The Daily Dose/February 13, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Notes from around the Human Experience…
TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET: We’ve noted this here before: Americans have never really gotten along, with themselves or with others. From stealing the Indians’ land to holding blacks in bondage to the perpetual gap between the haves and have-nots, there have always been splinters in the American fabric.
Our latest example comes from Metro City Church in Riverview, Michigan which stands accused by a mother of using conversion therapy to try to convince her transgender son he really meant to be a boy and not a girl. The mom said her son had three people laying hands on him trying to exorcise a demon. The church disputes this, though it did admit to praying with the kid.
FunFact: The church is also scheduled to begin a conversion therapy workshop this week aimed at transgender girls.
Standard Daily Dose Disclaimer: We had 13 years of Lutheran schooling. Good luck getting over that, even if you later had 666 tattooed on your forehead. We currently have no religious beliefs.
Dry, Technical Matter: Conversion therapy is the attempt to change one’s sexual orientation by psychological or spiritual means. Few outside of the most conservative Christian elements believe it works and eight states and some counties ban its practice. The US Supreme Court routinely declines to take up appeals to conversion therapy bans.
Field Test That Puppy: If you are unsure about the merits of conversion therapy, ask yourself if you ever made a sexual orientation choice. You probably didn’t. We know we didn’t. We like girls – a lot – and never sat down to make a choice between boys and girls. Our first crush was Suzanne Pleshette of The Bob Newhart Show which was followed by the hormone onslaught that was Charlie’s Angels.
Fly In The Ointment: Since us Americans are incapable of leaving others alone, it is not the Upset of the Year to find the Metro City Church in Riverview has been bombarded with an onslaught of intolerance. This is wrong. We may or may not agree with a church’s beliefs but we must respect them. To issue hatred and invective merely because someone or something is out of sync with our personal beliefs is wrong.
The Bottom Line: Churches, of course, have been subjecting its adherents to beliefs that are neither intuitive nor completely in-step with current knowledge for centuries. They will continue to do so, too, despite the obstacles presented and in spite of the ruins it has caused. If they want to believe prayer can overcome Mother Nature, more power to them. Those who do not share those beliefs must let them be.
ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE!: Brussels, Belgium begins covering up the Senne River on this date in 1867. At the time the Senne was so polluted it was both unnavigable and a health hazard. It also flooded frequently.
Of course, there were the usual protests over the commandeering of private land for public use, as well as the obligatory embezzlement scandal not to mention some geological issues to delay matters, but the project was finished in late 1871. Covering the Senne allowed for the construction of boulevards and buildings and is regarded a major event in the development of downtown Brussels.
Trial Of The Century…At Least Until OJ: Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German-born carpenter, is convicted of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh on this date in 1935. Hauptmann had come to the attention of investigators – who at the time had no leads and were standing around the squad room scratching their asses – in September 1934 when his license plate number turned up on a $10 gold certificate that had been used in the ransom. The note had been used by Hauptmann at a gas station and, later, more of the ransom would be found in Hauptmann’s garage.
The Postgame Show Is Brought To You By The Electric Chair: Hauptmann was executed in May, 1936. He proclaimed his innocence to the very end.
He Shoots…And Shoots Some More: Frank Selvy of Fruman becomes the only NCAA major division player to score 100 points in a game on this date in 1954. Selvy scored 100, the last two on a half-court shot at the end of the game, as Furman defeated Newberry College 149-95.
FunFact: Slevy was the third collegian to score at least 100 points in a game. In 1954 and 1953 Clarence “Bevo” Francis scored 113 and 116 points for NAIA school Rio Grande College. It has since been done twice more by Jack Taylor of Division III Grinnell College earlier this decade.
Quotebook: The knowledge that I didn’t have the courage to do what was necessary made me feel terrible. – Charles Bukowski, Ham On Rye
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Canada has won the most combined men’s and women’s Olympic hockey medals with 20.
Today’s Stumper: Who holds the NCAA all-division record for most points in a basketball game?- Answer next time!
