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
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
posted by me at 10:52 PM
<< Home