Oldie but goodie! Shakespeare wrote the bible!

Yes, it certainly is an oldie but goodie boys and girls, and so I won't spend much time on it.   When King James asked the best writers of the day to translate the bible into the Queens language, of course,whoever wrote under the name of Shakespeare was there, and left his/her mark too!   In Psalm 46, the 46th word down is "shake," and the 46th word going backwards is "spear."  



For more on this, I suggest you read one of Joseph Atwill's great books on the subject.  The guy is really a genius.  (Sorry for the following Amazon links, but well, I have always relied on the comfort of strangers).  Oh, also, you have to go to the King James version, it's been changed in the modern book of lies. 

iambic mushrooms

The ghost of John McCausland.

Apollo And The Python is a painting by Cornelis de Vos

Ah, yes, January 22, twin two's, in Ancient Greece, this day was dedicated to the Sun god, Apollo.  It was believed that for anyone who carried his emblem, good luck, light, and truth would follow.  The nine Greek goddesses of inspiration who watch over musicians, poets, and artists are also honored on this day with the celebration of the Festival of the Muses.

The Tarot card awarded this day is the 22nd card of the Major Arcana: The Fool.  The Fool, who in several versions is shown blithely stepping over the edge of a cliff.  Some interpretations picture him as a foolish man who has given up his reason, others a highly spiritualized being free of material considerations.  The highly evolved Fool has followed life's path, experienced its lessons and become one with his/her own vision. 

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John A. McCausland

On this day in 1927, the second-to-last surviving Confederate general of the American Civil War, John A. McCausland, dies in Mason, West Virginia, an unreconstructed Rebel to the end.

Nicknamed “Tiger John,” McCausland was born to Irish immigrants in 1836 in St. Louis, Missouri,and moved to Virginia as an adolescent. He attended the Virginia Military Institute and graduated in 1857. When the Civil War began, he organized an artillery regiment and formed the 36th Virginia from the western part of the state. McCausland spent most of the war in the mountainous region of western Virginia. On May 9, 1864,he distinguished himself at the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain. For the victory, he was promoted to brigadier general.

Two bold actions defined McCausland’s career. First, in June 1864, he drove a larger Union force commanded by General David Hunter from Lynchburg, Virginia, earning him the city’s gratitude. He then joined General Jubal Early’s invasion of Maryland in July. Early dispatched McCausland and his cavalry to Hagerstown to exact a $200,000 ransom from city officials. McCausland rode into Hagerstown and delivered his hand-written note to authorities. However, due to a mathematical error, only $20,000 was secured. McCausland then moved on to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and pulled his second notorious feat–he tried to extort more than $500,000 from Chambersburg officials, and burned the city when he did not receive the money.


McCausland joined General Robert E. Lee for the Confederates’ last desperate attempt to escape in early 1865. He broke through the Union lines near Appomattox, Virginia, and surrendered later at Charleston, West Virginia, after many Rebels had laid down their arms. After the war, McCausland, facing an indictment for the burning of Chambersburg, fled to Canada, Britain, and then Mexico. He returned to the U.S. in the late 1860s after being told he would not be prosecuted for his war crimes. He settled on a farm in West Virginia and lived as a recluse for the rest of his life, stubbornly defending the Confederate cause. McCausland died 13 months before Felix Robertson, the last surviving Confederate general.

McCausland, also a decedent of the Scottish bloodline of the same name (excerpt from wvculture.org):

The name McCausland or McAuslane, as it was called in an early day, is not unknown in ancient Scotch and Irish history. In the days of Wallace and Bruce the McAuslanes lived on the shores of beautiful Loch Lomond in the highlands of Scotland, where they flourished and acted well their part in the bloody local wars of the times. They fought for Malcolm II, who gave them lands and a coat of arms as well.

Most of the McCauslands of Tyrone and Londonderry are descended from Baron McAuslane, who with his two sons, migrated to Ireland from the parish of Luss in the latter part of the reign of King James I. The elder son of Baron McAuslane was the father of Colonel Robert McCausland who had estates in the parish of Cappagh in Tyrone County.

Alexander McCausland, one of the descendants of Colonel Robert, married his cousin Elizabeth Kyle, the daughter of William Kyle who was knighted Sir William the Belt for gallantry and rewarded by land grants in Tyrone, Ireland.

Because of threats of Catholic enemies, Alexander, a Protestant, sold his lands about 1800 for $1,400. He then embarked with his family for America. With his wife and eleven children he landed at Baltimore; then proceeding by wagon to Staunton, Virginia, he joined his relatives, the Kyles. One of Alexander's sons, John, married a cousin, Harriet Kyle Price, a widow who was the daughter of William Kyle and Sarah Stevens Kyle.

(end of excerpt)

McCausland's House "Grape Hill"

Today, the old soul can still be reached in many haunted locations.   Most notably, the house he built in West Virginia called "Grape Hill" for the numerous grape trees on it at the time of conception.  As noted in "American's Most Haunted," visitors to the house get "A sense of being watched and phantom footsteps that follow you everywhere...."  There are others, most notably the one from Chevy Chase, Maryland, on a street of one of McCausland's battles:  children hear a man whispering, "Wait For Me."  The local believe it is the ghost of McCausland.

Booo!

Judgment Day and The Evil Doers.

The 20th card of the Major Arcana shows The Judgment or Awakening in which people are urged to leave material considerations behind and seek a higher spirituality.  The card, depicting an angel blowing a trumpet, signifies that a new day, a day of accountability, is drawing.  t is a card which suggests we move beyond our ego and allows us to glimpse the infinite.  The danger is that the trumpet call for some heralds only exaltation and intoxication, a loss of balance, and indulgence in revels involving the basest instincts.

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On this day back in 1981, after secretly negotiating with the Iranians to not release the US hostages until after the election to ensure Ronald Reagan would win the election over Jimmy Carter, the fifty-two American hostages who had been held hostage for 444 days, were released as planned: after Reagan was elected president.

I have a personal connection to this evil-corruption of a free-election in the USA,  for I was one of the men serving in the US Navy (along with Steve Babylon) believing I was serving my country for its freedom and honesty.  My ship was deployed in the Indian Ocean for 314 days.   Consequently, it was for this period of service that I earned my first medal in the Navy which I also sent to Washing DC in shame after George Bush made the US the bad-guys by repealing fair-treatment of prisoners as outlined in the Geneva Convention... but that's another story.

While I was serving my country, Terry Waite was negotiating the release of these hostages.  Terry Waite was an Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, and was on an envoy for the Church of England.   That much we all know, what you don't know is the whole time, Terry Waite was in conversation with one, Oliver North who was serving in the US Military at the time, and who was secretly working with the Reagan election team.  North had Waite held the release negotiations until after the 1980 election so Jimmy Carter wouldn't get credit, and of course Reagan became president and the rest is history.  Oh, and as with any evil deed, the do-badder is rewarded, and North was given a job in the Reagan administration which ultimately led to North spear-heading the Iran-Contra where the same folks he had negotiate with to underhand the election of Jimmy Carter, would sells guns for drugs in South America (see American Made starring Tom Cruise for the poop on this).

And so the historic records show that on this day in 1981, minutes after Ronald W. Reagan's inauguration as the 40th president of the United States, the 52 American captives held at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran were released because they were scared Shiite-less of the new president.

Nice try fellows, the truth is very corrupt, just as the history books try to tell us that Ronny Ray-gun ended the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the real truth is much more disturbing... the truth that much as the Nazis were defeated only to see Nazism thrive over the last fifty-years by our current Neo-Nazis' chanting "Lock Her Up," Russia won the Cold War by placing their man, one Donald Ego-Trip Trump in office who is secretly negotiating with Putin on their new Master Race, which, by-the-way, doesn't include Indians.  Go figure.

Wake up America.  It might not be too late, but probably is because of these evil-Christians revisionist running the country.  Speaking of which, ironically enough, one, Terry Waite, involving himself in another shady negotiation with Pro Iranian Lebanese Shiite Muslims, was himself taken prisoner on this same day in 1987.  He stopped fucking around after that and hasn't been seen since.

Yes, in the end, a chicken-shit like the rest of them.

Here is a photo of my medal I sent back because the country I once was willing to die for, had been made a nation of bad-guys and lies.

The Medal I Sent Back:

The Ship I Served On:

The Crooks:

Waite!

Raygun

North, lying under the oath.

                                                                                                                      -- Dr TV Boogie
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 Speaking of presidential inauguration, how about this one:  1961, eighty-seven year old Robert Frost recites his poem "The Gift Outright" for U.S. president John F. Kennedy.   Although Frost had written a new poem for the occasion, titled "Dedication," faint ink in his typewriter made the words difficult to ready, so fate ordained that he read "The Gift Outright" from memory, instead.

The poems:

The one he was going to read before the gods intervened:

Dedication

"The glory of a next Augustan age

Of a power leading from its strength and pride,
Of young ambition eager to be tried,
Firm in our free beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.
A golden age of poetry and power
Of which this noonday's the beginning hour."

The one he did read:

The Gift Outright

By Robert Frost

 

The land was ours before we were the land’s.

She was our land more than a hundred years

Before we were her people. She was ours

In Massachusetts, in Virginia,

But we were England’s, still colonials,

Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,

Possessed by what we now no more possessed.

Something we were withholding made us weak

Until we found out that it was ourselves

We were withholding from our land of living,

And forthwith found salvation in surrender.

Such as we were we gave ourselves outright

(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)

To the land vaguely realizing westward,

But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,

Such as she was, such as she would become.

Children of the Sun it's 1984 and Ronald is on TV.

The 19th card of the Major Arcana, The Sun, can be considered the most favorable of all the Major Arcana cards; it symbolizes knowledge, vitality and good fortune, and promises esteem and reward.  The Sun posits attributes of clarity, harmony in relationship  and fine reputation; it does, however, also indicate negative qualities of pride, vanity and pretentiousness.

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Oh what a glorious day it was indeed on this day in the wonderful year of our lord: 1984.   Yes, the year the world had been waiting for to see if George Orwell's famous prediction from his book by the same name, was true.  In Orwell's book, history was rewritten daily to keep people believing in everything and nothing at the same time.   Peace was War, Love was Hate, and Justice, well, unjust obviously.

Ronald

I had just turned 20 that year and looked for the signs everywhere.   Ronald Reagan was president and there were signs.  For one, Mr Ray-gun (as we called him on the streets), hosted his 1984 Republican Convention in Dallas Texas.   Protestors came from everywhere to protest the Cowboy president who had used the Christian Church to get elected.   Reagan was the first to pretend to be a Christian to get it, before Reagan the church didn't take sides in politics... funny, I was a Christian back then too, but after that I decided I would rather burn in hell than follow Satan here on earth clothed in religion.    Really, it became obvious to me that that religion was nothing spiritual and everything to do with power -- I would spend the next twenty years proving this by studying the rise of the Christian church at the cost of real spirituality.   The faith we all know in our souls, not from the treat of eternal hell.  

Dallas Protest

Getting back to 1984 and the Republican National Convention in Dallas Texas.  Thousands of protestors came from everywhere and they were loud and wanted the world to know that they did not support the Hollywood President trading a people's government for the corporate-greed government; however, you didn't know we were there in protest by watching the national media.  All you saw on television were the happy faces coming and going in-and-out of the convention, most disturbingly for me, Bruce Willis.  What was he doing there?

Dallas Airport 1984

What Reagan had done was brilliant and would be used by all political parties going forward:   he had designated a "Safe Protest Zone."  That's right, an area where the protestors would be safe to express their god-given right to express their beliefs; only thing was, this designated spot was a mile away from the convention and any television cameras.  That's right, Sir Ray-gun had us on the banks of the Trinity River a few blocks from where Kennedy had been slain in the hot-ass sun to think about our evil protesting ways.   Free-speech had been converted into breached-speech and it has remained that way since. 

Back then, I was certain this unprecedented act of using "Safe Protest Zone" as a move out of Orwell's 1984, little did I know that the real Orwellian machine was miles away in California being manufactured by one of us.  That's right, on this day in 1984, Steve Jobs gave us the first personal computer with a GUI interface (the mouse) which would make computers attainable to the masses.   And that machine was the monitor of big-brother today, along with cable news.

Big Brother

What I'm really trying to say here is: God is the answer -- wink.

The World Will End February 4th and Trump thinks it's fake news.

This just in from NASA:  a massive asteroid is headed right for us!   True.  It happens to be 0.7 miles wide and is speeding through space at 67,000 mph.  The asteroid will be here on February 4th.  It actually going to be the same distance from us as the moon is from us.

What would happen if it really does hit us?   Another ice age due to soot in the atmosphere for around 10 years.  It's what happened to the dinosaurs.

Of note, NASA doesn’t expect to have the ability to intercept an asteroid on a collision course with Earth until sometime after 2024.

And what is our president doing to prepare us for the end-of-the-world?   He has called all the news sources he disagrees with as fake news.   Fortunately, one Republican is calling it like it is: Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona delivered an impassioned speech from the Senate floor, comparing Trump’s anti-press rhetoric to that of the murderous Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and calling on his colleagues to speak out against Trump’s “shameful, repulsive statements.”

Will this maddness ever end?  Is it any wonder the aliens are sending an asteroid at us?
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On this day in 1983, the American rock musician Frank Zappa defines the music-news process:  "Most rock journalism is by people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read."

Cosmik Debris 
     by Frank Zappa

The mystery man came over
And he said "I'm outta sight!"
He said for a nominal service charge
I could reach nirvana tonight
If I was ready, willing and able
To pay him his regular fee
He would drop all the rest of
His pressing affairs and devote
His attention to me

But I said "Look here brother
who you jiving with that cosmik debris?
Now who you jiving with that cosmik debris?
Look here brother, don't waste your time on me"

The mystery man got nervous
And he fidget around a bit
He reached in the pocket of his mystery robe
And he whipped out a shaving kit
Now I thought it was a razor
And a can of foaming goo
But he told me right then when the top popped open
There was nothin' his box won't do
With the oil of Aphrodite, and the dust of the Grand Wazoo
He said "You might not believe this, little fella
But it'll cure your asthma too"

And I said "Look here brother
Who you jiving with that cosmik debris?
Now what kind of a guru are you, anyway?
Look here brother, don't waste your time on me"
*(Don't waste your time)*

"I've got troubles of my own", I said
"And you can't help me out
So, take your meditations and your preparations
And ram it up your snout!"
"But I got the crystal ball", he said
And held it to the light
So I snatched it, all away from him
And I showed him how to do it right

I wrapped a newspaper 'round my head
So I looked like I was deep
I said some mumbo-jumbo, then
I told him he was going to sleep
I robbed his rings and pocketwatch
And everything else I found
I had that sucker hypnotized
He couldn't even make a sound
I proceeded to tell him his future, then
As long as he was hanging around
I said "The price of meat has just gone up
And your old lady has just gone down!"

And I said "Look here brother-who you
Jiving with that cosmik debris?
Now is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
Don't you know, you could make more money as a butcher?
So, don't waste your time on me"
Don't waste it, don't waste your time on me
*(Shante)*


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  The 18th card of the Major Arcana is The Moon, which primarily represents the world of dreams, emotions and the unconscious.

Eisenhower's Pagan Warning

The 17th card of the Major Arcana is The Star, which shows a beautiful naked girl under the stars pouring refreshing water on the parched earth with one pitcher and reviving the stagnant water of a pond with another.  She represents the glories of the earthly life, but also material enslavement to it.  The stars above her are an eternal reminder of the presence of the spiritual world.
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I'm talking to you!

On this day in 1961, Eisenhower ended his term with a televised farewell address to the American people.  It was unrepresented for a president to speak to the people on his last day in office.  This fact alone should be enough for any American citizen to take note of the warning Eisenhower left us as his final act as president.  He urged his successor (John F Kennedy) to be wary of the rising military-industrial complex.   The War Machine.   Some would say the very War Machine that assassinated Kennedy for opposing the Vietnam War.  

Many have heard of this conspiracy and of course Eisenhower's prophetic warning,  for it is played on all the alternative/conspiracy arguments against the war machine/Illuminati or whatever we call them.  There is, however, more to his warning than just opposing the war-for-profit machine.   His other warning was to each of us as consumers and abusers of the planet.   A very Pagan, Gaia, Mother Earth message:  Ike asked us to restrain our consumer habits, particularly with regard to the environment.  "As we peer into society’s future," he said, "we–you and I, and our government–must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage"

In 1966 on this day, a United States Air Force bomber collides with a jet tanker over Spain's Mediterranean coast, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and one in the sea.  The bombs were not armed, but radioactive plutonium was scattered over the fields of Palomares, requiring decontamination.

The Crash

That was the official word, truth is that it was the worst radiation contamination accident not involving a nuclear power station.  Three of the weapons struck land from the aircraft as it was sent earthbound.  Three of the weapons struck land near the village, while the fourth plunged into the Mediterranean and settled on the seabed at a depth of 2,500 feet (760 meters).  The detonation devices in two of the bombs that made landfall exploded on impact with the ground.  They were powered by conventional explosives, but the explosions caused considerable radioactive contamination of the area.  In 2006 the Spanish and US governments agreed to fund a new clean-up operation of the area.  A study had shown that the soil radiation levels were still unnaturally high.

And time marches on.

Checking for Radiation

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Two heavyweight boxing champions were born on this day.  In 1942, Cassius Clay, Jr., was born in Louisville, Kentucky.  Winner of the 1960 Olympic gold medal in boxing, Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali in 1964 after he converted to Islam.  And two years later, Joe Frazier was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, becoming the winner of the 1964 Olympic gold medal in boxing.  The two pugilists met in the same ring for the first time in 1971 in the "Fight of the Century."  Frazier won the competition, but Ali refused to admit defeat and called the win the "White Man's Choice." Ali had also refused to go into the Vietnam War by stating the obvious:  Why should I want to kill people I've never met for the white man who wants to kill me? (paraphrased)." It was talk like that that made Ali enemy number one to conservative America, and probably gave him the edge with the all-white boxing judges.  We will never know. 

The men would fight two more times in which Ali would win using his "Roper Doper" tactics of avoiding Frazier's punches while "floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee."

Ali was the better with words, and Frazier knew he couldn't match Ali with wits.  Ali said things like,
‘It will be a chiller, a killer, and a thriller when I get the gorilla in Manila....’
Then, reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a black rubber gorilla and began pummeling it. ‘This is the way Joe Frazier looks when you hit him,’ he jibed.
‘Joe is so ugly! His mother told me that when he was a little boy, every time he cried, the tears would stop, turn around, and go down the back of his head.’

Ali also attached Joe Frazier as the "White Man's Choice" and an "Uncle Tom."   Frazier even attached Ali out of anger in public once; at the time some thought it was staged for publicity.   Later in life Frazier would admit that he hated Ali and the fight was real.   

Ali eventually became diagnosed with Parkinson and spent most of his days in a wheelchair.  Frazier once said that he gave Ali Parkinson with his punches.   A statement he later regretted saying.   The fact that Frazier did make the statement shows how real the hatred had been.  

The two men shared the same destiny from their sun sign, but that was all.  

RIP Ali, RIP

The Tower Over January 16.

The 16th card of the Major Arcana is The Tower, which in one version of the Tarot shows both a king falling from a lightning-struck tower and the builder of this tower being killed by a blow to the head.  The Tower symbolizes the impermanence of not only physical structures but also of relationships or vocations in our lives. 

Ennis Cosby

 On this day in 1997, Ennis Cosby, the only son of comedian Bill Cosby was murdered on a Los Angeles street robbery.  Cosby was in Los Angeles in January 1997, while on winter break from his classes at Columbia University.  In the early hours of January 16, 1997, he was visiting friends in Los Angeles and driving north on Interstate 405 through the Sepulveda Pass when, at approximately 1 a.m., he pulled off the freeway onto Skirball Center Drive to fix a flat tire. He called a friend, Stephanie Crane, who drove to meet him; she parked behind him to light the area with her headlights while Cosby changed the tire. She later testified that a man came to her window and told her, "Open the door or I'll kill you." Frightened, Crane drove away but after approximately 50 feet (15 m) turned her car around and came back. She saw a man running away and found Cosby lying on the ground in a pool of blood next to the driver's side of his dark green Mercedes-Benz. He had been shot in the head. It appeared robbery was a motive, but Cosby was still wearing a Rolex watch and had three $20 bills in his pocket.

Bill Cosby

 In 2015 on this day, Bill Cosby is released from a lucrative NBC contract due to allegations of sexual assault.  The allegations had been out there for years, but only now out in the public.   Since this time we find that Cosby had a long history of sexual assault on woman from his position in life.   Most victims said that they knew they wouldn't be believed if they came out with what had happened to them.

Creepy Trump and It's Funny Bush

 In 2005, Donald Trump admitted to the same privileges in life that Cosby felt entitled to.  "I just start kissing [beautiful women]. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait," Trump said to Billy Bush (yes, a relative to the presidents) not realizing his mic was being recorded.   "You can do anything. … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."

The only problem I have with this, is that the same preachers who came out saying Bill Clinton was unfit for presidency because of his "consensual" sex-act with an intern during his presidency (Monica Lewinsky),  is that the loud-mouth preachers with no real spiritual connection to anything other than the might dollar, have turned the other way for Donald Trump.

If there is a Christian hell, how do they not see themselves there?

Moving on....

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John and Yoko Outside Dakotas

On this day in 1981, John Lennon, famous singer from the rock group known as The Beatles, topped  the American music charts with his prophetic song titled "Starting Over."  John Lennon had been assassinated a mouth earlier outside his Dakota apartment, and believed in reincarnation.  So plan on seeing him back soon, probably someone born either on December 8th or 9th of 1980.   Conversely, the same apartment complex that the satanic 1968 film "Rosemary's Baby" was to have taken place in and some scenes were shot, was the same Dakota building that John Lennon died in front of heading back to his apartment.   Roman Polanski shot that film before his wife, Sharon Tate (and her unborn baby) was murdered by the Charles Manson idiots.   Sharon Tate's first film was "Eye Of The Devil."  Sharon Tate's mother (Doris Gwendolyn Tate) was born on this day in 1924, and after Sharon's death was influential in the amendment of California laws relating to the victims of violent crime, which would be considered in the 1997 murder of Ennis Cosby. 

Also worth noting is that on the day Lennon was assassinated, he and Yoko had tickets to see David Bowie performing the Broadway version of The Elephant Man.  Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman also had tickets for that show and also had David Bowie on his list of things to do that day.... Sharon Tate was born in Dallas and Mark David Chapman was born in Fort Worth.... 


On this day in 1971, the prosecutors in the murder trial of Charles Manson rest their case; seven days later Manson would be sentenced to life.  

And the madness continues....

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Satan, Rollings Stones, and Donkeys.

The 15th card of the Major Arcana, The Devil, indicates a fear/desire dynamic working where sexual attraction, irrationality and passion are concerned.  The Devil enslaves us through our need for material comfort and money; he represents our base nature grasping for security; he controls us through the irreconcilable differences which exist in our male/female nature.


On this day in 1965, the British rock group, The Rolling Stones, appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show."  The stuffy variety show had already hosted The Beatles, which were the "pretty-boys of rock music," as well as Elvis Presley who had shacked his hips so violent the advertise requested that the show no longer show rock musicians from the waist down: in modern terms: no crotch shots.

Sullivan and Jagger

Wanted to separate themselves from the well-dressed Beatles who were already a phenomena in the US, and give tribute to the well-known censored moves of Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger wore a dirty sweat shirt and after singing, "I Can't Get No Satisfaction,"  grabbed his crotch and gave the US audience a handful.  Of course, it wasn't shown because of the tight camera shots, but really did let most parents know that the Great Satan had arrived in the U.S. long before their "Goat Head Soup" long-playing record, or "Sympathy For The Devil" song were released.   

Hail Satan (metaphorically speaking that is-wink).

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In 1962 on this day, President Kennedy was asked in a news conference if U.S. troops are fighting in Vietnam; "No," he answered.  He was technically correct, but U.S. soldiers were serving as combat advisers with the South Vietnamese Army.  Many of us believe President Kennedy had no intentions of escalating the Vietnam war, and when the war machine found out about this, they had him murdered.  Unfortunately, we'll never really know.


In 1973 on this day, citing "progress" in the Paris peace negotiations between US secretary of state and Bohemian Grove regular, Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam, President M. Nixon halts the most concentrated bombing of the Vietnam War.  Two years later on this very same day, President Gerald Ford would say, "I've got bad news and I don't expect any applause."  He had just been appointed as our president after Richard Nixon escaped imprisonment by resigning and appointing Gerald Ford as his successor with the understanding that Gerald Ford would pardon him.  Which Gerald Ford did and still hasn't been charged for this high-crime and misdemeanor... I'm just saying.

Thomas Nast

On this day in 1870, the first recorded use of a donkey to represent the U.S Democratic Party appears in a Harper's Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast.  Four years later in another cartoon, Nast originates the use of an elephant to symbolize the Republican Party.

Finally, as we end our esoteric daily briefing, on this day in Ancient Rome, people celeVesta, the veiled goddess of the hearth.  Traditional offerings of homemade bread and salt cakes were left at Vesta's temple, where her hearth fire burned continually, tended by six virgin priestesses known as the Vestal Virgins.
brated the Feast of the Ass, a festival in honor of the animal that was sacred to

Namaste

In China, Successful Women Are Being Labeled As Witches

In China, Successful Women Are Being Labeled As Witches

From medieval witch hunts in Europe to contemporary "witch doctors" in Tanzania, belief in witchcraft has existed across human societies throughout history. Anthropologists have long been fascinated by the phenomenon, but have struggled to study it with quantitative methods—our understanding of how and why it arises is therefore poor.

 But a study we conducted of one Chinese region provided an opportunity to test the most common hypothesis—that witchcraft accusations act as punishment for those who do not cooperate with local norms. According to this theory, witch tags mark supposedly untrustworthy individuals and encourage others to conform out of fear of being labeled. However, some empirical studies have shown that witch labeling instead undermines trust and social cohesion in a society.
Our study is based on 800 households in five villages in southwestern China. We examined the social behavior of those who were labeled with a "witch" tag, and compared it with those who were not. The work, published in Nature Human Behavior, was the basis of a long-term collaboration between scientists from University College London, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Lanzhou University.

To determine the social networks and cooperation between households, we conducted house-to-house surveys, asking who had children, marriages and partnerships with whom. We also collected data on gift-giving, and on working groups on farms during harvest and planting seasons to see who was helping other households with their farming. All these measures gave rise to four social networks between households based on kinship, reproductive partners, gifts exchanged or farm work.

Magic poison

While in the area, we were occasionally warned not to eat in certain households, as women there were believed to be supernatural "poison givers." The label they used, " zhu" or " zhubo,"  is sometimes also translated as "witch." It was common knowledge which homes were so labeled and we were surprised to find it accounted for 13 percent of the households.

The tag was one of the strongest predictors of assortment on social networks. Those from tagged households rarely had children or partnerships with those from untagged households, nor did they exchange gifts or work on each others’ farms very often. However, tagged households were helping each other and reproducing with each other, which mitigated the costs of exclusion from mainstream social networks.

We also played an "economic game" in the villages, where each person was given a small sum of money and asked to donate any proportion of it they wished to the village (to be divided among all the players). We found no evidence that those tagged as "witches" were any less cooperative in this game than any others.

In fact, we found that labeled households were very similar to other households, except the tagged households were more likely to be headed by women and were actually slightly wealthier than average.

We also discovered that the process of acquiring the label was opaque. Even victims often did not know who had started a rumor about them, they may just begin to notice others avoiding them. Some sources report such tags running in the family, with daughters inheriting the status from their mothers. Hence the origin of the slur could have occurred long ago.

Interpreting the results

Anthropologists who believe that the fear of loss of reputation (by witch labeling or other reasons) can be a huge driver of cooperation in the wider community often back their arguments with laboratory experiments using economic games. Such experiments also show that those who punish transgressors can gain reputation benefits themselves.

However real world examples of this are hard to come by. Most studies of witchcraft are not quantitative and do not examine social networks as we have done. While this study suggests there is no evidence that those labeled with this harmful tag were uncooperative, it does not fully explain why such accusations stick in some cases and not in others.

Our conclusion is that witch accusation has evolved from competition between households. Labeling may have become a way for people to get ahead of their rivals and gain a competitive advantage in reproduction or resources. However, the sources of competition may be different in different cases.
There are other explanations that may apply too. All around the world conceptions of witchcraft share many common features. For example, middle-aged women are the most common victims, and accusations of poisoning are frequently involved. But there are also many differences. Another idea for the origins of witchcraft denunciations is that they are common when patriarchal institutions are trying to establish dominance over matriarchal ones. This could possibly also apply in this case as Buddhism, the most common religion in the area, is more male-dominated whereas the traditional social structure in the region is "matrilineal," where descent is usually traced through the female line.
A patriarchal dimension to witchcraft accusations could also explain the prevalence of women as victims both in traditional societies, and even in modern contexts that can resemble "witch hunts," such as online bullying specifically targeting women.

The more research we do, the closer we can get to understanding and tackling the mechanisms behind these practices that can be devastating for women across the world.

Ruth Mace, Professor of Anthropology, UCL

Displayed with permission from Newsweek
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This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

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January 14th, 1693

Salem Town

 


Mary Marston left prison around this time after a twenty-week stay.  Sarah, wife of Salem tailor Abraham Cole, was bailed out with L50 put up by her husband before Justice John Hathorne. 

Besides one probate matter, the two-week session had heard over fifty witchcraft cases.  It discarded thirty as ignoramus, including that of Sarah Cloyse (whose two sisters had hanged for had hanged for witchcraft).  Sarah's husband Peter soon moved them from Salem Village to Boston.

John Hathorne

Of the twenty-one defendants tried, only three were found guilty--Elizabeth Johnson Jr. and Mary Post ("two of...the most senseless and ignorant creatures that could be found," in Robert Calef's opinion), and Sarah Wardwell.  Stoughton signed a warrant for their "speedy execution" (probably set for February 1) along wth five others condemned under the old Court of Oyer and Terminer: Abigail Hobbs, Mary Bradbury (who had escaped and was still in hiding), Abigail Faulkner Sr. and Elizabeth Proctor (whose month reprieve to put her soul in order had long expired).

King's Attorney Anthony Checkley relayed the court's decisions to Governor Phips, and added that he could see little or no difference in the cases of those cleared and those condemned.  In Checkley's opinion, the three found guilty were as innocent as the rest.  Phips had been in Rhode Island during the first week of the trials, making sure that that government knew where its boundaries lay.  Now he mulled over Checkley's report, along with the news of Stoughton's execution warrant. 

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The 14th card of the Major Arcana is Temperance.  The figure shown is a guardian angel who protects us and keeps us on an even keel.  Temperance highlights the need for balance and moderation in the lives of January 14 people.  Positively seen the angel modifies passions in order to allow for new truths to be learned and incorporated into one's life.  The Temperance card urges January 14 people to establish their own ethical code and resist those seductive temptations that would lead them toward false behavior for personal gain.