Sunday, March 31, 2013

Google takes Easter heat over Cesar Chavez doodle - CSMonitor.com

I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. Still can't quite get that there are so many ignorant and religiously superstitious people in this country. Religious zealotry, meet the Taliban and other psychos aligning themselves with a belief system that overrides sense.

Google takes Easter heat over Cesar Chavez doodle - CSMonitor.com: Today, the middle letter is a round portrait of the late migrant farm labor union leader Cesar Chavez.

Like many such doodles, it comes on the birthday of the subject. Mr. Chavez was born March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona.

But appearing on Easter – one of the holiest days for hundreds of millions of Christians around the world – the Chavez Google doodle has set off a mini-storm of protest, including (inevitably) in the twitterverse.

Some of the comments are a little unnerving in their vehemence:
“Unbelievable! Their true colors are showing! Yahoo here I come!”

“Damn Google…. No Easter wishes from those Atheists.”

“Better a dead lefty, them a risen Lord.”

I wonder what the outcry would have been if Google had done a Passover graphic, or better yet, something like this:

Venus of Willendor, Europe, approximately 25,1000 B.C.E.

Easter Sunday or Ishtar Pagan Day

Okay...Easter Sunday or Ishtar Pagan Day

And so on. I started to follow up on several links about Ishtar/Easter (see post below) and quickly gave up. But it's clear that the Daily Beast article doesn't have it quite right either. If you're interested, you'll do the Google thing.

Happy Easter, Which is Not Named After Ishtar, Okay? - The Daily Beast

Happy Easter, Which is Not Named After Ishtar, Okay? - The Daily Beast


Apparently, NOT so. . .
According to the link, as they quote from Bell Jar:
Anyway, the point I am trying to make here is that, yes, Ishtar was associated with fertility and sex. However, her symbols were the lion, the gate and the eight-pointed star; I can’t find any evidence of eggs or rabbits symbolically belonging to her. And Easter has nothing to do with her.
Article has good points and in the specific case of Ishtar/Easter, okay then.  But on the other hand, seems like missing the point, a lot of energy nitpicking the obvious.


Saturday, March 30, 2013

Mud Covered Mary

(There isn't anything supernatural about this; it's just a short story I wrote, greatly revised from an earlier version I wrote many years ago. Cross posted at my fiction blog fragments, found.)







I was nine, probably ten. In my thin green Girl Scout uniform, badge filled sash, heavy white oxfords, little white socks. I knew that there was some mix-up somehow, some weird thing but no proof or even evidence. Gut feelings from a ten year old didn’t count for much. So my grandmother dropped me off at the Parish Hall, where our Girl Scout meetings were held, and drove off. I knew something was wrong when I noticed ... nothing. No other cars, people, little Brownies or my sisters in green. The heavy dark brown doors of the hall were shut, locked. So there I was. Alone in the quiet Saturday schoolyard. Everything shut up; school, hall, even the church. So I waited, trying not to be scared, knowing that eventually my grandmother would return to pick me up. In the meantime, I waited.


I pretty much stayed in the same place; sitting on the rough low stone wall in front of the Parish Hall next to the school, facing the street. The church and church parking lot was to my right, further down.

I sort of wandered around the asphalt covered school yard. Those were the days when the playground equipment set-up was a stark affair. There was a merry go round, right smack on top of the asphalt. No sand, no wood chip coverings, no rubberized surfaces, just the uneven black asphalt. One day I managed to get myself going pretty well on the merry go round and flew off, landing several yards away on my knees. The green and yellow plaid jumpers that were the school uniform offered nothing in way of protection. In my late fifties, I still have the scar that highlights a little hollow in my left knee.

So the large, hot asphalt playground offered nothing of interest. I went back to the low stone wall. It was cooler there anyway, in the shade of the buildings. A small white haired lady walked by me. She was wearing her lace head scarf, carrying her missal, rosary dangling from her hand. I smiled at her; she didn’t smile back. She asked me what was I doing there; she seemed innately suspicious. She wanted to argue with me: “There’s no Girl Scout meeting here!” she said. I felt a little bit like I was leaving my body; this old lady on her way to do her Altar Society business inside the church, was repeating back to me what I just told her. I’m feeling disconnected; why is she doing that? Repeating back to me what I told her: I was waiting for my grandmother; we thought there was a meeting but turned out we got mixed up. In my mind I thought “Lady, do you really think I’d be sitting here in my jerky Girl Scout uniform just for fun?” But I rarely spoke to adults that way so I just sat there, staring at her. She shook her finger at me and walked on.

It was getting cooler. With that, a little dimmer. It seemed an awfully long time; shouldn’ my grandmother be here by now? I see the white haired woman come striding back in the opposite direction, from the church. She’s finished with her official altar arranging business and on her way home. She looks upset, angry; her face is splotched wtih red patches on her thin white skin. She comes right up to me and hisses, spitting a little on me. “How dare you!? WHAT GRADE ARE YOU IN??!! Is it Sister Patrick?! She’ll know, she’ll know!!!” She paused for breath. I have no idea what she’s doing. Before I can answer she goes on.
     “The beautiful Mother! Covered, covered in mud! Just filthy! FILTHY! YOU did it! You’re the only one who’s been here; you did it!”

I told her, simply, I didn’t do anything. Didn’t know what she was talking about.
 
  “You’re a lying little thing! She was beautiful when I went in; when I came out, she was covered in dirt, her head, covered! Who else could have done this?”

I just looked at her. She was crazy, but I knew that wouldn’t mean anything. One complaint to the nuns would be enough. Logic had nothing to do with anything. She went on her way, mumbling to herself.

I sat there, scared, expecting one of the sisters to come scuttling out from the convent behind the school any minute. My grandmother came, and we went home. I didn’t say anything; not that I wouldn't have been believed, but no point to it. It wouldn’t occur to anyone that this was anything of any importance. So I spent that night, and the next week, paranoid. A nervous wreck, that at any time I’d get pulled into the principal’s office, the old lady with her lace head scarf and rosary trembling with outrage waiting for me.

Nothing happened, and I never heard anything about the statue of the Virgin Mary in the church parking lot being vandalized.

regan lee, march 2013
eugene, or

Skeptic's Take: "The American Medjugorje"

Not sure what the point is, except, any chance to smear so-called "woo" well, a skepti-bunny is going to take it. So turns out Theresa Lopez, who began having visions of the BVM, was not such a stellar character. I think the author thinks that by pointing this out, the entire BVM apparition phenomena is now de-mystified. Oy.The American Medjugorje

Friday, March 29, 2013

NY1 'The Call' Viewer Calls For Gays To Be Beheaded

NY1 'The Call' Viewer Calls For Gays To Be Beheaded:
A Staten Island resident stunned the host of New York 1 program "The Call" by suggesting that gays should be beheaded in accordance with Sharia law.
Identifying himself as Chris from Willowbrook, N.Y., the caller noted, "I'm Muslim and I believe 110 percent in Sharia law. Sharia law needs to be implemented in the United States because that's the only way this deviant lifestyle will be corrected."

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Pope washes women's feet in break with church law - Yahoo! News

Pope washes women's feet in break with church law - Yahoo! News:
 "In his most significant break with tradition yet, Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of two young women at a juvenile detention center — a surprising departure from church rules that restrict the Holy Thursday ritual to men.

No pope has ever washed the feet of a woman before, and Francis' gesture sparked a debate among some conservatives and liturgical purists, who lamented he had set a "questionable example." Liberals welcomed the move as a sign of greater inclusiveness in the church."

Saudi Arabia beheads murderer and then CRUCIFIES his body | Mail Online

Saudi Arabia beheads murderer and then CRUCIFIES his body | Mail Online

Vicious anti-Israel ads are going up in New York subway -- and AFDI is responding - Jihad Watch

Vicious anti-Israel ads are going up in New York subway -- and AFDI is responding - Jihad Watch:
Apartheid? Anne Bayefsky notes that “there were once an estimated 900,000 Jews” in the Muslim world, “but today there are less than a few thousand. They were given a choice: Die, convert or flee.” That’s apartheid. The slaughter of gays across the Muslim world: that’s apartheid. The persecution of Christians across the Muslim world: that’s apartheid. The prohibition of non-Muslims from even entering Mecca: that’s apartheid. Muslims are freer in Israel than in any Muslim country.

Religious Trauma Syndrome: How Some Organized Religion Leads to Mental Health Problems

Religious Trauma Syndrome: How Some Organized Religion Leads to Mental Health Problems:
Dr. Marlene Winell is a human development consultant in the San Francisco Area. She is also the daughter of Pentecostal missionaries. This combination has given her work an unusual focus. For the past twenty years she has counseled men and women in recovery from various forms of fundamentalist religion including the Assemblies of God denomination in which she was raised. Winell is the author of Leaving the Fold - A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving their Religion, written during her years of private practice in psychology.
Link found at Truthout.

The question: Was Jesus a woman?

The question: Was Jesus a woman? | World news | The Guardian:
The Right Revd Katharine Jefferts Schori has compounded the offence of being the highest-ranking woman in the Anglican church by saying, in her first sermon since her election as 26th presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church, that "Mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation - and you and I are his children."
"Conservative anger was fuelled [by this] yesterday," reported the Telegraph gleefully, but in fact, notes Revd Dr Liz Carmichael, fellow and tutor in theology at St John's College, Oxford, they'd have really to be quite conservative to get so vexed: "There is a strong, accepted tradition of feminist thinking in the mainstream church."
The point, she says, is "that in orthodox Christianity you don't assign gender to God. 'Father' is simply a metaphor for a figure of authority" - which doesn't make God a man, but makes it more important that His feminine qualities - gentleness and nurturing - be emphasised. The same goes for Jesus: regardless of his actual sex, "son of God" is a metaphor for an all-encompassing filial relationship.



Tuesday, March 26, 2013

China Bans Reincarnation Without Government Permission | Transmissions

China Bans Reincarnation Without Government Permission | Transmissions: n one of history’s more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is “an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation.” But beyond the irony lies China’s true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region’s Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country.



This is Ishtar: pronounced "Easter"


Magdi Allam, Muslim Convert, Leaves Catholic Church, Says It's Too Weak Against Islam

Magdi Allam, Muslim Convert, Leaves Catholic Church, Says It's Too Weak Against Islam: Allam, who has called Islam an "intrinsically violent ideology," said his main reason for leaving the church was its perceived "religious relativism, in particular the legitimization of Islam as a true religion."

"Europe will end up being subjugated to Islam," he warned in Il Giornale, unless it "finds the courage to denounce Islam as incompatible with our civilization and fundamental human rights," and to "banish the Quran for inciting hatred, violence and death towards non-Muslims." Europeans also need to "condemn Sharia as a crime against humanity" and to "stop the spread of mosques."

Monday, March 25, 2013

Vatican & ETs on C2C Tonight

Yes! The Vatican and ETs, tonight on Coast to Coast. Vatican and ETs/ Free Energy - Shows - Coast to Coast AM: Date: 03-25-13
Host: George Noory
Guests: Tom Horn, Joel Garbon

First Half: Researcher of ancient mythology and paranormal phenomena, Tom Horn, will update the story of how the Vatican could be preparing for ET disclosure, and discuss his visit to the Vatican Astronomical Technology Telescope, and his interviews with the priests and astronomers there.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Islam: Sentences 15 yr. rape victim to 100 lashes

Not only was this fifteen year old girl raped, but raped repeatedly by her step- father, who also murdered her baby. The state religion is Islam. According to Wikipedia: "Islam is the official religion of the Maldives and open practice of any other religion is forbidden and liable to prosecution." Avaaz - Horror in paradise

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Justice For Murdered Pet Cat Moody - The Petition Site

You might wonder why this is posted on this blog. Well, the son of a bitch bastard that killed this cat is a Pastor. He's the pastor at Bastrop Christian Church. Oh, and a police chaplain as well:Justice For Murdered Pet Cat Moody - The Petition Site

Really a sick bastard, and I hope he gets everything thrown at him that's possible. So sign the petition. Thank you.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

The New Pope

Well, my prediction was wrong.  Oh well. Hail the new Pope Francis.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Jesus, the Shape-Shifting, Pagan Magician

Jesus the Magician - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? is a 1978 book by Morton Smith arguing that the historical Jesus was a magician who "sprang from a Galilean strain of Semitic paganism" (p. 68).
h/t to Professor Hex for link.

Monday, March 11, 2013

The Dalai Lama will visit Eugene, OR in May

I won't be able to attend this amazing event, but it is wonderful to know that he will be here! Dalai Lama Eugene — Your Source for the latest official info regarding the visit of His Holiness to Eugene, Oregon

Amnesiac Nun Dream

Discussion last night at the weekly pagan-earth centered group I participate in centered around shamanism. One side topic that briefly came up was my highly integrated mish-moshed ancestry. I had said that until recently -- past few years -- I felt like a crazy pin ball, bouncing around. Am I Native American? Do I embrace the Roman Catholic, Latino side of my family? How about the Russian Jewish side? Then there's the Spanish, and the Celtic. Don't forget about the Buddhist side, or the 32nd degree Masonic side. And that's all just going back three generations. (Great grandparents on down.)

To top it off, there's a very huge elephant in the room concerning blood ancestry, and so, aside from the Scottish/English lineage (on both sides) is the (maybe) Irish side. But no one's talking. There's also a Japanese blood line in my family. And by extension, Korean.

As one person said, and it was supported by the "vision" of another, I "...worked very very hard to choose the parents and family I came to in order to get all these connections." That resonated with me and made quite a bit of sense.

source: Wikipedia nun, Ireland, 1964

So all this energy -past life- present life path stuff was swimming in my head. Last night I had this dream:
One of my recurring dreamscapes. This one is what is labeled "downtown" or "East L.A." in my dream, but it isn't really. It's my own dreamscape; a large boulevard, busy with traffic, pedestrians, lots of theaters and shops and restaurants. It's considered the "poor" section and sort of the "end" of town/dream place, but it doesn't seem that way. I'm a little nervous every time I'm here; I'm in the minority for one thing. A woman, white, alone. But no one really cares. It's slightly hilly here, and while the boulevard is very big and bright and busy, just across the way are residential streets; lots of homes. Hills in the distance.

So I'm roaming around here, a little lost, as I always am when in this place. Not too familiar with the location. This time, I'm a nun. Completely outfitted in a black and white habit. I know I'm a nun, but I also seem to have some kind of amnesia. I don't know where I "work" or what my name is. I don't know why I'm a nun, or how it all works. I just know I am. I'm okay with being a nun and feel sure of what that's all about, even though I don't know the name of my order, or even if I belong to one. 

I'm aware of the looks I'm getting; people are fine with me being a nun but they assume I won't "get" things. That I won't enjoy the Klezmer musicians and their fantastic music as I walk by them playing in a storefront. That I won't think the slightly off color jokes passengers tell on the bus are funny. Etc.

I'm on this bus, and a little worried, because really, I have no idea where I'm supposed to go, let alone know how to get there. Hell, let alone know who I am!

But while I'm lost and am not sure of who I am, I seem to be all right, considering. I am very sure of my "nun-ness" even though I'm not sure if my idea is what other nuns might think. I assume there are other nuns -- as I say, I just find myself here and without an order, without a name for that order, or even if there is an order. I'm a sort of lone nun.

Interesting dream in context: Years ago, a group of us were using the Ouija board. I managed to tick everyone off not because I didn't believe we were getting real messages, but because I doubted the honesty of those messages. No, I wasn't debunking the experience but rather, questioning the energies that were coming through. However, some things did come through that seemed to be more honest than other things. One was the "message", as were discussing past lives, that in one of my former lives I was a nun. This was in the late 1800s in the U.S. west. I was not just any nun, but one thrown out of her order -- or possibly left. I was on my own, still a nun, but more a friend of the "ladies of the night" than any town preacher.

“An onna-bugeisha (女武芸者?) was a female warrior. Members of the samurai class in feudal Japan, they were trained in the use of weapons to protect their household, family, and honor in times of war.”

-
Wikipedia


There's also my Catholic background; growing up in a Jewish-Buddhist household, as a Catholic, and constantly causing scandal by my questions ending in my refusal to stand up and take the pledge during confirmation.



Friday, March 8, 2013

Calling the Psycho Bastards on Their Shit: 'Half of girls in South Sudan forced to marry"

Half of girls in South Sudan forced to marry - Yahoo! News:
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — The 17-year-old beaten to death for refusing to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather. The teen dragged by her family to be raped to force her into marrying an elderly man. They are among 39,000 girls forced into marriage every day around the world, sold like cattle to enrich their families.
More than one-third of all girls are married in 42 countries, according to the U.N. Population Fund, referring to females under the age of 18. The highest number of cases occurs in some of the poorest countries, the agency figures show, with the West African nation of Niger at the bottom of the list with 75 percent of girls married before they turn 18. In Bangladesh the figure is 66 percent and in Central African Republic and Chad it is 68 percent.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Whats the difference between Hoodoo and Voodoo? - Yahoo! Answers

Whats the difference between Hoodoo and Voodoo? - Yahoo! Answers
"Hoodoo and Voodoo are both practiced in Louisiana and have many things in common. However, there are differences between the two. Voodoo is a religion and Hoodoo is an African American system of folk magickal practice that has typically been handed down from generation to generation. Many Hoodoo practitioners in Louisiana are Roman Catholic and also practice some form Spiritualism or Spiritism. They do not typically invoke the loas (African deities) as in Voodoo, and instead use Catholic Saints that represent the loas. This Catholic shroud is the result of a historical atmosphere wherein the only legal religion permitted in the state of Louisiana from the 1600s to 1812 was Roman Catholicism. There is no conflict between those who practice Voodoo and those who practice Hoodoo in Louisiana and they are perfectly complementary. "

Santa Muerte: Underworld saint becoming more popular in US


Underworld saint becoming more popular in US - Yahoo! News: Popular in Mexico, and sometimes linked to the illicit drug trade, the skeleton saint known as La Santa Muerte in recent years has found a robust and diverse following north of the border: immigrant small business owners, artists, gay activists and the poor, among others — many of them non-Latinos and not all involved with organized religion.

Clad in a black nun's robe and holding a scythe in one hand, Santa Muerte appeals to people seeking all manner of otherworldly help: from fending off wrongdoing and carrying out vengeance to stopping lovers from cheating and landing better jobs. And others seek her protection for their drug shipments and to ward off law enforcement.

See also: Who the Hell is Santa Muerte? from Hell on Earth

With Passover Approaching, a Plague of Locusts Descends Upon Egypt - Yahoo! News

With Passover Approaching, a Plague of Locusts Descends Upon Egypt - Yahoo! News: As if we hadn't already seen enough Biblical events this year, a plague of over 30 million locusts swarmed over Egypt's cities and farms just three weeks before Passover begins. But put your apocalyptic fears to rest. This happens every year as part of the locusts' natural migration pattern, though this year's swarm is especially large. That doesn't mean Egyptians aren't freaked the heck out by millions of nasty bugs buzzing through the air at all hours of day and night, possibly descending upon the agriculture fields where they're known to destroy entire crops, just like in the actual Passover story.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

FATIMA topic on Coast to Coast Tonight



George Noory will be joined by Father Nicholas Gruner, one of the world's leading authorities on traditional Roman Catholic doctrine and practice, for a discussion on the series of apparitions at Fatima, Portugal from May to October 1917, in which a number of predictions, requests and warnings were allegedly conveyed by the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Cardinal Roger Mahony: I Forgive Those Who Are Angry at Me for Covering Up Child Rape : Federal Jack

Cardinal Roger Mahony: I Forgive Those Who Are Angry at Me for Covering Up Child Rape : Federal Jack: (PATHEOS) Cardinal Roger Mahony, the man who appears to have shielded child-molesting priests for the sake of Catholicism, wrote about humiliation on his personal website.

But instead of talking about the things he’s done wrong, he flipped it around and threw it back on the victims of his purported crimes and those who rally behind them:

In the past several days, I have experienced many examples of being humiliated. In recent days, I have been confronted in various places by very unhappy people. I could understand the depth of their anger and outrage — at me, at the Church, at about injustices that swirl around us.

Thanks to God’s special grace, I simply stood there, asking God to bless and forgive them.

Demonic Harassment-Joshua P. Warren C2C Tonight

Tonight's Coast to Coast:Demonic Harassment, guest Joshua P. Warren. Host is George Noory.