How are you?
Every morning as I walk to breakfast, I'm asked by other residents and the staff here, "how are you this morning?" To which I usually reply, "I'm vertical, and you?" I know it isn't a real answer to their question and yet, it is. Because being vertical is better than the alternative, which is to be horizontal. At least being vertical is better if you're unable to move into that mode from the horizontal position. I know wherefrom I speak. Not many of us spent a year in a hospital, the majority of which was endured while lying in a bed I could not get out of on my own.
What I've come to realize is that when we ask others how they are, in most cases, it's just a way of being polite. We don't want the person we inquire about to choose to unload all of their problems on us when we pose that question. We just want to hear "I'm good" and to have them ask how we are. We're just politely passing time. And that's not a bad thing. I know that when I ask my family members, or my close friends that question, I really do want to know how they are doing. It isn't politeness. I care.
But then again, for those few frequent followers of my ravings in this blog, we know that I'm very lucky to be able to be vertical each morning. For those who haven't followed along, I was stricken with an illness known as Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. It has a 50% fatality rate. The doctors who treated me, who spoke with me after I'd spent two months in a coma told me they did not expect me to survive. One doctor told my mother that it was up to me. If I was a fighter, I'd live, and if not...well, I'd have died. I know I've mentioned this before but it bears revisiting as a new year truly begins.
Like many, I buy myself a few extra days before trying (and usually failing) to make changes to my life at the beginning of a new year. I have the mindset that it isn't until the Monday after the weekend during which we celebrate the New Year, that the year truly begins.
Now it is that Monday and I'm going to try to make some small, specific changes in my way of living. For those of you who are joining me on this journey to self-improvement, I wish us all good luck.
* * *
You've probably seen the commercials. Daughters of Charity, a non-profit hospital chain has agreed to be purchased by Prime Healthcare, a for-profit hospital chain. These advertisements claim that if the sale falls through, Daughters of Charity will almost certainly go bankrupt, resulting in the closure of their six hospitals that serve nearly one million people.
The sale is subject to approval of California's Attorney General, Kamala Harris. The AG must approve all purchases of CA non-profit hospitals by for-profit entities. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Prime has agreed to most of the conditions the AG's office is requiring for the sale to proceed. But Prime is seeking "clarification" on several conditions that involve ten year commitments to continuing to provide certain services.
I have never met Dr. Prem Reddy, the founder, Chairman, CEO and majority owner of Prime Healthcare, but I do know a bit about him. From what I've read, I suspect that his interest in Daughters of Charity is less about those 800,000+ people currently served by them, and more about increasing the profits of his company. That's just my opinion and not a statement of fact (not that any of his attorneys are ever going to see this).
What we do know is that in 2011, Prime Healthcare attempted to purchase Victor Valley Community Hospital. In September of that year, Ms Harris disapproved the sale as "not being in the public's interest." The same thing had happened four years earlier, when then AG Jerry Brown denied Prime Healthcare's bid to buy Anaheim Memorial Medical Center. The story about that denial that ran in the L. A. Times talked briefly about the Prime business model.
When Prime Healthcare buys a hospital, it will immediately set out to make the facility profitable, by cancelling its contracts with almost all health insurance companies. This allows Prime to collect larger reimbursements. They also stop providing services like birthing, mental health, chemotherapy and others that aren't big profit centers.
Balance billing is the practice of sending patients bills for balances for emergency treatment not covered by their insurance. The practice was banned by an executive order of the former CA Gubinator in 2006. Prime Healthcare, without admitting wrongdoing, reached settlement of a lawsuit that had been filed by California regulators over Prime having engaged in balance billing. As part of the settlement, Prime agreed to donate $1.2 million to several charities.
The bottom line here is that in my opinion, AG Kamala Harris should not approve the sale of Daughters of Charity to Prime Healthcare. Another buyer can be found. Why not Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West)?
* * *
Before getting into Random Ponderings, I had an idea for something that some may find amusing (and others will undoubtedly find dumb). Here is a list of what I'm calling "improved" book titles:
Nickel and Dimeanetics by L. Ron Hubbard
The Prince Rogers Nelson by Niccolo Machiavelli
The Republic of Texas by Plato
Democracy in America Died With the Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act by Alexis de Tocqueville
Relatives Are a Pain in the Ass by Albert Einstein
Second Class Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Fear of Losing My Money in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Art of Warmongering by Sun Tzu (with a new introduction by the Tea Party)
Das Capital and Freedom/Oppression by Karl Marx and Milton Friedman
Quotations Stolen by Chairman Mao by Mao Forked Tongue
To Mock a Killed Bird by Harper Lee
Catching 22 Constantly at a Blackjack Table by Joseph Heller
Animal Farmville on Facebook by George Orwell
Gone Due to Broken Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Mein Lies by Adolph Hitler
The Maltese Ford Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Hunt for Reds During October by Tom Clancy
Feel free to create your own (FWIW I considered and rejected "The Catcher and Ham on Rye").
* * *
Random Ponderings:
What kind of sick bastard murders a three week old baby and leaves its body in a dumpster? Someone who would do that deserves some cruel and unusual punishment. Anybody got a rack handy?
It's neat that the Athena Film Festival is honoring Jodie Foster with their Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award this year. But what's really neat is that this award is named for a true trailblazer for women in film, Ms Laura Ziskin. RIP, Ma'am, you were an amazing person.
There are some who are claiming that Phyllicia Rashad is defending Bill Cosby so that the shows they did together will return to active airplay and turn on that residual earnings spigot once again. The fact that Ms Rashad's net worth is more than $50 million seems to make that argument nonsensical.
I have to admit that I find the fact Michael Ironside played characters who were beaten up and killed by the likes of Walker, Texas Ranger, Mr. Miyagi, the Gubinator and others; to be very interesting. It is also interesting to note how many then relatively unknown actors did guest shots on Walker, Texas Ranger and went on to bigger and better things. Giovanni Ribisi, Tobey Maguire, Clifton Collins, Jr., Mila Kunis, Haley Joel Osmont and Selena Gomez all fall into this category.
Turning down a divorce settlement check for nearly $1 billion sounds like a dumb thing to do, until you realize it means giving up on your appeal seeking more money.
Now that Barbara Boxer has announced that she won't be seeking reelection to the U.S. Senate, the jockeying regarding who will replace her is growing in intensity.
After reading about 60 Minutes' correspondent Steve Kroft allegedly drinking champagne from the posterior of his mistress, it gives a whole new meaning to "bubbly."
President Obama wants to make community college free. Would be nice if he'd come up with a way to pay for an idea, instead of just the idea.
There's no truth to the rumor Bruce Jenner was displeased with the reports that Kylie Jenner had gotten breast implants because he wanted to be the first Jenner to do so.
I suspect that if Cameron Diaz had invited all of her ex-boyfriends to her wedding, there would have been no room left on her side of the aisle.
It is fair that Boston be the city put forward to compete for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. L. A. has hosted the games twice.
* * *
January 8th in History:
307 – Jin Huidi, Chinese Emperor of the Jin dynasty, is poisoned and succeeded by his son Jin Huaidi.
387 – Siyaj K'ak' conquers Waka
871 – Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.
1297 – François Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, leads his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco.
1455 – The papal bull Romanus Pontifex is written.
1499 – Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany.
1697 – Last execution for blasphemy in Britain; of Thomas Aikenhead, student, at Edinburgh.
1735 – Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
1746 – Second Jacobite rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
1790 – George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York, New York.
1806 – Cape Colony becomes a British colony.
1811 – An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslondes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans – Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
1835 – The United States national debt is zero for the only time.
1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield
1867 – African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.
1889 – Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the 'Art of Applying Statistics' — his punched card calculator.
1904 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.
1906 – A landslide in Haverstraw, New York, caused by the excavation of clay along the Hudson River, kills 20 people.
1912 – The African National Congress is founded.
1918 – President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.
1920 – The steel strike of 1919 ends in a complete failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union.
1940 – World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.
1945 – World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack Japanese Imperial forces.
1956 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria.
1962 – The Harmelen train disaster killed 93 people in the Netherlands.
1963 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.
1971 – Bowing to international pressure, President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto releases Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison, who had been arrested after declaring the independence of Bangladesh.
1973 – Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
1975 – Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband.
1977 – Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
1979 – The tanker Betelgeuse explodes in Bantry Bay, Ireland.
1981 – A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time".
1982 – Breakup of the Bell System: AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
1989 – Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board.
1989 – Beginning of Japanese Heisei period.
1994 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.
1996 – An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 237 on the ground; the aircraft's crew of six survive the crash.
2002 – President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.
2003 – Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of 75 passengers.
2003 – Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board.
2004 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.
2009 – A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica kills 15 people and injures 32.
2010 – Gunmen from an offshoot the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attacked the bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three.
2011 – The attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona at a Safeway grocery store, for which Jared Lee Loughner is subsequently arrested, kills six people and wounds 13, including Giffords.
Famous Folk Born on January 8th:
General James Longstreet
Lowell Mason
Winnaretta Singer
Karl Brandt (rot in Hell)
Evelyn Wood (read faster, darn it!)
Lawrence Walsh
Larry Storch
Soupy Sales
Bill Graham
Nolan Miller
Elvis Presley
Shirley Bassey
Bob Eubanks
Yoshinori Watanabe
Stephen Hawking
Robby Kreiger
David Bowie
William Bonin
David Gates (the journalist, not the singer)
Laurie Walters
John McTiernan
Mike Reno
Rey Mysterio, Sr.
Duk Koo Kim
Michelle Forbes
Maria Petillo
R. Kelly
Ami Dolenz
Jason Giambi
Sarah Polley
Gaby Hoffman
Kim Jong-un
What I've come to realize is that when we ask others how they are, in most cases, it's just a way of being polite. We don't want the person we inquire about to choose to unload all of their problems on us when we pose that question. We just want to hear "I'm good" and to have them ask how we are. We're just politely passing time. And that's not a bad thing. I know that when I ask my family members, or my close friends that question, I really do want to know how they are doing. It isn't politeness. I care.
But then again, for those few frequent followers of my ravings in this blog, we know that I'm very lucky to be able to be vertical each morning. For those who haven't followed along, I was stricken with an illness known as Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. It has a 50% fatality rate. The doctors who treated me, who spoke with me after I'd spent two months in a coma told me they did not expect me to survive. One doctor told my mother that it was up to me. If I was a fighter, I'd live, and if not...well, I'd have died. I know I've mentioned this before but it bears revisiting as a new year truly begins.
Like many, I buy myself a few extra days before trying (and usually failing) to make changes to my life at the beginning of a new year. I have the mindset that it isn't until the Monday after the weekend during which we celebrate the New Year, that the year truly begins.
Now it is that Monday and I'm going to try to make some small, specific changes in my way of living. For those of you who are joining me on this journey to self-improvement, I wish us all good luck.
* * *
You've probably seen the commercials. Daughters of Charity, a non-profit hospital chain has agreed to be purchased by Prime Healthcare, a for-profit hospital chain. These advertisements claim that if the sale falls through, Daughters of Charity will almost certainly go bankrupt, resulting in the closure of their six hospitals that serve nearly one million people.
The sale is subject to approval of California's Attorney General, Kamala Harris. The AG must approve all purchases of CA non-profit hospitals by for-profit entities. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Prime has agreed to most of the conditions the AG's office is requiring for the sale to proceed. But Prime is seeking "clarification" on several conditions that involve ten year commitments to continuing to provide certain services.
I have never met Dr. Prem Reddy, the founder, Chairman, CEO and majority owner of Prime Healthcare, but I do know a bit about him. From what I've read, I suspect that his interest in Daughters of Charity is less about those 800,000+ people currently served by them, and more about increasing the profits of his company. That's just my opinion and not a statement of fact (not that any of his attorneys are ever going to see this).
What we do know is that in 2011, Prime Healthcare attempted to purchase Victor Valley Community Hospital. In September of that year, Ms Harris disapproved the sale as "not being in the public's interest." The same thing had happened four years earlier, when then AG Jerry Brown denied Prime Healthcare's bid to buy Anaheim Memorial Medical Center. The story about that denial that ran in the L. A. Times talked briefly about the Prime business model.
When Prime Healthcare buys a hospital, it will immediately set out to make the facility profitable, by cancelling its contracts with almost all health insurance companies. This allows Prime to collect larger reimbursements. They also stop providing services like birthing, mental health, chemotherapy and others that aren't big profit centers.
Balance billing is the practice of sending patients bills for balances for emergency treatment not covered by their insurance. The practice was banned by an executive order of the former CA Gubinator in 2006. Prime Healthcare, without admitting wrongdoing, reached settlement of a lawsuit that had been filed by California regulators over Prime having engaged in balance billing. As part of the settlement, Prime agreed to donate $1.2 million to several charities.
The bottom line here is that in my opinion, AG Kamala Harris should not approve the sale of Daughters of Charity to Prime Healthcare. Another buyer can be found. Why not Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West)?
* * *
Before getting into Random Ponderings, I had an idea for something that some may find amusing (and others will undoubtedly find dumb). Here is a list of what I'm calling "improved" book titles:
Nickel and Dimeanetics by L. Ron Hubbard
The Prince Rogers Nelson by Niccolo Machiavelli
The Republic of Texas by Plato
Democracy in America Died With the Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act by Alexis de Tocqueville
Relatives Are a Pain in the Ass by Albert Einstein
Second Class Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Fear of Losing My Money in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Art of Warmongering by Sun Tzu (with a new introduction by the Tea Party)
Das Capital and Freedom/Oppression by Karl Marx and Milton Friedman
Quotations Stolen by Chairman Mao by Mao Forked Tongue
To Mock a Killed Bird by Harper Lee
Catching 22 Constantly at a Blackjack Table by Joseph Heller
Animal Farmville on Facebook by George Orwell
Gone Due to Broken Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Mein Lies by Adolph Hitler
The Maltese Ford Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Hunt for Reds During October by Tom Clancy
Feel free to create your own (FWIW I considered and rejected "The Catcher and Ham on Rye").
* * *
Random Ponderings:
What kind of sick bastard murders a three week old baby and leaves its body in a dumpster? Someone who would do that deserves some cruel and unusual punishment. Anybody got a rack handy?
It's neat that the Athena Film Festival is honoring Jodie Foster with their Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award this year. But what's really neat is that this award is named for a true trailblazer for women in film, Ms Laura Ziskin. RIP, Ma'am, you were an amazing person.
There are some who are claiming that Phyllicia Rashad is defending Bill Cosby so that the shows they did together will return to active airplay and turn on that residual earnings spigot once again. The fact that Ms Rashad's net worth is more than $50 million seems to make that argument nonsensical.
I have to admit that I find the fact Michael Ironside played characters who were beaten up and killed by the likes of Walker, Texas Ranger, Mr. Miyagi, the Gubinator and others; to be very interesting. It is also interesting to note how many then relatively unknown actors did guest shots on Walker, Texas Ranger and went on to bigger and better things. Giovanni Ribisi, Tobey Maguire, Clifton Collins, Jr., Mila Kunis, Haley Joel Osmont and Selena Gomez all fall into this category.
Turning down a divorce settlement check for nearly $1 billion sounds like a dumb thing to do, until you realize it means giving up on your appeal seeking more money.
Now that Barbara Boxer has announced that she won't be seeking reelection to the U.S. Senate, the jockeying regarding who will replace her is growing in intensity.
After reading about 60 Minutes' correspondent Steve Kroft allegedly drinking champagne from the posterior of his mistress, it gives a whole new meaning to "bubbly."
President Obama wants to make community college free. Would be nice if he'd come up with a way to pay for an idea, instead of just the idea.
There's no truth to the rumor Bruce Jenner was displeased with the reports that Kylie Jenner had gotten breast implants because he wanted to be the first Jenner to do so.
I suspect that if Cameron Diaz had invited all of her ex-boyfriends to her wedding, there would have been no room left on her side of the aisle.
It is fair that Boston be the city put forward to compete for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. L. A. has hosted the games twice.
* * *
January 8th in History:
307 – Jin Huidi, Chinese Emperor of the Jin dynasty, is poisoned and succeeded by his son Jin Huaidi.
387 – Siyaj K'ak' conquers Waka
871 – Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.
1297 – François Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, leads his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco.
1455 – The papal bull Romanus Pontifex is written.
1499 – Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany.
1697 – Last execution for blasphemy in Britain; of Thomas Aikenhead, student, at Edinburgh.
1735 – Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
1746 – Second Jacobite rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
1790 – George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York, New York.
1806 – Cape Colony becomes a British colony.
1811 – An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslondes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans – Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
1835 – The United States national debt is zero for the only time.
1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield
1867 – African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.
1889 – Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the 'Art of Applying Statistics' — his punched card calculator.
1904 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.
1906 – A landslide in Haverstraw, New York, caused by the excavation of clay along the Hudson River, kills 20 people.
1912 – The African National Congress is founded.
1918 – President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.
1920 – The steel strike of 1919 ends in a complete failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union.
1940 – World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.
1945 – World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack Japanese Imperial forces.
1956 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria.
1962 – The Harmelen train disaster killed 93 people in the Netherlands.
1963 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.
1971 – Bowing to international pressure, President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto releases Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison, who had been arrested after declaring the independence of Bangladesh.
1973 – Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
1975 – Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband.
1977 – Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
1979 – The tanker Betelgeuse explodes in Bantry Bay, Ireland.
1981 – A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time".
1982 – Breakup of the Bell System: AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
1989 – Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board.
1989 – Beginning of Japanese Heisei period.
1994 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.
1996 – An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 237 on the ground; the aircraft's crew of six survive the crash.
2002 – President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.
2003 – Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of 75 passengers.
2003 – Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board.
2004 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.
2009 – A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica kills 15 people and injures 32.
2010 – Gunmen from an offshoot the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attacked the bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three.
2011 – The attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona at a Safeway grocery store, for which Jared Lee Loughner is subsequently arrested, kills six people and wounds 13, including Giffords.
Famous Folk Born on January 8th:
General James Longstreet
Lowell Mason
Winnaretta Singer
Karl Brandt (rot in Hell)
Evelyn Wood (read faster, darn it!)
Lawrence Walsh
Larry Storch
Soupy Sales
Bill Graham
Nolan Miller
Elvis Presley
Shirley Bassey
Bob Eubanks
Yoshinori Watanabe
Stephen Hawking
Robby Kreiger
David Bowie
William Bonin
David Gates (the journalist, not the singer)
Laurie Walters
John McTiernan
Mike Reno
Rey Mysterio, Sr.
Duk Koo Kim
Michelle Forbes
Maria Petillo
R. Kelly
Ami Dolenz
Jason Giambi
Sarah Polley
Gaby Hoffman
Kim Jong-un
posted by me at 9:16 PM
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