The Daily Dose
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy

Notes from around the Human Experience…

UH, YEAH, THIS IS BREAKING NEWS: Last week the United States carried out two airstrikes in Somalia in an effort to kill senior ISIS leaders. The exact extent of the damage done isn’t entirely known or, if it is, the US Africa Command isn’t saying what it is yet. They did issue a statement that read, in part:

U.S. forces will continue to use all authorized…measures to protect and to disable terrorist threats.

Call Us Traditionalists: The US Africa Command is lying of course because they are not using authorized measures at all. The only authorized measure for conducting airstrikes in any foreign country is a declaration of war by Congress, and Congress has not declared war in Somalia.

Fly In The Ointment: Congress has not, in fact, declared war anywhere since 1942. All other wars we have fought, from Korea to Vietnam to the wars we have been fighting continuously since 1989 have either been authorized by a Congressional resolution, conducted unilaterally by the president or authorized by the United Nations. Congress’ abrogation of its responsibility to declare war is one America’s great tragedies, completely out of step with both the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

Maybe The Constitution Is Good For Cleaning The Sink With: To review, the Constitution is very clear on the matter, with Article I, Section 8 stating, in part:

The Congress shall have power…To declare war.

Eight words, all very common and very clear, though three of the words have multiple syllables. There meaning is plain:

There is no other justification for the United States conducting war.

Congress has not declared war on Somalia or on any other foe the United States is currently fighting, so the US should not be fighting these wars. A Congressional resolution, a presidential order or a UN mandate is not a satisfactory alternative.

Dry, Technical Matter: Why does the US even have an Africa command in the first place? Does Somalia have a US command? Why can’t America give other nations the dignity of conducting their affairs without the benefit of US interference? 

The Bottom Line: Our world is a violent place in large measure because America is a violent nation. The very best example we can set is an example of peace. We will not have a peaceful world without a peaceful America. A large step towards having a peaceful America is not fighting wars unless they have been declared by Congress. 

ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE! Adolf Hitler attempts to take over Germany for the first time, the Beer Hall Putsch ending in failure on this date in 1923.

The failure was academic. The publicity generated by the event and the ensuing trial gave Hitler – then merely a malcontent veteran that headed the Nazis, then a relatively small party – national recognition and he used his prison term to produce his manifesto, Mein Kampf.

Uh-Oh: Pan-Am Flight 7, en route from San Francisco to Honolulu, disappears on this date in 1957. It wasn’t until November 14 that wreckage and passenger bodies began appearing, about 950 miles northwest of Hawaii. Some of the recovered bodies had life jackets, so they had some idea something was wrong, but the cause of the crash was never determined.

Great Moments In Getting Grandpa To Pay Your Ransom: An ear of kidnap victim John Paul Getty III, son of John Paul Getty, Jr and grandson of John Paul Getty, Sr, arrives in a Rome newspaper office on this date in 1973. Getty, then 16, had been kidnapped over the summer in Rome.

“If We Don’t Get Money In Ten Days….He Will Arrive In Little Bits.”: The initial ransom demand was for $17 million, with Getty, Sr. warmly refusing to pay the kidnappers anything. Even the arrival of body parts didn’t spur grandpa Getty into immediate action. After some negotiating, a ransom of $3 million was agreed to. Getty Sr chipped in the maximum of $2.2 million that could be deducted from his taxes and loaned his son the rest.

Oh Yeah: Nine people were eventually arrested in connection with the kidnapping. Two were convicted and the others were acquitted. Getty III died in 2011.

Get Out Your History Books: Elgin Baylor of the Los Angeles Lakers sets the NBA single-game scoring mark with 64 points in a 136-115 victory over the Boston Celtics on this date in 1959. Baylor broke the record of 63 set by Joe Fulks of the Philadelphia Warriors in 1949 and Baylor would break his record a year later when he scored 71 points in a game against New York.

FunFact: The record is now 100 points, by Wilt Chamberlain.

Quotebook:  …you cannot blame a mirror for what it shows. – Gore Vidal, Empire

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Montana went from having two members in the US House of Representatives to having one member in 1993.

Today’s Stumper: Where is the US Africa Command headquartered?  – Answer next time!

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Notes from around the Human Experience…

ANCHORS AWEIGH: Last week the Navy released its reports on collisions involving the USS Fitzgerald and the USS John McCain. Both suffered catastrophic collisions this past summer, the Fitzgerald off the southern coast of Japan and the McCain near Singapore. A total of 17 sailors were killed.

We have experience navigating and standing lookout on US naval vessels and at the time we said we would not die of shock if the investigations showed the crew of both ships were not doing their job properly. There wasn’t really any other possibility, really. A Navy vessel manned by properly trained sailors standing their watches properly is very difficult to collide with.

Fly In The Ointment: Neither the Fitzgerald or the McCain were manned by properly trained sailors standing a proper watch.

The Fitzgerald was heading south and the ship it hit, the Crystal was heading northeast and were on a collision course for about 15 minutes. Nobody did anything. Fitzgerald watchstanders must have been having a spades tournament because the ship could not be bothered to maneuver, sound an alarm or contact the Crystal. Lookouts and radar and sonar operators failed to provide any information, either, and you do not have to be John Paul Jones to surmise these watchstanders may well have been sleeping, although we read the report and this was not mentioned, although crew fatigue was cited as a cause. The captain was not contacted and had some zero clue his ship was in danger until the bow of the Crystal appeared in his stateroom.

FunFact: One of the Navy’s favorite phrases, lessons learned, was first used in the second paragraph of the report. ‘Systemic causes’ appears in the third paragraph.

“…Complacency, Over-Confidence And Lack Of Procedural Compliance”: Meanwhile, on the McCain, the captain was on the bridge but there were steering problems and the report cites a lack of situational awareness – code for nobody knew what in the hell was going on – as the cause of the collision.

Standard Navy Phraseology 101: 242 years into it and the Navy can still muck up a wet dream, as sailors like to say. 17 shipmates are dead because of it. Yes, the appropriate people got fired and some might be subject to court-martial, but it’s too late to the 17 dead shipmates any good. One of the great lessons of seamanship – take care of the small things and the big things will take care of themselves – still has not been learned.

ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE! Jeannette Rankin becomes the first woman elected to Congress on this date in 1916, winning election from one of two at-large districts in Montana. During her term, the Montana legislature voted to replace the two at-large districts with two geographical districts and Rankin, a Republican, declined to run in her new, heavily Democratic district.

FunFact: Rankin was also elected to Congress in 1940, again serving one term.

“I  Can’t Go To War…And I  Refuse To Send Anyone Else”: Rankin served during momentous times. She would be one of 50 in the House of Representatives to vote against US entry into World War I and she was the only member of either the Senate or House to vote against declaring war on Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  

Dry, Technical Matter: A lifelong advocate of, among other things, peace and women’s rights, Rankin never bothered to get married.

Well, This Isn’t According To Specs: The Tacoma Narrows Bridge – then the third-longest suspension bridge in the world – collapses into Puget Sound on this date in 1940 during a windstorm. The only fatality was a dog who had been left in a car on the bridge. Rescuers were not treated well by the dog, who insisted on biting them and the dog fell into Puget Sound along with the car he was in. His body was never recovered.

Great Moments In Magic Johnson: Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers announces he has HIV and retires from the NBA on this date in 1991. Johnson attempted a comeback before the following season, which he abandoned during the exhibition season, but would return to play 32 regular season games and four playoff games in the 1995-96 season.

Quotebook: Truth is generally the best vindication against slander. – Abraham Lincoln

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The first college football game that involved running the ball, eleven men on a side and a play ending with the tackling of the ball carrier was played on June 4, 1875, when Tufts defeated Harvard 1-0.

Today’s Stumper: When did Montana go from having two members of the US House of Representatives to having one member?  – Answer next time!

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Notes from around the Human Experience…

OUR COUNTRY IS DYING: Usually after the latest mass shooting we trot out our suitably witless remark about cutting and pasting the previous mass shooting column, changing only the location and the number of people killed.

This time, though, the interval between Las Vegas and San Antonio, about five weeks, was so short we can’t even do that. We’re numb. For a while now we’ve said in this space how a mass shooting isn’t really news anymore because they happen so frequently and now we’re at the point where we don’t even drop what we are doing to find out details. The fact there was another mass shooting is enough. In due course, we’ll find out where and how many if whether or not the gunman survived.

Gaylon For Congress…Vote Early, Vote Often: We’ve said on the campaign trail that we are not going to have a peaceful world without a peaceful America. We are also not going to have a peaceful America without a peaceful America. Our country has been at war for most of its existence and continuously since 1989. War is virtually all we know.

Violence has become the go-to reaction for America’s government. It should be no surprise it has become the go-to reaction for America’s citizens.

Not only is our government violent, but so are our movies and television shows, our music and video games.

The only dividend violence produces is more violence!

If you disagree with that ask yourself this: are our nation’s prisons crammed with people who grew up in quiet, loving homes? Of course they aren’t. Most violent adults had violent childhoods.

And violent citizens have violent governments.

Dry, Technical Matter: If America had been at peace every day since 1989 instead of at war, it is reasonable to believe mass shootings would be rare occurrences. They’d still happen because there will always be misfits hell-bent on causing mayhem and tragedy, but they would be rare.

Well, That’s Refreshing: This isn’t going to stop, either. We can say this about regulating weapons designed to kill large numbers of people and we can say that, but as long as a violent American government produces violent American citizens, we will be dealing with the slaughter of large numbers of innocent people on a regular basis.

The Bottom Line: If we had a peaceful American government we would have an America at peace with the world and itself.

More Bottom Line: We are not going to have an America at peace until we start demanding it at the ballot box on Election Day. As long we keep reelecting the status quo the status quo is all we are going to get. We will have no one to blame but ourselves.

ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE: Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States on this date in 1860. Lincoln received 180 electoral votes, easily outdistancing John C Breckinridge, John Bell and his old nemesis Stephen Douglas.

FunFact: Lincoln was the first Republican elected president.

It Is Finished: Douglas, like some others over the years, had long had his sights on the White House, and after his loss it became apparent he would never get there without a dinner invitation. Douglas said screw it, retired to Chicago and died of pneumonia eight months later at the age of 48.

Hut, Hut, Hike: The first college football game is played when Rutgers defeats Princeton – then known as the College of New Jersey – 6-4 on this date in 1869.

Dry, Technical Matter: Exactly why those that decide these things insist this was a football game has never been clear because the game more resembled soccer, and to a lesser extent rugby, than the football we know now. Teams could not carry the ball nor pass it and the only way to score was by kicking the ball over the opponent’s goal line. Each side had 25 players.

Rivalry Week: The two teams met a week later at Princeton, with Princeton winning 8-0.

The More Things Change…: A third game was scheduled but not played due to school administrators concerns that more emphasis was being placed on football than on academics.

Lights, Camera, Action: After two years on the Mutual Radio Network, Meet The Press debuts on NBC on this date in 1947. The first episode was hosted by its creator Martha Rountree and the first guest was Postmaster General James Farley. Meet The Press is still on the air, the longest-running show in television history.

Quotebook: Lethargy [is] the forerunner of death to the public liberty. – Thomas Jefferson

Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Harvard University is the oldest university in the United States, founded in 1636.

Today’s Stumper: When was the first college football game that involved running the ball, eleven men on a side and a play ending with the tackling of the ball carrier played?  – Answer next time!

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