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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*
England's and Spain's great writers share their date of death (sort of)
1616 (Julian calendar) The death of William Shakespeare (born, also, on this day in 1564), English playwright and actor. A curious will bequeathed his "2nd best bed with the furniture" to his wife, Anne Hathaway.
Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, and so did Spain's popular author of Don Quixote, Miguel Cervantes (b. 1547). However, it must be remembered, before one gets too cosmic about the coincidence, that Spain had changed in 1582 to the Gregorian calendar, which England did not adopt till 1752. Consequently, in 1616 the 23rd day of April in Spain corresponded with April 13 in England.
April 23 is not the brightest day for poetry. Not only did Shakespeare and Cervantes shuffle off this mortal coil, but also poets William Wordsworth (1850) and Rupert Brooke (1915).
Although the records of Cervantes indicate he wrote 20 to 30 plays, only two survive. He worked as a tax collector and as a requisitioner of supplies for the navy, but was jailed for … shall we say … irregularities in his bookkeeping.
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 | US: Panel recommends ban on computer voting system
By Elise Ackerman, April 22
"SACRAMENTO -- An advisory panel unanimously recommended this morning that Secretary of State Kevin Shelley ban use of a computerized voting system in four California counties.
The panel also called on state Attorney General Bill Lockyer to open a criminal investigation into the conduct of Diebold Election Systems, the Ohio-based firm that manufactured the touch-screen system."
Wishing you many more years of happy webbing, Pip. I hope (in fact, I'm sure) that readers will bear with any glitches during the changeover. After all, almaniacs and blogmaniacs are the crème de la crème of the net! :)
Thanks to Nora, team member in the Blogmanac, Wilson's Almanac is shifting to a new Internet host. Nora has very generously donated hosting, "at great cost to the management", and I am more than grateful for her kindness. It's reduced the outstanding overdue account with our ISP by about one third.
Transferring such a big site from one host to another is quite a job, even for the moderately intelligent. So for me, it's like pushing string uphill. Dear reader, if you should happen to find missing images or dead links anywhere at the Almanac, I humbly ask you to report them, either here or at Corrigenda (if this damn link works).
*Ø* Blogmanac April 22, 1774 | The Wandering Jew: A curious medieval legend
1774 The Wandering Jew appeared in Brussels.
In the middle ages it was believed that there was a Jewish man still alive who had been alive at the time of Jesus Christ; the belief persisted as late as 1868 which is perhaps the last notice we have of 'the Wandering Jew'. The tale has obviously anti-Semitic origins and the central character of the enduring legend may be seen as a sort of medieval Ancient Mariner or Flying Dutchman.
Cartaphilus, who was about thirty years old then, has remained the same age ever since (despite Gustave Dore's representation of him as an old man). Having insulted Jesus Christ on the last day of the latter's life, he is condemned to wander the earth until Judgement Day.
Cartaphilus showed up numerous times, including Hamburg in 1542 (or 1547); Spain in 1575; the Netherlands in the same year; Vienna (1599); Lubeck (1601); Prague (1602); Lubeck (1603); Bavaria (1604); France (1604); Ypres (1623); Brussels (1640); Leipsic (1642); Paris (1644); Stamford (1658); Astrakhan (1672); Frankenstein (1676); Munich (1721); Altbach (1766); and Brussels in 1774 where he told his story to the bourgeois, but said that he had changed his name to Isaac Laquedem. By the 1800s, sightings of the Wandering Jew were generally attributed to impostors and the mentally ill.
He appeared again at Newcastle, England, in 1790. The last appearance mentioned appears to have been in America in the year 1868, when he was reported to have visited a Mormon named O'Grady. Other names that have been used for Cartaphilus include Ahasuerus (or Ahasverus), Buttadaeus and Juan Espera en Dios.
Biblical origins The ancient story went that Jesus, as he was being dragged about in the court of Pilate just before his crucifixion, was struck on the back by one of Pilate's porters, Cartaphilus. "Go quicker, Jesus, go quicker! Why do you loiter?", Cartaphilus mocked Christ. Jesus looked at him and said "I am going, and you will wait till I return". Most versions of the tale recount that the Wandering Jew soon repented of his sins and was actually baptised in the Catholic Church, by Ananias (who also baptised the Apostle Paul), and was renamed Joseph. He grows old like the rest of us until reaching 100 years of age, at which point he sheds his skin and rejuvenates to the age of thirty.
In Matthew 16:28, Jesus promised a disciple (traditionally John): "There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom".
A later but more influential, parallel to the story comes from John 21:20ff, from which a legend arose in the Church that St John would not die before the second coming of Jesus; yet another legend declares that the attendant Malchus, whose ear Saint Peter cut off in the garden of Gethsemane (John 18:10), was condemned to wander till the Second Coming of Christ.
The myths somehow merged with several other old tales, for example the Biblical story of Cain who killed his brother Abel and was condemned by God to walk the earth forever, and the Qu'ran's legend of Samari the Samaritan who was cursed by Moses to wander forever because he helped make the idol of the golden calf.
The legend of the Wandering Jew seems to first appear in the Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover in the year 1228. This tells of an Armenian archbishop who was then visiting England, who was asked by the monks of St Albans about St Joseph of Arimathea (feast day March 17), the uncle of Jesus (who legend says took Jesus to the British Isles while Jesus was a youth, and whose tomb Jesus had been laid in after the crucifixion) and who was said to be still alive ...
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 21 | Romulus, Remus and Rome's origins
Palilia (or Parilia) festivals, ancient Rome These are festivals celebrated on April 21 honouring Pales, the Roman god (later a goddess) of shepherds and their flocks. They're held on the anniversary of the day on which Romulus, the boy suckled (with his brother Remus) by a she-wolf, drew the first furrow at the foot of the hill, thus laying the foundations of Rome.
Sheepfolds were decorated with green branches on this day. Fires were kindled and animals driven through the smoke; milk and cakes were offered to the deity today.However, the Palilia, or Parilia, were held long before the foundation of Rome. They celebrated the beginning of Spring pasture, and were held to purify cattle, the herds and the herdsmen. Only later were they used to commemorate Romulus and Remus’s foundation of Rome. Then it became the Natalis urbis Romae in the calendars of Polemius Silvius and Philocalus.
Rome founded by a woman? A fragment of writing rediscovered and embraced by growing numbers of Italians today, challenges the popular legend that Romulus was Rome's founder ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today, including a lot about Romulus and the foundation of Rome, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Here's a message from my friend Kimmy about a new "Rock Against Bush" CD+DVD package. I love the idea that for less than $10, you can get a rockin' CD and a DVD that includes two documentaries, "Uncovered" and "Unprecedented" plus some MoveOn.org commercials.
If you do want to buy it, I encourage you to buy it now, the very first week, just to drive up those all-important music industry statistics.
- EP
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
From: "DIY Politics" To: "E.P." Subject: Rock Against Bush Out tomorrow! Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 09:29:48 -0700
Rock Against Bush Vol 1 is being released in record stores nationwide this week and will send a strong message to the White House that even the 'punk rock' community is uniting to Take Back America! Let's get this CD to the number one spot so we can draw major attention to it. We can finally use the charts for something!!
Send a clear message to the White House!
The CD features 26 of the most influential rock bands in America right now uniting mainstream and underground rock to speak out against the Bush Administration. Bands like Ministry, NOFX, Social Distortion, Descendents, and many more. This compilation includes 15 unreleased songs for the true music fan's enjoyment! This CD aims to inspire and enrage the young punkvoter.com audience and comes packaged with a bonus DVD that includes tons of factual information and several music videos. It includes trailers, music videos and political documentary trailers and even a piece from Grammy-nominated comedian, David Cross.
Fat Wreck Chords also included MoveOn.org-promoted documentaries "Uncovered" and "Unprecedented", and even included the five winning commercials from MoveOn.org’s Bush in 30 Seconds Campaign.
This compilation is supported by Punkvoter.com, Fat Mike from NOFX's voter education organization, Punkvoter.com is made up of over 200 of the hottest punk bands in the country including, Green Day, Offspring, Less Than Jake, Bad Religion, and Pennywise. Punkvoter is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing grassroots coalitions of punk bands, punk labels, and most importantly, punk fans uniting in opposition to the policies of the Bush Administration. For more information visit www.punkvoter.com
With your help Rock Against Bush will climb up the billboard charts and reiterate our message in another part of American culture that America is taking action in every part of our society!
Please buy this CD/DVD set for that special music fan in your life this week!
Typically, military occupations are quite successful, even by the most horrendous conquerors. Take, say, Hitler's occupation of Western Europe and Russia's postwar occupation of Eastern Europe. In both cases, the countries were run by collaborators, security forces and civilian, with the troops of the conqueror in the background. There was courageous partisan resistance under Hitler, but without extensive foreign support, it would have been wiped out. In Eastern Europe, the US tried to support resistance (inside Russia as well) until the early 1950s, and of course Russia was in confrontation with the world dominant superpower. There are many other examples.
Consider, in contrast, the invasion of Iraq. It eliminated two monstrous regimes, one of which we are allowed to talk about, the other not. The first was the rule of the tyrant. The second was the US-UK imposed sanctions regime, which killed 100s of thousands of people, devastated the society, strengthened the tyrant, and compelled the population to rely on him survival -- probably saving him from the fate of other gangsters supported by the current incumbents in Washington, all overthrown from within; that was a plausible surmise before the war, and is even more so in the light of postwar discoveries about the fragility of Saddam's rule. The ending of both regimes was certainly welcome to the population. The US had enormous resources to reconstruct the ruins. Resistance had virtually no outside support, and in fact developed within largely in response to violence and brutality of the invaders. It took real talent to fail.
*Ø* Blogmanac April 19 | Cerealia ends with flaming fox tails
Cerealia, for goddess Ceres, ancient Rome (Apr 12 - 19), final day Ceres, in Roman Mythology, equivalent to the Greek Demeter, daughter of Saturn and Rhea, wife-sister of Jupiter, mother of Proserpina, and patron of Sicily. Ceres is the goddess of growing plants (particularly grain) and of motherly love. Personified and celebrated by women in secret rituals at the festival of Ambarvalia, held during May. There was a temple to Ceres on the Aventine Hill. She was depicted in art with a sceptre, a basket of flowers and fruit, and a garland made of wheat ears. The Romans they had a common expression, 'fit for Ceres', which meant splendid. The asteroid 1 Ceres is named after this goddess.
It was a festival celebrated at Rome in honour of the goddess whose wanderings in search of her lost daughter Proserpine (Persephone) were represented by women clothed in white, running about with lighted torches. Games were celebrated in the Circus Maximus, the spectators of which appeared in white; but on any occasion of public mourning the games and festivals were not celebrated at all, as the matrons could not appear at them except in white.
On this, the last day of the week-long festival, people visited friends, and foxes with firebrands tied to their tails were let loose.
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 | Vanunu released to life of 'internal exile'
Independent.co.uk:
"Mordechai Vanunu, the man who first revealed that Israel had nuclear weapons, is 'demoralised, worried and angry,' as he finally prepares for the end of his 18-year prison sentence this week.
"In one of the more grudging and unusual prison releases of recent times, Mr Vanunu, 49, is due to walk out of jail on Wednesday at the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon and into a series of heavily confining restrictions, amounting to a form of internal exile.
"Mr Vanunu, a former technician at the Dimona nuclear plant, spent almost 12 years of his sentence in solitary confinement after he was lured to Rome in 1986 and then drugged and kidnapped by Mossad agents after talking to The Sunday Times in London about Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons programme ...
"Adopting a doctrine of 'nuclear ambiguity' -- which campaigners say was fatally undermined by Mr Vanunu's revelations -- Israel has never officially admitted to having nuclear weapons. But the CIA has estimated that it has between 200 and 400 of them."
*Ø* Blogmanac April 18, 1775 | The Ride of Paul Revere, and friends
1775 American Revolutionary War: Paul Revere, accompanied by William Dawes and Samuel Prescott (relatively forgotten by history because the famous poem, Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, glorified the Bostonian as the lone rider) rode from Charleston to Lexington to warn American militiamen of the advancing British forces, and of the impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons.
Dawes and Revere took separate routes to get to Lexington so the information of the British would arrive safely. Dawes avoided a group of British guards by jumping over a wall. He reached Lexington at about 12:30 am on April 19. This was about half an hour after Paul Revere arrived. At 1:00 am they rode on together to go to Concord, but they had another messenger with them, Samuel Prescott. Later on they were caught by British guards, but Dawes and Prescott escaped. While escaping, Dawes was thrown from his horse, which ran off; Dawes had to walk back to Lexington. Prescott made it to Concord.
Paul Revere (January 1, 1735 - May 10, 1818) was an American engraver, his best known work probably being of the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770. He was also present at the Boston Tea Party.
Paul Revere's expense account for his famous ride from Boston to New York - he spent $US190 in eleven days - fetched more than $US10,000 at auction in 1978.
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.
[Why is this "cultural creativity" and not an "action to take to make a difference"? Because, IMNSHO, the notion of reducing one's income below the taxable threshhold is a lifestyle commitment! –L.]
Tax Time again. April 15, the annual culmination of the government's War on Taxpayers.
Many of us subscribe to the hardcore libertarian position that "taxation is theft" and thus a violation of the Non-Aggression principle and anathema to a free society. This approach circumvents all the debate about what's a "fair tax" and what services a state "should" fund; individuals would pay for those services they wanted, at the level they wanted, and the "market would rule" (ie, those services that weren't "bought" would cease to exist).
I've subscribed to that position for many years, since the "light went on" in my mind and I finally figured out that cutting taxes back to a "bare minimum," or making taxes "fairer" in some fashion simply doesn't work, since our rulers are very clever in substituting one tax for another (cut property taxes, raise sales taxes; eliminate income taxes, raise property taxes) and even when we think we've got a "good deal" and are getting to keep more of our money, they are simply picking our other pocket; what may seem "fair" to one person might mean a flat sales tax, while "fair" to someone else might mean "tax only the rich."
But this year, with the Occupation of Iraq beginning to unravel and the conquered (or "freed") country exloding in resistance, it seems appropriate to concentrate our regular Tax Day protests on one front: War Tax Resistance.
War tax resistance is refusing to pay some or all of those federal taxes that contribute to military spending. Because there is no tax that goes only to the military, war taxes generally mean individual federal income taxes and as well as some excise taxes (e.g., the 3% federal excise tax on telephone service). Though a case can be made to include Social Security, state, and local taxes, these are generally not considered "war taxes."
Resisting war taxes in theory is really very simple — don't pay all the tax due on your annual Federal income tax form, or don't pay the Federal excise tax on telephone bills, or both.
Of course, all of these methods of resistance are frowned upon by the state. The War Resisters League notes that the probability of collection or prosecution varies among the methods, but points out that "Serious consideration must be given before embarking on these types of resistance" and notes that earning less than taxable income and publicizing WHY you have choosen to keep your income low is also a viable war tax resistance effort, which is perfectly legal (even in America, you can't be jailed for not making much money).
Dave Gross writes a thoughful review of his year of legal tax resistance in The Picket Line. A year ago, on March 19th, 2003, the invasion of Iraq began and Dave quit his job to start an experiment in tax resistance. "When I started on this experiment, my goal was to wash my hands of any financial support for the government. I wanted to do this by reducing my federal income tax burden to zero, legally, by lowering my income below the tax threshold and by taking legitimate deductions and credits."
Resisting the federal exise tax (on your phone bill) is illegal, but probably has less chance of dangerous consequences. Hang up on War, a national campaign for anti-war phone tax resistance, calls on individuals to refuse to pay their federal phone tax, an act of civil disobedience which sends a message to Washington that says "Not With Our Money." The Hang up on War web site offers printable flyers, logos for your web site, and other materials.
To refuse the federal excise tax, simply subtract that amount from your monthly telephone bill and include a note of explanation to the phone company each time you pay the bill. The phone company is required (by FCC regulations) credit your bill and report this amount to the IRS, but not cut off your telephone service. The phone company should credit your account and report the unpaid tax on a quarterly basis to the IRS.
Hang up on War notes that some companies (notably Verizon in some regions of the country) have been especially uncooperative in crediting bills for the unpaid phone tax.[Emphasis mine... strike three! –L.] However, other companies, such as AT&T and Working Assets Long Distance, have been more cooperative. AT&T has a form that resisters can fill out, authorizing the company to withhold billing of the federal tax for "war tax" reasons, while noting that this nonpayment will be reported to the IRS.
The War Resisters League, which has been promoting war tax resistance since the Vietnam War, has a number of flyers and other materials; they also have a letter "In Support of Those Refusing to Pay for War," you can distribute in your community or sign online, stating "we, the undersigned individuals, believing that war tax refusal under the present circumstances is fully justified on moral and ethical grounds, publicly declare our encouragement of, and willingness to lend support to, those persons of conscience who choose to take this step."
For Tax Day outreach efforts, the Libertarian Party traditionally leaflets last minute filers at post offices with their famous million dollar bill Tax Day handout. (Front side: A faux $1,000,000 Federal Reserve note. The other side explains that the federal government spends $1 million every five seconds -- and that only the LP is trying to change that). This is designed to appeal simply to the widespread belief that taxes are too high, without going into a debate on which tax is "fair" and which taxes are "necessary," with the premise that once the person is "hooked" and contacts the LP, they can then be educated about the different varieties of "tax reform and/or elimination." The California LP has Tax Day material available, including a printable "million dollar bill" Other protest activities can include burning 1040 forms, protesters colorfully dressed in Revolutionary War garb or clad only in a barrel with a sign "the taxman took it all."
Our goal in liberty activism outreach is to change our culture to one which values freedom and responsibility, and operates under the Non-Aggression principle. Tax Day is the perfect opportunity to focus attention on the increasing power of the state as epitomized by the increasing power of the taxman, and, you have a receptive audience, comprised of "Everyman."
For Tax Day 2004, let's add War Tax Resistance to our "arsenal" for Tax Day protests.
Let's not let April 15 pass without firing back a quick salvo in the War on Taxpayers to demonstrate that "our side" hasn't surrendered, and, let's consider one of the War Tax Resistance methods as an ongoing protest of the Occupation of Iraq and the increasing imperialism of our "defense policy."
Til next week
For freedom
Mary Lou
```````````````` * Borrowed, again, from A-Changin' Times (ACT)
*Ø* Blogmanac | Israel murders Hamas leader Rantissi
The Guardian:
"The Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi was killed today in an Israeli missile attack on his car, hospital officials said. Rantissi's son Mohammed and a bodyguard were also killed in the attack, they added.
"The killing comes less than a month after Israel assassinated Hamas's founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in an air strike. Rantissi had been one of Israel's prime targets in its campaign against the militant Palestinian group ...
"The killing occurred against the backdrop of President Bush's endorsement of a plan by Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza but retain permanent control of some parts of the West Bank. The plan has enraged Palestinians."
US troops have carried out a massacre in Falluja, but MPs are silent
Ronan Bennett, April 17, The Guardian
"What does it take to get a New Labour politician to speak out on Iraq? I'm not talking about the likes of Blair, Hoon and Straw -- key players so deeply implicated in the cruel tragedy of conquest and occupation that they have no option but to stay the course, even as it spirals into slaughter and chaos. But there are ministers and backbenchers with a history of commitment to human rights. What does it take to shock them out of their baffling silence?
"Not the 600 or 700 Iraqis killed over the last fortnight in Falluja, it seems. Perhaps they believe, like the prime minister, that those attacking coalition troops are Saddam loyalists, al-Qaida fighters or religious fanatics, and deserve everything they get. Perhaps they have been reassured by General John Abizaid, head of the US Army's central command, who spoke of the coalition's 'judicious use of force'. Maybe they accept the reassurance of the commander of the US marines besieging the city that his men are 'trained to be precise in their firepower', and that '95% of those killed were legitimate targets'.
"Let's accept for the moment that the commander is right and accept that the AC-130 gunships and F16 fighter-bombers unleashed against the people of Falluja are precise, that the 500lb bombs falling on the city come under the definition of judicious. Let's look at just a handful of the 5% of civilian casualties the Americans concede they have inflicted.
"These include the mother of six-year-old Haider Abdel-Wahab, shot and killed while hanging out laundry; his father, shot in the head; Haider himself, and his brothers, crushed but dug out alive after a US missile struck their house. They include children who died of head wounds. They include an old woman with a bullet wound -- still clutching a white flag when aid workers found her. They include an elderly man lying face down at the gate to his house -- while inside terrified girls screamed 'Baba! Baba!' They include ambulance crews fired on by US troops ... "
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1616 (Julian calendar) The death of William Shakespeare (born, also, on this day in 1564), English playwright and actor. A curious will bequeathed his "2nd best bed with the furniture" to his wife, Anne Hathaway.
1774 The Wandering Jew appeared in Brussels. 
speak out against the Bush Administration. Bands like Ministry, NOFX, Social Distortion, Descendents, and many more. This compilation includes 15 unreleased songs for the true music fan's enjoyment! This CD aims to inspire and enrage the young 
Cerealia, for goddess Ceres, ancient Rome (Apr 12 - 19), final day 
"Mordechai Vanunu, the man who first revealed that Israel had nuclear weapons, is 'demoralised, worried and angry,' as he finally prepares for the end of his 18-year prison sentence this week.
1775 American Revolutionary War: Paul Revere, accompanied by William Dawes and Samuel Prescott (relatively forgotten by history because the famous poem, Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, glorified the Bostonian as the lone rider) rode from Charleston to Lexington to warn American militiamen of the advancing British forces, and of the impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons. 