The victory of 43-year old African-American Democrat Scott Colom for the Mississippi Senate seat over incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith stunned the nation, and brought new attention to the state and South in general. I will later describe this race, but would like to note that I have never ever before enjoyed the waves of euphoria that keep coming from any sort of election. My closest experience to something like this occurred 69 years ago. I was a nobody in high school, but at some point early in my junior year of high school, suddenly decided that I wanted to go to either the California Institute of Technology or Stanford University. One of many deficiencies was that I had zero social/political activities. So, never having done anything like this before, I decided to run for vice-president of the senior class. Doing so meant you automatically became chairman of a wide variety of committees, like commencement and so forth. I've blogged on what I had to do to get accepted to ...
Wednesday is sci-tech day, but let me start with the fact that, today, November 11, is Veterans Day. November 11 was made a federal holiday from 1938, and was called Armistice Day, dedicated to the cause of World Peace and to honor World War 1 veterans. Congress in 1954 amended the act to call November 11 Veterans Day, broadening the scope to honor American veterans of all wars. If November 11 falls on a Saturday, the holiday is observed on Friday, and when on Sunday, you will have a Monday holiday. There is a distinction about Veterans Day and Memorial Day, which is also a Federal holiday, observed on the last Monday in May. Veterans day honors all living and past U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day specifically honors military personnel who died while serving. While federal government offices, courts, post offices and most banks are closed on these two days, most retail stores, restaurants and private businesses operate on regular hours. School closures depend on th...