The Daily Dose/August 1, 2023
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.
Editor’s Note: the fresh content we had planned for today has been held pending new developments. This ran one year ago today and is still relevant.
GET OUT YOUR HISTORY BOOKS: Recently here we whined about the uninspiring prospects for the 2024 presidential election. It would follow a general trend in this country because, as we’ve noted here before, this country hasn’t had decent leadership by an elected president since Kennedy said let’s go to the moon.
But We Digress: We always felt Gerald Ford did well under circumstances the Son of Man would have found trying and that History has redeemed his pardoning of Richard Nixon. But Ford wasn’t elected; he had been nominated and confirmed as vice president to replace Spiro Agnew and, of course, assumed the presidency when Richard Nixon resigned.
Here We Go: Johnson got mired in Vietnam and declared war on poverty, even though that enemy has been with us since time immemorial and is never going away. Nixon could’ve been great, but his demons overtook him and he resigned in disgrace. Carter meant well but was ineffective and got bogged down in deciding who could and could not use the White House tennis court. Reagan, a genius at articulating his views simply, was the most managed president in history, a burden his successors have allowed themselves to fall victim to.
Pause For Breath: George H.W. Bush was another Carter, Clinton, heck, he could’ve been great, too, but it was always something with him and he ended up getting impeached. George W Bush lied to get us into war, Obama talked a good game but left our country much as he found it, Trump was the worst elected leader in human history, an ignoramus with blood on his hands, whose only real talent is drawing attention to himself. Biden has yet to finish his term, so he may well work his way off of the Jimmy Carter pile, though we doubt it.
Ladies And Gentlemen Of The Jury: Why the dearth of leadership over the past 60 years? I mean, it’s hardly as if America has not had good, or even great, presidential leadership in the past. Sure, there have been some stinkers in there over the centuries, but the presidential landscape is dotted with talent like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and both Roosevelts. We even give Truman high marks for having the courage to nuke Japan, a decision that saved hundreds of thousands of American lives.
The Bottom Line: America, however, has stopped demanding greatness. We are into our fourth generation of television being the focal point of our American life and we are paying for it with a country that, collectively, has stopped demanding anything other than being well-fed and well-entertained, content to blindly accept whatever the party of our choice chooses to spoonfeed us. As a result, we have a country that’s a shooting gallery, constantly at war, with social divides that are making the 60s seem like something out of Mother Goose. We deserve better than this, but we are not demanding it.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow has a guest who needs a room for her and her brother, who was just released from the hospital. Today’s Diary.
Maybe he hurt himself passing out from boredom after watching the balloon rodeo.
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1980 – Vigdis Finnbogadottir becomes the world’s first democratically elected female head of state when she is elected president of Iceland. Running against three men, she won with 33.6% of the vote and would be reelected three times, twice running unopposed, and served until 1996 when she declined to run for another term. She remains Iceland’s only female president and, at 95, is currently a UNESCO goodwill ambassador.
In 1992 – Gail Devers of the US wins the gold medal in the women’s 100-meters at the Barcelona Summer Olympics. Devers won with a time of 10.82 seconds in the closest Olympic women’s 100-meter race ever, with just .06 seconds, mere inches, separating the first five finishers. It was the first of three Olympic gold medals for Devers, who would defend her title at the 1996 Atlanta Games, where she also was a member of the gold medal-winning 4 x 100-meter relay team.
In 1960 – Brenda Lee is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the third and final consecutive week with I’m Sorry. It was the third of 29 Top 40 hits for Lee, her third of 13 Top 10 hits, and her first of two #1s. The song also went to #1 in New Zealand, peaked at #12 in Great Britain, at #4 on Billboard’s soul chart, and was Billboard’s 6th-biggest song of the year. Lee was 15 at the time, then the youngest act to have a #1 song, a mark now held by Michael Jackson.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
…it makes no difference at all who wins. The world goes on.
Gore Vidal
Creation
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
The Royal Navy was founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
Who is the oldest act to have a #1 song on the Hot 100? – Answer next time!
