Tuesday, September 30, 2008

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 o¹er 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.
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I was emailed this powerful poem recently by Vicki Noble, and then by the RCGI. Goddess bless Starhawk; how lucky we are to have her moving among us.

President SARAH PALIN

"President Palin."

Try that on for size.

Frankly folks, the phrase makes my eyeballs freeze over.

But maybe you like the ring of it.

If so, vote for John McCain.

McCain, the oldest man ever to run for the presidency, has 1-1/2 feet in the grave already: in addition to his advanced age, he also has skin cancer.

And he refuses to show his med records. Gee -- I wonder why? If he's in such good health, why's he afraid to bounce out proof of it?

Over the last few weeks, the issues of John McCain's age and health have been pushed, with much resistance, back into the heart of the political discussion. Prompted in part by the selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate, the topic crested with the release of a political advertisement calling attention to McCain's history of skin cancer and the need for more information about his medical records.

Cable news stations were too skittish to run the spot, produced by Brave New PAC. CNN refused to air it, Fox's Bill O'Reilly called it shameful, and MSNBC, which initially aired the ad, reversed course and took it off the air.

All of which has come to the anger and befuddlement of Democrats as well as members of the medical community, both of whom ask a very basic question: what more important information is needed to elect a president other than his fitness for office?
MORE>>>>>>>>>>

Monday, September 29, 2008

SNAKES & Fly Swatters IN THE GRASS

Dear US Goddess Followers and Other Pagans,

By pitching it into YAJ* churches, your government is throwing your hard-earned tax money down the sewer drain.

These churches think about us the same way they think about slime on flies. Now, I ask: Why should we fork over one penny of our hard-earned money to people who'd love to whack us with fly swatters?

Also, if you've been reading this blog , you know that many Christian YAJites want even to crush our American democracy. They are panting and slobbering to replace it with rule by King YAJ (see THIS 2007 POST. These dudes go by many names; for starters, Google Dominionists, or Christian Reconstructionists).

I say it's high time we Pagans began demanding our govenment stop showering our tax money on these so-called "religious" whackies.

Actually, as I've been saying for quite some time now, Christianity is primarily a political institution in drag. The article below is just one more clue revealing the political vs. religious nature of YAJ:

CROWN POINT, IN. Defying a federal law that prohibits US clergy from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit, an evangelical Christian minister told his congregation yesterday that voting for Senator Barack Obama would be evidence of "severe moral schizophrenia"

Rev. Ron Johnson told worshipers that the Democratic presidential nominee's positions on abortion and gay partnerships exist "in direct opposition to God's truth as He has revealed it in the scriptures." Johnson showed slides contrasting the candidates' views but stopped short of endorsing Obama's Republican opponent, Senator John McCain.

Johnson and 32 other pastors around the country set out yesterday to break the rules, hoping to generate a legal battle that will prompt federal courts to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship. MORE>>>>>>>>>
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*YAJ is YahwehAllahJehovah, the primitive desert war god followed now by a majority of the world. Most people mistakenly think YAJ is three separate gods, but he's actually only one: the bloody god of Abraham. YAJ is almost nothing but war, blood and violence. He's so violent he even fights with parts of himself (i.e., Allah tries to crush Jehovah and Yahweh and Jehovah works at crushing Allah and [sometimes] Yahweh).
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thnx to topfer for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Shootin' Up THE TOWN on OLD, WILD WALL STREET

Babies, America's in big-time money trouble.

How'd we get here?

In a word, I give you -- tah-dah! ... "de-reg-u-la-tion"!

De-reg-u-la-tion is a fancy Latin word from "reg," meaning "rules," and "de" meaning "to pitch out on the noggin."

So de-reg-u-la-tion means "pitching rules out on their noggins." But the rules for the rich only. The other 95% of us still have to follow *our* rules.

When you hear the word "deregulation," a picture should pop into your brain: tumbling down a sewer drain in a city street gutter, is a steady stream of rubies, diamonds and emeralds.

Glittering, blood reds, sparkling deep blues, hypnotic night greens -- all gone, night-night.

Each one of these jewels are rules that have kept us Americans safe from Rich people who've sucked up so much money they can whomp anyone or anything -- and get away with it scot-free.

It's like we're all playing on a big monopoly board. Ninety-five percent of us have to pay up when we land on the Rich dude's Park Place. But let the Rich dude land on our Marvin Gardens -- and he gets to sail on by without forking over a dime.

The dude who started deregulation was Ronald Reagan. Every morning Ronnie woke up, yawned, brushed his teeth, and then pitched a rule out the window -- a rule that kept the rich and their big companies and corporations from whomping anyone or anything anytime they wanted.

By the time Ron waltzed outa the White House, hardly any Rich-rules were left.

What was left was pitched out over the last eight years by Dubya Bush.

Deregulation also means The Old Wild West, when dudes in black hats rode into town on a regular basis, guns blazing, shot everyone up, and rode off with everyone's money. Oh sure, eventually the towns hired a few sheriffs. But for a long time, the sheriffs were big-time outnumbered by the black hats.

And if the black hats lost that sack of money (maybe they dropped it into the Snake River), they'd just ride back into town and take whatever was left: the last sacks of corn meal, all the peoples' clothes, etcetera.

And that's where we are now, babies. The rich dropped their money in the Snake River, and have come sobbing, saying they need the clothes off our backs.

They say if we don't fork over our clothes, the whole world is going up in flames.

Unfortunately, this time they probably ARE telling the truth.

Like a chain of dominos, our banks could fall. And then, whatever money you had in banks or the stock market would go Poof. Without money, how would you get food, heat or your weekly copy of Newsweek magazine? And if the banks fall, would all that cash you stashed under your mattress even be any good any more?

So the upshot is, I think we need to fork over our clothes. We the American people need to hold our noses, bail out these Big Dorky Dudes, and get it over with.

Not for the Dorky Dudes, but for ourselves. So our way of life, like a house of cards, doesn't fall in on our heads.

But -- and this is a Big But -- after giving them our clothes, we need to rope in the Rich, hog tie them, and jump around on them a little. Bring back all those Rich rules that Reagan and Bush pitched out the window. Toss a few new ones into the mix.

In other words, if and when we get outa this mess, we need to stomp all over de-reg-u-la-tion. Bring back those diamond, ruby and emerald rules that kept us safe from the wild-wolf rich. We need to stuff those wild dogs back into the bottle. Make 'em say "Pretty Please" before they can come out.

Remember too, though, it's our wild-dog rich who've made us all "rich" -- compared to most of the rest of the world, anyway. So we might not want to throw away that bottle we've stuffed 'em into. We do, however, need to teach them how to jump, sit and beg on command.

And we can't ever again let them run around without leashes and muzzles.

My dog Duncan says he approves this message. Arf, arf.
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thnx to Idreamfoot for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

WITCH HUNTER Lays HANDS ON SARAH PALIN

Wanna catch an African witch hunter "blessing" an American Vice Presidential candidate against "witchcraft" in her own church in Alaska?

Take a peek at the clip below.

English is not this dude's strong point. So for your listening pleasure, here's a short pronunciation guide:

churches is "chah-ches"
back is "bok"
kids is "keets"
god is "gawld"
sorcery is "sah-sah-ree
let's all is "ess ah"
Mark is "Mawk"
etcetera



You a Pagan? Wanna save your own skin? Pass this along to anyone planning to vote to make this possible Pagan-persecutor* Vice President of the United States.

This is not being covered by the mainstream media (although gotta hand it to Keith Olbermann; he did a clip on it last night. Way ta go, Keith!).

Go HERE for a list of bloggers blogging on Sarah Palin and witchcraft.
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*Palin of course has not publicly stated she'd condone Pagan persecution.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

USING MONEY TO Light YOUR FIRE

Money: that delicious green stuff -- sweet as perfume -- that snags you the things you want (heat, light and maybe a trip to the zoo on Tuesdays).

But money, kiddies, is in bigtime trouble.

Although money may seem easy to understand, it's not. And whether we like it or not, we need a big, chunky brain to lift us up out of the money mess Dubya the Republican's dumped us into over the last eight years.

Barack Obama has that brain.

John McCain does not.

Barack Obama skated through two of the hardest universities in the world (Harvard, Columbia). His second degree was one of the hardest to get: in law. What's more, at Harvard Obama was top of the heap ("President of Harvard Law Review"; graduated "magna cum laude").

McCain? Well, Johnny didn't really go ta college.

For four measly years, Johnny went to a war-training school ("Annapolis").

There, he quickly sank to the bottom of his class.

Well, not rock bottom. Five students sank lower (McCain graduated 894th out of 899 students).

As for his class on money ("economics"), I don't think Johnny McCain passed that class. Actually, he kinda admits he didn't. John McCain said, and I quote:

"... economics [i.e., your money] is not something I’ve understood as well as I should."

Later, McCain yelped, I didn't say that! [see the video below]. But in the video, a smart TV dude catches him on his lie:



Now I know we Americans like ta think we're all equal. That any of us could run the country.

But really: do you want to a dummy in charge of your money? Done that, been there! Like the Republican John McCain, the Republican George McBush is also a dummy -- and look what his teeny green pea brain has done to your money!

Come on. Like it or not, for many years now, the Dems have been the Smart Party. Like Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy also graduated with honors from Harvard Law School.

We might not like smart people, but smart people can be verrrrry useful. Like when your mom or kiddie, in order to survive, needs someone to cut 'em open and mess around inside their bloody inner organs. You want just any dude off the street doing that? Don't make me laugh!

Smart people are also useful when we're in a mess like now. Your money is in big trouble, folks. Like a pack of playing cards standing in a long, snaky line, all our money places ("financial institutions") are ready to tumble.

The first cards have already fallen (Lehman Bros., AIG). This is serious. Maybe you don't need money, maybe you wanna go live in the woods on roasted squirrel and huckleberries. But me, give me money.

And because I like my money, I'm voting for the man who might be able to help me keep it: Barack Obama.
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thnx to tome213 for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

"I CAN SEE Russia FROM MY HOUSE!"

This is so funny I could play it all day.

It's the recent Saturday Night Live skit with Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin.

This is not the Fixed News clip (which left out all the Palin funny parts -- surprise, surprise). This is the whole kit 'n caboodle:



What's your favorite line? (Mine's "And I can see Russia from my house!")

(To see this on a big screen, go directly to SNL.)

chevy chase: "jOHN mCcAIN hAS lOST hIS mIND!"

One of America's most beloved comedians, Chevy Chase, has publicly agreed this morning with my last post: John McCain, he sez, "has lost his mind":

John McCain's explosions

MCCAIN: NO Control OVER SELF

Maybe it's cuz he was tortured in Vietnam, I dunno, but John McCain has lost all control over himself.

If we wanna wipe ourselves off the face of the earth and get it over with, I say let's all flock out and vote for this poor soul.

I mean, ya gotta feel sorry for the dude.

Let's give him a break and send him to the White House! He'll probably die there (he's almost 80; raise your hand if your grandparents lived past 80). Or develop Alzheimers (Alzheimers dudes lotsa times have uncontrollable tempers -- but no memory loss whatsoever; see THIS ARTICLE).

But think of the thrill it would give him in his few, last days!

2007: Sen. McCain Lost His Temper And “Screamed, ‘F*ck You!’ At Texas Sen. John Cornyn” (R-TX). “Presidential hopeful John McCain - who has been dogged for years by questions about his volcanic temper - erupted in an angry, profanity-laced tirade at a fellow Republican senator, sources told The Post yesterday. In a heated dispute over immigration-law overhaul, McCain screamed, ‘F— you!’ at Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who had been raising concerns about the legislation. ... (Charles Hurt, “Raising McCain,” New York Post, 5/19/07)

SNIP

1999: ... at a GOP meeting last fall, McCain erupted out of the blue at the respected Budget Committee chairman, Pete Domenici, saying, ‘Only an a–hole would put together a budget like this.’ ... (Evan Thomas, et al., “Senator Hothead,” Newsweek, 2/21/00)

SNIP

2000: ‘Are you calling me stupid?’ Sen. Chuck Grassley once inquired during a debate with McCain .... ‘No,’ replied McCain, ‘I’m calling you a f—ing jerk!’"... (Evan Thomas, et al., “Senator Hothead,” Newsweek, 2/21/00)

SNIP

1995: “...McCain was midway through an opening statement at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing when chairman Strom Thurmond asked, ‘Is the senator about through?’.... McCain later confronted Thurmond on the Senate floor. A scuffle ensued, and the two didn’t part friends.” (Harry Jaffe, “Senator Hothead,” The Washingtonian, 2/97)

SNIP

1986: "...Sen. McCain Screamed At And Harassed A Young Republican Volunteer.... McCain had just been elected to the U.S. Senate.... Even so, he was not in a good mood. McCain was yelling at the top of his lungs and poking the chest of a young Republican volunteer who had set up a lectern that was too tall... Hinz said McCain’s treatment of the young campaign worker ... troubled him for years. ‘There were an awful lot of people in the room,’ Hinz recalled. ‘You’d have to stick cotton in your ears not to hear it. He (McCain) was screaming at him, and he was red in the face. ... “Stories Surface On Senator’s Demeanor,” The Arizona Republic, 11/5/99)

For more of this article, go HERE.
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thnx to I Like Being Tragic for the foto of John McCain. Go HERE to see more.

DIRTY OLD MAN TELLS Dirty JOKE

John McCain told this joke to a crowd of Republicans:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."

Although this incident was reported by the Associated Press , many papers refused to print it.

See Salon.com for more.

Why do you think a newspaper would fail to print something like this? Out of good taste? To protect Chelsea? To protect Hillary? To protect Janet Reno? Or to protect John McCain?

Monday, September 15, 2008

DUH-UH!

How could anyone not spot the link?

In all of American history, the only president touting torture is also the one giggliest about a god who, at death, sends his children off into a vast underground torture chamber to be boiled in oil -- for forever.
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thnx to canbalci for the foto; go HERE to see more.

PRAYER TO THE Great MOTHER

Dear Great Goddess,

Please help the world wake up and see something it seems totally blind to: That the earth and everything on it is being scorched by a mindset that has spread like cancer across the planet.

This mindset is "... so ready to denigrate life on earth as to risk its destruction, whether quickly through war or slowly through pollution."

Since the central theme of this mindset IS war, destruction, pain and devastation, people who hold it actually attract war, destruction, pain and devastation -- just as magnets attract metal.

George W. Bush holds this mindset -- the very same held by Osama bin Laden. Bush and bin Laden worship the same deity: the god of Abraham, YahwehAllahJehovah.

For millennia this god has told his followers to kill all who fail to fall on their knees in front of him. The result? 53% of the world now worships him.*

And now, as I see it, this god has gone schizophrenic. After splitting himself in two, he's ordered his two halves to pulverize one another.

And this is exactly what Bush and bin Laden have been working feverishly on: the annihilation of each other (and along with them, of course, the rest of us).

Three days after 9-11, "Bush, standing in the soaring space of the National Cathedral and invoking God, declared his purpose: 'to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil.'"

The god of Bush and bin Laden's says the world is coming to an end. This is why Bush is totally unconcerned about global warming and always has been. It's not man-made -- it's god-made. Nothing we can do about it.

It explains why he's cool as a cuke as the world economy crumbles in his face. God's will. Nothing I can do about it. Ho-hum.

It explains why he did next to nothing about Katrina. God's will -- who am I to stand in the way of what God wants?

Pull out of Iraq? Why? That's where the apocalypse will happen! We can't pull out. On the contrary -- we need to spread ourselves thicker over there. Into Iran, Syria, Israel.

I was holding my breath, dear Mother, until November, when we would sweep this sickness at least out of the White House. Now, in Sarah Palin, Queen of "Spiritual Warfare," I'm seeing the same sickness staring me in the face once again.**

Great Goddess, what do you have in mind for us? Will the world, like New York's Twin Towers, fall in on itself before people finally wake up and see their real problem is the sickness that is YahwehAllahJehovah?

Is that what it's going to take to make people wake up and shake off the sickness? To replace it (if they want religion at all) with the healthy, healing, non-violent, non-hierarchical religions of the Neolithic and early Bronze Age -- religions that centered around you, a Mother Goddess who, like all mothers, wants nothing except for her children be kind to one another?

Great Mother, please at least let the seeds of knowledge about you be sewn before the implosion (if that's what you have in mind). Then when the world picks up the pieces again, it will at least understand Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zeusism and all the rest as the incendiary sicknesses they are, and will shun them like a plague of cancers.

Love, hugs and kisses,
Your Athana
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*World Almanac & Book of Facts, 2004
** See yesterday's post, "Sarah, Mary and Diana Queen of Heaven."

Sunday, September 14, 2008

SARAH, MARY & Diana QUEEN OF HEAVEN

As punched full of donut holes as Sarah Palin and her church are, it might be the best thing that's happened to America in a coon's age.

Finally, Americans might wake up and smell the YAJ-filth rotting in their own backyards. Could be that Americans might even become as terrified of YAJ* as they should be.
Sarah Palin's churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement ... declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949.... The movement is training a young "Joel's Army" to take dominion over the United States and the world.

The Third Wave ... is based on the idea that in the end times ... a group of Christians ... will take ... over the existing church and the world....

SNIP

Sarah Palin's ... association with the Wasilla Assembly of God has continued nearly up to the day she was picked by Senator John McCain as a vice-presidential running mate.

SNIP

Worship includes excessive charismatic manifestations such as hundreds of people falling, 'slain in the spirit,' and congregations laughing, jerking, and shrieking uncontrollably.

SNIP

Worldwide mission efforts of the movement are built around the idea of combating witches, warlocks, and generational curses....

The Third Wave ... is a network of Apostles, many of them grouped around ... the World Prayer Center. This center ... was featured in an article by Jeff Sharlet in Harpers, May 2005, "Soldiers of Christ." [COVERED ON THIS BLOG].

Sharlet was one of the first to write in the secular press about ... the Third Wave as the 'Pentagon for Spiritual Warfare.'

It features computer systems that store the data of communities around the world, mapping out unsaved peoples' groups and spiritual mapping information for spiritual warfare.

SNIP

[At the] 'Operation Ice Castle' in the Himalayas in 1997[, s]everal of their top prophets ... spent weeks in intensive prayer to "confront the Queen of Heaven." This queen is considered by them to be one of the most powerful demons over the earth and is the Great Harlot of Mystery Babylon in Revelation....

Wagner and his group also claim that the Queen of Heaven is Diana, the pagan god of the biblical book Ephesians and the god of Mary veneration in the Roman Catholic Church....

From today's HuffingtonPost.com. Go HERE for more.
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*YAJ is the god YahwehAllahJehovah, really just one god. This god thinks people in all religions but his will go to Hell.
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thnx to horsey gormenghast for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Curled MY HAIR

This video curled my hair, and then twisted my stomach into knots. It shows the war-god YAJ in action.

The Goddess Asherah is mentioned as someone that needs taken down:


Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.

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thnx to Karen Tate for the link to this.

ATHANA'S Recipe FOR First-Time VOTERS

Are you a first-time voter in this presidential election? Confused about who to vote for? Actually, it's really quite simple.

First, pick a party.

In America only two parties stand a snowball's chance of winning the Presidency: the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Any Democratic candidate is mostly going to do what past Democratic presidents have done. Likewise, any Republican candidate is going to do what past Republican presidents did.

So figure out which party makes the most sense to you. And then vote for that party's presidential pick.

Here's how the two parties stack up against each other:

1. HOW THEY SEE THE LESS FORTUNATE:

Democratic Presidents: WE SHOULD HELP THEM.
Republican Presidents: THEY'RE LAZY BUMS.

The only presidents who really fought to help black Americans were two Democrats: John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Franklin Roosevelt -- a Democrat -- also fought for the less fortunate.

When Democrats want to help people, Republicans -- for example Ronald Reagan -- call them names like "Tax and Spend Liberals" -- in order to smear and smash them.


2. HOW THEY SEE PEOPLE WHO DON'T OWN THEIR OWN BUSINESSES ("Workers"):

Democratic Presidents: AS IMPORTANT AS "OWNERS."
Republican Presidents: AS WORTHLESS, GREEDY BUMS.

Democratic presidents work to help Workers. They try to help Workers get together and stand up for themselves when Owners try to hurt them (i.e., the Workers).

Republican presidents usually help Owners screw Workers. They try to help Owners smack down Workers whenever Workers get together to stand up for themselves. This goes for all Workers, whether auto workers, secretaries, lawyers, doctors, teachers, etc.


3. ABOUT GUNS:

Democratic presidents: WANT LAWS ABOUT WHO CAN OWN WHAT KIND.
Republican presidents: GENERALLY DON'T WANT GUN LAWS.


4. ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT

Democratic presidents: WANT TO PROTECT IT.
Republican presidents: WANT TO DESTROY IT.

Democratic presidents think we humans are causing global warming. They want us to stop.

Republican presidents think destroying the environment means more oil, profit, money and riches for them and other Republicans.

At the Republican convention a few weeks ago, the whole crowd chanted "Drill, baby, drill!" They meant drill for oil in places that would destroy the environment forever, and cause the extinction of animal species -- forever.

Sarah Palin thinks that the kazillions of humans burning kazillions of tons of oil, coal and gasoline for decades, has nothing to do with global warming.


5. WHAT'S THE RIGHT WAY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS?

Democratic Presidents: TALK THEM OUT, "DIPLOMACY" FIRST.
Republican Presidents: YOU BOMB PEOPLE.

I give you George W. Bush, who bombed first and then ... well, actually, Dubya never did do any talking, before or after bombing Iraq.

I give you John McCain, who thinks war is a cute joke. In front of TV cameras he sang "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran," to the tune of the fifties love song "Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba, Barbara Ann..."


6. THE ELECTION CAMPAIGNS ...

... Of Democratic Presidents: ... TEND TO BE HONEST.
... Of Republican Presidents: ... CHOCK FULL OF LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING

I know of no dishonesty -- let alone major scandals -- perped by any Democratic presidential candidate on his opponent.

On the other hand, for the past 20 years, every presidential election has had major Republican scams targeting Democratic opponents. On a regular basis Republicans use lying, cheating, and stealing just to smear -- and thereby defeat -- Democrats. These scams are so big and well known that they even have names that everyone remembers to this day: "The Swift Boat ads," "Willy Horton," and "October Surprise."

Go on, Google these phrases. You'll choke under the load of garbage that comes up.


7. ABOUT FEAR:

Democratic presidents AREN'T JAMMED FULL OF FEAR.
Republican presidents ARE JAMMED FULL OF FEAR.

Democrats realize the world is a dangerous place, but they don't let fear cloud their judgment about it. You can see this lack of fear in their bodies; Democratic presidents look loose, calm and fluid: think Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy or Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Republican presidents ARE JAMMED FULL OF FEAR.

You can see this in the stiffness of their bodies. Republican presidents try to get all of us afraid. That way they can bend us to their will.

The bodies of Republican presidents look stiff, unbending, and like they're going to crack. Look at John McCain, Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan. They all look like boards stood upright in a corner.


So, all you first-time voters out there: what kind of person are you?

Are you the kind who thinks everyone less fortunate than you is faking it? If so, you probably belong in the Republican Party.

If not, vote for Obama.

Do you think Owners are royalty and Workers are less imporant people? If so, you belong in the Republican Party. Vote for McCain.

If not, vote for Obama.

Do you think anyone anywhere of any age should be able to walk in anywhere and buy a submachine gun? If so, you belong in the Republican Party. Or should we have laws requiring people to have background checks before they buy a gun? If so, you belong in the Democratic Party.

Vote for Obama.

Do you think there's nothing we can do about global warming and that trashing the environment is no biggie -- who needs all those species, anyway? Who needs the rainforest and the oxygen it provides for we kazillion humans? If this is how you feel, you belong in the Republican Party.

If not, vote for Obama.

Do you think "real men" are John Wayne types who shoot first and talk later? If so, vote for McCain. Or is trying to talk it out first, better? If so, you're a Democrat -- vote for Obama.

Do you think honest people are wimps? Vote for McCain. Would we all live in a better world if all of us were honest? Vote for Obama.

And finally, would someone riddled with fear be best to lead the free world? Then your party is Republican.

Otherwise, vote for Barack Obama.
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thnx to corkaborka77 for the fine foto; go HERE to see more.

FOR THE Love OF COW!

"... When there was a vacancy at the top of the [Alaska] Division of Agriculture, [Sarah Palin] appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship.

"A former real estate agent, Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as one of her qualifications for running the roughly $2 million agency...."

For more, go to today's Boston Globe.
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Thnx to Humedo for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Bringing Back THE GODDESS

Check out this hot, new Goddess book: Walking an Ancient Path: Rebirthing Goddess on Planet Earth.

Walking was written by my friend the Reverend Karen Tate, ordained priestess of the Goddess, California Goddess author, California Goddess radio-show hostess, Goddess sacred-tour leader, and Goddess filmmaker.

One of the things I love about Karen? She focuses on the big picture. Not just "How can I, a Goddess lover, chug by from day to day?" but also "How can the world get back the Goddess it so badly needs?"

So not surprisingly, one metacool thing about Walking an Ancient Path is it tackles the larger picture -- along with the personal stuff.

Here's a taste of my Amazon.com review of the book:

"Tate reminds us that we in the Goddess community have important work to do, and that sometimes looking at the big picture -- for example our aims for changing the world -- can help us move beyond our sometimes-not-so-important personal frustrations.

SNIP

"If I were asked to choose the most powerful aspect of this book I would have to pinpoint the complete openness and emotional honesty Tate offers the reader throughout the text. She relates not only the good times but the bad, the times when she felt like quitting, when she felt alone, lost and abandoned: "While I dreamed of a supportive community valuing sisterhood and brotherhood, all embracing ideals of Goddess Spirituality, in reality I have at times felt lost like Dorothy and her cohorts from the film The Wizard of Oz, maneuvering through that forest of ghoulish trees and flying monkeys...." (p. 246).

"But Tate doesn't leave the reader dangling in the darkness. For every negative experience she also describes her journey up to level ground again. She offers us a wealth of positive responses to all the hurt, anger, frustration and trials she's experienced. Her book is limitlessly and refreshingly positive, uplifting, honest, and straightforward from start to finish....

MORE>>>>

Thursday, September 11, 2008

HATFIELDS & McCains -- er, McCOYS

Sarah Palin: "U tetch ma sistr'n ahm gon' smash yo head in wi' mah shotgun, Trooper Hatfield!"

Remember Sarah Palin? The woman who'd put your 11-year-old daughter in jail if she (your daughter) got an abortion after her father/uncle/brother raped her? Frankly, folks, S. Palin is shot full of YAJ-disease.*

Who'd vote for her (or the dude who put her half a heart-beat away from the Presidency) except a no-nothing ninnie?

Do you want this person a heartbeat away from the Presidency?

No? THEN GET OUT THERE AND DO Something TO ELECT BARACK OBAMA!!! (Blogging doesn't count.)
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YAJ is Yahweh/Allah/Jehovah, who many think are three different gods. Actually, he's one god -- the primitive desert god of Abraham. YAJ-disease is a venomous ailment striking over 50% of our planet -- people who've somehow fallen prey to this deadly "I'm right, you're wrong," so-called religion.
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thnx to djmase for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

SAY Nuh-uh TO SARAH

I know I'm obsessing about this Palin thing, but Palin is so skanky I'm giving myself permission to obsess.

Duncan has been given strict orders not to give me grief about it.

At any rate, if you feel like I do, here's one small thing you can do: Send your screaming outrage to the email address below, (sent to me by my friend Jan; the letter is addressed to women, but I'm sure they'll take screaming-meemies mail from men, too):

Friends, compatriots, fellow-lamenters,

We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed
mere partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce on the part of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate that has a real possibility of becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters. To date, she is against:

o sex education,
o birth control,
o the pro-choice platform,
o environmental protection,
o alternative energy development,
o freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood against her),
o gun control,
o the separation of church and state, and
o polar bears.

To say nothing of her complete lack of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the planet.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice President. Ms. Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for, and that we've so demonstrably benefited from.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly.

Therefore, we invite you to reply here with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command for our nation.

Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and place of residence.

We will post your responses on a blog called "Women Against Sarah Palin," which we intend to publicize as widely as possible. Please send us your reply at your earliest conveniencethe greater the volume of responses we receive, the stronger our message will be.

Thank you for your time and action.

VIVA!

Sincerely,

Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston
New York, NY
womensaynopalin@gmail.com

**PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! If you send this to 20 women in the next hour, you could be blessed with a country that takes your concerns seriously. Stranger things have happened.
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thnx to Duncan for posing for the foto right before my camera batteries gave out, and before the sun disappeared over the horizon.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Give US OUR ENEMIES, PLEASE

NOTEWORTHY: The Religious Freedom Activist Network lists web addresses for hundreds of religious organizations of every stripe, including a couple dozen each for Pagans and Wiccans.

Also listed under each religion: the web addresses of its critics (this part of the site needs work; Pagans for example get only one critic -- Mr. J. Falwell. And we all know there's a whole termitehill-full more where he came from).

The site also offers a cool fifty or more websites devoted to "Government Religion Liberation," ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to Women Against Fundamentalisms and for Equality.

Nice to know we here at RGT aren't the only ones shaking our fists in the face of "religion" trying to swamp out government.

And it's a snappy title, don't you think? "Government Religion Liberation." Kinda reminds me of sixties' marching, demonstrations, and Che Guevara posters hanging everywhere.
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thnx to Guigia1 Luca Guigiani for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Friday, September 05, 2008

Drill, BABY, Drill

Although Sarah Palin is a YAJ-Mama*, that might not be the end of her list of sins. According to Mike Papantonio of GoLeft TV and Air America's Ring of Fire, "... the Republicans' new slogan - 'Drill Baby, Drill' - is music to Exxon's ears, because they've found a new Dick Cheney in Sarah Palin":



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*YAJ is YahwehAllahJehovah, thought by many to be three different gods but actually just one big, fat, feckless war god bent on destroying the earth the way he destroyed almost every other city in the ancient Near East in his holy guide-book to behavior, the BibleKoranTalmud.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Bush Critics GOING TO HELL

The pastor of Republican Vice-Presidential pick Sarah Palin "...preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell...." HuffingtonPost.com
Sign me up, St. Pete. Wherever they go -- that's where I wanna be.

SARAH Courts THE WAR GODS

The war god* Jehovah has thoroughly infected Mrs. Sarah Palin, from her tippy toes right up to her eye balls. Yep, you could say she's got him "under her skin":


Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- AP -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."

In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will." MORE>>>>>

Palin: Is She Subject to Her Husband?

WASHINGTON POST -- "Wives be subject to your husbands, as unto the Lord." So says the Christian scriptures in Ephesians, 5:22. What I would like to know, first of all, is who is going to have the final authority as Vice-President if Sarah Palin is elected, Palin or her husband? MORE>>>>>


Pentecostalism obscured in Palin biography

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- AP -- ...The Rev. Ed Kalnins, senior pastor at Wasilla Assembly of God [the church Palin grew up in] since 1999, once questioned in a sermon whether people who voted for Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election would get into heaven. MORE>>>>>
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*The words "war" or "warrior" appear over 300 times in the Christian Bible. Why would this be the case in a guide-to-right-behavior book? Unless, of course, the idea is to teach that war is "right behavior"?

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

ST. PAUL IN Chaos

Morgaine at The_Goddess has the dirt on the violence exploding at the Republican National Convention -- complete with sources for ongoing video footage.

ANCIENT PRIESTESSES MORE Powerful THAN SUPPOSED

Whenever scholars talk about the low status of ancient Greek women, I always squirm in my seat. Somehow this low-status "fact" has never satisfied me.

I haven't studied Greek history formally, but a lot of what I do know comes from the art, especially the vase painting. (As an undergrad I churned out a 40-page paper on ancient Greek vase painting, which ended in the prof inviting me to join his excavation in Turkey that summer -- an invitation I declined--can't for the life of me remember, now, why I was so foolish).

At any rate, ancient Greek vase painting has its fair share of mighty looking Greek women, and maybe that's the source of my dis-ease. Now today I stumbled across a book by an archaeologist claiming that, contrary to current accepted belief, the status of ancient Greek women was not all that low.

PORTRAIT OF A PRIESTESS: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece, by Joan Breton Connelly, Princeton University Press, 2007, is about

"...a formidable class of women scattered over the Greek world and across a thousand years of history, down to the day in A.D. 393 when the Christian emperor Theodosius banned the polytheistic cults. It is remarkable, in this age of gender studies, that this is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject, especially since, as Connelly persuasively argues, religious office was, exceptionally, an “arena in which Greek women assumed roles equal ... to those of men.” Roman society could make no such boast, nor can ours.

SNIP

"With separation of church and state an inconceivable notion in the world’s first democracy, all priesthoods, including those held by women, were essentially political offices, Connelly maintains.

SNIP

"These aspects of Connelly’s well-documented, meticulously assembled [book] ... contradict what has long been the most broadly accepted vision of the women of ancient Greece, particularly Athens, as dependent, cloistered, invisible and mute, relegated almost exclusively to housekeeping and child rearing ....

"Connelly traces the tenacity of this idea to several sources, including the paradoxically convergent ideologies of Victorian gentlemen scholars and 20th-century feminists and a modern tendency to discount the real-world force of religion....

SNIP

"Connelly can cite more than 150 historical Greek priestesses by name. .... striking images of spirited women, at altars or leading men in procession, many marked as priestesses by the great metal temple key they carry....

SNIP

"In turn, women habituated to religious privilege and influence in the pre-Christian era eagerly lent their expertise and energy to the early church. But with one male god in sole reign in heaven, women’s direct connection with deity became suspect, and they were methodically edged out of formal religious power.

There may be no finer tribute to the potency of the Greek priestess than the discomfort that her position caused the church fathers,” Connelly writes .... Her priestesses may be ancient history, but the consequences of the discomfort they caused endure to this day.
For the complete review, go to the New York Times Book Review.
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thnx to Theoi.com for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Warrior GODDESSES, CONTINUED

Just found this great post on Warrior Goddesses by Medusa over at Medusa Coils: Medusa Coils: Warrior Goddesses?

Looney-TUNE TIMES

The poor Republican party has finally snapped its kadoodle, scuddled its ducks, and checked into the looney bin.

It's nominated a man with one foot in the grave, poor dude, and totally addled in the attic -- a man who thinks the president of Russia is the president of Germany and who doesn't know what the major religion of Iran is. About economics -- the ability to keep money flowing into the national house so's we can all get the things we need -- he admits he knows nothing.

Oh, and let's not forget that temper -- you know -- the one he's shown repeatedly he can't control? Don't we all need a man like this with his finger on The Button?

And then, to show that he's completely dropped his socks in the basement, this darling tapped the sterling person who'll fill his shoes if and when he should die in office -- which isn't unlikely: no one as old as he has ever won a White House first term, and he's a cancer victim -- who knows if and when that'll come barging back?

Anyway, his choice has left conservatives with fear in their eyes, and muttering under their breath things like "bizarre," "totally nuts," and "he's parked its car up the wrong alley." The person he tapped is a former beauty queen almost half his age, who, five days before the November election, will be tried in court on ethics charges.

This poor person, who's been sucked under by YAJ* The Great, seems wound up tighter than a cuckoo clock. You can see it in her face and body and hear it in her tight, mechanical-toned laugh.

This woman has been so brutalized by YAJ that if her own daughter were raped, this woman says she would make her give birth -- even if the birth killed the daughter.1

This poor monstrosity sued George Bush for putting the polar bear on the endangered species list -- said it would prevent her state of Alaska from drilling more oil.2

This pitiful shell has been so damaged by YAJ that she insists American kids must -- by law -- be taught in public schools that it was YahwehAllahJehovah who gave birth to the universe.3

She thinks humans are not the cause of climate change.4 (Any fool knows all weather nasties are spinoffs of the wrath of YAJ.)

This woman needs to be pitied deeply. But a vote for her or the man who selected her might as well be a vote for Mickey, Minnie, Donald or Daffy.

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1. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-3540289-TP8Cs1x&t=1
2. "Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-3540289-TP8Cs1x&t=7
3. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-3540289-TP8Cs1x&t=3
4. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-3540289-TP8Cs1x&t=4
____________________
*YAJ is YahwehAllahJehovah, the god of Abraham. Although many think YAJ is three separate gods, nothing could be further from the truth.
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thnx to #....-Noe-....# for the foto, "Daffy Duck and Me."
Go HERE to see more.