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- April 9, 2020
- National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day 2020
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When war is declared the rules change between the combatants. Belligerent sides may capture those from the other side and detain them for a variety of reasons. Toward this end there were a number of conventions formulated for the treatment of prisoners of war. Many of these are ignored by one or both of the combatant nations in actual practice.
I recall my less than illustrious military career. Though I could never envision myself betraying my country in any way I'm glad I was not tested in war. Isolation, mistreatment, malnourishment and terror are typical complaints of those liberated from an imprisoned status during war time.
Then some nations go far beyond the horrors which may be associated with being a prisoner of war.
April 9 is our National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. This corresponds to the liberation of Andersonville in Georgia; one of the most unscrupulous and immoral detainment facilities in the Civil War. I was ashamed of the South after reading several accounts of prisoner treatment there and am left aghast by the cruelty and depravity on the part of the staff toward those held prisoner there.
We who are unaffected by the hardships of war owe a great debt to those who went and fought our battles for us. Even our career military who stood ready to serve deserve our thanks. As for the actual prisoners of war ... words are inadequate to express that debt of gratitude owed them. The notion that some prisoners of war remain missing in action is a difficult matter to reconcile in the minds of a civilian public who did not face such adversity.
Let us hope that all POW/MIA service people and civilians are ultimately accounted for. They and their families deserve it.
God Bless America
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- April 8, 2020
- Arthur Robert Ashe Jr
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I've never been a tennis fan. I dare say I despise the game as both a spectator and competition sport. Something about it screams pretentious wussie to me and I have been known to go to great lengths to toy with tennis players from a standpoint of poking fun and practical joking.
However, over the years a few tennis players have caught my attention. Like the lesbian Billie Jean King who simply had to get out there and whup a man's ass back around the time I finished high school.
Then of course there is John McEnroe and his never ending stream of antics and temper tantrums which brought me no end of amusement.
Finally, there was Arthur Ashe who announced that he had contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion a scant year before he passed ... which I thought to be the epitome of guts and poise and that announcement gave me great pause and a time to reflect and resulted in the cultivation of that respect I feel he deserved.
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr
July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993
Yes, I joked about AIDS profusely during the 1980s and early 1990s but this had become tempered over time with that reality which was the horrible death which awaited a typical sufferer and slowly my thoughts turned to those stricken individuals and I stopped viewing it all as some remote joke that didn't intersect with my own life.
Far later, I learned that my childhood best friend, Christopher E Gagnon had contracted the disease and passed when we both were just turning 40 and alas, there went my plans to reconnect which had remained on the back burner for so long.
On this day in 1992 Arthur Ashe announced that he had full blown AIDS which was contracted as the result of blood transfusions during his heart surgeries. He was characterized as a 'tennis great' and I cannot speak to this never having seriously watched any competition nor engaged the rules of the sport at any level ...
But here was a man who came forward during a time when sufferers of the disease were ostracized and criticized and ridiculed and he spoke of his affliction knowing full well the portends were grave.
All I can say is I wish my own humanity were so devoid of selfishness.
This was a man of character, composure, and empathy for his fellows at the end of a life that was done all too soon.
Rest in peace.
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- April 7, 2020
- National Beer Day 2020
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Ah, the old days when I would sit down and actually enjoy a beer — or two.
Likely won't see any more of those days — call it age, call it preoccupation, call it that end to bar hopping when I attained the ripe old age of 30.
Yes, some of us decline to stock the fridge with various brewed refreshments anymore ...
But back in the day.
Today we observe yet another National Beer Day because it's April 7 once again. Ah, how the memories flood in sometimes.
The date marks the the Cullen–Harrison Act allowing the manufacturing and sale of low-alcohol beer and wines, ostensibly for taxation revenues which ultimately resulted in the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ...
Repealing the 18th ammendment and the Vostead Act and therefore prohibition upon ratification the following December.
April 6, the day prior to National Beer Day, is known as New Beer's Eve.
Sometimes people can be their own worst enemies.
Take feminists, social justice warriors, and other perversions of the human condition.
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- April 6, 2020
- Tartan Day 2020
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I have a strong Scottish heritage on my mother's side of the family. This is because I have been closer to my maternal relatives than my paternal relatives due to various events and actualities during my lifetime.
Tartan Day is a North American celebration of Scottish heritage on April 6.
This corresponds to that date upon which the Declaration of Arbroath, the declaration of Scottish independence written in Latin submitted to Pope John XXII confirming Scotland's status as an independent, sovereign state and defending Scotland's right to use military action when unjustly attacked was signed in 1320.
Tartan Day originated in Canada in the mid-1980s. It has spread to other communities of Scottish immigration in the 1990s.
Australia has a similar International Tartan Day which is held on July 1.
This date corresponds to the anniversary of the repeal of the 1747 Act of Proscription that banned the wearing of tartan.
Tartan Days typically have parades of pipe bands, games of strength and skill, as well as Highland dancing and other Scottish-themed events.
We have a local celebration called Tartan Day South held in Cayce, South Carolina and at other nearby venues.
It is held in the finest tradition of the original Highland Games and Celtic Festivals.
Tartan Day South is cancelled for the year of 2020 due to concerns about COVID-19.
It is planned to resume in 2021.
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- April 5, 2020
- Things I won't Eat
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With the origins of the COVID-19 virus outbreak being said to have began with the consumption of bats from China's wet markets, it is important for me to clarify specific animals that I decline to consider food animals.
These include (but are not limited to):
Amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders) Canines (dogs) Chiroptera (bats) Felines (cats) Marine mammals (any) Marsupials (opossums, kangaroos, koalas, wombats, Tasmainian devils) Monotremes (duckbilled platypusses) Procyons (raccoons) Pholidota (pangolins) Reptiles (lizards, snakes, crocodiles, aligators, turtles, humanoids) Rodents (rats, squirrels, rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, gophers, guinea pigs) 
I am what I consider to be an 'adventurous' eater. I eat many things that others in my family and among my acquaintances cannot tolerate ... say sushi, sashimi, various tartar dishes and so forth.
However, these are prepared by individuals I know, trust, and consider to be domain experts in the field of food preparation and as such I feel safe eating these things even if they are outside the mainstream tastes for your typical insipid inbred southerner.
Even yankees shun much of these delacacies as well.
So before you offer me a nice plate of frog legs with lemon and drawn butter consider those things others may not consume with the relish upon which you may enjoy them.
No ... I'm not a 'food prude' and no I am not one to shun things over some exotic bouquet nor flavor pallet they might employ.
I simply don't eat them because I choose not to do so. My reasons primarily surround health aspects but I also recognize that the animal itself may be something for which I could never cook and eat.
Say a doggie or a kitty.
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- April 4, 2020
- Isaac K Funk
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Back in my childhood I was given many sets of encyclopedia in an effort to augment my public schooling.
Isaac Kaufmann Funk
September 10, 1839 – April 4, 1912
My mom would pass on sets from my uncle and various other sources and even made a weekly trip to the local piggly wiggly to buy a Funk and Wagnalls volume until we had amassed not only a complete set, but several yearbooks as well.
Then there were the Golden Book Encylopedia and Grollier's sets and I made it a point to devour each and every tome as if they weren't going to make anymore.
The sum result in this has been an enhancement of the body of knowledge I acquired during the course of my childhood and youth which was unsurpassed in that dull and commonplace environment such as the South Carolina and Florida public schools.
Isaac Kaufmann Funk was a Lutheran minister,lexicographer, editor, publisher, and spelling reformer from the USA.
He cofounded the Funk & Wagnalls Company. He was the father of author and publisher Wilfred J. Funk who contributed the "Word Power" feature in Reader's Digest from 1945 to 1962. He was the grandfather of author Peter Funk, who continued "Word Power" until 2003.
Funk & Wagnalls Company was the publisher of The Literary Digest, The Standard Dictionary of the English Language, and Funk & Wagnalls Standard Encyclopedia ... of which I was the proud owner of a complete set for many years.
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- April 3, 2020
- Blame Where Blame is Due
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All too many in the mainstream media are casting blame on President Trump for the Chinese Wuhan Coronavirus COVID-19.
When assigning a scapegoat it is usual and customary to choose individuals with culpability. This is not the case with The President.
These morons of CNN, MSNBC, and numerous others like to focus their fear mongering on the public while casting undeserved blame upon the President.
History will record that jurisdiction responsible for loosing this plague upon the world ...
That being China.
We're going to take the blame game out on the mainstream media who so richly deserve the label liars and enemies of the state.
Then there are those jurisdictions who have taken martial law upon themselves stepping on the civil rights of their citizens as though ruling by devine right decree.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the best in many and the worst in too many.
There will be repercussions for those misguided media members as well as leaderships of jurisdictions who overstep their authority over the taxpayers.
Too much has been stirred up for the leftist liberal survival in the body politic.
Too many understand the stupidity imposed on The Republic by Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, et al and their decline continues with increasing velocity.
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- April 2, 2020
- International Children's Book Day 2020
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When I was a kid there were books. I grew into a voracious reader and the information overload has been a good thing in my education and ability to do what I do as well as I am able.
Later in life I find those reading choices less beckoning. The authors have diverged from fiction, poetry, and history to purely technical, jargon, flow charts, and schematics.
International Children's Book Day (ICBD) happens annually and is sponsored by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). They are an international non-profit founded in 1967.
Their Chidrens Book Day is held to coincide with the birthday of Hans Christian Andersen's which is the second of Apirl.
It is a day for writing competitions, announcements of book awards and events with authors of children's literature
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There are international sections of the IBBY and each year one of those is given the opportunity to sponsor ICBD.
I have always been a proponent of children's books due to those benefits I gleaned from reading as a child. I hope that you cultivate similar interest if it's not already there and as usual, have a happy ICBD !
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- April 1, 2020
- April Fools Day 2020
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Today is April Fools Day, aka All Fools Day and is our yearly day for practical jokes and hoaxes.
It's not really a 'holiday' anywhere. Just a fairly universal day for playing pranks on your fellows which will be more or less well received but sometimes poorly reacted to depending on the personality of your recipient.
There are even elaborate kits obtainable from joke shops to aid and abet your efforts at invoking that mirthful mayhem you seek.
If you find yourself in Odessa, Ukraine there it is an official city holiday.
If you miss the day entirely (which I sometimes do) there are other yearly opportunities for playing various jokes on others.
Some of us don't even need a special day at all. Yes, I am a joker and a hoaxer and I make it a point to give people this crap at least once yearly, but often induge myself even more frequently. So if you hear me shout April Fools at you rest assured you have been pranked even if you you haven't noticed what I did ... yet.
Happy April Fools Day to you !
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- March 31, 2020
- World Backup Day 2020
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I spent a long time in college teaching computers. Sometimes I would teach adults. Other times I found myself teaching curriculum to various classes enrolled in departments. It was a dismal existence that I did for 20 years to pay the bills. I made good money, but gave up a life in the trade.
One of those courses I taught was "Intro to PC". The college stole my notes and had the audicity to put their copyright on my work WITHOUT my permission. That's because the director, the assistant director, and the receptionist who THOUGHT she was a director and the senior teaching staff were predominately idiots who could present a script but were unable to correlate the technical information being presented to practical examples in the workplace.
During the course of Intro to PC I always dwelled on backups for at least an hour. We needed to understand why you need backups. How to execute backups. The importance of rotating your backup sets to keep them fresh. This was done along with various operating system and proprietary solutions toward that end.
My selling point for backups was "if your life is contained on a floppy and that floppy is destroyed your only protection is a spare copy of that floppy. Back then floppies were envogue and nowadays they don't even install floppy drives on machines anymore.
HOWEVER, there are other media like usb drives, optical disks, and the like which make excellent backup copies of those things you'd really rather not lose. Disk based, tape based, optical media based ... whatever. If you maintain a fresh viable copy of anything important you can keep your hands on it in the even of major catastrophe.
Cloud backups consist of your stuff on someone else's machine. This means you are incapable of managing your own existence but for those of you dumbasses out there I suppose it is a viable option. You sniveling no skill having weenie.
So today is World Backup Day. It is a day reserved to drive the importance of regular backups home. For example I back up data files on my servers each week and have restored twice in my career with total recovery.
Had I not had backups this would not have been possible.
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- March 30, 2020
- National Doctors Day 2020
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Physicians and I have not been doing too well of late. I was seeing a PA who decided she wanted to place me on bleeding edge diabetes meds that had just been released in pill form.
She kept him-hawing around the price answering my "how much" questions with "your benefits will coordinate with their discount program" and it won't be much.
Now, when you get a $730 a month prescription after SPECIFICALLY saying how you want trusted, tried, and true GENERICS in an effort to CONTAIN COSTS there is a fundamental flaw in your relationship and it all smacks of kickback payola from some drug company IMHO.
Anyway, I tried the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Columbia as an alternative with high hopes and they are utterly incompetent allowing many of my drugs to lapse after episodes of pleading and I still don't have one of the medications of which I take three pills daily. Can you say "institutional license" ?
Needless to say we are done as well.
So now we come to National Doctors Day and we're supposed to celebrate those contributions of physicians to our lives and communities regardless of how shoddily they "treat" us.
It's about as bad as having to follow a physician to ten different practices because he keeps getting fired from every one he joins.
So no, won't be doing too much celebrating of National Doctors Day lest I load my pistol and try popping a few caps in some worthless medical professionals populating my area.
They want you to submit to their every whim and practice contrary to your needs and leave you in the lerch at every turn.
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- March 29, 2020
- National Vietnam War Veterans Day 2020
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My late stepfather was wounded in the Tet Offensive in the Viet Nam Conflict while serving as a journalist with The Stars and Stripes.
The Tet Offensive was a series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam.
Upon his return to the United States he was abused by the west coast hippie movement who cursed him for his service, called him unspeakable names, and threw rocks and other things at him as he tried to make his way through the airport with two broken collarbones and both arms trussed up in slings.
Such is the leftist idiocy and unfortunately much of it remains to this day.
The offensive was an attempt to spur rebellion among the South Vietnamese population and adversely influence the US participation therein.
Today is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. This is an annual holiday in the US recognizing US military veterans who served during the Vietnam War.
March 29 was chosen as National Vietnam War Veterans Day because on March 29, 1973, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) was disbanded and the last US combat troops departed the Republic of Vietnam.
The last unit consisted of elements of MACV's Infantry Security Force who were in actuality special couriers.
My step father was a highly decorated hero of the United States of America. He did not deserve the rude welcome and attempts to harm him he received upon his return from Vietnam from the hostile idiot hippie movement of that era.
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- March 28, 2020
- Reba McEntire's Birthday 2020
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So it's one of my favorite artist's birthdays today ...
Ms Reba Nell McEntire.
She is an American singer and songwriter primarily in the Country genre as well as a recent branch into Gospel music and she is an accomplished actress and record producer as well.
I must admit that I wasn't in love with her at first ...
But all that red and that voice and those musical numbers just reached out and grabbed me.
Her television program was something I enjoyed as well and likely contributed to that allure which was cultivated in my heart over time.
Anyway, today is her birthday.
She is a scant two weeks younger than I am and I hope she outlives me by a 100 or so years because she has so much to offer the world.
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- March 27, 2020
- International Whiskey Day 2020
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Never was one for the taste of liquor. I had a friend in the Navy who preferred it to all other alcoholic beverages.
I could drink beer for a while with no difficulty but found the taste of mixed drinks generally revolting ...
Except for vodka which I really became interested in while at the Naval Training Center in Orlando. It would seem that I drank for effect while some of my companions actually enjoyed the taste of their drinks.
Today is International Whiskey Day. It is a day to support those who make Scottish Canadian, Japanese, Irish, and American whiskey ... and also includes support for the sufferers of Parkinson's disease and the research thereof.
Very appropriate as my friend Steve is a proponent of whiskey and a sufferer of Parkinson's disease.
The spelling of the day utilizes an embedded e or not depending on the local spelling traditions of the area from which a whiskey is produced.
Over the years I have acquired some very valuable bottles of whiskey which have come and gone, primarily at the hands of friends and I don't really begrudge any of those losses because it's never been a product I coveted.
There are other products which I have begrudged giving to others — but that's another story.
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