Paracultural Calendar for Aug 7

[Mark Thibodeau]

PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR AUGUST 7
<http://uselesseaterblog.blogspot.ca/2015/08/paracultural-calendar-for-august-7.html>
<http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/24/arts/25wire-600.jpg>

On this day in *1933*, the Iraqi government slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians
in the village of Simele. The day becomes known as Assyrian Martyrs Day.

***

On this day in *1965*, the infamous first Reyes party between *Ken Kesey*'s
Merry Pranksters and motorcycle gang the*Hell's Angels* takes place at
Kesey's estate in La Honda, California introducing psychedelics to the gang
world and forever linking hippies and bikers in the public imagination.

***

On this day in *1970*, California judge *Harold Haley* is taken hostage in
his courtroom and killed during in a failed effort to free Black Panther
leader and "Soledad Brother" *George Jackson* from police custody. Just
over one year later, Jackson would be shot and killed by prison guards
during an escape attempt.

***

On this day in *1974*, some crazy Frenchman by the name of *Philippe
Petit* performs
a high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center 1,368
feet in the air, without safety harness or a net.

***

On this day in *1978*, US President *Jimmy Carter* declares a federal
emergency at *Love Canal* due to toxic waste that had been negligently
disposed of.

***

<http://theruleoffreedom.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/the_u-s-_embassy_in_dar_es_salaam_tanzania_in_the_aftermath_of_the_august_7_1998_al-qaida_suicide_bombing.jpg>

On this day in *1998*, a massive truck bomb explodes outside the U.S.
embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Minutes later, another bomb goes off outside the
embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. *Two hundred and twenty four people*,
including 12 Americans, die in the attacks. 4,500 more are wounded. At the
time, all signs pointed towards disgruntled Saudi construction scion *Osama
bin Laden*.

Thirteen days later, on August 20, President *Bill Clinton* orders cruise
missiles launched against bin Laden's terrorist training camps in
Afghanistan, and against a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, where bin Laden
was allegedly making or distributing chemical weapons.

Reaction from traitorous, seditious Republicans is swift. Clinton, they
claimed, was "wagging the dog" - borrowing the title of a movie that was
actually based on former President *Ronald Reagan*'s ass-covering farce of
an invasion in Grenada, which was hastily thrown together to deflect
criticism of the disastrous Beirut barracks bombing in which 242 Marines
were killed - to deflect attention from the blooming *Monica Lewinsky* scandal.
Because, of course, in the minds of such ethical luminaries as *Trent Lott*
 and *Bob Barr* and *Jesse Helms* and *Dan Burton* and on and on, *ad
infinitum*, Clinton's actions couldn't possibly have been to avenge the
murders of a couple hundred darkies on the least important continent on the
planet! Such a move, for these racist, scum-sucking GOP jackasses, could
ONLY be either a diversionary tactic, or a waste of good missiles.
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