May The Goddess Guard Her. May She Find Her Way To The Summerlands. May Her Friends And Family Know Peace.

Rosella Hightower, a wonderful ballerina, has left us. We are poorer for her absence.

Vehicles For Magic

Someone misguided once described the human body as an ugly bag of mostly water. But, it isn't, you know. It's really an amazing and lovely incorporation of the principle of vulnerability. And, you can't spend much of your life practicing magic without coming to the realization that the human body is a rather well-suited vehicle for concentrating magic into a form in which it can, also, change this world.

de Chardin was, by the end of his life, madly in love with matter. Sometimes, I am drunk with the same wine.

Legs. They're so gentle and so spindly and so -- odd -- that you have to love the creatures attached to them. You have to love any creature so desperately devoted to movement that it would grow legs.

If you haven't seen Naked World, you owe it to yourself to rent it.

Spencer Tunick is the Andy Goldsworty of the human landscape.

Yet, he always shoots clothed.

Vendredi Blog de le Chat

Les Chartreux.

What To Do With Your Obama Signs

I have just been reduced to happy, emotional, relieved tears over and over again this week. That's a funny expression, isn't it: "reduced" to tears. This week, it's felt more like "elevated" to tears. At any rate, it happened again, this morning when I wandered on over to read Ann's amazing blog, The Gods Are Bored.

There's a borough near here that is a historically African American community. During the Civil War, the black soldiers who were killed were not interred in the federal cemeteries ... because the federal cemeteries were white only. So this little borough volunteered to pay for the shipment and burial of any Union Army soldier of color who was unknown or unclaimed by family.

More than 100 African American soldiers wound up in this little local cemetery, including one who earned a Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Spare and I took the Obama/Biden sign and placed it at the head of a parallel row of Civil War-era tombstones, all decked with their American flags.

I said to The Spare, "These men deserve this sign more than you and me."

And she agreed.

. . .

I feel that those soldiers, who knew damned well what they were fighting for, deserved a sign that proves they won.

I did it for them. I did it for my dad's people buried at Andersonville. I did it for freedom of the mind, which every good person should have.

And my daughter, who like all people her age covets souvenirs, gladly parted with a nice one.

I bet when we go back next year on Memorial Day it will still be there.

Damn, that's a good idea. Especially lovely here, just past Samhein, when the veil is still rather thin. Anyone live near the Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit? This war had a whole lot of soldiers .

A Lot Of Good Video Came Out Of This Campaign. This Is My Favorite

Cuz I like dancing, dancers, and people who enjoy dancing. That's all.

Hey, Republicans! I Have A Suggestion For You!

Four years ago, when Bush "won" his second term, there was no fucking end of discussion, both from the so-called liberal media and from Democrats, themselves, (I'm looking at you Harry Dry Powder Reid) about how Democrats needed to "learn how to reach out to 'people of faith'", to "talk about their faith," to "mend fences with 'value voters'", blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The Republicans just had an epic loss, following a campaign where their entire strategy seemed to be to reach out to the batshit insane fundies (I'm looking at you, Palin) and to insult the religious beliefs and geographical origins of as many people as possible (I'm looking at you, lady at the McCain rally who said, "He's, he's, he's an Arab," and I'm especially looking at you, Liddy Dole.) So I'm wondering when I'll start to hear pundits and Republicans, themselves, talking about their need to distance themselves from the snake handlers, the cretins who don't believe in science, the ignoramuses who don't even know that Africa is a continent.

I'm not holding my breath.


Picture found here.

Dear Mr. Yoshida

On November 3, 2004, a pathetic excuse of a man, Adam Yoshida, wrote a little screed. I saved it because I knew, at the time, that the day would come when I would enjoy shoving it back in his face. Here's what Mr. Yoshida had to say upon the occasion of George Bush having eked out a tiny margin of victory due to voter suppression and Diebolding in Ohio:

Four More Years! AKA: Take That, You Sons of Bitches

So, George W. Bush won. And he’s done so by a solid margin. The Democrats’ attempted coup managed to last all of eight hours. Not only is the President the first candidate to win a majority of the vote in a Presidential Election since 1988, but he also won more popular votes than any other candidate in history. The Democrats spent months telling us that high voter turnout would equal a win for them but, as it turns out, when 60% of the electorate showed up at the polls it translated into a Bush lead of nearly four million votes. In short: take that, you sons of bitches.

The Democrats are now talking about how this is a signal that Bush should “bring the country together”. Translated into American, this means “now that you’ve won, you should surrender to us.” The hell with that. We’ve won. Winning means not having to say you’re sorry. Bush already brought a majority of Americans together: they voted for him. He doesn’t need to reach out to them: they need to reach out to him.

If anyone needs to work to “bring the country together” it’s those on the left who have divided it so badly. Those who sought to destroy this great man should get down upon their knees and beg the victors for mercy. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll let a few of them linger on for the simple reason that they amuse us. My life’s goal is to see the Democratic Party virtually obliterated and left as a rump of people like Stephanie Herseth who both mostly agree with us anyways and are easy on the eyes.

That’s the future of the Democratic Party: providing Republicans with a number of cute (but not that bright) comfort women.

Let’s face a hard truth: this was the bitterest Presidential campaign in living memory. The Democrats and their allies staked everything on the defeat of this President. All of the resources they had accumulated over a generation of struggle were thrown into this battle: and they have failed. Despite all of their tricks, despite all of their lies, the people have rejected them. They mean nothing. They are worth nothing. There’s no point in trying to reach out to them because they won’t be reached out to. We’ve got their teeth clutching the sidewalk and out boot above their head. Now’s the time to curb-stomp the bastards.

The first obvious major fight is going to be over the confirmation of the next Chief Justice of the United States and probably a new Associate Justice as well. The reason for saying this should be obvious: William Rehnquist is an ill man and, I think, the obvious candidate to replace him is none other than Clarence Thomas who would be, of course, the first black Chief Justice but who would also, much more importantly, be the most conservative one in living memory. His seat could then be given to another solid conservative and then, once Stevens, Ginsberg, or O’Conner goes, we can get a real conservative majority on the court: and keep it for a decade or more.

It’s worth stepping back to think about the scale of what we have accomplished. We’ve fought back and won against the most destructive attack in the modern history of Presidential campaigns. Despite all of the books, movies, television shows: despite the seeming involvement of all of Hollywood and all of Academia, they lost. They used every trick in the book against us: and they lost. We now control the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and a majority of State Governorships. The Republican Party is now, truly, the majority party in the United States.

This is a mandate. Not only for the President to carry on and win the War on Terrorism, but also to make other needed reforms. To begin: the massive landslides for the eleven state Gay Marriage amendments, even the one in Oregon, show that the Federal Marriage Amendment will carry if it proves to be needed. Better still, with these majorities, the President will have a real shot at enacting some form of entitlement reform in the coming years.

This is a decisive moment in American history. There’s no denying this fact. The nation stood at the crossroads yesterday and the people choose to go the right way. They rejected the Democrat Party and the pernicious things that those people stand for.

Michael Moore and his ilk have been rejected by the people. Treason didn’t carry the day. Forgeries and lies failed to produce the results that they wanted.

It was closer than we’d like, of course. Far too close. I still can’t believe that anyone voted for John Kerry. John Kerry was a personification of everything that’s wrong with the Democrat Party today. A traitor in his youth, he proposed policies of economic division at home and which would have brought military defeat abroad. The once-proud Democratic Party of people like Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson has been reduced to such a level as to become little better than the party of AIDS, abortion, adultery and appeasement.

But, whatever, we won: to hell with the rest of them. Those who didn’t support Bush can go and perform a certain anatomically impossible act. They lost, now they can sit in the back of the bus.

Thank God Almighty.

Dear Mr. Yoshida,

Writing with your dick in your hand is never a good idea. As you now see, it makes you look like an ass. In your case, a juvenile ass with the longing of a frustrated and repressed adolescent for fascism.

And, I've been wanting to tell you for 4 years how un-American your ideas truly are. We don't turn people into "comfort women" in this country. We don't put our fellow Americans in a situation where "their teeth [are] clutching the sidewalk [with your] boot above their head." (Odd, isn't it, that you'd advocate Orwell's nightmare vision of the future: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face -- forever.") Nor do we "curb-stomp the bastards. " And, in America, thanks to a heroine named Rosa Parks, we don't send people to the back of the bus.

Your party ran using your nasty desires for division: asserting that some parts of America are less "American" than others, questioning the patriotism of anyone who disagreed with them, throwing the "terrorist" label around for all it was worth, speaking in racist code, and, in the end, falling back on meaningless and pointless school-yard slurs: Whiners! Communist! Socialist! Wealth-Spreader-Arounder!

How'd that work for you?

Here's a brief tally of how your predictions worked out, a mere four years after you declared your thousand year Reich:

Bush didn't win by a solid margin. The last election wasn't the overwhelming victory you fantasized about with your hand down your pants. The last election wasn't about "destroying a great man." Bush was never great and he destroyed himself. More than that, outside of your fevered Nazi imagination, elections aren't about the "men" who run; they're about a free people selecting someone to work for them. You can't say of half of the country: "They mean nothing. They are worth nothing." That's what evil people say; it's not what we say in America about our fellow Americans. You didn't "get a real conservative majority on the court: and keep it for a decade or more." Barack Obama is going to select several Supreme Court justices and many other federal judges, as well. Abortion is here to stay, gay marriage is here to stay, "entitlement reform" didn't happen, and, as for the Democrats being the "party of adultery," well, your party ran an admitted adulterer this time around, while Republicans from Newt Gingrich, to David Vitter, to Larry Craig, to, well, you get the idea.

So on the occasion of a truly historic election, one in which that black man (whose middle name is Hussein) won a real mandate, I'd like to suggest that you spend a few years emptying bed pans at Walter Reed. A little humility would do you good. Help you to grow up. Give you a chance to get over yourself. And the next time that you think that "your team" has "won" (and they will, no party in America has a permanent hold on power) you might like to remember a bit of Mr. Shelley's poetry:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Obama Or McCain?

Judgement, a major arcana card. This is an important election. This card, from the Robin Wood deck, shows a phoenix and depicts resurrection, a new beginning, something original and fresh coming out of the ashes of the old. It's often seen as a card that shows up when one has dealt with an old shame and is ready to move on. Sounds like America, on so many levels.

I think it's a good sign for Barack Obama (a Leo and, thus, a child of fire).

(Although there is a city in Arizona . . . .) Nah.

The World Is Made Of Stories, Not Of Atoms

Last night in Manassas, Obama told a great story about an old woman in a ceremonial hat doing a chant that worked magic I love stories and I believe Muriel Rukeyser they're what make our world.

There's a story that goes with this picture, too. My friend TJ sent it to me. She and her friend Holly were at an Obama rally in Raleigh and a woman in the crowd got sick. The picture shows Obama tossing his bottle of water to the woman's friends so that they could splash a bit on her face and give her a drink. He's like a long, cool drink of water on a hot day.

America's been thirsty for eight long years.

Stay In Line

Our Mothers went through a lot so that you could vote.



Don't get out of line. Get in line early and don't leave without voting.

Go Vote Tomorrow, Vote As If You Meant It

/hat tip: David Derbes in comments at Eschaton.

Obama's Coming

Hey Nonny Nonny!



Go take a bath. With friends. Wash off the last 8 years.

Yes, I Screwed Up (Almost) First Of The Month Bazooms Blogging

Ladies! Listen up! Detecting breast cancer early is the key to surviving it! Breast Self Exams (BSEs) can help you to detect breast cancer in its earlier stages. So, on the first of every month, give yourself a breast self-exam. It's easy to do. Here's how. If you prefer to do your BSE at a particular time in your cycle, calendar it now. But, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

And, once a year, get yourself a mammogram. Mammograms cost between $150 and $300. If you have to take a temp job one weekend a year, if you have to sell something on e-Bay, if you have to go cash in all the change in various jars all over the house, if you have to work the holiday season wrapping gifts at Macy's, for the love of the Goddess, please go get a mammogram once a year.

Or: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pays all or some of the cost of breast cancer screening services through its National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. This program provides mammograms and breast exams by a health professional to low-income, underinsured, and underserved women in all 50 states, six U.S. territories, the District of Columbia, and 14 American Indian/Alaska Native organizations. For more information, contact your state health department or call the Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER.

Send me an email after you get your mammogram and I will do an annual free tarot reading for you. Just, please, examine your own breasts once a month and get your sweet, round ass to a mammogram once a year.

Merci!

Photo found here.

Because

On Calling Sarah Palin A Bitch

Pretty Much:

(Seven Posts in Seven Days - Day 1)

I am surprised that some of you are up in arms about my calling Sarah Palin a bitch, or John McCain an ass or even George Bush a jackass. I read your comments about how I should be more respectable and not call Sarah Palin a bitch. Some of you are actually praying for me because I called John McCain an ass. In particular I am struck by the comments that suggest the problem with our country is that we can’t have an intelligent conversation to solve our problems without resorting to name calling like when I called George Bush a jackass.

Well this old broad is hurt. Clearly I didn’t start this blog to call Sarah Palin a bitch…or John McCain an ass… or even George Bush a jackass. I am so sorry if I have offended any of you. What was I thinking when I called Sarah Palin a bitch?

New rules:

I will stop calling George Bush a jackass when he stops calling me a terrorist: Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

I will stop calling John McCain an ass when he stops calling Barack Obama a socialist at every dog and pony show on the Straight Talk Express tour.

I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling Obama a terrorist sympathizer. And I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling the parts of the country where I don’t live more Pro-American than the part of the country where I do live. And I will definitely stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops acting like a bitch.

I’m old enough to remember the Republican party of Barry Goldwater - when the party stood for fiscal responsibility, small government and personal freedoms. I remember when I could talk with friends about politics and just agree to disagree. And then religious nut cases decided that if you didn’t agree with them you were immoral. So they went and elected George Bush President so he could take the Republican Party from being a party full of respectable people to a party filled with asses, jackasses and yes - bitches like Sarah Palin.

I am tired of Rush Limbaugh suggesting that feminism is a dirty word. How hard did he fight to gain the right to vote? Or own property in his own name? Or get equal pay for equal work?

And I am tired of Sean Hannity suggesting I am un-American because I don’t think that war is the answer to everything. How many bullets has he taken defending his country in battle?

And I am tired that Sarah Palin can decide what she wants to do with her body but other women can’t make that decision for themselves.

NEW, New Rules:

If you are not for me, you are against me. I’ll get over it. Now kindly return the favor.

Oh…and one last thing. Elisabeth Hasselbeck is still a moron. There is just no way around that, Folks.

Thanks for stopping by everyone. I am doing fine. Thanks for asking. I mean it

It may be that this whole election is really about the fact that the economy tanked a few weeks before election day and that nothing else matters. But I'd like to think that this election has shown that you can no longer win by calling other Americans names, impugning their patriotism, lying about (Goddess guard us) their religion, or digging up the odd weird relative or former vague association. If true, that would be a really good thing, IMHO.

Update: Peter Beinart has some interesting thoughts on this topic.

Sunday Trakl Blogging

De Profundis

It is a stubble field, where a black rain is falling.
It is a brown tree, that stands alone.
It is a hissing wind, that encircles empty houses.
How melancholy the evening is.
A while later,
The soft orphan garners the sparse ears of corn.
Her eyes graze, round and golden, in the twilight
And her womb awaits the heavenly bridegroom.
On the way home
The shepherd found the sweet body
Decayed in a bush of thorns.
I am a shadow far from darkening villages.
I drank the silence of God
Out of the stream in the trees.
Cold metal walks on my forehead.
Spiders search for my heart.
It is a light that goes out in my mouth.
At night, I found myself on a pasture,
Covered with rubbish and the dust of stars.
In a hazel thicket
Angels of crystal rang out once more.

~Translated by James Wright and Robert Bly