Month: January 2014

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Our Daily Thread 1-16-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1547 Ivan the Terrible was crowned Czar of Russia.

In 1883 the United States Civil Service Commission was established as the Pendleton Act went into effect.

In 1919 the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited the sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages, was ratified. It was later repealed by the 21st Amendment.

In 1920 Prohibition went into effect in the U.S.

In 1979 the Shah of Iran and his family fled Iran for Egypt.

And in 1991 the White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm. The operation was designed to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

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Quote of the Day

“God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

Eric Liddell

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Today is Ronnie Milsap’s birthday. From SidsCardShop

Today is also composer Gavin Bryars’ birthday.

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Anyone have a QoD?

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Prayer Requests 1-16-14

Anyone have a request or praise to share?

Psalm 148

¹Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights.

2 Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.

3 Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.

4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.

5 Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created.

6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.

7 Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:

8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:

10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:

11 Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:

12 Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

14 He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the Lord.

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News/Politics 1-16-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. The bi-partisan Senate report on Benghazi is out.

From HotAir  “The bombshell here isn’t the blame — it’s that the blame is bipartisan. Normally in these circumstances, a Congressional committee looking into the activities of a current administration will split into partisan conclusions, especially if it’s critical at all. Not this time:

A long-delayed Senate intelligence committee report released on Wednesday spreads blame among the State Department and intelligence agencies for not preventing attacks on two outposts in Libya that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

The bipartisan report lays out more than a dozen findings regarding the assaults on Sept. 11 and 12, 2012 on the diplomatic compound and a CIA annex in the Libyan city of Benghazi. It says the State Department failed to increase security at the sites despite warnings, and faults intelligence agencies for not sharing information about the existence of the CIA outpost with the U.S. military.

The committee determined that the U.S. military command in Africa didn’t know about the CIA annex and didn’t have the resources to defend the diplomatic compound in an emergency.”

They conclude it was preventable. And Hillary doesn’t escape blame either.

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2. ObamaCare is having some unintended consequences for Democrats too. Kay Hagan can ignore the president now, but folks know what she did, and it’s costing her. She now trails all possible Republican challengers.

Also From HotAir  “It wasn’t so very long ago — as in, last September — that Democratic senator and enthusiastic ObamaCare cheerleader Kay Hagan was posting fairly comfortable margins leading all of the Republican challengers to her reelection bid this year. Cue the ObamaCare initiation sequence, however, and that all started to change pretty quickly. These past few months have been whittling away at her erstwhile lead, and even as the Republican primary race is starting to solidify, Public Policy Polling‘s latest update indicates that all of her potential opponents are seriously gaining on her:

For the first time in our polling of the North Carolina Senate race, presumptive frontrunner Thom Tillis has opened a little bit of space between himself and the rest of his opponents in the Republican primary. Tillis now leads the field with 19% to 11% for Greg Brannon and Heather Grant, 8% for Mark Harris, and 7% for Bill Flynn. …

39% of voters in the state say they approve of the job Hagan is doing to 49% who disapprove. She has 1 or 2 point deficits against each of her potential GOP foes.

And if these ads are any indication, she’s in for a looong summer.

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3. And it’s not just North Carolina. Democrats own this, and folks are being reminded of that fact.

From TheNYTimes  “Democrats are increasingly anxious about an onslaught of television ads hitting vulnerable Senate and House candidates for their support of the new health law, since many lack the resources to fight back in the early stages of the midterm campaign.

Since September, Americans for Prosperity, a group financed in part by the billionaire Koch brothers, has spent an estimated $20 million on television advertising that calls out House and Senate Democrats by name for their support of the Affordable Care Act.

The unusually aggressive early run of television ads, which has been supplemented by other conservative initiatives, has gone largely unanswered, and strategists in both parties agree it is taking a toll on its targets.”

Looks like it’s time for the IRS to go after the Koch brothers again. 🙂

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4. This is ridiculous. They can search you and your personal belongings near the border in the name of national security, but they won’t enforce the borders in the name of national security. 🙄

From FoxNews  “A federal judge who endorsed “suspicion-less” searches of laptops, cameras and cell phones at the border has set up a possible Supreme Court showdown challenging what critics call “Constitution-free zones” and the Obama administration’s dragnet approach to national security.

A decision by Judge Edward Korman upholding the federal government’s right to search travelers’ electronic devices at or near the border conflicts with a similar ruling in California. That ruling requires a “reasonable suspicion” of criminal activity before agents can confiscate and examine personal photos, laptops and files. Korman’s ruling does not. 

“I think Americans are justifiably becoming increasingly surprised and even outraged by the extent to which the national security state seems to be monitoring and collecting information about us all,” said ACLU Attorney Catherine Crump. “We think that having a purely suspicion-less policy is wrong, because it leaves border agents with no standards at all to follow. That opens the door that people will be [targeted] for inappropriate reasons.”

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Our Daily Thread 1-15-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1844 the University of Notre Dame received its charter from the state of Indiana.

In 1870 a cartoon by Thomas Nast titled “A Live Jack@#% Kicking a Dead Lion” appeared in “Harper’s Weekly.”  The cartoon used the donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party for the first time.

In 1943 the Pentagon was dedicated as the world’s largest office building just outside Washington, DC, in Arlington, VA.  The structure covers 34 acres of land and has 17 miles of corridors.

In 1953 Harry S Truman became the first U.S. President to use radio and television to give his farewell as he left office.

And in 1967 the first National Football League Super Bowl was played.  The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League.  The final score was 35-10. 

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Quote of the Day

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Today is composer Ivor Novello’s birthday. So it’s “We’ll Gather Lilacs” from Marino van Wakeren, who sings it very well.

Lilacs have me thinking Spring, so let’s go with that. Charlie Louvin singing “Where the Roses Never Fade” 🙂

And the last for today, Vivaldi’s “Spring”, from InnocentiStrings

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Anyone have a QoD for us today?

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Prayer Requests 1-15-14

Anyone have a request or praise they’d like to share?

And it’s Wednesday, so don’t forget the Gambia.

Psalm 147:1-12

¹Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.

2 The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

4 He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

5 Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

6 The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.

7 Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:

8 Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

9 He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

10 He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.

11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.

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News/Politics 1-15-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. This one isn’t all that surprising considering this administration’s over-regulation and constant rule changing.

From TheWallStJournal  “World economic freedom has reached record levels, according to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, released Tuesday by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. But after seven straight years of decline, the U.S. has dropped out of the top 10 most economically free countries.

For 20 years, the index has measured a nation’s commitment to free enterprise on a scale of 0 to 100 by evaluating 10 categories, including fiscal soundness, government size and property rights. These commitments have powerful effects: Countries achieving higher levels of economic freedom consistently and measurably outperform others in economic growth, long-term prosperity and social progress. Botswana, for example, has made gains through low tax rates and political stability.”

“It’s not hard to see why the U.S. is losing ground. Even marginal tax rates exceeding 43% cannot finance runaway government spending, which has caused the national debt to skyrocket. The Obama administration continues to shackle entire sectors of the economy with regulation, including health care, finance and energy. The intervention impedes both personal freedom and national prosperity.

But as the U.S. economy languishes, many countries are leaping ahead, thanks to policies that enhance economic freedom—the same ones that made the U.S. economy the most powerful in the world. Governments in 114 countries have taken steps in the past year to increase the economic freedom of their citizens. Forty-three countries, from every part of the world, have now reached their highest economic freedom ranking in the index’s history.”

Obamanomics at work. Or not…

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2. I sure hope the Supreme Court is about to reel them in, because they seem intent on continuing with this over-regulation and overstepping their authority trend.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “President Obama has a resolution for 2014: That this will be a year of action,” Pfeiffer said in the e-mail, pointing out that Obama would no longer be waiting around for Congress to get things done.

“Instead, the president will use his executive authority, both his pen and his phone, to work with anyone to get things done — whether they be leaders in business, education, Congress, states, or local communities,” he said.”

And if you don’t have the authority, just pretend you do. It’s worked so far.

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3. In other non-shocking news….

No one will be held accountable for the IRS targeting of the Tea Party. Like always with Obama scandals.

From MarketWatch  “The Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn’t plan to file criminal charges over the Internal Revenue Service’s heightened scrutiny of conservative groups, according to law-enforcement officials, a move that likely will only intensify debate over the politically charged scandal. 

The officials said investigators didn’t find the kind of political bias or “enemy hunting” that would amount to a violation of criminal law. Instead, what emerged during the probe was evidence of a mismanaged bureaucracy enforcing rules about tax-exemption applications it didn’t understand, according to the law-enforcement officials.  

While the case is still being investigated and could remain open for months, officials familiar with its progress said it is increasingly unlikely any criminal charges will result. That could change, the officials cautioned, if unexpected evidence is discovered that alters their thinking.”

So their defense it that it wasn’t criminal behavior, just government incompetence. 🙄

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4. More fuzzy math.

From CNNMoney  “Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a blog post Monday that “More than 6 million Americans have now either signed up for a private health insurance plan through the Marketplace or for Medicaid coverage.”

But the numbers are somewhat misleading.”

“The squishiness lies in the Medicaid number. The 3.9 million figure includes people who were already on Medicaid and are just renewing, as Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services noted in a blog post late last month. So not all of these folks have coverage due to Obamacare.”

“”It’s a mushy number,” Dubay said. “Everyone’s saying the numbers are not quite right. Nobody knows how not quite right they are.”

It’s a squishy, mushy, and fuzzy number.

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5. This is probably helping/hurting the numbers, depending on your perspective. I say good.

From NBCNews  “States whose governments are hostile to Obamacare are hindering efforts to get people signed up for health insurance, according to a study released Tuesday.

Laws restricting outreach and enrollment efforts have handicapped community health centers that are a key component of plans to get health insurance to millions of Americans who lack it, researchers at George Washington University found.

“This is the first study to attempt to measure the impact of restrictive state policies,” said Sara Rosenbaum, who led the team at GW’s Department of Health Policy that did the study. “The navigator laws are having a real effect.”

“”This is a blatant attempt to add cumbersome requirements to the navigator program and deter groups from working to inform Americans about their new health insurance options and help them enroll in coverage,” U.S. Health and Human Services department spokesman Fabien Levy said in September after Texas passed its law.”

Yeah! How dare you question the president’s ACORN friends. And asking for background checks is racist too!

🙄

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6. And last one for today, the wussification of the American male continues. 🙄

I prefer the title “Clueless and Raising Children” but the author calls it, “I Never Thought My Son Would Play With Guns”

From The HuffPost  “I woke up this morning to my nearly 5-year-old son, his big blue eyes close to mine, saying “Mama! Let’s play!” Somehow, I dragged myself to the living room where he had set up dinosaurs. He told me the rules: “My dinosaurs have superpowers and yours don’t. Mine find yours and then kill them with their power!” That woke me up.

I wondered if I should say something to him about killing — again. I tried to redirect the violence in the play by having my dinosaurs offer friendship and joint living in a cave. He didn’t bite. “No! they are not friends! OK mama? OK?” “OK,” I said, in resignation. Because at that moment, it felt like I had lost that battle.

What happened to my gentle little boy who would cradle his dolls if they happened to fall on the ground? Where is the boy who would never consider the possibility of intentionally hurting another? And where did this one, who pretends to shoot others, come from? “My son will never do that,” I used to say.

As usual, parenting is humbling.

Guns first showed up last year. Amidst his love affair with Mary Poppins and Annie, he also started asking about weapons. He wanted me to cut a gun out of cardboard so he could take it to school. Mortified, I imagined his teachers’ reactions when they saw it.”

OH THE HORROR!!!!!!  😯

And there’s plenty more liberal hand wringing at the link. 🙄

Oh yeah, and she’s a therapist, so she gets to share her expertise with other people’s kids too. 😉

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Our Daily Thread 1-14-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1639 Connecticut’s first constitution, the “Fundamental Orders,” was adopted.

In 1784 the United States ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War.

In 1878 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone for Britain’s Queen Victoria.

In 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office.

And in 1973 the Miami Dolphins defeated the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII and became the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.

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Quote of the Day

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Martin Niemoller

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Today was the birthday of Francois-Joseph Dizi. From AnnaLoro1

And it was on today’s date in 1960 that this fella was promoted to the rank of Sgt. by the US Army. From JamesJones

And it’s Dave Grohl’s birthday. I never did care much for Nirvana, however I do like the Foo Fighters. But today something different. A duet with Norah Jones, covering Paul McCartney. From LarryRulz

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Anyone have a QoD?

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Prayer Requests 1-14-14

Anyone have a request or praise to share?

And please remember Jo as she arrives/arrived? back in the field.

Psalm 146

¹Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.

2 While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God:

6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:

7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners:

8 The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous:

9 The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

10 The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord.

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News/Politics 1-14-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Every 96 seconds Planned Parenthood ends a life. With the aid of 540.6 million taxpayer dollars.

From CNSNews  “In its latest annual report, released in December,  Planned Parenthood says it did 327,166 abortion procedures in the  course of one year and 2,197 adoption referrals. That works out to  approximately 149 abortions for each adoption referral.

The data comes from an accounting of “patient care” Planned  Parenthood says its “affiliate health centers” did in the year that ran  from Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012.

Planned Parenthood says in it new annual report that it received a total of $540.6 million in  government grants and reimbursements for the fiscal year that ended on  June 30, 2013. That accounted for almost 45 percent of the  organization’s total revenue of $1,210.4. “

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2. The Benghazi transcripts  further expose the lies from the Obama admin.

From FoxNews  “Minutes after the American consulate in Benghazi came under assault on Sept. 11, 2012, the nation’s top civilian and uniformed defense officials — headed for a previously scheduled Oval Office session with President Obama — were informed that the event was a “terrorist attack,” declassified documents show. The new evidence raises the question of why the top military men, one of whom was a member of the president’s Cabinet, allowed him and other senior Obama administration officials to press a false narrative of the Benghazi attacks for two weeks afterward. 

 Gen. Carter Ham, who at the time was head of AFRICOM, the Defense Department combatant command with jurisdiction over Libya, told the House in classified testimony last year that it was him who broke the news about the unfolding situation in Benghazi to then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The tense briefing — in which it was already known that U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens had been targeted and had gone missing — occurred just before the two senior officials departed the Pentagon for their session with the commander in chief. “

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3. The justices voiced their doubts yesterday on some of the Obama admins claims relating to executive authority.

From TheNYTimes  “In an extended argument that contained large doses of constitutional history and practical politics, the Supreme Court on Monday seemed skeptical of the Obama administration’s contention that it could bypass the Senate to appoint officials during short breaks in the Senate’s work.

Justices across the ideological spectrum appeared prepared to rein in the ability of presidents to make appointments without obtaining the Senate’s advice and consent by invoking the Constitution’s recess-appointments clause, which says “the president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate.”

“Justice Elena Kagan said the clause may be a “historic relic” from “the horse and buggy era,” when presidents needed the authority to fill vacancies because lawmakers were out of town and could not return on short notice. More recently, she said, presidents of both parties have used the appointment power “as a way to deal, not with congressional absence, but with congressional intransigence, with a Congress that simply does not want to approve appointments that the president thinks ought to be approved.”

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4. Obama deciding to bail out insurance companies will cost taxpayers up to a trillion dollars due to the rollout debacle. Affordable Care Act? I think not.

From TheWeeklyStandard  “Robert Laszewski—a prominent consultant to health insurance companies—recently wrote in a remarkably candid blog post that, while Obamacare is almost certain to cause insurance costs to skyrocket even higher than it already has, “insurers won’t be losing a lot of sleep over it.”  How can this be?  Because insurance companies won’t bear the cost of their own losses—at least not more than about a quarter of them.  The other three-quarters will be borne by American taxpayers.

For some reason, President Obama hasn’t talked about this particular feature of his signature legislation.  Indeed, it’s bad enough that Obamacare is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to funnel $1,071,000,000,000.00 (that’s $1.071 trillion) over the next decade (2014 to 2023) from American taxpayers, through Washington, to health insurance companies.  It’s even worse that Obamacare is trying to coerce Americans into buying those same insurers’ product (although there are escape routes).  It’s almost unbelievable that it will also subsidize those same insurers’ losses. “

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5. Darryl Issa is saying the Obama admin is waging a war on guns, and like with Fast and Furious, using questionable methods.

From TheDailyCaller  “California Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, accused the Obama administration of waging “a war on guns” after new reports of “rogue” sting operations by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) conducted during 2013.

Issa spoke to Fox News’ Shannon Bream Sunday about a report by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which claimed that ATF agents operating firearm stings in 6 separate cities “took advantage of the mentally ill, set up stings near churches and schools and made decisions which some claim actually increased crime in their neighborhoods.” Issa and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter to ATF Director Todd Jones this week to demand answers on the tactics and how often they’ve been used.”

“This is ‘Fast and Furious’ revisited,” he began, referencing the infamous gun-running operation that saw thousands of small arms fall into the hands of drug cartels. “You finally have a confirmed director, Todd Jones, who was supposed to clean up these operations. And instead — what you see in many of these cases — they’re continuing. They’re continuing to have this be what’s called a ‘rogue organization.’ But I think for the members of the ATF, I want to make sure I make one thing clear. The ATF never acts alone. The FBI and the U.S. attorneys in each of these areas — political appointees — they work hand in hand… This is the president, President Obama’s Department of Justice that continues to support these sting operations, these ‘rogue operations’ as they’re called, that lead to harm in communities.”

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Our Daily Thread 1-13-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1794 President Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union.

In 1854 Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, PA, patented the accordion.

In 1928 Ernst F. W. Alexanderson gave the first public demonstration of television.

In 1982 an Air Florida 737 crashed into the capital’s 14th Street Bridge after takeoff and fell into the Potomac River.  78 people were killed.

And in 1989 Bernhard H. Goetz was sentenced to one year in prison for possession of an unlicensed gun that he used to shoot four youths he claimed were about to rob him.  He was freed the following September.

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Quote of the Day

“The law of the Creator, which invests every human being with an inalienable title to freedom, cannot be repealed by any interior law which asserts that man is property.”

Salmon P. Chase

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It’s Trace Adkins’ birthday, so my favorite from him.

It’s also the birthday of Joe Pass, a fine guitar player.

That’s some serious pickin’. And here’s some more. Joe Pass and Roy Clark. 🙂

Nice. 🙂

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Anyone have a QoD?