David Price at Counterpunch gives us more on the Human Terrain System Program Here.
HTS is a product of the  miscegenation of the private sector and the government  that corrupts science and generates delusion. Anthropologists are recruited to win the hearts and minds of the primitive peoples who are to be exploited. They are actually intelligence gatherers, or more succinctly, open spies. We explored this travesty earlier Here.

Having just seen Avatar, I am thinking it is probable, given the trend towards the privatization of space exploration,  that  Sigourney Weaver's character, Dr. Grace Augustine, will be replicated at some time in the future working for a company which will be the logical culmination of HTS under contract to an exploiting corporation. All pretense of the search for knowledge for its own sake will be shed; the corrupted anthropologists (or should we more accurately call them exologists by then?) will be gathering information for profit's sake.

 

Zanoni, A Rosicrucian Tale by Edward Bulwer Lytton, 1842

"The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword"


Edward Bulwer Lytton can be a difficult author for today's reader. The sensibility towards literature prevalent in  the middle of the 19th century has almost vanished today. The typical modern book reader rejects the unfamiliar words of  an author who uses an extensive vocabulary. He is ignorant of etymology. He declines to follow the twists and turns of the longer sentence and is confused by the plethora of characters. Second person singular usage sounds precious to him. Greek and Latin phrases, even when a translation is provided, appear to be affectation. He expects irony from an author who says what he means and means what he says  in a  manner more erudite than accustomed. He is appalled by what seem to be clichés which are really original turns of phrase that have become clichés over the years in testament to their effectiveness. When Bulwer Lytton's esoteric thematic content is added to his alien stylistic elements, today's average reader is compelled by his experience to reject him as obtuse, emotional and boring. In fact, he was a very popular author in his day and will reward the intrepid explorer of his work. But I admit that sometimes when immersed in one of his books I am feeling this sentiment: "Just come out with it directly!"


Some Interesting Quotes from Zanoni

The Fanaticism Of Unbelief

Who shall argue with the most stubborn of all bigotries,--the fanaticism of unbelief?

Human Love

It is true that the desires of earth chain me to the present, and shut me from the solemn secrets which Intellect, purified from all the dross of the clay, alone can examine and survey. The stern condition on which we hold our nobler and diviner gifts darkens our vision towards the future of those for whom we know the human infirmities of jealousy or hate or love. Mejnour, all around me is mist and haze; I have gone back in our sublime existence; and from the bosom of the imperishable youth that blooms only in the spirit, springs up the dark poison-flower of human love.

Introduction to the Dweller on The Threshold

Thou austere and remorseless Hierophant,--thou who hast sought to convert to our brotherhood every spirit that seemed to thee most high and bold,--even thou knowest, by horrible experience, how vain the hope to banish FEAR from the heart of woman.
My life would be to her one marvel. Even if, on the other hand, I sought to guide her path through the realms of terror to the light, think of the Haunter of the Threshold, and shudder with me at the awful hazard!

Paracelsus

"Rouse thyself," said Mejnour; "thy ordeal has commenced! There are pretenders to the solemn science who could have shown thee the absent, and prated to thee, in their charlatanic jargon, of the secret electricities and the magnetic fluid of whose true properties they know but the germs and elements. I will lend thee the books of those glorious dupes, and thou wilt find, in the dark ages, how many erring steps have stumbled upon the threshold of the mighty learning, and fancied they had pierced the temple. Hermes and Albert and Paracelsus, I knew ye all; but, noble as ye were, ye were fated to be deceived. Ye had not souls of faith, and daring fitted for the destinies at which ye aimed! Yet Paracelsus--modest Paracelsus--had an arrogance that soared higher than all our knowledge. Ho, ho!--he thought he could make a race of men from chemistry; he arrogated to himself the Divine gift,--the breath of life. (Paracelsus, 'De Nat. Rer.,' lib. i.)

First Step In Training The Mind

Boy, I could tell thee such truths of the past as would make thee the luminary of schools. But thou lustest only for the shadows of the future. Thou shalt have thy wish. But the mind must be first exercised and trained. Go to thy room, and sleep; fast austerely, read no books; meditate, imagine, dream, bewilder thyself if thou wilt. Thought shapes out its own chaos at last. Before midnight, seek me again!

The Challenges To The Traveller And The Fear Posed By The Dweller On The Threshold

"He who would establish intercourse with these varying beings resembles the traveller who would penetrate into unknown lands. He is exposed to strange dangers and unconjectured terrors. THAT INTERCOURSE ONCE GAINED, I CANNOT SECURE THEE FROM THE CHANCES TO WHICH THY JOURNEY IS EXPOSED. I cannot direct thee to paths free from the wanderings of the deadliest foes. Thou must alone, and of thyself, face and hazard all. But if thou art so enamoured of life as to care only to live on, no matter for what ends, recruiting the nerves and veins with the alchemist's vivifying elixir, why seek these dangers from the intermediate tribes? Because the very elixir that pours a more glorious life into the frame, so sharpens the senses that those larvae of the air become to thee audible and apparent; so that, unless trained by degrees to endure the phantoms and subdue their malice, a life thus gifted would be the most awful doom man could bring upon himself. Hence it is, that though the elixir be compounded of the simplest herbs, his frame only is prepared to receive it who has gone through the subtlest trials. Nay, some, scared and daunted into the most intolerable horror by the sights that burst upon their eyes at the first draft, have found the potion less powerful to save than the agony and travail of Nature to destroy. To the unprepared the elixir is thus but the deadliest poison. Amidst the dwellers of the threshold is ONE, too, surpassing in malignity and hatred all her tribe,--one whose eyes have paralyzed the bravest, and whose power increases over the spirit precisely in proportion to its fear. Does thy courage falter?"

Meeting The Dweller On The Threshold

The cloud retreated from it as it advanced; the bright lamps grew wan, and flickered restlessly as at the breath of its presence. Its form was veiled as the face, but the outline was that of a female; yet it moved not as move even the ghosts that simulate the living. It seemed rather to crawl as some vast misshapen reptile; and pausing, at length it cowered beside the table which held the mystic volume, and again fixed its eyes through the filmy veil on the rash invoker. All fancies, the most grotesque, of monk or painter in the early North, would have failed to give to the visage of imp or fiend that aspect of deadly malignity which spoke to the shuddering nature in those eyes alone. All else so dark,--shrouded, veiled and larva-like. But that burning glare so intense, so livid, yet so living, had in it something that was almost HUMAN in its passion of hate and mockery,--something that served to show that the shadowy Horror was not all a spirit, but partook of matter enough, at least, to make it more deadly and fearful an enemy to material forms. As, clinging with the grasp of agony to the wall,--his hair erect, his eyeballs starting, he still gazed back upon that appalling gaze,--the Image spoke to him: his soul rather than his ear comprehended the words it said.
"Thou hast entered the immeasurable region. I am the Dweller of the Threshold. What wouldst thou with me? Silent? Dost thou fear me? Am I not thy beloved? Is it not for me that thou hast rendered up the delights of thy race? Wouldst thou be wise? Mine is the wisdom of the countless ages. Kiss me, my mortal lover." And the Horror crawled near and nearer to him; it crept to his side, its breath breathed upon his cheek! With a sharp cry he fell to the earth insensible, and knew no more till, far in the noon of the next day, he opened his eyes and found himself in his bed,--the glorious sun streaming through his lattice, and the bandit Paolo by his side, engaged in polishing his carbine, and whistling a Calabrian love-air.

Thoughts Are Souls

The master has no power to say, 'Exist no more,' to one THOUGHT that his knowledge has inspired.Thou mayst change the thoughts into new forms; thou mayst rarefy and sublimate it into a finer spirit,--but thou canst not annihilate that which has no home but in the memory, no substance but the idea. EVERY THOUGHT IS A SOUL! Vainly, therefore, would I or thou undo the past, or restore to thee the gay blindness of thy youth. Thou must endure the influence of the elixir thou hast inhaled; thou must wrestle with the spectre thou hast invoked!

Fear!

Everywhere I see the track and scent the presence of the Ghostly One that dwells on the Threshold, and whose victims are the souls that would ASPIRE, and can only FEAR. I see its dim shapelessness going before the men of blood, and marshalling their way. Robespierre passed me with his furtive step. Those eyes of horror were gnawing into his heart. I looked down upon their senate; the grim Phantom sat cowering on its floor.

Remembering History: Theodosius I and the Nicene Creed


Above: the diademed Theodosius I, looking more lugubrious than saintly

He was the last Emperor to rule both the Eastern and Western Empires. He recruited huge numbers of barbarians to fight in the dwindling legions of Rome, as the newly ascendant Christians showed little interest in defending the Empire.  The influx of barbarians would ultimately prove to be a big mistake when one of Theodosius' former  foederati barbarian leaders, Alaric, King of the Visigoths (an Arian Christian) would invade Italy during the reign of Theodosius' son Arcadius, Western Emperor, in one case taking advantage of the feast of Easter, knowing the Christians would be preoccupied with religion.

When Christians were establishing themselves as a religion they cried for tolerance. Once they were in the position as the establishment's official religion they banned or made it very difficult for all others to practice their faiths, especially other Christians who were skeptical of this new first dogma of the church, the Nicene Creed (Symbolum Nicaenum), and of course, Jews, who were deemed full of impious "madness". And let us not forget also all those insane conservative pagans who were still banging around at the time. Flavius Theodosius ( 11 January 347 – 17 January 395) known as Theodosius I decreed  Nicene Catholic Christianity the official and only state religion in 380. After initially mollifying influential pagans with his tolerance, once he was comfortably in power he issued strict proscriptions against them, such as a penalty of death both  for making sacrifice to the old gods in 381 and the practice of the haruspex  (the ancient Roman art of foretelling the future by the reading of entrails) in 384. The ancient religion of the state that unified and, for centuries pacified the ancient lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea was officially and finally denied by the enervated successors of what was left of the Romans.

The Nicene Creed was first agreed to by a majority of bishops at the first ecumenical council in 325 at Nicaea, hence the name, and finally hammered out as dogma in 381 at Constantinople. The Catholic and the Orthodox churches (as well as Anglican and Lutheran) to this day adhere to the Creed in more or less the same form, including it in their liturgies.  It is an interesting question whether Jesus would recognize this legal statement of Faith as any kind of representation of himself or his goals. The Catholic Church developed a shorter and vaguer Reader's Digest style version of the  Creed deceptively known as as the "Apostles' Creed" or Symbolum Apostolorum, used in some liturgical and non liturgical settings by most Christian denominations today. It appeared around 390 even though all the apostles were some three hundred years dead when it was written. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the matter in this way:

The Apostles' Creed is so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the apostles' faith. It is the ancient baptismal symbol of the Church of Rome. Its great authority arises from this fact: it is "the Creed of the Roman Church, the See of Peter the first of the apostles, to which he brought the common faith".

In other words: the Creed is true because we say so.  The Church has also promulgated a mythology that the Apostles each received a part of the Creed at Pentecost from the Holy Spirit which was handed down in the church as an oral tradition (the church has had an oral tradition ever since, yuk yuk I'll be here all week).


Here is the Catholic Version of the Apostles' Creed:

1. I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

2. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

3. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

4. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

5. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again.

6. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

7. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

8. I believe in the Holy Spirit,

9. the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints,

10. the forgiveness of sins,

11. the resurrection of the body,

12. and life everlasting.

Amen.

The Nicene Creed did not end the confusion of discordant ideas on the Trinity (a notion first promulgated by Tertullian early in the third century) and Christianity itself. There are plenty of pin spinning angels to be counted in it. To this day the Eastern Church and the Western Church can't agree if the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son both, or either. The Creed doesn't say. Don't ask me which side professes what. It makes my head spin.  The Trinity is a very complicated theology, based on vague biblical allusions cobbled together to support a politically ascendant church looking to justify its grasp on power and enforce unity among the faithful by squelching independent thought. Mergers of  Church and State, no matter how well meaning, are an Evil mix harming both or either party. Here is the 1975 ecumenical text of the Creed.

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one Being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation

he came down from heaven:

by the power of the Holy Spirit

he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again

in accordance with the Scriptures;

he ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,

and his kingdom will have no end

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.

He has spoken through the Prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

What a curious document from a religion that boasts of its monotheism.
When I was a child I enjoyed the  scary bit in the Apostles' Creed  (being a horror movie fan) about "he descended into Hell" but in the legalistic  Nicene Creed we are told Jesus "suffered death".
Jesus  is now depicted lacking all dynamism,  as "sitting at the right hand of the Father" clearly his successor as President of the Universe performing the same function. This concept at once demeans both the Father and the Son.
There is (are?) the Father and the Son in a sort of tableau vivant (with the invisible Holy Ghost, as (S?)He used to be called, getting to flit around) posing passively for the heavenly choirs in a set piece of theological erotica.
And the Creator (Creatorem caeli et terrae) of the Apostles' Creed is termed the "Maker of Heaven and Earth".(which is an accurate translation of the  Latin: Factórem cæli et terræ,) in the Nicene Creed of 381.

"Creator" is a more magnificent title than the more workmanlike "Maker". The Father is not the architect here; he is a contractor.  They are depicting the Father as equivalent to such a one as the Egyptian god Ptah who was also called the "Maker". He shaped the forms, the worlds, often for the other gods.
They are definitely downplaying the Father. It looks like they are trying to glorify the Son at the expense of the Big Guy. Their Mistake!
At one time I think they may have said they  "await" the "resurrection of the dead" rather than the impatient  "look for the resurrection of the dead". Interesting...Here is the original Latin:
"Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum," Yes the verb expecto (originally exspecto, literally "look out" which is a much different thing than "look for") is usually translated "await"; the verb, quaerere (the Latin root word of our "Inquiry") would be "look for".




Quotes of the Day

Omne enim spectaculum sine concussione spiritus non est. 
There is no public entertainment which does not inflict spiritual damage. (Lit. All public entertainment is not without spiritual damage.)

 Certum est, quia impossibile - It is certain because it is impossible.


Qui fugiebat rursus [sibi] proeliabitur. - He who flees will fight again.

Nec ratio enim sine bonitate ratio est, nec bonitas sine ratione bonitas ...
Reason without goodness is not reason, and goodness without reason is not goodness.
- all from Tertullian (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, ca. 160 – ca. 220 A.D.)
 

“Do not feed children on maudlin sentimentalism or dogmatic religion; give them nature”-Luther Burbank

A Word (or Two or More) on The Supreme Court's Decision to Unfetter the Corporations in Elections
Above: Criss Angel and Lance Burton, Masters of Misdirection

It doesn't really matter. The Corporations already rule this land. There are few politicians who are not already in thrall to them. People elected Democrats last fall expecting robust change. We got a herd of weak-kneed "moderates". The Bush Wars go on. Private Corporate Armies (er, security services) grow like cancer. The banks go unregulated. Real wages fall. Unemployment increases. The People grow in poverty while their money goes to the bankers.

A consistent 60% of the public responded to polls all year supporting a single payer government run health insurance system in this country as the only way to actually gain efficiencies in the huge amount of money (highest per capita in the world) going into paying for American health care. We know much of this money is wasted on executive salaries, bonuses and perquisites, stockholder profits, duplication of services, palatial buildings, byzantine record keeping, gatekeepers whose job it is to prevent you from getting health care, and last but not least, lobbying politicians and hiring them when they retire from Congress. The people clamor not for a government option. Nor do they wail for taxpayer subsidies for the corrupt profit motivated insurance companies to provide a crappy health plan to people without one.

But true reform of the Health Cartel (which would be Government provided insurance as practiced in most of the advanced democracies in the world) was not even discussed in the halls of what Fox News would have you believe to be a Congress controlled by a "liberal" Democratic Party. The "reforms" discussed would have ended up costing more money than the disfunctional system now in effect, involved the government even more in health treatment, and maintained the health insurance establishment as the gatekeepers to health care. Everyone senses that something smells vile in Washington. No one can deny that.

If a supposedly liberal party representing the people with large majorities in Congress and the Presidency cannot truly reform such an obviously corrupt system without introducing more corruption benefiting Corporations, then you know who rules the roost. If the Financial Institutions representing the Super Rich who rule this country are the only interests that receive significant government get-well money after crashing the economy into a tree at the end of a drunken decades long thrill ride (first ensuring that all rules of the road were abolished or ignored and that no police would be on duty to notice the spree) then every politician in Washington is nothing more than a slick gibberish-spouting corporate flack man. (I'm sorry for the long sentences; I really am.)

Corporations were granted person hood status in the United States as a result 1886 Supreme Court Case, Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394. Earlier, in Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 518 (1819), the Supreme Court settled that, for our purposes, corporate contracts were private charters that superseded government attempts to alter or control them as public charters. Corporations were invented to pool capital for a specific purpose. Historically they were strictly controlled by public entities (government) to limit their activities and longevity. In the United States corporations were unleashed by these decisions of a Supreme Court composed predominantly of corporate lawyers. Corporations were granted by their Supreme Court servants all of rights of individuals and very very few of the responsibilities. The road to Fascism was thereby open and the rich have ridden their armored corporate buggies on it ever since. The Corporation became a tool to increase the power and influence of those who already had too much of both; it also shielded these craven creatures from responsibility for the misdeeds, debts and crimes committed by these fictional "persons" for their profit.

Once the corporate culture of irresponsibility was born, the Rollerball world we now endure could built on the Lie that individual freedom depends on greater Corporate Freedom. Corporate freedom and individual freedom are incompatible. Individual freedom is compromised by the unfettered Corporation far more than it is by Big Government. In our case the government has become merely a rump government rubber stamping corporate policy.

The people theoretically have a say in who runs the government in a democracy. Only a few major stockholders have any say in the way corporations are run and how they influence the governments they have corrupted. We know where the government is and we know who runs it; and we know who to pursue in a revolution when that becomes necessary. The families and individual hungry vampires behind Corporate Power are more resourceful, anonymous, amorphous, shape shifting, and ephemeral, therefore, far more dangerous to the people on whom they prey than the pathetic government bureaucrat who is their functionary. The next revolution, before it begins, must learn the lesson of identifying the true enemy and who is to blame for this world of trouble and suffering before the proscription lists are drawn up.

So, this decision to institutionalize corporations as speechifying persons just makes obvious what is already a reality. Perhaps this will make the identities (or at least the tools) of our true masters a little more apparent. Corporations have been successfully promoting "Big Government" as the problem for a long time in a gigantic misdirection campaign worthy of world class illusionists like Criss Angel or Lance Burton. Maybe we will more clearly see who has hijacked "Big Government" and just how feeble "Big Government" has become.

This representative Republic has been totally compromised. If you think electing a Democrat or Republican will improve things you should check your programming. If your enjoyment of freedom is the vicarious enjoyment of observing the antics of the super rich then you have succumbed to the Patty Hearst Syndrome. When the system only serves the needs of those who have no needs, We need a Revolution.

Quotes of the Day

"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice."- Thomas Paine


Tao Teh Ching
Chapter 53

With but a small understanding
One may follow the Way like a main road,
Fearing only to leave it;
Following a main road is easy,
Yet people delight in difficult paths.

When palaces are kept up
Fields are left to weeds
And granaries empty;
Wearing fine clothes,
Bearing sharp swords,
Glutting with food and drink,
Hoarding wealth and possessions -
These are the ways of theft,
And far from the Way.

Lao Tzu
(tr. Peter A. Merel)

Another translation:

Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 53

If I were suddenly to become known, and put into a position to conduct a government according to the Great Dao,
What I should be most afraid of would be a boastful display.
The great Dao is very level and easy; but people love the by-ways.
Their court yards and buildings shall be well kept,
But their fields shall be ill-cultivated,
And their granaries very empty.
They shall wear elegant and ornamented robes, carry a sharp sword at their girdle,
Pamper themselves in eating and drinking, and have a superabundance of property and wealth;
Such princes may be called robbers and boasters.
This is contrary to the Dao surely!"

Lao Tzu
Translated by James Legge, 1891

"She was a good one all right, she was a good lay but like all lays after the 3rd or 4th night I began to lose interest and didn't go back. But I couldn't help thinking, god, all these mailmen do is drop in their letters and get laid. This is the job for me, oh yes yes yes." -Charles Bukowski, Post Office, 1971

Remembering History, The Treaty of Nanking

"The Emperor of China agrees to pay the sum of 6,000,000 of dollars, as the value of the opium which was delivered up at Canton in the month of March, 1839, as a ransom for the lives of Her Britannic Majesty's Superintendent and subjects, who had been imprisoned and threatened with death by the Chinese High Officers
And it is further stipulated, that interest, at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, shall be paid by the Government of China on any portion of the above sums that are not punctually discharged at the periods fixed."- THE TREATY OF NANKING Nanking, August 29, 1842 Peace Treaty between the Queen of Great Britain and the Emperor of China

The War For Drugs!

The first Opium War between China and Britain came about when the Emperor of China tried to make opium illegal in his land. British traders had recently flooded the country with the stuff addicting an estimated 10% of the population.
Britain wanted Chinese goods, especially tea. The only thing China, being self sufficient, wanted in return was gold and silver. British traders decided China would need drugs, specifically opium, when they had insufficient precious metals to give for tea. (The British Empire especially lacked silver, the coin of China, which relates to the institution of the gold standard by the City of London in the 19th century previously covered in THIS POST.) This nefarious plan worked wonderfully until the Emperor of China made the drug trade illegal. The Queen's solution: War!
China had no chance against the modern army of the British Empire and promptly lost. China had to compensate, at interest, the Queen for the war, and her protected traders for the confiscation of illegal drugs by Imperial Commissioner Li Zexu. There were no international treaties at the time protecting China. They lost Hong Kong in "perpetuity" to Britain and had to suffer the de facto legalization of opium, which was no where mentioned in the treaty except for the financial compensation for the opium, seized mainly from the Sassoon family. (See the excerpt above.)
In 1844 the United States signed a treaty with China banning the opium trade, but it continued unpunished under the auspices of the British. Many of the most respected and powerful American families we know today made their original fortunes illegally trading opium with China.

Quote of the Day:

"After all, our naval power is so strong that we can tell the Emperor what we mean to hold rather than what he would cede. We must demand the admission of opium into interior China as an article of lawful commerce and increase the indemnity payments and British access to several additional Chinese ports."-British Prime Minister Palmerston writing Crown Commissiner Captain Charles Elliot protesting the treaty because it didn't favor the British enough

Observations...Of a Various and Sundry Sort.
One Step Beyond Common Conclusions
Above, John Newland, "your guide to the Supernatural"

A Magickal Note
Temples concentrate energy, therefore clogging the flow of energy generally.

Mercenaries
Mercenary armies like Blackwater, or whatever they are currently calling themselves, are problematic to the survival of a Republic. Blackwater seems to partly justify itself using the perverse religious theory known as Dominion Theology, which gives the believer a carte blanche of justification for his actions.
What are the problems I associate with Mercenary Armies?
They are in essence, anti-democratic.
The government can avoid responsibility for the irresponsible actions of the mercenaries, all the while enabling them to perform such atrocities.
Many an army in ancient Rome, loyal to a man rather than the state, would sack a Roman city for sympathies to a man who opposed their leader. It is not a long stretch of the imagination to envision a mercenary business, exploiting ancient resentments, using private brigades from the South to inflict violence on and ignore the rights of citizens dwelling in perceived "liberal" areas of the country. (And, of course, the reverse although maybe that is not so likely.)
Corporate Law protects the stockholders from real individual responsibility for illegal and immoral activity of the corporation.
Blackwater tends to suck out of the military its more (financially) ambitious and often competent members after the taxpayers have paid for expensive training. The military is therefore robbed of the experienced cohorts needed to perform its mission and train new recruits. The competence of the force is thereby degraded.
Government protects the private business of mercenaries by deeming their activities classified abusing national security laws.
Military leaders are coaxed with promises of positions after retirement to regard the interests of the Mercenary Corporations with favor.
Reactionary political dogma that government is bad and private business is good is promoted and prolonged once established as policy in unconstitutional areas. National defense is the responsibility of the federal government, not private business. Essentially private armies under the control of generals and consuls destroyed the Roman Republic and led to unfettered Empire and tremendous abuse of power, depending on the whims of the Emperor.
Private business is put into a position to use government to usurp the legitimate activities of government. Government becomes the tool of private interests and pays only lip service to the interests of the people at large.
Defense interests of the government tend to be corrupted by individuals who are put in place to promote business interests which are antithetical to a peace-loving people. War is good for business.
Yes, this is the trail to the F word: Fascism.

Capitalism
Capitalism works to exempt itself from the trials of competition while forcing labor to compete with itself on every level.
This competition of labor among itself has been manifested through such promotions as women put in the workforce, which essentially cheapened labor by doubling the supply of workers.
Illegal immigration has been tolerated with a wink and a nod by corporate interests to further cheapen the cost of labor while cynically throwing the all the blame on progressive and liberal groups. (Who deserve some of it.)
Capitalism uses government to force labor to insure the losses it incurs when it indulges in risky business.
The economy is expanded via a kind of parasitism.
The Sunday blue laws are liquidated to create more work days.
Family shared activities are curtailed.
The consumer culture promoted by the corporatists makes shopping a key activity for people when they do have some time off.
Promotion of consumer debt and lower pay leads to the need for more work which stunts strong family life, cultural activities (except the oxymoronic "consumer culture") and, perhaps most importantly, political involvement.

Update: A Test For Gold Bars To Determine Hidden Tungsten

Back in November the story arose [See previous post HERE] that certain banking institutions had been astonished to discover that what had been thought to be gold bars were actually gold encased tungsten. These bars were difficult to identify as tungsten has an almost identical density as gold. This story seemed to emanate from one source and there has been little confirmation since November from banking institutions. There is no doubt that this fraud happens; we are uncertain about the extent of the fraud. There has been a continued run up in the price of gold and central banks have been adding to gold reserves in recent months. This doesn't contradict the story.
The fact that authorities haven't debunked the rumor by now is interesting.
Very little information has surfaced on this problem since the initial stories. Here is a report of a non-invasive analytical technique that would determine the validity of any gold object. There is little detail and it could be a scam, but here is the LINK.

Quote of the Day

When Kung-hsi Hua was sent on a mission to Ch'i, Master Jan requested (of Confucius who was representing the government, the Ch'i family) an allowance of grain for Hua's mother.
The Master (Confucius) said, "Give her a fu." (cauldron, a nominal amount)
Jan requested more, deeming a fu not enough.
"Then give her a yi," (a measure, more, but still not enough to please Jan) said the Master.
Jan instead gave her five ping. (bundles, ten times what Confucius granted)
The Master observed, "When Ch'ih (Kung-hsi Hua) was proceeding to Ch'i, he had fine fat horses pulling his carriage, and wore shining furs."
"It is said that a gentleman, who is expected to be a superior man, helps the distressed, but does not enable the rich to become richer."

Confucius, The Analects, an amalgam and improvement (I hope) of various translations, primarily Legge and Waley, by John Bonanno

A Baseball Rant On The Tedious Story of Mark Mcgwire and Steroids

Above: Roger Maris Breaking Ruth's Record the Old Fashioned Way

Mark Mcgwire (Here are his career statistics at baseball-reference.com) and it seems, many Major League baseball players are still in a state of denial and unreality when it comes to the use of "supplements" to improve their performance on the field. So we go on understanding that Jose Canseco remains the most truthful and honest actor in the whole MLB steroid farce. Mcgwire's statements to Bob Costas on the MLB network Monday night include these treasures of misdirection and glamour.

Young Mark BS (Before Steroids ca. 1987)

"The gyms you worked out back in the day. It was readily available. Guys at gyms talked about it. I believe it was the winter of 89 into 90. I was given a couple weeks worth. I tried it, never thought anything of it, just moved on from it.As far as using it on a consistent basis, the winter of 93/94. I did it on health purposes. If you look at my career in 93, 94, 95, 96, I was a walking MASH unit."

What Mark wants you to believe: Everyone was doing it and I only did it for therapeutic purposes. And not that much. And only for that. I never even considered that it would make my name a household word and myself a very wealthy man as I assaulted baseball's most treasured records.
Successful Mark At the Height of His Fame

"It doesn't feel good when you have teammates walking by saying, 'He's injured again.' I knew I was talented. I knew the man upstairs gave me the ability to hit this baseball, gave me the hand ey coordination. My parents gave me the great genetics. But I was running into these roadblocks by something I very much regret."

Mark's internal mythology: I didn't want to rob baseball, the fans, my teammates and the man upstairs of all those wonderful exploits I would perform. Meanwhile I reject the thought that everyone gets injured and those who don't cheat play through the injuries or sit out while I rake in the cash.
Comment: Even if you believe the "I did it for injuries argument." Mcgwire's injuries actually increased in the years he began to use. And if you were constantly getting injured before that you didn't get such great genetics from your parents.

Costas states: "Could hit 70 HR without steroids?"
"Absolutely. I was given this gift by the man upstairs. My track record as far as hitting home runs, my first at bat in Little Legaue was a home run, they still talk about the home runs in high school, they still talk about the home runs in legion, they still talk about the home runs I hit in college, I led the nation in home runs. They still talk about the home runs I hit in the minor leagues...... I've always had bat speed. I just learned how to shorten my bat speed. I learned how to be a better hitter. There is not a pill or an injection that is going to give me the hand-eye - or give any athlete - the hand-eye coordination to hit a baseball. A pill or an injection will not hit a baseball."

This is the biggest myth of all that is constantly spewed out by the excuse mongers. Many baseball players have convinced themselves that steroids did not make them better hitters. What a strong delusion! The apologists say it takes extraordinary skill to do what Ted Williams said was the most difficult thing in sports: hit a baseball. And I agree with Ted on that. And Mark Mcgwire was a pretty good hitter, much better than the average guy slumped on the couch; most who play professional baseball are that. ( Dave Kingman was a pretty good hitter in his own way; and Mark Mcgwire without steroids was a very similar hitter as he.) But steroids do more than give a good hitter extraordinary power. Steroids make the good hitter better in many ways. A stronger augmented man can wield a larger bat which gives him power beyond his cartoon muscles. But when using a modern lighter bat he becomes the mongoose to the pitcher's cobra. The hitter has much greater bat control and bat speed when he is stronger. The pitcher soon learns there are fewer holes in the hitter's swing. The hitter cannot be jammed inside as he was before. The hitter can therefore wait a little bit longer before making up his mind on where to direct his swing or whether to swing at all. With the quicker bat the ball that was a loud 400 foot out to center field gets pulled and becomes an impressive 400 foot home run blasted to left field.
Whenever I hear a steroid apologist say it doesn't make you a better hitter I know I am listening to a deluded man. When MM insists "I've always had bat speed." he neglects to say: 'but not as much as I do when I take steroids'. I invite you to go to a batting cage. Use a 30 ounce bat. Record how many solid hits you make. Then use a 42 ounce bat, which is the weight used by Babe Ruth. (The heaviest bat used today is probably Alfonso Soriano's 38 ounce stick.) I doubt you will foul a pitch off with the Babe's bat. But if you get pumped up enough that heavy bat feels like a light bat. And the light bat is hardly felt at all.
Steroid muscles allow tremendous control of the average 30 to 34 ounce bat in use today because those muscles make the bat lighter in your hands.
And lastly, the "man upstairs" doesn't give you the gift to hit a baseball so you can cheat. I cannot believe in a universe created to showcase the flawed and therefore chemically augmented hitting skills of Mark Mcgwire. So many athletes believe they are chosen by God to do what they do. "I was given this gift by the man upstairs." said Mark. But that justifies nothing. What if the man upstairs gave him a gift to aim a rifle? Would that justify becoming an assassin? What if the man upstairs gave him the golden tongue of Odysseus? Would that justify becoming a world class liar and deceiver who runs a pyramid scam? I almost went to law school, but after surveying the profession I saw the inevitable corruption it would engender in me. So I decided to avoid that pitfall, saving the world from the malign effects of another lawyer.

Costas: If that's the case, you must really regret . You're telling me you could have done what you did without touching PEDs.

MM: That's why it's the most regrettable thing I've ever done in my life (Tears well. Sniffs)

Good Grief! It's still all about Mark robbing himself by making the mistake of using steroids that really didn't help him at all. Boo Hoo. It's true. Athletes do have unimaginably huge egos. And they probably need them. But very few, as in the rest of the population, have any analytical skills, especially concerning themselves. And those who do have such skills use them to deceive.

Quotes of the Day:

"Asking me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem. If a player answers 'No,' he simply will not be believed; if he answers 'Yes,' he risks public scorn and endless government investigations.... My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family, and myself. I will say, however, that it remains a fact in this country that a man, any man, should be regarded as innocent unless proven guilty."- Mark McGwire's teary eyed opening statement to Congress in 2005

"I'm not here to talk about the past. I'm here to be positive about this subject."-MM's oily response to Congressman Elijah Cummings when asked if he was invoking the 5th Amendment

"First, Canseco told ESPN Radio he stands by his story that he and McGwire injected each other in the Oakland A's bathroom stalls, which McGwire denied."I've defended Mark, I've said a lot of good things about him, but I can't believe he just called me a liar," Canseco said, challenging McGwire to a televised polygraph duel.He also disputed La Russa's statement that he didn't know about the steroid use until Monday."That's a blatant lie," he said. "Tony La Russa was quoted as saying that I was using steroids back then, and I was talking about it in the clubhouse, openly. ... These guys remind me of politicians that just lie to the public and expect to get elected.""from the Detroit Free Press story Jose Canseco: "Mark McGwire is lying"

"All sin is a kind of lying."- St. Augustine, Against Lying

"A preacher in the northern Uganda district of Lira has confessed to 70 ritual killings, including his son.
Polino Angela, 50, formerly a witch-doctor based in Lira, said he was initiated into ritual murders in Kenya at a ceremony in which a 13-year-old boy was killed and his blood sprinkled on his (Angela’s) body. After this ritual, Angela was ordered by the healers to sacrifice his 10-year old boy, whom he killed.
“I deceived my wife and made sure that everyone else had gone away and I was with my child alone. Once he was placed down on the ground, I used a big knife and brought it down like a guillotine,” Angela told BBC journalists who were recently in Uganda to do a documentary on child sacrifice. The documentary was aired last Thursday.
Although he didn’t highlight where most of his 70 victims were got from, he said he has since abandoned the practice which majorly targeted vulnerable children.
“I want to be very open and sincere for the first time that there is nothing good about witchcraft. I practised as a witch doctor for 22 years, after I was immersed in blood. This, I was told, could help me speak many languages with the clients. I was instructed that on reaching home, I should pick my child, place him along the door way and on passing him, kill him,” he said.
“After this incident, I lost mercy for any one’s child, I never felt sorrow at any one moment for the sacrifice I made,” he added. Polino says he has since abandoned witchcraft and taken to serving God."- HARUNA P. MAWA, The Observer, Uganda "Preacher Confesses To Killing 70 People" (The Rest is Here)

I'll have something to write about this later. It's time to go to work. But I will say that it is strange that at a time when Uganda has recently instituted the death penalty for homosexuality, this murderous preacher still seems to be moving about freely while child sacrifice is on the rise in that country.
Later that evening.....
Well I'm home. This morning I had a flat tire in the morbid cold. I attempted to fix it with a can of flat-fixing goo. It didn't work. Then I tried to change the tire. I couldn't get my nuts loose. Then I called Triple Ay. The arrived out here in an hour and the gentleman had a difficult time removing the nuts from the wheel bolts even with his portable electric power wrench. I finally got to work 2 1/2 hours late riding on the donut spare. I had to wait for a truck since they sent someone else out with mine. My route was cased up for me but there were errors, let us say. Monday mail on a business route is usually problematic anyway. I got a call from the handy tire shop across the street from the post office; I needed a new set of tires to pass inspection next time and an all around alignment. In a daze I said yes, but make them the cheapest tires you've got, I said. When I got home I looked at the bill for delivery of 211 gallons of heating oil. I saw federal reserve notes flying out the window with bat wings. I'm not in the mood for discussing human sacrifice right now.

Update: January 25, 2010
I'm working out something on human sacrifice. I haven't forgotten. People seem to be interested in hot fresh blood.

Duck Pawn, construction by John Bonanno

"Hitherto I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypotheses, for whatever is not deduced from the phenomena is to be called an hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy. In this philosophy particular propositions are inferred from the phenomena, and afterwards rendered general by induction. Thus it was that the impenetrability, the mobility, and the impulsive force of bodies, and the laws of motion and of gravitation, were discovered. And to us it is enough that gravity does really exist, and act according to the laws which we have explained, and abundantly serves to account for all the motions of the celestial bodies, and of our sea."—Isaac Newton

"Why do I call him a magician? Because he looked on the whole universe and all that is in it as a riddle, as a secret which could be read by applying pure thought to certain evidence, certain mystic clues which God had laid about the world to allow a sort of philosopher's treasure hunt to the esoteric brotherhood. He believed that these clues were to be found partly in the evidence of the heavens and in the constitution of elements (and that is what gives the false suggestion of his being an experimental natural philosopher), but also partly in certain papers and traditions handed down by the brethren in an unbroken chain back to the original cryptic revelation in Babylonia. He regarded the universe as a cryptogram set by the Almighty - just as he himself wrapt the discovery of the calculus in a cryptogram when he communicated with Leibniz. By pure thought, by concentration of mind, the riddle, he believed, would be revealed to the initiate.

He did read the riddle of the heavens. And he believed that by the same powers of his introspective imagination he would read the riddle of the Godhead, the riddle of past and future events divinely fore-ordained, the riddle of the elements and their constitution from an original undifferentiated first matter, the riddle of health and of immortality. All would be revealed to him if only he could persevere to the end, uninterrupted, by himself, no one coming into the room, reading, copying, testing-all by himself, no interruption for God's sake, no disclosure, no discordant breakings in or criticism, with fear and shrinking as he assailed these half-ordained, half-forbidden things, creeping back into the bosom of the Godhead as into his mother's womb. 'Voyaging through strange seas of thought alone', not as Charles Lamb 'a fellow who believed nothing unless it was as clear as the three sides of a triangle'."- John Maynard Keynes, Posthumous Lecture "Newton The Man" delivered in 1946 to celebrate the war delayed tercentenary of Isaac Newton's 1643 birth

A Haiku by Yosa Buson, 1716-1783

Sound of a saw, poor people, winter midnight.

Happy Elvisday!

Above: Gladys, Elvis (with distinctive lip positioning already in place), and Vernon 1937

It is January 8, the birthday of the King of Rock and Roll and yours truly, who is also an advocate of making this day a national, yea, a world holiday.

"Elvis was a major hero of mine. I was actually stupid enough to believe that having the same birthday as him actually meant something"-David Bowie

TCB: Things to do on this day....


Contemplate the life and work of Elvis Aaron Presley.
Listen to his music.
Sing along with the music.
Shake your hips.
Make girls scream because of your sexual magnetism.
Watch Blue Hawaii, or any other Elvis movie.

Blue Hawaii, the most esoteric of the Elvis films

Talk like Elvis.
Read my blog.

"Only thing worse than watching a bad movie is being in one"-Elvis Presley

"The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn’t know what all the yelling was about. I didn’t realize that my body was moving. It’s a natural thing to me. So to the manager backstage I said ‘What’d I do? What’d I do?’ And he said "Whatever it is, go back and do it again’." -Elvis Presley, 1972

"His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac...It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people."-Frank Sinatra on Elvis ca 1950's

Enlightened Religion Around The World

"Why are the Christians claiming Allah?" asks businessman Rahim Ismail, 47, his face contorted in rage and disbelief. He shakes his head and raises his voice while waiting for a taxi along Jalan Tun Razak, a main thoroughfare in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital. "Everybody in the world knows Allah is the Muslim God and belong to Muslims. I cannot understand why the Christians want to claim Allah as their god," Rahim says as passers-by, mostly Muslims, gather around and nod in agreement.
The reason for their anger is a recent judgment by Malaysia's High Court that the word 'Allah' is not exclusive to Muslims. Judge Lau Bee Lan ruled that others, including Catholics who had been prohibited by the Home Ministry from using the word in their publications since 2007, can now use the term. She also rescinded the prohibition order freeing the Malay language-edition of the Catholic monthly The Herald to use Allah to denote the Christian god. After widespread protests, however, the judge granted a stay order on Jan. 7. The same day the government appealed to the higher Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling. The anger seemingly turned violent late Thursday night after masked men on motorcycles firebombed three churches in the city, gutting the ground floor of the Metro Tabernacle Church located in a commercial building in the Desa Melawati suburb of the capital.- The REST at Time.com January 8, 2010

I am amazed at the silly actions of all involved.
Why are Muslims upset at Christians using an old term for god that predates Muhammed?
Maybe the Christians cynically think they can suck in a few Muslims into their churches this way.
Islam is the dominant religion of Indonesia.
As for the Muslims, they only make me shake my head.
Do they really think they worship a different god?
Do they think the Christians' god (granted it is a complicated triune god) is apart from theirs? Why aren't they flattered that the Christians are coming around?
I continue to believe that it might be better for all involved if we adopted a social etiquette of keeping religion to ourselves, as difficult as that may be.
Didn't Jesus pronounce a much violated injunction against flaunting prayier in public? (Matthew 6:5-6:6)
Why not treat religious activities like masturbation?
Most everyone does it.
Most keep their activities in this area to themselves.
Whenever I get the urge to burn down a place of worship,
I just listen to Elvis and I'm sure to lose interest.

This And That
The wildly unsafe USPS LLV
...with a Grumman aluminum body and multiple blind spots.
If you value your life....Do not drive faster than 35!
Photograph from Wikipedia

Mailman Talk
The heater fan in my LLV ("Long Life Vehicle" or, the typical postal truck) stopped working consistently three or four weeks ago. Sometimes it worked; sometimes it didn't. I reported the situation one morning to our VMF (Vehicle Maintenance Facility) on a USPS vehicle repair tag 4570 since it is very uncomfortable driving around all day with the window open delivering mail in the Maine winter without a heater.
After "casing" up my route that day I checked to see if my truck had been fixed and found the repair tag with my keys in the anointed holding place. The tag was endorsed "OK". I loaded my truck and drove off to deliver the route. After a few minutes the heater fan stopped working again. Evidently the mechanic had checked the fan and decided that since it worked when he checked it there was no problem. Maybe he didn't understand the word 'intermittent' which I had written on the 4570 to describe the situation.
I soon found that by wiggling the fan switch several hundred times the fan might consent to start again. This went on for the rest of the day. After long thought I determined that I would describe the fan as "sometimes works" instead of "works intermittently" on my next vehicle repair tag 4570.
It happened to be Friday and I was off for the weekend. I was in a hurry to get out of work and forgot to write up the vehicle for repair again. (I am one of those lucky letter carriers with a business route with a scheduled day off on Saturday. I have lots of seniority.)
I blithely returned to work Monday and continued to forget that I had a sketchy heater fan in my truck. I worked that day without much heat. That night I filled out my second tag 4570 and contemplated filling out a Postal Form 1767 "Report of Hazard, Unsafe Condition or Practice" which releases the Demons Of Hell (extra work) on your supervisor. I decided to wait and see if they could fix the fan. Of course that morning the fan worked for a few minutes and stopped. I returned to the office and told my supervisor I needed a different truck until my truck was fixed and babbled about filling out the dreaded PS Form 1767. My supervisor (not a bad guy by the way) told me to drive my truck across the street to the VMF and ask them to repair it, which is what I did.
The mechanic who looked at my truck that morning wrote on the repair tag that he couldn't isolate the problem since the heater sometimes worked. Now let me say that the mechanics at the VMF are generally good guys who try their best. Having said that (Don't you love Curb Your Enthusiasm?), here is the solution I was presented to resolve the fact that I had heat 15% of the day (a high estimate). The facility supervisor looked at the fan and noticed that by wiggling the wires into the fan housing it would activate the recalcitrant fan. He said just do that. He also said that when it just refuses to work at all no matter what just drive back on in and they would give me tip top service.
OK, I thought, I'm game. I'll try that.
And you know what? It worked pretty well for a couple of weeks. I only had to jiggle the wires two or three times a day to make the fan work. I didn't think too much about electrical shock hazard. How much juice does the heater fan take anyway?
Last week the wire jiggling routine stopped impressing the fan. I went into a bit of a rage and struck the fan housing with a handy dandy blunt object which I shall not name, which is found in the possession of every letter carrier. The fan worked magnificently all the rest of the day. Now I find a maintenance routine of two whacks a day keeps the thing in line, and resolves a little anger problem I sometimes experience. I thought I should communicate this idiosyncrasy to anyone who uses my truck when I am not working so I made a little sign and put it on the dashboard:
"The heater fan doesn't always work. The VMF said that since the problem is intermittant they can't fix it. I have found that if you beat the fan housing with a blunt instrument, it will work for a while. If it doesn't work, go back to the VMF for repairs."

P.S.
written January 20, 2010
Great Success!
Finally, last week, after making a royal pain in the ass of myself, they replaced the heater fan.
The "smash the fan housing with a blunt instrument" trick ceased to work very well anymore. Maybe smashing the fan housing isn't a good solution to the "fan doesn't work" problem. Maybe smashing the fan housing broke the damn thing enough so that they finally had to fix it. I don't care. Not my problem any more. Oh, one more thing, that handy dandy blunt instrument that every letter carrier has to carry around is one of the most durable pains in the ass ever designed.

Quote of the Day
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." Dr. Samuel Johnson, from Boswell's Life of Johnson

Intrepid Letter Carrier John Gorham (now retired) would love to help you in a disaster.
John Bonanno photograph, December 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) - If the nation ever faces a large-scale attack by a biological weapon like anthrax, the U.S. Postal Service will be in charge of delivering whatever drugs and other medical aid Americans would need to survive. In an executive order released Wednesday, President Barack Obama put the Postal Service in charge of dispensing "medical countermeasures" to biological weapons because of its "capacity for rapid residential delivery." The Rest Of The Story Is Here
The President's Executive Order Is Here

As many of you may know, I am a letter carrier in the USPS who will be retiring December 1, 2010. And, as usual, I have an opinion on this story. The President has made a "feel good" statement to the public in this executive order and nothing more. And I do agree that the USPS is the only organization capable of carrying out this mission. However, the letter carrier who will be tasked to deliver emergency supplies in an environment contaminated with nuclear, biological or chemical agents has received no training to succeed under these conditions. There are no personnel tasked to to train the letter carrier and there is no program to do so. There is no protective equipment now available for the letter carrier to perform this task safely. There are no stocks of supplies warehoused that could be distributed in an emergency. The Postal Service certainly does not have the money to prepare for this function and no funds have been appropriated by Congress for this purpose. The President has not made clear how the Postal Service will prepare to perform in this potentially hazardous environment, nor where it will get the money to train personnel and stage the necessary material needed to successfully achieve this goal. In other words, this is nothing but propaganda. At this time this order is a wish, not a program. The Devil is always in the Details.

Quotes From The Executive Order:

"This policy would seek to: (1) mitigate illness and prevent death; (2) sustain critical infrastructure; and (3) complement and supplement State, local, territorial, and tribal government medical countermeasure distribution capacity."

"In support of the national U.S. Postal Service model, the Secretaries of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and Defense, and the Attorney General, in coordination with the U.S. Postal Service, and in consultation with State and local public health, emergency management, and law enforcement officials, within 180 days of the date of this order, shall develop an accompanying plan for supplementing local law enforcement personnel, as necessary and appropriate, with local Federal law enforcement, as well as other appropriate personnel, to escort U.S. Postal workers delivering medical countermeasures."
-Barack Obama, Executive Order, "ESTABLISHING FEDERAL CAPABILITY FOR THE TIMELY PROVISION OF MEDICAL COUNTERMEASURES FOLLOWING A BIOLOGICAL ATTACK" December 30, 2009

This Order indicates that we should have some details on its implementation some time in early July. There is no provision for funding in the order.

Quote of the Day

"Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."-Dr. Samuel Johnson, (who was born 300 years ago 19 September last) Boswell's Life of Johnson

Some Christmas Murders, as discovered on Google News.
Hans Baldung Grien, Death and the Maiden, 1518-20
Horresco referens.

"Happy Chap store owner Naushad Virani was shot and killed on Christmas evening by Stevie Ray “Bubba” Walder during a robbery of the store."-Liberty County Vindicator, Liberty, Texas

"A Detroit woman has been charged with murder, accused of fatally beating her 2-month-old daughter on Christmas Eve and covering up her death. The woman's boyfriend is also charged in the case."-AP

"A convicted felon now charged with first-degree murder in the Christmas Eve slaying of an elderly Hyde Park man on was ordered held without bond Saturday."-Chicago Sun Times South Side, Chicago

LIVONIA, Mich. (WXYZ) - Livonia Police are investigating the murder of a 68-year-old man whose body was found on Christmas Day.Officers went to do a wellness check at a house on Auburndale at around noon. At the house the found the body of Geofrey Charlesworth in the back bedroom. Investigators say Charlesworth's arms and feet were bound with duct tape and that it looked as if he had been assaulted over the course of several days."-WXYZ, Detroit

As police in North Little Rock, Ark., continue to search for two suspects who shot and killed a Salvation Army major in front of his three young children on Christmas Eve, the reward money has been increased to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case.-New York Daily News

DOVER, Del. - Investigators say the kidnapping and murder of a Maryland girl, whose body was found on Christmas Day, calls out for the death penalty."I was a believer in capital punishment before this, but I'm a stronger believer today," says Wicomico County Sheriff Michael Lewis.- WTOP

A 55-year-old man from Universal City has been charged with murder following the shooting death of an Austin man on Christmas Day in Temple. - Temple Daily Telegram, Temple, Texas

Glasgow, Scotland-Police investigating the murder of a Glasgow man on Christmas Day say they have received a good response to their appeals for information....Mr Spence had been celebrating Christmas with friends at a house party in Dalmarnock. After leaving the house, he and a group of friends became involved in a brawl which was believed to have involved at least 10 people. BBC News

Glasgow, Scotland-Police are to carry out door-to-door inquiries to try to establish the motive behind the "brutal" murder of a 63-year-old in her Glasgow home.Hannah Smith was found on Monday after a "prolonged attack" in her flat in Cranhill's Soutra Place. She last spoke to her family on Christmas Day. BBC News

The teenage girl accused of fatally stabbing a man in Queens was arranged on murder charges today.Queens District Attorney Richard Brown says 16-year-old Cyan Brown was arraigned on charges of first-degree manslaughter and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.Cyan Brown is accused of killing Thomas Winston, 29, at the Queensbridge-21st Street Station on Christmas Eve.-NY1

After firing the first gunshot of his life on Christmas Day into his son's chest, pastor Kirk Caldwell dropped to the ground and cradled his 21-year-old child's dying body, according to court documents.In the moments before the shooting, Caldwell's son, Jordan, had been brandishing a knife and hitting and throwing family members - including his father - around during a Christmas gathering of 15 to 18 people at the Caldwell home in Darby Borough, police and court documents said.-Philly.com

COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. - Deputies say a South Carolina homicide suspect has been found dead in southwest Florida.South Carolina police put out an alert for Leon Johnson just a day earlier in the death of his girlfriend.Deputies say Johnson's body was discovered in an abandoned restaurant near Davis Boulevard AND U.S. 41. Right now, deputies are treating it as a death investigation, but they tell us his death isn't being treated as suspicious.Johnson was the main suspect in the death of 42-year-old Angela Vance. Her family believed the suspect and victim were out of town together for Christmas; in fact, they thought Johnson was getting ready to propose. The family became suspicious when vance didn't answer the phone. Her body was found Tuesday, but the exact cause of her death hasn't been released.-WINK News Now

Jake Johnson, 19, sustained fatal injuries after plunging 30ft into an alleyway in Cheltenham, Glos.He was taken to Cheltenham General Hospital shortly after 11pm on Christmas Day but was pronounced dead at 2.25am the following morning. Two men, aged 18 and 25, have been arrested on suspicion of murder.Police said one man was arrested at the scene and the other was arrested shortly afterwards at a separate address. A total of six people had been arrested in connection with the death.-Telegraph.co.uk

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WISH) - There are new details in the brutal murder of an IU English professor.Court documents reveal Bloomington police believe Don Belton was brutally stabbed in a "crime of passion."Michael Griffin, the man suspected of killing Belton, appeared in court Wednesday for the first time to face the charges.The probable cause affidavit said Belton wrote in his journal the week before Christmas that, "(Belton) is very happy that an individual by the name of Michael has come into his life."Police believe that "Michael" is 25-year-old Michael Griffin.Officers tracked down Griffin after finding a card near Belton's home computer that had his name, phone number, e-mail and directions to his home. Griffin's girlfriend also told police she thought he may have been involved in Belton's death. Police said Griffin admitted stabbing Belton several times with a knife he bought before serving in Iraq. Griffin claimed the attack was the "result of Mr. Belton sexually assaulting him two times on the evening of Christmas." - WISH TV8

The Golem, picture from Paul Wegener's 1920 silent film, Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam

"After saying certain prayers and observing certain fast days, the Polish Jews make the figure of a man from clay or mud, and when they pronounce the miraculous Shemhamphoras [the powerful seventy-two syllable name of God] over him, he must come to life. He cannot speak, but he understands fairly well what is said or commanded. They call him golem and use him as a servant to do all sorts of housework. But he must never leave the house. On his forehead is written 'emeth.'[truth] Everyday he gains weight and becomes somewhat larger and stronger than all the others in the house, regardless of how little he was to begin with. For fear of him, they therefore erase the letter, so that nothing remains but 'meth,'[death] whereupon he collapses and turns to clay again. But one man's golem once grew so tall, and he heedlessly let him keep on growing so long, that he could no longer reach his forehead. In terror he ordered the servant to take off his boots, thinking that when he bent down he could reach his forehead. So it happened, and the first letter was successfully erased, but the whole heap of clay fell on the Jew and crushed him."-Jakob Grimm, Journal for Hermits, 1808


Gershom Scholem tells us that Adam was termed a golem in the Talmud on the first day in the second hour when he was an unformed mass and before the soul, neshamah entered him and before he named the animals. Scholem also states in his book On The Kabballah And Its Symbolism, that a midrash [(pl. Midrashim); containing extra-legal material of anecdotal or allegorical nature, designed either to clarify historical material, or to teach a moral point.] from the second or third century describes Adam in this state "not only as a golem, but as a golem of cosmic size and strength, to whom, while he was still in this speechless and inanimate state, God showed all future generations to the end of time." Scholem further describes a fragment of the lost Midrash Abkir, which describes God as waiting until Creation was finished before providing the "golem, in whom the whole force of the universe is contained" with a soul so none could presume He had a companion during the Making of the World. I think that if this story is true, the Lord was wise in so doing; a man with a soul would do more than witness such great acts. He would experience too fully and would know too much and feel too much. The water would be driven from the clay and the body would fall apart. But if it didn't, man would be unleashed with the power of God.

emblem from,
Devises et emblemes anciennes & modernes, tirées des plus celebres auteurs, oder, Emblematische Gemüths-Vergnügung : bey Betrachtung siben hundert und funffzehen der curieusesten und ergötzlichen Sinn-Bildern, mit ihren zuständigen teutsch-lateinisch-französisch- und italianischen Beyschrifften.

"Each and every man therefore that will be a Magician must explore the Universe for himself. This is pre-eminently the case in the matter of the Astral Plane, because the symbols are so sensitive. Nothing is easier than to suggest visions or to fashion phantasms to suit one's ideas. It is obviously impossible to communicate with an independent intelligence -the one real object of astral research- if one allows one's imagination to surround one with courtiers of one's own creation."-Aleister Crowley, Notes for an Astral Atlas, Appendix III, Magick, Book Four, Liber ABA