9/12 The Battle of Marathon
~~ Marathon
Just to get things straight, the Battle of Marathon took place on the shore of a bay near a Greek town known as Marathon. Boston was .NOT. involved. Darius, of Persia, had sent a force to invade Greece and in particular to force Athens to submit to his rule (or be destroyed) in 490 BCE. There is a ton of back story here which I'm going to skip. The Persians sailed to Greece and landed at the bay of Marathon and the greatly outnumbered Athenians accompanies by a small force from Platea went out to meet them. The Athenians also sent a runner named Pheidippides to Sparta to ask for help, but the Spartans claimed that they had to go to church for the next ten days or something and so sorry but couldn't make it. ("Go tell Sparta", hah!)
So the Athenians quickly arrayed themselves with respect to the topography in such fashion as to render the Persian cavalry somewhat useless and the waiting began. There are several versions of many aspects of the battle so I'll just say that the Athenians seriously whupped the Persians. There were numerous implacts on and implications for Greek and world history, all of which is a fitting research project for anybody interested. In the end, poor Pheidippides (supra) had to high tail it back to Athens with the good news since they didn't have ROTC or National Guard or anybody else hanging back to defend the city and were understandably on edge
1213 CE brings us to the Battle of Muret, the last major battle of the Most Holy genocidal Albigensian Crusade. The Crusaders won and the campaigns of extermination of the Cathars/Albigensians continued until 1229 when the Treaty of Paris, also known as Treaty of Meaux, "formally" ended the Most Holy genocidal Albigensian Crusade and "formally" put the Holy Inquisition in charge of searching out and capturing heretics, but nonetheless saw Raymond VII of Toulouse in charge of hunting down and exterminating any surviving Cathars. The Most Holy genocidal Albigensian Crusade was ordered by some pope or another because the Cathars, while "christians" deviated from official church dogma and ritual in a few details and therefore had to be exterminated just like any other free thinkers, non-believers, heretics or pagans (see for example the Most Holy genocidal Northern Crusades).
In 1847 the US invasion of Mexico reached Chapultepec in front of which the US forces hung 30 members of the Battallon San Patricio whom they had captured at the Battle of Churubusco. Presumbaly they intended to make some kind of impression on the Mexican populace, and they did, they ensured that the members of said Battalion would be remembered and honored in Mexico, which they are to this day. The San Patricios were a largely Irish force of immigrants to the US who fought on the side of Mexico during the US war on Mexico. They were staunch fighters who gave the US troops a great deal of trouble, especially at Churubusco. They are remembered as heroes especially on this day, but also, in various places, on Saint Patrick's Day, and by the performances of Mexico's only bagpipe band, the Banda de Gaitas del Batallon de San Patricio in Churubusco.
On this day in history:
490 BCE -- The Battle of Marathon
1213 -- Crusaders won the Battle of Muret then slaughtered the Cathars fleeing from the town thereby ending the Cathar Genocide Holy Albigensian Crusade
1609 -- Henry Hudson began exploring the Hudson River.
1683 -- John III Sobieski, et. al. stopped the Ottoman Empire's conquests and advances at the Battle of Vienna
1846 -- Elizabeth Barrett eloped with Robert Browning.
1847 -- At the Battle of Chapultepec, 30 previously captured members of the Battallon San Patricio were hung en masse in view of Chapultepec. They are honored and celebrated in Mexico to this day.
1848 – A new constitution established Switzerland as a federal state.
1910 -- The Premiere performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 took place
1933 -- Leo Szilard had the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.
1940 –- Cave paintings were discovered in Lascaux, France.
1958 –- Jack Kilby demonstrated the first working integrated circuit while working at Texas Instruments.
1974 -- Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was deposed in a coup d'etat
1977 -- Anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died in police custody from torture & beatings at their hands.
1990 -- The "Four Powers" and both German states and signed the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany.
2003 -- The United Nations lifted sanctions against Libya and the Libyan government fell for it. Fools.
Some people who were born on this day:
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
~~ H.L. Menken
1725 –- Guillaume Le Gentil, astronomer
1797 –- Samuel Joseph May, activist
1862 -- Carl Eytel, painter and illustrator
1880 -- H. L. Mencken, journalist, wise-ass, and critic
1892 -- Alfred A. Knopf, Sr., a publisher who founded Alfred A. Knopf Inc.
1897 -- Irene Joliot-Curie, chemist, physicist, and Nobel Prize laureate
1921 –- Stanisław Lem, philosopher and author
1931 -- George Jones, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1944 -- Barry White, singer and songwriter
1944 -- Colin Young, singer
1946 -- Tony Bellamy, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1948 -- Steve Turre, trombonist and educator
1951 -- Ali-Ollie Woodson, singer, songwriter, and keyboard player
1952 -- Gerry Beckley, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1952 -- Neil Peart, drummer, songwriter, and producer
1954 -- Scott Hamilton, saxophonist
1956 -- Barry Andrews, singer and keyboard player
1956 -- Brian Robertson, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1968 -- Larry LaLonde, guitarist and songwriter
1970 -- Nathan Larson, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1974 -- Jennifer Nettles, singer & songwriter
1977 -- Jeff Irwin, singer, songwriter, and producer
1977 -- James McCartney, singer & songwriter
1988 -- Amanda Jenssen, singer, songwriter and guitarist
Some people who died on this day:
The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed
~~ Steve Biko
1712 -- Jan van der Heyden, painter and illustrator
1764 -- Jean-Philippe Rameau, composer and theorist
1819 -- Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher, general, hero of Waterloo
1869 -- Peter Mark Roget, physician, theologian, and lexicographer
1977 -- Steve Biko, South African activist
2000 -- Stanley Turrentine, saxophonist, composer, and bandleader
2003 -- Johnny Cash, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor
2007 -- Bobby Byrd, singer, songwriter and producer
2014 -- John Gustafson, singer, songwriter and bass player
2014 -- Joe Sample, pianist and composer
Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Commemoration of the mass hanging of the Saint Patrick's Battalion. (Mexico)
National Day of Encouragement (United States)
National Chocolate Milkshake Day (United States)
Today's Tunes
El Batallon San Patricio - The Chieftans, Ry Cooder, Banda de Gaita de Batallón de San Patricio, et. al:
Emperor Haile Selassie with Bob Maley & The Wailers
Steve Biko
George Jones
Tony Bellamy
Steve Turre
Gerry Beckley
Neil Peart
Scott Hamilton
Nathan Larson
Amanda Jenssen
Stanley Turrentine
Johnny Cash
Bobby Byrd
John Gustafson
Joe Sample
Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?
Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
Comments
good morning...
The story of marathon brings to mind what the military folks are saying about China and a potential US invasion. That is invading from the sea on a well defended shore usually spells defeat.
Hope you have a great trip this week. We're looking forward to some drier weather this week to get certain chores done. Supposed to be 50F tomorrow AM. Today is a comfortable 65F.
Thanks for the OT and music!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
good morning Lookout. Thanks for bringing up
the issue of invading defended hostile shore wrt China. Of course, we should also remember not to get bogged down in a land war is asia too.
Glad you have moderate weather to work with. Thanks for the wellwishes.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
"Swift and Forceful Response"
According to Arthur Schlesinger, MacArthur told John F. Kennedy, personally, in late April 1961, "Anyone wanting to commit American ground forces to the mainland of Asia should have his head examined." At the time JFK was beginning to receive pressure from the Joint Chiefs to to commit US combat troops directly to the war in Laos and Vietnam. Kennedy cited MacArthur's judgement to his own generals for the duration of his presidency. P. 102 JFK and the Unspeakable, James W. Douglas
I'm very interested in the reference to "what the military folks are saying about China and a potential US invasion."
Naturally, MacArthur learned his lesson during the Korean conflict (the war will be over by Christmas, or words to that effect). With all the discussion currently about swift and robust response to any NK nuclear test, and South Korean's stupid president, openly threatening North Korea with "preemptive strikes," the lessons of the past have gone largely unlearned.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-official-vows-forceful...
SEOUL, South Korea -- U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on Tuesday warned of a forceful response if North Korea carries out its first nuclear test explosion in nearly five years as she traveled to Seoul to meet with South Korean and Japanese allies and discuss the escalating standoff...
“Any nuclear test would be in complete violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. There would be a swift and forceful response to such a test,” Sherman said, following a meeting with South Korea Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong.
According to an independent media source in South Korea, a meeting of national security advisors may take place Sep 16 to discuss "US nuclear deterrence guarantees to South Korea." Yoon's people, may even discuss the forward deployment of US tactical nukes in South Korea. One South Korean political commentator on military issues says Yoon had even wanted to negotiate with the US a step by step plan for a tactical nuclear response to any potential nuclear provocation by North Korea. Hopefully, the US will just ignore this, rather than further encourage Yoon's amateur approach to foreign policy and national security.
It is likely that the US will focus on visits to South Korea by so called "strategic assets," like aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines. Strategic bombers maybe? That's bad enough in addition to the military exercises that took place recently.
語必忠信 行必正直
'Hanged'
The San Patricios were 'hanged' - unless perhaps you are saying they are honored and celebrated for providing a display in full view of Chapultepec of a very different sort.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Good morning moonbat. The hung v hanged issue
is largely a matter of the judiciary having retained the regular verb origin of to hang and the rest of the universe having adopted the irregular verb origin, they are really two different root words. Those hanging the San Patricios were not judiciary and were not following the law (they should have been shot), so, arguably hung is perfectly proper. More importantly, "hanged" has died for all but this one narrow case, and soon that too will die - I give you Merriam Webster on the subject:
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Thanks but no thanks
Merriam-Webster are the champions of "linguistic descriptivism" (AKA 'might-makes-right posing as intellectualism'), and as such simultaneously claim that they are experts on language yet that there is also no such thing since it is the mob that decides. That would have to mean they're full of shit - like someone once said of Newt Gingrich, "the anti-intellectual's intellectuals".
The doctrine that "language is fluid", like just about all talk of "fluid" these days, is just a scam to usher in NewSpeak: "I can take a stand and make rules, but YOU can't!"
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Another anniversary
1787 American statesman George Mason suggests the addition of a Bill of Rights to the Constitution modeled on previous state declarations, but the motion is defeated.
Gee, I wonder why?
Thanks for the OT!
question everything
Good morning QMS, thanks for that addendum.
I think we all know why.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The morning after.
This is the anniversary of finding out exactly how many friends perished on 9/11.
We lost 3 right up front- one at Cantor Fitzgerald and 2 on Flight 93. It was only the next day that we knew. We also lost a family several member years later to respiratory issues caused by working on the pile with FEMA for the next several months.
Many things died that day, in addition to freedom. That is all.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Very sorry for your (our) losses
Intentionally left blank
question everything
We all lost much
that day. Thanks for the kind words.
Here's the only recording I could find of Betty Farmer, our jazz vocalist friend who was at Cantor Fitz temping between gigs. It fits with the feel of the thread- sorry for the downer.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYB8g4UY0IM width:300 height:200]
Her signature tune was "Small Day Tomorrow". Wish I could find a recording of her doing that one...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Good morning UFS. Also sorry for your losses.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
A strange tidbit found this morning
Tell me peace ain't political.
Israel Does Not Believe Iran Deal Will Happen Before US Midterm Elections
Aside from the fact the US congress and administration are beholden to Israel for ME policy,
what do midterm elections have to do with nuclear agreements? Kinda a stretch.
https://news.antiwar.com/2022/09/11/israel-does-not-believe-iran-deal-wi...
question everything
Goodf afternoon QMS. Perhaps the thinking is
that nobody is going to risk their midterms success by pushing to close some sort of deal that will be subject to attack from many quarters as well as AIPAC?
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
EL, I am glad you will get to go exploring!
Wonderful! I have a couple of trips in my head, but who knows what costs will be in the next few months. One or two more trips, then hunker down to depression conditions. Looks like the not so distant future.
Zion National Park is suffering the consequences of heavy tourism. If we go there, just a drive through, photos stops, and move on. Same for The Grand Canyon.
Well, I have bitched about having reactions to meds. Now, I can include vitamins and supplements. I eat a fairly/mostly healthy diet. I scaled back, on the vs and s', suddenly my old age bruising is normal person bruising. I may even stop taking multivitamins while I am scaling. Fresh fruit, veggies, meat, hardly any seed oils, only the occasional carb, occasional sugar, lots of sun exposure, so maybe I have things in hand to begin with. My immune system may be more bad ass than I imagined!
Anyway, thanks for the Marathon. I made it a point to see the place of that battle when I toured Greece. Opa!
Bon voyage, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Thanks otc. Don't know how much "exploring" in the sense
of new places and new stuff in a big sense, but some for sure. Glad you're getting on an even keel with meds and supplements and all that. I know all about old people bruising, the nurses at the infusion center all ask if i'm on blood thinners and if so which ones and when I say many years of prednisone they always say "ahhhh, prednisone" and then give me a look of pity. Heh. Hope your immune system just keeps getting better and better.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Prednisone.
If it were not for that drug, I would have been dead at age 17. I took it for treatment of my liver disease for 16 or so years. I was just trying to boost my immune system, but after research on all the vitamins, supplements I take, and even if none exceeded the daily dose of anything, I just found out it is best to let my body and systems deal with life without my interference. Too much zinc, too much of anything, is just not good. And, it is very likely my diet provides everything I need.
Net results so far, ares normal bruising, better digestion, pretty much better everything.
We are all different.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Prednisone is a wonder drug in many,
I've taken tons of it and relied on it, but it also takes its toll. My little sisteer is the same way, swears by it, but ...
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The biggest side effect of my liver disease
was poly-arthritis. Taking it, I could walk. But when I got the all's clear, I ditched!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981