This Day in History
July 23rd
1572 – William, Prince of Orange occupies city or Roermond. Religious upheaval and resentment grew over Spanish rule in Holland. William of Orange became leader of a rebel army that fought against Spain. They aligned themselves with the French Huguenots, a movement that grew out of the Reformation and then embraced Calvinism. The rebellion turned into an 80-year religious war. William lost control of his troops in Roermond where they went on a rampage killing priests and nuns and made him an outlaw to the Catholic Church.
I seldom agree with the Catholic Church but this time I just might, although the Catholic Church itself was pretty good about killing for religion.
1922 – Belgian Firmin Lambot wins 16th Tour de France. He was behind by as much as an hour at one point. The leader had mechanical difficulties and switched bikes, which was against the rules at the time. He was penalized an hour in time which gave the victory to Lambot. (In today’s Tour a minute is a near insurmountable lead.) There were no team cars following back then and riders had to do their own repairs, sometimes carrying their bikes for miles to reach a town and tools.
All sports have evolved to a point of near perfection that somehow diminishes them. I think they all could use some tinkering to improve the product. I’ll spare you my thoughts on baseball, football and basketball and focus instead of professional bike racing. Eliminate doping of course which I’m not convinced they really want to do. I’d put restrictions on the team cars, how close they can be and how often they can interact with the riders. Get rid of the headsets and constant communication and let the riders make their own decision. The old “less is more” axiom.
1948 – Henry Wallace nominated by the Progressive Party to run for President. He had been FDR’s Vice President from 1940-44 before being replaced by Harry Truman. Ridiculed as a hayseed and a mystic, he received only 2.4% of the vote. Nevertheless he had some interesting ideas and things to say. From senate.gov: “Wallace envisioned a postwar era governed by an international peacekeeping force and an international court, rather than through balance-of-power politics. His plan also called for an end to European imperialism in Asia and Africa. In an address to the Free World Association on May 8, 1942, Wallace outlined his "Century of the Common Man," in which he endorsed federal support for education and collective health care for workers. More than the New Deal inspired Henry Wallace. Christian morality and the social gospel formed the fundamental inspiration behind his speeches. As a product of Protestant liberalism, he adhered to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount and saw himself as bound to accomplish the work of the Lord.” He championed both health care and God, not sure where that would land him in today’s political climate.)
From thomhartmann.com: Wallace once stated: “The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.”
Anything here sound familiar?
Birthdays:
1865 – Max Heindel. Born in Denmark, raised in impoverish nobility, educated as an engineer in Glasgow, Scotland, worked on the Cunard passenger line, settled in America and became a Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic. (Pretty much the usual path through life.) Heindel developed the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, which metaphysically tried to answer three questions. Whence have we come? Why are we here? Whither are we going?
From Heinkel’s writings:
“No man loves God who hates his kind,
Who tramples on his brother's heart and soul;
Who seeks to shackle, cloud, or fog the mind
By fears of hell has not perceived our goal.”
I can go with that.
1892 – Haile Selassie. 225th, and last, emperor of Ethiopia. While in power he fought against the invading Fascist Italian army of Mussolini, and later built schools, tried to establish an equitable tax system, and with limited success fought the existing feudalism. He ruled from 1930 until 1974 when a Marxist coup ousted him from power. Under arrest, he died in 1975, probably not from natural causes. Selassie was also the messiah of the Rastafari movement, some called him the Black Christ. Ras Tafari was Selassie’s birth name and in Jamaica his followers, Bob Marley among them, believed he would lead them out of poverty into a world of peace and prosperity.
Bob Marley and Haile Selassie, that’s quite a pairing.
1936 – Anthony Kennedy. Nominated by Ronald Reagan, Justice Kennedy was often the swing vote on the Supreme Court.
Maybe if there were more like him I’d be less cynical about the court. I see it as just another politically biased branch of our government. I’m sure a legal precedent can always be found to support one’s political beliefs. And given the Court’s decision to grant a president immunity I would even say it is a corrupt body.
Sources:
wikipedia.org
www.senate.gov
time-to-choose.blogspot.com
onthisday.com