Chemtrail: a visible trail left in the sky by an aircraft and believed by some to consist of chemical or biological agents released as part of a covert operation.
Holy chemtrail: a visible trail left in the sky by an aircraft and believed by some to consist of holy water released as part of an exorcism operation. [Seaburn, Mysterious Universe]
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| Fox news |
Ohio homeowner told to take down his zombie nativity scene | Fox News: An Ohio homeowner was ordered by town officials to remove a Nativity scene in front of his house that featured zombies instead of wise men and a baby Jesus.Town officials will take "legal action" if owner doesn't take it down. Not sure what legal action that might be; freedom of speech and all that.
Saudi religious police hunt down Twitter ‘witchcraft’ accounts — RT News: Saudi Arabia, which has the largest number of Twitter users relative to internet users in the world, has formed a special task force to track users of the popular social media who are accused of spreading vice and witchcraft.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which serves as the religious police of the conservative Gulf kingdom, is conducting surveillance of Twitter accounts in an effort to reign in heightened interest in subjects related to sorcery.
The religious public watchdog is keeping a lookout for those accounts which “are spreading vice and witchcraft” through the community, said Ahmed Al Jardan, the Commission’s spokesman, as quoted by the Saudi news network Al Arabiya.
California first-grader barred from distributing candy canes with religious message- NY Daily News: California first-grader barred from distributing candy canes with religious messages. Robert Tyler, of the Advocates for Faith & Freedom, is threatening legal action against the West Covina Unified School District on behalf of Isaiah Martinez, a 6-year-old who said his teacher threw his gifts to classmates because they contained religious messages. Tyler alleges the boy's teacher said 'Jesus is not allowed at school,' and the district says it tries to maintain 'religious neutrality in the classroom.'Somewhat related, many years ago, when I was lead teacher for a pre-K program at a public institution, one of the assistants wanted to do an art project involving the peace symbol. This was during the Gulf War and the emotions and political climate was intense at the time. I liked the project very much but had to say no to it. I told the assistants that it could be misconstrued -- we had some very gung ho families with spouses and family members, parents of students, overseas -- and so to avoid any outrage and hassles with parents and the institution I worked for, I didn't allow it. A couple of days later, I was out of the classroom for meetings, when I returned, I saw that another assistant had given each student a postcard with the American flag splashed over it and pro-war slogans. I was pretty furious; she shrugged and said "We all have our opinions." That was a nasty thing she pulled and wrong, and yep, it pissed off some parents who were anti-war. And, of course, I was the one who got the shit storm. So teachers are often in a no-win situation, trying to please everyone, and follow the rules mandated by the feds, the state, their district or institution, and their principals. And your own beliefs and values often get swallowed up in the dance of trying to do the right thing. Let alone the original thing, which is to teach, not play games.
ACLU sues Bible Belt school for allegedly bullying Buddhist student - NY Daily News: Sharon and Scott Lane are suing the Sabine Parish School board for religious harassment and for routinely pushing Christian beliefs onto its students.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Shreveport on Wednesday.
An Oregon City pastor announced Friday he plans to run for governor next year.If there's any doubt, here you go:
Aaron Auer, the founder of Reviving Oregon’s Amazing Roots Ministries in Umpqua, said he’s in the early stages of his campaign and kept tight-lipped about what political party he was seeking a nomination from.
“I am campaigning as a modern day circuit riding preacher,” said Auer, a son of dairy farmers in Douglas County.
“I had a dream. I saw governor and the Lord spoke to me and told me you would be the governor of Oregon,” she later told her husband.
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.
Iran confiscates Buddha statues from shops - Yahoo! News: TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Buddha statues have joined Barbie dolls and characters from "The Simpsons" TV cartoon as banned items in the conservative Muslim nation.
Authorities are confiscating Buddha statues from shops in the Iranian capital, Tehran, to stop the promotion of Buddhism in the country, according to a report Sunday in the independent Arman daily.
Iran has long fought against items, such as Barbie toys, to defuse Western influence, but this appears to be the first time that Iranian authorities are showing an opposition to symbols from the East.
The newspaper quoted Saeed Jaberi Ansari, an official for the protection of Iran's cultural heritage, as calling the Buddha statues symbols of "cultural invasion." He said authorities will not permit a specific belief to be promoted through such items. Ansari did not say how many Buddhas had been seized, but that the "cleansing" would continue.
Saudi preacher spared after raping, killing daughter | The Raw Story: A Saudi preacher who raped his five-year-old daughter and tortured her to death has been sentenced to pay “blood money” to the mother after having served a short jail term, activists said on Saturday.
Lamia al-Ghamdi was admitted to hospital on December 25, 2011 with multiple injuries, including a crushed skull, broken ribs and left arm, extensive bruising and burns, the activists said. She died last October 22.
. . . the judge had ruled the prosecution could only seek “blood money (compensation for the next of kin under Islamic law) and the time the defendant had served in prison since Lama’s death suffices as punishment.”
Three Saudi activists, including Manal al-Sharif, have raised objections to the ruling.
The ruling is based on Islamic laws that a father cannot be executed for murdering his children, nor can husbands be executed for murdering their wives, activists said.
Bakery under investigation draws supporters, protesters | Local & Regional News | Eugene News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KVAL CBS 13: The Oregon Equality Act of 2007 prohibits discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. The statute includes public accommodations, such as businesses. Oregon Attorney General's civil enforcement officers are looking into whether Aaron Klein broke the law when he denied the couple a cake.When you choose to have a business that serves the public, that choice includes the decision to accept local laws, benefits, privileges and responsibilities. But misplaced religious feelings took over:
“I apologized for wasting their time and said we don’t do same-sex marriages,” Klein said Friday. I “honestly did not mean to hurt anybody, didn’t mean to make anybody upset, [it’s] just something I believe in very strongly.”That's just disingenuous. How can Klein seriously believe for a moment that he had made anyone, as he put it, "upset?" Don't believe it. Klein says it's his "religious belief" that caused him to deny a gay couple's order, but that religious belief doesn't stop him from engaging with money changers. Wonder if Klein has used credit in his business? Oh, and are the aprons the bakers no doubt wear made of mixed cloth?
Pussy Riot has international support, including of course from fellow musicians. Here's just one link I found while surfing.Madonna, who performed in Moscow and St. Petersburg as part of her world tour, expressed her support for Pussy Riot at Tuesday's concert in Moscow, saying she'd "pray for them." She then turned her bare back, with "Pussy Riot" written on it and donned a ski mask similar to those worn by the band.
What do you fear might happen to you?The religious zealotry, dogmatism and fanaticism Edamaruku fights is ironically mirrored by his own version of same:
If it comes to a trial, I have nothing to fear. I would welcome the opportunity to throw some light on the role that the Catholic Church played and is still playing today here in India. The possibility of arrest is threatening, however.
Do you have any regrets about intervening? Why would one not intervene when somebody gives gullible people sewage to drink? But my reason is broader. The promotion of superstition and belief in paranormal phenomena dulls people's minds and establishes dangerous misconceptions about reality in our society. Such efforts have to be countered.Edamaruku refused to back off and in fact, got quite contentious with critics. While India has the anti-insult to religions law, it also has this, according to Stephen Law.
Clause (h) of Article 51-A of Constitution of India states that : ‘It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to develop the scientific temper, humanism and spirit of inquiry and reform.’
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Call it Conspiracy City. Call it Scandal City. Call it Leak City. These days the holy city has been in the news for anything but holy reasons.
"It is a total mess," said one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke, like all others, on the condition of anonymity.
The Machiavellian maneuvering and machinations that have come to light in the Vatican recently are worthy of a novel about a sinister power struggle at a medieval court.
Senior church officials interviewed this month said almost daily embarrassments that have put the Vatican on the defensive could force Pope Benedict to act to clean up the image of its administration - at a time when the church faces a deeper crisis of authority and relevance in the wider world.
...shortly after the Fatima apparitions, she was forced into a convent (she was not a devout Catholic when the visions happened; her father was actually an atheist), sent to a nunnery where she could not communicate with anyone because language barriers, and was later placed in solitary confinement, to make sure she didn’t speak to anyone; access to Lucia required the consent of the highest Vatican circles and it was rarely granted. What Lucia desired, was therefore totally at the Pope’s discretion.
"While tens of thousands of Mexicans have lost their lives in the ongoing drug war, millions more have become devoted to death. Saint Death (Santa Muerte) is a skeletal folk saint whose cult has proliferated on both sides of the border over the past decade. The Grim Reapress (she's a female figure) has rapidly become one of the most popular and powerful saints on both the Mexican and American religious landscapes. Although condemned as satanic by both Catholic and Protestant churches, she appeals to millions of Mexicans and Latin American immigrants in the U.S. on the basis of her reputedly awesome supernatural powers. ~ sources: Huffington Post
The current administration of Felipe Calderon has even declared her religious enemy number one of the Mexican state. In March 2009, the Mexican Army bulldozed dozens of her roadside shrines in the border cities of Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros. But providing protection to narcos is just one of Saint Death's multiple roles. She is also a supernatural healer, love doctor, money-maker, lawyer and angel of death. ~ source: R. Andrew Chestnut,Huffington Post.
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| 'La Catrina' by Rodolfo Cartas |
No introduction to Saint Death would be complete without consideration of one of her most unique characteristics -- her gender identity. While folk saints abound in the Americas, and other supernatural skeletons work miracles in Guatemala and Argentina, Santa Muerte stands alone as the sole female saint of death from Chile to Canada. Her asexual skeletal form contains no hint of femaleness. Rather it is her attire and, to a lesser extent, her hair that define the saint as female. Devotees and manufacturers of mass produced images of the Bony Lady usually dress her as a nun, the Virgin, a bride or queen.(I wonder about Catrina, the famous Day of the Dead skeletal figure -- is she as common/popular? It's not quite the same meaning, from my limited understanding; Day of the Dead, while maybe morbid to some of us gringos, isn't a negative celebration, and it doesn't share the same context as Saint Death. While both are female images, both are of the people, and both are vilified by authorities, they aren't the same.)
The Virgin of Guadalupe’s indigenous antecedent is Tonatzin, the Moon Goddess, a milder aspect of Coaticue. Coaticue was the Lady of the Serpent Skirt, the creator-goddess who gave birth to all the deities and to earthly life as well. At death, she swallowed living things back into her body. She was also goddess of the moon and stars. She wore a necklace of skulls (like India’s Kali) and, as her name implies, a skirt of serpents. She is sometimes depicted as wearing a skirt made from the penises of her sacrificial victims.
