The Vault of Mystery

Of Cats and Dogs

2021-01-25T11:43:00.004-05:00

The small item above is from "American Carbonator and American Bottler" January 15, 1904. I should check to see if a future issue of this periodical indicated that this businessman was dealing with a mouse problem in his bottling factory.

Here is another wonderful suggestion from "American Carbonator and American Bottler" of the same date. Are you having expensive price wars with a competitor in your town? Solution! Meet for a friendly dram once a week, fix prices, and make more money.

2020-12-20T10:49:00.003-05:00

Where The Hell Does All That Oil Come From Anyway?

Written in August 2010.

John Bonanno

“The last century has been one of those periods of extraordinary change, the most amazing in human history. If, then, you ask me to put into one sentence the cause of that recent rapid and enormous change, I should reply, it is found in the discovery and utilization of the means by which heat energy can be made to do man's work for him.” – Robert A. Millikan, speech, “Science and the World Tomorrow” delivered at the opening of the New York World’s Fair, April 12, 1939

“Competition is a sin.” – John D. Rockefeller

The Mystery of Oil

Petroleum can be refined into an easily portable, deliverable, and potent fuel. It arguably is the defining ingredient of our civilization, such as it is. Yet, the origin of oil is mysterious. Although we are constantly inculcated with the term “fossil fuels” there is no unanimous agreement that petroleum (literally “rock oil”) was formed from dead animal and plant life, primarily in sediments at the bottom of the ocean. Some scientists believe that oil was produced from the common elements carbon and hydrogen under heat and pressure within the planet at the time of the formation of Earth; some understand that petroleum existed in the solar system in the primordial stuff that would be used to form the planets before the Earth was made. (The atmospheres of the gas giant planets contain large amounts of the basic hydrocarbon, methane.)

The idea that oil was formed without stacked dead plants transforming for eons in sediments is known as the abiotic or abiogenic theory of the origin of petroleum. Abiogenic theory has been around for hundreds of years in various guises. In 1877 Dmitri Mendeleev, who designed the first practical periodic table of the elements, was an early proponent of an abiotic origin of oil. Today the Russians, primarily, continue to seek oil without the assumption of fossil origin and are drilling deep wells and finding oil far below the levels that fossil fuel theory proposes that oil is formed or can be found.

The Deepwater Horizon well is just such a deep hole drilled by a huge multinational corporation. It has gushed at high pressures vast quantities of petroleum that, I believe, fossil theory has difficulty explaining. Some argue that the absence of oil plumes in areas of the Earth associated with access to the deep interior of the planet argues against abiotic oil. But it can be retorted that those usually volcanic areas long ago spewed out and burned any associated oil and that remaining deep Earth oil is safely trapped by relatively stable sections of the crust of the Earth. We must also remember that the most easily accessible oil deposits are found in areas of major tectonic activity and fault zones. Abiotic theory does not necessarily propose ubiquitous oil evenly spread within the interior of the planet or close to the surface.

Accepted Doctrine

Let us look a little closer at the theory that oil was formed from the remains of dead organic materials. The Encylopedia Brittanica, owned by Rockefeller interests, and edited by persons at the University of Chicago, may have a vested interest in promulgating the fossil fuel idea. In the 1961 edition this, and only this, is said about the origin of oil in the article “Petroleum”:

“Most scientists believe oil was formed from the bodies of tiny plants that lived in the sea hundreds of millions of years ago when the sea covered large areas of what are now land masses. These animals and plants lived and died by the billions then sank to the bottom and mixed with mud and sand in layers called marine sediment.”

“Later these sedimentary layers were covered by more mud and sand, which finally turned into rock. As ages passed, the sea withdrew, the earth’s crust heaved and buckled and the heat and pressure caused by the overlaying rocks, together with decomposition of the organic life, is thought to have formed oil from the animals and plants in the deep buried layers. Because of their mutual derivation from organic material, petroleum, natural gas, and coal are known as fossil fuels.”

The Brittanica gives us a longish 12 1/4 pages of text on “Petroleum” with only the quarter page quoted above explaining the origins of the stuff. We note two hedges in the argument (I have put them in italics), which is not exactly a ringing or detailed explanation of the biological origins of oil. This passage leads to an important question: Where did the carbon that life uses to form its structure come from? Other theories of life postulate that a soup of organic chemicals in water spontaneously gathered together to make life. Where did those chemicals come from? Where did the vast amounts of carbon needed to make those vast deposits of dead creatures that made all the oil originate? One wonders how many “tiny plants” and animals had to die and for how long they collected and then one wonders how long it took to compress these “tiny plants” into petroleum under the assumptions of fossil fuel theory for the Deepwater well to ejaculate such huge amounts of oil under such high pressure for so many months. Then we must consider how all those dead “tiny plants” got to a depth of 30,000 feet under the earth’s crust.

A Theoretical Comparison

The first modern oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. It yielded 35 barrels a day after striking oil at 69.5 feet in bedrock. Oil struck at such shallow levels is assumed to have migrated from much deeper levels under the rules of both fossil fuel theory and abiogenic theory alike, although abiogenic theory proposes much deeper levels of formation or primordial collection than fossil theory. Proponents of fossil theory lean heavily on the presence of fossil content in oil for proof. But abiogenic theory counters with the fact that this migration of oil would have contaminated it after bringing it into contact with both fossils and bacteria, including bacteria that feed on petroleum.

Some cynics note that it would be in the interest of 19^th Century oil men, like John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil monopoly to popularize the notion that oil came from dead plants and animals and therefore was a commodity as scarce and difficult to find as a hen’s tooth. If the world believed that oil deposits were as plentiful as they have proved to be, then the world would have been reluctant to pay through the nose for oil, or to fight wars for it. Today, Big Oil and OPEC nations can be expected to find it in their interests to maintain this belief.

Peak Oil

Geologist Marion Hubbert first predicted that the world would reach “Peak Oil”, that is, a maximum production point from which a steady decline would occur, by the early 1970’s. Yet world oil production has risen, with slight fluctuations in a few years (likely caused by geo-political issues or recession) since the 1960’s to this day. The Deepwater well operated by BP and Transocean was said to have gushed about 60,000 (estimates range from 35,000 to 100,000) barrels of oil a day for about 85 days from a depth of 35,055 feet, more than six miles down.

“The well, located in Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately 250 miles (400 kilometres) south east of Houston, is in 4,132 feet (1,259 metres) of water. The Tiber well was drilled to a total depth of approximately 35,055 feet (10,685 metres) making it one of the deepest wells ever drilled by the oil and gas industry. The well found oil in multiple Lower Tertiary reservoirs. Appraisal will be required to determine the size and commerciality of the discovery.” –BP press release, September, 2009

Transocean bragged in their own press releases at the time of their prowess in extremely deep water drilling and ultra deep drilling in other wells in the Gulf of Mexican and off Qatar. Deep drilling is an expensive process but, as we have seen from the estimated gush rate of BP’s Deepwater well, it is “well” worth it, if done right. I ask again. How did all those dead “tiny plants” get down that far?

The total amount of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico can therefore be conservatively estimated at about 5,000,000 barrels by this one well. Yes, shallow, known oil reserves may have reached a “peak” yet oil appears to be quite plentiful at astounding depths, far below the known depths of fossil residues. This may be the mysterious source that sometimes refills drained oil fields at easily workable depths.

Before I continue, I must admit I will be disappointed if the abiogenic oil theory is correct. I would prefer that circumstances force us to kick the petroleum habit. I am neither a fan of our centralized, globalized petroleum based civilization, nor of the catastrophic environmental and social effects resulting from the collection and massive use of oil. I also believe that many environmentalists are very reluctant to face the possibility that abundant abiogenic oil lies deep below and romantically hope for and expect a near future when the world runs out of petroleum. By the way, Hubbert was known for the idea that thin plates in thrust faults could not move on the surface of the Earth without fracturing unless the plates floated on high pressure fluids. It seems to be reasonable that continental plates may also move across the Earth floating on the same basic lubricating fluid we pour into that old Buick 6.

The Elements of Oil

Let me emphasize that I am no scientist; I am by nature an artist and my undergraduate degree is in Anthropology, a vague and vast topic, notably resistant to experimentation. But humor me as I continue this little Gedankenversuch (thought experiment). Let us look at the most common elements in the universe, or, at least our solar system, in very approximate percentages by mass.

Hydrogen 70.57%, Helium 27.52%, Oxygen 5.9%, Carbon 3%

Now let us examine the percentages of the elements in petroleum by weight.

Carbon 84-87%, Hydrogen 11-14%, Sulfer .1-.8%, Nitrogen .1-1.8%, Oxygen .1-1.8%

In our solar system, carbon, the prime ingredient of petroleum, is the fourth most common element. I suspect much of the hydrogen and most of the helium (inert in most situations) in the solar system is locked up in the Sun. That makes carbon very common indeed, as is hydrogen, the prime ingredients of petroleum. It is reasonable to state that petroleum must be a very common substance if these two basic common elements are placed together under the right conditions in our solar system. What evidence exists to indicate that petroleum exists in the solar system, far from known deposits of dead “tiny plants”?

Carbonaceous Meteorites

There is a rare class of meteorites known as carbonaceous chondrites which include carbon in their composition up to six percent of their mass. Investigations of these interesting meteorites indicate that they have remained at very low temperatures for 3 to 4.5 billion years. They are the pristine primordial stuff of which the solar system and the Earth was formed. Their history proves beyond much doubt that they have remained free of carbon based life; yet much of the carbon on these meteorites are in the form of hydrocarbons, including specific hydrocarbons cited by fossil fuel theorists as evidence of the fossil origin of petroleum.

Biomarkers

Traditional petroleum geologists have claimed a plethora of chemicals as biomarkers in petroleum. These include porphyrins, isoprenoids, pristane, cholestane, terpines, and clarins. All have been found in abiotic meteorite samples. Many of these chemicals are also byproducts of the Fischer-Tropsch process famously used by the Germans during World War II to synthesize gasoline from carbon monoxide and hydrogen (no plants required). This process involves a rapid cooling that is impossible in sediments where dead plants supposedly formed petroleum, but may be possible in space. Porphyrins are especially cited by fossil fuel theorists as a biomarker, yet the porphyrins found in living creatures are linked to chains containing magnesium (in chlorophyll) or iron (in heme). Petroleum porphyrins always are linked to vanadium or nickel, which are not found in biotic species.

The optical activity of petroleum in polarized light has been cited as a proof of biotic origin, yet this same optical activity has been observed in fluids obtained from carbonaceous meteorites. Optical activity in petroleum specific to organic life can be explained as contamination. Fossilized spores and pollen found in petroleum are often cited as biomarkers, and they are biomarkers of the sediments passed by and leached into the petroleum on its way from deep interior sources reflecting many ages.

Final Thoughts

This essay is intended to stimulate thought and open minds. I was taught in school that oil came from dead plants and animals and that was it. There was no alternative. I remember some kind of a picture of dead dinosaurs falling into tar pits as an example of how oil was made. Well, those tar pits were already there before the dinosaurs. As I studied this issue I came to wonder more and more if the carbon of life didn’t come from pools of petrochemicals breaking down on the surface of the earth to make soils or breaking down under the oceans to form the carbon in solution used by early plants. I saw the fossil fuel theory turned on its head. Dead plants and animals did not form petroleum. Rotted and oxidized deposits of petroleum may have provided the raw materials of plants and animals.

Bibliography

Abiogenic Origin of Hydrocarbons: An Historical Overview

Geoffrey P. Glasby

The Non-Organic Theory of the Genesis of Petroleum

Samar Abbas

The evolution of multicomponent systems at high

pressures: VI. The thermodynamic stability of

the hydrogen–carbon system: The genesis of

hydrocarbons and the origin of petroleum

J. F. Kenney, Vladimir A. Kutcherov, Nikolai A. Bendeliani, and Vladimir A. Alekseev

Abiogenic Or Biogenic Petroleum

S.S. Penner

Dismissal of the Claims of a Biological Connection

for Natural Petroleum.

J. F. KENNEY

Joint Institute of The Physics of the Earth - Russian Academy of Sciences

Gas Resources Corporation, 11811 North Freeway, Houston, TX 77060, U.S.A.

Ac. Ye. F. SHNYUKOV

National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Vladimirskaya Street 56, 252.601 Kiev, UKRAINE

V. A. KRAYUSHKIN

Institute of Geological Sciences

O. Gonchara Street 55-B, 01054 Kiev, UKRAINE

I. K. KARPOV

Institute of Geochemistry - Russian Academy of Sciences

Favorskii Street 1a, 664.033 Irkutsk, RUSSIA

V. G. KUTCHEROV

Russian State University of Oil and Gas

Leninskii Prospect 65, 117.917 Moscow, RUSSIA

I. N. PLOTNIKOVA

National Petroleum Company of Tatarstan (TatNeft S.A.)

Butlerov Street 45-54, 423.020 Kazan, Tatarstan, RUSSIA

Petroleum Formation and Occurrence, B.P. Tissot, D.H. Welte

Thomas Gold, Professional Papers

2020-11-04T07:49:00.008-05:00

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527 - 1593) "Flora Meretrix"

We Are All Whores...But Of What Kind?

Technically marriage in Western culture has been a legal agreement to limit one's self (whether man or woman or something in between) to one ~~prostitute~~, er, spouse, at a time. Marriage in in trouble now since that system neither applies to our real lives nor works very well unless one or both spouses have the disposable money a man known as a "sugar daddy," rara avis, indeed, might have. Now, married couples are prostituted to their jobs since in most cases they both must work for the Man or Woman (and often at more than one workplace) to earn enough money to conduct life and raise a family in the manner to which they have been trained to expect. In most cases, however, sex with the boss is not an implicit condition of work. But it still happens. Selling your body is selling your body, no matter what for.

The etymology of the word prostitute sheds some light on what I am poorly trying to 'get across.' Prostitute - mid 16th century (as a verb): from Latin prostitutus- ‘exposed publicly, offered for sale’, from the past participle of the verb prostituere, from pro- ‘before’ + statuere ‘set up, place’. Romans had countless words for whores, but prostituta was not one of them, or at least not commonly used. Prostibilis also meant whore in Latin and is etymologically related with the prost (display for sale) prefix. The prostibulum, later prostibilis usually referred to the streetwalker who displayed herself in public.

For example, "That influencer on Instagram is prostituting (id est "exhibiting for sale") her ass at the beach again. Maybe she will attract a sugar daddy who will pay her well for a few licks at that thing."

The most common word for whore in Latin was meretrix (etymology: From mereō ("merit, deserve") + -trīx. Literally "she who earns".} This is a more realistic, respectful and active word than 'prostitute' a passive concept; "Exposing a thing for sale" which didn't get its present meaning of whore until the 16th century, is vulgar. I would rather spend time with a skilled and enthusiastic meretrix than a prostitute.

When it comes to relationships perhaps we should all try to be more like the meretrix and earn love, rather than be like the prostitute who just accepts love and all that comes with it, merely for being available sexually.

A Three Headed Dog Walks Into A Bar And Demands Three Drinks. The Bartender Refuses. Cerberus Eats Him.

2020-05-25T12:39:00.038-05:00

Back in the 1983 Sainsbury's, a Brit corporation, bought a New England supermarket chain headquartered in Portland, Maine, Shaw's. They immediately built new stores to increase business and in doing so, put the outside entrance doors on the left and exit doors on the right and inside exit doors on the left and entrance doors on the right, in keeping with UK ways. I never got used to it and I suppose I never wanted to. It just gave me a reason to avoid stinking expensive Shaw's.

They sold the chain to Albertson's back in 2004 but the doors are still screwed up to this day and many (including myself) still try to enter via the exit door. Did Albertson's agree to leave the doors that way? Or, are they secretly still a Brit company? They have not fixed this. This is not the freaking UK.

Aha! Albertson's is no more. They were bought and merged with Safeway in 2014 to form a new company, AB Acquisition LLC. The deal took over a year to complete. This whole shebang is actually owned by the very spooky Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus was the many headed hound of Hades. CCM has a lot of investors and employees who were/are (if there is a difference) in deep intelligence agencies. This is very helpful when doing business these days. Cerberus spends a lot of money on politicians and lobbying. I suspect Cerberus bought supermarkets more to learn about us than to actually make money selling food.

Cerberus' Managing Director Louis Bremer

Louis has been "tapped" by President Trump as assistant secretary of defense for special operations. Louis is as deep state as it gets. So much for "draining the swamp."

And now President Trump has hired Louis Bremer as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Combat. (Ask anyone who has been in combat if there is such a thing.) This means he is in charge of clandestine operations to do with sabotage, assassination, kidnappings and the like. This is the deepest of swampy deep state stuff. Good luck Louis! And good luck to you Mr. President!

2020-05-25T08:37:00.003-05:00

DOMINIQUE 'NIQUE 'NIQUE

Fellini's Dominique

Fellini's Dominique.

In 1982 this techno version of Dominique by the original singing nun was released. The song was a big hit by the Soeur Sourire back in the 1963. This video was brilliantly re-purposed from Fellini's 1972 film, Roma. The song is about the Dominican order which was established by the pope to wipe out the threat to the church of the gnostic Cathars in southern France. The Crusades, begun in 1099 and continuing for almost 200 years, had proved so popular in the Vatican that they were extended against heretics, pagans, and the popes enemies of all kinds beyond the traditional Muslims and Jews of the Holy Land. The Crusades also had provided a way to keep trouble-making landless younger scions of kings out of the way, far from home.

This Crusade against what they called The Albigensian Heresy wiped out millions. It is famous for the quote "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius." or, "Kill them all; God will know his own." by the Roman Catholic commander Arnaud Amaury, an abbot, prior to the massacre at Béziers on 22 July 1209. He had been asked, how they could tell the heretics from the many faithful in the town.

Here are the lyrics, first in English then in French, of Soeur Sourire's happy song celebrating the work of the Dominicans.

Refrain
Dominique, nique, nique, over the land he plods along
And sings a little song
Never asking for reward
He just talks about the Lord
He just talks about the Lord

At a time when Johnny Lackland
Over England was the King
Dominique was in the back land
Fighting sin like anything

Now a heretic, one day
Among the thorns forced him to crawl
Dominique with just one prayer
Made him hear the good Lord's call

Without horse or fancy wagon
He crossed Europe up and down
Poverty was his companion
As he walked from town to town

To bring back the straying liars
And the lost sheep to the fold
He brought forth the Preaching Friars
Heaven's soldier's, brave and bold

One day, in the budding Order
There was nothing left to eat
Suddenly two angels walked in
With a loaf of bread and meat

Dominique once, in his slumber
Saw the Virgin's coat unfurled
Over Friars without number
Preaching all around the world

Grant us now, oh Dominique
The grace of love and simple mirth
That we all may help to quicken
Godly life and truth on earth

Soeur Sourire The Singing Nun VIDEO Dominique 1963

en français

Dominique, nique, nique s'en allait tout simplement
Routier pauvre et chantant
En tous chemins, en tous lieux, il ne parle que du bon Dieu

Il ne parle que du bon Dieu

A l'epoque ou Jean-sans-Terre de' Angleterre etait Roi
Dominique, notre Pere, combattit les Albigeois
Repeat first 4 lines: Chorus

Ni chameau, ni diligence il parcout l'Europe a pied
Scandinavie ou Provence dans la sainte pauvrete
Refrain

Enflamma de toute ecole filles et garcons pleins d'ardeur
Et pour semer la Parole inventa les Freres-Precheurs
Refrain

Chez Dominique et ses freres le pain s'en vint a manquer
Et deux anges se presenterent portant de grands pains dores
Refrain

Dominique vit en reve les precheurs du monde entier
Sous le manteau de la Vierge en grand nombre rassembles
Refrain

Dominique, mon bon Pere, garde-nous simples et gais
Pour annoncer a nos freres la Vie et la Verite
Refrain

'Dominique' by the orginal composer and singer Soeur Sourire. This 7Inch single was produced in 1982 by Marc Moulin and Dan Lacksman of the Belgian electro b...

2016-12-01T07:50:00.002-05:00

THE LEPRECHAUN CAPER

It looks like he knows exactly what he has.

Today you may see or hear about a funny story involving a man who stole a pot of gold off the back of an armored truck. There is video of a nondescript man walking up to a pot filled with about 1.4 million dollars of gold flakes weighing 84 pounds. He seems to easily pick it up and walk away.

I immediately suspected an inside job. I bet this guy peeled off his face and drove away with a confederate in a waiting car. . By the way, this caper happened on September 30. I am certain Loomis begged their customer to keep it on the down low and that they would nab this guy quickly. Obviously they did not catch him quickly. They did not catch him at all..

Watch Loomis (Loomis AB (LOOM-B.ST) stock today. I suspect it tanks and I also suspect some insiders have already sold before the word got out.

If you check out Loomis' stock chart you may notice that it was rising a bit until November 1. Then there was a spike in volume and the stock began to fall. That's when the insiders began to sell. I wonder if the SEC will investigate? Hah Hah Hah!!!

2016-07-30T23:35:00.002-05:00

Old Painting by John Bonanno

Paladino

All will be hidden before all is lost,
No metal machine can compute the cost.
But golden buds upon the snow,
Shall light that whitened night aglow.

A desk in a drawer shall the demons be,
In negative twist for eternity.
Considering discipline, doctrine, law...
Based on their premise which precludes any flaw.

But I must escape on the stony path,
'Though this will raise the demons' wrath.
And quicken the molten center of the earth,
As a chick in an egg before its birth.

A man who sleeps in fits am I,
Who shall awaken when I die.
What comfort therefore can I give,
To one who merely wants to live?

J. Bonanno

2015-06-30T08:14:00.000-05:00

The List from Beers Without Fluoride

(Updated June 30, 2015)

So far, Beers Without Fluoride has officially awarded these brews the "A" (Acceptable) rating for being brewed with water that has not been treated with fluoride. This list is a growing and living thing and may not be totally up to date. BWF solicits any and all corrections of this list. This list is far from complete. I welcome your input. Remember you can use your own ingenium to discern whether a beer is unfluoridated or not by using the tools supplied at Beers Without Fluoride's Facebook page. I will soon be publishing a list of brewers rated "F" by BWF.
I am also posting this list on my (mostly inactive these days) blog with a prominent link to it so it will be more available than when it disappears into Facebook oblivion.
I have tried to pin the thing to the top of the Facebook page but somehow it always drifts down among the rest of the posts.

International Beers

All beers from the following countries are rated "A" due to the fact that water is not fluoridated.
Note: These are not the only countries in the world that do not fluoridate. However they do export beer and BWF recognizes them with the A rating.

Belgium
Mexico (There are some high natural fluoride sources such as in Mexico City.)
China
Israel
Austria
Czech Republic (Yes, drink that Pilsner Urquell to your heart's content. Rated A.)
Croatia
Denmark
Estonia
Finland (Some areas have a high natural fluoride water content.)
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Latvia
Netherlands (Enjoy your Heineken.)

Any beer brewed in Germany is fluoride free.
Beware of Beck's sold in the United States. It is brewed in fluoridated St. Louis by Budweiser. Not only that, but Beck's brewed in the USA does not taste very good.
Those who wish to drink a true organic beer brewed with clean water may want to try the great Pinkus Brewery offerings from unfluoridated Germany.

Heineken brewed in fluoride free Netherlands.

All the fine brews of fluoride free Belgium are rated A.
The most commonly seen in the United States are Stella Artois (brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev headquartered in Belgium), Duvel, Bières de Chimay Trappist products, Hoegaarden (a hefeweizen also brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev which I have seen available lately in my local Cornish, Maine market) and the Lindemans Lambic style brews.

Any beer brewed in Mexico has been brewed with water untainted by added fluoride mostly by two huge brewers.
Grupo Modelo (50% owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev) sells a lot of Corona and Modelo and Pacifico beer in the United States. Note: Corona and Modelo from Mexico City both have a high natural fluoride content in the water used for brewing. Let the drinker decided.
FEMSA (Cervecería Cuauhtémoc-Moctezuma)) exports Tecate, Sol, Dos Equis, Carta Blanca, and the wonderful Bohemia, among others to the United States.
There are few microbrews coming out of Mexico and all are rated "A" by Beers Without Fluoride.

All beers, such as Tuborg, brewed in never-fluoridated Denmark are rated "A" by BWF.

A Rated Beers from the United States

---------------------------------------------------
Sierra Nevada beers whether brewed in Chico,California or Asheville, North Carolina.
Red Stripe Beer for the American market is now brewed in unfluoridated Latrobe, Pa., though the brew does not taste much like the Jamaica brewed version.
Rolling Rock Beer is now brewed in Newark, New Jersey which is unfluoridated but I cannot vouch for any other chemicals found in this water.
Ten Barrel Brewing Company from Bend, Oregon, now owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev and therefore a bit more available due to better distribution.
Any brew from Fort Bragg Brewing Company in Fort Bragg, California.
If you are ever in Albuquerque, New Mexico you can safely drink in any brewpub confident in the knowledge that they are rated A in this unfluoridated city.
Spencer Trappist Ale brewed in Spencer, Massachusetts with well water is rated A if you can find it and afford it. It is very good.

Beers from Full Sail Brewing in Fort Hood, Oregon. The Session Lager is a fine summer beer.
All the fine brews from Spoetzl Brewing in Shiner, Texas. I have tasted the Shiner Bock brewed from the brewery's own artesian well and it is quite good and I have found it in Maine.
All of the brews from Lagunitas Brewing Company brewed in unfluoridated Petaluma, California.
Please note that Lagunitas has a brewery in fluoridated Chicago, Illinois. Beers brewed in Chicago are rated F. Illinois has mandatory fluoridation. Unless a brewery uses spring or well water or purifies the public water with reverse osmosis we must rate that beer F.
All products from the Leinenkugel Brewery in Chippewa Falls, WI.
Bear Creek Brews from North Carolina.
Indian Wells Brewing Company in California.
Abita beers brewed in Abita Springs, Louisiana.
Dogfish Head ales brewed in from well water in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
All the fine brews from Butte Creek Brewing in Ukiah, California.
Hangar 24 Craft Brewery of Redlands, California.

--------------------------------

New Hampshire A Rated Beers

Anheuser-Busch - Merrimack (Bud from St. Louis is rated "F")
Agner & Wolf - Nashua
Blue Lobster Brewing Company - Hampton
Border Brewery - Salem
Canterbury Ale Works - Canterbury
Henniker Brewing Company
The Prodigal Brewery - Effingham
Squam Brewing - Holderness
Tuckerman Brewing Company - Conway
Smuttynose Brewery, Hampton, NH.
All the tasty beers from Moat Mountain Brewing in North Conway, New Hampshire.
--------------------

Maine Beers.

If you are in Maine you might find products on tap from Gneiss (pronounced Nice) Brewing Company. Drink Gneiss in good conscience, it is rated A and uses well water to brew its fine offerings.
---------------------------------------

Vermont Beers

Hill's Farmstead from Vermont is rated A.
Heady Topper from the Alchemist Brewery in Vermont is rated A if you can find it.
All of the Long Trail brews from Bridgewater, Vermont.

Organic Beer Addendum

There are several brewers out there who label their beers as "Organic." That may be true as far as the ingredients they use to brew, but the biggest ingredient in any beer is the water. Many so-called organic brewers use fluoridated water. Here are some of them:
Eel River Brewing in Scotia, California
Wolaver's from Middlebury, Vermont
Peak Organic brewed at the Shipyard Brewery in Portland, Maine
All are rated F by BWF

That's the update. Please let me know if there are any errors so they may be corrected.

The updated list will always be found at this address:

http://johnnyb93.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-list-from-beers-without-fluoride.html

Beers Without Fluoride on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/fluoridefreebeer

2014-11-05T08:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween!

HALLOWEEN MURDER AND MAYHEM 2014

Murder and mayhem abounded during the hi-jinx of our favorite horror holiday this year.
Let's check it out.

A student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie who tried to act as a good samaritan by breaking up a Halloween fight was killed. LINK.

In Ontario, Oregon burglar Jayme Wintersteen was confronted at his home by an associate, Douglas West, about a dispute over stolen goods. Evidently tempers flared up between the two and West was shot by Wintersteen as he attempted to flee. LINK

The demons were cheering with glee during Orange County's "bloodiest Halloween ever." Why? Six people died in three incidents.
One: Three 13 year old girls trick or treating in costume were killed by a hit and run driver.
Two: In the same vein, a 65 year old man and his four year old son were struck by a car. The man died and his son is in critical condition.
Three: An over enthusiastic prankster shot his ex-wife and then turned to gun on himself before his 13 and 7 year old children during a Halloween child custody exchange. LINK

What? No treat? Here's your trick then. A woman in Oklahoma City was shot in the back of her head for her cache of prescription pills. LINK

A man who couldn't wait three more days for Halloween decapitated his mother and dragged her body into the street in Farmingdale, New York on Long Island. Neighbors thought it was a Halloween prank. LINK

Road Rage Trick? A man was shot and killed while driving in Moses Lake, Washington on Halloween. LINK

In Austin, Texas a man killed his girlfriend via inflicting unspecified traumatic injuries early on Halloween. He was arrested later in the day suffering from self inflicted wounds. LINK

A Long Beach, California man was stabbed to death on Halloween. LINK

An Indiana high school student frightened a group of trick or treaters by brandishing a knife at them on Halloween. The next day he evidently used the knife to murder a 73 year old man. LINK

What would Halloween be like without a homophobic attack? In South London, two thugs, ironically dressed as fairies in pink tutus, terrorized by knocking down and kicking in the head two young men they characterized as homosexuals. LINK

In another ironic attack, two "Stop the Violence" activists in Washington, Pennsylvania were arrested the day before Halloween after beating a colleague silly to the point where he vomited blood and ended up hospitalized in critical condition. LINK

Meanwhile in Brevard County Florida, marauding wild hogs threatened the celebration of Halloween. LINK

In Australia, a 16 year old youth reprimanded a passing motorist for driving dangerously close to him and his friends on Halloween. The car stopped, a man got out and punched the lad in the face. He remains hospitalized in an induced coma. LINK

Common Core Is Not A New Exercise Program

2014-06-13T06:43:00.001-05:00

A Couple of Things

Small Untitled Piece by John Bonanno

Common Core

Isn't it funny that when the federal government implemented common standards under George Bush the right had no problem. "No child left behind" was a joke that taught tests not children. The Obama administration implements standards called "common core" to attempt to prepare children for college or the workplace and it is considered evil by the usual suspects. I think Common Core is a little better than the ridiculous "No child left behind" which really amounted to "No child gets ahead." What a country!

Personally, I think we need smarter and better teachers who really know their subjects. That would require raising pay (and changing the criteria used to hire teachers so that we have educators that have been trained more in subjects and less in the metatheories of education) and we all know Republicans will never go for that. So politicians just bump along trying to find some magic formula to overcome the crappy American education system. I doubt it will happen.

By the way, Jeb Bush is the politician who has been the biggest promoter of "common core" in the country.

Why Bowe Bergdahl Will Not Be Charged With Desertion and Why It Is Plain Wrong to Call Him "Deserter"

Bowe Bergdahl can't be charged with desertion since he was taken prisoner immediately by the Taliban. It doesn't become desertion until AWOL (absent without leave) continues for 30 days. Being taken prisoner obviously prevented Bergdahl from returning to base and abrogates any desertion charge. I would say that the majority of people in the military are AWOL at some point in their military careers, usually after getting drunk or hooking up with a woman. Bergdahl has never been charged by the military with any crime. The only crime under the UCMJ he can be charged with, in my opinion based on current evidence, is AWOL, for a day and, perhaps, failure to follow orders (I assume a standing "don't leave the base" order existed, but who knows?), not such a serious thing as desertion. But I can't blame all those rabid right wingers who never wore a uniform for their ignorance of the UCMJ, can I?

Many stories were circulating about the 7 or 8 soldiers who were killed in the search for Bergdahl but it looks like that was all right wing hysteria. None of these so-called victims have actually been linked to trying to rescue this man when they were killed as far as I can tell.

2014-05-17T06:09:00.000-05:00

'Hiram Fire Department, Late Winter 2014' 11" x 14"oil painting by John Bonanno

The Hiram Historical Society presents "Hiram in Art." Works to be displayed at Great Ossipee Museum of the Hiram Historical Society for a week beginning Saturday August 9, 2014 with silent auction ending Sunday August 17, 2014, a weekend filled with many Bicentennial events. Works to be displayed include my painting "Hiram Fire Department, Late Winter 2014." The minimum bid on this painting will be $300, indeed a bargain.

2014-01-18T13:01:00.000-05:00

Chutney, taken November 29, 2013

Good Bye Dear Friend

He loved to sing.

Now he is catching up on news with his old greyhound friend Daphne.

He was very fond of
his pool on a hot day.

He vigilantly and fiercely looked out for his humans.

Sweet puppy.


This is a full page photograph of Chutney's Daddy, Junior World Champion Heythrop Trailblazer Of Snow Wind. Photo by T.M. Strom from the The Ultimate Jack Russell Terrier by Mary Strom. Chutney would get very upset and bark at this picture whenever I held it up to him and asked, "Who's your Daddy?"

He left this plane on January 10, 2014.

Here is the transcript of our final New Years message and song.

Good Morning and Happy New Year 2014.

We are sitting here on the threshold of a brand new year and of course we hope for the best. We know that this year will hold some sadness and disappointment even in our victories. But we find comfort in the fact that our defeats and tragedies will contain the seeds of rebirth and joy as well.

Some of you may know Chutney, my good friend and companion. He is a Jack Russell terrier who was born in September of 1999. He is fourteen and he will not see his fifteenth birthday. Chutney has ALS which is also know as Lou Gehrig disease. He can hardly stand up now. He must drag himself around but it is getting more and more difficult. The first signs of ALS showed up about a year and a half ago when we noticed that he was having a little trouble jumping up on the bench by the back door. We had trained him to jump up there when it was time for a walk so it would be easier for his aging humans to leash him. Now he needs to be carried outside and upstairs. He eats lying down. He has lost control of his bowel movements and when I take him out I squeeze his abdomen to help him.

Chutney will be leaving us on Friday, January the tenth at about 9:30 AM.

He whimpers, cries and shakes and he has let us know in his own way that he is ready to move on.

I have prepared his grave in the back yard near a witch hazel bush. He will be buried in my old Navy blanket, which he loved, and with a new stuffed bear (scores of Goodwill stuffed animals met their ends at his paws) which will be with him forever.

Long ago we made a deal that we would always be friends and that in whatever guises the future may hold for each of us that we would recognize each other and be friends again.

A few years ago we sang together on the new year and that video is posted on my Youtube channel. Chutney loves to sing and he sounds as sweet as an angel to me. His voice is a bit shaky now but we shall sing for you again this year in Chutney's last public performance.

Chutney was interred January 16 with myself, Beth, and his friend Cushing in attendance.

Chutney with Cushing, taken October 28, 2014

Chutney's Prayer

Our dearest Chutney has passed to the West with a renewed body of light.

May Anubis lead him to the Happyland where he may lay down his burdens and rest for a time.

He has been ever vigilant in the way of all Jack Russell Terriers, but now he may rest for a time.

He no longer must bear the responsibility for his humans and now he may rest for a time.

May he be rewarded greatly for his efforts in this life.

His body remains here to lie in the ground.

Wrapped in my Navy blanket he holds a stuffed bear on a bed of straw.

We shall erect a cairn on this spot.

We pledge to honor his memory and plant lovely flowers on his grave.

I know we shall meet again and we shall remember one another.

Amen.

2013-12-17T14:39:00.001-05:00


Goddammit! That's why I drink whiskey. I just don't know if those damn Commie brewers are poisoning my precious bodily fluids with fluoride!

BEERS WITHOUT FLUORIDE!

General Ripper is right. Fluoride is removed from water by the distillation process. But it remains in beer after the brewing process. (Though we must remember that raw whiskey is cut with water after the distillation process.)

One reason I moved to rural Maine was to avoid fluoridated drinking water. I've been drinking from a deep pure well for 28 years. I try to buy my beer from brewers who use non-fluoridated water when I'm not consuming my own.

Most brewers don't say much about their water sources. I have emailed a few brewers to determine the source of their water and if it is fluoridated. Many will answer. You can also look up the locations of breweries and then look up the city and there are easy to find lists of fluoridated towns and cities on line. I suspect some brewers in fluoridated towns may have private wells but that is conjecture. I am very fond of local Maine beers but some of the best are brewed in Portland which has been fluoridating the Sebago Lake water that goes to the city water supply since 1997. I limit my consumption of those beers. The fact is, three quarters of the population of the United States is being subjected to fluoridation in the water sent to their homes. The percentage of fluoridated beer is probably at least that high.

A list of towns and cities in the United States and their fluoride status can be found at the Anti-Fluoridation Data Base. Look at your bottle of beer and check where it was brewed. It that city fluoridated? It is likely your beer is too. Perhaps your brewer has a private water supply. Some do. To be fair I would send the brewer an email or contact them on their web site and simply ask about their water source. If they do not answer your question it is likely they use public water, and therefore their beer contains fluoride if they are located in a fluoridated town or city.

Beers brewed with fluoridated water henceforth will be graded F on the Beers Without Fluoride Facebook page which has just been created by myself.

It is understood that most water supplies have a small amount of naturally occurring fluoride. Some have more. Adding extra fluoride to public water supplies is a concern to many. This dangerous poison in turn enters food and beer offered to the public. The purpose of my humble Facebook page is not so much to discuss the dangers or benefits of fluoride. This page is for the people who have made up their minds about it and have elected to avoid it and therefore want this information in order to make an informed decision about their beer consumption.

If you are careful to drink only bottled water yet you chug down a couple (or more) Bud Lights each and every night brewed in St. Louis at .6 PPM fluoride what have you achieved? Not only are you drinking a beer brewed with GMO corn (Ugh and Ugh), you are also consuming beer made with fluoridated water.

Some water supplies are high in natural fluoride and most have some. Some people think that natural fluoride in water may not be as harmful as the chemicals added to public water. This may be so and their arguments make some sense but that is a question for another time.

Vermont has a relatively low fluoride rate of about 57% of the population and there are good brewers there 'though most aren't available out of the region. Magic Hat produces excellent beers and it is usually available in Maine but they brew in one of Vermont's few fluoridated towns, South Burlington. Their Magic Hat Winter Seasonal has logged in at an atrocious .9 PPM fluoride.

This site seems to be tracking Fluoride Content of Various Beers. You will find an extensive (yet incomplete) list of beers and the status of the water they use to brew.

How can they call beer made with fluoridated water "organic" in good conscience?

Peak Organic Brown Ale (a tasty beer indeed) is brewed by Shipyard in Portland, Maine under contract and it comes in at a rather high level of fluoride (.6 ppm). I have toured the brewery and they are a great beer making firm, yet they use fluoridated water in this supposedly organic brew. Some of the brewers in Portland, Maine were already in operation in 1997 when the city began fluoridation. I never heard any of them opposing fluoridation at the time.

Similarly, Wolaver's in Vermont produces a delicious array of so-called organic brews in fluoridated Middlebury. Their Oatmeal Stout has been measured at a whopping .9 PPM fluoride at ffbeers.com. I contacted Wolaver's on their Facebook page and they admitted they were somewhat at the mercy of the public water supply. I suggested that they might want to drill their own wells and they replied that they had looked into doing that and would study it again. I hope they do and then they could truly call their beer "organic." With both Wolaver's and Magic Hat with .9 PPM fluoride, it seems that when a Vermont town fluoridates, they really mean business at the water department. Is someone getting a kickback from the fluoride salesman?

You can bet that back in 1776 Sam's tankard did not contain beer made with fluoridated water.

The excellent Sam Adams products are also high in fluoride (.6 ppm) and are brewed in Boston which has a great protected water source in the Quabbin reservoir which is then ruined with fluoride and excess chlorine (to my nose at least). Sam's gets an "F" as a result. If I owned a brewery I would only use privately sourced well or spring water.

Portland, Oregon did vote NO!

This article from the May 2013 issue of Bon Appetit magazine indicates that people responded in the negative when a local brewer supported fluoridation, claiming it wouldn't affect the taste of the beer. The referendum to fluoridate the excellent water supply of the city was defeated by the people last May.

2013-10-11T09:12:00.002-05:00

The USPS Wanted Your Kids To Die!

The headline above points to a story at postalnews.com which tells us:

Linn’s Stamp News reports that the US Postal Service will destroy the entire press run of a stamp series aimed at getting children to be more active. According to Linn’s reporter Bill McAllister, three of the stamps in the fifteen stamp series raised safety concerns among sports figures on the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition. The stamps in question depicted children performing a cannonball dive, skateboarding without kneepads, and doing a headstand without a helmet. The unsafe depictions came to light after USPS Marketing chief Nagisa Manabe asked Michelle Obama to take part in a first day ceremony for the stamps. That was apparently the first time the stamps had been reviewed by the Sports Council.

This is very very concerning. The USPS must promote health and safety above all! Look at the danger. These kids have NO EYES! They are screwed before they pick up a skateboard. Even so, I hardly think these stamps can pose a threat to children. Kids do not even know what stamps are these days.

This year the USPS issued many commemorative stamps, almost all of which could be interpreted as promoting dangerous activities. Let's look at some of them:

"Emancipation Proclamation"
Many of our southren brethren think that emancipation was a wicked idea. Just imagine freedom for African Americans! Look at all the trouble it has caused.

"Kaleidoscope Flowers"
These stamps obviously are promoting drug use since kaleidoscopes are a favorite toy of cannabis addicts.

"Year of the Snake"
We don't need no evil Chinese superstition on our stamps. And frigging fireworks are dangerous. You'll blow your hand off. But that's what the Chinese want you to do.

"Apples"
Are a favorite tool of Satan. 'Nuf said.

"Wedding Cake"
Look at that precious thing. This is obviously a gay wedding.

"Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly"
How much more overtly sexual can you get? And it's a subliminal Rorschach of a very vile thing.

"Tufted Puffins"
Here, finally, is a good one. Puffins are harmless. They live on distant islands and there aren't many of them. Wait a minute. Those tufts look too much like the horns of the Prince of Darkness.

"Global Forever"
Why is our Postal Service which was established in our Holy Constitution promoting globalism?

"West Virginia"
What kind of a nondescript picture of West Virginia is this? It could be anywhere. Give us something distinctly West Virginia! Give us feuding hillbllies! Give us the Whites! Give us a Rockefeller! Give us the NSA! Give us Mothman!

2013-09-24T14:18:00.003-05:00

For a while (maybe since the beginning of the summer) podcasts downloaded via my iTunes feed have often been corrupted.

They may skip to the end unexpectedly.

Skip Skip

They make weird squeaky noises.

Get out of my feed, Squeaky.

Sometimes you hear an anomalous few seconds of another podcast.

You....don't...belong....here!

I sent a query to Apple about it but, of course, I got no response.

He's dead, Jim.

I just updated to iTunes 11.1.0.126 today and it didn't help.

So I got an idea while looking at the podcast download window.

Several podcasts were downloading at the same time. I wondered if Apple was using some kind of glitchy accelerator to speed up and maybe screw up the downloads.
Then I noticed the "allow simultaneous downloads" box and I unchecked it figuring that iTunes was crossing the streams. And anyone who has seen Ghostbusters knows that one should never ever cross the streams.

Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you.

Peter Venkman: What?

Spengler: Don't cross the streams.

Venkman: Why?

Spengler: It would be bad.

Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?

Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal.

Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.

Voila!

After listening to a couple of newly downloaded podcasts I have experienced no problems.

So if iTunes is giving you agita when you listen to podcasts, uncheck that box and let them download one at a time.

2013-09-21T08:17:00.001-05:00

We will not have true representative democracy as long as it take lots of free time and lots of money to run for office.

You end up with what we have: rich guys or guys who represent rich guys with very few exceptions.

We should pick congressmen by lot and make about 10,000 new ones. Then we would have a body that truly represents the people. We would be much better off without the bleating myrmidons of the rich we endure today.

We might get lucky and hear the dulcet tones of James Earl Jones in Congress.

Jorma Kaukonen could lighten the mood and speak for musicians everywhere.

Maybe even one of the Duck Dynasty guys might find himself sitting on a committee to protect water and wildlife.

Violent J and Shaggy would do better than the dopes making decisions now.

A lovely model or two like K.D. Aubert would make CSpan much more watchable.

Maybe Matt Damon would enter the lottery for a seat in Congress.

In case you were wondering, my plan would not allow convicted felons or persons diagnosed as insane to enter the Congressional lottery. There would also be a literacy requirement.

As amusing at it might be, Charlie will not be allowed to serve.

The Constitution called for one representative per thirty thousand people. If we had kept to that formula we would have a Congress of about 10,000 people. It would be much harder to buy or influence. Now there are only 435 representatives for sale who are so easy to buy if you have money.

But, in truth, there would be few famous people. We mostly would have a very representative group of average people making average money without axes to grind and without the agendas of the rich to promote.

The Libertarian Fantasy: A Half Assed Manifesto

2013-09-07T08:10:00.001-05:00

Unfettered free enterprise and human freedom are neither compatible nor congruent.

The first inevitably suppresses the second.

Far more than a typical government, the corporation is the greatest threat to human freedom.

Corporations are masks donned by the powerful which allow them to be free of the responsibility for crime committed in the pursuit of wealth.

The corporation actively subverts representative government through corruption of elected officials.

This ensures that the regulators and the regulations emanate from the corporation itself and regulate little or nothing of significance.

The corporation exists with the total cooperation of venal men in government. It has been granted all the rights and few, if any, of the responsibilities of a human being.

Corporations allow men who own and control them to ignore whatever shreds of moral philosophy linger in their beings.

Free enterprise must be vigorously regulated by the people to protect themselves and the planet from the depredations of those capitalists who are motivated by greed alone.

The libertarian movement is an adolescent fantasy which benefits selfish people who put their greed ahead of all other considerations. They have convinced the libertarian that the government, which has been corrupted by the corporations and their masters, themselves, is the problem.The whole concept of human freedom has been hijacked by those who proclaim free enterprise as the highest good. Human freedom and free enterprise are, in fact, antagonistic interests.

These wicked people make myrmidons of those myopic children who resent being told what to do or what not to do and have idealized the so-called freedom espoused by the libertarian movement as the highest good. These wealthy, powerful and oftentimes royal people have their wealth mostly because they have inherited it, not because they have provided great value to society. They are privileged from birth. They are literally entitled.

The vast majority of human beings are not interested in amassing inordinate wealth and power. Those who live for wealth and power can be described as sociopaths. The quest for gold and power is empty at last.The frustration of this quest experienced by those materialists who can imagine nothing better generates havoc in the world for the rest of us.

Activate the Death Star.

These creatures have become adept at characterizing their greed for wealth and power as good.

"Greed is good."

They have their shills who perform sleight of hand to deceive. Some appeal to fools.

Your problems come from Queers, Women, Blacks, Mexicans, Chinks, Commies, Liberals, and Socialists! Corporations? What the Hell are you talking about?

Some appeal to the more intelligent.

"The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations."
Adam Smith

Some appeal to the petty bourgeoisie.

“I think it's going to be one of the biggest middle-class jobs -- collaborators. Collaborators are people who are good at working as part of global knowledge, manufacturing or supply chains.” - Thomas Friedman lets the cat out of the bag but no one notices.

In the absence of government, these wicked greedy people and their corporate entities will not go away nor disappear nor become virtuous. They will simply no longer have to honor the pretense of abiding by the law.

Weak government will facilitate the new feudalism.

The powerful will reign and the majority will serve as in days of old, only this time the technology to keep the people down and hold power and extend the lives of the enemies of humanity will be at their disposal. That technology has emboldened them. They are increasingly proclaiming their intentions to eliminate any considerations for the people. The are no longer afraid of the guillotine. They should be.

A Boy Named Messiah

2013-08-12T07:56:00.003-05:00

Newly minted 'Martin' - Heidi Wigdahl / WBIR-TV via AP

Reuters reported today that

Tennessee Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew has ruled on the name of a child.

The parents of Messiah DeShawn Martin had gone to court because they could not agree on the last name of the baby. Lu Ann decided the proposed first name, "Messiah" was inappropriate although it was the name the mother and father actually agreed upon. Lu Ann justified her ruling thusly: "The word 'messiah' is a title, and it's a title that has only been earned by one person, and that one person is Jesus Christ."

Lu Ann seems to not have noticed names like 'King' and 'Prince' and 'Duke' and 'Baron.' These are also "titles."

Lu Ann also seems unaware that the name 'Martin' is derived from the Roman god Mars, the god of war. How much more appropriate is this name for an American child! He shall bring War, not Deliverence.

Mars, 1st century, found in the Forum of Nerva (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

So Lu Ann decided to pull a new first name out of her ass and changed 'Messiah' to 'Martin." The baby's new name is: Martin DeShawn McCullough, using components of the feuding parents' names. She based her ruling on religious (and perhaps racial) prejudice and profound ignorance. It has not been revealed if little Messiah/Martin has been circumcised. It is an object lesson for people to avoid going to court lest such unanticipated consequences arise.

Circumcision of Christ, detail from Twelve Apostles Altar (Zwölf-Boten-Altar). Painting by Friedrich Herlin of Nördlingen, 1466.

Just what does the word 'messiah' really mean?
It just means anointed. Babies get anointed with Johnson & Johnson's© baby oil every day.
Big deal. And people wonder why I believe Christians are crazy.

From the Online Etymological Dictionary we learn the etymology of the word messiah: c.1300, Messias, from Late Latin Messias, from Greek Messias, from Aramaic meshiha and Hebrew mashiah "the anointed" (of the Lord), from mashah "anoint." This is the word rendered in Septuagint as Greek Khristos (see Christ). In Old Testament prophetic writing, it was used of an expected deliverer of the Jewish nation. The modern English form represents an attempt to make the word look more Hebrew, and dates from the Geneva Bible (1560). Transferred sense of "an expected liberator or savior of a captive people" is attested from 1660s.

The term is not exclusively religious. It is not exclusively Christian.
There is no registered trademark "Messiah." (I don't think.)
Even the Jewish mashiach is not supposed to be God or a spiritual savior.
His role will be mostly political.

OK. I just looked up "Messiah" as a trademark and the word is used in many trademarks.
Lookie Here! found at http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/

Right Click to Expand

I don't know the legal status of naming your kid after a trademarked word. It must be OK.
Isn't it?
Doing a little research at the social security administration's website I found that the top year for naming babies Messiah was in 2006 when 800 incarnated spirits arriving in America were so named. Many of them were females.

SNOWDEN REVEALS UFO SECRETS!!! SNOWDEN REVEALS BIGFOOT!!! SNOWDEN REVEALS NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2013-07-28T10:05:00.001-05:00

Please put whatever words which may amuse you into my mouth, like, "Obama has entertained bigfoot at the White House." or, "Nazis on the moon are cooperating with the most dangerous and aggressive aliens in the galaxy."

Voila! IT'S FROM SNOWDEN DAMN IT!! READ IT.

There has been a cottage industry of Snowden UFO disclosure stories in the past month or so. People get excited and post these links on Facebook and only succeed in helping out the pathetic fools writing these fairy tales to get what they want. When I see these stories I hear the writers screaming in my mind: "Click on my damn website you gullible idiots!" It seems to me that this hysteria only makes the "UFOs are Real" cause (with which I sympathize) appear foolish.

Some of these people posting such stories may mean well but most are just cynical creeps out to get attention for their pet theories or just to get the hits to make a little more money.

They know that if their tale of UFO bases at the poles was just them asserting it, not many would care.

Here are some of these stories:

Above Top Secret is full of Snowden UFO posts with links to sites that do not include many reputable news sources. Check it out HERE.

Here are a few more of these links with comments by myself.

Edward Snowden Reveals UFO Secrets?
This is an unsigned story that attributes its source as something called The Internet Chronicle. At least they ended the header with a question mark. I checked out The Internet Chronicle and it looks like a bunch of fake stories similar to The Onion, America's Finest News Source.

Here is another one from an Italian UFO site. "We are like ants to them."
"Breaking news! Edward Snowden revealed evidence of UFOs. In the Earth's mantle civilization lives compared to where we are like ants. - July 7, 2013"

Before It's News tantalizes us with this header from another unattributed story:
"Is Secret UFO Message Hidden In NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden’s Recent Interview Warning Of False Flag Alien Invasion?"
Again, they had the savvy to turn their headline into a question. The secret message of what they term "unconscious disclosure" was found by using "reverse speech" analysis of Snowden's interview which can be heard here, at the Guardian UK.
It seems at some point in the interview Mr. Snowden says something that resembles "those ufos" when his words are played backwards.
BIN tells us, "Reports of involuntary secret messages encrypted backwards within human speech have been substantiated by real-world events..." Reverse speech is an interesting and amusing phenomena, but it hardly reaches the level of evidence. The article doesn't even seem to give us a recording of the reversal so we may judge for ourselves.

Here is another unsigned article from "Latest UFO Sightings" which is nothing but a mass of assertions gleaned from other unreliable sources.

Well, that's enough for now. Have a great strange day.

Second Amendment Cultists

2013-06-14T06:31:00.000-05:00

The Second Amendment Cultists totally misunderstand the second amendment.

It does not exist so that they can chest thump about overthrowing the government.

It exists so that militias can protect the government.

Tea Party types love the second amendment thinking that it exists in order that they protect themselves from the depredations of federal tax collectors.

The truth is, tax protestors have been ruthlessly suppressed from the founding days of the Republic.

Beloved Father of Our Country George Washington sent "well regulated" militias under the command of Alexander Hamilton himself into Pennsylvania to break up our nation's first tax protests, the Whiskey Rebellion, in 1791.

The distillers of whiskey did not want to pay Hamilton's excise tax on their product. This tax was instituted to help pay off the debt owed by several deadbeat states (Guess what part of the country? I am whistling Dixie now.) for the costs associated with the American Revolution. The ancestors of many of today's tax protestors right from the beginning begrudged the price of our "freedom."

The tax rebels' firearms of that day were of little avail against Washington's well regulated militias. Today, the puny, crude rifles and handguns so beloved by the gun cultists are also of little consequence against the esoteric and overpowering weapons that can be brought to bear against any new revolution.

Gibberish

2013-06-11T10:34:00.001-05:00

Circe ensures that Odysseus' men speak gibberish, or is that piggerish?

Gibberish: 1550s, imitative of the sound of chatter, probably influenced by jabber. Used early 17c. of the language of rogues and gypsies. -Online Etymology Dictionary

What is etymology [late 14c., ethimolegia "facts of the origin and development of a word," from Old French et(h)imologie (14c., Modern French étymologie), from Latin etymologia, from Greek etymologia, properly "study of the true sense (of a word)," from etymon "true sense" (neuter of etymos "true, real, actual," related to eteos "true") + -logia "study of, a speaking of" Online Etymological Dictionary] good for?

Aleister Crowley was a keen student of etymology and Walter William Skeat.

The Encyclopedia Britannica (and Wikipedia, which quite plagiarizes the EB) tells us:

Walter William Skeat (21 November 1835 – 7 October 1912), FBA English philologist, was born in London on the 21st of November 1835, and educated at King's College School (Wimbledon), Highgate School, and Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in July 1860. He was an expert on Middle English and produced editions of Chaucer and William Langland's Piers Plowman. His four volume Etymological English Dictionary is of most interest to us and was a favorite of Uncle Al.
Let us quote and quote again the Master Thelemite to get an idea [IDEA, a (mental) image, notion, opinion. (L., —Gk.) 'Idea is a bodilesse substance,' Holland, tr. of Plutarch, p. 666. ' The fayre Idea;' Spenser, Sonnet 45. — Lat. idea. — Gk., the look or semblance of a thing, species.— Gk. iSitv, to see.— .^W ID, to see ; cf. Skt. vid, to perceive, know. See Wit, verb. Der. ide-al, from 0. F. ideal,' ideall' (Cot.), which from Lat. idealis; whence ide-al-ly, ide-al-ise, ide-al-ism, ide-al-ist, ide-al-is-at-ion, ide-al-ist-ic, ide-al-i-ty (most of these terms being modern). - Skeat] of his use of etymology.

“The fact is that very few of us know what words mean; fewer still take the trouble to enquire. We calmly, we carelessly assume that our minds are identical with that of the writer, at least on that point; and then we wonder that there should be misunderstandings!” - Aleister Crowley Magick Without Tears, Chapter XXVI: Mental Processes—Two Only are Possible

“Indeed, I want you to go even further; make sure of what is meant by even the simplest words. Trace the history of the word with the help of Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary. .. This will soon give you the power of discerning instantly when words are being used to hide meaning or lack of it.” - Aleister Crowley, MWT

"Would you describe your system as a new religion?" A pertinent question, you doubtless suppose; whether it may happen to mean anything is—is—is—well, is what we must try to make clear.
True, it's a slogan of A∴ A∴ "The method of science—the aim of religion.& Here the word "aim" and the context help the definition; it must mean the attainment of Knowledge and Power in spiritual matters—or words to that effect: as soon as one selects a phrase, one starts to kick holes in it! Yet we both know perfectly well all the time what we do mean.
But this is certainly not the sense of the word in your question. It may clear our minds, as has so often happened, if we examine it through the lens of dear old Skeat.
Religion, he says, Latin: religio, piety. Collection or paying attention to: religens as opposed to negligens, neglecting; the attitude of Gallio. But it also implies a binding together i.e. of ideas; in fact, a "body of doctrine." Not a bad expression. A religion then, is a more or less coherent and consistent set of beliefs, with precepts and prohibitions therefrom deducible. But then there is the sense in which Frazer (and I) often use the word: as in opposition to "Science" or "Magic." Here the point is that religious people attribute phenomena to the will of some postulated Being or Beings, placable and moveable by virtue of sacrifice, devotion, or appeal. Against such, the scientific or magical mind believes in the Laws of Nature, asserts "If A, then B"—if you do so-and-so, the result will be so-and-so, aloof from arbitrary interference. Joshua, it is alleged, made the sun stand still by supplication, and Hezekiah in the same way cause it to "go back upon the dial of Ahaz;" Willett did it by putting the clock back, and getting an Act of Parliament to confirm his lunacy. Petruchio, too "It shall be what o'clock I say it is!" The two last came close to the magical method; at least, to that branch of it which consists of "fooling all the people all the time." But such an operation, if true Magick were employed, would be beyond the power of any magician of my acquaintance; for it would mess up the solar system completely. (You remember how this happened, and what came of it, in a rather clever short story by H.G. Wells.) For true Magick means "to employ one set of natural forces at a mechanical advantage as against another set"—I quote, as closely as memory serves, Thomas Henry Huxley, when he explains that when he lifts his water-jug—or his elbow—he does not "defy the Law of Gravitation." On the contrary, he uses that Law; its equations form part of the system by which he lifts the jug without spilling the water.
To sum up, our system is a religion just so far as a religion means an enthusiastic putting-together of a series of doctrines, no one of which must in any way clash with Science or Magick.
Call it a new religion, then, if it so please your Gracious Majesty; but I confess that I fail to see what you will have gained by so doing, and I feel bound to add that you might easily cause a great deal of misunderstanding, and work a rather stupid kind of mischief.
The word does not occur in The Book of the Law. -Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears, Chapter XXXI: Religion–Is Thelema a "New Religion"?

Words ("In the beginning was the word.") have ancient roots through different languages from different lands. Etymology attempts to discover those roots and those places. At times the time and place are relatively recent and can be specifically determined and cited. We also know that some words are incredibly old and may find their births in the grunts of the most ancient men.

Gibberish [GIBBERISH, nonsensical talk. (E.) Holinshed speaks of • gibberishing Irish;' Descr. of Ireland, c. I. ' All kinds of gibberish he had leamt to know;' Drayton, The Mooncalf (R.) Formed from the old verb gibber, to gabble; Hamlet, i. I. 116. This is merely an imitative word, formed as a variant of jabber, and allied to gabble. The suffix -er is frequentative, and the base gib- is a weak form of gab. See Gabble, Jabber, [t]- Skeat] is noise from a mouth that may totally lack such roots, or perhaps gibberish is an atavistic return to those most ancient times when men made noises that became indicators of things both material and conceptual.

We have the phenomena of the gibberish spouting newsreader. Youtube allows us to study the spectacle of a human being, who is paid to speak clearly and understandably, suddenly finding this essential skill in full flight from his grasp. The human voice is revealed as a generator of noise without meaning. I find it ghastly and terrifying. Here are some:

Serene Branson at the Grammies got a lot of attention.

Last year Texas Rangers announcer Dave Barnett lost it.

Gibberish can be funny. This is a scene from Blazing Saddles. This kind of gibberish consists of recognizable words that do not make obvious sense. Professor Irwin Corey was a master of this art. The next video shows him performing in 2011, well into his nineties. He has internalized and become his character.

There are inevitable conspiracy theories to be found about these events. Government microwave weapons are said to be aimed at us. And this could very well be true. But I do not know.

What do Jim Carrey and Charles Manson have to do with this?

Some blame migraine headaches for this. Some attribute it to strokes. People need to explain these things in a materialist way. The alternative is frightening.
In a religious context we can claim that gibberish is glossalalia [from Greek glōssa, “tongue,” and lalia, “talking”].

Speaking in tongues is said to be a gift of the Holy Spirit. Does God want us to be incomprehensible? Perhaps. Maybe just letting go and giving up all pretense of meaning is good for us. There is a lot of settled junk in the mind and stirring it all up may be useful.

Do I have any answers? No. I am merely musing on the horror of finding no meaning exactly where we expect it the most: language. There is the obvious horror of gibberish and the subtle horror of those who speak real words which obscure rather than illuminate. Too many of those people are in positions of authority in our world.

It is also very easy to consign what one does not understand to the category of gibberish.

Myopia

2013-05-10T07:10:00.001-05:00

Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi BENGHAZI!!!!!

Attacks on Embassies and Consulates

During the Presidency of George W. Bush

1st Term

22 January 2002     Calcutta, India     Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami gunmen attack Consulate     5 dead

14 June 2002     Karachi, Pakistan     al-Qaeda truck bomb detonates outside Consulate     12 dead

12 October 2002     Denpasar, Indonesia     Consular Office bombed by Jemaah Islamiyah as part of the Bali bombings     no deaths

28 February 2003     Islamabad, Pakistan     Unknown gunmen attack Embassy     2 dead

30 June 2004     Tashkent, Uzbekistan     Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan suicide bomber attacks Embassy     2 dead

6 December 2004     Jeddah, Saudi Arabia     al-Qaeda gunmen raid diplomatic compound     9 dead

2nd Bush Term

2 March 2006     Karachi, Pakistan     Car bomb explodes outside Consulate     2 dead

12 September 2006     Damascus, Syria     Gunmen raid US Embassy     4 dead

12 January 2007     Athens, Greece     RPG Fired at Embassy by Revolutionary Struggle     no deaths

18 March 2008     Sana'a, Yemen     Mortar attack against US Embassy     2 dead

9 July 2008     Istanbul, Turkey     Armed attack against Consulate 6 dead

17 September 2008     Sana'a, Yemen     Two car bombs outside US embassy in Yemeni capital
16 dead

Total Deaths during the Bush Years: 60

Attacks on Embassies and Consulates during the Presidency of Barack Obama

1st Term

5 April 2010     Peshawar, Pakistan     An attack near the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills two consulate security guards and at least six others     8 deaths

2nd Term

11 September 2012     Cairo, Egypt, Benghazi, Libya, Sana'a     A group of terrorists storm the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya -- killing the U.S. Ambassador and three staff members.    4 deaths

1 February 2013     Ankara, Turkey     A suicide bomber attacked the American Embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Friday, detonating himself inside a security entrance to the compound.     1 death

Total Deaths so far during the Obama Years: 13

I obtained this information from the Wikipedia article "Terrorist attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities," which informs us: "Note: This is not a comprehensive list." But it serves as a rough guide.

When I posted this information on Facebook a friend asked:

"In which of those attacks under President Bush did the state department have credible intel that an attack was coming? In which of those were they calling for help? In any that they were calling for help was there help under an hour away? This is why people are so upset. This administration knew these people were going to die yet they did nothing. To top it all off, after doing nothing they tried to sweep it under the rug like it never happened."

This is the Republican Party line. Benghazi was somehow special and more egregious than any other attack. It's funny how that only is the case when Democrats are in the White House.
It's also funny how they reconcile their refusal to fully fund Hilary Clinton's embassy security budget before the Benghazi attacks with the inevitable result by playing deaf, dumb, and blind about it.

I replied:

"You will never know what the Bush Administration knew because they never told you and Democrats did not create a make-believe fuss. If anyone is responsible for Benghazi it is General Petraeus, republican golden boy, who was too busy thinking about his mistress' boobs than what intel the CIA was getting at their station in Benghazi. But republicans just have to blame Obama for everything. Michael, did you ask these questions about attacks during the Bush administration? I doubt it. Being in the diplomatic corps can be a dangerous job, especially when you represent a country that subverts governments, helps corporations screw countries, and starts wars for no good reason. That pisses people off. Maybe Congress should look at the policies they approve that make people want to kill us."

When George W. Bush was president we all thought when these kind of disasters happened that W. was just a dope and these things are to be expected. Maybe Bush should have been put under the same kind of pressure by Democrats that Obama is getting from Republicans who see Obama as some kind of evil Muslim genius who actually knows all and is personally responsible for all misfortune including the planning of the Benghazi attack. But we do know that the Bush administration knew something was up on 9/11 and did nothing. We do know that they had FBI reports that Arabs were taking flying lessons but dropped out during the landing lessons. Some Democrats questioned these things but most of them went meekly along with the bellicose plans of the Neocons. Why did so many republicans seem to exhilirated by 9/11 instead of outraged by the intelligence failure on a scale that makes Benghazi look like, well, little Benghazi?

I am no fan of Obama. He is hardly a socialist or even a left leaning Democrat. He has done everything to protect the vested interests during his term. The bankers run our country's economy by any means necessary enjoying legal immunity for their crimes. The corporations guide our foreign policy. Austerity freaks control the budget and Obama enables them every step of the way. Criticize him for that if you will.

But there are no facts behind the right wing's paranoiac attacks on Obama for Benghazi, just assertion based on speculation. Congress should be asking themselves "WHY do they attack?" Congress should reconsider the aggressive and destructive policies the USA indulges in around the world which they have encouraged and approved.

When we are actively subverting the government of another country, people in that country are going to lash out against us, and diplomats are a handy target. Foreign governments are ultimately responsible for embassy and consulate security by treaty. We had already destabilized and destroyed the Libyan government by helping so-called "Arab Spring" Muslim fundamentalists rise in revolt against Qaddafi. We only have ourselves to blame that our embassy was left vulnerable as a result of that action. The guilt must be shared by all in government, including many of the Republicans crying a river of crocodile tears, who initiated and approved these policies, not just the President or the Secretary of State.

Disturbing Bible Passages: Yummy Flatbread Edition

2013-04-24T06:40:00.014-05:00

Ezekiel 4:9 is the name of an organic bread found in your grocer's freezer section.

I have never been tempted to buy frozen bread but I have no doubt it is tasty and nourishing. When I buy bread I keep it in the freezer to maintain freshness. Looking at the "Food for Life" baking company website I note that the bread is Kosher. The whole point of Ezekiel's bread is that it was NOT Kosher. Ezekiel makes it perfectly clear that he was not happy about the prospect of eating this bread. Looking at the "Food for Life" website I note these words: "Ezekiel 4:9 products are crafted in the likeness of the Holy Scripture verse Ezekiel 4:9 to ensure unrivaled honest nutrition and pure, delicious flavors." There in no acknowledgement of Ezekiel's distress.

The King James Bible translates Ezekiel Chapter 4 verse 9 thusly: "Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof."
King James continues: Ezekiel 4:15 "Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith."

The King James translation is unclear, as is often the case. One might even take it to mean that feces is in the bread. This passage is a symbolic test of Ezekiel to prepare him for hard times to come and the fact that ritually pure food will not be available. This will be a survival bread. The literal translation is that the bread (which contains food items not normally found in bread, like the legumes, due to the foreseen shortage of grain) be baked "on" (as Jewish translations of Ezekiel give us in verse 15 rather than the KJB's "with") human excrement, making it clear that the excrement will be used as fuel, which is ritually unclean especially for a priest like Ezekiel.

Here is a Jewish translation to English of Ezekiel 4:4-17 4 Moreover lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity. 5 For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be unto thee a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days; so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And again, when thou hast accomplished these, thou shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it unto thee. 7 And thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with thine arm uncovered; and thou shalt prophesy against it. 8 And, behold, I lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast accomplished the days of thy siege. 9 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, even three hundred and ninety days, shalt thou eat thereof. 10 And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time shalt thou eat it. 11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from time to time shalt thou drink. 12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it in their sight with dung that cometh out of man.' 13 And the LORD said: 'Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations whither I will drive them.' 14 Then said I: 'Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted; for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn of beasts; neither came there abhorred flesh into my mouth.' 15 Then He said unto me: 'See, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread thereon.' 16 Moreover He said unto me: 'Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight, and with anxiety; and they shall drink water by measure, and in appalment; 17 that they may want bread and water, and be appalled one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

So the bread is impure and the fuel is impure. God is saying to E. "Get used to it. Heavy shit, so to speak, is coming down." Ezekiel protests to YHVH that he has never eaten anything impure and YHVH partially relents telling him that he may use cow dung instead of human dung for fuel, proving that the Lord indeed has a sense of humor, being a Jewish God. The Lord is telling the prophet that in tough times under existential crisis you do what you have to do to survive. The non-wheat items (barley, beans, lentils, etc.) were in Zeke's bread to stay. Barley cakes in ancient times were unleavened, and probably were a more traditional Passover food.

It is amusing that a baking company targeting Christians is making a semblance of this bread as if it was a good thing.

We know Ezekiel did not think God's flatbread recipe was a good thing.
Many of the ingredients were not considered proper for bread during those days.
Food For Life's Ezekiel 4:9 ingredients: Organic Sprouted Wheat, Organic Sprouted Barley, Organic Sprouted Millet, Organic Malted Barley, Organic Sprouted Lentils, Organic Sprouted Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Spelt, Filtered Water, Fresh Yeast, Organic Wheat Gluten, Sea Salt.
It's close to God's recipe given to Ezekiel. And I am not saying this recipe is unhealthy. I am saying it was not loved by Ezekiel.

Ezekiel did not use soybeans or yeast. Barley cakes were flatbreads made without yeast which is in Food For Life's version of Ezekiel's bread. Soybeans were unknown in the Middle East at that time.
I know he didn't add wheat gluten. But FFL needed to add something to hold that concoction together.
Food For Life does not tell us if it is baked with a fuel of cow (or human) dung.

Bicycle Day

2013-04-16T15:14:00.001-05:00

Hedy Lamarr celebrates Bicycle Day

April 16 is a most interesting day.

Bicycle Day!!! Let us remember some events which have happened on this day, April 16: (mostly taken from the Daily Bleed, but other calendars were used)
74- Defenders of Masada commit mass suicide rather than surrender to the Romans...

1452 Leonardo Da Vinci is born...
1715 US: The Wamasees & Catawbas attack Charleston, South Carolina, which leads to counter-attacks resulting in their virtual extermination....
1813 US Troops seize the Spanish fort at Mobile, thereby invading & occupying the eastern half of West Florida. ...

1834 France: The end of the "Bloody Week" in Lyon, The Second Canut Revolts. The second great insurrection of the Silk workers is subdued in a blood bath, with several hundred victims. Those insurrectionists captured, rather than killed, will appear in a "monster trial" in Paris in April 1835...
1865 US: President Abraham Lincoln dies, 7:22 am...

1898 Bessie Smith is born... Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer

Twenty-five cents?
Ha! No! No!
I wouldn't pay twenty-five cents to go in nowhere 'cause listen here:

Up in Harlem ev'ry Saturday night when the high-browns git together it's just too tight,
They all congregates at an all night strut and what they do is tut-tut-tut
Old Hannah Brown from 'cross town gets full of corn and starts breakin' 'em down
Just at the break of day you can hear old Hannah say,
"Gimme a pigfoot and a bottle of beer"
Send me gate

I don't care
I feel just like I wanna clown
Give the piano player a drink because he's bringin' me down
He's got rhythm, yeah!
When he stomps his feet, he sends me right off to sleep
Check all your razors and your guns
We gonna be rasslin' when the wagon comes
I wanna pigfoot and a bottle of beer
Send me 'cause I don't care
Slay me 'cause I don't care

Gimme a reefer and a gang o' gin
Slay me, 'cause I'm in my sin
Slay me 'cause I'm full of gin

Check all your razors and your guns
Do the shim-sham shimmy till the risin' sun

1912 Titanic sinks at 2:20am killing 1,502 humans. Harry Elkins Widener goes down clutching his 1598 edition of Bacon's Essays...
1919 US: Start of victorious six-day strike across New England by first women-led US union, Telephone Operators Department of IBEW....
1920 US: In South Braintree, Massachusetts, two men armed with handguns shoot & kill Frederick Parmenter & Alessandro Berardelli, employees of the Slater & Morrill Shoe Company. The thieves rob the men of the $15,776.51 payroll they were carrying. The thieves are picked up by a car carrying other men. The anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti will ultimately be blamed & railroaded to their deaths....

Bob gets the leg kick going in spring training 1941

1941 Bob Feller pitches an opening day no hitter for the Cleveland Indians.....
1943 "Bicycle Day" - Albert Hofmann, a research chemist at the Sandoz Laboratories (now Novartis Pharmaceuticals) in Basel, Switzerland, left work due to "a remarkable restlessness" and "dizziness." Later, he experienced a "stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes" and "intense...colors." Dermal absorption of LSD-25, a substance he was working with, was the suspected cause. Although unintentional, this was the first LSD-induced psychedelic experience......

1945 April 16 proves for a second time to be a bad day for ships. More than 7,000 die when the German refugee ship Goya is sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo. The Germans successfully evacuated 2,000,000 people from Prussia as the Red Army advanced. Three overcrowded ships were sunk by Soviet U boats which had previously been bottled up in the gulf of Finland by a German blockade. Two ships were sunk by the RAF resulting is 25,000 dead. No sinking of a ship in the history of the world has killed more human beings. ......

The Monsanto plant at Texas City goes up in smoke.

1947 Texas City Disaster: An explosion on board freighter S.S. Grandcamp docked near the Monsanto plant, causes the city of Texas City, Texas, to catch fire, killing almost 600.....
1947 a man identified as Rudolph Hess, a leading member of the Nazi party, is hanged....

1955 US: Ray Kroc starts the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants. ...
1961 Cuba: CIA invasion force lands at the Bay of Pigs. A fiasco, defeated within two days. ....

1964 First Rolling Stones Album released...
1967 US: First mass burning of draft cards as 400,000 march in New York City & 80,000 in San Francisco opposing the Vietnam War...
1981 Guatemala: Security forces murder 69, Cocob, Quich (Reagan's Beloved "Freedom Fighters")...
1982 Guatemalan soldiers ( Reagan's "Freedom Fighters") murder 100 children & 73 women, Baja Verapaz...
1986 In response to a Berlin night club bombing US bombs Libya and Gaddafi's home killing at least 100 people including the adopted daughter of the Libyan leader (or was she really killed?)...
1989 England: Before a Liverpool/Nottingham Forest FA Cup semifinal soccer match, 95 fans are crushed to death against a fence surrounding the field as gatecrashers surge into Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, England....

1990 "Doctor Death", Jack Kevorkian, participates in his first assisted suicide...
2007 Virginia Tech massacre: Seung-Hui Cho kills 32 and injures 23 before committing suicide....

2010 US: Jack Herer dies, Eugene, Oregon. Wrote The Emperor Wears No Clothes ....
And last and certainly least.....Happy Birthday to deposed Pope Benedict!

What Are These?

2013-01-02T08:36:00.003-05:00

I found these along a rail siding shallowly buried in clay soil in Portland Maine about twenty years ago. They are very hard and difficult to shatter. They do not flake well or easily although they resemble obsidian once they are broken. I thought they might be apache tears but they look nothing like photos I have seen of other naturally occurring oval or round minerals . It looks like they might be of a volcanic substance that cooled rapidly. Perhaps they are meteorites of some kind yet they are not attracted to magnets.
I took some photographs for your perusal.

Overview of several stones. Most are smooth and have one color. I have provided close ups of the more interesting stones.

This one looks like is was broken long ago. You can see layers of color.

Most of the stones are smooth and colored in one of various shades of black to grey and orange to buff. This one shows and interesting mix of color and texture.

This one has lovely warts.

Looks like a fruit slice.

They almost look like pictures of asteroids.

Addendum, January 10, 2013
The consensus is that they are jasper. I have read that it is possible to flake jasper to make stone tools but my efforts a few years ago to flake these things make me respect our Mousterian Neanderthal predecessors to a higher degree. These rocks are very very hard and difficult to work. Some of the stones I found might be more accurately called chert, as they are less variable and of one color. The specimens I found are almost all unbroken while most of the photographs of jasper one finds on the net are of cut specimens.

Neanderthal Jasper Flake Tool, photograph from Stone Age Artifacts.com