LA's new park for Black slave Biddy Mason

(MIDNIGHT TALES) Born enslaved, died a millionaire: The untold story of Biddy Mason

What this country needs is a free Black woman like Biddy or Harriet Tubman on the face of cash

Pershing Square, DTLA, California

Pershing Square is perishing. Many Angelenos (people living in the megalopolis of the "City of Angels" aka Spanish Ciudad de Los Angeles) have visited downtown’s Bradbury Building, but not everyone knows about the nearby Biddy Mason Memorial Park located on the south side of the building, between Broadway and Spring Streets.

I'm smiling because I'm finally free!

Bridget “Biddy” Mason was born into slavery in 1818. Not much is known of her early life, but by the time she was a young adult she was enslaved in the household of Robert Smith.

• Bye-bye Pershing Square (LA) 
• L.A. renames Pershing Square after Biddy Mason, founder of L.A.'s First AME Church (LAT)
• First A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Church of LA
• The Metro board voted unanimously Thursday to honor Biddy Mason | LAist

LA's own Black race massacre?

(History of Old America) Sugar Hill, 1945: The reality of the richest

BLACK neighborhood in LA before it was destroyed and forgotten

Whites need to stick together and keep LA for us

In 1847, she traveled, mostly on foot, from Mississippi to Utah with the Smith household. The household lived in Salt Lake City for two years, then resettled in San Bernardino, California in 1851.

• Tulsa [white] race massacre [of rich Blacks in Oklahoma]
• USA's "Black Wall Street": Greenwood District, Tulsa

California was admitted to the Union in 1850 as a free, non-slave state, which meant [human trafficker] Smith was holding Biddy Mason illegally. Mason fought for her freedom in court, with the trial ruling confirming her freedom in 1856.

Money is a good servant but a cruel master

As a free woman, Biddy Mason settled in Los Angeles with her children and found work as a nurse and midwife.

In 1866, she purchased a nearly one-acre site between present-day Broadway (then Fort Street) and Spring Street, between 3rd and 4th Streets.

The Black female owner of Los Angeles

On this, the present location of the park, she built her homestead. Throughout the years, this pioneering Black woman purchased more property. And as the value of her [real estate] holdings escalated, she eventually became a relatively wealthy woman and a tireless philanthropist.

• List of parks in Los Angeles
• Alvarado Terrace Historic District
• VIDEO: How Biddy Mason changed LA forever: Biddy Mason’s story is one of the most powerful hidden chapters in American history. Born into slavery, she fought for her freedom and went on to become one of the first Black women to own land in Los Angeles. Through real estate, business, philanthropy, and founding First A.M.E. Church, she helped shape the city we know today. How did she build her legacy, inspire generations, and truly become "the woman who owned LA"?

Today's Pershing Square in DTLA

(Unique Coloring) From slave to richest Los Angeles resident | Biddy Mason | Black History

The lotus pond of Alvarado Park, LA

This mini-park was designed by landscape architects Katherine Spitz and Pamela Burton. The artwork Biddy Mason Time and Place is an 80-foot-long poured concrete wall by artist Sheila Levrant de Bretteville.

The wall is a timeline of Biddy Mason’s life, illustrated by impressions of objects such as agave leaves, wagon wheels, and a midwife’s bag, as well as simple text and images such as an early survey map of Los Angeles and Biddy’s freedom papers.

The history begins at the right (northernmost) end of the wall with the text “Biddy Mason born a slave,” and progresses in time to the inscription: “Los Angeles mourns and reveres Grandma Mason.” More

Can Blacks ever be rich?

(Official Black Wall Street) The richest Black communities in the USA

"You're telling me what to do on my turf?"☠️🔥 #Trending #Shorts

“She treated the Black nanny with prejudice.”☠️  | Masters of Sex

Buddhism, Shinto, atheism East and West

If one billion Chinese Buddhists are not counted and there are only six choices, here's breakdown

(No Nonsense Spirituality | Britt Hartley) What Japan told me about atheism and belonging

• Buddhism in Japan
• Shinto (kami-controlling priests)
• Japanese Ainu shamanism: kami, pre-Shinto, Zen

Man confronted by the Fox goddess

Shintoism is a religion from Japan classified as an East Asian religion by scholars. It is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as a "nature religion." Religious scholars sometimes call its practitioners "Shintoists," although adherents rarely use that term themselves. With no central authority in control of Shintoism, there is much diversity of belief and practice evident among practitioners. A polytheistic and animistic religion, Shinto revolves around supernatural entities called the kami (神), who are believed to inhabit all things, including forces of nature and prominent locations.

Shinto: The Kami Spirit World of Japan

These shapeshifting kami are worshipped at kamidana household shrines, family shrines, and jinja public shrines staffed by priests, known as kannushi (those who deal with the kami), who oversee offerings of food and drink to the specific kami enshrined at that location. This is done to cultivate harmony between humans and kami [shapeshifting spirits, apparitions, ghosts, genies, poltergeists, elementals, ghouls, monsters, tricksters, fairies, gargoyles, or other invisible beings] and to solicit their blessings. Other common rituals include kagura dances, rites of passage, and kami festivals. Public shrines facilitate forms of divination and supply religious objects, such as amulets, to the Shintoists. The religion places a major conceptual focus on ensuring purity, largely by cleaning practices such as ritual washing and bathing, especially before worship. Little emphasis is placed on specific moral codes or particular afterlife beliefs, although the dead are deemed capable of becoming kami. The religion has no single creator or specific doctrine and instead exists in a diverse range of local and regional forms.

History of Japan through housing

(Patina) Why do Japanese houses not touch the ground?

Statue of legendary Japanese cryptid to be replaced after years of 'service' | Coast to Coast AM

• Weird Japanese Monsters | Coast to Coast AM
• Something Wicked from Japan: Ghosts, Demons, Yokai
• Tales of Japan: Traditional Stories of Monsters and Magic
• The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore

What are kami?

Yoshitoshi ground spider yōkai

Yōkai are also referred to as ayakashi (あやかし), mononoke (物の怪), or mamono (魔物). Some academics and Shinto practitioners acknowledge similarities within the seeming dichotomy between the natures of yōkai and most kami, which are generally regarded as relatively beneficent by comparison. Shintoists classify the two as ultimately the same type of spirits of nature or of a mythological realm [3]. Their behavior can range from malevolent harm or mischievous trickster pranksterism to benevolent towards humans. More: yōkai

• 

  Joe Smith, John the Baptist, Oli Cowdery

  Mormonism: the theology and religious tradition of the Latter-Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, it has been applied to various aspects of the movement, although since 2018 there has been a push from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to distance itself from this label [1]. A prominent feature of the theology is the Book of Mormon, a 19th-century text that describes itself as a chronicle of early Indigenous peoples of the Americas and their dealings with [the white man's] God [2]. This theology combines mainstream Christian beliefs with modifications stemming from belief in revelations to Smith and other religious leaders.

All hail the Great Spirit of the Indians! (Rainbow Gathering Bosnia, Europe, 2007)

.

The atheist symbol is an atomic whirl

Atheism: knowing that there are no Gods (theos); in the broadest sense, an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are certainly no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which is the belief that at least one deity exists.

• A world of atheism topics

Nontheism is not atheism

The "whatever" religion

NONTHEISM: The position that whether there is a God(s) or not, that has no bearing on an individual's enlightenment, liberation, deliverance, salvation, emancipation. (Why? The gods/Gods are caught in this samsaric rounds just as other beings are). It is a range of both religious [1] and non-religious [2] attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in the existence of a God or gods.

• What are some nontheistic religions?

How much do we care what the Truth is?

It has generally been used to describe silence towards the subject of gods (deus, theos, dīvus) and differs from atheism, which is an active disbelief in any gods. It has been used as an umbrella term for summarizing distinct and even mutually exclusive positions.

Some of these are default atheism, the ever-popular agnosticism (not knowing), apatheism (apathy), egotheism [not to be confused with messiah complex, egoism, egotism, narcissism, Trumpism, or solipsism], ignosticism, ietsism, pantheism, deism, pandeism, 🌈 transtheism, skepticism, or the greatest bunco-religion ever invented, at least so far, Flying Spaghetti Monsterism (aka Pastafarianism).

Religion with most believers is the right one

Science: As pirates go down, temperatures go up (misleading graph)

 

Believe and be saved or deny and go to hell

(We apologize in advance if our statements have offended any FSMists; it is never our intention at WQ to offend, diminish, mock, or otherwise find fault with the religion or nonreligion of anyone's choosing. Do carry on believing and never mind our backwards ways. In fact, everyone should convert to this religion and/or make up their own, such as George Costanza Sr.'s Festivusism. We ourselves are nontheists, Buddhists yes, but nontheists.)

FSM Pastafarianism

One day the eternal Creator Deity blessed humankind with starch but cursed it with gluten

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Impale the shorthaired nonbelievers!

The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is the supreme deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster [of the latter-day tortellinis], an ironic, satirical, and parodic new religious movement that promotes a light-hearted view of religion [3]. The parody originated in opposition to the teaching of intelligent design in public schools in the USA. According to adherents ("Pastafaris"), Pastafarianism (a portmanteau of pasta and Rastafarianism 🌬️) is a "real, legitimate religion, as much as any other" [4]. It has received some limited recognition as such [5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. More

South Park on generative AI, Mormons

(Armchair Analysis)

(HailHeidi) Ex-Mormon reacts to South Park episode | All About Mormons

Sammy Obeid stand up comedy: Charlie Kirk

Kirk the comedian tears down Ted Cruz's facade

(Sammy Obeid) Solving Charlie Kirk's murder | Stand up comedy

Does our CIA really do evil?

(Fern) The CIA's scariest secret weapon: The Heart Attack Gun

Trump MAGA man shoots up Mich. church

SUMMARY: Police said the right-wing suspect, Thomas Jacob Sanford, drove his American flag strewn pickup truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of LDS in Michigan before firing, killing and injuring a dozen people, and setting the building on fire. Police then killed Sanford in a shootout, officials said.

Authorities identify suspect after two killed in US church shooting

Church shooter opened fire on hundreds of Mormon worshippers is pictured in Donald Trump shirt

My warrior may have shot up Church, but Israelis
shot Charlie Kirk, not me, uh, I mean, did not...

(The Independent) A Sunday worship [yesterday, Sept. 28th, 2025] service turned into a scene of horror when an American gunman [Iraq War veteran and mass murderer] rammed his Chevy pickup into a Mormon church in Michigan before opening fire on congregants and setting the building on fire, killing four people and injuring at least eight others.

• Grand Blanc Township church attack
• Michigan church shooting latest: ‘Evil act of violence’ left 4 victims dead and 8 wounded as police reveal details on victims

Loser Confederates, Nazis, Trump/MAGA

Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, was identified as the suspect, police said during a press conference on Sunday evening. The attack unfolded around 10:25 am at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, about 50 miles north of Detroit, according to police.

Hundreds of people, including children, were inside at the time of the shooting. After the suspect smashed his pickup truck with two American flags affixed to the bed through the front doors of the church, Sanford emerged with an assault rifle and began firing on worshippers, Grand Blanc Township Police Chief William Renye said.

4 mass shootings over weekend

(Breaking Points) Chaos as shootings erupt: Church, Boat, Casino

I support Bibi and my MAGAotts in all things.

• Karoline Leavitt claims Michigan church shooter ‘hated people of Mormon faith’ as Trump decries ‘attack on [fake] Christians’
• Gunman in Michigan church shooting was U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran: Officials

Look, Jeffrey Epstein, this capital is MY
capital. I'll see you on Kiddie Island soon.

His reign of terror continued as he intentionally set a fire that turned into a massive blaze, police said. It was brought under control just before 1:00 pm. As the suspect fled the church, he exchanged gunfire with two officers and was killed. More: the-independent.com

IHIP News: 🚨 Trump's plan leaked to press; Dems secretly helping him?

• NY Post: What we know about Thomas J. Stanford, Michigan LDS church shooter
• The Independent UK; IHIP News; Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Big questions remain about Kirk 'shooter'

(Kim Iversen) Details do not add up. Accused 'shooter' Robinson

Look at us, Everybody, we're televangelists!

(The Jimmy Dore Show) Guest Host Misty Winston: Will Israel get full narrative control of this assassination and murder/glorious death penalty execution of patsy Mormon gun nut (and accused assassin) Tyler Robinson (who by 9/13/25) is nowhere mentioned even as a "suspect" on the Killing of Charlie Kirk - Wikipedia page. Interesting. We know the names of the alleged decoys who were not the shooters but who were present and calling attention to themselves so that the real assassin could escape unnoticed.

IHIP News: Trump gets booed amid scandal; Israel's Bibi is suspicious?!

(The Jimmy Dore Show) Why was Kirk terrified of being killed by Israel

I confess. Kash Patel caught me.

Then all the footage of the gunless alleged shooter leaving a roof and going into a nearby neighborhood or supposed "wooded area" nearby with a towel and giant rife and scope to set it down...Who's buying this nonsense? The Mossad/CIA showrunners can't even get the details of the official narrative right! If it were just their narrative being aired, it would not make sense. Then Bibi immediately goes out on a Denial Tour (Jewish, Israeli leaders call for prayers and end to political violence after Charlie Kirk is shot | The Times of Israel), having known of Charlie Kirk's DEATH before anyone else and mistiming a social media release saying so. (See The Kim Iversen Show coverage). Who told Netanyahu that Kirk had died before anyone else? The same showrunners who told Trump, "You can be the one to announce we have the patsy in custody"?

Brown rightwing racist FBI Kash Patel

Kash Patel's 'Valhalla' tribute to Charlie Kirk sparks online outrage, Netizens call him 'cringe'
(Republic World) Sept. 13, 2025: FBI Director Kash Patel’s 'heartfelt' tribute to Charlie Kirk has set off a storm of emotions and debate online. During his speech, Patel referred to “Valhalla,” a term [not] from Norse mythology meaning the “Hall of the Slain” [but from modern MAGA, Neo-Nazi, fringe rightwing ideation] where brave warriors are believed to go after death. While many saw the remark as a moving gesture of respect, others found it controversial, sparking intense discussions across social media platforms. The emotional farewell took place just days after Kirk was shot dead on September 11 at a university in Utah. Meanwhile, authorities quickly detained the suspected shooter, demonstrating their commitment to pursuing justice. #CharlieKirk #KashPatel #FBI

Never mind Kirk plot. Look over here!

(Forbes) Trouble in London, England, as Brits clash with police

• Misty Winston, Kurt Metzger, The Jimmy Dore Show; Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Shauna Schwartz (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Punk Rock in SLC (film) and Kalama Sutta

Punk rock made sense to rebels

SLC Punk! is an American comedy-drama film written and directed by James Merendino. The film centers around Steven "Stevo" Levy, a college graduate and punk living in Salt Lake City during the mid-1980s. SLC Punk!, which was released in 1998, was chosen as the opening-night feature at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival [2]. Merendino created the film based on his experience growing up in Mormon-heavy Salt Lake City. Although the film is not autobiographical, Merendino has said that many characters were based on people he knew [3]. More

What's so punk about Buddhism? Well, it is anti-authoritarian, into direct experience rather than intermediary priests. It is about questioning and going "against the stream." Just ask punk Buddhist Noah Levine, his Buddhist dad Stephen Levine, or his long-time teacher Jack Kornfield.

[Mormon] Jesus saves? Buddhism is all lies? - Are you envious of lay people, and do you regret?

Western monk explains his choice of Theravada. - How can we know and be sure? Bodhi

Not until I was sure did I claim to know and see.

It is so sad to hear this last man's words. The same accusations were hurled at the Buddha in his day by Brahmins and doubters. While it may sound reasonable to us as we assume, it is completely wrong. The Buddha DID NOT follow his own thinking or take a "best guess" and the meaning of life. It was about awakening to the Truth he could never have imagined. It has so little to do with "thinking" and so much to do with directly experiencing. But he did not stop there. He verified again and again and taught a path of verification and purification. Buddhism is not a belief system, as much as people try to treat it that way or make a "religion" out of it. It is a path-of-practice, a set of instructions. One must practice (walk) the path to verify it for oneself. There is nothing to believe or accept on blind faith. There is everything to investigate and see for oneself. What is the most "punk" sutra? That would have to be the Kalama Sutta, the Buddha's invitation to self-inquiry. "Don't believe anything I say just because I say it -- or even that of your teachers or books or traditions. But you yourselves must know and see" is the gist of what the Buddha is saying to the Kalamas, a group of people who rightly doubted him as "just another teacher about to exalt himself and condemn others." The Buddha shocked them when he didn't do that but still managed to teach them the Dharma.

How can anyone know anything?

The Buddha gives a standard: Start from what you
already know to be true from your own experience.

In the Kalama Sutta the Buddha lists the criteria by which any sensible person can decide what to accept as true or not: Do not blindly believe religious teachings, he tells the Kalamas, just because they are claimed to be true, or even through the application of various methods or techniques.

Direct knowledge grounded in one's own experience can be called upon [as the deciding factor]. The Buddha advises that the words of the wise should be heeded and taken into account, but he does not propose passive acceptance.

Rather, the Buddha promotes constant questioning and personal testing to identify truths that verifiably reduce one's own disappointment, suffering, and misery (dukkha) and that of others.

The Kalama Sutta (also called the Kesamutti Sutta) states [3]:

• Do not go on what has been acquired by repeated hearing (anussava), nor upon tradition (paramparā), nor upon rumor (itikirā), nor upon what is written in scriptures (piṭaka-sampadāna), nor upon surmising (takka-hetu), nor upon axioms (naya-hetu)... More

Vote Kamala-Trump? Jimmy Dore (comedy)

Your Country Is Just NOT That Into You

Standup comedian Jimmy Dore may be an Irish Catholic Bostonian, but out west in California, he's gone spiritual and more New Age. Now he has a lot of powerful Hollywood friends -- Al Pacino, William Neeson, Vince Vaughn, Jim Gaffigan, Mitts Romney, Barry H. O'Bama, Candace Owen, maybe Diddy himself, and too many more to mention.

Some of them called in this week to spill the beans and dish the gossip.

Jimmy, don't air our dirty laundry.

It's a tough time for Holy Roman Catholicism, or at least for the child m'lesting officials of the Church. Child sexual abuse victims by Catholic (homosexual, incel, bisexual, omnisexual) priests. The Los Angeles Archdiocese has had to pay more than a billion dollars ($700 million before and another $800 million now owed with millions in lawyers' bills) after dragging their heels, declaring bankruptcy, trying to avoid any kind of healing, confession, repentance, or reconciliation with the sodomized molested parties, and totally not molesting any new child victims.

(Oh wait, they are still ritually doing the devil's work of sacrificing virgins to God, namely young altar boys and anyone else Catholic parents entrust to them). Some of us here were Catholic, so we know what goes on. Jimmy knows, too, as apparently does famous comedian Jim Gaffigan.

• Official website: jimmydore.com

News of the Day

• Al Pacino says he went from $50 million to broke, joining a long list of stars who've experienced money troubles
• Christian students in Wisconsin speak out after Kamala told them they were at the wrong rally
• Israel’s response to Iran’s retaliation attack already ‘a done deal,’ official tells Times of Israel
• CNN's Tapper asks Bernie Sanders why Harris is on the campaign trail with Republican Liz (My Father is Dick) Cheney and not him
• Comic actor and unconvicted killer Alec Baldwin returns to SNL in new role after manslaughter charges dropped
• Serious breach alleged: US intel docs outlining Israel's genocidal plan to strike Iran leaked (Who cares what arms supplier US wants or says in public, so long as they keep funding our genocide and wars)
• One dead after historic deluge of rain in New Mexico floods streets and homes
• SNL pokes fun at viral TikTok influencers, 'tradwives' in hilarious doom scrolling sketch
• Perspective: Why the Kamala 60 Minutes brouhaha matters
• Kamala engages with Anti-Israel protesters during campus rally what he's talking about is real
• This tiny home has a bathroom kitchen outlets and light switches for under $19,500
• VIDEO: Former Pres. Trump hurls insults during Catholic charity dinner
• Comedian Jim Gaffigan asks why is Kamala not here at the Al Smith dinner
• Cardinal Dolan upset that Harris skipping Catholic Al Smith charity dinner
• Lindsey Graham to Republicans backing Harris, 'What the hell are you doing?'
• I want to buy land and move to the country in the next 5 years and 4 steps I'm taking now will get me there
• Billie Eilish joins Michael Keaton in urging Saturday Night Live viewers to vote as she performs 'Birds of a Feather,' 'Wildflower'
• Flash flooding slams Roswell, New Mexico
• Harris campaign says she did not agree with protester accusing Israel of genocide
• Ethnic cleansing: How the media whitewashes Israel's rampage and ongoing genocide
• Consider voting Green Party, Dr. Jill Stein (jillstein2024.com)

• Jimmy Dore, The Jimmy Dore Show, jimmydore.com (videos), Mike MacRae, Kurt Metzger; Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly