Saturday, January 8, 2011

Happy Elvis Day!

January 8, 2011.  January 8 is …National Joy Germ Day and Man Watcher's Day

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

How does a girl break up with a tractor salesman? With a John Deere letter.

The world welcomed a baby who was destined to truly shake it up! It was on this day in 1935 that the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll was born: Elvis Aron Presley (he later changed the spelling of his middle name to Aaron). There is hardly a soul alive who hasn’t heard the name or the voice or seen the swiveling hips of the teen-age idol of millions! From Tupelo, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee with stops in Hollywood and Las Vegas; Elvis gave those who grew up with him, the musical memories of a lifetime. Their parents were brought kicking and screaming into a new generation of music; and their children now sing and dance to music performed by those the ‘King’ inspired.
From That’s All Right, Mama and Mystery Train, recorded for Sam Phillips in 1954, to Suspicious Minds, his last #1 hit under the control of Colonel Parker; Elvis Presley was an unequaled phenomenon. He became more than a singer to most of America; a symbol of changes in lifestyles, society and culture.
Today, those of us who were there can still sing Heartbreak Hotel; the words to I Want You, I Need You, I Love You will never escape us; Love Me Tender will forever tear at our heartstrings; while Don’t Be Cruel turns us all into karaoke stars; and, of course, Hound Dog conjures up a vivid image of the sensuous eyes and trembling lips of a young Elvis.
For those who had the good fortune to see Elvis, in person, in Las Vegas and at other venues; and for those who have visited Graceland; to an entire generation, the King still lives in music and memories.
Relive those moments. Get out your Elvis records, tapes, cassettes, CDs and play some real rock ’n’ roll. Play All Shook Up and watch a new generation twist their hips to his music. In 1993 an Elvis Presley Commemorative Postage Stamp went on sale on this date.
Long live the King!

This is from Harper’s Weekly. It is their quick and quirky yearly review for 2010.

Two thousand seven hundred twenty-two days after U.S. troops crossed the Kuwaiti border into Iraq, U.S. combat operations there officially ended. The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan turned older than the Soviet Union's 3,339-day campaign in the country. Twenty-one percent of young veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were unemployed, Iraqi government officials said that some 58,000 stray dogs in Baghdad had been poisoned or shot, and Target, a dog rescued from Afghanistan after she alerted troops to a suicide bomber and saved dozens of soldiers, was accidentally euthanized. The Supreme Court upheld the right to record women crushing small animals with their feet and overturned two precedents to rule that the government
cannot ban corporations from spending money in political elections. The U.S. House and Senate finalized a watered-down, 2,000-page financial-reform bill. "Not to be funny about it," JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told the FCIC, "but my daughter asked me... 'What's the financial crisis,' and I said, 'Well, it's something that happens every five to seven years.'" The Texas State Board of Education voted to revise its social-studies curriculum, mandating that the U.S. government should not be called "democratic," and Republicans took control of the House. A Virginia judge voided the provision in Obama's health-care law requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance. A Texas newborn with a heart defect was denied health insurance because of his pre-existing condition. "It would be hard to argue that we're going backwards," said Obama. "I think what you can argue is we're stuck in neutral."

An earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter scale hit Haiti. The media questioned whether it was appropriate for journalists in Haiti to be wearing tight T-shirts on air. A 42-year-old man died of stroke after becoming over-excited while watching the film "Avatar," and video surfaced of an Indonesian two-year-old smoking and propelling himself around on a toy truck because he is too out of shape to toddle. An unemployed security worker won Spain's first siesta championship. A three-year-old girl in South Korea died of starvation while her parents played a child-rearing game online, a Kentucky man was charged with wanton endangerment after he got drunk and put his five-week-old son to bed in an oven, and a Georgia mother punished her 12-year-old son for his bad grades by forcing him to hammer to death his pet hamster. The body of a registered Japanese centenarian was found in her son's backpack. A Minnesota couple asked visitors to their website to vote on whether they should keep or abort the wife's fetus, and a woman in Florida live-tweeted her abortion. "Definitely bleeding now," read one tweet. The birth-control pill turned 50. J.D. Salinger, Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby, and the world's ugliest dog died, as did Viva Leroy Nash, the oldest U.S. death-row inmate, of natural causes. PETA proposed replacing Punxsutawney Phil with a robotic stand-in to celebrate Groundhog Day, and the American Kennel Club announced that it will let mutts, or "All Americans," compete in shows. In advance of a visit from 5'4" President Dmitry Medvedev, a Russian town, Omsk, took down posters for a children's theater show that read, "We await you, merry gnome," and England's Prince William agreed to blow a young boy's vuvuzela. New Jersey police forced a woman to put clothes on a Venus de Milo snow sculpture.

BP claimed it may have trouble covering the costs of the Deepwater Horizon spill if it is prevented from further drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The twenty-first winter Olympic Games opened in Vancouver without enough snow, a piece of ice measuring 100 square miles broke off of Greenland, and researchers determined that climate change could make the world more fragrant. The five-story-tall Taylor Glacier in Antarctica was spewing a blood-red waterfall. British researchers said that the G-spot does not exist and concluded that the chicken came before the egg. Scientists learned that the "mustache" worn by the male Molly fish in Mexico attracts females, who are sexually stimulated when themustache is rubbed against their genitals, and that the erect penis of the giant squid is almost as long as its entire body. Exposure to antidepressants in the ocean was making shrimp suicidal, and female snails exposed to
the chemical TBT were growing penises from their heads. A pair of swans stunned staff at a British wildfowl sanctuary by becoming only the second couple in 40 years to divorce. Seventy-five starlings fell from the sky in Somerset, England, and 10,000 birds were trapped in the twin beams of light projected up from the World Trade Center site, dazzled and unable to return to
their migratory paths. Russia announced plans to divert the asteroid Apophis, which has a "1-in-250,000" chance of striking Earth in 2036; an Oregon man found a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite on the side of the road; and the Hubble Space Telescope captured images of a sun-like star eating a nearby planet. At a museum in Paris, the cable holding Foucault's first pendulum snapped, leaving the bob to crash to the marble floor, where it was damaged beyond repair.
Music chart toppers on this date in history;

1944 My Heart Tells Me - The Glen Gray Orchestra (vocal: Eugenie Baird)
Paper Doll - The Mills Brothers
People Will Say We’re in Love - Bing Crosby
Pistol Packin’ Mama - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
1952 Slowpoke - Pee Wee King
Sin (It’s No) - Eddy Howard
Undecided - The Ames Brothers
Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way - Carl Smith
1960 Why - Frankie Avalon
Running Bear - Johnny Preston
Way Down Yonder in New Orleans - Freddie Cannon
El Paso - Marty Robbins
1968 Hello Goodbye - The Beatles
Daydream Believer - The Monkees
Judy in Disguise (With Glasses) - John Fred & His Playboy Band
For Loving You - Bill Anderson & Jan Howard
1976 Saturday Night - Bay City Rollers
I Write the Songs - Barry Manilow
Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To) - Diana
Ross
Convoy - C.W. McCall
1984 Say Say Say - Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson
Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
Twist of Fate - Olivia Newton-John
You Look So Good in Love - George Strait

BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
www.brucebrennanlaws.com
www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase an interesting and inexpensive read.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.
Check out the site below. Paybox is a new site, competing with PayPal, etc. Sign up is free. It seems good for small businesses or ebay users.


“Someone whom you reject today, will reject you tomorrow.”










Friday, January 7, 2011

Donald Trump; I'm not a believer

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

DATE: January 7, 2011.  January 7 is …Old Rock Day. Let’s hope it is a diamond.

Yesterday I inadvertently wrote ‘Sandy’ where I should have written Roberto. Sandy did not spit in an umpire’s face. He seemed to be a better person than his brother. Sorry Sandy.

The Alomar blog stirred up quite a few responses. Few agree with me. I am still right.

Elizabeth Edwards died with her middle finger pointed up and at her husband, John. Her Will left everything to her children and nothing to her husband. This may not be unusual but in this case it was a last point of defiance. Way to go Elizabeth. The following may be why she publicly shamed her husband.

John Edwards has proposed to his mistress Rielle Hunter, The National Enquirer reported Thursday. A source told the Enquirer that the disgraced former senator asked Hunter to marry him shortly after issuing a statement last year admitting that he was the father of her daughter, Frances Quinn. Edwards, a one-time presidential candidate, "is buying a luxury $3.5 million beachfront home where they can live happily ever after with their love child," the Enquirer said.
The couple will wed this summer, according to the tabloid. It was the Enquirer that first broke the story of the affair while Elizabeth Edwards was alive. He is buying a 3.5 million dollar home; perhaps he doesn’t need her money.

Donald Trump is thinking about running for the White House. He has been telling those close to him he will seek the Republican nomination. He views his business background as a plus. I believe he is misreading the public’s sentiment on this one.

Trump’s personal life has been a cartoon. He tries to upgrade his companion’s with younger, better looking women every so often. This will not win the female vote. He will not get the barber or hair stylist vote with his haircut. Most importantly, his business acumen is not that great. His father was wealthy. He started out as a rich man. He was involved when the Trump wealth increased but it occurred at a time everyone else was increasing wealth by merely owning something. He has put several businesses in Bankruptcy, including a Casino in Atlantic City. His ego causes him to name everything after himself and he cannot stay off television promoting himself. We don’t need a Circus Master running the country. We need a serious person with serious ideas and real depth. Ron Popeil would do a better job than Donald Trump at running this country.

Bill Daley is now working for President Obama. This is like a baseball trade. Chicago gets Rahm Emanuel while the White House gets Bill Daley. I think Chicago lost that trade. Bill Daley knows how quickly Chicago is going to go downhill once his brother is not wielding the power. Like him or hate him, right or wrong, things got done while Richard Daley has been in power. He is the last of the big city power machines. It is sad but it is time to go.

It appears civil disobedience is alive and well in Maryland, near Washington D.C. These folks have to realize they make a better point if they do not injure or kill innocent civilians. If they do kill or injure innocent civilians, they are terrorists not activists.

Illinois demolished Northwestern last night. The Illini are a legitimate NCAA college basketball team with a chance to go deep into the tournament. Good Luck Illini.

Music chart toppers on this date over the years;

1951 Tennessee Waltz - Patti Page
The Thing - Phil Harris
Nevertheless - Jack Denny
I Love You a Thousand Ways - Lefty Frizzell
1959 The Chipmunk Song - The Chipmunks
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - The Platters
Problems - The Everly Brothers
City Lights - Ray Price
1967 I’m a Believer - The Monkees
Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron - The Royal Guardsmen
Tell It Like It Is - Aaron Neville
There Goes My Everything - Jack Greene
1975 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - Elton John
You’re the First, the Last, My Everything - Barry White
Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
The Door - George Jones
1983 Maneater - Daryl Hall & John Oates
The Girl is Mine - Michael Jackson /Paul McCartney
Dirty Laundry - Don Henley
Wild and Blue - John Anderson





BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
www.brucebrennanlaws.com
www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase an interesting and inexpensive read.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.
Check out the site below. Paybox is a new site, competing with PayPal, etc. Sign up is free. It seems good for small businesses or ebay users.


“That must be wonderful! I don’t understand it at all.”

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Baseball Hall of Fame and White House property value dropping.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

DATE: January 6, 2011.  January 6 is …Bean Day. Stay away from Glenn.

Check out The Midweek Newspaper from Wednesday. I have a vested interest. Go to website below;
                                                http://www.midweeknews.com/
Yesterday the 112th Congress was sworn in. For the first time in 64 years, a member of the Kennedy family does not hold a federal office.
1994 - Nancy Kerrigan, a favorite to win the women’s U.S. Figure Skating Championship, was assaulted after she finished a practice session in Detroit. The assailant used a blunt object to strike the skater on the right knee, although she recovered in time to compete in the Olympics. Four men, including Jeff Gillooly, the ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival, Tonya Harding, were later sentenced to prison for their roles in the attack; Harding, who denied advance knowledge of the attack, received probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution.
This is one of those situations where both main players were casualties. Tonya has continued to have problems but does not seem to go away. She crawls out from under her rock every once in awhile. Nancy Kerrigan faded away after she made a fool of herself and belittled Mickey Mouse during a paid endorsement parade. Her tirade was caught on tape and played over and over for weeks.

The purge at the White House is gearing up. Rahm Emanuel was just the first advisor to go. Now Robert Gibbs is gone and he is just a spokesperson. He didn’t create policy. He just explained it to the press. Robert Gates, Sec. of Defense will be gone shortly. David Axelrod will be gone shortly. I wish Geithner, Sec. of Treasury, and Holder, Attorney General, would leave.

Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday. I have no problem with Bert Blyleven. He was a fine left-handed pitcher who chucked the ninth most shutouts in the history of the game. He is still around as an announcer.

Roberto Alomar is a different story. He also was a fine player, a second baseman. His athletic prowess likely merits his selection into the Hall. He was, however, an idiot. During an argument with home plate umpire John Hirshbeck on September 27, 1996, Sandy Alomar spat in the face of the umpire. After the game he tried to justify his actions by playing the race card and by saying Hirshbeck had a problem with him ever since his son died of ALD and a second son received the same diagnosis.

Alomar was a rumored bisexual. After his playing career ended, he was sued by a girlfriend in 2009 who claimed Alomar kept hidden the fact he had AIDS so they could have unprotected sex. Alomar paid her a settlement amount to dismiss the case. In 2010, Alomar’s wife sued him with the same allegations.

This guy is a real piece of work. He should be banned from the Hall of Fame for spitting on another human being and then publicizing the personal family tragedies of the person he spat on.

Talk about dropped property values. The White House has also lost value. This happens when the neighborhood declines. Do you think the value of your house has dropped this year? Take a look at the White House. The value of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has dropped nearly $80 million from its $331.5 million value at the peak of the housing boom to today's $253.1 million, reported the Los Angeles Times. A year ago, the President's home was worth $292.5 million.

Notable births on this date in history;

1854 Sherlock Holmes Mycroft, fictional detective (via Arthur Conan Doyle)
1878 Carl Sandburg US, poet/biographer of Lincoln (The People, Yes)
1914 Danny Thomas Deerfield MI, comedian (Danny Thomas Show)
1989 Baby lion-tailed macaques at Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle)

Music at the top of the charts on this date over the years;
1950 Dear Hearts and Gentle People - Dinah Shore
A Dreamer’s Holiday - Perry Como
The Old Master Painter - Snooky Lanson
Mule Train - Tennessee Ernie Ford
1958 At the Hop - Danny & The Juniors
Stood Up/Waitin’ in School - Ricky Nelson
Great Balls of Fire - Jerry Lee Lewis
The Story of My Life - Marty Robbins
1966 The Sounds of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel
We Can Work It Out - The Beatles
Ebb Tide - The Righteous Brothers
Buckaroo - Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
1974 Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce
The Joker - Steve Miller Band
Show and Tell - Al Wilson
If We Make It Through December - Merle Haggard
1982 Physical - Olivia Newton-John
Waiting for a Girl Like You - Foreigner
Let’s Groove - Earth, Wind & Fire
Love in the First Degree - Alabama
1990 Another Day in Paradise - Phil Collins
Rhythm Nation - Janet Jackson
Pump Up the Jam - Technotronic featuring Felly
Who’s Lonely Now - Highway 101
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
www.brucebrennanlaws.com
www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase an interesting and inexpensive read.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.
Check out the site below. Paybox is a new site, competing with PayPal, etc. Sign up is free. It seems good for small businesses or ebay users.


“The average woman would rather be beautiful than smart because the average man can see better than he can think.”


Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Dead birds and dead heads.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.

DATE: January 5, 2011.  January 5 is …Bird Day. Especially in Arkansas; wait for fish day.

After the Arkansas bird dropping, that the experts cannot explain but stress is a one time, unique situation, the same thing happens 350 miles away in Louisiana. This would seem to discredit the fireworks theory. What is now happening is the fox investigating the hen house tragedy.

Dead birds were also reportedly found in a yard in Kentucky. The dead birds were only in the dozens rather than hundreds or thousands. Dead fish have also turned up in Maryland, Sweden and New Zealand. Fireworks?

Autopsies on some of the dead birds are shoeing internal injuries. I don’t think the fall from the sky caused the internal injuries but that sudden stop when they slammed into the earth could have caused the internal injuries.

Does the murder of Republican John Wheeler, a former official in the Reagan and Bush administrations in Delaware, who was found in a landfill on New Year’s Eve smack of Mafia?

Today is the twelfth day of Christmas and my true love sent to me; twelve drummers drumming. Man it is loud when you add it to the eleven pipers piping but the ten lords a-leaping and the nine ladies dancing look much better with the music to perform to.

Brian Williams, the NBC news anchor from the 5:30 p.m., central time, newscast was on a late night talk show recently. He was talking about airport security and being felt-up when he mentioned ha has a name for his male package. Don’t we all? I like “Little Elvis”. I know many women who name their breasts. “The twins” seems to be a popular nickname. Just something I was thinking about.

I found this on the internet while researching notable births on this date in history;
1947 - J Danforth Quayle, (Sen-R-Ind, 44th VP 1989-93)/rich draft dodger

It is not my wording but it is nice to be known as a ‘rich draft dodger’.

Notable deaths on this date in history:

1939 - Amelia Earhart, American aviator declared dead after disappearance in 1937. (b. 1897)
1994 - Thomas P "Tip" O'Neill, (D-Ma)/Speaker of House (1977-86), dies at 81
1998 - Sonny Bono, (Rep-R-Ca)/singer (Sonny & Cher), dies skiing at 62. ‘I got you babe’

In a recent interview, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that the United States Constitution does not protect women or gays and lesbians from discrimination. Though many interpret the Constitution's 14th Amendment as prohibiting discrimination, Scalia, a strict constructionist, disagrees. I have to agree with Scalia. The Constitution and our laws just cannot and do not cover every possible scenario. Bullying or name calling should not be illegal, just annoying, short-sighted and often times ignorant. We cannot legislate morals. If we tried, we would end up arguing over what is moral. It is too slippery a slope to take on. Times don’t change, people change and not always for the better. People need to grow up and handle life’s annoyances on their own.

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who parlayed a 100 lb weight loss into a book and a run at the Presidency has been hosting a television political show for quite some time now. He has managed to stay in the news but t is also obvious he has regained all if not more of the weight he lost to propel his name into the big time political game. He is seen by many as the frontrunner for the Republican presidential candidacy slot. Sarah Palin is unelectable nationwide. She will not run which leaves Mike Huckabee as the candidate with the greatest name recognition.

He has baggage with some of the parole and clemency decisions he made as governor of Arkansas. This type of story could have legs or it could go away. Huckabee must get in front of it now and defuse the situation before a feeding frenzy starts.

A book publisher, under pressure from a group that thinks they know what is best for all of us and feel the rest of us are too stupid to get it, wants to publish the Mark Twain books, Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer after completely redacting the word ‘injun’ and replacing ‘nigger’ with slave. I also hear they are going to publish Shakespeare without ‘olde English’ and the Bible without ‘thee’ and the book of Exodus since it speaks of slavery.

We sure are lucky to have these dead heads watching out for us. Of course they claim it isn’t censorship. I am not sure you would call it if not censorship.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
www.brucebrennanlaws.com
www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase an interesting and inexpensive read.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.
Check out the site below. Paybox is a new site, competing with PayPal, etc. Sign up is free. It seems good for small businesses or ebay users.


“The attacker must vanquish; the defender need only survive.”