MDMD (6)----p195,196 Asiatick Pygmies

[Sojourner]

At 07:51 AM 8/25/97 -0800, Doug Millison wrote:

>At 7:53 AM 8/25/97, Sojourner wrote:
>>The boundaries for time zones were set by railroads, the daylight
>>savings time was enacted in WWII by the gov't, and our summer break
>>for school is a holdover from a primarily agricultural society.
>>
>>There is no cabal trying to mess you up.
>
>Railroads and the government during WWII....don't add up to a cabal? Think
>I'll dip back into Henry Adams and Gravity's Rainbow....
>
>

Ok, I know that the P-list has been fungally slow, so let's get the
Tilt-A-Whirl runnin', make sure'n all dat oal 's crinkan ups real
goods.

>From the OED:

cabal kabæ;l, sb.1 Also 7-8 caball, cabbal. [a. Fr. cabale (16th c. in
Littré), used in all the English senses, ad.
med.L. cab(b)ala (Ital. , Sp. , Pg. cabala), cabbala, q.v. In 17th c. at
first pronounced 'ca.bal (whence the
abridged cab sb.5); the current pronunciation was evidently reintroduced
from Fr. , perh. with sense 5 or 6.] 
1. = cabbala 1: The Jewish tradition as to the interpretation of the Old
Testament. Obs.

     1616 Bullokar , Cabal, the tradition of the Jewes doctrine of religion. 

     1660 Howell Lex. Tetragl., Words do involve the deepest Mysteries, By
them the Jew into his Caball
     pries. 

     1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 530 For Mystick Learning, wondrous able In
Magick, Talisman, and Cabal.


2. = cabbala 2: 

     a. Any tradition or special private interpretation. 

     b. A secret. Obs.

     A. 1637 B. Jonson (O.) The measuring of the temple, a cabal found out
but lately. 

     1635 Person Varieties i. Introd. 3 An insight in the Cabals and
secrets of Nature. 

     1660-3 J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) 344 If the truth..had been still
reserved as a Cabbal amongst
     men. 

     1663 J. Heath Flagellum or O. Cromwell 192 How the whole mystery and
cabal of this business was
     managed by the..Committee. 

     A. 1763 Shenstone Ess. 220 To suppose that He will regulate His
government according to the cabals
     of human wisdom.


3. A secret or private intrigue of a sinister character formed by a small
body of persons; `something less than
conspiracy' (J.).

     1646-7 Clarendon Hist. Reb. (1702) I. v. 439 The King..asked him,
whether he were engaged in any
     Cabal concerning the army? 

     1663 J. Heath Flagellum or O. Cromwell, He was no sooner rid of the
danger of this but he was
     puzzled with Lambert's cabal. 

     1707 Freind Peterboro's Cond. Sp. 171 The contrivances and cabals of
others have too often
     prevail'd. 

     1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 30 There were cabals breaking out in the
company. 

     1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. VI. xlvi. 299 The cabal against Washington
found supporters exclusively in
     the north.

     b. as a species of action; = caballing.

     1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) III. 22 To advance themselves..by
cabal, treachery and violence. 

     1791 Burke Th. on Fr. Affairs VII. 74 Centres of cabal. 

     1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. III. 261 Restless activity and the arts of
cabal.


4. A secret or private meeting, esp. of intriguers or of a faction. arch.
or Obs.

     1649 Bp. Guthrie Mem. (1702) 23 The Supplicants..met again at their
several Caballs. 

     1656-7 Cromwell in Burton Diary (1828) I. 382 He had never been at any
cabal about the same. 

     1715 Bentley Serm. x. 356 A mercenary conclave and nocturnal Cabal of
Cardinals. 

     1738 Warburton Div. Legat. I. 169 Celebrate the Mysteries in a private
Cabal. 

     1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall iii. 23 To tell the anecdote..at those
little cabals, that will occasionally
     take place among the most orderly servants.

     b. phrase. in cabal. arch. or Obs.

     A. 1678 Marvell Poems Wks. I. Pref. 8 Is he in caball in his cabinett
sett. 

     1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 28 The gunner and second mate were
in a close cabal
     together. 

     1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. i. (1810) 55 Here, in cabal, a disputatious crew
Each evening meet.


5. A small body of persons engaged in secret or private machination or
intrigue; a junto, clique, côterie, party,
faction;

     1660 Trial Regic. 175 You were..of the cabal. 

     1670 Marvell Corr. cxlvii. Wks. 1872-5 II. 326 The governing cabal are
Buckingham, Lauderdale,
     Ashly, Orery, and Trevor. Not but the other cabal [Arlington,
Clifford, and their party] too have
     seemingly sometimes their turn. 

     1732 Berkeley Alciphr. v. Sect.21 A gentleman who has been idle at
college, and kept idle company,
     will judge a whole university by his own cabal. 

     1767 G. Canning Poet. Wks. (1827) 56 Should Fat Jack and his Cabal Cry
`Rob us the Exchequer,
     Hal!' 

     1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 183 In Naples, where a cabal of artists
was formed.


6. Applied in the reign of Charles II to the small committee or junto of
the Privy Council, otherwise called the
`Committee for Foreign Affairs', which had the chief management of the
course of government, and was the
precursor of the modern cabinet.

     1665 Pepys Diary 14 Oct., It being read before the King, Duke, and the
Caball, with complete
     applause. 

     1667 Pepys Diary 31 Mar., Walked to my Lord Treasurer's, where the
King, Duke of York, and the
     Cabal, and much company withal. 

     1667 Pepys Diary (1877) V. 128 The Cabal at present, being as he says
the King, and the Duke of
     Buckingham, and Lord Keeper, the Duke of Albemarle and privy seale.

     b. in Hist. applied spec. to the five ministers of Charles II, who
signed the Treaty of Alliance with France for
war against Holland in 1672: these were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham,
Ashley (Earl of Shaftesbury), and
Lauderdale, the initials of whose names thus arranged chanced to spell the
word cabal. This was merely a witticism
referring to sense 6; in point of fact these five men did not constitute
the whole `Cabal', or Committee for Foreign
Affairs; nor were they so closely united in policy as to constitute a
`cabal' in sense 5, where quot. 1670 shows that
three of them belonged to one `cabal' or clique, and two to another. The
name seems to have been first given to the
five ministers in the pamphlet of 1673 `England's Appeal from the private
Cabal at White-hall to the Great Council
of the nation..by a true lover of his country.' Modern historians often
write loosely of the Buckingham-Arlington
administration from the fall of Clarendon in 1667 to 1673 as the Cabal
Cabinet or Cabal Ministry. 

     1673 England's Appeal 18 The safest way not to wrong neither the cabal
nor the truth is to take a
     short survey of the carriage of the chief promoters of this war. 

     1689 Mem. God's 29 Years Wonders Sect.25. 72 The great Ahitophel, the
chiefest head-piece..of all
     the Cabal. 

     1715 Burnet Own Time (1766) I. 430 This junta..being called the cabal,
it was observed that cabal
     proved a technical word, every letter in it being the first letter of
those five, Clifford, Ashley,
     Buckingham, Arlington and Lauderdale. 

     A. 1734 North Exam. iii. vi. P41. 453 The..Promoters of Popery,
supposed to rise by the Misfortunes
     of the Earl of Clarendon, were the famous CABAL. 

     1762 Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) V. lxix. 163 When the Cabal entered into
the mysterious alliance with
     France. 

     1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. (1864) I. 101 It happened by a whimsical
coincidence that, in 1671, the
     Cabinet consisted of five persons the initial letters of whose names
made up the word Cabal..These
     ministers were therefore emphatically called the Cabal; and they soon
made that appellation so
     infamous that it has never since their time been used except as a term
of reproach.


7. attrib. or in obvious comb.

     1673 R. Leigh Transp. Reh. 36 By this time, the Politick Cabal-men
were most of 'um set. 

     1674 R. Law Mem. (1818) 61 The parliament was jealous of their caball
lords. 

     1678 Trans Crt. Spain 189 They maintain themselves only by a
Cabal-genius, without any foundation
     of justice or fidelity. 

     1700 Congreve Way of W. i. i, Last night was one of their cabal nights. 

     1871 W. Christie Life Shaftesbury II. xii. 81 The heavy indictment of
History against the so-called
     Cabal Ministry.


>From Webster's:

Ca*bal" (?), n. [F. cabale cabal, cabala LL. cabala cabala, fr. Heb.
qabbālēh reception, tradition,
mysterious doctrine, fr. qābal to take or receive, in Piël qibbel to
abopt (a doctrine).] 

1. Tradition; occult doctrine. See Cabala [Obs.] Hakewill. 

2. A secret. [Obs.] The measuring of the temple, a cabal found out but
lately." B. Jonson. 

3. A number of persons united in some close design, usually to promote
their private views and interests in church or
state by intrigue; a secret association composed of a few designing
persons; a junto. It so happend, by a whimsical
coincidence, that in 1671 the cabinet consisted of five persons, the
initial letters of whose names made up the
word cabal; Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. Macaulay.

4. The secret artifices or machinations of a few persons united in a close
design; in intrigue. 

     By cursed cabals of women. Dryden.

Syn. - Junto; intrigue; plot; combination; conspiracy. -- Cabal,
Combination, Faction. An association for some
purpose considered to be bad is the idea common to these terms. A
combination is an organized union of
individuals for mutual support, in urging their demands or resisting the
claims of others, and may be good or
bad according to circumstances; as, a combiniation of workmen or of
employers to effect or to prevent a
chang in prices. A cabal is a secret association of a few individuals who
seek by cunning practices to obtain
office and power. A faction is a larger body than a cabal, employed for
selfish purposes in agitating the
community and working up an excitement with a view to change the existing
order of things. Selfishness,
insubordination, and laxity of morals give rise to combinations, which
belong particularly to the lower
orders of society. Restless, jealous, ambitious, and little minds are ever
forming cabals. Factions belong
especially to free governments, and are raised by busy and turbulent
spirits for selfish porposes". Crabb.


Cabal (Page: 199)

Ca*bal", v. i. [int. & p. p./pos> Caballed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Caballing].
[Cf. F. cabaler.] To
unite in a small party to promote private views and interests by intrigue;
to intrigue; to plot. 

     Caballing still against it with the great. Dryden.


You have your choice of interpreting the railroads' designation of time 
zones as "cabalistic" if you like, but mainly it was a practical matter of
keeping track of trains which moved across a HUGE area of land, and
later the governments in question just "officialized" the use of time zones
because people were "used" to them, not FORCED or legislated.  This
acceptance of time zones was a long long time before WWII.  (More info
later as I get more time to find out the history of time zones in US).

The government is not a cabal, as it is freely elected by a democratic and
voting public, and DST was instituted legally and by government legislation
(again through elected representatives) as a measure to help our economy
become more efficient in waging war.  Besides a superstitious, primitive
that the government wants to "dicky" with time, there is literally next to
no connection between DST and Time Zones.  

Time itself of course IS monitored by the Naval Research peeps down near
my ex-HT, or ex-HQ as some prefer, and the Cesium gives me the queasium
too, but thah don't mattah now do it?  Time time time keeps on ticking, into
the future, regardless of Baywatch-ing Mexican guards or men in black smok-
ing cigarettes rolled in X-files brand rolling papers.

I recommend you visit:

http://www.ld.centuryinter.net/ct.html/dhome/rie/