The Internet is for porn

Funny video at Google Videos.

The kidnapping of Mordechai Vanunu

1986 Mordechai Vanunu (b. 1954) was kidnapped by Israeli secret police in Rome (although upon release Vanunu claimed the culprits were the CIA rather than Israel’s notorious Mossad secret agency). Vanunu, who had leaked details of Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program to the London Times, was convicted in a secret Israeli military court and held in solitary confinement for much of his 18-year imprisonment.

Israeli former nuclear technician Vanunu secretly wrote on the palm of his hand details of his kidnapping which he showed press photographers. Shots of his hand were beamed around the world, and soon car window stickers with 'Free Vanunu' slogans were being displayed in many places. However, it was to be nearly two decades before the government of Israel was to release this whistleblower ...

Tagged: israel, nuclear, activism

Front cover of my new novel

Front cover of my new novel,
originally uploaded by Pip_Wilson.

'Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push'.

She struggled to get women the vote. Her son was Australia's most famous writer. They drove each other crazy.

Back cover here. Read all about it at http://www.boilingbilly.com/.


Tagged: australia, history, radical, progressive, poetry, literature, henry+lawson, louisa+lawson

Michaelmas

Feast of St Michael and All Angels (Michaelmas)

(One of the four Irish Quarter days in the Irish calendar. Michaelmas daisy, Aster tradescanti [Aster spp], was designated today’s plant by medieval monks and dedicated to St Michael.)

Today is a Christian feast derived from the old pagan Autumn Equinox feasts. This Christian saint, Prince of All Angels, is a dragon-slaying archangel who was the leader of the army of God during the Lucifer uprising, casting Satan out of Paradise. He is one of only two angels named in the Bible, the other being Gabriel, who shares his feast day. Michael is associated with the planet Mercury. Muslims, Christians and Jews all express devotion to him, and there are writings about him in all three religions ...

Tagged: christianity, saints, calendar+customs

A cake for Michaelmas Eve

St Michael’s Eve (Michaelmas Eve)

In Celtic cultures such as that of Scotland, bonfires were burned tonight, and the traditional meal was roast lamb, the eating of which was followed by singing and dancing. A special cake was baked, called Struan Micheil (St Michael Bannock; St Michael Cake; Struan Michael; St Michael Bread; Struan Michel; St Michael's Bannock; St Michael's Cake; St Michael's Bread) made of oats, barley and rye (the fruits of the harvest), for eating tomorrow on St Michael's Day. Here's one bannock recipe, another, and lots more ...

Original Selkirk Bannock (pictured).

Tagged: folklore, calendar+customs, saints, celtic, scotland

I want to see the cleaner

Maybe because I used to work as a cleaner about 5 years ago, I want to know when the cleaner visits the lab that has this crystal-clear webcam.

If you spot the cleaning lady, please let me know at what time. If you can get a screen shot, so much the better.

Rooted in Ireland

Rooted in Ireland is an oak planting project in Drumconwell, which is just outside of Armagh, Northern Ireland.

The tree site is set on 9 acres of beautiful, lush farmland, overlooking the picturesque and hugely historic Cathedral City. It is reputedly the same ground that King Conwell once strode upon, and indeed, there are the remains of an old ring fort, and a mass rock, in close proximity. This is an area of Ireland steeped in history, both ancient and modern. It has been the spiritual capital of Ireland for 1500 years. It is the historical center of St Patrick's congregation, and the burial place of Brian Boru. It has been an educational center since that time, which is why it is known as the city of saints and scholars.

The history of the area is fascinating, reflecting 6,500 years of activity. People first arrived here in 4,500 BC and have been arriving ever since, attracted partly by the wealth of visitor attractions including cathedrals, museums, county parks, National Trust properties, modern theatres, and a great range of restaurants, bars, and music venues. There is one thing however that is sadly lacking on the landscape, and that is trees. Ireland as a whole is now the most treeless land in Europe, with County Armagh being one of the worst affected, and this is where the Rooted in Ireland story begins.

The three directors of Rooted in Ireland, Patrick Nugent, Anne-Marie Nugent, and Peter Slevin had spent hours discussing setting up a business that was wholesome and beneficial to the environment, while also being unique to the area. Inspired by an article in an Australian newspaper about a similar project in Sydney, they set to work clearing and preparing the land, mapping out the planting paths, and finally, planting the oak trees themselves.

There are currently 1700 trees planted, with another 2000 trees planned for the end of October. When the trees are in, they are then offered for sale to interested parties, who receive a certificate of ownership, a frame-ready photograph of their tree. A plaque is attached to the tree, bearing the inscription of the purchaser's choice, the date, and the name of the person who the tree is dedicated to. So far, most of the purchases have come from people in the United States, the most notable of whom is an Upstate New York Mayor, Mr. Jim Sottile. In August two of Rooted in Ireland's directors were invited to have a stall at the Federation of Genealogical Societies annual convention in Boston, Massachusetts. The response to the project was outstanding, with all the promotional material gone in a matter of hours.

The website (www.rootedinireland.com) has seen a huge increase in traffic since August, and people are purchasing trees to give as wedding presents, christening presents, etc. Some have been bought in memory of grandparents and relatives who arrived in the United States from Ireland.

The directors have big plans for the project, and intend to ultimately plant 10,000 trees in total. The site will be developed as more trees are purchased, and will include a visitor centre in the style of a famine cottage, a viewing platform, and various decorative features in keeping with the surrounding countryside. The project is currently being considered for funding by various grant bodies including the EU peace fund, and the South Armagh Tourism Initative, and will become an integral part of a visitor's experience when they arrive in Armagh. The directors have been heartened at the help, encouragement, and support that has been given to them by people from all walks of life. It seems that everyone can see the benefit of the Rooted in Ireland ethos, and this is perhaps summed up by the following Greek proverb: "A society grows great when people plant trees whose shade they will never sit in".

Item submitted by Peter Slevin

Tagged: ireland, environment, activism

The lie that circled the world

2003 Colin Powell publicly lied that the Clinton administration “conducted a four-day bombing campaign in late 1998 based on the intelligence that he [UNSCOM director, Richard Butler] had. That resulted in the weapons inspectors being thrown out.”

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

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.”

The lie gets round the world
The ‘mistake’ has been made not only by pro-war people such as George W Bush in his 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 ...

Tagged: unscom, iraq, saddam+hussein, bush, usa, disinfo, disinformation, war, peace, war+on+terror

Joan Didion on Dick Cheney

"In 1991, explaining why he agreed with George H.W. Bush's decision not to take the Gulf War to Baghdad, Cheney had acknowledged the probability that any such invasion would be followed by civil war in Iraq ..."
Joan Didion on Dick Cheney

Tagged: cheney, usa, bush, torture, iraq

The day Stanislav Petrov saved the world

1983 On this day, it is likely that more lives were saved than on any other occasion in history, and it was by a man most of us haven’t heard of, and because he refused to obey orders.

Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov (b. c. 1939) averted a worldwide nuclear war (because of time-zone differences, the date was September 26 in the Soviet Union, and September 25 in the West). Petrov refused to accept that missiles had been launched against the USSR by the United States of America despite the indication given by his computerised early warning systems.

For three terrifying minutes, Petrov held firm while alarms around him in his bunker were telling him his country was under attack, with five US missiles launched and headed towards Soviet territory.

Petrov's dilemma was this: if he was disregarding a real attack, then the Soviet Union would be devastated by nuclear weapons without any warning or chance to retaliate, and he would have failed at his duty. On the other hand, if he were to report a non-existent attack, his superiors might launch an equally catastrophic assault against their enemies. In either case, millions of people would die.

The experience nearly ruined his health, and his incredible tale was hushed up ...

Tagged: russia, nuclear, war, peace, biography

The Doomsday Code

I cut my teeth on Premillennialism. Before my tragic Fall Into Apostasy, I was raised in a Baptist church, with roots in the Plymouth Brethren. We were raised to call ourselves 'Fundamentalists'.

That is, we believed in the Fundaments of Christianity. It's a word that is now popularly and somewhat incorrectly applied to some reactionary tendencies in other religions, such as Islam, but arose from early-20th-Century Evangelical Christianity. And largely because of this background, I have been able to discuss and fairly accurately predict many of the actions of the Bush administration, which is similarly afflicted but not yet in recovery.

I can vouch that everything in this video, The Doomsday Code, depicts the actual ideology widely believed by the Christian right in my country, as well as the USA. Well worth watching in order to understand, in part, the mentally skewiff agenda that drives the USA administration.

This video shows whacky stuff, but it is important to see what is going on. I believe our world depends on an understanding of it.

Lid dip to Nora from Extra!Extra! (well worth subscribing to, free).

Tagged: apocalypse, usa, bush, religion, christianity

Happy trails to you ...

The almanackist will be offline until Tuesday, highway deities willing.

For Almaniacs suffering Almanac withdrawals, you could always make a robot from a coathanger, catch up on what's happening in the world, or read my book till I get back.

The trial of The Chicago 8

1969 USA: The Chicago 8 (later the Chicago 7) trial opened in Chicago, Illinois. They had been indicted on March 19 in the aftermath of their Yippie demo at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Party National Convention.



Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman (seen here in the judicial robes they wore to the trial,
when they weren’t wearing American revolutionary uniforms, etc),
perhaps the best-known and certainly the most flamboyant of the Chicago 8, are both now in Yippie heaven.

Charged with conspiracy to incite riot were Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin (leaders of the Yippies – the Youth International Party), Bobby Seale (Black Panther leader), David Dellinger (chairman of the National Mobilization against the War), Tom Hayden and Rennie Davis (leaders of Students for a Democratic Society) and John Froines and Lee Weiner (local Chicago organizers). The number of defendants was reduced to seven on October 29 when Seale was bound, gagged, and sent to prison for contempt of court.

The defence attorneys were William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass; the judge was Julius Hoffman. On October 9 the United States National Guard was called in for crowd control as demonstrations grew outside the courtroom ...

Tagged: yippies, counterculture, usa, 60s, sixties, hippies, demonstrations, activism, progressive, radical, legal, law

Bush credited with Saddam Hussein acquittal

"Yesterday's surprising acquittal of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on all counts has been linked to policies and procedures developed and used by former president George W. Bush, Lionel Thrush, a legal analyst with the Legal Analysis Institute for Legal Analysis, said today. Following his release, Saddam Hussein, now a free man, thanked Bush effusively with the words "if it were not for that bean-brained buffoon, I would be hanging from a tree right now" before announcing his candidacy for Iraqi president.

"'I think the acquittal of Saddam Hussein can be seen as the result of a cascading sequence of unfortunate decisions by the former president and his administration,' Mr. Thrush said ..."
Avant News: Tomorrow's News Today

Iraq torture worse now than under Hussein

"The U.N.’s chief anti-torture expert, Manfred Nowak, says: 'The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein.' Sectarian violence has filled the Baghdad morgue with bodies bearing evidence of brutal torture." More
Source

Tagged: iraq, torture, human+rights, war+on+terror

Ted Turner says Iraq invasion was dumb

"The U.S. invasion of Iraq was among the 'dumbest moves of all time' that ranks with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and the German invasion of Russia, billionaire philanthropist Ted Turner said on Tuesday."
Common Dreams

Tagged: usa, iraq, war+on+terror

New Mark Fiore animated cartoon on Darfur

The Delaying Game

Tagged: darfur

Mabon, Neopagan festival

Mabon is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats of Neopaganism. It is celebrated on the autumn equinox, in the Northern Hemisphere circa September 21 -22 and in the Southern Hemisphere around March 20.

Also sometimes called Harvest Home or Feast of the Ingathering (which is more commonly a Christian version; see September 24), this holiday is a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and God during the winter months.

Among the sabbats, it is the second of the three harvest festivals, preceded by Lammas and followed by Samhain.

Tagged: calendar+customs, celtic, pagan, neopagan

Rush 'absolutely petrified' by execution

The execution of Scott Rush, if it goes ahead, will be one of the greatest travesties of injustice ever meted out by the Indonesian government. Something must be done to stop these loonies.

Royal Society tells Exxon: stop funding climate change denial

Royal Society tells Exxon: stop funding climate change denial

Tagged: climate+change, global+warming, oil, environment, disinfo, disinformation

Yow!!!

1327 England’s King Edward II (b. 1284) was murdered in the dungeons of Berkeley Castle, allegedly by a red hot poker being shoved in his rectum, at the bidding of his estranged and ambitious wife, Queen Isabella of France, whom the hapless homosexual had married on January 25, 1308.

Taliban offered to hand over bin Laden

"On September 20, 2001 the Taliban offered to hand Osama bin Laden to a neutral Islamic country for trial if the US presented them with evidence that he was responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington. The US rejected the offer." Source: The Guardian

Myths of the ‘War on Terrorism’ and Iraq

The birth of Alexander

356 BCE Alexander the Great (d. June 11, 323 BCE), King of Macedon and conqueror of most of the world known then to Europeans, was born to Philip and Olympias amidst great omens.

Alexander the Great was a real historical figure, a general and emperor, whose life was imbued with overtones of deification from Europe to parts of Western India ...

Tagged: biography, ancient+greece

Widow claims Army and Gov't used soldier's body for PR

The widow of Private Jake Kovco has suggested that the Australian Defence Force put public relations before the correct handling of her husband's body.

Pte Kovco was shot dead in Iraq in mysterious circumstances and in April a Bosnian labourer's body was sent back to Australia by mistake. Mrs Shelley Kovco today lashed out at the Australian Defence Force and Defence Minister Dr Brendan Nelson, claiming that the Army's and the government's desire to "look good" on Anzac Day (Australia's war memorial day) overrode their responsibilities.

"The ADF and the government thought it would look good to have Jake back in the country on Anzac Day,'' she told the inquiry into the blunder.

Kovco's mother says Army in cover-up

Tagged: public+relations, australia, army, military, iraq

Soldiers just letting off steam, says Howard

"They've been labelled cowboys, rogue soldiers and a disgrace to the uniform.

"Australia's military chief says there's no place for them in the country's army.

"But Prime Minister John Howard has said today that the Australian troops who took video and photographs of pranks involving guns and at least one colleague dressed as an Arab, were just letting off steam."
The World Today

Tagged: australia, military, army, racism, violence

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Click to embiggen, ye scurvy bilge buckets!

International Talk Like A Pirate Day, me hearties, be a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by two swashbuckling Yanks, John Baur ('Ol' Chum Bucket') and Mark Summers ('Cap'n Slappy'), who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when every bilge rat in the world should be talkin' like a pirate. Arrr arrr!!!

Tagged: calendar+customs, humor, humour

Random September 11 conspiracy stuff

A few random 9/11 conspiracy movement ('9/11 truth movement') observations:

Alpha: The new three-part 911 Mysteries is probably the best of this genre of fillums that I've seen. Recommended, but my jury is still out.

Beta: The sidebar of this Truthdig page has a list of conspiracy sites.

Gamma: Steven E Jones is one of the leading lights of the 9/11 conspiracy movement, and Co-Chair of Scholars for 9/11 Truth. He is a professor at Brigham Young University, Utah.

He is also author of a wacky paper entitled 'Behold My Hands: Evidence for Christ's Visit in Ancient America' in which he uses archeological 'evidence' to support the Mormon claims that Jesus visited the Americas.

Delta: Some debunking the debunkers sites:
http://www.911myths.com/
http://www.debunking911.com/
http://internetdetectives.biz/case/loose-change

Tagged: 9/11

Pope's half-arsed apology

In today's climate, what could be more stupid than for an international leader to be so indiscreet?

"I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address," the pope told pilgrims at the summer papal palace of Castel Gandolfo (say what?!), "which were considered offensive."

He's sorry for the reactions to this speech.

Tagged: religion, islam, christianity

Death of Hendrix

1970 Jimi Hendrix (b. 1942) was pronounced dead on arrival at St Mary’s Hospital, London, from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. It is believed he had been dead for quite some time when ambulance officers found him in the basement flat of the Samarkand Hotel at 22 Lansdowne Crescent, London earlier that morning.

The loss of three J's
Hendrix, Janis Joplin (1943 - October 4, 1970) and Jim Morrison (1943 - July 3, 1971), three rock legends, all leaders of their respective bands, whose names all started with the letter J, were all born within 12½ months of each other, and all died of drug overdoses within ten months of each other. All were aged just 27 when they died.

Tagged: biography, music, rock+music, drugs

Mad House Mystery of Beautiful Sydney Girl

1902 Bee (or Bea) Miles (d. December 3, 1973), was a famous eccentric in Sydney, Australia, a town known for its eccentrics – individualists such as Webster (the immensely popular soap-box orator, a genius about whom, sadly, nothing appears to have been published); the Flying Pieman; Rosaleen Norton the Witch of Kings Cross; the Bengal Tiger; William Chidley the natural health fanatic; Dulcie Deamer the Queen of Bohemia; and of course, Sydneytown’s favourite Mister Eternity.

Then there was Bee Miles, who must surely be an immortal Sydneysider. According to contemporary newspaper reports, in pre-World War II Sydney Bee was more widely known than the Prime Minister. From a wealthy North Shore family, at only 12 years of age young Beatrice wore a ‘No Conscription’ badge to school during the contentious conscription referendum in World War I. Later, she was severely marked down for an essay about Gallipoli, which she described as a 'strategical blunder' rather than a 'wonderful war effort'. In this, as in many aspects in her later life, she went quite against the norms of her day.

A strong swimmer, it is said she once swam about a mile from suburban Coogee Beach to Wedding Cake Island with a sheath knife strapped to her leg as protection from the sharks. While Bee was on holidays at Palm Beach, and a young boy went missing in the surf, Bee swam out to look for him even after the lifesavers had given up the search.

Mad House Mystery of Beautiful Sydney Girl
Bee had a love-hate relationship with her father, who was pro-Aboriginal and anti-British, but she took on many of his nationalistic ideas and values. At the age of 21, following an illness, she was admitted by her father to Gladesville Mental Hospital. One story says that she escaped the ‘lunatic asylum’, as it was then known, with the help of a Smith’s Weekly tabloid front-page story that campaigned for her release – 'Mad House Mystery of Beautiful Sydney Girl'.

Advocating sexual freedom and rejecting the conservative values of the middle classes, she became one of the bohemians of Sydney, mixing with writers, artists and intellectuals ...

Tagged: sydney, australia, eccentrics, poetry, mental+health, biography, history

Doubts raised over Australia's 'first face' on TV

"A Queensland local councillor believes today's 50-year anniversary of Australia's first television broadcast is wrong.

"Ipswich Councillor Paul Tully believes Bruce Gyngell was not the first face to appear on Australian television, and says a group of amateurs in Brisbane first broadcasted on the medium 72 years ago."
ABC

I was born in 1953 and my parents owned a radio/electrical shop, which came to be a radio/TV/electrical shop, so when TV came in 1956, we had TVs everywhere. At this time, a television cost about a man's wages for two-three months, so I was pretty lucky, though of course I had no idea at the time. I've always been very blase about the device.

Even before broadcasting began 50 years ago today, people used to watch the test pattern in the shop window, and Dad used to put on demonstrations in people's homes ... well-of families would organise parties and crowds of people would watch the test patterns.

Maybe my excessive exposure to TV in my childhood -- Davy Crockett hat, Mickey Mouse ears, endless reruns of Superman ... the works ... is why I have never actually owned a TV, and why I find it so boring today. While I watch some shows on my computer, I haven't the slightest interest in owning a TV. My view is that television, war and global warming are the three greatest problems faced by the world today. Not so much because the programming is crap, but because the medium itself damages imagination. I heartily recommend to all people that they try one year, or even just one month, without TV, and I guarantee they'll be surprised how their imagination improves.

Tagged: television, australia

Bush moments on Letterman

Tagged: bush, funny, video, humour, humor

Australia calling Washington

It's up to us to act, so we're going global and taking our David Hicks campaign straight to the top.

This coming week, the US President wants to pass new legislation for trying detainees that's actually far worse than the unfair system the US Supreme Court threw out - and ignoring the facts, our Government barracks from the sidelines. But his new plan is so outrageous that now support from Congress could collapse.

America sees Australia as the closest of allies. At this crucial moment, tell the President of the United States and Congress that another sham system of Guantanamo justice is unacceptable.

The President wants to use the anniversary of September 11 to pass devastating new legislation for trying detainees. It prevents defendants and their lawyers from even seeing evidence against them or confronting witnesses, while allowing prosecutors to use hearsay and evidence obtained through coercion.

If the President is successful, detainees such as David Hicks will never again have access to appeals, or be able to make allegations of torture or mistreatment in the courts.

The American Government has not, and would not ever, allow their citizens to be tried in Guantanamo Bay. Tell them not to create a system of justice for our citizen they wouldn't accept for theirs.

www.getup.org.au/campaign/AustraliaCallingWashington media release

Tagged: david+hicks, guantanamo, usa, australia, human+rights, civil+rights, activism

Two billion homes could be free from escalating electricity costs

"Two billion households worldwide could realistically be powered by solar energy by 2025, according to a joint report launched today by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and Greenpeace (1). The report concludes that thanks to advances in technology, increasing competition and investment in production facilities, solar power has now become a serious contender in the electricity market; able to provide low-cost, clean, CO2 emission free energy.

"The report also concludes that the global photovoltaic (PV) industry could potentially create more than 2 million jobs by 2040 plus a cut in annual CO2 emissions of 350 million tonnes (2) - equivalent to 140 coal power plants – by 2025, and become the energy of choice for consumers ..."
Greenpeace

Tagged: greenpeace, energy, environment, solar

Lennon as a political threat

"John Lennon joked that since he was a schoolboy he'd always gotten in trouble, maybe because he just had a look about him. Eventually he got into trouble with the U.S. government.

"The ex-Beatle's celebrated battle with the feds is chronicled in 'The U.S. vs. John Lennon,' a documentary tracing how he went from rock star to fierce anti-war protester to "undesirable alien."

"The film was made with the cooperation of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, who called it a rich and authentic portrait of the man and what he was fighting for.

"'Basically, if you want to know about John, this is John,' Ono told The Associated Press at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the documentary played in advance of its Manhattan premiere.

"Directors David Leaf and John Scheinfeld were able to mine archival recordings and family photos provided by Ono and secure rights to use about three dozen Beatles and Lennon songs in the film's soundtrack, including 'Revolution,' 'All You Need Is Love,' 'Imagine' and 'Give Peace a Chance'."
The Journal News via Maryannaville

Tagged: lennon, beatles, usa, film, music, rock+music, progressive, law, legal

Fête of Cornely at Carnac, Brittany, France

St Cornely (Cornelius) was elected the 21st pope in 251 during the lull in the persecution of the emperor Trajan Decius ...

Cornely is patron saint of horned animals, no doubt because of the similarity of the saint's name with the Latin word for 'horn', but also a remnant of pre-Christian worship of the horned god, who to the Celts was the similarly named Cernunnos (the Stag Lord). Even the name of the town gives away the pagan origins.

Elsewhere in the Catholic Church, today commemorates the feast day of St Cornelius, patron against earache, cattle, domestic animals, earache, epilepsy, epileptics, fever and twitching. Cornelius is represented in art as a pope holding a battle horn or cow's horn; pope with a cow nearby. He is often pictured with a broken cup because some tried to poison him and as he reached to drink from the cup, it shattered ...

Tagged: christianity, saints, calendar+customs, france

Historian likens TV networks to cannibals

Historian likens TV networks to cannibals

Tagged: papua, television, corporations, journalism

Bush says capturing Bin Laden not a top priority

"Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes appeared on Fox this morning to discuss his recent meeting with President Bush in the Oval Office. The key takeaway for Barnes was that 'bin Laden doesn’t fit with the administration's strategy for combating terrorism.' Barnes said that Bush told him capturing bin Laden is 'not a top priority use of American resources.' Watch it.

"Bush’s priorities have always been skewed. Just months after declaring he wanted bin Laden 'dead or alive,' Bush said, 'I truly am not that concerned about him.' Turning his attention away from bin Laden, Bush trained his focus on Iraq — a country he now admits had 'nothing' to do with 9/11."
ThinkProgress

Tagged: bin+laden, bush, war+on+terror, disinfo, disinformation, usa, 9/11, iraq

Grasshopper porn

Grasshopper porn,
originally uploaded by Pip_Wilson.

Photo taken today at my new place at Emerald Beach.

Hey YOU

Wake up bloggers to the Darfur crisis

One way to get the slumbering masses thinking about the huge Darfur crisis is to wake up blog owners.

Suggestion: go to Technorati and search Darfur -- it might help knock TV and pop celebs off the top searches. Ask your friends and email lists to do the same. Another method is to post information on your websites and blogs. Time is running out!

Darfur news. Track new stories about Darfur – create an email alert. Darfur news by RSS.

Darfur conflict death toll could be 255,000, say researchers

Tagged: darfur, sudan, activism

Fifteen days to save Darfur

Editorial Published in the New York Times: September 11, 2006

"Last month the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the creation of a peacekeeping force to intervene in Darfur. But it had a big catch. These troops can be deployed only with the consent of Sudan’s government, which in effect allows the regime responsible for this genocide to decide whether or not the killings will continue.

"Clearly, that cannot be the end of the discussion. The next step is for leading governments, including Washington, to apply maximum political pressure on Sudan, all the countries that support it (including China) and all the nations that could help sway it from its current course. The Bush administration needs to couple its tough talk on Darfur with some focused, high-level diplomacy. This would be a good time for President Bush to name a special envoy for Darfur. To make clear that the full weight of the administration is behind the new envoy, Mr. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should call officials in Sudan, China and Russia, as well as in powerful African countries like South Africa and Nigeria. Similar efforts should be made by leaders of the European Union.

"At the end of this month, African Union forces, the only peacekeepers in Darfur, are scheduled to go home. That will leave the field open to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his army to resume the killing, which they have given every indication of doing. That gives the rest of the world only three weeks to avoid a worsening tragedy."

Dear Friends,

As the editorial above explains, we are facing a crucial moment in the ongoing deadly saga of the Darfur crisis. We are writing to enlist the entire Human Rights Watch community to take immediate action on behalf of all the people of Darfur. Please make your voice heard and help prevent the crisis in Darfur from worsening.

To help stop the crisis:
Write to the U.N. Security Council members.
Urge them to secure Sudan’s consent to the urgent need for a U.N. force to Darfur and take all necessary steps for deployment.
Contact your elected representatives.
Urge them to support the African Union Mission in Sudan with resources in the interim and support the transition to a U.N. force.
Join a Global Day for Darfur Rally this Sunday, September 17th.
Visit www.hrw.org for more information and to support Human Rights Watch’s work on Darfur.

Source: Human Rights Watch

I dips me lid to Nora at pagans4peace

Please read the latest news on Darfur at Google News

Video: George Clooney addresses the UN on Darfur

Worse than the tsunami
"400,000 Innocent killed already ; 2.5 Million plus people displaced; 3.5 Million Refugees and growing; Province the size of France policed by only 7,800 African Union troops; it is 2006 and this is bigger than any recent disasters , The Tsunami, Pakistani Earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, all far smaller that the current situation in Darfur. Are we going to look on and witness another Rwanda?"
Silent Masses

Tagged: darfur, africa, poverty

The No-Nonsense Guide to Terrorism

"Since the events of September 11, 2001, the propaganda uses of the word 'terrorism' have multiplied, and it has never been clearer that one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. The No-Nonsense Guide to Terrorism looks at debates about September 11 and the response to it, but also gets behind the causes and contexts of both group terrorism and state terrorism."
The No-Nonsense Guide to Terrorism

Tagged: terrorism

Is this Jesus Christ’s birthday?

Perhaps we should deck the halls with boughs of spring flowers, because an English astronomer suggested that Jesus might have been born on September 15, 7 BCE. Dr David Hughes, of Sheffield University, argued that September 15 is the real Christmas for the following reasons:

In the Gospel of St Luke we read that Joseph took Mary to Bethlehem because "... there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, every one in his own city" (Luke 2:1,2). Such a decree occurred about 8 BCE.

King Herod (Herod the Great) was so infuriated that a rival had been born (the ‘King of the Jews’) that he ordered the massacre of all baby boys in Israel, but Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt. They stayed there for two years until Herod’s death, said to have closely followed a lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses occurred in 4 BCE and 1 BCE.

The distinctive astronomical phenomenon that happened between 8 BCE and 1 BCE, that could be equated with the Star of Bethlehem, is the conjunction of the giant planet Jupiter with Saturn in the constellation of Pisces (considered the Zodiacal sign of the Jews). This began on May 27, 7 BCE and continued for some months – long enough for the three wise men (astrologers) to follow the phenomenon cross country ...

Tagged: christianity, calendar+customs, astronomy, astrology

Holy Rood Day

Officially known as the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, today used also to be called Holy Rood Day, or Roodmas.

Some authorities say the Catholic Church feast commemorates the restoration of the 'True Cross' to Calvary in 629, after the victory of Emperor Heraclius over the Persians. Others say it commemorates the raising of the 'true' Christian cross in the church at Jerusalem in 335 (some sources say 326) by the Empress Helena (Flavia Iulia Helena, also known as St Helena and Helena of Constantinople, c. 248 - c. 329 CE), mother of Constantine. Today may be considered a christianization of the ancient Eleusis feast of Demeter (see Greater Eleusinian Mysteries).

In 1561 John Calvin wrote a tract that said that if all the pieces of the True Cross were gathered together, they would load a large ship, and would take 300 men, not one, to carry it ...

Tagged: christianity, folklore, calendar+customs, saints

If your comment was not published

I apparently have not been receiving from Blogger an email notification of every comment posted on my blogs. I just went to comments moderation and found almost 20 comments waiting my review, right back to April. My apologies if yours was one of them; I've reviewed them all now and all comments accepted have now been published.

Tutti Frutti

1955 Los Angeles, USA: Little Richard recorded a bowdlerised version of Tutti Frutti. What the naughty words were that he expunged, your almanackist has not been able to determine, but "all over rootie" is still in the published lyrics.

I always thought it was "I wanna rootie", but perhaps it was just me projecting. The most famous line of the song is when Richard sings "A Wop bop a lu bop ba lop bam boom!" Or something like that.

Following an Australian tour in 1957, during which (on a harbour cruise) he looked up into a Sydney sky and saw Sputnik and was troubled by it, he said he saw a vision of the apocalypse and his own damnation in a dream ...

Tagged: music, rock+music, australia, usa, religion, christianity

Anger, conspiracy and 9/11 truth

"A recent Scripps Howard survey reports that one in three Americans believe or suspect their democratically elected government is guilty of the worst crime in American history – of participating in the wanton murder of thousands of its own citizens and the destruction of the national economy in order to advance some nefarious, secret agenda."

This well-considered article casts doubt on the 9/1 Truth movement. My own view is that it is unlikely that the Bush administration had anything to do with 9/11 but that there are unanswered questions. I allow for the possibility that some powerful group associated with Bush or his administration, had inside knowledge.

All my life I scoffed at any suggestion that JFK was not killed by Lee Harvey Oswald alone. Until I read Not in Your Lifetime: The Kennedy Conspiracy? (also released under the title Conspiracy) by Anthony Summers. It's the book that finally and utterly persuaded me Oswald was a patsy and that the CIA was deeply involved in the assassination. And when I learned of Operation Northwoods, I realised that the US military was capable of almost anything. At this stage, I think it would be just as naive to say that a 9/11 conspiracy in USA elites is impossible as to say it is definite.

See also 9/11: Truth, lies and conspiracy for the other side, and this article which has different perspectives (from a socialist website).

Tagged: 9/11, bush

Ground Zero 'just a background for a photo-op'

"Five years later this space is still empty.

"Five years later there is no memorial to the dead.

"Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.

"Five years later this country's wound is still open.

"Five years later this country's mass grave is still unmarked.

"Five years later this is still just a background for a photo-op.

"It is beyond shameful.

"At the dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial -- barely four months after the last soldier staggered from another Pennsylvania field -- Mr. Lincoln said, 'we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.'

"Lincoln used those words to immortalize their sacrifice.

"Today our leaders could use those same words to rationalize their reprehensible inaction. 'We cannot dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground.' So we won't."

Read the full text of this lament by American newsman Keith Olbermann.

Tagged: usa, 9/11, bush

Lie by Lie: Chronicle of a War Foretold

"In this timeline, we’ve assembled the history of the Iraq War to create a resource we hope will help resolve open questions of the Bush era. What did our leaders know and when did they know it? And, perhaps just as important, what red flags did we miss, and how could we have missed them? This is the first installment in our Iraq War timeline project."
Lie by Lie: Chronicle of a War Foretold: August 1990 to March 2003

Lid dip to Joy S at pagans4peace

Tagged: disinfo, disinformation, bush, war+on+terror, usa, iraq, peace, war

Junk culture 'is poisoning our children'

"A sinister cocktail of junk food, marketing, over-competitive schooling and electronic entertainment is poisoning childhood, a powerful lobby of academics and children's experts says today.

"In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts call on the Government to act to prevent the death of childhood.

"They write: 'We are deeply concerned at the escalating incidence of childhood depression and children's behavioural and developmental conditions.'

"The group, which includes Philip Pullman, the children's author, Jacqueline Wilson, the children's laureate, her predecessor Michael Morpurgo, Baroness Greenfield, the director of the Royal Institution and Dr Penelope Leach, the child care expert, blames a failure by politicians and public alike to understand how children develop ...

"She cited research by Prof Michael Shayer at King's College, London, which showed that 11-year-olds measured in cognitive tests were 'on average between two and three years behind where they were 15 years ago' ...

"Jacqueline Wilson said: '...I speak to children at book signings and they ask me how I go through the process of writing and I say, "Oh you know, it's just like when you play imaginary games and you simply write it all down".

"'All I get is blank faces. I don't think children use their imaginations any more.'"
Telegraph (emphasis mine)

Tagged: education, children, health, television, internet

Tim Leary on the lam

1970 Psychonaut Dr Timothy Leary escaped from prison with the help of his wife Rosemary, and Weatherman, a radical offshoot organization of the Students For Democratic Society (SDS).

Targeted by the Nixon administration as a dangerous subversive, the former Harvard professor had been imprisoned in February of that year for possessing a single marijuana joint (he was convicted of possession under the Marijuana Tax Act and sentenced to a preposterous 30 years in jail). Curiously, when he entered prison he had been required to submit to the Leary psychological evaluation test which he himself had designed while working in academia.

Leary made his way to Algeria where he met up with exiled American Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and was given asylum in the Black Panther ‘embassy’. The pro-violence Maoist Panthers thought he was the crazy one, so the welcome wore out fairly quickly ...

(Pictured: Dr Leary under arrest)

Tagged: biography, usa, law, legal, entheogens, drugs, crime

The Peace Bus

The Peace Bus

Graeme Dunstan from Peace Bus spent the day at The Ponderosa (my cabin at Sandy Beach) yesterday and I enjoyed shooting the breeze with him. Click the link to pursue Graeme's latest passion -- the deplorable fact that thousands of tons of cyanide from gold mining are transported on Australian roads and railway lines.

Tagged: peace, environment, australia

Moving house

I'm moving house over the next few days and will be offline for a while. The daily ezine will not be sent until then, sorry. Back as soon as possible.

Guantanamo to get new victims

In a White House speech George Bush said yesterday:

"We're now approaching the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and the families of those murdered that day have waited patiently for justice. Some of the families are with us today. They should have to wait no longer.

"So I'm announcing today that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and 11 other terrorists in CIA custody have been transferred to the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. (Applause.)"

My question is, were Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and the 11 others in some way responsible for 9/11? Or is Bush obfuscating again?

Also, are we to feel relieved that these people are now to endure the hell of Guantanamo?

Tagged: bush, terrorism, 9/11, war+on+terror, cia, rendition, guantanamo

Humpback whales head home, Australia

At present there are around 44 species of whale recorded in Australia, 35 of them toothed whales and nine baleen whales. The Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, is one of the baleens.

This is the time of September's southward migration for humpbacks, from the tropical breeding waters of northern Queensland, back to the icy Antarctic.

Six thousand kilometres there and six thousand back, just to have sex – even in Australia, where long distances are the norm and God knows one can get desperate, that's a long way to go for a whale.

By October the humpbacks will be passing the aptly named port of Eden on the south coast of NSW. This old whaling town holds its Whale Festival in that month and whale watch cruises are most numerous in October and November.

Tagged: australia, environment, wildlife

Germaine Greer blasts Steve Irwin

Under the heading 'The animal world got its revenge', Germaine Greer wrote this of Steve Irwin, a day after his death, and the article was featured on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald:

"There was no habitat, no matter how fragile or finely balanced, that Irwin hesitated to barge into, trumpeting his wonder and amazement to the skies. There was not an animal he was not prepared to manhandle. Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress. Every snake badgered by Irwin was at a huge disadvantage, with only a single possible reaction to its terrifying situation, which was to strike."

Based on my extensive Steve Irwin-watching experience, which amounts to about five minutes, I must say that I was very shocked to see him distressing a lizard. However, I think Greer and the Herald went too far to publish this so soon after his death. She raises issues better discussed while the young man's body is not still warm.

Greer sticks to her guns over 'tormentor' Irwin

Tagged: australia, environment, wildlife

Climate Saver Pack free of charge in NSW

EasyBeingGreen is offering New South Wales & ACT customers a Climate Saver Pack free of charge so you can save energy, water ... and around $150 each year on your energy bill.

"This pack contains six energy saving light globes and, for eligible households, one AAA rated showerhead. By installing these products, you will eliminate up to 2 tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution and save about 21,000 litres of water!"

Thanks Benny Zable for the tip-off.

Tagged: energy, australia, environment

St Bees Man: he would not rot

Today is the feast day of Saint Bees, or Bega, and a tale is attached to one of the English churches named for this saint, who is said to have been a member of the Irish royalty in the 7th Century.

In 1981 archaeologists discovered beneath an aisle on the south side of the chancel of St Bees Priory (pictured), one of the best preserved medieval human bodies ever found, and his shroud is on display.

He is known as ‘St Bees Man‘ and he lay for hundreds of years without rotting, wrapped in thick shrouds over which a wax and honey preparation had been poured, then wrapped with a sheet of lead, packed with clay and placed in a wooden coffin. He was a man aged about 40, and buried sometime between 1290 and 1500. He had died a violent death, but whether it was in battle or perhaps in a tournament of some sort is not known ...

Tagged: archaeology, saints, uk

John Schumann Lawson to debut in Adelaide

"Former Redgum frontman John Schumann will take his musical tribute to poet Henry Lawson to the stage.

"The production of Lawson will be staged at Adelaide’s Her Majesty’s Theatre on September 15, 16 and 17 and in Tanunda on October 7 ...

"Schumann has brought the show to the stage with the help of famed Aussie actor Max Cullen. The band The Vagabonds performing the music will include Broderick Smith and Mike Rudd."
Undercover

John Schumann's Henry Lawson music site

Tagged: henry+lawson, music, australia, poetry, australian+literature

Great Australian Bushwalk

The 2006 Great Australian Bushwalk -- 110 free bushwalks in spectacular locations across Australia -- will be on Sunday. I'll be moving house this weekend otherwise I'd love to join in. I was thinking of doing some bushwalking soon anyway.

Great Zimbabwe

1871 German geologist-explorer Karl Mauch (1837 - 1875) reached Great Zimbabwe in Rhodesia (now, Zimbabwe, named after the mysterious ruined city), the ancient stone ruins he believed to be the location of the fabled Gold Mines of King Solomon, and state capital of the Queen of Sheba.

Mauch could not believe that the ancient temple ruins he found could have been built by Africans ...

Tagged: africa, zimbabwe, archaeology

The man who turned on the Beatles finally revealed

"The dentist who introduced John Lennon and George Harrison to LSD in 1965 has always been an anonymous figure. In the Beatles Anthology time [sic] George referred to him only as 'the wicked dentist.' Now a book has been published that reveals the identity of the man who unwittingly helped to turn on the world.

"In The Gospel According to the Beatles, author Steve Turner reveals that the dentist was John Riley who had a practice on Harley Street and lived in a ground floor apartment in Strathearn Place near Bayswater Road. It was in this apartment that Riley slipped the hallucinogenic drug into the boys' coffees after a meal. They would never be the same again ..."
WhatGoesOn (lid dip to Beatles Blog, one of the regulars in the Almanac's Young Blogosphere.

Tagged: beatles, music, rock+music, entheogens, drugs

State funeral for the 'Pote' of Australia

1922 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: Two days after his death from a cerebral haemorrhage, the Commonwealth Government provided a State funeral for the country's favourite bard, Henry Lawson (b. 1867), the first ever held for an Australian writer.

The funeral was hastily organised between Saturday, September 2, and Monday the 4th, thanks to the intercession of Lawson's publisher and friend, George Robertson of publisher Angus & Robertson's. The funeral was attended by Lawson's former radical associate Prime Minister William Morris Hughes; Premier Sir George Fuller; eccentric politician King O’Malley; the Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales; poet Mary Gilmore; politician and friend of Lawson, Tom Mutch; some Cabinet ministers, and many others. Thousands assembled outside in George St to farewell the poet and author. For the last few years before his death, lost in alcoholism and poverty, he begged on Sydney's streets around Circular Quay and other parts.

On his headstone at Waverley Cemetery is a white marble plaque with the words:






Henry Lawson's grave, an interesting tale
Louisa and Henry Lawson – they drove each other crazy!
Louisa Lawson and Henry Lawson Chronology (our big online resource)

Henry Lawson & his mates: What they didn't teach us in school

Tagged: australia, biography, literature, australian+literature, poetry, henry+lawson

Pioneer of mechanical energy

1728 Matthew Boulton (d. August 18, 1809), English manufacturer and engineer who pioneered the steam engine with James Watt.

Like Watt, Boulton was a key member of the Lunar Society. Other names associated with this remarkable club include Erasmus Darwin, Samuel Galton, Jr, Joseph Priestley, Josiah Wedgwood, Sir Richard Arkwright, John Baskerville, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Anna Seward and Thomas Wedgwood.

Tagged: biography

Iraq on the brink: Pentagon

"THE conflict in Iraq has all the makings of a civil war, which can nonetheless be avoided, according to a Pentagon report released overnight."
Source

Iraqi Casualties Are Up Sharply, Study Finds

Tagged: iraq, usa, war, peace, war+on+terror, military

Shocking life expectancy stats for Aboriginal Aussies

From the 7th Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture

Linda Burney is the first Aboriginal person to be elected to the New South Wales Parliament and also the first woman to deliver the lecture which honours the memory of the Gurindji strike leader Vincent Lingiari*:

"The life expectancy of Indigenous people is 59.4 years for men, 64.8 for women compared to 76.6 for men and 82.0 for women in the mainstream. The infant mortality rate is 3 times the non-Indigenous rate ...

"When you collapse these figures down to a local community level the true horror is revealed. The average life expectancy in Wilcannia, far west NSW is 33 years old."
Source (emphasis mine)

*From Wikipedia: Vincent Lingiari (1908 - 1988), was an Aboriginal rights activist who was awarded the Order of Australia for his services to the Aboriginal people. Lingiari was a member of the Gurindji people from the Northern Territory's Victoria River District. Lingiari led the Wave Hill Walk-Off, which eventually resulted in the return of the land to the Gurindji by the Commonwealth of Australia.

Gather round people and I'll tell you a story
An eight year long story of power and pride
British Lord Vestey and Vincent Lingiari
Were opposite men on opposite sides

Vestey was fat with money and muscle
Beef was his business, broad was his door
Vincent was lean and spoke very little
He had no bank balance, hard dirt was his floor

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow ...

From Little Things Big Things Grow
A Song By Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody © 1992

Tagged: australia, health, aboriginal, indigenous

Henry George, forgotten but not gone

1839 Henry George (d. October 29, 1897), American political economist, and the most influential proponent of the 'Single Tax' on land, perhaps best known for his book Progress and Poverty. Much like the modern Open Source movement, George was highly critical of restrictive patents and copyrights. He was one of the 19th Century's most popular public speakers in Australia, where he lectured for more than three months in 38 towns across the continent.

In 1886 George ran for mayor of New York, and polled second (ahead of Theodore Roosevelt). He ran again in 1897, but died 4 days before the election. An estimated 100,000 people attended his funeral.

According to his grand-daughter Agnes de Mille, Progress and Poverty and its successors made Henry George the third most famous man in the USA, behind only Mark Twain and Thomas Edison ...

Lebanon oil spill rivals Exxon-Valdez

One of the many horrific results of the Israel-USA invasion of Lebanon is the spill of 15,000 tons of oil that polluted 140 kilometers of coastline following an Israeli attack on the Jiyyeh power utility, 18 miles from Beirut. It was allowed to spread unchecked for over a month because of Israel’s sea blockade.

"A toxic carpet of heavy fuel oil up to 10 cm (4 in) thick is suffocating the sea off the Lebanese coast," Greenpeace International said.

"According to the United Nations Environmental Programme, the oil spill in Lebanon is more dangerous—although smaller—than the 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill that ravaged the coast of Alaska, one of the worst oil spills in history."
Source

Tagged: lebanon, israel, oil, environment, usa

Feast day of St Fiaker

Patron saint of gardeners, celebrated on September 1 in Ireland and France, but August 30 in the official Roman Catholic calendar ...

He had the gift of healing by laying on his hands; blindness, polypus, and fevers are mentioned by the old records, and especially a tumour or fistula since called 'le fic de S Fiacre'. Because the Hotel de Saint Fiacre in Paris, France rented carriages, the cabs became known as 'Fiacre cabs', and eventually just as 'fiacres' ...

Tagged: france, saints

Our Fearless Leaders

Today on radio I heard US Pres GW Bush say (yet again -- won't his minders tell him?) "nukular", and Australian Prime Minister John Howard say "if I'd have held it back".

If I had have held it back? Nukular? And these jokers have the legal authority to kill hundreds of thousands of people? Yoikels!

Tagged: pronunciation, english, grammar, bush