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
__
*World Almanac & Book of Facts, 2004
** See yesterday's post, "Sarah, Mary and Diana Queen of Heaven."

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.

_____________
*YAJ is the god YahwehAllahJehovah, really just one god. This god thinks people in all religions but his will go to Hell.
_______________
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.

__________
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.
______________
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.
_______________
Thnx to Humedo for the foto; go HERE to see more.

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>>>>

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.)
____________________
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.
________________
thnx to djmase for the foto; go HERE to see more.

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.

______
thnx to Duncan for posing for the foto right before my camera batteries gave out, and before the sun disappeared over the horizon.

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.
_____________
thnx to Guigia1 Luca Guigiani for the foto; go HERE to see more.

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":



____________
*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.

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>>>>>
______________
*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"?

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.
_________
thnx to Theoi.com for the foto; go HERE to see more.

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.

______________
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.
_________________________
thnx to #....-Noe-....# for the foto, "Daffy Duck and Me."
Go HERE to see more.

Dancing WITH OM SHANTI (INDIA, HINDUS, KALI AND DURGA)

In this post, I rock and roll for a while with Om Shanti, who says the violence of the goddesses Durga and Kali "should *never* be taken at face value...."*

Om: Whatever you think Durga and Kali's actions might *mean," the fact is, they *are* violent. Although anyone can say their violence does not mean violence, the fact is, on a constant basis, Durga and Kali throw examples of violent behavior on the big silver screen of the Hindu mind.

For every new generation of Hindus, they hustle out their Technicolor lessons in how to do violence.

Do all religions crackle and pop with violent deities? No. In fact, it's my understanding that few do.** So why Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity? What's up with them?

To say as you do that deity violence symbolizes the "destruction of ignorance," begs the question. If I gave any dude off the street a ten-dollar bill to come up with ten *non-violent* ways to symbolize the stamping out of ignorance, he'd tick them off in no time. First on his list would be teachers, reading and schools.

Om, read up on ancient Indian history.*** In my humble opinion the ancient Indus Civilization was one of the most radically awesome in all of human history: not only peaceful and non-violent, but also technologically sophisticated and economically egalitarian (everyone shared the same high quality of life).

But I know of no evidence that this awesome civilization danced with violent goddesses. The Indus Civilization existed before the Indo-Europeans hit India sometime during the second millennium BC, and shoved their patriarchal warrior religion and social hierarchy down the throats of the Indian people.

According to Heather Elgood of the British Museum, the entire Rg Veda holds not one major goddess in it. One of the most visible, however, was Usas, Goddess of the Dawn -- notable mostly because she was raped by her father, the god Dieus.

Om, India and the glorious Indus Civilization figure prominently in my new book, on sale beginning in November or before, Switching to Goddess: Humanity's Ticket to the Future. Be sure to read it and let me know what you think. If you want, you can even pre-order a copy now, by going HERE. Or ask your local librarian to spring for a copy.
________________
*For the rest of Om's comment, see August 19 post, "Fooey on Fighting."
**I welcome info from anyone who can prove me wrong on this.
*** Jane McIntosh's A Peaceful Realm: The Rise and Fall of the Indus Civilization is an excellent source.
____________
thnx to Rajamanohar for the foto of the reconstruction of the Indus Valley Civilization city of Mohenjodaro; go HERE to see more.

God-less TEMPLES: FOR SHAME

In a world stuffed with millions of Goddess-less churches, Geraldine Charles finds it odd that the world's five or six Goddess temples are chided for being god-less. A few snippets from her delicious article:

...the Magdalene figure is still being offered to us as a role model, although in the new, improved version we are now told that as modern Magdalenes we can “marry” the god and bear his child. I’ll pass, thanks....

SNIP

"...Of course, we haven’t even considered reclassifying male deities as demons (see any Old Testament for evidence of this done unto goddess)!

"It should hardly need to be pointed out that a Goddess Temple exists for a reason – in part to redress, in a very small way, thousands of years of complete imbalance, by providing a place where our love of goddess can freely be expressed and celebrated. Why have a token male deity in such a place? Surely that would simply be an afterthought, even an insult...."

For more, go HERE, to Geraldine's provocative online-zine, The Goddess Pages.
______________
thnx to Moo. Just Moo. for the foto. Go HERE to see more.

THE MISS Buffalo Chip CONTEST

"...the joke McCain made at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally encouraging Cindy [his wife] to enter the topless Miss Buffalo Chip contest...." (From Maureen Dowd in the New York Times)

And this is the man who thinks he's qualified to lead the free world -- over half of which is female.

The world can't take four more years of Bush.
____________________
thnx to I Like Being Tragic for the foto of John McCain; go HERE for more.

Radical RELIGION AT THE DNC

Well, 2008 has been the year of the dispossessed for the Democratic Party -- running as it has, a woman and a black man for the presidency both in the same breath.

So why not one more milestone: a pagan delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Denver -- one holding open, public, pagan rituals there?

"Rita Moran describes herself on her Blue Pagans at the DNC [Democrat National Convention] blog as the Chairperson of the Kennebec County [Maine] Democratic Committee, ... attending the Democratic National Convention as an official delegate for the state of Maine.

"Rita, who runs a bookstore in Maine [Apple Valley Books in Winthrop, Maine], was outed and stalked last year by a local conservative Christian organization [Christian Civic League of Maine]. Since then she has dedicated herself to being an open and positive Pagan presence within the Democratic Party.

"She is blogging daily from the Convention, and recently held a public pagan ritual in downtown Denver, where the Convention is being held."

Go HERE to read more.

Truth be known? I find it a bit of a chuckle that it was the radical religious right that helped catapult Pagans onto the national political scene.

You go, Rita! Go, girl!!
_________________
thnx to kennebecdemocrats for the foto of Rita. Go HERE to see more.

YOUR Money & THE GODDESS

Since all the news channels seem to be staging regular shows lately on the topic "Your Money," I thought I too should snap out something on the subject.

So. What does Goddess say about Your Money? Well, one thing is certain: She and YAJ rarely agree on anything. So whatever's he's saying -- She's not.

And since YAJ says the rich suck ("It's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven"), the Goddess must be thinking the rich shine like stars.

Only here's the thing: the Great Mother thinks poverty is so not cool, that if there's even one poor dude trudging around the planet, She can't concentrate on anything. So even if you're rich and She adores you for it, you may not get much of her love and attention -- She's too busy bleeding over that one poor dude.

I mean, what healthy mother loves it when some of her kidlets are rich but others are poor?
_____________
*YAJ is the god Yahweh-Allah-Jehovah. Although most see YAJ as three separate deities, he's really only one, big sorry mess of a dude (British zoologist Richard Dawkins calls him a “… vindictive, bloodthirsty …, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully" ~ Dawkins 2006: 31).
________________
thnx to North Idaho Dad for the foto; go HERE to see more.

A LONG TIME IN Slime

“… in 1700 BC, the [Goddess-centered] Minoans were as technologically advanced as Europeans were in – get this — AD 1700. To me, this is an astounding statement. What it means is, after being beaten to a pulp by father gods, Europe took 3400 years to bounce back onto its feet again — technologically speaking at least.”

~From Swtiching to Goddess: Humanity's Ticket to the Future, coming November 28, 2008 (but you can pre-order it now, at Amazon.com).
_______________
thnx to me, Athana, for this drawing of Minoan bull leapers, which was found by archaeologists on a wall in the ancient palace of Knossos on the island of Crete

A GOOD TIME WAS Not HAD BY ALL

Yesterday a local newscaster announced that an elementary school music teacher was arrested for fondling little girls.

The story took my thoughts wandering down this particular path: there's a whole boatload of ways people have sex such that their partner has no fun whatsoever: Rape comes to mind. Child molestation. Incest. Public exposure. Public indecency.

Then this popped into my mind: The Bible says the only non-sinful sex is procreation sex. Sex for pleasure is a trashy, sordid sin.

And then I wondered: could there be a connection?

Could it be that war-god cultures have sex offenders simply because some dudes can't get aroused unless at least one person in the sex act (their partner) is failing to have a good time? I mean, isn't this exactly what the Bible dictates?

Here's the thing: I don't think people un"blessed" by Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or the other war-god religions do pleasure-absent sex. Take, for example, the Trobriand Islanders of the early 20th century. Making love there was nothing but delicious and delightful -- for everyone involved.

I'm sure I'm not the first to make this Bible/rape connection, but still -- it's an interesting possibility, no?
__________
thnx to Wiley C for the foto; go HERE to see more.

FOOEY ON Fighting

A few days ago, Vicki Noble emailed me about a new film called Durga Rising:

"I am writing to encourage your attention to ... an original documentary film about ... the Indian Warrior Goddess Durga. In a time of unprecedented destruction and corruption on this planet, there is a need for "slaying the demon" of ravenous greed and murderous violence...."

"Durga--somewhat like the Greek Nemesis--is the Goddess who brings the world back into balance, by slaying the patriarchal demon who is destroying the world. Surely after 5000 years, it is time for such a radical rebalancing."

But see, I just don't wanna go there. I want to heal the world through Mother love. Fooey on fighting violence via violence. Call me addle-brained, but I just can't let go of the idea that teaching, and "gentle prodding" will do the trick.*

In my opinion, Durga, Kali, Nemesis and other violent goddesses are simply patriarchal makeovers (i.e., beginning around 6000 years ago, the war gods began taking non-violent goddesses and turning them violent; see comments section of Feb. 21, 2007 post, "Time to Ditch the Dude").

When the brothers in the forest tried to rape the awesome Irish goddess Macha, did She slash back with physical force? Nuh-uh. After tying them one by one to trees, She taught them "right ways" (see Oct. 17 '06 post, "Handling Bad People").
_________________
*Although this won't be as easy as falling off a log. Few of us know the tricks to fighting violence with the weapons of teaching and gentle prodding. This is a skill that needs to be studied, experimented with, and taught -- just as our military has studied, experimented with and taught men and women the art of planned violence.
____________
thnx to ancientartizen for the foto; go HERE to see more of her work.

WALTER ON THE War GODS

"When I anchored the evening news, I kept my opinions to myself. But now, more than ever, I feel I must speak out. That’s because I am deeply disturbed by the dangerous and growing influence of people like Pat Robertson and James Dobson on our nation’s political leaders.

"...I have watched with increasing alarm as Religious Right groups manipulate religion to further their intolerant, political agendas. ... They have gained considerable influence at every level of government...on local school boards, in the Administration, the courts, and in Congress. They have shrewdly twisted the traditional healing role of religion into an intolerant, political platform...."

MORE>>>

WhAcKeD-Out AT WIKI

Just left this on the The First Sex article at Wikipedia:

"I'd like to pass the following warning on to the owners of Wiki, and then I'm going to give up on this article and its virulent male 'contributors.'"

"Early Italian government experiments with electronic democracy demonstrated vividly the ability of bad contributors to drive non-strident non-mentally-ill contributors away—''only the loudest and least sensitive persons were left on the Italian system at its demise''." From the Chronicle of Higher Education."

Is it obvious I had nightmare experiences with trolls living 24/7 under the bridge at this article, just waiting to slash and burn any sane idea laid down on the pages there?

Oh, yeah! Tunsa fun!

On the other hand, maybe some masochistic reader of this blog would like to take a turn going over and duking it out with the darlings there. Morgaine Swann and I have already taken a turn, softened them up a bit.

Maybe if enough of us have a go at them, we can at least get Wiki to institute some kind of policy re: mental illness in contributors.

The worst over there is the dude SesquipedalianVerbiage (altho good old ses has a few aliases to protect the 'innocent').

I waltzed over to the site just now, and discovered that in the last five minutes, good old Ses had deleted a footnote that referenced my statement to Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade. No explanation given -- just Poof! Footnote gone.

That's kinda nice, ya know? Usually good ol' Ses, with one gigantic sweep of his Mighty Mouse, deletes whole passages (all of them scholarly, documented, and some even specifically called for by Wiki administrators).

Remember: ya don't have to (and actually should not) defend The First Sex. You just need to make accurate statements about what Davis wrote in it, and what others have written about book.

ADDENDUM: Just danced over to Wiki's The First Sex article again (five minutes after finishing this post), and-- poof! My quote from the Chronicle of Higher Ed is gone.

Jeezum! Can't believ it took 'em five whole minutes to slash and burn a simple four-paragraph entry!

Sigh. I'll just end with this:

Please, please don't ever trust anything Wikipedia does on women, women's issues, or anything Christians don't like (women, women's issues, homosexuality, Paganism, goddesses, Wicca, who burned down the Library at Alexandria [we all know it was Christians who probably did it, but try to get that one to stick on Wiki!]).

Dear Mama: ... HELP!

I'm just saying -- the world is in big-time need of deities pushing peace.

And what mama doesn't push peace? So it's clear as Windex: we need Mother Earth to promenade up from Her underground hideaway (or, She might have gone to the moon -- in which case She needs to float back down here ASAP).

And when She lands, we need Her to boot Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah, and all the other war gods (China, Russia, and Japan have them too) off to Mars.

Who could argue with this?

I mean, what crackerhead would be dweeby enough to blow this off?
________
thnx to Patrick Q for the foto; go HERE to see more of his work.

GODDESSlessNESS

A few minutes ago, while I was writing the index for Switching to Goddess, this entry just popped out of my pen:

"Dark Ages: Goddesslessness as a cause of"

Never heard nor seen the word "Goddesslessness" before, but it feels useful to me.

Whaddja think? Does the world need this word right now? Is it too racy for a book index?
_________
thnx to windowseat for making this foto open for all to use and see

THAT BOGEYWOMAN Called NATURE

Yesterday Duncan and I wound our way into the old-growth forest behind our house with two friends -- forest I adore, gift from Goddess.

But only a few minutes into the woods, one friend said:

"These woods are scary. Did you see the Blair Witch Project?"

I said no. He said, "If you'd seen the Blair Witch Project, you'd be scared too."

Instantly the multicolored balloons hovering over my head -- a multilayered excitement over sharing these woods -- all burst at once, as if my friend had popped each one all in the same second.

And instead of moving deeper into Goddess, we turned around and trudged back home.

And then there's this: One of the last Stephen King books I poked into was The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon -- about a young Maine girl battling for her life against Nature, which King turns into a devil/demon stalking this pre-teen for all of 250 pages.

I'm wondering: is our problem not valuing Nature? Or is it that many of us are gaga petrified of it?

Traipsing AROUND WITH TROLLS

I can't believe what a blast it is to play with trolls! People always moan and groan about them, but I think they're adorable.

It's much more entertaining chitting around with them than it is working on the index I'm trying to write.

Like little fireflies, they dart in and out, trying to make waves in the air around you.

Reminds me of the time I was 10 and my brother was 6.

He'd sneak up behind me and give my arm a tweak with his forefinger. Although he knew he couldn't get away with just outright walloping me, he also knew that a small tweak was something I couldn't get any sympathy for, from Mom or Dad.

"You're older than he is," Mom would say. "Deal with it."

Ah, the good old days.

THE TROLL TIMES Talks TESTOSTERONE POISONING

Here, at the specific request of certain trolls skanking under bridges at this site, are articles about how an excess of male hormones -- in both males and females*-- is associated with increased aggression:

"Aggression, Impulsivity, Plasma Sex Hormones, and Biogenic Amine Turnover in a Forensic Population of Rapists." Giotakos, Orestis, Markianos, Manolis, Vaidakis, Nikos, Christodoulou, George N. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy; May/Jun2003, Vol. 29 Issue 3, p215-225.

"Testosterone poisoning." By: Alda, Alan. Ms., Spring 2002, Vol. 12 Issue 2, p35

"An Antidote for Testosterone Poisoning: YA Books Girls--and Boys--Should Read." by: Crowe, Chris. English Journal, v91 n3 p135-38 Jan 2002

This next article shows -- as the original post suggested -- testosterone-poisoned individuals, whether men or women [HELLO, DUDES. GET IT THIS TIME? MEN OR WOMEN? HOPEFULLY YOU WON'T MISS THE MESSAGE AGAIN], can be trained to overcome their disease:

"Testosterone, sexual offense recidivism and treatment effect among adult male sexual offenders." McKay, Alexander. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality; 2005, Vol. 14 Issue 1/2, p43-44.

This article is about

"a study on testosterone, sexual offense recidivism, and treatment effect among adult male sexual offenders which appeared in the journal Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment.

"There is well established evidence that the hormone testosterone, with its active metabolite dihydrotestosterone, influences both aggression and sex drive in human males.

"The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between serum testosterone and sexual violence in a sample of adult male sex offenders attending an in-hospital treatment program.

"The sample for the study consisted of 501 adult male sex offenders voluntarily admitted to the Phoenix Program, an inpatient sex offender treatment program in Edmonton, Alberta.

"The authors suggest that the findings indicate that testosterone levels are not just associated with aggression and sex drive as separate entities but also to sexual aggression specifically.

"When the analyses were conducted separately for those who completed the program and those who did not, an important finding emerged. That is, for those participants who completed the program, higher levels of testosterone was no longer predictive of the likelihood of sexually reoffending.

"In other words, the intensive group therapy provided by the program appears able to intercede in the influence of testosterone on sexually deviant behavior."

_______________________
*The original post was about excesses of male hormones, in both men and women -- something that flew right over the heads of the trolls, even though they insisted they are all as smart as Socrates, and that they all read the post 100 times or more.

NEW POLICY

I delete posts containing profanity, scatalogical language, or failures to respect the human body or any function thereof.

I delete posts by people who fail to show respect for me or commenters here.

If I delete one of your posts, I probably won't even read your subsequent posts before crashing into that little trash can under your name.

I am starting a list now of people who will be deleted (I have a bad memory, and I want to remember these people):

o wtf? aka rob
o t-dub
o sadek
o warzauwynn (on probation for poor manners)

WHERE'D DADDY Come FROM? WHERE'D MAMA Go?

Today, on Echidne of the Snakes, I tried my hand at explaining why there's war -- and violent daddy/sky/war gods instead of Mother Goddesses:

Suzie, the major point is we're being held hostage by a largely unconscious set of cultural rules passed down from certain of our ancestors who lived with long-term starvation.

Today we behave just the way they did while starving.

All the ways we're different from, say, the Trobriand Islanders, or the aboriginal Hawaiians? Those ways look like the ways of starving people:

1. "The feeding of the self is the all-consuming passion" becomes our ranking the individual higher than the group.

2. "An indifference to the needs or pain of others" becomes our allowance of a perpetual class of poverty, and our warfare.

3. "Husbands leaving wives and babies to fend for themselves" becomes our men constantly going off to war, our deadbeat dads, and our God the Father -- a punitive, distant sky god versus the old Earth Mother who existed all around us in the trees, wind, soil.

4. "Older children gathering into gangs and stealing from those younger, the old and the sick" becomes our young, healthy males assuming the ace power positions in our societies; it becomes our child abuse, and our rape.

5. The starving person's "loss of interest in the pleasures of life" becomes our ideas on pleasures being sinful, and ritual flagellation being a high good. It becomes the taboo on warriors having sex with women before battle.

I could go on. Buy the book *Switching to Goddess* for a fuller explanation of all of this. Preorder it on Amazon now. *Saharasia* by the georgrapher DeMeo also deals with the topic.

___________
thnx to sighthound for the foto; go HERE to see how to use it yourself.

TESTOSTERONE-POISONED PERSON Visits THIS BLOG!

Oh, goody, goody, our possibly-testosterone-poisoned sample-guy left another comment on Sunday's post ("THE POISON WE Hate TO LOVE: TESTOSTERONE")!

This gives us even more information about the T-P'd -- possibly one of the most dangerous groups currently inhabiting the planet.

Turns out this possibly-testosterone-poisoned dude *was* the one on the right in the picture that went with that post. Believe it or not, he's the one who looks like he has a sense of humor!

(Life Lesson #1,234: the testosterone-poisoned can look fetching. #1,235: Don't ever bite into a cookie just because it looks good. Check the filling first.)

And turns out he does have a vocabulary beyond the 100-basic Indo-European word list! Unfortunately, in a fit of possibly testosterone-fueled fury, he slipped and let it be known that he thinks the Enlgish language originated a few centuries ago with Chaucer.

I hate to say it, but this does feed the popular notion that the T-P'd are a bit light in the brain.

Again, in this second sample of his writing too, he seems unable to stop himself from peppering his speech with scatology.

Also, he's obviously never heard of the common term "testosterone poisoning," suggesting others in his life have tried to shield him from his disease.

Interestingly, he thinks bloggers are confined by Strunk's Elements of Style. Excuse me for a moment (HA, HA, HAHHAHAHAHHHAAAA, HARDY, HARDY, HAR HAR HAR HAR hiccup hic). OK. Better now.

I shouldn't laugh. It's not his fault he's undereducated about blogging. *That* he can easily learn. The Poisoning on the other hand -- well, that, I think, is going to require professional help.

Note that this possibly-testosterone-poisoned person says he's friends with "the second private citizen in space." If that's true (and we need to remember we could be dealing here with a Poisoned brain), we begin to see the scope of the world's problem. The T-P have friends in verrrry high places.

He ends with a particularly poignant cry for help: "Get fucked you hippie bullshit artist and stop stealing the work of greater men."

Let's look carefully at this statement.

First, it is undoubtedly the result of a double-dose or more of testosterone flooding his brain, reducing him again to the 100 most primitive words in the English language (two of 14 of which are disrespectful terms for bodily functions, suggesting his repulsion re: the human body).

His mind seems so drowned in testosterone he's even forgotten my sex. And is it my imagination, or is he calling me a "*great* man"? I mean, he compares me to "greater men." Doesn't that make me -- at the very least -- a "great man"?

Which brings up another point: do the testosterone-poisoned, during a T-P fit, lose sight of the fact that genders other than their own exist?

Another clue, here: although he says he's read Sunday's post several times, he seems clueless that the post implicates women as well as men as T-P candidates.

Thanks to this poor guy, however, for clueing me in that *Switching to Goddess* comes across (but maybe only to the Poisoned?) as vanity-published. I wonder if that's because the T-P'd think that to publishers, those of us not T-P'd are totally invisible?

Could be that's part of the Poisoning.
_____
thnx to simon davison for the foto; go HERE for more.

Hot OFF THE PRESS: THE Sinking OF SANTA

This just in from Anne over at The Gods Are Bored:

Welcome to "The Gods Are Feverish!" I'm your host, Hot Annie. Pass the iced tea, please.

But wait. There's no ice.

Word just in from the Goddess Sedna that for the first time in recorded history, the North Pole will be open water this summer instead of solid ice.

Sedna tells me that Santa Claus's workshop just sank under the waves. Total loss.

Apparently Santa's been warned over the past few years that his workshop might be in danger of destruction, but he just ignored it. The only radio station that reaches the North Pole carries Fox Radio -- Rush Limbaugh, et.al., so Santa thought global climate change was just something made up to cheat honest oil executives out of their hard-earned research money.

For the rest, tap those keys on over to The Gods Are Bored, HERE.

And, here's what others have to say on the matter: the BBC; MSNBC; Pravda; the Belfast Telegraph; the New York Times; The London Times; truthout.org; Popular Mechanics; stopglobalwarming.org; salon.com; The Indpendent; redorbit; and last but certainly not least, Cousin Doris, who says, "Global warming is a Hoax."
_______________
thnx to rodolfo clix for the foto; go HERE for more.

THEY'RE Feeding OFF US

Just dropped off the following at Echidne of the Snakes' place:

"The real issue is, why do we have rapists at all? Most simpler societies don't.

"I think we live with something I call starvation culture, in which we behave just the way long-starving social groups do.

In starving groups, the feeding of the self is the all-consuming passion; the ability to feel the pain or needs of others is lacking; and packs of young people steal from children, the elderly, the sick and the disabled.

"Over the millennia, we starvation cultures have obliterated most of the world's healthy cultures.

"Rape is only one of dozens of ways our young men steal what doesn't belong to them. It is indicative of their inability to feel the pain of others.

"We're all in on this. No sense in getting mad at rapists. Until we deal with starvation culture, we're all just as guilty as they are."

For more on starvation culture, enter it into the search engine below.

Or, pre-order a copy of my book, Switching to Goddess: Humanity's Ticket to the Future*, which is not only about Goddesses, but also about how starvation culture lead to humanity's switch to the father/sky/war gods now threatening to wipe us off the planet.

(Oh. And I almost forgot. I also have a brand new website about Switching. Go HERE to see it.
_______________________
* Publisher: O Books, Hampshire, UK; publication date Nov. 28, 2008.
_____________________
thnx to staytunedradio for the foto; go HERE for more.

THE POISON WE Hate TO LOVE: TESTOSTERONE

I suspect being born with too much testosterone ... is like being born with any other disease: it creams you (not to mention your neighborhood).

Think rape, incest, assault and battery, Big Money, the military-industrial complex, Anne Coulter ("I'm more of a man than any liberal").

Depending on the skankiness of your case, you should be hospitalized from birth until you're cured.

And I'm talking, here, about males and females both. (Fascinating factoid # 1,234: chug on over to any jail, and you'll find more testosterone in the women's ward than in women outside.)

But ... can we tell yet how much testosterone the baby-you will get socked with at puberty?

Unfortunately, with testosterone, we might have to wait until teen time to intercept the overdosed.

Whaddja think? Right now, the testosterone-challenged are overrepresented in our jails. What if we caught them early and gave them extra training?

I suspect the Mother Goddess is saying, "ID these dudes early, and train them out of trouble!
_____________
thnx to margaret the novice for the foto; go HERE for more.
____________
Go HERE to see a possible example of a testosterone-poisoned person named wtf?.

Sold DOWN RIVER IN LITTLE CHINA

Where once stand proud land of America, now stand "Little China."

bush boy borrow, for war, almost trillion dollah from China.

First time in history Little China do war, no raise taxes.

Big Little-China people get tax cut, Little people starving for gas and food.

Big China pull rug out from under Little China?

Sad, sad story come to end, now

Chow, chow.
_____________
Thnx to dmhergert for the foto; go HERE to see more.

LET'S Needle NBC INTO AN APOLOGY

Letter to NBC:

I understand Kathy Lee Gifford made disparaging remarks about Pagans recently on the Today Show.

This is unacceptable, and certainly leaves a black mark in my mind when I think of the Today Show.

Paganism is a religion like any other, and it deserves the same respect given to other religions in this country.

Gifford should apologize for her remarks, just as she would be expected to apologize for oh, say, remarks like "Christians worship a primitive, desert warrior god that helps keep us constantly at war; all Christians should therefore be shipped to the moon."

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

___________
Write your own letter and send it to today@nbc.com
_________
thnx to billycorgan for the foto; go HERE for more.

FIRST BORN.Point.Nine

Ha!
____________
thnx to Progressive Democrats for America for the foto

EATING & Stealing IN THE POST-GODDESS WORLD

Why do men* in the post-Goddess world “colonize” women? Is it because they want more sex – and when they want it? Free housekeepers and cooks? More sons? (Not to mention ones they know are theirs, not Dickie’s down the street.)

Nuh-uh.

Post-Goddess men colonize women for one reason and one reason only: they need reliable warrior-production machines.

EVIDENCE

1. Sex: Post-Goddess men don’t really like sex with women that much. All their myths shout out that women are just dying to devour their genitals. Samson and Delilah. Cuchulainn and Morrigan**. Any number of other mythical couples.

2. Housekeeping and cooks: Since when have “real” men given a hoot about a clean house or finely cooked food?

3. Sons important?! Men constantly abandon their families!

And what's sending the War Gods Jehovah and Allah into cardiac arrest? Men abandoning sons? Bushlet abandoning Katrina people?

Of course not.

What they’re shedding crocodile tears over are abortion and homosexuality – precisely the items that would jam up their warrior-production Machines.

In short, welcome to starvation culture, sweeties – where the sole pleasures are eating (beans out of a can? Hey, great!) and taking what doesn’t belong to you (raping, pillaging, molesting, stealing, enslaving, tricking, Going to War, and so on and on and on).
________________________
* I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT ALL MALES, here. I’m talking about “men.” Females too can be “men,” i.e., hold the same worldview “men” do.
**Leeming, Oxford Companion to World Mythology p. 157.
____
thnx to what_milk's for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Eating THE APPLE OF YOUR EYE

Oh. My. God.

It hit me today. What just might keep us from ever bouncing back to the Goddess.

It’s starvation culture.

I was defining starvation culture for my new weblog (which I’m told I need in order to sell Switching to Goddess), and it suddenly dawned on me:

Mother eats you.

That’s the final thing that happens in starving social groups. The mother-child bond lasts the longest, but in the end, even mothers dance off the deep end and begin to consume their own children for lunch.

Sorry. This is slimy.

But I think starvation culture is the lifeblood feeding almost every single one of our skankiest personal, local, and world problems today. And if I’m right, and if we love ourselves and each other, then we need to hold our noses and force ourselves to deal (with starvation culture, that is).

Go HERE to read my (short) explanation of starvation culture. (There’s a longer explanation in Switching to Goddess, which you can buy at the end of November. Or pre-order Switching today by clicking on the book cover to the right).

Love,
Athana
________
thnx to Melissa for the foto -- of what? -- Eve about to eat the apple of her eye? Arghhhh! Anyway, go HERE to see more of Melissa's work.

YOU ARE Nothing BUT DIRT

The earth is Mother.

Your body is nothing but Earth, the Mother.

Your food is nothing but dirt and the minerals in it.

What else is there? You are nothing but dirt, nothing but the Mother.

With Her in your consciousness as the Divine, no way would you trash Her the way we’re doing now.
___________
thnx to photosapience for the foto; go HERE to see more.

YOUR Fave MALE GODS

Who are your fave male gods?

If you were on a sinking ship and could save only five gods, who would they be?
___________
thnx to j. kunst for the foto of Triton; go HERE to see more.

Sucking ALASKA DRY

Big Oil, duckies, is mewling around, now, arching its pretty neck and singing,

“To cut prices at the pump, let’s suck all the oil out of Alaska!”

Excuse for a moment, please (HAHAHAHAHAHA, AHAHAHAHAHa HARDY, HAR -- sniffle, sniff -- BWA HAHAHA BWA HA!). Okay. Better now.

Can’t you just see it? We fall for this, (lie #1,234,567), they suck up all our oil – and ...

... sell it to China.

You know they will.

Not only will our pump prices stay static (or rise), we’ll have a wasteland where the Goddess’ green earth used to lie.
_____________
thnx to Jimmy Patterson for the foto