Random News and Notes 24 September

On this date:

• 1789 – Congress passes the Judiciary Act of 1789, establishing a strong federal court system with the powers it needs to ensure the supremacy of the Constitution and federal law. The new Supreme Court will have a chief justice and five associate justices.
• 1862 – President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus against anyone suspected of being a Southern sympathizer.
• 1902 – Pioneering cookbook author Fannie Farmer, who changed the way Americans prepare food by advocating the use of standardized measurements in recipes, opens Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery in Boston.
• 1904 – Sixty-two die and 120 are injured in head-on train collision in Tennessee.
• 1914 – The German Army captures St. Mihiel in the Alsace-Lorraine area between France and Germany.
• 1915 – Bulgaria mobilizes troops on the Serbian border.
• 1929 – The first flight using only instruments is completed by U.S. Army pilot James Doolittle.
• 1941 – The Japanese consul in Hawaii is instructed to divide Pearl Harbor into five zones and calculate the number of battleships in each zone—and report the findings back to Japan.
• 1944 – The Allies begin their retreat from the Dutch town of Arnhem after Operation Market Garden, a plan to seize bridges there, fails, and thousands of British and Polish troops are killed, wounded or taken prisoner.
• 1948 – Mildred Gillars—the notorious American citizen known as “Axis Sally,” who had been living in Germany and broadcasting Nazi radio propaganda during World War II—pleads not guilty to eight counts of treason.
• 1948 – Motorcycle builder Soichiro Honda incorporates the Honda Motor Company in Hamamatsu, Japan.

• 1956 – The first transatlantic telephone cable system begins operation.
• 1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect nine black students entering its newly integrated high school. Troops from the 101st Airborne would escort the students to classes the next day.
• 1960 – The Enterprise, the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, is launched.
• 1962 – The University of Mississippi agrees to admit James Meredith as the first black university student, sparking more rioting.
• 1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson receives the Warren commission’s report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which had occurred on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
• 1969 – The “Chicago Eight,” charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot, go on trial for their part in the mayhem during the 1968 Democratic Party National Convention in the “Windy City.”
• 1970 – The Soviet Luna 16 lands, completing the first unmanned round trip to the moon.
• 1979 – CompuServe (CIS) offers one of the first online services to consumers; it will dominate among Internet service providers for consumers through the mid-1990s.
• 2005 – Hurricane Rita, the 4th-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, comes ashore in Texas causing extensive damage there and in Louisiana, which had devastated by Hurricane Katrina less than a month earlier.

We start the news in The Great Land. Current Alaska rep and candidate for senate Mary Peltola must have irked someone in the Dem leadership because the NYT just ran a hit piece on her. The investigation, based on interviews with nine former staffers and text messages, reveals Peltola’s profane rants and use of slurs like ‘faggot’ and ‘retarded’. There are also accusations that she got physical with a staffer and wished a botched abortion on Planned Parenthood staffer.

I am not one to step in and defend politicians of any stripe, but there may be mitigating circumstances here. The incidents being reported all happened within weeks of her losing her mother and husband in a plane crash.

What’s more, it isn’t a normal day unless I say retard or faggot at least once in normal conversation. More if I am speaking with either of the two.

In some Mil news, the DOW has confirmed it has begun using laser weapons in combat to neutralize Iranian drones and cruise missiles. The Pentagon says systems like the Navy’s HELIOS – delivering 60 kilowatts of power by focusing energy on target to disable them – are being used in the Gulf. Tested against cartel drones at the southern border too, these weapons use reconfigured gaming controllers and mark the first production contracts, such as a $465 million Army deal with AeroVironment.

There are some drawbacks to these systems. They need a clear line of sight and clear skies to work effectively. They also consume huge amounts of electricity.

I wonder how many of you know the fact I’ll share at the end of this story. Anyway, CCP President Xi Jinping announced that Zoo Atlanta will be getting two giant pandas. Xi described the pandas—male Ping Ping and female Fu Shuang—as symbols of Chinese-American friendship, will arrive at Zoo Atlanta in just a few days. The announcement followed an April conservation partnership with China’s Wildlife Conservation Association, bringing the beloved animals back after Zoo Atlanta’s previous pair returned in 2024.

Now the ‘fun’ fact about pandas. The CCP claims ownership of nearly all the giant pandas worldwide. Pandas held in zoos outside of China are leased to that zoo. Any offspring born during the lease period belong to the CCP and must be returned to China, usually when they are around 2-3 years old. As of this writing, there is one panda that is not owned by the CCP- Xin Xin (born 1990 at Mexico City’s Chapultepec Zoo). She descends from a pair (Pe Pe and Ying Ying) gifted by China to Mexico in 1975. There are 3 pandas in Taiwan, but their ownership is disputed. Be honest, did you know that? Let us know in the comments.