The Day the Music Died

The Day the Music Died ~ February 3, 1959

Buddy Holly



Ritchie Valens



Big Bopper




Day the Music Died

Two Different Days in the Same Place

In Australia, January 26 is a national holiday.

Some are celebrating Australia Day.

Others will be observing the Day of Mourning.

No matter which day it is for you, if you're in Oz, I'll be thinking of you today.

Dead Peasant Insurance

- or - Are You Worth More Dead to Your Employer?

The millionaires and billionaires of America are dead-set against a public (competitive) option in health care reform. Look:



You may think that Corporate America wants healthy workers unencumbered by health care worries, and that Corporate America has their employees' best interests at heart. It could be just the opposite, though. Your employer might be happiest if you would just go ahead and die. Have you ever heard of "Dead Peasant Insurance"?

DEAD PEASANT INSURANCE

It's where companies take out life insurance policies on their employees, and when an employee dies, the employer collects many thousands (or millions) of dollars, not a dime of which goes to the surviving family. I did a web page about this back in 2002, when an Enron subsidiary was found to have taken out thousands of Dead Peasant policies (when they weren't busy bilking their customers, employees, and investors) and the proceeds from their peasants who died went to fund Executive retirement accounts. Nice, huh? I wonder how that's working out, in prison.

Apologists will say, "Well it costs companies money when their employees pass away."

You'll find in this video from ABC News a former music store cashier whose death was invested in with a payout of $339,000



Here's a website that is seeking to end Dead Peasant abuses

http://deadpeasantinsurance.com/

And here is a list of companies suspected of carrying dead peasant insurance on their employees...

You locals will spot Kansas City Power and Light and Kansas Gas & Electric on that list. You'll also see Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Disney, Bank of America, AT&T, and many other big corporations, probably the whole roster of the United States Chamber of Commerce, the group in the first video, the group warning us that health care reform is bad.

Share your feelings with your lawmakers, and also tell the media how you feel.


Mr. Potter: (chuckling) Why, you're worth more dead than alive!

Martin Luther King Day Viewing

Civil Rights



Montgomery Bus Boycott



Rev. Dr. King Goes to Jail



Rev. Dr. King Wins the Nobel Peace Prize



Rev. Dr. King's Last Speech



Rev. Dr. King Is Dead



Tribute (1986)

^About this song^

Kansas City Will Forget You, Too.

When I found out from some other town's newspaper that Rabbi Lieberman died in Kansas City on March 15, 1933, I thought the hard part was over. It didn't occur to me that I'd have to spend hours staring at a microfilm machine searching in vain through Kansas City's three leading newspapers for a biographical obituary of KC's second Rabbi. Finally I found a paragraph in the death notices of the Kansas City Times, to their credit. To their discredit, they gave six paragraphs that day to a domesticated squirrel that had been shot the day previous.

I was pretty disappointed in the Journal Post, as The Journal was called after Colonel Van Horn died (another forgotten Kansas City Great... I've not met one Van Horn graduate that knew a thing about the man) and the company he founded merged with the sleazy Kansas City Post. The only thing about the Journal Post to remind a person of The Journal twenty some years earlier was the presence of Ed Cochrane, Sports Writer.

The man never aged, it seems. How many remember that guy?

So what was Kansas City all excited about the day the good Rabbi was laid to rest?

Beer, of course.

"Give It A Rest," He Says

Q. When will I stop talking about Sam Lieberman?

A. When people quit saying, "Who?"

Happy Thanksgiving

May we all be Thankful, no matter how meager the fare. And may we all be thankful every day. And may your Thanksgiving meal turn out better than the one you see below:

Big Show Tonight