American Politics, My Great-Great-Great Uncle Harry Palm, and Other Miscellany

The current state of American politics:

https://fb.watch/k0XYjA3sbR/?mibextid=irwG9G

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Chris Rock- "On the one hand it's like, fuck the police, and on the other hand, I own property. If someone's breaking in, I'm not calling the Crips. Uh, yo, crips… can you send Lil’ JJ down? Oh, he’s here already. My bad. My bad."

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Gretel has a mohawk and Zuzu has tattoos? What the heck is going on here?

April 20, 2022

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You discover some odd things when you do genealogy... like my great-great-great uncle, Harry Palm. To quote Rey from The Force Awakens, "I thought he was just a myth."

True story.

April 20, 2019

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Hitler was was one of the worst people who ever existed, of that there is no doubt- but today, on his birthday, let's focus on his positive side. People often forget he's responsible for of of the greatest things that ever happened. He killed Hitler!

His father was very cruel to him, and his father's father... well nobody certain who that was but they think it might have been a merchant named Frankenberger. Frankenberger, huh? 

Maybe that's why Hitler killed Hitler.

An aside: Apparently he liked watching snow white, over and over. Why?

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Nice to be able to walk down the street without a group of grubby little kids chanting "money money money money money!"

April 20, 2010 (upon my return from Rwanda)

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From Wikipedia-

"1496 – After his return from the New World Christopher Columbus entered the court of his sponsors King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. For more than an hour, the sovereigns besieged the seaman with questions."

For more than an hour??? Are we supposed to be impressed? The guy was gone for years and visited an entirely new world.

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The sun dog phenomenon is observed over Stockholm on this day in 1535, and was later depicted in a painting Vädersolstavlan. I saw a sun dog once. Some friends and I were playing some made up soccer-style sport about 25 years ago and included in the rules that the ball switch his hands after a sun dog is spotted. Whoever spotted it first made up that rule.

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Time for me to read Infinite Jest. Wish me luck. If I can stick to an hour and night I figure I'll read about an inch every 2 weeks.

(I made it about a half inch.)

April 20, 2019

Postscript- I'm currently about an inch through (April 20, 2023)

Post Postscript- I gave up shortly after.

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Annie Hall was released on this date in 1977.

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The Columbine High School massacre happened on this day in 1999. I was teaching math on a Native-American reservation at the time, 500 miles to the south at Laguna-Acoma High School near Grants, New Mexico. The kids wanted to watch the coverage on the news but I insisted on teaching them math. The only person who learned something that day was me.

It's been said that shooting up a school was inconceivable before the Stephen King story Rage, written as Richard Bachman. Only once it was in the public consciousness did it even become a reality. 

I don't know what to think about that, but it seems like a similar thing happened with the four minute mile. Once it was beaten, a bunch of people beat it. 

Many of the limits we think can't be passed, both negative and positive, are solely constructs of our mind. That says both negative things and positive things about our future, and let's hope it says more positive things.

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Harold Lloyd, was born on this day in 1893, on Hitler's 4th birthday. He's universally considered in the top three comedians of the silent era, and universally considered the third best, behind Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

If somebody went back in time to witness the birth of Harold Lloyd, then flew to Austria and killed a four-year-old Hitler at his birthday party, wearing his little hat, just after blowing out his candles, but before eating his cake and opening his presents, well that would create a pretty interesting philosophical thought experiment.

Here's a good compilation:

https://youtu.be/shdzRq4BYWk

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Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick was born on this day in 1943, and died when she was 28. 

"I want to reach people and express myself. You have to put up with the risk of being misunderstood if you are going to try to communicate. You have to put up with people projecting their own ideas, attitudes, misunderstanding you. But it's worth being a public fool if that's all you can be in order to communicate yourself."

I know what you mean Edie. 

"I just believe that you live alone, creating your life as you go."

And she did just that, until she went.

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Don Mattingly joined us on this day in 1961. Here's a ridiculous baseball oddity for you. He played from 1982 to 1995 and hit zero grand slams in every single year except 1987 when he hit six, which set the single season record.

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Crispin Glover was born on this day in 1964, with the Beatles' Can't Buy Me Love the top of the charts.

One time I was in a bookstore in Hollywood and I heard a familiar voice. I didn't even have to turn around to know who it was- Crispin Glover. It seemed like he was with some young girl who came to Hollywood to be an actress. He was showing her which books that he thought would be helpful. 

I might put his performance in Back to the Future in the top 10 most memorable performances in film history. Okay, maybe in the top 50. Do you think he created a better character than any of the people nominated for best supporting actor that year?

DON AMECHE- Cocoon

KLAUS MARIA BRANDAUERO- Out of Africa

WILLIAM HICKEY- Prizzi's Honor

ROBERT LOGGIA- Jagged Edge

ERIC ROBERTS- Runaway Train

Right, who are they?

Pete Rose famously said that having the most hits means just that, he got the most hits. He then reminded us that he also had the most outs and the most at bats. 

So what does it mean to win the Oscar? It just means that enough of the academy voted for the person who won. In other words, to quote Mr. Natural, "Don't mean sheeit."

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Australian philosopher David Chalmers was born on this day in 1966. 

"How does the water of the brain turn into the wine of consciousness?"

Great question! Maybe his further thoughts are worth reading:

"Conscious experience is at once the most familiar thing in the world and the most mysterious. There is nothing we know about more directly than consciousness, but it is far from clear how to reconcile it with everything else we know. Why does it exist? What does it do? How could it possibly arise from lumpy gray matter? We know consciousness far more intimately than we know the rest of the world, but we understand the rest of the world far better than we understand consciousness. Consciousness can be startlingly intense. It is the most vivid of phenomena; nothing is more real to us. But it can be frustratingly diaphanous: in talking about conscious experience, it is notoriously difficult to pin down the subject matter. The International Dictionary of Psychology does not even try to give a straightforward characterization: Consciousness: The having of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings; awareness. The term is impossible to define except in terms that are unintelligible without a grasp of what consciousness means. Many fall into the trap of confusing consciousness with self-consciousness—to be conscious it is only necessary to be aware of the external world. Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon: it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it evolved. Nothing worth reading has been written about it."

Then again, maybe not.

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Chief Pontiac of the Ottowa died on this day in 1769. 

"They came with a Bible and their religion. They stole our land and crushed our spirit, and now tell us we should be thankful to the Lord for being saved."

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Bram Stoker died on this day in 1912. Without him there would be no Count Dracula. And by the Transitive Property of Vampires there also would be no Count Chocula.

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Benny Hill died on this day in 1992.

"Do do do dooo do doodoo do do dodododo doodoo do do doooo dooo do do do do do, do do do dooo do doodoo do do dodododo doodoo do do doooo dooo do do do do do, do do do do doodleoodleoodle do, do do do do dooooo do doodleoodleoodle, doody doody doody do doodleoodleoodle, doody doodoo do."

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Mad Men's Robert Morse has left us on this day in 2022 at 90 years old. The ghost of his character Bert Cooper might have pulled off the greatest feat in television history, planting the seed in Don Draper that the best things in life are free. He also turned up on his cross country road trip to enlightenment quoting Kerouac- “Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?”

Thank you for you contribution Robert Morse.

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Here's a Shakespearean insult kit, you qualling elf-skinned canker-blossom.

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Teenagers on a date in the 50's

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Harold Lloyd would have been 123 today...which would simply be way too old.

April 20, 2016

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Breitbart- Mayor Pete Buttigieg: ‘Think of Something Really Gay — That’s How Gay I Am’

I thought of a rainbow unicorn with sparkles. How about you?

https://trib.al/bGrVQaU

April 20, 2019

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Huffington Post- Donald Trump's Masturbation-Themed Retweet Sets Twitter Abuzz

Trump's getting flak for a vulgar Good Friday tweet, but to be fair, vulgarity is kind of a religion to him. (Including the lyrics to The Circle Jerks Deny Everything was a pretty nice touch.)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-mueller-report-tweets_n_5cbac302e4b06605e3eed15c

April 20, 2019

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"The most extreme guy on the internet."

https://fb.watch/k1Ew2HbGWX/?mibextid=irwG9G

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Frederick Simpson Coburn (1871-1960), Illustration from "The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe"(?)

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Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life”- "There are no forces on this planet more dangerous to all of us than the fanaticisms of fundamentalism."

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Roger Sterling zinger: "Why don't you take a nap? Your face looks like a bag of walnuts."

I need to remember that.

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Marcus Aurelius- "Don't behave as if you are destined to live forever."

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Dorothy Parker (widely attributed)- "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There's no cure for curiosity."

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Richard Dawkins- "The only watchmaker is the blind forces of physics."

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Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions- "Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself."

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Sam Harris- "What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons."

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Einstein- "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."