Themistocles

Today's Lesson

This is what I learned last night, and it's pretty good. Themistocles Themistocles was the man who, through cunning and keen strategic and tactical abilities saved Greece.   Under his leadership the Athenians defeated a far superior, in numbers and fighting reputation, Iranian invasion force. Afterwards, of course, the people hailed Themistocles as a national hero, which made Democrats in the Greek congress very nervous.  Athens had as part of their democracy a yearly plebiscite, where one person was chosen as the man ''most dangerous to Athenian democracy.''  The ''winner'' was exiled for a period of ten years.  I know what you're thinking, ''goodbye Bill Clinton,  adios Jimmy Carter, gfys John Kerry.''  But, things haven't changed much. The Athenian MSC (main stream chiselers¹) set about on a year long campaign to ruin Themistocles's reputation, and sure enough, in 2474 BBC (Before Bill Clinton) he was elected ''Enemy of the Year."  Guess where he was exiled to?  Iran.  At that time Persia had not yet fallen under the spell of Islam, and was the mightiest civilization of its time.  Themistocles was employed by his erstwhile enemies, and spent his last days making them a better nation.  He never saw Athens again.  A few years later the loony left in Great Britain did pretty much the same thing to Winston Churchill.  Today Greece is best known for ouzo and belly dancers, and England is searching for its first dentist. You take it from there. ¹ Today's pejorative "chiseler" is derived from these ancient newsmen, and is similar in meaning to other dyslogisms, such as "pea-brain" and "bottom-feeder."