renegadetribune--2020-12-20--Five Reasons to Eat More Cranberries

Five Reasons to Eat More Cranberries

Cranberries aren ’ t just a staple of Thanksgiving dinners and holiday feasts for their beautiful red color and tart deliciousness .
Their polyphenols and other bioactive components also make them a potent antiviral , antibacterial and whole body health powerhouse Cranberries are a star of holiday dinners , often making an appearance on Thanksgiving Day .
Yet there ’ s more to them than their gorgeous deep red color and tangy taste that makes them deserving of becoming a regular fixture on your family ’ s winter table and in your year-round diet .
Cranberries are a nutritional powerhouse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( mg ) of vitamin C and is rich in vitamins A , E , K and B complex .
[ i ] In a study of 20 common fruits , cranberries surfaced as the one with the highest level of antioxidants , with red grapes following distantly by .
[ ii ] Here are five reasons why this tart fruit is an excellent choice for wellness , positively influencing a variety of health conditions from infections to cancer .
[ iii ] Cranberry products have been popularly used to prevent urinary tract @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with extreme prevalence .
[ iv ] Recurring UTIs are a challenge for many despite conventional treatment with antibiotics , making cranberry a sensible choice to help prevent recurrence .
In a study where women with a history of recurrent UTIs took one capsule of 200 mg concentrated cranberry extract twice daily for 12 weeks , none experienced a UTI .
Two years later , eight of the women were still taking the cranberry extract , and none of them had experienced a UTI .
“ The cranberry preparation with a high phenolic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” prone to recurrent infections , the researchers concluded .
[ v ] Similarly , a novel concentrated cranberry liquid blend emerged as safe and tolerable in pre- and post-menopausal women with a history of UTIs .
[ vi ] It also was effective in reducing the incidence of recurrent UTIs and increased quality of life in the women .
Cranberry extract combined with D-mannose also proved promising in acute UTI episodes , with a beneficial effect on sensitivity to antibiotics .
[ vii ] A study found cranberries to have the highest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ studied , including pineapples , lemons and grapefruits .
[ viii ] Research from 2005 concluded that polyphenols found in cranberries may reduce age-related decline in learning , memory , motor performance as well as nerve signaling .
The phytochemicals in cranberries can offer these various benefits , including restoring the brain ’ s ability to produce a neuroprotective response to stress .
[ ix ] Natural polyphenols in a diet rich in fruits and vegetables have been shown in scientific evidence to help lower the risk of certain cancers .
[ x @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supplement was found to help lower serum prostate specific antigen ( PSA ) in prostate cancer patients , with the whole fruit believed to have constituents that may regulate cancer gene expression .
[ xi ] In a 2015 study , researchers isolated flavonoids in cranberries to their highest level of purity and tested their effect in vitro against ovarian cancer cells .
[ xii ] The flavonoids induced the death of cancer cells and reduced enzymatic activity , arresting the development of new cancer cells .
A 2013 study rated 35 varieties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and cranberry in their effectiveness against the influenza virus .
[ xiii ] With antiviral effects notably different between berry species , bilberry , cranberry and black currant had the greatest antiviral properties .
Polyphenols were confirmed to be partly responsible for berries ’ antiviral effects .
Scientists in an earlier study tested a commercially available cranberry juice cocktail against equivalent orange and grapefruit juice drinks .
[ xiv ] They found that while orange and grapefruit slowed the infectivity of a virus by 25 % to 35 % , cranberry juice stopped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ compounds that could improve endothelial function and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease .
[ xv ] In a study , chronic intake of cranberry juice decreased carotid femoral pulse wave velocity , a relevant measure of arterial stiffness .
[ xvi ] The findings demonstrated that cranberry juice can enhance vascular function in patients with coronary artery disease .
Separate findings showed that cranberry juice can improve a number of cardiovascular risk factors , including circulating triglycerides , C-reactive protein , glucose , insulin resistance and diastolic blood pressure .
[ xvii @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of this celebrated berry via the compilation of cranberry research on the GreenMedInfo.com database .
[ ii ] Vinson J et al “ Phenol Antioxidant Quantity and Quality in Foods : Fruits ” J Agric Food Chem .
2001 ; 49 ( 11 ) :5315-5321 .
[ iii ] Weh K et al “ Cranberries and Cancer : An Update of Preclinical Studies Evaluating the Cancer Inhibitory Potential of Cranberry and Cranberry Derived Constituents ” Antioxidants ( Basel ) .
2016 ; 5 ( 3 ) .
Epub 2016 Aug 18 .
[ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Novel concentrated cranberry liquid blend , UTI-STAT with Proantinox , might help prevent recurrent urinary tract infections in women ” Urology .
2010 Oct ; 76 ( 4 ) :841-5 .
[ vii ] Rădulescu D et al “ Combination of cranberry extract and D-mannose – possible enhancer of uropathogen sensitivity to antibiotics in acute therapy of urinary tract infections : Results of a pilot study ” Exp Ther Med .
2020 Oct ; 20 ( 4 ) :3399-3406 .
Epub 2020 Jul 7 .
[ viii ] Sun J et al “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” J Agric Food Chem .
2002 Dec 4 ; 50 ( 25 ) :7449-54 .
[ ix ] Shukitt-Hale B et al “ Dietary supplementation with fruit polyphenolics ameliorates age-related deficits in behavior and neuronal markers of inflammation and oxidative stress ” Age ( Dordr ) .
2005 Mar ; 27 ( 1 ) :49-57 .
Epub 2005 May 2 .
[ x ] Zhou Y et al “ Natural Polyphenols for Prevention and Treatment of Cancer ” Nutrients .
2016 Aug ; 8 ( 8 ) : 515 .
Epub 2016 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ V et al “ Cranberry intervention in patients with prostate cancer prior to radical prostatectomy .
Clinical , pathological and laboratory findings ” Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub .
2016 Nov 10 .
Epub 2016 Aug 10 .
[ xii ] Wang Y et al “ The cranberry flavonoids PAC DP-9 and quercetin aglycone induce cytotoxicity and cell cycle arrest and increase cisplatin sensitivity in ovarian cancer cells ” Int J Oncol .
2015 May ; 46 ( 5 ) :1924-34 .
Epub 2015 Mar 17 .
[ xiii @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between polyphenol content and anti-influenza viral effects of berries ” J Sci Food Agric .
2013 Jul ; 93 ( 9 ) :2239-41 .
Epub 2013 Jan 28 .
[ xiv ] Lipson S et al “ Antiviral effects on bacteriophages and rotavirus by cranberry juice ” Phytomedicine .
2007 Jan ; 14 ( 1 ) :23-30 .
Epub 2006 Nov 29 .
[ xv ] Dohadwala M et al “ Effects of cranberry juice consumption on vascular function in patients with coronary artery disease ” Am J Clin Nutr .
2011 Mar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ xvi ] Dohadwala M et al “ Effects of cranberry juice consumption on vascular function in patients with coronary artery disease ” Am J Clin Nutr .
2011 Mar 16 .
Epub 2011 Mar 16 .
[ xvii ] Novotny J et al “ Cranberry juice consumption lowers markers of cardiometabolic risk , including blood pressure and circulating C-reactive protein , triglyceride , and glucose concentrations in adults ” J Nutr .
2015 Jun ; 145 ( 6 ) :1185-93 .
Epub 2015 Apr 22 .

By GreenMedInfo Research Group
Cranberries aren’t just a staple of Thanksgiving dinners and holiday feasts for their beautiful red color and tart deliciousness. Their polyphenols and other bioactive components also make them a potent antiviral, antibacterial and whole body health powerhouse
Cranberries are a star of holiday dinners, often making an appearance on Thanksgiving Day. Yet there’s more to them than their gorgeous deep red color and tangy taste that makes them deserving of becoming a regular fixture on your family’s winter table and in your year-round diet.
Cranberries are a nutritional powerhouse. One cup offers about 14 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C and is rich in vitamins A, E, K and B complex.[i] In a study of 20 common fruits, cranberries surfaced as the one with the highest level of antioxidants, with red grapes following distantly by.[ii]
Here are five reasons why this tart fruit is an excellent choice for wellness, positively influencing a variety of health conditions from infections to cancer.[iii]
1. Preventing UTI Recurrence
Cranberry products have been popularly used to prevent urinary tract infection (UTI), a condition with extreme prevalence.[iv] Recurring UTIs are a challenge for many despite conventional treatment with antibiotics, making cranberry a sensible choice to help prevent recurrence.
In a study where women with a history of recurrent UTIs took one capsule of 200 mg concentrated cranberry extract twice daily for 12 weeks, none experienced a UTI. Two years later, eight of the women were still taking the cranberry extract, and none of them had experienced a UTI.
“The cranberry preparation with a high phenolic content may completely prevent UTIs in women” prone to recurrent infections, the researchers concluded.[v] Similarly, a novel concentrated cranberry liquid blend emerged as safe and tolerable in pre- and post-menopausal women with a history of UTIs.[vi] It also was effective in reducing the incidence of recurrent UTIs and increased quality of life in the women.
Cranberry extract combined with D-mannose also proved promising in acute UTI episodes, with a beneficial effect on sensitivity to antibiotics.[vii]
2. High Antioxidant Content
A study found cranberries to have the highest antioxidant activity in a range of fruits studied, including pineapples, lemons and grapefruits.[viii] Research from 2005 concluded that polyphenols found in cranberries may reduce age-related decline in learning, memory, motor performance as well as nerve signaling.
The phytochemicals in cranberries can offer these various benefits, including restoring the brain’s ability to produce a neuroprotective response to stress.[ix]
3. Anticancer Action
Natural polyphenols in a diet rich in fruits and vegetables have been shown in scientific evidence to help lower the risk of certain cancers.[x] Daily consumption of a powdered cranberry supplement was found to help lower serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) in prostate cancer patients, with the whole fruit believed to have constituents that may regulate cancer gene expression.[xi]
In a 2015 study, researchers isolated flavonoids in cranberries to their highest level of purity and tested their effect in vitro against ovarian cancer cells.[xii] The flavonoids induced the death of cancer cells and reduced enzymatic activity, arresting the development of new cancer cells.
4. Potent Antiviral Properties
A 2013 study rated 35 varieties of blueberry against bilberry, black currant and cranberry in their effectiveness against the influenza virus.[xiii] With antiviral effects notably different between berry species, bilberry, cranberry and black currant had the greatest antiviral properties. Polyphenols were confirmed to be partly responsible for berries’ antiviral effects.
Scientists in an earlier study tested a commercially available cranberry juice cocktail against equivalent orange and grapefruit juice drinks.[xiv] They found that while orange and grapefruit slowed the infectivity of a virus by 25% to 35%, cranberry juice stopped it completely.
5. Cardiovascular Benefits
Cranberry juice offers polyphenolic compounds that could improve endothelial function and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.[xv]
In a study, chronic intake of cranberry juice decreased carotid femoral pulse wave velocity, a relevant measure of arterial stiffness.[xvi] The findings demonstrated that cranberry juice can enhance vascular function in patients with coronary artery disease.
Separate findings showed that cranberry juice can improve a number of cardiovascular risk factors, including circulating triglycerides, C-reactive protein, glucose, insulin resistance and diastolic blood pressure.[xvii]
Learn more about the amazing properties of this celebrated berry via the compilation of cranberry research on the GreenMedInfo.com database.
References
[i] USDA https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171722/nutrients
[ii] Vinson J et al “Phenol Antioxidant Quantity and Quality in Foods: Fruits” J Agric Food Chem. 2001; 49(11):5315-5321.
[iii] Weh K et al “Cranberries and Cancer: An Update of Preclinical Studies Evaluating the Cancer Inhibitory Potential of Cranberry and Cranberry Derived Constituents” Antioxidants (Basel). 2016 ;5(3). Epub 2016 Aug 18.
[iv] Bailey D et al “Can a concentrated cranberry extract prevent recurrent urinary tract infections in women? A pilot study” Phytomedicine. 2007 Apr;14(4):237-41. Epub 2007 Feb 12.
[v] Bailey D et al “Can a concentrated cranberry extract prevent recurrent urinary tract infections in women? A pilot study” Phytomedicine. 2007 Apr;14(4):237-41. Epub 2007 Feb 12.
[vi] Efros M et al “Novel concentrated cranberry liquid blend, UTI-STAT with Proantinox, might help prevent recurrent urinary tract infections in women” Urology. 2010 Oct;76(4):841-5.
[vii] Rădulescu D et al “Combination of cranberry extract and D-mannose – possible enhancer of uropathogen sensitivity to antibiotics in acute therapy of urinary tract infections: Results of a pilot study” Exp Ther Med. 2020 Oct ;20(4):3399-3406. Epub 2020 Jul 7.
[viii] Sun J et al “Antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of common fruits” J Agric Food Chem. 2002 Dec 4;50(25):7449-54.
[ix] Shukitt-Hale B et al “Dietary supplementation with fruit polyphenolics ameliorates age-related deficits in behavior and neuronal markers of inflammation and oxidative stress” Age (Dordr). 2005 Mar ;27(1):49-57. Epub 2005 May 2.
[x] Zhou Y et al “Natural Polyphenols for Prevention and Treatment of Cancer” Nutrients. 2016 Aug; 8(8): 515. Epub 2016 Aug 22.
[xi] Student V et al “Cranberry intervention in patients with prostate cancer prior to radical prostatectomy. Clinical, pathological and laboratory findings” Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub. 2016 Nov 10. Epub 2016 Aug 10.
[xii] Wang Y et al “The cranberry flavonoids PAC DP-9 and quercetin aglycone induce cytotoxicity and cell cycle arrest and increase cisplatin sensitivity in ovarian cancer cells” Int J Oncol. 2015 May ;46(5):1924-34. Epub 2015 Mar 17.
[xiii] Sekizawa H et al “Relationship between polyphenol content and anti-influenza viral effects of berries” J Sci Food Agric. 2013 Jul ;93(9):2239-41. Epub 2013 Jan 28.
[xiv] Lipson S et al “Antiviral effects on bacteriophages and rotavirus by cranberry juice” Phytomedicine. 2007 Jan;14(1):23-30. Epub 2006 Nov 29.
[xv] Dohadwala M et al “Effects of cranberry juice consumption on vascular function in patients with coronary artery disease” Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Mar 16. Epub 2011 Mar 16.
[xvi] Dohadwala M et al “Effects of cranberry juice consumption on vascular function in patients with coronary artery disease” Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Mar 16. Epub 2011 Mar 16.
[xvii] Novotny J et al “Cranberry juice consumption lowers markers of cardiometabolic risk, including blood pressure and circulating C-reactive protein, triglyceride, and glucose concentrations in adults” J Nutr. 2015 Jun ;145(6):1185-93. Epub 2015 Apr 22.


renegadetribune--2020-12-20--Stay Safe This Christmas with the Hugsie Safe Hug Suffocator

This is an actual ad for an actual company , selling you latest apparel to “ stay connected ” safely @ @ @ @ @ .
Just cover yourself in a plastic body condom and get hugging !

This is an actual ad for an actual company, selling you latest apparel to "stay connected" safely during the fake COVID pandemic. Just cover yourself in a plastic body condom and get hugging!


renegadetribune--2020-12-20--Balder and the Mistletoe

Balder and the Mistletoe

Renegade Editor ’ s Note : Fraser always liked to assume the worst about pre-Christian Europeans and human sacrifice .
Biases against “ heathens ” throughout history must be taken into account when reading these texts .
By Sir James George Frazer From The Golden Bough [ 1922 ] THE READER may remember that the preceding account of the popular fire-festivals of Europe was suggested by the myth of the Norse god Balder , who is said to have been slain by a branch of mistletoe and burnt in a great fire .
We have now to enquire how far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ review help to shed light on the myth .
In this enquiry it may be convenient to begin with the mistletoe , the instrument of Balder ’ s death .
From time immemorial the mistletoe has been the object of superstitious veneration in Europe .
It was worshipped by the Druids , as we learn from a famous passage of Pliny .
After enumerating the different kinds of mistletoe , he proceeds : “ In treating of this subject , the admiration in which the mistletoe is held throughout Gaul ought not to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so they call their wizards , esteem nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows , provided only that the tree is an oak .
But apart from this they choose oak-woods for their sacred groves and perform no sacred rites without oak-leaves ; so that the very name of Druids may be regarded as a Greek appellation derived from their worship of the oak .
For they believe that whatever grows on these trees is sent from heaven , and is a sign that the tree has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The mistletoe is very rarely to be met with ; but when it is found , they gather it with solemn ceremony .
This they do above all on the sixth day of the moon , from whence they date the beginnings of their months , of their years , and of their thirty years ’ cycle , because by the sixth day the moon has plenty of vigour and has not run half its course .
After due preparations have been made for a sacrifice and a feast under the tree , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and bring to the spot two white bulls , whose horns have never been bound before .
A priest clad in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden sickle cuts the mistletoe , which is caught in a white cloth .
Then they sacrifice the victims , praying that God may make his own gift to prosper with those upon whom he has bestowed it .
They believe that a potion prepared from mistletoe will make barren animals to bring forth , and that the plant is a remedy against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tells us that in medicine the mistletoe which grows on an oak was esteemed the most efficacious , and that its efficacy was by some superstitious people supposed to be increased if the plant was gathered on the first day of the moon without the use of iron , and if when gathered it was not allowed to touch the earth ; oak-mistletoe thus obtained was deemed a cure for epilepsy ; carried about by women it assisted them to conceive ; and it healed ulcers most effectually , if only the sufferer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ laid another piece on the sore .
Yet , again , he says that mistletoe was supposed , like vinegar and an egg , to be an excellent means of extinguishing a fire .
If in these latter passages Pliny refers , as he apparently does , to the beliefs current among his contemporaries in Italy , it will follow that the Druids and the Italians were to some extent agreed as to the valuable properties possessed by mistletoe which grows on an oak ; both of them deemed it an effectual remedy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both of them ascribed to it a quickening virtue , the Druids believing that a potion prepared from mistletoe would fertilise barren cattle , and the Italians holding that a piece of mistletoe carried about by a woman would help her to conceive a child .
Further , both peoples thought that if the plant were to exert its medicinal properties it must be gathered in a certain way and at a certain time .
It might not be cut with iron , hence the Druids cut it with gold ; and it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Druids caught it in a white cloth .
In choosing the time for gathering the plant , both peoples were determined by observation of the moon ; only they differed as to the particular day of the moon , the Italians preferring the first , and the Druids the sixth .
With these beliefs of the ancient Gauls and Italians as to the wonderful medicinal properties of mistletoe we may compare the similar beliefs of the modern Aino of Japan .
We read that they , “ like many nations of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peculiar veneration .
They look upon it as a medicine , good in almost every disease , and it is sometimes taken in food and at others separately as a decoction .
The leaves are used in preference to the berries , the latter being of too sticky a nature for general purposes… .
But many , too , suppose this plant to have the power of making the gardens bear plentifully .
When used for this purpose , the leaves are cut up into fine pieces , and , after having been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ millet and other seeds , a little also being eaten with the food .
Barren women have also been known to eat the mistletoe , in order to be made to bear children .
That mistletoe which grows upon the willow is supposed to have the greatest efficacy .
This is because the willow is looked upon by them as being an especially sacred tree.
” Thus the Aino agree with the Druids in regarding mistletoe as a cure for almost every disease , and they agree with the ancient Italians that applied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ children .
Again , the Druidical notion that the mistletoe was an “ all-healer ” or panacea may be compared with a notion entertained by the Walos of Senegambia .
These people “ have much veneration for a sort of mistletoe , which they call tob ; they carry leaves of it on their persons when they go to war as a preservative against wounds , just as if the leaves were real talismans ( gris-gris ) .
” The French writer who records this practice adds : “ Is it not very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this part of Africa what it was in the superstitions of the Gauls ?
This prejudice , common to the two countries , may have the same origin ; blacks and whites will doubtless have seen , each of them for themselves , something supernatural in a plant which grows and flourishes without having roots in the earth .
May they not have believed , in fact , that it was a plant fallen from the sky , a gift of the divinity ?
” This suggestion as to the origin of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ belief , reported by Pliny , that whatever grew on an oak was sent from heaven and was a sign that the tree had been chosen by the god himself .
Such a belief explains why the Druids cut the mistletoe , not with a common knife , but with a golden sickle , and why , when cut , it was not suffered to touch the earth ; probably they thought that the celestial plant would have been profaned and its marvellous virtue lost by contact with the ground .
With the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the mistletoe we may compare the ritual which in Cambodia is prescribed in a similar case .
They say that when you see an orchid growing as a parasite on a tamarind tree , you should dress in white , take a new earthenware pot , then climb the tree at noon , break off the plant , put it in the pot and let the pot fall to the ground .
After that you make in the pot a decoction which confers the gift of invulnerability .
Thus just as in Africa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supposed to render the wearer invulnerable , so in Cambodia a decoction made from another parasitic plant is considered to render the same service to such as make use of it , whether by drinking or washing .
We may conjecture that in both places the notion of invulnerability is suggested by the position of the plant , which , occupying a place of comparative security above the ground , appears to promise to its fortunate possessor a similar security from some of the ills that beset the life of man on earth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the store which the primitive mind sets on such vantage grounds .
Whatever may be the origin of these beliefs and practices concerning the mistletoe , certain it is that some of them have their analogies in the folk-lore of modern European peasants .
For example , it is laid down as a rule in various parts of Europe that mistletoe may not be cut in the ordinary way but must be shot or knocked down with stones from the tree on which it is growing .
Thus , in the Swiss @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are esteemed in a certain sense holy by the country folk , but most particularly so the mistletoe growing on an oak .
They ascribe great powers to it , but shrink from cutting it off in the usual manner .
Instead of that they procure it in the following manner .
When the sun is in Sagittarius and the moon is on the wane , on the first , third , or fourth day before the new moon , one ought to shoot down with an arrow the mistletoe of an oak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hand as it falls .
Such mistletoe is a remedy for every ailment of children.
” Here among the Swiss peasants , as among the Druids of old , special virtue is ascribed to mistletoe which grows on an oak : it may not be cut in the usual way : it must be caught as it falls to the ground ; and it is esteemed a panacea for all diseases , at least of children .
In Sweden , also , it is a popular superstition that if mistletoe is to possess @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be shot down out of the oak or knocked down with stones .
Similarly , “ so late as the early part of the nineteenth century , people in Wales believed that for the mistletoe to have any power , it must be shot or struck down with stones off the tree where it grew.
” Again , in respect of the healing virtues of mistletoe the opinion of modern peasants , and even of the learned , has to some extent agreed with that of the ancients .
The Druids appear to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the oak on which it grew , the “ all-healer ” ; and “ all-healer ” is said to be still a name of the mistletoe in the modern Celtic speech of Brittany , Wales , Ireland , and Scotland .
On St. John ’ s morning ( Midsummer morning ) peasants of Piedmont and Lombardy go out to search the oak-leaves for the “ oil of St. John , ” which is supposed to heal all wounds made with cutting instruments .
Originally , perhaps , the “ oil of St. John @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a decoction made from it .
For in Holstein the mistletoe , especially oak-mistletoe , is still regarded as a panacea for green wounds and as a sure charm to secure success in hunting ; and at Lacaune , in the south of France , the old Druidical belief in the mistletoe as an antidote to all poisons still survives among the peasantry ; they apply the plant to the stomach of the sufferer or give him a decoction of it to drink .
Again , the ancient belief that mistletoe is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ times not only among the ignorant but among the learned .
Thus in Sweden persons afflicted with the falling sickness think they can ward off attacks of the malady by carrying about with them a knife which has a handle of oak mistletoe ; and in Germany for a similar purpose pieces of mistletoe used to be hung round the necks of children .
In the French province of Bourbonnais a popular remedy for epilepsy is a decoction of mistletoe which has been gathered on an oak on St. John ’ s Day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bottesford in Lincolnshire a decoction of mistletoe is supposed to be a palliative for this terrible disease .
Indeed mistletoe was recommended as a remedy for the falling sickness by high medical authorities in England and Holland down to the eighteenth century .
However , the opinion of the medical profession as to the curative virtues of mistletoe has undergone a radical alteration .
Whereas the Druids thought that mistletoe cured everything , modern doctors appear to think that it cures nothing .
If they are right , we must conclude that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virtue of mistletoe is a pure superstition based on nothing better than the fanciful inferences which ignorance has drawn from the parasitic nature of the plant , its position high up on the branch of a tree seeming to protect it from the dangers to which plants and animals are subject on the surface of the ground .
From this point of view we can perhaps understand why mistletoe has so long and so persistently been prescribed as a cure for the falling sickness .
As mistletoe can not fall to the ground @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a tree high above the earth , it seems to follow as a necessary consequence that an epileptic patient can not possibly fall down in a fit so long as he carries a piece of mistletoe in his pocket or a decoction of mistletoe in his stomach .
Such a train of reasoning would probably be regarded even now as cogent by a large portion of the human species .
10 Again the ancient Italian opinion that mistletoe extinguishes fire appears to be shared by Swedish peasants , who hang up bunches @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rooms as a protection against harm in general and conflagration in particular .
A hint as to the way in which mistletoe comes to be possessed of this property is furnished by the epithet “ thunder-bosom , ” which people of the Aargau canton in Switzerland apply to the plant .
For a thunder-besom is a shaggy , bushy excrescence on branches of trees , which is popularly believed to be produced by a flash of lightning ; hence in Bohemia a thunder-besom burnt in the fire protects the house against being struck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ product of lightning it naturally serves , on homoeopathic principles , as a protection against lightning , in fact as a kind of lightning-conductor .
Hence the fire which mistletoe in Sweden is designed especially to avert from houses may be fire kindled by lightning ; though no doubt the plant is equally effective against conflagration in general .
Again , mistletoe acts as a master-key as well as a lightning-conductor ; for it is said to open all locks .
But perhaps the most precious of all the virtues of mistletoe is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and witchcraft .
That , no doubt , is the reason why in Austria a twig of mistletoe is laid on the threshold as a preventive of nightmare ; and it may be the reason why in the north of England they say that if you wish your dairy to thrive you should give your bunch of mistletoe to the first cow that calves after New Year ’ s Day , for it is well known that nothing is so fatal to milk and butter as witchcraft .
Similarly in Wales , for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the dairy , people used to give a branch of mistletoe to the first cow that gave birth to a calf after the first hour of the New Year ; and in rural districts of Wales , where mistletoe abounded , there was always a profusion of it in the farmhouses .
When mistletoe was scarce , Welsh farmers used to say , “ No mistletoe , no luck ” ; but if there was a fine crop of mistletoe , they expected a fine crop of corn .
In Sweden mistletoe is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Eve , the people “ believing it to be , in a high degree , possessed of mystic qualities ; and that if a sprig of it be attached to the ceiling of the dwelling-house , the horse ’ s stall , or the cow ’ s crib , the Troll will then be powerless to injure either man or beast.
” With regard to the time when the mistletoe should be gathered opinions have varied .
The Druids gathered it above all on the sixth day of the moon , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the moon .
In modern times some have preferred the full moon of March and others the waning moon of winter when the sun is in Sagittarius .
But the favourite time would seem to be Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day .
We have seen that both in France and Sweden special virtues are ascribed to mistletoe gathered at Midsummer .
The rule in Sweden is that “ mistletoe must be cut on the night of Midsummer Eve when sun and moon stand in the sign of their might.
” Again , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sprig of mistletoe gathered on St. John ’ s Eve ( Midsummer Eve ) , or at any time before the berries appeared , would induce dreams of omen , both good and bad , if it were placed under the pillow of the sleeper .
Thus mistletoe is one of the many plants whose magical or medicinal virtues are believed to culminate with the culmination of the sun on the longest day of the year .
Hence it seems reasonable to conjecture that in the eyes of the Druids , also , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sacred mistletoe may have acquired a double portion of its mystic qualities at the solstice in June , and that accordingly they may have regularly cut it with solemn ceremony on Midsummer Eve .
Be that as it may , certain it is that the mistletoe , the instrument of Balder ’ s death , has been regularly gathered for the sake of its mystic qualities on Midsummer Eve in Scandinavia , Balder ’ s home .
The plant is found commonly growing on pear-trees , oaks , and other trees in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ parts of Sweden .
Thus one of the two main incidents of Balder ’ s myth is reproduced in the great midsummer festival of Scandinavia .
But the other main incident of the myth , the burning of Balder ’ s body on a pyre , has also its counterpart in the bonfires which still blaze , or blazed till lately , in Denmark , Norway , and Sweden on Midsummer Eve .
It does not appear , indeed , that any effigy is burned in these bonfires ; but the burning of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ easily drop out after its meaning was forgotten .
And the name of Balder ’ s balefires ( Balder ’ s Ba˘lar ) , by which these midsummer fires were formerly known in Sweden , puts their connexion with Balder beyond the reach of doubt , and makes it probable that in former times either a living representative or an effigy of Balder was annually burned in them .
Midsummer was the season sacred to Balder , and the Swedish poet Tegner , in placing the burning of Balder at midsummer , may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the summer solstice was the time when the good god came to his untimely end .
Thus it has been shown that the leading incidents of the Balder myth have their counterparts in those fire-festivals of our European peasantry which undoubtedly date from a time long prior to the introduction of Christianity .
The pretence of throwing the victim chosen by lot into the Beltane fire , and the similar treatment of the man , the future Green Wolf , at the midsummer bonfire in Normandy , may naturally be interpreted as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ burning human beings on these occasions ; and the green dress of the Green Wolf , coupled with the leafy envelope of the young fellow who trod out the midsummer fire at Moosheim , seems to hint that the persons who perished at these festivals did so in the character of tree-spirits or deities of vegetation .
From all this we may reasonably infer that in the Balder myth on the one hand , and the fire-festivals and custom of gathering mistletoe on the other hand , we have , as it were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of an original whole .
In other words , we may assume with some degree of probability that the myth of Balder ’ s death was not merely a myth , that is , a description of physical phenomena in imagery borrowed from human life , but that it was at the same time the story which people told to explain why they annually burned a human representative of the god and cut the mistletoe with solemn ceremony .
If I am right , the story of Balder ’ s tragic end formed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the sacred drama which was acted year by year as a magical rite to cause the sun to shine , trees to grow , crops to thrive , and to guard man and beast from the baleful arts of fairies and trolls , of witches and warlocks .
The tale belonged , in short , to that class of nature myths which are meant to be supplemented by ritual ; here , as so often , myth stood to magic in the relation of theory to practice .
But if the victims—the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in spring or at midsummer , were put to death as living embodiments of tree-spirits or deities of vegetation , it would seem that Balder himself must have been a tree-spirit or deity of vegetation .
It becomes desirable , therefore , to determine , if we can , the particular kind of tree or trees , of which a personal representative was burned at the fire-festivals .
For we may be quite sure that it was not as a representative of vegetation in general that the victim suffered death .
The idea @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be primitive .
Most probably the victim at first represented a particular kind of sacred tree .
But of all European trees none has such claims as the oak to be considered as pre-eminently the sacred tree of the Aryans .
We have seen that its worship is attested for all the great branches of the Aryan stock in Europe ; hence we may certainly conclude that the tree was venerated by the Aryans in common before the dispersion , and that their primitive home must have lain in a land which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Now , considering the primitive character and remarkable similarity of the fire-festivals observed by all the branches of the Aryan race in Europe , we may infer that these festivals form part of the common stock of religious observances which the various peoples carried with them in their wanderings from their old home .
But , if I am right , an essential feature of those primitive fire-festivals was the burning of a man who represented the tree-spirit .
In view , then , of the place occupied by the oak in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is that the tree so represented at the fire-festivals must originally have been the oak .
So far as the Celts and Lithuanians are concerned , this conclusion will perhaps hardly be contested .
But both for them and for the Germans it is confirmed by a remarkable piece of religious conservatism .
The most primitive method known to man of producing fire is by rubbing two pieces of wood against each other till they ignite ; and we have seen that this method is still used in Europe for kindling sacred fires @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most probably it was formerly resorted to at all the fire-festivals under discussion .
Now it is sometimes required that the need-fire , or other sacred fire , should be made by the friction of a particular kind of wood ; and when the kind of wood is prescribed , whether among Celts , Germans , or Slavs , that wood appears to be generally the oak .
But if the sacred fire was regularly kindled by the friction of oak-wood , we may infer that originally the fire was also fed with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact , it appears that the perpetual fire of Vesta at Rome was fed with oak-wood , and that oak-wood was the fuel consumed in the perpetual fire which burned under the sacred oak at the great Lithuanian sanctuary of Romove .
Further , that oak-wood was formerly the fuel burned in the midsummer fires may perhaps be inferred from the custom , said to be still observed by peasants in many mountain districts of Germany , of making up the cottage fire on Midsummer Day with a heavy block of oak-wood .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ smoulders slowly and is not finally reduced to charcoal till the expiry of a year .
Then upon next Midsummer Day the charred embers of the old log are removed to make room for the new one , and are mixed with the seed-corn or scattered about the garden .
This is believed to guard the food cooked on the hearth from witchcraft , to preserve the luck of the house , to promote the growth of the crops , and to keep them from blight and vermin .
Thus the custom is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yule-log , which in parts of Germany , France , England , Serbia , and other Slavonic lands was commonly of oak-wood .
The general conclusion is , that at those periodic or occasional ceremonies the ancient Aryans both kindled and fed the fire with the sacred oak-wood .
But if at these solemn rites the fire was regularly made of oakwood , it follows that any man who was burned in it as a personification of the tree-spirit could have represented no tree but the oak .
The sacred oak was thus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the tree was consumed in the fire , and along with it was consumed a living man as a personification of the oak-spirit .
The conclusion thus drawn for the European Aryans in general is confirmed in its special application to the Scandinavians by the relation in which amongst them the mistletoe appears to have stood to the burning of the victim in the midsummer fire .
We have seen that among Scandinavians it has been customary to gather the mistletoe at midsummer .
But so far as appears on the face of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ connect it with the midsummer fires in which human victims or effigies of them were burned .
Even if the fire , as seems probable , was originally always made with oak-wood , why should it have been necessary to pull the mistletoe ?
The last link between the midsummer customs of gathering the mistletoe and lighting the bonfires is supplied by Balder ’ s myth , which can hardly be disjoined from the customs in question .
The myth suggests that a vital connexion may once have been believed to subsist between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the oak who was burned in the fire .
According to the myth , Balder could be killed by nothing in heaven or earth except the mistletoe ; and so long as the mistletoe remained on the oak , he was not only immortal but invulnerable .
Now , if we suppose that Balder was the oak , the origin of the myth becomes intelligible .
The mistletoe was viewed as the seat of life of the oak , and so long as it was uninjured nothing could kill or even wound the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the seat of life of the oak would naturally be suggested to primitive people by the observation that while the oak is deciduous , the mistletoe which grows on it is evergreen .
In winter the sight of its fresh foliage among the bare branches must have been hailed by the worshippers of the tree as a sign that the divine life which had ceased to animate the branches yet survived in the mistletoe , as the heart of a sleeper still beats when his body is motionless .
Hence when the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tree had to be burnt—it was necessary to begin by breaking off the mistletoe .
For so long as the mistletoe remained intact , the oak ( so people might think ) was invulnerable ; all the blows of their knives and axes would glance harmless from its surface .
But once tear from the oak its sacred heart—the mistletoe—and the tree nodded to its fall .
And when in later times the spirit of the oak came to be represented by a living man , it was logically necessary to suppose that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he could neither be killed nor wounded so long as the mistletoe remained uninjured .
The pulling of the mistletoe was thus at once the signal and the cause of his death .
On this view the invulnerable Balder is neither more nor less than a personification of a mistletoe-bearing oak .
The interpretation is confirmed by what seems to have been an ancient Italian belief , that the mistletoe can be destroyed neither by fire nor water ; for if the parasite is thus deemed indestructible , it might easily be supposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tree on which it grows , so long as the two remain in conjunction .
Or , to put the same idea in mythical form , we might tell how the kindly god of the oak had his life securely deposited in the imperishable mistletoe which grew among the branches ; how accordingly so long as the mistletoe kept its place there , the deity himself remained invulnerable ; and how at last a cunning foe , let into the secret of the god ’ s invulnerability , tore the mistletoe from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ afterwards burning his body in a fire which could have made no impression on him so long as the incombustible parasite retained its seat among the boughs .
But since the idea of a being whose life is thus , in a sense , outside himself , must be strange to many readers , and has , indeed , not yet been recognised in its full bearing on primitive superstition , it will be worth while to illustrate it by examples drawn both from story and custom .
The result will be to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the explanation of Balder ’ s relation to the mistletoe , I assume a principle which is deeply engraved on the mind of primitive man .

Renegade Editor’s Note: Fraser always liked to assume the worst about pre-Christian Europeans and human sacrifice. Biases against “heathens” throughout history must be taken into account when reading these texts.
By Sir James George Frazer
From The Golden Bough [1922]
THE READER may remember that the preceding account of the popular fire-festivals of Europe was suggested by the myth of the Norse god Balder, who is said to have been slain by a branch of mistletoe and burnt in a great fire. We have now to enquire how far the customs which have been passed in review help to shed light on the myth. In this enquiry it may be convenient to begin with the mistletoe, the instrument of Balder’s death.
From time immemorial the mistletoe has been the object of superstitious veneration in Europe. It was worshipped by the Druids, as we learn from a famous passage of Pliny. After enumerating the different kinds of mistletoe, he proceeds: “In treating of this subject, the admiration in which the mistletoe is held throughout Gaul ought not to pass unnoticed. The Druids, for so they call their wizards, esteem nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows, provided only that the tree is an oak. But apart from this they choose oak-woods for their sacred groves and perform no sacred rites without oak-leaves; so that the very name of Druids may be regarded as a Greek appellation derived from their worship of the oak. For they believe that whatever grows on these trees is sent from heaven, and is a sign that the tree has been chosen by the god himself. The mistletoe is very rarely to be met with; but when it is found, they gather it with solemn ceremony. This they do above all on the sixth day of the moon, from whence they date the beginnings of their months, of their years, and of their thirty years’ cycle, because by the sixth day the moon has plenty of vigour and has not run half its course. After due preparations have been made for a sacrifice and a feast under the tree, they hail it as the universal healer and bring to the spot two white bulls, whose horns have never been bound before. A priest clad in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden sickle cuts the mistletoe, which is caught in a white cloth. Then they sacrifice the victims, praying that God may make his own gift to prosper with those upon whom he has bestowed it. They believe that a potion prepared from mistletoe will make barren animals to bring forth, and that the plant is a remedy against all poison.”
In another passage Pliny tells us that in medicine the mistletoe which grows on an oak was esteemed the most efficacious, and that its efficacy was by some superstitious people supposed to be increased if the plant was gathered on the first day of the moon without the use of iron, and if when gathered it was not allowed to touch the earth; oak-mistletoe thus obtained was deemed a cure for epilepsy; carried about by women it assisted them to conceive; and it healed ulcers most effectually, if only the sufferer chewed a piece of the plant and laid another piece on the sore. Yet, again, he says that mistletoe was supposed, like vinegar and an egg, to be an excellent means of extinguishing a fire.
If in these latter passages Pliny refers, as he apparently does, to the beliefs current among his contemporaries in Italy, it will follow that the Druids and the Italians were to some extent agreed as to the valuable properties possessed by mistletoe which grows on an oak; both of them deemed it an effectual remedy for a number of ailments, and both of them ascribed to it a quickening virtue, the Druids believing that a potion prepared from mistletoe would fertilise barren cattle, and the Italians holding that a piece of mistletoe carried about by a woman would help her to conceive a child. Further, both peoples thought that if the plant were to exert its medicinal properties it must be gathered in a certain way and at a certain time. It might not be cut with iron, hence the Druids cut it with gold; and it might not touch the earth, hence the Druids caught it in a white cloth. In choosing the time for gathering the plant, both peoples were determined by observation of the moon; only they differed as to the particular day of the moon, the Italians preferring the first, and the Druids the sixth.
With these beliefs of the ancient Gauls and Italians as to the wonderful medicinal properties of mistletoe we may compare the similar beliefs of the modern Aino of Japan. We read that they, “like many nations of the Northern origin, hold the mistletoe in peculiar veneration. They look upon it as a medicine, good in almost every disease, and it is sometimes taken in food and at others separately as a decoction. The leaves are used in preference to the berries, the latter being of too sticky a nature for general purposes… . But many, too, suppose this plant to have the power of making the gardens bear plentifully. When used for this purpose, the leaves are cut up into fine pieces, and, after having been prayed over, are sown with the millet and other seeds, a little also being eaten with the food. Barren women have also been known to eat the mistletoe, in order to be made to bear children. That mistletoe which grows upon the willow is supposed to have the greatest efficacy. This is because the willow is looked upon by them as being an especially sacred tree.”
Thus the Aino agree with the Druids in regarding mistletoe as a cure for almost every disease, and they agree with the ancient Italians that applied to women it helps them to bear children. Again, the Druidical notion that the mistletoe was an “all-healer” or panacea may be compared with a notion entertained by the Walos of Senegambia. These people “have much veneration for a sort of mistletoe, which they call tob; they carry leaves of it on their persons when they go to war as a preservative against wounds, just as if the leaves were real talismans (gris-gris).” The French writer who records this practice adds: “Is it not very curious that the mistletoe should be in this part of Africa what it was in the superstitions of the Gauls? This prejudice, common to the two countries, may have the same origin; blacks and whites will doubtless have seen, each of them for themselves, something supernatural in a plant which grows and flourishes without having roots in the earth. May they not have believed, in fact, that it was a plant fallen from the sky, a gift of the divinity?”
This suggestion as to the origin of the superstition is strongly confirmed by the Druidical belief, reported by Pliny, that whatever grew on an oak was sent from heaven and was a sign that the tree had been chosen by the god himself. Such a belief explains why the Druids cut the mistletoe, not with a common knife, but with a golden sickle, and why, when cut, it was not suffered to touch the earth; probably they thought that the celestial plant would have been profaned and its marvellous virtue lost by contact with the ground. With the ritual observed by the Druids in cutting the mistletoe we may compare the ritual which in Cambodia is prescribed in a similar case. They say that when you see an orchid growing as a parasite on a tamarind tree, you should dress in white, take a new earthenware pot, then climb the tree at noon, break off the plant, put it in the pot and let the pot fall to the ground. After that you make in the pot a decoction which confers the gift of invulnerability. Thus just as in Africa the leaves of one parasitic plant are supposed to render the wearer invulnerable, so in Cambodia a decoction made from another parasitic plant is considered to render the same service to such as make use of it, whether by drinking or washing. We may conjecture that in both places the notion of invulnerability is suggested by the position of the plant, which, occupying a place of comparative security above the ground, appears to promise to its fortunate possessor a similar security from some of the ills that beset the life of man on earth. We have already met with examples of the store which the primitive mind sets on such vantage grounds.
Whatever may be the origin of these beliefs and practices concerning the mistletoe, certain it is that some of them have their analogies in the folk-lore of modern European peasants. For example, it is laid down as a rule in various parts of Europe that mistletoe may not be cut in the ordinary way but must be shot or knocked down with stones from the tree on which it is growing. Thus, in the Swiss canton of Aargau “all parasitic plants are esteemed in a certain sense holy by the country folk, but most particularly so the mistletoe growing on an oak. They ascribe great powers to it, but shrink from cutting it off in the usual manner. Instead of that they procure it in the following manner. When the sun is in Sagittarius and the moon is on the wane, on the first, third, or fourth day before the new moon, one ought to shoot down with an arrow the mistletoe of an oak and to catch it with the left hand as it falls. Such mistletoe is a remedy for every ailment of children.” Here among the Swiss peasants, as among the Druids of old, special virtue is ascribed to mistletoe which grows on an oak: it may not be cut in the usual way: it must be caught as it falls to the ground; and it is esteemed a panacea for all diseases, at least of children. In Sweden, also, it is a popular superstition that if mistletoe is to possess its peculiar virtue, it must either be shot down out of the oak or knocked down with stones. Similarly, “so late as the early part of the nineteenth century, people in Wales believed that for the mistletoe to have any power, it must be shot or struck down with stones off the tree where it grew.”
Again, in respect of the healing virtues of mistletoe the opinion of modern peasants, and even of the learned, has to some extent agreed with that of the ancients. The Druids appear to have called the plant, or perhaps the oak on which it grew, the “all-healer”; and “all-healer” is said to be still a name of the mistletoe in the modern Celtic speech of Brittany, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. On St. John’s morning (Midsummer morning) peasants of Piedmont and Lombardy go out to search the oak-leaves for the “oil of St. John,” which is supposed to heal all wounds made with cutting instruments. Originally, perhaps, the “oil of St. John” was simply the mistletoe, or a decoction made from it. For in Holstein the mistletoe, especially oak-mistletoe, is still regarded as a panacea for green wounds and as a sure charm to secure success in hunting; and at Lacaune, in the south of France, the old Druidical belief in the mistletoe as an antidote to all poisons still survives among the peasantry; they apply the plant to the stomach of the sufferer or give him a decoction of it to drink. Again, the ancient belief that mistletoe is a cure for epilepsy has survived in modern times not only among the ignorant but among the learned. Thus in Sweden persons afflicted with the falling sickness think they can ward off attacks of the malady by carrying about with them a knife which has a handle of oak mistletoe; and in Germany for a similar purpose pieces of mistletoe used to be hung round the necks of children. In the French province of Bourbonnais a popular remedy for epilepsy is a decoction of mistletoe which has been gathered on an oak on St. John’s Day and boiled with rye-flour. So at Bottesford in Lincolnshire a decoction of mistletoe is supposed to be a palliative for this terrible disease. Indeed mistletoe was recommended as a remedy for the falling sickness by high medical authorities in England and Holland down to the eighteenth century.
However, the opinion of the medical profession as to the curative virtues of mistletoe has undergone a radical alteration. Whereas the Druids thought that mistletoe cured everything, modern doctors appear to think that it cures nothing. If they are right, we must conclude that the ancient and widespread faith in the medicinal virtue of mistletoe is a pure superstition based on nothing better than the fanciful inferences which ignorance has drawn from the parasitic nature of the plant, its position high up on the branch of a tree seeming to protect it from the dangers to which plants and animals are subject on the surface of the ground. From this point of view we can perhaps understand why mistletoe has so long and so persistently been prescribed as a cure for the falling sickness. As mistletoe cannot fall to the ground because it is rooted on the branch of a tree high above the earth, it seems to follow as a necessary consequence that an epileptic patient cannot possibly fall down in a fit so long as he carries a piece of mistletoe in his pocket or a decoction of mistletoe in his stomach. Such a train of reasoning would probably be regarded even now as cogent by a large portion of the human species. 10
Again the ancient Italian opinion that mistletoe extinguishes fire appears to be shared by Swedish peasants, who hang up bunches of oak-mistletoe on the ceilings of their rooms as a protection against harm in general and conflagration in particular. A hint as to the way in which mistletoe comes to be possessed of this property is furnished by the epithet “thunder-bosom,” which people of the Aargau canton in Switzerland apply to the plant. For a thunder-besom is a shaggy, bushy excrescence on branches of trees, which is popularly believed to be produced by a flash of lightning; hence in Bohemia a thunder-besom burnt in the fire protects the house against being struck by a thunder-bolt. Being itself a product of lightning it naturally serves, on homoeopathic principles, as a protection against lightning, in fact as a kind of lightning-conductor. Hence the fire which mistletoe in Sweden is designed especially to avert from houses may be fire kindled by lightning; though no doubt the plant is equally effective against conflagration in general.
Again, mistletoe acts as a master-key as well as a lightning-conductor; for it is said to open all locks. But perhaps the most precious of all the virtues of mistletoe is that it affords efficient protection against sorcery and witchcraft. That, no doubt, is the reason why in Austria a twig of mistletoe is laid on the threshold as a preventive of nightmare; and it may be the reason why in the north of England they say that if you wish your dairy to thrive you should give your bunch of mistletoe to the first cow that calves after New Year’s Day, for it is well known that nothing is so fatal to milk and butter as witchcraft. Similarly in Wales, for the sake of ensuring good luck to the dairy, people used to give a branch of mistletoe to the first cow that gave birth to a calf after the first hour of the New Year; and in rural districts of Wales, where mistletoe abounded, there was always a profusion of it in the farmhouses. When mistletoe was scarce, Welsh farmers used to say, “No mistletoe, no luck”; but if there was a fine crop of mistletoe, they expected a fine crop of corn. In Sweden mistletoe is diligently sought after on St. John’s Eve, the people “believing it to be, in a high degree, possessed of mystic qualities; and that if a sprig of it be attached to the ceiling of the dwelling-house, the horse’s stall, or the cow’s crib, the Troll will then be powerless to injure either man or beast.”
With regard to the time when the mistletoe should be gathered opinions have varied. The Druids gathered it above all on the sixth day of the moon, the ancient Italians apparently on the first day of the moon. In modern times some have preferred the full moon of March and others the waning moon of winter when the sun is in Sagittarius. But the favourite time would seem to be Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day. We have seen that both in France and Sweden special virtues are ascribed to mistletoe gathered at Midsummer. The rule in Sweden is that “mistletoe must be cut on the night of Midsummer Eve when sun and moon stand in the sign of their might.” Again, in Wales it was believed that a sprig of mistletoe gathered on St. John’s Eve (Midsummer Eve), or at any time before the berries appeared, would induce dreams of omen, both good and bad, if it were placed under the pillow of the sleeper. Thus mistletoe is one of the many plants whose magical or medicinal virtues are believed to culminate with the culmination of the sun on the longest day of the year. Hence it seems reasonable to conjecture that in the eyes of the Druids, also, who revered the plant so highly, the sacred mistletoe may have acquired a double portion of its mystic qualities at the solstice in June, and that accordingly they may have regularly cut it with solemn ceremony on Midsummer Eve.
Be that as it may, certain it is that the mistletoe, the instrument of Balder’s death, has been regularly gathered for the sake of its mystic qualities on Midsummer Eve in Scandinavia, Balder’s home. The plant is found commonly growing on pear-trees, oaks, and other trees in thick damp woods throughout the more temperate parts of Sweden. Thus one of the two main incidents of Balder’s myth is reproduced in the great midsummer festival of Scandinavia. But the other main incident of the myth, the burning of Balder’s body on a pyre, has also its counterpart in the bonfires which still blaze, or blazed till lately, in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden on Midsummer Eve. It does not appear, indeed, that any effigy is burned in these bonfires; but the burning of an effigy is a feature which might easily drop out after its meaning was forgotten. And the name of Balder’s balefires (Balder’s Ba˘lar), by which these midsummer fires were formerly known in Sweden, puts their connexion with Balder beyond the reach of doubt, and makes it probable that in former times either a living representative or an effigy of Balder was annually burned in them. Midsummer was the season sacred to Balder, and the Swedish poet Tegner, in placing the burning of Balder at midsummer, may very well have followed an old tradition that the summer solstice was the time when the good god came to his untimely end.
Thus it has been shown that the leading incidents of the Balder myth have their counterparts in those fire-festivals of our European peasantry which undoubtedly date from a time long prior to the introduction of Christianity. The pretence of throwing the victim chosen by lot into the Beltane fire, and the similar treatment of the man, the future Green Wolf, at the midsummer bonfire in Normandy, may naturally be interpreted as traces of an older custom of actually burning human beings on these occasions; and the green dress of the Green Wolf, coupled with the leafy envelope of the young fellow who trod out the midsummer fire at Moosheim, seems to hint that the persons who perished at these festivals did so in the character of tree-spirits or deities of vegetation. From all this we may reasonably infer that in the Balder myth on the one hand, and the fire-festivals and custom of gathering mistletoe on the other hand, we have, as it were, the two broken and dissevered halves of an original whole. In other words, we may assume with some degree of probability that the myth of Balder’s death was not merely a myth, that is, a description of physical phenomena in imagery borrowed from human life, but that it was at the same time the story which people told to explain why they annually burned a human representative of the god and cut the mistletoe with solemn ceremony. If I am right, the story of Balder’s tragic end formed, so to say, the text of the sacred drama which was acted year by year as a magical rite to cause the sun to shine, trees to grow, crops to thrive, and to guard man and beast from the baleful arts of fairies and trolls, of witches and warlocks. The tale belonged, in short, to that class of nature myths which are meant to be supplemented by ritual; here, as so often, myth stood to magic in the relation of theory to practice.
But if the victims—the human Balders—who died by fire, whether in spring or at midsummer, were put to death as living embodiments of tree-spirits or deities of vegetation, it would seem that Balder himself must have been a tree-spirit or deity of vegetation. It becomes desirable, therefore, to determine, if we can, the particular kind of tree or trees, of which a personal representative was burned at the fire-festivals. For we may be quite sure that it was not as a representative of vegetation in general that the victim suffered death. The idea of vegetation in general is too abstract to be primitive. Most probably the victim at first represented a particular kind of sacred tree. But of all European trees none has such claims as the oak to be considered as pre-eminently the sacred tree of the Aryans. We have seen that its worship is attested for all the great branches of the Aryan stock in Europe; hence we may certainly conclude that the tree was venerated by the Aryans in common before the dispersion, and that their primitive home must have lain in a land which was clothed with forests of oak.
Now, considering the primitive character and remarkable similarity of the fire-festivals observed by all the branches of the Aryan race in Europe, we may infer that these festivals form part of the common stock of religious observances which the various peoples carried with them in their wanderings from their old home. But, if I am right, an essential feature of those primitive fire-festivals was the burning of a man who represented the tree-spirit. In view, then, of the place occupied by the oak in the religion of the Aryans, the presumption is that the tree so represented at the fire-festivals must originally have been the oak. So far as the Celts and Lithuanians are concerned, this conclusion will perhaps hardly be contested. But both for them and for the Germans it is confirmed by a remarkable piece of religious conservatism. The most primitive method known to man of producing fire is by rubbing two pieces of wood against each other till they ignite; and we have seen that this method is still used in Europe for kindling sacred fires such as the need-fire, and that most probably it was formerly resorted to at all the fire-festivals under discussion. Now it is sometimes required that the need-fire, or other sacred fire, should be made by the friction of a particular kind of wood; and when the kind of wood is prescribed, whether among Celts, Germans, or Slavs, that wood appears to be generally the oak. But if the sacred fire was regularly kindled by the friction of oak-wood, we may infer that originally the fire was also fed with the same material. In point of fact, it appears that the perpetual fire of Vesta at Rome was fed with oak-wood, and that oak-wood was the fuel consumed in the perpetual fire which burned under the sacred oak at the great Lithuanian sanctuary of Romove. Further, that oak-wood was formerly the fuel burned in the midsummer fires may perhaps be inferred from the custom, said to be still observed by peasants in many mountain districts of Germany, of making up the cottage fire on Midsummer Day with a heavy block of oak-wood. The block is so arranged that it smoulders slowly and is not finally reduced to charcoal till the expiry of a year. Then upon next Midsummer Day the charred embers of the old log are removed to make room for the new one, and are mixed with the seed-corn or scattered about the garden. This is believed to guard the food cooked on the hearth from witchcraft, to preserve the luck of the house, to promote the growth of the crops, and to keep them from blight and vermin. Thus the custom is almost exactly parallel to that of the Yule-log, which in parts of Germany, France, England, Serbia, and other Slavonic lands was commonly of oak-wood. The general conclusion is, that at those periodic or occasional ceremonies the ancient Aryans both kindled and fed the fire with the sacred oak-wood.
But if at these solemn rites the fire was regularly made of oakwood, it follows that any man who was burned in it as a personification of the tree-spirit could have represented no tree but the oak. The sacred oak was thus burned in duplicate; the wood of the tree was consumed in the fire, and along with it was consumed a living man as a personification of the oak-spirit. The conclusion thus drawn for the European Aryans in general is confirmed in its special application to the Scandinavians by the relation in which amongst them the mistletoe appears to have stood to the burning of the victim in the midsummer fire. We have seen that among Scandinavians it has been customary to gather the mistletoe at midsummer. But so far as appears on the face of this custom, there is nothing to connect it with the midsummer fires in which human victims or effigies of them were burned. Even if the fire, as seems probable, was originally always made with oak-wood, why should it have been necessary to pull the mistletoe? The last link between the midsummer customs of gathering the mistletoe and lighting the bonfires is supplied by Balder’s myth, which can hardly be disjoined from the customs in question. The myth suggests that a vital connexion may once have been believed to subsist between the mistletoe and the human representative of the oak who was burned in the fire. According to the myth, Balder could be killed by nothing in heaven or earth except the mistletoe; and so long as the mistletoe remained on the oak, he was not only immortal but invulnerable. Now, if we suppose that Balder was the oak, the origin of the myth becomes intelligible. The mistletoe was viewed as the seat of life of the oak, and so long as it was uninjured nothing could kill or even wound the oak. The conception of the mistletoe as the seat of life of the oak would naturally be suggested to primitive people by the observation that while the oak is deciduous, the mistletoe which grows on it is evergreen. In winter the sight of its fresh foliage among the bare branches must have been hailed by the worshippers of the tree as a sign that the divine life which had ceased to animate the branches yet survived in the mistletoe, as the heart of a sleeper still beats when his body is motionless. Hence when the god had to be killed—when the sacred tree had to be burnt—it was necessary to begin by breaking off the mistletoe. For so long as the mistletoe remained intact, the oak (so people might think) was invulnerable; all the blows of their knives and axes would glance harmless from its surface. But once tear from the oak its sacred heart—the mistletoe—and the tree nodded to its fall. And when in later times the spirit of the oak came to be represented by a living man, it was logically necessary to suppose that, like the tree he personated, he could neither be killed nor wounded so long as the mistletoe remained uninjured. The pulling of the mistletoe was thus at once the signal and the cause of his death.
On this view the invulnerable Balder is neither more nor less than a personification of a mistletoe-bearing oak. The interpretation is confirmed by what seems to have been an ancient Italian belief, that the mistletoe can be destroyed neither by fire nor water; for if the parasite is thus deemed indestructible, it might easily be supposed to communicate its own indestructibility to the tree on which it grows, so long as the two remain in conjunction. Or, to put the same idea in mythical form, we might tell how the kindly god of the oak had his life securely deposited in the imperishable mistletoe which grew among the branches; how accordingly so long as the mistletoe kept its place there, the deity himself remained invulnerable; and how at last a cunning foe, let into the secret of the god’s invulnerability, tore the mistletoe from the oak, thereby killing the oak-god and afterwards burning his body in a fire which could have made no impression on him so long as the incombustible parasite retained its seat among the boughs.
But since the idea of a being whose life is thus, in a sense, outside himself, must be strange to many readers, and has, indeed, not yet been recognised in its full bearing on primitive superstition, it will be worth while to illustrate it by examples drawn both from story and custom. The result will be to show that, in assuming this idea as the explanation of Balder’s relation to the mistletoe, I assume a principle which is deeply engraved on the mind of primitive man.
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Author: Thanks for being a reader of this site. Your contributions make this all possible. You can send support to: Kyle Hunt, PO Box 1052, Sorrento FL 32776. Bitcoin address: 1AfppjYZddJzc2C15PXKMsnyBPjPJQezwA . CashApp: Thanks for being a reader of this site. Your contributions make this all possible. You can send support to: Kyle Hunt, PO Box 1052, Sorrento FL 32776. Bitcoin address: 1AfppjYZddJzc2C15PXKMsnyBPjPJQezwA . CashApp: https://cash.app/$thekylehunt


renegadetribune--2020-12-21--Congress Votes $4 Billion to Israel for 2021, Press Doesn’t Tell Americans

Congress just voted billions of dollars of U.S. tax money to Israel , No mainstream US media appear to have told Americans that both houses of Congress just voted massive aid to Israel , a tiny country with a long record of human rights abuses , violations of law , systemic racism , and damage to Americans .
This works out to over $ 7,000 per minute .
The legislation passed both houses in such large numbers that Congress can likely override any potential presidential veto .
This , despite the fact that George Washington warned that a ‘ passionate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ a variety of evils… ’ “ AIPAC commends the U.S. Congress for including significant pro-Israel provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act ( NDAA ) for Fiscal Year ( FY ) 2021 .
These critical provisions will help Israel protect itself against continuing security threats .
[ Editor ’ s note : Israel has one of the most powerful militaries in the world and is the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons , which US officials are banned from mentioning . ]
“ Importantly , the measure includes the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2020 ( S. 3176 ) .
This legislation authorizes $ 3.3 billion in annual U.S. security assistance to Israel through FY 2028 , as called for in the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding on security assistance .
The legislation also includes key initiatives to galvanize U.S.-Israel cooperation in a variety of military and civilian spheres ( major provisions detailed below ) .
“ Beyond the elements of the U.S.-IsraelSecurity Assistance Authorization Act , the bipartisan defense measure authorizes $ 500 million in FY 2021 for U.S.-Israel missile defense cooperation with explicit sums for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Iron Dome , David ’ s Sling and Arrow missile defense systems .
“ The bill also authorizes the Secretary of Defense to establish a U.S.-Israel Operations-Technology Working Group within the Defense Acquisition Advisory Group to focus on early R & D in key battlefield technology .
“ The bill also encourages further U.S.-Israel cooperation in diagnosing and treating victims of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ( PTSD ) .
“ In adopting these pro-Israel provisions , AIPAC appreciates the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( R-OK ) and Ranking Member Jack Reed ( D-RI ) , Sens .
Marco Rubio ( R-FL ) , Chris Coons ( D-DE ) , James Risch ( R-ID ) , Bob Menendez ( D-NJ ) , Ted Cruz ( R-TX ) , Tom Cotton ( R-AR ) and Gary Peters ( D-MI ) , and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith ( D-WA ) and Ranking Member Mac Thornberry ( R-TX ) , and Reps. Eliot Engel ( D-NY ) , Michael McCaul ( R-TX ) , Ted Deutch ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) , Michael Waltz ( R-FL ) , Frank Pallone ( D-NJ ) , Elaine Luria ( D-VA ) , Lee Zeldin ( R-NY ) and Chrissy Houlahan ( D-PA ) .
• Authorizing $ 3.3 billion in annual U.S. security assistance to Israel through FY 2028 , as called for in the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding on security assistance .
• Extending authorization for the U.S. War Reserve Stockpile in Israel through FY 2025 and authorizing an additional $ 200 million annually in stocks .
• Lifting current limitations on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Israel in an emergency and authorizing the President to exceed the current limitation of $ 200 million on the transfer of PGMs in a non-emergency setting under certain conditions .
• Authorizing the Secretary of Defense , following study , to establish a directed energy program with Israel .
• Authorizing a total of $ 14 million for U.S.-Israel cooperation in energy , water , agriculture , cyber and alternative fuel technologies .
• Authorizing $ 6 million over the next three years to finance cooperative projects among the United States , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 12 million over the next three years for an initiative to enhance partnerships between U.S. and Israeli companies to develop innovative medical projects primarily aimed at detecting , treating and curing COVID.
” “ …The bill directs the State Department and USAID to establish joint Arab-Israeli high tech projects and tasks other relevant U.S. agencies with exploring joint U.S.-Israel space exploration [ Despite accusations of Israeli espionage ] desalination and post traumatic stress disorder research initiatives .
“ A push by Senate Democrats over the summer to include an amendment preventing Israel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unilaterally annex territory in the West Bank was defeated .
“ President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to veto the bill if it does not include a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act , which indemnifies internet companies against certain types of lawsuits , and has also objected to an amendment that would rename 10 military bases whose names honor the Confederacy .
“ Congress has not moved on either issue , but the large majorities by which both bills passed have led observers to expect lawmakers will be able @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sen .
Rand Paul ( R-KY ) delayed the expected passage of the bill on Thursday in protest of a provision that would limit the president ’ s ability to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
” …nothing is more essential , than that permanent , inveterate antipathies against particular Nations , and passionate attachments for others , should be excluded ; and that , in place of them , just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated .
The Nation , which indulges towards another an habitual hatred , or an habitual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slave .
It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection , either which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest .
Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury , to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage , and to be haughty and intractable , when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur .
Hence frequent collisions , obstinate , envenomed , and bloody contests .
The Nation , prompted by ill-will and resentment , sometimes impels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the best calculations of policy .
The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity , and adopts through passion what reason would reject ; at other times , it makes the animosity of the nation subservient projects of hostility instigated by pride , ambition , and other sinister and pernicious motives .
The peace often , sometimes perhaps the liberty , of Nations has been the victim .
33 So likewise , a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils .
Sympathy for the favorite Nation , facilitating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in cases where no real common interest exists , and infusing into one the enmities of the other , betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter , without adequate inducement or justification .
It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others , which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions ; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained ; and by exciting jealousy , ill-will , and a disposition to retaliate , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ withheld .
And it gives to ambitious , corrupted , or deluded citizens , ( who devote themselves to the favorite nation , ) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country , without odium , sometimes even with popularity ; gilding , with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation , a commendable deference for public opinion , or a laudable zeal for public good , the base or foolish compliances of ambition , corruption , or infatuation… See information on the bill here and here , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the most influential and pervasive lobby for a foreign country in the US .
While US media report on Israel in a consistently Israel-centric manner and often portray it as a victim , the fact is that Israeli forces have killed and injured far more of its adversaries than the reverse .
US media omit the fact that Israel was established through a war of ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Christians , and it continues this today . ]

From If Americans Knew
Congress just voted billions of dollars of U.S. tax money to Israel, No mainstream US media appear to have told Americans that both houses of Congress just voted massive aid to Israel, a tiny country with a long record of human rights abuses, violations of law, systemic racism, and damage to Americans.
This works out to over $7,000 per minute. The legislation passed both houses in such large numbers that Congress can likely override any potential presidential veto. This, despite the fact that George Washington warned that a ‘passionate attachment’ to a foreign country produces ‘a variety of evils…’
Press release from AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee)
“AIPAC commends the U.S. Congress for including significant pro-Israel provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021. These critical provisions will help Israel protect itself against continuing security threats.
[Editor’s note: Israel has one of the most powerful militaries in the world and is the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons, which US officials are banned from mentioning.]
“Importantly, the measure includes the United States-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2020 (S. 3176). This legislation authorizes $3.3 billion in annual U.S. security assistance to Israel through FY 2028, as called for in the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding on security assistance. The legislation also includes key initiatives to galvanize U.S.-Israel cooperation in a variety of military and civilian spheres (major provisions detailed below).
“Beyond the elements of the U.S.-IsraelSecurity Assistance Authorization Act, the bipartisan defense measure authorizes $500 million in FY 2021 for U.S.-Israel missile defense cooperation with explicit sums for both R&D and procurement for the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow missile defense systems.
“The bill also authorizes the Secretary of Defense to establish a U.S.-Israel Operations-Technology Working Group within the Defense Acquisition Advisory Group to focus on early R&D in key battlefield technology.
“The bill also encourages further U.S.-Israel cooperation in diagnosing and treating victims of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
“In adopting these pro-Israel provisions, AIPAC appreciates the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Chris Coons (D-DE), James Risch (R-ID), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Gary Peters (D-MI), and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) and Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-TX), and Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Michael Waltz (R-FL), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Elaine Luria (D-VA), Lee Zeldin (R-NY) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA).
“Major provisions of the U.S.-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act include:
Authorizing $3.3 billion in annual U.S. security assistance to Israel through FY 2028, as called for in the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding on security assistance.
in annual U.S. security assistance to Israel through FY 2028, as called for in the 2016 U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding on security assistance. Extending authorization for the U.S. War Reserve Stockpile in Israel through FY 2025 and authorizing an additional $200 million annually in stocks.
annually in stocks. Lifting current limitations on the transfer of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) to Israel in an emergency and authorizing the President to exceed the current limitation of $200 million on the transfer of PGMs in a non-emergency setting under certain conditions.
Authorizing the Secretary of Defense, following study, to establish a directed energy program with Israel.
Authorizing a total of $14 million for U.S.-Israel cooperation in energy, water, agriculture, cyber and alternative fuel technologies.
for U.S.-Israel cooperation in energy, water, agriculture, cyber and alternative fuel technologies. Authorizing $6 million over the next three years to finance cooperative projects among the United States, Israel and developing countries.
over the next three years to finance cooperative projects among the United States, Israel and developing countries. Authorizing $12 million over the next three years for an initiative to enhance partnerships between U.S. and Israeli companies to develop innovative medical projects primarily aimed at detecting, treating and curing COVID.”
Jewish Insider reports:
“…The bill directs the State Department and USAID to establish joint Arab-Israeli high tech projects and tasks other relevant U.S. agencies with exploring joint U.S.-Israel space exploration [Despite accusations of Israeli espionage] desalination and post traumatic stress disorder research initiatives.
“A push by Senate Democrats over the summer to include an amendment preventing Israel from using U.S. security assistance funds to unilaterally annex territory in the West Bank was defeated.
“President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to veto the bill if it does not include a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which indemnifies internet companies against certain types of lawsuits, and has also objected to an amendment that would rename 10 military bases whose names honor the Confederacy.
“Congress has not moved on either issue, but the large majorities by which both bills passed have led observers to expect lawmakers will be able to override a potential veto.
“Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) delayed the expected passage of the bill on Thursday in protest of a provision that would limit the president’s ability to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan.”
George Washington warned against passionate attachments to foreign nations
In Washington’s Farewell Address he stated:
…nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim. 33 So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate,in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation…
See information on the bill here and here, including how members voted.
The Israel lobby is the most influential and pervasive lobby for a foreign country in the US. While US media report on Israel in a consistently Israel-centric manner and often portray it as a victim, the fact is that Israeli forces have killed and injured far more of its adversaries than the reverse. US media omit the fact that Israel was established through a war of ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Christians, and it continues this today.]
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Author: Thanks for being a reader of this site. Your contributions make this all possible. You can send support to: Kyle Hunt, PO Box 1052, Sorrento FL 32776. Bitcoin address: 1AfppjYZddJzc2C15PXKMsnyBPjPJQezwA . CashApp: Thanks for being a reader of this site. Your contributions make this all possible. You can send support to: Kyle Hunt, PO Box 1052, Sorrento FL 32776. Bitcoin address: 1AfppjYZddJzc2C15PXKMsnyBPjPJQezwA . CashApp: https://cash.app/$thekylehunt


renegadetribune--2020-12-21--Viktor Madarász’s Historical Scenes

Viktor Madarász’s Historical Scenes

Viktor Madarász ( 1830 – 1917 ) was a Hungarian artist who was best known for his Romantic historical scenes @ @ @ @ @ from an impoverished noble family , the son of an iron craftsman , who was @ @ @ @ @ realized his passion for painting .
He also became involved in the Hungarian Revolution , @ @ @ @ @ his artwork .
While he did see some success , his style eventual fell out @ @ @ @ @ to eventually die “ completely forgotten .
”

Viktor Madarász (1830 – 1917) was a Hungarian artist who was best known for his Romantic historical scenes and portraits. He was from an impoverished noble family, the son of an iron craftsman, who was going into law before he realized his passion for painting. He also became involved in the Hungarian Revolution, which became a theme in his artwork. While he did see some success, his style eventual fell out of favor and he was to eventually die “completely forgotten.”
self-portrait Czech King Podjebrad Introduces Matthias the Hungarian Delegates (1873) Péter Zrínyi and Kristóf Frangepán in Prison at Wiener Neustadt Vision Ilona Zrínyi Before the Investigating Judge Francis II Rákóczi in the Prison in Wiener Neustadt The Death of Petőfi (My Homeland) Lajos Kossuth, the Leader of the 1848 Revolution in Exile Kuruc and Labanc The Mourning of László Hunyadi Thököly's Dream
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Author: Thanks for being a reader of this site. Your contributions make this all possible. You can send support to: Kyle Hunt, PO Box 1052, Sorrento FL 32776. Bitcoin address: 1AfppjYZddJzc2C15PXKMsnyBPjPJQezwA . CashApp: Thanks for being a reader of this site. Your contributions make this all possible. You can send support to: Kyle Hunt, PO Box 1052, Sorrento FL 32776. Bitcoin address: 1AfppjYZddJzc2C15PXKMsnyBPjPJQezwA . CashApp: https://cash.app/$thekylehunt