Random News: August 22, 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 August 22, 2022, and it’s a Monday. Various things and stuff coming your way…

• You ever notice most news is bad?
• It’s true. Would you be more likely to click a link that says, “Terrible new disease affects three in ten people” or one that says, “Man beats diabetes through diet and exercise”?
• Anyway, you click the link, the algorithm tells the media entity that that’s the type of headline that brings them success, allowing them to sell more ads, and then they serve more of the bad news to make more money.
• It is what it is.
• While I do post alarming information from time to time, I don’t post purely “bad news”. Awful things happen every day with fires and plane crashes and stampedes and so on. You don’t see them here.
• That being said, the footage of the three Arkansas cops — two deputies and a police office — beating the fuck out of an already-subdued man is beyond sickening. 
• Ya know, Americans don’t want to hate cops. We know it’s a hard job. We know cops are an important part of a functional society.
• Then things happen like George Floyd, or the cowards in Uvalde, or this, and… it’s hard not to assume that all cops act this way, and we only see the small percentage that are caught on video.
• I know some law enforcement people. All of them are decent human beings. And they all have to pay the price when other cops do this kind of shit.
• But that all the more means that when incidents like this do happen, the punishment to the cops must be quick and severe.
• Anyone in a position of public trust, be it a teacher, a law enforcement officer, a doctor, a judge, or other who uses his or her position to betray that trust, has to face more harsh penalties than others.
• The deputies have been suspended; the cop is on administrative leave. I’m afraid that won’t be enough unless we hear some extenuating information that justified what they did to that man outside a convenience store in Mulberry.
• Moving on.
• Conservative pollster Rasmussen has President Joe Biden at his highest approval rating thus far, at 47%. That’s good news.
• The same poll on NBC, however, has Biden at 42%, and American Research Group has him at 37%.
• Polls are stupid.
• And now, The Weather: “Catamaran” by Yawning Man.
• Dr. Anthony Fauci has announced he is stepping down in December after more than 50 years of public service. If you want to create a statue to an American hero, he’s a good choice.
• Today in history… King Richard III dies at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485). The English civil War begins (1642). The first America’s Cup is won by a yacht called ‘America’ (1851). 12 nations sign the first Geneva Convention (1864). Cadillac Motor Company is founded (1902). Michael Collins of the Irish Free State army is shot dead in an ambush (1922). German troops begin the siege of Leningrad (1941). Nolan Ryan becomes first to get 5,000 strikeouts (1989). Roy Moore is suspended for refusing to remove a 10 Commandments rock in the Alabama Supreme Court building (2003). 
• August 22 is the birthday of pressure cooker inventor Denis Papin (1647), composer Claude Debussy (1862), writer/satirist Dorothy Parker (1893), blues man John Lee Hooker (1917), writer Ray Bradbury (1920), general Norman Schwarzkopf (1934), actress Valerie Harper (1939), baseball great Carl Yastrzemski (1939), writer/director David Chase (1945), Grateful Dead singer Donna Jean Godchaux (1947), actress Cindy Williams (1947), guitarist Vernon Reid (1958), musician Roland Orzabal (1961), musician Tori Amos (1963), Wu Tang rapper GZA (1966), singer Layne Staley (1967), actress Kristen Wiig (1973), host James Corden (1978), NFL player Randall Cobb (1990), and singer Dua Lipa (1995).

Well, it’s a Monday and I have shit to do. We’re not always in our best place to do our best shit, but life keeps rolling and there will always be good days and bad days. I’ve had more good than bad; I’m grateful for that. Enjoy your day.