History for November 3

History for November 3 - On-This-Day.com
William Cullen Bryant 1794, James Reston 1909, Charles Bronson 1921 



Micheal Dukakis 1933, Roseanne Barr 1952, Dennis Miller 1953 


1507 - Leonardo DaVinci was commissioned by the husband of Lisa Gherardini to paint her. The work is known as the Mona Lisa. 


1793 - Stephen F. Austin was born. He was the principal founder of Texas. 


1796 - John Adams was elected the 2nd U.S. President. 


1892 - The first automatic telephone went into service at LaPorte, IN. The device was invented by Almon Strowger. 


1903 - Panama proclaimed its independence from Columbia. 


1911 - Chevrolet Motor Car Company was founded by Louis Chevrolet and William C. Durant. 


1941 - U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Grew warned that the Japanese may be planning a sudden attack on the U.S. 


1957 - Sputnik II was launched by the Soviet Union. It was the second manmade satellite to be put into orbit and was the first to put an animal into space, a dog named Laika. 


1998 - Minnesota elected Jesse "The Body" Ventura, a former pro wrestler, as its governor. 


2003 - In Kabul, Afghanistan, a post-Taliban draft constitution was unveiled.

‘Hello Everybody! There Is No Global Warming!’: Weather Channel Founder Goes Off on Climate Change | TheBlaze.com

‘Hello Everybody! There Is No Global Warming!’: Weather Channel Founder Goes Off on Climate Change | TheBlaze.com:

"Coleman then attacked CNN:

CNN has taken a very strong position on global warming, [saying] that it is a consensus. Well there is no consensus in science. Science isn’t a vote. Science is about facts…[Man-made climate change] has been become a big political point of the Democratic Party and part of their platform, but the science is on my side."

Ya caint fix what da folks don't want fixed-------Federal agency's report: Muskegon Family Care didn't consider costs or alternatives for celebrity fundraiser

Federal agency's report: Muskegon Family Care didn't consider costs or alternatives for celebrity fundraiser | MLive.com:
MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, MI – The Muskegon Family Care administration used pricey advertising services and the help of celebrities for an extravagant fundraiser and golf tournament last year, but the occasion failed to generate returns.
....A finalized "limited scope review," completed by HRSA's Division of Financial Integrity in August and obtained by MLive Muskegon Chronicle under the Freedom of Information Act in October, said Muskegon Family Care spent $177,053 on costs related to the effort but raised only $23,114.
...The report, authored by HRSA program integrity officials Joshua Campos and Nancy Czarnecki, said Muskegon Family Care used PayPal.com to collect fundraiser donations but did not transfer the funds to the facility's operating account until January when the financial integrity team visited the site.
...In addition to the six-figure sum provided to Purpose Place, the center spent another $69,553 on other services.
Some of the larger expenses included: $11,400 mostly for first-class airfare for Bridges, Hildreth, celebrities and the owner of Purpose Place; about $15,000 in Muskegon Country Club charges and more than $18,000 for stays at the JW Marriott in Grand Rapids, the Doubletree in Los Angeles and the Montage Beverly Hills luxury hotel.
...Former Muskegon Family Care board member Sonya Hernandez, who told the Chronicle in an email that she resigned last October because of ongoing "shady" situations, said the board approved the fundraiser because Bridges said the effort would come at no cost to the health center.

Ya think this only happens in NC?-------NOT!-------UNC scandal: An acute case of what ails academia

UNC scandal: An acute case of what ails academia | WashingtonExaminer.com:
"Throughout this year, the full scale of the academic scandal at the University of North Carolina has gradually been laid bare.
This was not a mere case of cheating or misbehavior, nor is it merely a college sports scandal. 
It is a systematic, two-decade-long conspiracy involving academic advisers, students, at least one low-level administrator and the chairman of the university's Afro-American studies department.

More than 3,000 students — nearly half of them athletes — were permitted to take African-American Studies classes that involved no work, no attendance and obviously no learning. 
They were essentially expected to plagiarize their final papers, or else just write nonsensical essays — and many did. In the cases of several star athletes, the grades — which were (incredibly) awarded by the department's secretary and signed off by its chairman — kept them eligible to play basketball or football."

VIDEO: Greg Gutfeld GOES OFF: They’re NOT ‘Lone Wolves,’ They’re JIHADISTS!

VIDEO: Greg Gutfeld GOES OFF: They’re NOT ‘Lone Wolves,’ They’re JIHADISTS!:

"Still, what should we make of these “lone wolf” attacks like the hatchet-wielding Muslim who attacked two of New York’s finest? Or what of the Oklahoma nutcase who beheaded a former coworker in the name of Allah?
 Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld recently denounced the term “lone wolf” to describe these Islamic jihadists, claiming that such a term denies the inherent evil in their actions and the zealotry in their hearts.
“Seriously, lone wolf could be the name of an edgy cop show from the 1980’s, one starring Jan Michael Vincent before the downslide,” Gutfeld said. “‘Lone Wolf’ is about an ex-mercenary out to settle a score, always outside the law and usually on after ‘MacGyver.”

Latest malady: ‘pre-traumatic stress disorder’ via ‘climate depression’

Latest malady: ‘pre-traumatic stress disorder’ via ‘climate depression’

Camille Parmesan shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007 based on her work on the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
A professor at Plymouth University and the University of Texas at Austin, she became so “professionally depressed” a couple years ago that she considered quitting.
“I felt like here was this huge signal I was finding and no one was paying attention to it,” Parmesan says. 

“I was really thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’”
Parmesan appears to be suffering from “pre-traumatic stress disorder,” a term coined by forensic psychiatrist Lise Van Susteren.

Grist reports:

“It’s an intense preoccupation with thoughts we cannot get out of our minds,” Van Susteren says. And for some, it’s a preoccupation that extends well outside of the office. “Everyday irritations as parents and spouses have their place, they’re legitimate,” she says. “But when you’re talking about thousands of years of impacts and species, giving a shit about whether you’re going to get the right soccer equipment or whether you forgot something at school is pretty tough.”

What’s even more deflating for a climate scientist is when sounding the alarm on climatic catastrophes seems to fall on deaf ears. “How would that make you feel? You take this information to someone and they say they don’t believe you, as if it’s a question of beliefs,” says Jeffrey Kiehl, senior scientist for climate change research at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. “I’m not talking about religion here, I’m talking about facts.

Van Susteren recommends a few “climate trauma survival tips” for folks like Parmesan, including meditation, therapy, and “taking particular care to reinforce boundaries between work and one’s personal life.”

Hey, how about that — basically the same stuff anyone else in a stressful profession may make use of.

Grist’s Brentin Mock goes further, arguing that climate scientists should get brutally honest with emotional language: “Forgive my language here, but if scientists are looking for a clearer language to express the urgency of climate change, there’s no clearer word that expresses that urgency than FUCK.”

Halloween ABSURD: Do You Know What a Teal Pumpkin Means?

Halloween ABSURD: Do You Know What a Teal Pumpkin Means?:

Happy Halloween. Do you know what a teal pumpkin means? Here’s a hint: it doesn’t mean you’re gay. But it does mean you are politically correct . . . as far as the food police and peanutzis are concerned. Apparently, teal is the new black. And the new color signifying we’re even more of a nation of wusses than we were last Halloween. Congrats, America.

This Halloween, Food Allergy Research & Education, a national nonprofitgroup, is encouraging communities to put teal-painted pumpkins or free printable signs in their front yards to alert trick-or-treaters they have nonfood offerings in addition to candy. “We’re hoping this becomes a tradition for years to come,” said Veronica LaFemina, FARE’s campaign spokeswoman. The Teal Pumpkin Project is not an effort to scrub Halloween of its traditional candy treats but instead an effort to help kids with food allergies, including those at risk of life-threatening anaphylaxis.

"Who won the Civil War?"-----Politically-Challenged: Texas Tech Edition

UNC scandal: An acute case of what ails academia | WashingtonExaminer.com

UNC scandal: An acute case of what ails academia | WashingtonExaminer.com:

"More than 3,000 students — nearly half of them athletes — were permitted to take African-American Studies classes that involved no work, no attendance and obviously no learning. They were essentially expected to plagiarize their final papers, or else just write nonsensical essays — and many did. In the cases of several star athletes, the grades — which were (incredibly) awarded by the department's secretary and signed off by its chairman — kept them eligible to play basketball or football."

After flushing a trillion gallons into the Pacific, California finally gets rain by Kevin Whiteman

After flushing a trillion gallons into the Pacific, California finally gets rain by Kevin Whiteman: "While Mother Nature has been particularly cruel to the state, more than a few Californios blame the Feds for making an already bad situation worse.
After environmental activists eventually convinced a federal judge almost six years ago to save the Snail Darter fish from the edge of extinction, fresh water designated for the agricultural powerhouse that is California’s Central Valley would have to be purged from the state’s series of reservoirs, aqueducts, storage facilities and canals, only to be essentially flushed into the Pacific Ocean. 
The Snail Darter is normally cut up into hook-sized pieces by locals as bait.
As cited by the HotAir.com news portal on Feb. 15, 2014, the Eureka State’s planners constructed a water system over a half century ago that would ensure a ready supply of runoff …"

This explains the "success" of the democrat party/socialism/communism------How facts backfire

How facts backfire - The Boston Globe:
"If people are furnished with the facts, they will be clearer thinkers and better citizens.
If they are ignorant, facts will enlighten them.
If they are mistaken, facts will set them straight.
In the end, truth will out.
Won’t it?
Maybe not.
Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information.
It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds.
In fact, quite the opposite.
In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. 
In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. 
Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. 
Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.
This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates.
They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds.
The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false.
And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. 
Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.
“The general idea is that it’s absolutely threatening to admit you’re wrong,” says political scientist Brendan Nyhan, the lead researcher on the Michigan study.
The phenomenon — known as “backfire” — is “a natural defense mechanism to avoid that cognitive dissonance.”"

Warning: Avoid This Corrupt, Third-World Country At All Costs

Warning: Avoid This Corrupt, Third-World Country At All Costs | Zero Hedge:

Submitted by Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog,
John Anderson, an American tourist from San Clemente, California, was driving down a poorly-maintained highway when he saw flashing lights in his rearview mirror.
After a brief exchange with the local police officer, Anderson was shocked when the cop started searching his vehicle.
Anderson had $25,180 in US dollar cash in the car, which by the way was not a crime according to the local laws.
When the cop saw it, he told Anderson that we would take it and threatened him with arrest if he protested.
Anderson couldn’t believe it. This is the sort of stuff you always hear about in these third world countries—corrupt cops and state robbery.
Ultimately Anderson gave in; the cop let him go and did not charge him with a crime, but took every last penny in the vehicle.
And for the last two years, Anderson has been trying to unsuccessfully fight it in the country’s Kangaroo court system.

Clearly we should all avoid going to such dangerously corrupt third world countries.

Except in this case, Anderson was in the United States of America. And he is far from being the only victim of this highway robbery known as Civil Asset Forfeiture.

Since 9/11, police forces in the Land of the Free made over 62,000 seizures without charging anyone with any crime, stealing $2.5 billion in cash alone.

The cost of taking legal action against the government is so high, that only about 17% of the victims actually challenged the seizures.

And even then, only 41% of those that challenged have been able to get their money back.

This means that the government has a better than 93% success rate in outright theft.

Follow the money-----Illegal immigrant children get tilapia farm, guitar lessons, miniature ponies

Illegal immigrant children get tilapia farm, guitar lessons, miniature ponies - Washington Times:
One of the contractors housing some of the surge of illegal immigrant children from this summer offers them a petting zoo with miniature ponies, a tilapia fish farm operation and guitar lessons, according to documents released Thursday by a senator who questioned whether the plush accommodations were a good use of taxpayers’ money.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, said it seemed excessive to pay the $329 that Southwest Key Programs, the contractor, charged per child per day at one of its California facilities in Lemon Grove, California. 
Another facility in El Cajon cost taxpayers $316 per child per day.
Mr. Grassley said it was particularly questionable to pay those high rates even as the White House came to Congress asking for more money to handle the surge of children earlier this year."

Our men and women are still dying.

"Please read it. Nothing more needs to be said.

Ken Koenen

My lead flight attendant came to me and said, "We have an H.R. on this flight." (H.R. stands for human remains.)

"Are they military?" I asked.

'Yes', she said.

'Is there an escort?' I asked.

'Yes, I've already assigned him a seat'.

'Would you please tell him to come to the Flight Deck. You can board him early," I said...

A short while later a young army sergeant entered the flight deck. He was the image of the perfectly dressed soldier. He introduced himself and I asked him about his soldier.

The escorts of these fallen soldiers talk about them as if they are still alive and still with us. 'My soldier is on his way back to Virginia ,' he said. He proceeded to answer my questions, but offered no words.

I asked him if there was anything I could do for him and he said no. I told him that he had the toughest job in the military, and that I appreciated the work that he does for the families of our fallen soldiers. The first officer and I got up out of our seats to shake his hand. He left the Flight Deck to find his seat.

We completed our preflight checks, pushed back and performed an uneventful departure. About 30 minutes into our flight, I received a call from the lead flight attendant in the cabin.

'I just found out the family of the soldier we are carrying, is also on board', she said. She then proceeded to tell me that the father, mother, wife and 2-year old daughter were escorting their son, husband, and father home. The family was upset because they were unable to see the container that the soldier was in before we left.

We were on our way to a major hub at which the family was going to wait four hours for the connecting flight home to Virginia . The father of the soldier told the flight attendant that knowing his son was below him in the cargo compartment and being unable to see him was too much for him and the family to bear. He had asked the flight attendant if there was anything that could be done to allow them to see him upon our arrival. The family wanted to be outside by the cargo door to watch the soldier being taken off the airplane.

I could hear the desperation in the flight attendants voice when she asked me if there was anything I could do. 'I'm on it', I said. I told her that I would get back to her.

Airborne communication with my company normally occurs in the form of e-mail like messages. I decided to bypass this system and contact my flight dispatcher directly on a secondary radio. There is a radio operator in the operations control center who connects you to the telephone of the dispatcher. I was in direct contact with the dispatcher. I explained the situation I had on board with the family and what it was the family wanted. He said he understood and that he would get back to me.

Two hours went by and I had not heard from the dispatcher. We were going to get busy soon and I needed to know what to tell the family. I sent a text message asking for an update. I saved the return message from the dispatcher and the following is the text:

'Captain, sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. There is policy on this now, and I had to check on a few things. Upon your arrival a dedicated escort team will meet the aircraft. The team will escort the family to the ramp and plane side. A van will be used to load the remains with a secondary van for the family.

The family will be taken to their departure area and escorted into the terminal, where the remains can be seen on the ramp. It is a private area for the family only. When the connecting aircraft arrives, the family will be escorted onto the ramp and plane side to watch the remains being loaded for the final leg home.

Captain, most of us here in flight control are veterans. Please pass our condolences on to the family. Thanks.

I sent a message back, telling flight control thanks for a good job. I printed out the message and gave it to the lead flight attendant to pass on to the father. The lead flight attendant was very thankful and told me, 'You have no idea how much this will mean to them.'

Things started getting busy for the descent, approach and landing. After landing, we cleared the runway and taxied to the ramp area. The ramp is huge with 15 gates on either side of the alleyway. It is always a busy area with aircraft maneuvering every which way to enter and exit. When we entered the ramp and checked in with the ramp controller, we were told that all traffic was being held for us.

'There is a team in place to meet the aircraft', we were told. It looked like it was all coming together, then I realized that once we turned the seat belt sign off, everyone would stand up at once and delay the family from getting off the airplane. As we approached our gate, I asked the copilot to tell the ramp controller, we were going to stop short of the gate to make an announcement to the passengers. He did that and the ramp controller said, 'Take your time.'

I stopped the aircraft and set the parking brake. I pushed the public address button and said: 'Ladies and gentleman, this is your Captain speaking: I have stopped short of our gate to make a special announcement. We have a passenger on board who deserves our honor and respect. His Name is Private XXXXXX, a soldier who recently lost his life. Private XXXXXX is under your feet in the cargo hold. Escorting him today is Army Sergeant XXXXXXX. Also, on board are his father, mother, wife, and daughter. Your entire flight crew is asking for all passengers to remain in their seats to allow the family to exit the aircraft first. Thank you.'

We continued the turn to the gate, came to a stop and started our shutdown procedures. A couple of minutes later I opened the cockpit door. I found the two forward flight attendants crying, something you just do not see. I was told that after we came to a stop, every passenger on the aircraft stayed in their seats, waiting for the family to exit the aircraft.

When the family got up and gathered their things, a passenger slowly started to clap his hands. Moments later, more passengers joined in and soon the entire aircraft was clapping. Words of 'God Bless You', I'm sorry, thank you, be proud, and other kind words were uttered to the family as they made their way down the aisle and out of the airplane. They were escorted down to the ramp to finally be with their loved one.

Many of the passengers disembarking thanked me for the announcement I had made. They were just words, I told them, I could say them over and over again, but nothing I say will bring back that brave soldier.

I respectfully ask that all of you reflect on this event and the sacrifices that millions of our men and women have made to ensure our freedom and safety in these United States of AMERICA.

Foot note:

I know everyone who reads this will have tears in their eyes, including me. Prayer chain for our Military... PLEASE SHARE THIS! Please send this on after a short prayer for our service men and women.

They die for me and mine and you and yours and deserve our honor and respect.

Prayer Request:

When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops around the world... There is nothing attached. Just send this to people in your address book. Do not let it stop with you. Of all the gifts you could give a Marine, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, and others deployed in harm's way, prayer is the very best one.

GOD BLESS YOU!!!

Thank you all who have served, or are serving. We Will not forget!!!!"

Pelosi: Obama must stop deportations, allow entry to millions more illegal immigrants | WashingtonExaminer.com

Pelosi: Obama must stop deportations, allow entry to millions more illegal immigrants | WashingtonExaminer.com:

"The trio of (DEMOCRAT) lawmakers said the president should go even further by permitting close relatives of citizens and lawful permanent residents to gain entry into the United States, and blocking the deportation of relatives who are here illegally."

Federal Government Made $20 Billion in Secret Purchases in Recent Months

Federal Government Made $20 Billion in Secret Purchases in Recent Months | NBC4 Washington:

The federal government has spent at least $20 billion in taxpayer money this year on items and services that it is permitted to keep secret from the public, according to an investigation by the News4 I-Team.

The purchases, known among federal employees as “micropurchases,” are made by some of the thousands of agency employees who are issued taxpayer-funded purchase cards. The purchases, in most cases, remain confidential and are not publicly disclosed by the agencies. A sampling of those purchases, obtained by the I-Team via the Freedom of Information Act, reveals at least one agency used those cards to buy $30,000 in Starbucks Coffee drinks and products in one year without having to disclose or detail the purchases to the public.

A series of other recent purchases, reviewed by internal government auditors, include wasteful and inappropriate purchases by government employees -- including a gym membership and JC Penney clothing -- that were not detected or stopped until after the purchase was completed.

The I-Team’s findings have been the subject of a Congressional hearing and created scrutiny from taxpayer watchdogs for the Department of Homeland Security, which made the Starbucks purchases and declines to publicly detail them.

A “micropurchase” is a purchase costing less than $3,000 in which a government-issued purchase card is swiped. The U.S. Departments of State, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Defense, each made tens of millions of dollars of “micropurchases” in the past year, according to an I-Team review. But each agency said it does not make public an itemized list of its transactions, limiting the information to internal government reviewers and users of the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Andrew Klavan: Is Obamacare Working, Or Are We All Going to Die?

History for November 2

History for November 2 - On-This-Day.com:
Daniel Boone 1734, James Knox Polk (U.S.) 1795, Warren G. Harding (U.S.) 1865 


Burt Lancaster 1913, Patrick J. Buchanan 1938, David Schwimmer 1966 - Actor ("Friends") 



1721 - Peter the Great (Peter I), ruler of Russia, changed his title to emperor. 


1783 - U.S. Gen. George Washington gave his "Farewell Address to the Army" near Princeton, NJ. 


1889 - North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted into the union as the 39th and 40th states. 


1917 - British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour expressed support for a "national home" for the Jews of Palestine. 


1921 - Margaret Sander's National Birth Control League combined with Mary Ware Denetts Voluntary Parenthood League to form the American Birth Control League. 


1947 - Howard Hughes flew his "Spruce Goose," a huge wooden airplane, for eight minutes in California. It was the plane's first and only flight. The "Spruce Goose," nicknamed because of the white-gray color of the spruce used to build it, never went into production. 


1948 - Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for the U.S. presidency. The Chicago Tribune published an early edition that had the headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN." The Truman victory surprised many polls and newspapers. 


1963 - South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem was assassinated in a military coup. 


1983 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed a bill establishing a federal holiday on the third Monday of January in honor of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 


1984 - Velma Barfield became the first woman to be executed in the U.S. since 1962. She had been convicted of the poisoning death of her boyfriend. 


1998 - U.S. President Clinton gave his first in-depth interview since the White House sex scandal to Black Entertainment Television talk show host and political commentator Tavis Smiley on the network's "BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley."

Obama's Border Policy Fueled Epidemic, Evidence Shows | The Daily Caller

Obama's Border Policy Fueled Epidemic, Evidence Shows | The Daily Caller:

"But there’s already more than enough statistical evidence for American citizens to demand that scientists test the viruses to see if Obama’s progressive border priorities spread the dangerous contagion throughout the country during 2014.

So far, that virus has been found in nine American kids who died from illness, has apparently inflicted unprecedented polio-like paralysis in roughly 50 kids, and has put hundreds of young American kids into hospital emergency wards and intensive care units throughout more than 40 states."