You Pathetic, Oedipal Mess Of A Poor Excuse For A Human Being. Exit Stage Left.

Bush in 1999:

"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade·.if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency." Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker."

Bush in November 2004

And it's one of the wonderful -- it's like earning capital. You asked, do I feel free. Let me put it to you this way: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it. It is my style. That's what happened in the -- after the 2000 election, I earned some capital. I've earned capital in this election -- and I'm going to spend it for what I told the people I'd spend it on, which is -- you've heard the agenda: Social Security and tax reform, moving this economy forward, education, fighting and winning the war on terror.

Bush last week:


New details emerged over the weekend of a remarkably
tumultuous White House meeting on the bailout Thursday. With
the session breaking up in disarray, according to two
participants, Bush issued an appeal, saying, "Can't we just
all go out and say things are OK?"
The group around the table, which included congressional
leaders and the presidential nominees-Republican John McCain
and Democrat Barack Obama -spurned the request.

Bush, today:

President George Bush expressed disappointment Monday after the House failed to approve the $700 billion plan to bail out the U.S. financial markets.
"I was disappointed in the vote with the U.S. Congress on the economic rescue plan," Bush said during a joint media opportunity with the Ukranian president. "We put forth a plan that was big because we got a big problem."

The bipartisan plan meant to address the root of the financial crisis -- home mortgage-related assets that have lost value during the housing decline -- failed on a 205-228 vote, falling 13 votes shy of the 218 needed for passage.

Bush said he would be talking with his economic advisers and his administration would work with congressional leaders on the plan to stabilize U.S. financial systems.

"Our strategy is to continue to address this economic situation head-on," Bush said. "And we'll be working to develop a strategy that will enable us to continue to move forward."

Art found here.

Going To The Cons

The Goddess only knows what is wrong with my pipple that we schedule our serious conferences for February, aka, the worst travel month of the year. Well, there's no mystery, we're a poor people, and that's when conference space is cheap. Here's a v, v, v small sample of what's going on in February, Brigid's month. Feel free to add your own events in comments and/or go here for updates and a far more complete listing. There is, even for we INTJs, a great value in coming together, hearing some new ideas, getting a fresh perspective.

Pantheacon. If you live in the Western US, you should go.

This year’s Theme is Back to Basics --- As energy and economics implode we look for more simple ways of life. Our pagan ethics and worship of our Earth Mother help us forge new sustainable lifestyles as we honor the old ways. What we know about the old ways of life, others now acknowledge as new imperatives to be the custodians of our earth. What is the bottom line when it comes to our lives and our spirits? What living skills of our traditions are especially needed for the future?

The National Capital Region Pagan Leadership Conference is a great East Coast event.

The 2010 conference meets critical needs by emphasizing financial vitality for Pagan organizations, which is especially relevant during these tough economic times. The conference breakouts are built on participant feedback, and include expanded workshops in four crucial areas of interest:

Financial planning and discipline,
Fundraising,
Publicity & Promotions, and
Branding.
Expanding topics from last year's workshops and integrating material based on feedback from conference participants, this year's instructors and facilitators are preparing innovative sessions to help equip you and your board members to gauge and to guide your organization through the next ten years. An updated format featuring all plenary sessions ensures that you and all members of your group, organization, or business can benefit from the training provided.

This year's conference opening provides a provocative speaker with an excellent topic: Christine Woodman, a doctoral student of sociology from Virginia Commonwealth University, will present a framework for studying the financial makeup and health of religious and spiritually oriented organizations and businesses.

Ecumenicon is almost in February:

The Hanging Man–Dark Night of the Soul

Ecumenicon Interfaith Conference 2010
Rockwood Manor
11001 MacArthur Boulevard
Potomac, MD 20854
301-299-5026
Cell (240) 764-5748 (Charles Butler)
March 25-28, 2010

Sponsored by Ecumenicon Fellowship and the Ecumenicon School of Interfaith Studies. If you wish to cosponsor go to our Sponsor Page for ways you can help.

The conference takes place from Thursday night until Sunday afternoon, beginning with The Feast of Four fundraiser banquet Thursday evening, continuing with Classes all day Friday and Saturday, with final classes and Closing Ceremonies on Sunday.

I am hoping to have the time off from work to attend Sacred Space in Baltimore.

Featured Presenters:
Raven Grimassi & Stephanie Taylor
Christopher Penczak
Judika Illes Also, Carolyn Kenner and Ivo.

And, of course, the (still to be scheduled) Feast of the Red Dragon, held by the DC Radical Faeries.

What's on your "outside my sphere of comfort" list for the first part of this year?

Picture found here.

What To Do, What To Do?

Reina Bolanos got a loan for her used Honda Odyssey in 2006 on what appeared to be favorable terms: $16,000 without a down payment. Though the 8 percent rate was high, Bank of America offered to spread the loan over six years to keep the monthly payments down.

But the secretary from Silver Spring found that raising her young children cost more than she had expected, and she now worries about losing the car after missing her last two payments.

A growing number of Americans are buckling under the weight of debt as the troubles that started among homeowners with subprime mortgages last year spread to other consumers who rely on credit. Auto loan borrowers are having an especially hard time. The number of people more than 60 days late on their car payments has spiked to a 10-year high, according to Fitch Ratings.

Similar problems are brewing for credit card holders. Card balances written off as uncollectible by banks have jumped 24 percent, and late payments are up 16 percent from a year ago.

Like the mortgage market, consumer credit boomed in recent years as lending standards loosened. Unorthodox auto loans lured consumers to buy cars they otherwise couldn't afford. Credit cards teased holders with introductory rates that soared after a few months. Now, more people are struggling to keep up with their bills under the strain of growing job losses and an economic downturn.

Bolanos, 27, has been using her credit card to pay utility bills and buy groceries, even though the card is nearly maxed out. She's racked up $5,000 in credit card debt. With monthly car payments of $400, $1,335 in rent for her two-bedroom apartment and sizable day-care bills, she's overwhelmed. She and her husband, a construction worker, earn a combined $50,000.

"It's just so stressful," Bolanos said. "To be young and to have a family going through this, it's hard."

Consumers borrow more money today than at any point in history, and they are increasingly using credit to pay for nearly everything, from cars to groceries to electricity. Consumer debt reached an all-time high of $2.55 trillion in December, nearly double from a decade ago, according to the Federal Reserve. Some economists say Americans are simply paying the price of their addiction to debt and are now more vulnerable than ever to credit downturns.

Behind the rising defaults is a tale of two Americas. Those with good credit will almost certainly see lower rates on cars and credit cards as the Fed continues to cut rates this year. But those with bad credit are facing rising rates and being forced to put more money down on cars. Some may not be able to get a credit card or auto loan as banks, spooked by the mortgage mess, have been reassessing the risk of making loans.

"It's going to be much more difficult for those people who are already in credit distress than it is for those of us who are fortunate and have full-time jobs," said Tony Cherin, a finance professor at San Diego State University.

But others worry that even those with good credit will share in the pain. The financial woes that started among homeowners with questionable credit histories -- the "subprime" borrower -- have sparked a downturn in the housing market.

"It's not only people who are stuck with the subprime mortgages. It's your average American," said Todd Cook, president of Debt.com, which refers financially stressed people to firms that can help them. "It started with mortgages, but it's spilling over. If it's not their homes, it's their credit cards. If it's not their credit cards, it's their autos."

More here.

I haven't seen any figures yet that break down this kind of increasingly-common bad news by sex, but women tend to suffer more during bad economic times, for a number of reasons. First, women still suffer from the "last hired, first fired" policies that a number of companies employ, as women tend, more than men, to drop in and out of the workforce to care for children and/or elderly parents. Second, women often face discrimination when they apply for credit, finding themselves paying higher interest rates at worse terms. Third, women tend more than men to depend for a portion of their family income upon absentee parents and, when those men lose their jobs or face financial difficulties that impact their second (or third) families, their childcare payments are often the first thing to go.

It's not easy, but there are proactive steps that women can take right now to help them ride out the coming rough economic weather:

First, take stock. Save all your bills and make a list of each one and what interest rate you're paying (it's on the bill). Are you entitled to child support payments that you're not getting? Better to sue for them now than when your ex-husband loses his job in the coming recession.

Second, pay off debt. Start with the bill with the highest interest rate. Pay as much as you can afford -- more than the minimum -- on that bill and pay the minimum on the other bills until that first highest-interest bill is paid off. Then, start on the bill with the next highest level of interest. If you can't pay even the minimum or can't pay more than the minimum on even one bill, you've got to do something. Sell the SUV and drive a used compact car. Get a part time job in the evenings or on weekends. Move to a cheaper apartment. Babysit at home or take in ironing or word processing.

Third, build up savings. Look at your take-home paychecks (and any child support payments that you get) for a month. Multiply that amount by six and you'll know how much you need to put away -- at a minimum -- for a rainy day. Start a direct-deposit savings program that will allow you to get to that point as quickly as possible. Depending upon your line of work, you may eventually feel even more comfortable with eight to nine months' worth of take-home pay in a savings account or other fairly liquid form of savings. Again, don't discount selling some assets and/or taking on part-time or extra work in order to build up that nest egg.

Fourth, max out your 401(k) or other retirement savings accounts.

None of this is easy, but none of it is rocket science, either. You don't NEED a flat screen tv, a big, fancy car, meals out every week, shopping as a form of entertainment or therapy, a vacation away from home this year, etc., etc. You do need to control your debt and to build up your savings. We're headed for some very bumpy financial times. Wise women take proactive steps while they still can.

Even If We're Just Dancing In The Dark

Matrifocus just keeps getting better and better. They've got up a great poem by Starhawk, perfect for these times.

Maenad Prophecy
by Starhawk

When kings wage unjust war,
When poison fills the skies,
When the rich prey on the poor,
When hope for justice dies

When a spell lies o’er the land,
Of malice and of lies,
Then a wild and fearless band
Of women shall arise

Crazy saints, yoginis,
Peering through the gloom,
Maenads and dakinis
Witches grab your brooms!

Sweep away the stench
Sweep away the sneers!
Sweep away the clench
Of hunger and of fears

Dance to feel the passion
Dance to wake the wild,
To honor deep compassion,
For the forest and the child,

Dance to keep the Arctic cool,
To keep the jungle green,
Dance for every holy fool,
For every wound unseen.

Dance for justice, dance for peace
Dance for life to thrive,
May beauty, health and joy increase
For every being alive

Dance in love, dance in wrath,
For chains to fall apart,
Dance to choose a better path,
Dance for strength of heart,

All across the nation,
Bankers quail and glower,
Cracked is the foundation
Of the bastions of power

Strong walls crumble,
Kings face their final hour,
An angry earth shall rumble,
Down shall fall the Tower.

And through its stones shall weave the roots
Of a living tree
That offers us its shining fruits
Of truth and liberty

Fruit to fill each empty hand
With sweet gifts of the earth
Dance to heal this bleeding land —
A new world comes to birth.


© 2008 Starhawk. All rights reserved. Starhawk wrote this piece for the Dance for Life and Regime Change, a Ritual Magic Action scheduled for Halloween night in San Francisco, 2008.

Starhawk's poem seems to me to be a partial answer to a question that Anne's asking:

So here’s the dilemma: any serious reading of the day’s financial news—just pick a day, it doesn’t really matter which—can make the average person feel [haunted with worry about the economy, wary of any conversation for fear of more bad news, eager to do something about the problem]. But when I do that, when I lift my gaze and really study the situation, I become practically incapacitated with fear and am no good for anything, least of all working to improve my financial situation.

Staying lucid in this dream—or nightmare, really—for any length of time is beyond my skill level. I can manage it for a little while, calming myself down from the shock of what is happening long enough to write more, and work more. But this is big and getting worse, and it’s only a matter of time before I slip back into shock about what is going on in the world.

Magically speaking, this is a tremendous opportunity to increase our ability to stay present in both worlds simultaneously. When I get seriously off-center, I have a few tried-and-true ways to re-center myself and carry on. What I would love to hear are all the ways the rest of you have for doing this. Because surely there are some great techniques I don’t know about, and this is the sort of time when we can all use as many good suggestions as possible.

Starhawk's suggestion:

Witches grab your brooms!

Sweep away the stench
Sweep away the sneers!
Sweep away the clench
Of hunger and of fears

Dance to feel the passion
Dance to wake the wild,
To honor deep compassion,
For the forest and the child,

Dance to keep the Arctic cool,
To keep the jungle green,
Dance for every holy fool,
For every wound unseen.

Dance for justice, dance for peace
Dance for life to thrive,
May beauty, health and joy increase
For every being alive

Dance in love, dance in wrath,
For chains to fall apart,
Dance to choose a better path,
Dance for strength of heart,

is a good one. We're witches. The times call out for magical action. Take some. Do magic for yourself and do magic for your world. I feel better every time that I do.

At times when we seem, as, Goddess knows, we do now, at an uncertain crossroads, I tend to invoke -- no surprise! -- my patron Goddess, the three-headed Goddess of the crossroads, Hecate. (Here's a really fun site that's, at least nominally, devoted to her.) She reminds me that liminal times carry as much opportunity as danger, and occasionally, she lifts a finger and points down one road or another.

I also follow Wendell Berry's good advice for times such as these:

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry

Part of what's terrifying about the present economic situation is the awareness that we can do all the "right" things (pay off debt, build up savings, set aside emergency supplies, work hard at our jobs, network, take care of health issues now while we have insurance, etc., etc., etc. -- and we definitely should be doing those things) and STILL get caught in the tsunami of layoffs, inflation, etc. That's actually true all the time; our illusions of control are just that: illusions. But the current situation makes us face that fact. As Anne notes, that makes it an excellent time to grow magically, to increase our ability to stay present in both worlds simultaneously.

And so -- you knew that I was going to say this -- I ground.

Grounding is, for me, the first step in the process of remaining present in all worlds. When fear is getting in the way of being present (you know what the Bene Gesserit witches say: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.),I add a step to my grounding. When I've sunk my roots down very deep into Mother Earth, I begin to breathe regularly and with awareness. When I exhale, I send my fear down through my roots into the Mother, where it can be transformed. When I inhale, I pull up peace, stability, clarity. I do that until I can truly say the words of Mary Oliver's wonderful poem:

And, therefore, let the immeasurable come.
Let the unknowable touch the buckle of my spine.
Let the wind turn in the trees,
and the mystery hidden in the dirt

swing through the air.
How could I look at anything in this world
and tremble, and grip my hands over my heart?
What should I fear?

One morning
in the leafy green ocean
the honeycomb of the corn's beautiful body
is sure to be there.

From West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems, by Mary Oliver. Published by Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. Copyright 1997 by Mary Oliver.

And when you feel like that, it's a great time to dance the dance that Starhawk calls for. Last night's full moon, was one of the brightest ever. It's power is only beginning to wane this evening. Ground. Do one practical thing to make yourself safer (put some money in savings, pay a debt, exercise, clean up and clear out junk). Ground. Do one practical thing to make our world better (recycle, take old clothes to a homeless shelter, call your Senator about an important cause, read to a child). Ground. Do some magic to insure prosperity for you and those you love. Ground. And, dance.

Dance to feel the passion
Dance to wake the wild,
To honor deep compassion,
For the forest and the child,

Dance to keep the Arctic cool,
To keep the jungle green,
Dance for every holy fool,
For every wound unseen.

Dance for justice, dance for peace
Dance for life to thrive,
May beauty, health and joy increase
For every being alive

Dance in love, dance in wrath,
For chains to fall apart,
Dance to choose a better path,
Dance for strength of heart!

Picture of Hecate found here.

Blaming The Victim

I've been pondering this article all morning, amazed at the truths it tells and the things that it gets, well, if not wrong, only, at best half right. The point of the NYT story is that average Americans have been sinking deeper and deeper into debt, while the companies that loan them money have been doing very well indeed. And that's an important point that needs to be made.

What intrigues me, though, are the points that the article can't help making, although it does try and elide them. Note that the financial troubles of the woman in the story are, more than anything else, the result of the fact that she needed a hysterectomy and had a burst appendix. In many countries all across the globe, those events wouldn't threaten financial ruin.

But as happens with many debt-laden Americans, an unexpected illness helped push Ms. McLeod over the edge. In January 2006, her doctor told her she needed a hysterectomy. She had health care coverage, but she could no longer work at a second job.

She made matters worse during her recovery, while watching home shopping channels. “Eight weeks in bed by yourself is very dangerous when you have a TV and credit card,” Ms. McLeod said. “QVC was my friend.”

Later that year, Ms. McLeod realized she was in trouble, squeezed by her mortgage and credit card payments, her $350 monthly car bill, rising energy prices and a stagnant salary. She started to sell knickknacks, handbags, clothing and other items on eBay to help cover her heating and food bills. She stopped paying her credit cards so that she could afford her mortgage.

A year ago she was back in the hospital, this time with a burst appendix. Her condition worsened, and she lost the use of one kidney. She spent 19 days in the hospital and six weeks recuperating. Her prescription-drug costs added to her expenses, and by September she could no longer pay her mortgage.

Throughout the article, there's an emphasis upon the woman's responsibility for her own problems. (Ms. McLeod, who is 47, readily admits her money problems are largely of her own making.) She left her husband! She wanted some nice handbags and some jewelry! (NO discussion, at all, of the role that advertising may play in this issue.) There's no discussion about how government-paid-for health care and government programs to force employers to give employees time off from work for health problems could have helped Ms. McLeod. Nor is there any suggestion that perhaps some visiting nurse services (remember visiting nurses? from the 50s and 60s?) could have helped her to focus on other activities during her recuperation. I'm not sure exactly why, but something about this reminds me of how absolutely horrible the waiting area was in the local 24 hour drug store when I had to sit there at 2:00 am a few years ago to fill a prescription for an ear infection on a Saturday morning after a Friday night in the emergency room. And I just kept thinking, though my pain and exhaustion: lots of lost opportunities here. Lots of lost opportunities to foster health and healing and better lives.

Similarly, "rising energy prices and a stagnant salary" are mentioned in passing, as if they were simply facts of life, and not deliberate policy decisions by a Republican-controlled Congress, WH, and court-system (and, since 2006 by completely ineffective Democrats. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, I'm looking at you).

Should Ms. McLeod have done a better job of understanding the terms of her credit (babe, I want a Kelly bag worse than almost anything in the world, but NO handbag is worth 28% interest!)? Sure. One wonders how she graduated from high school without a basic understanding of this concept. (Oh, yeah, that's right. To the extent that high schools even teach consumer math, they generally do so with materials provided by BANKS AND CREDIT CARD COMPANIES!) But Ms. McLeod isn't the problem here. Where's the NYT story where the chairman of Wachovia gives up his stock options and golden parachute while readily admitting that the bank's money problems are largely of his own making?

And, explain to me again, why aren't we in the streets with pitchforks? Well, being told that the problems are our own fault plays a role in keeping people at home and depressed rather than in the streets and angry. And the NYT, where do its interests lie?


Extra bonus points: Count in comments the ways in which the photo is judgemental.

Why He Sounds Especially Incoherent

Gail Collins dispenses rather easily with George Bush's most recent speech on America's in-the-tank economy:

Watching George W. Bush address the New York financial community Friday brought back many memories. Unfortunately, they were about his speech right after Hurricane Katrina, the one when he said: “America will be a stronger place for it.”

“You’ve helped make our country really in many ways the economic envy of the world,” he told the Economic Club of New York.

You could almost see the thought-bubble forming over the audience: Not this week, kiddo.

The president squinched his face and bit his lip and seemed too antsy to stand still. As he searched for the name of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (“the king, uh, the king of Saudi”) and made guy-fun of one of the questioners (“Who picked Gigot?”), you had to wonder what the international financial community makes of a country whose president could show up to talk economics in the middle of a liquidity crisis and kind of flop around the stage as if he was emcee at the Iowa Republican Pig Roast.

We’re really past expecting anything much, but in times of crisis you would like to at least believe your leader has the capacity to pretend he’s in control. Suddenly, I recalled a day long ago when my husband worked for a struggling paper full of worried employees and the publisher walked into the newsroom wearing a gorilla suit.

The country that elected George Bush — sort of — because he seemed like he’d be more fun to have a beer with than Al Gore or John Kerry is really getting its comeuppance. Our credit markets are foundering, and all we’ve got is a guy who looks like he’s ready to kick back and start the weekend.

This is not the first time Bush’s attempts to calm our fears redoubled our nightmares. His first speech after 9/11 — that two-minute job on the Air Force base — was so stilted that the entire country felt like heading for the nearest fallout shelter. After Katrina, of course, it took forever to pry him out of Crawford, and then he more or less read a laundry list of Goods Being Shipped to the Flood Zone and delivered some brief assurances that things would work out.

O.K., so he’s not good at first-day response. Or second. Third can be a problem, too. But this economic crisis has been going on for months, and all the president could come up with sounded as if it had been composed for a Rotary Club and then delivered by a guy who had never read it before. “One thing is certain that Congress will do is waste some of your money,” he said. “So I’ve challenged members of Congress to cut the number of cost of earmarks in half.”

Besides being incoherent, this is a perfect sign of an utterly phony speech. Earmarks are one of those easy-to-attack Congressional weaknesses, and in a perfect world, they would not exist. But they cost approximately two cents in the grand budgetary scheme of things. Saying you’re going to fix the economy or balance the budget by cutting out earmarks is like saying you’re going to end global warming by banning bathroom nightlights.

Bush pointed out — as if the entire economic world didn’t already know — that Congress has already passed an economic incentive package that will send tax rebate checks to more than 130 million households. “A lot of them are a little skeptical about this ‘checks in the mail’ stuff,” he jibed. Jokejoke. Winkwink.

Then, after a run through of “ideas I strongly reject,” Bush finally got around to announcing that he was going to “talk about what we’re for. We’re obviously for sending out over $150 billion into the marketplace in the form of checks that will be reaching the mailboxes by the second week of May.

“We’re for that,” he added.

Once the markets had that really, really clear, Bush felt free to go on to the other things he was for, which very much resembled that laundry list for Katrina (“400 trucks containing 5.4 million Meals Ready to Eat — or M.R.E.’s ... 3.4 million pounds of ice ...”) This time the rundown included a six-month-old F.H.A. refinancing program, and an industry group called Hope Now that offers advice to people with mortgage problems.

And then, finally, the nub of the housing crisis: “Problem we have is, a lot of folks aren’t responding to over a million letters sent out to offer them assistance and mortgage counseling,” the president of the United States told the world.

But wait — more positive news! The secretary of Housing and Urban Development is proposing that lenders supply an easy-to-read summary with mortgage agreements. “You know, these mortgages can be pretty frightening to people. I mean, there’s a lot of tiny print,” the president said.

Really, if he can’t fix the economy, the least he could do is rehearse the speech.



There's a reason that Bush often sounds like a bored husband pretending to discuss his failing marriage with his angry wife while he's really watching the ballgame and playing with his new X-Box.

He didn't really want or intend to do anything for the victims of Katrina. They're poor black people who aren't in "his base" and his base enjoys hating on them and screaming about how they're lazy looters and should just hurry up and die. (His own mother made pretty clear how the Bush family really felt about the victims of Katrina.) So he gave a crappy speech that did about as good a job of convincing anyone of his concern for people in New Orleans as the bored husband's "Mmm Hmms" and "OK, I knows" do of convincing his wife that he's really interested in saving his marriage.

Similarly, he doesn't really want or intend to do anything about the causes of our economic decline. That's because, like the husband whose refusal to get a job and determination to never do any housework are the root cause of the problems in his marriage, Bush's tax policies, unfunded Iraq war, and full-fleged attack on government regulation are the root causes of our current recession/depression. He's not going to change a damn thing that he's been doing wrong and he's kinda pissed that he has to drag his attention away from the ballgame to even pretend to care.

When pushed to the wall, like many irritated husbands, he blames the victims: Problem we have is, a lot of folks aren’t responding to over a million letters sent out to offer them assistance and mortgage counseling,” the president of the United States told the world, and complains that his wife just doesn't appreciate what he does do: Bush pointed out — as if the entire economic world didn’t already know — that Congress has already passed an economic incentive package that will send tax rebate checks to more than 130 million households. “A lot of them are a little skeptical about this ‘checks in the mail’ stuff,” he jibed. Then, he insists that the problem is really her mother: “One thing is certain that Congress will do is waste some of your money,” he said. “So I’ve challenged members of Congress to cut the number of cost of earmarks in half.”

Besides being incoherent, this is a perfect sign of an utterly phony speech. Earmarks are one of those easy-to-attack Congressional weaknesses, and in a perfect world, they would not exist. But they cost approximately two cents in the grand budgetary scheme of things. Saying you’re going to fix the economy or balance the budget by cutting out earmarks is like saying you’re going to end global warming by banning bathroom nightlights.

It's long past time to throw this bum out.

Such An Obviously Bad Idea

According to the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal, local residents continue to oppose a proposed "bible theme park" to be built with tax dollars and "incentives." However, this comingThursday, the Rutherford County, Tennessee County Commissioners will likely approve the park, despite the fact that:

[m]embers of the grass-roots opposition to the proposed Bible Park USA have compiled a critique of the claims made by the developers of the $175 million to $200 million theme park in the Blackman community.

The 26-page document titled "Questioning the promises: A Bible Park USA analysis" was released Thursday to rebut the claims of developer Armon Bar-Tur and his team.

It has been distributed to all 21 Rutherford County Commissioners — who will have the ultimate say on the park's zoning and financial plan — as well as County Mayor Ernest Burgess, County Attorney Jim Cope and County Finance Director Lisa Nolen.

The document was written by members of the Bible park opposition and edited by Blackman resident Steve Yaeger.

It questions the credibility and transparency of the developer and his team; the attendance projections used for economic analysis; the jobs and wages used for the economic impact analysis; the economic analysis itself, which they say uses inflated numbers; the use of tax-increment financing (a method of using increased tax revenue to pay for the development); and the impact on the quality of life for Blackman residents.

"When forced to reveal details by an increasingly skeptical public, Mr. Bar-Tur used a PR (public relations) firm and surrogates to carefully control public dialog on the matter," the documents states.

The document goes on to say "essential financial details have been highly suspicious or lacking altogether, presented by people who are being paid by Mr. Bar-Tur or directly connected financially to the theme park."

The chance of this thing tuning into a huge clusterfuck for Rutherford County are increasingly high. Just how stupid are the County Commissioners? Have they set aside money to defend the coming First Amendment challenges to this use of tax dollars? Really, are the schools in Rutherford County so well-funded, the roads so well-maintained, the police and firefighters so well-paid that the county has tax money to throw away on a project that clearly violates the First Amendment?

The report says that:

"When you consider the park's narrow appeal (religious vs. recreational) and its location, well off the beaten path of tourism, it's clear that the proposed Bible theme park will not meet the projected attendance totals," the document said.

No kidding. It's unlikely to ever even get built. But that doesn't mean that it won't suck tax dollars away from needed projects.

My New Name For A Blog

What Ericka Said.

It's just another indication of how far we have to go: how free "good liberals" felt to rip Sarah Palin a new one over her child bearing choices. And, trust me, I'd have probably agreed w/ Son and DiL and moved to Ireland if Palin had been elected. There were a million and one policy reasons to want Palin to lose the election. Yet a great way to get yourself blasted on a number of v liberal blogs was to suggest that if Palin wanted to deliver her Downs Syndrome baby in Alaska, that was her choice.

But everyone in America, and I mean everyone, feels free to criticize women for their reproductive choices. Why? It's a way to keep women down and fighting w each other instead of fighting together against patriarchy. The "helicopter moms" can feel superior to the woman who gives birth blackberry-in-hand, and the women who choose not to have children can spend their lives explaining their choice to relatives who think those women are "selfish." Women who breast feed can look down on women who don't, and women who don't have a second child can spend their lives explaining why they "denied" their child a sibling. No matter what reproductive or child-rearing choice a woman makes, someone, somewhere, can criticize her for it. It's interesting how this sort of criticism always seems to focus on the woman, isn't it?

As Ericka notes, the latest target is a woman who gave birth this week to octuplets. I'm a huge advocate of population control and I'd probably go along with measures to remove the "tragedy of the commons effect" of big families that would give a lot of liberals pause. I think that we should, at the least, be doing everything that we can, educationally, socially, etc. to convince people to limit the size of their families. I can almost, in the words of the song, hear the planet groan every time it registers another birth.

But choice means choice. If society and the government can tell me not to have more children when I'm poor or whatever, then they can tell me to have more children than I want if that's what the government -- which we've all seen is way too vulnerable to take-over by Christianists -- decides that it wants to do.

And I refuse to engage in the game of tearing down and criticizing another woman --whatever her religion, politics, financial situation, class, etc. -- for her reproductive choices. I want to support other women, not tear them down. Shawna Carol's lyrics:

"When you look in your sister's eyes,
Praise her, praise her,
For she's been laid down
For centuries, "

ring v true for me. We'd be a lot better off if all the energy devoted to hating on this woman went into changing the pressures that society puts on women to make them believe they're incomplete w/o a baby.

And, requisite disclosure: I love kids. I had one who is, still, 35 years later, the absolute best thing that ever happened to me in a life blessed every day by mystical joy I don't even know how to describe, a great career, financial success, a circle of amazing witches, poetry, art, gardening, tea, and great and good friends. (Perhaps part of my great commitment to choice is the realization that many would have said that, at 17, uneducated, spinning out from a dysfunctional family, poor, I shouldn't have been allowed to bear. Yet Son turned out to be a wonderful, kind, caring man with a sparkling sense of humor. He's a wonderful lawyer who does amazing pro bono work and complex litigation. He got an Ivy League education and married a wonderful woman and lawyer. My reproductive choice was better left to me; how can I say less for any other woman?) Spending time with his son is the absolute high point of every week for me and I've been looking forward all week to taking him to the nature center and library tomorrow. I was at a sister-witch's house on Sunday and playing with her bright three-year-old. When I said that I had to leave to go to work he said, "But I will miss you!" and snuggled up next to me. All week, I've remembered that moment fondly when I was pulling all-nighters at work or slogging through the ice and snow. It's possible, really it is, to, at the same time: love kids, want there to be fewer of them, and support other women in their reproductive choices, even if I wouldn't have made the same choice.

So, What Ericka Said.


Picture by Anne Geddes found here.

A Threat To At Least Half The World's Population

Today's EEI newsletter reports that:

United Nations Head Urges President Bush to Address Climate Change
In his first meeting in the Oval Office since assuming the post of United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon caught President Bush off-guard by pushing for new U.S. policies on climate change, the Financial Times of London reported. In making it one of his top three priorities in his talk with Bush, Ban urged the U.S. to show leadership. The FT quoted a U.N. source as saying: "The president at first was a little surprised, as it was not on the agenda."

In a speech later at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Ban was quoted as saying climate change was "an all-encompassing threat - to health, to food and water supplies, to the coastal cities where nearly half the world's population live. Acting on climate change will be one of my top priorities."

The White House, meanwhile, refuted reports that it was going to reverse itself on climate change and push for a cap-and-trade system, the FT reported. White House spokesman Tony Snow was quoted as saying: "I want to walk you back from the whole carbon cap story . . . The carbon cap stuff is not accurate. What the president has talked about all along is the importance of innovation."
Financial Times of London , Jan. 17.

Heaven forefend that the President of the United States should ever have to think on his feet and deal with something that's not on his pre-approved agenda. He can hardly deal with a topic on which he has been thoroughly briefed. You'd like to think that the leader of the largest, most powerful country on Earth would be ready to discuss "an all-encompassing threat," an issue that threatens the world's "health, food and water supplies, and to the coastal cities where nearly half of the world's populations live." I hope that the new Secretary General is serious and that climate change will indeed be one of his top priorities. I wish that we had a president who felt the same.

Water Wars. Count On It.

More disturbing news from today's EEI newsletter:

India Faces Mounting Power Crisis as Drought Affects Fuel Supply

After New Delhi was affected by blackouts last week, Indian officials are considering ways to boost power supply, the Financial Times of London reported. The Indian government said in a Supreme Court filing that electricity "could not be increased to keep pace with the demand due to various constraints such as environmental considerations and non-availability of coal, gas" and hydro power.

Lack of fuel and water have forced plants to cut back or shut down. Delhi Transco Director of Operations S.R. Sethi was quoted by the FT as saying: "If gas terminals were not shut down, we would have been quite comfortable." The newspaper did not detail the terminals' situations, but it did say that drought has severely reduced water available for hydro power.

P Ramesh, a managing director at infrastructure consultant firm Feedback Ventures, was quoted as saying: "The future is going to be even more bleak. India is not adding adequate capacity to keep pace with demand growth."

New power plants supplying the area are not due to come online until 2010. However, Ramesh said, "electricity shortfall will worsen by 10,000 MW every five years based on present capacity additions." The government told the Supreme Court that due to "overall gas shortage in the country, even the existing gas-based stations within the country are generating only 60 percent of the installed capacity."
Financial Times, Aug. 21.


Drought, which is likely to increase as global climate change proceeds apace, will only make this situation worse.

India and China may be the canaries in the global mine when it comes to observing the effects of global climate change. Both have huge populations and appear to be getting hit pretty hard with water shortages already. Both will need to find a way to feed and water their populations in order to mainatina internal stability. Both have nuclear bombs. I'm just saying.

Investing in a Carbon-Constrained World

Global warming could melt your portfolio

Fortune reports that, "Long-term investors, take heed: Global warming will have a significant impact on the financial performance of companies in your portfolio.

Some companies -- General Electric, DuPont, Cinergy, American Electric Power, BP, Toyota and Honda -- are seriously grappling with the risks and opportunities posed by climate change. They will be better prepared as governments and shareholders focus on the issue.

Many others -- ExxonMobil, Dominion Power, Sempra Energy, Nissan, BMW and Volkswagen -- have been slow to address climate change, and they could put their owners at financial risk."

Fortune further notes that, "The risks posed by global warming aren't only regulatory. There's compelling evidence that world temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting and storms are becoming more fierce. Food, fishing and forestry businesses could all be affected, the report says.

The cost of natural disasters exceeded $225 billion in 2005, up from the previous record of $118 billion in 2004, according to reinsurance giant Swiss Re. A Swiss Re executive is quoted in the report as saying, "Global warming has accelerated from a problem that might affect our grandchildren, to one that could significantly disturb the social and economic conditions of our lifetime.""

That's $225 billion that didn't go towards finding a cure for HIV or breast cancer. That's $225 billion that didn't go towards putting computers in the homes of those on the wrong side of the digital divide. That's $225 billion that didn't go towards paying off the national debt. There's a cost to doing nothing about global warming -- a point not very often made when Exxon's lobbyists claim that it would ruin our economy to clean up the environment. And, while Exxon, Sempra, and BMW reap the profits of global warming, they've managed to externalize the costs, including that $225 billion, to the rest of us.

Additionally, "ExxonMobil was singled out for criticism by Meredith Miller, the assistant state treasurer of Connecticut, because she said the company won't meet with investors to discuss climate change. Last year, nearly 30 percent of ExxonMobil's shareholders supported a shareholder resolution asking the company to disclose its plans for complying with greenhouse gas reductions targets in countries that have adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which regulates emissions.

ExxonMobil . . . opposed the shareholder resolution as
unnecessary . . . ."

The report comes from, and I love this, a group called Ceres; Ceres was the Roman version of Demeter, the Goddess of agriculture and grain. Have you checked your 401k lately? How well-positioned are you to invest in a carbon-constrained world? I'm thinking seriously this year about both thriving and fear. How do we thrive in such a challenging world? Is such a thing even possible? Can investing in companies that take global warming seriously help us to thrive?

Why I Care About Biofuels (And Other Renewables)

Financial Planning Magazine reports that: "Higher Fuel Prices May Cause Shift to Renewable Power

The prospect of steadily rising prices for fossil fuels is prompting projections of a booming market for renewable power in coming years, Financial Planning magazine reported.

Research firm Clean Edge estimated that wind power will have a $48-billion market in 2014 and in the same year solar power will have a $39-billion market, up from a $16-billion market for all renewables in 2004.

The growth prospects are aided by falling costs for generation from renewables, with the American Solar Energy Society estimating the average price of solar power at $0.20 per kilowatt-hour, a decrease from $0.95 per kilowatt-hour in the 1980s. Ron Pernick of Clean Edge was quoted as saying: "The technology has been developing for 30 years. Some companies are offering more energy efficiency at a lower cost. You see that with solar energy, for example."

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, cleaning up the environment will provide a huge BOOST to the American economy, rather than the drag often predicted with those who have an interest coughoilcough in the status quo. Developing, building, installing, and managing renewable sources of energy will require investment, pay dividends, create jobs, and allow companies to operate more efficiently. It will have difficult-to-quantify positive impacts on health care costs and on quality-of-life in general.

Note the quotation above: "The technology has been developing for 30 years," so costs are falling. Imagine if we'd been SERIOUSLY developing renewable technology for thirty years. I heard a report yesterday on how few American students are studying math, science, and engineering. We need another national project, similar to Kennedy's push to catch up with the Russians in space, that will get American students excited about math, science, and engineering. The push to clean up the environment could do that. As with the space program, we're likely to see unexpected innovations. Now's the time.

Raise My Social Security Taxes

I have a great job and I love it. And I may as well say this on the night of a Full Moon as any other night.

I worked my ass off, teaching all day and preparing for and going to law school all night -- for six really (really!) long years -- to get it, making an insane commute and coming in near the top of my class, interviewing my (again) ass off [you'd think I'd have a smaller one!], landing a great summer job, making assistant editor of law review, and then landing, at an advanced age, in a first year position where, yet again, I worked my ass off for years in order to prove myself. Those were, IMHO, fair trades, and I would gladly, in Teasdale's words, buy it [all over again] and never count the cost. I love the intellectual stimulation of my job, the atmosphere of the firm where I work, the clients for whom I work, the projects that I help to make happen, and the other lawyers with whom I work. I love the calibre of my opponents; maybe some things feel better than besting people who are really, really good at what they do, but I'd be hard pressed to name them on a day when I've fought off the collective strengths of a bunch of (natch) men who are used to winning because they are so good. I love the demands of the courts in front of which I practice and I love getting paid to research, think, and write. It's what I was born to do and I do it, if I say so myself, pretty damn well. You have to be a huge geek to enjoy doing what I do, and yet, there are nights that I drive home completely mainlining the law and can't go to sleep because I am so excited by what I do. It's not something I post much about on this blog, but it's a big part of who I am.

Which is all a long wind-up to my main point, but also crucial to a preliminary point that I want to make. I make, thank the Goddess, a darn good living and I know that. And I appreciate it and I am grateful for it and there were many years when I did more important work and got paid a whole lot less. And I recognize my responsibility to give back, not only through pro bono hours (which I do, every year, and just finished doing for this year), but also through a program of planned giving to political and charitable causes that I select every year. And I don't apologize to anyone for what I make because, see, e.g., paragraph no. 2 above, I worked, and still work, my ass off for it.

Yet, I've learned that the fastest way in the world to start a war in the Pagan community, to make readers angry, and to trigger all kinds of shadow issues is to post about finances. We may say that we don't believe in sacrifice ["Nor do I demand aught of sacrifice, for behold, I am the Mother of all things and My love is poured out upon the earth."], and that matter is not fallen, but talk about prosperity, financial good sense, or living well, and Pagans often respond not to what you've actually said but to what they hear, coming through the shadows of their own issues about money. Which explains, I hope, my long-winded wind-up to what I'm going to say:

I'm through paying Social Security taxes for the year.

As you may know, there's a "cap" on the amount of income subject to the Social Security tax. After you earn $106,800.00, you stop paying Social Security taxes. I passed that point some time ago.

And, yet, what always strikes me is that I've managed to live pretty damn well during the months that I do pay Social Security taxes. I don't have any debts other than my mortgage. My 401k is fully funded. I've put money into savings. I've paid off my 30-year mortgage at a 15-year rate. I have a house-cleaning service that does most of my housework, a lawn service that seeds and mows my lawn, a Landscape Guy who helps me with my garden, and I shop at Whole Foods and Balducci's as often as not. I get a weekly massage and I head to Georgetown once a month to get highlights from the guy who used to do them for a lovely French actress. And then I go out for oysters & martinis. I can afford to take G/Son to the toy store or the Ren Faire and I can rent all the movies on Netflix that he wants to see. I've spent a lot of money on my garden which, although it is probably an investment in the value of my property, is mostly for my own enjoyment. I've given money to causes that I like and I've helped to make sure G/Son gets the kind of education, organic produce, and sports programs that I wish all children could get. When things come up, be they the need for a new hot water heater or the desire to send money to friends protesting in Wisconsin, I'm able to cover them without really missing a beat. (To be fair, there are things I don't spend money on. I own an 8-year-old, modest, hybrid car and I haven't been on a vacation in a years. I live in a tiny cottage. I have neither a flat-screen tv nor cable and I can go all week without turning on any lights unless I have company. I don't spend a lot on clothes and I don't go out much except for the occasional ballet.) Bottom line, I could pay more taxes and not be miserable, as could all the people who make even more than I do.

And you know, I could go on living pretty well even if I had to pay Social Security tax until August, or October, or even December. Which is my point (and, see, I did have one). I wouldn't work any less intensely or "innovate" any less (seriously, at this level, more money is v. nice, but beating the opposition will keep me from "going Galt," for many, many hours), or be any less interested in making more money (seriously, Moon in Taurus, what more can I say?) if I did have to keep paying Social Security tax.

I don't fancy myself an investment genius. I pay once a year for some professional investment advice and, as soon as I'm through paying the Social Security tax, the delta goes into saving for my retirement, and the difference is that, at least for the time being, that delta benefits my financial advisor and the investment community rather than some old person who needs medicine and rent and would like to buy hir G/Son a new book, or some music lessons, or a pair of soft cotton pajamas. And, the difference is that the money I invest for my retirement can disappear tomorrow in another market meltdown.

And, so I say: "Raise the cap. Keep on taxing me." I make a good living and I worked hard for it and I'd be proud to be able to pay more Social Security taxes now than, say, some school teacher who may not make all year what I've made from January until now. I can afford it and still live a v nice life. I'd rather pay it than see old people live out their last years (I'm going to be there soon), worrying about bills, scrimping all the time, unable to enjoy their retirement. What's happened to America that we want to make old people suffer so that Paris Hilton, or an investment banker, or Hecate Demetersdatter, who already have quite a lot, can get even more? We used to be better than that. We used to believe E pluribus unum; we used to believe that those who've benefitted from the investment of the many into America (and I went to public schools and a state law school, drove on public roads to and from law school, benefitted from the existence of federal agencies and courts, and benefitted in other unnamed ways from the investment of many Americans in America), should give back to America; we used to believe that "United We Stand; Divided, We Fall."

I still do.

Raise the cap on my Social Security taxes.

Picture found here.

We Get A Lot Of Chances.

What Susie Said About What Melissa Said, but you know what? This is a good thing. It's been too easy for too long for those of us crones who've, bloody but unbowed, achieved some measure of success and financial comfort and respect, and for those of us maidens and mothers who've been able to pretend that the guys OUR age didn't really think like that, to dream that we weren't living inside the patriarchy. We always were. We always were. We always were.

And if this race has done nothing else, it's reminded us that we wake up every morning in a sexist society, that the liberal blogs where we hang out are sexist, that our male colleagues are sexist, that even a lot of our female friends are sexist. One of the dearest people in the whole world to me said recently that, at least with Clinton's defeat, the misogyny of liberal males would go away. And I had to say, "No, it will just go back underground." If we let it. And I'd rather fight it above ground, in the open, with room to manoeuvre and space for sunlight to expose it.

None of us are in this for the short haul. We need to undermine the patriarchy every chance we get. And we get a lot of chances.

My New Name for a Blog

What Gus Said.

Gus' post on abortion is short and incredibly well-reasoned. Please check it out. Here's a taste:

Spiritual literalism degenerates into irrationality.
. . .

By reading sacred texts in a purely logocentric way [fundamentalists] ultimately trap themselves and cut themselves off from all spiritual insight because as Sallustius and Augustine and Ambrose all recognized, they cannot be read that way wisely. When the 'literalists' interpretations are contradicted by historical evidence or scientific discoveries, because they have rejected myth they have no way to incorporate new knowledge into their spiritual understanding, and so new knowledge must be rejected.

I have a pretty much standard reply to people who tell me that we must outlaw abortion because it "kills babies." It goes like this:

First, please get back to me when we feed, house, clothe, give medical care to, and educate the actual babies who are actually born. Until then, abortion is better than exposure or sale into slavery, which is how humanity dealt with unwanted pregnancies for centuries and centuries.

Second, this society "kills babies" every damn day. We kill them with our bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. We kill them because we've made the decision that it's more important for CEOs to get obscene bonuses than it is to make all kinds of companies stop polluting and poisoning the commons. We kill them because we've made the decision that it's too politically costly to stand up to the NRA and impose the regulations that the Second Amendment calls for when it talks about "well-regulated" militias. We kill them because we've made the decision that it's more important for America's wealthiest 2% (and corporations) to bear almost no tax burden than it is to provide the visiting nurse services and mental health care that it would take to stop some poor woman's boyfriend from shaking a six-month-old to death because it was crying. And the people who wail the loudest about how abortion "kills babies" are generally in favor of those other "baby-killing" decisions. So forgive me if I can't believe that they really give a flying frap about "killing babies" and that they actually have other motives deeply related to preserving patriarchy.

Third, anyone who truly wanted to cut down on the number of abortions (which would seem to include anyone who actually thought that abortion "kills babies") wouldn't be in favor of criminalizing abortion. Because criminalizing abortion no more prevents abortions than criminalizing pot possession prevents people from possessing pot. Criminalizing abortion simply pushes it into back alleys, where it not only "kills babies," but also kills women. Anyone who actually wanted to cut down on the number of "babies killed" by abortion would, instead, be doing the things that decades of research show actually do minimize unwanted pregnancies and, therefore, abortions. You know, things like regular and well-funded actual sex education (which would teach that abstinence is a rather-prone-to-failure method of birth control), free, easily-available, safe, and effective birth control. Education for girls. A social safety net, including pre- and post-natal medical care for mothers and children, free and fantastic day care, preschool, and early education, financial support for mothers and kids who need it, parenting education available throughout a child's life, etc. Yet, the people who wail the loudest about "killing babies" generally are actively opposed to each of these things.

So, you know, don't hand me shit and tell me that it's Shinola. I'm not stupid and I can see through that "oh, abortion kills babies" bullshit. Sell crazy someplace else; we're all stocked up here. And the planet's way past its carrying capacity, which kills and is going to continue killing people of all ages.

Picture found here. (And yes, sometimes, a picture DOES speak a thousand words.)

January 20, 2009 May Be Too Late

From today's EEI newsletter:

Climate Change Forging Unusual Unity in European Community

American Prospect Co-Editor Robert Kuttner, in an op-ed published by the Boston Globe, said the normally fractious politics of the European Union have turned into cooperation on the issue of climate change: "European governments have invested heavily in alternative energy technologies, and induced utilities to rely increasingly on renewable sources. This not only cuts greenhouse emissions, but produces a market for new technologies, making such nations as Spain and Germany export leaders in advanced windmills and solar panels."

The European focus on climate change has sharpened this decade for four key reasons, Kuttner noted: The Stern report on the financial costs of climate change; "the failure of French and Dutch voters in 2005 to ratify the proposed new EU constitution (which) left Europe's leaders struggling to find a common project to restore momentum and unity, and they found that in climate change; the assumption of the rotating EU presidency this year by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a former minister of environment; and the Bush administration's earlier unwillingness to accept climate change science, "where Europe has earned the right to lead and to relish its leadership."
Boston Globe, op-ed , June 25.

Thanks to the Bush junta's hatred of science, Spain and Germany have jumped ahead of us as producers of windmills and solar panels and Europe has seized the lead on issues of global climate change. America has been harmed in so many ways by this junta. We need to get rid of them now.

Ozzie And Harriet Don't Live Here Any More

You know, I'm not so sure that the 1950s nuclear family is the best model ever envisioned of how people should live their lives --especially for women. But Harold Myerson, in today's WaPo, notes that the conservatives sure do talk as if that's what they thought. Yet, ever since Regan (divorced father, estranged from his children), they haven't been exactly walking the walk.

Myerson notes that the "decline of the American family" has hit the working class with far more force than it's hit those college-educated hippies: Taking into account all households, married couples with children are twice as likely to be in the top 20 percent of incomes, Harden reported. Their incomes have increased 59 percent over the past 30 years, while households overall have experienced just a 44 percent increase. Then, he keys in on one of the biggest differences between 1950s America and America in the aughts: I don't recall a single episode [of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet] in which the family had to do without because Ozzie had lost his job or missed taking David or Ricky to the doctor for fear he couldn't pay for it. I could add others. For example, it was possible for the entire 1950s family to live on the income of one wage-earner. (Yes, it sucked that women generally were forced to stay at home, but I know lots of families that would like the option for one spouse to stay at home, at least while their children are young. But that's simply not a choice for many modern families.)

Myerson notes that the same conservatives who piss and moan about "the decline of the American family" also cheer the decline of unions, the "globalization" of the economy (aka shipping Ozzie's job to India). [T]he very conservatives who marvel at the efficiency of our new, more mobile economy and extol the "flexibility" of our workforce decry the flexibility of the personal lives of American workers. The right-wing ideologues who have championed outsourcing, offshoring and union-busting, who have celebrated the same changes that have condemned American workers to lives of financial instability, piously lament the decline of family stability that has followed these economic changes as the night the day.


He concludes that: Problem is, disperse a vibrant working-class community in America and you disperse the vibrant working-class family.

Which is how American conservatism became the primary author of the very social disorder that it routinely rails against, and that Republicans have the gall to run against.

The party of family values? Please. If that's the banner that Republicans continue to wave, then they should certainly make Rudy Giuliani, who couldn't bestir himself to attend his son's high school graduation or his daughter's high school plays, their presidential nominee. No candidate could better personify the sham that is Republicans' and conservatives' concern for the American family.

Myserson also concludes that conservatives are "a house divided against themselves." I think he's wrong about that because he fails to grasp how cynical they are. They know what they're doing and they know what results it has. But continuing to beat up on individuals for their personal lives (strangely, those who are less secure about their economic futures tend to be less likely to commit to a marriage -- go figure), helps to shift the blame from conservative economic policies. And, if you can keep people mad at those damn feminists, they're less likely to notice who is really to blame for their lack of pensions and health care.

Christianist Attacks on Democratic Pagans

Jason, at the Wild Hunt, has a disturbing story of a Pagan politician being singled-out for harassment and intimidation by a group of Christianists.

Rita Moran is the Chair of the Kennebec County Democratic Committee in Maine. She runs a local bookstore, Apple Valley Books, that sells Pagan books, including books related to Pagan parenting, a popular topic among Pagans, most of whom converted to Paganism as adults and are now having families that they want to raise in their religion. Moran is also a member of the Immanent Grove, a gnostic circle.

A group that goes by what I consider to be the unAmerican name The Christian Civic League has put up a web page with information about Moran's political postition and her religious beliefs, including the terrifying fact that she sells books for Pagan parents. The Christian Civic League helpfully provides lots of contact informaton, including Moran's address, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. We all know the purpose of that.

Moran reports that: My primary concerns are financial. When this happened, I "zeroed out" the donation total on our county Dems website (http://www.kennebecdems.org). There has not been a single donation since I've been "outed". I'm even more concerned about the loss of business here at our bookshop as Michael Hein's attack turns to even more vicious rumors. I guess what I'd ask from the community is whatever support they can offer. Tranquil energy, book orders, donations to our county committee if you wish to recognize that aspect of my community service. Thanks all..."

I don't have much to add to what Jason said in his post. I just think this story needs to get out. This is an attack not only on Pagans, but on Democrats, as well. It's also, as Jason notes, part of a deliberate campaign to make it impossible to hold office in America if you don't belong to one of the two main Abrahamic cults. Fuck that shit.

Send the Kennebeck Dems some love.

The Witch of "This" Place

Suddenly, the nights are noticeably longer and there are, in fact, leaves falling on the lawn. The CSA is delivering acorn squash, and apples, and mushrooms and I'm thinking of soups. I've been able to turn off the air conditioning and open up the windows. In a few days, the Wheel of the Year will have turned all the way around to Mabon, the second of the three Harvest Feasts. (For the first time in years, I'll be out of town, away from my amazing circle of women, celebrating on my own, due to a court schedule beyond my control. I'm working on a plan to commune with some new nature so that I don't wind up making a sad little altar in my hotel room and feeling (too!) sorry for myself.)

Having three harvests is a pretty neat thing. It goes back, I think, to a time when monoculture was unheard of. If you grow different fruits and vegetables and raise different animals (as any sane people would do unless they lived in an incredibly hostile environment), they mature at different times. And you have different harvests, which come in an almost rolling cascade: radishes and asparagus giving way to too many tomatoes, the tomatoes giving way to too many zucchini, the zucchini giving way to the first autumn squashes and winter greens. In my herb garden, the tarragon is finished and the basil is warning me that if I don't "get around" this weekend to making it into pesto to be frozen in ice cube trays for the winter, I'll be out of luck. One thing about harvests is, when the food is ready to be picked, it's ready to be picked. We have to stop, pay attention, do what the plant requires of us when the plant requires it. That's part of what it means to be "in relationship" with the land.

It's traditional among many Wiccans to view this time of year as a time when we "harvest" other things, as well. If you set goals for yourself last Samhein, and if you've worked on those goals and been blessed with good health and good luck, you may be close to reaping the rewards of your work, whether spiritual, magical, financial, emotional, physical, or educational. And, if you're not, now's a good time to figure out what you can salvage and what happened to get in your way, all in preparation for the final harvest feast of Samhein.

I find it a good time of year, as well, to take stock. What have you got to carry you into the cold and difficult part of the year? What might you need to focus on now, that may have gotten lost in the heat of summer, the long days laboring in the threshing field?

If you consider yourself to be a member of a Nature Religion, I'd like to suggest that one of the areas you consider is your relationship with Nature. Do you have a relationship with -- not just a vaguely benign feeling for -- your landbase, your local watershed, some particular plants, or animals, or places near to where you live? If so, what can you do to improve that relationship? We Witches say that power follows attention. If not, what can you do to begin to actually live your Nature Religion? We Witches say that power follows attention.

By now, you know that I don't believe that, "Well, but I live in the city," is a good excuse. Most Pagans in America today live in cities. And the landbase of every city in America is crying out for relationship with its humans. You don't have to have a yard. As I've noted before, cities are full of deserted spaces, almost custom made for a Witch's attention and connection. (And devotee of Hers that I am, I can't help but mention that it is in just such deserted, liminal spaces that Hecate often resides.) In Last Child in the Forest: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv writes about the work of Robert Michael Pyle, who described his relationship as a child with "a century-old irrigation channel near his home. The ditch . . . was his 'sanctuary, playground, and sulking walk,' his 'imaginary wilderness, escape hatch, and birthplace as a naturalist.'"

Louv:

"These are the places of initiation, where the borders between ourselves and other creatures break down, where the earth gets under our nails and a sense of play gets under our skin," Pyle writes. These are the "secondhand lands, the hand-me-down-habitats where you have to look hard to find something to love." Richard Mabey, a British writer and naturalist calls such environments, undeveloped and unprotected, the "unofficial countryside." Such habitats are often rich with life and opportunities to learn; in a single decade, Pyle recorded some seventy kinds of butterflies along his ditch.

What "unofficial countryside" is your countryside? The crisp Fall days are perfect for walking around, looking, and listening. Tell me what you find.

Picture found here.

Altar In The Southeast One Day Before Beltane

I knew when I bought this little cottage that I was going to have to change the landscape. But I lived for half a dozen years with the land, talking to her, learning her, entering into relationship with her. About a year ago, I found Landscape Guy, who, while not Pagan, I knew would work with me in the way that I needed. We started the hardscaping and moved on to trees and bulbs and plants.

A few weeks ago, Landscape guy called me and said, "I don't care that you think you need to work this weekend. I've found your altar stone. Meet me at the quarry." I dropped everything and raced there and, amazingly, Landscape Guy was right. A lovely boulder, found in the Shenandoah River Valley, with a corner perfect for offerings. I touched it, and it spoke so clearly to me. There were lots of folks wandering around the quarry that day, and Landscape Guy said, "If you want it, we should go pay for it now. It may not be here too long." So, I wrote a three-figure check for a rock, although no one can ever "own" a stone like this. (I've done dumber financial things, trust me, so I hardly batted an eye.)

We've been on and off since then about schedules and the weather, but, in the end, Landscape Guy was able to get a crew out here today, the day before Beltane. They planted lots of things, including all the black ariseama that Landscape Guy could find, moved bushes around, and pulled out stuff that needed to go. I planted rosemary so it would be in the ground on Beltane night. And, they installed my altar stone. Now, after all these years, the woodland garden in the southeastern corner feels "right."