Random News: July 8, 2022

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s July 8, 2022, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! My time is extraordinarily limited today, which sucks, but here’s some stuff regardless…

• Someone assassinated former Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe yesterday. It’s terrible.
• Japan has some of the world’s most strict gun laws, with nearly no gun deaths as a result. Case in point: in 2018, the entire country had nine deaths from firearms, which the USA in the same year had 39,740.
• The guy who killed Abe used a handmade shotgun of some sort.
• Japan has one gun for every 400 people. The USA has 480 guns for every 400 people.
• As with any leader, people were critical of Abe, calling him a right-wing nationalist and the like, which is all true. He was kinda the Japanese Trump. But assassination is never a good way to handle political issues. It leads to a) more assassinations and b) a martyr culture where many more people start emulating the actions of the deceased.
• Christianity, for example, is 2,000 years of that culture.
• Don’t assassinate anyone.
• Donald Trump’s White House counsel Pat Cipollone will be testifying today for the January 6 Select Committee. The testimony is behind closed doors, but is being videotaped and transcribed, and we’ll hear about it in a future public hearing.
• This is a big fucking deal. Cipollone could take the fifth, but experts seem to think it’s unlikely.
• Guess we’ll see.
• QotD: “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” - e.e. cummings
• Today in history… Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first trip from Europe to India (1497). An 8.7 earthquake damages more than 600 miles of Chile’s coastline with a huge tsunami (1730). John Nixon delivers the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence (1776). St. John’s, Newfoundland burns down (1892). The Dow Jones hits its low point of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22 (1932). Reports come out about a UFO crash landing in Roswell, NM (1947). There’s a failed assassination attempt against Saddam Hussein (1982). Kim Jong-il assumes leadership of North Korea (1994). The final Space Shuttle mission launches (2011). 
• July 8 is the birthday of pharmacist Eli Lilly (1838), oil baron John D. Rockefeller (1839), fashion designer Hugo Boss (1885), politician George W. Romney (1907), rich guy and vice-president Nelson Rockefeller (1908), singer Jerry Vale (1930), Allman Bros drummer Jaimoe (1944), actor Jeffrey Tambor (1944), chef Wolfgang Puck (1949), weirdo Marianne Williamson (1952), actor Kevin Bacon (1958), musician Toby Keith (1961), musician Joan Osborne (1962), and musician Beck (1970).

I’m stressed and it’s only 8:30am. Sometimes stress is a natural part of life. We never think of it as a positive, and it’s usually not. But if you can turn it around and let it be a driving force to motivate you to get the shit done that needs doing, then you can thank your stress later when you’ve finished that shit successfully and are relaxed and happy. I hope you get to be relaxed and happy at some point today.