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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*
*Ø* Atlantis: Way down below the ocean la la la ...
June 5, 8498 BCE Today is a traditional date of the natural calamity that destroyed the supposed ancient civilization of Atlantis.
One wonders what is the origin of the human love of the unlikely, the irrational, the bizarre and the preposterous, but no amount of wondering will solve the puzzle. The chance that an advanced civilization lies beneath the ocean, undetected by 21st-century oceanography, satellite imaging, geology and any number of modern scientific aids, is slim indeed, but here we have a persistent legend that is probably believed by more people today than in the Middle Ages. I confess to having my own imp of fascination for many things to which I give no credence whatsoever. A hobgoblin, a tale from the crypt, or a UFO or two can brighten the dreariest evening.
Atlantis, or so it is said, was a huge island lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the Straits of Gibraltar) and its culture had dominated the Mediterranean nine thousand years before Solon, the lawmaker of Athens. From its ideal condition as an advanced culture it deteriorated into a military aggressor, so the gods resolved to punish the civilisation ... [More at the Book of Days]
Ignatius Donnelly: Congress to Atlantis via Australia As an interesting sidelight, one of the most prominent 19th-century Atlantist authors (he made his fortune with Atlantis: the Antediluvian World) was Ignatius Donnelly (born Philadelphia, November 3, 1831), an idiosyncratic and somewhat quixotic American Congressman whose writings, particularly the utopian sci-fi novel, Cæsar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century, profoundly influenced the working class in pre-federation (1901) Australia. Perhaps ironically, he died in Minneapolis on January 1, 1901 (precisely 100 years before this Almanac was founded) on the first day of the century, the very day that Australia's federation took effect.
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 few months ago, the US Ambassador to Australia made an almost unprecedented intervention into Australian politics with some gratuitous remarks about Australian domestic matters. Australians of all political colours were rightly outraged. Now Shrub has defied convention by sticking his nose into an issue on the Australian political agenda. When asked about a statement by the Leader of the Opposition, he didn't say, as all his predecessors have in similar circumstances, "That's a matter for the citizens of Australia", he put his boots in. Read on ...]
"'President Bush should pull his head in. This is Australia. It's not Florida or Alaska or Texas."
By Libby Sutherland
"US President George W. Bush should pull his head in and stop interfering in Australian domestic policy, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
"In an unprecedented attack coinciding with Prime Minister John Howard's visit to Washington, Mr Bush told reporters overnight the early withdrawal of troops would hurt those who wanted freedom in Iraq.
"Asked directly about the implications of federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham's plan to bring the troops home, Mr Bush said: 'I think that would be disastrous'.
"Senator Brown said the president had crashed into domestic politics in a way which was insulting and patronising, while Mr Howard sat there 'lapping it all up'.
"'President Bush has in one go ... relegated Australia in his estimation to a second-rate state of the United States,' he told reporters.
"'President Bush should pull his head in. This is Australia. It's not Florida or Alaska or Texas.
"The fact is that Australia has an opposition, and I think a majority viewpoint among the public, that our troops should be withdrawn ...'" Source: Brisbane Herald-Sun
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
Meanwhile ... David Hicks's father is sceptical about a promised investigation into Howard's promise to get Bush to look into the allegations of torture and beatings at Guantanamo:
"A South Australian man whose son is being held by the US military at Guantanamo Bay is sceptical about assurances that his son's treatment is being investigated.
"Prime Minister John Howard has spoken with US President George W Bush about claims that David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib have been tortured.
"Mr Bush says the claims are being investigated by the US military, and their cases are moving forward.
"David Hicks's father Terry says Mr Howard should have asked much sooner.
"'It's two-and-a-half years too late and now all of a sudden they're going to do something,' he said.
"'This should have been dealt with a long, long time ago, not Mr Howard all of a sudden coming out saying we're doing this and we're going to investigate that and down the track we've got elections coming up.'"
June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square protests: As many as 2,600 people were killed and 10,000 injured in Tienanmen Square, Beijing, when the Chinese Communist government cracked down on pro-democracy protesters, covered live on television worldwide ...
*Ø* Aussie Govt unable to find Iraq detainee agreement
"The Federal Government is unable to find a agreement covering the handling of Iraqi detainees captured by Australian soldiers.
"Officials say an arrangement to hand over prisoners to the United States during the war in Afghanistan is still being used by Coalition forces in Iraq.
"Defence Minister Robert Hill is unable to explain where the documentation is.
"Bureaucrats have been unable to find the details of arrangements between Australia and the US covering the custody of prisoners of war in Iraq.
"Senator Hill says there was an arrangement for the war in Afghanistan.
"'What I don't know is whether a new directive on this particular issue was in fact made,' he said.
"Senator Hill's statement has angered Labor's John Faulkner.
"'What you're putting, Senator Hill is absurd, the conflict in Iraq followed on shortly after this conflict," he said ..." Source: ABC [Oz] News
June 3, 19?? Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, USA, year unknown
Today is the day that the [unnamed] parents of Billie Joe McAllister’s girlfriend made some insinuations about what their [also unnamed] daughter had been doing recently with Billie Joe McAllister at the Tallahatchee Bridge. It's a mystery.
The probably fictitious Billie Joe jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge, too, on this day, an incident recalled in the 1967 hit song Ode to Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry, a singer from Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, USA.
The year 1953 is given by some sources but I see no evidence.
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.
Mother Shipton's Day The Wednesday following Whitsunday, for reasons unknown to your almanackist, is said by some to go by this name. Mother Shipton, whose real name was the rather un-English-sounding Ursula Sontheil, was a celebrated soothsayer in Cambridge, England and the wife of Toby Shipton, a carpenter. To some, she is also the patron saint of women working in laundries.
Ursula was born in a cave at Knaresborough, Yorkshire (where Guy Fawkes once lived) in 1488, in the reign of Henry VII just fifteen years before Nostradamus, in an era in which prophetic utterances were widely sought – and just as readily condemned ...
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.
"After being famously dropped by Disney, Michael Moore's award-winning documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 has finally secured US distribution and will hit American cinemas on June 25.
"The film is to be released by a partnership of Lions Gate Films, IFC Films and the Fellowship Adventure Group, which was formed by Miramax's Harvey and Bob Weinstein specifically to market Moore's film."
1581 James Douglas, Fourth Earl of Morton, Regent of Scotland, was beheaded at Edinburgh.
Justice for Douglas? After ruling Scotland for ten years under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth I, Morton fell foul of factionalism at court and found himself on the scaffold.
What is striking about his execution is that he was beheaded by a device known as the 'Maiden', or 'Scottish Maiden' (aka 'the Widow'), a forerunner of the guillotine (not to be confused with the Iron Maiden, a hollow device like a sarcophagus, with spikes in its interior, in which the victim was confined). It is believed that Douglas himself had introduced the contraption into Scotland for the purpose of beheading the laird of Pennycuick.
Records show that the Maiden dates to 1564 (one Thomas Scott, a murderer, had been executed in Scotland in 1566), so an old reference that "He who invented the maiden first hanselled it" is erroneous ...
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.
[Based on Vee's post below, I have sent this letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. Hope they publish it because it has a huge circulation. (The wedgetail, pictured, is Australia's biggest and best-known eagle.)]
Dear Editor
It seems that American hawks are more likely to eat crow than Australian hawks.
We find now that even neocons like sometime Republican speechwriter Mark Helprin can at last lament (on the Wall Street Journal editorial page) "the inescapable fact that the war has been run incompetently, with an apparently deliberate contempt for history, strategy, and thought, and with too little regard for the American soldier, whose mounting casualties seem to have no effect on the boastfulness of the civilian leadership".
Other prominent American hawks such as David Brooks and Tucker Carlson now admit to having been gripped with a "childish fantasy" about Iraq and to now feeling "ashamed" and "enraged" – at themselves, and the 50,000-deaths tragedy Bush & Co. have wrought.
In Australia, the wedgetail eagles that were quick to bite, are strangely slower to dine – on crow, that is. Worse, our disingenuous PM tells us he's only now discovering what half the Internet has been screaming about for nearly three years: systemic torture and other evils of the Axis of Diesel. Will someone please get The Lodge a decent dial-up connection before we're the last chickenhawk flapping?
"Israel looks set to pursue a compensation claim on behalf of Jews who left Iraq over 50 years ago, despite no such similar consideration for Palestinian refugees.
"Tel Aviv has sent copies of over 800 documents to Washington -- not Baghdad -- in a bid to claim compensation for Israeli citizens who 'were forced to abandon their property'."
BATTLE LINES BEIN' DRAWN, AND REDRAWN, AT HOME -- War and Peace
[As sad and horrible as the Iraq occupation is turning out to be, those of us who protested the war and fought to stop if, the millions of us so casually tossed aside as "a focus group" can't help but feel some sorry sense of satisfaction in the knowing that we were, at least, correct in our own analysis of the situation. Now, even the most vocal of the hawks are coming forward with their mea culpas. It's time for BushCo to pay the price for mis-ministration. -v]
Hawks Eating Crow By Eric Alterman
The Bush Administration has not made it easy on its supporters. David Brooks now admits that he was gripped with a "childish fantasy" about Iraq. Tucker Carlson is "ashamed" and "enraged" at himself. Tom Friedman, admitting to being "a little slow," is finally off the reservation. Die-hard Republican publicist William Kristol admits of Bush, "He did drive us into a ditch." The neocon fantasist and sometime Republican speechwriter Mark Helprin complains on the Wall Street Journal editorial page--the movement's Pravda--of "the inescapable fact that the war has been run incompetently, with an apparently deliberate contempt for history, strategy, and thought, and with too little regard for the American soldier, whose mounting casualties seem to have no effect on the boastfulness of the civilian leadership."
Most of the regretful hawks blame the Administration for its failure to execute what they consider a noble endeavor. But it is a noble endeavor only in the way it would be noble to give all your money to one of those deposed Ethiopian princesses who fill your inbox with pleas to send them all your money for a guarantee of future riches. In other words, yes, while it might have been nice to liberate Iraq from Saddam's clutches, it was a lot more likely that under Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Co., we would end up arresting innocent people, holding them without trial and systematically torturing and sexually humiliating them; all the while saying, as the Daily Show's Rob Corddry so brilliantly put it, "Remember, it's not important that we did torture these people. What's important is that we are not the kind of people who would torture these people." [Emphasis added. -v]
"The November firefight approaches and here we are, awash in a media flashflood of press secretary prevarication, corporate indictment dodging and in-your-face presidential lies.
"Gay marriage is the year's burning flag used to incite the ignorant, while the pundits lend credence to flat-out absurdisms just by debating them –- that Antonin Scalia's outrageous conflicts of interest may not give the 'appearance' of conflicts of interest, that Halliburton may not be 'profiting' from a war launched for its benefit, that The Passion of the Christ may in fact have been divinely inspired. (Certainly, the millions of tax dollars poured into 'faith-based' institutions and used to buy ticket blocs can be seen as a gift from God to Mel Gibson.) And, of course, the nine-figure White House marketing launch is pure skullduggery, grinning with Christian manifest destiny and transparent jingoism.
"What do we do for counter-programming? Don't rely on present-day Hollywood, that brothel of military celebration and half-measure liberalism. Instead, rent some of these firecrackers, the best left movies ever made, and keep the flags of discontent flying."
I can't recommend the full list as you continue here, because I've only seen about a half-dozen of them. But I'm taking notes. :)
"Prime Minister John Howard says he did not mislead the public about when Australian officials became aware of allegations about the serious abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
"The Defence Department has revealed that its officials first learnt of the allegations last October.
"Last Friday, the department said that none of the 300 soldiers and civilians who may have had contact with prisoners knew about claims of serious mistreatment until the issue became public in April.
"But defence secretary Ric Smith has today told a Senate committee that he was wrong ..." Source: ABC [Oz] News
1857 Le Pétomane (Joseph Pujol; d. 1945), 'The Fartist', French vaudeville star whose highly popular act consisted mainly of playing music and doing sound effects by the expulsion of flatulence.
After a successful debut in Marseille in 1887, he took his bizarre act to Paris, where he was a smash hit at the Moulin Rouge. For a time, he put more backsides on seats and made more money than France’s sweetheart, the actress Sarah Bernhardt ...
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* June 1 | Festival of Carna, or Cardea, Roman Goddess of Doors
Today is the kalends of June, and we should repair doors, door hinges and locks today (they might be tested by Tempestas, the weather goddess, whose day this also is.)
In the Green Rose tradition this day is sacred to Circe. The Romans, always good at having a deity for almost any aspect of life, had Carna as a tutelary domestic goddess of door hinges.
However, it seems the Romans themselves might have been confused about this goddess. The Roman writer, Ovid, in Fasti, his work on the Roman calendar writes: "June 1st. The first day is given to thee, Carna. She is the goddess of the hinge: by her divine power she opens what is closed, and closes what is open.” One source, though, mentions that the goddess was Cardea, and says “It is doubtful whether she is to be identified with the goddess Carna, who is said to have taken the larger organs of the body – heart, lungs, and liver – under her special protection."
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.
"Part one: The appointment of an interim Prime Minister who used to work for the CIA is one of a series of disastrous policy changes by the US.
By Justin Huggler and Rupert Cornwell
The Prime Minister
"The appointment of Iyad Allawi as Iraq's interim Prime Minister this weekend was being seen as an American-backed coup which wrong-footed Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations envoy supposed to be putting together the interim government which will wield 'sovereignty' after 30 June.
"The more that is learnt, however, about the sudden emergence of Mr Allawi, a man close to the CIA and MI6, the more it appears the appointment of the new government has been hijacked by the ambitious politicians of the Iraqi Governing Council - the very body it was meant to replace. The only question is whom the IGC was conspiring with as its members picked jobs for themselves.
"But whatever the answer, the appointment of Mr Allawi is the culmination of a series of spectacular U-turns that has given President George Bush and his administration the appearance of lurching in a panic from one flawed policy on Iraq to the next. Since last November every decision seems to have been taken with an eye to one political event alone: Mr Bush's bid for re-election this November."
1921 More than 300 were killed in a race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA – the most devastating race riot in US history in terms of lives lost.
This sad (and little known) day marks the worst racial violence in American history. Angered by false rumours, whites were shooting throughout the night of the 31st, looting and burning in the early hours of June 1.
Earlier on this day, the Tulsa Tribune newspaper ran a front page article entitled 'Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator', and a back page editorial entitled 'To Lynch Negro Tonight'.
The accusation against Dick Rowland, a black shoe-shiner said to have assaulted a white girl named Sarah Page, proved false. However, by the time this was determined, the black community of Greenwood was destroyed by a white mob, who murdered many and razed the entire 35-block area.
After the governor declared martial law, black people were rounded up by the National Guard and put into the baseball stadium. No one was ever arrested or charged in the mass murder and arson that happened that day, although many white Tulsans to this day know who the perpetrators were and simply refuse to say it. This is because many of those responsible were 'pillars of the community'.
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 | Has the US Committed War Crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq?
By Robert Higgs
"After World War II, the U.S. government, in cooperation with the governments of the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and France, established an International Military Tribunal to bring to justice the leaders of the European Axis regimes ..." Read on
[Thank you to David J Theroux, Founder and President, The Independent Institute for sending this in.]
*Ø* Blogmanac | Guantanamo abuse inquiry sought: Howard
Pictured: Happier times: Mamdouh Habib and family
Australia: "Prime Minister John Howard says he will give an appropriate response to a request that he push for a United States Senate inquiry into allegations of abuse at Guantanamo Bay.
"The lawyer for Australian detainee Mamdouh Habib, Stephen Hopper, wants Mr Howard to ask for the inquiry when he meets US President George W Bush next week.
"Mr Howard says an official investigation by US authorities has been sought into the allegations.
"Mr Hopper says the Australian Government does not seem to care about the allegations of abuse of Australian prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
"'It shows how uncaring the Australian Government is towards one of its citizens,' Mr Hopper said." Source: ABC Oz
"A 46 year-old Australian citizen; Mamdouh was arrested without charge while traveling on a bus heading to Karachi, Pakistan. He was transferred on May 4, 2002 to the notorious Camp X-Ray prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." Read more on Mamdouh Habib: Prisoner without trial
542 CE According to tradition, King Arthur of England died.
Mort d'Arthur
According to legend, Arthur was the son of King Uther Pendragon and Igerna, wife of Corlois, Duke of Cornwall who Uther had cuckolded. They later married when Corlois died in battle. It is unlikely Arthur really existed, and he is not found in chronicles before Norman times, five centuries after his supposed death ...
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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Ignatius Donnelly: Congress to Atlantis via Australia
By Libby Sutherland
June 3, 19?? Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, USA, year unknown 
[Based on Vee's post below, I have sent this letter to the editor of the 
"The November firefight approaches and here we are, awash in a media flashflood of press secretary prevarication, corporate indictment dodging and in-your-face presidential lies.
I was misled on abuse: Howard
Today is the kalends of June, and we should repair doors, door hinges and locks today (they might be tested by Tempestas, the weather goddess, whose day this also is.) 
1921 More than 300 were killed in a race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA – the most devastating race riot in US history in terms of lives lost. 
Pictured: Happier times: Mamdouh Habib and family
542 CE According to tradition, King Arthur of England died. 