What Is Your Tree?

A Song for Mabon

Head, Meet Wall. Wall, Meet Head

This morning, I woke up tired, with a sore throat and a headache, achy and out-of-sorts, and already late for the office, thanks to Mr. Disorganization. I figured that the very least that the universe owed me was breakfast at the Charley Horse Grill.

So I'm mainlining coffee and huevos California (the ones w/ the salsa and guac, and I'm hoping the salsa will be hot enough to burn my sore throat) and listening to the conversation of the only other patrons in the restaurant, three early-middle-age guys and two young (less than 7 years old) sons that belong, somehow, to some of them. Here's the conversation that I overhear while trying to read that piece of excrement-wipe otherwise known as the WaPo.

One of the guys to one of the kids who's starting to get antsy: So are you eating in the cafeteria this year?

Kid: Yeah!

One of the guys: Does your teacher go to the cafeteria with you?

Kid: No, she goes back to the classroom.

One of the guys: So are you alone in the cafeteria with the big kids?

Kid: No. The principal stays with us.

One of the guys: Is your principal a man or a woman?

Kid: A woman.

One of the guys: So, is she pretty?

Hecate (In her head) OHMYFUCKINGGOD! THAT'S PRECISELY HOW PATRIARCHIAL BULLSHIT GETS HANDED DOWN FROM ONE GENERATION OF Y CHROMOSOMES TO THE NEXT! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND? IF HE'D SAID THAT HIS PRINCIPAL WAS A GUY, WOULD YOU HAVE ASKED IF THE PRINCIPAL WERE HANDSOME? NO! OF COURSE YOU WOULDN'T, YOU FREAKING IDIOT. KNOCK THIS BULLSHIT OFF, YOU TWISTED CREEP!

Hecate (in the real world): Waiter! Check please.

Suddenly, It's Everywhere.

Second Life scares me. I'm going to have to learn this, aren't I?

You Were: And You Were With Me In My Youth

In which our heroine is jealous of other people's bookstores

O wild angels of the open hills
Before all legends and before all tears:
O voyagers of where the evening falls
In the vast August of the years:
O halfseen passers of the lonely knolls,
Before all sorrow and before all truth
You were: and you were with me in my youth.

Angels of the shadowed ancient land
That lies yet unenvisioned, without myth,
Return, and silent-winged descend
On the winds that you have voyaged with,
And in the barren evening stand
On the hills of my childhood, in whose silences,
Savage, before all sorrow, your presence is.

– Ursula Le Guin, Wild Angels, 1975

T. Thorn Coyle Provides A Different Perspective On September 11th

I'm going to be taking a class from Ms. Coyle, shortly. I am really looking forward to it. She does a lovely job in this post of reminding Americans to grow the fuck up.

September 11 is a big day in Darmstadt, Germany. Special flags are flown and at night, all the churches ring their bells. On this day in 1944 it was used as an experimental target to practice the effects of bombarding civilian populations. The center of the city was razed, leaving 12,300 dead and 66,000 homeless. This was considered to be so successful that the infamous bombing of Dresden was carried out, killing between 35,000 and 100,000 civilians.

Speaking of war, yesterday in Heidelberg I climbed the hill to the crumbling old palace, complete with Napoleonic Egyptian obelisks. Afterward, I visited the Heiliggeistkirche, a gothic cathedral in the Marktplatz, where an organist practiced as we wandered beneath the flying buttresses and painted flowers. The striking features of the cathedral were the intricate old stained glass windows on one side mirrored in a twisted way by gorgeous, freeform contemporary art glass on the other. The legacy of bomb blasts. One amazing contemporary piece was a war commemoration: beneath a bible verse and above the image of a shattered red world, was a small piece of glass reading E= MC2. I have searched for information on this window, but so far found nothing. The outside of the church had strange gargoyles: pigs, roosters, fish and bears jutted out from the sides of the church, high above the old built-in stalls selling souvenirs or coffee that shutter themselves up at night. I was told that these stalls used to sell the animals flying above our heads.

Well, Gee, Turns Out That It's Not Me That They Hate, But You. Now, STFU.

Just a few days ago, Pope Ratzi the Nazi was lecturing all of us secular Westerners who believe inthe separation of church and state, blaming us for making the Moslem world hate the West, basically pinning the blame, as did Pat Robertson at the time, for 9/11 on feminists, gays, and Wiccans.

My, my, my what a difference a few days can make. Turns out that the Nazi Pope was wrong. It isn't "a form of rationality that totally excludes God from man'’s vision," that makes the Moslems hate us. Nor, as it turns out to they "see the real threat to their identify in the contempt for God and the cynicism that considers mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom and that holds up utility as the supreme moral criterion for the future of scientific research." No. Strangely enough, what pisses off the Moslem world is being ridiculed,mischaracterized, and insulted by, well, Pope Ratzi the Nazi himself. Who'd have thunk?

As the WaPo reports, Mr. I'll-Tell-You-Secular-Heathens-And-Other-Deziens-Of-The-Twenty-First-Century-How-To-Behave, gave a speech in Germany (good choice, Ratzi, Germany. WTF were you thinking?) in which he referred to criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything Mohammad "brought" was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Using the terms "jihad" and "holy war," the Pope said violence was "incompatible with the nature of God." And those touchy Moslems, you know, the ones who were supposed to be on the PopenFuhrer's side, seemed to "take it the wrong way."

The NYT opined that there is more than enough religious anger in the world. So it is particularly disturbing that Pope Benedict XVI has insulted Muslims, quoting a 14th-century description of Islam as "“evil and inhuman."

In the most provocative part of a speech this week on "“faith and reason," the pontiff recounted a conversation between an "erudite"” Byzantine Christian emperor and a "learned" Muslim Persian circa 1391. The pope quoted the emperor saying, "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."” The NYT went on to note that this is not the first time the pope has fomented discord between Christians and Muslims.

In 2004 when he was still the Vatican's top theologian, he spoke out against Turkey'’s joining the European Union, because Turkey, as a Muslim country was "in permanent contrast to Europe."

Surprisingly enough, the Moslems, rather than joining the Nazi Pope in denouncing feminists, gays, Wiccans, and scientists, reacted rather poorly to the Holy Father's (get it?) "teaching." WaPo says that: Pakistan's parliament adopted a resolution Friday condemning the pope for what it called derogatory comments and seeking an apology. The Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican's ambassador to express regret over Benedict's remarks.

In Turkey, where Benedict planned to visit in November in his first trip as pope to a Muslim country, the deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-inspired party called Benedict's remarks the result of ignorance or a provocation.

"He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world," Salih Kapusuz told state media. "It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades."

Even the country's secularist opposition party demanded the pope apologize before his visit to Turkey, which has long been one of the least ostensibly religious of Muslim countries.

Morocco's King Mohammed, that wacky Moslem, went so far as to recall his ambassador to the Vatican in protest. [One wonders, when will George Bush, president of a country with thousands of Moslem citizens, do the same?]

"Ali Achour is recalled for consultations as from Sunday following offensive remarks by Pope Benedict about Islam and Muslims," the official MAP news agency quoted a foreign ministry statement as saying. Gee, and they were supposed to be so busy hating on "pagans," weren't they? What the hell happened?

What's particularly amazing is that a Catholic pope would ever, ever, ever dare to criticize another religion -- any other religion -- for spreading itself though the use of violence. Excuse the fuck me? The Catholic church, which burned at the least tens of thousands of women suspected of being witches? The Catholic church, which conducted crusades against Moslems for daring to, you know, be Moslems? The Catholic Church that killed Native Americans on both continents for daring to, you know, not be Catholics? The Catholic Church that fomented wars for hundreds of years all over Europe against people for daring to, you know, be Protestants? The Catholic Church that visibly and undeniably supported George Bush, insane xian warmonger, over John Kerry, mass-going Catholic? That Catholic church? The pope of that church imagines that he can go around ragging on other religions for using violence?

Bwhahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahha!

Of course, this was calculated. It comes on the heels of Bush's week of giving warmongering speeches to a nation made maudlin by the anniversary of September 11th in which he declared a great "religious reawakening" and a "war of civilizations" between the West and Moslems. Ratzi the Nazi continues to do everything that he can to bless Bush's immoral wars and to line Catholics up behind Bush.

What's so incredibly ironic is to watch two branches ofmonotheisticmic montheistic cult duking it out with each other. Well, it would be funny, if the rest of us weren't standing in the middle of the brawl.

Well, Ratzi the Nazi, here's some advice from an evil Wiccan feminist who believes -- from the soles of her feet to the tips of her blonde hair -- in the separation of church and state: Shut the fuck up. Don't come around here telling me that Moslems attacked the West because of me. You're the one that they hate; you're the one that pissed them off; you're the one that they are demanding apologize in person. And the next time that you decide to use the attacks of September 11th to gain political advantages over the people like me that you hate with your very being regardless of what the Moslem world does or doesn't think about me, shut the fuck up. You're in no position to be lecturing me about how to appease a bunch of monotheists.

You assmunch.

Mabon

This week, my coven will celebrate both the Dark Moon and Mabon, one of the eight Wiccan Sabbats. I need to know right away, what's the best stuffing recipe you've ever tried?

More on Mabon later. (Can you tell that they've been working me like mad this week?)

I love this time of year. I love the weather, both the sunny days with crisp, clean air and the dark days when you want to stay in bed and listen to the music of the rain on the roof all day long. I love the smell of the first wood fires of the year and the smell of cider in your cup -- all that pressed sunshine sparkling and begging to be drunk into your own red veins.

And, I love the fact that we're now only days away from my favorite second-favorite Sabbat -- Samhein (Halloween, for the xians). Samhein is the witches' New Year. I need to spend time figuring out how to make this new year the most marvelous yet.

As this year comes to a close, I'm grateful for a major win in the court of appeals on a case that's taken six years of my life (Fuck you, Curt, and fuck you, Jeff Skilling. She laughs best who laughs last). I'm grateful that the Goddess gave me the chance this past March to say "Namaste" to Grandson. I'm grateful for my wonderful friends, for my safe little cottage, for my sweet, grey cat, for my herb bed, and for the chance to have my say here on this blog. I'm grateful for the chance to take Reclaiming Classes with my friend, Katrina, for the community at Eschaton, for my coven, for my friends at St. Gregory's Abbey, for the nine years of lagniappe since I was diagnosed with breast cancer, for all the people who write poetry, for the New York City Ballet and Alvin Ailey, and for Willow, Nora, The Palm, Mortons, and Colvin Run. I'm grateful for coleus, iris, hollyhocks, daffodils, and rhododendrons. I'm grateful for the chance to live. do magic, and work in Washington, D.C., and I'm grateful for amazing clients. I'm grateful for the brilliant man who colors and cuts my hair, for the nice ladies who help me to get dressed, and for the Little Green Men who clean my house. I'm grateful for my screen porch where i eat breakfast and dinner from about April until about October, and I'm grateful for my oak trees, and the fox who visits me in the Winter. I'm grateful to my guides: to Hecate, the goddess of the crossroads, to Coyote, trickster, to Eris and Discordia, and to Spider Woman. I'm grateful to Innana, for showing me that it's ok to descend to the underworld, get hung up on meathooks, and come back, regaining your clothes and jewels along the way. I'm grateful to the mad stream that runs to the north of my home and to the butterflies in the West and the shade in the south for reminding me that there's no reason for anything to make sense. I'm grateful to the brilliant women with whom I am blessed to do magic, especially for the valiant effort that we all made this June -- I didn't really believe that such dedication was possible, until you lovely ladies lived through that day with me. And I'm grateful, in the way that only a woman who has lived her life through words can be, to you, the readers who are kind enough to read what I write and to, sometimes, write back to me. Thank you.

Good News For Friday

From CNN:

Wisconsin farm produces third white buffalo

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- A farm in Wisconsin is quickly becoming hallowed ground for American Indians with the birth of its third white buffalo, an animal considered sacred by many tribes for its potential to bring good fortune and peace.

"We took one look at it and I can't repeat what I thought, but I thought, 'Here we go again,"' owner Dave Heider said.

Thousands of people stopped by Heider's Janesville farm after the birth of the first white buffalo, a female named Miracle who died in 2004 at the age of 10. The second was born in 1996 but died after three days.

Heider said he discovered the third white buffalo, a newborn male, after a storm in late August. (Watch how buffalo farmer finds another miracle -- 1:50)

Last weekend, about 50 American Indians held a drum ceremony to honor the calf, which has yet to be named, he said.

Floyd "Looks for Buffalo" Hand, a medicine man in the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, said it was fate that the white buffaloes chose one farm, which will likely become a focal point for visitors, who make offerings such as tobacco and dream catchers in the hopes of earning good fortune and peace.

"That's destiny," he said. "The message was only choose one person."

The white buffalo is particularly sacred to the Cheyenne, Sioux and other nomadic tribes of the Northern Plains that once relied on the buffalo for subsistence.

According to a version of the legend, a white buffalo, disguised as a woman wearing white hides, appeared to two men. One treated her with respect, and the other didn't. She turned the disrespectful man into a pile of bones, and gave the respectful one a pipe and taught his people rituals and music. She transformed into a female white buffalo calf and promised to return again.

That this latest birth is a male doesn't make it any less significant in American Indian prophecies, which say that such an animal will reunite all the races of man and restore balance to the world, Hand said. He said the buffalo's coat will change from white to black, red and yellow, the colors of the various races of man, before turning brown again.

The birth of a white male buffalo means men need to take responsibility for their families and the future of the tribe, Hand said.

The odds of a white buffalo are at least 1 in a million, said Jim Matheson, assistant director of the National Bison Association. Buffalo in general have been rare for years, thought their numbers are increasing, with some 250,000 now in the U.S., he said.

Many people, like Heider, choose to raise the animals for their meat, which is considered a healthier, low-fat alternative to beef.

Gary Adamson, 65, of Elkhorn, who is of Choctaw and Cherokee heritage, said tribal elders will help interpret the animal's significance.

"There are still things that need to be done, and Miracle's task wasn't quite done yet, and we feel there's something there," he said.

Bush Video 10 years ago!

Presenile dementia. That's a fancy way of saying, "Batshit Crazy."

Mummers Dance

Out of season, but still one of my favorites.

More Feminist Rhetoric Falling On Deaf Ears

Tools of the Patriarchy

We Kind Of Knew This All Along

I'll have more to say about this later, especially in connection w/ the Diebold problems in Maryland's primary this week, but I'm swamped right now. However, as my brilliant friend Elizabeth says:

:

http://itpolicy.princeton.edu/voting/

An indepedent study conducted by Princeton University has proven that Diebold voting machines can EASILY and QUICKLY be hacked. "For example, an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates. An attacker could also create malicious code that spreads automatically and silently from machine to machine during normal election activities — a voting-machine virus. We have constructed working demonstrations of these attacks in our lab."


I've been playing around with the idea getting folks to each buy a share of Diebold stock and then show up at the shareholders' meeting. May be time to flesh that out.

When You Sent Him Off To War, You Didn't Care What He Believed. Now, He's Served You With His Blood. Grant Him His Dignity.

Some days, I come in, open my e-mail, and start to cry. This morning, the tears were tears of happiness. Thank you, Nevada.

Nevada Office of Veterans Services

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sgt. Stewart to Receive Recognition at Cemetery

Reno – 9/13/06 The Nevada Office of Veterans’ Services announced today a plaque honoring the service and sacrifice of Sgt. Patrick Stewart will be added to the Veterans’ Memorial Wall in Fernley. The plaque, which had been delayed as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs considered an application for the approval of the Wiccan religious symbol on headstones and markers, will be placed beside another honoring his former crewmate, Chief Warrant Officer John Flynn.

The decision to place the plaque was reached after receiving legal advice from the Nevada Attorney General’s office that the Nevada Office of Veterans Services and the state have sole discretion over state veteran cemeteries, as referenced in 32 CFR Part 39 section 39.24, which reads, “Neither the Secretary nor any employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs shall exercise any supervision or control over the administration, personnel, maintenance, or operation of any State veterans’ cemetery.”

Nevada Office of Veterans Services Executive Director Tim Tetz said, “I promised his widow and many others that we would diligently pursue every option to make certain Sgt. Stewart received recognition for his contributions as an Army soldier, a Nevadan, and an American hero.”

Brig. Gen. Cindy Kirkland, the Adjutant General of Nevada’s National Guard, added, “We are proud of the combat service of every Nevada National Guardsman, and I am pleased we are able to recognize Sgt. Stewart's sacrifice and the ideals for which he stood.”

September 25 will mark the one-year anniversary of the helicopter crash that killed Sgt. Patrick Stewart while he was serving as a member of the Nevada National Guard in Afghanistan. The installation date for the plaque has not been finalized

Contact: Tim Tetz, (775) 688.1653,
Email: HYPERLINK "mailto:tetzt@veterans.nv.gov" tetzt@veterans.nv.gov
http://www.veterans.nv.gov

Body Armor

George Allen doesn't want our troops to have the body armor they need. Vote against him. You can help VoteVets get this ad on the air by donating here.

The Nuclear Option

I admit to many concerns about turning to nuclear power to solve our problems related to greenhouse gas emissions. A wise friend of mine who's a big proponent of building new nukes says that scientists in the future will figure out how to deal with dangerous spent nuclear fuel so my concerns about leaving something dangerous around for many, many new generations to deal with are unfounded. James Lovelock is also a proponent of building new nukes. He says that the damage from even a large nuclear accident such as Chernobyl only harms at most a few thousand people, while failure to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions may well end life as we know it on this planet. Today's EEI newsletter reports on an interview in today's NYT with Lovelock:

Eminent British Scientist Explains Need to Focus on Nuclear Energy

The New York Times today presents a Q&A with British scientist James E. Lovelock, who has long "foreseen a clash between humans and their planet," and who is said to have had much of his work serve as an underpinning for modern environmentalism. Lovelock calls for a new nuclear age, despite criticism that opponents have aired suggesting that his theories will release huge amounts of CO2 into the air and will serve as targets for terrorism.

To the question about the vitality of nuclear power, Lovelock said: "The really bad thing we did way back when was starting to burn things in the atmosphere to get energy. We started with fire, just cooking food, and probably could have gotten away with that. But once we started burning forests to drive the animals out as a cheap way of hunting, then we started on our downward course. What we're doing now with fossil fuels is just as bad. We live in a nuclear-powered universe. We're the oddballs by getting energy from burning carbon. My justification of nuclear power is that we've reached a stage now where the dire things that threaten us are so great that even the results of an all-out nuclear war pale into insignificance as unimportant compared to what's going to happen."

Lovelock said that the environmentalists' determination to press for renewable energy sources is "largely gestures. If it makes people feel good to shove up a windmill or put a solar panel on their roof, great, do it. It'll help a little bit, but it's no answer at all to the problem."
New York Times, Science Desk , Sept. 12.

He may be right.

One More Reason To Vote For Democrats

From today's EEI newsletter:

Roll Call Says Democratic Takeover Likely to Lead to Emissions Exam
Roll Call examined the implications of a Democratic takeover of the U.S. Senate, and the political shifts that would take place in the committee leadership after a long-run with Republicans at the helm. The newspaper said, for example, that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee "could be expected to launch inquiries into the administration's handling of power plant emissions rules, global warming programs, responses to environmental contamination from last year's Gulf Coast hurricanes and even the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."
Roll Call , Sept. 11.

The Cost Of Doing Nothing

Oil companies, and their wholly-owned subsidiary, the Republican Party, are fond of claiming that we can't afford to stop global climate change. What they fail to point out is that there's a terrible cost to NOT addressing global climate change. As today's EEI newsletter notes:

Gulf Gas Producers Paying Higher Insurance Rates After Katrina

Natural gas producers operating in the Gulf of Mexico have seen their insurance rates for the 2006 hurricane season increase by up to four times in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Along with sharply increasing their rates, Gulf insurers have replaced the former standard of unlimited coverage for damages with policies that feature limited damage claims. Some insurance brokers have predicted that rates for 2007 will decline as gas companies seek price cuts and more coverage following a 2006 hurricane season that has seen little storm activity, so far.

The chief economist at the Insurance Information Institute is quoted as saying that, insurers will seek to maintain their higher prices and limited coverage going forward. Hartwig said: "Risk has increased, and the price will have to reflect that. I would expect the relatively high pricing, terms and conditions of the coverage to remain in place for 2007."
Dow Jones Newswires , Sept. 11.

Don't Buy the Lie About Drilling in the Arctic Refuge

Leave ANWR alone!

EarthDance

EARTHDANCE
September 16, 2006

THE GLOBAL FESTIVAL FOR PEACE
Uniting over 250 locations in 50 countries
through music and dance
in celebration of peace


We are one global family
All colors, All races
One world united.
We dance for peace and the healing of our planet Earth
Peace for all nations.
Peace for our communities.
And peace within ourselves.
As we join all dance floors across the world,
let us connect heart to heart.
Through our diversity we recognize Unity.
Through our compassion we recognize Peace.
Our love is the power to transform our world
Let us send it out
NOW..."

How the water feels to the fishes

We Are Neve Safe -- Safety Isn't Part Of The Bargain. Grow Up.

What Anne Johnson says:

If you have Scottish blood in your veins, you know that "safety" is a chimera, that we are never safe, that our leaders will turn on us and our enemies attack as they please. If you are of Scottish descent living in Appalachia, you know that your fellow Americans think you crude and ignorant, and wantonly violent. You are prone to overreacting because safety is a chimera, and you have to be prepared.

September 11th Changed Everything

Ted Kennedy sent an e-mail with a rather remarkable statistic, given the Bush junta's continual chant that Bush is "making us safer." To wit: The State Department reported 175 significant terrorist attacks in the world in 2003. In 2005, that number grew to more than 11,000.

Who are you going to believe? The Bush junta or the Bush junta's own statistics?

What Not To Do

Here is what you should NOT do when faced with a problem of this magnitude:

1. Hold hearings on whether or not baseball players use steroids (Hint: They do. Who cares?)

2. Spend time flogging the gay marriage boogeyman.

3. Continue with business as usual.

Xian Madrassas -- Coming Soon To A Town Near You

I could do without the last two paragraphs, obviously thrown in to show "balance," but, otherwise, this article on a xian madrassa is definitely worth reading, if only for the shock value.

The Pope Reads Dinesh D'Souza

Well, this is, at least for a relatively uninformed woman, the second attempt that I've seen in a week to set the groundwork for claiming that we should "placate" the terrorists by moving back towards their preferred method of exercising "power over". I've actually been expecting this for some time. The Western theocrats figure that if they can get the whole world subject to a monotheistic/father/angry/thunder/mountain/sky God, they can battle the Moslems later to determine exactly which Abrahamic cult obtains ultimate dominance. The Islamic theocrats, I imagine, think the same thing about the xians.

Earlier this week, Atrios reported on Dinesh D'Souza's treasonous assertion that:

the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist acts around the world can be directly traced to the ideas and attitudes perpetrated by America’s cultural left.

D’Souza shows that liberals—people like Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, Bill Moyers, and Michael Moore—are responsible for fostering a culture that angers and repulses not just Muslim countries but also traditional and religious societies around the world. Their outspoken opposition to American foreign policy—including the way the Bush administration is conducting the war on terror—contributes to the growing hostility, encouraging people both at home and abroad to blame America for the problems of the world. He argues that it is not our exercise of freedom that enrages our enemies, but our abuse of that freedom—from the sexual liberty of women to the support of gay marriage, birth control, and no-fault divorce, to the aggressive exportation of our vulgar, licentious popular culture.

The cultural wars at home and the global war on terror are usually viewed as separate problems. In this groundbreaking book, D’Souza shows that they are one and the same. It is only by curtailing the left’s attacks on religion, family, and traditional values that we can persuade moderate Muslims and others around the world to cooperate with us and begin to shun the extremists in their own countries.

Today, the NYT reports on Pope Ratzi the Nazi's speech that echoes D'Souza's insane theory.

In his homily, facing Vatican and Bavarian flags waved by an extraordinarily well-behaved crowd, he said that for all its benefits, the modern, secular world does not provide all the answers.

"People in Africa and Asia admire our scientific and technical prowess, but at the same time they are frightened by a form of rationality that totally excludes God from man’s vision," he said.

"They do not see the real threat to their identity in the Christian faith," he said, "but in the contempt for God and the cynicism that considers mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom and that holds up utility as the supreme moral criterion for the future of scientific research."

While the pope did not mention Islam specifically, his comments echoed previous statements about how Muslims cannot comprehend how the West has divorced itself from faith. His comment on the "mockery of the sacred" seemed too to refer to the controversy earlier this year in which many Muslims took offense to cartoons in a Danish newspaper depicting the Prophet Mohammad, which were defended in the West as an exercise in free speech.

Ratzi the Nazi completely fails, of course, to cite even one Islamic author who has said that they see no threat from xianity, but, rather hate us for "the contempt for God and the cynicism that considers that mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom . . . ." Moreover, he, like everyone else who erects this strawman only to bravely knock him down, fails to provide an example of any serious modern politician or thinker who has "contempt for God."

This is precisely the same strawman that Katherine Harris erected to justify her insane assertion that separation of church and state is a lie. She claimed to be addressing the "commonly-held" misperception that "people of faith" shouldn't be involved in politics. Yet, she failed to cite even one example of this "commonly-held" misperception. That's because NO ONE is saying that "people of faith" shouldn't be involved in religion. EVERY SINGLE American president has (at least) claimed to be an xian. She's full of shit,

And so are D'Souza and Pope Ratzi. What all three of them, and hundreds of others of their ilk, actually hate is separation of church and state, which they hope to slyly turn into the equivalent of "contempt for god," or the persecution of "people of faith."

This bullshit is all of a piece with the suddenly-frequent labeling by certain xians of all sorts of thoughts and behaviors as "Pagan." You watch. "Pagan" is becoming the new gay. Before they're through, "pagans" will be for "science" and everyone else will be for theocracy. Weird reversal from the days when science was promoted as a way to "move away" from "pagan" beliefs, but, shit, it's not as if words have any real meaning for these madmen nor as if they see any need to keep their pronouncements consistent with what they were saying yesterday, last year, or a century ago.

I hate them.

Sunday Akhmatova Blogging

As I'm learning about her, one of the things I enjoy about Anna Akhmatova's poetry is that it contains some of the same, sly sarcasm about romance as do some of Dorothy Parker's poems. It's a sarcasm pointed at the poet, herself, and comes, I think only from true romantics. See if you see the same thing that I do in this poem by Akhmatova:

In the Evening

The music rang out in the garden
With such inexpressible grief.
The oysters in ice on our plates
Smelled fresh and sharp, of the sea.

He told me: "I am your true friend!"
And then he touched my dress.
And how unlike a true caress,
I found the touch of his hands.

As one might stroke a cat or a bird,
Or watch slender equestriennes ride...
Under his light gold lashes
There was nothing but laughter in his too-tranquil eyes.

And the voices of mournful violins
Sang through the drifting smoke:
"Praise heaven above--for the first time
You're alone with the man that you love."

by Anna Akhmatova
March 1913
Translated by Judy Hemschemeyer (and tweaked by Hecate)
From Rosary(1914)