The Log Cabin President

ALTERNATE HISTORIAN'S NOTE: Thank you all for the donations. We truly appreciate them, and they have helped keep us going! On a less happy note, we didn't have enough entries for our Valentine's Day contest to make up an entire post, so everyone who entered will be seeing their posts on that day, along with some by your alternate historian. Please send us entries for our next contest, which will be an Alternate April Fool's Day, April 1st, 2006. Just send us the entries for now - we'll decide on a deadline later. (Contest rules) And, another cool thing - Let us know where you are on Frappr!

February 12th, 2006

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 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.

in 1904, Q’B’Ton’ra’s fleet enter’s the Oort cloud at the edge of earth’s solar system, where they are engaged by the Congress of Nations’ defensive force. Admiral Hamid gives Q’B’Ton’ra a choice – “Leave our solar system alive, or leave your spirit here.” Q’B’Ton’ra’s response is to order his vessels to fire on Hamid’s ship, and the battle begins.

in 4608, Hsuan T’ung, cousin to Emperor Chengzu and prince of the Manchurian Province, abdicates his throne and enters the monastery. His spiritual leadership sparks a revival of the flagging monastic life, and rebirth of religious life in the Chinese Empire.

in 1918, after arguing over whether to let Milo Cranston go, Velma Porter and Mikhail von Heflin search the Caesar Augustus for him. Both can sense his presence now that they know to look for it, but he manages to evade them. In his hiding spot, Cranston and the being in the gem he holds make an unholy pact.

in 1973, Lieutenant Ralph Shephard is blinded by an accidental spraying of Agent Orange on his position in Vietnam. He is unable to see for several days, and sent back to the United States to recuperate. While he is still recovering, the United States begins its pullout from the country; it is the first military loss for the U.S. and it incenses Shephard so much that he begins a political party called the Constitutionalist Party to challenge the status quo.

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.

in 2003, Comrade Malcolm Turner of the Boston People's Symphony announced his retirement from public life in order to care for his wife, Susanne, who had been stricken with breast cancer. Although his presence at the BPS was missed, (as well as the music he produced under the pseudonym Random), music lovers across the Soviet States of America expressed their sympathies for the venerable musician.

in 2005, Chelsea Perkins finds that the transformation spell that has her currently looking like a 40-year old man doesn't have a reversal – she will have to cast the spell again in order to regain her real form. Her “teacher”, Alma May Watson, somewhat bemused at the situation, gets to give her a much-deserved 'I told you so.'

in 2005, Jeanne Best and Dave Lange undergo plastic surgery in order to change their appearance; the Save Earth movement knows a doctor who is sympathetic to the cause. After surgery, they recuperate at a safe house in Arizona, and begin getting drilled on the details of their new identities. Best, in particular, feels overwhelmed by the massive change in her life, but the two are unwilling to again be part of the masses who have no idea about the Claws.

Timelines in today's post: the Speaker, the Mlosh, the Chinese Empire, von Heflin, the Ralph Shephard timeline, Communist America, The Claw, and the Chelsea Perkins timeline

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Rock On, Rock On

July 13th, 2007

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The Announcement

Lance let it drop. “What do you think are the chances we'll be able to catch the probe.”
Now, Andrea went into professional mode. This was a question she'd been thinking about since they'd confirmed the probe's trajectory. “Pretty good, actually. We've got several scenarios we're thinking of right now. During the committee meeting, we'll finalize the one we think will work the best, and then the shuttle will be up to implement it with a couple of days to spare. I anticipate it going really well.”
Lance grinned, an evil little smirk. “You realize that the day it's going to connect with the shuttle is Friday the 13th?”
“Just another day.”
“Wasn't that what the guy in Apollo 13 said?”
“No, he said 13 was just another number,” she corrected him. “Friday the 13th is going to be lucky for us.”
He nodded and sipped at his soda. “That's a good quote. Mind if I get my cameraman over here to film you saying that?”
She looked over at the cameraman, who was wolfing down a plate piled high with her relatives' food. “Don't you think that's a little staged?”
“These things always are. How do you think the good soundbites get out there?”
Andrea chuckled and shook her head. “You're going to destroy my faith in the system.”
“Then my work here is done,” Lance said, walking over to where the cameraman was enjoying the company of two of Andrea's cousins while he ate. They spoke briefly, and the cameraman reluctantly got up and readied his equipment.
When they saw that Andrea was about to be filmed, several relatives started drifting over to place themselves conveniently in the background. She got a little nervous; she'd appeared on camera a couple of times already, but it wasn't the kind of thing she'd signed on for when she made her career choice. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to zen out.
The camera pointed at her and Lance pulled out the wireless mike and asked her, “Doctor Ross, you realize that the shuttle's going to connect with the probe on Friday the 13th?”
“Just another day.” She remembered her line – he smiled at her.
“Wasn't that what Tom Hanks said in Apollo 13?”
He had modified his line; what a professional. “No, he said 13 was just another number. Friday the 13th is going to be a lucky day for us.”
“Cut,” Lance said the cameraman, who stopped recording and lowered the camera. Andrea's family all applauded, and Lance waved at them. Andrea dropped her head, embarrassed. “Good job, doc. I think we'll probably wander around a bit and get some background on you from your folks, here.”
“All right,” she said, “just don't eat too much.”

In 2009, TV networks ran episode four of So What If?. Enoch Powell's apocalyptic warnings of Rivers of Blood proves all too prescient. The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher sends an elite force of Royal Marines and Paratroopers to cauterize the Channel Tunnel. Before Colonel H Jones can detonate the bomb at Sangatte, the British position is overrun by vampires. Held at bay since 1917, the Red Menace finally swept into Britain.

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

"Just another empty gesture with an empty glass Just another comic actor behind a tragic mask But I've got no discipline got no self control Just a little less painful here when my back's against the wall It's too late, I found, it's too far, I'm in two minds, both of them are out of it at the bar When you say I got a problem that's a certainty But I can put it all right down to eccentricity
Fish	It's just for the record it's just a passing phase Just for the record I can stop any day. Just for the record I'm gonna change my life around " ~Lyrics to Just for the Record
Tortured Genius

In 1987, tension had eased considerably between the troubled members of the Prog band Marillion at the Westside Studios in London. The recording of Just for the Record was the carthatic moment when lead singer Fish decided to reconnect with himself and stay with the band to the fierce joy of fans everywhere.

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

"We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves...
Lyndon Johnson	... I told [the Generals] to let Vietnam go the way of China. And then I want ‘em to leave me alone, because I’ve got some bigger things to do right here at home." ~ Address at at Akron University, Ohio Oct. 21, 1964.
President

On Oct. 21, 1964 at Akron University, Ohio LJB overturned the Truman Doctrine and the Domino Theory to rationalise his non-intervention strategy in Vietnam. Despite provocations such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Johnson pursued a domestic agenda and built the “Great Society” through to re-election in 1964 and 1968. A transcript of Johnson's speech is described at Bartleby

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

Adolf Hitler	"Why, twenty years after his death and forty years after the end of World War II, do we have Hitler Defeated, an anthology of eleven stories set in various alternative worlds in which the, uh, Iron Dream of Nazi Germany ends in the rubble of the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin?" ~ Norman Spinard
Murderer

Benford & Greenberg present a whole series of futures made possible by the plausible premise of a defeated Ten-Year Reich. The Amazon Review is available at Amazon.com Review

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

"May I have your attention please? Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? Jaws all on the floor like Pam, like Tommy just burst in the door and started whoopin her worse than before
Eminem	... they first were divorce, throwin her over furniture (Ahh!) It's the return of the... Ah, wait, no way, you're kidding, he didn't just say what I think he did, did he?" ~ Eminem's Says His Name in 1998.
Rapper

Gangsta rapper and producer Dr. Dre discovered a demo tape to Shady EP floating around Interscope label president Jimmy Iovine's office. Unable to contact Eminem in Los Angeles, Dre was shocked to discover that the young artist real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III had recently died of a massive drug overdose. He also discovered that the young artist suffered from a multiple personality disorder. "He had reached a boiling point, doing a lot of drugs and messed up stuff because he was so depressed," his wife said later. "There were at least three people in our apartment, my husband Marshall Bruce Mathers III, the frustrated artist Eminem and also the narcotics loaded alter-ego Slim Shady." A transcript of Eminem's story is told at The Moments

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne: expletives removes from source content.

Seven Days in M..	In 1962, Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey published a semi-fictional novel “Seven Days in May”, later adapted into a 1964 film with screenplay by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer. The scenario of the film may have been inspired by the clash between General Curtis LeMay and President John F. Kennedy. ..
.. LeMay, furious after the Cuba crisis for not being allowed to use his atomic bombs, removed the President from power. A later film, Thirteen Days, refers to this clash; in it, LeMay is directly quoted as calling Kennedy a traitor to the United States. “Seven Days in May” poses the question – what would have happened to America if LeMay's bold action had not been taken, and Kennedy indeed had surrendered to Secretary Khruschev?
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1985, septuagenarian President Ronald Reagan underwent eight hours of surgery to remove polyps from his colon. George H.W. Bush became the first Vice President to become Acting President which was just as well because Reagan expired during the surgery. Bush was sworn in following a short delay in which the Acting President, ..	Oliver North
.. Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall performed some routine maladministration. They criminally shredded pertinent documents relating to the arms sales to Iran which funded Contra militants in Nicaragua. They were securing the Gipper's reputation, they figured.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Abul Kalam Azad	In 1912, Leader of the Indian freedom movement and scholar, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (free) brought out his noted Urdu news journal, al-Hilal. Azad would serve as Congress President from 1940 to 1945, during which the Quit India rebellion was launched. Alongside Mahatma Gandhi, Azad was imprisoned for three years and ..
.. then executed with the entire Congress leadership. Churchill meant it when he said he would not preside over the end of the British Empire. Adrienne Gormley recounted the true story in her brilliant 1996 biography "Children of Tears".
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1948, the Coptic and Ethiopian Churches reached an agreement leading to the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalous Patriarchate. It was entirely reasonable, for thousands of years the Ethiopians had kept the Ark of the Covenant under constant guard in a "treasury" near the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion.	Ark of the Cove..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Happy Birthday Robbie!

August 14th, 2007

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The Announcement

Co-Historian Says: I didn't hear from the boss yesterday so we must assume the weekend's computer surgery is still a work in progress or birthday parties in Texas get started real early. Hopefully this will be edited with his birthday stories later tomorrow.

Alternate Historian's Belated Addition: Thanks for the birthday wishes and getting the page up while we were having computer difficulties, Steve. Perhaps we should have brought Vesta over while delving into that alternate reality...
I have one alternate birthday poster for myself – but there's still plenty of time for you to send in alternate birthdays for Steve (November 22, 1967). Surely all you conspiracy-minded types can come up with a connection between him and certain other events that happened on that day!
Today, I am The Answer. It all seems so clear, now. If only I knew what The Question was. A lot has happened in the 2 years plus 4 decades since my birth. The hospital I was born in is now an office building; the house I grew up in belongs to other people; the city I have called home for most of my life has added a hundred thousand or so people to its population. I've been from one side of this continent to the other, and even left the continent for a brief stay in the “Old Country”. I took a stab at The Dream in Los Angeles, I found my dream girl right here at home, and now I have a baby. Along the way, I lost several family members, a few friends, and many preconceptions about what life was all about. I also gained new family members, new friends, and built a whole series of preconceptions about what life should really be about. I've had epiphanies, life-changing moments, death-defying leaps, and built plenty of character – and I'm still striving for all those things I wanted to be when I grew up. Now that I've reached The Answer, I realize that I'm looking at less time left to do everything I still have planned, and so I have to prioritize. But, how do you prioritize what you love?
42!
No, that's not The Question...

Alternate Birthday Post On August 14, 1965, Robert A. Taylor was born. His first brush with notoriety--decades before his phenomenal publishing career and his marriage to pop singer/sensation Cheryl Vernon--came when he won the district spelling bee at Stephen F. Austin Junior High School and went on to national finals in Washington, D.C. Robbie was invited to the white house after his successful spelling of "synchronicity" and was give the opportunity to speak factually with Jimmy Carter about the concerns of American Youth. The young Taylor's stance on alternative energy became the capstone of Carter's second term as president and may have been the actual turning point of America's conversion from fossil fuels to more reliable and environmentally sound alternatives. In his diary, released consequent with his Nobel Peace Prize, Carter admitted to the world: "I was listening to this kid. He had my full attention. He told me what to do and asked me if I'd really do it? If he hadn't asked me that, I probably wouldn't have done it all. But I made a promise to him and I had to keep it." The rest, as they say, was history. - post by George Wier, whose Bill Travis Mysteries can be found on our links at the side -

In 2008, California based enterprise software author Macrosoft Inc. narrowly beat Saab Motor cars of Sweden to win the prestigious award for "zero defects product of 2007". The International Standards Agency reported that the code engineering in Macrosoft Vesta had defined new best practice in process standards. The significance of protests at the awards ceremony was "de-emphasised" by Macrosoft executives. Many of these individuals had pessimistically disbelieved the minimum system requirements for Vesta, and had proactively purchased 2GB of DDR2 RAM. In fact, Macrosoft had squeezed the new operating system into 256MB under which it performed flawlessly, enabling the Corporation to offer no charge upgrades to domestic and developing country charities who had received end of life PCs. (Western consumers had been under the misapprehension they would not longer run multimedia applications and had wastefully transhipped units that could adequately run Vesta.) Many North American businesses admitted they too were slow off the mark, holding out for Service Packs that were of course never required to achieve this remarkable stable platform. As a consequence, they had failed to leverage the compelling business benefits that could be attained by raising employee performance through the productivity enhancing interface.

~ entry from Co-historian Steve Payne:

"It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists.
Eric Blair	Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not cogs in the capitalist machine. In the barber's shops were Anarchist notices solemnly explaining that barbers were no longer slaves.." ~ Eric Arthur Blair in “Homage to Catalonia”
George Orwell

In 1936, Eric Arthur Blair describing his role in the Spanish Civil War, an event that would have huge long-term consequences for the people of Europe. The full article is available at Amazon

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

Bless my cotton socks I'm in the news The king sits on his face buttons all askew All wrapped up the same All wrapped up the same
The Teardrop Explodes	They can't have it You can't have it I can't have it too Until I learn to accept my reward ~ Lyrics to “Reward” - Click to Watch Sample
Marvel comic: Daredevil No.77

In 1981, at the height of their popularity, the English Post Punk/Neo-Psychedelic band received a legal challenge from the owners of Marvel comic book. Without their permission, Lead singer Julian Cope had taken the name of the band from No. 77 of the comic Daredevil published in 1960. During the dispute, Julian Cope found a new target for venting his anger. Cope spent the majority of his career raging at the “greedheads” who compromised his artistic excellence with commercial imperatives. The lyrics are available at at Always on the Run

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

In 1980, the actor Steve McQueen enjoyed a dramatic remission of Cancer following a mysterious visit to Florida. McQueen's wealth had bankrolled an increasingly desperate worldwide search for a cure. To this day, speculation continues that the actor had been led to the Fountain of Youth by sympathetic First Nation indigenes whose cause McQueen had supported throughout the seventies.

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

In 1942, monumentally tough old infantryman General Bluemel told captured General Douglas MacArthur to snap out of it. The anguished MacArthur had suffered not just the Command failure of defeat, but the death of wife and son when his escaping destroyer was sunk during the Japanese conquest of the Philippines But all of the American officers at the old Spanish Prison in Manilla have misread the reason for MacArthur's preoccupied thoughts. "General Robert E. Lee often said that duty was the most sublime word in the language. Gentleman, we all know the duty of a soldier who has been captured." MacArthur spoke further of escape, he had plans to fade away.

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

Rev. Martin Lu..	In 1482, to pass the long night of six hundred years at St. George El Mina Castle, a new soft voice spoke to Kwame. ”From every mountainside, let freedom ring... and when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village ..
.. and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! ”
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1943, on this day Winston Churchill wrote the immortal first line “Now this is not the end. ... But it is, perhaps, the beginning of the end.. " Containing speeches given at the turning point of the war, following defeats at Alamein and ..	Winston Churchi..
.. Stalingrad and the abortive North Africa landings “The Beginning of the End” is a remarkable insight into the events leading up to “Churchill's Last Stand” in the Middle East.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Prince Albert	In 2004, on this day the editor Peter Tsouras finalised the short stories entries for his compendium “Union Victorious”. This Anthology of ten speculative articles featured Andrew Uffindell's masterpiece "Hell on Earth: Anglo-French Stand Aside in the Civil War". The story turns in 1860, when Prince Albert escapes ..
.. death in a carriage accident and was alive a year later to moderate the British government's reaction to the Trent Incident. Confederate agents fail to escalate the Union-British tension with manufactured incidents along the Canadian border. The U.K. Determines not to intervenes in the American Civil War. Except for some early success around the Great Lakes, the Confederacy is eventually forced to sue for peace.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1976/1750, in New York City LeVar Burton suffers the most vivid nightmare of his entire life. The young actor dreams he is brutally forced into slavery in 18th century America. Assigned to work as a field laborer on a southern ..	Kunte Kinte
.. plantation, he attempts to escape and is severely punished. The following morning, Burton receives a telephone call from the author Alex Haley, who makes an incredible offer.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Not Fade Away

August 13th, 2007

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The Announcement

Co-Historian Says: I've not heard from the boss today so I'm assuming yesterday's computer surgery is still a work in progress or birthday parties in Texas get started real early. He would want me to remind you to send in your alternate birthdays for him (August 14, 1965) and me (November 22, 1967) for our Birthday Contest!

In 2004, the fall of the Third Temple predicted thirty years before by Moshe Dayan progressed from strong probability to certain fact in the State of Israel. Troops of the Arab Legion shelled the State compound in which the defiant Ariel Sharon was cornered. A long siege was lifted only when Sharon died of a massive brain tumour eighteen months later.

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

In 1990, singer, songwriter and guitarist Curtis Mayfield narrowly avoided major injury when stage lighting equipment fell and narrowly missed him at an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York. Mayfield forged ahead, wrote, sang and directed the recording of New World Order with the legendary guitarist, Edmund Darris.

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

In 1997, gangsta rapper and producer Dr. Dre discovered a demo tape to Slim Shady recorded by unknown artist Eminem floating around Interscope label president Jimmy Iovine's office.	Eminem
"The first day we worked together," said Dre, "we worked for, like, five or six hours and achieved nothing." "My Name Is" was one of the songs. "Em came in real quiet, real humble," says Richard "Segal" Huredia, the engineer on the track. "Once he got on the mike, though, his lack of energy was a real problem. Which was a shame with him doing all these different voices -- we'd never heard any thing like that before. At one point, we were all just vibing to the beat, and he turns around and goes, 'Hi, my name is. . . .' We were like, 'That's kinda catchy.' " The problem suffered by Eminem predated 1997. Eminem had a one-year-old daughter at home and few commercial prospects. Determined to give the music business one more shot, he recorded the Slim Shady EP and moved from Detroit to Los Angeles. "I was reaching a boiling point, doing a lot of drugs I was so depressed," Eminem real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III said later. "When Dre called, I just wasnt able to lift my game."
~ entry by Co-Historian Steve Payne

"I had joined the militia almost immediately, because at that time and in that atmosphere it seemed the only conceivable thing to do. The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcleona was something startling and overwhelming.
Eric Blair	It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists." ~ Eric Arthur Blair in “Homage to Catalonia”
George Orwell

In 1936, Eric Arthur Blair describing his role in the Spanish Civil War, an event that would have huge long-term consequences for the people of Europe. The full article is available at Amazon

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

In 1942, in Manila captured General Douglas MacArthur was marched into custody by a dozen Japanese guards. The other POWs he joined at the old Spanish Prison were fellow American officers who were also captured during the Japanese conquest of the Philippines MacArthur's tragedy was not just the Command failure of defeat, but the death of wife and son when his escaping destroyer was sunk. His trademark cap was gone, service uniform filthy and his skin drawn tight; already an old man, he looked a hundred years old - yet MacArthur had no plans to fade away.

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

In 1975, in a ground-breaking event subsequently described by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the "50 Moments That Changed Rock and Roll", Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band began a five-night, 10-show stand at New York's Bottom Line club. The event attracted major media attention, and was broadcast live on WNEW-FM. In a reprise of the club gigs played in the 1960s, Springsteen took on the task of collecting the band's nightly pay and distributing it amongst his bandmates, explaining his longstanding nickname "The Boss."

~ entry from Co-Historian Steve Payne

Fontella Bass	In 1482, to pass the long night of six hundred years at St. George El Mina Castle, a new and vibrant voice sings to Kwame. ”Baby, Rescue me, oh, take me in your arms Rescue me, I want your tender charms cause I’m lonely and I’m blue, I want you and your ..
.. love true Come on and rescue me ”
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1956, delegates of the European Monarchies met for the Berlin 2 Conference. The nomenclature recognised the historic link to the Berlin Conference of 1884-5 when representatives of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the French Third Republic and German Empire achieved common agreement on the competing power's ..	Congress of Ber..
.. interest. Today they had a common interest, and that was co-coordinating efforts to suppress the wave of nationalism sweeping the African continent. His Excellency Harold “Supermac” Macmillan opened the Conference with a key note speech. In a nutshell the mineral wealth of the continent was vital to continued European hegemony of the globe.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Winston Churchi..	In 2004, on this day the editor Peter Tsouras finalised the short stories entries for his compendium “Churchill Triumphant: Alternate Decisions of World War II”. This Anthology of eleven speculative articles featured "May Day: The Premiership of Winston Churchill". In this somewhat far fetched account, Halifax, ..
.. a relatively popular candidate for the post of Prime Minister, hurriedly rules himself out, arguing that he would not be able to direct the war from the House of Lords. On May 8 1940, Neville Chamberlain meets with Halifax, Churchill and Margesson, who determined that if Labour should decline to serve under Chamberlain then Churchill would have to try to form a government.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1976/1767, inexplicably set in a back country village near the great river, the King's men entered a dream for the actor Thalmus Rasulala. He watches a young boy go into the forest to cut wood, and never comes back. After awakening, Rasulala could ..	Thalmus Rasulal..
.. make absolutely no sense of the dream. Then the telephone rang, it was the author Alex Haley, about to make him the most incredible offer.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Nuremberg

The state of TIAH

December 18th, 2006

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Alternate Historian's Note: Stephen Payne provides the alternate history as we begin the second half of our NaNoWriMo novel. We hope you are enjoying this change in format – let us know how you feel about it in comments or by emailing us. This will be the format of TIAH throughout the holiday season, unless we receive a great outcry about it. Speaking of the Holiday Season, keep in mind those who need help year-round and keep yourselves safe and happy, as well. And, should you feel generous inclinations towards our guest historians, you can visit the sites of those who have separate ones from TIAH; generosity towards us here at the Academy is always appreciated, too, and you can find ways to help us out all over the site. Right now, we'd appreciate a lead on a good day job, but my lovely Co-Historian could also use some more memory on her PC, if anyone feels generously inclined. (It's PC133-style – yes, it's an old machine). Any good wishes you have towards us can be emailed here.

in 1946, Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader CBE DSO and Bar DFC and Bar FRAeS DL LegH CdeG RAF is informed by guards at Nuremberg that he should prepare himself for execution on Christmas Eve. He commits his remaining time to writing a robust defence of the controversial Big Wing theory, an aggressive policy of assembling large formations of defensive fighters north of London ready to inflict maximum damage on the massed German bomber formations as they flew over South East England. History records that the leaders of Fighter Command Air Marshal Hugh Dowding and Air Vice Marshal Keith Park had instead chosen careful husbanding tactics, contributing in no small part to the British defeat in the air war at the hands of the more aggressive Luftwaffe. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1982, Herr Major Hans-Ulrich Rudel, the famous World War 2 Stuka dive-bomber pilot, dies in Rosenheim, Grossdeutschland. Rudel is famous for being the most highly decorated German serviceman of the war. He was awarded Germany's highest military decoration, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Rudel flew 2530 combat missions and successfully attacked many tanks, trains, ships and other ground targets, claiming a total of 2000 targets destroyed - including 519 tanks, a battleship, two cruisers and a destroyer. He also shot down 9 aircraft. Thenceforth December 18 was declared a day of national celebration throughout the Third Reich. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1990, former Minister of Defence Michael Heseltine receives an odd visitor at his Member of Parliament's surgery in Henley-upon-Thames. The man gives Heseltine an envelope which he opens later that afternoon. A solitary piece of paper has a black and white photograph of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, President George Bush and a number of senior officials including Secretary of State James Baker. Cut-out newspaper letters below spell out “All of them witches”. Heseltine laughs nervously. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

After(cont.)
The table held more than enough food for everyone. Jake and Janice were already digging in as Steph and Kevin sat down. The kids had been more polite, waiting for their mother before serving themselves. Everyone piled their plates with food, especially Janice, who told Steph, “This looks great, Steph. I haven't had any real food since the day before yesterday.”
Steph raised an eyebrow at Jake, who just shook his head.
Kevin just took one chicken-fried steak, a small dollop of corn and potatoes, and a roll. He ate small bites of the food, but didn't seem very interested in it. He did tell Steph, who was seated just to his left, “This is great, Steph.”
She beamed at him, and her smile lightened him up a bit. He tucked into the food a little more enthusiastically. Janice, meanwhile, was grabbing a second steak. “Yeah, Steph, it's awesome.”
“Glad you like it,” she said, laughing at Janice's appetite. The kids were pretty healthy eaters, too, but Janice was shoveling it down.
George, who had placed himself next to his father, asked, “So, dad, did you see any dead bodies in Waco? Or zombies?”
“I sure felt like a zombie, gettin' up as early as I did,” Jake said, looking at Janice and Kevin. Kevin looked down at his plate, but Janice looked over at Jake.
“You need to tell them,” she said to Jake.
Kevin looked up sharply, but Jake just nodded. Kevin asked, “Is that a good idea, Sergeant?”
“No, but they're sharin' the same risk we are. They deserve to know.”
“What do we deserve to know?” Steph felt a twinge at the bottom of her stomach. She looked at her three guests suspiciously now. “What is it, Jake?”
“I don't know if the kids should hear this, Steph.” Jake looked at his son and daughter, who looked back at him apprehensively.
“Well, you've already scared 'em, they might as well know why.”
“Oh, for God's sake,” Janice said, throwing down the fourth roll she had picked up. “There wasn't any nuke in Crawford. The president is very much alive, this whole emergency thing is a big fraud, and somebody may be after us.” She picked her roll back up and tore a big hunk off with her teeth.
Steph looked at Jake, who couldn't meet her eyes, then over at Kevin, who nodded acknowledgment of what Janice had just said. “We all saw the ranch,” he muttered, but the table was so silent that every word was heard clearly. “I saw him walking around like nothing was going on. Like it was just another day.”
Steph was looking out the window at her neighbors' house. “The Johnson's,” she whispered. “Those poor people killed themselves, and it was all over a... a hoax?” Kevin nodded and laid his hand on top of hers. “And, what was that about somebody bein' after you?”
Jake looked at Joan and George. “I don't know if y'all want to hear this,” he said to them.
“I saw Mr. Johnson's body, dad,” Joan told him. “I want to hear more.”
George, though, looked a little sick. “Can I be excused?”
“Sure, baby,” Steph said, going over to him and hugging him tightly. She reached a hand out to Joan, who took it in both of hers. Jake looked on awkwardly; Janice thought that she saw his arms reflexively move toward his ex-wife and children, but he restrained himself. After a moment, Steph let go of George, and he ran from the room. She sat down next to Joan and hugged her tightly. There were tears in their eyes as they turned back to the others and Steph said, “All right, tell us everything.”

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Homecomings

Kung Fu - the Legend Continues

In 1993, a spin off to the 1972-75 television series Kung Fu - the Legend Continues was filmed in Toronto, Ontario. Kwai Chang Caine played by David Carradine is the main character of the series, a shaolin priest and leader of a Shaolin temple located somewhere in California a good 15 years before the series begins. He is also the grandson of Kwai Chang Caine from the 19th century.

In recognition of the controversy from the first series, Bruce Lee was offered the role of the Ancient/Ping Hai an old and mysterious "wise man" who has accumulated much ancient mystic, herbal and historical knowledge, as well as being quite capable of defending himself even in his old age. It is revealed at the end of the series that he was one of the overseeing monks (along with Caine) of the Shaolin temple in California that was destroyed 15 years ago. The Ancient's real name is Ping Hai, though, it is quite easy to arrive at this conclusion after watching only a few episodes of the series and seeing the numerous flash backs which are a regular part of every episode. He plays a significant supporting role throughout the series.

Vanilla Ice	In 2007, editor Mike Resnick published a long-awaited sequel to Alternate Tyrants. The new anthology included the Nebula Award winning short story "If you gotta a problem, yo I'll solve it". Barbara Delaplace presented the story in memory of the late Jack Haleman with whom she co-wrote That'll Be The Day in the first volume.
The story opens with Head Home Boy George W Bush contemplating the invasion of Iraq. "The UN's gonna have a cow, homes. I gotta tell ya', he tells Top Legal Beagle Vanilla Ice, 'I'm not so sure this is going to fly'". Click to watch the Clip

George Wallace	In 1976, in the White House, 37th US President George Wallace is a troubled man. He had struck a Faustian pact with the devil to take the '72 election, and somehow forces were conspiring to frustrate his segregationist plans in the year of re-election. His plans were, after all, simply Standing up for America. Plans that Wallace will continue when he beats fellow southerner, the “Georgia Giant” Jimmy Carter later that year.

In 2000, editor Robert Cowley published Eisenhower Victorious: The D-Day Options. In this set of counter-historical short stories, a number of scenarios are played out in which the Normandy Landings succeed. Perhaps most shockingly is Stephen E. Ambroke's contribution, "D Day Succeeds: Conventional Alternatives in Europe", in which Operation Overlord is pursued without nuclear weapons and Hitler is still defeated. The end is mercifully short, Hitler is assassinated at the Army Headquarters by Generals who detonate a bomb in a briefcase to stop the senseless slaughter.	What If?

Alek	In 1963, a Soviet double named Alek left Mexico City and returned by bus to Dallas, where he looked for employment under the false name of Lee Harvey Oswald. The look-alike was a close match for the murdered US marine, apart from missing a scar that resulted from surgery conducted on Oswald years before.

In 1778, British Captain James Cook anchored in Alaska. Ninety years later, at a price of £10 million Great Britain acted upon Cook's suggestion and completed the Alaska Purchase from Russia. Shortly thereafter, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, began a new engineering “first” - the Fort Sitka-Mexico City railway, the arterial transport link of the North American Union.	Cook

Redemption

Jesus	In 1843, an old and bitter miser encountered Ignorance and Want. And something else too. Redemption.
Is Love

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Lo Pan

In 1949, the Chinese Civil War approached a decision as the People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China. President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government push the doomsday button. The great warrior Lo Pan was temporarily granted a decrepit body in order to fight the PLA.

Winston Churchill

In 1941, on this day Prime minister Winston Churchill gave a radio broadcast to the nation following the disaster at Pearl Harbour. “The Battle for the Pacific was over”, said Churchill, "and the Battle for Australia and New Zealand was just about to begin”.

In 2046, just before 3pm local time surgeons held a press conference at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The world's first child of dual planetary heritage was out of danger, and they were confident that Y'Skakir-R was going to make it. With the surgery over, post-event concerns now surfaced. The lead surgeon was a deeply troubled man, he had awoken in the middle of the night to be sick over and over again. He could not get the words of Coleridge's poem Christabel out of his mind from his undergraduate days.	Y'Skakir-R
But yet for her dear lady's sake I stooped, methought, the dove to take, When lo ! I saw a bright green snake Coiled around its wings and neck. He was now suffering the most severe misgivings, perhaps mankind was the dove. And Y'Skakir-R the snake.

X-20 Dyna-Soar	In 1963, the United States Air Force's X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane program was confirmed by Robert McNamara. Dyna-Soar was far more advanced in concept than the other human spaceflight missions of the period. It had military missions other than simply placing one or two men into space, involved in space defense missions against the Soviet designed Buran.

In 2008, Wanda's of Montreal teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. The once profitable restaurant chain had received complaints from customer regarding abusive messages on the company's web site. "B*rfed, totally thux" was widely reported by customers as the most offensive comment. This unauthorised content on the site was a result of a rogue database update by a disgruntled employee.

In 2005, deep sleeper of the government of (censored) understand that upwards of 200,000 people in the south-west eat a thick variant of toasted bread, lightly buttered. Lines of inquiry following the lead for Texas Toast go cold. There are just too many men who used to work in a bakery.	Rat

In 1941, the Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by torpedo bombers in the South China Sea. Their loss to land-based bombers is one of the events that led to the end of the battleship being considered the predominant class in naval warfare. The engagement illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against naval forces that were not protected by air cover and the resulting importance of including an aircraft carrier in any major fleet action. The Admiralty responded with a massive aircraft carrier rebuilding program that ensured victory against the Chinese and the continue dominance of the Royal Navy around the world. Historians now agree this was a brief blip in Britannia Ruling the Waves.

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In 1817, the Chippewa people joined the North American Confederation, extending the great nation halfway across the continent. With the addition of the Mississippi River to their lands, the N.A.C. had millions of acres of good farm land, and this marked the beginning of their rise as a great power in the world.

"Men must be born and reborn to belong. Their bodies must be formed of the dust of their forefather's bones."

- Luther Standing Bear, Lakota

In 1869, Wyoming becomes the first state to grant men the right to vote. President Victoria Woodhull calls it a mistake, noting that “the savage nature of our beloved men little lends itself to the careful consideration that politics requires.”

In 1963, a tragic scenario played out as the worlds of crime and entertainment mixed. Frank Sinatra, Jr., son of the celebrated singer, was kidnapped at gunpoint as he was staying at Harrah’s Casino, and driven to California. The elder Sinatra received the call from the kidnappers, and offered to pay them the $250,000 they were asking. Unfortunately, once the money changed hands, the kidnappers shot father and son, ending the life of the legend and reducing the younger Sinatra to a paraplegic.

In 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr., in an attempt to make the majority of Americans realize the plight being faced by African and Semitic people across the globe, leads the march of hundreds of thousands of people on Washington, D.C. Although entirely peaceful, President Strom Thurmond has the National Guard keep its guns trained on the march throughout the long, cold day.

In 1977, during Internation Human Rights Day, Comrade President John Anderson orders the arrest of counter-revolutionary dissidents who had staged a sit-in protest in the Washington Mall. The move is a black eye for the Soviet States in world opinion.