Monday Musings - January 27, 2020

1. I an unbelievable burst of speed, the last Monday of January is upon us. The first month of this new decade will be complete in a few short days. 

2. Orioles pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in two weeks from today, February 11th. 

3. Garbage. I haven noticed a huge amount of garbage along the roads. Yesterday in Elkridge along the side of U.S. 1 someone dumped a large number of garbage bags! What is going on. What do people feel the need to make the outdoors as dirty as their homes and cars?

Jax During Basketball Game
Arundel Middle School
January 26, 2020

4. The loss of Kobe Bryant in a  a tragic helicopter crash reminds me that life is a gift and each day should be lived as if there were no tomorrow.

5. Both of the boys youth basketball teams lost yesterday during hard fought games.

6. And now, we return to the Impeachment Trial after a much needed day off.


7. History today. On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops enter Auschwitz, Poland, freeing the survivors of the network of concentration camps—and finally revealing to the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there. Auschwitz was really a group of camps, designated I, II, and III. There were also 40 smaller “satellite” camps. It was at Auschwitz II, at Birkenau, established in October 1941, that the SS created a complex, monstrously orchestrated killing ground: 300 prison barracks; four “bathhouses” in which prisoners were gassed; corpse cellars; and cremating ovens. Thousands of prisoners were also used for medical experiments overseen and performed by the camp doctor, Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death.”


Headlines

Kobe Bryant, Transformational Star of the N.B.A., Dies in Helicopter Crash - The New York Times

Trump Tied Ukraine Aid to Demands for Inquiries, Bolton Book Says - The New York Times

As Coronavirus Fears Intensify, Effectiveness of Quarantines Is Questioned - The New York Times

China virus deaths rise to 80 as Hong Kong bans visitors from worst-hit province - Reuters

Turkey searches for last people missing from quake that killed at least 38 - Reuters

Ronald Reagan Quote for the Week

Too often character assassination has replaced debate in principle here in Washington. Destroy someone's reputation, and you don't have to talk about what he stands for.


-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD