#ferguson rifle

[bantarleton]

A brilliant portrayal of British Captain Patrick Ferguson's experimental rifle corps, an ad hoc company raised in 1777 and equipped with Ferguson's famed breech-loading rifles.

[iphigeniarising]

[vague-humanoid]

Increasingly, it is not safe to be in public, to be human, to be fallible. I’m not quoting breathless journalism about rising crime or conservative talking points about America falling into ruin. The ruin I’m thinking of isn’t in San Francisco or Chicago or at the southern border. The ruin is woven into the fabric of America. It’s seeping into all of us. All across the country, supposedly good, upstanding citizens are often fatally enforcing ever-changing, arbitrary and personal norms for how we conduct ourselves.

In Kansas City, Mo., Ralph Yarl, a Black 16-year-old, rang the wrong doorbell. He was trying to pick up his younger brothers and was simply on the wrong street, Northeast 115th Street instead of Northeast 115th Terrace, a harmless mistake. Andrew Lester, 84 and white, shot him twice and said, according to Ralph, “Don’t come around here.” Bleeding and injured, Ralph went to three different houses, according to a family member, before those good neighbors in a good, middle-class neighborhood helped him.

In upstate New York, a 20-year-old woman, Kaylin Gillis, was looking for a friend’s house in a rural area. The driver of the car she was in turned into a driveway and the homeowner, Kevin Monahan, 65, is accused of firing twice at the car and killing Ms. Gillis.

In Illinois, William Martys was using a leaf blower in his yard. A neighbor, Ettore Lacchei, allegedly started an argument with Mr. Martys and, the police say, killed him.

Two cheerleaders were shot in a Texas parking lot after one, Heather Roth, got into the wrong car. One of her teammates, Payton Washington, was also shot. Both girls survived, with injuries.

In Cleveland, Texas, a father asked his neighbor Francisco Oropesa to stop shooting his gun on his porch because his baby was trying to sleep. Mr. Oropesa walked over to the father’s house and has been charged with killing five people, including an 8-year-old boy, with an AR-15-style rifle. Two of the slain adults were found covering children, who survived.

At a Walgreens in Nashville, Mitarius Boyd suspected that Travonsha Ferguson, who was seven months pregnant, was shoplifting. Instead of calling the police, he followed Ms. Ferguson and her friend into the parking lot and, after one of the women sprayed mace in his face, according to Mr. Boyd, began firing. Ms. Ferguson was rushed to the hospital, where she had an emergency C-section and her baby was born two months early.

And sometimes there is no gun. On Monday, Jordan Neely, a Michael Jackson impersonator experiencing homelessness, was yelling and, according to some subway riders, acting aggressively on an F train in New York City. “I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up,” Mr. Neely cried out. “I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I’m ready to die.” Was he making people uncomfortable? I’m sure he was. But his were the words of a man in pain. He did not physically harm anyone. And the consequence for causing discomfort isn’t death unless, of course, it is. A former Marine held Mr. Neely in a chokehold for several minutes, killing the man. News reports keep saying Mr. Neely died, which is a passive thing. We die of old age. We die in a car accident. We die from disease. When someone holds us in a chokehold for several minutes, something far worse has occurred.

A man actively brought about Mr. Neely’s death. No one appears to have intervened during those minutes to help Mr. Neely, though two men apparently tried to help the former Marine. Did anyone ask the former Marine to release Mr. Neely from his chokehold? The people in that subway car prioritized their own discomfort and anxiety over Mr. Neely’s distress. All of the people in that subway car on Monday will have to live with their apparent inaction and indifference. Now that it’s too late, there are haunting, heartbreaking images of Mr. Neely, helpless and pinned, still being choked. How does something like this happen? How does this senseless, avoidable violence happen? Truly, how? We all need to ask ourselves that question until we come up with an acceptable answer.

[frogblast-the-ventcore]

Jonathan Ferguson, Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries museum in the UK, which houses a collection of thousands of iconic weapons from throughout history, has acquired not 1, not 2, but 3 fully functional AN-94 rifles for the museum collection.

[kilowogcore]

It Ain't About Gun Control

So let's talk guns an' the US Supreme Court, poozers!

On paper, the Supreme Court is a decent idea. Cuz the justices are appointed fer life, they don't gotta campaign, which oughta incentivize them to care only about justice. Cuz they're appointed by Congress, though, they're still tied to a democratic institution. Best of both worlds, right?

This week, the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States fer ya' poozers that ain't political wonks) struck down the ban on bump stocks fer rifles. Now I ain't gonna talk about whether bump stocks should be banned, cuz the news is doin' that ad nauseam already, an' it entirely misses the point.

The point is there ain't no constitutional reason for it. They didn't argue about the Second Amendment. Essentially, they struck down the law just cuz they didn't like it.

That ain't what the SCOTUS is s'posed ta' do. The SCOTUS is s'posed ta' be a check on the power a' Congress an' the President, not a power unto itself. Justices are unelected an' serve life terms, so if they take legislative power unto themselves, democracy goes right out the window.

It's temptin' ta' think this is some kinda new low, an' I do think we oughta be worried, especially with Alito havin' come out an' flat-out said he's a political operative who don't think compromise with liberals is possible. The SCOTUS is key ta' fascist plans to destroy what shreds a' democracy we've got left in this country.

But make no mistake, the SCOTUS has been abusin' its authority fer over 150 years.

Ya' probably know about the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, but among leftists, this decision's often part a' the larger narrative about how the US wuz built on slavery. That's true, but I wanna zoom in an' point out that the Dred Scott decision was a clear case a' the court ignorin' existin' law, the constitution, an' the Founding Fathers (racist as they were), an' overturnin' a law just cuz they didn't like it. The two dissenters, Curtis an' McLean, both pointed this out.

There weren't no precedent anywhere ta' strip citizenship based on race. In fact, there wuz the opposite, as black people had been citizens in at least five a' the original states.

There's also a rule in the Supreme Court ta' make rulings as narrow as possible. The majority decided they had no jurisdiction, an' by the Court's rules, the decision shoulda ended there. Instead, the Court violated its rules and issued a sweepin' judgment strippin' citizenship an' the protection a law.

Ya' see this in almost all the Supreme Court's worst decisions. Plessy v Ferguson ignored the 14th amendment, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. pointed out that Lochner v New York was based on economic ideology and not legal principle, Buck v. Bell ignored the 14th amendment, the three dissenting justices in Korematsu v United States tore apart any legal basis for that horrific decision, and toward the modern era Bush v Gore and Citizens United v FEC both showed that the Court would ignore the law ta' push a political agenda.

I ain't defendin' the US Constitution. I'm sayin' that even the flawed checks 'n balances of the constitution are ignored by the Supreme Court, an' have been since the beginnin'.

This is yet another reason why we can't fix nothin' within the system. The SCOTUS won't let victories stand. So organize locally, outside the system, an' we can fix things!

[whencyclopedia]

Battle of Kings Mountain

The Battle of Kings Mountain (7 October 1780) was a significant battle of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), fought in the backcountry of South Carolina between large parties of Patriot and Loyalist militias. The battle exemplified how the American Revolution could often take on the characteristics of civil war, as most participants on either side were Americans.

The Subjugation of the South

On 12 May 1780, the city of Charleston, South Carolina, fell to the British army after a grueling six-week siege. It was one of the greatest British triumphs of the war so far. Charleston was the largest and most important city in the American South, and its capture provided the British with an excellent base from which to invade the rest of the region. Sir Henry Clinton, commander-in-chief of the British army, did not believe that the subjugation of the South would be a difficult feat. It had long been rumored that the South was replete with Tories (or Loyalists) who felt oppressed by their new revolutionary governments and yearned for the return of royal authority. Clinton believed that the mere presence of British soldiers in the region would trigger a massive revolt of thousands of southern Tories, who would help the soldiers reconquer the South in the name of the king.

Once Charleston fell, Clinton immediately turned his attention to prodding South Carolina's Loyalist population into action. To achieve this, he appointed Major Patrick Ferguson as Inspector of Militia for the Southern Provinces, tasking him with the recruitment and organization of Tory militias. The Scottish-born Major Ferguson seemed to be an excellent candidate for such a task. A career soldier, Ferguson had entered the British army in his teens and had fought in the European theater of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). He had patented a new kind of breechloading rifle that allowed for a higher rate of fire than the standard flintlock musket, even in wet weather; his British comrades, however, preferred the familiarity of their 'Brown Bess' muskets, and only 200 of Ferguson's Rifles were ever manufactured. Major Ferguson also had a sense of military honor. He claimed that during the Battle of Brandywine (11 September 1777), he had had an opportunity to shoot an American officer that he believed to be George Washington but had declined to do so, believing that it was dishonorable to target officers.

Ferguson was still only a major after his decades of military experience and was eager to prove himself worthy of his new command. Shortly after his appointment as Inspector of Militia on 22 May 1780, he rode to Tryon County, which was heavily populated by Loyalists, and spent the following months recruiting Tory militias. By August, he had raised around 4,000 Tory militiamen from across the South Carolina backcountry; while these numbers were impressive, they fell far short of the total number of Tories that Clinton had expected would rally to the British cause. But Ferguson made good use of what he had. During the summer of 1780, his Tories performed well in a series of skirmishes with Patriot militia that took place in the territory between the fortress of Ninety-Six and the North Carolina border. By the end of August, Ferguson had successfully driven most Patriot partisans from the northwestern part of South Carolina.

Ferguson's success against the Patriot militias was soon bolstered by an even more significant British victory. On 16 August 1780, the main British army under Lord Charles Cornwallis decisively defeated an American army at the Battle of Camden. The battle not only secured British control of South Carolina but also cleared a path for Cornwallis to launch an invasion of North Carolina (Cornwallis had taken over command from Clinton, who had returned to New York to keep an eye on Washington's army in the north). In early September, as Cornwallis prepared to march his army to Charlotte, North Carolina, he ordered Ferguson to enter the state first and begin recruiting and organizing militias of North Carolina Tories. Ferguson was then expected to defend the left flank of Cornwallis' army as it commenced its invasion. The Scottish major quickly rode into North Carolina to fulfill this new mission, eager to help play a role in Britain's subjugation of the South.

Continue reading...

[noodlegirl-draws]

"The earliest bullpup firearm known is a heavy bench-rest target rifle made circa 1860 for a Professor Richard Potter by Riviere of London. It weighs more than 6 kg (13 lb 4 oz) and features an octagonal barrel of approximately 20 bore (0.60 in) in calibre, with two-groove Brunswick rifling. It is held in the collection of the British National Rifle Association. [11]" bullpup wikipedia article. with the cited source being Ferguson, Jonathan (2020). Thorneycroft to SA80: British Bullpup Firearms, 1901–2020. Nashville, Tennessee: Headstamp Publishing. pp. 48–49. ISBN9781733424622.

Anon gave a whole MLA citiation, damn

Anyways Richard Potters is my enemy for life

[holmesillustrations]

Vote for your favourite, the top 9 will proceed in the bracket. Since theyre all different shapes and sizes, make sure to click into the full views!

Paget Eliminations / Other Artist Eliminations

Full captions and details for each illustration below the cut:

"He was crouching over a fire, and the room was like an oven." W.H. Hyde, Crooked Man (Harper’s Weekly) Characters: Henry Wood

"A mass of documents, which we went over together." FD Steele, Norwood Builder (Collier’s) Characters: John Hector McFarlane, Jonas Oldacre

"Daulat Ras." FD Steele, Three Students (Collier’s) Characters: Daulat Ras

[no caption, and i cant figure out what scene this is meant to be] FD Steele, Wisteria Lodge (Collier’s) Characters: ???

"He sprang forward with clenched hands towards my companion." Gilbert Holiday, Devil's Foot (The Strand) Characters: Holmes, Leon Sterndale

"The inspector was staring with a look of absolute amazement at a paper upon the table. It was the sheet upom which i had scrawled the enigmatic message." Frank Wiles, Valley of Fear (The Strand) Characters: Watson, Insp. MacDonald, Holmes

"Then, with a sudden shivering of glass, a bristle of glistening rifle-barrels broke through each window, whilst the curtains were torn from their hangings." Frank Wiles, Valley of Fear (The Strand) Characters: Scowrers, Douglas/McMurdo

"It took some violence to do that," said Holmes, gazing at the chip on the ledge. With his cane he struck." Alfred Gilbert, Thor Bridge (The Strand) Characters: Sgt Coventry, Watson, Holmes

"Holmes, with that quick curiosity which sprang from his eager mind, examined the collection of South American utensils. When he turned away his eyes were full of thoughts." WT Benda, Sussex Vampire (Hearst’s International) Characters: Robert Ferguson, Holmes

"His air of romance and mystery put the whole sex at his mercy." JR Flanagan, Illustrious Client (Collier’s) Characters: Baron Gruner

"Holmes flung open the door and dragged in a gaunt woman, whom he had seized by the shoulder." FD Steele, Three Gables (Liberty) Characters: Susan Stockdale, Holmes

"He tore up one of his wife's photographs in my presence. 'I never wish to see her damned face again!' he shrieked." FD Steele, Retired Colourman (Liberty) Characters: Josiah Amberley, Watson

[mademoiselle-red]

Paperwork

“Who the hell is running that place?”

Halliburton muttered to herself, shaking her head and rubbing her eyes in tired irritation as she watched her patient limp slowly down the hallway. Had Fairfax not suggested physical therapy to Ferguson when he made his visit to the EMS with the teaching group, the poor man would have lost all mobility in that leg of his, given the way they were prescribing APC like candy instead of actually treating him. And to think that had Ferguson not referred him to her —already weeks too late, the imbeciles — they’d have just discharged a good young man like that, with untreated muscular pain and a boot that doesn’t even fit! And now it was her responsibility to patch up the mess they’ve made of him. That’s the army for you.

She liked how he was with the dogs. And he did need better care: with more intensive physical therapy and a new boot, she reckoned he could recover a decent amount of mobility in that leg, and live an almost normal life. The gears of decision, churning in her head since she bent down on the floor and examined that atrocious boot of his, fell into place.

More paperwork for me, she thought with resignation, opening the patient’s file and sifting through her drawer for the transfer forms.

This was how Mr. Deacon found her when he poked his head into her half-open office door and knocked on it politely: head bent, brows furrowed, rifling through her paperwork to find the forms she’d only seen this morning but of course eluded discovery right when she needed them. And so she couldn’t quite believe her luck when he said that the patient —Odell —was a friend of his, and wondered whether he could be transferred over.

Of course she could arrange the transfer, if Mr. Deacon found and pre-filled the paperwork. “Just bring it to my desk when it’s ready for me to sign.”

[fantastictyphoonpeanut]

British Ferguson breach loading rifle. First breach loader introduced into military service. If adopted more widely it would have been a game-changer. But at double the cost of a 'Brown-Bess' musket and expensive powder it was down to cost and the 100 rifles issued were returned to store.

Isaac de la Chaumette invented this form of breech-loading action in 1700 and patented it in England 1721. Helped by M. Bidet a French Huguenot living in the England. The design was improved by him in adopting a quick thread that allowed the plug to be withdrawn by a single turn of the trigger-guard, as also did John Warsop and Captain Patrick Ferguson was granted Patent No. 1139 for his improved version in 1776.  Breech loading firearms are nothing new one of the earliest examples of a screw thread in Britain dates back to 1667 by Jonabed Holloway. (FTP)

[loving-n0t-heyting]

The paucity of historical support for the Court's position becomes far more profound when one examines it against the background of two developments in the more recent history of criminal procedure. First, until the middle of the 19th century, the defendant in a criminal proceeding in this country was almost always disqualified *851 from testifying as a witness because of his "interest" in the outcome. See generally Ferguson v. Georgia, 365 U. S. 570 (1961). Thus, the ability to defend "in person" was frequently the defendant's only chance to present his side of the case to the judge or jury. See, e. g., Wilson v. State, 50 Tenn. 232 (1871). Such Draconian rules of evidence, of course, are now a relic of the past because virtually every State has passed a statute abrogating the common-law rule of disqualification. See Ferguson v. Georgia, 365 U. S., at 575-577, 596. With the abolition of the common-law disqualification, the right to appear "in person" as well as by counsel lost most, if not all, of its original importance.

An even more remarkable passage from the blackmun dissent in faretta. The need to allow a defendant to appear in court is mostly an antiquated relic bc the defendant can choose to waive their rights against self incrimination. Amazing! Perhaps the defendants right to present exhibits of evidence in their defence at trial should also be regarded as outmoded, given that they could have ignored their 4th amendment rights and allowed the cops to rifle thru their shit to sort out what happened

[beardedmrbean]

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a state law requiring Marylanders to obtain a handgun qualification license before purchasing or receiving a firearm is unconstitutional.

“This is a significant ruling for the Second Amendment and every American who cherishes our constitutional freedoms,” said Randy Kozuch, the executive director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, in a statement.

In a split 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals found a portion of the state’s Firearm Safety Act of 2013 to be unconstitutional. That part of the law prohibits Marylanders from purchasing, renting or receiving a handgun unless they have received a valid handgun qualification license.

It is also illegal to sell, rent, gift or transfer a firearm to a person without a license under that law.

To receive a handgun qualification license, applicants must be Maryland residents aged 21 or older. They are required to pass a firearm safety course and undergo a background check to ensure they aren’t prohibited from owning a gun under state or federal law. The licenses are issued by the Maryland State Police. The application review process can take up to 30 days.

The case, brought on behalf of the firearms rights organization Maryland Shall Issue, two individual plaintiffs and a gun store, was filed initially against former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican. Hogan met his term limit earlier this year and was replaced by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, who is now considered the defendant in the case.

Moore said he is “disappointed” by Tuesday’s decision.

“This law is not about stripping away rights from responsible gun owners — it’s about every Marylander having the right to live free from fear,” the governor said. “I am determined to do more than just give thoughts and prayers and attend funerals — and that’s why this law is vital to our administration’s commitment to keeping guns out of the wrong hands and saving lives.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, said he is “incredibly frustrated,” and that Tuesday’s ruling “threatens the safety of our communities.”

State Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, called the ruling “crazy.”

“Every responsible gun owner supports basic firearm training and keeping guns out of criminals’ hands,” Ferguson said. “This decision will unequivocally lead to more gun violence and firearm-related deaths.”

The law was upheld when it was initially challenged in 2016.

Tuesday’s opinion, written by U.S. Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, reversed that ruling. Richardson, an appointee of former President Donald Trump who clerked for former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, cited the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which overturned New York state’s gun licensing policy and disrupted the licensing process in Maryland, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

The state has two weeks to ask for a review of the decision by the entire 14-judge 4th Circuit. It also may ask the Supreme Court to review the decision.

The New York law that the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional in 2022 required people applying for permits to carry guns in public to demonstrate “proper cause” to successfully receive a concealed carry permit.

In his opinion, Richardson wrote that the Bruen decision “effected a sea change in Second Amendment law” and that, in order for the law to be constitutional, the state must demonstrate that the challenged law is similar enough to “a historically recognized exception to the right to keep and bear arms.”

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said that the ruling is “yet another disastrous consequence of the absurd new Supreme Court standard that today’s gun laws need to match those from centuries ago.”

In a statement issued after the release of the opinion, William Taylor, the deputy director of Second Amendment litigation at Everytown Law, a group that advocates for gun safety, said that the now-stricken licensing process is “not only common sense, it is entirely consistent with the Second Amendment and the new test established by the Bruen decision.”

“While today’s decision is a setback to public safety, we fully expect that the full 4th Circuit, or if necessary, the Supreme Court, will reverse this dangerous decision and uphold Maryland’s critical gun safety law,” he said.

The three-judge panel ruled Tuesday that the state’s argument for upholding the law did not meet the Bruen case’s historical standard.

“The 4th Circuit Court’s decision to overturn Maryland’s restrictive gun license law sends a clear message: Law-abiding Marylanders’ fundamental right to self-defense must not be infringed,” Kozuch said.

[mankillercalledbunny]

Apologise

E. Abel, 2014

The year is 1955.

A fourteen-year-old boy

Named Emmett Till

Winks at a white woman in Missouri.

Days later

His body washes up

Soaked

Barely recognizable.

When it's finally identified

With its beaten black face

Smashed to the point

Where it's hard to think this kid

Ever had a name

It's sent to his mother

Who chooses

Not to cover his face at the funeral

To leave the coffin open

So all can see

The bruised and rotted flesh

Swollen discolored and bloody

With one eye dangling from its socket.

Thousands of people cry.

The pictures hit the news.

Emmett Till and his mother Mamie

Are names known across the country

And the men who killed him

Are found not guilty.

-

The year is 1964.

A young man

Named James Earl Chaney

Is working with the Congress of Racial Equality

As a civil rights worker in Mississippi.

He advocates voter registration

Trying to get black people

The representation they deserve.

The KKK has burned a church for blacks.

Chaney is investigating.

His bus is stopped

By a group of men

In pointed white hats and masks.

For weeks people search

Until his body is found,

But only because he went missing

With two white men.

The dozens of other blacks who have gone missing

In the same way

In the same town

Are never searched for

And the Klan members don't go to prison.

It takes 40 years

Before the man who organized his killing

Is sentenced

For manslaughter.

Four years later

A great leader is shot.

-

The year is 2012.

A boy of seventeen

Named Trayvon Martin

Is walking around Sanford Florida

Wearing a hoodie

Getting candy and juice

At a convenience store.

A neighborhood watch volunteer

Sees him slouching

His hood up over his head.

A gun is drawn and fired.

Trayvon keels over.

His pictures are released to the press

Who debate the issue more heatedly

Than the presidential race.

Rallies and protests ensue,

Millions sign a petition for the volunteer's imprisonment

But Florida says "Stand Your Ground"

And Zimmerman walks free.

-

The day is August 9th, 2014.

In Ferguson, Missouri

An eighteen-year-old

Named Michael Brown

Is walking down the street with his friend.

A police officer pulls up and yells for them to get on the sidewalk;

The two keep walking.

The officer pulls up next to them

Yelling again.

Suddenly a shot is fired from inside the car.

It grazes the teen's side

He and his friend take off running

The cop chases.

The friend hides behind a car

Fearing for his life.

A second shot hits the already wounded boy

The teen turns to his attacker instead.

Michael gets down on his knees

An innocent

Surrendering without a fight

In the hope that his enemy will have mercy

"Hands up

Don't shoot"

He cries.

BANG

To the head

BANG BANG BANG

Bullets hit the insides of his arms

His chest

The body lays in the street for hours

Police pick it up later in a van

The witnesses all say the same thing.

-

That night the protests start

Saying the same thing Michael said

"Hands up

Don't shoot"

"No justice

No peace"

Not a gun is drawn by the protestors

No threats are made.

The next night

Tear gas is thrown

As a crowd control tactic

By police.

Within a week

Armored vehicles and assault rifles

Have been dealt to the suburban unit

The people still protest in peace

Suffering burning eyes

And rubber bullet wounds

For justice

And Darren Wilson gets away with murder.

-

It has been sixty years

Since the death of Emmett Till

Fifty years since the deaths of J. E. Chaney and Martin Luther King. Jr

Two years since Trayvon Martin

And still one must wonder

What America truly thinks

When it says

All its people are born equal

If the life of a black teenager

Is worth less than the box of cigars he supposedly stole,

When those who are supposed to protect us

Can murder innocents

And walk away unscathed.

We may be the home of the brave

But the United States

Is still not

The land of the free

For anyone whose skin

Is darker than the sand on the beach,

We cannot say we stand for justice

Until all murderers sit behind bars

Instead of in front of their televisions

In the guise of a police officer.

America is crippled

Until it can stand united and say,

To the dark children

Whose parents have been fighting the same fight

For the last four hundred years

And have yet to gain their equality,

Until it can say to them

"I'm sorry."

‘Race and racism is a reality that so many of us grow up learning to just deal with. But if we ever hope to move past it, it can’t just be on people of color to deal with it. It’s up to all of us – Black, white, everyone – no matter how well-meaning we think we might be, to do the honest, uncomfortable work of rooting it out. It starts with self-examination and listening to those whose lives are different from our own. It ends with justice, compassion, and empathy that manifests in our lives and on our streets.’ — Michelle Obama

[history-matters]

https://www.aqha.com/-/j-b-ferguson

On April 27, 1959, Fidel Castro visited Houston, Texas. Castro's hosts took time out to go to Wharton in a 22-car motorcade to visit a cattle farm where he was given a prized quarter horse by J.B. Ferguson (behind Castro).

While he was in Houston he caught up with old friend Robert Ray McKeown, from Pasadena, who ran guns to Castro during the late ‘50s. In 1959 Jack Ruby made contact with McKeown. Ruby told him that he was "in with the Mafia and had a whole lot of jeeps he wanted to get to Castro." Ruby also wanted advice on how he could gain the release of a couple of friends imprisoned in Cuba. In September, 1963, two men arrived at McKeown's house. One man introduced himself as Lee Oswald (his friend was called Hernandez). Oswald said he was willing to pay $10,000 for four rifles, 300 Savage automatics and a telescopic sight. McKeown refused as he thought he was being set-up.

Same April 27, a banquet was later held (at the request of then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson) with Castro as the guest of honor, attended by then-Mayor of Houston Lewis Cutrer, John B. Ferguson, oilman Frank Waters and some others.

Jaycees in Havana

Virgil Wall, Jr. the businessman hosted the Castro brothers in Houston. In 1959, he was president of the Houston Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees). Then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson had asked the Jaycees to invite Fidel Castro to Houston; U.S. politicians "wanted an apolitical group to deal with his visit," Wall said.

A week before Castro arrived, Wall and several other Houston businessmen journeyed to Havana to meet with the Cuban leader at the presidential palace.Once there, they were ushered into a Cadillac limousine. Thompson machine guns were strapped to the seats, and most of the rebels "had pistols stuck in their waistbands," Wall said. "It was almost like walking into the wild, wild West with a Spanish flavor."

Castro in Georgian SSR

It still mystery, how the Georgian leader Vasil Mzhavanadze could grotesquely portray Houston in Sukhumi (Soviet Abkhazia) before the Cuban missile crisis.

Jorge Risquet (far right). Castro sent him to work with the government of Congo-Brazzaville, while Che Guevara fought against CIA-backed mercenaries in Congo-Leopoldville.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"CHARGES GIRL SLEW FATHER," The Province (Vancouver). June 21, 1934. Page 4. --- Man On Trial for Murder Says She Fired Shot After He Wounded Him. ==== "LET ME FINISH HIM" ---- PEACE RIVER, Alta., June 21. - (CP) - John Ferguson, charged with the slaying of Louis Jobin, Big Prairie farmer, testified he did not kill the man, but that it was Jobin's daughter, Marcella, who calmly aimed a rifle at her father's back, turned her head, and pulled the trigger.

Ferguson admitted he planned to kill "either the old lady or the old man" because they would not give their daughter, Marcella, consent to marry him. He declared a rifle he was carrying fell and discharged, the bullet entering Jobin's chin.

Then, Ferguson said, he went into the Jobin home and called Marcella out. She asked, according to his story. "Why didn't you finish him?" The father, lying wounded, heard the remarks and turned toward them. Then announced continued. "No, let me finish him." grasped the rifle, loaded it and walked toward her father.

When three feet away, he declared, the girl stopped, aimed at him from the front, then walked around to his back, aimed the weapon, turned her head and fired.

Three other witnesses testified during the day that Marcella told them she had fired the second shot.

It was the second shot, according to medical evidence, which caused the man's death. The case is continuing.

[thelenazavaroniarchive]

24th March 2024.

𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟒. Lena slipped down to No 17 on the Radios 1 & 2 Top Twenty show. She appears at about 9 mins 40 secs in.

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟕. The Harborough Mail gave Air Love a good review.

𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟖. The Fulham Chronicle had a cartoon of Lena & Bonnie on it's television page.

𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟖. Most newspapers listed Lena & Bonnie on their television pages. Southern newspapers also listed Our Show on Saturday where they were guests. Luckily for the north we hat TISWAS rather than Our Show.

𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟓. The Sunday Mirror reported that Lena would be doing a summer season in Blackpool with Cannon & Ball, and also that she would be on TV the following Sunday, ( A Royal Night Of 100 Stars).

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟏.The Campaign For Truth published Death in a white coat. In the section called ‘It continues today’ there is a paragraph about Lena.

Death in a White Coat

Published by The Campaign For Truth, 24th March 2011.

The quackery of psychiatry has been the target of many human rights groups over the years. Here, The Mind Game author Phillip Day highlights how psychiatry has devastated not just ordinary lives, but finished the careers of some of our best loved stars.

Psychiatry’s unproven philosophies and treatments have wrought far-reaching effects, not just in the lives of ordinary citizens, but in the high-profile world of pop-culture, mass entertainment and the media. It is perhaps in Hollywood more than anywhere else where we can get a picture of the devastation psychiatry has wrought on the gullible - Heath Ledger’s death just another in a long line of tragic, real-life scripts.

During the first half of the 20th century, Hollywood and the arts industry became seduced with the new 'mental health’ ethos pushed by Freud and others. By the 1960s, language itself became peppered with 'getting my head together’, 'doing my head in’, 'love and peace, dude’, 'freaking out’, 'far out, man’ and 'chill’. Even by 1940, the psychiatrist’s many portrayals in movies had elevated the 'shrink’ to a god-like status in the eyes of the public. Always the pipe-smoking benevolent 'father’, bestowing wisdom and chemicals into the ears and mouths of his 'children’, the psychiatrist was in his element. The Hollywood strategy was wildly successful. US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants for psychiatric research alone in America rocketed from under $10 million in 1957 to around $50 million by 1963 - an increase of 580% in just six years. Between 1963 and 1995, the funding exploded almost 900% from $60 million to just under $1 billion.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous

Many stars have owned up to needing drugs to get by. Singer Del Shannon (Charles Westover) thought the Prozac prescribed to him by his psychiatrist would “…help me over the hump I’m in.” His wife Leanne “…watched him turn into somebody who was agitated, pacing, had trembling hands, insomnia and couldn’t function.” On 8th February 1990, after taking Prozac for just 15 days, Charles Westover shot himself in the head with a .22 calibre rifle.

Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson both admitted using the 'liquid sunshine’ drug, Prozac, Diana becoming the subject of huge media speculation over her drug use. Royal author Andrew Morton’s controversial book, Diana: Her New Life, detailed her catastrophic mood-swings and alleged suicide attempt on board a royal flight, where she had attempted to slash her arms, smearing blood over the walls and seats before being restrained.

Lady Brocket, Libby Purves, Al Pacino, Roseanne Barr and Mariella Frostrup are among many who have been some-time users of Prozac. INXS pop-frontman Michael Hutchence died in November 1997 in an apparent hanging suicide. His song-writing partner, Andrew Farriss, attributed the death to Prozac and alcohol. The actor and comedian Chris Farley died aged 33 after a four-day alcohol and drug binge. Prozac was present in his blood. Don Simpson, co-producer of Hollywood blockbusters such as Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and Crimson Tide, died in 1996 aged 52. Police searching Simpson’s Bel Air estate in Los Angeles discovered thousands of tablets and pills lined up neatly in alphabetical order in his bedroom closet. They later discovered that Simpson had obtained over 15,000 psychiatric amphetamines, tranquillisers and sedatives from 15 doctors and 8 pharmacies.

Have you noticed how, in the movies, the psychiatrist always wins against the 'disease’? The reality, however, especially for the rich and famous seduced by the psychiatrist’s pharmacopoeia, is often tragically different.

Marilyn Monroe: A young Norma Jean, caught up in the web of drugs and film industry pressures, turned to psychiatry to alleviate her problems. One of Marilyn’s psychiatrists was Dr Marianne Kris, who received Monroe five days a week for therapy. After a particularly nasty session, Kris committed Marilyn Monroe to a mental institution where she was locked in a padded cell for two days. Monroe pounded the door hysterically until her hands bled. After her release,

she fired Kris.

Dr Ralph Greenson was Monroe’s psychiatrist in the final years. Still ensuring the actress remained on her barbiturates, on 4th August 1962, after a six-hour therapy session with Greenson, Marilyn Monroe was found by her housekeeper Eunice Murray, naked and sprawled across her silk sheets. Death had been delivered from Greenson’s barbiturate bottle on her nightstand at the age of 36.

Vivien Leigh: Hollywood actress Vivienne Leigh’s hysterical outbursts were well known in the industry. After filming of Elephant Walk in Ceylon was constantly interrupted by Leigh’s frequent losses of control, wanderings in the night and hallucinations, now widely believed to be caused by a combination of her TB medication and heavy drinking, her husband, film legend Laurence Olivier, became concerned for her mental well-being and repeatedly pleaded with the actress to 'seek help’.

Vivien was persuaded to be flown to England for 'treatment’ at the Netheren psychiatric hospital. Her treatments included being packed in ice, a diet of raw eggs and repeated electroshocks. While being treated on location as an outpatient in Warsaw, she performed with a splitting headache. Burn marks from the electroshock were visible on her head.

Olivier finally divorced her in despair in 1960. Even though it was widely recognised that physical illnesses often produce psychiatric-like symptoms, Vivien Leigh’s long-running tuberculosis was relegated in favour of her psychiatrists continuing to diagnose the Hollywood star with various mental disorders. On 7th July 1967, after her TB had spread untreated to both lungs, Leigh was found lying dead on the floor. Choking on her own liquid, she had drowned.

Ernest Hemingway: Believed to be another 'mentally tortured’ genius, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway was given over 20 electroshocks by his psychiatrists to cure him of his 'mental illness’. In July 1961, just two days after leaving the famous Mayo psychiatric clinic, Papa Hemingway put a shotgun barrel to his head and pulled the trigger.

Frances Farmer: Hollywood starlet Frances Farmer was typical of many rebellious stars of her era who lived life in the fast lane. After starring in the prophetically named No Escape in 1943, she was involved in a drunken brawl and arrested. Frances was placed into the custody of psychiatrist Thomas H Leonard, who diagnosed her as “suffering from manic-depressive psychosis - probably the forerunner of a definite dementia praecox” - a diagnosis later described by doctors as 'pure gibberish’.

Farmer was transferred to the screen actor’s sanitarium at La Crescenta, California, where she was given at least 90 insulin shocks, finally escaping from the institution in terror. Her mother later signed a complaint against her and she was re-committed into custodial care in March 1944. At West Washington State hospital in Steilacoom, her psychiatrists gave her repeated ice baths and electroshock sessions in an effort to break her will. Mental health watchdog The Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) reports:

“Conditions [in Steilacoom] were barbaric. Both criminals and the mentally retarded were crowded together, their meals thrown on the floor to be fought over. Farmer was subjected to regular and continuous electroshock. In addition, she was prostituted to soldiers from the local military base and raped and abused by the orderlies. One of the most vivid recollections of some veterans of the institution would be the sight of Frances Farmer being held down by the orderlies and raped by drunken gangs of soldiers. She was also used as an experimental subject for drugs such as Thorazine, Stelazine, Mellaril and Proxilin.”

Frances Farmer died at the age of 57, broken, tortured and destitute. The movie Frances was made of her life in 1982, starring another leading Hollywood actress, Jessica Lange.

It continues today….

How have things changed since Frances’ time? Lena Zavaroni, the famous British child star, had been struggling with anorexia for 22 years. In September 1999, after years of psychotherapy,

anti-depressants and electroshock treatment had failed, she was admitted to the University Hospital of Wales at Cardiff for a lobotomy. In spite of warnings that the discredited operation could destroy her intellect, erase parts of her memory and change her character, she gave her consent for the operation. She died of a chest infection two weeks later, weighing just 49 lbs.

Almost all of the street-drugs with which society is cursed today had their origins in the psychiatric cabinet. Indeed psychiatry, as I show in The Mind Game, justifiably stands accused of starting the modern drug culture. Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Keith Moon and Brian Jones were all heavily under the influence of street drugs, formerly psychiatric medications. Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain, originally diagnosed as a Ritalin kid and put on drugs, later committed suicide in his attic after being discharged from a mental health clinic.

Actor Robert Walker, Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac… the list goes on. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was bedridden for four years because of 'voices in my head’ after taking undiluted LSD, formerly an experimental medication before it was discovered to bring on 'psychiatric-induced insanity’. Over the years, Brian Wilson employed over 40 psychiatrists to rid him of his demons.

The Mind Game Mission

My award-winning book The Mind Game is an important part of the overall health puzzle. In it, I trace the origins of psychiatry - this 'science of the mind’ - and uncover the unsettling history of the Trojan Horse wheeled into our midst. Part 1 of the book deals with the unbelievable development of psychiatry itself, from its barbaric beginnings in medieval times, through Wundt, Pavlov and Freud, to CIA mind control programs and the effects today’s manipulative information age is having on everyone. Part 2 examines the major 'mental disorders’ from their true and vital standpoint. And it is here that the good news about the mental predicament is truly seen.

No-one denies that behavioural problems exist though the root causes are always disputed. When it comes to depression, ADD and other 'mental diseases’, however, is the reality more straightforward and, most importantly, manageable? How can we manage disturbed brain function without the use of drugs? Can clear-headedness and sanity be achieved without psychiatry?

RESOURCES

The Mind Game by Phillip Day

Psychiatry - an Industry of Death, DVD documentary.

𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏. On BBC Outlook singer Ricky Lee Jones described how My Funny Valentine was a difficult song to learn, I imagine Lena picked it up fairly easily.

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐. The Herald reviewed “Lena”;