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This is the blog for Wilson's Almanac free, illustrated ezine which was founded on the first day of the millennium, January 1, 2001, 8868 daily editions ago.
The Blogmanac: "On This Day" ... and much more
Think universally. Act terrestrially.
For in a hard-working society, it is rare and even subversive to celebrate too much, to revel and keep on reveling: to stop whatever you're doing and rave, pray, throw things, go into trances, jump over bonfires, drape yourself in flowers, stay up all night, and scoop the froth from the sea.
Anneli Rufus*
Wilson's Almanacquote for 4/13/2025 If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are, if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time. (Joseph Campbell)
*�* Eat your blackberries before the Devil pisses on them
Holy Rood Eve, OS (Old Style calendar) Last blackberry-eating day, Scotland
The last day to pick and eat blackberries because the Devil poisons them (urinates on them) on September 26, Old Holy Rood Day (rood = cross).
However, in most parts of England the equivalent day was Michaelmas (now September 29). Because some say that Satan keeps the old calendar, in England blackberries are safe to eat until old Michaelmas Eve (October 10).
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 (or your birthday) when you're there.
"Iraq's appointed leader, Ayad Allawi, put on an impressive performance yesterday in Washington ...
It was everything the Bush re-election campaign could have asked for. Unfortunately, most of it was wrong.
"Until Iraq holds free elections, Mr. Allawi cannot claim to speak for more than the narrow coalition of exile parties that maneuvered his appointment as interim prime minister. Increasingly well-organized and deadly attacks are directed against American troops, foreign relief workers and Iraqi security recruits. Sunni towns like Falluja and Mosul and Shiite areas, including much of Baghdad, are gripped by insurgencies that American military analysts believe are nowhere near being overcome. Oil pipelines are attacked regularly, electricity supplies remain erratic, and foul drinking water breeds disease ... " Full text at the New York Times
Excerpt from Michael Moore, 20 Sept: [Last Monday]
"The polls are wrong. They are all over the map like diarrhea. On Friday, one poll had Bush 13 points ahead -- and another poll had them both tied. There are three reasons why the polls are b.s.: One, they are polling 'likely voters'. 'Likely' means those who have consistently voted in the past few elections. So that cuts out young people who are voting for the first time and a ton of non-voters who are definitely going to vote in THIS election. Second, they are not polling people who use their cell phone as their primary phone. Again, that means they are not talking to young people. Finally, most of the polls are weighted with too many Republicans, as pollster John Zogby revealed last week. You are being snookered if you believe any of these polls."
*�* Dobell, Smith and Aussie prejudice, '40s style
September 24, 1899 Sir William Dobell (d. May 13, 1970), Australian artist whose name will forever be linked to that of his friend, Joshua Smith.
In 1943 Dobell won Australia�s most prestigious award for portraiture, the often controversial Archibald Prize, for a painting (right) of fellow artist, Smith.
Amid claims that the painting was a caricature and not a portrait, a highly celebrated and acrimonious court case eventuated, in which lawyers drew attention to Smith's non-movie star visage. How could the portrait be a caricature, it was asked, when Smith really had those odd looks? And that was just from the lawyer's on Dobell's side.
The public curiosity, or, rather, prurience, was heightened by the subtle nuances of the sexuality of Dobell and his friend. Dobell was vindicated, but some scholars say that both Smith and Dobell were ruined in health by the case.
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 (or your birthday) when you're there.
"BERLIN (Reuters) - A German telecommunications company said on Tuesday it is developing the first mobile phone that will alert users when their breath is bad or if they are giving off offensive smells.
"The phone will use a tiny chip measuring less than one millimeter to detect unpleasant odors, a spokeswoman for Siemens Mobile said. A research team in the southern city of Munich is developing the device using new sensor technology." Source
"BAGHDAD, Iraq � First Cavalry Division announced Sept. 21 that charges have been preferred against two Task Force Baghdad Soldiers in the deaths of three Iraqis.
"Sgt. Michael P. Williams and Spc. Brent W. May, members of Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, Fort Riley, Kansas, have both been charged with premeditated murder. Williams was also charged with obstruction of justice and making a false official statement." Source
*�* "Hussein probably didn't gas Kurds": CIA senior analyst
"The chemical attack on Halabja � just one of 40 targeted at Iraq's own people � provided a glimpse of the crimes Saddam Hussein is willing to commit, and the kind of threat he now presents to the entire world." President GW Bush, March 15, 2003 Source: American Forces Information Services
We invaded Iraq because of WMDs and because Saddam Hussein was such a crazy mutha that he gassed his own people (the Kurds in Halabja), so he might gas us, do you remember?
Author Dr Stephen C Pelletiere, recently professor at the US Army War College, was the CIA�s senior political analyst during the Iran-Iraq War. In Tuesday's Late Night Live interview with the doyen of Australian broadcasters, Phillip Adams, Pelletier drops the bombshell that he and his colleagues who investigated the gassing did not believe that Saddam Hussein committed the atrocity.
Of the massacre of Kurds in Halabja, Pelletier tells Adams: �Halabja was a battle between the Iraqis and the Iranians and the Kurds were � collateral damage�. �Halabja was a tragedy of war, it was not a war crime�. Pelletier goes on to say that Iraq was not known to have cyanide gas, but Iran was:
�I examined the case very deeply afterwards � those of us who examined the bodies concluded that most of the Kurds who died, or the ones we examined, died of cyanide poisoning� � �it is spin doctoring� � �people who die in a battle are unfortunate victims, but they are not objects of genocide�.
Pelletier says that �the President is effectively lying to us� � �It does appear that the Bush administration lives in an atmosphere that is hermetically sealed � you do get the opinion that these people are out of touch�.
Hear the interview with Pelletier Listen in Real Media or Windows Media. Kindly note that the interview starts about 15 minutes from the beginning of the one-hour program, and I suggest you make a cup of tea during the first quarter hour, which is rather inconsequential Aussie political banter.
Pelletiere wrote on January 31, 2003 in the NY Times:
"And the story gets murkier: immediately after the battle the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report, 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.
"The agency did find that each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja. 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.
"These facts have long been in the public domain but, extraordinarily, as often as the Halabja affair is cited, they are rarely mentioned." Source
Could ex-CIA man Pelletiere be Saddam's witness? Pelletiere has been making his claim since going public on January 31, 2003 in The New York Times in an article ('A War Crime or an Act of War?'). Saddam Hussein at the opening of his trial in Baghdad said that he knew of the Halabja massacre only from the newspapers; perhaps he will call the former CIA man as a witness (more at July 4 in the Blogmanac).
September 21, 1995 The milk miracle of New Delhi, India which spread worldwide and finished in 24 hours as suddenly as it had started. It has been called �The best documented paranormal phenomenon of modern times.�
In this alleged miracle, a statue of the Hindu elephant god, Ganesh, accepted offerings of milk from tens of millions of worshippers in thousands of temples.
There is a similar 'miracle' (though in an opposite direction) recorded of a statuette of �Ashtart (a major northwest Semitic goddess cognate of Ishtar) from Tutugi (Galera) near Granada in Spain dating to the 6th or 7th century BCE.
In this miracle, �Ashtart sat on a throne flanked by sphinxes holding a bowl beneath her pierced breasts. A hollow in the statue would have been filled with milk through the head and gentle heating would have melted wax plugging the holes, producing an apparent miracle.
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 (or your birthday) when you're there.
"Microwave weapons that cause pain without lasting injury [?? - N] are to be issued to American troops in Iraq for the first time as concern mounts over the growing number of civilians killed in fighting...
"Using technology similar to that found in a conventional microwave oven, the beam rapidly heats water molecules in the skin to cause intolerable pain and a burning sensation. The invisible beam penetrates the skin to a depth of less than a millimetre. As soon as the target moves out of the beam's path, the pain disappears." Full text
"Johannesburg -- The world's patience is running out on war-torn Darfur and Sudan has to immediately stop all rights abuses and end a cycle of broken promises, a senior Amnesty International official said on Sunday.
"The warning came a day after the UN Security Council passed a resolution warning that it 'will envisage' sanctions against Sudan's vital oil industry, after consulting with the African Union, unless Khartoum delivers on pledges to protect the people of Darfur." Full text
Can you afford 10 cents?
If you add the contents of a sachet of Oral Rehydration Salts to clean boilded water and give it to a child who is dying from diarrhoeal dehydration, within a few short hours you'll have saved that child's life. Can you imagine what it must be like when there are no sachets left? A life-saving sachet costs only 10 cents.
The comb-licking guy (in-joke to those who've seen Fahrenheit 9-11*), courtesy of Baz le Tuff, with thanks. Arrr Arr!! (It's Talk Like a Pirate Day, after all.)
*If you haven't, you can pre-order the DVD through Cafe Diem!.
It's unthinkable, unimaginable, that the September 11, 2001 attack on America was anything but what the US Government told us it was. I admit that I have doubts about that (although persuaded of many problems with the government's use of it), but until I see irrefutable evidence to the contrary, I accept the received wisdom.
I do, however, feel that alternative theories should be considered, and those that aren't obviously and irredeemably ludicrous have been and will continue to be presented here for public information. I say this as something of a caveat to my presentation of an interview that is really quite astounding and worthy of consideration.
Stanley Hilton is an attorney, author and former senior advisor to Senator Bob Dole and has personally known Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. He came to public attention a couple of years ago as the attorney representing the families of 9-11 victims in a class action which is filed as Case No. CV-03-03927-SI. He has changed his public statements from accusations that the Administration did too little to prevent the attacks, to one that the Administration actually committed them. He claims to have incriminating evidence and has filed a lawsuit, again on behalf of 400 victim families. In the following interview he says:
"Our case is alleging that Bush and his puppets Rice and Cheney and Mueller and Rumsfeld and so forth, Tenet, were all involved not only in aiding and abetting and allowing 9/11 to happen but in actually ordering it to happen. Bush personally ordered it to happen. We have some very incriminating documents as well as eye-witnesses, that Bush personally ordered this event to happen in order to gain political advantage, to pursue a bogus political agenda on behalf of the neocons and their deluded thinking in the Middle East ...
"Individuals that work in NORAD as well as the Air Force have stated this, off the record, but the point is, yes, this was not just five drills but at least 35 drills over at least two months before September 11th. Everything was planned, the exact location ... "
This site has an interesting expose on bogus 9-11 sites, COINTELPRO, disinfo, agents provocateurs and all that jazz in the movement questioning what really happened. I guess it all adds to the rich fabric of postmodern madness.
This, however, isn't bogus: Pravda on June 26, 2001 with a report that Osama bin Laden was preparing an attack on the USA. I guess Bush, Blair and Howard can't read Russian, even in English.
*Ø* Why US troops were allowed to use Shannon airport ...
... on their way to Iraq, while the Irish Government protested that it was supporting the UN line, i.e. "give the inspections more time, there is as yet no war". We wouldn't like any bad blood that might make these companies pull out and find their labour elsewhere, now would we. Never morals. Always economics.
Ireland is most profitable tax haven for US firms
"Ireland is the most profitable country in the world for US corporations, a detailed analysis of global tax havens has found, writes Sean O'Driscoll in New York
"The analysis, in the influential US tax journal Tax Notes, found that profits made by US companies in Ireland doubled from 1999 to 2002, while profits in most of the rest of Europe plunged. While Luxembourg showed greater profitability rates for US corporations, Ireland has a much larger 'real economy' and produced the greatest profitability.
"The report found a huge shift in the movement of capital towards tax havens.
"'In low-tax Ireland, for instance, profits of subsidiaries of US multinationals have doubled in four years, from $13.4 billion to $26.8 billion. Profits from operations of US multinationals in no-tax Bermuda have tripled, from $8.5 billion to $25.2 billion. Not surprisingly, those two tax havens rank as the number one and number two locations in terms of profitability for US corporations operating abroad - surpassing long-time leading investment partners like the United Kingdom,' the report found." Continue at the Irish Times
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"Iraq's appointed leader, Ayad Allawi, put on an impressive performance yesterday in Washington ...
"The polls are wrong. They are all over the map like diarrhea. On Friday, one poll had Bush 13 points ahead -- and another poll had them both tied. There are three reasons why the polls are b.s.: One, they are polling 'likely voters'. 'Likely' means those who have consistently voted in the past few elections. So that cuts out young people who are voting for the first time and a ton of non-voters who are definitely going to vote in THIS election. Second, they are not polling people who use their cell phone as their primary phone. Again, that means 
"Dogs can be trained to sniff out bladder cancer, the first controlled experiments published claim.
"BERLIN (Reuters) - A German telecommunications company said on Tuesday it is developing the first mobile phone that will alert users when their breath is bad or if they are giving off offensive smells.
"The chemical attack on Halabja � just one of 40 targeted at Iraq's own people � provided a glimpse of the crimes Saddam Hussein is willing to commit, and the kind of threat he now presents to the entire world."
September 21, 1995 The milk miracle of New Delhi, India which spread worldwide and finished in 24 hours as suddenly as it had started. It has been called �The best documented paranormal phenomenon of modern times.� 
"Johannesburg -- The world's patience is running out on war-torn Darfur and Sudan has to immediately stop all rights abuses and end a cycle of broken promises, a senior Amnesty International official said on Sunday.
It's unthinkable, unimaginable, that the September 11, 2001 attack on America was anything but what the US Government told us it was. I admit that I have doubts about that (although persuaded of many problems with the government's use of it), but until I see irrefutable evidence to the contrary, I accept the received wisdom.