Victory, or death-knell??
The Republicans have retaken control of the United States Senate. This gives them a stranglehold on the Legislative branch of the Federal Government, as they will continue to have a strong majority in the House of Representatives.
Is this the gigantic victory that the media is trying to make it out to be? Most think it is. I think it is the beginning of the end of any chance that Republicans have to win back the White House in 2016. Under normal circumstances, the fact that a two-term President from a party is leaving office would give the other party an advantage. Since the death of FDR, only George H. W. Bush was able to win a presidential election after his party had held the presidency for the prior two terms. Some pundits see this as the phenomenon of the phantom third term of the incumbent. That is, they speculate that many voters will vote for whoever is the Republican candidate simply because whoever the Democratic party nominee is, they will view this person as being another four years of President Obama.
That may well be. However, when the Republicans assume control of the Senate this coming January, they will be expected to achieve major changes in the 23 months before our next president is elected. That's a pretty tall order. Whatever their majority in the Senate is, they won't have a filibuster-proof advantage. They can't float the balloon of the "nuclear option" to make more chances because of how they stridently stood up and said Harry Reid shouldn't have triggered it.
The major issues of immigration reform, income inequality and our ever burgeoning national debt are nowhere near solvable under the status quo of the current electoral equation. Further, the Republican leadership will have nowhere to run or hide because they will have had two years of control of both houses of Congress.
Then there is the Tea Party. Their presence and agenda will prevent the Republican party from making changes in the platform for 2016 to make it more palatable to the swing voters they must attract to have any chance of winning the White House.
Hillary Clinton may or may not run. It won't matter. The only way any Republican can win the presidency in 2016 is for the next two years to feature bipartisan cooperation and major progress being made in dealing with the problems of real Americans, not just the special interests who have the money to buy access to our elected leaders.
* * *
I almost gave in to political apathy on Tuesday. After two hours in the chair at the dentist's office, having a crown done, I did not want to go to the polls. I have often thought of skipping voting on days in prior years when I was overwhelmed with other things. After all, it is very easy to convince yourself that in the end, your one vote doesn't really matter.
Then I thought back to the ten years I spent wearing the uniform of my nation's military. Ten years that I spent on a voluntary basis (doesn't seem voluntary once you're obligated to serve for four or more years, but it was my choice to enlist) where I worked to protect our rights as a free nation. One of those rights is voting.
A number of people I know are taking flack for not voting on Tuesday. Most of them are Democrats, taking flack from other members of their party. They are taking the brunt of the blame and anger of those other Dems, who believe that a better turnout might have kept the Republicans from taking control of the Senate. They may be right but that isn't reason to castigate those who chose to not vote.
I can support the choice of those who choose not to vote. That's the same right as the right TO vote. What I can't understand are excuses for not voting. In states where voter ID laws have made it more difficult, that choice is more easily understood. But most other reasons don't fly in my book. Having to work isn't a valid excuse, unless you didn't know in advance you'd have no time to go to the polls. Absentee ballots are available if you know you'll be too busy on this special day. My choice to go and vote even though I didn't feel like it wasn't heroic. It just reflected my own values and choices. The choice of others to stay home is equally valid.
All that being said, we must remember that those who choose not to vote get the government they deserve.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
I guess putting a small banana in your pocket for the walk home isn't that bad an idea, until you decide to lie down without taking that banana out of that pocket.
Will any media outlet be able to report on the story of the drummer for AC/DC being arrested for allegedly trying to hire a hitman to commit two murders without referencing the song "Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap?"
Does the fact that Hugh Hefner's marriage appears to be working mean his sexual appetite no longer requires multiple women to be satisfied; or he merely keeping "The Girls Next Door" a secret from his wife?
I admire Keira Knightley for choosing to insist that her topless photo shoot not be Photoshopped. Then again, maybe my crush on this woman is making me less than objective.
Former Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill has been identified as the man who fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden. His heroism isn't in question. However, his judgment in seeking notoriety for his work on classified missions is suspect. He wouldn't have been able to fire those shots without the hard work of his teammates, the aircrews that delivered them safely to the location, the support staff and so on. SEAL missions are drawn up with a "team" concept. I won't be surprised to see Mr. O'Neill and Matt Bissonnette facing court-martial for unauthorized disclosure of classified information.
I had no idea that Brett Favre was the third choice for his cameo in "There's Something About Mary" but he was a better choice than Drew Bledsoe or Steve Young anyway.
Starbucks isn't making the baristas take off their engagement rings because they want you to think they're "available." It is because the chain is increasing its focus on food sales. Makes sense.
Amanda Bynes thinks bartending would be a good next move for her. Not a great idea, but smarter than her opening her own medicinal marijuana emporium. She'd smoke up all the profits (and most of the merchandise).
No one cares that Bruce Jenner is still wearing his wedding ring. No one cares why he's doing it.
Jean Kasem couldn't possibly come up with a valid reason for letting Casey Kasem's body rot away in Norway; except of course so that it can't be autopsied to prove elder abuse.
I just heard that Charo was a guest-star on the old show "Love Boat" ten times. Nine times as the same character and once as some other character. Probably for the best. She'd have trouble stretching to play three different characters. As an actress she was a very pretty lady and talented singer.
I discovered today that watching "The Green Mile" makes me sad when I see the late Michael Clarke Duncan appear on screen. He was a good guy and an excellent actor.
According to Shirley MacLaine, "Steel Magnolias" director Herbert Ross told Dolly Parton (in front of the full cast and crew), "you should think about taking some acting lessons." Even if valid, that's just rude to say in front of others.
A woman who died in a fall at a national park in Colorado had insurance policies totaling $4.5 million (she was a successful doctor). Her husband appears to be a "shady" guy according to her family. Did she fall on her own? We'll probably never know the truth.
* * *
November 8th in History:
960 – Battle of Andrassos: Byzantines under Leo Phokas the Younger score a crushing victory over the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla.
1278 – Trần Thánh Tông, the second emperor of the Trần dynasty, decides to pass the throne to his crown prince Trần Khâm and take up the post of Retired Emperor.
1519 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with a great celebration.
1520 – Stockholm Bloodbath begins: A successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces results in the execution of around 100 people.
1576 – Eighty Years' War: Pacification of Ghent – The States General of the Netherlands meet and unite to oppose Spanish occupation.
1602 – The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is opened to the public.
1605 – Robert Catesby, ringleader of the Gunpowder Plotters, is killed.
1614 – Japanese daimyo Dom Justo Takayama is exiled to the Philippines by shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu for being Christian.
1620 – The Battle of White Mountain takes place near Prague, ending in a decisive Catholic victory in only two hours.
1644 – The Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, is enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.
1745 – Charles Edward Stuart invades England with an army of ~5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden.
1837 – Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which later becomes Mount Holyoke College.
1861 – American Civil War: The "Trent Affair" – The USS San Jacinto stops the British mail ship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the UK and US.
1889 – Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.
1892 – The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time.
1895 – While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.
1898 – The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, the only instance of an attempted coup d'état in American history.
1901 – Bloody clashes take place in Athens following the translation of the Gospels into demotic Greek.
1917 – The People's Commissars give authority to Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin.
1923 – Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.
1933 – Great Depression: New Deal – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed.
1936 – Spanish Civil War: Francoist troops fail in their effort to capture Madrid, but begin the 3-year Siege of Madrid afterwards.
1937 – The Nazi exhibition Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew") opens in Munich.
1939 – Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
1939 – In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes the assassination attempt of Georg Elser while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.
1940 – Greco-Italian War: The Italian invasion of Greece fails as outnumbered Greek units repulse the Italians in the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas.
1942 – World War II: Operation Torch – United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.
1942 – World War II: French resistance coup in Algiers, in which 400 civilian French patriots neutralize Vichyist XIXth Army Corps after 15 hours of fighting, and arrest several Vichyst generals, allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers.
1950 – Korean War: United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown, while piloting an F-80 Shooting Star, shoots down two North Korean MiG-15s in the first jet aircraft-to-jet aircraft dogfight in history.
1957 – Operation Grapple X, Round C1: the United Kingdom conducts its first successful hydrogen bomb test over Kiritimati in the Pacific.
1960 – John F. Kennedy defeats Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the twentieth century to become the 35th president of the United States.
1965 – The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands.
1965 – The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 is given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom.
1965 – The 173rd Airborne is ambushed by over 1,200 Viet Cong in Operation Hump during the Vietnam War, while the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment fight one of the first set-piece engagements of the war between Australian forces and the Viet Cong at the Battle of Gang Toi.
1966 – Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.
1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League.
1968 – The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic is signed to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety by standardising the uniform traffic rules among the signatories.
1972 – HBO launches its programming, with the broadcast of the 1971 movie Sometimes a Great Notion, starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda.
1973 – The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay US$2.9 million.
1976 – A series of earthquakes spreads panic in the city of Thessaloniki, which is evacuated.
1977 – Manolis Andronikos, a Greek archaeologist and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.
1987 – Remembrance Day bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland during a ceremony honouring those who had died in wars involving British forces. Twelve people are killed and sixty-three wounded.
2002 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".
2004 – War in Iraq: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
2011 – The potentially hazardous asteroid 2005 YU55 passes 0.85 lunar distances from Earth (about 324,600 kilometres or 201,700 miles), the closest known approach by an asteroid of its brightness since 2010 XC15 in 1976.
2013 – Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms in history hits the Visayas region in the Philippines. The typhoon killed 6,201 people as of 29 January 2014 and was considered the deadliest typhoon to hit the country. It caused around $1 billion in damages unofficially.
Famous Folk Born on November 8th:
Edmond Halley
Sarah Fielding
Milton Bradley
Bram Stoker
Herbert Austin
Hermann Rorschach (he was heavily into ink)
Margaret Mitchell
Dorothy Day
Esther Rolle
Christiaan Barnard (his heart was in the right place)
Joe Flynn
Pattie Page
Bobby Bowden
Morley Safer
Roy Wood
Minnie Riperton
Lewis Yocum
Bonnie Raitt
Mary Hart
Christie Hefner
Alfre Woodard
Rickie Lee Jones
Leif Garrett
Gordon Ramsay
Courtney Thorne-Smith
Jose Offerman (still love the joke told about the spelling of his name..."how do you spell Offerman? With two F's and 50 E's)
Parkey Posey
Gretchen Mol
Tara Reid
Nick Punto
Ted DiBiase, Jr.
Jack Osbourne
I'll mention one notable passing, on this date in 1887, we lost one of the most colorful legends in the Wyatt Earp/Gunfight at the OK Corral story, John Henry "Doc" Holliday.
Is this the gigantic victory that the media is trying to make it out to be? Most think it is. I think it is the beginning of the end of any chance that Republicans have to win back the White House in 2016. Under normal circumstances, the fact that a two-term President from a party is leaving office would give the other party an advantage. Since the death of FDR, only George H. W. Bush was able to win a presidential election after his party had held the presidency for the prior two terms. Some pundits see this as the phenomenon of the phantom third term of the incumbent. That is, they speculate that many voters will vote for whoever is the Republican candidate simply because whoever the Democratic party nominee is, they will view this person as being another four years of President Obama.
That may well be. However, when the Republicans assume control of the Senate this coming January, they will be expected to achieve major changes in the 23 months before our next president is elected. That's a pretty tall order. Whatever their majority in the Senate is, they won't have a filibuster-proof advantage. They can't float the balloon of the "nuclear option" to make more chances because of how they stridently stood up and said Harry Reid shouldn't have triggered it.
The major issues of immigration reform, income inequality and our ever burgeoning national debt are nowhere near solvable under the status quo of the current electoral equation. Further, the Republican leadership will have nowhere to run or hide because they will have had two years of control of both houses of Congress.
Then there is the Tea Party. Their presence and agenda will prevent the Republican party from making changes in the platform for 2016 to make it more palatable to the swing voters they must attract to have any chance of winning the White House.
Hillary Clinton may or may not run. It won't matter. The only way any Republican can win the presidency in 2016 is for the next two years to feature bipartisan cooperation and major progress being made in dealing with the problems of real Americans, not just the special interests who have the money to buy access to our elected leaders.
* * *
I almost gave in to political apathy on Tuesday. After two hours in the chair at the dentist's office, having a crown done, I did not want to go to the polls. I have often thought of skipping voting on days in prior years when I was overwhelmed with other things. After all, it is very easy to convince yourself that in the end, your one vote doesn't really matter.
Then I thought back to the ten years I spent wearing the uniform of my nation's military. Ten years that I spent on a voluntary basis (doesn't seem voluntary once you're obligated to serve for four or more years, but it was my choice to enlist) where I worked to protect our rights as a free nation. One of those rights is voting.
A number of people I know are taking flack for not voting on Tuesday. Most of them are Democrats, taking flack from other members of their party. They are taking the brunt of the blame and anger of those other Dems, who believe that a better turnout might have kept the Republicans from taking control of the Senate. They may be right but that isn't reason to castigate those who chose to not vote.
I can support the choice of those who choose not to vote. That's the same right as the right TO vote. What I can't understand are excuses for not voting. In states where voter ID laws have made it more difficult, that choice is more easily understood. But most other reasons don't fly in my book. Having to work isn't a valid excuse, unless you didn't know in advance you'd have no time to go to the polls. Absentee ballots are available if you know you'll be too busy on this special day. My choice to go and vote even though I didn't feel like it wasn't heroic. It just reflected my own values and choices. The choice of others to stay home is equally valid.
All that being said, we must remember that those who choose not to vote get the government they deserve.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
I guess putting a small banana in your pocket for the walk home isn't that bad an idea, until you decide to lie down without taking that banana out of that pocket.
Will any media outlet be able to report on the story of the drummer for AC/DC being arrested for allegedly trying to hire a hitman to commit two murders without referencing the song "Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap?"
Does the fact that Hugh Hefner's marriage appears to be working mean his sexual appetite no longer requires multiple women to be satisfied; or he merely keeping "The Girls Next Door" a secret from his wife?
I admire Keira Knightley for choosing to insist that her topless photo shoot not be Photoshopped. Then again, maybe my crush on this woman is making me less than objective.
Former Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill has been identified as the man who fired the shots that killed Osama bin Laden. His heroism isn't in question. However, his judgment in seeking notoriety for his work on classified missions is suspect. He wouldn't have been able to fire those shots without the hard work of his teammates, the aircrews that delivered them safely to the location, the support staff and so on. SEAL missions are drawn up with a "team" concept. I won't be surprised to see Mr. O'Neill and Matt Bissonnette facing court-martial for unauthorized disclosure of classified information.
I had no idea that Brett Favre was the third choice for his cameo in "There's Something About Mary" but he was a better choice than Drew Bledsoe or Steve Young anyway.
Starbucks isn't making the baristas take off their engagement rings because they want you to think they're "available." It is because the chain is increasing its focus on food sales. Makes sense.
Amanda Bynes thinks bartending would be a good next move for her. Not a great idea, but smarter than her opening her own medicinal marijuana emporium. She'd smoke up all the profits (and most of the merchandise).
No one cares that Bruce Jenner is still wearing his wedding ring. No one cares why he's doing it.
Jean Kasem couldn't possibly come up with a valid reason for letting Casey Kasem's body rot away in Norway; except of course so that it can't be autopsied to prove elder abuse.
I just heard that Charo was a guest-star on the old show "Love Boat" ten times. Nine times as the same character and once as some other character. Probably for the best. She'd have trouble stretching to play three different characters. As an actress she was a very pretty lady and talented singer.
I discovered today that watching "The Green Mile" makes me sad when I see the late Michael Clarke Duncan appear on screen. He was a good guy and an excellent actor.
According to Shirley MacLaine, "Steel Magnolias" director Herbert Ross told Dolly Parton (in front of the full cast and crew), "you should think about taking some acting lessons." Even if valid, that's just rude to say in front of others.
A woman who died in a fall at a national park in Colorado had insurance policies totaling $4.5 million (she was a successful doctor). Her husband appears to be a "shady" guy according to her family. Did she fall on her own? We'll probably never know the truth.
* * *
November 8th in History:
960 – Battle of Andrassos: Byzantines under Leo Phokas the Younger score a crushing victory over the Hamdanid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla.
1278 – Trần Thánh Tông, the second emperor of the Trần dynasty, decides to pass the throne to his crown prince Trần Khâm and take up the post of Retired Emperor.
1519 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with a great celebration.
1520 – Stockholm Bloodbath begins: A successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces results in the execution of around 100 people.
1576 – Eighty Years' War: Pacification of Ghent – The States General of the Netherlands meet and unite to oppose Spanish occupation.
1602 – The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is opened to the public.
1605 – Robert Catesby, ringleader of the Gunpowder Plotters, is killed.
1614 – Japanese daimyo Dom Justo Takayama is exiled to the Philippines by shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu for being Christian.
1620 – The Battle of White Mountain takes place near Prague, ending in a decisive Catholic victory in only two hours.
1644 – The Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, is enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.
1745 – Charles Edward Stuart invades England with an army of ~5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden.
1837 – Mary Lyon founds Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, which later becomes Mount Holyoke College.
1861 – American Civil War: The "Trent Affair" – The USS San Jacinto stops the British mail ship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the UK and US.
1889 – Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.
1892 – The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time.
1895 – While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.
1898 – The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, the only instance of an attempted coup d'état in American history.
1901 – Bloody clashes take place in Athens following the translation of the Gospels into demotic Greek.
1917 – The People's Commissars give authority to Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin.
1923 – Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.
1933 – Great Depression: New Deal – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million unemployed.
1936 – Spanish Civil War: Francoist troops fail in their effort to capture Madrid, but begin the 3-year Siege of Madrid afterwards.
1937 – The Nazi exhibition Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew") opens in Munich.
1939 – Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
1939 – In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes the assassination attempt of Georg Elser while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.
1940 – Greco-Italian War: The Italian invasion of Greece fails as outnumbered Greek units repulse the Italians in the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas.
1942 – World War II: Operation Torch – United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.
1942 – World War II: French resistance coup in Algiers, in which 400 civilian French patriots neutralize Vichyist XIXth Army Corps after 15 hours of fighting, and arrest several Vichyst generals, allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers.
1950 – Korean War: United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown, while piloting an F-80 Shooting Star, shoots down two North Korean MiG-15s in the first jet aircraft-to-jet aircraft dogfight in history.
1957 – Operation Grapple X, Round C1: the United Kingdom conducts its first successful hydrogen bomb test over Kiritimati in the Pacific.
1960 – John F. Kennedy defeats Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the twentieth century to become the 35th president of the United States.
1965 – The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands.
1965 – The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 is given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom.
1965 – The 173rd Airborne is ambushed by over 1,200 Viet Cong in Operation Hump during the Vietnam War, while the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment fight one of the first set-piece engagements of the war between Australian forces and the Viet Cong at the Battle of Gang Toi.
1966 – Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.
1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League.
1968 – The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic is signed to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety by standardising the uniform traffic rules among the signatories.
1972 – HBO launches its programming, with the broadcast of the 1971 movie Sometimes a Great Notion, starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda.
1973 – The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay US$2.9 million.
1976 – A series of earthquakes spreads panic in the city of Thessaloniki, which is evacuated.
1977 – Manolis Andronikos, a Greek archaeologist and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.
1987 – Remembrance Day bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland during a ceremony honouring those who had died in wars involving British forces. Twelve people are killed and sixty-three wounded.
2002 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".
2004 – War in Iraq: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
2011 – The potentially hazardous asteroid 2005 YU55 passes 0.85 lunar distances from Earth (about 324,600 kilometres or 201,700 miles), the closest known approach by an asteroid of its brightness since 2010 XC15 in 1976.
2013 – Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms in history hits the Visayas region in the Philippines. The typhoon killed 6,201 people as of 29 January 2014 and was considered the deadliest typhoon to hit the country. It caused around $1 billion in damages unofficially.
Famous Folk Born on November 8th:
Edmond Halley
Sarah Fielding
Milton Bradley
Bram Stoker
Herbert Austin
Hermann Rorschach (he was heavily into ink)
Margaret Mitchell
Dorothy Day
Esther Rolle
Christiaan Barnard (his heart was in the right place)
Joe Flynn
Pattie Page
Bobby Bowden
Morley Safer
Roy Wood
Minnie Riperton
Lewis Yocum
Bonnie Raitt
Mary Hart
Christie Hefner
Alfre Woodard
Rickie Lee Jones
Leif Garrett
Gordon Ramsay
Courtney Thorne-Smith
Jose Offerman (still love the joke told about the spelling of his name..."how do you spell Offerman? With two F's and 50 E's)
Parkey Posey
Gretchen Mol
Tara Reid
Nick Punto
Ted DiBiase, Jr.
Jack Osbourne
I'll mention one notable passing, on this date in 1887, we lost one of the most colorful legends in the Wyatt Earp/Gunfight at the OK Corral story, John Henry "Doc" Holliday.
posted by me at 6:23 PM
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