Rules, regulations, laws and conventions
The Third Geneva Convention governs the treatment of Prisoners of War during a time of war. It says that prisoners have the following rights:
Treated humanely with respect for their persons and their honor
Able to inform their next of kin and the International Committee of the Red Cross of their capture
Allowed to communicate regularly with relatives and receive packages
Given adequate food, clothing, housing, and medical attention
Paid for work done and not forced to do work that is dangerous, unhealthy, or degrading
Released quickly after conflicts end
Not compelled to give any information except for name, age, rank, and service number
These are rights that the United States government, during the administration of George W. Bush, did not want to grant to the detainees at Gitmo. Until the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the detainees were entitled to these protections in a 2006 ruling (Hamdan v Rumseld) we did not consider them to be POWs.
Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl has been considered a POW since he first disappeared from his unit in Afghanistan in 2009. But when he initially disappeared, it wasn't in the midst of combat. It wasn't a case of someone sneaking inside the U. S. perimeter and capturing him. Reports indicate that he simply left camp after finishing his shift on guard duty.
It appears that his "status" on his unit's manpower document was changed from present and/or accounted for to DUSTWUN (Duty Status: Whereabouts Unknown), which is a status that shows the individual to be "missing" but their death and/or capture is not confirmed. If he'd been in a non-combat zone, rather than DUSTWUN, his status would have been changed to AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave).
Did he go AWOL? We don't know for sure. We do know that he has survived five years of captivity and that's damn heroic. I'm confident that during those five long years of captivity he followed this code:
That he was disillusioned with the U. S. military prior to his disappearance and capture seems pretty clear. Rolling Stone magazine published what is ostensibly his last email to his parents prior to his capture and it is telling: "The future is too good to waste on lies," Bowe wrote. "And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be american. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting." The e-mail went on to list a series of complaints: Three good sergeants, Bowe said, had been forced to move to another company, and "one of the biggest shit bags is being put in charge of the team." His battalion commander was a "conceited old fool." The military system itself was broken: "In the US army you are cut down for being honest... but if you are a conceited brown nosing shit bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want, and you will be handed your higher rank... The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an american. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools." The soldiers he actually admired were planning on leaving: "The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies. The few good SGTs are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same."
From that point, all reports seem to indicate he just walked away after that.
I don't want to see him questioned or prosecuted over this. His Army career is for all intents and purposes, over. He's going to get a nice chunk of back pay, will wind up with a book deal somewhere along the way and probably never have to work again. I'm sure Hollywood is already working on at least one movie version of his life.
Others however want to take a harder line. Some of them are soldiers from his unit who label him a "deserter." They want to see him court-martialed and held to answer. They talk about the six men who died in the search to find Bergdahl and decry the "...deaths of better men." Some of them are Republicans who are also claiming that the Obama administration broke the law by making this "transfer" of prisoners. They are arguing that the President needed to notify Congress 30 days or more before transferring one of the terrorists in custody at Gitmo.
The law does say that. But it is probably not constitutional. The President is Commander-in-Chief, we are supposedly at war with the terrorists and that would make POW exchanges solely the purview of the CINC.
I am troubled by the message this exchange sends. The policy has been, we don't negotiate with terrorists. Having a third-party like Qatar is a nice attempt at a dodge of that policy but that's nothing more than semantics. Releasing prisoners we hold for Americans that they take will do nothing but invite them to take more Americans.
In the end, President Obama made the right call. It was time to bring Sgt Bowe Bergdahl home. We don't leave anyone behind, or at least, we should strive to never do so. However, caution should be the watchword from this point forward.
* * *
As I get back in tune with my body, and pay more attention to what I'm putting into it, I'm finding that small choices make large differences.
I love a few brands of soup. Soup is low in calories and otherwise healthy until you look at the sodium content. Most of a full day's sodium content is found in one serving of the canned soups I favor. I had one can left and last night I decided it was time to get rid of it. So I consumed that final can, figuring that one of these days I'll buy more and have one from time to time.
Turns out that it is going to have to be a long time between tries, if at all. I felt the difference this morning. Reduced energy level, water retention and more. All from just one small choice.
Time to make smarter small choices.
Most of the time, I try to follow the Navy SEAL meme on pain. It reminds us we are alive. On one hand I have a high tolerance for certain kinds of physical pain, while others I have almost no tolerance for.
When pain is at a certain level and you know what to expect from day to day, you manage your pain accordingly. Then days like today come up, where the pain where my left leg is leaking fluid through the shin is even more excruciatingly sharp than others, and my pain management plan goes out the window.
A few years back I'd just keep taking ibuprofen but now that I know how bad that is for my kidneys, that's out. I can take more Tylenol but I have to watch the dosage on that. My supply of hydrocodone has to be husbanded carefully, as the VA will only give me 30 tablets a month; which on a "take every six hours as needed for pain" prescription makes no sense.
Making those smarter small choices will help with this.
* * *
I want you to do something you may find disquieting, possibly revolting. I want you to pretend for a moment that you are a Kardashian sister. Okay, okay, any famous person will do. Got the mindset?
Okay. So you go to Google or Yahoo or Bing or some other search engine and you find that when you search your name, a pornographic website has misappropriated your image. If not your likeness, then your name or something else equally identifiable and unique to you. Of course, you will have to call the lawyers and sic them on this website that is stealing from you. That's what taking your image for commercial use without your permission is.
But what about the search engine itself? Does it bear any responsibility for linking you to this website? Can you sue them?
Apparently in Argentina, you can. María Belén Rodríguez is an Argentinian model who is suing Google and Yahoo for their searches that link her name with a porno website.
I don't think they have done anything wrong. They aren't a publisher of content when giving search results. They're merely fulfilling a request that they search the web for URLs where certain content can be found.
What do you think?
* * *
Random Ponderings:
RIP Ann B. Davis. Most of us were raised by you as "Alice". Factoid: The Brady Bunch was originally titled The Brady Brood.
Justin Beiber is a major d-bag, but he deserves a pass on a joke told when he was 15.
Donald T. Sterling was praying in a black church in L. A. on Sunday. Why is this important? Why does anyone care? Is the jury really still out about his racist views?
If someone were to try to sell me the stolen Maserati that was jacked from the home of Miley Cyrus, I'd want to make sure it had been disinfected before purchase.
The Kings are going to the Stanley Cup Finals after becoming the first team in NHL history to win three game 7s on the road. Awesome. Can't wait for the Finals to start (Wednesday night).
Why does the media have to cover the nipples of Scout Willis when publishing images of her walking around topless in NYC?
It isn't uncommon for a bat to be broken in baseball when the hitter makes contact with the ball. But when he misses completely? Why would a bat break in that situation?
The Hidden Cash thing is good, but in small doses. I'm glad he's going back home to San Francisco.
People facing deportation should be monitored with ankle bracelets, at a much lower cost than housing them in detention centers.
Since she's trending #1 on Yahoo at this moment, Stephanie McMahon is probably just staring at a big screenshot of Yahoo.
Thanks to one of his former deputies taking his own life, Sheriff Joe may finally have to go.
* * *
June 2nd in History:
455 – Sack of Rome: Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks
1010 – The Battle of Aqbat al-Bakr took place in the context of the Fitna of al-Andalus resulting in a defeat for the Caliphate of Cordoba.
1098 – First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the city. The second siege would later start on June 7.
1615 – The first Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.
1676 – Franco-Dutch War: France ensured the supremacy of its naval fleet for the remainder of the war with its victory in the Battle of Palermo.
1692 – Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Found guilty, she is hanged on June 10.
1763 – Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.
1774 – Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act is enacted, allowing a governor in colonial America to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters are not provided.
1793 – French Revolution: François Hanriot, leader of the Parisian National Guard, arrests 22 Girondists selected by Jean-Paul Marat, setting the stage for the Reign of Terror.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptures Diamond Rock, an uninhabited island at the entrance to the bay leading to Fort-de-France, from the British.
1835 – P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States.
1848 – The Slavic congress in Prague begins.
1855 – The Portland Rum Riot occurs in Portland, Maine.
1866 – Fenian raids: the Fenians are victorious over Canadian forces in both the Battle of Ridgeway and the Battle of Fort Erie.
1876 – Hristo Botev, a national revolutionary of Bulgaria, is killed in Stara Planina
1886 – The U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the only president to wed in the executive mansion.
1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his newest invention, the radio.
1909 – Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
1910 – Charles Rolls, a co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited, becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.
1919 – Anarchists simultaneously set off bombs in eight separate U.S. cities.
1924 – The U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
1941 – World War II: German paratoopers murder Greek civilians in the village of Kondomari.
1946 – Birth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After the referendum, King Umberto II of Italy is exiled.
1953 – The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, who is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories & Head of the Commonwealth, the first major international event to be televised.
1955 – The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.
1962 – During the 1962 FIFA World Cup, police had to intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.
1966 – Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
1967 – Luis Monge is executed in Colorado's gas chamber, in the last pre-Furman execution in the United States.
1967 – Protests in West Berlin against the arrival of the Shah of Iran turn into riots, during which Benno Ohnesorg is killed by a police officer. His death results in the founding of the terrorist group Movement 2 June.
1979 – Pope John Paul II starts his first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
1983 – After an emergency landing because of an in-flight fire, twenty-three passengers aboard Air Canada Flight 797 are killed when a flashover occurs as the plane's doors open. Because of this incident, numerous new safety regulations are put in place.
1990 – The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawns 66 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12. Petersburg, Indiana, is the hardest-hit town in the outbreak, with 6 deaths.
1994 – An RAF Chinook helicopter crashes in Scotland killing all 29 on board. The original cause of the crash is ruled as pilot error, this verdict is overturned in 2011.
1995 – United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone.
1997 – In Denver, Colorado, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was executed four years later.
1999 – The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time.
2003 – Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
2004 – Ken Jennings begins his 74-game winning streak on the syndicated game show Jeopardy!
2010 – A 52-year-old man went on a four-hour killing spree in west Cumbria, shooting dead 13 (inc. himself) and injuring 11 others.
2012 – The former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of demonstrators during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
Famous Folk Born on June 2nd:
Pope Leo XI
Martha Washington
Pope Pius X
Thomas Hardy
Admiral Takijiro Onishi (committed seppuku without a second...)
Barbara Pym
Tex Schramm
Pete Conrad
Sally Kellerman
Ron Ely
Stacy Keach
Charles Haid
Marvin Hamlisch (the bit doesn't focus on him, but he carried it off so well...)
Robert Elliott
Jon Peters
Lasse Hallstrom
Peter Sutcliffe
Jerry Mathers
Joanna Gleason
Dennis Haysbert
Dana Carvey
Michael Steele
Lex Luger
Olga Bondarenko
Tony Hadley
Wayne Brady
Gata Kamsky
Zachary Quinto
Nikki Cox
A. J. Styles
Abby Wambach
These are rights that the United States government, during the administration of George W. Bush, did not want to grant to the detainees at Gitmo. Until the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the detainees were entitled to these protections in a 2006 ruling (Hamdan v Rumseld) we did not consider them to be POWs.
Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl has been considered a POW since he first disappeared from his unit in Afghanistan in 2009. But when he initially disappeared, it wasn't in the midst of combat. It wasn't a case of someone sneaking inside the U. S. perimeter and capturing him. Reports indicate that he simply left camp after finishing his shift on guard duty.
It appears that his "status" on his unit's manpower document was changed from present and/or accounted for to DUSTWUN (Duty Status: Whereabouts Unknown), which is a status that shows the individual to be "missing" but their death and/or capture is not confirmed. If he'd been in a non-combat zone, rather than DUSTWUN, his status would have been changed to AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave).
Did he go AWOL? We don't know for sure. We do know that he has survived five years of captivity and that's damn heroic. I'm confident that during those five long years of captivity he followed this code:
That he was disillusioned with the U. S. military prior to his disappearance and capture seems pretty clear. Rolling Stone magazine published what is ostensibly his last email to his parents prior to his capture and it is telling: "The future is too good to waste on lies," Bowe wrote. "And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be american. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting." The e-mail went on to list a series of complaints: Three good sergeants, Bowe said, had been forced to move to another company, and "one of the biggest shit bags is being put in charge of the team." His battalion commander was a "conceited old fool." The military system itself was broken: "In the US army you are cut down for being honest... but if you are a conceited brown nosing shit bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want, and you will be handed your higher rank... The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an american. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools." The soldiers he actually admired were planning on leaving: "The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies. The few good SGTs are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same."
From that point, all reports seem to indicate he just walked away after that.
I don't want to see him questioned or prosecuted over this. His Army career is for all intents and purposes, over. He's going to get a nice chunk of back pay, will wind up with a book deal somewhere along the way and probably never have to work again. I'm sure Hollywood is already working on at least one movie version of his life.
Others however want to take a harder line. Some of them are soldiers from his unit who label him a "deserter." They want to see him court-martialed and held to answer. They talk about the six men who died in the search to find Bergdahl and decry the "...deaths of better men." Some of them are Republicans who are also claiming that the Obama administration broke the law by making this "transfer" of prisoners. They are arguing that the President needed to notify Congress 30 days or more before transferring one of the terrorists in custody at Gitmo.
The law does say that. But it is probably not constitutional. The President is Commander-in-Chief, we are supposedly at war with the terrorists and that would make POW exchanges solely the purview of the CINC.
I am troubled by the message this exchange sends. The policy has been, we don't negotiate with terrorists. Having a third-party like Qatar is a nice attempt at a dodge of that policy but that's nothing more than semantics. Releasing prisoners we hold for Americans that they take will do nothing but invite them to take more Americans.
In the end, President Obama made the right call. It was time to bring Sgt Bowe Bergdahl home. We don't leave anyone behind, or at least, we should strive to never do so. However, caution should be the watchword from this point forward.
* * *
As I get back in tune with my body, and pay more attention to what I'm putting into it, I'm finding that small choices make large differences.
I love a few brands of soup. Soup is low in calories and otherwise healthy until you look at the sodium content. Most of a full day's sodium content is found in one serving of the canned soups I favor. I had one can left and last night I decided it was time to get rid of it. So I consumed that final can, figuring that one of these days I'll buy more and have one from time to time.
Turns out that it is going to have to be a long time between tries, if at all. I felt the difference this morning. Reduced energy level, water retention and more. All from just one small choice.
Time to make smarter small choices.
Most of the time, I try to follow the Navy SEAL meme on pain. It reminds us we are alive. On one hand I have a high tolerance for certain kinds of physical pain, while others I have almost no tolerance for.
When pain is at a certain level and you know what to expect from day to day, you manage your pain accordingly. Then days like today come up, where the pain where my left leg is leaking fluid through the shin is even more excruciatingly sharp than others, and my pain management plan goes out the window.
A few years back I'd just keep taking ibuprofen but now that I know how bad that is for my kidneys, that's out. I can take more Tylenol but I have to watch the dosage on that. My supply of hydrocodone has to be husbanded carefully, as the VA will only give me 30 tablets a month; which on a "take every six hours as needed for pain" prescription makes no sense.
Making those smarter small choices will help with this.
* * *
I want you to do something you may find disquieting, possibly revolting. I want you to pretend for a moment that you are a Kardashian sister. Okay, okay, any famous person will do. Got the mindset?
Okay. So you go to Google or Yahoo or Bing or some other search engine and you find that when you search your name, a pornographic website has misappropriated your image. If not your likeness, then your name or something else equally identifiable and unique to you. Of course, you will have to call the lawyers and sic them on this website that is stealing from you. That's what taking your image for commercial use without your permission is.
But what about the search engine itself? Does it bear any responsibility for linking you to this website? Can you sue them?
Apparently in Argentina, you can. María Belén Rodríguez is an Argentinian model who is suing Google and Yahoo for their searches that link her name with a porno website.
I don't think they have done anything wrong. They aren't a publisher of content when giving search results. They're merely fulfilling a request that they search the web for URLs where certain content can be found.
What do you think?
* * *
Random Ponderings:
RIP Ann B. Davis. Most of us were raised by you as "Alice". Factoid: The Brady Bunch was originally titled The Brady Brood.
Justin Beiber is a major d-bag, but he deserves a pass on a joke told when he was 15.
Donald T. Sterling was praying in a black church in L. A. on Sunday. Why is this important? Why does anyone care? Is the jury really still out about his racist views?
If someone were to try to sell me the stolen Maserati that was jacked from the home of Miley Cyrus, I'd want to make sure it had been disinfected before purchase.
The Kings are going to the Stanley Cup Finals after becoming the first team in NHL history to win three game 7s on the road. Awesome. Can't wait for the Finals to start (Wednesday night).
Why does the media have to cover the nipples of Scout Willis when publishing images of her walking around topless in NYC?
It isn't uncommon for a bat to be broken in baseball when the hitter makes contact with the ball. But when he misses completely? Why would a bat break in that situation?
The Hidden Cash thing is good, but in small doses. I'm glad he's going back home to San Francisco.
People facing deportation should be monitored with ankle bracelets, at a much lower cost than housing them in detention centers.
Since she's trending #1 on Yahoo at this moment, Stephanie McMahon is probably just staring at a big screenshot of Yahoo.
Thanks to one of his former deputies taking his own life, Sheriff Joe may finally have to go.
* * *
June 2nd in History:
455 – Sack of Rome: Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks
1010 – The Battle of Aqbat al-Bakr took place in the context of the Fitna of al-Andalus resulting in a defeat for the Caliphate of Cordoba.
1098 – First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the city. The second siege would later start on June 7.
1615 – The first Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.
1676 – Franco-Dutch War: France ensured the supremacy of its naval fleet for the remainder of the war with its victory in the Battle of Palermo.
1692 – Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Found guilty, she is hanged on June 10.
1763 – Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.
1774 – Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act is enacted, allowing a governor in colonial America to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters are not provided.
1793 – French Revolution: François Hanriot, leader of the Parisian National Guard, arrests 22 Girondists selected by Jean-Paul Marat, setting the stage for the Reign of Terror.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptures Diamond Rock, an uninhabited island at the entrance to the bay leading to Fort-de-France, from the British.
1835 – P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States.
1848 – The Slavic congress in Prague begins.
1855 – The Portland Rum Riot occurs in Portland, Maine.
1866 – Fenian raids: the Fenians are victorious over Canadian forces in both the Battle of Ridgeway and the Battle of Fort Erie.
1876 – Hristo Botev, a national revolutionary of Bulgaria, is killed in Stara Planina
1886 – The U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the only president to wed in the executive mansion.
1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his newest invention, the radio.
1909 – Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
1910 – Charles Rolls, a co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited, becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.
1919 – Anarchists simultaneously set off bombs in eight separate U.S. cities.
1924 – The U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
1941 – World War II: German paratoopers murder Greek civilians in the village of Kondomari.
1946 – Birth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After the referendum, King Umberto II of Italy is exiled.
1953 – The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, who is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories & Head of the Commonwealth, the first major international event to be televised.
1955 – The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.
1962 – During the 1962 FIFA World Cup, police had to intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.
1966 – Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
1967 – Luis Monge is executed in Colorado's gas chamber, in the last pre-Furman execution in the United States.
1967 – Protests in West Berlin against the arrival of the Shah of Iran turn into riots, during which Benno Ohnesorg is killed by a police officer. His death results in the founding of the terrorist group Movement 2 June.
1979 – Pope John Paul II starts his first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
1983 – After an emergency landing because of an in-flight fire, twenty-three passengers aboard Air Canada Flight 797 are killed when a flashover occurs as the plane's doors open. Because of this incident, numerous new safety regulations are put in place.
1990 – The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawns 66 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12. Petersburg, Indiana, is the hardest-hit town in the outbreak, with 6 deaths.
1994 – An RAF Chinook helicopter crashes in Scotland killing all 29 on board. The original cause of the crash is ruled as pilot error, this verdict is overturned in 2011.
1995 – United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone.
1997 – In Denver, Colorado, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was executed four years later.
1999 – The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time.
2003 – Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
2004 – Ken Jennings begins his 74-game winning streak on the syndicated game show Jeopardy!
2010 – A 52-year-old man went on a four-hour killing spree in west Cumbria, shooting dead 13 (inc. himself) and injuring 11 others.
2012 – The former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of demonstrators during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
Famous Folk Born on June 2nd:
Pope Leo XI
Martha Washington
Pope Pius X
Thomas Hardy
Admiral Takijiro Onishi (committed seppuku without a second...)
Barbara Pym
Tex Schramm
Pete Conrad
Sally Kellerman
Ron Ely
Stacy Keach
Charles Haid
Marvin Hamlisch (the bit doesn't focus on him, but he carried it off so well...)
Robert Elliott
Jon Peters
Lasse Hallstrom
Peter Sutcliffe
Jerry Mathers
Joanna Gleason
Dennis Haysbert
Dana Carvey
Michael Steele
Lex Luger
Olga Bondarenko
Tony Hadley
Wayne Brady
Gata Kamsky
Zachary Quinto
Nikki Cox
A. J. Styles
Abby Wambach
posted by me at 7:30 AM
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