Good morning on Sunday, August 4, 2019, National Chocolate Chip Day. In the U.S. it’s Coast Guard Day, Sisters’ Day, and Single Working Womens’ Day. I will call my sister!
Today’s Hili is up early because I couldn’t sleep.
News of the Day: Now there’s been a second mass shooting within a day: at least nine people were killed and 16 wounded in a murder spree this morning in Dayton, Ohio. The gunman was killed, and information is still scanty at this time.
The death toll in the El Paso Walmart shooting has now reached 20, with 26 wounded. The killer is 21 year old Patrick Crusius, who left a manifesto. According to the NYT, although the manifesto hasn’t been absolutely verified as his, it’s on 8chan and appears to be a tirade against immigrants, with praise for the mosque shooting in Christchurch, and so on. It’s sad that there’s a correlation between people who tout gun ownership and bigots against foreigners and immigrants.
If the manifesto turns out to be real, then it would be a hate crime and act of domestic terrorism, which could carry the death penalty in federal court.
Matthew sent this tweet. I can’t vouch for the statistics, but perhaps the data are correct:
https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1157738093371437056?s=11
The gunman apparently targeted Hispanics in his murder spree, and Matthew sent this statement by the El Paso county sheriff:
Incredibly powerful statement from El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles. pic.twitter.com/Ro1A2DSFkW
— Bob Moore (@BobMooreNews) August 4, 2019
Murder is not an appropriate way to address the immigration issue.
Stuff that happened on August 4 include:
- 1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon’s invention of champagne; it is not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.
- 1789 – France: members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.
- 1873 – American Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Cheyenne and Lakota people near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.
Custer survived that one, but died on June 25, 1876, killed (with all his men) in “Custer’s Last Stand” by a much larger coalition of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. Here he is the year before his death:
More stuff that happened on August 4 includes:
- 1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. She was tried and acquitted for the crimes a year later.
Borden, who probably did commit the crime, remained in Fall River after the acquital, despite the community’s ostracizing her, and died in 1927. Here she is in 1890:
- 1914 – In response to the German invasion of Belgium, Belgium and the British Empire declare war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality.
- 1964 – Civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
I remember this well. The three men: two Jews and an African-American, epitomize the long-gone period when members of these two groups worked together (they were registering black voters in Mississippi: a capital crime!). Eventually seven men were convicted of the murder, but none served more than six years. Here’s the “missing” poster for Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney before, acting on a tip, police officers found their bodies buried in an earthen dam:
- 1993 – A federal judge sentences Los Angeles Police Department officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King’s civil rights.
Notables born on this day include:
- 1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet and playwright (d. 1822)
Shelley died at only 29, having drowned in a boating accident in a gulf off Italy.
- 1859 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1952)
- 1900 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (d. 2002)
- 1912 – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish architect and diplomat (d. 1947)
- 1955 – Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, director, and screenwriter
And note that Barack Obama turns 58 today. The Nobel Prize? Well, let’s just say it wasn’t a sterling choice for a Peace Prize, but he sure as hell was better than Laureate Henry Kissinger!
- 1961 – Barack Obama, American lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate
Notables who snuffed it on August 4 were few; they include:
- 1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish novelist, short story writer, and poet (b. 1805)
- 1962 – Marilyn Monroe, American model and actress (b. 1926)
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili ponders the words of John Donne about mortality:
Hili: For whom does the bell tolls?A: Better not to ask.
Hili: Komu bije dzwon?
Ja: Lepiej nie pytać.
From the FB page “Amazing Things“:
A meme from Fat Cat Art on Facebook: “If Dracula had a cat”:
A tweet Grania sent me on December 3 of last year. She was fond of all thing space. Be sure to watch the video:
In 1959 a capsule with a 16mm camera was launched aboard a Thor missile. Designed to record footage of the missile, the engineers realized the device could record images of the Earth too. So this the first video footage of Earth from space on a 16mm film https://t.co/nIlioThFFW pic.twitter.com/uJI5ZaEnfH
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 1, 2018
Two tweets from Nilou, the first showing a wonderful bird:
https://twitter.com/animalIife/status/1157375774363701249
A full-body shot from Wikipedia:
Have you wondered how many flights are in the air at the same time? Here’s a shot from the other night in the U.S.:
Flights in air tonight pic.twitter.com/3m6A17MYQl
— Adrienne Mayor (@amayor) August 2, 2019
From reader j.j.: what looks to be a multi-legged bird. But it’s parental care:
https://twitter.com/41Strange/status/1155512698420912128
Reader Barry says, “I know you’re not a dog person, but this is so sweet.”
Walter has just been adopted 😭😭💕💖 pic.twitter.com/MWXwpKhJyG
— 💖🍂WENDY WOO🍂💖 (@Wendywoo_g) July 29, 2019
Three tweets from Matthew. Sound up on this one, and make sure to read the caption:
I wonder if the many beautiful little films like this on social media are slowly making people realise that animals have exactly the same emotions and empathies as us and that the idea of human specialness, which allows us to treat them very badly, is just an old religious myth. https://t.co/b6kSG1D6A1
— David Baddiel (@Baddiel) August 2, 2019
Remember that in the UK, “fanny” doesn’t mean “butt,” but “vagina”:
I am a very serious grown up, and write books about science and race and history and I will never be grown up enough to not find this funny pic.twitter.com/52jOTps6ux
— Dr Adam Rutherford (@AdamRutherford) August 2, 2019
And journalism standards from “back in the day”:
Not sure I have seen a better list of journalism standards and practices. More remarkable, it was published in 1913 by Willard Bleyer, the final words of his college textbook. He was chair at Wisconsin. This is where craft meets mission and purpose. 1913! pic.twitter.com/L3vBOwk9aX
— Roy Peter Clark (@RoyPeterClark) August 1, 2019
Those 11 standards of journalism would look good on school walls across America.
Agreed. Certainly better than, “In God we trust”, or, “thou shall have no other Gods before me”.
rickflick Exactly. I was being subtle hoping somebody’d get my meaning and you did.
I think the list of journalism standards are the kind of thing the vast majority of people follow. But it only takes a very few to taint the entire world with a lot of pain and sorrow.
Mentioned this in the other thread but the El Paso shooter lived in Dallas. He drove 10 hours away from home to a border town specifically so there would be more Hispanics to victimize.
Some people must own LOTS of guns if there are 1.22 guns/person (nearly 400 million!). Fewer than a third of Americans own a gun.
(https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/15/politics/guns-dont-know-how-many-america/index.html)
In the Dayton shooting, there were 35 casualties in under a minute. I’m guessing that’s not the type of weapon a hunter needs to bag his limit during deer season.
Probably some large percent of gun owners are not gun nuts. They keep guns primarily to protect themselves from the gun nuts. They are scared. Which is nutty, but makes the manufacturers very wealthy.
It was just…when you consider that most gun owners own a single gun then you do the math and understand that many people out there who must have veritable arsenals….the mind boggles.
Sure. I own 6 or 7 cameras because I’ve been fascinated by photography for many years. I tend to accumulate them. Many other photographers have far more than I do. It’s probably similar in the case of guns, though we all tremble to think there are a few gun nuts that accumulate arsenals because they fantasize about holding off an invading force come to take there guns away like in the movies.
My guess is that many more gun nuts harbor the fantasy of needing their arsenal to defend themselves than collect guns for their historical or design value. The latter is just their cover story they use in civilized society.
There are legitimate self-defense reasons.
It’s not uncommon to have both a pistol and a long gun, as they are suited for different situations.
As rickflick observes, it’s easy to accumulate a collection of items no matter the hobby.
The stats above are correct. You are right in your assumption too. 3% own an average of 17 guns each. Only 40% actually owns a gun. The figures don’t include the military or law enforcement. Yemen’s number is c. 52/100. (I’ve seen the official stats recently and there’re more, but that’s all I can remember ottomh.)
This morning both my most favored first cousin,
Ms Linda, and Mr Barack Obama awaken
to their 58th birthing day ‘celebrations.’
“I am done with losing people, ” someone
in Texas stated. Over a year ago.
So am I.
Blue
Keds Champion Pennant. Style!
Speaking of gun statistics, I heard this morning that the US has roughly 5% of the world’s population but 50% of its guns. That’s just crazy.
Yes, but America can do better. We won’t stop until we have at least 80% of the guns.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott famously tweeted:
“Im EMBARRASSED: Texas #2 in nation
for new gun purchases, behind
CALIFORNIA. Let’s pick up the pace
Texans.@NRA”
That kinda gives the game away doesn’t it? It’s all about commercialism and encouraging people who already own guns to stockpile more and more. You can’t be a real man if you only own an arsenal big enough for a small militia. Real men could arm a platoon. Get to spending.
+1
Practically everyone I know up here owns guns, including the women. None of them do so to prove their masculinity.
How many of the women own many guns? (more than, say, 3 = body + house + car)
I’d say the average is two – a pistol plus either a rifle or a shotgun.
The killer in Dayton was wearing a sweatshirt with lyrics from a song from the death metal band, Acacia Strain (I looked them up). It’s a seriously sick & nihilistic paean to mass murder/suicide by cop:
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/acaciastrain/ramirez.html
Presumably it – the record – sold well?
Someone has got to be paying for the adverts that fund places like 8chan.
I have no idea what the market for death metal is. But it is nihilistic and morbid through & through, and being a fan should be considered a major red flag.
Obama wasn’t simply unworthy of a Nobel Peace Prize, he just did not even deserve consideration for one. He got it for nothing more than mouthing platitudes and getting elected POTUS. Kissinger at least did do and get some things done, you may or may not think they were for good but he did act.
Obama gave a mellifluous speech, then ordered double-tap drone strikes. Kissinger undermined the ’68 Paris peace talks. Mother Teresa let people suffer & die so long as she could save their soul. The Nobel Peace Prize is tarnished.
To my (slight) surprise, it took nearly 90% of the thread before the venerable Swedish toilet paper brand “Krapp” got their picture posted.
Or maybe that just made further contributors curl up and go white?