Poem: Shorts For Jerry Melin ca. about 1988

1
A dim crescent
Hung cockeyed
On cathedral skies.

2
An orchard of salt pillars
Circles Gomorrah's ashes:
Lot's Wife had no name.

3
Two vultures flap
Side by side into the sun.
Calcutta awakes.

4
The wine in this cup
Has a tide all its own.
I am the sucking moon.
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POTUS 15: President James Buchanan, The Man Who Left A Divided Country And War For Pres. Abraham Lincoln

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James Buchanan rose from the state legislature to representative, senator and cabinet member. He made a run at the White House in 1844, 1848, and 1852 before finally winning in 1856.

In the 1850s, the question of slavery divided the United States. People hoped that the new President, "Old Buck," was the man to prevent a national crisis. He failed miserably. During his administration, the Union broke apart, and when he left office, civil war was just around the corner.

By 1856, the debates over slavery had reached hysterical intensity, with abolitionists and proslavery forces alike advocating violence and resorting to it frequently.

Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, the Supreme Court announced the Dred Scott decision. Influenced by the new President's pro-southern interests, the Court ruled that because slaves (and former slaves) were not citizens, they had no right to sue for freedom. The court also invalidated the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which banned slavery in the portion of the Louisiana Purchase above 36 degrees latitude. Republicans denounced the decision and vowed to repudiate it.

America was a hopelessly divided nation. The Republicans were anti-slavery Northerners, and the Democrats, mostly Southerners with Northern allies who defended states' rights.

In 1859, John Brown seized the Southern town of Harpers Ferry in Virginia in an attempt to spark an uprising of slaves. Brown was captured and hanged but his action only fanned the flames.

The Democratic Party finally snapped in two. An unknown lawyer from the insurgent Republican Party--Abraham Lincoln--won the White House. The election of a Northerner opposed to the extension of slavery outside existing Southern states was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Six weeks after Abraham Lincoln's election, South Carolina left the Union, and six other states soon followed. Lame Duck Buchanan did nothing to stop the secessions, which strengthened the young Confederacy and gave seceding states time to set up a government. Buchanan was eager to depart the White House before the real disaster. On leaving office, he saw only close friends until his death in 1868.
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Sasquatch Sighting In The Great White North

A Manitoba ferry operator has filmed what many people feel is a real Bigfoot.

What he captured, according to his sister, Sharness Henry, is the image of a massive creature that stands eight, nine, maybe 10 feet (three metres) tall, walking along the edge of the water through some bulrushes. Near the end of the video, the creature turns and appears to stare into the camera, but the details of its face are impossible to make out.

Click on the title to link to the article.
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The Pope: Number One With A Bullet

The Yahoo Buzz Index is a cool web site, which tells you on any given day what's hot on the internet. The Pope is big this week. Out of the top 20 searches, four of the top 7 are Pope-related. Divas like Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani, and Britney take four as well. Tupac Shakur, Eminem, Akon, and Fiddy Cent get one slot each. Paris Hilton is in the top 20 too. . .she seems to appear there whenever pictures of her naked or in flagrante appear on the 'net.
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The Wrong Stuff: Pope Benedict XVI

Some facts, wild suppositions, and articles re: Il Poppa: Pope Benedict XVI (a/k/s Cardinal Georg Ratzinger).

• This Pope is teetering on the brink of death? The College of Cardinals wanted a short term Pope, who would not have a long papacy. In the past 227 years there have been 14 popes, with an average age at death of 78.8 years. The Pope was born on April 16, 1927, and should last about nine months, if he conforms to the statistical bell curve.

• We can safely bet The Pope will not be among the 1.5% of all Catholic Popes who died during sex: Leo VII (936-9) died of a heart attack, John VII (955-64) was bludgeoned to death by the husband of a woman he was "ministering" to, John XIII (965-72) was also murdered by an angry husband, and Pope Paul II (1467-71) allegedly died while being sodomized by a page boy.
  
  
• Joseph Ratzinger, served in the Hitler Youth during World War Two when membership was compulsory, according to his autobiography. Ratzinger's wartime experiences have been a source of controversy in some newspapers when he became a frontrunner for the pontiff's seat. His biographers say he was never a member of the Nazi party and his family opposed Adolf Hitler's regime. BERLIN, April 19 (Reuters). But it still sticks, you know? Just a little.

• In a Good Friday Mass this year he said: "How much filth there is in the Church, even among those who, in the priesthood, should belong entirely to Him." I guess he is referring both to Priests and lay sinners. Watch out.

• In choosing Joseph Ratzinger, the cardinals picked the most polarizing figure in the Catholic Church. No one was respected more as a student of theology. But, as CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports, no one was more feared as a chief enforcer of Vatican orthodoxy. "He has the most appalling reputation around the world as someone who has squashed theology, persecuted theologians - the chief of the thought police, the master of the inquisition," says Catholic journalist and feminist writer Margaret Hebblethwaite. (CBS) In short, I don't think women will make many strides in the church, if they're not actually propelled backwards. I also suspect we won't see the celibacy doctrine lifted from the priesthood on this turn on the merry-go-around. Therefore the numbers of brothers, sisters, and priests will continue to decline.

• The brother of Pope Benedict XVI Georg Ratzinger, 81, said he was "very concerned" and "shocked" upon hearing that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had been elected as head of the Roman Catholic Church because of his age and frail health."I am very concerned. I would have thought his advanced age and his health which is not very stable would have been reason enough for the cardinals to pick someone else," said the visibly moved sibling in an interview on German television after the election of his 78-year-old brother. (AFP)
  
  

POTUS 19: Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes - "Rutherfraud"

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Rutherford B. Hayes, as 19th President, began implementing policies to heal the nation after the Civil War. He had a reputation reputation for integrity as a soldier and politician. His election was the lengthiest , most bitterly contested, and corrupt presidential election in history. . .until the year 2000.

After the Civil War, Hayes served as a governor and congressman, and by 1876, Republicans recognized that the scrupulous Hayes--a swing state war hero--was potential Presidential timber. His opponent, Democratic opponent Samuel J. Tilden of New York rolled up a plurality of 250,000 votes, but the vote in three southern states was close enough for both Republicans and Democrats to contest them. Congress set up a special commission which awarded the disputed electoral college votes. The outraged Democrats called Hayes "Rutherfraud" and "His Fraudulency."

As President, Hayes believed that military occupation bred hatred among southerners and prevented a national healing. Reconstruction was nearly over when Hayes took office in 1877. Federal troops were stationed only in New Orleans, Louisiana, and South Carolina. The federal occupation ended early in his administration. Alas, by the 1890s, the racist Democratic hold on the South resulted in a complete denial of voting rights for blacks until the 1960s.

Hayes ran for only one term. In retirement he worked for equal educational and prison reform.

President Hayes was the only President whose election was decided by a congressional commission. He was the first president to travel to the West Coast as president and the first to have a telephone and typewriter in the White House.
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Poem: Bird

Carrying his dented horn in a paper sack--
Pawned, lost, fifty times found and bought back.
He paid the price of a Stradivarius
To unhock that horn and blow for us.
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James Joyce's Ulysses: A Book Report

For what little actually happened, the book could have been a bit shorter. He lost me at times, but the crux of the biscuit is this:

Stephen - Telemachus loaned Malachi his hanky, two cents for beer, handed him a key, suffered agenbite of inwit, and got drunk.

Leopold - Ulysses grilled a kidney, fed his cat, bought some soap, sat and read on the 'loo, commited an act of self-love and pondered The Suitors.

Molly - Penelope said "rocks," dreamed of sexual intercourse, and answered several times in the affirmative.
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Poem: Monism

I'm you,
You're me.
All this
Is That.
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I was thinking about religions and monism, and I wrote this. And a minute later, I remembered A Beatles song by John Lennon that said exactly the same thing: "

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together."

From I Am The Walrus by Lennon-McCartney © Copyright 1967 Northern Songs

Poem: The Golden Rule

Listen to the songbirds
Trill
But keep an eye
On the buzzard section.
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Hira Bluestone: Better Red Than Dead

Hira Bluestone's blog is about her life, from very early childhood, as a Rajneesh [1] sannyasin; a Rajneeshi. She grew up partly in Pune, India, and on Rajneesh's 65,000 acre operation/"Ranch" in Antelope, Oregon. These fantastic tales in her blog so far cover only the ground up to her seventh birthday. It is a colorful, strange, enthralling, fascinating, and heartbreaking story. Please keep them coming Hira!

[1] The Bhag (a/k/a Osho and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) seems to have basically taught Monism--that God was everything and everyone. There is no division between "God" and "not-God". People, even at their worst, are divine. He recognized Jesus Christ as having attained enlightenment, and believed that he survived his crucifixion and moved to India where he died at the age of 112. That's part of what he believed. He also appears to have believed in "free love" and that children should be raised communally. His top aides were charged with a number of crimes, including attempted murder of his doctor, and another attempt on a lawyer trying to close down the ranch. There were allegations of mishandled money. There are rumors they had a hit list. There was a lot of public outrage over him and his lifestyle. You hear a lot of good along with the bad. The volume is dialed way up on both sides of the question. It's hard to tell which story is right (but like most stories, you probably need to split the difference between the extremes). /jb

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POTUS 4: President James Madison, The First President To Wear Pants

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President Madison was the 4th president of the United States. He served eight years each as a Congressman, as secretary of state, and as POTUS. He played many parts in the founding of this country, and he led the country through the War of 1812, which was more or less a second war of independence.

Madison co-authored The Federalist Papers--a series of articles written under the pen name Publius with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. These papers were intended to gain support for the proposed Constitution. The Federalist Papers are often studied in public relations classes as a prime example of how to conduct a successful campaign; they are considered one of the greatest PR campaigns of all time.

We mainly remember James Madison as "Father of the Constitution." He was its leading defender and interpreter for 50 years. He is often considered a lackluster President, but in fact he accomplished a great deal without a lot of flash.

His wife Dolley Madison was a spitfire, and one of the best-loved first ladies of all time. James Madison is the only President to have two Vice Presidents die, and is the first President to wear pants instead of knee breeches.
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