History for March 17

History for March 17 - On-This-Day.com:

Saint Patrick’s Day: commemorates the patron saint of Ireland, Bishop Patrick (389-461). 
Legal holiday in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Birth anniversaries of entertainer Nat “King” Cole (1919-65); ballet star Rudolf Nureyev (1938-93).

Happy Birthday! Lesley-Anne Down, Kurt Russell, Gary Sinise, 

0461 - Bishop Patrick, St. Patrick, died in Saul. Ireland celebrates this day in his honor. (More about St. Patrick's Day)


1756 - St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time. The event took place at the Crown and Thistle Tavern. 


1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act that had caused resentment in the North American colonies.


1942 - Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Southwestern Pacific. 

1958 - The Vanguard 1 satellite was launched by the U.S. 



















1961 - The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos. 


1969 - Golda Meir was sworn in as the fourth premier of Israel. 










1972 - U.S. President Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation. 


1973 - The first American prisoners of war (POWs) were released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam. 


1989 - A series of solar flares caused a violent magnetic storm that brought power outages over large regions of Canada. 


1999 - The International Olympic Committee expelled six of its members in the wake of a bribery scandal
. 

Dutch politician calls for "fewer Moroccans"

Dutch politician calls for "fewer Moroccans" - Yahoo News:
 "AMSTERDAM (AP) — Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders says "the fewer Moroccans the better" in the Netherlands.
Wilders, known internationally for his anti-Islam stances, elaborated on his anti-Moroccan feelings in an interview with national broadcaster NOS Friday.
"I say that because (Moroccans) are heavily overrepresented in criminality and welfare dependency," he said.
Wilders' Freedom party is expected to book gains in municipal elections next week and in European elections in May."

More sovereignty votes: Sunday referendum may see Venice elect to secede from Italy

More sovereignty votes: Sunday referendum may see Venice elect to secede from Italy | National Post:

"Voting begins Sunday on a referendum on whether Venice and its surrounding region should secede from the rest of Italy, in an attempt to restore its 1,000-year history as a sovereign republic.

La Serenissima — or the Most Serene Republic of Venice — was an independent trading power for a millennium before its last leader was deposed by Napoleon in 1797. The republic encompassed not just Venice but what is now the surrounding region of Veneto and it is there that the vote will take place from tomorrow until Friday.

Campaigners have been inspired by the example of Scotland, which will hold its referendum on independence in September, and Catalonia, where around half the population say they want to break away from Spain.

Activists say that the latest polling shows that 65% of voters in the Veneto region, which includes historic cities such as Treviso, Vicenza and Verona, are in favour of cutting ties with Rome."

Too late. The vote is done-----Peggy Noonan: Warnings From the Ukraine Crisis

Peggy Noonan: Warnings From the Ukraine Crisis - WSJ.com:
"What has been happening in Ukraine is not a wake-up call precisely but a tugging at the attention, a demand to focus.
There's a sense that in some new way we are watching the 21st century take its shape and express its central realities.
Exactly 100 years ago, in August 1914, the facts that would shape the 20th century gathered and emerged in the Great War. 
History doesn't repeat itself; you can't, as they say, step into the same stream twice.
But it does have an unseen circularity."

The Lois Lerner Defense

The Lois Lerner Defense :: SteynOnline:
"We have the president of the United States' word as a gentleman that he knew nothing about the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of his enemies until he "learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this."

Furthermore, although the commissioner of the IRS, Douglas Shulman, visited Obama's White House no fewer than 157 times, which is 156 times more than his predecessor Mark Everson ever visited the White House, we know that this was for legitimate Easter-egg rolls, as he testified to Congress, and meetings to discuss Obamacare.
The Easter Bunny, one should note, visits the White House two to four times as often as the average IRS commissioner did before Mr. Shulman came along. "

George the Dachshund's Owner Found a Way to Help Out His Old Dog

George the Dachshund's Owner Found a Way to Help Out His Old Dog:
"Watching your beloved pets age can be heartbreaking.
You see them transform from playful puppy to arthritic senior, but still keep the same passionate love for playing.
Unfortunately, that jumping around can hurt them as they get older.
That’s why this dachshund’s owner did something awesome to help out his canine friend."

How Do You Say “Keynesian Failure” in Japanese? I think it’s ケインズ主義…

Instapundit » Blog Archive » STEPHEN GREEN: How Do You Say “Keynesian Failure” in Japanese? I think it’s ケインズ主義…:
STEPHEN GREEN: How Do You Say “Keynesian Failure” in Japanese? I think it’s ケインズ主義の失敗.

Plus:
“Deregulate. 
Simplify the tax code. 
Protect the value of your currency. 
Those three steps are all it takes to achieve prosperity, but as Glenn Reynolds like to say, politicians don’t like them because they provide too few opportunities for graft.”

Well, I don’t exactly like to say it, it’s just that it’s indisputably true. . . ."

What could possibly go wrong..........Group hopes 'Detroit Dollar' pays off for biz

Group hopes 'Detroit Dollar' pays off for biz | Crain's Detroit Business:
"For the second time since the Great Recession, Detroit may have its own currency.
 Al Bogdan, consultant and head of AAB Development Strategies LLC, is hosting a community meeting at the downtown Park Bar on Wednesday to discuss the idea.
 The goal of the group, dubbed Detroit Dollar Co., is to recruit 1,000 Detroit businesses in two years to use the Detroit Dollar to promote a "buy local" mentality. 
 The group hopes to have $1 million worth of the currency in circulation in the next two years. "

Your voice betrays your personality in a split second

Your voice betrays your personality in a split second - life - 14 March 2014 - New Scientist:
"You had me at "Hello"!
It turns out our opening words speak volumes – people take less than a second to form an impression of someone's personality based on their voice alone.

We know that our voices can transmit subtle signals about our gender, age, even body strength and certain personality traits, but Phil McAleer at the University of Glasgow and his colleagues wondered whether we make an instant impression.
To find out, they recorded 64 people as they read a passage.
They then extracted the word "hello" and asked 320 people to rate the voices on a scale of 1 to 9 for one of 10 perceived personality traits – including trustworthiness, dominance and attractiveness.

Although it's not clear how accurate such snap judgements are, what is apparent is that we all make them, and very quickly.
"We were surprised by just how similar people's ratings were," says McAleer.
Using a scale in which 0 represents no agreement on a perceived trait and 1 reflects complete agreement, all 10 traits scored on average 0.92 – meaning most people agreed very closely to what extent each voice represented each trait."

In the last election, only 5% of Muskegon county registered voters voted to increase taxes on the remaining 95%. Less than 5% voted no. The other 90% thought politics was boring.

House report traces IRS scandal to Obama

House report traces IRS scandal to Obama:

" A House committee investigating the IRS scandal has found a link between President Obama’s criticism of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and subsequent steps taken by IRS official Lois Lerner to discriminate against conservative groups.

Lerner was responding to political pressure in her efforts to clamp down on conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status in the wake of the 2012 Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, concluded a 141-page report released last Tuesday by the Republican-majority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee."

History for March 16

History for March 16 - On-This-Day.com

Freedom of Information Day

Birth anniversary of James Madison, fourth president of the United States (1751-1836).

225th birth anniversary of physicist Georg Simon Ohm (1789-1854).

In 1957, the “Gumby Show” premiered on TV.

Happy Birthday!  Erik Estrada, Jerry Lewis, Chuck Woolery

1521 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines. He was killed the next month by natives. 


1802 - The U.S. Congress established the West Point Military Academy in New York. 


1917 - Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicated his throne. 


1926 - Physicist Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-fuel rocket. 


1935 - Adolf Hitler ordered a German rearmament and violated the Versailles Treaty. 


1939 - Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. 


1950 - Congress voted to remove federal taxes on oleomargarine. 


1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson submitted a $1 billion war on poverty program to Congress. 


1978 - Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas. Moro was later murdered by the group. 


1989 - The Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee approved large-scale agricultural reforms and elected the party's 100 members to the Congress of People's Deputies. 


1993 - In France, ostrich meat was officially declared fit for human consumption. 


1994 - Tonya Harding pled guilty in Portland, OR, to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She was fined $100,000. She was also banned from amateur figure skating. 


1998 - Rwanda began mass trials for 1994 genocide with 125,000 suspects for 500,000 murders. 


1999 - The 20 members of the European Union's European Commission announced their resignations amid allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement.

What Facebook Founder Did After Learning the Gov’t Was Using His Site to Track People | TheBlaze.com

What Facebook Founder Did After Learning the Gov’t Was Using His Site to Track People | TheBlaze.com:

"When most of us are unhappy about government policies — say, for instance, National Security Agency information-gathering techniques — the most we can (legally) do is educate ourselves, maybe complain a little, and wait for the next election cycle.

But apparently Mark Zuckerberg can do a little more. He called the president directly."

You’ll Likely Be Offended at Who Bill Maher Just Called a ‘Psychotic Mass Murderer’ | Video | TheBlaze.com

You’ll Likely Be Offended at Who Bill Maher Just Called a ‘Psychotic Mass Murderer’ | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"Late night comedian Bill Maher expressed disbelief Friday that 60 percent of Americans are “stupid” enough to believe the tale of Noah’s ark is literally true and questioned why individuals worship God, who he described as a “psychotic mass murderer.”

“Isn’t life hard enough without making s*** up out of thin air to f*** with yourself?” he asked.

Maher — who is atheist and produced an anti-religion film years ago — said he believes that the tale of Noah’s ark is not only false, but also “immoral.”

“It’s about a psychotic mass murderer who gets away with it and his name is God.”"

Ukraine says Russian forces move outside Crimea

Ukraine says Russian forces move outside Crimea - Yahoo News:

"SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces backed by helicopter gunships and armored vehicles Saturday took control of a village near the border with Crimea on the eve of a referendum on whether the region should seek annexation by Moscow, Ukrainian officials said.

The action in Strilkove appeared to be the first move outside Crimea, where Russian forces have been in effective control since late last month."

‘I’m Not Lying’: Cancer Patient Hits Back at Critics Who Question Her Facts Against Obamacare | Video | TheBlaze.com

‘I’m Not Lying’: Cancer Patient Hits Back at Critics Who Question Her Facts Against Obamacare | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"As for Boonstra, who called out these congressmen in her piece, she wrote that she “never asked for this. Obamacare has turned my life into a nightmare.

“That’s why I’m speaking out for the 225,000 Michiganians who also lost their insurance plans thanks to Obamacare. Like them, I want a plan that works for me,” she continued. “Instead, Obamacare has denied me my choice of coverage, President Barack Obama has betrayed my trust, Harry Reid called me a liar, and Gary Peters has tried to silence me.”"