Slavery operated in the very first civilizations on our planet eg Sumer in Mesopotamia, 5,500 years ago!!! Read Hammurabai’s Code about 1860BC, where slavery was clearly a well-established cultural institution.

Slavery came about with the development of agriculture about 10,000 BC, since it required a fit, and ultimately, profitable labour force. Many of the early slaves were captives of war.

Native African rulers, or warlords, collaborated with white European and Arab slave traders from the seventh century AD onwards.

The Portuguese and Dutch became involved from the 1400’s.

British merchants became involved in the 1700’s before it was outlawed and the Royal Navy actively worked to end the trade a hundred years later.

A SPOONFUL OF CLOROX – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody https://youtu.be/DPDPzbLFeP4 via @YouTube

RANDY RAINBOW Interviews MELANIA TRUMP! https://youtu.be/oYagr8TdBl0 via @YouTube

Randy Rainbow Interviews Ivanka Trump https://youtu.be/LPQYAT3wH_g via @YouTube

The Unknown God

Once more, before I move on
and set my sights ahead,
in loneliness I lift my hands up to you,
you to whom I flee,
to whom I, in the deepmost depth of my heart,
solemnly consecrated altars
so that ever
your voice may summon me again.

Deeply graved into those altars
glows the phrase: To The Unknown God.
I am his, although I have, until now,
also lingered amid the unholy mob;
I am his – and I feel the snares
that pull me down in the struggle and,
if I would flee,
compel me yet into his service.

I want to know you, Unknown One,
Who reaches deep into my soul,
Who roams through my life like a storm –
You Unfathomable One, akin to me!
I want to know you, even serve you.

Friedrich Nietzsche, 1864

Peggy Lee: Fever! https://youtu.be/EYxoAJ3Boyc via @YouTube

Fever Lyrics – Peggy Lee https://youtu.be/SB5GFlJrZps via @YouTube

In 1989 she was still angry over missing out on royalties for her 1958 hit Fever. “I wrote special lyrics for Fever and I wasn’t copyrighted. I advise all young songwriters, copyright your song,” she said.

As a lyricist, Lee gained global fame for her contributions to Disney’s 1955 film Lady and the Tramp, with songs such as It’s a Good Day, I Love Being Here with You and I’m Gonna Go Fishin’, the latter co-composed with Duke Ellington. She was asked by Walt Disney to voice several characters, including Darling, the Siamese cats Si and Am and a stray Pekingese called Peg. Lee also co-wrote the hit song He’s a Tramp with Sonny Burke. In April 2020, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers initiated the Peggy Lee Songwriter Award in her honour.

Disney paid Lee $3,500 for her work but she decided to take legal action when no money was forthcoming when the film became a bestselling video release three decades later. In 1991, she sued the corporation for unpaid royalties, citing a clause in her original contract about transcription royalties for radio productions. The LA Times, reporting on her David and Goliath battle, said Lee sat quietly near the jury box in a wheelchair, a consequence of a fall in which she had broken her pelvis. “I’ve almost got a law degree out of reading all the legal papers,” she joked. Lee won the case and was awarded $2.3million.

VII Secrets of the Craft

1. Inspiration

It happens like this: a kind of lethargy,
In my ears the sound of a clock chiming,
Thunder fading in the distance.
Trapped, unrecognizable voices
Wail and cry out to me: the closing in

Of some mysterious circle.
But from this abyss of whispers and bells
Rises a single all-conquering sound,
Despite the forest’s surrounding
Silence – hear grass growing,
Hear the wood troll walking with his sack.
And listen! The sound of words,
Rhymes l their arrival,
And I begin to understand:
Lines simply taken down
Appear on pages white as snow.

Anna Akhmatova

Today, we would call it ‘The Painter’!

26 APRIL 1972

Explaining his decision many years later, he said: “I had become far too detached from ordinary people and I did not like it. Retiring was my only escape.”

Bringing back The King, a Wales rugby icon who left the sporting stage too soon https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/bringing-back-king-star-who-18299100?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

Barry John https://youtu.be/9CEHt4n_Kz0 via @YouTube

BBC2W – Me & My … Teacher (2001) 7-min version https://youtu.be/u-mn8Xp7ORU via @YouTube

Go Down to Hell

Alexander Tinyakov

How blessed to be a gob of spit
racing down a dirty gutter –
I can hug a stubbed-out cig,
find a piece of fluff to cuddle.

Say they spat me out in fury,
in a moment of despair –
skies are clear, I’ve got no worries,
breezes fill me with good cheer.

I may hunger for the freedom
of the river’s blue expanse,
but for now I’ve got the pleasure
of this dirty gutter dance.

1907

Tr. Boris Dralyuk

The very word “Christianity” is a misunderstanding at bottom there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross.

The AntiChrist, Chapter 39, Friedrich Nietzsche 

IT IS OUR POSITION AFTER DISCUSSING AND MUSING ON THE MATTER TOGETHER. We are, of course, fortunate not to have ‘health issues’ and will continue to take sensible precautions when engaging in social intercourse. In the words of the Bard of Avon: “The choices we make dictate the lives we lead.” Life goes on. Life must go on.

Lord Sumption on the UK Lockdown BBC News 17 May 2020 https://youtu.be/eB1eqvAxQAQ via @YouTube

17 May 2020: an extract …

Jonathan Sumption …

Today, the lockdown is only about shielding us from the risk of infection. This raises serious questions about our relationship with the state.

It is OUR BUSINESS, not the state’s, to say what risks we will take with our own health. We are NOT FOOLS or children needing to be told by ministers what is good for us, and forced by police officers to do it.

We should not need to consult ministers, as the first member of the public to phone in to the daily press conference did, about whether she was allowed to hug her grandchildren.

The continuance of the lockdown is particularly odd given that in its latest paper the government accepts that, whatever we do, Covid-19 is likely to be with us long term. So, unless it plans to keep the lockdown in place for ever, all that it achieves is to put off the moment when we have to face the risk anyway.