The Daily Dose/April 22, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Texas is scheduled to execute John William King Wednesday, for his role in the 1998 murder of James Byrd, Jr. This is hardly a bulletin, of course. Texas executes people left and right, more people than any other state in the Union, and while the frequency has diminished somewhat in recent years, the Texas death house still does very good business.
King and two others, Lawerence Russell Brewer and Shawn Allen Berry, were convicted of murdering Byrd after giving him a ride in Jasper, a town in the southeast part of the state. The three treated Byrd, 49, to a beating, then he was chained to the back of a truck and dragged for three miles. He died after the first two when he was decapitated after his head hit a culvert.
Brewer was executed in 2011, while Berry was sentenced to life in prison and will even be eligible for parole in 2038. Now, if you are unfamiliar with how the death penalty is dispensed in America, you might think that different punishments in murder cases is rare, but don’t kid yourself, they’re not. One murderer dying while another lives, usually for squealing against the other, is common. Don’t take our word for it, though. Do your research.
Different penalties for the same crime is not our favorite argument for abolishing the death penalty, however. As we’ve said every hour on the hour on the campaign trail for both the United States Senate and House, this nation has executed innocent people, and this is reason enough to shut the entire system down.
But two murderers dying while another lives, and may even go free later, is a good reason to abolish the death penalty, too.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow runs into two drunk women at the hotel, plus he does not have to report for jury duty Monday. Today’s Diary.
The drunk broads were first, sashaying in about 0030…They were about my age and friendly and pretty buzzed, tho not falling down drunk, and I was in the back office when I heard some noise out front and wandered out, where I saw them staring at the candy bar display at the sundry stand as if it were emitting light…Complete wonderment…So I go and show them what we’ve got, like a ubiquitous commissioned salesman
“May I show you something in a Kit-Kat???”
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On This Date
In 1983 – The German magazine Stern announces it is in possession of a diary written by Adolf Hitler, saying they had been found in some wreckage in what was then East Germany. Though serial rights were sold to major newspapers throughout the world, the diaries were quickly shown to be forgeries, written by a German illustrator named Konrad Kujau, who spent four years in prison for his efforts.
In 1876 – The world’s oldest professional sports league, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, plays its first game as the Boston Red Caps defeat the Philadelphia Athletics 6-5 at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. The game was tied 4-4 heading into the ninth, when Boston got two runs in the top of the inning, while the Athletics got a run in the bottom of the inning while stranding the tying run on second base. The Boston Red Caps are now the Atlanta Braves, while the Philadelphia Athletics folded after the 1876 season. Through yesterday, the National League has played 111,724 regular season games.
In 1962 – Patsy Cline is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot C&W Sides chart – for the third of four non-consecutive weeks with She’s Got You. The song also peaked at #14 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and was Cline’s second and final country #1 song. Cline died the following March, at age 30, in an airplane crash near Camden, Tennessee. She’s Got You would return to #1 in 1977, sung by Loretta Lynn.
Quotebook
He was not so unreasonable-usually- as to demand both freedom and the fruits of popular slavery.
Sinclair Lewis
Arrowsmith
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Phil Collins was part of one #1 hit with Genesis, Invisible Touch in 1986.
