Daily Dose of Common Sense

If you’re wearing a microphone, it’s important to know when it’s on and when it’s off. Especially if you’re a married politician. An Orange County, California GOP lawmaker forgot his mic was live, and his bragging about various trysts was broadcast to everyone during a committee hearing.

In the KCAL report, Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee Vice Chairman Michael Duvall (R-Yorba Linda) appears not to realize that his microphone is on during a lull in a July committee hearing and talks about his conquest of two women.

Reporter Dave Lopez then reports that Duvall says on the tape that the women with whom he has been having sex are lobbyists.

The report alleges that one of the lobbyists works for a utility with business before Duvall’s committee but does not name her.

Sleazy? Check. Conflict of interest? Check. Incredibly stupid? Check.

The video can be seen on Gawker.

Someone nominate this guy for a Darwin award. Or, at least get him fired.

Most Americans believe that July 4th is the day independence from Britain was declared. Only it wasn’t. Independence was actually declared on July 2nd.

On July 2nd, the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution declaring independence. In fact, John Adams himself believed July 2nd would be the day Americans would commemorate the anniversary.

On July 3rd, 1776, John Adams predicted in a letter to his wife that “the Second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”

So, why do we celebrate on the 4th? First, that was the date Jefferson wrote at the top of the Declaration of Independence. Also, that was the day the final draft of the document was voted on and approved. It should be noted that this vote was not unanimous. New York did not agree to the declaration until July 19th.

The signing of the document did not take place on the 4th, as many believe. Some men did, in fact, sign that day. But most signatures were penned at the official signing ceremony on August 2nd, with a few more coming even later. The final signature was added in 1781.

So, celebrate with gusto today. But, next year, remember July 2nd, too.

[Source: One-Night Stands with American History: Odd, Amusing, and Little-Known Incidents by Richard Shenkman & Kurt Reiger]

PETA has had an interesting past couple of days. Not long after getting upset at the Pike Place Fish Market employees for “callously” throwing fish, the animal-rights group is taking President Obama to task.

The White House apparently has a fly problem. During an interview, President Obama had a fly land on him, so he did what 99.9% of us would do: he swatted and killed it. (Check out the video. Great technique by the President. He’s like Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid.)

PETA doesn’t approve and wants the President to use a humane fly catcher instead. This device catches the unwanted flying creatures and allows them to be re-released into the wild. (Someone really makes something like this?)

Twitter has been abuzz (ahem) today with reaction. Most think PETA has lost its marbles. The best tweet I saw said this sort of hooey is why PETA loses its credibility on the larger issues. They bring attention to their cause with big publicity like this, but it’s the wrong kind of attention. Do we really need to be concerned about depletion of the fly population? Judging from my summer bar-b-que experience, there is no shortage of flies.

So, here’s some zen-like advice, folks: Focus on the stuff that matters, and don’t sweat the rest. Wax on, wax off.

In a move that will elicit many “Yeah, duh” responses, a Chicago radio host declares that waterboarding is torture. Only, he was trying to prove waterboarding isn’t torture. Yesterday, conservative shock-jock Erich “Mancow” Muller subjected himself to a waterboarding experiment in order to silence the critics of the procedure. Mancow expected to chill out for thirty seconds while water was poured down his nose. Instead, he lasted six.

“It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,” Mancow said. Yes, that’s what we thought you would say. If you’ve ever been in a pool and read the description of waterboarding, you should be able to put the pieces together. It would be hellishly horrible. A Vanity Fair reporter did the same experiment last year and said he was traumatized for months afterwards.

It’s not called “torture” for nothing. The technique of waterboarding has been around for centuries and there is a reason why bad people still use it as an interrogation device. Now that Mancow has seen how awful it is, let’s hope he puts his big mouth to use and pressures our government to stop doing it.