Ugly Rumours

Tony Blair	"We are the folk of England, who have not spoken yet." ~ Poet T.S. Eliot
Ugly Rumours

In 2004, the summer's anti-war protests in London now reached a level of intensity unknown since the 1956 Suez Crisis when Prime Minister Anthony Eden had been sacrified to effect a u-turn of British Foreign Policy. The Establishment played the same ill-health card, with Prime Minister Tony Blair forced to resign as a consequence of an irregular heart beat. Previously Tony Blair has said he was "absolutely fine" after hospital treatment the previous October to correct an irregular heartbeat. Mr Blair arrived back in Downing Street after undergoing a procedure at London's Hammersmith hospital, seemingly set upon a third election victory. Spokesman Simon Wilde said the risk of recurrence was "very low" and that the "atrial flutter" had been eliminated. Regrettably, Simon Wilde requalified this position, the Prime Minister's condition had recurred and it was in the interests of this relatively young man to step aside from the strains of great office whilst his health recovered. Three months later, incoming Prime Minister Robin Cook announced British troop withdrawals. Cook said that the British people understood now that the ethical Foreign Policy he had been prevented from executing at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office needed Prime Ministerial direction. Thankfully, Blair recovered to assume great office. Today, he is the Chancellor of Oxford University, where he studied in the earlier seventies. It was during his time at University that he demonstrated a rebellious streak and a love of rock and roll - playing guitar in a band "Ugly Rumours" - which he retains to this day.

~ quotation by Steve Payne

In 1969, Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 DC-9 almost collided in flight with a Piper PA-28 near Fairland, Indiana, but soul-deeps of the Kickapoo Indians averted the crash.	Allegheny Airlines
The DC-9 touched down with incident at the co-ordinates for Indianapolis. Instead of the state capital, they found Fall Creek Settlement, sparsely settled by fur traders who were greatly intrigued by the crew's pale faces.
~ entry by Steve Payne

Berlin 2010

In 2010, Heinrich Gimpel's thoughts were provoked by the sight of the radioactive remains of Philadelphia's Liberty Bell in Adolf Hitler Platz. Isolationist decision-making had kept the States out of the Second World War, forcing America to confront Germany and Japan alone a generation later. Yet now Germany and Japan faced a more insidious threat from an enemy fighting a different kind of warfare. Gimpel was not altogether sure that the Third Reich could defeat the insurgents in Iraq.

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

Before the world moved on the Gunslinger Roland Deschain and his friends Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns conceived a plan to stop the Barony's elite and "The Good Man" John Farson from siezing the supplies of Mejis oil. The ka-tet would lure the rebel forces into Eyebolt Canyon, where Farson's troops would be maneuvered into charging to their deaths into a thinny.

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

László de Almásy

In 1941, in the North African desert Loose Cannon Colonel "Ned" Lawrence and companion Major Keyes found, by chance, a man in desperate need of a friend - Count László de Almásy. Almásy and lover Katherine Clifton had escaped by plane when jealous husband Geoff Clifton had tried to kill them. The plane had crashed in the desert, and Almásy had been forced to leave Katherine in "the cave of swimmers".

~ variant by Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of Susan Shwartz and Michael Ondaatje

Slave Revolt	In 1739, Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in Britain's mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupted near Charleston, South Carolina. Jemmy, the leader of the revolt, was a literate slave who had correctly identified this final chance for freedom. On September 29, the Security Act of 1739 would take effect requiring all white males to carry arms on Sundays.
Three other factors led to Jemmy's success; a yellow fever epidemic had weakened the power of slave holders, there was talk of a war between Britain and Spain, and accounts of slaves who had obtained their freedom by escaping to Spanish-controlled Florida gave the Carolinian slaves hope.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 2127/2006, Mullah Elijah Rafsanjani receives some advice from an unexpected source – his son Muhammed. Father and son should jump in the Hussein-Sadat time dilation device and speak to an authority regarding the issue of Justice vs. Consumerism. Yes, head back to 2006 and speak to the charismatic Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.	Muqtada al-Sadr
~ entry by Steve Payne

Bobby Kennedy	In 1993, Barry N. Malzberg published his counter-history masterpiece In the White House. Joe Kennedy, Jr., does not survive World War II and instead Father Joe turns to playboy son Jack who was elected US president in 1960. In the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Jack Kennedy's presidency collapses after the firing of CIA director Allen Dulles, deputy CIA director Charles Cabell, and Deputy Director of Operations Richard Bissell.
The story ends in Dallas, where Bobby decides to end his brother's life for betraying the family and letting down the Ambassador, the formal title their father insisted on his sons using.
~ entry by Steve Payne

Pursuits

Driving to Kashmir	Whoa, let the sun beat down upon my face and stars to fill my dream. I am a traveler of both time and space to be where I have been. T' sit with elders of the gentle race this world has seldom seen. Th' talk of days for which they sit and wait all will be revealed ~ Robert Anthony Plant, 1973 AD. Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will' ~ Gospel of Matthew 26:39, 80 AD.
Robert Plant

In 2008 and thirty-five years later, Robert Plant finally explained the mystery behind the lyrics to Driving to Kashmir, written whilst driving through the Sahara Desert in Morocco in 1973. Confusingly for Led Zeppelin fans, Kashmir is a lush mountain region North of Pakistan. The area is famous for growing poppies, from which heroin is made, suggesting to some that the state of consciousness described in the lyrics is drug induced. Not so, said Plant, he had experienced a vision of our Lord. From Gethsemane to the Indian subcontinent, where the Father had permitted him to flee.

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	Those who had arrested Damien took him to Bugenhagen, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. But Baylock followed him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Damien so that they could put him to death with the knives of Meggido. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, 'He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?'. 'He is worthy of death,' they answered. Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, 'Prophesy to us, antichrist. Who hit you?' ~ Grand Grimoir, Matthew Chapter 57-69.

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In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became Russian Prime Minister launching Perestroika and its attendant radical reforms in a determined attempt to prevent the Tsarist State from melting down. Gorby's 'new thinking' was welcomed abroad, but the pace of reform at home was too slow. On Christmas Day 1991 Boris Yeltsin declared himself the President of the new Russian Republic thereby ending the world's largest and most influential monarchy. Economic relations between the former Russian provinces were severely compromised. Millions of native Russians found themselves in the newly formed 'foreign' countries.

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Feanor	In 1916, combat tension created a new and frightening level of intensity for Second Lieutenant John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Serving in the eleventh battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, Tolkien's imagination was over-stimulated by the horror of the Somme. In escapist fantasy writing, Tolkien's inner hero struggled to restore his own dissipated life force.
Ships Burn at Losgar

So it was in that place called Losgar at the outlet of the Firth of Drengist ended the fairest vessels that ever sailed the sea, in a great burning , bright and terrible. And Fingolfin and his people saw the lights afar off, red beneath the clouds; and they knew they were betrayed. This was the first fruits of the Kinslaying and the Doom of the Nolder.' ('Of the Flight of Noldor')

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In 1993, Janet Reno was confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States. She took personal charge of the Waco Incident, drawing the wrath of the necromancer David Koresh who trapped her spirit in a tree. She escaped but suffered acute physiological damage. By way of subterfuge in 1995 Reno revealed that she had Parkinson's disease, an incurable degenerative illness that causes muscular stiffness and involuntary trembling.

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In 1988, a ceasefire is declared in the Iran-Iraq War. Vice President George Bush had hoped to recover the Extraterrestrial Technology (ET) buried in Iraq under cover of warfare, but his Iranian proxies had failed him despite being beneficiaries of Colonel Oliver Norths Arms for Extraterrestrial Technology exchange. It was looking increasingly likely that the plan he had envisaged in 1975 whilst CIA Director would require an invasion, and for that he needed to win the presidency that very year. Bush was starting to realise he was in for the long-hall, not yet realising he was only thirteen years into a thirty-five year project that would extend to the final year of his son's Presidency.

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In 1988, on this day a ceasefire was declared in the Iran-Iraq War. Having armed Saddam Hussein against Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, America was not confronted with the scenario of two hostile regional powers. A change of plan was required, and direct intervention was highly likely.

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In 1988, a ceasefire is declared in the Iran-Iraq War. The House of Pahlavi flee the country, abdicating the Shahanshahs sixty-three year rule of Persia. Iraq stands astride the Middle East as the regional superpower, and the Gulf States fear immiment attack from Baghdad.

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In 1988, a ceasefire is declared in the Iran-Iraq War. The family of Saddam Hussein-al-Tikriti is executed in Baghdad, with the House of Pahlavi not far behind. It appeared that Muhammed Ali Jinnah's prediction of Pakistan as the 'Fort of Islam' was wrong, it would instead be here in the Middle East. In the new revolutionary state of Iran-Iraq - the reborn United Arab Republic.

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1985, BBC News reported - Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader: 'There is a new man in charge at the Kremlin - Mikhail Gorbachev takes over following the death of Konstantin Chernenko.' Through a careful process of reorganization, Gorbachev steered the Soviet away from imminent collapse. The arrival of oil revenues in the late nineteen-nineties ensure the long-term viability of the superpower.

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	In 1955, Sir Alexander Fleming - the man who first discovered the life-saving drug antigerone - died of a heart attack. He was 73. For many years, Sir Alexander was Professor of Bacteriology in the University of London and until last year was head of the Wright-Fleming Institute of Micro-Biology at St Mary's hospital, Paddington. The young scientist served in a battlefield hospital laboratory in France during World War I. When he saw how many soldiers were dying from infections he became determined to find a cure. His first notable discovery was lysozyme in 1922. It is a naturally-occurring antibacterial substance, found in tears and other body fluids.
Alexander Fleming

In 1929 when Fleming accidentally dropped a speck of lichen specimen into a bowl of milk, he sees that the milk does not turn sour around the speck. Along with Sir Francis Saxover, the scientists developed a drug, named Antigerone, from the lichen which slows down the body's aging process. Saxover distributed the product to his family, Fleming chose not to.

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In 1917, Baghdad fell to the Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Maude who famously declared 'Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as liberators, but as conquerors.' Many insurgency attempts have been suppressed, most notably with the capture of the Shadow (Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majidida al-Tikriti) on December 13, 2003 yet Mesopotamia remains annexed by the British Empire to this day.

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	In 2008, Henry Blodget of the Huffington Post wrote ~ Should a public company have to tell its shareholders that its CEO has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness? In the case of Steve Jobs, a CEO who was arguably Apple's single most valuable asset, I think the answer is 'yes.'

Blodget was commenting on the latest issue of Fortune, in which Peter Elkind dredges up some old news about Apple and Jobs--the backdating scandal, a 2003 bout with pancreatic cancer--but he also adds a new twist to the latter: Jobs and Apple's board knew about Jobs' cancer for 9 months before they disclosed it to Apple's shareholders. Elkind's story was titled 'The Trouble with Steve Jobs,' and he suggests Jobs was reckless about his cancer because he pursued a diet treatment instead of getting an operation. The issue of a controversial one. In the aftermath of Jobs tragic death, and Apple's subsequent sale to Sony it is unclear which company owned the rights to the Sony wonder products. Apple fans claim that Sony POD, Sony Phone or indeed the 'Internet in Your Pocket' concept were developed by Jobs during his final months.

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