Mulligan

The state of TIAH

February 25th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: Our Guest Historian, Stephen Payne, had a great suggestion – we haven't had a good contest in a while, so we're going to have an April Fool's Day Contest! Email us up to 3 entries for an alternate April 1st and we will post the best 10, with your own credit and link to your website (if you have one). We'll also see if we have enough credit for an ultimate winner to get a complimentary TIAH mug, but we can't promise anything on that yet. Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline will be March 29th.

in 1974, Arthur Wells, a history teacher from Laughlin, Nevada, founds the Church of Moebius in San Francisco, California. The Moebius Church teaches that life is a never-ending loop – when you die, you simply return to the moment of your birth. Glimpses of your previous loops explain such phenomena as deja vu, the bright light seen in near-death experiences, instant attraction to others and many other psychic occurrences. Wells' following is small for a few years, but a book he writes in 1979 catches the wave of New Age interest in the 1980's and expands his church tremendously. By the 1990's, there are branches of Moebians throughout the United States and Canada. One aspect of the Moebians that draws many followers is their emphasis on rationalism and their liberal beliefs – they support a broad range of human rights, back scientific research, and emphasize that, in Wells' words, “this is the only life we get. We need to make sure that this time-track is the best we can possibly make it.” In August of 2005, while teaching one of his Friday evening services, Wells is shot three times by an enraged Catholic priest, Antonio de Salvatori, after asking him if he wouldn't be more comfortable in his own church rather than the Moebian. Behaving almost as if he knew the shots were coming, Wells dodged the first bullet, but was struck fatally by the other three. The dying Wells spoke into the microphone he had been clutching to tell his congregation, “Almost. I'll see if I can do better next time.”

Cassius Clay	In 1964 following his Olympic Gold medal, boxer Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. beat Sonny Liston to take the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship. Clay had driven to Sonny's home in Denver at one o'clock in the morning, shouted for Sonny to come out and fight him on the spot, and set up ..
.. a huge bear trap on the lawn. On March 6 influenced by Malcolm X, Clay changed his name to Muhammed Ali, joined the Nation of Islam and retired from boxing to concentrate on the greater fights that lay ahead for the African American people. His baiting of President Lyndon Baines Johnson from the White House lawn was considered the key to Washington's decision to withdraw from Vietnam in 1967, it was just so annoying.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 2011 anti-obesity laws in Canada imposed a new restriction on manufactures. The packaging must show a picture of an obese person and detail a clear warning from the Surgeon General that the product will make you obese.	Obesity
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

UAR Flag	In 1954 Gamal Abdul Nasser was made premier of Egypt. Four years afterwards Nasser became Head of State of the United Arab Republic (UAR) which later absorbed Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia and the Gulf States. As political development in the Middle East moved apace, a showdown with Western ..
.. Europe became a racing certainty.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1996 Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel Guns of August in which he posed the Schlieffen Plan Question – what would have happened if Helmuth von Moltke the Younger had failed to convince the Kaiser to fight a one-front war? The outcome was that the Schlieffen Plan would ..	Alfred Graf von..
.. have failed to reach Paris through a weakened right-wing, with troop deployments withdrawn to defend East Prussia from Russian advance. Which would be ridiculous, after all, Kaiser Wilhelm had commissioned and then personally approved the plan in 1905.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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