Pentimentally

0070 Rome captures 1st wall of the city of Jerusalem
1417 Jacoba van Bavarian becomes countess of Holland/Zealand/Henegouwen
1495 Emperor Maximilian, Pope Alexander VI, Milan, King Ferdinand, Isabella & Venice sign anti-French Saint League
1531 "Women's Revolt" in Amsterdam: wool house in churchyard aborted
1564 Battle on Gotland: Lübeck & Denmark beat Sweden
1621 Sir Francis Bacon thrown into Tower of London for 1 night
1634 US colony Massachusetts Bay annexes Maine colony
1659 Netherlands, England & France sign Treaty of The Hague
1665 Jerusalem's rabbi Sjabtai Tswi proclaims himself Messiah
1678 Lady Godiva rides naked through Coventry in a protest of taxes
1696 John Salomonsz elected chief of Saint-Eustatius
1727 France, England & Netherlands sign accord of Paris
1744 French troops conquer Kortrijk
1790 US copyright law enacted
1821 Cathedral of Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary, 1st US Catholic cathedral, is dedicated in Baltimore
1836 HMS Beagle anchors in Simons Bay, Cape of Good Hope
1837 Astor Hotel (most elaborate in US) opens in NYC, it later becomes the Waldorf-Astoria
1847 Rotterdam-Hague Railway opens
1849 Last edition of Orange sheet "Journal de La Haye"
1853 Elisha Kane's Arctic expedition leaves New York aboard the Advance
1859 Philadelphia A's organize to play "town ball" became baseball 20 years later
1861 General Beauregard is given command of Confederate Alexandria Line
1861 Mint at New Orleans closes
1862 Battle of Seven Pines VA (Fair Oaks); North defeats South
1864 Raid at Morgan's Kentucky
1868 1st Memorial Day parade held in Ironton OH
1868 Dr James Moore (UK) wins 1st recorded bicycle race, (2k) velocipede race at Parc fde St Cloud, Paris
1870 Congress passes 1st Enforcement Act (rights of blacks)
1870 E J DeSemdt patents asphalt pavement
1878 German battleship Grosser Kurfürst sinks, 284 killed
1878 US Congress accept decrease in dollar circulation
1879 1st electric railway opens at Berlin Trades Exposition
1879 Madison Square Garden opens its doors
1880 League of American Wheelmen (1st US bicycle association), forms in Newport RI
1883 French fleet under Pierre begins siege of Tamatave, Madagascar
1884 Dr John Harvey Kellogg patents "flaked cereal"
1889 Johnstown Flood; 2,209 die in Pennsylvania
1891 Work on trans-Siberian railway begins
1899 Bronx acquires Keltch Memorial Park
1899 Conference of Bloemfontein fails
1900 British troops under Lord Roberts occupy Johannesburg
1900 Piet de Law captures Lieutenant-Colonel Spragges Irish Yeomanry
1900 Tom Hayward scores 1,000th cricket run of season (sets record 1074)
1900 US troops arrive in Peking, help put down Boxer Rebellion
1902 Australia Cricket all out 36 vs England, Edgbaston, their lowest ever
1902 Boer War Ends; Treaty of Vereeniging signed, Britain annexes Transvaal
1905 Emperor Wilhelm II lands in Tanger
1906 Attack on King Alfonso XIII & Victoria von Battenberg in Madrid
1907 Taxis 1st began running in NYC
1908 Miss Pottelsberghe de la Pottery is 1st airplane passenger (Belgium)
1909 1st NAACP conference (United Charities Building, NYC)
1910 Cape of Good Hope becomes part of the Union of South Africa
1910 Glenn Curtiss flies from Albany to NYC
1912 US marines land on Cuba
1913 17th amendment (direct election of senators) declared ratified
1913 Alexis Ahlgren runs world record maraton (2:36:06.6)
1914 Chicago White Sox Joe Benz no-hits Cleveland Indians, 6-1
1915 An LZ-38 Zeppelin makes an air raid on London
1916 Battle of Skagerrak: British-German sea battle at Jutland (10,000 dead)
1916 British battle cruiser Invincible explodes, killing all but 6
1916 During WWI British & German fleets fight Battle of Jutland
1917 1st jazz record released (Dark Town Strutters Ball)
1919 1st wedding held in an aircraft (over Houston TX)
1919 NC-4 aircraft commanded by AC Read completes 1st crossing of Atlantic
1921 Suffy McInnis (1st base) begins an errorless string of 1,700 chances
1923 China & USSR exchange diplomats
1926 Portuguese President Bernardino Machedo resigns after coup
1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition opens in Philadelphia
1927 Detroit Tiger 1st baseman Johnny Neun makes an unassisted triple play
1927 Ford Motor Company produces last "Tin Lizzie" (begins Model A)
1928 1st aerial cross of the Pacific takes off from Oakland
1928 Charlie Hallows scores his 1,000th run of Cricket season
1929 Atlantic City Convention Center opens
1930 Bradman gets his 1,000th run of the English Cricket season
1930 Building begins on Albert Canal in Belgium
1930 Comet 73P/1930 (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3) approaches 0.0617 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1935 Quake kills 50,000 in Quetta Pakistan
1937 1st quadruplets to finish college (Baylor University)
1937 Brooklyn Dodgers snap New York Giant Carl Hubbell's 24-game winning streak
1937 German battleships bomb Almeria Spain
1938 Bill Edrich scores his 1,000th run of cricket season, all at Lord's
1940 General-Major Bernard Montgomery leaves Dünkirchen
1940 Prime Minister Winston Churchill flies to Paris
1941 1st issue of "Parade" goes on sale
1941 32.0 cm rain falls on Burlington KS (state record)
1941 41 U boats sunk this month (325,000 ton)
1941 British troops vacate Kreta
1941 German occupiers forbids Jews access to beach & swimming pools
1942 25th PGA Championship: Sam Snead at Seaview CC Atlantic City NJ
1942 Luftwaffe bombs Canterbury
1943 "Archie" comic strip 1st broadcast on radio
1943 Cardinals Mort Cooper pitches 1st of back-to-back one-hitters
1944 Allied breakthrough in Italy
1947 79th Belmont Stakes: Ruperto Donoso aboard Phalanx wins in 2:29.6
1947 Communists grab power in Hungary
1947 Eastern DC-4 crashes between Port Deposit & Perryville MD, kills 53
1947 Italian Government of Gasperi forms
1948 Tommy Lasorda strikes out 25 Amsterdam Rugmakers (in 15 innings)
1949 31st PGA Championship: Sam Snead at Hermitage CC Richmond VA
1949 Charley Lupica begins stay on 4-foot-square platform platform atop a 60' pole, vowing to stay until Indians clinch pennant. (They don't, and he comes down 117 days later)
1950 Due to rain, Indianapolis 500 shortened to 345 miles, Johnny Parson wins
1950 Laker takes 14-12-2-8 in Test Cricket trial
1951 Netherlands & South Africa sign cultural accord
1953 Lebanese President Camille Shamun disbands government
1953 WSUN TV channel 38 in St Petersburg-Tampa FL (IND) 1st broadcast
1955 Construction begins on Soviet cosmodrome launch facilities
1955 Great Britain proclaims emergency crisis due to railroad strike
1955 Supreme Court orders school integration "with all deliberate speed"
1956 Mickey Mantle homerun just misses clearing Yankee Stadium's roof
1957 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Christmas Island (atmospheric)
1958 Dick Dale invents "surf music" with "Let's Go Trippin"
1958 US performs nuclear test at Bikini Island (atmospheric tests)
1959 Mickey Wright wins LPGA Cavalier Golf Open
1961 Benfica wins 6th Europe Cup 1 at Bern
1961 Chuck Berry's amusement park, Berryland in St Louis, opens
1961 Dominican Republic President Trujillo assassinated
1961 JFK visits Charles de Gaulle in Paris
1961 Judge Irving Kaufman orders Board of Education of New Rochelle, to integrate
1961 Union of South Africa becomes a republic, leaving the Commonwealth
1962 "Tell It To Groucho" last airs on CBS-TV
1964 Charles Schmid kills first Pied Piper victim
1964 Ruth Jessen wins LPGA Babe Didrikson-Zaharias Golf Open
1964 San Fransisco Giants beat New York Mets, 8-6, in 23 innings (2nd game) (7 hours 32 minutes)
1965 Jim Clark becomes 1st foreigner in 49 years to win Indianapolis 500
1967 Bayern München wins 7th Europe Cup II at Neurenberg
1969 "Dear World" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 132 performances
1969 "Gitarzan" by Ray Stevens peaks at #8
1969 John Lennon & Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance"
1969 Stevie Wonder releases "My Cherie Amour"
1970 At 03:23 PM, Yungay Peru levelled by 7.75 earthquake (50-70,000 die)
1970 KDUB TV channel 40 in Dubuque IA (ABC) begins broadcasting
1970 Shirley Englehorn wins LPGA O'Sullivan Ladies' Golf Open
1971 WDXR (now WKPD) TV channel 29 in Paducah KY (PBS) begins broadcasting
1972 Ajax wins Europe Cup 1 in Rotterdam
1973 Glenn Turner scores his 1,000th cricket run of English season
1974 Israel & Syria sign an agreement concerning Golan Heights
1974 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1975 "Goodtime Charley" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 104 performances
1975 Fred Newman makes 12,874 baskets in a one-day exhibition
1976 Loudest PA (76 KW) for Who's Quadrophenia in London
1977 "Beatlemania" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 920 performances
1977 Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani becomes heir apparent to throne of Qatar
1977 Trans Alaska oil pipeline completed
1979 "I Remember Mama" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 108 performances
1979 Radio City Music Hall (NYC) reopens
1979 Zimbabwe proclaims independence
1980 "Love Stinks" by J Geils Band peaks at #38
1980 Police & youthful rebels battle in Zurich
1981 Cathy Reynolds wins LPGA Golden Lights Golf Championship
1982 "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" opens at Eugene O'Neill NYC for 63 performances
1983 37th NBA Championship: Philadelphia 76ers sweep Los Angeles Lakers in 4 games
1984 57th National Spelling Bee: Daniel Greenblatt wins spelling luge
1984 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1984 Viv Richards hits 189 (170 balls) vs England, ODI cricket record
1985 41 Tornados in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York & Canada kill 88 & injure more than 1,000
1985 Guatemala adopts constitution
1985 New Orleans Saints are sold for $70,204,000
1987 Cindy Rarick wins LPGA Corning Golf Classic
1987 Saul Ballesteros drives 3 golf balls off Mount McKinley, Alaska
1987 Stanley Cup: Edmonton Oilers beat Philadelphia Flyers, 4 games to 3
1989 "Rambling with Gambling" 20,000th radio program on WOR-AM (NYC)
1989 1st International Rock Awards
1989 Speaker of the House Jim Wright resigns
1990 63rd National Spelling Bee: Amy Marie Dimak wins spelling fibranne
1990 BPAA US Women's Bowling Open won by Dana Miller-Mackie
1990 NYC's Zodiac killer shoots 3rd victim, Joseph Ponce
1990 Seinfeld starring Jerry Seinfeld, debuts on NBC as Seinfeld Chronicles
1991 Oldest bride - Minnie Munro, 102, weds Dudley Reid, 83, in Australia
1991 Sides in Angola sign a treaty ending 16 year civil war
1992 46th Tony Awards: Dancing at Lughnasa & Crazy For You win
1992 5th Children's Miracle Network Telethon raises $1,060,000
1992 Barb Mucha wins LPGA Oldsmobile Golf Classic
1993 President Dobrica Cosic of little Yugoslavia flees
1994 Padres score 13 in 2nd vs Pirates
1996 Mark Van Thillo & Abigail Alling, former biospherian win $100,000 lawsuit against Biospheric Development for Space Biospheres Ventures
1997 "Once Upon a Mattress" closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 187 performances
1997 Donovan Bailey beats Michael Johnson in 150 meter race

If you want to be blunt about what has taken place, sometimes when you don't measure, you just shuffle kids through. Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy level of our children are appalling.
-- Dubya, Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004. Who was responsible for his shuffling, I wonder?

So that's -- what -- there's some ideas. And the -- it's -- my job is to like think beyond the immediate. -- Dubya, Washington, D.C., Apr. 21, 2004. Yo, dude, you are one stokin', gnarly president, Bra. Like, fer sure.

See, one of the interesting things in the Oval Office -- I love to bring people into the Oval Office -- right around the corner from here -- and say, this is where I office. -- Dubya, Washington, D.C., Feb. 18, 2004. I'm feeling sick. Let me show you where I toilet.

Sometimes it's not easy to be the friend of George W. Bush -- I know that. If you know what I mean. -- Dubya, Houston, Texas, Sep. 12, 2003. He knows it is difficult to be his third-person friend. Huh?

By making the right choices, we can make the right choice for our future. -- Dubya, Dallas, Texas, Jul. 18, 2003. By listening to this idiot, we had better not re-elect this moron.

Lori is -- when I met her backstage -- the kind of person that you want really owning a home because she's so thrilled with the idea. We helped her. I say we -- people here in this part of the world did. -- Dubya, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mar. 26, 2004. New Mexico, that's the part of the world where them there evil-doer Democrats fled Texas to stop that there gerrymandering. It is also where Penis Chicanery bought a house to defy the Constitutional requirement that the Preznit and the Veep not hail from the same state. Since Dubya apparently hails from the state of confusion, why was that even an issue?

What a shock. No one could have predicted this. With the Republican idea of diversity (men from two different oil companies in the White House) the rule of the day, who could have possibly predicted that in addition to posting record-breaking profits, oil companies would find other ways to pry money from September 11th and the Iraq war.

Taxpayers Footing Oil Safety Bill

1035 Boudouin V van Rijsel becomes earl of Flanders
1087 German emperor Henry IV crowns his son Koenraad
1100 Burchard becomes bishop of Utrecht
1381 English boer uprising begins in Essex
1434 Battle at Lipany
1498 Columbus departs with 6 ships for 3rd trip to America
1522 French troops driven out of Genoa
1527 University of Marburg (Germany) founded
1536 English king Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour
1539 Spanish explorer Fernando de Soto discovers Florida
1574 Henry III follows brother Charles IX as king of France
1574 Sea battle at Lillo Belgium (Adolf Van Haemstede vs Louis de Boisot)
1584 Earl Adolf van Nieuwenaar/Meurs becomes viceroy of Gelderland
1588 Spanish Aramada under Medina-Sidonia departs Lisbon to invade England
1631 France/Maximilian van Bavarian signs Accord of Fontainebleau
1635 Emperor Ferdinand II & Saksen sign Peace of Prague
1646 Spain & Netherlands signs temporary cease fire
1783 Benjamin Tower of Philadelphia publishes 1st daily newspaper in US
1793 Georges Couthon chosen member of French Committee the Salut Public
1808 Napoleon annexes Tuscany & gave it seats in French Senate
1814 1st Treaty of Paris, after Napoleon's 1st abdication
1821 James Boyd patents Rubber Fire Hose
1822 House slave betrays Denmark Vesey conspiracy (37 blacks hanged)
1832 Evariste Galois give his theory on free assembly (dies in duel May 31)
1842 John Francis attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria
1848 2nd battle at Gioto: Sardinia-Piemonte beats Austrians
1848 México ratifies treaty giving US; New Mexico, California & parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona & Colorado in return for $15 million
1848 William G Young patents ice cream freezer
1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed Missouri Compromise opens north slavery
1858 Hudson Bay Company's rights to Vancouver Island revoked
1862 Battle of Booneville MS - captured General Beauregard evacuates Corinth MS
1862 Battle of Front Royal VA
1864 Battle of Bethesda Church VA
1864 Cavalry fight at Old Church (Totopotomoy Creek) VA
1866 The opera "Die Verkaufte Braut" premieres (Prague)
1868 Memorial Day 1st observed when 2 women in Columbus MS placed flowers on both Confederate & Union graves
1872 Mahlon Loomis patents wireless telegraphy
1879 92º F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland OH in May
1879 Gilmore Garden (NYC) renamed Madison Square Garden
1883 Rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse caused a stampede that kills 12
1889 The brassiere is invented
1890 1st Dodger homerun (Dave Foutz)
1894 Bobby Lowe is 1st to hit 4 homeruns in 1 baseball game
1895 W G Grace scores his 1,000th Cricket run of the season after 22 days
1896 1st car accident occurs, Henry Wells hit a bicyclist (NYC)
1899 24th Preakness: R Clawson aboard Half Time wins in 1:47
1901 Hall of Fame for Great American on NYU campus dedicated
1903 28th Preakness: W Gannon aboard Flocarline wins in 1:44.8
1904 Frank Chance gets hit by pitch 5 times in a doubleheader
1906 40th Belmont Stakes: Lucien Lyne aboard Burgomaster wins in 2:20
1907 41st Belmont Stakes: G Mountain aboard Peter Pan wins
1908 1st federal workmen's compensation law approved
1908 42nd Belmont Stakes: Joe Notter aboard Colin wins
1908 Aldrich Vineland Currency Act forerunner to Federal Reserve System
1908 Paris advocate E Archdeacon is 1st passenger in a airplane
1908 US Assay Office in Salt Lake City UT authorized
1909 National Conference on the Negro is held
1909 Reuben Siegel laid cornerstone of 1st home in Tel-Aviv
1910 44th Belmont Stakes: James Butwell aboard Sweep wins in 2:22
1912 US Marines sent to Nicaragua
1913 1st Balkan War ends, Treaty of London
1913 John McGraw joins Fred Clarke, Cap Anson, Frank Selee, & Connie Mack as managers who have won 1,000 games
1913 New country of Albania is formed
1921 Lord Dunsany's "If" premieres in London
1921 Memorial to Captain Eddie Grant, killed in WWI, unveiled at Polo Grounds
1921 Salzburg Austria votes to join Germany
1922 Cubs swap Max Flack for Cardinals Cliff Heathcote during the middle of a doubleheader. Both play for both teams that day
1922 Latvia & Vatican sign accord
1922 Lincoln Memorial dedicated
1923 Howard Hanson's 1st Symphony "Nordic" premieres
1924 Socialist Matteotti falls in Italian parliament by fascists
1925 British mariners shoot on demonstrators
1925 Peter DePaolo became 1st man to average over 100 mph at Indianapolis 500
1925 Roger Hornsby replaces Branch Rickey as manager of Cardinals
1927 Walter Johnson records 113th & last shutout of his career
1930 Bill Arnold wins Indianapolis 500 car race (161.6 kph)
1931 Phillies Chuck Klein homers off Ben Cantwell (Braves) in both ends DH
1932 Yankees dedicate a plaque to Miller Huggins
1933 Patent on invisible glass installation
1935 Babe Ruth's final game, goes hitless for Braves against Phillies
1937 20th PGA Championship: Denny Shute at Pittsburgh FC Aspinwall PA
1937 61,756, 2nd-largest crowd in Polo Grounds history, sees Dodgers end Carl Hubbell's consecutive-game winning streak at 24 over 2 seasons
1937 Memorial Day Massacre - Chicago police shoot on union marchers at Republic Steel Plant in Chicago, 10 die
1938 Yankees sweep Red Sox 10-0 & 5-4 in front of 83,533 at Yankee Stadium
1941 1st anti semitic measures in Serbia
1941 English Army enters Baghdad, chasing pro-German coup government
1941 German capture Kreta
1942 1,047 bombers bomb Cologne in RAF's raid of WWII
1942 Reichsführer Himmler arrives in Prague
1942 Satchel Paige pitches 5 innings to defeat Dizzy Dean All-Stars 8-1
1942 US aircraft carrier Yorktown leaves Pearl Harbor
1943 French General De Gaulle arrives in Algiers
1943 US troops reconquer Attu Aleutians
1944 Transport nr 75 departs with French Jews to Nazi-Germany
1946 Braves Bernard Malamud homerun shatters Bulova clock in Ebbets Field
1946 United flight 521 crashes on takeoff at LaGuardia Airport (New York) 42 die
1948 Schenectady Blue Jays Tom Lasorda strikes out 25 in 15-inning game
1949 East Germans constitution approved
1949 NPS/VHP win 1st general election in Suriname
1949 WRTV TV channel 6 in Indianapolis IN (ABC) begins broadcasting
1950 Patty Berg wins LPGA Eastern Golf Open
1951 Ezzard Charles beats Joey Maxim in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1952 Charlie Grimm succeeds Tommy Holmes as manager of Boston Braves
1952 Darius Milhaud's "West Point Suite" premieres
1953 1st major league network baseball game-Cleveland 7, Chicago 2
1953 23rd French Men's Tennis: Ken Rosewall beats Vic Seixas (6-3 6-4 1-6 6-2)
1953 23rd French Women's Tennis: Maureen Connolly beats Doris Hart (6-2 6-4)
1954 Dutch bishops forbid membership to non-catholic sporting clubs
1954 Emile Zatopek runs world record 5K (13:57.2)
1954 Hector Villa-Lobos' "Odisseia de Uma Raca" premieres
1955 KMVT TV channel 11 in Twin Falls ID (CBS/NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
1955 Said el-Mufti forms Jordan Government
1955 Tunisia begins domestic self governing
1956 Bus boycott begins in Tallahassee FL
1956 Mickey Mantle misses by 18" hitting 1st homerun out of Yankee Stadium
1956 US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)
1957 Real Madrid wins 2nd Europe Cup 1 in Madrid
1957 Test Cricket debut for Rohan Kanhai vs England at Edgbaston
1958 Unidentified soldiers killed in WWII & Korean War buried in Arlington
1958 US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)
1959 "First Impressions" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 84 performances
1959 "Nervous Set" closes at Henry Miller's Theater NYC after 23 performances
1959 Iraq terminates military assistance pact with US due to neutrality
1959 President Somoza ends emergency crisis in Nicaragua
1959 President Stroessner disbands Paraguay's parliament
1959 World's 1st hovercraft (SR-N1) tested at Cowes England
1961 Dutch DC-8 crashes after takeoff at Lisbon, 62 die
1961 Roger Maris hits his 10th & 11th of 61 homeruns
1962 69 killed in bus crash (Ahmedabad India)
1962 Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem" premieres
1964 "Beyond the Fringe" closes at John Golden Theater NYC after 673 performances
1964 Beatles' "Love Me Do" single goes #1
1964 Beatles 1961 record of "Cry for a Shadow" is #1 in Australia
1964 Giants sweep Mets 5-3 & 8-6 in 23 innings, records include elapsed time of 9:50, 47 strikeouts, 7:22 for 2nd game & New York's 22 K's in 2nd games
1965 France performs nuclear test at Ecker Algeria (Underground)
1965 Marlene Hagge wins LPGA Babe Didrikson-Zaharias Golf Open
1965 Viet Cong offensive against US base Da Nang, begins
1965 Vivian Malone, is 1st black to graduate from University of Alabama
1966 300 US airplanes bomb North Vietnam
1966 Graham Hill wins Indianapolis 500 car race (232.2 kph)
1966 US launches Surveyor 1 to the Moon
1967 Biafra declares independence from Nigeria
1967 King Hussein of Jordan visits Cairo
1967 Robert "Evel" Knievel's motorcycle jumps 16 automobiles
1967 Yankee Whitey Ford, nearing 41, announces his retirement from baseball
1968 Beatles begin work on their only double album "The Beatles"
1968 President De Gaulle disbands French parliament
1968 University church in Leipzig German Democratic Republic, blown up
1968 West German Parliament accepts emergency crisis law
1969 Derek Clayton runs world record marathon (2:08:33.6) at Antwerp
1969 Gibraltar adopts constitution
1969 People revolt in Willemstad, Curaçao
1970 "Minnie's Boys" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 80 performances
1970 Baseball All-Star voting is returned to fans
1971 36 hospitalized during Grateful Dead concert; after drinking LSD apple juice
1971 Train crash at Duivendrecht Netherlands, 5 die
1971 US Mariner 9 1st satellite to orbit Mars launched
1971 Willie Mays hits his 638th homerun, sets National League record of 1,950 runs scored
1972 3 Japanese PFL terrorists kill 24, wound 72 at Tel Aviv's Lod International Airport
1973 Ajax wins 3rd Europe Cup
1974 10th Mayor's Trophy Game, Yankees beat Mets 9-4
1975 European Space Agency (ESA) forms
1975 Wings release "Venus & Mars" album
1976 22nd LPGA Championship won by Betty Burfeindt
1976 Bobby Unser sets world record for the fastest pit stop (4 seconds)
1977 Cleveland Indian Dennis Eckersley no-hits California Angels, 2-0
1979 Nottingham Forrest wins 24th Europe Cup 1 at Munich
1979 Pat Underwood makes his pitching debut for Detroit beats brother Tom
1979 Percom Data Company Inc release Microdos for Radio Shack's TRS-80
1979 Ted Coombs begins a 5,193 mile roller skate from Los Angeles to NYC
1980 1st papal visit to France since 1814
1980 Tiger relief pitcher John Hiller, 37, (who had a 1971 heart attack), retires
1980 Turner's painting "Juliet & Her Nurse" sells for $6.4 million
1980 Twins Ken Landreaux ends his hitting streak after 31 games
1981 "Nightline" extends from 4 nights to 5 nights a week (Friday)
1981 Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman is shot by group of rebel officers
1981 Los Angeles Dodgers are quickest to get 1,000,000 attendence (22 games)
1982 "Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?" closes at Alvin NYC after 5 performances
1982 Closest Indianapolis 500, Gordon Johncock beats Rick Mears by 0.16 seconds
1982 Sandra Spuzich wins LPGA Corning Golf Classic
1982 Spain becomes 16th member of NATO
1983 American League president Lee MacPhail suspends Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for one week, for his public criticism of umpires
1983 Surrey all out for 14 vs Essex, their lowest score ever
1984 Bomb explodes in rebel leader Eden Pastora headquarters in Nicaragua
1984 Liverpool wins 29th Europe Cup 1 in Rome
1984 National League suspends Mario Soto 5 days for Reds-Cubs fight on May 27th
1985 Stanley Cup: Edmonton Oilers beat Philadelphia Flyers, 4 games to 1
1986 Ariane-2 (ESA) launched
1986 Bobby Rahal is 1st to average over 170 mph in the Indianapolis 500
1986 France performs nuclear test
1987 Mike Tyson TKOs Pinklon Thomas in 6 for World Boxing Council heavyweight boxing title
1987 North American Philips Company unveils compact disc video
1987 Tony Tucker TKOs Buster Douglas in 10 for International Boxing Federation heavyweight boxing title
1987 West German Mathias Rust lands airplane on Red Square
1989 Margaret Ray pleads guilty to breaking into David Letterman's house
1990 Dow Jones average hits a record 2,878.56
1990 Earthquake (6.4) hits Peru, killing 135
1991 64th National Spelling Bee: Joanne Lagatta wins spelling antipyretic
1991 Arturo Barrios runs world record one-hour distance (21,096 km)
1991 Supreme Court rules prosecutors can be sued for legal advice they give police & can be held accountable
1992 New York Lotto pays $30 million to one winner (#s are 12-15-30-33-40-48)
1992 New York Yankee pitcher Scott Sanderson becomes 9th to beat all 26 teams
1992 Paul Simon weds Edie Brickell
1992 UN votes for sanctions against Serb-led Yugoslavia to halt fighting
1993 Betsy King wins J C Penney/LPGA Skins Game Golf Tournament
1993 Kelly Robbins wins LPGA Corning Golf Classic
1996 69th National Spelling Bee: Wendy Guey wins spelling vivisepulture
1996 Albert Belle uses a forearm to break up a double play & nearly breaks Brewer 2nd baseman Fernando Vina's nose, Belle gets 2 game suspension
1996 John Tesh's final day as host of "Entertainment Tonight"
1997 Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, set afire by 12 year old grandson
1997 Ken Dryden becomes president of NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs

How ironic that only the Democrats mentioned Osama Bin Laden, attacking sleeper cells, and using financial and legal means to rid the world of the scourge of terrorism:

"Whether terrorism is sponsored by a foreign nation or inspired by a single fanatic individual, such as Osama Bin Laden, Forward Engagement requires trying to disrupt terrorist networks, even before they are ready to attack. We must improve coordination internationally and domestically to share intelligence and develop operational plans. We must continue the comprehensive approach that has resulted in the development of a national counter-terrorism strategy involving all arms and levels of our government. We must continue to target terrorist finances, break up support cells, and disrupt training. And we must close avenues of cyber-attack by improving the security of the Internet and the computers upon which our digital economy exists."
And then, there's this quote from the Democratic Platform. For what it's worth:

"While fighting terrorism, we will protect the civil liberties of all Americans. Our justice system must guarantee fairness with procedures that protect the rights of the accused, even under the unusual circumstances of the investigation of threats to our national security. We must avoid stereotyping, for it defeats the highest purposes of our country if citizens feel automatically suspect by virtue of their ethnic origin. The purpose of terrorism is not only to intimidate, but also to divide and fracture, and we cannot permit that to happen."

This sounds to me much more patriotic than the Patriot act.

It is almost possible to be a Republican if you read these select quotes from their platform from the 2000 convention. It is unfortunate that they have yet to follow nary a one:


"The arrogance, inconsistency, and unreliability of the administration’s diplomacy have undermined American alliances, alienated friends, and emboldened our adversaries." [ed. this is referring to Clinton's administration]

"Gerrymandered congressional districts are an affront to democracy and an insult to the voters. We oppose that and any other attempt to rig the electoral process."

"Nor should the intelligence community be made the scapegoat for political misjudgments. A Republican administration working with the Congress will respect the needs and quiet sacrifices of these public servants as it strengthens America’s intelligence and counter-intelligence capabilities and reorients them toward the dangers of the future."

"The current administration has casually sent American armed forces on dozens of missions without clear goals, realizable objectives, favorable rules of engagement, or defined exit strategies. Over the past seven years, a shrunken American military has been run ragged by a deployment tempo that has eroded its military readiness. Many units have seen their operational requirements increased four-fold, wearing out both people and equipment."

"The rule of law, the very foundation for a free society, has been under assault, not only by criminals from the ground up, but also from the top down. An administration that lives by evasion, coverup, stonewalling, and duplicity has given us a totally discredited Department of Justice."

"Sending our military on vague, aimless, and endless missions rapidly saps morale. Even the highest morale is eventually undermined by back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment, inadequate training, and rapidly declining readiness."

"Our goal for NATO is a strong political and security fellowship of independent nations in which consultations are mutually respected and defense burdens mutually shared."

"As the traditional advocate of America’s veterans, the Republican Party remains committed to fulfilling America’s obligations to them. That is why we defeated the administration’s attempt to replace veterans’ health care with a national system for everybody."

"The Social Security surplus is off-limits, off budget, and will not be touched. We will not stop there, for we are also determined to protect Medicare and to pay down the national debt. Reducing that debt is both a sound policy goal and a moral imperative. Our families and most states are required to balance their budgets; it is reasonable to assume the federal government should do the same. Therefore, we reaffirm our support for a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget."

"Inspired by Presidents Reagan and Bush, Republicans hammered into place the framework for today’s prosperity and surpluses. We cut tax rates, simplified the tax code, deregulated industries, and opened world markets to American enterprise. The result was the tremendous growth in the 1980s that created the venture capital to launch the technology revolution of the 1990s. That’s the origin of what is now called the New Economy: the longest economic boom in the Twentieth Century, 40 million new jobs, the lowest inflation and unemployment in memory." [ed. the reason I find this ironic is becaues it contradicts administration claims that the recession began under Clinton]

"A Republican president will work with businesses and with other nations to reduce harmful emissions through new technologies without compromising America’s sovereignty or competitiveness — and without forcing Americans to walk to work."

"Reacting belatedly to inevitable crises, the administration constantly enlarges the reach of its rhetoric — most recently in Vice President Gore’s "new security agenda" that adds disease, climate, and all the world’s ethnic or religious conflicts to an undiminished set of existing American responsibilities. If there is some limit to candidate Gore’s new agenda for America as global social worker, he has yet to define it."

"A new Republican administration will patiently rebuild an international coalition opposed to Saddam Hussein and committed to joint action. We will insist that Iraq comply fully with its disarmament commitments. We will maintain the sanctions on the Iraqi regime while seeking to alleviate the suffering of innocent Iraqi people. We will react forcefully and unequivocally to any evidence of reconstituted Iraqi capabilities for producing weapons of mass destruction."

"Republicans prefer an America that is far less dependent on foreign crude oil. A Republican president will not be so tolerant if OPEC colludes to drive up the world price of oil, as it has done this past year."

I suppose in conservative circles this would never qualify as a "flip-flop", now would it?

This man once referred to dancing as Satan's Palsey, lost an election to a dead man, covered up the Justice Statue's breast so he would be the only boob in the room, and has a face of pure evil. Who lets him talk to the press?

"Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils,were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man."
--Thomas Paine

I once temporarily angered a marginally misogynistic friend who is quite taken by the atmosphere of gentlemen's clubs. I explained that as a father, I did not feel comfortable cavorting with someone's daughter in that manner any longer. His guileless response was to the effect that the women were whores and not worthy of the same respect I would afford my loved ones. I angered him when I explained that most of us, men and women, were whores on some level. I explained that my basic definition of a whore is someone who uses their body for monetary gain. I am unwilling to argue the morality of sex for money, because a certain set of compromises exist in every physical relationship. I asked if there truly was a difference between a football player destroying their body and mostly consenting to dying earlier than an average male for material gain and a streetwalker, who certainly is doing the same. I reminded him that in our occupation, stress and unusual hours would take a toll that inevitably lead to premature death. I asked if this were not using our bodies for material gain. He scoffed, yet twenty-four hours later he actually conceded agreement with my position.

The above story is certainly a long path to get to my next point. The Bush administration is using this entire country as its own whore. "Big Pimpin'" George does not care what happens to the nation's "body", as long as "Daddy" gets paid. Between no-bid contracts for Haliburton to haul "sailboat fuel" and record profits for oil companies being blamed on OPEC (has anyone else noticed that Europe, whose already high-priced gas is supplied by OPEC, has not "enjoyed" the same spike in prices?), I wonder if we can get a better deal from another pimp. Not only does "Daddy" take such a large portion of our hard-earned income, but I certainly do not feel as safe on the streets. Asscroft and Perineum Ridge working together for Dick and Bush

It appears as though everyone needs a blog, so why should this writer buck a trend? I'd like to start by displaying a picture of everyone's favorite village idiot:



If only he could erase his spoken words so easily, to save us all so much embarrassment. Things like:

"Anyway, I'm so thankful, and so gracious - I'm gracious that my brother Jeb is concerned about the hemisphere as well." -George W. Bush, June 4, 2001



Perhaps I have not said much thus far, but the facts above speak for themselves. Unfortunately, the "leadership" of our great country is leading us on a haphazard path to oblivion. Our children are dying at an alarming rate overseas in a war upon a concept. It is as impossible to have a war on terrorism as it is to have a war on drugs or poverty. We need a tangible enemy to vanquish in our struggle to maintain the freedoms and economic prosperity we all hold dear. Is Saddam evil? Probably without any doubt. Was he any more evil than any other puissant, pissant dictator that we have supported throughout the world and throughout history? Probably not. If we are to be led to war, we deserve the truth. It is true that the attack on September 11th changed this country, as Pearl Harbor did three generations ago. You can still see bullet holes in the buildings at Hickam Air Force Base, as I can still feel the black hole in my heart from 2001. Our current administration has done nothing to ameliorate the pain I feel. If anything, the blundering and bumbling of unrighteous indignation accompanied by the ignoble bloodbath of Iraq has only added to our fear and pain. As Ms. Garofalo has so eloquently stated, a vote to retain the Bush Misadministration in the White House amounts to nothing more than a character flaw. I love my country. I love freedom. There is no way I can support the Bush Administration. Perhaps we can sponser the "One President Left Behind Act".