S2 Tenth One

 S2 Tenth One

Hello! Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube! I’m your host, Bob Woodley. On this episode, we’ll establish the collective term for Generals, then go for a ride on the Moon, and hear about a Tzar who became an elected leader……...but first, (not the headlines)

If you’re planning to rent a car in the not-too-distant future, I would normally recommend reading the fine print before you sign on the dotted line. But sometimes that won’t be enough for you to get ripped off, or even worse, hassled by the police because of the company. For example, a story in Fortune says the Hertz company is being sued by dozens of customers because the car they were renting was reported stolen by the company. Almost 50 customers have been arrested, some at gunpoint, and some who actually spent time in jail, and even some who lost their jobs because they were arrested because the Hertz company. One woman described in the story spent 9 nights in jail after being arrested at gunpoint while her children watched, even though she paid for the rental car from Hertz. Another woman spent 14 nights in jail, leaving her daughter home alone while her husband was deployed overseas. While in jail, she said she was attacked by other inmates and bitten by bedbugs. Some of the people falsely accused of car theft from Hertz lost their jobs and had to wait months or even years for the cases to be dropped. The lawsuit claims Hertz didn’t properly record lease extensions, made false accusations against customers who paid, didn’t keep accurate track of its own inventory, and not rescinding false police reports. “Oh, the car we reported stolen is actually in the lot? Oh, well. The police will figure it out.” Meanwhile, Hertz CEO admits several hundred people were affected by false arrests because of the company. But here’s the kicker: Back in 2020, Hertz filed for bankruptcy, and thought it had a way out of accepting responsibility for the screw-ups because anyone who wanted to sue them had to go through bankruptcy court, and it’s hard to win a settlement against a company in bankruptcy court. But this June, a judge ruled that about a hundred of the people falsely arrested could file suit in state courts, because Hertz emerged from bankruptcy in 2021. Hertz is fighting that move, but has begun sending settlement offers to dozens of claimants on a case-by-case basis. They say they’ve changed the standard operating procedures to try to prevent more false arrests, but considering how long this went on, and how Hertz didn’t even really seem to care for a long time, I would be extremely cautious about renting from them anytime soon. 

No problem, though. You can always rent a car from Avis, right? Not so fast there, speedy. A story from WSB tells the story of a Georgia man who was charged 4000 dollars for a 300 dollar rental from Avis. He rented the car for one day, from the airport at Hartsfield, to drive to Chicago and back because his brother had died. It was a 24-hour rental, but he had the car back in 16 hours. He said he followed the instructions when he dropped off the rental car upon his return. Two week later, his credit card got charged 4000 dollars. Avis said the man kept the car for 10 days longer than he should have. When he disputed the charges, Avis pulled the surveillance video and confirmed that he had, in fact, dropped off the car within the original 24-hour period. But then Avis decided that they wouldn’t refund all of his money anyway! Avis decided to only refund half of the 4000 dollars they charged him for a 295-dollar rental. But then, to add insult to injury, Avis sent him another bill for 450 dollars because the car, that sat on their lot for the 10 days they allege the man had the car, was dirty! This whole deal lasted more than 5 months, until a TV news reporter got involved. The man finally got all of his money back, including the cleaning fee, tolls, and the readjusted rental fee, plus credit card interest. 

306 Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops. Wow. Here’s a guy who actually got elected Emperor. Now, not everybody got to vote, but still, it’s not everyday an emperor gets elected into office. But Constantine was a special guy. If you’ve ever seen the Blues Brother’s movie with John Belushi and Dan Akroyd, you might recall that they considered themselves to be on a “mission from God.” Well, that’s exactly what Constantine thought, too! He was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. He attributed his success to his personal relationship to God, and his devotion to Christ. Although his troops elected him Emperor, this was a time when the Roman Empire was broken in two. The East and the West. Each had its own Emperor, and eventually Constantine defeated his counterpart to rule the entire empire. That happened six years later, and three years after that, in 315, The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum at Rome to commemorate Constantine’s victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. It wasn’t until 324 that he consolidated his power. He then changed the name of Byzantium to Constantinople. He planned to replace Rome as the home of the Empire, and Constantinople, in present-day Turkey, had a much more strategic geographic location when it came to ruling the empire. Constantine died in 337, but his legacy lived on for a long time, because this week in 1261, the city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire, or the Eastern Roman Empire once ruled by Constantinople himself. Today, Constantinople is called Istanbul, and has been the official name of the city since 1930. between 1453 and 1930, the area was referred to as both Constantinople and Istanbul, as well as other names. The name Istanbul is derived from the Greek phrase, “going to the city” or “eis ten polin.”

This week in 1866, Ulysses S. Grant was named 1st General of the Army. That made General Grant the first 5-star general in the history of the United States. I would like to put that into perspective for anyone not familiar with military rank. There are two lieutenants, second and first, Captain, Major and two Colonels, then come the Generals. So even the lowliest of Generals is only seven ranks above the bottom. That’s the Brigadier General. Then comes the Major General, the Lieutenant General, and finally, General. The Brigadier General has one star, the General has four. General Grant was given an extra star, but the title wasn’t new. General John Pershing was named General of the Army in 1919, but never wore five stars. In fact, only five American soldiers have ever worn 5 stars. Other than General Grant, we didn’t need a 5-star General again until World War II. Four Generals were awarded 5 stars in 1944: George Marshall, Douglass MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, and Henry Arnold. Omar Bradley, also famous for his contributions to World War II, was the last to be given the rank in 1950. Today, there are no 5-star Generals in the American military, and that’s a good thing. You can tell a lot about the state of our world by how many 5-star generals there are. When I was in the Air Force, a buddy and I came up with some collective terms for the different ranks. Some that we came up with were, “a crotch of Privates,” “a disaster of Majors,” “a cob of Colonels,” “a balloon of Airmen,” “a reflection of Admirals,” and of course, “a nuisance of Generals.” Good times. 

also in 1866, the Metric system becomes a legal measurement system in United States. That’s right, 1866. Not 1966. 1866. And it still hasn’t caught on. Those of us old enough to remember back in the late 1970’s, there was a push by the government to get Americans to convert to the simpler, more universal system. At the time, only scientists were using the metric system in America, some doctors, too. Drug dealers would latch on the the system, distributing powdered drugs in grams and parts of a gram. You can’t say a fraction of a gram, because there are no fractions in the metric system. You can say a half a gram, but you’ll get looked at funny by people who use the metric system. To them, it’s point 5 grams, and a quarter gram would be point 2-5 grams. No fractions, just decimals. Weight and distance are measured in grams and meters, respectively. Volume is measured by liters. It’s a beautiful system, really. Temperature is the hardest part to learn. Freezing is Zero degrees, and boiling is 100 degrees. So the highest temperature ever recorded in England happened this week when the temperature hit 40-point-8 degrees centigrade, or Celsius. That’s the same as 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Here’s how I make the translations: For temperature, 28 degrees Celsius is the same as 82 degrees Fahrenheit. You just switch the digits. Once you get used to the scale, it’s easy to estimate one when you have the other. A liter is a little more than a quart, it takes about 2 and a half centimeters to make an inch, and a meter is about three inches longer than a yard. One of the things our government did to try to get us to use the metric system was by adding the speed limit in kilometers per hour along with miles per hour. That’s how I know that 88 kilometers is the same as 55 miles. We don’t see those signs anymore, but practically all of our cars have the option to get your data in both English and Metric. If you want to confuse your passengers, switch your speedometer to metric and watch the looks on their faces as you speed down the highway at 100! 

also in 1866, New Orleans’s Democratic government orders police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150. I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that no mainstream media will tell this pivotal story of politics and segregation. After the Civil War, the general practice was that of forgiveness and reconciliation. Many free black men made the south their home. As part of the forgiveness doctrine, the man who was Mayor of New Orleans was reappointed to the same post after the war, and he was a Confederate sympathizer. Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Louisiana called for a Constitutional Convention, upset about the refusal of voting rights to the newly freed black men. The Mayor had the convention raided, and the result was a continuation of the Civil War, but between Republicans and Democrats. The official report claims 38 people were killed, mostly black people, but other estimates are higher. Many more were injured in the raid of a Republican Convention by Democratic leaders who were hell-bent on keeping black men from gaining any influence in society. Today, there’s a lot of argument over which party has done the most for, or done the least damage to, the Black population of America. Despite the resistance of the Democratic Party to let black men have influence early on, they managed to get the Black support they needed in the 20th Century. The Democratic Party now claims the Black population, as well as the less-specific person of color, as supporters of the progressive agenda. The tide may be turning, though. Albeit slowly. People of color in our urban areas are becoming disenchanted with the progressive policies that lead to a rise in crime. Those in charge of the greatest concentrations of Black people are struggling to find ways to combat crime within the boundaries of liberal criminal justice. The pollsters keeping track of the racism of our voting system will no doubt be able to tell us how Black people voted in the upcoming mid-term elections. We’ll see if the tide is turning or not. Now, I’m not saying our voting system is racist, I’m saying the people who keep track of it are.

1908

United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner. It will be staffed by 10 former Secret Service Agents. This agency will later be called the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or (soundbite).

1914 Austria-Hungary attacks Serbia - World War I began. World War One wasn’t always called World War One. It wasn’t until World War Two came along that World War One became World War One. Until World War Two, World War One was called the Great War. It was dubbed, “The War to End All Wars” by British Author H.G. Wells. Many politicians and academics hoped that it would be, and steps were taken to make it so, but the reality turned out to be the groundwork for another world war. We might be in the early stages of the Third World War right now. The United States hesitated to get involved in the first two, just as we have for the latest conflict. Time will tell. Americans are reluctant to go to war, and we consider a strong defense to be a deterrent, not an invitation. As far as Russia’s aggression goes, there’s a line drawn in the sand somewhere, I just don’t know where that line is. Most of us don’t. What we hope is that the people who represent us do know where that line is drawn, and have a plan in place if the line is crossed. I’m sure our military has a plan in place, it’s our representatives having the guts to put the plan in motion I wonder about.

1919

The Chicago Race Riot erupts after a racial incident occurred on a South Side beach, leading to 38 fatalities and 537 injuries over a five-day period. Most of the dead were black men. Today, that’s about the same tally as a few weekends in Chicago. 

1931 Congress makes "The Star-Spangled Banner" our 2nd National Anthem. Thing is, we never really had a first national anthem. Before 1931, America the Beautiful, My Country ‘til of Thee and other melodies were used to recognize the country. If you ever have the opportunity, I would highly recommend a visit to Fort McHenry in Maryland. It was the flag still flying at Fort McHenry the morning after a British barrage from ships offshore that inspired the words. It was during the War of 1812. The visitor’s center at Fort McHenry tells the story in a more dramatic way. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I was so moved by the presentation that it literally brought tears to my eyes. There’s more to the Star Spangled Banner than the first verse, though, and some lines in the later verses are reflective of the racism at the time, especially against black men who fought for the British side. But the first verse, and the one we all hear and know, is an ode to our flag, recognizing the land of the free and the home of the brave. It’s not an endorsement of our government or any particular race. It ends with a question, not a statement. Does the flag still fly over the land of the free and the home of the brave. Well, the flag certainly does still fly. The rest of the question is what some find debatable. Are we still free, and are we still brave? I think we are! 

1942 World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into the Soviet Union. Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so are to be immediately executed. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place! Advance and be killed by the enemy, retreat and be killed by your comrades. Ultimately, it worked, though. Soviet forces made it all the way to Berlin. The toll was heavy, though, and people like Vladimir Putin are still seeking revenge for what a European regime did to them.

1944

World War II: the Soviet army enters Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jews survive out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to occupation. Today, Vladimir Putin used the excuse of getting rid of Nazi’s as the reason for invading Ukraine. He hasn’t been able to re-take Lviv as the Soviets did during World War II. Although Lviv has experienced some bombing, it continues to be a stronghold of Ukraine, along with the capital, Kiev. For people who remember the former Soviet Union, Kiev used to be pronounced “Key-ev” but when I pronounced it that way to Reverend Mykola Ivanov, a native of Lviv, he quickly corrected me. “Keev” is the correct pronuncation, he insisted. The pronunciation “Key-ev” is from the Russian pronunciation when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. 

1953 Fidel Castro began revolution against Batista

1955 Austria regains full independence after 4-power occupation.

1956 A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto.

1958 Pres Eisenhower signs into law NASA & Space Act of 1958. So, after declaring the country’s trust in God, he says, “Now build some rocket ships and go find Him.”

1959 VP Nixon argued with Khrushchev known as the `Kitchen Debate'

1971 Apollo Program: launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo “J-Mission”, and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle. I actually mentioned this as an aside last week, and here it is, popping up in this weeks notable occurrances. I said that as far as I know, it’s still there, so just to be sure, 

Look that up liner

It is still there! In fact, there are three of them! When Americans went to the moon on Apollo missions 15, 16, and 17, they all took moon buggies with them! They had to be unfolded once they got up there, but they were 4-wheeled vehicles with enough electric power to reach an estimated 8 miles per hour! You don’t want to drive too fast on unfamiliar terrain, let alone an unfamiliar celestial body. I don’t know why each mission had to take their own buggy up there. Seems like it would have made more sense to make one that was good for more than one trip. Maybe it was a power issue. After all, there aren’t any coal-powered electric plants on the moon to charge the battery. I’ll bet it was fun up there, though. Driving around on a surface with no atmosphere, a lower force of gravity, and craters that are deceptively deep. By the third mission, the astronauts decided to see what the rover could really do. They scouted the area for a good, long stretch of moon without craters or boulders or other obstacles, and put the pedal to the metal! They stomped on that accelerator pedal and went all in. They would have thrown caution to the wind, but there is no wind on the moon. Headwind, tailwind...it wouldn’t have mattered! That moon buggy became the fastest moving object on the entire satellite when it reached a breakneck speed of 11.2 miles per hour! U.S.A! U.S.A.! U.S.A! 

1974 Watergate scandal: the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor. If you weren’t around for any of this, it was a big deal. As it turns out, someone, we don’t know who, ordered a break-in at the Democratic National Convention headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. The break-in happened in June of 1972. What wasn’t known at the time was that President Nixon had a secret tape-recorder installed in the Oval Office, and all conversations that took place in the Oval Office were now available to the Watergate Investigator. Nixon thought he had a legal right to keep the contents of the recordings secret, but the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. The tape-recordings captured Nixon and his Chief of Staff talking about the Watergate break-in and how to cover it up. The recording proved that Nixon ordered the FBI to abandon its investigation. In August, Nixon would resign instead of face impeachment and conviction by the Senate. That’s how Gerald Ford became the first person to become President of the United States even though he was never elected to the office of Vice-President. Ford was appointed Vice-President when Nixon’s original VP, Spiro Agnew, resigned. 

1975

Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He is never seen or heard from again, and will be declared legally dead in 1982.

1990 The Supreme Soviet of the Belarusian Soviet Republic declares independence of Belarus from the Soviet Union. Until 1996 the day is celebrated as the Independence Day of Belarus; after a referendum held that year the celebration of independence is moved to June 3. Today, Belarus is acting like it’s back in the Soviet Union. Belarus allowed Putin to amass troops there, just across the northern border of Ukraine, leading up the Russia’s invasion. Perhaps Belarus leaders didn’t have a choice. When you become a puppet for the dictator of another country, you either do what you’re told or you’ll be the first country invaded. That’s one of the major differences between the Communists in the east and the democracies of the west. The democracies form partnerships, while the communists create puppet regimes.

1996

The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act is struck down by a U.S. federal court as too broad .

2001 Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, is sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, becoming the first monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office. Here’s a kid who’s dad, the Tzar of Bulgaria, died when he was six years old. He became Tzar Simeon the Second. Of course, a six-year-old can’t run a country all by himself, lest everyone be required to have a dinosaur in their front yard, so his uncle, a prince, and two other men held the reigns of power. His reign didn’t last long, though. Three years later, the monarchy was abolished by occupying Soviet troops. His uncle and the other two men running the country were executed, and young Simeon, along with his mother and sister, was forced into exile in 1946. Five years later, they were granted exile in Spain via Egypt. Fifty years after being exiled from the country he once ruled, albeit by proxy, Simeon the Second returned to Bulgarai, and started his own political party. Five years after that, he was elected Prime Minister of Bulgaria. His term lasted 4 years, and he retired from politics in 2009. Born in 1937, he and the Dalia Lama are the only two living heads of state from World War II. 

2002

Democrat James Traficant is expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1. He was convicted of taking bribes and kickbacks while serving as a Representative. 

2003

In Mexico, the last ‘old style’Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line. These old style Beetles were being made even after Volkswagen began making the new, re-designed ones. But only in Mexico were the original Beetles being built. They had been banned in America since 1977 because of safety and emission standards, but that didn’t stop them from being built and bought elsewhere. It was Mexico, not Volkswagen, that stopped the production of the famous car there. Competition from other makers of compact cars and Mexico’s phasing out two-door taxi’s helped hasten the end. But the car designed by Porche and commissioned by Hitler would pass the all-time sales mark of 15 million by Ford’s Model T in 1972. The final tally of VW Beetles built would be more than 21 and a half million. I had one myself. It was a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle Automatic Stickshift. There was no clutch pedal, but you still had to shift gears with the floor-mounted gear shift lever. When you pushed down on the gear shifter, that would engage the clutch. You just had to take your foot off the gas when you shifted. It was a unique car, to say the least. It was painted primer red with a brush, and had 2x4’s for bumpers. The passenger seat was no longer attached to the floor, so you could literally see the road going by through the hole in the floor. Girls would still sit in it, though. It also had an awesome cassette deck in it. I bought it when I was in Guam. I gave it away my last day on the island in exchange for a ride back to the base from where ever it was I woke up. 

2005

Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris.

This fall, first and second grade students in New Jersey will be taught about gender identity. The new standards, put in place more than a year ago, but not implemented until the upcoming school year, require that by the end of the second grade, students should understand the core ideas that everyone should feel welcome and included regardless of their gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. I agree that all second-graders should understand that all people should feel welcome. Period. But if you’re going to mandate that all people should feel welcome regardless of the sexual identity, should children also be taught that all people should feel welcome, regardless of their feelings about sexual identity? Should first and second-graders be taught that it’s ok if they don’t understand why some people feel like their a boy, but look like a girl? They should, but they won’t be in New Jersey. Also, second-graders will be expected to discuss the range of ways people express their gender, and gender role stereotypes limit behavior. Now, I don’t have a problem with that last part. Gender role stereotypes should not limit our behaviors. I played with a doll when I was a kid. It wasn’t a Barbie doll. It was an astronaut doll, and I wasn’t the only boy I knew who had one. I’m not averse to wearing pink, especially if I have a tan. I’m perfectly capable of performing domestic chores that have sometimes been stereotyped as “woman’s work.” Stereotypes of behavior can be a liability to those who aspire to do what was traditionally done by someone of the opposite sex. There shouldn’t be limits on what we can accomplish because we’re a man or a woman. That’s a great thing for kids to know, so that moving forward, they’ll be uninhibited by our views to pursue their own destinies. Unfortunately, that’s not where the gender education ends, even for first graders. One lesson plan that’s been released to parents is called “Purple, Pink and Blue.” In the lesson, teachers in New Jersey will teach first-grade students to define gender, which is something the newest member of the Supreme Court can’t do, but a first-grader will, and the difference between gender and gender identity. In the lesson plan, it tells students what the definition of gender identity is. "Gender identity is that feeling of knowing your gender.” it says, according to an article by Houston Keene that cites various sources and quotes a number of interested parties. “You might feel like you are a boy, you might feel like you are a girl. You might feel like you’re a boy even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘girl’ parts. You might feel like you’re a girl even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘boy’ parts.” Regardless of how you feel about this issue, what I just read to you is written in a very misleading and agenda-driven way. When they teach a student that some people might tell you you’re a boy because you have boy parts, what they’re really saying to the child is that those people are probably wrong, and you shouldn’t believe them. The fact is, nearly everyone will tell you you’re a boy because you have boy parts. At the age of 6 or 7, the only people telling you you might be a boy in a girls body or a girl in a boys body is somebody who wants to confuse you and ruin your childhood. 

And now, even if you have decided that you’re a woman because you were born with girl parts, and you grew up and got married and had a baby, the National Education Association wants to take the hard-earned title of “Mother” away from you, and replace mother with “birthing parent.” How pathetic. First, a Supreme Court Justice can’t define a woman, then first-graders are to be taught that just because you’re born with boy parts doesn’t mean you’re a boy, and now even the title of Mother is under attack. It’s as though the people who support these types of measures are using the vast differences we have a human beings to make us all the same by definition, by refusing to concretely define anything. You can’t attack it if you can’t define it. That’s why there’s no solid definition for a transsexual person. There’s no definition for woman, either. Is there a definition for man? For male? I’m pretty sure I’m an human male, and I’m happy to be one. If a mother becomes a birthing parent, what does the father become? Everyone wants to be themselves. I get that. I was a rebel in my younger days. Still am in some respects. Individuality is a widely sought-after trait. You have to make yourself stand out in today’s ever-increasing population. It keeps getting harder and harder to do that. But the same people who applaud you for your individualism, in whatever form it may come, are the same people who are taking away any will we may have to think anything other than what they decide is right, and disagreement is not tolerated. If there’s some part of society that you don’t agree with or don’t understand, you’re not allowed to say so. There are plenty of women who know exactly what a woman is, but because they’re trapped in a doctrine that is increasingly headed off the rails, they’re not allowed to say so. If being forced into compliance with your individuality isn’t contradictory enough, the second-grade curriculum in New Jersey this fall could include this lesson: "Most people have a vulva and a vagina or a penis and testicles, but some people’s bodies can be different. Your body is exactly what is right for you." So, if they’re teaching gender identity as if it’s something other than your actual gender, how can they also teach that your body is exactly right for you? If that’s the case, then why do we have such a thing as “gender affirmation?” If your body is exactly right for you, why do we have sex-change operations and puberty-blockers? Why are we telling first and second graders that they may have the wrong body parts? If we’re supposed to trust the science, why can’t we trust our own biology? It’s a mixed message and it’s being sent to little kids who, in many cases, are just learning to read and write. Our education system is a mess, with too much agenda-driven curriculum and not enough actual learning. The federal government should have no input on education curriculum, and I have no confidence in the Department of Education to do anything but further harm to our schools and our students. Teacher’s Unions are just as guilty, putting their own interests and the interests of the liberal agenda ahead of the education of our students. I feel sorry for the students and the individual teachers who just want their students to learn how to live in the real world. Instead, they all take orders from governments and unions that want to change the world into a place where women and mothers don’t exist, and you’re not normal if you’re happy with the way you were made.

The Listening Tube is written and produced by yours truly. Copyright 2022. Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube. I’m your host, Bob Woodley for thou ad infinitum.