Surf almanac with menu above. Click here to consult your free I Ching and Tarot while waiting (opens in a new window).
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*
"Detaining foreigners without trial under emergency anti-terror legislation breaks European human rights powers, law lords ruled today.
"The decision from the law lords, Britain's highest court, throws the government's security policies into chaos.
"A specially-convened committee of nine law lords upheld an appeal by nine foreigners who have been detained without charge or trial, most of them in Belmarsh prison, south-east London, for around three years."
We have been having trouble posting for 8 days and all through that time been writing to Blogger Support. Only today we received this reply.
Hi there, This error means that you have filled up the 100 MB on your BlogSpot Plus account. You will need to remove any unused files or folders you may have on your FTP account in order to post new material. We apologize for the inconvenience. Sincerely, Blogger Support
I have written asking for further advice, and hope that the Blogmanac will be humming along as usual very soon. Thanks for bearing with us.
Paramedics challenge Lord Hutton over David Kelly's death
"Two paramedics have cast doubt over the verdict of the Hutton inquiry that weapons expert Dr David Kelly killed himself by slitting his wrists.
"Dave Bartlett and Vanessa Hunt, who were among the first people to arrive at Harrowdown woods, Oxfordshire, after Dr Kelly's body was found on 18 July last year, said there would have been much more blood at the scene using that method.
"In a joint statement, Mr Bartlett and Ms Hunt said yesterday: 'We felt that our observations of the scene where Dr Kelly's body was discovered were inconsistent with the conclusion of the Hutton Inquiry that Dr Kelly's death resulted from the wound to his wrist'."
"WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say.
"Such missions, if approved, could take the deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary and adopt them for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations ...
"Nearly three years ago, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, under intense criticism, closed the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence, a short-lived operation to provide news items, possibly including false ones, to foreign journalists in an effort to influence overseas opinion.
"Now, critics say, some of the proposals of that discredited office are quietly being resurrected elsewhere in the military and in the Pentagon."
Pages
of Days
Almanac
"Two paramedics have cast doubt over the verdict of the Hutton inquiry that weapons expert Dr David Kelly killed himself by slitting his wrists.
"Nearly three years ago, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, under intense criticism, closed the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence, a short-lived operation to provide news items, possibly including false ones, to foreign journalists in an effort to influence overseas opinion. 