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    Blog

    Anecdotal Observations On History & Politics

    Monday
    Jan172011

    RFK Announces the Death of Martin Luther King

    Despite warnings that rioting might ensue, 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy announced that, "Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight," to a shocked crowd in Indianapolis, Indiana. The brief speech, made only 2 months before his own assassination, was credited for for preventing violence from breaking out in that city. 

    Perhaps his message is timely in the wake of the Giffords shooting in Arizona:

    "You can be filled with bitterness and hatred and a desire for revenge... or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend and replace that violence... with an effort to understand compassion and love."

    Monday
    Jan172011

    Hilarious LBJ Animation

    It's about ordering custom pants. Based on a true story:
    Sunday
    Jan162011

    What's the Most Common Presidential First Name?

    James. James beats out both John and William, 6 to 4: James Madison, James Monroe, James Polk, James Buchanan, and James Garfield and, yes, James Earl "Jimmy" Carter. 

    Tied in second are the names William and John, both with 4 instances: William Henry Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and William Jefferson Clinton. The Johns are: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler and John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 

    George is third, with 3 instances, thanks to the both Bushes, who were the only George's besides George Washington. Andrew has 2 instances, Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson, as does Franklin, Franklin Pierce and Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

    Most unique names, besides Barack, are: Millard Fillmore, our little known 13th president, Ulysses S. Grant and Chester A. Arthur (in the author's subjective opinion). For most popular baby names, check here

    Thursday
    Dec302010

    Flashback: Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev, SALT II

    Luckily, Obama was spared such advances in his START negotiations, but apparently in 1979 Jimmy Carter was confronted with this awkward exchange with the Soviet General Secretary... because "Brezhnev liked to kiss" -- at 8:15: