“It used to be you had real friends on the other side of the aisle. It’s not like that anymore. Society has changed. The public is to blame as well. I think the people have gotten dumber.”
– Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), in an exit interview about changes in Congress.
I don’t think the people have gotten dumber. The politicians have gotten meaner and ruder. The voters aren’t left with much when they head to the polls.
Filed under News
This is a distressing development. Looks like some members of the Hopi community are starting to give into the state of Arizona’s demands.
Story to appear this week in the Navajo-Hopi Observer…
Hopi Council shockingly approves Little Colorado settlement
Chairman Shingoitewa breaks 7 to 7 tie vote
story by Rosanda Suetopka Thayer
In a move that was predicted since last Friday, June 15th at the public council meeting at the Village of Hotevilla by Hopi community members, Hopi traditional leadership and Hopi village board representatives after Hopi Chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa made the open public statement that “Its not over. I plan on bringing this settlement issue back up in council and I do plan on getting approval.”
Hopi Chairman LeRoy Shingoitewa and his Water and Energy Team Chairman George Mase, brought their own separate, opposing action item No. H-073-2012 to the Council floor on Thursday morning at the Hopi Council chambers on June 21st for a vote that has now approved and will endorse the proposed water rights agreement to the Little Colorado…
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Filed under News
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Actress June Lockhart (Lassie, Lost in Space, Petticoat Junction, Deadly Games, The Big Picture, The Yearling, Meet Me in St. Louis) is 87.
Singer – songwriter Carly Simon (Anticipation, You’re So Vain, Mockingbird [w/husband James Taylor], Nobody Does It Better) is 67.
Guitarist – keyboardist Allen Lanier (Blue Oyster Cult) is 66.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpy_pYXSpPA
Musician Ian McDonald (Foreigner) is 66.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stRWtrmXkHo
Actor – comedian Jimmie Walker (Good Times, B.A.D. Cats, Airplane!, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York) is 65.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsnREFJw3zU
Phyllis George Brown (Miss America 1971; TV host: The NFL Today, The CBS Morning News) is 63.
Singer – keyboardist David Paich (Toto) is 58.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcVEOc7ZYgk
Singer George Michael (Yorgos Panayiotou; Wham!: Wake Me Up before You Go-Go; solo: Careless Whisper, Faith, A Different Corner, I Want Your Sex) is 49.
Filed under Birthdays
1788 – The Virginia colony, the first permanent English settlement in North America, entered the United States of America as the tenth state.
1876 – Indian Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull led a successful two-hour campaign in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Montana, wiping out the army of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. Custer, who led the battle against the Sioux Indian encampment, was among the 200+ casualties. Custer’s horse Comanche was among the few survivors.
Chief Sitting Bull
Chief Crazy Horse
1903 – Author George Orwell (Animal Farm, 1984) was born in Bengal, India.
1910 – The U.S. Congress authorized the use of postal savings stamps.
1950 – Armed forces from communist North Korea invade its southern neighbor, setting off the Korean War.
1951 – The CBS television network broadcast the first commercial color TV program, a variety show called “Premiere.” The hour-long program appeared only in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C.
George Balanchine Ballet from “Premiere.”
1962 – In Engel v. Vitale, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that prayers in public schools violated the First Amendment to the Constitution regarding the separation of church and state.
1990 – In Cruzan v. Missouri, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 upholding the right of an individual, whose wishes are clearly made, to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment.
1993 – Kim Campbell became Canada’s 19th and first female Prime Minister. Campbell governed until October 25, 1993 when the Progressive – Conservative Party was defeated. (Her term actually expired November 4, 1993.)
1998 – Microsoft released Windows 98 with the slogan, “Works better. Plays better.” Interest in the new release was also increased by the publicity generated by the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust suit against Microsoft.
Filed under History
“Those are cases [involving rape and incest] we really have to stop and think about what’s best for the women and what’s best for the unborn child. And many times the abortion, we have been told, can be more traumatic to the woman emotionally than the actual rape.”
– Joe Pojman, Texas Alliance for Life executive director, explaining why anti-choice activists might seek to revise Texas law to force women to carry to term pregnancies resulting from rape and incest.
Gosh, I’m so glad an expert finally made a distinction between the traumas of rape and abortion. I’ve wondered about that for years!
Filed under News
“If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.”
– Aristotle
Filed under News
Breaking News: Jerry Sandusky is on the threshold of suicide. Let us pray he makes it through.
Filed under News
The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to reconsider campaign finance controversy. That means us average voters without deep pockets could get screwed this election year – again.
Summer solstice celebration in the U.S.
This past June 20 was an important date for all of us: the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Come December 21, these obviously will be switched. We are now less than 6 months until the start of the new Baktun, but it’s important to understand the significance of the summer and winter solstices. The solstices are the result of Earth’s north-south axis being tilted 23.4 degrees relative to the plane of our solar system. During the summer solstice, the sun reaches the highest possible point in the sky, and that day consequently is the longest of the year. Conversely, during the winter solstice, the sun is at its furthest point from the Earth, and that night consequently is the longest of the year. Without the use of telescopes and mirrors, ancient societies such as the Mayan charted the summer and winter solstices with remarkable accuracy. In other words, they understood how critical these astronomical events functioned thousands of years before computers and lunar observatories. Never underestimate the intellectual capacity of our ancestors. Otherwise the deities will have no mercy on you and you’ll be hurtled into oblivion when the apocalypse hits.
Winter solstice celebration in Bolivia.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Drummer Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac) is 70.
Actress Michele Lee (Knots Landing, The Love Bug, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) is 70.
Actor Georg Stanford Brown (Colossus: The Forbin Project, The Rookies) is 69.
Guitarist Jeff Beck (The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group, The Honeydrippers) is 68.
Singer Colin Blunstone (aka Neil MacArthur; The Zombies ) is 67.
Actor Peter Weller (Screamers, Mighty Aphrodite, Decoy, Sunset Grill, Naked Lunch, RoboCop series) is 65.
Bass guitarist John Illsley (Dire Straits) is 63.
Actress Nancy Allen (Carrie, Robocop, Blow Out, Dressed to Kill) is 62.
Actor Joe Penny (Jake and the Fatman, The Gangster Chronicles, Riptide) is 56.
Singer Andy McCluskey (Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark) is 53.
Actor Iain Glen (Silent Scream, The Young Americans, Tomb Raider) is 51.
Actress Sherry Stringfield (N.Y.P.D. Blue, ER) is 45.
Filed under Birthdays
Chief Writing Wolf 