War Is Hell, And More Expensive Than You Know

Plus: Talking nonsense on English-only...Bali or bust...Bill O’Reilly and his muppet problem...bread blindness...and the military’s drug problem. It’s Monday, December 3, and this is Mic Check. We always bring it on.

Celebration Excuse

Easy pitches, breathless movies and girls in the classroom...yup, it must be December 3.

1818

The more the merrier! Illinois becomes the 21st state.

1833

Girl Power! OberlinCollege in Ohio goes co-ed, becoming the first in the nation to let the ladies learn.

1947

STEL-LLLLLLLLLA! A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway and Marlon Brando’s feral cry is heard for the very first time.

1965

For the first time in history, an all-white jury convicts thre Ku Klux Klansmen over the murder of a white civil rights activist,Viola Liuzzo.

1967

The very first heart transplant is performed at a hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.

1968

Major League Baseball decides to lower the pitcher’s mound from 15 inches to 10 inches so batters could “get more batting action.”

1984

More than 4,000 are killed by a cloud of poison gas which leaked from a pesticide plant run by a Union Carbide in Bhopal, India.

LET US EAT CAKE!

1857:

Happy Birthday, author Joseph Conrad. Wishing you hearts of lightness!

1930:

Netflix “Breathless,” pour a glass of wine and discover the nouvelle vague genius that was today’s Birthday Guy, Jean-Luc Godard

1948:

Way to hang in there, Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne.

1960:

Happy Birthday, actress Julianne Moore. We loved you in Magnolia. Not so much in The Forgotten, but that’s ok.

Daybook

STUMPIN’

The Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum with all eight Democratic presidential candidates takes place Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa
John Edwards campaigns in Iowa over the weekend
Barack Obama fundraises in Boston, Massachusetts on Sunday
Dennis Kucinich campaigns in New Hampshire on Sunday
Mike Huckabee campaigns in New Hampshire over the weekend
John McCain participates in the Myspace / MTV Presidential Dialogue Series

CONGRESS

HOUSE

They’re starting to milk this whole Thanksgiving Recess thing.

SENATE

Back in session!

2 PM

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Disaster Recovery Subcommittee holds a field hearing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to analyze the role and needs of communities that take disaster evacuees.

TV

TIVO…
Oprah: Ask Dr. Oz: Teeth Bleaching, Botox, Brazilian waxes, and the Truth about Cellulite! Plus, Oprah’s First Acupuncture Session
The View: Soap star Genie Francis – that is, Laura from General Hospital, and ABC World News anchor Charles Gibson