Walking DOWN A SIDEWALK BACKWARDS

From Daily Kos:

"Having gotten their butts kicked for 150 years in science and their clocks cleaned over the last 40 years in court, anti-science goons have reached deep into their black bag of tricks and pulled out a new gimmick called Academic Freedom Bills.

"By academic freedom, they mean a teacher is free to teach creationism (or ostensibly anything else in any other subject), and the student is free to blow off mastering the curricula and answer any question or complete any homework assignment using whatever variant of right-wing anti-science nonsense they dream up." MORE>>>

Academic Freedom? Yay! If we're all free to tinker with the hallowed halls of academe, I'd like a course on How to Walk Down a Sidewalk Backwards and Not Trip.

And while we're at it, let's get this course on the books ASAP: Flying to the Moon on My Green Umbrella 101.

And -- oh! oh! oh! One on How to Get Even with Nurse Rachet When She Sticks Me with That Needle!
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Thnx to evaxebra for the photo; go HERE to see more of her work.

Grant O Goddess Thy Protection

A Sacred and very meaningful Beltane to all of you, dear readers.

Grant, O Goddess, thy Protection
And in protection, Strength
And in strength, Understanding
And in understanding, Knowledge
And in knowledge, the Knowledge of Justice
And in the knowledge of justice, the Love of it
And in the love of it, the Love of all Existences
And in the love of all existences, the Love of Goddess and all Goodness.

THE SWEETEST PARENTS Break YOUR BONES

The latest on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, that Mormon sect shut down by Texas for child abuse:

Out of 464 kids, at least 41, some of them ''very young,'' have evidence of broken bones.

They haven’t checked out all the kids yet, so chances are that 41 is a low kids-with-broken-bones figure.

What I don’t understand is this: Why is everyone going google-eyed over this?

The kids with the broken bones were probably stubborn.

And the Bible says if your kid is stubborn, ya stone him to death.

So these are some of the sweetest parents on the planet. All they did was break a few bones.
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Thnx to txd for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Pagans & DUBYA’S FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE

Think there’s a cat’s chance in hell a Pagan group could capture one of Dubya’s “Faith-Based Initiative” grants? Excuse me for a moment [HAHAHAHAHAHAH, AHAHAHAHAH -- hiccup -- HA AHARDY HAR HAR!]. Ahem. Better, now.

If so, take a gander at this:

“… faith-based grant applications were supposed to be reviewed by a White House panel in a ‘religiously neutral fashion,’ but … the panel's ratings were ‘a farce’…. One panel member [said]: "When I saw one of those non-Christian groups in the set I was reviewing, I just stopped looking at them and gave them a zero [out of a possible 100]…’” [from a letter I got recently from the Interfaith Alliance].
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Thnx to Angela for the foto. Go HERE to see more of her work.

THE GODDESS AND Agape

Just for fun today, I shot “ancient Goddess” and “agape” together into Scroogle's search box.

After clicking on the search button and waiting a beat, a list of articles popped onto my computer screen. At the very top of the list was an article about the book The Giuliana Legacy, by Alexis Masters.

Well, after reading only a few reviews, I felt compelled to stop and order a copy. Here, from four different reader reviewers, are some snippets about what looks like a must-have Goddess book:

“As a freelance editor, for personal and professional reasons I generally do not review books I have worked on, but there are a very few novels for which I make exceptions because for me they are exceptional. More than well crafted novels, they are work that is outside the box in some rare and moving way that broadens my mind and deepens my soul personally and professionally…”

“One of the best stories I've read about the Goddess. I loved the idea that a thoroughly modern woman is suddenly forced to face herstory and discovers she's the hereditary head of an ancient religion….”

“While reading, there were times when I was in tears , times when I was on the edge of my seat, and times when I was in a dream-like trance….”

“The Giuliana Legacy is better that the Mists of Avalon at introducing the ancient Goddess religion and its mysteries of love.”

Go HERE for more.
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Thnx to Rafael Z.A. for the foto; go HERE to see more of his work.

Whiny OLD WOMAN

Got this story today from my brother, about a whiny old woman:

“Dear Sis Athana,

Below is an actual letter sent to a bank by an 86-year-old woman. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times:

“Dear Sir:

“I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it.

“I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

“My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

“I noticed that whereas I personally answer your telephone calls and letters, --- when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become.

“From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person. My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

“Be aware that it is an offense under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.

“In due course, at MY convenience, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modeled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Let me level the playing field even further. When you call me, press buttons as follows:

IMMEDIATELY AFTER DIALING, PRESS THE STAR (*) BUTTON FOR ENGLISH

#1. To make an appointment to see me.
#2. To query a missing payment.
#3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.
#4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.
#5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.
#6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.
#7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated to you at a later date to that Authorized Contact mentioned earlier.
#8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7.
#9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service.
#10. This is a second reminder to press* for English. While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

“Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement. May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous New Year?

“Your Humble Client’”

Frankly, I’m kinda buzzed out about people like this old woman. Always whining about how banks aren’t nice to her. Jeez! I mean, she’s just the customer! Banks and other Very Big Businesses aren’t around to kowtow to her!

Sure, in her day businesses made customers feel like the King. But that’s only cuz they had to. Back then, there were so many businesses -- all trying to sell the same thing -- that a dude HADDA kiss the customer’s foot -- or the customer’d go pop her wad at someone else’s store.

But then ol’ daddy Ronnie Reagan wrangled his way into the White House. Thankfully, Daddy let a few of his buds suck up all the competition. Now, today, there’s only one or two dudes owning everything. And they don’t have to suck up to anyone!

Now isn’t that the way life was meant to be? Aren’t we supposed to love our (Big) Brother?

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Thanx to yusef of the moors for the foto; go HERE for more.

GRIM RAPERS Ride AGAIN

I’m so sorry to say that while YAJ* clergy routinely rape the powerless, the YAJ power structure routinely looks the other way. Now here’s a dude who says, “Geezum! Sorry! That’s just the way religious power structures are!”

“Other examples of reprehensible behavior on the part of the Orthodox … involve Orthodox authorities shielding rabbis known to have sexually abused teenagers and children from exposure and prosecution…. Considering that Roman Catholic authorities did likewise …, one can see that the problem is endemic in religious authority structures….” Go HERE for more.

Excuse, please. Maybe that’s how YAJ power structures are, but dude! Don’t dump this dirt on the rest of us! I have yet to get wind of one Goddess priestess/priest who’s raped anything – let alone a child (Goddess forbid!).

What’s more, the Goddess world frowns upon “authority structures” and “power structures” both. Each is a sickness residing in the world of YAJ. And each shoves the Goddess world apart from the blighted, bloated world of YAJ, a world that works night and day to convince us that in the religion department, there’s nothing else for sale but YAJ.

Not.

Don’t buy it for a minute. Don’t be hoodwinked by this war to warp your mind. YAJ is not the only religion around, by far.

As a matter of fact, YAJ is not a religion at all. YAJ is a control system, one dead set on controlling you, your mind and your body – a control system so wacko it’s waltzing the whole planet into oblivion.

So for Goddess’ sake, dear readers, don’t ever buy what YAJ has for sale.

For a fuller explanation of all of this, read my book, Switching to Goddess: Humanity’s Ticket to the Future, out for sale in November of this year. Buy it either at Amazon.com or O-books.com, take your pick.
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* YAJ is YahwehAllahJehovah. Although most of us see him as three separate gods, he’s actually only one: the god of Abraham. Go check out the Torah, Bible and Koran. They’re really one and the same book featuring, ta da! The main character, the one and only *YAJ*!!!!!!!

Thnx to thirsty for the foto; go HERE for more.

FATHER GODS Fall SHORT AGAIN

Today we take another peek at the underbelly of the beast calling itself “father god.”

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 8, 2008

ELDORADO, Texas - More than 400 children, mostly girls in pioneer dresses, were swept into state custody from a polygamist sect in what authorities described Monday as the largest child-welfare operation in Texas history.

SNIP

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, headed by [Warren] Jeffs after his father's death in 2002, broke away from the Mormon church after the latter disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.

SNIP

Jeffs is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., where he awaits trial for four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives.

In November, he was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.

Go HERE for more.

This feels like ripping the Father’s sheep mask off and coming face to face with the real blood-eyed monster, snaggle teeth blood-smeared, breath stinking with the stale blood of hundreds of thousands of women and children it’s consumed for lunch for the past several centuries.
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Thnx to nïkkito & sus increíbles fotos saltarinas for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Although this is very, very old, it so fits this blog:

Q: What do you get when your cross an insomniac, an agnostic, and a dyslexic? ...............

A: Someone who's up all night wondering if there is a dog.

Which reminds me: I haven't posted any pics of Duncan the dog lately. The problem is, he doesn't like to have his pic snapped unless he's just had a bath, and Mommy Athana has been very bad lately about baths. So what you see above is a post-bath pic from the past.

3 KINDS OF Humans?

Today I stumbled across an interesting bit of tid I know you'll all wanna hear:

According to Plato, who got it from Aristophanes, once upon a time three kinds of humans hustled about the earth: males, females and androgynes.

Each bristled with multiple limbs: four legs and four arms for each of these fabulous critters.

But alas & alack, all three types of honeys got too sassy for the gods, so the gods split them all in two.

From the females, came lesbians.

From the males came gay men.

And from the androgynes blossomed heterosexual men and hetero women.

And the reason all of us make love? Out of a deep, primordial urge to recreate our original, eight-limbed ancestors.
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From Leeming’s 2005 Oxford Companion to World Mythology, p. 18
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Thnx to Alan Light for this foto of him and Ellen Degeneres. Go HERE to see more.

Goddess & THE GOOD GODS

In a world where Goddesses swim at the center, what role should male gods play?

In his fine comments re: my March 11 post, Mandos suggests that male gods should somehow relate to the male role in procreation.

But is this really a top-notch, primo role for guy gods? Could there be better roles? If deities are models for how we want to treat each other, the earth, and everything on it, what male god would be best?

1. The Mother Goddess’s lover?
2. Mother’s hubbie?
3. Mother’s son?
4. Mother’s friend?
5. One who helps Mother care for and protect the kiddies?
6. One who watches over the community and keeps it safe?
7. A Dionysian-type dude in charge of good times?
8. All of the above?
9. None of the above?

Of course there’s no getting around it: since daddy-war gods such as Jehovah, Allah, Yahweh, Zeus and others punched most of our good male gods into the dust long ago, we are forced to find new ones.

Personally, I think which gods we settle on should rest on what kinda world we want to live in.

For example, among the marriage-less Moso of China, the main male god is not the Mother Goddess’ hubbie, but her lover -- ‘cause the Moso put marriage in the same category with the 24/7 ingestion of red-hot, skin-dissolving chile peppers.

But among the daddy-war-god ancient Greeks, the main guy-god had a wife he treated like the floor of a pigpen.

And the early Indo-Europeans’ main god was a dirt-bag who incested his daughter, Usas, Goddess of the Dawn.

So unless we are dying for incester, rapist, and child-molester men, or dudes who’d rather slice rice all day than marry, I’d suggest we avoid gods such as the above.

But floating around out there are lotsa fine dude-gods with “pick me, pick me!” written all over them. Some of my fave are the helper, guardian and protector gods. Take Koyote of Native American fame, for example, or Faivarongo of the Polynesian Tikopia, or Tokoyoto of the Koryak of SE Siberia. And then there are Osande, the elderly guardian god of the Ovimbundu of SW Africa (Angola), and Tanuta, also of the Koryak, and guardian of the earth, plants and animals.

A great old Chinese child-guardian god, Chang Hs’ien, is sometimes shown aiming an arrow at the earth-threatening dog star, Tien Kou (Jordan, Encyclopedia of the Gods, p. 54).

And then there’s the Aztec Huehuecoyotl, “god of sexual lust,” as author Michael Jordan puts it in The Encyclopedia of Gods.

So, zee qvestion of zee veek, liebchen, eeze, “What other dude gods model the kinda human dudes you’d like to see walking the earth today?”
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Thnx to aeroporc for the foto; go HERE to see a close-up and more of aeroporc's work.

Drowning IN PUNDUSTRY

"THE CRUDDIEST MOMENT OF THE CRAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE ON EARTH happened as I found myself watching five televisions simultaneously, each containing a different political pundit opining on the same subject. When I looked down toward my computer screen to see what the bloggers were saying about it, I noticed that a button on my shirt had come undone.

"There I was, literally contemplating my own navel. But I didn't even crack a smile because, in the relentless drone of insipid opinion, irony no longer held any meaning."

MORE>>>>

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Thnx to Redheaded And Ready for the foto; go HERE to see more.

IN A Nutshell

To fix things we need to dump the father/war/sky gods and plug healthy Life-Models in the empty places left behind. And a grand life-model is Goddess. She’s what we used to use – when we lived in Paradise.

Goddess makes sense: mothers bear us, not fathers. We all come from mother goddesses, not father gods.

If you want proof that the major world gods today were just phonies made up to control people, all ya hafta do is think about the idea of male gods giving birth.

Excuse me, please [Bwahahahahahaha! Hahahaha! BwaHa!]

Okay, better now [wiping tears from her eyes].

Of course males can’t make babies, so many ancient male gods had to make up stuff – hilarious stuff, like making babies from ribs. Or having them pop out of daddy's head, like Zeus did with Athena. Or out of their penisis, mouths or armpits.

Goddesses -- especially mother goddesses -- will make super healthy role models for us. Why? Bbecause healthy mothers are natural, unconditional lovers of their children.

If we treat each other the way healthy mums treat their kids -- voila! We solve most of what ails us.
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Thnx to Janchan for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Spanking THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT

Another new book out slashing at YAJ* and his hooey hooligans, and exposing the danger they pose to our health, welfare and wellbeing:

God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters by Sarah Posner and Joe Conason (Hardcover - Jan 22, 2008)

* Sarah Posner has produced the definitive expose of America's leading "prosperity gospel" preachers. With direct access to the Bush White House and Republican lawmakers, these televangelists have injected their Armageddon-based agenda into U.S. foreign policy…. --- Max Blumenthal ---

* Sarah Posner introduces us to the stars of a new evangelical movement who have declared welfare Satanic, poverty a religious curse, and redistribution of wealth "contrary to the word of God."... --- Esther Kaplan --- [Yes, yes, remember that passage where Jesus says "Let the poor eat cake!"?]

* God's Profits is an astounding tale of religious hucksterism--and its role in politics…. It features a cast of charlatans, demagogues, con men, and the pols and presidents who pander to them. It is also a window on the rise of the Bush family dynasty and details how John Hagee, Rod Parsley, and their ilk treat faith as a cheap political commodity on its behalf. --- Frederick Clarkson ---

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*YAJ is the god YahwehAllahJehovah, who many mistakenly think of as three distinct deities.
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Thnx to codyaya for the foto of Marie Antoinette; go HERE to see more of his work.

MCcAIN & THE Wicky-Wacky FRINGE

"McCain 'Proud' of Endorsement From John Hagee, Who Calls Catholics 'The Great Whore.' Where's Tim Russert Now?"

Huffington Post

Makes me bite my nails and sweat bullets to think there are actually dudes out there walking upright who think McCain could win the White House. What do they know I don't? After eight years of Dubya, how could "Bush Light" possibly turn anyone's head?
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thnx to Air America and Rachel Maddow for the foto

Sitting AT THE FOOT OF THE MOUNTAIN

Two women - 101 and 91 years old - put us younger women to shame as they say why they voted for Hillary.



Woman number 2: I watched when Hillary "had to climb up the rough side of the mountain." I saw her respond with "courage, strength, dignity, discipline and patience. With determination she got to the top again, polished like gold...."

But how did I decide to vote for her? I "looked at what our needs are. America our country is down at the foot of the mountain. We need someone with experience, someone who's ready, willing and able to bring America back up again -- polished like gold."

Question of the day: Why is it mostly older women who have courage to support women? Male newscasters are kinder (somewhat) to Hillary than female newscasters -- who often seem to race to see who can slime Hillary with the ooziest of ooze.

To date, Harvard women lead the pack: Obama advisor Samantha Power, in a public forum, called Hillary a quote-unquote "monster."

C'mon, Sam! What's Hillary done to deserve that handle? Sounds to me, more than anything else, like a bit of self-loathing.

PLEASE, CAN WE Get You A PILLOW?

Go HERE to see the Saturday-Night-Live funny-bone buster of a debate between Hillary and Barack.
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Thnx to Jul!e T for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Calling ALL CATHOLICS: COME HOME TO MAMA

My Dearest of Catholics,

Deep in your heart you know it's true. Poppa Pope is an old boy who belongs in the Ice Age. He has a frozen heart, just like all the phonies who’ve tried, for 2000 years, to convince you that Mary isn’t the Great Mother Goddess, the true center of the Universe.

So come on. Come home to Mama. She adores you. That father/son/ghost thingie is as phony as a three-dollar bill. Fathers don’t birth anything. They don’t feed you from their bodies. What a bill of goods we’ve all been sold!

And Jeesh! You’ve tried to compromise! You’ve tried to work with the daddy/son/ghost rule book (aka bible) -- despite the fact that it’s crammed full of violence, war, torture, misogyny, and just purely primitive desert-deity hogwash. (Go HERE for a short list of cruelty in the Bible -- but don’t go if you’re short on time.)

All you’ve asked is that instead of always daddy/son/ghost, you can sometimes use words like “creator,” “redeemer,” and “sanctifier.”

But Poppy Popie says no. Go sit in a corner and don’t leave until you promise always to say “daddy, son, and holy (masculine) ghost,” says Poppy.

Earlier this week, "The Vatican said anyone baptised under the [above] feminist [sic] terms could invalidate their marriage.”

And, “Cardinal Urbano Navarrete ... gave warning that anyone who attempted to baptise someone with a gender-neutral form would be penalised.” (Go HERE to see more of this amazing March 3rd article).

Lighten up boyz! Get used to it! You’re dinosaurs in a world beginning to smell your prehistoric, rancid breath and get brief glimpses of your green-glowing, lizardy eyes.

Since you don’t have long, why not just sit back and prop your dogs up? Chill, dudes! Why give yourselves ulcers on your way out?

Lovingly Yours,
Athana
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Thnx to Mandana for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Wincing OVER BAUBO

I admit it: I’m conflicted. Three posts ago I wrote about “happy” goddesses. Because she was on the list, I included the Goddess Baubo. I hate to discriminate.

On the other hand, I’m a firm believer in the notion that the human body, male and female, is sacred. And then Baubo waltzes in making the body profane – in the worst sense of the word: the swearing, soggy, sordid sense.

But is Baubo for real? Or is she a war-god makeover of some ancient sensual goddess who made the war gods blush? (The war gods are as uptight about the body as a tick about burning match heads.)

Maybe she made them sweat so much they had to discredit her.

I’m thinking of Usas, one of the few goddesses allowed into the earliest war-god pantheons (the proto-Indo-European).

Usas didn’t really do much. All she “did” was get raped by her daddy, the PIE Father God, whose name was Dieus, forerunner of Zeus and a whole host of other Indo-European Daddy Gods, way back when.

Although Dieus’ great, great, grandbaby Zeus raped grown women, the books rarely tell ya that Zeus' great, great grandaddy was a pedophile and an incestor. (By “incestor” I mean someone who commits incest; according to my online dictionary, “incestor” is not a word. I don't know why; seems like a perfectly good one to me.)

The war-god dudes did a number on all the goddesses they ran across (or should I say “over”). Is Baubo just one more war-god casualty?

Or is she some kind of shadow-side deity, a kind of once-a-year-let-your-hair-down kind of goddess, or one that serves as some kind of psychological letting-off-steam spicket?

But then why don’t we hear about male gods who have eyes at the end of their penes, and who “tell rude jokes” from their “fannies”? Or do we? Are there such gods I don’t know about?

So dear readers, I'm curious: What are your feelings about Baubo?
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Thnx to Anole for the pic; go HERE to seem more.

YAJ: BIG Blowhard in the BACKWATER?

Is YAJ (YahwehAllahJehovah)* just a big blowhard who’s on the down tick? Writer Alan Wolfe thinks so.

In his look at the state of religion all over the world (“The Coming Religious Peace,” The Atlantic), Wolfe says the world is getting not more, but less religious.

Interesting tidbits

ATHEISTS ON THE RISE IN AMERICA

“Some signs indicate that the Christian right may be losing steam, or at least moderating, as a political force. Nonbelief, meanwhile, is increasing: not only are atheist manifestos selling in large numbers, but the percentage of those who express no religious preference to pollsters doubled between 1990 and 2001, to 15 percent.”

YOUTUBE AND TELEVANGELISM HIT THE MIDEAST

“Americans worried about the clash of civilizations tend to focus on those forms of Islam called salafist…. Perhaps they should focus more attention on Muslim religious leaders like Amr Khaled, an Egyptian televangelist now living much of the year in England. Combining idealistic themes of self-empowerment with prosperity movement themes of self-improvement, Khaled appeals to young people….

“So does Mustafa Hosni, a young Egyptian whose YouTube videos bring messages of self-fulfillment and spiritual renewal to jeans-clad Muslims in both Europe and the Middle East.”
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*Although most of the world mistakes him for three distinct godlets, YahwehAllahJehovah (YAJ) is really only one entity, a primitive desert war deity who's swamped our planet and helps keep it perennially at war.
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Thnx to km33068 for the foto; go HERE to see more of her work.