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The Blogmanac: "On This Day" ... and much more
Think universally. Act terrestrially.
For in a hard-working society, it is rare and even subversive to celebrate too much, to revel and keep on reveling: to stop whatever you're doing and rave, pray, throw things, go into trances, jump over bonfires, drape yourself in flowers, stay up all night, and scoop the froth from the sea.
Anneli Rufus*
*Ø* Blogmanac | Brave women stood up to Coalition of the Killing This was a great interview by (my favourite) Phillip Adams on Thursday night. Three women politicans in governing parties from Oz, UK and USA, all of whom voted against the war. Highly recommended. Claire Short from UK lost her job, as did Carmel Lawrence in Oz. Not sure about Barbara Lee who was the only one in US Congress to oppose the war. Adams interviews all three together. Listen to the interview (Real Media)
*Ø* Blogmanac | June 21-22 | Solstice! Sun enters Cancer, 4th sign of the Zodiac (June 21 – July 22)
Festival of Alban Hefin (Druids) Festival of Litha (Anglo Saxon) Wicker man Seventh Station of the year Festival of Li, Chinese Goddess of Light At Stonehenge, the heelstone marks the rising midsummer sun as seen from the centre of the circle.
Northern Hemisphere: Summer Solstice June 21 at 7:10pm UT Southern Hemisphere: Winter Solstice June 22 at 5:12 am Australian EST
From bright'ning fields of ether fair disclosed, Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes. Thomson: The Seasons (Summer)
Laylat al-saratjan/The Night of the Crab The Copts celebrate the night (15 Ba'una) when the Sun enters Cancer, by hanging charms on their walls in order to drive away insects.
Is June 21 (Summer Solstice, Northern) ‘Midsummer’s Day’? No. Traditionally, Midsummer is June 24, St John the Baptist’s Day, although it also refers to the week or so round about the Summer Solstice (21 June). Another name for the solstice of summer is ‘aestival’.
What are the solstices? The solstices are the longest and shortest days of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, Summer Solstice (June 21 or 22) occurs when the sun is farthest north. In the Northern Hemisphere, Winter Solstice (round about December 22) occurs when the sun is farthest south. In the Southern Hemisphere, winter and summer solstices are reveresed, so my family, friends and I are enjoying Winter Solstice, or Yule, as it is known in the Celtic tradition. Meanwhile our northern friends are enjoying Litha.
A solstice and equinox calendar, Fajada Butte, New Mexico, USA On Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, NM, Anasazi Indians 1,000 years ago used three stone slabs to create a still-useable calendar. On the four stations of the year, the sun shines through gaps between the slabs, either dividing or framing spirals carved on rocks behind.
Sacrifices of the Incas In the city of Cuzco: on winter and summer solstices, sacrifices of children were made in olden days. Incas bathed in a sacred waterfall that was on one of 41 ceques or magical, invisible lines radiating out from the Temple of the Sun.
Check out my article, How to make a sundial for your ceiling. Summer Solstice is a great day to begin your ‘spotdial’. All it takes is a small birdcage mirror worth a buck or two. When you have a working spotdial on your ceiling, why not send me a pic or two and we can share it with the Almaniacs.
Amnesty International expressed its concerns at the news that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is being held in Insein Prison under the 1975 State Protection Law, Section 10(a). "We strongly reiterate calls on the authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," the organisation said June 20.
"We also call upon the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to release U Tin Oo, National League for Democracy (NLD) Deputy Chairman, and the at least 130 people who reportedly have been held on account of their peaceful political activities after the incident on 30 May 2003."
Amnesty International is particularly worried by the fact that Aung San Suu Kyi is being held under an administrative detention law which allows people to be detained arbitrarily, without charge or trial, without access to legal counsel or judicial appeal for up to one year on order of the executive. These orders are renewable for a period of up to five years.
The use of torture in Myanmar, particularly in incommunicado detention, has been extensively documented by Amnesty International. While Daw Aung San Suu Kyi appeared to be in good health when she was seen by UN Special Envoy Razali Ismail on 10 June 2003, there remains a pronounced risk of torture and ill-treatment for the scores of others in detention.
*Ø* Blogmanac | June 20-28 | Hogueras de San Juan: the bonfires of St John, Alicante, Spain In Alicante, Spain, bonfires involving truly artistic monuments, with figures satirising local people, are set up at this time and burned in a ceremony known as the crema. Today's activities began in 1928 with their origins dating back centuries and even millennia to pagan pre-Christian times, as is the case with Solstice bonfire events all over the world. The festivities begin with the pregón (proclamation), following which huge satirical monuments of papier mâché and wood are set up all over the city tonight (plantà). On the night of June 24 (St John’s Day), known in Alicante as the Nit del Foc, following a huge palmera (a firework display that can be seen all over the city) at St Barbara Castle, the monuments are fuel for the cremà. Alicante hosts something like 200 bonfires and burning monuments, which are also customarily used to dispose of old furniture.
Several cavalcades parade through the city, including the Cabalgata del Foc, representing the cult of fire in different periods; the Coso Infantil, in which costumed children take part; the multicoloured Cos with a ‘flower battle’, serpents and confetti. The inhabitants of the city have a parade of bands as well as a folklore demonstration, in which the different regions of the province are represented.
All over the city are parades, processions, bullfights, musical performances, and sports events, as well as a firework competition and various religious rites, outstanding among which is the floral offering to Mary, the Virgin del Remedio, Patroness – and Mayoress – of the city of Alicante.
Juas, in grotesque caricature of this or that public person, are large cloth figures filled with sawdust, paper and similar materials. These are set alight at the climax of the festival at midnight on June 23.
Alicante’s San Juan festival continues until June 29, overlapping with the Feast of San Pedro, featuring colourful processions, fantastic fireworks and revelling in the popular barracas, makeshift fiesta houses in which locals and visitors are all welcome to join in the celebrations.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
*Ø* Blogmanac | Speak Out on Chechnya, Blair Recent Human Rights Watch research and Russian government statistics show that the situation in Chechnya is steadily worsening, with some 60 people being "disappeared" every month. Russian officials have also recently admitted the existence of forty-nine mass graves, containing the remains of almost 3,000 people.
President Vladimir Putin is to arrive in London on June 24 for a three-day state visit. In an open letter to the British prime minister, Human Rights Watch called for Tony Blair to press for an end to abuses and to ensure accountability for those implicated in rights violations.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Ireland - 'Barbaric' operations on women
Stranglehold of (exclusively male) Church New evidence has emerged that a "barbaric" operation, carried out as an alternative to Caesarean section, was practised on a much larger scale in Irish hospitals than previously thought. A support group of women who underwent 'symphysiotomies', which involves the permanent widening of the pelvis, has obtained figures which show that 348 of the operations were carried out in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda between 1950 and 1983. Several hundred such procedures were also carried out at maternity hospitals in Dublin, according to official figures.
Many of the women say their consent was never sought for the operations and they are now suffering from a range of conditions including incontinence, acute back pain and mobility problems.
Apparently there is evidence to show the operation was carried out for religious rather than medical reasons. Documents show some doctors feared women faced with the prospect of repeated Caesarean sections when giving birth might opt for contraception or sterilisation. The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, however, says that while religion may have played a role in the practice, it was used chiefly as an alternative to the Caesarean section, seen as more dangerous 50 years ago.
The Taoiseach (PM) said today that the Minister for Health was examining a report from the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and would "bring forward his conclusions". Describing the practice as barbaric and mutilation, Sinn Fein's leader in the Dail, Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain said it was used because "a very strict Catholic ethos operated" in these hospitals that women "should go through this procedure rather than have Caesarean sections".
*Ø* Blogmanac | Why is the news all bullshit these days?
We all know modern journalism is pathetic. Not only do the journalists not know a criterion from criteria, drank from drunk or a clause from a participle, what they're reporting is mostly effete crap. Most intelligent people know it, and figures show that educated consumers are leaving traditional media in droves.
The question is, why are the news and current affairs stories so insipid, so conservative and so untrustworthy?
Phillip Knightley has been an investigative journalist for much of his 60 years of pushing a pen. In fact, he is the doyen of investigative journalists. If you read or listen to only one item of media analysis this year, tune into Knightley's online speech (transcript online as well), Reflections of a Warhorse. His fast-paced catalog explains some of the pressures faced by today's journalists, including corporate power, government coercion and stupid defamation laws. I strongly recommend this speech given earlier this year by a highly respected member of the fourth estate. It will not only give perspective to that nagging feeling that investigative reporting seems to have declined in recent years, it will help you shield yourself from the current state of affairs, and the current affairs of the State.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Brother of Jesus: his ossuary a 'hoax'
"FUNNY BONES: Last November, Israeli consul general Meir Romem examined the James Ossuary during its unveiling at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The inscription on the ancient box has now been proved a forgery, Israel said Wednesday.
"JERUSALEM – The first archeological link to Jesus - a stone box said to hold the bones of his brother James - and a tablet detailing repairs to the ancient Jewish Temple are fakes, say officials of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
"The announcement Wednesday ended months of professional speculation about the veracity of the timeworn relics, hailed as discoveries of stunning religious, historical, and contemporary significance."
*Ø* Blogmanac | June 19 | Niman Kachinas: Hopi Indian ‘going home’ ceremony (Kachinas are spiritual messengers who listen to prayers of the priests and elders and convey them to the gods. They have human forms and distinctive personalities. Kachinas are benevolent in the main, if treated respectfully. They taught the sacred dances to a group of youths who became the first priests.) A sixteen-day event begins around the time of the Summer Solstice. The Niman is one of the most solemn and dramatic of all Kachina rituals. It is time to say goodbye to the Kachinas who return home to the San Francisco mountains for another Winter. The Niman is similar to Christmas: children receive gifts from the Kachinas before they leave.
*Ø* Blogmanac | West Papua: Indonesian military atrocities The struggle for independence in West Papua, one of Australia's nearest neighbours, continues.
"As the Indonesian military (TNI) is attacking civilians and burning schools in Aceh in the far west of Indonesia, they are committing similar atrocities at the opposite end of the archipelago, hidden in the remote highlands of West Papua." Keep up to date at IndyMedia UK webcast news
*Ø* Blogmanac | Inquiry into accuracy of WMD intelligence
American and British readers will be pleased to hear that Australia is also currently embroiled in a controversy about its government's continuing lies to the people it 'represents', regarding the pretexts for its invasion of Iraq.
"An inquiry will be held into the accuracy of Australia's intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability before the outbreak of war.
"The inquiry will go ahead after the Democrats today supported Labor's call for a joint committee inquiry.
"The move followed concerns Australia could have gone to war on flawed intelligence information about Iraq's weapons capability.
"Coalition of willing allies the United States and Britain have already initiated inquiries into the issue." Read on at Sydney Indymedia webcast news
*Ø* Blogmanac | June 18, 1178 | What did the medieval astronomers see?
About an hour after sunset, according to Gervase of Canterbury (c. 1141-1210), the famous medieval chronicler, a band of five eyewitnesses watched as the upper horn of the bright, new crescent Moon “suddenly split in two. From the midpoint of this division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out … fire, hot coals and sparks … The body of the moon, which was below writhed … throbbed like a wounded snake”. The phenomenon recurred another dozen times or more, the witnesses reported.
A long-held belief has it that a meteor collision witnessed by these 12th-Century Englishmen resulted in a violent explosion on the moon, so creating the moon’s Giordano Bruno crater, named after the 16th-Century astronomer burned at the stake for heresy in 1600. However, this notion doesn't hold up under scientific scrutiny, says Paul Withers of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Read on
*Ø* Blogmanac | June 18, 1037 | the death of Avicenna The death of Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina (known often by the corrupted Latin version of his name, Avicenna), the Persian philosopher, encyclopedist and physician whose works The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, also known as the Qanun, were highly influential in the Middle East and Europe in medieval times. He was born in 980.
*Ø* Blogmanac | The patriarch made me do it Photographs of women being objectified and exploited by patriarchy. You can just see the fear in their faces, poor things, as they are forced to behave against their wills. Who can doubt that there's some armed patriarch off camera? Stop sex objectification now, sisters! Right on! Feed your anger!
*Ø* Blogmanac | World Opposed to Bush and Iraq War, BBC Poll Says Most likely the people who support Shrub don't even know what the BBC is, so they won't get to learn how unpopular he is around the world ("World? There's a world?"):
"LONDON - A majority of people around the world view President Bush unfavorably and think the United States was wrong to invade Iraq, according to a BBC poll published on Monday.
"The poll, which surveyed more than 11,000 people in 11 countries, showed 57 percent of those asked had 'a very unfavorable or fairly unfavorable attitude toward the American president,' the British broadcaster said in a statement." Read on
*Ø* Blogmanac | June 17 | Fisher's Ghost: Australia's most famous spook 1826 Frederick Fisher, a landholder in Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia, was murdered by George Worrell.
Frederick Fisher becomes Fisher’s Ghost Frederick Fisher, a landholder in Campbelltown, NSW, was murdered by George Worrell, an employee, and his body was thrown into a local creek. The police arrested Worrell, who insisted that Fisher was alive and living elsewhere under an assumed name. It is said that a ghost, looking like the murder victim, appeared on the bridge over the creek close to the spot where Fisher’s body lay, and pointed directly at that spot when the authorities passed over the bridge. On the eve of his execution, Worrell confessed his terrible deed.
Ever since, that creek has been named Fisher’s Ghost Creek, and an annual festival called the Fisher’s Ghost Festival is commemorated.
June 17 is the tercentenary of John Wesley. Few religious leaders in any part of the world have had more profound and lasting effects than Wesley: English preacher; 15th of 19 children born on this day in 1703; founder of the Methodist Church. He was revolutionary in the Christian church for his vision of social justice, and by the prominence of women in his organisation. Visit the Wesley Tercentenary site
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Are you a late starter? Here's food for thought At high school in Arnhem, I was extremely poor at arithmetic and algebra because I had, and still have, great difficulty with the abstractions of numbers and letters. When, later, in stereometry [solid geometry], an appeal was made to my imagination, it went a bit better, but in school I never excelled in that subject. But our path through life can take strange turns. MC Escher, born on June 17, 1898; Dutch artist renowned for his geometric art This quote was sent to free subscribers of Almost Prophetic Quotes
*Ø* Blogmanac | "Don't be shy" witch urges Nessie "LONDON (Reuters) - Sorcerer Kevin Carlyon has performed an incantation on the shores of Loch Ness, trying to lure Britain's favourite monster into the open. Carlyon, High Priest of British White Witches, said he had cast a spell two years ago to scare off the monster so it would not be caught by a visiting Swedish scientist Jan Sundberg. But Sundberg is no longer a threat, he said, and now the time has come to reverse the hex on 'Nessie'." Full story
*Ø* Blogmanac | June 17, 1867 | Henry Lawson, Australia's radical national poet
THEY lie, the men who tell us in a loud decisive tone That want is here a stranger, and that misery's unknown; For where the nearest suburb and the city proper meet My window-sill is level with the faces in the street — Drifting past, drifting past, To the beat of weary feet — While I sorrow for the owners of those faces in the street.
And cause I have to sorrow, in a land so young and fair, To see upon those faces stamped the marks of Want and Care; I look in vain for traces of the fresh and fair and sweet In sallow, sunken faces that are drifting through the street — Drifting on, drifting on, To the scrape of restless feet; I can sorrow for the owners of the faces in the street. Henry Lawson, July 1888 The rest of Lawson's poem, Faces in the Street Henry Lawson, Australian Australian writer of short stories and ballad-like verse and noted for his realistic portrayals of bush life, born in Grenfell, New South Wales. Though he worked for several newspapers, much of the material for his writing came from wandering.
His mother was the pioneer feminist, Louisa Lawson (Feb 17, 1848-Aug 12, 1920), feminist editor of Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women (a “paper in which women may express their own opinions on political and social questions”). Unlike many suffragists and feminists of her day, she did not come from a privileged background but from the shanties of rural Australia. Dawn was a monthly journal that lasted for 17 years, employed a staff of ten and mostly published the writings of Henry Lawson’s remarkable mother.
Henry lived much of his life in poverty and in alcoholic despair, but even during his lifetime he was acknowledged as a poetic genius, much-loved by the Australian people who formerly had a strong poetic culture. With Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson (1864-1941), he is Australia's national poet and the two names are often said together. His poetry, however, like his short stories (he was prolific in both genres), has much more of a radical bent than that of Banjo. The two men were friendly rivals and a famous poetic duel (Up the Country), was fought publicly between them. Paterson's poem romanticised the Aussie outback; Henry Lawson, ever the cynic-realist, answered decrying its harshness, poverty and social injustice.
I have a poem in homage to the great man called To Henry Lawson
*Ø* Blogmanac | Brothel Offers Discount for Retirees!
Canberra (Reuters) - An Australian brothel is offering retirees a five percent discount in what it boasts is a world first. Neil Campbell, owner of the Viper Room in the east coast city of Brisbane, said men in their 60s, 70s, and 80s were among regular visitors to the brothel, but many complained it was a drain on their pensions.
"All other businesses offer pensioners a discount, so we thought if we also offered pensioners a discount they might come more often," Campbell told Reuters Monday. Story
*Ø* Blogmanac | EU Strengthens ICC Support (Brussels, June 16) -- By adopting a revised Common Position on the International Criminal Court (ICC), the European Union (EU) reinforced its support for international justice, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Common Position is the legally binding instrument of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. It expresses all EU Member States' willingness to support the ICC and cooperate to increase its effectiveness. The EU's bolstering of international justice comes as the ICC Prosecutor takes office today in The Hague, while the Bush administration steps up its efforts to exempt American citizens from the court's jurisdiction. More information on the International Criminal Court
*Ø* Blogmanac | African governments must respect children's rights Everyday, African children continue to be used as soldiers, often to fight on the front line, or as porters, messengers, guards, or cooks. Girls are used as sexual slaves or are given a gun and sent into combat. Millions of other children across Africa suffer daily violations of their rights to food, shelter, health and education.
On the Day of the African Child, Amnesty International is calling on African governments to ratify the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, where they have not done so already, and for all governments to rapidly put into practice the terms of the Charter. More information on child soldiers
*Ø* Blogmanac | June 16 | Bloomsday Bloomsday, celebrated annually on June 16: all of the main narrative events in James Joyce's Ulysses, took place on this day in 1904. Bloomsday is celebrated all over the world wherever people read and love Joyce.
In 1904, disgusted with the contemporary literary scene of Ireland, Joyce left Dublin and lived in Trieste, Italy. On his final visit to Dublin in 1912 his publisher, George Roberts destroyed the entire first edition of Joyce’s book of short stories, Dubliners, and the next day Joyce left the country for ever, residing in Zurich, where he wrote Ulysses. Later he lived in Paris, where he spent 17 years writing Finnegan’s Wake.
The first celebration of this secular holiday took place in 1954 and a major festival is planned for 2004 on the centenary of the first Bloomsday.
*Ø* Blogmanac | June 16 | A midsummer night’s imp Watch out, watch out, there are imps about! Charles Kightly in his The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore (Thames and Hudson, 1987) tells us that the red-stalked Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) now blooms around English houses. (In North America, however, it is a noxious weed.) Herb Robert is also known as Death-come-quickly, Robin's eye, Robin hood, Robin-i'-th'-hedge, Stinking Bob, Stinker Bobs and Wren flower.
Weed or not, beware how you treat it, for it is Robin Goodfellow's flower and he might direct a snake to bite you, especially if you destroy it.
Robin Goodfellow is an English imp, a trickster from the woods. As a forest dweller, he symbolises the pagan (wood-dwelling) pre-Christian peoples who the Church worked hard at converting from their wicked ways. Robin is a cognate of the famous European Green Man (a name coined by Lady Raglan in 1939 for a medieval image usually found in churches), and of Robin Hood. The English sometimes called him Puck, frequently representing him as a goat, while the Irish knew similar fantastic beings as Pooka. In Killorglin, County Kerry, Ireland annually on August 10-12, a goat is still the mascot of the ancient Puck’s Fair. We will recall that the forest-dwelling Pan of classical times, and satyrs like him, are part goat.
Shakespeare portrays him in Midsummer Night’s Dream as Puck. An engraving from Robin Goodfellow, His Mad Pranckes and Merry Jests (1639) shows him with cloven hooves and a prominent erection, surrounded by a coven of witches. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable describes Robin Goodfellow thus:
A ‘drudging fiend,’ and merry domestic fairy, famous for mischievous pranks and practical jokes. At night-time he will sometimes do little services for the family over which he presides. The Scotch call this domestic spirit a brownie; the Germans, kobold or Knecht Ruprecht. The Scandinavians called it Nissë God-dreng. Puck, the jester of Fairy-court, is the same. Puck is the British Isles version of the lusty pagan Pan whose erotic appetites so disgusted the Christian authorities. In the Inquisition’s infamous Malleus Maleficarum (‘Hammer of the Witches’), of 1486, by the monks Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, Part 1, Question 3 deals with the origins of ‘familiar spirits’. It concludes ...
Satyrs are they who are called Pans in Greek and Incubi in Latin. And they are called Incubi from their practise of overlaying, that is debauching. For they often lust lecherously after women, and copulate with them; and the Gauls name them Dusii, because they are diligent in this beastliness.
For those who fear this forest imp, putting out a cup of milk for Robin Goodfellow is one way his impishness might be placated. Reginald Scot, in Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584, wrote:
Your grandam's maids were wont to set a bowl of milk before him … for grinding of malt or mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight. He would chafe exceedingly, if the maid of the goodwife of the house, having compassion of his nakedness, laid any clothes for him. For in that case he sayeth. "What have we here? Hempen, Hampen, here will I never more tread nor stampen.
Our last word today goes to the Bard, who wrote of Puck:
Either I mistake your shape and making quite, Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite Call'd Robin Goodfellow; are you not he That frights the maidens of the villagery; Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern And bootless make the breathless housewife churn; And sometime make the drink to bear no barm; Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm? Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, You do their work, and they should have good luck. A Midsummer Night's Dream ii. 1 William Shakespeare, 1594
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
This story is such a coincidental follow-up to Pip's posts on Friday 13th and coincidences, that it made me grin. Especially as nobody was hurt, apart from the obvious stress and anxiety involved!
*Ø* Blogmanac | "Reality TV" ship sinks on Friday 13th The future of (RTE's new) reality TV show "Cabin Fever" was still being decided last night following the dramatic sinking of the boat off the coast of Tory island on Friday afternoon. Traumatised contestants were being comforted by some family members who arrived on the island yesterday morning while executives of CoCo Productions, the show's producers, decided on the next move.
Cabin Fever turned to shipwreck at around 2pm on Friday afternoon in what, ironically, were the most ideal sailing conditions the crew had encountered since they left Dublin port less than two weeks ago.
The 90-foot schooner struck rocks off Tory Island where the superstition of not going to sea on Friday 13th is still preserved by local fishermen. "People are still very superstitious about Friday 13th and no one would dream of taking a boat out on that day," said Pat Doohan.
The British-registered boat, The Carrie of Carmarthan, was built in 1947. It had originally been used for cray fishing in France.
I'm Veralynne, and I feel privileged to be on the team of contributors to the Blogmanac. In his introduction last week, Pip indicated I had wide and varied interests. Indeed! Oh, all right . . . it's true. I'd always attributed it to the Gemini factor, but "dilettante" is beginning to make more sense. LOL! Actually, I'm interested in change--changes in society and culture from music and art to politics and law, from environment and health issues to relationships and work, from media and education to the mind and inspiration.
To me, the Almanac is a welcomed opportunity to escape the flashing lights and neon of the information superhighway (when was the last time you heard THAT?) and the concerns of our reality and take a side road into another world -- a fantasy world existing in many dimensions. At the Almanac we celebrate days but, as The Moody Blues sang, they're like "Days of Future Past." We're provided with information from the past to enlighten our present and prepare us to "Seize the Day!" -- today, the next day and the next. Enjoy the journey.
Love, peace and clarity, Veralynne
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Iowa Touts Illegal Drug Stamp Tax By Miranda Leitsinger, Associated Press Writer
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Caught with drugs? Better have a drug stamp. Iowa law taxes all illegal drugs -- from marijuana to cocaine. The state issues stamps, which vary in cost and color according to the drug, to be affixed to the drug to show the tax has been paid.
"It was such a horse of a different color when it first came out," said Renee Mulvey, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance. "It was just so unusual to be selling stamps to tax illegal drugs, that we expected a lot of misunderstanding."
The stamps cost $5 a gram for marijuana, $750 per marijuana plant, $250 a gram for other drugs and $400 per 10 doses of drugs that come in tablet form, such as ecstasy. The minimum charge is $215.
Some may get a good chuckle out of the idea of drug users trotting down to the revenue department to buy a tax stamp -- only seven batches of stamps have been sold (none were sold last year) -- but the state is making a small fortune off of those who get caught without them. -- Get a chuckle through your tears at the rest of the story.
Check out the interesting "breaking news" update and followup to the above story. Top it all off with a 'toon.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Full moon in June: Poson Festival, Sri Lanka The Poson Festival commemorates the anniversary of the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka.
O great King! the birds of the air and the beasts on the earth have an equal right to live and move about in any part of this land as thou. The land belongs to the people and all other beings and thou art only the guardian of it. Arhat Mahinda, who brought TheravadaBuddhism to Sri Lanka in 246 BCE
The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demand for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life activity: it affords protection of all beings, offering shade even to the axe man who destroys it. The Buddha
Today would be an excellent time to be in the mountainous heart of Sri Lanka at Mihintale (aka Mihinthele), the ‘cradle of Buddhism’ in that beautiful but tragic island. For two days of the full moon of June, the Festival of Poson is in full flight. It is a nationwide commemoration, but Mihintale is the place to be. It was here in 246 BCE that the Buddhist apostle Arhat Mahinda Thero, special envoy of his father (Asoka, 264-267 BC King of India), met King Devanampiyatissa (307-267 BCE) on the full moon day in the month of Poson and officially introduced Buddhism to Sri Lanka.
Devanampiyatissa was out deer-hunting in the wilderness around Mihintale. The royal party pursued a stag that fled in the direction of Silakuta (the northern peak of Mihintale mountain), and the king suddenly came upon Arhat Mahinda and his companions. The thera (elder, or saint) soon engaged the king in repartee that led to Devanampiyatissa’s conversion to TheravadaBuddhism.
Today, Mihintale is one of the great sacred sites of the world, with rocky outcrops, including the great Meditation Rock, and some large statues of the Buddha, making it an awesome experience to visit the ancient town. The Ambasthalastupa has 1,840 stone steps leading up to it on the top of the Mihintale hill, a site of pilgrimage for Sri Lankan believers in this predominantly Buddhist land. Relics of sage and Buddha During the month of Poson, many thousands of devotees ascend the steps to pay their respects to Arahat Mahinda. The ancient monastery contains some important relics said to be from the body of Mahinda, and even some of the Buddha himself. One of Lord Buddha’s collarbones is there, and the uma-roma, a hair that grew between the eyebrows of the Enlightened One, signifying a maha purusha or ‘great being’. (Note: There is also a legendary belief that the Buddha himself three times visited Sri Lanka, which was then known as Heladiva. Heladiva is often used by Sri Lankan nationalists who oppose the Tamil citizens, whom they see as foreign interlopers.)
The Ambasthala dagaba (shrine containing relics) is known as the ‘mango-tree stupa’, deriving its name from a riddle that Mahinda is said to have posed to the king to see how clever a student of religion he would be.
Pointing to a nearby tree, the saint asked King Devanampiyatissa its name. The king replied, “It is a mango tree, Mahinda.”
“And are there any other mango trees besides this?” asked the sage.
“Indeed, there are many mango trees,” replied Devanampiyatissa.
“And are there any other trees besides this mango tree and other mango trees?”
“Indeed, there are many other trees,” replied the king, “but they are not mango trees.”
“And are there besides these mango trees and those which are not mango, yet other trees?”
“There is this mango tree,” replied the king.
“Thy wit is shrewd, O ruler of men,” laughed Mahinda.
The very place where this clever dialog took place is still marked at Mihintale and mango trees have been planted all around to memorialise the event. At the Ponson festivities, pandals (undercover seating arrangements) are erected, there are almsgiving and religious observances mostly in the sacred monastic complex of Mihintale, but also Sri Lanka-wide. As a side note, at this time of year, the Bambara bee (apis indica), the largest bee species in Lanka, produces its honey which is harvested by the indigenous hunter-gatherers (Veddas).
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