Today Is the 38th Anniversary of the Murder of 4 People at Kent State

Thirty-eight years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen, responding to directives from the Ohio governor, shot and killed four people on the campus of Kent State University. This was not the only such killings, but the massacre set off a series of protests and riots around the country that further divided the U. S. into a simmering state of civil war.

During subsequent investigations following the murders, National Guardsmen asserted that they had been fired upon first. No evidence that they were ever fired upon has, to this day, come to light. At least two of the people murdered that day were not involved in any sort of protest whatsoever. The act, an attempt at government terrorism against its citizens, failed in its intentions.

Microsoft Walks Away from Yahoo:

Microsoft announced in would not make a hostile buyout attempt for Yahoo when the latter turned down the Microsoft's bid despite the fact that it was substantially higher than market value. It will be interesting now to see what strategy Microsoft will attempt to compose to pursue the rich on line advertising revenue that Google has the lion's share of. (See The New York Times story.)

Big Brown Wins Derby, While Eight Belles Dies for Your Gambling Amusement:

The sport of kings draws big crowds of gamblers: 157,000 people turned out to watch the Kentucky Derby yesterday, as immature horses ran the course in two minutes or less. For animal lovers, the nasty secret of horse racing is that horses are forced to race when they are too young. Eight Belles, a young filly, illustrated the point yesterday, coming in second and offering the Derby winner, Big Brown, its only competition. But she paid a price. Both of her front legs were broken in the race, as a result of her lack of maturity and the peculiarities of Thoroughbred physiognomy.

Thoroughbred horses are bred to have large lungs and large haunches. When they are still three years old and younger, their foreleg bones are still under developed. When they run, all 1500 plus pounds of their weight lands on one front leg and then the other. There is a tendency under these circumstances for the bones to fracture.

The problem could be easily resolved by raising the age of the horses before they are allowed to be raced; however, horse breading and racing is a very expensive proposition. That's why it's the sport of kings. In order to recover investments, owners need to start breading their horses early, and they want to bread their animals with established winners. In other words, they've got to establish a horse as a winner as early in its life as possible in order to bread it as frequently as possible. (Read The New York Times story.)

The Double Standard:

Frank Rich points out the double standard that exists in the race to the white house, and he's not talking about the fact that a woman is running. Rich is reacting to the media frenzy that has been taking place over Sen. Obama's relationship with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the white washing Sen. McCain's relationship with Rev. John Hagee and his support of anti-Catholicism. Hagee is well known for comparing the Roman Catholic Church with Hitler and Nazism and accusing the church of promoting antisemitism. (See the youtube video here.)

Hagee is not only a supporter of Sen. McCain, he is also the pastor of a megachurch in Texas. So when, Rich wants to know, is McCain going to be called to task for accepting the support of someone who voices so much hate for such a large group of Americans? So when will McCain how expects to govern when he tacitly agrees with someone who is preaching hatred for a religion that is followed by so many millions of people around the world? How will McCain be able to conduct foreign affairs under these circumstances?

Is It Foreshadowing?

A Baton Rouge-based district in Louisiana that had gone Republican for the past 33 years has elected a Democrat. The story is related by Paul Kane in today's Washington Post. The GOP strategy was to link the Democrat, Donald Cazayoux, with Sen. Obama, but that did not deter voters from preferring the Democrat.

The Dude, once again, explaining the Iraq fiasco: "We ended the rule of one of history's worst tyrants, and in so doing, we not only freed the American people, we made our own people more secure." — George W. Bush at the pretend ranch in Crawford, Texas, May 3, 2003. (Note: Being illiterate doesn't keep you from being an elitist.)

China Facts: "Public protests rose by 50 percent" in 2007. (Source: ngm.com)