05/15 - International Conscientious Objectors Day

Heh, it's so funny to see that there's an International Conscientious Objectors Day. While looking for public domain photos to use I even discovered a couple of monuments to C.O.s and one in particular to "The Right Not To Kill" or similar verbiage. I'm willing to wager that those countries with conscription in place, especially if they are engaged in armed conflicts, are less than enthusiastic about this holiday. I recall that the US, while feeling forced to allow C.O.s by the "freedom of religion" clause in the Bill of Rights did its best to make it as difficult as possible for anybody to qualify. For example, the refusal to kill had to be based on a religious teaching and religions had to involve a belief in god, disqualifying Buddhists, let alone anybody simply relying upon "ethics" or "Morals". It wasn't until the very late sixties or early seventies that the courts ruled that Buddhism was too a religion within the meaning of the law. With both parties being gung-ho for a war with China by 2027, we should soon see how they feel about such things now.

It's also the birthday of Madeleine Albright former secretary of War, Mayhem and Regime Change, aka Secretary of State whose famous motto was:

"If we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future...."

Riiiiiiiiight.

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On this day in history:

1252 -- Pope Innocent IV authorized the torture of heretics. Ironic name, I think

1618 -- Johannes Kepler confirmed third law of planetary motion

1648 -- The Treaty of Westphalia was executed

1793 -- Diego Marin Aguilera flew a glider for about 360 meters

1811 -- Paraguay declared its independence

1836 -- Francis Baily saw "Baily's beads"

1850 -- The Bloody Island massacre of Pomo Indians by the US Cavalry.

1869 -- Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association.

1905 -- Las Vegas was founded

1911 -- The Supremes declared Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly and ordered it broken up

1940 -- The first McDonald's opened in San Berdoo

1941 -- The first flight of the first British jet aircraft.

1942 -- The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was created

1943 -- Joseph Stalin dissolved the Comintern

1948 -- The officially recognized start of the 1948 Arab - Israeli War.

1957 -- Britain tested its first H-Bomb.

1958 -- Sputnik 3.

1960 -- Sputnik 4.

1963 -- The launch of the final Mercury mission

1969 -- People's Park's Bloody Thursday, the cops murdered James Rector & wounded many others with 00 buckshot.

1970 -- Nixon named Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female US Army generals

1970 -- Cops murdered Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green & wounded 12 others at Jackson State

1972 -- Arthur Bremer shot and paralyzed Alabama Governor George Wallace during his Presidential Campaign

1974 -- The Ma'alot massacre by the DFLP

1988 -- The Soviet army began withdrawing from Afghanistan, handing it over to various US supported terrorist groups

1991 -- Edith Cresson became the first female premier of France

1997 -- The US acknowledged the existence of the Secret War in Laos

2008 -- California legalized same-sex marriage

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Some people who were born on this day:

A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke - and that the joke is oneself

~~ Clifton Fadiman 1567 -- Claudio Monteverdi, musician, singer, composer & priest 1689 -- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, playwright and author 1759 -- Maria Theresia von Paradis, pianist and composer 1856 -- L. Frank Baum, novelist 1857 -- Williamina Fleming, astronomer 1859 -- Pierre Curie, physicist 1890 -- Katherine Anne Porter, writer 1898 -- Arletty, 1900 -- Ida Rhodes, mathematician and programmer 1903 -- Maria Reiche, mathematician & archaaeologist instrumental in preserving the Nazca Lines 1904 -- Clifton Fadiman, author, editor, critic, radio and TV personality 1905 -- Abraham Zapruder, shot the Zapruder film 1915 -- Paul Samuelson, economist 1918 -- Eddy Arnold, singer, guitarist, actor and songwriter 1923 -- Richard Avedon, photographer 1935 -- Utah Phillips, singer, poet, songwriter, storyteller and guitarist 1936 -- Anna Maria Alberghetti, singer and actor 1937 -- Madeleine Albright, deluded politician, proponent of starvation sanctions, etc. 1937 -- Karin Krog, singer 1937 -- Trini Lopez, singer and actor 1938 -- Nancy Garden, author, wrote Annie on my Mnd 1942 -- Lois Johnson, country-western singer 1942 -- K. T. Oslin, ditto 1943 -- Freddie Perren, songwriter, producer, arranger, etc. (I will Survive) 1948 -- Brian Eno, singer, songwriter, keyboardist, producer 1953 -- Mike Oldfield, guitarist, singer and songwriter 1955 -- Lia Vissi, Cypriot singer, composer, and songwriter 1974 – Ahmet Zappa, musician and writer 1989 – Susan Soonkyu Lee, singer and entertainer 1990 – Lee Jong-hyun, guitarist

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Some people who died on this day:

chaos: it has no plural.

ALSO

I discovered very quickly that criticism is a form of optimism, and that when you are silent about the shortcomings of your society, you're very pessimistic about that society. And it's only when you speak truthfully about it that you show your faith in that society.

~~ Carlos Fuentes

1461 -- Domenico Veneziano, painter 1886 -- Emily Dickinson, poet 1974 -- Paul Gonsalves, saxophonist 1989 -- Johnny Green, songwriter, composer, conductor, pianist, and arranger. "Body & soul" 2003 -- June Carter Cash, guitarist, singer and songwriter 2007 -- Jerry Falwell, prominent christofascist bigot and hatemonger 2008 – Will Elder, illustrator and cartoonist 2012 – Carlos Fuentes, novelist and essayist

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

International Conscientious Objectors Day

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Today's Tunes

Claudio Monteverdi

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