April 2011 archive

Today on The Stars Hollow Gazette

Our regular featured content-

our weekly features-

this featured article-

and tomorrow’s features-

Later tonight, join us here and at Stars Hollow to light the Beltane fires and remember Ben Masel who passed through the veil to the Summerlands today-

The Stars Hollow Gazette

This is an Open Thread

World Weavers Submission Policy

The World Weavers Submission Policy, like our purpose, is also simple: Yes Please!

Articles, stories, pictures, poems, videos….original or found ‘objects,’ all are welcome. As well as, of course, comments. Please send us, or post in comments, anything beautiful and or relevant and we will review it and most likely put it on the blog. Most likely, but not automatically, unfortunately.

We have decided to go with a very controlled format for submissions, unlike the more freewheeling and open community oriented political blogs. Not that we don’t wish to be community oriented, a large part of what we are hoping to accomplish here is an organically formed community of like-minded people. Like minded people who can have discussions and even “arguments” (as long as they are beautiful arguments!) about subjects under discussion, be they submissions from readers or posts we produce.

From our experiences on political blogs, we have seen just how easy and effective it can be for one post or one person intent on diverting, derailing, disrupting or even destroying the ability to communicate can be. But our purpose is different here. We are not a political forum. Though it is almost inevitable that politics will be discussed…hopefully in context. Dissent, an environment of openness, and even shit stirring, is critical to politics, and must be given a voice. And within (a fairly wide spectrum of) reason, is allowed and even encouraged here.

As long as it is within the spirit and purpose of the blog: creating beauty.

But since this is NOT a political forum, we have decided that it is more critical to try to establish a safe space for people to post about their beliefs, ideas, feelings, and even just idle musings or thoughts…..without getting slammed by other posters….or even us, lol.

To that end, all submissions, including all comments will be moderated in the attempt to create and maintain the highest possible vibration….while still encouraging dynamic discussion and inclusive participation. The standard for comment moderation is simple. Does this comment foster beauty and higher vibrational frequency? Can it lead to discussion and interaction that will ultimately raise the vibrational frequency of those that participate and the wider world and universe?

Comments that lower the vibration, that are not beautiful, will not be posted. Comments that raise the vibration will be highlighted on the front page. If you wish to contribute a thought or essay to the blog, leave a comment and an e-mail address and we will either go ahead and post it, or contact you to discuss it.

Or you can e-mail me at [email protected] with your submissions.

How will this theory, which I shall for the moment call “openness through utter totalitarianism,” work in practice? We don’t know! Perhaps…and hopefully, it will turn out to be utterly unnecessary! We have however seen the effects on a community that is trying to accomplish something, even something as “simple” as creating a safe space for ideas (especially “unorthodox” ones) of unmoderated posting. And if this is not a safe space for people to post their innermost feelings, beliefs, and ideas…there is not much point in doing it.

Here is what we are asking contributors to do. Just take a moment before you react…..and in that moment, ask yourself….is this reaction raising the vibration? Or lowering it? And then….how can I state or present ‘my’ view in a more constructive way, a way that builds community and contributes to a safe space for ‘me’ to post….as well as for others.

This does not mean that you cannot challenge, object to, point out “flaws” in, or argue points raised on this blog, in this space. That is indeed what most communication consists of!

If you can make your “argument” beautiful, it is welcome! If not, your comment will not be posted, and we can have a private discussion via e-mail about how to present your point in a fashion that does not lower the vibration of the blog for everyone else. Because the higher the vibration this blog generates, the higher the vibrations it will “sympathetically” attract. And the higher the vibration it attracts, the more the interactions of the posters, words and ideas it generates….will further raise the vibration of the conversation, and the community.

So….Yes Please! Send us, or post in comments, your articles, stories, pictures, poems, videos etc. that you wish to contribute, an we will do our best to get them on the blog!

As for my new personal philosophy on commenting etc. here at World Weavers, which as some of you have perchance observed in the past, in other venues, and perhaps found it (admittedly) “less than beautiful,” I have a new and nefarious plan for challenging comments! You will be viciously agreed with! In the theory that if I (we) start off trying to find commonality, rather than disagreement….the conversation will be much more interesting, at the least, than the “I know you are but what am I” level conversations that seem to dominate the Intertubes!  

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Organized Money, Political Philosophy

An Antemdius entry uses a quote from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who said in his speech announcing the Second New Deal in 1936:

For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent.

Sound familiar?  We are repeating the past.  Roosevelt went on:

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace–business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

What was true in 1932 is true today, and has been for going on thirty years now, but especially the last ten.  We saw 9/11 happen on the Shrub’s watch, with the election-stealing chimp sitting on his ass and let a major terrorist attack kill nearly three thousand people.  We saw that same dictator brush off warnings that hurricane-wrecked levies, allowed to deteriorate for years, would not hold up under the weight of rising floodwaters, and New Orleans drowned.  The Shrub presided over the largest financial meltdown since the First Great Depression, and the current dictator enable the bailout of the very same corporate criminals who caused it.  Barry Obama, Hopey McChangerton himself, sat by and let the Gulf of Mexico die from BP’s criminal negligence.  Now the Obamassiah is waltzing through the devastation left behind by ever more extreme tornadoes as a result of Global Warming, spouting empty words, as is his pattern, but fully intending to do absolutely nothing to help the survivors.

Beltane and a Remembrance for Ben Masel

Cross posted at The Stars Hollow Gazette

Beltane, the old Gaelic name for the month of May, is the last of the three Wiccan spring fertility festivals, the others being Imbolc and Ostara. Beltane is the second principal Celtic festival (the other being Samhain). Celebrated approximately halfway between Vernal (spring) equinox and the midsummer (Summer Solstice). Beltane traditionally marked the arrival if summer in ancient times. It is one of eight solar Sabbats.

Beltane, like Samhain, is a time of “no time” when the veils between the two worlds are at their thinnest. No time is when the two worlds intermingle and unite and the magic abounds! It is the time when the Faeries return from their winter respite, carefree and full of faery mischief and faery delight. On the night before Beltane, in times past, folks would place rowan branches at their windows and doors for protection, many otherworldly occurrences could transpire during this time of “no time”. Traditionally on the Isle of Man, the youngest member of the family gathers primroses on the eve before Beltane and throws the flowers at the door of the home for protection. In Ireland it is believed that food left over from May Eve must not be eaten, but rather buried or left as an offering to the faery instead. Much like the tradition of leaving of whatever is not harvested from the fields on Samhain, food on the time of no time is treated with great care.

When the veils are so thin it is an extremely magical time, it is said that the Queen of the Faeries rides out on her white horse. Roving about on Beltane eve She will try to entice people away to the Faeryland. Legend has it that if you sit beneath a tree on Beltane night, you may see the Faery Queen or hear the sound of Her horse’s bells as She rides through the night. Legend says if you hide your face, She will pass you by but if you look at Her, She may choose you. There is a Scottish ballad of this called Thomas the Rhymer, in which Thomas chooses to go the Faeryland with the Queen and has not been seen since.

Tonight, when the Beltane fires are lit, there will be some sadness in out hearts. A good man, and one of my favorite DFH activists, Ben Masel has passed through that thin veil to the Summerlands.

Ben was from Wisconsin and the perennial candidate for public office, including the US Senate. He was diagnosed earlier this year with lung cancer and was in the hospital when the protests in Madison started. Against all advice, he left the hospital to join the protest. he diaried them at Daily Kos, he tweeted and documented the events on his FaceBook page.

I met him in Pittsburgh and looked forward to seeing him this June. We exchanged e-mails and private tweets about his health and the wisdom of leaving the hospital to join the protests in Wisconsin. It was what he wanted to do in the time he had, while he still could.

I can still feel his hug when we met. He will always be in my heart.

He will be remembered tonight when we light the Beltane fires.

May the Goddess guide him on his journey to the Summerlands. May his family and friends find Peace.

Blessed be. The Wheel Turns.

Six In The Morning

Obama appalled by tornado damage in Alabama



By Stephanie McCrummen, Perry Bacon Jr. and Michael E. Ruane, Updated: Saturday, April 30

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – President Obama joined thousands of storm victims across the tornado-ravaged South on Friday in making his way past splintered

houses along devastated streets, and he promised federal aid to help communities rebuild.

In the first major test of his administration in responding to a natural disaster, the president and his wife, Michelle, toured a ruined section of this city, where 39 people were killed and hundreds remained unaccounted for. They spoke with residents trying to salvage belongings in the aftermath of the week’s twisters.

“I’ve never seen devastation like this,” the president said. “We’re going to make sure you’re not forgotten.”

Cartnoon

Sylvester and Tweety MysteriesPlatinum Wheel of Fortune, Episode 2, Part 1

The Week in Editorial Cartoons – Who’s the Hair Apparent?



GOP Hair Apparent by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Late Night Karaoke

Evan Rachel Wood

Evan Rachel Wood
Recent Photographs and Paintings

 

Le Déluge

Cross Posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

Severe storms have swept across the Midwest and Southern United States that have killed over 300 people as massive tornadoes swept through the region. It isn’t just tornadoes that are causing the devastation but the heavy rains have caused flooding that is wiping out entire towns as levees along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers fail.

Mississippi River Floods 2011: Deep South Braces For Surge Of Water Not Seen Since 1927

NEW ORLEANS — A surge of water not seen since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 is forecast in coming days to test the enormous levees lining the Mississippi River on its course through the Deep South, adding another element of danger to a region already raked by deadly tornadoes and thunderstorms.

Mississippi’s and Louisiana’s governors issued flood warnings Thursday and declared states of emergency. Authorities along the swollen waterway in both states are warning nearby residents to brace for the possibility of any flooding. River boat casinos in Mississippi are closing and levee managers are readying sand bags and supplies – and the manpower to build the defenses – to fight the rising river along hundreds of levees in both states where the river crosses en route to the Gulf of Mexico.

Random Japan

Photobucket

EASY COME, EASY GO

After taking heat for accepting a ¥1.04 million donation from a South Korean expat, Prime Minister Naoto Kan agreed to return the money. Political contributions from foreigners are a no-no in Japan.

The Osaka and Bombay stock exchanges agreed on a tie-up, paving the way for them to “develop financial products linked to their stock indexes and list them at each other’s markets.”

Toyota and Microsoft announced a joint venture to develop automotive software that will be “important for achieving the next-generation low-carbon, energy-saving society.”

The justice ministry ordered Japan’s Prosecutor General to record all interrogations of criminal suspects in an effort to “establish a new criminal justice system.”

The coast guard announced that 170 crewmembers serving on five ships were unable to vote in local elections earlier in the month because they were engaged in relief operations in quake-hit areas.

Nepal’s Ministry of Culture said it will honor the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with its inaugural Gautama Buddha International Peace Award. The prize is worth $50,000.

Japan, the US and India have announced they will begin scheduling regular minster-level talks. The rise of China is “expected to be a major topic.”

A trio of taxis in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka have been festooned with drawings of characters from hit manga and animated TV series Strawberry Marshmallow. Punters who catch these cabs will get a commemorative card designed by the series’ author.

Popular Culture 20110429: Propaganda

Self-deception is not a new cultural phenomenon, but it has always been popular.  Self-deception takes many forms.  Some kinds are harmless, such as the almost universal one of thinking that one is more attractive than one actually is.  Others can be devastating, such as thinking that one is, for example, thinking that one is obese when actually he or she is seriously underweight.  Interestingly, both of these conditions have to do with self image.  As a matter of fact, many kinds of self-deception have to do with self image.

There are other kinds as well.  In many of those cases it is not just an individual having deceptive thoughts herself or himself, but rather is encouraged to cleave to ideas that the individual probably deep down believes not to be true.  This is the basis of the idea of propaganda, when ideas are planted by outside sources.  There is one big movement that is current and we shall talk about it at some length.  

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