Gerald R. Ford, (1913 - 2006)

So within the same couple of days that we bid a fond farewell to the Godfather of Soul, we also say goodbye to the 38th president, a man who had something of an FDR-ish role to fill in the White House.

Dad and I were just watching House when there was a newsbreak, I said, "It's probably something about flood warnings." As the words left my lips, I had a feeling I was probably wrong.

Ford was appointed to fill in after Nixon's resignation, left to clean up the mess of Vietnam and Cambodia, an energy crisis, rampant inflation and a depressed economy.

In his handling of these situations, Ford earned himself the respect of his fellow politicians. Jimmy Carter began his inaugural speech by saying, "For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land."

I believe history will be kind to President Ford, the last good Republican that's come down the pike so far.

These things tend to happen in threes--I wonder who's next? (Sorry if that sounds morbid or disrespe

"How's Your Boy?"

Because I just really hate this man.

Really.

From CNN's Political Ticker:

After he declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the president at a White House reception two weeks ago, VA Sen-elect James Webb (D) had the following exchange with Bush, as reported by the Washington Post:

"'How's your boy?' Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

'I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,' Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

'That's not what I asked you,' Bush said. 'How's your boy?'

'That's between me and my boy, Mr. President,' Webb said coldly."

Uh, erm, yes, it's angel time!!!

Interesting goings on at Weiser/Red Wheel.

“Because that’s angel time!” she brightly explains. “That’s when you can connect with angels — 11:11 a.m. and 11:11 p.m. We also like to have meetings at 4:20.”

Considering impressions I've gotten after having met certain people that work for certain people, that's not altogether surprising...

And the Queen said, "Fuck everything, let's talk about FOOD, you guys!"

There is a street near school that has two tremendous places:  the first is a produce store where EVERYTHING is at its peak of ripeness and freshness, and the prices are crazy insane cheap, like half the price you would pay at Safeway.

The second, is Trader Joe's. 

They have these things there, stuffed grape leaves?  Can we talk here?  Ok, the grape leaves themselves are soaked in brine.  Anything soaked in brine wins cool points with me (and I know all that salt is bad, but...)  Then, it's like this rice stuffing mixture that has tomatoes, olive oil, green and red peppers and mint.  Mint!  The sum-total of these ingredients is just, it's just...ohhgoditsgood!

And then, there is this Thai food place near my house that I have discovered that has these corn cakes that are not really like cornbread in any way, just fresh corn and something else corny and crispy, and then they serve it with this cucumber sauce that is like really fresh cucumber with like hot & sour sauce, but cold.

In conclusion, I just found out that Peet's coffee is again serving its to-die-for pumpkin spice lattes!!!

How Transactions Change Owner's Equity...

Gah! I am going to get this stuff!!!

See, last year I was mainly doing typing, math, 10-key, and Excel. Now my teacher says that I'm ready to learn actual accounting principles. And the book is like, oh my goodness...

It takes me a while to crunch the ideas into my brain. Like yesterday, I was having a huge brainfart trying to grasp the concept of the basic accounting equation: assets = liabilities + owner's equity. So I had to wait til after class to go through the book by myself and I finally got it: that just means you're going to minus the liabilities from the assets to get the owner's equity! (You remember basic math, don't you, Hermgirl? Anybody want me to do their taxes?)

The thing is, when you take a bunch of numbers, lay them end to end, stack them on top of each other and lay them out on a grid, like you do in accounting, it kinda scares the shit out of me. For a person like me that is a more creative, artistic, language based type, to assimilate things that are more concrete and number based, is really hard.

Which begs the question: if it's so hard, why do it? One answer to that is that I have always felt that a lot of the things in life that are worth anything will often require a lot of effort. Nothing worth anything comes easy.

Another answer is what this will get me if I am able to do it successfully: a good paying job. I have to keep explaining this one to my family when they question why I struggle through with this stuff (they are all a lot older than me and are products of a time when the economy was such that good paying jobs were much easier to get.)

My family (especially my dad) gets all uncomfortable when they see me muddling through these kind of things. And my dad has a hard time understanding things like, "No, I can't come in the front room and watch the PBS musical show with you, or go to Orchard Supply Hardware with you to look at the new table you're getting, because I have homework, a lot of it."

Having said all that, it's all worth it.

Tappin' the guy on the KNEE!!! Clinton gets tough.

If you wanted to see the Clinton interview on FOX, but experienced cock-blockage because the Ninnycons had the video removed from YouTube, etc, the majority of the Clinton interview is here.

Liquid Cinnamon Sex--For PettyBeige

It is a cold, rainy December day. After browsing at the library, you are perambulating through the town's main shopping street, umbrella overhead. You walk past the Banana Republic, the Talbot's, the Gap.

You cross the street and enter a coffee shop which is not a Starbuck's, but almost. What the place lacks in crass commercialism and bad atmosphere, it makes up for in warmth and unassuming charm.

There is music, Anita Baker, softly purring in the background. You approach the counter, and looking at the goodies behind the glass, you decide to yourself, "Yes, I will have that brownie that looks so good." One of those "holiday specialty" spicy pumpkin lattes will fill the bill as well.

The attendant is an attractive, cheerful Asian man of about your own age (not a teenager.) His smile and pleasant manner light up the otherwise clammy gray afternoon. Heck, you even give the guy a tip, and you're not much of a counter-tipper.

You will not remember the exact name of the drink you have chosen, much like the perfect one-night stand you meet at some Christmas party or other where things just seem to line up your way for an evening.

Expert hands which seem to have been guided by an Unseen Force, put in just the right amount of coffee, steamed milk, and pumpkin and cinnamon spice.

The ingredients of this drink, or, more specifically, the flavors, are indeed quite special. The steam rises from the cup and delivers the spicy bouquet of pumkin to your nostrils. The nutmeg sprinkled on top, shimmers and twinkles at you as it floats on the foam at the top of the cup.

Those who study alchemy or sex magick will understand this: It is as if you have invoked the Angel of the Nutmeg, the Angel of the Cinnamon, the Angel of the Pumpkin, and the Angel of the Coffee who have all transmogrified into the Lover of Your Soul, as they stand, tiptoes on the edge of the paper cup, waiting. Waiting for you.

You lift the cup to your lips. The temperature is just hot enough, just below too hot for you to quaff a healthy amount of the drink. As it flows into your mouth, over your tongue, you realize: you haven't tasted anything this delicious in a very, very long time.

You close your eyes and mouth after the first taste, savoring it. You lean back in your chair, open your book and start reading with a sense of satisfaction that must be palpable to the others in the coffee shop. You are going to take your time with this beverage.

You are in a unique bubble of time and space.

So school has started and I'm taking Computerized Accounting again. I'm really happy and exited about it - I've got maybe the best Bus Ed teacher in the the Bay Area as my teacher.

Once again there are people that don't quite know the ropes here as well as I do, and I'll be available to help - I have enough of a handle on what I'm doing for it not to be a problem.

But then there are the negative people, like the one I was talking to on the first week - I had to turn my head away and stick my tongue out at the blackboard as she was talking, she was such a complainer. Everyone is here for the same purpose, darling, to upgrade their job skills and hence, also has a sense of urgency/importance about what they're doing and about finishing and getting a certificate and so forth. The problem I have with you, you unique little snowflake, you, is I don't enjoy taking time to help and encourage people who have no interest in being helped and encouraged, although, that doesn't stop them from asking me for it. But enough about that bitch.

By contrast, I helped a person this week - taught them how to work with tables in word to make a calendar - that was so appreciative, it was a joy. I could tell their openness and positivity made it easy for them to grasp the concepts. I wonder how well the first person will do, but I have confidence in the second one.

Oh, in case anyone is wondering about how I said I'm taking the class again, this is a vocational school I'm at. It's an at your own pace, pick and choose your own curriculum, sort of place. People who have been there longer help newbies, there are aspects that are run just like a job site, that sort of thing.

Anyway, I am really happy to be back in school! I love my class, I love my friends, I love my teacher, I love my new accounting book!!! (12/20/08--Heh.)

accounting
school

Happy 9/11 Day!!!

Five years ago today was a day when we all huddled together for strength, when we felt close because we all felt as though we had been touched by tragedy.  We believed, on this day five years ago, that though the toll taken had been harsh, we could continue to stand together and somehow weather the storm of grief that had suddenly been thrust upon us.

The Idiot in Chief stood amongst the rescue workers, the first responders, at Ground Zero on this day five years ago, and declared:

"The whole country hears you! I can assure you, those responsible for this will soon hear from us all!"

And it was hard not to get choked up.  Hard not to believe that somehow, we could all get together, rally behind our president, and fix this, or something.

Wonder what Bush & Co are up to now?

Things That Have Been Occupying My Mind Lately...

For the past couple of months, I've been thinking a lot about David Icke. David Icke is a man with a lot of really unusual ideas. He was originally an English soccer player, then became a sportscaster, then was a spokesman for the British Green Party. In 1991 the Party dumped him after he revealed to the world that he was the Son of God and a "channel for the Christ spirit" on national television. The consensus around Great Britain was that he'd lost his marbles.

I started watching this series of films taken from a talk he gave about the Illuminati. Mind-bogglingly weird stuff but very entertaining and informative, especially the details about history and occult symbolism. But the aspect about it that really struck me the most was what was talked about at the beginning of this film clip. There is a lot of other stuff on these films that really stretches the bounds of believabilty, such as the reptilian bloodlines story, but the beginning deals in a very interesting way with the issues of fear and control.

The idea of how you can use fear to control people's minds. If there are fewer of "you" than there are of "them", how do you get "them" to conduct themselves the way you want them to? The answer would be: get them to make each other do it!

The whole world seems to be ruled by "that's not the way we do things around here!" and Icke talks very convincingly of the idea of people being ruled by the fear of what other people think.

So I've been thinking about these things, and it seems to go together with some other things that I've been looking at on teh interwebs about how leaders of some groups use fear and control to separate you from yourself in a sense. This woman, if you look at her website, has a rather bizarre tale to tell, almost beyond belief, but if you google the name Kay Griggs, or do a search for it on YouTube, there are some startling parallels (and I also don't have a problem with the idea that an asshole like Reagan could make himself beholden to an American Nazi cell group.)

Now she tells some very far-fetched tales about people being forced to drink urine, but if we think about it, certain organizations sometimes try to get you to "drink the kool-aid", in a manner of speaking, and doing this can be almost as degrading, since it separates you from yourself, in a way.

Things can happen in our lives, either through abuse or trauma of some kind, that can destroy our ability to access our natural compassion, as in the case of Richard Ramirez, who as a child had an older cousin that was a mentor figure, a Vietnam vet, the cousin was also a sexual sadist and showed Richard pictures of how he had raped and murdered a Vietnamese woman. The cousin later murdered his wife in front of Richard, and committed suicide.

One of the things that amazes us about people who commit the type of crimes Richard Ramirez is guilty of, is the fact that they are able to do so without the least bit of feeling for the suffering of their victims. This is because they have been separated from their natural compassion, a process that is sometimes referred to by psychiatric workers as a "cognitave split" or, "switching". Essentially, there is something inside that is being shut down.

Compassion, if you look at Merriam-Webster Online, is defined one way as " the capacity for feeling for another's unhappiness or misfortune -- see HEART."
And heart is a very good word to apply here, because the Heart is the very seat of our compassion.

Some will understand that I speak of the Heart Chakra, that which may be termed, the Lover of Our Soul. It is here that we access our self-love, also, through meditation and other such work I believe it is where we can actually meet our Holy Guardian Angel on our own.

Certain organizations will try to tell you that only they have the means to help one get in touch with their HGA, but in the words of the woman at the Reflections in the Night website, "You are of no use to the cult if you love yourself." It is this bloggers opinion that even far-fetched Xian propaganda-style stories of urine drinking and figurative kool-aid drinking can draw some paralells.

I don't quite know how I got from talking about David Icke to Richard Ramirez, but I think this was just an exploration of the contents of my brain that wanted to get written the way it was written.

---

tag: david icke, compassion, kay griggs, richard ramirez, hga,

Getting back into the swing of things

I just put a brand new 512 MB of RAM into my machine, (with my own two hands!) and I'm raring to go. Been really busy lately, housesitting and stuff, so haven't been posting lately. I really want to try to get more substantive and concentrate on having worthwhile things to say. Things that have to do with my studies and writings.

To that end, then, I offer my opinion on something I came across while surfing on Amazon last night, a recommendation list by a "tarot expert".

Right off the bat I smell an agenda here--you can pretty much tell this was one of those situations where someone was doing a favor for another author/person with something to pimp, with the idea that when the time came, the one having their back scratched would reciprocate. I take a look at this woman's rather charming website, and discover that (sucking in breath) ooooh! She's got several tarot and divination decks slated to be published in the next four years! Coincidence? You be the judge.

Shameless self promotion not really being a problem, I press on. I find it really hard to believe that she, a "tarot professional", is often asked the difference between a pro and an expert. Joseph Martin, one of the professionals she name-checks here, once said the two main things people ask about when getting a reading are "getting laid and getting paid". Unless someone else was interested in becoming a professional reader, I don't see how this would come up, I see this as her way of setting up her argument to assure that she would be perceived as an Authority.

She is very adamant that: "A Tarot Professional is definitely not just anyone who can:
1. Write/publish Tarot books.
2. Create Tarot decks.
3. Take a Tarot class or course.
4. Write Tarot articles.
5. Write reviews of Tarot decks or books.
6. Get their work published in a magazine, ezine, newspaper, etc."

and that: "the truth is anyone can write books and publish them, create decks, take a class or course, write articles, review books or decks, or manage to have their work published without having any prior qualifications."

Anyone can also read cards in the park, or on one of those psychic telephone lines, or put out a shingle in front of a nice office, manage to make enough to live on for a year, and consider themselves a professional. I have nothing against those tarot certifications and degrees that are out there, but the fact is, the coursework that they are based on is comprised of the very things listed by Ms. Fox-Heins.

An author is plugged, who is "recognized as a historical and philosophical Tarot Expert." Recognized by whom? I have been studying the cards off and on for over twenty years, and I've never read any of his books, which all came out in the past five years.

You have to remember, before the occult revival of the turn of the twentieth century, for hundreds of years divination was the domain of little old ladies reading cards and tea leaves in their kitchens. And no, I don't have any documentation to back that up.

Having said that, I have no disrespect whatsoever for folks that actually do read professionally--I'd like to have a turn at it myself someday. What I have an objection to is fundamentalism and overcomplication for its own sake. Again, nothing against the licences and certifications people can get if they feel so led, but there is not now, nor will there ever be, the equivalent of "passing a bar exam" for the tarot.

At least not if people like me have anything to do with it.

---

Technorati tags: tarot
tarot certifications

Cake or Death? Or, You're Lucky I'm a Church of E Pagan!

Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for ever: the slaves shall serve. There is none that shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there are masked ones my servants: it may be that yonder beggar is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will: there is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.

Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a King concealed! Say you so? Fool! If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him.

Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master!

Now, if you know where that comes from, good for you, you earn a few cool points.

The poet's name will not be mentioned here, nor will certain words or topics be talked about any further in this journal, at least not in the *obvious* ways that such things get talked about.

Not that I no longer value the things I learned about this paradigm, but I feel a sea change coming on.

Things I've been checking out as spiritual options are seeming a lot less attractive to me these days. There will be a change in direction soon. This video hints at that a little bit:

"Principal Firebush"

This was already shaping into a funny short, but in the last five seconds it made the meta-leap into the mind-bogglingly awesome zone.

Fellow Pulp Fiction fans take note.

Confessions of a Former Retail Whore

Just wanted to expand on my thoughts on this article at DIY Planner.

As my Grandma Mary would no doubt have said, "It doesn't cost an extra dime to be courteous."

Having worked at places like Mickey D's, Sears, etc., I know what a few nice words or a pleasant smile can mean. It can sometimes mean the difference between crying yourself to sleep that night and not.

The people who make a point of saying a couple nice words or just being generally pleasant,(like, not returning my smile and nice greeting with a hate-filled glare and the words "Just hurry up and ring me up!") can really make up for the people who behave like complete and utter assholes.

Because I remember (and hope I never forget) what it was like, I look at it as my job to be a sort of professional nice person, being kind to waitstaff and clerks, even unto the lowliest trainee. I also make a mental note of anyone I might be with, and whether or not they do the same. Anyone that puts an effort into being nasty to these folks is definately off the list of people I call friends.

And yes, there are people that actually go out of their way to be nasty to serviceworkers--and this is often a red flag that the person has a hostility problem, or some kind of control/manipulation issues. I had a friend that once used to brag to me about how she and her boyfriend (may they both burn in hell) used to start crap with everyone in a restaurant, completely oblivious to the fact that since my current job was as a table busser, I was extremely unimpressed.

Technorati Tags:retail, kindness

Me and the JWs in the Morning, Pt. 2

I'm waiting for the bus, and the lady comes by with her pamphlets again. There were a lot of young people around, so she had hit pay dirt, they all took one.

I was combing my hair in the window, and then my eyes caught sight of a damp old Watchtower in the plants. In a stroke of genius, I turned around and handed it to her, saying, "Here, why don't you take this one back? It's all messed up." This was classic.

Of course, she didn't quite know how to react to this, so she stiffly took it back and said, "Thank you, I'll dispose of this properly."

Wallow, wallow in your shame, polluters of the earth!!! Thou hast promulgated thy unclean religion in the wrong place.

Kevin Smith, Thelemite???

Snoochie Boochies, I think Lunchbox knows something!

Go here, and then scroll down to the pic that says, "because she's my star."

Everyone's doing it...

That Wikipedia meme (get your minds out of the gutter!)

Go to Wikipedia.com and enter your date of birth (excluding the year). Post 3 events, 3 births, and 1 death.

Events:

• Roman Empire – Quinquatrus Minusculae held in honor of Minerva
• Roman Empire – seventh day of the Vestalia in honor of Vesta
• 1920 - The United States Postal Service rules that children may not be sent via parcel post.

Births:

• 1865 - William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1939)
• 1884 - Gerald Gardner, British occultist (d. 1964) ---Hmmm...
• 1926 - Paul Lynde, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1969 - Rivers Cuomo--from Weezer (also very celibate.)
  

Death:

• 1987 - Geraldine Page, American actress (b. 1924)

In which I make a rather controversial assertion:

This video is evidence of the fact that the early seventies group, Uriah Heep practically invented the use of stepped harmonies in rock music. Before they came along, there was no one else doing it (neither Yes nor Queen was around when they started, the only other bands that came remotely close vocally were the Beach Boys and Buffalo Springfield.)

And for those of us interested in Aleister Crowley, an awesome piece from Media Underground (if you can get past the Colin Wilson innacuracies):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This is mainly in honor of the celebration of the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law, but also proof that I've been spending too much time on the 'puter. ;o)

When do the rats leave?

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/national/national.php?story=177338

Does anyone remember when the only thing holding the Republicans back from going for Clinton's jugular was Larry Flynt and what he dug up on them? One shudders at what he found on all of them.

And in the Maybe if We Stop Thinking About Them, They Will Go Away Department: YouTube has tons of Jethro Tull videos. I was going to put a direct link to them, but the computer went all floopy.

This is just scary

And I know I said that tv sucks, but what I really meant (of course) was that most tv sucks with the exception of Project Runway, or anywhere they are doing sewing or any kind of needlework.

Jay Mccarroll, are you out there in the blogosphere? The world needs your sunny smile to counteract the darkness that is Santino.

Up One Pair of Stairs, or, HermWorld needs a new castle ...

...at least a remodeling!

The other day an LJ friend linked to an article about Alan Moore which took the reader on a tour of the writer's home. I suspect it's quite a place, it has carved snakes on the door and colorfully painted walls (and, I understand, quite a lot of books all over everywhere--the man knows how to live!) Unfortunately, said article has reverted back to the pay to play version that some online newspapers think are wonderful, or I'd link back to it here.

Anywho, amongst the beautiful and lavish furnishings was included "...wooden panels on the wall detailing the alphabet of the angels, as transcribed by Elizabeth I's personal astrologer."

As I observed to Qadriya, most folks wouldn't find anything of interest in that descriptive element, they'd read it, and roll right along to the stuff about V for Vendetta (which I am also jonesing to see, btw.) Many of us know that this is a reference to the Enochian alphabet of John Dee.

As it happens, I am currently reading "The Queen's Conjurer" by Benjamin Woolley. Consider this a "taste" of that book, for someone I know that has this book on his Amazon Wishlist (I'd send ya the copy when I was done, but unfortunately it's a library book.): One of the things talked about is the Areopagus society, a literary group that included Dee, Sir Philip Sidney, and Edmund Spenser, whose work "The Faerie Queene" might have been describing Dee in this passage:

...whose walls
Were painted faire with memorable guests,
Of famous Wizards, and with picturals
Of Magistrates, of courts, of tribunals,
Of commonwealths, of states, of policy,
Of laws, of judgements, and of decretals;
All arts, all science, all Philosophy,
And all that in the world was aye thought wittily.
Of those that room was full, and them among
There sat a man of ripe and perfect age,
Who did them meditate all his life long,
That through continual practise and usage,
He now was grown right wise, and wondrous sage.
Great pleasure had those stranger knights, to see
His goodly reason, and grave personage,
That his disciples both desir'd to be.

What this put me in mind of was something I heard attributed to Elphias Levi, that if someone was in prison, with no access to books, one could utilize the tarot, if one had a deck and knew how to read the cards, to learn everything there was to learn about everything, or something to that effect. Now, what I'm talking about with this entry doesn't necessarily have anything to do with tarot, it's more of an examination of how, when a few ideas get juxtaposed in my head, things start cookin'.

Another idea that fell into the pot was that I had read snippets of "The Faerie Queen" before, and it had had a profound affect on me. Another (seemingly) unimportant detail was that the segments of this work were found in a children's anthology called My Book House, which is shown here if you scroll down a ways--I am a proud owner of the Rainbow edition of this set, which is pictured in the top right of that grouping. I tried to take a pic of it, but my digital camera skills are still quite abysmal. Anyway, the titles of these books are quite evocative: Up One Pair of Stairs, Through Fairy Halls, From the Tower Window, etc.

So all of these ideas are swirling in my head this afternoon, houses, books, wisdom, scrying, etc. and something hits me: HermWorld needs a new castle! As some of you that have been playing the homegame know, HermWorld is a real place inside my head. Those of you that have been reading this far (you have my sympathy) will no doubt want to kill me when I tell you that since it's almost twelve and I gotta go to school, I gotta cut it short rather than expand on the ideas that are developing.

I know it has something to do with getting ahold of and reading a complete copy of The Faerie Queene, my Spirit Guide, and the Akashic Record, or something like that.

I <3 YouTube

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jg_9vSWKx3I

Stroking YouTubes hair, looking into YouTube's eyes...

Oh Peter!

Might even offer YouTube her cleavage, if YouTube stays being nice...

"Feel your body melt;
Mum to mud to mad to dad..."

Oh Peter!!!

---

tag: YouTube, Genesis

Ha Ha Ha America

Kinda funny, but also so true it's scary.

http://news.globalfreepress.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=toprated&cat=0&pos=0

GTD in My Den

I was cleanin' like a madwoman today. As a result I have an amazingly clean desk, with room for my new scanner, which I have not hooked up yet, but there may be interesting things along that frontier soon.

I evicted some of my Mom's leftover stuff from where it was taking up space in the drawers, and cleared out lots of room for my accounting textbooks and paper and a few books I am reading, so now the desk area in the den is going to be a really efficient place to Get Things Done, and a little plug for the David Allen book there, I put that in the drawer too--I still have to get going on that.

What I had going for sound during this was first NPR, and my usual sunday thing of Prarie Home Companion, and then City Arts and Lectures, where they had Fran Lebowitz, who I have decided is awesome--she actually spends eight hours a day reading! Then I listened to some podcasts, and I got caught up on all the ones at TCTC, so I am feeling mighty accomplished.

I also cleaned off the easy chair, and when I removed the cushion to vacuum underneath, I found enough cookie/cracker crumbs to season a plate of rice. I don't know why I went there, but I thought you guys would enjoy that mental image.

"Based upon your actions, you have forfeited your right to live among us in society."

Yes! Yes! Yes!

What I was hoping for two years ago, has finally come to pass.

I even payed the .99 cent fee to watch the bastard plead for his life--and it was worth it! Whining like a little baby--"Drugs were all over when I was growing up!" Yeah, it was that way for a lot of people growing up, but the funny thing about that, you can choose not to take them!

I guess the reason that this whole thing burned my onions so much was that I saw the footage of him grabbing her near the car wash, in the middle of the afternoon. Conducting himself like he had every right in the world to do what he was doing. I hope he drops the soap in the shower and gets broomhandle-fucked and made to head up a fucktrain of big-dicked men.

(Edit on 6/4/06: This was originally a LiveJournal post that started an interesting discussion. In the interest of giving opposing opinions equal air time, I will recreate the discussion here.)

Hravan: theres a candidate for a hollow point bullet and a man sized paper bag if ever I saw one

no point wasting collective resources keeping *that* alive...

Hermgirl: Plus, there is that whole aspect of his whining about his childhood in New York or whatever the problem was (like NY is a huge problem, I'd love living there.)

Ya know, some people have crappy childhoods, and when they get older, they leave it all behind! When you become a grownup, it's amazing what you can do when you leave the crap in the past where it belongs.

Uncleernie50: For someone i dont really know but only know online... I was still shocked to read this post. It should not surprise you that with my affinity for Phil Ochs i am adamantly anti-death penalty. (i.e. Paul Crump and Iron Lady) I too find myself concerned with the ideas of will, intention and motivation.. but i also attempt very hard to live in a world of no moral absolute. Every action from the first person perspective is justified to yourself. No matter how heinous it is to others.. A government has a right to prevent you from committing those acts.. but the moral judgement is the providence of individuals surrounding the action to have for themselves. Institutionalized morality leads to all sorts of dark paths.
Vengeance is not justice...

that being said... i'm sorry for proselytizing in your journal...

Hermgirl: No, that's ok. I can see how you would be surprised and shocked, seeing as I am politically lefty (I'm very pro-labor, for instance, anti-Bush, etc,) in the main.

However, I believe that morality is an individual thing, it cannot be legislated or compartmentalized. We may have laws, but I'm not sure there is such a thing as "institutionalized morality". Look at our president, I wouldn't call him a terribly moral individual, and I don't think he would ever become one, just by virtue of his being president.

As a Thelemite, I live by the words, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will." I believe in tempering my actions using my will and walking in love with all people.

Aleister Crowley wrote some very interesting things about the subject of will and morality, you might be interested in a little work called
Liber Oz, to find out what some Thelemites, including myself, believe.

My personal interpretation of those things, is that everyone has a choice about how they're going to conduct themselves in this world. If you rape an eleven year old girl and take about five minutes to squeeze the life out of her body (That's a long time, five minutes. Long enough to really think about what you're doing and maybe even change your mind), don't come whining to the rest of us about how we should spare your life for the sake of your daughters.

I also believe that just because a person has one thing they believe, it doesn't necessarily mean they have to walk in lock-step with something a person, or a group of people believe. I believe the war in Iraq is wrong, and that Bush and his cronies are war criminals, but that doesn't make me a pacifist (even though I like Phil Ochs too, btw). I don't want to see Roe v Wade overturned, but that doesn't mean I don't consider myself a pro-lifer. Heck, while I'm on the subject of Crowley, someone I consider a metaphysical genius, he was a guy that got enough poon to start his own poon store, but myself I'm as celibate as the day is long.

For me, it is all about choices. Every man and woman is a star. The choices we make are what send us into our respective orbits, into the galaxies of our making.

Uncleernie50: Im finding this really wierd... i agree with your philosophy 100% yet i still cant see how it aligns at all with a pro death penalty stance. If everyone conducts their lifes based on concious choice than isnt every choice justified from the first person perspective? To me the idea of choking the life out of someone is abhorant and something i would never do. To this person it wasnt abhorant and was something that he wanted to do. And while we have a right to feel personal disgust on the action... and we also have a right to prevent that action from being repeated by incarcerating him. Do we have the right to cast life and death judgements on an action he felt justified in doing?

Hermgirl: Liber OZ

"the law of
the strong:
this is our law
and the joy
of the world." AL. II. 2

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." --AL. I. 40

"thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay." --AL. I. 42-3

"Every man and every woman is a star." --AL. I. 3
There is no god but man.

1. Man has the right to live by his own law--
to live in the way that he wills to do:
to work as he will:
to play as he will:
to rest as he will:
to die when and how he will.
2. Man has the right to eat what he will:
to drink what he will:
to dwell where he will:
to move as he will on the face of the earth.
3. Man has the right to think what he will:
to speak what he will:
to write what he will:
to draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he will:
to dress as he will.
4. Man has the right to love as he will:--
"take your fill and will of love as ye will,
when, where, and with whom ye will." --AL. I. 51
5. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights.
"the slaves shall serve." --AL. II. 58

"Love is the law, love under will." --AL. I. 57

He was not behaving in accordance with his True Will. Love is the law--how is it loving to kill an eleven year old child? "Do that, and no other shall say nay."

And what about Carlie Brucia, and her right to live her life as she saw fit? Wasn't Smith casting a life & death judgement on her?

I hope you don't think I am trying to change your mind here, or castigate you because you believe differently from me. Just trying to help you understand my beliefs. I just realized what a raging harridan I sound like.

I don't know if I've ever revealed this to anyone here on the internets, but when I was a child, I was molested a few times. Ergo, I sort of take a jaundiced glee in seeing guys that do this sort of thing bite the big one.

Liber Spiritus: my take on this:

Judge: "You have been found guilty."

*guards take him out back and promptly shoot him*

justice served - case closed.

Leswamp: Blow his brains out and charge his fmily for the bullet.

My morning, on two and a half hours sleep:

So I'm thinkin', no problem, I'll go down the hill to the ATM and stick my $$$ in the bank before I catch the bus to school. Of course, I get down there, and all the regular ATMs are taken, and the clock is ticking on the bus's ETA, so I think, no problem, just go over to the drive up ATM (bad idea.) I then proceed to not read the flashing notice that it is out of order, and try shoving my card in the appropriate, though woefully unresponsive, orifice. Another bad idea.

Then I go over to the bus stop, to wait for the appropriate transportation. One of these ladies with the Watchtower that does their gig at bus stops comes over and starts chatting. I have no energy to resist, so I figure I'll try saying something really bizarre to her, even if she doesn't get it, just for my own shits & giggles.

Sure enough, she sizes me up, and, figuring me for a high school student (it must be the giant backpack) she tries to show me some article about kids who cut , "and once they start doing it, they develop a habit of doing it that is hard to break."

"One might say they're addicted to pain." Biggest bizarro smile I can manage, hoping this is fraught with meaning.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I could see myself being this mean:

hermgirl's lame-ass excuse to break up: "I just realized that you're ugly" 'What is your lame-ass excuse to break up?' at QuizGalaxy.com

But they would probably have done something really heinous.

Another really important thing, seriously:

Dick Cheney SHOT SOMEBODY! Ok, can we just investigate him, or something? Just, do it really carefully, seriously.

You simply need this in your life:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/bruce_dickinson/

Why? Because when he plays Silver Machine by Hawkwind (which he does, like, every time!) it makes me imagine myself in a silver lame outfit wearing a giant cowboy hat and shaking my boo-tay wildly! In fact it's a good thing that I'm in the room by myself when this happens, because I generally hump things violently when I hear that song, so it might be dangerous for anyone caught in the same room with me.

Man, I drank alcohol this week, (something called a Twisted Plisko, a Peruvian drink, I'm told.) I looked at Hentai porn a little while ago (it's all agent139's fault!) I leave the house tomorrow, so it could be quite dangerous for anyone or anything crossing my path.

Thank the Gods for good vocational school teachers!

So I'm at Regional Occupational Program, taking a class in Computerized Accounting, and my teacher just did a thing where she showed all kinds of websites about doing your taxes and getting academic discounts on software and stuff since we're in school. And I found all kinds of cool places with articles about govt benefits and the board of labor (last year I had to sick the BOL on a rotten employer who refused to pay me what she owed me) and stuff. So I think I'm going to add a lot of these to my daily web reading and get educated.

Here they are in case anyone's interested:

http://www.servicelocator.org/

http://www.govbenefits.gov/

http://www.irs.gov/

http://www.nolopress.com/

http://www.dol.gov/

Crossposted like a mofo.

Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine...

Just some stream of consciousness thoughts.

Bill Clinton's words on Coretta Scott King: Something about how she believed in the promise in the Book of Isaiah, and that maybe we should too...

On the Majority Report on Air America: a study that says Americans are extremely dependent on sleeping pills...

I think, "What has gone wrong with the American Experiment?"

The road to Hermworld lies open, Her towers shining in the distance...

***********************************************************************************

A couple weeks ago, I'm cleaning the kitchen like a bastard. I'm emptying old stuff out of the fridge--I found condiments in there from before 9/11!!!

So, naturally, the father isn't happy with this, and we have a shouting match over it. In the middle of it, he says something to the effect of, "You wouldn't last ten minutes in the Marine Corps. You'd get your ass kicked. Then what would you do?"

I wrinkle my nose at him and smile. "Remember what they said in that movie we watched the other night?" We had watched Animal House. "We have a saying: Don't get mad, get even."

He thinks this is funny, then a little more screaming, then I yell at him to get in the fuckin' front room and watch football. He does.

A little later I go in the front room and he is in his chair looking very small, and he (begrudgingly) says, "Thanks for cleaning the fridge out."

***********************************************************************************

This morning at around 3:20, I was trying to get back to sleep for another hour and a half, and I started thinking about the Loma Prieta Earthquake (which was back in '89.) Well, ok, I was thinking about the guy I was in love with back then, then I started thinking about what I was doing when the earthquake hit: I was writing a poem about God (this was back in the Christian days.) Not a very good poem, more like a song-poem (song-poems are always things you think are great when you're writing them, then you read them later and they kind of suck.)

This song-poem sounded in my head like a snarky Ian Hunter lyric, or maybe a misanthropic, Roger Waters from Pink Floyd "Jesus is great but the rest of humanity sucks!" kind of lyric.

I think when I was a Christian, there was a part of me that wanted to effect a kind of Roger Waters misanthropy, and that little part of me will always be kind of bitter because I didn't achieve it.

You Might Be a Fatwa Target If...

You might be a fatwa target if:

• You were spotted hanging out with Salman Rushdie during the Nineties (this list of folks includes Bono, different people are gonna feel different ways about that one.)
• Despite the advice of the local Mullah, you opt to take in that nice young Christian missionary couple for the weekend...
• They find that Osama dart board you've been playing with in the rumpus room.
• Three words: Mohammed mud flaps.

"Our daughters' daughters will adore us, and they'll sing in grateful chorus..."

I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the passing of Betty Friedan, author of the Feminine Mystique, founder of the National Organization for Women:

"Men are not the enemy, but the fellow victims. The real enemy is women's denigration of themselves."

"When she stopped conforming to the conventional picture of femininity she finally began to enjoy being a woman."

" The feminine mystique has succeeded in burying millions of American women alive. "

Also on the list of great gals when the role is called up yonder: Coretta Scott King, who married a handsome young theologian...

And lastly, who can forget Granpa Al from the Munsters, who said: "Herman! Herman, please! How many times do I have to tell you not to pound stakes while I'm around? You know it gives me heartburn!"

Friday Night Tarot Hoedown

Tarot In the News: From Vineland, New Jersey--Invasion suspect is collared. It seems there is no end to the connection between Tarot and shady characters, I wonder why?

Practices: Scientific Illuminism, or Something! Well, I've adapted this daily practice to Tarot, rather than gaming dice, utilizing only the Ace through Tens of the Minor Arcana. One of the tools I've used for interpreting the results is "Godwin's Cabalistic Encyclopedia". Been doing this for about a month now, and I've gotta say, I feel like I'm getting cabalistically in tune with my cards. I also recommend getting comfortable with your one to ten cards--it seems that much emphasis is placed on the Majors and the court cards, when the pips are certainly as important tarotistically, and also the numbers one to ten extremely important if you're getting to know the qabalah. I think I owe someone a quarter.

Podcasting: Through the Gate into Tarot is the name of a guided imagery, nlp sort of meditational hypnosis podcast, done by a guy named Brian David Phillips, a hypnosis expert, with several different "hypnocasts" that seem worth looking into.

I have done the meditation and will share my results and impressions with you now, note that this is not a divinatory interpretation, but more of a free-flowing, meditational experience.

The idea is to draw three cards that form the basis for your meditational imagery:

1. The Mentor card--a guide to the experience. I drew the Eight of Swords.
2. The Context or Grounding card. I drew the Wheel of Fortune.
3. The Catalyst card--what puts the Mentor and Context in motion. I drew the Three of Cups.

I saw the Mentor as a sort of Jacob Marley figure--the imagery of the 8 of swords really going along with this, with the figure swathed in some kind of winding sheet-looking tape.

I turned over the Wheel of Fortune. Expect the unexpected! Ok.

The Catalyst card was rightfully named, because I truly didn't feel this meditation experience really taking off til I turned it over to discover the ladies of the Three of Cups dancing away. I noticed that in the Rider Waite Smith deck, the woman in the 8 of swords seems to be wearing the same frock as one of the women in the 3 of cups--surely this is no accident!

As I allowed the two cards to frame the Context of the Wheel, I saw in my minds eye a party like that of the 3 of cups, one of the centerpieces of which was a large Maypole, with people dancing, creating a giant wheel in the middle of the festivities, and had a feeling of the turning earth and the changing seasons that a Maypole signifies.

There were also other, smaller wheels at this party. I saw a table, with folks in lovely RenWear standing around drinking and talking, watching a roulette wheel spin. I even heard Tina Turner shouting, "Bust a deal, face the Wheel!" I saw one of those kind of wheels.

Throughout, I was reminded of my Guide and my Catalyst. The eight of swords woman was there in a corner, silently conveying (it is hard for me to imagine her as speaking) that the power to overcome any bondage is within us, and that our participation in the "Party" of Life is what determines our Fortune.

Christopher Penn: Prime Rib

EDDIE: Daddy, did ya see that?

JOE: What?

EDDIE: Guy got me on the ground, tried to fuck me.

VIC: You fuckin wish.

EDDIE: You tried to fuck me in my father's office, you sick bastard. Look, Vic, whatever you wanna do in the privacy of your own home, go do it. But don't try to fuck me. I don't think of you that way. I mean, I like you a lot--

VIC: Eddie, if I was a pirate, I wouldn't throw you to the crew.

EDDIE: No, you'd keep me for yourself. Four years fuckin punks in the ass made you appreciate prime rib when you get it.

--From Resevoir Dogs

Friday Night (or Saturday Morning) Tarot Hoedown

(Well, I wrote it last night, anyway.)

After a long hiatus, the Hoedown is finally back.

Recommendations: I found a couple of nice things at Barnes & Noble, the first is a very cute little Deck/Book set. "The Tarot Box", with a book written by Juliet Sharman-Burke and a beautiful deck designed by Giovanni Caselli (the link is to the larger Sharman-Burke/Caselli set, which is also a recommendation), the cards being about 2" x 3.5", and the box includes a puzzle that has two spread layouts on it. A nice little gift or treat for yourself.

Secondly, A very good book for beginners, or anybody who just likes tarot books and wants to see a good one, is back in print, "Super Tarot" by Sasha Fenton.

Tarot in the News: From the UK--Palmist in the dock over false statements claim When are we gonna clear junk like this up, people?

From Dover, MD--Dover Store Embroiled in Religious Freedom Controversy It is this Tarologist's opinion that when we start clearing up unscrupulous practitioners such as the one in the first story, we'll have less resistence to our ideas, as in the second story.

A Tarot Reading: And lastly, a demonstration of the Joey Tribiani spread, which I'm not sure if I've given a demo of, but a full explanation of this spread will soon be up on the website.

For this spread, you simply lay four cards out from left to right. A brief explanation of the four positions:

1. What's in the past, recent or otherwise.
2. Where you are today.
3. The issue you are facing.
4. Probable outcome on the road you are traveling on.

And the draw went thusly:

1. Five of cups, rev--There has been some depression in the past, even though there needn't be. I think I have been lately been troubled by the unemployment factor.

2. Eight of swords, rev--I have a chance to beat this depression through hard work (I'm back in vocational school, studying accounting software at ROP!) Although it bears saying here, since some of us have been discussing depression lately, there are many different types of depression, not all of them can be "worked through", and if you are experiencing it, the best thing is to talk with someone about it.

3. Eight of wands, rev--Look before I leap! In my career planning endeavors (and I'm seeing that this reading is about my feelings about my career) it will behoove me to do my homework.

4. The Hermit--Through all of this I can gain wisdom that I can share with others.

I think it is interesting to note that, qabalistically speaking, we have the numbers eight and five, which are represented on the left side of the Tree as Hod (Splendor), Geburah (Severity), and the the nine of the Hermit is a multiple of three, which is Binah (Understanding).

Because Sunfell reminded me (like she reminds me of a lot of cool things)

Our good friend, Marilyn Manson, and the food pyramid.

(Scroll to the bottom where it says "Pyramid Scheme")

This just in, from the Extinct Marsupial school of career counseling:

I asked the magic cactus, What road do I take to getting a really good paying job? and THE MAGIC CACTUS SAID TO ME: This one time, I dropped a quad of acid in the middle of a presentation on alternatives to modern economic trends - I totally bombed and our major investors withdrew their funding from my proposals, but at the very least I had fun. Just enjoy the ride, dude.

reality subversion @ www.irreality.net

To Trend or not to Trend?

An LJ friend had a thought-provoking post about how it made him feel that he didn't enjoy things like Pulp Fiction and Radiohead as much as other folks do, that caused me to wax long and boring in a comment, thought I'd post my thoughts here and expand the discussion out to you guys. I said:

"I don't think there is any "should" about this. You like what you like and don't like what you don't. I see no reason to downgrade yourself here. You are just a person that has a filter against things that are trendoid. I am with you on a lot of this stuff. Having worked in bookstores, I remember the whole David Eggers thing, and I also remember checking it out and deciding that he was trying way too hard.

I used to have a more pronounced filter against such things, I also have never played any kind of a video game (when I was a kid I thought of it as a plot to separate me from my pot money) and I would never in a million years get a tattoo or a piercing anywhere but the two I have in my ears.

I have relaxed that filter over the years to let in things like Pulp Fiction and Radiohead. Much as I enjoy them, I know they are in fact examples of people trying way too hard to be cool. I will look at that work and say, "Ok, noble effort, I'll allow it." I would probably make a kickback sort of teacher.

Over the decades there has arisen an area of marketing that makes guys like Tarentino possible, call it the Hipster Demographic. It is easy to allow yourself to fall under that spell.

But then, there is also a current that I find myself even more resistant to. It seemed to start back when I was a kid and I had friends that seemed to feel it was their job to figure out exactly what was "poser" and what wasn't. A punk rock friend literally screamed at me over the fact that I liked the Psychedelic Furs, and that "their first couple of albums are ok, but their newer stuff is shit!" I knew a lot of extremely disfunctional people.

What was so wrong about liking something that was made like a well-turned and crafted piece of furniture, just because it happened to be commercially successful, or employed imagery or other devices that were popular at the time?

To me, the movie "Pretty in Pink" symbolized a midpoint between two extremes that I saw myself locked into during that time. I would spend the day at school with my friends, smoking pot and listening to AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, then go home and watch MV3 with Richard Blade
(we didn't have MTV yet in my town), which was a kind of American Bandstand but with videos that was on after school. I would watch Culture Club and Howard Jones videos while eating salad and riding a stationary bike. The only heavy metal they played was the lame stuff like Quiet Riot, never Iron Maiden. Did I secretly like the Cure more than I liked Black Sabbath? I would say it was more a case of liking them both equally, it would depend on my mood.

Molly Ringwald was kind of a doppelganger for me, in that she was an outsider with the rich kids, and had this job at a used record store (In what universe, btw, was owning and working in a used record store a woman's territory? Not that it shouldn't have been, but all the used record stores I went to were manned by men, who probably would have plotzed if they were there to witness Annie Potts stapling record albums to the ceiling.) She also moved in a universe where she actually had the privilege to choose Andrew McCarthy over the Duckman (an unwise move, IMHO), and was followed around by music by Orchestral Manouvers in the Dark and Echo and the Bunnymen.

Doing heroin and turning tricks on the street will also make you hardcore, but I'm not going there either. I had friends in high school that either actually did these things or romanticized the hell out of them. God help me, I actually once made up a story that I had been a coke dealer at the tender age of thirteen, just to feel like I fit in with these people. When I think about making that story up, it embarrasses the hell out of me.

And since I am an occultist, I also find myself witnessing cultural and intellectual wars that seem really silly to me, which remind me of those "heavier than thou" pissing contests that I saw and sometimes took part in in high school. I know this time I won't be making up silly stories about invoking those Goetic demons or whatever.

I had started to make fun of him, but then I decided he's got my vote:

"Mr Sharkey has also pledged to execute convicted murders and child molesters
personally by impaling them on a wooden pole outside the state capitol."

http://tinyurl.com/atagz

I am liberal (with a few exceptions) in everything but my thoughts on the death penalty.