Armistice Day

November 11th is the most famous armistice of recent history (20th Century), but it is not the only one.

From Wikipedia:

An armistice is a situation where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but can instead be just a cease fire. It is derived from the Latin arma, meaning weapons and statium, meaning a stopping.

A truce or ceasefire usually refers to a temporary cessation of hostilities for an agreed limited time or within a limited area. A truce may be needed in order to negotiate an armistice. An armistice is a modus vivendi and is not the same as a peace treaty, which may take months or even years to agree on. The 1953 Korean War armistice [1] is a major example of an armistice which has not yet been followed by a peace treaty.

(snip)

The key aspect in an armistice is the fact that "all fighting ends with no one surrendering". This is in contrast to an unconditional surrender, which is a surrender without conditions, except for those provided by international law.

Other armistices in history:

--Armistice of Copenhagen of 1537 ended the Danish war known as the Count's Feud.

--Armistice of Stuhmsdorf of 1635 between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden.

--Peace of Westphalia of 1648 that ended the Thirty Years' War.

National Firearms Day

Oooh! The Only Life has a great idea!

So, we propose that each year, the Saturday after the first Monday in November be proclaimed National Firearms Day. This day will be in celebration of those elected officials who support the 2nd Amendment, and in defiance of those who oppose it. We feel that this day more than any other is appropriate for its symbolism and ability to send a very loud and pointed message to our elected officials.

That's the second Saturday in November this year-November 8th!

h/t Say Uncle

September 11, 2001

I haven't blogged about 9/11 before. I was home that day with Samantha, who was not yet 8 months old. Everything on the television was the news about the first plane flying into the World Trade Center towers.

Then the second plane hit. And the Pentagon was hit by a plane. And a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

In the days and weeks and months and years that followed, I was angry that my country had been attacked, and that we were not able to strike back, directly, cleanly, at those who had initiated the attack.

I was a Democrat that day, until I saw the damage and said to myself "Thank God the grownups are in charge."

Politicians and news commentators and people with political influence muddied the waters, trying to convince us that we must have deserved, did deserve, the attack. Those of us who wanted revenge joked grimly about turning the Middle East into a sea of glass.

But the grownups were in charge and pursued a more rational response, trying diplomacy and firing warning shots. The US invaded Afghanistan and then Iraq, fighting the terrorists and those who lead them on their ground, taking the fight to them.

If there may have been further attempts of terrorism on the US, they have been foiled.

In my time, I have hated and it is a self-destructive choice. I do not hate the people and the countries who have chosen terrorism as their path to power, but I do not question their failures or their deaths. I don't care. Die already.

Life Downstairs

The townhouse we live in has a small bonus room, with laundry hookups, off the garage downstairs. When we moved in, 12-13 years ago, Bridget offered me the choice of that space for my "office". Sad to say, I probably laughed in her face and raced upstairs to claim the second bedroom with attached bathroom. She wound up with the downstairs bonus room as her sewing room.

Well, along came Samantha and I got booted out of my "office" because that was now her room. Eventually, this began to bother Bridget and she decided that she would take down her sewing room, move it into storage except for a few necessities, and put those necessities into the nook outside of Samantha's room at the top of the stairs.

It's taken her 3 years to achieve her goal, and tonight she made it. Everything in the bonus room, except for what I'm keeping, is in her storage unit or awaiting transport to same. Huzzah!

So. Tomorrow, I start moving all of my stuff, my junk, my toys, my crap downstairs. Oy...

My wife. Doer of great deeds. I salute you!

"You Must Be A Gentleman"

Over at Seraphic Press Robert J. Avrech has a post up about Jews expelled from Algiers.

"How long did your family live in Algeria?"

My friend sits back and ponders a moment: “Oh, since the churban, [586 BCE] the Destruction of the Temple. That's when our family made its way from Babylon to Algeria.”

The story has quite a satisfactory ending, hence the title of my post. Enjoy.