Yesterday I sent an email to a number of fellow veterans explaining why the number of articles I have written have slowed to a trickle. To my detractors it is because I haven't run out of things to talk about, but the past year has been plagued with health issues. For the old timers, especially those of us who have been around the block once or twice, I haven't figured out if the cause is simply an age factor or if everything we do in life is slowing …you know…the hands of the clock seem to be moving slower. Anyway, perhaps changing "the subject matter" will re-inspire the turning of the old wheels.
They say we should learn from history…an old cliché that has been around forever, but often forgotten, as in politics we see our leaders continue to stumble around like a bunch of old fools making the same decisions that keep us on the brink of war year after year, and continue to burn Pentagon funding as fast as Geithner and Bernake and produce it. We also see voters complain year after year and yet we re-elect the old buzzards 92% of the time. If we step back and just observe, we are watching insanity in action!
I think the best place to start is to just grab a day in history and seeing how we stack up today…
APRIL is as good as any place to throw in our line and start fishing…
By The Associated Press
April 1830 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was organized by Joseph Smith in Fayette, N.Y.
With the aid of a computer this will be much easier than having to do bunch of research down at the library. CNN even has a step-by-step procedure. Last week, two self-proclaimed Jedi Knights appealed to the United Nations to recognize their faith as an official religion and accordingly rename the International Day for Tolerance to Interstellar Day of Tolerance. The petition from Britons John Wilkinson and Charlotte Law, who call themselves Umada and Yunyun, comes after a 2001 British census recorded 400,000 people who "practice" the Jedi faith.
April 1896 The first modern Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece.
April 2013 Rutgers men's basketball coach, Mike Rice, blew a gasket in an anti-homophobic rant forcing the school to seek a replacement. Not exactly a new sport, but close enough to qualify as the "opening of a new sport".
April 1909 Explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson purportedly became the first men to reach the North Pole. (The exact location they reached has since been called into question.)….Yup….discovering the North Pole! SCIENCE IN ACTION…new discoveries…happening all the time.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) –April 2013… Two more people have contracted bird flu in Shanghai, China's health ministry said on Saturday, as authorities closed live poultry markets and culled birds to combat a new virus strain that has killed six people.
State-run Xinhua news agency said authorities planned to slaughter birds at two live poultry markets in Shanghai and another in Hangzhou after new samples of the H7N9 virus were detected in birds at the three sites.
More than 20,000 birds have been culled at another Shanghai market where traces of the virus were found this week.
Something old followed by something new, but that's what discoveries are all about.
April 1971 Composer Igor Stravinsky died at age 88. Composer, Violinist, "Top of the charts…in classical music" in his day
April 6th died Tammy Wynette . She wrote the song "Stand by your man" and spend the next 15 years of her life defending the words to this Country-Western Classic, and in her own words… "Sometimes it's hard to be a woman
Giving all your love to just one man
You'll have bad times
And he'll have good times
Doin things that you don't understand
But if you love him
You'll forgive him
Even though he's hard to understand
And if you love him
Oh, be proud of him
Cause after all he's just a man"
April 1983 Interior Secretary James Watt banned the Beach Boys from the 4th of July celebration on the Washington Mall, saying rock 'n' roll bands attract the "wrong element."
Bobby Dylan Concert Banned in China:
Bob Dylan won't be singing "Blowin' in the Wind" to audiences in Shangai and Beijing after all.
Chinese officials who disapproved of his ‘60s counterculture anthems and who have final veto power on performances by Western artists have apparently put the kabosh on his China concerts, according to E! Online. They've reportedly vetoed his performances in Shangai and Beijing.
The call was placed by China's ministry of culture, Jeffrey Wu of the Taiwan-based promoters Brokers Brothers Herald, who told the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.
"With Beijing and China ruled out, it was not possible for him just to play concerts in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan," Wu said, according to E! "The chance to play in China was the main attraction for him. When that fell through everything else was called off."
Dylan's in good company among the performers to have had their concerts banned or censored.
Elton John, Harry Connick Jr., Oasis and the Rolling Stones have all been in the same boat at one time or another.
April 1998 The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 9,000 points for the first time.
April 5, 2013 Dow Closes at 14,565.25. This was just a notch below the record roller-coaster rides we have been watching since the market tanked in 2008. Looks as if people are still looking for the "Thrill-A-Minute" heart pounding action of the stock markets despite the fact our currency is being printed at inflationary rates and the global economy is like a dog chasing it's tail.
April 1998 Pakistan successfully tested a medium-range missile capable of striking neighboring India.
April 5, 2013 Looks as if the players are the US, North Korea, South Korea, and the "China Sea Gang" featuring a "Punk-Kid" with a million man military, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a crazy kid" wanting to show he's the "toughest kind on the block" regardless that his antics may just bring about a nuclear war involving North and South Korea with China and the US right in the middle of the mess. But this gets goofier by the minute as NBA wacko-nut, Dennis Rodman, is being looked upon as bringing both sides together. I think the world is going up-side-down and maybe we should all be doing drugs!
April 1992 Science fiction author Isaac Asimov died at age 72. Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. He is also credited with opening the door to positive thinking with some of the most forward thinking of his time
April 4, 2013 was the end of a book well written in the life of Roger Ebert, as he joined his long-time film critic partner Gene Siskel in a new life in the spiritual world. Together Siskel and Ebert changed the way we reviewed movies…"thumbs-up or thumbs-down". If life can be viewed as a mountain we are each challenged to climb, then most would agree, Gene and Roger reached the pinnacle setting a new standard that will probably never again be reached. I can't remember not going to a movie before I had a chance to catch their review…I'm not saying they were always right, and while I didn't always agree with them, it made me take special notice of what they did and didn't like. I am sure many felt the same way.
Isaac Asimov 's lasting thoughts seem to have hit the nail on the head as I review this short essay on life as I am now beginning to see it. I am sure most veterans see it this way as well. Time and again we see our politicos manage to keep things screwed up so badly and then tell us we need to keep them in power so they can straighten things out.
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent".
Isaac Asimov
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