The Best (and Deadliest) Courtroom Defense Ever on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: American politician and lawyer Clement Vallandigham died on this day (June 17) in 1871. Vallandigham was representing a defendant, Thomas McGehean, in a murder case for killing a man in a barroom brawl in Hamilton, Ohio. The lawyer attempted to prove that the victim, Tom Myers, had actually accidentally shot himself while drawing his pistol from a pocket while rising from a kneeling position. Clement Vallandigham selected a pistol he believed to be unloaded, he put the pistol in his pocket and enacted the events as they might have happened. However, while demonstrating this he fatally shot himself in the stomach.

This however proved his point, and his client was acquitted. His client, Thomas McGehean, was shot and killed in a saloon four years later.

This was not the strangest accidental death by gun in the Victorian era. In 1881, a man called Birchall asked his servant Hague to retrieve a revolver at his home. Hague found the gun on a table and lifted it to his face for closer inspection, and unfortunately shot himself in the mouth. A commotion set in and another servant picked up the gun to demonstrate what just happened only to die in the same manner.

In July 4 2019, Zafer Kuzu from Turkey, in a ruse to escape community service, strapped two pillows on his back and asked a friend to shoot him with a shotgun, hoping the pillows would reduce the shot's power. He died!

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Heinz Schmitz

Immigration Doomer, Enoch Powell, on This Day in History

This Day in History: English politician Enoch Powell was born on this day in 1912. All of these decades later, Enoch Powell is mainly known for one thing: his "Rivers of Blood" speech he made in 1968. He made the speech in reference to the dangers of immigration and multi-culturalism, and it is now remembered and mentioned as a Trojan Horse warning after each race riot. It was widely regarded in his own time, and for many it is prophetic. This speech was not the only mainstream attempt to bring this topic to the fore. Others are "The Death of the West" by Pat Buchanan, "The Strange Death of Europe" by Douglas Murray, "Submission" by Michel Houellebecq and "The Diversity Delusion" by Heather Macdonald.

"Fifty years on from the most dramatic post-war speech in Britain, this updated view is a VERY important part of the continuing debate. Enoch never goes away." Nigel Farage

"Enoch Powell Was Right, admits major German newspaper, Die Welt. Enoch was, btw, not only a great historian, linguist, and poet (in ancient Greek!), and a prophet on open borders, but he was sound on the free market, the gold standard, foreign interventionism, and much else. For daring to predict the effects of mass immigration, this brilliant orator and debater, destined to be prime minister, was stabbed in the back by neocon Margaret Thatcher and her henchmen like John Major. As a result, England is under migrant assault, as is Germany. Things don’t look good." Lew Rockwell

"Powell’s message was not just 'against the political correctness of the 1960s', it also offended the interests of British industry which wanted to import cheap labour. Pursuing that goal, the editorial contends, Britain like Germany did not at the time give attention to 'the idea of long-term consequences' and so suffers today." Oliver JJ Lane

Read the full transcript of Rivers of Blood here

Listen to "The Diversity Delusion" by Heather Macdonald
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqEHYh6Mfvo

The Research That Proves Enoch Powell Right

Prophets without Honor by Pat Buchanan

Enoch Was Right: 'Rivers of Blood' 50 Years On by Raheem Kassam

"Witches" and their Medicine on This Day in History

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This Day in History: Margaret Jones became the first person to be executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts Bay Colony on this day in 1648, decades before the Salem Witch Trials. Jones, who resided in Charlestown, now a section of Boston, was a midwife who practiced medicine. "Witches," much like the Alchemists of old, made useful contributions to medicine. The foxglove plant used by Witches contains digoxin and is still used as the active ingredient in some heart and blood pressure medications. Witches used willow bark, and aspirin today contains a chemical found in the willow tree. Witches promoted garlic which is now widely known for its medicinal value. Henbane contains hyoscine, which is now used to treat motion sickness and stomach cramps (Native Americans used a hyoscine-rich plant called thorn apple as a local anesthetic). Nightshade contains atropine, a muscle relaxant that is sometimes used to calm patients going into surgery. While Hemlock is a very poisonous plant, hemlock leaves, root, and seeds are used to make medicine. It is used for breathing problems including bronchitis, whooping cough, and asthma; and for painful conditions including teething in children, swollen and painful joints, and cramps.

A History of Women in Medicine: Cunning Women, Physicians, Witches

After Jones was put to death, her husband, Thomas, tried to leave the colony on a ship. However the ship, which had a heavy load of cargo, had trouble keeping its balance in fair weather. When it was found out that the husband of a condemned witch was on board, he was promptly arrested and put back in prison. Upon his arrest, it was claimed, the ship immediately righted itself.

See also Plants in Witchcraft By T. F. Thiselton Dyer 1889

Plants of the Witches by Richard Folkard 1884

Heinz Schmitz

Racist Che Guevara on This Day in History

Joe Rogan on Che Guevara T-Shirts "He's a Mass Murderer"

This Day in History: Revolutionary Che Guevara was born on this date in 1928. I know that it's trendy to wear Che apparel...but you probably shouldn't. Che Guevara helped establish the first Cuban concentration camp, where he housed people he didn't like: Gays, Jehovah's Witnesses and anyone else that didn't match up to his Socialist Ideal Man. He was a mass murderer that enjoyed torturing animals, and he was a white supremacist who maintained that Africans held their racial purity because they wouldn't bathe. He also described Mexicans as “a band of illiterate Indians.” But none of that matters as Che's likeness has been known as "the face that launched a thousand T-shirts." And there is a certain irony in BUYING a Che shirt, because in doing so you are engaging in the very economic system he sought to overthrow. Jay-Z has been seen wearing Che shirts with BLING (again, a contradiction of the anti-capitalism Che stood for). Even Prince Harry has been seen wearing a Che shirt, but then in the past he has also been seen wearing Nazi outfits so at least he's consistent. Converse used the image of Che Guevara in one of their shoe ad campaigns. In Peru you can BUY "El Che" cigarettes. In France you can BUY "El Ché-Cola." Taco Bell, Leica and many others have used his image. It's delicious that he is being exploited by the Capitalist system he hated.

"Let’s say that all you knew about Adolf Hitler was that he painted scenic pictures, postcards, and houses in Vienna, loved dogs and named his adorable German Shepard 'Blondie,' and frequently expressed solidarity with 'the people.' You might sport a T-shirt adorned with his image if you thought such a charismatic chap was also good-looking in a beret. But your education would be widely regarded as incomplete." Lawrence W Reed

Removing Statues of Violent Bigots? Start with Che
https://fee.org/articles/removing-statues-of-violent-bigots-start-with-che/

The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was formed on this day (June 13) in 1942. The OSS was a precursor to the CIA, and early on it was involved in some strange projects. For instance, in World War II, they decided to strap bombs on to cats and drop them from planes with parachutes. They thought that since cats hated water, they would try to get away from the water and head to the closest ship (the intended target). This never really worked as the cats would lose consciousness during the drop.

There was also a failed attempt at using insects to spread anthrax in Spain.

"Throughout the war years, the OSS Research & Development successfully adapted Allied weapons and espionage equipment, and produced its own line of novel spy tools and gadgets, including silenced pistols, lightweight sub-machine guns, 'Beano' grenades that exploded upon impact, explosives disguised as lumps of coal ('Black Joe') or bags of Chinese flour ('Aunt Jemima'), acetone time delay fuses for limpet mines, compasses hidden in uniform buttons, playing cards that concealed maps, a 16mm Kodak camera in the shape of a matchbox, tasteless poison tablets, and cigarettes laced with tetrahydrocannabinol acetate (an extract of Indian hemp) to induce uncontrollable chattiness." ~Wikipedia

Famous TV cook Julia Child had a job with the OSS during the war. One of her tasks was developing shark repellent. 

The Office of Strategic Services was disbanded after the war.

Defending Child Labor on This Day in History

Today is World Day Against Child Labour. I am actually FOR child labor so I will not be celebrating World Day Against Child Labour. No one likes the image of children working in factories, but no one ever asked what the alternative was, or is. No one seems to ask those three important words that should always be asked when it comes to pointing out how bad something is: "Compared to What?" or "At What Cost"" It may make some bleeding heart feel good to shut down a sweat shop, but we never see the negative effects of doing so. The people, and children who worked there are now out of a much needed job in an area where poverty is already rampant. The solution to poverty for many children is labor. When you take labor away, these children now fall prey to child traffickers, the sex trade and or a life of crime. 

It was this way in the West as well. In 1697 John Locke urged families to put their children to work at age three or else they would have only “bread and water, and that very scantily too.” "These children were destitute...Their only refuge was the factory,” which “saved them from death by starvation.” ~Ludwig von Mises

"Before the Industrial Revolution pretty much everyone other than the Kings and the Priests lived like this. Incomes in 1600 AD England, one of the richer countries at the time, were not above $2 a day (yes, in modern money and modern prices). Incomes in China in 1978 were also about this level. Sad as it is to say this, this is normal, the natural state of mankind over the past 10,000 years. Nineveh, Rome, Medieval Italy, Elizabethan England and, even sadder to say, some 500 million of our current fellow human beings, all lived or currently do live at around this level." Tim Worstall

When the factories in the West were shut down, children were forced to look for usually lower-paying and more dangerous jobs in the countryside. Over time, conditions improved to where children did not have to work so hard. I however appreciate the work my parents made me do when I was a child. I hated it at the time, but in looking back I am glad they did it. To this day, I think less of someone who has never picked up a hammer or a shovel. Oh, and keep the above picture handy for the next time someone wants to talk to you about "white privilege."

How "Sweatshops" Help the Poor

https://mises.org/library/how-sweatshops-help-poor

In Praise of Cheap Labor

Bad jobs at bad wages are better than no jobs at all.

By Paul Krugman 

https://slate.com/business/1997/03/in-praise-of-cheap-labor.html

“Africa desperately needs Western help in the form of . . . sweatshops.”

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2006/06/george-reisman/in-defense-of-sweatshops/

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The Death of Roger Daltry on This Day in History

 

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This Day in History: European media announced that Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who, was killed in an automobile accident on this day (June 11) in 1966. In fact, guitarist Pete Townshend was in the wreck, but survived with only minor injuries. Daltrey is not the only person in history whose death was announced prematurely. 

In 1973, British magazine Melody Maker published a satirical article that announced Alice Cooper's death: "The rock world today mourns the death of Alice Cooper who was accidentally killed last night when the safety screws failed on the guillotine he uses in his act." Cooper fans didn't get the joke and believed this to be true. The singer had to release a statement saying, "I'm alive and drunk as usual."

(On an interesting side note, Alice Cooper has his own line of hot sauce)

ABC News announced that Sharon Osbourne had died back in 2004...which they quickly retracted. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/ABC-News-accidentally-runs-Sharon-Osbourne-obit-3301999.php

Although Joe DiMaggio was suffering from lung cancer back in 1999, he found out he died by turning the channel on his TV. DiMaggio also had to release a statement saying that he was very much alive, though he would pass on a few months later.

An early example of this happening was with English poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). "Coleridge overheard people discussing his death and asked to see the newspaper they were looking at, which contained his obituary. One of the people remarked that it was strange that Coleridge would kill himself after such a success, but then again, he had always been known as a little bit strange. Coleridge allegedly replied, 'Indeed, sir, it is a most extraordinary thing that he should have hanged himself, be the subject of an inquest, and yet that he should at this moment be speaking to you.'" Stacy Conradt

One of Mark Twain's famous quips comes as a result of being declared dead. Mark Twain was in London in 1897 as part of a speaking tour around the world. While he was in London, a rumor started that he was seriously ill. This was followed by a rumor that he was dead. The story goes that an American newspaper printed Twain's obituary. Supposedly after that, when asked about all this by a reporter, Twain said: "Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." 

Perhaps the most famous and widely talked about premature death claim is the one associated with Paul McCartney of the Beatles...and it is still talked about and believed to this day.