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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*
"It was supposed to honour his resistance to racism in South Africa, but a new statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg has triggered a row over his alleged contempt for black people.
"The 2.5 metre high (8ft) bronze statue depicting Gandhi as a dashing young human rights lawyer has been welcomed by Nelson Mandela, among others, for recognising the Indian who launched the fight against white minority rule at the turn of the last century.
"But critics have attacked the gesture for overlooking racist statements attributed to Gandhi, which suggest he viewed black people as lazy savages who were barely human.
"Newspapers continue to publish letters from indignant readers: 'Gandhi had no love for Africans. To [him], Africans were no better than the "Untouchables' of India," said a correspondent to The Citizen.
"Others are harsher, claiming the civil rights icon 'hated' black people and ignored their suffering at the hands of colonial masters while championing the cause of Indians.
"Unveiled this month, the statue stands in Gandhi Square in central Johannesburg, not far from the office from which he worked during some of his 21 years in South Africa.
"The British-trained barrister was supposed to have been on a brief visit in 1893 to represent an Indian company in a legal action, but he stayed to fight racist laws after a conductor kicked him off a train for sitting in a first-class compartment reserved for whites ..." Source: The Guardian via howcomyoucom.com
Now shoemakers will have a frisken All in honour of St Crispin. Traditional rhyme, St Crispin’s day
The twenty-fifth of October: Cursed be the cobbler That goes to bed sober. Traditional rhyme, St Crispin’s day
This day is called the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d. William Shakespeare, Henry V, iv, 3. Spoken by Henry before the Battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415
Today’s plants Fleabane starwort, Aster conizoides and Meagre starwort, Aster miser were designated today’s plants by medieval monks. They are dedicated to Saints Crispin and Crispinian respectively, whose feast day this is.
Feast of SS Crispin and Crispinian St Crispin and St Crispinian were nobly-born brothers at Soissons, France, who worked as shoemakers by night to support their good works. They were tortured and executed under Maximiar Herculeus in about 287, and their remains were thrown into the sea and washed up at Romney Marsh, England, or, so it is said. There is an annual cobblers’ procession held at their home town.
These shoemaker saints were supplied with leather by an angel. It is said that they were pricked to death with cobbler’s awls in about 287. On this day in England it used to be customary for shoemakers to hold processions and feasts. Today is also known as Snobs’ Holiday.
The Greeks called today the Day of the Dioscuri. The twin brothers Castor and Pollux were called the Dioscuri by the Greeks and the Gemini by the Romans. Pollux was a god and Pollux was a mortal, the sons of Zeus and Leda. Castor was renowned as a horseman, and Pollus was a famed boxer. The Dioscuri were worshipped as the protectors of travellers. The Spartans, in particular, worshipped the Dioscuri and carried their images into battle.
St Crispin’s effigy On St Crispin’s Day in old Tenby, England, shoemakers used to cut down an effigy of this patron saint of shoemakers, from a steeple or other high place where it had hung overnight. The effigy was carried through the town and stopped at every shoemaker’s door, where the saint’s “ last will and testament” was read and an item of his clothing left as a souvenir. Finally, his body was kicked round like a football, commemorating the saint’s martyrdom in about 287.
His long-noseship Charles V of France loved to walk incognito amongst his subjects and get to know them. One day in Brussels while walking, the emperor needed to have a boot repaired, but it was St Crispin’s Day, the shoemakers’ and cobblers’ holiday. He offered one cobbler a handsome fee if he would mend his boot, but the cobbler said he would not work that day even for Charles V. He invited Charles in for a drink, however, and toasted the health of the emperor. “Then you love Charles V?” asked the emperor? “Ay” said the cobbler, “I love his long-noseship well enough but I should love him better would he but tax us a little less.” The emperor revealed his true identity to the cheeky cobbler and rewarded the cobblers of Flanders with the right to precede shoemakers in processions, a custom that lasted for centuries.
Keith Suter Comments Perth Leads The Way Into The Hydrogen Era "The world has had about a century in the "petroleum era". There is speculation about the looming end of that era and its replacement with the 'hydrogen era'.
"President Bush in this year's State of the Union Address (which has attracted so much attention because of the references to Iraq) may actually have caused the speech to be of even more long-lasting significance from a point of view hardly commented on at the time. The President announced that he was proposing US$1.2 billion for research funding so that America can lead the world in hydrogen powered automobiles. His vision was that '…the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and [be] pollution free'.
"Perth, Western Australia is already up and running. It is one of the pioneer cities (the only one in the southern hemisphere) looking at hydrogen bus trials. On a recent trip to Perth, I met Simon Whitehouse and his team who are responsible for this exciting venture at the WA Department of Planning and Infrastructure.
"In 2004, Perth will have three fuel cell powered buses. There are 11 cities world wide involved in the trial (including Hamburg, London, Madrid and Stockholm). DaimlerChrysler is also involved. DaimlerChrysler expects to have the full commercialisation of this type of vehicle by 2010 ..." Read more
Keeping Secrets: America and Iraq's Public Finances (PDF File) "Iraq's public finances fall short of international standards of accountability. Iraq Revenue Watch calls for greater transparency in the management of the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), the central repository for Iraqi oil and gas revenues. The Coalition Provisional Authority has refused to disclose basic information about large purchase contracts and DFI expenditures, and the Iraqi public, as well as members of the United Nations Security Council, have been left in the dark about how the Fund works.
"This report calls on the Coalition Provisional Authority to reverse these trends and offers a set of recommendations, including increased Iraqi involvement in the DFI, the establishment of the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, and better public access to information." Iraq Revenue Watch
*Ø* Blogmanac October 24 | We need the United Nations, more than ever
United Nations Day The United Nations officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, when the UN Charter was ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and by a majority of other signatories. The formation of the United Nations evolved from a number of other institutions including the Atlantic Charter, Food and Agriculture Organization, Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Moscow Declaration, and others.
In Memoriam: A video tribute to Sergio Vieira de Mello and all the United Nations staff who died in the bombing at the United Nations Office in Baghad on 19 August 2003. The tribute was created and produced by Saatchi and Saatchi, Sydney, Australia. (5 minutes 50 seconds: English.)
World Development Information Day (UN) The United Nations General Assembly instituted World Development Information Day at its twenty-seventh session in December 1972 with the object of drawing the attention of world public opinion each year to development problems and the necessity of strengthening international co-operation to solve them. The General Assembly also decided that World Development Information Day should coincide, in principle, with United Nations Day to stress the central role of development in the work of the United Nations.
*Ø* Blogmanac October 24, 1868 | Alexandra David-Néel, explorer
If "heaven is the Lord's," the earth is the inheritance of man, and that consequently any honest traveller has the right to walk as he chooses, all over that globe which is his. Alexandra David-Neel, France, My Journey to Lhasa
1868 Alexandra David-Néel, first foreign woman explorer of Tibet and its mysteries. She was an anarchist, singer, feminist, explorer, writer, lecturer, photographer, buddhist, architect, mail artist, sanskrit grammarian and centenarian. Louise Eugénie Alexandrine Marie David was the only daughter of a French father of Huguenot ancestry and a Catholic mother of Scandinavian origin. At age 54, David-Neel was the first European woman to venture into Lhasa. Disguising herself as a pilgrim, this Frenchwoman journeyed into Tibet's ‘forbidden city’ in 1932. She died in Digne, France, in 1969 at the age of 101, and a museum is kept there in her honour.
Truthfully, I am “homesick” for a land that is not mine. I am haunted by the steppes, the solitude, the everlasting snow and the great blue sky “up there”! The difficult hours, the hunger, the cold, the wind slashing my face, leaving me with enormous, bloody, swollen lips. The camp sites in the snow, sleeping in the frozen mud, none of that counted, those miseries were soon gone and we remained perpetually submerged in a silence, with only the song of the wind in the solitude, almost bare even of plant life, the fabulous chaos of rock, vertiginous peaks and horizons of blinding light. A land that seems to belong to another world, a land of Titans or gods ? I remained under its spell.Alexandra David-Néel; letter to her husband, March 12, 1917
*Ø* Blogmanac October 24, 1901 | Over Niagara at 63 years old!
1901 Anna (or Annie) Edison Taylor, a 63-year-old Bay City, Michigan, USA school teacher, became the first person to survive the ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She did it for money to help pay the mortgage. Her words following the stunt: "No one ought ever do that again."
The next person over the Falls in a barrel was Bobby ‘The Canadian Daredevil’ Leach, a native of Cornwall, UK, who survived his July 25, 1911 plunge over Niagara’s Horseshoe Falls in a cylindrical steel barrel, resulting in six months in hospital recuperating from a broken jaw, and two broken kneecaps.
I ask no one to ever try such a stunt, or an act of sadness again, because depression is a terrible thing, and we must feel sorry for all those who have not survived such an endeavour that I have taken. Kirk Jones"Don't try this": Niagara jumper speaks out, Oct 23, 2003
[Eat your heart out, Australia! (NO! This is NOT a parody!) -v]
Bend Over and Grab Your Ankles, America, Things May Get Worse by Allen Snyder opednews.com Drowned out in the media-orchestrated overhype about the California recall and the landslide victory of Governor-elect Schwarzenegger (cough! choke!) over Gary Coleman, a porn star, Gallagher, and the hapless Cruz Bustamante, are the more long-term consequences of another Republican ‘victory’ for America’s political future.
With malleable and moronic BushCo shills manning the governmental controls in Texas, Florida (is stupidity genetic?), New York, every Federal branch, and now, California, there is little but hope (or a miracle transplant of Dennis Kucinich’s mind into General Clark’s body) standing in the way of a BushCo re-appointment in 2004.
Even though there are some seriously juicy scandals swirling around (the White House’s sophomoric and felonious retaliatory outing of a covert CIA agent, the CA governor-elect’s predilection for inflicting unwanted petting -- aka misdemeanor battery, and a failing war, based on the most odious lies, filling two or three body bags per day), a meek and timid press, starved for higher ratings and fearful of being sent to journalistic ‘Time-Out’, routinely forgives or ignores BushCo’s transgressions, while being generally slow on the scandal uptake (the story about the identical letters-to-the-editor-signed-by-soldiers-who-didn’t-write-them scam was on the Internet for at least a week before CNN’s radar operators noticed the blip).
The Rove/FOX spin machine then freely peddles the wingnut-tainted (or is that invented, manufactured, or contrived?) message to a public all too eager to believe their appointed government officials are honorable, honest, trustworthy people who act with integrity, and not the dangerous, megalomaniacal, reactionary whackos they really are.
Silly public. Why are you so naïve?
I guess I can understand somewhat. Nobody wants to admit they voted for a dick. We had to do it with Clinton. Twice. But he was only a dick because he cheated on his wife, not because he was the worst, most destructive killing-machine of a President since… well…ever.
With wingnuts having infiltrated government institutions and corrupted them to the core (the BushCo fish stinks from the head down, people) and drone-like BushCo supporters burying their heads ever deeper into the suffocating sands of denial and faux patriotism, one can only imagine what a fraudulent mockery the 2004 Presidential ‘election’ is going to be. [If several wars aren't started to provide grounds for cancelling elections due to wartime distraction. -v]
GOP-bribed minions within the electronic voting industry are no doubt manipulating the computerized machines as we speak, while faceless BushCo henchmen purge voter rolls of likely and borderline Democrats in important swing states, counties, and districts (let’s call it trickle-down election-fixing).
Their success in illegally stopping the vote-count in Florida has clearly emboldened them. They can now rest assured that whatever inconveniences arise, lawsuits are filed, or blocs of voters are disenfranchised, disallowed, disappointed, or just plain dissed, the Supreme Embarrassment will save the day – re-installing the Bush junta and subjecting us all to another four-year gang-rape.
The simple fact that any conscious person would vote for a politically inexperienced serial-groping steroid freak like Arnold in the midst of this BushCo-created international nightmare speaks volumes about the illusions Americans have, even in the hip state of California, about quality government leadership – they’re so desperate for it, they’ll vote for anybody. Arnold’s handlers marketed him like an indispensable product by molding him into a phony populist. His celebrity and ability to sound appropriately ignorant of practically everything endeared him to voters with a proved penchant for bad actors in high places. How any self-respecting woman could pull Arnie’s lever, I’ll never know (get it? Pull Arnie’s lever…).
And just as BushCo morphed into flaming fascists practically overnight (by noon on 9/11), they’ll make Arnold an offer he can’t refuse, and he’ll be Heiling Bush faster than he can stuff Arianna Huffington’s head in a toilet. Recently, at their first meeting, Bush gushed that he and Arnold had much in common, including their routine English Language Rights violations (I think Dubya meant it as a joke – wasn’t funny).
What a sad display.
Despite their constant protestations about how actors should shut their collective pie-holes about politics, the GOP is now conspiring to promote a product ostensibly called ‘President Terminator 2008’ for release before the 2006-07 toy season. To that end, Sen. Orrin Hatch’s (R – Utah; that’s ‘R’ for ‘Retarded’) latest legislative brain fart is his proposition that the Constitution be amended to allow foreign-born nationals to be elected President (can’t imagine his motivation).
I’m not sure which would be more horrifying -- watching Dubya Bush handing Arnold the White House keys in January 2009, or living in a country where enough people voted to make it happen. If this possibility doesn’t induce waves of panic, make you convulse and wretch with heaves (dry or otherwise), shudder involuntarily, or recoil with absolute terror, revulsion, and disgust, then you’re either dead, in a coma, or a Republican.
America! Assume the position!
Allen Snyder is an instructor of Philosophy and Ethics at Pellissippi State Technical Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee. He can be reached at asnyder111@hotmail.com . This article is copyright by Allen Snyder and originally published byopednews.combut permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit paragraph is attached.
Iga Ueno Tenjin Matsuri, Japan (Oct 23-25) At Sugawara Shrine, Ueno, Mie Prefecture On Oct 23 and 24 there are lantern parades, a dashi parade in daytime, strolling priests (yamabushi), a costume parade and mikoshi carried on young men’s shoulders. On the 25th, there is a procession of people disguised as demons to dispel illness and bad luck.
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Nothing is more motivating than giving staff, employees, and associates the opportunity to express their own individual influences. Anita Roddick (October 23, 1942 - ), English businesswoman, social reformer. She founded The Body Shop shampoos, lotions, and creams from natural ingredients; uses business as a vehicle for social and environmental concerns.
I wake up every morning thinking ... this is my last day. And I jam everything into it. There's no time for mediocrity. This is no damned dress rehearsal. Anita Roddick
If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito. Anita Roddick
I've never been cajoled into being someone I'm not. I've always spoken up. If I wanted to be quiet, I would've opened up a library. Anita Roddick
1942 Anita Roddick , English businesswoman, social reformer, founder of The Body Shop which uses business as a vehicle for social and environmental concerns
Business is imposing virtual slavery in the developing world - and only we, the consumers, can stop it
By Anita Roddick Monday September 22, 2003 The Guardian
In the past two years, 500 export assembly factories have shut down in Mexico, throwing 218,000 workers on to the street. Their crime was the $1.26-an-hour base wage they were paid by companies such as Alcoa Fujikura to produce auto parts for export to the US. Those wages are now "too high" in the global economy.
Never mind that the Alcoa workers in Acuna live in makeshift cardboard huts that lack potable water. Never mind that many of the workers in nearby Piedras Negras were selling their blood plasma twice a week to Baxter International for $30 in order to survive. Those same auto parts are now being made in Honduras by workers earning 59 cents an hour, in Nicaragua for 40 cents an hour and in China for 27 cents an hour ... Source
4,004 BCE, 9am According to the 19th century Bishop Usher’s computations, God created the earth.
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1642 The Roundheads of Oliver Cromwell, and King Charles I's Cavaliers, fought the Battle of Edgehill in the Cotswolds, England.
Published Jan 23 1643: A great Wonder in Heaven, shewing, &c. This brochure described how on a Saturday in the previous Christmas season (1642), there had occurred at Keniton, Northamptonshire, “the apparition and noise of a battle in the air, a ghostly repetition of the conflict which two months before had taken place on the adjacent fields at Edgehill between the forces of the King and the Parliament”. The alleged phenomena took place on four successive weekends; the King sent emissaries to report on it, and they were positive witnesses to the ghostly battle.
1642 A strange case of suspended animation after the Battle of Edgehill Among the casualties on the king's side that bloody Sunday morning was Sir Gervase Scroop. Left for dead on the battle field, Scroop lay until Tuesday evening, when his son came to retrieve the knight's corpse. In the meantime, his body had been robbed of its clothes by camp-plunderers, and left lying two days and nights in particularly cold and frosty weather.
When his son took Sir Gervase's corpse back to camp and into a warm room, the body stirred. Despite the sixteen serious wounds he had sustained, Sir Gervase Scroop “came back to life” and lived ten years further in good health.
"WASHINGTON — The United States has no yardstick for measuring progress in the war on terrorism, has not 'yet made truly bold moves' in fighting al-Qaeda and other terror groups, and is in for a 'long, hard slog' in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a memo that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent to top-ranking Defense officials last week.
"Despite upbeat statements by the Bush administration, the memo to Rumsfeld's top staff reveals significant doubts about progress in the struggle against terrorists. Rumsfeld says that 'it is not possible' to transform the Pentagon quickly enough to effectively fight the anti-terror war and that a "new institution' might be necessary to do that.
"The memo, which diverges sharply from Rumsfeld's mostly positive public comments, offers one of the most candid and sobering assessments to date of how top administration officials view the 2-year-old war on terrorism." Source: USA Today via Common Dreams
*Ø* Blogmanac | "Mr Bush, here is why we opposed the Iraq war"
Forty-one Australian federal parliamentarians have written an open letter to George Bush.
"Dear President Bush,
"The friendship between our countries is longstanding and deeply felt. We have a great deal in common, particularly our commitment to democracy. We retain our commitment to the ANZUS alliance.
"That's why we feel it's important for you to understand why so many Australians opposed the war on Iraq.
"Australians have a history of support for international efforts to stop the spread of weapons including weapons of mass destruction and landmines. Weapons inspectors should have been given the time they asked for to peacefully disarm Iraq. No evidence of a massive weapons building program nor capability has emerged since the war. Australia, the US and Britain went to war because of a 'clear and present danger' which just did not exist ... Read on at the Sydney Morning Herald
*Ø* Blogmanac | Australian senators interrupt Bush speech
"Greens senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle interrupted US President George Bush several times when the world's most powerful political leader addressed a special joint sitting of both houses of federal Parliament in Canberra on Thursday
Senator Brown, the leader of the left-wing party, stood up during the President's address and appealed to him to extend civil liberties to Australian citizens incarcarated as 'enemy combatants' in Gauntanamo Bay.
"'Then the world will respect you for obeying the law,' Senator Brown said.
"After being warned by the Speaker of the House of Representatives that he would be ejected, Senator Brown sat down and the President resumed his address.
"But then, a few minutes later, as Mr Bush was praising Australia for its role in promoting security in the Asian-Pacific region, Senator Brown interjected: 'But we are not a sheriff.'*
"Later, as Mr Bush was referring to the negotiations for a free trade agreement between Australia and the US, Senator Nettle interjected: 'You must not sell out ...' before being drowned out by shouts of derision from Government MPs." Source: Australian Financial Review
* Senator Brown's "sheriff" remark was a reference to Bush's statement this week that Australia is a "sheriff" of South-East Asia, an insult that has naturally offended hundreds of millions of Australia's neighbours and reflects Bush's own narrow, racially bigoted attitudes rather than those of the Australian people.
Aussie democracy? It's a national disgrace that Australian citizens were prohibited from entering Parliament House today and so many non-Australians, George W Bush and his many minders, were allowed in.
The main signs of true democracy in Canberra today were the interjections of Greens Senators Brown and Nettle, the large protest outside the building, and the fact that about 17 parliamentarians defiantly remained seated and did not applaud at the end of Bush's patronising speech, which emphasised Australian-US military ties yet glossed over or ignored significant historical relations between the two nations.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Please join this SIEVX Disaster campaign for human justice
Your compassionate involvement is urged, in all nations
As stated above, this site is dedicated to the victims of the SIEVX Disaster. You might not know what that means so I urge you to read up on it. It is one of the biggest scandals of any developed country and involves the deaths of 353 innocent men, women and children, with the Australian Government looking very bad over the whole tragedy.
No matter what country you live in, I ask that you become informed about the sinking of the ship SIEVX, and join this campaign. The following text is from the SIEVX email campaign website.
"Please join us in our e-mail campaign demanding that Mick Keelty and the Australian Federal Police release the names of those who tragically died in the sinking of SIEVX. We demand justice and respect for those who so sadly died, after two years have passed it is now time that the Australian Federal Police come clean about what they know.
"Just recently there was a Senate motion demanding that our Federal Police release this information. But Minister Ellison's earlier response unfortunately indicates that the AFP and the Australian Government have NO plans of ever releasing this information.
*Ø* Blogmanac October 22, 1844 | Bill's Big Disappointment
USA: The Great Disappointment. The predicted day that Christ would come again to make the Last Judgment, according to William Miller, a Baptist preacher, respectable farmer and keen amateur student of scripture living in northern New York State, and founder of Seventh Day Adventism.
After Miller shared his prophetic interpretations at a local church in 1831, his fame spread widely in a movement known as ‘the great second advent awakening’. In 1838 he published Evidence From Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ, About the Year 1843. At first, Miller claimed to have inside knowledge that Jesus Christ's second advent on earth would occur between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844.
Many who believed him sold all their possessions, while others hid away and spent their time preparing for Christ's coming. When Jesus and the End of the World failed to materialise, Miller said he’d made a mistake in calculating the Biblical prophecy and set a new date: October 22, 1844. On that day, as many as 100,000 followers gathered in makeshift temples and on hillsides to “meet the bridegroom”. When midnight came and Christ had not returned, people grew restless, and some walked out.
Of course, most of the thousands of Millerites left the movement. Some, however, went back to their Bibles to find what had gone wrong. Many concluded that the prophecy predicted not that Jesus would return to earth in 1844, but that he would begin at that time a special ministry in heaven for his followers. Out of this realisation grew the modern-day Seventh-Day Adventist Church, led by ‘prophetess’ Ellen G White, among others.
When prophecy fails Belief in predictions, anomalous events and pseudoscientific phenomena, such as the imminent end of the world, UFO attacks, angelic visitations, the belief that a full moon causes an increase in the crime rate, that constellations, planets or deities influence our fate, and so on, are common despite their repeated and celebrated failure throughout all history. However, often, a serious disconfirmation, such as when the UFOs fail to appear, leads not to the believer discarding the belief, but to believing it more strongly, and often increasing his or her spiritual devotion. Dr Robert Glick, head of the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, calls belief systems “societal pain relievers”, and it might be that renewed and increased belief is like having an extra aspirin when the pain increases due to evidence of one’s foolishness.
It can be the case that contradictory evidence can even strengthen the original belief. Social psycholgist Leon Festinger and colleagues pointed out in When Prophecy Fails, that holding two contradictory beliefs leads to ‘cognitive dissonance’, a state of mind that humans find uncomfortable ...
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*Ø* Blogmanac | APEC Summit dorks, and an opportunity for Almaniacs with Photoshop
Dubya and a whole bunch of other Fearless Leaders have just finished the latest APEC talks – the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum, another nasty trade bloc brought to us with the compliments of the mega-corporations that rule the world via puppet politicians.
My mate, Baz le Tuff, sent me this pic today, hot from his Photoshop. Click thumb to zoom in.
Baz has coined a term for thse photo line-ups of politicians that always happen after trade summits, when they all wear the local traditional clothes like the bunch of dumb tourists they are: "the shirt parade" shot.
Baz writes:
They need TShirts with different slogans. Like "I Fuck On The First Date" "Shit Happens"
I'm surprised no one has picked it up. The goofy shirt parade is a fucking goldmine.
You are so right! And if anyone ever wants to do it, the Blogmanac will publish them if they're any good. Thanx, Bazza.
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Great optical illusion online PS Baz, who has too much time on his hands, is really on a roll today .... he sent me this amazing optical illusion of rotating snakes as well.
Environmental Disaster in Palestine In 1961, the world was transfixed as the Soviet Union enclosed West Berlin, Germany, in the 96-mile, 12-foot-high Berlin Wall. The social implications of the wall had a profound impact on world politics for nearly 30 years. In 2003, the world remains largely ignorant of the fact that Israel is building a 200-mile, 25-foot-high “Apartheid Wall” around the West Bank of Palestine. Palestinians have named it after the reviled South African term meaning “apartness.” In the northern West Bank, the first phase of the Apartheid Wall is to be approximately 70 miles long and is to include electric fences, a “dead zone,” trenches, cameras, sensors and security patrols, all at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. The wall Source: Palestine Indymedia
Is he coming the thank the only "six percent of Australians who supported a US-led invasion of Iraq, if not sanctioned by the UN." [AC Nieson poll published Sydney Morning Herald, January 18th]
What could possibly be going through Bush's mind? Very little if you ask some people. Bush's justification for war on Iraq has been revealed time and time again to be a complete fabrication. Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" turned out to be weapons of mass distraction as the man with his finger on the button of the world's largest nuclear arsenal turns out to be Bush himself.
Whilst Bush is in town, he'll be discussing a bi-lateral free trade agreement that could be disastrous for Australia. Public provision of services such as postal services, education and health, and even water may be in danger under the proposed agreement. If this free trade talk is agreed upon, Trade Watch Oz warns we can expect "lower employment, lower wages, more expensive and lower quality services - pharmaceuticals, health, eduaction, etc, and a more degraded natural environment."
Wednesday 22nd October: Meet at 5pm to protest Bush at Sydney Town Hall.
Thursday 23rd October: Get on the Buses to Canberra and give Dubya the welcome he deserves: Buses leave Central Station, Sydney at 5:00am, for Canberra rally (starting 9am).To book your spot on the bus phone: Phone Nick 0409 762 081 or Brian 0425 347 634 or Bashir 0413 859 060.
There is also talk of a mass protest being held by parliamentarians. Many federal members have declared their intention to hiss or boo at George Bush when he is addressing them. Simon Crean, federal leader of the opposition has had the audacity to tell Federal Labor MPs "he expects them to treat George W Bush with respect and dignity." Sorry Simon, we only treat people with the respect they deserve.
*Ø* Blogmanac October 21 | Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins
Feast day of St Ursula, and her companions, virgins (nuns) and martyrs (Hairy silphium, Silphium asteriscus, is plant of the day, dedicated to Ursula)
Much of the little we know of the origins of the legend of St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins we know from Helentrude, a nun of Heerse near Paderborn, whose narrative may date from somewhere between 900 and 1100. In the legend, Ursula was the beautiful daughter of a Christian British king, King Dionotus of Cornwall, and had taken a vow of chastity, but, against her wishes, was betrothed to a pagan prince.
Ursula was warned by a dream to demand as a condition of marriage, his conversion to Christianity, and a delay of three years, during which time her companions were to be 11,000 virgins collected from her own kingdom and that of her suitor. After vigorous exercise in all kinds of manly sports, to the admiration of the people, they were carried off by a sudden breeze in eleven triremes to Thiel in Gelderland. They arrived in Cologne, Germany, sailing up the Rhine to Basel, Switzerland, where they moored their ships and crossed the Alps in order to visit Rome (on the instructions of an angel). On their return, Cologne was being sacked by the Huns, who slaughtered the virgins after Ursula refused the advances of a Hun prince. One of the 11,000, St Cordula, escaped death on the first day by hiding, wrote down the tale for posterity, then gave herself up to join her sisters in martyrdom.
What might be at the root of the tale is that group of virgins were martyred at Cologne, Germany, perhaps under Diocletian in the 4th Century. They probably numbered 11 women, rather than 11,001, possibly an exaggeration from a misreading of a Roman text ...
Ursula as pre-Christian bear goddess Sabine Baring-Gould in Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1867) suggests that St Ursula is the Christianised representative of the old Teutonic goddess Freya, who, in Thuringia, under the name of Horsel or Ursel, and in Sweden Old Urschel, welcomed the souls of dead maidens. Saint Ursula with her bow and arrow, her ship and virginal companions, sails up the Rhine as Urschel, the Teutonic moon goddess, sailed before her, with all the graceful attributes of Isis and Diana. She is likely to be one of the saints who has become confused with the old gods, that is, a real martyr's story has been embellished with that particulars of an old myth. A Slavic moon goddess was apparently known as Orsel.
Helen Farias, founder of The Beltane Papers, proposes that Ursula was originally the German bear goddess, Orsel, and conjectures that her companions are the stars surrounding the constellation of the Bear, Ursa Major, the great She-Bear known to us as the Plough or Dipper (Farias, Helen, ‘The TBP Lunar-Solar Festival Calendar,’ The Beltane Papers, Issue 3, Beltane, 1993).
The bear goddess was known to the Greeks as Artemis (daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo) and in China as Matsu Po, Queen of Heaven and the Sea. According to one source, one of Artemis's frequent animal incarnations was the Great She-bear (constellation Ursa Major), ruler of the stars and protectress of the axis mundi, Pole of the World. The Helvetian (Swiss) tribes around what is now Berne, worshipped her as the She-Bear, and she is still their heraldic arms. Berne, in fact, means ‘She-bear’, just as Urus means ‘bear’. Sometimes the Helvetians called her Artio, shortened to ‘Art’ by the Celtic tribes who married her to the Bear-king, Arthur. As Artio's Lord of the Hunt, the medieval god of witches came to be called, ‘Robin son of Art’. In Irish, Art meant ‘God’, but its earlier meaning was ‘Goddess' – more specifically the Bear-goddess ...
*Ø* Blogmanac October 21, 1805 | "Kiss me, Hardy": The death of Nelson
Horatio Nelson (September 29, 1758 - October 21, 1805) triumphed over the Spanish and the French under Admiral Villeneuve at the Battle of Trafalgar, but lost his own life on the deck of his flagship Victory, mortally wounded by a sniper from the French ship Redoutable. A bullet entered his shoulder, pierced his lung, and came to rest at the base of his spine. Famous even while alive, after his death Nelson was lionized like almost no other military figure in British history.
Famous last words? There is no definitive account of Nelson's last words, although many books say that he said “Kiss me, Hardy”, or else “Kismet [fate] Hardy”. Both versions are speculative and there's no primary record of anyone present at his death reporting either of them.
However, the artist, Arthur Devis spent three weeks aboard the Victory, making sketches and talking to men present at Nelson´s death in order to create an authentic image of the actual scene on the afternoon of October 21, 1805.
According to Devis’s informants, Nelson said: “Take care of my dear Lady Hamilton, Hardy, take care of poor Lady Hamilton.” He paused then said – very faintly – “Kiss me, Hardy.” Hardy knelt and kissed his admiral on the cheek. Nelson then whispered, “Now I am satisfied. Thank God I have done my duty.” Hardy rose, paused silently, then knelt again and kissed Nelson’s forehead.
The famous signal The story of Nelson's famous flag signal to his men at the Battle of Trafalgar, “England expects every man to do his duty” was told by the signaller who arranged the coded flags. Captain Pasco, Nelson's flag-lieutenant said that Nelson told him to hoist the message “England confides that every man will do his duty”. Nelson ordered him to be quick as he had another signal to put up. Pasco said that, because there was the word “expects” in the flag code, but that the word “confides” would have to spelled out, the quicker message would be the words we know so well today.
Tapping the admiral Nelson's body was preserved first in a cask of brandy lashed to the mainmast and guarded day and night by a marine sentry. On December 4, 1805, Victory bearing Nelson's body arrived at Spithead, England. Nelson's body was removed from its cask and an autopsy was performed, followed by entombment in St Paul's Cathedral. It has been suggested that on arrival in England, the cask was less than full – the sailors of Victory had sampled the Nelson vintage.
From this incident, some claim, the antique phrase ‘tapping the admiral’ arose. British sailors formerly said ‘tapping the admiral’ for drinking rum out of a coconut shell; later the phrase was used for surreptitiously drinking from a cask through a straw.
Drake’s Drum Sir Francis Drake’s drum is said to beat at times of danger for England. The drum, which hangs in his Devon home, Buckland Abbey, was heard at Trafalgar in 1805, Scapa Flow in 1918 and at the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. Some said it was even heard when Germany surrendered in 1918.
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Canadians Just Say 'No' to Government Drugs
"Half of the first 10 patients supplied with marijuana grown by the Canadian Government claimed it was the worst they'd ever smoked." Australian Financial Review, p 70, October 9, 2003
If you like a bit of Alan Watts, you might like the Alan Watts website where you can listen to and view some of his talks online. I had trouble getting some of them to play in Real Media and Windows Media, but I enjoyed the bits I could get.
I found this site at one of my fave blogs, the good-looking and smart ollapodrida.
Big Rock Candy Mountain One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fire was burning Down the track came a hobo hiking and he said boys I'm not turning I'm headin' for a land that's far away beside the crystal fountains So come with me we'll go and see the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright Where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night Where the boxcars are all empty and the sun shines every day On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees Where the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains all the cops have wooden legs And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth and the hens lay soft boiled eggs The farmer's trees are full of fruit and the barns are full of hay Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains you never change your socks And the little streams of alcohol come a-tricklin' down the rocks The brakemen have to tip their hats and the railroad bulls are blind There's a lake of stew and of whiskey too You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains the jails are made of tin And you can walk right out again as soon as you are in There ain't no short handled shovels, no axes saws or picks I'm a goin' to stay where you sleep all day Where they hung the jerk that invented work In the Big Rock Candy Mountains I'll see you all this coming fall in the Big Rock Candy Mountains
*Ø* Blogmanac | Australia rejects Bush's praise as terror 'sheriff'
Associated Press Originally published October 19, 2003
"BANGKOK, Thailand - President Bush thought he was handing out praise to one of his closest allies: Australia, he said, is nothing less than a 'sheriff' in the U.S.-led war on terror.
"But by pinning a star to the chest of Prime Minister John Howard, the American president inadvertently painted a target on his friend's back ahead of a summit of Pacific Rim leaders in Thailand ..." Source: Baltimore Sun
*Ø* Blogmanac October 19, 1992 | Tireless activist Petra Kelly found dead
The vision I see is not only a movement of direct democracy, of self- and co-determination and non-violence, but a movement in which politics means the power to love and the power to feel united on the spaceship Earth. ... In a world struggling in violence and dishonesty, the further development of non-violence not only as a philosophy but as a way of life, as a force on the streets, in the market squares, outside the missile bases, inside the chemical plants and inside the war industry becomes one of the most urgent priorities . .. The suffering people of this world must come together to take control of their lives, to wrest political power from their present masters pushing them towards destruction. The Earth has been mistreated and only by restoring a balance, only by living with the Earth, only by emphasizsing knowledge and expertise towards soft energies and soft technology for people and for life, can we overcome the patriarchal ego. Petra Kelly, who was found dead, apparently murdered, on October 19, 1992
Petra Kelly was a committed and dedicated person with compassionate concern for the oppressed, the weak and the persecuted in our time. Her spirit and legacy of human solidarity and concern continue to inspire and encourage us all. HH the Dalai Lama on Petra Kelly
1992 German police found the bodies of Petra Kelly (November 29, 1947 - October 1, 1992), a founder of Germany's Green Party (Die Grünen), and former NATO general and peace campaigner, Gert Bastian, her longtime companion. The circumstances of their death are still uncertain.
The charismatic and internationally famous Kelly was the first Green in any parliament in the world and the first German female head of a political party. While working at the European Commission (Brussels, Belgium, 1971-1983), she participated in numerous peace and environment campaigns in Germany and other countries. Kelly received the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) in 1982 "...for forging and implementing a new vision uniting ecological concerns with disarmament, social justice and human rights."
Kelly was also a tireless campaigner on issues of human rights, a anti-Apartheid activist and organiser of the first international hearing on human rights violations in Tibet. At the time of her tragic death, she was the moderator of a weekly television show on environmental issues, that wove the threads of environment, health, peace, disarmament and human rights together in complex fabric that has been the model for today's resurgence of global environmental activism.
“Last October 19, German police entered an unimposing row house on the outskirts of Bonn, and made a gruesome discovery: the decomposing, bullet-pierced bodies of Petra Kelly, a founder of Germany's Green party, and Gert Bastian, Kelly's longtime companion. Conspiracists sniffed a double murder, possibly by neo-Nazis or by government agents. After investigating, however, police raised an even more troubling possibility. Mother Jones interviewed author Mark Hertsgaard, who recently traveled to Bonn to look into the case.” Source: Who killed Petra Kelly?
Kelly forecast the convergence of concerns that are the hallmark of anti-globalization advocacy of the current era. She also was a pioneer in identifying the linkages between issues of peace and democracy, development, the environment and women's rights. Source
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"It was supposed to honour his resistance to racism in South Africa, but a new statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg has triggered a row over his alleged contempt for black people.
If "heaven is the Lord's," the earth is the inheritance of man, and that consequently any honest traveller has the right to walk as he chooses, all over that globe which is his.
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1942 
"WASHINGTON — The United States has no yardstick for measuring progress in the war on terrorism, has not 'yet made truly bold moves' in fighting al-Qaeda and other terror groups, and is in for a 'long, hard slog' in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a memo that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent to top-ranking Defense officials last week.
"Greens senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle interrupted US President George Bush several times when the world's most powerful political leader addressed a special joint sitting of both houses of federal Parliament in Canberra on Thursday
As stated above, this site is dedicated to the victims of the 
USA: The Great Disappointment. The predicted day that Christ would come again to make the Last Judgment, according to William Miller, a Baptist preacher, respectable farmer and keen amateur student of scripture living in northern New York State, and founder of Seventh Day Adventism.
Environmental Disaster in Palestine
Feast day of St Ursula, and her companions, virgins (nuns) and martyrs (Hairy silphium, Silphium asteriscus, is plant of the day, dedicated to Ursula) 
If you like a bit of 
Dang it all! I missed the 
Associated Press
The charismatic and internationally famous Kelly was the first Green in any parliament in the world and the first German female head of a political party. While working at the 