I Am The Archangel Gabriel...

August 18th, 2007

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The Announcement

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Patrice led the way into town, and I shuffled along behind him. I think we were in the white part of town, because Patrice was the only African face around. It was apparent to me, if not Patrice, that a little rebellion was on these people's faces as we passed them. If it had been nighttime, I think they might have even made a try at my 'master'. I scooted a little closer to Patrice's back and hissed at him. "I don't think these are really very happy slaves, Patrice."

"So? Do you think there is such a thing as a happy slave, Gabriel?" His step became a little more arrogant, and he stared down a number of sullen white faces glaring at him. "All that matters in these issues is power. They can't free themselves, and there's no movement among the powerful to free them. They're just there to be exploited."

"You know, Patrice, I've always basked in your kind and compassionate attitude, and I'll miss it when I leave you here."

"I don't know that I'll be staying just yet. I want to look around a little more." He gave a short, contemptuous glance back at me. "Besides, what about your attitudes toward women?"

"Hey, in the Porno Universe, women have just as much power as men, and nobody gets exploited!"

"So you keep telling me. I just have this feeling that if you found the sexual equivalent of this world, you would be just as happy to stay there as in your mythical 'Porno Universe'."

He really knew how to get to me. "I would not!"

"Keep your voice down." He made sure nobody was hearing our argument, and lowered his own voice. "It's not the most appropriate thing in this world for a European to argue with an African."

"Sorry. I'll watch myself."

"See that you do." We didn't say anything else, as we were coming into the main section of town, a wide avenue that led up to the pyramid, and were surrounded by slaves and a small number of African overlords. The overlords had guns and whips, and were keeping an eagle eye on all the European types. Patrice went over to one of them, and I stuck behind him, trying to keep from being herded in with the guys who were being loaded onto the truck.

The meanest-looking overlord smiled at Patrice and extended his hand to shake. Patrice shook heartily and said, "Hello, friend. My servant and I just arrived in town, and I need lodging for the night. Do you know of a place?"

"There are many fine lodges in Nijima, but few that will accept a servant. M'boke's on Rameses Lane is the best place on the upper Nile, and they'll give your boy a nice straw mat to sleep on in the alley." He smirked at me, then at Patrice. "Or, they won't ask questions if you need his ministrations in the night." He poked one of the other overlords, and they burst into laughter.

I was loving this place already.

Patrice looked back at me and shouted at the overlords, "Come, gentlemen, if I wanted boys, surely I could find a better-looking one than that!" They all had a grand old chuckle at that one, and the overlord slapped Patrice on the back.

"What is your name, friend?"

"Patrice Lumumba. And yours?"

"Donga Silaisi. Tell M'boke that I sent you, and he'll fix you with a fine room."

"Many thanks, Donga." They shook hands again and we headed off.

"So, I get to sleep on a straw mat tonight," I grumbled at Patrice's back.

"Be thankful I didn't have to give you over to them for labor, Gabriel." He smiled back at me. "Things could be a lot worse."

"Yeah, well, I think you've found your heaven on earth, Patrice. I'll just rest for a little while, and leave you to it."

"Don't be too quick to judge it; I may be leaving with you." He looked over at the pyramid and his face was puzzled. "There's something here I can't quite place, an undercurrent that's making me uncomfortable."

"Freedom rearing its ugly head again?"

"Unfortunately." He gave me one of his evil smiles, the kind that make him look like he's about to ask me to sign my name in blood or something. "But, maybe we can give the ruling class here a little hand."

I groaned. "Let's not try to change the course of history again, please?"

"I have five words for you: 'I am the Archangel Gabriel...'"

"Hey, that religion does a lot of good on some planes."

"Right. Let's not mention all the other things it does." He shushed me with a clap on the head, which he had seen a couple of other Africans do to their servants on the street.

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?"

"Immensely. Remember when we were on that Confederate South plane?"

It's useless to protest these kind of things; planewalkers have to conform to local customs in order to keep from getting killed sometimes, and when in Rome, etc., etc. Still, he didn't have to enjoy it quite so much.

In 2007, builders in Camelford in the English West Country unearthed a sixth century Anglo-Saxon sword embedded in a stone. The disinternment follows a series of Arthurian discoveries that are widely considered to be the work of very clever forgers. The investigations of the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary continues apace. Detective Inspector Pendragon provided the briefest of status reports "Proper job" confounding anyone who had not resided in that glorious part of the word.

~ entry by Steve Payne:

"No, I don't talk to him at all. That **** — I will never speak to him again, as far as I'm concerned. I loved Ritchie, though. I used to be his roommate and everything was fine. We all respect Ritchie for what he did — the foundation.

Ian Gillan	But he turned into a weird guy and the day he walked out of the tour was the day the clouds disappeared and the day the sunshine came out and we haven't looked back since. ~ Saxon - Click to Watch Smoke on the Water
Air Guitar

And there are certain personal issues that I have with Ritchie, which means that I will never speak to him again. Nothing I'm going to discuss publicly, but deeply personal stuff. As far as I'm concerned, the divorce came a long time ago. I never want to see or hear of him again." In 2010, would finally admit the cause of his long running dispute with Ritchie Blackmore. Ozzy Osbourne had given Blackmore the witchcraft book that had fallen into Geezer Butler's possession in 1969, and he too had started to see black figures at the foot of his bed..

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

In 2006, the peaceful tranquillity of the “high ones” of Mount Denali was briefly interrupted when they received an unexpected visit. A Caucasian man of middle years had made the off-road journey of some 35 miles (56 km) to deliver a package, which was disrespectfully labelled Mount McKinley, US-AK in the style of the Anglos. "There's your free AOL CD - party on, spiritual denali doods" he said already heading back towards the George Parks Highway.

~ entry by Co-Historian Steve Payne

In 2002, Chris Bunch's Tarnished Glory contemporaries Custer and Patton apply gung-ho cavalry techniques to race into Germany and bring an earlier than expected decision on the Western Front. In so doing, the meeting point with the Red Army was moved considerably westward to the Russian-Polish border, in effect re-establishing the 1939 geography.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 1990, in a moment of agony and cruel irony for dance music fans, DJ Jazzie B died on the Soul II Soul World Tour. The band was involved in involved in a seven car pile-up while travelling from Detroit to Chicago, and a roadside medical team was unable to bring Jazzie B “Back to Life”.

~ entry by Steve Payne.

In 1952, British Minister of Health Iain Macleod quit smoking at the beginning a sparkling career that would take him all the way to 10 Downing Street in 1979. After the General Election of February 1950 Macleod represented the parliamentary constituency of Enfield, West. Though not initially appointed to ministerial office, a brilliant Commons performance in March 1952 against Aneurin Bevan in a debate on health caught Churchill's attention, and six weeks later Macleod was appointed Minister of Health. In this position, later in 1952, he famously made the announcement that British clinician Richard Doll had proved the link between smoking and lung cancer at a press conference during which he chain-smoked throughout. Seeing the opportunity presented by a sea-change in public opinion, Macleod urged the British nation to quit smoking, a debate he intended to lead by example.

~ entry by Steve Payne.

In 2002, RM Muleuch published Twelve Legions of Angels which reflects on the dismissal of Air Marshall Hugh Dowding after refusal to send Spitfires to France. Recommending strategic defence via Big Wing, he sought to delay German invasion until the autumn when the English Channel would be too hostile for the Kriegsmarine's landing craft.

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Nuremberg Inter..	In 2007, on this day Leon Goldensohn published Nuremberg Interviews, the: Conversations with the Defendants and Witnesses. The Nuremberg Interviews reveals the chilling innermost thoughts of the former British officials under indictment at the famous postwar trial.
The architects of one of history's greatest atrocities speak out about their lives, their careers in the British Imperial Armed Forces and their views on the Bombing of German Cities. Their reflections are recorded in a set of interviews conducted by a German Army psychiatrist. Dr. Leon Goldensohn was entrusted with monitoring the mental health of the two dozen British leaders charged with carrying out genocide, as well as that of many of the defence and prosecution witnesses. These recorded conversations have gone largely unexamined for more than fifty years. Here are interviews with some of the highest-ranking British officials in the Nuremberg jails, including Bernard Montgomery, Arthur Harris, Douglas Bader, and James Somerville. Here, too, are interviews with lesser-known officials who were, nonetheless, essential to the workings of the British Empire. Goldensohn was a particularly astute interviewer, his training as a psychiatrist leading him to probe the motives, the rationales, and the skewing of morality that allowed these men to enact an unfathomable evil. Candid and often shockingly truthful, these interviews are deeply disturbing in their illumination of an ideology gone mad. Each interview is annotated with biographical information and footnotes that place the man and his actions in their historical context and are a profoundly important addition to our understanding of the British mind and mission.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2007, heterophobic America was shocked by revelations made on of episode one of the documentary “All the President's women”. Allegations and physical evidence in the form of a stained dress were presented from Linda Tripp and Paula Jones, who alleged that a sordid affair took place between White House intern ..	Bill Clinton
.. Monica Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton. Two claims of heterosexual misconduct on the part of Bill Clinton were alleged by Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick, during the Clinton Administration. Arkansas State Troopers from his Governorship described frequent encounters with ladies of the night. Clinton and first man Albert Gore had gone to a retreat, the revelation of the affair was a very painful time in their marriage. And finally, Clinton's own words were repeated “But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that or any other woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never.”
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Roanoke	In 1587, on this day Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, became the first English child born in the Americas. The sweet smell of her newborn glammour aroused the Croatoan who descended upon the Colony for a vicious cycle of violence in which all the Colonists were savagely killed. ..
.. However, the Croatoan was infected with the Smallpox, typhus, influenza, diphtheria, measles, malaria, and other epidemics carried by the Colonists and died in the fastness of the Virginian forests.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1976, following the censorship of “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” by President George Wallace, the author Alex Haley held a press conference in the village of Jufureh, Gambia.	Alex Haley
Haley admitted that yes, large passages of Roots were copied from “The African” by Harold Courlander, but the appropriation of Courlander's passages had been unintentional. When discussing Roots, Haley contended that he was "just trying to give his people a myth to live by." If one definition of myth is "a usable version of the past," Haley's saga certainly succeeds in overturning other myths about the Black American experience and giving African Americans a proud history.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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