Benefits of Companion Animals

If you don't have good health insurance coverage, adopt a homeless animal from your local shelter.

Dr. Andrew Weil's daily tip advises:

If you're a pet owner, you won't find it surprising that pets can instill a sense of well-being in people. Studies have shown that pet owners, particularly the elderly, have lower blood pressure, are less likely to be depressed and have higher self-esteem than people who don't have pets. Among the more tangible rewards: A 1999 study in New York, Missouri and Texas found that medication costs dropped in nursing homes that allowed pets. In another study, 70 percent of the families surveyed reported an increase in happiness and fun as a result of acquiring a pet. In 2000, the American Heart Association's study of stockbrokers found that those who had the companionship of a dog or cat experienced a calming of the "stress response" that can contribute to high blood pressure. After learning the results of the study, many of the pet-less stockbrokers decided to invest in a pet of their own.

Even if you have good health insurance, the benefits of living with a four-footed-fur-ball, are immeasurable. When I become stressed about what the Bushites have done to our country and the rest of the world, I bury my face in a furry body and give it a brisk cheek rub. This distraction always elevates my mood. Other times, I "wash that man right out of my hair" with Bush soap.

Bush Soap

Bush soap is guaranteed to remove filthy residue of Administration Lies & Corruption, Chemical Plant Emissions, Soot from Burning Oil Wells & Blood.

Vice President Dick Cheney says: "If you don't like Bush soap then you can just go fuck yourself."

Remember kids, Mr. Bush says, "Don't tell lies or I'll have to wash your mouth out with soap and I know where you live."

Note to FBI, CIA and Homeland Security: This product is not designed to foment revolution or incite acts of sedition against the United States, so leave us alone.

Got Health Insurance?

The New York Times reports that the percentage of U.S. companies paying for their workers' health insurance is falling sharply, according to the Hay Group, a benefits consulting firm. In 2000, 29% of large and mid-size employers paid 100% of premiums for health coverage; by 2004, that figure had fallen to 17%. Companies blame rising health costs and tight business competition. If you want a Cadillac plan, get yourself elected to Congress.

Rumsfeld Grilled by Rep. McKinney

Representative Cynthia McKinney Grilled Rumsfeld On Dyncorp Sex Rings, Missing Pentagon Trillions & 9/11 Wargames

The video is here. (Thanks to Dada for sending the link.)

I propose that we need Barbara Boxer for president and Cynthia McKinney for Vice President!

Florida Living Will

If you live in Florida you might want to sign a living will to try and prevent Jeb Bush and the Congress from interfering with your end of life decisions. You might also need one in Texas unless you can't afford to pay - then Chimpy's law will make sure you die.

Here's a form you can use for your living will (thanks Zoe):

I, _________________________ (fill in the blank),being of sound mind and body, unequivocally declare that in the event of a catastrophic injury, I do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means. I hereby instruct my loved ones and relatives to remove all life-support systems, once it has been determined that my brain is longer functioning in a cognizant realm. However, that judgment should be made only after thorough consultation with medical experts; i.e., individuals who actually have been trained, educated and certified as doctors. Under no circumstances! -- and I can't state this too strongly -- should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it.

Furthermore, it is my firm hope that, when the time comes, any discussion about terminating my medical treatment should remain private and confidential. Living in Florida, however, I am acutely aware that the legislative and executive branches of state government are fond of meddling in family matters, and have little concern for the privacy and dignity of individuals. Therefore, I wish to make my views on this subject as clear and unambiguous as possible. Recognizing that some politicians seem cerebrally challenged themselves (and with no medical excuse), I'll try to keep this simple and to the point:

1. While remaining sensitive to the feelings of loved ones who might cling to hope for my recovery, let me state that if a reasonable amount of time passes -- say, ____ (fill in the blank) months -- and I fail to sit up and ask for a cold beer, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes, and call it a day.

2. Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Floridians who aren't in a permanent coma.

3. Under no circumstances shall the governor of Florida butt into this case and order my doctors to put a feeding tube down my throat. I don't care how many fundamentalist votes he's trying to scrounge for, it is my wish that he plays politics with someone else's life and leaves me to die in peace.

4. I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don't know these people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf. They should mind their own business, too.

5. It is my heartfelt wish to expire quietly and without a public spectacle. This is obviously impossible once elected officials become involved. So, while recognizing the wrenching emotions that attend the prolonged death of a loved one, I hereby instruct my relatives to settle all disagreements about my care in private or in the courts, as provided by law. If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make his or her existence a living ____ (fill in the blank).

All Star Team

Mark A. R. Kleiman:

I see Nat Hentoff and Jesse Jackson have joined the feed-Terri forces, which already included Ralph Nader, Randall Terry, Rush Limbaugh, Bo Gritz, Sean Hannity, and James Dobson. Now if we can just get Alexander Cockburn and Al Sharpton to join in, we'll have a left-right coalition embodying the very cream of the nation's loudmouth dimwitted self-promoting busybodies.

Note to Hentoff: "brain dead" means "dead." No one thinks that Terri Schiavo is "brain dead." The fact that William Frist can tell if someone is brain dead gives him no qualification to judge whether Terri Schiavo has permanently lost all cognitive function, even if he had in fact either examined her or viewed her medical records.

This is your brain

Our friends at Ed Babinski's site are now offering some great T-Shirt designs (mugs, too). I especially like "This is your brain on the Bible". Go take a look and buy some stuff, read Ed's satire, etc.

Signatures in E-Mail Messages

In my other life, I do genealogy research and that hobby is unfortunately populated by a large number of fans of our Chimp-in Chief. Today I received an email message asking me to provide information to her about her family. She made the mistake of using the following in her signature line:

"The best exercise for the human heart is a sincere effort to . . .lift others up." -G. Bush

In years past, I ignored these types of things, but I've become less tolerant under this administration so I replied as follows:

"We cannot let terriers and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.'' - G. Bush

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." - H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Here's a hint, folks. If you are asking me for a favor, don't quote Preznit Chimpy in your email. It doesn't put me in a generous mood.

Annie Gottlieb has designed a cute little fish symbol for proponents of Intelligent Design (ID) and displays it on her blog (scroll down to find it on the right). While she doesn't take a position on the subject, she also offers interesting commentary in the debate about ID.

Most biologists have concluded that proponents of Intelligent Design (ID) are anti-evolutionists as reported by Natural History Magazine:

Most biologists have concluded that the proponents of intelligent design display either ignorance or deliberate misrepresentation of evolutionary science. Yet their proposals are getting a hearing in some political and educational circles and are currently the subject of a debate within the Ohio Board of Education.

A PBS series concluded:

A concept known as "intelligent design" (ID) has been used as an argument against Darwinism from the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859 right up to the present day. Quite simply, ID states that living organisms must be the product of careful and conscious design, so perfectly formed that they cannot be explained by the random workings of evolution alone. Modern ID theorists contend that this is a new and novel scientific alternative to evolution.

ID, however, has been rejected by the modern scientific community for the same reasons that it failed in the 19th century. When closely examined, the living world is filled with evidence that complex organisms not only could have evolved through evolution's trial-and-error mechanism, but must have done so, because their structure, their physiology, and even their genetic makeup are all inconsistent with the demands of intelligent design.

I think it's safe to conclude that proponents on ID have a political agenda and if their theories are accepted in the science curriculum of schools, Zecharia Sitchin's theories of Intelligent Design should also be taught. Sitchin's study of ancient Sumeria led him to conclude that our planet was occupied by ancient astronauts who arrived here to extract minerals from our planet. These miners needed slaves so they genetically engineered our ancestors from primates. Thus these astronauts were literally our creators giving rise to our worship of a God who resides somewhere up there in heaven. Sitchin is delighted with the debate about ID, but Bible literalists will not like his theories:

... the famed independent Sumerologist and writer on ancient Mesopotamian mythology, whose 6+ volumes of the Earth Chronicles have revealed an astonishing interpretation of the ancient myths; the "gods" or Anunaki of the Sumerians were extremely long-lived extra-terrestrial humanoids, who colonized Earth from their planet Nibiru, and genetically engineered an Anunaki-primate hybrid, to be worker slaves; we humans are the descendants of these hybrids, still dealing with the fateful consequences of this mixed ancestry in our genes...

Sitchin says Intelligent Design and Evolution are not mutually exclusive:

As my readers know, what I have said in my books went beyond the common origin of Life (=DNA) on Earth and elsewhere in the Universe. I showed that according to the Sumerian texts (on which the biblical account of Genesis was based), Evolution took its course both on Nibiru and on Earth. Beginning much earlier on Nibiru, it produced the advanced Anunnaki on Nibiru but only early hominids on Earth when the Anunnaki had come here some 450,000 years ago. Then, I wrote, the Anunnaki engaged in genetic engineering to upgrade the hominids to Homo sapiens (to be in their likeness and after their image, as the Bible says).

Then he quotes a Times article dated April 2001:

Adherents of intelligent design carefully shun any mention of God in their proposals. They simply argue that humans, animals and plants are far too diverse and complex to be explained by evolution and natural selection, so there must have been an intelligent designer behind it all. Whether that designer is God, AN ADVANCED CIVILIZATION FROM ANOTHER WORLD, or some other creative force, is not specified.

My conclusion is: When we stop teaching science to our children, we can all echo Preznit Chimpy's question, "Is our children learning?"

Tom Delay: A Cartoon Character?

Ring of Fire Enterprises Blog Page: "Are Tom Delay and Dale Gribble the same person? Has anyone seen them together? Consider the similarities: Dale is an exterminator. Delay is an exterminator (he killed his own father, and he killed bugs).
Dale is a paranoid psychopath. Delay: Likewise"

Original Darwin Fish Had Claws

About 350 million years ago, some of the earliest land animals crawled on 5-toed feet along a warm tropical beach, in what is now Nova Scotia. They left footprints, which were recently discovered by surprised scientists, who had thought it took animals much longer to adapt feet suitable to land.

Creatures first dragged themselves out of the seas about 370 million years ago, but their primitive feet were adaptations of fins, with 8 toes.

The Nova Scotia footprints, though, seem to be those of amphibians and reptiles well equipped for life on dry land. Some of them may even have been able to climb trees.

Dr. Spencer G. Lucas:":"They're not just walking on stubby toes. They've got claws. They've got long, thin fingers." Evolution, he says, appears to have been moving faster than scientists suspected.

Nona Williams: "Like most religious conservatives, the Ichthus fish failed to evolve and remains legless to this day."

Get your Darwin fish car emblems from Ring of Fire Enterprises and while you're at it, get our new emblem featuring T-Rex snacking on one of those legless, unevolved fish.

How We Celebrated Easter

Rob attached a tiny camera to one of our cats and then hid kitty kibbles in the back yard and watched her hunt for them.

Dada reports:

I did consider going to the store and buying some Sierra Nevada ales because they come in bottles with brightly colored labels, much like Easter eggs. I thought about having Mary hide 'em in the backyard. Then I would have an Easter Beer Hunt. I think I've kinda nixed that, however. I'm afraid we might not find all of 'em and the thought of a beer or two out in the backyard going to waste in the hot sun would ruin my whole summer. (Probably end up fruitier than the president!)

Delay the Exterminator

Rob says: "I have an opinion about Tom Delay's heart condition: If he ever falls into a coma resulting from a heart attack, or something, we should perform no heroic deeds to save him (although he's already deep in a right-wing stupor) we should allow him the dignity to continue to live for a very looooooongggggggg time in a persistent vegetative state (not unlike Vegetable Bush) for "as long as it takes". After all, we wouldn't want to be guilty of murder."

Tom Delay Murdered His Own Father

Recently Tom Delay was bragging about how passing a bill to keep Terry Schiavo alive would help the Republicans politically? Well now, we find that he wasn't that interested in keeping his own father on life support. From The New York Times:

Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader and leader of the Congressional effort to spare Terri Schiavo's life, was confronted more than 16 years ago with his own agonizing end-of-life dilemma and agreed to withdraw life support from the patient, his father, according to a report Sunday in The Los Angeles Times.

The account said that Mr. DeLay had suffered multiple injuries, including kidney failure, and that his wife, Maxine, and their other children had made the initial decision to withhold kidney dialysis and other treatments when it became clear he could not recover. Representative DeLay, at the time in his third term in the House, did not object, the newspaper's report said.

In a meeting before the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group, Mr. DeLay linked the Schiavo case to a broader attack on both him and the conservative movement in general. In press releases and statements on the House floor, he spoke of Ms. Schiavo in explicitly religious and moral terms.

"Congress has a legislative and moral duty to do what we can to protect her," Mr. DeLay said on March 17, after the House passed a measure intended to prevent the withdrawal of Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube. "Her life is being threatened, and we have it in our power to act on her behalf. Every human life deserves at least that much."

This is what Tom Delay said about Terry Schiavo:

"Right now, murder is being committed against a defenseless American citizen in Florida," DeLay said. "Terri Schiavo's feeding tube should be immediately replaced, and Congress will continue working to explore ways to save her.

"Mrs. Schiavo's life is not slipping away - it is being violently wrenched from her body in an act of medical terrorism," DeLay said. "Mr. Schiavo's attorney's characterization of the premeditated starvation and dehydration of a helpless woman as 'her dying process' is as disturbing as it is unacceptable. What is happening to her is not compassion - it is homicide. She doesn't need to die, and as long as Terri Schiavo can breathe and her supporters can pray, we will not rest."

Tom Delay's own father was being kept alive by intravenous lines and a ventilator when Tom Delay decided to murder his own father by removing life support!

It's time to remove the hypocrisy tube that's feeding Tom Delay.

What Would Jesus Do?

By Hesiod on American Street:

Dateline Jerusalem, 29 a.d. — The ongoing controversy surrounding whether or not Jesus of Nazareth has the right to voluntarily die on the cross, took a dramatic turn yesterday.

Roman Senator, Billius Fristus Felinocidicus announced that in a late night, weekend session, the Senate had passed an imperial edict, signed by Emperor Tiberius W. Caesar, declaring that Jesus of Nazareth did not have the right to voluntarily relinquish his life, and that the decision is up to his parents. Caesar quickly returned from his summer retreat at Capri to affix his seal to the document. Upon sealing it, Tiberius, who is widely credited with the assasination of all his major rivals for the throne, declared that he would always “err on the side of life.”

Jesus’ legal representative, Saul of Tarses, expressed outrage at Rome’s intrusion into his client’s personal decision. “Jesus ben Joseph has a job to do. He believes he is fulfilling God’s plan to redeem the souls of man by dying on the cross. This is his right and his mission. This unprecedented interference by Roman politicians is nothing but grandstanding.” Fristus is believed a candidate to be Ceaser’s handpicked successor.

When reached for comment at his jail cell in Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth replied in a short statement “forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.”

Jesus’ mother, Mary, expressed relief. “I don’t care what Jesus says now,” she said in a statement. “Once, when he was 11 years old, he said he wanted to be a carpenter, not the messiah. I’m just glad that Senator Fristus and Praetor Tomarius Delayulous Pecuniarius see this for what it is.”

Leading juridical scholars agreed that the law was unprecedented. “Usually, Rome condemns people to die as traitors to the state or in wars. Actually passing a law that says you can’t voluntarily relinquish your life has never been done before,” said Rabbi Alanus Dershaiaphus.

Religious fundamentalists praised the decision. “We are absolutely thrilled by this decision,” said the Teacher of Righteousness, the leader of the radical Essene Jewish sect. “It reinforces that when people think of the Roman Empire, they think “culture of life.”

Had Any Finger Food at Wendy's Lately?

A woman said she bit into a partial finger served in a bowl of chili at a Wendy's restaurant, leading authorities to a fingerprint database Thursday to determine who lost the digit.

"Suddenly something crunchy was in my mouth,'' she told the Mercury News, "and I spit it out.''

What she spit out was a an inch-and-a-half long finger tip, with a longish, nicely groomed nail.

The incident Tuesday night at a San Jose, Calif., Wendy's restaurant left the unidentified customer ill and distraught, said Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Health Department.

Wendy's said the finger did not come from the restaurant's employees. It is also confident company suppliers are not to blame because of product coding that allows the company to trace where a product comes from, the day it was produced, when it was shipped and when it arrived at the restaurant, Lynch aid.

So if you're missing a finger, please contact Wendy's.

Origins of Easter

Did you ever wonder how the Easter bunny is related to Christianity? Well I did, and as usual I found that like most other holidays, it was originally a pagan holiday. Since fundies are refusing to celebrate Halloween these days and yet they make a big deal of Easter, I can only assume they don't know the origins of this holy day.

Easter was originally the day to honor the Saxon Goddess Eostre or Ostara. She was probably a northern form of Astarte.

The Easter bunny was the moon hare sacred to the Goddess. The date that Easter falls on was fixed by the old pagan lunar calendar, the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, formerly the "pregnant" phase of Eostre. The Christian festival wasn't called Easter until the Goddess's name was given to it in the late Middle Ages.

The Irish kept Easter on a different date than that of the Roman church, probably the original date of the festival of Eostre, until the Roman calendar was imposed on then in 632 A.D.

Eggs were always the symbol of rebirth, which is why Easter eggs were usually colored red especially in eastern Europe.

And remember that Bunnie dyed eggs for your sins.

Freepers Discuss Evolution

Thanks to Ms. Green of Alexandria, Virginia for letting us know about an interesting discussion at Free Republic about Ring of Fire's Darwin fish and new T-Rex having a delicious snack on an Ichthus automobile emblems.

The discussion there was prompted by a satirical article at The Holy Observer.

Fundies Control the Republican Party

I shamelessly borrowed the following from a diary at Daily KOS (because I was too busy to write it up myself):

In Closed-Door Briefings, Frist, DeLay Cement Ties With Religious Right On Schiavo Case, Judges, Abortion, Marriage, Church Politicking, Ethics Complaints

The Family Research Council, a Washington-based Religious Right group, held a closed-door "Washington Briefing" March 17-19, 2005. During the event, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) addressed attendees and pledged that Republican leaders in Congress would work to implement the Religious Right's controversial political agenda.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State obtained a recording of DeLay's and Frist's comments. Americans United believes this recording underscores the growing power and influence of ultra-conservative fundamentalist organizations on our political system. AU released it to the media and public because the organization does not believe that powerful groups with controversial and narrow fundamentalist agendas that they seek to impose on all Americans should be permitted to plot and scheme in secret.
The people speaking on this recording, in order of appearance, are:
Thursday, March 17

Connie Mackey, vice president for government affairs, Family Research Council
U.S. Sen. Bill First (R-Tenn.) [speaking via telephone]

Friday, March 18
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) [speaking in person]

Tony Perkins, president, Family Research Council

Both speeches took place during the Family Research Council's "Washington Briefing" at the Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C., March 17-19, 2005.
Although, the site is currently overwhelmed you can download an mp3 file of Delay and Frist's comments here

Bush Finally Admits a Mistake

In his usual inarticulate and inartful manner, the Chimperor is quoted as saying:

...And I believe that in a case such as this the legislative branch, the executive branch ought to err on the side of life, which we have.

He admitted that it was an error to interfere with the courts' decisions, however, with his typical simian arrogance, he thinks he was right to make this error.

To Arm the World - That's Our Business

Rice: European Nations Must Not Arm China

BEIJING (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested Sunday that European governments are irresponsible if they sell sophisticated weaponry to China that might one day be used against U.S...

(....Arming our potential military adversaries is the job of American companies like Lockheed Martin and United Technologies," Rice warned Europeans. ~Dada)

We the Enablers

Dada sez:

Reading "Bush on the Couch" by Justin A. Frank. It's entertaining in that it's helping me to learn more about who I am. Perhaps you've known an alcoholic and, if so, how those closest to 'em tacitly support their illness by enabling it. You know? You don't want to upset 'em for fear of upsetting the family status quo; of triggering an excuse for them to drink or binge.

As Frank says....

As the unrecovered alcoholic father busily juggles anxieties in his constant struggle to avoid reaching for a drink, the status quo on which he depends eventually expands to include the entire family unit. When the family is threatened (by anything other than the father's alcoholism), all emphasis is directed toward finding a short-term solution that will preserve the stability of family life, often to the detriment of all other areas. This happens whether the threat is real or imaginary; the alcoholic's damaged internal reality determines the entire family's perception of material reality.

The model of an alcoholic family dynamic bears a telling similarity to the way much of our nation has behaved under George W. Bush--especially since the attacks of September 11. At times, the country has seemed to act like a family with an abstinent, untreated alcoholic at is head, overreacting to vaguely perceived threats by rushing out to buy duct tape or fretting over color-coded alarms. Once the crisis passes, Bush shifts the focus to another alleged danger closer to home--such as the threats to the social fabric posed by gay marriage or stem cell research. Like the alcoholic father who is threatened by the independence of his family members, Bush demands absolute loyalty and conformity, trying to freeze his national family in time--preferably a time before gays demanded their right to marry and women their right to abortion.

Whew! Okay, so now I understand why Bush stacks the press room with a softball reporter here and there. (I noticed at least one in his latest press conference who should be checked out!) Why the media adorns kid-gloves and walks on eggshells in questions they ask of him. Why he uses taxpayers' money to create phony "news" run on local stations across the country (i.e., throughout the "house") Why his trips around the country--"house"--selling his public relations job on his latest "emergency" are attended by his most approving loyalists (family members). No dissent permitted. Why demonstrators are not allowed within sight of "Daddy." Woe be to those who challenge him. Ask those who've dared. The reality constructed from the anxieties of Bush's untreated pathologies (we're not even mentioning his ADHD here) cannot handle real world issues.

So Bush is a dry drunk*. In his case, he found his "cure" sans Alcoholics Anonymous. (It came through Jesus according to Frank). But the anxieties swimming just beneath the surface that cry for a drink are always lurking. And I am a member of his family that enables him! As I look around the "house", so many of my brothers and sisters are adorned in kid gloves. They walk on eggshells. Bush'll be okay. We'll be okay too. Just so long as we don't piss him off.

* Traits of a dry drunk: "Exaggerated self-importance and pomposity; Grandiose behavior; A rigid, judgmental outlook; Impatience; Childish behavior; Irresponsible behavior; Irrational rationalization; Projection Overreaction" .....from "Dry Drunk" Syndrome and George W. Bush, Katherine van WORMER.

See also, "Bush on the Couch" a book by Justin A. Frank

Spring Equinox

Happy Spring!

Please visit my mirror blog where I can successfully upload photos, to see a lovely spring picture of the Lilacs in our back yard.

I hope you're having a wonderful spring day.

Culture of Life

Bush was quoted today as saying, "Those who live at the mercy of others deserve our special care and concern. It should be our goal as a nation to build a culture of life, where all Americans are valued, welcomed, and protected - and that culture of life must extend to individuals with disabilities. "

Isn't mental retardation considered a disability? Where was that belief in a culture of life when Bush was killing mentally disabled people in Texas?

Terry Washington, a thirty-three-year-old mentally retarded man with the communications skills of a seven-year-old was executed in 1997.

Washington's plea for clemency came before Governor Bush on the morning of May 6, 1997. After a thirty-minute briefing by Alberto Gonzales, Bush checked "Deny"— just as he had denied twenty-nine other pleas for clemency in his first twenty-eight months as governor.

Mental health experts have pointed out that the mentally retarded's characteristic suggestibility and willingness to please leads them to confess - sometimes falsely - to capital crimes.

How Many Innocent People Did Bush Execute?

The X Chromosome & Human Evolution

From Wired News: "The X chromosome has stories to tell about human evolution -- the new code reveals that the X and Y evolved from a pair of regular chromosomes 300 million years ago..."

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day was known throughout the Roman empire as the day of apotheosis of the god slain during the Ides of March: Liber Pater or Mars Pater, who would have been known as Patricius or Patrick in Britain. At his Roman festival on March 17, a gigantic phallus was paraded through the streets, and solemnly crowned with a garland representing the divine yoni. The phallus of Liber Pater was also known as the Palladium, planted in the womb-temple of Vesta.

An old chronicle mentioned a Roman-Irish martyr called Bishop Palladius, "the first bishop to the Irish who believe in Christ," sacrificed to the Irish Moon-goddess before Patrick appeared. Evidently both Palladius and Patrick were the same pagan god, adopted into canon after his old shrines were taken over by Christians.

The patron saint of Ireland was probably a fictitious figure created from Roman pater or patricius, a priest. The "proof" that he existed was from his own autobiography which was supposedly written in the 5th century but not discovered until 400 years later according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. His writings were probably forgeries by monks who wanted to pretend that Ireland was Christianized earlier than it actually was. In the 12th century St. Bernard complained that the Irish were still given over to "barbarous rites," because Christianity had failed to take root (De Paor, M. De Paor, L. Early Christian Ireland 1958 [London]).

Like many other saints who evolved from pagan roots, St. Patrick had pagan precedents. One was the Irish God of the shamrock, Trefuilngid Tre-eochair, "Triple Bearer of the Triple Key". He was a son and consort of the Triple Goddess whose triple yoni was represented by shamrock designs from the earliest civilizations of the Indus valley. The Irish worshipped the shamrock as a sign of their triple pagan deities. The book of Leinster said that Patrick's mother was the Goddess Macha, one of the trinity who gave birth to the shamrock-god.

Lewis Spence in the History and Origins of Druidism says that Patrick was educated by a Druid.

The Passion of the Bunnie

With Easter coming up, you'll need an appropriate e-card to send your friends, right?

Despite multiple attempts, ending in failure, I've been unable to load any graphics to this blog, but visit my Ring of Fire blog to see the perfect Easter card featuring Bunnie who dyed egges for our sins.

Root Canal Day

I had my first ever root canal today and after the dentist dropped his tools for the 3rd or 4th time, he muttered, "I shouldn't have had that Margarita at lunch."

He was joking.... I think. The Novocain is wearing off and I need to destress.

It's Margarita time!

Goobernator Schwarzenegger: Up to No Good

California's Goobernator Schwarzenegger wants to hold a special election this year even though we have a scheduled election in 2006. So what's the hurry? Apparently he wants to get this done before the law protects us from voter fraud.

If a Special Election is held in 2005, your vote could be lost or stolen by electronic means that would leave not a trace? Yes, Arnold’s boondoggle of an election would not only cost $70 million dollars--the most distressing fact is that voting in 2005 would take place on the outmoded paperless and non-voter verified electronic voting machines.

Contest The Vote: An election held early, in 2005, is much less secure than one held in 2006. A November, 2005 election would circumvent the bill passed last September by the California legislature requiring that all direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines include an accessible voter verified paper audit trail as of January, 2006. Holding a special election in 2005, before this requirement takes effect, clearly invites chaos and lack of voter confidence in the election result.

Why is Ahnold so intent on holding an election seven months prior to the regularly scheduled, more secure, June 2006 primary? Word is, he wants to circumvent yet another law, one that makes it illegal for him to raise and spend money for his initiatives closer to the time when he's a declared candidate. Supposedly, he wants new statewide redistricting, but the timeline is so short for that, its feasibility is suspect. After all, candidates need to file their papers in early 2006, but can't if they don't know whether they still live in their district.

Please sign this petition to stop the Goobernator.

Tom Delay's Heart Condition

Breaking news! Tom Delay is being treated for a heart condition.

He has a heart? Where and when did he get one? Do you suppose Frist cuts the hearts out of kitty cats- so he can keep his heartless colleagues supplied?

From Frists own mouth:

"It can even be beautiful and thrilling work, as I discovered that day in the lab when I first saw the wonderful workings of a dog's heart .... I spent days and nights on end in the lab, taking the hearts out of cats, dissecting each heart, suspending a strip of tiny muscle that attaches the mitral valve to the inner wall of the cat heart and recording the effects of various medicines I added to the bath surrounding the muscle."

Wife Swap Episode: Update

The Infidel Guy has some news about the Wife Swap episode featuring his family. He says it probably will air, but no date has been set yet.

A negative press release describes the content of the show.

Bankruptcy Bill

Dada wonders why Sen. Biden would vote against his constituents' best interests by allowing the bankruptcy bill to come to the floor for a vote and then realized that Biden's real constituents are members of MBNA (his largest contributor and son's benefactor).

Here is a list of Democrats who were bought out by the credit card companies.

It's off to debtor's prison for the rest of us, but Republicans and Democrats are getting together for some grassroots action.

Dada notes: most bankruptcies are filed in red states.

Repugs voted against gay married terrorists (props to Paul Krugman on The Daily Show tonight) and got social security privatization and an end to bankruptcy as we know it instead.

Bankruptcy will now only be for the privileged few (the wealthy).

Attaturk noticed that KOS was trying to justify the votes of Democrats who voted for cloture on the Bankruptcy bill:

But to fix the problem you have to understand it. Most of these Democrats aren't selling out because they believe in the bankruptcy bill (unlike the GOP who is pushing it). They are using that bill to help ensure their political survival. And survival costs money.

But Attaturk noted:

Oh, so it is just hypocrisy, as opposed to maliciousness that caused thosevotes. Is that supposed to somehow make us feel better?

Atta boy Attaturk!

Animals in the News: Update

An anonymous person posted a response to my comments earlier "Animals in the News" or more accurately this person was responding to Scott's comments about how it's necessary to kill Mountain Lions to save them (a "rational" plan to conserve).

Anonymous said:

Before the first white man set foot on the continent, Nature was all out of whack. Mountain lions ran rampant upon the landscape. Buffalo herds were decimated by 'em. And the continent was a blackened burnt out hulk of a land because of wild fires which resulted because there were no neocons to clear cut the forests.

That reminds me of an Eagles' song:

The Last Resort:

She came from Providence,

the one in Rhode Island

Where the old world shadows hang

heavy in the air

She packed her hopes and dreams

like a refugee

Just as her father came across the sea



She heard about a place people were smlin'

They spoke about the red man's way,

and how they loved the land

And they came from everywhere

to the Great Divide

Seeking a place to stand

or a place to hide



Down in the crowded bars,

out for a good time,

Can't wait to tell you all,

what it's like up there

And they called it paradise

I don't know why

Somebody laid the mountains low

while the town got high



Then the chilly winds blew down

Across the desert

through the canyons of the coast, to

the Malibu

Where the pretty people play,

hungry for power

to light their neon way

and give them things to do



Some rich men came and raped the land,

Nobody caught 'em

Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,

people bought 'em

And they called it paradise

The place to be

They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea



You can leave it all behind

and sail to Lahaina

just like the missionaries did, so many years ago

They even brought a neon sign:"Jesus is coming"

Brought the white man's burden down

Brought the white man's reign



Who will provide the grand design?

What is yours and what is mine?

'Cause there is no more new frontier

We have got to make it here



We satifsy our endless needs and

justify our bloody deeds,

in the name of destiny and the name

of God



And you can see them there,

On Sunday morning

Stand up and sing about what it's like up there

They call it paradise

I don't know why

You call someplace paradise,

kiss it goodbye

Infidels on Wife Swap: Update

The episode of Wife Swap featuring the Infidel Guy and family (and some of our products) will not be shown on March 16th after all. We don't know why and we don't know when the atheist episode will be shown.

Thanks to George for letting us know.

Animals in the News

Some jerk-off in Wisconsin wants a law that will permit hunters to shoot domestic cats, a yahoo in California wrote a law that would allow trophy hunters to go after Mountain Lions and a 19-year-old hero is currently serving 2 1/2 years in prison for a non-violent action of civil disobedience on behalf of animal rights. He was convicted of an A.L.F. action in Provo, UT where 12 animals were freed and $80,000 in damage were done to animal testing [torture] facilities.

I previously posted information about the bill that would permit trophy hunting of Mountain Lions in California and got a response from someone named Scott:

Conservation, the only rational wildlife management model, says that mountain lion populations should be controlled (i.e. hunted or otherwise killed). I'm sorry that you live in a fantasy world where cute mountain kitties live in perfect harmony with all creatures, great and small, but reality dictates that predators without fear of humans will treat humans as prey.... I hope your child or pet is mauled or eaten by a mountain lion. So there!

Scott is a prime example of a hateful person who lives in a fear-based reality. Lately, progressives have distinguished ourselves from the faith-based community by noting that we are "reality-based", but I'd like to point out that the faith-based group is also fear-based and the Bushites have been expert at manipulating them through their fears. They are indoctrinated early by learning to fear their god, then they fear people who look or behave or worship differently than they and they are frightened by the uncontrolled nature of the natural world. You'd think that followers of Jesus would be motivated by his example and let love and empathy direct their lives (and some do) but mostly we see the kind who want to kill to feel safe. They are willing to slaughter wolves, mountain lions, Muslims, anyone who is accused of having weapons of mass destruction, or anyone or anything that stimulates the fear center in their brains.

I'm personally more frightened by the fundamentalist followers of any god than I ever could fear a wild animal. I would never corner a frightened wild animal - that would be reckless but fear-based, fundamentalists have a "backed into the corner" mentality and are dangerous even to those of us who try to avoid contact with them and they try to control our sexuality and limit our freedoms.

Scott and his fellow hunters are similarly fear-based weenies. Real men (and women) don't need to control or kill everything in their enviroment to feel safe and they prefer to respect the natural world rather than fear it.

Fascism Alert

Here is an entertaining and yet chilling definition of fascism. Thanks to Dada for the link and for his following observation on the news:

As you're aware I'm sure, brash accusations have been hurled at the U.S. as being an assassinator of journalists. The U.S. vehemently denies such charges despite a substantial number of bodies in evidence of such. So, why do they continue to fuel the flames of their detractors with, like, this latest attempt to take out Italian reporter-hostage-just-freed-who's been-crictical and revelatory of- U.S. policy-in Iraq, Giuliana Sgrena? To Bush and his storm troopers, I say: "Na-na, nan-na nah. You missed mother fuckers! Pfffffffffth!

Although I understand his point, I disagree with Dada on his charactization because they didn't miss. Sgrena's bodyguard covered her with his body and took the bullet(s). Their aim was deadly accurate and they would have succeeded in killing her if not for the brave secret service agent who gave his life to protect her.

Atheists on Wife Swap: Update

I mentioned earlier that an upcoming episode of Wife Swap (the TV series) will feature an atheist couple switching places with a family of true believers. It's on March 16th so be sure to set your Tivo, VCR or mark your calendar because you won't want to miss it. We're also excited because the show's producers asked us to sign a release so that some of our products could be shown.

I received an email from Reggie Finley, the father of the free-thinking family on Wife Swap and discovered that he's also known as The Infidel Guy and he has a great web site.

Check it out.

INFIDEL, n. One who doubts or rejects a particular doctrine, system, or principle.

We are ALL Infidels!

Howwwwwwwwwwwwl

Regarding the connection between ChoicePoint and Katherine Harris and the theft of the election in 2000, Dada writes:

Harris/Checkpoint, if on the other side of the aisle would cause gov't to halt to a standstill and teeter on the brink of total disaster by frothing riotous demonstrators (paid for by the Republican Party, of course). But hey,that's the nature of pissant conservatism blended with apocalyptic fanaticism and the brainwashed zombies that inhabit this country in the costume of citizenry. Can you imagine Tom Paine's pain?

I could harp and bitch here but hell you can get that in any number of great blogs. It's like an emergency vehicle in the neighborhood; Annie goes out to howl; then Pony goes out and joins her; then Cooper. I'm just another Cooper!

Before I read your message this morning, I was reading about the Berkeley teachers who have stopped grading papers and all the other things demanded of them on their own time because they haven't gotten any raises in the past couple of years.

Let's see....The gov't's making it harder to declare certain bankruptcies. Healthcare costs are responsible for many. So, rather than do anything about obscene skyrocketing costs and uninsured, let's cut Medicaid and forbid bankruptcy. This could be good for business! (The prison business.)

Yeah, and while we're at it, let's try to destroy social security. Howwwwwwwwwwwwl.

The following sort of sounds like Hunter S. Thompson, I think, but Hunter has departed (deserted us) and these comments arrived in an email from Dada - I swear.

I think the whole freakin' Earth will blow up in a few years anyway because of Bush and Maniacs.--Speaking of which, did you hear he said today that democracy cannot flourish in Lebanon as long as it's occupied (!) by foreign troops! God, these idiots are a laugh a minute.

BTW, I wore my Black Panther Party, "The struggle continues" tee-shirt out in public for the first time yesterday. While adorning it, stopped at a red light, Huey Newton scared the shit outta me when he suddenly spoke up. "There's a huge majority of you rapidly becoming the new minority of this country," extending a pack of Marlboros in my direction, across his chest neatly adorned with shot gun ammo in a leather belt ala Pancho Villa.

That sounded a little strange to me,but I thought about it til the car behind me honked, signaling the light change.

"For Christ's sake, hide that shotgun! You wanna get us both busted!" I pleaded.

Emptiness once more overtook me as I glanced over at his fading smile--and shotgun. I'd have to do the shopping alone.

It was somewhere in front of the butcherless Wal-Mart meat counter before I got to the beef of what Huey had said. No longer just a racial struggle of thug booted cops in black neighborhoods, it's now blacks, browns, Muslims, uninsured, under-insured, poor whites, the middle class, teachers, the sick, atheists, unions, soldiers,retirees, veterans, young folk, immigrants and aliens, librarians, soldier's moms, Wal-Mart butchers (whoops, forgot, they're "extinct") etc., etc. (my apologies to anyone left out--it wasn't an inconclusive list). Whoa! This isn't the way it was supposed to be. It's a progress-ion. Sure there are setbacks in the face of progress. But the very name implies, ah, ahm, "progress!"

Howwwwwwwwwwwwl.

Irony East of Eden

Residents of Salinas celebrated John Steinbeck's birthday by trying to raise enough money to keep their libraries open one or two days a week.

Wife Swap for FreeThinkers

I've mentioned before that we signed a release to allow the producers of the Wife Swap TV program to show some our products in one of their shows. We believe that show will air in two weeks, March 16th so mark your calendars or set your TiVos.

Wednesday, March 16, 10/9cStonerock/Finley

A God-fearing pastor's wife from Michigan swaps places with the godless wife of an atheist in Georgia.

Atheists in Georgia?!

The Christian Taliban

The Christian Taliban
Wingnuts are busy trying to prevent the sale of birth control products. They have several pharmacists who are refusing to fill prescriptions.

John Aravosis of Americablog comments:

In other words, the Christian Taliban now say you're oppressing them by going to your local pharmacy and trying to buy birth control pills, condoms, AIDS drugs, Viagra, and anything else that their velvet-dogs-playing-poker sensibilities can't handle. Yes, if some Christian Taliban chooses to be a pharmacist, they want HIM to have the right to turn you away at the drug counter for being a sinner in his eyes.

And General JC Christian found and posted the following letter on his blog:

Justice miscarried
I'm as pro-life as the next fellow, but I just don't think the proposed Human Life Amendment to the constitution goes far enough to protect us all against the "evil" of abortion declaring the unborn fetus to be a full person from the moment of conception.
As long as any woman's body has the ability to abort naturally by way of miscarriage, natural abortions will continue to happen every day. The proposed amendment should require every woman who had a miscarriage to answer for the loss of that life in an investigation, be questioned and, if necessary, held liable for the death of that fetus. Perhaps even prosecuted if it can be proven she endangered that cute little baby-to-be by, for example, taking a drink at a party the evening before.

In drafting this proposed legislation, Congress must be aware that any mother-to-be must now have the obligation to produce a live, healthy infant or be legally answerable to a court of inquisitors.

Abortions, voluntary or involuntary, should no longer be an indiscriminate right. And some thought should be given to unnecessary daily and nightly waste of untold numbers of sperm and eggs, each one of which is a potential half-baby. Our research scientists, given enough funding, may be able to find a way to preserve these and combine them as heaven intended.

S. Kershaw
Rosendale

ChoicePoint & Katherine Harris

Remember ChoicePoint? It's that company that sold people's private information to a bunch of identity thieves. Well, there's more. They are also the company that sold a list of "felons" to Florida's Secretary of State's office (that would be Katherine Harris) in 2000. It turned out that many of the people on the list were not felons but they (mostly African-Americans) were prohibited from voting anyway.

But wait, there's more.

ChoicePoint, like Diebold, makes contributions to the Republican party! Who could have guessed?

So if your credit has been ruined because your identity was sold to a thief by ChoicePoint, you can thank the Bush, Inc.

More about that here