The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    A Rare Celestial Event + a Dagblog Roast

                                                                       

                            

    For the first time in 456 years on the Winter Solstice there will be a total lunar eclipse.  The last time the two events occurred simultaneously was in 1554, according to NASA, during the reign of the Tudors.  According to The Montreal Gazette:

    “An otherwise seemingly unexceptionable year in recorded history, the darkened moon happened during a bleak year for Tudor England.

    Lady Jane Grey was beheaded for treason that year, while Princess Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Mary of Guise — the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots — became regent of Scotland.”

    and:

    "It's a ritual of transformation from darkness into light," says Nicole Cooper, a high priestess at Toronto's Wiccan Church of Canada. "It's the idea that when things seem really bleak, (it) is often our biggest opportunity for personal transformation.

    "The idea that the sun and the moon are almost at their darkest at this point in time really only further goes to hammer that home."

    Cooper said Wiccans also see great significance in the unique coupling of the masculine energy of the sun and the feminine energy of the moon — transformative energies that she plans to incorporate into the church's winter-solstice rituals.”

    What do you believe this Cosmic Blue Diamond might portend or herald?  Should we make it a contest?

     

    Comments

    Thanks for the history lesson. I just read a script at the bottom of the screen on MSNBC and then caught your post.


    Nope; you ain't gettin' outta a prediction, Dick!  Give it up!


    Maximum eclipse for the east coast is at 3:17 AM EST.

    So what will this portend?  I think we're due for something good so I'm going to go with some ultra longevity enhancing stem cell break through.

    But I'm always too optimistic.  We'll probably be invaded by the walking shark armies of Atlantis.


    LOL!  So you're bullish on Shark Repellent and Shark Leashes?


    It will herald:  Articleman joining the Socialist Worker’s Party; Donal trading in his bicycle for a Winnebago; Destor turning into Superman from his current Clark Kent alter-ego; Dave Seaton coming out as Julian Assange’s BFF; Dick Day becoming a Republican and taping infomercials for “We Buy Gold; Just Send It To Us in This Envelope, and We’ll Send You Back Cash!”; Larry H running as Bernie’s Veep in 2012; Don Key’s Chimp finalizing his typewriter-novel entitled “Wh@t I Did Last S@m^*r”; Sleeping Jeezus becoming an Elvis Impersonator in Vegas, and staying; LisB and Trope announcing their engagement; StillIdealistic changing her screen name to Fuck-you-all-and-the-fucking-horses-you-rode-in-on; ArtAppraiser abjuring the New York Times in favor of  a Ouija Board; Genghis and his girlfriend adopting an eighteen-year-old kid they hope to turn into a raging homosexual; wws winning the SC Lottery and sponsoring newbies in her new literary magazine; Des joining the cello band Rasputina as a bassist (formal dresses with crinolines and cleavage required); Quinn and Obey saying fuckit, and willing their brains to science to aid in a new form of intuitive micro-processor (Quinn was overheard asking, “When do you want it?”); gasket landing a full-time research job for Democracy Now!; kyle flynn gets a job with The Onion; fellow Dagbloggers give Ramona a large tin pin emblazoned with FUCK, and she wears it to all the season’s Christmas parties; CMaukonen wins the local spelling bee; Oxy Mora changes his screen name to No mora that! and creates a pseudo named Oxycontin; Seashell swims across Lake Ponchatrain; Wolfrum becomes a beachcomber on the Casa del Sol; Barth and Brew and Doc Cleveland and M. O. Powell become Shakira Groupies and follow her all over the world: 

    And an anonymous Dagblooger sent this along; it has great quotes from the Nation Council for Geocosmic Research (possibly an oxymoron...)


    Side splitting heralds, Stardust -- impossible to choose the best among them .... so I'll settle -- and gratefully so --  for winning the SC lottery. (Did I tell you I just wrote a short story about a friend winning the lottery, or are you just psychic?)


    Really???  Must be psychic; all that freakin' stardust.  Innocent  Psssssst!  Shakira is actually anna am!

    Add your own, too; I'm sure I've forgotten some, and some could be improved...  Tongue out

     


    How did you know?


    Ha!  Gotcha!  It was just a wild guess!


    hahahahaahaha

    How much does that gold dust gig pay anyway?


    Dunno; you tell US, DD!  


    Laughed the whole way through that comment. Brilliant. Sleepin as an Elvis impersonator somehow seems just right, I have no idea why.;0)

    But can I trade the brain-ectomy for the Shakira groupie gig....?


    Well sure, Obey; but Bill Gates is already accepting orders for computers with "Quinnobey Inside!"

    But okay...whatevah ya say...

     

    Bloody hell; it runs rough, doesn't it?  Ach!  You won't mind....   Cool


    quinnobey.  Lol. Good one!


    I realize I'm about to step off into sacrilege... But... If you only knew just how much I detest all things Elvis! LOL!!!

    It's a roast, Jeezus; somehow we knew that, LOL!


    But thats my point, 'cuz I do everything I can to keep my feelings toward Elvis a secret. It's kinda like Mae West when she was in court in Cincinnati, defending against obscenity or corrupting public morals charges. Or whatever. Judge: "one more outburst like that, Miss West, and I'll have no choice but to find you in contempt of this court." West: "But your honor, I was doing all I could to conceal it!"

    LOL! 


    You have no idea how perilously close you are to having hit the nail on the head with your prediction about me! I laughed so hard!

     


    We look forward to your name change, Stiili; glad it made you laugh.  Merry Christmas!  ;o)


    Dan Kervick issued a statement saying, "Intellectual pursuits are fruitless, given the moronic IQ levels of my contemporaries", and entered Esalen College to study body/mind work; Moat presented Stardust with a copy of his new book Moat for Dummies; MiguelitoH2O entered a Jesuit Monastery to learn to refrain from 'certain penchants' of his; Emma Zahn invented a new Jewish holiday she calls Let's Make a Deal!; it was discovered that Seahorse was the ghost of Charles Dickens being channeled through the GeoCosmic Research folks, chuck trotter wrote daily missives addressed to 'the Military Industrial Complex (none, oddly, were ever returned); Orlando took up playing Jimmy Buffet Lps in her apartment on the beach; and one of Stardust's two life-long wishes was answered when she was whisked away by an alien spacecraft, out of which could be heard Stardust singing:  


    Apparently you are confusing me with my ex-.  He is the Jewish one; I am the Southern one? 

    BTW, how nice. Sealed

     


    Oh, rats, Emma; I thought I'd seen your name on the Jewish Christmas thread.  What a blockhead I be. 

     


    Okay:

    So Justice Roberts and Justice Alito and Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas all decide to ride together for a Christmas Gala in DC put on by the Tea Baggers.

    A while on the road the bathroom from the International Space Station falls from the sky and hits their limo...and the 'clean-up' takes an entire week.  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

     


    Death by Dirty Diaper!  LOL!


    Pass along my sympathies to the dirty diaper.

    It don't mean much but I have to render unto Sleepin the Dayly Line of the Day Award for this here Dagblog Site, given to all of him from all of me. hahahaahahahahahahahahah


    I'm honored!

    Which is more than the diaper could say in the circumstance of being thrown into such company.


    Very, very good, Star. As for my nom de plume I think you're onto me about the drug thing. But truthfully, it's It's been a joy these past few months and as always, you bring cheer. 

    But damn, I havn't watched the last two episodes of the Tudors yet, so thanks a lot. Just wait until the next Wallander--I'm going to broadcast the ending. Tongue out


    Shoot. Oxy; our PBSs aren't showing Tudors.  Seems like 3 weeks of fundraising very two months on all the stations: Salt Lake, Denver, Albuquerque.  If I see that brain improvement doctor who looks like he sleeps in a coffin one more time selling his snake oil crap, I'll wretch.  Dr. Amen; I swear to God!

    My fave is MI-5 (Spooks in the UK).  Lord, what tension.  And glad to make you laugh, Oxy.


    *snif* I guess I will still be raising grandkids. *snif*

    Thanks for the laugh


    Bugger!  I have a list beside me of those I forgot.  You're tough; I don't know you except for grandkids; maybe I'll get a pychic flash from the Cosmic Dust....;o)


    That because I don't get time to read dag until after midnight and all the food fights are over on dag by then.  LOL  Have you ever written a blog with a 3 year old on you lap?  I end up making less sense then M. Bachmann. 


    Hell; I have enough trouble writing blogs with only myself on my lap!  ;oP


    More Fractured Fairy Tales:  kgb puts virtual itching powder down Trope's skivvies, and spends three nights in virtual jail; NCD gets appointed by Obama to replace Summers and starts kissing Wall Street's ASS, claiming, "There's something in the White House air, I swear!"; Flavius's head finally explodes over Obama's (leaked--ha ha) plans to announce he'll privatize a mere 23% of Social Security as a sign of Good Will to Republicans and anyone in the middle who figgers 'what the fuck I'm rich, so who cares about Grandma?'; and trkingmomoe get so sick of Rug Rats and all that Grandma crap that she runs off to Mexico with the Fuller Brush salesman; flowerchild's lake-saving group WINS when they find a pod of fresh-water sharks inhabiting a secret cove shown to them by a Clever Crow, thereby requiring Class One Water protections.

    MERRY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!  Cool Innocent Laughing Tongue out Wink


    You must of read my mind. I just made a comment on my blog about the Fuller Brush Man.  Hahahah    You really must be really psychic. 


    Now I'll have to go look for your blog to see if you're spoofin' me.  Were you running away with the dude in the blog?  Or in your dreams????   Or: did you buy a brush?!?   ;o)

    I try to tell ass these asshats here at Dagblog I'm psychic, but do they believe me?  NO!


    Oh! I thought you said PSYCHOTIC! Psychic? I gotta think about that. ;0)

    ROTFLMAO, Jeezus.  Maybe that was my mistake: I told folks here I'm PSYCHOTIC; I allus get them words cornfused...Rats.


    What an interesting post. And the visuals are beautiful!


    Curse me for the Blockhead I am!  How could I forget these prognostications?

    Lulu starts a national Winter Soldier group; they tell The Truth of War to one another, and go on long motorcycle trips all over the country, enjoying life, meeting and enjoying Americans in all walks of life; Emerson inherits enough money to start an injured pet center and by chance discovers that he can talk to dogs, though some of his realtives discuss 'finding a nice quiet spot for him to rest for the rest of his days; American Dreamer Wakes Up Large, decides he's had it up to his freaking eyeballs, flies to France to become an acolyte of Joseph Stiglitz and work on alternate measures of GDP factoring in pleasure and the enjoyment of sharing and sense of community; Watt Childress finally went a bit crazy trying to straddle blogging among RedState.com, Dagblog, and MyFDL--he sold his bookstore, bought a sailboat, packed his family and was last seen sailing out to sea to commune with the whales and dolphins.


    My god man...you are engaging in some serious mind reading. Just 2 days ago I was having a discussion with someone about how it would be nice if I could communicate with animals. You are good. I hope you are accurate in your forecast.

    ok my prediction: we will all find the strength to pursue our deepest passions making 2011 an incredible year and helping to make this world a better place.


    Wonderful on both, emerson.  ;o)

    And Dan: Good on 'the corpse kept on dying.'  Enjoy Esalen.


    Emerson inherits enough money to start an injured pet center and by chance discovers that he can talk to dogs, though some of his realtives discuss 'finding a nice quiet spot for him to rest for the rest of his days;

    Of ALL people, for you to make this mistake is sooo disheartening, stardust. Emerson is talking to god, not dog, you dyslexic, but hysterically funny, maniac.

    And I never swim anywhere in the winter - it's against my... er ... religion Tongue out. And if I did, it would be in the Med, not the Pont... sniff.

    Other than those minor points, you ROCKED it!

     


    A psychotic dyslexic, and I dissed God.  Whaaaaaaat?  LOL, Seashell!  Thanks fer settin' me straight.  Tongue out  (Lord; I can' type, either: 'realatives'?  Opposite of 'fakeatives'?


    aw. I was really looking forward to conversing with all animals. Thanks for dashing my dreams seashell! Geez.
    note to self: return really awesome gift I got for sea 'dreamdasher' shell.


    :<) Can be a Stiglitz acolyte here in the US?  We need him--need actually to listen to him, maybe try some of the things he suggests, that is--a hell of a lot more than the French do! 

    BTW, is the phrase "wakes up large" one that has a meaning out there in the culture that I'm not yet privy to?  Just curious...


    Yes; an acolyte should come back here to help, though Obama blows off alternate economic views regularly; seems to buy into the 'papering-over the banks balance sheets to keep the stock market above 10500 or so and keep your fingers crossed school of economics'

    'Waking up large' was my image of your becoming increasingly realistic about the administration; I've enjoyed watching your evolution.  These roasts were a bit stream-of-consciousness with either psychic or psychotic overtones informing them.  ;oP  Got some right, it seems. 

    As to how little Stiglitz influenced Sarcozy: who the hell knows?  Maybe the air at Basel III was too much to resist.  Cripes.  Oh--and Wakes up large also was a derivative in my mind of a language Picard and another being stranded together cobbled from universal themes of heroes and accepted myth as a basis for language: Eyes Wide Open.  I'm guessing you remember: 'Jamal and Darmak at Tenagra'- (or something) --that one.  ;o)  Anyway, it tripped me out.

    Merry Christmas, Dreamer.

     


    As to how little Stiglitz influenced Sarcozy

    Didn't mean to suggest Sarcozy wasn't listening to Stiglitz (I wouldn't know), but that we need to give his ideas serious credence much more than the French need to, as his ideas appear to reflect more prominent and valued strains of French than US thinking. 


    Stardust, thought you might appreciate this.  My sister-in-law, who is very cool and also much quicker on the uptake than me, asked me for a suggestion for a book to get me when we see them next week. 

    Here is what I wrote: Social Movements, the Labor Movement, the Left, and the Transformation and Future of American and Global Social Policy, 2009, Pipedream Press, Berkeley.  by By Navel Gaze

    Now the sad and probably pathetic part is that, although she later wrote to me that she thought it might be a joke, she actually searched the title.  I had to tell her it was my lameass attempt at a joke.  We agreed that, if there were a book by that title, we both could see me reading it.

    AT is right that humor often/usually comes at the expense of other people.  Good to make fun of oneself now and then, if not often.
     


    LOL!  '-by Navel Gazer' might have been the tip-off!  Being able to laugh with others at ourselves is a whole 'nother level, isn't it?  Merry Christmas, Dreamer.   Innocent


    It portends famine, war, pestilence, death, drought, poverty, exploitation, despair, ignorance and cruelty.

    In other words, more of the same.


    Wow. You and I went in completely different directions. Let's hope you are wrong on this.


    I'm sure it's just so, Dan.  I left a prediction for ya just above the Ra Ra Riot video.  ;o)


    Good song.


    THANK YOU, Stardust! The eclipse was quite beautiful. Standing outside looking up at a crystal clear sky, watching the eclipse with the bonus of a shooting star. And an owl, though no pussycat; nonetheless, a good moment to "dance by the light of the moon" if one were so minded. Hope you and yours were doing just that.


    Ah, jeez; it's been raining and snowing here for days; maybe throughtout the mountain west: an enormous cloud!    I'm so glad you were able to watch, and I love it that there was an owl.  Have iay idea what sort it might have been?  I mean 'Whooooo' it might have been?


    I set the clock so I could see the eclipse but I somehow slept through it.

    Thanks for the roast, stardust. I have to confess that I am the dummy I try to explain things to most of the time. Sorry about the collateral damage :-]

    I still like your stories. Your iguana still makes me nervous.

    May the season greet you.


    Mentioning the stories was by way of identifying my past self.  ;o)  I saw your second comment on my other diary far too late; no dashboards mean i lose track...that one i was gonna need help grasping.  You make me work, my brain, which is great, but sometimes I come up short.  Thanks, dear; good holidays to you and yours.


    A couple of hours ago a guy at work told me that liberals were taking over the country and ruining it and his justification for this comment was "because we have the most liberal president who is a socialist running the white house." Then I come here and read comments about how the president is so conservative that he has a chance of being the Republican candidate in 2012. I am exhausted from having traveled from one pole to the next but before I go I would like to make another prediction.                                            

    In the 

    in th


    In the next year I am:
    a) going to become a permanent resident of Happy Home on the Hill
    or
    b) I am going to join Watt and his family on their boat communing with the whales and dolphins 
    After all I would be useful since star has foretold my animal communication skills. Besides conversing with dolphins is sure to be less crazy than talking to humans.


    Also, the guy at work told me to buy a bible because he said I would want to start reading it once I noticed that millions of people disappeared. I think this is his way of joining the prediction wagon.


    LOL!  I say: Come the Rapture, Can I have Your Car? to those folks (via bumper sticker).  There are days I think we should get it over with and cede the planet to the cokroaches and dolphins.  ;o)

    I think we have something here with you learning to communicate with dogs; more dreams may lead you toward that, huh?  G' night, Emerson.  And yes, our President is not in any way a Leftie, but to not rile you, I'll stop there.  Innocent