TOP 10

10. Opium Its usage is much older, but this form of dried juice from the opium poppy became popular in the United States during the 19 th  Century. Back then, it was freely prescribed by doctors and even available at grocery stores. Chinese laborers had brought the practice of opium smoking to the West during the mid-nineteenth century, and laudanum, a solution of opium and alcohol, was also popular. Opium was often given to women to treat menstrual cramps and to infants to help with teething pain. Around the turn of the 20 th  Century, most  opium addicts  were older women. San Francisco first banned opium dens in 1875, and California restricted opium possession in 1907.  The 1914  Harrison Narcotics Tax Act  effectively outlawed the drug throughout America. Today, drugs derived from the opium poppy, such as morphine and codeine, are legal but heavily restricted. 9. Marijuana Usage of the cannabis plant, from which the psychoactive drug...

10. Charles De Gaulle President of France, 1962 (re-enactment in video starting 4:50) While the controversial French President and  World War Two leader  of the Free French had several close calls with assassins throughout his long political career, none came as close to success as that of August, 1962. Riding in his car down the Avenue de la Liberation, De Gaulle’s vehicle was suddenly sprayed with machine gun fire as it sped through the streets of Paris at 70 miles per hour. (The attack was carried out by a maverick French Air Force officer infuriated with DeGaulle’s decision to grant Algeria its independence.) Though the attack killed two policemen, shattered the rear window of his Citroen, and took all out all four tires, his driver managed to get away with the President and his wife unharmed. Had he not, it’s interesting to consider what direction France might have gone without the larger-than-life De Gaulle at the helm for the next seven years. 9. Gamal Nass...

10. The Agricultural Bank of China Robbery (6.7 Million, 2007) Executed in China The largest bank robbery in China’s history occurred in April of 2007 when a cash total of what was equivalent to $6.7 million was  embezzled  from the Agricultural Bank of China. The robbery was done by two vault managers with the help of two security guards from the branch. Purchasing tickets for the Chinese lottery with money they had stolen (with the intent of winning it and more back from gambling), one manager surprisingly managed it once, but the second manager failed at the second attempt. Soon thereafter other branch managers discovered the missing money and notified police and those involved were arrested. The heist also included 3 other accomplices: a landlord, a cab driver, and a car saleswoman. All accomplices were found and arrested and the two bank managers were later executed for their displays of bank robbing bravado. 9.  The 2009 Bank of Ireland Robbery (9 million...

10.  Bombing of USS Cole Fatalities: 17; Injuries: 39 Terrorists usually pursue what are termed “soft targets”.  These are areas or property (including people) that offer little in the way of security or threat to the terrorist themselves.  It’s rare, therefore, that acts of terror are carried out on military targets.  Such, was the case, however, on October 12, 2000, when suicide bombers attacked the American warship, USS Cole.  The Cole was in port at Aden, Yemen to take on fuel.  Incidentally, this was the same port in which Al Qaeda attempted a suicide attack on the USS The Sullivans earlier in the year.  Without any warning to the contrary, security around the warship was light.  A small  motorboat , laden with explosives, sped up to the anchored ship and exploded on the port side.  The small boat contained 400-700 pounds of explosives that caused a 40×40-foot rupture in the Cole’s hull.  The explosion occurred near th...

10.  Dead Rising 2 Dead Rising 2  is a simple game: you hit  zombies  with things until they die, and you meet wacky characters that you get to save.  One of these characters is  LaShawndra , a woman of both size and color who, after you meet her, begins immediately complaining, in African-American Vernacular English no less, about how her husband has run off.  Through a combination of her sass and… um, more sass, she manages to save her husband’s “skinny ass,” and greets him with a punch in the face and a fake, half-hearted apology. If you’re keeping track, that’s  exactly  how stupid white people who have never met a black person think black people act. 9.  The Legend of Zelda Series The Legend of Zelda  is a series of video games, started 26 years ago and still going strong.  It tells the story of Link, a white dude, who has to save princess Zelda, a white lady, from the villainous, thieving Ganondorf, who is…...