Let's Go Back Through the Listening Tube August 3-7

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Let's go back through the listening tube for this week in history.

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I'm Bob Woodley from the Listening Tube. This week in 1492, Columbus sails the ocean blue. When he set sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain. It was actually August 3rd. Maybe we'd already know that if they found a way to incorporate the actual date into the rhyme. That's just lazy rhyme writing. This week in 1789, the United States War Department is established. Then it was changed to the Department of War, then the Department of Defense, and now it's back to the Department of War. Some people care what it's called, and some people don't. When I was a disc jockey in the Air Force, we called ourselves the American Forces Radio and Television Service for part of the time, then the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service for part of the time. Those of us who had to say it didn't really care what we called it. It was just posturing by the government, and that's part of what our job was to inform and entertain. In that order. So for those who refuse to call it the Department of War, well, if you hold out long enough, maybe we'll revert back to using the word defense someday. You never know. Bellbottoms are making a comeback. This week in 1794, United States President George Washington invokes the Militia Law of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania. What the hell was the Whiskey Rebellion? I'm going to look that up.

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He's gonna look it up. He's really gonna do it. I want the truth! You can't handle the truth.

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That was always more of a Kentucky thing. Until I acquired some taste, then I realized that whiskey was really a Canadian thing.

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Similar but different.

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Anyway, whiskey was a big thing in Western Pennsylvania back then, to the point that it was often used to barter in place of currency. It was easier to transport than the ingredients needed to make it. When Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton proposed a tax on the whiskey, those who depended upon it for their livelihood and lifestyle weren't happy. Britannica says that federal officers who attempted to collect the tax were tarred and feathered. Talk about sending a signal. There were also some incidents of violence. President Washington got the signal. He and Hamilton felt it was not only an obligation to collect the tax, but also an opportunity to assert the federal control over the states of the young country. What became an organized rebellion by Western Pennsylvania whiskey farmers was met with a militia of about thirteen thousand troops to blanket the area and end the rebellion. It worked. There was no confrontation with the militia. Two were convicted of treason, both were later pardoned by the president. The lasting effect of the Whiskey Rebellion and President Washington's response to it was that the federal government was able to get support from individual states, in this case, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, who all were represented in the forces used to quell the rebellion to enforce federal law. This week in 1852, the first American intercollegiate athletic event took place when Harvard wins the first boat race between Yale and Harvard. Thus began the rivalry that's led to the athletic mediocrity that is the Ivy League. Meanwhile, athletes from other leagues like the SEC or Big Ten, thanks to name, image, and likeness agreements, are becoming millionaires before they ever become professional athletes. Now I'm confused. Which part of an athletics scholarship to Harvard Business School has the most value? Would it be the education or the athleticism? This week in 1861, in order to help pay for the costs of the Civil War effort, the United States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861. Well, we already have a tax on whiskey. What more do you want? The answer? 3% of all incomes over $800. Here's the part that impresses me. The tax was rescinded in 1872. When was the last time you heard about a tax being rescinded? Am I right?

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He's a nut job, but he's still sharp.

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Oh wait. It was just last year when all of the Democrats in Congress voted against it. They claimed that the president was just trying to give his billionaire friends tax breaks. When the truth is that almost all working people got tax breaks, as well as retired people. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Sound familiar? If not, it's because you watch the wrong news. Those don't sound like tax breaks for millionaires to me. Did rich people get tax breaks too? Sure. Why should anyone have a problem with that?

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The nineteen hundreds.

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This week in nineteen fourteen, in Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed. This tool of modern technology is perhaps one of the first that interrupted our lives as much as it saved them. Certainly, in today's vehicle traffic environment, traffic lights are an order-keeping, life-saving measure to which we've become accustomed, albeit reluctantly most of the time. I still maintain that I could get where I'm going much faster if there weren't any other cars on the road. But because there are, traffic lights allow others to go first, regardless of how much I want to pop the clutch and hit the gas. It seems like we sit at traffic lights for an inordinate amount of time, and it can feel very frustrating for some. In reality, we may be spending less time waiting for the light to turn green than it feels. Here are the numbers. According to get smalltalk.com. We spend about two to five minutes a day waiting at the red light, which adds up to about six months over the course of an average lifetime. When we compare that to how much time you might lose if you smoke cigarettes, or how much time you spend playing games on your phone, sitting at the red light is a very minor inconvenience. I would suggest you use some of that time to scan your radio for stations that employ local disc jockeys. They're getting hard to find these days.

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You can hang your hat on that.

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This week in 1945, during World War II, Hiroshima is devastated when the atomic bomb Little Boy is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly. Some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning. We still have these weapons, and some other countries do too. The United States is the only country to ever use them. Let's hope it stays that way. Nuclear weapons are now a deterrent. Let's hope it stays that way. Iran wants a nuclear weapon. Iran doesn't have one. Let's hope it stays that way. This week in 1977, United States President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy. America had just gone through an energy crisis earlier in the decade, and a Secretary of Energy seemed like a good idea at the time. Nuclear energy had become common, and America needed a comprehensive energy plan. Unfortunately, the Department of Energy didn't really learn a lot from the energy crisis. The Department has accomplished very little since 1977. It could be on the chopping block, along with another useless department created by Jimmy Carter. The Department of Education. The Department of Energy was created to pacify the environmentalists, and the Department of Education was created to empower the teachers' unions. The results of both have been negative at best and downright abysmal at worst.

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And you can hang your hat on that.

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This week in 1987, the Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine, which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues fairly. The Fairness Doctrine's roots go all the way back to the early days of radio, when it was realized that mass media had immense power to persuade as well as inform. It became obvious that there needed to be a rule about providing an opposing view to controversial subjects, both at the national and local level. But by 1987, there were so many different radio stations and television stations and newspapers around that it was practically impossible to enforce. Plus, newspapers didn't have the same demands, so it would probably become a First Amendment argument at some point anyway. So the FCC did away with the rule, which never was a law. I kind of missed the rule myself because you could get a counterpoint to an argument that you may not have thought of yourself. Either way, you were free to make up your own mind. The end of the Fairness Doctrine was the beginning of the divided and agenda-driven media we have today. And this week in 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes president of Iran. He's currently under house arrest in Iran, having been accused of spying for Israel. Follow the listening tube at thelisteningtube.com where you'll also find not the headlines and guest interviews. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening tube. I'm your host, Bob Woodley, for Thou at Infinitum.