No correspondents will be entered into

When I'm not whingeing that I have too much correspondence to manage, I'm bellyaching that nobody emails me any more. But I do get some beauts, like this one from Vladimir yesterday:

"I've been reading your website trying to find an answer. I hope you can help me.

"As you know after The Imperio Inca( TAHUANTINSUYO) was divided in two. Cuzco which was the capital and HAUSCAR the chief(PERU) The Kingdom of Quito which Atahualpa was King (ECUADOR) I have clear that Huascar was born in CUZCO, but there is nothing clear that Atahualpa was born in Cuzco as well, although they are half brothers. Where was he born? Do you think he was born on North of the Inca Imperio actual Ecuador. If you think he was born in Cuzco actual Peru, would you mind to give me facts. The only fact I have is that PACCHA Queen of The KINGDOM OF QUITO was Atahualpa's mother. Please I'll really appreciate your help."

Nothing can stroke one's ego like having people think you know hard things. And nothing can make you hard like having your ego stroked. I know less than nothing about Incan history, but if you know whether Ecuador can claim the great Atahualpa as its son, you can tell Vladimir through me.

Ledj of Didj
I'm also a sucker for anything that groans and whines (except for George Bush, Alexander Downer and other people's children), especially bagpipes and didgeridoos, and especially when they're used in rock music , which they have been sometimes in Aussie rock.

So I surfed up last night to the website of the world's most acclaimed didgeridoo maestro, Charlie McMahon (http://www.charliemcmahon.com), formerly with Gondwanaland and now playing with Gondwana. I sent off a quick email to the Living Ledj of Didj thanking him for making some sample mp3s available on his site, and to my surprise he shot this reply back to your almanackist.

"The almanac you do has the kind of content that interests me, good stuff, thanks. Anyway my attitude to [music file sharing] is that as copying gets easier so copyright declines and rather than pissin in the wind the best tack is to get copied a lot to get better known and have a higher profile for live stuff ... some Deutsch fans have made a site about my seismis audio www.face-bass.com"

Just when I was starting to really get the shits with the Net I appreciate it all over again for the many cool opportunities and networking it opens up even to destitute shmendricks like yours truly. And I think Charlie's got the right attitude about snagging mp3s off the Net. Some cultures aren't as mercenarily hung up on copyright and even plagiarism issues as ours, and use of one's material is seen as tribute rather than theft. Having said that, if you pinch anything from the Almanac, it's not tribute, it's bloody robbery, got it?

Charlie sounds like a good bloke. Make sure he plays your town.

ET phoning DNA

Is there a hidden message in the DNA coding? I've been doing some background research for 'Kill the President' and ...

I found here that this Oz scientist Paul Davies has an interesting speculation along the lines I'm working on. It's very similar, really, to a 25-year-old Tim Leary rave on (a supposed) genetically imprinted imperative to return to the stars, which in fact is an influence on my own experiment in speculative doggerel. (Leary asserts a code equivalence in the Kabbalah/Periodic Table of Elements blah blah the number 23 blah blah ... an interesting rave ...)

More ... especially read the bit where Paul Davies has his say.

If this stuff interests you, also see another New Scientist article by Paul Davies on a related topic.

17th Century Porn to Be Auctioned

"The world's first known piece of printed pornography, described as the 'quintessence of debauchery', is expected to reach up to 35,000 pounds ($65,040) when it is auctioned next month."

Source

Global warming: a perspective from earth history

I found this educational and scary, despite what I've already read on the subject. It's fairly long so I'm posting an extract from near the end of the paper, which is a position paper of the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London. It's worth reading the earlier sections on earth history, IMHO.

[Excerpt] Implications

"The threat to humanity is clear: such a disappearance of living space (with some 100 million people living less than one metre above present sea level) would represent a virtually impossible burden to a human population that is already struggling to feed itself, and is set to add another three billions to its numbers this century.

"We note that it may not be the amount of sea level rise, as its speed, which may be catastrophic for a large section of humanity. The geological record shows that the melting of icecaps does not proceed smoothly, but occurs in fits and starts. Thus, the last retreat of the great ice-sheets included at least three episodes where sea level rose some 5-10 metres within the space of a decade. This is because a modest sea level rise can destabilize the edge of a mass of land ice, causing large parts of it to rapidly slide into the sea.

"The consequences of such a sea level rise would be calamitous, comparable to (and perhaps including as a consequence) a global war. Unlike a world war, though, civilization cannot get back to normal afterwards, as much of the landscape will have been drowned, effectively forever. We consider the threat to be imminent, the timescale of the global changes seeming likely to include the lifespans of our children." [my emphasis - N]

Full text: The Guardian

Firefox test run

Wikipedia's article on Firefox says: "Mozilla Firefox (originally known as Phoenix and intermittently as Mozilla Firebird) is a free web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and hundreds of volunteers. Before its 1.0 release on November 9, 2004, Firefox had already garnered a great deal of acclaim from the media, ranging from Forbes to the Wall Street Journal. With over 5 million downloads in the first 12 days of its release, Firefox 1.0 is one of the most-used open source applications among home users."

I'm one of the millions who are giving Firefox a test run. The advantage most sources quote is that virus writers are writing for MS Internet Explorer so it's safer. So far I'm pretty happy with it, and my guess is it's a bit faster than MSIE, but these are the things that would make me stick with MSIE:

1) I noticed that when I look at omniparticle's homepage in IE I can see a javascripted mouse trailer. Can't see it in Firefox.

2) I like my Favorites (Firefox calls them Bookmarks) to open in a sidebar on the left of the page. Maybe Firefox can do this but the default is a tricky thing to use and I'm searching how to change this.

3) I've had two pages load that will not show the up-down scroll bar no matter what I do.

4) When I'm in a picture-saving frenzy, some stupid "Cleanup" box pops up. WTF is that? Also, if I'm saving images off a few pages simultaneously in a hurry, it gets confused as to which page and image I'm on, and also the saving time seems awfully slow to me, compared to Explorer. On the plus side, if I have a zillion pages open, the images seem to keep downloading on most or all of them, not give up on them as MSIE quite often does.

5) When opening pages it asks if you want to open in a new window, which is fine as MSIE does that and I'm used to it. But it also asks about 'tabs', and what they are I have no idea ... it doesn't tell you.

6) I like blue and don't like orange. Hate it in Blogger too.

7) This one's a biggie for me: if I copy from a webpage and paste into Front Page 2000, it doesn't paste in hyperlinks nor pictures at all, just plain text. Baz le Tuff says it works in FP 2003 but I have other issues with that version and can't use it.

For me, the jury's still out.

Shit, I'm talking like a talking head on TV. At the end of the day ... hit the ground running ... outcomes ... I have no ambition but if the people insist ... send a message to the electorate ... just a fishing expedition ...

Spread Firefox reports 6 million downloads.

And you thought it was the chicken

[A few years ago TIME Magazine did a cover story ('Teens Before Their Time', October 30, 2000) looking at what might be the possible reasons for our kids and grandkids reaching puberty at ridiculous ages. I recall that it quoted an endocrinologist in the USA as saying that they used to treat children, particularly girls, for precocious puberty as early as 8 years of age, but now patients are presenting at ages years younger.

Me, I'd come to put it down to hormones being fed to chickens and farm animals that we eat, and to plastics and other artificial products in our environment – after all, scientists tell us that now half of the fish in British rivers have changed sex because of pollutants. Consumer culture has given us an environment before testing it for safety over time.

Maybe it's those factors, and another we should consider. This was published on June 28, so please excuse that it's not 'fast-breaking news', but it seems it might be important important.]

Television watching may hasten puberty

"Children who watch a lot of television produce less melatonin, new research suggests – the 'sleep hormone' has been linked to timing of puberty.

"Scientists at the University of Florence in Italy found that when youngsters were deprived of their TV sets, computers and video games, their melatonin production increased by an average 30 per cent.

"'Girls are reaching puberty much earlier than in the 1950s. One reason is due to their average increase in weight; but another may be due to reduced levels of melatonin,' suggests Roberto Salti, who led the study. 'Animal studies have shown that low melatonin levels have an important role in promoting an early onset of puberty.'"
Source: New Scientist

More at Fathering Magazine
More at Nexus

Dynamite brains

At school we had a teacher named Dynamite Brains Taylor. I'd forgotten all about him and his marvellous epithet until I heard this exchange on radio, which speaks volumes about the dominant ideology of our society, and which I record here from memory:

Radio jock: We have Margaret on the line, another caller in our quiz, "What is the greatest invention in history?". We've had some great nominations: the computer, the washing machine, fire, writing ... Good morning, Margaret. And what's your nomination?

Margaret: I think explosives, Brian.

Radio jock: Good one, Margaret. [Spoken sincerely] I guess without explosives we'd still be in the age of bows and arrows ...

Scientist's plan to bury global warming

"A New Zealand economist is promoting a massive worldwide programme of planting crops and burying charcoal to avoid catastrophic global warming.

"Dr Peter Read, a researcher at Massey University, has just convened a workshop sponsored by international agencies in Paris to stave off what he calls 'the mother of all catastrophes' ...

"He said the Kyoto Protocol, which requires most developed countries to cut back their emissions of global-warming 'greenhouse gases' to slightly below 1990 levels, might be too modest to avoid disaster.

In contrast, a massive global programme of planting crops and ploughing organic matter back into the soil could cut carbon dioxide back to pre-1800 levels -- and feed poor countries at the same time."

Full text

"Increasingly the face of AIDS is young and female"

"Women make up nearly half of the 37.2 million adults living with HIV, and in sub-Saharan Africa the proportion rises to almost 60 percent, according to a UN report released on Tuesday.

"'Increasingly the face of AIDS is young and female', said Dr Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

"In every region of the globe, the number of women infected with the deadly virus has risen during the past two years. East Asia had the highest jump with 56 percent, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 48 percent.

"In sub-Saharan Africa, three-quarters of all 15-24 year olds living with HIV are female.

"'Young women are almost an endangered species in southern Africa from AIDS for several reasons', Cravero told Reuters.

"Many women have no access to education or jobs. They are often economically dependent on men and may not have the power to resist sex or ask their husband or partner to use a condom.

"Teenage girls are acquiring the virus at a younger age and from older men. Violence against women also makes them more vulnerable to infection.

"'We will not be able to stop this epidemic unless we put women at the heart of the response to AIDS', UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot told a news conference in Brussels."
[My emphasis above - N]

Full text

Fallujah in Pictures


One can think of at least two ways of looking at Fallujah.

From one perspective, a corps of very brave American and allied men and women are defending the freedom of local townsfolk from a bunch of crazy, unprincipled terrorists with massive firepower.

Or it can be seen as a group of fearless, destitute Fallujah citizens defending their native town from an illegally occupying force of the world's richest nation that has all the self-protected state-of-the-art military hardware and billions of military dollars at its disposal.

Whichever way ones looks, innocent civilians are now the biggest victims of modern warfare.

This picture is from fallujapictures.blogspot.com

Ohio Presidential Results to be Challenged

"Ohio’s 2004 presidential vote will be challenged as soon as next week in the state Supreme Court, a coalition of public-interest lawyers announced Friday.

"The lawyers have taken sworn testimony from hundreds of people in hearings in Columbus and Cincinnati, and will use excerpts as well as documents obtained from county election officials and Election Day exit polls to make a case that thousands of votes were incorrectly counted or not counted on Election Day."

Full text

Protests Target Bush at Summit in Chile

"SANTIAGO, Chile - Riot police used water cannons and tear gas Friday to break up a demonstration by hundreds of rock-throwing protesters before more than 20,000 people marched to vent their anger at Pacific Rim leaders, particularly President Bush.

"While some protesters said they oppose the APEC summit, which they likened to a rich man's club that does nothing for the poor, much of the rage was aimed at Bush and the U.S.-led war in Iraq ...

"Organizers said 40,000 protesters participated in the government-authorized march downtown, far from the conference center hosting the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Police put the number at 25,000.

"Marchers held up posters saying: 'Bush, you stink,' and 'Terrorist Bush.' Some chanted: 'Bush, listen: Chile is not for sale!' and 'Bush, fascist, thief, murderer!'

"Some also expressed sympathy with the Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah. One banner read: 'Sorry Fallujah! Stupid Americans, Your Turn Will Come.'

"The earlier street clashes marked the fourth straight day of confrontations between police and activists opposed to the APEC summit."
Source: Washington Post



What is APEC and why should we be alarmed?
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is a grouping of the countries bordering the Pacific Ocean who have pledged to facilitate "free trade" – for which read "free trade for the shareholders of the 15 or so corporations that want to rule the world".

It was initiated in 1989 by a clique of economic rationalists in Australia but now its 21 members range from China and Russia to the United States, Japan and Australia, and account for 45% of world trade. Like the EU, NAFTA,, WTO etc, APEC is an active promoter of a socially and environmentally destructive globalization. It is a club for the rich with their snouts in the trough and the rest of us are its fodder.

Greetings from Australia (and apologies for APEC) to the people in Chile for your inspirational actions this week. The world is watching.

A great list of links

Stay informed with Multinational Monitor, Human Rights Watch on APEC, and some of the links in our left-hand column.

Habib's lawyer worried by Egypt move

[Readers of the Blogmanac might already have seen some of our reports on the two Aussie citizens, David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, who have endured torture, solitary confinement in tiny 6' by 8' cells and other forms of cruel and unusual punishment for some years in the American prison at Guantanamo. Both men, who were long held without charge and with no access to lawyers, Red Cross, family contact, phone calls etc, are believed to be almost broken and suicidal. The US government is using them as scapegoats for 9/11, which they had nothing to do with. (Thanks, Republican voters.) The Australian government, unlike the British in the case of its own citizens, has refused to demand their return.]

"The Australian lawyer for terrorism suspect Mamdouh Habib says he is certain his client is among five Guantanamo Bay detainees who Egypt is trying to gain custody of.

"Reports out of Egypt say the country's Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, wants the United States to hand over five of its citizens, including 'Ahmed Habib', amid claims they have been moved to the category of "least dangerous" detainees at Camp Delta.

"Mamdouh Habib's Australian lawyer, Stephen Hopper, says his client's middle name is Ahmed and the latest turn of events is disturbing.

"'We're extremely concerned about this attempt,' he said.

"'We would like to know what are the circumstances behind it and we'd also like to know what the Australian Government is doing about it.

"'Mamdouh Habib is an Australian citizen only. Egypt has tried to claim him as one of theirs but Mamdouh has resisted that.'

"Mr Hopper says Mr Habib was tortured while he was in Egyptian custody before being sent to Guantanamo Bay and if he is sent back to Egypt, he will be tortured again.

"'I believe they would've done a deal with the Americans to get him out of their way and they'll probably put him in one of their security prisons where he'll never be heard of again and will be tortured to death,' he said."
Source: ABC Oz

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night ...



November 15, 1915 USA: IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) labor organizer, folk-poet and songwriter, Joe Hill (Joseph Hillstrom), was murdered by state firing squad in Utah. Hill has become the subject of numerous songs, plays, and books, and some of his songs have been available continuously in the IWW’s Little Red Song Book, now in its 36th edition.

Utah authorities and copper bosses executed Hill for his organizing with the IWW – despite an international movement to save him.

Hill was convicted of killing a grocer and his son, even though the bullets were not from Hill’s revolver and no one identified him as the murderer. His last words:

“Don’t mourn, organize!”

Poet Alfred Hays wrote a ballad in Hill’s memory:

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you and me.
Says I, “But Joe you’re ten years dead,”
“I never died,” says he.

Longtime labor organizer for the radical IWW (known collectively as 'the Wobblies') and writer of union songs, Hill became a martyr upon his execution. Efforts by President Woodrow Wilson, the government of Sweden, and many prominent Americans (such as Helen Keller) to get him a new trial had failed.

Joe Hill's body was rushed from the prison yard in Utah to Chicago, where Wobblies staged a funeral (pictured above) attended by more than 30,000 mourners.

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.

Afghan Opium Cultivation Reaches Record High – UN

USA management team reaches target with only tens of thousands of Afghan casualties!

"BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Afghanistan's opium cultivation jumped 64 percent to a record 324,000 acres this year and drug exports now account for more than 60 percent of the economy, the United Nations drugs office said Thursday.

"'This year Afghanistan has established a double record – the highest drug cultivation in the country's history, and the largest in the world,' Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told a news briefing."
Source: Yahoo News

Dylan wins 'best song ever' poll

So, Zimmy tops the poll, according to Rolling Stone mag, with the 1965 classic, Like a Rolling Stone.

I find it hard to argue with the public's decision. I'd probably put two more of his songs in at number 2 and 3: Idiot Wind and Brownsville Girl. But that would nudge out Clothes Line Saga, wouldn't it. And Floater and Po' Boy ... and Changing of the Guards ...

Hmmmm ... Let's think now ... can we have equal first for Like a Rolling Stone and Clothes Line Saga?

But then where would we put All Along the Watchtower and Subterranean Homesick Blues? And Tangled Up in Blue and Black Diamond Bay, and Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts? And what about Hurricane?

Bobby sure makes it hard to decide.

John Lennon gets a good score with Imagine, and the Beatles are in for Hey Jude, but I'd probably vote for I Am the Walrus if I had to pick one by the mop tops.

At the scriptorium:



Wilson says fuckit and goes fishing

First global warming refugees

Inuit start to feel the heat in a world warming up

"THEY build their homes on stilts, commute to work on quad bikes down sand-covered streets and look nervously out to sea when a storm nears.

"But the fate of the 562 residents of Shishmaref, on a small barrier island off the north-western coast of Alaska, looks decided: they are about to become the world’s first 'global warming refugees'. If they do not abandon their homes, climatologists say, they will die."
Source: The Times

Leonids meteor showers (Nov 12 - 23 annually)

The peak of Leonids visibility is around November 17.

"The Leonids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The meteor stream is viewable every year around November 17 and is thought to be comprised of particles ejected by the comet as it passes by the Sun. When the Earth moves through the meteor stream, the meteor shower is visible. The Leonids get their name from usually making their appearance in or near the constellation Leo ..."

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 - Liberation?

From Bushflash, watch this presentation of the "liberation" and weep.

Source: Pagans4Peace

"This one's faking he's dead" - "He's dead now"

Fallujah: Video shows US soldier killing wounded insurgent in cold blood

"The US Marine Corps launched an investigation into possible war crimes last night after video footage taken inside a mosque in Fallujah apparently showed a Marine shooting dead an unarmed Iraqi insurgent who had been taken prisoner.

"The footage showed several Marines with a group of prisoners who were either lying on the floor or propped against a wall of the bombed-out building. One Marine can be heard declaring that one of the prisoners was faking his injuries.

"'He's fucking faking he's dead. He faking he's fucking dead', says the Marine. At that point a clatter of gunfire can be heard as one of the Marines shoots the prisoner. Another voice can then be heard saying: 'He's dead now'.

"The footage was obtained by a team from the American NBC network that was embedded with the Marine Corps during last week's seven-day battle to capture the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, which military commanders say has been a focus of Iraqi resistance. The film was then pooled and made available to other media.

"On the footage that was broadcast last night, NBC correspondent Kevin Sites said that the five wounded Iraqi fighters had been left in the mosque after Marines had fought their way into that part of the city on Friday and Saturday. Ten other Iraqis had been killed in the battle for the mosque. Instead of being passed to the rear lines for treatment the wounded Iraqis were left in the mosque until a second group of Marines entered the building on Saturday, following reports that the building may have been reoccupied. Sites said that at this point one of the five Iraqis was dead and that three of the others appeared to be close to death.

"In his report accompanying the images, Sites said that one of the Marines noticed that one of the wounded men was still breathing before shouting that he was 'faking it'.

"'The Marine then raises his rifle and fires into the man's head. The pictures are too graphic for us to broadcast', said Sites. He added: 'The prisoner did not appear to be armed or threatening in any way'. Major Doug Powell, a spokesman for the Marine Corps in Washington, told The Independent: 'It's being investigated -- I can't say much more than that. It's being investigated for possible law of war violations. A naval criminal investigation team is looking into it'.

"The footage -- some of the first to show the situation inside Fallujah and the bloody nature of the street-by-street battle that has taken place there -- is the latest to emerge from Iraq to contain possible evidence of war crimes perpetrated by the US military.

"Other footage has shown troops shooting wounded fighters lying in open ground as well as attacks on Iraqis -- some said to be civilians -- by US aircraft and helicopters. This latest footage is among the most shocking given that it apparently shows without obstruction the Marine shooting the prisoner in the head at close range.

"Kathy Kelly, a spokeswoman for the peace group Voices in the Wilderness, said last night that such images would 'recruit more terrorists faster than they are being killed'.

"'I don't think the US is paying much attention to the Geneva Conventions any more -- that is the problem. This must be investigated', she said.

Full text at The Independent

History's most incredible battle?

November 16, 1532 The Battle of Cajamarca

A satisfactory afternoon's work for Spanish imperialism
New World: Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro seized Incan emperor Atahualpa after victory at Cajamarca, Peru. 

Pizarro had just 168 men and Atahualpa had 80,000 battle-hardened soldiers who had recently defeated an indigenous enemy. However, the Spaniards had iron swords, guns, horses and armour, which the Incas did not. The result: one of history's most incredible battles, and it was all over in one afternoon ... By evening, Pizarro and his men had killed 7,000 Indians yet lost not one of their own merry men ...

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.

American Fascism? A must-read.


From Bruce:

Living Under Fascism
By Davidson Loehr

You may wonder why anyone would try to use the word "fascism" in a serious discussion of where America is today. It sounds like cheap name-calling, or melodramatic allusion to a slew of old war movies. But I am serious. I don’t mean it as name-calling at all. I mean to persuade you that the style of governing into which America has slid is most accurately described as fascism, and that the necessary implications of this fact are rightly regarded as terrifying. That’s what I am about here. And even if I don’t persuade you, I hope to raise the level of your thinking about who and where we are now, to add some nuance and perhaps some useful insights.

The word comes from the Latin word "Fasces," denoting a bundle of sticks tied together. The individual sticks represented citizens, and the bundle represented the state. The message of this metaphor was that it was the bundle that was significant, not the individual sticks. If it sounds un-American, it’s worth knowing that the Roman Fasces appear on the wall behind the Speaker’s podium in the chamber of the US House of Representatives.

Still, it’s an unlikely word. When most people hear the word "fascism" they may think of the racism and anti-Semitism of Mussolini and Hitler. It is true that the use of force and the scapegoating of fringe groups are part of every fascism. But there was also an economic dimension of fascism, known in Europe during the 1920s and '30s as "corporatism," which was an essential ingredient of Mussolini’s and Hitler’s tyrannies. So-called corporatism was adopted in Italy and Germany during the 1930s and was held up as a model by quite a few intellectuals and policy makers in the United States and Europe.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago (in "The Corporation Will Eat Your Soul"), Fortune magazine ran a cover story on Mussolini in 1934, praising his fascism for its ability to break worker unions, disempower workers and transfer huge sums of money to those who controlled the money rather than those who earned it.

Few Americans are aware of or can recall how so many Americans and Europeans viewed economic fascism as the wave of the future during the 1930s. Yet reviewing our past may help shed light on our present, and point the way to a better future. So I want to begin by looking back to the last time fascism posed a serious threat to America.

In Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel "It Can't Happen Here," a conservative southern politician is helped to the presidency by a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. The politician - Buzz Windrip - runs his campaign on family values, the flag, and patriotism. Windrip and the talk show host portray advocates of traditional American democracy — those concerned with individual rights and freedoms — as anti-American. That was 69 years ago.

One of the most outspoken American fascists from the 1930s was economist Lawrence Dennis. In his 1936 book, The Coming American Fascism — a coming which he anticipated and cheered — Dennis declared that defenders of "18th-century Americanism" were sure to become "the laughing stock of their own countrymen." The big stumbling block to the development of economic fascism, Dennis bemoaned, was "liberal norms of law or constitutional guarantees of private rights."

So it is important for us to recognize that, as an economic system, fascism was widely accepted in the 1920s and '30s, and nearly worshiped by some powerful American industrialists. And fascism has always, and explicitly, been opposed to liberalism of all kinds.


CONTINUE

[Emphasis added. -v]

Six years ago today: Sharon says "grab territory"

Everyone there should move, should run, should grab more hills, expand the territory. Everything that’s grabbed, will be in our hands. Everything we don’t grab will be in their hands.
Ariel Sharon, as Israeli Foreign Minister; comments broadcast on Israeli radio, November 15, 1998 Source: CNN

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.

Band Aid II on the way, and Live Aid finally on DVD

"Today [Sunday] at Air studios in Hampstead, north London, pop and rock acts will raise their voices -- and millions of pounds -- to alleviate disaster in Africa, just as Band Aid did 20 years ago.

"Then it was famine in Ethiopia, now it is Darfur in Sudan. Then it was Boy George, Sting and George Michael. Today it is Robbie Williams, Dido, Justin Hawkins, Ms Dynamite, Jamelia and Chris Martin. Once again the cover will show a black child against a westernised Christmas scene after an alternative by the artist Damien Hirst showing the grim reaper was rejected as "too scary".

"You might think nothing has changed. But since Band Aid there has been a quiet revolution in the way the glitterati of pop have come to understand how fame can effect change.

"It was Band Aid -- and its successor concert Live Aid -- that proved the catalyst. The concert, in July 1985, powered by the righteous indignation of Bob Geldof, raised £110m for emergency famine relief. But although the money was spent wisely in Ethiopia, Chad and other countries, a decade later a simple statistic led to an epiphany about Africa’s poverty.

"That figure of £110m turned out to be the equivalent of what the world’s poorest continent returned to the West in debt repayments -- every week. It was instrumental in U2’s Bono signing up to the Jubilee 2000 campaign aimed at cancelling those debts. It was, he said, 'a chance to revisit that situation -- but this time to look at the structure of poverty'.

"It was also an early signal that the argument was shifting from feeding the world to fixing the world. So when Geldof showed up to launch the Live Aid DVD last weekend, he had just flown in from the Congo, undertaking research for Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa ..."

Full text at The Sunday Times

The 4-disc Live Aid DVD contains over 10 hours of footage from the live concerts held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia in 1985. This is the first time it has been released. The DVD will be available from Amazon from 16 November. Get it at the Cafe Diem Store. You can go now and order it, if you wish!
[Note: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada) only, according to Amazon.com. Me, I'll have to get it through Amazon.co.uk. - Nora]

UNSCOM WMD inspectors were not expelled from Iraq

November 14, 1998 President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, after having ceased to comply with UN weapons inspectors on October 31, sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan offering to facilitate the inspections. On December 16, Australian Richard Butler, head of the UN weapons inspection team (UNSCOM), withdrew the team from Iraq, to protect his staff from the air strikes that the US and UK governments were threatening.

From that day on, it became de rigeur for media and politicians to falsely assert that Iraq "expelled the weapons inspectors", an important falsehood as it is still used as a main pretext for the illegally invasion of the country – the other main one, of course, being the similarly egregious WMDs argument.

Within hours, Operation Desert Fox began: the US and UK began pre-emptively bombing Iraq – hundreds of cruise missiles raining down on the country, marking the start of strikes to punish the Baghdad government. An avalanche of US and British propaganda was published by a mostly unsuspecting world media, justifying the aggression and ignoring the destruction of Baghdad’s utilities and the deaths of many innocent civilians and service people.

On ABC’s This Week (September 27, 2003), Colin Powell publicly lied that the Clinton administration "conducted a four-day bombing campaign in late 1998 based on the intelligence that he [Butler] had. That resulted in the weapons inspectors being thrown out." Funeral services were held for 68 people who Iraqi officials say were killed in the raids.

But Iraq’s Ambassador to the UN, Nizar Hamdoon, said: "I’m told that the casualties are in the thousands in terms of numbers of people who were killed or wounded."

US bombs food storage, schools, college, maternity centres
Several weeks after the strikes, the UN children’s fund, UNICEF, made a first preliminary assessment of damage to civilian facilities. They reported the destruction of a rice warehouse in Tikrit in northern Iraq, damage to ten schools in the southern port city of Basra, and an agricultural college in Kirkuk in northern Iraq received a direct hit. They said that in Baghdad medical and maternity centres, a water supply system and parts of the health and social affairs ministries were damaged.

Since Butler’s forced withdrawal in the face of US-UK threats, many Western media and politicians have usually pretended to the public that Iraq "expelled" the team.

The events surrounding the withdrawal are recounted in Butler’s book, Saddam Defiant (2000): "I received a telephone call from US Ambassador Peter Burleigh inviting me for a private conversation at the US mission ... Burleigh informed me that on instructions from Washington it would be ‘prudent to take measures to ensure the safety and security of UNSCOM staff presently in Iraq.’ I told him that I would act on his advice and remove my staff from Iraq."

Oft-repeated error of fact
The 'mistake' (that UNSCOM was ejected by Hussein in 1998) has been made not only by pro-war people such as George W Bush in his 2002 State of the Union address ('the axis of evil' speech), Dick Cheney, Alexander Rose, the Canadian right-wing Washington correspondent of the National Post, and the editorial writers of the Sunday Times.

It has also been made by those who have shown concern for the humanitarian situation in Iraq, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, UK Liberal Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Menzies Campbell, and the usually trustworthy Guardian Middle East editor Brian Whitaker. The BBC often makes the same incorrect assertion, although it usually acknowledges its error when it is pointed out to them.

Richard Butler became a fierce critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, strongly criticising Australian Prime Minister Howard and marching with more than a quarter of a million others in the Sydney pro-peace march on February 16, 2003 ...

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.

News website with a difference

Almaniac Kayla from California sent in 10 X 10, which is hard to describe but worth a peek. It's certainly a nifty bit of scripting, in Perl, MySQL, PHP, and Macromedia Flash.

In its own words:

"10x10 ('ten by ten') is an interactive exploration of the words and pictures that define the time. The result is an often moving, sometimes shocking, occasionally frivolous, but always fitting snapshot of our world. Every hour, 10x10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time. Over the course of days, months, and years, 10x10 leaves a trail of these hourly statements which, stitched together side by side, form a continuous patchwork tapestry of human life."

10 X 10 is the brainchild of Jonathan Harris who is cleverer than anyone I've ever heard of and made Word Count and the very cute ThreatMeter (check out the products).

Aust ministers risk defamation action, Terry Hicks says

"The father of Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks says government ministers could be sued for defaming his son before he was charged with any offence.

"The threat by Terry Hicks comes after a US federal court this week halted the military trial of another detainee.

"News that the military tribunal is now being questioned in the US courts has apparently buoyed Mr Hicks, whose son has been accused of fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"Speaking at a human rights forum in Brisbane, he described the Australian Government's treatment of his son as disgusting ...

"Australian Council of Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman says David Hicks would have a good defamation case against the Federal Government, if he is acquitted ...

"If it goes ahead, Hicks's military trial is scheduled for January.

"Earlier, Mr Hicks said Attorney General Philip Ruddock is 'strange' for not accepting the US court decision halting the trial of another Guantanamo Bay detainee.

"Mr Ruddock said he does not believe the decision will impact upon Hicks, but Terry Hicks says Mr Ruddock needs to listen to the judge's ruling.

"'All along he's been saying these tribunals and hearings are quite just and fair but now all of a sudden the American court system is saying, "no, it's not fair",' Mr Hicks said.

"'Philip Ruddock seems to stick to his guns and says "yes, it is fair". So why is he going against an American court?'"
Source: the World Today

Correspondents Report has the story on how the US courts are challenging Bush's concentration camp mentality.

Silkwood: 30th anniversary

November 13, 1974 Karen Gay Silkwood (b. 1946), 28, American nuclear plant worker and whistle-blower, was killed in a car crash under suspicious circumstances.

During the week prior to her death, Silkwood was reportedly gathering evidence for her labor union to support her claim that Kerr-McGee was negligent in maintaining plant safety. In November 1974, Silkwood tested positive for plutonium contamination.

Karen Silkwood’s story has achieved worldwide fame as the subject of many books, magazine and newspaper articles, and even a major motion picture (Silkwood, 1983).

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.

"Cream to re-form" – God

"I've been waiting so long/to be where I'm going"

OK, any old rockers out there. Hard to believe after 36 years, but Eric has just announced it. Cream will get together again.

Shown is Cream's famous 'Disraeli Gears' album cover, designed by Sydney artist Martin Sharp, one of the Oz Trial defendants.

Beastie Boys win 3-note fight


"The three-note copyright battle between the Beastie Boys and jazz and classical flautist James Newton is over, with the Boys the winners.

"Newton claimed he was owed payment from way back in 1992 when the band sampled three notes from his Choir for their Pass the Mic."
Source: p2pNet

[One report I heard said that the Beasties spent a cool half million defending their three notes. Actually, it was two, because one of the notes was repeated. Big dough in pop culture!]

No aid allowed into Fallujah

"Baghdad (Reuters) - Aid agencies called on U.S. forces and the Iraqi government to allow them to deliver food, medicine and water to Falluja on Friday and said four days of intense fighting had turned the city into a 'big disaster'.

"The Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which receives support from foreign agencies including the Red Cross and UNICEF, said it had asked U.S. forces and Iraq's interim government to let them deliver relief goods to Falluja and establish medics there.

"But it said it had received no reply."

Continue here

Getting your Iraq news Fox-style

Iraqi Gov't Warns Media About Coverage
[This probably means that everyone should follow the example of Sky News in the UK and Ireland, which takes its lead from the US military and refers to all Iraqi fighters in Fallujah as "the enemy". I've contacted Sky and asked when they became part of the US armed forces. I don't expect a reply.]

"Baghdad, Iraq (AP) - The Iraqi government warned news organizations Thursday to distinguish between insurgents and ordinary civilians in coverage of the fighting in Fallujah and to promote the leadership's position or face unspecified action.

"The warning came in a statement sent to news organizations by Iraq's Media High Commission [??] which cited the 60-day state of emergency declared Sunday on the eve of the offensive in Fallujah.

"'You must be precise and objective in handling news and information', the statement said.

"It stressed the necessity of differentiating between 'innocent citizens of Fallujah who are not targeted by the military operations and between the terrorist groups who infiltrated the city and took its people hostage under the pretext of resistance and jihad'.

"It also told news organizations to tell their correspondents 'to be credible and precise' and not to 'add patriotic descriptions to groups of killers and criminals'.

"Finally, the commission told news organizations to provide space to explain 'the government position, expressing the ambition of most of the Iraqi people' and underscore that 'these military operations did not come about until all peaceful means were attempted' to avoid violence.

"It said that failure to follow the instructions will require authorities to 'take all necessary measures to safeguard the supreme interest of the homeland'. The statement did not provide further details."

Source: The Guardian

Underage sex: teacher avoids jail

[Australia] "A teacher today avoided a jail term after she admitted having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy.

"Married mother-of-three Karen Louise Ellis earlier pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual penetration with a child under the age of 16.

"Victorian County Court judge John Smallwood today sentenced her to 22 months' jail but suspended it for three years.

"The 37-year-old former physical education teacher had repeated, unprotected sex with the boy at her North Eltham home while her husband was away in October and November last year."
Source: Herald Sun

"Noel McNamara from the Crime Victims Association says there needs to be consistency.

"NOEL MCNAMARA: Oh, I just think it's disgusting. It's, you know, it's clearly a travesty of justice when Hopper gets a jail sentence and Ellis gets a non-custodial sentence, and that's completely wrong, it's just disgusting, it shouldn't be that way. And for just to draw a line in the sand and make it a gender issue, which has obviously been done Smallwood, it's disgraceful."
Source: The World Today

Boy in school sex case defends his teacher

These are our defenders

Soldier promoted after racist stunt

[Australia] "One of the soldiers taunted by comrades dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan tried to hang himself just days before the incident was investigated by the army.

"The Daily Telegraph can reveal that as the [Aboriginal] soldier became depressed and tried to kill himself, the white platoon commander who arranged the stunt was promoted."
Source: The Advertiser

Nuclear whistleblower Vanunu arrested in Jerusalem

"Mordechai Vanunu, who was freed in April after 18 years in an Israeli prison for revealing the country's nuclear ambitions, was re-arrested Thursday, police said.

"Mr Vanunu is suspected of having communicated "secret information to foreigners" and of having violated the restrictions imposed on him by Israeli security services after his release from prison, police said.

"The former Israeli nuclear technician, 50, was taken into custody at an east Jerusalem hotel, where police seized documents found in his room, they said.

"Since his release on April 21 after 18 years in prison, Vanunu has been subject to a series of sweeping restrictions, including a ban on travelling abroad as well as holding unauthorised meetings with foreigners.

"He was also banned from leaving Israel for at least a year.

"Mr Vanunu was abducted by Israeli secret service agents in Italy, smuggled back to Israel and then jailed in 1986 after leaking top-secret details about the Dimona nuclear plant in the southern Negev desert to the Sunday Times.

"In July, Israel's supreme court rejected an appeal file by Mr Vanunu, who sought the lifting of what he believed were unfairly severe restrictions.

"Mr Vanunu has said that he wants to leave Israel after not only lifting the lid on the country's nuclear ambitions but also converting to Christianity.

"'I don't like Israel. I don't want to live in Israel. I want to be free and to leave Israel,' he said in July.

"Israel has never admitted to having nuclear weapons, but is believed to possess an arsenal of about 200 warheads."

It was only a matter of time, as he's been giving great interviews. The guy's a hero.
Mordechai Vanunu in the Book of Days

Now that he's gone



Let's just remember Yassir as we knew him when we first loved him: a cute little moptop drummer, with a charming sense of humour and a David Jones department store tea-towel on his head.

Now it's time to say goodnight
(Goodnight, sleep tight)
Now the sun turns out his light
(Goodnight, sleep tight) ....
Dream sweet dreams for me
Dream sweet dreams for you

Winston's macaw talks like an Aussie

"SHE WAS at Winston Churchill's side during Britain's darkest hour. And now Charlie the parrot is 104 years old...and still cursing the Nazis.

"Her favourite sayings were 'F*** Hitler' and 'F*** the Nazis'. And even today, 39 years after the great man's death, she can still be coaxed into repeating them with that unmistakable Churchillian inflection.

"Many an admiral or peer of the realm was shocked by the tirade from the bird's cage during crisis meetings with the PM.

"But it always brought a smile to the war leader's face.

"Churchill bought Charlie – giving him a boy's name despite the fact she was female – in 1937.

"She took pride of place in a bizarre menagerie of pets including lambs, pigs, cattle, swans and, at one point, a leopard.

"He immediately began to teach her to swear – particularly in company – and she is keeping up the tradition today.

"The blue and gold macaw is believed to be Britain's oldest bird."
Source

Note: F*** is a word not found in Australian parrots' dictionaries, as I found a month or so ago. I was at a christening and, bored out of my scone, sidled off to have a chat with a poor caged cockatoo who asked me what I fucking wanted.

Use of Shannon puts Ireland in line of fire - Jesse Jackson

"The use of Shannon Airport by US military aircraft on their way to Iraq puts Ireland 'in the line of fire' from terrorist organisations, US civil rights campaigner the Rev Jesse Jackson said in Dublin last night.

"While it was 'to the good' that the Government did not overtly support the invasion of Iraq and favoured 'the UN route', the Republic was still 'indirectly' participating in the war, Rev Jackson said after a Literary and Historical Society meeting at University College Dublin.

"'I try to be sensitive to the delicate situation that Ireland is in'.

"'Number one, it does not endorse the war, it has no troops in the war. Ireland chose the UN route rather than the US/Britain route (in the build up to war). That was a strong position. On the other hand Ireland is now very strong economically and there may be a feeling that some of the big, strong international companies play hardball ... they move on countries, they move on companies. So I sense Ireland is trying to balance that'.

"'These economic pressures may have been the reason the Irish Government allowed US war planes to land here. I understand the tight-rope the Taoiseach is walking. But in this global terrorism that fact that Shannon is being used does put Ireland in the line of fire', he told The Irish Times."

[my emphasis above - N] Source: Irish Times [subscription]

Falluja's defiance of a new empire

"George Bush and Tony Blair have apparently concluded that they can crush the Iraqi people's will to resist occupation and legitimise a puppet regime next January by occupying Falluja. Maybe they imagine they can emulate the British forces that terrorised Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1920s by obliterating recalcitrant villages.

"The US generals will no doubt deliver Falluja to Bush and Blair after bombarding its neighbourhoods with artillery and rockets. But they are doomed to deliver neither the Fallujans nor the people of Iraq. Perhaps they are unaware that Fallujans defied Saddam's rule during his last years in power. Falluja -- known as the city of a thousand mosques -- attracted Saddam's wrath in 1998 when its imams refused to hail the tyrant in their Friday sermons. Many were imprisoned, and the city punished as a result.

"But the generals certainly do know how resistance began in Falluja. On April 28 2003 US soldiers opened fire on parents and children demonstrating against the continued military occupation of their primary school -- killing 18 of them in cold blood and injuring about 60 others. Until the killing of those demonstrators, not a single bullet had been fired at US soldiers in Falluja or any of the cities north of Baghdad. But, remorselessly, little-known Falluja became a world-renowned centre of defiance, where a poor and poorly armed people has courageously faced the military wing of the new empire."

Continue at The Guardian

Judge Rules Guantanamo Trials Unlawful

"GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba - A federal judge ruled Monday that President Bush had both overstepped his constitutional bounds and improperly brushed aside the Geneva Conventions in establishing military commissions to try detainees at the United States naval base here as war criminals.

"The ruling by Judge James Robertson of United States District Court in Washington brought an abrupt halt to the trial here of one detainee, one of hundreds being held at Guantánamo as enemy combatants. It threw into doubt the future of the first set of United States military commission trials since the end of World War II as well as other legal proceedings devised by the administration to deal with suspected terrorists."

Continue

'Brain' in a dish flies flight simulator

"A Florida scientist has developed a 'brain' in a glass dish that is capable of flying a virtual fighter plane and could enhance medical understanding of neural disorders such as epilepsy.

"The 'living computer' was grown from 25,000 neurons extracted from a rat's brain and arranged over a grid of 60 electrodes in a Petri dish.

"The brain cells then started to reconnect themselves, forming microscopic interconnections, said Thomas DeMarse, professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida."
Source: CNN

From Baz 'Brain in a Dish' le Tuff.

Free Wilson's Almanac screensaver

Check it out.

'Sorry' site overload

"A website that allows Americans to apologise to the rest of the world for the election victory of President George W Bush was overwhelmed today after a report about it on CNN.

"The crash of the site reflected the deep disappointment of many Bush opponents about the election results, and their feeling that the victory of the right wing president could have disastrous effects around the globe on issues ranging from war and peace to the environment.

"The website, sorryeverybody.com, features pictures of troubled US citizens holding up signs of apology. It was the brainchild of neuroscience student James Zetlen who kicked off the popular new pastime with the message 'Sorry, world, we tried'."
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Anotherie from Baz 'I Ain't Sorry I Ain't Done Nuffink' le Tuff

Obesity Raising Airline Fuel Costs

"Heavy suitcases aren't the only things weighing down airplanes and requiring them to burn more fuel, pushing up the cost of flights. A new government study reveals that airlines increasingly have to worry more about the weight of their passengers.

"America's growing waistlines are hurting the bottom lines of airline companies as the extra pounds on passengers are causing a drag on planes. Heavier fliers have created heftier fuel costs, according to the government study.

"Through the 1990s, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The extra weight caused airlines to spend $275 million to burn 350 million more gallons of fuel in 2000 just to carry the additional weight of Americans, the federal agency estimated in a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine ...

"The extra fuel burned also had an environmental impact, as an estimated 3.8 million extra tons of carbon dioxide were released into the air, according to the study."
Source: onlyPunjab.com

Fast Arctic Thaw Threatens People, Polar Bears

"Oslo (Reuters) -- Global warming is heating the Arctic almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet in a thaw that threatens millions of livelihoods and could wipe out polar bears by 2100, an eight-nation report said on Monday.

"The biggest survey to date of the Arctic climate, by 250 scientists, said the accelerating melt could be a foretaste of wider disruptions from a build-up of human emissions of heat-trapping gases in the earth's atmosphere.

"The 'Arctic climate is now warming rapidly and much larger changes are projected', according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), funded by the United States, Canada, Russia, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Finland."

Full text

St. John's Wort May Interfere with Cancer Drug

"New York (Reuters Health) - The herb St. John's Wort, used as an alternative therapy for mild depression, may hinder the effectiveness of a newer type of cancer drug, according to researchers.

"Their study of 10 healthy volunteers found that the herbal remedy lowered blood levels of the cancer drug Gleevec (known in some countries as Glivec) by as much as 42 percent.

"In a cancer patient, the study authors warn, this could mean the difference between success or failure on Gleevec, an oral drug used mainly to treat the blood cancer chronic myeloid leukemia.

"The findings, published in the journal Pharmacology, add to the list of prescription drugs that don't mix well with St. John's Wort. Past studies have shown that the drug may alter blood levels of some other chemotherapy drugs, as well as certain cardiovascular drugs, HIV medications, antidepressants and birth control pills. [my emphasis]

Full text

What Mandate?


From Peter Rothberg, The Nation:

A day after the 2004 presidential voting was done, when it was finally possible to declare victory, Vice President Dick Cheney announced that, "President Bush ran forthrightly on a clear agenda for this nation's future, and the nation responded by giving him a mandate." [BUSHIT!! -v]

But, as John Nichols shows, Bush actually received far less of a mandate than voters typically grant presidents. In fact, Bush claimed the narrowest margin of victory for an incumbent president since Woodrow Wilson's re-election in 1916.

Unlike real landslides such as 1984, when Ronald Reagan won forty-nine of fifty
states and drubbed Walter Mondale in the popular vote, Bush barely squeaked
through to victory. Read Ari Berman's Daily Outrage for more.

Despite the history, the Republican spin machine hums on, helped by The Weekly
Standard's William Kristol, who declared Bush's win to be "an even larger and clearer mandate than those won in the landslide reelection campaigns of Nixon in 1972, Reagan in 1984, and Clinton in 1996."

To help counter propaganda like this, The Nation is encouraging readers to send letters to the editors of local daily and weekly newspapers making clear that a narrow win doesn't constitute a mandate. Find contact info for your local media and a sample letter at The Nation's Take Action center.

[Emphasis added. -v]

SOURCE

Global Ideas Bank

Way back when (it was in 1979 but I was only about three years old, OK? Can it really be a quarter of a century? Yoikels!) I had a magazine which had as a feature a department called 'Partly Baked Ideas'.

The idea of PBI was for readers to send in ideas which, although not necessarily fully formed, the person who had had the brainwave would still like to get out in the public domain. My co-editor and I thought it might spark ideas and action for things that would help improve the world; we were dealing with 'social invention' as it's called now.

I've been thinking for a while that a PBI department would be a good thing to initiate in the Almanac, but I'm pleased to see that it won't be necessary because there's a group called Global Ideas Bank who are doing much the same thing, and doing it with more energy and resources than I'm sure I could muster. Worth bookmarking.

From the website:

"The Global Ideas Bank aims to promote and disseminate good creative ideas to improve society. It further aims to encourage the public to generate these ideas, to participate in the problem-solving process.

"These ideas we term social inventions: non-technological, non-product, non-gadget ideas for social change. These are a mix of existing projects, fledgling initiatives and new bright ideas ..."

Arundhati Roy on equity

The personal wealth of the top 587 richest people exceeds the national wealth of the poorest 135 nations combined.
Indian novelist Arundhati Roy (paraphrase), Sydney Peace Prize Lecture, November 3, 2004

Read more at Indymedia
And more
Listen to Roy's lecture [audio link will be there this week]
Interview this week with Arundhati Roy [audio]

[Roy's speech was a stinging indictment of the invasion of Iraq and the role of TNCs (transnational corporations) in profiting from the war and occupation. I'll post a link to the transcript as soon as it's online.]

Arundhati Roy (born November 24, 1961) is an Indian novelist, author of The God of Small Things, for which she won the Booker Prize.

The God of Small Things was a first book of the author, and (as of 2004) has been her only novel. The book, completed in 1996, took four years to write. Roy received half-a-million pounds in advances, and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries.

In 2002 she was convicted of contempt of court by the Supreme Court in New Delhi for accusing the court of attempting to silence protests against the Narmada Dam Project, but received only a symbolic sentence of one day in prison.

Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May, 2004, for her work in social campaigns and advocacy of non-violence.
Wikipedia

Quiz: When did women get the vote?

New at the Scriptorium

Here's a quiz question (no prizes, I'm sorry):

Choose from this alphabetical list of nations and place them in the order in which women gained the vote:

Afghanistan
Australia
Finland
Iceland
Iraq
Kyrgyzstan
New Zealand
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States of America

Answers: A world chronology of women's electoral rights in the Scriptorium

If you like, tell other Almaniacs how you did, in the comments box here. I'm sure the rest of us would love to hear.

[Second question: I feel like asking, in which country did women not have the vote when it was a friend of the West, but gained it when Saddam Hussein took over? But I won't press my luck.]

Will the Anti-War Movement Stand Up This Time?


Fallujah and the Reality of War
By Rahul Mahajan

11/06/04 "CounterPunch.org" The assault on Fallujah has started. It is being sold as liberation of the people of Fallujah; it is being sold as a necessary step to implementing "democracy" in Iraq. These are lies.

I was in Fallujah during the siege in April, and I want to paint for you a word picture of what such an assault means.

Fallujah is dry and hot; like Southern California, it has been made an agricultural area only by virtue of extensive irrigation. It has been known for years as a particularly devout city; people call it the City of a Thousand Mosques. In the mid-90's, when Saddam wanted his name to be added to the call to prayer, the imams of Fallujah refused.

U.S. forces bombed the power plant at the beginning of the assault; for the next several weeks, Fallujah was a blacked-out town, with light provided by generators only in critical places like mosques and clinics. The town was placed under siege; the ban on bringing in food, medicine, and other basic items was broken only when Iraqis en masse challenged the roadblocks. The atmosphere was one of pervasive fear, from bombing and the threat of more bombing. Noncombatants and families with sick people, the elderly, and children were leaving in droves. After initial instances in which people were prevented from leaving, U.S. forces began allowing everyone to leave except for what they called "military age males," men usually between 15 and 60. Keeping noncombatants from leaving a place under bombardment is a violation of the laws of war. Of course, if you assume that every military age male is an enemy, there can be no better sign that you are in the wrong country, and that, in fact, your war is on the people, not on their oppressors, not a war of liberation.

[Emphasis added. -v]

CONTINUE

Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes

Breaking news:

"COLUMBUS, Ohio - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

"Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Bush's total should have been recorded as 365."

Source

The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy

By Thom Hartmann, CommonDreams.org:

"The hot story in the Blogosphere is that the 'erroneous' exit polls that showed Kerry carrying Florida and Ohio (among other states) weren't erroneous at all -- it was the numbers produced by paperless voting machines that were wrong, and Kerry actually won. As more and more analysis is done of what may (or may not) be the most massive election fraud in the history of the world, however, it's critical that we keep the largest issue at the forefront at all time: Why are We The People allowing private, for-profit corporations, answerable only to their officers and boards of directors, and loyal only to agendas and politicians that will enhance their profitability, to handle our votes?

"Maybe Florida went for Kerry, maybe for Bush. Over time -- and through the efforts of some very motivated investigative reporters -- we may well find out (Bev Harris of http://www.blackboxvoting.org/ just filed what may be the largest Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] filing in history), and bloggers and investigative reporters are discovering an odd discrepancy in exit polls being largely accurate in paper-ballot states and oddly inaccurate in touch-screen electronic voting states. Even raw voter analyses are showing extreme oddities in touch-screen-run Florida, and eagle-eyed bloggers are finding that news organizations are retroactively altering their exit polls to coincide with what the machines ultimately said. "

Continue here

Carnival for bicentennial of Hans Christian Andersen's birth

"COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - International celebrities, music stars, athletes and Danish royals will attend a four-day carnival next spring that will start a year-long international celebration of the bicentennial of Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark's famous fairy tale writer, officials said Wednesday.

"The March 31-April 3 events in Copenhagen and Andersen's native Odense are 'expected to reach the scope of the opening ceremony of Olympic Games', said organizer Christian Have. 'It will the biggest celebration of a single cultural personality the world has ever seen'."

Source

God has no place in US elections, say churches

"God has no place in politics and should not have been used by churches in the United States to influence the presidential election, a council representing 342 Christian groups around the world said.

"The World Council of Churches (WCC) told US member churches in a letter that they should not ask whose side God was on in an election but only offer 'a moral and spiritual compass for their community, their nation and the world'.

"The letter, by WCC general secretary Rev Samuel Kobia, chided some US churches for presenting God in partisan terms.

"It was released late on Wednesday."

Source: Irish Times [subscription only, I'm afraid]

Was the USA founded on Christianity?

November 4, 1796 The United States of America government signed a treaty with Tripoli, Libya, which included the statement,

"The Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion".

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

So reads Article 11 of the Treaty with Tripoli (Libya), made during the Presidency of George Washington and signed on this day ...

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.

Psychopathia sexualis: American politics

A media report today said that Americans voted on morality first, economy second, terrorism third and Iraq fourth.

I might be a bit dim, but if morality was the big issue, why did they vote in a bunch of rich, greedy cunts who just killed 100,000 men, women and children in a country that did nothing to America? Add to that the Afghan death toll of many thousands.

Someday I hope to understand the morality issue. If, as it seems, it's about who you fuck and not who you massacre, then I fear that I never will.

If the economy was the issue, why did they vote for the bastards who have spent (so far) $143 billion of taxpayers' money on killing tens of thousands of people (how long before a million) for no reason? The same bastards that preside over the most derided health care and welfare system in the Western world? And one of the highest levels of disparity between rich and poor of all OECD countries? And, of the rich countries, the 18th ranking per capita in terms of foreign aid? Americans don't seem to want a society, they want an economy. And that's what economists deliver: social ills on grand scale. Remember, every sale of a casket, and every clean-up operation on an oil spill increases the Gross Domestic Product, which is how the 'health' of an economy is measured.

If terrorism was the next big issue, why did they vote in a bunch of psychopaths who have made every American increasingly unsafe by enraging an already unhinged minority of the generally reasonable pro-Palestinian lobby worldwide?

If Iraq was also a big issue, then I have practically nothing more to say.

America, like Australia, needs a massive upheaval. If it means taking it to the streets because of the corrupt media, then so be it.

I'm old enough to know about Yippie, young enough to still be a proud Yippie. The Western world needs some Yip real bad. I hope those who are too young to remember will google Yippies and spend a productive afternoon on their computers, and think "strategy and tactics". Don't worry if it's uncool: it works, that's the main thing. Certainly adjustments must be made for the new era we live in, but there is a wealth of praxis to study and replicate in modern vernacular. People of this frame of mind helped end the war in Vietnam. However, the Democrat and Republican parties massacred 3 million unnecessarily before we succeeded, before Shrub's predecessors backed down, so activists have got to be in for the long haul.

They say a country gets the government it deserves. I'm fond of Americans, and thought that they deserved a bit better than this.

LA Citizens' Grand Jury calls for end to 9/11 "cover-up"

Los Angeles, Oct. 31 - "In findings issued today, the Los Angeles Citizens' Grand Jury condemned the 9/11 Commission's official version of the events of September 11, 2001 as "physically impossible, untenable, contradictory, implausible and fraudulent" and called for the release of several documents specifically naming officials responsible for 9/11, being withheld until after the election.

"Citing evidence that at least 8 of the 19 alleged suicide hijackers reported themselves alive after 9/11, that the World Trade Center Towers and Building 7 came down not from fires from the planes but controlled demolition explosives which require weeks to prepare, and Administration managed 'war games' (including a field training exercise scenario covering multiple hijackings and a plane going into a building) that were actually happening on 9/11 as causing air traffic controller confusion & lack of fighter response, the nation's first Citizens' Grand Jury on 9/11 unabashedly concluded 9/11 was 'an inside job' that demands "legal prosecution, civil liability and political condemnation" around the world.

"According to the nation's first Citizens' Grand Jury on 9/11, the US government must immediately release the CIA Inspector General's report on 9/11, which assigns blame to certain high level officials but whose release is being suppressed by new CIA Director Porter Goss until after the election, according to published reports. Goss is reported to have been having breakfast on the morning of 9/11 with the Pakistani ISI 'money man' himself, General Mahmud Ahmed, who had wired $100,000 to the alleged head-hijacker Mohammed Atta."

The expanded version of evidence and LA Citizens' Grand Jury Findings can be viewed here.

Thanx Almaniac Mary Ann S. from California for sending this.

Poll irregularities? Stay informed at Indymedia

Post-election coverage is available at Indymedia US. If any voting irregularities show up, that's probably one of the first places that will report them.

Shame on you, Americans!


A Dark Day in America: Bush wins
By Jamie Foxer

11/03/04 "ICH" --Bush's popular vote outcome is not surprising to me. Bush has been always successful in fear mongering the "patriotic" base into loyal submission. That's been a hallmark of his administration. What I'm worried about is how, with all the Fahrenheit 9/11s, all the government leaks, the Paul o' Neils, Richard Holbrookes, Abu-Ghraib's, Al-Qaqaas, the dismal presidential debates (for Bush), the depressed economy, the ballooning of the federal deficit, the loss of millions of jobs, the absolutely Orwellian anti-environmental policy of this administration, the Leave No Child Left Behind initiative (entitled sarcastically by actual teachers as the "No Child Left Alive" act), the smearing of our international reputation like no other administration before, the unnecessary embroilment in Iraq, the fumbling of the ball with respect to finding Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora, the Patriot Act and curtailment of liberties and so on....

How could the American people vote massively (by a 3-4 million vote margin) to re-elect this fool...this dangerous, arrogant fool? We in the U.S. can look forward to 4 more years of increased reactionary policies in government. With re-election now not an issue for Bush, with the Congress firmly in Republican hands, and with the Supreme Court looking to be shaped for the next decades by Bush, you're going to see some of the most reactionary bills in the history of the United States suddenly be taken off the shelves of Republican think-thanks and pressed on the Congress to be passed quickly and easily. Welcome to Bush's 2nd term!

In one way, I feel relieved. For years, I've tried to state to my friends that it's not just the "government" but "the people". There seems to be an unspoken taboo regarding accusing the American people to be the source of our bad government, but in this case, I think that the adage that a people "deserve the government they elect" proves true. How long are we supposed to look the other way to the fact that a large part of country holds increasingly ignorant and radical-religious views? Who are the voting for? The American people have chosen to ignore all the incredibly abundant signs of corruption and reactionary ultra-conservatism of this administration and have given control of the world's fate to this arrogant Cowboy from Texas, and his crew of corporate-ruled cadres, and neocon imperial fanatics....AGAIN. "Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on ME". And boy does it seem that we've been fooled! The first time the election was stolen...this time, we gave it to the thief!

Shame on you, American people. You were given a lot of facts and you ignored them, focusing more on whether you liked Bush's "confident" swagger than Kerry's more reserved style. Stylistic issues took precedence over hard facts. My message to Red States and Republicans: I don't want to see a single tear about dead soldiers anywhere on the globe from Red States or Republican families. You've forfeited your right legitimately to be angry about our embroilments abroad when you voted for the man who sent your sons/daughters to die unnecessarily. I don't want to hear laments about how we find ourselves still quagmired in Iraq and the President is saber-rattling about starting a War with Iran. I don't want to hear about how you felt uncomfortable in your last trip to pretty much all of Europe, Asia, Africa, or Latin America. I don't want to see a single cry of surprise or outrage if another terrorist attack does occur...we've had ample evidence to prove that Bush's arrogance has proved a recruiting boon for equally angry radical Islamists in the Middle East. We've made that easier for them, and an attack more likely. I don't want to hear a single complaint about gas prices going up or a Republican losing his job or the economy deepening its inequality...you knew who you were electing in this election and you knew his record on the economy. I don't want to hear about another "hero" who has died in foreign lands. If they truly were our heroes, we wouldn't have elected this President, which will assure that they stay in harm's way for more unnecessary reasons and for longer times. If you get searched on some airplane and detained at an airport, don't act indignant that they stopped you (a Republican); instead reflect on how you made it possible for the "big brother" government to continue, and worsen. If you have any integrity left, Republicans and Red States, you will suck up all "second-thoughts" in the Bush 2nd term and spare us, the Democrats, the pain, anger and anguish of having to say, "not only did we TELL YOU SO, you could see it for yourself for the last 4 years!". You knew...damnit, you knew what you were doing...and you still gave power to this dangerous fool.

We deserve the government we elected, we deserve the corruption, fearmongering, and war-waging that will occur in the 2nd term, we deserve every single part. We have nothing more to do than wade through Dante's last circle of hell and hope we come out the other side with some semblance of our Republic.

[Emphasis added. -v]

Jamie Foxer is an undergraduate student at the University of Massachusetts. She may be reached at jamiefoxer@hotmail.com

SOURCE

Poll closing times, USA

2004 poll closing times, general election/electoral college chronologically.

Thanks Chris Keeley.

Awards to two remarkable women

Wangari Maathai and Bianca Jagger

Have you ever heard people say they don't know what to do with their lives? That always strikes me as extremely odd, as there's so much that needs doing; they must be extremely short sighted!

Two women, one from Africa and the other from South America, have been highly honoured this week for the important humanitarian work that they have decided to apply their lives to.

"Wangari Maathai has become the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Best known as the founder of the Green Belt Movement which inspired Kenyan women to plant 30 million trees, Wangari was elected to Parliament last year and is now Assistant Minister of Environment." Read more

"Bianca Jagger has been awarded the 2004 Right Livelihood Award of £150,000 which she shares with Argentinian scientist Raúl Montenegro and a Russian organisation, Memorial." Read more

One Million Kerry Votes Already Stolen


An Election Spoiled Rotten
By Greg Palast
TomPaine.com

It's not even Election Day yet, and the Kerry-Edwards campaign is already down by a almost a million votes. That's because, in important states like Ohio, Florida and New Mexico, voter names have been systematically removed from the rolls and absentee ballots have been overlooked — overwhelmingly in minority areas, like Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, where Hispanic voters have a 500 percent greater chance of their vote being "spoiled." Investigative journalist Greg Palast reports on the trashing of the election.

John Kerry is down by several thousand votes in New Mexico, though not one ballot has yet been counted. He's also losing big time in Colorado and Ohio; and he's way down in Florida, though the votes won't be totaled until Tuesday night.

Through a combination of sophisticated vote rustling — ethnic cleansing of voter rolls, absentee ballots gone AWOL, machines that "spoil" votes — John Kerry begins with a nationwide deficit that could easily exceed one million votes.

[Emphasis added. -v]

CONTINUE

Kerry's the one

It's Munster Vs Monster

I know, I know, Kerry looks like Herman Munster, and he sounds like he's coaching deaf kids to swim underwater. But just look at the alternative. No contest.

The three big issues this US election are the economy, Iraq, and terrorism. Pollsters in the US say that a majority of people want Kerry for economy and Iraq, but Bush gets the nod for terrorism. Let's keep this in perspective.

Americans are obviously far more in danger of terrorist attacks than pre-Shrub. And the fact is, that if our American cousins want the world on their side to eliminate terrorism, or at least reduce its occurrence, they need a Chief who isn't so "on the nose" worldwide. And it's not just in poor countries where Bush is despised. I have no doubt that a drover's dog could do better than GWB in that department.

This Tuesday (the first Tuesday in November), Australia can take its mind off the Melbourne Cup horse race for a bit (at 3 pm every living thing completely stops for that!), and hopefully send some good luck wishes to our friends in America.