The Daily Dose/October 4, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
In The News
Wrongful Conviction Day was Tuesday and we’ll forgive you if you didn’t throw an exoneration watch party or otherwise mark well the date. Most people didn’t. We are running for a seat in either the United States House or Senate for the third time this year and despite my emphasizing it, it has never really been an issue amongst the voters I have talked to. Our loss. It should be because convicting the innocent has no place in a country conceived in liberty.
It happens a lot, more often than some of us might be comfortable admitting. The National Registry of Exonerations lists 2,273 exonerations since 1989 with the innocent serving over 20,000 years for something they didn’t do. That’s an average of eight years, but 36 innocent men served at least 30 years before being exonerated and two of those served more than 40 years.
To think that these numbers are anything more than the tip of the iceberg is folly. Our own personal estimate, an educated guess really, is that 15 percent of those incarcerated did not commit the crimes they were sentenced for.
For a nation conceived in liberty, these numbers should cause all of us to go stand in the corner in shame. I don’t like crime any more than you do, but convicting the innocent in America is unacceptable. We deserve better. We deserve an America that does not convict the innocent.
Today at the Site
Sparrow scams lunch at the Mexican joint in the next county and he talks about options for his hair for the candidate’s forum next week on today’s edition of The Diary of a Nobody.
Regular readers of this crap know I’ve been using no less than three different things: Brylcreem, Vitalis and the latest, Clean and Groom…I’ve been giving all of them test runs this week, to see if one stands out but right now, frankly, they’re all in a three-way tie…
Nero Wolfe, a fictional private detective created by Rex Stout, has The Thought for the Day, concerning time and stealing a little bit of it occasionally. This feature continues to take some time off, and this is a repeat from November of last year.
On the other hand, of course, our time is precious. 24 hours are all we have each day. We can’t borrow anymore and we can’t avoid some of them, either. They are there, waiting for us relentlessly.
On This Date
In 1957 – The Space Age begins when the Soviet Union sends Sputnik 1, a 23-inch in diameter metal sphere that transmitted radio pulses, into orbit. Sputnik 1 would transmit beeps for three weeks before its batteries died and would fall to earth two months later. It was the first of several rather impressive firsts in space for the Soviets, though, of course, America remains the only country to put men on the moon.
In 1895 – The first US Open golf tournament is held in Newport, RI. It was won by Horace Rawlins of England who shot a 173 for 36 holes that day, two strokes ahead of Willie Dunn. (Par was not introduced into golf scoring until 1911.) Rawlins won $150, about $4,500 in today’s money. The US Open would remain a 36-hole tournament through 1897 and would become a 72-hole tournament the following year.
In 1947 – The novelty song Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) by Tex Williams is #1 on the Billboard country chart, then known as the Most Played Juke Box Folk Records chart for the 12th of 16 non-consecutive weeks. Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) also spent six weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart, a precursor of the Hot 100 and remains William’s only #1 song on either chart.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
John Allen Muhammad declined to choose between lethal injection and electrocution, so he was executed by lethal injection in Virginia.
Today’s Stumper
What was the first American satellite to orbit the earth? – Answer next time!
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