DO YOU EVEN GET IT?

 

Woman about to be beheaded.*. Sharia Law

Rep. Matt Salmon, from Arizona's 5th Congressional District, told 3TV that he loves his son and does not believe he chose to be gay, but that he has not "evolved" to the position that his son should be allowed to marry someone of the same sex.

"I don't support the gay marriage," Salmon says in the clip. "My son is by far one of the most important people in my life. I love him more than I can say. I'm just not there as far as believing in my heart that we should change 2,000 years of social policy in favor of a redefinition of the family. I'm not there."

You see, folks, this is what I am talking about. 2000 years of social policy? Not in the least. He is talking about the BIBLE. HIS social policy isn’t the WORLD’S social policy. By sticking to his interpretation of “social policy” he is shoving his RELIGIOUS VIEWS down everybody else’s throats. What if he were voting for SHARIA law and the 1400 years of social policy contained in it? Get it? Would you like it?

DO YOU EVEN GET IT??????

Image: http://www.conservapedia.com/images/thumb/2/22/Sharia.jpg/300px-Sharia.jpg
*I don't know what the offense was. Many offenses are "death penalty" offenses.

Warm Sun and an IPA. Perfect. Really?

Note: My family grows East Kent Goldings Hops

Sitting here in the sun, with an IPA, getting drowsy. Beautiful late afternoon in Northern Florida and the world is at war with itself. I am totally at peace, because in addition to the usual “He is Risen” which to some guarantees salvation, if not here than “there” if there is a there “there”, I am sanguine because the new Pope prayed for peace in his Easter address to the world. Never mind that every Pope for the last 200 years has prayed for peace, and it hasn’t happened yet. The Pope Prayed It. I Believe it. That’s the End of It. So goes the slightly altered line.

So, get ready for Peace, brothers and sisters. With the power on the side of the righteous, how can the world lose? How indeed.
(Is this cynical? Sarcastic? Ironic? Realistic? You tell me.?
Image: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0sv5lBrAM1r6kfouo1_r1_500.png

For My Christian Friends: Not So Radical After All

This is the kind of Crap Nobody Needs.

I don’t go around saying Happy Easter and Happy Passover and Happy Kwanza and Happy Christmas any more than my conservative friends go around saying Happy Solstice and Happy Beltane. How come?  
Not because of lack of respect or some deep dark plot to eradicate a religion. Oh, maybe the conservative friends would like to eradicate Paganism once and for all. You know, get rid of those pesky witches and warlocks. And maybe get rid of the Jews too for good measure (but not the end timers. They need Israel to settle once and for all the end of mankind). Those eradications have been on the sometimes not-so-hidden agenda for millennia. But nobody I have ever heard of actually wants to get rid of the Christian faith in America. Islam, the real thing, doesn’t. Secularists don’t. Nobody does. They all just want to be left alone.
Oh, that’s it. Secularists! Why didn’t I think of that before? The growing secular population in America is getting tired of being preached to and at by the Christian Right. They are tired of having the “Bible” forced down their throat in the thinly veiled movements to pass a Christian agenda and make it the law of the land. So they are getting more and more vocal. And active. And at the same time the Republican Party is feeling the pressure to catch up with the world and leave the archaic ideas of their so-called base behind. Positions like opposing 100% of abortions; opposing any marriage not between “one man and one woman” (which flies directly in the face of the “Bible” they profess to love); insisting on the inclusion of prayers to their “God” at public events where many people are not believers.
These Bible Thumping folks are being manipulated once again by clever Republican operatives and worked up into frenzy about the “dechristianization of America”, as if America was a Christian country all along. In fact all the public religiosity you see around you on money, in the pledge of allegiance and inscribed on buildings is new to the country.

My Christian Friends, nobody who I know wants to take away your religion. We all just want you to stop shoving your spin on the world down our throats. That isn’t so radical, is it?

See for example this article: http://www.wisconsinchristiannews.com/view.php?sid=2750

Image: http://www.bookcrash.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ERADICATE-web-large.jpg

Chewing Tar: Yummmmmmy

When I was a kid we used to look for shiny black globs of tar bubbling up from the pavement, or find a crew who were patching or surfacing roads with tar. We would then tease a lump off the road and chew it. Yup, chew it. Like gum only it tasted better. We survived (Although one of those guys drowned surfing. Can we make a tar connection? Doubt it.) into old age without any harmful side effects. Any else out there ever chew tar? It turns out that lots of people have chewed tar. Road tar, roofing tar, pine tar, spruce tar and just about every other kind you can think of. And the universal opinion is that it is better that chewing gum.

The thing is, I don’t know if the tar used today to patch roads is the same stuff as when I was a kid. So, I won’t go so far as to recommend that you try it. Really too bad, though. Chewing tar was a grand way to augment any activity.

I started on this because I read a research study that showed living near a coal tar sealed road increased the likelihood of getting cancer. Bullshit, my brain said, I used to chew the stuff. From there proceeded the above side trip to memory land.

Image: http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/32071325.jpg

http://genforum.genealogy.com/memorylane/messages/24239.html
Information:

Article citation: E. Spencer Williams, Barbara J. Mahler, Peter C. Van Metre. Cancer Risk from Incidental Ingestion Exposures to PAHs Associated with Coal-Tar-Sealed Pavement. Environmental Science & Technology, 2013; 47 (2): 1101 DOI: 10.1021/es303371t

Dangerous Bastards and Love Fist

Love it. Used it before.

Sometimes, my mother pokes her head out and reminds me just whose son I am. Here she goes again: sick and tired. She was frequently "sick and tired" of something. I grew up avoiding being sick and tired of things. Pissed off. Angry. Mad as hell. And more, but not “sick and tired.”

So when I just thought this: I am SICK AND TIRED OF WHITE MEN CONTINUALLY PUSHING ABORTION RESTRICTIONS; I thought "uh oh. Here comes Mother."

But I really am sick and tired of this. The Florida legislature just yesterday (3/27/13) had 3, count'em three, abortion restrictive bills in committee. Where the hell do these WHITE MEN get the right to pontificate to the entire population of Florida about whom, when, why and how a woman should deal with a personal reproductive process.

Don't give me the religious crap. We supposedly live in a "separation of church and state" country. They are personally offended. Not offended enough to plan for a rigorous education or healthcare system for children born today. Not rigorous enough to plan and implement a really healthy anti starvation program for the children born to poor parents No, just no abortions.

Answer this question: How do you keep em' down on the farm? How do you keep them down? Pregnant in the summer and barefoot in the winter. Who? Why poor people of course. Minorities. Poor whites. Load them up with children to keep them down. And poor.

You think wealthy or even middle class people won't find a way to have an abortion if needed or wanted? You are nuts if you think that. Who won't get them are poor minorities and poor white people.

So yes, I am SICK AND TIRED of these sanctimonious bastards always carrying the flag for the unborn, while ignoring the born. What asshole bastards. And (what a surprise) mostly they are Republicans and Religious conservatives. Bastards cover it pretty well. No, dangerous bastards is even better. No. Wait. Dangerous self-serving rich bastards. No. Oh, what the hell. You get it.

 

 Image: http://webwonks.org/misc/gary/fileball/BastardChild.jpg

Image: http://o.scdn.co/300/5badfbcdbea412f2d01665952fa2e8f00c5e1d92

 

Eagle Sighting!!

Yesterday, Sal and I were sitting in our kitchen looking out the picture windows into the back yard. Suddenly, a very large dark bird swept through the trees, plucked a squirrel off a branch, and then dropped it. The bird landed in the next tree, and for about 10 minutes stayed in plain sight while it changed positions and looked around. Finally it flew off. Whew, what a lucky squirrel.

The bird was an immature Bald Eagle. Fully grown but still no white head. And right in our back yard. What a treat!!! The picture above isn’t the one we saw, but it is exactly like it. We didn’t even think to take a photo; just watched and enjoyed.

Image: http://ckspc.org/Images/Immature-eagle.jpg

Sanctity of Marriage my Ass.

Listen to the whining, wheedling and sanctimonious pronouncements by the religious establishments about the sanctity of marriage and you would think that a bolt of lightning would evaporate anyone violating the “sacred vows” of marriage. IT DOESN’T HAPPEN PEOPLE!!!! For a number of reasons actually. Mainly it doesn’t happen because marriage isn’t sacred. It doesn’t come from god. Or God. Or Allah. It comes from the heart. It is a commitment to go through life as a couple, facing together what either couldn’t or wouldn’t face alone. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. And you don’t need marriage to produce children. Witness the millions of single parent homes and non-married mothers. And you don’t need marriage to raise a child either.

Two parents do make things better sometimes, and worse sometimes. Depends on the parents. Two mothers or two fathers have the same chance of being good parents as two parents of oppsite sex. Maybe even a better chance since it takes more determination to be parents in the first place.

So don’t through the old “Sanctity of Marriage” crap in my direction. I have seen many, many so-called normal marriages fail for many different reasons. I have yet to see a bolt of lightning.

Image: https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/c7.0.403.403/p403x403/9536_557637520924784_1675619134_n.jpg

Imagehttp://www.badassoftheweek.com/zeus1.jpg

Trust Me, Said the Elephant. I Have Changed.

And then he stepped on the mouse. Sorry, said the elephant, but I just can't abide mice.

Since the “Report” or dissection of the Republican losses was released earlier this week there has been much Gnashing of Teeth by the Right. And from what I have seen, it boils down to this: we must change the PERCEPTION of the Party to ease voters into the fold. Not change the DIRECTION, THE PERCEPTION! What bullshit is this? Oh, I forgot. It is the Republican Bullshit. Stick to the rabidly conservative values and agendas, but con the public into PERCEIVING them as a chaste and changed party.

In other words LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH and use smoke and mirrors to try to con the miniorities and women and LGBTQ s of the world to think they have changed. Changed? Newt? Marcus? Mitt? Michelle? These morons couldn’t change a diaper without a nanny.

Pure unadulterated posturing. But, it may work. If it doesn’t work, they always have gerrymandering to fall back on.
As we frequently said in Good Old New York: Fuck Me.

Image: http://www.trbimg.com/img-51142803/turbine/hc-republican-party-courts-hispanics-20130207-001/600/600x427

Wolf/Man Follow Up

 

I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen for several years yesterday. He is a medicine man in a Florida tribe and I trust him. I told him my story, the dream/notdream (1.) and he said very matter of factly “He is a Shaman. Probably used the area you were in for ceremonies. Probably wanted to take a look at you.” No surprise in his voice or expression. No “are you sure?”. Just a simple explanation without reservation and without judgement.

Now, take this kind of experience to religious leaders of other faiths and see what would happen. This man is comfortable in his beliefs, they are based in the world around him and they are real. I know one thing: His world and mine intersect in more than one place. In other essays I have told about my spirit guides, and my family totems. If I had to pick a “religious” paradigm, guess which one I would go with. Wait. Did I say “if”? I have picked, and it is a very comfortable fit.  (And I am lucky to have two spirit guides: Owl and Wolf.)

Image: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3642/5837380763_ae49896d87_m.jpg

1. http://searchesworld.blogspot.com/2013/03/one-more-strange-event-in-life-of-woody_18.html

One more strange event in the life of Woody.

Around 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning of the second night in the “earth house” in rural New Mexico I felt someone watching me. I opened my eyes and standing next to the bed was a man whose head was a wolf. As I watched, the form morphed into a standing wolf with a man’s head, then back. The person/wolf just looked at me without any implication of threat or approval. Then was gone. Lucid dream? Plain old dream? Not a dream at all? Beats me, but I felt really comfortable being there.

http://www.medicinemancreations.com/images/IndianWolfHead.gif