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
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*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.

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.
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*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.
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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.
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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.
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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!!
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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?
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*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).
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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).
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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?
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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").
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*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.
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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?
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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?
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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."

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*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.

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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.
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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."
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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.
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* Publisher: O Books, Hampshire, UK; publication date Nov. 28, 2008.
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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!
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thnx to margaret the novice for the foto; go HERE for more.
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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.
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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.

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

FIRST BORN.Point.Nine

Ha!
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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).
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* 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.
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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
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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.
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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?
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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.
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thnx to Jimmy Patterson for the foto

Shipping SIR GEORGE TO IRAQ

With the Goddess, punishment’s out, teaching’s in.

For Dubya, impeachment’s no good. Nuh-uh.

We need to rip up Dubya’s citizenship papers and send him ones from Iraq.

That way the boy could learn what it feels like when a booby bombs the bejeesus out of your homeland so’s to steal your stuff better.

He’d learn to live minus rights he’s tried to crush: habeas corpus*, the right to privacy, and – for many Americans – the right to water, electricity, and a safe place to sleep at night.

That boy George needs a bit of tough love from The Mother -- and he needs it fast.

And considering the tons he needs to learn, I’d say shipping him pronto to the cesspit he’s made out of that once proud nation, Iraq** would be just what the Mother might order.
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*”Habeas corpus” just means No dude can lock you up without good reason. Used to be dudes could pitch your bod in jail and throw away the key. Without any reason, without telling anyone. King George wants to bring that back. It’s almost too weird to believe, but it’s true.
** Although Iraq’s going to bounce back someday. And when she does, she’ll hopefully be more centered than she is now around her ancient Guiding Goddesses.
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thnx to Joe Schlabotnik for the foto; go HERE to see more.

Oh, Goody, Goody!

If you’ve jumped up and down and said, “Goody, goody” about this weblog, you will definitely want a copy of my new book, Switching to Goddess: Humanity’s Ticket to the Future.

Switching’s index will make it easy as pudding to find all those lovable old Radical Goddess Thealogy characters: the Daddy War Lords, Con Dude, Auntie Athana, Jesus the Conditional Lover, YAJ the Great, and Jumpin’ Jehovah, for starters.

About the only person missing is Cousin Doris (sorry Doris, maybe next book).

Switching dances with pages about how the Goddess leads to peace, plenty, and pears and plums for breakfast.

It simmers with pages explaining how the gods have pushed the Goddess underground for a while, but how She’s bouncing back.

You can even pre-order the book right at this moment.

Tap your keys on over to Amazon.com and enter Switching to Goddess in the search box. Or, click on Switching’s cover picture to the right.

Auntie Athana promises you won't be sorry you did.

SWITCHING to GODDESS: Table of Contents

1. We Are What We Worship
We Are What We Worship
Love No Matter What
Alice in Opposite Land
The Lucky Sex Is Born That Way
Whomped by War Gods
The Moderate Menace
How Do War Gods Lead to War?
Pitching the Baby with the Bathwater
Like It or Not, Religion’s Here to Stay
The God Called Science
Born Numskulls
Pick Your Spectacles
32c/21p Worth of Chemicals
Mommy, Daddy and the Science Guy
Deity Disarmament
A Shot of Something Smooth
Tend and Befriend
Killing the Urge
Grandma Didn’t Run
Time to Switch

2. Kissing Cousins
The Moso of Mother Lake
The Moso Guiding Mother Goddess
Mothers Are the Model
The Mysterious Basques
Shape Shifter
Dashing, Daring and Democratic
Risk Takers to Beat All Risk Takers
The Hopis of the American Southwest
The Hopi Mother Goddess
Freedom-Loving Power Sharers
Creative and Playful
Our Kissing Cousin the Bonobo
Hey Dudes, Chill, Will Ya?
Blocking the Oxytocin Fix

3. Good Times
Just Any Ol’ Goddess Won’t Do
Speaking of Time
Old Snapshots of the Guiding Goddess
Calling All Artists
Divine Catwoman
Great Mother of the Mountain
Crazy about Goddess — All Over the Globe
The Guiding Goddess at Catalhoyuk
Elsewhere in the Near East
India’s Mysterious Indus Valley
The Goddess in Neolithic Japan
Europe’s Great Guiding Goddess
Men and the Goddess
Europe in the Bronze Age: The Fab Minoans
But Are They Really Goddesses?
Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Pass Go
Backlash
Tricky Dickies
Out-to-Lunch Ideas?
Cauvin Pooh-Poohs the Toy Notion
But in the End Most See the Light

4. Before Snoots, Snobs and Bully Boys
Did the Guiding Goddess Guarantee Utopia?
Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal
Our Ancestors: Playful and Creative
George Lucas and Ron Howard’s Willow
No Snoots in the Near East
No Snoots in the Indus Valley
No Snoots in Old Europe
No Snoots in Jomon Japan
Goddess Daredevils
Rich as Rockefeller
Only the Best – For Everyone
No Dictators, Despots or Bully boys
Guiding Goddessites: Ancient Techno Wizards

5. Before War
As Far as the Eye Can See: No War!
Biologically Built for War?
Before War in the Near East
Before War in the Indus Valley
Before War in Japan and Europe
The Myth That Underpopulation Means Peace
End of the Female Figurines

6. Bad Times
Who Popped Us in the Chops, Ma?
Europe in the Big, Black Box
Whomped Again in the Near East
The Rascals Run Roughshod Over the Indus Valley
Myce or Min?
In Japan, the Jomon Jump Ship
What Twisted Them into Monsters?
Where’d All This Dust Come From?
What’s That Spider Web Sitting on Your Head?
Help! I Can’t Stop Eating!
Birth of Daddy War God
Con Dude Goes to Town

7. Fight
Bounceback #1: The Return of Tiamat
Bounceback #2: Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better
Bounceback #3: 180 Degrees Backwards
Hel: Goddess Who Couldn’t Be Conquered
Stealing Her Magic
Bouncing Back All over the Place
Bounceback #4: A Bit of Goddess Back to Christians
Bounceback #5: God Dark Ages, Goddess Renaissance
Twenty-First-Century Bounceback

8. The Fix
A Vision
With a Little Magic, The Fix Would Be Simple
Around the World, Nations Switching
Switching at Home
Switching Hearts and Minds
Switching for Men
Switching to What?
“When God Wants War”
But We Haven’t All Gotten It Yet
Beating the Talking Drums, Getting the Word Out
Weblogistan
Whadda We Say? How Do We Say It?
Congregation Revolution
Don’t Believe in Goddess. See If I Care
Calling All Manly Mother-Men
We Can’t Lose
But Time Is Running Out
We Can Do It By 2035
Money Can Be Part of the Mix in the Fix
Get Ready for the Big Daddy of All Backlashes

9. Home Again
In a Nutshell
All Signs Point to Switching
War to End All Wars
Have War God, Will War
Little Ones, Come Ye Unto Daddy War Lord
Jesus the Conditional Lover
Full of Hope
Ten Things I Can Do to Spread the Word
Luke Skywalker, Where R U?

Appendices
A. Origin of Starvation Culture
B. War Gods Around the World
C. Questions from the Peanut Gallery
D. Possible Guiding Goddesses We Can Return To
E. Weblogs in the Closed Countries
F. World Religions
G. Things You Can Do to Flip the Switch
H. Web Directory
I. Goddess Reading List
J. Cruelty in the Bible: Short List

Bibliography
Picture Credits
Index

GO HERE TO PRE-ORDER a copy of Switching to Goddess today. Or click on its book cover near the top, right-hand side of the screen.
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Thnx to Dirk Borchers for this fab foto of a Moso girl; go HERE to see more of Dirk's fotos of the Moso.

Go, SCOTTY, Go!

Can’t get tickets to the circus this summer?

Catch Scotty McClellan, on June 20, testifying under oath to Congress about what went on in the Bush White House. Should be on Cspan. Should be a hoot.
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Thnx to MacGBeing for the foto; go HERE to see more.

BARBARA WALKER Interviewed!!

This just in from Karen Tate, author of the Voices of the Sacred Feminine radio program. This Wednesday she'll interview one of the Great Mothers of the Goddess movement, Barbara Walker.

I don't know about you, but IMO, of all the grand leaders in the Goddess movement, Barbara Walker is the most reclusive and mysterious of them all. So this is something you won't want to miss!

The show begins at 6 pm on the Pacific Coast and 9 pm on the Atlantic. I'd advise to get to the radio site a little early to scope out how it works.

Greetings Goddess Advocates Everywhere....

If you missed Z. Budapest on Voices of the Sacred Feminine last Wednesday night at 6PM Pacific/9PM Eastern, then you are still in luck because our interview can be heard at your convenience from the Archives at PIVTR, Passionate Internet Voices Talk Radio. We had a jolly good time talking about Hillary, sexism, her legacy within the Women's Spirituality Movement, Pan Groups for Men's Mysteries.....and lots more!

And coming this Wednesday, June 11 - same time, same place - another leader of the Women's Spirituality Movement will share her thoughts - Barbara Walker. This is an awesome opportunity to hear this prolific author, known to so many of us studying about the Goddess over the decades. Barbara is not one to saturate the airwaves, so you won't want to miss this rare event!

Coming in the following weeks.....

June 18 -- 6PM -- Hillary Hart, Author of The Unknown She
June 25 -- 6PM -- Patrick McCollum, Prominent Wiccan Minister

And coming in August -- JEAN HOUSTON!
And coming in September -- Lady Olivia Robertson of the Fellowship of Isis.

"Voices of the Sacred Feminine" Radio Program LIVE EVERY WEDNESDAY 6pm Pacific or LISTEN from the ARCHIVES ANYTIME!

http://internetvoicesradio.com/Arch-Karen.htm OR
http://www.karentate.com/Tate/radio_show.html

--
All the best -
Karen Tate

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Thnx to pixie purl for the third foto of Barbara Walker (B.'s on the left); go HERE to see more of her fotos.

Thnx to spiden001 for the first pic of Barbara Walker; go HERE to see more of her work.

Thnx to evilsciencechick for the middle foto of Barbara Walker; go HERE to see more of her work.

NEW-AGE GODDESS: SLINKY, SLANKY & Sticky-SWEET

A big basket of thanks to Geraldine Charles, who sent this link from her ezine The Goddess Pages. It explains why we need to tell the Pew Research Study that if they lump the Goddess movement under the New Age movement again, we’re all going to hold our breaths til we turn BLUE.

“The Goddess vs. the New Age: Singing the Sacred Land,” by Jacqui Woodward-Smith (a director of UK's Glastonbury Goddess Temple), says the New Age Goddess is almost identical to YahwehAllahJehovah's* Mary, Mary Magdeline, and all the other sweet, limp-noodle women in the TalmudKoranBible.

The New Age goddess is

O Always young
O Always pretty
O Always ‘innocent’
O Always perky-breasted
O Always light, never dark
O Never the crone
O Never linked with earth, rot or mud (all required for growth and rebirth!)

A few plum cuts from the article:

I … went to a talk … where the speaker described the Crone as “ever beautiful, with an indigo cloak filled with moonbeams and starlight”! Where is the rot and death, the fucking, the shit and the mud? … How are we to understand our lives being torn apart and changed when we are shown a kindly old lady, rather than a powerful primal transforming force?

Monica Sjöö: “ … images of … the Goddess … acceptable in the New Age movement are the … sickly sweet ones …they want docile …Virgin Marys, sweetly smiling while the earth burns.”

The Crone (like the Whore) has retained much of Her primal power because She has been ignored by Christianity, who were able to ‘use’ and (temporarily) pacify the virgin/maiden and the mother ….

Monica Sjoo saw the New Age movement “… as paying lip service to the Goddess and the earth … whilst … stressing the need to become more ‘highly’ evolved and leave the Earth behind. This is the very antithesis of the message of the Goddess who asks us to rejoice in our physical form and in our incarnation on this beautiful planet.

When looking at Doreen Virtue’s ‘Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards' … there are no Crones … no big women, no old women, no ‘ugly’ women, no challenges, no real power. Even the African Goddesses have honey-coloured skin and Western features.

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YahwehAllahJehovah, who many see as three separate gods, is really just one primitive SkyWar god from the Middle-Eastern desert.
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thnx to taijiquan12 for the foto

GOD'S BETTER HALF JUST Woke UP

A powerfully down-to-earth Goddess as a Jewish mother is evoked in comedian Sherry Glaser’s performance “Oh my Goddess.”

She features Ma holding forth on the fate of creation since she took a 5000-year-long nap, leaving “your father” in charge of the kids.

“He started acting like he’s the only God in the universe… and let you play with guns and bombs and missiles. Not in my house!” [“God’s better half just woke up, and boy is she mad.” Jessica Werner, San Francisco Chronicle, June 22, 2006]

Glaser told an interviewer that “we are way out of whack on earth, so if we restore the mother and serve, honor, protect, pleasure her, everything will be all right. I do believe that.”

The above came from an excellent article in Goddess Pages by Max Dashu. The article, which is part of a series, is "The Meanings of Goddess - Part 3: Essentialism or Essence? Out from the Land of Theory."

And let's hear a huge round of applause for Geraldine Charles, editor of Goddess Pages -- that ezine is just fabulous. The Summer edition also includes "Even Queens Need a Fairy Godmother," "Bloody Women! A Magical Experience of the Menstrual Cycle," and "Baba Yaga Stories" by Susun Weed.

Great going, Geraldine. Keep us the great work!

Getting back to Max's article: a lot of it is about how academics and feminists begin foaming at the mouth at the mere mention of 'Goddess.' Mention "Mother Goddess," and their eyes roll back into their heads, and the foam coming out of their mouths begins to turn green.

They squeak about Goddess and Mother Goddess being bogeymen who will turn all of us purple and warty in a trice. Their reasoning makes not one iota of sense, but here it is anyway: women are considered crackerheads, so even thinking about Goddess or Mother Goddess will devalue them (women) even more.

I know, I know. Makes no sense whatsoever. If someone’s a crackerhead, you pair hir with what ISN’T crackerhead. Don't you?

I mean, am I nuts here, or what? Talking about their divinity is going to re-value, not de-value women.

You don’t have to read any of the following (lifted from Max’s wonderful article) if you don’t want to, but it’s stuff I want to remember:

I’m alarmed about New Age commodification ... as Goddess culture gets popularized and marketed. Consumerist trendiness and prosperity consciousness corrupt what is genuine.... In more than a few cases, the rush toward “the divine feminine” literally does mean feminine in its most retrograde media form: ... thin, pretty, young, longhaired females, usually white, sticking their breasts out in unnatural positions.... They don’t appear powerful or present in their bodies, but tense, posed, and decorative...."

AND

Myth and ritual have transformative power. Ifi Amadiume describes how Igbo [African] women use them in their oaths of solidarity at shrines, in women’s strikes and collective actions of calling men to account by making them eat fufu and swear oaths at the shrine of the goddess Ala. The Igbo Women’s War of 1929 drew extensively on ritual forms— processions, carrying wands, ceremonial dress of leaves—in its mass protest of British colonial taxes and puppet chiefs...

AND

We’ve been treated to repeated academic warnings of the dangers of “goddess monotheism.” None of the writers flogging this threat concern themselves with the historical monotheism that restricted divinity to a single male god....

AND

Many academic writers feel impelled to deplore the “essentialist” concept of a “mother goddess,” although goddesses were directly known by this title in numerous cultures. Isis notwithstanding, Lotte Motz insists that there was never any Mother Goddess, and goes so far as to claim that “mother” has nothing to do with Kybele’s titles of Great Mother (Magna Mater) and Mother of the Gods (Mater Deum). She writes, “no creature [!] could be further from the celebration of biological motherhood, and the title Magna Mater surely designates her as a great queen.” [Faces of the Goddess, p. 120] This is extreme even for goddess-averse academia….

AND

None of this is to say that “mother” is the only signifier for Goddess.... There are creator goddesses, fates and lawgivers, immanent powers of land, sea, and sky, of fire or clouds, of animals and birds.... However, none of these categories are exclusive of “mother,” and in a great many traditions, this attribute mixes freely and frequently with the others, including some, such as warrior or destroyer, that conflict with the more conservative images of what “mother” might signify. If we look to indigenous religions, “mother” is a truly expansive concept, and a divine one.

AND

The Gouandousou statues of the Bambara display the various and multivalent meanings of Goddess, including the kind academics routinely reject as untenably “essentialist” because of their connection to body mysteries: menstruation, pregnancy and lactation. This is “dangerous” terrain, both in animist terms and in the sexual politics of patriarchy. In Bambara culture (as for countless others) it is a terrain of female potency.

One final note about Max’s article: she’s drenched it with fab examples. In this case, it’s examples of dozens of cultures both past and present heavily saturated with rituals, beliefs, art, music and dance revolving around MOTHER GODDESS. Completely confounding, I’m sure, to all those so-called experts who contend people don’t worship female divinity.
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thnx to NadiaRusso for the foto of the Goddess Oya; go HERE to see more of NadiaRusso's work.

The “No Girls LEFT BEHIND, Boys Can Go Suck” Program

According to MSNBC, in Detroit only 24.9% of students are now making it through high school.

The high school graduation rate was higher in the days of dinosaurs, when kids walked 100 miles both ways over frozen tundra to learn reading, writing and wooly hyena hunting.

And the media is aghast lately at how boys in particular are falling behind in school, with girls using them to mop up the floor.

Has anyone pointed out the obvious? Of course it’s Dubya’s brilliant, unfunded “No Child Left Behind” program, or more to the point, the “No Girls Left Behind, Boys Can Go Suck” Program (NGLB-BCGS Program) that's "behind" all this (no pun intended).

Only someone a total flop in school (Dubya) would push a national school agenda as destined for failure as the NGLB-BCGS Program.

In the book I just finished – The Wednesday Night Witches – one of the main characters muses about a possible connection between No Child Left Behind and the popular Fundie book series, Left Behind, about the apocalypse and who gets to fly to heaven with Jesus and who’s left behind to fry.

The main character, a school teacher, finally breaks out of her stupor and does something creative – at which point her class finally begins to learn things.

Guess with Dubya it’s boys he wants to Leave Behind to fry.

Maybe he shoulda had a few sons insteada all daughters?

Anyway, Goddess help us all in 20 years when the dropouts step up smilingly to remove your gall bladder, build our nuclear reactors, and run the country.
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thnx to ThisIsntArt for the foto; go HERE for more.

NATALIE MERCHANT, YOU’RE Wrong

As much as I love you, Natalie, you’re dead-ringer wrong on this one:

“People ruthless, people cruel
The damage that some people do
Full of hatred, full of pride
It's enough to make you lose your mind

“I know that it will hurt
I know that it will break your heart
The way things are
The way they've been
And the way they've always been”

Natalie, things have not always “been this way.”

When the Goddess reigned, people were sane and decent. Life was sweet (for everyone, not just a few).

It’s only after the sky & war gods ripped into our lives that things turned twisted and busted.

You need to write a new song, Natalie.

These sky/war warts seemed to pop up first around 4000 BC, east and north of the Mediterranean Sea. (Read: “the birth of the state,” and “Proto-Indo-Europeans”)

After that, the wart-god peoples began pounding on the Goddess peoples. The Goddess peoples dove underground, which is where those still remaining are today (for example, the Moso/Mosuo of China).

I'll be watching for your new song, Natalie. Thnx in advance for writing it.
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and thnx to niljadee for the foto; go HERE to see more.

HE Worries ME

What worries me about Barack Obama:

Everybody knows Republicans own the American media.

And the American media is pushing Obama like a preacher pushes offering plates.

So what’s up with that?
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thnx to there's no way home for the foto; go HERE to see more.

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP Witches

What’s the Goddess trying to tell me, luvvies? Last month I met LuAnn, whose great, great, great etc. grandmother was hung as a witch on an island off Maine.

This week I accidentally flipped to this old drawing in an 1891 book of poems by Whittier. The poem’s about the daughter of an actual 1600s MA woman hung for witchcraft. Go HERE to read it.

BTW,the book about Luann and her grandmother, The Wednesday Night Witches? Metacool. In places I laughed til I cried. The writing was fresh and exciting. I'm not so sure however how much the author (Lee Nichols) knows about Wicca -- she has the Evil stuff rising up from inside the Earth!

DEEPLY Fastened TO THE MOTHER

I went to the Grandmothers a few days ago in deep distress.

"Grandmothers," I said, …..They are burning people alive in South Africa. …. People in this country are losing their jobs and homes, China and Myanmar are suffering terribly and the war in Iraq goes on and on....”

The Grandmothers sat on the ground before me, and as I stepped into their circle, spherical waves began to spin around ….

"Anchor yourself," they said…. I saw a wine opener--turning and turning, as it screwed itself into the earth, and as I watched, it was I who was becoming deeply fastened to the Mother.

"Screw yourself deeply to Mother Earth and watch from there," the Grandmothers said. "You won’t be swept away or react to the changes sweeping across the world, and neither will you lull yourself into false security by ignoring the obvious.

"Anchored like this, you will be immune from the panic that is gripping much of the world," they said. "…

…"Give love. Dive into life and serve wherever you can," they said.... “Do not back off now and huddle fearfully in the dark. Dive in!"

From grandmothersspeak.com. MORE>>>
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thnx to jobarracuda for the foto; go HERE to see more.