Unfortunately, Kellie Pickler was just voted off “American Idol.” Kellie was my favorite contestant (possibly tied with Taylor Hicks), and it is completely unjust that she went home this week. Kellie’s performance of “Unchained Melody” yesterday was not my favorite of hers, but it was the second best performance of the night, after Taylor’s. In my opinion, it is almost always better to sing a good song badly than to sing a bad song well, unless the singing on the good song is really, really bad. Kellie’s singing was not really bad, just fair, and she picked by far the best song of any of the contestants. Taylor picked a decent, but not great, song and sang it well. Paris picked a song with good lyrics, but an extremely boring melody, and Elliott picked a very boring song and sang it boringly. Katharine picked a boring song and sang it boringly also; I have never really liked her, and I especially disliked her dress yesterday. Finally, Chris sang well but picked a terrible song that I really, reallly hate.
It’s depressing that my two favorite candidates have been voted off, but from now on, until further notice, I will be rooting for Taylor.
Today is a sad day in history: on this date in 2000, Governor Howard Dean of Vermont signed a bill legalizing civil unions for gay couples. Vermont gets the disgraceful distinction of being the first state in the U.S.A. to institute legal recognition of gay couples. I oppose gay marriage and civil unions (which are the same thing as marriage) because it is far more honorable to live one’s life independently and celibately than to devote one’s life to someone else and lose one’s innocence. Marriage is an immoral institution that should be abolished. The fewer marriages allowed, the closer marriage is to being abolished!
On a somewhat similar topic, Robert Travaglini, the president of the Massachusetts State Senate, has proposed that, instead of cutting the income tax to 5% for everyone in the state, only people who care for children or elderly relatives should get a tax break! This is a terrible, unjust idea. Having a baby doesn’t make you better than people who don’t have babies. In fact, it makes you worse, because it is less individualistic and contributes to overpopulation, which is a HUGE problem. It makes no sense to reward the most immoral people in the state with tax breaks while punishing maidens and bachelors who might actually be living morally.
After yesterday’s mayoral election in New Orleans, the two top vote-getters were Ray Nagin, who is the incumbent mayor, and Mitch Landrieu, the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. There will be a runoff election between these two candidates on May 20. I support Landrieu for the position of mayor of New Orleans. Although both candidates are Democrats, I don’t know much about Landrieu, while I dislike Nagin because of his comments that New Orleans should remain a “chocolate city.” I hate reverse racism — this is America, not Africa!
As an aside, happy birthday (or not so happy, depending on your opinion of these individuals) to Timothy McVeigh, Michael Moore, James Buchanan, and William Shakespeare, all four of whom were born on this date.
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As most of America knows, Ace Young was voted off “American Idol” last night. Although I wasn’t extremely disappointed, I think that Elliott, Paris, and Katharine should have gone home before Ace. At this point, Taylor might be my favorite, with Kellie a close second. In my opinion, Wednesday’s show was pretty dull, partly because Bucky wasn’t there and partly because I didn’t like the genre of songs. Taylor’s performance was the only one that I actually liked.
On a completely different topic, today is a momentous day in history, as it is Adolf Hitler’s birthday. Although extremely unpopular, Hitler is undoubtedly one of the most important people who ever lived. He is either number one or number two on my list of the most important people of all time, with Jesus possibly beating him. A remarkable (although not necessarily good) fact that I calculated is that Hitler killed over one percent of Earth’s population at the time! It is astounding that one individual could be responsible for as much death and destruction as Hitler was, and quite amazing that in an age when most people wanted to outlaw war and work for world peace, Hitler was able to create a Reich larger than any other empire in history besides that of Genghis Khan.
Also today in history was the Columbine High School massacre, in which students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed twelve fellow students, a teacher, and themselves. Klebold and Harris, who were fascinated by Hitler, were originally planning to carry out their attack yesterday on the anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing and the battles of Lexington and Concord, but they changed their minds and decided to stage the massacre on Hitler’s birthday instead.
Following are some fascinating links related to Hitler and Columbine:
http://www.columbine.free2host.net — a thorough Columbine site
http://www.therebeldomain.com — this site presents unusual opinions about Columbine, which most people do not agree with!
http://thirdreichpages.com — an informative, interesting site about Hitler, his henchmen, and his empire
http://hitler.org — the web site of a museum about Hitler
http://www.adolfhitler.ws — the most thorough Hitler site I’ve seen
http://historyplace.com — scroll down to the bottom for excellent Hitler and World War II information
I have nothing to rant about today, just an update on the historical significance of April 19th. Today and tomorrow are extremely eventful days in history, especially when it comes to infamous events. On this date in 1995, Timothy McVeigh exploded a truck bomb near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds of others. In 1993 on the same date, federal agents killed 74 Branch Davidians in a standoff at Waco, Texas. It is likely that McVeigh , who was infuriated at the federal government’s actions in the Waco standoff, chose April 19th because it was the anniversary of Waco. He may also have liked this date because it’s the day before the birthday of Adolf Hitler, whom McVeigh admired to some extent.
Arguably the most important historical events that occurred toady were the battles of Lexington and Concord, which marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War. At dawn on April 19, 1776, having heard from Paul Revere and William Dawes that the British were planning to seize their weapons and ammunition, 70 minutemen gathered on Lexington Green exchanged fire with the redcoats. Eight colonists were killed, and the British decided to head to Concord to seize the weapons depot there. Along the way, colonists fired on the redcoats at the North Bridge in Concord, forcing them to retreat to Boston. Now that I think of it, Lexington and Concord probably contributed to McVeigh’s decision to choose April 19th, since he wanted to start a revolution against the U.S. government, which he considered oppressive, just like the rebellious colonists viewed King George III.
For more information on the Revolutionary War, go to one of these sites:
The History Place — one of the best web sites of all time.
http://www.americanrevolution.com — a great site all about our war for independence
Or for more about McVeigh and the Oklahoma Bombing, go to Court TV or CNN
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