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Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.

History, Holidays & Observances on December 5

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A look at some of the history and holidays on December 5

Holidays & Observances on December 5

Feast of St. Crispina, an African noble woman and mother who adopted Christianity and was executed in 304 A.D. for refusing to make offerings to the Roman gods during the Diocletian Persecutions.  St. Augustine of Hippo, a contemporary of Crispina, mentioned her prominently thereafter in many of his sermons, stating in his Sermon on Psalm 120:

The persecutors turned their rage against Crispina, whose birthday we celebrate today. They unleashed their savagery against a rich woman delicately nurtured; but she was strong, because the Lord was for her a better defense than the hand of her right hand, and He was guarding her. Is there anyone in Africa who does not know about these events, brothers and sisters? Scarcely, for she was extremely famous, of noble stock and very wealthy.

Feast of St. Nicetius a 6th century Bishop of Trier.  He was appointed to the post in the chaotic time at the end of the period known as the Migrations in Europe (see map below), where waves of peoples from the East inundated and invaded the Western Roman Empire, ending ultimately in its fall.  Trier had suffered significantly during the Migration and Nicetius set about to rebuild both the Cathedral and the morality of the people.  A zealous and principled man, he publicly condemned immorality wherever he saw it, including in the acts of King, Clothar I, whom Nicetius disregarding threats, excommunicated for his misdeeds.  As Bishop, Nicetius was involved in Church governance and the development of doctrine, taking part in several Synods of the Church, including the Synod of Tool where he presided.  Several of his letters and works are still extant today.

Major Events on December 5

1484 – The Witch Hunts

In the first thirteen centuries of Christianity, charges of witchcraft were dealt with by excommunication until the “witch” or “sorcerer” repented.  That changed late in the 15th century, and it became bloody and barbaric during the period of the Religious Wars following the Reformation.

On this date in 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued the Summis Desiderantes Affectibus, a papal bull stating that:

Many persons of both sexes, unmindful of their own salvation and straying from the Catholic Faith, have abandoned themselves to devils, incubi and succubi, and by their incantations, spells, conjurations, and other accursed charms and crafts, enormities and horrid offences, have slain infants yet in the mother’s womb, as also the offspring of cattle, have blasted the produce of the earth, the grapes of the vine, the fruits of the trees, nay, men and women, beasts of burthen, herd-beasts, as well as animals of other kinds, vineyards, orchards, meadows, pasture-land, corn, wheat, and all other cereals; these wretches furthermore afflict and torment men and women, beasts of burthen, herd-beasts, as well as animals of other kinds, with terrible and piteous pains and sore diseases, both internal and external; they hinder men from performing the sexual act and women from conceiving, …they blasphemously renounce that Faith which is theirs by the Sacrament of Baptism, and at the instigation of the Enemy of Mankind they do not shrink from committing and perpetrating the foulest abominations and filthiest excesses to the deadly peril of their own souls, . . . the abominations and enormities in question remain unpunished not without open danger to the souls of many and peril of eternal damnation.

Further in the bull, the Pope deputized  Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger as inquisitors to root out witchcraft.  It does not seem likely that the Pope realized the hell he had just unleashed on the Christian world.  Three years later, Kramer published a manual for witch hunters, the Maleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) in which Kramer, probably demented and evidence suggests, a sexual deviant, sensationalized witchcraft as a worse crime than heresy – for which the penalty was death by fire – and displayed a palpable animus against women.  Kramer recommended torture to obtain confessions and the death penalty as the only sure remedy for witchcraft.

The Church leaders of Cologne condemned the book for being unethical and recommending illegal procedures.  Three years after it was released, the Papacy likewise condemned it and it was never made a part of the Church’s inquisitorial process.  But this was a time when the printing press had just been invented.  The best selling book for the next two centuries would be the Bible, the second best would be the Maleus Maleficarum.  It was a manual used by secular courts as the witch craze took hold, and seemingly influential in the Protestant world as well, where the leader of the Anglican Church, King James I, published his own book on Demonology.

For the three centuries succeeding Pope Innocent VIII’s papal bull, the witch craze ran wild throughout Europe.  “Modern scholarly estimates place the total number of executions for witchcraft in the 300-year period of European witch-hunts in the five digits, mostly at roughly between 40,000 and 60,00, but some estimate there were 200,000 to 500,000 executed for witchcraft, and others estimated 1,000,000 or more.”  And of course we in America had our own witch trials, with the Salem Witch Trial being among the last and clearly most famous.

While execution for witchcraft died out with the Enlightenment, Islam is still mired in medieval aspects of its religion, and one still finds people being executed in Muslim countries of the Middle East for practicing witchcraft.

1775 December 5 – American Revolution: Henry Knox and the noble train of artillery.

Soon after the first shots of the Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord, Benedict Arnold had suggested an attack to capture Fort Ticonderoga, strategically located on Lake Champlain.  On May 9, 1775, Arnold and Ethan Allen surprised the British soldiers garrisoning the Fort and captured it with few shots fired. Inside the fort were numerous cannon and mortars.

After the battle of Bunker Hill (fought on Breed’s Hill), the New England militia forces, later designated the Continental Army, had British forces under General Howe significantly outnumbered and trapped in Boston.  But the colonists outside of Boston had their own problem.  They had no cannon with which to force the siege.  Henry Knox, then 25 yr. and recently commissioned as a Colonel, suggested to General Washington that Congress fund an expedition for Knox to travel to Ticonderoga and bring back the cannon stored there.  It was a distance of over 200 miles away through heavily wooded and difficult terrain.  Washington concurred.

Knox departed Cambridge on November 17, and arrived at Fort Ticonderoga on this date in 1775 with men to build transport for the cannon and oxen to haul them over the frozen terrain and across frozen lakes,  Knox prepared to transport 59 artillery pieces weighing 60 tons in what became known as the noble train of artillery.    It was an incredible feat of organization.  By the end of January, he had arrived in Cambridge with the artillery in tow.  The British days in Boston were numbered.

Notable Events on December 5

63 BC – Cicero, a Roman lawyer and politician famous as an orator, gave on this date the fourth and final of the Catiline Orations, his most famous speeches given to raise alarm about an incipient plot to overthrow the Roman government.

633 – Fourth Council of Toledo, under the leadership of the Bishop of Seville, Isidore, the “last scholar of the ancient world,” regulated many matters of discipline and decreed uniformity of liturgy throughout the kingdom.

1408 – Emir Edigu led the Golden Horde into Moscow to force the duke to admit Mongol supremacy and submit to taxes as a conquered people. It was the last triumph for the Golden Horde, a remnant of one of the largest continuous empires the world has ever seen.

1492 – Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue . . . and on this date, becomes the first European to set foot on the island where he established the colony of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

1848 – In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.  The California Gold Rush was already in full swing.

Born on December 5

1830 – Christina Rossetti, the most popular female English poet of the second half of the 19th century, wrote verse and children’s rhymes.  Her most famous poem was Goblin Market, and two of her poems were put to music.  They are today popular Christmas carols, In the Bleak Midwinter and Love Came Down at Christmas.

1839 – George Armstrong Custer, a gifted and aggressive cavalry commander who became the youngest general in the U.S. Army at 23.  His most famous exploit took place at a critical moment during the Battle of Gettysburg when, outnumbered, he defeated J. E. B. Stuart‘s cavalry as they tried to maneuver onto the flank of the Union Army.   Custer’s worst defeat would be the equal in infamy, his loss at Little Big Horn during the Indian Wars.

Died on December 5

1784 – Phillis Wheatley, became, in 1773, the first black woman to publish a book of poetry in the colonies.  She was a slave in Boston at the time.  Her owners gave her an education and, when they saw her skill, encouraged her to write.  She tragically passed away at 31.

1791 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a famous composer of classical music who, before he died at age 35, had composed over 600 works.  The video below is of Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, one of his last works composed in 1791.

 

1870 – Alexandre Dumas, French playwright and author of several famous works, including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.  He died at 40.

1926 – Claude Monet, French painter who created and defined the French Impressionist style in 1872 with his painting, Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant),

Christmas Music:

 

Jewish composer Irving Berlin wrote the song White Christmas in 1940.  Bing Crosby’s 1942 recording of the song is the word’s best selling single, selling over 50 million copies.

Toyland is a song drawn from the 1903 operetta, Babes In Toyland.

 

 

 

Lstly, Amy Grant’s Christmas music:

 

Bookworm Beat 12/4/19 — Trump, Schiff’s Schpy-gate, and more

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I’ve got everything here: Schiffty’s Schpy-gate, Kamala Harris, Fascist Leftism, Churchill’s genius, Iran, Trump’s genius, and a perfidious Smithsonian.

Bookworm Beat Obama Brennan double standards insane leftists impeachmentPhew! I promised to have something up by 10:00 my time and, despite 8,762 interruptions (or thereabouts), I’m going to make it. I’ve got so much interesting stuff to share with you:

Kamala Harris drops like a stone. I’ve heard lots of theories about why Kamala is gone. Conservatives point out that she was done in by Tulsi pointing out the obvious, which is that even as the Left hates police, Kamala was locking up criminals — and doing so corruptly too in some cases.

The Left claims that Kamala is out because of racism and sexism — which is really funny because it’s Democrat voters who dumped her.

As far as I’m concerned, though, no one is admitting the real problem, which is that Kamala is as dumb as a rock. You see that in the fact that every time she’s attacked, she has no response. She can attack others, because her handlers, notably Willie Brown, prep her for offensive attacks. But when she’s on the receiving end of anything, that little brain just shuts down.

All I can say is “Thank God she’s gone.”

Schiff’s Schpy-gate. Were you surprised to learn that Adam Schiff obtained phone records for his fellow House member Devin Nunes, as well as for Nunes’ Aide, Rudy Giuliani, who is Trump’s personal attorney, and one-time Hill journalist John Solomon?

I wasn’t surprised at all: There is no difference whatsoever between today’s Democrats and classic fascism. (Not Hitlerian fascism, but classic fascism. There’s a difference, as I will explain.)

Remember that classic fascism is a totalitarian state that has ultimate power over everything. This is different from communism, in which the state has ultimate ownership over everything. The only reason fascism got the bad smell it has now is because Hitler allied it with a lust for world domination and a genocidal hatred for Jews. [Read more…]

History, Holidays & Observances on December 4

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A look at some of the history and holidays on December 4

Holidays & Observances on December 4

Feast of Giovanni Calabria, a 20th century Catholic Priest who dedicated his life to easing the plight of the poor and ill.  He establshed several religious institutions, corresponded in Latin with C.S. Lewis, and during WWII, helped to hide a female Jewish Doctor from the Nazi’s in a nunnery which he oversaw.

 

Major Events on December 4

1563 – Reformation & Counter Reformation:  The Council of Trent

The Church, aware of its problems of corruption, had addressed some of the issues in the 1517 Fifth Council of the Lateran, but it was too little, too late.  On 31 October 1517, the Catholic Priest, Martin Luther, famously nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, setting in motion the chain of events that led to the Protestant Reformation.  Many of Luther’s criticisms of corruption within the Church were valid, with one of the most visible being the sale of indulgences by Pope Leo X to fund the renovation of St. Peter’s Basilica.  Indulgences were a grant of dispensation from divine punishments, often for certain good acts, but increasingly during the Middle Ages, indulgences were sold to bring wealth to the Church.  As one cynic of the era put it, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”

The Protestant movement quickly gained momentum and the support of various nobles throughout Europe.  Pope Paul III convened the Council of Trent in 1545, ostensibly to heal the breach between the growing body of Protestant reformers and the Catholic Church.  The Council would meet 25 times, with the last meeting occurring on this date in 1563.  When it was clear that the breach between Catholics and Protestants would not be healed, the Council became “the embodiment of the Counter Reformation.”   The council ended with a condemnation of Protestant heresies and a clarification of Catholic dogma.  Further, the Council addressed many of the issues of corruption raised by Luther and instituted other reforms.  Ultimately, the Council rejected Matin Luther’s central thesis, that faith alone decided one’s fate, while the Catholic Church clarified its position that both faith and good works were necessary for salvation.  Both the Reformation and the Counter Reformation would significantly impact the course of European history in the 16th through the 18th century, and we are still very much living with its reverberations today.

[Read more…]

Like a billboard of old, I promise “watch this space” for something good

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I’ve spent the past month with family and clients, none of whom I could turn down when they asked for my help and time, but I will blog tomorrow. I promise!

Watch this spaceI owe everyone who comes here an apology for my minimalist posting of late. The fact is that family matters swamped me in November and lately, by the end of each day, I’ve had the choice of posting or sleeping — and I chose sleeping every time.

Beginning in early November, I spent eight days helping out a relative who unexpectedly found herself entirely alone after a major surgery when her original caregiver bailed. I was very glad to help, but it was tiring. I am not, by nature, a caregiver, so it seems to take a little more out of me than for those people who so effortlessly manage to fulfill other’s needs.

Also, the trips there and back were exhausting. On my outgoing trip, after traveling by air for 13 hours (including two layovers that, because of delays, saw me twice racing from the far end of one terminal to the far end of another to catch connecting flights), I had another four hours of driving to do that same day . . . in a strange car that I’d never driven before.

The homeward bound trip was less tiring — only 13 hours of air travel without the 4 hour drive — but I was reminded that my spring chicken days are long behind me. I was exhausted when I got home and simply couldn’t get back on my feet again. [Read more…]

History, Holidays & Observances on December 3

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A look at some of the history and holidays on December 3

Holidays & Observances on December 3

The feast of St. Francis Xavier, one of history’s most successful Catholic missionaries and, in 1534, one of the co-founders of the Jesuit Order.  Before joining the clergy, Xavier was a student at the Univ. of Paris.  He roomed with the primary founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola, who convinced him to take up life in the Church, famously asking of Xavier, “What will it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”  As a Jesuit missionary, Xavier spent most of his adult life evangelizing in India, Malaysia and Japan, putting into practice his belief that a missionary must adapt to the customs and language of the people he evangelizes.  Moreover, he advocated growing the Church in areas he evangelized by developing an educated native clergy.  He is the patron saint of missionaries.

Major Events on December 3

1771: Somerset’s Case

This was the first major landmark legal victory in the 18th century abolition movement to end chattel slavery.

Charles Stewart purchased a black man, James Somerset, as a slave while he was in Boston.  When Stewart returned to England, Somerset escaped.  Somerset was taken in by abolitionists and converted to Christianity before Stewart found him.  Stewart found Somerset and imprisoned him aboard a ship that would soon be bound for Jamaica.  Stewart instructed the ship’s captain to sell Somerset there as a slave.  Three people, in their capacity as Somerset’s godparents from his baptism as a Christian in England, and with the financial backing of the abolitionist, Granville Sharp, made an application on this date in 1771 before the Court of King’s Bench for a writ of habeas corpus, meaning that the ship’s captain had to bring Somerset before the Court and determine whether Somerset was lawfully a slave.

Granville Sharp insured that the case became a cause celebre in the press of the day.  Lord Mansfield, the justice hearing the case, well understood the implications for Britain’s colonial holdings should he declare that slavery was unlawful.  Not wanting to have to issue a judgment, he strongly recommended that the parties come to an agreement, such as buying the freedom of Somerset.  If not, he famously said, then fīat jūstitia ruat cælumet — let justice be done though the heavens fall.

No settlement was reached, and after three hearings over a period of six months, Lord Mansfield issued a judgment.  Chattel slavery can only exist in any geographical place if explicitly sanctioned by the controlling laws.  Parliament had passed no law in Britain that explicitly give one man property rights in another, and the Judge would not assume them from the common law.  Thus Stewart had no right to recapture Somerset and forcibly deport him to be sold.  Mansfield ordered that Somerset be set free.

Mansfield wrote his holding as narrowly as possible, even limiting it only to the mainland of Britain.  Still, it was a first, very public judicial blow against slavery and in support of the nascent abolitionist movement morally opposed to black chattel slavery on both sides of the pond.

[Read more…]

History, Holidays & Observances on December 2

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A look at some of the history and holidays on December 2

Holidays & Observances on December 2

The Feast of St. Bibiana, a virgin martyr of the early Roman Church.  Legend has it that According to this legend, Bibiana was the daughter of a former prefect, Flavianus, who was banished by Julian the Apostate. Dafrosa, the wife of Flavianus, and his two daughters, Demetria and Bibiana, were also persecuted by Julian. Dafrosa and Demetria died a natural death and were buried by Bibiana in their own house; but Bibiana was scourged to death. Two days after her death a priest named John buried Bibiana near her mother and sister in her home, the house. A church in Rome, Santa Bibiana, was built over the house in the 3rd century and exists to this day.

 

Major Events on December 2

1763 – Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island.

The Touro Synagogue was, by a matter of weeks, the first synagogue in colonial America (the second being at the home of the largest Jewish population in the colonies, Charleston, SC).   Colonial America, and then early America, were among the few places that welcomed Jews with open arms.  No one made that more plain then George Washington who, on his 1790 tour of the colonies to lobby for the passage of the Bill of Rights, exchanged letters with the congregation of the Touro Synagogue.  After receiving a laudatory letter on August 17, 1790 from the synagogue’s warden, Moses Seixas, Washington responded with a now famous full throated embrace of religious tolerance:

Gentlemen:

While I received with much satisfaction your address replete with expressions of esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you that I shall always retain grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced on my visit to Newport from all classes of citizens.

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security.

If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people.

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my administration and fervent wishes for my felicity.

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.

May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.

G. Washington

[Read more…]

History, Holidays & Observances -November 30

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A look at some of the history and holidays on November 30

Holidays & Observances on November 30

Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, who lived with Jesus Christ, then after a long life of evangelizing, died a martyr on a St. Andrew’s cross in 60 A.D., during the reign of Nero.  Andrew was a fisherman and a follower of John the Baptist when he first encountered Jesus Christ.  Andrew introduced Jesus to his brother, Peter, and the two became among the first four of Christ’s apostles.

In the gospels, Andrew is referred to as being present on some important occasions as one of the disciples more closely attached to Jesus. Andrew told Jesus about the boy with the loaves and fishes (John 6:8), and when Philip wanted to tell Jesus about certain Greeks seeking Him, he told Andrew first (John 12:20–22). Andrew was present at the Last Supper. Andrew was one of the four disciples who came to Jesus on the Mount of Olives to ask about the signs of Jesus’ return at the “end of the age”

Andrew was martyred in 62 A.D., crucified for his faith on a cross in the shape of an “X” — a shape which is now known as the “St. Andrew’s Cross.”  St. Andrew has been associated with many places and patronages, but perhaps most famously he is associated in legends with Scotland, where he is the patron saint, and where the St. Andrew’s Cross flies on the flag of Scotland.

Day to Mark the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Countries and Iran — As May, 1948 approached and, with it, the birth of Israel, many Arab Palestinians — the same one’s now demanding a “right of return” — voluntarily left the borders of the nation soon to be Israel.  Jews throughout the Middle East in the Arab countries and Iran were not given a choice to remain in their homelands.  These Mizrahi Jews were expelled from their homes, with many coming involuntarily to settle in Israel.  Since 2014, today is a day set aside in Israel in their honor.

Major Events on November 30

1782 – American Revolutionary War: Peace Negotiations

With the cessation of major operations in the colonies (skirmishes in SC were still ongoing), the war’s conflict turned in April, 1782, from the battlefields in America to the negotiating table in France.   Britain’s major goal in the negotiation was to drive a wedge in between France and America so that it would not be facing a long term threat from a Franco-American alliance.  That meant returning the American colonies to close trading partners almost as soon as the war concluded.  France, for its part, expected to be included in the negotiations with Britain and America so that they could, to the maximum extent possible, shape the peace to their benefit.  They wanted the payoff for their assistance to be a peace that punished Britain.

Fortunately for America, Ben Franklin was the man in charge on the American side of the aisle, and he was in his element, He was later joined by lawyer John Jay, the acerbic John Adams, and from SC, Henry Laurens, all extremely intelligent men who worked well together, though not harmoniously.  Their first act was to ignore the French and cut them out of the talks.  They opened direct negotiations with Britain, making demands that were highly favorable to America.  And surprisingly, the British were quite willing to accede to those demands — and more, so long as American loyalists were protected.

The French, who had gone broke supporting the Revolution with $100 million in aid, and who lent their own military and naval might to the effort, were, to put it mildly, outraged.  Franklin turned his attention to mollifying the French while the British negotiations were ongoing.  Franklin, probably the most skilled and canny diplomat alive at the time, returned to his unsophisticated man from the wilderness of America persona that he used repeatedly over the years in France.  His  excuse to the French government was, we are poor simple Americans who do not understand how to handle diplomacy properly, so please excuse our faux pas.  He then added, utterly shamelessly, the British clearly want to divide America from France.  Please do not be angered and give them that satisfaction.  Amazingly enough, that worked at least well enough to buy French patience and a measure of acquiescence for enough time to complete negotiations with Britain.

On this date, in 1782, Britain and America signed their own preliminary peace agreement and sent the treaty to their respective governments to be debated and ratified.  In terms of land, borders, fishing rights, and independence, America received all for which it asked.  And indeed, within three short years after peace was concluded, trade with Britain had returned to pre-war levels and only grew from there.  So Britain achieved what it wanted as well from the peace.

On a final note, the painter Benjamin West was commissioned to memorialize the signing of the peace agreement.  But one of the two British negotiators refused to sit for the painting.  It was left unfinished.

[Read more…]

South Carolina and a lack of racial animosity

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South Carolina racial animosity We arrived in Charleston, South Carolina a few hours ago with my Little Bookworm, who is visiting from college. Like me, she is a garrulous soul who enjoys talking to people and learning about them. So far, she’s talked to a little girl who petted our dog, a desk clerk, a food preparer at a barbecue place, a gas station cashier, and three grocery store clerks. All are black.

Sad my daughter, who has lived her whole life in Progressive enclaves, “This is the first time I’ve ever talked to black people without being afraid of them. The people I’ve spoken to are really nice and they even spoke with me instead of looking at me like I’m a bad smell or like they’ll hurt me.”

That statement is both a lovely compliment to the people of South Carolina and a sad indictment of the state of race relations wherever Democrats hold sway.

History, Holidays & Observances – November 29

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A look at some of the history and holidays on November 29

Holidays & Observances on November 29

Feast of Father Cuthbert Mayne – one of the Forty Martys of England and Wales, he was the first seminary trained priest to be executed for practicing his faith in Elizabethan England.  He was an English citizen who attended seminary school on the continent.  British hatred of all things popish was at its zenith in England when Father Curthebert, in response to the English reformation, travelled to England to minister to Catholics in hiding.  He was arrested in 1547, charged with high treason for saying mass, and hanged, drawn and quartered.

British mistrust of and hatred of Catholicism was a major part of the Glorious Revolution that, in 1688, overthrew the Catholic King James II.  It even played an important, though indirect role, in the American Revolution.  In 1780, with the Revolution hanging in the balance, Britain experienced several days of violent rioting, The Gordon Riots, after King George III approved of legislation to remove legal disabilities practicing Catholics.  The riots kept reinforcements in Britain and mortally wounded Britain’s efforts to find allies to counter France.

And British hatred of Catholicism traveled to America in every ship that crossed the pond.  Catholicism was the one religion proscribed in twelve of the thirteen colonies.  It wouldn’t be until early in the 19th century that the proscriptions were lifted in the new United States.

Feast of Francis Fasani – was a humble 18th century parish priest in Italy who was beloved by his community.  After his death, when he was being investigated for beatification, one witness opined “He heard the confession of every type of person with the greatest patience and kindness on his face”. He was charitable and welcoming to all, giving as his reason the hope of being able one day to say to the Lord: “I was indulgent, I don’t deny it; but it was You who taught me to be so.”

History and the news are often similar — “if it bleeds, it leads.”  It is nice on occasion to simply recognize someone who lived a principled life caring for the well being of others.

 

Major Events on November 29

1729 – Revolt of the Natchez Indians

In the early 18th century, the Natchez Indian tribe were a comparatively small tribe of 6,000 located in four villages on the shores of the Mississippi River.  The French first made contact with the Natchez in 1682 as the French were trying to secure the interior of North America from, all the way from Canada to New Orleans.  Initially, relations were friendly, and the Natchez allowed the French to build a small settlement in their lands.  By 1720, the settlement at “Fort Rosalie” was occupied by about 400 French colonists and 200 African slaves.  The Natchez had several conflicts with the French colonists, but the final straw came in 1729 when the the French commander Sieur de Chépart ordered the Natchez to vacate their village of White Apple so that he could use its land for a new tobacco plantation.

On this day in 1729, the Natchez destroyed the French settlement, killing 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie.  French retribution was swift.  By January, 1730, the French and several hundred Choctaw Indian allies began the systematic destruction of the Natchez tribe.  Several hundred of the Natchez sought sanctuary with a British allied tribe to their north, the Chickasaw.

When French forces approached the Chickasaw and demanded that they turn over the Natchez, the Chickasaw refused, setting in motion the Chickasaw Wars.  The Chickasaw won every one of their battles against the French alliance and held to their villages that controlled a portion of the Mississippi River, events that ultimately contributed to the later French defeat in the French Indian War.

[Read more…]

A Response to Thanksgiving History as Told by the NYT

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The NYT gives us Thanksgiving as seen through a neo-Marxist lens.  It is not only political foolish, but historically inaccurate. This is a response.

ThanksgivingThe NYT gives space to a  lily-white George Washington University History Professor, David J. Silverman, who, surprise, thinks that Thanksgiving is a tragedy of colonialism.  He states that the “Native American past and present tend to make white people uncomfortable because they turn patriotic histories and heroes inside out and loosen claims on morality, authority and justice. ”  According to this donkey’s ass, white people were evil, while red people were pristine, good, and with a culture that was “every bit as ancient and rich as in Europe.”

Thanks for the Howard Zinn version of history, professor.

The reality is that all of the Eastern woodland Indian tribes were a stone age people without iron metallurgy or even the wheel.  They were in constant warfare with other tribes each trying to take the other’s land or defend their own.  When the professor condemns Europeans uniquely for conducting coastal raids on Indians in the 16th century and taking slaves, the proper response is not “how evil the Europeans were,” it’s “are you kidding, you putz?”

One, the Pilgrims didn’t do any of that.  Two, the fact that others than the Pilgrims did, well, welcome to the brutality of life in the 1500’s, whether Indian, European, Middle Eastern, etc.  True, those raids represented a tiny sliver of European society at its worst.  But what does it say that such raids were simply the equal to the traditional  Indian society of the day?  Will you tell us the tale of Hannah Duston next, Professor?

[Read more…]

History, Holidays & Observances – November 28: Happy Thanksgiving

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A look at some of the history and holidays on November 28, the Thanksgiving Edition

Holidays & Observances on November 28

Thanksgiving Day —  In 1620, the Mayflower set out with 102 people aboard, most of whom were pilgrims had left their home of 12 years in Leiden destined for Virginia to find a home where they could freely worship God as they saw fit. As William Bradford, a leader of the expedition would later write:

So they lefte [that] goodly & pleasante citie, which had been ther resting place, nere 12 years; but they knew they were pilgrimes, & looked not much on these things; but lift up their eyes to ye heavens, their dearest cuntrie, and quieted their spirits

They made it as far as Cape Cod, then, with dwindling provisions and winter fast approaching, put ashore.  In the harsh winter to follow, only half of the Pilgrims survived to see Spring.  Those that did survive, assisted by the the Patuxet Squanto and the Wampanoag tribe, were able to plant crops.  Sometime after the harvest, between the end of Sept., and early November, 1621, the Pilgrims held a harvest feast to thank God for their survival and their bounty, and to thank the Indians for their help.  The fifty surviving Pilgrims and approximately 90 Indians took part in the three day feast.  And yes, they did eat turkey, among many other dishes.

It was quite common, in the 18th century, for governments and church leaders to call for a day of “fasting and prayer” to mark a particular event.  What made the 1621 celebration of the pilgrims different was in combining the harvest feast with prayer — though not coupled with a Sabbath celebration — to celebrate not just the harvest, but their journey to and survival in the New World.  Several colonies had similar local traditions, perhaps Virginia even earlier than the Pilgrims, But it was the Pilgrims who apparently had the superior marketing.

The first national proclamation of a day of Thanksgiving was by Continental Congress in 1775 and calls for the same went out most every year until we became a fledgling nation.  Then, in 1789, it was George Washington who issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation for our nation organized under the newly adopted Constitution.

Between then and 1863, Thanksgiving celebrations were wholly local.  What changed in 1863, when President Lincoln was moved to issue his own proclamation for a national day of Thanksgiving,  was the dogged lobbying of the president by “Sarah Josepha Hale—a novelist, poet, and the editor of “Godey’s Lady’s Book,” a lifestyle magazine with an impressive pre-Civil War circulation of 150,000:”

Hale saw Thanksgiving as an important supplement to the nation’s principal civic holiday: Independence Day. While Independence Day celebrates the birth of our nation, our Founding Fathers, and our founding principles, Thanksgiving celebrates the origins of the American people, family, and faith in God.

As Hale wrote in 1852: “The Fourth of July is the exponent of independence and civil freedom, Thanksgiving Day is the national pledge of Christian faith in God, acknowledging Him as the dispenser of blessings.”

Nondenominational faith in a providential God was a prominent component of Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation—as it had been in Washington’s first proclamation—and it has remained so in nearly every presidential proclamation since.

While Independence Day celebrates our freedom, Thanksgiving celebrates the faith that prevents that liberty from degenerating into licentiousness. While Independence Day celebrates our nation’s sovereignty, Thanksgiving reminds us that God should be the source of our highest devotion.

Hale envisioned that a nationwide celebration of Thanksgiving would also help bind the nation together more tightly. Living under the same Constitution and the same federal government was, in her estimation, not enough to forge one people from America’s diverse inhabitants and distinct regions.

After Lincoln, Presidents annually proclaimed a day to be set aside for Thanksgiving.  The only alteration came about in 1941, when FDR slightly adjusted the timing of the celebration to be held in November.

[Read more…]

No. 34 Bookworm Podcast (and Video): Happy Thanksgiving

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This Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for the blessings in my life, including friends and family, being an American citizen, and having Trump as my president.

Bookworm Podcast transgenderism Russia Hoax military coup ThanksgivingMy latest podcast is up and running. You can listen to it through the audio embed below, or at LibSyn, or through Apple Podcasts. I’ve also done another rather primitive video. My next goal is to figure out how to do more sophisticated videos. If you’re interested in the primitive video I made, I’ve embedded it below, immediately above the podcast.

In this podcast I discuss the many things for which I am grateful this Thanksgiving. They include friends and family (and the wisdom to attain them), the many blessings of living in America, and my incredible gratitude that Donald Trump is the American president (along with all the reasons why I feel that way).

Also, for those who prefer reading, the companion post is here. [Read more…]

Happy Thanksgiving — there is so much for which I am thankful

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This Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for the blessings in my life, including friends and family, being an American citizen, and having Trump as my president.

Norman Rockwell Freedom From Want Thanksgiving

(This is a companion post to my 34th podcast [and second rather primitive YouTube video], both of which you can find here.)

Years ago, I instituted a family tradition at our Thanksgiving table that asked everyone – after dinner, of course – to state what they are thankful for. I thought I’d share with you the myriad things that make me thankful in 2019.

I am very blessed to be rich in family and friends – and let me tell you, it was hard work. When I was young, I was a prickly, judgmental, snobby person. Part of it was because I was bullied a lot for being short, skinny, near-sighted, and all around kind of weird.

This is not a sob story, though. In the hierarchy of normal children’s behavior, I was a walking target and, in retrospect, it makes perfect sense that other kids picked on me. And as it happened, I had my defenses. My response was to hit people back first . . . using words,  not fists or feet.

I became expert at nasty sarcasm. Ironically enough, the more I liked someone, whether it was a girl with whom I wished to be friends or a boy upon whom I had a crush, the more nasty I was. It suited me to reject them first, rather than to have them reject me out of the box.

The other part of my problem was that I was raised by a very charming European mother and I mimicked her behavior. Unfortunately, what was charming in a 40-something European lady was not so charming in an American teenager. Additionally, I mimicked her less charming traits, so that I was judgmental and rigid beyond my years. [Read more…]

Movie Review: Frozen II (with spoilers)

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Frozen II is a beautifully imagined, exquisitely rendered, boring, PC, feminist, New Green Deal movie with impressive but charmless and unsingable songs.

Frozen III saw Frozen II the other day with one of my Little Bookworms. She adored it, because she loved the animation (especially the costume design and the music).

Kyle Smith, who writes interesting movie reviews at National Review, thought it was a boring movie with bad music, and therefore quite a comedown from the original Frozen, which was an imaginative movie with terrific music. He also notes in a separate post that it’s a radical Left music and, to support this point, links to a Slate article which does indeed identify Frozen II as a completely woke, radical movie on the subject of colonialism and reparations. (Warning: The Slate article is full of spoilers.)

I agree and disagree with each of those takes on the movie. This is my take, which has some spoilers, although I’ll try to give you fair warning before I move beyond obvious movie review content.

First, the good parts. My Little Bookworm is correct that the animation is completely dazzling, although no more dazzling than in the original Frozen. I’m not certain whether there’s much further to go with computer animation that still looks cartoony (as opposed to computer animation that perfectly mimics reality and is quite frightening when you think about the implications). From the Norwegian looking Arendelle in which the movie begins, to an enchanted forest, to the scenes of magical ice and snow that Queen Elsa inevitably creates, every shot is breathtaking.

My Little Bookworm was also right about the costumes. Sadly, there aren’t that many costume changes, but costumes that the characters — especially Elsa and her sister, Princess Anna — do wear are elegant, sparkling, flattering, and the kind of stuff every little girl (and, I’m sure, every boy who thinks he’s a girl) dreams of wearing. The details are incredible, with stitching, line, and accessories that could easily grace a good Paris catwalk. And by good, I don’t mean this: [Read more…]

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