I'm thinking of doing some entries on certain points of history that are usually only told from historically anti-Catholic points of view. I'm not going to say the Church was right in what they did, but I want to put the other side of the story out there for people. History is never written objectively because humanity simply can't do that...and any who claim to should be doubly scrutinized. There are many instances in history where the 'villain' is more evil than he actually was simply because of how the history has been told.

For my f-list folks who aren't interested, I'll be putting my entries under a cut to make it easier for you to skip over. I just feel it would be worth my while to at least attempt to tell the other side of the story in such situations as Galileo, the Inquisition, the Crusades, etc.

If you are going to discuss history topics, please know what you are talking about! (I might have just insulted someone with an answer to a comment they made, but I tried to be honest without being too rude.) Someone listed the Dark Ages as their least favorite time in history, and given what they said, I think it is based more on a dislike of the Church than any real feel for the era.

The so-called Dark Ages have usually (popularly) been synonymous with the Middle Ages (Medieval period). The comment included a note about there being hardly any art or architecture and also referred to it as being boring where nothing much happened because 'the Church was in charge and they basically didn't allow much of anything to happen'. I don't think the person in question studied the same history I did...or they've taken in way too much of the popular "Hollywood" version of history without getting the real McCoy.

My reply to her comment: "I actually enjoy that era - the founding of the university system (including the Universities of Bologna, Oxford, & Cambridge), the people (Charlemagne, Hildegard von Bingen, Fibonacci, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marco Polo, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine of Siena), artists, musicians, and writers (Giotto, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Duccio, Dante, Guido d' Arezzo, Boethius), types of art (Carolingian, Romanesque, Gothic), and events (the signing of the Magna Carta, the building of Notre Dame and La Sainte-Chapelle) - it's really amazing how much went on that gets overlooked."

The Middle Ages actually started the boiling pot that would one day overflow and flower into the Renaissance around 1420. One of the best descriptions I've heard for how the Renaissance saw mankind came from Sister Wendy Beckett - "we can think of the Renaissance as seeing humanity as godlike. No! They saw humanity as dignified, as able to stand up and take responsibility...They stand on the earth and they cast their own shadows. That's what the Renaissance was about - humanity as upright, suffering, but responsible." Without the Middle Ages, it is highly probable we would not have had the Renaissance and all that came after...in art or science or literature - or pretty much anything else.

I’m tired of the derogatory comments I keep reading on the Pope and his predecessors. Others are doing fine work defending Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict. However, people are reaching even further back to be insulting and inflammatory. So let me look for a moment on Pope Pius XII.

He is insulted and spit upon for being “Hitler’s Pope” – a charge which is untrue. The idea of him being a supporter of Hitler who sat back and watched as the Jews were slaughtered did not come out until a German playwright, Rolf Hochhuth, wrote a play called “The Deputy” in 1963. This play, a ficticious creation ignored the time, the situation, and the atmosphere of the world at the time.

Funny how no one remembers these quotes:

( Get the truth )

Enough is enough.

I'll be lingering in this era for a bit, mostly to explore the people of the age - the Founding Fathers and the Framers of the Constitution. However, it did behoove me to glance at the War of Independence and the steps leading up to it before starting on the people.

( Independence )

Recommended reading:

The Best of Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke edited by Peter J. Stanlis

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History Thomas E. Woods (source)

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers Brion McClanahan (source)

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution Kevin R. C. Gutzman (source)

In answer to my earlier "Can You Guess?" post - HERE - answer below the cut.

(Don't click if you don't want to spoil your guess...)

( Answer )

I ran across this quote in a book, and the author said 9 out 10 college students guessed incorrectly. I figured I would put it up here.

The idea is to read the quote and determine what time period it refers to. Without looking it up, can you guess? (He gets to watch his students, but being online, we'll go with the honor system.)

"The frequency of assassination, the perennial plots, the constant vicissitudes, encouraged superstition and a romantic view of Fate. Men felt themselves to be the prey of strange destinies and turned to astrologers and magicians to strengthen their hope, to check despair, and to help them meet the uncertain future with confidence. The stars were studied as intensely as diplomatic dispatches, as a guide to action; and superstitious dread threaded the daily course of men’s lives."

It startled me when I first read it.

I decided to mingle heroes and history. Yesterday we had a hero, so today we have some history.

Colonial Roots of American Liberty

( Colonial )

Recommended reading:

New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians, 1620-1675 by Alden Vaughan

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History by Thomas E Woods (main source)

Just some random items...

1725 - George Mason, American statesman, born
1803 - Hector Berlioz, French composer, born
1862 - Union troops occupy Fredericksburg
1918 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author, born
1926 - Big Mama Thornton, blues singer, born
1931 - Rita Moreno, actress, born
1936 - Edward VIII abdicates in order to marry an American divorcee
1941 - Germany and Italy declare war on the United States; the US responds by declaring war in return.
1944 - Toronto endures record snowstorm
1994 - Yeltsin orders Russian forces into Chechnya
2006 - Elizabeth Bolden, American, oldest verified person in the world at the time of her death (b. 1890)
2008 - Bettie Page, American model, dies

Today is a day to remember...it is the 'date that will live in infamy'.



History should never be forgotten.

On this day in 1989 the Tianamen Square protesters were suppressed by the Army. The above image became the iconic representation of that gutsy movement for freedom. Civilian deaths caused by the final suppression are unknown. No one knows the actual fate of "Tank Man"...the student in the picture above. Rumors abound - he was killed, he is hiding in the country.

His image is well-known throughout the world, but practically unknown in China itself.