We get everything — everything we want. And we’re witnessing the detriment that that does to society. Everyone’s depressed. Of course you’re depressed. You’re not struggling. Struggle’s horrible — but it’s also vital.
— Jessimae Peluso
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Today is Wednesday, February 14th, the 45th day of 2024. There are 321 days left in the year. It is Arizona Statehood Day (in Arizona), Pet Theft Awareness Day, Library Lovers Day, Frederick Douglass Day, National Call in Single Day, National Ferris Wheel Day, National Donor Day, International Book Giving Day, International Quirkyalone Day, World Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day, and World Sound Healing Day.
On This Day
In 1530, Spanish conquistadores, led by Nuño de Guzmán, overthrew and executed Tangaxuan II, the last independent ruler of the Tarascan state in present-day central Mexico.
In 1778, the U.S. flag was formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine-gun salute to the USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.
In 1849, President James Polk became the first serving chief executive to have his photograph taken.
In 1903, the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor, later split into two bureaucracies, was established.
In 1912, Arizona was admitted as the 48th state.
In 1920, the League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago.
In 1929, seven men (six of them rivals of Chicago gangster Al Capone) were killed in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.
In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.
In 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft took the photograph of Earth that later became famous as Pale Blue Dot.
In 2005, YouTube was launched by a group of college students.
Today’s Birthdays
Nanny Statist Michael Bloomberg is 82. Actor Andrew Robinson is 82. Saxophonist Maceo Parker is 81. “Journalist” and Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferer Carl Bernstein is 80. Illusionist, writer, and actor Teller, born Raymond Joseph Teller, is 76. Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly is 64. Romance novelist and former actress Meg Tilly is 64. Actor Enrico Colantoni is 61. Actor Freddie Highmore is 32.
The Links
The Great Inflation Keeps Not Stopping (Jeffrey A. Tucker)
“This whole thing has become a giant farce. It was three years ago that Janet Yellen and the entire Biden administration was going on about how the inflation was merely ‘transitory.’ No one asked what that meant. It sounds like temporary, right? That’s not the word they used. Transitory means to transition to something. But to what?”
Democrats Are Also in (Election) Denial (The Daily Sceptic)
“As you can see, 49% of Democrats agreed that the 2016 election of Donald Trump was fraudulent — which is only nine points less than the percentage of Republicans who agreed that the 2020 election of Joe Biden was fraudulent. Overall, a sizeable chunk of both parties’ voters endorse election conspiracies.”
Young People Are Right to Hate the Office (Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture)
“The pointlessness of so many laptop jobs, the cost of living that eats up a paycheck even before young people can start saving, and the constant woke browbeating from human resources offices is no insignificant burden for them to bear. When you add to this the apparent likelihood that they must bear it for decades on end until they reach an increasingly unlikely retirement, it’s no wonder that the kids aren’t all right.”
Governments can erase your medical debt for pennies on the dollar — and some are (Stateline)
“This is an area that is ripe for public involvement and public-funded solutions, because the fact is that medical debt is not an individual choice. It is the result of a broken system.”
Republicans don’t need this third-rate Talleyrand (South Carolina State Rep. Jordan Pace)
“I’ve been involved in South Carolina politics for nearly two decades. During that time, I’ve personally seen her perfidiousness and double dealing. She was elected to the state House of Representatives as a reformer and limited-government conservative. But as governor, she handed out tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to foreign corporations and stabbed us in the back by supporting tax hikes after years of saying that we didn’t need them. Then, after declaring publicly that she would not run for president against her former boss, she conveniently changed her mind when the money and offers started flowing in.”
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