Volume 268 | No. 7

On Great Men and History

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Henry Alfred Kissinger died on November 29th. On that, we can all agree. Well, perhaps we’re being overly optimistic. To be clear, we’re not saying we think that Henry the K is still alive somewhere, maintained in some quasi-lifelike state by a cabal of mad scientists. We’re just saying that considering present circumstances, it’s possible—even probable—that someone in this great nation of ours is convinced that the original Doctor Strangelove is currently hooked up to a maze of tubes and cables and still breathing. Or burbling in a jar, “Futurama”-style. If anyone actually does believe that scenario it’s ironic, since Kissinger did so much damage …

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Sat, Dec 31

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1997—Quaker Oats pays $1.8 million to settle a lawsuit over their secret feeding of radioactive oatmeal to developmentally-disabled kids. 1995—Bill and Monica enjoy their third tryst in a White House study. 1974—What a coincidence! Two columns defending the CIA’s illegal spying on U.S. citizens share a dateline. [Their writers, Bill Buckley and Tom Braden, are both covert CIA assets.] 1970—Congress repeals the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. 1970—Associated Milk Producers, Inc. gets $100 million in price supports in exchange for its $2 million donation to the Nixon campaign. 1969—Hitmen hired by United Mine Workers President Tony Boyle murder his rival,Joseph “Jock” Yablonski, along with his wife …

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Fri, Dec 30

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2019—Health authorities in Wuhan, China send hospitals an alert and begin investigating a rise in pneumonia. 2015—At the North Pole, the temperature rises above 32° for six hours. 2006—Saddam Hussein’s inelegant demise is captured by cellphone. 1994—In Brookline, Mass., John Salvi lives out his “pro-life” creed by killing two health care workers. 1978—A House Select Committee concludes that conspirators “probably” helped kill JFK and MLK. 1971—Daniel Ellsberg is indicted for having set free the truth. 1970—An unsafe Kentucky coal mine explodes, killing 38 miners. 1947—Irgun fighters kill six Arabs and wound 42 in a grenade attack at a Haifa oil refinery. Arabs retaliate by beating …

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Thurs, Dec 29

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2006—The UK pays off its $100,000,000 WW II debt to the U.S. 1989—Playwright Vaclav Havel becomes President of Czechoslovakia. 1975—Eleven people are killed and 74 wounded when a bomb explodes in a storage locker at LaGuardia Airport. The crime remains unsolved. 1972—Operation Linebacker II, which R. Nixon will call “my terrible personal ordeal,” ends. U.S. losses: 15 downed B-52s, 12 other aircraft, 43 KIA, & 49 POWs. 1930—Fred Newton arrives at New Orleans after swimming 1,826 miles down the Mississippi. 1916—Poisoned, stabbed, beaten, shot three times, and thrown unconscious into the freezing Neva River, the Russian Tsarina Alexandra’s favorite faith-healer Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin dies by …

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Wed, Dec 28

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2013—Congress ends long-term unemployment benefits to 1.3 million Americans, damaging the economy to the tune of an estimated 240,000 jobs. 1986—Terry Dolan, Republican critic of gay rights, dies of AIDS. 1983—Dr. George Graham, of President Reagan’s Task Force on Food Assistance, says Black children are “probably the best-nourished group in the U.S.”—citing athletes as proof. 1973—In space, the crew of Skylab goes on strike to protest over-work and micro-management. NASA meets the demands of the astronauts. 1973—The Akron, Ohio Chamber of Commerce denounces the Soap Box Derby as a cheat and a fraud. 1971—At the White House, 88 ’Nam vets are busted for protesting their …

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