10/27 is Black Cat Day in the UK. It should be globally, or at least everywhere where black cats have been given a bad rap. In Europe this is due to a piece of malicious skulduggery by Pope Gregory IX who issued some bull claiming they were incarnations of the devil and associated with heretical rituals and such. There was no rational or evidentiary basis for this false claim and it was presumably made simply to prey upon the superstitious fears of the people, drive them deeper into the fold and extract more wealth from some. That bull and the alleged association with alleged witches as their alleged so-called familiars led to mass exterminations of the animals, probably to the detriment of society due to the increase in the populations of rodents. To this day, in the areas where these superstitions took hold, black cats are less likely to be adopted and they are frequently harassed when spotted outdoors, especially around Halloween. Of course, for all I know that bull is still considered to be absolute truth, just like the existence of demons and demonic possession and all the rest. Nonetheless, if people like G W Bush can have their reputations rehabilitated, then I don't see why black cats can't as well.

FWIW, as we shall see momentarily, even if they hung with witches, that should be acceptable to all, like the witches themselves and witchery, paganism and all that, even by the Papal States itself.

10/27 is also International Religious Freedom Day in the US. This is all about celebrating the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) signed into law by good ol' William jefferson Clinton. The US Government fact sheet says that IRFA was enacted to elevate religious freedom as a higher priority in U.S. foreign policy.. It further tells us that:

IRFA is centered on promoting religious freedom as recognized in international law. This means the right to believe or not believe as one’s conscience leads, and live out one’s beliefs openly, peacefully, and without fear.

It may be all that but that is not remotely all that it is. The US, among several other nations, spawns numerous religious fanatics who believe that it is their holy mission to go spread the doctrine they believe in come hell of high water, so to speak. It is not their beliefs that get them in trouble, but their actions. They take courses of action, sometimes (often?) starting with illegal entry to some foreign nation or zone and then proceed to take one or more illegal steps to indulge in proselytization of the locals. Upon getting arrested, they whine to any US embassy or counsel they can access and cause international hassles over the matter. It is to try to sell the idea that these types should be welcomed with open arms even when they knowingly and intentionally violate one or more local laws that the bill was written, but it is without teeth.

For example, India forbids travel to or contact with the residents of North Sentinel Island in the Andaman archipelago. The residents have a long well established history of driving off outsiders with bows an arrows. Nonetheless a US Evangelical Christian Missionary who had graduated from Oral Roberts U was absolutely determined to sell the Sentinelese people his faith and went to great lengths to get there and do so. He got close enough to try to communicate, sung, chanted, spoke xhosa and showed off his bible (which collected an arrow) He made multiple attempts to get ashore and when he did the locals filled him with arrows and buried him in the sand. The then US president, Donald J Trump never spoke of the celebrated International Religiou Freedom Act or even, afaik, communicated with the governments of India or the Andaman Islands. The simple truth is that foreign countries get to decide what is done and by whom upon their own soil, not the US unless the US is willing to invade them.

So, History

On this day in 1922 the people of Rhodesia, by referendum, chose not to become part of South Africa. This is one of the rare instances when a decision made by referendum, sometimes called a plebescite, was implemented and given effect and that effect was widely recognized and accepted.

On this day in 1948, the Donora Smog aka Donora Death Fog began. An atmospheric temperature inversion trapped hydrogen fluoride, sulfur dioxide and other toxic gas emissions from a couple of US Steel's plants down around ground level causing 30 people and giving 6,000 more respiratory problems. Lonf afterwards, death rates in Donora, PA were significantly higher than they were in other nearby communities.

On this date in 2014 British troops withdrew from Afghanistan, though some sources say some stayed through 2021. This was not something new for them, they seem to have a thing for attacking Afghanistan. They invaded Afghanistan in 1839 in order to effect regime change, which they did, temporarily. This First Anglo-Afghan War lasted until 1942 and featured the notorious "retreat from Kabul" where they lost almost 100% of the 4,500 troops and 12,000 camp followers attempting said retreat. The Brits invaded again in 1878, starting the Second Anglo-Afghan War which ended in 1880. It ended with Britain gaining control over Afghanistan's foreign affairs and installing a British puppet as emir. The Third Anglo-Afghan War started iand ended n 1919 when the son of the assassinated emir took over and declared Afghanistan's independence from British influence. The Brits finally gave up on trying to control and run Afghanistan from afar and recognized Afghanistan's independence in foreign affairs. Later, they tagged along after Uncle Sam in the US' failed effort to create a puppet state in Afghanistan in 2001. They should have been satisfied with India and left Afghanistan alone. Rudyard Kipling knew that and said in The Young British Soldier:

```
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
```

On this day in history:

312 – Constantine the Great allegedly hallucinated or dreamed of a Cross of some sort.

1441 - Margery Jourdemayne was executed for "false belief and witchcraft"

1553 – The heretic Michael Servetus was burned at the stake just outside Geneva.

1682 – Philadelphia was founded in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, cheesesteak came later.

1775 – King George III expounded on his Proclamation of Rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies

1795 – The US and Spain signed the Treaty of Madrid setting the boundaries between Spain's colonies and the U.S.

1810 – The US annexed the former Spanish colony of West Florida. That was quick

1838 – Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issued the Extermination Order ordering all Mormons to leave the state or be killed. This predates the IRFA, however

1914 – The new British battleship HMS Audacious was sunk by a minefield

1922 – A referendum in Rhodesia rejected the country's annexation to the South African Union.

1924 – The Uzbek SSR was founded in the Soviet Union.

1930 –The first London Naval Treaty went into effect immediately

1948 – Ecological disaster in Donora, Pennsylvania.

1962 – Major Rudolf Anderson's U-2 was shot down over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis killing him

1971 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo was renamed Zaire.

1986 – The British government suddenly deregulated financial markets

1992 – US Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. was murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay

1994 – Gliese 229B was the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified.

1997 – The 1997 Asian financial crisis caused a crash in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

2014 – Britain withdrew from Afghanistan after 12 years four months and seven days.

2017 – Catalonia declared independence from Spain.

Some people who were born on this day:

If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn't have a job if he was any smarter.

~~ John Gotti

1561 – Mary Sidney, writer, poet, patroness and translator
1744 – Mary Moser, painter and academic
1782 – Niccolò Paganini, violinist and composer
1844 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, journalist and politician
1877 – Walt Kuhn, painter and academic
1885 – Sigrid Hjertén, painter
1906 – Peter Blume, painter and sculptor
1908 – Lee Krasner, painter
1910 – Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau, chemical engineer
1913 – Joe Medicine Crow, anthropologist, historian, and author
1914 – Dylan Thomas, poet and playwright
1922 – Ruby Dee, actress and poet
1924 – Bonnie Lou, singer and songwriter
1926 – Boris Chetkov, painter
1926 – Henri Fertet, Resistance fighter
1928 – Gilles Vigneault, singer, songwriter, and poet
1930 – Leo Baxendale, cartoonist
1932 – Sylvia Plath, poet, novelist, and short story writer
1933 – Floyd Cramer, singer and pianist
1935 – Charlie Tagawa, banjo player and educator
1936 – Neil Sheehan, journalist and author
1939 – Dallas Frazier, country music singer and songwriter
1940 – John Gotti, businessman
1942 – Lee Greenwood, singer and songwriter
1944 – J. A. Jance, author and poet
1945 – Arild Andersen, bassist and composer
1945 – Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, union leader and politician
1947 – Terry A. Anderson, journalist
1948 – Kevin Borich, guitarist and songwriter
1949 – Garry Tallent, bass player and record producer
1950 – Fran Lebowitz, author
1950 – A. N. Wilson, journalist, historian, and author
1951 – K. K. Downing,guitarist and songwriter
1951 – Carlos Frenk, physicist, cosmologist, and academic
1952 – Topi Sorsakoski, singer and songwriter
1954 – Mike Kelley, artist and musician
1956 – Babis Tsertos, singer, songwriter. and bouzouki player
1958 – David Hazeltine, pianist and composer
1958 – Simon Le Bon, singer and songwriter
1958 – Jonathan Shapiro, political cartoonist who uses the pseudonym Zapiro
1958 – Felix Wurman, cellist and composer
1967 – Scott Weiland, singer and songwriter
1969 – Marek Napiórkowski, jazz guitarist and composer
1970 – Karl Backman, guitarist and songwriter
1970 – Adrian Erlandsson, drummer
1972 – Elissa, singer
1980 – Tanel Padar, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1980 – Henriett Seth F., autistic savant artist and author
1981 – Salem Al Fakir, singer and keyboard player
1987 – Thelma Aoyama, singer
1997 – James TW, singer and songwriter
1999 – Haruka Kudo, singer and actress

Some people who died on this day:

To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man.

~~ Michael Servetus

D1331 – Abulfeda, historian and geographer
1441 – Margery Jourdemayne, executed for treasonable witchcraft
1449 – Ulugh Beg, astronomer, mathematician and sultan
1485 – Rodolphus Agricola, philosopher, poet and educator
1553 – Michael Servetus, Heretical physician and theologian burned at the stake
1675 – Gilles de Roberval, mathematician and academic
1929 – Théodore Tuffier, surgeon
1930 – Ellen Hayes, mathematician and astronomer
1942 – Helmuth Hübener, anti NAZI activist
1944 – Judith Auer, World War II resistance fighter
1968 – Lise Meitner, physicist and academic
1974 – C. P. Ramanujam, mathematician and academic
1975 – Rex Stout, detective novelist
1977 – James M. Cain, journalist and author
1980 – John Hasbrouck Van Vleck, physicist and mathematician
1990 – Xavier Cugat, violinist, bandleader, and actor
1992 – David Bohm, physicist and philosopher
1999 – Robert Mills, physicist and academic
2000 – Walter Berry, lyric bass-baritone
2002 – Tom Dowd, record producer and engineer
2003 – Stephanie Tyrell, songwriter and producer
2004 – Lester Lanin, bandleader
2008 – Ray Ellis, conductor and producer
2008 – Frank Nagai, singer
2009 – Taylor Mitchell, singer and songwriter killed by coyotes
2012 – Terry Callier, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
2013 – Lou Reed, singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

International Religious Freedom Day (United States)
National Potato Day (US)
National Parmigiano Reggiano Day (US)

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

Today's Tunes

Black Cat Day

Bonnie Lou

Gilles Vigneault

Floyd Cramer

Dallas Frazier

Kevin Borich

Garry Tallent

David Hazeltine

Simon Le Bon

NB - see Rick Beato [ https://youtu.be/8YYUhp4ZmqI ], really

Felix Wurman

Scott Weiland

Marek Napiórkowski

Elissa

Xavier Cugat

Tom Dowd

Lester Lanin

Ray Ellis

Taylor Mitchell

Terry Callier

Lou Reed

XTRA Lou Reed

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Open Thread, Black Cat Day, IRFA, Rhodesia, Donora, Afghanistan, Floyd Cramer, Dallas Frazier, Xavier Cugat, Lou Reed