5/29 - World Digestive Health Day

Image from page 15 of "The chemist and druggist [electronic resource]" (1859)

~~ Pepcid

World Digestive Health Day marks the anniversary of the creation of the World Gastroenterology Organisation. Digestive health is Serious business and also serious Business. When I went looking for art for this I became seriously aware just what big business the field of Digestive Health aka Gut Health is. Gastroenterologists are medical doctors who specialize in this general area. There is a lot of science involved, but science is a process, a process of discovery and learning, so things keep changing. In addition, there is very often an element of uncertainty, and, in many cases, downright ignorance. That ignorance can run from "we're not completely such which of these treatments is best" to "we have absolutely no idea how to treat what you've got".

There are also a ton of nostrums and have been since ancient times. (I was tempted to search some antiquarian sites for a picture of a bottle of putative snake oil for the lead photo.) There are companies that specialize in producing nostrums for digestive problems and even companies that specialize in marketing them for others. Many stores of several differing types devote great amounts of shelf space to over the counter remedies, and there are also a lot of prescription medicines. Some of the latter, such as some of the infusions for problems like Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis cost thousands per dose. Some treatments have side effects that are not at all pleasant but which, nonetheless, are preferable to the malady being treated.

When all of that i said and done, it is just another awareness day BUT, in this case there is the implicit need to be proactive with regard to achieving and maintaining good digestive health, because anybody's digestive health can go south at any time without any warning.That being the case, it is somewhat incumbent upon most of us to learn something about the matter, if only that the answer to any gut issue isn't necessarily simply reaching for the Pepto Bismol

In the US, for 2003, it is Memorial Day, one of those floating holidays with a highly variable date because, in this case, it is a Monday holiday.

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On this day in history:

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1416 – The Venetians defeated a much larger Ottoman fleet off Gallipoli.

1453 -- Fall of Constantinople and end of the Byzantine Empire.

1660 -- Charles II was restored to the throne of England, Ireland and Scotland

1733 -- The right of Canadians to enslave Native Americans was upheld

1790 -- Rhode Island became the 13th state of the US

1798 -- Between 300 and 500 United Irishmen were murdered by the British Army

1851 – Sojourner Truth delivered her famous Ain't I a Woman? speech at the Woman’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

1852 -- Jenny Lind left the US to return to Britain

1864 -- Emperor Maximilian I arrived in Mexico

1867 -- The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 created the Austro-Hungarian Empire

1886 -- The first advertisement for Coca-Cola was placed

1913 -- Stravinsky's Rite of Spring premiered

1918 -- Armenia defeated the Ottoman Army at Sardarabad

1919 -- Einstein's theory of general relativity was tested by Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.

1932 -- The Bonus Army began to assemble in DC

1950 – The first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrived in Halifax

1953 -- Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary summited Everest

1964 – The Arab League met to discuss the Palestinian question, leading to the formation of the PLO.

1973 -- Tom Bradley was elected the first black mayor of L.A.

1990 -- The Russian parliament elected Yeltsin President

1999 – Elected civilian Olusegun Obasanjo took office as President of Nigeria

1999 -- The Discovery successfully docked with the ISS

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Some people who were born on this day:

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

ALSO

Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

~~ John F. Kennedy

1794 – Johann Heinrich von Mädler, astronomer and selenographer
1797 – Louise-Adéone Drölling, painter
1823 -- John H. Balsley, inventor of the safety step-ladder
1860 -- Isaac Albeniz, pianist and composer
1871 – Clark Voorhees, painter
1874 -- G. K. Chesterton, writer, father Brown's dad.
1880 -- Oswald Spengler, historian and philopopher
1893 -- Max Brand, author
1906 -- T. H. White, writer
1914 -- Tenzing Norgay, who summited Everest on his 39th birthday in 1953
1917 -- John F. Kennedy, politician, the first Kennedy to be assassinated
1923 – Eugene Wright, jazz bassist
1929 -- Peter Higgs, physicist, the boson dude.
1932 -- Paul R. Ehrlich, biologist and writer
1935 – Sylvia Robinson, singer and producer
1937 – Irmin Schmidt, keyboard player and composer
1945 -- Gary Brooker, singer, songwriter, pianist, founding member of Procul Harum
1945 -- Catherine Lara, violinist, composer and singer
1947 -- Joey Levine, singer, songwriter, producer & jingle writer
1949 -- Francis Rossi, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1953 -- Danny Elfman, singer, songwriter, producer and actor (Oingo Boingo)
1955 -- Mike Porcaro, bassist
1956 -- La Toya Jackson, singer, songwriter, actress
1959 - Mel Gaynor, English drummer
1959 -- Steve Hanley, bassist
1961 -- Melissa Etheridge, singer, songwriter, activist and guitarist
1961 -- John Miceli, drummer
1963 -- Blaze Bayley, singer and songwriter
1967 -- Noel Gallagher, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1968 – Hida Viloria, activist
1969 -- Chan Kinchla, guitarist (Blues Treveler)
1975 – Mel B, singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress, Scary Spice
1990 – Erica Garner, civil rights activist

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Some people who died on this day:

I have learned more from my mistakes than from my successes.

~~ Humphry Davy

1453 -- Constantine XI Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor who went down with his empire
1500 -- Bartolomeu Dias, explorer
1829 -- Humphry Davy, chemist
1847 -- Emmanuel de Grouchy, Marquis de Grouchy, he overpursued von Thielmann and Bonaparte fell.
1866 -- Winfield Scott, committer of great wrongs against the Cherokee and others
1911 -- W. S. Gilbert, Sullivan's partner
1917 – Kate Harrington, poet and educator
1953 -- Morgan Russell, painter
1958 – Juan Ramón Jiménez, poet and academic
1970 – Eva Hesse, artist
1996 – Tamara Toumanova, ballerina and actress
2012 -- Doc Watson, singer, songwriter, legend, and guitarist
2013 – Mulgrew Miller, pianist and composer
2014 -- Walter Jakob Gehring, biologist
2022 – Ronnie Hawkins, rockabilly singer-songwriter and guitarist

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Oak Apple Day (England), celebrates the end of Roundhead rule.
World Digestive Health Day
Memorial Day (US)

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Today's Tunes

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Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

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Isaac Albeniz>

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Gary Brooker>

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Catherine Lara

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Joey Levine

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Francis Rossi

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Danny Elfman

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Mike Porcaro

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La Toya Jackson

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Steve Hanley (bass)

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Melissa Etheridge

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John Miceli

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Blaze Bayley

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Noel Gallagher

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Chan Kinchla

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Mel B

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W.S. Gilbert

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Doc Watson

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There are about 90 more Doc Watson songs here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9wjNjYmjDo&list=PL48446023595864E7&index=2, won't embed
it has some scattered ads.

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Ronnie Hawkins

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Bonus:

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Asturias as arranged and explained by Paola Hermosin (en Espanol)

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Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?

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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

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mimi's picture

my body is immune to crap and my guts so sensible to crap that nothing can crap me out anymore. Thanks for all the music offerings. As always I like them very much.

Feed my Sheep - of course I would feed my friends. Goes back to Texas?

Have all the best Monday there is. Smile

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enhydra lutris's picture

@mimi

Good to know that you're immune to crap, there is a lot of it about. Not too sure about sheep and Texas - I believe they had some wars between cattlemen and sheepmen there back in the day.

Glad you like the tunes.
be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

mimi's picture

@enhydra lutris
to feed the poor who have not enough means to feed themselves appropriately. I just heard about it, because my son works with a couple of guys to "feed the poor". It can't be too wrong to help people to get something to eat, right?

christian this or that, at least you need to eat something... Wink

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enhydra lutris's picture

@mimi

Tejas, though, of course, maybe otc

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

OLinda's picture

Good morning, everybody.

Thank you for the Open Thread, e l.

A sad holiday, but I hope C99ers are enjoying a day off or long weekend. Or just a nice day today. I am retired, so every day is a holiday.

Noticed the tagline by the C99 logo: ”free-range politics, organic community.” I don't recall it from when I was here a long while ago. Maybe I have just forgotten, or maybe it is new. Anyway, I love it! Very smart and creative.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@OLinda

Not sure about the logo or the origin or that phrase, which I too like a lot. Among other things, I almost never come in through the front page and nearly never see it, and that's been the case for my whole time here.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

soryang's picture

Tim's memorial day contribution. The latest article on his web site appears to be blocked, but I'm getting free access to some others. I read his presentation on the Rise of Japan's Self Defense Forces, and his article The NSA Four on NSA whistle blowers which had 911 ramifications as well as the domestic surveillance network in the US. In his article on the SDF, he quotes a passage from Sterling and Peggy Seagrave's book Golden Warrior about the looted Asian gold collected from Japanese conquered territory on behalf of the Emperor's family by Yushio Kodama. This gold, served as a get out of jail free card for Japanese war criminals. Tim said at the time he wrote this that he would have a forthcoming article referring to James Bamford, who is an authority on Japanese military campaigns but didn't find it.

Looks like Osan.

Is this the Korean version of Russiagate?

SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States should step up their cooperation to counter disinformation and cyber operations by China and Russia, a former U.S. nuclear negotiator said Thursday.

Joseph DeTrani made the remarks during a conference hosted by the Korean Association of Area Studies via video link, saying Moscow and Beijing have engaged in information operations against Seoul on any issue that is "not in sync" with their interests.

"Over the decades, Moscow has pursued an aggressive, active measures program to sow dissent and chaos in free democratic societies with a program of disinformation to erode trust in our democratic institutions, attempted to control the foreign press, forging documents, disseminating rumors and lies, altering facts, and working with front organizations," DeTrani said.

He added Russia has exploited such information systems with the advent of social media platforms to sow chaos and discord within the U.S., and cautioned that it will use these "malicious tools" to attack any country not supportive of its policies.

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20230525009800325

Haven't seen any empirical evidence to support this contention. This Yonhap article doesn't provide any either. The suggestion is that active South Korean domestic opposition to the Yoon administration's policies are directed by foreigners. This is little more than the contemporary version of McCarthyism. Yoon is unpopular because the South Korean public by and large don't believe his policies are in the best interest of South Korea and its people.

The Hiroshima venue served to camouflage Japan's other main objective at the G7 to seek international approval or at least acquiescence to begin dumping Fukishima meltdown cooling water contaminated with radioactive particles into the Pacific Ocean in the near future. US pressure to get South Korea to "improve relations with Japan," has as a subtext, to assist the Kishida regime by putting the South Korean mark of approval on this controversial "resolution" of one of the accumulating residual manifestations of the Fukishima nuclear disaster there. This is a raging controversy in South Korea. The dumping will go on for thirty years as I understand the reports. The underlying US-Japanese motive is to present the appearance of solidified opposition to China, by removing this troubling ongoing Japanese issue, with the appearance of international approval.

(Source- Fact TV 5.28 youotube) Professor Emeritus Nuclear Engineering Seo Kyun-ryeol.

The Yoon government has arranged for, allegedly with Japanese cooperation, to have a "team of experts" travel to Japan to investigate the health and safety ramifications of dumping millions of tons of irradiated water into the Pacific. Allegedly, this water has been purified in a process called ALPS, to remove all the radionuclides except for tritium. I'm not a nuclear scientist or engineer. But I've been listening to an expert in South Korea who is emeritus professor of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University. It is his opinion that the ALPS process as it currently stands most likely will not consistently remove all radionuclides. His proposal is that the storage capacity in water tanks at Fukishima be doubled or tripled while scientists examine on how to make the filtration processes more effective. He says this could give the world one or two more years to safeguard environment, ecology and health. Naturally, this professor's views, who may be the most qualified nuclear engineer in South Korea, is anathema to the political, economic, and industrial interests who oppose any question or skepticism by the scientific community or the public interests who will be potentially affected by a hasty and reckless disposition of nuclear contaminated water. The Japanese government and TEPCO prefer to refer to the water as processed water rather than contimated water.

One of the points the professor makes which should be a familiar one to all of us who have just gone through the covid debacle, is the characteristic dissimulation and denial by public officials and many "experts" with a vested interest bias in government and industry policy outcomes. Professor Seo portrays the same kind of unscientific approaches by TEPCO, the government of Japan, the IAEA, and now, the current South Korean administration. The IAEA is nominally the ultimate authority on the efficacy and safety for the proposed release. Ostensibly they will function as independent outsiders verifying measurements by Japanese authorities monitoring the radiation levels of contaminated and later processed water released into the Pacific. There will also be environment radiation monitoring outside nuclear reactor site at Fukishima. Yet IAEA admits they have no legal authority over TEPCO, MITI or Japan's NRA. His point is that these institutions cannot be trusted under the circumstances.

The current South Korean administration has sent their expert team to inspect the process by which the water discharge will be undertaken. Curiously, the South Korean press has been denied access to the group (by the Japanese police) and the identity of the team members has not been released. Further, the team's experts will not be allowed to take samples so as to facilitate conducting their own evaluations randomly or otherwise from the stored processed water. The role of team is only that of observers, who will visit the facility, look at some documents, and hear some presentations from Japanese authorities and experts. In a word, the entire effort by the current South Korean administration to portray that it is protecting the health and welfare of its people, environment and foodstuff markets is regarded as worthless by critics, like Professor Seo. Among his other credentials Professor Seo received his Phd in nuclear engineering from MIT.

I liked this most recent addition to Asia Pacific Journal Japan Focus which may be of some interest to anyone with an interest in Fukushima in which the author's private radiation monitoring is presented in a traditional Japanese historical context (somewhat lengthy book excerpt in English from not too long after the disaster).

An Introduction to Durian Sukegawa’s A Dosimeter on the Narrow Road to Oku

Durian Sukegawa and Alison Watts

May 15, 2023
Volume 21 | Issue 5 | Number 1
Article ID 5772

Abstract: In this introduction to an excerpt from Durian Sukegawa’s travel memoir A Dosimeter on the Narrow Road to Oku, I give an outline of Sukegawa’s biography, his reasons for undertaking a journey by bicycle in 2012 along Matsuo Basho’s route in The Narrow Road to Oku, and the reasons for my own particular interest in this text. The translation covers the section of his journey from Fukagawa to Nasu. It won the 2021 Kyoko Selden Memorial Translation Prize in Japanese Literature, Thought, and Society.

https://apjjf.org/2023/5/Sukegawa-Watts.html

Saw this SCSPI tweet on Chinese South China Sea claims.

Periodically, I like to do research on this issue and found this "scholarly" article:

China’s Recent Invention of “Nanhai Zhudao” in the South China Sea (Part 1: The birth of “Nanhai Zhudao”, Part 2: Examining the “Nanhai Zhudao” legal basis)

On December 12, 2019, after Malaysia made the new Submission for the extended continental shelf, China sent a note to protest Malaysia. On this note, China announced a new concept, “Nanhai Zhudao,” that surprised many officials and scholars interested in the South China Sea dispute.

https://usvietnam.uoregon.edu/en/chinas-recent-invention-of-nanhai-zhuda...

Maybe this isn't for everyone. I found the thesis of the article to be a strawman. Footnote 4 in Part I, seems to undermine the foundation of the entire thesis. Looks like an attempt to harmonize US and Vietnamese interests in the SCS based upon an optional interpretation of one phrase. On the other hand, this doesn't mean that affected states in the SCS region should accept each and every Chinese asserted claim in particular, or the entire scope of its EEZ claims in the SCS. These should be matters for negotiation by the affected parties. However, I consider the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration decision on the SCS dispute between the Philippines and China to be "playing with words" as well, and its findings actually useless as a legal or diplomatic starting point for resolution of the maritime disputes there.

As a practical matter there is no significant interference in freedom of navigation in the SCS, so why is the English language media always trying to pretend that there is?

The Real Risks of Military Encounters Between China and the U.S. in China’s Surrounding Waters
2022-09-13 | Hu Bo
http://www.scspi.org/en/dtfx/real-risks-military-encounters-between-chin...

Thanks for the OT EL. Our family has had some difficulties with the legal and administrative CYA approach of gastroenterologists and their organizations. Of course they need to conduct and interpret both invasive and non-invasive diagnostic procedures, and always uppermost in their considerations is devising means to avoid accountability for any mistakes they (may potentially) make or injuries they cause. Patients medical interests are secondary.

Wishing good health to everyone.

(edit) so far so good.

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語必忠信 行必正直

enhydra lutris's picture

@soryang @soryang

things Asian and all the goings on there. Sorry to hear that

Our family has had some difficulties with the legal and administrative CYA approach of gastroenterologists and their organizations.

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FWIW, I'm a long time ulcerative colitis sufferer, and my much younger sister, after I had left for college, learned she had Crohn's from the family doctor who told her "I'm sorry to say this, but we have absolutely no idea how to treat what you've got". I'm lucky in that my health care provider really tries to be one, and, specifically, works closely with the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation.

Be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

soryang's picture

@enhydra lutris ...that I may overreact to some of the administrative tricks and things doctors do, say or omit to say, related to consultations and procedures.

Sorry to hear about your Crohn's disease experiences. My brother had it bad when he was a young man. Fortunately, he had the best medical doctor in New York treat it surgically. He has had a great recovery with no complications, and a full career and family life since.

I'm glad to hear you're getting good care from a conscientious provider. I think the impersonal nature of some clinical practices is really what is bothering me.

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語必忠信 行必正直

QMS's picture

this weekend is difficult to digest
almost got stuck in 2 parades
the flag is only a symbol of moar woar
at least the sheep aren't flying the Ukie
flags as much anymore

thanks for posting the OT!

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truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

it despite the parades. Haven't been outside yet today, but I don't plan on going beyond the yard when I do, and rarely do anymore. Even in normal times we have a percentage of the population who drive around flying US flags from their car windows or giant ones from the bed of their pick-ups. Never understood that, like "duh, yeah, that's where we are alright". I mean, we haven't been Mexico since 1848, and only Fort Ross was ever Russian. And, of course, when the US flag did come here it was definitely as a flag of war.

Ah well, be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

Some of you may have tried to reconcile Ronnie Hawkins' Forty Days (above) with Chuck Berry's Thirty Days that Joe played last Friday, which I'll repeat here for those who missed it:

So, I thought I'd simplify the matter by going back to the Carter Family, and, in particular, June (later to become June Carter Cash):

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

QMS's picture

@enhydra lutris

love the June Carter number

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truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Shahryar's picture

The establishment has redefined them all and not in a good way. I happened to be watching golf yesterday and in that tournament there was a moment of silence for those that died in wars. And then some jerks started chanting "USA! USA!" because Memorial Day is now another War Day. Yippee! War!

I remember way back when, in high school we had a special Memorial Day assembly and the oldest teacher would read the names of the kids who'd died, going back as far as World War I, people she'd known. It was pretty moving and a powerful condemnation of war.

But that was then. Now we have a violent society that's breaking down. Rudeness prevails. Get what you can, when you can, on a personal level and on a national level.

Here are our national holidays and what they now mean:

Martin Luther King Jr's birthday - get rid of affirmative action because the Rev. King didn't want to see skin color as an issue.

President's Day - (yuck...no longer Lincoln's birthday or Washington's birthday but a day to respect all Presidents) accept the authority of whoever gets put into power

Memorial Day - support the troops and war

Independence Day - set off fireworks in an aggressive way that emulates war

Labor Day - please ignore this as being for workers' rights, just see it as a 3 day weekend

Columbus Day - uh...yeah.

Veterans Day - was Armistice Day, was Peace at Last Day, now more war supporting.

Thanksgiving - well, questionable anyway, what with the actual history, but I've seen people getting irate because not enough other people were "thanking the troops!"

Christmas - Because Jesus wanted only to reform the banking system and make it easier for people to afford to buy presents

Today would be a good day, I think, to get off the internet!

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Shahryar

remember its conversion to Veterans Day. As I have noticed elsewhere, we are a war economy and a warfare state, so, clearly, celebrating the outbreak of peace is truly fatuous. It is sad, but there it is.

As to Thanksgiving, it is laughable, there is nobody and nothing to thank and the history of the holiday is odious.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

@Shahryar

Big W's B-day was enacted by Congress and then later moved with no name change to a Monday. Neither the name nor the day is binding on the states and since the move placed it near Lincoln's b-day as well, a lot of states adopted variably punctuate versions of dia de los presidentes, to wit:

"Presidents' Day" in Hawaii, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Washington.

"President's Day" in Alaska, Idaho, Maryland, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

"Presidents Day" in Nevada and Oregon.

above quote per da wiki

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

@enhydra lutris

"Presidents' Day" == all the Presidents' Day,

"President's Day" == the sitting/serving President's Day, currently Biden's Day

"Presidents Day" == the most ungrammatical President's Day, probably G. W. Bush's Day because Quayle didn't get elected

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

OLinda's picture

@Shahryar

Well said, Shahryar.

Nearly 2 decades ago, I called family members and told them I would not be buying Christmas presents anymore. One in-law was so happy, and she thanked me. You could hear the relief in her voice. Shopping duty fell to her in her family, and this meant she didn't have to shop for me any more.

I am similarly unenthusiastic about all the holidays.

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in preparation for trial in the morning. I anticipated flags, a courthouse lawn gathering to thank the troops, but town was dead, not a flag waving other than the permanent one on the courthouse lawn.
I am pleased that Ukie flags never flew here.
I do not celebrate any holiday in any traditional way. It is just a calendar date I do not have to work. (Except that 90 minutes I spent readying my exhibits for trial tomorrow.)
My food digestion is a-ok, but digesting the news is sometimes stomach cramp worthy.
Have a great day, El, et. al.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

OLinda's picture

@on the cusp

Hello fellow non-celebrator Smile

Good luck with the trial tomorrow.

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@OLinda Thanksgiving is mortifying to me, as it celebrates Natives trying to keep Puritans from starving to death, only to be the victims of genocide and theft of treasure by said Puritans.
Columbus was a murderer. I have stood at the site in Panama where he killed 800 plus natives by chopping off their arms, stacking them in a pile, because they didn't accept Jesus as their Savior. (They didn't speak Spanish. Duh.) And Christmas is a date selected by early Christians and the Vatican to match up with a celebration date of the pagans. It made their conversion from one belief thing to another much easier. Veteran's Day should be a mass protest against war, as well as Memorial Day. 4th of July fireworks freak out veterans. Easter is some celebration of the failure of crucifixion to finally kill off the dude who hated interest. Labor Day is a day where laborers are forced to work or get fired. Mother's Day was created at the behest of Hallmark Cards. Cute.
I could go on, but I refused to buy things, act accordingly, eat accordingly because of some arbitrary calendar date dedicated to an assortment of people I would not have invited into my home says I must. I have been this way since my late teens, early twenties. I am 71 plus 20 days.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

I know what you mean about the news, it causes dyspepsia and even ulcers.
We aren't particularly traditional about most holidays, depending upon what that means. We do exchange goodie baskets on Eostre, because, hey - chocolate. There is no Indy on memorial day any more, but we have been known to indulge in grilled hot dogs or burgers with potato salad, but usually wine instead of beer and we do xmas decorations to cheer the place up in the dead of winter and give each other/ourselves "gifts" that the other or we as a team would be buying anyway.

Thanks for the well wishes

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris 80
s, when my secretary brought some to the office. And she put a wreath on the door.
I do not like turkey. I am a Thanksgiving bummer person. And I hate wieners. July 4th bummer person.
I do love finding some goofy gift for Dear One at Christmas. He gets me flowers for Valentine's Day for the office, but it is mostly to show people that at least one person loves me, so I am not a complete and total bitch. Lol!
Nah...he showers me with flowers. But he always does.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

woman who eventually married me a single long stemmed rose and a Baby Ruth candy bar, and I've been stuck with it ever since.

Didn't have much in the way of xmas as a kid, so I now do it because I can.

Love weiners brats, polish, etc, but got no use for fireworks

I actually like turkey, the way I make it

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris and mates are the tradition that matters. Dear One did not want a birthday gift. So, after we went to a Lyle Lovett concert, I secretly got him the featuring most of the concert music DVD for a whopping $13.00!
And, that's how we roll around here!

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

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QMS's picture

@humphrey

armed to the hilt, ready for battle
waging peace is a bloody affair
kinda rhymes with democracy and freedom
warring tribes are just that, nothing more

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truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security

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and rain coming. more mosquitoes.
Gardeners are turning flips for joy.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981