Romantic Afghanistan

King Amanullah Khan 1919-1929

"The average man does not know what to do with his life, yet wants another one which will last forever." -Anatole France

66 American soldiers died in July in Afghanistan, the most since the invasion of the country on October 7, 2001. Things have not gone well and are getting worse.

The British fought three wars (known as the Anglo-Afghan Wars) in Afghanistan in the 19th and into the early 20th Centuries. During this period what was known as "The Great Game" was played in Afghanistan between the Russian Empire to the North and the British Empire to the South, in India.



The First Anglo-Afghan War 1839-1842

Notable Event:
In 1842 the British were forced to withdraw a column of 4,500 soldiers and 12,000 camp followers from Kabul. Only one, Dr. Brydon made it to Jalalabad. A few prisoners were repatriated later. The rest were lost.

The Second Anglo-Afghan War 1878-1879

This war was precipitated by the Emir Sher Ali's refusal of entry of a British diplomatic mission into Afghanistan at the Khyber Pass. The Brits were in a snit because an uninvited Russian mission had entered Kabul. The British had previously rejected Sher Ali's requests for advice and support about Russian incursions into his country after the Russians and the British had seemingly settled their differences at the 1878 Congress of Berlin.

The Third Anglo-Afghan War 1919

Afghanistan achieved "independence" after a short conflict when Amanullah Khan took advantage of British exhaustion after The Great War. Afterwards the Brits, in a snit again, refused to address Amanullah, the Amir and later Shah and King, as "Your Majesty." Amanullah instituted a liberal constitution and his wife was a champion of women's rights. Reform was predictably unpopular and it precipitated the Khost rebellion of religious fundamentalists in 1926. In 1927, probably at the instigation of the British, the country revolted while Amanullah traveled in Europe. He abdicated in 1929.

The "Game" continues.

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. 1979-1989

The Russians returned to Afghanistan to support an unpopular Communist government.
The United States got involved in a big way at this time, funding much of the resistance against the Soviets, including elements led by Saudi rich kid Osama Bin Laden, which, in retrospect, may have not been a good idea.


American Invasion 2001-?

The British are back again, with us. No one seems to be able to explain the purpose of this war other than to get the vaporous Al Qaeda, which flits from place to place. This was part of the "War on Terrorism" which was cited by the Bush regime to justify all kinds of destructive and oppressive activities. Al Qaeda camps located there were said to be imminent threats of terrorism and the training grounds of the 911 hijackers. Saudi Arabia, which, we are told, spawned and trained the majority of the presumed terrorists themselves, was not invaded and the question of invasion was never addressed or even contemplated. President Obama has escalated this war while at the same time trying to convince us there is a timetable to leave. The existence of vast resources of minerals and oil have been confirmed in Afghanistan recently.

No foreigners have prevailed in Afghanistan since Genghis Khan devastated the land in 1219. Kipling's poem reproduced below could have been written today.

"Do you like Kipling?"  "I don't know -- I ain't never kippled"-Elly Mae, The Beverly Hillbillies
 

THE YOUNG BRITISH SOLDIER

Rudyard Kipling

When the 'arf-made recruity goes out to the East
'E acts like a babe an' 'e drinks like a beast,
An' 'e wonders because 'e is frequent deceased
Ere 'e's fit for to serve as a soldier.
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
So-oldier ~OF~ the Queen!

Now all you recruities what's drafted to-day,
You shut up your rag-box an' 'ark to my lay,
An' I'll sing you a soldier as far as I may:
A soldier what's fit for a soldier.
Fit, fit, fit for a soldier . . .

First mind you steer clear o' the grog-sellers' huts,
For they sell you Fixed Bay'nets that rots out your guts --
Ay, drink that 'ud eat the live steel from your butts --
An' it's bad for the young British soldier.
Bad, bad, bad for the soldier . . .

When the cholera comes -- as it will past a doubt --
Keep out of the wet and don't go on the shout,
For the sickness gets in as the liquor dies out,
An' it crumples the young British soldier.
Crum-, crum-, crumples the soldier . . .

But the worst o' your foes is the sun over'ead:
You ~must~ wear your 'elmet for all that is said:
If 'e finds you uncovered 'e'll knock you down dead,
An' you'll die like a fool of a soldier.
Fool, fool, fool of a soldier . . .

If you're cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind,
Don't grouse like a woman nor crack on nor blind;
Be handy and civil, and then you will find
That it's beer for the young British soldier.
Beer, beer, beer for the soldier . . .

Now, if you must marry, take care she is old --
A troop-sergeant's widow's the nicest I'm told,
For beauty won't help if your rations is cold,
Nor love ain't enough for a soldier.
'Nough, 'nough, 'nough for a soldier . . .

If the wife should go wrong with a comrade, be loath
To shoot when you catch 'em -- you'll swing, on my oath! --
Make 'im take 'er and keep 'er: that's Hell for them both,
An' you're shut o' the curse of a soldier.
Curse, curse, curse of a soldier . . .

When first under fire an' you're wishful to duck,
Don't look nor take 'eed at the man that is struck,
Be thankful you're livin', and trust to your luck
And march to your front like a soldier.
Front, front, front like a soldier . . .

When 'arf of your bullets fly wide in the ditch,
Don't call your Martini a cross-eyed old bitch;
She's human as you are -- you treat her as sich,
An' she'll fight for the young British soldier.
Fight, fight, fight for the soldier . . .

When shakin' their bustles like ladies so fine,
The guns o' the enemy wheel into line,
Shoot low at the limbers an' don't mind the shine,
For noise never startles the soldier.
Start-, start-, startles the soldier . . .

If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . .

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier ~of~ the Queen!
1895

“What you see in yourself is what you see in the world.”-Afghan proverb


"The reluctant obedience of distant provinces generally costs more than it is worth. Empires which branch out widely are often more flourishing for a little timely pruning."-Thomas B. Macaulay, Empire 



Afghanistan
(with apologies to Kipling)

Anonymous British Soldier, 2009

When you’re lying alone in your Afghan bivvy,
And your life it depends on some MOD civvie
When the body armour’s shared (one set between three),
And the firefight’s not like it is on TV,
Then you’ll look to your oppo, your gun and your God,
As you follow that path all Tommies have trod.

When the Gimpy has jammed and you’re down to one round,
And the faith that you’d lost is suddenly found.
When the Taliban horde is close up to the fort,
And you pray that the arty don’t drop a round short,
Stick to your sergeant like a good squaddie should,
And fight them like Satan or one of his brood.

Your pay it won’t cover your needs or your wants,
So just stand there and take all the Taliban’s taunts
Nor generals nor civvies can do aught to amend it,
Except make sure you’re kept in a place you can’t spend it.
Three fifty an hour in your Afghani cage,
Not nearly as much as the minimum wage.

Your missus at home in a foul married quarter
With damp on the walls and roof leaking water
Your kids miss their mate, their hero, their dad;
They’re missing the childhood that they should have had
One day it will be different, one day by and by,
As you all stand there and watch, to see the pigs fly.

Just like your forebears in mid, dust and ditch
You’ll march and you’ll fight, and you’ll drink and you’ll bitch
Whether Froggy or Zulu, or Jerry or Boer
The Brits will fight on ‘til the battle is over.
You may treat him like dirt, but nowt will unnerve him
But I wonder, sometimes, if the country deserves him.

John Carpenter's They Live

Keith Hansen (aka Vyzygoth) and I have a go at John Carpenter's "They Live" found at Think Or Be Eaten, here: MP3LINK.
Ray Nelson wrote the original story, 8 O'Clock In The Morning, on which the film is based and Keith has a wonderful interview with him as well, found here: MP3 LINK.    New LINK for Vyz's & my discussion at Internet Archive.

A New Cocktail for Summer

Sin and Tonic

In an attractive (in this photo it is an Ittala Ultima Thule on the rocks glass, made in Finland) 8 ounce glass put:

Crushed ice
A squeeze of a slice of lime
A slice of lime
1 and a half ounces of gin
One half ounce absinthe
Topped with tonic (quinine) water

Note the louche!

I use Whole Foods 365 Brand Tonic water containing cane sugar.  No fructose!

Quote of the Day

"Tyrannical government is unjust because it is not directed to the common good but to the private good of the ruler, as is clear from the philosopher in Politics III and Ethics VIII. Therefore the overthrow of such government is not strictly sedition, unless perhaps when accompanied by such disorder that the community suffers greater harm than from the tyrannical government. A tyrant is himself, moreover, far more seditious when he spreads discord and strife among the people subject to him so that he may dominate them more easily. For tyranny is the directing of affairs to the private benefit of the ruler with harm to the community."

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa of Theology

In our present situation one must assume that  the ruler is plural and hidden; and, that government is a distraction and a shadow show. 

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)