It is Ground Hog’s Day so I will start out with two stories that unfortunately keep repeating. The stories are always similar, only the names and places change.
Per multiple sources, a gunman fatally shot a police officer and a campus safety officer at Bridgewater College in Virginia on Tuesday afternoon after they responded to reports of a suspicious person near a campus building. The assailant, identified by the Virginia State Police as Alexander Wyatt Campbell, 27, shot and killed the two officers around 1:20 p.m. Campbell ran off and waded through a river, where he ended up on a small island. He was captured at 1:55 p.m. after a “massive search operation” involving local, state and federal law enforcement officials. Stories of law enforcement officers being shot doing their job seems to be a weekly occurrence in our country. When are we going to wake up and do something about it?
Jeff Zucker resigned on Wednesday as the president of CNN, departing one of the most powerful positions in American media after acknowledging that he had failed to disclose a romantic relationship with another senior executive at the network as required by company policies. Another story that seems to play out on a regular basis is high level executives such as Zucker at CNN and Schlissel at U of M preaching the virtue of their strong policies and then ignoring them when it comes to their own behavior.
Ever since I read “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer, I have been fascinated by the stories of people trying to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. The ascents usually occur in May when the weather is much more favorable. Today I was fascinated to read in the NY Times the story of Jost Kobush, a German climber who is attempting to make a solo climb of Mt. Everest without the aid of extra oxygen during the dead of winter. His tent is the only tent at basecamp. Like parachuting out of an airplane, climbing Mt. Everest makes no sense to me.
We do not have to refer to the Washington Football Team as the Washington Football Team anymore. After two years of that nonsense, they will now be known as the Washington Commanders. I will sleep so much better knowing this.
I wonder if anyone is losing sleep today after the gross national debt topped $30 trillion for the first time on Tuesday. The national debt used to be a big concern way back when it was a few trillion. During President Clinton’s term, he worked with the chair of the federal reserve and congress to reduce the debt for 3 of his eight years in office. That was the last time this country has ever had a budget surplus. It doesn’t seem to matter which political party is in power, the debt just continues to grow. It is not something I am going to have to deal with in my lifetime, but I bet my children and grandchildren are going to deal with it.
What are you doing to stop the violence? Get vaccinated and get your booster.
Orchid of the Day: Punxsutawney Phil
Onion of the Day: Whoopi Goldberg– although she apologized for her comments, Goldberg, a co-host of the ABC talk show “The View” will be suspended for two weeks after she said repeatedly during an episode of the show that aired on Monday that the Holocaust was not about race.
Quote of the Day: “Hitting the $30 trillion mark is clearly an important milestone in our dangerous fiscal trajectory. For many years before Covid, America had an unsustainable structural fiscal path because the programs we’ve designed are not sufficiently funded by the revenue we take in.” said Michael A. Peterson, the chief executive officer of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which promotes deficit reduction.
Video/Song of the Day: What else? Bill Murray in Ground Hog Day