7.06.2010

Four past midnight



Death of a killer

In my collection of old newspapers and magazines marking historic events of my lifetime is a copy of Life magazine with a fold-out double cover proclaiming “OLYMPIC TRAGEDY: From this small Israeli team, 11 would die.” Not just Olympics fans, but the whole world watched in horror as “Black September” unfolded in Munich in 1972. The iconic photo shows Palestinian terrorist Khalid Jawad looking over the balcony of the Israeli team quarters in the Munich Olympic Village. In all, 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, five terrorists and one West German police officer would lose their lives.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority news agency reported Abu Daoud, aka Mohammed Oudeh, the man who claimed to be the mastermind behind the Munich tragedy, is dead at age 73. Read the story.

The Dinosaur Trial?

I love the story of the Tennessee couple whose swimming pool project unearthed dinosaur fossils. A stunned Jim Leyden of Brighton said of the find in his backyard, "I grew up in New Jersey. I might find a body, but not a prehistoric animal."

One expert said the remains of the trilophodon, an extinct animal similar to the mammoth or mastodon, could be from 30,000 to 2 million years old. (LINK)

Attention Tennessee science teachers, any attempt to impart this knowledge to your students could result in a very famous event known as “The Dinosaur Trial.”

Reading the Tea leaves

On Monday a USA Today/Gallup poll revealed that “six in 10 Tea Party supporters view federal debt as an extremely serious threat to the future wellbeing of the U.S., easily their top concern.”

Where were these people for six years when the Republican-controlled executive and legislative branches of government were spending like drunken sailors?

For the record, here’s what became of Clinton’s $128 million surplus: “President Bush's budget chief blamed the faltering economy and the bipartisan stimulus package for the record $482 billion deficit the (Bush) White House predicted for the 2009 budget year.” (LINK)

Two wars and tax cuts for the wealthy had nothing to do with it?

Gag a Gaga

Word came Friday that Lady Gaga had broken the 10 million mark of Facebook “followers,” beating out President Barack Obama. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the current population of the United States is 307,006,550, which, assuming the bulk of Facebook users is American, means one in 30.7 Americans either need to get a life or are Republicans. IMO, these social networking sites are venues of one-liner vapidity leading communication back to a prehistoric vernacular of “ugh.”

I hesitate to ask this, but who the heck is Lady Gaga?

12 comments:

Frodo, nature finds a way, said...

Frodo reports that Lady Gaga is not a trilophodon. Based on his skill in forensic anthropology, developed weekly on CSI, Frodo concludes that the corpus delicti demonstrates evidence of death by drowning.
Note that the nearby Mississippi River flows through the area of the New Madrid Fault, and that earthquakes have been known to change the course of the river.

The trilophodon was probably a contract worker for British Petroleum.

Infidel753 said...

I would be really surprised if there are many Republicans among Lady Gaga's fans, judging by her latest video (NSFW). Until I saw this I didn't know who she was either, so it's not just you.

I hope we don't have to be so consumed with politics that talking an interest in pop culture is out of bounds. That's hardly the mark of a healthy society.

Or maybe this means that Lady Gaga will run for President -- stranger things have happened (though admittedly not many). She couldn't do any worse than Sarah Palin.

Frodo, nature finds a way, said...

Frodo reports that Lady Gaga is not a trilophodon. Based on his skill in forensic anthropology, developed weekly on CSI, Frodo concludes that the corpus delicti demonstrates evidence of death by drowning.
Note that the nearby Mississippi River flows through the area of the New Madrid Fault, and that earthquakes have been known to change the course of the river.

The trilophodon was probably a contract worker for British Petroleum.

tnlib said...

Test - kind of.

One of our Denver Post sports writers was in Munich passed out drunk and didn't realize one of the biggest stories of the time was breaking right before his nose. Another sports reporter had to contact him to save his butt.

tnlib said...

Test: Doesn't work until I sign in under name/url below.

Sue said...

Amelia, 3 yrs old, was singing one day and I asked her, "who sings that song?" and she said GaGa!! I fell over laughing! Her mommy puts Lady GaGa on in the car and Amelia quite likes the music, along with JayZee(?). Good grief we are old..... LOL!

Sue said...

I had no problem and I'm not having problems like that on my blog either.

Leslie Parsley said...

Scratch that. Linking from your email is problematical because I'm not signed in to my blog. That has to be done by clicking on name/url.

B.J. said...

Readers: As you might have guessed there was a problem earlier with comments showing up. I republished Frodo’s so that’s why he’s here twice. Double Frodo is a good thing: what would we do without him?

Sue: I know your grand is a doll.

tnlib: I would believe that of any sports writer on the planet! I’ve known a few, LOL.

I-753: I’ve always kept up with oop culture, but it’s getting harder. Coming up on first anniversary with no TV, and I’m sure that’s part of the problem. Republicans would vote for Attila the Hun over Obama!

BJ

Tiny said...

Re: The Tennessee find- One of Tiny's friends replied they were looking for a masseuse for Al Gore.

Tiny responded: That's probably what they found and just called it an ancient trilophodon dinosaur.

BJ, good thing you alerted Tennessee science teachers because I don't think the Rethuglican Tea Partiers' mind set could handle the equivalent of a Scopes Trial.

Lady Gaga? Sounds like what happens with a severe upset stomach.

Loulou La Poule said...

Lady GaGa had the Rolling Stone cover after McChrystal's, which says something about both of them, but I'm not sure what. Maybe: Ready, Fire, Aim.

Comments on my home blog have been screwy, too. Some disappear, the count isn't right, and I suspect that folks have had problems leaving anything at all. Might be just the excuse I needed to go with Intense Debate.

B.J. said...

LouLou: Thanks for visiting and commenting. The comments on this post were not showing up, then suddenly Bloger dumped them all onto the post. I noted the comments count wss wrong, too. The problem seemed to straighten itself out, as most computer problems do if you just walk away from them for a while. Blogger is SO MUCH BETTER than it was before Google took over. Those days were awful.

I will check out your blog although I am legally blind and limited in how much reading I can get done in a day. Hope you continue to visit DemWit. Thanks, BJ