Random News: March 26, 2023

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.

---

Good morning. It’s March 26, 2023, and it’s a Sunday. Let’s take a pleasant walk together through the fields of information and see if there’s anything worth seeing…

• I have just hit 300,000 words since I started this silly list of bullets last May. 
• With 300,000 words, I’ve just passed the word count of ‘A Game of Thrones’ (298,000 words), but I’m still far behind ‘War and Peace” (561,304), ‘Les Miserables’ (530,982), and the utterly shitty ‘Atlas Shrugged’ (561,996). But I am coming up on Ayn’s Rand’s equally detestable ‘The Fountainhead’ (311,596).
• Former president Donald Trump had his first 2024 campaign rally yesterday in Waco, TX.
• As you may recall, Waco was the site where exactly 30 years ago, in March/April 1993, the Branch Davidian religious cult led by David Koresh was raided by the ATF and FBI for stockpiling weapons.
• Two years later, Timothy McVeigh cited the Waco incident as a primary motivation for the Oklahoma City bombing that claimed 168 lives and left over 600 injured in the deadliest act of terrorism before 9/11. The Waco siege also kicked off the career of conspiracy spreader Alex Jones.
• Anyway, that’s where Trump decided to hold his rally yesterday. Very little to report from that. he just continued to repeat provably false claims as always… the election was rigged, he completed the border wall with Mexico, etc.
• He also spent some time attacking his presumptive Republican competitor, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
• But most of his speech was about being a poor, persecuted, innocent victim in relation to the multitude of criminal investigations he’s facing.
• Yawn.
• Trump’s own lawyer in the Stormy Daniels hush money case said today that Orange Goblin’s recent post attacking Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was not a good idea.
• “I’m not his social media consultant. I think that was an ill-advised post that one of his social media people put up, and he quickly took down when he realized the rhetoric and the photo that was attached to it.” - Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina
• Meanwhile, President Biden declared an emergency to quickly help the people of Mississippi who were devastated by the deadly tornado that ripped through the Delta on Friday, killing dozens and destroying entire blocks of homes.
• Best of luck to them.
• I meant to mention yesterday… RIP to Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel. He was 94.
• Moore is known for Moore’s Law, the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years, something he initially said in 1965. His prediction held steady almost the entire time since then (though we’re now reaching a point for that to soon become physically impossible).
• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has finally been released from an inpatient physical therapy facility after he fell earlier this month and was treated for a concussion and rib fracture. He’s 81.
• The long-serving human-turtle hybrid will be working from home while he continues to recuperate.
• And now, The Weather: “No Repair” by Bodywash
• Let me talk a little about carrying weapons and humanity’s propensity to act on immediate emotional situations.
• Kevin Madrid, 24, worked at a Family Dollar store in Phoenix. A serial shoplifter came in a Kevin told him to leave. The guy punched him in the face. And Kevin pulled out his weapon and shot him more than 10 times.
• You may think to yourself that you wouldn’t do that, but in the heat of the moment, you don’t know that for sure. Now Kevin is being charged with murder, and his life is ruined. Had he not had a concealed weapon on him at that moment, the worst he’d have was a black eye and a bruised ego.
• You always hear about how things would go better if there had been “a good guy with a gun”. Ask your friends in law enforcement how often things go better in that situation.
• From the Sports Desk… we’re close to a Final Four in the NCAA tournament. On the men’s side, UConn (4) will face the winner of the Miami (5) and Texas (2) game, while FAU (9) will play the winner of the SDSU (5) and Creighton (6) game.
• For the WNCAA, the Final Four will see the winners of the South Carolina (1)/Maryland (2), Miami (9)/LSU (3), Louisville (5)/Iowa (2), and Virginia Tech (1)/Ohio State (3) games.
• Today in history… William Caxton prints his translation of ‘Aesop's Fables’ (1484). Utrecht University is founded in the Netherlands (1636). A political cartoon in the Boston Gazette coins the term "gerrymander" to describe oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win reelection (1812). The Vancouver Millionaires win the 1915 Stanley Cup Finals, the first championship played between the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the National Hockey Association (1915). The Battle of Iwo Jima ends as the island is officially secured by American forces (1945). Ten thousand people gather for one of many Central Park be-ins in New York City (1967). East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Liberation War begins (1971). Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Egypt–Israel peace treaty in Washington, D.C. (1979). Thirty-nine bodies are found in the Heaven's Gate mass suicides (1997). 
• March 26 is the birthday of socialist/visionary Edward Bellamy (1850), poet Robert Frost (1874), first president of South Korea Syngman Rhee (1875), socialist activist Kate Richards O’Hare (1876), engineer Othmar Ammann (1879), fashion designer Guccio Gucci (1881), mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904), playwright Tennessee Williams (1911), US general William Westmoreland (1914), actor Strother Martin (1919), SCOTUS justice Sandra Day O’Connor (1930), actor Leonard Nimoy (1931), actor Alan Arkin (1934), physicist Anthony James Leggett (1938), actor James Caan (1940), politician Nancy Pelosi (1940), novelist Erica Jong (1942), journalist Bob Woodward (1943), singer-songwriter Diana Ross (1944), singer-songwriter Steven Tyler (1948), actress/singer Vicki Lawrence (1949), singer-songwriter Teddy Pendergrass (1950), actor Martin Short (1950), composer Alan Silvestri (1950), politician Elaine Chao (1953), actress Jennifer Grey (1960), NBA player John Stockton (1962), actor Michael Imperioli (1966), singer-songwriter Kenny Chesney (1968), guitarist James Iha (1968), and actress Keira Knightley (1985).

I should get dressed and do things. In a bit. Enjoy your day.