The Daily Dose – February 14, 2018
The Daily Dose/February 14, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Notes from around the Human Experience…
TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET: One of our duties as citizens is to keep tabs on what our government is doing to us. A current example is the case of Syed Ahmed Jamal, a native of Bangladesh who has lived in America for 30 years. Jamal was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel at his Lawrence, Kansas home in January for deportation back to Bangladesh. We deserve better than what our government is giving us in this matter.
Dry, Technical Matter: Jamal entered the US legally in 1987 to study at the University of Kansas. He overstayed his visa while pursuing a doctorate degree and was ordered deported in 2011, though that was not enforced and Jamal was allowed to stay in the US as long as he checked in regularly with immigration officials.
Up, Up And Away: Despite this, he was put on a plane for Bangladesh Monday, though a stay was issued from the Immigration Board of Appeals and Jamal is currently in a detention center in Hawaii. He may be sent to Bangladesh or he may be returned to his family.
Cue Circus Calliope Music: This is silly. While we applaud a vigorous enforcement of federal law, just like you do, deporting Jamal does not do anybody any good. If the Trump Administration is trying to look like they’re being tough on immigration they are failing in that attempt. They are making us, and themselves, look petty, silly and vindictive.
Now, if Jamal was merely one of many immigrants in similar circumstances being deported, OK, we could see this. We wouldn’t approve of it, but we would understand it. But Jamal is being singled out and deporting people for relatively minor violations of the terms of their visa is spiteful. Singling out one person for deportation is as mean as it is meaningless. All right, he overstayed his visa once. So what? This is not the most grievous crime in American history and Jamal can hardly be the only person guilty of this offense.
But he is the only being deported right now. The ICE still declines to say why Jamal was selected for arrest. This is bad. Jamal is entitled to know and his wife and three children are entitled to know and so are you and me, we the people.
The Bottom Line: From the time that whites first settled in what would become America, this nation has been built on the backs of immigrants. Anyone who denies that either has forgotten the history lessons they learned in school or never learned them in the first place. Instead of pestering these people, America needs to welcome them. We are better than this.
ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE!: The United States flag is rendered honors by a foreign naval vessel for the first time when a French ship issues a nine-gun salute to the USS Ranger on this date in 1778. At the time Ranger was commanded by Captain John Paul Jones.
FunFact: Jones, originally from Scotland, served the Continental Navy until Congress sold off all its ships after the Revolution, after which Jones secured a commission in the Imperial Russian Navy.
More Exciting Navy Crap: The United States Navy takes possession of its first diesel submarines when the USS E-1 and the USS E-2 are commissioned on this date in 1912. Both would serve until October 1920. Previous submarines had used gasoline engines.
Dry, Technical Matter: The E class boats were 135 feet, three inches long and 14 feet, seven inches wide. Their maximum depth was 200 feet.
Diesel Boats Forever: Though the first nuclear submarine was commissioned by the US Navy in the 1950’s, the diesel submarine era would continue until the USS Blueback (SS 581) was decommissioned in 1990.
Jinx? What Jinx?: Sports Illustrated puts a high school athlete on its cover for the first time when Lebanon, Indiana basketball star Rick Mount appears on this date in 1966.
Mount spent most of his basketball career in Indiana and, in fact, still lives in Lebanon. He attended Purdue, where he led the Boilermakers to the 1969 national championship game, losing to UCLA and played in the ABA for five seasons, including the first two with the Indiana Pacers.
Uh-Oh: Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a death sentence, known in Iran as a fatwa, against British writer Salman Rushdie, author of the novel The Satanic Verses, which had caused some Muslims to get their shorts in a knot. Rushdie and his wife are placed under police protection by the British and for several months found themselves moving every three days.
Though Rushdie, who has lived in New York City most of this century, does not appear to be in any imminent danger, the fatwa remains in effect.
Quotebook: I had always been good company for myself. – Charles Bukowski, Ham On Rye
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Jack Taylor, of Division III Grinnell College, holds the NCAA all-division record for most points in a basketball game with 138 on 11/20/2012 against Faith Baptist Bible College.
Today’s Stumper: The Trivia feature will return.
The Thought for the Day – Fred Kaplan
Niagara will witness the passing of the human species…Such ceaselessness had its parallel in his own life…the inner demand to make something of himself…to swim upstream against formidable obstacles. Fred Kaplan, Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
Abraham Lincoln is one of the most written about figures in human history. There are few aspects of his life that have not been written about many times over, either in articles or books, in scholarly works or books written for a large audience. Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, however, is the only book we’ve read on the subject on his development as a writer. It’s an important part of Lincoln’s life because Lincoln had little formal education and was virtually completely self-educated.
Lincoln was a voracious reader. One, it was in his nature and he was determined to learn as much as he could merely on general principles. It was more than that, however. Lincoln – like others throughout history – had an idea that he was meant to do something in this world and he knew the only way he would be able to claim the place the fates had reserved for him would be to have a mind that was as persistent and developed as he could make it. Lincoln did his work well. Like few others, Lincoln developed a facility for being able to put complex ideas and issues in terms that were difficult for anyone to misunderstand.
…the inner demand to make something of himself.
Lincoln is a great example of someone who lived life from the inside out. Instead of marking time reacting to outside forces, Lincoln answered to his inner self and Lincoln lived the life he was meant to live. Like he probably suspected he would, Lincoln came to power with our country at crossroads. Now, whether you regard Lincoln as a savior or a mere despot, you cannot argue that for better or worse Lincoln decided to save the Union and he did whatever he thought necessary to do that. When his work was done, the fates took him away.
…to swim upstream against formidable obstacles.
Lincoln was born poor. His family moved around the Midwest on a regular basis and it would have been easy for Lincoln to throw up his hands and live the same hardscrabble life his father, mother and stepmother lived. He refused to, though. Lincoln had the courage to develop the wisdom to know the life he was meant to live, the courage to go and live it and the patience to see it through. literally, to the end.
These three traits aren’t reserved for those who live down the ages; these are three traits each of us can have, too. If we are willing to exhibit them, the life we were meant to live is there for the taking.
The Thought for the Day runs regularly. Quotes are from Gaylon’s private stock.
The Daily Dose – February 13, 2018
The Daily Dose/February 13, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Notes from around the Human Experience…
TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET: We’ve noted this here before: Americans have never really gotten along, with themselves or with others. From stealing the Indians’ land to holding blacks in bondage to the perpetual gap between the haves and have-nots, there have always been splinters in the American fabric.
Our latest example comes from Metro City Church in Riverview, Michigan which stands accused by a mother of using conversion therapy to try to convince her transgender son he really meant to be a boy and not a girl. The mom said her son had three people laying hands on him trying to exorcise a demon. The church disputes this, though it did admit to praying with the kid.
FunFact: The church is also scheduled to begin a conversion therapy workshop this week aimed at transgender girls.
Standard Daily Dose Disclaimer: We had 13 years of Lutheran schooling. Good luck getting over that, even if you later had 666 tattooed on your forehead. We currently have no religious beliefs.
Dry, Technical Matter: Conversion therapy is the attempt to change one’s sexual orientation by psychological or spiritual means. Few outside of the most conservative Christian elements believe it works and eight states and some counties ban its practice. The US Supreme Court routinely declines to take up appeals to conversion therapy bans.
Field Test That Puppy: If you are unsure about the merits of conversion therapy, ask yourself if you ever made a sexual orientation choice. You probably didn’t. We know we didn’t. We like girls – a lot – and never sat down to make a choice between boys and girls. Our first crush was Suzanne Pleshette of The Bob Newhart Show which was followed by the hormone onslaught that was Charlie’s Angels.
Fly In The Ointment: Since us Americans are incapable of leaving others alone, it is not the Upset of the Year to find the Metro City Church in Riverview has been bombarded with an onslaught of intolerance. This is wrong. We may or may not agree with a church’s beliefs but we must respect them. To issue hatred and invective merely because someone or something is out of sync with our personal beliefs is wrong.
The Bottom Line: Churches, of course, have been subjecting its adherents to beliefs that are neither intuitive nor completely in-step with current knowledge for centuries. They will continue to do so, too, despite the obstacles presented and in spite of the ruins it has caused. If they want to believe prayer can overcome Mother Nature, more power to them. Those who do not share those beliefs must let them be.
ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE!: Brussels, Belgium begins covering up the Senne River on this date in 1867. At the time the Senne was so polluted it was both unnavigable and a health hazard. It also flooded frequently.
Of course, there were the usual protests over the commandeering of private land for public use, as well as the obligatory embezzlement scandal not to mention some geological issues to delay matters, but the project was finished in late 1871. Covering the Senne allowed for the construction of boulevards and buildings and is regarded a major event in the development of downtown Brussels.
Trial Of The Century…At Least Until OJ: Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German-born carpenter, is convicted of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh on this date in 1935. Hauptmann had come to the attention of investigators – who at the time had no leads and were standing around the squad room scratching their asses – in September 1934 when his license plate number turned up on a $10 gold certificate that had been used in the ransom. The note had been used by Hauptmann at a gas station and, later, more of the ransom would be found in Hauptmann’s garage.
The Postgame Show Is Brought To You By The Electric Chair: Hauptmann was executed in May, 1936. He proclaimed his innocence to the very end.
He Shoots…And Shoots Some More: Frank Selvy of Fruman becomes the only NCAA major division player to score 100 points in a game on this date in 1954. Selvy scored 100, the last two on a half-court shot at the end of the game, as Furman defeated Newberry College 149-95.
FunFact: Slevy was the third collegian to score at least 100 points in a game. In 1954 and 1953 Clarence “Bevo” Francis scored 113 and 116 points for NAIA school Rio Grande College. It has since been done twice more by Jack Taylor of Division III Grinnell College earlier this decade.
Quotebook: The knowledge that I didn’t have the courage to do what was necessary made me feel terrible. – Charles Bukowski, Ham On Rye
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Canada has won the most combined men’s and women’s Olympic hockey medals with 20.
Today’s Stumper: Who holds the NCAA all-division record for most points in a basketball game?- Answer next time!
The Thought for the Day – Robert B Parker
I’ve been alone a lot in my life, and I’ve never tired of it. – Robert B Parker, Playmates
Robert B Parker (1932-2010) was an American writer primarily known for his Spenser series of mysteries, though he wrote other things as well. Spenser novels were not great whodunnits, with every Spenser story having the same basic theme: Spenser takes a case, and has some zero clue what is going on. He dives in and starts annoying people and people try to kill him before he finally figures everything out. There was a time around the turn of the century when Parker mailed it in, with books seemingly published only to fulfill a contract. Parker’s characters, however, were so endearing you kept reading Spenser novels because it was always a treat to visit Spenser, Susan, Hawk and the gang.
I’ve been alone a lot in my life…
We should be content with time to ourselves because time alone is how we truly get to know ourselves, which is one of the elements of success. We cannot get the most out of our talents if we do not know what those talents are and if we do not know ourselves well enough to have a plan for maximizing them.
I’ve never tired of it…
Consider this: we are the only person we are going to see every day of our lives. We better like ourselves because if we don’t not too many others are going to like us, either. Only when we are comfortable with ourselves will we feel comfortable maximizing the 24 hours we have every day, instead of merely reacting to outside forces. When we make our time serve us, all things come to us.
Those who make a go of it in this life like themselves. Now, we don’t have to be hermits. It’s OK to have a spouse and a family and live somewhere other than a cave. But we must have spent enough time with ourselves to know what we are about. We must be comfortable being alone from time to time.
The Thought for the Day runs regularly. Quotes are from Gaylon’s private stock.
The Diary of a Nobody – February 12, 2018
The Daily Dose/February 12, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Notes from around the Human Experience…
HIGHER…STRONGER…HOCKEY: While all of us eagerly await the first doping scandal of Pyeongchang Games, an actual sports story is the fact players employed by the National Hockey League (NHL) are not competing in the men’ hockey tournament. The NHL had been in the habit of suspending its season every four years so its players could compete in the Olympics, but some boring insurance and marketing squabbles – both thankfully beyond the scope of this column – are keeping NHL players – and American Hockey League (AHL) players on two-way contracts – home this year.
That doesn’t mean all players are a bunch of scruffy amateurs playing for mom and flag. Most are professionals because leagues in Europe were again happy to shut down their season so their players could compete. Still, though, your casual hockey fan probably has not heard of too many of this year’s players. Most are professionals who play in European leagues, though Team USA has four players from the American Hockey League and four collegians, while Team Canada has three AHL players on their roster.
USA! USA!: This is hardly an indictment because few heard of anyone on the 1980 American squad until we beat the goddamned Ruskies, and then Finland for the gold medal, at the Lake Placid Games.
Fly In The Ointment: An exception to the European professional rule is the host South Koreans, which have been scrambling to build ice hockey teams since being awarded the Games in 2011. Most of their men’s team play in an Asian professional league, though six Canadians and an American accepted South Korean citizenship to play at Pyeongchang. Their women’s team needed ringers from North Korea – a noted chick hockey hotbed – in order to make their roster somewhat competitive.
Dry, Technical Matter: As they have since the 1992 Games, teams will compete in pool play before the top teams advance to an eight-team single-elimination tournament. Before that, the top pool play teams advanced to a final round robin stage where they played the teams they hadn’t already played, with the winner getting the gold medal.
The Bottom Line: We don’t think anybody is going to really miss the NHL the nextg couple of weeks. While there aren’t too many familiar names, the quality of play will still be high and it’s the Olympics with kids running around in USA, Canada and Slovakia on the front of their jerseys and it should still be compelling to watch.
ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE!: The Soviet Union launches its second spacecraft towards Venus on this date in 1961.
The Motherland Giveth, The Motherland Taketh Away: Throughout its history, the Soviet space program had its triumphs and issues and this mission was no exception. In May Venera 1 would become the first spacecraft to make it to Venus, however by the time it got there radio contact had already been lost, perhaps because a solar-direction sensor overheated though History is not entirely clear on this matter. This failure followed the Soviet’s February 4 launch of a sister craft also headed for Venus that failed to leave Earth’s orbit.
Couldn’t We Have Just Planted Some Trees?: Construction begins on the St Louis Gateway Arch on this date in 1963. The idea for a memorial in St Louis on the Mississippi River was first raised in 1935 and the idea for an arch first appeared in 1944. There were the usual delays and lawsuits enterprises like this generally have and the St Louis Arch was not fully opened until July 1967.
Great Moments In Getting Kicked Out Of The Soviet Union: Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, is arrested for saying what’s on his mind on this date in 1974. He was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and exiled from the Soviet Union and sent to West Germany the following day. Solzhenitsyn would make his way to Switzerland and then the United States, where he spent almost 20 years.
“The Human Soul Longs For Things Higher, Warmer, And Purer Than Those Offered By Today’s Mass Living Habits… By TV Stupor And By Intolerable Music.”: Solzhenitsyn was not a fan of American culture, though he did express admiration for western political liberty. His Soviet citizenship was restored in 1990 and in 1994 Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia with his family.
“Thanks For The Poor Security…” Four Norwegian thieves steal Norway’s version of Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream of Nature, commonly known as The Scream, from the National Gallery in Oslo on this date in 1994. Surveillance video shows two people breaking into the museum and walking out with the painting in less than a minute.
The painting would be recovered in May following a sting operation and the thieves arrested were later released on appeal when it was discovered the British agents who had participated in the sting had entered Norway under false IDs.
Not Guilty: President of the United States Bill Clinton is acquitted of one perjury charge and one obstruction of justice charge by the United States Senate on this date in 1999. Both votes fell well short of the 67 required for conviction.
FunFact: Clinton was the second president to be tried by the Senate following impeachment by the House of Representatives. In 1868 Andrew Johnson had been acquitted by the Senate.
Quotebook: If you lose this game, you’ll take it to your fucking graves. Your fucking graves – Herb Brooks, 1980 US Olympic hockey coach, some inspirational words before the third period of game vs. Finland, 2/24/80.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: There are four amendments to the United States Constitution still awaiting ratification. None of these amendments had ratification periods included in the amendment, so they are technically still pending. Of these, the one concerning child labor has 28 of the 38 votes required for ratification.
Today’s Stumper: Which country has won the most combined men’s and women’s Olympic hockey medals?- Answer next time!