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Pip 5 days ago
"Speaking at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club September 15, Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis C. Blair, disclosed that the current annual budget for the 16 agency U.S. 'Intelligence Community' (IC) clocks-in at $75 billion and employs some 200,000 operatives world-wide, including private contractors." Source Friends of Wilson's Almanac, please visit http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/subs.html
Pip 5 days ago
If you have any doubt that the book publishing industry is creepy, read this Wall Street Journal story: http://tinyurl.com/8n6zg9 Categories: book, publishing Friends of Wilson's Almanac, please visit http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/subs.html
Pip 5 days ago
1956 This photograph of Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish sports official (b. 1920), former president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1980 to 2001, was taken on this day. It shows Samaranch leading a fascist march through Barcelona, bearing a wreath, flanked by burning torches. This was on the 20th anniversary of the death of Spanish anarchist, Buenaventura Durruti y Domingo. Samaranch is probably remembered for four main things: his fascist career, his long reign as president of the IOC, his commercialization of the Olympics, and the corruption among officials and athletes that the commercialization engendered. Samaranch was, for years, a member of the fascist Falange party in Spain and a national councillor under the dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. The Times of London wrote: he "proved expert at the mixture of obeisance to the regime and political manoeuvring necessary to progress through the [fascist] ranks". By 1975, ...Pip 6 days ago
1915 USA: After a controversial trial believed by many to be a miscarriage of justice, IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) labor organizer, folk-poet and songwriter, Joe Hill (Joseph Hillstrom), was killed by state firing squad in Utah. Hill has become the subject of numerous songs, plays, and books, and some of his songs have been available continuously in the IWW's Little Red Song Book, now in at least its 36th edition. Despite an international movement to save him that reached as far as Australia, Utah authorities and copper bosses had Joe Hill executed for murder, but many say it was for his organizing with the IWW. Hill was convicted of killing a grocer and his son, even though the bullets were not from Hill's revolver and no one identified him as the murderer. His last words: "Don't mourn, organize!" Categories: usa, radical-history, labor-history, history, biography, music Friends of Wilson's Almanac, please visit ...Pip 7 days ago
1307 On this day, according to tradition, William Tell (Wilhelm Tell) famously shot the apple off his son's head. One aspect of the tale is defiance of authority; another is the strong bond between a father and his child. I suppose that it why I and so many people like it, and why this simple story has survived the centuries. The legend as told by Sabine Baring-Gould in Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (London, 1866) (Source): In the year 1307, Gessler, Vogt (local governor) of the Emperor Albert I of Hapsburg ( c . 1255 - 1308), German king, and duke of Austria, eldest son of King Rudolph I of Habsburg, set a hat on a pole as symbol of imperial power, and ordered everyone who passed by to salute it. On this day, tradition has it, a mountaineer of the name of Wilhelm Tell boldly passed by the symbol of authority without saluting. By Gessler's command he was at once seized and brought before him. As Tell was known to be an expert archer, he was ordered by way of ...
