The end of the innocence

Aaron Sofer was only 23 years old when his body was found in a forest near Jerusalem.  Was he murdered?  Probably.  Was he guilty of any kind of crime?  No.  He was an innocent victim.  Collateral damage

I don't know if Michael Brown was innocent.  Did he take something from a convenience store?  Did he or did he not charge at a police officer in defiance of an order to halt?  If you'll pardon the turn of phrase, the jury is going to be out on this one for some time to come.  But let's give him the benefit of the doubt, because in this nation we are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.

Children killed in schools by other children, or deluded adults who should be locked in rubber rooms until they no longer present a danger to our society.  What will it take until we admit that our innocence is lost?  No disrespect to Don Henley but there is no place in this world that we can go where we won't have a care.  No place that's completely "safe." 

So what do we do?  We live our lives as best we can, doing what we know is right and ethical, and make the best of it.  We smile and enjoy the moments we have.  We treasure those we care about and enjoy their company for as long as we can.

We also do our best to seek justice for the victims. 

* * *

I've been hard on Joan Rivers of late, taking issue with her sense of humor, pointing out that she's everywhere and anywhere she can turn a buck and so on.  I've never wished her ill will or injury and yet I felt bad today when I heard that she'd had a heart attack.

She was having a routine procedure on her throat when her heart stopped.  I couldn't help but be reminded of L. A. Times columnist Steve Lopez, who is much younger than Rivers, who had his heart stop after minor surgery.  Both were revived after a heart stoppage.

As far as I know, my heart never stopped, although I did stop breathing in the ER more than once.  I wonder what they experienced.  I'd love to ask them, and others. 

However, there aren't any groups of people who "nearly died" to share their experiences.  I was also told by a psychiatrist who deals with many who had such experiences, that the memory of what took place while they were unconscious can be very unreliable.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

Who cares if Bruce Jenner wants to wear Spanx?

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS who says they have a warrant for your arrest, it's a scam.  I'm probably the last person on Earth that these criminals should be trying to scam that way, but they tried.  I was amused.

If NBC was really paying Chelsea Clinton $600,000 a year, then they were overpaying.

If Kendall Jenner wants to be taken seriously, dropping her mom as her manager would be a much better move than dropping her last name.

Criticizing President Obama's choice of business suit is ridiculous.

If Nidal Hassan, the Fort Hood shooter, wants to become a citizen of the ISIS Caliphate, I'm sure that can be arranged for him; in the afterlife once he's been executed for his crimes.

Only an idiot would carry a gun onto a California school campus, even if he's a vice-principal with a concealed carry permit.

Britney Spears is single and ready to mingle.  She's rich, gorgeous and many guys would shy away.  I am one of them.  As they say on Jerry Springer's favorite game show, she has too much "baggage."

The organizers of the Miss Asia Pacific World pageant thought the winner's breasts were too small, so they offered to pay for a "boob job" and she accepted.  There is something seriously wrong with that.

Good for the guy who was the date of Miley Cyrus to the VMAs.  He turned himself in.

WWE Hall of Famer Jake "The Snake" Roberts is in an intensive care unit suffering from what was described as double pneumonia.  That's an arcane term, that was used to describe pneumonia in both lungs.  But he is really ill and I hope he gets better.

Tripling the amount of CA government subsidies for film production that stays in CA is a good first step.

Anyone who cries out "foul," claiming that it was Michael Sam's sexual preference that caused him to be cut from the St. Louis Rams is just wrong.

Why is it that the approval rating of Congress is at such a low level and yet most incumbents will win reelection easily?

* * *

August 30th in History:

526 – King Theoderic the Great dies of dysentery at Ravenna; his daughter Amalasuntha takes power as regent for her 10-year old son Athalaric.
1282 – Peter III of Aragon, originally traveling with his fleet on a military expedition against the Hafsid Kingdom, ends up in the Sicilian town of Trapani, after he was asked by the inhabitants of Palermo to help in the fight against Charles of Anjou.
1363 – Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders — Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang — are pitted against each other in what is one of the largest naval battles in history, during the last decade of the ailing, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.
1464 – Pope Paul II succeeds Pope Pius II as the 211th pope.
1574 – Guru Ram Das becomes the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.
1590 – Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle. (Traditional Japanese date: August 1, 1590)
1791 – HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on a reef the previous day.
1799 – The entire Dutch fleet is captured by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell during the War of the Second Coalition.
1800 – Gabriel Prosser postpones a planned slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia, but is arrested before he can make it happen.
1813 – First Battle of Kulm: French forces are defeated by an Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.
1813 – Creek War: Fort Mims massacre: Creek "Red Sticks" kill over 500 settlers (including over 250 armed militia) in Fort Mims, north of Mobile, Alabama.
1835 – Melbourne is founded.
1836 – The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen
1862 – American Civil War – Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout Union forces under General Horatio Wright.
1873 – Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discover the archipelago of Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Sea.
1896 – Philippine Revolution: After Spanish victory in the Battle of San Juan del Monte, eight provinces in the Philippines are declared under martial law by the Spanish Governor-General Ramón Blanco y Erenas.
1897 – The town of Ambiky is captured by France from Menabe in Madagascar.
1909 – Burgess Shale fossils are discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.
1914 – World War I: Germans defeat the Russians in the Battle of Tannenberg
1917 – Vietnamese prison guards led by Trịnh Văn Cấn mutiny at the Thái Nguyên penitentiary against local French authority.
1918 – Fanni Kaplan shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. This, along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror.
1922 – Battle of Dumlupınar: The final battle in the Greco-Turkish War ("Turkish War of Independence").
1940 – The Second Vienna Award reassigns the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of Alam el Halfa begins.
1945 – Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.
1945 – The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.
1945 – The Allied Control Council, governing Germany after World War II, comes into being.
1945 – The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty.
1956 – The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opens.
1962 – Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
1963 – The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.
1967 – Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
1974 – A Belgrade–Dortmund express train derails at the main train station in Zagreb killing 153 passengers.
1974 – A powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan. Eight are killed, 378 are injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested on May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities.
1981 – President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran are assassinated in a bombing committed by the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.
1995 – Bosnian War: NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
1998 – Second Congo War: Armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and their Angolan and Zimbabwean allies recapture Matadi and the Inga dams in the western DRC from RCD and Rwandan troops.
1999 – East Timor votes for independence from Indonesia in a referendum.
2003 – While being towed across the Barents Sea, the de-commissioned Russian submarine K-159 sinks, taking nine of her crew and 800 kg of spent nuclear fuel with her.

Famous Folk Born on August 30th:

Mary Shelley
Ernest Rutherford
Huey Long
Raymond Massey
Shirley Booth
Fred MacMurray
Richard Stone
Ted Williams
Kitty Wells
Vic Sexias
Geoffrey Beane
Daryl Gates
Bill Daily
Warren Buffett
John Phillips
Bruce McLaren
Elizabeth Ashley
Jean-Claude Killy
Molly Ivins
Tug McGraw
Peggy Lipton
Lewis Black
Timothy Bottoms
David Paymer
Gary Gordon (Medal of Honor recipient, true American hero)
Michael Chiklis
Michael Michele
Cameron Diaz
Lisa Ling
Andy Roddick

Vacations

The years 2000-2008
The years 2009 through the present

There are a lot of things that are common to both of the periods above.  Today I'm focused on one issue.  The members of the partisan party not in the Oval Office take cheap shots at the President for the amount of time they spend away from the White House.  "Bush spends too much time in Texas."  "Obama spends too much time playing golf."

With all of the issues going on in the world right now, do we need to worry about whether or not the president is playing golf?  I can't imagine any job in the world having as consistently high stress as being president.  There are certainly jobs where people experience brief periods of stress that may be more intense that what the president has to deal with.  However, when you're the most powerful man in the world, your stress runs 24/7/365.  You don't get the night or the weekend off.  When you're playing golf and a terrorist incident happens, you don't get to wait until you finish the round to deal with it.

* * *

Over 20 years ago, the MGM Grand Hotel/Casino installed 50 new slot machines known as "Lion's Share."  These machines had a progressive jackpot that no one ever seemed able to win.  Slowly, the casino winnowed down the number of machines until there was just one left.  However, because they had set this up with a progressive jackpot, they couldn't get rid of the last machine until someone hit the jackpot.

A retired couple from New Hampshire finally got the machine to pay off.  They won $2.4 million (before taxes of course).  They said they're going to put their grandkids through college.  Good for them.

I point this out because it is an interesting story, and to remind all of us that we need to remember that once we commit to doing something, we have to live with that commitment until we fulfill it.  With his flaws, this was something my father pointed out to me before I signed the contract to join the Air Force.  "Read it carefully before you sign it, and remember, you're stuck with it once you sign it."

We can be sure that the MGM Grand will continue to offer progressive jackpots.  But management will remember this.  Just like the casino that used to be downtown that had a bank of penny slot machines at a time when no other casinos did.  There was a progressive jackpot that no one was ever able to win.  When someone finally hit the jackpot, the new jackpot was a car.  Funny thing is, if you have a slot machine where there's a non-cash prize, it is no longer a progressive jackpot.  So you can pull those slots out anytime you like.

* * *

Dirty politics are going on behind the Orange Curtain in the race for a State Senate seat.  Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen is the Republican candidate against Jose Solorio, who is the President of the Board of Trustees for the Rancho Santiago Community College District. 

Why are the unions spending so much money to try to defeat a Republican in Orange County, one of the state's strongest GOP bastions?  Because the Democratic "super-majority" in the State Senate is in jeopardy. 

Solorio's campaign is running ads claiming Nguyen is corrupt, allows her staff to earn high salaries while spending little time in the office and so on.  But she has a big lead.  Even more interesting is that the newspaper that is the source of the information for these negative advertisements endorsed Nguyen over Solorio.

* * *

I'm binge-watching the first season of L. A. Law and I just finished the episode where "Sid Hershberg" takes his own life in a courtroom, after delivering a closing argument.  Only ten or so people showed up for his funeral.  That's really sad.

None of us are going to get out of here alive.  We will all ultimately die, and go on to whatever is next (if anything).  Different faiths have different death rituals.  But is it a bad thing that the people who cared about the deceased while he or she was alive don't come to the funeral?

I hate funerals.  I can count on one hand the funerals I've been so in the last quarter-century.  Four.  The two for my maternal grandparents, one for my mother's second husband, and one for a very good friend.  I didn't get to my father's funeral as I couldn't afford to fly to Ohio at that moment.  I didn't go to the funerals of my paternal grandparents because in one case I was only five or so and in the other I was in the military.  I was in the middle of some specialized training that couldn't be easily rescheduled.  I felt bad for not being there for my own father at his mother's funeral, but I was secretly relieved.

However, as I've aged, I've also learned that sometimes we have to do things we don't enjoy.  It's a sign of respect and affection for those we love to show up as they are honored.  So I guess I'll need more hands and/or feet to count on from this point.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

I like President Obama's promise to create a new "culture of accountability" regarding the Veterans Administration.

Giuliana Rancic seems to think that anyone on the red carpet is "gorgeous" and it seems a bit excessive.

The World Health Organization wants to curb e-cigarette use.  Can't say that I disagree.

I'm not going to be patronizing Burger King again.  Not in light of their decision to move their corporate HQ to Canada to lower their tax bill.  I patronize American firms first.  I'm very disappointed that Warren Buffett is helping make this deal happen.

There's no way on Earth that an outdoor grill for an individual's backyard is worth $18,000.

Nine year old girls shouldn't be firing Uzi's, especially on full auto mode.

How nice of Governor Moonbeam to make it clear that illegal immigrants are welcome in California as long as he is he Governor.

I did not watch the Emmys or the various red carpet coverage.  But I saw a photo of Lena Dunham on the red carpet, and I have to say that it wasn't a good look for her.

Why in the world would the Compton Unified School District Police force need AR-15 rifles?

If I had money and wanted to take a stock market gamble, I'd be selling shares of WWE short right now.

I have no trouble considering TMZ to be a "legitimate" tabloid/entertainment outlet, but every time I see one of their stories tagged as being from TMZ Sports, I have to laugh.

I think it's petty of George Lucas to refuse to release any copies of the original 1977 version of Star Wars as it was shown in theaters. 

* * *

August 27th in History:

410 – The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ends after three days.
1172 – Henry the Young King and Margaret of France are crowned as junior king and queen of England.
1232 – The Formulary of Adjudications is promulgated by Regent Hōjō Yasutoki. (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 1232)
1593 – Pierre Barrière fails in his attempt to assassinate King Henry IV of France.
1689 – The Treaty of Nerchinsk is signed by Russia and the Qing Empire (Julian calendar).
1776 – Battle of Long Island: in what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.
1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: the city of Toulon revolts against the French Republic and admits the British and Spanish fleets to seize its port, leading to the Siege of Toulon by French Revolutionary forces.
1798 – Wolfe Tone's United Irish and French forces clash with the British Army in the Battle of Castlebar, part of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, resulting in the creation of the French puppet Republic of Connacht.
1810 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy defeats the British Royal Navy, preventing them from taking the harbour of Grand Port on Île de France.
1813 – French Emperor Napoleon I defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.
1828 – Uruguay is formally proclaimed independent at preliminary peace talks brokered by the United Kingdom between Brazil and Argentina during the Cisplatine War.
1832 – Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrenders to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War.
1859 – Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.
1896 – Anglo-Zanzibar War: the shortest war in world history (09:00 to 09:45), between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
1914 – Battle of Étreux: a British rearguard action by the Royal Munster Fusiliers during the Great Retreat.
1916 – The Kingdom of Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, entering World War I as one of the Allied nations.
1918 – Mexican Revolution: Battle of Ambos Nogales — U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas and their German advisors in the only battle of World War I fought on American soil.
1921 – The British install the son of Sharif Hussein bin Ali (leader of the Arab Revolt of 1916 against the Ottoman Empire) as King Faisal I of Iraq.
1922 – Greco-Turkish War: The Turkish army takes the Aegean city of Afyonkarahisar from the Kingdom of Greece.
1927 – Five Canadian women file a petition to the Supreme Court of Canada, asking, "Does the word 'Persons' in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?"
1928 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by the first 15 nations to do so. Ultimately sixty-one nations will sign it.
1933 – The first Afrikaans Bible is introduced during a Bible Festival in Bloemfontein.
1939 – First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft.
1943 – World War II: Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.
1957 – Malaysia's constitution comes into force.
1962 – The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.
1971 – An attempted coup d'état fails in the African nation of Chad. The Government of Chad accuses Egypt of playing a role in the attempt and breaks off diplomatic relations.
1975 – The Governor of Portuguese Timor abandons its capital, Dili, and flees to Atauro Island, leaving control to a rebel group.
1979 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb kills British retired admiral Lord Mountbatten and three others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Shortly after, 18 British Army soldiers are killed in an ambush near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland.
1982 – Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altıkat is shot and killed in Ottawa, Canada's capital city. Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide claim responsibility, saying they are avenging the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
1985 – The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Major General Ibrahim Babangida.
1991 – The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1991 – Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
1992 – Super Mario Kart is released in Japan for the Super Famicom, which starts the entire Mario Kart series.
1993 – The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Tokyo's Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, is completed.
2000 – The 540-metre (1,772 ft)-tall Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.
2003 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.
2003 – The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns as a result of the North Korean nuclear weapons program.
2006 – Comair Flight 5191 crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky bound for Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta. Of the passengers and crew, 49 of 50 are confirmed dead in the hours following the crash.
2009 – The Burmese military junta and ethnic armies begin three days of violent clashes in the Kokang Special Region.
2011 – Hurricane Irene strikes the United States east coast, killing 47 and causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage.
2013 – The riots between two religious communities started at Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Famous Folk born on August 27th:

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Hannibal Hamlin
Charles G. Dawes
C. S. Forester
Lyndon B. Johnson (One of his aides, talking about what it was like working for LBJ said that he wished Johnson was the Pope instead of being the President.  When asked why, the aid said "because if he was Pope I'd only have to kiss his ring.)
Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg
Martha Raye

Leo Penn
Ira Levin
Antonia Fraser
Daryl Dragon
Bob Kerrey (American Hero, Medal of Honor Recipient)
Edward Patten (he was a Pip)
Tommy Sands
Tuesday Weld
G. W. Bailey

Barbara Bach

Sgt. Slaughter

Neil Murray
Paul Ruebens
Peter Stomare
Stalking Cat
Downtown Julie Brown
Tom Ford
Cesar Millan
Chandra Wilson
Jim Thome
The Great Khali
Sarah Chalke
Aaron Paul
Patrick J. Adams

Value of Emmy Swag bag tops $50,000 and other eye-catching headlines

A ten-day trip to Bali, trips to Cancun and Aspen, and a six month gym membership in West L. A. worth $700 are among the items in the swag bags that will be given to Emmy nominees and presenters this year.

There are unconfirmed reports that it was Nick Cannon who pulled the plug on his marriage to Mariah Carey, over concerns that her emotional state isn't good for their kids.

Is the man who beheaded journalist James Foley a former rapper?

While rehearsing her song "Anaconda" for Sunday's Video Music Awards, Nicki Minaj was present when a six foot long snake bit one of her dancers.  The snake, initially thought to be an anaconda but was actually a boa constrictor isn't venomous  However the bite could lead to a serious bacterial infection.

Orlando Jones put a new spin on the ALS ice water challenge, replacing the cold liquid with bullets.

On September 1st, $2.4 billion will flow down the drain as the Revel hotel/casino in Atlantic City will close its door.  No one tried to buy the beleaguered resort, even at a price that was very deeply discounted.  Reporter's note:  Perhaps the fact that annual gambling revenues in Atlantic City have fallen by nearly 50% over the last seven years has something to do with its failure.

Even though they haven't yet gone a single date, tabloids are trying to link Robin Thicke with Katie Holmes, now that he's apparently given up his bid to win Paula Patton back.

The big NBA trade is official, Kevin Love will be teaming up with LeBron James in Cleveland this coming season.

Workers at a daycare center in Boston are victims as the center has shut down and they've learned that their contributions to the firm's retirement plan weren't put into their accounts for the last six years.

The Homeowners Association at a home complex in Slidell, LA, is warning residents not to feed the sharks in the neighborhood canals.

Don't you blaspheme in here, DON'T YOU BLASPHEME IN HERE

In case you aren't a fan of the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, that subject line is a quote from the film.  The Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin plays the owner of a small diner and when Dan Akyroyd says "we're on a mission from God," we hear the subject line above.

So why is blasphemy on my mind today?  Because of a report I heard about James Foley that I can't find confirmation of.  The report claimed that Foley had converted religions and become a Muslim.  A follower of Islam.  The Quran requires that the faithful (adherents) do not harm others who are among the faithful.

We therefore have ISIS killing James Foley who may have been protected by being one of the faithful (or not) and thousands of other victims that they have murdered who are also Muslims.

The rest of the non-Muslim world (for the most part) considers ISIS to be terrorists.  Well, one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.  At the time, the Boston Tea Party was certainly considered to be terrorism.  At least by the British. 

I'm predicting that in the wake of the tragic murder of James Foley, the midnight oil is burning at JSOC HQ and the ISA.  Those are the units that would undertake the conceptualization and planning of a mission against the leaders of ISIS.  I'm convinced that at some point in the relatively near future, a strike against that leadership will be launched.

President Obama, if that's what happens, you have my support.  It would be totally justified.

* * *

I suspect that Pharrell Williams isn't really "happy" at the moment, when it comes to a show he'd been doing on Youtube.  He signed a deal with the producer and then wanted out when he signed to be on The Voice.  Seems The Voice contract demands exclusivity. 

Since I haven't seen the contracts, I don't know if Williams is bound to do the Youtube show in the future or not, but since the producer is suing him for $1 million, I suspect he's obligated to perform.  So far his comments about this have been about how The Voice is huge and helping out a friend will get you worked over.

When you sign on the dotted line, you make a binding commitment.  If there isn't an escape clause of some type in the contract, too bad for you.  If he has to pay this producer $1 million as the result of inking the deal, it will be an expensive lesson for him.

Read what you sign.  If it's a business deal, don't be cheap.  Spend some money to have an attorney review it.

* * *

Las Vegas likes tourists.  Of all shapes, sizes (wallet sizes) and sexual orientations.  The LGBT community is very welcome there.  The famed "Strip" now has a gay nightclub.  The economic downturn has those who get paid to drive tourist traffic reaching out to any and every potential market.

Unfortunately, while gays are welcome almost everywhere in Las Vegas, there is one place where they are not.  That's at the Clark County Recorder's office.  Nevada, one of the most conservative states in the U. S. continues to discriminate against same-sex marriage.

If for no other reason than to drive business into markets that could really use it, the state should reverse this position.  Not that all states shouldn't eliminate bans on same-sex marriage, as they should, but this one is a no-brainer. 

* * *

Random Ponderings:

So a guy on Springer says he met his hook-up at Subway and Springer retorts "oh, so she wanted a foot-long".  I emailed the producer they need a rim shot sound effect.  www.instantrimshot.com

Speaking of Las Vegas, after listening to Yakov Smirnoff on the radio last night, I'm reminded that the machine in Vegas with the most frequent pay-outs is the ATM.

The Defense Department is absolutely correct to remind service members that they can't be doing the ALS ice water challenge, while in uniform.

If I want to put ketchup on a hot dog or on anything else, that's my business and nobody's else's.  Restaurants that ban ketchup for adults won't get my business.

Another water main broke near here today.  Infrastructure, people.  Wake up.

Japan wants to build their own fighter jets.  Why?  Probably to take over the U.S.'s position as the world's preeminent arms merchant.

No one in their right mind would let a student in a middle or high school be suspended for saying " bless you" in response to a sneeze.

Tim Howard is wise to take a break.  All too often we don't listen to our body or our psyche when it tells us to stand down for a bit.

So V. Stiviano says Donald Sterling is really gay.  Yawn.  Her 15 minutes were up an hour ago.

The brother of James Foley is now saying the U. S. could have done more to free him, and that he (he's in the Air Force) wasn't aware of any attempt to rescue James.  Dude, that would have been classified well above Top Secret.  Just because he's your brother doesn't constitute a Need To Know.

* * *

August 22nd in History:

392 – Arbogast has Eugenius elected Western Roman Emperor.
476 – Odoacer is named Rex italiae by his troops.
565 – Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.
851 – Battle of Jengland: Erispoe defeats Charles the Bald near the Breton town of Jengland.
1138 – Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England.
1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet.
1559 – Bartolomé Carranza, Spanish archbishop, is arrested for heresy.
1639 – Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers.
1642 – Charles I calls the English Parliament traitors. The English Civil War begins.
1654 – Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam. He is the first known Jewish immigrant to America.
1711 – Ships from British Admiral Hovenden Walker's Quebec Expedition founders on rocks at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River.
1717 – Spanish troops land on Sardinia.
1770 – James Cook names and lands on Possession Island, Queensland and claims the east coast of Australia as New South Wales in the name of King George III.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix after hearing rumors of Continental Army reinforcements.
1780 – James Cook's ship HMS Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage).
1791 – Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue.
1798 – French troops land in Kilcummin harbour, County Mayo, Ireland to aid Wolfe Tone's United Irishmen's Irish Rebellion.
1827 – José de la Mar becomes President of Peru.
1831 – Nat Turner's slave rebellion commences just after midnight in Southampton County, Virginia, leading to the deaths of more than 50 whites and several hundred African Americans who are killed in retaliation for the uprising.
1846 – The Second Federal Republic of Mexico is established.
1848 – The United States annexes New Mexico.
1849 – The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.
1851 – The first America's Cup is won by the yacht America.
1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention.
1875 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg between Japan and Russia is ratified, providing for the exchange of Sakhalin for the Kuril Islands.
1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded.
1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile.
1910 – Korea is annexed by Japan with the signing of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, beginning a period of Japanese rule of Korea that lasted until the end of World War II.
1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-chief of the Irish Free State Army, is shot dead during an Anti-Treaty ambush at Béal na Bláth, County Cork, during the Irish Civil War.
1932 – The BBC first experiments with television broadcasting. (See also Timeline of the BBC.)
1934 – Bill Woodfull of Australia becomes the only cricket captain to twice regain The Ashes.
1941 – World War II: German troops reach Leningrad, leading to the siege of Leningrad.
1942 – World War II: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.
1944 – World War II: Romania is captured by the Soviet Union.
1944 – World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German forces
1949 – Queen Charlotte earthquake: Canada's largest earthquake since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake
1950 – Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor in international tennis.
1952 – The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed.
1961 – Ida Siekmann dies attempting to cross the Berlin Wall.
1962 – An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle fails.
1963 – American Joe Walker in an X-15 test plane reaches an altitude of 106 km (66 mi).
1966 – Labor movements NFWA and AWOC merge to become the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers.
1968 – Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America.
1971 – J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28.
1972 – Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies.
1973 – The Congress of Chile votes in favour of a resolution condemning President Salvador Allende's government and demands him to resign or else be unseated through force and new elections be called. The first demand is executed eighteen days later in a bloody coup d'etat, commencing 17 years of military rule.
1978 – The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FLSN) occupies national palace in Nicaragua.
1984 – PC Brian Bishop a British police officer is shot in the head by an armed robber in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. He dies from his injuries five days later.
1985 – Manchester Air Disaster sees 55 people killed when a fire breaks out on a commercial aircraft at Manchester Airport.
1989 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts.
1992 – FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi shoots and kills Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
1996 – Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing major shift in US welfare policy
2003 – Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building.
2004 – Versions of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
2006 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes near the Russian border over eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board.
2007 – The Texas Rangers rout the Baltimore Orioles 30–3, the most runs scored by a team in modern MLB history.
2007 – The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails in one day
2012 – Ethnic clashes over grazing rights for cattle in Kenya's Tana River District result in more than 52 deaths.

Famous Folk Born on August 22nd:

Pope Leo XII
Dorothy Parker
John Lee Hooker
Ray Bradbury
Honor Blackman
H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. (during the Vietnam War, he was a Lt Col and walked into a minefield to rescue troops under his command)
Annie Proulx (a sore loser)
Valerie Harper (brave lady)
David Chase
Cindy Williams
David Marks
Scooter Libby
Gordon Liu

Paul Molitor
Colm Feore
Debbi Peterson
Mats Wilander
Courtney Gains
Tori Amos
Ty Burrell
Rick Yune
Kristen Wiig
Laura Breckenridge

Say hello to my little friend

I'm sure the following is indelibly etched into the memory of anyone who watched the movie, or a clip of this scene:

I now have my own little friend, although it isn't an old M-16 with an M-203 grenade launcher attached.  Mine looks like this:

The one on the right goes with me anytime I leave my home.  Sometimes I have to take two of them with me, as they only last a little over three hours.

Foolishly, when first told I met the criteria for "home oxygen," I refused the tanks.  I was insistent that I could do just fine without it.  That was just dumb.  I only need the help with I, as the doctor says, "ambulate."  The truth is, I can now walk longer distances than I could before I got my little friend, although I'd prefer a backpack rather than the over-the-shoulder pack I am using at the moment.

I guess I'll get used to it, unless my condition improves enough to where I no longer need it.

* * *

I have a question.  How does doing anything other than peaceful protesting in Ferguson, MO accomplish anything positive?  Looting, burning, throwing Molotov cocktails at the police and any behavior other than peaceful protest actually worsens the situation.

It gives law enforcement justification for ratcheting up their response.  It gives cover to the ongoing militarization of the police in the U.S. by giving them surplus equipment from the Defense Department.  It gives fame whores like Al Sharpton a way to beat their own drum and raise their public profile.

It won't bring Michael Brown back.  It won't prevent future Michael Browns.  To loot and burn is an exercise in futility.  This is a lesson taught by history.  The Watts riots of 1965.  The Liberty City riots of 1980.  Los Angeles after the 1992 acquittal of the men who beat and abused Rodney King.  The destruction that was caused by these events did nothing to help solve the problems that incited the violence. 

Marquette Frye's mother never got her car back.  He died at the age of 42.  Proposition 14 was found to be unconstitutional and later repealed.  Arthur McDuffie is still dead and African-Americans in the Miami area are not any safer when stopped by police officers.  Rodney King got paid and eventually died, probably of his own excesses with his windfall. 

Now Michael Brown is dead.  Every dollar that will have to be spent to repair the damage wrought by those who won't simply protest in a peaceful manner is one dollar that could have gone to improve the area's situation.

Looting and violence make no sense.

* * *

Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times is critical of those taking part in the ALS Ice Bucket challenge.  Not because they are doing something foolish, or refusing to donate.  In fact, donations to the ALS Society are way up.  Mr. Hiltzik's objection is that ALS isn't as important as other illnesses because it is rare, and the money could be donated elsewhere.

Let me quote him directly, so I am not accused of taking his comments out of context:  "Even taking the ALS Association figure, the disease is rare, far outstripped by many other conditions requiring research funding. These include Alzheimer's (an estimated 5.2 million patients in the U.S.), and diabetes (25.8 million).  Stunt philanthropy like the ice bucket challenge doesn't accommodate these sorts of distinctions and comparisons--it just feeds whatever charity hits on a catchy device and treats all causes as essentially equivalent, distinguished only by their claim on public attention. The result is that "the most successful charities will be those that are best at soliciting funds, not those that are best at making the world a better place," as the British philanthropic organizer William MacAskill puts it."

Kind of a cold, dry way to look at how people choose the charities they support.  There may be only 12,000 people in the U.S. currently afflicted with ALS as opposed to diabetes and Alzheimer's, but people are free to choose how to donate their own money.  Moralizing about the relative value of charities because of the numbers impacted by the research sounds a little frightening.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

Dwayne Wade's ex-wife got the Chicago house and assumed the mortgage in their divorce settlement.  She hasn't paid and the house is now in foreclosure.  So why is the media saying it's his house being foreclosed upon?  Because he's worthy of a headline and she's not.

While I adore Julianne Hough, her acting career hasn't gone well.  So it's a good move for her to go back to Dancing With the Has-beens...er Stars, as a judge.

I can't believe he's gone.  Don Pardo, dead at 96.  Saddest part was I couldn't find a good clip of his intro for SNL that wasn't a parody or impression, or of lousy quality.

Michelle Duggar is apparently deluded enough to think that a sexual predator would go to all the trouble of being recognized by the state as being transgendered just to get access to the women's restroom.  If ignorance is bliss, she must be one really happy camper.
w
I'm thinking that the ice water challenge is a great fundraiser, but maybe not so much when California is in a severe drought.

Showing up for the taking of your mug shot wearing a t-shirt showing your mug is inspired!

Does anyone really care who is the top-earning model of any given year?  Do the models who make the top 20 but can't crack the top 5 plot to take over?

Wonder if William Hung sang "She Bangs" at his wedding reception?  Factoid:  Hung released three albums, which sold 200,000, 35,000 and 7,000 copies respectively.

After an e-cigarette burned a hole through a piece of checked luggage, it's time to ban them from airplanes.

Why is the Obama administration turning down requests for interviews about claims that insurers are slowly restoring policies and procedures that discriminate against "sick" people?

If you want to back out of the wedding, just say so.  Don't fake your own death.

* * *

August 19th in History:

295 BC – The first temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility, is dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges during the Third Samnite War.
43 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul.
1153 – Baldwin III of Jerusalem takes control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his mother Melisende, and also captures Ascalon.
1504 – In Ireland, the Hiberno-Norman de Burghs (Burkes) and Anglo-Norman Fitzgeralds fight in the Battle of Knockdoe.
1561 – Mary, Queen of Scots, who was 18-years-old, returns to Scotland after spending 13 years in France.
1612 – The "Samlesbury witches", three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, England, are put on trial, accused of practicing witchcraft, one of the most famous witch trials in British history.
1666 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships, an act later known as "Holmes's Bonfire".
1692 – Salem witch trials: In Salem, Province of Massachusetts Bay, five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
1745 – Prince Charles Edward Stuart raises his standard in Glenfinnan: The start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion, known as "the 45".
1759 – Battle of Lagos Naval battle during the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France.
1768 – Saint Isaac's Cathedral is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1772 – Gustav III of Sweden stages a coup d'état, in which he assumes power and enacts a new constitution that divides power between the Riksdag and the King.
1782 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Blue Licks: The last major engagement of the war, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Charles Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.
1812 – War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning the nickname "Old Ironsides".
1813 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina's Second Triumvirate.
1839 – The French government announces that Louis Daguerre's photographic process is a gift "free to the world".
1848 – California Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).
1854 – The First Sioux War begins when United States Army soldiers kill Lakota chief Conquering Bear and in return are massacred.
1861 – First ascent of Weisshorn, fifth highest summit in the Alps.
1862 – American Indian Wars: During an uprising in Minnesota, Lakota warriors decide not to attack heavily-defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.
1895 – American Frontier murderer and outlaw John Wesley Hardin is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.
1909 – The first automobile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
1914 – The Ottoman-Bulgarian alliance is signed in Sofia.
1919 – Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom.
1927 – Metropolitan Sergius proclaims the declaration of loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Soviet Union.
1934 – The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.
1934 – The creation of the position Führer is approved by the German electorate with 89.9% of the popular vote.
1940 – First flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber.
1942 – World War II: Operation Jubilee: The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an amphibious assault by allied forces on Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, France and fails, many Canadians are killed or captured. The operation was intended to develop and try new amphibious landing tactics for the coming full invasion in Normandy.
1944 – World War II: Liberation of Paris: Paris, France rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
1945 – August Revolution: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.
1953 – Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
1955 – In the Northeast United States, severe flooding caused by Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives.
1960 – Cold War: In Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
1960 – Sputnik program: Korabl-Sputnik 2: The Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants.
1964 – Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, was launched.
1965 – Japanese prime minister Eisaku Satō becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa Prefecture.
1980 – Saudia Flight 163, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar burns after making an emergency landing at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 301 people.
1981 – Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.
1987 – Hungerford massacre: In the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a semi-automatic rifle and then commits suicide.
1989 – Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist prime minister in 42 years.
1989 – Radio Caroline, the offshore pirate station in the North Sea, is raided by British and Dutch governments.
1989 – Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events that began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine.
1991 – Crown Heights riot: Black groups target Hasidic Jews on the streets of Crown Heights in New York, New York for three days, after two black children were hit by a car driven by a Hasidic man.
1999 – In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević.
2002 – Khankala Mi-26 crash: A Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
2003 – A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
2003 – A suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem, Israel, planned by Hamas, kills 23 Israelis, seven of them children, in the Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing.
2005 – The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.
2005 – A series of strong storms lashes Southern Ontario spawning several tornadoes as well as creating extreme flash flooding within the city of Toronto and its surrounding communities. In Toronto, it is also dubbed the "Toronto Supercell".
2009 – A series of bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kills 101 and injures 565 others.
2010 – Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait.
2012 – A plane crash kills 32 people in Sudan.
2013 – A train accident in India kills at least 37 people and injures over a dozen.

Famous Folk Born on August 19th:

Marcus Auerelius Probus
Bernard Baruch
Orville Wright
Coco Chanel
Ogden Nash
Lewis Sargent
Philo Farnsworth
Dick Simmons
Ring Lardner, Jr.
Malcolm Forbes
Gene Roddenberry
L. Q. Jones
Frank McCourt (the author, not the idiot that once owned the Dodgers)
Debra Paget
Renee Richards
Joe Frank
Diana Muldaur

Johnny Nash
Jill St. John
Fred Thompson

Bill Clinton
Dawn Steel
Tipper Gore
Gerald McRaney
Jonathan Frakes
Mary Matalin
Peter Gallagher
Adam Arkin
Darryl Sutter (Yeah Coach!!!)
John Stamos
Kevin Dillon
Kyra Sedgwick

Lee Ann Womack
Matthew Perry
Mary Joe Fernandez
Erika Christensen
Reeva Steenkamp
Romeo Miller

The creator of the Pop-Up Ad doesn't like them any longer and other eye-catching headlines

Ethan Zuckerman was working for Tripod.com back in the late 1990s when he came up with the idea of pop-up ads.  At the time they were using banner ads and customers complained when their ads showed in the banner of pages with sexual content.  Now Zuckerman works at MIT and is apologetic for his creation.

A barber from the Quad Cities area (don't ask me to explain why a group of five cities is known by that moniker) is going to enjoy free food from Kentucky Fried Chicken for life, after he cut an amazing likeness of Colonel Sanders in the back of the head of one of his clients.

There's an OSU in Oregon and another in Oklahoma (as well as Ohio).  But apparently someone at Walmart got confused about which is which and sent some Oklahoma State journals to a location near Oregon State.

In Sacramento, a woman who was to be married this month but had to cancel the wedding due to the death of her fiancé can't get the owner of the venue to refund her money.  More on this in my next blog entry.

Outgoing Texas Governor Rick Perry has been indicted on charges he misused his veto power in trying to force the District Attorney of Travis County to resign after she was convicted on drunk driving charges.  He calls the indictment an "...abuse of power."

Forty FBI agents were reportedly going door to door in Ferguson, Missouri to investigate the shooting death of Michael Brown on Saturday.  On Sunday smoke canisters are being fired to disperse protestors in advance of the midnight curfew.

Kendall Jenner insists she didn't throw money at a waitress who followed her out of the restaurant where she'd just dined, without paying her tab.  The waitress says Kendall was rude.  Who do you believe?  Do you care?

Cooper Union is a privately funded college in New York that hasn't charged students any amount for tuition since 1902.  Now they are going to charge up to 50% of the cost of educating a student each year, depending on their ability to pay.  Students and faculty at the school have filed papers to get a judge to stop the college from charging tuition.

Check this out:

That's a fan who ran onto the pitch in the match between West Ham and Tottenham and took a free kick.  He actually did better than the player who wound up taking the free kick when order was restored, as Christian Eriksen sent his effort sailing high over the crossbar.

The Detroit Tigers handed out 10,000 bobblehead figures of their star Miguel Cabrera, honoring him for his back to back MVP awards.  Problem is, the bobbleheads identified him as the National League MVP.

A man in New Jersey was flying a flag outside his home that some claimed was an ISIS flag.  It has since come down.  He says it reads "There is only one God, Allah, and the prophet Muhammad is his messenger."

The five foot rat snake that ate a ceramic egg while foraging in a henhouse is recovering from surgery to remove the fake egg.

None of the three big films released this weekend could topple those turtles from the top spot at the box office.  Top five films for the weekend were:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - $28.4 million
Guardians of the Galaxy - $24.7 million
Let's Be Cops - $17.7 million (new this week)
The Expendables 3 - $16.2 million (new this week)
The Giver - $12.8 million (new this week)

The new indie film "The Trip to Italy" won the per screen battle, bringing in over $23,000 per screen showing on only three screens.

What went down with Michael Brown?

One of my favorite scenes in the film "A Few Good Men" is when Kevin Bacon (as Captain Jack Ross) stands up to give his opening statement.  He begins by saying "the facts of the case are this" and he later says "these are the facts of the case.  And they are not in dispute."

What are the facts we know of the case where a police officer in Ferguson, MO shot Michael Brown.  We know that Brown was shot multiple times and was killed.  We know that he was unarmed.  We know there was a robbery at a convenience store where Brown and Dorian Johnson were suspect.   We know that Darren Wilson, the officer who fired at and killed Michael Brown, was not aware he was a suspect in the robbery.

There are eyewitness statements, video footage of the alleged robbery in the store and lots of conjecture, but those are the only undisputed facts of this incident to date.  As far as assessing whether or not the police officer involved in this case is guilty of a crime, that should wait until a full and complete investigation is conducted.  Even though it seems clear the weight of evidence available to this point indicates that this is not a "good shoot," that same presumption of innocence we are all entitled to is in effect.  The officer should be suspended from duty involving the carrying of a weapon.

The larger question is what will it take to stop these tragedies from taking place.  Even one is too many, but the list of officer-involved deaths of civilians grows at an alarming rate.  What we need is a two-pronged approach generated by the federal government, that doesn't abrogate state's rights.

First prong must be legislation whereby the federal government will reimburse states for all or part of the cost of having the state's attorney general's office investigate all officer-involved civilian deaths.  States who refuse to set up an investigative division within the AG's office will not receive federal funding for such investigations.  No agency should be able to investigate a death caused by one of its officers.

The second prong involves using advanced technology.  Every single sworn law enforcement officer that is not working an undercover assignment must be equipped with a camera.  The excellent movie "End of Watch" illustrates how "button cameras" could be used to easily record the Point Of View (POV) of the officer.  With an audio and video record of every action the officer takes while on duty, it becomes much easier to examine what actually happened.

As someone who wore a badge and carried a gun, even though it was the much safer job of military cop, I'm well aware of what every officer faces when he or she hits the streets every shift.  You know that every single action you take during that shift, even those done in a split second, are subject to very detailed scrutiny after the fact.  I'll give you an example.  My partner for that evening and I responded to a report of a disturbance at the transient barracks.  We found a guy tearing up the pool room next to the dayroom.  We tried to talk him into settling down, but he swung the pool cue at me.  I was forced to defend myself and subdue him.  Even though he was swinging a pool cue, I couldn't just shoot the idiot.  He was very drunk and no one's life was in danger.  I had Mace but I knew that if I used that, I'd have to take him to the Emergency Room and sit there with him while they treated him.  So I restrained him the old fashioned way, with my hands.  Eventually he was "cuffed and stuffed" that that was that.

My supervisor and his supervisor both questioned me about my choices that evening at length.  They had issues with my refusal to use Mace, mostly because they were concerned that my young partner wouldn't stand by and wait as I ordered him to do.  If I'd bitten off more than I could chew, they were concerned either he or the suspect could have been seriously injured.  Eventually, they had to accept the fact that my choices had worked out, no one had been hurt and that was that.

All I did was physically subdue a man, without injuring him, and I was still looked at under a microscope.  When a cop has to pull their weapon and fire it, they do so in a miniscule amount of time, while those who will determine if he or she did the right thing have weeks to investigate what they did.    So if it seems like I want the investigation to be allowed to run its course before convicting this cop of a bad shoot, forgive me.

One last thought.  When we hear about a white cop doing something to a minority civilian (without regard to any specific race), we need to remember that as far as most cops are concerned, there are only three races.  White, minorities, and blue.  The blue is the race of cops.  The majority of cops will give other cops the benefit of the doubt in almost situation where there isn't clear evidence of wrongdoing; or they will be pressured to do so by some of their peers.  And while some can choose to deny it, there is no question that in the 50 years and one month since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, racism exists in the U. S.  There are some (clearly not all, or even the majority) cops who automatically assume that African-Americans are a problem just waiting to happen.  That young black men are criminals.  They are wrong, but racism is hard to eradicate.  It isn't instinctual.  It is learned behavior and usually requires something drastic to break the long chain of inculcation.

Just my random ramblings on this situation.

What kind of people

Zelda Williams is the 25 year old daughter of the late Robin Williams.  She's a smart woman, a talented woman and in the last 36 hours, she's been a tormented woman.  Tormented first by her father's death and then be a bunch of trolls on the internet.

What kind of individual takes time out of their day to send messages of hate to a grieving young daughter?  The kind whose own lives are empty.  The kind whose soles are devoid of compassion.  The kind who are a waste of space.  You want to be funny, be funny.  There was nothing funny in any of those Tweets. 

Now you've forced her to withdraw from social media, where there was a lot of love and support for her in this time, because you just had to hurt someone's feelings.  Push their buttons and take some kind of sick satisfaction from her pain.

Do any of you have the moral fiber and courage of your convictions to step out from behind the anonymity of your computer monitor and identify yourselves?  To take pride in what you've done?  To own your actions?  I'll wager you don't.  You wouldn't be able to live with the shame and scorn you would receive.

I'd pity you but you don't deserve it.

* * *

Vinod Kholsa is a billionaire venture capitalist who bought a 53 acre beachfront residence to the South of Half Moon Bay in Northern California.  Purchased in 2008 for $32.5 million, the property has a road that stretches for a half-mile that is the only way for the public to access Martins Beach.  People have been using that road as far back as the Roaring 20s.

Now Kholsa is at war with the California Coastal Commission and an environmental group.  There is a gate where the road enters his property and he wants it shut, permanently. 

That's just wrong.  The ocean and the beaches belong to the public, not to the people who are fortunate enough to be able to purchase a home that fronts the beach.  There is a dispute over where the line is drawn between the wet sand and the dry sand, and I happen to believe that there should be public access to dry sand at least 100 yards from the wet sand.  Just my opinion.

If I were to buy all the land around Yosemite or Sequoia National Parks, that wouldn't give me ownership of, or the right to block access to these two national treasures.  The same logic seems to indicate that Mr. Kholsa should not have the right to block off a public beach.

* * *

According to a study done by an employment consulting firm, employers lose $13 billion in productivity each year because of fantasy football.  What I found really amazing about this study is that the amount of lost productivity has doubled in less than two years.

Let's face facts.  None of us are 100% productive, 100% of the time we're in the office.  We are human.  We talk with colleagues.  We run to the restroom.  We hear about a major news event and we check it for ourselves. 

I don't play fantasy football.  I don't follow football closely enough.  I'm pondering playing fantasy baseball next season because I do follow baseball closely.  I don't know if I'll try a league where there is money involved, or just play in one of the free, fun leagues.  I do know I won't be spending time at work, working on my fantasy team in any sport.  I'd rather be getting work done. 

* * *

I'm sick and tired of the heightened vitriolic nature of people commenting on things political.  I read something this morning where someone claimed that Republicans can be recognized by the swastikas on their sleeves. 

Let's go back to sixth grade math, people.  There is a set of Republicans.  There is a small portion of that set, known as racists, or Nazis or whatever pejorative label you wish to apply.  What that means is that while some Republicans might be whatever, not all of them are.  Nor are all Democrats "dumbocrats" either.

Most of the time when I see this name-calling, it is because the people involved can't argue the issue, so they attack the other person. 

Please tone down the name-calling. 

* * *

Random Ponderings:

If I were to find myself suddenly flush with lots and lots of cash, I would bid on the private screening of "Pulp Fiction" that will be hosted by Uma Thurman.  I just hope she and the other 55 guests allowed to attend won't mind me rewinding and re-watching the scene where my ex-girlfriend gets shot.  Maybe five or six times?

At least Kim Kardashian made that sex tape to fulfill her fame whore dreams.  Aside from gaining weight and becoming a sock designer, what did Rob Kardashian ever accomplish?  (Yeah, I'm name-calling, but in my defense, I'm merely applying a label that many applied to the Kardashians long before I did)

Why am I not surprised that Rush Limbaugh put hoof in mouth yet again, this time with comments about the suicide of Robin Williams?  I really need to find a "Flush Rush" bumper sticker.

It is very nice that other porn stars are raising money to pay for the reconstructive surgery that Christy Mack needs after her beating, allegedly by mixed martial artist War Machine; but he's the one who should pay for her medical bills.  That is if he is the one who beat her (which seems to be the case).

Does anyone ever look good in a mug shot?

The suicide of Robin Williams may be connected to the open heart surgery he underwent in 2009.  Something called Postperfusion Syndrome, more commonly known as Pump Head syndrome.  More on this in my next blog.

When they were talking about the death of Robin Williams on a local radio station, one of the news anchors said he'd won his Oscar for Good Will Hunting back in 1977.  I didn't have the heart to call them and tell them that 1977's Best Supporting Actor Oscar went to Jason Robards for Julia, and that Matt Damon was all of seven years old in 1977.

I'm guessing that Red Robin Hood would be a guy who robs from the rich and gives to the poor, and the poor get unlimited steak fries.

* * *

August 14th in History:

29 BC – Octavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.
1040 – King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.
1183 – Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan (traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei).
1288 – Count Adolf VIII of Berg grants town privileges to Düsseldorf, the village on the banks of the Düssel.
1352 – War of the Breton Succession: Anglo-Bretons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron.
1370 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, grants city privileges to Carlsbad which is subsequently named after him.
1385 – Portuguese Crisis of 1383–85: Battle of Aljubarrota – Portuguese forces commanded by King John I and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira defeat the Castilian army of King John I.
1415 – Henry the Navigator leads Portuguese forces to victory over the Marinids at the Battle of Ceuta.
1592 – Imjin War: at the Battle of Hansan Island, the Korean Navy, led by Yi Sun-sin and Won Kyun, decisively defeats the Japanese Navy, led by Wakisaka Yasuharu, at Hansan Island.
1598 – Nine Years' War: Battle of the Yellow Ford – Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.
1720 – The Spanish military Villasur expedition is wiped out by Pawnee and Otoe warriors near present-day Columbus, Nebraska.
1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering them from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
1842 – American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.
1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress.
1880 – Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.
1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
1888 – An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London, England.
1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.
1897 – Franco-Hova Wars: The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.
1900 – The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, China, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.
1901 – The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
1911 – United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.
1912 – U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.
1914 – World War I: start of the Battle of Lorraine, an unsuccessful French offensive designed to recover the lost province of Moselle from Germany.
1916 – Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the Entente in World War I
1921 – Tannu Uriankhai, later Tuvan People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Soviet Russia).
1933 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km2).
1935 – Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.
1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States.
1937 – Chinese Air Force Day: The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when 6 Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers are shot down by the Nationalist Chinese Air Force while raiding Chinese air bases.
1941 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.
1945 – Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan Standard Time).
1945 – The Viet Minh launches August Revolution amid the political confusion and power vacuum engulfing Vietnam.
1947 – Pakistan gains Independence from the British Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
1959 – Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.
1967 – UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.
1969 – Operation Banner: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland.
1971 – Bahrain declares independence as the State of Bahrain.
1972 – An East German Ilyushin Il-62 crashes during takeoff from East Berlin, killing 156.
1973 – The Pakistan Constitution of 1973 comes into effect.
1974 – The second Turkish invasion of Cyprus begins; 140,000 to 200,000 Greek Cypriots become refugees. 6,000 massacred, 1,619 missing.
1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running release in film history, opens at the USA Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
1980 – Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.
1987 – All the children held at Kia Lama, a rural property on Lake Eildon, Australia, run by the Santiniketan Park Association, are released after a police raid.
1994 – Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured.
1996 – Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is murdered by Turkish forces while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
2003 – A widescale power blackout affects the northeast United States and Canada.
2006 – Chencholai bombing: 61 Tamil girls are killed in Sri Lankan Air force bombing.
2007 – The Kahtaniya bombings kills at least 796 people.
2010 – The first-ever Youth Olympic Games are held in Singapore.
2013 – Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi.

Famous Folk Born on August 14th:

Emperor Hanazano of Japan
Catherine of York
Doc Holliday
Ernest Thayer
Francis Ford
Frank Oppenheimer
Paul Dean
Wellington Mara
Buddy Greco
Earl Weaver
Lynne Chaney
David Crosby
Steve Martin
Wim Wenders
Antonio Fargas
Susan Saint James
Danielle Steel
Bob Backlund
Carl Lumbly
Mark Fidrych
Alice Ghostley
General Stanley McChrystal
Jackee Henry
Rusty Wallace
Marcia Gay Harden
Sarah Brightman
Susan Olsen
Brannon Braga
Halle Berry
Catherine Bell

Mila Kunis
Spencer Pratt
Tim Tebow