Today is Podcast Day. A podcast is a recording of an audio discussion on a specific topic, like business or politics, that can be listened to (in other words, a radio show). People mainly use iTunes and Spotify to download podcasts, but they are sometimes hosted on websites. I use podbean. In 2007 Ricky Gervais set a record for the most downloaded podcast (261,670 for the first month), which was later supplanted by Adam Carolla (the Podfather) who received over 59 million unique downloads between 2009 to 2011. The top podcasts now are The Joe Rogan Experience, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, The Ben Shapiro Show, and quite a few True Crime Podcasts, such as Morbid, Serial, My Favorite Murder and Crime Junkie. There are currently over 1,000,000 podcasts, with newer ones starting every day.
My favorite podcasts are usually intellectual dark-web type podcasts that eventually get kicked off youtube or are otherwise censored.
Today in History: Austrian-American economist, sociologist, and philosopher Ludwig von Mises was born on this day in 1881. Mises was one of the great classical liberal (Libertarian) economists of the time, alongside Milton Friedman, Murray N. Rothbard and Friedrich Hayek. Mises was an early critic of Socialism and Marx and argued that a socialist economy was doomed to fail because such a system lacked the signalling information needed for a coherent and sane economy. For instance, a capitalist economy produces signals to producers that consumers want or need so much of a certain item. A centrally planned economic system like socialism has no such mechanism as production decisions are handled by the top few, or even the one.
The socialist author of "The Worldly Philosophers," Robert Heilbroner, after examining the socialist countries of the 20th century, famously declared that "Mises was Right." "Capitalism has been as unmistakable a success as socialism has been a failure. Here is the part that's hard to swallow. It has been the Friedmans, Hayeks, and von Miseses who have maintained that capitalism would flourish and that socialism would develop incurable ailments. All three have regarded capitalism as the 'natural' system of free men; all have maintained that left to its own devices capitalism would achieve material growth more successfully than any other system. From [my samplings] I draw the following discomforting generalization: The farther to the right one looks, the more prescient has been the historical foresight; the farther to the left, the less so."
This day in history: A novel coronavirus alert was lifted by the World Health Organization on this day in 2012 after they determined that the virus, which originated in Saudi Arabia, was not highly contagious.
There was also a little known 1889/1890 epidemic/pandemic that hit the elderly especially hard which many believe to be a coronavirus as well.
History has been stained with diseases and epidemics for millennia, but the population explosion over the past century has shown us a victory over the mass deaths like the Black Death or the Justinian Plague in times gone by.
This day in history: The Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a religious order of the Catholic Church, started on this day in 1540. The Jesuits have been involved in conspiracy theories for centuries. In fact, at one time in England, it was forbidden to belong to the Jesuits, under grave penalties, including the death penalty. Since then the Jesuits have been claimed to be involved in the French Revolution, the Lincoln Assassination, even the sinking of the Titanic. One book, Vatican Assassins by Eric Jon Phelps, alleged that Newt Gingrich is "one of the ten most dangerous, Jesuitical politicians of the Pope's 'Holy Roman' Fourteenth Amendment, Cartel-Corporate-Fascist, Socialist-Communist American Empire" and it also alleges that the Jesuits played a role in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.
This day in history: American pioneer, explorer, woodsman, and frontiersman Daniel Boone died on this day in 1820. Daniel Boone is an iconic figure in American history, although his status as an early American folk hero and later as a subject of fiction have tended to obscure the actual details of his life. Several places in the United States are named for him, including the Daniel Boone National Forest, the Sheltowee Trace Trail, the town of Boone, North Carolina, various settlements carrying the name of "Boonville", and seven counties: Boone County, Illinois, Boone County, Indiana, Boone County, Nebraska, Boone County, West Virginia, Boone County, Missouri, Boone County, Arkansas, and Boone County, Kentucky. Schools across the United States are named for Daniel Boone, including schools in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, Douglassville, Pennsylvania, Richmond, Kentucky, Wentzville, Missouri, Warrenton, Missouri, Gray, Tennessee, and Chicago.
He also hated his fame: "Nothing embitters my old age [more than] the circulation of absurd stories … many heroic actions and chivalrous adventures are related of me which exist only in the regions of fancy. With me the world has taken great liberties, and yet I have been but a common man."
This day in history: Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould was born on this day in 1932. His Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 is one of my favorite piano pieces ever. He was also quite eccentric: The piano had to be set at a certain height and would be raised on wooden blocks if necessary. A small rug would sometimes be required for his feet underneath the piano. He had to sit exactly fourteen inches above the floor, and would play concerts only while sitting on the old chair his father had made. He continued to use this chair even when the seat was completely worn through.
He also hated being touched, and later in life would only communicate via letters and telephone. He hated being cold so would always dress for winter. He was arrested once in Florida for dressing like that because he was suspected of being a vagrant.
English writer and politician Horace Walpole was born on this day in 1717. He is best known for his Gothic novel "The Castle of Otranto." [Gothic fiction, which is largely known by the subgenre of Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance.]
This book initiated a literary genre which would become extremely popular in the later 18th and early 19th century, with authors such as Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe [The Mysteries of Udolpho], William Thomas Beckford, Matthew Lewis, Mary Shelley [Frankenstein], Bram Stoker [Dracula], Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and George du Maurier.
The Castle of Otranto was the first supernatural English novel and one of the most influential works of Gothic fiction, and it established many of the plot devices that would become typical of the Gothic novel: secret passages, clanging trapdoors, pictures beginning to move, and doors closing by themselves.
This day in history: Icelandic Historian Snorri Sturluson was assassinated on this day in 1241 by men claiming to be agents of the King of Norway. Most of what we know about Valhalla and the Valkyries, Odin and the Well of Wisdom, Thor and the twilight of the Gods, and the world tree Yggdrasil was written and preserved by Snorri Sturluson. His sagas represent a literary achievement which rivals Greek poems and epics which laid the foundation for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy, which thus laid the foundation for today's fantasy literature. His Eddas have become, over time, the holy books of the Viking Gods.
He also provided an early account of the discovery of Vinland, which was perhaps Greenland or eastern Canada 1000 years ago. A place so warm they could grow grapes, hence the name Vinland.
This day in history: On this day in 1823 Joseph Smith claims to have found the golden plates after being directed by God through the Angel Moroni to the place where they were buried. This then led to the Book of Mormon and an overpriced musical not presently playing on Broadway thanks to the shutdown. However, there were a few problems with the Book of Mormon:
The French word "Adieu" closes the book of Jacob (Jacob 7:27). The Book of Mormon dates Jacob between 544 and 421 BC. The French language didn't even exist until around 700 AD!
The Book of Ether speaks of steel (7:8,9) and breakable windows (2:23) back in Abraham's era. Neither had been invented at that time.
The Book of Mormon implies that the North American Indians are descended from the Jews. But we now know that American natives are descended from east Asia.
2 Nephi 22:2 quotes Isaiah 12:2 almost verbatim from the King James Bible:
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."
However, this scripture in the Book of Mormon is dated at 559 and 545 BCE, the King James Bible was not released until 1611 AD.
However, one of my favorite quotes about the Mormons comes from a Jewish academic, Alan Goldberg:
"Mormonisn teaches the deity of Christ and the Trinity, and freely admits its followers recognize many gods. Trinitarian Christianity denies that it is in any way polytheistic, but is it not the same basic qualitative form of theology" It is not a perversion of Trinitarian theology to draw a parallel to Mormonisn, Yet, it would be impossible to draw this parallel from Judaism or Unitarian Christianity, neither of which ever recognized component parts of God, nor ever made God a man. It is clear that, except for differences in degree, the same basic principles for the foundation of Trinitarian Christianity and Mormonism. The qualitative similarity is that both teach multiple divine entities. The qualitative difference is that Mormonism admits it." Every Tree is Known by Its Fruit-A Journal of Radical Reformation Vol. 6, No. 1, Fall 1996
This day in history: German thinker Arthur Schopenhauer died on this day in 1860. He is one of my favorite philosophers, though he is very depressing to read. His pessimism challenges you though...Schopenhauer believed that the world in which we live is so bad that it cannot be worse:
"The life of the great majority is only a constant struggle for this existence itself, with the certainty of losing it at last. But what enables them to endure this wearisome battle is not so much the love of life as the fear of death, which yet stands in the background as inevitable, and may come upon them at any moment. Life itself is a sea full of rocks and whirlpools, which man avoids with the greatest care and solicitude, although he knows that, even if he succeeds in getting through with all his efforts and skill, he yet by doing so comes nearer and nearer at every step to the greatest, the most inevitable and irremediable shipwreck—death. This is the final goal of the laborious voyage, and worse for him than all the rocks from which he has escaped."
This day in history: The White Star Line ship RMS Olympic collided with the British warship HMS Hawke on this day in 1911. The White Star Line, a British shipping company, also owned the Titanic, which would famously sink months later in April 1912. These are actually two of many mishaps the White Star Line would have. Their RMS Tayleur, described as "the first Titanic", sank on her maiden voyage in 1854. Of more than 650 aboard, only 280 survived. The SS Royal Standard hit an iceberg in 1864. The RMS Atlantic sank in 1873, killing 562 passengers. The RMS Republic collided with another ship in 1909. This ship was equipped with a new Marconi wireless telegraphy transmitter, and issued a CQD distress call, resulting in the saving of around 1,500 lives. The HMHS Britannic suffered an explosion on 1916 with a loss of 30 lives. The SS Naronic went missing in 1911.
Despite all of this, the White Star Line still prospered.
Today in History: Today is Batman day. The first Batman Day was held in 2014 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Batman in Detective Comics in 1939.
Did you know: Bruce Wayne was named after two real heroes: Robert the Bruce, a Scottish national hero, and Mad Anthony Wayne, a hero of the American Revolution.
The creation of Batman was inspired by Zorro, the Shadow and Dracula.
The name Gotham came from a random placement in the phone book. Writer Bill Finger simply opened the phone book and placed his finger on "Gotham Jewelers."
According to Forbes, Bruce Wayne is worth $7 billion.
In order of appearance, the actors who have played our beloved Batman are Lewis G Wilson, Robert Lowrey, Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, Will Arnett, and Ben Affleck.
Pierce Brosnan was actually supposed to play Batman in the 1989 Batman instead of Michael Keaton.
Today in History: James Moffatt completed his translation of the Bible on this day in 1926. As a Bible Collector, this is one of my favorite versions of the Bible and Moffatt is one of the three greats in Bible translation history according to Jason BeDuhn (the other two being Edgar Goodspeed and Brooke Foss Westcott). I have one editon so old it is kept together by black duct tape. I'm not alone in liking this version...it was also a favorite of C.S. Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr., the Moffatt Bible was quite a popular version in his time. Moffatt was Scottish so it is interesting to see bagpipes in Daniel 3:10 and linen kilts in 2 Samuel 6:14.
Moffatt wrote "No translation of an ancient classic can be quite intelligible, it is true, unless the reader is sufficiently acquainted with its environment to understand some of its flying allusions and characteristic metaphors. But something may be done and I am convinced, ought to be done at the present day to offer the unlearned a transcript of the Biblical literature as it lies in the light thrown upon it by modern research. The Bible is not always what it seems to those who read it in the great prose of the English version or indeed, in any of the conventional versions."
Some samples from the James Moffatt Bible:
John 1:1 "THE Logos existed in the very beginning, the Logos was with God, the Logos was divine."
Exodus 2:14 "God said to Moses 'I=will-be-what-I-will-be."
John 8:58 "Truly, truly I tell you," said Jesus, "I have existed before Abraham was born."
Hebrews 1:8 "he says of the Son, 'God is thy throne for ever and ever, thy royal sceptre is the sceptre of equity"
Luke 22:19 "Then he took a loaf, and after thanking God he broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This means my body given up for your sake; do this in memory of me.'"
1 Cor 11:24 "and after thanking God he broke it, saying, 'This means my body broken for you; do this in memory of me.'"
Col 2:8 "Beware of anyone getting hold of you by means of a theosophy which is specious make-believe, on the lines of human tradition, corresponding to the Elemental spirits of the world and not to Christ."
1 Corinthians 13 Thus, I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but if I have no love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal; I may prophesy, fathom all mysteries and secret lore, I may have such absolute faith that I can move hills from their place, but if I have no love, I count for nothing; I may distribute all I possess in charity, I may give up my body to be burnt, but if I have no love, I make nothing of it. Love is very patient, very kind. Love knows no jealousy; love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful; love is never glad when others go wrong, love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, always hopeful, always patient. Love never disappears. As for prophesying, it will be superseded; as for 'tongues,' they will cease; as for knowledge, it will be superseded. For we only know bit by bit, and we only prophesy bit by bit; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will be superseded. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I argued like a child; now that I am a man, I am done with childish ways. At present we only see the baffling reflections in a mirror, but then it will be face to face; at present I am learning bit by bit, but then I shall understand, as all along I have myself been understood. Thus 'faith and hope and love last on, these three,' but the greatest of all is love.
Of course, not every Bible is perfect. Instead of using the Divine Name Jehovah/Yahweh, Moffatt resorts to using the traditional French title "The Eternal."
I'm a bit of a Bible Translation Geek so feel free to see may faves at
Today in History: Today is Constitution Day. The US Constitution has been considered one of the greatest documents ever written, alongside the Magna Carta and the Gutenberg Bible. The Constitution is supposed to put constraints on Government and assure limited Government. Sounds good. However, what started as the smallest government in the world ended becoming the largest. My frustration with the Constitution mirrors that of Lysander Spooner in the 1800's when he wrote: "But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it."
Back in Spooner's day it was noted that even Abraham Lincoln committed numerous unconstitutional acts:
"He started a war without the consent of Congress; illegally declared martial law; illegally blockaded Southern ports; illegally suspended habeas corpus and arrested tens of thousands of political opponents; illegally orchestrated the secession of West Virginia; shut down hundreds of opposition newspapers and imprisoned their editors and owners ... ." He also "ignored the Ninth and Tenth amendments; orchestrated the rigging of Northern elections; introduced the slavery of conscription and income taxation; waged war on Southern civilians and ... created an enormous political patronage system that survives today."~Thomas Dilorenzo
Many have recognized that the lockdowns this years are also unconstitutional (hence illegal), yet, here we are. The Constitution is a great document, but perhaps, too often, an ignored one.
Today in History: American actor Peter Falk was born on this day in 1927. PF was best known for "Columbo", an American crime drama television series that aired mostly from 1971 to 1978, though you can find episodes as late as 2003. Peter Falk also played a detective in one of my favorite movies "Murder By Death." "The movie’s plot is set up around the classic 'locked room' murder mystery. In this case, a group of the world’s greatest detectives is invited to the mansion of an eccentric millionaire, who challenges them to solve a murder that will take place at a dinner party that very night."~Charles McGuinness. Murder by Death came out in 1976 and starred Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, and Estelle Winwood.
The participants in Murder by Death are all pastiches of famous fictional detectives:
Peter Falk plays Sam Diamond who parodies Dashiell Hammett's "Sam Spade".
Inspector Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) is based on Earl Derr Biggers' Chinese police detective Charlie Chan.
Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) are polished, sophisticated society types modeled on Dashiell Hammett's characters Nick and Nora Charles.
Milo Perrier (James Coco) is a take on Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.
Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) parodies Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.
Of all the main characters in the movie, only Maggie Smith survives to this day.
This day in history: History's first mass murderer and the original Bluebeard (and Dracula), Gilles de Rais was arrested on this day in 1440. On the verge of financial ruin, de Rais was said to have begun dabbling in alchemy to restore his lost wealth. A priest told him that he could not master alchemy without the assistance of the Devil. And to gain the Devil's attention, he would need to commit terrible deeds. This he did by torturing, raping and murdering hundreds of children.
"Like Joan of Arc, Gilles de Rais was tried and executed as a witch; and in the same way, much that is mysterious in this trial can also be explained by the Dianic Cult."
"Of the dark and terrible legends to which Brittany has given birth, one of the most gloomy and romantic is the story of Gilles de Retz, alchemist, magician, and arch-criminal. But the story is not altogether legendary, although it has undoubtedly been added to from the great stores of tradition. Gilles is none other than the Bluebeard of the nursery tale, for he appears to have actually worn a beard bluish-black in hue, and it is probable that his personality became mingled with that of the hero of the old Oriental story."
Today in History: The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (the previous day was September 2) on this day in 1752. The Gregorian calendar was decreed in 1582 in a papal bull by Pope Gregory XIII, to correct the erroneous assumption in the then-current Julian calendar that a year lasts 365.25 days, when in reality it is about 365.2422 days. Portugal, and the Catholic states of the Holy Roman Empire were first to change to the Gregorian calendar. Thursday, 4 October 1582, was followed by Friday, 15 October 1582, with ten days skipped. Countries which did not change until the 18th century had by then observed an additional leap year (1700), necessitating the dropping of eleven days. Some countries did not change until the 19th or 20th century, necessitating one or two further days to be omitted from the calendar.
In England, Queen Elizabeth I considered adopting a Gregorian-like royal commission recommendation to drop 10 days from the calendar but she was opposed by the Anglican bishops, who argued that the Pope was undoubtedly the fourth great beast of Daniel, which led the Queen to drop the matter.
The Aztec calendar was more accurate than the Julian or Gregorian. The Aztecs had eighteen months in their year, each month containing twenty days, in addition to five extra days known as the barren days. In ancient Egyptian a year was 365 1/4 days. The early Chinese year was 354 days (lunar year)with days added at intervals to keep the Chinese lunar calendar aligned with the seasons. Early Greece had 354 days, with days added; the Jewish year had 354 days, with days added and the early Roman year was 304 days, amended in 700 B.C. to 355 days.
Today in History: The Beatles song "Yesterday" was released as a single on this day in 1965. There are more than 2,200 cover versions of this song as it is one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. "Yesterday" was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners and was also voted the No. 1 pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine the following year. In 1997, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century.
When Paul McCartney wrote it he was worried that he had subconsciously plagiarised someone else's work (known as cryptomnesia). As he put it, "For about a month I went round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before. Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it."
John Lennon remarked: "The song was around for months and months before we finally completed it. Every time we got together to write songs for a recording session, this one would come up. We almost had it finished. Paul wrote nearly all of it, but we just couldn't find the right title. We called it 'Scrambled Eggs' and it became a joke between us. We made up our minds that only a one-word title would suit, we just couldn't find the right one. Then one morning Paul woke up and the song and the title were both there, completed. I was sorry in a way, we'd had so many laughs about it."
The other most covered songs by the Beatles are "Eleanor Rigby", "And I Love Her" and "Blackbird."
Today in History: American journalist and writer H.L. Mencken was born on this day in 1880. Though he was considered very controversial, Mencken earned respect as America’s foremost newspaperman and literary critic. He produced an estimated ten million words: some 30 books, contributions to 20 more books and thousands of newspaper columns. He wrote some 100,000 letters, or between 60 and 125 per working day. Mencken weighed in with wit on topics about politics, literature, food, health, religion, sports etc., and he ranks among the most frequently quoted American authors.
He had a way with words that can only be attributed to a man of letters. He once described the ugliness of the buildings during his trip on a train this way: "I am not speaking of mere filth. One expects steel towns to be dirty. What I allude to is the unbroken and agonizing ugliness, the sheer revolting monstrousness, of every house in sight. From East Liberty to Greensburg, a distance of twenty-five miles, there was not one insight from the train that did not insult and lacerate the eye."
H.L. Mencken also held governments and politicians in the lowest regard:
"Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods."
"The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression."
"A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar."
"A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground."
"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."
"Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses."
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under."
"If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner."
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
"Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies."
"A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier."
"All government, of course, is against liberty."
"When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had one before."
"A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable."
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable."
"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."
"Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven."
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule."
Today in History: Today we remember 9/11, but there are some strange facts you probably didn't know about this date. In July 2010, construction workers rebuilding the site of the World Trade Center in New York uncovered the mangled skeleton of an 18th century old wooden ship, hidden almost 7m below the surface in a pit.
The landing gear of one of the planes was discovered 11 years later wedged between two buildings located approximately three blocks from the World Trade Center.
The person who made the unprecedented decision to order a National Ground Stop, effectively shutting down US airspace, started his job on that same day.
There was only one murder reported on that in New York, a Polish immigrant named Henryk Siwiak, and his death remains unsolved to this day.
Henry Hudson discovered Manhattan Island on 9/11, in 1609.
The worst accident on the New York City elevated railways happened on 9/11 in 1905, resulting in 13 deaths and 48 serious injuries.
A bomb planted by a Croatian terrorist, Zvonko Bušic, was found at New York's Grand Central Terminal on 9/11, 1976 and one NYPD officer was killed trying to defuse it.
Jackie Chan was scheduled to be on top of the World Trade Ctr that morning for a movie, but it was rescheduled.
Besides the 1.4 million tons of debris that was removed, 19,435 body parts were recovered from the WTC. Only 60 percent of WTC victims have been identified to this day.
Today in History: Today is Suicide Prevention Day. For the past few years now, middle-aged white men were more likely to die by suicide? In 2017, men died by suicide 3.54 times more often than women, and white males accounted for nearly 70-percent of suicide deaths in 2017, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. From Warren Farrell: "From ages 9 to 14, boys' rate of suicide is three times as high as girls'; from 15 to 19, four times as high; and from 20 to 24, almost six times as high. As boys experience the pressures of the male role, their suicide rate increases 25,000%. The suicide rate for men over 85 is 1350% higher than for women of the same age group. Just as life expectancy is one of the best indicators of power, suicide is one of the best indicators of powerlessness."
Now we come to 2020. In the year of forced business closures and mass unemployment, many areas of the world (India, South Wales and Ireland immediately come to mind) are seeing suicides outnumbering Covid1984 deaths, and most of the deaths are men. Back in June, Cook County, Illinois saw a spike of suicides up 13%, Fresno experienced a 70 percent increase. Between March 15 and April 29, as many people committed suicide in Queens, New York than did between January 1 and April 29 the year prior.
Yesterday, video-sharing site TikTok was struggling to take down clips showing a man killing himself.
It will take many months, or even years, to understand the full impact of the CaseDemic on suicide, but it is obvious that social distancing, curfews, remote working, remote schooling and job losses may result in more suicides in the years to come.
This day in history: Russian author Leo Tolstoy was born on this day in 1828. Tolstoy is best remembered for his massive masterpiece novels, Anna Karenina and War and Peace (1869). Writers from Dostoevsky to Virginia Woolf declared Tolstoy “the greatest of all novelists.” Yet he wrote more of political philosophy than he did of fiction, his views being a sort of libertarian-anarchism with a healthy distaste of government power and revolution. He wrote: "In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful."
Also: "All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do."
"In our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself."
"Not only does the action of Governments not deter men from crimes; on the contrary, it increases crime by always disturbing and lowering the moral standard of society."
"Government is violence, Christianity is meekness, non-resistance, love. And, therefore, government cannot be Christian, and a man who wishes to be a Christian must not serve government."
"The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens … Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere."
He also worked on the New Testament by simply rewriting it, and he was excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church for rejecting religious rituals.
This day in history: The landmark American science fiction television series Star Trek premiered on this day in 1966. When you really think about it, the world of Star Trek is a Communist world. There is no private enterprise (no pun intended), and there is no money in ‘Star Trek’ because the transporter/replicator machine makes anything you need. Spock repeatedly reminds Captain Kirk that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and he continually sacrifices himself each time a crisis occurs. Star Trek has a 5 year mission, Communists had 5 year plans.
"The shows Deep Space Nine and Enterprise described the rise of communism on Earth in detail. Of course they do not call it communism. They call it 'The New Economy.' In this economy—with rare exception—the government educates you, employs you, feeds you, and assigns you shelter. They build all apartment, 'commercial,' and office buildings, and factories. The exceptional private employers include nostalgic restaurateurs, generational vintners, and the like. The government will let anyone produce specialty goods or services as a creative outlet. But for all other goods and services, the government provides." Conservapedia
In one episode Lily Sloane asked Picard how much the USS Enterprise had cost to build, he told her, "the economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesn't exist in the 24th century... The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of Humanity." (Star Trek: First Contact)
This is all idealistic utopian nonsense akin to Edward Bellamy's 1888 book "Looking Backward." Socialism/Communism never improved society. Quite the opposite in fact. It has lead to mass deaths and starvation...it has always failed, and failed spectacularly. When you see these large majestic ships in the Star Trek universe, remind yourself that you never really see Russian Ladas and Yugos on the road anymore.
There was one species that was interested in commerce and trade (capitalism), the Ferengi, but they were portrayed in the most negative light.
This day in history: Henry Sewell, the first Prime Minister of New Zealand, was born on this day in 1807. Many New Zealanders are descendants of Australian convicts, since Australia was used as a penal colony by the British. Australia was not the only penal colony of note. Louisiana was used as a penal colony for the French, as was Devil's Island in French Guiana. Devil's Island was also known as the “Dry Guillotine,” owing to the high mortality rate from disease, harsh working conditions and hunger. Prisoners on Devil's Island who failed to meet daily work quotas in the timber camps were denied food. An estimated 50,000 inmates died.
The State (colony) of Georgia was started with the intended purpose of being a penal colony for debtors (a debtors-prison of sorts).
The British used colonial North America as a penal colony through a system of slavery. Merchants would transport the convicts and auction them off to plantation owners upon arrival in the colonies. It is estimated that some 50,000 British convicts were sent to colonial America and the majority landed in the Chesapeake Colonies of Maryland and Virginia.
Bermuda was also used to house prisoners.
It's interesting to note that New Zealand and Australia are now so heavily locked down right now that the people there are once again imprisoned.
This day in history: The Ramones played their farewell concert at The Palace, Los Angeles, CA on this day in 1996. Since the 1970's I have been a Ramones fan, yet I can't articulate why. They were basically a basic 3-chord bubble-gum pop-punk band, Their music wasn't really that great, and certainly not genius, it was just loud and fast, yet strangely influential. All of the 4 original members of the band are now dead, which seems so early and premature. All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname "Ramone", although none of them were biologically related; they were inspired by Paul McCartney of The Beatles, who would check into hotels as "Paul Ramon".
The band is listed at number 26 in the Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and number 17 in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock". In 2002, the Ramones were ranked the second-greatest band of all time by Spin, trailing only the Beatles. On March 18, 2002, the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.. In 2011, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1979 the Ramones hired record producer Phil Spector. "They didn’t know they were getting two producers: Nice Phil and Evil Phil. Nice Phil wore sports shirts and cracked corny jokes. Evil Phil wore a cape, dark glasses and was abusive and controlling. When an exhausted Dee Dee Ramone said he was going home one night, Spector reached for his revolver. 'You’re not going anywhere,' he said. The bassist replied, 'What are you going to do, shoot me? Go ahead. I’m leaving. Goodbye.'"~Mental Floss
This was one of several times that Phil Spector held someone at gunpoint.
Today in History: Raquel Welch was born on this day in 1940. When I was a kid in the 1970's in school, all the boys agreed that Raquel Welch was the hottest female alive. There were some mentions of Ann-Margret or Sophia Loren, but mostly it was Raquel Welch. As the 70's progressed though, young male hearts turned to Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Tiegs and Barbi Benton. Raquel Welch actually auditioned for the role of Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island, but was too hot to play the “girl next door.”
Welch played a significant figure in the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption. The poster that Andy Dufresne had on his prison cell wall at the time of his escape was the famous pinup image of Welch in One Million Years B.C. Prior to Dufresne's escape being realized, the warden refers to Welch as Miss Fuzzy Britches.
Raquel Welch also runs a successful business in designer wigs and hair extensions for women and men called HairUWear.
This day in history: The Ford Edsel was released on this day in 1957, and it was an immediate ugly disappointment. The car was poorly put together. Many Edsels actually left the assembly lines unfinished. Uninstalled parts were placed in the trunks along with installation instructions for dealership mechanics, some of whom never installed the additional parts at all. Some dealers did not even receive all the parts. The Edsel's unique "horsecollar" grille has been frequently ridiculed for resembling a toilet seat, and later even the female genitalia. Famous sarcastic descriptions of the Edsel and its famous grille include that it looked like "a Mercury pushing a toilet seat" or "an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon". After 3 years the Edsel was discontinued and the company lost $350 million on them.
Ford had other disappointments as well, such as the Ford Pinto, the 1974–78 Ford Mustang II (which Edmunds.com ranked as the 2nd worst car of all time, describing it as "instantly appalling to Mustang lovers") and the 1990-92 Ford Escort MK V (European version).
Today in History: Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church (aka the Moonies) died on this day in 2012. The Unification Church is widely known for its brainwashing and mass-weddings, in fact, in 1988 Moon entered the Guinness Book of Records when he married 6,516 identically dressed couples at Seoul’s Olympic Stadium. However, the newly-weds were forbidden to sleep together for 40 days to prove their marriage was on a higher plane. The Unification Church is a mix of Christianity, Confucianism, Shamanism and anti-Communism, but one defector claimed the Church was simply "a cash operation". In the 1990s, thousands of Japanese elderly people claimed to have been defrauded of their life savings by Moon followers. Moon's church was the subject of the largest consumer fraud investigation in Japan's history in 1997 and number of subsequent court decisions awarded hundreds of millions of yen in judgments, including 37.6 million yen ($300,000) to pay two women coerced into donating their assets to the Unification Church. Yet, this movement was able to build partnerships with politicians and Evangelical religious leaders, as well as Louis Farrakhan. Sun Myung Moon’s net worth was estimated to be close to $900 million at the time of his death in 2012.
Moon was also involved in extramarital affairs and he was alleged to have sex rituals amongst six married female disciples who came to be known as "The Six Marys".
If you've ever heard of, or read the book "Icons of Evolution", the author, Jonathan Wells, is a Moonie.
Today in History: German political philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe was born on this day in 1949. Hoppe, who can be described as an Austrian school libertarian anarcho-capitalist economist who is best know for his book "Democracy: The God that Failed."
In this book, Hoppe argues that democracy is not an improvement over monarchy. Politicians in a democracy have a very high time preference (they value immediate gratification) because they have to please their constituents in the short span of a term in order to get re-elected. Thus, democracy is short-sighted and favors short-term gains over long-term losses. Monarchy, on the other hand, is the opposite. Monarchs have low time preference for three reasons: (1) their reign lasts for a lifetime (2) they will pass their kingdom on to their heirs, and (3) they have total ownership of their kingdom. Hence, monarchs have a greater incentive to maintain their society over time.
Of course, Hoppe would rather have neither system, but it is food for thought.
This Day In History: German composer, Johann Pachelbel, was born on this day in 1653. JP is famously known for one song, Pachelbel's Canon (Canon in D), and since the 1960's this song has made it's way into pop culture starting with a few European bands in the 60's using the music for their own songs (Aphrodite's Child; Pop-Tops). In 2002, pop music producer Pete Waterman described the Canon as "almost the godfather of pop music because we've all used that in our own ways for the past 30 years". He also said that Kylie Minogue's 1988 UK number one hit single "I Should Be So Lucky", which Waterman co-wrote and co-produced, was inspired by Canon in D. The Farm's 1990 single "All Together Now" has its chord sequence lifted directly from Pachelbel's Canon.
The Pet Shop Boys' 1993 cover of "Go West" played up that song's resemblance to both Pachelbel's Canon and the Soviet Anthem. Coolio's 1997 "C U When U Get There" is built around a sample of the piece. Other songs that make use of the Pachelbel's Canon chord progression include "Streets of London" by Ralph McTell (1974), "Basket Case" by Green Day (1994), "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis (1996) (though with a variation at the end) and Maroon 5 used the harmonic sequence of Pachelbel's Canon for their 2019 single "Memories".
In 2012, the UK–based Co-Operative Funeralcare compiled a list of the most popular, classical, contemporary and religious music across 30,000 funerals and Canon in D was the second most popular song at funerals. It was played at Princess Diana's funeral.
The Canon has gained a new found popularity among hard rock guitarists. Simply search "Canon Rock" on youtube.
