Sunday, June 26, 2011

LONE GUNMEN: RFK Assassination

According to Linda Deutsch of the Associated Press ((6/5/11), "Paul Schrade,who was shot in the head alongside his friend, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, ...now believes there was more than one gunman in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel when he and Kennedy and four other were shot...I know there was a second gunmen based on evidence. Schrade would provide no further details, because he plans to publish a book on the RFK assassination.

Commentary:  Elsewhere in the world and throughout history, the majority of assassinations involved more than one man. Only in the U.S. is a lone gunmen involved in all assassinations, which is mathematically improbable.
You might say, what about Lincoln. If you took history in school up until maybe 20 years ago, there was no mention of a wider conspiracy---John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln (end of story).

Thursday, June 16, 2011

UNTOLD STORIES: Edward Day Cohota

Edward Day Cohota

"In 1845, Sargent S. Day, captain of the square-rigged merchant ship Cohota, left Shanghai, China, bound for Massachusetts. Two days from port, he discovered two little half-starved Chinese boys on board. The older boy died, but Day "adopted" the younger boy and named him Edward Day Cohota. Edward sailed the world with Captain and Mrs. Day until the captain retired to Gloucester, Mass. in 1857. He attended school and the other Day children treated him as a brother.
With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Cohota joined the 23rd Massachusetts Infantry. He fought in the Battle of Drury's Bluff near Richmond, Va., on May 16, 1864, and at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864. He stayed with the Army of the Potomac through the end of the war. After the war, Cohota rejoined the Army and was stationed at Fort Randall, Dakota Territory. He married and had six children. He served in the Army for 30 years. He believed that his military service qualified him for U.S. citizenship. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion act, a legal measure enacted to cease the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States. Because Cohota hadn't submitted his second set of naturalization papers prior to the passing of this Act, he ultimately was unable to gain American citizenship. Cohota died at the Battle Mountain Sanitarium for Veterans in Hot Springs, S.D., in 1935."---US ARMY

Friday, June 10, 2011

GOT JUJU?: Little Red Riding Hood & Werewolves

"These early variations of the tale differ from the currently known version in several ways. The antagonist is not always a wolf, but sometimes an ogre or a ‘bzou’ (werewolf)... The wolf usually leaves the grandmother’s blood and meat for the girl to eat, who then unwittingly cannibalises her own grandmother. Furthermore, the wolf was also known to ask her to remove her clothing and toss it into the fire. In some versions, the wolf eats the girl after she gets into bed with him, and the story ends there. In others, she sees through his disguise and tries to escape, complaining to her "grandmother" that she needs to defecate and would not wish to do so in the bed. The wolf reluctantly lets her go, tied to a piece of string so she does not get away. However, the girl slips the string over something else and runs off...".---Wikipedia

Commentary:
1.  The brothers Grimm (ironic name) gathered old folk tales and sanitized them for 19th century mid-class readers.
2.  The correct term is were-wolf.
3.  Native Americans use the term "shape-shifter", which are humans (evil), who take the form of animals (sometimes other than wolves).
4.  Look up the word "lyncathropy" in the dictionary.
5.  Want to be scared? Watch the movie "Dog Soldiers"
6.  Personally, I don't believe in vampires, but a werewolf will get you every time!

GOT JUJU?: Hell-hounds

I got to keep movinnnn', I got to keep movinnnn',
Blues fallin' down like hail, blues fallin' down like hail,
Mmmmm-mm-mm-mm, blues fallin' down like hail, blues fallin' down like hail,
And the day keeps on worrin' me, there's a hell-hound on my trail,
Hell-hound on my trail, hell-hound on my trail.---Blues song by Robert Johnson, 1937   Commentary:  Robert Johnson was an obscure blues musician, until by his own report he met the devil at a cross roads at midnight and sold his soul.  He later became and still is one of the most influential blues musicians in history.  At the beginning of his meteoric success Robert Johnson was allegedly poisoned by a jealous husband. If you believe in the devil, it would be just like him to "collect his dues" at the right time.