Straw Lady

The state of TIAH

January 30th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: We have a side-project that we are working on – a collection of several timelines with more-or-less complete stories inside them – The Fall, the Tolman timeline, the Mormon War and more – that will be up for sale on Lulu, as soon as we have it edited together. If you would be interested in this, or would like to suggest something for inclusion in the collection, please email me and let me know. And, speaking of side projects, Guest Historian Stephen Payne has one, Crimson Kiss, available for free on Lulu. Check it out after you enjoy his entry for today, an entry of our own, and the continuation of our NaNoWriMo novel.

Michael Collins	In 1913 the House of Lords approved the Irish Home Rule Bill, leading to the formation of the Free State. Tens of thousands of Irish deaths in the trenches were averted by this timely action on the very cusp of the First World War.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1933 Adolf Schicklgruber is sworn in as Chancellor of Austria. Schicklgruber set out to restore the shattered nation from the ashes of the Hapsburg defeat in World War I. His greatest triumph was of course the resistance of Anschluss (annexation) by Fuehrer und Reichskanzler Kurt von Schleicher of Germany.	Schicklegruber
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Ghandi	In 1948 Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Gandhi narrowly escapes an ..
.. assassination attempt by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. Bapu survived to guide the unified state of Hindustan through the turbulence of the mid-years of the century as surrounding nations threw off their ties to the European powers, a subjugation which the subcontinent had avoided.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1972 on Bloody Sunday, British Paratroopers kill fourteen Roman Catholic civil rights /anti internment marchers in Northern Ireland and destroy their honour and prestige on the island of Ireland. The straw lady Margaret Thatcher took Britain out of Northern Ireland altogether ..	Margaret Thatch..
.. during 1980, a capitulation which encouraged President Eva Perón to seize the Malvinas back in 1982. These two defeats stained Thatcher's reputation as the worst Prime Minister of the Twentieth Century who took the 'Great' out of 'Great Britain'. In reality 'Thatcher the Sovereignty Snatcher' was the victim of irreversible historical processes caused by the End of Empire, and she was forced to accelerate Britain's integration into the European Union during her second term of office, finding a new and compelling future for the island state.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

in 2006, the Angelic Host pushes out of the Mediterranean and begins its long march into northern Europe, Africa and Asia. European Union President and admitted Anti-Christ Morris Appleby goes on international television and advises everyone, “Start converting to Christianity right now. Ask forgiveness for everything you've done – and be specific about what you've done. I'm going to try it myself if they get too close to the capitol. Not quite sure how that'll work...”

After(cont.)
Senator Kerry agreed to push to Bryan and supply the president with some backup, and met with practically no resistance on the way. Mike, Steph and her children went along for the ride, grieving the entire way. When they got to Bryan, though, the reunion with Janice and Jake was joyous – Mike even attempted to hug Jake, which Jake rebuffed more gently than anyone else expected.
“So, what now?” Mike was seated at Kevin's computer. Kerry and Bush had gone off to Austin to pay a little visit on Governor Perry, and then were going to head on to Washington. “Are we out of the picture?”
Jake said, “I think so. Anybody who'd want us has bigger targets, now. We just gotta try and put our lives back together.”
“Easier said than done,” Steph said, rubbing her temples. “What about Kevin?”
“He has a sister who was refugeed out of Waco,” Janice answered. “They're trying to find her now. She's about to get good news and bad – she's a millionaire, but she's also an only child, now.” Her voice trembled a little bit, but she was holding it together. Steph's eyes grew bright with tears.
“Eli was already an only child,” Mike said. “His folks died a few years ago. We took out an insurance policy last year on each other. It was a joke.” His voice broke. “I guess I get to collect.”
“Maybe you and Kevin's sister can get together,” Janice said with a slight smile towards him. “You're both nouveau riche.” Mike's mouth twisted in a little grin.
“Can we go home, now?” Joan tried not to be whiny about it, but she had clearly had all the adventure she could take.
“They said we should wait a couple of days, baby,” Steph told her. “Then, we can try to get back to normal.” She looked over at Jake, who was standing behind Janice and rubbing her shoulders. “Or, at least as close to normal as we can get.” She stood up from Kevin's couch and said, “Who's hungry? I'm ready for lunch.”
“Kevin's fridge is a little bare at the moment,” Janice told her.
“That's OK,” Steph said. “I still got most of the twenty grand he gave me. We can eat out.”
They all piled into the SUV and drove into town to find a restaurant. Not knowing the town, they stopped at the first chain joint that they saw from the highway. It was practically deserted, so they grabbed a large table and ordered the best food on the menu. The three adults who weren't driving ordered alcohol; Steph got herself a soda.
Janice stood up and held her drink up in a toast. “Like that old Chinese curse – to interesting times.” They all murmured agreement and drank.

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Origin

	In 1809, Charles Robert Darwin was born on this day in Mount House, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The greatest fraud of the Victorian era, Darwin promoted 'the men from monkeys' hoax in his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (usually abbreviated to The Origin of Species) .

Satires, parodies and caricatures assaulted the hoax. The Church of England scientific establishment, including Darwin’s old Cambridge tutors Sedgwick and Henslow, reacted against the book. The most famous confrontation took place at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford. Professor John William Draper delivered a long lecture about Darwin and social progress, then Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, argued against Darwin. On being asked by Wilberforce whether he was descended from monkeys on his grandfather’s side or his grandmother’s side, Huxley muttered: 'The Lord has delivered him into my hands' and replied that he 'would rather be descended from an ape than from a cultivated man who used his gifts of culture and eloquence in the service of prejudice and falsehood'.

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In 1973, the Viet Cong released the first United States prisoners of war including the future President John Murtha. Under no illusions of the US role as a global policeman, Murtha would untangle American commitments around the world and later resign the US seat on the Security Council.

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In 1964, following his speech at Trenchard Hall on the campus of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, Malcom X attended a reception in the Students' Union Hall held for him by the Muslim Students' Society. During this reception the students bestowed upon him the name 'Omowale', meaning 'the son returns home' in the Yoruba language. Little was to play a vital diplomatic role two years later, preventing the great nation of Nigeria from descending into civil war. He asked Generals Gowon and Ojukwu the simple question - who benefits, alluding to european aggitation in black Africa's largest economy.

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	In 1942, Chairman of the Israeli Liberation Organisation (ILO) Ehud Barak was born Mishmar HaSharon, British Mandate of Palestine. Barak was in charge of the Siege of Beirut that took place in the summer of 1982 as a result of the breakdown of the Arab-Israeli cease-fire effected by the League of Nations. It ended with the ILO evacuating Beirut by sea in humiliating fashion and thus being forced out of Lebanon by the Palestinian Defense Force.

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	In 1809, a boy named Abraham Lincoln was born in a small cabin in Hodgenville, Kentucky. He grew up to become President of the United States, lead the country through a civil war, and survive not one but two assassination attempts in his three terms in office. Although the rights of the freed slaves in the former Confederacy suffered in the lax occupation he forced on them, he did ensure their freedom, and helped millions of them emigrate to the northern states.

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	In 1999, on a nearly straight party-line vote, President Hillary Clinton is acquitted in her impeachment trial. The nation's first woman president was a target for the Republican Party from the day she was elected in 1996, and they thought that charges of illegality in an old land deal, long since proven false, could provide cover for them to remove her from office. The nation thought otherwise; she won reelection in 2000 by a landslide.

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In, 4082 BCE, a descendant of Telka the Speaker named Icarus, a Hellene, constructs the first working flying machine that has been successful for the Speaker's Line. He demonstrates it for his clan, and during the leap from a cliff, he manages to soar over a hundred feet in the area. A support breaks while he is flying, though, and he falls to his death. The Speaker's Line learns from his example, and moves on.

In 1951, Soraya Esfandiary Bakhtiari married the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi at Golestan Palace in Teheran at the age of 17. Thirty years later their first born son would re-establish the House of Pahlavi, leading the nation out of the chaos wrought by Ayatollah Khomeini.

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	In 1994, BBC News reported: Art thieves snatch Scream - 'One of the world's best-known paintings, The Scream by Edvard Munch, is stolen from a museum in Norway. Two men took just 50 seconds to climb a ladder, smash through a window of the National Art Museum in Oslo and cut The Scream, by Edvard Munch, from the wall with wire cutters. The cutters were left behind along with a short ladder as the men fled with the painting.

The entire incident was filmed by security cameras. The director of the museum, Knut Berg, said, 'It is impossible to estimate the value of the painting. 'But it is Norway's most valuable, Munch's most renowned, and it would be impossible to sell.' The canvass was discovered in Oslo a few hours later, there were now four figures standing behind the protagonist.

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In 1994, two men disappeared from the National Art Museum in Oslo. The museum curator, Mr. Carlin ushered the men through the building, fully aware that the pair were thieves on an impossible mission to steal Edvard Munch's iconic painting 'The Scream'. Realising the pointlessness of their mission, the unconcerned Carlin recounted the storied history of the painting, which has been plagued by incidents of attempted theft. Carlin tells the skeptical Spangler the image of the Reaper is rumored to appear in the painting, standing close to the viewer. The thieves scoffed, but felt unnamable horror when they looks into the mirror. As Carlin relates the history of a high school boy who saw the Reaper and disappeared without a trace, the pair becomes ill and rushed out of the second floor never to appear again.

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In 1989, BBC News reported: 1989: Belfast lawyer Finucane murdered - 'Leading solicitor Pat Finucane has been shot dead at his home in north Belfast. The killers burst in as he was eating his Sunday dinner with his wife and three children. Two gunmen showered him with 14 bullets and shot his wife in the ankle. Mrs Finucane is being treated in hospital for gunshot wounds to her legs. The hijacked taxi the gunmen escaped in has been found in the Protestant Shankhill Road area.' Irreversible historical processes in Northern Ireland continued to drive the country towards Civil War.

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In 1934, the Austrian Civil War began. Order is restored by Chancellor Adolf Schicklgruber who found a new role for the nation as it climbed out of the ashes of defeat from World War I and the dissolution of the Hapsburg Empire.

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In 1691, the Williamite Army abandons the siege of Dublin. By now the war in Ireland is seen as more or less a stalemate. It is clear that James will not be able to invade England and remount the throne, but it seems increasingly unlikely that William will gain control over Ireland. James' advisors are beginning to convince him to accept William's control over England and Scotland, in the short time at least. And consoladate control over Ireland. King William is facing similar calls to 'let the papists go' [continued from July 1st 1690, continues October 3rd 1691]

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