*Ø* Blogmanac August 31 | Celebrating today

Eyo masquerade, Lagos, Nigeria
“In the Nigerian capitol of Lagos, masqueraders called Eyos wander the streets concealed in white robes, carrying long sticks. Each represents an individual family and symbolizes authority. A person crossing the path of an Eyo must remove his hat and shoes as a sign of respect. An offended Eyo will attack with its stick.” Source

Hekate, or Hecate
“The last day of each month is sacred to the Goddess Hekate. In ancient times, worshippers would leave a ‘Hecate's Supper’ with specially prepared foods as offerings to Hecate. The offerings were also gifts to appease the restless ghosts, called apotropaioi by the Greeks. These offerings are best prepared for the goddess on the eve of the new moon, to be left behind at crossroads at night, without looking back.” Source

*Ø* Blogmanac | SIEV-X: Government story sinking

More evidence appears to be emerging that the Australian government and its agencies know much more than they are telling about the sinking of the SIEV-X refugee ship. Did these 353 people die in Australian waters? The authorities still say no, but it doesn't look that way.

"Evidence continues to mount of concealment by multiple Australian agencies of knowledge of the sinking position of SIEVX – knowledge that I have previously argued was deliberately withheld from the Certain Maritime Incident (CMI) Committee ...

"Oceanographic Professor Matthias Tomczak of Flinders University when given the rescue coordinates was able to assess the likely direction and distance that the survivors drifted during the hours they were in the water. Recently Tony Kevin has charted Tomczak's assessment narrowing down the likely sinking position of SIEVX to an area of around 140 square nautical miles inside the Australian Border Protection Surveillance zone."

Source (.pdf file)

SIEV-X.com

*Ø* Blogmanac August 31, 12 CE | Caligula

12 CE Caligula (Gaius Augustus Germanicus, died January 15, 41), Roman emperor renowned for his cruelty. He was tall, a massively sized man, with a hairy body but bald head, and described as having sunken eyes. To save money he fed criminals to the wild beasts he kept for cruel sports.

One well-known anecdote tells that Caligula appointed his horse, Incitatus, as a Senator. Before the emperor got around to having Incitatus made a Consul, as he intended, Caligula was assassinated in 41 by several of his own guards.

*Ø* Blogmanac | The spoiling of Shangri-la

Tibet is modernising rapidly, thanks to booming China's billions, but at what cost to its unique culture?

"The hottest nightclub on the roof of the world sits between an enormous concrete monument to Chinese rule and Potala Palace, the awe-inspiring world heritage site that was formerly the winter residence of the Dalai Lama."

Source
Speculation that Dalai Lama could return to Lhasa
Guardian's special report on China

*Ø* Blogmanac | Well, if that don't beat all!

Did Bush make Osama deal with Musharraf?

"LONDON: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has struck a deal with the US not to capture Osama Bin Laden, fearing this could lead to unrest in Pakistan, according to a special investigation by The Guardian.

"The paper reported Saturday that Bin Laden was being protected by three elaborate security rings manned by tribesmen stretching 192 kms in diameter in northern Pakistan."


Source via A Changin Times blog

Will Bush capture bin Laden as an election stunt?
Here is an except from the article referred to above, as it appeared in the prestigious international journal, The Guardian:

"With the US election nearing and mounting concerns about Washington's second great military project – Iraq – George Bush more than ever needs the incalculable political boost that Bin Laden's capture would bring."

Source

Bin Laden is accused of killing more than 3,000 Americans, and Bush made a song and dance about catching Osama quickly, dead or alive. It beggars belief to be told by the US government that they cannot locate and capture cohorts of military men such as bin Laden, Hussein and their troops, with all the trucks and resources they would require to move about the countryside, and with all the sophisticated satellite and other snooping equipment owned by the USA.

I do wonder what the loved ones of those 9-11 victims must think of allegations that their President is only pretending to be hunting for the Al Qaeda leader – if, indeed, stories like The Guardian's are circulated widely in US media, which I doubt very much. If the Shrub is keeping bin Laden 'on ice' while his own popularity is falling, only to capture him for a media stunt close to election time, how will the American people feel? If I had lost a family member in the Bali bombings, and Australia's Prime Minister Howard was using that in order to get himself re-elected, I would be absolutely outraged.

This should be an interesting unfolding story to watch during the coming US election campaign. However, it will probably not unfold in the mainstream media, as they have not tended to cover any of the long list of similar misinformations so skilfully managed by the US Administration's expensive and powerful public relations consultants. Of course, this is because of the incestuous relationship between the huge, transnational media corporations and the huge, transnational PR firms. (It's clear that most TV watchers and newspaper readers have not even heard of almost-invisible corporations such as Burson-Marsteller or Hill & Knowlton, nor understand how large, powerful and influential they are. Even less is it widely known the extent to which "news and current affairs" are written by PR firms.)

This has been a war of political spin, cooked up as a 'war on terrorism', and it looks like we're about to get another good serving. It also appears that we might have one more myth to add to the list.

*Ø* Blogmanac | Burning Man festival a focus for parties, religious yearning

"Rising from the desert in one of the flattest, most remote places on earth is an 80-foot temple topped by the stylized figure of a man.

"It wasn't here last week and it won't be here after Saturday night, except for a pile of ashes where it is to be ritually burned to the ground.

"In one of the most bizarre rites of the Silicon Age, nearly 30,000 people are camped in the middle of the Nevada desert 90 miles north of Reno to build and then destroy a temporary city built around a religious icon."

Source
The Burning Man Project

*Ø* Blogmanac | Robert Anton Wilson for California Governor?

Still Another Hat in the Ring

"Okay, this one I find particularly amusing: Author, comedian, guru, satirist, and all-around... well, strange guy Robert Anton Wilson has just entered the California governor’s race as the “unofficial write-in candidate” for the Guns and Dope Party. He says he was inspired by the surrealist concept of critical paranoia and the political philosophy of Lysander Spooner, but do the specifics really matter?

"It’s not like this recall election wasn’t surreal enough — but now it’s admittedly so."

I found this at an interesting and well-designed (non messy) blog, Prometheus Unleashed.
Permalink at that site

Wilson campaign page

Maybe Logic, RAW site

*Ø* Blogmanac | Feeling hot?

Try Baghdad:

Sunday
Clear. High: 111° F. / 44° C.
Monday
Clear. High: 113° F. / 45° C.
Tuesday
Clear. High: 114° F. / 46° C.
Wednesday
Scattered Clouds. High: 113° F. / 45° C.
Thursday
Scattered Clouds. High: 113° F. / 45° C.

Weather forecasts for Baghdad

*Ø* Blogmanac | Cool site

This is very cool, sent in by Kayla from California. Essentialised human motion via computer ... you operate the controls.

*Ø* Blogmanac | Stupid free white blokes

If you'd like a copy of Michael Moore's Number 1 bestseller Stupid White Men, which is a couple of years old but still a good read, you can buy a print copy from the Almanac Store, or download an e-book copy for free here. It will download in a .rar file, which my mate Baz le Tuff (smart white man who put me onto this freeby) tells me is like a .zip. You'll need the reader software which you can get from Tucows here. Thanx, Baz.

Last week I excerpted a bit of the book (in which Moore gets stuck into Clinton) here in the Blogmanac archives.

*Ø* Blogmanac | The Blogmanac reviewed

What's your opinion? It will help us to know

The Weblog Review has reviewed the Blogmanac. It has some good things to say about this blog, but is very critical of its download time, and "messy, messy, messy" design.

I'm pleased to get reviewed, and will take these things on board. Have a look at the review if you get a chance, and let us know if you agree. You can even cast a vote from zero to 5 according to your own feelings about the Blogmanac – it's all good feedback for us.

It was a bit of a shock because of the glowing reviews we've been getting from our readers here at Blogarama, and because none of the thousands of visitors here have ever made those criticisms. But, like I said, I'm definitely pleased to get the review, and despite its author, Ren, being a tad adversarial in tone, she did seem to try to provide some constructive criticism.

Is it too slow?
The Weblog Review says that even on cable it takes the Blogmanac 3-4 minutes to download. As I have dial-up and live in the bush 20 miles from the country town where my ISP is housed, and the Blogmanac only takes 30-45 seconds to download here at Sandy Beach, I'm really interested to know. Are you hating the download? I can easily ditch some of the stuff in the outer columns to speed things up, and pictures from the posts, but not on the say-so of just one reviewer. sooooo ... feedback is urgently requested of our visitors. Thanxalot.

*Ø* Blogmanac August 30, 1943 | Happy 60th birthday, R

My work is full of sweating, nervous uneasiness, which is a big part of me and everybody else. Most people don't want to see that though, because it reminds them of inadequate parts of themselves.
Robert Crumb

R Crumb, amazingly prolific US ‘underground’ cartoonist, creator of "Keep on trucking" as well as such memorable characters as Mr Natural, the Snoids, Whiteman, Angelfood McSpade, Bo Bo Bolinski, Flakey Foont and, of course, himself as he appears in countless comix.

Crumb, or 'R', as he is known to his many fans worldwide, has also produced volumes of non-comix artwork, including an illustrated version of James Boswell's 18th-century London Journal (a personal favourite of your almanackist whether illustrated by R or not).

More about R
crumbproducts.com

Shop Robert Crumb

*Ø* Blogmanac | Ambassador pied

Bakers Without Borders anti-FTAA protest hits home



"On August 28, an anti-FTAA activist pied American Ambassador Peter Allgeier, co-president of the FTAA, during a press conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The activist, a member of Bakers Without Borders, released a note protesting the negotiations of the FTAA. The FTAA will concentrate wealth, increase poverty, and destroy labor, consumer and enviromental rights, said the note.

"The protest also focused attention on the disregard Brazil's government has shown for a September 2002 unofficial plebiscite in which over 10 million people voted 'No' to the FTAA. Last month, President Inacio Lula da Silva said at a meeting with George Bush that negotiations will proceed and should finish by 2005. Brazilian social movements and NGOs protest the continuation of negotiations. The pieing comes just two weeks ahead of a WTO meeting in Cancún, which will be met with massive protest."

More pictures
Video

Source

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

Global Pastry Uprising
"As multinational corporations accelerate the plunder of our world, a militant resistance has formed in response. Diverse in philosophy and targets, diffuse in geography and structure, the movement comprises freedom-loving folks with a sense of aplomb and gastronomics. Fighting a guerrilla media and ground war with the titans of industry, these revolutionary bakers and pie-slingers have achieved in short order what can truly be called a Global Pastry Uprising (GPU)."
Biotic Baking Brigade

*Ø* Blogmanac| Campbell quits

"Alastair Campbell has announced he is to leave his Downing Street job in a shock move mid-way through the Hutton inquiry. His place will be taken by David Hill, a former director of communications for the Labour party.

"Despite early indications that Tony Blair's director of communications would be exonerated by the judicial inquiry, it was always suspected he would leave the government after the affair."

Source

"It points the finger at Tony Blair because he (Campbell) worked under Blair's regime.

"Blair is responsible ultimately for the loss of trust because he allowed the methods Campbell employed to operate.

"I think we have seen it from the beginning, this absolute obsession with the media ... We have seen it repeatedly, the way in which these methods have been employed. It is the ultimate in cynicism.

"They do have a strong bond and that makes Blair all the more culpable. We have seen the most appalling era of government communication."
The former press secretary to Baroness Thatcher, Sir Bernard Ingham

*Ø* Blogmanac August 30, 1797 | Mary Shelley, Frankenstein's creator


Mary Shelley, English author (Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus). Daughter of feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and prominent anarchistic atheist philosopher William Godwin, she married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816 after the suicide of his first wife. During the summer of 1816, the Shelleys visited Lord Byron in Switzerland. The three, together with Byron's physician John William Polidori, agreed that they would each write a ghost story. Only Polidori and Mary Shelley finished their stories. He produced The Vampyre (1819) and she created Frankenstein.

His heart would not burn: The death of Percy Bysshe Shelley

*Ø* Blogmanac August 29, 1769 | According to Hoyle, he was no more

The death of Edmond Hoyle (born 1672), who wrote on the rules of games. ‘According to Hoyle’ has become an English expression.

Hoyle, also known as ‘the father of whist’ (a card game), was a Londoner with a passion for card games. He wrote a best-selling book, Short Treatise on the Game of Whist, which was reprinted many times. In 1748, it was eventually incorporated with his manuals on games such as backgammon, quadrille, piquet and chess, into one volume, Hoyle’s Standard Games. This work brought him international fame, and led to the expression ‘according to Hoyle’, which has a meaning transcending its reference to the rules of games. ‘According to Hoyle’ also means ‘ship-shape’, ‘correct’ or, as the Macquarie Dictionary puts it, ‘in accordance with the recognised rules’.

*Ø* Blogmanac August 29, 1533 | The execution of the last Incan emperor

The Inca emperor, Atahualpa, was executed on the orders (and perfidy) of Spanish conquistador, Francisco Pizarro.

At the Battle of Cajamarca, on November 16, the preceding year, Pizarro with only 168 men conquered the Incan king in one of the most extraordinary battles of all time. Atahualpa had 80,000 battle-hardened soldiers who had recently defeated an indigenous enemy. However, the Spaniards had iron swords, guns, horses and armour, which the Incas did not.

Pizarro himself had grabbed Atahualpa from the litter, or palanquin, on which the great king was borne, calling out the Spanish war cry (“Santiago!”, or “St James!”) as he did so. The conqistador took Atahualpa prisoner and demanded a ransom, which the Incan king’s subjects duly paid. The ransom was almost unbelievable – enough gold to fill a room 22 feet long by 17 feet wide to a height of over 8 feet. When it was delivered, the good Christian Pizarro reneged on his promise and had Atahualpa strangled to death.

The tragedy at Cajamarca was not the only occasion in 1532 on which Western technology was able to trounce Incan technology – for technology such as guns and steel swords, rather than fighting skills and valour – were what won the day. In his excellent, Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Guns, Germs and Steel (Vintage, 1998), Jared Diamond, writes:

“During Pizarro’s march from Cajamarca to the Inca capital of Cuzco after Atahualpa’s death, there were four such battles: at Jauja, Vilcashuaman, Vilcaconga, and Cuzco. Those four battles involved a mere 80, 30, 110, and 40 Spanish horsemen, respectively, in each case ranged against thousands or tens of thousands of Indians.”

More
More
And more

*Ø* Blogmanac | NZ cartoonist gagged by lobby groups

Cartoons criticised Israel

"An award-winning cartoonist dumped from New Zealand's biggest newspaper over his anti-Israel drawings said he stood by his work and rejected an editor's right to direct what he could or could not draw.

"Malcolm Evans, twice named cartoonist of the year, says he was sacked by New Zealand's biggest newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, after the newspaper received complaints from the Jewish community about his cartoons on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians ...

"Evans said he was sacked after seven years with the newspaper but was not interested in a legal fight with the paper.

"The Waikato Times newspaper said Auckland rabbi Jeremy Lawrence had complained to the New Zealand Herald about Evans."

Source

*Ø* Blogmanac | It may be time to get off the grid

The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.
~ The Lord of the Rings ~

Pathway to Freedom
Journey to the Summit . . . One Step at a Time

You may not be able to change the world, but you can at least
change your footprints on this earth. ~ Jules Dervaes ~


"If we should cease learning now, we would end our lives for life is learning and learning ceases with death...

The world presents our young generation with a challenge more formidable and far greater than ever before offered to mankind: the challenge of its existence.

... The world is ours--we can mold it into any shape we wish. We can either let it fall into disrepute through our ignorance, or we can build it to new heights through our knowledge. ..." ~ Source: Excerpts from his valedictorian speech, 1965 ~

[Jules is a man who walks the walk. Get to know a leader -- a man and his family making a positive difference. -v]

CONTINUE

*Ø* Blogmanac | He'll leave no child behind.

THIS Little Guy means what he says -- not like someone I could mention.


Minneapolis Elf Has All the Right Answers
By Gregg Aamot, Associated Press Writer

MINNEAPOLIS - Four-year-old Shira Rabkin wanted to ask just the right questions, so she thought long and hard.


"Dear Mr. Little Guy," she finally scrawled in big letters across a sheet of paper. "Do you like mints?" After some more pondering, she added, "and going to Camp Snoopy? Love, Shira."


Mr. Little Guy was nowhere in sight this early August evening, so Shira stuffed her letter behind his door at the base of a hollowed out ash tree. It's always open, and always full — of letters, pens, flowers and coins.

The elusive elf has enchanted Twin Citians ever since the 6-inch wooden door appeared eight years ago, just off a walking path around popular Lake Harriet. Double takes led to messages, and messages to answers — and somehow Mr. Little Guy keeps up, responding to the queries in typed notes half the size of business cards.

Some of his notes are left in the tree for children to find; others, if he has an address, are mailed. So many children visit that a patch of grass once leading to Mr. Little Guy's door is now powdery dirt. A flower bed bordered by stone surrounds one side of the tree.

Shira is headed to kindergarten, and she's a big believer. But parents are smitten, too.

CONTINUE

*Ø* Blogmanac August 28, 1857 | Abe Lincoln's night of the "moon riding low"



When he was a lawyer, Abraham Lincoln defended a man, one William Armstrong, who had been charged with murder.

The prosecutor said that Lincoln’s client had murdered a man on August 28, 1857 in the "light of the moon". Holding up the 1857 edition of the Old Farmer's Almanac for the jury to see, Lincoln pointed out that on the night in question the "moon was riding low". Thus was Armstrong acquitted of all charges in a real-life scenario that has had its echo in countless crime fictions since then.

*Ø* Blogmanac August 28 | Three events in US civil rights history

The death of Emmett Till
1955 USA: While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, African-American teenager Emmett Till was brutally murdered after speaking "inappropriately" to a white woman.

The questionable trial that followed, and Mrs Till's decision to display her son's mutilated remains during an open-casket funeral, help to mobilize opposition to segregation in America.

Probably the most important troubadour of the movement in the early 1960s was Bob Dylan, who had performed on sites where "black is the color and none is the number”. Born in the same year as his fellow Midwesterner Till, Dylan was to transcribe his sense of horror in the Delta in an early song, The Death of Emmett Till.

Excerpt:
Some men they dragged him to a barn
and there they beat him up.
They said they had a reason,
but I can't remember what.
They tortured him and did some things
too evil to repeat.
They were screaming sounds inside the barn,
there was laughing sounds out on the street.
Then they rolled his body down a gulf
amidst a bloody red rain
and they threw him in the waters wide
to cease his screaming pain.
The reason that they killed him there,
and I'm sure it ain't no lie,
Was just for the fun of killin' him
and watch him slowly die.

Source: The Daily Bleed
More

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

I have a dream
1963 USA: 250,000-500,000 people converged on the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, the largest single protest demonstration in US history, organized to support sweeping civil rights measures. A highlight is Martin Luther King Jr's now famous “I have a dream” speech, in which he declared:

"I have a dream that my four children will one day live
in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin
but by the content of their character."

Joan Baez, Odetta, Josh White, SNCC Freedom Singers, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Bob Dylan performed.

Source: The Daily Bleed

Audio of the speech (requires Real media)
NY Times article

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

In a land of free speech
1968 Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman was arrested while having breakfast at a restaurant for having the word ‘Fuck’ written on his forehead. He was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. He listed his occupation as ‘revolutionary artist’. Hoffman was to appear in court in answer to the complaints on September 6.

*Ø* Blogmanac | Tories would close Beeb website

"The Conservative party would switch off a swath of the BBC's digital services, including its website and the youth channel BBC3, if it won the next general election.

The party's culture spokesman, John Whittingdale, told Guardian Unlimited Politics he was not persuaded' of the case for a public service website and that he was 'not convinced the BBC needs to do all the things it is doing at the present', including providing 'more and more channels'.

"'As a free-market Conservative, I will only support a nationalised industry if I'm persuaded that that is the only way to do it and if it were not nationalised it would not happen.'"

Source

Neo-con assault on independent media
Support your global Beeb
The BBC is without peer as a media organisation, largely because it's as big as the corporate giants (almost) but not commercial. The Beeb's website is also, in my opinion, one of the best in the world, and worth checking out regularly. If the BBC is in trouble with Blair's so-called Labor Party, imagine what a pack of neo-con Tories might do to it.

The BBC belongs not just to the UK, but to the world, both rich and poor, and is worthy of support. Let's hope the econo-rats (economic rationalists) don't have their way with its great site.

*Ø* Blogmanac | Kaspar Hauser, mystery boy of Nuremburg

New article at the Scriptorium

This is a story that intrigues me as much for the way it captivated the German people of its day and succeeding generations, as for its intrinsic oddness.

On May 26, 1828, at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a youth of about 16 or 17 years of age showed up in a pathetic condition in the marketplace in Nuremburg (or Nurenberg as it is sometimes spelt, among a few spellings), Germany. The lad was dressed in peasant clothes, and had with him a letter addressed to the cavalry captain of the city. He was led to the captain and interrogated, and it was found he could scarcely speak. To every question he replied “Von Regensburg” (from Regensburg) or “Ich woais nit” (I don't know). Except for dry bread and water, he showed a violent dislike to all forms of food and drink. He seemed ignorant of commonplace objects. He carried a handkerchief marked ‘KH’ and a few written Catholic prayers ...

Read this strange story at the Articles section of the Scriptorium

*Ø* Blogmanac August 27, 1998 | You can't keep a good activist down

USA: Pacifist, and former Chicago 7 defendant, David Dellinger, aged 83, was arrested while demonstrating at a nuclear reactor.

*Ø* Blogmanac August 27, 55 BCE | Julius Caesar landed in Britain

We know it was on this date because in his journal, Julius Caesar wrote that he proceeded on his expedition when the people were engaged in harvest, and he returned three weeks later before the equinox. The full moon, which occurred on August 31 that year, occurred four days after his landing.

*Ø* Blogmanac August 27 | Volturnalia festival, ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, today was the day for honouring a deity, Volturnus (the father of the water nymph Juturna, goddess of wells and springs) who was variously identified as the Sirocco (a wind) or as a river in Campania – he was later identified as god of the Tiber river. The Volturnus River, in southern Italy, is named for him. Both Volturnus and Juturna were honoured this day, the Volturnalia, with feasting, wine-drinking and games.

*Ø* Blogmanac August 27, 1912 | Arrr-arrr-arr-arr---arrrr!!!
(How do you spell it?)

The first appearance of Tarzan. Author Edgar Rice Burroughs originally named his hero, King of the Apes, Zentar Bloomstoke, rather than Tarzan Greystoke.

How it began
“So the story goes, Edgar Rice Burroughs was sitting in his rented office and waiting for his crack pencil sharpener salesmen to report in, supposedly their pockets bulging with orders. Besides waiting, one of Burroughs' duties was to verify the placement of advertisements for his sharpeners in various magazines. These were all-fiction ‘pulp’ magazines, a prime source of escapist reading material for the rapidly expanding middle class. Verifying the pencil sharpener ads didn't exactly take much time. The pencil sharpener salesmen never showed up, so Burroughs spent his idle time reading those pulp magazines. And an idea was born.” Source

*Ø* Blogmanac | Horrifying US Secret Weapon Unleashed In Baghdad

"A nightmarish US super weapon reportedly was employed by American ground forces during chaotic street fighting in Baghdad. The secret tank-mounted weapon was witnessed in all its frightening power by Majid al-Ghazali, a seasoned Iraqi infantryman who described the device and its gruesome effects as unlike anything he had ever encountered in his lengthy military service. The disturbing revelation is yet another piece of cinematic evidence brought back from postwar Iraq by intrepid filmmaker Patrick Dillon."

Source

[Merci buckets, Celestial Shamanka.]

*Ø* Blogmanac | Iraqi Commander Swears He Saw US Evacuate Saddam


"Film will soon be made public of an Iraqi Army officer describing how he saw a US Air Force transport fly Saddam Hussein out of Baghdad. The explosive eyewitness testimony was shot by independent filmmaker Patrick Dillon, who recently returned from a risky one-man odyssey in Iraq. In the film, the officer, who told Dillon that he commanded a special combat unit during the battle for Baghdad airport and whose identity is temporarily being withheld, explains in detail how he watched as the Iraqi dictator and members of his inner circle were evacuated from Iraq's capital by what he emphatically insists were United States Air Force cargo planes."

Source

[I'm not given to conspiracy theories; I post this merely for interest ... especially when someone of the calibre of Bush thinks he's running the planet, it's not a bad idea, I think, to cover all bases.]

*Ø* Blogmanac | It really is the pits

"(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) In the [USA] Energy Department’s crowded spectrum of technically challenged, hazardous, usually superfluous, but always costly nuclear projects—in the region where the blinking infrared of bureaucratic dysfunction meets the luminous green of pork-barrel politics—the partisans of new nukes detect a ray of hope.

"This glimmer is called the Modern Pit Facility (MPF), the administration’s euphemism for a brand new $4 billion factory where new plutonium cores ('pits') will be fabricated for those 'weapons of mass destruction' the president is always lecturing other nations about.

"The MPF would be able to produce 250–900 pits per year. Just to set the scale, the midpoint of this annual range would equal or exceed China’s entire nuclear arsenal. Energy says the United States must have the agility to: 'rapidly change from production of one pit type to another; simultaneously produce multiple pit types;' and 'produce pits of a new design in a timely manner.' But such bomb-making abilities don’t just knock the moral-political props out from under efforts to stem bomb programs in North Korea, Iran, India, and Pakistan. They’re a felonious frontal assault on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty itself."

Source

[Thanks Celestial Shamanka for sending this beauty in.]

*Ø* Blogmanac | Atlantis: Way down below the ocean

"Atlantis, or so it is said, was a huge island lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the Straits of Gibraltar) and its culture had dominated the Mediterranean nine thousand years before Solon, the lawmaker of Athens. From its ideal condition as an advanced culture it deteriorated into a military aggressor, so the gods resolved to punish the civilisation. We have this on authority of Plato in his Timaeus and Critias (c. 350 BCE). He learned the story from his cousin, who got it from his grandfather, who heard it from his father, who got it from Solon himself, who heard it from the priests of Sais in Egypt in 590 BCE."

This is from the new article just posted at the Scriptorium. I hope you enjoy it.

*Ø* Blogmanac August 26, 1635 | Amazingly prolific poet

Prolific Spanish dramatist and poet Lopez Felix de la Vega, who wrote 1,800 dramatic pieces, died. About one-third of his writing was published, filling 26 quarto volumes. One estimate puts his work at twenty million dramatic verses.

[If anyone has more on this maestro, I would love to hear it.]

*Ø* Blogmanac August 26, 1968 | Pigasus for President!

We want to give you a chance to talk to our candidate and to restate our demand that Pigasus be given Secret Service protection and be brought to the White House for his foreign policy briefing.
Jerry Rubin at the nomination of Pigasus for president of the USA

They nominate a president and he eats the people. We nominate a president and the people eat him.
Pigasus nominators’ slogan

The nomination of the boar hog Pigasus for President of the United States by the Yippies had been the most "transcendentally lucid" political act of the twentieth century …
Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminatus! Trilogy

At the Democratic Presidential Convention in Chicago, USA, yippie leaders Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and other protesters nominated a pig, named Pigasus, for president. (Sources differ as to date. Porkopolis says August 23, Daily Bleed says August 26.)

“Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, along with David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale were arrested for conspiring to incite violence and crossing state lines with the intent to riot. The group became known as the Chicago Eight until Seale was removed from the proceedings and sentenced to four years in prison for contempt, the group was then known as the Chicago Seven. After a protracted trial and appeals, all charges were dismissed.” Source

*Ø* Blogmanac August 26 | Celebrating today

Today’s plant
Banded amaryllis, Amaryllis vittata, was designated today’s plant by medieval monks. It is dedicated to Saint Zephyrinus, whose feast day this was, until suppressed by the Catholic Church in 1969.

Ilmatar Day, Finland
Today is the feast day of Ilmatar, or Luonotar, the Finnish goddess known as the Water Mother, who created the world. A duck laid the six golden eggs upon her knees, and one iron egg from which the world was made.

Women’s Equality Day
Today marks the anniversary of the 1920 proclamation of the Nineteenth Amendment to the USA Constitution, which gave the vote to women in that country. It is also known as Susan B Anthony Day after the great feminist.

Feast of St Elizabeth Bichier des Áges
Joan Elizabeth Mary Lucy Bichier, born in 1773, founded a community of nuns Daughters of the Cross) to care for the sick and teach girls.

Mt Fuji climbing season ends
Beginning on July 1, the season in which pilgrims climb Mt Fuji ends today. Soon the fire goddess of Fuji will again be snow capped. Long ago, a demon asked her for a night’s lodging and was refused. In revenge, the demon made the mountain snowy for most of the year. The Sengen-jinja shrine at Fuji-Yoshida hosts the torch-lit ceremonies.

Firewalking, Japan
At the Jokomiyoji Shrine, Kamakura, Japan, today is the day for the spectacular firewalking ceremony of the shrine priests.

Japanese Lantern Festival
The Ishiki Ochochin Matsuri is a festival of lanterns at Japan’s Suwa Shrine. A local legend has it that long ago a dragon was destroyed here by being cooked on a bonfire, so for years bonfires were lit in commemoration. These days, huge lanterns, about ten metres high, are lit and burned for three days, being taken down after a performance of sacred dance and song.

*Ø* Blogmanac | Bring 'em on!

An idea for ads to beat Shrub

"President Bush's now famous 'Bring 'em on' remark, daring Iraqi terrorists to attack American troops, is looking more and more like Jimmy Carter's 'Trust me' and Richard Nixon's 'I am not a crook.' The remark is on video, which is always dangerous to a politician ...

"Consider the following scenario: a series of TV ads begin to appear nightly immediately after the Republican convention is over next year. They will be negative ads. They will promote no Democratic candidate. They will therefore not be under the tight restrictions of the Federal Election Commission.

"Each ad will begin with a video clip of President Bush's 'Bring 'em on!' challenge. Then the screen will shift rapidly to the burned-out remains of a building or a Humvee. Underneath will be these words: a date, a location, and a death count.

"Then a black screen with white print will announce: America needs a new policy.

"There will be an ID of some kind: 'Citizens for a Lasting Peace' or 'Mothers to Stop the Bloodshed.'

"There will be no bodies on screen. There will be only bombed-out buildings and equipment.

"Each ad will last no longer than 15 seconds ..."

Source

*Ø* Blogmanac | Your Money's No Good Here

"Hossam Algabri ripped open his statement from Fleet Bank one day after work last November, and began to read: 'We regret to inform you that we have decided that it is not in our best interest to continue your banking relationship with us ... As he dialed customer service, he began to wonder: Did this have anything to do with the war on terrorism? ... Banks have long played a role in stopping the flow of money among suspected terrorists, money launderers, and narcotraffickers. But the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, raised the bar. More watch lists have been generated, more institutions have become accountable – and more consumers may feel the heat."

Source

[Thanx Mary Ann Sabo for spotting this story for the Blogmanac.]

*Ø* Blogmanac | Archaeologists claim to find nearly 1,000-year-old temple beneath Babri Masjid

Site of demolished mosque still disputed by Muslims and Hindus

“Hyderabad, Aug 25. (PTI): While the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) today said that it had found features of a temple at the Babri Masjid site, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) alleged that these findings were ‘without any basis’.

"ASI's findings have been ‘concocted’ at the instance of the Vajpayee Government and particularly under ‘pressure’ from Union ministers Jagmohan and Murli Manohar Joshi, the AIMPLB claimed."

Source

This report concerns the long-lasting dispute between Muslim and Hindu claims to 'ownership' of the site of the Babri Masjid mosque in India. On December 6, 1992, a mob of up to one million Hindu extremists tore down the mosque, stone by stone.

Timeline of the Babri Masjid mosque from a Muslim website
More on the mosque from the samewebsite
Report by BBC journalist, Mark Tully, who was present at the mosque's demolition
View on the controversy from a Hindu website

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

Every civil building connected with Mahommedan tradition should be levelled to the ground without regard to antiquarian veneration or artistic predilection.
British Prime Minister Palmerston in a letter to Lord Canning, Viceroy of India, October 9, 1857, Canning Papers

*Ø* Blogmanac | Fox Loses Bid to Stop Sale of Franken Book

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday slammed Fox News' trademark infringement lawsuit against Al Franken and his publisher Penguin Group and refused to stop the sale of the liberal satirist's new book that pokes fun at the network and host Bill O'Reilly.

"Fox charged that Franken had violated its trademarked phrase 'fair and balanced' by including it on the cover of his book entitled 'Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.' Fox is owned by News Corp. and Penguin is a unit of Pearson . The book went on sale on Thursday.

"'There are hard cases and there are easy cases. This is an easy case,' said U.S. District Judge Denny Chin. 'This case is wholly without merit both factually and legally.'

"'Parody is a form of artistic expression protected by the First Amendment. The keystone to parody is imitation. Mr. Franken is clearly mocking Fox,' said Chin."

Source

A fair and balanced judgement
Just when the rest of the world thinks American law has gone crazy, a good judgement comes in that helps restore our confidence. This judge used common sense to stymie a huge TNC that was trying to stop free speech.

I have to admit that I have no idea who this Al Franken is, and all the news stories I've read about him don't elaborate, they just refer to "Al Franken" as though we should know, so he must be pretty famous in America. And I don't know if his book's any good. All I know is that his 'Fair and balanced' gag was funny, when you know that Fox uses that slogan (Veralynne explained it to me, with some difficulty), and that the Blogmanac was one of many blogs that added 'Fair and balanced' to their mastheads.

I know, too, that you can get his book through the Wilson's Almanac store at Amazon.com. Support my mate Al Franken!

*Ø* Blogmanac | The future looks bright



Language can help to shape the way we think about the world. Richard Dawkins welcomes an attempt to raise consciousness about atheism by co-opting a word with cheerful associations


"I once read a science-fiction story in which astronauts voyaging to a distant star were waxing homesick: "Just to think that it's springtime back on Earth!" You may not immediately see what's wrong with that, so ingrained is our unconscious northern hemisphere chauvinism. "Unconscious" is exactly right. That is where consciousness-raising comes in.

"I suspect it is for a deeper reason than gimmicky fun that, in Australia and New Zealand, you can buy maps of the world with the south pole on top. Now, wouldn't that be an excellent thing to pin to our class-room walls? What a splendid consciousness-raiser. Day after day, the children would be reminded that north has no monopoly on up. The map would intrigue them as well as raise their consciousness. They'd go home and tell their parents.

"The feminists taught us about consciousness-raising. I used to laugh at 'him or her', and at 'chairperson', and I still try to avoid them on aesthetic grounds. But I recognise the power and importance of consciousness-raising. I now flinch at 'one man one vote'. My consciousness has been raised. Probably yours has too, and it matters."


CONTINUE

*Ø* Blogmanac | A dangerous deck of cards

'America's Most Unwanted' cards are dangerous – to democracy

"IT BEGAN WITH the Pentagon's novel way of identifying the Iraqi leadership that it continues to hunt down. The 55-card 'Deck of Death' quickly became a 'must-have' item, and it very quickly became available for commercial sale, proving – like Gulf War I's Humvee-turned-Hummer before it – that war, once you get past the death and destruction thing, can generate really cool profit-making ideas. ..."

Bryant Jordan, deputy news editor for the Marine Corps Times, USA reports on a new deck of cards (pro-war) that is being marketed by US Marines, with the approval of the US Marine Corps. Whatever happened to the separation of powers? Jordan points out how dangerous it is for democracy when military personnel start making money from political/commercial enterprises.

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

This cornball site sells the cards. I quote from its hokey homepage (no, I didn't make this up):

"Stonewall Enterprises, L.L.C., salutes the brave U.S. Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines who liberated the long-suffering Iraqi people, and allowed the American Dream to live another day here at home. They fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. We humbly thank them."

American Dream? I thought that was a job, a house and all the consumer goods you can covet. What has the invasion of Iraq got to do with th --- Ohhhh, I get it now!

*Ø* Blogmanac | Celestial wonders and the fall of Constantinople, 1453


Did a Pacific volcano change Western history?

May 29, 1453 On a Tuesday, Constantinople (now Istanbul) fell to the Turks, or, as it is said in the Muslim world, Constantinople was liberated. It was a major turning point in world history as Constantinople, founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine, was a seat of learning and the tangible presence of Western civilization in the East. It has been said that the flight of many scholarly refugees from Constantinople to Italy was the single most important mainspring of the European Renaissance. Yet the antagonists of the siege of Constantinople had the minds of the Middle Ages era, and the effect of ‘ominous’ heavenly wonders probably affected the outcome.

During the preceding weeks, the city had suffered many heavy rains and hailstorms. Being medieval men, the leaders believed that the Christian city would not fall to Sultan Mehmed II’s siege unless there was a sign in the moon. Unfortunately for them, the moon went into a long and dark eclipse on May 22nd, displaying a thin crescent – the image of the Turkish standard flying over Mehmed's camp.

Read on – I have just posted this new article at the Scriptorium

*Ø* Blogmanac | Has Google's toolbar gone rogue?

"Sadly, Google has taken a page from the book read by the bad guys. Their wonderful toolbar has gone rogue in the last several versions. Google Toolbar 2.0 includes an update function that checks Google's servers for updates, downloads those updates, and installs them automatically. This is all done with no user participation. That in itself is fine. However, the Google toolbar doesn't allow you to disable this ...

"This is unacceptable. It doesn't matter that it is one of the good guys doing this. It is unethical to install software on a machine without the owner's permission, and it is even more unethical to do it without their knowledge.

"The reasons for requiring the updater not be disabled are irrelevant. People spend thousands of dollars on their computers and should not be at risk of the latest and greatest version of someone's software installing itself silently and destroying their system due to an unexpected conflict."

Source

[I dips me lid to Mary Ann Sabo for sending in this and the preceding item.]

*Ø* Blogmanac | A message to server admins

"Email server administrators, please read this message.
"If your mail server is set up to bounce emails with viruses attached, along with a message to the sender, please turn that feature off. Unless you've been in a cave for the past three days, you know that tens of millions -possibly hundreds of millions- of emails carrying the sobig.f virus have been hammering email servers worldwide. Not a single one of these emails has the sender in the FROM: field. Not one of them.

"The person listed in the FROM: field is not infected with a virus. Someone with that person in their address book is infected. Your bounce message serves no useful purpose and is contributing actively to this problem. For Christ's sake, stop bouncing the virus emails. Route them to /dev/null/ and be done with it."

Source

What do you reckon?

*Ø* Blogmanac August 25, 1778 | Last Celtic bull sacrifice

The last Pagan sacrifice of a bull to be conducted publicly in the Celtic world, was performed today on the island of Eilean Maree (formerly Eilean a Mhor Righ – Island of the Great King), in Loch Maree, Scotland. This occurred on the day of St Mourie, or Maol Rubha (640-722 CE). It is likely that Maol Rubha supplanted Mourie, a pagan Moon god of earlier times. The crescent moon is shaped like a bull’s horn, and this might be why the bull was associated with the ancient rites and festivities – at Eilean Maree and elsewhere.

The island was formerly known as and its festival is closely connected to the Irish Lughnasad, which also featured animal sacrifice.On the island there is a spring known as St. Maelrubha's Well, long considered to have healing properties, especially for the mentally ill.

And whoso bathes therin his brow
With care or madness burning,
Feels once again his healthful thought
And sense of peace returning.
John Greenleaf Whittier

In 1656, the Scottish Presbytery had condemned the “abominable and heathenish” practices that took place on this day – practices that included ceremonial well dressing.

Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
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*Ø* Blogmanac August 25, 1549 | Ket's Rebellion crushed

1549 Today marks one of the days in history on which were forged some of the human rights enjoyed by a proportion of people in the world. Regrettably, though, today we remember a bloody defeat rather than a victory for those who bravely asserted their liberties. On this day, the Norfolk Rising (or Commotion), otherwise known as Ket’s Rebellion, came to an end when the overwhelming military power of the Earl of Warwick crushed Robert Ket’s rebels.

On July 20, at Mousehold, England, a herald of the king had been turned away, his message of conciliation – or, demand for compliance – from the monarch to some 20,000 rural insurrectionists rejected. The herald had promised the king's pardon to all who would depart quietly to their homes.

The rebellion of farmers and farm workers was aimed at bringing attention to the economic problems faced by agricultural workers in East Anglia. Like the Diggers (founded exactly one century later, in 1649 by Gerard Winstanley) and even the rather more conservative Levellers, the rebels demanded the abolition of land enclosures, the end of private ownership of land, and the dismissal of counsellors. A commonwealth was established on Mousehold Heath.

The ‘commotion’ was led by Robert Ket (or Kett), a fairly prosperous tanner and landowner (he held the manor of Wymondham in Norfolk), who with his followers occupied the city of Norwich, but were defeated on August 25 by Warwick’s superior firepower.

The rebels had met daily under ‘the Oak of Reformation’, upon which many of them were later hanged.

Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email


Land and Freedom Pages
Wikipedia on the Diggers
Wikipedia on the Levellers
Modern Diggers

*Ø* Blogmanac August 25 | Odin’s Ordeal, Last day

Today is the final day of the nine days of his ordeal is the Festival of the Discovery of the Runes, when Odin fell screaming from the tree, having gained the knowledge he sought.

*Ø* Blogmanac | Wilkie for Ozzie of the Year

For Australian readers
Thanks to Noel Winterburn (gday mate!) of the excellent organisation, Conversations for the 21st Century, who sent me this request today:

Noel writes: "Please circulate this information to other like minded people/organisations:

"Mr Andrew Wilkie, the former senior intelligence analyst who resigned from the Office of National Assessments (ONA) in protest at John Howard government's deceit over information relating to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorism, has been nominated for the Australian of the Year Award 2004. According to the Australia Day Council, "nominating someone for the awards is the greatest honour you can bestow upon them." If you feel that Mr Andrew Wilkie makes you proud, please support his nomination by providing a written reference for Andrew. This should be sent to:

Australian of the Year Awards 2004
National Australia Day Council
Old Parliament House
King George Terrace
Parkes ACT 2600

Please include the reference number 2103 in your letter. For any information on the Awards, please visit www.australianoftheyear.gov.au, or call 1300 655 193"

Correction and apology
In my post on Friday, August 22, That Baghdad truck driver was one tough mutha I implied that the United States military had not adequately protected the United Nations mission in Baghdad. I was completely wrong in this imputation. I have since learned that the UN chose to carry out its own security, and the USA had no role in protecting the headquarters. I apologise for my error.

*Ø* Blogmanac | An awesome night sky

I hope everyone's enjoying the night sky at present as much as I am, with no moon, and that you're not one of the hundreds of millions of people in the world who are now unable to see the Milky Way. Industrialisation has brought many benefits, but a big chunk of the human soul has been robbed from many of us by the inability to see the true night sky as it really is – a blaze of stars with the huge, milky band of our galaxy running through it. The one that has been seen by our ancestors since humanity began. Bright cities have only been a blight on humanity for a few decades.

If you and any kids in your life don't see something like this tonight, then you're really being robbed – and remember, this ain't no dress rehearsal.

I don't usually go outside at night much in winter to watch the sky, but tonight, with no moon or clouds, it was great. I live on a beach and I lay on my back away from the two street lights in my street and the light of my own house. I'm one of the lucky ones who lives away from city lights and tonight I saw, for the first time in my life, three satellites simultaneously in the same part of the sky, two of them travelling parallel and close. If anyone can tell me what that was all about, that would be great.

And I watched Mars. For the last month and for the next, the really good thing to be seeing is Mars as it nears its closest approach to us in nearly 60,000 years, the closest being this coming Wednesday. Here in Oz we get a good view as it's travelling directly overhead. For a few weeks it has been absolutely awesome.

Even if where you live has no Milky Way, don't miss out on Mars right now as I'm pretty sure you can see that anywhere. And if you've forgotten what the night sky does for the soul, and how toxic cities are for all that's valuable in life, I recommend making a big move to a new place. Life's too short for bad coffee.

All the latest on Mars

*Ø* Blogmanac August 24 | Odin discovers the runes

Odin’s Ordeal (August 17-25)
The Nordic and Germanic god Odin was the chief of the Aesir sky gods. He was worshipped as God of the Dead through the Viking period. Symbolised in art by a raven and a particular knot (valknut), Odin was patron of the fanatical warrior cult, the Berserks. He was hung from an ash tree, Yggdrasil (the world tree, or tree of life), whence he gained the knowledge he sought. Today was the commemoration of the day he discovered the runes.

*Ø* Blogmanac August 24 | A prosperous Autumn ahead? Look outside

If the twenty-fourth of August be fair and clear,
Then hope for a prosperous Autumn that year.
English traditional proverb

Bathe your eyes on Bartimy Day,
You may throw your spectacles away.
English traditional proverb

Today’s plant
Sunflower, Helianthus annuus, was designated today’s plant by medieval monks. It is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew (Nathanael bar Tolomai), Apostle whose feast day this is.


Bartlemas
The feast day of St Bartholomew was so called in old England. This saint was one of the apostles of Jesus. His symbol is a butcher’s knife, in allusion to the knife with which he was flayed alive for his faith. He is the patron saint of butchers, skinners, tanners, bookbinders and all leatherworkers, as well as nervous disorders and Armenia.

He is also patron of the honey crop. At Gulval, Cornwall, UK, the Blessing of the Mead ceremony still takes place on St Bartholomew’s Day. Mead is an ancient fermented drink made from herb-infused honey. In ancient Rome this sweet drink was offered to the gods of love and fertility.


Bartholomew Fair
Held annually for centuries on St Bartholomew’s Day at Smithfield near London on this day from 1133 to 1855, this English fair began with a vision. Rahere, the jester of King Henry I, said he had seen the apostle Bartholomew in a vision and he had directed him to found a church and hospital in his honour. After the work was done, Rahere established a fair which was to begin on his patron’s day, August 24, and go for three days.

It was the custom to eat roast pig at the fair held so the term Bartholomew pig denoted a fat person. (Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig - Shakespeare, Henry IV, Pt II, II)

The play Bartholomew Fair (1614) by Ben Jonson (1572-1637), depicts the customs associated with the popular English fair held annually on this day. Jonson’s play is peopled with balladeers, stall holders, prostitutes and cut-purses.

The Shepherds’ Race
In a delightful old (at least 1443) tradition from Markgröningen in Germany, on St Bartholomew’s Day shepherds from the lowlands gather on a field for footraces. First the males, then the females race. The winners are crowned and lead their prize, a garlanded sheep, in procession. The day is filled with sack races, egg races, dancing and traditional games. One involves tipping a beaker of water with the head, without getting wet, in order to win a cockerel.

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

1572 The St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of Huguenot Protestants occurred in Paris, at the instigation of Catherine de’ Medici, mother of Charles IX. Some 70,000 people were massacred in the tribulation that began on this day.

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The Bartholomew Act
On this day, St Bartholomew’s, 1662, after the restoration of the monarchy in England and the fall of the Puritans, Parliament passed an act which required all clergymen to follow the Book of Common Prayer. Two thousand clergymen left the church in the face of repression and were denied the right to trial by jury.

*Ø* Blogmanac August 24, 1770 | The death of Chatterton

Boy genius poet and forger

Thomas Chatterton, the English poet, was born on November 20, 1752 and produced all his work by the age of only 17, when he committed suicide on this day in 1770 ...

It was only after Chatterton's death that the controversy over his work began. Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol by Thomas Rowley and others, in the Fifteenth Century (1777) was edited by Thomas Tyrwhitt, a Chaucerian scholar who believed them to be genuine medieval works. However, the appendix to the following year's edition recognises that they were probably Chatterton's own work ...

The boy poet/forger was not without his supporters. Shelley commemorated Chatterton’s genius in Adonais, and Wordsworth in Resolution and Independence. Coleridge wrote A Monody on the Death of Chatterton, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti lauded him in Five English Poets. John Keats inscribed Endymion “to the memory of Thomas Chatterton”. Alfred de Vigny's drama of Chatterton invented a fictitious account of the poet

Excerpted from a new article I posted today at the Scriptorium

*Ø* Blogmanac | A bi' of a larf, know wha' I mean?

Monkey Primate and the Oily Grail

(A Flash-animated Blair/Bush parody in the Monty Python fashion from the funny people at toostupidtobepresident.com.)

*Ø* Blogmanac | Baghdad Burning

A blog from Iraq

I was very pleased to find this blog just now:

"The Beginning...
So this is the beginning for me, I guess. I never thought I'd start my own weblog... All I could think, every time I wanted to start one was "but who will read it?" I guess I've got nothing to lose... but I'm warning you- expect a lot of complaining and ranting. I looked for a 'rantlog' but this is the best Google came up with.

"A little bit about myself: I'm female, Iraqi and 24. I survived the war. That's all you need to know. It's all that matters these days anyway."

Baghdad Burning

... I discovered it at the blog of an old Aussie colleague of mine (I stumbled upon his blog by chance tonight), Allan Moult (gday, cobber!). It's a great blog, as well. Say gday to both of 'em for me, will ya?

*Ø* Blogmanac | America Two Years after 9/11: 25 Things We Now Know

By Bernard Weiner

"Last year, close to the time of the first anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks, I wrote 'Twenty Things We've Learned One Year After 9/11.' Now we're approaching the second anniversary, and it's time for an update.

"Things we could only speculate about a year ago have taken place – to name just three: an invasion and occupation of Iraq (based on misleading intelligence and outright lies), an administration that may have committed the treasonous act of deliberately revealing the identity of a CIA agent, and shocking revelations about the computer-screen voting system now being put into place around the country for the 2004 election.

"The abbreviated list below can be used both as a reminder to all of us why we're fighting this good, oppositional battle, and as a place to start from when organizing and talking to others about why you will be voting for someone other than George W. Bush in the presidential vote next year.

"Here are the topics and here's what we've learned, all factually validated by – or strongly suggested in – journalistic reports ..."

Source

*Ø* Blogmanac August 23 | Sun enters Virgo

Our vernal signs, the RAM begins,
Then comes the BULL, in May the TWINS;-
The CRAB in June, next LEO shines,
And VIRGO ends the northern signs.

The BALANCE brings autumnal fruits,
The SCORPION stings, the ARCHER shoots;-
December's GOAT brings wintry blast,
AQUARIUS rain, the FISH come last.
E Cobham Brewer: The Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (1894)

*Ø* Blogmanac | So that's where the frogs are going

"There’s a global mass extinction occurring, the world is losing up to a quarter of all its frogs, toads and salamanders. Here in Australia 8 species of frog have gone extinct in the last 20 years. The mystery of our disappearing amphibia has been baffling scientists for years. But a team of Australian scientists lead by Dr Gerry Marantelli has been desperately trying to piece together what’s been causing the extinction. They’ve uncovered a bizarre chain of events ..."

Read the story

*Ø* Blogmanac | Bush blames nation's wildlife for east coast blackout

"War on Endangered Species" to be fought in the mountains of ANWR

"Gail Norton, the controversial head of the Department of the Interior, is leading a crack team of Navy SEALs with animal experts Jack Hanna and Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, into Alaska to track down a rogue band of animals that the Bush administration is blaming for the recent power outage.

"'Operation Furry Fury' will target those responsible for the terrorist act, which officials suspect was perpetrated by endangered species from the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) in Alaska. The electrical outage caused by the attack was the worst blackout in US history shutting down power to seven northeastern States and Canada. Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States has no choice but to invade the federally protected land in Alaska to stop the terrorists from striking again ..."

www.freepressed.com

*Ø* Blogmanac August 23, 1993 | Roll over Shakespeare

The Western Daily Press reported that actor Gareth Gilchrist, who was flying home from Edinburgh, Scotland to play Caithness in a production of Macbeth, had a stage-prop flick-knife with him that was picked up by the airport metal detector. He was arrested by police officer Heather McBeth, who was reported to have quipped, “Is this a dagger I see before me?”

*Ø* Blogmanac August 23, 1927 | Sacco and Vanzetti

In America, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian-born anarchist labor militants, were executed by electric chair for their murder of a factory paymaster and guard. Their guilt in the crimes has been hotly contested ever since.


“Judge Webster Thayer, during the Sacco-Vanzetti episode, was heard to boast while playing golf, ‘Did you see what I did to those anarchistic bastards?’ and the grim little person named Rosa Baron ... who was head of my particular group during the Sacco-Vanzetti demonstrations in Boston snapped at me when I expressed the wish that we might save the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti: ‘Alive – what for? They are no earthly good to us alive.’”
Katherine Anne Porter, The Never-Ending Wrong

*Ø* Blogmanac August 23, 1305 | Execution of William Wallace

1305 Sir William Wallace (born c. 1270), the Scottish nationalist, was hanged, drawn and quartered at The Elms, in Smithfield, London. His story was loosely told in the movie Braveheart.

He was hung in a noose, and afterwards let down half-living; next his genitals were cut off and his bowels torn out and burned in a fire; then and not till then his head was cut off and his trunk cut into four pieces.
Matthew of Westminster


Terrorism
Wallace's head was stuck on a spike on London Bridge, his right leg taken to Berwick, and his left to Perth; his left arm was taken to Stirling and his right arm hung above the bridge at Newcastle-upon-Tyne over the sewer. Sir John de Segrave earned10 shillings for conveying Wallace's dismembered body in accordance with King Edward's wishes, "for terror and rebuke to all who pass by and behold them".

“There is a local tradition that when the flesh had fallen away, the monks from Cambuskenneth Abbey went at dead of night to collect what remained of the left arm. This they buried in the Abbey ground, the hand outstretched and pointing toward Abbey Craig, the site of Wallace's superb victory." Source

*Ø* Blogmanac August 23 | On this day

Burning Bartle
At West Witton, England, people make a straw dummy called Bartle, and carry him through the town in a procession. They then burn him on a bonfire on the Saturday nearest the 24th in a custom the meaning and origins of which are lost to time. The original Bartle might have been a local thief who was burned at the stake. More

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

1680 The death of Colonel Blood (1618-1680), who tried to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in 1671. His story was loosely told in a movie, too. You get that.

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

1900 Malvina Reynolds, American folk, protest singer; she was refused her diploma by Lowell High School because her parents were opposed to US participation in World War I. Her songs were recorded by Joan Baez, Judy Collins, The Seekers, Pete Seeger, and the Limeliters, among others.

*Ø* Blogmanac | Dr. Kelly: "I'll be found dead in the woods"

From the Guardian, 22 August

The weapons specialist, Dr David Kelly, said six months ago that he would "probably be found dead in the woods" if the American and British invasion of Iraq went ahead, Lord Hutton's inquiry was told yesterday.

His chilling prediction of his own death during a conversation with the British diplomat David Broucher in Geneva in February, throws new light on his state of mind about the row over Britain's role in the Iraq war.

In a startling string of revelations yesterday, Lord Hutton's inquiry was told that Dr Kelly:

-- confirmed there had been a "robust" debate between Downing Street and the intelligence services about the September dossier on weapons of mass destruction

-- expressed scepticism about British claims that Iraq's weapons capability could be deployed quickly

-- had been in direct contact with senior Iraqi scientists and officials he knew, promising them the war could be avoided

-- feared he had "betrayed" these contacts and that the invasion had left him in a "morally ambiguous" position.

Full Guardian text
Transcripts of sessions at Hutton Inquiry website

*Ø* Blogmanac | Bush's New Iraq Order

Now that Saddam has gone, drugs, alcohol, pornography and prostitution are back on the streets of Baghdad. Paul McGeough reports.

"It’s 10am, and the crowd is pouring into the seedy Al Najah cinema on Baghdad’s Al Rasheed Street. They come for sex on a loop and there is standing room only for the fleshy scenes from a dozen B-grade movies spliced into a single program, which they watch for about 70 cents.

"In Sadoun Street, the midday temperature is 50 degrees Celsius and the pavement prostitutes tout for business from the shade of a beach umbrella. Further along, in Fidros Square — where US troops stage-managed the demolition of a statue of Saddam Hussein on April 9 — as many as 30 addled teenagers are sniffing glue and paint-thinners from rag-wrapped Pepsi cans.

"Drug dealers in the treacherous Bab al Sharqi markets, just off central Tahrir Square, are doing a brisk trade in a big range of looted prescription drugs.

"But the biggest demand is for medications that are addictive and mind altering. Each trader has a special, only half-hidden box for what he calls 'feelgood' capsules and tablets."

While the cat's away

*Ø* Blogmanac | That Baghdad truck driver was one tough mutha

I've been thinking, and you know that's always a dangerous thing.

A few years ago, when George Bush the First was President of the USA, I worked for Sydney Children's Hospital as its media officer. I’m embarrassed to use the term 'public relations manager' so I won't.

My boss at the time, the Clinical Director, was a great guy, an American who was a member of the same club as the Prez. When my boss found out that Daddy George was coming to Sydney, he asked me to invite him to visit the hospital. This I did.

To my unending delight, we duly received a reply that the First Lady (quaint term for a politician's wife!), Barbara Bush, would be happy to visit. Not the First Gentleman, unfortunately. I pretty much expected that at least one of them would. No one ever refuses an invitation to visit a children’s hospital – not footballers, not actors, not politicians – as long as the hospital’s PR officer can absolutely assure them that the poor sick kiddies will benefit by seeing them, and a wide range of media will be present.

If you’re sober on the bus, you’re not on the bus
The schedule was set down for about 9 a.m. on New Year's morning (not my doing, no way Jose), and preparations commenced for Such a Wonderful Thing. This was in about September or October.

The morning of January 1st saw me, dressed in a suit and carrying a black briefcase, on a 5.00 a.m. bus headed from my suburb, along the still-dark streets and across town, to the hospital. There I would try to manage the media that would certainly show up to see lots of sick kids pretend to talk to Mrs Bush, and vice versa. All but the actually dying children had been rehearsed for months, and we knew that by now they could fake sincerity like professionals. So could the doctors and nurses and clerical staff. I was pretty sure Mrs Bush could as well, because she had more practice at it than all of us put together. Hell, we were just a pack of dumb Aussies. However, we would do our best to look as sophisticated as Americans.

I was on the first bus of the year. I was scrubbed, my shoes were polished, and my hair wet and combed. Apart from the morose driver, I was the only one awake on the bus, which was half full of homeward-bound drunken teenagers, not to mention their vomit, piss, chips packets and rolling bottles. Significantly, I was the one who looked a tad out of place. It was, after all, still New Year's Eve, more or less. And boy, didn't I have a Barbara Bush resentment, even way back then – years before I knew about her sons – for making me go to bed at about 9.30 p.m. while Sydney partied as Sydney can. Awwww, Mum!!

Secret Service drongos
However, my early blooming Bush resentments are not the point of this ramble. The point I’m battling to make is that for about eight or ten weeks before Barbara Bush arrived, we had carloads of American Secret Service guys coming day after day to the hospital to make sure no deranged Australian from ‘Down Under’ would kill the First Lady from ‘Up On Top’. I'm struggling here for an American term to describe these gentlemen, so I'll use an Australian one: they were a bloody mob of drongos. Each brick-built one of them. They fairly scintillated with neanderthality. Glowed with dumb.

This is fair dinkum: get this – these bulky men really wore trench coats, in the heat of an Aussie summer! So they would look like real agents, I suppose. And they really did wear sunglasses indoors and talk into little bitty microphones in their lapels. It's as though Ed Wood was in charge of the Secret Service Wardrobe Department. Fortunately, I don't think any of them noticed the hospital staff snickering behind our hands the whole time, nor heard what was being said about these try-hard Maxwell Smarts. I doubt they would have got it anyway. They had terminal cool where God intended people to have self-consciousness.

Their conversation was incredible. Two of them told me they had seen a brawl in a pub down at Darling Harbour the night before, and were really impressed with Australian manhood for that. They thought it was great. Apparently the Secret Service, the duty of which is to protect the President, isn't drawn from the deep end of the American gene pool. One certainly hopes not.

The Big McSearch
For a couple of hilarious months, the goon squad scrambled over the hospital. We had meetings – us, the goons, the President’s wife’s media managers’ media managers’ appointments secretaries, all the officials. The SS guys (is that what I should call them, now that the White House has a problem with being openly fascist?) searched the whole hospital week after week: they searched the lobby (foyer), they searched the elevators (lifts), they searched the bathrooms (toilets).

They tried to search the nurses, all of whom told them that they regretted that they had to wash their hair on Saturday night, and I think the SS guys probably thought that hand-snickering was the Down Under variant of flirtation.

The American taxpayer must have forked out squillions to protect a rather nice old lady from rampaging Australians. We dumb Aussies were impressed. Even in those days, we dumb Aussies were impressed with any American with a gun. This was a time in which you could stride up to the Prime Minister of Australia, poke a finger in his sunken chest and call him a deadshit, and his unshaven bodyguard not only would be 20 metres down the road chatting up a sheila, if he did happen to hear what you said to the PM he would shout “Yeahhh!!”.

The point being?
My point? I know, I know, I’d better get to it quickly. My point’s this: the Americans can protect anything. They invented security. Security is America’s middle name.

You gonna tell me that a quarter of a million Yank soldiers in Iraq – armed to the teeth and backed up by trillions of US war dollars – can’t stop a little truckload of explosives from blowing up the UN Headquarters in Baghdad? They can’t block off the streets for 100 metres around, say, the UN HQ, the US Embassy, a couple of hospitals and the new Baghdad Starbucks?

I see ... I see.

That driver must have been one Sylvester Stallone bloke, for a towelhead.