War on Xmas

What’s all this about a War on Xmas? We have the war on drugs, war on poverty, war on terror… it seems there ain’t nothin we won’t go to war against. So now we’re at war with Xmas. Well, if we have the same luck as we’ve had with all those other wars, it looks like Xmas should do just fine.

Anyway, really, it seems to be that time of year when certain people get very offended that Macy’s uses “Holiday Sale” instead of “Christmas Sale” in their fliers. It seems they feel it is important that their god endorse all sales, or they aren’t valid sales. Seriously, why would these people want commercial stores to make reference to their god? How insecure must a person be about his or her beliefs. How small must they think their god to be, if threatened by such a insignificant  matter.

What is really going on? Is it the lack of faith? Maybe. But what you’ll really find behind this is the religious right, trying to usurp control and force their vision of Christianity on the populace. Similar to what the Taliban liked to do with the people of Afghanistan. What  is their fear of taking Christ out of store ads? That it will only get worse? If they take their god out of the stores, then next he will be taken out of public restrooms, then NASCAR, then finally, the worst of the worst, their god will be blasphemously removed from bumper stickers and billboards.

It’s about fear. It has always been about fear for Christians. They do not actually put any trust in their god, as evidenced by their belief that they must forcibly push their god on others. They are fearful of anything they do not understand, and they are fearful of many things — which means they don’t understand much. It seems that if Christians just let go, and trusted in their god, all would go well. If their god was so great (and I’m not saying he isn’t, it just seems no one gives him a chance), it’s presence would be naturally accepted around the world.

This fear spreads to the Christians heavy emphasis on their dark god, Satan. They have so much interest in their dark god, that you would think that it is their primary god. Why so much emphasis? Why so much apparent fear? Again, it seems like a lack of faith in their main god. Stop giving the bad guy so much credit, and press, and attention. For where your intention goes, so goes your power.

Peace out, y’all.

Auto-maker rescue

Help me. I really don’t get this one. Here’s the deal: auto-makers like, oh, say… GM, make big-inefficient-gas-guzzling-truck-cars.  There entire business model is built around selling such things. Their entire profit structure revolves around people’s gullibility to buy such things. Here are the lies: buy them because they’re safer, or handle better, or go through the snow better, or have roomier interiors or are more rugged. and on and on. Fact is they are none of those things. At least no more than any other normal cars. See this link for more.

So, now the large car market has sunk. People want smaller more efficient cars. But here it is 2008 and the big car makers still don’t know how to make them. So now they want the government — we the people — to pay for their incompetence.

I would never buy one of those useless truck cars… that’s just my thing. It is so wasteful to drive 7000 lbs or more of steel and plastic around to move one or two people from place to place. One wheel weighs more than I do! Now, through, my taxes via a government bailout, will be used to pay for everyone else’s SUVs.

One of the best comments I’ve heard about this is that we do not have a capitalist economy, we have a corporatist economy. Companies don’t want anyone or anything to touch them as they are earning profits, but as soon as they start hemorrhaging their cash, they want the government to step in. And in this case the government has no choice. They must support these huge companies because to lose them would be even more devistating. It certainly doesn’t sound like capitalism to me. It means these companies can make whatever crap they want and know that at the end of the day, they cannot fail. The government will always be there to bail them out. It certainly seems to encourage their inefficient ways. It makes the companies plan only for the short term, the quick profit, and it discourages long term thinking and sustainable business practices.

Capitalism on the way up. Socialism on the way down. That’s our economy.

Oh, and then I found this:

From Dilbert.com, Nov 8 2008

The fly in my car

This morning I had a fly in my car. It was buzzing around my head and bouncing into me. Normally, I would put down the windows and try to get it out, meaning I might not be paying attention to my driving. As a matter of fact, the night before, that’s exactly what I was doing… to no avail.
But this morning, at the particular point where I was going to start swatting and shooing, I heard a voice in my head say “just let it go; pay no attention to it” and so I did.
It ended up that that was the best thing I could have done, since as I was going around a sharp turn, another car was coming from the other direction and I know that if I was messing with trying to shoo a fly out of my car, I would have drifted over the line and possible smashed into the oncoming car.
This came about because of the book I’m reading “Fourth Uncle in the Mountain” where the author was very hungry and meditating and at one point in his meditation, saw food next to him. He asked the master about it and the master said “pay no attention to it.” I don’t know why, but that is what came up for me, and very strong.
Around noon, I found the fly dead on the driver’s seat in my car.
Just let it go. Pay no attention to it. Lesson learned.

Religion du popular culture?

Can a religion just start? I mean, does it have to be old and, well, old?

I’ve heard of a couple of (admittedly cool) attempts to begin new religions based on movies or popular culture. One such religion is that of the Jedi Knights. When I first heard of it, I thought… that would make a great religion! There is a site [link] for the Jedi Church (recognized on the UK census, though not an official religion there), and something called the Jedi Resource Center [link].
The other is from The Lord of The Rings. The Elven religion is based on the elves from Rivendell [link]. So cool!

Why in the world would these be at all valid? Why is any religion valid? A philosophy, a common set of beliefs adhered to by a group of people. Is that all it takes? Well, basically, yes.

That’s how any religion ever started.

And that’s how you can start your own.

(Anyone for a moment of worship at the Shrine of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?)

The Power of Now

My mind struggles with The Now. That’s because Now can not be conceived by the mind. For instance, when I try to think about it, I wonder: when does Now start? How long does Now last? Is it 5 seconds, 1 second, or maybe a millisecond? If so, I imagine it must look a bit like a bell curve in time. The apex of the curve is the Now, as you go to the left, it drops off into the past, and as you go to the right, the future approaches. Just a short time away from the apex of Now either way, either Now just happened or Now is about to happen.

But according to Eckart Tolle, the Now is timeless. It is not a part of time and can not be understood by the mind, because the mind exists only in time. So if the Now is not a part of time, then to think of it in terms of “how long” it is, is ultimately futile… as much as my mind would like to think otherwise.

According to Tolle, to experience the Now, one must enter a place of no-mind. Stop the addictive thoughts. Move deeply into presence and awareness. Become the observer of your thoughts. But I can’t explain it all here. I recommend his book “The Power of Now.” I read it recently and am now reading another of his books, “A New Earth.”

He makes many references to Christianity, to Jesus words. But, as a Pagan, when he refers to Christianity, it actually makes sense. Not the kind of sense an Evangelical, right-wing, pro-war christian might understand, but a deeper, timeless wisdom, one of enlightenment.

From what he says, I see that Jesus was a pointer to the Truth, not an end unto himself, but a conduit. Not to be endlessly worshiped while his message gets lost, but to actually seek enlightenment. People who focus on Jesus only, or literal interpretations of the bible, or the rapture, or converting others, or judging, or piousness, miss an important (the most important) part of Jesus message. To free us of our mind.

Tolle also references the Buddha as well as other great teachers through the ages. Suddenly, it all begins to make sense. My Christian upbringing, my recovery from active addictions, simplicity, ecopsychology, my journey into Paganism and Witchcraft — I see all of it in what I am now learning. No, I am in no way at the end of my path. I am just beginning.

A god created

You know, it is so obvious to me that the god of the bible, particularly the old testament, is a creation from the minds of humans. It is full of anthropomorphic language, similar to what one might find in a children’s book, like when a writer attributes human qualities to a squirrel, and the squirrel can talk and hold things and eat with a fork and knife. That is what the writers of the bible did with their descriptions of their god character.

Their god character made things, got tired, rested, then found one group of people to hang out with, then got really angry — almost on a daily basis — then did some very strange miracles (I mean really strange, like turning people into pillars of salt and keeping a guy alive in an oven). Their god was very demanding and spoke almost entirely in commands and ultimatums. He (they believe god is a man, roughly 76 years old and most certainly bearded) was impatient, jealous, and vengeful, qualities you might find in a ruthless dictator or malevolent king. Then one day, it all stopped. And for the last 2000 years or so, you just didn’t hear much about things like that any more. Certainly Christianity wasn’t meant to end all the previous goings-on. But apparently, it did. Nonetheless, this god is one of the most popular gods around today.

That’s right. The Abrahamic god, the god of the three major book religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, is the most popular*. And if you might have thought that was a good thing, you’d be wrong. Since no more blood has been spilled for any other reason than for belief in this god in one way or another. Sad, really. This creation of humans (mostly men, around 76 years old and bearded) has become one of the most destructive forces in human history.

* Popularity is a relative thing. So much of the popularity of this god is due, not to the god as it were, but to the unrelenting, purposeful, forceful, and obsessive imposition of the followers beliefs onto the rest of the world. Given that kind of a platform, I’d be popular too.

Two poems

She rises there
dark cold slow
from barren snow
yet like you
her time passes eternally
through moon and light
to this so bright

---

What season begins here
as night ends
for I am love
after all

A video summary of Web 2.0

An excellent Web 2.0 video from Digital Ethnography workgroup at the Kansas State University, Department of Cultural Anthropology. Visit their page here. The best line is the one about every connection we make via a weblink is teaching the machine.

From Feb 2007.

Water the Driveway

Suburbia… land of waste and want. Barren, soulless and lifeless, except for lawns which are high on Tru-Green. What better thing to do on a hot afternoon than water the driveway? And maybe, just maybe, get some on the drug-crazed lawn.

That’s what you’ll see walking around a suburban neighborhood. That’s what you’ll wonder about when you see the water running down the drains, hour after hour, house after house.

That’s what you’ll see when it’s raining out, and the sprinklers are on. You’ve got to see it to appreciate it.

Actually there are two different types of lawn watering. The ones that you hook up to a hose and move to the spot that you want to water seem to waste the most. Especially when trying to water an irregularly shaped area. The other ones are built into the lawn and go on rain or shine at a set time of day. When did those things become so popular? When I was growing up, you’d never see them. But then again, you wouldn’t see 6000 sq ft houses either. Now, they are everywhere.

You know, all a weed is, is a plant growing somewhere where you don’t want it to grow. So these mono-culture lawns that we see all around us (which are really weeds if they are growing in your garden), are a blight to that natural world. The amount of time, chemicals, fossil fuels, water and space they waste are laughable.

Annual rite of spring

It happens every year. The annual burn out or burn off or ultimate stupidity. Whatever you call it, the practice is mind boggling. It is the annual rite of, you guessed it, running your snowblower until all the leftover gas is used up.

What a truly bizarre site it is to see all those snowblowers just sitting there in people’s driveways, engines running, just sitting there. It seems some run for an hour or more.

As I went for a walk on beautiful April Earth Day, I saw at least a half dozen of these “occurrences” around our neighborhood. I don’t even have to mention the irony of it.

What do people think? I mean, gasoline isn’t exactly cheap, and global warming isn’t actually a well kept secret. Why not siphon? Or use a large suction turkey baster type thing. Or just let it stay there, maybe put in some dry-gas. I’ve never had a problem with our lawn mower sitting over the winter with gasoline from the previous summer in it. It always starts after a few pulls of the cord.

BTW, I’m considering getting a reel mower. My old lawnmower, that I bought used for $40 about 8 years ago, is on its way out. My lawn is not so big that a good reel mower couldn’t handle it.