Happy Birthday to Me: All About April 19th

What follows is a reworking of a blog post I did on my birthday four years ago. I was 43 then. I'm 47 now. Early forties to late forties, just that fast! Or is the entire span mid-40s? Hmmm. . .

But it really doesn't sound so bad. I can still (barely) play the doubling game, where you figure out how old you'll be at twice your age: 94. Not entirely likely, but not impossible either. I could get there. Grandpa Greenlee made it to 92 and only expired because he wanted to, I'm convinced. Grandma Greenlee got all the way to 94, though a good portion of her marbles didn't, sadly. The maternal grandparents only got to 67 and 79, so taking an average drops the number to 83, which doesn't sound so bad.  And hey, most of my friends and co-workers are older than me, and The Other Half will be 52 this year so 47 sounds just fine.

April 19th isn't a particularly happy day in history, despite its meaning to me. Here are just a few of the bad and/or very serious things that happened on my birthday:

- 1775: "The shot heard 'round the world," the first shot of the American Revolutionary War fired. Sure, it ended up OK, but somebody was on the other end of that shot!

- 1861: Baltimore Riot in the American Civil War.

- 1927: Mae West sentenced to ten days in prison for indecency!

- 1961: Bay of Pigs invasion.

- 1989: 47 soldiers killed on USS Iowa.

- 1993: Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas is raided, then burns to the ground.

- 1995: Domestic terrorism of Oklahoma City bombing.
- 1997: Red River Flood in North Dakota.
- 2005: The previous Pope was named. He was creepy.

This week's unfortunate events in Boston, Mass. and West, Texas have preceded April 19th by a few days, and though they haven't officially been tied to any of the above, I've just got to wonder if there's a connection somehow.

Then again, some good and/or interesting things happened on April 19th too:

- 1775: That American Revolutionary War thing turned out to be good, of course.

- 1892: First automobile driven in the United States.

- 1935: Actor Dudley Moore born.

- 1946: Actor/singer Tim Curry born.

- 1971: Charles Manson sentenced to death. . .so why is he still alive?

- 1987: The Simpsons debuts as a short, recurring cartoon within The Tracey Ullman Show (on my 21st birthday, and I was watching!).

- 2011: Fidel Castro resigned.

Yeah, so I might not be blogging very much today, dig?

Other birthdays today include Kate Hudson, Jayne Mansfield, Hayden Christensen, Ashley Judd and Suge Knight, who is exactly the same age as me. Deaths on this date include Charles Darwin (1892), Pierre Curie (1906) and Benny Hill (1992).

And did you know that my birthday is also: Bicycle Day, Venezuala's Independence Day, "Feast Day" of several Roman Catholic saints, and this sometimes it's Orthodox Easter! My birthday has occurred on ordinary Easter three times during my life, and never will again, unless I live to be 105. Fancy that!

Source for much of this frivolity: Wikipedia.org

All About Rep. Sally Kern (R-Okla.), Anti-Gay Bigot

I'm still not convinced she isn't a clever
Rachel Dratch character. Image from Mediaite.

As he often does, friend and contributor Stupid Monkey Planet sent me a few blogging ideas (I was running short). But a bunch of them are all on one topic, Oklahoma Congresswoman Sally Kern (R-Obviously). So bear with me, I'm going to try to work them all into one post.

For a while now, Sally has been famous for saying incendiary things about gay people. But like a lot of the tea baggin' GOP these days, when she gets called on her outrageous remarks, she doesn't backpedal, she doubles down.  But also like many of her contemporaries (think Rick Perry's "Social Security = Ponzi Scheme"), Sally goes too big. Prime example:


[Excerpt]


GOP state legislator: Homosexuality worse than terrorism 




Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (R-84) recently defended remarks she made in 2008 that homosexuality was a bigger threat than terrorism or Islam…by explaining that homosexuality is more dangerous than terrorist attacks. . .

Read more at: Mediaite


But what exactly makes Sally so anti-gay anyway? There's gotta be something. You know, like Michele Bachmann's anti-gay comments and migraines must come from (Cough! Marcus! Cough!) somewhere. And you might be right. Much like Mr. Bachmann, Mr. Kern seems to specialize in "praying away the gay." You can let history and intuition be your guide on what drives Mr. Kern.

[Excerpt]


The Untold Story About Sally Kern 

. . .Does it make sense to you to label someone who actually helps people who struggle with homosexuality as hateful, bigoted, anti-gay and an evil homophobe? The untold part of this story – which I delight to tell you now – is that behind the scenes, Rep. Sally Kern and her husband, Dr. Stephen Kern have supported First Stone Ministries for many years. Dr. Stephen Kern is the senior pastor at Olivet Baptist Church, which actually hosts some of First Stone Ministries’ support groups. The Kern’s have a special place in their hearts for our ministry to those who struggle with same-sex attractions and homosexuality. For several years before all this controversy erupted, they had put action to their love for those who are struggling and for their families. The next part of this untold story is from a current staff member with First Stone Ministries. . .

Read more at: First Stone Ministries

Sally Kern would clean up at "Really Bad
Analogy" if it were a game show.
Image of Oklahoma City Bombing from Wikipedia.

Anyway, this is only the most recent rehash from Sally about the gay being worse than terrorism. She said something similar as far back as 2008. It didn't sit well with a high school senior there, who--understandably, being that it is Oklahoma--had personal experience with terrorism, and didn't appreciate the comparison:

[Excerpt]

A letter to Sally Kern from a senior in high school in Oklahoma.

. . ."As you were not a resident of Oklahoma on that day, it could be explained why you so carelessly chose words saying that the homosexual agenda is worst than terrorism. I can most certainly tell you through my own experience that is not true. I am sure there are many people in your voting district that laid a loved one to death after the terrorist attack on Oklahoma City. I kind of doubt you'll find one of them that will agree with you. . ."

Read his letter at: Equality Florida 


Obviously, Sally was not swayed by this boy's letter. But that is not surprising. After all, she very well may be in a serious state of denial and/or cognitive dissonance, because. . .

Not--as far as I know--Sally Kern's Son.

[Excerpt]


Sally Kern Scrubs Gay Son?

Uh-oh! Could foul-mouthed Sally Kern’s secret be out of the bag?
The Oklahoma lawmaker’s homophobic remarks have been the talk of the town recently, especially her assertion that gay folk are infiltrating schools to indoctrinate children. And, sensing a critical national spotlight, Kern made a very suspicious change to her official government homepage. . .

Read more at: Qweerty

Sean Hannity Calls His Fans “Tim McVeigh Wannabes”

You know, I don't really care if it was sarcasm, some lame idea of a joke. As the writer of the excerpted piece below says, you don't casually throw around a reference to a mass murderer/domestic terrorist as a joke. Particularly just a few days before the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

[Excerpt]

Sean Hannity Calls His Fans “Tim McVeigh Wannabes”



Earlier this week, Fox News host Sean Hannity broadcast his eponymous show Hannity from the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Towards the end of the show, Hannity made a rather startling claim that conservatives won the debate regarding health care. Perhaps more startling, or more to the point, unsettling, was his facetious labeling of his fans as “Tim McVeigh wannabes. . .”

Read more at: Mediaite

Columbus's Embarrassment Gets Caught, Apologizes

Image from source, The Columbus Dispatch

Remember that dude from Columbus--my home town--who berated a man with Parkinson's Disease, threw money at him, and embarrassed the whole town (and nation)? Well, somebody figured out who he was, and now he's suddenly oh so sorry. This is what is so worrisome about the whole "mob mentality" that has taken over the conservative/Republican/tea bagger crowd. The feeling of camaraderie makes you do things you might not ordinarily do.

I doubt it will make much of an impact on them though. They have a "tax day" protest planned for April 15th again (though most of them have been unaffected by tax increases). Worst of all, there is a "bring your guns" rally as close as they can legally get to Washington D.C. scheduled for April 19th. . .my friggin' birthday. That's the anniversary of both the Waco standoff and the Oklahoma City bombing. I hope I don't have another "notorious" birthday.

[Excerpt]

Man who threw money at Parkinson’s patient calls behavior ‘shameful’

The man protesting federal health-care legislation who berated and tossed dollar bills at a supporter with Parkinson's disease last week says he is remorseful - and scared.

"I snapped, I absolutely snapped, and I can't explain it any other way," said Chris Reichert in a Dispatch interview. . .

Read more at: The Columbus Dispatch

Bad Anniversaries: Waco and Oklahoma City

Photo from source, CNN

Today is April 19th. It is the anniversary of the "shot heard 'round the world" that started the American Revolutionary War. It's the day the Bay of Pigs fiasco ended. It's the day Tim Curry was born (twenty years to the day before I was). And, as I'm never able to forget--because it is my birthday--it is the anniversary of the end of the Branch Davidian conflict in Waco, Texas, as well as the day of the Oklahoma City bombing by domestic terrorism.

There was a period when I worried that my coming birthdays would herald even worse catastrophes, based on sympathisers of one or both of these events. Fortunately, to date, that hasn't happened. But every year, like clockwork, I find these two events "memorialized" on my birthday. It could be worse, I supposed. At least my birthday isn't September 11.

[Excerpt]

Waco, Oklahoma City mark anniversary of tragedies

Two towns with an odd connection will pause Sunday to reflect on two tragedies that culminated in a wake-up call to domestic terrorism: the Oklahoma City bombing and the standoff that ended in fire at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. . .

Read more at: CNN