[good luck, bad luck] would be nice to know the formula

Oh, don't you just love this one:

UK couple Jason and Jenny Cairns-Lawrence have been on holiday in Mumbai, London and New York just as terrorists have attacked each of those cities, and have survived each occasion.

The couple, from Dudley, near Birmingham, were in central Mumbai last month as Islamic terrorists targeted foreigners during a killing spree that paralysed the city with fear, London's Telegraph reported.

They were also in New York on September 11, 2001, when hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers and brought them down, killing about 3000 people.

Four years later, they were in London on July 7 when four terrorists used suicide bombs to blow up trains and buses, killing 52.

How lucky are you?  I am lucky in some ways but desperately unlucky in others.  For example, if I'm in a car, it's most unusual not to get a parking spot there and then.  There is always someone pulling out or one break in the traffic - I think it's a little beyond the average.

On the other hand, I'm not too lucky on the work front and sometimes things go pear shaped which there was no reason for them too.  Some of it, like being booted out of Russia with the other Brits was wrong place, wrong time, wrong ethnicity.

You know sometimes, when you're in for a bad day.  Things don't gel - you knock that table and it it all falls on the floor, you stub the toe, even when not rushing, a phone call comes with bad news and another comes with a demand.  The bus doesn't arrive at all.  That sort of thing.

Sometimes I know when it's going to be a good day and much of that is if I'm in the good books that day with a certain Personage.  That's the day to try your luck because the chances are it will all work out.

I hope it works out for you this Christmas, as long as your wish doesn't involve the destruction of someone else.  I hope you're not cold or impecunious to the point you're not eating.  I hope it's OK for you.

[the soothsayer] and the greed of the senators

A certain curmudgeonly soothsayer was known for his crazy predictions which caused all and sundry to label him as mad.

Day after day, he could be found on the steps of the Senate and as Senators climbed the steps to the forum, the soothsayer would predict some dire thing or other which was sure to pass.

“Oh, Cashius Minimus,” he would say, “do not leave the city tomorrow for your wife will entertain one of your colleagues of the populist persuasion.”

Now the tall, spare Cashius, afflicted with his dandruff trouble, knew better than to physically rough up an old man on the steps of the Senate so he just grunted and went up to the forum, making a mental note to have his luscious wife watched, in order to prove the soothsayer wrong, to publicly label him a charlatan, a humbug.

Needless to say, his two henchmen had occasion, the next afternoon, to put both Cashius’ s wife and her lover to the sword, on their master’s express orders. When one of them brought the gory news to the steps of the Senate, the soothsayer could be heard cackling: “I told you so, I told you so.”

Yon Cashius kept his peace.

On another occasion, the egregious Maximus Flatulus, who had just been appointed princeps senatus and was surrounded on the steps by sycophantic admirers, was advised by the soothsayer that a plague of locusts was coming to devour all the produce in his fields east of the city.

He laughed the soothsayer to scorn, as nothing so ridiculous had ever happened in those parts before. In Egypt, maybe but here in the Golden City? And why only the east of the city anyway?

Flatulus swept past the crumpled old figure on the steps, pausing only to live up to his name and immediately put the matter out of mind. Needless to say, in three days time, a plague such as had never been seen swarmed through the countryside, eating everything in its path and leaving Flatulus stony broke and without either property or senatorial appointment.

...........

Now, it would be wrong to suggest that the soothsayer never took a break – he did – and his favourite place to meditate was close to the Tarpeian Rock. Being a soothsayer, of course, he knew beforehand that a group of very disgruntled landed gentlemen were approaching him from the Capitoline Hill and he could also glean their intentions.

“Welcome, kind sirs,” he croaked, as they gathered behind him in malevolent silence.

Flatulus spoke for all. “I suppose you know, Painus Arsus, why we are here?”

“Of course, your honours. You wish me to desist from my irritating predictions of doom and gloom. Otherwise you will throw me from the Tarpeian Rock.”

A wicked gleam sparkled in all eyes but Arsus went on. “However, that would be to your disadvantage, gentlemen,” he fawned. “I can predict wondrous things as well as evil. It’s just not as much fun, that's all.”

“Well start predicting now,” growled Hypocrises, who shouldn’t be in this tale anyway but these things happen.

“Well, your lordships,” murmured the gnarled and balding Arsus, standing and facing them both bravely and obsequiously, from long practice, “if you were willing to lay down the most valuable things you possess, one item apiece and if you were to return to the Senate henceforth, riches beyond your wildest dreams await you there.”

The landed gentry looked from one to the other. They’d actually come to end the life of this pestilential creature before them but business is business and each, in turn, laid the most precious possession he happened to be carrying before the soothsayer – a few aureii here, a few sistertii there, a picture of Arnius Gropus’s concubine, a season ticket to the corporate box at the Colissei, until the social isolate with the protruding front teeth, Flagellus Logus, was the last.

“I … er .. came out without my wallet, I’m afraid,” he shuffled awkwardly in the dust.

“Never mind,” replied Arsus. “Each will be rewarded in kind.”

With that, he stood aside, as a herd of wilderbeast came charging at the cliff, taking the Senators with them over the edge in one fell swoop, arms flailing and togas failing to act sufficiently parachutie to prevent their untimely deaths on the jagged rocks below.

Arsus nodded, gathered the booty into one toga which had got caught on a sharp boulder, then made his long, painstaking way back to the Senate steps, stumbling here, dropping a note to Mondo Lecherus there, a note from a fellow Senator’s wife for an assignation that night but now he had no need for such youthful diversions; he was a rich man and within two weeks he was appointed princeps senatus, a title he graciously accepted, before trading it in for an Emperorship and the Divine right to rule.

But that’s another story.


This cautionary tale is dedicated to Jams O'Donnell [but does not refer to him]. :)

[memorable lines] actor and film

For five points - the actors. For the other five points - the films.

1. "I vont to be alone."

2. "Where's the rest of me?"

3. "Gentlemen. You can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"

4. "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off !"

5. "Speak English to me, I thought this country spawned the f---in' language and so far nobody seems to speak it."

Answers

Greta Garbo, Grand Hotel; Ronald Reagan, King's Row; Peter Sellers, Dr. Strangelove; Michael Caine, The Italian Job; Dennis Farina, Snatch

[greenbacks] will gordon issue a uk version

In 1862, the bankers secured the passage of an Act which provided for the issue and circulation of private bank notes of a less denomination than $5.00 in the District of Columbia. On June 23rd, 1862, Lincoln exercised his power to veto the Bill:

"This bill seems to contemplate no end which cannot be otherwise more certainly and beneficially attained. During the existing war it is peculiarly the duty of the National Government to secure to the people a sound circulating medium. This duty has been, under existing circumstances, satisfactorily performed, in part at least, by authorizing the issue of United States notes, receivable for all government dues except customs, and made a legal tender for all debts, public and private, except interest on public debt.

…Entertaining these objections to the bill, I feel myself constrained to withhold from it my approval, and return it for the further consideration and action of Congress. [Abraham Lincoln, June 23, 1862.]

Lincoln backed the greenback to counter the bankers and in his letter to Colonel E.D. Taylor says:

"...we finally accomplished it, and gave to the people of this Republic the greatest blessing they ever had ...It is due to you, (Col. Taylor) the father of the present greenback, that the people should know it, and I take great pleasure in making it known..."

The problem was in the codicil:

"This note is legal tender for all debts public and private... except duties on imports and interest on the public debt…"

Near the end of his term, Lincoln was despairing of having lost the battle with the financiers:

"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . . It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.

As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." [letter from Lincoln to Col. Wm. F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.]

… whilst Europe was despairing of the greenbacks policy:

"If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe." [Hazard Circular - London Times 1865]

The idea of a National Currency controlled by the government itself remained persistent for a long time. In response to the 1877 riots, the American Bankers Association secretary James Buel wrote:

"It is advisable to do all in your power to sustain such prominent daily and weekly newspapers, especially the Agricultural and Religious Press, as will oppose the greenback issue of paper money and that you will also withhold patronage from all applicants who are not willing to oppose the government issue of money.

To repeal the Act creating bank notes, or to restore to circulation the government issue of money will be to provide the people with money and will therefore seriously affect our individual profits as bankers and lenders. See your congressman at once and engage him to support our interest that we may control legislation."

Now let’s cut to 1963, with:

Executive Order 11110 AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 10289

AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE PERFORMANCE OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS AFFECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

By virtue of the authority vested in me by section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, it is ordered as follows:

Section 1. Executive Order No. 10289 of September 19, 1951, as amended, is hereby further amended-

By adding at the end of paragraph 1 thereof the following subparagraph (j):

(j) The authority vested in the President by paragraph (b) of section 43 of the Act of May 12,1933, as amended (31 U.S.C.821(b)), to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury not then held for redemption of any outstanding silver certificates, to prescribe the denomination of such silver certificates, and to coin standard silver dollars and subsidiary silver currency for their redemption

and --

By revoking subparagraphs (b) and (c) of paragraph 2 thereof.

Sec. 2. The amendments made by this Order shall not affect any act done, or any right accruing or accrued or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil or criminal cause prior to the date of this Order but all such liabilities shall continue and may be enforced as if said amendments had not been made. [John F. Kennedy The White House, June 4, 1963]

Executive Order 11,110 called for the issuance of $4,292,893,815 in United States Notes through the U.S. Treasury rather than through the traditional Federal Reserve System.

From The Final Call, Vol. 15, No.6, On January 17, 1996

U.S. notes were fiat money but free of interest, not based on debt and not monopolistic. Federal Reserve notes are fiat money, not based on anything solid but on debt and the issuance is monopolistic. Lincoln and Kennedy were both killed.

Will Gordo be brave enough and love his people enough to issue a non-interest bearing currency which will secure his suffering people sustenance in their time of trouble?

[dealey plaza] eliminating disinformation

Click for zoom

Intro

I'd always been for the grassy knoll and the Dal-Tex building because of the man who'd been found in there during the shooting. Then I read a couple of quite cogent pieces on why Oswald could have done all three shots and now believed the One Gunman theory.

A glance at the map above and pics below shows that he could have made the shots but it would have been damned difficult from that window. Why wouldn't he have been from the window at the other end of the 6th floor [where witnesses said they saw someone anyway]?

The thing is, even expert investigators can't agree so the only thing is to go through it all again, viewing as much primary evidence as possible, e.g. Zapruder. I have to say, after last evening, that it now seems clearer.

You make your own judgements, after viewing this material:

Dealey Plaza and the Book Depository

Dealey plaza gif.
Dealey plaza shots [click on them for zoom].

Motorcade

Garrison appears to be wrong, as the maps were indeed printed with the correct route but the next day, the Morning News printed the wrong route yet again. The Times-Herald kept it as Elm right through:

Dallas Morning News Wednesday, November 20, 1963 ~ page 1

Yarborough Invited To Travel With JFK by Carl Freund

"A security car will lead the motorcade which will travel on Mockingbird Lane, Lemmon Avenue, Turtle Creek Boulevard, Cedar Springs, Harwood, Main and Stemmons Freeway."

Dallas Morning News.
Dallas Times-Herald.
Here is the description in the Dallas Morning News.
Here is the description in the Dallas Times-Herald.
Check parts 1 to 4 for the altered security arrangements.
Select Committee report [1979] on arrangements, inc. motorcade [104-106].

Notes: Obviously confusion over the route but by November 19th, it had been cleared up. Lack of security for Kennedy in that section quite unusual. Buildings not checked beforehand either.

The Assassination

Version 1, showing the two shots.

First time Zapruder was shown in 1975.

Closeup of the second head shot and Jackie Kennedy's reaction.

Notes: Some have stated the head goes forward a micro-second before going back. Some have said the bulge at the back of the head was painted onto the Zapruder film later. You decide if the head went back or forward as well as the angle of the shot. Also, there is some evidence the Zapruder film was doctored.

Why did Jacquie crawl back over the trunk? Check the right arm movement. Also the crack in the windscreen [not on film]. Check the Dealey Plaza map at the top of the post again. Work out what angle the bullet would have come in at.

Possible snipers

Badgeman.

The storm drain/sewer theory. This youtube no longer appears to be up. However, I found this wmv. Damn because the original vid showed a man actually taking the cover off and climbing down, then exiting from a place a hundred metres or so away. It was reenacted. In the wmv, the car's going way too fast - Kennedy's was almost stopped at the time after the first shot. The shot is difficult but possible from down low and easy enough if the cover had been taken off.

Notes: Also check Dealey Plaza map again. For Badgeman - it does seem a human head. Against - the angle seems wrong for where the limo was, past the Freeway sign. For - someone wrote that for Badgeman to have done that damage on JFK, the recoil of the weapon would have been too much. Badgeman seems to have fired [judging by police and crowd reaction] but perhaps not the fatal shot.

On the other hand, for Sewer Man, it would have been almost point blank, plus the angles match. I don't think he would have been half out of the manhole, as the film contends - he would have entered the same way as he exited - through the drain and fired through the gap at street level. It may have been that he was just the last resort shooter if all else failed.

Teague

Teague testimony.
Teague and the echoes.

Notes: Teague was certain hit by debris [check map again] and that indicates either a shot from the Dal-Tex or by Oswald [check Dealey Plaza pics again].

Witnesses

The Bell film, showing witnesses running up the grassy knoll.

Notes: This one is a puzzle. Over half said that the shots came from the TSBD but that includes people not near the grassy knoll. The crowd behaviour was strange. An anti-knoll theorist said that the crowd only ran up on to the knoll a full minute after the shooting and were following a policeman who'd arrived late and had run up there. I say, "Well?"

Look at it this way. If you were in that crowd and the shot that hit Kennedy seemed to come from behind and up [the TSBD], what would your reaction have been? Hit the deck? Hide behind a tree? Run away from the scene? If the shot had come from the grassy knoll or the drain, would you have run towards the gunman?

Also, look at the scene again. Some people are just walking on by, quite casually.

The security men

Here is driver Greer's view.
Here is Kellerman's statement.
Security man called away.

Conclusion: Oswald could well have fired the back of the neck shot, the Teague shot may have been from Oswald or Dal-Tex, the Connally shot I don't know, the windscreen I don't know, Sewer Man probably for the fatal shot but as the wmv shows, the side of the car is high and Kennedy was leaning slightly inwards.

The thing is, the shot had to have come from somewhere. The limo seemed to have passed Badgeman so it had to have come from somewhere front and side, and fairly low down. If we can't accept Sewer Man, then from somewhere else in the drain. The Moorman polaroid seems a bit early for the fatal shot.

Finally, any ideas why?

[december 21st] auspicious day

Today is December 21st, one of the two shortest days of the year. It was significant, in 1971, for another reason.

Richard Nixon's major priority, in late 1971, was that nothing occur to derail his re-election. He had come to Washington deeply suspicious of a Democrat dominated town of liberal tendencies and thus a siege mentality began to define the White House [according to Colson later].

Two very interesting themes came out which did not feature in the received wisdom about Watergate, but in the light of the release of classified documents, explain a lot. They're of interest today in the way they show the workings of the presidency and the oval office.

The Moorer-Radford spy ring

Nixon's secretive manner, the way he scrutinized things before acting on information [or not], the way he bi-passed his official utilities from the Secretary of State to the Joint Chiefs, even down to sending in warships on his own say so, can be taken two ways.

It meant that the military industrial complex Eisenhower had mentioned would now have little say in policy on major issues, except through their man Kissinger, a complex character in himself [click for a clearer view]:



On the other hand, almost like throwing a dog a bone, what these official organs did receive was a "backchannel", a way to indirectly access the President through Kissinger, whom many feared, even Nixon. Why such a man was kept on when he clearly made all and sundry uncomfortable is another story. For his part, Kissinger revealed, in Nixon, a man who shied away from disciplining subordinates or enemies but rather "getting something on them", to bring them into line:



These very "extraordinary procedures" convinced the Joint Chiefs of Staff that they were being circumvented:




So the JCSs set up a spy ring within the White House and in particular, within Kissinger's baby, the NSC, which had not been used since the Kennedy days but was a clear ploy to bring national policy firmly inside the purview of the White House itself.

The method was to use a naval yeoman, Radford, who acted as PA to Kissinger and Haig on foreign trips, to actually rifle through their briefcases and copy sensitive material of use to his military superiors. He was shocked when some of that material appeared in Jack Anderson's news column, high grade material at that and then more appeared over and over.

Nixon was incensed about Anderson in particular but when he heard about the spy ring itself, he reacted seemingly strangely. This is part of the transcript from the tape of the meeting on December 21st, 1971:

EHRLICHMAN: Well Bob, it doesn't happen that way of course. [INAUDIBLE] He says, "He stated that this practice began with Admiral Robinson, who instructed him to 'keep his eyes open.' The subject construed this to mean that he should furnish Admiral Robinson whatever information might be an advantage to support the liaison's office and the Admiral."

NIXON: Now, wait a minute. Now, wait a minute. [PAUSE] I'm suggesting that it was Moorer who must take responsibility for this Anderson's column. It's possible, right?

Later they discuss whom they can trust:

NIXON: I mean, uh, and particularly Henry. Henry is, uh, is not a good security risk.

MITCHELL: He's not a good security risk the way he runs that office.

NIXON: [INAUDIBLE] he stole . . . so indiscreetly. The main thing is that, the main thing is that, it's to me that reason that [POUNDING OF DESK WITH EACH WORD] He—had—to—know—that he was getting stuff from Kissinger's and Haig's briefcase. That—is—wrong! Understand? I'm just saying that's wrong. Do you agree?

MITCHELL: No question about it, that the whole concept of having this yeoman get into this affair and start to get this stuff into the Joint Chiefs of Staff is just like coming in and robbing your desk.

NIXON: Yes it is.

HALDEMAN: The thing that disgusts me about this is, if they'll do that—

NIXON: Yeah.

HALDEMAN: - What else are they doing?

EHRLICHMAN: You know, military drivers, military gals, military everything around here.

NIXON: Yup, yup, yup, yup.

HALDEMAN: Christ. We've all used this office. [INAUDIBLE]

One of the key chiefs, Welander, was brought in for questioning and he made a confession:



Rather than hit the key JCSs, Nixon decided to tread carefully and in particular, he didn't want Haig touched. There's been much speculation on Nixon's reaction, especially that his prime motivation was to keep the backchannel open:



Of even more interest was Haig's and Kissinger's relationship, given that Kissinger was the public hawk and Haig the dove:




The Watergate key

The general consensus accepted at the Senate hearings was that the burglars had gone in to wire tap and dig up the dirt on the Democrats for political advantage.

Another story which emerged but was never pursued, for some reason, stemmed from the point where the burglars were lined up along a wall with their hands on that wall and then the bugging equipment was found. The investigative officer noticed that one of them at the far end of the line, Martinez, kept moving his hand to his chest so many times that when the officer reached into his coat, he found this:



Much was made of the contents of the book but the key, surprisingly, did not feature al that much in subsequent testimony. In fact, the focus became how much Nixon knew and when but not on the burglary itself, which had enough holes in it to drive a bus through. It was too incompetent to be true.

The obvious question was:

"Why would a Watergate burglar have a key to a DNC secretary, Maxine Wells's desk in his possession and what items of possible interest to a Watergate burglar were maintained in Wells's locked desk drawer?"

Into this came a character called Bailley:

According to Silent Coup Bailley was eventually arrested and indicted for violations of the Mann Act (transporting under-age females across state lines for immoral purposes), extortion, blackmail, pandering, and procuring. As a result, Bailley's address books were seized. Silent Coup also notes that Maureen Biner's name appeared in Bailley's address books.

Maureen Biner was John Dean's wife:

The implication of Colodny and Gettlin's narrative is that the June 17, 1972, the Watergate break-in was ordered by Dean so that he could determine whether the Democrats had information linking Maureen Biner to the Bailley/Rikan call-girl ring and whether they planned to use such information to embarrass him.

Why would no one wish to pursue that line, apart form G Gordon Liddy? The allegation was that that key opened a desk at the DNC HQ and that inside that desk were the photos and contact details of girls, many underaged.

It's long been maintained by both pundits and leaks from the establishment that the higher echelons of Washington operate not unlike Salon Kitty was supposed to have, way beyond mere call girls and involving some very sick stuff. Now, if the DNC ran a show like that for visiting VIPs, would the GOP have been any different?

The effect on 1971 America would have been devastating, had that come out.