The Daily Dose/December 20, 2018
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
In The News
Twenty-nine years ago today America invaded Panama. Despite the fact it was an armed invasion of a sovereign country, Congress did not bother to declare war, something it hasn’t done since World War II. The invasion was unilaterally authorized by President George Bush.
The official reasons given included combating drug trafficking, maintaining the integrity of the Panama Canal and the usual safeguarding of American lives and defending freedom and human rights. The real reason was to depose dictator Manuel Noreiga, though he proved difficult to catch, remaining at-large for a few days before holing up at the diplomatic mission of the Vatican before surrendering on January 3.
(Noriega was brought to the U.S. to stand trial. He was subsequently convicted on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering and sentenced to 40 years in prison, later reduced to 30 years. Noriega was later extradited to France and then extradited back to Panama where he died in 2017.)
Whatever the reasons and whatever the outcome, the invasion of Panama started a streak that has not yet been stopped: America has been at war every day since. That is darn near three decades – 30 years – of non-stop warfare. War is all a generation of Americans and their kids know and after 30 years of non-stop warfare there is still not any prospect of peace, the only dividend war providing is more war.
Thirty years of non-stop warfare has taken its toll both internationally and domestically. Internationally, a violent America has meant a planet that is, except for our two world wars, as violent as its ever been. Domestically, a violent American government has produced violent citizens: our country is a shooting gallery now, with gunfire almost as common as saying “good morning”.
No nation has survived perpetual war and America will not be the exception to that. Eventually, combined with our fiscal insanities and probably before this half-century is out, America will collapse, tossed aside the scrap heap of history with, among others, the Roman Empire and the Soviet Union.
We deserve better than that. The time has come for the everyone – our country, our planet your aunt in Leadville – to see the world that would be produced by an America at peace.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow heads to the next county, where he goes to his favorite Mexican joint and buys some hair tonic and index cards.
Then it hit me: there is no reason someone – like ol’ Sparrow, for instance – can’t have his usual Mexican joint faves for breakfast…One of the staples, after all, is chorizo, a sausage made up of God knows what that you scramble with eggs…I didn’t even stop by the house, merely waving at the cat as I passed by on Main Street…
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On This Date
In 1968 – Teenagers David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen are shot to death in Benicia, California, the first victims of the serial killer History refers to as the Zodiac Killer. Over the next eleven months, there would be five more murders attributed to the Zodiac Killer, though the killer claimed to have murdered more than three dozen. The killer was never found and assorted killings are still open cases in several California jurisdictions.
In 1985 – Dennis Potvin of the New York Islanders has an assist as the Islanders tie the New York Rangers 2-2. With the assist, Potvin establishes a new NHL record for Most Points in a Career by a Defenseman with 916, breaking the mark held by Bobby Orr. Potvin would retire after the 1987-88 season with 1,052 points, now good for seventh on the all-time NHL scoring list for defensemen. The record is now held by Ray Borque, with 1,579 points.
In 1947 – I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Until I Can Hold You in My Arms) by Eddy Arnold and his Tennessee Plowboys is at number one on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Most Played Juke Box Folk Records chart – for the seventh consecutive week and eighth overall. The song would ultimately spend 21 weeks at #1, establishing new Billboard overall and country chart records for Most Weeks at #1.
It was the beginnings of an unprecedented streak of 55 consecutive weeks at #1 for Arnold and his band, a streak that included 17 non-consecutive weeks at #1 with Bouquet of Roses, seven non-consecutive weeks with Just a Little Lovin’ (Will Go a Long Way), three non-consecutive weeks with Texarkana Baby and nine weeks with Anytime. It remains the most consecutive weeks any act has spent on top of any Billboard chart.
Quotebook
…all excellent things are as difficult as they are rare.
Baruch Spinoza
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Andrew Johnson was the first president of the United States to be impeached by the House of Representatives, in 1868. He was acquitted by one vote in his trial by the Senate.
Today’s Stumper
What songs matched and then broke I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Until I Can Hold You in My Arms) record for most weeks at #1 on Billboard’s country chart? –Answer next time!
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