This Day In History

Jun 23 1993
In the middle of the night, Lorena Bobbitt severs her husband John's penis and drives off, casually discarding the organ in a farm field. Surgeons successfully reattach the penis, allowing John to enter the porn industry. The media devotes 1.3 million column-inches of type to the story as both Lorena and John gain celebrity status; consequently, their last name becomes a verb.

Jun 23 1996
A story by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward in the Washington Post reveals to the world that First Lady Hillary Clinton employed psychic Jean Houston to help her get in touch with her inner "Eleanor Roosevelt."

Jun 23 1997
Malcolm X's widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz, dies after three agonizing weeks in the hospital with third-degree burns covering 80% of her body. The injuries were sustained when her 12-year-old grandson set fire to the family home in Yonkers, New York.

This Day In History

Jan 5 1919
The Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei is founded by Anton Drexler and others at the Furstenfelder Hof tavern in Munich. So much of early Nazi history seems to center around beer halls and homosexuals.

Jan 5 1967
Two buses of pilgrims collide south of Manila, Philippines, killing 83 in the worst traffic accident thus far.

Jan 5 1981
The Yorkshire Ripper, murderer of 13 women, is arrested. Peter Sutcliffe concentrated mostly on hookers, but still managed to terrorize mainstream England in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

Jan 5 1995
Connie Chung broadcasts Kathleen Gingrich's opinion of Hillary Clinton: bitch. We suspect it's merely a case of the pot calling the kettle black, and you can include Connie Chung in that.

Jan 5 1996
In Gaza, Israeli intelligence agents blow off the head of terrorist Yahya Ayyash, The Engineer, with a remote control cellphone bomb using plastic explosives. Ayyash purportedly ran the Hamas military wing, and was a proficient bomb maker; 100,000 people attended his funeral.


Jan 5 1998
Congressman Sonny Bono dead from blunt force trauma to his head after a direct collision with a pine tree at Heavenly Valley Ski Area. He is survived by his daughter Chastity and three other children.

Clinton Warns of ME Arms Race if Iran Gets Nukes

I usually stay away from politically-charged articles...
But Nukes are an important issue, ya'll..

VOA News-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told senators Wednesday that if Iran obtains a nuclear weapons capability, it would trigger an arms race in the Middle East and beyond.

She said the Obama administration is pursuing a diplomatic track on the issue with Iran but within a specific time-frame.
Clinton said the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran has created what amounts to an "alliance" among Israel and many Arab states, and she is hoping the shared interests will give impetus not only to diplomacy with Iran but also a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee nominally devoted to the foreign affairs budget, she said the Obama administration - which promises diplomatic outreach with Iran - hopes to persuade the Tehran government that it will actually be less secure if it succeeds in what U.S. officials believe is an effort to acquire a nuclear weapons capability.

"A nuclear-armed Iran with a deliverable weapons system is going to spark an arms race in the Middle East and the greater region. That is not going to be in the interests of Iranian security and we believe that we have a very strong case to make for that," she said.

Clinton spoke in response to questioning from Republican Senator Judd Gregg, who called Iran a terrorist state, and noted Washington comments earlier this week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that preventing a nuclear Iran should take precedence over Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

The Secretary of State, echoing remarks by President Obama to the Israeli leader, said diplomacy on both issues can proceed at the same time.

"The president made it clear that he is committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons with all of the consequences that that would entail. But at the same time we cannot wait on the Palestinian-Israeli efforts regarding peace. So we think they have to proceed simultaneously," she added. (rest of article)