Altars All Around Us

My wonderful friend Angela has a post up with pictures of the lovely altars and shrines that she and her husband have created in their new home. They're gorgeous!

When I moved to my little cottage three years ago, I was lucky enough to be able to set aside a room for ritual work and my altar is there. I loved the process of creating a room for worship, prayer, meditation, and magic.

Do you have altars? Where are they? What's on them?

Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire

Jonathan Chait has an opinion piece in today's LAT noting that the fundies are setting themselves up to get punked again. You'd think that six straight years of Republican control of, well, everything that yielded neither a ban on gay marriage nor the criminalization of abortion would have given the fundies a clue that the corporatists are, as Chait says: deeply hostile to social conservatism, and its leaders manage to fool the base over and over again. For "fool" I'd substitute the words "use like a bunch of chumpy, chump, chumps," but, either way, you'd think the fundies would figure it out.

Chait looks at the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls and concludes that: one odd thing jumps out at me: Most of them have expressed deep hostility to the religious right's point of view in the past, and several of them are now insisting that they didn't mean a word of it. I guess it's a good indication of just how twisted a religion the fundies practice that the people courting their votes would rather admit that they're liars than admit that they aren't passionately-devoted sniffers of everyone else's panties. An excellent example of the vote-for-me-I'm-an-outright-liar-not-a-rational-adult-when-it-comes-to-other-people's-sex-lives is Mitt Romney. As Chait reports: Bay Windows, a Boston newspaper covering gay and lesbian issues, published an interview it had conducted with Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 1994. Romney, now a leading candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, had characterized the religious right as "extremists," said he essentially had the same position on gay rights as Ted Kennedy and cast himself as an heir to his moderate father, George Romney, the Michigan governor who walked out of the 1964 Republican convention to protest Barry Goldwater.

Those positions certainly seem believable. Mitt Romney had run as a supporter of abortion rights and legislation protecting gays from on-the-job discrimination.

But he has since reversed both positions, and an advisor insisted that Romney had been "faking it" as a pro-choicer, explaining that he had to do it because social conservatism is unacceptable to the voters of Massachusetts.

That's right. Romney has no problem saying that he lied to the voters of Massachusetts and espoused positions that were actually 180 degrees away from what he really believed just so that he could get elected. I'm not a xian, but I know there's something in that book of theirs about not telling lies. Chait suggests that the fundies might want to consider that if Romney would lie to someone else just to get power, maybe he's lying to them now, but the fundies don't want to hear it. Indeed, social conservatives don't even want to hear about Romney's scandalously tolerant past. Brian Camenker, a right-wing activist who has been sounding the alarm bells about Romney, has gotten a frosty reception from his fellow religious conservatives. " 'Why are you attacking Romney?' " they keep asking him, according to my colleague Ryan Lizza. "He's better than Giuliani and McCain.' " By better, they apparently mean: currently more willing to mouth the anti-sex, anti-woman platitudes that are music to our fundie ears.

Chait suggests that John McCain is also a liar who'll apparently twist himself into a pretzel in order to gain power. Sen. John McCain of Arizona once described religious-right leaders as "forces of evil" and has mused that he would not support the repeal of Roe vs. Wade. More recently, McCain, like Romney, has backed off his moderate statements (not surprising, given the furor they provoked). But McCain is even less credible in his newfound conservatism; only a total naif could believe him now. A general rule of political life is that when a candidate says something unpopular off the cuff and then takes it back in prepared remarks, you can be sure that the original statement is what he really thinks.

So the fundies, who should be more concerned over their own financial plight, over the future of the planet, over sickness and suffering the world over, will continue to vote for the candidate most likely to punk them. Again.

When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?

Investigate Bush, Not The Clintons

In a fairly good editorial discussing the Bush junta's violation of basic human rights and bedrock American values -- and the ways in which the outgoing Republican Congress aided and abetted Bush's evil -- today's NYT makes a startling concession. Discussing how Republican Senator Pat Roberts dragged his feet for years in an effort to cover up the juntas lies that we needed to invade iraq because Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction," the NYT notes that: Mr. Roberts insisted that [the investigation that he was supposed to be conducting] cover every public statement by any administration official or member of Congress dating back to 1991. What President Bill Clinton or Senator Hillary Clinton said about Iraq is irrelevant. What matters is what was said by Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney — who ordered the invasion of Iraq — and by their aides.

Can you believe it? The NYT admitting that it is the Bush junta -- and not the Clintons -- that needs to be investigated? Would that the NYT itself have been even half as eager to investigate all of the Bush junta's crimes as it was to look into -- and cover obsessively -- every detail of the Clinton's personal finances and personal lives. Yeah, the NYT has broken some stories about the Bush junta. But whether you look at reporters assigned or column-inches printed, there is simply no comparison.

Still, it's progress of a sort.

Pagan Blogs -- Who Would Have Thought?

Pagans, yours truly included, often lament the dearth of good books for Pagans who have moved beyond the initial, introductory stage. There appear to be hundreds of Pagan 101 books, but it can be a challenge to find books that go beyond that level.

Lately, I've been thinking quite a bit about the disparity between most of (the drek) what's to be found on the bookshelves of your local Border's or Barnes & Noble concerning Paganism and what can (the gems), with some hunting, be found on the web. Sure, there are a lot of pretty crappy Pagan blogs out there. But there are some real gems, as well. This is by no means an exclusive list, but here are some Pagan blogs that I'm ashamed to say I have only recently discovered, but that I think are quite good:

The answer is simple: any notion of a "Pagan community" today is a farce; few Pagans can agree on the color of horse shite, much less on religion, and this is how it should be. There is no need for Pagan "popes". "Organized religion" has shown us that it does not and cannot work, and not a single Pagan would be what they are, if they were satisfied with pre-packaged dogma being disseminated among massive congregations of people. Robin "Ule" Artisson's blog, Cauldron Born is a very recent discovery, but one that I intend to make a regular stop in my daily wanderings. His writing is the best discussion of northern Heathenry that I've ever found, and great-granddaughter of a Swedish immigrant that I am, it's not as if I haven't looked.

I've also begun to check in daily with Sara Sutterfield Winn at her blog, Pagan Godspell. Maybe that's because, as I do, she agrees with both Derrick Jensen and Rob Brezsney. It takes either a very big brain or a very disturbed personality to read both of them and say: Yes.

One of the few actual Pagan 201 books that I regularly recommend is Dianne Sylvan's The Circle Within. Her blog is equally good. Plus, she sometimes posts Mary Oliver's poems, which is a Very Good Thing.

Anne Johnson is the smartest, most authentic Druid that I know. And I've taken classes from some pretty boring, full-of-themselves-needed-to-brag-nonstop-about-sex-with-Pappa-Isaac-but-couldn't-really-teach-just-liked-to-read-Brehorn-laws-outloud-type Druids, believe me. Anne's not one of those. She regularly touches something very deep with her writing.

Full Circle is published too infrequently, but I keep checking back almost daily, hoping for more good writing, insight, admirable thought.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Sheila Na Gig

Carved on churches in Ireland, Sheila Na Gig is one of my favorite Goddesses, because, to modern eyes, at least, she's so outrageous. Our culture has tons of pictures of women's vaginas, selling those pictures is a multi-million dollar industry. But pictures of old women's vaginas? Well, there are far fewer of those.

Thalia Took tells us that: The Sheila-na-gig is a figure from medieval stone carvings of the British Isles (mostly Ireland), of a grinning woman holding open Her vulva. She is regarded by some as a gargoyle-like figure meant as a medieval allegory of lust, or as a magical figure meant to cure infertility in women, but others have seen in Her an echo of the ancient Irish earth mother.

The word "gyg" is Norse for giantess, in other words, a supernatural or deified female, while "Sheila" is a woman's name, or used as a word for "girl".

The vulva as holy symbol of birth and life is a very ancient idea that symbolizes the life-giving and regenerative powers of the Earth Mother. The image of the vulva has a long history of being carved in stone, and is found all over Europe from the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages. Passage graves were built in the shape of the Goddess, with the passage the vagina, and the tomb chamber itself representing Her uterus. "Tomb" and "womb" were equated, thus ensuring regeneration and continuity after death, in the same way that a "dead" seed is planted in the fertile earth and sprouts up to grow into a complete plant.

Despite the fact that to modern eyes Her pose is "obscene" the Sheila-na-gig is most predominantly found carved in the decoration of churches.

Barbara Walker wrote that: Sheila-na-gig figures closely resembled the yonic statues of Kali which still appear at the doorways of Hindu temples, where visitors lick a finger and touch the yoni "for luck." Some of the older figures have deep holes worn in their yonis from much touching. The protruding ribcage on many examples of the sheila-na-gig imitates the figures of Kali as the death-goddess, Kalika, evidently
remembered in Ireland as the Caillech or "Old Woman," who was also the Creatress and gave birth to all the races of men. Celts generally protected doorways with some female-genital fetish, which is why they settled on the horseshoe, classic Omega-sign of the Kalika. In India it stood for the feminine cosmos within which Shiva ever performed his creative sexual dance, although he was assimilated to the Kalika and given her title of Destroyer.

Derivation of the term sheila-na-gig is obscure. It meant something like "vulva woman." Gig or giggie meant female genitals and may have been related to the Irish "jig," from French gigue, in pre-Christian times an orgiastic dance. In ancient Erech a gig seems to have been a holy yoni; the sacred harlots of the temple were known as nu-gig.

Amy Sophia Marashinsky says that: Sheila Na Gig grins at you provocatively and invites you to join her in opening. Now is the time to open to new experiences, people, places,and things. Now is the time to begin new projects, forge new directions, venture out boldly. The universe invites you to come out and play. Perhaps you've had to contract your energy to deal with a wounding, a grieving, an ending. Or you haven't felt [that] it was safe to to open up. You may have needed a time of seclusion, sorting out, and focusing inward. Sheila Na Gig is here to remind you that a period of contraction is followed by expansion and opening. It is time to nurture wholeness by integrating what the stretching, expanding, and opening will bring.

I find that Sheila Na Gig is a good goddess for Yule. Her thin, wasted, Crone's body almost perfectly symbolizes this dark time of the year. Her open vulva seems to me to be the opening to the underworld, just as the open vulva of our younger mother was the opening to this world. "Come," Sheila Na Gig seems to me to be saying, "Go on out the way that you came in. Step back into the darkness, regenerate, and re-emerge later in a new form." She represents the Mother Earth, that will receive our used-up bodies and turn them into something new; her vulva represents Cerridwen's cauldron. With that understanding of her, i don't find it strange, at all, that she would have been carved over the doors of churches by the still-somewhat-Pagan Celts.

And, via watertiger, we have this.

More Shoes Than Witches -- Whatever

Today's WaPo mentions Pagans, essentially in the usual gee-let's-throw-something-weird-into-the-article way that is essentially the only way that WaPo ever covers Pagans. In an article on the recently-released census report, WaPo notes that:

Membership in Wiccan, Deity, Druid and Pagan sects has been skyrocketing -- up from an unregistered blip in 1990 to more than 350,000 as of 2001 The article couples this statistic with the fact that: We love shoes, 2.1 billion pairs of them, almost all from overseas.

Thanks, WaPo. Fascinating analysis. Note the use of the word "sects," rather than religions. Cute. The report itself calls them "Religious Groups," which is what it calls every other group that it lists from Catholics, to Methodists, to Hindus, to Jews.

The report shows a total of 140,000 Pagans, which I consider to be an overall category, kind of like Christian, 134,000 Wiccan, which I consider to be a subcategory of Pagans (and 33 Druids, again, a group I consider to be a subcategory of Pagans). (I'm not sure what "Deity" means -- perhaps the number of people who identify themselves as believing in a specific diety, such as Pan, or Hecate, or Athena? But then wouldn't almost all religions -- Judiasm, Xianity, Islam, etc. -- fall into this category?) There are 629,000 Unitarians, and my guess is that a number of those folks are Pagans, as well, who find it easier to say that they're a Unitarian than a witch or a druid. To compare, there are 55,000 Scientologists.

It would have been fascinating if WaPo had bothered to do any reporting or analysis of these figures. Why the explosion? Are these religions actually growing at this rate or are people now more comfortable identifying themselves as members of these religions than they were during the earlier census? How many of these new members are Cradle Pagans who were born and raised in their current faith and how many were adult converts? How does the trend in America compare to Australia, where the growth has been almost explosive? How does the growth of Paganism, in general, compare to, say, Evangelicalism, or Atheism, or Buddhism? No answer. Witches and lots of shoes are just funny and weird and that's all that a piece on them is meant to be.

Bah.

The Bill Of Rights -- 215 Years Old Today

An email from the League of Women Voters reminds me that American's Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791. Happy Birthday, Bill of Rights! You've had a rough couple of years, but you're still the best protection that there is from government oppression. Here's wishing you many happy returns of the day!

As Wikipedia notes: The Bill of Rights is the term used to describe the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. These amendments limit the powers of the federal government, protecting the rights of the people by preventing Congress from abridging freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religious worship, the freedom to petition, and the right to keep and bear arms, preventing unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and self-incrimination, and guaranteeing due process of law and a speedy public trial with an impartial jury. In addition, the Bill of Rights states that "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," and reserves all powers not granted to the Federal government to the citizenry or States. These amendments came into effect on December 15, 1791, when ratified by three-fourths of the States.

Initially drafted by James Madison in 1789, the Bill of Rights was written at a time when ideological conflict between Federalists and anti-Federalists, dating from the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, threatened the Constitution's ratification. The Bill was influenced by George Mason's 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, the 1689 English Bill of Rights, works of the Age of Enlightenment pertaining to natural rights, and earlier English political documents such as the Magna Carta (1215). The Bill was largely a response to the Constitution's influential opponents, including prominent Founding Fathers, who argued that it failed to protect the basic principles of human liberty.

The Bill of Rights plays a central role in American law and government, and remains a fundamental symbol of the freedoms and culture of the nation. One of the original fourteen copies of the Bill of Rights is on public display at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

Celebrate the Bill of Rights today! Use your freedom of speech to write a letter to the editor, to the president, or to your Senator. And, have some cake.

Alvin Ailey - Revelations 2

The best cure in the world for the winter blues.

Fuck the Fucking WaPo

The WaPo does a pretty excerble job of reporting on religion in general, and certainly screws up when it comes to reporting on any minority religion. Today, it's Kids Page tries to get all multicultural, but then, somehow, just apparently forgets to mention modern Pagans in an article about, get this, the Winter Solstice. Sheesh. WaPo, you know, Pagan kids read your Kids Page, too. WTF?

For Solstice, Let There Be Lights
Candles Have Been Part of Winter-Season Celebrations for Thousands of Years
Thursday, December 14, 2006; Page C15

Hundreds of years before anyone was decorating Christmas trees or hanging holiday lights, families in ancient Rome used evergreens and tiny candles to celebrate the winter solstice.

The solstice is the date when, because of the way Earth is tilted as it orbits the sun, the night is longer and day is shorter than any other time of the year. (That's in the Northern Hemisphere, or the top half of the globe. In the Southern Hemisphere, daytime is longest during the winter solstice and shortest during the summer solstice.)

The solstice coincides with the start of winter, beginning on the night of Dec. 21 and lasting into the evening of Dec. 22. Here in Washington, there will be only about 9 1/2 hours between sunrise and sunset that day.

For ancient peoples, life was very hard in the weeks leading up to the winter solstice. Everyone struggled to stay warm and to find enough food. Some feared the sun eventually would stop shining. After the solstice, the days slowly grew longer. People wanted to celebrate the victory of light over darkness. They understood that warmer weather was on its way, and that all plants -- not just evergreens -- would soon sprout green leaves.

Historians say it is no coincidence that evergreens and candlelight became important symbols of Christmas and other winter holidays. The themes of Christmas -- Jesus as a source of light and goodness for humanity -- also fit with the solstice season.

Ancient Romans also celebrated the solstice, with a focus on children. The weeklong festival called Saturnalia began Dec. 17 and was followed by Juvenalia, a day to celebrate youth and the promise of new life.

Solstice traditions can be found in many cultures throughout the world. The Hopi Indians spent weeks preparing for their Soyal ceremony, which they believed helped guide the sun's return. People of Iranian descent, including many in the Washington area, celebrate the solstice festival called Shabe-Yalda, which means birthday, or rebirth, of the sun.

Light is also a central theme for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which falls during the solstice season and celebrates a Jewish victory over the ancient Greeks more than 2,100 years ago. Jewish warriors, called Maccabees, drove the Greek army from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Israel, and lit the menorah, a special kind of lamp. It was supposed to burn day and night, as a reminder of God's presence. The Jews had enough oil for only one day. Miraculously, [Jews believe] the flame lasted for eight days. That is why Jews light candles each of the eight nights of Hanukkah.

Today, lights and candles remain a popular way to decorate for Christmas -- from trees to Advent wreaths that count down the weeks to the holiday. The menorah is still the main symbol of Hanukkah. And some African Americans light the seven candles of a kinara for Kwanzaa, a celebration of black and African heritage and culture.

Many people from other backgrounds [here's where the WaPo shows that it's afraid to mention Pagans} are adding [I'd have said re-inventing] modern-day solstice celebrations to their December calendars, gathering around bonfires late at night or holding candlelight ceremonies inside their homes.

No wonder it is called the "Season of Light."

-- Debbi Wilgoren

Retards.

And it doesn't make up for it that WaPo lists some quasi-Solstice events in a sidebar. Pagan kids deserve to read about their religion just as much as do xian, Persian, and Jewish kids.

How To Get Elected While Being Female

Women interested in Congress: Move to where the money is


What’s the formula for getting elected to Congress as a woman? For starters, move to the right district. That includes ones with high incomes and high levels of education. Then throw in some diversity and — perhaps surprisingly — low numbers of households with school-age children.

This formula is part of Barbara Palmer’s “Index of Woman Friendliness,” a tool that predicts which districts are most likely to elect women. The University of Maine professor spoke yesterday at a joint discussion with Women in Government Relations and Women Under Forty PAC — politically charged, diet soda-drinking groups.

Palmer discussed her latest book, “Breaking the Political Glass Ceiling,” which discussed how the factors of incumbency, redistricting and raising a family work against women in elected office.

“It just blows my mind,” she said, that in the 21st century, the world has 85 countries that elect more women to legislative bodies than the United States.

I can't say that these findings surprise me. High incomes and high levels of education tend to go together and, in general, I imagine that, where you find one, you'll find the other. Nor does the fact that districts with low numbers of households with school-age children are more likely to elect women surprise me. Districts with high numbers of school-aged children tend to be districts where people have large families. The only people having large families these days are wingnuts. Who don't approve of women in office.

Crazed Chicks Rampaging Around On Tabloid-Quality Murder Sprees

Twisty has, as usual, a spot on analysis, this time, of the murders in Ipswich.

The Ipswich killer’s upgrade from random violent schlub to a mythic personage capable of waging “a campaign” means a concomitant downgrade for his victims. These people are demoted instantly from human women to ‘prostitutes,’ from ‘prostitutes’ ** to ‘vice girls’. From there it’s just a short hop to ‘heroin addicts’ and finally, to the lowest form of life imaginable, ’single mothers.’ Their first names are always used as if they were children. Tabloids, as Guardian columnist Joan Smith notes with dismay, even allude to their hair color (“blonde Gemma”). It’s as though they were hotties in Hustler rather than murdered women; no report omits to describe the women’s corpses as ‘naked’ or ‘having been stripped.’
. . .

The Sun’s ‘top criminal psychologist’ speculates that “the maniac [has a] history of being dominated by women.” Funny how every single woman on the planet has a history of being dominated by men, yet the world remains puzzlingly bereft of crazed chicks rampaging around on tabloid-quality murder sprees.

Yup.

Garden Pr0n

The garden porn has started arriving early this year. I just got my Wayside Gardens catalog, which is always full of things that I just HAVE to have. I really don't like rose bushes (they're ugly all year long and only have flowers for a few weeks), but I bought a bunch of these for their color. And they want sun and, Goddess knows, I've very little sunny ground. But, that color.

Weather Prediction vs. Climate Prediction

Michael Crichton argues that long-range weather prediction is impossible because of the chaotic mathematics of weather systems. Most professional meterologists would agree with him, but he is quite wrong when he says that the same is true of climate prediction.

Future climates are much more predictable than is future weather. We know that there is no way to predict if it will, or will not, rain on 2 November 2010 in Berlin. But we can with near certainty say that it will be colder in January in that city than it was in the previous July. Climate change is amenable to prediction, and this is why so many scientists are tolerably sure that a rise of carbon dioxide to 500 ppm, which is now almost inevitable, will be accompanied by profound climate change. Their confidence comes from knowledge of the past history of the many glacial and interglacial events of the past two million years. The record drawn from the analysis of Antarctic ice cores clearly shows a strong correlation between global temperature, carbon dioxide[,] and methane abundance.

~From The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity by James Lovelock

Luce di Strega

The Wheel of the Year

A witch's job is to turn the wheel. And round, and round, the wheel does turn.

The Eroticization Of Domination

Violence against women and violence agains the Earth, legitimated and promoted by both patriarchal religion and science, are interconnected assaults rooted in the eroticization of domination. The gynocidal culture's image of woman as object and victim is paralleled by contemporary representations that continually show the Earth as as a toy, machine, or violated object, as well as by the religious and scientific ideology that legitimates the possesion, contamination, and destruction of Mother Earth.


Jane Caputi, as quoted by Derrick Jensen in Endgame, Vol. II

Fuck You, Jeff Skilling. Fuck You, You Piece of Shit.

I had a really nice day today.

I woke up and it was raining on all the lovely bulbs that I planted yesterday (well, all the daffodil and allium bulbs; the squirrels, I'm sure, have already devoured the two dozen tulip bulbs).

The nice man showed up on the dot of 7:30 for my annual furnace inspection and pronounced my furnace nice and healthy. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I love the furnace in this house. I don't know what it is, but it makes the warmest warmth and it warms my little house up in about two minutes. Miss Thing loves it even more than I do, if that's possible. Warmth. It's a blessing.

I got to work and had a lovely e-mail from a former paralegal who's doing really well in the world of politics and is loving his life. I did a spot of work.

I took Son to lunch at Agua Ardiente, and had gazpacho, rack of lamb, and naranja poached in Grand Mariner & vanilla ice cream, with a glass of Sangria. Not the best Spanish restaurant in D.C., but better than Matlin & Carvelle's place that used to occupy this space.

Went back to work, went to the gym, came home to my nice (warm!) little cottage and had homemade vegetable soup and a Stoli martini while reading holiday cards from old friends.

And do you know what made all of it 100% nicer? Knowing that Jeff Skilling reported to jail today.

Every day, for the next however many years, no matter what kind of day I have, I'm going to say to myself, "Hecate, Darling. Jeff Skilling is still in jail. Have another martini." And then, I will. And Jeff Skilling won't, because they don't serve martinis in jail.

Bwhahahahah!

Gardening In The Deep Of Winter

Do you know it? Do you know the thick, connected mass of roots that make up a plant that you are pulling up from the ground, from a container, from your yard? Do you you know it? Do you know the water-saturated acorn that tries so seriously to make a new oak tree, before you can pull it up, before you realize what is growing in your yard?

The seed company tells me that it will be September 2007 before they will send me black hyacinths. Meanwhile, I will have planted white Queen Anne's lace. Meanwhle, my black iris will flower for the second year. Meanwhile, I will give D-i-L's mother seeds from my black hollyhocks for xmas. Meanwhile, meanwhile, I will grow what I can grow in this shady yard for yet-another year.

What Is It About YouTube That Wiccans Don't Get?????

Sweet Goddess, the Corellians, Goddess bless them, are all over YouTube. Where's Starhawk? Where's Katrina Messenger? Where's Thorn Coyle? Where's the Rad Fey Where's Carol Christ? Where are the witches of San Francisco? (Don't you know that the rest of us look to you, count on you, imagine that if the crash comes, we'll treck out there to find you?) Where's Lewellyn, for Goddess sake? Where's the serious thealogians?

If you were to judge by YouTube -- only the hottest and hippest way of communicating today -- all witches are either Corellians, people who put lots of pictures of witchy-stuff to some not-so-great music, or people who can't spell.

Come on, witches! Get with the program! There are lots of interesting, controversial, visually-fascinating things to say about modern witchcraft, about magic, about feminist wicca. But they're not being said, today, on YouTube.

Wiccan Pentacle Dedication Ceremony

Liberty & Justice for All.

The Property Of Those Higher On The Hierarchy Is More Valuable Than The Lives Of Those Below

{T]he property of those higher on the hierarchy is more valuable than the lives of those below. It is acceptable for those above to increase the amount of property they control -- in everyday language, to make money -- by destroying or taking the lives of those below. This is called "production." If those below damage the property of those above, those above may kill or otherwise destroy the lives of those below. This is called justice.

This is certainly true of our intraspecies relations. Police can and routinely do bust up homeless camps, but homeless people are not allowed to dismantle police stations (or the homes of the police). Petrochemical companies are allowed to make people's homes uninhabitable by toxifying the surrounding landscape, but the residents of those homes are not allowed to destroy the refineries (or the homes of the owners). Whites could, should, and would systematically destroy the possessions of the Indians, but Indians were not allowed to return the favor. And it's true of our interspecies relations, as industrial production systematically devours the living planet, any nonhumans who threaten productivity must be destroyed. . . . [If destruction by those above of those below were not a given in our society, we would not tolerate extinction of entire species of animals,] prisons would not be stocked with small-scale criminals[,] and civilization would collapse in a heartbeat.

From Endgame, Vol. I by Derrick Jensen

Perhaps He Could Be Educated Concerning Who Hijacked Whose Holiday. That Would Be A Good Place To Start

10,000 Reasons to Doubt the Fish has an interesting story about a neighborhood where people decorate their homes with lights this time of year. One neighbor decorated his yard with a lighted pentacle. His fundie neighbor went ballistic.

Fundy: "I'm so tired of you people, thinking you can just hijack the Lord's holiday for your own agenda. Don't you get it? This is about the birth of JESUS! That's what it's for! I don't need your satanic agenda shoved down my throat when you should be showing respect for Christ!"

If we want to have a discussion about one religion shoving its agenda down everyone else's throat, I know a good place we could start. (And if the fundie thinks that his neighbor erecting a light display on his own property is "shoving" the neighbor's religious agenda down the fundie's throat, whoa boy, I wonder what he'd think about living in a world where the Pagan holiday of Yule was a national holiday?)

It's funny, because one of the few things I enjoy about this holiday is the colored lights, although, good conservationist that I try to be, I don't put any up because they require electricity, which pollutes the air and emits greenhouse gases. (I know. I know. Grinch.) But I think the lighted pentacle is a good idea for the same reason that I thought it was a good idea for my friend R. to send home Yule flyers in school children's backpacks. It forces the fundies to realize that they're NOT the only ones celebrating a holiday at this time of year.


Image found here.

Living In A Theocracy -- And Ain't It Grand

At some time in the last six years, and I don't know the exact date, the United States of America became a theocracy. We now have the tax dollars collected from everyone -- atheists, Pagans, Hindus, Moslems -- going to support xian churches and xian proselytizing. And, our military has become openly theocratic.

Today's WaPo reports that: A military watchdog group is asking the Defense Department to investigate whether seven Army and Air Force officers violated regulations by appearing in uniform in a promotional video for an evangelical Christian organization.

In the video, MUCH OF WHICH WAS FILMED INSIDE THE PENTAGON, four generals and three colonels praise the Christian Embassy, a group that evangelizes among military leaders, politicians and diplomats in Washington. Some of the officers describe their efforts to spread their faith within the military. (emphasis added).

If you think just anyone can wander into the Pentagon and start shooting film, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I'd really like to sell to you.

The article goes on to remind us that: In 2003, Army Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin drew criticism for appearing in uniform before church groups and saying, in remarks captured on video, that President Bush was "appointed by God," that the United States is "a Christian nation" and that Muslims worship "an idol." The inspector general's office determined that Boykin had not violated any rules, and he remained in a top intelligence post.

Contrast that with the fact that: This year, Navy chaplain Gordon J. Klingenschmitt was court-martialed for appearing in uniform at a political protest in front of the White House, though he maintained that all he did was lead a prayer.

Welcome to the Theocratic States of America. The military -- the ones with the guns -- are whackjob religious fundies. We can't change things if we won't even acknowledge them.

Nice

Via Witchvox, Here's an article from the Nashua Telegraph that is another well-written, respectful discussion of Wicca by a small, local paper. I'm noticing more and more often that, while the WaPo pretends that minority relligions don't exist and while other large media outlets only cover Wiccans from the "ooooh, spooky" standpoint, lots of local papers do a decent job of reporting on local Wiccan events.

MILFORD – For most of us, the holiday season involves trudging through crowded shopping malls, enduring long, aggravating lines, and slogging through the mass exodus from said shopping malls.

On the other hand, many followers of pagan religions spend the weeks before their major winter holiday – Yule – making handmade gifts, pounding out their excess energy in drum circles, and working with calming herbs to cleanse the soul.The second annual Yule Festival in the Ancient Tradition, held at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Saturday, offered all of those options to practicing pagans and curious community members alike.

The Granite Tribe chapter of SpiralScouts International, the pagans’ answer to Boys and Girl Scouts, sponsored the event.

Fundies: Go Bitch To Falwell

Here's the follow up to several of the posts below concerning Pagans in Albermarle, Virginia who decided to hoist Jerry Falwell on his own petard.

My madcap friend, R., reports that there was a very nice turnout for the event. The first part of the day was educational, with presentations concerning a number of late-December holidays, including Kwanza, Channauka, and Yule. More people attended this event than attended the afternoon event, which was a children's celebration of Yule. It's likely that some of the people at the morning program were fundies, looking for something to complain about to the Board of Education. However, they behaved themselves and then vamoosed before the Yule celebration. The kids who stayed for the Yule celebration had a great time, especially helping the Fairy Guide turn the wheel of the year. Their parents were delighted that their kids had a chance to meet with/hang with some other Pagan kids and R. came away convinced that Pagans need to do more for our young people.

It's likely that the Board of Education will be re-examining their policy of sending home religious flyers with school children (which was always the intent), but the fundies are apparently split between those who are so determined to use the schools to prostyletize that they'll put up with a few Pagan flyers and those who now realize that there might be something to this separation of church and state business.
Go, R.!

Hmm. This Reminds Me Of Someone. Now Who Could It Be?

A psychopath can be defined as one who willfully does damage without remorse: "Such individuals are impulsive, insensitive to other's needs, and unable to anticipate the consequences of their behavior, to follow long-term goals, or to tolerate frustration. The psychopathic individual is characterized by absence of the guilt feelings and anxiety that normally accompany an antisocial act." Dr. Robert Hare, who has long studied psychopaths, makes clear that "among the most devastating features of psychopaths are a callous disregard for the rights of others and a propensity for predatory and violent behaviors. Without remorse, psychopaths charm and exploit others for their own gain. They lack empathy and a sense of responsibility, and they manipulate, lie and con others with no regard for anyone's feelings." Hare also states, "Too many people hold the idea that psychopaths are essentially killers or convicts. The general public hasn't been educated to see beyond the social stereotypes to understand that psychopaths can be entrepreneurs, politicians, CEOs and other successful individual who may never see the inside of a prison."

From Endgame, Volume II by Derrick Jensen

Sunday Akhmatova Blogging

The Sentence

The word dropped like a stone
on my still living breast,
Confess: I was prepared,
am somehow ready for the test.

So much to do today:
kill memory, kill pain,
turn heart into a stone,
and yet prepare to live again.

Not quite. Hot summer's feast
brings rumors of carouse.
How long have I forseen
this brilliant day, this empty house?

Summer, 1939

Translatedby Stanley Kunitz & Max Hayward

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Corn Woman


Amy Sophia Marashinsky says that: Corn Woman brings her love for you in the form of food to tell you [that] it is time to nourish yourself. Eating is a sacred act. Something living dies and you take it in, whether you hunt/kill the animals [that] you eat with your own hands or buy your vegetables in the supermarket. Part of being human means causing death in order to live. To treat the act of eating as a chore, as something to be feared or avoided is to denigrate the gift of love from Corn Woman and the plants and the animals.

Too Little Too Late Is Not Enough

Today's EEI newsletter reports that:

More Details Emerge on Sen. Boxer's Plan for Climate Change Probe
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the incoming chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has indicated that she likely will hold an "intensive" round of climate change oversight hearings early in the 110th Congress, which convenes in early January, Inside EPA reported. Her goal is to lay a foundation for a clear understanding of a wide range of opinions on how Congress can intervene in the critical components that make up climate change.

According to one source knowledgeable of Boxer's plan, the newsletter reported, "the initial hearings are likely to focus on updated science showing overwhelming evidence of the earth's warming, quickly followed by sessions digging into the principal policy issues related to various emission-reduction schemes, including carbon cap-and-trade schemes."

Boxer was quoted as saying the initial hearings would be designed to "listen, listen, listen, hear all the ideas and then put some legislation together. We're going to take our time and do it right." Added the newsletter: "Boxer said she will set a gold standard for climate legislation that would be 'very close' to an aggressive law recently enacted in California that will cap carbon emissions."
Inside EPA, Dec. 8.

I'm glad to hear that Boxer's going to hold intensive hearings, but if she thinks that coming close to the California plan is a "gold standard," she's mistaken. The California plan is not enough to save the Earth. Hopefully, those testifying before her committee can convince her of this.

Separation Of Church And State -- What A Good Idea.

The xians continue to have their panties in a wad over a policy that they went to court in order to implement. Swear to Kali, these people sure do love to see themselves as persecuted.

Via Witchvox, WorldNetDaily reports that: In the appellate opinion from Maryland, Judge Diana Motz concluded giving school officials "unbridled discretion to deny access to the oft-used forum [notices in kids' backpacks] – for any reason at all, including antipathy to a particular viewpoint – does not ensure the requisite viewpoint neutrality."

In that case, the school board specifically wanted a policy allowing teachers to hand out flyers from groups school officials liked, but that would ban flyers from Christian Evangelism Fellowship.

WorldNetDaily is lying. School officials had a policy that allowed them to send home, for example, notices about the local Department of Parks and Recreation, but did not allow ANY religious notices. It had nothing to do with whether or not school officials "liked" a particular group. A fundie father got Jerry Falwell's group to sue the school system and the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit -- one of America's most conservative -- told the Board of Education that if it sent home any notices that were from any organization other than the school system itself, it had to allow religious notices, as well. The fundies were perfectly happy with that, thinking that they could now prostelityze a captive band of children to their hearts' content.

Well, sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Pagans who attend the local Unitarian church sent home an announcement for their Yule celebration through the school system.

And the fundies, used to having their cake and eating it, too, are going nuts.

The whole debacle simply goes to show what a good idea separation of church and state really is.

Pagan Jujitsu on Virginia Fundies

Here's the blog of the Baptist pastor who thinks that since they're a minority, the Pagans should just sit down and shut up and here's the blog by the oh-so-xian mother whose little darlings shouldn't have been exposed to a flyer from those nasty Pagans.

Simply because we always strive to provide competing viewpoints.

Inhofe -- Major Jerk

From today's EEI newsletter:


Sen. Inhofe Uses Hearing to Slam Media Reporting on Climate Change

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the outgoing chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, used his rights as chairman to conduct a final hearing condemning media coverage of climate change issues. Inhofe brought a group of witnesses forward who generally supported his position, but Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., challenged them to address whether Inhofe was correct in an assessment he has issued calling climate change "a hoax." None would agree with that assessment, only that it was being hyped and unfairly cast in the media.

The Washington Times today quoted Inhofe as saying: "The media often fails to distinguish between predictions and what is actually being observed on the Earth today. Rather than focus on the hard science of global warming, the media has instead become advocates for hyping scientifically unfounded climate alarmism." And the Los Angeles Times today quoted Inhofe as saying: "Hysteria sells. Scare tactics should not drive public policy." [Gee, Jim. That's not what you said about attacking Iraq.] The Times wrote that Inhofe believed that "rising Earth temperatures are mainly a natural, cyclical phenomenon. His staff distributed a 64-page booklet that included a speech by Inhofe in September that he characterized as 'a skeptic's guide to debunking global warming alarmism'."

The incoming committee chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., was quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle today as saying: "In a free society in what is the greatest democracy in the world, I don't believe it's proper to put pressure on the media to please a particular Senate committee's view. My other sadness about this hearing is again we're arguing about who believes what rather than moving toward solving the problem." The Tulsa World today quoted Inhofe as saying: "As the Democrats rush to pass costly carbon cap legislation in the next Congress, today's hearing showed that the so-called 'scientific consensus' does not exist."

Wrote the Chronicle: "Boxer was one of five senators who joined British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a fireside chat Wednesday night at the British Embassy to discuss Blair's efforts to push the United States and other nations to address climate change. The other senators invited were Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I- Conn., co-authors of a bill to limit carbon emissions, as well as Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who is seeking to replace Inhofe as the ranking Republican on the environment committee."
Los Angeles Times , San Francisco Chronicle , Tulsa World , Washington Times , San Jose Mercury News , Dec. 7.

Come on, January. I can't wait until Inhofe's insane ramblings are those of a MINORITY member.

Just To Piss Off The Fundies, Part The Second

My madcap friend, R., is tweaking the fundies in a rather innovative way. Chas Clifton has the link.

In Albemarle County, Va., fundie central, Pagans recently sent a notice home with all school children inviting them to attend a Pagan Yule celebration. "What!?!" you say; "Doesn't that violate the First Amendment's requirement of separation between church and state?" Why, yes. Yes it does. And the fundies, as you may imagine, are none too happy about it. But they have only themselves to blame.

The dispute started last summer when Gabriel and Joshua Rakoski, twins who attend Hollymead Elementary School, sought permission to distribute fliers about their church’s Vacation Bible School to their peers via “backpack mail.” Many public schools use special folders placed in student backpacks to distribute notices about schools events and sometimes extra-curricular activities to parents.

School officials originally denied the request from the twins’ father, Ray Rakoski, citing a school policy barring “distribution of literature that is for partisan, sectarian, religious or political purposes.”

A Charlottesville weekly newspaper, The Hook, reports that Rakoski “sicced the Liberty Counsel on the county,” and the policy was soon revised to allow religious groups to use the backpack mail system. Liberty Counsel is a Religious Right legal group founded by Mathew Staver and now affiliated with Falwell.

Some local Pagans who attend Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church, a Unitarian-Universalist congregation in Charlottesville, decided to take advantage of the new forum as well. They created a one-page flier advertising a Dec. 9 event celebrating the December holidays with a Pagan twist and used the backpack system to invite the entire school community.

“Have you ever wondered what ‘Holidays’ refers to?” reads the flier. “Everyone knows about Christmas – but what else are people celebrating in December? Why do we celebrate the way we do?”

The flier invites people to “an educational program for children of all ages (and their adults), where we’ll explore the traditions of December and their origins, followed by a Pagan ritual to celebrate Yule.”

It concludes, “Come for one or both parts and bring your curiosity.”

Many members of this congregation are strong supporters of church-state separation who don’t believe public schools should promote any religion. But they were also unwilling to cede the field to Falwell and his fundamentalist allies. Falwell opened the backpack forum, and the Pagans were determined to secure equal time.

Suddenly not everyone was pleased by the open forum. Jeff Riddle, pastor of Jefferson Park Baptist Church in Charlottesville, wrote on his personal blog, “If the school allows the Baptist or Methodist church to send home a note to its students about Vacation Bible School, it also has to allow the Unitarian Church to send home a note about its ‘Pagan ritual to celebrate Yule’….This kind of note adds weight to the argument that it is high time for Christians to leave public schools for reasonable alternatives (homeschooling and private Christian schools).” [See, now this is what's funny. You'd think he'd conclude that this kind of note adds weight to the argument that we ought to keep church and state separate, but, sadly, no.]

Another conservative Christian blogger in the county complained about finding the flier in her child’s folder. Apparently unaware of Falwell’s role in bringing it about, the blogger who goes by the name Cathy, noted disclaimer language at the bottom of the flier noting that the event is not connected to the school and wrote, “They [the school officials] aren’t endorsing or sponsoring this? Then it shouldn’t have been included in the Friday folders. The Friday folders have never been used for any thing other than school work and school board and/or County sanctioned/sponsored programs.”

She then fumed that a “pagan ritual” is “an educational experience my children don’t need.”

To be clear, I'd strongly prefer to have NO religious flyers sent home from public school. I think it violates the First Amendment of the Constitution to have the school sending home announcements about any religion. It seems to me that the school should only be sending home notices about school and, maybe, say, the Department of Recreation or the Health Department.

But R.'s action is a great way to remind the fundies why we need separation of church and state. Don't like having your tax dollars used and your captive-audience child subjected to propaganda about my religion? Or a madrassa that teaches that the United States is the Great Satan? Or the Scientologists who want to sell your child "services," or the child-molesting Catholics? Fair enough. Then keep your damn vacation bible school announcements to hand out at your Sunday school.

Gee, five seconds of thought might have allowed the fundies to see the logical outcome of their actions, but, as demonstrated by Jeff Riddle, logical thought may not be their strong suit.

****************

The event is planned for this Saturday, December 9th 1-3 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Charlottesville (Rugby Rd). Drop by and say hello to the Fairy Guide.

Just To Piss Off The Fundies

The Dilemma That Patriarchy Poses

Some days, we have to believe six completely obscene things before breakfast

The beams fired by the ADS feature 3mm wavelengths as opposed to a 12cm wavelength used in an average household microwave oven. As a result of the shorter wavelengths, the weapon does not represent a radiation risk to victims and will not impose long-lasting damage in most cases.

Human volunteers (active, reserve and retired military personnel) subjected to the beam felt immediate and immense pain from the ADS weapon. The beam causes a person to feel that he or she is on fire and triggers a "flight" response. A result, Air Force officials say that the weapon has what is called the "Goodbye effect" meaning that subjects turn tail and run. "If hit by the beam, you will move out of it -- reflexively and quickly. You for sure will not be eager to experience it again," reported one test subject.

Tests on the volunteers revealed that most subjects reached their threshold for pain within 3 seconds while no one could hold out for more than 5 seconds at a time. After roughly 10,000 test exposures, there were only six reported cases of test subjects receiving blisters from exposure to the beam. One test subject did, however, receive second-degree burns in controlled laboratory testing. . . . In one war game, an assault team staged a mock raid on a building. The ADS was used to remove civilians from the battlefield, separating what the military calls "tourists from terrorists."


From The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk:


"Why didn't we start weapons production three months ago?" a young woman asked.

"We have no factories to make guns and bombs and laser rifles," said a large man whom Maya had seen before, speaking for the Technician's Guild. "We have no consensus to build them. And if we had, it would have been at the expense of something else, food production, or communications[,] or transport. . . .

"That's exactly what they wanted. We could have tightened our belts," said a young man who was, in Maya's opinion, already far too thin.

"Maybe," said the big man. "But if we start choosing guns over food and water, we become what we're fighting against."

"But if we lose to the Stewards, we won't have the luxury of choosing food or water over anything else."

"That's the dilemma patriarchy has posed for the last five thousand years," Greta said. . . .

"Isn't that our collective challenge, then?" Lily said. "if we don't have guns, we have vision and imagination."

"A vision ain't much protection against a laser rifle," a voice called from the back of the crowd. . . .

"Don't give up," Lily addressed the room as the discussion lagged. "We are simply challenged now to extend our imaginations beyond solutions that have been tried before."

Gore says Iraq 'worst strategy mistake in US history'

Listen.

Ten Years To Tipping Point

From EEI: Rep. Gordon Outlines Climate Change, Energy Issues for Next Congress

Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., the incoming chairman of the House Science Committee, plans to focus on seeking a bipartisan consensus "for helping state and local communities protect themselves from severe weather events, and for speeding up the development of technology - such as energy-saving and emission-reducing industrial innovations - designed to mitigate global warming."

Gordon indicated, according to National Journal's Congress Daily, that he would side with the assessment advanced by NASA scientist James Hanson, who indicated that the world has a "very brief window to deal with climate change ... no longer than a decade." Gordon was quoted by the newsletter as saying: "There is a tipping point somewhere and we have got to beat it."

Wrote the newsletter: "Another important item on Gordon's agenda is the promotion of energy independence for the United States. He said he was committed to the passage of legislation that would set up a special research agency within the Energy Department to develop ideas for fostering a domestic alternative fuel industry. Gordon said his committee agenda for energy also included using the panel as a venue for an intelligent national conversation on the expanded use of nuclear power."
National Journal's Congress Daily, Dec. 4.

The best news I've heard in some time is that Gordon agrees with NASA's James Hanson that "the world has a "very brief window to deal with climate change ... no longer than a decade." One of my big concerns about the incoming Democratic majority has been that they seem to think that a few more tax credits for renewable energy is going to be "enough." It's not. We need really serious action and we need it right away.

Perspective

I work in Washington, D.C. and live in Arlington, VA, so I don't want, in any way, to minimize the lives that were lost and damaged by the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Arlington was declared a disaster area; almost everyone knew someone who was in the Pentagon when the plane hit. But perhaps some perspective would be a good thing.

In Endgame, Derrick Jensen makes the point that Americans appear to believe that "the lives of people killed by foreign terrorists are more worthy of notice, vengeance, and future protection than those killed, for example, by unsafe working conditions, or by the turning of our total environment into a carcinogenic stew. Let's say that three thousand people died in those attacks. In no way do I mean to demean these lives once presumably full of love, friendship, drama, sorrow, and so on, but more Americans die each month from toxins and other workplace hazards, and more Americans die each week from preventable cancers that are for the most part direct results of the activities of large corporations, and certainly the results of the industrial economy. The lack of outrage over these deaths commensurate to the outrage expressed over the deaths in the 9/11 bombing reveals much -- if we care to reflect on it -- about the values and presumptions of our culture."

The difference in outrage springs, I think, from Jensen's Fourth Premise: Civilization is based on a clearly[-]defined and widely[-]accepted[,] yet often unarticulated[,] hierarchy. Violence done by those higher on the hierarchy to those lower on the hierarchy is nearly always invisible, that is, unnoticed. When it is noticed, it is fully rationalized. Violence done by those lower on the hierarchy to those higher is unthinkable, and when it does occur is regarded with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims.

The violence done by corporations to large groups of Americans and to our environment is invisible and not the cause of outrage because it is done by those higher on the hierarchy (the wealthy who make money off of these practices) to those lower on the hierarchy (working Americans, women who get breast cancer, etc.) The terrorist attacks of 9/11, however, were done by those lower on the hierarchy (brown people, foreigners, non-xians) to those higher on the hierarchy (mostly white people, Americans, xians). Thus, that violence is regarded, in Jensen's words, "with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims."

We've spent billions and billions of dollars "responding" (foolishly and ineffectively) to 9/11 -- money spent on everything from increased "security" at airports to bombing Iraq. When are we going to spend the same amount of money responding to the violence done to working Americans and to our environment? And if we're not going to respond to that violence, can we really pretend to be living in anything except a patriarchy?

Speaking Truth To Power -- And To War Criminals

It's absolutely amazing the effect that my new Senator, Jim Webb, has had upon the chattering classes. They simply cannot determine what to make of him. I supported Webb reluctantly -- his record on women is nothing to be proud of, although compared to G. Felix Allen, Jr., he didn't look all that terrible. That's not saying much. But his impact on the nattering nabobs of centrism has been simply breathtaking.

Last week, George Will, whore extraordinaire, got quite an ass-whooping for misrepresenting what happened between Webb and the boyking. For the record, it appears that Webb's son, a Marine in Iraq, narrowly missed death a few days before the boyking threw a meet-n-greet for newly-elected representatives. Webb attended the function, as only makes sense: it's not just a chance to meet the boyking, but also a chance to meet and network with future colleagues. Webb decided early on NOT to have his picture taken making nice with the boyking. Good for Webb. It's time we stopped treating war criminals as if they were anything other than war criminals. He didn't make a big deal of it; just didn't go through the receiving line. The boyking, in spite of having been briefed that the whole issue of Webb's son was pretty sensitive, went charging over to Webb and demanded, "How's your boy?" Webb, apparently wanting to deflect any personal discussion of his son with a war criminal, attempted to steer the conversation away from his son in particular, responding: "I'd like to bring them (i.e., not just my son but all Americans in Iraq) home, Mr. President." Bush, ever the snippy son of privilege, retorted: "That's not what I asked you. How's your boy?" Webb, apparently taken aback by Bush's rudeness, responded: "That's between me and my boy, Mr. President."

Will had to essentially re-write the entire exchange in order to attempt to portray Webb as having been rude to the war criminal, rather than the other way around. Will's a tool and lies as easily to his reading public as he once did to both his wife and his mistress, so that's no big surprise.

But today's columns by Kinsley and Cohen show just how much Webb discombubulates the DC establishment. Goddess knows what Kinsley's blabbering about; he doesn't even make a pretense at coherence. I don't care what Jenna and NotJenna do with their lives. Fuck them. And fuck Kinsley, who has to create strawmen and put words in Webb's mouth in order to come up with this piece of journalistic tripe: Webb seems to believe that because he served in Vietnam, anyone who could have but didn't should shut up. That includes people who opposed that war -- that is, who got it right -- as well as those who supported it. Webb's son is serving in Iraq, and -- in a gesture that would throw Dr. Freud for a loop -- Webb wears a pair of the son's combat boots. At a White House reception for new members of Congress, Webb avoided the receiving line and then, when Bush came up and asked him how his son was doing, he basically told the president to flake off. Webb's self-righteousness can be obnoxious. But at least he is being morally serious. Kinsley tells the same lie that Will told, pretending that Bush simply asked a nice question and then Webb went off on him. Go on, Kinsley, keep on lying and pretending that it's "obnoxious" to treat war criminals with disdain.

But WTF is Cohen on about?

After assuring his readers that confronting warmongers never ends wars any sooner, Cohen asserts that: In this case, it might have jarred Bush into appreciating the fact that many of his critics actually feel keenly about the war in Iraq -- that they are not mere political opponents but people who are morally appalled by a war that continues for no apparent reason. Maybe also the incident made him wonder about Webb, who, after all, hardly fits the demagogic antiwar stereotype constructed by Bush, Karl Rove and Fox News. Webb is a pugnacious sort, a former college boxer, Marine officer in Vietnam and secretary of the Navy under, of all people, Ronald Reagan. I would not, to his face, impeach his patriotism or suggest a dreamy liberalism. Then, Cohen notes that here is accumulating evidence that Bush is talking to mirrors and taking instruction from his dog. He makes no sense, saying he's amenable to change one day and digging in his heels the next. "I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," he said recently. Yes. Absolutely. But what is the mission? Please, ask the dog. Lives are being wasted.

That, of course, is the whole point. This imbroglio about Webb and manners is, at bottom, about the (very) premature deaths of young people in Iraq -- the sons and daughters of people much like Webb. Their only hope is that Bush is a liar rather than a fool. There is ample evidence for both propositions. He vowed enduring loyalty to Rumsfeld while interviewing his replacement, and he has overseen the administration of the war with an incompetence that will earn him a special place in American history.

Maybe the president has a plan for disengaging in Iraq. Maybe, though, he is disengaged himself. If that is the case, the thought occurs that it would take a polite version of a Cagneyesque grapefruit in the face to get his attention. If Webb did that, then a medal, not a rebuke, is in order.

Yet the by-now schizophrenic Cohen concludes: "Now, Jim, behave yourself."

WTF? Are the Washington glitterati so shocked to see how a real parent reacts to really having his child put in harms way for no fucking reason by a war criminal that they're reduced to blabbering inconsistencies and lies?

Yup.

But That Is Never True

"After the uprising, we found ourselves caught in a dilemma. We knew that war was responsible for shaping the world into all the forms we wanted to change -- and yet there we were, surrounded by hostile enemies who might, at any moment, attack and destroy us. This was the dilemma that every peaceful culture has faced for the last five thousand years, at least. And this was our one advantage -- that we had history behind us. We had seen all possible solutions played out, from resistance to retreat to acquiescence, and we knew [that] none of them worked. That saved us a great deal of time. We didn't have to waste our energies stockpiling weapons or drilling troops; we could jump right to the heart of the matter, which was magic."

"In what sense?" Madrone asked.

Lily nodded to Maya. "You remember that Dion Fortune quote you've always been so fond of? That magic is the art of changing consciousness at will? You can look at a war as a massing of arms and materiel and troops, but you can also see it as something else -- as a delicate web of interwoven choices made by human beings, made out of a certain consciousness. The decision to order an attack, the choice to obey or disobey an order, to fire or not to fire a weapon. Armies and, indeed, any culture that supports them[,] must convince the people that all the decisions are made already, and they have no choice. But that is never true. So, mad as it may seem, this is the terrain upon which we base our defense of this city -- the landscape of consciousness."

From: The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk

If They Want Silly, We Should Give Them Silly

If you've been following the wingnut meltdown concerning the question of whether America's newly-elected Congress Critter would take his oath of office with his hand over the Quran, as I have, you'll be fascinated to learn, as I did via a comment over at the Wild Hunt, that America also elected two Buddhists this past election.


In an exercise in utterly missing the point, conservative radio host Dennis Prager recently attacked the wish of Keith Ellison--American's first Muslim Congressman--to be sworn in with a copy of the Qur'an instead of the Bible. Prager seems to be willfully ignorant of both US law and cultural precedent. Nevermind that the Constitution officially enshrines separation of religion and state, that presidents and other officials have sworn on a variety of books (and none at all), or that the point isn't to make someone swear to America's alleged Judeo-Christian culture but to get them to swear on a text so meaningful to them as individuals that they will acquit their governmental responsibilities with propriety. Prager goes so far overboard that he declares Ellison's decision to use the Qur'an to be more damaging to America than the 9-11 attacks and compares it to a hypothetical Nazi Congressman being sworn in on Mein Kampf. It would be easy to take such offensive, uninformed opinions as dismissable if only they weren't representative of a not-small percentage of the American population.

Ellison's act is perfectly legal and so we can expect it will take place without darkness coming at noon or the sudden disintegration of the United States of America. For Buddhists, though, the "debate" does raise some additional questions. Should Buddhists swear on the Bible? If they do, is it meaningful? If they don't, why exactly are they avoiding it? Is there a better alternative? The sight of someone swearing on the entire Buddhist canon would be pretty comical, since it is much larger than the Bible.

Buddhists don't typically have the same sort of relationship with their scriptures that Christians (or Muslims) have with theirs. Most Buddhists do hold the Sutras to be factual and to contain truths so profound as to approach in some sense the idea of revelation--it took a deeply insightful Buddha to penetrate the fog of human ignorance that envelops most of us and speak the truths laid out in the Sutras, truths which range from the commonsense to the mind-bogglingly esoteric. But the scriptures nonetheless do not hold the same central place as the Bible or Qu'ran do. Buddhists take refuge first in the Buddha, second in the Dharma (which is usually understood to be the body of the teachings and the truth they represent, not the texts themselves), and third in the community of teachers and fellow practitioners. Few Buddhists regularly read the canon in the way many Christians and Muslims are intimately familiar with their own holy texts. Buddhism is fundamentally about practice, not text or doctrine.

As it so happens, Mr. Ellison will be joining Congress along with the first two Buddhists to serve. Hank Johnson, the new Representative for Georgia's 4th District, is a member of Soka Gakkai. Soka Gakkai derives from Nichiren Buddhism, whose central text is the Lotus Sutra. This is interesting because Soka Gakkai is one of those few Buddhist groups that focus heavily on one specific Sutra to the near exclusion of others, and elevate that Sutra to a status approaching a sort of living Buddha itself, with practitioners often reading and chanting from it daily. Will Mr. Johnson take an oath on a copy of the Lotus Sutra (and if so, which translation)? Will reactionary pundits be as threatened by the Lotus Sutra as the Qur'an, or is the invective toward Ellison more about Muslim-bashing than about protecting an imagined American cultural foundation?

We should note in passing that one of Japan's largest political parties--New Komeito--is run by Soka Gakkai, who are part of the coalition government. Soka Gakkai is thus no stranger to politics, though outside of Japan few Soka Gakkai Buddhists have risen to posts as prominent as Mr. Johnson's.

The other incoming Buddhist Congressperson is Mazie Hirono of Hawaii's 2nd District. The grapevine says that Hirono is a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist (haven't heard back from her representatives directly yet), the largest form of Buddhism in Japan and Hawaii and the oldest organized Buddhist group in America. As a form of Pure Land Buddhism, the three central Pure Land Sutras and the writings of Shinran are the scriptural heart of her denomination. But Jodo Shinshu (aka Shin) Buddhists are rarely fundamentalist about their scriptures, seeing them more as the wellspring of the concepts of Other Power, humility, and gratitude that drive their Buddhism rather than as objects of devotion or prooftexts. In fact, Hirono has already indicated that she intends to swear in on no text, Bible, Sutra, or otherwise. Is this opting out more or less threatening than the possible decision to swear on something like the Larger Pure Land Sutra?

We should also note that in adding Buddhists to Congress these districts are improving the racial and gender profile of that venerable body as well. Mr. Johnson is African-American, Ms. Hirono is Japanese-American. Both are Democrats. Perhaps the amazing thing is that while white meditation-oriented converts to Buddhism tend to dominate the public face and voice of American Buddhism, when Buddhists finally got a place at the good ol' boys table of Congress, it was the much more representative pools of Asian-American and devotional Buddhism that made their way there. Perhaps this will be a small step in correcting the imbalance of coverage that tends to favor white Buddhist spokespersons over the far larger group of non-white American Buddhists.

Goddess knows what the first elected Wiccan Congress Critter will hold her hands over when she takes the oath of office. I'd suggest a small tray with a rock, a feather, a hot pepper, and a few drops of water -- earth, air, fire, and water -- the four sacred things. Maybe she can cast a circle first and call down Athena and Innana to bear witness. Skyclad. It could be the most fun swearing-in ceremony EVER.

Surely You Can Pray For Me And I Can Dance Naked In The Woods For You

Media Matters continues to do a very good job of exposing the many ways in which the mainstream media gives the xian right a free pass, while beating up on those of us who oppose the xian right. For example, MM notes that:

In his December 3 New York Times column (subscription required), Nicholas D. Kristof condemned the "fundamentalist" writings of atheists [now THERE, my friends, is a non sequitur!] such as Oxford University professor Richard Dawkins and author Sam Harris, claiming that "the tone of this Charge of the Atheist Brigade is often just as intolerant -- and mean" as that of Christian conservatives. Kristof concluded his column by claiming that "the Christian Right has largely retreated from the culture wars," adding that he hopes "that the Atheist Left doesn't revive them." It's strange, but I just can't seem to recall any instances of Kristof calling the xian right mean-spirited when they were in the ascendant, oh, just a few short years ago.

And, as MM notes, Kristof is full of shit. The whack-jobs may be bloody, but they're not bowed at all. For example: The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is conducting a "2006 Christmas Watch," noting: "Every December sees its fair share of 'Grinches,' those retailers, schools, websites, towns and municipalities who refuse to acknowledge Christmas as part of the 'holiday season.' These Christmas kill-joys are all around. This Christmas, the Catholic League, Father Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R. and the other Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have joined up to put the spotlight on these folks."

Yeah, you can hardly turn on the tv in America, go to the Mall, or, well, or exist without having xmas shoved down your fucking throat, but the Catholic Fucking League for Religious and Civil Rights has to be on guard against people who won't acknowledge xmas "as part of the holiday season." Bite me, CLRCR!

This weekend, Son and D-i-L brought Grandson to my firm for the holiday children's party. There was a ginormous xmas tree in the lobby, surrounded by huge faux gifts, wrapped in paper and bows that were color-coordinated with the ornaments on the xmas tree, which were color-coordinated with the swags of fake greenery festooned all over the lobby. Oh, and there were two very pretty menorahs centrally-placed in the lobby, as well. In the party room, children sat on Santa's lap, a lady dressed as some kind of a fairy did balloon tricks (I guess that was the nod to my religion -- not), and nice ladies handed out gifts wrapped with a peppermint candy ornament tied into the bow. I think what was being celebrated, menorahs aside, was a cultural winter holiday.

Religious holidays, on the other hand, are what we celebrate in our homes and at our places of worship. (OK, I don't have a set "place of worship." Today, I saw a lovely t-shirt that said, "Surely you can pray for me and I can dance naked in the woods for you." I loved that! But if I had "A" place of worship, I guess that it would be the woods.) So the CLRCR can go fuck itself. If they want to celebrate fucking xmas so much, they can go fucking celebrate it in their fucking churches and leave the rest of us the fuck alone. Otherwise, I'm going to start demanding that everyone wish me a Happy Solstice, sing Solstice songs, put up Solstice ornaments, and dance naked in the woods.

Of course, the catholics are in ZERO danger of not being able to celebrate their religious holiday. What they object to is the notion that they won't be able to shove their religious holiday down everyone else's throats. Stupid fuckers.

Thank You!

Many thanks to the kind, and anonymous, reader who sent me The Second Circle, Tools for the Advancing Pagan. I'm hardly advanced, but hopefully this will book will help me to advance. There's a huge need for books that go beyond "Wicca 101," but that aren't so full of ceremonial magick mumbo jumbo that an old hedge witch like I am isn't turned off. I'll try to read it soon and post a review.

Go Lautenberg!

From EEI:

EPA Tells Senators It Will Retain Annual Reporting Rule for Toxics

EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson informed Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., that his agency will retain an annual reporting requirement for its Toxics Release Inventory rather than adopt a biannual requirement, the Washington Post reported.

In his letter, Johnson did not indicate whether EPA also plans to cancel its proposal to increase the inventory's reporting threshold for some toxins from 500 pounds to 5,000 pounds. Lautenberg called the letter "welcome news," and the two senators withdrew their hold on the consideration of the nomination of Molly O'Neill to head EPA's Office of Environmental Information.

Lautenberg said he will join Menendez next week in introducing a bill to block EPA's remaining proposed changes to the inventory, Congressional Quarterly Today reported. EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood said a final rule on the program should be released by 2007 and that the agency seeks to make "a good program better."

Lautenberg warned: "Democrats will now control the EPA's budget and will run the committees that oversee the agency's activities. EPA will be held accountable for every abuse and misreading of the law it engages in."
Washington Post , Congressional Quarterly Today , Nov. 30.

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This is long, long overdue. Under the Bush junta, EPA has become an enabler of polluters, rather than the watchdog and clean-up agency that it was supposed to be. There are likely now so many corporate plants and lobbyists working at EPA, that it will take years to root them out and revise the agency's culture. Lautenberg has his work cut out for him.

Well, Yeah.

It's not just the values of the South that pose a problem. It is the region's appetite for government. The most solidly red states in the nation tend also to be the most reliant on federal handouts -- farm subsidies, water projects and sundry other earmarks. It's hard to be the party of small government when you represent the communities that benefit most from big government. George W. Bush tried to straddle this divide by pleasing libertarians with tax cuts and traditionalists with spending. The result is a huge deficit.

Of course, Mallaby has to get in a swipe at those nasty leftists, as well.

What Scout Said

Someday, I'm going to start a blog called "What Scout Said." All I'll do is link to Scout's posts. It will be a fantastic blog.

Scout has done a better job than anyone I know of blogging New Orleans, and she didn't quit once the national media had declared the New Orleans story "over."

She's got up a great post today, about how insureres are abandoning New Orleans now and plan to abandon other coastal areas soon. You need to read it.

Bush and the oil companies can lie from here until tomorrow morning, but the people who have money at stake, the insurers, know that global climate change is real. The problems of global climate change are not the sort of problems that private industry (aka insurance companies) can address. We're either, as a people, going to have to abandon our coastal areas or get all Netherlands on the oceans' ass. Likely, we're mostly going to be abandoning. Thirty years or so ago, we had a chance to step back from the brink. Reagan and the Republicans wanted to party as if it were the 1980s instead. New Orleans is as much a victim of Ronald Reagan as it is of George Bush.

Sunday Akhmatova Blogging

The Victory
1943-1945

2

Over a pier, the first beacon flamed --
The vanguard of other sea-rangers;
The mariner cried and bared his head;
He sailed with death beside and ahead
In seas, packed with furious dangers.

3

By our doors Great Victory stays ...
How shall we glory her advent?
Let women lift high all the children! They blessed
With life mid millions of deaths --
Thus shall we sweet victory answer.

Translated by Yevgeny Bonver
April, 1996
With help from Hecate, today


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The picture is of a Viking funeral, although it shows the ship already afllame, rather than the archers shooting flaming arrows into the oil-soaked craft after the tide had begun to carry it into the West. This wasn't at all the victory that Akhmatova had in mind, with her images of women holding up their children to celebrate. But it's what the poem made me feel. I've always loved the idea of Viking funerals.