Random News: March 29, 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.

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Good morning. It’s March 29, 2023, and it’s a Wednesday. I am an idiot — something I’ll explain at some point below — but first, here’s some news… 

• Something you didn’t probably notice in the wake of this week’s nightmarish shooting rampage at an elementary school in Nashville, TN…
• That same day, a federal judge quietly cleared the way to drop the minimum age to 18 for Tennesseans to carry handguns in public without a permit.
• These folks are much more afraid of losing their completely unencumbered access to more guns than they are about protecting children. I doubt anything will ever change that.
• The same is true at the federal level. None of the people who could enact common sense gun regulation have the balls to do so, and most of them actually prefer things as they are now. It will not change.
• One last note on that topic for now. Shooter Audrey Hale had recently posted on Facebook about the death of a romantic partner. Grief has a terrible effect on rational thought. It certainly doesn’t justify what she did in any way, but it’s another factor of understanding her mindset and trying to prevent future mass shootings.
• I do need to note that in stark contrast to the Uvalde, TX school massacre, the law enforcement team in Nashville who took out the suspect did so with extreme speed and bravery, and almost certainly prevented more carnage. Kudos to officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo.
• I also need to note the number of Republican figures who are saying that trans people should not be allowed to own guns. The subtext to each of these situations is that the Second Amendment should only apply to white heterosexual cisgender men, which is generally the outlook toward everything from voting rights to land ownership and beyond.
• Moving on…
• On Tuesday, a federal district court in Washington ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to testify before the grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
• That will be fun.
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) had her congressional Twitter account suspended for “violating rules against violent speech”. She was unsuspended but then immediately resuspended for pushing ignorant false narratives about transgender people being a part of ANTIFA. She was then forced to remove her disgusting tweets to regain access to her account. 
• Sporky is trying to stoke hate and fear of transgender Americans by using a few individuals to paint all transgender Americans in a specific violent way. 
• We don’t do that in America.
• Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has put a hold on nearly 160 military promotions, some for very senior positions, citing his objections to its policy post-Roe v. Wade.
• He’s singlehandedly blocking the promotion of nearly 160 senior U.S. military officers in a dispute arising from the Defense Department’s abortion policy. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that by impeding these officers’ promotions, Tuberville had caused a “ripple effect in the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be.”
• What an asshole.
• Tuberville’s complaint is in regard to the policy granting up to three weeks of paid time off and travel reimbursement for service members and dependents if they travel out of state to receive an abortion.
• Almost 80,000 of our servicewomen are stationed in places where they don’t have access to non-covered reproductive health care.
• Speaking of our military… today marks the 50th anniversary of combat troops departing South Vietnam, the beginning of the end of the United States' direct military involvement in the unpopular war. 
• Nearly 60,000 Americans and 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters were killed in the war, which also claimed the lives of as many as 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers and more than 2 million civilians.
• War sucks.
• Let’s feel better about ourselves. It’s easy. Just compare yourself with just about anyone in America’s national joke, the state of Florida.
• A parent of a second grade student at North Shore Elementary in St. Petersburg, FL filed a formal complaint requesting the removal of the 1998 movie “Ruby Bridges” from the school’s list of approved films.
• Why? The parent argued it could teach students that “White people hate Black people.”
• The film is about a Black first grader who integrated an all-White elementary school in the South. These people would much rather whitewash history than face it and learn from its lessons.
• And now, The Weather: “In The Rear View” by Unknown Mortal Orchestra
• It’s raining again this morning in Southern California. Apparently it will just always rain here, forever and ever, for the rest of time.
• Yesterday, I went into my podiatrist’s office for a scheduled minor surgery. I have a large trade show coming up soon and needed to resolve an issue with my foot before standing for 8-10 hours per day.
• It wasn’t going to be a big deal, but it did mean I’d be bandaged up after, and not able to show for a few days, and would need to stop exercising for a week or so.
• I was not happy about any of that. However, when I got there and was examined, it turned out that my foot issue was not what I thought it was. Instead… it was just a fucking callus. She took care of it, my foot was 99% better ten minutes later, and now I am fine, and all that concern was for absolutely nothing.
• Today in history… Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway (1806). United States forces in the Mexican-American War led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege (1847). The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab (1849). Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes Canada on July 1 (1867). Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria (1871). Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage (1951). The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections (1961). Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder in the My Lai Massacre and sentenced to life in prison (1971). NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first space probe to fly by Mercury (1974). The Baltimore Colts load its possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer its operations to Indianapolis (1984). The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark for the first time, during the height of the dot-com bubble (1999). Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join NATO as full members (2004). The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed (2014). Prime Minister Theresa May invokes Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, formally beginning the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union (2017).
• March 29 is the birthday of biologist/physician Santorio Santorio (1561), US president John Tyler (1790), engineer/inventor Elihu Thomson (1853), MLB player/manager Cy Young (1867), US first lady Lou Henry Hoover (1874), actress/singer Pearl Bailey (1918), businessman Sam Walton (1918), saxophonist Michael Brecker (1949), NFL player Earl Campbell (1955), actress Marina Sirtis (1955), MLB player/manager Billy Beane (1962), politician Catherine Cortez Masto (1964), actress Lucy Lawless (1968), politician Ted Lieu (1969), and tennis player Jennifer Capriati (1976).

Time for me to be a productive human with two functional feet. Enjoy your day.