Happy Birthday, Cybele

April 4 is the birthday of Magna Mater, as the Romans called Cybele, an ancient mother goddess. She originated in Turkey, and her followers spread though-out the Middle East and over to Rome. She was a prototype for later goddesses such as Hera and Juno.

Today is also Easter. Unlike Cybele's birthday, which is always on April 4, Easter is all over the place. Originally linked to Jewish lunar cycles, Easter occurs on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the vernal equinox. The word Easter comes from Eostre, a minor fertility goddess in the grand tradition of Isis, Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite and Venus. The animal symbol for Eostre was the rabbit, which became the Easter bunny. In short, Easter is another Christian theft and renovation of pagan concepts. It seems paradoxical, since Christians scorn paganism as barbaric.

The concept of a murdered god being resurrected, was old and often repeated before the Christians wrote their version for the Bible. Being patriarchal, the entire Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition has reduced the role of women in its retelling of ancient myths and legends. The mother goddess usually played a part in the resurrection of the heroes of yore. For example, Isis restoring Osiris is an early, and common, version.

Christianity doesn't represent any improvement over Paganism. In fact, much is lost. Christianity has lost connection with the cosmos, mother earth and timeless cycles.People pay close attention to dates, hours and minutes, rushing around to tax cycles, seasonal fashion pitches and new annual models, demanding heat when cold and cold when hot, rather than acting in accordance to nature.

Here we are in 2010, on the biggest holiday of Christianity, and big time Christians are all over the news. The Pope has announced that humanity is in crisis and deep change is necessary to save us all. It is attempted misdirection away from the sexual predations of his minions. His idea of change is we all quit thinking for ourselves and follow him and his obsolete organization to the grave. My idea of change is everyone who calls themselves a Catholic abandons that bloated bastion of medieval superstition, and accept the fact we live in the 21st century.

I'm still thunderstruck by how people claiming to be Christians can whole-heartedly support war, murder, torture, bigotry, and prejudice. It also amazes me how supposedly intelligent people can watch Fox propaganda and believe they are getting the truth. I wonder what the percentage of overlap is.

A ranking Cardinal said faithful Catholics would not be swayed by all the gossip about sexual abuse. He's probably right, since the faithful seem to think ritual, imitation cannibalism, during mass, contributes to the spiritual life. That sacramental rite was distilled from a first century pot luck, known as agape in Greek. Every body in the church met and shared whatever food they had to make sure no one went hungry. They also shared common property, being early communists, as well as Christians.

OK, I got that bit of peevishness out of the way. I ranted in the previous post in support of gay rights and gender equality. I went off half-cocked with the wrong time on the city council meeting. The Missoula city council will discuss the anti-discrimination bill on Monday, April 12. We wouldn't need anti-discrimination bills or hate crime legislation, if so-called Christians would act like real Christians.

That last statement leads to a question: What is a real Christian?

Monday Musings and Rants

Kitchenpoet and Zola

Presidents' Day Protest

It is time to loudly voice my opposition to war in general, and specifically to this mess the last moron got us into and the new smart guy is willing to continue. I intend to adopt full Uncle Sam mode on Presidents' Day to stand at the Wilma end of Higgins Bridge with an anti-war sign in hand. Everyone is invited to join me there on Monday, February 15, at noon. You can bring a sign protesting the war or any issue you prefer (i.e. the supreme court's sell out to corporations). I will have some sloppy, quick signs I made with magic marker to hand out, and a marker and blank paper for you to get creative. Of course, I guess it's possible I will be only one there.

A recent attempt to switch from coffee to tea failed miserably, and I can only conclude I am addicted to coffee rather than just caffeine. At this point I would just like to say god bless Butterfly Herbs.

Will Rogers would buy a newspaper on the way to the theater, walk on stage and use the material he found for his comedy act live and spontaneous on stage. He's one of my heroes, and I wish I had the wit to emulate him. Witless or not, I must comment on some headlines and stories I've seen online.

"Exxon Mobil Profits fall 23% in 4th Quarter"

Isn't that a sad story? Those poor bastards only made $6 billion during the final three months of last year. I swear that just brings tears to my eyes.

Many people in Haiti have reason for tears. It's a smashing disaster. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost and ruined. In the midst of this tragedy a gang of Christians tried to abduct a bunch of children, hoping to convert the young heathen, while claiming they only did it for their own good. They didn't go through channels, file paper, nothing, and left some parents unable to find their children. Those righteous bastards remind me of the pompous gasbags claiming slavery was a good thing for allowing the descendants of slaves to now enjoy the benefits of living in our beloved country.

Can you tell I'm pissy about the state of the world and looking for some hypocrites to take it out on?

WWOZ in New Orleans is my most common soundtrack here in my workroom. The joy brought to the people of that city by the Saints has me happy for their wins and rooting for them in the Super Bowl. 

People should be reminded of how that wonderful city went beneath the waves and was ignored by the criminal assholes occupying the white house at the time. People died because the rich people in power didn't give a shit about poor people dying and being forced from their homes. It was negligence equivalent to murder. Then they helped their corporate cronies to move in and profit from the situation. Recommended reading: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.

Domestic Spending Freeze

That's a load of bullshit in the raygun style. Military spending continues to increase. We don't need to spend more than every body else in the world on our military. We don't need to spend half of every tax dollar on defense. A small portion of the money spent on killing people and preparing to kill more could provide health care to everyone in this country. A tiny portion of the money could rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and schools. 

A toast to the young anarchists in Zootown and their Food not Bombs project. That is a worthy message. You would think Christians might agree, since Jesus seemed to be more concerned with feeding people than killing them. Unfortunately, most who label themselves that way and worship his name are only into the names and not his message of love and openness.

I'll wrap with another headline and comment.

"Can talking to the Taliban stop the war?"  

I hope so, because trying to kill all of them isn't working worth a shit.

We Paid for Another Swindle

Everybody keeps saying $700 billion, but the bill passed at $850 billion and that is a minimum, not a maximum. In short, we just poured another trillion dollars down another rat hole, and the economy continues to sink. Kiss that money and the promised benefits good-bye. The only benefit will be to make the rich richer. Timeslip: amount may double.

Thank the powers that be, Bush and his neo-con cronies didn't get social security privatized, or it would be gone, too!

Note: McCain has campaigned for privatizing social security. Of course, he might not bring that issue up right now. Note: Obama supported the bail-out, in spite of the overwhelming public opposition.

I came to Montana from Arkansas, where the congressional delegation was particularly wimpy towards Bushite legislation, but I thought it was different here. Tester is different and I like him a lot, but Baucus appears to be another corporate democrat. I must recontact the Backbone Organization and get more of their "spineless tickets" to send to representatives who sell out. My first one goes to Baucus. That is just because he is the closest and most recent example of a Democrat being a wuss. I want tickets for Pelosi and Reid, too. Who put them in charge?

Our system no longer rewards excellence; it rewards mediocrity. Our leadership is mediocre in every category, on both sides of the aisle. Will someone, please, have the guts to step forward and say we must end this war. I'll send Obama a ticket for saying the "surge" worked. Bullshit! We've segregated Iraq and built walls to keep everyone separated. It's a reverse of the cold war, when the Soviets built the walls.