Ladies and Gentlemen, that sound you hear

Is the stunned silence of the Republican party's collective jaws dropping.


Here's an abreviated Today in History (I'm still studying my almanac to find Wasilla, Alaska)



On August 30, in the year 30 BC, Egypt's Queen Cleopatra clutched a snake to her breast and died. History has judged this a suicide, but there is room for doubt: she had previously clutched Julius Caesar and Marc Antony to her breast without dying, and may have therefore considered herself immunized. Dilligent readers will realize that this is the second time that I have mentioned the death of Cleopatra - the dates came from different sources. Hey, it's not like the Eyewitness News van was roaming around ancient Egypt back then.


August 30, 1780 -


General "Eggs" Benedict Arnold secretly promised to surrender the West Point fort to the British army during the American Revolution. The measure of Arnold's treachery was made worse by the fact that he was considered by many to be the best general and most accomplished leader in the Continental Army. In fact, without Arnold's earlier contributions to the American cause, the American Revolution might well have been lost; notwithstanding, his name, like those of several other prominent traitors throughout history, has become a byword for treason.


August 30, 1859 -
At the University of Göttingen, PhD candidate Albert Niemann isolates the alkaloid C17H21NO4 from leaves of the plant Erythroxylum coca. Niemann names his white, powdery discovery "cocaine" and observes firsthand its peculiarly strong anesthetic effect: "it benumbs the nerves of the tongue, depriving it of feeling and taste."



Sounds like an ad compaign to me.

August 30, 1930 -


Warren Edward Buffett often called the "Sage of Omaha", "Oracle of Omaha", or " Omaha Steak", American investor, businessperson and philanthropist is born on this date. Buffett has amassed an enormous fortune from astute investments managed through the holding company Berkshire Hathaway, of which he is the largest shareholder and CEO. With an estimated current net worth of around US$52 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as the third-richest person in the world as of April 2007, behind Bill Gates and Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helú. I, on the other hand, did not make the list this year.

August 30, 1993 -
On CBS-TV "The Late Show with David Letterman" premiered.



And so it goes.