a zoo?  Throwing them in is bad enough, but climbing the fence to get closer?

It's been 25 years since the original big screen "Batman" came out.  Three members of its cast went on to win Oscar gold after this film.  Can you name them?

There's a theater in a small town in Ohio where full-price movies are only four bucks.

* * *

June 24th in History:

109 – Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north-west of Rome.
474 – Julius Nepos forces Roman usurper Glycerius to abdicate the throne and proclaims himself Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dalriada. It is claimed to be the largest battle in the history of Ireland.
972 – Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces, takes place.
1128 – Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães: forces led by Alfonso I defeat forces led by his mother Teresa of León and her lover Fernando Pérez de Traba. After this battle, the future king calls himself "Prince of Portugal", the first step towards "official independence" that will be reached in 1139 after the Battle of Ourique.
1230 – The Siege of Jaén started in the context of the Spanish Reconquista.
1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: the Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory by Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce, though England did not recognize Scottish independence until 1328 with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton.
1340 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys – The French fleet is almost completely destroyed by the English Fleet commanded in person by King Edward III.
1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
1497 – John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.
1509 – Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England.
1535 – The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.
1571 – Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founds Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines.
1597 – The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reaches Bantam (on Java).
1604 – Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
1622 – Battle of Macau: The Dutch attempt but fail to capture Macau.
1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London, England.
1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
1793 – The first Republican constitution in France is adopted.
1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's Grande Armée crosses the Neman River beginning the invasion of Russia.
1813 – Battle of Beaver Dams: a British and Indian combined force defeats the United States Army.
1821 – The Battle of Carabobo takes place. It is the decisive battle in the war of independence of Venezuela from Spain.
1859 – Battle of Solferino (Battle of the Three Sovereigns): Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy.
1866 – Battle of Custoza: an Austrian army defeats the Italian army during the Austro-Prussian War.
1880 – First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
1894 – Marie Francois Sadi Carnot is assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.
1902 – King Edward VII of the United Kingdom develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
1913 – Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria.
1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million dollar contract.
1916 – World War I: the Battle of the Somme begins with a week-long artillery bombardment on the German Line.
1918 – First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
1932 – A bloodless Revolution instigated by the People's Party ends the absolute power of King Prajadhipok of Siam (now Thailand).
1938 – Pieces of a meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth's atmosphere and exploded, land near Chicora, Pennsylvania.
1939 – Siam is renamed Thailand by Plaek Pibulsonggram, the country's third prime minister.
1947 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.
1948 – Start of the Berlin Blockade: the Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.
1949 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, is aired on NBC starring William Boyd.
1954 – First Indochina War: Battle of Mang Yang Pass — Vietminh troops belonging to the 803rd Regiment ambush G.M. 100 of France in An Khê.
1957 – In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.
1963 – The United Kingdom grants Zanzibar internal self-government.
1981 – The Humber Bridge is opens to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 17 years.
1982 – "The Jakarta Incident": British Airways Flight 9 flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.
1989 – Jiang Zemin succeeds Zhao Ziyang to become the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China after 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests.
1995 – "Rugby World Cup final": South Africa defeats New Zealand, Nelson Mandela presents Francois Pienaar with the Webb-Ellis trophy in an iconic post-apartheid moment.
2004 – In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.
2010 – John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in professional tennis history.
2012 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise, dies.

Famous Folk Born on June 24th:

William Hull
John Archibald Campbell
Ambrose Bierce
Samuel Johnson
Roy O. Disney
Chuck Taylor
Mary Wesley
William Saxbe
Al Molinaro
Billy Casper
Sam Jones
Michele Lee
Jeff Beck
George Pataki
Ellison Onizuka (very cool that ST:TNG honored him)
Robert Reich
Mick Fleetwood
Peter Weller
Betsy Randle

Word etymology

Recently, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U. S. Patent and Trademark office cancelled six of the trademarks of the Washington Redskins.  Their rationale is that the term "redskin" is offensive to Native Americans and since federal law prohibits "disparaging" trademarks, the trademark should have never been issued.

If the NFL wants to force Redskins owner Dan Snyder to change the team name, they can certainly do that.  But Congress has no business meddling in what name a professional sports team uses.  Members of Congress have far more important things to be dealing with than taking time to send letters to the NFL's commissioner about a team name.

This has happened before.  The Redskins won on appeal.  I expect them to do the same this time.  But I'm bothered by the fact that someone hasn't challenged the disparagement restriction on trademarks before.  If someone wants to trademark something that will disparage a business or institution, the "victim" has the legal system to seek redress, assuming the disparagement is false. 

Long time ago I used Match.com to seek dates/mates.  I wasn't all that successful and one night after my subscription had lapsed, I toyed with the idea of setting up a domain to disparage them.  I looked at the Whois.com and found that the domain name matchdotcomsucks.com had already been registered.  Match.com owned it themselves.  Of course, that was back in the 1990s.  Today, there really is a www.matchdotcomsucks.com, although it appears to have lain dormant since 2007.

If it's okay to set up a URL like that, what's the problem with a disparaging trademark? 

* * *

I went to the movies today.  Saw "Jersey Boys" and while it wasn't brilliant, it wasn't bad.  The interesting thing was the mental struggle about having a popcorn and a soda.  My two selves battled the whole way from home to the theater.  I'll give the evil one credit, he put up a good argument.  That it was a combination of celebrating my release from the hospital and one last time enjoying a movie with a popcorn and soda.  In fact, he suggested buying the smallest ones available would be a tribute to my new determination.

Fortunately my good self refused these convenient rationalizations.  I walked right past the concession stand and into the auditorium.

One day almost in the books without any missteps.  The most important realization is that while today was a success, tomorrow is another challenge to be met.  All the success on past days doesn't mean a lot on the current day.

I think I'm going to dig a book out of my trunk and re-read it.  I highly recommend it.  "No More Excuses" by Tawni Gomes, which I believe I have mentioned previously.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

There's no good reason for the producers of Storage Wars to air Dan Dotson's emergency brain surgery next season (or ever).

I would definitely shop at the online military exchange website, if the military decides to open it up to veterans.  The savings would be considerable.

Colin Powell would be the perfect person to opine on the wisdom (or lack thereof) involved in sending U. S. troops to Iraq as "military advisors" and how those advisors won't be in direct combat.  His first tour in Vietnam was as a military advisor and he saw more than a few incidents of combat.  More on that later.

Speaking of "Jersey Boys," their marketing campaign was horrible.  That may be why it finished fourth in the weekend box office wars, and that two films already in theaters beat it out. 

It is interesting that spokespersons for the search for that missing firefighter told people not to show up to volunteer to look for him.  Search and rescue volunteers have lots of training and won't get lost searching for someone else.  Ordinary people very well might add to the number of those missing in the wild. 

This one boggled my mind.  Nearly 1/3rd of the British army has failed a basic physical fitness test over the past three years.

I'll decide in the morning if I'm going to brave the Monday morning madness at the VA's Primary Clinic to get my leg dressing changed, or wait until Tuesday.  I may punt and let the med room here dress it tomorrow.

Why is the city of Los Angeles singling out big hotels in imposing a much higher minimum wage than in other industries?

* * *

June 22nd in History:

217 BC – Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom.
168 BC – Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat Macedonian King Perseus who surrenders after the battle, ending the Third Macedonian War.
1527 – Fatahillah chased away Portugal from Sunda Kelapa harbour, and peoples celebrated it as birthday of Jakarta, Indonesia.
1593 – Battle of Sisak: Allied Christian troops defeat the Turks.
1622 – Portuguese forces repel a Dutch invasion at the Battle of Macau during the Dutch–Portuguese War.
1633 – The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe in the form he presented it in, after heated controversy.
1774 – The British pass the Quebec Act, setting out rules of governance for the colony of Quebec in British North America.
1783 – A poisonous cloud caused by the eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland reaches Le Havre in France.
1807 – In the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair, the British warship HMS Leopard attacks and boards the American frigate USS Chesapeake.
1813 – War of 1812: After learning of American plans for a surprise attack on Beaver Dams in Ontario, Laura Secord sets out on a 30 kilometer journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon.
1825 – The British Parliament abolishes feudalism and the seigneurial system in British North America.
1839 – Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears.
1870 – US Congress created the United States Department of Justice
1893 – The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rams the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria which sinks taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet's commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
1897 – British colonial officers Charles Walter Rand and Lt. Charles Egerton Ayerst are assassinated in Pune, Maharashtra, India by the Chapekar brothers and Mahadeo Vinayak Ranade, who are later caught and hanged.
1898 – Spanish–American War: United States Marines land in Cuba.
1906 – The flag of Sweden is adopted.
1907 – The London Underground's Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway opens.
1911 – George V and Mary of Teck are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1918 – The Hammond Circus Train Wreck kills 86 and injures 127 near Hammond, Indiana.
1922 – Herrin massacre: 19 strikebreakers and 2 union miners are killed in Herrin, Illinois.
1940 – France is forced to sign the Second Compiègne armistice with Germany.
1941 – Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
1941 – The June Uprising in Lithuania begins.
1942 – Erwin Rommel is promoted to Field Marshal after the capture of Tobruk.
1944 – Opening day of the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration against the Army Group Centre.
1944 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.
1945 – The Battle of Okinawa comes to an end.
1954 – In Christchurch (New Zealand) Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme murder Pauline's mother because they think she is in the way of their close friendship (movie Heavenly Creatures by Peter Jackson in 1994). See Parker–Hulme murder case.
1957 – The Soviet Union launches an R-12 missile for the first time (in the Kapustin Yar).
1962 – An Air France Boeing 707 jet crashes in bad weather in Guadeloupe, West Indies, killing 113.
1969 – The Cuyahoga River catches fire, triggering a crack-down on pollution in the river.
1978 – Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, is discovered by American astronomer James W. Christy.
1984 – Virgin Atlantic Airways launches with its first flight from London Heathrow Airport.
1986 The controversial Hand of God goal by Diego Maradona in the quarter-finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup match between Argentina and England. This was later followed by the Goal of the Century also by Maradona. Argentina would win 2-1 and go on to win the world cup.
1990 – Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.
2002 – An earthquake measuring 6.5 Mw strikes a region of northwestern Iran killing at least 261 people and injuring 1,300 others and eventually causing widespread public anger due to the slow official response.
2009 – Eastman Kodak Company announces that it will discontinue sales of the Kodachrome Color Film, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon.
2012 – Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo is removed from office by impeachment and succeeded by Federico Franco.

Famous Folk born on June 22nd:

Paul Morphy (brilliant chess player of the mid 1800s)
Tom Dula (origin of a song)
James Rector
Elias Katz
John Dillinger
Carl Hubbell
Billy Wilder
Mike Todd
Joseph Papp
Bill Blass
Ralph Waite (loved him as the father of Leroy Jethro Gibbs on "NCIS")
Dianne Feinstein
Kris Kristofferson
Ed Bradley
Michael Lerner
Murphy Dunne

Brit Hume
Klaus Maria Brandauer

Pete Maravich
Todd Rundgren
Larry Junstrom
Alan Osmond
Meryl Streep
Elizabeth Warren
Cyndi Lauper
Freddie Prinze
Tim Russ
Erin Brokovich
Margrit Klinger
Tracy Pollan
Stephen Chow
Clyde Drexler
Randy Couture
Amy Brennerman
Dan Brown
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Kurt Warner
Carson Daly
Donald Faison

Gerry Conlon, wrongfully convicted for bombing he didn't do dies at age 60 and other eye-catching headlines

Gerry Conlon who spent 15 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit has died at the age of 60.  He was one of the Guilford Four, wrongfully convicted of a 1974 IRA bombing.  His story was told in the 1993 film "In the Name of the Father."  He had been ill for some time.

According to the Business Insider, using data from boxofficemojo.com and IMDB.com, the most expensive film ever made was 2007's "Pirates of the Caribbean:  At World's End."  Adjusted for inflation, it cost an estimated $341.8 million to make.  Coming in a close second on the list of the 20 most expensive movies ever was 1963's "Cleopatra."  Adjusted for inflation, it cost an estimated $339.5 million.

Singer Randy Travis suffered a severe stroke over a year ago and today is still unable to speak.  He can walk with the aid of a cane, and there is hope he will regain the ability to speak at some point in the future.

Hope Solo can add "arrested for domestic violence" to her resume as a soccer goalie after she was taken in for allegedly beating her sister and 17 year old nephew in Seattle on Saturday.

Dan Dotson is a reality TV star, as the auctioneer on "Storage Wars" and he allowed producers of the show to record his recent emergency brain surgery.  It will likely be shown on Season 6 of the show.  Dotson suffered a double brain aneurysm and will require a long stay in the hospital to recover, but immediately after surgery he had no sign of paralysis.

Academy Award winning actress Lupita Nyong'o says that walking the red carpet is like a "war zone", a comment that may not draw as much outrage as recent comments by Gwyneth Paltrow and Charlize Theron did.

New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony will reportedly opt out of his $23.5 million contract for next season and test the waters of free agency. 

Former president George W. Bush is refusing to criticize President Obama's handling of the situation in Iraq.

Mention Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the same sentence and we think of romantic comedies like "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail."  However, the pair are combining to produce (Hanks) and direct/star in (Ryan) in a movie about to begin production in Virginia.  "Ithaca" will be the directorial debut of Ryan and will also star Melanie Griffith, Sam Shephard and Ryan's son, Jack Quaid.

Taylor Swift is apparently a fan of NBC's "Law & Order: SVU" as she's named her newest pet "Olivia Benson."

7'1" Isiah Austin, a sophomore center from Baylor University was probably going to be picked in the top 20 of Thursday's NBA draft.  Now his career is over, due to the discovery that he suffers from Marfan's Syndrome.  He will continue his education at Baylor while coaching there.

There is a 4th grade student near Chicago who is being sued by a classmate, accusing him of being a bully.

Pursuers are closing in on a South Korean soldier who allegedly killed five of his comrades at an outpost near the Demilitarized Zone that separates North Korea from South Korea.

Sing Sing Prison may convert an old power plant into a prison museum.  It would be a rarity, as most such museums are not located at prisons where convicts are currently imprisoned.

Bowe Bergdahl has been released from the hospital and is now continuing treatment as an outpatient.  He remains at the Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

Singer Jimmy Buffett is performing at drive-in theaters trying to save them from extinction.

Stephen Gillett is the COO of Symantec, the tech giant that swallowed up Peter Norton's software company back in 1990.  On his resume he lists his World of Warcraft achievements.

It's always the same question

Every time I go to the VA for any kind of appointment or anything, as part of the intake process they ask a bunch of questions.  One of them is "are you in any pain" and if you say yes, they ask you to rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10.  I've never said 10, at least not that I can remember. 

Tuesday night I came close.  I was home, trying to sit down at the computer to do some writing, but I couldn't.  Every time I tried, the pain in my left leg grew in intensity.  Elevating it always relieves the pain.  The pain is caused by edema that is a byproduct of a condition known as chronic venous stasis.  At the same time, the shortness of breath I'd been experiencing for several weeks got worse.  Finally, after spending 30 minutes on hold with the VA's 24 hour nurse help-line, I decided to go to the ER.

I've been there several times over the past few weeks and they've tried to convince me to stay.  I knew they'd give me something for the pain and a diuretic to reduce the excess fluid in my body, but this time I didn't fight them about admitting me. 

So when they asked me about the pain, I had said my pain level was a nine.  I was in agony that was relieved quickly by an injection, and when it returned, by another; but now I can live with the current level of pain.  It's probably a five, but it's just about time to take two more Tylenol (I'm trying to avoid using the hydrocodone I was given as much as possible) and that will reduce it greatly.

Over the past two months or so, I'd gotten worse and worse about the food choices I had been making.  Now I have to try my best once again to make healthy choices.  I will attempt once again to use my hatred of hospital beds to motivate me.  It's never easy.

I have a "good" me on my right shoulder and a "bad" me on my left shoulder, and the bad me was trying to convince me I should celebrate my release from the hospital with a trip to the drive-thru at McDonald's or Burger King.  The good me intervened and now I have a Subway sandwich waiting for me.  Nothing on it but sliced tomatoes.  No mayo, no dressing, nothing else.

I may get around to resuming my usual blog later tonight, or it may start again tomorrow.  Apologies for having missed the past few days.  I just can't do this from my iPhone. 

To those who read these entries on a regular or even semi-regular basis, my thanks.

Understanding Iraq

To better understand what's going on in Iraq, it is necessary to understand the schism in Islam.  Just as Christianity is broken down into Catholics, Baptists, Mormons and more; Islam has two major denominations.   The Sunnis and the Shiites.  Considering that Islam, with 1.7 billion followers, is the second largest religion on Earth (and probably the one growing at the fastest rate), this isn't trivial stuff.

The Sunnis are by far the largest of the denominations, comprising somewhere between 70% and 90% of all Muslims.  The Shias make up most of the rest of the faith.  Like all schisms in religion, they differ over an interpretation of scripture.  One of the points on which the two denominations disagree is who is the rightful successor of Muhammad as the faith's leader.

Iraq's current Prime Minister is Nouri al-Malaki.  He is a Shia.  He promised during both of his two election campaigns to share power with the Sunnis, but has failed to keep these promises.  The insurgent group trying to take control of Iraq is known as ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.  They were affiliated with al-Qaeda until this past February.  They claim Iraq and Syria as theirs, and have their eyes on further conquests, as they see themselves as rulers of the entire Levant. 

Is it fair to say that President Obama blew it by pulling all Americans from Iraq in 2011?  No.  Is it fair to say that President George W. Bush blew it by signing a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) that called for U. S. troops to pull out by 2011?  No.  The original SOFA had to have an end date and the Obama administration worked tirelessly to negotiate a new SOFA that would have left 10,000 U. S. troops, or more in Iraq.  Ultimately the effort failed because the Iraqi government would not grant those U. S. troops immunity from prosecution by the Iraqi government.

Assigning blame is a useless exercise in this instance anyway.  Partisan politicking won't solve the real problem that this growing crisis presents.  Crude oil prices and supplies.  The price of a barrel of crude has ranged in price from $105 to $114 over the past six months, but it could skyrocket depending on what happens in Iraq.

Since President Obama has ruled out troops on the ground in Iraq, his options are limited.  I hope he comes up with a winning plan to put an end to this situation.

* * *

Let's suppose that you've decided that the state of California needs a new law.  You've got plenty of money, so you can go out and fund a drive to gather signatures to put your proposed new law on the ballot.  Best part is, you can do so anonymously.  That's the ruling of a Federal Appeals Court.

California law said otherwise.  Considering how many times we've seen ballot propositions that claim to be one thing while doing exactly the opposite, and being sponsored by industries to promote, rather than restrict their own operations, I like the idea of knowing who is behind a ballot proposition.

The will of the majority is not absolute.  We cannot legalize slavery again.  Some ballot proposals are good, well thought out ideas.  Others are disasters in the making.  Knowing who is behind an idea makes it easier to consider that idea and if it is good or bad for us.

* * *

Michael Schumacher is out of the coma he had been in since last December, following a tragic skiing accident.  Had he not been wearing a helmet at the time, he would almost certainly have died.  The only information being given to the media is that he is taking the next step in what will be a long process of rehabilitation.  He was moved to the hospital at the University Hospital of Lusanne in Switzerland.

The doctors described his injury from the skiing accident as a "traumatic brain injury."  They induced the coma state in order to try to reduce the swelling of his brain.  We don't know if he's actually conscious, or merely no longer in a medically-induced coma.

Nor is it any of our business, once the family has asked for privacy.  Statistically he is the greatest driver in the history of Formula One racing, and is obviously a public figure.  That doesn't mean he isn't entitled to his privacy during this time.

The body deconditions when you are in a coma.  I speak from experience here, not just research.  I spent eight weeks in a coma, not six months.  Then again, I wasn't in the physical condition of a world-class athlete when I became ill.  I have no way of knowing just how much deconditioning Mr. Schumacher has suffered.  I do know that it was weeks before I could even stand, let alone walk, without physical or mechanical assistance.

We also don't know if he's really out of the coma.  I think we should let him recover in privacy and peace.  Good luck Mr. Schumacher.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

Part of the fix to the problem of student loans might be found in cutting into the profits of these highly profitable loans, and looking more closely at how loan servicers do what they do.

If an 83 year old woman wants a tattoo on her shoulder, more power to her.

The mother whose response to being told her daughter's chosen dress for graduation was too short was to wear the dress to the ceremony herself is  awesome.

I'm trying to think of businesses that would hire O.J. to endorse their product or do commercials for their business.  He can't run through airports anymore.  Ford wouldn't use him as a spokesman for the Bronco.  Maybe he could do commercials for Florida oranges, as long as there isn't a knife involved.

How hard is it to check and see if Ghana has giraffes before using a giraffe as an image to represent the nation?

If the reigning Miss USA was really representing Nevada at the pageant, one would think she would know the state capital of Nevada.  Did she play fast and loose with the rules?  Probably.

Zoey Tur returning to the news biz after she completes her transition just makes sense for whoever is smart enough to hire her.  She's a damn good reporter and helicopter pilot.

The mayor dropping the "F-bomb" at the Kings parade on Monday was a calculated move, designed to raise his national profile.

Losing a set of golf clubs isn't good for United Airlines.  Losing a set that belongs to Rory McIlroy is a lot worse.  Good thing they turned up.

Someone at Simon and Schuster ought to be really nervous.  They committed somewhere in the neighborhood of $14 million as an advance to Hillary Clinton for her newest book, and the sales are abysmal.  One million copies were shipped and estimates are that only 150,000 will ultimately sell.  Bad judgment on someone's part.

South Carolina's DMV should not be forcing a teen boy to remove his makeup in order to take the photo for his driver license.

* * *

June 17th in History:

1462 – Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.
1497 – Battle of Deptford Bridge – forces under King Henry VII defeat troops led by Michael An Gof.
1565 – Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
1579 – Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
1596 – The Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz discovers the Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen.
1631 – Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, will spend the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.
1673 – French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet reach the Mississippi River and become the first Europeans to make a detailed account of its course.
1773 – Cúcuta, Colombia, is discovered by Juana Rangel de Cuéllar.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: Colonists inflict heavy casualties on British forces while losing the Battle of Bunker Hill.
1789 – In France, the Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly.
1839 – In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace are established as a result.
1843 – The Wairau Affray, the first serious clash of arms between Māori and British settlers in the New Zealand Wars, takes place.
1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Vienna, Virginia.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign.
1876 – American Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud – 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
1877 – American Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon – the Nez Perce defeat the U.S. Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.
1885 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
1898 – The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established.
1900 – Boxer Rebellion: Allied Western and Japanese forces capture the Taku Forts in Tianjin, China.
1901 – The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT.
1910 – Aurel Vlaicu pilots an A. Vlaicu nr. 1 on its first flight.
1930 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law.
1932 – Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
1933 – Union Station Massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash are gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.
1939 – Last public guillotining in France: Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the Saint-Pierre prison.
1940 – World War II: RMS Lancastria is attacked and sunk by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France. At least 3,000 are killed in Britain's worst maritime disaster.
1940 – World War II: The British Army's 11th Hussars assault and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya, Africa from Italian forces.
1940 – The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
1944 – Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic.
1953 – East Germany Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
1958 – The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, in the process of being built to connect Vancouver and North Vancouver (Canada), collapses into the Burrard Inlet killing many of the ironworkers and injuring others.
1960 – The Nez Perce tribe is awarded $4 million for 7 million acres (28,000 km2) of land undervalued at 4 cents/acre in the 1863 treaty.
1963 – The United States Supreme Court rules 8–1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against requiring the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
1963 – A day after South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem announced the Joint Communique to end the Buddhist crisis, a riot involving around 2,000 people breaks out. One person is killed.
1967 – The People's Republic of China announces a successful test of its first thermonuclear weapon.
1971 – President Richard Nixon declares the U.S. War on Drugs.
1972 – Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition.
1985 – STS-51-G Space Shuttle Discovery launches carrying Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a Payload Specialist.
1987 – With the death of the last individual of the species, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.
1991 – Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act which required racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
1992 – A "joint understanding" agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).
1994 – Following a televised low-speed highway chase, O.J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Famous Folk Born on June 17th:

Edward I of England
Charles XII of Sweden
Henry Lawson
Igor Stravinsky
Martin Bormann
Ralph Bellamy

Elroy Hirsch
Tigran Petrosian
Peter Lupus
John Murtha
Newt Gingrich
Barry Manilow

Frank Ashmore (he was Victor)

Art Bell
Tommy Franks
Eddy Merckx
Linda Chavez
George S. Clinton
Paul Young
Lee Tamahori (did his arrest kill his career as a major motion picture director?)
Joe Piscopo

Mark Linn-Baker
Phyllida Lloyd
Jello Biafra
Bobby Farrelly
Thomas Haden Church
Greg Kinnear
Erin Murphy
Kami Cotler
Jason Patric
Paul Tergat
Will Forte
Paulina Rubio
Chloe Jones
Venus Williams