Technical difficulties

Sorry about the silence folks, I was experiencing technical difficulties. All is well now, though.

On the up side, she didn't start a war

However Sarah Palin didn't inspire people either in her big hush-hush speech in Hong Kong. Still, it doesn't look like any of the people there were offended, but apathetic. Things could have been worse.

Glen Beck is a crazy person, Part II

I knew that Glen Beck was a crazy person, but he is apparently also a heartless asshole. Back when he was on radio, station hopping around the country, he got in a war of words with another DJ. The DJ said his rip off of War of the Worlds was a rip off. Beck got so pissed off that when the DJ's wife miscarried, he called her up and made fun of her on air.
That may be one of the crappiest things ever.
Stay classy Beck. Stay classy.

She doesn't even know what that means

I read yesterday that Ms. Palin will be going to Hong Kong to speak to a group of 1000 investment bankers and fund managers.
Wait, what?
Are they going to just not translate her? Or are they hoping things will get lost in translation? Is it a joke?
The woman can not seriously understand anything about banking. And they mentioned that Palin is of interest to the internation community. Yeah, as a bloody joke. No one but us idiots here in the good old US of A took her seriously, and that's because we apparently started to prize insanity over education at some point.

Hey, yeah, what about that?

An eagle-eyed commenter over on SadlyNo pointed out...
Aren't we supposed to be getting up to speed for the War on Christmas? Honestly, I had almost forgotten, what with BillO not freaking out about it every day. And Glen Beck hasn't mentioned it in his breakdowns. I feel really ripped off, I love the War on Christmas!

Well, that isn't what he said at all

So, Carter has been busy recently. He's been saying all kinds of things that are getting all kinds of people all upset. Like, the people who are freaking out comparing Obama to Hitler and calling him a fascist and in general going way over the top in the protests of him might be a tad bit racist.
However I was informed by a co-worker this morning that Carter said that anyone who says anything against Obama is racist. Which sadly didn't surprise me.
There is a fringe of the fringe, the people who aren't wingnuts, but aren't moderates, who really believe that. That if you say anything against him you will be racist and he can say anything he wants because of the NAACP. They don't think that he is unqualified to hold the office, but they really don't like that he is there.
Now, Democrats alone have been saying crap about out President (I don't know a single democrat who has said anything nice about him since he has been elected. I mean it, I've been astounded by the fact that people are freaking pissed off this badly by the fact that he hasn't fixed the world in 9 months. I just wanted him to fix the economy, and he is doing that, so cool beans). So I doubt very much that Carter is calling his party a bunch of racists. He's calling the crazy people racists, but the fringe of the fringe can't see that. They know that those people are crazy but won't raise a hand to stop them. They will never say boo. And in a way they are just as dangerous, a bunch of enablers, but at the moment they are enabling a bunch of wingnuts who are going to start taking pot shots at our president soon.
So, as awesome as Carter's comments are, it has shown off a whole new part of our country we need to watch, which is sad.

Dear TeaBaggers

I know you won't read this, but please, keep this in mind when you are losing your shit on TV...

-Obama cut your taxes. He cut my taxes. He cut the taxes of all us poor people. The rich guys are pissed because he didn't cut theirs. Stop being puppets for rich people.

-You know this sounds racist, right? Obama is trying to help you and you keep freaking right the hell out over the crap he is doing to help you. You don't want more money and better health care? Really? You'd rather be poor and sick? Don't National Debt me, I'm not an idiot, the debt doubled under Bush. All of this crazy screaming boils down to "scary brown guy in the White House" and the freaky part is that some of you don't even realize that is what you are screaming.

-While I am greatly amused by some of your signs, you may want to learn to spell. Just saying. Usually I'm not one to talk, but crap people, I spell better that you do.

KTHXBIE

P.S. Thanks for giving me a reason to use my TeaBagging tag again, I get so many more hits when I do!

Your friendly neighborhood witch

I talk a lot about pagans here, and I realized I have never taken a moment to explain who I am talking about.
Pagans, like most other religions, have subdivisons. By parthenon, by practice, and sometimes by experience of the person practicing. As a rule, when dealing with pagans, if you encounter:
1) the person who knows everything about "the burning times" or whatnot, ignore them.
2) the fluffy, sweetie, teenage girl who thinks magic is all love and cupcakes (and spells is magick, which personally pisses me right the hell off), ignore her.
3) the gothy type who believes that magic (or magick) is all dark and terrible, back away slowly and then ignore them (note, these are the people who get confused with "satanists".)
If you weed out the crazies then you usually get the base of the community. Assuming you can find them, since they tend to hide. Pagans form large communities* and then smaller covens based on religions within that community. Divisons happen from time to time, and groups are not allowed to attend community events, really just normal church politics.
These pagans are your neighbors, or your co-workers. You may think they are Catholic, we blend best with Catholics if we aren't "out". They are the co-worker who works Christmas, or Easter, but wants off on the oddest days in the middle of the week. We are the neighbor who throws parties that involves people burning strange stuff in the fire pit. Nothing bad or out of hand, but just strange. We are normal people with kids and jobs, and too often others kind of lose sight of that. We get confused with those dark gothy types, or those fluffy bunny types and then people assume we are all like that.
So, when I talk about pagans, I'm talking about your average person who just happens to have a small table in there house that you can NOT touch. And a locked chest that you aren't allowed to open. Your regular old person, with regular old problems.

*Interesting thing with that, when the communities form online, which they sometimes do, they can become multi-faith communities who include Christian, Jewish, atheist, and any other point of view out there. I've talked about this before, but it never ceases to amaze me that this happens and that everyone gets along. It gives me hope for people.

There are some advantages to being pagan

Pagans have gods for all kinds of things. It's great, you know who to ask for what, and it's their specialty, so it's all good. For instance, a friend of mine is about 15 months pregnant right now (no, not really, but at the end of your term you might as well be) and keeps having contractions. So you ask the goddess who handles labor to keep an eye on her (Artemis, in this instance. Though she is a virgin goddess she handles labor because it is a fight, and a transition for a woman). Say I'm going to see a customer at work, and I need to be quite quick witted and silver tongued? Ah, ask Loki for some help (not Odin, because he gets pissed when you lie.) And so on.
Christians believe that one god handles all this stuff, and that has got to be a lot of work. OK, their guy is omnipotent and whatnot, but still. Personally I feel a bit more comfortable knowing who to ask with a problem, rather than ask one really busy guy who handles everything.
But then, I have the pagan idea of what a god is, not the Christian one. Occasionally that is really obvious.
So right now I'll be asking my goddess to watch out for my friend. And I'll trust that if she gets a chance, the goddess will.

Did you think you were in England?

Is it treason to scream "You liar" at the President in the middle of a joint session of Congress?
Would anyone have dared to that to Bush?

Updated because I saw this on Instaputz and loved it...

Umm, what the hell people?

I have been watching with a mix of amusement and alarm as a rather vocal segment of our country has completely lost their shit over Pres. Obama giving a ra-ra speech to the nations kids. The conservatives I know have all said that they really don't see a problem with Obama giving ra-ra stay in school speeches, after all other presidents have done it too.
I can't see how people can look at these people who are just foaming at the mouth, and not admit that these people are racists. They can say what they want, but they would not be this upset if the president wasn't a black man. It's just pissing them off more than the fact that he is a Democrat, and how dare he talk to their kids?
It's a sad state of affairs.

The light! It burns!

Sorry for the long delay, I am finally recovered from a bout of bronchitis. Stupid change in weather!
Expect a return to our regular schedualed blogging soon.

#19 and counting

Th Duggars are expecting their 19th child.
As most people know, they are a member of the fringe Christian movement, Quiverfull, which involves the woman to give up all right to her own reproductive system and get pregnant as many times as "God allows". These women also believe that dying in childbirth is a great service to Christ. The greatest.
The Quiverfull movement freaks me out to no end. It is one of the handful of fringe movements out there that was specifically designed to keep dominate men in the church by allowing them the ability to dominate their own families. The other biggie is the Promise Keepers.
The whole idea is disturbing. The fact that women buy into this is worse.
Here's hoping poor Michelle Duggar goes through menopause soon.