The London Slums

Runaway capitalism. From History Collection:

Throughout the Victorian era, puritan middle and upper-class men and women would routinely dismiss the people living in London’s slums and lazy and feckless. This could not have been further from the truth. While there certainly were many work-shy people living in poverty, there were also plenty of people working hard, just trying to get by. In the slums of the 19th century, children were expected to start work as early as the age of 7. And when a girl turned 13, she would be abler to try and find work at one of the East End’s biggest employers – the Bryant & May matchworks.

In the late-19th century, thousands of women and young girls worked in match factories, most of them travelling to work everyday from the slums. Most worked 14-hour shifts, with their pay docked for breaks, including toilet trips. The work was hard and, due to the presence of toxic white phosphorous, dangerous. What’s more, the pay was terrible, with the factory owners imposing almost slave-like conditions on their workforce. Finally, in July 1888, the Bryant & May workers had had enough. Girls as young as 13 went on strike, without any proper support. The tactic eventually worked and the matchgirls are credited as pioneers in workers’ rights in Britain. (Read more.)

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The Somiedo Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War

From The Catholic Herald:

On June 12, the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints announced that Pope Francis had moved forward the causes of canonization for eight servants of God, officially granting them the title of venerable. Of the cases moved forward, the Somiedo martyrs of the Spanish Civil War were also named venerable. 

Pilar Gullón Yturriaga, 25, Octavia Iglesias Blanco, 41, and Olga Pérez-Monteserín Núñez, 23, were martyred on October 28, 1936. The three women, who served as Red Cross nurses in Pola de Somiedo, were raped and shot naked. They had arrived at the hospital in Somiedo on October 18, and on October 27 they learned that populist forces were quickly coming to take over the hospital, but they refused to leave. The forces killed the doctor, chaplain, and all the patients. Given the chance to renounce their faith, the women refused and died shouting ¡Viva Cristo Rey! and ¡Viva Dios!, meaning Long live Christ the King! Long live God! Yturriaga, who survived the first shot, forgave her murderers and prayed they would be forgiven by God before she died. (Read more.)

 "Soeur Espagne, sainte Espagne... tu as choisi!
Onze évêques, seize-mille prêtres massacrés... et pas une apostasie!"

~ Paul Claudel, "Aux martyrs espagnols" Share

The Left Is Using Social Media To Change History

From The Daily Wire:

Yesterday, I played this clip of an abortion radical saying that having a baby is doing violence to the mother's body. So, we have to commit violence against that, we have to kill it. That's why abortion is justifiable. Obviously, kind of a kook. But it sums up the Left's attitude, doesn't it? This terrible stuff is happening. They're so oppressed, so they're justifying oppressing others. They're justified in shouting you down on campus because your speech is violence. It's all in their imagination, but it justifies the terrible things they're doing. 

You know we talked about that New York Times piece yesterday about silencing people on YouTube because they're radicalizing people, and they found a guy who was so radicalized he actually dated a religious woman. That's how radicalized he was. I mean that was really what it was. He never bought into the crazy theories about white supremacy. Never went into any of that. But he dated an evangelical Christian and that was what made him radical and that's why we should knock all these people off YouTube and deplatform them. 

It's all about the fact that they own the media. They own the entertainment media and they own the news media, and then the Democrats send out their talking points and those become A) the news and then B) history. (Read more.)

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Cracking the Voynich Code?

From Phys.Org:

A University of Bristol academic has succeeded where countless cryptographers, linguistics scholars and computer programs have failed—by cracking the code of the 'world's most mysterious text', the Voynich manuscript.

Although the purpose and meaning of the manuscript had eluded scholars for over a century, it took Research Associate Dr. Gerard Cheshire two weeks, using a combination of lateral thinking and ingenuity, to identify the language and writing system of the famously inscrutable document. 

In his peer-reviewed paper, The Language and Writing System of MS408 (Voynich) Explained, published in the journal Romance Studies, Cheshire describes how he successfully deciphered the manuscript's codex and, at the same time, revealed the only known example of proto-Romance language. 

"I experienced a series of 'eureka' moments whilst deciphering the code, followed by a sense of disbelief and excitement when I realised the magnitude of the achievement, both in terms of its linguistic importance and the revelations about the origin and content of the manuscript. 

"What it reveals is even more amazing than the myths and fantasies it has generated. For example, the manuscript was compiled by Dominican nuns as a source of reference for Maria of Castile, Queen of Aragon, who happens to have been great aunt to Catherine of Aragon. (Read more.)

Ars Technica disputes the claim, here:

The Voynich manuscript is a famous medieval text written in a mysterious language that so far has proven to be undecipherable. Now, Gerard Cheshire, a University of Bristol academic, has announced his own solution to the conundrum in a new paper in the journal Romance Studies. Cheshire identifies the mysterious writing as a "calligraphic proto-Romance" language, and he thinks the manuscript was put together by a Dominican nun as a reference source on behalf of Maria of Castile, Queen of Aragon. Apparently it took him all of two weeks to accomplish a feat that has eluded our most brilliant scholars for at least a century. 

So case closed, right? After all, headlines are already trumpeting that the "Voynich manuscript is solved," decoded by a "UK genius." Not so fast. There's a long, checkered history of people making similar claims. None of them have proved convincing to date, and medievalists are justly skeptical of Cheshire's conclusions as well. 

What is this mysterious manuscript that has everyone so excited? It's a 15th century medieval handwritten text dated between 1404 and 1438, purchased in 1912 by a Polish book dealer and antiquarian named Wilfrid M. Voynich (hence its moniker). Along with the strange handwriting in an unknown language or code, the book is heavily illustrated with bizarre pictures of alien plants, naked women, strange objects, and zodiac symbols. It's currently kept at Yale University's Beinecke Library of rare books and manuscripts. Possible authors include Roger Bacon, Elizabethan astrologer/alchemist John Dee, or even Voynich himself, possibly as a hoax. (Read more.) 

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Green Book (2018)

Dr. Don Shirley: You never win with violence. You only win when you maintain your dignity. ~from Green Book (2018)

Anyone who wants to see a film about a fascinating friendship with breathtaking acting must see Green Book (2018). It features Mahershala Ali as the great pianist Don Shirley and Viggo Mortensen as his driver and bodyguard, Tony Lip. The film depicts the unlikely camaraderie between two strong characters, each with his own code of honor. Don is a multilingual, highly-educated and cultured gentleman who studied classical piano in Moscow and is most comfortable in cosmopolitan circles. Tony is a night-club bouncer from an Italian Catholic family in the Bronx; he is rough and crude but a devoted husband and father. Tony is a bit of a con-man, with a coarse way of speaking, as well as having his own ignorant prejudices. However, he works long hours to support his family and is always looking for ways to supplement his income, which in my book makes him a prince of a man. Don is a prince in his own way, being a genius with semi-divine talents which raise him above the hoi polloi into the same rarefied lifestyle as many a royal. With his gentle demeanor and flawless manners it makes the viewer cringe when violent hands are laid upon him. Yet Don struggles with his own demons, one of which is the demon of alcoholism, which make him a tragic figure in spite of his worldly success. He is also noble in that he chooses to tour the American South in the days of segregation as an effort to break down the barriers of prejudice. Don is of African descent which automatically makes him despised by certain base individuals.

Some critics have panned Green Book as being a "white savior" film, in which a person of European extraction rescues a person of African extraction. However, while Tony rescues Don from racist thugs and ignoramuses, Don instills in Tony a deeper comprehension of honor and beauty as well as the ability to express his devotion to his wife in beautiful letters. Don helps Tony to become a better person. Each man helps the other, which is what true friendship is about.

 The title of the film comes from a popular book for African-Americans who traveled in the days before the Civil Rights movement. According to Vox:

The Green Books were mostly devoted to options for lodging and dining, but they contained other information too. “There were listings for rest stops, restaurants, barber shops, beauty shops,” Liriano says. And in some towns, especially smaller ones, no hotel would offer lodging to black people. For many of those, the Green Book listed “tourist homes,” which Liriano describes as “sort of like a precursor to Airbnb.” Black homeowners, mostly in the South, would rent a room in their home to black travelers looking for somewhere to spend the night. 

That was especially important in so-called “sundown towns,” which passed laws designed to drive black people out of town that prohibited them from being on the road at night. One such town is depicted in Green Book. 

Sundown towns weren’t specifically mentioned in the Green Book. But there were about 10,000 sundown towns in the US as late as the 1960s, and not just in the South: Levittown, New York; Glendale, California; and most Illinois municipalities were among their number. And while it could be dangerous to be on the road at night, it could be equally dangerous to check into the wrong hotel. In an age where you couldn’t just whip out your phone and look up Yelp reviews — and in which you could literally risk your life by being in the wrong part of town with the wrong skin color — you needed a guide. (Read more.)

The film is accurate when it shows the North as being as prejudiced against black people as the South. According to The Atlantic:

Though the film is named for Green’s resource, the titular book appears only a handful of times. In one scene, Tony and Shirley are forced to stay in a decrepit motel after being refused service because the latter is black. The Green Book leads them there, acting as a kind of poverty compass. “It actually only shows places that were kind of dumps, and sort of reduces The Green Book to that, [as though] we only have these terrible places to stay, and that’s not true,” Richen said of the Farrelly film, which she first became aware of after it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last summer. “So that’s disappointing and frustrating.” 

“And then, too, it only showed them using it in the South, which [is] one of the mythologies about segregation. This country wants to say segregation and Jim Crow only happened in the South. It happened all over,” Richen continued. “The Green Book was created by a New Yorker, with listings in New York. [There were] places in Harlem where black people were not allowed to go to. So this was something that was everywhere.” (Read more.)

 The film covers the shocking hardships that Don and Tony encounter on their journey, mostly due to prejudice against Don. There have been criticisms that the film glosses over the sufferings of  blacks in the South due to the Jim Crow laws. But Green Book is based upon the experiences of Don and Tony, mostly from Tony's point of view. It is not a film on the vastness of racism in America. There are other fine films which expose the grim realities of Jim Crow, such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Sounder, and many others. Green Book focused on the relationship of a concert pianist and his employee and how a friendship was formed in spite of educational and social differences. I find it inspiring because it portrays in a microcosm the give and take, the sacrifice and forgiveness, that have made America a successful nation. Share

Bill Maher and the Horror of Abortion

From The National Review:

Several decades of embryological science have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the unborn are fully human from their very first moments — that the “cluster of cells” to which abortion-rights activists often refer is in fact a human being, unequivocally so. The horror of abortion is thus matched only by its supporters’ unwillingness to acknowledge that horror. Several decades of hard, uncontested scientific discovery cannot stand up to the full force of pro-choicers’ mere opinions. Killing innocent human beings is a very bad thing; refusing to admit that’s what’s happening is almost as bad. 

Abortion kills. Bill Maher understands it, even if Katie Porter would rather pretend not to. The truth is, every one of us born under a regime of legalized abortion was, at one time, perfectly killable in the eyes of the law. We all could have ended up on the cutting room floor. We should be grateful that we didn’t — and we should be resolved to outlawing such barbarity as soon as we can. (Read more.)

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Facts about Ancient Egypt

From History Extra:

Hieroglyphic writing – a script consisting of many hundreds of intricate images – was beautiful to look at, but time-consuming to create. It was therefore reserved for the most important texts; the writings decorating tomb and temple walls, and texts recording royal achievements. 

As they went about their daily business, Egypt’s scribes routinely used hieratic – a simplified or shorthand form of hieroglyphic writing. Towards the end of the dynastic period they used demotic, an even more simplified version of hieratic. All three scripts were used to write the same ancient Egyptian language. Few of the ancients would have been able to read either hieroglyphs or hieratic: it is estimated that no more than 10 per cent (and perhaps considerably less) of the population was literate. (Read more.)

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Another Frivolous Lawsuit

It should be obvious that suing Jack Philips is sheer harassment and is making a mockery of our legal system. From The Federalist:

If a long Struggle Session couldn’t break Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop, I doubt another frivolous lawsuit will do the trick. Then again, the campaign to destroy Phillips’s business was never merely about punishing a single man for refusing to submit to prevailing leftist orthodoxy. It was also a warning to all would-be apostates that thought crimes could lead to fiscal ruin, public denunciation, and endless harassment. In that sense, the prosecution has probably already paid off. 

Courts won’t put to rest the cultural debate over social issues. But it’s worth noting that it wasn’t howling protesters but the state-empowered Colorado Civil Rights Commission that attempted to destroy Phillips’s business when he refused to design a specialty cake for David Mullins and Charlie Craig’s gay wedding ceremony in 2012—before gay marriage was even legalized in Colorado or recognized by federal courts. 

Even today, after getting it wrong for so long, mainstream news outlets like to report that Phillips refused “to bake a wedding cake” or denied a gay couple “service.” Phillips, however, didn’t query his customers about their sexual preferences or their preferred pronouns, nor did he bar anyone from purchasing any products made in his shop, a place of public accommodation. No, Colorado had attempted to compel a citizen to say something he didn’t believe. 

After years of fiscal and personal struggles, Phillips finally prevailed, but only because of a narrow Supreme Court decision that found commissioners hadn’t displayed religious neutrality and exhibited “a clear and impermissible hostility toward [his] sincere religious beliefs” when pursuing Phillips. That is a nice way of saying commissioners had compared orthodox Christians to Nazis and segregationists—because nothing says “inclusion” like comparing a genteel baker in Lakewood to murderous SS officer. 

In any event, the Colorado commissioners went after Phillips only one day after SCOTUS ruled in his favor. And on June 26, 2017, the day the Supreme Court agreed to hear Phillips’s case, the lawyer and transgender activist Autumn Scardina called Masterpiece Cakeshop, one of dozens of bakeries in the Denver area—there is one approximately a quarter of a mile from Masterpiece Cakeshop—and asked Phillips to design a custom cake with a blue exterior and a pink interior to symbolize a transition from male to female, or, as her lawyer now claims, her “birthday cake.” (Read more.)

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Royalty: Childbirth Complications

From Unofficial Royalty:

Until the advent of modern medicine, childbirth was a danger to women, both royals and commoners. Many women died from puerperal fever or childbed fever, a bacterial infection. The majority of childbed fever cases were caused by the birth attendants themselves. With no knowledge of germs, it was believed that hand washing was unnecessary. Other women died from problems that caesarean sections now prevent. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for those women who died in childbirth. Without the modern caesarean section, my two children, who were both breech babies, and I may not have survived. 

Maternal deaths due to childbirth complications, although infrequent, still occur, and I would like to remember an online friend who passed away shortly after giving birth. I was an AOL Royalty Community Leader from 1998-2005 when the Community Leader program ceased to exist. During that time, I met many people on AOL who were interested in royalty via the message boards and chats I hosted. One of them was ALMACKS, whose real name was Dana Sherman. I remember Dana as a person who had strong opinions on royals and was not afraid to express her opinions and defend them. She always wanted to go to London and did so by herself during the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. In February of 2003, after giving birth to her second child, Dana passed away. I dedicate this article to the memory of Dana. (Read more.)

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