The 250th Anniversary of one of the most famous speeches in American history
(The anniversary was actually yesterday, and to be clear there is some controversy over just what Patrick Henry said.)
March 23, 1775 at the 2nd Virginia Convention in St John's Church in Richmond
Patrick Henry's 'liberty or death' speech turns 250 | AP News
President Trump proclaimed March 23rd to be a day of celebration of the speech: 250th Anniversary of Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death!" Speech – The White House
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Just One Thing - I'm back!
Got home Saturday night from a truly fabulous trip to the Galapagos with 28 (I think) listeners. A day in Quito, Ecuador at the beginning and then most of a week in the islands seeing incredible animal life, plant life, and new(ish) lava flows. I think (and hope) that everyone had a great time and made some new friends.
I'll talk about the trip a bit on the show today.
Thanks again to Cruise & Tour for yet another fun and successful listener trip....my 4th year in a row. I'll be telling you about next year's trip soon, probably sometime in April. The trip will be mid-April next year.
Some pictures:
1 of 14 Blue-footed boobie (and who doesn't like boobies)?
2 of 14 View from an elevated area on the edge of Quito. A couple things of note: it can't be easy to farm steep section of hillside. And you see snow on the volcano in the background. We were told that Ecuador is the only place where you can (sometimes) find snow at the equatorPhoto: Ross Kaminsky
3 of 14 135-foot tall metal sculpture of a winged Virgin MaryPhoto: Ross Kaminsky
4 of 14 Overlooking Quito, EcuadorPhoto: Ross Kaminsky
5 of 14 Iglesia de San Francisco (Saint Francis Church), QuitoPhoto: Ross Kaminsky
6 of 14 Detail within the Iglesia de San FrancisoPhoto: Ross Kaminsky
7 of 14 Pulpit in Iglesia de San FranciscoPhoto: Ross Kaminsky
8 of 14 Kristen and a seal lion strike a pose. (Baltra Island, Galapagos)Photo: Ross Kaminsky
9 of 14 Male frigate bird shows off during mating season on North Seymour Island, Galapagos. When we returned to this bird half an hour later, he had a girlfriend and his pouch was deflated. Photo: Ross Kaminsky
10 of 14 Marine iguana, Galapagos IslandsPhoto: Ross Kaminsky
11 of 14 Galapagos tortoisePhoto: Ross Kaminsky
12 of 14 Galapagos tortoisePhoto: Ross Kaminsky
13 of 14 Bartolome Island, Galapagos (where "Master & Commander" was filmed)Photo: Ross Kaminsky
14 of 14 You might be surprised (and slightly discomfited) by how many places where the rule is the opposite of this: use the toilet paper and then put it in a nearby trash can. Even the thinnest "half-ply" toilet paper...Ugh.Photo: Ross Kaminsky
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George Foreman, RIP
George Foreman is, in my opinion, one of the few boxers who seemed to be a really affable character.
He passed away this weekend: George Foreman, beloved boxing champion and entrepreneur, dies at 76 | AP News
Foreman became a minister and (unrelated to being a minister) made over $200 million from George Foreman grill, though he actually claimed it was more than that. It seems clear that Foreman turned down the first offer to get involved with selling the grills' and that the agent then offered it to Hulk Hogan. There are at least two different stories about why Hogan didn't get the deal, one being that he simply missed the call from his agent and during that time Foreman changed his mind, got back to the agent, and signed up.
Here are some things George Foreman is most famous for:
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Today's Guests
There are a lot of celebrities out there, and a fair number of stars, but legends are hard to find. Pat Boone is one of them. Pat Boone has sold 45 million albums, recorded and released over 2700 songs including 38 that hit the Top 40, is a best-selling author, and has been in 29 Hollywood films. In fact, he has 3 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Yes, he's related to Daniel Boone.
Pat is current promoting a project he's involved with that aims to bring clean water to the nearly half of the population of Tanzania that currently doesn't have it. The new song is called "One" by Voices for Tanzania, which includes Pat and other big country music stars like Larry Gatlin and Vince Gill and Lee Greenwood.
You can see/hear more and donate here: ONE - Voices For Tanzania | Linktree
This song was released just over a year ago even though the album cover looks old
In 1997, Pat released an album covering heavy metal songs. The album's title is "In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy."
Here's the original and then the cover of one of the songs:
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Joel Rosenberg is a best-selling author of both fiction and non-fiction (best-known for the former, though his first novel ended up seeming eerily prescient of the 9/11 attacks.) Joel lives in Israel and is the proprietor of All-Israel News and he's the Middle East Correspondent for the Ross Kaminsky Show (clearly his most important title.) Joel's new thriller is "The Beijing Betrayal"...a fun ride (that also includes some of Joel's occasional injections of religiosity into the characters and the story). Based on the end of the book, it wouldn't surprise me if it's the last Markus Ryker book but that's a question I'll have to ask him!
All Israel News - Covering news and events for the Evangelical world | All Israel News
The Beijing Betrayal (A Marcus Ryker Thriller): Rosenberg, Joel C.: 0031809014479: Amazon.com: Books
Some other stuff we'll talk about: First phase of Gaza relocation plan: 70 Gazans leave for Europe - Israel Politics - The Jerusalem Post
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Other Stuff
Colorado Dems about to aggressively assault the Second Amendment (again, but even worse than usual): SB25-003, the $27 million paywall on the Second Amendment - Rocky Mountain Voice
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Roughly 30,000 people showed up in Denver on Friday night to hear the lunatic Bernie Sanders and his shared-brain-in-the-House, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, on their "Fighting Oligarchy" tour. If these two are really still the voice of the Democrats even after a candidate as weak as Trump was able to win the presidential election, Dems remain in big trouble.
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Supports Woke Policies | National Review
AOC works to broaden appeal within a tense Democratic base | AP News
CNN Poll: Democratic Party’s favorability drops to a record low | CNN Politics
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Congrats to CSU on a successful season even though the refs stole Sunday's game from them.
Colorado State loses in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament after Maryland player makes winning buzzer-beater after taking too many steps ("traveling"). The refs utterly blew it, or rather didn't blow the whistle.
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Sesame Street's financial troubles: Why Does Big Bird Look So Sad? – DNyuz (original at NY Times)
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Trump may well lose this case. Like Andy, I want all the TdA thugs deported, but Trump MUST obey the law. I do also understand that a clear part of the Trump team's strategy is to test the limits of the law and hope that a court (and eventually the Supreme Court) rules that the president has whatever authority is being posited at that time. They'll win some and lose some. They'll probably lose this one along with the effort to end birthright citizenship.
Trump Doesn’t Want Judicial Review of Deportation of Venezuelans | National Review
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Busted brackets: March Madness: NCAA Tournament perfect bracket tracker | AP News
From the same URL on Saturday: "On the other end of the spectrum, ESPN reported that every pick was wrong on 30 of its brackets — a nearly impossible feat in its own right even if a contestant were trying to pick all losers."
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5th Circuit lets stand a ruling that it’s illegal for a state to count ballots that arrive after Election Day. Currently that is the procedure in 18 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands.
Election Integrity Victory! | Judicial Watch
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Erdogan needs to go...absolutely as soon as possible: Fierce protests after Turkish President Erdogan's main rival Imamoglu jailed
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Columbia grudgingly does a couple of good things, under threat of losing massive amounts of federal funding. This raises the question: Why is the federal government funding so much research? Do the voters know how much national debt is accumulating due to such funding? If the gov't didn't provide the funding, would anyone? If not, how much would it matter? What about a matching system where the gov't would fund most of a research project but only if the project gets private funding first (which could be contingent on getting gov't funding before actually being spent.) In other words, a researcher wants $10 million. Make her find $1 million of private money and only then will the gov't fund the rest. That would tend to filter out research that's unlikely to have tangible benefits. But of course people will say there's lots of value in science that doesn't have tangible benefits or at least doesn't appear to at first but does eventually or tangentially.
Columbia Learns a Hard Lesson - WSJ
Columbia caves to Trump demands to regain $400 million in funding
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Elon is right: it's a Ponzi scheme: Elon Musk's Social Security jabs cause concern among Trump allies
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New Liberal Prime Minister of Canada calls "snap elections" believing that the anti-American mood in the country' might allow his party to beat the Conservatives, an outcome that was something like a 20-to-1 underdog in betting odds before Trump's idiotic comments about Canada becoming the 51st state and before Trump restarted trade wars.
Canada’s Mark Carney Calls a Snap Election
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Excellent: Israeli airstrike on Gaza hospital kills Hamas official under US sanctions
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So nerdy I won't go into it in detail on the show but worth a read: Is our universe trapped inside a black hole? This James Webb Space Telescope discovery might blow your mind | Space
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What a surprise: Cuomo’s billion dollar ‘boondoggle’ with Elon Musk - POLITICO
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A couple of topics I didn't get to before vacation:
Too many trends: Gen Z Is Tired of Chasing the Trend Cycle - The New York Times
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‘I’m truly happy’: 108-year-old takes record for world’s oldest female barber | Japan | The Guardian
108-year-old Japanese woman is crowned the oldest barber in the world | Guinness World Records
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Remember, the actual minimum wage is zero: McDonald's to employ AI at 43K locations to speed up service
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Coffee theft surges in the US as prices for the beans soar | Reuters
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Sooooo much of climate alarmism is in bad faith: "In Bad Faith" - by Roger Pielke Jr. - The Honest Broker
Or, if you can't read that version you can read it here: “In Bad Faith” | American Enterprise Institute - AEI
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Will they cut services, raise taxes, or both? Aurora sees 'concerning' flattening of sales tax revenue | Aurora | denvergazette.com
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Will this actually end up saving any restaurants? Colorado Tipped Wages Bill Passes Finance Committee With an Amendment | Westword
Colorado's tipping law amendment: A compromise for workers | Business | coloradopolitics.com
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Today's Videos
Two videos I took in the Galapagos
And two more George Foreman