Clay knocks out Liston on February 25, 1964

Clay knocks out Liston: On February 25, 1964, 22-year-old Cassius Clay shocks the odds-makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh-round technical knockout. The dreaded Liston, who had twice demolished former champ Floyd Patterson in one round, was an 8-to-1 favorite. However, Clay predicted victory, boasting that he would “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” and knock out Liston in the eighth round. The fleet-footed and loquacious youngster needed less time to make good on his claim–Liston, complaining of an injured shoulder, failed to answer the seventh-round bell. A few moments later, a new heavyweight champion was proclaimed.

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1942. He started boxing when he was 12 and by age 18 had amassed a record of over 100 wins in amateur competition. In 1959, he won the International Golden Gloves heavyweight title and in 1960 a gold medal in the light heavyweight category at the Summer Olympic Games in Rome. Clay turned professional after the Olympics and went undefeated in his first 19 bouts, earning him the right to challenge Sonny Liston, who had defeated Floyd Patterson in 1962 to win the heavyweight title.

On February 25, 1964, a crowd of 8,300 spectators gathered at the Convention Hall arena in Miami Beach to see if Cassius Clay, who was nicknamed the “Louisville Lip”, could put his money where his mouth was. The underdog proved no bragging fraud, and he danced and backpedaled away from Liston’s powerful swings while delivering quick and punishing jabs to Liston’s head. Liston hurt his shoulder in the first round, injuring some muscles as he swung for and missed his elusive target. By the time he decided to discontinue the bout between the sixth and seventh rounds, he and Clay were about equal in points. A few conjectured that Liston faked the injury and threw the fight, but there was no real evidence, such as a significant change in bidding odds just before the bout, to support this claim.

To celebrate winning the world heavyweight title, Clay went to a private party at a Miami hotel that was attended by his friend Malcolm X, an outspoken leader of the African American Muslim group known as the Nation of Islam. Two days later, a markedly more restrained Clay announced he was joining the Nation of Islam and defended the organization’s concept of racial segregation while speaking of the importance of the Muslim religion in his life. Later that year, Clay, who was the descendant of a runaway Kentucky slave, rejected the name originally given to his family by a slave owner and took the Muslim name of Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali would go on to become one of the 20th century’s greatest sporting figures, as much for his social and political influence as his prowess in his chosen sport. After successfully defending his title nine times, it was stripped from him in 1967 after he refused induction into the U.S. Army on the grounds that he was a Muslim minister and therefore a conscientious objector. That year, he was sentenced to five years in prison for violating the Selective Service Act but was allowed to remain free as he appealed the decision. His popularity plummeted, but many across the world applauded his bold stand against the Vietnam War.

In 1970, he was allowed to return to the boxing ring, and the next year the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Ali’s draft evasion conviction. In 1974, he regained the heavyweight title in a match against George Foreman in Zaire and successfully defended it in a brutal 15-round contest against Joe Frazier in the Philippines in the following year. In 1978, he lost the title to Leon Spinks but later that year defeated Spinks in a rematch, making him the first boxer to win the heavyweight title three times. He retired in 1979 but returned to the ring twice in the early 1980s. In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with pugilistic Parkinson’s syndrome and has suffered a slow decline of his motor functions ever since. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. In 1996, he lit the Olympic flame at the opening ceremonies of the Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Ali’s daughter, Laila, made her boxing debut in 1999.

At a White House ceremony in November 2005, Ali was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / The Ring / Sonny Liston vs Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) Boxing Match (YouTube)”

Understanding Military Terminology - Moored mine

(DOD) A contact or influence-operated mine of positive buoyancy held below the surface by a mooring attached to a sinker or anchor on the bottom. See also mine. Joint Publications 3-15 (Joint Intelligence Barriers, Obstacles, and Mine Warfare for Joint Operations)

The Old Salt’s Corner

“Bury Me Not In The Deep Deep Sea”

“Oh bury me not in the deep deep sea.”

Those words came slow and faintly

From the pallid lips of a youth who lay,

In his cabin bunk at the close of day.

“Oh bury me not in the deep deep sea

Where the cold dark waves will swallow me,

Where no light shall break through the darkening waves,

And no sunbeam find my silent grave.”

He had mourned and pined till o'er his brow

Death's shades had slowly crept there now,

He wished his home and loved ones nigh

As the sailors gathered to see him die.

“Oh bury me where my mother's prayer,

And my sister's tears shall mingle there,

By my father's grave my grave shall be,

Oh bury me not in the deep deep sea.”

“Oh bury me not” - his voice failed there,

They paid no heed to his dying prayer

They lowered him down o'er the ship's dark side

And above him closed the dismal tide.

He had no costly winding sheet

To wrap around his head or feet,

They lowered him down where the billows roar

In the deep deep sea far from the shore.

A girl on shore many tears will shed

For him who lies on the ocean bed;

Where above his heart the whale will hiss,

And his pallid lips the fish will kiss.

~ Kenneth Peacock

“I’m Just Sayin”

“I understand shipping - you have to expect to pay for the stamps or freight, but what's this handling?”

“Thought for the Day”

“We live in deeds, not years: In thoughts not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial.

We should count time by heart throbs.

He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”

~ Aristotle

“What I Have Learned”

“Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.”

~ Hugh Prather

Bizarre News (we couldn’t make up stuff this good – real news story)

Jury Rejects Beer-Battered Man’s Beer-Battered Fish Defense In Drunk Driving Case

A Wisconsin jury has rejected claims from a repeat drunk driver that he smelled of booze during a traffic stop because he had just eaten beer-battered fish at lunch.

John Przybyla, 76, was convicted of his tenth drunk driving offense by an Adams County jury that also found him guilty of a second felony charge and a misdemeanor driving with a revoked license count.

During questioning, Przybyla denied that he had been drinking, and said that he was on the way home after attending a fish fry, where he had consumed “beer battered fish”.

The Smoking Gun (02/09/2016)

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: How Are Supreme Court Justices Chosen?

Since George Washington’s first appointment, 112 people have served on the highest court in the land. With the recent death of Antonin Scalia, that number will soon rise to 113 (barring an unexpected appointment of one of the retired Supreme Court Justices). So what will happen next?

REQUIREMENTS

Unlike presidents, senators, and representatives, there are no requirements for Supreme Court Justices. The founders decided against having the people or just one branch of government select them because, as James Madison wrote in The Federalist Papers, justices needed to possess “peculiar qualities”. (In the same text, Madison explains why the appointments are for life, saying “the permanent tenure by which the appointments are held in that department, must soon destroy all sense of dependence on the authority conferring them.”)

Justices can also be retired justices.

HOW WILL THE NOMINATION HAPPEN?

The process is relatively straightforward. The president picks a suitable candidate, and that candidate is sent a questionnaire that touches on almost every aspect of their lives. After all of the questions are answered, the Committee votes on whether to send the nomination to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation, an unfavorable recommendation, or no recommendation at all.

WHAT IF THE SENATE’S NOT IN SESSION?

The Constitution gives the President the “Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate”. But the appointment expires at the end of the next session. So while the President can make an appointment, it’s only temporary; the Senate needs to vote on the candidate one way or the other. It’s a power that has been used 15 times, including with John Rutledge.

This case set the important precedent that the Justice’s political views were fair game in any nomination hearing and showed that recess appointments can be temporary.

Supreme Court.gov • U.S. History.org • Mental Floss • Wikipedia

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“Cut and Run:” This term is the shortened form of the earlier phrases “cut and run away” and “cut and run off”.

It has been suggested that it has a nautical derivation and that it refers to ships making a hasty departure by the cutting of the anchor rope and running before the wind.

Phrases.org UK

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Holy stone: The stone or the act of using one. A pumice stone for cleaning a wooden deck. The name derives from the sailor stating that “anything that would cause a seasoned sailor to bend his knees, and curse the name of his maker must surely be holy.”

Honch (“the Honch”): Entertainment district just outside the main gate of Yokosuka Naval Base. Famous for masagi girls, karaoke and Kirin beer.

Honey-ko: Bathroom.

Hollywood: A reference to a male sailor or his “girlfriend” for the evening. It is expected that the sailor will not have another “girlfriend” that same evening and not get caught with another on a subsequent evening. Used primarily at the former Subic Bay and Clark bases in the Philippines. “Cheating” was not allowed, and some how would be found out quickly by means of the “honey-ko telegraph”.

Just for you MARINE

HQMC: Headquarters Marine Corps.

Hump: Carry or lift a load, originally an Australian term meaning “to carry one's swag”; also a forced march carrying full equipment loads.

Hurry up and wait: Expression denoting inefficient time management or planning, often when a senior rushes a unit into a situation too fast that subsequently makes them wait. This can refer to the period between receiving a Warning Order and actually implementing an Operations Order.

Huss: To give a helping hand, so named because the H-34 Choctaw helicopter's utility configuration was designated as the “HUS-1 Seahorse”, leading to Vietnam-era Marines that needed a medical evacuation helicopter to ask for or to be “cut a huss”.

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

HM-12 - Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Twelve: “Sea Dragons”
Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia

The Strange, Mysterious or Downright Weird

Air Force general faints at Pentagon briefing on plane budget

A Pentagon press briefing discussing the Air Force's $120billion budget took a tragicomic turn when a high-ranking official fainted at the podium - and the entire incident was caught on camera.

While subordinates who rushed to help Martin joked that he fainted after reading the budget, it was later revealed that he had been suffering from the flu.

He was back to work Wednesday and was said to be doing well, according to an Air Force representative, according to Air Force Times. Daily Mail (02/10/2016)