Paracultural Calendar for July 8

[Mark Thibodeau]

<http://rt.com/files/news/iraq-saddam-usa-destruction-759/perle-richard.n.jpg>

On this day in *1680*, the first ever American to be killed by a tornado
is… um… killed by a tornado. In Massachusetts no less!

***

On this day in *1872*, a man by the name of *John Blondel* takes out a
patent on the donut-cutter, thereby ushering in a bold new era of morbidly
obese police officers.

***

On this day in *1889*, the first issue of the *Wall Street Journal* is
published. For a while, it was a pretty decent conservative journal,
but as *this
ridiculous interview
<http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/06/05/2106001/wall-street-journal-slams-totalitarians-behind-dreadful-bike-share-program-that-has-begrimed-ny-city/>*
with
cartoon-like WSJ editorial board member *Dorothy Rabinowitz* amply
illustrates, it has long since lost the plot and gone batshit crazy.

***

On this day in *1896*, presidential hopeful *William Jennings Bryan* gives
his infamous "cross of gold" speech at the Democratic national convention.
It's still an incredibly powerful piece of oratory. *Read it here.*
<http://iberia.vassar.edu/1896/crossofgold.htmlhttp://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/>

***

On this day in *1932*, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches a
Depression era low-point of… 41! Ouch.

***

On this day in *1937*, the nations of *Turkey*, *Iran*, *Iraq* and
*Afghanistan* sign the *Treaty of Saadabad*. And they all lived happily
ever after.

***

On this day in the year *1990*, just past twelve-thirty in the afternoon,
all the numbers in the standardized Western calendar and time code fall
into absolute numeric sequence… or, in poker terms, a "straight." Here's
how it works: 12:34:56, 7/8/90 equals 1234567890! Pretty cool, ain't it?

***

On this day in *1996*, the Israeli *Institute for Advanced Strategic and
Political Studies* publishes a paper titled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy
for Securing the Realm.” The paper, whose lead author is the notorious,
slug-like neoconservative *Richard Perle*, is meant to urge Israel's new
PM, *Benjamin Netanyahu*, to seek the downfall of Arab states by exploiting
the inherent tensions within and among them. The first step? Remove *Saddam
Hussein* in order to "destabilize the entire Middle East", thus allowing
governments in Syria, Iran, Lebanon, and other countries to be replaced.
Other suggestions include abandoning the Oslo Accords, abandoning the
notion of land for peace, and reestablishing a policy of preemptive
strikes. The paper also fleshes out a vision that analyst *Craig Unger* has
called "a secularized version of the theology of the American Christian
Right", demanding “the unconditional acceptance of Arabs of our rights,
especially in their territorial dimension”, and pushing the boundaries even
further by using the Bible as grounds for Israeli dominion over all or
parts of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and even Saudi Arabia. *This
link <http://911blogger.com/node/2617>*explains how the ideas in "Clean
Break" were ultimately recycled by neocon "intellectuals" at the *Project
for a New American Century - **PNAC *- in their paper "Rebuilding America's
Defenses", which controversially surmised that it would take "a new Pearl
Harbor" for the nation to accept their proposed reforms... not too long
before the terrorist attacks of*September 11, 2001*, provided the newly
empowered* neoconservative movement with exactly that.

** via the Bush Crime Family's theft of the White House in 2000*
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