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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*
Nagasaki Takoage, or Kite-Flying Event, Nagasaki, Japan
Tradition says a homesick Portuguese drew a map of his homeland and made a kite out of it, introducing kites to Japan.
Usually diamond-shaped kites are used in kite battles (tako-gassen), sometimes with sharp bits on strings to cut opponents’ kite strings. The festival is connected with the local Suwa Shrine. A procession of kites mounted on carts follows the contest.
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Mistrust of America in Europe Ever Higher, Muslim Anger Persists
"A year after the war in Iraq, discontent with America and its policies has intensified rather than diminished. Opinion of the United States in France and Germany is at least as negative now as at the war’s conclusion, and British views are decidedly more critical. Perceptions of American unilateralism remain widespread in European and Muslim nations, and the war in Iraq has undermined America’s credibility abroad. Doubts about the motives behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism abound, and a growing percentage of Europeans want foreign policy and security arrangements independent from the United States. Across Europe, there is considerable support for the European Union to become as powerful as the United States ..."
*Ø* Blogmanac | "US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with aeroplanes"
Whistleblower the White House wants to silence speaks to The Independent
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 2 April
A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened.
She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was "an outrageous lie".
Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information that was circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has sought to silence her and has obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used "state secrets privilege".
She told The Independent yesterday: "I gave [the commission] details of specific investigation files, the specific dates, specific target information, specific managers in charge of the investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back and follow up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented. These things can be established very easily." ...
"President Bush said they had no specific information about 11 September and that is accurate but only because he said 11 September," she said. There was, however, general information about the use of airplanes and that an attack was just months away.
To try to refute Mr [Richard] Clarke's accusations, Ms Rice said the administration did take steps to counter al-Qa'ida. But in an opinion piece in The Washington Post on 22 March, Ms Rice wrote: "Despite what some have suggested, we received no intelligence that terrorists were preparing to attack the homeland using airplanes as missiles, though some analysts speculated that terrorists might hijack planes to try and free US-held terrorists."
Mrs Edmonds said that by using the word "we", Ms Rice told an "outrageous lie". She said: "Rice says 'we' not 'I'. That would include all people from the FBI, the CIA and DIA [Defence Intelligence Agency]. I am saying that is impossible."
It is impossible at this stage to verify Mrs Edmonds' claims. However, some senior US senators testified to her credibility in 2002 when she went public with separate allegations relating to alleged incompetence and corruption within the FBI's translation department.
Sizdeh Bedar (SeezDeh BeDar, Sizdah Bedar), Dodging the 13th day of New Year, Iran Also called Thirteenth Outside
The 13th day of the traditional Iranian New Year festival of Norouz (Vernal Equinox) is called Sizdeh Bedar. People go out in the nature in groups and spend all day outdoors in the nature in form of family picnics. It is a day of festivity in the nature, where children play and music and dancing is abundant. On this day, people throw their Sabze (green sprouts that they grew as one of the '7-seen' items) away in the nature as a symbolic act of making the nature greener. Unmarried girls, hoping to find a husband, tie a knot with blades of grass and make a wish for a good husband before the next Sizdeh Bedar. This knotting of the grass represents the bonding between of a man and a woman. Girls sing this song while knotting:
Sizdah-Bedar sal-e deegar khooneh shoohar, bacheh baghal! (Next Sizdah-Bedar, in my husband's home, holding a baby!)
The traditional Iranian festival of the New Year starts at the precise moment of the Vernal Equinox, as Spring ‘officially’ begins. Norouz has been celebrated for more than 3,000 years and is deeply rooted in the rituals and traditions of the Zoroastrian religion. The ancient Persians stained eggs red. Even today in remote areas of Iran, Moslems exchange scarlet eggs during the days of Ali in Ramadan.
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
"The [Irish] Government will continue to press for a judicial inquiry into the murder of Mr Pat Finucane despite the British government's decision to delay implementing a recommendation to do so by Judge Peter Cory. Dan Keenan and Joe Humphreys report.
"The decision to hold off on an inquiry, pending prosecutions and ongoing investigations, has put the two governments at odds and angered relatives, nationalist politicians and human rights groups.
"The controversy could upset relations between the Northern parties at a time when the governments want to push for agreement on the restoration of Stormont ...
"All but a few paragraphs from the Hamill, Nelson and Wright reports were published in full, but at least nine pages of the Finucane report were censored by the British government.
"Some of the judge's most damning comments related to the Special Branch and the FRU [British army undercover Force Research Unit] both of which were said to have allowed loyalist attacks, and to have obstructed the Stevens investigation into the Finucane murder."
*Ø* Blogmanac | 'Strong evidence' of collusion in Ulster killings
"there is strong evidence that collusive acts were committed by the army (FRU), the RUC SB [Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch] and the security service [MI5]"
Mark Oliver and agencies The Guardian
"British army intelligence and the MI5 security service were criticised in reports published today into claims of security service collusion in four of the most controversial murders in Northern Ireland.
"A retired Canadian judge, Peter Cory, who was asked in 2001 by the British and Irish governments to investigate the case for public inquiries, says that he found 'strong evidence' of collusion.
"This comment is from the conclusion of his report into the murder of the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, which was published today alongside reports on the killings of the loyalist terrorist leader Billy Wright, Catholic civilian Robert Hamill and human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson.
"In all four cases he says he is 'satisfied that there is a need for a public inquiry'. In a move choreographed to coincide with the reports' publication, the government confirmed that four separate public inquiries would be held.
"In the conclusion of the Finucane report, Judge Cory writes that after looking at documents and statements 'there is strong evidence that collusive acts were committed by the army (FRU), the RUC SB [Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch] and the security service [MI5].'
"Finucane was shot dead in front of his family in his north Belfast home in February 1989. A West Belfast loyalist and alleged security force agent is due to stand trial in September.
"The Northern Ireland secretary, Paul Murphy, told the Commons that public inquiries would be set up as soon as possible into the Wright, Hamill and Nelson cases but that the inquiry into the Finucane case would be delayed until criminal prosecutions finish later this year.
"Finucane's widow, Geraldine, criticised the delay, saying: 'This was a very disappointing but expected statement. The British government continue to cover up the truth about the death of my husband with their delaying tactics.' The Irish government also issued a statement regretting the delay."
Patrick Finucane was a prominent criminal defence and civil rights lawyer; his was one of the leading law firms in the 1980s in Northern Ireland acting in defence of those detained or charged under emergency legislation. He was instrumental in raising fair trial issues in the courts, arguing against practices which were in violation of international human rights standards.
Read about his killing, the evidence of collusion and cover-up at Amnesty International
*Ø* Blogmanac April 1, 2004 | George W Bush's change of heart: plans Peace 'Imaginatorium'
A Blogmanac exclusive: full text of speech that rocked the world
US President stuns world: "We must find alternatives to war"
2003 The plenary session of the Fiji Summit was attended by 4,700 delegates who enjoyed the brilliant fireworks display put on for the occasion by the people of Jordan. After a moving rendition of Peace on Earth by several hundred international stars from the music world, to which the thousands of delegates sang along, President Bush's inspired television address to the world [excerpts below] was watched by the delegates and an estimated world audience of four billion people.
At the invitation of US President George W Bush, representatives of 190 countries had met in the South Pacific nation of Fiji for theinaugurall Global Peace Imagination Summit. All the nations present pledged just 10 per cent of their defence budgets to fund Bush's new brainchild, the Global Peace Imaginatorium. Although the pledges are a mere fraction of national war chests, the resulting peace foundation is already bigger than any one institutional, business or national entity in the world. Pundits said that its very size will help protect it from pressures from the enormous world armaments industry.
Washington sources say that the purpose of the multi-trillion dollar institute will be to solicit from citizens of the world ideas for alternatives to war in cases in which conflicts arise. Suggestions, whether from professional conflict resolution practitioners, diplomats, academics, or ordinary citizens, are to be rewarded with cash disbursements. Every suggestion will be rewarded, and is then eligible for entry to higher levels of reward according to the judgement of panels of democratically elected representatives from all nations.
President Bush stunned the world with his televised address to the world, for which his government had set aside 25 billion dollars of armaments purchase money to promote, so scarcely a man, woman or child in the world did not know about the Summit nor Mr Bush's speech. His opening remarks brought gales of laughter from the floor of the Summit. "I know a lot of people in the media think I'm nuts. Maybe you think I'm nuts," he said with a grin.
"Some members of my White House inner circle think I'm a bit nuts, too. Especially now.
"But ladies and gentleman, I don't think I've ever been so sane in my life! [Applause] The human race has chosen war as a means of settling disputes for thousands of years, and it's time is over. It not only hasn't solved anything, but its consequences have gotten far worse. It's over. Finis. Kaput!
"A hundred years ago," he told the now silent crowd, "when armies collided in battle, about 10 per cent of the casualties were civilian and 90 per cent were combatants. Today, it's the other way round. The whole nature of warfare has changed, and no longer can we believe that the people who die or get burned and maimed in battle might in some way have to accept responsibility for their own actions. Today, the innocent are the main victims. Not only that, but our generals now sit in comfortable air-conditioned offices, nowhere near the field of battle, and make decisions on the deployment of weapons whose unspeakably tragic consequences they will never see, and that our grandparents could never have conceived of – weapons that can level vast areas of civilisation in one moment. We know in our hearts the difference between right and wrong, and this is wronggentlemen and getlemen, this is wrong.
"My friends," President Bush continued, "for a long time I myself mistakenly believed that war is all right. That it's OK. That it's 'patriotic'. I suppose it is because I had never been in one, who knows. Maybe it was just the culture I was brought up in, the movies and TV shows I watched and the books I read as a kid. Whatever the reason, like so many people, I had never really thought 'outside the square'. I saw some nation do something I didn't like, and I automatically thought of war as a solution.
"Then something big happened, ladies and gentlemen, and even now it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. One night about ten days ago, I woke up at about 3 o'clock in the morning in a cold sweat, with some realizations running through my head – and I don't even quite know how to explain it, but somehow I knew that if we just tried to do things differently, we would actually do it. Suddenly I trusted people again. I trusted that people could solve the problems of people – and do it fast. All that was needed was the will, a bit of money, and the encouragement of leaders. I thought, how can I even call myself a leader if I do not lead people into something new and better?
"I said to the First Lady, 'You know, I've been wrong. Almost all of us have been wrong. For thousands of years, we've all beeen wrong. And as President of the USA, I'm gonna come right out and say I was wrong. That we all have to do things differently, totally differently, from now on. No one else has as much of a chance to turn things around as me today, and I'm not going to squander this chance.' Laura looked at me a bit funny [audience laughs] but I think she knew deep down that something profound had happened to my thinking, and maybe I was right. Maybe together, human beings could do it.
"Men and women of the world, I'm here tonight to tell you I was wrong: War is not the solution!"
"Men and women of the world, I'm here tonight to tell you I was wrong: War is not the solution!" President Bush paused at this point for 90 seconds of thunderous clapping. Following several minutes more of his speech, his concluding remark, met again with sustained applause that ended in a standing ovation, were these words, heard by two-thirds of the world's population:
"Men and women of Planet Earth: We can do this. We can put people on the moon, we can build the Internet, we can spend trillions and trillions of dollars on frivolous and evil things. Many nations represented tonight in this auditorium, including my own, can build – have built – weapons of mass destruction that can destroy the world many times over. Yet millions of people are starving and have no access to clean water. We have to stop this now; we can't say 'it's how things should be because they always were'. Enough is enough! We have the technology to do almost anything we can imagine.
"From this night onwards, we also have the technology of this wonderful Global Peace Imaginatorium to begin to help us clear the fog from our minds. Because, ladies and gentlemen, it is only our lack of imagination, and the fog in our minds, that has kept humankind in this tragic cycle of suffering since time began. Now we will make it an honor for a human being to come up with solutions, just as we will make it a disgrace to use the old methods and to be stuck in old thinking, like I was.
"The Imaginatorium will not stop war and create a new world, but it will foment ideas on how to do this – ideas that have been lacking. Ideas that no leader has ever before thought of asking you to think up. (I don't take the credit for this. Laura says it was the pizza I ate before going to bed.) [Laughter]
"My friends of all nations, all creeds and all races: now, having realized my own past errors of thought, I ask you to join with me to eradicate what is obsolete from our minds. Because it all comes from our minds. I know that now. As John Lennon and Yoko Ono put it so well way back when, "War is over. If you want it."
*Ø* Blogmanac | WHITE HOUSE ON DEFENSIVE AGAINST CHRIST
From Matt:
As my friend below said, "this isn't mine."
Just something to relieve some tension and stress, relative to our world and the wrenching yet complex problems we're all trying to face and minister to. Just to be clear, this is intended as a vehicle for release and laughter, not trenchant and bitter social commentary. It's meant to deflate all of our emotional balloons, with any pent-up anxiety and frustration we might have in reaction to "the world out there."
From: Pucknomad To: mzemek@hotmail.com Subject: post on daily kos Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 16:15:29 -0800 (PST)
This isn't mine -- but oh my...
WHITE HOUSE ON DEFENSIVE AGAINST CHRIST
Washington, DC. -- The White House, still reeling from this week's surprise return of Jesus Christ and His condemnation of the Bush administration's war in Iraq, has gone on the defensive.
An administration aide admitted to growing White House frustration that staffers had been "caught napping," not only by Mr. Christ's unexpected return, which the aide likened to "a thief in the night," but especially by His strongly worded condemnation of Bush's foreign policy. "After all," stated the staff member on condition of anonymity, "we've been working since day one to bring about Armageddon specifically to hasten the Lord's return. Then He does this. I've got to question both His loyalty and His timing."
In a blitz of morning show appearances yesterday, administration officials sought to cast doubt on the savior's credibility, as well as His motivations. National security advisor Condoleeza Rice stated on NBC's Today Show that the King of Kings "Never gave us a plan to follow, really. We would have welcomed his input, but He was apparently too busy converting water into wine."
Rice's statements appeared to contradict those of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Appearing on CNN, Armitage stated that "The Redeemer had presented the administration with a lengthy plan, titled `Revelations,' that "President Bush has endeavored mightily to follow. The President has been diligent about this, despite the fact that Yahweh doesn't exactly write the most clear or concise memo I've ever seen."
Appearing on conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's program, Vice President Dick Cheney questioned the Everlasting Light's credibility in His scathing critique of the Iraq war. "Frankly, He was out of the loop. I mean, where's He been for the past 2,000 years?" Cheney asked. "And now He suddenly makes Himself manifest in an election year?"
Fox News released a transcript purporting to show four different versions of the Messiah's story. Former Republican governor James Thompson referred to Fox's story stating "Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. At least three of these are lies." "I'm from the Midwest," Thompson added.
In a hastily called press briefing, White House press secretary Scott McClellan sought to reassure the GOP's large Christian constituency that Bush still revered the Son of God. "The President knows Him on a first name basis," McClellan said. "He considers the day that he met Christ to be the most memorable event of his life." When asked by Helen Thomas as to exactly when and where Bush met Christ, McClellan stated "The President doesn't remember such a meeting taking place. But it wasn't in the situation room, I can tell you that. Despite what He said, Jehovah has no witnesses." Thomas appeared doubtful.
Perhaps the harshest words were reserved for The Lamb Of God by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN.) Taking the Senate floor, Frist waved about a copy of the Bible, accusing The Way, The Truth, & The Light of perjury. "First He says He's the Son of God! Then He says he's not only God's son, He's also God Himself! Then he brings up this Holy Ghost business. It's weird outer space stuff." Frist also questioned Christ's motivation for returning to Earth to criticize the Iraq war. "First you have this "Passion" movie. Now the book. It's shameful and Self serving."
Christ was later questioned about the film by reporters as He stood outside Pat Robertson's Virginia Beach studios in an ultimately futile attempt to appear on The 700 Club. "I've never met with Mel Gibson, nor do I ever intend to," sayeth the Lord. "I don't appreciate his anti-semitism."
The tragedy of what has come to be called ‘the Sicilian Vespers’ massacre had its origin in the struggle between the Holy Roman Empire, represented by the Hohenstaufen emperors, and the Papacy for control over Italy.
Charles of Anjou (Charles I of Sicily), brother of King Louis IX of France, having defeated the Hohenstaufen King Manfred of Sicily in 1266 at Benevento to enforce his own claim to the throne of Sicily, became a tyrant over his new subjects in Sicily and the southern portion of the Italian peninsula. Charles dreamed of establishing an Angevin empire in the East.
The people of Sicily rose up against the French occupiers, massacring about 8,000 of them, after a French soldier searched for weapons under the dress of a Palermo nobleman's daughter, at an Easter procession at the start of the evening prayer service of vespers on Easter Monday.
Another version has it that a group of French officials joined the native Sicilians at vespers that day, despite the antipathy of the locals. Some of the Frenchmen began approaching the Sicilian women; a French sergeant took a married woman away from the crowd, and her husband then stabbed him to death. The French, rushing to avenge their comrade, were attacked and killed by the crowd. As the church bells throughout the city tolled for vespers, messengers ran throughout Palermo calling for an uprising. Over the next six weeks, angry Sicilians slaughtered virtually all the French inhabitants of the island. Slaughtered were not only the French military and settlers, but also women who had married Frenchmen.
“Ma fia! Ma fia!” The legend has it that the rebellion started after a Sicilian woman went to a Palermo church to look for her young daughter, who had spent the whole day there praying. The mother found her daughter being raped in the church by a French soldier, whereupon the mother then ran into the streets, shouting “Ma fia! Ma fia!” (“My daughter! My daughter!” in medieval Sicilian dialect). Some have claimed that this tale provides a plausible explanation as to where the word Mafia might have originated.
The French on the island were identified by a shibboleth, that is, a password. (The term shibboleth comes from the Bible, Judges 12: 5-6, in which the Gileadites identified their enemies, the Ephraimites, by their inability to pronounce the Hebrew word shibboleth – a stream, or ear of corn, or else a torrent of water, depending on source.) The French on the day of the so-called Sicilian Vespers massacre were required to pronounce the word cecceri, Italian dialect for chick peas, which they had difficulty saying ...
In 1854, Giuseppe Verdi, Italy’s leading composer, wrote the score for the opera Ivespri Siciliani, to a libretto based on the legend of the Sicilian Vespers. The Italian national anthem, Fratelli d'Italia, composed in 1847 by Michele Novaro to words by the poet Goffredo Mameli, contains the lyrics:
Every trumpet blast Sounds the Sicilian Vespers. Let us gather in legions, Ready to die! Italy has called!
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
1315 Raymond Lulle, Majorcan-born alchemist, was stoned to death by the natives of Mauritania. (Sources differ as to spelling of his name, as well as the date and cause of his death. We do know that he drafted his will on April 26, 1313.)
Lulle became an alchemist through an affair of the heart. He was in love with an extremely beautiful woman who refused to marry him. One day, when he tried again to win her heart, she showed her bosom inflamed by a cancer. He promised to cure her, and studied every book of medicine and chemistry that he could find. He cured her, and married her. After her death he attached himself to the church. The inhabitants of his home country of Majorca revere him as a martyr.
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
"NEW ORLEANS -- It's a groundbreaking court decision that legal experts say will affect everyone: Police officers in Louisiana no longer need a search or arrest warrant to conduct a brief search of your home or business.
"Leaders in law enforcement say it will provide safety to officers, but others argue it's a privilege that could be abused.
"The decision was made by the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Two dissenting judges called it the 'road to Hell'."
1871 The Paris Commune was proclaimed by French radicals, whose aim was to set up an independent socialist government. More than 200,000 people turned out at the City Hall to see their newly elected officials, whose names were read to great and festive acclaim, making this day a revolutionary festival. The red flag, raised over all public buildings, is emblematic of the Commune.
On April 2 the government forces of the Versailles Army attacked the Commune, and the city was constantly bombarded. The remaining Communards were shot, against what is now known as the Communards' Wall in the Père Lachaise cemetery while thousands of others were marched to Versailles for trials.
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
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Nagasaki Takoage, or Kite-Flying Event, Nagasaki, Japan
"The [Irish] Government will continue to press for a judicial inquiry into the murder of Mr Pat Finucane despite the British government's decision to delay implementing a recommendation to do so by Judge Peter Cory. Dan Keenan and Joe Humphreys report.
US President stuns world: "We must find alternatives to war"
1315 Raymond Lulle, Majorcan-born alchemist, was stoned to death by the natives of Mauritania. (Sources differ as to spelling of his name, as well as the date and cause of his death. We do know that he drafted his will on April 26, 1313.) 
1871 The Paris Commune was proclaimed by French radicals, whose aim was to set up an independent socialist government. More than 200,000 people turned out at the City Hall to see their newly elected officials, whose names were read to great and festive acclaim, making this day a revolutionary festival. The red flag, raised over all public buildings, is emblematic of the Commune.