Goddamn Brownies

Valentine's Day.

This day is a day full of flowers, candy, expensive gifts, fancy restaurants and love. I wanted to have some sort of funny valentine's related anecdote, or even about relationships but I couldn't think of one. I'm sure I have something I could talk about, some of you probably have one that you know about me, but today I'm drawing a blank. So, instead of focusing on the abundance of love that will be everywhere you look today I have decided to talk about the death and destruction in this day's history.

Just a quick look at today's date on Wikipedia it is easy to see the tragedies which have occurred on this date. Most famous out of all would have to be the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago. Prohibition was in full swing and there arose a conflict between Al Capone's gang and that of Bugs Moran. Capone's guys arrived, a couple disguised as cops, and gave seven of Moran's guys lead Valentines. Although Moran was not hit, Capone's hit became quite a story. Pictures of the bloody bodies, fraught with bullets, made the front page of the Chicago Tribune. Why don't they post those kind of pictures anymore?

Also on this date, in 1989, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa on author Salman Rushdie because of his novel The Satanic Verses. He, along with the majority of the Muslim community, was outraged by the blasphemous remarks Rushdie made involving the Prophet Muhammad. There are verses taken out of the Quar'an which Muhammad spoke but found out they were sent by the devil as a trick. The book kind of implies not only those verses but the majority of the Quar'an should be considered crap, and Muhammad, along with many others in Muslim history, are perverted into mockeries of themselves. Rushdie even went so far as to name the whores in the town brothel after Muhammad's wives. Needless to say this did not sit well with the Muslim community. The book was banned, burned and berated at every turn, and that is when Khomeini issued the fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Rushdie for blaspheming Muhammad. Where is the love?

There are many more sad things in this day's history - Philippine bombings (2005), Northern Illinois University shootings (2008), 92 people dying in a plane crash in India (1990) and Arizona becoming the 48th state (1912). So, if you are part of one of the many marriage proposals out there, when you are down on one knee, or holding your shaking hand out to your boyfriend, take a moment to think of all the bad things on this day.

Happy Valentine's Day!