Monthly Mooning

  Tomorrow begins the second month of the year, named after the ancient goddess Febra, partner to Janus, who opens the calendar.
   This month holds just 28 days, at the end of which Febra, the goddess of fertility, suffers from a discomfort called fever, which carries her name.
   Nine months later, she gives birth to a new year, and the new Janus is portrayed as an infant.
   (In the ancient, traditional Roman calendar, there were only 10 months to the year, hence the name December. July and August were added later, after the Romans controlled the Gauls and borrowed their 12 month cycle, thus naming the two new months after their own leaders, Julius and Augustus.)
   Soon the offspring of Janus and Febra will March off to battle with those who would try to stop Eastern flowers from springing forth new life throughout Nature.
   Then the goddess April will pass the calendar to her successor, and she will say to the world, "May the Fourth be with you."

   Juno will bust out all over.
   

Memories

 

 

Here's a posting from 15 years ago. History doesn't change much.

 

CITIZENS – "He was the son of Puerto Rican immigrants." Not so. Puerto Rico has been part of the United States for more than 100 years, since the end of the Spanish-American War. The word "immigrant" implies that someone came to America from a foreign country. But since Puerto Rico is part of the U.S., it is not, by definition, a foreign country. People in Puerto Rico send delegates to national political conventions, vote in presidential elections, and serve in the military, as do people in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They are all American citizens and carry U.S. passports. Therefore, they should not be referred to as "immigrants."

 

HISTORY – Spanish is not a foreign language in America, and never has been. Remember 1492 and Columbus, an Italian seaman sponsored by Queen Isabella of Spain? Keep in mind that Spanish was spoken here long before the English arrived. So was Swedish, as well as Dutch and several other languages. Also, while the English organized colonies as business ventures, settlers were recruited from Scotland, Ireland and Wales, many of whom spoke Gaelic or Welsh.

 

WRONG-WAY RALEIGH – A newsletter for apartment dwellers, in its history trivia section, claimed that in 1586, Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco to Virginia from England.

 

COMMENTARIAT – There is more danger to individual liberty from the Far Right than from the Liberal Left. Examples: Germany under Hitler, Italy under Mussolini, Spain under Franco, Chile under Allende. "It can't happen here," you say? Yes, it can, and very nearly did. The novel by Sinclair Lewis was fiction, but it was based on real events of the 1930s. Try reading "The Plot to Seize the White House," by Jules Archer (1973), Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2007. It documents an attempt by corporate America to oust FDR by military force. The duty of a free press is to monitor and expose activities of government and/or any extremist group that threatens liberty.

 

RADIO RHETORIC – The big talkers maintain that their words do not lead others to violence; that they are only exercising their constitutional right to free speech. But words can kill. Not directly, but words have often been used to demonize and dehumanize. And when an individual or group is felt to be less than human, it becomes acceptable to beat, torture and even kill in the name of patriotism, religion or some other fanatical fervor.

 

PLATE STATEMENTS – From New Jersey, one of our favorites: The Unitarian clergy with UU REV on his car license plate.

 

AIN'T CULTURE WUNNERFUL? – Pug Mahoney suggested that Edith Wharton's novel, "The House of Mirth," should be subtitled "The Real Housewives of 1907." Sign on store window: "No Loitering. Police Take Notice." Teenagers are OK, but no cops allowed. A factory banner proclaimed "Now Firing." This stopped us for a moment, until we recognized the building as a ceramic tile factory.

 

HOLLYWOOD CHUTZPAH – A film studio refused to give a mime screen credit for his role in "Revenge of the Fallen" because his performance "was not a speaking part."

 

CREATIVE COINAGE – The CIA does not assassinate, according to former top official Cofer Black. What it does, is "engage in war-fighting, where the goal is to degrade the command and control capability" of the enemy's leadership.

 

BEWARE OF ABSOLUTES – A Middle East government spokesman said its security forces "never fire on innocent civilians." This can be a true statement only if one accepts the premise that there is no such entity as an "innocent" civilian.

 

KINDLING – An Amazon.com exec said of his firm's electronic gadget, "We think reading is an important enough activity that it deserves a purpose-driven device." And all this time, we thought that's what a book is.

 

CHOICE PHRASES – For a know-it-all, she has very little understanding. At the age of 30, he was already like someone's grandfather – set in his ways.

Hypocrisy

   For all his criticism of newcomers to America, the former President almost never mentions his own family history.
   His mother was born and raised on a small island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, where English was her second language. The family spoke Gaelic at home. She was the youngest of ten children and did not learn English until she started school. She came to America at the age of 17, and her first jobs were as a domestic helper, until she met and married Fred Trump, Donald's father.
   Her name was Mary Anne MacLeod, and she was born in May 1912 in the village of Tong on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, and came to America in 1930.
   She acquired American citizenship 12 years later, in March 1942.
   Her son Donald was born in 1946, a middle child. (That explains much of his behavior.)
   This also may explain why the former President almost never mentions her, since he himself is a son of an immigrant.
   And his father was a grandson of immigrants from Germany.
   Does the word hypocrisy come to mind?

Presidential Immunity

   Donald Trump now claims presidential immunity from prosecution in any or all civil or criminal cases against him.

   But.

   He is no longer President.

   Trump also claims new prosecutions amount to double jeopardy because Congress failed to impeach him. Twice.

   But.

   An impeachment trial is neither a civil nor a criminal case. It is only to punish misbehavior in office, and the only punishment can be removal from office. So double jeopardy does not apply.

    Moreover, such a former official may still face criminal or civil prosecution in a court of law. That's why Richard Nixon was pardoned after he left office.

   If  he had  done nothing wrong, why did Gerald Ford issue a pardon?

   And a presidential pardon applies only to federal offenses, not to state or local issues.

   There are several court cases pending against Donald Trump, but some of them are state cases. That could be why his attorneys are trying to get them transferred to federal courts, so if he is convicted and succeeds in getting elected to another term, he could pardon himself.

   We live in interesting times.