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The Daily Dose/January 22, 2017
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
AMERICA…LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE ONCE GREAT: As we noted in our last column, President Trump’s inaugural address came in at about 1,400 words. Most of them sounded like he was back on the campaign trail and did not have the broad, historical perspective the very best inaugural addresses have had over the centuries.
Some of his words, though, weren’t too bad and the following 25 words hit the nail right on the head:
Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving…
Gaylon For Congress…Vote Early, Vote Often: Bingo. We have expressed similar sentiments before, both here and while campaigning for the United States Senate and House of Representatives:
America has stopped dreaming.
For a while now America has settled for being well-entertained and, frankly, well-fed. The America that won World War II and remains the only nation to put men on the moon has left the building. We have been derelict in our duties as the world’s only superpower and the consequences of this dereliction are widespread.
Leading Off: One, we haven’t put a human on Mars. Not only have we missed out on the accomplishment itself, but we’ve missed out on the innovations this effort would have required.
Two, no one looks up to America anymore.
They used to, despite all our problems. Despite having once allowing slavery, despite making every non-white male fight tooth and nail for every gain, despite every obstacle we threw up, America used to mean something to the rest of the world.
We can again. In fact, we’ve always felt America has an obligation to mean something to the rest of the world. However, America will not start meaning something to the rest of the world until we start meaning something to ourselves again, until we start thinking big again and start striving again.
The Bottom Line: America hasn’t strived since we left the moon in December 1972. We have stopped dreaming and striving and have become content. We have become a second-rate country, mired in perpetual war, mindless debt and fractured and divided society. We elected a president who – an occasional well-turned phrase notwithstanding – is utterly without qualification, class or civility. Four years from now we will probably still be at war and hopelessly in debt, four years closer to our ultimate collapse, probably before this half-century is out.
TEN-HUT! 150 members of the Swiss Guard arrive in the Vatican City to protect Pope Julius II on this date in 1506. Julius had been a bishop in Switzerland before becoming Pope, and upon becoming pope had requested a Swiss mercenary force for protection.
The Pontifical Swiss Guard still performs this role, as well as other security roles in Vatican City, and remains one of the oldest continually operating military elements in the world.
Now Hear This: The United States Supreme Court issues two rulings, Roe vs Wade and Doe vs Bolton, both of which remove all barriers to elective abortion in the United States. Roe decreed that the right to privacy established by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution extends to a woman’s right to have an abortion. The Doe ruling overturned Georgia’s abortion law, which had allowed it only in cases of rape, incest, deformity of the fetus or for the health of the mother.
Thought For The Day: …he who ceases to learn is already a half-dead man. Do not be like an oyster who rests on the sea bottom waiting for the good things to come by. Search for them. Find them. – Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Dove
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The longest presidential inaugural address was 8,460 words in 1841 by William Henry Harrison. The shortest was George Washington’s second inaugural, 135 words, in 1793.
Today’s Stumper: What is the oldest military unit sill in continuous operation? Answer next time!
