*Ø* Is Bush hiding bin Laden?

The article from a prestigious British journal that had everyone (well, some people) talking last August seems to have been widely forgotten.

It's here at The Guardian but because people keep asking me for it, here are parts of it:

Inside story of the hunt for Bin Laden
"The al-Qaida leader is said to be hiding in northern Pakistan guarded by a 120-mile ring of tribesmen whose job it is to warn of the approach of any troops. Rory McCarthy reports

Saturday August 23, 2003

"Experts who have been following the attempts of the Pakistanis and the US to find the al-Qaida leader have suggested that:

· The Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, struck a deal with the US not to seize Bin Laden after the Afghan war for fear of inciting trouble in his own country;

· The al-Qaida leader is being protected by a three elaborate security rings which stretch 120 miles in diameter; and

· The Pakistani special forces looking for him are no closer than they were a year ago ... [emphasis mine]

"Some argue that the Pakistani authorities saw the difficulties from the start and, although they publicly stressed their commitment to the hunt for Bin Laden, in private they had a different strategy.

"Mr Ijaz believes an agreement was reached between Gen Musharraf and the American authorities shortly after Bin Laden's flight from Tora Bora.

"The Pakistanis feared that to capture or kill Bin Laden so soon after a deeply unpopular war in Afghanistan would incite civil unrest in Pakistan and would trigger a spate of revenge al-Qaida attacks on western targets across the world.

"'There was a judgment made that it would be more destabilising in the longer term,' he said. 'There would still be the ability to get him at a later date when it was more appropriate.'

"The Americans, according to Mr Ijaz, accepted the argument, not least because of the shift in focus to the impending war in Iraq. So the months that followed were centred on taking down not Bin Laden, but the 'retaliation infrastructure' of al-Qaida.

"It meant that Gen Musharraf frequently put out remarkably conflicting accounts of the status of Bin Laden, while the US administration barely mentioned his name."


This site claims to have a story 'Al-Qaida leader getting dialysis treament at Peshawar hospital' but they want money to read it. Then there's this from The Times of India, another credible journal, of July 24, 2004:

"WASHINGTON: Pakistan's intelligence officials knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks, a well-known American analyst has said, based on a 'stunning document' that he claims was given by a Pakistani source to the 9/11 Commission on the eve of the publication of its report.

"The document, from a high-level, but anonymous Pakistani source, also claims that Osama bin Laden has been receiving periodic dialysis in a military hospital in Peshawar, says Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor-at-large of the news agency UPI."
Osama being treated by Pak Army

*Ø* Is Bush losing it?

Three stimulating articles sent by Almaniac Mary Ann from California, with thanks.

"Angry Bush walked away from reporter's questions. Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay.

"'Keep those motherfuckers away from me,' he screamed at an aide backstage."
Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior


"'Too many make the mistake of thinking Dick Cheney is the real power in the Bush administration,' says one senior Homeland Security aide. 'They're wrong. It's Ashcroft and that is reason enough for all of us to be very, very afraid.'

"While Vice President Cheney remains part of Bush's tight, inner circle, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has fallen out of favor and tells his staff that 'no matter what happens in November, I'm outta here.'

"White House aides say the West Wing has been overtaken by a 'siege mentality,' where phone calls and emails are monitored and everyone is under suspicion for 'disloyalty to the crown.'"
Sullen, Depressed President Retreats Into Private, Paranoid World


"The story the Pentagon put out, and was published by the Washington Post, was that the hole in the Pentagon was five stories high and 200 feet wide. If you look at the photographs taken by Tom Horan of the Associated Press – that's just not the size of the hole.

"But if the hole was only 18 feet wide, it had to have been created by something other than a Boeing. Whatever went into the Pentagon pierced six reinforced walls. This was the west wing, the part of the Pentagon being refurbished and reinforced. These walls were extra strong, and yet whatever it was went through six walls creating a hole about seven feet in diameter in the sixth wall. This had to have been something with a very powerful head on it. A Boeing 757 has a very fragile nose, and would not have pierced through all those walls; it would have been crushed by hitting the Pentagon. And given that it only penetrated these three rings, the rest of the aircraft would have been sitting outside on the yard. And yet the photographs taken just as the fire trucks got there – very shortly after the crash – show no plane whatsoever."
Thinking Unthinkable Thoughts: Theologian Charges White House Complicity in 9/11 Attack

*Ø* Loki the Trickster

Feast day of Loki and Sigyn (Norse tradition)
Norse trickster god Loki (Loke) and his consort Sigyn are honoured today.

Loki Laufeyiarson, in Norse mythology, is the ‘god’ of mischief (actually, not a god at all but a Jotun (the Titans and Gigantes of Norse mythology) ...

The trickster god is a complex character, a master of guile and deception. He is also conceived of as a fire spirit, with all the potential for good and ill associated with fire. Loki is also an adept shape-shifter, with the ability to change both form (examples include transmogrification to a salmon, horse, bird, flea, etc.) and sex.

On at least one occasion Loki gave birth to a horse – none other than Odin's eight-legged steed, Sleipnir ... Loki's other offspring are the Fenris wolf, the Jormungander, ie, the Midgard serpent, and Hel, the queen of Nifelheim, the world of the dead.

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.

*Ø* The Sloganator - in memoriam

"Earlier this month, the website for the Bush-Cheney campaign -- the real one -- featured a 'create your own banner' tool, where you could enter your own slogan and print out your own poster, with the Bush-Cheney logo, and a note at the bottom 'paid for by Bush-Cheney '04, Inc.' Democrats, of course, couldn't get enough of this. The original sloganator accepted everything. Then it started censoring profanity and words like 'Hitler','dictator', and 'evil'.

"Nevertheless, many clever folk exploited the sloganator to their own ends before its sad demise only a couple of weeks after its birth, and its mourners assembled some of the best for the slide show."

Thanks to Rob Carey, via Polo, for this one.

*Ø* Beijing Olympics: Never too early to think 'boycott'

It's not too early to start planning to boycott the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Many will scoff, as competition is a modern mythology with few agnostics or atheists, but it's worth remembering that the USA boycott of Moscow in 1980 had many positive effects, even though it didn't stop the communists killing 1.5 million Afghans in the following decade. (Australian sportsmen and women, to their shame, put narcissism and "gold, gold, gold" before international solidarity, and competition before cooperation and did not follow Jimmy Carter's boycott.)

The Olympic movement is a discredited beast and agency of chauvinism and nationalist propaganda whether it is at Sydney, Beijing, Athens, or Berlin, where Hitler was early to recognise its PsyOps value. It was run from 1980 till 2001 by Juan Antonio Samaranch, national councillor under the fascist dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, and the man who presided over the Olympics' descent into the corrupt, drug-riddled spectacle that they are today.

Let's keep our countries out of Beijing in 2008 on behalf of a quarter of the world's population still living under dictatorship.

A New Wave of Repression Justified by the Olympics
"While a wide majority of International Olympic Committee (IOC) members were voting, on July 13, 2001, to attribute the 2008 Summer Olympics to Beijing, Chinese police received an order to step up their executions of delinquents and intensify repression against 'subversive Internet users'. IOC members, encouraged by their president, Juan Antonio Samaranch, who personally supported China's bid, paid no attention to the repeated calls against the Beijing bid ...

"The Olympic movement was discredited in 1936, when it allowed the Nazis to make the Games a spectacle to glorify the Third Reich. In 1980, in Moscow, the IOC suffered a terrible defeat when more than 50 countries boycotted the Olympics. The Netherlands, Germany, the United States, Egypt and so many others refused to countenance the Soviet regime. In 2008, the international sporting movement must refuse to tolerate one of the world's bloodiest dictatorships.

Sign the petition
Boycott Beijing

New Lords of the Rings
"The world of modern Olympic sport is a secretive, elite domain where decisions are taken behind closed doors, where money is spent on creating a fabulous life-style for a tiny circle of officials and funds destined for sport are siphoned away to offshore bank accounts. This investigation of the hidden corruption behind the Olympic ideal reveals: how Princess Anne's attempt to unseat the unpopular athletics supremo Primo Nibiolo was sabotaged by secret deals from within, how bribes were paid to win gold medals for Korean boxers in the Seoul Olympics, that Berlin's bid for the 2000 Olympics was so corrupt that the State parliament set up an enquiry, that millions of dollars are spent by bidding cities to woo those who decide where the games will be held, when in fact often the decision has already been made, and that the Olympic number two, Korea's Dr Kim Un Yung, is a trained killer and a former spy."
The New Lords of the Rings: Olympic Corruption and How to Buy Gold Medals (from Cafe Diem, our store)

*Ø* Terrorism "as American as apple pie"

The following are just a few grabs from 'Homegrown terrorists', a fascinating online documentary. What I found particularly interesting is the assertion that the potential for domestic terrorism in the USA is so great but the administration works hard to keep the focus on foreign Muslims.

I also learned that after right-wing Americans did the Oklahoma bombing, vigilantes started attacking Middle Easterners, whom they apparently blamed.

Steve Rendall: G. Gordon Liddy has a national show in the United States. He’s heard on I believe more than 200 stations across the country, and at this time he was instructing his listeners on how to shoot federal agents. He said, ‘Don’t shoot for the letters across the chest, they’ve got bulletproof vests on, head shots, head shots, kill the sons of bitches’. And he did it not once, but several times. He was instructing his listeners on how to kill federal agents.

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

In April 2003, John Ashcroft’s Justice Department disrupted what appears to have been a horrifying terrorist plot. In the small town of Noonday, Texas, FBI agents discovered a weapons cache containing fully-automatic machine guns, remote controlled explosive devices disguised as briefcases, 60 pipe bombs, and the chemical weapon for a cyanide bomb big enough to kill everyone in a 30,000 square foot building. Strangely though, the Attorney-General didn’t call a press conference to announce the discovery of the weapons cache, or the arrest of William Krar, it’s owner. He didn’t even issue a press release. This was, to say the least, out of character. José Padilla, the accused Dirty Bomber, didn’t have any bomb-making material, or even a plausible way to acquire such material, yet Mr Ashcroft put him on the front pages around the world. Mr Krar was caught with an actual chemical bomb, yet Mr Ashcroft acted as if nothing had happened.

Incidentally, if Mr Ashcroft’s intention was to keep the case low profile, the media have been highly co-operative. To this day, the Noonday conspiracy has received little national coverage. Yet, it’s hard to believe that William Krar wouldn’t have become a household name if he had been a Muslim, or even a Leftist.

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

Chip Berlet: The fact is that domestic terrorism is as American as apple pie. You could argue that the revolution was a form of domestic terrorism which was victorious, and it rewrote history to make us the revolutionaries who threw off the burden of Britain ...

Helen Thomas: Even if that balance isn’t a prime concern for George W. Bush, the Oklahoma City bombing casts a long, awful shadow.

Mark Potok: I was in Oklahoma, I got there about an hour-and-a-half after the building was bombed, and it was still on fire. And I was a reporter for 20 years, and I never covered a story that was so really awful. It did completely change the landscape, because of course it’s worth remembering that the immediate reaction of Americans from so-called ‘experts’ to law enforcement, to radio commentators and news people, was that this had to be Islamic. And I remember very clearly that on the very first day there was a mob in northern Oklahoma that gathered around the home and apartment where an Iranian woman was living, and started stoning the apartment. The woman was I think about 7 and a half months pregnant, and miscarried.
Source: Background Briefing
Streaming audio

*Ø* Mr Eternity

July 30, 1967 The death of Mr Eternity

Every morning for 37 years, Sydneysiders, as we who live in Sydney are called, awoke to a word that helped in unknown ways to give a focus on the deep meanings of life, death, and meaning itself.  

Arthur Stace died on July 30, 1967, aged 83. He had been ‘born again’ at St Barnabas's Church of England, Broadway, Sydney, in August 1930, and his friends described him as a very colourful character. He had been a methylated spirits-drinking, hopeless alcoholic and derelict in the streets of Sydney, when he was converted to Christianity at about 46 years of age. He had returned from World War One shell-shocked and soon became a scout for brothels, a petty criminal, and a ‘cockatoo’ (lookout) for two-up schools (illegal gambling rooms where the Australian game of two-up is played).

Just after his conversion to Christianity, Stace heard the evangelist John Ridley at the Burton Street Baptist Church preach about a man who was converted in Scotland through ‘Eternity’ being written on a footpath. Ridley cried out ‘Oh for someone to write Eternity on the footpaths of Sydney!’ Arthur Stace said to himself, ‘Here is something I can do for God.’ He did so, writing the word half a million times over nearly four decades ...

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.

*Ø* Oops!!

"BERLIN (Reuters) - A German woman became so furious after a fight with her husband she stormed out of the house armed with a hammer and smashed up his car -- before realizing she had vandalized the wrong vehicle, police said Wednesday.

"The 43-year-old from Essen, western Germany, told police she shattered the windshield, broke the headlights and wrenched off the wing mirrors, causing more than $1,200 in damage, because she was filled with rage after a telephone quarrel.

"After going back indoors she realized she had battered the wrong car. Only noticing the color, she had attacked her neighbor's blue Opel Corsa and not the blue Ford Fiesta belonging to her spouse." Source

*Ø* 'Deep Throat' Suspect Found Dead

"Frederick Cheney LaRue, 75, the shadowy Nixon White House aide and 'bagman' who delivered more than $300,000 in payoffs to Watergate conspirators, died of coronary artery disease in a Biloxi, Miss. motel room, where he lived ...

"He was one of many Nixon-era figures rumored over the years to be 'Deep Throat', the undercover source of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Mr. LaRue denied that he was Deep Throat, and Woodward said he will not reveal the source's name until after Deep Throat dies."

Source: truthout.org

*Ø* "A frontier too far"

It survived Soviet occupation, civil war, the Taliban and US-led invasion. But after 24 years of aid work, Médecins sans Frontières has been forced by the American military to flee Afghanistan

"Aid workers who remained in Afghanistan throughout the years of Soviet occupation, tribal anarchy and Taliban rule are preparing to flee the country because US military tactics have made it too dangerous to operate there.

"A grim shadow was cast over the future of all aid missions to Afghanistan when the French organisation Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) said independent humanitarian work could no longer be carried out safely. MSF claimed the American military had endangered the lives of humanitarian volunteers by blurring the distinction between soldiers and aid workers. Five MSF workers were killed last month.

"The announcement came as the Foreign Affairs Select Committee was preparing to put on record its fears about a rise in heroin production since the fall of the Taliban as part of a report to be published today into the war on terrorism. The Foreign Office has admitted that the opium harvest this year will be one of the biggest on record ...

"Kenny Gluck, MSF's operations director, denounced US military programmes in southern Afghanistan, which have sometimes promised aid only to villages which provide intelligence on Taliban fighters."

Continue at The Independent

*Ø* Another Aussie literary 'hoax'

It was very difficult to tell the story, because I relived the story while I was writing it, but at the same time, I relive it on a daily basis. I mean, it's not something that I forget. It's something that I live with.
Norma Khouri, Viewpoint, 2003

There have been some splendid Australian literary hoaxes.

Best known among them is probably the Ern Malley affair in which two prominent poets managed to take the mickey out of modern poetry when their invented 'Ern Malley' became, briefly, an accepted, even popular, poet. Poets James McAuley and Harold Stewart threw words together at random to great effect. (Today some say the nonsense 'Malley' wrote is pretty good even though it was exposed as a gag much to the laughter of the Oz public.) Nevertheless, Max Harris, the Angry Penguins journal publisher who was taken in by the joke, went on to become perhaps the country's most successful bookman.

Then there was Helen Demidenko (pictured at left), who won two prestigious awards, the Vogel and the Miles Franklin, for her first novel, The Hand that Signed the Paper. Naturally enough, the book was a best seller ... especially when it turned out that Ms Demidenko was not who she claimed to be. She was "the daughter not, as she claim[ed], of an illiterate Ukrainian taxi driver from Cairns but of a Brisbane couple, Harry and Grace Darville, who arrived on our shores from nowhere more exotic that Scunthorpe [England]". Largely because her book offended some sensibilities of the politically correct, the pretence was turned into a national scandal and talking point of Monica Lewinski proportions.

In 1980, Paul Radley won the Vogel Award (it's for writers aged under 35). Truth was, his middle-aged uncle had written it. In another celebrated case, a white male author had himself published as a black female author, just to prove that the literary establishment wouldn't know the difference.

Now we have Norma Khouri.

Khouri's Forbidden Love was published two years ago in at least 15 countries and has sold more than 200,000 copies in Australia alone, pretty amazing when you consider the population of Australia is only 20 million. It was flavour of the month, in fact, of the year, around the time Oz co-pre-emptively invaded Iraq. I confess haven't read it (the title alone is enough to put anyone off, I would have thought), but from all accounts it contains very disturbing anti-Muslim passages, which would have fitted quite nicely the dominant paradigm as purveyed by Australia's government. One thing's certain, if it had attacked some other religions it wouldn't have got past the Australian Literazis.

Ms Khouri did the usual celeb author tours and had them sobbing in the aisles with her tale of her miserable life in Jordan.

Trouble is, before living in Australia, she spent all but the first three years of her life living in the USA. Her publisher has apparently withdrawn the book, while on the way to the bank, and meanwhile booksellers are frantically shifting Forbidden Love off the Non Fic shelves and onto the Fic (I guess (((shudder)))) Mills & Boon) shelves.

Khouri, who lives in an expensive estate in Queensland, has denied her book was a hoax and has said that she is gathering documentation to back up her claims.

The plot thickens:

"An investigation by The Australian has revealed that a US court has been told the 34-year-old besieged author was forced to flee Chicago, where she lived from the age of 3 until four years ago, after being pursued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which claims she and her husband were being investigated for fraud.

"She was also once accused of beating her mother-in-law and threatening to kill her, but the case was dropped.

"An affidavit in 2001 with the Circuit Court of Cook County filed by a Chicago attorney in one of numerous court cases involving Khouri - known here by either her maiden name, Bagain, or Toliopoulos, her married name - states that an FBI agent had alleged she had, in 1999, 'fled the country in an effort to avoid prosecution'."
'Hoax' author fled US pursued by FBI

*Ø* Martha, virgin and dragon charmer



Feast day of St Martha
(Red chironia, Chironia centaureum, is today’s plant, dedicated to this saint.)

Many cultures have dragonslaying heroes and heroines, and Martha is a European one with a good lineage, as she first appears in the Bible.


Martha was sister to St Lazarus and St Mary Magdalen and is matron saint of good housewives. According to one legend, she left Palestine after Jesus's death, around 48, and went to Provence with her sister Mary (possibly Mary Magdalen) and her brother Lazarus. Martha first settled in Avignon (now in France), then went to Tarascon, France. In art she is depicted in homely costume, often with a bunch of keys on a girdle, and holding a ladle of water. She is accompanied by a bound dragon, as she destroyed Tarasque (pictured), a female dragon, which she did by praising the monster for its goodness.

Tarasque inhabited the area of Tarascon (near Marseilles) in Provence, and devastated the landscape far and wide. The tarasque was a sort of dragon with six short legs like a bear's, an ox-like body covered with a turtle shell, and a scaly tail that ended in a scorpion sting. She had a lion's head, horse's ears, and the face of a bitter old man.

Martha is Matron of Tarascon which was named after the dragon, as was the herb tarragon. After the townsfolk killed Tarasque, Martha wept for the dragon but forgave the people for they had suffered so long. Or, so it is said.

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.

*Ø* Clouds over the Amazon

"BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Burning of the Amazon jungle is changing weather patterns by raising temperatures and reducing rainfall, accelerating the rate at which the forest is disappearing and turning into grassland, scientists said on Tuesday.

"Wide-scale burning by loggers and farmers of the Amazon has risen sharply over the past two decades, changing the region's cloud cover and reducing the amount of rain in some deforested areas that are turning into grassland or savanna ...

"Destruction of the Amazon, home to up to 30 percent of the globe's animal and plant species, reached its second-highest level last year. An area of 5.9 million acres, bigger than the state of New Jersey, was destroyed as loggers and farmers hacked and burned the forest in 2003..."

Full story

*Ø* "We cannot save Darfur at the point of a gun"

Simon Jenkins, The Times:

"So what do we do about Sudan? I mean really do, not just pose. Do we scold it? Or do we condemn it, sanction it, threaten it, bomb and invade it? Do we impose 'democracy and prosperity' on Sudan, given that it badly needs both?

"The trouble with interventionists is they can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. A year ago I wrote wondering why we were invading Iraq when Sudan might reasonably claim our prior attention. Everyone, except Tony Blair, knew that Iraq was no immediate threat. It just offered an opportune target for a belligerent desire on his part to topple someone nasty. Since all other reasons have evaporated, Mr Blair has virtually admitted as such.

"Yet nothing was as nasty as the regime in Khartoum. Eighteen months ago my e-mails were already buzzing with chatter about religious massacres, ethnic expulsions, starvation, rape and pillage in Sudan. Refugee camps were growing in neighbouring Chad. So what was urgent about one murderous Muslim desert state, Iraq, that was not urgent about another?

"The answer, of course, was that there were no television cameras in Sudan. There was no oil, the regime in Khartoum was being 'helpful' over al-Qaeda and its dying were, quite frankly, black."

Continue here

*Ø* Taking the Ultimate Penalty Off the Table

John Kerry's stand on the death penalty – that there shouldn't be one – is now the Democratic Party's platform.

"The Democratic party platform that will be adopted this week includes one particularly significant change from the platforms adopted by the party conventions of 1992, 1996 and 2000. During the platform-writing process, the drafting committee quietly removed the section of the document that endorsed capital punishment. Thus, for the first time since the 1980s, Democrats will not be campaigning on a pro-death penalty program ...

"Polls show a majority of Americans support the death penalty in at least some instances. But since the late 1980s, enthusiasm for capital punishment has been slipping. Many Americans, including some political leaders such as former Illinois Governor George Ryan, have come to question the morality of state-sponsored executions, as the use of DNA analysis has led to the exoneration of dozens of death-row inmates." [my emphasis - N]

Full text: Alternet

*Ø* Mystery Lottery Winner Donates $1.8 Million

"TOKYO (Reuters) - Officials in western Japan were marveling on Sunday at the generosity of a mystery philanthropist who donated a $1.8 million lottery ticket to help victims of recent torrential rainstorms.

"In an extremely rare display of charity, a winning lottery ticket good for a 200 million yen ($1.82 million) grand prize was mailed to the governor of Fukui prefecture on Friday with a note saying it was intended as a donation for rain victims."

Source

*Ø* Family begs for Anwar surgery

USA support enlisted for struggle

"WASHINGTON: As Malaysia's ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim grimaces in pain in prison, his daughter Nurul Izzah is in the US lobbying for support to have him travel to Germany for critical back surgery.

"The determined 23-year-old has met officials at the White House, the State Department and Congress as well as human rights groups, asking them to persuade Kuala Lumpur to allow Anwar to seek treatment abroad.

"Anwar, regarded by the US as a political prisoner and as a 'prisoner of conscience' by rights group Amnesty International, was rushed to hospital from prison this month due to complications from a damaged spinal disc, which he said was caused by a police beating after his arrest in 1998.

"The charismatic Anwar was heir apparent to former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad but fell out of favour and was sacked in 1998 and later jailed on charges he says were trumped up to prevent him from making a challenge.

"Anwar has already spent more than five years in jail, having completed a sentence for corruption and begun serving a nine-year term for sodomy, a criminal offence in predominantly Muslim Malaysia."
Source: The Australian

Background

"Anwar has described both charges as fabrications intended to remove him as a political rival to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, whose administration is alleged by him to be riddled with corruption."
Source: BBC News

Anwar Ibrahim and Other Detainees Tortured by Police
Official Site of International Free Anwar Ibrahim Campaign
Free Anwar Ibrahim Google links
Anwar Ibrahim at Wikipedia

Anwar Ibrahim has been held in solitary confinement for most of the past 2,138 days of imprisonment.

*Ø* BOB, LOL

You gotta hand it to Dubya, he really has got some people scared. It's really quite sad. But this is just too funny:

Bomb Threat Forces United Flight to Return to Australia
"A suspected bomb threat forced a United Airlines flight from Sydney to Los Angeles to make an emergency return to Australia. Officials say the written threat appears to have been a hoax."
Source: Voice of America

And what was this "written threat" that had the UA crew scared out of their brains and caused Sydney's airport to be closed?

Someone went into the plane's dunny and found a barf bag with 'BOB' written on it.

This, naturally, was interpreted by the crew as "bomb on board".

The idea now is to write BOB on every chunder bag in the world and the bad guys will lose for sure! Write it in DUCT TAPE to be certain.

Me, Dubya and JR 'Bob' Dobbs got this whole e-vil game sewn up, yessirree.

*Ø* Bali victim's father to run against Downer

South Australian magistrate Brian Deegan, whose son was killed in the Bali bombings, 'Australia's 9-11' in which 202 people were killed and 209 injured, will run against Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer at the next Australian federal election.

The election is expected to take place within the next four months (the Prime Minister has the prerogative of setting the date).

"Mr Deegan has formally confirmed he plans to contest the seat of Mayo as an Independent.

"He has been an outspoken advocate for the families who lost relatives in the Bali attacks and has today expressed frustration over possible legal problems with the convictions of the Bali bombers ..

"'The Government in my opinion have been quite deliberately, and I don't under-emphasise that word, deliberately running from the truth on that score. I have decided that enough is enough.'"
Source: ABC (Oz) news

*Ø* The man who gave away his house

This bloke's a true hero who proves that idealism, self-sacrifice and generosity are alive and well.

Bill Paine, an IT consultant from Melbourne, Australia, decided that he really was not enjoying his new home and ended up donating it to the Australian Conservation Foundation. It was recently auctioned, realising $610,000. He handed the whole lot over to ACF.

Although he is now in a position in which he will have to rent a home, Bill is sure that he made the right decision. Speaking on Australian radio today, he said that ACF met originally met with him earlier this year and suggested he think it over for a few months, which he did. When he went back to see them, Bill said, they decided that he wasn't "barking mad" and accepted his generous contribution.

"I've always been very passionate about the environment in Australia and I have been getting more and more infuriated by the way the Government is mismanaging the environment here," he said.

"It's got to the point where I've had enough and decided to take some very drastic action by selling my house and giving the proceeds to the ACF because these are the people who are constantly lobbying the politicians."

Bill is shown (at left) with former ACF chief (and one-time Midnight Oil lead singer) Peter Garrett.

More and more

*Ø* Abu Ghraib, Whitewashed

NYTimes:

"A week ago, John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was satisfied that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was keeping his promise to leave no stone unturned to investigate the atrocities of Abu Ghraib prison. A newly released report by the Army's inspector general shows that Mr. Rumsfeld's team may be turning over stones, but it's not looking under them.

"The authors of this 300-page whitewash say they found no 'systemic' problem - even though there were 94 documented cases of prisoner abuse, including some 40 deaths, 20 of them homicides; even though only four prisons of the 16 they visited had copies of the Geneva Conventions; even though Abu Ghraib was a cesspool with one shower for every 50 inmates; even though the military police were improperly involved in interrogations ..."

Continue here

*Ø* How USA OK'd Saddam's invasion of Kuwait

July 25, 1990 American ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie gave Saddam Hussein America's go-ahead to invade Kuwait, and Hussein smiled.

The exchange was reported in the New York Times of September 23, 1990.

US Ambassador Glaspie: I have direct instructions from President Bush to improve our relations with Iraq. We have considerable sympathy for your quest for higher oil prices, the immediate cause of your confrontation with Kuwait. (pause) As you know, I lived here for years and admire your extraordinary efforts to rebuild your country. We know you need funds. We understand that, and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. (pause) We can see that you have deployed massive numbers of troops in the south. Normally that would be none of our business, but when this happens in the context of your threat s against Kuwait, then it would be reasonable for us to be concerned. For this reason, I have received an instruction to ask you, in the spirit of friendship – not confrontation – regarding your intentions: Why are your troops massed so very close to Kuwait’s borders?

Saddam Hussein: As you know, for years now I have made every effort to reach a settlement on our dispute with Kuwait. There is to be a meeting in two days; I am prepared to give negotiations only this one more brief chance. (pause) When we (the Iraqis) meet (with the Kuwaitis) and we see there is hope, then nothing will happen. But if we are unable to find a solution, then it will be natural that Iraq will not accept death.

Glaspie: What solutions would be acceptable?

Hussein: If we could keep the whole of the Shatt al Arab – our strategic goal in our war with Iran – we will make concessions (to the Kuwaitis). But, if we are forced to choose between keeping half of the Shatt and the whole of Iraq (i.e., in Saddam s view, including Kuwait ) then we will give up all of the Shatt to defend our claims on Kuwait to keep the whole of Iraq in the shape we wish it to be. (pause) What is the United States’ opinion on this?

Glaspie: We have no opinion on your Arab – Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary (of State James) Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America. (Saddam smiles)

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.

*Ø* 1984 Olympics: Looking for pic

I'm looking for an image from the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, if anyone can help.

The image I'm after is quite specific: the UFO descending on the big 'XXIII' which signified the 23rd Olympics. This occurred in the main stadium at either the opening or closing ceremony. Do you know of such a picture? Thanks a lot.

*Ø* Eyeglasses Double as Chopsticks

(But ... but ... how do you see your sushi?)

"BERLIN (Reuters) - A German firm has begun offering sunglasses and prescription spectacles with detachable frame arms that double as chopsticks or forks.

"The glasses designer says there is growing demand from time-pressured sushi fans eating their favorite food on the go."

Source

Kill the President

Part 1

The First Lady sleeps, President Lumwedder creeps
to the fridge for a snack at midnight.
Froot Loops in a bowl, a banana, bread roll,
so ... down the mouth hole with little control,
and everything’s feelin' … all right!

That amiable grin, that milk on his chin,
his customary ease with bananas,
the President's proud, "I ain't one of the crowd" –
he says it aloud – "I ain't one of the crowd,
and no one can fill these pajamas.

"I'm Irving Lumwedder, ain't nobody better.
Man, I'm smokin'!! That's nuthin! I'm bitchin!
I'm loaded with sass, I'm the toppest of brass!
I'm the greatest, I'm gas, I'm jumpin' Jack Flash,
I'm the Chief of the damn Oval Kitchen!

Continued at fishpond

*Ø* Russia's ice spectacular

Thanks, Mary Ann for sending this link to great photos of ice sculptures in Russia.

*Ø* Beware bin Laden email virus hoax

"Emails purporting to contain evidence of Osama bin Laden's suicide contain a 'Trojan horse' that can allow hackers to take over infected computers, security experts warned.

"'Computer users who fall for the bin Laden hoax may be hit by a Trojan horse,' the antivirus firm Sophos warned, naming the new scheme the Hackarmy Trojan horse.

"'Thousands of messages have been posted onto internet message boards and usenet newsgroups claiming that journalists from CNN found the terrorist leader's hanged body earlier this week,' the security firm said.

"The messages point to a website where a file can be downloaded, purporting to contain photographs. In reality, Sophos said, the file contains a Trojan horse which can allow hackers to gain remote control of an infected computer."
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

*Ø* Occupation watch

[Good to see that the highly experienced and esteemed Australian journalist Paul McGeough's important story about Allawi is getting some coverage at last in the USA (but nowhere near enough). Golly, even the Kansas City Star has the story, albeit a week late. I'd almost given up hope. If Allawi is a murderer, some reassessment is called for.]

Iraq rumors reflect debate over need for a strongman

"Is there any truth to these tales that Allawi has shot suspects? The stories have been denied by Allawi and dismissed by members of his interim government, the U.S. Embassy and a State Department spokesman. The Iraqi press has refrained from making any mention of the story. On the other hand, former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook urged the Red Cross to investigate the allegations.

"The most complete version of the story appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian newspaper. Two anonymous sources claimed that they had witnessed Allawi executing six handcuffed and blindfolded prisoners in a Baghdad jail."
Source: SFGate.com

Also of interest
Iraq's transition to dictatorship
Red Cross urged to investigate Allawi
Occupation Watch website

*Ø* New torture allegations from Iraq

[Nora's comment to me: Can you just imagine the Red Cross reporting Allawi to himself?]

Red Cross named jail before alleged killings by PM
By Paul McGeough in Amman

"The International Committee of the Red Cross had urged an investigation of the brutal treatment of prisoners at the Baghdad prison where Iraq's new Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, is alleged to have executed as many as six suspected insurgents.

"The Red Cross request was made six months before the killings were said to have taken place at the maximum security Al-Amariyah police station prison.

"Almost a year after the fall of Saddam Hussein, a report by the Red Cross to the US occupation forces named the station as one of six run by Iraqi authorities in Baghdad at which detainees were subjected to the same coercive interrogation tactics used on prisoners by the fallen regime.

"The report says that one group of prisoners 'allegedly had water poured on their legs and [then] had electrical shocks administered to them with stripped tips of electrical wires'. Others had shown scars that they said were from burns inflicted by cigarettes.

"Two informants who said they had witnessed the alleged executions last month confirmed that the practices – including the use of electrical shocks – were still used on detainees at Al-Amariyah.

"The Red Cross report, dated February this year, states: 'During interrogation, the detaining authorities allegedly whipped [them] with cables on the back; kicked them in the lower parts of the body, including in the testicles; handcuffed and left them hanging from the iron bars of the cell windows or doors, in painful positions for several hours at a time.'"
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

*Ø* Giving the fox a henhouse 

From Working Families E-Activist: 

The Bush administration's overtime pay take-away will be a huge windfall to Big Business and employers—and a pay cut for millions of working families. In fact, a new study from the Economic Policy Institute predicts that 6 million workers stand to lose their right to overtime pay beginning Aug. 23, when the Bush Fair Labor Standards Act changes are scheduled to take effect.

The Bush Administration went forward with the new rules despite widespread concern over its impact from Republicans as well as Democrats. This shouldn't surprise anybody. The fox is in the henhouse at the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Bush Labor Department's top spokesperson on overtime pay, Ed Frank, previously worked as the top spokesman for the National Federation of Independent Business—the main special interest representing businesses that want to take away workers' overtime pay.

This is why it is so important that people take action today. Please click on the link below to send a message to your senators and representatives urging them to block the overtime pay take-away. Congress is going home until September on Friday. It is important to urge them to act today.

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/fax4otpay/

It isn't surprising that businesses are going all out to take away overtime pay. The math on this is pretty stunning. If, for example, the average worker earns $4,000 a year in overtime pay, for every 1 million workers who lose overtime pay this would be a $4 billion windfall for employers—right out of the pockets of working people. (The $4,000 figure is only used as an illustration. Actual overtime pay may be greater or less.)  [Emphasis added. -v]

The Bush administration's overtime pay take-away is wholesale looting of the paychecks of working families by an administration beholden to its special interest donors.

Please click below to act and then forward this message to your friends, family and co-workers, urging them to act as well.

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/fax4otpay/

 
News story from http://www.aflcio.org on new studies of the Bush overtime pay take-away. http://www.aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/overtimepay/ns07132004.cfm

Explanation of the Bush overtime pay take-away. http://www.saveovertimepay.org/bushproposal.htm
   

*Ø* Mass Destruction in Small Packages

Alternet:

"Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the specter of mobile chemical labs, dirty nuclear bombs, anthrax spores, sarin gas, and other weapons of mass destruction has fueled popular fears and inspired countless anti-terrorism initiatives.

"While the fear of bombing and attacks is real, here is a surprising fact: The most deadly weapon in the world today is legal, accessible and dirt cheap.

"The AK-47, the M-16 and other so-called 'small arms' are responsible for the deaths of half a million people each year. About 300,000 people – mostly civilians – are killed in wars, coups d'etat and other armed conflicts each year by small arms. Another 200,000 people are killed each year in homicides, suicides, unintentional shootings and shootings by law enforcement officers using these weapons. In addition to those killed, an estimated 1.5 million people are wounded by small arms annually. If we take into account their cumulative impact, small arms are truly weapons of mass destruction ...

"While small arms are deadly and dangerous, they are also profitable - which makes them difficult to regulate and control. According to data collected by the Small Arms Survey in Geneva, they account for more than $4 billion in profits each year. The United States has the dubious honor of being the largest exporter, with $741.4 million in sales in 2003, which accounts for 18 percent of the market. The U.S. also purchased $602.5 million in small arms and munitions in 2003, making it the largest importer of small arms, as well.

"The failure of nations like the United States to curb the manufacture of these deadly weapons has a devastating impact on human rights, development and the war against terrorism."

Full text

Amnesty International: "Shattered Lives: The Case For Tough International Arms Control"

*Ø* Unfair and Unbalanced

Alternet:

"The Independent Media Institute (IMI), parent organization of AlterNet, has filed a legal challenge to Fox that seeks to strip Fox of its 'Fair and Balanced' trademark registration. Your financial support will help us to counteract the bias of corporate media represented by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and Fox News. For a limited time, if you donate $30 or more, we'll send you a copy of Robert Greenwald's powerful new 'Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism' DVD.
We appreciate your support."

*Ø* Hawking resolves black hole dilemma

[Or does he?]

From the Irish Times:

"The information paradox on black holes was resolved by Prof Stephen Hawking when he rejected his earlier theory that they irretrievably swallow up everything, writes Daniel McConnell

"Internationally renowned scientist Prof Stephen Hawking announced in Dublin yesterday that he had solved one of the 'major problems in theoretical physics'.

"His new theory, however, which states that information can actually be recovered from black holes, is unlikely to end the long-standing debate within the science community that has been running for over 30 years ...

"Black holes were often thought of as being void areas of space into which energy and matter can fall and disappear forever. In 1974 Prof Hawking discovered that, in fact, they are not completely 'black' but that they emit radiation, now known as Hawking radiation. This discovery led to what has been known as the information paradox on black holes which has puzzled the international science community ever since ...

"Prof Hawking conceded that his previous theory that all information was lost was incorrect and the assembled crowd witnessed the conclusion of a long-standing bet between him, Prof Kip Thorne and Prof John Preskill."

Source (subscription)

*Ø* Shark deaths: perspective please

The recent death by shark attack of a surfer in Western Australia roused a great deal of emotional debate, as it always does when such a tragedy happens.

Sharks were in the news, and certainly not in a good light. Last week there were tough guys on boats with rifles, and the federal government is talking drum lines and shark nets at huge expense. Memo to non-target species, such as dolphins, whales and dugongs: Watch out!

Now, I'm the first person to shudder at the thought of sharks. I confess that when I swim in salt water I have sharks somewhere in the back of my mind. I find them extremely scary, and I think most people do. And I am in favour of placement of shark nets at popular beaches, which is a practice we have had in Australia for perhaps 70 or 80 years.

But let's get this in perspective:

The chances of being killed by a shark in Australia are less than being killed by lightning strike, dog bite, or bee sting. Far less than death by gun shot, plane crash or industrial accident.

It has become a political issue because of the big bucks and big corporations involved in the very large tourism industry. Caught in the middle are numerous species of animal that are either endangered or vulnerable to species extinction. Let's not forget the huge role large creatures play in any ecosystem.

"Contrary to their reputation, sharks are an increasingly threatened group of animals. Sitting at the top of the food chain, many shark species are not used to being the victim of other predators. Over the millions of years they have swum the oceans, sharks have evolved reproductive strategies that suit animals that would naturally only ever die of old age. ... they reach sexual maturity late in life, produce few young and only after long gestation periods. This means they are not easily able to replenish their numbers when their mortality rate increases and are extremely vulnerable to over-fishing.

"Shark over-fishing is a serious global problem, as species struggle to cope with the increasing demands, for example for fish and chips in the west and for shark fin soup in Asian cuisine. Many shark species are suffering population crashes and local extinctions are becoming common."
Endangered Australian sharks

Endangered sharks, elsewhere

*Ø* Who was the Pied Piper?

July 22, 1376 The Pied Piper came to Hamelin (Hameln), a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, and led the children out of town.

The story of the Pied Piper (Rattenfänger) of Hamelin was popularised in German by the Brothers Grimm and in English by the poet Robert Browning in his narrative poem of that name.

It comes from an old German legend translated into English in 1605 by Richard Verstegan, who gave this as the date. (A 14th-century account gives the date as June 26, 1284.) The oldest remaining source is a note in Latin prose, made one and a half centuries later (1430 - 1450) as an addition to a 14th-century manuscript from Lüneburg.

We do know that something remarkable happened in medieval Hamelin that changed the town forever. Somehow, 130 of the town's children were taken away, and the grief imprinted itself on the village’s soul such that even the town church had a stained-glass window installed that showed the children being led away by this stranger. The stranger, dressed in pied, or multicoloured, clothing, offered to rid the town of Hamelin of its plague of rats, for an agreed price. He played his pipe and the rats followed his beguiling tune down to the Weser River, all drowning. The burghers of Hamelin refused to pay the piper, so he began piping his charming song and the town's children, entranced, followed him to a mountain cave, which as if by magic sealed itself shut.

Many people have proposed explanations for the famous legend. Perhaps the most likely is that the Bishop Bruno of Olmütz (now Olomouc) went on a Crusade recruitment drive for his diocese ...

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.

*Ø* Australia, US, support Apartheid Wall

[It's not a fence, as the media insist on calling it. It is taller and thicker than the Berlin Wall and much longer by far. And it's not a security barrier. It's an old-fashioned land grab.]

"The Federal Government says Australia has good reasons for voting against a United Nations resolution demanding Israel comply with a ruling to dismantle its West Bank barrier.

"The vote was passed with the support of 150 nations but Australia was one of six countries to oppose the resolution, along with Israel and the United States."
Source: ABC (Oz) News

Know about Israel's Apartheid Wall

Flash-animated presentation (must-see)

Did you know?
The West Bank will lose an area the size of Rhode Island due to the path of the Wall.

Those 600,000 acres are equivalent to all of the crop land in Pennsylvania!
Source: American Task Force on Palestine

"The construction of the Israeli separation wall began on the 16th June 2002. For the most part the barrier, which could eventually extend over 750km, consists of a series of 25 foot high concrete walls, trenches, barbed wire and electrified fencing with numerous watch towers, electronic sensors, thermal imaging and video cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, sniper towers, and roads for patrol vehicles.

"The Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign’s most recent map of the Wall’s path, finalized November 2003, reveals that if completed in its entirety, nearly 50% of the West Bank population will be affected by the Wall through loss of land, imprisonment into ghettos, or isolation into Israeli de facto annexed areas."
Palestine Monitor Fact Sheet

In total the Wall will run over 650 km (400 miles) inside the West Bank.
FAQs about The Apartheid Wall

The Wall Must Fall
Stop the Wall campaign
Oxford Uni wall protest (pix)
More about the Wall

*Ø* What did Armstrong really say?

1969 Apollo Program: Apollo 11 landed on the Moon and Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin became the first humans to walk on its surface.

[From the vantage point of Australia, Apollo 11 landed on this day, July 21, although it was still July 20 in some other parts of the world. In fact, in UT (Universal Time), it was July 21, at 0256 hours. This raises the conundrum: If we in Australia saw it on the 21st, did we see it before the Americans, Africans and Europeans, who saw it on the 20th, or after them? I’ll leave you to figure that one out, as it’s way too hard for your almanackist.]

What did Armstrong really say?

"That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

These are some of the most famous, and most eloquent, words ever uttered, indelibly engraved on the global consciousness by Neil Armstrong on that day in July 1969. And yet, if he said "… one small step for man", leaving out the indefinite article, the sentence doesn't make much sense. What did he really say, and were his words scripted for him by PR suits at NASA?

In an article in the December 1983 Esquire, author George Plimpton revealed all. The words were all of Armstrong's own composition, according to the publicity-shy astronaut himself, as well as his colleagues and NASA officials. Armstrong didn't even consider what he might say until after he and Buzz Aldrin landed on the lunar surface, because, he wasn’t sure he would get a chance to speak on the moon at all.

"I thought the chances of a successful touchdown on the moon's surface were about even money – fifty-fifty," Armstrong told Plimpton, "An awful lot of the puzzle had not been filled in; so much had not even been tried. Most people don’t realise how difficult the mission was. So it didn’t seem to me there was much point in thinking up something to say if we’d have to abort the landing."

As for the words: it sounded like he said "That’s one small step for man", rather than "for a man", which would have made more sense. In fact, Armstrong claims that he did say "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" (the way it appears in every book of quotable quotes issued since 1969). He told Esquire that the 'a' went missing in the transmission, which was through a voice-activated system called VOX. "Vox can lose you a syllable every so often," Armstrong explained – thus ending another of life’s little mysteries.

Do you think Armstrong's version is true? Play the 133kb .wav file ...

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.

*Ø* Creeque Alley: Ohhh, now I get it!

One for the oldtimers and retro-hippies:

One of the songs of the sixties that endures because it's just so bloody good is Creeque Alley by the Mamas and Papas, from good ol' 1967.

With uplifting beat, singalong tune and very clever lyrics ("Broke, busted, disgusted, agents can't be trusted", it was definitely one of the best by this US band. Matter of fact, their work was very uneven, with some brilliant highs and woeful lows, no doubt influenced by the tons of smack and oceans of booze Papa John Phillips consumed.

Then there was the band's own version of musical chairs: "Musical Mama Michelle", also known as Mmmmmm; she was shtooping band member Denny Doherty and sort of forgot to mention it for a while to hubby John. (Some other Olympics-class players of Mmmmmm include Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Lou Adler, Denny Doherty, Roman Polanski, Mick Jagger, Rudolph Nureyev, and Gene Clark, the mail man and the visiting Pakistani cricket team.) Both the band and Michelle's water bed collapsed under all the pressure.

In an era of abstruse lyrics, Creeque Alley was particularly hard to grok because the lyrics were about the band itself. Now there's a site that explains or guesses what it's all about.

I've been on a 37-year journey to enlightenment and now I can rest; I have arrived at the mountain top.

Cool and right on.

*Ø* Major Darfur appeal launched

"LONDON (AlertNet) - An umbrella organisation of Britain's largest aid agencies appeals to the public for money to help thousands of people forced to flee their homes in Darfur, western Sudan.

"The appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) will go towards providing shelter, clean water and basic necessities for displaced people in Sudan and across the border in Chad.

"Fighting in Darfur has driven more than one million people from their homes.

"After years of conflict between Arab nomads and African farmers, rebels took up arms last year, accusing Khartoum of arming Janjaweed to loot and burn African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

"A DEC statement said thousands of people were arriving every day at camps in Darfur with nothing but the clothes they stood up in ...

"'Floodwaters from recent rains are washing human and animal waste into water sources, raising fears of outbreaks of disease such as cholera and diarrhoea,' said the statement."
Source and full text

Khartoum 'backs Darfur militias'

"A human rights group says it has proof that Sudan's government has been supporting Arab militias accused of killing thousands in Darfur.

"New York-based Human Rights Watch says it has government documents showing that officials directed recruitment, arming and support of the Janjaweed.

"The government in Khartoum has denied any involvement with the militia."
Source and full text: BBC

*Ø* Blue moon: folklore or fakelore?



Soooo ... there's gonna be a second full moon for the month of July, and it happens on July 31.

All the newspapers will say it's a 'Blue Moon', and that's because folklore tells us so.

OK, but whose folklore?

*Ø* U2 Album Goes Missing

Turns Up on P2P Networks

"U2 have called in the police after a CD featuring unfinished tracks from their forthcoming album was stolen at a photo shoot in France. The new album, their first since 2000, is likely to be called Vertigo, and the tracks on the CD have already started appearing on P2P networks such as Overnet.

"Edge said on the U2.com website: 'A large slice of two years' work lifted via a piece of round plastic. It doesn't seem credible but that's what's just happened to us... and it was my CD.'
Should have kept an eye on it then."

Source and full text

*Ø* Brazil Internet Craze Angers English Speakers

[Excerpt from Reuters]

"Thousands of Brazilians have become devotees of Orkut (http://www.orkut.com), a popular new social-networking site from Web search leader Google Inc.

"Orkut allows members to organize themselves into online communities of friends, and friends of friends, to discuss everything from chess to sandwiches.

"But the rush of Brazilians to join Orkut and rival social networking sites has upset some online users, who complain of a proliferation of messages posted in Portuguese, Brazil's native tongue.

"Some users have even started communities specifically for people to air their gripes on this issue. [My emphasis. Are my eyes deceiving me? Who said the net was only there for English-speakers? - N]

"The United States has at least 153 million Internet users, compared with Brazil's 20 million. Still, Orkut said Brazilians dominated its membership roster in June, outnumbering Americans for the first time."

Full text

*Ø* "Boring old fart"

July 19, 1971 British comic Marty Feldman appeared for the defence in the Oz Trial at the sombre London criminal court, the Old Bailey, calling the judge "a boring old fart".

The Oz case was the longest obscenity trial in British legal history. The original sentences of up to 15 months for Richard Neville and the other defendants sparked a wave of protest from many, including John Lennon. With Yoko Ono, Lennon joined the protest march against the prosecution and organised the recording of 'God Save Oz' by the Elastic Oz Band, released on Apple Records.

At the time in Britain, conspiracy to pervert the course of public morals carried a life sentence and the defence of the Oz magazine defendants was an important libertarian cause. The fuss and hilarious court case were all about Issue 28, 'The Schoolkids Issue', which was worked on by school students as well as the staff.

Oz magazine was an underground magazine launched on April 1, 1963, in Sydney, Australia, where its editors – Richard Neville, Richard Walsh, and Martin Sharp – were charged under obscenity laws. In 1971, after the magazine shifted to England in 1966, Neville, Felix Dennis, and Jim Anderson were put on trial for corrupting public morals. Oz finally ceased publication in 1973.

Where did they go from there?
Felix Dennis, who was given a lesser sentence, because the court viewed him as "very much less intelligent" than Neville and Anderson, went on to become one of Britain's wealthiest and most prominent publishers. OZ co-founder Richard Walsh became one of Australia's most prominent conservative publishers. Richard Neville is one of Australia's best selling authors and a prominent media figure. Martin Sharp is one of Australia’s best-known visual artists.

The lawyers
The Oz defence barrister, John Mortimer, is one of Britain's best-selling authors and creator of the acclaimed Rumpole of the Bailey books and TV series, and Brideshead Revisited. His assisting counsel, Geoffrey Robertson, is a prominent Queen's Counsel as well as a well-known Australian media identity. He has argued many landmark cases in the European Court of Human Rights, the House of Lords, the Privy Council and Commonwealth courts. He has conducted a number of missions on behalf of Amnesty International. He is the author of numerous books, and a play, The Trials of Oz, which won a BAFTA 'Best Play' nomination, and was the recipient of a 1993 Freedom of Information Award. He was recently appointed to the Appeals Chamber of the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, and is a Visiting Professor in Law at several universities.

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.

*Ø*  Two hundred

Well, it's the 200th day of the year, and it's been 1035 days since Bush said he'd catch Osama bin Laden dead or alive, pardner!
 
Are we taking bets on whether bin Laden will be caught before the US election? I can't quite get out of my head the prestigious British journal, The Guardian, reporting credible anecdotal evidence months ago that the Pakistanis and Americans have had him surrounded for a long time now.

*Ø* The Summer of Truth
 
The Summer of Truth Campaign of http://911truth.org intends to build a powerful grassroots movement for full 9/11 truth disclosure and legal-political redress based on existing proof of this government's misrepresentations, exploitation and investigative obstruction of the events of September 11, 2001. Given  the enormous body of evidence refuting the "official 9/11 story," we can now lay out a prima facie case for foreknowledge, complicity and/or obstruction of justice that can then feed grand jury proceedings, impeachment hearings, or a People's 9/11 Truth Commission.
 
"Rethinking 9/11 as a yet unsolved crime and marshaling the known facts in terms of Motive, Means and Opportunity will greatly clarify public understanding of our leaders' role in this tragedy and empower millions now fed up with the fear, wars and fiscal ruin it has engendered. The campaign will employ collaborative networks, high-profile events, and a grassroots media campaign to publicize this evidence, debate its legal and political implications, and decide whether the next step should be indictments, impeachments, or a fresh independent inquiry." When you look at the strategy outline, you will see how the following campaigns fit into this scenario and maybe even think of deft new tactics of your own.
 
CONTINUE

SOURCE   

*Ø* My First (and Last) Time With Bill O'Reilly

From AlterNet:

A guest on 'The O'Reilly Factor' violates the rules of Fox News 'spin-free zone.'

A good read!

*Ø* Smile Awhile

Mothers in Law! Tsk tsk

"MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian taxi driver got a rude shock when he discovered his blind ex-wife, who thought he had died in an explosion, had him buried in a Moscow cemetery, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

"Oleg Lunkov learned of his apparent death when he applied for a passport and was told he died in a bomb blast on Moscow's metro on February 6. His ex-wife thought he was on the train, but being blind, she got her mother to identify the remains."
Full text

*Ø* Murdoch stands accused

From the Guardian:

"Its slogan is: 'We report, you decide'. But according to one former employee, interviewed in a new documentary, a more accurate motto for Rupert Murdoch's US television channel Fox News might be: 'We opine, you recline'.

The comment is one of many included in Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, a documentary that aims to expose what it sees as the bias behind Fox News. Its director, Robert Greenwald, says his aim is that 'everybody in America turns off Fox News' ...

"The documentary, a fast-paced montage of clips from the channel and interviews with former employees and media experts, portrays a television news station where editorial positions are handed down from on high in a daily briefing note and presenters are encouraged to accentuate points that might be helpful to the Bush administration.

"According to a former Fox contributor, one such note concerning presentation of the latest news from Iraq said: 'Remember when you're writing about this, it's all good. Don't write about the number of dead ... Keep it positive. Emphasise all the good we're doing.'
Full text

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

"Media Matters for America has analyzed 33 such internal FOX memos, issued by FOX News Senior Vice President, News Editorial John Moody and Los Angeles Bureau Chief Ken LaCoste between May 9 and June 3, 2003 and March 12 and May 5, 2004 ...

"The following is a sample of reporting instructions issued by Moody to the FOX News staff." Click here to read the examples

*Ø* Allawi shot inmates in cold blood, say witnesses

[Posting this at Pip's request as he's having major tech problems]

Sydney Morning Herald:

"Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.

"They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs.

"They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they 'deserved worse than death'.

"The Prime Minister's office has denied the entirety of the witness accounts in a written statement to the Herald, saying Dr Allawi had never visited the centre and he did not carry a gun.
 
"But the informants told the Herald that Dr Allawi shot each young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi policemen and four Americans from the Prime Minister's personal security team watched in stunned silence." 
 
Full text 

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

Lateline: Iraqi PM accused of executions

Paul McGeough tells ABC TV's Lateline about witnesses' claims to have seen the Iraqi Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, kill six prisoners.


 

*Ø* 'Young Iraq prisoners sodomised'
 
From the Independent:
 
"Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomised by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to the journalist who first revealed the abuses there.

"Seymour Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that 'it's worse'. But he added that he would reveal the extent of the abuses: 'I'm not done reporting on all this,' he told a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"He said: 'The boys were sodomised with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war.'

"He accused the US administration, and all but accused President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney of complicity in covering up what he called 'war crimes'. "
 
Source

*Ø*  Voudon pilgrimage of Saut D’Eau, Haiti

Today, thousands of Voudon (Voodoo) believers from Haiti and abroad will make a pilgrimage to the sacred waters of Saut D’Eau, a waterfall where Erzulie Freda – the Voudon spirit of love, art, romance and sex – appeared twice in the 19th century.
 
Freda (her veve, or symbol, is pictured) is a beautiful, wealthy white woman, a promiscuous love goddess-seductress, difficult and demanding, who loves luxurious items such as perfume, champagne and gold. She wears three wedding bands, one for each husband: Damballa, Agwe and Ogoun. 
 
Her sister, the dark-skinned Erzulie Dantor, is the spirit of motherly love, cognate of Saint Barbara Africana in the Roman Catholic Church. Dantor is heterosexual in the sense that she has a child, but she is also the patron loa, or saint, of lesbians. Her Roman Catholic counterparts are the aspects of Mary, Our Lady of Czestochowa and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. When Erzulie Dantor appears at a ceremony via possession, she speaks a stuttering monosyllable, “ke-ke-ke-ke-ke!” ...
 
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.

*Ø* Bloodshed in Baghdad
 
So that's all right then
 
Robert Fisk, 15 July:
 
"Lord Butler told us yesterday that Tony Blair acted in good faith. So that's all right then. At the al-Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad yesterday morning, there was blood on the walls, blood on the floor, blood on the doctors, blood on the stretchers. In the dangerous oven of Baghdad, 10 more lives had just ended. So what was it Tony Blair said in the Commons yesterday afternoon? 'We are not killing civilians in Iraq; terrorists are killing civilians in Iraq.' So that's all right then. Question: Are Baghdad and London on the same planet? ...

"[But] the real reason for yesterday's little bloodbath was about the isolation of Iraq's new government. This is the fourth checkpoint bombing around the same compound and the purpose is obvious. Iraqi officials cannot leave their Crusader-style fortress with its massive ramparts and walls. Ordinary Iraqis must go to them. And queue. And wait. And walking up to those checkpoints is becoming a macabre, frightening experience.
 
"If the insurgents cannot get inside the walls, they can at least imprison those inside by attacking the perimeter, cut them off from the rest of Iraq, make the government's presence irrelevant to the millions of Iraqis who, so Mr Blair was assuring us yesterday, are going to enjoy 'democracy'.

"But in truth, the authorities here are already cut off from the rest of Iraq. Baquba is run by armed men. Insurgents control Samara and Fallujah and Ramadi, and Muqtada Sadr's militia control the centre of Najaf ...

"But we acted in good faith. Invading Iraq was the right thing to do. And over and over again, in London yesterday, officials and ministers referred to the Iraqi war in the past tense. About the only thing Iraqis could have agreed with was Lord Butler's remark about the search for Saddam's weapons, that 'Iraq is a very big place and there is lots of sand ...'

"The al-Yarmouk hospital, needless to say, was the one place not to quote Tony Blair's assertion that although terrorists were killing Iraqis today, 'people were being killed in Iraq, thousands of them, under Saddam'.

"Forgetting that up to 11,000 Iraqis appear to have been killed since our invasion, it seems that it's better to be killed post-Saddam than pre-Saddam. So that's all right then."

Source: Information Clearing House

*Ø* Butler: already labeled another whitewash

From the Independent:

"The intelligence: flawed
The dossier: dodgy
The 45-minute claim: wrong
Dr Brian Jones: vindicated
Iraq's link to al-Qa'ida: unproven
The public: misled
The case for war: exaggerated
And who was to blame? No one"

Full text

Andrew Gilligan and Greg Dyke formerly of the BBC are also vindicated by this report, but they're gone. Blair isn't. Yet.

*Ø* Possiblity of Irish as official EU language welcomed

From the Irish Times:

"The Irish language campaign group Stadas has expressed 'delight' at the Government's decision to seek approval for Irish as an official EU language, writes Lorna Siggins, Western Correspondent

"The decision taken at Cabinet yesterday is seen as a victory for the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, who said that there was 'unanimous' support among his colleagues for the move. 'This will put Irish on a par with Finnish, Swedish, Danish and Maltese, if it is successful, and we are confident that it will be,' he said.

"Currently, Irish is given treaty status, which only obliges the EU to translate all major treaties into the language. Irish and Luxemburgish are the only national languages in the EU which do not enjoy official status in European institutions. Such status would require EU laws and official documents to be issued in Irish, although the main languages for negotiations at Commissioner-level will still be English, French and German."

Full text

*Ø* Watch the weather today

St Swithun’s Day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days, it will remain:
St Swithun's Day, if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.
English traditional

Feast day of St Swithin (Swithun), England, confessor, patron of Winchester(Small Cape marigold, Calendula pluvialis, is today’s plant, dedicated to this saint. The esoteric meaning of this plant is ‘omen; sign’.)  

Our story today takes us back more than a millennium, to the days when the British Isles were beset by Viking raids and Charlemagne's empire ruled supreme in Europe.

St Swithin (or Swithun) was Bishop of Winchester, England, and adviser to King Egbert of Wessex (died 839) and probably tutor to his son Ethelwulf. He was called the 'drunken saint', but no such behaviour is recorded of him.  

Swithin was the one who introduced tithing into England: he persuaded King Ethelwulf to enact a law, by which he gave a tenth of his land to the church, on condition that the king should be prayed for every Wednesday in every church forever. Among other miraculous feats was his restoration, on a bridge, of a basket of eggs that workmen had maliciously broken.

Swithin's consecration by Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, seems to have taken place on October 30, 852. We don't know the date of his birth, but he died on July 2, 862.

An old English legend says that the good bishop wished to be buried in the churchyard of the cathedral, in a humble grave outside the north wall, so that the 'sweet rain of heaven might fall upon his grave'. Nine years later his monks tried to move his remains inside the cathedral but there was a violent thunderstorm and rain for the following 40 days and 40 nights. Believing their beloved late bishop to be weeping in distress, they abandoned the venture. Miraculously, two rings of iron, fastened on his gravestone, came out as soon as they were touched, and left no mark of their place in the stone. When the stone was taken up, and touched by the rings, by themselves they fastened to it again.

A century passed and 971 came around (the year Eric Bloodaxe became the second king of Norway, by the way, not that Eric has anything to do with our tale, sorry, but it's such a great handle). Swithin was canonized (declared a saint – St Swithin was never actually canonised by a pope; he is a 'home-made saint') and, following a vision by St Aethelwold (909 - 984), the monks decided to honour him by placing his body in the Winchester Cathedral choir rather than outside amongst the common folks' graves. So ... They booked July 15 for the ceremony of the 'translation' of his relics (bones), and this time it was successful ...

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* Helen Clark socks it to Israel over spies

NZ fury over Israel 'secret two'

"NEW Zealand's Prime Minister launched a blistering verbal attack and slapped diplomatic sanctions on Israel Thursday after two suspected Mossad agents were imprisoned for six months for illegally trying to obtain a New Zealand passport.

"'New Zealand condemns without reservation these actions by agencies of the Israel government,' Prime Minister Helen Clark said after the pair were sentenced to prison terms.

"'The New Zealand Government views the act carried out by the Israeli intelligence agents as not only utterly unacceptable but also a breach of New Zealand sovereignty and international law,' she said.

"Ms Clark said the action of the men and those of the Israeli Government had 'seriously strained relations' with New Zealand.

"The pair, Urie Zoshe Kelman, 30, and Eli Cara, 50, both admitted a charge of illegally trying to obtain a New Zealand passport at an earlier hearing.

"They were arrested in March after they tried to collect a passport in the name of a New Zealand national who is a wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy victim."
Source: The Australian

*Ø* Coooool clock

Money is time

*Ø* Protesting Too Little?

Homeland Security wants to cage dissent at this summer's political conventions

"Recent U.S. protests against the Bush administration, war and globalization may have been disappointingly small, but don't write off the movement. Activists are planning big things for the two conventions this summer – especially the marches, demonstrations and actions slated for the Republican convention August 30-September 2 in New York.

"'Of course it's still early. We have more than two months of organizing left,' says Leslie Cagan, veteran organizer and national coordinator with United for Peace and Justice (UPJ), one of the major organizers of Republican National Convention protests. 'But I think the August 29 march and demonstration will be one of the biggest protest events we’ve seen in New York.'"
Source: In These Times (thanx Zenzibar)

*Ø* The Emperor needs clothes



That's my quickie effort. Click here and dress him yourself!

*Ø* Parades provoke violence yet again

"Belfast (Reuters) - A train carrying Protestant marchers to a parade has been pelted with petrol bombs as violence grips Northern Ireland's 'marching season'.

"On Monday, 25 police officers were injured in sectarian clashes surrounding a bitterly contested 'Orange' parade in Belfast ...

"Monday night's clashes broke out after Orangemen marched past the Catholic Ardoyne neighbourhood in a parade celebrating Protestant William of Orange's victory over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne on July 12, 1690.

"Protestants were angry the authorities had restricted the number of people who could march on the route while Catholics, who view the yearly parades as triumphalist and provocative, said the march should be banned altogether."

Full text

*Ø* Fête Nationale (Bastille Day), public holiday, France and all French dependencies

July 14, 1789 French Revolution: Parisians stormed the Bastille Prison in Paris and freed seven political prisoners.

When the revolutionary mob stormed the French prison they were surprised to find most of the cells empty but for the miserable scratchings of prisoners on the walls. 

Only seven prisoners were resident, under the relatively (for his time) lenient penal policies of King Louis XVI. Among those inmates, Marquis de Sade is believed to have triggered the assault by crying that people were being executed inside ...

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.

[The Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame de Paris webcams on today's page should be cool after nightfall. Trouble is, I don't get to check it out till July 15 because I'm in the Eastern hemisphere. :( ]

*Ø* Waiting for Butler

From the Guardian:

A government cannot go to war on a false pretext. Either Blair apologises - or there must be a change of leader

"We're in the middle of what they said would be Tony's week from hell. Whether it's turning out that way, we'll know better at lunchtime today, when former cabinet secretary Robin Butler delivers his ruling on the way intelligence was used in the lead-up to the war against Iraq. We'll have an even clearer idea in the small hours of Friday morning, thanks to the results of two by-elections in what should be safe Labour territory, in Leicester and Birmingham. If Butler and the Midlands electorate give the prime minister a kicking, he might respond by doing some kicking of his own - by booting out a minister or two and engaging in that great summer sport: the reshuffle ...

... "The plain truth is this: British troops went to kill and be killed last year on a false premise. We were told Saddam had WMD and he did not; we were told he was a threat to us and he was not. So far that act has brought no consequences on its perpetrators.

"Those who made bad errors in shedding light on the act - at the BBC and the Daily Mirror - have paid for their errors. But for the act itself, there has been no punishment. This suggests a failure of our very system of governance: it allowed a government to go to war in defiance of its people and on a false pretext and get away with it. The system needs to prove that it can correct itself - and to do it soon." [My emphasis - N]

j.freedland@guardian.co.uk

Full text

*Ø* Taking it with you – Not

"Lille, France (Reuters) - Thieves dug up a Frenchwoman's grave and stripped her corpse of thousands of euros (dollars) worth of jewelry she had asked to be buried with to avoid arguments between her five children.

"Police said Monday the former partner of the woman, who died aged 82 in April, found her coffin abandoned in an alley near the cemetery in the village of Haulchin in northern France Monday."

Source

Not to be nitpicking, but I don't know why the Reuters reporter wrote "euros (dollars)" like that. As of now, 1 euro = 1.25 USD and 1.70 AUD. Maybe CAD? No, 1 euro = 1.63 Canadian. I've even checked Barbados, Brunei, Bermuda, Jamaican, Namibian, New Zealand and Singapore dollars. Nope. Odd!

*Ø* Bucky's birthday

With the Esmeralda problems yesterday, I didn't get much of a chance to note the near-centenary of one of the great avatars of the 20th century.

Happy 99th birthday to the late, great, R Buckminster Fuller. There's some stuff about him in the July 12 page at the Book of Days. Not enough, but I hope that for his centenary next July I'll find time to write some more. Anyway, there are some good linx there.

The Pacific island nation of Palau had a Bucky stamp a few years ago, and it's great to see the land of his birth do the same this year. The US Postal Service launched a stamp on July 12.

*Ø* Esmeralda needs a good spanking

I've had a few problems with Esmeralda Computer this evening, so no Almanac ezine today and the Book of Days is running late. If I disappear, please obey Esmeralda's ransom demands. Thank you.

*Ø* Talking Jesus Christ Action Figure

No kidding. Speakers on.

*Ø* 'Flying Dutchman' seen by future king

July 11, 1881 Sixteen-year-old Prince George, the future King George V of the United Kingdom, as a young midshipman on HMS Bacchante, wrote in his journal that he had seen that day (4:00 am) the phantom ship, the Flying Dutchman, off the port bow.

With George was the heir to the throne, his elder brother, the mentally deficient Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward (Eddie) who later mysteriously died before becoming king, much to the relief of the British Royal Family.

Eddie, who was later a modern and unlikely suspect in the Jack the Ripper case, also recorded in his journal the sighting of the Dutchman which was seen by thirteen witnesses including the lookout on the Bacchante's forecastle (who fell and died within seven hours – 10:45 am), and the officer of the watch ...

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* Australia to spend $600 million to combat AIDS

[For once the Australian government and Head Prefect Downer seem to have their heads screwed on right. Eight million people are living with HIV/AIDS in the Asia/Pacific region, and the rate of growth is rising.]

"Australia will more than double to $600 million the amount of money it gives to fight the global HIV-AIDS pandemic.

"The announcement was made by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on the eve of the 15th World Aids Conference in Bangkok.

"Until now Australia had earmarked $250 million in foreign aid to combat the virus.

"But the government has set aside a further $350 million of spending.

"The recipients will be countries in Asia and the Pacific region where there are an estimated 7.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS.

"The bulk of Australia's new commitment will go to Papua New Guinea to set up 38 new disease treatment clinics and improve prevention and education campaigns."
Source: ABC (Oz) News

>Annan warns of AIDS crisis in Asia-Pacific

*Ø* Dangerous Choices: Bioterrorism Vs Population Health

A stimulating Late Night Live forum on bioterrorism, public health and governmental priorities in assigning funding.

The first speaker is a bit dull, but the second, Professor Ian Lowe, is well worth hearing. Wish I had a transcript, but I memorised this bit:

"Do you think that the United States would be in Iraq if it controlled ten per cent of the world's broccoli?"

Prof Lowe has some incredible statistics to report, including one that says all the world's health needs could be met with 15 per cent of the world's military budget.

Our so-called leaders aren't listening, but I hope we are.

Listen while you surf.(RAM)

*Ø* Child torture in Iraq? Denmark pressed to seek probe

"The Danish-based International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) has urged the Copenhagen Government to demand an investigation by the US-led coalition forces in Iraq into allegations that children there were being imprisoned and tortured.

"The demand comes three days after a similar appeal to the Danish Government, which is part of the US-led military coalition in oil-rich Iraq, from the Danish section of the international aid agency Save the Children."
Source: ABC (Oz) News

*Ø* Lady Godiva Day

July 10, 1040 According to one tradition, Lady Godiva made her famous ride, naked on horseback, through the streets of Coventry, England. Thus, today is Lady Godiva Day in that city.

Lady Godiva – Godgyfu as her name was originally – really did exist and was a Saxon noblewoman and patron of the arts, married to Leofric, Duke of Mercia in England. The couple moved to Coventry, Warwickshire, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire (where Leofric had earned his fortune and title from the mutton trade).

It is known that Leofric began spending large amounts of taxpayers' money, as politicians are wont to do, on grandiose public works, while the people of Coventry, as people are wont to do, lived in poverty. The legend says that Godiva, generous and strong-willed, was outraged at a poll or tax that Leofric was planning to levy on the people of Coventry, and she persistently asked him to lift the imposition, or at least use the money for the provision of works of art that the peasants might enjoy. Leofric laughed so much that he injured his left wrist slightly as he fell off his stool in the hall of the village burghers. However, the nouveau-riche gentleman offered her a deal: if his wife would ride naked on horseback through the town, then he would agree to waive the tax ...

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* Sorry, more bleedin questions

4) Why do some people say "sugar diabetes"?
5) Why haven't I been told of other varieties?

You know:

"As if I didn't have enough problems, now the quack tells me I've got sugar diabetes, an' I'd rather pull me arse up over me 'ead than 'ave sugar diabetes. An' I tell ya that fer nuthin."

Is there some other kind of diabetes I should know about? Salt diabetes? Barbecue sauce diabetes? Helium diabetes? Lou Gehrig's diabetes? George Bush's diabetes?

I'd rather pull me arse up over me head than have George Bush's diabetes.

*Ø* Questions, questions, questions

I always asked too many questions, like "Why not?" and "Who says?" Always landing in trouble because of this affliction.

I've only been awake for twenty minutes and already I have three of those damn questions burning great potholes in my synaptic paths:

1) Why can't I stop whistling The Andy Griffiths Show this morning? Can't get that damn whistle out of my head, and I never even liked that show a real lot, except Barney was funny;
2) Those people who don't take two or three sugars in their coffee, do they realise they're missing the point?
3) Did Hamelin ever say sorry to the Stollen Generation?

If I have diabetes I'll have to concede Number 2. And it will explain why I always have to do Number 1.

*Ø* Pentagon: Bush Military Record Destroyed ‘By Accident’

From DemocracyNow.org

The Pentagon is claiming it inadvertently destroyed military records from more than 30 years ago that could have definitively determined whether George W. Bush fulfilled his duty in the Texas Air National Guard. Questions have loomed for the past five years over whether Bush skipped out on his commitment during periods of 1972 and 1973. Yesterday in response to a Freedom of Information Request the Pentagon said for the first time that the microfilm containing Bush's payroll records from the disputed period was ruined in 1996 or 1997 during an attempt to salvage deteriorating microfilm. Some journalists expressed skepticism about the Pentagon's claim. James Moore, who wrote "Bush's War For Re-Election" said, "Those are records we've all been interested in. I think it's curious that the microfiche could resolve what days Mr. Bush worked and what days he was paid, and suddenly that is gone."

SOURCE

*Ø* Playing With Fire: Politics, Religion And Holy War

From The Wall of Separation
The Weblog of Americans United For Separation of Church and State

Playing With Fire: Politics, Religion And Holy War
By Joe Conn

Tom Ehrich is fed up with the Religious Right's assault on American freedom. Ehrich, an Episcopal priest and columnist for the Religion News Service, tackled that topic in a July 6 RNS essay.

"In the 150 years preceding America's independence," writes Ehrich, "the religious did their best to carry on Europe's faith wars. Tensions within Protestantism and between Protestants and Roman Catholics did much to undermine American Colonial life.

"Our founding fathers," he continued, "were determined to keep holy wars from enslaving this continent. This was to be a land of freedom, not religious turf wars. The rights of citizens were to be kept separate from religion's self-serving claims of certainty and sanctity. Now it is our time to take up their noble cause.

"Christian demagogues have declared a holy war that they claim to be for the soul of America, the sanctity of life and the future of Christian faith. They badger us into fixation on two issues -- Scripture and sex -- as if those two issues would determine the future of civilization, not to mention true faith. It is nothing but a power grab. It is a violation of the Gospel. As politicians exploit this holy war for campaign funds, membership lists and votes, it is playing with the fire that nearly destroyed Europe."

Ehrich urges believers "to stop going along with religious demagogues."

Most American religious leaders don't agree with the Religious Right's self-righteous agenda, and it's refreshing to see an Episcopol priest lay out the case so forthrightly. [Emphasis added. -v]

SOURCE

*Ø* Lucky number for Charles's bridge

Saturday, July 9, 1357, 5:31 am: Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor assisted laying the foundation stone of Charles Bridge in Prague.

How do we know the precise time? Because the palindromic number 135797531, carved on the Old Town bridge tower, was chosen by the royal astrologists and numerologists as the best time for starting the bridge construction.

Wilson's Webcam Watch
The image at right, if it’s appearing, is generated by a live webcam. Webcam images refresh at set intervals, so if you refresh this page it might show a changed image.

Wilson's Webcam Watch is a small but growing list of live webcams you can see in various pages in the Book of Days. For example,

Old Faithful
Hong Kong Harbour
Niagara Falls
Loch Ness
and the Eiffel Tower, for starters.

Recommend a webcam
Is there an online webcam you know that you'd like to see in the Book of Days? Maybe it's in a favourite city or at a tourist spot you love. Maybe a game park or an ant farm. If it relates to an item in the Book of Days, or an item that should be in the BoD, let me know.

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* Mind your own business, Labor tells US

"Washington should keep out of Australian politics, the Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, said yesterday, denying claims by a senior Bush Administration figure that Labor is split over its policy on Iraq.

"The former Labor prime minister Paul Keating also bought into the row over the comments by the US Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, describing his intervention as 'dumb' and saying that Labor would not be 'thugged' by American officials."
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

*Ø* Tesla: almost-forgotten genius

July 9, 1856 Nikola Tesla (d. January 7, 1943), the Croatian-born American electrical engineer, inventor of the alternating current (AC) motor, was born on this day at Smiljan, Lika. He was a great genius whose luck was not as great as his abilities, and for many years his name was almost completely lost to public knowledge.

The unit of magnetic flux in the metric system is the 'tesla', as another unit is the 'faraday'. His Tesla Coil supplies the high voltage for the computer monitor you are looking at. The electricity for your computer comes from a Tesla design AC generator, is sent through a Tesla transformer, and gets to your house through 3-phase Tesla power. The electric power of Niagara was harnessed through his inventions.

During Tesla's lifetime, the US Patent Office recorded 111 utility patents, one reissued patent, two utility patent corrections and one utility patent disclaimer. US patent number 613,809 described the first device anywhere for wireless remote control. "You do not see there a wireless torpedo," he angrily corrected a newspaper reporter, "you see there the first of a race of robots, mechanical men which will do the laborious work of the human race."

"When wireless is fully applied the earth will be converted into a huge brain, capable of response in every one of its parts," Tesla told Morgan. Tesla's plan for an international wireless communications system was funded for a time by the squillionaire, JP Morgan, but Morgan prematurely lost faith in the inventor and pulled the plug on the money bin – perhaps one of the worst financial decisions of the 20th century. Tesla had to abandon his ambitious project forever. The newspapers called it, "Tesla’s million dollar folly." Humiliated and defeated, Tesla suffered a nervous breakdown.

By 1890 Nikola Tesla was generating fields that would light up, without any wires, phosphorescent tubes across his laboratory. Yet for all this, his name was forgotten for decades, until recently when at long last the public has come to know of one of history’s great geniuses ...

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* Few Detainees in Iraq Are Foreign Fighters

"Washington (Reuters) - Only 90 of the more than 5,700 people in custody in Iraq as security risks are foreign fighters, defense officials said on Tuesday, a figure that suggests the Bush administration may have overstated the role of outside militants in the deadly insurgency.

"The officials, who asked not to be identified, said the U.S. military command handling security detention facilities in Iraq confirmed a report in USA Today that fewer than 2 percent of those in custody were foreigners."
Full text

*Ø* Bush's man funds Nader in attempt to thwart Democrats

Irish Times:

"The last US ambassador to Ireland, Mr Richard Egan, a major backer of President Bush's re-election campaign, has made a financial contribution to independent candidate Ralph Nader, whom Republicans hope will siphon off votes from the Democratic Party.

"New figures released by the Federal Elections Commission show Mr Egan, his son and his daughter-in-law have given Nader the maximum donations allowable under US law.

"Mr Egan, a self-made billionaire through his EMC computer company in Massachusetts, was a major contributor to the Bush election campaign in 2000 and was appointed ambassador to Ireland by the Bush administration. He stayed in the job for 18 months before resigning, citing frustration with the slowness of diplomatic life."
[My emphasis. I had to smile. Diplomacy was hardly high on the Bush agenda at the time. - N]
Full text

*Ø* Microsoft's browser dominance at risk

Experts warn of security holes
From The Independent:

"Its curved blue 'e' sits on almost every computer desktop in the world, but the global dominance of Microsoft's web browser could soon be over following a stark security warning from a senior panel of internet experts who say it opens the door to online criminals.

"They are urging all users of Internet Explorer (IE) to stop using the browser because they say it is vulnerable to hackers and credit card fraudsters.

"The alert, from the US Computer Emergency Response Team, comes as a blow to the global giant Microsoft, which has fought successfully to retain its dominance of the browser market -- 95 per cent of internet surfers currently use IE ...

"Vulnerabilities in Explorer:

• Pop-up ads can silently download software that will use your computer to send out spam or install 'Trojans' that watch your typing.

• E-mails by 'phishers' can grab bank details by using malicious internet addresses preceded by a real one. If you open it with IE, you will only be shown the first part of the address, with the rest hidden. Users may trust the address and give the criminals their details.

• Another 'phishing' attack uses the 'fake address' method above and puts a pop-up window with an image of a padlock on top of the window. This looks like a 'secure' website. IE has no built-in means to block pop-up windows.

• Some pornography websites use IE to silently download software that changes the computer's internet settings to dial a premium-rate number.

• One pop-up ad installs software that monitors whether you visit any of 50 banking sites, including Barclays and Citibank. When you do, it monitors your keystrokes and sends them to a website in San Diego."

Full text (Worth reading -- the advice is to switch to another web browser, such as the free Mozilla or commercial Opera products.)

*Ø* Moon crowned 'King of Heaven' on Capitol Hill

In case you missed it, on March 23, Sun Myung Moon and his wife were crowned King and Queen of Heaven on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, USA, with congressmen in attendance. It was almost ignored by the media at the time, which is why I'm posting it now. It's covered at March 23 in the Book of Days, and I thank Almaniac Mary Ann Sabo for drawing my attention to the wondrous event.

And remember, as Messiah Moon always says,

As a man, in your right front pants pocket is a small inside watch pocket. Keep pliers there, and when you go to the bathroom, once a day, pinch your love organ. Cut the skin a little bit as a warning. If your love organ does not listen to your conscience, then you should cut off the tip.

*Ø* Aids becomes 'disease of women'

From The Independent:

"The worst epidemic in human history is spreading round the world at an accelerating rate and is increasingly affecting women.

"Latest figures show that 4.8 million people became infected with HIV last year -- the highest number in any year since the Aids epidemic began. The total living with HIV/Aids rose to 37.8 million and there were 2.9 million deaths.

"Peter Piot, executive director of UNAids, which published its fourth biennial report on the disease yesterday, said Aids was becoming 'more and more a disease of women'. Having largely affected men in its early stages, the proportion of women infected had risen to almost 50 per cent globally and to 57 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa."

Full text

*Ø* AIDS vaccine proves elusive

London (Reuters) - "Two decades into the AIDS pandemic, the world has two dozen drugs to fight the virus and researchers have high hopes for new classes of medicine that block the virus before it can enter human cells.

"But an effective vaccine -- the best hope for the developing world where drugs remain out of reach for millions -- is still only a distant hope.

"Pharmaceutical makers will showcase their latest advances at the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok from July 11 to 16."

Source and full text
Pictured: An AIDS patient pauses after a morning walk at the AIDS hospice in the Wat Phrabaht Nampu temple in Thailand's Lop Buri province, about 160 km (100 miles) north of Bangkok, July 3. (Reuters)

*Ø* Happy Tanabata!

Tanabata Star Festival (Hoshi Matsuri; Weaving Loom Festival; Festival of the Seven Evenings) Japan

[Tanabata may be translated as ‘weaving with the loom (bata) placed on the shelf (tana)’.]

Tanabata is a nationwide celebration, featuring very large festivals, with streets decorated with lanterns, festooned bamboo and colourful streamers.

Tanabata, inspired by a romantic legend, is the name for Japanese version of the Chinese star festival (Qi Qiao Jie, sometimes called Chinese Valentine’s Day, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the Chinese calendar and thus is also known as ‘Double Seven Day’). On this day two stars (Vega, in the Lyra constellation, and Altair, in the in the Aquila constellation) that are usually separated from each other by the Milky Way, come together.

The festival celebrates the meeting of Orihime (personifying the star Vega), a skilful weaver, and Hikoboshi, or Kengyu (Altair), a herdsman and breeder of cattle, mythological lovers who were separated by the Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky. They were allowed to meet only once a year, on Double Seven Day, which the Japanese have placed at 7/7 in the Gregorian Calendar, namely, July 7.  

At this time of year, Lyra and Aquila are prominent in the evening sky with their major stars, Vega and Altair, separated by the Milky Way. The seventh day of the lunar month has a waxing crescent moon reaching its first quarter, representing the boat piloted by the boatman on the sacred river of the Milky Way.
 
The romantic myth of Orihime and Hikoboshi
There was once a beautiful Princess of Heaven named Orihime, daughter of the Emperor of Heaven (or the Jade Emperor in the Chinese tradition). Orihime loved to weave all day at her loom, creating the cloth of stars worn by her honoured father. For many year, weaving this wondrous fabric was all that her heart desired.

One day, a peasant boy named Hikoboshi passed by, leading an ox from star to star. When Orihime and Hikoboshi’s eyes met, loved suddenly filled both their hearts and from that moment on, Orihime cared no more for her weaving ...

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* Blair caves

Believe it or not, it's the first time the bloke has said it.

From BBC Breaking News:

"Tony Blair has said Iraq's weapons of mass destruction 'may never be found'.

"Mr Blair said he had 'to accept we haven't found them and we may never find them' -- but that did did not mean Saddam Hussein had not been a threat."
Source

*Ø* A blow for freedom

The supreme court ruling that Guantánamo Bay prisoners can challenge their detention in the US is almost certain to lead to hundreds being released, says Conor Gearty

From The Guardian:

"The US supreme court's two rulings that terrorist suspects held at Guantánamo Bay and in America must have access to the US courts are among the most remarkable in the long history of that famous institution. The positive implications for the hundreds of internees held by the US across the world have yet to be clarified but will be immense. The chance to argue their cases is almost certain to lead to the release of hundreds of detainees. Already the habeas corpus applications have started to roll in, and the Bush administration seems at a loss as to what to do.

"The rulings will go a long way towards restoring the credibility both of the judiciary in the minds of the American public and, more importantly, of the US system of government in the eyes of the world. What the supreme court justices have said will make the shallow metaphor of an unending 'war on terror' far harder to sustain, and may even hasten the end of an administration which this very same court effectively appointed nearly four years ago when it stopped the Florida vote recount."
Continue here

*Ø* Costs of the war

Chris Keeley writes: "Here it is, all in one place. Full report and citations links":

Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War
A Study by the Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy In Focus

*Ø* Headline-seeking Celebs Hit Cambodia

"Phnom Penh (Reuters) - In the beginning was Angelina. Then came Minnie, Ashley, Jackie, Rupert, Roger and Cliff.

"After decades of war and the genocide of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, Cambodia is back on the tourist map and Hollywood is jumping on the plane -- not to mention the bandwagon.

"With a well-founded reputation for eastern mystique and a less well-founded one for danger, as well as a litany of social woes from desperate poverty to the highest AIDS infection rate in Asia, it has become a top destination for celebrities seeking heart-warming headlines ...

"On Tuesday, editors will be in something of a quandary: whether to go for Ashley Judd with child prostitutes or Rupert Everett with adult ones?"

Full text

*Ø* Legality of Iraq occupation 'flawed'

From The Independent:

"The senior Foreign Office lawyer who resigned after ministers ignored her advice that the war in Iraq was illegal has issued a damning legal critique of the occupation, claiming that the alleged abuse of prisoners 'could amount to war crimes'.

"In her first newspaper interview since her resignation, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, the former deputy legal adviser to the Foreign Office, said that the basis for going to war should always be based on 'facts' rather than an 'assertion' about an 'imminent threat'. Ms Wilmshurst said 'it could be alleged that the use of force in Iraq was aggression' while 'the kinds of abusive treatment of Iraqi prisoners that have been alleged could amount to war crimes'.

"Her comments came as Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's former envoy to Iraq, made the clearest admission yet that intelligence that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons was wrong. He said: 'We were wrong on the stockpiles, we were right about the intention.'

"Ms Wilmshurst expressed concern about the size of the US civilian presence in Iraq. She also said she was worried about the lack of legal protection for Iraqis if they were harmed by allied troops or civilian contractors, including private security guards. She said it was 'worrying' that the occupying powers had given immunity to US and British civilians which was 'very, very wide' and 'not what you would expect'. They would be protected from prosecution even if they seriously injured Iraqi women and children.

"She said the Bush administration's 'war on terror' was legal 'nonsense' -- conferring no more powers on the US to detain prisoners than 'the war against obesity' -- and President Bush's policy of pre-emptive self-defence was illegal under international law." [emphasis mine - N]

Continue here

*Ø* Happy X-Day!



X-Day, Church of the SubGenius (1998)

X-Day is the name for July 5, 1998, the scheduled 'end of the world' in the Church of the SubGenius. Since its inception in 1980, the Church prophesied that an army of extraterrestrial alien invaders would land on the planet Earth and destroy the world – except for the members of the Church of the SubGenius, who would be rescued by the aliens and taken away into space.

When July 5, 1998 arrived and no alien fleet appeared in the sky, members of the Church began citing a large number of conspiracy theories to explain why the predicted end of the world did not take place ...

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* Mike's First Blog Entry


My First Blog Entry: July 4, 2004
By Michael Moore

Hey, my first blog entry! Welcome fellow bloggers and blog readers! Blog doggers and blog loggers. Blogging away for the common good or just to keep from watching whatever crap is on TV right now. What is on TV right now? No new 6 Feet Under tonight. The Practice has been bounced. Can't Jon Stewart do a Sunday show?

Speaking of Sunday shows, did anyone see that hilarious CNN Unreliable Sources show this morning? It's hosted by this knucklehead from the Washington Post who's been raggin' on me since "Roger & Me." I wasn't half awake while it was on but I think he had some blow-hards on who said, in no particular order of priority, that I was in cahoots with the Taliban, supported Al Qaeda, and dreamed of a day gone by when Uncle Saddam brought peace and joy to the world. This thing was so whacked, and they were trying so hard to repeat Karl Rove's talking points, I thought, "Damn -- the box office from last night must have busted through the roof if these guys are that pissed!" So I immediately called up the studio and, sure enough, in just our second weekend, "F9/11" had shot past $50 million! Whoa! More than double what it was last Sunday! No wonder foam is coming out of these guys' mouths!

I turned it off and picked up the paper. It was so funny, cause the last thing they were blabbing on about was how dare I -- HOW DARE HE! -- imply that all the loot the Saudi royals and bin Ladens have invested in the businesses of the Bush inner circle would have anything -- ANYTHING -- to do with them getting special treatment after 9/11. And then, there was today's top headline story in the NY Times -- about how five Saudi suspected terrorists in Guantanamo were given back to the Saudis in exchange for 5 Brits the Saudis were holding (and possibly torturing). So, if you are currently incarcerated in Gitmo and reading this, there's your ticket out -- just prove you are a Saudi!

CONTINUE

*Ø* Tynwald Day

July 5 | Today they will be partying off the coast of Ireland … or is it off the coast of England … or of Scotland? In the Irish Sea between Britain and Ireland lies the Isle of Man, where men are Manx and proud of it (and so are the women). Man (or Mann) is famous for Manx cats and Grand Prix motor sports, and it is a small island with a big history.

The Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom, but a Crown Dependency. Queen Elizabeth II is acknowledged as Lord of Mann, and in 1979 she presided over the millennial celebrations of the Tynwald, the Manx parliament, which is commemorated each year on July 5 ...

National symbol: the 3-in-1
The national flag of Man is a plain red field with the triskell (or triskelion or trinacria) emblem at its centre. This symbol dates back to the 13th century and is believed to be connected with Sicily, where a similar image was used during the Norman period.

In Emblemes et symboles des Bretons et des Celtes (Coop Breizh, 1998), Divy Kervella suggests the triskell is a pagan Celtic symbol of triplicity in unity, and probably originally a solar symbol. Other Celtic examples of the three-in-one include the shamrock; the staff of the Celtic pantheon: Lugh, Daghda (Taran) and Ogme; the triune goddess of three aspects: daughter, wife, and mother; and the three dynamic elements: water, air, and fire.

The triskell is similar to the hevoud, another Celtic symbol, and the Basque lauburu, and might even precede Celtic origins (for instance on the cairn of Bru na Boinne in Ireland).

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* F-9-11 a record breaker

Fahrenheit 9/11 largest grossing documentary ever

By Michael Moore

" ... ** More people saw Fahrenheit 9/11 in one weekend than all the people who saw "Bowling for Columbine" in 9 months.

"** Fahrenheit 9/11 broke Rocky III’s record for the biggest box office opening weekend ever for any film that opened in less than a thousand theaters.

"** Fahrenheit 9/11 beat the opening weekend of Return of the Jedi.

"** Fahrenheit 9/11 instantly went to #2 on the all-time list for largest per-theater average ever for a film that opened in wide-release ...

"Then there was Roger Friedman from the Fox News Channel giving our film an absolutely glowing review, calling it 'a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail.' Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice surmised that Bush is already considered a goner so Rupert Murdoch might be starting to curry favor with the new administration. I don't know about that, but I’ve never heard a decent word toward me from Fox ...

"Newspaper after newspaper wrote stories in tones of breathless disbelief about people who called themselves 'Independents' and 'Republicans' walking out of the movie theater shaken and in tears, proclaiming that they could not, in good conscience, vote for George W. Bush. The New York Times wrote of a conservative Republican woman in her 20s in Pensacola, Florida who cried through the film, and told the reporter: 'It really makes me question what I feel about the president... it makes me question his motives ...'"
Source

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

*Ø* Fahrenheit 9/11 Breaks Records in Military Town

'Fahrenheit 9/11' sets record
"'Fahrenheit 9/11,' a left-sided documentary that bashes the Bush administration's war on terrorism, wouldn't find much of an audience in a military town.

"Or so they thought.

"'This has broken all of our past records,' said Nasim Kuenzel, an owner of the Cameo Art House Theatre. 'The movie that I thought would make us hardly any money - I never thought it would break all the records.'

"Both showings sold out Friday at the Cameo, the only theater in Fayetteville to carry the Michael Moore film. A midnight showing added at the last minute Friday brought in 60 more people.

"Saturday and Sunday were just as busy, Kuenzel said, with nearly 1,000 tickets sold over the weekend. As many as 75 percent of moviegoers were soldiers or military families, Kuenzel said."
Source: The Fayetteville Observer (North Carolina)

*Ø* Fahrenheit 9/11 in Top FIVE of All Movies Ever


Fahrenheit 9/11 Box Office Reaches Top FIVE of All Movies Ever;
in spite of R-rating that many suggest was politically motivated and inappropriate, and storm trooper goons at the gates, with people being turned away from sold-out theaters, the movie was not only the number one documentary, but, by one major statistic, broke into the top five listing of ALL movies.
By Rob Kall, editor, OpEdNews.com

Who could have imagined?

Not only is Fahrenheit 9/11 the number one documentary, ever, but based on projected ticket sales for it's first weekend, the movie was the either top 5th or sixth movie ever, in terms of average gross per theater. Boxofficemojo.com predicted weekend sales of $21,800,000 for 868 theaters, averaging $25,115 per theater.

Since it was only shown in 868 theaters, it was highly unlikely that it could reach the total sales of the top fiction-based movies that were released, in their first weekend, in 3600+ to 4100+ theaters.

The top opening movie of all time was Spiderman, with $114,844,116, opening in 3,615 theaters with an average gross per theater of $31,768.

Titanic, the world's all-time top grossing film, had an opening Weekend gross of $28,638,131, opening in 2,674 theaters with an average gross per theater of $10,709 average)

The only movie that grossed in the same $20 to $25 million opening week range, that came close to Fahrenheit 9/11, was Return of the Jeddi (1983,) with $22,973, the rest in that dollar category ranging from $6800 to $15,000.

According to Brandon Gray, writing for Box Officemojo.com, "Fahrenheit is actually the biggest opening ever for a movie playing at less than 1,000 theaters, topping Rocky III's $12.4 million at 939 venues."

Here's a link at boxofficemojo.com to Opening Weekend Box office Stats for Top-Selling Movies of All Time
There were a number of factors that worked against Fahrenheit 9/11 from becoming the number one all-time top box office average movie.


CONTINUE

*Ø* Aviation growth 'risk to planet'

"The rise in demand for air travel is one of the most serious environmental threats facing the world, a study says.

"The University of York report says [UK] government plans for airport expansion are in direct conflict with targets to reduce greenhouse gases ...

"It sets out a model for dealing with aviation over the next 30 years, recommending steps to be taken by the UK and other EU countries including an end to the tax-free status of aviation fuel.

"The report says at least 50% of visitors should access airports by public transport, and wants journeys of less than 400 miles to be undertaken by train rather than plane, eliminating 45% of flights."

Source and full text: BBC

*Ø* Spy chiefs to censor hard-hitting Butler report

No 10 to be rebuked over Iraq intelligence. Campbell and Scarlett may be singled out
From The Independent:

"The intelligence services are to censor Lord Butler's report into their own failures in the run-up to the Iraq war.

"The revelation, which comes from official sources, will fuel controversy over next week's report, which The Independent on Sunday has learnt will criticise Downing Street for its role in the 2002 dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Alastair Campbell, No 10's former director of communications, and John Scarlett, the dossier's author, now about to take over as head of MI6, could be singled out.

"A senior government source admitted last night that the intelligence services would be allowed to block out passages of the report before it is made public on 14 July. It is not known whether Mr Scarlett will be consulted."

Continue here

*Ø* Saddam Could Call CIA in his defence

Kurdish refugees I met in 1990 insisted to me that Saddam had gassed Halajba, so I've been of that persuasion since then. But this article raises some doubts.

Printed in full from Yahoo! News because it's too hard to find a boring paragraph to cut:

LONDON, Jul 2 (IPS) Evidence offered by a top CIA man could confirm the testimony given by Saddam Hussein at the opening of his trial in Baghdad Thursday that he knew of the Halabja massacre only from the newspapers.

Thousands were reported killed in the gassing of Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in the north of Iraq in March 1988 towards the end of Iraq's eight-year war with Iran. The gassing of the Kurds has long been held to be the work of Ali Hassan al-Majid, named in the West because of that association as 'Chemical Ali'. Saddam Hussein is widely alleged to have ordered Ali to carry out the chemical attack.

The Halabja massacre is now prominent among the charges read out against Saddam in the Baghdad court. When that charge was read out, Saddam replied that he had read about the massacre in a newspaper. Saddam has denied these allegations ever since they were made. But now with a trial on, he could summon a witness in his defence with the potential to blow apart the charge and create one of the greatest diplomatic disasters the United States has ever known.

A report prepared by the top CIA official handling the matter says Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the massacre, and indicates that it was the work of Iranians. Further, the Scott inquiry on the role of the British government has gathered evidence that following the massacre the United States in fact armed Saddam Hussein to counter the Iranians chemicals for chemicals.

Few believe that a CIA man would attend a court hearing in Baghdad in defence of Saddam. But in this case the CIA boss has gone public with his evidence, and this evidence has been in the public domain for more than a year.

The CIA officer Stephen C. Pelletiere was the agency's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. As professor at the Army War College from
1988 to 2000, he says he was privy to much of the classified material that flowed through Washington having to do with the Persian Gulf.

In addition, he says he headed a 1991 Army investigation into how the Iraqis would fight a war against the United States, and the classified version of the report went into great detail on the Halabja affair.

Pelletiere went public with his information on no less a platform than The New York Times in an article on January 31 last year titled 'A War Crime or an Act of War?' The article which challenged the case for war quoted U.S. President George W. Bush as saying: "The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured."

Pelletiere says the United States Defence Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report following the Halabja gassing, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need-to-know basis. "That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas," he wrote in The New York Times.

The agency did find that each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja, he said. "The condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated they had been killed with a blood agent – that is, a cyanide-based gas – which Iran was known to use. "The Iraqis, who are thought to have used mustard gas in the battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at the time."

Pelletiere write that these facts have "long been in the public domain but, extraordinarily, as often as the Halabja affair is cited, they are rarely mentioned."

Pelletiere wrote that Saddam Hussein has much to answer for in the area of human rights abuses. "But accusing him of gassing his own people at Halabja as an act of genocide is not correct, because as far as the information we have goes, all of the cases where gas was used involved battles. These were tragedies of war. There may be justifications for invading Iraq, but Halabja is not one of them."

Pelletiere has maintained his position. All Saddam would have to do in court now is to cite The New York Times article even if the court would not summon Pelletiere. The issues raised in the article would themselves be sufficient to raise serious questions about the charges filed against Saddam and in turn the justifications offered last year for invading Iraq.

The Halabja killings were cited not just by Bush but by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to justify his case for going along with a U.S. invasion of Iraq. A British government dossier released to justify the war on Iraq says that "Saddam has used chemical weapons, not only against an enemy state, but against his own people."

An inquiry report in 1996 by Lord Justice Scott in what came to be known as the arms-to-Iraq affair gave dramatic pointers to what followed after Halabja. After the use of poison gas in 1988 both the United States and Britain began to supply Saddam Hussein with even more chemical weapons.

The Scott inquiry had been set up in 1992 following the collapse of the trial in the case of Matrix Churchill, a British firm exporting equipment to Iraq that could be put to military use.

Three senior executives of Matrix Churchill said the government knew what Matrix Churchill was doing, and that its managing director Paul Henderson had been supplying information about Iraq to the British intelligence agencies on a regular basis.

The inquiry revealed details of the British government's secret decision to supply Saddam with even more weapons-related equipment after the Halabja killings.

Former British foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe was found to have written that the end of the Iraq-Iran war could mean "major opportunities for British industry" in military exports, but he wanted to keep that proposal quiet.

"It could look very cynical if so soon after expressing outrage about the treatment of the Kurds, we adopt a more flexible approach to arms sales," one of his officials told the Scott inquiry. Lord Scott condemned the government's decision to change its policy, while keeping MPs and the public in the dark.

Soon after the attack, the United States approved the export to Iraq of virus cultures and a billion-dollar contract to design and build a petrochemical plant the Iraqis planned to use to produce mustard gas.

Saddam Hussein has appeared so far without a lawyer to defend him. A Jordanian firm is reported to be speaking up for him. But the real defence for him could be waiting for him in Washington and London.

Source: Yahoo! News
via Pagans4Peace (posted by Jim Senyszyn, with thanks)

By googling Pelletiere I've found that since at least 1990 he's been making these claims, that Hussein didn't gas the Kurds, and I'm pretty pissed off that I've never heard them before.

*Ø* Baal fire day, Whalton, UK

In the Northumbrian village of Whalton today is traditionally the day for lighting the baal fire.

This bonfire's name comes from either the Celtic bel meaning bright, or Anglo-Saxon bael, fire. Or perhaps it comes from the old British sun god Belenus. At about 7.30 pm a bonfire is lit on the village green around which people make music, leap through the flames and perform traditional morris dancing around the fire.

In ancient times a select group of young people used to gather wood in the forest and cart it into the village to the sound of a cart horn.

The custom's ancient origins relate to the old date of midsummer, which was changed in 1752 when the English calendar was adjusted by eleven days to make up for discrepancies.

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* Azaria mystery unravels

After almost a quarter of a century, it looks like the Azaria mystery that gripped Australia at the time might be laid to rest.

"I know how the baby died" says elderly man

"AZARIA Chamberlain was killed by a dingo and her body hidden by men camping rough near Ayers Rock, one of the group has sensationally claimed.

"An elderly Melbourne man says he shot the dingo that killed Azaria and then retrieved her body from its jaws.

"Frank Cole also believes Azaria's body may have been buried in a Melbourne back yard by one of his mates.

"Mr Cole, 78, told the Sunday Herald Sun he had lived with the secret of what happened to the 9 1/2-week-old girl for almost 25 years.

"The ailing Pascoe Vale pensioner, who is the last of the camping party at the rock (now Uluru), said he wanted to unburden himself before it is too late ..."

Source: NewsCom

(Frank Cole must have had a very quiet .22 if not one of the many police and dozens of searchers and campers at the Rock, who were awake for most of the 48 hours following Azaria's disappearance, didn't hear a gunshot.)

*Ø* Happy July 4

Happy Independence Day to all our American readers!

[Click image for free e-cards.]

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

Author unknown, sent by Almaniac Bill Donoghue, with thanx

*Ø* The voice of the Beast of Baghdad

Robert Fisk, 2 July:

"Baghdad -- Bags beneath his eyes, beard greying, finger-jabbing with anger, Saddam was still the same fox: alert, cynical, defiant, abusive, proud.

"Yet history must record that America's new 'independent' government in Baghdad yesterday gave Saddam Hussein an initial trial hearing that was worthy of the brutal old dictator.

"He was brought to court in chains and handcuffs. The judge insisted his name should be kept secret. The names of the other judges were kept secret. The location of the court was kept secret. There was no defence counsel.

"For hours, the Iraqi judges managed to censor Saddam's evidence from the soundtrack of the videotaped proceedings -- so that the world should not hear the wretched man's defence. Even CNN was forced to admit it had been given tapes of the hearing 'under very controlled circumstances'.

"This was the first example of 'new' Iraq's justice system at work -- yet the tapes of the court appeared on CNN with the logo 'Cleared by US Military'.

"So what did the Iraqis and their American mentors want to hide?"

Continue at Information Clearing House

Iraq: Saddam Hussein's trial must be fair, and seen to be fair

Amnesty International:

"Amnesty International is deeply concerned at the absence of defence lawyers and the apparent censorship during yesterday's first court appearance by Saddam Hussein and 11 senior members of the former president's government.

"'The beginning of legal proceedings to determine responsibility for a series of crimes considered as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed over the last three decades, is to be welcomed. However, in order to bring justice to the thousands of victims, the proceedings must be fair, impartial and transparent,' Amnesty International said."

Full text

*Ø* A fatal mix

Alert over fatal mix of herbal pills and medicines

From The Times, 3 July:

"Thousands of people are risking their lives by mixing herbal remedies with common prescription drugs.

"Of the 10,000 deaths caused by adverse reactions to prescription drugs every year, a 'significant number' were likely to have been caused by patients mixing their treatments with complementary medicines, doctors’ leaders said yesterday ...

"'What was really striking was that one in five people is taking something and nine out of ten are not discussing it with their doctor,' Dr Smith, a GP in Somerset, said.

"'If complementary medicines were perfectly safe and had been thoroughly tested, there wouldn’t be a problem. But most of these medications remain untested and unresearched. This is potentially very dangerous.'" [my emphasis - N]

Full text

*Ø* Dog Days of Summer

The Dog Days (Jul 3 - Aug 11)

In these Dog Days it is forbidden by Astronomy to all Manner of People to be let Blood or take Physic. Yea, it is good to abstain all this time from Women. For why, all that time reigneth a Star that is called Canicula Canis, a Hound in English, and the kind of the Star is broiling and burning as Fire. All this time the Heat of the Sun is so fervent and violent that Men's bodies at Midnight sweat as at Midday: and if they be hurt, they be more sick than at any other time, yea very near Dead. In these days all venomous serpents creep, fly and gender, so that many are annoyed thereby; in these times a Fire is good night and day, and wholesome, seeth well your meals and take heed of feeding violently.
The Husbandman's Practice 1729

 
In olden days it was believed that July's warmth, and the associated diseases, were to do with the heliacal rising and setting of the star Canicula – the Little Dog, or Dog Star (Sirius). Thus they called the period from July 3 to August 11 ‘the Dog Days’.

Sirius comes from the Greek word seirios, meaning 'scorching'. However, another explanation exists for the naming of the Dog Star: the Egyptians named it after Sihor, the Nile, and the Romans altered this to Sirius. According to Greek mythology, Sirius was seen as the dog of Orion the hunter, and he was also called kyon, Greek for dog ...

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* The perils of OCR

Optical Character Recognition software is improving all the time, but, like online translators, still has a way to go.

An example of how OCR can bedevil web publishers but bring hilarity to web readers may be found in Paragraph 4.208 in the chapter on Count Cagliostro (that's Count, I said Count Cagliostro) in Charles Mackay's classic Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds which is online here. Should I tell the publishers?

Naaaaah!

Nup.

*Ø* CIA and the fall of Australia's government

July 2, 1975 Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam sacked Treasurer and Deputy PM Dr Jim Cairns (October 4, 1914 - October 12, 2003), for allegedly misleading parliament and him over foreign loans (the 'Khemlani Loans Affair').

In retrospect, it seems quite likely the loans affair was part of a CIA set-up that ended with Whitlam's left-leaning government being dismissed by the Governor-General on November 11 that 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.

*Ø* Roswell mystery (yawn)

July 2, 1947 The town of Roswell, New Mexico, USA, was launched into a new form of economic sustenance – UFO tourism, and I don’t mean aliens – when a rancher named William 'Mac' Brazel, near Corona in the same state, heard a loud crash.

Brazel informed Sheriff George Wilcox, who reported it to Intelligence Officer, Major Jesse Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell. Soon, military personnel soon arrived at the area, retrieved the wreckage, and transported it to Roswell Army Airfield whence it was later flown to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio.

Initial Air Force press releases (issued by Lt. Walter G Haut, Public Information Officer at RAAB under order from the Commander of the 509th Bomb Group, Col. William Blanchard) reported the recovery of a "flying disk", "hexagonal in shape". However, this story was rapidly changed to say that the crash was in fact a weather balloon, which it probably was, although some ufologists have argued an alien craft crashed near Roswell. It is also said that an alien body was found at the crash site, and then moved by military to the infamous Area 51 in Nevada.

There is now evidence that the 'UFO' was in fact part of Project Mogul, a top secret project involving high-altitude balloons carrying low-frequency microphones and radar corner reflectors, designed to detect possible Soviet atomic bomb explosions and forewarn of an atomic attack on the United States.

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

Also today: In 1959, Plan 9 from Outer Space (Unspeakable Horrors From Outer Space Paralyze The Living And Resurrect The Dead!) , Ed Wood's great movie, premiered. If you haven't seen it and need a good laugh, this is the one for you. You'll find out why it's called 'the worst movie ever made'.

These sre just snippets 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* Mickelbergs unstitched – 22 years too late

Congratulations to the framed Mickelbergs

Almost twenty years ago a woman from Perth – 5,000 kilometres away on the other side of Oz – came to my office requesting support for a campaign to free the three Mickelberg brothers.

It's so long ago, I can't remember her name, nor whether she was a wife or simply a family member of one of the three. She gave me a copy of a mind-shredding new book, The Mickelberg Stitch. I recall I was impressed with her sincerity and dedication, and that, when I read it later, the book blew me away.

She told me an extraordinary tale of how the Mickelbergs had been "stitched up" by the police. On my side of the continent, we say "fitted up", but I knew that she meant "framed". It doesn't matter where you are in this great country, a frame-up is a frame-up. These men's supposed crime was a fraud that involved a lot of gold bullion from the Australian Mint in her home city.

She told me that one of the brothers was a plaster figurine hobbyist, and that sometimes he made latex moulds of hands, to cast in plaster. I was intrigued when she explained that the cops had used one of these latex moulds to fabricate a fingerprint that had helped fit up the brothers and send them to jail for extraordinarily long laggings (meaning "sentences", on my side of the Wide Brown Land).

Exonerated
These poor buggers have been fighting to clear their name for 22 years and finally their convictions have been quashed. In the meantime, one of the brothers has died, and one of the cops in the case was blown up in his own car. Another policeman died, but confessed before he did, which was very decent of him, for a bent copper.

I've been interested in the Mickelberg Stitch for almost half my life, and wish I'd done more to help. Like the incredible Sydney Hilton Bombing case on which I've reported in the Scriptorium, it is one of the worst cases of cop frame-ups this country of daily frame-ups has ever known. But at least I can send my congratulations to Ray and Peter Mickelberg and hope that they get a helluva lot more compo for not robbing the Perth Mint than the lousy hundred grand that Tim got for not bombing the Hilton and killing two garbagemen and a cop. One hundred million would be more like it, for the suffering it must have caused the Mickelberg men and their loved ones.

Let's hope the real swindlers get nabbed. And we can only hope (probably vainly) that some cops will do laggings like these blokes did for eight and six years, unlike in the Hilton case. In the Hilton, the crooked wallopers not only remain free, they have kept their promotions and bravery awards for arresting innocent men with non-existent bombs. Amazing, is it not?

Just imagine how corrupt Australian police would be if we didn't have an expensive Royal Commission into every State's police force every five minutes or so.

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"After more than 20 years of maintaining their innocence, the brothers convicted of the infamous Perth Mint swindle had their convictions overturned.

"Ray and Peter Mickleberg's eighth appeal against their conviction for the 1982 theft of $653,000 in gold bullion from the mint was upheld in the West Australian Supreme Court of Criminal Appeal.

"In a 2-1 split decision, Chief Justice David Malcolm and Justice Christopher Steytler agreed the conviction should be quashed and no retrial ordered.

"Justice Michael Murray disagreed, saying the appeal should be dismissed on the grounds that no miscarriage of justice had occurred.

"Ray Mickelberg served eight years of a 20-year sentence for the swindle, while Peter served six years of a 14-year term.

"The third Mickelberg brother, Brian, whose conviction was overturned after nine months behind bars, died in a light aircraft crash in 1986."
Source: The Age

"But where there is exercise of power there is always resistance, and despite police threats some used less than ordinary means to distribute Lovell’s book. One proprietor was selling plain paper bags for $8.95 with ‘an entirely free copy’ of The Mickelberg Stitch inside. Another provided customers with a free copy with every bookmark he sold.

"However the attempted suppression was soon successful, as most of the booksellers felt they had no other choice than to remove it from the shelves. And the Mickelberg brothers remained in jail."
Unpicking the Mickelberg stitch

"The Mickelberg stitch has shocked many people in Perth but it is worth going back and examining the evidence to see just how shocking an affair this really was."
Anatomy of a stitch-up

Copies of The Mickelberg Stitch (and a subsequent book, Split Image, on the defamation actions and the Mickelberg appeals) used to be available from the Mickelberg Committee, 81 Mullalloo Drive, Mullalloo WA 6025, Australia, and may well still be.

*Ø* US leaves Iraq running on empty

"WASHINGTON - A barrage of binding decrees passed during the United States occupation of Iraq, combined with a lack of resources, heavy debt and the continuing presence of a massive US force, provide clear evidence that the recent handover of authority to Iraqis does not equal real control over the economy ...

"A report by the Institute of Policy Studies estimated that Bremer had passed nearly 100 orders that, among other things, give US corporations 'virtual free rein over the Iraqi economy while largely excluding Iraqis from a reconstruction effort which has failed to provide for their basic needs'."
Source: Asia Times

*Ø* Huge crowd at Hong Kong democracy rally

"HONG KONG: In a show of people power, more than 350,000 Hong Kongers took to the streets on Thursday in the hottest day of the year, calling for faster democratic freedoms.

"The turn-out was better than expected, as the protest march took place on the day the former British colony marked its seventh anniversary return to China.

"Seven years after Hong Kong was handed back to China, political aspirations in the territory have moved faster than what the mainland authorities would like.

"In what some see as a show of displeasure, no Chinese leader was present at the low-key celebrations to mark the anniversary.

"Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa acknowledged his people's calls for universal suffrage, and reassured them that full democracy is still on the cards."
Source: Channel News Asia

*Ø* USA sinks 1,000 Aussies: unsung story

July 1, 1942 The sinking of the Montevideo Maru with the loss of approximately 1,053 mainly Australian lives.

About 610 Australian soldiers and 130 civilians perished when American submarine, USS Sturgeon, commanded by Lieutenant Commander WL Wright, mistakenly opened its torpedoes on the 7,267-ton transport, Montevideo Maru. The Japanese ship, carrying hundreds of Australian POWs, was sailing from Philippine waters off Cape Bojidoru, Luzon, westwards towards the South China Sea. 

The mystery remains
Although the sinking had been reported in Japanese newspapers, the American and Australian governments did not inform Australian loved ones anxiously wondering about the fate of the hundreds of victims until October 30, 1945 – more than three years later.

Almost twice as many Australians lost their lives in that one night as did in the ten years of the Vietnam War, and some 71 Japanese crewmen and naval guards also perished in the tragedy. However, even today, the exact number of lives lost, and the names of the victims, are not known, and the event is still shaded in mystery ...

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* Buckley bows out: "I was wrong on Iraq"

"If I knew then what I know now ... I would have opposed the war"

"William F Buckley Jnr, one of the leading spokesmen of American conservatism of the past 50 years, is stepping down from the magazine that has acted as the torch-carrier for his political ideas.

"'The question is choose some point to quit or die onstage and there would not be any point in that,' he told the New York Times. 'Thought was given and plans were made to proceed with divestiture' ...

"'With the benefit of hindsight, Saddam Hussein was not the kind of extra-territorial menace that was assumed by the administration one year ago,' he said. 'If I knew then what I know now ... I would have opposed the war.'"
Source: The Independent