“Make my enemies ridiculous”:
Watch on Rumble: https://rumble.com/v437krc-voltaires-nsfw-christmas-message.html
Author: Redactor
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F. Marion Crawford
We all know how bad we are; but it needs much encouragement to persuade some of us to believe that we can really be any better.
Francis Marion Crawford, The Novel: What It Is (1893), p. 77.
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Warfare & Peace on Christmas
A series of unofficial truces occurred across the Western Front to celebrate Christmas in 1914. The image, at top, illustrates the event: “British and German Soldiers Arm-in-Arm Exchanging Headgear: A Christmas Truce between Opposing Trenches” with a sub caption explaining “Saxons and Anglo-Saxons fraternising on the field of battle at the season of peace and goodwill: Officers and men from the German and British trenches meet and greet one another — A German officer photographing a group of foes and friends.” Originally published in The Illustrated London News, January 9, 1915.
On Christmas Day in 1776, George Washington and the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River at night to attack, the next day, the Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey.
United States President Andrew Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all Confederate veterans on Christmas Day in 1868.
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F. Marion Crawford
With most men who have moulded, hacked, and chiselled the world into history, to think has been to act.
Francis Marion Crawford, The Novel: What It Is (1893), p. 93.
On December 24, 1973, the District of Columbia Home Rule Act was passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to elect their own local government.
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Kamala Harris
You know, every election cycle we talk about ‘this is the most election of our lifetime’ — Lawrence, this one is.
Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States, talking to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday’s Last Word.
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A Resignation
On December 23, 1783, George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.
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Theft Thwarts Thieves
It happens plenty in fiction.
Thieves or ex-thieves like John Robie (“To Catch a Thief”), Alexander Mundy (“It Takes a Thief”), and Slippery Jim DiGriz (The Stainless Steel Rat) are among the many beloved reformed or semi-reformed criminals who thwart the criminality of others.
It happens in real life too. Con artist Frank Abagnale eventually taught people how to spot fraud (though apparently still committing it in his memoir Catch Me If You Can). Former black-hat hacker Kevin Mitnick taught people how to protect themselves from hacking and social engineering.
The role of criminals stopping criminals can also be played entirely accidentally.
Last Saturday, three armed men robbed a business called Hi Lo Check Cashing out in Commerce City, Colorado.
“In an unexpected and ironic twist,” says a Facebook post by the Commerce Police Department, “as the trio was robbing the business . . . a fourth criminal stole their getaway vehicle . . . which may have already been stolen.
Police are seeking the third robber and the car thief. I guess they may offer a curt “Thanks” to the latter bad guy just before jailing him.
The Goddess Fortuity won’t always intervene thus. And we don’t want to people to start stealing cars on the off chance that one of their thefts will foil some other theft.
On the other hand, it would be criminal to decline any strokes of crime-stopping luck that come our way, since the politicians and prosecutors aren’t really doing it for us these days.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Theodore Parker
Truth never yet fell dead in the streets; it has such affinity with the soul of man, the seed however broadcast will catch somewhere and produce its hundredfold.
Theodore Parker, A Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion (1842).
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For a Red Christmas
On December 22, 1989, Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife fled Bucharest with a helicopter as protesters erupted in cheers.
The couple was quickly caught and, on Christmas day, tried by a military tribunal and executed by firing squad.