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Two Great Men

6/28/2019

 
The Oxford Dictionary was completed on January 1, 1928, seventy years after it was taken on by Oxford University in London, England. It contained 414,825 words and 1,827,306 illustrative quotations.
 
Part of the story in how this major feat was accomplished is absolutely amazing. Oxford University hired James Murray, a Scottish teacher who never went to college and had left school when he was 14 because his parents needed his help at home.  He was a self-taught genius who ended up running an academy at the age of 20. He knew how to speak and interpret many languages including Italian, French, Spanish, Latin, Portuguese, German, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. I don’t believe there has been anyone in the world as accomplished as him in languages thus why Oxford wanted him. Keep in mind, he taught himself how to read and write these languages.
 
It was such a huge undertaking that Murray decided to solicit volunteers to help add words to the dictionary, provide the definitions of these words, and provide notations (back-up), then he and his team would verify the information. It was very difficult work and only the highly educated with time on their hands, were willing to volunteer for the project. They had mail coming in from volunteers all over England with words for them to review.
 
After a few years, Oxford University became concerned as to how slow things were progressing and considered putting someone else in Murray’s place. He convinced them to be patient and that he would work on finding ways to be more productive. Then one day his office received a package filled with words, definitions, and great notations. They were shocked as to how brilliant this person was, but they didn’t know him. The letter came from a Dr. William Chester at a mental hospital for the criminally insane. Dr. Chester began flooding Murray’s office with information for the dictionary, so the project took off and Oxford University was elated.
 
Murray decided to give Dr. Chester a surprise visit, so he showed up at the hospital and asked to see him. When they brought Dr. Chester to him, he was wearing shackles. Murray naturally thought that Dr. Chester worked there when instead he was an inmate/patient. He had chased a man through the streets and killed him thinking the man was an assassin who was after him. Back then they didn’t know much about the human mind but today’s experts state that Dr. Chester suffered from many illnesses including Paranoid/Schizophrenia.
 
Dr. Chester was from the United States and he was a surgeon who served in the Army. He was in one of the most brutal Civil War battles and suffered from extreme PTSD (of course that wasn’t diagnosed back then either). While still serving in the military after the war, his mental condition began deteriorating to a point where the Army sent him to an insane asylum. He was in the hospital for 18 months and when he was released, he moved to London in hopes that it would help his mental condition but instead he got worse. In all, he spent 38 years in mental institutions.
 
But what people didn’t realize is that he was a genius not unlike James Murray. He could do practically anything. He was a great artist. He absorbed books. The doctors and guards thought the world of him for many reasons including that he helped with patients and staff at times with his medical expertise.  He could only do things like this when he was lucid. They thought so much of him that they tore down one of his cell walls so that he could have the space of two cells and then they put in a small libray and set up a place where he could paint.  
 
James Murray visited him often and they became great friends. He was crushed to see Murray’s mental state deteriorate. Getting out of a hospital for the criminally insane, especially if someone commits murder, was pretty much impossible. In an extraordinary move, Murray petitioned Winston Churchill to allow Dr. Chester to go home to Connecticut to live out his final years. If it weren’t for the fact that Murray was famous for his works, it wouldn’t have happened, but Churchill said yes. Murray went to the hospital to coordinate his release, contacted Dr. Chester’s family to let them know he was coming, and paid for his travels.
 
Oxford, for obvious reasons, didn’t want to give Dr. Chester any published credit for being a major contributor to the dictionary but Murray demanded it, so Dr. Chester has now gone down in history for helping to create one of the greatest publications of all time.
 
Dr. Chester died in 1920 at the age of 85 while James Murray died in 1915 at the age of 78. Murray worked on the dictionary for 36 years all the way up until his death. These were two extraordinary men who deserve a great legacy thus why I’m writing about them in hopes that more people will know these historic figures who've received very little attention.  

Fishing

6/28/2019

 
One thing I learned from fishing with my family (even my mom loved to fish), is that it was more enjoyable to hang out with my family and not get a nibble than to catch ten fish while fishing by myself. 

Trump Won the Democratic Debate

6/28/2019

 
I've mentioned it before, but I'm not a huge Trump fan on a personal level; I think his children are great so he certainly did a good job raising them. Even  though I don't like him, I love most of his policies in reference to our economy, foreign policies, the military, and immigration. 

I know there are a lot of people who can't stand him, certainly his Tweeting doesn't help any neither does his divisiveness, but unless something significant changes, he will win the 2020 election. There are several reasons why I believe this but one of the major ones is that he was able to win last night's debated without even being there. The tipping point for him winning is when every candidate on stage stated they support providing Medicare for All to illegal immigrants. This isn't just a leftist's mentality, it's an extremist's mentality; and extremism has always been dangerous..

I'm guessing of course, but I believe there are at least 75% of voters who do not agree with the Democrat's stance on this issue. They're smart enough to know that we can't afford insurance for all U.S. citizens so we certainly can't afford to sponsor illegals.  Plus, illegal immigration is out of control now, could you even imagine how many immigrants would pour across our borders to get free medical insurance? Most of them would never pay into the program through taxes.

At the end of the day, most people will choose Trump over socialism. He'll have Independents coming out in droves to protect our Republic. He'll receive more African American votes as there is strife in many major cities between Hispanics and African Americans.  It's going to be an easy sell for most Republicans running for office in 2020, because all they need to say is a vote for me is a vote against socialism. 

The Invention of Traffic Lights

6/28/2019

 
In 1919, the first three color traffic light was installed in Detroit, Michigan. In 1921, they began synchronizing their signal lights to help traffic flow. It only makes sense that the signal light system was born in Motor City.  ​

The Debate on June 26, 2019

6/27/2019

 
​I felt that the Democratic debate last night was boring. No one in my opinion stood out which surprised me because I thought Elizabeth Warren would at least shine a bit brighter than the others, but she didn’t. I think her performance will hurt her at a time where she was building a little momentum in the polls.
 
So much to say about the content of the debate, and what these Democrats have been saying on the road, but I’ll leave it at a few things. First, as I’ve written about before, there is no pay gap between men and women. If women were such a great value to companies, they’d be filling up most of the positions, but they’re not. Companies aren’t going to proactively offer less pay to someone just because she’s a woman, it’s absurd to think so.

How big of a government agency would we need to create to have all companies in the U.S. audited every year to see how much men and women are being paid? They'd get bogged down beyond belief because they'd need to verify pay between men and women within a specific department, like customer service. They'd  need to look at how long each employee has worked for the company, their education levels, specific responsibilities because someone can certainly be in the same department but have different responsibilities. The bottom line is auditing can't be done. It's not realistic and it's certainly not affordable.
 
Women are beginning to make more than men because they have higher graduation rates in high school and college. They’re getting degrees in fields that provide much more income than an average person. They haven’t been given anything because they’re women, they’re earning their pay. Things have changed in our country, but Democrats are the ones taking us back to the 70’s where women didn’t have the advantages they have today. They’re offering to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.
   
Then there’s paying off student debt. Why in the world should taxpayers pay the bills for people who chose to attend college in order to have a better career path and make more money? I attended a less expensive college so I wouldn't be in debt. Why should taxpayers payoff the debt for people who should’ve made a better choice as far as colleges he or she could afford? What about all those young men and women who decided not to go to college, why should they have to pay for other people to become successful?  This whole issue is so ludicrous that I can hardly believe it’s true.
 
They spent a lot of time attacking large corporations and the rich. Of course, Elizabeth Warren has gone as far as saying that it’s not enough to increase taxes on the rich, she wants to also tax their wealth. Could you imagine opening the door for government to take money from us? With what they're talking about, they could make someone sell their home to give the government the money they want.  They already tax us so that’s their shot at getting our money, to go in after the fact and take even more, is immoral because it's the very definition of stealing.
 
They brought up Medicare for All. I’ve mentioned before that we can in no way afford this expense especially since we’re over $21 trillion in debt and climbing rapidly. We don’t need to add to our budget, we need to be in an aggressive downsizing mode. Serious cuts need to be made to various agencies and programs. What they’re talking about doing would increase our budget by more than a third which is dangerous to our economy.
 
Every one of these candidates are for increasing taxes on the “rich,” even though they aren’t willing to tell us who the rich are. If someone makes over $100,000, are they considered rich and would be taxed higher? I find it disturbing that Democrats seem to accept what these candidates are saying without demanding specifics. Where are their tax brackets so we can see who will be affected in paying for the “free,” stuff they’re promising? They know if they provide the brackets that economists would rip them up and down.

One thing out of many that is so ridiculous about the push to increase taxes is the absolute fact that the government is terrible when it comes to managing our money. If you and I ran our households the way our representatives run the government, we'd be bankrupt. We aren't given the opportunity to stay afloat by increasing our credit line like they do. They don't make the hard choices regarding our out of control debt because they don't have to, they just increase the debt ceiling.  With this in mind, why in the world would we give them even more money? It would be insane. It makes much more sense for people to be able to keep as much of their money as possible because they'll spend it thus enhancing our economy like it is doing now. The money they take from us is money taken from our local businesses.  
 
One last thing about increasing taxes. I’ve accessed the IRS’s database which doesn’t include personal information but is loaded with data regarding how many tax returns came in, how much money was being taxed, exemptions, etc. When I ran the numbers, it was very apparent that in order to pay for even some the things Democrats are offering, the middle-class would end up paying twice their current tax bracket. If you’d like to run the numbers yourself, the data is in an Excel format. Here's the link:  https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-statistical-tables-by-size-of-adjusted-gross-income#_grp1.
 
I get so angry when I think about the fact that these politicians surely know the truth about how much it would cost for their “free,” programs and how much they’d need to get from all taxpayers. They know there’s no way paying off student debt, free college tuition, etc., will ever pass the House and Senate, all they’re doing is pandering for votes through lying to us. Would you want to do business with or work with anyone who lies to you?  It’s way past time for term limits. Maybe the next time we vote people into office we make sure they have great moral character over all other attributes or skills they are attempting to sell about themselves..   

The Shadow Knows

6/27/2019

 
​Even though the comic book character The Shadow was introduced around 1930, many people have heard the famous phrase: “What evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow Knows.” For those who aren’t familiar with this comic book character, he was a brilliant detective who was an expert in hand-to-hand combat, weapons, disguises, and he had hypnotic/telepathic abilities.
 
His character was born through a publication called: “The Detective Story Magazine.” With radio becoming very popular, the owners of the magazine thought it would help their sales if they created a radio program to follow the storyline of their magazine. It worked brilliantly especially since Orson Welles did some of Gibson’s radio shows.
 
From there it became one of the first successful comic books and The Shadow also ended up on comic strips, television, video games, and was part of at least five feature films. The last movie was in 1994 and it starred Alec Baldwin.
 
Most people think of characters like Batman and Superman when it comes to the original superhero comics, but the fact is, The Shadow appeared around nine years before they did and around 30 years before Spider-Man. Gibson was truly a visionary.
 
Here’s a shout out to Walter Gibson, the creator of The Shadow as he deserves to be remembered. Gibson wrote more than a hundred books on magic, psychic phenomena, true crime, mysteries, rope knots, yoga, hypnotism, and games. He created a magic trick that turns a nickel into a dime and it’s still being sold in magic stores to this day. He served as a ghost writer for books on magic and spiritualism by Harry Houdini.

​Gibson was born in 1897 and died in 1985. Can you imagine the things he experienced in his lifetime (i.e. the first cars, the Great Depression, appliances, a man on the moon, four major wars, etc.)? I find it astonishing that he created what he did when he did, because he was able to become successful during The Great Depression. He was an amazing man.

The First Thermometer

6/26/2019

 
The first thermometer was invented by an Italian inventor but it's accuracy, although better than not knowing anything, was a bit off. Then in 1714, Daniel Fahrenheit invented the first accurate thermometer which used mercury and a standardized scale for reference. Around three hundred years later, we're still using the Fahrenheit scale. I find this amazing. 

A Famous Girl

6/26/2019

 
There was a famous Texas Ranger who loved to go to a small diner to grab a bite to eat and enjoy some coffee. He especially liked a sweet, attractive waitress who worked there who was very petite at five feet and at best weighed 100 pounds. She was well liked in her community.

This young lady had a passion for writing poetry and hoped to someday make it out of their small town and become famous. She definitely became famous. The very Texas Ranger who thought so much of her ended up being part of a group of men who killed her and her boyfriend. This once sweet girl became part of the legendary Bonnie and Clyde. A reminder, you can't judge a book by its cover.

A Scary Situation

6/26/2019

 
​There has been a horrific amount of major crimes (i.e. homicides, rapes, etc.), committed around the U.S. by felons who were wearing monitoring bracelets. For example, an Ohio State University college student (Reagan Tokes), who was raped and killed. Four women were assaulted at a camp site by an already convicted rapist who was released from prison and given an ankle monitoring unit which he was wearing when he committed the rapes.
 
The question is how can this be? How can these criminals who are on parole and wearing a monitoring system, get away with such atrocities? It had me baffled then I found out something very scary and that is in most cases, the bracelets aren't being monitored. The devices are supposed to be monitored by the company who sells them to law enforcement, but they were basically just collecting data and not looking at it in real time. They didn’t have a clue whether a felon left his home.    
 
I thought the bracelet would send an alarm to the monitoring station when a felon left their home or designated area, but this isn't the case. They have the capability to set zones where a parolee can move, such as within ten blocks of their home to grab groceries and run other errands. They can also set a zone to allow the individual to go to work. One of the problems is that it takes effort to establish the zones and law enforcement isn’t taking the time to set them up properly. The bottom line is that the device could be great if used properly but it isn’t. Instead there’s a trail of victims who should never have been victimized.      
 
There are so many issues with our law enforcement such as the above and the lack of communication with victims when violent offenders are released back into society. The felon who raped and murdered Reagan Tokes had 51 violations, some violent, over a six-year period in jail, but it did nothing to extend his prison sentence.
 
Within three months of leaving prison, he robbed and beat seven women then was eventually caught for the murder and rape of Reagan. If someone were to have been monitoring his movements, it would’ve been highly unlikely that any of these women would’ve been harmed. It would help if you called your local law enforcement to ask them how they actively monitor parolees. It truly could be a matter of life or death. Thanks.  

It's the Little Things

6/25/2019

 
It's amazing how many times the small and neglected things, end up becoming the big, regretful things.
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    Author: John Mann

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