Atrocities in Iran

The hideous image above is an untouched photo of a student protester in Iran. This brave young man is in a coma as a result of being beaten by the demons of the current Iranian government. If anyone ever wanted proof that Islamic folks can be just as good, passionate and decent as anyone else this is it. These people are facing what many call the worst atrocities since the Nazis because they feel their country has been illegally hijacked by hardliners.

In case you've been under a rock lately and haven't been following the news the recent election results in Iran were, to say the very, very least, questionable. They were reported and announced in an unprecedentedly strange way and, even after many questions were peacefully asked by powerful as well as regular folks no answers were given. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in numbers not seen since the 1979 revolution. The largely peaceful protests, mostly by university students, became violent when the governmental forces began killing people out of hand.

To stay abreast of the happenings in Iran visit the Free Iran Facebook page.

P.S. Be sure to check out the comments; Mrs. B. points the way to a Twitter page about this very thing.

Nerdy Joygasm

Gillian Anderson, the X-Files star, is being lined up to appear in a forthcoming episode of Dr Who, it has been reported.

The 40-year-old, best known for her role as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the sci-fi drama, is expected to be cast opposite the new Doctor Matt Smith.

Doctor Who's makers want the London-based actress to appear in a one-off special episode as a deadly enemy of the Time Lord

Telegraph.

You can't see me but, trust me, ever since I first read this article I've been doing an inner, and sometimes outer, happy dance. I LOVE Gillian Anderson. I think I was fated to love The X-Files and nearly everything about it. I mean, really, how many people share their first name with an X-Files episode title? (50 points if you're geeky and lucky enough to guess it. Real life friends, all three of you, don't get to play.) I even love Anderson in The House of Mirth and not just because I like the book; she's just a great Lily Bart. And as much as I love Doctor Who I've been less than enthusiastic about the new doctor since he's so incredibly young. I imagine many in the Whoniverse are wondering if this twenty-something can pull off portraying a dark god of over 900 years. But Anderson's inclusion in the series, even if it is only one episode, is enough to convince me to keep my hopes up about the new series.


This is mostly clips from the first movie with "Exit Music (For a Film)" by Radiohead, which is on OK Computer. Video made by YouTuber ilx2002.

R.I.P Andy Hallet

Shit. I mean damnit to hell! Dead at 33, from heart disease! If you're not a fan of the Joss Whedon universe I imagine you couldn't give less than two shits about this but I'm really bummed. Hallet as Lorne was one of my all-time favorite Whedon characters.

Here's a very short clip from the second season of Angel. For those that don't know, that is him singing, no syncing. Lorne was my favorite character from the entire 5 years of the show. Can't believe it, he was only 33!

Beliefs After Death

Several examples of words of wisdom have been running through my head lately. "Your thoughts make your reality" is the most prevalent. And what I've gotten to wondering about is how our thoughts and beliefs affect us after we die. For instance, if we firmly, truly, sincerely think and believe in every fiber of our beings that we will reincarnate as a human, does the strength of our thoughts make it happen? I can also turn it around and look at it from an Abrahamic perspective. If an individual truly thinks and believes they are going to hell does the power of their mind actually cause it to happen?

I've been wondering about this since I began taking a closer look at humorous bits about the afterlife. For instance, Bill Hicks, who was a consummate smoker, has a bit about arriving at heaven and being asked "Got a light"? He's later told by Saint Peter that "these aren't clouds, this is cigarette smoke" and that all the non-smokers are in hell. This is just one example that has got me thinking lately.

If our thoughts define the reality of our daily lives wouldn't it stand to reason that those thoughts would create the reality of our afterlives as well? Or is the power of our thoughts only tied to our physical bodies? And, if so, how does this relate to the mind/body connection? As you can see I've got more questions than answers so I'm eager to learn what my readers and fellow bloggers think.

Inauguration Day

I know he's got many people, myself included, feeling hopeful. I think I'll echo Hecate and say "Don't fuck up". Watching the news today I've choked up several times. One particular moment that stands out was a brief interview with an older black man. Hours before the ceremony he said "I was born and raised in Alabama so you know what I'm doing here!" I don't know if today is the fulfillment of King's dream or just the beginning of the fulfillment of his dream. Either way, it's an historic day worth celebrating.

Congratulation Mr. President! Here's hoping your good intentions come to fruition!

MLK: In the Name of Love

From the Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds...We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed...We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair...Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history...Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Gibran On Religion

Have I spoken this day of aught else?
Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,
And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?
Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?
Who can spread his hours before him, saying, "This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?"
All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.
He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.
The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.
And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.
The freest song comes not through bars and wires.
And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.


Your daily life is your temple and your religion.
Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.
Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,
The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.
For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.
And take with you all men:
For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.


And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.
Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.
And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.
You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.
-Kahlil Gibran

The Murmur of a Bee

The murmur of a bee
A witchcraft yieldeth me.
If any ask me why,
'Twere easier to die
Than tell.

The red upon the hill
Taketh away my will;
If anybody sneer,
Take care, for God is here,
That's all.

The breaking of the day
Addeth to my degree;
If any ask me how,
Artist, who drew me so,
Must tell!

-Emily Dickinson

George Carlin

George Carlin 1937-2008

If you read your history you know that god is one of the leading causes of death and has been for thousands of years. Hindus, Moslems, Christians, Jews, all taking turns killing one another, because god told them it was a good idea. The sword of god, the blood of the lamb, vengeance is mine, onward Christian soldiers. Millions of dead motherfuckers! All because they gave the wrong answer to the god question.
"Do you believe in God?"
"No."
"Boom, dead!"
"Do you believe in God?"
"Yes."
"Do you believe in my god?"
"No."
"Boom, dead!"
"My god has a bigger dick than your god."
For thousands of years all the bloodiest and most brutal wars have been based on religious hatred. Which of course, is fine with me; anytime "holy" people are killing one another, I'm a happy guy......but please, don't kill each other and give me that shit about sanctity of life."

I know it's a cliche but the world has suffered a terrible loss. Many people say he was second only to Lenny Bruce but he was tops with me. I will miss him.

When discussing the possibility of an afterlife Carlin had this to say: "I do believe in the survivability of the human spirit. We were all part of a giant explosion once, and we've come a long way. The incredible distances of past and future internal time, the history of this whole fucking, vibrating, internal resonating mother mass - that's what I read and think about more than anything else."

For more excerpts check out fUSION Anomaly.

In These Hills

A couple days ago Billy commented that my blog had an interesting title. So I decided to explain it a little. The phrase is actually inspired by Vance Randolph. The actual line that inspired my blog title is a pretty dark one, in reference to the bad blood that once upon a time would erupt involving accusations of witchcraft. It runs: "Things happen in these hills which are never mentioned in the newspapers, never reported to the sheriff at the county seat." After reading through his "Ozark Magic and Folklore" and "Pissing in the Snow and other Ozark Folktales", which include all kinds of interesting and sometimes bawdy tales, the phrase "things happen in these hills" made more sense as "magic in these hills". For those of you who aren't into Ozarks folklore, which I imagine is just about everyone but me, Vance Randolph single-handedly managed to preserve much of the folklore, superstitions, folk songs and magic of the Ozarks. And while he sometimes looked down on what he recorded in his books the information is priceless as much, but not all, of those old ideas are gone. Randolph's book are an invaluable source of lore for someone like me, someone trying to recapture the magic of the hills of my homeland. As Randolph says: "Wherever railroads and highways penetrate, wherever newspapers and movies and radios are introduced, the people gradually lose their distinctive local traits and assume the drab color which characterizes conventional Americans elsewhere...A great body of folk belief dies very slowly, and I suspect that some vestiges of backwoods superstition will be with us for a long time to come." And he was right. Most of the old ways are gone but I, and hopefully a few others, are trying to breathe life into the old traditions and practices.

A Mental Mind F*&! Can Be Nice

It's not easy having a good time; even smiling makes my face ache.
Why don't they make more movies like Rocky Horror Picture Show? It's got everything a body and mind need for entertainment: Music, dancing, sex, humor, murder and one helluva floor show. It's even got tobacco and alcohol if not any good drugs. It's a Halloween tradition in my neck of the woods, watching Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon and company wiggle and giggle and dance and sing. Hell, it's almost a ritual. Of course, it's not as fun sitting in the livingroom as watching it with a crowd of toilet paper throwing, squirt gun shooting, "bitch" shouting freaks in a theater. I once knew a really short and not too attractive guy who played the role of the hot dog himself at his university; I think he's a doctor now.

Anyway, I think it's a testament to our fucked up and yet sexually repressed culture that a film featuring bisexuality had to be farcical. I wonder what a serious film dealing with free love and bisexuality would be like in this day and age. Perhaps they've even made films like that and I just haven't seen it. I admit the Bible Belt isn't a great place to broaden horizons; finding openmindedness and progressive thinking isn't easy around here. In fact, it's damn near impossible around some of these Ozarks hills. But in the greater land of these purple mountains and plains you'd think that there'd be some openmindedness sneaking into the mainstream, wouldn't you? But still, there's hubbub about gay marriage and gay parents adopting children. There's still these backwoods, dark aged minded scared silly folks who simply cannot wrap their heads around the fact that their way is not the way of everyone else and that they have no right to cram their Bibles and their "morals" down our throats and up our Constitution.

Don't get me wrong: I've got nothing against the live and let live Christian. But I'm sick of the unenlightened preachers and soccor moms and sycophantic politicians and oh-so-self-righteous, narrowminded jerks. If I could invent a time machine I'd send all these evolutionary throwbacks to the 14th century and let them rot. Maybe they wouldn't rot, maybe they'd like it. I wouldn't care, I just want them outta my country and off my planet. Perhaps I should start making a scientist and inventor of myself; I figure I can master time travel in a week or two.
Don't dream it; be it.

P.S. For those of you who might wonder, I celebrate Samhain on the actual astronomical cross-quarter which falls on November 7 this year. That's why I don't post about Samhain on Halloween. To me, they're two distinct events.

The Passing of Madeleine L'Engle

I remember reading "A Wrinkle in Time" for the first time around age 8 or 9. It had been a favorite of my mother's and she recommended it to me. It was the first time I really became entranced with the world of books. It's the book that made me realize that not all books were full of bland, watered-down history or numbers than conveyed nothing to me. It was my introduction to not only fantasy fiction but my introduction to the world of literature at large. Up until that time I was resigned to the fact that nothing in this world, or in the mind of anyone else, could possibly equal or satisfy my imagination. For me, Madeleine L'Engle was the first author to open my eyes and my mind to the possibilities. She reached me before C.S. Lewis, before Tolkien and long, long before the Harry Potter books she was reaching kids of all ages. I've reread most of the time series as an adult and they're still just as engaging, just as entertaining and just as thought provoking as they were when I was a little girl. In what other book can you learn about tesseracts, mitochondria and how to talk to the opposite sex? It was only after I began studying witchcraft that I realized that quite a few of the characters from "A Wrinkle in Time" are witches of a kind.

Yes, I know L'Engle was a Christian and wrote from that perspective. But a woman who reads minds? A woman who turns into a Pegasus and carries children so high up they must breathe the fragrance of special flowers to survive the trip? Come on, those women are witches in my book. And who could forget the Happy Medium? As she gazes into her ball she can see happenings worlds away and feels sorry for Earthlings being all alone, separate from the other beings in the universe. But the magic of L'Engle's creations was more than just beautiful imagery and fantastical landscapes. She was a master storyteller with a lot to say about the worst kinds of government and the free will of all beings. She delights the reader even as she warns us about totalitarianism. Amazing beasts, magical plants and the thwarting of an ultra-controlling government? What more could a girl ask from a fascinating read? The world has lost a great treasure; she will be missed.

Madeleine L'Engle

29 November 1918 - 6 September 2007

Memorial Day

Memorial Day. It's seems to me that it's just a day that the government set aside to make a perfunctory display of respecting the dead. In my family, and many other families, this is a weekend to go to the lake, or have a barbecue and friends and family over for a good time, or just relax by doing nothing, or all of the above. We tend to visit graves on the birthdays of the deceased and other special days, like Mother's or Father's day, etc. And I've always wondered, how much respect for the dead does the average person actually have?

In ancient times, ancestors, recently deceased or long-removed, were revered to the point of worship in some cultures. Offerings of animal sacrifices, food, wine and flowers were given in the name of respect and love for the dead. But today, it seems we have little reverence for the dead, perhaps even less respect than we show our elderly. How many tales of kids getting drunk in cemeteries and damaging markers have we all heard? Of course, that's just kids being kids, right? Or is it a symptom of a larger problem? I wonder about the parents of those kids who knock over headstones and cause other trouble. Do those parents regularly visit family graves or do they disdain the dead? Does outright disrespect for the dead run in families? I don't know, I'm not a sociologist or whatever -ist that studies that type of thing. I have more questions than answers; what are your thoughts?

Happy Birthday Bob!

Yeah, yeah, I know, Bob Marley has been dead a while. But I still want to mark the day and show respect. Bob, you satisfy my soul and I hope, wherever you are, you're enjoying some great Kaya on this day. And in an effort to perhaps satisfy someone else's soul I offer lyrics to one of my favorite songs: Africa Unite. My personal knowledge of this song comes from a DVD with some live concert footage, this song is so beautiful as are the words.

P.S. I'm not black, nor African, but the wonder of Marley is that almost anyone can find inspiration in his music.

Africa unite
'Cause we're moving right out of Babylon
And we're going to our Father's land
How good and how pleasant it would be
Before God and man
To see the unification of all Africans
As it's been said already
Let it be done right now
We are the children of the Rastaman
We are the children of the Higher Man
So Africa unite, Africa unite, yeah
Africa unite
'Cause we're moving right out of Babylon
And we're grooving to our Father's land
How good and how pleasant it would be
Before God and man
To see the unification of all Africans
As it's been said let it be done
I tell you who we are under the sun
We are the children of the Rastaman
We are the children of the Higher Man
So Africa unite, Africa unite, yeah
Africa unite 'cause the children want
To come home, Africa unite, Africa unite
It's later, later than you think
It's later, later than you think
Unite for the benefit of your people
Unite for the Africans abroad
Unite for the Africans a yard