Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Birthday
Happy birthday to The Guy! Back in the halcyon days of youth, both of our families belonged to Ottawa Hills; so, I've known and liked The Guy for pretty much the whole of my life. But there's no other bond like Blue Tree Whacking. Happy birthday, buddy!

The Explorers Club
No. XIII – The Jacobite Rebellions, Part II: The Glorious Revolution of 1688, the First Jacobite Rebellion of 1715 a.k.a. “The ‘Fifteen,” and the Second Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 a.k.a. “The ’Forty-five.”






Some prefer the more more neutral terms "the Revolution of 1688" for the Glorious Revolution and "the Jacobite Risings" for the Jacobite Rebellions. The Jacobite cause stood for the restoration of the Catholic House of Stuart to the thrones of the British Isles, especially as that very Catholicism was the paramount reason the Stuarts were deposed in favor of the foreign, Protestant prince William of Orange. I am a Catholic partisan well known for scoffing at the charlatanry and arrogance present at the foment of the Protestant Reformation and for using the phrase "Protestant bastards." Why then do I use "the Glorious Revolution" and "the Jacobite Rebellions"? Because I believe that history not only is, but should be written by the victors; that this is so is right and proper. To the victor go the spoils, and what greater prize than dominion over history's judgments? Parliamentarianiam and Protestantism triumphed over Jacobism and Catholicism and earned the right to set the terms of the argument.

That said, the world is a dreadfully complicted enterprise with as many factors and variables to weigh as there are stars in the sky. Might does not make right, but sadly neither does right necessarily make might. The opinion of the victors is not always correct, as we shall discuss further in a later episode of "The Explorers Club" pertaining to the "Black Legend" of the Spanish Inquisition, but neither does losing automatically make one's cause noble (see: the Confederate States of America). A dreadfully complex enterprise; I favor the Glorious Revolution and the Jacobite Rebellions.

BTW South Song of the Day
Dashboard Confessional, "Again I Go Unnoticed" courtesy of ye olde internet (Mt. Love)