Student Omits ‘Under God’ From the Pledge of Allegiance, School Vindictively Lowers His Grades | Americans Against the Tea Party

Student Omits ‘Under God’ From the Pledge of Allegiance, School Vindictively Lowers His Grades | Americans Against the Tea Party







Very disturbing story of a high school student who refused to include the words "under God" when he lead students in the pledge. School authorities have found themselves a loophole by saying the student wasn't punished because he refused to say the pledge "properly" but because he refused to do his assignment. Uh huh.



He got detention, his grade was lowered, and he is being threatened with more punishment if he doesn't say the pledge.

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TIME Magazine Compares Witches To Terrorists

TIME magazine has apparently has a nasty and stupid article on witches:

TIME Magazine Compares Witches To Terrorists: In a piece entitled, “Why Witches on TV Spell Trouble in Real Life,” TIME writer Jennifer Latson suggests that this revived interest in witchcraft is “mere silliness” at best and a sign of troubled times at worse. In the article, much to the offense of pagans and witches everywhere, Latson quotes history professor, Emerson Baker, in this amazingly offensive passage.

“Witches, like terrorists, threaten to wipe out everything you believe in. If they could, they would overthrow your government, overturn your faith, and destroy your society.” (Inquisitir, October 28, 2014)

Very sad and stupid.

Vatican & ETs - Shows - Coast to Coast AM

This Sunday's Coast to Coast: Vatican & ETs - Shows - Coast to Coast AM

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Witches, pagans and Wiccans in Alabama: A growing culture and a struggle for acceptance | AL.com

Nice and interesting article on pagans and wiccans in Alabama:

Witches, pagans and Wiccans in Alabama: A growing culture and a struggle for acceptance | AL.com: "In Alabama, marriage equality isn't as scary as paganism," Darksbane says. "I am more readily accepted for being gay than for being a witch."

"Once when I was dressed [like a witch], a woman came up to me at a restaurant and said, 'I wish I could drag you out in the street and beat you to death.' I said, 'Do you not realize how un-Christian that sounds?'" 

Mad World NewsMuslim Woman Forced to Remove Her Face Veil In Public, Didn't End Well

Mad World NewsMuslim Woman Forced to Remove Her Face Veil In Public, Didn't End Well: Cast members performing the opera La Traviata “objected strongly” to the presence of a woman in the audience wearing a niqab-type veil, who was seated in the front row. A singer didn’t spot the woman until the second act of the show, which was when several performers said they didn’t want to sing until she was removed from the Bastille Opera house, according to the Daily Mail.

The show’s director Jean-Philippe Thiellay confirmed the woman was kicked out of the venue, a move supported by France’s ban on Muslims covering their face in public. The law has been in effect in the socialist country since 2011.

Muslim women who reside in and around Paris found in violation of the law are typically given a fine; however, this is the first known incident of someone being ejected from an artistic venue. Thiellay said the security guard told the offender that in France there is a ban of this nature, before he asked her to either uncover her face or leave the auditorium.

Seems bigoted, sure, but turn it around… just think what it'd be like for say, a westerner living in some Muslim countries? And one as always, has to question why Muslims -- or any religious group at all --  who adhere to their traditions so strongly are both surprised at the responses of others to that adherence, and why they have chosen to live in a country not "theirs" or not overall welcoming of their conformist natures to their traditions?

 

'Godless' Churches Open Doors

'Godless' Churches Open Doors: Apparently, atheists are yearning for their crack at potluck dinners and picnics: There's no church in the traditional sense, and no steeple, but what opened its doors in Rochester, NY, this past Sunday is no less than an atheist church. Dubbed the Sunday Assembly, the group skipped the pastor and the choir and got the church party started with what the Democrat and Chronicle calls "an upbeat, rock band rendition of Michael Jackson's 'Man in the Mirror.'" In the hourlong, laid-back service that followed, the group of 50 or so congregants focused on the theme of "wonder" via pop songs and a speech by a local education professor.

And you thought Unitarians were on the fence...

Tarot artist Patrick Valenza

Patrick Valenza, creator of the fabulous Deviant Moon tarot (I have both versions of this deck; the first one and the borderless version) has a new deck due out in October. Trionfi della Luna. I like this image of The High Priestess from his new deck; it has a distinct Marian vibe.

The Trionfi della Luna is not a tarot deck per se, but just the major arcana cards . . .

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Angels and Demonology - Shows - Coast to Coast AM

Tonight's Coast to Coast: Angels and Demonology - Shows - Coast to Coast AM

Witchcraft-obsessed townsfolk try to drive out teen who opened Naughty Girls Donut Shop

Sixteen year old is harassed, townsfolk throw trash, write angry letters, and engage in slut shaming:

Witchcraft-obsessed townsfolk try to drive out teen who opened Naughty Girls Donut Shop: The family then received a letter that was also sent to several area businesses, threatening a boycott by “Local Catholics of Front Royal” if they did not stop advertising with a local newspaper.

The group had targeted the Warren County Report over allegedly anti-Catholic articles published by one writer, Roger Bianchini, who has covered clergy sex abuse and efforts to overturn a decades-old ban on fortune telling and other “magic arts.”

The town council voted last month to overturn the ban, which some residents wanted to remain in place “out of fear” of “Satanism.”

Don't know the artist or source for this image -- if anyone out there knows, I'd appreciate the citation.

Pagans in BeeBe, AR: We have the right to exist

Updates from the pagan family and their Seekers Temple, who have been illegally and unconstitutionally harassed by local authorities. From the police, the city council,churches; clearly illegal actions have been made towards Bert and Felicia Dahl, the pagan family who are victims of this non-stop harassment. We have the right to exist

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Florida School Board Member Tells Pagan: If You Deliver an Invocation, I’ll Walk Out and Ask the Crowd to Join Me

Here we go again, yet another current example of officials stubborn arrogance and ignorance when it comes to non-Christian beliefs. What's scary about this one is the continued hypocrisy and superstition -- in other words, uneducated and illegal -- not to mention insensitive, comments from a member of a Florida district school board! (Escambia County.) Scary shit here, scary indeed.



David Suhor, a pagan, requesting to lead the prayer/invocation, gets the following treatment from the addle-headed Jeff Bergosh. School board member, no less:

Florida School Board Member Tells Pagan: If You Deliver an Invocation, I’ll Walk Out and Ask the Crowd to Join Me:

In fact, one of the board members, Jeff Bergosh, took to his personal website to write about how he has no intention of letting non-religious people deliver invocations:

"I mean, should the majority of persons in attendance at one of our meetings really have to listen to a satanic verse? What if a “Witch Doctor” comes to the podium with a full-on costume, chicken-feet, a voodoo doll and other associated over-the-top regalia? It could easily get out of hand, so far as I can tell….(I wonder what our local media would say about this?)"

  I won’t stay and listen if someone tries to be disrespectful like that. I’ll leave the room and come back after, or wear BOSE noise cancelling headphones. Or I’ll turn around and raise my fist in the air like the ’68 Olympians did(uh, I’m being sarcastic-I wouldn’t really do that…)…… I won’t be part of someone’s prank. (Jeff Bergosh, school board member)

In response to Suhor, Jeff Bergosh (remember, a supposed educated person serving the public, member of a school board and model for students and citizens) wrote:

When you come to bring your Wiccan, Atheist, or Klingon invocation — I’ll politely excuse myself from the room and simultaneously invite anyone in the audience who wants to join me in a Christian invocation out back. You can give your invocation to those that want to hear it and stay in the room. Nobody will prevent you from your free exercise of your religion, just as I would expect for you not to attempt to block me from exercising my constitutional right to my Christian belief via a Christian invocation outside the back door. A win-win, right Dave? (Bergosh) 

Read more at Jeff Bergosh's website: 

Teen Punished for Saying 'Bless You' in School: Report

Teen Punished for Saying 'Bless You' in School: Report: (NEWSER) – A high school senior in Tennessee says she was placed in in-school suspension because she said "bless you" after a fellow student's sneeze. Kendra Turner tells WMCTV her teacher told her that "bless you" is language for church. "She said that we're not going to have godly speaking in her class, and that's when I said we have a constitutional right," Turner says. The phrase is one of several banned in the class, according to students; they sent WMCTV a photo showing a whiteboard listing of such phrases, which also include "stupid," "my bad," and "hang out," Fox News reports.

Islamic State Stones 2 Women to Death for Adultery

Meanwhile...

Islamic State Stones 2 Women to Death for Adultery: (NEWSER) – Two women were stoned to death by Islamic State militants within a 24-hour period last month, the AP reports. Their alleged crime: adultery. "People were shocked and couldn't understand what was going on," says an activist witness to one of the stonings in northern Syria. Militants called on locals in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa to hurl the stones, but no one would—prompting the militants to act alone.

Who Are the Yazidi, and Why Is ISIS Targeting Them? - NBC News.com

ISIS are not "militant rebels" they are terrorists. As the world continues to ignore history and Israel's reality while protesting that country's actions towards "the Palestinian people" ISIS continues, and yet, we hear little protest:

Who Are the Yazidi, and Why Is ISIS Targeting Them? - NBC News.com: Who are the Yazidi, why have Iraq's militant rebels threatened them with execution if they don't convert to Islam,