The Daily Dose/September 11, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
HERE WE GO: The great lesson of life is the years pass. We can use this time to either try and make some things happen for ourselves or we can fart around and watch them pass. So it is hardly a bulletin that today is the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Get Your Official Daily Dose Policy Right Here: The great lesson of History is that American meddling in the affairs of other countries seldom yields a dividend and the 9/11 attacks should never have happened.
Fly In The Ointment: One, had we not been butting in in the Middle East members of al-Qaeda would have had no reason to fly airplanes into our buildings.
Batting Second: Two, as the official 9/11 report and other research has made clear, America had sufficient information to know about the attacks – like, for example, Arab students taking flying lessons in Arizona blowing off their landing lessons. America, however, didn’t know what it knew. Lots of people had lots of information, but no one person knew everything and we were unable to stop people from flying airplanes into our buildings.
Warm, Personal Remembrance: We were living in Las Vegas at the time and without a TV we found out about the attacks, after sleeping through them, on a message board we hung out at. The first TV coverage we saw was at the gym and our jaws dropped as much as yours did. We also remember umpiring some youth baseball that night because fall baseball in Las Vegas is more important than stopping to reflect on great and historical occurrences.
Stop Us If You’ve Heard This Before: America has been at war continuously since invading Panama in 1989 and we don’t think you can argue with this statement:
If America had been at peace every day since 1989 instead of at war every day, 9/11 would not have happened, ISIS would not exist and we would not have been in Afghanistan in the first place.
The Bottom Line: The only dividend war provides is more war. It’s time to see the world produced by an America at peace, an America that gives other nations the dignity of conducting their affairs without US interference.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow has the end-of-the-week update from The Portfolio. Today’s Diary.
The penny weed stock was up almost two-tenths of a cent today, which made me $3.01, tho it’s down about ten bucks since I bought in…Just for funsies, I did some research into what percentage of the company my 2,150 shares gets me and it turned out there are over 271 million shares out there, so my percentage is/isn’t squat, tho I don’t suppose ol’ Sparrow’s percentage of ownership isn’t interesting to anyone but ol’ Sparrow.
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 1789 – Alexander Hamilton takes office as the first treasury secretary of the United States. Hamilton’s influence lead to the creation of, among other things, the US Mint and what would eventually become the US Coast Guard and his influence on American government remains profound. Hamilton served for six years and died after being shot in a duel with then-Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804.
In 1912 – Eddie Collins of the Philadelphia Athletics establishes a new modern major league record for most stolen bases in a game in a 9-7 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Collins had six stolen bases, breaking the record of five that had been done four times previously, including once by Collins on May 18. Collins would match the feat on Sept 22 and the mark has been equaled three times since. The all-time record is seven, done twice, by George Gore of the Chicago Cubs in 1881 and Billy Hamilton of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1894.
In 1965 – James Brown is at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Hot Rhythm and Blues Singles chart – for the fifth of eight consecutive weeks with Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag. It was the second of 17 #1 soul songs for Brown and his 27th of 119 soul hits. The song also peaked at #8 on the Hot 100, at #25 in Great Britain and won the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording. In 1969, a version by Otis Redding peaked at #10 on the soul chart and at #21 on the Hot 100.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
I understood that I had to go. I had to meet my fate.
Ernst Weiss
Georg Letham, Physician and Murderer
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
Guns N’ Roses had two #1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart: Appetite for Destruction (four weeks, 1988) and Use Your Illusion II (two weeks, 1992).
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
How many secretaries of the treasury have later served as chief justice of the United States? – Answer next time!
