Monday Musings...

Welcome back to another fun-filed and ever-exciting week ((...yawn...)).
The Hoosierland weather today will be pretty much cloudy all day with an increasing instance of rain showers and maybe a thunderstorm...already having some light showers outside early on.
Temps will reach up around the 80 degree mark, and yes, there will be humidity...sorry, it comes along with the rain.
Well, we DO need the rain, so no big deal, right?

Now, without any further ado, we've got a post that's packed tighter than Dolly Parton's foundation garments (...yowzah!...), so go and grab yourselves a cup of YOUR favorite morning beverage and we'll get this bad boy on the move...

*** First up a "three-fer" as our salute to August continues with my "What the hell happened today, Bob?" marches onward:
AUGUST 9:

No paint-by-numbers here.

1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with the celebration of a Mass. 
1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden. 
1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph. 

Boop boop be doop...!

1930 – Betty Boop makes her cartoon debut in Dizzy Dishes. 
1942 – Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement. 

Looks good for his age.

1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time. 

At Wright-Patterson AFB museum

1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 39,000 people are killed outright. 

1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes president. 
Notable Birthdays: 

We need a bigger boat?

1927 – Robert Shaw, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1978) 

When the game MEANT something

1928 – Bob Cousy, American basketball player and coach 
1938 – Rod Laver, Australian tennis player 
1942 – David Steinberg, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter 
1943 – Ken Norton, American boxer and actor (d. 2013) 

From the movie GETTYSBURG

1944 – Sam Elliott, American actor 
1963 – Whitney Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (d. 2012) 
1968 – Gillian Anderson, American-English actress 
1968 – Eric Bana, Australian actor, producer, and screenwriter 

From  THE LAST SHIP (and shoulda been Lara Croft)

1976 – Rhona Mitra, English actress and singer 
...And, it's the International Day of the World's Indigenous People (International)
 AUGUST 10: 
1519 – Ferdinand Magellan's five ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe. The Basque second in command Juan Sebastián Elcano will complete the expedition after Magellan's death in the Philippines. 
1776 – American Revolutionary War: word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London. 

Lots of HANGINGS, but no one died.

1793 – The Musée du Louvre is officially opened in Paris, France. 
1846 – The Smithsonian Institution is chartered by the United States Congress after James Smithson donates $500,000. 
1944 – World War II: American forces defeat the last Japanese troops on Guam. 

Might have been the first "reality show"

1948 – Candid Camera makes its television debut after being on radio for a year as Candid Microphone. 
1953 – First Indochina War: The French Union withdraws its forces from Operation Camargue against the Viet Minh in central Vietnam. 
1961 – First use in Vietnam War of the Agent Orange by the U.S. Army. 

1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are indicted for the bombing. Michael Fortier pleads guilty in a plea-bargain for his testimony. 
Notable Birthdays: 

How the chocolate has flowed since.

1814 – Henri Nestlé, German businessman, founded Nestlé (d. 1890) 
1874 – Herbert Hoover, American engineer and politician, 31st President of the United States (d. 1964) 

And there IS a real Marvin Gardens, too!

1889 – Charles Darrow, American game designer, created Monopoly (d. 1967) 

Yes, THAT Jack Haley

1898 – Jack Haley, American actor and singer (d. 1979) 
1913 – Noah Beery, Jr., American actor (d. 1994) 

Made some great breakfast sausages, too

1928 – Jimmy Dean, American singer, actor, and businessman, founded the Jimmy Dean Food Company (d. 2010) 

Eddie was a player...

1928 – Eddie Fisher, American singer and actor (d. 2010) 

The one, the only...BILLY JACK!

1931 – Tom Laughlin, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2013) 
1965 – Claudia Christian, American actress and singer 

Currently on Rizzoli & Isles

1972 – Angie Harmon, American model and actress 
...And, it's International Biodiesel Day (international)
 AUGUST 11: 
1919 – The constitution of the Weimar Republic is adopted. 

And...it's OUTTA THERE!

1929 – Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio. 
1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi. 

This is NOT "urban renewal".

1965 – Race riots (the Watts Riots) begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California. 

Keep walking...don't look back.

1972 – Vietnam War: the last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam. 
Notable Birthdays: 

From the movie AIRPORT

1902 – Lloyd Nolan, American actor and singer (d. 1985) 
1921 – Alex Haley, American historian and author (d. 1992) 

1925 – Mike Douglas, American singer and talk show host (d. 2006) 
1949 – Eric Carmen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Raspberries) 
1950 – Steve Wozniak, American computer scientist and programmer, co-founded Apple Inc. 
1953 – Hulk Hogan, American wrestler and actor 

As THOR...performing his daily edification

1983 – Chris Hemsworth, Australian actor 
...And, it's INDEPENDENCE DAY...in CHAD.
So, now you know a sh*tload more than when you woke up this morning...cool, hmm?
*** Next up, we've managed to reach HOMICIDE NUMBER NINE here in County Allen with this sad story:

Here's the link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20140810/LOCAL07/308109965/1043/LOCAL07
Yeah, looks like the perps have switched back to targeting innocent and (relatively) helpless older citizens...sorry state of affairs.
We usually see at least one of these types of killing per year, but even one is a tragedy.
*** Then we have this story about some "free stuff"...oh, yeah, and something lacking down here in OUR neck o' the ghettohood...namely FATHERHOOD.

It's ONLY Father's Day, guys...

Here's the link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20140810/LOCAL/308109909/0/SEARCH
Amazing that you NOW have to hold such "events" and give away free stuff to get men to do what they're SUPPOSED to do when becoming a father.
The same applies to young women...they all have to be "cajoled" into being what nature has dictated through their sexual exploits.

Bribe 'em to some degree...and they will come. They may not learn a lick about WHY they're there, but that's the way we seem to do things these days. Time to put on the grownup pants and get with the parenting program...period.
*** Last back to the station house today...we seem to never be at a loss for ways to prove that portions of our society don't deserve to inhabit the same space as normal people.

And it really shouldn't have to be that way.
Take for example, the OVER 9000 bullying reports for our local school systems - everything from verbal and physical abuse to written and electronic abuse. My personal favorite is the "shunning" of someone...to me, that's something I would PREFER, because that means no one will bother with you, and that allows you to concentrate on more IMPORTANT stuff...like SCHOOL.
And you're never shunned for long, because there ARE others who are also shunned and when YOU guys get together, that's a good thing. Hell, you can even form your OWN "clique" as it were...a GOOD one at that.
But, what we all have to realize that in today's world we have TWO set ways of dealing with one another:
1- DOUBLE STANDARDS
2- NOT HOLDING EVERYONE TO THE SAME STANDARDS

These are a recipe for entitlement mentalities, chaotic behaviors, and explains much as to why certain parts of our cities fall into such disrepair and blight...except not many folks even want to discuss this, for fear of being labelled a bigot, a racist...or worse.
Damn shame, because without properly defining a problem and calling it what it really is, there will never be ANY long-term solution to the problem, right?
That's something to consider...at length.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America.