Tuesday, August 05, 2014

History for August 5

History for August 5 - On-This-Day.com:
National Night Out. 31st annual. Designed to heighten crime prevention awareness and to promote police-community partnerships. See www.nationalnightout.org

Birth anniversaries of astronaut Neil Armstrong (1930-2012), Joseph Merrick (known as "the Elephant Man," 1862-90), Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947).

Happy Birthday! Loni Anderson, Patrick Ewing, John Saxon 


1833 - The village of Chicago was incorporated. The population was approximately 250. 


1861 - The U.S. federal government levied its first income tax. The tax was 3% of all incomes over $800. The wartime measure was rescinded in 1872.
 

1864 - During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Adm. David G. Farragut were led into Mobile Bay, Alabama. 


1944 - Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp in Warsaw. 348 Jewish prisoners were freed. 


1957 - "American Bandstand” premiered on national TV with host Dick Clark.


1962 - Actress Marilyn Monroe died at Los AngelesCA.

1964 - U.S. aircraft bombed North Vietnam after North Vietnamese boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. 


1974 - U.S. President Nixon said that he expected to be impeached. Nixon had ordered the investigation into the Watergate break-in to halt. 


1981 - The U.S. federal government started firing striking air traffic controllers. 


1991 - Iraq admitted to misleading U.N. inspectors about secret biological weapons. 


1998 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began not cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors.
 

Monday, August 04, 2014

‘Hang Your Heads in Shame’: A Hollywood Heavyweight Gives Fellow Actors a History Lesson | TheBlaze.com

‘Hang Your Heads in Shame’: A Hollywood Heavyweight Gives Fellow Actors a History Lesson | TheBlaze.com:
"You have been able to become famous and have all your monetary gains because you are in a democratic country: America. Do you think you would have been able to accomplish this in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, et cetera? You had a great responsibility to use your celebrity for good.  Instead, you have defamed the only democratic country of goodwill in the Middle East: Israel."

Watch One U.S. Marine Fearlessly Take on Angry Mob of Pro-Palestine Protesters After He Was Allegedly Assaulted: ‘Don’t Touch Me!’ | Video | TheBlaze.com

Watch One U.S. Marine Fearlessly Take on Angry Mob of Pro-Palestine Protesters After He Was Allegedly Assaulted: ‘Don’t Touch Me!’ | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"A former U.S. Marine was allegedly assaulted and spit on by an angry mob of pro-Palestine protesters during a Saturday rally in front of the White House. The war veteran, who was reportedly part of a pro-Israel counter-protest, quickly found himself greatly outnumbered and in potential danger — though he didn’t appear to be afraid at all."

Quotation of the day on the ‘gender pay gap’ ….

AEIdeas » Quotation of the day on the ‘gender pay gap’ ….:

… is from Joanna Williams’s (education editor of spiked) article “Cut the Crap About the Pay Gap“:
A gender pay gap, albeit one that is rapidly decreasing, still exists; but the good news is that when occupation, contracted hours and most significantly age are taken into account, it all but disappears. In fact, the youngest women today, even those working part-time, are already earning more each hour than men. We need to ask why this is not more widely known and question the motives of those who seem so desperate to cling to a last-ditch attempt to prove that women remain disadvantaged. We should be telling today’s girls that the potential to do whatever job they want and earn as much money as they please is theirs for the taking, rather than burdening them with the mantle of victimhood.

Mexico Border Bringing Terrorist from Afghan, Syria, and Pakistan (Good video. Stay with it--Video)

Mexico Border Bringing Terrorist from Afghan, Syria, and Pakistan (Video) | Viewpoints of a Sagitarrian
Although Progressives and the mainstream media would have us believe otherwise, there is no shortage of the filth crossing the U.S. Mexico border.
Even more disturbing is the fact that if I know it, the government and the media who are complicit in deceiving Americans know it.
Their deceit is against the interest of our nation, detrimental to the safety of Americans and criminal.
Immigration: Texas Gov. Rick Perry correctly warns that illegal immigrants are responsible for 3,000 murders and 8,000 sexual assaults in the past five years. And with the new border surge, there’s more trouble on the way.
The Obama administration and its media enablers would have you believe the wave of illegal immigrants flooding the border is composed of nothing more than toddlers and their moms fleeing crime in Central America.
As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi put it, they’re ‘baby Jesus.’ But Baby Jesuses don’t go around raping and murdering, let alone overcrowding prisons, as Perry bluntly points out….

Border Patrol Agent’s Stunning Response After a Truck Driver Asked Him a Simple Question | Video | TheBlaze.com

Border Patrol Agent’s Stunning Response After a Truck Driver Asked Him a Simple Question | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"A truck driver who was stopped at an apparent Border Patrol checkpoint and asked if he was a U.S. citizen is becoming an Internet star after he asked the Border Patrol agent a question of his own.
You just have to the see the agent’s response in the 56-second video:"

Teach the children well.........Prof on MSNBC: There is No Anti-Semitism in Middle East

Prof on MSNBC: There is No Anti-Semitism in Middle East | Truth Revolt:
In the segment, Harris-Perry seemed troubled over the idea that the conflict between Israel and Palestine is "ancient" and "visceral." If only she could grasp that this conflict is "relatively recent," then she would be more "optimistic" about the future.
Luckily for Harris-Perry, Professor Leverett was there to guide her with this "well informed" commentary:
If you look at Jewish communities in other places around the Middle East, there certainly was after the creation of the State of Israel and especially after the '67 war, an immigration of Jews from many of these Arab countries to Israel -- but there still are Jewish communities. For example, there is a thriving Jewish community in Iran. And when I've talked about that people say, 'Oh, that's so terrible. How could you say that? Of course they're suffering.' No, I've actually been there. I've been to the Kosher restaurants, I've been to the Jewish hospital in Iran.
There is not this deep-seated Arab/Jewish, or Muslim/Jewish, animosity. There's not an anti-Semitism in the Middle East the way that there was in Europe, which is based on race, which is based on color, which is based on genes and biology. That doesn't exist in the Middle East. There's no history of that in the Middle East.
Leverett continued and implicated the United States' involvement with Israel as bringing anti-Semitism to the Middle East:

#1 on NYT! Remember when Costco told us they pulled the book cuz no one was buyin'? Drop your Costco membership!---------Costco Relents After Thousands Protest Decision to Pull Dinesh D'Souza Book

10574352_926382180721771_7884841497265595141_nCostco Relents After Thousands Protest Decision to Pull Dinesh D'Souza Book:
And the reaction got almost immediate results as the company announced it would put D'Souza's book, "America: Imagine a World Without Her," back on its shelves, despite, what it says are poor sales.
"Costco is not a book store. 
Our book shelf space is very limited," read a statement posted shortly after 8 p.m. on Tuesday. 
"We exercise discipline in the best utilization of that limited space based solely on what our members are buying. 
We can't carry every title that our members are interested in reading. 
We are constantly monitoring book sales, and make decisions to pull books off the shelves frequently based on sales volume to make room for other titles. 
Politics or controversy over content do not influence our decisions."


MUST SEE VIDEO! (only 57 seconds. Watch to unsettling end) U.S. Border Patrol Check Point

Travis Pope - U.S. Border Patrol Check Point:

For some reason, this assurance from our government doesn't make me feel any better. Actually worse...........CDC chief tries to ease fears of Ebola in U.S.: 'We can stop it from spreading'

CDC chief tries to ease fears of Ebola in U.S.: 'We can stop it from spreading' - Washington Times:
“Ebola is a scary disease because it’s so deadly,” Dr. Frieden said on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.”
The plain fact is, we can stop it from spreading in hospitals, and we can stop it from spreading in Africa, which is really the source of the epidemic and where we’re surging our response.”
He added, “I don’t think it’s in the cards that we would have widespread Ebola in this country.”

Wait Until You Hear These Federal Workers’ Excuses For Surfing Porn Up To 8 Hours A Week On The Job

Wait Until You Hear These Federal Workers’ Excuses For Surfing Porn Up To 8 Hours A Week On The Job
The Washington Times’ Jim McElhatton has written a devastating pieceon government inefficiency and waste:
Lack of work has emerged time and again in federal investigations, and it’s not just porn, nor is it confined to the FCC. Across government, employees caught wasting time at work say they simply didn’t have enough work to do, according to investigation records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
McElhatton describes one FCC employee’s rationale for surfing porn on the job:
Things were slow, he told investigators, so he perused it “out of boredom” — for up to eight hours each week.

Anti-muffin top billboards removed by plastic surgery office after vandalism MLive.com

Ann Arbor Plastic Surgery muffin top billboard vandalizedAnti-muffin top billboards removed by plastic surgery office after vandalism | MLive.com:
"JACKSON, MI – A Jackson plastic surgery office removed three anti-muffin top advertisements from the area after one of the ads was vandalized.
The billboard, which once displayed the slogan, "friends don't let friends muffin top" was spray painted to include "You're beautiful!" and the two muffins shown atop a pair of jeans were also given smiley faces.
An Ann Arbor Plastic Surgery spokesperson had previously said the office intended to replace the billboard but reported Thursday they have since decided to remove the ad and two others.
"It just obviously wasn't the taste for Jackson," Tammy Nelis, office manager at Ann Arbor Plastic Surgery in Jackson said of the advertising campaign."

Many Parents Have to Pay Off Dead Kids' Student Loans - Families often have little legal recourse in these cases

Many Parents Have to Pay Off Dead Kids' Student Loans - Families often have little legal recourse in these cases:
"Probably the last thing parents mourning a deceased child want to do is deal with late notices from creditors—especially when those notices are for a student loan taken out by their lost loved one.
That's what happened to pastor Steve Mason, who found himself saddled with a $100,000 bill after his 27-year-old daughter died five years ago, leaving him and his wife to raise their three grandkids on the relatively modest salaries they both earn at a local church, reports CNN.
As a co-signer on his daughter's private student loans, Mason was on the hook for her IOU, which turned into $200,000 after interest and late fees piled up."

Why Obama Is Concocting An Impeachment Threat: Because He Has Nothing Else.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » KYLE SMITH: Why Obama Is Concocting An Impeachment Threat: Because He Has Nothing Else. It’s as i…: "
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 6:43 pm"

It’s as if our president has read all of the disappointed head-shaking opinion pieces by Very Serious Liberals and is responding, “Hey, I’m not sad. I’m ridiculous!”

Because in the last couple of weeks Barack Obama has reached his Basil Fawlty stage.

Instead of John Cleese’s Fawlty rushing around a dismal English hotel trying to avoid insulting his German guests by squawking, “Don’t mention the war,” we have Obama stumbling around the country crying, “Don’t mention impeachment!”

The president is, of course, the only American of any standing whatsoever talking about impeachment.

At least Basil Fawlty had an excuse for his dizzy behavior: He had just been clocked in the skull with a frying pan.
Sadly, this is the most benign explanation. 
A scarier one is that it’s battlespace-prep because he’s planning something really awful and when serious people start talking impeachment he can say “they were planning it all along!”

A $15B upgrade for utilities: New EPA rules stoke Consumers, DTE move to wind and gas

A $15B upgrade for utilities: New EPA rules stoke Consumers, DTE move to wind and gas | Crain's Detroit Business
The EPA proposed in June that power plant carbon emissions be cut 30 percent by 2030. The proposal, coupled with previous rules that aren't friendly to coal, put natural gas front and center as the new leading candidate for a base-load fuel. 

A fracking-induced glut of it has soaked the markets, and natural gas produces half the carbon emissions as coal from a power plant, according to the EPA, making it a natural choice for utilities as a coal replacement. 
Wind is cheap and available in Michigan, making it the top choice for renewable energy power, industry executives said. 

Even without the new EPA proposal, utilities had reason to move away from coal. They have been adjusting their power generation arrangements to meet existing EPA rules, such as Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that utilities must meet by April of next year, unless granted extensions. At the state level, Gov. Rick Snyder in December went on the record saying Michigan should become less reliant on coal, which makes up more than half the fuel used to produce power in the state. 

The utilities say they are working on it. Consumers plans to shutter seven coal-fired units in 2016, leaving its five largest units in operation. DTE is also weaning itself away from coal. (See map, below.)

California school district gets rid of mandatory geography class, look at what class is replacing it

California school district gets rid of mandatory geography class, look at what class is replacing it | Young Conservatives:
Fullscreen capture 832014 112546 AM.bmp"Welcome to Obama’s America kids.
Geography?
Not important.
“Diversity and Inclusion”?
Very important."

"I don’t know why I am even surprised by this kind of thing anymore."
From NRO:
El Rancho Verde Unified School District will stop requiring its high-school students to take geography and instead require them to take a class on diversity and inclusion.
ERUSD president Aurora Villon said the class is necessary because minority students “need to feel validated.”
“When you negate their culture, they feel less than other students,” she said in an e-mail to Whittier Daily News.
“When you negate their culture, they feel less than other students”.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t it be hard to “negate” a kid’s culture when the little fella can’t even find their home country on a map?"

EAA - The Spirit of Aviation photos, pictures and videos on CrowdAlbum

EAA - The Spirit of Aviation photos, pictures and videos on CrowdAlbum

History for August 4

History for August 4 - On-This-Day.com:
United Kingdom: "Lights Out"--marking the start of World War One by turning off lights from 10 pm to 11 pm. #LightsOut


United Kingdom and Belgium: First World War Centenary Opening Day, locations in Scotland, Belgium and England. See https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/first-world-war-centenary

Coast Guard Day

Sturgis Rally begins at Sturgis, SD (Aug 4-10). 74th annual. See www.sturgis.com

Birth anniversary of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1821).



Birth anniversary of Louis Armstrong (1900-1971).

In 1892, merchant Andrew Borden and his wife were found dead at their Fall River, MA, home. Daughter Lizzie Borden was arrested for the ax murders but later ruled innocent in a jury trial.


Happy Birthday, President Barack Obama!

Happy Birthday! Richard Belzer, Jeff Gordon, Billy Bob Thornton

1735 - Freedom of the press was established with an acquittal of John Peter Zenger. The writer of the New York Weekly Journal had been charged with seditious libel by the royal governor of New York. The jury said that "the truth is not libelous." 


1790 - The Revenue Cutter Service was formed. This U.S. naval task force was the beginning of the U.S. Coast Guard. 


1914 - Britain declared war on Germany in World War I. The U.S. proclaimed its neutrality. 


1921 - The first radio broadcast of a tennis match occurred. It was in Pittsburgh, PA. 


1922 - The death of Alexander Graham Bell, two days earlier, was recognized by AT&T and the Bell Systems by shutting down all of its switchboards and switching stations. The shutdown affected 13 million phones. 


1944 - Nazi police raided a house in Amsterdam and arrested eight people. Anne Frank, a teenager at the time, was one of the people arrested. Her diary would be published after her death. 


1958 - The first potato flake plant was completed in Grand Forks, ND. 


1958 - Billboard Magazine introduced its "Hot 100" chart, which was part popularity and a barometer of the movement of potential hits. The first number one song was Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool." 


1972 - Arthur Bremer was found guilty of shooting George Wallace, the governor of Alabama. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison. 


1977 - U.S. President Carter signed the measure that established the Department of Energy. 


1983 - New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield threw a baseball during warm-ups and accidentally killed a seagull. After the game, Toronto police arrested him for "causing unnecessary suffering to an animal." 



1984 - Upper Volta, an African republic, changed its name to Burkina Faso. 


1987 - The Fairness Doctrine was rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission. The doctrine had required that radio and TV stations present controversial issues in a balanced fashion. 

Sunday, August 03, 2014

No More Cease-Fires: Netanyahu Promises ‘Full Scale’ Assault Against Hamas | Video | TheBlaze.com

No More Cease-Fires: Netanyahu Promises ‘Full Scale’ Assault Against Hamas | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue waging war on Hamas Saturday afternoon, saying Israeli operations would continue “at full scale” in order ”to bring back the quiet, peace and calm to citizens of Israel and severely harm terrorist projects.”