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Blogmanac team
Jeannine Wilson (USA)
Veralynne Pepper (USA)
Pip Wilson (Australia)
Carpe diem!
Seize the day with more than 150 articles at Wilson's articles department
This blog is dedicated to the 353 victims of the SIEVX disaster,
and casualties of poverty and authority all around the planet
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Saturday, September 20, 2003
*Ø* Blogmanac | Slim, the man with no peer
Slim Dusty dies after 60 years in the biz, and 106 albums
 Slim Dusty, who died yesterday at 76, was Australia's great communicator, and not simply because he had 1000 songs to sing, writes Peter Garrett, ex-Midnight Oil.
"Slim Dusty transversed generations. He crossed over musical genres with his distinctive and authentically Australian voice. In pioneering terms, first he made country a musical form that was viable in Australia - it WAS Australian country music - and second, he laid some of the foundations of building and sustaining a career for all who followed, by heading out and playing to people all over the country ..."
Read on
State funeral planned
It's lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the camp fire at night where the wild dingoes call,
But there's nothing so lonesome so morbid or drear
Than to stand in a bar of a pub with no beer.
Now the publican's anxious for the quota to come
There's a far away look on the face of the bum
The maid's gone all cranky and the cook's acting queer
What a terrible place is a pub with no beer.
I live just up the road from Slim's home town, and not far from The Pub With No Beer at Taylor's Arm, made famous by Slim's 1946 hit song of the same name, which was the first official gold record in Australia. For all his 1000 songs and many hits, Slim could never get away from this one request. Slim Dusty celebrated 60 years of recording this year.
Midi audio of the song.
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 20 | Birthday of the Sun, Peru (Inca)
All fires, including the sacred fire of the Temple of the Sun, were extinguished for three days. A priest, using sunlight through a glass and sanctified cotton, rekindled the temple flame, from which all fires in the empire were relit. Animal sacrifices were made, followed by eight days of feasting.
Source
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Eustace and the sacred stag
 Feast day of St Eustace (Eustathius, formerly Placidus)
In the November 3, 2002 Almanac, we discussed a saint whose feast day November 3 is, Saint Hubert of Liege, who came upon a stag (sometimes described as a white stage) with a crucifix between its antlers. The stag threatened him with eternal damnation if he did not mend his ways, and so moved was Hubert by his experience, that he entered the monkhood, and eventually became Bishop of Liege, and the apostle of Ardennes and Brabant.
St Eustace, who changed his name from Placidus after his conversion, is a Christian saint who experienced conversion by seeing just the same unusual type of creature while hunting. Consequently, both men are patron saints of hunters.
Placidus was a wealthy Roman general in the service of the emperor Trajan. Although Placidus practiced idol worship, he also showed great generosity to the poor. The figure on the crucifix of Placidus’s stag bore the inscription, “I am Christ whom you serve without knowing it. Because of your generosity to the poor, I am hunting you”. Some versions of the legend say that the stage itself called out to him, “Placidus, Placidus, why persecutest thou me? I am Jesus Christ.”
Placidus returned home and was baptized along with his wife, Tatiana (who had received a similar miraculous visit) and their two sons. On the following day, Eustace, as he now was, came upon the stag again and was told, “Your faith must be tested. Satan will fight furiously to regain your soul. You will be like a new Job. But, when you have proven yourself, I will restore everything to you. Do you want the test now or at the end of your life?”
Martyrdom
Eustace chose to be tested at once. Within a few days, his servants and horses died of a plague and his house was robbed. Eustace and his newly onverted family fled to Egypt, but, on the way, his wife was kidnapped by sailors and his sons were devoured by wild beasts. Christ’s testing was certainly upon him. For 15 years he lived in isolation and poverty, until he was found by Roman soldiers who restored him to his former rank. He won a great battle for the Emperor Hadrian and found his wife and sons alive and unharmed.
However, upon his return to Rome, a victory celebration was held in his honour, but Eustace and his family refused to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving to idols, so they were cooked to death in a bronze bull. Or, so it is said.
And then the emperor, replenished with ire, put him his wife and his sons in a certain place, and did to go to them a right cruel lion, and the lion ran to them and inclined his head to them, like as he had worshipped them, and departed. Then the emperor did do make a fire under an ox of brass or copper, and when it was fire-hot he commanded that they should be put therein all quick and alive. And then the saints prayed and commended them unto our Lord, and entered into the ox, and there yielded up their spirits unto Jesu Christ. And the third day after, they were drawn out tofore the emperor, and were found all whole and not touched of the fire, ne as much as an hair of them was burnt, ne none other thing on them. And then the christian men took the bodies of them, and laid them in a right noble place honourably, and made over them an oratory. And they suffered death under Adrian the emperor, which began about the year one hundred and twenty in the calends of November.
The story of St Eustace from The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275. First edition published 1470. Englished by William Caxton, first edition 1483.
Patronage
Against fire, difficult situations, fire prevention, firefighters, hunters, hunting, huntsmen, Madrid, torture victims, trappers.
The stag in myth and legend
The white stag is known in myths and legends from many places and in Europe probably harks back to early cultures that relied on hunting. The Celtic god Cernunnos (Herne, ‘the horned one’) bears the antlers of a deer. In Celtic myth, the white stag represents the presence of divine powers.
The 12th-century Anglo-French tale of Guigemar, by Marie de France, tells of a knight who comes upon a white doe with the antlers of a stag. He wounds the strange animal, which curses him to grow up and fall in love. In Hungarian mythology, a great white stag led the brothers Hunor and Magar to settle in Scythia. Thus were established the Huns and Magyars.
In Christianity, the white stag came to symbolize Christ, as does its cognate, the unicorn. In Christian iconography, the stag often appears with the sun between its horns. The white hart was the heraldic symbol of England's King Richard II. In Hindu mythology, Maricha assumes the form of a golden deer in order to attract Sitadevi; Lord Shiva was wrapped in deer skin; and the chariot Vayus is pulled by a pair of deers. Santa Claus, who evokes the memory of the northern gods Odin and Thor, is transported in a sleigh drawn by reindeer. In ancient Greece, the Elaphoi Khrysokeroi were five golden-horned deer sacred to the goddess Artemis. Of these, the first four drew the goddess’s chariot.
Stags in sacred texts
Picture of St Esutace and the stag by Pisanello
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 20, 1958 | The stabbing of Dr King
 On a Saturday afternoon in 1958, I sat in a Harlem department store, surrounded by hundreds of people. I was autographing copies of Stride Toward Freedom, my book about the Montgomery bus boycott. And while sitting there, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, “Are you Martin Luther King?” I was looking down writing, and I said “Yes.” And the next minute, I felt something sharp plunge forcefully into my chest. Before I knew it, I had been stabbed with a letter opener by a woman who would later be judged insane, Mrs Izola Ware Curry.
King, Martin Luther, Jr, Autobiography, Ch. 12: Brush with Death; the stabbing occurred on September 20, 1958
Dear Dr King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School. While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze.
Letter from an unnamed girl; King, Martin Luther, Jr, ibid
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry … Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong…with capitalism … There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a Democratic Socialism.Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, who was stabbed on September 20, 1958; Source: Frogmore, SC, November 14, 1996, speech in front of his staff
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Still Speechless
??||&%$
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Michael Moore accosted for street interview
SPEECHLESS! WHO? ME?
I don't know quite what to say about this since I'd rather not recommend the author's site. However, in the interest of fairness and balance, here's an interview with Michael Moore that's exclusive but, while not done by "the mainstream," it's conducted by a weasley-sounding, contentious Repug wannabe who got more than he'd bargained for! LOL!
Michael never disappoints! He's got his point of view and he sticks by it no matter what! More power to him and all encouragement to others who might strive to follow in his footsteps. [Keep the kevlar handy, Mike! And don't fly in small planes! -v]
VIDEO SOURCE
[Curious about the book Michael's touting? No. It's not his! Click here and/or here to find out more. -v]
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Media Giants Overruled?
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!!
Can it be . . . ? I hardly recognize it. Why, it's . . . good news!!!
Senate Stands Up To Media Giants, Overturns FCC Rulings!
"[This morning,] the U.S. Senate listened to the voices of thousands of Americans
by voting resoundingly in favor of reversing the changes made by the Federal
Communications Commission to media ownership rules in June.
"By using the Congressional Review Act, Congress passed a resolution in a 55-40
vote to roll back the FCC rules. This rarely used legislative tool was employed
today to assure that citizens have access to diverse sources of information and
to prevent media giants from controlling what Americans read and hear every day.
"This victory sends a clear signal to the House and Senate leadership that the
FCC rules must be rolled back, most notably in the face of a veto threat from President Bush last month. [Emphasis added. -v] This strong showing by the Senate will also put pressure on the House to take up the issue and give its Members the opportunity to correct the FCC's mistake.
"Thank you for being part of the movement to overturn the FCC vote! Common Cause
members and supporters have flooded the House and Senate offices with hundreds
of thousands of messages over the past several months, and have played a major
role in the fight against media consolidation. Your voice has made a difference
in the debate, and has brought about real changes in legislation! Stay tuned at
CommonCause.org for more updates as the fight against media consolidation continues!
"Call your Senators today and thank them for their vote by using the Capitol
Switchboard: (202) 224-3121.
"The following Senators helped to pass today's resolution: Akaka (HI), Alexander,
L. (TN), Allard (CO), Baucus, M. (MT), Bayh (IN), Biden (DE), Bingaman (NM),
Boxer (CA), Byrd (WV), Cantwell (WA), Carper (DE), Chafee (RI), Clinton (NY),
Collins, S. (ME), Conrad (ND), Corzine (NJ), Daschle (SD), Dayton (MN), Dodd
(CT), Dole (NC), Dorgan (ND), Durbin (IL), Enzi (WY), Feingold (WI), Feinstein
(CA), Harkin (IA), Hollings (SC), Hutchison, K. (TX), Inouye (HI), Jeffords
(VT), Johnson, Tim (SD), Kennedy, E. (MA), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Lautenberg
(NJ), Levin, C. (MI), Lieberman (CT), Lincoln (AR), Lott (MS), Mikulski (MD),
Murray (WA), Nelson, Ben (NE), Nelson, Bill (FL), Pryor (AR), Reed, J. (RI),
Reid, H. (NV), Roberts (KS), Rockefeller (WV), Sarbanes (MD), Schumer (NY),
Shelby (AL), Snowe (ME), Stabenow (MI), Voinovich (OH), and Wyden (OR)."
SOURCE
[Exciting confirmation that our actions DO make a difference! Remember what Tip O'Neil said: "Politics is local." -v]
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Blogroll Us Friday, September 19, 2003
*Ø* Blogmanac September 19, 1819 | Ode to Autumn
 1819 It was such a beautiful autumn day, that English poet John Keats was inspired to take out pen, pad and ink, and write one of the best-loved English poems, Ode to Autumn.
Excuse me please while I indulge; Keats is one of my favourite poets. Hard to believe he was dead at 25.
Ode to Autumn
SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
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*Ø* Blogmanac September | Stourbridge (or Stirbitch) Fair, for a fortnight, Stourbridge, England
The largest fair in the world
 If the husbandmen who rent the land, do not get their corn off before a certain day in August, the fair-keepers may trample it under foot and spoil it to build their booths, or tents, for all the fair is kept in tents and booths. On the other hand, to balance that severity, if the fair-keepers have not done their business of the fair, and removed and cleared the field by another certain day in September, the ploughmen may come in again, with plough and cart, and overthrow all, and trample into the dirt; and as for the filth, dung, straw, etc. necessarily left by the fair- keepers, the quantity of which is very great, it is the farmers' fees, and makes them full amends for the trampling, riding, and carting upon, and hardening the ground.
Daniel Defoe, Tour through Great Britain: Stourbridge Fair, 1724
This ancient fair started in 1211 with a grant from King John formalising an annual fair held by the Leper Hospital at Steresbrigge, between August 24 and September 29. In 1589, King Henry VIII granted a charter to administer the fair to the magistrates and corporation of Cambridge University, The Cambridge University vice chancellor had the same powers at the fair he had at the university, with the University controlling the weights and measures. In the seventeeth century it was the largest fair in England, and at one time Stourbridge was the largest fair in Europe.
Stourbridge was described by Daniel Defoe in 1724 as "not only the greatest in the whole nation but in the whole world". In the drapers' section, called the "Duddery," it was said that over £100,000 worth of woollens had been sold in less than a week. By the mid-18th century it had declined. Its importanced dwindled even more thereafter and the fair was abolished in 1934.
The name came from a Cam tributary, the Stour, at the eastern end of the common. John Bunyan used Stourbridge Fair as the model for Vanity Fair (pictured above)in Pilgrim's Progress, which in turn prompted Thackeray's Vanity Fair.
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*Ø* Blogmanac | NOW he admits it!
Bush rejects Saddam 9/11 link
"US President George Bush has said there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks.
"The comments – among his most explicit so far on the issue - come after a recent opinion poll found that nearly 70% of Americans believed the Iraqi leader was personally involved in the attacks [Can this be possible? – Pip].
"Mr Bush did however repeat his belief that the former Iraqi president had ties to al-Qaeda – the group widely regarded as responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington.
"Critics of the war on Iraq have accused the US administration of deliberately encouraging public confusion to generate support for military action.
"At a time when the credibility of government intelligence and information is under the spotlight, President Bush probably had little choice but to scotch the confusion, says the BBC's Ian Pannell in Washington ..."
Source
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
 Spin and hype, says Blix
"The former head of UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, Hans Blix, has accused the American and British Governments of using spin and hype in making the case for war ...
"In a trenchant phrase, Dr Blix compared the two governments' behaviour to people in Europe in the Middle Ages who were convinced that witches existed and so found them when they looked for them."
Source
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Amzanig Cmabrigde rscheearch
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is tahtthe frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, butthe wrod as a wlohe.
[Thanx, Nora :) ]
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*Ø* Blogmanac | How people find us
Recent search engine terms that led people here
05 Aug, Tue, 05:13:13 Google: nude horseback male injury
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19 Sep, Fri, 04:31:07 Yahoo: immigration offices where you can seek circumcision asylum and give you a place to stay in chicago
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*Ø* Blogmanac | The blood miracle of St Januarius
 Feast day of St Januarius (San Gennaro) Bishop of Benevento, and his companions
The fourth-century bishop of Benevento, Italy, patron saint of Naples, was martyed in 304 during the Roman emperor Diocletian's persecution.
His head and a glass phial of his blood are preserved in the cathedral of Naples, and eighteen times a year the blood is shown publicly, having miraculously liquefied. No mention of the liquefying blood was made until 1389, when on August 17, the phenomenon was first reported, by an anonymous traveller.
The 18 days on which the liquefaction takes place annually include his saint’s day (September19), the Saturday before the first Sunday in May, and December 16.
Diocletian had him roasted in a furnace, but he survived; he then set wild beasts on him, but they licked his feet. Then Januarius’s head was severed, and a woman collected two phials of his blood. Later the ghost of Januarius directed a Neapolitan to find the severed head in a thicket. When the head and body were reunited the woman approached with the solidified blood, which re-liquefied. On the appointed days, it has done so ever since. Or, so it is said.
Saint Januarius is the patron saint of blood banks.
A skeptical view
“During the ceremony the reliquary is repeatedly picked up, moved around and upturned to check whether the liquefaction has taken place. If it has, the dark mass is seen to flow freely into the vial. The liquefaction sometimes takes place almost immediately, or can take hours, even days …
"Thixotropy might prove a good hypothesis to explain this ‘miracle’. Thixotropy denotes the property of certain gels to became more fluid, even from solid to liquid, when stirred, vibrated, or otherwise mechanically disturbed, and to resolidify when left to stand. Common examples of such substances are catsup, mayonnaise and some types of paints and toothpastes.
"Thus, the very act of handling the reliquary, repeatedly turning it upside down to check its state, might provide the necessary mechanical stress to induce the liquefaction ...” Source
San Gennaro Festival, New York
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Talk Like a Pirate Day
Arrr me hearties!!
 “When Sept. 19 rolls around and suddenly tens of thousands of people are saying "arrr" and "Weigh anchor or I'll give you a taste of the cap'n's daughter," it staggers us. They are talking like pirates – not because two yahoos from the Northwestern United States told them to, but simply because it's fun.” Source
Talk Like a Pirate Day
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Blogroll Us Thursday, September 18, 2003
*Ø* Blogmanac September 18, 1578 | The discovery of mysterious Buss Island
1578 Sir Martin Frobisher’s men, including Thomas Wiars who wrote an account, discovered the mysterious Buss Island in the North Atlantic at 57.5 degrees latitude.
The discovery of this island was published in a compilation by Richard Hakluyt about Frobisher’s third voyage. Frobisher had been attempting to find the ‘North-west passage’, the legendary shortcut to Kathay (China), with a fleet of 15 vessels. His main purpose was to find gold and other minerals.
One of the ships, the Emmanuel (aka Busse of Bridgewater), a large, two-masted fishing boat known in those days as a ‘busse’, or ‘buss’ was not faring well in the seas, and it was decided to send it back to England. On its way, it came across "a great Ilande ... which was neuer yet founde before, and sayled three dayes along the coast, the land seeming to be fruitful, full of woods, and a champion countrie".
 The Buss of Bridgewater, as she came homeward, to the southeastward of Frisland, discovered a great island in the latitude of 57 degrees and a half, which was never yet found before, and sailed three days along the coast, the land seeming to be fruitful, full of woods, and a champaign country.
Source: E. J. Payne, editor: Voyages of the Elizabethean Seamen to America: Select Narratives from the Principal Navigations of Hakluyt, Ser. I, Hawkins, Frobisher, Drake, 2nd Edition, Oxford, 1893, p183
For many years, Buss Island appeared on maps in the ocean between Ireland and Frisland. It was supposedly explored in 1671 by Captain Thomas Shepard. However, North Atlantic travel increased, sightings of Buss Island decreased, though it still appeared on many maps. In 1745, a Dutch map was made that indicated that the island had sunk, leaving only a sandbar, and over ensuing decades the island was known as the ‘Sunken Land of Buss’. Van Keulen wrote (1745): "The submerged land of Buss is nowadays nothing but surf to quarter of mile long with rough sea. Most likely it was originally the great island of Frisland". However, soundings in 1776 at the location indicated shallow water, and four decades later further soundings indicated a depth of 1080 feet, which strengthened the currency of the legend of a mysterious sunken isle.
It is most likely that an error was made in navigation and Frobisher assumed Greenland to be Frisland of the earlier Zeno map. This error was transferred to whichever body of land was presumed to be Buss Island. Not only did Frobisher find no North-west passage, nor any fertile island, his third voyage returned home with a quantity of ore that was not worth the smelting.
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 18, 96 CE | The prophecy of Domitian's death
 96 CE The Roman Emperor Domitian (Titus Flavius Domitianus; b. October 24, 51 CE) was killed by assassins acting for his wife, Domitilla, as foreseen by a soothsayer. He was succeeded on the very same day by M Cocceius Nerva, a senator and one of his amici.
Domitian was inordinately cruel, and it was said that he would spend whole hours torturing flies for fun. Once, he invited all the members of the senate to a ball; on their arrival they saw the hall decked out as though for a funeral, with coffins around the walls, each bearing the name of a senator. A number of armed, grotesquely costumed men came out of the woodwork and scared the senators, who then were allowed to leave.
From the Roman historian Suetonius (Life of Domitian, Chapters 14, 16), we know that an astrologer told Domitian that he would lose his life violently on the fifth hour of September 18, 96 CE, and the emperor took the prophecy seriously. As the day approached he executed perceived rivals, and had his gymnasium lined with polished stone so he could see reflected any would-be assassins. On the day before the predicted assassination somebody brought him a present of apples. “Serve them tomorrow,” he told the servants, adding “if only I am spared to eat them”. Then turning to his companions he remarked, “There will be blood on the moon as she enters Aquarius, and a deed will be done for everyone to talk about throughout the entire world”.
On the night before the appointed day, Domitian dreamed that the goddess Minerva told him she could no longer protect him. He leaped out of bed, terrified and condemned to death a German soothsayer who had said that said that recent lightning portended a change of government. Domitian then scratched an infected wart on his forehead, making it bleed, muttering: “I hope this is all the blood required.”
The fearful emperor sat in his bed-chamber with his sword beneath his bed, and soon asked his servants what was the time. “Five in the morning,” they answered. Domitian, convinced that his hour of danger had passed, quickly and happily prepared to take a bath; whereupon his head valet, Parthenius, changed his intention by delivering the news that a man had called on very urgent and important business. Feeling confident, Domitian greeted in his chamber one Stephanus, who stabbed him to death. The conspirators had arranged with the emperor’s servants to tell their lord the wrong time.
Several hundred miles away at Ephesus, the seer Apollonius of Tyana was making a speech. He stopped in what he was saying and said “Strike the tyrant, strike! Take heart gentlemen, the tyrant has been slain this day. This day? Why, by Athena, it was but now, just now, at the very moment of uttering the words at which I stopped.”
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Blogroll Us Wednesday, September 17, 2003
*Ø* Blogmanac September 17, 1935 | Ken gets on the bus
 The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer-- they think they have, so they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.
Ken Kesey, American author, born on September 17, 1935
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Ken Kesey
You are either on the bus or you're not on the bus.
Ken Kesey
1935 Ken Kesey (d. November 10, 2001), American author (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and Merry Prankster.
Kesey at Wikipedia
Shop Ken Kesey
Key-Z Productions
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 17, 1902 | Bee Miles, Sydney individualist
I am an atheist, a true thinker and speaker. I cannot stand or endure the priggery, caddery, snobbery, smuggery, hypocrisy, lies, flattery, compliments, praise, jealousy, envy, pretence, conventional speech and behaviour upon which society is based.
Bee Miles, Australian individualist, born on September 17, 1902
Bee (or Bea) Miles (d. December 3, 1973), was a famous eccentric in Sydney, Australia, a town known for its eccentrics – individualists such as Webster (the immensely popular soap-box orator, a genius about whom, sadly, nothing appears to have been published); the Flying Pieman; Rosaleen Norton the Witch of Kings Cross; the Bengal Tiger; William Chidley the natural health fanatic; Dulcie Deamer the Queen of Bohemia; and of course, Sydneytown’s favourite Mister Eternity.
Then there was Bee Miles, who must surely be an immortal Sydneysider. According to contemporary newspaper reports, in pre-World War II Sydney Bee was more widely known than the Prime Minister. From a wealthy North Shore family, at only 12 years of age young Beatrice wore a ‘No Conscription’ badge to school during the contentious conscription referendum in World War I. Later, she was severely marked down for an essay about Gallipoli, which she described as a 'strategical blunder' rather than a 'wonderful war effort'. In this, as in many aspects in her later life, she went quite against the norms of her day.
A strong swimmer, it is said she once swam about a mile from suburban Coogee Beach to Wedding Cake Island with a sheath knife strapped to her leg as protection from the sharks. While Bee was on holidays at Palm Beach, and a young boy went missing in the surf, Bee swam out to look for him even after the lifesavers had given up the search.
 Mad House Mystery of Beautiful Sydney Girl
Bee had a love-hate relationship with her father, who was pro-Aboriginal and anti-British, but took on many of his nationalistic ideas and values. At the age of 21, following an illness, she was admitted by her father to Gladesville Mental Hospital. One story says that she escaped the ‘lunatic asylum’, as it was then known, with the help of a Smith’s Weekly tabloid front-page story that campaigned for her release – Mad House Mystery of Beautiful Sydney Girl.
Advocating sexual freedom and rejecting the conservative values of the middle classes, she became one of the bohemians of Sydney, mixing with writers, artists and intellectuals. For many years, she lived in a drain at Rushcutters Bay (an inner-city suburb) and earned her living reciting Shakespeare on the streets, wearing her trademark tennis eye-shade and a sign around her neck announcing her reasonable rates: “Shakespeare sonnets 6d (sixpence), Soliloquy 1/- (one shilling)”. She also carried the psychiatric institution’s declaration of her sanity – a possession very few of us can boast – and one-pound bank notes pinned inside her jacket.
Gentlemen will refrain from smoking
In a Sydney bank, Bee often took delight in enjoying a cigarette beneath a sign that read, “Gentlemen will refrain from smoking”. Bee also frequented public libraries, reportedly reading up to three books a day. Ironically, today her manuscripts are treasured in the State Library of New South Wales from which she was barred in the 1950s, and these include such writings as Dictionary by a Bitch (“Duty: an excuse for showing unwarranted interference in somebody else's business.”), I go on a wild goose chase, and For we are young and free.
Bee was known to despise married men, saying that they were weak, effeminate, and less than real men. Perhaps this conviction was the result of of the end of a long-term relationship she had with a Brian Harper when she was 38, or perhaps the relationship’s demise was caused by the conviction. Perhaps neither.
Queen of the road
This great eccentric is probably best remembered for her addiction to taxi and public transport travel, and more particularly her refusal to pay the fares. However, on one occasion she paid a female cabbie 600 pounds for a 19-day taxi trip to Perth, a distance of some 4,000 km (2,500 mi). After three months studying the wildflowers, she returned to Sydney by sea.
 Bee was famous for riding on car running-boards, bonnets and bumper bars and was reputed to have pulled at least one car door off its hinges. (Your almanackist recalls seeing Bee in a Sydney taxi but must report that the doors appeared to be all intact.) She would also ride bicycles and motorcycles through the city in an evening dress. Constantly in trouble with Sydney’s police, she had more than 200 convictions recorded against her: “80 I deserved but 120 were unfair and malicious”. Much of her notoriety also came from her advocacy of free love in a day when such matters shocked many Sydneysiders.
At Bee Miles’s funeral in 1973, her beloved Australian wildflowers were placed on the coffin along with a ribbon reading ‘One who loved Australia’. She requested that the following quotation be inscribed on her monument (in a cemetery located next door to the Cumberland Campus of the University of Sydney) :
Reason thus with life: If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing that none but fools would keep.
Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act III, Scene I
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Blogroll Us Tuesday, September 16, 2003
*Ø* Blogmanac | First child born on Pitcairn Island in 17 years
 "Remote Pitcairn Island in the Pacific has experienced a population boom with the birth of the first child on the tiny outpost in 17 years and taking its population to nearly 50.
"Emily Rose was born to Nadine Christian, 31, and her husband Randall just before midnight Sunday night in the Pitcairn Island Medical Clinic ...
"The CIA World Factbook estimates there were 47 people living on Pitcairn Island as of July 2003. At its peak in the 1930s, Pitcairn's population hit 233.
"The child is a ninth generation descendant of Fletcher Christian, the English sailor who led a mid-Pacific mutiny against Captain William Bligh on the Royal Navy warship the Bounty in 1789 and then settled on the unpopulated island.
"Second Lieutenant Christian and his band of mutineers cast Bligh and 18 loyal crew adrift in an open boat before scouring the Pacific for a refuge from the navy. With Polynesian wives picked up on other islands, they settled on uncharted Pitcairn - halfway between New Zealand and Peru - in January 1790.
"Just one mile wide and two miles long, it is administered by the British government from its diplomatic post in New Zealand - about 3,200 miles away."
Source
Mutiny on the Bounty
Pitcairn Island website, with a picture of the new baby!
A third of the adults on Pitcairn Island have been charged with sexual offences
The Pitcairn problem
"Many islanders - men and women - have spoken out against the accusations that Pitcairn suffers from a 'culture of abuse'.
"Yet now there are an alleged 20 victims - almost the entire female population of the island. Nearly every family must have an accuser or an accuser living under their tin roof ..."
How paradise island became outcrop of hell
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Revenge, and forgiveness
Revenge is not only commonplace, it appears to be coming rather more respectable. A relative of one of the victims of the Bali bombings told this week how he had been fomenting a plan to leap over the dock of the courtroom and "snap the neck" of Amrozi, the perpetrator of the terrible revenge crime, who will soon be shot to death by Indonesian officers of the court.
An American fanatic kills an abortionist, supposedly because killing is wrong, so the state executes him, for the same reason.
A group of mainly Saudi Arabian lunatics fly passenger planes into the Twin Towers, killing 3,000 innocent civilians, in revenge for what American corporate capitalism is doing to poor countries. So America's avowedly Christian president orders the death of more than 10,000 Middle Eastern innocent civilians and tens of thousands of service men and women. The president's men capture 700 men and place them in small cages in Guantanamo Bay, refusing to charge them or allow access to the Red Cross, Amnesty International, family or lawyers. So the spiral grows. What dreadful plots are now brewing to avenge those 700?
Some Palestinians kill some Israelis, so some Israels kill some Palestinians, so some Palestinians kill some Israelis.
The immature notion of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" ends up with lots of blind, gummy people. Nothing could be more glaringly obvious in our modern world that revenge is not only morally indefensible, revenge is also very stupid. Is there any belief more execrable, more worthy of our attention and committed opposition, than the notion that revenge has a place in human affairs? Whether on the micro or macro scale, revenge, in my opinion, is the number one burning issue of our times.
For that reason, and because it is my conviction that revenge is becoming more acceptable in traditionally Christian nations, that Wilson's Almanac focuses on the topic at every opportunity. Thus I convey news items, few though they may be, whenever I find them, in which people who still have their brains challenge this obvious trend towards mutual slaughter. For if the trend continues, we certainly will all be slaughtered in the most horrible ways. This, in my opinion, is not an exaggeration of the issue; my view comes from observation of changes in public and private behaviours over several decades. Where revenge was once spoken of in ashamed whispers, it is now openly accepted, particularly amongst the young. This we must turn around.
Brother of murdered missionary forgives killers
"The brother of a Queensland missionary who was murdered in India four years ago is calling for the killers to be spared the death penalty.
"Graham Staines, his 10-year-old son Philip and eight-year-old son Timothy were burned to death while they slept in their car in the eastern state of Orissa.
"Thirteen people who were convicted of the murders in an Indian court yesterday could face the death penalty when they are sentenced next week.
"John Staines says he has forgiven the killers and he hopes that they will realise their sins."
Source
Google news on revenge
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 16 | Ozone Day
 International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer (Ozone Day)
The Ozone Story – A Powerpoint Presentation on the history of the protection of the Ozone
We can all do our bit to Save the Sky – use ozone-friendly products
Greenpeace Ozone Campaign
Send an Ozone e-card
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Mirror Mirror On The Wall, Who's The Biggest Rogue Of All?
"1. Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty, 1996. Signed by 164 nations and ratified by 89 including France, Great Britain, and Russia; signed by President Clinton in 1996 but rejected by the Senate in 1999. The US is one of 13 nonratifiers among countries that have nuclear weapons or nuclear power programs. In November 2001, the US forced a vote in the UN Committee on Disarmament and Security to demonstrate its opposition to the Treaty, and announced plans to resume nuclear testing for development of new short-range tactical nuclear weapons.
"2. Antiballistic Missile Treaty, 1972. In December 2001, the US officially withdrew from the landmark agreement--the first time in the nuclear era that the US renounced a major arms control accord.
"3. Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, 1972, ratified by 144 nations including the US. In July 2001 the US walked out of a London conference to discuss a 1994 protocol designed to strengthen the Convention by providing for on-site inspections. At Geneva in November 2001, Undersecretary of State for arms control John Bolton stated that "the protocol is dead," at the same time accusing Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Sudan, and Syria of violating the Convention but offering no specific allegations or supporting evidence to substantiate the charges. In May 2002 Bolton accused Cuba of carrying out germ-warfare research, again producing no evidence. The same month, three Pentagon documents revealed proposals, dating from 1994, to develop US offensive bioweapons that destroy materials ('biofouling and biocorrosion'), in violation of the Convention and a 1989 US law that implements the Convention ..."
Above are just the first three of 27 instances of the USA's status as a rogue state, cited at ZNet
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 16 | Fête of Cornely (Cornelius), at Carnac, Brittany, France
 Cornely is patron saint of horned animals, no doubt because of the similarity of the saint’s name with the Latin word for ‘horn’, but also a remnant of pre-Christian worship of the horned god, who to the Celts was the similarly named Cernunnos (the Stag Lord, pictured). Even the name of the town gives away the pagan origins.
Elsewhere in the Catholic Church, today commemorates the feast day of St Cornelius, patron against earache, cattle, domestic animals, earache, epilepsy, epileptics, fever and twitching. Cornelius, the 21st pope, is represented in art as a pope holding a battle horn or cow's horn; pope with a cow nearby. St Cornelius is often pictured with a broken cup because some tried to poison him and as he reached to drink from the cup, it shattered.
At midnight, the oxen are blessed in a shrine dedicated to the saint, and all kinds of horned animals are processed around and within the church.
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* Ø * Ø * Ø *
Pagan Pride Day?
The Fellowship of Earth, Moon and Sky gives September 16 as Pagan Pride Day. Pagans would have more to be proud of if they synchronised the day for Pagan Pride. The Pagan Pride website gives the time as the weekend closest to Autumn Equinox, which would make it next weekend as the Equinox this year is September 23. However, a cursory google will reveal that organizations worldwide shows wide discrepancies.
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 16, 1854 | Accession of Emperor Norton I of the USA
 On this day, Emperor Norton I (January 17, 1811-January 8, 1880), Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of Mexico, ascended the throne.
Joshua Norton, born in London on February 4, 1819, grew up in a pioneer British family in South Africa, and inherited the fortune of his merchant father. At the age of 30, Joshua went to San Francisco from Brazil, where he had accumulated a considerable treasure of his own. California had become the scene of perhaps the world's greatest-ever goldrush, and Joshua Norton wanted to be a part of the excitement and prosperity.
By 1853 he had amassed a vast fortune of more than $250,000 by trading in real estate and high-demand goods such as coffee, tea and flour. His success brought him some fame in California, and he earned the nickname ‘Emperor’.
Soon, however, he lost his fortune and was even in $50,000 debt when he lost a gamble of cornering the market in rice. He worked at menial jobs and disappeared from view, only to re-emerge on September 16, 1854 when he walked into the office of the San Francisco Call, dressed like a Gilbert and Sullivan-style monarch. He asked the editor to publish what he called a "decree".
The decree, proclaiming himself "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico", was published without editorial comment or charge. Over subsequent years until Joshua Norton's death on January 8, 1880, he was a famous character in San Francisco and his decrees were regularly published in the Call.
Emperor Norton I was accepted with generous good humour by the citizens of his adopted empire, at least those in California who would allow him to eat, travel and live without payment. He was even accorded honours by the legislature in Sacramento, and the Central Pacific railroad company gave him free travel and dining service for life. He was written about by such luminaries as Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson, attended society functions and gave lectures to schools and colleges.
When he died, the Chronicle newspaper featured the headline: "Le Roi est Mort". Norton I lay in state for a few days, his body dressed in a new imperial uniform provided by the city fathers of San Francisco, and respectfully visited by more than 30,000 of his loyal subjects; the cortege was two miles long. The day after his funeral, January 11, 1880, blackened the San Franciscan skies with a total solar eclipse.
The people of San Francisco erected a monument over his grave, with the epitaph:
NORTON I, EMPEROR OF THE UNITED STATES, PROTECTOR OF MEXICO, JOSHUA A. NORTON, 1819-1880
In the religion of Discordianism, Emperor Norton is considered a Saint, Second Class, the highest spiritual honor attainable by an actual (non-fictional) human being.
More
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Tomorrow: San Francisco had Norton, Sydney had Bee
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Blogroll Us Monday, September 15, 2003
*Ø* Blogmanac September 15, 1895 | Mark Twain in Oz
 The Australians do not seem to me to differ noticeably from Americans, either in dress, carriage, ways, pronuciation, inflections, or general appearance.
American humorist Mark Twain, observing in Australia, More Tramps Abroad
I am a revolutionist – by birth, breeding, principle, and everything else.
Mark Twain, to a reporter in 1906, cited in Kaplan, Justin, Mr Clemens and Mark Twain. NY, Simon and Schuster, 1966, p 368
1895 American humourist, lecturer and author, Mark Twain, arrived in Australia aboard the Warrimoo on a three-month lecture tour. (Twain is shown here in a photo taken at the American lab of Nicola Tesla.)
Twain the anti-imperialist
"Mark Twain (1835-1910) was the most prominent literary opponent of the Philippine-American War and he served as a vice president of the Anti-Imperialist League from 1901 until his death. In February of 1901, as his essay 'To the Person Sitting in Darkness' was creating a storm of controversy throughout the United States, a Massachusetts newspaper editorialized that 'Mark Twain has suddenly become the most influential anti-imperialist and the most dreaded critic of the sacrosanct person in the White House that the country contains.'" Source
Mark Twain’s War Prayer
Mark Twain on War and Imperialism
"In 1885 Mark Twain designed and patented a game intended to help people keep historical facts straight."
Mark Twain’s Memory Building Game
Mark Twain on the Platform in Australia
Mark Twain in Australia
Twain wrote about my town
I live two miles out of the little town of Woolgoolga, NSW, Australia, mentioned by Mark Twain:
In the weltering hell of the Moorooroo plain
The Yatala Wangary withers and dies,
And the Worrow Wanilla, demented with pain,
To the Woolgoolga woodlands
Despairingly flies.
Source
Twain wrote of his travels in Following the Equator, of special interest to our Australian and New Zealand readers.
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Solar Flares on Steroids
"Solar flares that scorch Earth's atmosphere are commonplace. But scientists have discovered a few each year that are not like the others: they come from stars thousands of light years away.
"On August 24, 1998, there was an explosion on the sun as powerful as a hundred million hydrogen bombs. Earth-orbiting satellites registered a surge of x-rays. Minutes later they were pelted by fast-moving solar protons. Our planet's magnetic field recoiled from the onslaught, and ham radio operators experienced a strong shortwave blackout.
"None of these things made headlines. The explosion was an 'X-class' solar flare, and during years around solar maximum, such as 1998, such flares are commonplace. They happen every few days or weeks. The Aug. 24th event was powerful, yet typical."
Source
Thank you to my good neighbour, Zazen, for this one.
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 15, 7 BCE | Deck the halls
Is this Jesus Christ's birthday?
Perhaps we should deck the halls with boughs of spring flowers, because an English astronomer suggested that Jesus might have been born on September 15, 7 BCE.
Dr David Hughes, of Sheffield University, argued that September 15 is the real Christmas for he following reasons:
In the Gospel of St Luke we read that Joseph took Mary to Bethlehem because "... there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, every one in his own city" (Luke 2:1,2). Such a decree occurred about 8 BCE.
 King Herod was so infuriated that a rival had been born (the "King of the Jews") that he ordered the massacre of all baby boys in Israel, but Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt. They stayed there for two years until Herod's death, said to have closely followed a lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses occurs in 4 BCE and 1 BCE.
The distinctive astronomical phenomenon that happened between 8 BCE and 1 BCE, that could be equated with the Star of Bethlehem, is the conjunction of the giant Jupiter with Saturn in the constellation of Pisces (considered the Zodiac sign of the Jews). This began on May 27, 7 BCE and continued for some months – long enough for the three wise men (astrologers) to follow the phenomenon across country. On September 15, the Magi (three wise men) would have seen a striking phenomenon, the conjoined rising of this celestial light on the eastern horizon, at sunset.
If Dr Hughes is right, the Magi would have arrived at the inn at Bethlehem with their presents for the Christ child, on the day the star stopped over that town - December 1, 7 BCE.
Another guess: September 29, 5 BCE
One Astronomer Believes It Wasn’t a Star at All
What day was Jesus born?
When was Jesus Born?
The UnMuseum: Bethlehem’s Star
September 11, 3 BCE?
March 1, 7 BCE, at 1:21 a.m.? (good day for a birthday!)
September 14, 5 BCE?
In what year was Jesus born?
Was Jesus Born on the 25th of December?
Was Jesus Born at the Church of the Nativity?
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 15 | Birthday of Athena, ancient Greece
 The city of Pallas Athena
The Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena, was fond of building towns. It came to pass one day that she said to the people of a fishing village, “Raise me a temple on the hill and I will be your protector forever.” This they did, until the god of the sea, Poseidon, called out that as he was the only one who had watched the town being built, he should have the honour of naming it, or else he would unleash such tempests that would engulf the whole world.
However, Pallas Athene (Athena) answered him: “If this place is destroyed, it will not belong to either of us. Let each of us give a gift to the citizens, and let them decide.”
Poseidon struck the sea with his trident, and a fine horse galloped out from the waves, at which sight the people marvelled. Then Pallas touched a blade of grass, upon which action an olive tree grew up suddenly.
The people cried out blessings on the olive tree, because it would provide food and oil for lamps. “More precious than the horse is the olive!” they cried.
Thus the new town was named Athens, in honour of the wise goddess.
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*Ø* Blogmanac | USA: October 25 National Peace March
 [Received today by email.]
"The overwhelming support shown by VoteNoWar members for the upcoming October 25 National March on Washington DC to BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW! is really making a difference in the success of this mobilization.
"We have just learned that the largest union in New York, 1199/SEIU Health and Hospital Workers Union, has decided to support the October 25th march in Washington. Representing 200,000 workers, the union has agreed to provide free bus transportation to its members and their families who want to come to the protest.
"We are also raising funds to subsidize buses for high school students who want to attend the protest. Transportation centers, that will provide buses and vans to DC, have been established in more than 50 cities and we expect that number to reach the 150 mark in the next weeks.
"Having a huge turnout in Washington DC couldn't come at a more timely moment. The just-released Gallup Poll reveals a sea change taking place in the population. Bush's approval ratings have slipped to their lowest level since September 11, 2001. There is a rising tide of disgust with Bush's lies about Iraq, and a growing understanding that the Administration must be held accountable for the shameful and illegal war and occupation of Iraq.
"The renewed antiwar movement can and will emerge as the single biggest obstacle to the Administration. Now is the time to remember how the war and occupation of Vietnam finally came to an end ..."
VoteNoWar.org
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Rich versus poor as trade talks turn into a bunfight
 "World trade reform negotiations were at serious risk of running off the rails last night as ministers from developing countries accused the organisers of drafting an agreement favouring rich countries.
"The draft proposed global rules for foreign investment, despite overwhelming opposition from poorer countries.
"With only hours to go before its scheduled end, the World Trade Organisation's ministerial meeting here appeared to be splitting along north/south lines.
"Australia's Trade Minister, Mark Vaile, also warned of a potential breakdown in negotiations unless the draft was revised to include an unambiguous decision to phase out export subsidies in agriculture.
"But while Mr Vaile expressed disappointment, developing country ministers led by India were furious that the proposed agreement included negotiation of a multilateral agreement on investment, despite more than 70 countries declaring their opposition ..."
Source
World trade talks collapse as Africans reject EU demands
ZNet -- Live Links to Anti-WTO Actions
Globalization and its discontents
Latest WTO protest news
International Forum on Globalization
Pictures from the Mexico demo
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Science may dispel curse of pharaohs
 "Egypt will use modern technology to neutralise the curse of the pharaohs, which myth blames for the deaths of those who have opened the tombs of the ancient rulers, Egypt's chief of antiquities said.
"Zahi Hawass said a study would examine unexcavated tombs for dangerous substances, gases or germs to explain the curse, whose fame spread in the 1920s following the death of a British aristocrat who entered King Tutankhamen's tomb.
"'At one of my excavations ... I found inscriptions telling us, "If anyone touches my tomb, he will be eaten by a crocodile, a hippo and a lion." It doesn't mean that this will actually happen,' Dr Hawass said ...
"Part of the study would focus on dangerous germs which may have developed over the centuries in mummified human remains, said Dr Hawass.
"British archaeologist Howard Carter and his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, were among the first to enter the tomb of Tutankhamen - the boy king who ruled Egypt more than 3000 years ago - in Luxor's Valley of the Kings in 1922.
"Lord Carnarvon died shortly afterwards from an infected mosquito bite. Newspapers at the time said a pharaonic curse had killed him and other people linked it to the discovery. However, scientists have suggested a disease lying dormant in the tomb may have killed the aristocrat."
Source
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Bush can expect a hot welcome
[Shrub will be visiting Australia's friendly natives in October.]
The coming visit of the US President will be a lightning rod for the anti-war protesters, writes Anne Summers.
"The last time a US president visited Australia there were tears. This time, unfortunately, there is more likely to be tear gas.
"George Bush will drop in on us in late October for as long as 24 hours on his way home from an APEC meeting in Bangkok. The word is that he wants to "thank us" for our involvement in one of the smallest clubs in military history, the 'coalition of the willing' that invaded Iraq in March.
"Although he comes at the invitation of John Howard, the Prime Minister must be rueing the day he pressed for the visit because Bush's presence is likely to trigger anti-US demonstrations of a kind we have not seen since October 1966 when president Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) became the first US president to visit Australia.
"That trip was also to thank us for being part of in an unpopular US war - Vietnam - and produced the Sydney street sitdown by protesters that led the premier, Robert Askin, sitting beside LBJ in the limousine, to utter his infamous remark: 'Drive over the bastards.'
"Thirty years later there was a very different presidential visit. (In between LBJ had returned in 1967 for Harold Holt's funeral, and George Bush snr came for a couple of days at New Year 1992.) In November 1996 Bill and Hillary Clinton stayed in the country a whole five days. They shopped, went snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, played golf and jogged (him), investigated women's issues (her) and generally relaxed. Everywhere they went, they were mobbed by friendly, even adoring crowds."
Source
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Blogroll Us Sunday, September 14, 2003
*Ø* Blogmanac | Evidence of Complicity by the Bush Administration in 9/11
Walter E Davis, PhD presents 22 big questions that must be answered if America is to be trusted again
"The following twenty-two separate and related points, citing evidence requiring further investigation, and include questions that demand answers, were formulated on the basis of the information from the several sources cited at the end, which should be consulted for verification and documentation. These sources contain extensive detailed information and analysis beyond what is provided in this summary. I hope that this information will incite public outrage leading to full accountability."
Source
I saw this first at our friends, A Changin' Times, the blog
See also The People' Investigation of 9/11
9/11 Citizens' Watch
UnansweredQuestions.org
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 14 | So, what's today? Nuttin'!
Eleusinian Mysteries, ancient Greece (Sep 11-19) Fourth Day
Today commemorated the abduction of Persephone and Demeter’s search for her daughter.
On the day of the Cross, cross your sails and tie your ropes, rest in harbour. On St George’s Day rise and set sail again.
Traditional Greek saying
If dry be the buck’s horn
On Holyrood morn,
‘Tis worth a kist of gold;
But if wet it be seen
Ere Holyrood e’en,
Bad harvest is foretold.
Traditional Yorkshire proverb
Holy Cross Day
Officially known as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, today used also to be called Holy Rood Day, or Roodmas. It is a christianisation of the ancient Eleusis feast of Demeter. Some authorities say the Catholic Church feast commemorates the restoration of the true cross to Calvary in 629, after the victory of Heraclius over the Persians. Others say it commemorates the raising of the true cross in the church at Jerusalem in 335 by the Empress Helena.
The rood was a carved crucifix, usually with Mary on one side and St John on the other, placed above the nave of a church, in a rood-loft. After the Reformation, this space became used for an organ-loft or choir stalls.
At Boxley, Kent, there was one in which the image of Christ used to have a moving mouth and limbs. At the Reformation it was found to be a mechanical model, but for years before the priests had tricked parishioners into believing it was miraculous, thereby obtaining money from them.
According to the thirteenth-century historian Rigordus, since Cosroes stole the Cross from Jerusalem in 614, humans have had fewer teeth than previously.
The Ember Days
Today is one of several ember days of the year, a custom instituted by Pope Calixtus in the third century to seek God’s blessing on the fruitfulness of the earth. It was the practice to put ashes on one’s head, but the name might come from the Saxon emb-ren or imb-ryne , meaning a course or circuit, from the ember days’ commemoration at four quarters of the year.
Holy Nuts
Today is traditionally known in Britain as Devil’s Nutting Day, or the Day of the Holy Nut, and hazel nuts gathered today are said to have magical powers. If you find two on one stalk today, they will guard against rheumatism, toothache and evil spells from witches. But you must not gather nuts early in the morning, for it is unlucky.
Pilgrimage of the Black Madonna
From today until September 20 in Switzerland is the Pilgrimage of the Black Madonna, who has many shrines throughout Europe.
Battle of San Jacinto Day, Nicaragua
Today is an important holiday for Nicaraguans as they commemorate their repulsion of invaders on this day in 1856.
“Commemorates 1856 battle between US ‘filibuster’ William Walker, then president and self-styled emperor of Nicaragua who hoped to join Nicaragua to the US as a slave state, and a band of natives armed with sticks, stones, and few rifles. Walker lost.” Source: The Daily Bleed
1321 Dante Alighieri, Italian author of Divine Comedy, died. The great poet was buried at the Bracciaforte monastery dressed in scarlet doctoral robes and crowned with laurel leaves. In 1780 when his tomb was opened to move his remains, the coffin was empty. Some friars said that they saw a ghostly, scarlet-robed figure. In 1865, workmen found in the monastery walls a skeleton, and a plaque that identified the remains as Dante’s.
Goodbye my friends, I go to glory!
Words called out by Isadora Duncan to her friends as she sped off for a drive near Nice
1927 American dancer Isadora Duncan, 49, was killed when the end of the shawl she was wearing caught in the wheel of her Bugatti sports car near Nice, in France.
1982 Fifty-five years to the day after another beautiful and popular American entertainer, Isadora Duncan, died in a motor accident on a road near Nice, American actress-turned princess, Grace Kelly, died in a car crash on a mountain road between Monaco and Nice, France.
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*Ø* Blogmanac September 14, c. 1486 | Cornelius Agrippa, alchemist
Recent historical investigation ... assigns him a central place in the history of ideas of the Middle Ages; he is seen as characterizing the main line of intellectual development from Nicholas of Cusa to Sebastian Franck. Modern opinion evaluates him on the basis of his Platonic, Neoplatonic, and Hermetic influences – primarily in the De occulta philosophia ...
On Cornelius Agrippa; Dictionary of Scientific Biography
1486 or 1487 Cornelius Agrippa (Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim) (born in Köln (Cologne), Germany; died 1535), late-medieval/Renaissance alchemist; secret agent; soldier; feminist; physician to Louisa de Savoy, mother of King Francis I; orator; law professor, secretary to the Emperor Maximilian, and author (De Nobilitate et præcellentia; De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum; Three Books of Occult Philosophy).
 Agrippa lived and died nominally a Catholic, but was openly sympathetic to Martin Luther, and perhaps it was for this reason that England’s Protestant King Henry VIII invited him to live in England, an offer the alchemist declined. Paulus Jovius, in his Eulogia Doctorum Virorum, says, that the devil, in the shape of a large black dog, attended Agrippa wherever he went. For the Emperor Charles V, the magician successfully summoned up the spirits of both King David and King Solomon. However, despite his talents, and although he was supposed to be able to turn dross into gold, he was always poor, and it was said that when he paid his bills, the money immediately turned into worthless material.
One day, while Agrippa was away from home in Louvain, Belgium, a handsome young lodger inveigled the alchemist’s wife to lend him the key to Agrippa’s study. There, the youth found Agrippa’s grimoire, or book of spells, and played with it, summoning forth a demon who strangled him to death. On finding the body, Agrippa raised him from the dead and sent the demon to carry the lad to the marketplace and process him around. With his arm through that of his demonic murderer, the boy walked very lovingly with him, in sight of all the town. At sunset, the lodger fell down again, cold and lifeless as before, and was carried by the crowd to the hospital. Meanwhile, the demon disappeared. Or, so it is said. The alchemist was nearly charged with murder and had to flee town. In 1520 another close scrape occurred: Agrippa’s defence of a woman accused of witchcraft led to his being hounded by the Inquisition out of Cologne.
Percy Bysshe Shelley listed Agrippa and Paracelsus among his favourite writers in a discussion with the early anarchist William Godwin in 1812.
Much more on Agrippa including many images from his books
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Taking coals to Newcastle?
 New Zealand exports wallabies to Australia
"A group of 100 rare wallabies are to arrive in Australia Friday after New Zealand environment authorities decided to export them rather than shoot them, the New Zealand Herald reported.
"Tammar or scrub wallaby (macrupus eugenii*) have largely disappeared from the Australian mainland but hundreds of them have for over a century lived on Kawau Island, north of Auckland, where they are regarded as pests for the way they consume local vegetation.
"They were bought to New Zealand in 1852 by British Governor George Grey who had just left South Australia where he held the same post. He also brought bush-tailed rock wallabies (petrogale penicillata), zebras and antelope but only the wallabies remain ..."
Source: Terra Daily, Your Portal to Earth
[* Sic. It's actually macropus eugenii, pictured]
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Bush Resignation Hailed by World Leaders
"[Washington] The surprise resignation of the forty-third President of the United States, George W. Bush, on the second anniversary of the terrorist attack on America, was hailed by chiefs of state throughout the world. Mr. Bush announced that after, 'two years of bloodshed, economic devastation, and spreading fear in America and abroad,' he saw no choice but to accept that, 'I have held a title which I did not win, and for which I have proven unqualified ...'"
Read the President's inspiring resignation speech
And if it's not good enough, you can be the President's speechwriter yourself!
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Michael Moore joins Draft Wesley Clark movement
Michael Moore writes:
A Citizen's Appeal to a General in a Time of War (at Home)
September 12, 2003
"Dear General Wesley Clark,
"I've been meaning to write to you for some time. Two days after the Oscars, when I felt very alone and somewhat frightened by the level of hatred toward me for daring to suggest that we were being led into war for "fictitious reasons," one person stuck his neck out and came to my defense on national television.
"And that person was you.
"Aaron Brown had just finished interviewing me by satellite on CNN, and I had made a crack about me being 'the only non-general allowed on CNN all week.' He ended the interview and then turned to you, as you were sitting at the desk with him. He asked you what you thought of this crazy guy, Michael Moore. And, although we were still in Week One of the war, you boldly said that my dissent was necessary and welcome, and you pointed out that I was against Bush and his 'policies,' not the kids in the service. I sat in Flint with the earpiece still in my ear and I was floored – a GENERAL standing up for me and, in effect, for all the millions who were opposed to the war but had been bullied into silence ..."
Source: DraftWesleyClark.com
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Bob Geldof: Family law is based on bias and prejudice
It would appear that the UK's Family Court system is as anti-male as that in Australia, if Bob Geldof's eloquent assertions are anything to go by:
The law as it stands promotes pain, hurt and broken families, in direct contradiction to its purpose
"Family law doesn't work. It is absurd, blunt and outdated. It is time that it was scrapped and replaced by new legislation that is based not on bias, discrimination, prejudice and unfounded assumptions but on the understanding of the way we live today ...
"The implication now of any order determining a father's allotted time with his children is that he was always of secondary importance within the house. 'Reasonable contact' is an oxymoron. The fact that as a father you are forbidden from seeing your children except at state-appointed moments is by definition unreasonable. The fact that you must visit your family as opposed to live with them is unreasonable.
"With the incorporation of human rights legislation into British law, there must now be recognition of a father's rights, hitherto denied. Such rights may not be granted by anyone, but are they in fact concomitant with and a corrolary to the obligations and responsibilities that accrue to a father upon his child's birth. These are inalienable and may not be removed, particularly by a court operating under the assumption that femininity is the sine qua non of nurture and masculinity its antithesis ..."
Source
 Achilles Heel Magazine
MensActivism.org
MenWeb
National Coalition of Free Men
Men's Defense.org
The Myth of Male Power, by Warren Farrell, Ph D
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Australia was told: war will fuel terror
"Intelligence given to Australia before the Iraq War warned that the terrorist threat would increase if military action was launched against Saddam Hussein, contradicting repeated assertions by the Prime Minister.
"The revelation – disclosed after a British parliamentary committee released details of a top-secret assessment by British intelligence chiefs – raises new questions about whether the public was deliberately misled in the lead-up to the conflict.
"Handed to the Blair Government on February 10, six weeks before the war started, the assessment by the high-level Joint Intelligence Committee debunked several of the key arguments used by the "coalition of the willing" to justify going to war against Iraq ..."
This was the Page 1 headline story of the Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, September 13, 2003
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