The Daily Dose/February 29, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…
USA! USA!: The days when America got worked up about mass shootings is over. General interest in our shootings had been declining for some time, of course, but now unless it happened in our backyard, we can’t be bothered. If you’re in or near Milwaukee you’re paying attention and wearing your Milwaukee Strong buttons, but that’s really about it.
Few people we know talked about and we couldn’t even be bothered to trot out our usual mass shooting column until today, three days after the fact.
Dry, Technical Matter: Five people were killed Wednesday when a Molson-Coors employee, apparently peeved at an argument with a co-worker, left and came back armed and started shooting with the killer thoughtfully taking his own life. The brewery used to be known as the Miller brewery.
Back On Message: Our nation has been at war every day since we invaded Panama in 1989 and a generation later we are feeling the effects. If America had been at peace every day since 1989 we wouldn’t be going through this. Among other things, the Twin Towers would still be standing, ISIS wouldn’t exist and mass shootings would be rare occurrences.
Violence has become the go-to reaction for our government, so it should be no surprise violence has become the go-to reaction for our citizens. We’ve long said that we will not have a peaceful world without a peaceful America. Similarly, we will not have peaceful Americans without a peaceful American government.
Stop Us If You’ve Heard This Before: We deserve better. We deserve better than mass shootings and violent citizens paced by a violent American government. We deserve a government at peace with the world and citizens at peace with each other.
Gaylon For US Senate…Vote Early, Vote Often: But we must demand it at the ballot box this Election Day. If we re-elect the status quo nothing will change. The time has come for you and me – we the people – to demand better than what we have now. Because the carnage is not going to stop until we do.
Editor’s Note: Gaylon is a candidate for the Colorado Libertarian Party’s US Senate nomination this year. Click here to open the manhole cover and find out more.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow has a busy day at the Veterans Service Office (VSO). Today’s Diary.
Well, heck, I was looking forward to being of service but under these circumstances, there wasn’t much I could do for her…I told her we needed her DD-214 before I could so much as ger her a Band-Aid from the VA and we also needed paperwork from the facility that issued the PTSD diagnosis and it would be good to know exactly what the dude in Nebraska sent to the VA so we don’t duplicate anything…She faithfully wrote everything down and said she’d take care of everything and then get back to me.
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On This Date
Great moments in us.
In 1940 – Hattie McDaniel wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind, the first black to win an Oscar. Due to segregation laws, McDaniel was not allowed to attend the movie’s premiere in Atlanta, though she did attend the Hollywood premiere. A multi-talented entertainer, McDaniel died in 1952 and has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for both films and radio. The location of her Oscar is not known.
In 1980 – Gordie Howe of the Hartford Whalers becomes the first NHL player with 800 career goals, scoring one goal in the Whalers’ 3-0 win over the St Louis Blues. Howe, then 52, played in all 80 games for the Whalers that season scoring 15 goals and retiring after the season with 801 career goals. Wayne Gretzky would break Howe’s record in March 1994 and his career total of 894 goals remains the NHL record.
In 1960 – Jim Reeves is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot C&W Sides chart – for the fourth of 14 consecutive weeks with He’ll Have to Go. The song also spent three weeks at #2 on the Hot 100 and peaked at #13 on Billboard’s soul chart, making it one of the few songs to hit on three major Billboard singles charts. Despite not hitting #1 on the Hot 100, the song was Billboard’s second biggest song of the year and ranked #215th on their 60th-anniversary Hot 100 in 2018. It was the fifth of eleven #1 country songs for Reeves, was his biggest pop hit and remains his only appearance on the soul chart.
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
The death of a civilization seldom comes from without; internal decay must weaken the fibre of a society before external influences or attacks can change its essential structure, or bring it to an end.
Will Durant
The Story of Civilization, Vol I: Our Oriental Heritage
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
Simon and Garfunkel had five Top 10 hits in Great Britain.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
How many shorthanded goals did Gordie Howe score in his career? – Answer next time!
