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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*
Dave of the blog How to Save the World has an essay about "the cost of not knowing, part II" (part I is here) that draws a connection between Lucky, presumably the dog shown above, who was rescued from an abusive owner, and most of the population of the modern world. After Lucky's rescue, people asked, why did he keep going back to the abusive man who almost killed him, even at the risk of his life? Dave says: "It obviously didn't occur to the reporter that Lucky came back for more abuse because that's the only life he knew. He couldn't have survived in the wild, and couldn't have known that another, better life could be had in just about any other house, as part of any other family. "We are all, in a real sense, like Lucky. Most of us, all over the world, struggle every day, and put up with a huge amount of stress and unhappiness in our lives. Compared to the hunter-gatherers who lived for millions of years before modern civilization, we work much harder and longer to make a living, we face much more physical and psychological violence (in our neighbourhoods, in our workplaces, in our war-torn world, and sometimes even in our homes), we suffer from many more physical and psychological diseases and illnesses, we live in crowded, polluted, mostly run-down communities, in constant fear (of an infinite number of things, most notably not having enough), and we are oppressed with hierarchies, laws, rules and restrictions that would have driven our ancient ancestors quite mad. "Why do we put up with it? Because it's the only life we know. . ."
Read more to find out what your options really are.
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Those to whom evil is done do evil in return
Dave at Orcinus had an excellent post on Monday, musing philosophically about the violent death and mutilation of Americans in Iraq. He was one of at least two bloggers to note a similarity between the photo not widely circulated (for obvious reasons) and photos of patriotic white Americans and their mutilation victims, in this case the lynched "Negroes" of the Jim Crow south. I thought of this exquisitely depressing poem by W. H. Auden, one of my favourites of all time, which, unfortunately, I find myself trotting out from time to time as it again begins to describe my bleak worldview to a "t". An excerpt or two:
"I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.
Exiled Thucydides knew All that a speech can say About Democracy, And what dictators do, The elderly rubbish they talk To an apathetic grave; Analysed all in his book, The enlightenment driven away, The habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again." . . .
"Faces along the bar Cling to their average day: The lights must never go out, The music must always play, All the conventions conspire To make this fort assume The furniture of home; Lest we should see where we are, Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night Who have never been happy or good." . . .
"All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die."
*Ø* Blogmanac April 9, 2003 | How they faked the toppling of Hussein's statue
2003 The US Military faked the tearing down of the statue of Saddam Hussein for the world's media.
For Donald Rumsfeld the scene was "breathtaking". For the British Army it was "historic". For BBC Radio it was "amazing". For people who discovered how they did it, it was a cynical exercise of the Bush administration in deceiving the people of the United States of America, and of the world.
On televisions around the world, the US government, with the complicity of media corporations and their 'embedded' journalists, told the lie that crowds of rapturous locals pulled down Hussein's statue in the main square of Baghdad. This, of course, was a utilisation of the time-tested archetype the world is familiar with, especially from the time of the fall of the Soviet Union when statues of Lenin came tumbling down in many places. Military public relations officers must have seen the significance and thus staged the Baghdad event. Here's how it was done:
What really happened Photos from a hotel adjacent to the square, plainly show US military vehicles and tanks preventing access to the square, with only a small number of people assembled at the statue. Because the manipulated media showed the world close-up footage and adroitly cropped photos of the so-called 'crowd', it falsely appeared that jubilant Iraqis were tearing down the statue.
In fact, Rumsfeld's "breathtaking" crowd was basically just a few military and managed media personnel, and some Iraqis brought in for the photo opportunity, some of whom has just arrived from outside the country, it has been alleged. At the time, the true version of the events circulated widely on the Internet, including the Almanac, much to the anger of people worldwide.
Insult to injury But wait, there's more. While Dubya scratches his head and asks "Why do they hate us?", the US military made yet another tactical blunder even bigger than this pretence that Iraq will now be happy and the US has finished its job there. To top off the charade, they clumsily revealed that they had not come on a spurious 'WMDs' mission but to gain control of some great oil-rich Middle Eastern real estate. This they did by draping a flag over the statue's head. An Iraqi people's flag? No, the good ol' stars 'n' stripes was unfurled, watched by simmering billions worldwide.
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.
*Ø* Blogmanac | American Caligula Redux, a recommendation
[As if the day-to-day news isn't enough to wear one to a frazzle! Lest we forget . . . an occasional run down memory lane does a body good. -v]
From DUG:
George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin
INTRODUCTION: American Caligula
The thesis of this book is simple: if George Bush were to be re-elected in November 1992 for a second term as the president of the United States, this country and the rest of the world would face a catastrophe of gigantic proportions.
The necessity of writing this book became overwhelming in the minds of the authors in the wake of the ghastly slaughter of the Iraq war of January-February 1991. That war was an act of savage and premeditated genocide on the part of Bush, undertaken in connivance with a clique in London which has, in its historical continuity, represented both the worst enemy of the long-term interests of the American people, and the most implacable adversary of the progress of the human species.
The authors observed George Bush very carefully as the Gulf crisis and the war unfolded, and had no doubt that his enraged public outbursts constituted real psychotic episodes, indicative of a deranged mental state that was full of ominous portent for humanity. The authors were also horrified by the degree to which their fellow citizens willfully ignored the shocking reality of these public fits. A majority of the American people proved more than willing to lend its support to a despicable enterprise of killing.
By their role-call votes of January 12, 1991, the Senate and the House of Representatives gave their authorization for Bush's planned and imminent war measures to restore the Emir of Kuwait, who owns and holds chattel slaves. That vote was a crime against God's justice.
This book is part of an attempt to help them to survive anyway, both for the sake of the world and for their own sake. It is intended as a contribution to a process of education that might still save the American people from the awesome destruction of a second Bush presidency. It is further intended as a warning to all citizens that if they fail to deny Bush a second term, they will deserve what they get after 1993.
[...and they accuse Kerry of being "flip or flop"...!
I'm here to report another "right"... or, at least, the abject failure of a "wrong". You just can't keep Helen Thomas down! She may have been evicted from the royal court (a.k.a. the White House press corps) for asking the tough questions... but, in that devil-may-care fashion that develops in women as they get older (think Granny D), she continues taking potshots from the gallery. YOU GO GIRL!! –L.]
Bush Sr. Has Questions To Answer On Iraq 'H.W.' Speaks Of 'Progress,' 'Miracle' In Iraq Despite Carnage
POSTED: 5:23 p.m. EDT April 7, 2004
WASHINGTON -- Dear Mr. President:
I can understand your emotional defense of your son when you spoke to the Petrochemical and Refiners Association in San Antonio last week. [A Bush schmoozing with oil men... who'da thunk? –L.]
You referred to the hurt you feel when you think the current President Bush has been criticized unfairly by the news media.
You told the oil executives that you found it "deeply offensive and contemptible" to hear "elites and intellectuals on the campaign trail" dismiss progress in Iraq since last year's overthrow of Saddam Hussein. ["Elites and intellectuals"? How about grieving military families? or emotionally and physically (and often financially) scarred military men and women who have served in this misguided enterprise?! –L.]
Well, the "progress" you speak of is not too apparent right now, with thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of Americans dead and thousands wounded on both sides. And there's no end in sight.
Although you called the advances made in Iraq "a miracle," the daily headlines about the war in Iraq speak more of heartaches than miracles.
I think you will find there is a multitude of Americans — not just some pundits — who also feel that the price of your son's "war of choice" is too high. [Don't get your hopes up, Helen... this is a guy who hadn't even heard of barcode scanning at the supermarket. Now, as then, he has his elbow firmly on the pulse of America! –L.]
On that point, check out the new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. It shows that only 40 percent of Americans approve of the way your son is handling Iraq. In January, 59 percent approved.
You said there was "something ignorant in the way they dismiss the overthrow of a brutal dictator and the sowing of the seeds of basic human freedom in that troubled part of the world."
But Mr. President, you served as a professional public servant long enough to know that criticism goes with the turf — especially during an unpopular war.
The question is this: Why does the 2003 "shock and awe" invasion of Baghdad all make sense to you now — but you decided back in 1991 not to carry the first Gulf war deep into Iraq after Kuwait had been liberated?
Back then, you made it quite clear that the human cost of invading would be devastating if American troops would fall into a Vietnam-style quagmire in Iraq.
Furthermore, you made sure that the United States had the support of the global community before attacking the Iraqi occupiers of Kuwait.
You talked 28 nations into joining the U.S.-led coalition. And you knew that if you had tried to go beyond your mandate and evict Saddam, the coalition would break up.
In your San Antonio speech, you said: "Iraq is moving forward in hope and not sliding back into despair and terrorism."
Perhaps you are unaware that even the president has conceded that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and the Osama bin Laden terrorists.
Of course, outsiders have flocked to Iraq since the U.S. occupation to help the Iraqi resistance oppose yet one more Western occupation of a nation whose civilization goes back 5,000 years. [As did the irreplaceable antiquities we allowed to be looted from the museum. IMNSHO, causing or allowing (or both!) the "disappearance" of an entire culture's history is its own form of genocide. –L.]
Not only was there no connection between Saddam and bin Laden but you obviously know by now that the president's claim that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction also turned out to be wrong.
And, of course, the administration's claim that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States also has turned out to be an empty scare-tactic.
Do you think we should forget the fiction that took us into the Middle East conflagration and drift along with the conventional wisdom that we now have to stay in Iraq simply because we are there?
Did it disturb you to have your son thumb his nose at the United Nations, where you once served with grace as the U.S. representative? (The president has since learned the relevance of the world body.)
Your advice to your son throughout this ordeal has been private. But I wonder whether you cautioned him against taking the nation to war to avenge you after Saddam reportedly targeted you for assassination back in 1993.
Is that why we are in a war with Iraq? Some people think so. Or did we covet Iraq's vast oil reserves. Or did we go to war to satisfy the geopolitical ambitions of the president's hawk advisers who are intent on empire building in the Middle East?
Right now the administration is running on empty when it comes to explaining why we are in Iraq. I wonder what justification the White House will come up with to justify continuing the carnage.
*Ø* Blogmanac | More chinks appear in Aussie gov't's armour
Opposition welcomes Fraser's comments on Iraq "Australia: The Federal Opposition has welcomed comments by former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser comparing the Iraq war to the conflict in Vietnam.
"Mr Fraser voiced his concerns about the situation in Iraq saying it is clear the Americans are no longer in control.
"Labor leader Mark Latham has said he is worried the latest violence in Iraq could see Australia caught up in a long-term engagement, similar to Vietnam ..."
[Note that Fraser was not only a long-serving Prime Minister of Australia, of the same Liberal party as the present Howard Government that committed troops to invade Iraq. He was also Minister of Defence during some of the years that Australia was in Vietnam. That's what makes his comments the more remarkable.]
Iraq should cost PM his job: ex-Liberal president "Former Liberal Party president John Valder says Prime Minister John Howard deserves to lose the next election over his decision to go to war in Iraq.
"Mr Valder has told ABC Radio's AM program that there is a case for the leaders of the international coalition to face war crimes trials.
"'If you go into your neighbours' [house] ... and smash the place up ... on perhaps some precept or other that proves to be wrong, of course you'd go to court and go to jail,' Mr Valder said.
"'I've got to say that applies to the leaders of Britain, the United States and Australia.'" Source: ABC
Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. [paraphrased] The Buddha
Buddha's Birthday, for Mahayana Buddhists Although Theravada Buddhists celebrate the birth of the Buddha at the fifth full moon of the year, usually in May, many Mahayana Buddhists (mostly in East Asia) celebrate today because of the Westernisation of their calendar, replacing lunar with solar dates ...
Hana Matsuri (Flower Festival; Buddha?s Birthday), Japan On Buddha's birthday in Japan, Buddhist shrines and temples fill with joyful celebrants. Hana Matsuri or Doll's Festival is celebrated as a prayer for the well-being of the young girls. All families decorate their dolls with peach blossoms and rice crackers. People take turns pouring hydrangea tea over the head of the bronze statue of the infant Buddha. Originally it was a lunar holiday celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month but now, like many Japanese festivals, set in the Gregorian calendar.
'Hana' means flowers in Japanese, and, 'matsuri? means festival and Buddha?s natal day conveniently coincides with the blooming of the cherry blossoms in Japan. The festival?s origins have been estimated to have most likely been during the late Kamakura era or the early Muromachi era. An itinerant priest (yamabushi) of Kumano and a sage (hijiri) of Kaga Hakusan mountain introduced the festival into the upper basin of the few tributaries of the Tenryuu river. Processions take place in many places, with children dressed up in their finest kimonos, chanting their way to the temple alongside decorative floats.
A highlight of the festival is, the Oni no mai, or dance of the demon. An Oni appears as a demon, but actually is an embodiment of the god. In olden times it was believed that the deity would appear as a demon to make their wishes come true.
The climax of the festival is called Yubayashi. The dancers soak a bunch of Sakaki (holy branches) into boiling water in a huge iron pot, and splash the hot water over the others. People believe that if they are soaked with the hot water, they are assured of good health for the year.
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.
Louie . . . Could you please pass this along to your list.. thx.. JC
Friends and Family:
It is with sadness that I report that our friend Allen Cohen is in the end stage of his brave fight for life. Allen wants to express his eternal gratitude to all who have helped him during the past several months. It was just this past October that Allen received his new liver and had seemed to make the crucial turn that would ensure many years of good health. Unfortunately, by year-end the liver cancer that had been in remission prior to his surgery returned again finding a new home in his pelvis. Despite six weeks of intensive radiation therapy, the tumor continued to grow and spread, leaving Allen weak and ill beyond description. Tonight as Allen attends what will surely be his last Seder, we ask that you give a moment of silence at 7:30PM (PST). As the world around us is engulfed in war, we want to celebrate the life of a man of peace. Allen Cohen is a visionary warrior who has continued to fight the good fight to the very end. We are celebrating the life of a teacher who has planted seeds of peace for generations to come. It would be nice if we all could rally around Allen in what is now his final hours as his spirit travels into the afterlife where we will all meet again.
In love and light,
J.C. Juanis
```````````````````````````` A multi-part tribute to Allen can be found at A-Changin' Times (ACT) for those who would like to remember or newly acquaint themselves with the man, his life and his legacy. Peace.
Hearts, Minds and Padlocks New York Times Editorial Published on Tuesday, March 30, 2004
With so many forces trying to prove that America cannot bring stability and democracy to Iraq, it was sad to see the Bush administration's proconsul there, Paul Bremer III, issuing an order that is likely to set back both of those desirable goals. In a scene distressingly evocative of neighboring Middle Eastern autocracies, Mr. Bremer sent American soldiers to shut down and padlock a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday. The stated reason was that by printing false anti-American rumors, the Shiite weekly, Al Hawza, stirred up hatred, undermined stability and indirectly incited violence.
One of the dispatches that led to the closing of Al Hawza was a February report claiming that an American missile, not a terrorist car bomb, had caused an explosion that killed more than 50 Iraqi police recruits. False charges like that have helped poison Iraqi opinion against American forces and made their difficult and dangerous job even more so. Yet it is possible to condemn such malicious rumor-mongering without endorsing the paper's shutdown, which, though ostensibly for 60 days, could prove permanent.
Newspapers like Al Hawza do not create the hostility Americans face in Iraq — they reflect it. Shutting them down, however satisfying it may feel to the Bush administration, is not a promising way to dissolve that hostility. The occupation authorities have plenty of means, including their own television station, to get out a more favorable message.
It is hard to believe that the thousands of outraged Baghdadis who watched American forces chain and lock the doors of the newspaper offices will now refuse to believe hateful rumors circulated by preachers, leaflets and word of mouth. Nor is this demonstration of military censorship likely to help convince skeptical Iraqis that the main reason for America's continued occupation of their country is to help transform it into a regional showcase of American-style freedoms.
There are times when the demands of security and the demands of democracy tug in opposite directions. This was not one of them. By driving Al Hawza's rumors and anti-American sentiments underground, Mr. Bremer made both of those central goals that much harder to achieve.
The bouquet I hope you'll excuse me while I munch on this bowl of sugar topped with honey and treacle, but you'll understand that I always do it, to get the bitter taste out, on the few occasions I give a bouquet to Australia's so-called Liberal Party government. (English-speaking people will have to try to comprehend, with us mere Aussies, that in Australia the arch-conservative party is called the Liberal Party. Don't ask me why. We haven't come as far as calling the Labor Party the Bourgeois Party, but we're obviously as silly as a two-bob watch so it's high time we did, and who could argue against it anyway? But back to my point.)
Excuse me. (Munch, munch.) The point. I dips me lid – otherwise doffs me hat – to that terrible conservative Dr Brendan Nelson, Liberal Minister for Education, who has sensibly announced he is at last going to do something about the appalling shortage of male teachers in the states' education systems. Good on him. He says that 14 per cent of boys in this country will finish their school years without ever having had a significant male role model in their lives, whether father or teacher. We know that boys suffer major educational disadvantage as evidenced by truckloads of reports into literacy, numeracy and virtually every other yardstick. We know that by these yardsticks boys were doing better 35 years ago.
Most of us have no doubt that lack of male mentoring for boys is at a crisis level. For example, the single most predictive factor in male imprisonment is fatherlessness – not ethnicity, socio-economic status, place of residence, not educational attainment, literacy nor any other factor known to the Chardonnay set. We know that male teachers are outnumbered by females in the order of about seven to one; who can doubt what an outcry there would be if the figures were in reverse?
We know that boys leave school earlier, no doubt discouraged, probably to spend the rest of their short lives dodging injury from lumps of steel, industrial equipment, fumes, dirt, dust, alcohol and the rest of the grunge that kills men nearly ten long years before their sisters. We know that our boys have far higher rates of suicide, illiteracy, injury, death, drug addiction, mental and other illnesses, and many other ills – evils that are called, in the PC Handbook, 'disadvantage' when found to afflict any other minority.
Brendan (munch, munch, ptuii, munch, swallow, gulp, munch) Nelson wants something that a man with a cork eye (probably a timber worker – count his fingers, too) can see is needed in this country: incentives for males to enter the teaching profession. Nelson proposes scholarships for men to study education. No big deal. Not a big plunge into the taxpayer's pocket, compared to some of the crap we fork out for.
The brickbat That, dear reader, is the (munch, ptuii!!) bouquet. Now for the brickbat. I hurl it to, at, above, under, around or through Ms Jenny Macklin, the Labor Party's Shadow Minister for Education – Dr Nelson's political opponent. What does she think of this idea for boys? "Discrimination!" she cries.
Good idea, dear reader. Let's all pause for breath. Isn't what Ms Macklin calls 'discrimination' properly called 'affirmative action'? That's what the Ms Macklins of the country have argued so vociferously for – and won – in a host of segments of our society. One struggles to recall any Ms Macklin on any soapbox in this wide, brown land calling for 'discrimination' for women. Come to think of it, Ms Macklin's Labor Party has what it calls an 'affirmative action' program of its own, to ensure that female members of Ms Macklin's party gain preselection for electoral candidature. (The fact that, without having such a policy, the conservative Libs have more women in Parliament than Labor is an embarrassing detail we won't go into here, due to a shortage of brickbats.)
Will Ms Macklin, who is so intent on opposing Dr Nelson's modest proposal, put a motion at the next Labor Party gabfest at whichever beach resort (blue cocktails, pink umbrellas) that in future they strike out 'affirmative action' from its tons of documents, and insert the synonym 'discrimination'? The Labor Party has roomsful of inkpissers so they could knock the job over in a few days. Hell, here's an inkpisser who'll help 'em. I could use a few days on a banana chair.
Nelson's solution to the sad lack of males teaching our males is, one hopes, just one plank in a much-needed platform of creative ideas. Australian schools will keep getting monkeys of both sexes until the state governments (all but one of them Labor) stop paying peanuts to educational professionals. We will need support for males entering such an inordinately female-dominated workplace. We need policies to turn around the culture of suspicion and enmity that have been engendered, for yawningly obvious power purposes, with regard to males. Men need a chance to start believing that Australia's rampant culture of false accusation will not squander their talents or bank accounts. This will take a lot, most especially from the many women of goodwill in the staffrooms, but I believe they can come to the fore, for the sake of their pupils. It will take women teachers not to feel that their skills are being negated if men are given a break, for most of the women excel at their under-rated profession, and the uplifting of boys is, however unfashionable, not a threat to women or girls. In fact, it will clearly be a boon.
Most of all, however, we need the Labor Party to submit to an autohypocrisyectomy and to develop a touch of bipartisanship on this important issue, rather than playing political rugby with our children's lives. I believe the parents of Australia want what Brendan Nelson is proferring. As he (ptuii!!, munch! more honey!!!) himself found when for four years he was working on gender-related educational outcomes, travelling the country and meeting people, he had many mothers, in tears sometimes, pleading with him to help find a way to get male role models in the lives of their struggling sons. As a rule, I wouldn't believe a politician if they told me they were a liar. But Nelson has the ring of truth on this one, and it's long overdue.
*Ø* Blogmanac April 7, 1593 | Sad Tale of the Witches of Warbois
On this day in 1593, the entire Samuel family of Warbois, Huntingdon, England, was executed on charges of witchcraft.
It was during the reign of Elizabeth I and witch mania was rife. The most important form of evidence in many of the witch trials was attained by 'ordeal'. These efforts included torture of the most horrific nature including hot pincers, the thumbscrew, the iron maiden, and many other such methods. These torture methods varied by region and the person carrying out the ordeal.
In Warbois, an imaginative and depressive girl named Joan Throgmorton, whose head was filled with stories of ghosts and witches, happened to pass the cottage of a physically unattractive and mentally backward old woman known as Mother Samuel. The old woman was sitting at her door, with a black cap upon her head, and, looking up from her knitting, she looked intently at Joan. The impressionable girl immediately fancied that she felt sudden pains in her arms and legs, and from that day on told her family and friends that Mother Samuel had bewitched her. Her sisters took up the cry, and actually frightened themselves into fits whenever they passed within sight of the unfortunate old woman.
Mr and Mrs Throgmorton, just as ignorant as their children, believed all the absurd tales they had been told; and Lady Cromwell, who used to gossip with Mrs Throgmorton determined to denounce the 'witch'. Lady Cromwell's husband Sir Samuel soon joined in the plot. Encouraged by adult complicity, the children gave loose reins to their imaginations and soon invented a whole host of evil spirits, which, they said, were sent by Mother Samuel to torment them continually. 'First Smack', 'Second Smack', 'Third Smack', 'Blue', 'Catch', 'Hardname' and 'Pluck' were the imaginative names of the worst of the spirits which, the girls alleged, were raised from hell by wicked Mother Samuel to throw them into fits; and as the children were actually subject to fits, the adults gave the more credit to the story.
The adults marched to the old woman's home and dragged her back into the Throgmorton's yard where Lady Cromwell tore the old woman's cap off her head, and plucking out a handful of her grey hair, gave it to Mrs Throgmorton to burn, as a charm which would preserve them all from her future wicked doings. Unsurprisingly, poor old Mrs Samuel let loose an involuntary curse upon her persecutors, and her curse was never forgotten. For more than a year, the families of Cromwell and Throgmorton continued to persecute her, alleging that her evil spirits afflicted them with pains and fits, turned the milk sour in their pans, and prevented their cows and ewes from bearing. Then, when Lady Cromwell was taken ill and died, it was remembered that her death had taken place exactly a year and a quarter since she was cursed by Mother Samuel, and that on several occasions she had dreamed of the witch and a black cat.
By now the whole neighbourhood had taken up the cry of witchcraft against Mother Samuel; her personal appearance, unfortunately for her, was the very ideal of what a witch ought to be, and increased the local fears and hatred ...
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.
*Ø* Blogmanac April 6, 1931 | The Scottsboro Boys trials begin
1931 USA: The first of the trials of the nine 'Scottsboro Boys' began at Scottsboro, Alabama before Judge EG Hawkins.
After a lynch mob gathered, the Alabama Governor, Benjamin Meeks Mille, was forced to call the National Guard to protect the jail. Milo Moody was appointed by the court to serve as defence counsel. Charlie Weems and Clarence Norris were declared 'guilty' by the jury. The great crowd assembled before the courthouse, surrounded by state troopers, staged a demonstration of approval with the band playing, 'There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight'. The others were found guilty over the next two days.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the International Labor Defense both took up the case, but the NAACP dropped the case in January, 1932. Despite the fact that a letter surfaced in which Ruby Bates denied that she was raped, the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the convictions of seven of the Boys in March, 1932.
The nine African-American teenagers had been charged with the rape of two Caucasian girls, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, on the Southern Railroad freight run from Chattanooga to Memphis on March 25, 1931. It was a crime that never happened. In the words of writer Douglas O Linder, "Over the course of the two decades that followed, the struggle for justice of the 'Scottsboro Boys,' as the black teens were called, made celebrities out of anonymities, launched and ended careers, wasted lives, produced heroes, opened southern juries to blacks, exacerbated sectional strife, and divided America's political left."
The men were sentenced to death, despite the fact that one of the women later denied being raped. They were all eventually paroled, freed or pardoned, some after serving years of a prison sentence ...
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.
A picture was used in a case study on stress levels at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London.
Look at the two dolphins jumping out of the water. Both dolphins are identical.
The researchers found that a person is under stress if he/she finds the two dolphins look any way different. If there are many differences found between the dolphins, it means that the person is experiencing a high level of stress.
So, if you find many differences between the dolphins, it's recommended that you stop work immediately, change into something comfortable, make a refreshing drink and put your feet up.
Respect councillor 'ecstatic' at Labour conversion
Preston's Respect councillor Michael Lavalette claimed he was 'ecstatic' at the news that Labour councillors in the town were discussing a motion to twin Preston with Nablus.
Cllr Lavalette led the twining proposal in October 2003 and at the time 13 Labour group members voted for the proposal. But now the Labour group will discuss a very similar proposal at their group meeting this Tuesday (6 April). If the group agrees they will present the proposal to council on 29 April.
Cllr Lavalette said: "This is great news. We are very pleased that the Labour group are debating whether to take a twinning motion to council. The motion is very similar to the one we debated before -- but with Labour group support it should go through. It will be a great victory for the twinning campaign if that happens.
I'm a bit disappointed that the Labour group have not talked to anyone in the twinning campaign -- and that they did not come to our cultural evening and educational display that was held in Noor Hall last Wednesday. But all converts to the Palestinian cause are welcome.
I'm sure some will say that Labour are worried about the local elections and their failure to fully support twinning before. But I think its great that they are coming on-board our campaign."
Mukhtar Master from Preston Stop the War and a leading campaigner for twinning said:
"We understand that John Collins, Labour group leader will propose the motion. At the end of last year he said this was mere 'gesture politics' but we are glad we have convinced him otherwise."
1. the origin twinning motion 2. The Labour group proposal 3. contact details
1. The original twinning proposal:
"We call on the council to undertake immediate steps to twin Preston with the city of Nablus on the Palestinian west bank"
2. The proposed motion from Labour:
' This council recognises the plight of the Palestinian people after over 35 years of illegal occupation by Israeli forces despite UN resolution and international law. This council pledges itself:
1) To twin with Nablus without recourse to funding from Preston City Council Tax payers.
2) To seek to use its powers to work with people of all faiths and to set up a charity that will fund twinning with Nablus and provide humanitarian relief for people of all faiths in Nablus, whether Christian, Muslem or Jew.
3) To look at how Preston City Council can use facilities that educate Prestonians about the plight of people in the Occupied territories.
Pocahontas is known throughout the world, especially to Americans and Britishers, as an example of friendly relations between the races as well as an epitome of the Rousseauvian 'noble savage'.
Her images adorn Washington's Capitol building in portraits and friezes, and she has been a character in numerous dramas, beginning in the 17th century with Ben Jonson. In 1995, Walt Disney's studios made an animated movie of the famous Smith-Pocahontas tale, in which the native princess is portrayed as a rather voluptuous and beautiful woman. Her body is scarcely contained within a buckskin outfit that is not only split on both sides of its skirt, but is several inches shorter than the dresses of the other women in Disney's unhistorical Indian tribe.
We know that when Captain John Smith, 42, met her, Pocahontas was only 11 years old, and we also know that she did not resemble Disney’s ridiculous heroine. (There are numerous assertions on the Internet that Smith raped her and left her with a child, but I have found no verification of these.)
The only portrait known to have been made while she was alive was an etching made in England by Dutch engraver, Simon Van de Passe (used on an American stamp in 1907), prints of which were sold at the time to the curious. Over time, images of her (as in the case of Cleopatra) were beautified to suit contemporary tastes, but John Chamberlaine, a member of the English nobility, commented that she was "no fayre [beautiful] Lady".
On April 5, 1614, at Jamestown, Virginia, one of England’s earliest New World colonies, 18-year-old native Algonquin 'princess' Pocahontas married wealthy English tobacco planter, John Rolfe. Pocahontas was a nickname meaning 'naughty one' or 'spoiled child', her real name being Amonte (as she was known to her parents), or Matoaka, her clan name. She had already married an Indian warrior named Kocoum in 1610. Her aging father, the Mamanatowick (great chief) Powhatan, did not attend the wedding, although some relatives were there ...
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*Ø* Blogmanac | Odigo says workers were warned of 9/11
By Yuval Dror
"Odigo, the instant messaging service, says that two of its workers received messages two hours before the Twin Towers attack on September 11 predicting the attack would happen, and the company has been cooperating with Israeli and American law enforcement, including the FBI, in trying to find the original sender of the message predicting the attack.
"Micha Macover, CEO of the company, said the two workers received the messages and immediately after the terror attack informed the company's management, which immediately contacted the Israeli security services, which brought in the FBI."
Festival of Megalesia (or Megalensia, Magna Mater, Ludi Megalenses) of Cybele, (Apr 4 - 10), ancient Rome
Magna Mater (Cybele, 'the All-Begetting Mother, who beats a drum to mark the rhythm of life'), was the great mother and all other Roman goddesses may be seen as aspects of her. Earlier, the Greeks had identified her with the Titan goddess, Rhea.
This week-long festival was to celebrate the arrival in Rome of the idol of Cybele in 204 BCE. From 191 BCE, when Cybele’s temple had been completed, the great festivities began on this day and were celebrated for six days each year.
The prophetic Sybilline Oracles had advised that the stone of Cybele, the Anatolian mother goddess of mountains and fertility, must be brought to Rome to help bring about a victory against Hannibal the Carthaginian in what we now call the Second Punic War. So in 204, Cybele’s sacred black statue, which was a meteorite (to which the Romans later added a likeness of the goddess) from Pessinus in Anatolia (in modern Turkey), was shipped to Ostia. There, Scipio Nasica took custody of it and brought it to the city of Rome. On April 4, 204 BCE the ship bearing the idol ran aground at the mouth of the Tiber River.
By prayer, Claudia Quinta, a vestal virgin, helped to release the grounded ship. Claudia, who had previously been falsely accused of breaking her holy vows, joined the throng that gathered at the ship, and, praying to Cybele, laid her hands on the ropes being employed to tow the foundering vessel. Although the crowd thought her mad, the ship came free of the mud, and Claudia and the goddess were brought to Rome in triumph. In the Middle Ages, Claudia was revered as the paragon of womanly virtue ... (More)
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*Ø* Blogmanac April 4, 1954 | Australia's Petrov Affair
1954 Soviet Union diplomat, Vladimir Petrov, defected to Australia, admitting he was a spy. Information supplied by Petrov and his wife, Evdokia, included details on British spies for the USSR, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean.
On April 13, conservative Prime Minister Robert Menzies informed Parliament of the defection and announced a Royal Commission into Soviet espionage in Australia. The Leader of the Labor Opposition, Dr HV Evatt, was one who attended the inquiry, with the purpose of exposing what he saw as a plot by PM Menzies.
Evatt’s behaviour at the commission was noted by many to be very strange, and eventually his leave to appear was withdrawn. (It is now widely acknowledged that Dr Evatt was suffering from early signs of mental illness.) Later, Justice Meagher of the New South Wales Court of Appeal observed in an address to the St James Ethics Centre, August 27, 1998:
"... Dr H. V. Evatt ... was the Chief Justice of New South Wales’ Supreme Court from 1960 to 1962. When he was appointed he was suffering from advanced senility. He plainly could not manage the job. He was old and ill, uncomprehending and inarticulate, incontinent and barking mad."
Evatt, whose distinguished career included being president of the United Nations General Assembly (1948), dismissed the Royal Commission’s report when it was handed down in October 1955, and rather foolishly went further. He told Parliament that Soviet Foreign Minister, Molotov had personally promised him that all claims about Soviet espionage in Australia were false. The House fell about laughing, Menzies saw his chance and called an election.
Evatt claimed it was Menzies politicking, and for many years some members of the Australian Labor Party continued the 1950s party line that there was no Soviet espionage in Australia, only Menzies's skill at working the electorate. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, this theory has been shown not to accord with the facts and has sharply declined in popularity.
The picture shows Mrs Edvokia Petrov, being 'escorted' by KGB goons to Macot Airport in Sydney, to fly her back to the USSR. Alerted by the press, an angry Australian crowd assembled at Sydney airport, shouting and threatening the guards who literally pushed Mrs. Petrov onto a BOAC Constellation. Eventually, she was taken off board at Darwin airport and able to remain in Australia. The Petrovs were set up by ASIO (Australia’s spy agency) as 'Sven and Maria Anna Allyson', and lived in Bentleigh, a suburb of Melbourne.
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.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Bush and Blair made secret pact for Iraq war
· Decision came nine days after 9/11 · Ex-ambassador reveals discussion
David Rose Sunday April 4, The Observer
"President George Bush first asked Tony Blair to support the removal of Saddam Hussein from power at a private White House dinner nine days after the terror attacks of 11 September, 2001.
"According to Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to Washington, who was at the dinner when Blair became the first foreign leader to visit America after 11 September, Blair told Bush he should not get distracted from the war on terror's initial goal -- dealing with the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
"Bush, claims Meyer, replied by saying: 'I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.' Regime change was already US policy.
"It was clear, Meyer says, 'that when we did come back to Iraq it wouldn't be to discuss smarter sanctions'. Elsewhere in his interview, Meyer says Blair always believed it was unlikely that Saddam would be removed from power or give up his weapons of mass destruction without a war.
"Faced with this prospect of a further war, he adds, Blair 'said nothing to demur'.
"Details of this extraordinary conversation will be published this week in a 25,000-word article on the path to war with Iraq in the May issue of the American magazine Vanity Fair. It provides new corroboration of the claims made last month in a book by Bush's former counter-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke, that Bush was 'obsessed' with Iraq as his principal target after 9/11.
"But the implications for Blair may be still more explosive. The discussion implies that, even before the bombing of Afghanistan, Blair already knew that the US intended to attack Saddam next, although he continued to insist in public that 'no decisions had been taken' until almost the moment that the invasion began in March 2003. His critics are likely to seize on the report of the two leaders' exchange and demand to know when Blair resolved to provide the backing that Bush sought.
"The Vanity Fair article will provide further ammunition in the shape of extracts from the private, contemporaneous diary kept by the former International Development Secretary, Clare Short, throughout the months leading up to the war. This reveals how, during the summer of 2002, when Blair and his closest advisers were mounting an intense diplomatic campaign to persuade Bush to agree to seek United Nations support over Iraq, and promising British support for military action in return, Blair apparently concealed his actions from his Cabinet" ...
*Ø* Blogmanac | Some recent search terms that have found the Blogmanac
20 Nov, Thu, 22:51:40 Google: miracles of allah showing picture of half man half lizard 20 Nov, Thu, 23:47:14 Google: pictures of Arthur's oven in Scotland 25 Nov, Tue, 05:56:22 Yahoo: west los angeles chimney sweepers 26 Feb, Thu, 10:22:32 Google: enjoy squeezing blackheads 26 Feb, Thu, 10:27:18 Google: edward abbey alive today too close to town piss in your own front yard 03 Apr, Sat, 18:02:03 Google: australia pip slave
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2003 The US Military faked the tearing down of the statue of Saddam Hussein for the world's media. 
The thesis of this book is simple: if George Bush were to be re-elected in November 1992 for a second term as the president of the United States, this country and the rest of the world would face a catastrophe of gigantic proportions. 
Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. [paraphrased]
It is with sadness that I report that our friend Allen Cohen is in the 
We know that boys leave school earlier, no doubt discouraged, probably to spend the rest of their short lives dodging injury from lumps of steel, industrial equipment, fumes, dirt, dust, alcohol and the rest of the grunge that kills men nearly ten long years before their sisters. We know that our boys have far higher rates of suicide, illiteracy, injury, death, drug addiction, mental and other illnesses, and many other ills – evils that are called, in the PC Handbook, 'disadvantage' when found to afflict any other minority.
1931 USA: The first of the trials of the nine 'Scottsboro Boys' began at Scottsboro, Alabama before Judge EG Hawkins. 
1954 Soviet Union diplomat, Vladimir Petrov, defected to Australia, admitting he was a spy. Information supplied by Petrov and his wife, Evdokia, included details on British spies for the USSR, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. 