Monday Musings...

Looks like more SUMMER weather is in store for us in this third week of August.
And we've LOTS to cover today, so let's jump right in with that Hoosierland weather.
Supposed to be a nice day with a chance of some showers with a high around the lower 80s...so long mild temperatures (damn).
It will be pretty much a hotter and more humid week overall.
Also, it's now "official"...all the little minions are back to school, and I've got to get used to packing a lunch for Wifey. Im sure the aprents are ecstatic over this, and whatever passes for a parent living down here in the ghettohood will be able to roam about without "restrictions" a lot easier...gotta love that.
Now, with that behind us, let's grab that cup of morning comfort and fortitude and get busy seeing what's been going on elsewhere.
*** First up is the special 3-day  gig known as "What the hell happened today, Bob?", because no calendar day this month gets left behind.
AUGUST 16:

Max, you rascal, you...

1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal.
1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army

Jimmy B almost got it right.

1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in Mandatory Palestine between Palestinian 
Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed.
1930 – The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.
1946 – Mass riots in Kolkata begin, in which more than 4,000 would be killed in 72 hours.

And swimsuits became REAL hot.

1954 – The first issue of Sports Illustrated is published.
1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.

1974 – Punk Rock pioneers The Ramones play their first show in a local New York 
club named CBGB.
1989 – A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market.

2008 – The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago is topped off at 1,389 feet (423 m), at the time becoming the world's highest residence above ground-level.
2010 – China Overtakes Japan as world's second-largest economy
NOTABLE BIRTHDAYS:

1888 – T. E. Lawrence, Welsh colonel (d. 1935)
1892 – Otto Messmer, American cartoonist and animator, co-created Felix the Cat (d. 1983)
1913 – Menachem Begin, Israeli politician, 6th Prime Minister of Israel, 
Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)

As Davy Crockett.

1924 – Fess Parker, American actor and singer (d. 2010)
1928 – Eydie Gormé, American singer (d. 2013)

As Bill Maxwell in The Greatest American Hero

1930 – Robert Culp, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2010)

My FAVORITE Catwoman

1933 – Julie Newmar, American actress, singer, and dancer

A perennial hottie

1946 – Lesley Ann Warren, American actress and singer
1953 – Kathie Lee Gifford, American talk show host, singer, and actress
1958 – Madonna, American singer-songwriter, producer, actress, and director

It's Evan Almighty.

1962 – Steve Carell, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
And, it's Benningtion Battle Day in Vermont...
AUGUST 17:
1585 – A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Ralegh under the charge of Ralph Lane lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina.

1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York, New York, for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
1863 – American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard
 Confederate-held Fort Sumter.

1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force begins Operation Hydra, the first air raid of the
 Operation Crossbow strategic bombing campaign against Germany's V-weapon program.
1950 – Hill 303 massacre: American POWs are shot to death by the North Korean Army.

Jazz trumpet never sounded SO good.

1959 – Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released.
1977 – The Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.

1982 – The first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.

Liar, liar...pants on fire...as usual with Billy.

1998 – Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an
 "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about the relationship.

2008 – American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals in one Olympic Games.
NOTABLE BIRTHDAYS:
1786 – Davy Crockett, American soldier and politician (d. 1836)

Yowzah!!

1893 – Mae West, American actress, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1980)

Ditto on the YOWZAH!

1920 – Maureen O'Hara, Irish-American actress and singer
1929 – Francis Gary Powers, American pilot (d. 1977)
1933 – Gene Kranz, American NASA flight director and manager
1943 – Robert De Niro, American actor, director, and producer

From Band of Brothers.

1969 – Donnie Wahlberg, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor 
(New Kids on the Block)
And, it's Portunalia (if the Roman Empire was still around)
AUGUST 18:
1587 – Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, becomes the first English child born in the Americas.
1868 – French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium.

1920 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing
 women's suffrage.
1976 – In the Korean Demilitarized Zone at Panmunjom, the Axe murder incident results in the
 death of two US soldiers.
NOTABLE BIRTHDAYS:
1750 – Antonio Salieri, Italian composer and conductor (d. 1825)

1834 – Marshall Field, American businessman, founded Marshall Field's (d. 1906)
1920 – Shelley Winters, American actress and singer (d. 2006)

1927 – Rosalynn Carter, American wife of Jimmy Carter, 41st First Lady of the United States
1933 – Roman Polanski, French-Polish director, producer, screenwriter, and actor
1936 – Robert Redford, American actor, director, and producer
1941 – Christopher Jones, American actor (d. 2014)
1943 – Martin Mull, American actor and singer

1952 – Patrick Swayze, American actor and singer (d. 2009)

1957 – Denis Leary, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter

1958 – Madeleine Stowe, American actress
1969 – Edward Norton, American actor, singer, and producer

1970 – Malcolm-Jamal Warner, American actor and producer
And, it's LONG TAN DAY also called Vietnam Veterans' Day (Australia)
There, that should cover most of that.
Meanwhile back at the editor's desk...
*** There was a story in yesterday's J-G paper that made me laugh.
Here's the link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20140817/EDIT07/140819508/1147/EDIT07

Keeping pace with the crims.

Now, if you want a LEFTIST SLANT on this whole issue, it's not a bad article, but there is one VERY important FACT they omitted when it comes to mil-gear for local police...
Let's have Mr Peabody set the WAY-BACK Machine to North Hollywood, 1997...when two heavily armed AND "armored" thugs robbed a bank..When police responded they were OUTGUNNED and outclassed by the robbers, who went on a shooting spree in the aftermath until they were finally taken down..

How SOON some people forget.

Here's the link to THAT story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout
THAT is why police have armed THEMSELVES in "mil-gear"...to stay on an even keel with ANY criminals they might meet. And mil-SURPLUS makes it a bit easier to do that.
And since then, police around the nation HAVE met perps like this...and not always came out on top. It's damn near SOP to have an "AR" in the trunk of a squad car...or at least a pump shotgun.

If the status quo BEFORE 1997 had been maintained, a lot MORE LEOS wouldn't be going home for dinner, and THAT is a bad precedent to establish for ANY civilized society. It's to stay ahead of the bad guys...simple as that.
*** Last back to the station house today...the situation in Ferguson is the result of low-information people creating a knee-jerk reaction BEFORE all the facts have come out.
And in some perverse way, they DO mirror much of law-enforcement today.
The people causing the riots and looting in Ferguson have become REACTIVE.
Our police tend to be more REACTIVE than PROACTIVE, in spite of what we see and hear,  because the truth is that they show up (almost always) AFTER a crime,
When i comes to the citizens in Ferguson, rather than allow the investigation into the shooting to proceed to it's end, these morons have created the perfect storm for chaos to proliferate.

That should also not happen in a civilized society...but it does, and media sensationalism is partly to blame.
the race-baiters who talk out BOTH sides of their pie-holes also have to share the weight of blame.
Sure, you hate to see a life snuffed out, BUT, there are ALWAYS two sides to every story, and what was once thought of as empathy can turn around to the lack of same whenever laws are broken.
Blame such lack of ethical behavior on the entitlement mindset...which is purely self-serving.
Perhaps if such people were not AS "entitled" and learned to be a lot more self-reliant and were productive citizens, we would not even be discussing this...would we?

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