Notes from around the Human Experience…

DID WE CALL IT OR…WELL, ACTUALLY WE DIDN’T CALL IT: Saturday night’s boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor actually lasted longer than a lot of people – including the wizards here at your Daily Dose – thought it would go, with Mayweather stopping McGregor by TKO in the tenth round.

CYA! CYA! Regular readers of this crap might recall we had our bases nicely covered, having bravely offering scenarios showing neither fighter getting out of the second round. Mayweather was too old. McGregor was too inexperienced. Good thing we didn’t offer betting advice.

The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: Mayweather, now 50-0, got lucky. His put his undefeated record, not to mention his legacy, on the line for one final payday and got away with it. There was no guarantee he would. He can now retire as one of the very best there was at what he did, boxing and making piles of cash.

Once McGregor made it out of the early rounds, everything else was gravy. Nobody knows what he felt inside once the brash exterior was brushed away, but he has every right to feel that 10 rounds with Mayweather, even though he lost, wasn’t too far removed from victory. McGregor did well early, too, before Mayweather restored some order in the later rounds and McGregor tired.

Dry, Technical Matter: We were hoping for a complete mismatch so we could jump on our high horse and say what suckers everyone was for buying into this fiasco, but we were wrong. Make no mistake, this bout was not sanctioned by any of the 83 international boxing governing bodies and was nothing more than a spectacle, about as athletically relevant as a regular season NBA game. Its sole purpose was to make rich people even richer, but the sporting public, more or less, got their money’s worth this time.

ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE! Rome falls to a foreign enemy of the first time since the 4th century BC on this date in 410, when the Visigoths complete their invasion and sacking of the city after three days.

While there wasn’t a wholesale slaughter of the natives as was common back then, many Romans were made refugees, taken prisoner or sold into slavery and, of course, the entire city was relieved of their valuables. Though Rome would continue for a few more decades, this invasion was a major reason Rome would fall before the century was out. 

FunFact: It was the first time Rome had fallen since 390 or 387 BC, depending on whose accounts and dating system you want to believe, when they were invaded by the Gauls. 

USA! USA!: The Black Hawk War ends on this date in 1832 when Sauk leader Black Hawk surrenders to the US Army.

The war had begun in April when Black Hawk led a group of Indians from Iowa, which was then Indian territory, into Illinois. No one is entirely sure why Black Hawk entered Illinois, though it was possible he was trying to reclaim land ceded to the United States in 1804. It wasn’t the first time Black Hawk had done battle with the US, having fought for the British in the War of 1812.

Oh Yeah: After his surrender, Black Hawk, along with some other Indians, were taken on a tour of eastern cities. After the tour, Black Hawk settled in what is now southeastern Iowa, where he died in 1838.

Those Zany Canadians: Five women from Alberta – known in Canada as the Famous Five – ask the Supreme Court of Canada to decide whether women are persons on this date in 1927. The question stemmed from Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867 which states, in part:

The Governor General shall from Time to Time, in the Queen’s Name, by Instrument under the Great Seal of Canada, summon qualified Persons to the Senate…

The Famous Five wanted to know if Persons included women.

Not The Opinion They Were Looking For: Turns out it didn’t. The Court heard arguments the following March and ruled in April, 1928 that:

Understood to mean ‘Are women eligible for appointment to the Senate of Canada,’ the question is answered in the negative.”

“The Exclusion Of Women From All Public Offices Is A Relic Of Days More Barbarous Than Ours…”: The opinion would later be overturned on appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, a quaint, British institution that at the time was the final court of appeal Commonwealth nations, and still is for some.

Really Dry Technical Matter: This was not a court case the Supreme Court was ruling on, it was what is known up north as a reference case, which is a request for an advisory opinion from the court.

Great Moments In Being Close To Mars And Stuff: Mars and Earth are a mere 34.646 million miles apart on this date in 2003, the closest they’ve been in 60,000 years. It will be the closest the two planets will get until August, 2287 when they will be 34.603 million miles away.

FunFact: When both planets are on opposite sides of Mr Sun, Earth and Mars can be as many 249 million miles apart.

Quotebook: There must have been something more those men struggled for…something that held out great promise to all the people of the world for all time to come. – Abraham Lincoln, speech to New Jersey legislature, February 1861

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The last time prior to 1978 the Catholic Church had three popes was 1605: Clement VIII, Leo XI and Paul V.

Today’s Stumper: Three future presidents fought in the Black Hawk War. Name them. – Answer next time!

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Notes from around the Human Experience…

AT LEAST WE’RE CONSISTENT: The cacophony over Robert E Lee statues – some of which are being covered up or taken down – is as illuminating as it is disheartening. It shows our racial divide is as wide as ever and national discourse – never our strong suit, going back to the founding of this republic – is as chaotic and disjointed as ever.  

Fly In The Ointment: This got us thinking. We start taking down monuments to Confederate slave owners, what do we do about American slave owners? Where does it stop? Should Charlottesville, Virginia – which has covered up a Lee statue – take down their Thomas Jefferson statues, too?

A Valid Question: Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States has a lot to answer for because though he wrote the words “All men are created equal” he did nothing to end slavery either on his plantation or in his country.

You can say this and you can say that, but it is difficult to argue with the last part of that sentence:

…he did nothing to end slavery either on his plantation or in his country.

But not only are there statues of him, one of three main monuments in our nation’s capital is dedicated to him and he is one of four presidents memorialized on Mount Rushmore. 

Dry, Technical Matter: Their slaves notwithstanding, both men served their country well. Jefferson, of course, attended our nation’s birth and later served as secretary of state, vice president and president. Lee served America honorably and well, too, before deciding his allegiance was with his home state of Virginia. He served the Confederacy honorably and well, too, if not particularly brilliantly as he had a tendency towards high casualty encounters when he had few men to spare.

The Bottom Line: Let’s leave all the statues up. If someplace has a statue or a monument to someone that offends you, don’t go there. The disgraces and inequalities of the past – and of the present, for that matter – are acknowledged. Lee and Jefferson, and others were men, not images on stained glass windows; they were as flawed as we are.

Some Philosophy Crap: This nation has done enough bickering on this matter and by continuing to do so we are allowing our past to define and control us. This is paralyzing our tomorrows.   

ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE! Michelangelo receives a commission from a French cardinal to carve what would become The Pieta on this date in 1498. Michelangelo, then in his early 20’s, would finish the work in less than two years. The Pieta shows a dead Jesus Christ laying on Mary’s lap and is currently housed in St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. 

Oh Yeah: It remains the only work Michelangelo ever signed. It’s been said that shortly after the work was put on public display, Michelangelo overheard someone say it had been done by someone else, so Michelangelo put his name on Mary’s sash to remove all doubt, a move he later regretted.

Hey Batter, Batter: Owen Wilson of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits three triples in a doubleheader against the Boston Braves, giving him 32 for the season, a new major league record. Wilson would finish the year with 36 triples, a record that still stands.

Yeah, This Is Interesting: While we haven’t put this mark on our personal list of records that will never be broken, it has yet to be seriously threatened. The most triples anyone has hit in a season since 1950 is 23, done by Curtis Granderson, then of the Detroit Tigers, in 2007.

Go In Peace, Serve The Lord: John Paul I is elected pope on this date in 1978, replacing Pope Paul VI. John Paul would die 33 days later, the tenth shortest papacy ever. The College of Cardinals would then report back to Rome for duty and elect John Paul II pope in October.

Welcome Back: Kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard, who had been kidnapped in June 1991 while walking to a school bus stop, is found on this date in 2009.

Criminals Are Stupid: One of Dugard’s kidnappers had shown up on the campus of UC Berkeley two days earlier with the two daughters Dugard had borne him looking for a permit to distribute religious fliers. Two female campus police officers were immediately suspicious and asked Phillip Garrido to report to his parole officer the following day. Garrido complied, showing up with the girls and Dugard, whom he identified as his wife. Everyone was separated and after no small amount of questioning, Garrido confessed to kidnapping Dugard.

Oh Yeah: Garrido is serving a prison term of 431 years and his wife Nancy was sentenced to 36-years to life. Dugard’s whereabouts are unknown.

Quotebook: Lost in the cacophony of Oprah and O.J. are those classical values that once made a Saturday afternoon track meet so appealing. Of running for the love of competition, of throwing a javelin for applause and an olive wreath. Of sweating for hours on a lonesome track at dusk for the chance of maybe one day hearing the anthem. Of honor and glory and the spirit of victory, not the spoils. – Mark Zeigler, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 6/20/95

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: 2,271 Americans have died in the war in Afghanistan.

Today’s Stumper: 1978 is the last year there were three popes. When was the last year before 1978 that there were three popes? – Answer next time!

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Notes from around the Human Experience…

MORE WAR! YAY!: President Trump – President Trump! – announced Monday that the United States will increase the number of troops we are sending to this nation’s longest war, the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan.

Gaylon For Congress…Vote Early, Vote Often: We said this every hour on the hour while campaigning for the United States Senate (2014) and House of Representatives (2016):

We are not going to have a peaceful world without a peaceful America.

It’s difficult to argue with this statement. The only dividend an America constantly at war has produced is more war because if war produced peace it would already have done so. We’ve been fighting in Afghanistan for 16 years without result and we can spend another 16 years there doing nothing more than wasting American lives.

Stop Us If You’ve Heard This Before: Continuing to meddle in other nation’s affairs  will not bring peace, it will only continue to produce more violence. Our meddling in the Middle East is why 9/11 happened and why ISIS exists. Had America been at peace instead of war every day since 1989 the Twin Towers would still be standing and ISIS would be a comic book hero. 

USA! USA! During his speech, Trump said we are killing terrorists. Yeah, well, maybe we are. We are also killing innocent civilians but few seem to care about that right now. We are also creating more terrorists because all American interference does is annoy people, inspiring them to do whatever they can to destroy us. It’s what caused 9/11.

Fly In The Ointment: Not only does an America at war produce a violent world, it produces a violent America, too. We don’t think it is reasonable to dismiss the proposition that an America at war every day since 1989 has produced a violent country. It’s all we know. An entire generation of Americans has some zero clue what an America at peace is. It is no different than violent homes producing violent children because all violence begets is more violence, both abroad and at home.

The Bottom Line: Perpetual war is not sustainable and, eventually, it will tag team with our mindless debt and utterly fractured social fabric to bring about the collapse of our once-proud nation. There will come a time when we will run out of people willing to fight our wars and when we will no longer be able to afford to fight them.

ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE! Several counties in western North Carolina declare themselves the independent state of Franklin on this date in 1784. The eight counties had originally been offered to the United States government as payment for Revolutionary War debts, however, the Continental Congress declined this offer, leading to the counties secession.

Franklin’s application to become the 14th state in the Union was approved by only seven states in the Continental Congress, two less than required for statehood and the counties now form eastern Tennessee.

Great Moments In Executing Italians: Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for murder in Massachusetts on this date in 1927. They had been convicted in 1921 of murdering two people during an April 1920 armed robbery of a shoe company.

Sacco and Vanzetti biggest crimes were being Italian immigrants and anarchists and they were convicted despite the utter lack of evidence. Protests against their conviction were held around the world, though all appeals and clemency requests would be denied. The pair declared their innocence to the very end.

Whoops, Our Bad: In 1977, on the 50th anniversary of the executions, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation declaring Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly tried and convicted.

More Hot On This Date Action: What History refers to as the Salad Bowl Strike begins in California’s Central Valley on this date in 1970.

The strike was as much against the Teamsters as it was against any particular grower, as the UFW and the Teamsters had been bickering about who had the right to organize farm workers for months. The strike would involve upwards of 8,000 farm workers and remains the largest strike by farm workers in American history. The strike was bitter and violent and ended the following March.

Great Moments In Downloading Porn: The World Wide Web opens to the public on this date in 1991, with the release of the first web page. The first web page had actually been released earlier in the month, but it had only been available to those working on the project.

The Internet was the brainchild of Tim Berners-Lee, who had been working towards establishing an Internet-based information system since the mid-1980’s. The first web page, which is still active if you know where to look, contains information and instructions on exactly what the hell was going on, plus pics of Berners-Lee’s cat.

Quotebook: Either the people would overthrow the government or, more likely, the government would overthrow the people. – Gore Vidal, Empire

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: There wasn’t a trivia question last time, silly!

Today’s Stumper: How many American have died in the war in Afghanistan? – Answer next time!

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Notes from around the Human Experience…

THIS IS DEFINITELY A VIOLATION OF REGULATIONS: What in theeee hell is going on here? For the second time in two months a United States Navy ship has been rammed by a civilian vessel. This time it was the USS John McCain (DDG-56) colliding with a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker off the coast of Singapore Monday morning.

Ten sailors are missing and five more are injured. This follows the ramming of the USS Fitzgerald by a civilian ship in June where seven sailors died. This is sad because the only reason ships collide at sea is when sailors aren’t doing what they should be doing.

Dry, Technical Matter: Singapore is a city-state located at the southern tip of Malaysia, which it was a part of until it gained independence in 1965. It is just north Indonesia, and a bit north of the equator. Its port is frequently visited by US Navy ships and the McCain was heading there after some routine ops in the western Pacific. 

Back On Message: Why the McCain and the Alnic MC were in the same place at the same time Monday morning wasn’t immediately clear, and the Navy is opening their usual investigation into the matter. The cause of Fitzgerald collision is still under investigation, too, and if you expect either investigation to show the crew of either ship was acting in accordance with Navy regulations you are high. They weren’t.

Now Hear This: This should not be happening. We have significant street cred in this matter, having stood many a watch on the bridge of a US Navy ship and we know from experience it is supremely difficult for a Navy bridge properly staffed by trained sailors standing a proper watch to collide with another ship. Contacts would be visible from miles off with binoculars and even farther off via radar and sonar. 

People were not paying attention. People were not following standard procedures. All it would have taken was one pimply faced seaman apprentice with some binoculars and common sense to make a visual sweep of the area and say “Uh, officer of the deck, there’s a ship over there…” or a radar operator or sonar operator noticing a contact getting a little too close.

Uh, Gaylon, You’re Equivocating. Could You Tell Us What You Really Mean? Thank You In Advance: The only reason a ship runs into another ship is that the crew – led by the commanding officer – is screwing up. Maybe the ship’s spades tournament was going on or something. But either watch stations weren’t being manned or, if they were, no one was doing their job properly.

The Bottom Line: Whatever culpability the Alnic MC might have is of no consequence, either. A ship must be proactive in avoiding collisions. The Alnic MC could have been doing figure eights at flank speed and any US Navy ship should have been able to avoid her.

ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE! Slave Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in southern Virginia on this date in 1831. Turner was also a minister and believed he had been chosen by God to lead the rebellion. The rebellion was ended by whites two days later.

The death toll was high. Turner and his slaves killed between 55 and 65 whites and afterward Virginia executed 56 blacks and Virginia whites did their part, too, killing 120 blacks just for funsies.

Talk About Your Speedy Trial: Turner himself never left the area and eluded capture until October 30. He was tried and convicted on November 5 and executed on November 11.

Great Moments In Lincoln/Douglas Debates: Abraham Lincoln, then a lawyer, and United States Senator Stephen Douglas hold the first of their seven debates in their race for the US Senate in Ottawa, Illinois on this date in 1858.

Is This Dry, Technical Matter?: US senators were elected by state legislatures back then, so Lincoln and Douglas were actually vying for control of the Illinois General Assembly.

I ‘ll Pack A Lunch: You had to have endurance to attend debates back then. The format called for the first speaker – Douglas and Lincoln alternated this honor – to talk for an hour, then the second candidate to talk for an hour-and-a-half with the first candidate getting another 30 minutes. Though Douglas would win the election, Lincoln edited and then published his speeches from the debates which, along with the intense media coverage the debates garnered, played no small part in his being nominated for president by the Republicans in 1860.

Well, OK, One More Item, Then It’s Bedtime: The Mona Lisa, one of our species seminal paintings, is stolen from the Louvre, a Paris art museum, on this date in 1911.

The thief got a couple of breaks. First, the theft wasn’t discovered until the following day, the genius head of security thought the painting had been removed so it could be photographed, which led to a delay of a few more hours before the theft was reported to the police.

Who never did solve the crime. The thief, a Louvre employee who hid in a broom closet and walked out with the painting after closing, only gave himself away when he got bored hiding the painting in his apartment and tried to sell it to an Italian art gallery couple of years later.

Quotebook: What lots and lots I could tell you of this journey….but oh what a price to pay – to forfeit the sight of your dear face. – Robert Falcon Scott, final letter to wife, written from Antarctica, 1912

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: On the Origin of Species was published in 1859.

Today’s Stumper: When did United States Senators start being elected by popular vote, instead of by their respective state legislatures? – Answer next time!

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