Random News: December 5, 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 December 5, 2022, and it’s a Monday. Already getting that wacky holiday haze in my head, so let’s snap into a new week with some various whatnots…

• Some potential good news out of Iran.
• The country claims to have disbanded its so-called morality police and is considering altering the requirement that women cover their heads in public.
• President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran’s Islamic system was enshrined in its constitution but adding, “There are methods of implementing the constitution that can be flexible.”
• This is all in response to massive protests over the matter, which continue with fires and road blockades. It’s not clear if this represents an actual change or merely an attempt to lower support for the protesters.
• Best of luck to the Iranian people!
• As I mentioned yesterday, the power outage in Moore County, NC caused by people shooting guns into electrical substations is being investigated as a “criminal occurrence”. They’ve only gone so far as calling it intentional vandalism.
• They won’t yet verify what we know it to be, which is an act of domestic terrorism. The substations were shot up, leaving over 40,000 without power in the cold, to interrupt a drag show.
• Due to the power outage and the potential for more domestic right-wing terrorist actions, the county implemented a mandatory curfew from 9PM until 5AM, starting last night.
• The FBI has joined the investigation as of this morning.
• We’ll see how that goes.
• It may indeed be true that House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy does not have the requisite 218 votes to be named Speaker. The party, ironically, is being held hostage by its most right-wing members (including Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Bob Good (R-VA.), Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Matt Rosendale (R-MT), who feel that McCarthy isn’t MAGA enough to lead.
• There are only 222 Republicans in the House. They need almost all of them to move ahead with a new Speaker. See why voting matters?
• And now, The Weather: “Side By Side” by Carla Dal Forno
• As I’d mentioned previously, today at the Supreme Court, the rights of LGBT Americans may take a huge step backwards due to Lorie Smith, a web designer in Colorado.
• Lorie has never been asked to design a site for a same-sex wedding.
• But she says she’s worried that she might have to someday.
• So that’s the premise upon which the Supreme Court might overturn the 2015 Obergefell decision that made gay marriage legal in all 50 states.
• Next up, let’s get some cases rolling where people refuse to do business with Black people, with Asian people, or with Jews, saying (like Lorie Smith is) that it’s against their personal beliefs. I’m sure this SCOTUS will be fine with all that.
• From the Sports Desk… terrible news for Niners fans, with Jimmy Garoppolo being out for the remainder of the season with a broken foot. The only happy part of the story was seeing rookie Brock Purdy — the last person picked in the 2022 NFL draft, known colloquially as “Mr. Irrelevant” — replace Jimmy G and win the game, becoming the first guy in his lowly spot to even score a TD in NFL history. The 49ers are currently atop the NFC West.
• Tomorrow is the run-off election between Warnock and Walker. Please vote, Georgia friends. There’s far too much at stake.
• Finally, I’ll once again mention the irrelevant former president who called for, “… the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
• Senator Lisa Murkowski (A-AK) responded well by saying, “Suggesting the termination of the Constitution is not only a betrayal of our Oath of Office, it’s an affront to our Republic.”
• Fact check: True.
• Today in history… In London, auctioneer James Christie holds his first sale (1766). At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts (1775). Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives (1831). In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California (1848). The Football Association bans women's football in England from league grounds, a ban that stays in place for 50 years (1921). The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, repealing the nationwide prohibition of alcohol (1933). E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery bus boycott (1955). The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there (2005). 
• December 5 is the birthday of composer Francesco Scarlatti (1666), US president Martin Van Buren (1782), George Armstrong Custer (1839), zoologist/ornithologist/entomologist/ethnographer Clinton Hart Merriam (1855), pilot/businessman Clyde Vernon Cessna (1879), director Fritz Lang (1890), animator/producer Walt Disney (1901), physicist Werner Heisenberg (1901), politician/racist Strom Thurmond (1902), director Otto Preminger (1905), singer-songwriter Sonny Boy Williamson II (1912), singer-songwriter Little Richard (1932), singer-songwriter J. J. Cale (1938), singer-songwriter Jim Messina (1947), NFL player Jim Plunkett (1947), singer-songwriter John Rzeznik (1965), and comedian Margaret Cho (1968). 

Well, I have a typical day ahead, it would seem. Things to do, people to talk to. Plans to make. Various stuff that requires my attention and participation. It’s just life, ya know. Enjoy your day.