The (Greatest?) Economist, Milton Friedman on This Day in History

This day in history: American economist Milton Friedman was born on this day in 1912. The Economist described him as "the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century ... possibly of all of it". Friedman was an adviser to Republican President Ronald Reagan and Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His political philosophy extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with minimal intervention. Friedman stated that he was a libertarian philosophically, but a member of the U.S. Republican Party for the sake of "expediency" ("I am a libertarian with a small 'l' and a Republican with a capital 'R.' And I am a Republican with a capital 'R' on grounds of expediency, not on principle.") But, he said, "I think the term classical liberal is also equally applicable. I don't really care very much what I'm called. I'm much more interested in having people thinking about the ideas, rather than the person."

Friedman supported the legalization of drugs and he was instrumental in eliminating the military draft in the 1970's.

However, Friedman did things that went contrary to Free Market Ideals. For instance, he helped invent income tax withholding. 

His book, Capitalism and Freedom promoted a Federal Reserve inflation and a government-guaranteed income for everyone. Friedman "sold out on key issues, because he was always ready to compromise with politics. He always sounded a pair of trumpets, one for the free market and the other for the mixed economy." Gary North

Friedman also supported central-bank-controlled fiat money instead of a gold standard. Also, instead of attacking John Maynard Keynes and his spend spend spend economic theory, Friedman stated in 1965 that "We are all Keynesians now"...almost as a concession.

However, Milton Friedman was certainly a great and quotable communicator:

"Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program."

"Inflation is taxation without legislation."

"Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned."

"The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem."

"A society that puts equality... ahead of freedom will end up with neither."

"Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless."

"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand."

"When everybody owns something, nobody owns it, and nobody has a direct interest in maintaining or improving its condition. That is why buildings in the Soviet Union -- like public housing in the United states -- look decrepit within a year or two of their construction."

“The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.”

See also The History & Mystery of Money & Economics-250 Books on DVDrom

The Disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa on This Day in History

Hoffa Assassination Scene

This day in history: Teamster's Union leader Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan on this day in 1975. He was never seen or heard from again. There are many theories as to what happened to him, and the most popular is that he was buried in concrete at the Giant's stadium (he was not officially declared dead until July 30, 1982). The truth is hard to come by because of his involvement in the mafia. 

Some believe that Hoffa's friend Frank Sheeran shot Hoffa twice in the back of the head. Sheeran didn’t want to kill his friend but had no choice as refusal to follow mob orders was a death sentence. The body was brought to an incinerator. 

Mafia hitman Richard Kuklinski claimed to have murdered Hoffa in his book The Iceman: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer. Kuklinski claimed to have stabbed Hoffa and burned the body in a 55 gallon drum. Another version has Hoffa crushed in a car with his body in the trunk and sold as scrap metal to Japan.

It is also alleged that Hoffa was ground up at a meat processing plant in Michigan and either disposed of at a fat-rendering plant or dumped in a Florida swamp.

Another claim was that Hoffa was buried in or under a horse barn in Milford Township in Michigan.

It is also rumored that Hoffa was buried in the concrete at the General Motors' headquarters, also known as the the Renaissance Center, in Detroit.

There was also a claim that Hoffa was buried under an above-ground pool in Hampton Township in Michigan.

According to history dot com, his disappearance is one of the 6 greatest mysterious disappearances of all time, including Amelia Earhart, D.B. Cooper, Joseph Force Crater, the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island and the mystery ship Mary Celeste. 

See also: My Father Was the Mafia Hitman Who Killed Jimmy Hoffa

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Steamboat Willie (Mickey Mouse) on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" was released on this day in 1928. Steamboat Willie was the debut of Mickey Mouse on the world stage. Steamboat Willie is especially notable for being the first cartoon with synchronized sound. 

The film has received wide critical acclaim, not only for introducing one of the world's most popular cartoon characters but for its technical innovation. In 1994, members of the animation field voted Steamboat Willie 13th in the book "The 50 Greatest Cartoons," which listed the greatest cartoons of all time. In 1998 the film was selected for preservation in the United States' National Film Registry for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

The film has been the center of a variety of controversies regarding copyright. Some say it should be in the public domain. However, the copyright of the film has been extended by an act of the United States Congress. Read more at How Mickey Mouse Keeps Changing Copyright Law

Some have recently begun to question the popularity of Mickey Mouse, such as economist Tom Woods in a recent tweet: "Bugs Bunny could be appreciated by adults and children alike. Mickey Mouse? Never said a single clever thing. Totally flat and one-dimensional, to this very day. His existence is an atrocity. Just saying what we all know." It doesn't stop there. Goofy and Pluto are both dogs. However Goofy has a full family life while Pluto (named after a demoted planet) is just a standard dog. Read more at Mickey Mouse is MASSIVELY OVERRATED!

Still, Mickey Mouse remains a popular cartoon character, even if Bugs Bunny still tops most lists.

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The Mighty Potato on This Day in History

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This day in history: On this day (July 28) in 1586, Sir Thomas Harriot brought the first potato to Europe from the New World. Since then, the potato has mashed its way into a world culinary staple. As of 2014, potatoes were the world's fourth-largest food crop after corn, wheat, and rice. Following millennia of selective breeding, there are now over 5,000 different types of potatoes.

Dan Quayle was also not wrong about the spelling of Potatoe with an e on the end. Potatoe is an older but still correct spelling of the word more commonly word spelled potato. The e at the end of potatoe was largely dropped during the 20th century. If you check google books and search for "Potatoe" among 19th century books you quickly find out that this was the way it was spelled. 

In 2000 there was a conservative website called www.thepotatoe.com (a nod to Quayle) which served as a home for writers who have been dismissed or otherwise disenfranchised because of their views. 

The failure of the potato crop in Ireland led to mass starvation in the mid 19th century. During the Great Hunger, about 1 million people died and more than a million fled the country, causing the country's population to fall by 20%–25%, in some towns falling as much as 67% between 1841 and 1851. Wikipedia has a sentence that is unintentionally humorous about this famine: "...the impact of the blight was exacerbated by the British Whig government's economic policy of laissez-faire capitalism." In truth, an economic policy of laissez-faire capitalism is one that excludes government involvement.

The Irish have 90 different names for potatoes.

https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/craic/ninety-words-describing-potatoes-irish

Potatoes can be toxic and a cellar full of potatoes actually killed a family in Russia in 2013. Potatoes come from the same family as deadly nightshade.

Potato chips (crisps) are a favorite snack made from potatoes that are so popular, your grocery store has a "potato chip aisle." Equally popular are french fries, a thin slice of potato that has been either deep fried or baked. McDonald's has one of the best fries on the market. Up until 1990, McDonald's used a mixture of 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil. They afterward switched to vegetable oil with beef flavoring. 

Fun potato facts:

Megyn Kelly recently tweeted, "I am going one year without eating french fries. It’s a personal test of willpower. Q: is a tater tot a violation?" One response was "WHY?"

The original Mr. Potatohead toy used real potatoes.

The biggest producers of potatoes in the world are now China and India. 

Apparently, humans can survive on a diet of nothing but Potatoes and Milk or Butter. 

French fries were introduced to Americans when President Thomas Jefferson served them at the White House.

August 19 is National Potato Day.

The world’s biggest potato weighed 18 pounds, 4 ounces, according to Guinness Book of World Records.

Amazon sells Potato Guns.

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The Tortured Artist, Vincent van Gogh, on This Day in History

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This day in history: Vincent van Gogh shot himself on this day in 1890. This man was an alcoholic who previously cut off his own ear. His most famous piece was painted inside an insane asylum. Van Gogh was of course not the only "tortured" artist. His friend, the suicidal Paul Gaugin suffered from severe bouts of depression, as did Michelangelo, Mark Rothko, and Nicolas de Staël. Richard Dadd believed his father was the devil and that he was taken hostage by the ancient Egyptian god Osiris. Georgia O’Keefe suffered a nervous breakdown, as did Edvard Munch. However, if you check any list, Van Gogh was the most tortured artist in history.

A study by Dr. Kári Stefánsson, a neurologist and CEO of a biological research company called deCODE Genetics found that creative people were 17 percent more likely to carry the variants for mental illness than noncreative types.

"A 2012 study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that creative professionals are 8 percent more likely than the general population to be bipolar. Writers are especially vulnerable, the researchers say, being 120 percent more prone to suffer from bipolar disorder. Writers were also more likely to abuse substances and take their own lives."~Jessica Hullinger

"Artists, according to one recent study, are now considered to be 25% more likely to carry genes for mental illness. And artists can become dependent on the anti-social practice of art-making as a substitute for socialized behavior and mental health. Art-making can, in fact, become a dangerous surrogate and addiction, one that can lead to burn-out and suicidal ideation."~Psychology Today

Charles W. Pilgrim has an excellent 1893 article also posted on this site on Genius and Suicide: "WINSLOW, in his Anatomy of Suicide, says, 'A person who accustoms himself to live in a world created by his own fancy, who surrounds himself with flimsy idealities, will, in the course of time, cease to sympathize with the gross realities of life,' and any one who will take the trouble to read the biographies of men of genius will see that this statement is borne out to a remarkable degree."

Learn to Draw, Paint and Sketch - Over 100 Books on DVDrom

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The Failed "Americans with Disabilities Act" on This Day in History

This day in history: The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on this day in 1990. "The ADA is known as 'attorney’s dreams answered' because it, and similar state laws modeled on the law, have spurred hundreds of thousands of lawsuits, often for violations of arcane architectural standards. As early as 1995, one federal judge denounced an ADA case as 'a blatant attempt to extort additional money' — something for which the law is now notorious."~James Bovard

For instance, a P.F. Chang's was sued because the coat hook was too high in bathroom stalls. A strip club in Los Angeles had to close a shower stall on its stage because it wasn't accessible to strippers in wheelchairs...never mind that weren't any such strippers. Many swimming pools had to close because they couldn't afford expensive automated spatulas. Target paid $6 million in a lawsuit because their website wasn't sufficiently accessible to blind customers.

Parasitic Lawyers and the ADA

Because of the ADA, round doorknobs are illegal in the US. Commercial businesses will be shut down if they refuse to change from round door knobs to levered ones.

"The ADA also provides 'freedom' to the handicapped by sacrificing other people’s safety. The EEOC sued United Parcel Service in 1997 for refusing to hire one-eyed drivers for its big trucks. EEOC lawyer Bill Tamayo told Traffic World, 'If they [UPS] feel that these people cannot do the job, then let them prove it. Don’t assume that people with one eye cannot drive.' Yet, the National Transportation Safety Board prohibits one-eyed drivers from driving any truck above 10,000 pounds. 'Fairness' apparently obliges people to let themselves get killed by truck drivers with little or no depth perception." James Bovard

Because of fears over ADA lawsuits, businesses now hire less disabled people as well. "It's difficult to think of a piece of legislation that failed more abysmally than the ADA."~David H. Auto. The reason that 10% fewer handicapped people today are working than before the ADA is precisely because of the problems the ADA causes employers across the country.

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The Dark Side of Constantine the Great on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: Constantine I was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops on this day in 306. Constantine is also recognized as the first Christian emperor. 

History is full of myths, tales in where we make mere men as gods and heroes. Molehills of moments blown into mountains of false memories. How many of us truly know that George Washington did not really cut down the cherry tree, or that Helen Keller was a communist, that the first Thanksgiving with the pilgrims didn't happen as told, that Martin Luther was an anti-Semite and John Calvin a murderer? We paint our heroes with the broad stroke of perfection, and the same goes for Constantine the Great, the first "Christian" Emperor. Some books will have you believe that Constantine was used by God, and that he was a "Saint."

Constantine, after his conversion to Christianity, was still a Sun Worshipper who killed his Son and had his wife drowned.

"To pass for a Christian would, indeed, have been a great presumption on his part. Not long after the Council of Nicaea he suddenly had Crispus, his excellent Son by his first marriage and a pupil of Lactantius, put to death at Pola in Istria (326), and soon thereafter he had his wife Fausta, daughter of Maximian, drowned in her bath." [The Age of Constantine the Great,  pp.283,284, Burckhardt]

"In modern-day terms, Constantine could hardly be considered much of a Christian. As an example, he never relinquished his title Pontifex Maximus. This was the title given to him as the head of the state pagan cult, which was either Mithraism or Sol Invictus, two distinct but similar religions. In addition, the coinage of his reign continued to depict the Sun God [Sol Invictus]. Finally, it is reported that he personally murdered one of his own sons, had his second wife drowned, had his nephew and brother-in-law killed after he had guaranteed safe passage, etc. However, during all of this he sponsored Christianity because it had been useful to him in winning a decisive battle."

[The Christian Conspiracy, p. 58, Dr. L.D. Moore]

"Some things have been established with reasonable certainty: Constantine was no intellectual giant; he took himself very seriously with regard to what he considered his mission to promote Christianity; and lacking more than one of the Christian virtues, he was on occasion cruel, ruthless, and even inhumane."  Encyclopedia Americana 2000

"Constantine was a hot-blooded man. He was wise to avoid being baptized while there were still so many sins of passion that he might yet commit." [Rubenstein, p. 49]

"Although Constantine attributed his success to the divine message that he believed he had read in the skies before the battle at the Milvian Bridge in 312, he could not officially--and privately, it seems, did not-abandon paganism at once." Encyclopedia Americana 2000

"However, until his preparations for his final campaign by 323, he did not abandon his allegiance to the Sun god, even though he regarded himself as a servant of the Christian God... Constantine's public image remained - the Sun god was the emperor's 'companion.' The liberation of Rome was attributed to the Sun on a medallion struck at the time." The Rise of Christianity, W.H.C. Frend, p.484

It is evident from the above that Constantine was no godly man in a Christian sense. This has been borne out by the violence that erupted at the time during the Nicene Controversy. The pro-Trinitarian side of the issue was led by Athanasius, "a future saint and uninhibited faction fighter, had his opponents excommunicated and anathematized, beaten and intimidated, kidnapped, imprisoned, and exiled to distant provinces." He "possessed a power independent of the emperor which he built up and perpetuated by violence. That was both the strength and the weakness of his position. Like a modern gangster, he evoked widespread mistrust, proclaimed total innocence -  and especially succeeded in evading conviction on specific charges." [When Jesus Became God, Rubenstein, pp. 6, 107]

"Constantine was a Christian of a very peculiar type, a type that would hardly be recognized as Christian at all today." Constantine the Great by Michael Grant

The 3rd Greatest American President, Martin Van Buren, on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: President Martin Van Buren died on this day in 1862. According to the book "Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity and Liberty" Martin Van Buren ranks as the third best president (the top 5 presidents according to this book are John Tyler, Grover Cleveland, Martin Van Buren, Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur). The reason these presidents you never heard of were better is that they mainly left people alone. 

Using a threefold model of evaluating leaders based on promoting peace, advancing the U.S. economy, and proliferating liberty, the author of Recarving Rushmore ultimately concludes that John Tyler was the greatest American president. Grover Cleveland and Martin Van Buren take the second and third ranks on the list, respectively. Woodrow Wilson, in the author's opinion, was the worst president in U.S. history.

The author, Ivan Eland, states that "Martin Van Buren, a Democrat whose four years in office preceded the William Henry Harrison/John Tyler term, was an advocate of restraining federal authority, maintaining states’ authority, and limiting the president’s power." Van Buren might have have been the greatest president had it not been for his "sustained costly and, in retrospect, unconscionable wars against Native Americans, as did my number four–ranked president, Rutherford B. Hayes."

In the book, Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel actually ranks Van Buren the #1 president of all time: "The case for Van Buren’s greatness goes beyond his being the least bad US president. While avoiding foreign wars, he did more than maintain the domestic status quo. He reduced the power and reach of central authority in the face of stiff resistance and thereby helped the American economy weather one of its most severe deflations. He also brought an ideological clarity to American politics that has seldom been equaled. Although the Democracy would stray in significant and reprehensible ways from the principled course he had charted, his imprint still left an enduring legacy. The Democratic Party remained the political alliance with the strongest affinity for laissez-faire, personal liberty, and free trade until almost the turn of the century. All will acknowledge, I believe, that Americans once enjoyed greater freedom from government intervention than any other people on the face of the earth. For that accomplishment, Martin Van Buren deserves as much credit as any other single individual — and certainly more credit than any other president of the United States."

Van Buren became the first President who was born after the American Revolution, making him, in a newer sense, the first "American" born president.

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The Twilight Zone Movie Tragedy on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: The Twilight Zone Movie deaths happened on this day in 1982. In the early morning hours of July 23, 1982, actors Vic Morrow and seven-year-old Myca Dinh Le, and six-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen, were filming on location in California, in an area that was known as Indian Dunes, near Santa Clarita. The helicopter was hovering at approximately 24 feet above them when the heat from special effect pyrotechnic explosions reportedly delaminated the rotor blades and caused the helicopter to crash on top of them, killing all three instantly. Morrow and Le were decapitated and mutilated by the helicopter rotor blades, while Chen was crushed by a helicopter strut.

The accident led to civil and criminal action against the filmmakers which lasted nearly a decade. Le's father Daniel Lee testified that he heard Director John Landis instructing the helicopter to fly lower. The parents testified that they were never told that there would be helicopters or explosives on set, and they had been reassured that there would be no danger, only noise. Lee survived the Vietnam War and immigrated with his wife to the United States, and he was horrified when the explosions began on the Vietnamese village set, bringing back memories of the war.

John Landis, production manager Allingham, and explosives specialist Paul Stewart were tried and acquitted on charges of manslaughter in a nine-month trial in 1986 and 1987. Vic Morrow's family settled within a year; the children's families collected millions of dollars from several civil lawsuits.

While relatively safe, helicopter accidents do happen.

"Since 1980, no fewer than 33 TV and film workers have been killed in mishaps involving helicopters, and one such freak accident in 1981 took the life of veteran director Boris Sagal, whose daughter Katey has gone on to television stardom in series such as Married... With Children and Sons of Anarchy."~Mike Floorwater

The fatal accident rate (the number of accidents that resulted in one or more fatalities) for all helicopters in the United States was 0.72 per 100,000 flight hours in 2018, according to the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team.

In contrast, the fatal accident rate for general aviation (an industry term for noncommerical or smaller private planes), was 1.029 accidents per 100,000 flight hours in 2018, the most recent year for which NTSB data is available.

Others who died during the production of a movie were Brandon Lee (shot), John Ritter (a tear in his aorta), Redd Fox (massive heart attack), Steve Irwin (stabbed by a stingray) and Bruce Lee collapsed while filming The Game of Death and died 2 months later.

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The Terrible 14th Century on This Day in History

 

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman

This day in history: The St. Mary Magdalene's flood, the largest recorded flood in central Europe, happened on this day (July 22) in 1342. 

The 14th century was a particularly bad century. For instance:

The Saint Marcellus' flood killed at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea in 1362.

The Great Famine of 1315-1317 killed millions of people in Europe.

The Hundred Years' War began in 1337. There was also the Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdansk), the Crusade of the Poor, Rebellion of mayor Albert, the Battle of Morgarten (1315), the Bruce campaign in Ireland, the Shepherds' Crusade (1320), the Swedish–Novgorodian Wars (1322), the Despenser War, the War of Metz (1324-1326), the First War of the Rügen Succession (1326-1328), the War of Hum (1326-1329), the Polish–Teutonic War (1326–1332), the Tver Uprising of 1327, the Serbian civil war of 1331, the Eltz Feud (1331-1337), the Second War of Scottish Independence (1332-1357), the Bulgarian–Ottoman Wars (1340-1396), Byzantine civil war of 1341–47, the Thuringian Counts' War (1342-1346), the Second War of the Rügen Succession (1342-54), the St. George's Night Uprising (1342-46), the Neapolitan campaigns of Louis the Great (1347-52), plus over 30 more conflicts.

The 1347–1351 Black Death killed around a third of the population of Europe. Even before this though in the early 1300's there were outbreaks of typhoid fever, dysentery and diphtheria. It has been estimated that in 1316 about 10% of the population died from these three diseases. 

A 6.9-magnitude 1348 Friuli earthquake centered in Northern Italy was felt across Europe. There was also the 1303 Crete earthquake, the 1341 Crimea quake, the 1356 Basel earthquake, and the 1382 Dover Straits earthquake. 

The Chinese Battle of Lake Poyang resulted in one of the largest naval battles in history.

1381 saw the Peasants' Revolt in England.

Anti-Jewish pogroms spread throughout Spain and Portugal in 1391, and thousands of Jews are massacred.

The 14th century also saw the transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age, which led to many crop failures.

There was actually another flood on this day as well. In 1993, the levees broke near Kaskaskia, Illinois, forcing the entire town to evacuate by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.

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The (not so) Wild West on This Day in History

Top Western Movie Gunfights

This day in history: Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt on this day in 1865 in Springfield, Missouri, in what is regarded as the first western showdown. At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang pulled off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West on this day in 1873. American outlaw Sam Bass was killed by Texas Rangers on this day in 1878. The month of July also hosts the Shootout on Juneau Wharf in Skagway, Alaska in 1898, and The Battle of Lincoln (New Mexico) which was a five-day-long gunfight in 1878.

However, despite this, the old American West was actually quite tame. In his book, Frontier Violence: Another Look, W. Eugene Hollon stated that he believed “that the Western frontier was a far more civilized, more peaceful, and safer place than American society is today.” The legend of the “wild, wild West” lives on despite Robert Dykstra’s finding that in five of the major cattle towns (Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City, and Caldwell) for the years from 1870 to 1885, only 45 homicides were reported — an average of 1.5 per cattle-trading season.

In Abilene, supposedly one of the wildest of the cow towns, “nobody was killed in 1869 or 1870. In fact, nobody was killed until the advent of officers of the law, employed to prevent killings.” [The Trampling Herd] Only two towns, Ellsworth in 1873 and Dodge City in 1876, ever had 5 killings in any one year. [Frontier Violence] Frank Prassel states in his book subtitled A Legacy of Law and Order, that “if any conclusion can be drawn from recent crime statistics, it must be that this last frontier left no significant heritage of offenses against the person, relative to other sections of the country." Mises.org

Many studies have produced the conclusion that the Wild West was much tamer than legend has it, and it only got more violent when Government "Peacemakers" were introduced.

"In their book The Not So Wild, Wild West, economists Terry Anderson and Peter Hill masterfully demonstrate that the West was not at all like the common view. Not only was violence not particularly prevalent, but stable socioeconomic relationships arose spontaneously before there was much governmental presence. In fact, Anderson and Hill repeatedly show, the arrival of government usually made matters worse, as politicians and interest groups were able to upset the arrangements that people had worked out to maximize the benefits they could derive from the land and its resources and to minimize conflict." ~George C. Leef

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See also: Buffalo Bill & the American Wild West, 200 Books on DVDrom
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2015/09/buffalo-bill-american-wild-west-200.html

The Mysterious Death of Bruce Lee on This Day in History

 

Bruce Lee, who is considered the greatest martial artist of all time, died on this day (July 20) in 1973. To this day, his death is clouded in mystery. His death was officially ruled the result of a cerebral edema. 

Two months earlier, Lee collapsed during a vocal session for Enter the Dragon at Golden Harvest in Hong Kong. Suffering from seizures and headaches, he was immediately rushed to a hospital in Hong Kong, where doctors diagnosed cerebral edema. They were able to reduce the swelling through the administration of mannitol. The headache and cerebral edema that occurred in his first collapse were later repeated on the day of his death.

On July 20, 1973, Lee was in Hong Kong with others to discuss the making of the film Game of Death. Later, Lee complained of a headache, and someone gave him the painkiller Equagesic, which contained both aspirin and the tranquilizer meprobamate. Around 7:30 p.m., he went to lie down for a nap. When Lee did not come for dinner, someone came to the apartment, but was unable to wake Lee up. A doctor was summoned, and spent ten minutes attempting to revive Lee before sending him by ambulance to the Hospital. Lee was declared dead on arrival at the age of 32.

There was no visible external injury; however, according to autopsy reports, Lee's brain had swollen considerably, from 1,400 to 1,575 grams (a 13 percent increase). The autopsy found Equagesic in his system. On October 15, 2005, producer Raymond Chow stated in an interview that Lee died from an allergic reaction to the tranquilizer meprobamate, the main ingredient in Equagesic, which Chow described as an ingredient commonly used in painkillers. 

Lee's friend Chuck Norris attributed his death to a reaction to the combination of the muscle-relaxant medication he had been taking since 1968 for a ruptured disc in his back and an "antibiotic" he was given for his headache on the night of his death.

Lee actually had his sweat glands removed, so some attribute his death to a heat stroke.

Others says his death was because of bad Feng Shui tied to his home in Hong Kong. According to Lee biographer Bruce Thomas, the house’s two previous owners had financial issues, and the building “faced the wrong way,” and had disturbed natural winds. 

Some wondered if producer Raymond Chow had Lee killed because Chow didn't want to lose Lee to some Hollywood studio.

"Others say it was 'cannabis intoxication,' though there doesn’t tend to be a link between cannabis and brain edemas. The medical professionals who had treated him in May had warned him about hash. 'We told him that his very low percentage of body fat could make him vulnerable to drugs,' Dr. Peter Wu said in the book The Tao of Bruce Lee. 'Since he'd already had a very bad time with the drug, we told him that the effects were likely to be worse next time.'"~Rachel Chang 

It has been pointed out that the Chinese Triad gangs, who were heavily involved in the Hong Kong movie industry, killed Lee because he wouldn't pay protection money.

There is also something called the Lee Family Curse. Bruce's son Brandon Lee was accidentally shot and killed by a prop gun in 1993 while wrapping up filming on The Crow. Some investigation turned up that Bruce Lee’s older brother had also died under mysterious circumstances before Bruce Lee was born.

Then there was also a rumor that Bruce Lee’s death was caused by a prostitute. The rumor claimed that Lee was under the influence of a powerful aphrodisiac that made him violent and caused him to lose control. The prostitute then killed him in self-defense.

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Ted Kennedy and the Death of Mary Jo Kopechne on This Day in History

Chappaquiddick Trailer

This day in history: The Chappaquiddick incident happened on this day in 1969. On a warm July night in 1969, Edward "Ted" Kennedy (the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy) drove off a bridge and into the water, leaving Mary Jo Kopechne alone in the car to die. "The indications are very strong that she remained alive for an indeterminable length of time, breathing in an air bubble. Expert diver John Farrar, the first to reach her, says the posture of her corpse indicated exactly that. Furthermore, she died of asphyxiation, not of drowning; there was very little water in her lungs."~Jeffrey Hart

This incident made for a great movie (see trailer above) and a very good book, Senatorial Privilege by Leo Damore, a book which has yet to be reviewed by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Time, or Newsweek. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a suspended sentence of two months in jail. Despite this, Ted Kennedy would go on to become the "Lion of the Senate." Despite his history of scandal, Kennedy had never lost his standing in the Democratic Party. They even treated him as a hero at their 2012 National Convention, airing a "tribute" video to the senator.

Wikipedia has an extensive list of American state and local politicians convicted of crimes. Ted Kennedy is not on that list.

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The Most Agreeable Jane Austen on This Day in History

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

See also The Life and Writings of Jane Austen, 30 Books on CDrom

This day in history: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." (Or as they say in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.") English novelist Jane Austen died on this day in 1817 at the age of 41. After Shakespeare, Austen may be the most popular and widely acclaimed literary figure in history. Her six novels are some of the most widely read literature in the world often outselling the books of top modern authors. Her works have also been made into movies, the best of which appeared in the 1990's and 2000's: Sense and Sensibility (1995), Emma (1996), Mansfield Park (1999), Northanger Abbey (2007). The newer movies (Emma [2020]; Love & Friendship [2016] and Pride, Prejudice & Zombies) fell flat for me.

In 2011 it was revealed that Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, is a distant relation of Austen. According to Ancestry.com, they are 11th cousins, six times removed, with their common connection dating all the way back to the 15th century and Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland.

The Greatest Works of Jane Austen

Some believe that Jane Austen died as a result of arsenic poisoning: "She died on July 18, 1817 at the age of 41 following complaints of symptoms that medical historians have long felt pointed to Addison's disease or Hodgkin's lymphoma. In 2017, the British Library floated a different theory—that Austen was poisoned by arsenic in her drinking water due to a polluted supply or possibly accidental ingestion due to mismanaged medication. The Library put forth the idea based on Austen's notoriously poor eyesight (which they say may have been the result of cataracts) as well as her written complaint of skin discoloration. Both can be indicative of arsenic exposure." Jake Rossen

On an interesting side-note, Jane Austen has been cited in 27 written court decisions. Her famous line (see above) has been re-written as "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a recently widowed woman in possession of a good fortune must be in want of an estate planner."

Did you know: The Brontë sisters did not like Jane Austen...at all. "It’s a fascinating oddity of literary history that the great Victorian novelist of romantic love, Charlotte Brontë, despised that other great British chronicler of love, Jane Austen, and could not quite comprehend why Austen was valued so highly by critics in Brontë’s time. This seems counterintuitive: after all, both appear regularly at the top of lists of favorites compiled by readers, especially female readers, who love classic novels and all things romantic." Susan Ostrov Weisser

Did you know: Hackers are using Jane Austen text to hide malicious code and break into networks 

"Shakespeare has neither equal nor second. But, among the writers who have approached nearest to the manner of the great master, we have no hesitation in placing Jane Austen."—Macaulay.

"The realism and life-likeness of Miss Austen's Dramatis Personae come nearest to those of Shakespeare."—Tennyson.

"She produced novels that come nearer to artistic perfection than any others in the English language."—Harold Child.

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” ~Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

The five things you didn’t know about Jane Austen
A holiday romance, a childhood illness and a secret brother — there’s a lot of things you didn’t know about Jane Austen.
https://goo.gl/xwxH3a

Is Jane Austen Alt-Right?

Jane Austen Vindicates the Rights of Women
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2017/12/jane-austen-vindicates-rights-of-women.html

The Life of Jane Austen by Edwin L. Miller 1917
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-life-of-jane-austen-by-edwin-l.html

Watch Northanger Abbey for FREE

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Disneyland on This Day in History

 

This Day In History: Disneyland theme park in Anaheim CA was dedicated on this day in 1955.  Disneyland has a larger cumulative attendance than any other theme park in the world, with 726 million visits since it opened (as of December 2018). In 2018, the park had approximately 18.6 million visits, making it the second most visited amusement park in the world that year (Magic Kingdom was number one). According to a March 2005 Disney report, 65,700 jobs are supported by the Disneyland Resort, including about 20,000 direct Disney employees and 3,800 third-party employees (independent contractors or their employees).

Disneyland has closed seven times in its history:

1: When JFK was assassinated in 1963.

2: During an anti-Vietnam riot in 1970

3: Because of a winter storm on Dec 16 1987

4: Because of a winter storm on Dec 7 1992

5: For an inspection after the 1994 Northridge earthquake

6: In 2001, after the September 11 attacks.

7: Covid-19 in 2020.

Walt Disney once said, "The House of Mouse is the Happiest Place on Earth", and it is most of the time...but not for some. Major accidents, injuries, deaths have been known to happen at Disneyland. In 1981, a teenager was fatally stabbed during a knife fight. In 1987, a 15-year-old was shot in the parking lot due to gang violence. Several years ago police uncovered a massive pedophile ring at Disney World in Orlando. In 1976, an woman sued Disney Parks because she claimed that one of the Three Little Pigs at the It's a Small World attraction grabbed and fondled her. 

In 1985, Time magazine reported that nearly 100 lawsuits are filed against Disney each year for numerous incidents. However, a park of this magnitude and scale is bound to have issues.

See also: List of incidents at Disneyland Resort

Grimly, people have been known to spread the ashes of their deceased loved ones at Disneyland. One family requested a private memorial for their loved one in the Haunted Mansion...and it was granted.

There is a "no one dies at Disney" theory when it comes to Disney. "It claims that, in order to keep up the "happiest place on Earth" image, the Disney parks have an unwritten policy to never allow anyone to die on the premises. Disney employees, the rumor goes, take great pains to conceal deaths from the public, sometimes covertly cleaning up the scene of an accident and alerting park security before paramedics. Even though there are published reports of people who have met their demise at Disney World, EPCOT and Disneyland, the legend holds that none of them have actually been declared dead on the property. Paramedics, allegedly, have been instructed to delay the official pronouncement until the person is in a hospital."~Alison Cooper 

Disney also has an intensive mosquito management program. "The park has something called the Mosquito Surveillance Program to manage it all. There are carbon dioxide traps everywhere, and once they catch bugs, the team at Disney freezes and analyzes the population to determine how best to eradicate them. Interestingly enough, they also employ the use of chickens. These sentinel chickens, as they're called, live in coops all over Disney World. While these feathered employees are going about their daily life, their blood is being monitored for mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile virus. Lucky for the chickens, they don't get sick from the virus—but if they do pick it up, the Disney team knows where in the park they got it from so they can deliver a swift blow to the mosquitoes in that area." Madeline Raynor

"Bugs Bunny could be appreciated by adults and children alike. Mickey Mouse? Never said a single clever thing. Totally flat and one-dimensional, to this very day. His existence is an atrocity. Just saying what we all know." Tom Woods

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The Book that Inspired Killings on This Day in History

Will Smith's Catcher in the Rye Monologue

This Day In History: The book, The Catcher in the Rye, was published on this day in 1951. "The novel details two days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield after he has been expelled from prep school. Confused and disillusioned, Holden searches for truth and rails against the 'phoniness' of the adult world. He ends up exhausted and emotionally unstable." Britannica

The book has been translated widely. About one million copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65 million books. The novel's protagonist Holden Caulfield has become an icon for teenage rebellion. The novel also deals with complex issues of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and depression.

This book is thought to be behind several murders, such as that of actress Rebecca Schaeffer, JFK, John Lennon, and the failed assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. The book has also been linked to a killing in Northern Australia in 2001.

There is a theory that The Catcher in the Rye was used as a trigger for sleeper assassins who were trained by the CIA’s MK-Ultra mind control program. I don't now if that is true, or why it would be. I found the book to be rather boring as it lacks a plot.

Other books have also led to crimes being committed, such as A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. "The crimes could be scenes from A Clockwork Orange: a boy beats a homeless man to death for a few pennies; a 16-year old dressed like Alex and his droogs savagely beats and kicks a 15-year old; a 17-year old Dutch girl is gang raped by a group of Lancashire boys as they sing Singin’ In The Rain."~Devin Faraci

Asimov's Foundation series of books inspired Aum Shinrikyo's Japanese doomsday cult that conducted a deadly nerve gas attack on a Tokyo subway in 1995.

The Collector by John Fowles was found in the possession of a serial killer named Christopher Wilder. Another killer, Robert Berdella, who ended the lives of at least six men also said he was inspired by the novel.

Rage by Stephen King is linked to several school shootings. King asked that this book not be published anymore.

The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice inspired Allan Menzies to murder his friend and drink his blood.

The Turner Diaries was found in the possession of Oklahoma Bomber Timothy McVeigh. 

Several writers claimed that Charles Manson was a fan of Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll (or at least the movie) influenced Barry Dale Loukaitis to start a shooting spree in his school. 

The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski read The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad more than a dozen times.

Benjamin Spock's Baby and Child Care has been linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). 

A 1774 German novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werther) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe led to a string of suicides.

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This Kindle book (The Companion Guide to Death) is now available on Amazon by clicking here...and it is only $1.99
See my blog listing for this here.