Abiotic Oil and the BP Gusher

Cushing asks if oil comes from dead things.

It appears that the never ending and expanding gusher in the Gulf is bolstering the abiotic oil theory. That is: oil did not form out of dead plants and animals. Abiotic or abiogenic oil theory holds that hydrocarbons were present at the formation of the earth and were trapped in abundance in its mantle. One may consider that the atmosphere of the gas giant planets contains methane in relatively large quantities. Carbon and hydrogen are  plentiful elements in the solar system and the universe.  Both must have been present in large quantities in and on the Earth at its formation; our kind of life is based on it. Under pressure and heated within the Earth these elements joined as hydrocarbons. Therefore hydrocarbons were present in a relatively pure form on earth before there was carbon-based life. Organic chemicals led to organic life. It is difficult to explain deep wells six and seven miles below the surface of the earth gushing oil at thousands of PSI using the biological hypothesis. So we must begin to accept the possibility that life came from petroleum; not the other way around.

Peak oil theorists tend to get a bit perturbed by abiotic theory. I am in sympathy with their desire to end dependence on oil consumption to power the world for many reasons; but facts are facts. Biogenic oil is looking more and more ridiculous. It seems that the big dirty secret is that there is more oil than can be imagined deep below the surface. I am researching this issue and will post more on it in the future. It is interesting that this theory is quite well accepted in Russia and they are drilling deep wells and selling as much oil as they can. Perhaps they understand that the 'oil is scarce and running out meme' has run its course and they are cashing in as much as possible before we all catch on. Meanwhile I think we can expect abiotic oil theory to become more and more accepted and discussed as BP's oil gusher destroys the Gulf and beyond.

Say's Law
or, the Law of Markets 

la loi des débouchés


"Aggregate supply creates its own aggregate demand."
[Inherent in supply is the wherewithal for its own consumption.]

-Jean-Baptiste Say (5 January 1767 – 15 November 1832)
Traité d'économie politique, 1803

Say was a French economist. His Law has been variously interpreted. But it is not so simple as it appears. It is obvious that there can be no consumption without a product that may be consumed. But it is also obvious that there are limits to consumption no matter how much supply may appear in any market. We have seen an example of an unbridled real estate supply generated by unscrupulous banks willing to loan money for mortgages to almost anyone. Government policy implicitly insuring the banks against loss turbo charged this supply. Housing is still a desirable and necessary commodity but the public's ability to pay for this commodity which was also seen as an investment could not keep up with rising expectations. The same social elements that desired to profit from this market also suppressed the wages of those who were expected to pay the price of the endlessly rising housing valuation. 

So we see that a desirable commodity may not always create its own demand if the price is too high and the market is based on an unsustainable easy credit. 

We also know that undesirable and inferior commodities do not create an aggregate demand. Say also had no experience with our consumer culture that magically and alchemically turns vast quantities of useless, or ephemeral objects into desirable accoutrements.

But Say wrote in a time when money was real. It was gold or silver. Or one paid for product with product.

Today money is a ghost. It is created by banks out of nothing by decree. The old Laws do not apply and economists have fallen through the looking glass.

Say on the need for good government:
"When public authority is not itself a spoliator, it procures to the nation the greatest of all blessings, protection from spoliation by others. Without this protection of each individual by the united force of the whole community, it is impossible to conceive any considerable development of the productive powers of man, of land, and of capital; or even to conceive the existence of capital at all; for it is nothing more than accumulated value, operating under the safeguard of authority. This is the reason why no nation has ever arrived at any degree of opulence, that has not been subject to a regular government. Civilized nations are indebted to political organization for the innumerable and infinitely various productions, that satisfy their infinite wants, as well as for the fine arts and the opportunities of leisure that accumulation affords, without which the faculties of the mind could never be cultivated, or man by their means attain the full dignity, whereof his nature is susceptible."
But Say also felt that there was a potential for replacing government with a kind of private system of security. However he had no experience with the modern gigantic corporation (which is in itself a creature of bad government) that cares nothing for anything but profit.

"Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt." Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House


My Maxim of the Day
Corporations are created by government; men are created by God. 

Sunday Afternoon Martini
John Bonanno photograph, June 6, 2010

My Martini recipe:
1 3/4 ounces of gin (in this case it was New Amsterdam Gin, a surprisingly good offering with a distinct citrus flavor from Gallo)
3/4 ounce of Lillet
A Dash of Orange Bitters
Tossed in a shaker half full of crushed ice.
Shake and pour into a martini glass.
Enjoy. And resist the urge to gulp it down quickly.

Finnish Hymn To Panu
John Bonanno photograph
(God of Fire, Child of the Sun-Mother)

O PANU, Son of the Sun!
Offspring thou of the dear day.
Lift the fire up to the sky.
In the middle of the golden ring,
Within the rock of copper,
Carry it as a child to its mother
Into the lap of the ancient mother.
Place the fire to shine by day,
And to rest at night.
Let it rise every morning!
Let it rest every evening!

from the Kalevala
found in Pagan Prayers by Marah Ellis Ryan, 1913

Finnish Prayer of the Sower

BLESSING to the seed I scatter,
Where it falls upon the meadow,
By the grace of Ukko mighty,
Through the open finger spaces
Of the hand that all things fashioned.
Queen of meadow-land and pasture!
Bid the earth unlock her treasures.
Bid the soil the young seed nourish,
Never shall their teeming forces
Never shall their strength prolific
Fail to nourish and sustain us
If the Daughters of Creation,
They, the free and bounteous givers
Still extend their gracious favor
Offer still their strong protection.
Rise, O Earth! from out thy slumbers
Bid the soil unlock her treasures!

from the Kalevala
found in Pagan Prayers by Marah Ellis Ryan, 1913

François-Marie Arouet  known as Voltaire  21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778

Our priests are not what simple folk suppose;
Their learning is but our credulity.
-Voltaire, Oedipe, Act IV, scene i

Voltaire illuminated with the reflected wisdom of Newton by his muse, the Marquise du  Châtelet.  Frontespiece of Châtelet's translation of Newton, presented as Voltaire's.

"a great man whose only fault was being a woman"
-Voltaire on his mistress, the learned and brilliant Marquise du Châtelet

"History is nothing more than a picture of crimes and misfortunes." Voltaire, L'Ingenu

"God preserve me from my friends. I will take care of my enemies myself." -Voltaire

Maine Words of the Day ... All in One Place
Part Four

Maine word of the day: "seventh wave" from the notion that every seventh wave is larger than the preceding six. It refers to something that finally breaks a thing down, or the straw that broke the camel's back. example: "You know postal management has done a lot of foolish things but ending Saturday delivery will be the seventh wave."

Maine word of the day: "Gun" replaces the word hunt. As in: "Tom is out gunnin' for old pictures at the antique shops this weekend." Or, "Tim is gunnin' for that new supervisor. He's just too nice a guy." Or, a selfish athlete can be a gunner. Or simply, one can go gunnin' for deer, in or out of season, dependin'.

Maine Word of the Day: "head in a bucket" derives from the clever pigkeeper who can lead the most recalcitrant porker wherever he desires using that oldest of farm implements, the bucket. The blinded Sus scrofa domesticus is much more amenable to backing into his sty. Example: "That letter of warning you got wasn't Bob's idea. Tim's got his head in a bucket and he can’t take a piss unless he’s led by the hand to the urinal."

Maine word of the day: "Coot" the American scoter, or saltwater duck. The old expression "crazy as a coot" comes from this bird's habit of never flying over land. He will fly hugging the shoreline of Maine coves and inlets for miles rather than hop a hundred yards over a spit to get where he wants to go. The coot is notoriously difficult to cook into an edible meal if you don't have a clue about what to do in the kitchen. Example of the use of the word "coot" when applied to a crafty letter carrier: "John the mailman is a crazy old coot. He never saw a shortcut he thought was safe to take no matter how much his supervisor insisted on it. He just said walking a little further was worth it to avoid an accident."

Maine word of the day: "Chopper" (not a helicopter) old timers' term for a man who works in the woods taking down trees. Lumberjack is a western term. A ravenous man is said to "eat like a chopper"

Maine Word of the Day "Robin Snow": a couple of inches that fall in the spring. It lands and departs quickly. It is thought to help green up the landscape. It is also known as "poor man's fertilizer”. Again, these terms are found (for the most part) in John Gould's Maine Lingo, recommended but out of print., and adapted by me, some more, some less.

Maine Word of the Day: "To catch a crab"-originally referred to a rower who mishandles the oars and creates a splash of water, then, any mistake or bungled attempt to do something. Example: "Tim filled in handling the Westbrook unit yesterday and caught a crab trying to pivot every Tom, Dick, and Harry in there. Most everyone ended up going overtime."

Maine Word Of The Day: "Gurrybutt" any receptacle placed on the dinner table used to collect clamshells, lobstershells, or any other debris or discards resulting from fine Maine dining. Example: "Last week when we had that lobster feed I noticed the gurrybutt was tippin' noticeably in Tom's direction. He's always had a gannet gut." The gurrybutt was also a large wooden cask in which cod livers were stowed so that the oil that rose to the top could be collected for curing what ailed you.

Maine word of the day: Canoodlin' - Casual sexual activity which may take place in the bushes or out by the woodpile or in the barn or, dangerously, in a canoe. It does not happen in the bed.

Maine Term of the Day: "sidehill winder" a piglike animal with legs shorter on one side of the body than the other, sometimes the right side, sometimes the left side (less common), an adaptation to grazing around the side of a mountain or steep hill. Those with legs shorter on the right graze clockwise, on the left, widdershins. Most "sports" at camp have never heard of them.

Maine word of the day: "sawdust sorter" a job that doesn't need doing and would require no competence to actually do would be assigned to the "sawdust sorter", a step below a "waste mail sorter" in the post office. If one wants to punish, demean, or degrade somone, or, relegate him to idiot status, one assigns to him duties fit for a sawdust sorter.

Maine Words of the Day: "tomalley" a "spider's" (lobster's) liver/pancreas, not properly pronounced like the Mexican tamale, one authentically says "Tom-alley" Personally, I'll give it to whomever desires the thing. PCBs and other toxins that may be in the water can collect in this organ, but we all know the Gulf of Maine is a pristine place, don't we?

Quotes To Note

Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively, to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink."-George Orwell

More Maine Words Of The Day
Part Three

Maine word of the day: "Connections" -  refers to relatives, as well as knowing someone somewhere with pull. example: "Howard has lots of connections at the Post Office and got that nice postmaster's job in no time."

 Maine word of the day: "stivver" maximum amount, example: "My supervisor thought I should have an eight hour day but I let him know my volume was twice what I could stivver up to accomplish such a marvelous feat."

A Clove Hitch

Maine word of the day: "Clove Hitch" a simple but secure temporary knot used to hitch a line to a spile (a pile on the side of a pier). In Maine parlance often used to denote an unwilling or unlikely attachment. As in: "How did that widdah Raymond get that clove hitch on Roger? Oh, don't tell me." OR "I siddout to be a lawyer and just temp at the PO but somehow I got this clove hitch on me for twenty five years."

An Antique Blueberry Rake

Maine word of the day: "Plummin'"- the act of berry-pickin', especially blueberries, done by hand, as opposed to "rakin'" a commercial activity done with a hand rake. Performed by women, children and "summercaters" A barely related sidenote: My new granddaughter's middle name is Plum.

Maine word of the day: "Dreen"- drain, Example: "Been a wet spring. My yahd won't dreen 'til August." Or, "How can they think about saving money at the post office by squeezing the carriers more when they haven't dreened that swamp upstairs where that plethora of ties and dresses loll about."

Croze, a tool for cutting a croze

Maine Word of the Day: "Croze" The groove on a barrel stave that fits the head. "Shook" (pre-cut lumber) for casks was shipped knocked down, "staves croze, hoops shaved, and headings ready". A person who is non-conformist, or a little different was said to have some "croze" trouble. Example: "Ever since Joe got hit by that aircraft carrier his croze has been a little bit off."

 Maine word of the day: "Peavey" an improved canthook invented by Joseph Peavey a blacksmith of Upper Stillwater along the Penobscot, born in 1799. In 1858 while observing river drivers working logs on the Penobscot he had the bright idea of adding a pike and an improved dog mechanism that didn't flop laterally to the canthook. It was an instant success and soon he needed a small factory to keep up with the demand. The Peavey Manufacturing Company supplies the peavey to the logging industry to this day.

The Peavey

This And That (Some Obvious Points)

 Thoughts Riding the Wheel

Any law that is more than a few sentences long is designed to serve more as an employment program for lawyers than as any kind of a solution to a problem. 

The function of the police is more than ever to control the populace than to protect them. 

Etymological analysis of the word "religion" reveals a truth:
Religare (Latin v.) bind or rebind
Ligamen (Latin n.) a binding

The most hard core religionists are actually revealed as overcompensating faithless atheists  who do not believe that God can carry out his Will without the assistance of Man. Indeed, they doubt that God can do anything without the bludgeon of Man's religion.

We now begin to see Europeans revert to their default setting: Hate and Blame for Jews in ways large and small as shown in this example:
The British Advertising Standards Authority has banned ads for tourism to Israel that depicts the Wailing Wall or the Temple Mount because those sites are not part of Israel, taking the politically correct side of the Arabs. In their bureaucratic verbiage: "We understood, however, that the status of the occupied territory of the West Bank was the subject of much international dispute, and, because we considered that the ad implied that the part of East Jerusalem featured in the image was part of the state of Israel, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead." Link

Now that corporations are unbound in their political activities, well, spending, thanks to an undemocratic Supreme Court, can they take a depreciation deduction on the politicians they own?

Union officials who spend enough time listening to management eventually start to find themselves in sympathy with them to an extent. It is a form of the Stockholm Syndrome. This also happens to those who watch Fox News.

When they first ascended to power in their lands, the Muslims preserved knowledge, understanding its value. When later the clerics attain power they destroy knowledge, having become ignorant in the understanding of their religion by then.

People like big government when it acts in the interest of the people. Corporations therefore attain double benefit by manipulating government to help themselves exclusively: The direct benefit of government aid and the indirect benefit of the resentment of the people for government, which is the only shield they have against the depredations of these same corporations' irresponsible amoral capitalism. 

The World must change when God's attention is attracted to the World. But God chose to be ignorant, to withdraw full attention from the World in order to make a place of Mystery.

Enemies of the People

"You can't mine coal without machine guns." Richard B. Mellon, March 19, 1858 – December 3, 1933, Testimony before Congress, quoted in Time Magazine, June 14, 1937

John L. Lewis

Mellon as a huge stockholder in the Pittsburgh Coal Company was a great enemy of  John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers. He was also a great donor to the Presbyterian Church.

Don Blankenship,  member, board of directors, US Chamber of Commerce, CEO of Massey Energy, operator of the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, where twenty-five died this week,

Mr. Blankenship is also a huge contributor to the "Tea Party/Tea Bagger" movement. 

Blankenship Quotes:

"Turn down your thermostats? Buy a smaller car? Conserve? I have spent quite a bit of time in Russia and China, and that’s the first stage. You go from having your own car to carpooling to riding the bus to mass transit. You eventually get to where you’re walking. You go from your own apartment and bathroom to sharing kitchens with four families. That’s what socialism and the elimination of capitalism and free enterprise is all about.”

 "We don't pay much attention to the violation count." 

"Some fear we are entering a new Ice Age. We must demand that more coal be burned to save the Earth from Global Cooling."

But, he added, "I don't like to see trade associations refer to global warming as "an issue" because it supports the idea something needs to be done about it." He said he has pressed Mr. Donohue [corporate flunky, former Postal Service Executive and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce] to take an even tougher stand against proposals in Congress to require companies to pay for their emissions. He said high emissions "mean you've got a better, more productive economy."-Wall Street Journal, Nov. 2, 2009

Quote of the Day

"He paid the market-price for politicians. Up in Western City I happen to know a lady who was a school-commissioner when he was buying school-lands from the state--lands that were known to contain coal. He was paying three dollars an acre, and everybody knew they were worth three thousand."

"Well," said Cotton, "if you don't buy the politicians, you wake up some fine morning and find that somebody else has bought them. If you have property, you have to protect it."

 Upton Sinclair, King Coal 

Nina, born March 31, 2010 at 5:05 AM

My daughter and first grandchild are now home and doing well.
Nina took her time being born and so did her mother.
They were coming from a better place.

 "Take the matter of being born. What does being born mean to mostpeople? Catastrophe unmitigated. Social revolution. The cultured aristocrat yanked out of his hyperexclusively ultravoluptuous superpalazzo,and dumped into an incredibly vulgar detentioncamp swarming with every conceivable species of undesirable organism. Mostpeople fancy a guaranteed birthproof safetysuit of nondestructible selflessness. If mostpeople were to be born twice they'd improbably call it dying--"- e.e. cummings, Introduction, New Poems

Why does the Catholic Church have to drag the Jews into every sleazy thing they do?

Here's a quick note for Holy Week:

 A quote from story reported by the BBC:  

His (Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury) comments came after Pope Benedict's personal preacher, the Rev Raniero Cantalamessa, compared criticism of the pontiff and Church over child abuse to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.
Speaking at Good Friday prayers in St Peter's Basilica, attended by the Pope, Father Cantalamessa quoted a Jewish friend as saying the accusations reminded him of the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism".

If the Church hierarchy is comparing the criticism they are getting for their institutional, long time, practice of child rape to anti-Semitism then they have put an equivalence of Jewishness with pedophilia. It is helpful to know what they really think about Jews, as if we didn't already suspect the truth.

My Prayer:
May all the institutions of religion come crashing down and may humans experience truth directly from Hashem. Amen. 

An Observation:
The Book of Revelation should have been called the Book of Obfuscation.

Monk's Advice (1960)

- Just because you’re not a drummer, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to keep time.

- Pat your foot and sing the melody in your head when you play.

- Stop playing all that bullshit, those weird notes, play the melody!

- Make the drummer sound good.

- Discrimination is important.

- You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?

- All reet!

- Always knows …(Monk)

- It must be always night, otherwise they wouldn’t need the lights.

- Let’s lift the band stand!!

- I want to avoid the hecklers.

- Don’t play the piano part, I am playing that. Don’t listen to me, I am supposed to be accompaning (sic) you!

- The inside of the tune (the bridge) is the part that makes the outside sound good.

- Don’t play everything (or everytime); let some things go by. Some music just imagined.

- What you don’t play can be more important than what you do play.

- A note can be small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.

- Stay in shape! Sometimes a musician waits for a gig & when it comes, he’s out of shape & can’t make it.

- When you are swinging, swing some more!

- (What should we wear tonight?) Sharp as possible!

- Always leave them wanting more.

- Don’t sound anybody for a gig, just be on the scene.

- Those pieces were written so as to have something to play & to get cats interested enough to come to rehearsal!

- You've got it! If you don’t want to play, tell a joke or dance, but in any case, you got it! (to a drummer who didn’t want to solo).

- Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along & do it. A genius is the one most like himself.

- They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along & spoil it. -

Thelonius Monk (as transcribed by Steve Lacy)

 On the Beach, John Bonanno photo of my daughter Nicki, who is having a baby this week.



This Week's Maine Words of the Day 
Part Two

Maine word of the day: "puncheon" slab lumber used back in the day for flooring and much valued in old homes today. From the French word for "cask for liquor," 1479, from M.Fr. poinchon (13c.), of unknown origin. Uncertain connection with puncheon "slab of timber" (1466), also "pointed tool for punching" 1425–75; M...E ponchoun, punchon < MF ponçon, perh. to be identified with puncheon.

Maine word of the Day: "Fitten" adj. Proper, seemly, example: "It not fitten they gave Alex a letter of warning the day before he retired."

Maine word of the day: "Corn Sweat" a heated effort to cajole or convince, from boiled ears of corn laid alongside a patient under the covers to get him to sweat out a fever. example: "My supervisor thought he could corn sweat me to get  back in eight hours by waving  around the numbers  but I had eight certs, fifteen parcels ...and my DPS was an ugly mess and that just aint in the numbers."

Maine word of the day: "squaretail" the brook trout, not to be confused with a "togue" the lake trout which has a forked tail.

Maine Word of the Day: "Sport" a paying guest at a hunting or fishing camp who has hired a registered guide. example: "Lester's pretty ugly about the sports crowdin' his fishin' spot but they paid for his new truck."

Maine word of the day: "Cowbeef" meat from a cow which has outlived her milking days. Not too savory.

Quote of the Day

"Unto the lewd all things are lewd."-Theodore Schroeder

Ipomoea Alba, Morning Glory, September 5, 2005, Hiram, Maine, John Bonanno photo

Maine Word Of the Day
Part One

Lately on my facebook page I have been promulgating (to use a venerable Navy expression) a "Maine Word Of The Day" which is mostly words and meanings found and adapted from John Gould's "Maine Lingo" a Down East Book published in 1975. It's out of print but there are some used copies available on Amazon.com.


It's one of those books that is handy in the "convenience" (the outhouse, the cloakroom, the necessarium, the bathroom, the toilet, the john, the privy, the lavatory) to pass a little time. The explanations and examples showin' off the use of the word are usually my own. So, as the feller says, I'll take all the blame for them. The audience here is mostly postal employees and I tend to write this feature with them in mind.

Here are some of the words we have studied so far:

Maine word of the day: "Gorm" pronounced gawm n. or v. to behave in a clumsy and stupid manner, also one who can be counted on to do so, also to stare and gape with a blank look on the face (and one who does so) and less commonly, to smear something up, esp. with a greasy substance. examples: "When I told the gormy supervisor that I needed help he just stood there with his mouth hangin' open." "That cart was just rusted up froze so I gormed up that axle real good 'til she let go." or, "My gormy neighbor got it in his mind he's some kinda rancher. He got himself a steer calf and leaves it tied out. That thing is drivin' himself and me up the wall with his all day long  bellowin' and pacin'. 'Though I can't say I blame him."


Maine term of the day "jumper" or, "jumping Frenchman" a trait characterized by an unusually extreme startle reaction. The startle reaction is a natural response to an unexpected noise or sight. This disorder was first identified during the late nineteenth century in Maine and the Canadian province of Quebec. Lumberjacks of French Canadian descent were originally associated with this phenomenon but it has since been observed in other societies in many parts of the world as well. "Jumping Frenchmen" is suspected to be a genetic disorder and/or an extreme conditioned response to a particular situation possibly influenced by cultural factors. Symptoms tend to improve with age. (This unfortunately named condition is real and the description above is taken word for word from the Cigna.com website. Political correctness was an unknown concept in the 19th Century. ) example: "I don't believe our new supervisor is gonna last long. Looks like a jumper." or "That lady down at the end of Gleckler Road is a real jumper. It's kinda fun to sneak up on her when you're deliverin' her mail."

Maine word of the day: "touchin' up" or stealing, or maybe just borrowin' without lettin' a fella know. As in, "Hey Joe, you the one been touchin' up my traps?"

Maine word of the day: "Plegged" two syllables pronounced Pleg-ged (plagued, but actually and usually plaguing) as in "I retired early from the Post Office on account of the stupidity of them plegged managers.

Bonus Maine expression of the day: "Son of a Whore" most  would never refer to a person this way, unless they were lookin' for trouble.  Inevitably, recalcitrant inanimate objects such as equipment one is workin' on  will be cursed as a "Son of a Whore" and quite rightly. Sometimes a gormy domestic animal is the recipient of  this appellation.

Maine expression of the day: "clam digger's hands" basically a unit of measure of coldness, as in "her heart is as cold as a clam digger's hands" If you wanted to intensify the effect you could say something like: "Could be on account of bein' late pickin' her up or maybe havin' liquor on my breath, but by the time I finally tried to make my move, she was as cold as a clam digger's hands in January."

Maine word of the day: "some" a vague adjective, often utilized when making an understatement which is a favorite Maine verbal tactic. The meaning is wholly in the context of its use, "I was some worked up at my bonehead boss today." or "That was some pahty last night."

Maine word of the day: "culch" or "cultch"-the debris oysters hang on to, or, any accumulation of rubbish or junk, as in, "That feller from away paid me fifty bucks for all that culch granpa had in the attic."

Maine expression: "deacon seater" or "stretcher" a tall tale, a story that stretches the truth, the "deacon seat" is at the front of the church, or, in a lumber camp, near the fire; he who sits in the deacon seat had better be able to tell quite a stretcher to keep it.

Maine phrase of the day: "Changing Water" what a lobsterman does when he pulls up an empty pot It can be applied to any unproductive labor such as: "Every day all this friggin' with scan points is nothin' but changing water."

Maine word of the day: "Siddout" to go with the best intentions (as far as anyone knows) to do something, as in "I siddout to go to the store for milk but I ended up at the Gardens." Or, "I siddout to get back by five but there was no fucking way with all that mail." But no explanation for failure is really necessary.When one uses this expression, it is generally to indicate that something did not happen.

Maine word of the day, from. Maine Lingo by John Gould, "Crowder" a horse (fearing he will soon have to go to work) who resents a farmer's intrusion in its stall and leans on him against the wall. A crafty farmer carries a stick a little wider than himself to cure the "crowder" of his habit. No "crowder" has ever been known to crowd a farmer in possession of such a stick twice. This may be an effective tool to use on an aggressive supervisor.

Maine word of the Day: "Dressing" manure applied to the land; may be used metaphorically. "This morning our supervisor applied a lot of extra "dressing" when he gave his service talk."

Maine term of the day: "Dude Cruiser", the Maine equivalent of a Dude Ranch, a schooner outfitted for people "from away" to tour the Maine Coast; these vessels are also known as "Skin Boats" due to the sunbathing activity which may usually be observed aboard. "Charlie likes to make fun of them dude cruisers but I noticed he was takin' his time workin' traps where that skin boat covered with half nekked Euros was moored."

Maine word of the day: "Gloryhole" [Not what you think you dirty minded people.] A ship's treasure store or lockup for valuables, later a catch-all closet.

 This is Joe Burman, retired letter carrier, and a Peaks Island stalwart with his special friend.

Maine expression of the day: "Snedricks", snide tricks, craftiness, as in: The letter carrier's supervisor suspected he was extending his street time so he walked the route with him. As it turned out, the carrier knew the contract, the M39, the M41, proper safety practices, and all the other sundry rules put out by management better than the supervisor and by so doing everything he was supposed to do, he more than justified his street time. Snedricks!

Maine word of the Day: "hand-scythe" One would think this is redundant but it is a good example of an old Maineism. The old timers would apply the prefix "hand" to almost any tool, even the ones that are obviously and always used with the hand, like hand-hammer, hand-tracer, hand-awl, hand-chisel, etc. Example: "The heater fan in my LLV was a little balky so I gave it a little encouragement with my hand-scanner and off I went."

Nicolai A Berdyaev
1874-1948

Quotes 

"Habitual, time-hardened slavery may not appear to be a form of violence, while a movement which is directed to the abolition of that slavery may appear to be violence." from "Slavery and Freedom"

"We find the most terrible form of atheism, not in the militant and passionate struggle against the idea of God himself, but in the practical atheism of everyday living, in indifference and torpor. We often encounter these forms of atheism among those who are formally Christians."

 "And revolutions in Christian history have always been a judgement upon historical Christianity, upon Christians, upon their betrayal of the Christian covenant, upon their distortion of Christianity....[Revolution] is a challenge to Christians and a reminder that they have not made justice a fact of experience."

"There is nothing higher than the search for, and the love of, Truth." The Realm of Spirit and the Realm of Caesar. (1949)

 

Little Johnny And His Displeasing Doll Minions 

Dominic Bonanno photo, probably using an old Argus camera with a bulb flash attachment that made a scary popping noise and blinded the innocent subject which here is no doubt contributing to my displeasure. 

 Sound and Fury

Am I making a Masonic Sign with my right hand? Could be. 

Anyway, let's collect a few ideas and notes that have accumulated over the last few weeks. 

Capitalism ensures that Labor  must compete for jobs while doing every thing it can to exempt itself from competition, including using government.

Capitalism proclaims the cult of the family while at the same time ushering in the era of effectively doubling the work force by inveigling women to join in, thus cheapening the cost of labor and decreasing the number of jobs that pay enough to support a family. 

The masses are trained by the agents of the corporate state to blame illegal immigrants for their problems. No political party does anything about illegal immigrants because the corporations who own the politicians desire the benefits of the cheap undocumented uncomplaining labor provided by them. 

The masses are trained to believe that Unions are corrupt. In many cases the Unions are corrupt so Politicians act to control the activities and the finances of Unions far more than they dare to control Corporations. Sanctions against Unions are far more restrictive than those put in place against rogue Corporations. Unions convicted of violations are actually run by the government. Laws favor the Corporations in their War to keep Unions away from their Workers.  Hard fought Labor benefits begin to disappear.

The corporations expand the economy parasitizing the workers. Non work days are abolished citing the need to eliminate old fashioned blue laws. Sunday becomes Consumer Day. 

Cultural activities are eliminated and replaced by the pastime of  Shopping which is exalted by the mind control of the Media. The oxymoron  Consumer Culture is not questioned and is raised up as the answer to all problems. 

Natural Selection is not necessarily "survival of the fittest" at least as it is commonly believed. It may be survival of the best. The vicious and bloodthirsty among us are selected out in many ways. The patricians who ruled the Roman Republic essentially  wiped each other out clearing the way for others. The process of Evolution may not be directed by "Natural Selection" in the sense of a mindless unknowing process. Evolution is more directed by Selection.  Individuals choose mates. Individual creatures often choose to survive, especially once intelligence becomes the premier mode of survival in a species and the state of self awareness is attained.  Ironically these choices are often performed on an Unconscious Level. 

The "Red River of Death" referred to in Liber X is menstrual blood. 

If the Universe is designed by a Creator there should be hints, subtle and hidden, in it about that Creator. 

Or maybe Not. But it is a reasonable assumption that we may stumble upon these "Easter Eggs" which are artifacts of the Creator's Ego, similar to those left in Video Games and Movie Discs. The Creation of the Video Game is indeed a similar activity as the Creation of an Universe. 

As an Alfred Hitchcock may always be seen in a walk through in his films, so may the Creator do the same. However, it is a jarring bit of metaperformance to experience a Quentin Tarantino in one of his films taking a substantial role in the acting. I doubt the Creator would do the same. But we get to see the credits and read reviews of movies. We get no such information in this World about this World. And that is Intentional. 

Here is a hint about the movers and shakers of this World: the most well developed characters, the most effectual and the most significant in any performance are the most scripted and directed. 

We have as much chance of success in describing existence as a fly licking the juice dripping on a pan from a Roast has of explaining the preparations for the Wedding for which that Roast is the main course. Nor will the fly be able to take part in the conversation of the Guests at the Wedding though he may be the subject of it for a time. 

A validation of Magick is the existence of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal which indicates that the Observer affects the Observed, and vice versa,  although often to the corruption of both.

Why There Will Be No War One Day

Any activity that results in the elimination and destruction of the participants is destined to disappear, one way or the other.

War is a ritual that humans have perfected to gradually eliminate aggressive and violent genetic traits which were required for the original exaltation of Man. War, ironically, pacifies.

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