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
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
posted by me at 1:05 PM
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