WITH THE INCREASED AND INCREASING ACCEPTANCE OF PDA'S AND BLACKBERRY-ENABLED CELLULAR PHONES WITH TEXT-MESSAGING AND E-MAIL CAPABILITIES all over the place, there can be no mistaking the fact of thumbs being tired out all too quickly having to type out e-mails, blog entries and text messages on their QWERTY-keyboard PDA's.

May I recommend for your consideration studying (and using) an old telegrapher's trick known as the Phillips Abbreviated Code (after its creator, Walter Polk Phillips, an Associated Press telegrapher who came up with the first version thereof in 1879 to spare telegraphers much time in reducing the number of characters used in sending out commonly-used words where Morse code is involved) when texting or e-mailing messages from your trusty PDA--never mind where Roman characters have replaced Morse code by and large.

The key points in using Phillips Code are perhaps best explained by the following from an online transcription of the last official compilation of, and guide to, Phillips Code to be published in 1925 (and reprinted for the Bicentennial Year in 1976), which are equally worth following among the text-messaging crowd:

Intelligent use of the code is the desideratum for both sender and receiver; and, in this connection, some tried observations are submitted.

1.  To send code at top speed defeats its purpose.  Indeed, mechanical ability seems a negligible factor in moving the report, for the moderately slow sender, of even temper, and precise signals, exites no anger, and, therefore, provakes no breaking.

2.  Code should be well spaced, so that the receiver is required to make no effort in its translation.  Where the receiver is forced to solve a puzzle in a way of improper or badly used code, the context of the story is lost and a break usually follows.

3.  Seldom, if ever, should code be used at the beginning of a sentence; nor should code be used where the coded word or words precede a group of figures.

4.  Code that in itself makes a good English word should not be used in any sentence where the word coded would fit into the sense.

5.  Where two consecutive words in a sentence belong to separate ideas, they should not be contracted into a single combination; e.g., "When the vacancy occurred and the question of filling it was put to him, the governor," etc.; "And the only way to stop it was for the employers and employes to co-operate"; " * * *the nature of it is not known."

6.  The sign "cx" should be freely used, especially for such proper names as also more common English words: "the Glass amendment"; "the Wood report"; and preceding titles indeterminable, as such, from the matter just preceding: "and Immigration Inspectors John Doe and Richard Roe." The signals "i5" and "e5" should no less be neglected.

7.  Following proper names a contraction sometimes is bad: "Representative Henry of the Owen committee"; "Judge Dayton in the Hitchman Coal company case." And, occasionally, a proper name is best coded: "Congressman Henry D. Clayton."

8.  Possessives, when not clearly indicated by the context, should be specified: "The accountants report."  Here, it isn't clear whether "accountants" is nominative plural, possessive singular, or possessive plural.

9.  When the receiver breaks on a coded word, the sender should spell it out, and then repeat the code.

10.   Errors due to an oversight on the part of the sender often are better corrected in a note at the end of the item.  Many typewriters are used without ribbons, and it is difficult for the receiver to locate the place for the correction.

11.  Difficult words and proper names should be sent very slowly, without repetition.  Paradoxical as it is, it isn't the time one makes, but the time one loses that really counts on any circuit.

Which also brings to mind the famous variant of Phillips Code used in railway telegraphy, as follows:

• WIRE: Preference over everything, except 95
• 1: Wait a minute
• 2: Important business
• 3: What time is it?
• 4: Where shall I go ahead?
• 5: Have you business for me?
• 6: I am ready
• 7: Are you ready?
• 8: Close your key; circuit is busy
• 9: Close your key for priority business (wire chief, dispatcher, etc.)
• 10: Keep this circuit closed
• 12: Do you understand?
• 13: I understand
• 14: What is the weather like?
• 15: For you and another to copy
• 17: Lightning here
• 18: What is the trouble?
• 19: Form 19 train order
• 21: Meal stop
• 22: Wire test
• 23: All copy
• 24: Repeat this back
• 25: Busy on another wire
• 26: Put on grand wire
• 27: Priority; very important
• 28: Did you get my writing?
• 29: Private; deliver in sealed envelope
• 30: End of message
• 31: Form 31 train order
• 32: I understand that I am to ...
• 33: Car report; alternately, answer paid for
• 34: Message for all officers
• 35: You may use my signal to answer this
• 37: Diversion; alternately, inform all interested
• 39: Important, with priority on thru wire; alternately, sleeping-car report
• 44: Answer promptly by wire
• 73: Goodbye
• 88: Love and kisses
• 91: Superintendent's signal
• 92: Deliver promptly
• 93: Vice-president's and general manager's signals
• 95: President's signal
• 134: Who is @ the key?

There also happens to be the following Phillips Code abbreviations used for baseball reports as is of note:

• BAS: By a score of ...
• BOB: Base(s) on balls
• BTS: By the score of ...
• ING(S): Inning(s)
• IVC: Invincible
• LOB: Left on base(s)
• NBF: Now batting for ...
• NCF: Now catching for ...
• NPF: Now pitching for ...
• SKO: Score
• UMP(S): Umpire(s)

In any case, fellow textheads, may I suggest studying--and, perhaps, start using--the Phillips Code in your texting to better same time. And your thumbs. And, for that matter, bandwidth. You may be doing yourself a great favour all the while.

Sooo:

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KUDOS TO BRAVE NEW FILMS FOR BRINGING YOUR CORRESPONDENT'S TIMELY ATTENTION to the following video, which is rather revealing for what The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang of Indecision 2008 is actually saying--in effect, that he's in solidarity with the Emmanuel Goldstein of the 21st century (as in Usama bin-Laden, never mind His Fraudulency's Great Within perhaps using bin-Laden to whip up fear and loathing, not to mention Islamophobia):

Now: Any questions?

Otherwise, don't come crying to meme. The camera spake for itself.

(Be sure to share this with your friends--responsibly.)

COULD IT BE THAT THE WEATHER MAY FINALLY BE TAKING A TURN TOWARDS MORE NORMAL SPRINGTIME CONDITIONS FOR ONCE here in the Minnwissippi region?

April may be about to segue into May, so it looks obvious that more seasonably sensible weather may be on its way--even with the occasional enforced hiccup known as showers and thunderstorms.

And speaking of serious weather, The Exaggerator extends its sympathies to, and solidarity with, those afflicted by last night's severe weather (including a possible tornado) in Virginia.

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WITH SCOTUS HAVING UPHELD THE RIGHT OF STATES TO MANDATE PHOTO-BEARING IDENTITY AS A REQUISITE TO EXERCISING THE ELECTORAL FRANCHISE "to maintain the integrity of the electoral process," expect plenty of action from the weird and unwholesome element (hiding, more than likely, behind patriotic-sounding "feel-good" names) playing up crude stereotypes to prevent Certain Targeted Groups from voting in Indecision 2008 by preventing their obtaining photo-bearing identity cards as states may require.

Including claims that such identity cards could be used to process information as could be stored in super-secret FBI databanks, to be used against you in case His Fraudulency seeks to unleash the most dangerous brand of fanaticism since the Nazis unleashed Operation Valkyrie in the wake of the botched July 20, 1944 "generals' plot" against Hitler.

As a reminder, boys and girls, interference with the right to vote of any kind is considered a penal offense, with Hate Crimes Enhancements likely if those targeted are National Minorities. And should be reported to law enforcement agencies, not to mention the Voter Protection Project of People for the American Way on freecall 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Remember: "Silence=acceptance." (However, this doesn't automatically mean also that "depiction=approval," as certain hyperconservative "news portals" want us to believe.)

*************

ANOTHER REASON NOT TO HOMESCHOOL YOUR CHILDREN,  even if the argument is one of "promoting a Healthy and Proper Moral Compass" based on supposedly Traditional Moral and Familial Values as may really be anything but, if history is to be believed:

Newly-released studies suggest that children given opportunities to participate in day-care and play group schemes from an early age are less likely to develop risk for leukemia than those remaining in the family circle.

No wonder the African proverb about "dit neem 'n dorp om te verhoog 'n kind" may be right, and then some.

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A CLAUSE IN THE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT IN THE CANADIAN PROVINCE OF QUÉBEC explicitly prohibits any and all forms of advertising targeting children directly; this based on the belief that children cannot be expected to make wise shopping decisions without causing nuisance upon their parents or other adults in a position of authority, confidence and trust vis-a-vis children (foster parents, e.g.)

(In other words, the implication La Belle Province seems to have is that children should have part of their allowance put away @ their school's caisse ètudiante, traditionally associated with the local Caisse Desjardins for the sake of promoting thrift and "provident habits" based on mutual self-help.)

On the other hand, certain Zealots and True Believers of a weird and unwholesome sort (as in racists and white supremacists) want "all right-thinking White Christian families" to "do their racial duty" and "make more babies" for the sake of "racial honour."

The which may be worth thinking about when you see Europe's Funniest Commercial for 2005, made available thanks to YouTube:

Now ... any questions?

=============

MEANWHILE, YOU MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE COME ACROSS THESE APHORISMS IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER for some 40 years or so, the which happen to have serious relevance in the face of what may be a reemergence of intolerance, xenophobia and bigotry as can easily be sugarcoated by their messengers as "healthy patriot love" as seems to be abroad all the more:

CHILDREN LIVE WHAT THEY LEARN

If a child lives with criticism .... he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility .... he learns to fight.
If a child lives with fear .... he learns to be apprehensive.
If a child lives with jealousy.... he learns to feel guilt.
If a child lives with tolerance .... he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement .... he learns to be confident.
If a child lives with praise .... he learns to be appreciative.
If a child lives with acceptance .... he learns to love.
If a child lives with approval .... he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with recognition .... he learns that it is good to have a goal.
If a child lives with honesty .... he learns what truth is.
If a child lives with fairness .... he learns justice.
If a child lives with security .... he learns to trust in himself and others.
If a child lives with friendliness .... he learns the world is a nice place in which to live.

FROM TIME TO TIME, WORLDNETDAILY, A SOMEWHAT DISREPUTABLE CONSERVATIVE "NEWS PORTAL" ON THE INFORMATION STUPORBAHN, will raise the highly-sensationalist meme of "Sexpidemic!" to highlight Recent Notorious Incidents of LeTourneauism (as in teacher-student carnal relations) posing Clear and Present Danger to Morals and Decency--all for the sake, obviously, of promoting homeschooling based on the apartheid South African syllabus known as National Christian Education as one with National Salvation.

But it just so happens that we "morally superior" Americans may not have the global monopoly on LeTourneauism, if the following recent "WaiWai" item per the Mainichi Daily News out of Tokyo is to be taken as credible:

Early spring brings a new academic year to Japan and, with all the stresses of graduations and getting used to a new bunch of kids, it can often mean teachers act in ways they wouldn't normally do, frequently with carnal consequences, according to Shukan Taishu (5/7-14).

Take the case of 25-year-old junior high school teacher Emi Yasuoka, who's now embroiled in a steamy relationship with the former head teacher at her school.

"It's only my second year of teaching. Whenever I write something on the blackboard, the kids all throw erasers at my ass or use mirrors to try and look up my skirt. I've cried so many times during class," Yasuoka tells Shukan Taishu, adding that the head teacher transferred to a different school in March was the only person who ever came to her aid. As a sign of gratitude, she took the 44-year-old head teacher out for dinner. When they finished eating, he thanked her for the chance to go on a date with such a beautiful woman.

"When I heard that, I suddenly filled with loneliness and before I knew it, I'd flung my arms around him," she says.

They were soon locked in an even more intimate manner and her partner showed her another reason why he was called the head teacher.

"He flicked his tongue like a bullet on a really sensitive part and I thought something was going to pop out of me. He urged me on, saying, 'Go on, go on, finish.' When I did, something really did start coming out. It was the first time something like that had happened to me," Yasuoka says, adding she's due to meet the teacher again after Golden Week.

Also likely to meet again are elementary school teacher Mie Kanai, 37, and the 32-year-old father of one of her third grade pupils.

"One day while taking a walk beside a river near my apartment, this surfer-looking guy came over and started talking to me. I'd never met him before, but he said he was the father of one of the boys in my class. I was surprised how young he looked," Kanai tells Shukan Taishu.

The father soon showed his juvenile side, however, when he remarked to Kanai that his son had told him his teacher's breasts were bouncy and that the boy had got his assumption right. Kanai says she laughed at the ice-breaking comment. The pair became friends and went out drinking, but the teacher took in a little too much. One thing led to another, and the pair began a relationship.

"I realize it wasn't good, but it had been so long since I'd been with a man -- three years, in fact," she says. "Once I'd felt his touch, I just couldn't hold back."

There was no holding back from Meika Matsushima, either. The 34-year-old high school piano teacher sought refuge in the classroom from her sexless marriage to a 39-year-old pen pushing government bureaucrat.

"Sex with my husband was always the same. It's boring. Honestly, I'd rather do myself than be with my husband," she says, adding that she frequently fantasized about the boys in her classroom.

Matsushima bordered on the criminal with one of her former students she was employed to give private lessons as he attempted to get into a top music college. They ended up alone one day and his remark that she resembled a popular actress saw Matsushima transform her fantasy into a reality. She was soon naked on all fours on a bed with the teen's attentions taken from his piano to his organ.

"It was like being in a dream land," the seductress tells Shukan Taishu. "It was an incredible thrill to be making love to a former student. It was way beyond anything I could have fantasized about."

(Note, readers, that the issue cited as source material for this item is a double issue; this because of the Golden Week extended holiday period across Japan.)

THOSE SCIONS OF THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT FOREVER PLAYING THAT ANNOYING SINGSONG MEME OF "CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION! CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION!" seem to think that the "morally superior" United States has the Exclusive Global Monopoly on rights to use the said meme as a "winning of hearts and minds" tool.

Unfortunately, they have yet to ponder the case of the Japanese playing the same pathetic meme, if the following recent "WaiWai" item per the Mainichi Daily News is to be taken as credible, unlike much of the Religiopolitical Right's platitude-laden screeds on this non-issue:

Japanese Christian relics - including the Holy Grail - have been brutally demolished "by a government no better than a terrorist organization," outraged Christian activists tell Shukan Asahi (4/18).

Pork barrel projects in the Amagusa district of Kumamoto Prefecture known for its strong links to feudal era Christianity and the greatest Christian rebellion this country has known have destroyed some of the religion's most prized artifacts.

"The Amagusa Kurishitankan (Christian Building) was demolished as part of a restoration project funded by the special road maintenance taxes and the Christians' Holy Grail was obliterated," Christian activist and Amagusa citizens' ombudsman Osamu Nakata tells Shukan Asahi. "We want to spread this message worldwide through the Vatican, the Pope and foreign media."

Demolition of the building housing examples of Amagusa's valuable Christian heritage took place in January this year. The work was part of about ¥800 million the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism will devote to projects in about 1,300 districts across Japan, including Amagusa, over a four-year period. The demolition went ahead despite not having the required local residents' permission.

"The government said the Kurishitankan had become too old and they would re-build it, so it had to come down. But tests on the building's age showed no problem with its durability," Nakata says. "They've spent ¥2.7 billion building white elephants in Amagusa. It's a waste of taxpayers' money."

Amagusa was a center for the kakure kurishitan, the "hidden Christians" who kept their religion a secret through fears of persecution when the belief was outlawed for centuries during Japan's feudal era. Many apparently regarded the Christian museum as their "Holy Grail."

"Christians across the globe who saw the photos of the destroyed Holy Grail would regard the image as sacrilegious," Nakata tells Shukan Asahi. "There are some people who point to the Taliban destroying the historical Buddhist relics at Afghanistan's Bamiyan and say the Japanese government operates at the same level as a terrorist organization."

In June last year, Amagusa residents lodged an official protest with the ministry on what was then the planned demolition of the museum and demanded a thorough investigation into the project. Their pleas were ignored.Overseeing the ministry, meanwhile, was Transport Minister Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, a member of the ruling coalition's junior party Komeito, which, of course, is backed by the powerful Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai.

Fuyushiba ignored requests to reply directly about the Christians' claims, but a Transport Ministry spokesman talked to the weekly instead.

"The Holy Grail wasn't mentioned in the maintenance plans," the mouthpiece tells Shukan Asahi. "So we're not really in a position to answer any questions."

(But then again, Your Correspondent has to wonder if there are those in the Religiopolitical Right who associate themselves with the Unregistered Church Movement, itself associated with the Extreme Right by virtue of its suggesting that churches should be exempt from all form and fashion of "undue and unnecessary regulatory burden.")

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THE TITLE OF THIS ITEM TRANSLATES FROM THE AFRIKAANS AS "It's Monday ... so what is there to seriously write about?"

Which leaves Your Correspondent wondering how best to approach this point of the week in terms of weblog content which can be readably interesting for once.

Especially when the Minnwissippi saw some off-and-on snow(!!) this morning as was limited to solid surfaces such as car hoods and house roofs; the ground is a little too warm for any fresh accumulation, and said snow has, for the most part, melted. Not to mention the likelihood of milder weather making a serious return as the week progresseth.

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AS IF THE WET EARTH WASN'T WET ENOUGH TO DISRUPT THE FIELD WORK AMONG FARMERS AND PLANTERS, along comes word that some farmers are giving serious consideration to not planting corn or soybeans this year, in effect taking farmland out of production (and, in the right circumstances, entitling them to Federal payments for such ends).

Cited as reasons therefor are the high cost of diesel fuel (currently $4.27/gallon--$1.13/litre--in these parts), fertilisers and insecticides, the whole likely to translate into major losses once the crops come in.

Which is enough to leave such farmers wondering what kind of crops to plant instead, let alone collect subsidies for taking farmland out of production.

One I could think of is Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus), which, from what I read, is supposed to be more viable as a biofuel source than the cereal grains currently diverted; the Purdue University Centre for New Crops and Plants Products confirms as much.

Or, if there was a decent enough market for such, switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), itself proven by recent research as another viable biofuel source--and, like the aforementioned Jerusalem artichoke, more effective than cereal grains. (In case you need the details, see here, here, here, here, here, here and/or here.)

However, you have to wonder if existing biofuels production facilities as are designed to produce ethanol from purely cereal grains can be cost-efficently modified to produce such from Jerusalem artichokes and/or switchgrass in socioeconomically viable quantities.

*************

WHAT THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT WOULD SECRETLY CONSIDER AS "FAMILY VALUES:" Austrian prosecutors have laid charges against a 73-year-old man, by name of Josef Fritzl, found to have forcibly kept his daughter in the cellar of his house for 24 years, having issue of no less than seven children (an eighth died stillborn).

All of whom never saw the outside world all this time.

And it took a TV news bulletin (of all things!) to break the case; as the BBC elaborates:

The case came to light when the eldest of the children in the cellar, 19-year-old Kerstin, was seriously ill and had to be taken to hospital. 

A television appeal by medical staff for the patient's mother was seen by Elisabeth on a TV set in the cellar and she urged her father to let her go to hospital.

Police arrested Mr Fritzl shortly afterwards and took all the children into care.

"If you look at him today, you would hardly believe he was capable of doing these things. This man led a double life for 24 years," said Mr Polzer.

He said it was incredible that it had been kept secret for all that time.

Both the father and Elisabeth say no one else had access to the cellar, according to police, who are appealing to anyone with information about Mr Fritzl to contact them.

Asked why the captives had not tried to escape before, Mr Polzer said one had to consider the fact that the woman was small and weak and even the eldest boy, now 18, was "a small boy, a weak boy".

"You have to put yourself into the situation of these people," he said. "They led a completely different life to ours, they do not know what we know. These children were born into the jail, they knew nothing else."

*************

AND IF HIS FRAUDULENCY STILL THINKS THAT THE NEW ROUND OF SOCIOECONOMIC STIMULUS PAYMENTS WILL ACTUALLY STIMULATE CONSUMER SPENDING to the point of preventing clear and present danger of socioeconomic recession, perhaps it might have been better to have said payments loaded onto specially-issued gift cards from Wally World clearly labelled ISSUED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, not unlike certain sham cheques sold by anti-government elements a few years back in hopes of manipulating a major socioeconomic collapse.

The which Wally World would consider as just reward for Good and Loyal Service to His Fraudulency's Great Within. Targeting (and deliberately, no doubt) those in lower-income or otherwise socioeconomically-disadvantaged ZIP+4 codes which lack chequing accounts thanks to the banks' being all the more selective in the kind of customers they want.

Which brings up the idea of maybe having our Postal Service follow the lead of Royal Mail in Great Britain and issue to the "unbankable" a debit card as would be used to deposit welfare, Social Security and other social aid benefits, and would allow cash access through ATM's and local Post Offices (in the former instance, with ATM fees absorbed) ... not to mention use @ retail establishments displaying VISA or MasterCard logotypes.

=============

AND IF THERE ARE STILL THOSE WHO WANT THE LOWER CLASSES TO MAKE "WISE USE" OF THEIR MONEY THROUGH THRIFT as opposed to lotteries and alcohol, what would preclude their encouraging the establishment of mutual savings banks towards such ends?   

SOMETHING FOR THE HUBRIS-WEIGHTED CROWD HOLDING DEAR AS AMONG THEIR ARTICLES OF FAITH The Great (Mis)communicator's argument that "government the solution, is not the problem which is government," may want to think about after seeing the following video:

As in:

"How do you expect to finance the government without taxation?"

Something to think about--but don't come crying to meme; it's for you to figure out, as you brought up the notion in the first place.

THOSE WHO HAVE READ OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES' IMMORTAL POEM entitled "The Deacon's Masterpiece; or, The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay: A Logical Tale" especially closely will note the allusion between the construction of the deacon's wagon and the earthquake of November 1, 1755 as destroyed Lisbon, Portugal wholesale in what many saw as a display of Divine Judgement upon what was then known as "the Sodom of the South" because of its wide-open prostitution.

And, towards the end, the "one-hoss shay" falling apart exactly one hundred years to the day (and, even more interesting, the precise hour) of the aforementioned Lisbon earthquake, just as the deacon was working out his sermon for the following Sunday.

WELL--!!!!!

Methinks there are probably some among the Elmer Gantry element who would just love to see serious earthquake devastation upon The Biggest Little City in the World (as in Reno, Nevada), with significant and measurable destruction and loss of life, within measurable distance--particularly so considering a series of minor tremblors whose epicentre was close to beautiful downtown Reno over recent days, the strongest such measuring a Richter-scale reading of 5.2 (enough to send bottles @ a wine store crashing to the floor).

The which they would then quickly use for their own selfish propaganda as a show of Divine Wrath and Judgement upon Nevada for allowing wide-scale casino gaming and prostitution, among other "deviant behaviours"--and hoping such results in wholesale isolation to the point of disease and illnesses ensuing thanks to relief supplies being unable to come into Reno.

Said disease and illness being seen as another sign of--what else?--Divine Judgement.

Methinks those who spread such Divine Wrath and Judgement propaganda following wholesale disasters resulting in loss of life and/or property are deserving of their own medicine, come to think of it. Especially when such can be manipulated to for their own warped "patriotic" delusions (as in America being now, tomorrow and forever a White Christian Nation).

Delusions, methinks, fuelled by drugs, alcohol and/or sexual excesses as may have (howbeit unconsciously) underlying causes in childhood abuse, neglect or psychoemotional traumas those involved are reluctant to face.

IT'S NOT ALL THAT OFTEN THAT YOUR CORRESPONDENT POSTS MATERIAL HERE @ THE EXAGGERATOR on Sundays, unless compelled to by force of events or whatever else on his mind prompts him to post material.

Like this morning.

As for what can trigger such postings, I know not. Just suffice it to say that I'm the kind who tends to post material impromptu, or on whim without much in the way of prepared notes.

*************

IT'S THE END OF ONE ERA--AND THE BEGINNING OF ANOTHER--JOURNALISTIC down Madison way:

Just yesterday, The Capital Times ended nearly 91 years of print publication as an afterlunch gazetta in Wisconsin's capital city ... and began what could be a closely-watched transition to "virtual" form (as in a constantly-updated online gazetta) in the hope of maintaining a Secular-Progressive voice as did considerable editorial damage to war profiteers, the Ku Klux Klan in its 1920's resurgency, Senator Joseph "I have here in my hand" McCarthy and his "patriotic" anti-Communist campaigns, environmental polluters, Big Business, the Four Hundred--and, in this day and age, sugar-coated Fascist tendencies among neo-conservative Zealots and True Believers, and their use to whip up enforced patriotism to, in its turn, justify ur-RAHOWA.

(Which is not to say that The Capital Times will pass from the printed page altogether: Twice-weekly tabloid editions--a Wednesday such as will cover news and commentary, and a Thursday amusements review and guide to be called 77 Square--will keep the flame lit, or try to, by way of supplements to their respective daily editions of the surviving Wisconsin State Journal, as well as stand-alone free distribution in and around Mad Town.)

=============

A BIT OF IRONY AS SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING FOR RIPLEY--OR, FOR THAT MATTER, SNOPES.COM, which The Capital Times duly noted in an article marking its end as a traditional daily gazetta:

The very day the first Cap Times hit the streets [13 December, 1917], Life magazine published a cartoon in its "Traitors" section of Kaiser Wilhelm pinning dozens of medals on [Senator Robert] La Follette.

(Readers, the Life magazine referred to as above was a satirical weekly published from 1883 until 1936, when Henry Luce purchased the title for his new pictorial weekly, itself continuing as a weekly until 1972 with intermittent revivals in the years since--particularly so as a monthly from 1978 until 2000, and from 2004 until 2007 as a rotogravure weekly supplement in several newspapers across the country.)

*************

HAVING BEEN ONE DIAGNOSED IN PAST WITH "PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA," AND PRESCRIBED HIGHLY-SEDATING MEDICATIONS as did little, if anything, to control same, Your Correspondent would like to acknowledge where, in posting certain especially critical items to this blog--or, for that matter, having a "letter to the editor" published in local gazettas--he imagines the prospect of responses from the Neocon/Fascisti element in the "Freeper" vein via e-mail in particular.

Said responses heavy on obscenity (in particular the "Seven Dirty Words" and their variants), questioning my loyalty and/or want of True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command (even if it means resorting to McCarthyist suggestions or "tendencies" that I was somehow "Communist" or otherwise "disloyal"), suggesting that I should "get my head examined" and quit blogging "for the Greater Collective Good of the Nation," stuff like that.

I'll say this again: I am what I am, and I'll blog as I want to blog.

And besides: Where do you get the idea that only conservatives are "entitled as of right" to a Government-Protected Monopoly on the marketplace of news and ideas, even to the extent of deliberately "dumping" trashy and pornographically tasteless prolefeed upon culturally-deprived environments for no useful purpose other than pacifying the poor, undereducated and easily-influenced--usually little more than sport, crime, astrology and celebrity goss?

*************

RECOMMENDED READING AND REPOSTING AMONG THE "SECULAR-PROGRESSIVE" BLOGOSPHERE, of which The Exaggerator is a proud part of: Videlicet, transcripts of an exchange the other day between Congressional Representative Robert Wexler (D/MI) and FBI Director Robert Mueller as is rather revealing to the point of embarrassing (and then some) for His Fraudulency's "inside of the inside," populated as it is with weird and unwholesome elements (in particular pædophiles, sex perverts, closet Fascisti and worse who are prepared to sell out American soverignty "antient and pecuilar" to the same "New World Order" as their extremist droogs forever regard as a Clear and Present Danger, up there with Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for bread and lentil soup):

Robert Wexler: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Director, in January of 2006, the New York Times reported that the NSA wireless wiretapping program had produced thousands of leads each month that the FBI had to track down, but that no Al-Qaeda networks were discovered. During a July 17, 2007 briefing, FBI deputy director John Pistole indicated that the FBI was not aware of any Al-Qaeda sleeper cells operating in the United States. In August of 2007 Congress passed the Protect America Act, giving the intelligence community greater access to electronic communications coming into and out of the United States. I have two questions in this regard.

RW: Has the FBI found any sleeper cells yet? One…

RW: Two. Has the NSA’s wireless wiretapping programs either before the Protect America Act or after led to the prosecution and conviction of any terrorists in the United States?

Robert Mueller: Well, as to your first question as to whether we have found affiliates or, as you would call them, cells of Al-Qaeda in the United States, yes we have. Again, I cannot get into it in public session, but I would say yes we have. With regard to the relationship of a particular case or individual to the terrorist surveillance program, again that is something that would have to be covered in a closed session.

RW: Alright, Mr. Director. An LA Times article from October, 2007 quotes one senior federal enforcement official as saying [quote] “the CIA determined they were going to torture people, and we made the decision not to be involved” [end quote]. The article goes on to say that some FBI officials went to you and that you [quote] “pulled many of the agents back from playing even a supporting role in the investigations to avoid exposing them to legal jeopardy” [end quote].

RW: My question Mr. Director, I congratulate you for pulling the FBI agents back, but why did you not take more substantial steps to stop the interrogation techniques that your own FBI agents were telling you were illegal? Why did you not initiate criminal investigations when your agents told you the CIA and the Department of Defense were engaging in illegal interrogation techniques, and rather than simply pulling your agents out, shouldn’t you have directed them to prevent any illegal interrogations from taking place?

RM: I can go so far sir as to tell you that a protocol in the FBI is not to use coercion in any of our interrogations or our questioning and we have abided by our protocol.

RW: I appreciate that. What is the protocol say when the FBI knows that the CIA is engaging or the Department of Defense is engaging in an illegal technique? What does the protocol say in that circumstance?

RM: We would bring it up to appropriate authorities and determine whether the techniques were legal or illegal.

RW: Did you bring it up to appropriate authorities?

RM: All I can tell you is that we followed our own protocols.

RW: So you can’t tell us whether you brought it; when your own FBI agents came to you and said the CIA is doing something illegal which caused you to say don’t you get involved; you can’t tell us whether you then went  to whatever authority?

RM: I’ll tell you we followed our own protocols.

RW: And what was the result?

RM: We followed our own protocols. We followed our protocols. We did not use coercion. We did not participate in any instance where coercion was used to my knowledge.

RW: Did the CIA use techniques that were illegal?

RM: I can’t comment on what has been done by another agency and under what authorities the other agency may have taken actions.

RW: Why can’t you comment on the actions of another agency?

RM: I leave that up to the other agency to answer questions with regard to the actions taken by that agency and the legal authorities that may apply to them.

RW: Are you the chief legal law enforcement agency in the United States?

RM: I am the Director of the FBI.

RW: And you do not have authority with respect to any other governmental agency in the United States? Is that what you’re saying?

RM: My authority is given to me to investigate. Yes we do.

RW: Did somebody take away that authority with respect to the CIA?

RM: Nobody has taken away the authority. I can tell you what our protocol was, and how we followed that protocol.

RW: Did anybody take away the authority with respect to the Department of Defense?

RM: I’m not certain what you mean.

RW: Your authority to investigate an illegal torture technique.

RM: There has to be a legal basis for us to investigate, and generally that legal basis is given to us by the Department of Justice. Any interpretations of the laws given to us by the Department of Justice….
(talking over each other)

RW:  But apparently your own agents made a determination that the actions by the CIA and the Department of Defense were illegal, so much so that you authorized, ordered, your agents not to participate. But that’s it.

RM: I’ve told you what our protocol was, and I’ve indicated that we’ve adhered to our protocol throughout.

RW: My time is up. Thank you very much Mr. Director.

Remind you, readers, of the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials (1945-6) and the frequently-repeated patsy of "I was only following orders," itself reinforced by the argument that disobedience meant a more-than-likely sentence of death, let alone official disgrace?