Antoine Boutte used to keep a loaded gun at the bottom of his gas stove. That is, until he forgot it was there early Saturday and he and another man decided to cook some food, Fulton County police said
Boutte fired up the stove at his College Park home around 3:30 a.m. Saturday -- heating up the .40 caliber Smith & Wesson along with it, a police report said. While the food was cooking, the weapon's magazine started to melt in the gun well, the police report said.
This caused the spring -- and bullets -- to come out of the magazine. The bullets started going off like popcorn.
Boutte's friend, Christopher Henderson, opened the stove "to see what was happening," the police report said. That's when part of a bullet casing flew out of the stove, hitting Henderson in the stomach, police said.
Boutte and another friend, Lisa Wells, took Henderson to Southern Regional Hospital. He was treated for his injuries, which police said were non life-threatening.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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I've heard of this recipe: Turkey Surprise ala Smith & Wesson.
Posted by: ed ||
07/04/2010 0:29 Comments ||
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and it always seems too happen in GA. I'm not surprised or glad about it since i live there
Posted by: chris ||
07/04/2010 0:56 Comments ||
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Does this mean I shouldn't hide my Glock in the microwave just in case?
[Update 12:03 p.m.] ESPN has a graphic of hot dog eating "Gamechangers," including Kobayashi, who pioneered the technique of separating the hot dogs and buns, and dunking the buns in lemonade. They also say even if Kobayashi showed up, he would not be able to compete. Competitor Pat Bertoletti said, "Without Kobayashi, it's not Nathan's." But Chestnut doesn't seem intimidated: he says he thinks he can eat 70 hot dogs this year. He set the record last year with 68.
[Update 12:11 p.m.] Nathan's is preparing over 1,000 hot dogs for the competitors. From contest winners Michael Bisberg & Laura Silver: "[MLE President] George Shea is singing "99 Red Balloons...in German." The heat must be really affecting everyone. ESPN says this is the largest crowd so far. Police estimated there would be about 40,000 spectators this year.
[Update 12:16 p.m.] ESPN asks if the record can be beaten this year. Given last year's results--with Chestnut finishing with 68 hot dogs, Kobayashi at 64.5 hot dogs and Pat Bertoletti with 55 hot dogs--the competition is really between Chestnut and his own record. One fan from Jersey said, "Exactly one year ago, we saw Joey Chestnut eat 68 hot dogs. He's eating 70 today! USA!" But rookie Ben Monson might make a strong showing; he once defeated Chestnut in a Flautas-eating competition.
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This July 4th, U.S. citizens around the world may proudly display American flags to celebrate Independence Day while away from home, but they won't hold a candle to the farthest American flag in history, which is leaving the entire solar system behind on NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft.
The spaceflying American flag is a not a huge version of Old Glory, but will be the only one flying more than 10.5 billion miles (16.9 billion km) from Earth this Fourth of July. It is riding on Voyager 1, a 33-year-old space probe on the outskirts of our solar system.
Another far-flung American flag is flying on Voyager 2, which is about 8.6 billion miles (13.8 billion km) from Earth. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are on trajectories to leave the solar system behind after passing through a magnetic bubble-like region called the heliosphere.
A NASA photo of the Voyager 2 American flag shows it to be a small U.S. standard packed alongside other mementos from Earth, like the iconic golden record that were also launched the spacecraft and contain messages from Earth for any extraterrestrials that may find them.
"We were extraordinarily proud of what we were doing as a laboratory, as a part of NASA and as a country and we felt it was important to make a statement to that effect," said Jet Propulsion laboratory scientist John Casani, NASA's Voyager project manager at the time it was launched, in a statement provided to SPACE.com this week. "I'm gratified that Voyager is still sailing out there, bearing America's colors. What it represents to us is an affirmation of the pride we had at that time."
Voyager 2's space flag is a 16-inch (40-cm) long version of the Stars and Stripes made of Dacron that engineers painstakingly sewed into the insulating blankets of the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which launched in 1977 on a tour of the solar system's gas giant planets. A similar flag is flying on the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which also launched in 1977 but is not as far from Earth as Voyager 2. [Voyager mission photos.]
The American flags riding the Voyager probes are not the only distant U.S. standards out in space. Flags were planted on the moon by American astronauts during the six Apollo lunar landings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. NASA probes to Mars and elsewhere also include the U.S. standard.
But the two Voyager probes are currently the farthest human-built objects from Earth, making their American flags the most distance from U.S soil. The probes' signals take nearly 13 hours to travel to NASA's worldwide Deep Space Network of listening antennas and back.
NASA launched both spacecraft in the summer of 1977, but only Voyager 2 took a so-called "grand tour" of the solar system when it visited the gas giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s by taking advantage of a rare planetary alignment that occurs once every 176 years. Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter and Saturn.
On June 28, Voyager 2 hit a major milestone when it marked the 12,000th day of its mission. Voyager one, which launched later than its counterpart, will hit the same milestone on July 13.
"I'm proud of the people who worked on this and put so much of their life and energy into building, developing and flying that thing," Casani said. "They did it right."
Ay Pee . . .
In an early draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote the word "subjects," when he referred to the American public. He then erased that word and replaced it with "citizens," a term he used frequently throughout the final draft. Rest at link.
A tanker truck hauling fuel on a rural eastern Congo highway overturned, gushing oil and exploding in a massive fireball that killed about 220 bystanders, including many who had been watching the World Cup in flimsy roadside shacks, officials and witnesses said Saturday.
The Red Cross said at least 61 children and 36 women were among the dead. Witnesses said dozens of people had descended on the truck to siphon fuel illegally from the wreckage with jerry-cans and plastic buckets, apparently unaware of the danger.
U.N. peacekeepers rushed to evacuate more than 200 wounded from the scene by helicopter and ambulance, while Red Cross teams carried the charred bodies from the scene in body bags and buried them in two mass graves a few miles (kilometers) away.
The truck overturned as it was trying to pass a minibus late Friday near the village of Sange, around 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Uvira, a town on the northern tip of Lake Tanganyika near the Burundi border, said Mana Lungwe, manager of the Congolese oil company that owns the truck. The vehicle began gushing oil, then burst into flames an hour later.
Lungwe said the driver was injured in the accident and taken to a local clinic before the blast occurred. Sange is located between Uvira and the Congolese provincial capital, Bukavu, further to the north.
As oil began leaking from the damaged tanker, Pakistani peacekeepers from a nearby U.N. base "came and told people to get away from the area, but people refused to leave," said Bedide Mwasha, a 45-year-old resident.
"Men, women and children, even (government) soldiers were stealing petrol," Mwasha said, adding that when night fell, one woman lit a kerosene lamp that may have ignited the blaze.
In Sange on Saturday, the remains of the white tanker's blackened carcass lay tipped on its side, its tires burnt off, one small flame still leaping from the outside of the wrecked fuel container. Along the side of the road a few yards (meters) away, the remains of three wood and brick shacks smoldered where hundreds of people had gathered to watch the World Cup. The explosion took place in between matches, as people were watching television and milling outside.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Ay-Pee . . .
A farmer in northern Egypt says his cow has given birth to a two-headed calf that he calls a "divine miracle." And those with an education call it a genetic anomaly.
Cabinet ministers have been ordered to plan for swingeing cuts to their day-to-day departmental budgets of up to 40 per cent -- putting whole swathes of spending programmes and hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk.
Seriously impressive. Would that the American government did the same.
The plans, spelt out in a letter from Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Treasury chief secretary, go much further than proposals announced in last month's Budget aimed at cutting Britain's huge deficit.
Then, George Osborne, the Chancellor, said that Whitehall budgets faced cuts of about a quarter.
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A fully functional submarine built for the primary purpose of transporting massive amounts of cocaine has been seized by Ecuadorean authorities with the help of U.S. drug enforcement agents.
A drug-trafficking organization built the sea-worthy vessel that is now being held near the border of Ecuador and Colombia, and one individual has been taken into custody, authorities said. The investigation into the group and the submarine, which was seized Friday, is ongoing.
"This is the first seizure of a clandestinely constructed fully operational submarine built to facilitate trans-oceanic drug trafficking," the Drug Enforcement Administration said in a statement.
The vessel utilized twin screws and was diesel electric-powered, the agency said. It was about 30 meters (98 feet) long and nearly 3 meters (nine feet) high from the deck plates to the ceiling. It has a periscope and an air-conditioning system.
"Traffickers historically employed slow-moving fishing boats, sail boats, pleasure craft go-fasts," said Jay Bergman, Andean regional director for the agency. "The advent of the narco-submarine presents new detection challenges for maritime interdiction forces. The submarine's nautical range, payload capacity and quantum leap in stealth have raised the stakes for the counter-drug forces and the national security community alike."
The submarine was constructed in a "remote jungle environment in an effort to elude law enforcement or military interdiction," the agency said.
Acting on intelligence, Ecuadorean authorities were able to seize the vessel for before its maiden voyage, the statement said.
#3
This is not the first time a sub for transporting narcotics has been captured : several of them have been captured over the years. However, it appears this one could actually fully submerge for a period of time, which the others could not. As for the little ones, the cartels have a problem with them sinking with all hands onboard. Most narco subs have been semi-submersible, with a conning tower above the water and a snorkel in the tower.
#4
Also if the sub is limited to 100 feet for the max depth, and it is a one-shot one-way transport, you can make it out of fibreglass. No involved steel construction needed. The things that make subs complicated and difficult to build are torpedo tubes, extended range equipment, and the need to be reusable.
Progress in arbitration cases and new filings are putting more pressure on Venezuela's cash-strapped state oil company PDVSA, which faces having to compensate various firms for assets that were nationalized.
President Hugo Chavez's socialist government has taken over many enterprises in the Latin American OPEC member, from small businesses to heavy crude projects worth billions of dollars.
That has left a trail of lawsuits and arbitration cases, principally being handled by the World Bank's International Center for Settlement on Investment Disputes (ICSID).
There are 11 cases against Venezuela at the ICSID involving compensation claims totaling more than $43.5 billion, of which over $40 billion is from the oil sector and the rest from mining and cement companies.
The most high profile actions, brought by US majors Exxon Mobil Corp and ConocoPhillips, have seen recent progress: a partial ruling on jurisdiction in the first and an extensive hearing in The Hague in the second.
Exxon Mobil is seeking $10 billion in compensation, while ConocoPhillips wants $30 billion for the nationalization in 2007 of projects in the vast Orinoco oil belt. They brought their cases that same year, and experts expect decisions soon.
"Case law shows these cases often last two or three years, so the arbitrations brought by Exxon and Conoco ... should reach a resolution this year," said Juan Carlos Vargas, an international law professor at Venezuela's Central University.
When Venezuela has taken over businesses, it has publicly said it recognizes it will have to reimburse the owners -- but almost none of the more than 220 companies that have been nationalized in recent years have been compensated.
Ignoring an ICSID ruling could have serious consequences.
"Venezuela has to comply with the arbitration award ... failure to do so would violate international law, putting at risk its external assets and foreign investment," Vargas said.
The impact of pending rulings on PDVSA is hard to judge because of a lack of transparency to the company's finances.
While global oil prices have recovered to above $70 from lows near $30 a barrel at the end of 2008, PDVSA has increased its liabilities. Last month, it borrowed $1.5 billion from a syndicate of banks from China and Portugal.
Its US refining subsidiary Citgo refinanced $2.1 billion of debt with $300 million in bonds, plus loans and credit after a $1.5 billion bond issue flopped.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Is Venezuela too big to fail? Will there be a bailout?
#4
President Hugo Chavez's socialist government has taken over manystolen enterprises in the Latin American OPEC member, from small businesses to heavy crude projects worth billions of dollars.
When Venezuela has taken over businesses, it has publicly said it recognizes it will have to reimburse the owners -- but almost none of the more than 220 companies that have been nationalized in recent years have been compensated.
[Dawn] US President Barack Obama announced Saturday the awarding of nearly two billion dollars to two solar energy companies that have agreed to build new power plants in the United States, creating thousands of new jobs.
"We're going to keep fighting to advance our recovery," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "And we're going to keep competing aggressively to make sure the jobs and industries of the future are taking root right here in America."
One of the companies, Abengoa Solar, has agreed to build one of the largest solar plants in the world in Arizona, which will create about 1,600 construction jobs. When completed, this plant will provide enough clean energy to power 70,000 homes.
The other company, Abound Solar Manufacturing, is building two new plants, one in Colorado and one in Indiana.
These projects will create more than 2,000 construction jobs, and over 1,500 permanent jobs as the plants produce millions of solar panels each year, according to White House officials.
"So that's some of what we're doing," Obama said.
"But the truth is, steps like these won't replace all the jobs we've lost overnight. I know folks are struggling."The president warned that it would "take months, even years, to dig our way out" of the most recent economic recession.
The announcement came as the US government reported the US unemployment rate fell to 9.5 per cent last month as more than half a million people abandoned the job hunt, fueling doubts about the economic recovery.
The Labor Department reported on Friday a net loss of 125,000 jobs last month.
The biggest cause for concern had been the weakness of the private sector, which created a modest 83,000 jobs in June, well up from May's revised total of 33,000.
Faced with an uncertain outlook and poor access to credit, US firms have been reluctant to rehire workers.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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Let's see $2 billion for 1500 permanent jobs or $1.3 million of taxpayer for each job. And people in Washington wonder why the country is going bankrupt.
Also $2 billion for power for 70,000 homes. Build 2x 1000MW coal fired plants for that money and provide electricity for 2,000,000 homes.
Posted by: ed ||
07/04/2010 0:39 Comments ||
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why does Obama keep talking about how "we" are struggling? He doesn't seem tooworry about much at all.
Posted by: chris ||
07/04/2010 0:54 Comments ||
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Why should he Chris? He has an unlimited credit card he doesn't have to pay on.
BP could plug its gushing Gulf oil well by the end of July, ahead of a projected target of August, if weather conditions permit and the drilling of relief wells keeps going smoothly, the newly appointed executive in charge of the company's response said Friday.
"We are ahead of schedule, but all it takes is one storm, and we have to move off of station," Bob Dudley, CEO of BP's newly created Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle. "I think it's not unreasonable to think one of those might happen, and then we're into August again. That's why August is probably a higher probability."
Still, even the hint of an earlier-than-expected capping of BP's Macondo well comes as a rare bit of good news to a national crisis in dire need of it -- and Dudley's job is to make sure there's more such news to come.
In the nearly two weeks since he took over responsibility for the spill from embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward, Dudley has moved swiftly to improve the British oil giant's handling of all aspects of the Gulf disaster, from trying to speed up payment of claims to out-of-work fisherman to making sure the requests of local Gulf officials are being heard.
"I am from the U.S. I grew up on the Gulf Coast. I've got a passion for it, and I think people saw that. I hope I can help," said Dudley, sitting in a small conference room at BP's sprawling office complex in west Houston.
Dudley, a board member and former head of BP's joint venture in Russia, TNK-BP, had been selected for the job early in the crisis. An engineer with 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry, who grew up in Hattiesburg, Miss., he seemed a perfect fit. And he was supposed to take over once the well was capped.
But on June 23, BP announced Dudley was stepping in immediately and Hayward would return to London - fueling speculation that Hayward is on his way out and Dudley could be the next CEO.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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I can't find much detailed information on what their plan is. Seems like they could try to drill into the wild well and kill it today (they are only about 50 feet away), but for some reason are not. Maybe they are running another string of casing in the relief well before going closer (I would.) Maybe they are waiting until they change the wild well riser connection so they can increase back pressure while they try to kill with the relief well - would suggest a lack of confidence in the standard relief well system, and thus some negative information we have not been given.) Or maybe they will wait for both the wild well connection change AND for the second relief well to catch up before trying. Wish we were being given more information.
#3
Things may not be bad enough that they'd be allowed to solve the problem. It's an economically important formation that in the long term is still usable.
I suspect they're waiting for a sequence of events that will allow them to do something extreme that will wreck the ability to use the formation.
Remember BP isn't really in charge any more; the government is.
Seems like they could try to drill into the wild well and kill it today (they are only about 50 feet away), but for some reason are not
It is my understanding that there is a lot of cementing work going on to ensure that the new well doesn't suffer the same fate as the original one. They are allowing that cement to fully cure before attempting to intersect the current well.
The U.S. economy lost jobs in June, for the first time this year, as modest hiring by businesses only partly offset the end of Census jobs.
The Labor Department on Friday reported a net loss of 125,000 jobs in the month. That was due primarily to the loss of 225,000 Census jobs that had swelled payrolls in May. And lest we forget, please consider how those who have given up looking for jobs starting this month are affecting these numbers! And all those who have give up hope months and even years ago!
Business hiring rebounded to 83,000, which was still a bit weaker than hoped. While it's up from the jobs private sector employers added in May, it was well below hiring levels in March and April.
"It's job growth, but it's a kind of growth that doesn't please anybody," said John Silvia, chief economist of Wells Fargo Securities. "We're not creating the jobs at a pace to help people who are looking for jobs. Jobs are going to remain hard to find."
Silvia and some other economists said the fact that businesses are still adding jobs should lessen fears that the economy is about to topple into another downturn, a so-called double-dip recession.
"Though disappointing, employment gains are substantially ahead of the 2002 recovery," said Kurt Karl, chief U.S. economist at Swiss Re.
But others suggested that the weak labor market raises the risk the economy could fall back into recession later this year.
"It is a Catch-22 situation," said Sung Won Sohn, economics professor at Cal State University-Channel Islands. "Businesses are reluctant to hire for fear of a double-dip recession. But without jobs, the economy can't grow."
Businesses have now added 593,000 jobs since the start of 2010, after cutting 8.5 million in 2008 and 2009 combined. President Obama pointed to the continued private sector job growth in his remarks Friday, but acknowledged more needs to be done.
"We are headed in the right direction," he said when announcing a government program to bring broadband Internet services to rural areas. "But ...we're not headed there fast enough for a lot of Americans. We're not headed there fast enough for me, either."
Republicans charged the report is proof the Obama administration's policy of trying to stimulate the economy and hiring through government spending has been a failure.
"Every Washington power grab is creating more uncertainty for investors and job creators, and leaving more families without a paycheck," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
The construction sector lost another 22,000 jobs as the pace of building fell sharply with the end of a tax credit for homebuyers. And retailers, hit by softer consumer purchases, trimmed nearly 7,000 jobs.
But manufacturers added 9,000 jobs, and transportation companies and warehouses added nearly 15,000 jobs, showing some continued strength in the goods-producing sector. Leisure and hospitality was the leading sector with a gain of 37,000 jobs.
There also was a gain of 20,500 temporary workers by business, which could be a sign of future hiring, since employers often bring on temporary workers before they commit to permanent jobs.
There are still 339,000 Census workers on the job heading into July, many of whose jobs will be ending. That suggest that July could be another month with an overall loss in jobs.
State and local governments cut an additional 10,000 jobs in June. That, was countered by the gain of 27,000 non-Census jobs by the federal government.
Unemployment rate drops
The unemployment rate fell to 9.5% from 9.7% in May. Economists had forecast it would climb to 9.8%. But the improvement was due mostly to many discouraged job seekers not bothering to look for work and no longer being counted as part of the labor force.
Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist for Deutsche Bank, said that many of those people stopped looking for work because they lost extended unemployment benefits. To receive the benefits, they needed to be actively looking for work.
"The decline in the unemployment rate is not a reflection of strength, but rather a sign of discouragement among the ranks of the unemployed," he wrote in a note to clients Friday.
Congress has failed to pass an extension of benefits, which resulted in nearly half-million people losing their benefits by the middle of June when the unemployment numbers were compiled. Another 1.25 million have lost their benefits since mid-June, and nearly 800,000 more could lose benefits by the time July numbers are compiled.
The 14.6 million people still counted as unemployed have been out of work an average of 35 weeks, a record duration in the 62 years the government has tracked that figure.
Here's your fat lady, Abu.
Abu Daoud, the man who claimed to be the mastermind behind the massacre that marked the 1972 Munich Olympics, has died, according to the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority.
On September 5 of that year, Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes who were taken hostage.
Daoud, also known as Mohammed Oudeh, died Friday night, the WAFA news agency reported Saturday. The former Palestinian politician and commander in the Fatah and Palestinian Liberation Organization movements was 73.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent his condolences to Daoud's family, WAFA reported.
"He wrote in his letter to his family, 'He is missed. He was one of the leading figures of Fatah and spent his life in resistance [against the occupation] and sincere work as well as physical sacrifice for his people's just causes,' " the news agency quoted Abbas as saying. An example of how a partner for peace should act for all of us to consider.
In the early hours of the attack in Munich, eight Palestinian terrorists entered the Olympic Village in the German city.
They stormed the apartments housing the Israeli athletes and took control. Hours later, the world woke up to the image of a masked man on the balcony of the Olympic Village.
From the Olympic Village, the Palestinian terrorists issued ultimatums, demanding the release of 200 Arab inmates from Israeli prisons or they would start killing the athletes in Munich, one every hour. Eventually, all the Israelis, five terrorists and one German police officer were killed in what would be remembered as "Black September."
"The hardest part was the ultimatums," Ankie Spitzer, wife of Israeli fencing coach Andre Spitzer, who was killed in the incident, told CNN in a 2005 interview. "Every time, you die a little bit because you think now it's going to happen to him."
The Games were put on hold for a few hours.
In the Arab world, "Black September" was viewed as a triumph. Weeks later, the three captured Palestinian terrorists were freed by the German government after a Lufthansa plane was hijacked in the Balkans. The men got a heroes' welcome when they arrived in Libya.
Ironically, Daoud was allowed back into the West Bank for several years by Israel, at a time in the 1990s when relations with Palestinians were improving.
In 2006 -- around the release of Steven Spielberg's "Munich" -- he gave several interviews in which he indicated he had no regrets about the Munich attacks.
"I regret nothing," he told Germany's Spiegel TV. "You can only dream that I would apologize."
Daoud also published an autobiography, giving a first-hand look at the rise of the Palestinian resistance leading up to the attack at Munich. The book is titled "Memoirs of a Palestinian Terrorist," as well as, "Palestine -- A History of the Resistance Movement, by the Sole Survivor of Black September."
#1
I was under the impression that "Black September" referred to the Jordanians, growign tired of paleostinian BS (Trying to overthrow the kingdom's Hashemite ruler - King Hussein) used their army to drive the refugees out of Jordan. It (Black September) was used as a name for the group of paleostinians who took credit for the munich attack.
I was just a kid at the time, but I remember my parents being in shock over the olympic massacre.
In September three jetliners-- one American, one British and one Swiss-- were hijacked by Palestinian Arabs to Jordan. The passengers were held hostage.
This action further undermined the sovereignty of King Hussein's government. The King decided to take action and fighting broke out between the Jordanian Army and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The Syrians attempted to intervene on the side of the P.L.O. but Israel warned that they, too, would then intervene. The Jordanian army defeated the P.L.O. whose forces fled to Lebanon.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored . . .
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" went through a number of versions in the years immediately before the Civil War. Its tune and its early lyrics were written by William Steffe about 1856. Its first verse and refrain were:
Say brothers, will you meet us?
Say brothers, will you meet us?
Say brothers, will you meet us?
On Canaan's happy shore?
The song first gained popularity around Charleston, South Carolina, where it was sung as a Methodist Camp Meeting song, particularly in churches belonging to free Blacks. By contrast, it was also used early on as a marching song on army posts.
The song gathered new verses following the insurrection at Harper's Ferry, led by John Brown and carried out by a cadre of nineteen men on October 16, 1859. Brown's actions, trial and subsequent execution made him a martyr to Abolitionists and African-Americans and prompted some people to add the following lines to Steffe's by then popular song.
John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
His soul is marching on!
Some have also theorized that the new verses were written about an inept Army sergeant named John Brown, thus giving the lyrics a kind of humorous double entendre.
By the time of the Civil War "John Brown's Body" had become a very popular marching song with Union Army regiments, particularly among the Colored troops. The Twelfth Massachusetts Regiment, in particular, has been credited with spreading the song's fame on their march to the South, where Confederate soldiers then inverted the meaning of their words and sang, "John Brown's a-hanging on a sour apple tree." The war's rivalry continued to be carried on in music as the northerners then sang in turn, "They will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree."
But it was when Julia Ward Howe visited Washington, DC in 1861 that the tune properly came to be called "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Howe and her husband, both of whom were active abolitionists, experienced first-hand a skirmish between Confederate and Union troops in nearby Virginia, and heard the troops go into battle singing "John Brown's Body." That evening, November 18, 1861, Ward was inspired to write a poem that better fit the music. It began "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." Her poem, which was published in the Atlantic Monthly in February 1862 soon became the song known as "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Here are some Independence Day fun facts, history and trivia.
On July the 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress. Thereafter, the 13 colonies embarked on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation. This most American of holidays is traditionally celebrated with parades, fireworks and backyard barbecues across the country. As you send out your July 4th party invitations, take a minute to think about how much you really know about what we are celebrating.
4th of July History & Trivia -Did You Know...
The major objection to being ruled by Britain was taxation without representation. The colonists had no say in the decisions of English Parliament.
In May, 1776, after nearly a year of trying to resolve their differences with England, the colonies sent delegates to the Second Continental Congress. Finally, in June, admitting that their efforts were hopeless; a committee was formed to compose the formal Declaration of Independence. Headed by Thomas Jefferson, the committee also included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Philip Livingston and Roger Sherman. On June 28, 1776, Thomas Jefferson presented the first draft of the declaration to Congress.
Betsy Ross, according to legend, sewed the first American flag in May or June 1776, as commissioned by the Congressional Committee.
Independence Day was first celebrated in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776.
The Liberty Bell sounded from the tower of Independence Hall on July 8, 1776, summoning citizens to gather for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon.
June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress, looking to promote national pride and unity, adopted the national flag. "Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."
The word 'patriotism' comes from the Latin patria, which means 'homeland' or 'fatherland.'
The first public Fourth of July event at the White House occurred in 1804.
Before cars ruled the roadway, the Fourth of July was traditionally the most miserable day of the year for horses, tormented by all the noise and by the boys and girls who threw firecrackers at them.
The first Independence Day celebration west of the Mississippi occurred at Independence Creek and was celebrated by Lewis and Clark in 1805.
On June 24, 1826, Thomas Jefferson sent a letter to Roger C. Weightman, declining an invitation to come to Washington, D.C., to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It was the last letter that Jefferson, who was gravely ill, ever wrote.
Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on Independence Day, July 4, 1826.
The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence did not sign at the same time, nor did they sign on July 4, 1776. The official event occurred on August 2, 1776, when 50 men signed it.
The names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were withheld from the public for more than six months to protect the signers. If independence had not been achieved, the treasonable act of the signers would have, by law, resulted in their deaths.
Thomas McKean was the last to sign in January, 1777.
The origin of Uncle Sam probably began in 1812, when Samuel Wilson was a meat packer who provided meat to the US Army. The meat shipments were stamped with the initials, U.S. Someone joked that the initials stood for "Uncle Sam". This joke eventually led to the idea of Uncle Sam symbolizing the United States government.
In 1941, Congress declared 4th of July a federal legal holiday. It is one of the few federal holidays that have not been moved to the nearest Friday or Monday.
Independence Day Trivia & Facts -- An Inspired America:
Thirty places nationwide with "liberty" in their name. Liberty, Missouri (26,232) boasts the highest population of the 30 at 26,232. Iowa has more of these places than any other state at four: Libertyville, New Liberty, North Liberty and West Liberty.
Eleven places have "independence" in their name. The most populous of these is Independence, Missouri, with 113,288 residents.
Five places adopted the name "freedom." Freedom, California, with 6,000 residents, has the largest population among these.
There is one place named "patriot" -- Patriot, Indiana, with a population of 202.
And what could be more fitting than spending the day in a place called "America"? There are five such places in the country, with the most populous being American Fork, Utah, with 21,941 residents. Check out American Fact Finder.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
-- The Declaration of Independence 4 of July, 1776.
#1
This would explain why Obama is doing so badly in the polls.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/04/2010 17:51 Comments ||
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#2
Come on, the man had to be chided to wear a flag pin or put his hand over his heart during the playing of the national anthem during the campaign. He's a born and raised internationalist. That's why he can't see nationalism/patriotism in the issue about the border and why knee jerk reverts to calling racism.
An initiative drive to put Arizona's new immigration law on the November ballot fizzled.
Thursday was the deadline to file the required nearly 154,000 voter signatures, but the Secretary of State's office says the day passed without a filing.
The organizers of the "Compassion for all" campaign said in an Internet posting that they didn't collect enough signatures and had closed out the campaign. They said they'd remain active in other activities to help the Hispanic community.
The proposed ballot measure would have repealed the law taking effect July 29 and imposed a three-year moratorium to bar the Legislature from enacting similar legislation.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/04/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
153,000 short?
Posted by: ed ||
07/04/2010 2:15 Comments ||
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#2
And the thousand votes they did get were all written in the same handwriting.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Man shot after loaded gun in stove explodes
The U.S. economy lost jobs in June, for the first time this year, as modest hiring by businesses only partly offset the end of Census jobs.
