KGB Report

...and some people are still oblivious to the world.

Categories: Americans, Globalization, History, Holidays, Poster of the day, WTF?

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[Texas] students will learn about the contributions of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority. Maybe the students will read Falwell's claim that feminists and homosexuals were partially responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Phyllis Schlafly, the Heritage Foundation and the NRA are all included. Students will also be required to "discuss the meaning of 'In God We Trust.'"

History in Texas classrooms will be decidedly different from when we were students. I never learned "both the positive and negative impacts of... country and western music" in my high school history class. Where would you rate Estée Lauder in terms of historical importance to our country? If you think she is one of the 68 most important historical figures, you agree with the board. Yes, the board included her in the state curriculum, but not George Washington.

I also never learned that the findings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities were confirmed, perhaps because it is not true. It puts teachers in an awkward position by asking them to teach something that is historically inaccurate. I will not have to deal with that issue in some of my classes because my Advanced Placement U.S. History classes are not required to follow the state curriculum. I am guessing that the Texas Education Agency realizes that students could never pass national exams while learning the state-mandated curriculum.

(Full article here)

You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans.
-George Carlin

Categories: 9/11, Education, George Carlin, George Washington, Heritage Foundation, History, Jeffrey Immelt, Moral Majority, Music, National Rifle Association, Phyllis Schlafly, Religion, Texas

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("Homestead Town" music video)

I was born in Homestead and lived there until I was 18, first in a third-floor apartment on the corner of Eighth and McClure, then in a second-floor apartment above Jones & McClure Realty on Ninth and Ann. Even then, I recall how people said Homestead was past its prime, but Eighth Avenue was still at nearly 100% occupancy, with two Isaly's, two supermarkets, a McCrory's, Grants, Penney's, and enough foot traffic that you avoided Amity Street at shift changes.

I remember the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach the first time I drove through the town after the mills had been torn down. It's hard to describe- imagine how the residents of New York felt the day after 9/11. And the destruction of Homestead was something America did to itself.

"In its 105-year history," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recalled in a 2006 story on the 20th anniversary of the mill's closing, "the Homestead Works produced more than 200 million tons of steel: Rails and railroad cars, armor plate that covered battleships and tanks from the Spanish-American War through the Korean War, and beams and girders that went into the Empire State Building, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the U.S. Steel Building in Pittsburgh and the Sears Tower in Chicago."

Its replacement, the Waterfront complex? I've been there a handful of times since it's opened, and it makes me angry. The world's largest steel plant, replaced by big box stores selling Chinese crap.

Some people see a shopping center. I see a white flag.

Categories: History, Homestead, PA, Music, YouTube

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Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress,

On July 4, 1997, Charles Kuralt died. A journalist for CBS, he had a passion for America and American history. During the Bicentennial in 1976, he prepared a segment for The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite that remains the best "news report" of what happened in Philadelphia 200 years earlier:

Another wonderful interpretation of the tensions before the vote is the song Is Anybody There? from the award-winning Broadway musical 1776, which airs at 2 pm today on Turner Classic Movies:

Is Anybody There?"

From the musical "1776"
Music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards

John Adams:

Is anybody there?
Does anybody care?
Does anybody see what I see?

They want to me to quit.
They say, "John, give up the fight."
Still to England I say:
Good night, forever, good night!

For I have crossed the Rubicon,
Let the bridge be burned behind me,
Come what may, come what may.

Commitment!

The croakers all say we'll rue the day,
There'll be hell to pay in fiery purgatory.
Through all the gloom, through all the gloom,
I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory!

Is anybody there?
Does anybody care?
Does anybody see what I see?

I see fireworks!
I see the pageant and pomp and parade!
I hear the bells ringing out!
I hear the cannons' roar!
I see Americans - all Americans.
Free forevermore!

How quiet, how quiet the chamber is.
How silent, how silent the chamber is.

Is anybody there?
Does anybody care?
Does anybody see what I see?

Categories: 1776, Americans, Broadway, Charles Kuralt, Congress, Declaration of Independence, History, John Adams, Movies, Music, TV, Video, YouTube

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Recent late-night political jokes, from Daniel Kurtzman's Political Humor Blog on About.com.

Photos of Congressman Weiner have surfaced of him cross-dressing in college, in bra and pantyhose, proving that even back then he knew he wanted to be a Congressman.
-Jay Leno

It was on this day in 1992 that Vice President Dan Quayle misspelled the word 'potato,' thus paving the way for Sarah Palin.
-Jay Leno

According to a new report, only 12 percent of American high school students can pass a basic history test. That's the lowest percentage since our country was founded in 1922.
-Jay Leno

Congressman Weiner’s wife returned today from her diplomatic trip to Ethiopia. She said she got really tired of Ethiopians telling her, 'I feel so sorry for you.'
-Conan O'Brien

A new study shows that only 35 percent of fourth-graders know the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. When she heard this, Sarah Palin said, 'How are they supposed to know about something that happened 20 years ago.'
-Conan O'Brien

A Tea Party group has a summer camp for kids, the only one where they sit around the campfire and tell scary stories about taxing the top 2%.
-Conan O'Brien

Rep. Michele Bachmann once said that gay people lead a very sad life. Apparently, she has never celebrated Halloween in San Francisco.
-Conan O'Brien

Have you seen these Republican presidential candidates? I bet Obama is sorry now that he spent all that money on the new birth certificate.
-David Letterman

A new survey found that 87 percent of high school seniors are less than proficient in U.S. history. Not me. In fact, when I was a senior, I did a 10-page paper on my favorite president, George Jefferson.
-Jimmy Fallon

It turns out that 70 percent of guns found in Mexico actually come from the U.S. Meanwhile, 70 percent of people found in the U.S. actually come from Mexico.
-Jimmy Fallon

One more vote is needed in the New York State Senate to legalize gay marriage. That one vote could be the Republican Senator from Staten Island. If he’s willing to be known for the rest of his career as the Staten Island Fairy.
-Jon Stewart

Categories: About.com, Anthony Weiner, Barack Obama, Conan O'Brien, Daniel Kurtzman, David Letterman, Declaration of Independence, Education, History, Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Michele Bachmann, Political Jokes of the Week, Politics, Sarah Palin, Tea Party

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The United States has no purpose. That is perhaps its greatest achievement. America's founding document, its Declaration of Independence, allows that a state exists only to secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That's it. There's a curious lack of ambition in those words. The United States was not founded for the greater glory of anything, or as the necessary outcome of history, but for the freedom to collect figurines, to join a clogging troupe, to take a road trip. Yet these words, which carry no ideology whatsoever, are the ones that keep winning. This is the lesson of the past ten years, and one Osama bin Laden, a man animated by a grandiose vision of restoring a seventh century Muslim empire, never grasped. The most successful organizing principle the world has ever known is a simple guarantee that we can buy and do things that have no point greater than the satisfaction of our own happiness.

There's been much discussion, since the evening his death was announced, of the appropriate way to celebrate the end of Osama bin Laden. You might consider embracing what defeated him. Do something private and ridiculous, something that answers to no creed.

Pursue happiness.

-Brendan Greeley, excerpted from "Why bin Laden Lost," Businessweek, May 4, 2011.

(h/t to "The Sanity Inspector" on the Usenet alt.quotations newsgroup)

Categories: 1776, 9/11, Americans, Brendan Greeley, Declaration of Independence, Founding Fathers, History, In the news, Liberty, Life, Observation of the Day, Osama bin Laden, Patriotism, Pursuit of happiness, Religion, Thomas Jefferson

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Fifty-seven years ago today, pretty much nothing happened.

Researchers claim they have "officially" discovered the most boring day of the 20th century... April 11, 1954.

A team of Cambridge scientists say the day was devoid of any major news events or even the birth or death of any famous people.

They made the discovery after developing a new search engine which collates 300 million facts and can reveal what happened on certain days in history.

Running a script to compare all days from the beginning of the 20th century, April 11, 1954 was revealed as the most uneventful.

"Nobody significant died that day, no major events apparently occurred and although a typical day in the 20th century has many notable people being born, for some reason that day had only one person that might make that claim: Abdullah Atalar, a Turkish academic."

One wonders what the 24-hour cable news outlets would have covered that day...

Categories: April 11, 1954, History

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Again, one must ask- why are the clearest, most direct interviews performed by a comedian on a fake news show?

Stewart probes Huckabee's support of radical evangelical minister and discredited historian David Barton, who claims- despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary- that the Founders intended the United States to be a Christian theocracy. Stewart also questions why Huckabee- who is always reasonable and self-effacing during his Daily Show interviews- promotes Barton's extreme ideas when addressing his conservative base.

This is part three of three of the interview; consider watching them all. It's one of Stewart's- and Huckabee's- best efforts.

It also features two Stewart observations that made it to my quote database:

"As someone who is not Christian, it is hard for me to believe Christians are a persecuted people in America... maybe, God willing, one of you will rise up and get to be President of this country; or maybe 44 in a row."

"We need religion to give grace and comfort to a world torn apart by religion."

Categories: Barack Obama, Bible, Christians/Christianity, Christmas, Church and State, Conservatives, Daily Show, David Barton, Education, Faith, First Amendment, Founding Fathers, Fox News, Freedom, Glenn Beck, Government, History, Indecision 2012, Interviews, In the news, Jon Stewart, Late Night TV, Patriotism, Politics, Race, Religion, Republicans, Sharia Law, Tea Party, Texas, TV, U.S. Constitution, Video

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The working classes didn't bring this on. It was the big boys that thought the financial drunk was going to last forever and overbought, overmerged and overcapitalized.
-Will Rogers (October 25, 1931)

Categories: Conservatives, Deficit, Financial Melt Down, History, Quotes of the day, Will Rogers

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Back in the late 60s and 70s, around the time the term "rip-off" entered the vernacular, Ralph Nader spearheaded the movement that put into place many of the consumer protection laws and policies that still survive today.

One of these was the requirement for "unit pricing"- indicating on the grocery shelf price tag the per unit cost of the packaged item in ounces, pounds, etc.

This was enacted to enable consumers to easily determine the cost of a product, since some manufacturers used deceptive packaging to trick purchasers. That 99-cent sale item, for example, might contain only 28 ounces of a product in a box designed to look identical to the 32 ounce box next to it. Divide the price by the number of ounces, however, and you'd discover the "sale" item actually cost several cents more per ounce.

I believe people either have forgotten about unit pricing or have never learned how to use it. Couple that with the almost universal assumption that the larger the package, the lower the unit cost, and it appears companies are again taking advantage of consumers.

Last night I ran out to buy cat litter. I usually get the largest container I can, since our inside feline apparently has the digestive system characteristics of a zebra-noshing wild cat from the Serengeti. Out of habit, I looked at the unit cost of the big containers positioned at eye level- 2.9 cents per ounce- then glanced down at the smaller containers on the shelves near the floor- 2.3 cents per ounce.

Curious, I looked at a number of other items and was surprised to find that about a third of the time, the unit price of the smaller package of an item was actually cheaper than the "large economy" version.

I suspect this isn't unique to the Pittsburgh market. Companies are taking advantage of shoppers' mathematical illiteracy and lack of shopping skills.

Keep your eyes open the next time you're in the supermarket, and do the comparisons yourself. I think you may be surprised at what you find.

Categories: Cats, Consumerism, Economy, Food, History, Laws, Ralph Nader, Things That Make You Wonder, WTF?

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The Illuminati amongst us (that would be my fellow computer people) know that Sunday will be a binary date day. Last Friday was also a binary date day. Binary dates are those composed exclusively of zeros and ones (ala 10/01/10, or 01/01/01). Binary dates tend to appear exclusively in the early parts of centuries. I was too young to appreciate the last century. I expect to be too old to appreciate the next century. So I'm doing my best to appreciate this century. This is why I noticed that Sunday, 10/10/10, is quite a significant binary date. To explain why will require at least two more paragraphs.

The Literati amongst us (that would be my fellow fans of the works of Douglas Adams), know that the original Earth was destroyed quite suddenly to make room for a pan-galactic bypass, and that only the dolphins (who weren't what they appeared to be), the mice (who really weren't here), and a few humans survived. The Earth we currently live on is a replacement, created as compensation, because the demolition contractors that destroyed the original Earth got the address wrong. We also know that the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything is (ready? drum roll....): 42. That's right; 42. A lesson in getting your questions to be, perhaps, more specific.

The reason for my concern is that Sundays binary date, 10/10/10, when converted to decimal is (ready? drum roll...): 42. That's right; 42. Coincidence you might say. Arbitrary you might say. Did you know that astronomers and physicists have recently re-computed the Hubble Constant (a value that helps explain The Universe), and have concluded that the best approximation available for this value is (ready? drum roll...): 42. That's right; 42. Another coincidence? I think not.

Now I'm not suggesting that the Earth will be destroyed this Sunday by some directionally challenged demolition contractor. Nor am I suggesting that the whole concept of coincidences is a palliative invention of the human psyche. But, just in case (after all, I was a Boy Scout ), I'll be keeping a towel (and a hip flask) handy all day. You've been warned. Good luck!

Peace, Love, and Precision Guidance,

jim

(Jim Sorrells is a Sr. Consultant, Principal, and Co-Founder of JSA Computer Systems Inc. located in beautiful Arneytown NJ. His research interests are Forensic Analysis of Large Scale Organizational Failures, Aesthetic Arrangement of Cellulose Based Structural Materials, and Qualitative Evaluations of Grain and Other Exotic Organic Distillates. He holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University.)

Categories: 10/10/10, 42, Douglas Adams, History, Hitchhiker's Guide, Jim Sorrells

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August 28, 1963

"I am happy to join with you today, in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

"But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

"In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

"It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

"It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

"But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

"We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

"And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

"I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

"Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

"I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

"I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

"I have a dream today.

"I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

"I have a dream today.

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

"This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

"This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

"And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

"Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

"Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

"But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

"Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

"Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Categories: Civil Rights, Classic, Daily Show, Freedom, Glenn Beck, History, Hypocrisy, I have a dream..., Jon Stewart, Martin Luther King, Jr., Video, WTF?

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Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress,

On July 4, 1997, Charles Kuralt died. A journalist for CBS, he had a passion for America and American history. During the Bicentennial in 1976, he prepared a segment for The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite that remains the best "news report" of what happened in Philadelphia 200 years earlier:

Another wonderful interpretation of the tensions before the vote is the song Is Anybody There? from the award-winning musical 1776:

The movie airs today at 2:30 pm on Turner Classic Movies. If you think history is dry and uninteresting, make certain you watch this film.

Categories: 1776, Charles Kuralt, History, John Adams, Movies, Music, Politics, TV, Video

KGB recommends godaddy.com.

When you argue stupid, you campaign stupid. When you campaign stupid, you win stupid. And when you win stupid, you govern stupid.
-David Frum

(from "The Tea Pary Jacobins" by Mark Lilla)

Categories: Barack Obama, Democrats, Fox News, Freedom, Glenn Beck, Government, History, Hypocrisy, Libertarians, New York Review of Books, Politics, Quotes of the day, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Tea Party

KGB recommends godaddy.com.

...that the phrase "Miranda rights" is derived from the Supreme Court case Miranda v Arizona.

Categories: Arizona, History, Immigration, Politics, Supreme Court

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I was in my junior year at Homestead High School. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Teach Your Children" was on the charts at the time. The quartet released "Ohio" about a month after the killings.

A grand jury indicted eight of the Guardsmen, but the charges were dismissed by a judge who deemed the case against them too weak to warrant a trial.

Categories: Crosby, Stills, Nash, and/or/nor Young, History, In the news, Video

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