1938 – The League of Nationsunanimously outlaws "intentional bombings of civilian populations".
Good thing the League folded. We don't like to think of the U.S. President as war criminals..
Birthday Quotes
"It seemed as impossible to conceive of Auschwitz with God as to conceive of Auschwitz without God. Therefore, everything had to be reassessed because everything had changed. With one stroke, mankind's achievements seemed to have been erased. Was Auschwitz a consequence or an aberration of "civilization"? All we know is that Auschwitz called that civilization into question as it called into question everything that had preceded Auschwitz. Scientific abstraction, social and economic contention, nationalism, xenophobia, religious fanaticism, racism, mass hysteria. All found their ultimate expression in Auschwitz."
"None of us is in a position to eliminate war, but it is our obligation to denounce it and expose it in all its hideousness. War leaves no victors, only victims."
"The brain may take advice, but not the heart, and love, having no geography, knows no boundaries: weight and sink it deep, no matter, it will rise and find the surface: and why not? any love is natural and beautiful that lies within a person's nature; only hypocrites would hold a man responsible for what he loves, emotional illiterates and those of righteous envy, who, in their agitated concern, mistake so frequently the arrow pointing to heaven for the one that leads to hell."
1938 – The Munich Agreement between Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy settles the Sudetenland dispute in Germany's favor. The Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia are not invited.
Prime Minister Chamberlain gets the blame, though no one has explained to me how this conflict was any of Britain's concern in the first place.
Birthday Quotes I
"There's not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault."
"Let every man mind his own business."
"Let us forget and forgive injuries."
- Miguel de Cervantes (29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616)
Birthday Quotes II
"The idea of abolishing Income Tax is to me highly attractive, both on other grounds & because it tends to public economy."
"All the people who pretend to take your own concerns out of your own hands and to do everything for you, I won't say they are imposters; I won't even say they are quacks; but I do say they are mistaken people."
"The rule of our policy is that nothing should be done by the state which can be better or as well done by voluntary effort; and I am not aware that, either in its moral or even its literary aspects, the work of the state for education has as yet proved its superiority to the work of the religious bodies or of philanthropic individuals. Even the economical considerations of materially augmented cost do not appear to be wholly trivial."
- William E. Gladstone (29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898)
Birthday Quotes III
"Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts."
"All this talk: the state should do this or that, ultimately means: the police should force consumers to behave otherwise than they would behave spontaneously."
"A free man must be able to endure it when his fellow men act and live otherwise than he considers proper. He must free himself from the habit, just as soon as something does not please him, of calling for the police."
"It is not true that the advocates of the free-market economy are defenders of the selfish interests of the rich. The particular interests of the entrepreneurs and capitalists also demand interventionism to protect them against the competition of more efficient and active men. The free development of the market economy is to be recommended, not in the interest of the rich, but in the interest of the masses of the people."
- Ludwig von Mises (29 September 1881 – 10 October 1973)
Birthday Quotes IV
"It constantly amazes me that defenders of the free market are expected to offer certainty and perfection while government has only to make promises and express good intentions. Many times, for instance, I’ve heard people say, 'A free market in education is a bad idea because some child somewhere might fall through the cracks,' even though in today’s government school, millions of children are falling through the cracks every day."
- Lawrence Reed (born September 29, 1953)
Birthday Quotes V
"Two kinds of players ain't worth a damn: One never does what he's told, and one who does nothin' but what he's told."
"You fail all the time, but you aren't a failure until you start blaming someone else."
- Bum Phillips, football coach (September 29, 1923 – October 18, 2013)
Happy Birthday Jerry Lee Lewis!
And Happy Birthday Mike Post, the John Williams of television!
How could they enact such a stupid law? Were they drunk? Notable quote
"Building weapons that we don’t need, don’t work, and aren’t necessary, and have no mission — that’s not bad politics, that’s robbery." - Paul Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) Song of the Day
Notable quotes
"An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences." - Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 - August 11, 1937)
"Any team can have a bad century." - Jack Brickhouse, Cubs sportscaster (January 24, 1916 – August 6, 1998)
Song of the Day
Warren Zevon would have been 69 today. Still in our hearts.
A great start. Now the Hall accepts almost everybody. Pete Rose has a chance to get in.
Notable quote
"It is something that most parents hope for in life: That their children will be moderately successful, polite, decent human beings. Anything on top of that is something you have no right to hope for, but we all do." - Packer great Jerry Kramer (b. January 23, 1936)
1908 – "New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor."
Clearly he was swayed by the tobacco lobby.
1977 – "United States President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada."
Because of these cowards, we're all speaking Vietnamese today!
Notable quote
"Princes may make laws and repeal them, but they can neither make nor destroy virtue, and how indeed should they be able to do what is impossible to the Deity himself?" - Ethan Allen (January 21, 1738 - February 12, 1789)
1783 – "The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the American Revolutionary War."
So isn't THIS the real Independence Day? 1877 – "Last day of the Constantinople Conference which resulted in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans." Good thing it happened. The place could have become a mess.
But Americans are not like Europeans. It's not like we'll colonize the place!
Notable quote
"Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair." - George Burns (January 20, 1896 - March 9, 1996)
Song of the Day
Happy Birthday to Eric Stewart! I love the sonic atmosphere...
January 19, 1986: "The first IBM PCcomputer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the software they had written."
Notable quotes
"It is a maxim of the law that there can be no crime without a criminal intent; that is, without the intent to invade the person or property of another. But no one ever practices a vice with any such criminal intent. He practices his vice for his own happiness solely, and not from any malice toward others" .Lysander Spooner (January 19, 1808 – May 14, 1887)
Speaking of vices...
"All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening." - Alexander Woolcott (January 19, 1887 - January 23, 1943)
Song of the Day
Dolly Parton turns 70 today!
This song played on the jukebox in a scene from Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. I wonder whatever became of it?
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