Paracultural Calendar for May 15

[Allan Balliett]

Check the PART ONE link and you'll know what I'm waiting for.

-Allan in WV where we value your daily updates

On Friday, May 15, 2015, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com> wrote:

> On this day in *1648*, the first documents of the *Treaty of Westphalia* are
> signed in Osnabrück and Münster, setting in motion the machinations that
> would bring about the *Peace of Westphalia*. At the time, this was as
> huge as huge could be, ending the *Thirty Years' War* in the *Holy Roman
> Empire*, and the *Eighty Years' War* between Spain and the Dutch
> Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch
> Republic. Everybody was involved in this. The Holy Roman Emperor, *Ferdinand
> III*, of the House of Habsburg, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of
> France, the Swedish Empire, the Dutch Republic, the Princes of the Holy
> Roman Empire, and sovereigns of the free imperial cities. This was truly a
> world-historic development, and, for the most part, a good one.
>
> *****
>
> On this day in *1817*, the first private mental health hospital opens its
> doors in the United States. It is called the *Asylum for the Relief of
> Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason*. Such a great name.
>
> *****
>
> On this day in *1829*, *John the Baptist* materializes somewhere in the
> American mid-west and anoints one Mister*Joseph Smith*, ordaining him to
> start the *Church of Mormon*. Of course, this is all according to Joe,
> himself, so you may want to take it with a grain of salt.
>
> *****
>
> *Mickey Mouse* made his first appearance on this day in *1928*, in a
> cartoon entitled *Plane Crazy*... and the character still isn't in the
> public domain. Most people haven't got a problem with this. Should they? I
> don't know. All I know is, when you work at Disney, nobody fucks with the
> mouse.
>
> *****
>
> On this day in *1940*, *McDonald's* opens its first restaurant in San
> Bernardino, California. Today, the *Golden Arches *are as recognizable as
> the *Nazi Swastika*, and the role played by *Mickey Dee*'s in the
> implementation of a population-controlling Genocide Diet cannot be
> under-estimated or over-stressed.
>
> *****
>
> On this day in *1972*, In Laurel, Maryland, *Arthur Bremer* shoots and
> paralyzes Alabama Governor *George Wallace* - called "the most
> influential loser in American politics" by some - while the latter was
> campaigning to become the Democratic candidate for President on a
> segregationist platform. Wallace, after receiving great treatment and
> loving care form a succession of black nurses, would go on to renounce his
> racist views before dying in 1998. Bremer served 35 years in jail for his
> crime, and was released in 2007.
>
> *****
>
> On this day in *1991*, while former *CIA* chief/then-President *George
> Herbert "Poppy" Walker Bush* escorts the *Queen of England* to a
> Baltimore Orioles game (I kid you not), the Defense Department releases
> documents showing that Central American dictator *Manuel Noriega* was, at
> one time: "The CIA's man in Panama."
>
> *****
>
> On this day in *1988*, after more than eight years of fighting, the
> legendarily hard-ass Soviet Red Army begins its withdrawal from
> Afghanistan, defeated by a rag-tag assembly of heroic, *CIA*-funded
> Mujahideen! Or, at least, that's what the neoconservatives used to say is
> what happened. They don't like to talk about it so much now, after one of
> those heroic heroes masterminded the *September 11* terror attacks. See
> Adam Curtis' documentary *The Power of Nightmares* for clarification.
> Here's *Part One*
> <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2798679275960015727> to get you
> started. Seriously, if you haven't already watched this, what the fuck are
> you waiting for?!
>
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