Happy Bastille Day. Resist austerity.

[Jack Rabbit]

Last edited Sat Jul 14, 2012, 01:05 PM - Edit history (3)

[center][font size="4"]Down with the tyrants in corporate suites.[/font][/center]

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This is the Bastille on July 14, 1789 . . .


[/center][font size="1"]Houël, The Storming of the Bastille from Wikipedia (Public Domain)
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This is what's left of the Bastille . . .


[/center][font size="1"]Photo by FLLL (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:FLLL) from Wikipedia (Creative Commons License, Attribution/Share Alike)
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Now, imagine that's what's left of Wall Street
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[The Blue Flower]

1. Thank you!

What is past is prologue.

[Overseas]

2. K&R!

[1monster]

3. Wow. And people complain that our National Anthem is

too violent and war like!

I'm trying to imagine the Klingons having such an anthem... but no, more likely the Romulans...

Considering that the Bastille held only seven prisoners at the time, the storming of the Bastille was more a symbolic victory than any great military triump. But symbols are sometimes more important than any concrete reality.

So Happy Bastille Day!

[Patiod]

4. I had to memorize it back in HS French class

Pretty gruesome!

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Freeing the prisoners was not the objective of the attack

The Parisians were after a cache of weapons and gunpowder after learning that royal troops were surrounding the city. Earlier in the year, King Louis had been forced to make concessions to the Third Estate and even recognize the National Assembly after he failed to break it up. The troop maneuvers were seen as a threat to the assembly.

Of course, the Parisians could have taken the cache without tearing down the fortress. That is where the symbols came into play. It was a symbol of the tyranny of the landed aristocracy. Thus, the fortress was torn down, the few prisoners it held were freed and the governor of the Bastille was dragged through the streets, killed and beheaded, with his head stuck on a pike and paraded though Paris.

The King was told the news in Versailles, which was at the time seen as something near Paris but not part of it. He had been hunting that day and failed to bag anything. The King was unconcerned about the events in Paris that day. His entry into his diary for July 14, 1789, referred only to his hunting that day with a single word: Rien (Nothing).

[Historic NY]

6. I like the shorter version.

because you can sit sooner...


The foundations of the Liberté Tower of the Bastille, rediscovered during excavations for the Métro in 1899

[Paka]

7. Merci beaucoup!

My favorite version is the one from Casablanca and if I had any computer expertize I would post it here. Sorry.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. Ah, you mean this one . . .

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[anon-y-moose]

9. La Marseillaise

Mon arrangement préféré a été composée par Hector Berlioz.
Les politiciens ont peur de leur peuple en France
(comme il se doit!)

La Marseillaise