Is This Fair? Michael Vick was convicted on Federal and state dog fighting charges. He has been in prison for about a year and a half, he is bankrupt and now he has to petition the league for reinstatement as the commissioner mulls whether or not he should serve a league suspension. Compare this with the case of Leonard Little. He was drunk and got in a wreck that killed someone. He spent 90 days in jail. He was suspended from the NFL for 8 games. He went on to sign a multi-million dollar contract. A few years later, he was arrested again for DUI but was not convicted. Let’s see…kill a person….8 game suspension and sign a multi year contract. Kill dogs through pre-meditated abuse through conducting dog fights…2 years out of hte league, prison and the loss of millions of dollars…should the league prevent him from salvaging his career or pile on some more? The system seems to be saying he’d be better served had he been drunk and killed someone. Somethin’ ain’t right. And something really ain’t right when someone, somehow equates the efforts of Vice-President Cheney, who has not been charged with a thing except by the lunatic fringe of doing anything except to try to maintain national security. Unbelievable.
On This Date In History: Remember the story about De Soto and his pigs from a few days ago? Well, he died on this date in 1542 and the pigs he was saving got auctioned off.
Pig Brigade
But it was a day for flying. On this date in 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic when he landed in Paris. But, I think it was the 22ndin Paris while it was the 21st in the US. Anyway, less celebrated but significant nonetheless was on the same date in 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic when she landed in Ireland. Now, she flew from New Foundland and it was just under 2000 miles. Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris which was nearly twice as far and he had to stay awake for over 33 hours while Earhart’s flight lasted but 15 hours. He won a prize of $25,000 and she got the Distinguished Flying Cross from the US Congress.
The photo of Earhart is interesting because most of the photos of her are somewhat unflattering but do indicate the potential for beauty. This photo verifies….she was a hottie.
Whether it’s 15 or 33.5 hours, that’s a long time to be driving, or flying. Perhaps they could have used the help of Jacob German, who on this date in 1899 became the first person ever arrested for speeding. He had been spotted driving a taxi for the Electric Vehicle Company at the “breakneck” speed of 12 miles per hour. The cops grabbed him and threw him in the clink but they didn’t take his driver’s license. That’s because New York didn’t issue driver’s licenses until 1901.
