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reetings from Australia.
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As November 21st, so the winter. "If you were to succeed in abolishing superstition, what would you substitute for it?" Voltaire was asked. If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. O superstition, how thy savage power deprives at once the best and tenderest hearts of humanity. He thinks all those who are not circumcised It would certainly, for example, be very desirable, in order to the firm and clear establishment of a miracle, that it should be performed in the presence of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, or the Royal Society of London, and the faculty of Medicine, assisted by a detachment of guards to keep in due order and distance the populace who might by their rudeness or indiscretion prevent the operation of the miracle. If a predicted miracle be not public and as well verified as an eclipse that is announced in the almanac, be assured that it is nothing better than a juggler's trick or an old woman's tale. |
Ascent of Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes, 1783 |
And as for Immortality, this sentence is all sufficient!
Voltaire
Nobody thinks of giving an immortal soul to a flea.
Voltaire
Heresy is the bloodthirsty cant cry of the church in its strong days.
Voltaire
We haven't the smallest step on which to set our foot to reach the slightest knowledge of what makes us live and makes us think.
Voltaire
It is an insult to the divinity to conceive that he could possibly, in any manner whatsoever, commit with woman the crime we call adultery.
Voltaire on the Virgin Birth
The Jews possessed this faculty of exalting and exciting the soul to such a degree that they saw every future event as dearly as possible; only unfortunately it is difficult to decide whether by Jerusalem they always meant eternal life; whether Babylon means London or Paris; whether, when they speak of a grand dinner, they really mean a fast, and whether red wine means blood, and a red mantle means faith, and a white mantle charity. Indeed the correct and complete understanding of the prophets is the most arduous attainment of the human mind.
Voltaire
God we should search for in ourselves alone;
If he exists the human heart's his throne.
Voltaire
When they say God is a tender father, God is a just King; when they add the idea of infinity to that of love, that kindness, that justice which they observe in the best of this own species, they soon fall into the most palpable and dreadful contradictions. How could this sovereign, who possessed in infinite fullness the principle or quality of human justice; how could this father, entertaining an infinite affection for his children; how could this being, infinitely powerful, have formed creatures in His own likeness, to have them immediately afterwards tempted by a malignant demon, to make them yield to that temptation to inflict death on those whom He had created immortal and to overwhelm their posterity with calamities and crimes?
Voltaire
My prayer to God is a very short one: "O, Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." God has granted it.
Voltaire; letter to M Damilaville, May 16, 1767
More Voltaire quotes at Wikiquote
Join us in Chicago in August for an international festival of youth, music, and theater. Rise up and abandon the creeping meatball! Come all you rebels, youth spirits, rock minstrels, truth-seekers, peacock-freaks, poets, barricade-jumpers, dancers, lovers and artists! It is summer. It is the last week in August, and the NATIONAL DEATH PARTY meets to bless Lyndon Johnson. We are there! There are 50,000 of us dancing in the streets, throbbing with amplifiers and harmony. We are making love in the parks. We are reading, singing, laughing, printing newspapers, groping, and making a mock convention, and celebrating the birth of FREE AMERICA in our own time. Everything will be free. Bring blankets, tents, draft-cards, body-paint, Mr. Leary's Cow, food to share, music, eager skin, and happiness. The threats of LBJ, Mayor Daley, and J. Edgar Freako will not stop us. We are coming! We are coming from all over the world! The life of the American spirit is being torn asunder by the forces of violence, decay, and the napalm-cancer fiend. We demand the Politics of Ecstasy! We are the delicate spores of the new fierceness that will change America. We will create our own reality, we are Free America! And we will not accept the false theater of the Death Convention. We will be in Chicago. Begin preparations now! Chicago is yours! Do it!It's going to be a combination Scopes trial, revolution in the streets, Woodstock Festival and People's Park, all rolled into one.
Abbie Hoffman on the Trial of the Chicago Seven
It's going to be the most important political trial in the history of the United States.
Jay Miller, director of the Illinois Division of the American Civil Liberties Union, on the Trial of the Chicago Seven
This is a criminal trial, not a political trial. I intend to play it as straight as possible. They can monopolize the rhetoric. I'm interested in the jury.
Thomas Aquinas Foran, the United States Attorney, on the Trial of the Chicago Seven
Gentlemen, let's get something straight. The policeman
isn't there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve
disorder.
Mayor Richard Daley,
1968
Those who incite to violence should be punished whether or not freedom of speech is impaired.
Congressman Robert LF Sikes (Democrat, Florida), during debate on the
'antiriot' provisions of the 1968 Civil Rights Act
The Conspiracy in the streets needs: freedom, actors, peace, turf, money, sunshine, musicians, instruments, people, props, cars, air, water, costumes, sound equipment, love, guns, freaks, friends, anarchy, Huey free, a truck, airplanes, power, glory, old clothes, space, truth, Nero, paint, paint, help, rope, swimming hole, ice cream, dope, nookie, moonship, Om, lords, health, no hassles, land, pigs, time, patriots, spacesuits, a Buick, people's justice, Eldridge, lumber, panthers, real things, good times.
Leaflet handed out by the Conspiracy office in the week before the
trial
Conspiracy? Hell, we couldn't agree on lunch.
Abbie Hoffman
They understood that you didn't have to attack the fortress anymore. You could just surround it, make faces at the people inside and let them have nervous breakdowns and destroy themselves.
Norman Mailer
Would you like your children to grow up like them?
A Chicago Seven Trial juror
Our strategy was to give Judge Hoffman a heart attack. We gave the court system a heart attack, which is even better.
Jerry Rubin
Personally, I always held my flower in a clenched fist.
Abbie Hoffman
I think it's important for those of us in a position of responsibility to be firm in sharing our experiences, to understand that the babies out of wedlock is a very difficult chore for mom and baby alike. ... I believe we ought to say there is a different alternative than the culture that is proposed by people like Miss Wolf in society. ... And, you know, hopefully, condoms will work, but it hasn't worked.
George W Bush; Meet the
Press, November 21, 1999
Bushisms
analysed Bushism
of the day Bushisms
at Amazon.com Bushism
at Wikipedia Bush
at Wikiquote More
November 21
is
the 325th
day of the year in the Gregorian
Calendar (326th
in leap years), with 40
days remaining.
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Our
Lady Halfsower/ Our Lady Manysower
"In
Greece, a good farmer should have sown half his field by this day, whence its
name. It was also traditional to eat a dish made of several kinds of grain
called polispermia (manyseed) or panspermia (allseed), a custom
previously linked with the Greek lunar holiday celebrated on the 7th day of
Pyanepsion.
"Blackburn, Bonnie and Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Oxford Companion to the
Year, Oxford University Press, 1999"
Source:
School of the Seasons: Good site; pay it a visit
Vendémiaire | Brumaire | Frimaire | Nivôse | Pluviôse | Ventôse | Germinal | Floréal | Prairial | Messidor | Thermidor | Fructidor | Sansculottides
First day of month of
Frimaire (Frosty
month),
On October 24, 1793 the French National Convention adopted the French Republican Calendar (French Revolutionary Calendar) retrospectively as from September 22, 1792.
Napoleon Bonaparte abolished it and restored the Gregorian calendar on January 1, 1806 (the day after 10 nivôse an XIV), a little over twelve years after its introduction. However, it was used again during the brief Paris Commune in 1871 (year LXXIX).
It was designed by the politician and agronomist Charles Gilbert Romme, although it is usually attributed to Fabre d'Églantine, who invented the descriptive names of the months. Instead of most days having a saint as in the Catholic Church's calendar, each day has a plant, a tool or an animal associated with it. Some enthusiasts in France still use the calendar.
Each month lasted 30 days and was divided into three decades. Every day had the name of an agricultural plant, except the 5th (Quintidi) and 10th day (Decadi) of every decade, which had the name of a domestic animal (Quintidi) or an agricultural tool (Decadi).
Autumn
Vendémiaire (from Latin vindemia, 'vintage'), begins Sep 22, 23 or 24
Brumaire (from French brume, 'mist'), begins Oct 22, 23 or 24
Frimaire (From French frimas, 'frost'), begins Nov 21, 22 or 23Winter
Nivôse (from Latin nivosus, 'snowy'), begins Dec 21, 22 or 23
Pluviôse (from Latin pluviosus, 'rainy'), begins Jan 20, 21 or 22
Ventôse (from Latin ventosus, 'windy'), begins Feb 19, 20 or 21Spring
Germinal (from Latin germen, 'seed'), begins Mar 20 or 21
Floréal (from Latin flos, 'flower'), begins Apr 20 or 21
Prairial (from French prairie, 'meadow'), begins May 20 or 21Summer
Messidor (from Latin messis, 'harvest'), begins Jun 19 or 20
Thermidor (from Greek thermos, 'hot'), begins Jul 19 or 20
Fructidor (from Latin fructus, 'fruits'), begins Aug 18 or 19
Sansculottides
The Sansculottides
(also Epagomenes; French Sans-culottides, Sanculottides,
jours complementaires, jours épagomènes) are the end
of the calendar. They follow Fructidor
and precede Vendémiaire
of the next year, belonging to the summer quarter of the year.
The Sansculottides, named after the Sansculottes, amend the 360 days of the calendar so that the beginning of the next year is on the autumnal equinox. There were five Sansculottides in a common year and six in a leap year (from this derives the French name of the leap year année sextile). The Sansculottides start on September 17 or 18 and end on September 22 or 23.
| 1re Décade | 2e Décade | 3e Décade | ||||
| Primidi | 1. | Pomme (Apple) | 11. | Salsifis (Salsify) | 21. | Bacchante (asarum baccharis) |
| Duodi | 2. | Céleri (Celery) | 12. | Macre (Water Chestnut) | 22. | Azerole (Crete Hawthorn) |
| Tridi | 3. | Poire (Pear) | 13. | Topinambour (Jerusalem Artichoke) | 23. | Garence (Madder) |
| Quartidi | 4. | Betterave (Beet Root) | 14. | Endive (Endive) | 24. | Orange (Orange) |
| Quintidi | 5. | Oye (Goose) | 15. | Dindon (Turkey) | 25. | Faisan (Pheasant) |
| Sextidi | 6. | Héliotrope (European Turnsole) | 16. | Chervi (Skirret) | 26. | Pistache (Pistachio) |
| Septidi | 7. | Figue (Fig) | 17. | Cresson (Cress) | 27. | Macjonc (Sweetpea) |
| Octidi | 8. | Scorsonère (Black Salsify) | 18. | Dentelaire (Leadwort) | 28. | Coing (Quince) |
| Nonidi | 9. | Alisier (Chequer Tree) | 19. | Grenade (Pomegranate) | 29. | Cormier (Service Tree) |
| Decadi | 10. | Charrue (Plough) | 20. | Herse (Harrow) | 30. | Rouleau (Roller) |
Source: Wikipedia Website converts Gregorian calendar to FRC (and has desktop program)
High resolution image of the calendar by Louis-Philibert Debucourt (951x1098, 486 KB)
Antique Decimal Watches Criticisms and shortcomings of the FRC Julian day calculator (pop-up)
Date converter for numerous calendars, including this one Calendrica, great calendar comparisonsThe Book of Days index page shows the current day's date in the French Republican Calendar
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