Prophets of Our Age : To Play The King

"Remember that awfully nice man who talked about 'The Classless Society'...? 

He had to go, of course. 

Everything Changes.

A New King - A New Age!

Of Peace and Prosperity and Spiritual Growth, etc. etc...

And I'm Still Here - For My Sins."

Prophets of Our Age : John Byrne

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Writer/Artist John Byrne has been involved in an inordinate amount of eerie coincidences.

STATUS: True

JB: You don't know about the Byrne Curse, do you? 

Chris Claremont and I did a story about a blackout in NYC. The week it came out, there was a blackout in NYC. 

We did a story about an earthquake in Japan. The week it came out. . . 

Okay, so those are no big deal, as such things happen all the time. But on my own I. . . . . . blew up a Space Shuttle in the second issue of MAN OF STEEL (and hastily redrew it as a "space plane" before it came out. 

. . . named an aircraft carrier after a former Canadian Prime Minister (against the tradition of only naming ships after dead folk). He was dead by the time the book came out. 

. . . and killed Prince Diana (Wonder Woman) in a book (replete with fake newspaper cover) that shipped week before the Saturday that. . . 

If only this power could be harnessed for good! (5/15/2003)


COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Writer/Artist John Byrne has been involved in an inordinate amount of eerie coincidences.

STATUS: True

I almost considered putting a “False” for this one, if only because, upon looking into this bit, I found stuff like:

Byrne is sometimes believed to possess the power to predict events in our world, when he does his comics, and of course these events are predominantly tragedies.

And THAT, of course, is totally bogus, as well, come on. Heck, I would go further to say that I doubt the veracity of “is sometimes believed,” as I don’t think there’s anyone who ACTUALLY believes that.

But anyhow, yes, John Byrne has been involved in an inordinate amount of eerie comic book coincidences.

Fairly early on in his career at Marvel, Byrne drew an issue of Marvel Team-Up with writer Chris Claremont that involved a blackout in New York City.

Soon after the issue was released in 1977 (and months after Byrne had drawn it), New York City had one of its largest blackouts ever.

The next year, when Byrne was on Uncanny X-Men with Claremont, the pair had Japan be struck by an earthquake (courtesy of Mose Magnum).

In 1978, Japan was struck with a number of earthquakes.

(Speaking of Claremont, towards the very end of his run with Byrne on Uncanny X-Men, the pair depicted the dystopian world of 2013 in “Days of Future Past.” One of the characters from that story made it to the present, and in a later issue of Uncanny X-Men (#189), the character included a (in retrospect) chilling “flashback” to the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Soon before Byrne’s first issue of his Superman reboot, Man of Steel, which involves Superman having to save a damaged space-plane, the Challenger space shuttle was destroyed…

Finally, and perhaps most notably, in late August 1997, Wonder Woman #126 came out, reflecting the short-lived death of Wonder Woman, Princess Diana of Themyscira.


That Saturday, the REAL Princess Diana was killed in a car accident.

Some weird stuff, no?

Byrne, himself, wrote in to Scientific American magazine after Michael Shermer [The Squirmer] had written a skeptical look at a different writer’s claims to have predicted the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and stated most of these facts, concluding:

My ability as a prognosticator…would seem assured-provided, of course, we reference only the above, and skip over the hundreds of other comic books I have produced which featured all manner of catastrophes, large and small, which did not come to pass.

Well said, Mr. Byrne.

Black Stone

p103 XVII. The Lapis Niger and the Grave of Romulus

On the boundary-line between the Forum and the Comitium there lies, at present protected by a wooden roof, a square of black marble slabs fenced in by a wall of white marble. The surface of the black pavement has been injured in several places and patched together, for example with a piece of an inscription, but the patching has been done with great care. Its orientation agrees with that of the Curia of Julius and Diocletian, and it is situated almost exactly in front of the entrance to this Curia. Immediately upon the discovery of this pavement it was brought into connection with a group of monuments, the existence of which in the Comitium is mentioned by writers of the late republic and the early empire.

Fig. 46. Lapis Niger.

"The black stone in the Comitium", says the antiquarian Pompeius Festus (whose work is an abridgment of a larger work byp104Verrius Flaccus, the contemporary of Augustus, "marks an unlucky spot: according to some it was intended to serve as the grave of Romulus, but this intention was not carried out, and in the place of Romulus his foster-father Faustulus was buried; according to others it was the grave of Hostus Hostilius, the father of the thirdp105king Tullus Hostilius". Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who wrote in the time of Augustus, states that "many people think that the stone lion, which is in the noblest place in the Roman Forum, close by the Rostra, was a monument for Faustulus, who was buried on the spot where he fell in battle". The same author repeats in another place the other explanation, namely that "TullusHostilius was buried in the noblest place in the Forum, and received a memorial stone (stele) with an inscription which praised his virtues". Finally the old commentators on Horace remark: "most people say [in another passage Varro is mentioned by name] that Romulus was buried close to [in front of or behind] the Rostra, and that this was the reason that the two lions were placed there, just as they may be seen to‑day guarding graves".

Fig. 47. The upper layer of the Lapis Niger.

Fig. 48. The lower layer of the Lapis Niger.

On the level of the Julian-Augustan pavement we have to be sure instead of a "black stone" a black pavement of marble blocks, and we find no traces of lions as guardians or of a stele with an ancient inscription. However, by digging deeper, there was discovered •about five feet lower a group of monuments of very ancient time, which were covered over in late antiquity and in part purposely destroyed.

In the first place, covered only in part by the black pavement are to be seen two bases of tufa (fig. 48 A B) which seem especially appropriate for two reclining statues of lions. Between the two bases there lies (possibly not in its original position) a single block of stone (C). Behind, the two bases run against a foundation (D) which has not as yet been more closely investigated: the suggestion, which has recently been made, that this foundation represents the speaker's platform of the republican Rostra is impossible on account of the smallness of the dimensions •(5½ ft. × 11½ ft.). This shrine, a 'sacellum', is usually considered identical with the 'grave of Romulus' mentioned by ancient writers; some scholars think that on the single block of stone (C) stood the 'black stone', perhaps as in the case of p107Etruscan graves a conical block of black vulcanicsubstance.

Fig. 49. The 'Sacellum' and the archaic Stele.

Behind the 'sacellum', under the black pavement, stands the mutilated trunk of a round column of tufa (G); further behind in the darkness (the custodian provides a candle) is a rectangular stele (H) covered with inscriptions on all four faces. The writing goes from thep108top down and from the bottom up (vertical boustrophedon): fig. 50 and 51 show the lines of writing horizontal in order that they may be more easily legible:

	1. ← quoiho . . . 2. → sakros es-  3. ← ed sor. . .  4. → iasias  5. 2 recei l. . .  6. → . . .evam  7. ← quos r. . .
Fig. 50. Inscription on the archaic Stele.

	8. ←m kalato-  9. →rem hap. . .  10. ←. . .iod iouxmen-  11. →ta kapia dota v. . .  15. ←m ite ri  14. →quoiha-  13. ←velod nequ. . .  12. →. . .od iovestod  16. ←loiquiod. . .
Fig. 51. Inscription on the archaic Stele.

The letters show greater resemblance to the Greek alphabet than those of any other Latin inscription (it is in this inscription only that R still has the form P): among all the inscriptions preserved on stone it is certainly the oldest, and is not younger than the fifth century B.C. Unfortunately the content is up to the present almost entirely unknown, and inasmuch as the lines are preserved in scarcely half their length, and possibly only in a third, the future promises little for their deciphering. This much however is known, that mention is made of a rex — whether this be the real king of Rome or his shadow-like successor of republican times the rex sacrorum — further of iouxmenta, that is to say wagons and animals to draw them, and of a public servant, kalator. Finally the end of one sentence is still preserved: sakros esed = sacer esto (sit), according to which it is probable that we have before us a lex sacrata: and for that matter in so ancient a time scarcely anything else would have been engraved on stone. The rex (and later the rex sacrorum) had business in the Comitium especially on three days in the year, February 24th, March 24th, and May 24th (see above p6); and it is at least conceivable that the lex had to do with the holy ceremonies to be performed by him, and that the privilege was granted him of appearing with his servant in thep109Comitium in a wagon, although wagons were otherwise forbidden there, and whoever broke this law was delivered over to the deity for punishment. But a genuine restoration of the inscription is impossible.

When the 'sacellum' was excavated the plinths of the bases were found packed in a layer of gravel which had been purposely brought there: in this layer were found numerous dedicatory gifts, small idols of clay, bone, and bronze, pieces of terracotta bas-reliefs, fragments of vases, bones of animal sacrifices etc.; these are all stored at present in the magazzino of the excavations (plan I m). These objects too come mainly from very ancient times (VIII‑VIcenturies B.C.). 

It is still a mooted question at what date this old sanctuary was destroyed and at what date it was entirely covered over. Some scholars consider that the first destruction took place as early as the invasion of the Gauls (B.C. 390), and that the final covering over and the laying of the black pavement occurred in the time of Caesar or Augustus; others believe that as late as the time of Varro the lower group was still completely visible, and that the black pavement was laid in the time of the late empire as a memorial for the grave of Romulus which had long since disappeared. The settlement of this and of many other disputed points may be expected from the continuance of the excavations.

Under the right-hand corner of the black pavement is a rectangular well-like structure, made of slabs of tufa, the mouth of which is on a level with the Comitium of Julius Caesar and Augustus; a similar but pentagonal well is found on the right-hand side at the entrance to the excavation. The meaning of these constructions, and of similar ones in front of the Rostra, along the Sacra Via in front of the Basilica Julia and elsewhere, is uncertain. The name 'ritual wells' (pozzi rituali) is unfounded, at p110least for the majority of them; and it seems much more likely that they served some practical purpose (drainage).

See: Festus p177; Dionys. I.87, III.1; Schol. in Horat. epod. 16, 13. 14. — Iscrizione del cippo: Dessau 4913.

Notizie degli scavi, 1899, 151‑169; Comparetti, Iscrizione arcaica del Foro Romano. (Firenze, 1900); Huelsen, R. M. 1902, 22‑31; Beiträge zur alten GeschichteII (1902), 230; Vaglieri 102‑143; Studniczka, Jahreshefte des Oesterr. Instituts VI (1903), 129‑155. VII (1904), 239 sg.; Boni, Atti del Congresso storico, 550‑554; Petersen, Comitium, Rostra, Grab des Romulus(Rom 1904).

Diana, This is Not What We Came Here to Do

We just... we can't save everyone in this war. 

This is not what we came here to do. 

Princess Diana

Queen of Heaven

KALI-MA

Goddess of Truth and Righteous Retribution,

Champion of The Meek, The Mild and The Wretched of The Earth

Friend to Animals, Defender of The Innocent, Guardian of the Weak,

Protector of Widows, Orphans and Wronged-Women: 

No. But it is what I am going to do.

Oh, Charlie - but then who will Sing for us...?

[ Mummy Says you should name him 'George'.]

On Themyscira, we learn how to dance - that is not dancing, they are... swaying....

Unarmed Prophets

"Hence it comes about that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed. "

Niccolo Machiavelli

God again commands Jonah to visit Nineveh and prophesy to its inhabitants. This time he goes and enters the city, crying, 

“In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown.” 

After Jonah has walked across Nineveh, the people of Nineveh begin to believe his word and proclaim a fast. The king of Nineveh puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes, making a proclamation which decrees fasting, sackcloth, prayer, and repentance. God sees their repentant hearts and spares the city at that time. 

The entire city is humbled and broken with the people (and even the animals) in sackcloth and ashes. Even the king comes off his throne to repent.

Displeased by this, Jonah refers to his earlier flight to Tarshish while asserting that, since God is merciful, it was inevitable that God would turn from the threatened calamities. He then leaves the city and makes himself a shelter, waiting to see whether or not the city will be destroyed. God causes a plant (in Hebrew a Kikayon) to grow over Jonah’s shelter to give him some shade from the sun. 

Later, God causes a worm to bite the plant’s root and it withers. 

Jonah, now being exposed to the full force of the sun, becomes faint and desires that God take him out of the world.

And God said to Jonah: “Art thou greatly angry for the Kikayon?” And he said: “I am greatly angry, even unto death.”

And the LORD said: “Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night;

and should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?”

— Book of Jonah, chapter 4, verses 9-11

Goddess : A Conscience Bound to Truth

There are 3 sacred things by which the conscience binds itself to truth,—

• The Name of God
• The Rod of Him Who Offers Up Prayers to God
• The Joined Right Hand.

The May Weak Rebellion

[ May Week's in June. ]

The indictment charged Essex with "conspiring and imagining at London, . . . to depose and slay the Queen, and to subvert the Government."

 It also stated that Essex had "endeavored to raise himself to the Crown of England, and usurp the royal dignity," and that in order to fulfill these intentions, he and others "rose and assembled themselves in open rebellion, and moved and persuaded many of the citizens of London to join them in their treason, and endeavored to get the city of London into their possession and power, and wounded and killed many of the Queen's subjects then and there assembled for the purpose of quelling such rebellion." 

Essex was charged also with holding the Lord Keeper and the other Privy Councillors in custody "for four hours and more."

SEPTEMBER 1599 –The Irish campaign is a catastrophe.

In a land of bewildering bogs and mist, the beleaguered English soldiers are outnumbered and outsmarted. The disintegrating army is tired, diseased, demoralized. 

In desperation Essex meets with the rebel leader the Earl of Tyrone and agrees to a truce. 

Back in London the Queen confers with Cecil and in a fury sends back orders to break the truce and stay there and fight on to the bitter end. 

Essex and Southampton defiantly board a ship and land on English soil and ride three days and nights hell-bent to speak personally with Elizabeth. 

They arrive at dawn at the Palace of Nonesuch, where the Queen has just risen from her bed. 

Essex barges past all the guards into the Palace, pushing through the Pike-men and Chamber attendants, sword banging against his leg, brushing through the Presence Chamber to the Privy Chamber … and then charges right on through and without knocking bursts into the royal bedroom! 

Inside is a startled old woman who has not yet put on her thick paint and wig. 

Her gray wrinkled body is still half naked; strands of hair straggle down over a wizened face. 

The Queen is alone, defenseless, at the mercy of a wild man covered with mud, dripping with sweat, and now kneeling to kiss her hand. 

She smiles, pats her general on the head, and calmly suggests he go clean up and come back when she’s more … “properly prepared.” 

When he’s gone she puts him under house arrest and the once-great royal favorite will never see his sovereign mistress again, never. 

She bars Southampton from her presence and he, too, will never again see his mother the Queen. 

Cecil has made all the right moves; now for the end game!

FALL 1600 –

Queen Elizabeth turns sixty-seven; Robert Cecil has positioned himself to choose the next monarch when she dies. 

The earls have become increasingly desperate; whispers about rebellion are spreading –rumors of a palace coup against Cecil, led by England’s young nobility.

EARLY FEBRUARY 1601 –Southampton takes charge of planning for a surprise assault on Whitehall Palace. 

First move will be to capture Cecil; they’ll probably have to kill him; then Essex and Southampton will rush to see Elizabeth. 

She’ll come to her senses and call a Parliament on succession; to avoid civil war, she’ll even give up her Crown. 

What if she refuses?

Will they have to kill her, too? 

Members of the Essex faction pay the Lord Chamberlain’s acting company to give a special performance of a royal history play by “Shakespeare” –who, everyone knows, has dedicated his work to Southampton, co-leader of the coming revolt. 

The play is RICHARD THE SECOND, about a real English monarch forced to give up his crown. 

The conspirators are brazenly using “Shake-speare” and the public stage for political propaganda.

THE GLOBE PLAYHOUSE –

A brand new scene has been written and inserted showing King Richard actually HANDING OVER his crown, something being suggested for Elizabeth herself. 

Many conspirators sit right up on the stage behind the actors, cheering them on. 

That night Cecil sends agents summoning Essex to the Palace; and once again the proud earl does exactly what Robert Cecil knows he will do. 

He defies him. 

He won’t go.

The Essex Rebellion… 

EARLY NEXT MORNING, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1601 –

A great crowd of armed men jostles around the courtyard of Essex House, itching for revolt. 

Cecil makes another move; he dispatches a royal delegation to bring the Earl to the palace. 

But the angry crowd takes the delegation HOSTAGE –an overt act of TREASON. 

Now there’s no turning back. 

In a panic Essex bolts out the gate, shouting: “For the Queen, for the Queen!” 

Hundreds follow him, racing through the streets, trying to get to the palace. 

But Cecil already has soldiers stationed at every corner and speakers already proclaiming: “Essex, traitor! Essex, traitor! Traitor! Traitor!” 

Citizens watching from windows and doorways are terrified, bewildered. 

Without support, the rebels fall into confusion and chaos, fighting and bloodshed, and finally mass arrests filling all the jails in London.

TEN O’CLOCK THAT NIGHT –

Essex and Southampton sink to their knees and surrender up their swords. 

The so-called Essex Rebellion is over before it can even begin.

It's Not That You Know Nothing, It's That You Don't Believe Anything

STOP CHOOSING TO BE WRONG.

Purpose : For No Law Can Unman a Man or Uncall a Calling

YOUR PURPOSE CANNOT BE BOUGHT OR SOLD.

We, who are Conscious, must better understand Our Task; Ours is not to teach The People to be Conscious,  but merely to make them conscious of their Unconscious behaviour.

We must understand the difference between Mobilisation and Organisation, because The Enemy will use Mobilisation to DeMobilise US.

If we at not careful, we risk allowing Mobilisation to be EVENTS. Revolutionary Struggle is never an event.

One of the characteristics of Mobilisation is that it is temporary - Organisation is PERMANENT and ETERNAL.

As Revolutionaries, our goal is to obtain POWER.

We don't want Money,

We don't want Fame,

We don't want Women, Sex or Recognition,

Or the respect of our peers or enemies,

WE WANT POWER.

And The Revolutionary Struggle, the inner Struggle for Power [of any form or kind] is a FULL TIME VOCATION.

Some are Called, Some are Saved, Most are DOOMED.

That's why I must answer My Calling.

Because if not I, Then Who...?

See, I'm not a woman, and I don't work here.

The women who do are afraid for their jobs. 

They are afraid for their jobs.

What am I afraid of...?

Some are Called, A Few Get Saved - Most are DOOMED

I got Called - and so I answered.

YOU LET THIS LITTLE THING TELL YOU WHAT TO DO

There are 3 sacred things by which the conscience binds itself to truth,—

• The Name of God
• The Rod of Him Who Offers Up Prayers to God
• The Joined Right Hand.

[Thompson, posing as a reporter for The Washington Post, is alone in an airport restroom when the "Candidate" (Richard Nixon) enters and starts using the urinal.]

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: Hi sir, it's Harris from the Post. Can I get you anything sir?

Candidate: How's the family Harris?

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: Oh the family, well that's bad news. The screwheads finally came and took my daughter away. Let me ask you a question sir, what is this country doing for The Doomed? 

There are two kinds of people in this country, The Doomed and The Screwheads. Savage tribal thugs who live off their illegal incomes, burrowed deep out there; no respect for human dignity. They don't know what you and I understand, you know what I mean.

Candidate: You ever play football, Harris?

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: Yes sir, thank you sir. I played in college, and they're gonna get your daughter too sir. I've heard their rallies, they like Julie but Tricia... and they really hate you sir. You know that one and a half of the State Senate of Utah are screwheads. You know I was never really frightened by the bopheads and the potheads with their silliness never really frightened me either, but these goddam screwheads, they terrify me. 

And the poor Doomed, the young, and the silly, the honest, the weak, the Italians ... they're doomed, they're lost, they're helpless, they're somebody else's meal, they're like pigs in the wilderness.

Candidate: Come here Harris, come here. 

Fuck the Doomed!

"Are you employed, Mr. Lebowski..?"

There are 3 sacred things by which the conscience binds itself to truth,—

• The Name of God
• The Rod of Him Who Offers Up Prayers to God
• The Joined Right Hand.

There are 3 orders who are exempt from bearing arms,—

• The Bard
• The Judge,
• The Graduate in Law or Religion. 

These represent God and his peace, and 

no weapon must ever be found in their hand. 

There are 3 persons in a family exempted from all manual or menial work—

• The Little Child, 
• The Old Man or Woman, and
• The Family Instructor

There are 3 orders against whom no weapon can be bared—

• The Herald 
• The Bard 
• The Head of a Clan

There are 3 of private rank, against whom no weapon can be bared,—

• A Woman 
• A Child Under Fifteen, and
• An Unarmed Man

There are 3 Sons of Captives Who Free Themselves—

• A Bard 
• A Scholar 
• A Mechanic

"Learning was greatly respected. Privilege of support was given to rank, to bards or teachers, and to orphans . The free man must support a wife, also a fighting man if he does not fight himself, and a family tutor. The family teacher was exempt from all manual work, bearing arms, or cultivation, like infants and the aged. The privileged arts, that give complete liberty, are bardism, metallurgy, and learning or literature. Those who profess these have an extra five acres of land besides their five acres as free men."

You Know You're Right

You're RIGHT! YOU'RE Right!!!

NOT Those Fuckers Who Want to Tell You How to Think!!

YOU'RE FUCKING RIGHT!!!!!!

We Won.

Stop listening to people arguing about Why We Lost, and How We Can Do Better 'Next Time'.

Because We Won.

You Cannot Do Better Than Winning.

Only, Elizabeth Windsor cannot accept that We Won, so They Say We Lost.

And you, Believe Them, it seems.

The Gathering

And This is Why You Lose

We Won.

Stop listening to people arguing about Why We Lost, and How We Can Win Next Time.

Because We Won.

Only, Elizabeth Windsor, as we know, and by her actions, we can prove cannot accept that. 

And nor can you, it seems.

"What you had was a War, between two fundamentally opposing forces for the soul and the future of the nation.

I was the Secretary of... something which... we should call - for want of a better word - "The Muck-Up Squad". 

Actually, the real name was rather more robust than that.

What it was, was a Committee of MPs, Backbench Tory MPs, administered by The Whips ( I was the Secretary-Chairman ) who would gather together, during the week to discuss how to wear-down The Government. 

It was a Government that was on the rocks, it was rocked back on it's heels, and it HAD to be got rid-of.

And part of that was, not just the Political Argument up-front, but actually just the regular day-in, day-out, night-in, night-out wearing them down emotionally, and physically.

Until they KNEW that they couldn't go on."

- Michael Dobbs, 

"House of Cards" Author/Creator, 

Former Conservative Chief Whip, 

Parliamentary Secretary for Margaret Thatcher

A Man That Knew Who The Enemy Was.

 A Liberal or a Moderate is just an unmotivated, unstimulated or poorly-led Revolutionary that Doesn't Know Who The Enemy Is.

I DO Know Who The Enemy Is.

[ Because they don't believe in anything. Heathens. ]

Liberals are 

DANGEROUS COMPROMISERS.

I Struggle; You Collaborate.