With the Fourth of July holiday rapidly approaching here is another seasonal post. Previously, Balladeer’s Blog has looked at the swashbuckling actions of some American privateers from the Revolutionary War. This time here’s a look at one of the most successful months for our privateers – September of 1778.
SEPTEMBER 1st-5th – The American privateer ship the Active seized multiple prizes and took aboard several British Prisoners of War. Unfortunately, the Captain of the Active had stretched his crew too thin. The captive Brits gleaned the vulnerable position of their captors and rose up to seize control of the ship and were determined to link up with the first British vessel they could find to help take in the seized U.S. ship and consummate their freedom.
SEPTEMBER 6th – The 10-cannon brig the Gerard, an American privateer, under Pennsylvania’s J. Josiah, came upon the seized Active and, after a long chase, compelled the ship to surrender. Captain Josiah and his men learned they had just saved the American privateer crew and had recaptured the British POWs. The Gerard escorted the Active back to its Philadelphia port in case the POWs grew frisky again.
SEPTEMBER 17th – The 18-cannon privateer ship Vengeance, under one Captain Newman of Massachusetts, chased the British packet ship Harriet (16 cannon) for at least 6 hours before engaging it in battle. The Americans won and the Harriet surrendered. Continue reading
First, a little background information. In the early 1970s Marvel was experimenting with hybrid titles that would combine the old and the new by
SPECIAL MARVEL EDITION #15 (December 1973)
It’s become impossible to ignore the way that the corrupt establishment and their corporate media outlets fear populism and obsessively try to demonize it. In a way it’s a replay of the late 1800s when the labor movement was striking and demanding better pay and working conditions. The establishment responded with ugly demonization of working class people’s efforts to survive as something more than peasants. 
LIGHT SPEED ESPER (1967-1968) – This overlooked Japanese television show was titled Kousoku Esupâ in its nation of origin. If you enjoy live action programs like Ultraman or other shows from the tokusatsu subgenre of entertainment then Light Speed Esper will certainly appeal to you. 
Hikaru’s parents are killed in this intergalactic accident, filling the extraterrestrials – called Alien Espers or Esper Seijin – with immense feelings of guilt. They possess and animate the dead bodies of Hikaru’s mother and father to make amends. Very morbid amends, I grant you, but amends nonetheless. 
SWALLOWED BY AN EARTHQUAKE (1894) – Written by Edward Douglas Fawcett. The Rinaldi family in Naples invite a group of friends, consisting of young Charlie, his uncle, his friend Jack and Dr Ruggieri, to pay them a visit. An earthquake of record intensity rips open deep chasms in the countryside, with the four travelers sliding down into one.
Anthony Fauci certainly seems to be more interested in self-promotion than in doing his job. It’s easy to forget that this is the same Anthony Fauci who was part of a very inept effort to combat AIDS decades ago, only to see any real progress coming from figures working OUTSIDE of the Fauci Fiefdom. Why were some people foolish enough to listen to this attention whore who jumped on bandwagons and contradicted himself almost daily depending on which way the political winds were blowing? And all the while the body count was rising … How do you spell “malpractice” by the way? 
With sites pulling “Faux Fauci’s” self-aggrandizing new book and with the weaselly, wormy little man refusing to take questions during a public appearance at a vaccination site recently, Doctor Death more and more reminds me of the hilariously sleazy, disingenuous and dissembling character Martin Short played long ago: the slimy fraudster inevitably whining “Did I say anything? I didn’t say anything. Did you hear me say anything?” 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The number 1 team in the nation – the HUTCHINSON COLLEGE BLUE DRAGONS – clashed with the 2nd ranked SNOW COLLEGE BADGERS for the NJCAA football crown yesterday. 
THE SPIRIT OF ’76
POCKET COMICS #1 (August 1941) 
The Clouds was written by Aristophanes around 423 BCE and next to Lysistrata, which I examined last week, is the Big A’s most- discussed satire, mostly because of its lampooning of the philosopher Socrates, a contemporary of Aristophanes. Many modern readers, who have been programmed to sneeringly “deconstruct” old works of art rather than understand them, love to regard this comedy with hostility. They accuse Aristophanes of being “anti – intellectual” for subjecting Socrates in particular and the Sophist philosophers in general to the same satirical criticism that every other aspect of Athenian society was subjected to in comic plays. 
In the ancient Greek democracy Athenian citizens were expected to represent themselves in court in both criminal and civil proceedings. 
