Monday Musings - December 16, 2019

1. December is more than half over--and there are only 9 days until Christmas. Stand-by for panic to ensue!

2. Yesterday it was over 50 degrees and I was able to work outside without a coat. It was glorious. A last gasp of Autumn before the real Winter arrives here.

3. Family NFL Weekend Results. There are just two weeks remaining in the NFL season.
  
    Ravens defeat Jets 42-21 (Thursday)
    Cowboys defeat Rams 44-21
    Steelers lose to Bills 10-17
    Redskins lose to Eagles 27-37

4. Is anyone feeling panic that the Christmas Season is slipping away?

5. I noted that the NFL is posting a trifecta of games on Saturday to fill the void created by the conclusion of the College football season.

6. There was a hint of snow for this morning and the region braced for the worst. There were 96 weather related delays. Outside of my window there was nothing. 

7. I have noted that while most MLB teams are adding talent to their rosters, the Orioles continue to be conducting a fire sale. It looks as if we are facing another 100 loss season.

8. Today in History: 1773. In Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

The midnight raid, popularly known as the “Boston Tea Party,” was in protest of the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the East India Company to undercut even tea smuggled into America by Dutch traders, and many colonists viewed the act as another example of taxation tyranny.

Headlines

U.S. Secretly Expelled Chinese Officials After Breach of Military Base - The New York Times

U.N. Climate Talks End With Big Polluters Blocking Stronger Action - The New York Times

Denmark Raises Antibiotic-Free Pigs. Why Can’t the U.S.? - The New York Times

Hong Kong mall protests flare with leader Lam in Beijing - Reuters

Dozens injured as activists clash with Delhi police in citizenship law protests - Reuters

Ronald Reagan Quote for the Week

But restoring the American dream requires more than restoring a sound, productive economy, vitally important as that is. It requires a return to spiritual and moral values, values so deeply held by those who came here to build a new life. We need to restore those values in our daily life, in our neighborhoods and in our governments dealings with the other nations of the world.

Labor Day Speech at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey, September 1, 1980

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD