Random News: April 9, 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 April 9, 2023, and it’s a Sunday. I’m waking up and rubbing sleep from my eyes, and I know some of you are in your Easter finery, and I respect that, but this robe sure is comfy, so I’ll sit here and see if anything is worth sharing…

• If you are a spiritual person, this is definitely a big week. Ramadan (March 22-April 20), Passover (April 5-April 13), and Easter (April 9) all converged this year. It’s a rather rare alignment of major events in the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian religions. 
• I like holidays in general. The traditions and so on. The foods. The ceremonies. 
• I don’t have any plans for the day, but I hope you enjoy yours if you do. But here’s a fun fact…
• The practice of decorating eggshells is ancient. Decorated, engraved ostrich eggs have been found in Africa which are 60,000 years old.
• Eggs have long been associated with death and rebirth, which may have influenced early Christian and Islamic cultures.
• Here’s a true story. One year when my sister and I were pretty young, my parents hid eggs in our home as one does. We had fun finding the eggs in various places. A few weeks after Easter, something was definitely smelly in the living room. Turns out we’d not found one of the eggs. Ha.
• I’m suddenly thinking of making deviled eggs. Is that sacrilegious? It sounds yummy regardless.
• Speaking of Jesus, the Middle Eastern Jew who is the main character of Christianity, I’m sure I would have gotten along with him well. He’s unquestionably the most woke dude in history.
• Moving on…
• A jury in Texas this week unanimously convicted Daniel Perry of murder. In summer 2020, he drove into a crowd of BLM protestors. One of the protestors, Garrett Foster, was legally carrying a rifle as one does in Texas. Perry shot him five times with a with a .357 revolver through the window of his car before driving away. Foster died at the scene. Perry, who hasn’t yet been sentenced, faces up to life in prison.
• Perry had made social media posts beforehand, saying he might “kill a few people on my way to work. They are rioting outside my apartment complex.”
• Less than 24 hours after Perry’s conviction, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on social media that he would pardon the convicted killer as soon as a request "hits my desk."
• The murderer, Perry, is white. Foster is Black. Governor Abbott says the prosecution was backed by Jews- I mean, George Soros.
• Welp.
• Here’s something else.
• A federal appeals court upheld a decision that would have overturned an obstruction charge used against January 6 defendants.
• This huge development also permits Special Counsel Jack Smith to charge Donald Trump with obstruction as such. The obstruction of an official proceeding charge will continue to be used against hundreds of defendants arrested in connection with the failed coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
• If you get raped in Iowa, don’t ask the state for help. Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird will no longer allow the state to pay for emergency contraception for victims of sexual assault. This is despite federal regulations and state law that requires Iowa to pay many of the expenses for sexual assault victims who seek medical help, such as the costs of forensic exams and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.
• RIP to Ben Ferencz, the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, who tried Nazis for genocidal war crimes. He was 103.
• Ferencz immigrated to New York as a very young boy to escape rampant antisemitism. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Ferencz joined the U.S. Army in time to take part in the Normandy invasion during World War II. He became an investigator of Nazi war crimes against U.S. soldiers as part of a new War Crimes Section of the Judge Advocate’s Office.
• President Joe Biden is heading toward his ancestral homeland this week, visiting Ireland. During his trip, Biden will mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, a 1998 peace accord that brought an end to decades of religious and ethnic violence in Northern Ireland.
• Biden is proud of his Irish heritage and quotes Irish poets like William Butler Yeats and Seamus Heaney pretty much all the time.
• As a child, Biden famously used a book of Yeats to help overcome his stutter. "I'd get up in the night — in the middle of the night — with a flashlight, and I'd look in the mirror and I would try to memorize what I could.”
• Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), 77, suffered a broken leg Saturday at the UConn men's championship parade in Hartford, Connecticut, and will undergo surgery. He says he’ll be fine.
• I don’t know if this is bullshit or not, but his fellow Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy tweeted, "FYI after he broke his femur he got back up, dusted himself off, and FINISHED THE PARADE. Most Dick Blumenthal thing ever."
• Damn. Heal well, Senator.
• And now, The Weather: “The Situation” by James Supercave
• Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who’d previous said that the "meddling hand of big government creeping down from Washington D.C. will be stopped cold at the Mississippi River,” announced Saturday that President Joe Biden approved her request for a 100% federal cost share for 30 days.
• ”Last week, I asked President Biden to approve a 100% federal cost share for our storm recovery expenses," Gov. Sanders said. "Today, I’m pleased to announce that the president has approved our request."
• Socialism!
• From the Sports Desk… Tiger Woods withdrew from the Masters tournament because of a foot injury. He aggravated a previous plantar fasciitis injury in his right foot.
• I’ve had plantar fasciitis. It definitely hurts.
• Today in history… Mongol forces defeat the Polish and German armies (1241). Despite being outnumbered 16:1, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy are victorious over the Archduchy of Austria in the Battle of Näfels (1388). Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names it Louisiana (1682). On his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville makes the oldest known recording of an audible human voice (1860). Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the war (1865). African-American singer Marian Anderson gives a concert at the Lincoln Memorial after being denied the use of Constitution Hall (1939). The United States Atomic Energy Commission is formed (1945). The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws (1947). NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven” (1959). The first Boeing 737 makes its maiden flight (1967). Baghdad falls to American forces in the Iraq War (2003). Dr. David Dao Duy Anh is forcibly dragged off the flight by aviation security officers, leading to major criticism of United Airlines (2017).
• April 9 is the birthday of flute player/composer Theobald Boehm (1794), poet Charles Baudelaire (1821), NFL player/coach Curly Lambeau (1898), actor Avery Schreiber (1935), screenwriter Marty Krofft (1937), actress Michael Learned (1939), drummer Steve Gadd (1945), actor Dennis Quaid (1954), journalist Joe Scarborough (1963), actress Cynthia Nixon (1966), actor/writer/director Jay Chandrasekhar (1968), actress Jenna Jameson (1974), and singer-songwriter Albert Hammond Jr. (1980).

A good number of folks have asked me whether I’ll be able to post these here bullets during my business event later in the week, and the answer is… probably not. But I may be able to give you a few dribs and drabs while I’m in hell- I mean, at my trade show. We’ll see. Enjoy your day.