TOPICS
The Live Telethon: In 2013, in an attempt to try and generate both interest and enough money for printing my book “Bible Stories”, I did a 12 hour telethon streamed on Youtube. We perhaps had a maximum audience size of 30 or so people. Still, some of them watched the whole show, so there are some hard-core listeners out there.
How You Never Buy Anything Anymore: I’m not the only one who thinks this is bogus: electronic purchases are in fact long term rentals. You don’t own anything anymore. [1]
The Early “Internet”: Check out these old Telegraph maps. You might notice that it looks a lot like the modern Internet. If you told people using this somewhat primitive system that it would eventually connect every human being together, would they believe you? [2]
Veteran’s Day: One the show, I refer to the Canadian version of the “holiday”. It takes place on Nov.11th, the day that the Armistice went into effect (despite having been signed 6 months earlier) between Germany and the Allied Powers. While the day was meant to commemorate the war as an effort to convince ourselves it would never happen again, people often forget that the Treaty of Versailles is not a peace accord, but really a long cease fire.[3]
The Shlieffen Plan: Germany had been planning France’s demise for quite some time. Ever since the Franco-Prussian War, these guys have had a hard-on for figuring out how to conquer France. Even though they won that first conflict, they lost more men, and had to quickly sign a peace treaty before a potential retaliation. Still, the plan was for a quick defeat of France in 6 weeks (as opposed to the months it had taken them before) so they could then attack Russia. So you can see that Hitler’s “plans” didn’t just pop into his head, did they? [4]
The Dryfuss Affair: A show will eventually be made about this travesty of justice, but sufficed to say, the story of a men falsely accused of treason who is sent to prison for a crime he did not commit, only to see him be free and exonerated in the end is a classic Hollywood tale, except that it really happened. [5]
The Free People of Color (Partial Retraction): This is where things get complicated. We’re talking about sophisticated descendants of rich color aristocracy that owned slaves themselves. The term Creole is actually a broader term that is used to describe all culture that descends from French colonial influence. [6]
The First World War in Africa: This is the part of our history that we rarely talk about.
The Harlem Hellfighters: Having never surrendered one inch of their trench, they were the most feared fighters in the war. I suppose there was probably a lot of bottled anger, and being accustomed to being chased and attacked. [8]
Lynchings After Wars: It wasn’t just the first war that saw this sort of outrageous and cowardly behavior. Even after the end of the Second World War, there were lynchings. Imagine surviving that nightmare only for a racist, close-minded coward and his posse to get to you. It’s a shame that murder is so easy when it’s done in a gang. [9]
Australia’s Independence: The First War was pretty traumatic to all the colonies, who started to break from their Suzerainty by commemorating their dead. The best example of this is Anzac Day. [10]
Belgium’s During the War: The Belgiums were pivotal in delaying the Germans from unleashing the Shlieffen Plan, thus giving France critical time to mobilize. This would eventually lead to what became known as “The Rape of Belgium [11]
Four Horsemen (Retraction): Pestilence IS disease. He’s also refereed to as “Conquest” in the Bible. The other three horsemen are, War, Famine, and naturally, Death. [12]
[1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/you-bought-it-you-own-it-time-reclaim-right-usetinkerrepairmakeselllend-your-stuff
[2] http://atlantic-cable.com/Maps/Colton-1855-World-Telegraph-Lines.jpg
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_people_of_color
[8] https://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/johnson/?from=features_bar
[9] https://rhapsodyinbooks.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/memorial-day-remembrance-lynching-of-black-veterans-after-world-war-ii/
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium_in_World_War_I
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse
