My previous post did not originate in my cerebral cortex

Rather, somewhere south of my brain stem.

My sciatic nerve, to be exact, which has lately been causing my left leg & foot to feel like they're trapped under a 2X4.

I haven't seen the Dr yet cause I'm scared i'll end up shelling out a couple hundred bucks I don't have just to be treated like a drug-seeking hypochondriac. Even though the source of my pain is likely a disc that is about to go south for the winter. That runs in both sides of my family.

I'm extremely reluctant to take the pain pills very kindly offered to me by people who need them a whole lot more than I do, 'cause it's not best practice, doesn't actually fix the problem, and it's, well,  illegal. That and I'm job-hunting, and it would be kinda hard to explain on a drug test.

I don't usually get personal here, but that's what's going on with me right now.

So this, and some other family experiences have informed my opinion about the dangers of, OMG the scary pain pills!!!!   you could get addicted!!!1!!!11!

I don't take it back, 

I just felt like explaining.

I Have Officially Seen It All.

I was looking at the SkyMall catalog online today and came across this little gem:



Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's POOP FREEZE.
I'll just let the catalog description speak for itself here:

Pet waste removal made easy!

Poop Freeze is an easy, earth-friendly way to do your "dooty" and clean up after your dog. It chills animal waste to -62°F, creating an outer "crust" that enables you to quickly place in a bag and dispose. Makes picking up loose stool and diarrhea easier. Effective for all kinds of pets, including dogs, cats, birds, etc. Indoor or outdoor use. Safe for humans and pets when used as directed.

My sister says this is for people who think their shit doesn't stink.

I, Splotchy - The Next Installment

Edit: Just 'Cause I'm Compulsive, here's the intro from Splotchy's blog

This has probably been done before, but that is not stopping me, oh no.

Here's what I would like to do. I want to create a story that branches out in a variety of different, unexpected ways. I don't know how realistic it is, but that's what I'm aiming for. Hopefully, at least one thread of the story can make a decent number of hops before it dies out.

If you are one of the carriers of this story virus (i.e. you have been tagged and choose to contribute to it), you will have one responsibility, in addition to contributing your own piece of the story: you will have to tag at least one person that continues your story thread. So, say you tag five people. If four people decide to not participate, it's okay, as long as the fifth one does. And if all five participate, well that's five interesting threads the story spins off into.

Not a requirement, but something your readers would appreciate: to help people trace your own particular thread of the narrative, it will be helpful if you include links to the chapters preceding yours.

Oh, and if you pass it along & comment on splotchy's page he'll draw you a little something.

I, Splotchy: This Story Is A Virus :

Here's what I would like to do. I want to create a story that branches out in a variety of different, unexpected ways. I don't know how realistic it is, but that's what I'm aiming for. Hopefully, at least one thread of the story can make a decent number of hops before it dies out.

MathMan has tagged me to add to the story, which reads....

I woke up hungry. I pulled my bedroom curtain to the side and looked out on a hazy morning. I dragged myself into the kitchen, in search of something to eat. I reached for a jar of applesauce sitting next to the sink, and found it very cold to the touch. I opened the jar and realized it was frozen. (Splotchy)

"That's strange," I said out loud to no one in particular. My fingers slowly reached towards the jar again. My body experienced a wave of apprehension as weighted blanket covering me as I did so. The jar was completely frozen.

I picked it up and stared at it, my fingers stung with little knives of chill. "What the..." again I spoke aloud. Then I realized what had happened with a shock. Suddenly the jar flew from my hand. It shattered creating a collage-like mixture of frozen applesauce and glass shards on my kitchen floor, the lid lazily rolling to a stop across the room. (FranIam)

I stood for a moment considering what all this meant. Oh, I knew what it meant, I didn’t need to waste time thinking about it. He was back. And he was mad.

I ran down the hallway and flung open the door at the end. I was immediately hit with a blast of cold. I took a step back as I tried to catch my breath. I bent over, hands on my knees panting. He always had this remarkable effect on me. After so much time, it no longer scared me, but it was a shock nonetheless……

“You know,” I panted, “There’s no need to break things to get my attention.” (DCup)

I woke up in the same position as in my dream, on my knees. I was sweating even though room was freezing. (mathman6293)

I was used to the house being quite cold in the mornings, as the night log usually burns out around one AM when I am dreaming cozily under my covers, not normally waking to put a new one on until morning. I was surprised because on the rare occasions that it actually had reached sub-freezing temperatures in the house, I had awakened in the night to restart the fire. I would have been worried about the pipes before P-Day, but there hadn’t been running water in two years and that was one of the few advantages to being dependent on rainwater, no pipes. (Freida Bee)

The nightmares began during the following spring. The apple trees came to life in my dreams. At first the trees spoke and I thought they were amusing. That changed when the messages arrived. Lately, their anger was directed at me. (mathman6293)

The sound of the front porch floorboards creaking snapped me out of my reverie. I stood up, grabbed my shotgun and made sure a round was chambered, then quietly made my way into the front room and over to the window. As I peeked out past the closed curtains, my heart began to beat rapidly.

It can't be, the incredulous thought came, I saw him die last year!

(Phydeaux)

There was no doubt it was him. I knew the minute he tried to meow and managed only a croak. I could feel him purring before he even reached my leg. As he started to rub against me I bent to pick him up but that’s as far as I got. I smelled her perfume. I didn't see her and the scent was very faint, but a man doesn't forget the smell of a woman like her. As my arms pulled Sylvester to my chest my eyes were closed. The smell of her was strong on him, and my mind carried me back to the last time I'd buried myself in that heady fragrance. "Sorry I took your cat", she said.

(Brave Sir Robin)

For a minute, all I could do was stare at her gape-mouthed in the manner of a man seeing a ghost. Finally, I found my tongue.

"I'd invite you in for coffee, but everything is frozen".

'That's all right" she said "I like it iced now".

Over what can only be described as black coffee slushies, she told me the story of how she stole my cat and ran away to make her fortune as a curandera in the jungles of Bolivia. After nearly a year of sweltering heat and bugs, the only magic she had left was the cat's ability to freeze things. She could no longer produce the raised eyebrow of doom or break ear drums with her sarcastic cackle. When I asked her why she returned, the story got even more convoluted.

" After being run out of Bolivia, I found work at a brothel in Buenos Aires. By the way, your cat learned a few new tricks there. I suggest never saying the words frozen chicken in Spanish to him, you may not like the results. At the brothel I met this tango dancing hamster named Ruby. She told me that the only way I could get my powers back was to...( Red Queen)

...return the cat’s heart. I am sure I don’t have to tell you how long it took me to figure that out. That effing feline always liked you best...but my powers dwindled in him absense...I needed him. So I left the frozen rabbit on the lawn in hopes you would think he had self-destructed finally.

But it was a dangerous addiction, and as my cackle grew stronger, so did his hold on me. Slowly our roles reversed, and he began freezing more often and...just more...while my own powers dwindled slowly over the months. That is how I wasn’t able to keep my cover in Bolivia. He has siphoned all my abilities...and if I hadn’t lucked upon that oddity of a hamster, I would have been dead in two day’s time.”

And now here she sat.

And here I was.

(歐陽丹)

Sitting on a folding metal chair that was covered in a thin sheet of frost in the shack we’d called home. I shivered but not with from the cold – it was something inside much deeper than that. She is here. With another shiver I felt it – my heart was starting to thaw. She was breaking down the walls I’d meticulously built to forget her. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before looking her and curtly asking, “Why are you here?”

“I think you know why”

(canukistanian)*

“No way am I going to Peru, I retorted. “ That damn hamster is more trouble...”

When I first met Ruby, she had just scurried through the crumbling bricks of an apartment house under renovations in the Pacific Northwest. She scampered over my feet, stopping to gnaw through my left shoelace. As she hurried on her way, she suddenly stopped & turned around. She looked at me quizzically & asked,

“Well, are you coming with me or not?”

As I stood there, shocked, and searching for the words to reply, she unfastened from around her neck what appeared to be a thick elastic band with clasps on the end. She quickly strung it through where my shoelace had been and fastened the ends. The she clapped her paws, as if to say “all done”, and turned to leave with a flick of her whiskers. I felt somehow strangely compelled to follow.

Months later, as I sat, dazed on the steps of St. Basil's Cathedral, blinking at the midday sun, i wondered how a case of mistaken identity could have gone so far.

The cat had joined us somewhere along the way, New Orleans, or Austin, I can't remember which. We discovered his freezing power when he saved us from a kitchen fire somewhere in Georgia. We had all taken jobs in this little diner off I-75 and since we had no place to stay, the manager was letting us sleep in the storeroom. One night nobody remembered to turn off the grill, and we woke to the smell of fireworks and frying bacon.

Almost instantaneously, the temperature dropped below zero, and the hot oil spewing from the fry vats solidified in mid-air, flying across the counter to land on the tables and booths like greasy hailstones.

But that was a long time ago.

And that morning in Moscow, Ruby said, as she packed fresh cedar chips into her pillowcase, "I'm so sorry for any inconvenience. The cat doesn't want to go with me, so I hope you'll look out for him. He can be awfully naive."

(Wonder)

***I Tag 'Chelle & Jovial

just for fun

You Are Surrealism

Dreamy and idealistic, you've created a world that is all your own. It's very likely that you've either dabbled in drugs or are naturally trippy. You are always trying to push beyond the boundaries of your culture and society. You believe that art, love, and freedom can change the world.

What Art Movement Are You?

This was going to be about Christmas.

This morning I was getting ready to compose a post about the whole "Merry Christmas Controversy", in which I was going to implore my fellow Christians not to participate in the uncharitable complaining which has cropped up in recent years in the face of well-meaning, or even purely commercial attempts to recognize the seasonal celebrations of our non-christian neighbors.

I was going to comment that this sort of harping seems to originate from voices whose agendas appear inconsistent, at least in this Christian's viewpoint, with the teachings, much less the example, of Jesus. Of course if you're a Christian who read this blog, I'm probably preaching to the choir.

I was going to explain that this "War on Christmas" nonsense makes us look like fools at best, and worse, that it encourages the kind of bigotry that led a group of young men, who probably consider themselves Christians, to attack group of young Jewish men and women on a subway for replying to their "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Hanukkah"

But I want to stop right there for a moment. I've got more to say on the Christmas thing, but something caught my attention, and I almost skipped right past it.

If you've been following the conversation on here the last week, you've noticed the phrase "human tribe" popping up a few times. You've seen that the recurring theme this week has been -- what motivates people to help others when it's not in their own direct self-interest?

You've read Red's heartfelt thank-you to someone who helped her out, depite their disagreements.

We've wondered out loud how to change society so that helping people in need is the norm.


Now let's go back to that subway.

Cause I wanna take notice of one of those people we're talking about. Those people, like the KBR employee with the cell phone, and Red's not-so-anonymous benefactor. A regular person, who didn't just stand by & do nothing.

His name is Hassan Askari. He's a 20-year old accounting student from Bangladesh, who says he's not a hero. He's a Muslim, but he wasn't thinking about the religious differences between himself and these strangers.

"I didn't have time to think about that," he said. "I was more thinking that these guys were going to get beaten up and I should do something."

According to Mr. Askari, his parents are proud of him.
They taught him to stand up for others.

Because it's the right thing to do.

My Sense of Humor Sounds Like A Nice White Zinfandel

But Seriously... ASHTON KUTCHER?

Your Score: the Prankster

(23% dark, 30% spontaneous, 15% vulgar)
your humor style:
CLEAN | COMPLEX | LIGHT

Your humor has an intellectual, even conceptual slant to it. You're not pretentious, but you're not into what some would call 'low humor' either. You'll laugh at a good dirty joke, but you definitely prefer something clever to something moist.

You probably like well-thought-out pranks and/or spoofs and it's highly likely you've tried one of these things yourself. In a lot of ways, yours is the most entertaining type of humor because it's smart without being mean-spirited.


PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Conan O'Brian - Ashton Kutcher






The 3-Variable Funny Test!

- it rules -



If you're interested, try my best friend's best test:
The Genghis Khan Genetic Fitness Masterpiece

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

My new favorite word of the day: Couretsy of CEFAD

"emosogynist"

Another term for "Nice Guy(TM)"

Reminds me of someone who was fond of reminding me how good he was to me. I finally told him to quit telling me how well he treated me, I know if I'm being treated well.

I wasn't.

thanks, Jezebel.

Stand there in your wrongness and be wrong.

A post over on feministe about the flooding in Mexico has sparked quite a bit of anger at brownfemipower . Well, not the post itself, but rather, the insensitivity and ignorance of the (mostly-white?) commenters, especially the first few.

Being somewhat new to feminism as a current (rather than historical) "thing" I've been reading a bit lately. on various blogs, including the Women of Color Blog. So I was a bit more prepared to hear what she had to say on this topic than I would have been a week ago. See, it seems that many non-white feminists have a lot to say about white feminists. And it's not all "hey what a great job you're doing promoting equality for everyone" It's more like "Hey you're really fucked up and NOT promoting equality for everyone!" It's more like "You're really biased and you just can't see it!"

And you know what?

They're right.

And I'm just as guilty as anyone. One of my first comments on Red's post about the floods was an idiotic attempt to make a humorous connection between this tragedy and the immigration discussion we were having earlier. Mercifully, it was removed from the page in a matter of minutes by either Red, The Almighty, or Teh Internet Gremlins. Or Deek. He hasn't posted in a while, but I'm sure he's still got edit-power, and hates this kind of bullshit.

And I'm thankful, because it was offensive, and I never should have said it. It was offensive because people are dying, and I used it as an opportunity to make a joke. From safe in the heart of "white america," I made a joke. not an overtly racist joke, but the fact that I, in a position of unearned privilege took advantage of that privilege to show how witty i'm not, reeks of racism.

And that is WRONG.

• Nearly a million people homeless, and we giggle over "Tabasco".
• I can't find a number on how many dead, and we excuse ourselves with "class, not race" as if the two bear no connection, and white people don't benefit economically from the color of our skin.
  
• Our government offers the insult of 3oo,000 crumbs off our table for relief, while spending millions(billions?) on a "border fence" and military aid to fight a phantom "drug war" and we try to prove how clever we are.(my mercifully deleted comment)
• The Mainsteam US Media largely ignores the tragedy, and we quibble over whether the CA fires can be compared to Katrina

And then we go over there and reply to brownfemipower's post with our "oh-no-i'm- embarassed-to-be-white*- we're-not-all-like-that-please-don't-hate-us-all" hand-wringing.

To Which she says:

brownfemipower

"We’re not all so hopeless, and many of us benefit from the education."

First, i want to say that I get everybody’s point and i think that it’s great, really really really great that so many people take this shit to heart and really genuinely want to learn and understand and change etc. I trust every single one of you, and understand you are coming from a good place.

but I just want to pause and reflect here and point out that there is some very real and very righteous rage here–Aaminah has Latin@ family, I am Latin@, several of the woc who posted are intimately connected to Latin@ communities or women through organizing or have seen their own communities similarly traumatized and then mocked by white majorities–and I just want to point out that even as women are *politely* pointing out that you want to learn and you are very grateful–this rage, this hurt, this pain that women of color are feeling is being very subtly rewritten to be about white women and how they hope that we won’t stop teaching them.

because what is this really about, this hope that we won’t stop teaching? I look at it as a defensive reaction. As, even in sympathy and understanding, being a bit defensive and needing to point out that *you* aren’t *them*–that you aren’t *that*. that *you* are not hopeless, even if those others are–it is a way of distancing yourself, and at the same time, sort of absolving yourself–you are not them, and you don’t have to call *them* out because you’re busy letting us know how much you want to be taught.

Now is not the time, even politely, to let us know that you hope we never stop teaching you–now is the time to cut through the bullshit and respect that when a community’s world is collapsing, a little human sympathy and understanding would be perfect. of course, there are other things that could be talked about and reflected on as well–but when a community is in pain and suffering–they owe nothing to anybody. They have the right to speak their anger, their pain, their rage, their hurt, without any pressure or expectations on them at all.

thank you so much for understanding–and I appreciate all of the support.

We don't get it. So we need to shut up and listen, and realize that it's not always about us.
And we need to, as BFP said, call each other out when we act racist, even inadvertently, and not expect our hands to be held every step of the way.



*(Actually I kinda am... Or, rather, I recognize how inherently unjust and shameful it is that my being born with less obvious pigmentation places me in a "protected" category whose interests are served at the expense of people who are, well, browner than I am.)

Christians With The Sense God Gave Them***

(Can I Trademark that?)

This is the part of the blog where Wonder attempts to combat in her own small way the anti-intellectualism being shamelessly promoted as christian these days, by digging up tasty gems of reasonableness and intelligence from the writings of her christian forbears (or even current thinkers if i can find some good ones).

Today's CWTSGGT is none other than CS Lewis, explaining why ..... democracy is better than theocracy (emphasis is mine)

I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber barron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point may be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely more because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.


And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be. A metaphysic held by the rulers with the force of a religion, is a bad sign. It forbids them, like the inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents, it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be actuated. In a word, it forbids wholesome doubt. A political programme can never in reality be more than probably right. We never know all the facts about the present and we can only guess the future. To attach to a party programme -- whose highest claim is to reasonable prudence -- the sort of assent which we should reserve for demonstrable theorems, is a kind of intoxication,"

- C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 3.

***Disclaimer: Posting somebody under this heading by no means indicates that i endorse every aspect of their philosphy. Just that:

1. They profess to be Christian.
   
2. They said something I consider to be intelligent, humane, relevant, or otherwise worth hearing, especially by Christians, or those who have an interest in the role of Christianity in the culture at large

"God Transcends Nationalism"

I just want to clairfy I'm not trying to advocate for anarchy here. I'm just problematizing the the previous claim that one should see elected legislators as instruments of God. I believe each person, including the members of the board of supervisors, is flawed and finite and should discern the will of God for themselves rather than assume that persons in power will automatically work out a divine plan-- Rev. Nancy McLadd, Bull Run Unitarian Universalists

I don't fault your agnosticism.

I really don't.

Especially in the face of the tremendous harm that religion has done, supposedly in the name of god, I'm not suprised that you choose not to believe.

I often find believing to be difficult myself. It's not God I doubt so much, as it is "His people".

Actually, that's not entirely true -- I do question God. I don't have any actual proof that God exists, or resembles what I believe God to be. But I still choose to believe. For lack of a better explanation, for reasons I'm not entirely sure of, it works for me.

However, I don't understand how people who claim to believe in the same God I believe in, can behave so heinously.

I don't understand a Christianity that's more concerned with stopping gay people from getting married than with teaching its husbands to respect their wives.

I have nothing in common with a Christianity that soothes the conscience of the affluent with the notion that "God wants you to be rich" while opposing public policy that would help poor people (and everyone else) get their kids to a doctor.

I take issue with a version of my faith that makes no room for "foreigners" in "our country" when we're supposed to be foreigners in the world.

I find atrocious an image of God that allows its followers to condone torture in the name of security, that advocates making war against an innocent population for profit. Didn't Jesus say "love your enemies" and "blessed are the peacemakers?"

This is not the God I believe in. This is not the faith I practice.

The God I believe in is just as concerned with Iraqi & Afghan & Mexican & Guatemalan lives as American ones.

The God I believe in says his followers are required to take care of the sick & the hungry & the prisoners.

The God I believe in gave women a place of honor, and taught us alongside our brothers, and picked us to witness to his most wondrous of miracles.

The faith I practice doesn't need to legislate its principles.

The faith I practice knows once the choice of what to believe is taken away, nothing else matters for much.

My flag decal turned upside down - what I should have said

OK, so back around July I posted this image on my myspace page.

As you can see, it consists of a US flag turned upside-down, The writing is quoted from the New Testament - Mostly the Sermon on the Mount - things Jesus said that pertain to being one of his followers, and how that relates to such things as power, money, war, revenge

Now i'm not a "flag-waver" most days (4th of july excepted, and no, I don't think that's hypocritical) but I do believe in the principles that flag is supposed to stand for. I don't think we have any "good old days" to hearken back to where those principles were anything more than a wonderful dream of what could be. But I haven't given up on the good ol' US of A just yet.

In nautical terms, a flag turned upside-down is a distress signal - a sign that all is not well aboard the vessel flying the colors. That's how I interpret this, and how I think many people who are currently displaying the flag upside down intend it. The ship of state has been boarded by pirates masquerading as patriots.

I posted it to get a reaction, and maybe spark some discussion in my small circle

Well, I got a reaction.

One of my friends is a guy I've known for several years. His mom is a family friend, he & Sis went to camp together, and attended the same church for a while, we're both in the same passion play off & on.

He's currently in Iraq, doing "private security". I don't ask, don't want to know, & when he comes home the rich man he hopes to (if he comes home in one piece) I don't know if I'll ever be able to look him in the eye. I don't think I want to see what I think I would see there.

He sent me a message, asking me to take it off my default picture, saying it was "disrespectful" to those who have given their lives defending it.

I moved it from my default, out of respect for my friend, and shared some of my thoughts about why i had it on my page. I challenged him to consider the "religious wording" (his phrase) in the image in relation to some of the polices that were being promoted under the flag.

And I asked him about something he had posted on his page about all things being fair in love and war.

He replied with the complaint that the war was so politicized that they can't do their jobs as effectively as they could if they could, say fire on civilians instead of worrying about offending the Muslims, who want us all dead, and how pulling out of the war now would mean that those who died already will have died in vain.

Now this is a guy who's over there. now. in the middle of this hell. He's there by his own choice, and being handsomely compensated (PSCs make in a month about what the average soldier makes in a year), yes, but in more than one way, he's family. On the one hand, I want to shake him up with just what kind of evil he's actively helping to perpetrate. On the other hand, I don't want to mess with his head in a way that could literally get him killed.

So I told him that i wasn't going to argue firehouse politics with a man inside a burning building. That I hope he gets home safely, sooner rather than later.

And I can't help feeling that in that agreeing-to-disagree, I have failed my friend, and the cause of peace, and God.

I can't help feeling there's more I should have said.


I SHOULD HAVE SAID that they didn't fire on civilians because they're supposed to be the "good guys"

I SHOULD HAVE ASKED why he didn't recognize Jesus' words as anything more than "religious writing"

I SHOULD HAVE SAID that the blind nationalism so common in evangelical circles lately is dangerous, not only politically, and materially, but spiritually.

I SHOULD HAVE SAID that he will have to reckon with God about this eventually, and that I pray that he doesn't wait till he's on the other side of an IED.

I SHOULD HAVE SAID that I fear for his soul.

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. May God have mercy on us all.

Taking my head out of the sand

Way back when my brilliant cousin started this blog, she invited me to participate, partly as supplementary estrogen, and partly because "someone who could write from a liberal christian perspective would be an interesting contrast to all us secular agnostics and atheists."

So some time near the beginning, by way of introducing myself, I posted a blog on what I mean by Christian. DeeK posted a response that at the time, hit me rather hard. Maybe he took my post as a clumsy attempt at evangelism, maybe he was just sharing his own perspective....I don't know, and I suppose I lacked the courage to ask. Writing or talking about my faith among people who don't share it is something that's still a challenge to me. I've never been anxious to proselytize (something that gave me tremendous guilt pangs in my fundy-lite phase) even when I wanted to be a missionary (maybe i shoulda joined the peace corps instead...) and it's hard to put into words what I wear under my skin.

The brand of Christianity I chose to identify with for much of my adolescence and young adulthood sometimes emphasized "The world hates us" so heavily over "God so loved the world" that any disagreement us youngsters encountered with non-believers was hailed as "persecution."

I thought I had grown beyond that.. or that I was "too smart" to have internalized it very much. My fantastic liberal-Catholic-raised parents taught me better. I could argue the left-hand side of Christian politics with people 20 years my senior. Hot-headed and underinformed, but unwavering in my conviction that Jesus was a liberal.
But when DeeK said:

"I guess this is way of saying I accept the need to embrace others as wonder attempts, but I would like to leave the Jesus part out of it."

I heard "Leave the Jesus part out of it." Imperative. command. period. end of sentence.
I completely missed that he also said " I accept the need to embrace others as wonder attempts"
And I assumed he was saying "your superstitions are not welcome here you deluded irrational fool"

For that misperception, DeeK, I humbly ask you to forgive me.

Unlike my gutsier relatives, I've always been a "nice girl". And I was new around here. And I thought I had offended. And my feelings were hurt, so i took my toys and went home like a big baby, at least where spiritual/religious matters were concerned.

How hypocritical that I accused Jovial of the same thing in comments some months later. I hope you will also forgive me.

Trouble with that is, my belief in God-what I really believe, that thing i struggle to put words to, not the knee-jerk prejudices I'm trying to unlearn in light of Truth- inform every part of my thinking, and to avoid that is to strip all my convictions of their meaning. This is not to say that I can't participate in a discussion without regurgitating a bunch of random Scriptures - as a matter of fact I rarely quote the bible to make a point in a discussion with people who don't accept it as authoritative(partly because I'm no biblical scholar and partly because I detest seeing proof-texts quoted out of context).

But I've discovered I feel almost as out of place among secular progressives as I do among conservative Christians, and for the same reason. Because the "natural" assumption in both groups seems to be that progressivism and Christianity(or ANY monotheistic faith, really) are so diametrically opposed as to be mutually exclusive; that I must be insincere in one or the other; that I am, in short, a "liberal" in spite of my belief in Christ. I don't know how to respond to this sometimes.

So I've avoided the Red Queen's many attempts to call me out & get me to do my job. Please forgive me, for having kept my head down when the wingnuts brought out the big guns. And please continue to call me on the carpet when I fall silent.

Apparently sometimes God talks to Christians through snarky agnostics, reminding us that hanging onto power in this world was never part of the plan.

Meanwhile I rant to my mom about how the power-mad maniac brigade currently claiming to operate in Jesus' name looks more like the Antichrist than the Son of God. To which she invariably replies that I should write about it, talk about it, after all, I've been given a forum to do just that.....

Martin Niemöller, who learned firsthand the danger of being, literally, a "Good German", put it this way:

In Germany, they came first for the Communists,

And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;

And then they came for the trade unionists,

And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;

And then they came for the Jews,

And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;

And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.

I know, I said I don't usually throw bible verses around without context, but here's one I probably ought to remember:

James 4:17 Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

May my God forgive me for my complacency, and may the Spirit keep reminding me to do what I ought to do...

Thanks DNC, for helping our votes not to count

I'm on the way out the door, but this just makes me mad.

It's now even more useless to vote blue in this reddest-of-red states.

Here's a vastly oversimplified timeline:

1. GOP-controlled Florida Legislature decides to play the "we wanna hold our primary first" game.
   
2. Florida Dems decide not to hold a whole separate election even though the existing date would have us voting ahead of the "approved" early voting states.
3. DNC punishes Florida voters by stripping our delegates (yes, kiddies, that means Florida Dems have no say in who runs for Prez) and telling the candidates not to campaign in the Sunshine State

ARRGH!


i'll write more later, i have more to say, and i'm sure there's more to all this that i'm not informed about, but right now it's just one more reason I'm disappointed in the Democrats.

A little John Prine in Belated honor of our holiday

Here are the first 2 that I found....

YouTube - Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore

YouTube - John Prine - Flag Decal

Here's the words, if you wanna sing along....

Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore

While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.

Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I'd tell her how good I feel.

Chorus:
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.

Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
"If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free.

"Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead.

Repeat Chorus:
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.

Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.

By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said...

"But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.

Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more."


© John Prine

Fun with Belief-O-Matic (Is that anything like a Veg-O-Matic?)

It slices, it dices, it juliennes! and then it tells you what religion you are.

Basically you answer a little quiz & the little calculator adds up how closely your responses match up with their list of beliefs (kinda like a spiritual computer dating service... is this how e-harmony works?)

as they put it.... The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa

SO here's my results... ok the 1st one was kind of a no-brainer, (although I'm somewhat disappointed to find I match any category 100% - the math must be off somewhere, it MUST be!!!) some suprises - my answers match neo-paganism, baha'i & 2 kinds of buddhism more closely than catholicism(grandma jo would be disappointed) the high match with LDS i have to attribute to spending a large chunk of my formative years in Arizona... i'll probably edit this later after i read the descriptions....

1. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%)
2. Orthodox Quaker (83%)
3. Bahá'í Faith (82%)
4. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (82%)
5. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (79%)
6. Liberal Quakers (79%)
7. Jehovah's Witness (73%)
8. Unitarian Universalism (69%)
9. Seventh Day Adventist (63%)
10. Neo-Pagan (53%)
11. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (53%)
12. Mahayana Buddhism (52%)
13. Theravada Buddhism (52%)
14. Reform Judaism (52%)
15. Eastern Orthodox (50%)
16. Roman Catholic (50%)
17. Jainism (48%)
18. New Age (48%)
19. Islam (45%)
20. Orthodox Judaism (45%)
21. Sikhism (45%)
22. Secular Humanism (38%)
23. Taoism (38%)
24. New Thought (34%)
25. Hinduism (34%)
26. Scientology (30%)
27. Nontheist (20%)

My Own Dead Celebrity Soulmate

Hmmm.... well the description of "what your date might be like" sounds something like my love life, except usually I'm the one who ends up throwing things.

My other Options were Edgar Allan Poe & Billy the Kid... go figure ;)

Fascinating.

The Authoritarians - by Bob Altemeyer

To Christians who talk like the Devil

You almost make me ashamed to call myself a Christian.

Then I remember that you do not speak for Christ.

When you go around threatening people with beatings, rape, and murder because you disgree with them politically or culturally, you do not speak for me, you do NOT speak for the church, and YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR CHRIST.

As a matter of fact, you're acting in direct disobedience to the teachings, spirit, and example of Jesus, as well as several Biblical principles. Anybody with even a passing acquaintance with the most watered-down versions of Christianity knows this. You know it.

SO SHUT UP.

Or stop calling yourselves Christians.

If you care anything for the Gospel, retract your vitriol. Repent of your threats, and your hatred. Because you are harming this country, and you are harming the cause of Christ. What does a non-christian have to judge the claims of Christ by, but the behavior of those who profess to follow him?

However, I suspect that you care nothing for the Gospel, not the real one. I suspect you think "winning the world for Christ" means forcing everyone to act, dress, and think like your preacher tells you, so you don't have to ever think about whether you're doing right. Except that you're too lazy to even do that for yourself, so you'd rather have the government do it for you. The same government you so resent paying taxes to so that people in real trouble have food and clothes for their kids, and decent care when they get sick. REAL things that Jesus ACTUALLY MENTIONED AS HOW CHRIST WILL IDENTIFY HIS FOLLOWERS

Think i'm Kidding?

Matthew 25: 31-46 (King James Version, just in case you consider all other versions corrupt)

31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
King James Version (KJV)

You've sold out. You wouldn't know Jesus if you tripped over Him on your doorstep, and he certainly wouldn't recognize you.

I thought it was the season for peace on earth....

Please don't perpetuate the notion that Bill O'Reilly speaks for anyone but Bill O'Reilly.