Music Monday ~ Remembering Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson, born this day, 9 April, in 1898, was one of the greats, a true supporter of the workers of the whole world, including the Welsh and Scottish miners of the UK, with whom he felt deep connection.

Happy Birthday Paul Robeson! Yes, the struggles go on!

Brilliant and multi-gifted, Paul Robeson gained prominence as athlete, lawyer, concert singer, actor, and social activist. Born to an African-American minister and his wife in Princeton, New Jersey. Robeson's mother died when he was just 6 years old. The family underwent difficult economic times when their father resigned from his ministry position because of pressure by the white financial supporters of the church. After nine years of low paying work, Robeson Snr. accepted appointment to the parsonage of another church. Paul attended New Jersey schools, and by high school had proven himself an outstanding student and athlete. He won a four-year scholarship to Rutgers, despite efforts by the high school principal to prevent him from taking the qualifying exam.

Because he was excluded from living at the Rutgers dormitory, Robeson lived with a black family during his college years. His athletic talent earned him a place on the school’s football team, where he had to overcome physical assaults by teammates in attempts to keep him off the team. When the team travelled, he roomed with the coach, rather than members of the team. By the end of his college years, he attained 14 varsity letters in football, basketball, baseball, discus, shotput and javelin. He also excelled in other college activities, becoming a prize-winning debater, and a glee club member. Robeson’s academic achievements culminated in his nomination and acceptance into the Phi Beta Kappa Society and Rutgers’ honor society, Cap and Skull. At graduation, his classmates selected him as class valedictorian. In his valedictorian address, he called upon his classmates to work for equality for all Americans.

After graduating from Rutgers, Robeson entered Columbia University Law School, supporting himself by working as a professional football player, a job as a postal worker, positions in athletic coaching, and acting jobs. Although he attained his law degree, Robeson pursued a career as a performer because the law firm where he was hired barred his representation of clients.

Paul starred in several theater performances, and rose to prominence in the Harlem Renaissance movement. With his powerful baritone voice, he transitioned from acting to concert vocalist, opening in solo concerts by the mid-1920s.

Making his home base in London, he associated with many followers of socialist thought, including George Bernard Shaw. He toured the United States and Europe extensively as a concert performer.

When World War II began, he returned to the United States, with a commitment to overcoming fascism. Despite his political statements, Robeson remained a popular performer. However, after the war ended and the red-baiting McCarthy era evolved, Robeson became target of various government probes. He announced in 1947 that he would retire from his career as a concert performer to devote his time to overcoming racism and fascism.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Paul Robeson continued his political activities, which were intensively scrutinized by the U.S. government. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover declared him a national security threat, and Robeson’s passport was cancelled. This caused international protest. He regained his right to travel eight years later. He returned to Europe, and made journeys to the Soviet Union and Africa. After extensive travels, he expressed interest in returning to the United States to join the Civil Rights Movement.

Paul Robeson died in January 1976, he left a legacy as an extraordinarily gifted actor, singer, and political activist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson
http://astrologyspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/03/


Here's a rendition by Paul that I'd not heard before - "Mood Indigo" music composed by Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard with lyrics by Irving Mills.



And...his tribute to the Welsh miners

Expectedly...or not

I wander into a blog called Mock Paper Scissors occasionally. Yesterday they had numbers. Their post is linked to the origin of numbers featured there. I was going to write that those numbers make depressing reading, but any indication that a President Trump is becoming increasingly unlikely can't really be said to be depressing.....and yet, and yet...

Only something quite unexpected is likely to change current prospects. What, for instance?

Trump withdrawing for whatever reason/accusation he might offer, real or imaginary? Trump being ousted by the RNC through some newly minted RNC law, tailored for just such a purpose?

In either of those situations Trump's chosen VP, Mike Pence would probably be slotted in as candidate, or, if it were indicated that someone who had, at least, had votes cast for them at some point...Ted Cruz...or even Mitt Romney? Whether any such change would make a Hillary Clinton landslide in the General election more or less likely could be hard to estimate. I'd say a landslide in favour of Clinton would be likely reduced to a slight rockfall, its strength depending on name of the new candidate.

If something unexpected should cause change, on the Democratic candidate's side - for instance: Hillary Clinton's health issues? If such issues do exist, and were to become more obvious, calls could arise for more detailed medical examination with publication of results. New revelations regarding her e-mail debacle or the Clinton Foundation shenanigans, more damaging to Hillary Clinton than any before (via Wikileaks)? If circumstances in either scenario were serious enough, her chosen VP, Tim Kaine would come into more intense focus, perhaps acting as candidate. Or, the DNC might decide to choose, as replacement, someone for whom public votes have been cast, or someone of proven ability at national level: Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden? I doubt the DNC would ever countenance Senator Bernie Sanders as candidate, no matter how many states he carried in the primaries, Wall Street and the oligarchs who rule the DNC wouldn't allow it. Joe Biden though could, I suspect, improve slightly the Dems' chances in the General. Fewer voters, especially former Bernie Sanders supporters, hate him with the same intensity they hate, or distrust, Hillary Clinton. Tim Kaine, though...not so sure, nobody really knows him. A more likely scenario, should some unexpected event(s) befall Clinton, would be to somehow, if at all possible with the current president's influence, push her through the difficulties and into the presidency, then worry about other issues arising.

Unexpected general changes: a non-candidate related "October Surprise"? Some national emergency, for example major terrorist activity; major emergency due to climate/earthquake/massive-scale never before experienced flooding....etc; or unexpected uprising of some major sector of the population - from whatever cause, with martial law being declared: General Election postponed.

Those are a few possibilities, however unlikely they might seem right now. Astrologers would be looking for Uranus, planet of the unexpected to be involved, somehow, at some stage, in some natal or national chart. We shall see...or not. As some character in a TV series we watched last night said, "Sometimes things work out - don't question the universe!"

Combustibly

I bought a junk store book while away last week: The Buchwald Stops Here, it's a collection of Art Buchwald's newspaper columns: "...observations about the body politic and impolitic in the Jimmy Carter age - incisive, outrageous and downright hilarious"...the blurb on the cover says. I wouldn't go that far, from the little of it I've sampled, but then I wasn't here in the Jimmy Carter age. Anyway, what the book did was to encourage me to trawl through my posts to discover whether I'd posted about Mr Buchwald in the past. I hadn't featured him exclusively, but I did include him in the following post hauled out from March of 2007. The post was a follow-up on one a few days earlier, which is linked in the first sentence.

I've had a fairly lazy bee in my bonnet about Via Combusta from first reading about it. (Via Combusta includes degrees between 15 Libra and 15 Scorpio - there are, from some sources, variations on the exact degrees). Clicking on "via combusta" in the label cloud in the sidebar will bring up other relevant posts.

The re-airing follows:

Continuing the line of thought from Saturday's post, I've been doing more research regarding planets in the (supposed) Via Combusta degrees, specifically in charts of journalists, commentators and authors who regularly express highly critical views on politics and politicians. I've checked a few more natal charts and come up with the information below. These degrees certainly seem to contain some extra "fire", which could be utilised in many ways, I guess. The journalistic slant presented itself quite by accident.

As in most things astrological, there is no single theory about Via Combusta - where it is/was, why it has/had an unfortunate connotation. Some sources explain that the Via Combusta's reputation stems from the allegedly malefic, or unfortunate, fixed stars in the same area. But...there's the problem of precession. Is Via Combusta still where it used to be? I think that depends on whether the effects observed by the ancients stemmed directly from fixed stars, or from some other "cause". I prefer to think that there is something special about that section of space, and its relation to Earth. In ancient times the area was identified by the fixed stars lying within it - perhaps now it is just space.

In Skyscript's Glossary of Terms we are told that :

Al Biruni wrote of it: "The combust way is the last part of Libra and the first of Scorpio. These two signs are not congenial to the Sun and the Moon on account of the obscurity and ill-luck connected with them and because each of them is the fall of one of the luminaries. They also contain the two malefics, the one by exaltation (Libra, Saturn) the other by house (Scorpio, Mars)." This may be a very ancient aphorism, originating from the period when 15 Libra corresponded with the autumn equinox.

Whatever the reasons for the bad reputation of this stretch of our zodiac, I shall keep an eye on it in future. If the area has special significance for the Sun and Moon in horary astrology, then I'd conclude that there has to be something special about it in general. Could it be simply that these degrees carry a more concentrated version of accepted Scorpio traits ?

I don't see the common thread, observed in the named individuals, and in the three females discussed in Saturday's blog entry, as exactly unfortunate, or malefic. A tendency towards maliciousness, perhaps. An overly passionate desire to get points across, deeply held opinions with a need to express them in exaggerated fashion - yes! Unfortunate only for the objects of their commentary.

For much of 1925 Saturn hung around the Via Combusta degrees of Scorpio, it was a fertile time for the birth of acerbic journalists ! (Assuming that Via Combusta "The Burning Road" stretches from 15* Libra to 15* Scorpio.)

Gore Vidal

Born 3 Oct. 1925. West Point, New York. (SATURN 12*SCORPIO)

Art Buchwald

Born 20 Oct. 1925. Mount Vernon, New York. (SUN 26* LIBRA, MERCURY 5* SCORPIO. SATURN 14* SCORPIO)

Nat Hentoff

Born 10 June 1925, Boston, Mass. (SATURN 8* SCORPIO)

William F. Buckley

Born 24 Nov. 1925. New York City. (MARS 7* SCORPIO)

Pat Buchannan

Born 2 Nov. 1938, Washington DC. (SUN 9* SCORPIO)

Bill O'Reilly

Born 10 Sep 1949 New York City. (VENUS 25*LIBRA)

Rush Limbaugh

Born 12 Jan. 1951, Cape Girardeau MO. (NEPTUNE 19* LIBRA)

Michelle Malkin

Born 20 Oct 1970 Philadelphia PA. (MERCURY 22* AND SUN 26* LIBRA, JUPITER 12* SCORPIO)

Others, who are not journalists:

Martin Gardner (well-known skeptic and author) Born 21 Oct. 1914, Tulsa, Oklahoma (SUN 27* LIBRA, MARS 15* SCORPIO)

Dennis Kucinich (presidential candidate) - 8 Oct 1946, Cleveland, Ohio. SUN, MERCURY, JUPITER AND MARS ALL IN VIA COMBUSTA.

Other presidential candidates -Hillary Clinton has Venus and Mercury there, Barrack Obama has Neptune there, John Edwards has Neptune and Saturn there.

[A 2016 addition: Bernie Sanders has Venus there.]

(The illustration at the top of this post (from a book cover) is a Jack Davis cartoon of Art Buchwald, who died in January 2007.) [Adding that Jack Davis died this year, 2016]

Something up their sleeves?

There was an interesting speculative piece at Counterpunch yesterday:
Plan B Is Not Bernie by Jim Kavanagh.
It begins:

I admit: It’s all speculation.

On April 4th, I wrote on Facebook: “My prediction: the next President of the United States will be someone who is not yet in the race. (e.g., Possible alternative Dem ticket: Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.) How crazy am I?”

This wasn’t just a wild guess. It was based on a few considered convictions.

And ends:

It’s almost certain that Hillary Clinton will be the nominee of the Democratic Party and the next President of the United States. But if, perchance, she gets derailed by a deus ex machina like the FBI, you can bet that the Democratic Party will have a Plan B, and it won’t be Bernie Sanders. It will be an attempt to stop Bernie Sanders. Perhaps it is just a coincidence that a Joe Biden-Elizabeth Warren ticket gets mentioned in the national press the day after Hillary’s Chief of Staff walks out of an FBI interrogation. Or is someone floating a balloon?

Would Bernie ever bite? Maybe not, but if the day comes, it’s some dish like this that the Democratic Party will try to serve.

A bit of speculation does provide flavour to an election season that is becoming all too predictable in the available too-and-fro argument and insults online and in media generally. Mr Kavanagh's whole piece is well worth a read.

Arty Farty Friday ~ Honoré Daumier

Daumier was born this day in 1808. A re-airing of my 2010 post about him and his work:

It might seem irrelevant to feature a 19th century caricaturist/satirist. What could satire of 19th century France have to offer to 21st century mortals? In the hands of Honoré Daumier it offers us a chance to see that nothing much has changed - fashions and technology - yes, they have changed, of course. Attitudes, politics - no change there! Daumier's cartoons satirised the corrupt regime, the injustice of the law courts, and the hypocrisy and greed at the heart of things. (Left: His lithograph titled (as translated)"Ungrateful country, you shall not have my work".



Today is the anniversary of Daumier's birthday. Born 26 February 1808 in Marseille, France; at age 8 moved to Paris with his parents. His father was a glazier, and didn't support his son's intense desire to become an artist, so young Daumier had to go to work in a bailiff's office. He later was able to study at the Académie Suisse and worked for a lithographer, which experience set him on the road to success. He quite obviously, as well as inborn artistic ability, had a natural flair for acute observation, a love of ordinary folk, a gift for seeing the comedic side of everyday life, hatred of political injustices - and war. It is considered that Daumier did as much as any artist of his time to raise the political and social awareness of the citizens of France.

"Throughout his forty-year career, Daumier created nearly 4,000 lithographs, first for the political journal La Caricature and later for the daily Parisian periodical Le Charivari. His early political images addressed the inequality and corruption of King Louis-Philippe’s July Monarchy. One drawing landed Daumier in jail for several months, indicative of the government’s repression of political caricature during much of his lifetime. After strict censorship laws were passed in September 1835, the artist shifted from political attack to social satire. His victims were the members of the French middle class, of which he was one. His images poked fun at pompous politicians, pretentious lawyers, picturesque individuals at the community baths, artists and writers in the throes of creativity, as well as urban development and the trials of commuting—all things that vex us to this day!" (Link.) [Link now defunct - sorry - probably was published in relation to an exhibition in 2010]

As well as the lithographs for which he is best-known Daumier painted around 200 canvases in oils, many depicting everyday life in France, as well as watercolors and small sculptures, all of which comprise, it is said, the largest visual legacy of any artist before 1900.

Daumier died blind and in poverty. Though the people of France enjoyed his caricatures, the elite of the artworld didn't recognise his talent until decades after his death.



Daumier had Pisces Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars and Pluto (birth time 3pm according to Astrotheme, but Moon in Pisces whatever time he was born). Jupiter in Aquarius and Venus in Capricorn. Personal planets and ascendant in Fixed signs, Aquarius, Leo and Scorpio, with Venus in common-sense Capricorn provided valuable balance to an overload of dreamy, artsy Pisces.

Saturn in Scorpio trines Mercury in Pisces and sextiles Venus in Capricorn. Venus semi-sextiles Jupiter in Aquarius and Jupiter semi-sextiles Mercury in Pisces - which means that a planetary loop linked an acutely perceptive Scorpio Saturn to communicative and humanitarian Pisces Mercury, arty but practical Capricorn Venus, and expansive, jocular Jupiter in mentally active, socially aware Aquarius.

Some examples of his work from Google Image:


UNTITLED



GARGANTUA - This one, a depiction of King Louis-Philippe, led to a prison sentence for Daumier.



LOUIS-PHILIPPE, again....PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE.




IMAGE OF SAPPHO



"SO YOU WANT TO MEDDLE WITH THE PRESS"



3RD CLASS



THE FIRST CLASS




COMET



COMET (again!)




FRUITLESS SEARCH FOR THE PLANET




DISGRUNTLED LITIGANT



"Tiens peuple, tiens bon peuple, en veux-tu en voilà ! " (I think this means something like "Hang on good people - is this what you want? Here you are!")

Trumbo & Douglas

We watched the movie Trumbo this week, prompted by commenter Sabina that the DVD was now available in rental stores. It's good - very good. We enjoyed every minute of it.

For a passing reader not familiar with the film's theme I'll add this snip from a November 2015 review by Ty Burr in the Boston Globe:

Dalton Trumbo (1905-76), Hollywood screenwriter, defiant victim of the post-WWII blacklist, and nearly as big a legend in the film industry as he was in his own mind. He is played with delicious swagger by Bryan Cranston, whose post-”Breaking Bad” career has addressed itself to the marvelous monsters of biography — this film and his recent turn as LBJ at the American Repertory Theater and on Broadway.

There are other actors in the movie, but most of them fade into the upholstery under the combined assault of Cranston-Trumbo. It’s a fun movie and an overbearing one, patly written and crowded with enjoyable faces. It offers useful and still-necessary moral lessons about remaining true to one’s conscience in times of fear and stupidity (i.e., now). It is a labor of love made by Hollywood insiders, and if it never seems to draw a breath of air from outside the film industry, it may be because its makers rarely do.

But it’s a rollicking good show, with Cranston’s Trumbo a character of the first order: an elitist who knows how to write scripts for the masses. “Trumbo” settles in as the war is coming to a close and the witch hunts begin against anyone who is now or has ever been a member of the Communist Party. That includes many of the screenwriters, who come into the crosshairs of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the late 1940s.

There's already much information around the internet on the blacklist story, Dalton Trumbo, and this movie, so the only further note I'll add is about Kirk Douglas's (real life) part in the story. He hired the blacklisted Trumbo, known communist, as screenwriter for the movie Spartacus, which action was said to have, at last, broken the Hollywood blacklist. Further reading online casts some doubt on how influential Douglas's action actually was. This piece from The Atlantic by John Meroney and Sean Coons offers another view:
How Kirk Douglas Overstated His Role in Breaking the Hollywood Blacklist

Commenter Sabina noticed that Dalton Trumbo's natal chart and that of Kirk Douglas (both born on 9 December) could bear similarities. Let's see!

Dalton Trumbo born in Montrose, Colorado on 9 December 1905. Chart set for 12 noon, time of birth unknown.

Kirk Douglas born in Amsterdam, New York on 9 December 1916 at 10.15 AM

If someone had shown me these two charts without telling me to whom they belonged I'd have suspected that one chart (the first shown above) belonged to someone unafraid of rebelling against the norm. That'd be reflected by Mercury conjunct Uranus. Mars and Saturn in Aquarius suggests that any rebellion could well be in relation to something political or societal.

There are, naturally, some similarities due to the two men sharing a birthday, though 11 years apart. The main link between the charts, in this particular context, is Uranus, planet of the rebel and the unexpected. Uranus in Douglas's chart is in sextile to his natal Sun and, of course, in sextile also to Trumbo's.

I'll leave the matter of similarities or differences open now, for further examination by any who'd care to jump in to add more.

Coincidentally, I have compared Kirk Douglas's natal chart with another person's chart in a past posting. Douglas played the part of Vincent Van Gogh in the movie Lust for Life ; I blogged about that and compared the actor's chart with that of the painter. That post, from 2007, is HERE.

"And keep your eyes wide - The chance won't come again"

Pundits who insist on evaluating the Sanders campaign through the lens of conventional politics will continue to see their predictions fall flat. Bernie Sanders is not running a political campaign, he has instead become the leader of a movement whose message transcends the personality of the candidate. It is the American electorate’s response to decades of corrupt campaign financing, divisive politics, and continuous foreign interventions and war. While the other candidates are playing at politics, Bernie Sanders is making history… its a completely different game.

That's a quote from last September, from a blog which appears now to be defunct, but how right the author was!



Bernie took full advantage of his opportunity to give his winner's speech last night, and all the time he could while on national television, uninterrupted! Hillary's speech was good too, Trump's was a mess, but John Kasich, who came second to Trump, gave a very nice speech, quite different from the others. He's the sensible Republican, and if he continues to do well and gets ahead of Trump, maybe gets the Republican nomination, he'll be much harder to beat than any of the other oddbod Republican candidates - in my not so humble opinion.

Always Too Late

Over the weekend we watched a couple of very different films, different but with an oddly similar factor involved, a factor which could also be applied to our real life situation in 2014.

The two films: from 2011, Margin Call (on DVD); and from this year, shown on HBO on Sunday night, The Normal Heart.

Margin Call is set in a Wall Street investment bank, on the cusp of the 2007/8 financial crisis; The Normal Heart is set in the gay community of early 1980s New York City, when a crisis has arisen with a then unidentified disease killing off, at an alarming rate, a specific group of people: gay men; the film deals with the rise of HIV-AIDS, and founding of an advocacy group. It's a heart-rending story, difficult to watch at times.

On the surface of it "crisis" seems to be the only common denominator. Something extra occurred to me as I watched The Normal Heart on Sunday, remembering dialogue from Margin Call, seen a couple of evenings before. Time and again in Margin Call, as word spread up the investment bank's hierarchical ladder, the person on the next higher rung would say exactly what his colleagues on previous rungs of the ladder had said to the lowly employee who had stumbled across something darkly sinister in the statistics: "Explain this situation to me purely in layman's terms", or "Tell me exactly as you would explain it to a child, you know I don't understand this stuff". Gob-smacking! (I know the film is a work of fiction, but I suspect there is basis in real life). Even more gob-smacking was when another employee stated that, on several occasions, earlier warnings of something going wrong had been passed up the line, but all these had been routinely ignored.

In The Normal Heart (adapted from a play by Larry Kramer, partly autobiographical), warnings of a disastrous outcome to an unidentified plague were being ignored by those on high, ignorance was being spread, not a single person in a position of power would do anything to help finance proper research. They didn't understand, they didn't want to understand. Even some of the gay men objected to the one person who began fighting very hard for their cause.

What people in both films saw as their entitled way of life, pleasures, level of income, place in the world, was not going to be made available for change under any circumstances. Examples of people in the top layers of finance or governance not being of sufficient caliber to understand and act immediately on these extremely serious situations, and not having enough moral core to care, even though dire warnings were being passed to them.....And then it was too late.

Ring any bells? C-c-c-c-c-climate change?

SCOTUS carries on piling it on.....

From Brennan Center for Justice website yesterday:
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court voted in McCutcheon v. FEC, the most critical campaign finance case since Citizens United, to strike down overall contribution limits, known as aggregate limits. The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law released the following statement from President Michael Waldman:

"Today’s Supreme Court decision rejects decades of precedent and strikes a sharp blow against the interests of average voters. Once again the Court has struck down a law that curbs the corrupting influence of large campaign contributions in our politics. Sadly, the Court has also achieved a new milestone by striking down a federal contribution limit for the first time.

Our Founders feared corruption. They did not want government beholden to narrow, elite interests. Eliminating these limits will now allow a single politician to solicit, and a single donor to give, up to $3.6 million through the use of joint fundraising committees. Following the Citizens United decision, this will further inundate a political system already flush with cash, marginalize average voters, and elevate those who can afford to buy political access."

Ye Gods! Was I wrong or was I wrong about Chief Justice John Roberts back in 2008, when I, still naive as they come about US politics, wrote the following as part of a blog post about well-known people with a birthday on 27 January (same as mine)?
His natal chart is available at astro.com

US Chief Justice John Roberts has Sun and Mercury in Aquarius, with Aquarius' modern ruler Uranus conjunct Jupiter in Cancer. Jupiter is traditionally connected with law, and government. Incidentally, with his natal Moon almost certainly in Pisces, Sun in humanitarian Aquarius, and that conjunction in sensitive Cancer , I'd say Chief Justice Roberts is a compassionate man, it's good to see such a person occupying that lofty position.

Come back all I said!! Admittedly, Roberts is just one of 9, but it is his Court!

Here's a voice worth a listen:

Netting the Net

Next big concern coming up for Mr or Ms Average internet user in the USA (most of us these days) will be the earnest hope that net neutrality doesn't disappear in accordance with the ruling this week of a federal appeals court. The court threw out the FCC's Net Neutrality Rules. There's already lots of information and explanation available on the importance of this to the average consumer, a good article by Maggie Reardon at CNET on the topic is HERE.

The appeals court ruling isn't about internet access as such, but about the ability of internet service providers to take control of access to content, and it's all about the money, as usual, of course. Until now government (FCC - Federal Communications Commission) regulation ensured that anyone who paid a service provider for internet connection could access every website on the net, and every service run via the internet, such as Skype. This week's court ruling has cancelled this regulation.

Internet service providers are now free to limit, or charge extra for, access to certain websites and services. This will work in much the same way that Cable TV access works. Internet service providers will, eventually no doubt, begin to offer "bundles" of various levels of access, demanding more and more payment for wider access to sites outside a consumer's "bundle". Access to Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Skype for instance could become akin to accessing HBO, Showtime etc. on TV.

Internet service providers are now in control. Business owners and content providers as well as viewers of net content could also find themselves having to pay internet service providers. Comcast, Verizon etc. can now demand payment by businesses or other content providers to obtain access to their customers. Until now there has been 100% access by all to all - but no more. It's beginning to sound like some kind of mob protection racket! Anyway, it's certain we shall all be paying more for less before long.

Is there any hope of getting the recent court decision overturned? The issue could end up in the Supreme Court, unless the FCC is able to construct a new case based on different existing laws or arguments.

From what I've read, if the FCC were able to declare internet service providers to be common carriers, that might provide a solution. Common carriage applies to the means of supply of utilities such as electricity, water, gas, telephone lines. In those cases the pipes, cables, lines or whatever are a common means of supply, and while owned by private companies or corporations, those companies or corporations cannot limit or slow down supply once the consumer has paid the required fee for access. However, it appears that the Supreme Court has, in 2005, put up a likely barrier to that possibility in its Brand X decision that broadband services should not be classified as telecommunications services, which means that broadband providers' infrastructure is not considered a public right of way like phone lines or water pipes, and should not be regulated as such. Perhaps shrewd lawyers will be able to find a loophole. Let us hope so!

Apart from the commercial aspect of these eventualities, there's a political aspect too. It could become harder, more expensive, or even impossible to access certain political blogs and websites. I'll leave the rest of that pre-dystopic vision to a reader's imagination.

Copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner.

"....every 100 years"

Last paragraph of a piece titled Kaiser Obama by Elliot Sperber at Counterpunch this weekend

To be sure, as Obama argues his case for bombing Syria it is interesting to reflect upon the fact that at least since the death of Louis XIV, in 1715, there has been a major shake up in European western power every hundred years. In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon, the alliance largely established at the Congress of Vienna maintained a balance of power that persisted until an industrializing, unified Germany upset it, leading to World War I in 1914, after which a new Order arose. And now, in 2013, over 20 years since the end of the Cold War, one cannot help but wonder whether an overextended, historically unpopular US will precipitate its own demise, joining Napoleon’s Empire, and the Austro Hungarian Empire, and so many others in the clutter of the dustbin of history.

100 years? None of the major outer planets' orbits (or related oppositions etc) is near enough to 100 years to reflect any "shake-up effect" in a 100-year cycle. (Uranus= 84 years, Neptune 165 = years, Pluto 248= years). Out of curiosity I looked up length of Eris's orbit (557 years), then Chiron (about 50 years) which led to Pholus (92 years).

Two orbits of Chiron = 100 years, that's not a good fit though. Alternatively, 1 orbit of Pholus comes nearest to 100 years. I know nothing of Pholus. Let's see.....From HERE at astro.com re Pholus

According to first astrological observations, Pholus gives unusual ability in a particular area, or unexpected results, due to a gift for experiment. Pholus' transits over the main axes of a chart, often mark radical and unexpected change, hinted at by his sudden and unexpected death in the myth.

Coincidence? Maybe. Just a thought.

THE PSYCHOPATHIC ELEMENT

Is the USA run by psychopaths? It's tempting to say "Of course" in a flip, facetious tone, but it's a theory worth seriously considering. An article by David Schwartz at the weekend set me out on this tack: The Rise of the Second-String Psychopaths. David Schwartz refers to a comment by the late Kurt Vonnegut in his final book A Man Without a Country:

He was the man; the country was the United States of America. Vonnegut felt that his country had disappeared right under his – and the Constitution’s – feet, through what he called “the sleaziest, low-comedy Keystone Cops-style coup d’état imaginable.” He was talking about the Bush administration. Were Vonnegut still alive in the post-Bush era, he would not have felt that his country had returned.

Another snip from the article:

The United States corporate and government spheres have become, Vonnegut suggested, a perfect habitat for psychopaths. What has allowed so many psychopaths to rise so high in corporations, and then government, he wrote,

“is that they are so decisive. They are going to do something every fuckin’ day and they are not afraid. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they don’t give a fuck what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich!

In a country in which much of human culture has been rendered into machines for the manufacture of money, psychopaths are the ideal leaders. They are very focused. They are outcome oriented. They are frequently charming, and usually very bright and able. They can lay off thousands of people, or deny people health care, or have them waterboarded, and it does not disturb their sleep. They can be impressively confident. Psychopaths can be dynamic leaders of enterprises, but are handicapped by their lack of feelings for relationships. They may be accomplished captains of industry, or senators, or surgeons, but their families are frequently abused and miserable. Most psychotherapists have seen the wives or husband or children of such accomplished people.

I know little or nothing about how a psychopath is properly defined, wondered whether astrology can be used to identify traits of it.

A check list to determine if somebody is a psychopath: Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), appears HERE. It's said to be the most commonly used tool to assess a person’s psychopathy.

Each of the 20 items is scored a 0, 1, or 2. If a person receives a combined score of more than 30 points out of 40 possible points, then he is considered a “psychopath.” Here is the list:

Item 1: Glibness/superficial charm
Item 2: Grandiose sense of self-worth
Item 3: Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
Item 4: Pathological lying
Item 5: Cunning/manipulative
Item 6: Lack of remorse or guilt
Item 7: Shallow affect
Item 8: Callous/lack of empathy
Item 9: Parasitic lifestyle
Item 10: Poor behavioural controls
Item 11: Promiscuous sexual behaviour
Item 12: Early behaviour problems
Item 13: Lack of realistic long-term goals
Item 14: Impulsivity
Item 15: Irresponsibility
Item 16: Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
Item 17: Many short-term marital relationships
Item 18: Juvenile delinquency
Item 19: Revocation of conditional release
Item 20: Criminal versatility

Is astrology capable of identifying a combination of such traits though?
At astro.com there's a review by Karin Hoffmann of Astrologer Liz Greene's book
The Dark of the Soul
A snip:

Can we see the psychopath in the horoscope?
It is fascinating, for example, that Moon and/or Venus often play a dominant role in charts of people whom we consider as psychopaths. In fact, the charts of a lot of allegedly "unfeeling" and "cold-blooded" psychopaths have an emphasis of the water element. Surprising?

From a psychological point of view it becomes clear that these people have often had difficulties to cope with their strong sensitivity and emotions in their past. They found it easier to lock their feelings away and keep them 'water-tight' so that they didn't have to feel them. But they have found other outlets for their watery side: they use their strong capacity for empathy to 'slip into their victims' skin' and find out about their weaknesses and fears in order to exploit them ruthlessly. To the psychopath it may "only" feel like striking back, like a revenge for their own hurt feelings...
So, are all people with an emphasis on water psychopaths?

The answer to that last question is quite clearly "No!"

I seriously doubt that it would be possible, or ethical, to identify a psychopath from a natal chart. Too many variables, too much "grey area", too many unknown factors from the person's background etc. Given a certain set of life experiences it's possible that any one of us could display some psychopathic tendencies. Perhaps astrology might indicate those in whom "tendencies" could most likely mushroom into full-fledged psychopathy. ?

I'm taking the liberty of copying snips from two comments from the thread following the article by David Schwartz. These provides plenty of food for thought. First comment was written by "Giovanna" and can be found in fill timed around 1 PM on 5th June in the thread beneath the original article.

.....It is an absolute mistake to dismiss psychopaths as simply crazy, wild-eyed serial killers. Serial killers are rare; and though it's true that most serial killers are psychopathic, most psychopaths are NOT serial killers and, by definition of law, they are absolutely sane: they distinguish the difference between right and wrong and they completely understand the nature and quality of the acts they carry out. Psychopathic individuals are not delusional and should not be confused with people who are psychotic and whose acts can be legally justified by an affirmative NGRI defense.

In fact, contrary to the myths surrounding them, most psychopaths appear quite NORMAL and even charming and charismatic... at first. They quickly reveal themselves, however, as parasitic, lying con-artists who are adept, cunning and ruthless masters at exploiting any perceived weakness, which is why they gravitate to authoritarian politics and find their comfortable niche in the capitalist/corporate/political imperial milieu. I've always found it interesting (and disturbing) that the most important decisions affecting society are placed in the hands of these shallow, superficial, career charlatans because absolutely nothing -- NOTHING -- is more important to them than their own self-interest.

...............Corporate and political malfeasance fall under the quaint euphemism known as "white collar" crime, which sounds very milquetoast. As the world is currently experiencing, there is nothing tepid or inconsequential, however, about the massive societal and evironmental destruction psychopathic corporate and/or political criminals leaves in their wake.

Many years ago I figured out that psychopaths are drawn to positions of power and domination like moths to flame. For instance, there are probably more psychopaths milling about Wall Street and "K" Street than anywhere else on the planet. There is not a doubt in my mind that these "people of the lie" are the poster children of imperial-corporate capitalism and responsible for most of the world's ills......

Second comment by Mairead dated 6 June at 1:59 PM

This first-string second-string stuff becomes more clear if we remember that psychopathy is at one end of *one* spectrum, with something like selflessness at the other end. The other basic spectrum we're dealing with is the skein of abilities that we lump together as "intelligence".

So down at the psychopathic end, we have the "obligative" psychopaths, who totally lack the ability to experience empathy. To them, other living creatures *truly* might as well be made of cardboard.

If those ones aren't smart, they'll eff up pretty quickly and end in prison. But if they are smart, they'll learn to feign the feelings they don't have. They'll learn the right words, facial expressions, etc. for any given situation and use them as a tool.

Further toward the middle of the spectrum, we have those who *do* feel, but not very deeply. They don't have the ethical "tin ear" that the obligatives have. They hear the music, they just don't always pay attention to it. They behave badly toward others whenever they think they can get away with it. The politicians who sell us out, the judges who take bribes, the brutal cops, the professionals who charge for unnecessary - and often unperformed - work, the priests who molest children, et lengthy cetera are in this category. They do it because they can.

The DSM has a big table of diagnostic criteria for "antisocial personality disorder". But it lets the rich off the hook because it's considered normal for the rich to treat the poor badly and the DSM addresses disruptive deviation from cultural norms rather than illness. Someone could be delusional as hell and if they are able to avoid being socially disruptive, they won't get a diagnosis.

So the real differential diagnosis for psychopathy, obfuscated by the DSM, boils down to just one question: does this individual routinely disregard, without remorse, the legitimate rights of other living creatures?

The "second string" psychopaths are the ones who don't have to be, and who know that they're not smart enough (or not quite depraved enough) to get away with it usually. They come out from the woodwork when the political environment has become so corrupted that even they can get away with it, as now.
("psychopath" and "sociopath" are synonyms. Some professionals distinguish them, but few agree on how)

After pondering on that little lot, I'd say the case to prove psychopaths are running the USA would be easy to make. Trouble is though, even if proved, what could be done about it? The current astro-atmosphere (longterm) with nebulous Neptune inching into Pisces, its own sign of rulership, is ripe for delusion, not so ripe for unmaskings.

Political Preference - Brain Differences? Astrology in there anywhere?

Humans seem to be naturally polarized politically, most remain entrenched in their views for a lifetime. Some research has been carried out.

Liberal? Conservative? Your brains are different, study finds , an article by by Andrew Duffy, at Vancouver Sun begins:

Liberals and Conservatives may have differences that go well beyond their opinions about what constitutes contempt of Parliament.

A British study suggests there are anatomical differences between the brains of opponents on the left and right of the political spectrum.

The study, published in the online edition of Current Biology, found people who identified themselves as liberal tended to have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, a region of the brain that monitors uncertainty and conflict. Those who identified themselves as conservative had larger amygdalas, a region that processes emotions related to fear.

Researchers say the physical differences reflect the nature of voters: Liberals tend to be more comfortable with uncertainty, conservatives are more sensitive to fear.

"Previously, some psychological traits were known to be predictive of an individual's political orientation," said Dr. Ryota Kanai of University College London. "Our study now links such personality traits with specific brain structure."

I began to wonder how this might pan out astrologically. Further light research brought me to a pdf file from Dept of Political science, University of Iowa Fear Dispositions and their Relationship to Political Preferences

Clip from pdf (click on it to see a bigger version)


So, where might we find correlation in astrology to this idea that fear drives conservatism?

Saturn and how it is positioned in one's natal chart, appears to be significant in the potential for conservatism. Coincidentally Saturn connects to fear as well.

For instance - just one example:

A person with Sun conjunct Saturn - part of the interpretation at Cafe Astrology says:

..... Generally, they come across as somewhat skeptical and pessimistic, cautious, and slightly reserved. There is a distinct streak of the conservative in these people. Some are rigid and strict, expecting others to live up to their high standards. However, most people with this aspect are simply very aware that life has its limitations.

More about the connection of Saturn with fear is set out in a piece by Beth Turnage, Saturn and Fear at Astrology Explored.

A little mythological background on Saturn

Saturn was the God Kronos, father of Zeus, who was known for devouring his offspring soon after being born. He did this because he feared that they would surpass him. But Zeus, who was protected by his mother, returned to face his father, and Kronos’ fears were realized through death. Similarly, if we clamp down on what we fear the most, eventually it destroy us. Saturn has been depicted as the punishing father, but also as the Grim Reaper, who cuts life short. Mortality is the ultimate restriction, and as Father Time, he is the wise one that inspires urgency in our quest to fulfill our life mission.
http://astrology.about.com/od/advancedastrology/p/Saturn.htm

In light of all of the above I'm wondering whether at some future date an enlightened statistician might include some astrological data in their researches on such topics as this. Assistance from a professional astrologer would be essential of course. When pigs fly......

GEORGE ORWELL

The quote from novelist George Orwell in the sidebar links to this re-airing of my 2008 post. His words are often quoted these days in strings of comments at political websites. His vision of the future may not ever materialise just as he described it in "1984", but his writings certainly instilled a long-lasting dread in the minds of readers. We see much in today's political scenarios that, if not exactly Orwellian - is surely headed in that direction.

George Orwell (real name Eric Blair) was born on 25 June 1903 in Motahari, Bihar, India, taken to live in England when one year old. (Natal chart and some astrology later in this post).


At Live Science this article: Study: George Orwell's Illnesses Influenced '1984' provides some insight into the darkness of his subjects:

"He suffered multiple bouts of bronchitis and other respiratory ailments, Ross writes. As a young man, Orwell had several episodes of bacterial pneumonia, and also contracted dengue fever while in Burma. He was a heavy smoker, and he suffered fits of coughing from a condition called bronchiectasis.

In 1938, Orwell went to a sanatorium because he was coughing up blood. He was eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis..............Eight years later, depressed by his wife’s death, Orwell moved to a windy and damp Scottish island. His health worsened significantly just as he was working on the first draft of "1984," Ross reports. Fever, weight loss, and night sweats sent him to the hospital, where he underwent “collapse therapy,” a treatment designed to close the dangerous cavities that form in the chests of tuberculosis patients.

Relying on Orwell's own descriptions of the treatment, Ross says it "may have influenced the depiction of the tortures of Winston Smith in the Ministry of Love" in "1984.""

Confirmation from the man himself:

"Orwell himself told his friends that 1984 would have been less gloomy had he not been so ill—it was a very dark, disturbing, and pessimistic work," Ross said. Orwell's illnesses "made him a better and more empathetic writer, in that his sense of human suffering made his writing more universal."

"1984" wasn't meant as prophecy. I suppose that having experienced the Spanish Civil War and World War2, the idea of totalitarianism was an unwelcome spectre in the minds of many people, and was played upon by this novel. Orwell once said:

The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.

Had he been aiming at prophecy, a more appropriate title might have been "2024". Perceptive minds have been noting warning signs of what I'll call 1984-ness in the USA during recent years.


ASTROLOGY
Orwell was taken to England when one year old, was educated there and spent much of his life in the British Isles. So re-location would have had a bearing on where the angles of his chart were placed, in addition to the birth-time question which has already muddied the water in that respect.

Time of birth, according to Astrodatabank, was 11.30am, though with a DD rating (dirty data) so it is not reliable. I've used it anyway, in the absence of any alternative. If time of birth isn't correct, the ascending sign/degree will be incorrect, as well as Moon's exact position.



If I'd been given this chart without knowing to whom it belonged I might have guessed that the owner was a writer of some kind - journalist or novelist - he was both at various stages of his career: Virgo ascending, if time of birth is correct, and Mercury in Gemini are both good indicators of someone adept with the pen, or in today's world, the keyboard.

Sun conjunct Neptune (creativity) and Moon in Cancer (if time of birth was other than 11:30 AM Moon could be either in late Gemini, or a little further into Cancer). Lots of scope for a fertile imagination and creativity there, either way. Cancer is usually seen as a rather gentle, passive sign. I'd have guessed Orwell's writing might reflect that: historical dramas, mild romantic sagas - something along those lines. How wrong I'd have been!

Sun conjunct Neptune has a darker side too though. Creativity is the bright side of Neptune, the potential for addiction is one of Neptune's darker sides, especially when the planet is closely aligned with a personal planet - and you don't get more personal than natal Sun. Orwell was a lifelong heavy smoker = addiction. As noted in the quotes which follow, his smoking may have caused his untimely demise. His ill health may also have been one factor in the draw to darkness in his subject matter.

There's a Grand Trine in air signs (3 linked 120 degree aspects) in Orwell's chart. Air connects to intellect, ideas, communication. Mars in Libra, Saturn in Aquarius and Mercury in Gemini are connected in this "circuit", providing an excellent harmonious link-up of skills for any writer, sign-wise. However, the planets involved with Mercury in the Grand Trine: Mars and Saturn, are both traditionally labelled "malefics" (potentially negative in some way). This might reflect an attraction to subject matter less than uplifting - Orwell's dystopian novels "1984" and "Animal Farm" for instance. Had that Grand Trine linked, for example, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury, we might have on our bookshelves some Orwellian visions of a wonderful future filled with art, philosophy and beauty. Just a thought!


From "1984", and with today's mainstream media in mind:

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… —Book 1 chapter 5.

"At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas of which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is "not done" to say it... Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the high-brow periodicals".
~~Introduction to Animal Farm. 1945.'

A final quote from "1984"

"It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same--everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another's existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same--people who had never learned to think but were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world." —Book 1 chapter 10.

Wisconsin Governor: Scott Walker

I'm interested to see the natal chart of Scott Walker (not the singer - been there done that: here), but Scott Walker the Republican Governor of Wisconsin. His attempt to strip many state workers of their collective bargaining rights has brought about massive peaceful protest and become national and international news during the past week. He won the office of Governor in last year's general election - on his birthday, November 2, defeating the Democratic candidate 52% to 46%.




Scott Walker was born on 2 November 1967 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.



Chart set for noon - time of birth unavailable.

I wasn't surprised to find a clutch of planets in Scorpio. An overdose of this passionate and determined sign in one's natal chart is going to manifest pretty noticeably, one way or another. Sun/Mercury, Neptune and Moon (whatever his birth time) all in Scorpio. And another clutch of planets in meticulous, critical Virgo: Jupiter & Pluto/Venus/Uranus - the last three conjoined. That little lot together is a heck of a combination, could be close on deadly - uncomfortable at best! Wish I knew where the angles fell in his chart, but without time of birth that remains a mystery.

A bit more detail: Sun/Mercury in Scorpio flanked by two helpful sextile aspects - one to Mars at 7 Capricorn, the other to Jupiter at 2 Virgo - there's nothing there to lighten that Scorpio intensity - in fact these sextiles from Mars (energy, aggression) and Jupiter (excess) could add to it!

A Yod (Finger of Fate) in Walker's chart is interesting. It links the sextile between Jupter and Sun/Mercury to Saturn in Aries via two quincunx (150*) aspects.
Saturn, planet of limitation & laws, being at the apex of the Yod acts as conduit for the combined characteristics of the sextiled planets. Being translated this = Excessively intense passionate opinion manifesting via the rule of law & restriction.

Even more interesting, in view of the Yod, is that Jupiter in its current transit, is astrologically conjoining Walker's natal Saturn, even as I type, bringing even more emphasis to the configuration. Uranus, planet of change and the unexpected, will come within a couple of degrees of Walker's natal Saturn in late spring this year. How this will manifest is anybody's guess.

I shall watch and learn! "Interesting" times ahead!



Anyone who harbours anti-union feelings, and I know that many otherwise reasonable people do, and anyone who considers that Governor Walker is doing the right thing would do well to think on these words:

“Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.” ~ Molly Ivins.


"........It’s crucial to understand what the regressive initiative that our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin are right now fighting is really all about, and how that fits into the context of our era. This is just the latest, and nearly the last, in a succession of efforts in America over the last three decades to move money from the hands of non-elites to those of oligarchs. Make no mistake, that program constitutes essentially the sum total of American politics at its core over the last generation. All else is a sideshow or, more likely and more ominously, an intentional diversion, just as a skilled magician is careful to give your eye something else to focus on as he moves the ball from under the cup........"
From an excellent essay at http://www.regressiveantidote.net/Articles/Waking_Up_In_Wisconsin.html by Prof. David Michael Green

Inching Into The South . (No Astro)

Home again!

As a birthday celebration, and with weather forecasters promising a few days of very decent weather, on Wednesday 26 January we headed south and east through Texas into Louisiana. Weather, time and distances made New Orleans a bridge too far for us this time, but north-eastern and mid- Louisiana seemed like a possibility, before winter was due to resume its performance.
(Route was roughly diagonal from top left to bottom right on map below - 1375 mile round-trip).



There was an overnight stop in Mount Pleasant, Texas. Let's see - what has Mount Pleasant got to recommend it? Well - a lorra lorra churches; also a meeting hall with a big sign outside "The Devout Women of God", nextdoor a design company called "Redemption Design", and nearby a Bikers' Church. Feeling pretty unworthy in such surroundings we holed up at a Best Western, stayed in and watched American Idol. The thought of Mount Pleasant's Devout Women was even more scary than some of the manic Idol auditioners!

Next day we kept heading east and onto Interstate 20, entered Louisiana at Shreveport, arriving in West Monroe around mid-day. Checked in at the Hilton Garden Inn for 3 nights.

The weather, for those three or four days, was just perfect: skies cloudless, sunny, warm (high 60s/70 degrees) - in late January, it could not have been better if I'd ordered it myself!

West Monroe and Monroe are called The Twin Cities by locals. They are, these days, really just one big city divided by the river Ouachita (pronounced Washitaa). Once upon a time, in the state's French days Monroe was called Poste-du-Ouachita. West Monroe is itself made up of what were originally two different towns, Cotton Port and Trenton. I guess that cotton grown in the surrounding area used to be transported along the river by steamboat.

Up in the north-eastern section of the state there's not much evidence of the Cajun influence referred to in most movies and books set in Louisiana. They still get into Mardi-Gras mode though. 2011 Mardi Gras will be on 13 February, stores are already "suiting-up" with tinsel, wreaths and decor in the traditional Mardi Gras colours of purple green and gold.

We visited West Monroe's Antique Alley - an old street full of antique shops. We asked a lady in one of the stores about the Mardi Gras colours, but beyond knowing they were traditional she wasn't aware of their significance. Yours truly needs to know these things (of course!) Google, on return home, satisfied my curiosity (I say "on return home", because although we carried our laptop on the trip I swore off the computer for the duration, apart from brief checking of a map and weather forecast.)

The traditional colors of Mardi Gras are purple (symbolic of justice), green (symbolic of faith) and gold (symbolic of power). The accepted story behind the original selection of these colors originates from 1872 when the Grand Duke Alexis Romanoff of Russia visited New Orleans. It is said that the Grand Duke came to the city in pursuit of an actress named Lydia Thompson. During his stay, he was given the honor of selecting the official Mardi Gras colors by the Krewe of Rex...thus, did these colors also become the colors of the House of Romanoff. The 1892 Rex Parade theme ("Symbolism of Colors") first gave meaning to the representation of the official Mardi Gras colors.

So now we know!

On Saturday we ventured a little deeper into Louisiana, taking Highway 165 through Columbia - a small town - an old steamboat stop on the River Ouachita.




On to Olla where, wandering along a row of mostly deserted stores fronting the railway line, we met Madge, who had recently bought some of the properties there, one of which used to be a hotel. Madge (the figure in a red sweater; Himself is in foreground, in photo below) intends to refurbish and reopen the hotel. This is going to take a lot of hard work -and optimism! Madge was full of enthusiasm for her task. If anyone can do it - I reckon Madge can.



Madge shows us how the row of buildings used to look in the 1920s.



She told us that most of the bricks used to construct this row of buildings came from "the fires in Chicago" - early-ish 20th century I think. They were carted away from Chicago by rail and dumped at various points on the route, then used to build property in the new locations. Some of the bricks still bear shiny dark markings - scars of the fires.

As we left, Madge ran after us with some leaflets and a couple of lapel pins in the shape of the state (an "L"-shape as it happens) with "Olla" printed on them. "Wear them with pride!" she called. And we shall.

Next town.....well, well, well.... Urania. Muse of astronomy and (in my book) astrology!



Not a lot to see in Urania though. We are told by the sign that it has a "Population of 792 Good People and a few old KNOTHEADS". Wikipedia tells me that: Urania was established in the late 1890s by lumbering magnate Henry E. Hardtner, who is considered "Louisiana's first conservationist." But can one be both lumbering magnate and conservationist in one lifetime? Conserving his fortune, perhaps, hardly conserving the forests. Perhaps he was one of the old Knotheads!



We then drove a short distance west before heading back north along Highway 167 to West Monroe, and came upon Winnfield, birthplace of Huey P. Long. I'd read about this guy a while ago, and had admired his story. Though when I mentioned Long to my husband he had said, "But I thought he was a crook".

"Huh? Well if he was, we need a crook just like Huey Long in this country NOW!"

From Answers.com

During the era of the Great Depression, Huey Pierce Long was a larger-than-life politician who gained national attention as Louisiana's "Kingfish" -- a nickname he gave himself. Long was a high school drop-out who taught himself law and became a member of the Louisiana bar in 1915. In 1918 he moved to Shreveport and began a political career as a lively opponent of corporate wealth and privilege, targeting giants such as John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. From 1928 until 1932, Long served as Louisiana's governor and launched an ambitious and successful program of public works. Long also ruled over a statewide political machine whose corrupt methods caused critics to regard him as a demagogue and political thug. While still governor, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930; preferring to stay on as governor for a while, he didn't show up in Washington until January of 1932. Moderately a Democrat, Long was a radical populist with presidential ambitions who began a national campaign called "Share the Wealth," a campaign that included minimum salaries and caps on income and property. He openly opposed the economic policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a fellow Democrat, and railed against the influence of the wealthy few.
A month after announcing that he would run for president, Long was shot in the Louisiana statehouse in Baton Rouge on 8 September 1935. He died two days later at the age of 42. The official story is that Long was shot by Dr. Carl Weiss, who was then shot to death by Long's bodyguards. Weiss was the son-in-law of Louisiana Judge Benjamin Pavy, a long-time political foe of Long's. The absence of evidence in the matter has been fodder for conspiracy theories ever since, a minor part of Long's legacy in Louisiana.
Long was the basis for Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, All The King's Men (1946).

We happened upon this bayou, a typically Louisiana swampy scene, trees garlanded with graceful mossy pendants.





One more evening in West Monroe - went to see The King's Speech - then, eager to miss some threatened winter storms, on Sunday we headed homeward with one more overnight stop in Paris, Texas. The weather forecasters were becoming quite excited about an arctic storm coming in from the west and another system headed up from the Gulf of Mexico. The word tornado was mentioned more than once. We decided to get home as early as possible on Monday, which they said was due to be "very bad". However, we arrived home around 2.00 PM under blue skies and mild temperatures. Those weather forecasters do like to scare the wotnot out of us at times, but they mean well.

We enjoyed Louisiana. Some natives may not be as enthusiastic. One waitress, asking me if I was homesick for England, when I answered, "Not as much as I used to be", she said "It has to be better than Lousy-ana!"

And so, tucked up safely in southwest Oklahoma, we awaited arrival of the winter storm. It arrived before midnight - this morning we have a covering of a couple of inches or so of snow layered with nasty, dangerous ice pellets, brisk winds, blowing snow and brutal cold continuing. We are, though much better off than the Oklahoma City area, 80 miles north of us, and better too than the places we drove from yesterday, some of whom now have tornado warnings to add to the "fun".

I hope we don't lose power - but it's a distinct possibility.

(Clicking on most of the photographs should enlarge them. Some are by me some by Himself.)