Total Pageviews

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The Writer's Life 8/31 - Leeches, Felons & Heroes

Here's more big government insanity, gleaned from an article in today's NY Post. The European Commission has ordered Apple to pay Ireland $14.5 billion in taxes, which the government does not want to accept. Apple has 6000 employees and its headquarters there. In appreciation, the country charges it a rate of less than one percent. Ireland gets what makes an economy run well. Kudos.

President Obama has commuted the sentence of 673 felons, more than the last ten presidents combined. Most are "non-violent" drug offenders. The war on drugs has been such an abysmal failure that I often wonder if it wouldn't be wiser to make all substances legal. I'm sure it would lead to a significantly greater percentage of abuse, but violent crime might be reduced. And tax revenues would soar, although that makes it feel like a deal with the devil. Some issues simply defy an easy solution.

With little inspiration in today's news, I ran a search on an activity that always brings something interesting. I found a top ten about the famous exploits of the parent of celebrities at listverse.com. Here are the three that stood out, edited by yours truly: Paul Reubens, aka Pee-Wee Herman, might seem like an unlikely individual to have a military hero father. Years before his son was born, Milton Rubenfeld flew combat missions in WWII for both the Royal Air Force and the US Army. After the war, he was recruited to fly missions for Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He became one of the founding members of the Israeli Air Force, which consisted of five pilots and four airplanes at the time. In May 1948, the planes flew toward the Egyptian lines and engaged the enemy in a surprise attack. The following day, Rubenfeld’s aircraft was shot down. He bailed out into the Mediterranean, sustained numerous injuries but swam to safety.
Olivia Newton-John’s maternal grandfather was Nobel Prize–winning atomic physicist Max Born, whose family, Jewish, was forced to flee Germany during the 1930's. Her father, Brin, spoke German and spent WWII decoding German messages for the top secret RAF organization Ultra. He helped translate the Nazi’s plans for the Battle of El Alamein. Brin also questioned captured soldiers. Instead of standard interrogation techniques, he often wined and dined POW's. One had witnessed a plane crash in Scotland. The pilot turned out to be Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess, who was subsequently captured.
Glenn Close's dad, William, was a surgeon who practiced medicine in Zaire. In August 1976, Dr. Close dealt with an outbreak of one of the deadliest viruses ever: the Ebola hemorrhagic fever. The epidemic started at a missionary hospital in a small village. It killed most of the medical staff and caused mass panic throughout the country. Dr. Close was responsible for coordinating the successful effort to contain the virus, using his relationship with the nation's President to obtain all necessary resources.

My thanks to the woman who purchased five novels in Russian, to Mikhail, who bought a translation of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front in his native tongue, to the gentleman who donated a bio of Leonardo da Vinci, and to Barry Spunt, author of Heroin and Music in NYC, who overpaid for bios of Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn. He just received his latest royalty statement and, if he read it right, seems to owe his publisher, Macmillan, thirty-two cents.
Vic's Short Works: http://tinyurl.com/jy55pzc
Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

No comments:

Post a Comment