This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 274 days remaining until the end of the year. April 1 is most notable in the Western world for being April Fools’ Day.

On this day in 1700, English pranksters begin popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools’ Day by playing practical jokes on each other.

Although the day, also called All Fools’ Day, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery. Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes. These included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.

Historians have also linked April Fools’ Day to ancient festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at the end of March and involved people dressing up in disguises. There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.

April Fools’ Day is celebrated all around the world on the April 1 of every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools’ Day, April 1 is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day where everyone plays all kind of joke and foolishness. The day is marked by the commission of good humoured or funny jokes, hoaxes, and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, teachers, neighbors, work associates, etc.

Traditionally, in some countries such as New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, Australia, and South Africa, the jokes only last until noon, and someone who plays a trick after noon is called an “April Fool”.

Elsewhere, such as in France, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S., the jokes last all day. The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1392). Many writers suggest that the restoration of the January 1 as New Year’s Day in the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, but this theory does not explain earlier references.

 286 – Emperor Diocletian elevates his general Maximian to co-emperor with the rank of Augustus and gives him control over the Western regions of the Roman Empire.

325 – Crown Prince Jin Chengdi, age 4, succeeds his father Jin Mingdi as emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

527 – Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne.

1572 – In the Eighty Years’ War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.

1789 – In New York City, the United States House of Representatives holds its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first House Speaker.

1826 – Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.

1833 – The Convention of 1833, a political gathering of settlers in Mexican Texas to help draft a series of petitions to the Mexican government, begins in San Felipe de Austin

1854 – Hard Times begins serialisation in Charles Dickens’ magazine, Household Words.

1865 – American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks – In Siege of Petersburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.

1867 – Singapore becomes a British crown colony.

1891 – The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.

1918 – The Royal Air Force is created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.

1924 – Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the “Beer Hall Putsch”. However, he spends only nine months in jail, during which he writes Mein Kampf.

1924 – The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed.

1933 – The recently elected Nazis under Julius Streicher organize a one-day boycott of all Jewish-owned businesses in Germany, ushering in a series of anti-Semitic acts.

1937 – Aden becomes a British crown colony.

1939 – Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender.

1941 – The Blockade Runner Badge for the German navy is instituted.

1941 – A military coup in Iraq overthrows the regime of ‘Abd al-Ilah and installs Rashid Ali as Prime Minister.

1944 – Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen.

1945 – World War II: Operation Iceberg – United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war.

1946 – Aleutian Island earthquake: A 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Aleutian Islands creates a tsunami that strikes the Hawaiian Islands killing 159, mostly in Hilo.

1946 – Formation of the Malayan Union.

1947 – Paul becomes king of Greece, on the death of his childless elder brother, George II.

1948 – Cold War: Berlin Airlift – Military forces, under direction of the Russian-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin.

1948 – Faroe Islands receive autonomy from Denmark.

1949 – Chinese Civil War: The Communist Party of China holds unsuccessful peace talks with the Kuomintang in Beijing, after three years of fighting.

1949 – The Canadian government repeals Japanese Canadian internment after seven years.

1949 – The 26 counties of the Irish Free State become the Republic of Ireland.

1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.

1955 – The EOKA rebellion against The British Empire begins in Cyprus, with the goal of obtaining the desired unification (“enosis”) with Greece.

1967 – The United States Department of Transportation begins operation.

1969 – The Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the Royal Air Force.

1970 – President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law, requiring the Surgeon General’s warnings on tobacco products and banning cigarette advertisements on television and radio in the United States, starting on January 1, 1971.

1973 – Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Corbett National Park, India.

1976 – Apple Inc. is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

1976 – Conrail takes over operations from six bankrupt railroads in the Northeastern U.S..

1976 – The Jovian-Plutonian gravitational effect hoax is first reported by British astronomer Patrick Moore.

1979 – Iran becomes an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.

1989 – Margaret Thatcher’s new local government tax, the Community Charge (commonly known as the “poll tax”), is introduced in Scotland.

1992 – Start of the Bosnian war.

1996 – The Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia is created.

1997 – Comet Hale-Bopp is seen passing over perihelion.

1999 – Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.

2001 – An EP-3E United States Navy surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, People’s Republic of China and is detained.

2001 – Former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on war crimes charges.

2001 – Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, the first country to allow it.

2006 – The Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed the “British FBI”, is created in the United Kingdom.

2009 – Croatia and Albania join NATO

Holidays and observances

   * April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Hugh of Grenoble

         o Melito of Sardis

         o Theodora

         o Walric, abbot of Leuconay

         o April 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Civil Service Day (Thailand)

   * Earliest day on which Sizdah Be-dar can fall, while April 2 is the latest; celebrated on the 13th day after vernal equinox. (Iran)

   * Edible Book Day

   * Fossil Fools Day

   * Kha b-Nisan, the Assyrian New Year (Assyrians)

   * Islamic Republic Day (Iran)

   * Odisha Day (Orissa, India)

   * The Capture of Brielle, marked a turning point in the uprising of the Low Countries against Spain in the Eighty Years’ War. (Brielle)

   * The start of Miyako Odori, an annual geiko dance celebration. (Gion District, Kyoto, Japan)

   * Uzupis Day, celebrate the independence of Uzupis.

   * Veneralia, in honor of Venus]. (Roman Empire)

Britain in talks with 10 more Gaddafi aides

Inner circle turn their backs on besieged Libyan dictator

By Cahal Milmo, Oliver Wright and Donald Macintyre in Tripoli Friday, 1 April 2011

The British Government said it was in urgent talks with up to another 10 senior figures in Colonel Gaddafi’s creaking regime about possible defection following the dramatic arrival in Britain of the Libyan dictator’s chief henchman for much of his 40 years in power.

As former foreign minister Moussa Koussa was reported to be “talking voluntarily” to British officials yesterday, the Libyan regime was desperately struggling to limit the damage of the stunning desertion, suggesting he was exhausted and suffering from mental problems.

Sour economy, multiple crises test Japan’s young

Some graduates, destined for corporate life, find purpose volunteering to help those left destitute by quake, tsunami

By Ken Benson

TOKYO – As hundreds of thousands of young people begin their working lives on Friday, they face a transformed Japan that will test a generation reared in affluence yet dismissed by its elders as selfish materalists.

April 1 is the traditional entrance day for incoming classes of new employees, who assume adult responsibilities and values along with the new suits and crisp white shirts that are the uniforms of corporate Japan. But they face a landscape as uncertain as any in their lives, with Japan’s economy hobbled and its national pride bruised by the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.

Yo Miura had expected to enter a bank in the Sendai area, counting on a steady income and a modest amount of prestige.

Call for Lenin’s remains to be moved

The Irish Times – Friday, April 1, 2011  

DANIEL McLAUGHLIN in Moscow

ADVISERS TO Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev have called for the removal of the remains of revolutionary Vladimir Lenin from his Red Square mausoleum as part of major plans to erase remnants of Soviet life from modern Russia.

The project was revealed as the Russian president seeks to portray himself as the progressive face of politics in the country, in contrast to his conservative mentor, prime minister Vladimir Putin, who has lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union and restored huge power to the security services.

It is not clear which of the men will run in next year’s presidential election, though they have pledged not to go head-to-head. Competition between them and their respective cliques is intensifying, with speculation about growing tension in their relationship.

Bears face shrinking future



Mike Campbell

April 1, 2011

THE surface area of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank this northern winter to one of its lowest levels in decades – more bad news for polar bears, which depend on the ice to survive.

Since the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre began tracking sea ice three decades ago, only in 2006 was there as little ice during a northern hemisphere winter – 14.6 million square kilometres.

That’s nearly 8 per cent less than the average of 15.9 million square kilometres recorded from 1979 to 2000.

Japan repeats claims over Dokdo in diplomatic report

 

04-01-2011 10:01

Japan repeated its territorial claims over South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo in its annual diplomatic report Friday, an official said, just two days after Tokyo approved a series of textbooks claiming the islets as its territory.

Shortly after Japan’s Cabinet approved the “Diplomatic Blue Paper” report for 2011 with claims to the islets, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed to continue to reinforce South Korea’s control of the islets, saying Dokdo “is our territory” no matter what happens.

Referring to calls for stronger government action on the issue, Lee said, however, that it wouldn’t be wise for Seoul to make a big deal of the Dokdo matter as the islets are under South Korean control.

“We will continue to undertake what it takes to strengthen our effective control,” he said.

Royal Society publishes tales of oil on troubled waters and the first roll-ups

A letter from Benjamin Franklin describing how to calm stormy seas and the first English description of a cigarette being rolled are among documents released by the Royal Society

Alok Jha , science correspondent

The Guardian, Friday 1 April 2011

How to calm rough seas with oil, the first time anyone from Britain had seen a cigarette being rolled, and Captain Scott’s first impressions of the Antarctic – these are some of the stories revealed in documents digitised and published by the Royal Society on Friday.

The release includes travel journals, diaries and letters from a collection started more than three centuries ago. “Since 1660 the Royal Society has been collecting documents sent to it from all over the world,” said Keith Moore, head of library and archives at the Royal Society’s Centre for History of Science.

Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Muse in the Morning by Robyn
• Six In The Morning by mishima
• Gha! by RiaD

Featured Essays for March 31, 2011-

• "Worst Case" Gets Infinitely Worse at Fukushima by Jacob Freeze
• How Naomi Klein can help save the world by metamars
• The Fix We’re in For: Bridges and our Infrastructure by jimstaro
• Opening Day by ek hornbeck
• Accountability? by ek hornbeck
• Under The Radar: More Outrageous and Insulting by TheMomCat

DocuDharma

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

In case no one has yet recognized this little point of fact, just take a look at his right wing, Wall St, banker, corporations, protect the wealthiest staff. From the flat out obnoxious Rahm Emanuel to his latest addition of former GE CEO, Jeffrey Immelt to head his jobs council, Obama has surrounded himself with the people that he was voted into office to keep out of government. Obama’s deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina (not the singer), who never saw a right wing idea he didn’t like, was appointed to head Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. If you don’t know who Jim Messina is, you’re not alone unless you are a member of a progressive group that has tried to work with this White House, like Campaign for America’s Future, Health Care for America Now (HCAN) or Servicemembers Legal Defence Network (SLDN). Messina came into the Obama circle in June of 2008 after having service as chief of staff for corporations favorite Democrat, Sen. Max Baucus (MT) as the campaign’s chief of staff (with David Plouffe remaining the top dog). In a Mother Jones‘s article in by David Corn questioned:

As the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, Obama is now the leader of a political entity that includes idealistic, reform-seeking, public-interest do-gooders as well as corporate-minded professionals connected to the pay-to-play system deeply rooted in the nation’s capital. (I’m not saying Messina is one or the other.) Unifying such a party under the banner of change will have its challenges. Obama’s campaign is now being partly run by a fellow (presumably a talented political operative) who served a Democrat who helped enact major legislation Obama depicts as harmful to the nation. Is that a sign Obama can reach out to those with whom he disagrees, or is it an accommodation to the ways of Washington?

I think we have the answer to that question and in The Nation, Ari Berman writes an in depth article about Messina as Obama’s “enforcer”:

In March 2009 the Campaign for America’s Future, a top progressive group in Washington, launched a campaign called “Dog The (Blue) Dogs” to pressure conservative Blue Dog Democrats to support President Obama’s budget. When he heard about the effort, White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, who was regarded as the Obama administration’s designated “fixer,” called CAF’s leaders into the White House for a dressing down, according to a CAF official. If the group wanted to join the Common Purpose Project, an exclusive weekly strategy meeting between progressive groups and administration officials, CAF had to drop the campaign. We know how to handle the Blue Dogs better than you do, Messina said. Not wanting to sour its relationship with the White House at this early date, CAF complied, and the campaign quickly disappeared from its website. Despite Messina’s assurance, however, the Blue Dogs would remain a major obstacle to the realization of the president’s legislative agenda.

These were the same tactics used to stifle GLBT organizations during the campaign to repeal DADT (which is very apparently still in effect). Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog Gay points out Messina’s role in putting DADT repeal on the back burner of the Obama legislative agenda:

Gay rights was another major issue on which Messina clashed with Obama supporters. The relationship between the administration and gay rights groups was strained from the outset, when Obama chose Rick Warren to deliver his inaugural invocation. “It is difficult to comprehend how our president-elect, who has been so spot-on in nearly every political move and gesture, could fail to grasp the symbolism of inviting an anti-gay theologian to deliver his inaugural invocation,” wrote Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), in the Washington Post.

After reading the op-ed, Messina sternly rebuked Solmonese during a meeting at the White House. “I’m never going back to another meeting like that again,” Solmonese angrily told his staff afterward. From then on, HRC, to the consternation of other gay rights groups, toed the administration line.

With Messina as a top liaison to the gay rights community, the White House was reluctant to make repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) a key legislative priority. “The White House, under Rahm and Messina, suffered from political homophobia,” says Joe Sudbay, who writes about gay rights issues for AMERICAblog. “They’re not homophobes in the traditional sense of the word, but they think it’s dangerous to do gay issues in politics.” Groups that questioned Messina’s strategy, such as the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, were frozen out of key White House meetings. “I felt like he was constantly angry with those of us who would not fall in line,” says Alex Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United (no relation to SLDN).

It’s pretty clear to anyone not blinded by Obama’s so-called “light” that Messina was appointed to throw any of the progressives and liberals that had helped elect Obama in ’08 under the bus to protect Obama right wing corporate agenda. Starting with Clinton and now Obama the Democratic party has been turned into the party of Reaganomics and big money. Obama’s re-election will certainly seal the deal to sell out America.

(8 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Those of you that read this irregular series know that I am from Hackett, Arkansas, just a mile of so from the Oklahoma border, and just about 10 miles south of the Arkansas River.  It was a redneck sort of place, and just zoom onto my previous posts to understand a bit about it.

I never write about living people except with their express permission, so this installment is about two long dead denizens of Hackett.

Mr. and Mrs. Chandler were old, even by my grandmum’s standards when I first met them.  They rented that little house that my grandmum owned just to the south of her place.  They moved in around, I guess, 1965 or 1966, give or take a year.  Things were much different then.

First, I need to describe the house.  It was really like what we now would call a shack, but it did have a rock foundation, and, as a I remember, four rooms.  It has a big front room, a small kitchen with a pantry, and two bedrooms (or one and a large closet).  It was not a shotgun house, since the bedrooms were opposite each other by a short hall.  In a shotgun house, all of the rooms are in a single line, making the term apt, since if you shot a shotgun in the front door, the shot would go through all of the rooms and exit the back door.

It was also not what was called, at the time, a modern house.  It did have electricity, just for lighting, but that was it.  It had NO indoor plumbing of any kind.  No water service, no bathroom, except for that second bedroom with a freestanding bathtub and a dresser with a large bowl for washing and shaving, with a mirror behind.  Did I say that there was no indoor plumbing?

The restroom stood around 35 meters from the back door, just outside of my grandmum’s chicken yard.  It was a two holer, meaning that two people could “go” at the same time.  The waste fell under the structure, and had to be cleared periodically.  I shall write a separate post about outhouses another time.

The roof leaked badly.  Since I stayed with my grandmum often, and since we often visited there, when it rained it was my job to take the pans that were getting full and dump them outside, replacing them with newly emptied ones in the meantime.  These days, a landlord who rented a house in that condition would be brought up on charges!  But Mr. and Mrs. Chandler were thankful to have even a leaky roof over their heads.

They were poor, dirt poor.  Welfare, as it was called at the time, pretty much provided what little money that they had.  At that time, there was a USDA program that provided actual foodstuffs, like cheese, flour, cornmeal, butter, and other staples to poor people, and most of their diet was from the commodity program.  By the way, that was one which should be reconsidered.  It put real food into poor peoples’ mouths.

They did have a stove, so they could cook.  At that time the only fuel, other than wood of coal, that was available was propane, they did have a propane range and a tank.  They also used free standing propane heaters to provide some warmth in the winter.  In the summer, cooling was provided by a couple of box fans that local churches bought for them.  Folks, they were POOR!  My grandmum realized that the “house” was not very good, and rented it to them for almost nothing.  She probably netted $10 a year off of it, after taxes.

Mr. Chandler, as I always called him, as was the custom at the time for kids to call elders (Gene and Katie were exceptions, from a previous post, because they were like adopted parents for me) was a really, really nice and kind man.  As I said, he was OLD, and I am guessing probably around 75 years of so.  In the early 1960s, 75 was OLD.  He was about 5’7″, with a pretty full head of grey hair.  He had a few teeth.  Mrs. Chandler, Etta, (all of the adults called her “Etter”) was about the same age, around 4’10”, long grey hair sort of bunned up a bit, and toothless.

Mr. Chandler and I would sit in the back yard, or on the front porch, and he would spin stories about this and that.  I never remember him having an unkind word for anyone.  His stories were about how he worked all of his life and had little to show for it.  I actually do not remember any one of them in detail since I was so young.  But I do remember that he was never bitter about anything.  He was happy to be breathing.

Mrs. Chandler, on the other hand, was hell on wheels!  I well remember sitting on the back porch of my grandmum’s house, (Uncle David, the nice one to whom I continually refer) had “boxed it in” so that is was protected from the weather, so it was a nice place to sit when it rained, much better than moving and emptying pans of water!  Her continence was not nearly so forgiving as Mr. Chandler’s.  Look at this through the prisms of the 1960s and that of being a woman at the time, and being old.

Here are some of her phrases, directed at folks in town, or from her past, whom she thought might have slighted her, and also to the political folks at the time.  I forgot to mention that they did have a radio, but no TeeVee.

“That Godda***d bast**d!  He is a son of a bi**h!  I hate that dam**d woman!  Profanities would roll out of her mouth like the breath out of mine.  My grandmum always turned red, but would not, out of politeness, stop her.  After all, even though Mrs. Chandler was a renter, she was my grandmum’s elder.  Etiquette required respect, and Ma (I am not going to use the term “my grandmum” ever again in this series) just was prohibited from correcting an elder.

So I got a double blast of profanity when I was little.  If you look back to my previous post, you will see the other.  Those two, Arthur and Mrs. Chandler, accounted for over 80% of my profanity learning.

But she was acutally a very nice person, just rough around the edges for her time.  Even though she was very poor, she would help anyone if she thought that there was need.  Ma never got used to the “cussing”, but also understood that Mrs. Chandler was a nice person in her psyche.

They had a Chihuahua dog, named Dutch.  He was old, too.  Everything about them seemed old to me, as a child, and even with almost 5 decades of retrospect, still seem old.  Dutch was a snaggletoothed dog with a nasty disposition.  He got along OK with Mr. and Mrs. Chandler, but not with anyone else.  He would growl and bite at folks, but never did any real damage.  I did not like Dutch, and tried to say away from him.  Usually I succeeded, unless we were on their front porch, when Mr. Chandler would let him run.  Dutch did not like me either, so we kept the peace by keeping our respective distances.

Ma was dreadfully afraid of the weather (and everything else!), so she saved up a little money and had a storm cellar installed just south of the rent house.  Arkansas is in Tornado Alley, and although it does not have as many tornadoes in sheer numbers as does Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and the like, has more per capita killer tornadoes, on a ten year floating average, than any other state.

The cellar was a about 8 by 8 feet on the floor, and about another 8 feet underground.  It had a sliding steel door, and steps to get to the bottom.  There were a couple of benches where folks could sit.  It always seemed to me to be a death trap, since it had no air intake nor any water vent.  But she liked it.

We all went into it many time.  Ma, me, Mrs. and Mr. Chandler, and Joyce Long (a person for a topic for a later post:  Joyce was my dear friend!)  We would all climb down there to await the end of the storm.  Of course, Ma would bring her Bible to “keep us safe”, like a talisman.  Joyce just came and would sit, but Mr. and Mrs. Chandler would bring Dutch.  Dutch had the annoying habit of sneezing about every 30 seconds, spraying his nasal discharges over everyone by the candlelight.  I have no innate animosity against animals, but Dutch is still on my list of least favorite ones.

He was old, and started to act oddly a year or two later.  Knowing what I know about medicine now, I believe that he was experiencing epileptic events.  He would collapse, then stiffen, with his eyes rolling up, and salivate vigorously.  After a quarter of an hour, he would be pretty much OK, but the episodes got more frequent and more severe.  Finally, he did not recover from the last one.

Mr. and Mrs. Chandler were devastated.  It was like they lost a child.  Already old, they both aged in an accelerated fashion and finally moved away from Ma’s rent house, most likely because that was where Dutch died, and they could not bear to live there any more.

I have more memories about them, but none of any note.  Most were just mundane things, mostly because they were nice folk to me who sort of took me as their own, and NEVER had any ulterior motives, except just to be nice to a little kid.  I remember them fondly.  I do feel a bit guilty that I never knew about their demise.  When one feels such a loving bond, it is only proper to try to find out how they ended.  I have no idea, and I would bet money that there is no record of them on the net.

One final note:  Mrs. Chandler knew that I liked to collect coins, even when I was little.  She had ten rolls of 1940 era dimes, and sold them to me for face value.  She told me that she did not need the cash, but that she wanted me to have the coins with no loss to her.  I was not so little then, and Dad floated me a loan to buy them.  I still have all of them, and do not think that I will ever cash them in for the silver content.  Each one of them has her salty language imparted on it, his gentle being, and, UGH!, likely Dutch’s snot on them!  LOL!

Perhaps it is because of the Chandlers that I have become a raving liberal, more than anything else.  Those folks were OLD, and no shelter to speak of, even if you consider the shack that Ma rented to them.  We need to do better for our old folks.  I will be one, if I live in a century or two, so look out for me then.  LOL!

Seriously, the way that a society takes care of the ones who can not take care of themselves is definitive.  I try to stay optimistic, but with three military incursions into places where we should not be, at a cost of millions of dollars per day, optimism is hard to maintain.  That money would be better spent helping out the Etta and Roy Chandlers, here at home.

Please feel free to add your own experiences from your youth.  The comments are always the best part of my posts.

Warmest regards,

Doc

(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

this is an Open Thread

Essays Featured Thursday the 31^st of March:

Jesus Just Left Chicago in Late Night Karaoke, mishima DJs

Six Brilliant Articles! from Six Different Places!! on Six Different Topics!!!

                Six Days a Week!!!    at Six in the Morning!!!!

Dirty Jokes are on mplo‘s mind in Thursday Open Thoughts

Cornucopia Thursday, a weekly feature from Ed Tracey brings a delightful collection of items and ….well, just plain whimsy…..

Gha!

Another delightful granny diary from Wendys Wink: Stink-eye’n a Coal Bin, republished by RiaD

Afternoon music from Timbuk3: The 100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time!

Tonight #92  

Random Thoughts on Oatmeal & Teeth from Xanthe  

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Japan PM says stricken nuclear plant to be scrapped

by Huw Griffith, AFP

2 hrs 40 mins ago

AFP

2 UN atomic watchdog raises alarm over Japan evacuations

by Shingo Ito, AFP

Wed Mar 30, 1:57 pm ET

3 Ireland orders banking overhaul as bailout tops 70 bn euros

AFP

1 hr 11 mins ago

4 Spain to miss deficit targets: central bank

by Daniel Silva, AFP

Wed Mar 30, 3:16 pm ET

5 France, US call for flexible exchange rates at G20

by Allison Jackson, AFP

Thu Mar 31, 10:44 am ET

6 Kadhafi troops hunt Libya rebels amid US warning

by Joseph Krauss, AFP

1 hr 21 mins ago

7 Blow for Kadhafi as foreign minister defects

by Joseph Krauss, AFP

Thu Mar 31, 2:01 pm ET

8 Assad launches reforms as new Syria protests planned

by Natacha Yazbeck, AFP

1 hr 10 mins ago

9 Syria leader dashes hopes of fast end to emergency rule

by Natacha Yazbeck, AFP

Wed Mar 30, 2:40 pm ET

10 Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo digs in as rival tightens noose

by Fran Blandy, AFP

1 hr 6 mins ago

11 Ouattara fighters seize I.Coast capital, UN sanctions Gbagbo

by Fran Blandy, AFP

Wed Mar 30, 6:46 pm ET

12 Weakened Gbagbo faces final showdown in I.Coast’s Abidjan

by Fran Blandy, AFP

Thu Mar 31, 2:32 pm ET

13 After 30 years, war on AIDS at ‘moment of truth’

by Boris Bachorz, AFP

Thu Mar 31, 9:25 am ET

14 India stifle Pakistan to reach World Cup final

by Julian Guyer, AFP

Wed Mar 30, 6:49 pm ET

Reuters

15 Japan crisis drags, France wants global nuclear reform

By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Yoko Nishikawa, Reuters

Thu Mar 31, 2:41 pm ET

16 Tokyo Electric claims could top $130 billion on Japan

By James Topham, Reuters

Thu Mar 31, 3:37 am ET

17 Rebels cheer cracks in Gaddafi regime

By Maria Golovnina, Reuters

14 mins ago

18 UK hails Libyan defection as blow to Gaddafi

By Adrian Croft, Reuters

Thu Mar 31, 3:01 pm ET

19 Rebels fight Gaddafi’s forces for east Libyan town

By Alexander Dziadosz, Reuters

Thu Mar 31, 9:35 am ET

20 40 civilians dead in Tripoli strikes: Vatican official

By Silvia Aloisi, Reuters

Thu Mar 31, 9:15 am ET

21 Heavy fighting after Ouattara troops reach Abidjan

By Loucoumane Coulibaly and Tim Cocks, Reuters

1 hr 44 mins ago

22 Geithner: inflexible currencies are biggest monetary problem

Reuters

Thu Mar 31, 2:22 am ET

23 Ex-Goldman trader launching $1 billion-plus fund: sources

By Nishant Kumar, Reuters

Thu Mar 31, 5:34 am ET

24 Special report: When the drugs don’t work

By Kate Kelland and Ben Hirschler, Reuters

Thu Mar 31, 7:29 am ET

25 China military policy paper lays out worries about U.S.

By Ben Blanchard, Reuters

Thu Mar 31, 4:48 am ET

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

Malalai Joya: Kill Teams in Afghanistan: The Truth

The disgusting and heartbreaking photos published last week in the German media, and more recently in Rolling Stone magazine, are finally bringing the grisly truth about the war in Afghanistan to a wider public. All the PR about this war being about democracy and human rights melts into thin air with the pictures of US soldiers posing with the dead and mutilated bodies of innocent Afghan civilians.

I must report that Afghans do not believe this to be a story of a few rogue soldiers. We believe that the brutal actions of these “kill teams” reveal the aggression and racism which is part and parcel of the entire military occupation. While these photos are new, the murder of innocents is not. Such crimes have sparked many protests in Afghanistan and have sharply raised anti-American sentiment among ordinary Afghans.

I am not surprised that the mainstream media in the US has been reluctant to publish these images of the soldiers who made sport out of murdering Afghans. General Petraeus, now in charge of the American-led occupation, is said to place great importance on the “information war” for public opinion – and there is a concerted effort to keep the reality of Afghanistan out of sight in the US.

Robert Sheer: Obama’s Fatal Corporate Addiction

If it had been revealed that Jeffrey Immelt once hired an undocumented nanny, or defaulted on his mortgage, he would be forced to resign as head of President Barack Obama’s “Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.” But the fact that General Electric, where Immelt is CEO, didn’t pay taxes on its $14.5 billion profit last year-and indeed is asking for a $3.2 billion tax rebate-has not produced a word of criticism from the president, who in January praised Immelt as a business leader who “understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy.”

What it takes, evidently, is shifting profit and jobs abroad: Only one out of three GE workers is now based in the U.S., and almost two-thirds of the company’s profit is sheltered in its foreign operations. Thanks to changes in the tax law engineered when another avowedly pro-business Democrat, Bill Clinton, was president, U.S. multinational financial companies can avoid taxes on their international scams. And financial scams are what GE excelled in for decades, when GE Capital, its financial unit, which specialized in credit card, consumer loan and housing mortgage debt, accounted for most of GE’s profits.

Jeremy Scahill: The Dangerous US Game in Yemen

For months, thousands of Yemenis had taken to the streets demanding that Saleh step down, and the regime had responded consistently with defiance and brute force. But on March 21, a severe blow was dealt to Saleh that may prove to be the strike that sparked the hemorrhaging that ultimately brought down his regime. That day, the most powerful figure in Yemen’s military, Gen. Ali Muhsin al-Ahmar, commander of the First Armored Division, threw his support behind the protests and vowed to defend Yemen’s “peaceful youth revolution.” Other senior military figures soon followed suit. Senior civilian officials, including scores of ambassadors and diplomats, announced their resignations. Important tribal leaders, long the most crucial element of Saleh’s grip on power, swung to the opposition.

John Nichols: McCarthy’s Party Revisits His Tactics

William Cronon is about as distinguished an academic as you will find in the United States. The Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas research professor of history, geography and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cronon holds degrees from UW, Yale and Oxford. He’s been a Rhodes Scholar and a MacArthur Fellow. His book “Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England” was a paradigm-shifting study of American history and ecosystems.

Maintaining the Wisconsin Idea tradition, Cronon has been a public intellectual of the highest order. He and I have shared many microphones over the years, and I have always been honored to be in the company of so serious, so thoughtful and so generous a scholar.

William D. Cohan: The Reform That Wasn’t

From the outset of the recent financial crisis, the government’s often-haphazard response was motivated by an overarching desire to re-establish the status quo on Wall Street as quickly as possible.

The thinking seemed to be that the sooner the surviving big banks got back on their feet and returned to providing the grease that keeps the wheels of capitalism churning, the sooner the broader economy beyond Manhattan would recover from its serious malaise and businesses would take the steps necessary to hire new workers – reducing a stubborn 10 percent unemployment rate – and to invest capital in new plants and equipment.

Not only did the government’s theory fail in practice – unemployment remains relentlessly and historically high and American businesses seem intent on hoarding, rather than spending, the $2 trillion in cash on their collective balance sheets – but it also lost a once-in-a-century opportunity to change the mores of a momentarily chastened Wall Street, which remains badly in need of substantive reform. This is more than a shame; it is prima facie evidence of how deep Wall Street’s hooks have been – and continue to be – into the powers that be in Washington (and vice versa).

Ted Rall: The Devils We Don’t Know: Who is the Libyan Opposition?

Hi. You don’t know me. See that big guy over at the bar? I’m going to pick a fight with him. Wanna back me up?

That’s what we, the American people, are being asked to do in Libya. We’re not picking sides. Picking sides implies that we know what’s going on. We don’t.

Give George W. Bush this: he respected us enough to lie us into war. Obama wants us sign a blank check, no questions asked.

“We do not have any information about specific individuals from any organization that are part of this [war],” Hillary Clinton said on Meet the Press. “But, of course, we are still getting to know the people [rebels] leading the Transitional National Council [TNC].”

“Of course.”

This was over a week into the war.

I don’t know what’s more frightening. That Secretary of State Clinton expects us to believe that the U.S. government is fighting, spending, killing–and soon, inevitably, dying–for a cause it doesn’t know anything about? Or that she may be telling the truth.

Jim Hightower: Japan’s Earthquake Jolts America

he corporate chieftains who’ve relentlessly pushed American factories and our middle-class jobs offshore rationalize their globalization of production by declaring that it’s all about efficiency, as though that’s the highest value to which a civilization can aspire.

Values aside, however, the problem with corporate efficiencies is that too often they are not. Not efficient, that is. While the corporate scheme of moving stuff from A to B to G to Y in order to achieve the narrow goal of maximizing profits can look so simple, sensible and even slick in a boardroom PowerPoint presentation, it’s often calamitous in the real world. The problem with the best-laid plans of corporate globalizers is that they largely ignore inconvenient facts of life. Such as earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear meltdowns.

Lindsay Beyerstein: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: The Myth of Fiscal Conservatism

Fashionable pundits like to say that the Republican Party has shifted its focus from “social conservatism” (e.g., banning abortion, shoving gays back in the closet, teaching school children that humans and dinosaurs once walked the earth hand-in-claw) to fiscal conservatism (e.g., tax cuts for the rich, slashing social programs). But is that really true? Tim Murphy of Mother Jones argues that the old culture war issues never really went away. Rather, the Republicans have simply rephrased their social agenda in fiscal terms.

For example, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) is quite upfront about the fact that he hates Planned Parenthood because the group is the nation’s leading abortion provider. Yet, he seeks to de-fund the Planned Parenthood and the entire Title X Family Planning Program in the name of balancing the budget. Never mind that the federal money only goes toward birth control, not abortion, and research shows that every dollar spent on birth control saves $4 in Medicaid costs alone.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

March 31 is the 90th day of the year (91st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 275 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1776, future first lady Abigail Adams writes to her husband urging him to “remember the ladies” when drafting a new “code of laws” for the fledgling nation.

While John Adams participated in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Abigail remained at their home in Braintree, Massachusetts, managing their daily affairs in his absence. At the same time that Adams was preparing to publish his “Thoughts on Government” essay, which outlined proposed political philosophy and structures for the new nation, Abigail pondered if and how the rights of women would be addressed in an American constitution.

Women’s rights

Adams was an advocate of married women’s property rights and more opportunities for women, particularly in the field of education. Women, she believed, should not submit to laws not made in their interest, nor should they be content with the simple role of being companions to their husbands. They should educate themselves and thus be recognized for their intellectual capabilities, so they could guide and influence the lives of their children and husbands. She is known for her March 1776 letter to John and the Continental Congress, requesting that they, “…remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.

John declined Abigail’s “extraordinary code of laws,” but acknowledged to Abigail, “We have only the name of masters, and rather than give up this, which would completely subject us to the despotism of the petticoat, I hope General Washington and all our brave heroes would fight.”

Braintree March 31, 1776

   Tho we felicitate ourselves, we sympathize with those who are trembling least the Lot of Boston should be theirs. But they cannot be in similar circumstances unless pusilanimity and cowardise should take possession of them. They have time and warning given them to see the Evil and shun it. I long to hear that you have declared an independancy and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.

   That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex. Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in immitation of the Supreem Being make use of that power only for our happiness.

 307 – After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, the daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian.

1146 – Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade.

1492 – Queen Isabella of Castille issues the Alhambra decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.

1717 – A sermon on “The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ” by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, provokes the Bangorian Controversy.

1774 – American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act.

1822 – The massacre of the population of the Greek island of Chios by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire following a rebellion attempt, depicted by the French artist Eugène Delacroix.

1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.

1866 – The Spanish Navy bombs the harbor of Valparaíso, Chile.

1877 – The family with samurai antecedents that responded to the Saigo army in Oita Nakatsu, rebels.

1885 – The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.

1889 – The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated.

1903 – Richard Pearse allegedly makes a powered flight in an early aircraft.

1906 – The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for amateur sports in the United States.

1909 – Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1910 – Six North Staffordshire Pottery towns federate to form modern Stoke-on-Trent.

1917 – The United States takes possession of the Danish West Indies after paying $25 million to Denmark, and renames the territory the United States Virgin Islands.

1918 – Massacre of ethnic Azerbaijanis was committed by allied armed groups of Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Bolsheviks. Nearly

12,000 Azerbaijani Muslims were killed.

1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.

1921 – The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.

1930 – The Motion Pictures Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film, in the U.S., for the next thirty eight years.

1931 – An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000.

1933 – The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission of relieving rampant unemployment.

1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.

1945 – World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans, the first to fall into Allied hands.

1949 – The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.

1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

1957 – Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta are held. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government.

1958 – In the Canadian federal election, 1958, the Progressive Conservatives, led by John Diefenbaker, win the largest percentage of seats in Canadian history, with 208 seats of 265.

1959 – The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.

1964 – A coup d’état in Brazil establishes the Brazilian military government, under the aegis of general Castello Branco.

1965 – An Iberia Airlines Convair 440 crashes into the sea on approach to Tangier, killing 47 of 51 occupants.

1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.

1970 – Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.

1970 – Nine terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijack Japan Airlines Flight 351 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb.

1979 – The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).

1980 – The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad operates its final train after being ordered to liquidate its assets because of bankruptcy and debts owed to creditors.

1985 – The first WrestleMania, the biggest wrestling event from the WWE (then the WWF), takes place in Madison Square Garden in New York.

1986 – A Mexicana Boeing 727 en route to Puerto Vallarta erupts in flames and crashes in the mountains northwest of Mexico City, killing 166.

1986 – Six metropolitan county councils are abolished in England.

1990 – 200,000 protestors take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.

1991 – The Islamic Constitutional Movement, or Hadas, is established in Kuwait.

1991 – Georgian independence referendum, 1991: nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.

1992 – The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.

1994 – Human evolution: The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull.

2004 – In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed.

Holidays and observances

   * Cesar Chavez Day (California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico, Utah, and Wisconsin)

   * Christian Feast Day

         o Abdas of Susa

         o Acathius of Melitene (Eastern Orthodox Church)

         o Anesius and companions

         o Benjamin

         o Balbina

         o March 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Freedom Day (Malta)

   * King Nangklao Memorial Day (Thailand)

   * Thomas Mundy Peterson

Day (New Jersey)

   * Transfer Day (US Virgin Islands)

Ah Spring, that time of year when a young man’s (and many young women’s too) fancy turns to thoughts of…

Baseball.

It’s the perfect time of year.  Your team has never lost a game and even if you know in your heart of hearts that your star pitcher (Santana and Maine and pray for rain) is out for the entire season and you have an entirely new management team so this is probably going to be yet another of what the polite call “rebuilding” years where you cheat and watch the fast forward version because it’s slightly less painful and a bit more efficient of your time, you have a chance at the Pennant.

Since my team is the Mets they have a history of quick starts and Opening Day victories and the Marlins are just not that good, so it’s entirely possible that Saturday I’ll be able to brag about a share of the NL East lead for the last time this season.  They’re pitching Pelfrey who is the best they got.

“I am watching my local sports franchise engage in an even more pointless than usual sporting competition.” says Atrios, but that’s just what makes it so timeless.

Your enjoyment of it depends on your level of concentration and it’s easy to get distracted especially if your team is doing poorly.  It you are paying attention each pitch is like a forward pass and each hit like an interception.  It is a game you play to win no matter how long it takes, there is no end without a victor, no tying in Baseball.

A Season is a long, long time.  One hundred sixty two games.  Nobody’s had a perfect one yet, so you can’t sweat the small stuff and let a little slump throw you into a big one.

Opening Day Matchups-

• Tigers @ Yankees 1:05 pm
• Braves @ Nationals 1:05 pm
• Brewers @ Reds 2:10 pm
• Angels @ Royals 4:10 pm
• Padres @ Cardinals 4:15 pm
• Giants @ Dodgers 8:00 pm

I believe in the Church of Baseball. I’ve tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I’ve worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan.

I know things.

For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn’t work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology.

You see, there’s no guilt in baseball, and it’s never boring… which makes it like sex.

There’s never been a ballplayer slept with me who didn’t have the best year of his career. Making love is like hitting a baseball: you just gotta relax and concentrate.

Besides, I’d never sleep with a player hitting under .250… not unless he had a lot of RBIs and was a great glove man up the middle.

You see, there’s a certain amount of life wisdom I give these boys. I can expand their minds. Sometimes when I’ve got a ballplayer alone, I’ll just read Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman to him, and the guys are so sweet, they always stay and listen. ‘Course, a guy’ll listen to anything if he thinks it’s foreplay.

I make them feel confident, and they make me feel safe, and pretty. ‘Course, what I give them lasts a lifetime; what they give me lasts 142 games.

Sometimes it seems like a bad trade. But bad trades are part of baseball – now who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God’s sake? It’s a long season and you gotta trust. I’ve tried ’em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.

Baseball is what gets inside you. It’s what lights you up, you can’t deny that.

It just got too hard.

It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.

America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.