Letters from the Editor

This is reposted from a friend’s LiveJournal. And since this is a religious website and I am a religious person, and this is a religious blog, expect to see posts here about religion in this theme.

There are no real guidelines to this. The idea is to post at least once from Friday to Sunday Easter Weekend, April 6-8.

The post will be against theocracy, in favor of our Constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state. But there are a LOT of issues tied to this, as is pointed out in the First Freedom First website:

• No religious discrimination.
• PRO End-of-Life Care (no more Terri Schiavo travesties)
• Reproductive health decisions made by individuals, not religious “majorities”
• Democracy not Theocracy
• Academic Integrity (like, a rock is as old as it is, not as old as the Bible says)
• Sound Science (good bye so-called “intelligent” design)
• Respect for ALL families (based on love, not sexual orientation. Hellooooo.)
• And finally, The right to worship, OR NOT.

So take your pick and write your post(s). Really, the wider variety of topics makes it all the more interesting.

When you’ve posted, email the url of your post to bluegalsblog AT gmail DOT com.

If you know where this is from, please let me know.

ETA: This comes from Gator Gay-Straight Alliance. Please check them out and leave the feedback with them.

(find credit goes to Herb. Thanks.)

1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control are not natural.
2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people cannot get
   legally married because the world needs more children.
3. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children because straight parents only raise straight children.
4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful, since Britney Spears’s 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.
5. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and it hasn’t changed at all: women are property, Blacks can’t marry Whites, and divorce is illegal.
6. Gay marriage should be decided by the people, not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of minorities.
7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are always imposed on the entire country. That’s why we only have one religion in America.
8. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people makes you tall.
9. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage license.
10. Children can never succeed without both male and female role models at home. That’s why single parents are forbidden to raise children.
11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven’t adapted to cars or longer lifespans.
12. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a “separate but equal” institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages
    will for gays & lesbians.

beanie_meanie

HollieHobby

KennyBall1968

These are my NeoPets. They are friends I have on a website called “Neopets. It’s like a Tamagachi pet or a virtual pet, just more fun. They don’t do anything, but I can play with them, games and so on. You can fight pets against each other and there is even social boards there.

Yes, by referring people I get some kickbacks, but hey, it’s a good thing. And it is free. no money paid. BUT, you can pay for more features if you want.

Anyhow, just to let yo uknow that I’m still alive, not just some automated article generator.

Today in the “Daven” household, things were pretty quiet. I did have some excitement though.

Mostly it was the shopping trip. It takes so little to make those we love so happy. I went grocery shopping with my wife. That was it. She was thrilled. Why? I have no clue. I think it was because we were spending time together, even though I was ranging around getting stuff and she was driving the cart from point A to point B. But we talked some and thought about things like we did when we were young (like year 1 or 2 of our 15 year marriage).

Then we got home and had dinner that she lovingly fixed for everyone, with help. Cookies came after dinner, again lovingly fixed by my dearest. If you ever get a chance to marry a Kitchen Witch, do so. You WILL NOT regret it.

While Saturday is “bonding night with the daughter” they had anime on that I didn’t like too much. So while paying about 20% of my attention to the TV and talking, I was reading on one of the review books, Taylor Ellwood’s “Pop Culture Magick”.

First approximation analysis? It is not a book for everyone. I remember the brouhaha when it came out several years ago. I managed to refrain from ripping it apart mainly because I had never read the book myself, and the concepts seemed somewhat “out there”. I met Taylor later that same year at a ball in Collumbus Ohio and was somewhat put off. It wasn’t anything that he did specifically, it was just something that rubbed me the wrong way.

However, these days he and I trade comments in our LiveJournals. I consider him a good acquaintance (and I won’t pretend to be more familliar than that), but I do respect him and his opinions and am honored when my comments provoke thoughts.

But the book itself so far is a good read. It is really an experimental concept book, and it is not for everyone, but in and of itself it is a very thought provoking read. I am looking forward to finishing it. I can already see a few concepts and thoughts in his writing being of immediate use to me. Anyone want to duel on the Astral Plane with Magic: The Gatheringâ„¢ cards?

Then I was reading a post from Jason Pitzl-Waters in his blog, and it struck me as to why many fundamentalists see Harry Potter and non approved Christian material as so dangerous. It causes the reader to question themselves. It causes the reader to begin the process of asking questions of themself, looking for answers and not looking to the Minister or to God for those answers. Instead of seeking outside sources to tell them what to believe, they look internally and decide what to believe and thus start a whole cycle of changing absolutes which most often leads the person in question away from their faith, thus losing them the Kingdom of Heaven and their God.

Since the most terrible fate that is possible to be visited on someone is that very sundering of the ties to their deity, this is a terrible thing. Having gone through this, it is hard.

And the great irony is that most often those who are going through this questioning do so in an attempt to strengthen their own faith, and they end up losing it.

So instead of chaing the faith path to more accurately reflect that which is the actual problem, the fact that many funamdntal faiths don’t allow for individual expression of that faith or deviation from minor points of dogma, they attack and attempt to suppress the instruments of research that are seen by them as causing the initial quest in the first place, completely ignoring the fact that even without those items the changes would still occur.

It is definately a form of mindcontrol, self imposed and self disciplined.

Also, when laying out the cookies and milk for Santa, don’t forget that while that large elf may not drink all the milk, eat all the cookies or take all the carrots/apples for the reindeer, the local strays will definately eat the apples/carrots, the birds will love the cookie crumbs and the feral cats will enjoy the milk. Giving those food items to the local animal life is one sacrifice that I think everyone can get behind, and it shares the celebration with them as well.

Okay, I’m going to guilt you out slightly. It’s a good one, probably blend into the background with the rest of the “Please Give” guilt you get this year, but I’m going to give this a twist.

Please do give to whatever charity you feel deserves your support. Don’t give because everyone else is giving, but because now is the time when 85% (more or less) of the operating budget of most charities and shelters is raised to carry them through the year. From beginning of November through Christmas, charaties and shelters get lots and lots of donations from people. And they need every dime to stay in business until they hit next November.

There are 11 other months out there. Giving now is good and it really helps. But after that, all the donations and voulenteers dry up in January, February and so on. The lines you will see pictures of with 25 workers and the Governor giving out turkey dinners to the homeless is good, but that drops to about 5 poeple in May and other months, and the numbers of people needing that doesn’t go down, it increases slightly because there are fewer services offering help. So the voulenteers are chronically overworked and they burnout.

Know what I wanted for my Birthday. I wanted to go and work at a shelter. I would take my family with me. We were there once and I didn’t want to forget that. Things happened though and we never made it and I still feel bad about that.

Yes, give generously now. That’s why the huge push happens now, it’s lots of little shelters and charaties competeing for too few dollars. So they all demand and some get. And maybe they will have money to help in April or August.

More than that, don’t forget that these groups still need help in other months. Go work, donate, give clothes and time. You’d be amazed at what a difference it makes.

Just thinking somewhat:

New Moon, Mercury Retrograde and moving up on Samhain. Destruction, miscommunication, and a New Year. Talk about an interesting conjunction of astral (used in this case as the original definition of “relating to space”) entities and times.

It would probably be a good time for magicks that separate yourself from situations and people you find that are not good for you. It is a time of endings in preparation for starting a new life, a new year.

Understand that normally before new growth can happen old things need to be destroyed and removed. Find yourself in a bad time with a lover or a family, take steps to destroy that situation and to begin another.

BUT, like anything magickally, there is a double edged sword here. With Mercury retrograde, you have to be EXTREMELY careful of the lines of communication. You MUST not be unclear. This is one of many reasons that magickians and pagans insist that you are very clear anytime you do magick and spiritual work as to what you want. This is not a time to get lazy. Be clear, and you can have what you want. Be unclear and you might find that you will be destroying old and important family ties.

But it would be perfect to remove that insane stalker from your life, just do a little magick and you should be able to force them to go away.