Brother, Can You Spare Me From Bush's Slime?

My friend Elizabeth, aka maker of the world's best cocktails, pointed out this article in Salon by Sidney Blumenthal. The comparisons between Bush and Herbert Hoover are pretty amazing. And Hoover's "more profitable job selling apples," sounds eerily like Cheney's suggestion that many Americans are now employed selling things (aka their old shit) on eBay. (You may have to click through the ad to get to Blumenthal's article, but it's worth it.) After noting that Bush recently gave yet-another Rose Garden announcement that he won't ever change his policy (whatever the fuck it is) in Iraq, Blumenthal writes that:

"Historians now agree that Hoover did take important steps to deal with the Depression, for example, creating the Home Loan Bank system and the Reconstruction Finance Corp., among other measures. However, it was all too little, too late. He clung desperately to an ideology of social Darwinism masquerading as laissez-faire individualism. And he came to regard change outside the narrow parameters of his vision as evil, threatening the self-reliant American character as he understood it. In the name of ideology, he vetoed public works and unemployment insurance.

Hoover repeatedly expressed his faith that the Depression was ending as though such faith itself were sufficient to restore the economy. On May 1, 1930, he said his policies had "succeeded to a remarkable degree" and "we have now passed the worst." A month later, he declared there was no need for further measures: "The depression is over." Later, after leaving the White House, his illusions persisted. "Many persons left their jobs for the more profitable one of selling apples," he wrote.

Hoover entered office with overwhelming one-party dominance over Congress. In the 71st Congress, the Republicans had a 100-seat majority over the Democrats in the House of Representatives and a 17-seat majority in the Senate. Two years later, in 1930, the Democrats controlled the House by six seats and the Senate was deadlocked.

In 1932, Hoover campaigned against the promise of the New Deal as something that "would destroy the very foundations of our American system." When he heard Hoover's remark, Franklin D. Roosevelt said: "I simply will not let Hoover question my Americanism."

Like Hoover, Bush builds walls of denial as the facts tumble down on his policies. And, like Hoover, who periodically proclaimed prosperity just around the corner, Bush almost daily announces progress in Iraq. Like Hoover, he sustains a Micawber-like optimism that something will turn up in the face of worsening conditions. Hoover's rigid approaches inspired a crisis of confidence. His inviolate integrity fostered greater frustration about him as his honesty turned into sanctimonious armor. He suffered a crisis of credibility because his statements were glaringly at odds with reality. But Hoover was not responsible for creating the Depression. And no one accused him of being a liar. Bush, by contrast, has created his crisis himself.

On the day after Bush made his brave statement in the Rose Garden about "nerve" against "the terrorists," his ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, is reported to have observed that there have been more assassinations by Shiite militia than killings by the Sunni insurgency. Khalilzad also delivered a message to Shiite leaders that President Bush "doesn't want, doesn't support, doesn't accept" the man they had selected to be prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, and demanded that they depose him."

Fundie Xians. Knock It Off. I Am Not Kidding. You're Beginning to Annoy Me. Which is Always a Mistake.

Fucking whiny-ass titty babies. I'm getting really, really tired of these people. And I'm beginning to develop a real understanding for how the ancient Romans must have felt.

Via ABC News: ""The message of 'V for Vendetta' is that Christians are plotting to seize the reins of power," said Don Feder of Vision America."

Butcha are Blanche! Buctcha Are!

"They also called the enormously popular Web site MySpace.com poison for its millions of young users. "It's a pornography hole," said Rebecca Hagelin, of the Heritage Foundation."

Yeah. Goddess forfend young people hook up. Cripes. Would someone please throw these people to the lions?

May the Goddess Guard Him. May He Find His Way To The Summerlands. May His Friends And Family Know Peace

SciFi writer Stanislaw Lem has died.

Well, then WTF are they good for?

Scientiests cannot say whether the males perform a sexual function

I keeeed; I keeeed!

ITMRN -- Impeach The Motherfucker Right Now

My brilliant friend, Elizabeth, who's a fan of Don Savage's sex/relationship advice column, Savage Love, turned me on to this very fun site: ITMFA.

As I am likely the last person on the planet to know, ITMFA stands for: Impeach The Motherfucker Already. Frankly, I'd like a button that says: ITMFY, for Impeach The Motherfucker Yesterday, but, hell, I'd settle for ITMFT, for Impeach the Motherfucker Tomorrow.

Last night I got in a cab and the driver said, "Lady, let me ask you a question. Do you think this country can survive three more years of George Bush?" I could only reply, "Nope." As we used to say in the sixties, "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! George Bush has got to go!" OK, we didn't say it about George Bush back in the sixties, but you know what I mean.

Family Blogging

My amazing daughter-in-law with my wonderful grandson and my brilliant neice, who has a 3.5 GPA this semester!

Kneel Down, Shut Up, and Pray in a Church Closet Somewhere

Via Witchvox, check out this incredibly fun article from BP News -- apparently a publication of the Southern Baptist Convention. Crying about evil Wiccans who insist upon being able to offer prayers at public meetings, BP News pouts that, "Oconee County was one of three South Carolina councils sent threatening letters by ACLU attorneys around that time last year. The leftist organization was emboldened by a recent U.S. Court of Appeals decision which declared that no specific deity could be mentioned in an opening prayer.

In that case, Wiccan “high priestess” Darla Kaye Wynne was offended that a Great Falls, S.C., town council invocation mentioned Jesus. Demanding the tolerance to her religion that she wouldn’t afford to others, Wynne fought the council. And won.

Not only did the ruling force Great Falls council members to censor their religious expression, the “priestess” also extracted nearly $60,000 in attorneys’ fees from the town and its taxpayers. " I love the scare quotes around the term high priestess. I also love the fact that this moron doesn't understand that if the town hadn't fought Ms. Wynne all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case, there's have been no lawyers' fees to recover.

The whiny-ass titty-babies at BP News go on to piss and moan about some local ACLU chapter's leader who, "[w]riting for the left-wing website The Common Voice, . . . penned a shockingly intolerant article titled “A Bullet Memo to the Right.” In it, Cubelo wrote, “To Bob Jones, Pat Robertson, and James Dobson: Kneel down, shut up, and pray in a church closet somewhere. We’ll come and get you when we need a [J]esus jihad.” Oh, man, I wish I'd written that.

But honestly, the logic here is so twisted it's almost impossible to refute it logically. The basic premise is that if xians aren't allowed to shove their religion down everyone else's throat, then the xians are being persecuted. If they have to take turns at public meetings offering prayers with members of other religions, then the xians are being persecuted. If anyone, anywhere breathes, the xians are being persecuted. For a group of people who claim to have such a mighty sky god, they sure are a bunch of mewling, puking, bully-babies.

Nothing I Can Say; It's a Total Eclipse of the Sun

BBC reports that tomorrow's full moon will pass between the Earth and the Sun.

The report notes that, "During the "totality", darkness will fall over the surrounding landscape and the solar atmosphere - or corona, normally hidden from view - is visible. . . . "Solar eclipses are the ultimate astronomical show," said Dr Robert Massey, senior astronomer at the UK's Royal Observatory Greenwich.

"It's up there with the highest-rated television programme. If there is one thing you do to do with astronomy in your lifetime, go and see a solar eclipse.

"I think it's such a special event that you can't help but be moved by it.

"Day turns into night. Suddenly, in place of this brilliant Sun, you have something like a flower opening. You see the corona - the outer atmosphere of the Sun - radiating behind the dark silhouette of the Moon.

"It's indescribable - utterly beautiful. I think it's such a special event that you can't help but be moved by it," he told the BBC News website.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon completely covers the face of the Sun as seen from the Earth's surface. The track of the Moon's shadow across Earth is called the "path of totality".

Skywatchers have been warned against looking directly at the partially eclipsed phases of the event."

Now, you know, any time you have a chance to see the "path of totality," well, you should do it.

Warning, Warning, Danger, Danger, This Does Not Compute

Again from MarketWatch:

"THE FED
FOMC raises rates, signals more to come
Growth should moderate, but inflation still poses a worry
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:22 PM ET Mar 28, 2006


WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Federal Reserve opened the Ben Bernanke era on Tuesday the way it closed Alan Greenspan's: With a quarter-point rate hike.
The Federal Open Market Committee raised its overnight lending rate by a quarter percentage point to 4.75% as expected and left the door open for further rate hikes.
With the unanimous vote, the FOMC has now raised interest rates at 15 straight meetings.

"Some further policy firming may be needed to keep the risks to the attainment of both sustainable economic growth and price stability roughly in balance," the Fed said, repeating language from the January statement.

The FOMC statement acknowledged that temporary factors were boosting the economy in the first quarter. The committee said it expected growth to "moderate to a more sustainable pace."

Higher prices for energy and other commodities have had only a "modest effect on core inflation," the committee said, warning that high rates of resource utilization, along with elevated energy and commodity prices, could have the potential to add to inflationary pressures.

At 4.75%, the federal funds rate is now the highest it's been in five years."

This story and the story about consumer confidence just don't fit in the same universe. If you owe money on, for example, an adjustable rate mortgage or credit cards, your payments are going to go up as a result of today's announcement. "Inflationary pressures" means, for example, that the Fancy Feast cat food I used to be able to buy for fifty cents a can now costs 59 cents a can. I may be crazy, but I can't see how this environment is good for consumers.

Shit.Fuck.Damn.

From MarketWatch: "Judge dismisses some counts against Enron's Skilling, Lay:AP

By Carolyn Pritchard
Last Update: 12:45 PM ET Mar 28, 2006


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed three counts out of 31 against former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling and one count out of seven against company founder Kenneth Lay, the Associated Press reported."

Are These People on Crack?

MarketWatch reports that:

""Despite generally mediocre attitudes, consumers have performed admirably over the past two years, overcoming a variety of obstacles such as surging energy prices, hurricanes, rising interest rates, and now the housing sector 'bust,'" said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital. "In contrast to the prevailing view, we believe that consumer spending will hold up just fine in 2006."

The percentage of consumers who think jobs are plentiful rose to 28.4% from 27.4%, the highest in this expansion. The number who thinks jobs are hard to get also rose slightly, to 20.7% from 20.2%.

The percentage who thinks conditions are "good" rose to 28.3% from 26.4%, the highest since August. The percentage who thinks conditions are "bad" fell to 14.7% from 15.4%.

Despite sagging home sales, the number of consumers who expect to buy a home in the next six months rose to 4%, the highest level since last April."

For the love of Venus, stop buying things on credit. And, BTW, "buying on credit" is what's really meant by "consumers have performed admirably over the past two years, overcoming a variety of obstacles."

More on Why Poetry Matters

For my birthday, Prior Aelred send me a book called Second Simplicity - The Inner Shape of Christianity by Bruno Barnhart. I'm working my way through it slowly; it's fascinating but much of the vocabulary is foreign to me. But I came across the excerpt below and thought, "Yes! Yes! That's exactly right!", so I thought I'd share it.

Barhnart is discussing different techniques, such as silent meditation, for what he calls "going upstream," by which he means the process of achieving "a truly unitive experience, a movement beyond duality into oneness with divine Reality." He says:

"Another way upstream is poetry. Poetic discourse knows the way to the Source that is hidden within words: the path within words to the invisible Word from which they originate. The words of the poem dwell within a bright little aura, a field of energy that participates in the energy that is beginning and end. [He sounds very much like a witch, here!] The poem is an epiphany, a little eucharist of the Word in which the cosmic communion is momentarily realized." OK, eucharist sounds very Xian, as does the capitalized "Word," but if you read "cosmic communion" without assuming that "communion"="eucharist" most witches would easily agree with his point.

Wicca has been described as an ecstatic religion, with rituals -- including poetry, drumming, dancing, and the Great Rite -- designed to induce ecstasy. Ecstasy is, I think, important for its own sake, but also for the reason that Barnhart describes. Ecstasy, which for me often comes from reading poetry, allows one to be aware that one dwells within (and is, in fact, a part of) an aura (I hesitate to call it "little" as Barnhart does), a field of energy that participates in the energy that is beginning and end. It allows one to realize the cosmic communion of everything. Absent that realization, on a cellular level, there's really no point trying to do magic, or read Tarot, or do any of the other things that most people associate with witches. Or, I guess, with any of the things that most people associate with monks.

The Gods Are Bored

Here's a very fun blog that my brilliant friend Renee told me about and that our brilliant friend Angela told Renee about. Enjoy!

Sunday Akhmatova Blogging

Anna Akhmatova - You Thought I Was That Type

You thought I was that type:
That you could forget me,
And that I'd plead and weep
And throw myself under the hooves of a bay mare,

Or that I'd ask the sorcerers
For some magic potion made from roots and send you a terrible gift:
My precious perfumed handkerchief.

Damn you! I will not grant your cursed soul
Vicarious tears or a single glance.

And I swear to you by the garden of the angels,
I swear by the miracle-working icon,
And by the fire and smoke of our nights:
I will never come back to you.

The Kuwait of the North

BBC reports that Iceland has plans to bore into volcanoes and use supercritical water to increase its energy production. Supercritical water is "water that is not simply a mixture of steam and hot water but a single phase which can carry much more energy."

The article notes that, "Engineers on the project have calculated that increasing the temperature by 200 degrees and the pressure by 200 Bar will mean that, for the same flow rate, the energy extracted from such a borehole will go up from 5MW to 50MW. Power station manager Albert Albertsson predicts that, by the end of the century, "Iceland could become the Kuwait of the North", exporting energy in the form of liquid hydrogen as part of a new hydrogen economy."

So, that's great, but here's the part that made me really, really jealous. Describing a lake heated by geothermal energy, Mr. Albertsson says, ""For me, the ideal time to take a dip is in the middle of winter, in the middle of the night, looking up at the stars and the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights."" How wonderful does that sound?

Why Poetry Is Important

Poetry

By Marianne Moore

I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond
all this fiddle.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one
discovers in
it after all, a place for the genuine.
Hands that can grasp, eyes
that can dilate, hair that can rise
if it must, these things are important not because a

high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because
they are
useful. When they become so derivative as to become
unintelligible,
the same thing may be said for all of us, that we
do not admire what
we cannot understand: the bat
holding on upside down or in quest of something to

eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless
wolf under
a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse
that feels a flea, the base-
ball fan, the statistician--
nor is it valid
to discriminate against "business documents and

school-books"; all these phenomena are important. One must make
a distinction
however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the
result is not poetry,
nor till the poets among us can be
"literalists of
the imagination"--above
insolence and triviality and can present

for inspection, "imaginary gardens with real toads in them,"
shall we have
it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand,
the raw material of poetry in
all its rawness and
that which is on the other hand
genuine, you are interested in poetry.

My Friend

My friend
they don't care
if you're an individualist
a leftist a rightist
a shithead or a snake
They will try to exploit you
absorb you confine you
disconnect you isolate you
or kill you.
(Coagulations 68)

by Jayne Cortez

Long Live the Revolution

Emily Dickinson - Revolution is the Pod

Revolution is the Pod
Systems rattle from
When the Winds of Will are stirred
Excellent is Bloom

But except its Russet Base
Every Summer be
The Entomber of itself,
So of Liberty --

Left inactive on the Stalk
All its Purple fled
Revolution shakes it for
Test if it be dead.

Being Thought a Witch Can Be Dangerous

BBC reports that being considered a witch will still get you killed in the 21st Century.

I Expect Shrines at the Crossroads to Follow Directly

Via Witchvox: Good news. Greeks can now worship Greek deities. The Patriarch can bite me.

A Modest Suggestion for a Democratic Congress

Of course, it will never happen in a Republican Congress, or while Joe MBNA Biden draws breath, but I'd love to see a requirement that price tags show not only the purported price of whatever you're buying (be it a DVD, a new sweater, groceries, or a movie ticket), but also the actual price if you buy it with a credit card and then pay only the minimum amount on your card. In other words, two prices: cash and credit. Yeah, different credit cards have different interest rates, but I think a simple average would probably work well enough for my purposes.

My point, of course, is that most people don't understand that they'll pay many multiples of the purported price if they buy something with a credit card. Using credit to buy something that's "on sale" can be a terrible bargain. Yes, there are calculators on the web that will allow you to figure out the actual price of an item bought on credit. But you don't have access to them when you're standing in the store considering a new pair of running shoes or the latest offering from, say, Apple.

Just as, over extreme industry resistance, we've gotten food companies to label their products so consumers can know what's in the food they eat and drug companies to label their products so consumers can know what the side effects are of the drug they're considering buying, we need to make credit card companies label their product (debt) so consumers understand how much debt they're agreeing to buy along with their movie ticket or book or Home Depot purchase.

If the Democrats thought that they had to go along with the recent draconian revisions to the bankruptcy laws (they didn't, but that's another story), they could at least have insisted upon measures such as the one that I'm proposing in order to help consumers. It's not that I'm anti-credit card. I use one for convenience and to acquire airline miles, but I pay it off in full at the end of the month. I'm not even anti-debt. I have a mortgage and I took out some student loans (long since paid off) to go to law school. In both cases, even with the interest payments, those were good investments that I wouldn't have been able to make without borrowing. I simply think that more Americans would live within their means, and be better off for it in the long run, if they understood the true price of buying on credit.

More Ways to Tell If You're a Fundamentalist

I blogged earlier this week about how to tell if you're a fundamentalist.

Jimmy Carter has a pretty good list in his new book, Our Endangered Values, America's Moral Crisis, as well:

"1. [F]undamentalist movements are led by authoritarian males who consider themselves to be superior to others and, within religious groups, have an overwhelming commitment to subjugate women and to dominate their fellow believers.

2. Although fundamentalists usually believe that the past is better than the present, they retain certain self-beneficial aspects of both their historic religious beliefs and of the modern world.

3. Fundamentalists draw clear distinctions between themselves, as true believers, and others, convinced that they are right and that anyone who contradicts them is ignorant and possibly evil.

4. Fundamentalists are militant in fighting against any challenge to their beliefs. They are often angry and sometimes resort to verbal or even physical abuse against those who interfere with the implementation of their agenda.

5. Fundamentalists tend to make their self-definition increasingly narrow and restricted, to isolate themselves, to demagogue emotional issues, and to view change, cooperation, negotiation, and other efforts to resolve differences as signs of weakness."

Spoiler Alert -- Don't Read If You're Going to See V for Vendetta

Ok, I'm going to get flamed for this, but here goes.

Saw V for Vendetta on Monday and thoroughly enjoyed it. I find it really amusing, in an oh-you're-revealing-so-much-more-than-you-realize kind of way that America's right wing, which purports to be all about "freedom" and "democracy", knew instinctively that the movie was aimed at them. I've chuckled at their horror at the notion that a fictional character could be heroic BECAUSE he blew up a building. I don't remember hearing any of them disavow Howard Roark.

But over the past few days, something has started to bother me. Let me say first that I never read the book, so it's possible that the issue that's been tugging at my mind is explained more thoroughly in the book. All I have to go on is what happened in the movie. SPOILER ALERT: I'M ABOUT TO REVEAL MATERIAL FROM THE MOVIE.

In the movie, V saves Evey from rape -- pretty classic hero stuff. He then sweeps her off to a rooftop because he wants someone to witness what he's about to do: blow up a building. It's a normal human reaction, although it certainly places Evey in danger every bit as great as she was in even a few minutes ago when he saved her. The next day, she saves him and then he saves her, bringing her to his hideout. He tells her that she'll have to stay there for a year, until his plan to blow up Parliament has reached fruition. Evey manages to escape, only to get arrested by the fascist police force. V somehow rescues her, but she doesn't know that. She doesn't know it because she's in a jail where she's routinely physically and emotionally tortured.

Turns out, V was her torturer. But, he did it because he loves her. He wants to make her fearless, so he torturers her. In return, she falls in love with him and helps him save the world.

OK, it's fiction. And, maybe the movie had to collapse a lot of stuff into a short time and the book is different. I don't know. But the man who saves a woman from rape only to torture her (in one way or anther), for her own good, is a standard in quite a bit of fiction. And I've never heard that torture makes its victims fearless. PTSD is a much more frequent result of torture than fearlessness. But I will say that, for many women, falling in love with the torturer is a survival technique.

So the whole thing kept reminding me of something and then I finally realized what it reminded me of. It reminded me of Robin Morgan's The Demon Lover. Morgan realized, long before September 11th, that patriarchal society often finds terrorism sexy. As Beverly Miller noted in 1989, Morgan's book "raises questions other authors have avoided: Why are most terrorists men? Why do terrorist acts primarily victimize women and children? What is the relationship of terrorism to the patriarchal state, to the mythic hero, to messianic religion? To the economic and social policies of, among other nations, the United States?" Recently, Morgan has asked, "Is it possible that terrorism attracts so much attention today because men, as well as being its main perpetrators, are also among its victims?" She explained that, " If men are now afraid in daily circumstances, why then the situation must be taken seriously, attention must be paid.

Men of the State-that-is [the Establishment] and men of the State-that-would-be [“rebels” or “terrorists”] share a peculiar intoxication. It permits them to call up armies, attach electrodes to living flesh, justify the invention, testing, and stockpiling of world-destroying weapons; it also permits them to “kneecap” informers with electric drills, purge “incorrect” colleagues by literal crucifixion, and eventually to consider the political reasons for doing these things as secondary or irrelevant, the mere doing them as creative acts. Such men suffer from a lack of ambivalence. " Lack of ambivalence permits V to torture Evey "for her own good."

So, I liked the movie, appreciate the message that sometimes old symbols need to be destroyed, especially when fascists such as George Bush and Karl Rove use them to cloak their evil in order to pretend that they are for "freedom" and "democracy," when precisely the opposite is true. I enjoyed the special effects, Portman's sexy shaved head, and the film's appreciation for the role of the media in allowing religio-corporate fascists to gain control. I'm more than willing to believe that, at the very, very least, our government let September 11th happen on purpose.

But I'll take a pass on being tortured by my lover for my own good. And I'll take a pass on finding men who torture anyone so sexy that I long to kiss their Guy Fawkes' curved plastic lips.

Flame away.

Gee, This Doesn't Surprise Anyone, Does It?

The BBC reports that climate change disproportionately hurts the world's poor. The report discusses a British report that found that, "the cost of rising greenhouse gas emissions will fall predominantly on the poorest people who will be unable to cope. Global warming, it forecasts, threatens to reduce India's farm output by as much as a quarter. And half of the $1bn (£0.58bn) in aid given by rich nations to Bangladesh is at risk as sea levels rise. In Africa, it says the number of people at risk from coastal flooding could rise from one million to 70 million by 2080. It points out that natural disasters already cost donors $6bn annually, says BBC environment correspondent Roger Harrabin, and as 73% are climate-related, this bill is set to soar."

Actually, poor people have very often born the brunt of bad environmental policies. From the poor workers crowded into sooty Victorian London, to poor communities forced to drink polluted water (Erin Brockovich, anyone?), to farm workers exposed to dangerous pesticides, the poor often get an even worse dose of pollution than the rest of us. The Envirnomental Justice movement exposed a number of such unfair situations. Somehow, toxic chemicals are seldom dumped in gated communities.

Can I also say that anything that reduces India's farm output by as much as one fourth is not a good idea politically? Starving farmers sometimes find alternative uses for their pitchforks. India, however, has a nuclear pitchfork. I'm just saying.

Why In The Name of Nimue Is This Even Up For Debate?

BBC News reports that:

Governments, not private firms, must take responsibility for getting water to their people, a new report argues.

"Private companies only invest where they can make a profit, not where there is the greatest need," Peter Hardstaff of the World Development Movement says.

The organisation has launched the report, Pipe Dreams, on the eve of the United Nations' World Water Day.

The Sustainable Development Network, on the other hand, argued last week that free markets improved water services.

The WDM is unconvinced by the conclusions of the Sustainable Development Network, an array of 30 non-governmental organisations.

"Time and again the private sector has failed to deliver the promised investment," Mr Hardstaff, WDM's director of policy, said.

The article also notes, "The report describes sub-Saharan Africa as "the area that needs investment in water services the most".

But it says the private sector has failed to deliver the level of investment it promised in every single case where it has been responsible for extending access to water in the region.

"The private sector is not sufficiently reliable to manage these essential public services. Government must assume its responsibilities," David Boys of Public Services International said."

For the love of the Goddess, we're talking about WATER here! How can anyone imagine for even a moment that it should be privatized? Hello??? California and electricity, anyone? We KNOW what private companies do when they're set free to withhold an essential service with no demand elasticity; they withhold it and exercise their market power. They are perfectly willing, as we saw in California, to let people die.

Oh, and guess what business Enron was entering just before it went kabloom? That's right. Water.

Surprisingly, It Turns Out That Ken Lay Is A Liar

Today's NYT reports what most of us already knew: Ken Lay is a big, fat liar.

I've gotta say, I just love Lay's Colonel Klink defense. These CEOs get obscene, and I mean that in the true sense of the word, salaries on the theory that they're such incredible managers that it's worth it for shareholders to pay them salaries that are many, many multiples of what their average workers get. Yet, when the company literally blows up, they swear they were potted plants, mushrooms, sitting in the dark with no frapping idea what was going on. They'd have fired a mail room clerk who said she didn't have even the vaguest notion that there were drugs being sold in the mail room, but somehow it was ok for them to not know what was going on.

Right.

Sacred Spaces in the Modern (Urban) World - Fourth in a Continuing Series

Sage Woman is a fantastic quarterly -- a reasonable place for anyone interested in feminine spirituality to begin. I'm sorry to see Editor-in Chief Anne Newkirk Niven thinking of migrating away from the U.S. to Columbia, Canada, although I understand the need for parents of young children to get the fuck out of the United States at this point in time. She'll continue to guide Sage Woman from Canada, so no worries on that front. If you don't subscribe to Sage Woman, you can occasionally find it at Borders' bookstores, or at least you used to be able to.

At any rate, this quarter, the theme for Sage Woman is: Simplicity. I am given to understand that there is an entire industry devoted to the Simplicity Movement. You can subscribe to magazines, buy books, watch videos, and attend seminars on Simplicity. I recently bought a large coffee-table book on Gardens for the Not-So-Big House. Or, you could just throw away a lot of useless stuff, focus on your priorities, and spend more time meditating, but that's just me.

There's an interesting article by Diana Partington about "Building Temples for the Goddess," -- the tie-in "Simply Special" is a bit weak, but WTHey -- that focuses on a temple for the Goddess in an Orange County, California office park. It absolutely tickled me. I have to say, I'm of the generation that worshipped the Goddess completely in private. Our homes, our yards, quiet places in parks.

Not too long ago, my wonderful son and brilliant daughter-in-law had to explain to her parents, who are charming, fun people, but Southern Baptists, that I was a witch. My brilliant daughter-in-law's sweet, successful father asked, "Well, they don't worship Satan, do they? They just worship nature, right?" My wonderful son, telling me about this, said, "I told him that was it. I figured I wouldn't get into the Goddess stuff. A Goddess figure would just have been too much." So, you can see why, for us, worship of the Goddess happened in private. So it's with a bit of joy and, I admit, a bit of sadness for what's passing, that I read Partington's article about public spaces, public temples, to the Goddess.

She explains, "Moving through the foyer into the temple proper, I was approached by a Priestess who offered to clear my energy with a simple bell ceremony. I began my sojourn at a basin of water that invited me to perform a self-blessing. I sprinkled my brow lightly, and then moved clockwise around the room. To my left were nine altars and shelves brimming with goddess images."

After describing an altar to Mary, Partington continues, "As I made my way around the room, a Priestess offered me a bindi for my forehead. I was delighted, as I have long loved this Indian ritual costuming of the third eye and believe it awakens a sense of beauty. Gazing at the women gathering for the service I had come to attend, I witnessed the bindi's effect on all of them: an opening of sensuousness, backs straightened, eyes laughing. There was magic afoot."

She concludes with a description of the temple's grotto: "Inside the curtained cocoon is a forest wilderness in miniature, with just enough room for a woman to perch on a wide wooden stump next to a euphonious fountain, featuring healing waters from the grottos at Lourdes and the Chalice Well at Glastonbury. Bark and vines, soft twinkling lights, the golden imprints of fairies and dragonflies covered the walls. Overall, I was amazed and delighted; the temple was a genuine realization of communal sacred space." And, here's how times have changed. The temple's web site lists the priestess' cell phone. No more need to hide behind names like "Lady Unique Inclination of the Night" for this generation of Goddess worshippers!

Sacred spaces are all over and they are, increasingly, springing up in urban spaces. Not surprising, as that's where most pagans live. Would you visit a Goddess temple? Would you visit one in an office park? Have you ever been given a bindi? What makes you feel a sense of beauty? What opens your sensuousness? When was the last time that happened?

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?

Clean Air Is Good for You -- Who'da Thunk?

The NYTimes reports that decreases in air pollution correlate directly with fewer deaths from a variety of causes. I think this article helps to make a point I like to hammer on. Cleaning up our environment isn't just the right thing to do for moral reasons. It's also good for our economy. Fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease, for example, means lower health care costs for employers and the government. It means increased productivity from those who would have, but didn't, get sick. The nonsense that you hear claiming that we can't afford to clean up pollution is simply not true. Would it be bad for certain sectors of our economy coughoil/coal/Detroitcough? Probably. But it would be good for our overall economy.

"Any" Means "Any"

From today's EEI newsletter:

Electricity Daily Analyzes Court's Decision on NSR Case

In an analysis published in today's Electricity Daily, the newsletter dissects the recent court decision to overturn the EPA's regulation on New Source Review (DEN, March 20, D.C. Appeals Court Panel Overturns New Source Review Rule).

Electricity Daily noted the decision "was written by Judge Judith W. Rogers, a Clinton appointee, and agreed to by Judges David Tatel, also a Clinton pick, and Janice Rogers Brown, a recent and controversial George W. Bush choice for the appellate court." Rogers was quoted as saying: "There is no reason the usual tools of statutory construction should not apply and hence no reason why 'any' should not mean 'any.' Indeed, EPA's interpretation would produce a 'strange' if not an 'indeterminate' result: a law intended to limit increases in air pollution would allow sources operating below applicable emission limits to increase significantly the pollution they emit without government review."

The newsletter said the court backed the arguments advanced by New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer "and a bevy of other attorneys general in the region" in opposition to a "bunch of AGs from coal states," concluding that the specificity of the Clean Air Act "is unequivocal."

Wrote the newsletter: "The act describes a modification as 'any physical change in, or change in the method of operation of, a stationary source which increases the amount of any air pollutant emitted by such source or which results in the emission of any air pollutant not previously emitted.'"

Electric Reliability Coordinating Council spokesman Scott Segal called the decision "disappointing." He was quoted as saying: "In light of the consistent actions taken in other federal circuit courts of appeal regarding the actual NSR enforcement cases, it appears that the NSR enforcement actions filed back in the late 1990s are on no firmer legal ground today than they were before NSR II was decided."

Electricity Daily, March 21.

Yahweh Without War?

Have you ever been to Omega? Omega is interesting; it's a "center for holistic studies." Located on a gorgeous site in the southern Hudson Valley, they can be so "crunch-granola, new agey, touchy-feely" that you want to smack them. But they also, year-in and year-out, run some truly interesting courses by some of the most interesting teachers.

This year, in addition to the boatload of yoga courses they've had for the past few years (ever since yoga got to be the hot new thing), they've got Cindy Sheehan, inter alia, teaching a course called "God Without War." Now, by "God", it's clear they mean Yahweh, because all the teachers are either Xian or Jewish, but let's put that to one side. The course looks interesting. It invites participants to "seek to answer this question: How can a vision of God help us create a world of love instead of hate, and a culture of peace instead of war?"

"Through stimulating discussion, reflection, prayer, and meditation, we explore the spiritual foundations of peace and justice, the current polarization in America and the world, and religious roots of our current conflict in Iraq, what belief in a God of love actually means, and actions we can each take to practice what we preach in our efforts to create a more peaceful world."

Go, Cindy!

Top Ten Signs You May Be a Fundie Whack-Job

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian


10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!

6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."


3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.

2 - You think sex is evil, even though your god made it pleasurable.

1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian

What Part of that Loud Buzzing Alarm and Flashing Red Light Do They Not Understand?

Abundance and diversity continue to decline all over our planet. Oh, look! Britney may be pregnant again!

People! Please! Wake the fuck up!

Seeds!

Spent yesterday making little pots out of newspaper strips. Then, this morning, I filled them with potting soil and -- my favorite part -- planted seeds. I planted almost fifty black hollyhocks with seeds I harvested last summer. Thirty dill plants, thirty mint plants, and lots of wormwood seed (too tiny to count). Also, several moonflowers and lots and lots of Bowles Black violas. Slipped them under the bright lights and, now, the magic happens.

More Sunday Akhmatova Blogging

"Why Is This Century Worse..."

1919

Why is this century worse than those others?
Maybe, because, in sadness and alarm,
It only touched the blackest of the ulcers,
But couldn't heal it in its span of time.

Else, in the West, the earthly sun endows
The roofs of cities with the morning light,
But, here, the White already marks a house,
And calls for crows, and the crows fly.


Translated by Yevgeny Bonver, August, 2000
Edited by Dmitry Karshtedt, February, 2001

Sean Patrick's Natal Chart from Astrodeinst

Introduction

The report was generated with the following birth data: male, born on 17 March 2006 at 4:52 pm in Binghamton, New York.

Your sun sign is Pisces. This is the sign in which the Sun is in your birth chart. Your Ascendant, the rising sign, is in Virgo, and your Moon is in Libra.


Virgo Rising

You may be somewhat shy and not very self-assertive toward others. In fact you are a soft- spoken, neat and orderly person who is quite likable. Your only real problem may come from the fact that you are a perfectionist, and you may demand that others live up to the same high standards that you set for yourself. You are quick to point out people's flaws to them, but you should learn to be a bit more tactful.

You are quite practical, and you do not like to waste time on impractical schemes. But in making objects of one sort or another, you have excellent taste, although very reserved, and you like everything to be both graceful and practical.

You believe in work, and you feel best when you are involved in some project. This attitude will intensify as you get older.

Sun in Pisces

You are a very sensitive and emotional person who quickly picks up moods and emotions from other people and makes them part of your own. This trait makes it very easy for others to hurt your feelings. Because you have the ability to put yourself in someone else's place, you have an exceptional understanding of other people's needs. Whenever possible, you try to help others, because it makes you feel good about yourself.

Very often you like to go into your own private fantasy world and think about ideas that mean something only to you. Just don't spend so much time there that you lose track of what is happening outside in the real world.

You may be somewhat shy, because you feel you have to trust people before you can really open up to them. But even though you are shy, you do need other people, for without them you feel lonely, even in your own private world.

Sun in the Seventh House

You are at your best with another person, either working or just having a good time. You are able to adjust your own needs to someone else's so that together you make a pair that works better than either of you would separately.

You are very social, and you have learned early in life to get along with others. For this reason, you are able to help others patch up an argument, because you see both sides of the controversy.

Some people express another side of the seventh-house Sun. You may really feel like arguing and fighting with others, instead of trying to get along. Don't make a habit of it, because everyone gets tired of fighting eventually.

You should learn to be more independent. Also avoid making compromises that require you to give up something essential just to keep a friend.

Moon in Libra

You like life to be beautiful and prefer not to think about things that aren't pleasant. You are affectionate, warm and friendly, but you may overlook other people's faults that you should keep in mind. You are a peace-loving person and do not like to start fights with others.

You very much like to be with a group of friends so that you can talk and be friendly with everyone. But when there is work to be done you may try to use sweet talk to get out of work or to get someone else to do it. But people will like you anyway, not for the charm you use to get out of trouble, but for your real charms. Really you are a friendly and loving person, and you should try to develop that side of yourself.


Moon in the Second House

You have a strong need for emotional security, which is reflected by the desire to own things. But you should be careful not to attach too much importance to what you own, because you may become selfish and possessive, especially if you feel insecure and afraid.

If you feel very positive and secure, you may be generous and giving, but when you feel rash and impulsive, you tend to waste money or whatever else you have.

In relationships you form strong attachments to other people, which may make you feel possessive of them. If you are willing to run the risk of losing your friends, you will actually find it easier to keep them.

Venus in Aquarius

You are friendly with people but sometimes you find it difficult to form close relationships. You prefer friends who are somehow exciting and different.

You enjoy being popular and you work well with other people in group projects and team efforts. You understand immediately what is good for the group and can adjust your own goals to fit.

Venus in the Fifth House

You enjoy amusements and pleasant times, especially if you don't have to use a lot of physical energy. You like activities in which you can indulge your senses and feel good. As you get older, you will be unusually attracted to potential love partners. If you have artistic ability, this placement can help you express yourself artistically.

Mars in Gemini

Your energies get turned on very rapidly, and you work very quickly. You are inclined to start several projects at once and never finish any of them. If you cannot overcome this basic tendency to dabble shallowly in many activities, you will not master any skill very completely.

On the other hand, you do have a quick mind, which you enjoy using, especially to debate and argue with others in a spirit of friendly disagreement.

Try not to be so impulsive in the way you think. If you make decisions too rapidly, you will often be wrong.

Mars in the Tenth House

You want to get ahead in life, and you will work very hard to get there.

However, while you are still in the learning stage, you should be careful how you treat authority figures. You don't automatically respect all adults, because you have very high standards for others as well as for yourself.

You should probably look for a career in which you can be self-employed or else have a great deal of independent authority. This position of Mars suggests several kinds of jobs, especially those that require a lot of physical energy or hard work.

Mars Conjunct Midheaven

Very early in life, you will develop a firm determination to do everything your own way. You decide upon a course of action quite quickly, and you usually know just what you want to accomplish.

If someone questions your moves, you take it very personally. You must realize that you are more than the sum of your actions and that when someone challenges your decisions, it does not mean they are challenging you personally.

This aspect indicates that when you are older you should choose a career in which you can have a great deal of independence and expend a lot of physical energy.




AstroText Youth - Short Edition
for Sean Patrick (male)
born on 17 March 2006 local time 04:52 pm
in Binghamton, NY (US) U.T. 21:52
75w55, 42n06 sid. time 04:29:39
Planetary positions
planet sign degree house motion
Sun Pisces 27°09'37 07 direct
Moon Libra 29°25'55 02 direct
Mercury Pisces 16°06'37 07 retrograde
Venus Aquarius 10°53'22 05 direct
Mars Gemini 14°41'19 10 direct
Jupiter Scorpio 18°35'31 03 retrograde
Saturn Leo 04°41'27 11 retrograde
Uranus Pisces 11°39'18 06/7 direct
Uranus is technically near the end of house 6 and is interpreted in house 7.
Neptune Aquarius 18°42'17 06 direct
Pluto Sagittarius 26°43'04 04 direct
True Node Aries 04°19'19 07 direct

House positions (Placidus)
Ascendant Virgo 12°20'26
2nd House Libra 06°24'10
3rd House Scorpio 05°34'28
Imum Coeli Sagittarius 09°06'31
5th House Capricorn 13°39'13
6th House Aquarius 15°09'20
Descendant Pisces 12°20'26
8th House Aries 06°24'10
9th House Taurus 05°34'28
Medium Coeli Gemini 09°06'31
11th House Cancer 13°39'13
12th House Leo 15°09'20
Major aspects
Sun Quincunx Moon 2°16
Sun Trine Saturn 7°32
Sun Square Pluto 0°27
Moon Square Saturn 5°16
Moon Sextile Pluto 2°43
Mercury Square Mars 1°25
Mercury Trine Jupiter 2°29
Mercury Conjunction Uranus 4°27
Mercury Opposition Ascendant 3°46
Venus Trine Mars 3°48
Venus Quincunx Ascendant 1°27
Venus Trine Medium Coeli 1°47
Mars Square Uranus 3°02
Mars Trine Neptune 4°01
Mars Square Ascendant 2°21
Mars Conjunction Medium Coeli 5°35
Jupiter Square Neptune 0°07
Saturn Sextile Medium Coeli 4°25
Uranus Opposition Ascendant 0°41
Uranus Square Medium Coeli 2°33
Numbers indicate orb (deviation from the exact aspect angle).

Bite Me, St. Patrick. You, With the Long Hair and the Golden Torque, However . . . .

St. Patrick is no friend of mine. There were never any snakes in Ireland, but the Irish pagans, like pagans almost everywhere, worshipped the snake as a symbol of both spiritual renewal and chthonic wisdom. The story that St. Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland actually tells of his attempts to drive the pagan religion from Ireland.

And yet, I love Celtic culture and celebrate the bit of it that I inherited (although my mother’s family was mostly Swedish and my father’s family were Cockneys who were originally Picts). The Celts, who, in the end, were pushed to the very edge of Europe, the boggy, rocky, windy bits that no one else wanted. Europe’s beautiful losers, they’ve been called. But you know they all had the souls of poets and the Celts honored poets more than any other culture I know. So, for me, April 17th is Celtic Heritage Day. And, I’m happy to drink to that!

National Geographic has a nice article on the Celts this month. Go watch the lovely slide show and listen to the lovely music. Happy Celtic Heritage Day!

Some Countries Have All the Luck - Part the Second

Common Dreams reports that:

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress today. This historic honor, bestowed sparingly on international dignitaries, is a fitting tribute for Africa's first democratically elected female president. But Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is not an anomaly.

The African political landscape is being reshaped by women, generating hope for the future of the continent and raising the bar for democracy worldwide.

Few Americans would guess that the country that leads the world in political gender balance is Rwanda, where women make up half of the members of parliament, a development that started in the mid-1990s. South Africa and Mozambique, also high on the list, are both countries with women composing more than 30 percent of their parliaments. This stands in stark contrast to the United States, where women make up only 15 percent of Congress

Goddess, it's embarassing to be living in a backwards country like the US. The entire article is well-worth a read. (Thanks to Prior Aelred for sending me the article!)

PS Here's a link to the text of President Johnson-Sirleaf's address. Oh, and Cheney and Hastert? Those looks on your faces? Bite me!

It Always Comes Back to Robert Graves

Here. Go read this great interview with Margaret Atwood. She's amazing.

Sacred Spaces in the Modern World -- Third in a Continuing Series

In just about two weeks, the thousands of cherry trees that surround the Tidal Basin at the foot of the Jefferson Memorial reach their peak blooming season. If you’re in, or near, or can get to Washington, D.C., you owe it to your soul to be there. This year marks the 94th year that my lovely city will celebrate the original gift of 3,000 flowering cherry trees from the people of Tokyo to the people of Washington, D.C.

As is true of so many sacred spaces, if you haven’t been, you can’t really understand what it is that makes the cherry blossoms so special. I’ve seen them under a full moon on a night so warm you wanted to find a soft spot and sleep on the blossoms all night long if only for the pleasure of waking up covered by a snow of pink/white petals. I’ve seen them in the snow, on a grey day when I flew back from a several-week long business trip to LA and had the cab driver take me straight from National Air Port to the Tidal Basin. I’ve seen them in the late afternoon, when our case finished early and my colleague and I walked the Tidal Basin -- he in a suit and tie and I in my heels and a suit -- under a perfect blue sky. I’ve seen them on a cold windy day when I met my son and daughter-in-law to take my first long walk after breaking my ankle. And, most often, I’ve seen them very early in the morning, when I get up before the sun and wander among the blossoms while the sun comes up and lovers and families spread their picnic breakfasts of bagels, mimosas, strawberries, and chocolates under the flowering trees.

Early morning is often the least crowded time: just a few joggers, one or two skaters, the breakfast picnicers, and me. But there’s one really good reason to go in the late afternoon. There is one very short half-minute that occurs at just the moment when the temperature stops holding constant and begins to drop, usually just before the sun actually sets. At that moment, the millions of cherry blossoms all give up their fragrance, a fragrance so subtle that, absent such an immense mass of blooms, you’d never notice it. When you realize that you’re smelling cherry blossoms, it’s magic and you have to stop and stand still in order to be that blessed, that privileged, the recipient of the active grace of so much pleasure.

Pat Robertson Calls Muslims Satanic

Good grief. Now, I'm sure in a day or so, he'll say he was quoted out of context or something, but that's just the salve for the mainstream. His rabid base knows that he means every word. Explain to me why a hate-filled lunatic like this, who says things that no one in polite company should countenance, is allowed to influence our national policies? Explain to me why it's ok for him to say that Muslims are satanic, but if anyone suggests that evangelical xians need to reign it in a bit, they're persecuting xians and violating their First Amendment rights? Bush cozies up to this madman every chance he gets and the Democrats are such yellow-bellied pussies that they won't hang this bell around the cat's neck.

I'll take that retirement condo in Bedlam, now, Mr. Jeffers.

I Realize This Will Come as a Shock to You

But the people who ran Enron, Bush's biggest contributor, were blatant liars. In fact, Ken (I Know Nutting!) Lay lied to Wall Street analysts. Just something to think about when Bush proposes that you put your Social Security or health care in the hands of Wall Street.

Gives New Meaning to the Expression "As Above, So Below"

DNA-style double helix found in the cosmos.

Even More Grandson Blogging

Here's what I did the last day that I was 49:


Slept late.

Worked on a brief.

Went to a full moon ritual.

Blogged about my grandson.

Got a new poem that I love from NYMary and Thers.

I'm not sure it could get any better than that.

One Week Old Grandson Blogging

I'm fifty years old as of one minute ago. I've done a lot of things in my fifty years, but the best thing I ever did was be a mom to my wonderful son. The reward is HIS wonderful son, my grandson.

The second fifty years are going to be SO much fun.

Darfur

Center for American Progress Action Fund reports that:

This week, NBC’s Today Show is airing a series of television reports on the ethnic cleansing that continues to occur in the Darfur region. Although news coverage has dwindled, the genocide in Sudan has not, and it is now spreading to endanger the lives of innocent people in neighboring Chad.

NBC journalist Ann Curry pressured network executives to send her to Chad to cover this developing crisis. Watch the videos of her first two reports, Crisis in Chad, Darfur Examined, and Women Terrorized in Darfur, and visit her blog, that includes a photo journal of her trip. Her report has also appeared on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams.

What a Bust

Electricity deregulation certainly benefitted the folks in Houston who pushed for it. Everyone else? Not so much. Thanks, Mr. Hebert. Oh, and thanks Mr. Lott, as well. He was your boy, wasn't he?

"There were all kinds of businessmen down there in their smartest suits waiting, like anyone else, for the chance to go back and talk to their legislators about this bill," said Bunting, whose Senate office door opens into the common waiting room.

"In Delaware, you know, those guys are almost like sports stars, and they were coming up or down to little Dover to talk to their legislators about how important this was," he said.

That star power overwhelmed opposition from the state's public advocate, Patricia Stowell, and the late Robert J. McMahon, the chairman of the Public Service Commission. Both warned that small power users might never see the lower rates that deregulation proponents touted.

As it turned out, competition has not developed for small consumers. Delaware homeowners now face a May 1 increase of 59 percent as electric rates frozen in 1999 rise to the level of the free market created by deregulation.

The General Assembly returns Tuesday after a six-week break with a slew of proposals on the drawing boards to address the big increase, including possible phasing of the increase and re-regulation of electricity sales.

The environment is hostile now, but back in 1999, just about everyone loved the idea of deregulation.

Sekhmet!

Archeologists have been discovering some amazing life-size statues of the Egyptian Goddess, Sekhmet who ruled over both war and healing.

Sunday Akhmatova Blogging

Believe it or not, I've only recently begun to get into Anna Akhmatova's poetry. I suspect that she simply does not translate well and I don't read Russian. There's a new biography of her that I'm dying to dip into, though. Here's a poem of hers that I do like.



Anna Akhmatova - March Elegy

I have enough treasures from the past
to last me longer than I need, or want.
You know as well as I . . . malevolent memory
won't let go of half of them:
a modest church, with its gold cupola
slightly askew; a harsh chorus
of crows; the whistle of a train;
a birch tree haggard in a field
as if it had just been sprung from jail;
a secret midnight conclave
of monumental Bible-oaks;
and a tiny rowboat that comes drifting out
of somebody's dreams, slowly foundering.
Winter has already loitered here,
lightly powdering these fields,
casting an impenetrable haze
that fills the world as far as the horizon.
I used to think that after we are gone
there's nothing, simply nothing at all.
Then who's that wandering by the porch
again and calling us by name?
Whose face is pressed against the frosted pane?
What hand out there is waving like a branch?
By way of reply, in that cobwebbed corner
a sunstruck tatter dances in the mirror.

Leningrad, 1960

We.Told.You.So

You know, to read the recent spate of articles about what a failure electricity deregulation has been, you wouldn't know that, at the time Enron and others were hyping this idea, a lot of people tried to explain that it wouldn't work. The articles always sound as if, gee, golly whiz, who'd a' thunk that deregulating an essential service for which there is an inelastic demand would have been a bad idea? Electrons simply aren't the same sort of commodity that, say, coffee beans or pork bellies or diamonds are. You can't store electrons when they're cheap and then use them when the cost goes up. They have to be produced pretty much in real time with demand, which goes up and down and can be somewhat unpredictable, given that weather can be somewhat unpredictable. Transmission lines can only carry so many electrons at a time and the farther away that you import the electrons from, the more of them that get lost as heat on the transmission lines. People can't do without electrons, nor can they substitute something else for electrons the way that one could, if necessary, substitute tea for coffee. Which is to say that there was a reason they regulated electricity back in 1935 and there's a reason that deregulating it in the 1990s made sense only if your name was Jeff Skilling.